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Katsuki and Ochako started to really notice each other halfway through third year. They always happened to be in the same place at the same time. The kitchen, the library, the gym. They started working out together, studying together, testing the limits of their quirks together. Katsuki would cook them balanced meals and Ochako knew the best food spots for cheat days. Katsuki would help her study and Ochako would teach him the best ways to move for midair combat.
They’d always danced around the idea of being together. They spent so much time together, and had such a good time together, that it only seemed natural for feelings to bloom. And they did. But so did internships and applications to hero agencies and licensing exams. Their adult lives were creeping up on them so slowly, but rushing them at the same time. Before they knew it, graduation was looming on the horizon and they had tough choices to make.
Ochako decided she’d be the brave one and asked Katsuki out on a date close to the end of the year. He turned her down. He told her that he’d accepted an offer to travel to the USA and work there, just like All Might had. Izuku and Katsuki were always following in that man's footsteps, of course he was leaving town. Leaving her.
It had been three years since Ochako had last heard from him. Rookie hero’s didn’t make enough to pay for long distance services and personal travel around the world. She saw reports online sometimes about Dynamight and Deku, clearing out the baddies and making the world a safer place.
Ochako herself was an up and coming hero. She’d gone viral for her quirk awakening during a large-scale villain attack the year prior. She’d been on rescue duty saving civilians left and right when a second wave of attacks came through the city, trying to take out any survivors. Ochako fought for hours, canceling gravity on every piece of debris she could get her hands on and hauling it towards her enemies. She got overwhelmed at the end and just when she thought she was done for, she felt something different in her fingers, a heaviness so opposite of the weightlessness she was used to. She reached out towards the new sensation, her faith in her quirk unfailing, and suddenly she could feel it. Instead of anti gravity, she felt the press of more gravity, harsher gravity, so heavy that she’d smashed several villains deep into the cement and almost ended their lives.
She’d cracked the top 20 the very next week and agencies all over the city were trying to recruit her.
It was at a hero charity event that she saw him again. He was taller, his shoulders were broader, and his hair was a bit shorter with a clean undercut. New scars marred his face but it was still undoubtedly Katsuki Bakugou. He was dressed in a clean pressed black suit, standing in the center of the room with Izuku, scowling at his drink while Izuku regaled everyone with the tale of their last villain takedown before returning home.
She could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his eyes darted across every face, the way he made note of every exit. He practically had his back to Izuku’s, something Ochako knew had to be habit by now. Years of fighting side by side with someone you could trust with your life created those types of habits. Ochako had once wished so strongly to be that person for him. She had hoped they could be partners in many aspects of their lives. Ochako watched Katsuki signal to Izuku that he was leaving, before making a quick exit through the back doors.
She followed him without a second thought, slipping out to the back alley and coming face to face with Katsuki’s open palm, he’d raised his hand on instinct, ready to blast away anyone who meant him harm. When he saw Ochako his breath stuttered and he dropped his hand. They stared at each other for just a moment before Katsuki sighed and turned his back to her, taking a few steps down the alleyway and leaning against a dumpster. He ran a hand through his hair while he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket with the other.
Ochako followed him, leaning against the opposite wall, waiting for Katsuki to take the lead, too afraid to speak first. He put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it, staring up at the night sky while he took his first draw. He heaved a big sigh before he finally looked at Ochako again, sizing her up, cataloging all the ways she’d changed. All the ways she’d grown. He smirked and chuckled to himself.
“We’ll, you ain’t any taller,” he said quietly. Ochako barked out a short laugh in response, that wasn’t what she had been expecting.
“How would you know? These are four inch heels.” Ochako replied.
“Oh I know. I’ve seen your recent fights, you’re just the same as you’ve always been. You pack a major punch for such a small girl. Throws the bad guys off everytime.”
“Is that what I’m doing?” Ochako asked cheekily. “Packing a punch in my red cocktail dress?”
“It’s blowing me away,” Katsuki replied with a devilish smile. Ochako’s breath stuttered, she didn’t know how to reply. Katsuki only laughed at her, watching her face turn red with embarrassment.
“So what, no word for three years and you think you can just flirt your way into my good graces?” She finally replied, crossing her arms and tilting her head at him.
“Is it working?” Katsuki countered.
“Maybe,” Ochako mumbled. “Maybe it would work better if you made up for turning me down all those years ago.”
Katsuki grimaced at that comment. He put his cigarette out and straightened his suit jacket.
“You know how it is Cheeks. Hero life takes priority over your personal life. It’s too hard to balance so much at once.”
“So, what?” Ochako asked, grinning to hide her hurting feelings. Pretending everything was a joke was how she protected her emotions. “I was just some task to you? Something to pencil into your schedule until your schedule got too crowded for me?”
“Oh come on,” Katsuki replied. “Don’t make me sound like the bad guy.”
“I’m just reading between the lines.”
“Well don’t.” Katsuki shook his head and muttered angrily under his breath. He took a look up and down the alleyway, avoiding Ochako’s questioning eyes. He took a deep breath before finally looking her in the face. “I loved you, you know.”
Ochako’s breath left her in a rush. She didn’t follow him outside to confront him or upset him. She’d missed him and just wanted to see if they were at least still friends after all the years that passed them by. She wasn’t planning on the conversation they were having and she wasn’t looking for some by gone love confession.
“I loved you and it scared me.” Katsuki wasn’t done. “So when Deku wanted to do the overseas transfer I jumped on it. Then you asked me out right before graduation and I just let the perfect opportunity slip through my fingers because I was emotionally stunted and just plain stupid. I had all these guts for hero work and none for you.”
“Do you regret leaving?” Ochako asked honestly. “I know I don’t regret the last three years. I worked my ass off to get where I am now and I’m proud of that.”
“I don’t regret leaving.” Katsuki answered. “I’m a different person than I was back then because of it. A better person. I just wish I hadn't been so stupid. I wish I'd kept in touch all this time. Wish I’d done better by you ”
Ochako stepped forward into Katsuki’s space and took his hand in hers. She looked up into his face and smiled.
“Then do better now. Take me on that date we never got to go on. Treat me to somewhere nice now that you’re a big hero.”
Katsuki looked down at Ochako and smiled back at her. The first genuine smile she’d seen on his face all night. He brushed the hair back from her face with his free hand and gripped her hand tighter in his other.
“It’s a date.”