Chapter Text
There’s a very faint beeping. Regular and steady.
Uraraka smells ammonia and over-used cleaning products and immediately sneezes. The action jack knifes her upright and pulls a little painfully at her IV. It has the added bonus of ratcheting the beeping up, pulling in a doctor passing by, and waking up Bakugo.
Who had been asleep by her bedside. Passed out in an uncomfortable looking chair.
“Well!” the doctor bustling in says briskly “Bout time you woke up, Uravity.” she looks over her half-moon glasses in a way that makes Uraraka squirm. “Some of us have been very anxious about you.”
“Wh-” Uraraka croaks, and then there’s water at her elbow, exactly as she needs. She takes a long pull through the straw, throwing a thankful glance at Bakugo. He’s not looking at her.
“What happened?”
“Other than you bringing a three ton building down on yourself?” the doctor asked dryly, shooting one of those glances at Bakugo now. “Quirk overuse, mostly. The rest was the building.”
Uraraka winced, putting a hand gingerly on her stomach. “How bad?”
The doctor softened a little. “Not as bad as it could be. We got Recovery Girl to come in special.”
She looked a little surprised when Uraraka groaned and fell back on her pillows. “Great,” she said to the ceiling. “Izuku will never let me hear the end of that.” She sat right back up suddenly. “Izuku! And the others- is everyone- the kids-”
“Everyone’s fine, Uraraka,” Bakugo finally spoke from next to her. “All the kids are okay. Not a scratch. Todoroki got thrown through a fucking window, but he took it pretty well,” this said in a grudging tone, and he’s still not looking at her.
“Everyone else,” he shrugged. “Minor stuff. No worries.”
The doctor pursed her lips. “Other than your hands,” she said disapprovingly.
Uraraka turned to Bakugo. “Your hands?” They looked pretty fine, a little banged up and rough- but they normally did.
“Another Recovery Girl feat,” the doctor said. “You’re very lucky, Uravity, that Ground Zero here sav-”
“I didn’t do fuck all,” Bakugo grinds out. “Urarak- Uravity’s the one who saved fucking everyone, doctor,” he sneers.
The doctor sniffs at him. “That she did, and almost lost her life to it, and you can explain how she didn’t.” She walks briskly back to the door, and turns once again.
“Thank you Uravity,” she says, giving Uraraka a kind smile. “He’s right. You really did save the day.”
Uraraka gives her a weak wave, and then immediately turns back to Bakugo. He’s glaring at the floor. “What the hell happened to your hands?” she demands.
“Same as you. Quirk overuse.” he grunts.
“How?” Uraraka says, exasperated. “I don’t even know how I got out-”
“And it was a stupid fucking thing for you to do to,” Bakugo grinds out. “What the hell were you thinking, Ochako?! Dropping a fucking building on yourself? What would that fucking solve?”
Uraraka’s taken aback. “I don’t know, Bakugo, I wasn’t really thinking clearly at the time,” she snaps a little. “What the hell happened?”
He’s shaking his head angrily. “I couldn’t get there in time.” he jumps up, paces the tiny floor next to her bed as best he could. “I couldn’t get there in time, couldn't help you, couldn’t-” he chokes on his words, shaking his head violently. “I fucked up, I wasn’t fast enough, I-”
“Bakugo,” Uraraka says, eyes wide. “What-”
“I’m sorry, okay!” he yelled, fists tight at his sides. “I fucked up so badly, and I will never forgive myself for it,” Bakugo crumpled into the chair at her bedside while Uraraka stared at him in shock.
“I fucking failed. I failed, and it’s all my fault you-” he pushed his fists into his eye sockets, scrubbing at them, wisps of smoke leaking between his knuckles. “God, Ochako, I’m so s-sorry.” his voice broke. Bakugo folded his arms on her hospital bed and buried his head in his arms. It was near silent, but his sobs shook his shoulders.
Uraraka swallowed. “Bak…” she began. She shook her head. “Katsuki.” the sound of his given name made his blonde head twitch, but his head stayed down.
“Katsuki. please. “ she reached over and gripped his shoulder, hard, until he looked up. His eyes were scarlet, exacerbated by tears. “How was this in any way your fault?”
“I-”
“You did your job, Katsuki,” Uraraka said fiercely. “You got the civilians, the fucking children out of there, and you let me handle the villain because that’s my job, and you trusted in me to do it.” She smiled a little weakly. “I may not have done the best job it, but-”
“Don’t say that, you dumb fuck,” Bakugo said, his usual fire dampened by the watery sound of tears in the back of his throat. “You did it. You were fucking incredible.”
“And you go me out,” Uraraka said. “I did my job, and you got me out. No one died today, Katsuki. No one failed.” She squeezed his shoulder again, keeping eye contact.
“No one failed.”
Even with Recovery Girl, she’s in the hospital for another three days. It’s when Midoriya and Tsuyu are visiting her that she finally, finally gets the whole story.
“It was a stupid thing to do, you know,” Midoriya says, giving her an even stare that he must’ve learned from Todoroki.
“I know,” Uraraka sighs, picking apart of piece of the mochi they’d brought. “But I thought it was die and let them get away, or die and-”
“Kill them too?” Midoriya asked gently.
Uraraka shrugs, uncomfortable. “I’ve been told they survived,” she says a little stiffly.
“Mmhm,” Midoriya says, still pinning her with his stare. “They are.”
Uraraka’s shoulders slump. “Thank god,” she says, staring at her hands. “I don’t- I really didn’t-”
Midoriya’s stare breaks immediately. “Hey, hey now,” he says soothingly, cuddling up next to her and rubbing her shoulders. “I shouldn’t have pushed so hard, I just-”
“We can’t ever think like that,” Tsuyu says, silent up till now. “And we won’t ever let you. And you won’t let us.”
Uraraka gave a watery smile. “Yeah,” she sniffs. “Yeah.”
Tsuyu gives her a patented little smile in return. “You want the brief?”
“Yes, please,” Uraraka says, straightening up.
Midoriya gives her shoulder a final squeeze and comes back to sit near her feet. “At around 1450 hours, the last of the hostages had been cleared out of the Erso Elementary School, and two rooms were yet to be cleared.”
He rocks a little as he presents it, as if the report has some rhythm only he can hear. “Todoroki Shouto, in clearing the last room with Kirishima Eijirou, was assaulted by Hanako Kim, alias Panthera, and defenestrated.”
Uraraka raises an eyebrow. Tsuyu croaks, “Todoroki got thrown out a window.”
“Right,” Midoriya says, flushing a little. “Kirishima turned to engage with Panthera and punched him, ah, through the floor. Then turned and went after Todoroki. The rest of the school had been cleared by myself and Bakugo, and Bakugo immediately went to go find you,”
Midoriya’s eyes were big and bright and Tsuyu’s hand was on her ankle. “You, Panthera, and the villain known as Current were underneath the school. We have record of your conversation from your costume, so I won’t go over that.” Uraraka winced. Wasn’t much of a conversation on her end, really.
“When your quirk began to fail-” Midoriya swallowed, started again. “When you dropped your quirk, Bakugo was already heading toward you. Instead of trapping himself underneath the school, he switched directions and blasted a giant hole underneath you, Panthera, and Current.”
“Then the school dropped.”
Tsuyu’s hand tightened on Uraraka’s ankle, but Uraraka only nodded for Midoriya to go on. “We were eventually able to clear the rubble and remains with the help of several urban rescue specialists, and found all three of you alive in a hole about six feet deep. All of you had severe burns on your feet and legs,” Midoriya said hoarsely, “as well as the expected injuries from the building collapse.”
“I can guess the rest from there,” Uraraka said, sighing. “Quirk overuse for me and Bakugo, huh?”
“His hands were ruined, Ochako,” Midoriya said seriously. “The fact that he was even able to dig a hole that deep via explosion from the angle he was at is unbelievable.”
“You weren’t much better,” Tsuyu said. “They were afraid you would die just from your stomach acid leaking everywhere.”
Uraraka grimaced. “Eugh.” she closed her eyes briefly. “Thank you, guys.” She kept her eyes closed as they continued to talk. She didn’t ask them why Bakugo had yet to come back to the hospital.
Uraraka left the hospital on a pleasant day. When she walked out- walked out! What a dream! She half expected it to be brilliant, an endless blue sky and perfect warmth. It wasn’t. There were some clouds and honestly the breeze came a little too often to be totally comfortable.
Uraraka put these minor complaints out of mind immediately, because Bakugo was standing outside in another one of his inordinately fashionable sweaters.
“Is that your motorcycle?” Uraraka blurted, and then considered going back inside the hospital.
Bakugo gave her an affronted look. “What the fuck?” turned, stared at the motorcycle parked illegally outside. “Jesus, no. What the fuck, chee-”
“I was just asking!” Uraraka squawked. “You were standing right by it!”
“Are you two arguing again?” came a familiar voice. The doctor with the half-moon glasses was glaring at them.
“No ma’am,” said Uraraka, grabbing Bakugo’s arm and starting to tow him away from the entrance. “Just leaving, ma’am,”
The doctor sniffed, got on her motorcycle, and drove off. Uraraka watched with only a little bit of shock, then turned back to Bakugo. “Bakugo, why-”
“Go on a date with me.”
“What?”
He glared at her, the sun choosing that moment to peek out from behind the clouds and turn his hair gold. “Go out with me.”
“I just-” Uraraka stammered.
Bakugo took her, gently, by the shoulders. His fingers flexed a little, like they were trying not to dig in. “I almost lost you, Ochako, I’m not fucking missing another chance.” his face twisted further. “I’m not a fucking coward like fucking Deku, I-”
Uraraka started laughing, bright and uncomprehending and shocked. She watched Bakugo’s face drop it’s scowl and start to look nervous.
Still laughing, she reached up and took his face between her palms. “Jesus, yes,” and she kissed him. Once, twice. “Yes, whatever you say, yes.”
His hands dropped from her shoulders to her waist, wound around her, and he kissed her back. “Stay the night,” he says against her mouth, barely audible. “Move in. Marry me.”
She kisses him harder just to shut him up, still laughing, breathless and happy and the sun is still shining for this perfect moment. In another minute it’ll go behind the clouds, and the breeze will pick back up. She’ll have to steal his sweater while they walk home and he’ll complain. She won’t actually move in or marry him right away. But she will stay the night, and she’ll probably do the other stuff someday.
They’re going to have issues integrating their apartments, and he’s going to have to tone down the spice if they want to eat together, and she’s sure that he hates her dramas and she’s going to have to really pay attention to the laundry labels on his stupid designer clothes-
“Stay with me,” Bakugo says, kissing her again. "Ochako." And again. “Stay.”
“Katsuki,” Uraraka says, smiling. “Anything you want. Yes.”