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As Ochako is rushed off to the hospital, she fades in and out.
Her breathing becomes staggered and rough through the oxygen tubes, her chest sears with pain every time she takes too deep of a breath— from both her worn out lungs and the gaping wound left from her earlier fight.
But, throughout her fading consciousness, she knows she would not change anything. She would do it over and over again if it meant getting through to Himiko. Getting to truly understand and see Himiko for who she is, and why she is the way she is.
Getting to see her beautiful, beautiful smile; getting to promise her what she wishes she could have from the start and then some.
Ochako can feel herself smile again before fully fading out on the stretcher. All the helicopter noises, and the yelling from the doctors, now fading into the background as everything goes dark, leaving Ochako with only Himiko’s smile on her mind.
When Ochako comes to, she blinks back the blurriness of her vision to see a bland white ceiling. Turning her head to the side, she sees she’s hooked up to a bunch of machines in a hospital bed, and only now does she realize they’ve all been making noise.
As soon as she processes the noise of the machines, it’s like a switch goes off in her brain and she’s back in her body.
Thinking back on why she’s here and how she got here, her sandpaper-like thoughts that are barely starting to solidly form are interrupted by a croaky voice. “Ochako-chan, you’re awake!”
Ochako blearily turns her head to face the other direction, right where Tsu is sitting with a smile and tears forming in her green eyes.
“Let me call the nurses, ribbit, hang on one second,” She exclaims and rushes out of the room.
Ochako blinks and once more tries to get her thoughts to become more tangible, while waiting for Tsu to come back.
Oh.
Right.
She’s here… because Himiko stabbed her… and then saved her.
But… what happened to Himiko? Ochako can’t seem to remember.
All she remembers is hearing Himiko say something about living the way she wanted to until the very end. But— that can’t have been the end. There’s no way that was the end.
Ochako promised she would give Himiko as much blood as she wants for the rest of their lives. They have a future waiting for them. This was only the beginning— it can’t have already ended!
“Ochako-chan please calm down,” Tsuyu grabs her arm, abruptly bringing her back to the present.
Only now is Ochako noticing the nurses around her bed fiddling with the tubes and wires hanging off of her. She heavily inhales through her mouth, trying to get her erratic breathing under control.
After the nurses are done, and tell her everything looks okay, Ochako lifts her arm that’s not being held by Tsuyu, up to brush against her cheeks. She must’ve been crying before Tsu came back in– noticeably from the dampness on her arm and cheeks.
She squeezes her eyes shut trying to quell the tears that seem to still be steadily flowing out of her. She harshly rubs at her cheek and sniffles, shaking her head.
“Sorry. I just…” Ochako brings her hand back down to her lap and looks over to her friend. “What happened to Himiko-chan? Is… is she okay?”
If Ochako wasn’t staring directly at Tsu’s face she might’ve missed the way her expression shuttered just as Ochako asked the question. But she did witness it and what does it mean??
“Ribbit...” Tsu starts. “I heard she’s being kept in a different room by herself. I don’t know much more besides that, and that she’s under watch because of her status as a villain.”
Ochako sucks in a breath of air at that word.
Is that still what they think of her? After risking her life to save Ochako’s? A no good villain— still a threat to all?
“But,“ Tsu starts, having seemingly interpreted Ochako’s distress towards some part of that sentence. “I’m sure if you ask, they’ll let you see her. Todoroki-chan has been glued to his brother’s side in the hospital ever since the war ended,” Tsu shares, with a deeply imploring look.
Only to hastily add with a finger on her chin and a tilt of her head, “if that’s what you want, I mean.”
Ochako raises her eyebrows at that extra information. She didn’t realize Dabi ended up that hurt. Also– how long has it even been? Has Ochako really been out for that long?
She asks Tsu, only to be responded to with a little laugh. “It’s been a little over a day, kero. You didn’t really miss much. And both Midoriya-chan and Iida-kun are still out, too. Everyone’s still recovering, so you’re not the only one still out of sorts, ribbit.”
“Oh gosh, is everyone else okay?” She asks immediately, now feeling bad that that wasn’t her immediate first thought. Her classmates all fought just as hard as her, if not harder. And oh no– “Is Deku-kun okay?? Did he save Shigaraki?” She gasps.
Tsu winces again, “Deku-kun’s okay, but… Shigaraki’s dead.”
“Oh…” Ochako trails off, biting her lip. She’ll have to check in on Deku. She knows he had almost as many mixed feelings about wanting to save Shigaraki, as she did towards Himiko.
Shigaraki and Himiko both deserved better than what life gave them. And after all of this, Ochako can’t even confidently say that she wouldn’t have turned out any different had she been in their shoes.
The way society is so quick to outcast and punish people for things they can’t control, only to call them a villain when they can’t just take that. There are so many things Ochako thinks back on and wishes she would’ve known what she knows now for. Whether or not that would’ve changed things though… Ugh.
These thoughts only take her in circles– she’s been thinking about this ever since her initial confrontation with Himiko in Jaku.
All Ochako knows for certain is that she wants to see Himiko, to talk with her and make sure she’s okay. To make sure that she understands Ochako will not, nor ever will, give up on her and the promise she made.
Ochako knows that there will be questions asked, she knows that there will be stigma, but quite frankly– in this moment– all she wants is to get to Himiko’s side. “Would you be able to take me to Himiko’s room, Tsu-chan?” She resolutely asks.
Tsu purses her lips, and nods. “I’ll try, kero. It should be fine if we can get you in a wheelchair. Are you sure that’s what you want right now?” She asks hesitatingly.
Ochako nods, steeling her expression. “Yes.”
“Okay, I’ll go see if the nurses can help, ribbit.”
After Ochako is all situated in the wheelchair, with the IV stand fastly attached, Tsu takes her to her destination.
As they get to the right door, Tsu pauses before leading them in. “I’ll give you two some privacy, but I’ll be right across the hall in case anything happens, okay kero? Just shout and I’ll come right in.”
Ochako inwardly scoffs. If Himiko was a threat to her, Ochako would not still be alive. But, because Tsu isn’t a mind reader, nor was she present for their final moments, Ochako responds with the compassion her kind friend deserves. After all, she’s only trying to look out for Ochako. “Thank you, Tsu-chan, but I will be fine.”
“Ribbit,” she nods and opens the door, pushing Ochako all the way up to Himiko’s bed. The first thing Ochako notices is the fact that all of Himiko’s limbs are cuffed onto the bed– giving her no room to escape (or to seemingly move comfortably).
She falters, knowing this is unfair, but she also knows she’s in no position to help Himiko currently. Ochako’s lucky she even got to her room in her current state.
Ochako looks back at Tsu and nods, signaling she is good to leave. She watches her friend exit the room, and takes a deep breath in before turning back to face Himiko.
Himiko’s also hooked up to her own machines through tubes and wires. They’re steadily beeping, so either Himiko’s asleep, or she’s ignoring Ochako. She’s facing the other direction and hasn’t stirred at all upon their arrival.
Ochako awkwardly clears her throat. She starts picking at the hospital bracelet on her wrist, giving her nervous hands something to do.
She’s not even really sure what it is she wanted to say to Himiko so badly– only that she needed to see her immediately.
“H-hi, Himiko-chan.” Ochako quietly greets, hoping that her voice will at least incite some form of reaction from the other.
“I… um… I just woke up.” She continues when faced with silence and Himiko’s unmoving figure. “I wanted to see you and um, to thank you… for saving me.”
At that, Himiko whirls around with a stony gaze, rattling her chains as she shifts to face Ochako head on.
Ochako falters at the sight of Himiko’s red-rimmed, puffy eyes. “Are you okay?” She automatically asks.
Himiko’s face scrunches up and she bites out, “No. I should be dead right now.”
Ochako sharply inhales, “W-what?”
At Ochako’s distraught expression, Himiko’s barriers seem to fall, allowing all of her debilitating thoughts and feelings that she’s probably been keeping inside the whole time Ochako was asleep, to finally come tubmling out.
“I wasn’t supposed to be captured,” Himiko’s face crumbles, and she starts sobbing. “Jin’s dead, Tomu-chan is dead, Kurogiri’s dead.” She hiccups, pulling her hands to tug at the chains around her wrists. “The league is all gone, and now I’m captured. I-I can’t live freely like this… It’s not fair. I didn’t want to live. I wasn’t supposed to live.” She heaves struggling to breathe, all the while her tears are unstopping. “I wanted to live how I wanted to, until the bitter end. This… this is all wrong, Ochako-chan. It’s not fair.”
As soon as her name leaves Himiko’s lips, sounding so utterly wrecked and wrong, Ochako shoves out of the chair to grab onto Himiko for dear life, practically falling on top of the other girl.
Her own tears flood out of her eyes, her own sobs wrack across her own body– she feels all of Himiko’s grievances as her own.
Himiko grabs back as best as she can in the chains– a cruel, cruel reminder of her lack of newfound freedom in this moment– and Ochako squeezes on even tighter, hugging Himiko with the strength of all their combined emotions.
They lay there and cry together. They cry, and cry, and cry. Until their tears turn dry, and their weeps grow quiet. Until all they’re left with is the feel of each other's clinging embrace and their steadying breaths synchronizing as one. The beeping of the machines in the background that neither girl realized had even picked up during all of that, now grew quieter again.
At some point during their crying, they shifted to both lay properly on their sides, now facing one another, but still bodily connected. Through brushing legs, clutching arms, and intermingled breaths.
Once Ochako feels like her emotions are somewhat under control, she quietly speaks up, looking into Himiko’s now closed eyes, “I promised you… I promised that I’d give you my blood for the rest of my life. And… now I promise that you’ll be free. I won’t let them keep you confined. I swear it.”
Himiko opens her cat-like eyes, staring directly into Ochako’s. “How can you? You’re not in charge of anything.” She bluntly states, as though Ochako’s stupid for even thinking that.
“I won’t stop until you’re free. Until you can live the life you want. The life you always should’ve been allowed.” She reaches up to brush Himiko’s bangs behind her ear, still clinging onto her with her other limbs.
Ochako leans her forehead in to press against Himiko’s, “I’ll do whatever it takes. I promise.”
Himiko breathes out what could only be discerned as a small laugh. Ochako feels the breath on her own lips, and can almost feel the beautiful smile she knows and loves, forming onto Himiko’s face. “You’re weird, Ochako-chan.”
“Mmn.” She slightly nods, still pressing into Himiko’s forehead, now holding a soft smile of her own. She can feel her eyelids wanting to close– all the energy she used to talk, to cry, and to hug, seems to finally have depleted.
Himiko must be able to sense this, cause she endearingly brushes her nose back and forth against Ochako’s, “Get some rest, sleepyhead. I’ll hold you to your promises when you’re back on your feet, okay?”
Ochako nods again, and unthinkingly leans in just a bit further to brush her lips against Himiko’s in her tired state — neither deliberately aware of what she’s even doing, or of the other girl’s shocked reaction. Just discerning somewhere in her dazed consciousness that this feels inherently right.
“Mmkay Himiko, g’night.” She manages to slur out with a contented sigh, allowing her body to finally succumb to the sleep it’s so desperately craving.
Knowing in her bones that, finally, things are okay for now, and that her and Himiko, both, are safe.
***
And if Ochako assumes that that kiss was part of her dreams until Himiko shamelessly brings it back up the next day (some point after she’s rightfully out of the unnecessary chains binding her to the bed) — only for Ochako to turn beet red from embarrassment at the realization that she did that…
Well, Himiko can’t help but to kiss her again and again, intermingled with giggles and sighs and squeals, until the redness is no longer that of embarrassment, but of something much more pleasant and much more cute.