#kbsw

[le-hibou-noir]

💔 When your heart breaks and you don’t know why 💔

Day 1 - Pining of the amazing Kacchako Bittersweet Week!

This style is a bit rough, but damn I don’t have time to breath this week, month, year, life...

You can repost my art as long as you credit me! I have a Ko-Fi now :)

[kacchakoweek]

We're almost there! Don't forget, Kacchako Bittersweet Week starts TOMORROW! 

Tag your posts with #kacchakobittersweetweek or #kbsw so we can reblog them to the tumblr. 

You can find the prompt list here.

We hope to see you join in!

[tinytaleheart]

Haha guess who's late! It me!! (´ ꒳ ` ✿) 😓😭😧

First picture: Day 7 of @kacchakobittersweetweek 🎃🎃

Prompt: "Memory."

Second picture: Day 8 (Bonus day) of @kacchakobittersweetweek 🎃🎃

Prompt: "Haunted."

I pulled an all nighter at work yesterday, so, I didn't get any sleep nor did I post anything for bittersweet week 🙃

On a positive note, I had a lot of fun participating in this event !! 💕💕 I like working alongside others, posting their content, whether it be writing or art, I enjoyed looking at everything everyone else was posting.💕💕

[ohmytheon]

Spellbound (1/9)

summary: Detective Uraraka is just trying to do her job and navigate her feelings for one very prickly werewolf, but in a world where myths are real, anything can happen. When she's targeted by the serial killer that she and her elven partner, Midoriya, are trying to stop, it's going to take a bit of magic to save the day.

notes: So this is my entry for Kacchako Bittersweet Week! I'm...honestly not sure where this is going. I've only finished three of the prompts so far and am literally winging it. Whatever the next prompt says takes the story to the next place. There is no plan for this and I'm probably in over my head trying to write a murder-mystery type story inside of a Modern Fantasy setting, but well, such is life. I borrowed the world I created for my sorta Izuocha fic, "The Mythical Kind". Yes, a bit cheap, but I really loved that world and felt like I could explore more of it. More characters, relationships, and tags will be added as I finish the prompts. Like I said, I have no fucking clue where this is gonna end up. Such is life.

DAY 0: AU

No amount of tea could keep her awake, which was near impossible considering all the herbs she had put in that last batch. That stuff should have been able to keep her bouncing off the walls for days, not just a measly forty-eight hours. Was she getting weaker? No, that was her tried and true recipe. She was simply that exhausted after working for almost three days straight. This case really was getting the best of her. Maybe she should’ve taken a break like Deku had suggested.

Uraraka was staring hopelessly at her computer, woeful over the old case files that she had yet to comb through, when a paper bird began to flutter around her desk. At first, she ignored it, used to the old things. Eventually, it would settle down and perch on her desk until she was ready to unfold it and read the note. However, this one had other things in mind. It quickly turned into an origami nightmare and began to actually peck at her hands.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry, oh impatient one!” Uraraka snatched the bird out of the air between her two hands, which proved to be a mistake when it gave her a papercut on her palm, causing her to wince. It soon calmed down and when she finally opened her hands, the bird slowly unfolded itself into a creased, harmless note.

You’re going to be useless if you keep going like this. Take a damn break!

Uraraka’s eyes almost rolled out of her head. Of course the violent note was from Bakugou. Did he have to charm them to be so vicious if ignored? He probably wanted to get his point across. Looking at the red spots on her hand and the cut on her palm, it had certainly done the trick. She set the note down and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes with a fist. When she stared back at her computer, its dull glow only stared right back at her. The files would still be here when she got back. Besides, she couldn’t do much without her partner here anyways.

Dragging herself out of her chair, Uraraka groaned and pressed her hands to the small of her back as she stretched. How long had she been in that chair? And how had Bakugou known that she was running herself ragged? He could have called her. It wouldn’t have had the same effect as coming to the station and sending her a very aggressive paper bird to attack her into taking a break.

After sweeping her long coat off the back of her chair, she threw it over her shoulders and slipped her arms into the sleeves. She snagged her hat off the side of her desk and plopped it on her head as she walked over to her Captain’s office and knocked on the door. “I’m heading out for the night.”

“Got anymore of that tea?” Aizawa looked about as exhausted as she felt as he set his glasses down and pinched the bridge of his nose. Maybe he hadn’t been working as long as her, but he dealt with the higher-ups and the public, which was even worse. Neither had been kind to them recently with this case in the headlines.

Uraraka smiled apologetically. “All out, I’m afraid. I don’t think it was doing much good anyway at this point.”

Aizawa sighed. “I hate when things get political. It’s so exhausting.” He waved a hand at her. “Get some rest. I would rather you be well-rested than hopped up on something.”

“It’s an herbal recipe,” Uraraka reminded him. Before he could make another smart remark, his phone rang and he answered it without hesitation. He was a stronger man than her. Every time the phone at her desk rang, she shrank away from it for a few seconds. If she heard one more tip about how it was aliens, she was going to lose it.

Witches, werewolves, trolls, dragons, orcs, vampires, elves, and more? That was regular life.

Aliens though? Absolutely absurd.

That wasn’t even counting the many calls of people proclaiming it was werewolves. She’d hung up on the last person that had started on a rant.

The ride to the left and down the elevator was quick, but Uraraka still spent half of it slumped against the wall with the side of her head pressed against the cool metal. If it went on any longer, she could probably fall asleep here and wake up about ten hours later wondering where she was. She did have something of a bad habit of falling asleep in places around her apartment that weren’t her bed. Tired as she was, she didn’t even bother lifting her head when the doors opened, despite knowing full well who would be on the other side waiting for her.

“Took you long enough,” Bakugou snarled, arms folded across his chest.

“Aw, you really do care,” Uraraka teased, although she was too sleepy to push it even further.

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled as he reached into the elevator to grab her by the arm and pull her out. “Deku sent me a text asking if I could check on you. He must be out of it too because I think he meant to send it to Iida.”

Uraraka paused to blink at him before stepping outside. “And you came anyways?”

“Yeah, apparently you weren’t answering your phone,” Bakugou pointed out. That was surprising since she’d had her phone on her the whole… She fished it out of her pocket and looked down at it. Dead. Well, that answered the question of why Bakugou had sent her a murderous pigeon note. “You need to keep it charged. Shit is real dangerous right now and you’re running around with a dead phone.”

“And a wand,” Uraraka added, flicking her sleeve so that her wand slid into her hand. He scoffed, but didn’t argue the point. He knew that she could take care of herself, but he could also see the exhaustion written all over her. The thing about magic was that the stronger it was the more energy it took out of a person. Uraraka considered herself to be stronger than the average witch, at least by a hair, but fighting in this condition could knock her out cold. “You don’t need to worry about me so much. It’s not a witch hunt.”

Bakugou didn’t appreciate the pun at all, judging from the unimpressed look on his face. “I’m serious, Uraraka. You need to be more vigilant. Whatever is going on, we’re in the shit right now.”

He was right, of course, and Uraraka didn’t have to say anything for him to know that. She sighed and nodded her head before choosing her exit and stepping through the sliding glass door. There wasn’t just one entry port to the police department. There were a number of entrances across the city that a person could choose from, as long as they had a passcode. She and Deku had given Bakugou theirs just in case ages ago.

When she passed through the glass door and came out the other, Uraraka was first hit with the smell of smoke. It was a familiar scent in this area, reminding her of childhood. Growing up, her home had been permeated with the smell of whatever was being cooked in the cauldron, but the smoke from below was always there as well. This was a different kind of smoke, but she would take what she could get.

Glancing over, she caught Bakugou wrinkling his nose in distaste. It wasn’t near the full moon, but his sense of smell was heightened regardless of the day of the month. He didn’t like her neighborhood. Granted, it was fairly sketchy. On a scale of one to ten – where ten was a bunker warded to the teeth with protective spells and one was a flimsy wood shack – her neighborhood was about a four. He, Deku, and Iida had been harping on her to move, but it was easier said than done. Maybe when she got her bonus…

“You didn’t have to walk me home,” Uraraka said as they walked down a dimly lit sidewalk.

“And risk you falling asleep in an alley?” Bakugou shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Now it’s my turn to be the serious one.” Uraraka stepped ahead of him and turned on her heels so that she was facing him, stopping him cold in his tracks. “It’s not safe for you out here.”

He rolled his eyes. To get his attention, she reached out and snagged the strings of his hood, pulling it tighter around his head. He instinctively lifted his hands to make sure that the hood was covering him properly. It wouldn’t do good for his ears to show. His long green coat was able to hide his fluffy tail well enough, but the ears would be a dead giveaway. She could still remember her surprise when she’d met Bakugou for the first time. Werewolves in her part had been hunted down, but in the city, they roamed freely, if not without prejudice against them.

“I can take care of myself,” Bakugou quipped, baring his teeth in a vicious smirk. His canines gleamed dangerously under the flame of the streetlamp. Not as sharp as a vampire’s without it being the full moon, they were still capable of puncturing a man’s jugular should he be so inclined. He could kill her quite easily if he was in one of his frenzies. Even without the influence of the full moon, he had superhuman strength and many people said the bloodlust was still strong in them too.

Uraraka knew that he would never hurt her though. They might’ve gotten into some pretty heated arguments, but she had never once been afraid that he would attack her simply to hurt her.

“Even so, like you said, we’re in the shit, but especially werewolves,” Uraraka said gently, smoothing his hood down. She could feel his ears twitch underneath and pulled her hand away before he could tell her off. “I’d rather not get another call from Kirishima asking if I can bail you out. Everyone at the station thinks I’m dating a ruffian.”

Bakugou’s face flushed pink. “We’re not–”

She couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction, folding her hands behind her back and taking a few steps back. He spent so much time teasing her that it was nice to get one over him every once in a while. “I know. You’d never be interested in a cop, much less a low level witch.” He narrowed his eyes at her, but chose to say nothing as he started to follow her again. She knew that she could be stronger. Deku constantly reassured her that she was one of the strongest witches he knew, but then she’d remind him that he’d only met three witches total. “I’m still allowed to worry about you, aren’t I? Especially since you won’t let me give you that enchanted watch.”

“You know I don’t fuck with magic,” Bakugou told her.

“You fuck with me,” Uraraka shot back mockingly. He stared at her for a beat before his lips pulled up into a smirk and his red eyes glittered. This time, her face burned red and she spun back around so that he couldn’t see her face. She hadn’t meant it like that, especially after that last comment. “What I mean is: it’s me – it’s my magic – and the watch only has a protective spell on it. Okay, that’s a lie. It’s also enchanted to always have the perfect time. What’s the point of it not being functional too?”

Bakugou opened his mouth to argue with her when he suddenly stopped, his brow furrowed and his smirk turning into a frown. “Do you smell that?” Uraraka looked around and shook her head. Maybe it was a little smellier because the garbage man was late picking up the trash, but that was all she could think of. “It smells like something’s burning.”

“Something is always burning around here.” True, the scent of smoke was heavy in the air, but she didn’t think much of it. Smoke was a part of the aesthetic at this point. That was the price of living by a factory that mass-produced magical potions. They weren’t anywhere near as potent or good as home-brewed ones, but those were much harder to come by. She usually stuck to making her own since it was cheaper in the long run.

“No, it’s…” Bakugou broke into a run, leaving Uraraka in the dust.

She took off after him and shouted, “Wait!” but he was much quicker than her. Even if he didn’t have a werewolf’s unnatural speed, he would’ve beat her. She had always been a slow runner. He passed two blocks before she had even made it down one and then disappeared around the corner. “Bakugou, stop!” Her coat was flapping behind her like a cloak and slapping the back of her legs. When she rounded the corner, she ran smack into Bakugou’s back. He was so solid though that she didn’t knock him over. “What are you–?”

The rest of her question was snatched right out of her mouth as she caught sight of the scene Bakugou was staring at. A large building was on fire. Her apartment building was on fire. There were dozens of fire trucks, cop cars, and ambulances surrounding it in an attempt to put it out and help any of the victims, but it was no use. One second it was a regular fire and the next the fire burned a bright blue and grew exponentially like it was a hungry, living monster. As the flames ate every inch of the building, black smoke billowed into the sky.

When she’d said that something was always burning, she hadn’t meant her home.

“Did you leave a cauldron simmering before you left?” Bakugou asked.

“What? No!” Uraraka was almost insulted that he’d even insinuated such a thing, but he didn’t seem to be aware of what he was saying. “That’s not from some slow simmering potion gone wrong or someone leaving their crockpot or coffee maker plugged in.” She pointed an accusing finger at the burning building. “That...is magic.”

Any decent witch could’ve spotted the most subtle magic a mile away. Now that she was watching it three blocks down, she could feel it pulsing in the air, breathing life and death into her at the same time.  If she had ever been tired before, she was alert and awake now, although that might have been because she’d fallen into a state beyond exhaustion. Her eyes were locked onto the red and yellow flames, taking in how alive they looked. Fire was a beast in its own and the creatures capable of it fiercer than most. Not all of them were as mild as Todoroki.

Bakugou turned to her. “Uraraka…”

Hearing her name in that wary tone made everything come crashing down on her all at once. Her apartment was gone. It was destroyed, turned to nothing but ash and soot. “I… Everything I owned was in there…” Luckily she hid her money in a safe elsewhere, but it wasn’t nearly enough along with what she had in the bank to replace all that the fire had taken from her. She had insurance, of course, but only the bare minimum that she could afford. “What am I going to do?” She wasn’t thinking properly. The alertness she felt only seconds ago began to evaporate, replaced by a bone-tired exhaustion that made her want to cry. “Where am I going to sleep?”

“Uraraka,” Bakugou repeated. She snapped out of it and glanced at him. There was a fire in his eyes that matched the intensity of the burning building. “I’m pretty sure you’ve got bigger problems that that.” She blinked thickly, her thoughts muddled at best. “If this was done by magic, I don’t think it was an accident.” He pointed at the buildings next to hers. “Look; they aren’t catching. It’s just your building. No one on the force has the ability to create a barrier like that but you. It was targeted.”

That took Uraraka back. “Targeted?”

“You’re in danger,” Bakugou growled, his hackles practically raised. “That case you’re working on? It must be a lot worse than you thought.”

Uraraka’s eyes swept from Bakugou to her apartment. Judging by the state of the first responders and the building, it had caught on fire suddenly and spread fast. As much as it pained her, she knew that it was impossible to expect that everyone had survived. How many people had died? What for? What was worth ending so many lives just to get to her? Had they thought she was home? Or had they known she wasn’t and did it as a threat to stop her? And if they had attacked her place, who wasn’t to say that they wouldn’t go after Deku, Aizawa, or anyone else on the case?

“We have to call Deku,” Uraraka decided, eyes snapping back to him.

Bakugou’s nostrils flared. “No shit.” He tugged her witch’s hat off her head and threw his arm around her, pulling her close to him and guiding him back around the corner. In her case, the signature hat she wore would give her identity away. Without it, she looked like the average civilian. She another woman on the street. Huddled so close to him, his familiar scent washed over her and the heat of his body burned through his coat. “But first we gotta get you out of here. There’s a chance whoever did this is waiting for you to show up on the scene. Best not give them the chance.”

“Where are we going?” Uraraka asked worriedly. Back to the police station? It was difficult for people to get in there.

Bakugou didn’t answer her though as he pulled out his phone and clicked on Deku’s contact. Uraraka glanced back one last time, taking in the sight of the smoke reaching into the heavens. What the hell was going on? Magic was supposed to be used for good, not this, not the crimes that she’d been investigating since transferring here into the city. It was unnatural. It was wrong. Even the dark arts wasn’t always bad, but this? Oh, this felt like a sickness and it was growing as surely as the flames.

[jadewing-realms]

“Some people call this wisdom.”

Transitioning back into general AU stuff with this! Goodness, I don’t know why, but Ochako is much harder to write for me than Katsuki... and i feel bad because she deserves all the love too. TuT But i dunno, maybe my brain’s just really tired...

When Ochako stepped into the elevator at the Gunhead MA Hero Agency, she never would have predicted the pickle she’d find herself in in just ten minutes. She’d checked in at the front desk, just like any normal person; she had an appointment. A job interview. As much as she loves rescue work and having Ryukyu as her boss, she feels ready to move on to bigger things. Tougher things. So she’d gotten in contact with the Battle Hero who’d trained her back in high school—he’d welcomed her to an interview without hesitation.

It hadn’t taken much to get past the front desk. With her credentials, work experience, and Quirk, she’d  be a superb addition to the Gunhead team, despite her lower position in the national rankings. She’s in the top 20, which will still mean a lot. It’s a win-win for both.

She’d been a bit nervous when she found the elevator, but job interviews are always intimidating. Even when conducted by someone you know. She’d been bracing herself for a tense ride up to the top floor when a gauntlet thrust through the closing doors, radiating blue light from the containment chamber on the palm. She recognized the glove instantly and thought it strange he hadn’t changed it at all since U.A.

The younger Uchiha is intimidating company, but Ochako’s seen far worse, considering who she’s dating these days. And despite all the horrors she’d heard about from his junior and senior years, he seemed… all right. Normal. He was as surprised to find her here as she was for him, and a bit of light small talk had followed. Small talk has never exactly been Ochako’s favorite pastime, but it will forever be better than awkward silence. It had only taken a minute for them to settle into comfortable silence.

Then something had made the building shake. The elevator shaft rumbled, the lights blinked out, and the room shuddered to a halt. Something, a number of somethings, clattered down atop the frozen metal capsule, the sound making their ears ring before all went totally silent.

And that’s how she found herself blinking into the dark, trapped in a broken elevator with Uchiha Sasuke.

His breath is quiet now, still coming from the opposite side of the blank space. “You hurt, Uraraka?” he mutters.

Just as she’s about to answer, the emergency lighting comes on, dimmer and redder than the regular lights. Still, it’s enough to survey the damage. Dust swirls around them. Directly in front of her, Sasuke stands with one hand braced against the wall, his dark eyes darting across the ceiling—surveying, same as her. He doesn’t seem to be injured at all… no blood, no scrapes, no favoring one limb over any other.

She shakes her head in the scarce light. “No, I’m good. You?”

“Just fine. What was that?”

“It happened too fast to tell. Could you hear anything? You know, with your Quirk?”

He clicks his tongue, but there’s no hostility in it. Nothing like her boyfriend. “Tch, no, it doesn’t work like that. I wasn’t expecting an attack here.”

She follows his gaze upward, across the elevator ceiling. The top is horribly dented, like something with impact strength rivaling Kirishima went and punched against it from the outside. No breaks, though. Aside from being a little off kilter, the structure seems all right…

“Think it’s safe to move?” she whispers.

His eyebrows furrow. “Why?”

“The hatch.”

He looks back to the ceiling, where she knows he can make out the edges of the emergency door just as she had, and he seems to think this over, weighty contemplation in his black eyes. Slowly, he nods. “Using your Quirk, it’s worth a shot.”

Just as she presses her fingertips together and rids herself of gravity’s pull, her phone vibrates in her coat pocket, disrupting the tension in the air with a sound that’s far too domestic for the situation. Still, Ochako reaches for it, pausing to glance at the screen, taking in the caller ID. She puffs her cheeks, and as she starts to drift aimlessly, looks to Sasuke below her.

“Hey, can you hold me steady?” She swipes her thumb across the phone screen. “Gotta take this or I’ll regret it later.”

Sasuke nods and braces his gloved hands on either side of her waist, while she raises the phone to her ear.

“Katsuki!” she greets and braces herself. “I’m a little busy right now…”

Stunningly, he doesn’t yell. Yet. Instead, he almost sounds… concerned. “Hey, you’re over at Gunhead’s right?”

“Um… yeah.” She frowns at the ceiling and reaches up with her free hand to push against the hatch. It doesn’t budge. She looks around for a latch of some kind.

“Yeah, well, there’s a full blown s***fest being reported live right now. Some Villain showed up to pick a fight with a Pro on patrol. Are you okay? You’re not fighting.”

“Oh—yeah, I’m okay. Just… a little stuck. In an elevator.” Trust Katsuki to pay attention. Though she finds his well-masked protective instinct somewhat endearing (even though he’d be the first to tell her she can totally kick a** just fine), it’s very ill-timed. It’s hard to properly search their escape route when one hand’s busy. She sighs into the receiver and tilts her head down to her ex-classmate. “Can you let me float a little higher?”

Sasuke nods and gives her a small push upwards, keeping her ascent steady until she feels she can get a better look around the hatch—or what’s supposed to be the hatch. It’s a bit… dented. Like the rest of the ceiling. Oh no, I really hope it wasn’t damaged… it’s just a panel, right? It should just push off!

“Wait,” blurts Katsuki over the line, “who’s there with you?”

“Just Sasuke. I mean, Uchiha Sasuke.” She frowns a little and glances down again, taking in Sasuke’s Hero uniform. “Um, Insight? You know who I’m talking about.”

“WHAT!?” Now he yells, and Ochako pulls the speaker a short distance from her ear, a fraction of a second too late. “THAT GUY’s there!?”

Grimacing a little, she returns the phone to its place so she can answer in a calm, rational manner. “Yes, Katsuki, that’s what I said.”

“Hello!” Sasuke says from below, still his usual monotone but loud enough that she knows her boyfriend can hear. Only fair, it seems, since both of them can hear every word Katsuki speaks in his traditionally too-loud voice. However, this is the loudest she’s ever heard Sasuke speak and it’s enough to make her look at him sideways in surprise. He raises an eyebrow in question at her peculiar reaction.

“What’s HE doing there?” Katsuki snarls.

Ochako flaps her hand even though he can’t see it. “Oh, he’s… um… actually, I dunno.” She tilts the phone away from her mouth and addresses her companion. “What are you doing here? I forgot to ask.”

“Working,” is Sasuke’s short answer, again spoken loud enough so that Katsuki can hear.

She doesn’t need to have her ear close to hear his rising irritation. “No, what is he DOING there??”

“I think he means specifics,” she mutters a half-attempt at mediation to Sasuke, who just rolls his eyes.

“Prostitution. What do you think, genius?”

While Ochako feels herself blush a little bit at the very idea, Katsuki’s much less… lowkey. “DON’T SCREW WITH ME!”

Sasuke just scoffs, looking done now that his sense of humor has been so under-appreciated. “A collab. Geez…”

Ochako’s eyebrows raise and she latches onto the change in subject. “Oh? I didn’t know you did that sort of thing.”

“Yeah, I’m nowhere near as good as my brother, but…” Sasuke shrugs. “My Quirk makes martial arts come fairly easy. Gunhead has some newbies who need shaping up.”

“Ahh, I see, that’s really cool!”

“I’M STILL HERE YOU KNOW!”

With a bit of a squeak, Ochako hurries to return the phone to her mouth. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you hanging, Katsuki.”

On the other end, her boyfriend just huffs and there’s a brief beat of silence. When he speaks again, he’s much quieter.

“He’s not… doing anything, is he?”

Ochako snorts. “No, Katsuki. We’re trying to get out the hatch. He’s holding me steady while I try to get the door open.”

“Holding… you steady?”

“Yeah. Hey, Katsuki, I need to set the phone down for a second. I can’t do this one-handed. Here, talk to Sasuke a minute.”

When the Uchiha in question gives a slight nod of his head in confirmation, Ochako activates her Quirk on her phone and sends it floating his way. Trusting him to handle it from there, she then arches her back and starts running both hands across the edges of the hatch, search growing slightly frantic. There has to be some kind of lever or handle or something…

“Hi Bakugou,” Sasuke oozes false amity and Ochako just knows it’s going to tick the h*** out of the explosive man on the other end. She gets the feeling that’s exactly why the Uchiha did it. Their spite match is no joke.

As she braces both hands against the hatch door, Sasuke gives a derisive sniff. “I’m holding onto your girlfriend.”

Her lips pinch and she shoots him a mild look of reprimand. “Did you have to say it like that?”

He gives an absent nod, to her disgruntlement, and seems to give the phone the driest stare as he possibly can in his peripheral. It’s a crying shame she can’t hear what’s going on. Actually… that’s startling. Why is Katsuki being so quiet all of a sudden?

“Some people call this wisdom,” Sasuke says in response to something else she can’t hear.

She unfortunately can’t dwell on that right now. She tries shoving her shoulder into the hatch, to see if it’ll budge, but it’s hard to generate momentum for impact when you don’t have gravity. Ah, the drawbacks to being able to float…

“You’re an idiot,” Sasuke says.

This time, she can definitely hear the faintest of sound from the phone, even from her distance. “THE H***, A**HOLE, YOU BETTER NOT—”

Sasuke muffles the phone against his collar and gazes up at her calmly. “Find anything?”

Ochako sighs. “I can’t get it to budge… I wonder if these dents did it?”

“If it was rubble that fell, it could be resting on top of it,” he offers.

Her eyes widen and she glances from him to the hatch and then back again. “Oh, hey, that would make sense… I wonder if I can get it cracked enough to float it?”

“No, Bakugou, I’m scheming with Ochako. Please hold.” Again, Sasuke muffles the phone. His expression doesn’t change at all; how he’s so relaxed while he’s busy dealing with her volatile boyfriend, she has no clue. It’s quite the feat. “Try it.”

Again, she attempts to ram herself into it, to no avail. She just can’t get the right leverage or weight behind herself. Ugh, of f***ing course the door she has to use her Quirk to reach won’t open with her Quirk active! Just f***ing great!

…one of these days, I need to step back and reanalyze all the vocabulary I’m picking up from Katsuki.

“Deactivate your Quirk.” Sasuke releases her waist and ducks under her, turning around and standing up again with her thighs resting on his shoulders. “Okay, go.”

Trying not to think too hard about their current situation, Ochako releases her Quirk and feels her body weight return to her. Sasuke grunts a little. Then, while she throws everything she has into trying to pry the hatch open outward, even one, two inches, something, the Uchiha raises the phone back into place.

“Calm down, sir,” he deadpans, “I can feel the vibrations from your volume in my coat. I’ll have to ask you to lower your voice.”

He sounds like a customer service agent. Ochako snickers a little, despite herself.

“Well, I’m sure Ochako’s flattered to know you trust her so much.”

Now there’s an undeniable pointedness to his voice and Ochako gives pause at the spike of tension in the air. Wait, what on earth are they talking about?

She tries the hatch again, just one more time, and this time she heaves into it as much as she possibly can. The door wobbles a fraction of an inch. Something rocks atop the roof. Sasuke lurches, and so does the entire elevator with the horrific sound of metal grating against metal. For one terrible second, Ochako’s stomach drops.

The elevator sinks down three inches… and stops.

For a moment, both of them are frozen, too afraid to move. Then Ochako sags against Sasuke’s head.

“Oh my gosh…” she breathes.

“I think we’re stuck here for now,” Sasuke voices what she now knows in her mind. She nods once, not even trying to argue, and removes her gravity again before she swings off his shoulders. She does not want to do any more jostling than she needs to at this point… three inches was already too far to fall. And they’re several stories up.

Once she sets her feet on the ground as gently as possible and returns her own weight, she holds her hand out for the phone. “Here, let me talk to him.”

Sasuke gladly hands the device over. “I hate your boyfriend, by the way.”

The tension from both before and the sudden scare bring a nervous laugh bubbling to her throat. “Haaa ha ha ha, he, uh… he hates you too.”

“I know.”

“OCHAKO!” Katsuki’s voice tears over the connection, making her jump. She hurries to put it against her ear and give him a response.

“S-Sorry! Okay, I’m here.”

“I heard something crash.”

“Oh, we’re okay. I just… moved too much. The elevator slipped a little.”

“It’s loose!?”

“Yeah, but… it seems to be okay now that we’re not moving. So… I think we’re gonna be stuck here for a while.” She purses her lips and tries her best to send her apologizes over the airwaves. “I might be late to dinner tonight…”

“Don’t apologize, d*** it. Just stay safe!”

She smiles a little. “You know I will, Katsuki.”

“Uh-huh… uh-huh, and hey, since when are you on a first-name basis with that loser?”

She blinks, her mind doing a nice backflip to try and account for the sudden shift from concern to suspicion. Or… maybe it’s all the same? She glances across the elevator, through the darkness that her eyes have grown accustomed to, and meets Sasuke’s gaze, which is just as unimpressed as it always is. “Sasuke? I mean… I dunno, ever since third year. Remember, it was hard to call him ‘Uchiha’ while we were at his house doing all that training with Itachi? I guess it’s just habit now…”

“Yeah, well, c-can you just… not??”

Slowly, far too slowly, it’s beginning to dawn on her what this really is. She’s not sure why she didn’t think of it before… it just hits her now. She plants her free hand on her hip and if she was home now, she’d be giving him that Look that she learned from his mother. “Katsuki… what’s this really about?”

Silence. Then… he sighs. She waits.

“I just…” He’s properly subdued himself. He doesn’t sound terribly happy about it… but he does it for her. “I just feel like I should be there… not him. That’s… that’s it. It’s stupid.”

She looks at Sasuke again. He’s sunk down to sit on the floor with his back against the elevator doors. His head is tilted back, the reddish light illuminating his pale face framed and half-covered by his dark hair. Now that he’s older, he looks even more like his brother…

He’s handsome, sure. Just… not her type.

She speaks with a fond smile. “Maybe a little. Katsuki, I can’t step into an elevator without thinking about you. Remember, our first kiss was in an elevator? We were going to the observation deck at the Skytree while you were on break, and you stole it once the elevator doors closed.”

“G—F—D… Ochako, don’t just SAY that, not—”

“Well, do you remember or not?”

A beat passes. Then, “…mm.”

She nods. “So please, don’t worry. Everything’s gonna be fine.”

“I’m not—… I’m not f***ing worried. You’re stronger than everyone out there fighting that stupid Villain right now.”

Her smile widens. “Okay. Good.”

Her phone buzzes against her temple and she raises it away to glance at it. An alert fills her screen, which makes disappointment fill her gut. She whimpers a little.

I really need to get better at keeping this thing charged…

“Um, Katsuki… my battery’s running low.”

“Again!? Ochako, I swear—!”

“I know, I know. I just need to hang up now to save what I’ve got. I’ll text you though, okay?”

He growls, but there’s not much incense behind it and she knows he’s lost most of his fight for now. “F***ing… fine.”

“All right. We’ll get outta here soon.”

“Mm-hm, the Pros’ve almost caught the guy…”

“Great. See you soon, then. I love you!”

There’s a brief beat in which Ochako can almost vividly imagine the distinct shade of pink his cheeks are tinging. When he replies, it’s a harried mumble that only she can accurately interpret.

“MmmIloveyoutoo.”

No longer able to help a grin, she lowers the phone from her ear and ends the call. Immediately, she dims the brightness and then locks the screen, in hopes of conserving what 12% battery power she has left. Then, with great care, she sags against the wall opposite her unfortunate Comrade in Trapped, and sinks to the floor. Their feet brush parallel to one another in the small, cramped space.

She runs the last few minutes over in her mind, absorbing all the information so as not to forget as much later—specifics are so hard for her to recall once they’re past…

Suddenly, she turns to Sasuke. “Hate’s a strong word.”

Sasuke cracks his eyes open. “Hm?”

“Before, I said Katsuki hates you. But… that’s not what I meant.”

He blinks. “That’s what I meant. ‘Hate’ is a perfect word.”

She smirks a little, knowing at least half-well that he’s simply being his naturally-intense self. Which is something she has a lot of experience in. “He actually respects you a lot. You and Deku and Todoroki… you’re his rivals and that means more than he’ll ever say. You give him something to work hard toward.”

And quite to her amusement, he looks terribly uncomfortable. He stares off to one side, shifting his feet. His boots brush against her ankles. “O… kay…”

Satisfied with the outcome of this, Ochako takes a note from him and rests her head back against the wall. Who knows how much of a wait they’ll be in for… but if Katsuki is right and the Pros almost have the perpetrator, they should be out in no time. She’ll have to deal with the police report and rescheduling her interview, which will be a pain… but then she’ll get to go home. To him. Maybe she should swing by the nearest market and pick up something fun for dinner, splurge a little… Something spicy, just for him. She smiles at the thought.

“So… your first kiss. An elevator? Really?”

At the amusement in Sasuke’s voice, a wave of heat rushes to her cheeks and she flops her face into her hands to hide it, dim lighting be d****ed. Her weight leaves her and she’s floating again, but… “Holy... gooooooosh, I can’t believe I said that out loud!!”

[lupizora]

Castaways On A Foreign Planet (1/5)

It's already the ninth in my timezone so I went ahead and posted this. This was written back in July but with everything that happened RL wise since then and the launch of The Better Hero, I procrastinated into publishing it. But hey, it's the @kacchakobittersweetweek and I'm going to upload the two chapters I've written so far of this Space Pilots AU for it. This chapter is for the theme of Fall.

Genre: Sci-Fi/Romance

Pairing: Bakugou x Uraraka

Rating: T

Summary: Ochako thought she had settled into her job as a mercenary. Katsuki thought there was only one reason to fly. Together they thought they knew their place in this war. But all it took to question everything was find each other again.

Ochako resisted the urge to puke.

Her stomach still couldn't handle returning from stasis to full function after Light Road travel. She swallowed the bile. Tapping her fingers around the controllers, she waited until the wave of nausea passed. Outside of her Orca's windscreen, a vast asteroid field spread around the reddish-green planet like an impregnable wall. Ochako noticed little sparks of light glinting between the huge space rocks seconds before a shrill noise echoed through the intercom.

"Welcome, Fighter 2-7-3," The unemotional, computer-like voice said. It used to give Ochako the chills but the feeling had died down over time. "Are you in position?"

"Yeah," she said. "What's the plan?"

"Eliminate all targets."

Even if Ochako had never met the person talking to her face to face, she could swear they always smiled when they gave orders like this. It was a gut feeling she couldn't shake no matter how hard she tried.

"Roger that."

Her spaceship glided between the suspended space rocks, looking for a secluded spot. Head-on attacks weren’t Ochako's style. She preferred ambushing the unlucky fellows who would cross her path. When the field covered the spaceship from every side, she halted the engine and leaned back in her seat.

The hunt had just begun.  

"Where are you?!" Kaminari cried out.

The Marlins swarmed around Katsuki like a school of hungry piranhas. His shields were keeping him safe for now as he flew through the asteroid field.

"Don't know. Can't see a thing with those fuckers on my tail."

"I'm barely getting your signal, dude. You have to get back here!"

Katsuki took a sharp turn around a big asteroid. Some of the Marlins crashed on it. He grinned despite anger burning hot in his chest. How these douches had lured him so deep into the asteroid field still escaped his understanding. The Peregrine's radar was going bananas the closer he got to the planet. Katsuki couldn't pinpoint where the fuck he was or how many enemies were out there. Such a classic move from the Alliance to set the game on their own terms. It pissed him off to no end.  

"Bakugou!" Kaminari shouted through heavy static.

"Quit yapping, Drooly! I'll be there in a few."

He just had to make them lose him first.

Katsuki turned right, heading straight for where the concentration of the field was thickest. The Marlins followed; their iridescent wings shining under the light of the closest star. Two of them were orbiting the planet, which was twice the size of Earth as much Katsuki could tell. He had seen simulations of the Union's first home-planet, but never the actual thing. It was several light years away from this war to be concerned with it.

A blast ricocheted on his right wing, pulling Katsuki back to the fight. His shields were down. The Peregrine flew over and under asteroids, his pursuers always a step behind. Katsuki clenched his teeth as he avoided laser shot after laser shot. Ahead, two space rocks were on a collision course with each other. Katsuki zoomed between them but the smaller ships didn't follow. The other side appeared quiet. He slowed down the engines just a click, trying to catch his breath. His radar continued showing gibberish. The ship tilted left due to a strong pull from the planet's direction.

Damn the Alliance and its fucking ambushes, Katsuki thought, hardening his hold around the controls.  

The intercom was dead. If someone decided to strike, this was the perfect opportunity. A sense of foreboding dropped on Katsuki like a bucket of ice-cold water. He spotted the irregular shadows on the nearby asteroids seconds before the other spaceship attacked.

Ochako ignored the feeling of blood rushing to her head. The Orca flew towards the Peregrine like a killer whale rising to catch an unsuspecting bird flying too close to the sea's surface. The pilot of this ‘bird' dodged just in time. The Orca's bottom scrapped the other ship's hull. Ochako turned her spaceship around, activating her guns; their barrels pointing at the Peregrine.

The onslaught started with the flick of a switch. Ochako heard and felt nothing more than a low rumble under her feet as the shots were fired. This distance made things less personal. It was just a job, and all she had to do for this to count was destroy the ship. With the signal gone, the Alliance thought they had one less pilot to worry about. But these pilots could survive for an hour in outer space and the Union never left soldiers behind. Ochako always counted on that fact. Killing former comrades was a line she would never cross; no matter how much was the payment.

Something glinted outside. Instead of avoiding her firing shots, the Peregrine flew towards the Orca.

Are they insane? She thought, horrified.

Her hands danced animated over the controls. The asteroids were packed closely together and the navigator was out of commission. It'd be hard to maneuver with her bigger ship. But she wasn't going to fall victim to a suicidal pilot. Not when she hadn't reached her goal yet.

Pulling at the controls, Ochako forced the Orca to retreat. Bullets ricocheted against the golden surface of the Peregrine as it filled her entire windscreen. She tried to dodge. Her body lurched forward from an impact. Lists of data started overflowing her side screen, indicating that half of the ship had been destroyed. The oxygen levels dropped rapidly. Ochako didn't want to leave the ship. It had served her like the best of comrades. But with a heavy heart and out of breath, she activated the emergency protocol. The pilot's seat tilted into horizontal position. Ochako pressed her arms on her sides as the seat dropped under the cockpit. Fluorescent bulbs flickered alive, illuminating the walls surrounding her with a purple light. The protective glass slid into place and the escape pod was launched into the void.

Katsuki's sole objective had been to scare off the other pilot so they'd crash. He hadn't expected getting caught in the explosion or the Orca’s remains to clog his engine. Without a way to battle the pull, the Peregrine started plummeting to the planet. The alarm screeched. Every light bulb inside the cockpit blinked red. Katsuki’s fingers around the controls were going numb. But the controls didn't budge.

Blue, so bright it hurt his eyes, replaced the darkness of space as he passed through the stratosphere. The cockpit was overheating and his spacesuit clung on his body like second skin. Pressure glued Katsuki to his seat. The wings had bent in front of him as if the ship was a real bird free falling. He had to open them. Katsuki steeled his feet against the front of the cockpit and pulled. The spaceship twisted like a spindle. When he faced the ground below, Katsuki pressed the buttons on his controls. The wings unfolded like a real falcon's followed by a loud groan. The ship started leaning more to the right. Despite his attempts to fix this, the Peregrine continued to balance like a seesaw in the air.  

For an instant, he looked up from the control panel. Some sort of red area spread over the horizon. Katsuki darted past its border without problems, but he kept losing altitude. The ship dropped under the plates beneath him, revealing them to be trees. Branches and trunks pounded on the hull like it was raining stones. Something struck the ship from below and Katsuki's head crashed on the control panel. It left him in a daze, the rows of trees before him blurring the more he stared at them. The view cleared and the ship nose-dived. Metal screeched as the ‘beak' dug a line into the ground. Vibrations shook the cockpit like an earthquake until the stern settled down with a thud several meters later. Dust covered the windscreen, harsh light obscuring the view outside. His helmet's filters picked up a foul smell but Katsuki's body felt too heavy to move. A monotonous tune ringed in his ears. Black spots danced in front of his eyes. They covered his entire vision, and he was falling all over again.  

 Stars twinkled at the sky above when Katsuki woke up. He lay on his back, something soft supporting his head. The stench of smoke filled the air along with sounds of burning wood softly crumbling. Heat washed over him from the left. He turned his head. Someone had kneeled next to a small fire. It spurted flaming specks when the other person threw one more log inside, illuminating briefly their exposed arms and their bulky metallic boots.

Anti-gravity boots, Katsuki's tired brain concluded. Thieves and mercenaries were fond of these; a crowd he was better off dead than get caught mingling with it.

Whomever that person was, they hadn't noticed Katsuki was awake yet. It gave him the advantage of a surprise attack. He only needed a weapon. At an arm's length lay a belt like a dormant snake, the handle of a gun peeking from one of the pouches. Katsuki dragged the belt silently towards him. The Alliance's open palm insignia adorned the clasp. Propping himself on his elbow, he pointed the gun at the enemy's head. His entire body was shaking from the effort, but Katsuki clenched his teeth and cocked the safety.

The stranger turned abruptly. It was a woman. After the initial shock, her dark eyes zeroed on his face; her chest rising and falling in controlled breaths. Strands of hair from her side bangs clung on her round face like vines. Producing a knife out of nowhere in her hand, she raised it to defend.

A weird feeling rushed through Katsuki's chest, and for a moment he thought he'd pass out again. But he didn't break eye contact. It wasn't just her appearance. The way she was ready to strike without the slightest hesitation brought something from the depths of his mind; the memory of a girl who didn't back out from any challenge, and who had almost killed him once already.  

"Uraraka?"

She furrowed her brows for a moment before recognition flashed in her eyes too. "Bakugou?"

He steadied the hand holding the gun. "Just my luck. Of all the assholes in the universe, it had to be you."

"Glad to see you too," she mumbled.

"So, you're making deals with those Alliance dicks now? What an upgrade."

"Oh, really? How many people you had to threaten to make it into the fleet?"

Katsuki gritted his teeth. "For your information, I landed this spot with my skills alone. Which is more than you can ever hope to land. Say, what's the score now? I bet it's at least ten ships you've crashed so far."

"You're one to talk.” Uraraka scoffed. “Did you forget how you tried to ram into me just a few hours ago?"

"That was an evasive maneuver. Did you forget how you crash-landed a Sparrow right into of the Academy's freaking entrance?!”

"I had it under control! It barely reached the front steps anyway."

Katsuki still had a hard time believing this. No one amongst the crowd had noticed the spaceship emitted a trail of smoke until it started falling. Trained pilots or not, they all scattered like frightened children. The Sparrow's turbines raised every blade of grass and stone in its vicinity as the ship skidded on the courtyard. When the terrible whine stopped and the dust cloud cleared, Katsuki had found the wing a breath away from his neck. He backtracked; glaring daggers at the cockpit as the Sparrow's pilot unfastened their seatbelts. After they had scrambled down from the ship, he approached them to demand an apology. But Katsuki had never expected Uraraka's defiant stare when she took off her helmet. His heart, already beating wildly from the near-death experience, skipped a beat. The effect only lasted a moment because she melted into a mess of apologies right after.

The present Uraraka sighed. "Can we forget about this for now? You shouldn’t be moving. Your wounds haven't healed yet."

Despite every joint of his body protesting in the process, Katsuki managed to stand. His head felt woozy, but his grip on the gun remained steady.

"I'm fine," he said.

Uraraka carefully stood up, keeping her hands visible. "You busted your head hard. The control panel of your ship had a decent dent on it." She paused. Her eyes flickered to the gun for a second, seemingly contemplating over her next words. "From what I managed to see in the smoke."

"Smoke?"

"Fortunately, the cooling system put the fire under control before anything exploded."

"Exploded?!"

Uraraka pointed somewhere behind him. Katsuki looked over his shoulder. His spacecraft lay like the carcass of a sea creature washed-up on an Earth's shore. The flames barely cast a light on it, but the charred front of the ‘beak' was visible.

Katsuki glared back at her, rage beating in his veins. "My ship."  

"What about mine?" After thrusting her knife back to her boot, Uraraka placed her fists on her waist. "The remains are still floating up there."

"Not my fault you can't fly straight to save your life. No wonder they kicked you out."

She gasped. "I saved you and that's all you have to say?!"

"It’s your fault I was about to die in the first place. That doesn't make us even."

"Ugh… You're impossible!" Uraraka marched past him and scooped up the thing Katsuki's head had been resting. Flapping her jacket like freshly washed laundry, she put it on and stomped back to the fire.

"What do you think you're doing?" Katsuki asked.

"Leaving." Uraraka picked up a box from the ground. "I've had enough. Find someone else to blame for your shortcomings."

"Don't go playing the victim," he said. "Traitor."

"You don't know anything," she said. Her eyes were rimmed with tears when she looked up again.

The sight unnerved him, but his expression didn't falter. "I know enough to not wanna see your face ever again."

"Fine! Rot in your misery for all I care."

"Don't threaten me, you third-rate pilot!"  

Uraraka held her head high, not bothering to give him another reply. She walked away until the darkness around them swallowed her form.

The minutes came and passed, but she didn't come back. All the rage and adrenaline Katsuki felt evaporated from his body, leaving behind a hollow husk that ached everywhere. He holstered the gun.

The waning moon rose from behind a rock complex on his right, shedding light into the hollow he had landed. Lanky trees grew out of the harsh ground behind the Peregrine, which was revealed in all of its destroyed glory. Scratches and bents marred the ship's golden surface; some of the hull's guiding panels were gone, exposing the mechanism underneath. The right wing was tilted in a weird angle too. Katsuki climbed on the ‘beak'. His muscles screamed in protest, but he balanced on the smooth surface without fail. Inside the broken windscreen, the cockpit was a mess of melted polymer. Sparks flew when Katsuki probed the control panel with his foot.  

It could be worse, he thought.

The main engine was located in the middle of the ship, so it should have been out of harm's way. If it was still operational, at least he would have a slightly bigger chance of getting off this planet. But a closer inspection could wait.

Exhaustion dropped on his shoulders like a heavy blanket. Katsuki grabbed one of the windscreen's exposed bars, ready to slide down. But he caught sight of his reflection on the remaining glass. A rectangle shape was shimmering on his forehead. He leaned closer and poked the edges of it. Pain stung him like millions of needles.

"You busted your head hard."

Apparently, Uraraka had patched up his wounds along with getting him out of the ship. And what Katsuki had done in return? Called her names, demeaned her and stole her gun. He didn't like owning people, especially someone who had seen him vulnerable like this. Still, he didn't know where all this anger had come from. Was it because she was with the Alliance or because she had disappeared without even a goodbye? Words had always come out wrong when Uraraka was involved even in their Academy days. Whenever she was around, Katsuki would get this restless energy he didn't know how to handle. As if she lightened up a fuse inside him and if he didn't release it in some way, he would explode.

He dropped his hand. Next to the fire, his cracked helmet stood glinting like a lonely star.

[technoskittles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Rating: G

Pairing: Kacchako

Summary: But I don't want to imagine; Words you spoke to her that night; Naked bodies like porcelain; You both knew I'd be bleeding inside.

//

It's when the impossible happens that things are really twisted into perspective.

Like what ya see? Why not help a broke college girl out?

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[puppycatales]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Day 1 for @kacchakobittersweetweek, Pining. Sorry its a bit late.