Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The month before the beginning of term marked a turning point for all three girls. Paperwork, final and makeup exams, court appearances, paperwork, apartment hunting, graduations, packing, moving, not to mention piles of paperwork.

Himiko held the results of one such pile in her hands as she swayed slightly with the movement of the train. She stared at it as if it was a lifeline. Her eyes never strayed, almost fearful that it would disappear the moment it left her sight. The Despised Female Child 卑身子 that had hung around her neck like a millstone, weighing her down and choking the life out of her, was gone through the selfless kindness of one beautiful young woman who happened to find the girl beneath the mask and reach out a hand. Her vision grew blurry and Izumi held her as she buried her face into her new ID and sobbed, free of the last of her parents' influence.

The tears ran out as they arrived at the station, back home at the Midoriya’s. She reverently placed her ID in a place of pride on the bedside table. She returned to her tasks with renewed vigor, though she looked occasionally at the plastic card propped against the lamp.

The photo of the Beautiful Crimson Flower 緋美花 proudly smiled out to the world, fangs on full display.

They had moved into their new home almost before they knew it. Living with Izumi was wonderful , and they quickly established a routine of prepping for UA, where their workout clothes were more than a little mutually distracting , phone calls with Ochako, yet more paperwork, and chores.

Himiko, though she had been forced to take cooking classes, wasn’t all that good at simple foods, and so had quickly been shunted to prep where her knife handling was on full display (and only occasionally terrified Izumi). Meanwhile Izumi was a disaster when it came to organization and cleaning, usually stopping in the middle to write something down in one of her mysterious and ever-present notebooks, often accompanied by a storm of muttering. Meaning that Himiko had taken over the lion’s share of cleaning (though there was something more fulfilling about it than there had been when she was doing it for the Toga’s). The routine was almost like being married comfortable. Lulled them into a lazy few days, until the phone call.

Ochako had been having an alright month, all things considered. Sure, she missed her new friends, making her acutely aware of how lonely she had been before meeting them, but she had reconnected with Yagi-shishou after the radio silence between the exam and getting her results. She smiled softly, remembering how proud he had looked as he had embraced her. Though this was tempered by the reminder of his… less than stellar advice on wrangling One For All. Her fingers twitched at remembered pain. Shaking her head, and marveling at how much lighter it was now, she continued unpacking her few kitchen items, stepping back with a satisfied sigh as she surveyed her new domain, humble though it may be.

...Now what?

She frowned, nose wrinkled and brows furrowed, hand holding her chin in an L shape. She’d already eaten for the day, and she’d just finished unpacking. Her eyes lit up as her face opened, a light-bulb flashing into existence in her mind as she snapped her fingers. She could call her crushes friends. See if they also were finished unpacking, or if they needed help! Reaching into her purse she pulled out her (new) phone, it’s bright yellow colour (the only reason she was able to talk Yagi-shishou down from the most expensive smartphone on the market) always managed to make her smile. The bottom snapped out, giving it an appearance not too dissimilar from a banana as she hit the speed dial.

Izumi severely questioned her decision making at times. It seemed like such a good idea at first; Himiko needed to go to UA for a physical, and Ochako had called to hang out. Why not combine them? That was before she realized that it meant an hour or so of her, on her own, with one of the most adorable girls she’d ever met.

Things had started well enough. Izumi had decided to wear a simple purple maxi skirt decorated with lavender flowers along the hem and a simple green hoodie. Walking to meet Ochako at the station with Himiko, who seemed determined to keep her legs unencumbered and was wearing a much shorter skirt and stockings paired with a dark brown coat and red scarf, had been nice, even if she had to endure Himiko teasing her about her blush, and even if the blush was made worse by Himiko grabbing her hand like a girlfriend to pull her along.

That all changed when they spotted Ochako at the station. Izumi and Himiko had been unable to speak for a moment. (Izumi for far longer than Himiko, it must be said)

Seeing her outside of a school uniform or workout clothes was certainly an eye opening experience. She wore a long black skirt, presumably to ward off the cold, decorated with pixelated purple flames along the hem, heavy dark boots with many straps, a very worn, black hoodie with The Star Tarot card on the front and a pair of pins Izumi thought looked familiar. Two rectangles of five bars, one with blue, pink, and white in a bilaterally symmetrical pattern and another with dark orange, light orange, white, pink, and rose. In hands clad in artist’s gloves she carried a dark parasol that would have been more appropriate for the height of summer, and wore striking black eye makeup and blood red lipstick that nearly had Himiko biting her own. Most shocking of all, however, would have to be her new haircut. She still had the twin locks framing her face, but the rest was all new. A very flattering undercut leaving longer hair atop her scalp and pulled back into a short ponytail; when she saw them and her whole face lit up with her smile, both girls were convinced they were about to go blind.

Upon recovering, Himiko had been the one to ask about the new haircut. (Izumi was still a stuttering flushing mess and had barely squeaked out a hello)

“Well you see,” Ochako had explained, bashfully rubbing the back of her head just under the small ponytail. Her parasol twirled in a nervous habit and perpetually rosy cheeks darkened as she looked bashfully to the side. “I figured that, since we’re going to be heroes now, that I should shorten it to keep villains from grabbing it.” under her breath she had added, “besides I’ve always wanted a lesbian haircut.”

Izumi, upon recovering more, awkwardly stuttered out compliments at a rapid pace. Himiko giggled, and grabbed both their hands (which made Ochako blush nearly as hard as Izumi) and dragged them both to the train, egging on Izumi and giving her own stream of compliments on the gravity girl’s new look. They split up at the gates of UA, Himiko blew a kiss and waved as she left, which left both girls looking like they could have steam coming out of their ears.

Izumi blushed as she snuck another glance at her friend. It was almost unfair how adorable Uraraka-san was, especially with her new haircut.

Brunch had been awkward at first, with both still getting over Himiko’s flirting teasing, but soon conversation resumed as they sipped their drinks. Both had tea; barley for Ochako, iced chai for Izumi, and snacks. Izumi was a little worried at the way Uraraka-san was picking at her croissant… maybe she had just had a big breakfast, though?

“Ah mean Thirteen is great, don’ get me wrong.” Izumi was gesticulating wildly with an eclair. “But Ahll Might is the best, he’s… Ahll Might.”

Ochako giggled slightly, studiously ignoring how cute the other girl was when she was impassioned. “Yeah, All Might sure is… something alright.” She made sure not to bring up the time he almost got arrested when he had had her doing swimming training, and decided to hide behind some rocks to ‘avoid drawing attention’.

Ochako’s barely hidden smirk softened into a small smile, her gaze turning wistful. “It’s just that… while I think it’s totally cool the things he does, I’ve just always admired the heroes who are out there rescuing people over taking out villains. The way people would smile when they realized that they were safe. I’ve always wanted to make people smile like that.”

Izumi was lost in the moment, caught up in staring at the girl across from her, catching a glimpse of the Heroine she’d become. “...beautiful”

Ochako turned bright red as her head snapped to face the botanical heroine while she tried not to choke on thin air. “W-what did you jus-”

“Hey guys.” a surprisingly subdued voice interrupted before Izumi had to come up with some excuse. Never had Izumi been more thankful that she had met Toga Himiko than at that moment as she turned to face her.

“Hey Himiko, how-” Izumi took it back, the world seemed determined to make her die of internal hemorrhaging at this rate. Her face once more took on a colour more suited to road signs as she took in the changes to her first crush friend. She barely noticed Ochako’s own blush redoubling as her coughing fit got worse.

“So, I found out something at my examination...” Himiko sheepishly explained as she scratched at her neck.

Himiko severely questioned her decision making at times. It seemed like such a good idea at the time, Ochako had called to hang out, and she needed to go to UA for a physical. Why not combine them? That was before she realized that meant an hour or so of her, on her own, with one of the scariest women she’d ever met.

It had started well enough, some guy in a gas mask had met her at the gate and escorted her in. The trip to the infirmary had been uneventful (though there had been some worrying sounds of explosions in the distance). After being handed off to the little old nurse, who called herself Recovery Girl, she had then been subjected to the familiar (Apart from the abuse to her shins whenever she was a little rude) battery of tests familiar at least until the Toga’s had given up on her .

It was when the nurse started checking her eyes that things had gotten weird.

“Have you always had a tapetum lucidum?”

Himiko blinked at the seeming non sequitur. “Have I always had a what now?” She winced as her shins were once more abused by that cane.

“A tapetum lucidum. It’s a reflective layer behind the retina in many mammals, including cats, that improves night vision.”

Himiko blinked again. “Maybe? I could always see pretty well at night, but this is the first I’m hearing about this. Lucidum… thingy?”

Recovery Girl snorted at that and made a note in Himiko’s file. All whilst she muttered invectives under her breath about quack doctors and medical ethics. Himiko unconsciously leaned away from the increasingly blue air around the nurse. Just as she wondered if she should leave she was distracted by a sudden clamour in the hall. She jumped as two student’s burst through the door calling for Recovery Girl. Himiko watched them curiously as they started explaining what happened. However she quickly lost track of what they said, too distracted by what she saw, despite a voice that sounded like them in the back of her head telling her she was a monster for it. She couldn’t help but be entranced by the wounds both students had. One with a heavily bleeding head-wound supporting the other with a broken wrist. A number of lacerations between them as she quickly grew entranced by the sight of all that red. Then, her eyes widened as Recovery Girl worked quickly and efficiently, bandaging the less serious wounds before giving them a kiss each to deal with the wrist and head-wound.

To Himiko, this was like that thing that Izumi said the other day, Cooper Niko Revelation? Well, she wasn’t sure who Niko was or what she revealed, but Himiko knew one thing for certain. She looked up at the sound of a cane as Recovery Girl walked over, speaking just as she opened her mouth to resume the check up.

“I want to heal people like you do.” She couldn’t help beaming brightly, still a little flushed from all the cute wounds, fanged grin on full display. “Well, not exactly like you do, cause I don’t have a kissing Quirk, but I want to be a Hero who helps make people better.”

Recovery Girl smiled as well. “That’s wonderful dearie, I’ll be sure to talk to your homeroom teacher about field medic classes. First, however, we need to talk about getting you some glasses.”

“...what?”

Later several students swore to their friends that they had heard an angry cat in the infirmary when they walked by.

Izumi (and, she distantly registered, Ochako) were still gaping at their mutual crush friend, both lost to the adorable figure that was an embarrassed Himiko with her hair down, and her golden cat eyes framed by sanguine cat's eye glasses. Himiko, for her part, was growing more and more flustered by her crushes continuing to stare without speaking. Eventually the silence got to be too much for her to bear.

“I look awful don’t I? I tried to pick the cutest pair but-” She didn’t get very far into her self defacing statement before being interrupted.

“No y’ look great-” Izumi started to exclaim.

“You look so cute-” Ochako said at the same time.

Both girls turned to look at each other, before turning back to their crush friend.

“We were just shocked, is ahll” Explained Izumi.

“You really do look great in those.” Ochako said with a firm nod.

Himiko was now beaming. “Aw, thanks you guys, I really ap-”

“Besides,” continued Ochako obliviously, hand rubbing the back of her head as she blushed anew. “I’ll be wearing my own more now that we’re going to U.A. Contacts are a bad idea in the field after all.”

Izumi’s head whipped around as Himiko’s eyes widened, shocked by what Ochako had said.

“Y-you need glasses too?” There was a nervous cast to her voice, as if Himiko wasn’t sure that what she heard was true.

Ochako was blushing harder now, staring at the ground as her hand continued to move. “Yeah, my parents think it’s cause ah was reading too many books in poor lighting. ah didn’t turn on my bedroom light, see, to save m-” Ochako interrupted herself, eyes widening. “A-anyway, I used the light from the street lamp outside, and strained my eyes too much.” She forced a laugh, finally turning to face them again, a guilty expression on her face as she remembered that her attempts to save money and electricity had ended up costing more in the long run, what with the cost of eye exams and glasses.

“...oh my god y’ must look adorable.” Izumi slapped her hand over her mouth, a high pitched keening filling the cafe terrace as Himiko, feeling like she was in a tennis match, whipped her head around to stare at her, Ochako doing the same.

“Ah don’t suppose there’s any way y’ both could forget ah said that, right?” The other girls shook their heads slowly. “Didn’ think so.” Izumi sighed as her head hit the table with a thunk, as a crown of gardenia and red lilies bloomed around her head.