Hot-Headed (Now also a podfic on spotify!)

Chapter 17

The day of the Cultural Festival was finally here!

The walkway all along the campus was littered with stands selling food or offering prizes for playing games.

Class 3-A had set up their stand and were already hard at work selling candy apples to visitors.

After two years of festivals closed off from the public, this year UA was finally opening its gates to friends and family. This meant more customers and more exposure for the students.

Ochako's schedule she had set was running along smoothly.

She spent a lot of time running back and forth to get more items they needed for the stand, be it an ingredient they'd forgotten at the dorms or more change for customers. It was already shaping up to be an exhausting day for her.

When she returned to the stand with some more sticks to put apples on a little past noon, she was surprised to find Deku out from behind the stand where he'd spent most of the day up until now making the candy apples they were selling.

"Hey! What are you doing away from your post, young man?" she playfully scolded, coming to a stop in front of him.

He grinned at her. "I left the cooking to Sato for a little while. I know it's in good hands with him."

She nodded approvingly.

"I was hoping that maybe you'd like to look around the festival with me for a little bit?" he asked nervously, his hand rubbing at the back of his neck.

"Oh, but what about the booth?" she said apprehensively, looking over at her classmates a few feet away.

"We'll be fine for a little while!" Jiro reassured her, "Toss me those sticks and get out of here!"

She gave her a wink as she caught the sticks Ochako chucked at her.

"Okay!" Ochako agreed happily, placing a hand lightly on Deku's arm.

So they walked around campus for a while, checking out other class' stands and eating festival food. Deku was often approached by fans and admirers alike, some of which rather rudely ignored her.

Ochako tried to be understanding of his need to greet them and stood to the side. He would sign autographs for them but he would always cut off any extra interactions, saying he had someone he was walking around with. That earned her a good handful of dirty looks sometimes but she felt grateful when he did it.

They went to see a play that was put on by the third year support course featuring an epic steampunk adventure. Hatsume was, uncomfortably, the narrator for it, though, and she often went off script on tangents about "her babies" that were being used in the show. It was a failure of a production but Ochako still felt entertained.

All too soon, they were headed back to their stand to get back to work.

Suddenly, behind her, Ochako heard a familiar voice calling out to her.

"Ochako-chaaaan! My darling! That's my baby right there!"

Ochako ducked her head and hid her face in her hands as both of her parents came running up to her.

"Ochako!" her mother squealed, pulling her into a bear hug, "It's been so long since we've seen you! I've missed you so much! You never visit your poor, worried mother!"

Ochako screamed internally, her eyes opening wide and her face turning a hot pink color.

She coughed lightly as her mother let her go. "Uh, Mom, I've been a little busy with school and my work study and all. You know that. And I'm also a little busy now," she said, giving her mom a look and tilting her head toward the green-haired boy next to her.