From the Ground Up: Kacchako

Chapter 40: Those who...

In case it wasn't obvious I own absolutely NONE of the fan arts that are in this, sorry for not saying it- you know, at the beginning hehe.

4 weeks later~
Ochako_
Ochako was in blissful sleep when a light flicked on.
She groaned and hid her face into the pillow as Katsuki's voice filled her ears.
"Come on, up. It's like the middle of the day."

She ignored him.
And when his hand grabbed for her shoulder, she wacked it away so fast there was a stinging sensation left in his fingers. He shook out the feeling from his hand and glared at her.
"What was that for?"
She groaned and turned away from him.
"Go away."
"Not even you, dearest, are allowed to sleep the day away. Get up, eat something."
She scoffed.
"Why?"
Katsuki felt his temper rising at her continuing attitude.
"Because we have somewhere to be."
Even though she was well awake now, Ochako kept her eyes closed as she snorted,
"We? What, does your 'second job' need me as a witness?"
He had half a mind to growl at her.
"No,"

He said tightly, reining in his temper and stretching his patience as far as it would go.
"There's been a...clue, kind of."
She turned over at that, and changed her tone from bratty to curios.
"A clue? What do you mean?"
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"It's hard to explain, but you need to be there. No one who's contacted me really knows what it means. They thought you might."
Ochako nodded slowly, and he gave her an encouraging smile before padding back into the kitchen.
She sat up with a yawn and rubbed at her side, her fingers sliding over the scars from where those tubes had been. Before she could let herself change her mind she got up to get dressed. 
~~~~~~~~~
All Ochako could hear was her boots crunching the gravel beneath her as she walked. She couldn't feel Katsuki's hand at the small of her back, couldn't feel the cold breeze as it touched her face.
It was sunset already, she couldn't believe it.
How did it get so late? I thought it was earlier...

They neared a crowd of policeman and paramedics, all flashing lights and murmuring voices.
A tick coppery tang from the air filled Ochako's nose, and thanks to all her years of hero work, she recognised the tang as the scent of blood.
And it was strong.
Upon seeing them, the police parted, revealing a horror scene dragged straight from Ochako's darkest memories.

Katsuki_
He should've known better than to bring her here. Should've seen this coming.
He should've done a lot of things, but all his regret couldn't change anything that happened now.
A young girl, probably about the age to be in her senior year, lay sprawled against a wall made of cement, just outside the entrance to an alleyway.
She was- very familiar.

Her school bag had a pop culture tag attached to a chain dangling from the zipper, it featured a chibi-version of the hero-duo that Katsuki and Ochako used to be. Ground Zero + Uravity.
The girl was dressed in a U.A costume...and she had short brown hair.
Her fingers had been glued to each other, a mockery of Ochako, and her mouth had been sewed into a large grin, black string roughly cutting through the tissue in her cheeks.
It made Katsuki's gut twist.

In big fat serial killer letters, the words 'Stop looking. She doesn't have to be the only one...' were written in deep red, and it still oozed down the wall as if it were fresh. They'd barely gotten in time. Ochako pulled Katsuki's attention away from the scene and to her as she fell and screamed.

Ochako_
A feeling that felt like too much and too little overtook her all at once. She lost her vision, she lost her sense of hearing and touch, she lost everything.
Her feet moved so fast backwards that she tripped over herself and went down, hard and fast.
She had to get away. She had to get away. She had to- she had- get away...

Katsuki_
Katsuki let out a groan as he hefted her into his arms and up, tucking her body close to his. With a glare, the people that had begun to crowd quickly backed away. He thought she'd have been able to handle it. She'd seemed to be doing so well lately... he was wrong. So utterly wrong.
"I'm sorry, Ochako. I shouldn't have- I'm sorry."
He knew she couldn't hear him.
He'd spend forever making up for this, spend forever feeling horrible about it. But right now all he wanted to do was get her home.
That, and hunt down the bastards that had terrorised her so badly.
~~~~~~~~~~
Shoto_
The Todoroki had a feeling that things at this table weren't awkward because he was there, but because he was replacing someone else that the inviting party had clearly been expecting.

For example, he'd knocked on the door, and granted it had flung open. But when the strong hand had clapped onto his shoulder and the older man before him had smiled widely, he'd yelled 'yuuto!' And not 'Todoroki!' 
The mother, at least, was kind enough to start conversation.
She set down her cup of tea and smiled warmly, but almost uncomfortably at him.
"Forgive us, Todoroki, I regret to say that we were expecting someone else."
He thought of responding with humour, perhaps in terms of 'oh? I hadn't known I was part of a throuple' but thought better of it.
"It's certainly okay, believe me, I was not sure what to expect either."
Momo pressed the sharp tip of her heel into the end of his expensive shoes, pinching his toes. He cleared his throat and sipped from his drink.
Momo's father nodded and gestured vaguely to Shoto.
"I assume Momo has informed you of our current situation?"
Shoto nodded curtly.
"The money problems?"

Both the older man and woman's faces went slack, almost horrified. This time Momo full-well slammed her heel into his shoe and it took everything in him not to yelp in pain.
"I'm only kidding, I promise! No, no, your lovely daughter has told me everything. I'm only sorry I didn't hear it from you yourself, Mr Yaoyorozu."
Momo's father let out a forced laugh and nodded a few times, going on to talk of the benefits available from joining two such families.
For some reason, the idea of marrying Momo didn't seem as hard of a decision that her father or mother made it out to be. He couldn't figure out why.

However Momo cut her parents off politely.
"Will you excuse us? There's a thread on the back of his collar that I need to fix."
The waved them off with a smile, and she practically dragged him by his ear.
Once they were in a different room, Momo released him and had to refrain herself from back-handing him across the face.