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

Chapter 24

A/N: Yall like REALLY FUCKING LONG CHAPTERS, right?

Exams began bright and early on Monday and Ochako was feeling pretty confident that she was prepared for them.

She caught a glimpse of Deku waiting for her at the breakfast table as she entered the common area and he waved her over.

Seeing him looking so casual and happy, oblivious to the maelstrom of guilt and heartbreak she suffered from, made her insides churn on many levels. She didn't know if she could handle this like she had thought she could. Just seeing him made her feel like running away, back up to her room and staying in bed all day.

If only that were an option...

Last night she had found that continuing to be affectionate with Deku hadn't been so easy, knowing that she wished it were someone else and it was her own fault that it wasn't. She had found reasons not to kiss him goodnight or hold his hand under the table.

The closer she came to the table now, the more her stomach and heart clenched.

She chickened out.

Grabbing a couple slices of toast, Ochako gave Deku the excuse of wanting to get to class early to go over that one thing in her studies she wasn't sure she had a grasp on yet and high-tailed it out the door before he had said much more than, "okay."

Having to sit next to a brooding Katsuki all day while trying to take her exams was something in the realm of torturous. It was confusing and discomforting because he didn't bother to ignore her. In fact, he did nothing to hide the glares he sent her way and the hostility between them. She almost felt like they were back at square one from the beginning of first term, minus his penchant for going out of his way to make her life more difficult.

But any time she glanced his way, he seemed to know it and he glared back with a look of annoyance. It was discomfiting and each time it happened felt like a new jab of guilt and hurt.

In the afternoon, when exams were over for the day, Deku wanted to walk her back to the dorms and she had no real way to avoid him then. So she agreed but also invited buffers like Mina and Toru.

The girls happily joined and chattered about nothing and everything for the walk back and up until dinner. It couldn't have worked out better if she had paid them to be distractions.

The next two days of academic exams went much the same. Ochako trying to dodge affection from Deku while having to endure venomous looks from Katsuki. He seemed to have noticed at some point that she'd been avoiding Deku in her own way but it still didn't change his attitude toward her.

She wished she could've talked to him again and explained or begged forgiveness or something, but exams were grueling and difficult enough to deal with on their own. There was no easy way to catch him before or after class and she was too much of a coward to visit his room at night again. She didn't know just how she'd be able to handle it if she tapped on the glass of his balcony door and he refused to answer.

So she held back and endured those next couple days until academic exams were over.

Then, the biggest, most important exam of their life was finally upon them.

Both classes 3-A and 3-B took a bus to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, the ride over being uncharacteristically subdued for the people who were riding. Ochako found for one of the first times in a long while that her nerves were roiling in her stomach because she was uneasy over how this exam would turn out. They had no clue what was in store for them, but if looking out over the seemingly endless amount of forest they were driving into was any indication, this could end up being on a massive scale.