Ochako knows she's only delaying the inevitable. Visiting hours are over and everyone else has gone home, she needs to head back and make herself some dinner. She just... can't bring herself to do it. She can't stand the idea of going home to an empty apartment after fighting for her life at what was supposed to be a fun and exciting training camp. Bakugou's still out there somewhere, no one knows if he's ok and even standing blankly in front of the hospital vending machine is better than sitting in her room alone with instant ramen.
Her friends are putting together some reckless and dangerous plan and she can't even bring herself to go back to the apartment that doesn't feel like home. She called her parents and they're great but she doesn't want to burden them and deep down she just wants a hug and to eat her Mom's cooking. She's so caught up in her thoughts she almost doesn't notice Aizawa-sensei approach.
He's carrying a cup of hospital coffee she's certain tastes awful and he looks exhausted but he looks her over and once satisfied she's physically ok nods in greeting.
"Uraraka. How are you holding up?"
Normally she might be able to put up a proper smile and reassure him, but she got stabbed not long ago and she's tired and homesick.
"I'll be ok, I just have to get home."
"Do you need a ride? Or are you going to take the train? It might be better if you can get a ride."
"I'll be alright, it's just a little lonely is all."
Ochako's not sure why she says it but she sees him noticeably still, she can tell he's trying to recall something so she elaborates.
"My parents live pretty far away and we couldn't uproot everything so I'm by myself, and it's totally fine it's just... sometimes..."
He looks her over again, narrowing his eyes and finally making intense eye contact. She's waiting for him to say something, maybe that she's being silly. She doesn't really think he'd say that now, she knows he cares but she is probably just being silly. She should be able to handle being alone. He finally breaks eye contact only to glare disdainfully at his coffee. She watches in mild horror as, with no warning at all, he knocks it back like a shot.
"absolutely not."
Still reeling, the sudden statement takes her by surprise.
"what?"
"absolutely not. give me your phone."
She hands it over without protest, not sure what's even happening anymore, watching as he takes it, clicks her parents' contact and walks off to a quieter corner of the waiting room.
what. is. happening.
She's staring off into space, contemplating her life when her phone in unceremoniously placed back in her hand. She idly notes that Aizawa-sensei has another cup of hospital coffee in his hands.
"I called your parents."
All she can do is nod numbly.
"The school isn't going to announce this for a few days but we're adding dorms to UA. We want to wait until Bakugou's back, and we will be getting him back. We'll be going around asking parental permission at some point. I can't send you back to your parents with the league still out there so they agreed and you're coming with me."
"huh?"
"I'm not your parents and I'm not much of a people person but I have cats, and a guest room, and a husband who will make sure you feel welcome. So you're staying with us until the dorms get built." Ochako blinks dumbly and watches as Aizawa-sensei sips at his coffee, glares daggers at it, and then starts chugging it again.
-
She's still in shock a while later standing behind her sensei and staring at the door of his apartment holding a bag of her stuff. She's a little curious about Aizawa-sensei's husband but he wouldn't say anything outside of a sighed "you'll see." Not to mention she'll finally have an answer to the Dekusquad's ongoing bet as to Aizawa-sensei's significant other, even if she can't tell them. There is no way she's losing to Todoroki of all people, two people wearing a cape and a capture weapon respectively does not count as solid evidence of a relationship. She doesn't care if the cape's red and so are Aizawa-sensei's eyes when he uses his quirk, that means nothing. She wouldn't mind losing just so long as it isn't to Todoroki.
She's snapped out of her thoughts by the door bursting open to reveal a weirdly familiar blonde man, huh, must be Aizawa-sensei's husband.
"SHOU! Welcome back! Where's the Little Listener?"
Huh, he sounds kinda familiar... and he called her... Oh, OH, that's Mic-sensei. Aizawa-sensei and Mic-sensei are married... Huh, she owes Tsu 500 yen. Well, on the bright side, at least it wasn't Snipe.
While she's busy mourning her lost yen Mic-sensei steps around to show her in. He excitedly rambles through an apartment tour and shows her the guest room. It's pretty standard as far as guest rooms go but the prospect of not being alone more than makes up for any plainness. Eventually he gets around to introducing her to their cats. Muffin is the friendliest tabby cat she's ever seen in her life and they take to each other immediately. Haruto is a very pretty old black cat who stares down at her from the top of one of the living room shelves like she's a particularly uninteresting bug, she's definitely going to convince him to like her.
After the tour they return to the kitchen where Aizawa-sensei has apparently been cooking. She takes a spot by the counter and watches. Yamada-san, as he asked to be called around the house, almost dances around him as he collects dishes for the table. They don't try to talk to her, which is nice, she needs a little time to process. Mic-sensei has always been really good at telling when someone isn't up for answering questions in class.
Being in her teacher's apartment is weird, she decides. Not in a bad way necessarily, just... strange. They both lose some tension she hadn't noticed before in the privacy of their home. Aizawa-sensei especially looks relaxed, still exhausted, but there isn't a sharpness to it. The need to be aware and alert in spite of his tiredness is almost entirely gone.
Dinner is simple, just some grilled fish, rice and a couple side dishes, but Ochako hasn't had homemade Japanese food in what feels like forever. It's nothing like her Mom's cooking but it's heaven compared to what she would have made on her own. It's making her a little emotional so she does her best to tune into the quiet conversion her teachers are having, nothing too heavy in spite of everything that's going on, and enjoy her food.
Her parents call before she goes to bed, making sure she's comfortable staying and is doing ok. She's honest and they seem a little relieved that she admitted to feeling lonely, they make sure to tell her they don't want her to carry things alone. She sleeps peacefully.
-
Aizawa-sensei isn't around much the next day, Yamada-san says he's busy and UA is going to hold a press conference. They decide to make mochi as a distraction from all the uncertainty around them. It takes a few hours and by the end of it they're a little sticky and the kitchen's a mess but it's done. It's the most pathetic mochi she's ever seen but it's theirs, they made it and she's proud of it! She wants to text a picture to the group chat but thinks better of it, her friends are worried and she doesn't want to come off as insensitive. She'll wait until Bakugou's back to show off her mochi making skills. She does check in to see how everyone's doing though, Ochako's not surprised when the response is rather lackluster.
Yamada-san seems to be stress cleaner, which is probably good considering the state of the kitchen. Together they clean most of the apartment, it's oddly relaxing and it helps distract from the ever increasing sense that something big is about to happen. Neither of them feel like cooking dinner so they order in. She can't help but feel apprehensive by the time the press conference comes.
It makes her angry to watch the press attack UA and Aizawa-sensei, not to mention Bakugou. She doesn't have too long to stew before breaking news alerts them to something big going down in Kamino. She watches with Yamada-san in trepidation as All Might battles a monster. She desperately hopes for his victory and is relieved that not only did All Might prevail, Bakugou is back and relatively uninjured.
Tension she didn't even know she was still holding releases at that. Yamada-san looks to be in the same boat, they're both wearing grins of desperate relief. Aizawa-sensei looks lighter at his return too, and her phone finally starts buzzing with notifications from her classmates again. Everything is going to be alright!
-
Aizawa-sensei and Mic-sensei help Ochako move into the dorms a few days later. She only stayed with them a week but it meant the world to her. Living together with her friends doesn't fix the bouts of homesickness, but it does help. And she really does love living with them.
It doesn't stop her from dropping in at the teachers' dorm sometimes though. After all, she hasn't convinced Haruto to let her within five feet of him yet, and Ochako is nothing if not determined! And she could never abandon Muffin like that, she's too good for this world.
Her friends watch in tense trepidation the first time she goes up to Aizawa-sensei before homeroom with a coffee from Mic-sensei and pats him on the head with four fingers. The whole room stills in fear as he snaps his eyes open, expecting instant consequences. Instead, he takes the coffee with a polite nod and a snapped "what are you all looking at?" directed at the gawkers. Her responding giggles only serve to make her classmates pale further.
Their confusion only escalates when she starts enthusiastically participating in English, much to Mic-sensei's obvious glee. Her grades get better too, he's been helping her practice while she fruitlessly attempts to bribe Haruto with treats.
Their confusion soon turns to fear as she quickly starts dominating their sparring sessions, both quirked and quirkless. None of them are able to handle the well placed taunts she starts throwing in with any amount of grace. If she had known bribing Yamada-san for Shinsou and Aizawa's training location and times would work so well she would have done it much earlier. She's gotten so much better even if she has picked up Shinsou's penchant for brutal mid-fight insults. It's a great strategy, it really throws people off when the bubbly girl with the gravity quirk lays down a verbal smackdown no newspaper would dare print. She can't wait for Shinsou to join the hero course, their battle of words during quirkless sparring is much more fun than Bakugou's standard "DIE."
She's pretty sure Todoroki has a running theory about her having been replaced by a secret evil twin after the training camp and she's heard a few rumors around school that the near death experiences finally got to her and she decided to live without fear. She's secretly enjoying the widespread bewilderment. Whenever anyone asks about it she likes to tilt her head and feign ignorance.
It isn't uncommon for her to stop by on the weekends she doesn't go home to join Yamada-san in making more mochi, (they're getting good at it!) or to eat some of Aizawa-sensei's surprisingly lovely Japanese food. Sometimes Yamada-san and Ochako try making a fancy new pastry or dessert, with mixed results. Sometimes Aizawa-sensei lets her help with dinner. Sometimes she stops by just to get away for a little bit. They accept her presence like she's always been there every time. She still misses her parents but now she has a huge loving family of classmates and teachers watching her back and Ochako wouldn't trade that for the world.