The Shadows I Hide

Chapter 26: Tranquility

Ochako felt as though she were being turned inside out. She was both hot and cold at the same time. Ochako closed her eyes to try and keep the growing feeling of nausea at bay. Then all at once, the sensations vanished and then she and Izuku were tumbling across the ground before they hit a wall and stopped. Ochako opened her eyes a crack and looked around. They were inside, the room was very dark, although she could still make out some details. It looked like they were in some kind of office building; cubicles filled the room in organized patterns. She then noticed that Izuku's breathing seemed a bit strained.

"Are you okay Deku?" she asked.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine," he said, taking deep breaths between each sentence. "I'm just tired," At that point, Izuku noticed he was still holding onto Ochako and let go. "You can move around now. I'm pretty sure we're safe," Reluctantly Ochako got up, somewhat upset about him letting go. She knew that she should look around though, just to make sure they really would be safe here. She wandered between the cubicles peeking into each one as she did so. There was nothing remarkable about any of them, just typical office desks. Reaching the end of the room she gazed outside the window. They were fairly high up, at least twenty stories. Ochako shuddered involuntarily looking at the height. The fall from the previous building had been terrifying. When she had been dropped she had tried to use her quirk, but nothing had happened. She tried again, once again to no avail. She sighed, bringing her hands back to her side. She couldn't let Deku see how upset and scared she was about this. He'd gone through much worse, so she didn't have the right to complain now.

The pain Izuku had been feeling was fading now. The fact that he was actually feeling pain right now could only mean one thing. He checked to make a sure, and sure enough, his wings, his tail, and his horns were all gone. He was back to looking exactly like a human. Of course, looks could be deceiving. Izuku got up into a sitting position, wincing as he did so.

"Deku, you're back to normal," Said the brunette who had just returned from her little exploration.

"I'm not really sure if this is even supposed to be the normal me anymore. But yeah, I've lost the demon features,"

"So what was with those wings and that tail huh? You couldn't do that before could you?" she asked, sitting cross-legged next to Izuku. For a moment Izuku looked hesitant. "You really don't have to tell me if you don't want to!" said Ochako hastily," Izuku shook his head.

"No, it's fine. Over the past few days, my demon form has been happening more and more, in addition to that, it seemed to be getting more complete if that makes sense. The wings and tails began to show up a couple of days ago. It was a real pain to be honest because they kept tearing my clothes. Kind of like the one I'm wearing right now," he said pointing his thumb towards his back. Ochako looked over curiously to see two long tears down his shirt. "Needless to say I was terrified of the implications of the wings and tail. But that's the first feature I'm actually glad to have had,"

"And what about that last thing you did? How did you bring us here I mean?"

"That part was another ability I discovered the day those bastards attacked the school. It's also what a couple of them used to get the jump on us back at the building I was hiding at. It's some kind of shadow leap. Meaning that by entering into a shadow I can travel instantly to any other place with a shadow within a certain radius of myself. As you can probably guess we get a lot of teleportation options at night. Because of that, I'm pretty sure we'll be safe here until morning. My jump range is somewhat small, but even with that, I could have gone any number of places. You should try and get some sleep while you can," Ochako nodded.

"You aren't going to try and sleep?" she asked, picking a spot not too far from Izuku to hunker down at. Izuku shook his head in response.

"I'll keep watch for now at least. I want to make sure nothing sneaks up on us,"

"Okay, but don't push yourself too much, okay?" Izuku nodded.

As Ochako laid herself on the roughly carpeted floor she tried to make herself comfortable with only partial success. It wasn't great, but she felt she could fall asleep eventually. Soon though she began to face a different problem. When she went out to find Izuku she hadn't been planning on being gone for very long and so she had only brought a light sweater. Now though as the night dragged on and inside this rather poorly insulated building she was beginning to freeze. She pulled her sweater tighter to herself in an effort to keep the cold at bay. She didn't want to bother Izuku, he had enough to deal with at the moment as it was, and besides he wasn't complaining about the cold and he didn't even have a sweater. Her condition didn't go unnoticed, however.

"Uraraka, are you feeling cold?" asked Izuku, scooting closer to her.

"No, no. I'm completely fine. Don't worry about me," Izuku grabbed her hand.

"Your hand is freezing, you definitely shouldn't go on like this,"

"I'll be fine, you don't even have a sweater and you don't seem cold at all," Izuku shook his head.

"That's for a completely unrelated reason, and I was an idiot for thinking you were fine from the beginning. I didn't consider how cold it actually was," Izuku looked around for a moment. Whatever he was searching for he didn't seem to find which seemed to be making him more and more uncomfortable. He gave the room one last look before turning back to Ochako. "Okay, so I have a way to try and keep you warm, and unfortunately there are no alternatives," he couldn't seem to maintain eye contact as he said this. "It would be using my body heat, pretty much,"

"Oh," said Uraraka, suddenly feeling rather flustered around him.

"It's totally fine if you don't want to by the way," he said hastily. I can keep looking for a different way if you want me to,"

"No, no it's fine," she said. "I don't want to run you around any more than you need to,"

"Okay," he said. Izuku sat down near her leaning against the wall before he was even ready though Ochako was sitting on his lap and was leaning against his chest. He was blushing furiously from the sudden contact.

"Hey Deku, are you sure this will help? You feel rather cold yourself,"

"Give me a minute," he said. "It's sort of an ability that came with the fire breath. I can pretty much heat up my body temperature as I see fit. I've just been keeping it internal until now. I'll change that," Ochako looked up at him to see that he had closed his eyes. Izuku began to take deep breaths in and out. She could feel his chest beneath her rise and fall with each one. She could also feel his heartbeat; should it be beating that fast? It was strangely relaxing, and then she began to notice that warmth. With every exhale Izuku took she could feel his body warming up bit by bit. Ochako smiled and wrapped her arms around his chest.

"Uhhhh, Uraraka? What are you doing?" asked Izuku.

"I missed you, dummy," she said, closing her eyes. Hugged her back, holding her against him.

"I missed you too," Ochako smiled one more time and let sleep envelop her.