A/N: Hey, guys. Here it is. The final chapter. Honestly, for this one, most of the notes will be at the end, so read more there! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
~+~+~
"I don't understand," Ashido started, continuing on into her room and plopping down on her pink and black bed sheets. Tsuyu crept through the doorway, sat down in the swivel chair next to the coffee table. "I thought their feelings were mutual."
Tsuyu leapt down, pulled at the loose stitching of Ashido's carpet. She curled her toes and pretzeled her legs as she maneuvered into a comfortable position on the floor. "Ochako's feelings for Midoriya?"
Frankly, Ashido hadn't specified why she wanted Tsuyu here in the first place. Come to my room, her unanticipated texts had read, I want to talk to you. Tsuyu—calm, cool, and collected—just played along. She had a feeling she would be barraged with questions like these, questions about Ochako's circumstances, especially only a day after she'd stunned all of her classmates with her Hanahaki revelation and had been wheeled off to the hospital. She wasn't unnerved in the slightest to discover she had surmised a perfect guess.
Ashido threw her hands in the air. "Yeah! Did they seriously not have a thing for each other, or am I just blind? I usually have an eye for these things!"
Tsuyu stared at Ashido's button nose, and then up into her eyes. They weren't close friends, so she wasn't at all surprised by the slight disconnect that held between their gazes. Tsuyu cleared her throat. "Midoriya is nervous around all girls, ribbit."
Ashido didn't look any longer, instead turning to glance idly out the window. She rested her head in her hands, fluttered her eyelashes. "I just thought, with their mutual respect for each other and Ochako's pining, it'd be enough to form love. And I thought Midoriya definitely felt the same way. He must have felt something, at least!"
Tsuyu stood up, stared across the room and spaced out. Her black eyes held their gaze even as her awareness came to. "He probably did feel something, ribbit."
Ashido spun her neck around. "Huh?"
Tsuyu strolled toward the window. She sighed, reluctant to enlighten the disoriented girl sitting before her, and instead separated the curtains farther apart, letting more light in. She looked out at the daytime scenery and then back at Ashido, her deep pink lips parted slightly. "To put it simply, I think Midoriya would've fallen for her eventually," Tsuyu stated, eyes becoming increasingly more forlorn. Her breath hitched in the back of her throat as she managed to say this next part. "But then, out of nowhere, the weight of school and the workload and Ochako's fate was resting on his shoulders. What do you think that'd do to a person?"
"Probably.. tear them apart from the inside out? Bring about internal conflict?" Ashido asked.
"Yup. A war inside their own head, ribbit. And then, suddenly, he was overcomplicating things, searching for something that wasn't supposed to be looked for, and that, right there, was when he lost."
Ashido put a finger to her chin. "Hm..." She scrutinized the more intricate details of Tsuyu's lecture. "Ah, I see! But... you said, even if only slightly, Midoriya might have been developing feelings for her, right? So why didn't that stop the Hanahaki?"
Tsuyu knotted her hands behind her back, closed her eyes. She opened them again, stared out the window. The hills were rolling outside, trees blocking her view. Barely being able to look up at the sky, she blessed herself for the miniscule part she could see beyond the clouds, her sight bestowed upon heaven. "Quite simple, really: Midoriya was only dipping his feet into the water, then, testing out the temperature, when it had already become too late. Ochako was suffocating, drowning in the deep blue sea."
~+~
Izuku exhaled, patted his chest. He had promised himself: today was the day he was going to visit Ochako.
It was a week after she had gone to the hospital. She would be back tomorrow, and sadly, the surgical wing didn't condone visitors outside of family members until Ochako had been deemed safe and healthy enough to come into human contact, which had luckily occurred sometime yesterday morning. The only one who managed to make it was Tsuyu, and that was only because she skipped a period of class and after-school training.
Izuku wasn't sure what to expect. Was Ochako a blank slate, or would she at least know the basics of their friendship? Maybe her memories hadn't been erased at all.
Izuku sighed, continued doing the dishes. A majority of Class 1-A was in the living room, their laughter rippling through his ears. A hand fell upon his shoulder, and startled by the sudden sensation, he jumped.
Izuku turned around. "Ah! Tsuyu!" he started. "Uh, what're you doing here?"
She tapped a finger to her cheek, rested her head on it. "Just wanted to check in, ribbit." She gave him a blank look. "I'm assuming you're planning on visiting Ochako, yes?"
Izuku sighed. The limited background noise allowed him to hear the still-running water, his instinct telling him to twist the tap around and shut it off. He did, conservation in mind, and then turned back to Tsuyu. So this was what she wanted to talk about. "Um, yeah. I was thinking maybe today, if she wasn't busy, I mean."
"She's not, ribbit," Tsuyu said matter-of-factly. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind you popping in."
"Awesome! I miss her being here."
"Me too." Tsuyu dried off one of the plates for him with the washcloth on the rim of the sink. "But more importantly, I'd like to ask how you're doing, Midoriya."
"Me?" Izuku scratched his cheek. "Oh, you don't need to worry about me. I'm actually doing quite fine. I feel a little guilty about it—you know, the whole Ochako thing—but I finally feel like I can relax."
"Don't feel guilty, ribbit," Tsuyu said, setting the plate in one of the dish racks off to the side. "You were dealing with a lot. Any sane person would be bogged down by it all. I'm guessing your chest feels lighter, right?"
Izuku lifted his lips a bit. Tsuyu's words were his remedy, that last little load of black mass building up in his body finally spreading its wings and flying away, taking off into oblivion. If he wanted to, he could've taken a big gulp of fresh air right then and there, refilled his lungs.
Izuku breathed, braced himself. His fists clenched by his side. "Yeah. It does. And, uh, Tsu? I-I wanted to ask. You visited her yesterday, right? How was she? Ochako, I mean?"
Tsuyu's pupils shrunk ever so slightly in size. She opened her mouth and then closed it again, assumedly trying to find the right words. "Happy, actually. Like she was doing okay. Obviously not the same as she's always been, of course, but I don't think she minds, or even notices, really."
Tsuyu dug into the cabinet for a snack. She pulled out a cup of Jell-O, licking her lips. Izuku's heart hiccuped. "What do you mean by that?"
Tsuyu turned to him, opening a drawer and grabbing a spoon. She looked down at the floor, and even as Izuku bent his neck a little to see her, she refused to meet his eyes. "You'll find out, ribbit. When you visit her you'll know what I mean. Just... don't be surprised when you get there, okay?"
Izuku nodded, watched as she walked away. His gut lurched uncomfortably, and unable to say anything else, he just stood there and kneaded his eyebrows.