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Considering how many of her bridesmaids it had taken to put the dress on (all of them), how many buttons the back had (about a dozen) and how cumbersome it had been to wear (it was heavy), Ochako slipped out of her wedding dress surprisingly easily.
There was a silk covered hanger already prepared for her – sitting on a high hook on the wall of the honeymoon suite – so Ochako gave a fond smile to the dress in her arms, removed the gravity from the many layers of heavy ruffles and lace, and effortlessly lifted the dress onto its hook. The train of the skirt draped down and spilled onto the floor, even with it hanging so high, leaving a pool of once-white satin on the plush carpet at her feet. She giggled at the various stains on it. There was a layer of dirt and dust, from the photoshoot they’d had in the gardens (but by then she was already Mrs Midoriya and couldn’t have cared less); there was a smear of pink jam, from when she’d accidentally dropped a slice of cake onto it at the end of the night (Mina had drunkenly picked it up and eaten it anyway); and a dusty brown perfect replica of the tread of Izuku’s boots, from where he’d accidentally stood on it while they’d been having their first dance. There was even a tiny tear in the stitching, though that had been her own mistake, from when all of her bridesmaids had painstakingly carried it together as they walked her, one careful step at a time, up the staircase from their dressing rooms before the ceremony. Then when she got to the top, breathing a sigh of relief nobody had fallen over, she’d accidentally stepped on her own train with her heel as they set it down. (Only then did they notice the elevator that they could have taken instead and burst into laughter.)
Ochako placed her hands on her bare hips and sighed with contentment. She felt like she’d placed the very essence of this day inside her heart and it was something that she’d hold close and treasure for the rest of her life.
For the rest of their life. Together.
Now reduced to wearing nothing but her lacy bra and underwear (that she’d finally been able to wear after keeping it in her ‘wedding drawer’ for six months) and the shining wedding ring on her finger (that now felt like the heaviest thing she had ever worn) Ochako realised the sounds of running water were suspiciously absent. She padded to the bathroom and poked her head around the doorway.
“Izuku? Did the bath finish- hey! I can’t believe you got in without me!”
Izuku startled with a splash and whipped his head around to face her. “I was just testing the temperature and then I… uh… wow.”
Ochako felt her cheeks warm under his wide-eyed gaze. Even after all this time, when he looked at her like that, she couldn’t stop the bashful blush that bloomed into her face. But she was no longer the love-struck teenager that would hide away from just the very thought that he could ever look at her with any of the love she so desperately felt for him. She unclipped her bra with a playful pout as she placed it beside the sink.
“Well ‘checking the temperature’ looks a whole lot like you just taking a bath without me,” Ochako said.
“They were, um, very thorough temperature checks?” Izuku added with a chuckle.
“Mm-hm.”
“The good news is that the temperature is perfect, and the bubble-to-water ratio has been expertly judged. Thorough checks complete.”
“Well, I know I can always count on Deku to fight villains and make the best baths in Japan. Hey, wait…” Ochako gasped. “You just wanted all the bubbles to yourself, didn’t you?”
Izuku looked comically sheepish and scratched the back of his neck. Rivulets of water ran down his muscular arm. “You got me, Mrs Midoriya.”
A thrill went through Ochako to hear him call her that. It was like all her teenage fantasies coming true. She had vivid recollections of doodling ‘Mrs Midoriya’ in the margin of a textbook while she was daydreaming one day in class – and then ripping it to shreds that night, chest heaving, tears in her eyes, feeling utterly foolish.
Izuku knelt up in their great bathtub, making water splash around him musically in the large bathroom, and opened his arms wide as an invitation for her. She went straight to him and he wrapped his arms around her middle, bending his head to place a tender kiss to the soft skin below her navel.
They’d interestedly checked out the honeymoon suite while they’d been looking for wedding venues with a hotel attached, and both had agreed that no matter how tired they were after the reception, they were going to have a bath together. The bathroom was an almost obscenely large room, full of sparkling black tiles and a counter set with his-and-hers sinks. The bathtub itself was long and deep, to easily fit two people, and sat free-standing, on golden claw shaped feet.
Izuku’s arms were wet and Ochako shivered as water dripped from his skin to hers, but he was hot-water-warm, and both he and the bath smelt amazing. Her fingers carded through his messy hair as his hands slid from her back to her hips, his thumbs rubbing small circles on her skin as he placed another kiss a little lower than the first.
The tips of his ears were a little pink and she couldn’t help but find it endearing that he was always so quick to blush, no matter how long they’d been together.
Ochako reluctantly pulled away and threw Izuku a coy smile over her shoulder as she moved towards the large bathroom mirror and stepped out of her underwear on her way. “Just gotta take these hair pins out first anyway, and then I’ll be in.”
But whatever sexy effect she’d been going for was completely ruined when she very un-sexily pulled the first hair pin out of her elaborate hairstyle and winced with a hissed, “Ow.”
The front bangs had been left loose, as per her request to her stylist (her stylist meaning Tsu, who had regularly been putting a bow into her own hair using her hair for years) but the rest of it had been pulled back and pinned up with cute wisps poking out of the bun. Then it had been sprayed down with styling spray until it could withstand the winds of a hurricane and not a strand would have fallen out of place. Now she was suffering the consequences of that decision.
Ochako huffed at the pins as she stood in the mirror, having only successfully removed one, and wondered at what angle she should try to attack it. Hair versus Uravity.
The sound of shifting water behind her had Ochako’s eyes flick up to Izuku’s reflection in the mirror. His chin was sitting on his crossed arms, resting on the side of the tub. He was watching her intently. She deliberately stretched up to reach a pin at the very back of her head and felt her spine curving with the movement. Ochako felt his gaze burning heat into her back and let a smile tug at her lips. She was so distracted by him that she pulled on the hair pin without much regard to the sheer amount of product holding it in place and hissed out in pain again as it came free.
Izuku’s eyebrows immediately drew together in his reflection. “Can I help?”
“No- owch- it’s fine,” Ochako said, “enjoy the bubbles! I should’ve done this before we started the bath running.”
The splashing sounds intensified as Ochako noticed Izuku stand up in the reflection of the mirror and climb out of the tub. She turned around in soundless surprise, tilting her head with her unspoken question, but stopped short of asking if he was okay to just appreciate the sight of her husband (her husband) dripping wet and beautiful in the soft light of the bathroom. The lowlight caught on the puckered skin of scars – old and new – across his body and threw them out into an almost shiny contrast against the rest of him. But she loved every inch of that man, including his scars. She hardly had time to formulate the question of wondering what he was doing before he moved forward with a swiftness that made her wonder if he had activated his quirk without her realising, and swept her legs from beneath her to carry her bridal style (hey, irony) back to the bath.
“H-Hey!” She tried to sound indignant, but she was giggling so hard it carried none of the tone she had been going for.
Izuku stopped at the edge of the bathtub, carrying her in his strong arms like she weighed nothing at all, and grinned at her as he brought his face close to hers. He nuzzled his nose into hers and whispered, “Let me help,” so close to her that she felt the breath on her lips. Ochako smiled and pushed her head up to close the gap between them – the kiss was short, but soft and sweet.
“The tiles’re getting wet,” Ochako pointed out.
“Then we better get in.”
She took a moment to soak in the warmth of his chest against her bare skin – wondering if it was the product of the bath that made it feel like there was fire between them, or just the effect he always had on her.
“Lower away, captain!” Ochako eventually cheered, pleased to see the laugh it produced from Izuku.
He lowered her into the water, and Ochako wasn’t really surprised that he’d been right – the water was perfectly warm and bubbly, of course. She wanted to sink right into it. But only a heartbeat later Izuku climbed in after, settling himself behind her. The water barely rippled as he pulled himself into the curve of the tub and slid Ochako backwards between his legs. She desperately wanted to lie back against his chest and melt into his touch and the wonderfully perfumed and relaxing water.
But she needed these hair pins out.
It got harder to hold on to her reasoning for not leaning back into his arms when Izuku’s fingers were gently – so incredibly gently – teasing the hair out of its elaborate style and fluttering over the sensitive, soft skin at the back of her neck. Every pin he removed he let drop over the side of the bath.
Plink.
And then he’d press his lips between her shoulder blades.
Plink.
Kiss.
Plink.
Kiss.
She shivered, despite the warmth.
As her hair finally began to unravel from her head, Izuku massaged the blunt ends of his fingertips against her scalp. She sighed at the sensation. She’d grown her hair specifically for the wedding, so she could have it up without using extensions, and she was proud of how long it had gotten. By the time she’d been wearing her wedding dress she’d barely recognised herself in the mirror. Her friends had started crying and she’d begged them not to because she couldn’t afford to cry and smudge her makeup just before the ceremony, which had only made them all laugh instead. Wet hiccupped laughter. It had gotten even worse when she’d shown them her bouquet – how she’d picked a flower that reminded her of each of them so she would be carrying them all down the aisle with her. She hadn’t been able to escape the inevitable tears that had produced amongst them all, clinging to each other in a messy group hug that left Momo half-heartedly scolding her about her makeup while she fixed it afterward.
Izuku swept her hair aside once it was fully free, to place another gentle kiss on her back, and then she was finally able to lean against him. The water swished with how fast she pushed herself backwards, making him laugh again. He wrapped both of his arms around her and she held his hands over her chest with her own, sliding their fingers together as she nestled into his embrace.
It turned out that getting married was the most fun she’d ever had, but it had left her wearier than she’d ever been. She was bone tired. Full of nerves that morning, then elated to finally be married, endlessly mingling with the guests, eating all that amazing food, the speeches that had made her cry again, stuffing her face full of cake, and finally dancing until her feet were burning.
It had been a whirlwind, but she’d never laughed so much or smiled so widely.
Izuku’s chest was firm under her back and she was pressed so tightly against him she could feel it moving slightly with each breath he took. The water was warm and bubbly, scented like something floral and relaxing, and steam swirled into the softly lit room like a painting come to life.
The perfect place to end their wedding day.
“Can we stay like this forever?” Ochako asked with another contented sigh.
“Gladly,” Izuku whispered into her hair. “Except…”
“Hm?”
“Will you still love me when my skin’s gone all wrinkly from the water and I look like a prune?”
“Of course! Only because I’ll be all wrinkly too and we’ll match.”
Izuku laughed and breathed in deeply behind her. “Thank you for marrying me,” he said.
Ochako looked down at the rings on their hands together. “I should be the one thanking you – I’m the dorky weirdo that had an embarrassingly huge crush on you since the entrance exam for UA.” She cringed at the memory of her terribly obvious teenage pining.
“You? A dorky weirdo? Hey, I can’t even remember if I got actual word-sized words out to you when we first met. I think I just awkwardly stuttered and rambled in surprise because the cutest girl I’d ever seen was talking to me and- actually, you were probably the first girl ever in general to talk to me. And I was already feeling like everything that was happening at the time was- well, it was so surreal,” he rambled, “and I do remember feeling like I couldn’t decide whether I was more surprised at the unreality of being at UA or the fact that this cute and friendly girl had smiled at me. I fell in love with her, like, immediately. Honestly, I think about the fact that you’ve seen me in that very first hero costume I wore and somehow you still married me, and I just thank whatever lucky star that’s looking over me.”
Ochako snorted an undignified laugh. “Love you, Deku.”
“Love you too.”
Izuku suddenly untwined their hands and leant over the side of the bathtub, careful not to jostle her too much. When he straightened up, he had a box in his hand that he presented to her. “Thought you might want these as a bit of a well-past-midnight snack.”
Ochako opened the box to see the pink and green icing of some slices of their wedding cake inside. She beamed and twisted in the water to face him, then kissed him with so much enthusiasm that he nearly dropped the box.
“My hero!” she breathed between kisses, peppering them on the corners of his smiling mouth and the edges of his strong jawline.
They settled down again and somehow, the cake tasted even better when they shared it.
(Ochako was distantly aware that eating cake with so much sugar in it wasn’t particularly good so late at night.)
(But it’s not like she was planning on sleeping much anyway.)