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Uraraka Ochako was used to a comfortable, and unostentatious life. While she had wanted for little, she rarely if ever needed anything. She supposed that very little had changed since earlier that day, except that at the same time, everything was different, and she wasn’t really sure how she felt about it.
It started like any other day, with a light breakfast of an egg and rice and running to school (it was good training!), a full day of classes and hero training, a delicious lunch in the cafeteria and a lovely trip to the ice cream parlour after school with her friends. Well… mostly she and Tsuyu had been following Midoriya and Todoroki, because apparently today Midoriya was going to confess, but he seemed to have wussed out in the end again.
When she had arrived home she had heated up her leftover rice from the morning and added the last of her vegetables to the mix with some sauces and her last egg, and came out with a rather delicious fried rice if she said so herself. Then she sat down at the table and picked up her phone, deciding to ring her parents while she ate to allow herself more time to study so she could get to bed earlier. Tomorrow would be the day her monthly allowance was put into her bank account so she had to be ready to make it to all the sales across town so she could afford to go to the movies with her friends later in the month.
Her parents didn't answer the phone.
>>Hey Mum and Dad, just letting you know that I am home and have eaten dinner, call me whenever, I’ll just be finishing off some homework.<<
Her phone pinged with a reply after she had washed her bowl and was collecting her books from her bag by the door.
>>Sorry sweetheart, will call ASAP some stuff is happening. Don’t stress! Mum.<<
Ochako laid out her books and began to do her homework. Waiting for the phone call. Maths and Physics out of the way, she began on her Hero History essay detailing the different rescue tactics employed by solo versus team heros. A surprisingly interesting topic, and although she knew her essay wouldn’t compare to Izuku’s she found herself writing on for four pages before she realised and quickly curtailed the essay, hopefully within the required word count guideline.
Stretching and glancing up at the clock above the sink, Ochako did a double take, it was almost ten pm, and she still hadn’t heard from her parents.
She wandered the house, getting ready for bed. She showered quickly, but took her time drying her hair, the phone balanced on the sink in front of her, she brushed her teeth meticulously, idling over each tooth, and even flossing. She was in the process of rearranging her bathroom cabinet when the phone finally rang.
‘Mum, hi, how are you going?’
‘Good darling, look I’m so sorry that it took me so long to call you back, we’ve been on the phone all night and meeting with the lawyers and accountants all day, it's been a mess of everything here,’ her mother’s voice sounded tired, almost muffled as though she was on speaker phone as well.
‘Is everything alright? What happened?’
‘Oh, everything is good, better than before actually, look I haven’t got long to chat, and we can talk more about it tomorrow, but mostly I just wanted to let you know that your allowance will be going up this month.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Well, lots of reasons, but we have come into a fair bit of money today, so for the time being, until we can sort out exactly what is happening, we are planning to double your allowance, because I know it's been hard for you, Ochako, I can bet that you haven’t been out with your friends properly in weeks and that you haven’t used the heater once this winter!’
‘What, Mum, are you sure? You don’t have to worry about that, I mean, I'm kind of living the dream here too! I'm going to UA and training to be a hero, I’m really not missing out on anything.’
‘We wouldn’t be doing it if we couldn’t afford it, darling, so please, just relax tonight, we can talk more about it tomorrow, okay? It's very late. Are you going to be okay going to school? Should I call them in the morning and let them know you won’t be in?’
Ochako glanced up at the clock and was shocked that it now read 11:30. ‘Um, no mum, I have a test tomorrow that I can’t miss, I’ll be fine, but I’ll call you tomorrow.’
‘Good luck on the test, love you.’
‘Love you too, good night.’
The next day Ochako walked slowly to the classroom after opting to take the train with her last remaining coins. She had woken after snoozing her alarm four times, and was exhausted after a night of fitful sleep. She had even skipped breakfast because she ran out of time, and also hadn’t been able to visit the bank so she could withdraw money for her grocery shopping after school.
Cementoss’ test had either been to simple or she had missed it and failed completely, and by the time she made it to the cafeteria for lunch, she was getting quite a few odd looks from her classmates.
She super loaded her tray up, even snagging a second mochi at the end of the line and slotted herself in at her usual table between Tenya and Tsuyu and opposite Midoriya and Todoroki. As soon as she picked up her chopsticks, everyone was very pointedly looking at her, with the exception of Todoroki, who just glanced up in greeting.
‘What?’
‘You were almost late today,’ said Tenya.
‘You didn't even say hello to anyone,’ said Tsuyu.
‘You’ve been acting like a vegetable all day,’ offered Todoroki.
‘You don’t seem like yourself, more like,’ said Midoriya.
‘I just… didn't sleep well,’ Ochako said shoveling the gyudon down as quick as she dared. Between mouthfuls she added ‘I didn't get breakfast today.’
When no one looked away, she glared at them all in turn. ‘I’m fine, okay?’
Everyone left it at that and they all ate their lunch, the conversation returning to normal by the time Ochako started on her mochi.
Tsuyu and Ochako decided they would go grocery shopping together. She had to pick up some things for her family on the way home. They went to the bank first so that Ochako could withdraw money.
When she saw the amount in her account she was shocked. Her parents had sent her almost triple her usual allowance. She withdrew what she thought she would need and a little bit extra, so she could get herself a little treat. Maybe a new pen or a chocolate bar or an ice cream to share with Tsuyu.
As they walked to the store, ochako sent her mother a message.
>>Mum, are you sure this is okay? You and Dad sent me almost triple my usual allowance, was there a mistake? Should I send some back?<<
>>No darling, that money is definitely for you! You should buy some new clothes or something!<<
Ochako felt… unsure. What had happened so suddenly that her parents could send her so much extra money. She felt like she should keep it aside and just do what she would normally do, just in case. It felt wrong.
Tsuyu finished buying what she needed and waited outside the door for Ochako. She bought more meat than she usually would and found herself carrying a whole extra bag. At the front of the store were a few gashapon machines. One had cute frog charms inside and she found herself winding the machine up twice. One for her, one for Tsuyu.
As they walked home, Tsuyu asked three times if she was okay.
On the third time, Ochako relented.
‘I don’t know, I mean, my parents sent me, well, a lot of extra money this month, and like, that shouldn’t be a bad thing right?’ she rearranged her grip on the handles of the plastic bag, and slowed down her pace. They would have to part ways in a moment and Ochako really felt like she wanted to hold onto this moment of normalcy. ‘I’m sure that it’s nothing, I guess I just worry because I was meant to help my parents with money by becoming a hero, and well, if they don’t need that anymore… What is there to keep me on track?’
Ochako didn't realise there was so much behind what she had been thinking. In truth, she thought she was just uneasy because she felt like she had more to lose, but since she had actually talked about it, she realised that she had already lost something important.
Tsuyu didn't say anything for a while, and Ochako almost thought that maybe they would go their separate ways with her heart bared and left in the open.
‘All heroes come up against something that will change their perspective on why they do what they do, I think. If you ask me, I think you are lucky that you’ve come up against it now, instead of when you are already a hero in the thick of it.
‘I can’t figure it out for you, but I think that you have other reasons for becoming a hero, and you are already a great hero in my opinion. Thanks for the charm, I’ll see you tomorrow.’
Ochako washed the dishes after dinner and then sat down to call her parents. She wanted to know exactly why this had happened.
‘Hi little one,’ came her father’s voice, tonight they answered after only two rings, just like normal. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m okay.’
‘How did your test go today?’
‘Uh, well, I think I did okay, but I’ll have to wait ‘til I get my results back.’
‘Ah well, I’m sure you did fine, and if not, you’ll bounce back quickly.’
‘Yeah, how about you dad?’
‘Well, I’ve got to say, I’ve been better, but this week has actually gone very well for us.’
‘What happened?’
‘An accident happened at work the other day, and I broke my foot, but when I lodged a claim with workers’ accident compensation, they said that the company I work for hadn’t been paying their premiums or something, and they had dropped below the safety standard, so we got a little bit of money from them for the work I’ll miss due to the injury, but we were also paid out by the company to stop us from suing them over the unsafe work environment.’
Ochako was reeling. It was horrible that her father had gotten such a bad injury. And her head was struggling to keep up with the rest of the information.
‘It was actually quite a bit of money, even if I didn't work for the rest of the year I think we would be okay, and this company is under quite close scrutiny, now, so the safety of the work environment should improve very quickly. But just in case I pulled out my workers, until it's done.’
‘Ah, that’s… that’s great dad… wait, you have a broken foot!’
The next day, Ochako got up and ran to school like she normally did. All her friends commented on her new bag strap before lunch. That afternoon after the search and rescue drill, All Might told her she seemed more focussed and logical than he had seen her before. Tsuyu just smiled and winked at her. Midoriya complimented her on some new technique she didn't even realised she used.
At the end of the day, Ochako could still be a hero for the money, but money wasn’t the thing that defined her as a hero. She was excited for the future for the first time in a long time.