Chapter Text
Life is fairly simple in Musutafu. At least when looking at it from the perspective of two young boys chasing a stub-tailed cat into a forest right after a rainstorm. The cat belonged to a neighbor and was quite friendly, but as of right now, she was avoiding the curious boys who chased after her with joyous giggles and curious eyes.
Specifically, she was running from the older of the boys. Bakugou Katsuki. He was a good kid, but boy was he a handful. He was the one who initially started chasing the cat, causing the other boy to run after him. This was Midoriya Izuku. More on the shy side. He stuck close to young Katsuki and admired him often.
Both wore yellow raincoats and rubber boots, splashing in puddles as they ran. Katsuki had a head of golden hair that stuck out like the petals of a very angry dandelion. His eyes were sharp and focused, an alluring red that both intimidated and intrigued. His expression was usually a pout or a scowl, but he had the smugness of a God. His skin was pale and soft, much like his mother's.
Izuku was a slightly smaller boy, timid and a bit scrawnier. He has a mess of green curls for hair and a set of bright green eyes to match. Freckles adorned his cheeks like the kisses of angels that often got darker when the boy blushed. It was easy to fluster the poor thing.
Despite being small and sweet, this boy had no sense of self-preservation and would often find himself on the ground crying for one reason or another. Katsuki was usually there to criticize him as he helped him up, making sure he was okay before getting right back to playing.
The cat came to a stop up on a stone wall and leered down at them. Katsuki pouted and yelled at it to come down. He only looked back when he heard Izuku trip and fall face-first into the mud.
The boy began crying as he pushed himself up, looking down at the mud all down his front. Katsuki stomped over and pulled the crying boy up, using his chubby hands to wipe mud from his cheeks and then on his raincoat as if it would help.
"Dumb Deku. Always getting hurt," he said, squishing Izuku's cheeks for a moment. "Stop crying! The sky already cried today! You're gonna make it cry again."
Izuku sniffled and swiped his nose, looking up through the dripping tree branches and at the grey sky.
"But Kacchan, Mama said that rain is just water falling from the sky," he said, looking back down at his friend.
"Yeah. Cuz it's crying," Katsuki pointed out, looking proud of himself for his intellect.
Izuku smiled and pulled Katsuki in for a hug, getting mud on him. Katsuki was about to protest when the cat suddenly jumped down from its perch and approached to rub her side against the boys' legs. Izuku barely got to pet her before she ran off, looking down at the prints left on the muddy ground.
"What are those, Kacchan?" He inquired, squatting and poking the soft ground next to paw prints.
"Those are toe beans. We have them too but they look funny," he said, holding out one of his hands and squishing it into the ground next to the perfect little paw prints, leaving a gloppy handprint for Izuku to marvel over.
"Oh! Kacchan, you're so smart!" Izuku gushed, beginning to leave his own "toe bean" prints in the mud alongside his friend.
They were destined for a bath when they got home and quite possibly a scolding from Katsuki's mother, Mitsuki, for tracking mud back into the Bakugou household.
Life was good.
Izuku sat at his desk, his head down, sleep tugging at his eyes. The last year of middle school was about to end, but it was draining him terribly. There was so much paperwork to fill out and forms to sign, and research to be done on the different schools he could potentially attend. Just a few more exams and then he can enter another break alone in his house. Another holiday vacation without Kacchan.
Izuku lifted his head to look across the class at the blond, blinking slowly. He seemed so happy, surrounded by his peers and living easily without Izuku. It would be a lie to say it didn't hurt. He remembered times not too long ago when it was him chatting happily with Kacchan. Now the grumpy boy didn't seem to care less if Izuku choked on his own spit and died.
The thought made his chest ache, his heart weakly punching his gut in disagreement. It wasn't like he could just walk back into Katsuki's life and try to fix whatever it was that broke their friendship, but still something inside him scolded him for not trying something. Anything.
Maybe if he ignored it for long enough it would be forgotten by the both of them and they can live casually in each other's existence. Oh to be acknowledged by Kacchan without a sneer or a look of disgust. Izuku longed for it.
He blew a sigh, finally gathering his things to leave. He stood and maneuvered around bodies, keeping his head down. In his attempt to leave quickly and unnoticed, he accidentally bumped shoulders with Katsuki. The blond shoved him away, glaring coldly at him.
"Get the fuck out of the way, Deku," he spat, his eyes narrow and his voice full of venom. The kids around him snickered and lightly shoved Izuku away, telling him to get lost and stop bothering them.
Izuku chewed the inside of his cheek, muttering an apology before slipping out the door. If he had looked back, though, he might have caught the solemn look on the blonde's face as others chattered and laughed around him.
The walk home was rather cold, but Izuku didn't mind it one bit. Winter had settled and people were preparing for the holidays, so despite the biting cold, the decorations and jolly spirit that everyone gave off were enough to keep Izuku warm. Snow began to fall from the sky and lightly coat the chilled ground once more, the fresh coat from this morning having been trampled to slush from the foot traffic of that working day. Everyone always seemed to be in a hurry, not taking the time to admire the wonders of nature, but their business brought life to the town and kept things moving forward. Despite how down he may feel, the progress of others around him kept Izuku moving one foot in front of the other as he pushed himself along.
As his cheeks stung in the frigidness, he felt his worries slip away for just long enough for him to feel at peace for a moment. Just a few more exams and then he could relax at home with his mother. They could take part in their yearly traditions and create new memories to be cherished in the years to come. He looked forward to the time he had to spend with the people special to him, even if not all of them wanted to be in his presence as well. Kacchan could always be found one way or another, so Izuku figured if he missed the blond enough, he could simply drop off cookies. Time with Kacchan or not, he was grateful for the time off.
As he made his way to the front door of his modest house, he rummaged around in his pockets to find his keys, clicking open the door once he found them and stepped in. Immediately the scent of katsudon hit his nose and he smiled.
"Mom! I'm home!" He called, closing the door behind him as he toed off his shoes.
His mother, Inko, poked her head out the kitchen door and smiled. She looked a lot like Izuku, her hair slightly darker, straight, and long down her back, some of it pulled into a messy bun. Her eyes were round and green like her son's, but she lacked his constellation of freckles. She was rather short and stout, but her smile could light up a room and she had a motherly love that was hard to match. "Welcome home, sweetie! Mind helping me set the table?" She asked, slipping back into the kitchen to tend to the stove.
Izuku nodded and stepped into the kitchen. He immediately started grabbing things to help, dishing up two plates and setting the table. His mother joined him at the table and they both sat, saying thanks for the meal and digging in.
This was another thing to be happy about. Spending time with his mother and eating her cooking. It made him feel welcome and comfortable. No need to let something so small get him down.
...
Why was he still aching inside?
Now he could barely bring himself to finish his dinner as earlier thoughts came creeping back to drag his light soul back to the sharp rocks of the unforgiving earth. He stood and started cleaning up, getting a confused look from his mother.
"Everything alright?" She asked as he took her empty plate.
"Yeah. You just worked so hard on dinner. Let me clean tonight," he offered, giving her a warm smile. "You can head to bed, mom. You have an early morning tomorrow. I've got things from here."
Inko smiled sadly at him and stood, taking his face in her hands and pulling him closer to place a sweet kiss on his forehead.
"Goodnight, Izuku. Sleep well, okay?" She whispered, her thumb rubbing his cheek before she went off to bed.
Izuku watched her retreat to her room, grateful she was going to bed right now so she could wake up on time for her job in the morning. She worked so hard for the both of them, it made him sad sometimes, but he also admired her greatly for it.
Izuku stood at the kitchen sink, letting his thoughts wander as he rinsed and dried. He thought about his mother and about what he could do to help. How he could contribute. He remembered that he, too, was going to be somewhere tomorrow as well. He was working at a bookstore he and Katsuki used to visit as children. Izuku had been taken under the wing of the shop owner, Toshinori Yagi.
Toshinori was a retired author who had written books that won awards and inspired the world and many of its big changes during his lifetime. Some were simply fantasy or comic books, others were nonfiction and on serious topics that are used in many cited works to this day. He really could do it all. His penname was All Might. Toshinori quite liked his privacy, so he chose to live a simple life and open a bookshop for others to come and read simply just to enjoy life. The bookshop worked like a library in the sense that it rented out books, but you could also buy books from there and there were a few reading areas for customers to curl up and dive into a good book. Toshinori knew comfort.
While he had been there the whole time, it wasn't until a few months ago that Izuku truly met the famous author. Izuku was looking for an action figure from one of the comic series All Might wrote. Toshinori happened to have an original of the figure and gave that to Izuku. He expected the middle school boy to be pleased with his find and to just run off, but he ended up blabbing Toshinori's ear off about how much he admired All Might's work and wanted to write books as great as him one day. Toshinori was put off by it at first, but he grew to admire the fire that burned in Izuku's soul. The passion and dedication he had to become a better author and his curious, observing eyes inspired Toshinori to take him under his wing and teach him.
Toshinori was growing rather old now and wanted his legacy to continue, as well as his shop. He was teaching Izuku how to care for the shop and about literature. He helped the boy improve his writing style and they often shared ideas and thoughts about books. He intended to one day hand down the bookstore to Izuku and see where his story would continue.
Izuku blinked a few times, having caught himself staring at the now-empty sink. He had finished the dishes a while ago but was so lost in thought he blanked out. He shook his head and sighed, stepping away from the sink to look out the window. The snow was piling on the ground by now and only growing higher. He moved to his front door, wrapping a jacket loosely around his frame before he stepped out to admire the wintery weather. He didn't even have shoes on, but he didn't care.
As he stared out, memories came creeping back. Warm summer days when he and Katsuki would race each other to that old bookstore to see what new books had arrived. Despite being sweaty and hot, they'd curl up together on one of the couches in the shop and read books until closing time. When they weren't reading, they were talking about the stories they read, both admiring the characters and stories they were in. At times they would play pretend as different book characters and act out different scenes. Katsuki usually played the protagonist, but Izuku never minded. He was having fun and was glad to see Katsuki so happy.
A meow jolted Izuku out of his nostalgic daze. He looked down to see the neighbor's cat. She leered up at him with eyes that glowed faintly in the moonlight, her stub tail lightly flicking and bopping the ground with friendliness. He leaned down to pet her, only managing to scratch her behind the ear for a second before she ran off, leaving perfect little paw prints in the snow.
Toe beans.
Izuku sighed quietly and closed the door, locking it. Why was the world so adamant on reminding him of a perfect past he could never have again? Such sweet memories turned bitter when he remembered how things were in the present.
He made his way to his room and flopped on his bed, not even bothering to get dressed for bed as he let sleep take over.
Just a little longer until he could truly relax and be at peace.