Chapter Text
“Get out of my way, stupid Deku!”
Izuku barely had time to jump at Kacchan’s shout behind him before impact. Kacchan shoved him, hard, with two little explosions on each hand for extra power. Izuku sprawled on the ground, but he only skinned the palms of his hands a little, so he popped back up quickly.
“Sorry, Kacchan!”
“Tch."
Kacchan stalked off without another word. They had been exploring separate sides of the neighborhood playground, so it was anyone's guess why he decided to knock him over. The other kids who had been playing with Kacchan had left, so maybe he got bored.
Izuku wished his mom didn't have an overnight shift at the hospital. Mostly he wished her schedule was more last-minute. Chances were higher that she'd forget to find someone to watch Izuku for the evening.
It had happened a few times before, and he'd always been fine! He barely touched the stove, and he was always very good. He even got in bed on time. Sure, sometimes he wouldn't fall asleep until it was almost morning, but when else did he have time to catch up on hero news uninterrupted? Better to be sleepy at school the next day than to fall behind on his notes.
But now, without his knowledge, his mom had asked Kacchan's mom to watch over him tonight. He didn't think either of them knew how Kacchan acted towards him, or at least, he hoped they didn't. That would suck.
Ever since he came home diagnosed as quirkless, Izuku had the wonderful experience of gradually watching his childhood best friend turn against him. He didn't know how to stop Kacchan from glaring at him in hatred, or to stop him walking away when Izuku tried to talk about heroes, or to make his explosions burn his clothes less. Kacchan had always been a stubborn, unstoppable force, but what had made him an awesome best friend made his life completely miserable.
There had to be something he hadn't tried, or hadn't said, that could make Kacchan like him again. He may not have a quirk, but he wasn't completely useless! That's what his mom always told him, maybe not in exactly those words.
Maybe they could play a game together. Kacchan liked to win, so if Izuku lost whatever they did, it could put him in a better mood.
Kacchan was kicking the sand in the same spot over and over, digging his shoe further into the ground. Some of the sand flew into a little arc that landed on Izuku's shoes as he slowly approached, but he didn't say anything.
"Hey, um, Kacchan?"
He slowly raised his head, his red stare burning Izuku's soul without saying anything.
He swallowed.
"Do you want to play hide and seek?"
Kacchan immediately scoffed.
"You're so stupid that I'd find you in five seconds. It wouldn't even be fun."
Izuku nodded, bidding a hasty retreat. "Oh, ok. Never mind then."
He'd already started to get a safe distance between them when Kacchan spoke again.
"You're hiding first," he said, causing Izuku to whirl around. Kacchan...wanted to play?
For the first time in awhile, Izuku felt a spark of hope.
He didn't want to risk irritating Kacchan into quitting before they'd started, so he didn't ask how high he would be counting. He just nodded once, and waited for him to plop onto the ground cross-legged with his eyes closed.
Kachaan never counted out loud, anyway. He said that was for babies.
Izuku ran, not sure where to hide. Should he choose an easy spot, let Kacchan rub in his victory? That was dangerous, though, because if Kacchan figured out what Izuku did, he'd kill him.
Not too easy, then. That ruled out every spot on the ground.
Izuku ran past the edge of the playground into a little grouping of trees, peeking behind him as he went. Kacchan was still seated on the ground, facing away from Izuku. Even if he was cheating, he definitely couldn't see him right now.
He chose a tree that was third tallest, because Kacchan would definitely go for the tallest tree first, and the shortest one was only like ten Izuku's tall.
With a running start, he was able to grab the lowest branch on the tree. His palms immediately burned from falling earlier, but he ignored it.
Izuku tried to keep silent as he used momentum to reach another branch, but it was tricky. He wasn't very strong, and his arms only stretched so far.
He really needed this game to work.
If not to get his friend back, then at least for a less-horrible forced sleepover.
Sometimes he got the feeling there was nothing he could do to get that first one again.
He took a deep breath, and kicked his right leg as hard and as high as he could, and he managed to hook his heel on a branch in front of him. He twisted and pushed until he had his knee hooked around the branch, and suddenly, he was hugging the trunk of the tree, straddling the branch.
It was uncomfortable, but he grinned. This was going to be such a good hiding spot.
Moving very slowly, Izuku carefully stood on his branch, keeping his arms around the trunk. He wasn't great with heights, but he probably didn't have to go much higher up.
He climbed a couple levels, maybe two or three branches, when he heard a distant pop. That meant Kacchan had started seeking. He liked to propel himself with explosions when he was seeker as an "intimidation tactic". He better stay put for now.
To Kacchan's credit, he didn't seem to have cheated at all, since the pops and shouts typical of anything he did got even quieter for a bit, which meant he was checking out the opposite side of the park than Izuku.
One problem with his hiding spot was that even with the added height, the fluffy green branches ruined the view he might have had otherwise.
Eventually, the raucous sounds of Kacchan started coming closer. Was just because it was louder now, or was Kacchan getting upset?
He risked a peek down. The view beyond his bright red shoes was a smear of blurry grass, but maybe he was just tearing up again. That happened when he was nervous. He'd ended up about halfway up the tree, maybe six or seven Izuku's tall. He couldn't be sure.
The first words he could understand of Kacchan's angry muttering didn't inspire a lot of confidence.
"Stupid Deku, where'd you think you could hide from me?"
A spiky blond head stomped almost directly beneath him, and Izuku stopped breathing. He wondered if trees could talk, if this one would complain about how tightly Izuku squeezed it.
Kacchan's hair disappeared after a few more seconds. He hadn't even looked up.
Izuku sighed with relief. He felt a little dumb, since the point of the game was to be found, but it had been ingrained in him years ago to be silent and wary if Kacchan was looking for him. It never ended well otherwise.
"Sorry, tree," he whispered, easing up on his death grip enough to pat the trunk with one hand.
His feet were starting to feel a little stiff from holding their odd position for several minutes, perched standing on a branch as he was. His hands were tingling, too, which always happened when his arms were still for too long. One limb at a time, he shook the static out of himself. He was jiggling his right foot in the air when it happened.
He slipped.
His left foot slid to the side and over the edge of the branch. The trunk was too wide for his arms to hang onto at that angle, and he let go.
His hip hit the branch he'd been standing on pretty hard, and he couldn't help but yelp. He scrabbled for his last chance to stop his momentum, and luckily, it worked. Sort of.
Izuku managed to grab the branch under one armpit, but his body still had too much momentum, and his grip too weak. He felt his underarm scrape the rough branch as he fell, and he screamed.
How high up was he? Was he going to die?
Halfway through his scream, he met the ground, landing flat on his back. For a second, he didn't realize what had happened, and he didn't do anything at all.
Then, when he tried to breathe, nothing happened.
He started to panic.
It felt like something was pressing on his chest, keeping him from filling his lungs with air. He tried to focus his eyes, but all he could see was green blurs pierced with light, and it hurt, so he closed them. His body felt numb, almost like the tingles in his limbs had spread and then amplified.
He didn't realize he could hear until he heard horrible pops and cracks too close to dodge. Izuku opened his mouth to ask for mercy, but all that came out was a thin, wheezy groan.
"What the fuck, Deku?!" A familiar voice screamed. He opened his eyes, in slits this time.
The blond spikes of doom popped into view, and Kacchan looked enraged. Great. He was paralyzed and he'd managed to make Kacchan believe he'd forfeited the game on purpose or something.
He tried to talk again, but could only manage another wheeze, so Izuku had to just focus on breathing for a minute.
He knew what had happened now. He'd gotten pushed down the stairs at school and the same thing had happened. The teacher he'd stumbled into in the hallway afterwards said he'd "gotten the wind knocked out of him" and that Izuku needed to "learn to keep his feet under him". Just like then, it passed a few minutes later, leaving him stunned but no longer panicking.
His arm was lifted off the ground, then dropped unceremoniously. The same thing happened to the other arm. His legs were nudged by a sneakered toe, then Kacchan plopped onto the ground several feet away.
Izuku realized this was a version of Kacchan he'd never seen. This was a Kacchan with the angry surprised right out of him.
"Who the fuck," he began, using a word Aunt Mitsuki both taught and would kill him for saying, "dies playing hide and seek?" Kacchan stared at him, one red eye twitching.
"How are you so useless?"
The small part of Izuku that saw this whole situation funny shriveled and died. Kacchan was actually asking. Izuku was a useless loser who couldn't even play a stupid game.
"S-sorry, Kacchan." He didn't know what else there was to say.
Kacchan stood as Izuku rolled into a sitting position. His head still felt woozy, but he definitely didn't break any bones.
"I didn't mean to fall, but you probably still would have--"
Kacchan spoke over him. "It's my turn to hide. Think you can manage not to screw up seeking, Deku?"
"Yeah! I'll, I'll count right here."
"To two hundred."
"OK, Kacchan, two hundred."
He obediently sat at the base of the tree and counted aloud. He wondered where Kacchan would hide. He'd probably go the opposite direction from where they were now, which would place him close to the road. There were some alleyways that probably had a dumpster to hide behind, but Kacchan probably would think that was a gross hiding spot, and too way easy.
When he reached two hundred, he stood. He immediately swayed, and had to lean against the tree trunk until the head rush went away. This one was really slow fading away, but it was probably because he'd just shocked his whole body.
After a few shaky steps, his stride evened out and he started to walk across the grass towards a path with a bench alongside it.
Bodies aren't supposed to fall out of trees. Only stupid losers did that.
He frowned, annoyed at himself. Kacchan would never be friends with him again at this rate. And Izuku could hardly blame him.
Izuku wished his mom didn't have an overnight shift at the hospital.
Did she know Kacchan had ended their friendship years ago?
How many years?
Izuku couldn't recall when Kacchan stopped being his friend.
He also couldn't recall...what he was doing.
What had he been doing?
Izuku looked around himself, surprised to see he was on the sidewalk. He had just passed an alleyway with a long, dark corridor and the shape of a dumpster at the end of it.
He stared at it intently. He was either supposed to go toward the dumpster or very far away. But why?
Izuku blinked, and he registered cold metal at his back. It felt nice, so he set his head back against it.
He was sat cross-legged, leaning against a dumpster.
This was pretty weird, though maybe not if he was running away from Kacchan and his crew when they chased him after school. This alley didn't look like his usual hiding spot, though.
He smirked and settled more comfortably, letting his eyes slip closed. One thing was for sure, Kacchan would never look for him here. He hated yucky things, and wouldn't be caught dead hanging out by a big old trash can.
Izuku's eyes flew open.
He'd been playing hide and seek!
He leapt to his feet and ran back out to the sidewalk. The afternoon sun was blocked by the buildings that surrounded him, and the air was cooling fast.
Kacchan was going to murder him. How long had he been forcing Kacchan to wait in his hiding spot?
What if Kacchan thought he had tricked him and gone home?
Izuku's stomach twisted uncomfortably. He remembered the sinking feeling when kids did that to him at recess over and over before finally getting bored of tricking him a few weeks later.
He never wanted to make anyone feel like that, not even his ex-best friend.
Izuku squeezed his eyes shut, letting two tears leak out before choking back the rest of them. No crying until he was in bed tonight, alone in his room. Unless Mom hugged him first. She gave good hugs when he needed to cry.
Izuku wished his mom didn't have an overnight shift at the hospital.
He paused his steps, frowning. How had he forgotten he was staying and Kacchan and Aunt Mitsuki's house tonight?
He looked around, scanning the buildings for a familiar sign or store. He definitely wasn't anywhere near the playground, and he didn't know how long that had been the case. He didn't remember when they had started playing, that was all fuzzy when he tried to think about it, but he knew Aunt Mitsuki never let them play after dark back when he and Kacchan were close.
He wrapped his arms around himself. All he was wearing were shorts and a long-sleeve t-shirt and his red shoes. It wasn't cold when school had ended earlier that day. He knew that much.
His memory of the morning and afternoon were pretty solid, but getting to the park and everything after that kept falling in and out of focus, like he when he tried to track a fly with his eyes.
Maybe he should find the park again. He definitely knew the way to his house and the Bakugo's house from there. He'd go to the Bakugo's house after he found the park. It was dawning on him that even though Kacchan had never tricked Izuku at recess like the other kids (Kachaan preferred a more "hands on" approach when showing his disdain for Izuku), he probably had today. Most likely, Kachhan was playing video games in his room, proud of himself for making Izuku search for him pointlessly.
But even if that's what happened, it still didn't explain why Izuku felt so lost, and why he had wandered so long without even realizing.
It made Izuku feel queasy to think about, but maybe that was because he was hungry and chilly.
He walked to the end of another block, and was trying to decide if the roads were familiar yet or not when he caught a glimpse of flashing lights to his right. His heart picked up speed. Those were the color of police lights! Maybe he'd get to see a hero in action, but only if he was careful.
The colors of the lights were flickering up and down the side of the building ahead, but he couldn't see the police cars yet. They were bright, and there must have been more than one cop car, because the incessant flashing was starting to hurt his eyes.
He rounded the corner of a building and immediately had to throw his hand over his face. The pretty lights had turned into flashing stabs that felt like they were jabbing the back of his brain. He squinted until his eyes were almost completely shut and tried to peek through his fingers.
That was when he realized he may have made a big mistake.