Chapter Text
Katsuki leaped onto the roof, paws buckling under the tiles and frantic calls lost over the blaring of car horns. This was so stupid-! He thinks, anxious, Hollykit wailing at his paws in fright with Larchkit pressed up close beside her. Birchkit pouted his lips, peering over the edge to take in the rushing water despite Katsuki’s yowling orders.
He hadn’t wanted to bring the kits here, alright? But he sure as hell couldn’t go all the way to Windclan and back- not when considering what exactly was at stake here.
Snails hopped up besides him, scooping Birchkit up away from the edge. Her large, wide open eyes reflected his own uncertainty, a large, red truck pushed across the road by the flood waters with some human struggling to clamber out.
“Are you alright?” She asked, trotting over and leaping over to the next house just as he did. “We’ll find her, I’m sure.”
Katsuki didn’t voice his doubts.
The rain was becoming blinding, a thick wall blocking everything from their view, drowning out his incessant calls. He had to find her!
“Slow down.” Snails told him, gaze narrowed even as the fur along his spine bristled, lips drawing back in a rampant snarl. She let out a scathing hiss in tow, large tail puffing up behind her despite the drag caused by unending rain. “ You brought these kits out here with you, so it’s your job to keep them safe.”
Katsuki hated that she was right, Hollykit squirming in the hold he had on her scruff.
“I can walk!” She yelps, casting a disdainful glare over to Birchkit, who heaves as he flops besides Snail’s paws. Larchkit is clutched in her jaw, perfectly fine with everything going on.
“I know, sweetheart.” Snails attempts to purr around the ball of fur, “but you’ll need to save your strength, alright?” Her voice was soft, warm and fuzzy despite the situation in such a way that Katsuki can’t help but wrinkle his nose against.
Before he can even attempt a response, a sharp, whistling “Help!” barks up from another house.
There, stationed precariously, is a wobbly tom kit. No fucking way, Katsuki balked, recognizing well the pelt of those bullies. Is God really testing me right now?
…
Runt is missing. She’s lost somewhere in this flooded village and could very well be dead. The kits were starting to cough and sneeze and shiver, their mews quieting down and anxious eyes shutting with humming exhaustion. They really couldn’t stay out here- but fuck. Katsuki couldn’t leave without the kit who’d managed to capture his attention.
She was quick witted, weak but determined, and had an air about it that screamed victory. Katsuki found that he genuinely wanted her to succeed. She was supposed to go places- do things- but she couldn’t do that if she was dead, and that scared the pale tom more than he would ever admit.
They’d rescued the two bullies, Scrap and Roach, but there was no sign of Runt anywhere. Not that the two would be of any useful information there either- but they seemed willing enough to grab one of the smaller kits and help them out. The two had to be around apprentice age- perhaps even a moon or so older, with lean pelts and forming muscles, but still soft around the edges. The two, naturally, were larger cats, towering over the other kits, so it was hard to really say.
“Loudpaw.” Snails stopped him, dragging him back from the ledge from where he’d been prepared to duck through an open window. This was where Runt’s mother was supposedly from, gathered from Roach, so they’d come here to investigate. “This isn’t safe- we need to go back to Windclan and get them somewhere safe-”
“I haven’t found her yet.” Katsuki pushed, turning back around to squint down. He could make it, he thinks, but fuck knows how deep that muddy water is, only a few feet below. At a heavy groan, he turns back, actually taking stock of the kits.
Yeah. They didn’t look good, in short. No, they appeared terrible. Was Hollykit even breathing? He grit his teeth, avoiding Snail’s gaze to instead pin it back to the window sill. He had to check. He wouldn’t usually get so worked up about something like this- but Runt could be in there yelling for help and they were just sitting here.
“Fine.” He spat, lashing his tail. “Take them back to Windclan- I’ll stay here and look for the runt.”
“No- We have to go together- Loudpaw wait!”
It was too late, Katsuki had slipped off the roof and through the open window.
…
By the time he came out, no one was left there waiting for him. His fur was becoming damn heavy from where he’d waded through the water. Fuck- he really, truly didn’t know where she could be. What if she was already dead? Or what if some human picked her up and took her far, far away?
Thunder crashed overhead and it was beginning to grow dark. His fur was sodden and clung to every taut muscle on his bones, ribcage a neon light at either side. He collapses against the tall, black roof of the house.
It was beginning to grow dark, which meant there wasn’t much time until night breached and any scraps of daylight were torn away. What was he to do?
It was as he was thinking this that a yowl broke out across the street. Katsuki raised his chin, struggling to get his tired paws underneath him to stare out across the broken street lamp and oh, holy shit. No, not across the lamp, but there, just on top, was a small, huddled bundle of fur.
“ Runt?!” Katsuki yowled, getting as close to the edge as reasonably possible. Runt’s eyes, though blocked by the majority of the downpour, were shining with heavy relief. Fuck, Katsuki thinks, a relieved smile making it’s way out across his jaw.
“I-I’m here!” She yelled, a coarse sob attached to her words.
And then, Katsuki realized, that just because he had found her, didn’t mean that she was yet safe. Her paw scrabbled briefly against the metal surface of the lamp, and it was by some miracle that she didn’t fall.
“Stay there, don’t move!” He shouts, backing up and assessing what he’s got here with him.
It isn’t much. There’s an entire street length of distance between, an impossible leap for Katsuki to reasonably make. Anything that he could possibly use to shorten the distance were too far as well- lower to the ground as compared to across.
Not to mention that, but after getting Runt he would need to safely land on his paws and get back to where he was. How the hell he was supposed to do that was a complete mystery-
But then he thought of wings, envious of the thickset feathers that lifted birds high into the air. For a moment, he wished he had them, but then flashes of that bird he caught all those weeks ago flashed into the forefront of his mind, mouth parting into an oh.
What was that he wished for when he fell?
He only takes a singular step back before he’s rocketing over the side, throwing out a paw and allowing the adrenaline to flourish out, sweat beading before igniting into grand, tumbling explosions. Runt yelps, ahead, at the crackling noise that defends her, claws scraping against the metal as she slips down the side.
Katsuki’s already there, however, smoke billowing out and mouth gaped open, just barely managing a firm hold on her scruff before kicking out with his hind paw, another explosion ripping through the air and sending them back the way they came.
The landing is anything but graceful, scrapes lighting up across their pelts as they roll across the roof, but barely managing to avoid toppling over the edge. Runt sobs against his chest, and were this any other situation, he would berate her for it.
But instead, all he could feel was overwhelming relief. Everything would be fine- he was sure. Izuku and Shoto were strong, those bastards, even in his thin, meager state the tom was sure he made it out just fine.
All he had to do, now, was get over to Windclan, where everyone would be seeking refuge.
..
The air was somber when he returned, Runt limping beside him on an injured paw. Still, pride was beaming through the both of them, having to do an assortment of tricks that would surely send the both of them drowning if they made one single misstep. (Katsuki’s paw pads burned from where explosions nipped away the skin there, close saves and rescues a sparking reminder.)
“Kacchan!” A voice breathed, black fur pelting up the hill, stained a muddy brown and soaked to the bone. Katsuki could barely knock Runt out of the way before he was barreling over. In a mixture of pale and dark fur, Katsuki managed to bat away the other apprentice, ears pinned down flat against his head. “Er- um- Loudpaw!”
“Nice save, idiot.” Katsuki sneered, but there was no real heat to it. He let his eyes roam over the other’s figure, surprised at how… well, healthier it looked as compared to the gathering. “You’re looking better.”
“Mhm-! Snails joined us a bit ago and helped us find a herb that would help. It’s pretty fast acting.” He rambled, glancing around before perking up at the sight of the large, gray she-cat.
Katsuki twists his neck to glance over, just barely managing to brace himself before he’s, once again, being tackled. There’s a shrill wail slicing through the storm, claws embedding into his shoulders and ripping away clumps of fur.
There’s a scuffle just above him and he lashes out, blood welling underneath his sharp claws as the cat topples away, sobbing hiss catching in her throat. Scrabbling to stand, Izuku supporting his shoulder before the pale tom is jerking away, he faces the Thunderclan queen Ferncloud, eyes shining wet with unrivaled grief.
She was yowling insults and accusations that he was too drained to register, frantic and devastated in every sense of the word. Katsuki almost thought she would lunge at him if not for Snails, who had placed a gentle paw in front of her chest.
“The fuck did I do now?” Katsuki heaves, shaking his head to send a shower of blood scattering across the darkened grass.
Snails pins him with a disappointed, far-away look in her eyes that somehow manages to rattle Katsuki to the bones. It reminds him, vaguely, of his own mother, when his first report of bullying reached her ears. After that point, she treated him differently.
But no- that was fucking stupid. He wasn’t close to this nobody like he was his own goddamn mother- why the hell was this glance affecting him as such?
“It’s Hollykit. She didn’t make it.” The she-cat explained. Around them, everything seemed to go still, the rain silencing down to a mourning quiet and howling wind taking a moment to simmer into a breeze.
That can’t be right, Katsuki thinks, blinking. No, because he just saw her, fine and healthy. But that’s not quite right, either, is it? She’d looked frail when being carried, light as a feather and suffering against the cold.
I’ll get the kits, is what he had shouted when the flood hit their camp. Herding out all three kits had been a challenge, even with the queen's help. Worse is that they both managed to get swept away, leaving him and Snails alone.
He can’t even say that he was sorry, because if he had delivered them straight to Windclan then Runt could be dead- Roach and Scrap as well for as much as he fucking hates them.
But fuck, suddenly all he think about is demanding that Snail go; and watching that small, sodden bundle of fur sway in her jaw, silent and without any of her usual protests. Some foreign part of Katsuki thinks that she would have made an excellent warrior- if not for such an early death.
Did I do that? Did I kill her?
“I hope it was worth it- I hope she was worth it.” Ferncloud seethes, voice thick with grief. Her words held no good will, eyes flicking down to glower painfully at Runt, who had pressed herself to the ground with wide eyes.
Katsuki was supposed to be the best at everything- hunting and fighting were such natural practices that it could be assumed everything else would fall into line. But somehow, he’d fucked up all of it.
Cold, sodden fur pressed up against his side, Izuku doing his best to offer some short, soft comfort that didn’t do much to soothe him. Ferncloud was ushered away to where her two other kits were sitting next to Goldenflower, some other clan’s queen joining them.
It seemed as though every clan was here- more than what was seen at gatherings. Limping elders and gossiping senior warriors, muscular warriors whispering with chittering queens. Rowdy apprentices chasing each other around, kits admiring the world for the first time ever.
Except…
“Where’s Arcticpaw?” Izuku asks for him, squinting out across the gathering crowd. He wasn’t the only one missing either, Firestar jogging through the masses and asking where both of his daughters were. Cloudtail and Brightheart were joined with him as well, seemingly frantic and mournful all at once.
“He didn’t make it out with the rest of us.” Spiderpaw padded up beside them, “Last I saw he was running towards the medicine den.”