Work Text:
He was everything.
He was my idol, my best friend, all I ever wanted.
My room was decked out with All Might merchandise, but only because you couldn't find Kacchan posters in stores.
He was strong and confident and had a natural aptitude for everything but loving me back.
To him I was nothing. A pebble on the side of the road paved to his victory. A mosquito buzzing in his ear as he sprinted for the gold.
He was my definition of a hero. I looked up to him for so long, worshipped at his feet like he told me he deserved. I loved him every day and every day he told me I was worthless.
To me it was normal. This was the most realistic version of what I wanted. We would never be on the same level, and I couldnt stand to be without him, and so I should stay beneath him. This was friendship. It was all I had to go on.
The day he fell from the log bridge, I was terrified he had hurt himself. I had seen too many disaster/rescue videos not to assume the worst. And, I'll be honest, some part of me thought it was my chance. The tipping point in our relationship, when he would see how much I loved him and maybe, just maybe, start to even see reciprocation as a possibility.
That day was a tipping point, but exactly opposite of what I had hoped. Afterwards he only treated me worse, hated me more. He was no longer indifferent towards me as much as he actively disliked me.
The sludge monster was another story. It was my fault. Not only had I failed to fight him off once before, but I was the reason he had escaped from All Might. I was the direct cause of his pain, possibly even his death. My heart broke at the thought, and my body refused to sit by and watch as the boy I had idolized for so long finally suffered the consequences of my existence that he had prophesied for years.
I didnt expect that day to be the tipping point.
I certainly didnt expect it to tip the way it did.
Before I knew it, I had the potential to match him. It was no longer impossible to be on the same level. In all the daydreaming I had done, the hoping that something like this would happen, I had never considered the mental shift that would come with it. I had always thought that Kacchan would see me as a worthy companion and we would finally be happy.
When it finally did happen, after dreaming so long that I had lost all hope of my wish becoming reality, I no longer wanted him.
With the same victory within my own reach, it became glaringly obvious to me that he had been wrong all along, that while his skill was above others in many ways, he had no sense of compassion. And without compassion, what is a hero?
My definition of a hero shifted, and with it my view of him. I looked back and saw how he had treated me all this time, and how mistaken I had been to believe what he told me.
He was no longer everything.
Now, I was.