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°°° (3:4)
The earliest memory Izuku has of summer is of him running on hot concrete laughing wildly as he trips after Kacchan. His mother had warned them, begged them, to stay put.
"Wait outside the shop 'zuku just for a few minutes okay? Mama needs to drop this off alright?"
Izuku nods, he'll stay, he's a good child.
But then Kacchan is laughing and tugging at his hand, and sprinting down the pavement towards the park and Izuku is running too. He has already forgotten his promise to his mother.
They're only three and four, but Izuku already knows, wherever Kacchan goes, he will follow.
°°°(4:5)
The next summer Auntie Mitsuki had invited Izuku to their summer house on the outskirts of Musutafu, to keep her little tyke company. It sounds amazing.
“I wonder why Kacchan hates these vacations”, he thinks before leaving the details of the trip to their mothers and heading off to find his friend.
"Tch that place is dumb and boring and there's no one to play with."
Katsuki side-eyes Izuku. "You'd like it Deku. There's a lake."
Izuku bounces on his toes " Can I come Kacchan it'll be fun if I come- we could go FISHING! Please say I can come!!"
"Tch the hag already asked you to come idiot"
"Don't call your mom that!" Izuku scolds, wringing his hands, "But you want me to come too right? We'll have fun I promise!!"
Katsuki scowls slightly but he nods. "I guess that would be ok. And we wouldn't go fishing, you'll just try to catch those tadpoles you always want to and fail miserably like the Deku you are."
"That's rude Kacchan!!" Izuku has pulled his face into a pout before his face lights back up "But it's okay, Kacchan will catch all of them for me!"
Katsuki is strangely pleased by this. Yeah. He supposes he will.
That summer is filled with yelling and leaves in their hair and clumsily applied band-aids on scraped knees that he had loudly kissed better, before Kachan yelled and pushed him into the lake, then dived in after him anyway, a huge grin splitting across his face.
It's the loudest and brightest time in Izuku's short life and he won't trade it for the world.
°°° (5:6)
Auntie Mitsuki invites Izuku on the trip the next summer too and Izuku almost turns it down, but the lack of resistance to this idea from Katsuki despite the growing distance between them this year, strips his resolve.
"Kacchan?" he ventures, settling onto the couch.
Katsuki isn't meeting his eyes.
"It's only for one summer. I can handle it." He scowls before continuing, "if I said no it'd make the old hag mad and then she'll be on my ass all summer."
Katsuki frowns at him and then turns away.
"R-right" Izuku is suddenly very sad but he doesn't know why.
"The bitch won't let me invite any of my friends because she doesn't like them."
"Oh." Izuku swallows and blinks away tears he can't explain.
That summer isn't quiet exactly, but the contrast from a year ago is deafening.
They go fishing everyday as usual but Katsuki doesn't push him into the water, and he lets a whole twig stay in Izuku's hair all the way home.
"You've got something in your hair" Uncle Masaru had pointed out when they trudged in and Izuku had nearly spun around, pointing an accusing finger at Katsuki for failing his best friend duty of telling him he looked like an idiot, before remembering they weren't best friends, not anymore.
The next evening Katsuki had simply snatched the band-aids from Izuku hands and when he turned away to tend to his knee, something painful clenched in Izuku's chest.
That summer felt like goodbye.
°°°(6:7)
Izuku had turned down Auntie's invitations the next year and they stopped coming after that. Izuku won't lie, that had hurt more than he thought it would.
°°° (15:16)
Deku isn't expecting much from his first summer vacation after he joins UA. He hasn't been at the school long but it feels like he's come home. It's his place and his people and he loves it.
He's meeting up with a few friends tomorrow, Iida and Uraraka both lived close by, so all their friends had invited themselves over to Iida's.
Deku'll take the 9.30 train to Iida's house, it's not too far. Uraraka lives 20 minutes on foot from Iida's house, she'll definitely make it there.
‘Todoroki is a rich bastard, he'll probably be dropped off via chauffeur driven limousine,’ he giggles at his own joke, turning over in bed settling into a comfortable position.
It'll be nice to see them out of school for a while.
Deku has almost drifted off when his phone buzzes.
"Uraraka-kun?" he croaks into the mic
Uraraka's voice is way too cheerful for this late an hour. It's atleast past midnight.
"Change of plans we're having a picnic at the park outside UA, the whole class will be there. 10 am. Don't be late."
"Ugh" he replies eloquently before burying his face in his pillow and falling asleep immediately.
He's late. Oh he's definitely late. Uraraka is going to kill him and Iida will not shield him this time. Oh god Iida'll probably help Uraraka kill him and Todoroki won't even stop them oh shit he is going die, he's too young to die, he hasn't even mastered his quirk, why do bad things happen to good people-
"HAH IDIOT LOOK WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"
Deku's frantic mumbling is cut short as he lifts his chin to see who he's just ran straight into.
"K-Kacchan I- ah- sorry I was in a - What are you doing here- The picnic - are you also going- I mean, I'M SORRY FOR RUNNING INTO YOU", Deku stiffly bows and quickly takes a step away only to be rudely yanked back by a rough hand on his collar.
" Kaccha- !" His protest dies on his lips as the train thunders past.
"Oh. Uh. Thank you" he rubs the back if his neck sheepishly. It's not like he have died or anything, but he would definitely have been startled and fallen on his ass. He owes Kacchan one for not letting him make a total fool of himself in public at least.
Katsuki rolls his eyes, "Whatever" and strides past him walking onto the train.
Deku gapes at him, that rude bastard, until Katsuki smirks at him through the window, and deku jolts back to himself, wryly shaking his head and climbing aboard.
Deku squints up from his seat next to Katsuki. "You're late too huh?"
Katsuki grunts.
Conversational, Deku thinks.
"Never thought I'd see the day Kacchan wasn't the earliest in class"
"Tch" Katsuki is frowning but Deku knows it's not an angry frown. He hasn't had many opportunities to speak to his childhood best friend up until this year, but he can still read Kacchan. He's got 14 quirk analysis notebooks to back him up.
Anyway, Deku isn't scared of Kacchan's anger anymore.
"- didn't find out till this morning. Fucking useless extras."
Deku snaps back to attention, "They didn't call you last night?"
"Tch Shitty Hair called at like 1 am. What kind of loser picks up a call at fuck o' clock anyway" Katsuki scowls and looks away.
Deku grins at the back of his head, "Well...."
"Eh? You were up at one weren't you."
Katsuki snorts,"You need more sleep shitty nerd. Keep this up and you'll never surpass me."
He isn't smiling but Deku can almost hear it in his voice.
And it's enough. Honestly. They're aren't friends yet. But they might be.
°°° (16:17)
On an average, summers are good times. They're the time for fun and friends and for a wild, unbridled joy. They're the times of letting go, living and loving a little more recklessly than usual.
Izuku loves summers. He does, really. But this is one summer he never wants to suffer ever again.
The aftermath of the battle with Shigaraki had been catastrophic. Devastation on an unprecedented scale. Whole towns obliterated, staggering casualties, immeasurable grief.
Izuku cannot close his eyes without hearing screams from somewhere 150 ft. below him. He shivers at every gust of wind, tearing past his cheek, a phantom of the winds he'd stirred up with his black whips, desperate to keep his friends, his allies, his mentors off the ground. He hates it.
Most of all, he hates the burning heat of the sun out here on the hospital balcony. It's too close to the blistering heat of Kacchan's explosions. The explosions with which he'd propelled himself forward and thrown himself in front of a terrible blow so clearly meant for Izuku.
Kacchan had risked his life for Izuku this summer, and effectively ruined Izuku's favourite season.
The sun was too hot the air was too stagnant and time was too still. And Izuku was trapped in a single moment, waves of hot air fanning against his cheek, the most terrible sound he'd ever heard in his life playing on loop in his mind. It's too hot.
A small gasp that had spilled from Kacchan's parted lips, followed quickly by crimson blood,
"Don't go playing hero by yourself"
And then he was falling and taking with him some part of Deku's heart that not even Deku had realised he'd given to his estranged best friend.
Izuku shudders against the railing, it's so hot but he's so cold and he can't hold back the tears. Kacchan hasn't woken up and it's been two weeks and it's his birthday in two days and Izuku is so so scared Kacchan might be dying before he turns seventeen. Before he becomes the number one hero, before he surpasses All Might. Before Izuku can tell him what he means to him.
Izuku wants to curl up in a hole and die in his place. He wants to throw himself in front of death and drag Kacchan back to his side, like Kacchan had done for him. He's wanted to do that every waking moment since he first cracked his eyes open in a hospital room greeted by a sobbing Inko one week ago.
Izuku clenches a fist, “Kacchan is NOT going to die. Kacchan is the most capable hero you know. Kacchan is Victory itself. He will not lose.”
His eyes are stinging and it's too hot here. He hates the heat. He's going to burn up, he needs to get out of here, he needs to see Katsuki, he needs-
A hand on his shoulder makes him yelp.
"To- Todoroki-kun" Izuku raises a trembling hand to wipe away his tears, "I didn't see you there"
"Midoriya. You should be resting."
Shouto is calm and collected, a far cry from his frantic screams as he dove to catch a falling Kacchan while struggling to keep his grip on the unconscious number one hero, all the while yelling for his other best friend.
"You should be resting too."
Izuku wants to stay out here, as far from his sterile room as he can manage for a little longer but the exhausted concern in Todoroki's eyes makes him relent.
"Come on, your room is the same way "
The two boys shuffle down the corridors slowly, the topic of an injured classmate, an injured friend-
‘Maybe something more?’ Deku thinks,
-hanging in the silence between them.
Deku wakes up in a dim room, to a commotion outside. He can see a few harried nurses rushing past his room. Blearily he throws a glance at the clock. It's past midnight, almost one a.m. Fuck o' clock.
He's going to turn over and go back to sleep when he sees a sobbing Mitsuki Bakugou stumble past his room, a spring in her step he hasn't seen, all the times he's made awkward eye contact with her around this hospital.
Kacchan.
Izuku is out of his bed in an instant, stumbling through the door, not even pausing to hear a sleepy " 'zuku?" from his rudely awoken mother on the couch.
He tears down the hallway to a room he's visited almost religiously every night this past week.
Kacchan.
He skids to a stop. Auntie Mitsuki pulls away from the figure on the bed who raises his head to look him in the eye.
"Deku" Katsuki rasps and he's grinning. And then Izuku is crying, stumbling into the room and sinking into Katsuki's weakly raised arms.
"Kacchan." Kacchan Kacchan Kacchan
He's okay. He's alive. He's going to make it. Something loosens in Izuku's chest.
"Get off me shitty nerd-"
"Kacchan shutup." Deku whispers furiously.
"Hah!?" Katsuki 's eyes are bugging out of his head. "What did you say-"
"You nearly got yourself killed Kacchan. I was so scared. You're so stupid. You can't call me shitty anymore, I know you care about me now."
Izuku is so relieved. He doesn't really know what he's saying. He's probably dribbling snot onto Kacchan's hospital gown. It's okay. He doesn't care.
"EH? That's what you're going to say to someone who saved your life!?" Kacchan's face is so red.
It's the best sight he's ever seen.
Izuku breathes out a laugh and Kacchan's face untwists into a smile and then Izuku is leaning into his shoulder, temples pressed firmly against Kacchan's burning cheeks. Kacchan flushes harder. Izuku is warm again.
Maybe some kinds of heat are good too.
Summer has always been his favourite season.