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"Number two on this year's top ten notable UA graduates is Bakugo Katsuki. It was a tough debate between him and our number one, but there was no way we could leave this explosive personality off the top ten."
Katsuki could feel the twitch under his eye at the godawful pun and hellishly loud volume of the video coming from Kaminari's tinny phone speakers. As much as he wanted to focus on his sandwich, Thing One and Thing Two were up to their usual annoying (and distracting) antics where they sat across from him at the camp's outdoor picnic table.
"Oi, shitty hair, turn that shit down, would you?"
"Come on, Bakubro, you made number two! Check it out." Kirishima turned the phone around and propped it up against his plastic cup so the whole table could see the skinny dweeb on the screen talking about him.
"I don't care about making some internet nobody's list. Just turn it down." Katsuki once more tried to pay attention to his sandwich. Izuku was sitting next to him, strangely quiet for once, eating his considerably less awesome sandwich. What was that, relish? Disgusting.
"And now for the number one most notable UA graduate, Midoriya Izuku, hero name: Deku." Katsuki watched Izuku out of the corner of his eye. He paused with the sandwich half in his mouth, his interest piqued. "I'm sure it comes as no surprise that Deku has found his way to the top of my list, since anyone who's ever watched my videos knows I'm a big fan. But it's not just personal bias. After all, Deku has been being trained by the All Might himself for the last several years, and many anticipate he will be the next Symbol of Peace!"
If it had been anyone else watching Izuku, they may have thought the wide-eyed look on his face was one of excitement or happiness. Katsuki knew better.
"Damn. No pressure, huh?" Kirishima chuckled and clapped a hand on Deku's shoulder. Izuku seemed to shake off the fog for a half-second before giving a nervous laugh. Katsuki could see the slight tremor in his hands though.
"Nobody actually thinks I'll be the next Symbol of Peace. I appreciate his confidence in me, though." Always humble, Izuku shrugged off the stranger's praise before wrapping his half-eaten lunch up into a paper towel and tossing it away. "I think I'm gonna get a head start. See you guys on the field."
Kaminari gave a low whistle as they watched Izuku walk out towards the practice fields, where they weren't supposed to meet Aizawa for another twenty minutes. "If I had even half of that guy's modesty, I'd be a nun."
"Nobody wants to see you in a habit, Kaminari." Kirishima chuckled over his sandwich.
"I suppose I'll just have to continue proclaiming how awesome I am, then." Kaminari stretched his arms over his head with a grin.
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Something was off with Izuku for the rest of the day, and the fact that nobody but Katsuki seemed to notice was going to make him tear his hair out. Izuku was, quite frankly, amazing. He excelled in every exercise their teacher put them through. But it was off. His form was sloppy, his movements were hesitant, and his mind was clearly somewhere far away from the rest of his class.
When Izuku spaced out during a sparring session and Katsuki managed to land a solid hit on his shoulder, he knew he had to do something about it.
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"Deku, wake up." Katsuki shook Izuku's shoulder as gently as he could manage, watching the lump under the mass of blankets. How Deku was able to sleep under the comforter without sweating himself out in this heat, Katsuki would never know. As Deku mumbled something in his sleep and settled back in, Katsuki ripped the comforter back. The warm summer night air was apparently not warm enough, since Deku sat straight up with a whine.
Katsuki hushed him quickly, glancing at the other bunks to make sure no one else had been disturbed. "Get your ass up. Quietly."
"Kaachan?"
Katsuki tried his best to ignore the sleep turning Izuku's voice rough and beckoned him forward. Izuku's normally big eyes squinted at him in the dark before he reached out for Katsuki's hand to help lift him out of bed.
"Get your shoes on, I have to show you something."
"What is it?" Izuku leaned into Katsuki's chest and closed his eyes again. If Katsuki hadn't let go of him to grab his shoes, he surely would have fallen back asleep standing up. As it was, he helped Izuku stuff his feet into his customary red shoes.
"A surprise."
Deku let a sleepy smile slip across his lips. "You hate surprises."
"Yeah, but you don't. Come on, snooze button, let's go." Katsuki took Izuku's hand again and led him toward the door. Izuku followed groggily, not asking questions when he was lead outside and down the dirt trail that connected the boys' cabin to the main path. He didn't complain as he was slumped into a cool seat and closed his eyes again while Katsuki muttered soft curses. There was a rumble and then a gentle sway that started lulling him back to sleep.
It wasn't until the world stopped rocking that Deku truly opened his eyes, letting out a yawn. Squinting, he tried to make sense of his surroundings. In the dark, he could make out smooth plastic seats, slightly sticky with the heat that pulled at his skin. His shoes were scuffing at dirty flooring. He realized where he was.
"Kaachan…" Izuku pushed himself to his feet, steadying himself on a metal railing and glancing down at where his pajama pants were haphazardly tucked into his shoes. "Why are we on a bus?"
"Because I stole the keys." In the driver's seat, Katsuki removed said keys from the ignition and twirled them around his finger as he turned to meet Izuku's eyes. He couldn't help the slow smile crawling across his face at how very awake Izuku was now.
"You stole a bus?! " Izuku's voice hitched at the end of his sentence as he glanced out the windows, trying to figure out where exactly Katsuki had taken them.
Standing, Katsuki cocked his head with a smirk. "You'd think sneaking into the teacher's cabin would have been harder. Aizawa just left the keys out on the bathroom counter and everything." Izuku's expression went through a hundred different iterations of worry before he brought a hand to his face to cover his mouth. For a second, Katsuki was half worried he was going to launch into a mumbled lecture on all the ways Katsuki was causing trouble. Then he heard a muffled laugh.
"What the hell." Izuku gave an exasperated giggle. "What could possibly possess you to steal a bus. Aizawa is going to skin you alive."
"I thought you could use a breather." Katsuki shrugged, meeting Izuku's perplexed look. "You've been acting weird ever since Kirishima showed you that stupid video this morning. Don't act like you haven't," he cut him off before Izuku had a chance to protest. "I dunno, I just thought…" Katsuki rubbed at the back of his neck. "I thought maybe just being away from it for a little while would help you calm down. I know you're freaking out about everyone comparing you to All Might. Which really isn't fair, because you're not him, you're never going to be him."
"Yeah, you're right, I'm not." Izuku's shoulders sagged and he rested his hip against one of the seats.
"Shit, that's not-" Katsuki backpedaled. "I meant that to sound a little more encouraging."
"I get it, Kacchan." Deku's smile was weak. Katsuki began to notice the deep purple bags under his eyes. Maybe he should have just let him rest… "I'm just gonna have to do my best, right? Be myself?"
Katsuki pressed his lips together at the dry tone in which Izuku guessed at his entire pep talk. He'd heard people give him the same advice for the past three years, after all.
"Exactly. You are gonna do your best, and you are going to be yourself and all that other touchy-feely crap. But you're gonna have something All Might didn't." Katsuki reached over and pressed the handle on the bus' console, opening the doors to the bus. He stepped down the steps and onto the grass, where the crickets were singing louder than all the traffic in Musutafu. He heard the skid of Izuku's shuffling shoes behind him and turned, reaching out a hand to help the sleepy Izuku down the steps. "You're gonna have me there, right next to you. The whole time. Because like hell am I gonna let you half-ass your hero career the way you did today. You're going to be the number one, Deku, but if you slack off for even a moment I'll be right there to steal that spot from under you."
Izuku looked down at him, still standing on the final step of the bus, then out across the grassy hilltop behind him. In the sky, two stars shone so close together that Izuku couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. His eyes began to water. "If Kacchan steals the number one spot from me, I'll just have to take it back then."
"Hah?" Katsuki tried to act mad, but he couldn't hide his smile. "You think you can take something from me that easily? You couldn't steal candy from a baby."
Izuku gave a spluttering laugh as he tried to wipe at his eyes. "Of course I couldn't!"
"Get down here and fight me then, if you think you can take it." Katsuki spread his arms out in a challenge. Izuku stepped off the final stair of the bus and fell into his open arms in a hug. A little surprised, but not unpleasantly so, Katsuki wrapped his arms around his childhood friend. He took up so much more space in his arms than he did when they were little. Izuku gave a wet sniffle near his ear and Katsuki tried not to think about whether the dampness against his neck was from tears or snot as Izuku pressed his lips against the skin of his cheek.
"Thank you, Kacchan."