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Izuku’s always loved his wings, he really has— they’re the most beautiful part of him, the only thing that makes him just like everyone else. Everyone has wings, so many different shapes and sizes and colours: the world is a dazzling array of colours, as far as the eye can see.
Izuku may not have a quirk, may never be a hero… but Izuku can always fly.
He’s good at flying, better than most— excels in diving, looping through the air and he exists in euphoric freefall whenever he approaches the ground. He skims the water, the trees, trails his hands along the backs of the pigeons he flies past— Izuku thinks of nothing but the open sky whenever the wind brushes his feathers.
Kacchan doesn’t like it, the way he flies away whenever he gets close to him. Katsuki has wings meant for soaring, for long distances and warm updrafts— meant to float high above everyone below him. His wings are huge, heavy, filled with dense packed feathers, meant to carry weight but he cannot turn on a dime like Izuku can.
It’s what keeps Izuku safe— Kacchan will never be as fast as him. It drives Kacchan’s anger to new heights every time Izuku flies away from him, but at least Izuku is just a step ahead from him every time.
But it isn’t just Kacchan that Izuku has to avoid these days, clustered in the hallways and courtyards of Aldera High.
He finds himself trapped on the roof of all places— Kacchan’s friends are on both sides and there is nowhere to go . They will catch him if he makes a run for it now, because even with his smaller stature, they take up every avenue of escape.
So he bides his time. “K-Kacchan, let me out of here please!”
Kacchan snarls something vicious, and Izuku knows he’s said something in the noise but he cannot decipher it. “Deku! Get it through your head— your fancy fucking feathers aren’t gonna make you a hero!”
Kacchan waves the cause of the whole debacle in front of Izuku’s face: his hero notebook, number fourteen. Izuku had stupidly decided today was the day to adjust his notes on Kacchan’s wings, on how he could trim his flight feathers to dive faster, to be more maneuverable in the air. But Kacchan might be loud, and slow in the air— but his mind was anything but slow .
“D’ya get off on being faster than me, Deku? Did’ya really think your fancy wings were gonna give you an edge over me ?” There’s the heavy promise of heat in Kacchan’s hands when he grips the base of Izuku’s wing— it burns, in the same way sun-hot metal does against his skin in the summer. “No, Deku, I think you need to remember exactly why you can't be a hero.”
Izuku’s wing thrashes against his will as the heat builds, searing and hot— he cannot hold still, cannot pull far enough away from feeling and when he cries out, Kacchan drops his hand like he is the one being burnt. “I—“
Izuku reels away from the pain in a blind haze and in dizzying moment of terror, trips—
And then there is just air on his face and the rush of the wind filling his ears with a deafening roar. His wings snap out on instinct, fear driving them open faster than they ever have before and there is a mighty snap as a hand latches onto the bone of his wing—
And then there is nothing but pain, and then nothing.
⋅•✧────── ☾ ──────✧•⋅
“You could’ve died, young man! What were you thinking, diving off a rooftop that fast! Your wings are meant for diving, yes, but your wings were in no state to do anything like that.” The nurse admonishes, her words passing through Izuku’s mind in a blank haze. “It’s a bad break, and it’s not going to heal properly— you’ll need to rest it properly for at least a month and no strenuous flying for at least a month.”
Izuku just nods along with the dizzying rush of information, in one ear and out the other before Izuku can even attempt to remember it.
“You’re lucky your friend was there to catch you, Midoriya-san.”
Izuku stares at Bakugou Katsuki, slumped in the medical chair across the room, as the nurse checks the bandage tightness around his wing. It aches, hot and fierce— the burn itches beneath the layer of cream the nurse had lathered on. “Yes,” Izuku says faintly, as Katsuki meets his eyes with something turbulent and troubled in his gaze.
“So very lucky .”
Katsuki looks down at his hands and does not meet Izuku’s gaze.