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“Neito!” He looked over when Izuku called his name. “Go right!”
Neito nodded and dodged left; he and Izuku had worked out a system where they went in opposite directions so as to confuse their opponents. And so far, it was working. Neito twirled out of the way as Izuku roundhouse-kicked Toga in the face and spun around, panting.
“That’s not very nice, Izuku-chan,” she pouted and rubbed her rapidly-bruising chin. “Come on, can’t we just talk?”
Neito snorted. “You just want his blood,” he accused.
Toga nodded and bared her teeth. “And you don’t?”
Neito ran his arm along his wrist guard, picking up Kendou’s quirk and swiping Toga out of the way. He was too late, though; she managed to flick him with her knife. She lickedit eagerly.
The slurping sound of her drinking his blood would haunt his nightmares for weeks to come.
“Izuku-chan,” she sing-songed in Neito’s voice. “Come here, why dontcha?”
“You’re not Neito!” he cried, leaping forward for another attack.
“Maybe not,” Toga began slyly, “But I’m him in the way that counts.” Toga ran an arm along her own wrist guard- Neito’s costume copied over, along with his skin- and her-fingers-as-Neito’s morph into claws.
“Izuku, look out-” Neito cried,but it was really himself he should’ve been looking out for.
Toga lunged for him, arms outstretched. Neito raised his arm to try (futilely, he knows) to block her strike.
But Izuku was already leaping in front of Neito, quirk activated, and she cut him across the chest with her claws.
Izuku collapsed, blood pumping from his chest.
Toga grinned and leaned down, mouth wide open.
A haze of red cut across Neito’s vision. Fuck. No.
Neito swiped across his wrist guard, copying Kamakiri’s quirk.Dozens of blades sprout from his body, which is quadruple the amount he could normally manage. Neito pulled a blade from either side and threw them at Toga, one after the other.
“Woah,” Toga inhaled, sparkles in her eyes. “That’s so cool, Neito-kun!”
Neito froze for a moment. That’s something Izuku would say. Neito shook his head, then launched himself at Toga, blades in hand.
“I’m going to destroy you for what you did to my friend,” he promised.
Toga ducked under Neito’s blades and dodged his knives. When he paused for a moment, just a moment, to generate more blades, she ran up close and peeked up at him from green curls. “Are you sure you wanna do that?” she purred. “After all, I am Izuku.”
“No you’re not!” Neito cried, shoving Toga away and using Twin Impact to give it an extra oomph . “Fuck off and leave my friend alone!”
Toga fell to the ground and pouted. “You’re so rude, Neito-kun. Besides, is it really me you should be focusing on?”
“Huh?”
“Well, your so-called friend is bleeding out over there, isn’t he?” Toga asked. She licked her knife and murmured. “Isn’t it pretty?”
“Fuck you,” Neito growled, already sprinting over to Izuku’s side. Shit, this is bad, he thought. At least he’d trained with Yaoyorozu often enough to know the chemical composition of bandages.
Then Neito heard feet pounding behind him and he whirled around to see Toga running away.
Do I go after her or help Izuku?
After a moment Neito realized that he could do both.
He tapped Yaoyorozu’s square on his wrist guard, then concentrated until a trapped harpoon popped out of his stomach. Neito smirked and launched it, grinning devilishly when it trapped it’s target with a satisfying thwack!
He turned back to Izuku and frowned. Neito produced a long roll of bandages from his arm, propped Izuku up on a nearby rock, and got to work.
Neito leaned back and sighed. Lunch outside simply wasn’t the same without Izuku there. The birds’ eager song was no replacement for his best friend's excited chattering.
After they fought Toga in the park the other day, Izuku was rushed to the hospital and Toga was sent to jail. Izuku still hadn’t returned.
Neito still remembered the pain he felt, seeing Midoriya Inko find her son in a hospital bed yet again.
Neito shook his head to clear the intruding thoughts. “Guess it’s just you and me, huh?” he said, wistfully glancing at his katsudon.
“Guess so!” a familiar voice cried.
Neito’s head whipped up to land on someone he hadn’t seen in a week. “Izuku!” he exclaimed, jumping up to sweep him into a hug. “You're back!”
Izuku laughed and nodded as his feet flew off the floor. Neito held Izuku close for another moment, grinning and spinning him around, then reluctantly released him. “I didn’t know you were out of the hospital!”
“I only left this morning,” Izuku explained. “I’m not back for the whole day, either. I just came to say hey before I stay at my Mom’s house for the weekend to rest up.”
“You’re not staying at the dorms?” Neito asked.
Izuku shook his head. “The doctors said I should avoid loud environments and I’m sure the dorm is gonna go crazy.”
“I bet,” Neito sighed fondly. “Well, if you’re only staying for a bit do you at least wanna share lunch with me?”
“That sounds amazing,” Izuku agreed, knocking his shoulder against Neito’s. “What do you have?”
“I’ve been having a lot of katsudon recently,” Neito admitted.
“That’s my favorite food!” Izuku exclaimed, surprised.
“Yeah, I know,” Neito glanced at him sideways. Izuku’s eyes lit up, and as he ate Neito’s food and talked Neito’s ear off, all Neito could think about was how happy he was to have his best friend back.