Chapter Text
“HA,” Katsuki exclaimed, after he climbed onto the upper part of the slide, and pointed a finger at Izuku, who followed close behind, “beat ya’ again!”
“No fair, Kacchan, I wanna be the hero this time,” the boy whined, as he attempted to climb onto the slide as well, only to be swatted away.
“Get down,” Katsuki pushed the other’s hands away a second time, “there’s no more room up here,” he huffed, “and besides, you’re no fun when you play the hero. You always cry when I win.”
“That’s cuz the hero’s supposed to win! You never play fair,” Izuku climbed up yet again despite his several failed attempts; to be expected, he was denied once more, “stop hogging it, Kacchan! I wanna come up too!”
“I told you, there’s no room,” Katsuki spat in an annoyed tone, “you’ll fall, and blame it on me. So stay off, Deku, I mean it.”
Izuku’s face grew a steamy shade of red; if the other kids on the playground would have looked over, they’d more than likely see an angry stream of steam shoot out of his ears like a boiling tea kettle.
“Yeah? And who says you won't fall,” he mumbled under his breath before he grabbed onto the other boy’s ankle, and shoved it to the side so that he’d lose his balance.
Izuku couldn’t help but smirk when Katsuki did just that; especially when he saw the look on his face on the way down, and heard the squeal that went with it.
A loud thud made the tube-like slide hum as Katsuki collided into it on the way down; a secondary, more distant sound of the boy hitting the wood chips below followed.
Izuku had fully prepared himself for a high speed chase; surely Katsuki would be furious with him after a stunt like that.
But none followed. In fact, he didn’t even get up, or say anything for at least half a minute, or so. And when he finally did, he cried, and screamed out in pain.
The rest of that day blurred together as guilt, worry, and panic took over. One minute, he was looking down at his friend with a sense of pride at his victory, and the next, everyone was being ushered back inside before recess was even half over.
Katsuki didn’t come with; in fact, he didn’t even come back to school that day, or the next, or the day after that… or for the rest of the month.
When his friend finally returned, Izuku almost wished that he hadn’t, because things were a lot different now.
They weren’t friends anymore. They didn’t talk, or play, they didn’t chase each other around and pretend to be heroes, and villains. It was almost like Katsuki wasn’t Katsuki anymore. Instead of being loud, and angry, and obnoxious, he was quiet, and sad, and almost, scared? He wouldn’t even look at Izuku, let alone let him say sorry. The teacher told his class that he was paralyzed, whatever that meant. All he knew was that he was always in a wheelchair now, and that he never did anything. He didn’t even do his own work. One of the teachers always wrote it for him.
It was weird, and it made no sense at all. He didn’t know how to feel about it. Yeah, he was sorry; of course he was.
But at the same time, a small part of him almost… enjoyed it; seeing him like that.
He didn’t really know why that feeling was there. But one thing was for sure; he definitely couldn’t ask anyone about it, cuz he’d get in serious trouble.
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