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Izuku loves the sun, he really does. It brings him endless joy, like the long days of the summer that bring about a quantity of freckles to his skin so abundant that you couldn't count them, even if you tried. Kacchan had tried once when they were younger, they spent the whole summer running around the forest with their tops off and when they came back, Izuku's torso was a mess of tanned skin and light brown spots.
Kacchan practically pounced on him when he noticed, instantly tracing over the spots with his grubby little toddler fingers. He'd mess up once he passed 20, opening and closing his little hands in angry confusion before starting all over again. Izuku entertained it for a little while, the little pokes against his skin having him giggling uncontrollably, but he eventually tired of it.
"Kachaaaaaaaan*" He whined as the other boy started counting again for the millionth time that day. The sun had started to set already and the forest was looking less and less inviting by the second.
"Shut up 'Zuku, I'm not done." Kacchan said, his tongue breaching the seal of his lips to form a confused little pout. It was the one he wore when they coloured together and he tried reaaaaaally hard to stay inside the lines. He did the same concentrated face when they played heroes, and he was trying to use his quirk! Kacchan would stare at the ground and try to get it to move, like an Earthbender! Izuku was gonna get teleke– teleka– moving stuff through the air but not touching it! And Kacchan was gonna control the earth, and they were gonna be the best hero duo ever!
"But Kacchan," He pouted, shoving their hero plans out of the way for the moment, remembering they wouldn't be heroes if they didn't get home soon. He'd be 100 by the time Kacchan finished counting! That was too old to be a hero!!! "I'm hungryyyyy."
Kacchan ignored him, softly muttering numbers under his breath and poking Izuku's freckles with each new number.
"I'll give you all my ice cream after dinner!" He said, poking the other boy's face to get his attention.
"Stop distracting me Zuku!" His face was red, his eyebrows scrunching up to look like one of the caterpillars they'd found earlier. Izuku couldn't help but giggle at the image of a yellow caterpillar crawling over Kacchan's forehead. "And stop laughin' at me!"
The pout was back now, but his tongue had disappeared behind his lips. He was just angry now, only thinking about being angry, putting all his concentration into being angry instead of counting. Which is why he stopped and started over, again.
"Kacchan." Izuku whispered, poking his cheek again before he could start counting again. "I'll let you have Bunny Might for the whole day tomorrow."
Bunny Might was Izuku's favourite stuffed plushie. He slept with it every night without fail, always tucked into the crook of his neck, keeping him safe throughout the night, from nightmares and spiders and other scary things. Offering Bunny Might to Kacchan was like telling Uncle that they wanted to watch TV, even though it was after their bedtime and during the week. There was no way the other boy could say no, and he didn't.
"Bunny Might?" Kacchan instantly stopped counting, staring up at him with wide eyes filled with admiration and wonder, like he couldn't believe Izuku was offering the prized plushie to him.
"Mhm!" Izuku nodded, excitedly.
Kacchan was off him in an instant, pulling him up with him before dragging him back through the trees to Auntie's house.
They got there in record time, Kacchan jumping up and down like he did when All Might beat the villains in the cartoon TV show every Saturday morning. He was so excited to get Bunny Might.
Izuku almost regretted offering him the plushie, but he was happy to get back home. The ground in the forest was starting to get uncomfortable against his back, like one of Uncle's jumpers he wore over the white shirts when he went to work.
All of their problems disappeared into the night sky as they laughed and played with one another, their parents fussing over them and asking where exactly they'd left their t-shirts. They weren't exactly impressed that they'd lost them, but in the end they had a lot more in their wardrobes, so it didn't really matter. And since Mum, Uncle and Auntie weren't angry, they got to play for a little bit longer!
But then they had to leave, the sun saying goodbye and the moon saying hello as it appeared over the houses on the street. Izuku didn't like the moon much, it always stopped him and Kacchan from having fun. Mum always said they had to go home when she saw the moon, it wasn't fair. When he became a hero, he was gonna get rid of the moon, then he and Kacchan could play forever! They'd never have to stay away from each other!
Auntie gave him a big hug before he left though which was nice. Her hugs were really nice, she was always warm and soft, but Kacchans hugs were the bestest! He was warm and soft and he always promised to play again with Izuku the next day. But Auntie looked so surprised when they hugged, she even said he "tanned really well". That meant he did good! Didn't it? Even Mum agreed with Auntie, saying something about "jeans" and how "looky" he was because of his skin! So he must have been But then the moon pushed him and Mum home and away from Kacchan until tomorrow.
He tucked Bunny Might under his chin and snuggled under the covers in his red yellow and blue pajamas, ready for Mum to read him a bedtime story. At least he'd get to see Kacchan again tomorrow and they could play in the sun alllllllllllll day!
Izuku loved the sun.
Whoever made the sun could fuck right off.
Not only had Izuku just ran 40km up a mountain — an unsteady mountain with plenty of loose rocks at an inhumane incline — all day in the sweltering heat of the summer, hotter than Todoroki even — and that boy was hot, in more ways than one — but he had to do it all without using his quirk! Not even a single sparkle of electric green did he use throughout the day. Why, you ask? Oh well, probably because Aizawa-Sensei was running alongside him, wearing a backpack filled with dumbbells because "I need the exercise". Because his teacher was doing the run alongside him for fun
And yes, Izuku was still terrified of his teacher, even if he was only a year away from graduation. Nothing would ever take away his fear of respect for the other man. That and the fact that Aizawa had threatened to throw him off the top of the mountain if he caught Izuku using his quirk. That was probably a way of getting Izuku to force his quirk to be more discrete but… well, he wasn't bothered to take that risk, not with his teacher practically breathing down his neck under the hot summer sun, ready to catch him the second he slipped up.
But back to the point, the sun. The sun is a deadly laser and Izuku would love if it could, disrespectfully, go die in a ditch somewhere far away from him.
He stood in the pale light of the moon, relaxing into the feeling of cold air against his neck. And his back. And his arms, and his face, and his legs, and his chest, and his stomach and his everywhere. Why is this? Oh, well it's because Izuku tans well, really well.
Oh, but did he forget to mention? He only tans well with sunscreen. Without sunscreen he doesn't even freckle, oh no, all he does is burn.
So instead of standing there with nicely tanned skin covered in as many freckles as the night sky in the clearest part of the world, where light pollution was practically non-existent, he was red. Bright red that made him look like Kirishima and Testutetsu had simultaneously body slammed him before handing him off to Kendou who smacked him stupid until he looked closer to a strawberry than he could achieve from just being embarrassed.
Of course, that wasn't the end of it, because why would it be? The world was never so kind to Izuku. Not only was he red and sore, but he was peeling. The skin around his arms, the back of his neck, his chest. It was just hanging there in innocent little strips practically screaming "Pull me! I won't do any harm!". And Izuku, the naive little man he was… He pulled at it, and then he immediately regretted it because instead of only getting rid of the singular little flap of semi-dead skin, he pulled on the string of cells and it came away from his skin like butter on a hot knife. The only problem? Is that it brought a patch of skin the size of his palm with it.
Izuku hissed at the cold against the newly revealed skin on his chest, wishing to God that Todoroki would stop talking so damn long to get the sunburn cream.
"For fuck's sake how long does it take to go to the bathroom and get the damn cream." He spat out into the air. Izuku wasn't actually angry with Todoroki but fuck he was freezing his balls off out here and if Todoroki didn't hurry up, he'd go out and harvest some aloe vera himself goddammit it.
And then Katsuki walked out of the hostel they were staying in, wearing nothing but a pair of loose pajama pants. Now normally Izuku would be drooling over the fact that Kacchan was topless, would appreciate the V of his hips and the ridges of his rock hard abs — he was a gay, hormonal teenager. He can and will simp over any of his male classmates goddammit — but he was a bit preoccupied with the pain all over his body from shifting barely a centimetre, just to welcome the other boy as he carefully stomped out to sit on the bench with his friends. There was also the fact that Kacchan's usually pale, porcelain skin, was a raw red colour, brighter than Kirishima's hair, and far more saturated.
It looked beyond painful, and by the way he was walking robotically, holding his tomato red arms far away from his equally burnt body, it was exactly that. Izuku hissed in sympathy, knowing Kacchan's sunburn was a lot worse than his. They'd both been out in the sun all day, working hard, and Izuku… May have distracted him with a push-up competition before they started training which stopped either of them from applying sunscreen and then led to them getting burnt and… Yeah.
Now Izuku may burn without sunscreen, he may get red and uncomfortable and itchy with sunburn all over his skin, but… Katsuki was pale… Very pale. Despite his good skin — or maybe because of it, Izuku didn't know the science behind it — Katsuki burned like he'd been thrown into a volcano. If Izuku was lightly burned, Kacchan was ashes.
In case that didn't paint an ugly enough picture, imagine that they were both chickens — yes it's a weird analogy, fuck off. His sunburn-brain was trying its best here. Izuku had been put in the oven for just a little bit longer than he should've been and he came out just a little bit darker in colour, but Katsuki… Katsuki had been left in the oven for three days, had been exposed to so much heat that even his bones had turned to ashes, to blackened char and nothing more.
Now that you understand, imagine this. Izuku has just caught sight of Kacchan sitting with his friends, all of them laughing at him for his cherry-red skin, watching as he had to threaten them without moving at all. It was wildly entertaining. Maybe it was the sunburn — it always seemed to fuck with his head for some reason — but suddenly Izuku had a revelation. Actually, maybe a revelation was too strong of a word for what it was, it was less of a revelation and more of… Of recognising his surroundings, and how he could entertain himself as he waited for Todoroki to get back with the cream.
All he could see was the — impressively broad for someone with such a tiny waist — bright red back of Kacchan's body, and then all he could think about was 'What if…'
He smirked to himself as the idea formed fully in his mind and began strolling — limping his way over — to the picnic bench Kacchan and his friends were sitting at. Kacchan, Kirishima and Mina all had their backs to him, chatting loudly about the specialised training they'd done earlier, each of them complaining about how tough it was. Except for Kacchan, of course, he was just telling them off for being such lazy little gits.
"Maybe if you worked more instead of scrolling through TikTok all day, you wouldn't have such a hard time." He bit out, staying as still as he could. Izuku could tell he wanted to shout and wave his arms around animatedly, but refrained only because of the pain. He felt bad for a moment, but then he remembered how long he'd been waiting for Todoroki to get back with the stupid sunburn cream, and the thought instantly disappeared from his mind.
"Blasty! How could you say that to me?" Mina gasped in mock offence, clutching her chest dramatically. "I thought we were friends!".
"You thought wrong Pinky." He scoffed, his voice not lacking in its heat despite how still he was.
Izuku crept up behind them, catching the eyes of Kaminari and Sero, both boys looking at him like lost, confused puppies. He brought his hand up to his mouth, placing a finger over his lips and gesturing light with his other hand in a swatting motion.
Sero's eyes went wide with understanding, but Kaminari just furrowed his brow, opening his mouth, no doubt to ask what the hell Izuku meant by–
"Wha–Ow! What the hell was that for?" Kaminari turned on Sero, reaching down for his foot which the other had quite obviously stood on. "You could've crushed my toes! I need those!".
"I don't know what youre talking about." Sero whistled 'innocently', a smirk of poorly concealed amusement on his face.
Izuku breathed a small sigh of relief, a smirk of his own coming to his face as Kaminsri continued to hound Sero with — completely true — accusations that the table all denied seeing, despite how obvious Sero was when he did it.
He brought his hand up, wincing a little at the pain as his dried skin pulled taut around his joins and stretched around his shoulder, but he pushed through it. This would be worth the pain, the slight discomfort of moving his sunburned limbs.
It hung there in the air, for just a moment in the cold of the night, the yellow sodium lamps doing little to illuminate them alongside the moonlight above them. His skin looked so saturated in the strange mix of lighting, like someone had painted him in several coats of fire truck red glaze and shoved him in the oven to dry like some sort of pottery project.
And then Izuku brought his hand down.
It connected with dry red skin with a loud smack that rang throughout the clearing. Green lighting shimmered briefly, hinting that he'd used his quirk to power up the slap further than his muscles could achieve on their own.
Everything was quiet for a moment, a second where the air went still and shock hung heavy on everyone's tongues, like a weight clamping down on their mouths and forcing them into silence. And then it was broken, an incoherent scream of pain coming from the blonde just in front of him, from Kacchan.
Well, that was Izuku's cue to leave.
He ran off, green licking at his limbs and making them itch so bad but he ran on anyways, tears hanging in his eyes. Whether they were from the pain or from cackling uncontrollably, he couldn't tell. Maybe it was better that way.
Todoroki appeared then, stepping out of the building with a tub in his hand and a question on his lips.
"Ah, Midoriya. I found the sunburn crea–"
"Fuck the cream Todoroki, just run!" He sprinted past the other boy, cackling as a scream of "DEKUUUU" went up from behind him.
Sure, the sun sucked, and it burned him alive, and the moon was comforting in how cool it was, but it couldn't save him from Kacchan anymore. It couldn't force him home, unable to see Kacchan until the next day.
"FUCK YOU DEKU" Kacchan screamed after him, hot on his tail already.
And Izuku just laughed, pushing himself faster to escape the angry blonde.