Chapter Text
☂
Midoriya Izuku always followed his childhood friend Kacchan wherever he went and whatever he did. It was a constant challenge to keep up with him or, as he liked to think, to improve together. He chased after that back as if touching it was his only reason for living, only a few inches away yet unreachable.
Bakugō Katsuki had always known about Deku's obsession with him and felt a secret comfort in it. It reassured him to know that he would always be there, behind him when he turned around. He felt almost protected by that certain presence, as if it were a silent promise between them.
But promises are often broken, and Katsuki has to learn this the hard way. First, he feels surpassed by Deku, who keeps getting better and better, and now he is the one struggling to keep up with him; then suddenly there is a war and Deku disappears. Into thin air, who knows where, with a stupid farewell letter.
Katsuki looks for him behind him as they did when they were children, far away from him, running at breakneck speed in the storm of his remorse and things he wanted to say to him, shouting his name. But Deku is no longer there, wherever he turns. That presence, that fundamental pillar in his life, however much he doesn't want to admit it, is no longer there. And everything inside him begins to collapse.
Perhaps he had only deluded himself that theirs was a special bond. One of those that go back and forth on paths that are sometimes alternating and sometimes parallel, chasing each other, driven by the relentless wind of rainy days and always expecting each other at the wrong moment. One of those where everything changes but nothing changes, because they are doomed to chase each other, barely touching, stuck like that forever.
Perhaps, instead, Katsuki has not yet understood that the strength of their tormented and inexplicable bond lies precisely in this. They have always been and always will be like this: suspended in the air like two swings.
☂