Chapter Text
Izuku’s firefighting work often kept him extra occupied and simply… well, unreachable. With hectic shifts and work-a-holic bullshit, as Kacchan described it, the green-haired twenty-five-year-old had no actual time to interact with other human beings that, one, weren’t on his clock and, two, weren’t Katsuki Bakugou adjusting to his clock. It’s not like he hadn’t tried to hold interactions with other people. His ex-classmates were good friends, but he’d rather just… hang out in the comfort of his home. And dating? After all the assholes and witches he’d somehow managed to always attract and be attracted to? Nope. No way he’d waste time trying to befriend anyone new or trying to be outside at all after his shifts.
Instead, he spent his time off tending to his garden, a small space in his house’s very small backyard. He liked to take his time pruning his flower beds on his free Saturdays when the season asked for it. He’d sit and hum merrily as he carefully clipped the faded flowers, always making sure he didn’t overdo it.
His persian buttercups had little upkeep set up for today, so he just sang to them and checked the bed for weeds. While his hands explored through the leaves and blossoms, Izuku found himself staring at… a strange looking bud. The rosey red blossom appeared to be bloated, slightly more bulbous than he was used to seeing. He wondered what may be wrong with it, so he resorted to gently poking it with his index finger.
As if he’d pressed a button, the flower “bloomed” exposing someone Izuku was not exactly expecting in his wildest dreams.
Sleeping cozy and nestled inside one of his persian buttercups was a small red-headed man. The fact he was half-naked wasn’t as shocking as the fact he had beautiful, swirl patterned, semi-translucent black butterfly wings.
“HUH?” Izuku finally expressed, eyes wide and brain going a mile a second. Why was he sleeping in his flowers?! Wait, no, WHAT WAS THIS MAN?
The small man stirred in his sleep, the orange pollen sticking to his skin twinkling against the sunlight. He yawned, cutely stretching his muscular arms, sleepy eyes blinking open momentarily before opening up as wide as Izuku’s once he realized he was being watched.
“Oh!” The man squeaked as he hurriedly grabbed the flower’s petals and attempted to hide with them.
“Um, that’s not really doing the job…” Izuku chuckles a little bit amused, momentarily forgetting he hadn’t just found a sprite in his flowers. “Have you always been this small?”
The small man pokes his face out of the petals, brows slightly furrowed.
“It could be that I’m hallucinating… it’s likely I am. I mean, people can’t be your size. That notion is crazy, I have to be crazy–”
“...it’s not crazy…” The small man interjected Izuku’s downward spiral. “...you really can see me?”
“I guess I can…what it means for my mental health is a mystery…” Izuku’s head lolled, wondering what part of his hectic life had finally made him get to this point.
“I’m starting to see that…” The man mumbled, not to Izuku but… to the flowers? “Not a lot of people can see my kind, therefore I have to be careful when I find out someone can see me.”
“I’m… a little lost?” Izuku fell back on his butt, still looking at the small man with confusion but also, now with a brand of resignation and curiosity. “Your kind?”
The small man released the petals he’d been using to “hide” and, using his pretty wings, started hovering over the flowers. He dusted off the pollen on his body and on his above-the-knees red skirt before he flew close to Izuku’s face. Now the man’s red eyes were apparent, along with a couple scars over his very defined muscles.
“Your garden speaks highly of you, Mr. Midoriya, always has…” The small man stated, arms crossed and a smug toothy smile on his face. “My name is Eijirou and I’m the fairy that takes refuge in your garden every now and then.”
“A fairy? As in, you’re magic?” Izuku asked, baffled.
“I know, it sounds, umm, insane from a human perspective, but I can assure you, you’re not hallucinating! I’m very very real!” Eijirou giggled before clearing his throat. “Right, um! Sorry to have disturbed you, it was not my intention to be found out, I promise all I do is sleep in your flowers! My wings get very tired fighting wind currents in the city and your garden is the perfect place between fairy rings to rest on. It’s unsafe for me to find refuge anywhere else.”
“Oh, I see! Wait, how long have you–?”
“It’s been about a year, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to ask permission, humans aren’t supposed to be able to see us at all, as I said before.” Eijirou explained. “Your garden was okay with my staying though, if it counts for anything? Your roses needed a little help some months ago when neither you nor your blond friend could tend to them, I made sure to fix the soil and chase away some bad actors for you.”
Wait. Izuku blinked with understanding.
A couple months ago both he and Katsuki had gotten in an accident rescuing civilians from a three story building that had been deliberately set on fire. The accident had left them in the hospital for weeks with wounds and fractures on top of smoke inhalation. His watering and automated emergency gardening system should have kicked in to keep most of his garden intact while one of them got discharged from the hospital. Upon his return he did not expect for all his plants to be healthy, the system could only handle basic caretaking. Yet, when he walked into his garden all he found he needed to do was prune a few wild bushes. Against all odds, none of his plants had become ill.
The unexplainable had gotten an impossible explanation, one that made perfect sense to Izuku in his current circumstance.
“...You do a great job of taking care of this garden! I wouldn’t feel this safe in it otherwise.” Eijirou concluded.
“Let me get this straight.” Izuku pressed his hands together and gestured towards the supposed fairy. “You are a fairy who comes by my garden to rest between flights, and sometimes you help take care of my garden. I hadn’t seen you before because you’re invisible to humans, but for reasons not even you understand, I am able to see you today.”
“It’s not for a reason I don’t understand. One of the ways humans can gain the ability to see us is as a result of a flower making a wish!” Eijirou replied matter-of-factly.
“A flower… made the wish for me to be able to see you?” Izuku was stunned, this whole scenario and fantastical setting may be overloading his brain.
Eijirou turned around to look at the persian buttercups, then at the other flower beds… and then at the two trees Izuku kept in his backyard.
“Not a flower, your whole garden.” Eijirou turned to look at Izuku again. “They all wished you could see me.”
Blinking in disbelief, Izuku stood up and took a big breath.
“I– I think I’m going to catch a nap. The sun must be getting to me…” He stated.
“Alrighty! Again, I’m sorry to have disturbed you! I’ll get on my way–”
“UM.” Izuku could NOT believe he was saying this to someone who had to be a hallucination of some kind. “If my garden welcomes you, I wouldn’t want to keep one of its friends away. Please feel free to continue using it as your rest stop…”
Eijirou brightened up like the sun, a beautiful smile on his face, his black wings glowing with bright red patterns while sparkly fairy dust made his whole body shimmer.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Midoriya! I promise not to bother!”
After that whole strange interaction, Izuku went indoors to meditate on his couch for about twenty minutes before deciding to research lore on fairies. He may be hallucinating the small and attractive fairy man, but curiosity was getting the best of him.
It didn’t hurt to know a little more, even if Eijirou disappeared forever and he didn’t have to worry about taking a psych eval.
The rest of his weekend was… entertaining. At first, he was terrified to go into the garden and see his hallucinated fairy. But come Sunday morning when it was time to water his plants, the little fairy man was nowhere to be found. For a few hours, Izuku really did think he had been imagining the whole thing… and then he made the decision to have a picnic outdoors for lunch.
“Oh! That smells sweet! Are those strawberries?” The cheery voice of a familiar delusion made Izuku almost choke on his piece of strawberry shortcake. “Would you consider growing some? I know they’re a little hard to upkeep, but I can always give you a hand!”
Eijirou the fairy had decided to fly by and join Izuku on his picnic. Today he was wearing a whole lot more than the day before, a cute button shirt with dress pants and a pair of suspenders to support them.
“...Hi…” Izuku mumbled, mouth covered in white frosting.
“Haha, you got a little something all over your face, Mr. Midoriya!” Eijirou laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re still thinking you’re crazy?”
“Can you blame me?” Izuku asked, not really looking for an answer.
“Entertain your madness for a while then! I was talking to your peonies just now and they mentioned you like strawberries a lot. So! How about we make a cute little space, we plant some strawberries and then I’ll check on them when you can’t!” Eijirou proceeded to sit across from Izuku, eyes ogling at the strawberries remaining on Izuku’s plate.
“...I thought you only came to rest your wings, Kirishima.” Izuku replied before he licked the cream off his lips.
He grabbed a napkin and placed a strawberry and a small piece of cake on it for the fairy to enjoy. Eijirou glowed from excitement as he buried his face on the strawberry first and then on the piece of cake. His clothes somehow didn’t get dirty, but his face was covered in frosting and pieces of cake.
“Weeeeeell…” The fairy started, hands wiping the food off his face. “I’ve always wanted to talk to you. I thought maybe we could be friends now that you can see me?”
“If my garden likes you and you want to, then there’s not a real objection on my part. I wouldn’t mind us becoming friends.” Izuku replied. “Uhm, you don’t know where I work though, right?”
“Don’t worry Mr. Midoriya. I promise not to make you question your sanity.” Eijirou chuckled. “More than you likely do, at least.”
That made Izuku laugh heartily, his laughter contagious enough to get Eijirou going too. Their evening was spent planning a small strawberry “fairy” garden and discussing stuff about Izuku’s job. Kirishima wanted to have context as to why the young human would have times where it was harder to tend to his garden. All his context came from how worried his garden would get when he was away for more than two days after all, so Izuku gave him a crash course into the life of a firefighter. When night came, Eijirou seemed to lose his pixie-glow of sorts, his drowsy eyes showing off how his strength left with the sun’s rays. Izuku tucked him into his biggest persian buttercup, the fairy yawning and curling into it all cozy.
“G’night, Mr. Midoriya…” He yawned, the persian buttercup’s petals closing in to cover him.
“...good night, Kirishima…” Izuku caught himself grinning as he replied, immediately shaking himself off it before walking back into his home… not without sparing one last glimpse at the now bloated flower blossom.