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"I don't like it," Katsuki said, six years old and scowling at the gentle flurries making their way down the tall, food court windows. They were in the mall. It was nine o'clock at night. Katsuki has said seven times now, at various volumes, that he doesn't like the snow.
Sero emotionally clocked out after the fourth, lying face down in an empty booth as the mall got ready to close for the night- shoppers piling out in droves, lights clicking off, gates rolling loudly down storefronts. Kaminari laid down on top of Sero as a joke but started genuinely snoring about fifteen minutes ago. Kirishima and Ochako paced near the doors, talking on speakerphone with Aizawa-sensei. Which left Ashido and Izuku here, sitting beside a six-year old Katsuki and trying, at least in Izuku's case, not to feel too affected by his little, forlorn pout.
Izuku hadn't even seen the little girl who accidentally hit Kacchan with her quirk, he'd just glanced over his shoulder and been bowled over by the sight of a six-year old Kacchan staring up at Izuku with wide, confused eyes and a defensive set to his stance.
"Kats," Ashido said. "Kiddo-"
"I'm not going out there," Kacchan declared seriously.
Ashido rolled her eyes and continued sipping her boba- mostly ice, by now- and looked over his head at Izuku, one eyebrow raised.
"We can't stay in the mall," Izuku tried gently. "They're closing."
"It's snowing," Katsuki informed him, like Izuku didn't quite grasp that major roadblock to their departure.
"Well," Izuku said, shooting a grateful smile to the passing food court worker who'd allowed them to stay while he wiped off tables and chairs. "You're already wearing a hoodie, so the snow won't be able to land on you."
Kirishima's hoodie, actually. A soft, red thing that trailed to a stop just below Kacchan's knees and had taken three tries and one bitten thumb to get over his head even after he'd agreed to wear it.
"And Aizawa-sensei already called us a car, so we only have to walk down to the parking lot."
"Fifteen seconds," Ashido chimed in.
"Right," Izuku said. "Just fifteen seconds- you can even count them- and then we'll be in a nice warm car and Auntie and Uncle are already waiting for us at the school. You talked to them on the phone, remember?"
"Obviously I remember that, Deku, I'm not stupid," he muttered, frown remaining in place. Kacchan huffed as he lowered his head on top of his arms, nose unhappily grazing the tabletop. His feet continued to swing lightly.
Ashido frowned, leaning closer to Kacchan. "What was that, Bakubaby?"
With great reluctance, Kacchan raised his head. "My feet," he repeated. "M'not wearin' boots."
"Neither am I," Ashido replied, bumping her zebra print sneakers into Kacchan's light-up All Might ones. "There's not that much snow out there, I promise."
Kacchan did not seem appeased, glaring down at Ashido's shoes with a disgust that, sort of, at the right angles, also looked like concern.
Izuku's brows knit together, his eyes on Kacchan's little sneakers but his mind casting back to quiet neighborhood streets, his mittened hand in his mother's while he looked up- always up- at Kacchan, perched in Masaru or Mitsuki's arms, depending on the memory. Most of the time, they walked side by side. Or, as side by side as they could be when Kacchan always insisted on being the leader. Most of the time, Izuku raced after his back and waited for Kacchan to throw a bright, wild grin over his shoulder. But winters feel…sedate, in Izuku's memory. Quiet as the hush of snow outside his apartment windows. Warm as sleepovers spent bundled up in Kacchan's All Might comforter- dragged out to the couch for the occasion.
Even at Aldera, Kacchan…slowed in the winter. He was all searing glares and lip service, yes, but without the constant, simmering crackle that seemed to follow him, those days, like a demon in his shadow.
And never without a pair of waterproof boots.
"Hey, Kacchan?"
Kacchan's furrowed gaze swiveled to Izuku.
"You don't wanna get your socks wet, huh?" Izuku asked, pleased when Kacchan shook his head no.
This was the issue. This is why they'd all been trapped inside the mall, unwilling to root Kacchan from his place when he was so vehemently against it.
"And it's cold," Kacchan added, attention slipping scornfully to his small hands.
"Okay, how about this," Izuku said, slipping off his chair to be at eye level with Kacchan. "You can run between here and the windows five times, so you work up a sweat, and then I can carry you in my jacket so your feet don't touch the ground at all. We'll be very quick."
Kacchan scooted to the edge of the chair, peering down at Izuku.
"But I need my hands, dummy," he protested, curling them pointedly at Izuku.
"You'll have them," Izuku promised, reaching over to flick Kirishima's hood over Kacchan's head. "I'll only zip my jacket up to here," he explained, drawing an imaginary line across Kacchan's chest, hovering without actually touching.
Kacchan still seemed dubious.
"And," Izuku continued, casting wildly about in his mind for something to sweeten the pot. "And…when we get back to school, you can have…um…"
"Hot chocolate," Kacchan demanded.
"Yes! You can have hot chocolate as soon as we get there."
"And a bath."
"Yeah, of course you can have a bath, too. We've got a big one at UA. It's like a swimming pool. You'll like it."
"And bunny time."
Izuku paused, mouth open, before it hit him: Koda's bunny- bribe attempt number eight to get Kacchan to come willingly back to the dorms, not that Koda was aware of that. "And bunny time," Izuku agreed swiftly, nodding for extra emphasis. "All the bunny time you want. I'm sure our classmate can bring her downstairs while we make your hot chocolate."
Behind Kacchan's head, Ashido snickered into her hand.
"Okay," Kacchan said, hopping down from his chair. "Five times."
Then he was off like a shot to the windows.
"Get ready!" Ashido called, catching the attention of Kirishima and Ochako, who both sagged with relief.
Izuku held out his hand as Kacchan approached on the return, calling out a bright, "One!" as Kacchan knocked their elbows together, unwilling to waste a single drop of quirk sweat even as he brightened under the encouragement.
"Oh my god, are we finally leaving?" Sero asked hopefully, raising his head from the booth he'd faceplanted in.
"Yup," Ashido agreed, wandering closer to poke Kaminari's side.
He wrinkled his nose, but didn't wake.
Izuku softened at the sight, used to seeing Kaminari knock at Kacchan's door for help with his music before his nightly guitar lessons with Jirou and familiar, after an all-nighter from hell, with the way that Kaminari trained with Shinso before school most mornings.
The patter of light up sneakers brought Izuku's attention back where it belonged, Kacchan's determined expression trying to splinter into a smile the closer he came to completing his five laps, getting faster on each one. Always pushing himself, always wanting to be the best, always thinking ahead.
Their elbows collided.
"Two!" Izuku cheered.
Kacchan's grin broke free.
"Don't worry, I've got him," Ochako murmured, floating Kaminari into the air with her quirk. Kirishima took ahold of his ankles to keep him from going too far, steering him to the door like he was pushing a wheelbarrow.
"Three!"
"You know," Ashido said, leaning one arm on top of Izuku's head, "I thought he'd be more…explosive."
"Threatening to murder anyone who removed him from his chair wasn't explosive enough?"
Ashido snorted. "Nah, that's baby shit."
"He is a baby."
"No I'm not!" Kacchan shouted, knocking their elbows together more harshly than before. "Four!"
Izuku grinned broadly, dropping his raised hand to unzip his jacket.
"Oh my god," Ashido laughed, "you're so fond of him it's giving me cavities."
"I'm not the one calling him Bakubaby," Izuku quietly shot back, still smiling.
"Ooh, touché, Midoriya. Touché."
"Five!" Kacchan shouted.
Izuku held open his jacket for Kacchan to tumble into, braced for the impact. He quickly zipped up the bottom, securing Kacchan’s sneaker-clad feet, and Kacchan clumsily smacked Izuku in the face as he shifted to be facing out, his hands and face free from the confining zipper, eyes alert and quirk at the ready so nothing could catch him by surprise.
Izuku marveled at how easy it was to hold his featherlight weight. It was hard to imagine that they were ever this small. In all of Izuku's memories, Kacchan was always larger than life- bold and brave and powerful. Victorious.
One day, when Izuku turned old and gray, he wondered if he'd look at the teenagers around him and struggle to remember Kacchan ever being as young as they were now. If he'd cry, knowing all they'd gone through before seeing their eighteenth birthdays. Kacchan would definitely call him a sap, and knock their wrinkled shoulders together harder than necessary.
"Go, go, go!" Ashido cheered, laughing as Izuku launched into a run.
"Have a nice night," the worker called out.
"Thank you!" they chorused back.
Sero held the door open as they raced out and Kacchan laughed wildly, shooting sparks at any snowflakes that dared get too close to him. They made it into the car within thirteen seconds, all of them piled close together and Kaminari, still sleeping, buckled safely into the third row of seats.
Without a carseat in sight, Izuku pulled the seatbelt over both he and Kacchan before the younger boy could think to ask for his own or reach for the zipper keeping him tucked inside Izuku's jacket.
"How are your socks?" Izuku asked.
"Dry," Kacchan reported happily, shaking the red hood off of his head.
Izuku smiled, watching Kacchan's intelligent eyes track the falling snow outside the window, silently mouthing the names of all the signs they passed.
Izuku followed his gaze before Kacchan could notice him staring, subtly lowering his cheek to rest on Kacchan's hair as they drove past quiet, snow-filled streets, ambling closer and closer to UA. He wondered if it was strange to think of this smaller, snow-nervous version of Kacchan as someone pulled from his own heart and not as real-Kacchan shrunken down into an echo of himself. He wondered if it was strange that the tumultuous path of their life together was now just one bold line. If their classmates from before ever saw them on the news and stared. If their parents had thought their childhood distance was temporary or permanent, if they made guesses about it at all.
No one told Izuku that he was mumbling- their own small, secret smiles aimed outside the car windows or at their laps or at Izuku and Katsuki themselves.
They didn't mention that Katsuki's eyes were drooping by the second, even though he didn't seem to be listening to the content of what Izuku was saying. Even though he'd stood on top of his chair at the mall just twenty minutes ago and declared that he would not be going out into the snow, end of story, impervious to all eleven bribe attempts.
Izuku and Katsuki were both asleep and snoring by the time they reached the school gates.