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His paper aeroplane cut through the wind with a power strengthened by a determined six year old. The grass was slightly warm beneath his feet, compressing itself under the crunch of his padded footsteps. A bout of laughter echoed through the trees as Izuku felt unbridled joy, alone beneath the smiling sun.
So caught up in the moment, wind swept and free, the boy missed the extra large tree root and went face planting into the earth with a wince, his paper aeroplane flying away from him into the hands of another.
Izuku moves onto all fours curling in on himself as the sting of the fall travels through him, unwilling tears springing to his eyes. He takes calming breaths and works through the pain, it’s just a little scratch he tells himself, and with that he manages to stand up again immediately scanning the surroundings for his aeroplane because a child’s fun never stops, only pauses.
He checks, and checks, and checks around behind trees and bushes, in between brambles of shrubbery, only to come out hopeless.
Disheartened, he takes his tiny legs and walks aimlessly until he comes across a river, it’s luminary blue stream tranquil and calming. Izuku sits at the edge of the water, letting his toes wriggle in the stream as his child mind begins drafting up something else to do.
He looks into the blue, searching for answers, and that’s what he gets. His freckled cheeks crease as he smiles, clapping his hands in joy. He then gets up and looks around for some pebbles to skip across the lake.
Once he compiled a small stash he resumed his previous seat and the festivities began. He throws and revels in each ripple, the way the water wades, how each ripple decreases in size along with the momentum and the melodic little plops that spur on the anticipation.
Izuku giggles, going to pick up another pebble from the pile in hopes of skipping the next even further than the last. However, his hands came into contact with the grass, he was sure that was where his pebbles were planted. He patted around the area before actually looking; his brows furrow in confusion but before he gets to question this his attention gets pulled elsewhere.
Whoosh.
Izuku looks up.
Rustle.
His eyes widened.
Tap, tap, tap. Crunch.
Izuku looks around sceptically.
As a weird shadow flutters about the trees, a new emotion blooms within the boy — a tinge of anxiety. He slowly stands to his feet clasping his little hands in front of himself as he turns away from the river but to the trees.
“…Hello? I-Is anybody there?” He calls out, taking gradual steps forward squinting his eyes as he peers in between the trees and shrubbery.
Suddenly the forest didn’t feel so welcoming. No. Izuku shook his head, his green curls dancing with the motion, he would not let himself fear the one place on this planet that makes him feel free.
Another rustle causes Izuku to jump, he looks towards a tree branch and he produces a sigh of relief as he sees a hazelnut squirrel run across the branch, see nothing to worry about, it was just a squirrel Izuku he tells himself.
He goes to turn back to the river only for his heart to stop a second time.
A boy about his height, silent yet right behind him, well not anymore because now they are face to face with a tiny prism of space between them.
Izuku scrambles backwards falling on his butt in the process. “W-who are you?” He manages to force out.
The boy stood above him, his siren eyes held a look of annoyance, his hair was short, blond and spiky, and his eyes a piercing red that bordered on subhuman. He was wearing nothing but some brown shorts.
The boy doesn’t respond, he just throws a… a paper aeroplane at him, his paper aeroplane. It also seems like he’s holding something else within his left hand. The other boy follows Izuku’s eyeline and looks into his palm and promptly drops what he’s holding — Izuku’s stolen pebbles!
Izuku’s jaw drops in shock, multiple questions burning through his tiny head. His silence seems to make the other boy grow angrier.
Izuku blinks, then blinks again, before scrambling to pick up his stolen items. He looks up to see the blond boy walking away with a series of decipherable grumbles.
At first Izuku was going to let him go but then he had a sudden realisation that maybe… just maybe the other boy might want to be friends! Izuku has never had a friend before so maybe this is how a friendship begins.
He immediately stumbles after the other trying not to drop the items in his hands. He runs in front of him smiling bashfully.
“I’m Izuku Midoriya!” The other boy looks at him with a frown and a cocked eyebrow but Izuku doesn’t let it bother him. “Would you… like to play with me?”
It’s silent for a moment before the other boy speaks up in a weird accent, a bit gruff for someone their age that's for sure.
“…Play?”
Izuku nods his head like an eager puppy before stretching his hands out presenting the pebbles and aeroplane again. “We — We can play the skipping game or - or we can play aeroplane!” He gestures animatedly to each one as he speaks.
When he continues to receive silence and a scowl part of his previous confidence begins to chip away. “Or something else… or nothing else that’s f-fine.” His lips tremble a bit as he strains a smile, he turns away before a trickle of tears threaten to escape, so much for making a friend.
He gets about three steps away before a voice calls out from behind him. “Play skipping game.”
Happiness hits Izuku at full throttle and he turns back around jumping over to him, “Okay!” He places his aeroplane on the ground securing it with a pebble to prevent it from flying away and then takes the stranger's hand and jogs towards the river once more.
They sit on the waters edge, “And after that you move your hand like this, the pebble will jump across the water like that!” Izuku explains.
The other boy looks at the skipping stone in fascination before a mischievous grin takes up his face. Izuku’s eyes widen at the fangs the boy possesses, but then the boy throws the stone and starts whistling as it glides through the water's peak.
The sheer amount of pride and excitement took over Izuku and he began clapping as well, he picked up another pebble and concentrated hard, he gave the stone a kiss before throwing it and cheered as the pebble went a bit further than the strangers.
The stranger looked on competitively and took another pebble for himself, before he threw it he paused to look at it, slowly bringing it towards his mouth he looked towards Izuku in question.
“O-oh uh, it’s just a trick my dad had taught me, he said it gives you good luck!”
The stranger just stares at him, Izuku shrugs with a crooked smile so the other goes back to looking at the stone, he closes his eyes and kisses it like Izuku did. Then he brings it back down, and to their surprise small lines appear within the pebble and said lines glow a bright orange.
Izuku scoots closer and they both look down at it curiously. The other boy mimics Izuku’s previous action and shrugs his shoulders then throws the pebble.
They both look on with blown out eyes as the pebble doesn’t skip but skids across the water with a huge wave trailing behind it, the boys get up and start following it as it zooms down the lake running as fast as their little legs could go.
The rock keeps zooming until it changes course and heads straight towards them, they look between each other and the rock repeatedly as it gets closer at a rapid pace.
Before they know it the rock is jumping out of the water and straight onto the stranger's stomach, the impact pushes the boy into a tree stump at a pace that seems painful.
Izuku runs after the other boy to see if he’s okay, only to find a weird red circle perched within the boy’s lap where he was sitting at the base of the tree.
Izuku got on his knees and crawled towards him, fascinated, was this seriously the pebble they were playing with? Why is it red now? a-and bigger than before?
Sat side by side they both look at the red sphere waiting for anything to happen… anything at all.
They hear a cracking noise and they look closer, the circle randomly becomes spiky and it spreads itself until it takes the form of.. of a hedgehog. An odd looking one but a hedgehog all the same.
It suddenly gains awareness and looks up at them with what seems to be a smile, it takes its front legs and moves itself into a higher position. From here Izuku could see that beneath its red spiky back it had a grey under belly which had the smoothness of a pebble.
The other boy picks up the hedgehog and deposits it onto Izuku’s lap, he watches in amusement as its rocky spikes flatten, becoming smooth like a pebble. It was utterly bizarre. Izuku didn’t even know what to do or where to start with questioning and understanding.
He gulped as he slowly stroked the creature becoming more confident as it chirped pleasantly.
He finally looked up at the other boy, “What… what is it?”
The boy purses his lips as he looks down at it like he isn’t too sure himself. He speaks out but what comes out is something Izuku in his six years of living has never heard before.
“Khtaeli?”
Izuku looks on in confusion, “Khate- what-what?”
It seems like the mysterious tongue wasn’t delivered towards him but the little hedgehog in his lap.
It turns towards the stranger and chirps back like it understood the gibberish that came out from his mouth and not long afterwards the other boy turned back to Izuku. “Is Kirishima.”
“Kirishima? Is that his name?” Because Izuku was ninety percent sure this was a hedgehog, a rocky pebble crafted hedgehog if anything, so Kirishima couldn’t be the name of its species.
The other boy nods, “Tu Khtaeli Deku.” He finishes his sentence with a point to Izuku’s chest.
Izuku looks down, confused but thinking. So if he used that word to tell me the hedgehog’s name, maybe he’s trying to ask or say what my name is?
“My name is Izuku.” He repeats.
The other boy looks at him agitated with an eye roll and a nod, “Name Deku.”
A metaphorical light bulb turns on above his head, “Oh your name is Deku!”
The stranger looks even more angry so Izuku backs tracks, “That’s not your name…?” Then who is Deku?
“Not name!” He points at himself, “Katsuki.” Then points at Izuku. “Deku.”
Izuku bites his lip as he thinks harder, so if he’s Katsuki then I must be ‘Deku’ he’s probably just struggling to pronounce it.
“Iz-u-ku.” The boy sounds.
“Deku.”
“Izuku.”
“Deku.”
Izuku gives up, well if he has to live with a butchered name so shall the stranger.
“Katsu-“
“Kat-su-ki.” The stranger sounds out slowly.
Izuku nods, “Ka.”
“Ka-tsu…” The other continues.
“Kacchan!” Izuku giggles.
Kacchan places his hands on Izuku’s shoulders, shaking him as he growls. “Katsuki!”
“Kacchan!” Izuku sings ignoring Kacchan’s angry protests.
“Ja Khtaeli Katsuki!” Is the last thing he says before he yelps in pain as Kirishima jumps from Izuku’s lap and latches onto Kacchan’s arm with his teeth.
“Tu gharthaveg! Haith bhaloo Kirishima!”
Izuku watches the foreign words flow from Kacchan’s mouth like water as he fights off the biting hedgehog. What language is this? Where is Kacchan from?
Izuku pulls the hedgehog away from Kacchan, “No more biting, Kirishima.” He tells the creature, the hedgehog takes on a forlorn expression and smoothens back down. Izuku places him onto the grass and turns to Kacchan.
Out of all the questions he’d considered asking he’s decided on the most important one. “Kacchan, are we friends now?”
The boy looks him up and down. “Friends?”
Izuku considers the fact Kacchan might not understand him so he thinks of a way to show it instead. He looks around and finds a pebble; he grabs it and presents it to Kacchan. “We played the skipping game together as friends.”
Kacchan continues frowning at him, so Izuku thinks of something else, a breeze of wind makes him shiver and just like a lightning strike, an idea plants itself within him. Kacchan had only been wearing shorts this whole time, he must be cold right? Friends help each other and share things too… so if he gives Kacchan his shirt that’ll help him stay warm and it counts as sharing!
He goes to take off his shirt and then he offers it to his friend, “Friends share!”
Reluctantly Kacchan takes his shirt and then he… tries to eat it? “Kacchan, it's not for eating! Here like this!”
He raises himself and makes work of putting the shirt onto his friend Kacchan. “There.” He smiles.
Kacchan looks at his new shirt with the softest look Izuku has seen so far even Kirishima is happily chirping about the exchange. Izuku thinks of one final way he can show what friends do.
Maybe a hug, whenever his mother hugs him he feels good, and friends should make their friends feel good! Izuku drapes himself onto Kacchan in an all encompassing hug, ignoring his squirming and squawking.
“Friend hug!”
Finally Izuku sits back down and looks expectantly at Kacchan who’s shaking with an even bigger frown than before, but a light blush rides on his cheek decreasing the menacing factor.
“Friend…” Katsuki repeats.
“Yes. Please I wanna be your friend Kacchan and I- I want you to be my friend too.”
Kacchan looks shocked but a good shock, he smirks and then it breaks into something more gentle. He takes Izuku’s hand.
“Yes, friend.”
He closes the gap between them and places a quick kiss on Izuku’s nose. Izuku feels a surge of energy flow through him, some unknown enchantment altering his DNA as they speak, he feels woozy but in a good way, so he giggles and giggles until his friend Kacchan joins in as well.
After they settle down Kacchan looks at him with a finality, he speaks a sentence that carries a weight that Izuku can’t understand at this moment but still needs to hear.
“Ghlaha Deku, Ja Aureliae etal.”
It felt like goodbye, not forever but for now.
“Goodbye, Kacchan.”
And with that Izuku blinked and he was back in his bedroom sleeping comfortably on his futon, Kacchan and Kirishima feeling like a hazy fever dream bordering on the hinges of reality.
It’s only when he gets up to start his day, and he realises that he’s missing a shirt, and that there’s a paper aeroplane laying beside him, as well as a weird glowing rock, that he starts to think it may not have been a dream.