"Hmph! Is anyone there!?"

A small squeak made Katsuki raise his brow before he puts his hands around his hips impatiently, pouting. "Just toss me my ball!"

Or:

Katsuki's ball was thrown too far and now it's stuck in someone's room- and for some reason, the boy inside won't toss it back.
[NO QUIRK AU]
—————

"Toss me back my ball!"

He shouts for the second time, hopping on his toes. The whites of his new sneakers were dirty enough, laces untied and getting trampled by his own feet while playing tag.

The other losers have gone home already, ushered in by their parents, taking their leaves. Katsuki was still in the playground- well. No, not in the playground, just beside some old two-story house crawling with ivy and moss. The boy looked like he was loitering around, pacing in front of the walls with the faded white coat of paint.

The small voice was there again.

"I cant!"

Curiosity bleeds into Katsuki's irritation as he stomps his foot, sending the dirt flying. "Why not!? That's dumb!"

The voice was quiet for a few more seconds, before it pipes up.

"Can I get your name? Um, maybe my maid can return the ball tomorrow. Oh, she's in the kitchen right now- and I don't think I can-"

"Maid?" Katsuki taunts, huffing. "Are you some prissy rich kid or something?"

What, is it too hard to reach over the bed and chuck the ball out the window? Even Tsukushima, one of the brattiest, most spoiled kids on the playground follows Katsuki's orders whenever their ball gets kicked out of bounds! He scurries away to grab it, soiling his newly shined shoes and presenting the toy to Bakugou after retrieval, as if seeking the blond's praise.

Katsuki may not be the richest kid in the neighborhood, but certainly the most influential, with his bossiness and the expanding band of lackeys he'd picked up in his elementary school.

"Oh no, it's not that! I've gotten sick."

"Hah? What kind of sickness?"

Curious curious curious.

Sick?

Katsuki can run with the flu! "What are you, weak!?"

He really can't, but it's not like he would admit it. Simply trying to make a point.

"I-I don't know! It's not that!"

The voice had taken a whinier edge to it, as if eager to prove a point.

".. I cant really move much," more hushed, barely carrying over the soft blows of cool wind that ruffled the trees and leaving Katsuki feeling jittery and cold all over.

"I've been coming down with fevers. Mommy said I should stay in bed."

"That why you sound so snotty?"

Katsuki snorts when there was a protesting squawk- before he looks up at the sky to realize it was already night, slivers of the moonlight seeping through the leaves of the tree as the blades of grass swayed in the cold breeze. He snaps out of it when there was a questioning, 'are you still there?' from the boy on the second story, a tad bit too sad.

So he hollers back. "I'm gonna go home! Keep the dumb ball, I'm just gonna get it tomorrow, okay!?" And right before he turns his heel and run home to avoid a scolding from his ma, the squeaky voice shouts.

"What's your name!?"

"Katsuki!" But then winds had picked up, and he was barely heard before he ran off.

—————

The next day, he was back again- but this time it was afternoon, sun still shining and the occasional business man late for work swerving on the road hurriedly, making skid marks deep on the concrete.

He looks up, nose scrunched to squint towards the window.

"Hey dummy!"

He hollers.

No answer.

His brows furrow in mild agitation.

"Boy who can't throw the ball!"

He waits a few moments- thinking that maybe the kid had stolen his prized possession- but a voice peeks up eagerly. "Oh, Kacchan! You're back!"

"Hah!?" Katsuki tilts his head at the name. "Kacchan?"

"Ah! Um, w-well.. that is your name, right?"

"It's Katsuki!" But he hesitates, before yelling out again. "Kacchan is fine! Just.. only you can call me that, okay!?"

A quiet giggle and sifting of sheets sounds like someone trying to get up from bed- but it's still noon and- "You're still sick?"

"Uh-huh!" He sounded a bit tired, with his cute voice from earlier roughened up a little.

Katsuki felt puzzled about this kid's whole predicament, deciding to further his questions. "What's your name!?"

"It's Izuku!"

"Huh!? Deku!?"

"No! It's Izuku!"

"Ugh. I'll just call you Deku! Since you can't even pick up the ball!"

Katsuki can almost imagine him making a face from the silence that follows, and he situates himself on the wall, sliding on his back down to the firm soil, small fingers curling his hands to heap fistfuls of grass, tugging it as they chatter on and on.

(He realizes too late that he forgot to grab his ball- but Katsuki shrugs.

He'll just go back tomorrow.)

—————

"Deku!"

"Kacchan!"

The voice sounded closer, and the blond boy perks up.

"My bed got moved closer to the wall!"

"Oh shit!" Katsuki exclaims, ignoring the mortified gasp at his curse- "peek over! I wanna see you!"

The blond had tried to imagine what he looked like. Maybe short, small considering his squeaky voice- maybe brown or black hair- or a chubby blond boy- maybe he had glasses, since he sounded like a total nerd-

"Okay!"

Katsuki's eyes widen at the first sight of green hair, before two bright viridian eyes peek out from the bushy locks. They widen, a blush on the tip of his nose as two small hands grip at the wooden ledge.

"H-Hi Kacchan!"

"You look like a squirt!" Is the first thing he says, blurting it out on accident. His mother always said that it was quite rude to say the first thing that comes to mind.

The boy pouts, and Katsuki sees how pale he really is, the only tint of color of his face was the red painting his cheeks. "You're still sick?"

"Uhm, yeah.." he says, voice shy, before he perks up, face concentrated as he shuffles forward with difficulty, as if simply moving was hard. "I got your b-ball! My maid picked it up yesterday and put it on my bed."

He sounds winded?

Katsuki's face brightens despite his lingering thoughts of weak. "Toss it!"

"Okay!"

Two moments later, a red rubber ball lands perfectly in Katsuki's hands.

"Wahhh! You're so cool!"

The praise makes Katsuki's cheeks flush and he leans forward with a grin. "Yeah?"

Deku giggles and nods enthusiastically and making his coiled hair bounce as admiration bubbles in his green eyes. "I couldn't catch that well!" He muses, leaning forward, and Bakugou was only the tiniest bit of afraid that he might fall.

There was a sad glimmer in Izuku's eyes.

"Well. I'll teach you, 'kay?"

"T-Teach me-? How-?"

He squeaks when the ball comes sailing towards him- and Deku topples back when he tries to snatch it from the air, landing on the bed with a fwump.

"We can play catch from here!"

————

Three weeks have passed, and their bond had only gotten stronger.

"Mm.. How about, um, three times seven?"

Katsuki purses his lips as he counts on his fingers, before clapping his hands together. "It's twenty-one!"

"Ah! You're right!"

Katsuki plays with the weeds, patiently waiting for his friend to finish his homework. He listens to the sound of leaves rustling and Izuku's pencil scratching on paper.

His mother had been wondering where he heads after school- but she learns not to question it or make it a big deal- considering this was the happiest and least-snappish she's seen Katsuki in months.

'Give him this,' she hands Katsuki a notebook. 'You said that he likes to draw a lot, right?'

Katsuki nods, taking the blue notebook from her hands. It was a little old, but unused- probably coming from the blond child's over abundance of school supplies.

Mitsuki ruffles his hair before he runs off, giving him some water and a sandwich- just in case he decided to stay the whole day at this 'Deku' kid's house. She's happy to see him smile that wide.

"Say, Deku," Katsuki hums. "When are you gonna get better huh?"

Izuku nervously wrings his hands. "Uhm.. I don't know, Kacchan," he says, honest. "Mommy said I still have to rest. I'm always so tired."

Izuku had been sleeping a lot- between the little pills he's been taking and the daily fevers he seemed to be getting where he started to whine about it- time with Katsuki was short.

"You're always sick," Katsuki grumbles.

Izuku frowns at that. "I couldn't help it," he says, whispering- and something in his voice had a tint of anxiety. "I'm.. I'm always so- so sick and mommy doesn't tell me anything. She just looks all worried and stuff, and sometimes she looks so sad and it makes me sad."

"Ugh. I wanna play with you already." Katsuki snaps back, kicking the tiny stone on the ground. "Everyone else are losers. You're weak but I think you're interesting."

"W-Weak? I'm not weak! I.. It's just-"

"What, useless Deku," he taunts. "You're just what?"

He was frustrated, on not knowing. Why can't he play with Deku?

He was right there!

If only his immune system- whatever they called it, was stronger, maybe he would be up and running, playing with Katsuki unlike all the other extras. He's always sick. Maybe he didn't eat his greens and stuff. Midoriya's been paler, shakier, and he could barely even peek over the wall because he said his legs were all wobbly under him.

Izuku winces at the nickname, and it almost makes Katsuki take his words back.

Well. Almost.

Instead, it makes the blond all huffy.

"Ugh. This is boring!"

It really wasn't.

He sees alarm on Izuku's face when he picks himself up and dusts himself off, grabbing his sandwich. He was planning to stay but..

"W-Wait- Kacchan-" he splutters, panicked, reaching out as if wanting to grab onto Katsuki's wrist to stop him from leaving. Whatever. It's not like he could.

"Whatever, Deku!" Bakugou stomps back home, ignoring the telltale cries of Midoriya.

(Mitsuki feels concern when Katsuki comes home in a bad mood, but uneasily brushes it off.

It was normal to have a spat between friends, anyway. They'll both get over it soon.)

—————

In all honesty,

Katsuki feels bad.

'Stupid,' he thinks to himself as he marches over to Izuku's house. 'You shouldn't have left him there! You know he cries too much!'

"Izuku!" He yells.

No response. He ignores how his heart plummets.

"Deku! Stop sulking already! I'm sorry, okay!?"

Still nothing, and he was getting nervous.

This wasn't like Izuku. They fought about the dumb comic book called Hero Academia before, which made them both argue a lot but the green-haired boy still answered to Katsuki's calls the next day.

".. Deku?"

The lights were off, and a lump settles in Katsuki's throat, and now he was officially fucking worried. The dummy probably got sick, or he was sleeping- but Katsuki knows he sleeps with the lights on, even during the day.

'To keep out the monsters,' Izuku says when Katsuki teases him about it. 'The dark is really scary sometimes.'

—————

"Kacchan."

"Where were you, dummy?" Katsuki can't help but feel relief cool his concern, like a salve on a burn, soothing the creases of worry.

And yet.

"Deku?"

Izuku was quiet, unnaturally so, lips chapped and face pale, and his eyes were all weird and puffy- but no tears came out. He looks horrible, tired.

Worse.

And god, it scared Katsuki.

"What's wrong?" He presses, finding the new blankness of his friend's face even more vexing than his disappearance yesterday. Did he lose his comic book again? He always lost it-! Maybe that was it and-!

"The doctors. They were scary, Kacchan."

"What'd they say, Deku?"

Ice rushed through Katsuki's veins, and he froze when Izuku broke out sobbing.

"They said I'm dying, Kacchan," he wails, and it sounded so broken, so shattered-

"I can't- I don't wanna- but they said I was and I'm so scared-"

"Oi!" Katsuki barks, grin curled but it was empty of amusement but filled with desperation. "No, no- stop playing, Deku! That's dumb-! You're not- you're not-"

Katsuki's panic only added fuel to Izuku's hysterical weeping, fat tears dripping from his eyes, landing on the ledge of the window. The blond was helpless, and he tried his best to calm Izuku down, but his own mind was elsewhere, running through a million thoughts.

Izuku was dying and there was nothing he could do about it.

—————

The next time Katsuki visited, his red eyes widened to see Izuku outside the house.

He was on the porch, a blanket draped over his legs with a woman who had the same hair and eyes holding on his wheelchair and carefully pushing him as she stiffly talks to the maid, and Katsuki takes the opportunity to silently wave at Izuku.

By luck, Izuku catches the movement and his eyes widen back, shyly smiling as he lifts an arm to give a mild wave.

He looks so frail.

At this point, Katsuki sees a parked car, and he rushes over, uncaring that the woman with green hair tenses up further to see Katsuki.

"Deku!" He stands in front of Izuku- and pix they're so much closer and Katsuki could see how thin he really is, how his eyes dropped, exhausted. "Where are you- where are you going-?"

"I'm getting treated," Izuku says, rushed. "I don't know, it's a slim chance and I don't know- the doctors said it would be painful but it's just- what if-"

Before he could cry, Katsuki practically launches himself at Izuku, pulling him into an awkward hug, him bumping against the wheel chair but neither of the fourth graders cared. "You dummy," the blond chokes. "Don't be like that."

The woman seems to check her watch and he gently pulls Izuku away, making Katsuki cry out in protest until she says, "We're gonna be late for the airport. Excuse me, please. I'm glad my son has a friend."

He watches, as if in a trance-

Airport?

Where was he..

He sees the packed bags, glances at the house to see it practically empty.

They're leaving.

"Wait-"

The door car slams shut but the window rolls down, and Katsuki yells, heart tight in his chest.

"Deku!"

"Kacchan- I'm so sorry,"

He'll never se him again.

But..

Maybe that's okay.

"It's fine-! Just," he was cut off the the engine revving. "Get better! Get better, Izuku! Promise me I'll see you-!"

"I promise!- I'll miss you, Kacchan- I'm so-"

The car starts driving off and Katsuki runs as fast as he can, waving.

"I better see you walkin' next time! I'll.. Ill see you soon, right!?"

There were tears in Katsuki's eyes, and he feels his legs strain to catch up as the black car speeds off.

"Yeah! Next time, Kacchan!"

Katsuki stumbles when it got too fast, knees slamming on the concrete as he trips, but he doesn't care. Izuku's face was pressed against the car's window, tears streaming down like a waterfall.

He stares as the car turns,

And just like that,

Izuku was gone.

—————

"-that's inappropriate!" The teen with blue hair scolded, and Katsuki snarls, lifting his head up to face the Somei brat. "You're scuffling school property with your shoes!"

Katsuki leans back on his chair, purposefully dragging his dirty shoes on the table to piss the dude off- and it works, much to his amusement. He watches when his face reddens, in anger- perhaps?

"Hahh!? Were you born with a stick up your ass, fucker?"

The boy flusters, obviously unused to Katsuki's.. potty mouth. The blond huffs. They were in high school now, and the blue haired kid still acts as if he were assigned hallway patrol in middle school.

They argue back and forth, fight mostly consisting of Katsuki rolling his eyes and the Somei kid fuming.

When the 1-A door opened, Bakugou's brow raised when his attention was immediately torn off of Katsuki- instead, Iida was fixated at the door, before he rushes over.

"You! You passed the exam with the highest scores! It's so nice to meet you! I'm Iida, future lawyer and-"

"Ah, that's- nice- but.."

Katsuki's eyes widen comically as they meet with green ones showing the same expression.

'I better see you walkin' next time! I'll.. Ill see you soon right!?'

Bakugou didn't even have time to think before Izuku, Deku, ignored Iida to hug the shit out of Katsuki, who blanked out for a solid two seconds.

Holy shit.

Holy shit!

"Nerd? That's.. it's you..?" Katsuki pulls away, hands hovering on Izuku's cheeks- who was biting his lip in an effort not to burst out into crocodile tears. "Uhn-huh," he already sounded so snotty.

Katsuki takes in his appearance quickly. He was a healthy color, cheeks tinted pink, cheekbones not fucking gaunt- and his eyes were so full of life and hope that it made Katsuki's heart ache.

"I'm guessing you've been treated?"

Despite himself, Katsuki's voice was soft. Warm.

And god, Izuku smiles, lighting up the classroom and making Katsuki's chest flutter from the pure relief, happiness-

"Yeah. I'm fine now, Kacchan."