Chapter Text
Miyako was a small coastal town, and home to many folks. It wasn’t as populated as the bigger cities such as Tokyo or Nagoya, but it had its fair share of attractions and whatnot.
“Kacchan, that’s mean!” A young boy shouted out before giggling, water getting into his mouth as he did so.
“Serves you right, Deku!” Katsuki laughed as he continued to splash the other with water. The scent of the ocean enveloped their sense of smell. Saltiness invaded their tongues as they splashed each other with more water, yelling at each other happily.
A shutter sounded, and then another, as the pair ran along the shore. The setting sun began to cast an orange hue at the sight. Another snap came. “Those two, they seem to be having fun.” A woman’s voice said calmly. Her voice was like honey as she watched the kids continue to chase each other. The white sand’s colour changed into a more golden tone due to the sun sitting on the horizon.
“Yeah? I bet those brats would die if separated from each other,” a raspier, but still feminine voice chuckled. “Wanna see the pics I got?” She offered.
“Mitsuki, I don’t think we should be talking about death…” The woman from before spoke, leaning in to Mitsuki to look at her camera.
“Chill out, Inko. As long as I’m here, neither of them are dying.” Mitsuki sighed, smiling at the photos she had managed to capture through her lens.
“Kacchan, wait up!” Izuku’s voice echoed through the forest. Little footsteps gradually turned more hurried.
“What, you scared?” Katsuki scoffed. The birds flapped their wings, rustling the tree leaves in the process. “C’mon, you can’t possibly be this slow, Deku.” Katsuki crossed his arms as he watched Izuku get closer to him.
“Are we almost home?” Izuku asked, panting. He finally caught up to Katsuki.
“Yeah,” Katsuki narrowed his eyes as he watched Izuku grab onto his wrist. “Quit clinging to me, nerd.” He shoved Izuku’s hand away rather harshly.
The breeze blew lightly as the sun kissed the sea’s border, preparing for its slumber. Katsuki dragged himself out of the forest. His feet ran along the golden sand on the beach. Izuku followed slightly behind him, doing his best to not get left behind by the blond.
Katsuki stopped in his tracks and turned to face the ocean, inhaling deeply to which Izuku also followed, and stopped walking. He gripped onto the camera his mother had handed him tightly, lifting it up to capture the moment in time.
Katsuki had always loved this view. The sight of the setting sun in the horizon and the multitude of colours it created in the vast sky as it brought itself lower. It had always enamoured him greatly. He took another deep breath and stared. Katsuki also loved the taste of salt on the tip of his tongue, and the way its scent tickled the insides of his nose.
The breeze continued to blow as he felt a gaze on him. Immediately, his trance broke and his peaceful expression turned into a scowl. “What are you gawking at, Deku?” He spat, putting the camera down and turning his head away as he continued his journey home.
Izuku had not said anything, other than letting out a soft laugh as he continued following behind the blond.
They soon arrived at the park near their houses, both their mothers sitting on a bench as they watched their children return. “Izuku! Where have you been?” Inko had a worried look written all over her face as she ran to her son, grabbing his cheeks and pulling him into a hug.
Katsuki watched the scene with indifference and scoffed. His mother narrowed her eyes at him. “You brat! You’re bold to keep me waiting here. The sun’s practically gone!” Mitsuki whacked her son on the head, Katsuki merely rolling his eyes at the action.
“I got some photos for you, hag,” Katsuki paused, “You’re just using me, aren’t you?”
He shouldn’t have been surprised that he got another whack on the head for that.
Honestly speaking, Katsuki had never liked the way Inko treated her son. He used to feel bad for Izuku. But that soon stopped as Katsuki began to harbour these weird and unexplainable feelings for the boy.
“Yeah? You deserve it for being so weak, dummy.” He laughed at Izuku as he heard the other sniffling from a fall. He would tease Izuku terribly, but when the boy actually began to sob, Katsuki would immediately go up to him and make sure that he was okay.
“Oi, Deku. Are you that much of a weakling that you cry over something like this?” Katsuki would mock, but worry would always be all over his face. Not that Izuku would have noticed through blurry eyes, or when his vision was more focused on the ground beneath them.
Katsuki was never good with words, or emotions, or anything to be a decent human being, frankly. His words were like venom and his actions were like blades. Izuku was his one and only friend, and the same applied contrariwise. In this small coastal town, although home to many children, they had always only ever had each other.
As for the funny feeling he started to get around Izuku? Katsuki deemed it was just him getting extremely annoyed at the boy, and never bothered to dwell on it more.
“Kacchan, look what I made!” Izuku beamed, leaning onto Katsuki as he showed off his creation.
“What the heck are those?” The blond raised an eyebrow before scrunching his nose.
“Paper rings!” Izuku giggled.
“Rings?! That’s… stupid! We’re not married. That’s so dumb, Deku.” Katsuki sputtered, yet he grabbed onto one of the rings anyway.
“C’mon, put it on! I wanna match with you, Kacchan,” Izuku blinked as he stared at Katsuki with those big eyes.
Katsuki gulped, looking at Izuku’s pleading face. “F-fine…” The blond gave in, slipping the ring onto his finger. “Still super stupid, though.” Katsuki scoffed. The tips of his ears burned.
“These are our promise rings, which means you have to keep yours forever, and I’ll do the same!” Izuku said, a stern look on his face as his green eyes met Katsuki’s red ones.
The blond blinked once, then twice, before averting his gaze. “Yeah, whatever,” Katsuki snorted, “I’ll keep it.”
The trees shook as air pressure blasted from the east, whereas the ocean sat as calm as ever. The leaves, still holding onto the last of their dew from the shower earlier in the day, weeped as the wind blew aggressively. Katsuki jolted awake at the feeling of something running down his neck.
“Deku, what the crap? Why would you do that!” He got up and gritted his teeth, turning to Izuku who looked at him concerned.
Those big, green eyes stared at him with a puzzled look, his eyebrows furrowed together. “I didn’t do anything, Kacchan!” Izuku shook his head rapidly. He averted his eyes from Katsuki’s mean look.
The blond looked up, noticing the leaves falling alongside some drops of water. He scoffed at the freckled boy before rolling his eyes at him. “Fine, whatever.” Katsuki walked out of the forest.
Izuku was far behind him and the blond stopped in his tracks as he realised those footsteps weren’t as close as they should be. He turned around and opened his mouth to say something. It got stuck in his throat as he stared at Izuku, standing in front of the forest’s exit.
The evening sun casted its fresh golden rays onto Izuku’s small figure, kissing his skin and making it glow. He stood there, looking up at the tree leaves shiver. Wind passed through, the sun’s light only shining onto Izuku while the forest was cascaded in darkness.
Although Izuku’s hair was nearly the same colour as the forest’s trees, the glow emanating from the setting sun radiated onto his green locks and formed what seemed like a halo around him.
Izuku noticed Katsuki staring at him after a while. He tilted his head as if to question the blond’s actions without actually saying a single thing. The words Katsuki had wanted to spit earlier died on his tongue, and his brain turned to mush.
He gulped, pulling his mother’s camera out. He pointed it at Izuku, who still had that stupid, confused look on his face.
Upon seeing the lens directed towards him, Izuku blinked rapidly. Red started to creep up onto his cheeks. Katsuki knew the other would try to look away, or even run away from embarrassment. Without saying a word, the blond raised his free hand and started to count with it.
Izuku looked at his hand and smiled softly, before it turned to a huge grin. Katsuki immediately captured this moment, the shutter sounding once, then twice.
The boy’s blush turned into a deeper hue of red and it made his freckles so much more prominent. The sun illuminated it really well, and Katsuki couldn’t help but take a few more photos.
“Kacchan, why are you taking photos of me?” Izuku inched closer, his figure approaching Katsuki as he watched through the camera’s screen. The closer Izuku came, the more nervous Katsuki felt. The hell?
Katsuki’s heart skipped a beat. “It’s nothing. My mom forced her dumb hobby onto me and told me to take pictures of stuff that I…” Katsuki trailed off, not actually knowing what he wanted to say.
“That you…?” Izuku asked, tilting his head as Katsuki put the camera down. The word ‘like’ rested on the tip of his tongue but Katsuki didn’t like Izuku. He was a good friend, sure, but he’d been getting annoyed at him recently.
If not, then what else could explain the way his words get jumbled up when Izuku was a little too close to him?
“That I think she would like to look at, nerd.” Katsuki huffed, turning around and walking across the soft, white sand. Once again, the scent of the sea invaded his senses as he made his way back home along the shore. The same path that he would always walk, with the same way Izuku would always be right behind him.
The sounds of kids running around, with bags of snacks in their hands from the granny’s shop nearby rustled as they chased each other. High pitched laughs and voices muted out the adults’ shouting, telling their children to come home. It filled the noise in the small town of Miyako, as the taste of saltwater that would linger on the tip of their tongues and sting their noses spread while the wind blew past. The orange sky casted a warm glow onto the town. In the middle of it all, Katsuki walked back to his own house after parting ways with Izuku, whom he had sent home a short while back.
Katsuki opened the door to his house and set his mother’s camera down on their table. Mitsuki stared at him, expecting him to say something. But all she got was a glance and a growing dust of redness on the tips of her son’s ears. She raised an eyebrow at this before smirking. “Something happened?” The amusement was evident in her tone, and Katsuki grumbled.
Mitsuki eyed the camera and grabbed it, which caused Katsuki to run up the stairs in hurried steps upon noticing his mother’s movement. The woman narrowed her eyes at the empty staircase, Katsuki no longer there and heard the door shut from upstairs. She turned the camera on and scrolled through the gallery.
Her eyes widened a little before she smiled at the sight of Izuku, multiple of him, being displayed on the screen. “What a brat. No wonder he got all shy.” Mitsuki chuckled.
As time passed, Katsuki’s ‘annoyance’—or whatever he thought that funky feeling was—grew more and more irritating as Izuku continued to invade his personal space. It bugged him, pissed him off even, and Katsuki wanted it gone. He had tried to avoid Izuku, but after spending so much time together, would it really be that easy?
“Kacchan, are we going to the forest again?” Izuku gripped onto his bag’s straps as they left school for the day. Katsuki clicked his tongue against his teeth.
Blood rushed to his ears, Izuku’s voice echoing like a broken record looping the same song over and over again. “Get away from me, Deku.” Katsuki shoved him, causing him to trip.
Izuku’s green eyes widened as he felt himself falling, and Katsuki grabbed onto his uniform’s collar, his eyes widening. “Stupid nerd, I didn’t even push you that hard.” He scoffed, not really knowing why he panicked, or why he didn’t want Izuku to get hurt from falling.
In Katsuki’s defense, he was a growing boy. He was already in elementary school and he was beginning to have an inflated ego, acting like he was on top of the world, like he knew everything. Of course, if he knew everything, it would mean that he knew what the flutters in his heart meant. And it meant that Izuku was annoying him.
“Kacchan, you’re leaving…?” Izuku sobbed as he watched Katsuki hold onto his luggage, his parents already in the car. The blond looked at the car, then at his luggage, then at Izuku.
Those big eyes stared at him, as if pleading him to not leave, and it made Katsuki scoff. “Yeah. I’m leaving you here all alone, Deku.” He rolled his eyes with a scowl. Yet his hand gripped onto his luggage tighter. Katsuki tried to look away but his eyes kept drifting back to Izuku’s tears.
Wasn’t this what he wanted? To get away from Izuku? He was moving all the way to the city of Osaka, which was far, far away from Izuku, who was stuck in Miyako. So why? Why did his nose begin to sting and his vision turn blurry? Why did his heart start to ache, as if it was growing a tiny crack, which was slowly turning into a massive crater?
Katsuki shut the car door, sparing a glance at Izuku one last time. His heart dropped as his eyes fixed onto the freckled boy’s face, wet with tears streaming down, more coming from his eyes like an endless waterfall. The blond’s own eyes widened. He looked away, no longer wanting to see Izuku cry.
Katsuki balled his fists and narrowed his eyes, swallowing as he felt his throat begin to clamp up.
At last, he was finally free from Izuku and his annoying habits. Right? He was dancing in joy, of course. There was no way he would be sitting in the backseat of his parents’ car, sniffling and wiping at his eyes to stop the tears from falling. Because that would be ridiculous.
The camera lens focused and unfocused once more. Seagulls shrieked out their raucous calls. “Damn it,” Katsuki cursed, his raspy voice sounded fierce. His camera unfocused for the nth time. “The fuck? Is the battery ‘bouta die or what.” He grumbled under his breath, putting it down before bringing it up once again.
This time, the lens focused onto the mountains from afar, the setting sun peeking through. Katsuki clicked his tongue against his teeth. “Fucking finally.” The shutter sounded as the blond captured the moment in time.
“Damn, I’ve really missed this sight.” Katsuki put his camera down and looked up at the sky, feeling the nostalgic scent of the ocean sting his nose, the taste of salt trying to invade his tongue. He took a deep breath.
“I’m finally back in Miyako…” He trailed off, walking along the shore of the beach he hadn’t strutted on in years—a little more than a decade to be exact.
The chains of his necklace glistened under the orange glow as the breeze began to pick up slightly. Katsuki sighed, grabbing onto the necklace. It had a paper ring hanging from it. The blond lifted his head up to stare at the warm sky, taking a deep breath as his eyes slid shut.
He opened them again and looked towards the horizon, the sound of leaves rustling getting muted by the seagulls squawking as they flew by.
“You’re going back in the box when I head home.” Katsuki chuckled. He held the paper ring that hung from his necklace into his line of vision, before he dropped it down lazily.
The wind blew past and placed soft kisses onto his skin, his blond locks reflecting the sun’s illuminating rays. He turned to look towards the forest he always played in—which seemed so much smaller now that he had grown taller—before averting his gaze down to stare at his bare feet touching the soft, golden sand. Katsuki sighed shakily, his grip on his camera getting stronger.
“Which means… I’ll be seeing him again.”