Mostly wrote this for @pukingpastilles because she dragged me (willingly) into bnh and now I am Bakugo/Deku and Todoroki/Deku trash. Snippet of something bigger? Who knows. Maybe it’ll get fully written. Maybe not. 8) I’m pretty rusty aha.
When Izuku met Kacchan again it was under less than ideal conditions.
Kacchan looked the same. No matter what sort of hero costume he had on, Izuku could probably spot him, even in the middle of a crowd of fully cowled people. Not that heroes went around fully cowled--which also brought up the unpleasant realization that if Izuku could identify Kacchan anywhere, the same would go for Kacchan. Even if Izuku was fully cowled.
"K-Kacchan," Izuku said, then hit himself in the face with a palm as he realized that just served as confirmation. But that was Kacchan over there, with a dumbfounded look on his face, the type that Izuku couldn't remember ever seeing on his face before. But that dumbfounded look was slowly melting into what looked to be--yup, that was pure fury. Pure Kacchan.
"WHAT THE FUCK," Kacchan roared, and Izuku flinched a bit, even as he held his ground, tugging his head back deeper into the cowl. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, SHITTY DEKU?"
A twist of his lips, a broken smile hidden deep as a sharp feeling lanced through his chest. "It's been a long time, Kacchan," he said, even as his eyes darted to Uravity--the only other hero not paralyzed--whose hands stretched out towards a large piece of broken cement. Then he whirled in her direction, letting One For All's power flare as he smashed the cement away, feeling Kacchan seethe even more as Izuku took away his attention. Like how dare he look away when there were about five different heroes surrounding him, not the least of all Kacchan.
Then Kacchan was there like a supernova, a hand pulled back and sparking as he threw it at Izuku's face. Izuku laughed, a weak, sputtering sound as he recognized Kacchan's big opening move and spun down and around the punch. "The same Kaccha--" He flinched as Kacchan adjusted on a dime, one hand blasted a puff of air that spun him fast around with a whirling kick that Izuku just barely dodged with the help of One For All.
He leapt back, dust swirling in his wake. "Oh, maybe not the same," he began to mumble, words tripping out of his mouth. "He's faster now and compensates for physical limitations with his explosion power. Kacchan has gotten a lot better at using his explosions, they're much more accurate than how they were when--"
"SHUT UP" Another punch and Izuku jumped away again, mouth snapping shut as he looked at the other heroes that seemed to shake off their paralysis. He frowned, but before he could say anything else, Kacchan was there again, an inescapable explosion. "What are you doing, Deku?! I'm going to BEAT YOU INTO THE GROUND like the shitty villain you are, so much for being a big hero--"
Izuku stopped and Kacchan's punch caught him solidly on his stomach. He bent over and coughed, rolling away from the quick foot stomp that Kacchan followed up with. From his knees he jumped straight up to a fire escape, clutching his stomach, wondering how Kacchan didn't use his explosion to just...
His breath faltered. His throat clenched. "Sometimes, Kacchan, things don't work out the way we think they will. Sometimes even heroes can't do what needs to be done." Izuku smiled weakly at the way the air around Kacchan seemed to condense and shimmer. "Strangely," he said, voice a soft counterpoint to the sparks lighting up in Kacchan's hands, "I missed you."
Then he leapt up, high and fast, One For All surging through his body as he left before the rest of the heroes could break themselves free from the chemical bomb he had thrown at them before, Kacchan cursing ringing in his head long after the sound of it had stopped reaching his ears.
