Stars Will Fade

One Cloudy Day

If Hanako had been told a year ago that he'd come to care deeply for a normal human boy, he'd have laughed and written it off as a lie. Here he was now, though, settled on the roof by said boy, listening to him ramble about the contents of his most recent Hero Journal.

And now that Hanako looked - really looked - he could tell just how tired Izuku really was; dark bags under his eyes, exhaustion written in the lines of his face, thin and sickly in appearance. Hanako had known Izuku was going to die within a year from the moment he'd knocked on his stall door, but he'd never looked quite as close to death as he did now.

It worried him. The last time he'd worried about anything, Mankind had taken its first steps on the moon and he'd taken his brother's life.

"If only she'd shrunk down, I think she coul-"

"What did you eat for dinner last night?"

"W-what...?"

Well, he supposed he did kind of ask that out of nowhere. Leaning back, arms supporting his weight, Hanako glanced at Izuku with the most innocent expression he could muster before turning back to stare at the clouds. If Izuku caught even an inkling of his feelings, he'd close up and wouldn't say anything.

"Oh~? Just curious~." Which wasn't exactly a lie, he was curious. Curious as to whether his Assistant was taking care of himself or not.

"I..... Curry.... Noodles...?" Izuku looked confused and Hanako sighed.

"Have you slept at all?"

Izuku mumbled something under his breath and Hanako made a show of cupping a hand around his own ear, leaning closer to Izuku in the process.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that~. Could you repeat what you said~?"

"I s-said no-not well..."

Silence stretched between the two like an ocean and Hanako almost didn't want to break it. It was an exercise in futility to worry, to care, about someone that would be dead in at most a year and as much as Hanako wanted to push that worry down - lock it away in the darkest corner of his heart - he just couldn't. It felt too cruel.

Hanako shifted closer to Izuku.

"You know, not many have actually summoned me. I'm very inexperienced as a wish granting Apparition~." Hanako started, turning from the clouds to watch the boy beside him. "But then you knocked on my stall. You were forced, I know, but a summons is still a summons, no matter how it comes about."

Izuku's confusion deepened, but he was curious to see where Hanako was taking their conversation.

"And you said you didn't have a wish. I could tell, though. I could feel that you wanted to wish for what everyone else had and took for granted. You wanted a Quirk but wished for a friend instead. You wished for me to be your friend, 7th School Wonder. An Apparition of someone loooooooonnnnng dead." Hanako moved himself even closer to Izuku, slipping a spectral arm around his shoulders and tilting the boys chin up with his thumb and forefinger to meet his eyes.

Izuku looked mildly uncomfortable at his words, but allowed the contact between them. Truth be told, and as embarrassing as it was, he enjoyed it a lot.

It didn't help that kind touches had become even more of a scarcity since his mother's passing, so much so that Hanako's touchy feely nature became something to look forward to each day.

"Do try to take better care of yourself, Shortstack. I'd much prefer to keep my bathroom to myself, you know~?" Hanako teased, gently booping Izuku on the nose. "And I rather like being your friend. Can't be a good friend if you disappear off to the Far Shore before I finish my assignment here."

Izuku could only nod.