shindeku//eyes of sage and rosemary

part three; litha

may 1st

That night, Izuku found himself walking to his moms house with his cat on a leash; Kazuhiko was used to people, so he didn't mind the streets. The sun had set completely, though the streets were still lit up like usual. Izuku made his way to downtown Hosu, humming to himself quietly and watching the sky on the horizon; he was used to this walk by now.

By the time he made it to his mom's house, it was almost seven in the evening. He headed up to her apartment and knocked, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

When Inko opened the door, she immediately embraced her son with this big smile on her face. She gave him a sweet kiss on the head and ruffled his messy dark green curls. "I was wondering what you would be doing for the holiday, Izuku." She gave the cat a gentle pat on the belly and let him roam around the place. 

Izuku was way more flustered than he usually was, and his mother had very obviously noticed. "What's happened? You're red." 

"What?" 

"Is it...did you meet somebody?" She rose an eyebrow and a little smirk tugged on her lips. Inko hummed and headed to the kitchen to start on dinner, leaving Izuku in a confused, very red heap. Did she know his tastes in men and women? Did she care? Did she want to know his dating history? 

"I-I don't...I'm--" he huffed and followed the older woman into the kitchen to help her with the cooking. "Maybe?" 

"Hm." She took one final glance at her son before turning back to the vegetables on the counter she was mincing. The grin on her face refused to leave. "Is he nice?" 

"H-he's just a customer, mom, he isn't anything more." His concentration on helping her cook intensified, and he began to focus a bit too much on it. 

"Izuku." 

"A-and besides, even if he was nice, he'd be way, way out of my league--I mean he's so handsome and--"

"Izuku." 

"--like, even if he is a little on the oblivious side, he isn't dumb and I really respect how much work he's put into his craft lately--" 

"Izuku!" 

The witch jumped and glanced at his mother, who pointed to his hands. Whilst rambling about Hitoshi, he hadn't noticed he was fiddling with the frayed strings that hung from the holes in his jeans; he was braiding them subconsciously, something he did when he was getting anxious. 

"You like him a lot, don't you?" Inko asked softly, a hushed quiet settling over the kitchen. Her son gave a curt nod and glanced down at his feet. 

"I know it's hopeless, but I guess I can't help it." 

Inko sighed and put a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "Nothing is hopeless. Not you, not your feelings, not your circumstances. Talk to him, Izuku. Maybe he feels the same." 

"Yeah. Maybe he does feel the same." 

_______

june 21st

"You tried what?!" Izuku was livid, his freckled palms shaking with a cocktail of rage and worry. He had just opened, so there were no customers in the store as of yet; the sun was high in the sky, and there was a gentle breeze outside that was strong enough to tussle leaves, but weak enough to barely even howl.  

He'd seen Izuku angry, he'd seen him frustrated, he'd seen him stressed. But pissed off so much so that he was shaking? That was new. And honestly, a little horrifying. "I attempted a  séance?" Hitoshi flinched as he answered the little green haired man. 

"Hitoshi what the actual fuck were you thinking?!"

"I thought it would help-!" 

"Do you know how fucking dangerous that was?" Izuku walked out from behind the cashier counter and paced in front of Hitoshi. He began to mumble to himself--about everything wrong with what Hitoshi had done. "Not only was that a stupid idea, that was impulsive and put you in a very dangerous position! Your emotions are wild as shit, and conducting a séance alone could have put you in even more danger!" 

That seemed to tick off the taller witch. He waited for Izuku to stop mumbling to grab his arm and force him still. "How could you ever know what I'm feeling?" 

Izuku paused for a minute, stopping completely when Hitoshi said that. "What-" 

"How could you possibly comprehend what it's like to lose someone so close to you?" His grip on Izuku's arm tightened, and so did the tautness in his jaw as he gritted his teeth. "You don't wake up every morning and pray to switch places with someone dead because they mean more to the world than you do." Hitoshi sighed and let go of Izuku, shaking his head and heading towards the door. "Just...forget it. I'll come back tomorrow for my shit." 

"Hitoshi, get back here--" 

"Tomorrow." His voice was cold and hard; he roughly opened the door and stormed out, leaving Izuku standing alone in the middle of his store. The little green witch sighed gently and turned back to the cashier counter to begin the day. 

About half an hour before closing hours, Hitoshi had wandered back into the store. He looked exhausted, and reeked of cigarettes; at some point in the day, he had washed the gel from his lavender hair, and brushed it down to its original position. It was pin straight, and roughly fell to his shoulders. 

It took all of Izuku's willpower not to reach out and brush his nimble fingers through it. 

"I...I came to apologize," Hitoshi mumbled, not looking at Izuku. His purple eyes focused on his hands, which fiddled with the strings of a leather bracelet on his wrist. "So uh...I'm sorry." 

Izuku bit back a little snort. Hitoshi looked...well, for lack of a better word, Hitoshi was adorable. "Yeah. You're forgiven." 

"You speak so properly when you're not pissed off," he pointed out, finally looking up at Izuku. 

He rose a brow and laughed shyly. "Uh...thanks I guess?" Izuku walked out from behind the counter and started to clean up the store. "Why didn't you come tomorrow like you said you would?" 

Hitoshi groaned a little, as he prayed Izuku wouldn't ask that. "I felt bad keeping such a grudge against you. You know...with summer coming and all.' 

"Mhm..." Izuku was glad his back was turned to Hitoshi--it hid the smitten smile plastered on his freckled face. "Well now that tomorrow is officially summer I was wondering if we could--" he turned to face the purple haired witch leaning against the counter. "--spend the night together?" 

He could see the corner of Hitoshi's lips pull up in a slight smile as he looked up. "Where?" 

"Somewhere whimsical," he urged, his forest green eyes seemingly growing brighter. "Like far east near the ocean. Or...somewhere up in the mountains. In a vacation home? God Hitoshi, I don't know where, but I want to spend the summer solstice with you." 

He stood back from the counter a little and started to grin uncontrollably. "Is this a confession, Izuku?" 

Izuku couldn't help the smile that spread across his freckled cheeks. "Too early for us to have confessions, don't you think?"