All the Light That Can't Be Seen: A My Hero Academia Fanfiction

Chapter Seven

CHAPTER SEVEN.

AS it always seems to happen with the two of them, it comes to a head when Kacchan corners him and demands a fight from him late one evening, when Izuku wakes up from a nightmare and he just wants something to distract him.

It goes like this:

Kacchan walks into the room, and his eyes are flinty and stubborn, and he's clearly itching for a fight and Izuku's itching for a way to distract himself, so he approaches him.

"Kacchan? Is something wrong?"

"Fuck off and mind your own business, Deku. Nothing's wrong."

It's been years since the last time he said his nickname with that inflection and with that curl in his lips—with disgust and condescending and meanness. But then, this is Kacchan—who's prideful and arrogant and egotistical, who, for years, tried to break his spirit because he was quirkless.

Izuku frowns. "If you say so."

Kacchan rounds on him, pushes him against the wall, and Izuku tries to look for an escape, but his hand slams over his shoulder, blocking him off, so Izuku stands his ground instead and glares up at him. Refuses to be cowed.

"Don't think you're above me, with your holier than thou attitude and the way you're just catching up to me because you finally have All Might's fucking quirk—"

"Holier than thou attitude—" Izuku splutters, confused. "And not so loud about my quirk!"

He grins—leers, more like it, and he leans his face in, and Izuku leans back and puts his hand on his chest to push him away—but Kacchan's sturdy and strong, the same way Izuku has grown to become, so he doesn't budge, only pushes back harder. "You think you're so special, don't you Deku? You've got the favor of your idol and all the teachers love you and so does all the extras and you've got the right fucking temperament for heroism. I'm surprised they don't worship the ground you walk on—oh wait, they already do."

Izuku shoves. Hard. He rocks Kacchan away, but Kacchan snarls and bites at him—his teeth snap close right in front of his nose, and Izuku flinches back and watches him a bit nervously, but... Kacchan's fists don't spark. And that's a first, but Izuku's mad now too, and he doesn't really care.

"Kacchan, stop it. You're insulting people we both care for and respect."

"Does it fucking look like I give a damn? They're your shitty friends—but would they even be your friends if you didn't have your quirk? You were a pathetic loser in middle school and even before that—"

This time, One for All joins him when he pushes Kacchan away from him, and it's significantly harder than it was before, and he turns so that his back is facing the open doorway, but tears make his eyes sting, and why is he crying again? He's so tired of crying over Kacchan and his words and everything that he is. "Why am I never good enough for you? Why are you always so cruel to me even though I've done nothing to deserve it!"

"Because you never get it through your thick head, Deku! It's because you're quirkless, and you never think through the consequences, and fuck it—do you realize how worthless quirkless people are? None of them become heroes because it's dangerous even with a quirk!"

"You've always underestimated me! No, worse than that, you hurt me for years because you have an inferiority complex and you just—"

And that's the thing about Kacchan, he always brings the worst out of Izuku, without fail, while simultaneously bringing out the best in Izuku and he doesn't understand why they keep circling each other like this. They're linked together, and even though those links burn hot and hurt, and even though they break each other, there's just something that draws Izuku back to Katsuki—like he's the sun and he's the planet the rotates around it or like he's the moon and Izuku's the ocean that depends on it.