The Serpent in the Garden - [todoshindeku] - Villain Izuku

Chapter Eight

Izuku lay, crouched with hand over his mouth to suppress barely contained laughter, under the shrubbery near his apartment, biding his time till his unsuspecting victim walked by.

A few minutes of sitting quietly — waiting, watching, later, the person in question slunk around the bend in the road, hunched into himself and completely oblivious to his doom — or, indeed, anything around him he was so intent on being as unnoticeable as possible. Despite being Izuku's friend for months now, he was still as socially awkward as ever.

Izuku chuckled softly, slowly counting backwards in his head until—

"BOO!" Izuku laughed himself out from behind the bushes, tackling Shinsou head on, causing the boy to shriek uncharacteristically — and very loudly — and fall sideways awkwardly onto the grass on the other side of the cement.

Grinning devilishly, Izuku glanced down to find Shinsou completely frozen from surprise, and let out a burst of laughter at his friend's shell-shocked expression.

"Weren't expecting that, hm?" He chuckled, pushing himself up and brushing himself off, acutely aware of the unimpressed, and slightly amused looks they were getting from passers-by. He bent down, proffering a hand to his friend, who blinked a few times, shook his head as if to reorientate himself, before remembering to glare up at Izuku, face deadpan.

"No, I didn't expect my friend to ambush me like a child on my way to his house." He grumbled, and Izuku pouted indignantly.

"You need to be more vigilant." He muttered, suddenly worried that he'd taken things too far. Was this not what friends did? Maybe he'd read their situation all wrong and—

Shinsou sighed and took his hand, allowing Izuku to pull him up, brushing himself off and flicking Izuku on the forehead. "Whatever, calm down you worry-wort. I can hear you overthinking from over here and it's making my head hurt."

Izuku relaxed, if only slightly. So Shinsou wasn't mad with him? It was always so hard to read his slight changes in expression — was that a pleased frown or a frown frown?

"Oh, uh, sorry." Izuku mumbled, self-consciously rubbing the back of his neck. Was it always so obvious when he began overthinking? He had to admit he had never perfected a poker face, despite Shigaraki trying in vain to teach him, but he had thought he was at least better at not letting show his bigger emotions of worry or fear.

When he glanced back at Shinsou, the other boy was giving him a crooked grin, before shaking his head and turning away, beckoning for Izuku to follow. "Forget it. Let's go."

"Uh. Right."

They were headed to Izuku's local park, like they did most days, for training. They had used to do it back at Izuku's, but had begun going to the park instead after Inko had banned them from practicing in the house when one of them had accidentally knocked over a vase and smashed it on the hard linoleum of the kitchen floor while they were sparring. A gross overreaction Izuku had said, but his mother had still chased them jovially out with a mop, telling them only to come back with a new vase or dinner. They had retrieved both, along with a long, heartfelt apology letter from Shinsou. It was all unneeded, of course — Inko had never truly minded when Izuku broke things, it was all part of having a kid after all, but the letter had given Shinsou a place in Inko's heart forever, and she now referred to him as 'son', which Shinsou still didn't know how to deal with, though Izuku could tell he liked it.

The park was the one that he had frequented in his youth, full of kiddy play equipment and screaming toddlers, but there was a wide, grassy area behind the playground that they could use to practice sparring and basic moves, and they had to admit they had much more room to move and not worry about destroying stuff out there.