Chapter Text
"Stop it! K-Kacchan! Please!" He screams but his wails do nothing to help as he tries to prevent his friends from ruining another one of his creations.
"Useless Deku! You think this stupid thing is cool?! Hah?"
Kacchan yells and sneers, kicking another sand model. The sand particles rain on Izuku, his eyes forcing themselves shut involuntarily in response to the attack. The other boys laugh maliciously - all scathing smiles and vicious glares as they continue with the racket. Stomping, kicking and flinging anything that resembled a man-made structure in the sand square. It continues for a few more moments before they are satisfied enough to leave him alone. Izuku hiccups, curling into himself, hands pulling in his legs tucking them beneath his chin, throat raw from all the crying and yelling and he buries his face in his knees.
"Hey, are you okay?"
He is so unaware of his surroundings that he flinches at the kind but childish voice. He whips his head up, the mop of green hair falling over his eyes and stares at the small handkerchief being offered to him. His gaze follows the hand offering the small article to a small girl. She seems to be his age, with a really round face and really pink cheeks. She has brown hair and large pretty brown eyes which seemes to display a variety of shades of red and brown as the setting sun illuminates everything around them.
He nods, not trusting his throat to say anything without his voice cracking. He grimaces as the sand accumulated on his hair falls over his eyes and chest.
"Here! Lemme help you!" She chirps. He almost pulls back when she kneels in front of him, her hand extending the tiny hanky towards his face.
"Close your eyes!" She instructs and he reluctantly does. Her actions were clumsy but gentle and they did help him brush sand out of his eyelashes and face. She extends her arm to his hair to shake off the sand but as soon as her small hand touches his head, he squeaks and scrambles backward. His head still hurt from the time when Kacchan and his friends pulled it.
"I-I can do it!" He screams, red faced and embarrassed knowing that she was just trying to help and he shouldn't shout at her like that but to his surprise, she smiles and nods.
And Izuku wonders why she was being this kind to someone like him. He was at his worst in front of her but she did not seem to mind. He hopes this is not some kind of new prank. He hates being pranked. They hurt.
As he uses both his hands to shake off the sand in his hair, his eyes could not help but peek at her shyly. She was still on her knees, her gaze flicking here and there. She is curious - he realizes. Suddenly she brightens up, he watches her warily as she stands up and races to the small sand tower that somehow had managed to escape the carnage of destruction earlier.
“You made this?” she asks, eyes wide, with an excited smile on her face.
Izuku hums in affirmative, giving her a shy nod.
“So cool!” she squeals loudly, hopping up to him.
The unexpected praise, and the first time someone calling him cool, let alone a cute girl was too much for him. He squeaks loudly, burying his face in his arms and blushing up quite a storm.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!”
Her sudden apology makes no sense and he raises his head up in confusion and feels his heart twist at the sight of her dejected face towards the ground.
“No! It’s not like that!” He exclaims, waving his arm frantically. His extreme reaction did make her look at him. He scratches his cheek, a slight pink colour appearing on the area around his freckles. "Uh, it's like...this is the first time someone told me my stuff was cool."
"...No way!"
"Eh?"
"Your buildings were really cool!"
Izuku could not hold back a smile. This person was one of the first people who were so kind to him. And she had a really, really cute smile. It almost made him jump when she suddenly plopped beside him in the sand, her tiny legs stretched in front of her.
"I didn't tell you my name! My name is Ochako! Uraraka Ochako! Nice to meet you, Deku!"
"D-Deku?!" He splutters, horrified.
"Did I say something wrong?" She looks shocked, and it takes him a second to realize that she was genuinely confused. She was not trying to be mean on purpose.
"My name isn't Deku! It's... It's a mean name that Kacchan and others call me by. I-I don't like that name..." He trails off, unable to meet her eyes, wondering she would hate him too - for being cowardly? Or being a crybaby? Did she think he was useless too? But didn’t she...just liked his buildings?
"Whaaa?! I'm sorry! I didn't know! I just thought...it sounded kind of cool?" She looks at him with earnest bright brown eyes, her apology sincere and now he was sure that she wasn't intending to be hurtful at all. "I thought it sounded a lot like…'You can do it!'"
Her words are completely unexpected and Izuku feels a sudden rush of weird tingling all over his body.
"So?" She tilts her head towards him and blinks. "You wanna become that? The people who make buildings? What are they called~" she hums, looking up in the sky thoughtfully.
"Architect!" Izuku happily supplies from the side. "Yeah, I really wanna become one!"
She pumps her fists up in the air in a gesture of cheer and her smile makes everything around them light up.
"What about you? What do you wanna become when you grow up?" Izuku blurts, with genuine curiosity wanting to know more about her.
"That!" She answers in a heartbeat, without any hesitation. His gaze follows the direction her finger was pointing at. Towards the sky. The figure of aeroplane looked incredibly tiny because of the distance.
Izuku frowns, "Airplane?"
"No silly!" She laughs, her finger jabbing him on the side. "I wanna become the people who fly airplanes! Pilots!"
Her small hand fist is in the air, as if wanting to capture the object so above them. But she smiles like he had never seen anyone do before. She was looking so up ahead, so sure of herself and ready to battle anything the world might throw towards her and Izuku felt his heart thumping because...her eyes were sparkling. It was hope.
"I wanna fly there up, someday!"
He couldn't tear away his eyes from her. Even though they were both young, he understood, both of them had grand dreams. And somehow, he knew. They were both going to achieve them.
"Let's meet up again someday! When we become what we want, promise?" She is looking at him with wide expectant eyes, her pinky raised for him as a gesture of promise.
There was warmth and happiness spreading around his tiny chest, overwhelming all his doubts and insecurities and washing them away as if they never existed as he curls his own small finger around hers. A delighted smile spread across her cheeks at the confirmation and Izuku felt himself returning it unabashedly.
It was a promise he was willing to keep forever.