- Prologue -

"Sometimes, we don't realize that something is stolen from us."

"Ah, it's already morning again."

Midoriya Izuku scretched his arms as he just opened his flower shop. His place took location at the end of a small city. He smiled to start his day anew. He patted his green apron and opened all windows. He replaced dead flowers with fresh ones. He was busy yet he was content with his life right now.

Midoriya Izuku was an owner of a small flower shop in a small city. He greeted neighbors in the morning, gave children candies, and even a flower for free. His flower shop might be small, but there were loyal customers whom would come to visit regularly. He loved this city. In a world where quirks, villain, and of course, heroes, existed, he could live in such a peaceful city. How grateful he was. According to news he'd ever heard, the amount of villains decreased a lot since a year ago, after big accident that caused much damages. Izuku was curious but the feelings didn't bring him to dig more information and he was just simply grateful. There must be great heroes whom fought villains tirelessly. They were … amazing, so he thought.

"Izuku, is there lily? I want to visit my husband's grave today." An old-woman from seafood shop came and asked for his lilies. Izuku nodded, gave her big smile before running to take a bouquet of lilies.

There were no more customers for today and Izuku felt so sleepy. Oh, don't blame him. He just watched TV last night. It's about hero awards that held on Roppongi last month, so it was just rerun. They were mostly graduates from Seiketsu or Yuuei. Their faces were all over Japan, layered every poster. They're amazing and Izuku liked them. They were trained to be heroes. How lucky they were. Izuku couldn't pick his favorite. After all, all heroes were as great and they saved people. Uravity, Icy-Hot, Chargebolt, Present Mic, and more heroes came to red carpet. They're like superstars with cameras following them everywhere.

"It must be nice to be hero." Izuku smiled as he adored them. He saved his income in order to go to Tokyo and watch hero awards live and closely. He knew his mother wouldn't agree as she always told him to stay away from capital, but yeah, he was curious.

His mother, Midoriya Inko, lived far and he even didn't know why. His mother just said that she couldn't leave her job. She sent him here to live anew and he accepted it without asking furthermore. Izuku didn't like her mom's face whenever he asked the reason why he had to live here alone. At first, she lived here and helped him to run a shop. But, it felt like her mom forced herself to work here. She often showed sad expression which was he didn't like. He wanted his mom to be happy so one day, he let his mom went back to her previous workplace.

She packed her stuffs and leaved with vague messages.

"There is a patient I have to take care of. If something happens to him, both of us will regret it forever. So, I have to go. Because he can't be here."

It's difficult to manage everything by himself with his condition in the beginning. But, it turned out Izuku wasn't that stupid to learn fast.

Izuku fell asleep and was shocked by a touch on his shoulder.

"Nggh? Who is it?" He rubbed his eyes, tried to adjust the brightness from the open door.

"I want to buy flowers."

Izuku jolted awake finally as he realized that he just fell asleep in front of his customer. He wiped his saliva in the corner of his mouth and gave his customer a sheepishly smile.

"Sorry. I stayed up late last night."

"It's okay. Just … give me a bouquet of mix flowers."

Izuku looked up to see handsome face in front of him. Not quite close, but he could see it clearly that two crimsons stared at him beautifully. Izuku held his breath for five seconds before processing the situation.

The customer was new. Izuku never saw him before around here. He had blond-hair, and it could only be seen if he squinted his eyes too much. He wore black hoodie, black jeans, and black shoes. Was he a metal-singer? Rocker? Izuku didn't have any idea. The man tried to hide his face as he kept his hoodie down, it kept half of his face hidden. Was he an idol? So, he was in disguise so his fans couldn't recognize him.

"Are you new here?" Izuku couldn't help but to slip his words accidentally. His head was just a big ball of curiosity.

"Nope. I just … happen to be here."

Ah. Where did Izuku see him? He was unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. But he didn't have any idea where he met him before?

Izuku didn't think too much and chose to give his order soon. It was a very gorgeous bouquet of mix flowers. Izuku arranged it every day just in case there was customer who wanted a bouquet flowers. The blond-haired man stared at him for a bit long before taking money from his pocket and gave it to Izuku.

Izuku was quite for a while. He was stunned as he could see a secret sorrow that's reflected on those crimson-eyes. It felt nostalgic yet strange. Izuku brushed his thought because he didn't want to think too much. He was just one of his customers after all, nonetheless.

"Thank you very much! Come again later!" Izuku waving his hands goodbye cheerfully as the man leaved the place.

Izuku watched TV that night as he was tired and sat down on his couch comfortably. He grabbed a remote, changed the channels before click the button so fast, it could destroy the button. He paused. Yes, Izuku paused. He looked at the big monitor in front of him with wide eyes. It was zoom-in version of Ground Zero who apparently came to hero awards by holding a bouquet of mix flowers. Izuku wasn't wrong. It was definitely his flowers.

SO HE WAS GROUND ZERO?!

Why did Zero come to visit his small shop? Why did he come from capital just to buy his flowers? Like, like there's no flower shop in Tokyo which was impossible. Zero holding his flowers tightly as he gave his speech. It wasn't long, just few words. But, it was hearty speech and he just inspired a lot heroes to be better and stronger.

Izuku didn't realize that he clapped his hands after watching it.

Then, Izuku thought, "It must be he has mission nearby so he come to visit my shop accidently. Maybe he's bored and decide to stroll this small city?"

It's possible. But, wow, it's really one of rare moment when he had a big-shot pro hero to come to his shop.

Ground Zero. He was the very first hero he watched back then when he woke up. He remembered well that his mom took his remote so fast as if she didn't want Izuku to watch Ground Zero on TV. Was it because Ground Zero's image? He was popular as brash hero. His mouth was full of sharp words and his vocabularies were amazing, TV station had to censor it so it could be watched by children.

Izuku frowned toward his mom's reaction that time, trying to collect pieces of puzzles. But, afterwards, Inko gave normal reaction whenever Izuku watched Ground Zero, so it was certainly about his personality after all. Izuku didn't push his mind.

What was he, Ground Zero, called again? Ah, yes.

Symbol of Victory.

Whenever he win battles, he would do peace-sign pose. It was cool. Other heroes were also cool.

Sometimes, life was unfair. Izuku was quirkless. Inko told him that he was quirkless. Inko guided him to be an owner shop instead, raising flowers than fighting villains. Izuku was upset at first. Everyone, even his mom had have quirk. Why did he not have it like them?

Izuku grew his understatement. He learned that sometimes human was born differently.

'Heroes ….'

Ah, Izuku really had to save money and visit Tokyo at least once. He wanted to meet all heroes badly at hero awards live. It was exciting! He couldn't wait!

Katsuki came back to his apartment at 01:00 AM. He didn't believe that he could grow patience to wait until the event ended. It had been a while since he met his former classmates. He was still on touch with Shitty-hair, Pikachu, Pink Racoon. But, he barely met Transformer, Roundface, and Fuck-face, let alone talked with them.

It was just … it was hard to meet them.

His mind went back to his morning event. He didn't know what possessed him. He broke his promise and came to that small city. He had his patrol there but he never showed his face before. He would ran at high-speed so no one would recognize him. But, this time, this morning, he couldn't hold back. His legs walked slowly to enter that flower shop. And his heart tightened, it hurt badly. It hurt Katsuki.

He's smiling. He still looked like an idiot. Katsuki wanted to swear at him, but he was afraid. So, he bitten his tongue every time he wanted to swear. He greeted him with that foolish smile that never changed even after years ago. His freckles still looked like galaxy, beautiful and full of seduction.

He saw that lips moved and he couldn't help. Katsuki couldn't help but missing that silly-nickname out of his mouth.

'Kacchan? Did you just wake up? Good morning!'

'Kacchan! I forget I turn on the stove! You shouldn't hold me longer!'

'Watch my back, Kacchan!'

'It's so spicy! How do you even finish this meal? It's not food for human!'

'We can take down that villain! We won't lose!'

He shouldn't take back. He should let him go. His mother told them that this was the best chance to make him happier and free from his duties. It was time to let him go.

But he couldn't. He-fucking-couldn't do that.

Every single furniture in this apartment reminded Katsuki of 'him'. Katsuki who became a head-stoned man and refused to fucking moved from here even if it killed him slowly. This place was full of him. It was full of their presence. There, on the wall, hanging photos of them both, as wonder duo and as normal people.

This was the very first time in his life that he had to separate from him. He was like Daruma. Katsuki tried to get rid of him but failed. He would appear again. Whenever. Wherever. That shitty-face would come again and give him smile.

Was it karma? He tried to kick him out from his life before entering UA. Then, after he clung to him like koala, he was gone. He was fucking gone. And Katsuki ended up grasping air. He sighed. He was tired. He needed someone to convince him that everything was gonna be okay. That he would be back no matter how much times it would take. He surely would be back.

Katsuki squeezed an old newspaper that he took under bed, It was from one and a half years ago but he still had have it. It was almost burned if he wasn't give it attention and stopped his quirk.

… and there, on the headline was lying a title in uppercase fonts. It said :

The sudden retirement of number one hero Deku :

After getting hit at the final war against league of villains, Deku sudden retirement was announced by none other than his mother (delivered through Hero Association). Deku's mother apologized for her decision and hoped everyone would understand. Since then, Deku whereabouts were secret. Civilians tried to understand her decision and prayed for their now-former-number one hero. Deku would be remembered as one of the greatest pro heroes ever. His statue would be built in Roppongi-Tokyo for reminding us there was ever a great hero, our Symbol of Hope.

"FUCK!"

To be continued