Izumi stretches out on her bed, glancing over at Katsuki where she's spread out in the middle of her room, surrounded by homework.
"Kicchaaan," she whines, rolling over so that her chin is hooked on the edge of her mattress as she peers down at the other girl. "I'm bored. Let's take a break and do something else for a while."
"No, we still have homework," Katsuki sniffs in response, not even looking up from her worksheet. "If we plan to get into Yuuei, we'll need to be able to get top scores. It's your own fucking fault if you aren't as far along as I am anyway, you chose to read that shitty magazine at lunch instead of working."
"There was a new interview with All Might!" she complains, before rolling over again to grudgingly return to her own worksheets. The work isn't hard, it's just boring. "And besides, you were the one who stole it when you thought I wasn't looking, so it can't be that bad of a magazine after all."
"Shut the fuck up, Izu," Katsuki grumbles, but doesn't retaliate further since the magazine in question is in her bag across the room and they both know it. In the ensuing quiet, the only sound is the sound of Izumi's pencil scritching across the pages and the slight click of Katsuki's pen. Izumi doesn't even realize the other girl has stopped writing until she glances up to blow a stray strand of hair out of her face, and she sees Katsuki watching her with an unreadable gaze.
"What?" she asks self-consciously. Her head tips to the side as she tries to figure out what has caught her friend's attention, but she's coming up blank. Katsuki just glares and looks down at the pen shes expertly spinning around her fingers.
"Nothing," she mutters, before glancing up through her bangs, carmine eyes almost glowing in the sunlight streaking in through the window. "Just, when were you going to tell me the shitty teachers were picking on you too?"
Izumi freezes. There's no way Katsuki knows that, she's been careful, the teachers are subtle, this is -
"What?" she forces out, doing her best to paste on a confused expression. "You - if you're talking about when Hakurei-sensei pulled me aside today, it was just because she wanted to talk to me about the last assignment. It wasn't picking on me."
"Bullshit," Katsuki spits, sitting up fully to glare at Izumi properly. "You know as well as I do that the assignment was perfect. I even looked it over myself. And it's not just her, is it? It's Oshima-sensei suggesting 'back-up' schools to aim for even though we're not even in fucking middle school yet and you have top grades, it's Shimono-sensei always sneering a little when he calls your name for attendance, it's Takehara-sensei never calling on you in class even when it's just you and me who know the answer since our classmates are all idiots. It's all the others I haven't seen, too."
Izumi ducks her head, eyes burning. Laid out like that, she can't deny it - to either Katsuki or to herself. It's true, while the students may have learned to steer clear of bullying her over the years, the teachers didn't get the same message. This year's set have been especially bad, and a little more obvious, which is probably why Katsuki finally noticed.
"It doesn't matter," she says softly, fighting back tears. "My dreams haven't changed, and they aren't going to. Neither is the fact that I'm Quirkless. I'm not going to change anything just because they can't put the two together in their heads."
"You could have at least told me," Katsuki replies, unusually quiet. Izumi glances up to see that her glare has smoothed out into a frown as she rolls her pen between her fingers. "I can help you not be alone with them, and if it gets too bad, we can tell our parents. You don't have to fight this villain alone, you know."
The tears finally break free at that, and Izumi wipes them away automatically, well acquainted with her leaky eyes after all these years. Resting her chin on the bed, she gazes at her friend with a slight smile. Katsuki always claims she's not sentimental, but this is why Izumi never believes her. Her friend has also had a frankly adorable habit of calling anything they struggle with 'villains', ever since Izumi was diagnosed Quirkless - not that Izumi would ever say that to her face since she values her life.
"I know," she responds, catching Katsuki's eye as the other looks up from her pen. The blonde promptly flushes at the look on her face, scowling, and Izumi bites her lip to hold back her laughter. After a moment though, she sobers. "I'll talk to you about it from now on, okay? I promise."
Katsuki scans her expression for a moment before nodding decisively. A moment later, she scowls, rising to her feet as she tosses her pen on her half-finished worksheet.
"Come on," she says, holding out a hand to Izumi. The greenette takes it without question, though she blinks at Katsuki in confusion. "It's fucking hot, and you know I can't cool down right due to my sweat. I'm going to get a popsicle from the store on the corner."
Izumi glances down at Katsuki's cool hands, and then at the window, outside of which it is a mild twenty-one degrees Celsius. She turns back to her friend and suddenly notices the way that Katsuki is refusing to look at her, and things click. Lifting a hand to hide her smile, Izumi gleefully stacks her unfinished homework together, before sliding on her socks.
"Sure, let's go!" she exclaims, rushing to the door before Katsuki can change her mind about the break from their work. Together they rush past a startled Inko, yelling out where they're headed as they slip on their shoes, and out the door down the street.
"Ugh, I fucking hate this."
Katsuki is slumped over on her desk during their lunch period, lifting her long hair off of her neck with a look of disgust at the strands. Izumi can immediately see the problem in the now-oily locks of hair being held away from Katsuki's skin. The nitroglycerin sweat is clinging to her hair more than ordinary hair oil would, and it's causing it to clump together in thick chunks.
Izumi wrinkles her nose in shared disgust at the sight, mind whirring. This is the first summer that Katsuki has decided to keep her hair long for, and they've never had to deal with this problem before. She also knows that suggesting her friend cut her hair like she has in the past will be met with scorn - after all, she'd chosen to grow it out this year because of All Might's long hair, even if she won't admit to it when asked.
At the thought of All Might, Izumi's eyes widen as she thinks she's found a solution to their problem.
"Kicchan, come with me!" She snags Katsuki's wrist and pulls her up out of her chair, ignoring the popping of mini-explosions and the matching snarl as she does so. Katsuki is more bark than bite in these moods, and Izumi has long since learned to just ignore her friend's token arguments. She drags them both into the girl's locker room and pushes Katsuki towards the sinks, moving towards the rows of lockers.
"Wash that stuff out of your hair, I'll be right back," she orders. Katsuki grumbles, but Izumi doesn't look back, well aware by now that her friend will do it, however grudgingly. Izumi enters the code for Katsuki's locker and takes out a few things, before heading back to the other girl.
Katsuki has rolled up her sleeves and opened her shirt slightly to slide it out of the way of her now-dripping hair as she glares at Izumi in irritation. She does look cooler though, and her hair is no longer in clumps, so Izumi counts it as a success.
"Turn around and face the mirror," Izumi chirps, gesturing with the towel over both hands. Katsuki clearly isn't happy about it, but she complies and turns to face the mirror as requested. Izumi squeezes the towel around Katsuki's hair, wringing it as dry as she can before taking out the brush she'd slipped into her pocket earlier from the locker.
She runs it lightly through the volatile girl's hair, wary of setting her off especially with so much nitroglycerin being produced. It doesn't take long to detangle Katsuki's hair, and when she's finished, she uses the brush to maneuver her hair to where she wants it to go. She tugs it up gently into a high ponytail and ties it off with a spare hair-tie she has handy. After a moment of considering it, she pulls out a second one and begins looping it around the ponytail as well.
While Izumi's hair is unruly and never goes where she wants it to, Katsuki's hair is thick, just like her mother's, and Izumi is a little afraid one hair-tie alone will snap from it all. It's a heavy weight that falls in layered spikes to just below her shoulders and frames her face with long side bangs. It looks good though, and a fair number of their classmates - regardless of gender - have begun paying more attention to her this year than they have in the past.
Maybe it's just that they're getting older, but Izumi's willing to bet that it's more that their classmates are starting to notice that her friend is pretty.
Giving one final gentle tug on the ponytail, Izumi backs up and glances at the mirror. Katsuki studies her reflection and tests the movement of her head, her hair swaying back and forth with the motion. Izumi herself is surprised by how much more open her friend's face is with her hair pulled back.
Katsuki had never wanted to tie her hair back in the past, so it had always been left down to hang by her chin, her neck, or the tops of her shoulders, depending on the length. Now though, her face is exposed, a sharp jawline framed by her bangs and her stare all the more piercing without her hair to distract from it.
"I like it," Katsuki finally declares, eyeing the slight spikes that line the ponytail, muted a little bit now by the fact that her hair is still a little damp. "It's a lot cooler too, so my neck won't sweat as much. And even if it does, my hair won't be all up in it anymore."
Izumi takes that as the thanks it's intended as and smiles happily, picking up the towel she'd tossed aside and going to put it back in Katsuki's locker, along with the brush.
"Just like All Might, when she's fighting!" Izumi calls back cheerfully. "That's what gave me the idea. I know in interviews she has it down, but out in the field it's always tied back into a high ponytail just like that!"
"You're such a nerd," Katsuki snorts, but the pleased look in her eyes sticks with Izumi all the same, and she knows her friend is happy with both the result and the comparison after all.
The next day, Katsuki demands that Izumi show her how she did the hairstyle, and from that day on, Izumi doesn't see her without the spiky ponytail that slowly grows longer and longer.
"Kicchan!" Izumi whispers. "Kicchan, wake up!"
"Izu, if you don't shut the fuck up, I'm going to blast you into jelly."
"Kicchaaan, come on, you don't want to miss it!"
Katsuki groans, but pushes herself up anyway to blearily glare at her friend through narrowed eyes. Izumi knows she looks far too awake right now, but it's not her fault she's excited.
"The fuck you want, nerd? The sun isn't even up yet," the blonde slurred. Katsuki blinked, before her brain seemed to wake up a bit more. "Wait, how the fuck did you even get in my house? Do the hag and the old man know you're here?"
"Yeah, I talked to them yesterday about it," Izumi waved off her concerns. "That doesn't matter. Just get dressed, and hurry up already!"
The explosive girl snarls half-hearted threats, but drags herself out of bed and gets dressed anyway as Izumi practically vibrates while waiting for her. Once up, she wakes up quickly and before long is trying to needle Izumi for details about what is going on - especially when she sees the backpack looped around the green-haired girl's shoulders.
Izumi doesn't answer, instead leading her out of the house quietly and down the street. They pass by two neighborhoods before Izumi slips through an alleyway and the buildings open up into an overgrown space.
"What kind of shitty place is this?" Katsuki asks, wrinkling her nose at the weeds and trash all around them. "Why would you want to show me this?"
"This isn't where I'm taking you," Izumi responds, rolling her eyes. "Come on, we're almost there."
She ducks through a gap in the nearby bushes, and leads Katsuki onto a path hidden by the brush, going deeper into the greenery. She can tell Katsuki is confused by the grumbling she hears from behind her, but pays it no mind. Eventually they come clear of the undergrowth, and the pathway opens up to a field full of weeds, flowers, and grasses covering a small hill.
"How did you even know this was here?" Katsuki asks, looking around. She's doing her best to look bored, but Izumi can see the curiosity beneath the expression easily.
"I got lost one day running an errand for Mom!" she chirps, grabbing Katsuki's hand and darting up the hill, dragging her friend behind her. There is a moment of popping from the blonde's palms, but a surprising lack of protest at the manhandling.
Reaching the top of the hill, Izumi drops Katsuki's hand to reach into her backpack and pull out a large blanket. She snaps it open, spreading it across the ground in quick, efficient movements before dropping onto it and crossing her legs. Katsuki's garnet gaze stares at her for a long moment, before she sighs and drops down too.
"Alright, why are we here at ass-o-clock in the fucking morning, Izu?" she asks tiredly, rubbing at her eyes. Izumi's grin grows wider, and she checks her phone for the time.
"Any moment now…" she says, before tipping her head back from looking down at her phone screen to up at the sky. "There! It's starting!"
In the corner of her eye, she sees Katsuki tip her head back as well. After a moment she hears a soft inhale from the other girl, before allowing herself to get lost in the sight too.
Above them is the beginnings of a meteor shower, with streaks of light glowing across the sky like lines of fluorescent paint. The number of meteors grow, until the whole sky is awash in a glow of white that bisects the sky into fragments. The two girls sit in silence as they watch it, awe at the sight filling them. After several long minutes, Izumi breaks the silence.
"Happy birthday, Kicchan," she says softly, turning her head to smile at Katsuki. The other girl gets a slightly surprised expression on her face that melts into understanding before she looks away.
"Yeah, whatever, nerd. Thanks, I guess," she mutters, but in the moonlight Izumi can see how red her ears have gotten and just laughs. Bumping her shoulder into her best friend's, she continues.
"I asked our parents if I could be the one to tell you this," she says, smile slowly growing as she speaks, and Katsuki looks back at her in confusion. "I've been talking to them about hero work recently, and for your birthday I managed to convince them to let us start training. We have brand new gym passes starting Monday, and a few sessions with a personal trainer to start."
"You mean…?" Katsuki asks, eyes wide and shock clear in her expression. Izumi understands. Their parents are a little ambivalent about their career goals, much less starting them on the path for it at only ten - well, eleven now, for Katsuki - and had been resistant to letting them do much until now.
"Yeah, I think I won them over," Izumi responds, grinning. A few moments later, Katsuki's shock turns into a grin that Izumi knows looks feral and threatening to anyone not familiar with the blonde's moods. To her, all she sees is Katsuki's fierce joy. The blonde reaches out and wraps an arm around Izumi's shoulders, pulling her down and scrubbing a hand through her hair harshly.
"I can't believe you did it, Izu! You fucking did it!" she yells.
"Ah, Kicchan, let me go!" Izumi laughs, wincing at the pull of her hair from the noogie she was just graced with. "Seriously, do you have to do this every time?"
Katsuki smirks as she lets her loose, and the smirk grows into a barking laugh at the sight of Izumi's frizzed up hair. Izumi pouts a little, but she's smiling too as she tries to sort out the bird's nest her friend had just created. As she does, she glances back up at the sky, where the meteor shower is finally dying out.
"Hey." At Katsuki's quiet voice, she looks back over to the blonde. Her friend's expression is serious but content as she lifts up a closed fist between them. "To the official start of the Wonder Duo, huh? The best fucking heroes this world will ever see."
"To the Wonder Duo," Izumi grins, bumping their fists together.
AN: My favorite part about this chapter is deciding that Katsuki does her homework in pen, because she's never wrong, right? Haha!