Living at the end of a dead end street had it's perks.
It was quiet.
There was a nature preserve as his backyard.
The playground was less than a mile away from home.
To top it all off his best friend, Kacchan, lives right next door.
"Izu! I'm gonna tag you!" The small four year old blonde boy shrieks in joy chasing after his friend.
"I don't wanna be it!" The green headed three and a half year old boy cries as he tries to pick up speed to get further away from the little hand so close to his shoulder. The greenette, named Izuku takes a misstep and goes tumbling forward, hands braced out in front of his to save his face from scrapping the concrete the children are playing on. "Owie." The sits up and slowly and brings his hands to his face, taking in the scraps and blood speckling his palms. Tears spring to the boys eyes and he looks up to where Kacchan stands several feet away from him, frozen, trying to take in what just happened to his friend. "Kacchan." Izuku's bottom lip trembles hard and his tears finally fall. Pain throbbing through his hands as he carefully picks the gravel out of his hands.
"Izu!" Kacchan leaps forward drops to his knees next to his small friend. "I'm so sorry, Izu! I didn't want you to get an owie!" Tears stream down Katsuki's cheeks uncontrollably. Katsuki takes the dirty, bloody hands in his and cries harder.
Izuku's tears come to a stop when he sees his best friend crying over his hands. He takes his hands out of his friend's and wraps his arms around his friend's small frame instead, letting Kacchan cry into his shoulder. "It's okay, Kacchan. Not your fault! Kacchan would never hurt me!"
"Never!" Kacchan sobs out into Izuku's shoulder, gripping onto him as tight as possible. "I'd never hurt you! You're my Izu! I never hurt you!" Eyes wide and scared that his Izu could think he'd hurt him.
His tears have no sign of stopping soon so Izuku gives him a small smile and hugs him close to him once more. He sits in Kacchan's lap so that they can hug comfortably while Katsuki calms down.
They sit there on the sidewalk in front of their houses for another twenty minutes before Katsuki is calm enough to pull away from Izuku's shoulder. "Are your hands okay?" Katsuki's voice is rough and trembles from crying for nearly a half hour.
"They don't hurt no more! They're just icky. I need to wash dem." He sticks his tongue out and it makes Kacchan let out a giggle.
"I help you." With a nod Katsuki stands and helps Izu by his arm, not wanting to get the icky blood on him or hurt Izuku further. Making their way into Izuku's house, they pass the living room with Izu's father, Hisashi, sitting on the couch.
"Oh, Bud! What happened?" Concern displaying on his face as he looks over to the two boys, his son's hands held out in front of him and bloody. Along with the other boy looking flushed and red eyed, which is normal since the child has the tendency to cry and show his emotions on his sleeves.
"I okay! I tripped and falled! Kacchan's gonna help me wash my hands! They don't hurt no more though, Daddy! Promise!" Izuku flashes his father one of his smiles that seems to brighten a room no matter where he's at.
Hisashi give a light chuckle, shakes his head and waves the boys off with an "okay then. Don't let me keep ya" then turns back to the news report on the television.
Continuing on their journey to the bathroom, Katsuki leads Izu to sit on the toilet next to the sink. He digs around the cabinet under the sink and pulls out the first aide kit his Aunty Inko put for them there. Izu has always been accident prone so the Katsuki had asked for a box of band-aids and peroxide be put under the sink so he could help Izu when needed.
With his Izu's hands hanging over the sink he rinses Izu's hands in warm water to make sure all the gravel is gone before he warns, "this might hurt." before trickling some of the peroxide over the slowly bleeding scrape. He wants to make sure everything is all clean before he puts the mutually agreed All Might band-aid on the one one still bleeding scrape on Izu's left hand.
"Doesn't hurt when Kacchan does it." Izuku admits to Katsuki, wanting to make sure his friend knows, he'll never think that his Kacchan could hurt him.
"Never want to hurt my Izu. We're gonna be soulmates! Mama told me all about them and I just know you're my soulmate! There's no one else in the world that could be my best friend like you Izu!" Katsuki brings Izuku in for a tight hug that is quickly reciprocated. "Just wait till we turn six! You'll see!"
Izuku's mom had also told her boy all about soulmates as well and Izuku know in his heart that Kacchan was right. Kacchan was his soulmate.
And he absolutely could not wait to prove it to everyone.