Katsuki didn't know why he felt the need to climb up the stairs of the old building, why it had to be this building in particular but when he was walking down the empty, eerie street the building had drawn him in. Initially he wanted to go for a different one in a more populated area as he didn't want to risk not being found but he just couldn't walk away from it.
Now trudging up the old, broken stairs he felt dread settling deeper and deeper into his stomach while his body, his mind, felt completely numb. The walk upstairs was long and tiring but the thought of jumping back down made it a little more bearable.
The seconds ticked by slowly as he continued his long way towards the top of the building with silent, warm tears streaming down his cold face, clouding his vision. With every step he felt a little lighter, the pain in his chest easing at the prospect of the cool night air hitting his face.
When he finally reached the strong metal door leading onto the roof he narrowed his eyes in confusion. The door was already open and he could hear soft crying coming from the roof. His first instinct was to get angry at whoever was there first, followed by the urge to turn around and look for another building that was high enough but the hero in him wanted to save the person even tho he probably had the same goal in mind.
With a heavy sigh he walked onto the roof and looked around only to take in a sharp breath at the sight of his classmate standing on the ledge. The greenhaired boy stood there shaking and crying while his red shoes stood neatly on his left. Immedietly Katsuki's mind went back to what he told Midorya only a week prior. He hadn't meant it, not really, but that didn't matter right now, the only thing that mattered was that the younger boy was aiming to end his life.
Slowly he walked towards his former childhood friend until they almost stood side by side. Midorya sniffled loudly before he turned towards Bakugou, his eyes widening when he saw who it was that disturbed his peace. "Kacchan?" His voice was scratchy from the crying and sounded overall tired, but a hint of relief was barely audible beneath all the pain.
The blond didn't really react, he only looked at him shortly before taking off his own shoes, putting them next to Midorya's neatly. After that he got onto the ledge as well, before stuffing his hands deep into his pockets. Noone spoke for a while, the only sounds were coming from Izuku who let out quiet sobs every now and again.
A few minutes passed like that before Midorya spoke up once again. "Kacchan, why are you here?" He didn't sound as bad as before but his voice was still meak, still exhausted. Bakugou didn't answer for a while, just staring at the sky for a bit before he said, "Why are you?"
He knew the answer to that, he knew he was one of the reasons Midorya stood there, ready to jump, ready to end his life, but he needed to hear it from Izuku himself just so that he could justify his own choices even better in his mind.
The smaller boy hesitated for a second before he finally answered, "I met All Might the other day, before you were attacked by the slime villain." Izuku paused after that, letting out a sob and redirecting his gaze away from his friend and towards the starless sky. He stayed silent for a bit longer until he could feel Katsuki's piercing gaze on him. With a broken sigh he continued.
"He told me I can't be a hero. Everybody told me that, my classmates, you and even my Mom but I really thought, I hoped, he would tell me something different. Being a hero is everything I wanted to be, everything I hoped to become but I'm-", a violent sob tore through his body, swallowing the rest of his sentence but Katsuki could hear it in his mind as clear as day. I'm not good enough.
The blonde grunted and looked at Midorya sharply before saying, "You can be a fucking hero, you just need training or something. You'll definetely be a better hero than me that's for sure." His last sentence came out quiet and mumbled but Izuku heard green haired boy looked at his former friend in shock but said friend continued before he could say anything in response.
"I know you'll say that that's not true and that I am fucking amazing or some shit like that but what kind of hero tells someone to off themselves?" His words were laced with anger and confidence, making it hard for Midorya to say anything against them but he still tried his best, he had to.
"You are amazing Kacchan. You're so strong and you have a great quirk. What you said hurt me deeply, yes, but it's not the reason for my decision. You will be a great hero I'm sure of that, especially because you know what you said was wrong." His voice was full of admiration for his friend, making Katsuki feel even worse then before. Even after everything he did to Izuku, after everything he said, the boy still had so much faith in him, faith he didn't deserve in the slightest.
It was silent for a long time after that, both boys didn't know what to say or what to do, the only thing that was clear was that they both still wanted to jump. After another few minutes of silence Bakugou sighed and spoke up again, "I'm here because I don't want to live." His words were spoken clearly with no hint of emotion. Midorya looked at him confused as to why Kacchan would tell him but he still listened quietly.
The blond took a deep breath, directed his gaze towards the sky once more and continued, as emotionless as before, "I don't want to live, I don't have any goals, the only reason I said I wanted to be a hero was because I wanted to be one as a kid, but now? I don't have fun doing anything, I don't eat because I just don't want to, I don't train anymore, I don't study anymore and I wouldn't talk to others if they wouldn't reach out to me first. The only thing I really want to do is to sleep. I am so fucking tired Deku."
With every word he got quieter until his voice was nothing more than a broken whisper. New tears made their way down his face and his body started trembling. From his left he could hear Midorya start crying again, before he felt a hand hesitantly tugging on his sleeve. Surprised he looked at his former friend and raised an eyebrow but the younger boy just continued to look at his sleeve. Slightly confused he pulled his hand out of his pocket just to frown a little when Izuku took it in his own shaking hand.
They stood hand in hand for a while, just taking in the warmth of the other before Izuku broke the silence after a few minutes, "Do you really want to jump Kacchan? Are you sure you want to do this?" He sounded as sad and afraid as Katsuki should be but the older boy still didn't feel anything except for dread and the numbness he grew acquainted to in the last few months. He didn't answer with words, only nodding while he continued to look at their now intertwined fingers.
"Let's jump together then." Katsuki's eyes widened at that, before he looked into Midorya's teary ones. The green haired boy didn't look as sad anymore, maybe even relieved at the prospect of not having to do this on his own but the blond didn't know what to say. He wanted to end it, desperately so, but he didn't want Midorya to die as much as it may have seemed that way.
But he also knew that he himself would be annoyed if someone tried to force him not to end his life, it was his own decision after all. With that thought in mind he asked, "Are you sure De- Izuku?" The other boy only smiled a little before he nodded and gripped Katsuki's hand looked in each others eyes for a few more seconds, waiting for the other to change their mind but when neither did, they took a big step forward.
Both boys smiled as they fell, never letting go of the others hand, not even when their bodies crashed into the ground did they let go of each other.
They started their lives together so it would only be right to end them together as well.
Even after several hours passed, even after the sun rose and even after the birds started singing noone had disturbed them, noone had found them yet. Both boys were still laying on the ground, painted in their own blood and lifeless while still holding onto each other tightly.
Miles away, with an offer in mind the number one hero jumped from roof to roof in search for the green haired kid that so fearlessly ran into danger to save his friend. The boy had made an impression on All Might with how brave he acted even tho he didn't have a quirk and shouldn't even be thinking about running into danger like that. The hero had wanted to talk to the boy ever since that day but the kid had vanished almost immedietly after his friend was driven home by the police. It's been days since then and he still didn't find him.
Still smiling and thinking about how happy young Midorya would be the very moment All Might told him the good news, the hero landed on one of the higher roof tops in the area. With a heavy sigh the older man stopped there and reverted back into his other form to take a short break from looking for the boy.
While he stood on the roof taking deep, calming breaths the hero started looking at the beautiful blue sky before something else caught his eye. At the ledge of the building he could clearly see two pairs of shoes, standing next to each other neatly. One pair was red and rather clunky while the other was a black pair of sneakers.
All Mights eyes widened and he caughed up blood when the realization came rushing into him that he knew who the red pair belonged to. Still caughing the hero looked around frantically, desperately hoping almost praying that both boys were still alive on the roof somewhere and not dead on the ground.
Shaking the number one called out, "Young Midorya? Please, please be still alive." His voice was meak and trembling because he knew that the chances of the boy being alive were almost non existent. Still shaking he walked towards the ledge with slow, hesitant steps while repeating his plea over and over again until he was standing directly next to the two pairs of shoes. He stopped talking then but he didn't look down yet, as he was rather afraid of what he would see. His eyes were almost glued to the building on the other side of the street but he knew he had to look down eventually, he had to make sure noone else would find the bodies before he did.
Slowly All Might took a deep breath and looked down onto the ground only to caugh up more blood and look away instantly. His body was trembling more than before after seeing what was down there on the still empty street. Down there were two bodies, surrounded by a big pool of blood. One of these bodies belonged to the boy he aimed to make his successor.
A silent tear ran down his face when the hero realized that he might have had a hand in Midorya's suicide as he had told the boy only six days prior that he should give up on his dreams and find something else to do with his life. Cursing silently he thought back to the conversation and scolded himself for handling the situation the way he did. He wished he had told him something different but he couldn't know that the boy was already unstable at that point.
Slightly nervous the hero tore his gaze away from the bodies again and looked at the shoes of the boys. He then proceeded to look for a suicide note and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that neither boy had left one.
All Might let out another sigh and transformed back into his hero form after that before jumping down from the building, landing next to the dead bodies. He looked at them again and his eyes widened once more when he recognized the dirty blonde hair, that was now dull and drenched in blood and brain matter, as belonging to Midorya's friend that was attacked on the same day he crushed the green haired boys dreams.
With still slightly trembling hands he called the police and told them about the dead boys he had discovered. While he waited for the ambulance and the police to arrive at the scene he took a closer look at the boys laying on the ground. Both kids had small smiles still on their face, heads turned towards each other with their eyes closed. If they weren't covered in blood, if their bones weren't visibly broken and if their heads weren't spilling brain matter on the ground then they would look content, peaceful even.
Almost ten minutes went by with All Might just staring at the dead children in front of him until he saw the emergency services finally arrive. After that everything went by in a blurr, the police questioned him and collected their shoes while the EMT's put the boys on a stretcher each, after they were finally able to seperate them.
Shortly after that the ambulance and the police drove away again, leaving All Might to stare at the blood that was starting to dry on the ground for a while before he decided that he should be there when the police officers tell the parents about their childrens demise. So, with a heavy and slightly guilty heart, the hero made his way to the police station as fast as he could, arriving there after only ten minutes.
The first thing he heard when he entered the station was loud, almost painful, screaming. He couldn't make out everything that was said, the only thing he could hear clearly were the words, "No." and "Not my poor baby." When he turned a corner he could see a blonde women being held closely by a man with dark hair. Both people were crying and pleading, the voice he heard when he entered the station obviously belonging to the women that was clutching her husbands shirt tightly, while sobbing loudly Next to them stood a short green haired women. She was standing there seemingly frozen on the spot while tears streamed down her pale face.
The blond women stopped screaming when she saw All Might and asked with a surprisingly calm but scratchy voice, "Is it true?" Now all three parents were staring at him with quiet desperation. When All Might didn't answer immedietly she elaborated with, "Did- did you really find our kids-." She couldn't finish her sentence because a sob tore through her body making it hard for her to breathe for a second.
All Might still didn't answer verbally as he didn't know what to say at that moment but the look in his eyes and the missing smile on his face were answer enough for her as she started wailing and screaming again, shouting the words "No" and "Please" over and over again, while her husband just clung to her, sobbing loudly into her shoulder.
"So they are both dead? My baby killed himself? He just- he-." Midorya's mother stuttered before she too broke out into uncontrollable sobbs. Through her heaving breaths All Might could make out the sentence, "I didn't even get to see him, I couldn't even see my baby before they took him away." After that she broke down completely, like Bakugou's parents already had, falling on the ground, clutching her chest and letting out loud wails.
All might didn't know how much time went by with him just standing there, doing nothing but staring at the people in front of him that just lost their children. He couldn't imagine what they were going through but at the same time the hero didn't feel much different than he had before when he lost someone. The only difference was that he might have helped one of these kids with making this final decision.
After a while the hero joined the officers in trying to comfort the grieving parents, to get them to a room that was more private at least but nothing they did and nothing they said was acknowledged in the slightest. At the end he just left them there with the knowledge that nothing anyone would ever do would be enough to strip them of the pain that loosing their children had caused them.
With his signature smile back on his face the hero started looking for people that might need his help, even tho the smile was now more forced than it usually was. A few days later he even began looking for a new successor, desperately trying to forget what had happened to the boy with so much potential he never got to make into a real hero.
Weeks went by and he still hadn't found the one he was looking for, every time he saw someone that might be the right choice he thought back to the green haired boy who was now burried with his childhood friend.
Years later, after All Might had long retired, One for All was still with him as he had never found someone that reached the standard he had set for his successor after his brief meeting, with the brave quirkless kid that took his own life.