Alamogordo, New Mexico

Twin phone pings raised Katsuki from sleep.

The sun was up, and Katsuki had to squint the room into the cool morning light that wouldn't melt into yellows and golds until the sun made its way over the mountain. So it was early, but not that early.

"What was that?" Izuku asked as he leapt out of bed, already hunting for which pocket on which disposed pair of pants he'd left his phone in.

"Beats me."

The two of them had hardly received a single notification between them since being in New Mexico, at least not while they were awake. Most notifications from Japan came in the middle of the night, and, of course, the two of them were always together, so there was no need to text each other. So it was a jolt to get a sound notification, even just after a few days of relative silence.

"It's a local alert," Izuku said, phone in his hands and pants still dangling from one finger. He was already reaching for the car keys. "It's less than a mile away."

"Then what are you doing without pants on?" Katsuki huffed, yanking a pair on himself.

"Wha—you're not wearing a shirt!"

Both were immediately rectified, then Katsuki reached for his costume accessories. Perhaps his gauntlets were excessive, but he'd never run into a mission in Japan without them, so why would he here? There were more variables, more unknowns in this place than the place he'd lived all his life and regularly patrolled. He needed all the firepower he had. Katsuki stretched his fingers and noted that they felt fine again. A bit of recovery time was all he'd needed.

They tumbled out onto the motel balcony and down the stairs that shook with each footfall, leaping into the front seats of the SUV. As soon as Katsuki turned the key, he gunned it out of the parking space and headed in the direction Izuku pointed. He switched which hand was on the wheel as he slipped his gloves on.

"It's a robbery," Izuku detailed, scrolling between the report and the map. "A jewelry store."

"Quirks?" Katsuki asked, skidding onto the main road. The weight of the vehicle swung to one side, and Katsuki had to remember how big the damn SUV was, and that one bad turn would have it rolling.

"Don't know yet—the alarm came from a security system, not a witness," Izuku said, swiping his hand down to refresh. "Damn, it's so close, we should've just run."

"No one knows our quirks here," Katsuki pointed out. "What kind of idiot gives them away on arrival? 'Sides, I can get us there faster than you can get a damn sentence out."

Katsuki focused his mind on his quirk, opening his pores to put something, anything into his gloves. It wasn't particularly hot out yet to get his sweat naturally going. The night's dehydration made his whole body feel wrung out and hung up to dry in the parched desert air.

"Turn ahead! That's the spot!"

Katsuki turned a hard right into the turn-off for the complex just before the store. They needed to leverage every bit of surprise they had.

"I hope the coward hasn't bailed," Katsuki said, sliding on one gauntlet as he hopped out of the car.

"It'd be hard to give chase here," Izuku agreed, stepping out without any support item greater than his arm brace.

The land was flat and open, and no one was out on the main streets yet because none of these establishments were open except for one 24/7 fast food joint. So with the bird's eye view that Float or Katsuki's explosions afforded them, it could be easy to find someone on the run. But the moment they disappeared, there were no witnesses, no leads, and no security compared to what was set up in the city. The trail would go cold fast.

They stood out of view of the entrance to the jewelry shop. There were so few cars on the road that even theirs pulling in next door could have aroused suspicion. But Izuku's Danger Sense hadn't gone off—he would have said so—so they weren't about to be ambushed. Still, Izuku crept with a level of stealth Katsuki wasn't known for over to the side to get a sense of the situation.

"There's one lookout," Izuku whispered. "No lights on in the store, can't tell the presence inside."

"So we grab the lookout, get him to spill about the idiots inside, then restrain them with the intel," Katsuki rumbled, his low voice never quite managing to fall into a whisper.

"I'll use Blackwhip and you follow behind."

"Next to you, not behind!"

Izuku was already moving. One For All didn't so much as flicker over his skin, but his hands were loose, ready for Blackwhip to release from his wrists.

The land was so open there was no cover on their way to the shop. They couldn't run and dart around corners, skulk through alleyways like in the city. So Izuku was walking, casually as he could manage—which meant quite stiffly, but no one else would know that his gait was any different—until Blackwhip would be in better range.

The lie would be better if they were side by side, maybe faking a conversation, playing dumb and not knowing that the shop wasn't open yet. But then again, acting was no more Izuku's strong suit than it was Katsuki's. And it was already too late to do something more scripted.

It happened before Katsuki—or the poor sucker playing lookout—knew it. Blackwhip shot out of Izuku's wrists and immediately one coil was around the guy's legs, another around his arms, and another around his mouth. One strand was wrapped thinly around his neck, probably to encourage silence. Even with his mouth tied off, a muffled yell in this silent country would carry.

Izuku reeled the guy in like he was a gasping fish on the line. When he was close enough to whisper, Izuku began: "How many of you are there—hold up fingers, don't speak."

While Izuku's voice wasn't very intimidating in English—the language was all rough edges and harsh consonants, and that wasn't Izuku—his glowering face as serpentine tendrils sparking with a mysterious energy surrounding him sure was. Or at least it was to this guy, whose eyes had gone wide, face pale as the gibbous moon that was still setting over the side of the mountain.

The lookout held up one trembling finger, and Izuku nodded towards Katsuki. This would be too easy.

Izuku held the lookout in place, keeping one eye on him and one on the shop as Katsuki ran in. Unless this thief had the quirk to end all quirks—which Izuku already had dibs on, to be honest—they'd be no match for Katsuki.

A jewelry shop, filled with tables at waist height did nothing to disguise the patrons who regularly came in, nor the villain who was standing frozen behind one of the displays. Unless he had friends who had immediately hit the deck, there wasn't anywhere to hide but the locked employee-only offices. Katsuki grinned and put his hands together for an AP Shot.

"Gotcha, idiot."

Katsuki fired off a mere whisper of an AP Shot towards the guy. A warning shot. Nothing that would injure the thief or the store. Katsuki wasn't in America to make enemies, after all.

"Fuck!" the guy squeaked as he dodged just enough for the shot to still graze his shoulder, not doing much more besides smudging some soot on his baggy t-shirt.

"There's more where that came from if you don't surren—"

But the idiot was already on the move. With one leap, the guy was on the ceiling. Some kind of Spiderman quirk, or maybe a relative to the gecko fucker from the League, God forbid. He was scurrying along the ceiling, and Katsuki's grin split further, dropping his second hand.

"I never like the easy way either," Katsuki agreed, spreading his hands apart and pointing them at his moving target. "See how you like this one!"

Katsuki shot a Stun Grenade at the thief, light dancing behind his eyes for a few moments despite closing his eyes against the attack. There was a cry above his head, but before he was able to blink away the spots and gauge his opponent, he was touched on the arm, and everything changed.

The air conditioning of the shop was suddenly gone and he was back in the morning heat of the outdoors. It was obvious from the temperature to the smell to the soft earth beneath his feet that he'd been teleported, and Katsuki instantly thrashed his arm out, hoping to connect with whoever had touched him. He hated teleportation quirks. Who knew where he was now?

"Sir, stop, I'm a hero too—"

"Fuck off—!"

"Kacchan, it's okay, it's a hero!"

Katsuki blinked Izuku into view. His hair, bright green in the morning sun, appearing to him first. Okay, so he hadn't been brought far. Then his vision cleared enough to see the Blackwhip coils that were still wrapped around the lookout. At that, Katsuki whipped back towards the storefront just to see a woman leading the wall crawler out with nothing more than a hand pressed between his shoulder blades.

"Sorry to surprise you," a woman—presumably a hero, though there was no telling since she didn't seem to be in any particular costume—said as she came in front of Katsuki. "Your power was just more than what was needed."

Ah, screw her. He'd been using hardly a pinky finger's worth of power. Especially compared to the big blasts he'd been letting out since he got here.

"What's the protocol?" Izuku asked. He'd released the strands of Blackwhip that had been around the lookout's neck and mouth, and the other strands were considerably looser as well.

"The police are on their way and'll handle it from there," the woman with the teleportation quirk answered. She had long, hair pulled back with nothing more than a hippy headband—absolute amateur hour for combat. "It's up to the shop owner if they wanna press charges."

Despite the sprawl of land and the fact that Katsuki hadn't seen a police station during any of their drives, the cops showed up in no time. They hadn't even turned on their sirens for the lack of traffic. Or maybe it was a small-town courtesy to those who were still sleeping. They took the wannabe thieves and that was that. The morning was quiet once more.

"How did you know that they weren't threats?" Izuku asked, always incapable of not asking questions when a new hero was around.

"We didn't," Headband answered. "We had the same information as you. But they weren't fighting back offensively, and most of the calls we get aren't especially violent these days."

At that moment, Katsuki noticed the crow's feet walking behind both women's eyes. The streaks of gray in their hair. They weren't in their twenties or even thirties. They were middle-aged.

"Sorry, what are your hero names?" Izuku asked, still on his roll. "I'm Deku, and this is Ka—Dynamight."

"Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight," Katsuki corrected.

"We know who you are." The other woman smiled, deep laugh lines around her mouth. Katsuki might have expected more frown lines, like the ones he was already getting between his brows. But hers was a face that must have smiled ten times for every frown. "Top Japanese heroes, right? I'm hero Tap 'n Go, and this is Water Foul."

Water Foul demonstrated her quirk, spitting water out of one hand that disappeared upon hitting the other.

Katsuki frowned. "Those are the stupidest names I've ever heard."

"Is that right, Great Explosion Murder God?" Water Foul asked.

"Yeah, you sound like a joke."

"I think they make us approachable," Tap 'n Go replied. "Not too austere. Not too serious."

It was hard for either of them to look too serious in their current getups. Aside from the turquoise bandana that Tap 'n Go wore, both women were wearing ill-fitting boot-cut jeans probably with actual cowboy boots underneath, and Tap 'n Go donned a blousy button-down while Water Foul had a lame bedazzled t-shirt. His parents would weep. At least Water Foul had shorter hair, but every part of Tap 'n Go's outfit was screaming to be grabbed with a fist to yank her and throw her off her feet. Approachable was one way to put it.

"I agree!" Deku exclaimed, and of course he would. "You're very approachable!"

"Well, we didn't mean to hijack your save," Tap 'n Go offered, and Katsuki tried to keep his temper tamped down. It wasn't Japan, this wouldn't affect ratings, and anyway, it had just been two youngsters pulling a lazy heist. "Folks around here aren't used to heroes with as much firepower as Dynamight and Deku."

"So what do you do then?" Katsuki challenged. "Didn't think America would have wimpy heroes."

"Oh, we're not wimpy," Water Foul shot back, smacking her fists together, not unlike Kirishima. "We could wipe the floor with you young'uns any day. We just do things different 'round here is all."

"Yeah, I imagine that being roaming heroes—"

"Hold it, Deku," Katsuki interrupted, his focus intent on the two women. "You think you could beat us?"

"I'm sure of it."

Those smile lines came again, deep crevices around the mouth as Water Foul smirked at Katsuki. It brought out the fine lines on her forehead, those eyebrows lifted in challenge. Still, her eyes sparkled with energy—maybe these heroes were bummed out that the bust hadn't been bigger too.

"Where can we let loose?" Katsuki asked.

Water Foul and Tap 'n Go looked at each other and laughed.

"Have you seen this place?" Tap 'n Go asked. "Anywhere empty is fair enough. I'll have us there in a second."

She raised one hand, hinting toward her quirk. The name implied that all she had to do was touch someone and both of them would go wherever she wanted, just as had happened in the jewelry shop. Katsuki had no idea if it extended to just herself or objects as well, and now that the challenge had been extended, he wasn't sure that she'd give up her advantage and just tell him. But he knew enough for the moment.

"Fuck that. Get in the car—I'm driving."

Somewhere off of Route US-70, Otero County, New Mexico

"Just find a bit o' shoulder that won't puncture a tire," Tap 'n Go advised. "You wouldn't believe how quick we go through tires in this country."

Katsuki did believe it. Between the cacti and the bits of asphalt that had simply sloughed off the road to the broken glass that, as it turned out, wasn't just for city streets, yeah there were a lot of hazards. And probably no regular road cleaners either.

"I got it," Izuku said, leaning out the car window as Katsuki began to slow down with his hazards on. No one was behind him, nor would be for quite a while in all likelihood.

Izuku pointed one hand out the window, and circled the other hand around his thumb and forefinger, not so different from how Katsuki positioned his AP Shots. And then he used the barest bit of Air Force, just like he had in his earliest days at UA, but sparing the bones in his finger now. Dust puffed everywhere, and it was only thanks to the strength of Izuku's move that they didn't drive right into it.

"Park there!" Izuku exclaimed once he was back in the car, gesturing towards the land he'd just cleared.

"Don't tell me what to do," Katsuki muttered out of reflex as he slowed the car down and bumped it onto the shoulder, right up against the chain-link fence that they were all about to jump.

"Technically this land is privately owned," Tap 'n Go said as she stepped out of the car. "But I know the two of us can get this done without destroying so much as a single yucca. Can you?"

"Won't destroy anything but the smug look on your face," Katsuki declared as he leaped over the fence without so much as a pop from his quirk.

"Hoo hoo, big talk!" Water Foul exclaimed. "I'll promise the same."

"Okay, let's talk rules," Tap 'n Go said, clapping her hands as they hiked further from the road. "Yes, quirks, one round, a hero's down when they're pinned for five seconds. Two on two, obviously. When one hero's down, that team loses."

Katsuki looked over to Izuku for confirmation. Izuku liked to spar as much as the next guy—perhaps even more than most other heroes, just because he was totally batshit about anything to do with heroics—but he hadn't agreed to this pissing match Katsuki had gotten them into. However, one look at Izuku's expression of steely focus, the kind he'd always worn before coming up with a kickass plan in battle class or even that Katsuki had caught a couple times these last few days in the desert. That told Katsuki all he needed to know.

"No accessories," Katsuki said, taking off his gloves. He'd already removed the one gauntlet, as it was hard to drive with it on, and he emptied all other grenades from his pockets. It was just him and his hands.

"Fair's fair," Tap 'n Go agreed, gesturing at her clearly accessory-less body.

Even though there probably weren't any accessories that would advantage her quirk, any hero could make use of general support equipment. Aizawa's capture weapon, for instance, or even Izuku's thick-ass shoes. Any hero could wear stuff to make their hits harder or their body go further. But, likely since these heroes never knew when they'd be called into battle, they didn't seem to wear anything to their advantage. They'd learned how to fight without, but hey, Katsuki knew how to do that too.

"One minute to strategize," Izuku haggled.

"Done," Water Foul agreed. The two women kept walking deeper into no-man's land while Izuku and Katsuki planted themselves.

"You know who they are?" Katsuki asked. Izuku had notebook pages covering nearly every Japanese hero, but Katsuki wasn't sure if that insanity had gone global yet.

"No more than you do," Izuku shook his head. "It's gonna be hard to pin Tap 'n Go. No matter how good a hold is, presumably she can just teleport away. Blackwhip isn't even any good."

"So we go for Bird Bath as our target for victory and keep Metro Pass at bay," Katsuki surmised. "We'll figure it out on our feet as we unpack her quirk."

"We might have to," Izuku agreed. "I don't think we should play to knock out, but it might be the only way to pin her if it comes to it."

"If you don't wanna do it, I will, chicken," Katsuki said, letting off one pop in his hand. He had to get her back for how she'd teleported him earlier, after all.

"How are your hands?" Izuku asked.

They were actually feeling alright. The massages had helped, but the time off had done wonders. Right now, and even back at the jewelry store, he'd felt like one-hundred percent. He wasn't totally sure if that would continue once he was attacking in earnest, but he certainly wasn't concerned. So there was no reason for Izuku to be either.

"That doesn't sound like strategy to me, idiot," Katsuki snarked, but their time was already up. The other heroes were done talking and facing them down for battle.

"Let's do this," Izuku said, powering up One For All. The energy caused his t-shirt to sway in its wind, reminding Katsuki of his power. It was easy to see when he was dressed as Hero Deku, saving civilians with a smile, but this Izuku, with One For All snaking between the tiny holes at the seams of his cotton shirt, was the Izuku he'd always known. Reminding him of the power and muscle and experience that lay just underneath that cotton impression. He was an Izuku who could do it.

Katsuki fired off with a blast, marking the top of the battle. He took off skyward towards Water Foul while Izuku ran across the unsteady terrain. Despite how dead the region seemed, every few centimeters of red dirt held another little patch of grass, embarrassing itself with its want for survival. They made hills in the earth that were just begging for an ankle roll or a full-out, face-planting trip. All the more reason to be in the air.

But Tap 'n Go was quick, anticipating Izuku's speed and appearing right in front of him, only to disappear with him a moment later. And Katsuki couldn't waste time whipping his head around looking for him, so he continued with his target. At least now they knew for sure that Tap 'n Go could teleport just herself as well. But maybe she couldn't teleport into midair.

Another good reason to be airborne. Katsuki could almost swear he was going faster in the dry air than the thick, humid soup of Japan. He was descending towards Water Foul when she blasted both hands down at the ground and rose above him, landing a kick square on his back.

Katsuki fell to the ground with a thud, hopefully avoiding any cactuses, but he didn't have the time to make a needle-related inventory while Water Foul was right above him. She threw both hands behind her back and fired two handfuls of water, accelerating her back towards the ground.

Her arms, her body, her technique looked just like his.

Katsuki rolled away and sprang back up, as Water Foul directed a spray of water where he'd just been. The water sprayed from her hands but disappeared the moment it touched the ground. It didn't soak in or splash or evaporate. It just vanished.

Water Foul came at Katsuki as he analyzed her quirk, suddenly in close enough range to try a quirkless punch. But Katsuki was faster, and blocked her arm, unleashing a close-ranged explosion when he made contact. That threw her off balance and she tumbled sideways but didn't fall. Despite her age, she was strong and quick and her quirk was solid. She'd taken his focus well and truly enough that he had absolutely no clue where Izuku and Tap 'n Go were. They hadn't drawn boundaries for the match, so that could be a problem. There was no out-of-bounds disqualification.

Katsuki's next explosion was larger, bursting over the short distance that now stood between him and Water Foul. She was facing him, though, and pointing both hands at him to release a torrent of water at the blast. Her move wasn't as broad as Katsuki's—either the water couldn't spread far, or it just wasn't concentrated enough when it did so, like a thumb on the mouth of a hose turning a powerful spray into a sprinkle.

Just then, Izuku was racing across Katsuki's vision, green sparks drawing his eye immediately as he tried to out-speed a teleporter. He made attempts to lash Tap 'n Go with Blackwhip, and even connected a few times, but they weren't building up a lot of damage.

Suddenly, Izuku lunged, almost too fast for Katsuki to see. He must have had Fa Jin stored up in his legs, because he was on Tap 'n Go before even she could react. They tumbled to the ground, a plume of dust rising around them. Before Katsuki could begin counting off, he was tackled too, getting a mouthful of that same smokey topsoil that he'd just seen rise like steam from boiling-hot land.

But he wasn't going down like that.

Katsuki rolled, this time definitely passing over rough desert flora, his bare arms stinging at the scrapes and punctures. But he wasn't held, not even for one second, as he rebounded onto his feet and shot a blast right to Water Foul's face. She coughed reflexively, and that gave Katsuki enough time to land a punch to her stomach. But, now at close range, she was able to grab both his hands, and wash his sweat right off. His hands were dry—the way her quirk worked, not even a drop of water lingered. His fuel was gone.

He opened his pores, his control and the heat enough for a little to trickle back rapidly, but they'd already been fighting for a little while, and he hadn't drunk any water since last night. He was on low.

The next thing he knew, he'd been tackled again, but it wasn't Water Foul. Tap 'n Go's long hair dangled over him as she held his arms and dug a knee into his thigh. His hands were facing up, so he was about to blast her to kingdom come when Water Foul came in again and let loose a continuous torrent on his hands. She was grinning as she nodded her head to a beat. Five. Four. Three.

Katsuki strained against the hold. Even if these two women were strong for their ages, he was in his goddamn prime. He should be able to overpower just about anyone, even with one hand tied behind his back. Even with both. But as his upper body lifted off the ground, nearly toppling Tap 'n Go, Water Foul stepped both feet on his forearms, tendons twinging and protesting against the full weight as the timer counted down.

Two.

One.

Fuck.

Katsuki groaned as his head thumped to the ground and he gave up the struggle. Blood rushed back into his hands as Water Foul stepped off and Tap 'n Go followed.

"Kacchan!"

Izuku's voice was like an incoming train, tooting increasingly loudly as he ran at top speed to skid to a stop in front of Katsuki. Tap 'n Go must have teleported him far enough away that he couldn't interfere. The run and the fight itself had left him covered in sweat. It made his perpetually too large shirt cling to his body like a muscle tee, and a drip fell from the tip of his nose to land on the scorched earth below.

"Shit," Izuku said, echoing Katsuki's thoughts. Putting two and two together was easy when the two older heroes were standing tall like saguaro cactuses owning the flatlands and Katsuki their meager shadow on the ground.

"Damn, I wish we'd bet something," Water Foul crowed, reaching a hand down to help Katsuki up. Katsuki ignored her and pushed himself upright. He tried to brush some of the dirt off of himself, but when he reached his arms, a sting followed in the wake of his hands. There were probably some cactus needles making a home in his sunburnt skin.

"Just an ole fashioned spar is enough fun for us, Water Foul," Tap 'n Go said. "Right boys?"

"Yes!" Izuku agreed, the defeat not seeming to bother him. Perhaps because he hadn't been the one pinned like a fragile butterfly to a corkboard. "I have so many questions about your quirk!"

"That's nice, why don't we get coffee?" Tap 'n Go suggested. "It's still early morning."

"Aren't you on duty?" Katsuki asked.

Tap 'n Go and Water Foul exchanged a glance and laughed. Katsuki prickled, and not just because of the flora in his skin.

"So much you don't know," Water Foul said.

Maybe he'd need something stronger than coffee.

Alamogordo, New Mexico

There were only two coffee shops in town. A Starbucks and a Starbucks drive-through.

The matcha in America was criminal. Whatever had happened to those wannabe jewelry thieves couldn't be nearly as bad as what the sugar-coated, diabetes-inducing, sugar high-sugar crash one-two punch this beacon of capitalism was hawking. Katsuki pushed it across the table as the middle-aged heroes talked. Izuku stared at them with wide eyes, fists clenched under his chin as he nodded with every quirk nuance divulged. He was probably dying for a notebook.

Katsuki got up, tossed his full drink in the trash and grabbed a blue waiter's notepad from the cashier. The pages were small enough that Izuku would probably fill the whole thing in just a few minutes, but it was something. Katsuki didn't quite know why he'd grabbed it for Izuku, but he'd already dropped the thing by Izuku's drink with a stolen pen before he could interrogate himself about it.

"Howddya keep up when you're so old?" Katsuki butted in as he sat back down. Izuku might have given a disapproving frown, but he was already busy scribbling on the notepad, having burst out a Kacchan, sugoi! as thanks.

Meanwhile, Tap 'n Go was surprised with comically wide eyes, and Water Foul was choking on her beverage. Whether because of laughter or a gasp of shock, Katsuki didn't care—he was happy either way.

They all recovered quickly as Izuku paved the comment over, saying, "Yeah, how have you managed to have such staying power? Or have you not been heroes for very long?"

"Did it taste like we haven't been heroes for a long time?" Water Foul asked, directing a smirk at Katsuki. Katsuki scraped his teeth with his tongue, trying to get the last of that horrid beverage's taste out of his mouth.

"So how have you done it?" Izuku asked. "We don't have many heroes beyond their thirties except for All Might and Endeavor."

Water Foul gestured to the window. "Look around. There aren't too many big bad wolves here. We don't get overworked. We get to do other things besides stress all the time. We just had to luck out and not get injured."

"Be skilled enough, and lucky enough, to avoid injury," Tap n' Go amended.

"But aren't you…" Izuku shrunk a little. His shoulders, so much bigger than they were even just a couple years ago, were hunched over, as if hiding from the words he was trying to say. "…Aren't you…bored?"

"What's there to be bored with?" Tap 'n Go asked. She began ticking off her fingers. "Got an exciting job. Friends. Family. I travel a lot. Obviously. Hobbies. Community."

"Between those and the daily doctor's visits for how horribly old we are," Water Foul continued, "there's no time to be bored."

"That's being a hero too, though," Tap 'n Go insisted. "Knowing your neighbors, having community, being an active person in society. All of that contributes to society's health in a way that being a hero doesn't."

"Seeing a hero implies that you're safe," Water Foul added. "But it also implies that there's something to be safe from. It doesn't necessarily increase citizens' trust in each other or their feeling that society is healthy."

"Society is healthy if people aren't living in fear of each other," Tap 'n Go continued, taking the baton back. Clearly this was a conversation the two women had gone over before, if not to an audience than at least with each other. "If the people feel like they can trust each other and rely on each other. And those bonds are created by everyday actions. Not heroic rescues."

"It's enough to just be a person sometimes," Water Foul concluded. "And to be safe doing just that."

Even though Katsuki had only been Dynamight for a few years, it felt like ages since he'd been just Katsuki without Dynamight imprinted on the backside of his coin. Maybe since his quirk had manifested. That's the last time he'd been just a person. Just anything.

He looked at Izuku. Those had been the best times between them up until recently. Maybe he'd had some things figured out back when he was a just that he didn't have now. Besides the entitlement and the assholery.

Izuku, of course, had only gotten his world-changing quirk a few years ago, yet it was hard to say that he'd ever been a just. To Katsuki, he never had been.

"How do you do that?" Izuku asked the women. "Even if we're out of uniform, we still walk around as heroes and people know us. How do we be neutral?"

"People will recognize you, it's true," Tap 'n Go said. "So you'll have to figure out what being just a person is for you, regardless of what other people think. And you'll be a better hero when you do."

A better hero.

Well, that'd always been a good motivator.

Alamogordo, New Mexico

They were still in the parking lot thirty minutes later.

Tap 'n Go and Water Foul had disappeared back to wherever they'd come from with a hand on a shoulder and a flicker of light. Or perhaps they'd gotten another alert that was out of bounds of what Izuku and Katsuki could see, somewhere where only a person with a teleportation quirk could go. And despite still having half the day in front of them, Izuku and Katsuki had set up shop in the rental car.

The first aid kit—also from Walmart—that Katsuki had stocked in the car was splayed over the center console and the wrapped set of tweezers had been ripped open. In Katsuki's periphery, Izuku had one eye shut as he focused on Katsuki's arm, plucking yet another needle out of his bicep.

"Sorry," Izuku said reflexively, as he had for each pull, as though he wasn't the one doing Katsuki a favor. "I'm almost done."

Katsuki wasn't sure which curdled the sweet matcha in his stomach more: the pity in the apologies or the act of committing a favor itself. Either way, having Izuku so close, so focused on him made him squirm internally in a way that required deep breaths to maintain his stoicism.

It was strange, being touched by someone else. It wasn't something Katsuki often allowed outside of a clinical setting, and he was hyper-aware of the fact that Izuku didn't fall under that umbrella, even if that was more or less the service he was providing in this moment. But the sustained balancing touch of Izuku's wrist against the warmth of Katsuki's inner elbow, the puffs of breath as he looked close—it burned more than the stings from the cactuses.

"Last one, I think," Izuku said, plucking one from up near Katsuki's shoulder, moving toward the tender skin of his underarm. His breath moved up towards Katsuki's neck, blistering hot against the air conditioning blasting through the car. "That's it. I'm just gonna wipe everything down with an alcohol wipe, but if it feels like anything's still sticking out, let me know."

Katsuki said nothing as Izuku tore open a pouch with alcohol soaked wipes. He didn't say that he could do the wipes himself, since he didn't have to see in order to wipe himself down. He didn't say that there were any remaining pricks, because there were none. Izuku had gotten them all. And he didn't say to stop because of the pain, not just because it was manageable, but because it was barely on his mind. And he wasn't sure what the noise in his mind was.

When Izuku started down the second arm, the rain began. And when it started, it came down hard.

"Wow," Izuku said, squishing the wipes in his fist as he looked at the clear sheets dripping down the windows. The outside world that had been so vast and clear a moment ago was smeared flat.

"The fuck is this?" Katsuki asked as Izuku pulled away.

"It probably comes in short, heavy bursts," Izuku offered. "We should wait it out."

The car chilled significantly as the minutes passed. The sun was completely cloaked, and Izuku clicked the high AC down to medium, then down to low. Their breath fogged the windows, obscuring the world even more to them. The isolation, the silence, the lingering smell of antiseptic in the car—it was strange. Off. Katsuki didn't like it. So he flicked on the window wipers, the recirc for the fog, and wrenched the car into reverse.

"Kacchan?"

"It's spitting distance away," he said. "We're Japanese. Rain won't stop us."

"But driving will!" Izuku squeaked.

Pulling out, the rain hadn't yet made the road too different. No tires squealing, no wild turns. It was just impossible to see, even with his headlights on. It was luckier than ever that there were hardly any other cars around. The hardest part might just be seeing the hotel sign for the turn instead of blowing past it.

"I thought it wasn't supposed to rain here," Katsuki grumbled, trying to keep the hold of his fingers loose on the wheel. Echoes of the past days' pain had returned after the battle, but it wasn't much worse than a usual day. He could go back to the range tomorrow no problem.

"I suppose it's good luck when it does," Izuku said, looking out at the downpour like it was some kind of miracle, and not the nemesis of Katsuki's quirk every rainy season.

"Don't look so damn flabbergasted," Katsuki griped as he pulled the car into the parking spot. Easy. Spitting distance. "It's gonna rain more than half the days this month back home."

"It's different here, Kacchan," Izuku insisted, stepping out and taking a deep breath. "Smell that."

Katsuki did, and was hit with a chest full of dirt. Dry, craggy dirt that after a long drought, was finally having a drink. Surprisingly, it smelled…

"Amazing," Izuku decided as he let out the breath and drank it in again.

In the distance, lightning struck, but it was impossible to tell if it was one kilometer away or twenty. The whole world was gray, with thicker sheets in the distance being proof of real downpours and doing absolutely nothing for Katsuki's depth perception. It must have been pretty far, though, because it was a few seconds before thunder rumbled through the valley, knocking against the mountains and booming back down like the gods stomping their feet.

"The atmosphere is so thick," Izuku murmured as Katsuki nearly choked on the petrichor. "There's so much energy."

Aside from the smell—which here was so earthy and rich, while in Japan it smelled mostly of steam evaporating from concrete sidewalks and roads—the storm did have a different feeling too. Perhaps it was because Katsuki could see the whole thing for as far as the storm stretched, or maybe because it changed the atmosphere of the desert more than it ever would a humid island. But Izuku was right. The only thing that had ever felt similar was being close to Izuku while One For All charged across his skin, thickening the air with something potent, something powerful.

"It feels like…" Izuku started, looking up the way they'd come, the tip of the mountain they'd just been climbing now having been consumed by clouds, "It feels like something could happen. Anything could happen."

The storm cleared off before there were even puddles on the ground. The rain on the sidewalk was already evaporating, making the world smell even more like ozone and opportunity.

And it didn't go away, even when the sidewalk was dry again and they'd gone inside to get changed. The feeling still lingered.

Anything could happen.