Katsuki's phone rattled against the wooden slats of the seat of the park bench for the third time, and then a fourth. The boy totally ignored the device as it continued to buzz, his hands in his hair and his posture hunched over. He stared down into the dark grass wordlessly, the wind howling through the trees and the occasional cars on the road behind him the only noises around other than his phone. After a fifth cycle of buzzing, Katsuki slammed his hand down upon his phone and dragged it into his line of sight, where he opened the message chain he had ignored on his way to the park.

Mom

10:10- Where are you?

10:10- Get back here right now!

10:12- Katsuki, I'm serious. You need to come home.

10:24- Your father left. It's just me in the house. I want to talk to you.

10:24- Katsuki, please reply.

10:35- I'm worried about you. I know I haven't always been the best parent, but I care. Please come home.

Katsuki felt his throat close, though he couldn't decipher just what emotion accompanied the uncomfortable sensation. His thumbs twitched as he tried to decide whether or not to reply, only for his hands to go on autopilot as he opened another contact without thinking. The boy closed his eyes and tapped out a simple sentence that he never thought he would write.

I need help.

Katsuki took a deep, sobering breath through his nose before he opened his eyes and looked down at the message, and the smiling portrait of Izuku Midoriya at the top of the screen. For a moment, Katsuki simply continued to stare at the picture, his thumb quivering as it hovered over the Send button. His stomach twisted and writhed at the thought of what he knew would happen the moment he committed to placing his finger on the screen.

At the thought of what would happen if he didn't, Katsuki felt the hot and sickly sensation of vomit rising in his throat.

Katsuki let his thumb linger against the glass, holding his breath as his mind raced with possibility. Slowly, he raised the digit, causing the sentence to go through and pop up within the message window. He let out a sigh of relief before sniffling softly and running the back of his hand along his nose. By the time his hand had once again settled upon the bench, his phone was already vibrating as a call came through. Reluctantly, Katsuki accepted it and held the device to his ear.

"Kacchan?" Izuku asked worriedly. "Are you there? Are you okay? What's going on?"

"I…" Katsuki hesitated in response to just how strained and foreign his own voice sounded to him in the moment. "Yeah, I'm… here."

Katsuki let the statement linger, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid as he realized that he had no idea what else to say.

"Where's 'here'? What happened? Do you need me to meet you somewhere?" Izuku asked, his tone quickly whipping into a worried cadence.

"…yeah," Katsuki confirmed as he shivered in the cool night air. "I'm at the park. The one close to your place. It's… stuff happened at home. It's… bad. Really, really bad," Katsuki emphasized as he moved his hand up to his forehead. "Izuku… I might need a place to stay for tonight."

Silence came over the line as Katsuki stared off into the trees on the other side of the park. A car passed behind him, the sound of its tires on the gravel road nearly deafening against the otherwise quiet night.

"…are you there?" Katsuki asked, his tone crestfallen.

"Yeah!" Izuku quickly confirmed. "Yeah, of course! And you can stay here! I just… I think that's the first time you've called me Izuku since we met…"

"Whatever," Katsuki said dismissively as he stood from the bench and began to dust off the front of his shorts. "I don't want to talk about it. 'It' being your name, and what happened at home."

"That's fine!" Izuku reassured as his voice became slightly garbled. "I'll come and get you! We don't have to talk, but it sounds like you shouldn't be alone right now. This is kind of exciting, isn't it? You've never been to my place before!"

"…whatever," Katsuki said again. "Just… are you sure your mom will be fine with it? It's late, and she only knows me based off of… whatever you've told her..." the boy said as his sinking feeling returned.

"Yeah, of course!" Izuku replied immediately. "I've told her a lot about you, but it's all good. Even if it wasn't, she would help out. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Right," Katsuki said as he closed his eyes once again. "And… thanks…"

"No problem, Kacchan. Situations like this are what friends are for."

Katsuki rubbed at his temples before simply ending the call and heaving a sigh. He slowly switched over to the message chain with his mother before biting his bottom lip and beginning to work his way through a text, his mind and thumbs at war with each other the entire way.

It isn't that simple. I don't want to be at home right now. You have no idea how I feel right now. Staying with a fr

Katsuki's phone flew from his hand as something hard and heavy impacted his back, knocking the wind from him as he fell forward into the grass. He tried to catch his breath as he watched a heavy metal trashcan roll away from him, only for the wrought iron armrest of the bench to press down into his shoulders as something held the rest of it atop him.

"What the hell!?" Katsuki yelled as he tried to look over his shoulder to see his attacker, only for his vision to be swept away by a curtain of deep green and black ooze. He tried to yell again, and instead received the same putrid liquid rushing inside of his mouth and throat to choke him in response.

"Easy, now," a condescending voice whispered into Katsuki's ear as he struggled against the ever-shifting blob that had begun to engulf his entire body. "The more you struggle, the more it's gonna hurt, kid. Just go to sleep."

Katsuki writhed and tried to cough as he kicked and swiped his arms, desperately working to find the creature's center of mass. His left arm was quickly wrapped in slimy bonds and pinned behind him, just as his right managed to slap against a wet, heavy wall of slime. Without delay, Katsuki engaged his Quirk, firing off a chain of powerful blasts that echoed harshly through the night.

"Shit!" the villain cursed as he drew back slightly, losing his grip upon the bench and giving Katsuki just enough time to breathe.

The boy gulped greedily for air and clawed away at the slime around his eyes, finally catching sight of the aggressor. Coiled around Katsuki's lower body was a bulbous, flowing mass of verdant slime with bright yellow eyes and a toothy mouth the size of his torso. A hole was blown through a chunk of the villain's side for all of a moment before more slime seeped in to close the gap, and he dove forward to try to cover Katsuki's face once again. Another quick, smaller explosion staved the monster off as Katsuki wrenched his body and turned over onto his back, his expression furious and wild with panic.

"Get off of me!" the boy cried, a bright orange ball of flame rapidly building within his palm.

"Not a chance!" the villain replied as his body simply melted down to a thin, wide layer as Katsuki's bigger explosion blew harmlessly over him.

Without missing a second, the mass of sludge snaked its way around Katsuki's right arm and wrench it back painfully before coating his hand entirely in a layer of filth. The boy strained against the sensation of his pores clogging with thick, unrelenting globs of slime, and he thrashed his head about as he tried once again to resist the inevitable.

"Stop struggling!" the villain commanded as he wrapped himself around Katsuki's neck. "Keep your mouth closed all you like! You've gotta breathe sometime! Too bad for you!"

Katsuki slammed his eyes shut as his nostrils clogged with cold, revolting sludge. He held out for as long as he could before he opened his mouth to take a breath, only to quickly have the passage blocked off once again. Second by second, he could feel his consciousness slipping as he was deprived of oxygen, and his efforts at struggling grew weaker and weaker. Just as he found that he could no longer register where his arms were to even try to continue resisting, another sound rang out through the park.

"Kacchan!"

A quickened pulse of immediate worry caused Katsuki to start resisting once again, only for his efforts to come out as little more than weak twitching. He was vaguely aware of the load of slime atop him getting lighter and two voices screaming back and forth until suddenly, only one voice could be heard. Katsuki tried again to resist with every fiber of his being and began to pull his right arm through the weakening slime. He managed to get his nostrils clear and wipe the filth away from one eye just in time to see Izuku suspended in midair by a collection of dark green and black tendrils.

A thick, heavy looking tentacle slithered upward and wrapped itself around Izuku's neck before curling inward rapidly. Izuku clawed and scrabbled at the restraint to the best of his ability, his face turning bright red and his breaths coming out as shallow wheezes. Katsuki reached his hand through the slime as best he could while trying to bite down and through the mass to no avail. Another curtain of sludge robbed him of his vision just as it seemed as though Izuku had stopped moving entirely.

"I am here!"

A light bright enough to pierce through the obscuring veil of slime shone throughout the park, and suddenly, Katsuki's field of vision was swallowed whole by a blinding flash of yellow. A terrified cry of pain followed the noise, and the weight of the creature atop Kastsuki disappeared as suddenly as though someone had ripped a blanket from atop him. The boy instinctively opened his mouth and began to cough hard, spewing chunks and gobbets of muck onto the grass along with sickeningly bitter bile. He doubled over and wretched forth more liquid as sounds of combat rang out all around him, his vision swimming and senses overloaded as his brain finally began to receive oxygen once again. Upon finally feeling fully conscious, he looked up and lost his breath all over again.

The hero known as All Might was locked in combat with the slime villain, his ever-present smile looking more like a furious warning. He stood at well over seven feet tall and impossibly wide with bulging muscles. His dark costume of deep blue and red made it difficult to discern his exact positioning as he darted about, avoiding blows from the park bench that the villain had once again absorbed into himself. Katsuki found it easier to watch the two long, swaying, antenna-like sections of the man's bright blond hair as he bobbed and weaved while throwing calculated punches.

"Assaulting two youths in a public park?" All Might accused as he landed another punch square into the villain's center of mass. "There will be no mercy for you, villain!"

Katsuki blinked rapidly as he scanned the immediate area, his body shivering involuntarily. After what felt like several minutes of searching, his eyes landed upon Izuku, who was face down in the grass on the other side of the brawl. Without a second thought, Katsuki tried to pull himself to his feet, only to stumble forward and sprain his wrist against the hard ground. He hissed in pain before beginning to claw his way through the grass, feeling incredibly nauseous.

As he made slow progress across the park, red and blue lights began to flash throughout the area, followed by the sounds of metallic doors slamming from somewhere on the road. Katsuki could feel himself slipping in and out of consciousness as he tried once again to pull himself forward, only to see a pair of bright yellow boots wavering in his vision.

"Kid?" a booming voice echoed from what seemed an impossible distance above him. "Lay still! You seem to be badly hurt! We'll get both of you to a h-"

The rest of the sentence abruptly faded to nothingness as Katsuki's body finally gave out and he fell completely into the grass below.

Author's Note:

Next time will probably be half-and-half between the aftermath of this and Kirishima and Mina. Should be earlier next week!

-RD