Izumi had slept rather soundly for the first time in years, it was most likely because she had found another person to trust yesterday. Unlike both Thursday and Friday, she'd be heading to school today, which was why she was up earlier than usual. The sun hadn't risen yet, but she was sure it was going to come up soon. She got out of her bed and went over to the closet, she opened it to at least a dozen hanged shirts, a pair of shoes, and her uniform. Her father had helped her clean and hang the shirts after dinner. She took a shower before turning in, Felix followed sometime after her. Her stockings, undershirt, skirt, and over shirt were snatched from her closet before she took off her pajamas. It was getting closer to Winter so she put her stockings on first, she was uncomfortable with showing off her legs so she usually wore them year round. Next came her skirt, it covered enough so that there was a very small gap of her skin showing. Finally came her white undershirt and her black over shirt, she had nothing much to cover up so there was nothing much different when she wore it. Currently, she was ready to leave for school, but she didn't want to, not yet at least.
Izumi quietly snuck out of her room after checking that Felix wasn't awake. Immediately, she made her way over to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Whenever Inko had left the house, Izumi had to either eat older leftovers or cook for herself. She thought she was a good cook, so now was the perfect chance for her to pay her father back for yesterday. Even if she had to do it for a hundred days straight she would pay him back by making him breakfast. So after staring at the various ingredients in the fridge, which was essentially just a carton of eggs and a mostly empty gallon of milk at this point, she pulled them out. She set them aside on the counter before reaching for a cupboard, there was a bread bag that only had three pieces left. "Perfect," she whispered before pulling the bag out, she knew exactly what she'd make after pulling out a skillet that was on the small side. After grabbing a bowl from the cabinet right next to the bread, she was ready to get to work.
She placed the skillet on the electric stove, patiently waiting for it to heat the pan after turning it on. Judging by how slowly it was heating, she figured that now what the best time to grab a butter knife and cut the three slices diagonally in half. It was white bread, so she knew it would sear easily, which was why she got to cracking six eggs before stirring them with a fork from the same drawer she got the knife. Once mixed, a dab of milk was added to give them a bit more fluff. By now, the pan should've been hot enough so she put the slices of bread inside. After about 15 seconds she flipped them over and waited another 15 before taking them out. Now was the final part of the breakfast, which was to cook the egg batter. Without oil or even butter, she knew that they would stick to the pan and or not cook well enough. But she still had to cook it, maybe she'd request for one of the two so that she could make him even more delicious meals. She moved the batter around, creating some simple scrambled eggs.
Once they were cooked, she moved the pan onto another 'burner' and turned the stovetop off. She got out one plate and placed it down before placing the sliced bread onto the pan of eggs. Carefully, she created two full slices and readied her butter knife, cutting into the fluffy egg and separating it from the pan. She put the plate over the skillet before flipping the small half sandwiches onto it. She lifted the pan and saw the residual stuck on egg, she supposed that she'd prepare a plate for herself after she finished his meal. She heard the door to his room open, so she turned around to face him. He stood in his doorway in a pair of shorts and a shirt, a yawn escaped him as he looked at her. "Why're you up so early, Izumi?"
"I wanted to make you breakfast," she turned around and grabbed the salt from the bread cabinet. She poured out a pinch of it and sprinkled it onto the four separate sandwiches. "I wanted to pay you back for the breakfast you made me yesterday," she picked up the plate and brought it to the table before placing it down. "I hope you enjoy it, father."
"You didn't have to trouble yourself for this old man," he groggily shuffled over to the table before pulling out a chair and sitting down. "But thank you nonetheless," he gave thanks before picking up the sandwich closest to him. He took a bite out of it which made him open his all all the way, completely woke him up. He finished chewing before looking up at her. "This is..." he imitated a little explosion with his hand, "absolutely amazing. You're a fantastic cook, Izumi." He couldn't tell, but Izumi had smiled...one that she didn't have to force.
••••••••
Izumi knew that she was further from her school so her father offered to take her to the train station. She refused the offer, but still appreciated it before leaving the house. The truth was that she just wanted to take a little stroll before going to her class, it was initially used to getaway from Inko and her abuse, but it turned into a habit. Whenever she got the chance she would either walk aimlessly, or walk straight to school. Today, she'd have to walk straight there since she didn't know how long it would take her.
When she got there, there were a fairly decent amount of students going into the building. So she joined the crowd dressed in black and went into her school, the one she'd nearly been killed in. Aldera Junior High wasn't the best public school nearby, but it was still fairly decent. It was an added bonus that Katsuki happened to attend here when the year started. The thought of him being somewhere in this building made her smile, but she didn't know exactly why. Perhaps it was just her being giddy over their childhood memories. She thought about the possibilities as she went to the locker she was assigned, 359. She could see something white resting on top of the shoes the school made everyone wear. A note? She put in her combination and opened the small footlocker, her hand grabbed the paper and opened it.
Her eyes remained unfazed as she read the scrawled words on the note. They consisted of "die, why didn't you die, bitch, whore, slut, kill yourself, I'll kill you," and more in different sizes. Some written on top of each other, some written to where they were hardly decipherable. She knew exactly who gave her this note, and it was the same three classmates that pushed her out of the window. They obviously didn't regret it, seeing as they were "doing the world a favor by getting rid of quirkless trash." Izumi imagined that things would be different had her quirk manifested when she was falling. Just how many people would at least treat her like a human? Her class of 20? Or her entire third year class? She was getting sidetracked, so she looked at the note again, trying to see if anything other than insults was on it. At the bottom there was text written in black ink, "come to the roof." This was clearly written days ago, but she assumed that the order her bullies were given was still in effect.
Which was why Izumi climbed through the stairwell on the fourth floor after school. She exited onto the roof, finding that no one else was up there. Instead of going back down, her legs carried her over to the fenced off edge. "Izumi?" A voice called out to her from her left, she looked to see that Bakugou was resting on top of the stairwell's ceiling. "What happened to you?" He jumped down and walked towards her, clearly he was up to something. "You just dropped off of the face of the planet after you were discharged from the hospital."
"Yeah," she stared at the sun, even now it was beginning to fall at a rapid rate. "I got a bit of a cold so I took my time to get better." There was no way that she could tell him what actually happened, it'd just be an annoyance to him.
"Oh...that must've sucked," he placed his hands on the metallic railing, "so you must've seen the note in your locker, right? The one that was basically a death threat," Izumi blankly stared at the blue horizon.
"How did you-" she sounded almost impatient when she was cut off.
"I didn't write it if you were thinking about that. No, I noticed that there were three girls trying to break into a locker so I stopped them. They told me whose it was after I threatened them..." Izumi, who had been clenching the paper gave it to him.
"So you know," Izumi couldn't tell if he was trying to be empathetic or if he was angry, "about what happened Wednesday?"
"Yeah," Katsuki took his hands off of the railing, "why would you lie about being pushed out of a window. You were almost killed, but instead you played it off as nothing more than an accident."
"Does..." she wasn't sure if she was asking the right questions, "does anyone else know?"
"No, and I don't plan on telling anyone...I thought," he rested his back against the chain link fence, "I know that it seemed naive, but I thought that we could just...pick up our friendship where it left off. Y'know?" Katsuki showing remorse? "But you didn't want to tell me the truth of what actually happened, you even knew who I was the moment we met again! And when I found out, I couldn't have been any happier...I really couldn't have been." Katsuki stared into the sky, "but as I thought about what happened, I realized that things couldn't be the same as back then. We've both changed for better or worse," Katsuki leaned forward, "which is why I don't want to be associated with someone who'd lie through their teeth to someone who was their best friend." He began for the entrance back into the school, "goodbye, Izumi."
Izumi couldn't think, couldn't breathe, she was drowning in a miasma of emotions. Nothing but negative ones, swirling around her head as they constricted her throat. She wanted to reach out, call for help, but her voice felt miles away as a pain formed in her heart. Just what had she done? How could her old friend just discard her like this? Like she was a piece of trash...it's just what she deserved. A life without happiness. It didn't even matter if she was the cause of this happy void or not, it just seemed that any and all joy was sucked into it. It left her standing there, crying and frowning. Two new things that were different than her blank stare.
After everything had been on the rise, it all came crashing down. Leaving nothing but destruction and chaos in its wake. Her individual tears felt like oceans, trying to bring her under and drown her in them. Just why did her heart hurt so much? Why did it feel like it was going to tear apart, yet fall in on itself? She fell onto her knees and clutched her chest, "please..." she choked out, her throat constricting as she tried her hardest to hold back her sobs. "Please no..." Katsuki was already at the door, prepared to go down the stairs when it opened. Izumi wanted to curl up into a ball and rot, for anything she did would just lead to more tears, more hymns of sorrow. "I..." Izumi raised her head to the sky, "I didn't want anyone to worry over me, I'm sorry!"
Katsuki turned around and faced Izumi after her outburst, feeling only a hint of pity for her. "You...the victim of an attempted murder," he didn't know why, but his legs whisked him over to her. He didn't even care that the door shut loudly behind him, "didn't want anyone to worry?" He stood over her, looking directly downwards into her crying eyes, "but," he crouched next to her, "why?"
His body was telling him to just get up and get out, but what was compelling him to stay by her side? "I thought..." as Izumi spoke Katsuki realized exactly what the reason was. "I thought that because I was worthless," she opened her eyes and looked at him, "that it'd be better off if I died. I was fine with falling to my death," tears still streamed down her cheeks as Katsuki's heart thrummed in his ears, "until you saved me." The reason he was compelled, was because he saw nothing but a broken version of his childhood friend, one that constantly reached out for him. Pleading with him to rescue her, to save her from an encroaching darkness.
"You...you were fine with dying...?" He didn't know what to do, would he stay by her side or leave her to her own fate? His answer came after she nodded. "I'm sorry." Katsuki's body moved on its own, trying to comfort his friend in the way he saw fit. She inaudible gasped as his arms reached around her, making this the second time she'd been hugged in her life. But it was the first Izumi received from the man who'd been her crush. "I only hope...that you can forgive me for what I said." Her tears stopped for a moment before she started sobbing like a baby, his arms felt warm against her cold body.
••••••••
After Izumi had calmed down, she decided that it'd be best to invite Katsuki to her house...so that there'd be no lies between them. Instead of heading over to Felix's home, she had led him over to her old house, where she very recently lived with Inko until she'd turned her in. "This is the what I wanted to show you," she pointed out the derelict house standing in front of them.
"A...house?" Katsuki began, "what's so special about it?" Izumi knew that the door wasn't locked so she walked straight up to it and grabbed the knob. Her heart pounded as her nerves got the better of her, but she tightened her grip and opened it.
"I lived here until four days ago," she stepped into the hallway, "after I came here from the hospital, I went to bed." She walked further in, letting Katsuki follow behind her, nothing had been perturbed since she left. Not the beer bottles, nor the knife handles on the ground. "The morning after the person who I believed to be my mother beat me severely, breaking both my hand and nose." The thick scent of blood wafted into her nose as she spoke about her injuries. "She had been mad about what happened when you busted through the first floor window, which was why I ran away." She walked over to the kitchen and reached into a drawer, "she...Inko, was obviously not a good person, so I had thought about running a couple of times before Thursday." She grabbed a knife and stabbed right through her hand, flinching a bit as Katsuki rounded the corner.
"What-why did you cut yourself!" He shouted, rushing over to her side to help her as blood leaked from the cut. She roughly pulled the blade out, cutting a deeper wound into her hand. "Hold on let me call," he watched in disbelief as a light washed away the wound, "an ambulance..." Izumi weakly smiled at the gesture, "when she beat you...did she know that you could heal yourself like this?" He grabbed her now healed hand and examined it to look for any scarring.
"No," Izumi didn't know how to feel about her hand being held. "But I'm glad she didn't...otherwise she'd still be around," tears came to stain her face, "I wouldn't have met my real father." Izumi smiled, looking at Katsuki, "so I have something to thank her for, even despite the years of trauma." She set the knife down in the sink, "sorry if you worried about me stabbing myself."
"It's a bit odd," he tried to get the idea that she could heal herself engrained in his head, "but I guess it's fine. It's cool that you can heal yourself though," but there was still something left unsaid. "How does any of this relate to you leaving when we were four though?"
Izumi pursed her lips before letting out a dry laugh, "guess that slipped my mind...sorry. This was the house we suddenly moved into," she explained, "I was told not to go to that park anymore which was why I couldn't see you anymore." She noticed that her hand was still being held so she quickly pulled it away, her cheeks reddened. "Anyway," she didn't know why her heart was racing, "at least now we can make up for the lost time...as friends?"
Katsuki chuckled, "yeah, as friends," he scratched the back of his head, "can we get out of here now? The stench of cigarettes and beer is killing me."
Now that he mentioned it, Izumi noticed the stagnant scent. "Yeah, there's nothing else here for me," she walked past him and headed for the door, "come on! Let's get out of here!" She walked to the door and opened it, exiting first while Katsuki followed behind her. He, however, went down the stairs first, before closing the door she slipped her finger in. The tip of it was on fire, which caught onto the inside wooden frame, there's nothing but bad memories here. May they burn up and wilt, with that, she closed the door.
Tomorrow, she'd come to find that the house burned down, and that Katsuki had transferred to her class. Her third year...was going to be the best year of her school life so far.