A Touch Of Joy

Ch. 2 Hidden in the Leaves

The neighborhood he wonders through is exactly how he remembers it. Quiet with the exception of a sprinkler watering the front lawn to the once bright yellow house which has withered and faded over the years. Safe with the "Slow Down" signs pegged into place just before every bend. Always peaceful.

And in the complete opposite direction of his apartment.

The autumn air is chilly against his reddening cheeks and nose. Leaves crunch under his boots as he walks along the sidewalk. He can barely hear them over his headphones but the feeling of the brittle leaves breaking under foot is enough to make him remember.

A glance across the street and suddenly Katsuki can see them, two young boys wearing winter coats and rainboots. One with spiky blond hair and the other's was a mess of green. They're stomping in the tall leaf pile their neighbor raked into the sidewalk, both smiling and laughing.

"Woah!" said the green haired boy, "Did you hear them crunch, Kacchan?"

"Yeah, now move back and watch this!" The blond took a couple steps back then raced forward, launching himself into the pile and sent leaves lying.

"So cool!" The green haired boy chaps.

Katsuki blinks and suddenly the boys are gone, the pile of leaves is gone and their laughter turns into silence. The air feels colder now and Katsuki flips on his hood.

At the end of the neighborhood are four large apartment buildings and Katsuki climbs to the second story landing of the third building. On the landing, he passes by every door then stops at the last one. The name plate decide the door is scratched out and on the side in bold sharpy is the word "Villain"; but Katsuki can still picture how it looked before with Mrs. Midoriya's elegant handwriting and his once childhood friend's drawing of a shaky smiley face right next to it.

At his feet is a For Sale flier heavily ripped at the top corner and the rest of the paper was still taped to the door.

Katsuki ignores it, searching through his pants and coat pockets for his wallet and pulls out the grocery store gift card his mom gave him for his birthday. He jams it between the door and the hinge, gossles the door handle and next thing he knows, he's stepping through the threshold. He has no right being here. No right surveying the dull, empty living and dining room, opening kitchen cabinets one by one fully aware they are empty, and wandering down the hall peaking through every door. The hall closest is dusty, the bathroom still smells like a deadly mix of chemical cleaner solutions from when Mrs. Midoriya scrubbed it clean before moving out years ago, and in both bedrooms were vacuum tracks.

Stepping into the old room where Midoriya Izuku once lived, Katsuki doesn't know what he was expecting. The walls are bare yet he can still make out tiny holes where pushpins once held posters in place and there is nothing in the room, yet the carpet is still dented from the boy's furniture. He closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath of the chilly, dusty air and let himself remember how they used to play with Pro-Hero action figures during their sleep overs, and how the scent of Mrs. Midoriya's chocolate chip waffles woke him up, and how he would always hide in Midoriya's closet, under a pile of clothes whenever his mother came to pick him up.

He can hear footsteps approaching from down the hall, but he ignores them, remembering how Mrs. Midoriya would sometimes chase them to bed when it got a little too late. He took a deep breath and let it out slow. This room used to smell like fresh laundry, now it didn't smell like anything.

"The hell you doing here?"

Katsuki startles, takes off his headphones and turns around to face the gruff tired voice behind him. It's an officer, older and on the heavier end. His first thought is that he could easily take him down with a simple shove to the side and make a break for it. Fatty here, wouldn't be able to catch him without giving himself a heart attack. However, if Fatty has a more fit partner somewhere nearby and catches him, no one is around to pardon his reckless and rude behavior. Not anymore.