Halfway to the Moon

Sunburnt (Pt. 1)

  ‘Meet me at the park after your shift.’

 

 Izuku stared down at the message as his legs carried him homeward, echoing into the stillness of his surroundings. Trees hung low around him, stray twigs and branches illuminated in the moonlight. He’d left the convenience store only a few minutes ago, and while he knew there was a chance he’d have an awful encounter upon his return, he honestly wanted nothing more than to just go home. The bags under his eyes were drooping with exhaustion; he longed to collapse into his bed and slip beneath the comforter.

 

 But he found his fingers typing back an ‘Okay’ anyway.

 

 Breaking away from his original path to head towards the park instead, Izuku contemplated why Kacchan would want to see him. They hadn’t had a meetup at the park in a while, and everytime they had it was because Izuku had asked.

 

 Perhaps Kacchan needed to talk this time? If so, Izuku was glad to be there for him, too.

 

 A small smile made its way onto his lips at the thought that maybe, just maybe, he could make Kacchan as happy as Kacchan made him. He wanted to make him laugh with silly jokes, hold him when he was sad, listen to all of his problems and life stories, and very recently, lay with him and kiss him goodnight when he’d had a long day.

 

 Those things were all fantasy, he knew. Maybe one day they could be close enough as friends that he could make him happy, and occasionally, possibly even make him laugh, but he was aware the other things were just wishful thinking. Even if Kacchan came to care about him as a friend, it would surely never go beyond that.

 

 Izuku was so plain, afterall. At least, that's what he'd always been told by the mean kids at the playground and his middle school bullies, and who was he to question that?

 

 Izuku sucked in a deep breath, drawing the stale night air into his lungs. It was well into spring, only a couple months left of middle school now, and the days were beginning to get warmer. The odd pleasant breeze tousled his hair, and the sounds of buzzing insects was becoming ever more frequent, but the night hadn’t yet lost its chill, and Izuku pulled his baggy jacket tighter around himself.

 

 After a few minutes, the park came into view. Street lights shown down on the vacant lot, casting an eerie white glow over the abandoned playground equipment and patches of dirt. A lop-sided see-saw had one of the seats broken off, pointing to the sky with splinters of wood that should really be taken care of before some poor kid poked his eye out and a rusted over merry-go-round coated in a thin layer of dust sat in the middle of the park.

 

 He remembered that merry-go-round. The orange paint was faded now, dulled further under the blanket of cobwebs from years of neglect, but back when he and Kacchan were kids, it’d been bright. Kacchan had been attracted to the thing immediately, declaring it his castle upon seeing the color.