Return of the Squirrels - Part 3 [Sequel S̶a̶t̶u̶r̶d̶a̶y̶ Sunday]

[Previous]

As Katsuki limped through the front door of the dorm building, a crutch digging uncomfortably into his armpit, everyone in the room leapt to their feet to greet him. He hadn’t expected half of them to even be back yet, let alone hanging out in the common area, and he couldn’t resist a tiny smile when everyone rushed over excitedly to greet him.

“I can’t believe you’re back!” Kirishima said, grabbing Ashido by the shirt to stop her from leaping on him. “I thought you’d stay with your parents for a few days, at least!”

“I’m good,” Katsuki assured him. “Assholes would have kept me in hospital if I needed to be stuck in bed at home.”

“He’s got a lot of follow-up appointments and physical therapy,” Izuku chimed in, getting a glare for his efforts. “He won’t be joining the physical classes for a while still, don’t worry.”

“Still. It’s good to see your face, man.”

“Whatever,” Katsuki huffed. “Needed a break from the old folks.”

Ashido managed to free herself from Kirishima’s grip, but she moved much more slowly this time, hugging Katsuki extra-gently to keep from toppling over on his crutch. Katsuki grumbled about it, but he didn’t shove her off, resolving to blame his lack of mobility if anyone dared to call him out on it.

“I knew you’d be okay,” she whispered. “But it’s still so damn good to see you up and about.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled. “Good to see you too, I guess.”

She ushered him over to the couch, insisting he sit down and rest his legs, and for once, Katsuki didn’t object. He set his crutch down at his feet, and immediately his classmates were finding seats around him, demanding to know every detail of the fight he’d been hurt in, and his recovery time since then. He conveniently left out some of the details, like the first time he’d been allowed to walk to the toilet and Izuku had had to come help him pull his pants up, and thankfully Izuku didn’t rat him out for once.

“Hungry?” Izuku asked, leaning over the back of the couch to kiss his hair lightly. “I’ve got that leftover hambagu your dad made, if you want me to heat it up?”

“That’d be nice,” Katsuki admitted. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

He disappeared with Katsuki’s bag, and Katsuki rolled his eyes when he heard footsteps on the stairs, heading off to put his stuff away before he could object to the help. Then again, he’d been pretty good about accepting help, if he did say so himself – more likely it was so no one would have to see him accepting help, which was honestly pretty thoughtful of Izuku.

Soon Izuku was returning with re-heated hambagu and fresh rice, setting it in Katsuki’s lap and grinning when Kirishima immediately shuffled over to make room for him. He slid in, between Kirishima and Katsuki, and made sure to position himself where Katsuki could lean against him when he wanted – sitting up straight still started to hurt his back after a while, and Izuku always made sure to give him an option to take some weight off himself.

“Do you still wanna wish on stars at some point?” Izuku asked.

“Star party?” Uraraka gasped. “I’ll come!”

“I’m in!” Kaminari said, jumping to his feet. “Be right back!”

One by one his classmates disappeared to their bedrooms, and Izuku grinned sheepishly, offering Katsuki his dark Switch case.

“Hope that was a yes,” he said with a chuckle. “Sorry, should have seen that coming.”

“It’s cool,” Katsuki assured him. “Was gonna say yeah anyway.”

“Make sure you get comfy,” Izuku instructed. “Here, take this.”

He handed over a spare cushion, and Katsuki tucked it in behind himself, turning slightly to wedge himself into the corner of the couch. With an armrest on one side for his bad shoulder, and a cushion and corner for his back, he felt a little more supported, ready to go about his night undisturbed. He kicked one of his feet up on the couch, laying it in Izuku’s lap with a smirk, but Izuku only laughed and accepted it, grabbing his toes and wiggling them playfully.

“Oi,” Katsuki objected, laughing all the same. “Cut it out.”

“You don’t want me to play with your little toesies?” Izuku teased.

“Why do you think I’m wearing socks? Thought it might keep your weird-ass hands away.”

“Nope!”

Despite the debate, Izuku set his foot free in favour of holding his Switch, setting the game loading while they waited. One by one their friends hurried back in, Switches in hand, and Katsuki opened up a storage shed, rummaging through his stored items.

By the time his friends began to jump in, he’d laid out a couple of stone tables in his courtyard and covered them in food – most of it they couldn’t actually take, of course, but he had a pocket full of treats he’d spent forever collecting in a raffle, ready to throw at people’s feet.

Izuku arrived first, taking up residence by the monster statues with a green balloon in his hands. Mina was next, and when she stopped to wave to Izuku in the game, he threw an item at her feet.

“A pink balloon!” she gasped. “Thanks, Midoriya!”

She pulled it out immediately, and the pair of them just stood there wiggling their balloons at each other, giggling in real life as their virtual balloons bounced. As more people loaded in, Izuku threw down more balloons, until Katsuki whipped out his red one and all eight of them just stood there, bouncing their balloons at each other.

“Alright assholes,” Katsuki interrupted finally. “Owl’s up by my house in the north, go get your DIYs from her.”

Izuku ran off first, an expert at navigating Katsuki’s island despite his recent changes, and the rest follow in a little chain, running off to take their turn. Hagakure was the first to get there, gasping when she saw his new build, and Katsuki couldn’t help but grin to himself when her gloved hand popped up to point at him.

“Did you make this?!” she demanded.

“I mean, the items already existed.” He shrugged. “But I put them together, yeah.”

“Holy shit, Blasty,” Ashido said softly. “You built a whole damn castle in the hospital?”

All thoughts of owls were forgotten as they all ran in to investigate, and Katsuki smirked when Izuku grinned at him – Izuku had had a very similar reaction, when he’d hopped in to look, so Katsuki suspected it was fun for him to be on the other end, this time.

“You practically have a drawbridge,” Sero pointed out, running back and forth across the wooden bridge that Katsuki had decided was as close as he was gonna get. “Why the ducks, though?”

“He had to take away his duck pond to fit it in,” Izuku explained. “So the moat is their new home.”

“They’ll peck your ass if you try to invade my castle without permission.”

Katsuki had spent a long time building up a perfectly-sized hill to put his house on, with stone stairs leading down to the arched entryway. Towers made up every corner, a tall castle wall joining them together, with an extra layer of hill giving them some extra depth. It looked fucking good, he wasn’t shy to say it, and he smirked when his friends ran around admiring all the little details he’d spent so much time on – the suits of armour standing guard, the gold roses scattered around his walls, even the tall flags that flanked his stairway.

“She’s at the festival,” Izuku told them, when someone mentioned the owl again. “I guess she wanted a snack!”

Katsuki led the way, and the marvelling started all over again when they found his snow-staffed stalls. He ran to stand behind his cotton candy stall, where his snowboy had recently melted, and smirked to himself when Kaminari approached.

“Ah yes, one cotton candy please.”

“Sure, what flavour?” Katsuki asked. “Melon? Lemonade? Strawberry? Or just plain?”

“Really?” Kaminari laughed. “Lemonade sounds good.”

“Coming right up.”

Katsuki threw one at his feet, and Kaminari just stared at his game for a moment, before slowly looking up at Katsuki.

“Dude, I thought you were kidding.”

“Figured,” Katsuki smirked. “First one’s on the house, five bucks a pop after that.”

He ran off to his ice cream stand next, flanked by giant light up cones, and Ashido laughed as she joined him, pulling a thinking face with her character.

“Let me guess,” she said out loud. “You’ve got real ice cream, too?”

“Depends, you got cash?”

“I thought the first one was free!”

“Fine, but I’m spiking it so you get addicted.”

“Deal. Do you have rainbow ones like your lights, here?”

“Sure do,” he said, opening his pockets to throw one at her.

“Holy shit, where do you get all of these?”

Uraraka laughed from across the room, and Katsuki couldn’t help but grin too. She’d played the game more recently than most of the others, apparently no one else had discovered the raffle items yet.

“This snowman won’t take my coffee order!” Sero complained. “I demand to speak to a manager!”

With a forced sigh, Katsuki ran over to meet him, tossing both a can of coffee and a coffee boba at his feet.

“Here you go, I’ll fire him later.”

“Hell yeah, you got boba? The terrible customer service is worth it, now.”

“I want boba!” Kirishima whined. “Who has the boba?!”

“Mister Blue Snowman on the left,” Izuku told him. “I recommend the mango, it’s excellent.”

“Got it!” Kirishima grinned, hurrying over to where Katsuki stood. “One mango boba please!”

“Coming right up.”

He handed it over, and Kirishima laughed as he drank it, shaking his head fondly.

“I didn’t know you could actually drink them, holy shit, this game really thought of everything.”

“They somehow have us playing supermarket simulator over here, so they must have done something right.”

He ran back to the ice cream stall, dropping a variety of cones and popsicles for people to choose from, then back down to his food stall, tossing a handful of donuts onto the tables for people to grab. Finally, he headed back to his courtyard, watching as the first star blinked overhead.

“It’s started!” Izuku said excitedly, heading over to join Katsuki outside the castle. “You’ve got your snacks, now come have dinner!”

The group followed him back to the castle, this time diverting into the little courtyard, and Kirishima laughed when he found the bowls of steaming food laid out in wait.

“I shouldn’t have filled up on those donuts you left behind!” he complained. “I didn’t know there was a feast waiting!”

Stars shot overhead again, and all their characters ducked their heads, but only Izuku’s lips moved in real life.

“I wish for Kacchan to be all better soon!”

“Shut up, nerd,” Katsuki huffed, pulling his hair lightly. “I’m fine.”

“I wish for no more major villain attacks before we graduate!” Hagakure chimed in.

“Yeah, I wish for us all to be safe,” Kirishima agreed.

“From villains and illness, and injury and Aizawa when we don’t do our homework.” Kaminari nodded solemnly. “Rest in Peace, me.”

“You didn’t do your fucking homework?” Katsuki demanded. “I did that shit and I was in a hospital bed.”

“It was so boring!” Kaminari protested, hitting the button to make another wish. “I wish homework wasn’t so boring!”

“I wish Kaminari had done his homework so I wouldn’t get stuck digging his grave on Monday,” Ashido offered.

“I wish I had done my homework so I didn’t have to face the wrath of saying this out loud right now,” Uraraka whispered.

“Are you kidding me?!” Katsuki demanded. “You’re putting yourself on the same level as Sparky.”

“I’ll do it tomorrow!” Uraraka pouted. “It’ll be done for Monday!”

“Yeah!” Kaminari grinned. “Now you’re back to help me, so it’s way better!”

“No way, fuck off.”

“What if I offer you...” Uraraka began, running over to him in-game. “A torii gate?”

“Dibs!” Izuku declared, swooping in to steal it the moment she dropped it. “Yoink!”

“He was the one who wanted it,” Katsuki snorted. “Doesn’t work to bribe me.”

“Yeah, but you would have done your homework with him, and he’s easier to guilt into helping me.”

“Oh no, my back is suddenly so sore,” Katsuki drawled. “I might need my boyfriend to spend every moment with me rubbing it and keeping me company until Monday”

“Wow, mean!”

Katsuki just grinned, and Izuku nudged his foot playfully, too busy laughing to give him the lecture about ‘helping your friends out’ that he probably wanted to.

“I’ll help if you want it,” Izuku promised. “Kaminari, you too, if you want!”

“And me?” Kirishima asked, leaning away when Katsuki attempted to stretch out and kick him. “Face it, Bakubro, you’re the only one who did the homework before the last minute.”

Izuku began throwing party poppers at people’s feet as they talked and wished, and by the time Katsuki was done lecturing them about being shitty students and irresponsible human beings, everyone had switched out their balloons and ice creams for party poppers, firing them in each other’s digital faces happily. Izuku pulled out a champagne glass as they played, turning to face Katsuki, and with a little smile he dug out a matching one of his own.

It was good to be home.