Over the Hedge

“ZUKU!”

The black-haired girl turns, eyes lit in delight as she realizes who was calling for her. Even while rushing, Katsuki looks captivating, bright hair and searing eyes that seem to know everything a twelve-year-old could and then some. Something warm curls in the pit of Izuku’s stomach, not wholly unpleasant, a grin stretching her face. “Yes Kacchan?” she asks, patiently waiting.

The blonde comes over a slight flush to her cheeks before Katsuki huffs, turning away. Her mouth opens a bit, before pressing in a firm line and shaking her head. Seems like she wasn’t quite ready to talk about what she really wanted to say. “You be careful on your way home from cram tonight, got it! I won’t be with you to make sure you get their safe ‘cause I have an appointment, but I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Of course Kacchan! I’ll see you tomorrow too!”

Katsuki stares at her for a moment longer, even though Izuku can hear Auntie Mitsuki yelling from the other side of the gates. Before Izuku even asks, the taller girl leans down just a bit to place a chaste kiss against her lips. “Yeah, you and I will be having a talk tomorrow nerd.”

Izuku flushes, a hand raised against her lips as if to feel the lingering warmth. She wants to say something, anything, but finds herself tongue tied, embarrassed and happy all at once. If Izuku only knew this would be the last time she’d see her Kacchan for years and years, maybe she would say something more, would pull the blonde closer and bask in her warmth.

But alas. She doesn’t know, so she waves at Kacchan and starts walking towards cram school. She never makes it there.

---

The next day Katsuki looks at her outfit in the full length mirror, inspecting her chosen outfit. It’s almost like she was dressing for war — clothes are impeccable, hair done up more elaborately than normal, the whole shebang. Izuku hadn’t seemed all that against the kiss from the day before, but that’s why today is so important, she thinks in her mind. To know if the feelings Katsuki has are reciprocated, if they were ready to be more than friends.

It seems like Izuku wouldn’t mind a change but her old man always says to make sure to talk things out regardless because people are dumb (okay so, he didn’t say it quite like that, but that’s what she got from it and he didn’t say she was wrong so). That’s why they are going to talk today. Katsuki even makes sure to get to school early to give them time, but her nerd’s late. It happens from time to time, so Katsuki didn’t think anything of it, deciding to head into the classroom without her.

Izuku never shows up for school though. During third block, Katsuki’s pulled from class — what’s the point of staying in English if Izuku wasn’t there to partner with!? — and taken to the principal’s office, her parents and Auntie Inko already there.

Something tells her that this conversation she’s about to have is going to be bad and Katsuki feels her whole world crash around her as the facts are laid out — Midoriya Izuku had never made it to her cram school the night before, never made it home later on, that the last person to see her was Katsuki herself.

Katsuki knows that something happened, that Izuku was taken away and she will be having words the moment she can shake her for worrying her, can kiss her brow and her lips and cheeks for the same reason. It just means that she’s got to find Izuku first. That, sadly, is going to take a few years.

---

It goes like this:

Izuku leaves her elementary school, opting to take a shortcut through an underpass. It’s the same shortcut she’s taken with Kacchan plenty of times, a space of whispers and laughs, playful shoves, and sometimes longing looks. It’s wet sometimes and it rained the night before, so she doesn’t think much of the drip she feels from above. That changes as more and more start falling, solid in a way rainwater just isn’t. She brushes a hand against the damp spot on her dress; it’s thick and green with the consistency of slime. Izuku looks up just in time to see a green blur fall towards her, slime easily enveloping her to the point where she can’t move, can barely even breathe.

“Well, it won’t do for her to suffocate,” a voice muses from behind her. Someone walks close, a hand swiping at the slime around her which dutifully moves away from her face, allowing Izuku to take a gasp of air. She tries to turn her head to see who saved her, only to find a face with pale, silvery blue hair right next to her, “Master wouldn’t like if his new toy gets broken now, would he?”

The last thing Izuku sees are red eyes, but not the ones she wants to see, and then it’s only darkness as she’s taken over the Hedge.

---

Time passes and Katsuki grows up. She grows older and stronger and ready to take on the world. Her whole mind is consumed with the need to search , to find traces of Izuku and bring her back home. Even when Auntie puts up a memorial six months after her disappearance, Katsuki still searches. She has a goal now — to become a detective, to have the skills and the backup to find Izuku and every other missing kid in Japan, unwilling to let someone else feel the pain she’s lived with. So many notebooks and binders filled with information hahave consumed her life, even when the old hag tells her to quit it, even when Auntie moves in, that apartment too big for just her and whispered worries of the woman doing something drastic. It’s fine — Katsuki keeps her investigation under wraps, even as she makes sure Auntie is well enough for the eventual reunion.

Somehow, she even makes friends. They’re not like ‘Zuku — no one will ever replace Izuku — but they’re nice enough. There’s Uraraka and Yaoyorozu, Sero and Kaminari. Good friends and Katsuki surprises herself by liking them, links to the present even as she pursues the unknown. But most of all, there’s Kirishima who tells her about his own tales of missing partners, of a courageous girl with a pure heart who disappears into the ether much like Izuku.

It makes Katsuki feel better to know she’s not alone, that there’s someone who knows her pain and shares her passion. Unlike everyone else, who’s given up on seeing Izuku again, Kirishima offers his support, his time, and his foolhardy belief that the other half of her soul is still out there, waiting for a rescue. Katsuki listens as he talks about Ashido, the mystery surrounding her disappearance and how he won’t forget what he saw that day — of hot pink hands pulling her into a forest and no adults ever believing him — just as he listens to her conspiracy theories, ranging from child soldiers to alien abductions, just to leave no stone unturned.

For now, that’s going to be enough to sustain her until she can find Izuku.

---

Time passes but how long Izuku can never be sure. She knows, or rather, she learns that time passes oddly in the world of faerie; what feels like endless months of isolation with nothing but the books Master Shigaraki “gifts” her are only hours.

She learns, adapts, survives. That’s the only option she has if Izuku wants a way out of the world of faerie and back to the other side of the Hedge. Izuku meets interesting people — other captives of the Fae like Fumikage, Inasa and Mina, and even a few Fae who aren’t absolutely awful like Shouto. Then there’s Tomura, who Izuku isn’t sure how to label. He’s been like an older brother to her, the fellow changeling taking the bulk of teaching her how to survive, looking out for her and making sure to not step into All for One’s study when the elder Fae is in his moods, but he’s also their Master’s biggest supporter and she knows he was there the day she was stolen away.

Life is hard and Izuku can feel parts of her chip away as she’s changed by the land she now lives in. Growing, adapting, memories being forgotten as time passes by. But there’s some things she holds onto — her name whispered by her mother when feeling down, the feel of her stroking her head, warm red eyes, sun kissed hair, and confident smirks made in her direction. Things that she refuses to let go of, that sustains her sense of self so she doesn’t slip into the darkness like others have before her.

“Deku,” Tomura calls from outside of her door, knocking against the strange wood, “Master wants to see you.”

Izuku gulps but gets up and follows, eyes skittering over the reflective panes of the hallway. She thinks not of the changes that have occurred over her time here and instead of Kacchan’s smiles, steeling herself for what’s to come.

For now, that’s going to be enough to sustain her until she can get back to Kacchan.

---

It’s night in the world of faerie and Izuku knows that she’s probably pulling the stupidest stunt in the history of idiocy but…

She can’t help it, honest. When her Master took her to visit the Fae known as Overhaul, when she saw the cowering young girl being pulled on a leash, being mocked by that Fae masquerading as a father, Izuku could not leave it alone. So instead, once drinks had flown throughout the citadel and the Fae had retired for the evening, Izuku leaves her own designated rooms. Tomura sees her — he always does — but seeing as they had passed a library numerous times throughout the day, he likely assumes that is her destination and he’d fetch her in the morning. They’ve done the same thing plenty of times whenever All for One visited Endeavor or his wife.

All For One always did indulge her, letting her read and consume any tome she could get her hands on, so of course he would assume she’d do the same here.

This gave her time, time she desperately needed.

Izuku makes her way to where the girl is kept, into what was a dungeon, making her hiss in distaste. Fae weren’t human, they didn’t understand human needs or kindness but she had, thus far, never encountered cruelty such as this. There were shackles around the cot the girl was curled up on and outside the cage was tools she didn’t even want to consider their use on someone so tiny. At least when All for One started in on her… Izuku shook her head, not wanting to think of it.

Unsurprisingly, it takes Izuku little coaxing to get the girl, Eri, up and willing to trust her enough to get her out of her prison. It takes even less effort to get her out of the cage once she agrees. Izuku steals into the night, Eri tucked beneath her chin and wrapped protectively in her cloak. The moment they’re out of Overhaul’s stronghold, she starts muttering a spell, power walking away.

There are plenty of things that Izuku has failed to tell her master, like just what The Prince of Ice and Fire teaches her in his spare time. The moment the spell leaves her lips, she feels the wind fly around her, an insistent tug that has her hurtling through space and time to deposit her on the doorstep she needs, in a district quite a bit away from where she started. Izuku has never been here before, but the garden, green with livery while interspersed with things both frozen and alight (and some things that are both at once), definitely means she was at the right place. The building that the garden surrounds is tame in comparison to the gardens, a small and squat cottage that belies the fact that fae royalty lived within.

The door opens to a wall of a man looking down at Izuku’s slight form. “I suppose it’s not just a social visit at this hour,” Inasa says, tone jovial but with a razor sharp edge to it, even as he lets her in.

Izuku wants to say it is, but the spell she just used was only for emergencies and, honestly, this was one. She keeps quiet until she’s safely inside Shouto’s home, the buzz of contracts and magic playing against her skin the further she goes. Shouto awaits in the center, turning to see her as she enters his room. The prince waits patiently, even as Inasa looms behind her, and allows Izuku to tell him what she’s done, the risks she’s taken to get Eri out of Overhaul’s clutches.

She’s not sure what to think as mismatched eyes stare at her and Eri, who’s now asleep in her arms. She stays still, waiting.

“You’re going across the Hedge, tonight.”

Izuku gapes, “Wait, what?”

Shouto gives a nonchalant shrug, “Hate to do anything my old man would like, but knocking down Overhaul a peg or two would help Mother as well. And having his first captive broken out? Certainly would have him lose standing. And it’s not like I’ll be doing the hard work, that’s going to be all you Deku.”

---

‘Going across the Hedge’ is something that Changelings like Izuku talk about in whispers, not to be brought up around those who steal them away. ‘Going across the Hedge’, for Shouto, means finding the nearest weak point in the wall between the mundane world and the world of magic, giving it a look, and then burning a tunnel through it, then icing it over so it stays. Izuku is just a tad bit flabbergasted but Inasa’s booming laugh got her back on track. There’s hushed words — Izuku doesn’t want to escape only for her friends to be punished in her stead.

Shouto disabuses her of that rather quickly. “You’ve believed in my power before, so why not now? Go on home; maybe we’ll see you on the other side.”

Intellectually, Izuku knows that’s unlikely even if Shouto makes his way to the mundane world — it’s just too big and it’s not the same ever fluctuating realm like he’s used to — but she kind of hopes to see him again on her side, to feed him her favorite food and see if Kacchan would hate him at first sight like she imagines. So instead of fighting more, Izuku nods, makes sure Eri is secure against her and walks into the Hedge. Already, it’s trying to adapt and close in on the ice that’s meant to keep it stable, shards raining down as magical plant life tries to break through. She’s a mess soon enough — scrapes litter her legs and she can feel a wound sluggishly bleeding above her brow — but she’s never felt more alive in years. Eri is carefully protected beneath her cloak, and though the girl whimpers, Izuku carries on, spurred on both by the possibility of reclaiming her old life and making sure Eri isn’t hurt any longer. Izuku has no idea how long Eri’s been Overhaul’s captive — long enough to have physical changes like her shock of white hair and a horn, but not so long that she’s learned to mask her fear when ridiculed by the Fae — but she’s going to do whatever she can to change her life, starting with getting them back home.

Izuku walks, refusing to look behind her. She filters out thoughts of friends she’s made, everything but the girl in her arms and the guiding light that’s kept her going all this time. “Kacchan, I’m coming home.”

---

“Are you sure you’re really okay?” Eri asks, voice hardly above a whisper.

Izuku smiles even as she putputs the girl down, her hand clasping over hers. “Of course I am!” Her voice is quiet but infused with what she hopes is infectious cheer.

The Hedge lets them out at night, in an urban area. It looks like Mustafu and feels like Mustafu but Izuku can’t know for sure until she finds some hard evidence. Hell, she doesn’t even know how long she’s spent in the world of Faerie.

To her, it’s been years — maybe eight, maybe ten, it’s hard to say. Time passes strangely on the other side and, according to the others, there’s no way to know how much time passed for the humans she knows. At this point most people are merely shades in her memories, nothing more than impressions because the hedge is cruel like that. Izuku’s held on to the memories that were most important, of Mama and Kacchan especially. Sure she forgot the taste of katsudon, but she knows it’s her favorite food, that Mama makes the best and Kacchan always puts peppers on hers because she’s a little bit insane (Izuku loves her for it, loves the fact that whenever a hint of smoke or spice hits her nose while on the Other Side, it brought up memories of Katsuki, little reminders of why she had to keep working, keep fighting to get home).

What once was a young girl is a changed woman; Izuku’s hair has grown, now green, though dark enough that she’s hoping it passes for black in the night, and she can do things, wield magic that no human, even one fae-touched like she is, should be able to do.

Sadly that magic isn’t the practical kind that would help her right now, like informing her what time it was. With a small squeeze of the tiny hand in hers, Izuku adds “Let’s start walking and see if we can find out where we are. Then we can see if we can find your family and-” Izuku feels Eri tense up at the mention of family, which, well, there’s a story there, but one that she won’t make the girl tell tonight, “And if you want to stay with me, that’s fine! We’ll figure everything out, okay?” Eri relaxes a bit as they head off, hopefully towards some answers.

---

It’s been 6 years, 8 months and 13 days since Katsuki has seen Midoriya Izuku. So imagine her surprise when she finds her standing outside a conbini. It’s summertime and Katsuki is heading back from practice at Yuuei University, planning to stop by the store and there’s some weirdo with their kid standing to the side. She’s not paying too much attention to the bushy haired woman, just trying to move around, when she hears her speak under her breath.

It’s the muttering, really. The cadence is so heartachingly familiar that it makes Katsuki stop in her tracks and blurt out, “Izuku?”

The head tenses before turning just a bit and, gods, Katsuki would know that face, those eyes, those freckles anywhere. It’s been so long — she’s in college now not last year elementary school — but when the woman slips out “Kacchan,” it’s like no time has passed at all and Katsuki is pulling Izuku around to get a better look at her. She’s grown up as well, stress lines around her eyes and dark bags beneath them, hair a tangled mess and are there leaves stuck in it , but it’s undeniably her Izuku. Katsuki stares and is trying to decide if she wants to hug her or kiss her or fucking yell first when:

“Um, Miss Deku, who’s this?”

The soft voice prompts Katsuki to look down, right into the red eyes of a girl who’s maybe 6 or 7 years old.

“Zuku, what the fuck.”

---

Izuku finds civilization easy enough. Realizing that she hasn’t been a part of it for so long puts up a number of roadblocks she realizes while standing outside of a convenience store. “I could just glamour some leaves into money, but that’s pretty unethical — it’s not like I personally need to trick the cashier but the only other option is shoplifting or trying to pickpocket someone,” she muttermutters under her breath, Eri giving her a worried, wide eyed look. “Those options are also very unethical, but it’s not like we have a lot of choices, I need to find a recent paper and we need some food before we can figure out our next steps and—” She’s still talking to herself when someone asks “Izuku?” in a voice that sounded choked up and breathless all at once.

Izuku tenses, not having heard that name in so long, before she looks up and over her shoulder at too familiar eyes that are wide with shock. “Kacchan?” The name slips out, nearly unbidden. With the Fae, names held so much power and Izuku had made a habit of never using Katsuki’s name on the other side, less she somehow put the blonde on their radar. It’s been so long since Izuku had last seen Katsuki and it’s almost like fate that the person she last saw before crossing over the Hedge is the first person she’d meet when coming back from it.

Then Eri, understandably, folds closer into her side and gives Kacchan a wary look, “Um, Miss Deku, who’s’ this?”

It pops Izuku right out of her bubble of nostalgia and hope, the same way Katsuki’s terse “Zuku, what the fuck.” does.

Izuku gives a wry grin, “Do you think you can maybe buy something to eat and we can find a place to talk?”

Katsuki squints at her in thought, “There’s no fuckin’ way I’m leaving you out here — last time, you upped and disappeared for nearly seven years.” Seven years, gods, it’s been that long? “So you two, you’re coming inside, grabbing whatever shit you wanna eat, then we’re going to my apartment.”

There’s no arguing with Kacchan like this, so instead Izuku smiles, giving Eri’s hand a comfortable squeeze. “Sounds good, Kacchan.” And then softer, she adds “I missed you so much Kacchan, there’s so much I want to tell you.”

The blonde snorts, “We’ll have time later, but first, fuck, the two of you look like you haven’t eaten in days. Conbini aren’t made for nutrition but I guess we can just fill you up for a night and work on that later, now come on let’s grab food.” With that she grabs the door, pulling it roughly to allow them in. Izuku leads Eri inside and she feels her hand tingle where it brushes against Kacchan’s. They have a lot of things to talk about, yes, but for now, she’s going to soak in the feeling of being close, proof that they made it back to Kacchan’s side.