For Want Of A Squirrel - Part 1 of 2

Part 1 of a belated birthday fic for Dex! If you don't already follow her adorable art, you should!

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Izuku couldn’t stop the tears that welled up in his eyes as he stared at the screen, his thumb trembling as he pushed the button. Uraraka giggled at him, leaning over the back of the couch to give him a little hug as the tears finally spilled over, watching him rush back to his little digital airport.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Uraraka smiled fondly. “I had to go back and forth a bunch to finally get him to ask.”

“Don’t apologise!” Izuku insisted, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. “I’m so grateful! Thank you so much!”

“When I saw him on that little island, I knew what I had to do!”

Izuku rushed back home, running straight to the plot of land lying in wait, and tearing up all over again when he saw the name on the reserved sign.

“He’s moving in!” he squeaked, hugging his console close. “I’m so excited! He’s so cute!”

“You’re so cute,” Uraraka teased. “I knew you’d be happy but I didn’t expect you to cry.”

“I always cry,” Izuku pointed out, huffing. “Really, though, thank you!”

“It was my pleasure!”

“I can’t believe you did so much work for this just because I fell in love with a squirrel.”

“You do stuff for me every day, the least I can do is some digital time travelling to get you your cute little squirrel!”

“I’m gonna build him the best yard,” Izuku mumbled, fumbling for his notebook to start sketching out ideas. “I’ve gotta find a nice fence for him, something classy but still fun. I bet he’d like a nice little outdoor sofa too, where he can sit in the flowers. Didn’t I see some black flowers in the forest? I bet he’d like those. And maybe-”

“You have black flowers already?” Uraraka cut in, wide-eyed. “I’ve been trying for weeks to breed them and still only got the roses!”

“Yeah! Is that rare? I think I have tulips and cosmos? I love my cosmos, they’re so pretty!”

“Wait, you have black cosmos?”

“Yeah? They’re my native flowers, I have a ton of cosmos!”

“But you need to breed orange ones first, and then breed those to get black – I have a whole chart here for flower breeding!”

“Oh,” Izuku hummed, directing his character off through a mess of trees. “I have orange ones here, see? I guess from all the red and yellow ones in the forest? And I think... Yeah! See? Black cosmos!”

“Oh my god,” Uraraka groaned. “I tried so hard to breed my flowers, and you just... let them run wild in a forest?”

“I like letting them be free! I’ve been getting lots of roses too, from the ones you brought me. Wanna see?”

“Sure!”

He ran along the beach at the edge of his island, bypassing the tangled web of trees until he reached a patch of roses in all different colours. It stretched along the edge of his grass, a pretty backdrop for the villagers who liked to sunbathe on the sand, but he paused as he moved to hold it up for her.

“Oh, I’ve never seen a blue one before.”

Three matching shrieks echoed through the room, footsteps pounding toward them to look, and Izuku looked up in surprise as Ashido and Hagakure leaned over to see.

“How did you get blue roses?!” Hagakure demanded, her gloved fingers clutching at the back of the couch as she leaned over it. “They’re so hard.”

“Are they?” Izuku asked blankly “I got a bunch of red and white and yellow ones from Uraraka, we traded, and I guess those made these cool orange and then black ones, like the cosmos did. And these purple ones came from somewhere in here too, I’m not sure where. Maybe the purple helped make blue?”

“The purple and orange together make a special kind of red,” Uraraka explained. “And the special red ones make blue. I still haven’t gotten my purple and orange ones to breed yet!”

“Do you want my blue one? I don’t mind giving it to you, since you got me Marshal! If I get any more I’ll let you know too!”

“No, no, that’s okay,” Uraraka assured him. “Thank you though, that’s really sweet. It’s more satisfying to do it myself though!”

“That’s true! If I can do it, I know you can too!”

“Plus she had a head start from having a rose island,” Hagakure pointed out. “I’m sure she’ll get them soon!”

“I need to steal some of your flowers,” Ashido sighed, admiring Izuku’s wild mess of colour as he dug up the blue flower and ran through the trees with it. “Kiri and Kami both got tulips, they didn’t think it was important enough to start over! And I got windflowers, which are super pretty! But I could use some variety!”

“Oh! I want windflowers!” Uraraka insisted, pawing at her playfully. “Gimme!”

“Sure! I’ll trade you! Just let me go grab mine!”

Uraraka levered herself over the back of the couch, sitting down with Izuku, and Hagakure hurried to grab her game from the coffee table. Her own island was overrun with lilies, and while Izuku and Uraraka had already raided her stocks, she suspected it was time to dig up some more, to deliver to Ashido and her squad.

“I have a bunch of cosmos seeds in storage,” Izuku mumbled to himself, heading for his house. “That would be much easier to transport, if she wants a lot. We could all go visit Ashido, since we haven’t seen her island yet, and then we can drop them off to her. I should put this rose somewhere first, though. Maybe outside my house? I was going to use the green flowers for that, though. Oh, maybe I should build a rainbow, that would be neat. It can curve around my house, along the shore here.”

He trailed off into a series of indecipherable whispers, but his friends were more than used to it – they’d known him for over two years, after all, it would have been hard to not adjust to it.

“I’m back!” Ashido announced brightly, launching herself over the couch to land between Uraraka and Izuku. “Can I have some of your flowers too? Pretty please?”

“Yeah, of course! I just dug up a few for you, do you want orange and black too or do you wanna breed them like Uraraka? Oh! And the pink ones! I have a bunch of pink ones, they’re almost the same shade as your hair! They’re super pretty! I have a lot of seeds here too, if you want lots of them – or if you want to give them to the guys? I haven’t played with Kirishima or Kaminari so I don’t know if they have any yet, I should ask for some of their tulips though! And if I could have a few of your windflowers that would be amazing! I’m only missing a few kinds now.”

“What do you still need? Or what do you have?”

“We need pansies and hyacinths,” Uraraka answered for him, before Izuku could wrack his brains for the list. “Between us we’ve traded for the rest.”

“Oh! Sero has pansies, I’ll check if he’s online!”

“Woo! Flower swap!” Uraraka laughed, leaning against Ashido’s shoulder. “Do you have mums? We got a bunch from Tsuyu, I’m happy to give you mine and get more from her later!”

“Me too,” Izuku offered, running off to the patch Asui had planted for him a week prior – It had been a cute, colour-coded garden at one point, but his wild breeding had morphed the edges into something much more natural looking. “I’ll bring you some, mine keep breeding anyway! Then you can share with the others!”

“How do your flowers breed so much?!”

“Uh... I water them? And the girls do too, we visit each other most days.”

“Oh! That explains it! The guys in mysquad are way too lazy for watering, they get bored after three flowers. I need to hang out with you guys more!”

“Yeah!” Izuku beamed. “Come join our parties!”

“It rains a ton on his island, too,” Hagakure added. “I think I’ve had rain once since we started playing, but Midoriyahas it pretty much every day!”

“Oh, that must get a little depressing.”

“Not at all!” Izuku beamed. “It’s so pretty when it rains, and I love seeing all the flowers sparkle!”

“That’s our Midoriya,” Ashido laughed. “Ever the ray of sunshine. Where did you get the All Might hoodie?”

“I made it!” Izuku said proudly, spinning around in circles for her to see both sides. “It took me hours, but the others were easier once I’d gotten the hang of it!”

“You made others?”

“Yeah! See, look!”

He opened his menu of custom designs, changing into a dark outfit with red and white accents.

“This is the first one, from All Might’s time in America. The patterns took a little effort, I’m sad that I can’t make matching pants for it. And this is his Bronze Age costume, I still think this one is super cool!”

He changed into a red and black costume, smiling softly at his screen. The colours were so different from his other designs, but they held a special place in Izuku’s heart, so reminiscent of another costume he held so dear.

“Then we have silver age, I used to have this one as a onesie as a kid! I loved that costume. This one works well because I can just wear blue pants and yellow boots, they’re pretty much perfect. And finally here’s the Golden Age one! I wear this one the most. This one works with the pants and boots too, although I’m hoping I’ll come across some pants with white sides at some point!”

“I’ll keep an eye out for you,” Ashido said fondly. “I’ll get the boys to look too. Is that your own costume down the bottom there?”

“Oh! Yeah, uh, I’m still working on that one though. I’ll show you when I’m done!”

“You need to make mine next,” Uraraka insisted, reaching over Ashido to shove him playfully. “I’m still waiting!”

“I will, I promise! I just want to finish these ones – uh, my one – first! I’ve already got some sketches for how to make it work, see?”

He picked up his notebook, quickly flicking past a couple of pages he’d been working on in private, until he reached a page of his friends’ hero costumes. He had Uraraka and Asui up first, as the people he played with most – he hadn’t figured out how to do Hagakure’s yet, but he hoped he’d come up with something soon. Underneath them he had Todoroki and Iida mapped out, so he could at least show them, even if they didn’t play it themselves. On other pages he even had Pro Heroes sketched out roughly, to figure out which ones might work. Eraser Head was gonna be a stretch, really just black with a poor attempt at a scarf on the collar, but Wingless Hawks looked doable, and he was expecting to have some good fun with Endeavour and Lemillion too.

“You really like the design maker, huh?” Ashido asked, watching him scroll up past a few more works-in-progress. “I’m terrible with it. I tried this website that makes designs out of photos, but the quality isn’t very good, they come out super blurry.”

“Oh! I saw that too, it works better if you spread it across multiple designs, but then your slots fill up quickly!”

“He has little All Mights everywhere,” Asui said fondly. “They’re peeking out from houses and trees like a weird scavenger hunt.”

“I’ll have to come see them some time!”

“Yeah! Marshal moves in tomorrow, you’ll have to come meet him!”

“Oh, that’s the little blond squirrel, right? Everyone online has been going nuts for him.”

“He’s adorable! I can’t wait to build him a little garden so we can have tea together!”

“Deku loves his villagers,” Uraraka giggled. “Even if they are just the first ones he met.”

“They needed a home!” Izuku protested. “We’ve talked about this!”

“I know, I know!”

“And besides, some of them moved out!” he pouted. “So I got new ones too!”

“Okay sweetie,” she teased, ruffling his hair. “You’re so sweet.”

“That really is cute,” Ashido laughed, before Izuku could argue. “I’m sure they all appreciate it!”

“They give me presents sometimes,” he mumbled awkwardly. “They’re all very nice.”

“Good,” Ashido smiled, a lot more softly than the teasing and laughter. “You deserve it.”

“Thank you.”

─────

“Hey!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, hunching over a little closer to his book and pretending he hadn’t heard.

“Hey, hey!”

He clenched his jaw, struggling to keep it closed.

“Heyyyyyy!”

Kirishima flopped unceremoniously across the couch, shoving his stupid spiky head right on top of Katsuki’s book and grinning up at him.

“There he is!”

“Do you not understand what ignoring you means?”

“That you didn’t hear me?”

“No, asshole, it means I don’t want to hear it.”

“Aww, come on! I know it’s past your bedtime but you don’t have to be so cranky.”

Katsuki kicked him off, a hint of satisfaction blooming in his chest when Kirishima fell heavily to the floor, whining as he sprawled on his back. His console landed safely on his chest, undamaged, and Katsuki sighed when he saw the bright red plastic laying there.

“You playing that dumb game again?” he asked reluctantly.

“Yeah! You should really give it a go! It’s super chill, you don’t have to invest a ton of time in it, you can hang out with your friends, and you can be super creative and show off your own personality! You could have a whole explosion-themed thing!”

“Don’t you have better things to do with your time? Like study?”

“It’s the weekend, bro!”

“No kidding, asshole. That’s the time to study, on weekdays you’re in class.”

“But that’s so boooooooooring!”

“So is re-sitting a year of high school because you didn’t study.”

“Point taken,” Kirishima chuckled, sitting up finally. “But really, you should try it out! You can come hang out on our islands. I just finished making a whole gym area on my beach! You can’t actually use most of the equipment, but it looks neat! Mina helped me make a pool area too, so you can swim laps to get your cardio in!”

“Not interested.”

“I mean, you don’t need to be interested, you can’t actually swim it’s just a game, but-”

“I’m not interested in playing your game, idiot.”

“Oh.” Kirishima’s face fell, but he nodded faintly. “Maybe another time, then.”

“Whatever.”

Loud voices in the hallway let him know that the rest of the Idiot Squad was on their way to join him, so he slammed his book shut and stood up sharply. Kirishima looked up at him questioningly, but Katsuki just tucked his book under his arm, heading for the door.

“Going to bed,” he grunted, as he shoved past the group crowding in. “Don’t wake me up.”

“Goodnight, Blasty!” Mina called after him. “Hope you sleep well! Sero, can I get some more pansies from you? Midoriya and the girls are all playing too, so I gave them all of mine to share out, since I knew I could visit you again!”

“What do I get in return?”

“Literally any other kind of flower except hyacinths.”

“Okay, fair.”

The door to the stairwell swung closed behind him, shutting the voices out, and Katsuki breathed a sigh of relief as he hurried up to his room. It was pretty early for bed, in all honesty, but Katsuki liked to have the time to himself, to wind down and recharge before he actually slept. Living in the dorms was exhausting for his social interaction stamina, and the occasional teasing about being an old man who goes to bed at eight p.m. was more than worth the alone time.

He dove in under the covers the moment he’d shucked off his clothes, curling up for a minute to take in the warmth and comfort. The weight of the thick blankets on top of him always felt so good; he imagined it was similar to how other people felt about hugs. He didn’t like them himself, hated being so close and touchy with another person, but the blankets felt like a much cleaner, nicer version of the same comfort. He supposed he could understand why other people liked them, if they felt the same way as he did in his blankets.

With a long sigh he poked his head back out, reaching for the black plastic case lying under the edge of his bed. He usually only pulled it out on game nights or long train rides, didn’t tend to sit around in his bedroom playing solo, but even he had succumb to the allure of the latest game fad.

While he’d never admit it to anyone, the game was really relaxing. Any time he was feeling particularly wound up, or he couldn’t sleep, he could just sit back with his stupid little animals and catch some fish or something.

Actually, no, the fishing was annoying as fuck. More likely he’d be shaking trees or something, maybe building a new waterfall. He’d spent a lot of time getting his island exactly how he wanted it, and something about it felt so comforting. If he decided he didn’t like something, he could just pack it up and build something new. If he was in the mood for a specific environment that he couldn’t get to in real life – to be out in nature on a school night, or to sit in a quiet library long after they’d all closed – he could just make it himself, exactly the way he wanted. He had full control, and he didn’t even have to fight for it, it just was. It wasn’t often that he could be on top of the world by just existing.

Of course, he had a responsibility to his villagers, too. He wanted them to enjoy living on his island – he was a benevolent king, after all. He had to keep their gardens tidy, make sure they had plenty of things to do, give them places to sit and eat and hang out, pick all the weeds, get rid of the wasps from their trees... The list went on.

Hell, maybe he’d even go visit a little mystery island. He’d managed to get a couple of new breeds of flower from those, plus a ton of building materials to take home. Maybe he’d even find a ton of tarantulas to catch and earn some sweet cash. Yeah, that sounded good.

He picked up a little blue ticket and headed for the airport, making sure he had plenty of room in his pockets before he talked to the weird dodo. He mashed the button absent-mindedly to skip through the text, cursing when he hit it one too many times, opening completely the wrong menu. The system was ridiculously stupid, too long and too many options, not to mention no back button. He was gonna have to start all over again, hoping he didn’t accidentally mash it one too many times again because he’d sure as hell done that in the past – sometimes he just quit for the night when he missed the button the first time.

A list popped up, and Katsuki froze for a moment, staring at the name. Red Riland, it wasn’t exactly subtle, though it did make him huff a tiny laugh. It would have been so easy to just quit out of the menu and start over, but for some reason he found himself lingering.

Because of the flowers, of course. He’d heard that Shitty Hair and Dunce Face both got tulips as their first flower, and he didn’t have any of those yet on his own. All he had to do was go say hi, make up some nonsense, and ask if he could dig up some flowers. Kirishima was ridiculously giving and trusting, he would have no qualms about giving some stranger permission to dig up his shit. If all else failed, maybe he’d have some seeds in storage that Katsuki could have – although he probably didn’t plan that far ahead, the way Katsuki did. Katsuki had bought a stack of every seed that came to his store, had shoved them in his storage for any future needs he might have, whether it be planting or trading. He knew his so-called squad had done plenty of trading of flowers and items, so he just hoped Kirishima would have some good shit he could steal.

Maybe he could even get another giant monster statue, those were cool. He only had red ones on his own island, and those were pretty great, but he really wanted a black one. He’d even considered finding someone online to trade with, had only stopped because it was so much effort.

He hit the button.

While the game loaded, he propped himself up against his pillows, leaning comfortably against his headboard. With his blankets over his lap he was pleasantly warm, and the glow of his bedside lamp gave him just enough light to see without being glaring. It was almost perfect, he thought – or, as perfect as a dorm room could get, anyway.

As his plane flew over the island, he took a minute to watch and get the lay of the land. It didn’t seem like Kirishima had done much – he had little areas built up with homes or furniture, but he was yet to do any kind of terraforming or even, it seemed, any minor landscaping. His trees were still plentiful, his flowers were everywhere, and his only pathways seemed to be half-assed attempts at custom designs.

Not that Katsuki could talk, he was terrible with that design tool.

Kirishima’s little character met him at the airport by the time he got out the door, with his bright red hair and some kind of weird pirate-looking outfit on. It was probably new, Katsuki suspected. Kirishima was the type of guy to get something new and wear it for a couple of days before he sold it or threw it in storage – not like Katsuki, who had all his outfits carefully planned and displayed so he could change depending on the weather on his island.

“Hey there!” Kirishima’s character greeted him, waving. “Nice to meet you!”

“Yeah,” Katsuki typed out, reaching for his phone to make the next one easier. “You too.”

“Come take a look around!”

Kirishima ran in circles a couple of times, then took off, Katsuki following behind. The island felt a lot like Kirishima’s bedroom – he knew exactly where everything was, knew which weird, winding paths would get him through the mess unimpeded, but to Katsuki’s untrained eye, it was just a disaster. Still, he followed patiently, stopping to watch as Kirishima opened his front door.

“Come in!” his speech bubble instructed. “I’m still decorating, but come see it so far!”

Katsuki stepped inside, pausing to take his shoes off at the door, rolling his eyes when Kirishima’s character laughed at him. He couldn’t help but notice that there were only two rooms in the house so far, where Katsuki had already fully upgraded his own – mortgage be damned, he could deal with that creepy tanuki later.

He made appropriate little reactions as Kirishima showed him all his favourite stuff, then followed him back out the door, a little amused when Kirishima waited knowingly for him to put his shoes back on – he’d found the coolest black-and-orange boots, it was always a little disappointing to take them off, but his mama ain’t raise no filthy bitch.

Actually he really didn’t care what his mother complained about, but his dad got upset about it, and that was a good enough reason to follow the societal expectations for once.

Not to mention shoes were gross.

When they reached the little gym area, Katsuki froze. He’d mostly ignored it when Kirishima was prattling on, but it looked like he’d really put a lot of effort into it. There were custom designs laid out on the grass to look like a swimming pool, complete with lane markings, all fenced off safely – so the villagers wouldn’t fall in, he was sure Kirishima would say. Not far beyond it, a grassy slope led up to a small lake, and Katsuki watched as Kirishima sprinted up it, making a lap around the water before he ran back down.

“Cardio!” his character announced, making Katsuki snort. “Weights over here!”

Laid out on the sand was a bunch of gym equipment he’d collected, Katsuki suspected with help from his friends. He couldn’t help but notice it was lacking the punching bag Katsuki had bought on his own island, and he drummed his thumb on his phone as he stared at the chat app.

“Really cool,” he said finally. “Thanks for showing me.”

“Thanks for coming!! My friends have super cool stuff so mine looks kinda silly next to it.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” he repeated. “Make what makes you happy.”

“Yeah! I’m just taking it slow, figuring out what I want! How about you, have you built much?”

Katsuki thought back to his own island, gnawing on his lower lip.

“A few things,” he said finally. “Still working on stuff though. I’m building a library.”

“That’s so neat!! Invite me over some time!”

“I will,” Katsuki agreed. “I just need a bunch more books to make the shelves.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for them!”

“Thanks.”

As they continued around the island, Katsuki started to notice a pattern in the houses, humming to himself quietly as he considered.

“Are all your villagers jocks?” he typed out finally. “You know you need a variety to get the reactions, right?”

“I can sort that out later!” Kirishima answered, his character laughing again. “Right now I’m just having fun!”

“Oh. Okay.”

Finally they reached his garden area – laid out by Ashido, Katsuki suspected. It was far too neat and sensible to be his own work, he’d absolutely had help with it. It wasn’t the most efficient for breeding, was never gonna get him a couple of certain colours, but it was certainly better than he’d expected.

“Can I move your windflowers?” he requested, after a pause to consider.

“Sure!” Kirishima agreed, before Katsuki could even type out his reason. “Here, I’ll give you BFF.”

Katsuki pulled out his shovel, and soon enough he’d rearranged it all for maximum efficiency, leaving plenty of space for them to breed the extra steps to purple. He’d spent a long time mapping out the best ways to breed for every colour, and he wasn’t selfish enough to not share his research with a friend – even if the friend didn’t know he was a friend.

“There,” Katsuki said, replacing his shovel with a golden watering can. “Get your friends to water them, too. You’ll get purple super fast.”

“I will! Thank you! Um, do you still need any flowers? I have most of the basic ones, if you need any.”

There it was, finally. The offer he’d come over for.

“That’d be cool,” he typed casually, his fingers curled into claws with how hard it was to be aloof. “You’ve got a lot of tulips, can I take a couple?”

“Absolutely! They’re my native ones, take as many as you want!”

“Thanks, I won’t take much.”

“Help yourself dude! Here, all my other flowers are along this ridge, take any you need! I can always get more from my friends, I’m lucky that my whole squad is playing! I can just get more from them if I need to!”

Katsuki’s eye twitched as he waited for all the words to come through, forced to sit through a dozen messages because Kirishima didn’t know the meaning of the word concise. But still he waited, letting him finish before he picked the nod reaction.

“Thanks,” he replied, already digging up tulips. “I only need a couple more types, so I appreciate it. Let me know if you need any, too.”

“Happy to help!”

Soon they were back at the airport, and Katsuki waved goodbye, his pockets stuffed with a rainbow of flowers for his breeding collection. He was only short two more types before he’d be able to breed every single colour in the game, and while he didn’t know what he was going to do with them, he knew he wanted them.

“Thanks for having me,” he said, pulling a face at himself even as he typed it. “Come visit me some time, we’ll fish.”

“I’d love to, man! Thanks for coming!”

He waved one last time, then stepped into the airport, heading home to plant his spoils. And to send Kirishima a punching bag, but that was slightly less important.

While the game loaded again, flying over his own little home, Katsuki reached for a small package on his bedside table. It had arrived at the dorm late in the afternoon, and he’d had to smuggle it into his pocket before anyone could ask awkward questions about the contents. But while he flew, he carefully opened the little cardboard envelope, sliding out a pristine, shiny, bright blue card, encased in a plastic shell to keep it safe in transit. He’d spent way too much money to get the thing, with how popular they’d become on second-hand sites since the game was released, and even though he hadn’t even been going for a super popular character, they’d still been in short supply. He knew he could’ve gotten a homemade coin thing for a lot cheaper, but he’d wanted the real deal, wanted to know he had the legitimate merch, where somewhere down the line, some money had gone to the creators.

As he stared at the happy little squirrel on the front, with her big eyes and green fur, he couldn’t help the tiny smile that crept across his lips. He wasn’t sure why he’d even cared so much about adding the freckled green villager to his island, but he’d already set her up a plot next to his own home, with a little garden of green and orange flowers and the matching “wedding” furniture, the perfect place for a tea party in front of their homes.

Not that he’d ever do that. That would be ridiculous!

But still, as he ran to the computer and scanned his little card, he didn’t stop his smile from growing a little wider, didn’t stop himself from pausing for a moment to just watch the happy little thing talk.

It was no wonder he didn’t want his friends knowing he played the game.

─────

Izuku yawned as he crawled into bed, the clock already showing well after midnight. He’d gotten caught up in his homework early in the evening, had become enthralled by the research for his history essay and had stayed up long past his usual bedtime to work on it. But finally he was done – almost a week early, giving him plenty of time to relax and do other assignments later – so to bed he finally went.

He picked up his Switch from the bedside table, getting cosy in his blankets as he waited for it to turn on – his day had been so packed that he hadn’t even gotten a chance to hear the daily announcement yet; had left the console in his bedroom, untouched, since he’d woken up that morning. Admittedly he’d stayed up pretty late the night prior, too – playing with Ashido and all his usual friends. They’d had such a good time, though; it was so nice to just hang out and play relaxing games with everyone. But he knew he was going to be exhausted in the morning, after two nights lacking.

Thank goodness he got to sleep in.

When the announcement ended, he began making a loop of his island. There were villagers to greet, trees to shake, bells to dig up and replant, and of course flowers to water. It seemed like a lot of the villagers were already asleep, though – not that he could blame them. He pouted as he ran his usual circuit, finding lights out and curtains closed, until he froze in front of a pretty new house he was yet to find a chance to check out. His lips stretched into a smile when he saw the window still lit up, quickly running to the door to say hello.

The moment he laid eyes on the little squirrel, his eyes began to water. He was just so cute and Izuku couldn’t believe how much it made his heart swell just to see him there, in his new home.

“Hello Marshal,” he whispered, a little choked up. “Welcome home, baby.”

For a long time he just stood there, alternating between talking with his new best friend, and just watching him, squeaking every time he did something cute.

There were a lot of squeaks.

It took forever for him to finally drag himself away, to let the poor squirrel sleep. He knew he had things to do though, tasks to complete before he got some sleep of his own. First up was hunting down the little glowing spot that would net him some money, that was always the longest one. They had a tendency to spawn behind his trees, in spots where he couldn’t see them at first glance. He could hunt down his next fully-grown bell tree in the process, could harvest the money for buying his friends gifts.

“Oh, look at you!” he beamed, stumbling across a fresh blue rose. “You’re gonna look great in my rainbow with your friend!”

He scooped it up, ready to add to his waiting patch of colours the next time he passed, and paused to contemplate the sprawling mess of flowers. All his friends had neat little gardens and parks, but Izuku hadn’t done anything with his, other than planning out a rainbow he hadn’t even built yet. On the other hand, it was an island, it didn’t need to be perfect, right? He kind of liked that his flowers got to roam free, spreading wherever they pleased. It seemed to work for him too, considering how much his friends complained about his breeding going so quickly.

“Maybe I can give some of you to Marshal,” he hummed, staring at his black and orange roses. “I bet he’d like these ones. I can make a little garden outside his house, with the roses and some furniture. I’m sure I can find a black sofa easily, then we can sit in the garden together.”

Mind made up, he started digging again, gathering a collection of the roses to cart back to Marshal’s house. The lights were finally out when he arrived, his squirrel buddy gone to sleep, but diligently Izuku built and laid out a nice fence for him, lining it all with flowers and leaving room to put a path in, when he could decide on a custom design to make for it. Maybe he could go for an orange-tinted wood, to match the fence and flowers, or some kind of cute stepping stones. Marshal deserved only the best and prettiest garden, after all.

He finished up all that he could do in the moment, forced to wait for a couch delivery before he could properly finish the project, and when he was satisfied with the size and layout, he began the walk back home.

He hadn’t intended to play for quite so long, expected to just spend five minutes on a few little tasks, but already he’d spent much longer than that just on his new garden. Maybe he’d forget about the rest – his island would survive one night without watering the flowers, after all, and he already had a pretty steady flow of cash from selling fruit, so missing a bell tree wasn’t a big deal.

Yeah, that was a better option. He’d just order the deliveries he needed for the next day, then turn in for the night before it got even later. There was a little notification waiting in his mailbox, a couple of packages he needed to forward, so he’d just deal with those and order the next lot. That was all! After that he would sleep! He promised, brain!

He picked up the packages from his mailbox, taking them to the airport to send. Uraraka was in dire need of chairs, so he was doing his best to get her another four every day, since she’d helped him out so much when he first started playing. It took a little effort, sure, and it cut down the number of things he could buy for himself each day, but he didn’t have any big plans for builds to work on, and he knew she would do the same when the time came. Plus it only took a few extra seconds to send the ones he already had in his hands, so he was hardly going to set that job aside for the night with the rest.

So to the airport he went, ready to pick out a postcard and throw it on for her. He liked to write something funny every time he sent one, but he was quickly running out of ideas. Maybe he really was tired. He’d already used his big hitters – to chair you up and chairing you on – so he was struggling to keep coming up with some kind of dumb pun to write on the rest.

His thumb apparently went into auto-pilot as he thought about it, because when he next looked down, he was chatting with the nice dodo man as he searched the computer for local connections. He’d gotten way too used to playing in multiplayer, apparently his brain no longer even considered the idea of playing solo, defaulting to finding a friend to go hang out with.

He perked up a little when a name came up, some other night owl who was apparently hanging out long after midnight on the school internet connection. It was pretty rare to see someone else lurking around the dorms in the ridiculously early hours of the morning, so he supposed it was someone from another class – maybe someone from 2-B, since their dorm was right next door and probably shared the same connection, or maybe even one of the new first years who weren’t far away either. Then again, he didn’t really know how many dorms shared the same wifi connection, for all he knew it could be anyone on the grounds.

He knew he should hit no but his curiosity got the better of him – he’d just drop by, see who it was, and tell them to go to bed! Maybe they had lost track of time, like Izuku did. They might not have even realised how late it was! It was practically Izuku’s duty as a hero to go make sure everything was okay and send them to get some rest.

So against his better judgment, though he tried to pretend otherwise, he hit the confirm option, and walked down the boardwalk into a plane. He knew he was going to regret it in the morning, but he just had to know!

As the plane flew in over an unfamiliar island, Izuku’s jaw dropped. He’d seen some pretty cool builds from his friends, but nothing like what he was seeing below him. It was like the player lived in a different world. It made his messy, tree-filled island feel ancient in comparison. He flew over beautiful waterfalls, extensive fence-lined pathways, intersections through parks with neatly positioned flowers and fountains – they had everything and Izuku suddenly felt so inadequate.

“Wow!!” he typed quickly, waiting for his character to step out of the airport before he hit send. “This is amazing!!”

“Thanks,” the little speech bubble came back, a tiny person running to greet him at the entry. “I’m still working on some stuff.”

“Really?! It already looks so perfect!”

“Come look around.”

The name of the island was Cherrybomb which Izuku had a little chuckle over when he saw the cherry forests surrounding the central square – his native fruit, Izuku had to assume. His own had been pears which everyone else gave him condolences for, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. Pears were tasty, right? Everyone liked a good pear!

The character he was chasing was, inexplicably, named LILBlTCH. He wasn’t sure how considering he’d heard Denki and Sero lamenting the profanity filters during their own setup periods, but there it was, LILBlTCH, loud and clear.

“Can I call you Lil?” he asked

The character stopped in its path just to laugh at him, and Izuku couldn’t help but smile at it.

“Sure, whatever.”

“Thanks.”

He followed at Lil’s heels as they took a tour of the island, the little speech bubbles popping up regularly with short words of explanation.

Stargazing, it said, when they reached a spot on the hill, with a picnic blanket and a telescope, a space suit watching over them with another telescope of his own.

Library, it explained, when they reached what looked like a cosy little cafe surrounded by bookshelves, with comfy chairs and little tables scattered around.

Bunny Cove was his favourite, when they reached a sheltered area near the sea, where five little houses stood, each with the name of a rabbit villager on the front. Lil really liked bunnies, it seemed. Izuku made a mental note to send him one of the bunny hoods that Uraraka sometimes wore.

Market I guess, was another nice one, full of little stalls with trinkets on top, mostly unseen as of yet on Izuku’s island.

Finally they returned to the central square, the island thoroughly explored, and Izuku gushed over how pretty everything was, how well it was all planned out and executed, how everything was so nicely spaced and colour-coded.

“My island is a mess,” he explained. “So this is beyond belief.”

“Takes time,” Lil told him. “Let me see yours next time.”

“You have to promise not to laugh!!”

“Promise.”

“Okay, then! Next time we’ll visit mine!”

“Do you wanna fish a bit? My island is southern hemisphere, you can get some different fish.”

“Oh! That’s so smart! So you can complete stuff faster with your friends? I never thought of that!”

“It helps, but I mostly play solo. It’s just... less depressing. Warm here when it’s cold irl.”

“Oh, I guess that explains why you spend so much time decorating! And that’s so smart!! I hope I didn’t interrupt or anything.”

“Nah, you’re good. Gate was open, after all. You can come whenever, for different fish and bugs.”

“True! Thank you! Yeah, let’s fish!”

Lil led him to the end of a pier, and Izuku watched in surprise as he dropped a little blue and white bag, running in a circle around it before he stepped back to make room.

“For me?” Izuku clarified.

“Yeah, I have heaps. Catch some pier fish.”

“Okay! Thank you!”

He whipped out his rod to get started, smiling to himself when Lil stayed at his side – not fishing, to compete for resources, but just chatting as Izuku waited to land the big one. It was kind of nice, peaceful – Lil made good company.

Three stacks of bait later, and no good catches to show for it, Lil ran in circles again, and Izuku took the hint, following him. They hadn’t explored much of the beach on their tour, it had looked pretty empty at first glance, but Lil led him to a little stone outcrop, where a giant teddy bear looked out over the waves.

“Rub the bear for luck,” Lil explained. “Always gets me good fish.”

“He has a bow!!”

“Yeah, you can custom them with bows.”

“You picked All Might colours!! Are you a fan?!”

“Isn’t everyone?”

“Well... Okay yeah. But still!! So cool!!”

Lil laughed at him, and Izuku hurried over to the bear, mashing the button to make his character try to grab the bear. When his thumb started to tire, they ran back to the pier, and Izuku cast his rod out at the shadow already lying in wait.

“WOAH!!” Izuku typed out, when a frankly massive fish flew out of the water, covering his character’s face with how big it was. “Lil!! Look!! He’s so cool!!!”

“Told you the magic bear works.”

“Yeah!!!!”

His rod promptly broke behind it, and Izuku couldn’t help but laugh.

“Seems fair,” he said. “That was a big fish.”

“Here,” Lil said, tossing another rod at his feet. “Take this.”

“Oh! You don’t have to do that! I can make another!”

“It’s fine,” Lil assured him, equipping a rod of his own to show him. “I have heaps of spares.”

“Well, thank you then!”

“Np.”

They fished a lot longer, in the end, chatting all the while, until finally Izuku caught a glimpse of the clock beside his bed, grimacing to himself.

“It’s so late,” he said. “I didn’t realise. We should both be sleeping!! Why are you up so late, anyway?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Lil said simply.

“Oh, I’m sorry! Do you wanna talk about it?”

“Nah,” Lil answered quickly, pausing for a long moment after. “But thanks.”

“Okay, well, I’m here if you change your mind!!”

“I’m gonna give it another shot. G’night, Deku. Come back some time.”

“Goodnight Lil!!”

With a last shared thanks, they parted ways at the airport, Lil waving to him as he stepped out into the plane again. The sky was dark, the island all but silent, and Izuku couldn’t help but smile to himself as he logged out.

It really was a good night.

Read Part 2 here!