Two Oblivious Guys In A Tree

Gaara sighed as he read the words on the wall, "open one scroll and wait for further instruction."

Gaara looked at Kankuro, who had their scroll, and threw the other at him.

Kankuro glanced at the Gaara and Deku's entwined hands and smiled knowingly, opening their scroll.

There was a poof, a bit of smoke, and someone appeared.

It was a white haired man with a mask covering one eye.

"Great. You passed. Uhh. . ." The man sighed. "I feel like I'm forgetting something. I was blackmailed into doing this, so. . ." he waved his hand. "Maah. Stay here for the next few days. If you get hungry, eat the others."

The man disappeared.

"What in the heck?" Kankuro muttered, stalking off to wall, because there was a serious lack of chairs.

Deku shrugged. Gaara sighed, rubbing his eyes with one hand.

At least they survived.

Gaara loitered while Izuku sat like a schoolgirl on in the corner, head lolling on the wall.

He wasn't asleep though, no, he was thinking. Thinking about what brought him to Suna in the first place, then Konoha, and how he could ever meet someone like Gaara and Kankuro and Temari, and how 1-A must be worried, and Kacchan would be pissed but feel guilty.

But what he was thinking about most was getting to Suna. The memories had come flooding back once he'd killed the ninja, and couldn't stop replaying it.

Bakugou ran to him.

It was sparring, but the glint in his eyes wasn't anything like the dull but peaceful anger that had shown as of late.

No, Bakugou looked downright murderous.

They were in a small area, being supervised by Present Mic, who wasn't paying attention.

Bakugou grinned sadistically and tried to punch Izuku in the face.

Izuku dodged, and kicked him in the side.

The blond didn't quite go flying, but was forced back a bit.

He charged again, and Izuku continued dodging.

They continued the game of cat-and-mouse until Bakugou landed a hit, full of much more force than what was morally acceptable, and didn't leave it at that.

He grabbed Izuku's neck, lighting up his hand and burning it, causing Izuku to scream in barely contained pain.

Izuku tried to grab Bakugou's arm, possibly to break it, but it didn't work.

Bakugou Katsuki exploded, sending the green haired boy into a wall.

His spine broke.

He died.

There was blackness.

A voice, soothing and calm. A hand, patting his hair. And eyes.

Purple eyes.

Purple eyes filled with pain.

With mercy.

The voice didn't say anything distinguishable, and the eyes revealed even less.

And he awoke, in sand.

Guess Kacchan really did kill me. . ."

Izuku played the encounter like he'd replayed that video of All Might saving people when he was young.

It was a disturbing video. There were literal corpses.

Izuku didn't quite realize he was crying until Gaara asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"No, I'm okay," he said. "Fine."

"You look sad," the redhead pointed out, going down on one knee to get a good look at Izuku's face. "And you're crying."

"I am most definitely NOT crying," he said. That was a lie. Even he felt it. And he didn't like it either. Crying made him feel weak, which sucked because he cried a lot.

Gaara sighed.

Izuku let the redhead hesitantly embrace him, one arm around his back and another under his arm, holding his head to his chest.

Izuku didn't burst into tears or start sobbing or anything, but he was trembling. He had been trembling, but maybe it was more noticeable. He wasn't quite sure.

Gaara was pressing his nose into Izuku's hair, and Izuku was leaning against Gaara's chest.

He felt the strangest urge to whisper, "I love you."

". . . Oh."

"Oh?"

"N-nothing."

Deku's hair was fluffy.

That was all he was thinking.

Not about why the freckled child was crying, not about why he was willingly hugging a monster like Gaara, and definitely not about how nicely he fit into his arms.

He resisted the urge to press his lips on the slightly older boys temple and then nose, and then hold his face in his hands and gently-

What the fuckitty fuck that makes no sense whatsoever. Illogical. Attempting to find flaw in perfect child. Flaw not found. Fuck. Fuck. He's taken over. Run for your life.

Gaara did not, in fact, run for his life.

The only thing he did even remotely close to running for his life was adjusting his position for Izuku to be more comfortable, and that wasn't even life-threatening.

"Thanks, Gaara-kun," Izuku said quietly.

The redhead stiffened slightly, then relaxed.

He felt sand move around them, not exactly swirling but not quite lying still.

Gaara felt an uneasy silence in his head, and then a voice.

A completely overwhelming voice, telling him to kill.

To kill Izuku.

The creature couldn't technically do anything, but his persuasive skills were exceptional.

Gaara, for the first time probably ever, didn't listen.

He tried to focus on something else, something close.

Nothing was closer than the thing you're holding in your very arms, especially if it's a person and you're friends.

Gaara shut his eyes, focusing on Deku's breathing, attempting to breath in synch.

It did not work. Gaara wondered how he was even alive because breathing at that rate is bad for health, probably.

Either way, it worked, and the Creature's voice was but a whisper, still telling him to kill his only friend but quietly this time.

It was brought to his attention that he could easily crush Deku's head in his hands.

He couldn't quite explain the feeling that he felt, like he was about to do so, if only to see if he could, if only to see what it felt like.

And then he heard the boy yawn. And he felt something.

An overwhelming urge to protect.

He felt the need to protect Izuku, although he knew that if anything, he was the one that needed protection.

It ticked him off, but also reassured him.

The green child in his arms would protect him, no matter what.

Izuku really couldn't get over the fact that Kacchan killed him.

But the worst part were the purple eyes.

He knew, from anime, obviously, that the owner of those eyes were the one that brought him there.

It really didn't look like Kurogiri.

He didn't feel a presence in the back of his mind, and he didn't really want to randomly say, "I used return by death," so Izuku decided that Satella wasn't the one to reincarnate him.

. . .holy frick he got isekai'd.

Izuku yawned.

I wonder if something was possessing Kacchan. . . he hasn't been that angry lately, or at least not that angry, though I suppose that it could be shown in a multitude of ways. In one way, he may have kept all his admittedly irrational anger inside of him, which may have made him absolutely snap, but he may have morphed his rage into something sharper, much more painful, and killed somebody. Consequently, I cannot tell which happened, and as I doubt anyone else has come to that conclusion, nobody else has either. On the other hand, he may have sold his soul to satan, so. . . no that probably didn't happen he's too arrogant for that. Well then what happened? Maybe he-

"You're muttering," Gaara said.

"-was actually Toga- OH!" Izuku looked up, no longer upset, as shown by his calm composure. "Sorry, I was thinking."

"About your murderous childhood friend with a superiority complex turning his anger issues into a sharp thing to kill people with?"

"Uhh. . . yeah?"

"Yeah, just checking."

"Wait- who killed somebody?"

Aah, Kankuro. Sweet, innocent, interrupting Kankuro.

"My childhood best friend with anger issues and a superiority complex," Izuku said.

"Who did he kill?"

Izuku couldn't think of a logical explanation for that.

"I dunno."

Gaara made a noise that was "!?" incarnate.

"Fine, uh- some kid named Ijas Fahted."

Kankuro nodded thoughtfully. "I'm sorry for your loss."

Gaara didn't say a word, likely feeling Izuku grinning against his chest.

"Thank you," he said, trying not to laugh. He succeeded, barely.

God Denki was a bad influence.

Kankuro walked away, perhaps to carve a wooden canoe.

"Why did you lie?" Gaara asked.

"Well, I couldn't tell the truth."

"What was the truth?"

"Not a lie."

Gaara sighed.

"What was the truth, Deku."

He was using the voice Izuku's mom always used when he was in trouble, which wasn't very often.

"Fine. . . Kacchan killed. . ." he racked his brain for any more stupid names, "Eda Dickson." Gaara sighed again.

". . .What is that supposed to say?"

Izuku told him.

Gaara's face turned bright red.

"I'm going to grab some food," he said, getting up. Izuku grinned, getting up and running after him.

"I'm sorry," he said, laughing. "In all seriousness-" he was still laughing- "I can't tell you the truth."

"That's fine, I guess."

Izuku fell silent, then said, "Where is there food? I thought the weird guy said to eat the others-"

"I was making up an excuse because I was tired of your stupid aliases."

Izuku grinned, noticing Gaara didn't apologise for the friendly yet rude remark. Guess he was getting comfortable.

"Well, how do you know Izuku Midoriya isn't an alias?" he asked.

Gaara blinked, seeming amused.

"My true name-" he did finger guns for some reason- "is Olaf Mafrendsrgei."

"Are you-" Gaara sighed a third time. "You're a dumbass."

"Ooh, I could tell that one to Denki. . ." Izuku muttered. "Yuri Dumas."

"I'm going to murder you."

"I'd like to see you try."

The two bantered and chatted, but eventually they both fell silent.

"Any dark secrets?"

"You're kidding," Gaara said. "Didn't you ask this already?"

Deku shrugged, grinning.

"We always have more dark secrets," he said. Gaara sighed.

"Fine. You go first. I don't know what classifies as 'dark' anymore."

Deku thought for a second.

"I have Killing Stalking saved on a USB"

Gaara coughed to hide his chuckling.

"My turn?" he asked after calming down.

Deku nodded.

Gaara debated telling him that he was this close to killing him every ten seconds, due to the sand raccoon living rent-free in his head.

No, that would be dumb.

"One, this is where my god complex kicks in, I assumed it was my sole purpose in life to kill everyone." Actually, he thought it was everyone else's purpose to be killed by him, but obviously that would rub Deku the wrong way, and they wouldn't be friends anymore.

"What made you change?" Speak of the devil. That probably doesn't work with someone who is already next to you, but oh well.

"Well, I met you," Gaara began. "And you aren't a complete piece of garbage, so that's a thing."

Deku grinned, and his eyes flooded with tears.

"GAARA-KUUUUUUUNNN!"

"Wait no don't cry-"