Chapter 7 - Start of the Festival

                                    

                                          
Even after All Might stepped in and took care of the Nomu, the students were still shaken up. Izuku watched from a distance while Aizawa sensei talked to the other teachers, probably having to explain to them why he knew there would be an attack coming and which security measures they'd have to take in the future. Izuku frowned, pulling the blanket over his shoulders. They all received them to help them find comfort, to recover from the shock of the attack. They hadn't been given these blankets the first time around, so Eraser must've arranged it for them ahead of time.
"Hey," Kacchan called out, sitting down next to him. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I think so," Izuku hummed. "Just a few scratches. How about you?"
"I'm fine," Katsuki said. "More than fine, actually. You'll never guess which idiot just arrived here."
Izuku turned his head towards Kacchan in a snap, his eyes wide, begging for an explanation. Did someone else from the future get stuck here? Was another one of their friends, of the group of pro heroes that were fighting Jikan, sent into the past? The ash blonde grinned, reaching out for his boyfriend and giving him a short kiss.
"You look stupidly cute when you're all baffled like that, you know that?"
"Kacchan!" Izuku whined, to which Katsuki rolled his eyes.
"It's Ei, Deku," he deadpanned. "He suddenly remembered when we were in the fire zone- Speaking of which, we were in the fire zone, we weren't supposed to be in the fire zone at all-"
"I know," Izuku interrupted. "Things are changing... People are remembering or coming here from the future, and we have no idea why or how and it's just so- so frustrating!"
"Yeah," Katsuki sighed, grabbing Izuku's hand. "You're not in this alone, okay? Do you think that, maybe, things that are up to chance are susceptible to change? Like the teams in the indoor battle sim or now, when we were dispersed across the USJ?"
"It could be," Izuku muttered. "But that would also mean we're creating a different timeline. No matter how subtle or small the changes, they can have a big impact."
"We could influence the future," Katsuki finished.
"We could change our future, Kacchan," Izuku stated. "We could change everything, ruin everything."
"Change doesn't have to be bad, Deku," Katsuki said. "And no matter what, we'll face this thing together. We'll give it our all, like we always do. And if that isn't enough then... Well, I don't know what would be."
"That's not very comforting," Izuku mumbled, seeing Kirishima smile and wave at him while he was talking with Ochako. He didn't know whether it was a good or a bad thing that more people from the future were ending up here, nor what triggered it to happen. If there was a trigger, they'd be able to stop it or to use it to their advantage, but up until now, everything seemed to be happening at random.
"It's stupid to worry about things outside of your control," Katsuki stated, ruffling the unruly green curls atop Izuku's head. "So don't. I'm serious, I know how obsessed you can get over this sort of stuff."
"I get it, I get it," Izuku whined, pushing his boyfriend away from him. Yeah, he understood perfectly fine, but that didn't mean he wouldn't worry. It didn't mean he wouldn't lay awake at night, thinking of possible solutions, of connections, of anything that could help them out even the slightest bit. Izuku had been stuck here for a decade, for longer than any of them realized, and he'd grown tired of having to relive the worst parts of his life. He could say they ended during middle school, but he tended to count his first year of high school too. That's when his life became a mess, when the League of Villains forced him to grow up fast, when the war broke out... A war that changed everything.