highway

Prologue

When she first realized that she had fallen, her main concern wasn't her well-being. Her knees, which were bare from the lack of coverage the shorts she'd been wearing gave her, would surely be all bloody from giving the concrete below her a kiss. There'd probably be cuts filled to the brim with small rocks all over both her hands. She'd likely realize how bad everything hurt and start crying out for her mother or her father in pain, hoping one of them could kiss it better and get rid of it.

Instead, the girl was worried about the ice cream she'd just spent all the money in her piggy bank on. It wasn't much in hindsight, but to a five year old, that was like winning the lottery.

If she'd just gotten up and looked for one of her parents... They would've tended to her wounds and then would've bought her a whole new ice cream. Because even if they preached that she needed to work for what she wanted, they still weren't cruel enough to deprive a pre schooler from some ice cream she'd been looking forward to buying all week.

But she didn't get up and look for her parents. She sat up on her knees, wincing slightly but ultimately disregarding the pain to look at the remainder of her treat.

It lay splattered out on the concrete. Baking in the heat the summer sun brought from above. It no longer looked delicious and ready to be devoured. The sprinkles that had once been on top was replaced with pebbles, and dirt gave the once plain, vanilla ice cream a cookies and cream look.

Tears prickled in her eyes at the sight of the disaster. What could she have possibly done for the universe to curse her with the terrible misfortune of dropping that stupid treat? She mourned the loss of her desert, crying silently while staring in despair.

"Ah, geez," a voice came from above her. When she looked up, he appeared to be the same age. Which was surprising when taking into consideration the roughness of his voice. "No need to cry over it. It's just some ice cream... a-and you should've watched where you were going! You wouldn't be like this if you woulda watched where you were going!"

She sniffled, running her hand under her nose while looking up at the boy cautiously. He stood over her with his arms crossed, spiky hair sprawled out to block of the sun's glare. A mean look was spread across his face.

Her tears seized momentarily as she stared at him, "But you were the one who ran into me. You're the reason I got wasted my ice cream."

"Huh?!" the blonde kid's eye twitched in irritation as a look of disgust overtook the look of rage. "You've got it all twisted, short stuff! You ran into me. And it's 'you're the reason I wasted my ice cream,' nimrod!"

"Buy me a new ice cream!" she demanded in frustration, ignoring the way he corrected her grammar.

The blonde glared, "No way. Now go off and cry to your mommy and daddy and tell them I was being a big ole bully when you deserved it for talking back to someone as great as me—" A harsh slap on the back of his head cut him off mid sentence.

"Katsuki!" It was a woman. No doubt, his mom. They were like clone copies— with matching scowls and harsh demeanors. "What have I told you about being rude? You won't make any friends like that. Now apologize to this sweet, young lady for whatever you've done."

The boy, Katsuki, barred his teeth, "How do you know I'm the one at fault?"

"Mothers intuition," the woman gave a vague answer. "Apologize, Katsuki."

"I'm sorry that you're blind and can't tell when there's a person in front of you and then blame them even though it's your own fault—" Another slap to the back of his head.

The mother of Katsuki gave her child a harsh glare before turning her attention over to the little girl. "Hi there, sweetie. My name's Mitsuki, I'm that gremlin's mom," she pointed down where her son stood seething. "I'm so sorry for his behavior. I'm working on it. But you seem to have gotten hurt from him, so would you like me to clean the cuts and bandage you up?"

In response to the question, Mitsuki got a dazed nod of approval. The young girl was too busy admiring how quick it was for the mother to go from disciplining her kid to being an absolute angel.

Mitsuki grabbed the girl's hand and started leading her over to a bench where a man with glasses and brown hair sat guarding what appeared to be her stuff. The lady grabbed a bag, searching through it until she found a box of bandaids. It was the only first aid equipment she had because that was all Katsuki really ever ended up needing.

The mother grabbed a water bottle from next to the kind-looking, brown haired man. When tilting it above the little girl's wound, a small trickle came out. It ran over the blood, a mixture of a watered down version of the red substance and rocks falling down her leg and out of the cuts. Before long, different colored bandaids were doing their best to cover up the wound and keep germs out as the skin healed.

"Katsuki," the mother said no more for her child to know exactly what she was asking.

He let out a sigh of annoyance. Despite his massive ego, Katsuki did feel slightly bad. Because, technically speaking, he had seen her staring at her ice cream and not at all paying attention to where she was walking, and he was watching where he was going. So, technically speaking, he was the one mostly at fault...

"Sorry," he mumbled out gruffly with a shy blush on his cheeks.

Mitsuki looked at her child with astonishment. If there was one thing that never changed about Katsuki, it was his unrelenting ideology that he was never in the wrong. Regardless, she smiled and clapped her hands together, gaining the attention of the two kids. "Why don't we all go get some ice cream, huh? I'll buy you a new one, sweetie."

"Yeah, thanks!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"What's your name by the way?" Mitsuki asked as she grabbed Katsuki's hand and offered her other to the girl. She was steering them towards the ice cream truck that had been parked on the road for the past ten minutes now, luring in anyone and everyone who could hear it's song playing.

The girl accepted Mitsuki's hand, "I'm y/n!"