Home. (Eijiro Kirishima x Reader)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"(Y/n)." He nods and I shift away from my slightly fancied state when a light squeeze comes from the soldier behind me "Oh! And this is Eiji—" I am briefly interrupted when said redhead steps out from behind me.

The soldier moves to stand directly in front of the guard, both rivaling in height as they straightened to be eye to eye—but Kirishima's hair gave him a slight advantage.

"Kirishima." He answers for himself.

"I'm Tetsutetsu," The guard replies with a huff, briefly turning away from the soldier to look at me again "I could escort you to the mask stand if you want." He offers, letting a small smile present itself across his face once more and further showcase his sharpened teeth slightly.

"That would be lovely," I start "But I would hate to take you away from your work, Tetsu." The guard shakes his head—his demeanor more bashful from the nickname.

"It's no problem, making sure ladies like you get to your destination safely is part of my job." He assures and by now Kirishima seems to have had enough of the conversation—making sure he tugs me back a bit behind him this time.

"We're good bro, she already has all the protection she needs." He states, turning down Tetsu's offer and earning a slight glare from the dark eyed man.

My free hand lifts to hug Eijiro's arm as he keeps his gaze fixated on the guard—causing me to clear my throat in hopes of brushing off the tension that had thread itself between the three of us.

"Okay then," Tetsu tilts his head in my direction one last time "I hope to see you after my shift." He comments before pointing off to his right "The mask stands aren't too far in the market, just go straight this way and you'll find it." He explains finally.

"Thank you," I call and Eijiro wastes no time in venturing forward--heading off without another word to the guy and pulling me along with our locked hands.

As we walk off, I catch sight of the guard waving amongst the crowds before finally turning back to Kirishima to follow him further—now in search of the mask stands that'll help hide our identities.

And thankfully, what Tetsu said was true and we came across the stand without any further interruptions.

By then, Eijiro's mood hadn't really seemed to calm all too much and that was evident in the tense in his grip—of course, he was mindful not to squeeze so hard he'll hurt me and I was grateful for that.

"Are you okay?" I finally asked after tugging gently on our clasped hands.

He pauses for a moment, looking my way before his crimson eyes softened and he sighed lightly "I'm fine, I just didn't like the situation." I nodded at that, leaning into his side slightly as we took a step forward with the small line we had found ourselves in before the stand.

"Let's just.. Get the masks and get out of here." Kirishima states and I silently agree with a nod, watching as he turned to the masks hanging throughout the stand.

I figured something was wrong, but I decided to brush it to the side for now and ask him about it later.

The wait wasn't long and nobody seemed to recognize us as we picked out our individual masks—paying with the spare money I had brought when we fled the kingdom and walking off in a random direction.

Afterwords, we had stopped to tie the the masks to our faces "Hey, Eij?" I call and he nods, letting everything but his eyes stay hidden with the mask he wore.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I take the moment to ask as I step closer to him—the small action and sudden close proximity caused his eyes avert away "Yeah, it's just—I just didn't like that whole conversation back there." He finally admits.