The Universe Listened | Kiribaku

From the perfect start to the finish line

Shutting his eyes, he could hear her speaking in that soft voice she rarely used. He could hear a small grin splitting her face as she began her speech that he had heard so many times before. Even when he wasn't in the mood for it she forced him to listen because it was important. "Quitting is giving up, Katsuki. Giving up is failure. You have to see things to the end even if the ending seems so far or if it seems like the ending won't be what you want. You can't ever give up, you hear me?"

He could hear her and feel her. He could feel her flicking the back of his head when he did or said something out of line, and he could hear her singing some old song poorly while making her signature breakfast: homemade blueberry pancakes with fresh syrup that was bought from a farmer. He could feel the warm hugs she used to give after he would win a competition, the only time she'd ever give him one. He could hear and feel her...

...so why couldn't he see her? Why couldn't he see her daring eyes or her heartwarming smile? He hadn't been able to see her for a while. At first, he could see her as clear as day but time kept moving and the memory of her face began to fade unwillingly. No longer being able to see her caused a longing for her, a type of hurt and miss Katsuki never thought was possible. He never liked to admit it, and he would never dream of saying it out loud, but he missed her. So much. So much that it hurt.

He reopened his eyes, seeing the same plain popcorn ceiling, and slowly drug his hand down his face, feeling the jagged edges and smooth areas of skin that went from his cheek up to his forehead. That was the reason his mother was no longer with him. Staying quiet all those years ago would have kept her around, he wouldn't mind suffering if it were for that reason.. Now Katsuki was never going to be able to see her face in the crowds while he's on the stage or the look of pride when he graduates. And it's all because he got fed up with... His body shivered just thinking about him.

Disgusting. The thought of him alone was more than enough to make Katsuki want to shower so he could scrub his skin raw his touch was gone... but he had been scrubbing for years and he could still feel his hands, see the marks he left. He still relieved those times over and over and over again.

.

Don't think about it.

.

Don't think about it.

.

Don't. Think. About. It

.

Deep breaths... it's not worth it. Stressing over something that couldn't be changed wasn't worth it. He got his justice, well sort of.

Just live on, he told himself.

There were other things to be done, more important things than thinking about things from the past he couldn't change or drowning in his own thoughts. He could distract himself with something else...

...like stalking that stupid redhead because why the fuck not? A distraction was a distraction and he'd take what he could get.

After pulling himself together by banishing any unwelcome thoughts, Katsuki searched the redhead up on any social media platform he could and only found him on a few. The one he appeared to be most active on was Instagram, but how? What was the point of using an app mainly consisting of photos if you can't see them?

Katsuki scrolled through all the photos and found that Kirishima, or someone else maybe, put image descriptions on all the photos. Even the videos, which were short clips of him dancing in what appeared to be a practice room (there were a few of him on stage), had some sort of description. The videos also had subtitles if there was music playing or talking. He looked through the whole page, or it felt like he had.