Fuselage

♡~♡ Chapter 22 ♡~♡

"Uhm, this is a street."

"Yep." Eijirou grinned, patting the asphalt beside him. "C'mere, eat your drink."

Katsuki snorted, but obliged. "You're ridiculous."

"I know." His phone beeped. Quickly he glanced at it, stuffing it back into his pocket.

Katsuki swallowed down the tang of sake and caramel. "Who was that?"

"And who were you texting earlier?" The words were easy, no undercurrent to them.

Still Katsuki paused at their utterance, gaze swivelling from the sky, cicadas song filling the silence as Eijirou's eyes blinked up to the stars. "Are you... Why does it bother you so much?" Katsuki's eyes narrowed. "You do know I'm in my twenties, right? I knew people before I moved here. I fucked people and dated before I moved here. I loved people before I moved here. I had friends, I have family. I can text without getting fucking grilled, Ei."

Fists clenched white knuckled around ankles, gaze remained fixated upward. "I'm not jealous, Kat."

"I didn't say you were." Katsuki took another bite, the crunch and swallow loud and unsettling between them. "I am saying you're codependant as fuck. You don't tell people what you mean, you don't tell people no-"

"I've been better about that!" Eijirou finally turned his gaze to Katsuki, angry and watery. "You heard me in the All-in-One!"

"Yeah." Katsuki chuckled, taking another bite, already feeling tingly in his fingers. "You're right. You did. Your Auntie."

"I like your smile." Eijirou admitted. "I like your 'I don't give a fuck' attitude. I wish I-"

"You don't Ei." Katsuki's eyes closed, pain and longing washing over him. "God, you don't."

"What do you mean?"

And his voice was so soft, so gentle; like Katsuki would crack and it broke his heart. How could someone so sweet want to be so awful like him?

"I don't deserve you." Katsuki whispered, "I don't deserve friendship, or people who like me. I don't deserve any of it." Eyes opened, voice raw. "I killed people, Eijirou. I killed them and I live with their ghosts, the guilt of it, every day of my life. They haunt me. I see them in my sleep, they-" He swallowed hard, "-they talk to me. Round Face said it's a manifestation of my guilt." He waved his half eaten apple, "The fuck does she know? She never had to carry a dead body in the middle of summer."

"Y-you carried a-"

"Yeah." Katsuki laughed, aware it wasn't entirely sane. "I did. The flies were everywhere. And when I finally got to a town the dogs that weren't in yards started growling and barking and jumping on me." He took another bite, leaning back on his elbow, avoiding looking at Eijirou's face. He didn't want to see the emotion; pity, horror, disgust... hate. "He'd started smelling by then. So bad. Fuck. And then a week later his mom..." Katsuki wiped at an errant tear, gravel digging into the skin of his forearm. "She... because of me." He cleared his throat, moving back to sitting, curling over his lap, taking another bite. "Specifically because of me. I get it though. It was always my fault. I always was convincing Jin to do things he shouldn't. Ever since we were..."

The weight surprised him. The weight followed by warmth.

"That's too much, Ei." His voice trembled. "It's summer, you're gunna smother me." A hand rested on a bicep, tapped to tell him to let go.

Eijirou hugged tighter. "I always knew it was something." Face nuzzled against the back of Katsuki's neck.

"Eijirou..." Katsuki hated how delicate his voice sounded, thin and wavering. "Eijirou, I loved him." Knees pulled up, apple fell to the ground as his face buried in comforting arms. "I loved him and I killed him. If I hadn't- If we'd just... If I had just confessed we wouldn't have-"

"You didn't do anything, Katsuki." Eijirou's free hand came to rest on Katsuki's head, stroke his hair gently. "It wasn't your fault."

"You don't know." Katsuki mumbled into warm skin, lips just grazing. "You weren't there. He was my-" Katsuki swallowed painfully. "He was my best friend. I love him so fucking much and I-" A sob ripped out, spit fell from Katsuki's mouth and furiously he wiped it away, head shaking. "You don't know. You weren't there."

Eijirou pulled away, looking Katsuki in the eyes. "I didn't need to be there, Kat." Softly he pulled Katsuki away from him, gently fingers wiping away the tears. Red eyes nearly glowing as they searched Katsuki's too red face; from booze, from tears, from heat. "I know you. You wouldn't hurt someone like that-"

Katsuki snorted, "You said it yourself." A hand waved callously, "I'm abusive, remember."

"You lash out when you're hurting and that's not okay." Eijirou corrected, frowning, hands firm on either side of Katsuki's face forcing him to maintain eye contact. "But we all have unhealthy coping mechanisms. I mean, fucking look at me, Kat. I'm a mess. I'm a disaster. But at least you're brave. At least you're you. That's easily one of your most amazing qualities."

"Ah, right." Katsuki chuckled, reaching across the small gap to tug on Eijirou's hair. "My little homage."

Eijirou sucked in a sharp breath, eyes bright in the night light. "Katsuki, I have to confess something to you." His eyes closed as he turned away. "The reason my family sold you the house. They think you're the reincarnation of the..." He blushed furiously, turning away. "God, it's so stupid and so hard to say." Eijirou's head fell back, neck exposed in the silvery moonlight.

On impulse Katsuki reached across, trailing his fingertips up the expanse of skin. A lazy grin crossed his face at the goosebumps that flooded over Eijirou's arms, legs.

"What are you doing?" His voice was tight, fingers stroked down from jaw to collar bone.

"Touching." Katsuki's eyes met with Eijirou's. "Reincarnation?"

"Of the Barbarian King." Eijirou swallowed hard, breathing shallow as Katsuki yanked his hand away.

"Isn't that the one who started the whole Kirishima clan?" Katsuki snorted, "What bullshit."

"Not... entirely?" Eijirou's voice tilted up a pitch as he finished off his apple, grabbing what remained of Katsuki's from the ground and tucking it into the container. "I..." He inhaled deeply. "I'm not supposed to take you. Mina and I are supposed to..." Eijirou rubbed his eyes, "How about we go on a hike? To a shrine?"

"I love hikes."

"Yeah, I know idiot."

"You're an idiot." Katsuki frowned, shoving against Eijirou with his whole body; back pressed into his side. "I'd like going on a hike with you. I want to do everything with you."

"Do-are... Kat, are you confessing right now?" Eijirou grinned down at the inebriated blond, eyes half closed, face flushed.

Katsuki smiled, a genuine real full face smile. "I was texting my mom earlier, you jealous fucker." Katsuki responded. Arm reaching up and over to tangle in red hair. "You think I don't know you like me." He arched up. "You dye your hair red for me. You go fishing to win me back. You ignore your girlfriend to be with me." Red eyes glimmered devilishly. "If I weren't drunk right now, and if you weren't taken, I'd-"

"Kat!" Eijirou stood, backed away. "Kat you can't-"

Katsuki fell to the ground in the unoccupied space, lay there looking at the sky. He laughed, eyes watering, "If I'm the Barbarian King, who's my dragon?"