Silhouette ✓ (⛔❤☁)

T W E N T Y - S E V E N

Katsuki was feeling good as he went to bed.  He'd put away his new clothes and carefully placed the gift for Kaminari his desk across from his bed. Now he lay snuggled in the comforter in a loose nest of pillows and blankets with his back to the wall. Nothing could get him here. Nothing would. 

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Yesterday was his fourteenth birthday. It had been a friday, so he spent the day in school and then with the Kayama's. No one knew what day it was. As every birthday priour. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a real party, but yesterday was different. Touya had come to visit him on Block 16. He almost didn't recognize the man, his hair was dyed black. He said he'd changed his name, yet he refused to name what it was. He said he'd always be Touya to Purote. He'd quietly told the man that it was his birthday and when the man took him around town to celebrate, he'd felt euphoric. Now, he stood in his mother's living room, cleaning everything after his mother had her friends over. He had a bag in hand and was grabbing the cans of half finished beer and bottles of sake. He paused for a moment, holding a bottle of sake with more than a sip of sake left. He didn't have school tomorrow. He quietly stashed the bottle just outside the front door. He'd call it a present for his birthday and leave it at that. He returned to the living room and went back to cleaning. His mother walked in, wine glass in hand and stumbled, almost tripping, on the carpet.

"You fucking mistake! Tryna kill me, huh?" The woman took the final sip of wine in her glass before throwing it at his head. He couldn't dodge in time and it shattered on him, glass pieces lodging in his face and neck, raining on the carpet below.

"Get. Out" The woman growled, angry at nothing but the sight of him.

"I... I'm sorry! I'll clean up" The woman strode closer and delivered a sharp kick to his stomach. He stumbled, stepping on more glass.

"I SAID GET OUT!" She screamed, "ARE YOU STUPID?" Purote shrunk back, scrambling to go put on his shoes and leave. He tried not to cry. Why was he such a mistake? Such a problem? He quickly grabbed the bottle of sake and ran, heading towards Block 16. Each step hurt as his skin pulled at the glass, further cutting into his body. He stopped when he reached the opening of the street. He slumped down against the street sign and drank the bottle.

It was sweet. He ignored the blood dripping along his face and stood when the bottle was done. He was only able to walk on his toes, glass in his feet being pushed further into his feet otherwise. He sat back down at his favorite spot outside the Kayama's. He set the bottle next to him and started carefully removing his shoes and socks to get the glass out. Purote grimaced as he dug around in his foot to pull out the small pieces. His fingers quickly became bloody and stained.

"Purote...?" He heard a voice ask he turned his head as he was tapped.

"Hm?" It was a young kid, one of the youngest ones he watched. They were around four and their light brown hair made them stand out. Along with their darker skin. He was pretty sure their mother was from some other country. What was their name again...?

"Is you okay?"

"Mmhm! Purote is all better" he smiled, raising his hands to sign along with the words. The kid was partially deaf and was probably going to be fully deaf by their teen years. He had learned the basics with the kid and always signed along to get the kid used to it. His hands were so bloodied that the thick red substance slid down into his palm as he signed. The kid nodded and ran off. He sighed and went back to digging out the glass shards. He looked back up when he heard the pitter patter of small feet accompanied by the thump thump of larger ones. The kid had brought their parent. The father if the kid frowned.

" You okay kid? What happened?" By now, every adult on the block knew he was probably being hurt at home, but they could never do anything about it.

"Mmhm. 'M fine" He returned. "'S just fu- freaking glass"

"Come on, let's get you some tweezers and bandages. That'll help"

Uhm... Okay "

"Purotekta, you know that you can always come to any of us, right?"

Purote nodded eyes dampening, "Yea– Yeah"

"Then let's get you up and fixed" Purote smiled and took the man's hand, standing carefully on his bloodied feet. Every step hurt, but the sake was finally kicking in so he didn't feel as much as he should've.

The kid's name was Sumike. The father's name he never learned, but he did learned that you had to clean things like that properly. The man was a nurse at a nearby hospital.

He really loved this block

I'm just vibing to Posadic over here and writing this to hopefully make up for the long wait period last time

Word Count: 895

((Grammar and Spelling fixed))