An Unreasonable Amount of Pilots: A KiriBaku Story

Chapter 13

< no CWs for this chap! For once lmao >

Several months pass, filled with school and Eijiro and more school, our winter exams, moving out, selling my house, scattering mom's ashes, etc etc. And it's all been... amazing, honestly. I'd never known that someone could make this big of an impact on your life, and living with Eijiro full time is even better than I could've imagined. I'm... a couple weeks clean now, largely due to seeing my therapist once every other week. Of course It's still hard though, mom's death, but I've learned how to handle the pain, even if I know that it's never truly going to go away. There's still rough times and sleepless nights. But Eijiro's always there for me; with his endless patience and kind words, helping me through my panic attacks with warm embraces and sweet, comforting smiles.

I've started working at Moonbucks with him on weekends, and after some begging to our manager we managed to get our shifts to correspond, 8 am- 4 pm Saturday and Sunday. It's been nice to have an income, even if it's slight, to help Kirishima pay for my therapy and afford groceries, (since he insists on paying for almost everything with his monthly allowance from his parents). We've... basically been spending every day together. And it's been the best couple months of my life.

"A large peppermint hot chocolate-"

"Make that two"

"- And a bagel."

I jot down their order on my notepad and nod, turning to my left to start on their drinks. It's around the end of my shift, only half an hour left, and I'm tired as hell. Kirishima's on a short break in the back room, leaving me to man the front desk and interact with all these extras.

"And why not throw in some joyful smiles while you're at it, since you seem to have no shortage of those, do you Bakugou," The other customer quipps, and I look up to level a glare at Sero and Kaminari before rolling my eyes. Of course these idiots had to show up. "I forgot you were working here! It's weird to see you outside of school man"

"You're holding up the line" I growl, although it would've been more effective if there actually was a line.

"Oh c'monnn Baku! Don't be like that! You know you love us!" They grin, and I sigh wearily, too tired and antisocial to deal with them right now. They attempt to start up a banter with me, but I deflect their questions and slide their drinks to them without another glance.

"I'm working, leave me alone."

"Kat, are you being mean to the customers again?" A voice calls from behind me as a hand discreetly slides around the bottom of my waist, and a small smile almost crosses my face before I manage to trample it down. "Oh hey Sero! Kaminari! How are you guys?"

"We're good! Nice to see you man! How's work goin'?"

They immediately and effortlessly launch into a conversation that I manage to tune out, scanning the store for other customers who would need me right now, and finding none. It's surprisingly empty for a Saturday afternoon, something you wouldn't expect, and I muse on why that is until Eijiro's hand tightens almost incrementally around my waist, drawing my attention. His fingers start to draw small circles and my focus narrows down to those points of contact while I stare blankly down at the counter. I find myself leaning in to it a little, and I can tell he notices by the way his hand rubs a little more comfortingly, the feeling allowing the social stress I hadn't noticed building up to dissipate. He always knows exactly what I need for some reason.

As Kaminari exaggeratedly tells some story, waving his hands around obscenely (what an idiot), Eijiro leans over a little to whisper in my ear, "You can head to the backroom if this is too much for you, I got it from here."