I Called to Say I Love You

Chapter 6

"You've been gone for a year now, and they've decided to claim you're dead. At this point, I'm inclined to believe it because there's no way you would willingly just leave me like this, but your phone still rings through, I don't get sent directly to voice-mail. Please, Eijiro, I need you to just let us know where you are. Just pick up the phone."

Izuku rubs Katsuki's shoulder from his place sat next to the blonde.

"Deku and Icy Hot officially got divorced yesterday. The arguing actually got that bad. It got to a point that Deku was here more than there because the house belongs to that damn Half and Half bastard."

Izuku sighs next to Katsuki. He knows that Katsuki needs to do this. It's one of the few things that keeps the man together and grounded, even if it hurts him to see Katsuki cry.

"Since they decided you're gone, I guess that makes me a widower. I hate that. You should have been home a year ago. You should have been here to see Kaito and Akari's birth. We're supposed to be together in sickness and in health, but you're not here. I'm starting to wonder if someone else is listening to all these messages. If I've been basically telling some stranger all about our lives, but I just want to hold on to that sliver of hope."

"Kaito is starting to look more and more like you every day. He has your gorgeous black hair that you always insisted on hiding with that shitty bright red dye. They both have your hair, and their eyes are a darker red than mine, just like yours. Akari looks more like me, though. Honestly, she looks so much like I did as a baby. Just imagine the pictures that the old hag used to show you, but make the hair black, and you have our daughter."

"You missed out on Dunce Face and Eyebags' wedding. They were going to continue to wait, but I told them you wouldn't want them to miss out on such an important event in their life because of you. Eyebags already made Dunce Face wait long enough. Dunce Face even made me be his best man in your place. He said if anyone was taking your spot, it should be me. Of course Deku was Eyebags' best man forcing me to have to dance with him. Yes, fucking Dunce Face forced Deku and I to dance together like a fucking couple. It was embarrassing."

"If someone else has been listening to these messages instead of Eijiro, please, just answer the phone when I call. I just need to know what happened to him. I need to know if I'm really alone, or if there's even the slightest sliver of hope that I'll see him again. I need him."

Katsuki hangs up the phone and finds himself leaning into Izuku. He's been extremely grateful for his friend's presence in the house. Without Deku, he definitely couldn't have handled three kids on his own.

He sits there in silence for a while before his phone starts ringing. As soon as he hears the sound of it, the phone is to his ear. "Shitty Hair, is that you?"

The voice on the other end of the line is unmistakably male, but it's definitely not the voice Katsuki wants to hear. "I should have done this a while ago, but I didn't know how. You've always sounded so sad in your voice messages, Dynamight."

"Who the fuck are you, and why do you have Red Riot's phone!?"

"My name is unimportant, but it's about time I tell you what happened." The man takes a deep breath before speaking again. "When I found Red Riot, he had been caught off guard by some villains, and they hurt him pretty badly. I did my best to patch him up with the help of my friend who has a healing quirk. We thought he was getting better until one night he spiked a fever. One of his wounds was infected, and we were too far away from a hospital to get him any help."

Katsuki gasps. All this time, he's been leaving voice messages to someone else. Tears start to stream down his face.

"I'm sorry, Dynamight. Red Riot has been dead for a long time now. I used to play your messages for him. I even captured some pictures of his expression for you when he heard the news that you were pregnant. They're on the phone. Just tell me what hero agency to send it to, and I'll send you the phone. I already buried him on a cliff near my home. It's what I promised him the night that his fever spiked so high. I wish that I could give you better news than this. I'm so sorry."

The phone drops from Katsuki's hands as sobs wrack his body. Izuku picks the phone up and, upon seeing the caller ID figures out that it's definitely not Kirishima on the other line.

"This is pro hero Deku, what happened to Red Riot?"

The man explains the situation once again knowing that Dynamight is in no shape to tell the other hero. He then asks the same question of what hero agency to send the phone to. Izuku gives him the address to the hero agency that he shares with Katsuki before thanking the man and hanging up the phone. Now he has to be there for Kacchan more than ever.