Supernova

Chapter Eighty One - Caught Red Handed

For the record, I did try to read Elias' book of psalms. I tried for all of maybe four minutes.

I knew it was in English, sure, but it might as well have been in Swedish. It was not only incomprehensible, but the bits I could understand were excruciatingly dull. I'd been the one to suggest Katsuki and I have this little reading date, but I cut it short as I groaned and tossed the book so hard that it slid across the floor and underneath the dresser. His red eyes looked up at me from the armchair, glanced over to where the book had skidded out of sight, looked back at me, and raised his eyebrows.

"That book is the most boring thing I've ever read in my life!" I whined in response to his silent question. "It's the worst! I'd rather read textbooks!"

"Don't read it then," he said matter of factly, looking back down into his book.

"I'm not going to," I assured him in a scoff, falling back against in headboard in my pout. I made no moves to retrieve the book. Out of sight, out of mind. Good riddance. But after a few more seconds, I did lean forward on my arms. "What are you reading?"

He looked up and pressed the book pages against his chest. His red eyes were glaring, but there was some genuine fear flaring in them. "Don't fucking worry about it."

"Come on," I urged, scooting to the edge of the bed. "You can tell your girlfriend."

"Fuck off," he told me back. And then, much to my surprise and amusement, wrapped one arm around the book against his chest, and held his other hand out to me, sending out warning sparks.

My eyes widened. He was so oddly protective about those books. I wouldn't be able to read them, so what was the issue? I rolled my eyes and sunk back against the headboard. Katsuki eyed me suspiciously for a little while until he thought the coast clear and slowly lifted the book off his chest and back into his eyeline. I counted to twenty and made my move.

I'll give credit where credit is due. He was expecting me to pull some bullshit like I did and his reflexes were fast, but I was faster. I'd managed to jump and grab one of the books off the shelf, but just before one of his hands grabbed my collar and yanked me back. I held the book close to my chest as he reached around me for it, but I shoved my density into my hands and knees and toppled him over until he was underneath me, palms pressed into the floor under my knees, just like the very first day. I was making a gamble that he wouldn't explode the floor of his own dorm room and that his shyness of this position would kick back in, and even though he looked furious, I could tell the gamble had paid off. I started flipping through the pages.

"Stop!" He yelled underneath me.

"You read comics?" I asked, finding that they were just filled with pictures and speech bubbles. Well, that explained how he was getting through them so quickly. "What's so embarrassing about that?"

"They're not comics!" He spat up at me, his eyes flaring something wildly rage filled and defensive. "They're manga."

"What's the difference?" I asked, my page flipping slowing.

I couldn't tell what anyone was saying, but I was trying to pick up context from the pictures. It seemed to surround a duo, a boy and a girl, doing surprisingly mundane tasks together. He stopped squirming and struggling beneath me and looked, in all honesty, a little offended.

"Everything."

The answer took me off guard. Everything. Like the difference between a kimono and a robe.

I continued to flip through the pages, and despite the fact that I was still getting glared at from below, he more or less seemed to be letting me. The boy from the duo had a group of friends that he went to the arcade with, and even when he was with them, he was thinking about this girl, and the thoughts always seemed to infuriate him. The woman from the duo had her own friends, who she went shopping and to the gym with, who gave her sly looks and side eyes when pictures of the man came up in their speech bubbles, which always made the woman a blushing, blubbering mess. I knew of American superhero comics, but there was nothing even remotely heroic about anything happening for multiple chapters.