Riptide

3. Catching Up

By the time Katsuki walks back through the door of the lifeguard hut before he can even pull the hood down from his rain jacket Kirishima is grinning at him with an eyebrow rose.

The blonde narrows his eyes.

" The fuck you looking at me like that for huh?"

Kirishima chuckles.

" Come on bro spill it! I gotta know the details of this long lost friendship of yours!"

Katsuki rolls his eyes taking a his water bottle out of a small fridge as he looks outside at the stormy beach.

" I told you about it when he was sitting right here."

Kiri shakes his head standing up next to the blonde with a grin and a laugh.

" No way man, there's more to it, has to be. I don't think I've ever seen you look at someone then way you were him."

Two brows furrow in thought.

"Tch. I haven't seen him in seven years, I was surprised as fuck, so yeah I was looking at him."

Kirishima chuckles.

" Yeah ok keep telling yourself that's the only reason. Anyway, so that's it, the story you told? You met him on the beach taught him to surf and that's it?"

Katsuki shrugs, eyes still on the stormy waters.

" Well I mean thats how we first met yeah. We became friends almost immediately we just hit it off so well. We hung out every day. He was this kinda nerdy kid but he was friendly and funny. He was overly chatty and normally that would piss me off but not with him, he was different some how. He became my damn shadow, wanted to go every place I went, do everything I did. I taught him how to fish off the pier and how not to kill himself on the fucking jagged rocks when he wanted to swim at the cove. He was adventurous and reckless cause he had no damn idea what he was doing but it didn't stop him from doing it. I felt like I had to keep him safe from almost everything. He'd get banged the fuck up all the time. I should have carried a damn first aid kit around. But I never laughed so much or had as much fun with anyone like I did that summer. ", the blonde recalls with a rare smile he hasn't noticed is there.

But Kirishima has noticed. His eyes soften as he listens to his normally rough, brash friend talk about his summer from so long ago with almost a wistful tone, like he had missed those days and the male he had shared them with.

" So there was never anything else? Like other than just a friendship?", the redhead questions with a grin.

Katsuki looks at him with a raised brow taking in the question before he shrugs with just a hint of a blush.

" I dunno, I mean we were only fifteen almost sixteen, just starting to figure shit out as far as who and what we liked I guess. Nothing ever happened really, other then him being a little on the clingy side with hugs and stuff but I think by the end of the summer if I'm being totally honest we were both crushing on each other but by the time we realized it he had to go back to Seattle, which is where he's from.", the blonde says shifting his eyes back out the windows.

Kirishima frowns feeling suddenly saddend by this.

" That really sucks man. You guys didn't keep in touch at all after he left?"

" We did for awhile. Text, some calls. Kept it up for a year but then teen life got busy, trying to keep up with grades, sports, family shit. I broke my phone, my contacts weren't backed up, ended up getting my number changed. I was actually kinda upset by that. We had talked at one point about me visiting there or him coming back here. Part of me held out hope he'd show up again, but it didn't happen and I couldn't get there, eventually you just accept that you've lost certain friendships but it wasn't like we didn't try."