Strings and Buttons

Chapter 33: Parents

His mother sighs, standing up straight and putting her hands on her hips. 

"We were looking all over the house for you! Sleep in your fucking bed next time, okay?" 

Katsuki nods slowly, staring at his mother. 

"Yeah, right." 

Mitsuki pats his head, and Katsuki finds it comforting. 

"And the next time you bring a cat in here let me know. It ran the fuck out of the house when i opened the door, almost gave your father a heart attack." 

She gives Katsuki a soft look before mumbling, 

"Dinners in fifteen minutes, get yourself cleaned up." 

She goes to walk away, but Katsuki calls out. 

"Hey mom, um..." She looks back at him, not saying anything. Katsuki looks at her eyes. 

"I love you." 

Her eyes widen and then she smiles softly. 

"I love you too Katsuki." 

She leaves the drawing room, and Katsuki yawns, wiping sleep from his eyes. He goes to stand up, then falls back down in the chair. His ankle is still throbbing, and he lets out a hiss of air through his teeth. 

He gets up slower this time, resting his weight on his good leg while walking up to his room. The same empty space, just how he left it. He takes a shower, changes his clothes, and puts ice on the throbbing ankle.

 He might have to tell his dad about this, or else it might affect his modeling jobs after school starts. He pulls the marbles, the stone, the button key, and the empty snow globe from his old pair of sweatpants, holding the items in his hands. 

He shakes the snow globe, watching the fake snow fall on the small couple hugging each other in the middle. He stares at it for a bit, his room silent, the sound of his parents' distant voices coming from downstairs being the only thing as background noise. 

He opens the drawer of his desk and looks through the miscellaneous content before he lands on a thick piece of string. He puts it through the hole in the button key, and ties the string around his neck, the key hanging. 

It feels cold against his skin, making a sort of imprint. He hides the key under a t-shirt and goes downstairs. He stops in front of his father's study, standing by the door for a second before going inside. It's just how he left it, covered in designs and papers and fabric, instead of food recipes.

 His father is at his desk like normal, and his eyes are covered by his hair. Katsuki walks over, and he looks up at him, his glasses gleaming slightly. 

"Oh. Hello Katsuki. You had us worried, we couldn't find you anywhere..." 

Katsuki nods, shoving his hands inside of his pockets, feeling the stone in one. 

"Yeah, i was sleeping in the drawing room. Um. I love you. Bye." 

Katsuki turns on his heel and his father calls out. 

"Wait, Katsuki!" 

He stops and glances back. The other is looking at him, his face serious before he smiles. 

"I love you most." 

Katsuki blanches and mutters. 

"Thats corny as all hell." 

The man laughs as Katsuki leaves the room, a smile on his face. Dinner that night is pizza, greasy and stacked with toppings. His father claimed he was trying something different and that he would be taking a break from the fashion industry to work on his cooking dream. 

Mitsuki held his hand the whole time like always. When dinner ends and it's time to go to sleep, Katsuki honestly could not feel any better. He's glad to be back home with his parents. He can't wait for everything to go back to normal. 

He puts the marbles under his pillow, keeping the key around his neck as he buries himself under the covers. He falls asleep. In his dream, Katsuki is in a uniform that he doesn't recognize. Its blue, with white lines going from his shoulders down, with one line crossing between the two.

 His boots are on the dirt of an arena, surrounded by empty seats. Even though the space is clearly empty, Katsuki can hear cheers and screams buzzing in his ears. He looks forward to see three people wearing the same uniform as him. 

He recognizes them instantly as the mirror ghosts. They bow to him politely before the girl with the brown bob happily floats over to him. Katsuki expects her to say thanks again, but she puts her hands on his shoulders and mutters something that echoes throughout the arena. 

"You are in danger." 

Katsuki opens his eyes, bolting up in bed. It's going to be really fucking shitty if he starts to have nightmares like this for the rest of his life. He looks back at his pillow before lifting it up. The marbles are crushed, leaving small remnants on his sheets. 

He's about to try and go back to sleep before he hears something moving. Instantly, he is on alert. A rat. There could be a rat in here, spying on him just like they did in the other world, waiting to fuck with him for running away. 

The cold button key around his neck feels like it burns, and he realizes that he has something they might want. He puts his hand on the key over his shirt and squeezes it. 

"Go away! Go away or ill fucking crush you under my boot!"

 There is a long pause before the thing, presumably a rat, scurries away down the hall, his door slightly open. The footsteps of the rat, if you could even call them that, didn't sound like the ones he's heard a thousand times before.

 It sounded like the rat had an extra leg or something. He instantly jumps out of bed, pulling on his shoes and racing down the stairs. He hopes that he doesn't wake his parents up, but at the same time this rat takes priority. He isn't going to be spied on anymore by the other bitches' little minions.