The Crown Jewel (A kiribaku fanfic)

7: Eijiro

Sooo, this story has a mature rating on it. I don't want to edit my description so I'll just say it here. I'm not planning on doing any spicy scenes. 

One, I do t think my dignity could handle that, and two, that doesn't really fit into this story. The mature is more for the trigger warnings. So, yeah.

~•~

Kirishima slowly came to the next morning with a crick in his neck and a Mina yelling in his ear.

Apparently she had let Kaminari bunk with her the night before, and he had just 'elbowed her in the god-forsaken fucking tits' (her words, not Kirishima's)

He sat up and poked her in the side. "Please be quiet, I would like to wake up without some weirdo yelling about tits at sunrise. Thank you."

He rolled out of the hammock and grumbled. "You have to wake up anyway," she poked him back.

"Ay, newbie? clean up the shit, would ya'? Nobody else'll do it and it'll just rot there, gross." Shoji yelled from his hammock where he was pulling his tunic on.

"Why do I have to do it? You shot him." Kirishima whined but pulled out a rag anyway.

He was becoming much more accustomed to the rowdy pirates, though it had just been a few days with them. He was becoming more comfortable around them for sure. Mina especially. She was awesome.

The blood had stuck to the floor, similar to the way kirishima's would when- nope, not going there.

He paused, shifting away the stiff body of Mineta and looking for too long at the blood beneath.

Ochako noticed. "I can do it." She said quietly. She knew exactly what he was thinking about.

"No, I have to do this, I have to figure out how to deal with it eventually." He shook his head and turned back to scrubbing.

He could feel her doubtful stare on the back of his head but she said no more.

It had been some time, and the rest of the crew had filtered out of the quarters where kirishima worked.

"Hey, Kiri, you almost done there?" Mina sauntered into the room accompanied by a sheepish Sero.

"Almost. Give me five minutes." He turned back to scrubbing and Sero spoke up. "Hey, Kiri, sorry I didn't do that. I kinda forgot about it."

He grinned shyly and Kirishima turned to look at him with a mock glare. "It's okay, really. I think we're all just glad you did do it." Mina nodded.

Sero seemed to have some closure with that and wandered off to get breakfast. "Hey Mina," she sat beside Kirishima just as he was finishing.

"Hmm?"

Can you call me Ei? Or Eijiro? I think you've earned that privilege. For helping me and all." Kirishima began drying the wood.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course! She squealed and pulled Ei into a hug. "Of course, Eijiro~"

She put a bit of a teasing lilt at the end and Kirishima blushed brightly.

"S-stop that!"

"I'm just teasing, Ei!" He gave her a similar glare to the one he had just given Sero. She giggled and pranced off.

He finished drying and finally stepped out onto the deck of the ship. He could smell the delicious aroma of food wafting from the kitchen where Sato, their resident culinary genius, worked.

His intended location was the kitchen, but he did have to pass the captain's quarters on the way. He could hear captain Katsuki bickering with Mina inside and wondered what was going on inside.

"Ashido, you know we already tried there! I don't want to go back to Shiketsu island, they hate us already!" The captain was fired up, Mina could tell.

"Yeah, we have gone there. But Shiketsu is right beside Yuuei. It's worth trying!" She countered. It was basically pointless to argue with the captain, but Mina always enjoyed trying regardless.

"Ashido! Stop! Okay! We can't get anywhere until we prove the faithfulness of our new crew members! I do t trust them yet and I need to trust them before I tell them any more than they already know."

Mina paused. She hadn't thought of that. Of course, the captain never trusted anyone, but he did have a point.

"Fine. But look, we should set course to there anyway. It could take up to two weeks to arrive, that's plenty of time, no?"

Katsuki huffed. "Sure. Set the course." Mina thanked him and squealed off.

"Ei! Ei! Guess what? We're going to Yuuei!" Mina pranced up to Kirishima in the kitchen, who was eating a mango and watching Sato bake.

"Yuuei? The country of Yuuei?" He froze.

"Yep! The most famous assortment of kingdoms in the entire world! think of that! Incredible, eh?"

"I-why are we going to Yuuei?" Kirishima shrugged off the arm she had slung around his shoulder, blushing.

"I can't tell you that yet, but Katsuki will in time! Why, what's wrong?"

He frowned and looked away. "Can we talk somewhere... more private, please?"

Mina was curious now, so she agreed and dragged him into a secluded corner of the ship. "Talk away, Kiri."

He cleared his throat. "I- um... I courted a, uh, queen. Of Yuuei. I think she still lives there. This was before Midorya found me. She abandoned me, though. Many, many years ago. I swore to never return.

"I don't want to go back there. She'll find me, I know it. She has this certain.. sense, you can call it. She can tell when a certain person is near her. I don't know how she does it but she'll find me for sure."

Mina was shocked. Quite honestly, she didn't think Kirishima'd had a life before his imprisonment.

"Can we just stay out of her kingdom? Or does it not matter where you are on Yuuei?" Mina prodded gently.

"I can probably be far a way, but she may find me anyway. And I probably won't even know. She has this, kind of, strange aura around her. She can always slip into a crowd unnoticed by anyone," he shuddered slightly and Mina took his hand.

"And she can steal you away, no one would even know you're gone until you were dead." Now it was Mina's time to shudder.

"Ei, that sounds awful, I'm so sorry! But if we go, I promise to keep a close eye on you, okay?" He nodded and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you for being here, Mina." The beads in her hair rustled around the bandana as she shook her head at him. "No, thank YOU for teaching me what it's like to have a real friend."

~•~

A/N: so, this is not very Kiribaku-ey and progressive, is it? No, it's a really slow start. I have a few things planned to help with the relationship advancement. I'll do little moments here and there, and have kirishima start to warm up to Bakugo a little, don't worry. 

It is Kiribaku in the end, there just may be some obstacles in the way. Hold your horses and thanks for reading!