Prologue

8.4K 361 75
                                    

Blood. Katsuki's never seen so much blood-much less his own. He can't decide if he's dizzy because of the sight of it or the fact that he's already lost so damn much of it. All he knows is that he's fucked up, and bad, if the gaping hole in his left side and the four or so puncture wounds across his torso are anything to go by. And he has no flying clue what the hell he's supposed to tell Eijirou.

Eijirou...

As if simply thinking Dumb Hair's name brings forth his presence in some shape or form, Katsuki's phone begins blaring with Eijirou's ringtone in his back pocket. He struggles to pull it out; even the smallest of movements send shooting pain throughout his entire torso.

Eijirou's huge, ridiculous smile greets him from the screen once the device is in his hand, and for a fleeting moment he wonders, fuck, is this the last he'll see Eijirou's smile? Like this, on this tiny, measly little screen?

"Hey," he mumbles, breathless, into the phone after shakily tapping the green answer icon.

"Katsuki? Where are you?" He's on the verge of panic; Katsuki can tell just by his voice.

"...somewhere down 8th Avenue," Katsuki tells him.

"Did you finish the job?"

Katsuki's eyes slide over in the direction of the singed, barely-recognizable body lying in a still-smoking heap a mere few meters away from where he's slumped against a wall. "...yeah. She's dead."

Through the speaker Katsuki can hear Eijirou's sigh of relief. "Good."

"What... what about you? Is everyone safe?"

"Yeah, they're all good. They're at the courthouse and the paramedics are makin' sure they're all okay."

Katsuki's chin falls against his chest, his eyes sliding shut. "...good," he manages. "You did good, Ei." His body feels hot. He can't stop his hands from shaking, and by now there's a decently sized puddle of blood on the asphalt beside him. Fuck.

"Are you okay, Katsuki?" Worry has snaked its way into Eijirou's voice; Katsuki can't be the slightest bit surprised he's picked up something off about him so soon. "Did something happen? D'you want me to come find you?"

"...no, I'm fine," Katsuki lies, and hates it. He hates lying to Eijirou. But what he hates more is upsetting the idiot, is seeing those gorgeous fucking eyes of his fill with tears the way he know they will as soon as Ei sees him. Katsuki doesn't want that. Not yet. "I'm not too far from the courthouse. I'll b-be with you in a minute or two..." He immediately curses the stutter, but with the loss of blood and the growing pain as his adrenaline from the fight quickly fades, even simply breathing is becoming difficult.

How did you fuck up so badly?! he screams internally. What kind of fucking hero are you, dumbass?!

"Katsuki..."

"I said 'm fuckin' fine, Shitty Hair." He tries to growl it, but to his ears it's little more than a pained hiss, and he hopes to high fucking hell that Ei doesn't hear it that way. "I'll meet you there."

But Eijirou knows him too well. Probably knows that, as soon as he was told where Ei and the rest of the citizens he'd brought to safety were, he'd be on his way. And the courthouse really is only a few minutes walking distance from 8th Ave., and with Katsuki's quirk, he'd be there in no time. Or should be, anyway.

"No... I'm gonna come find you, okay? I'll meet you halfway."

Katsuki wants to argue, though he isn't entirely sure why. And at this point, he has no idea how much time he might have left, and he'd be damned if he decides to spend his last shitty, weak fucking moments bleeding out by himself than with the only person who matters to him-the person who somehow managed to weasel his way in and steal Katsuki's goddamn heart ten-no, a thousand fucking times over.

Katsuki's not a fucking sap. Never has been, never will be. He doesn't give a shit about all that cheesy, love-y bullshit you see on Valentine's Day or whatever.

To him, Eijirou is more-so, so fucking much more-than that.

And he's gonna break that damn loser's heart-that heart of gold he probably never deserved in the first place.

Katsuki... has never hated himself more than he does in this moment, where he can already hear through the phone as soon as Eijirou is outside by the sound around him.

"Where on 8th avenue?" Eijirou's asking.

"...still kinda by the apartment building," Katsuki tells him. "I'll... meet you at the corner at Main."

"Okay."

He doesn't want to, but Katsuki hangs up. Somehow he manages to get the phone back into his pocket, and that's when the hard part begins-he has to stand up. He has to find some way to make it to his feet despite the blood pouring out of his side, soaked into most of his clothes. He almost can't even feel his legs anymore. White spots have invaded his vision, and he knows he's on the verge of passing the fuck out.

But he can't. Not yet. He has to see Eijirou first-has to. He can't let the last time he's seen Ei be a view of his back as he ran into that apartment building.

Somehow he pulls himself to his feet; wobbles a bit, using the wall beside him to hold himself as steady as possible. And he's only then beginning to wonder why the hell he didn't just have Ei come and find him. Simply trying to make it down the friggin' block might just kill him, and he can't understand why he feels so hot.

He doesn't make it. Knows he won't the second he starts dragging his feet along the ground, unable to fully pick them up. He's so fucking weak, so tired, and has lot so much blood.

"Shoulda just swallowed my damn pride..." he huffs to himself. "Fuck."

He hasn't made it a dozen yards away from the building before he falls to his knees. A bitter, metallic flavor has assaulted the back of his tongue, and fuck, this cannot be fucking happening. He's gonna bite the fucking dust, just like that-like a fucking weakling who can't even get rid of one shitty villain without getting hurt.

All he can think of as the ground seems to rush up to meet him is Eijirou's shitty, dumb, smiling face; it's the last thing plastered to the back of his eyelids before everything goes black.

---

This is something I've slowly been working on during plugging away at A Meme A Day because angst is part of what fuels my life, and since AMAD doesn't have any, I needed this to balance it out xD It came from a prompt I lost, whoops .-. I don't know how frequent updates will be. It'll be approximately 7-8 chapters; as soon as I know for sure I'll update that. The chapters are gonna be fairly long, too.

Prepare to... probably cry. Because I do terrible things to the characters I love, and I can't stop myself :-) Whoops.

*Wattpad is showing me this without spaces between the paragraphs on my computer but not on my phone. If this is an issue for you, please let me know so I can figure out how to fix it. Sorry 'bout that. Wattpad likes to be temperamental like that.

I Will Never Find Another You {Kiribaku - BNHA}Where stories live. Discover now