Long Time Coming

Needle and Thread

Mistuki sighed, melting into the chair beside Kirishima's wheelchair. "Like, what the fuck, Katsuki?" Her voice was strained and hard. "What the holy fuck was that?"

The blond turned away, face buried in his knees.

"Mitsu." Masaru frowned, shaking his head subtly.

She breathed out hard but Kirishima caught the way her breath shook at the end, her shoulders tense, her hands clutching the fabric of her sweater. He looked across to Masaru. The man looked like the picture of peace, his face seemed tense but serene if not for the matching crease just to the left of the middle of his eyebrows. The same one Bakugou had when he was stressed.

Kirishima cleared his throat and pushed up, his insides felt... twisted somehow. Duplicated almost. There was a series of images in his head that didn't line up with the memories of what had happened. Like an old movie he watched long ago over a backyard fence; no sound, no textile recollection except the wood cutting into his palm, the scrape of the fence against his knee. A barrier keeping him from accessing these far away, blurry... images.

"I think... I think there's something going on that neither of us understand." He cleared his throat. "I-" He breathed deep. "I-I dunno." He ran a frantic hand through his now short hair and winced, tears coming fresh to his eyes. "Ow." He tried to chuckle through it. "I... I don't want to... It was like a dream." He reached out to Bakugou, who had unfolded a little. Their fingers tangled gently, just barely. "Like as it was happening I saw myself..." He shook his head, his face paling. "I saw it-" He searched Katsuki's face.

The blond nodded, his hand gripping tighter. "Y-yeah." His voice rough from unshed tears and emotion. "I did too."

"What?" Mitsuki sat a little straighter, sharing a curious look with her husband.

"It was like..." Kirishima struggled. "It was like we'd been in that position before, which is normal-" It was becoming easier to explain, or maybe the words were just falling out of his mouth faster as realization dawned on him. "And that's not the first time that we've experienced deja vu either. Back at USJ when it was attacked and during the tournament and - Anyway. Anyway, not important. But it was this moment of duplicity. I saw myself die. I saw myself not survive. But it wasn't..." He sighed, shoulders heaving. "I don't know. It was so jarring, so real. I felt it. I heard it."

Bakugou's grip tightened, his voice was weaker now, strained and hoarse. "I did too." He let slip a tight curse. "Your scream." His eyes went distant. "All I could hear was your scream. Over and over. I can still-" He looked at the hand, brought it closer, wrapped both hands around it. "God but you're not. You're here. What the fuck was that?"

Kirishima shrugged. "Adrenaline?" It was a paltry explanation and both boys knew it.

Mitsuki and Masaru knew it.

But the topic was uncomfortable and difficult to grasp and-

"Are you talking about past lives ?" And Masaru had to fucking ask. "Past- what?" He breathed out a disbelieving laugh, "Past memories?"

"I-I don't know." Eijirou shook his head gently, "I can't really..."

"It's fading." Katsuki bit. "It's like... I don't know. I could see it really well before when-" His eye cut to Eijirou, "and I could just feel it. I was there in it. But now." He breathed in. "Now I can't really... just that scream. The sound of him-" His body shuddered once violently, as though it were trying to shake the sound out of it. "Like a nightmare only I was awake and in it and not in it at the same time?"