Fuselage

♡~♡ Chapter 23 ♡~♡

"Goddamn it, Ei." Katsuki shoved past the undergrowth. "I'm too hungover for this shit."

Eijirou laughed, "Bro, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bought you that last bit, huh?" He turned back around. "I guess you really can't handle the hard stuff."

"Yeah." Katsuki frowned down at Eijirou's bare feet. "Guess not. Why aren't you wearing shoes?"

"Why would I?" Eijirou's voice was too bright and cheery for the collective four hours of sleep they must have gotten. "It's summer, there's nothing out here I'm worried about, I've walked this path a million times-"

"Eijirou." Katsuki's voice hardened as they moved higher up the mountain trail, village nothing more than miniatures in the distance. "Eijirou you don't have a backpack. You don't have shoes. How are you going to be safe out here?"

Katsuki blinked, It's fine. He chanted. It's fine. It's fine. He breathed slow as Eijirou stumbled, snagged a rock from the path, chucked it.

The image made Katsuki's stomach churn. Maybe that was just the hangover.

"I know these paths like I know my own skin, Kat." Eijirou smiled, twisting around to face his companion, trekking backwards.

Katsuki shook his head. "Jin and I had known those tracks too." It felt grotesque to talk about. He had to drop his gaze before he could see the look on Eijirou's face. "We'd known it so well that the hill was grooved from where we'd roll down. Shit happens."

"Kat." His gaze jerked up at the presence, at the close voice. "Katsuki," a hand under his chin, up his jaw. "I know these woods; this mountain." Eijirou assured him, thumb stroking soft against Katsuki's cheek. "I promise nothing here can hurt me."

"Yeah?" Katsuki couldn't talk past the tightening of his throat as Eijirou's hand slipped down, fingers trailing soft over skin.

He couldn't help the way he leaned into the contact. The way his eyes met Eijirou's, begged the question he couldn't bring himself to ask; are we more than friends?

"Yeah." Eijirou smiled, "I'll be fine. You'll be fine. There's nothing here but us. No trains. No trauma. No-" Katsuki noticed the way his chest worked faster, blush coloring his cheeks. "You're my best friend." Eijirou muttered quietly, hand dropping, fisting, banging idly against his thigh as he resumed walking. "I've never been able to talk to someone like I have you."

"Your best friend huh?" Katsuki swallowed the butterflies flooding his chest, the knots in his stomach. "I bet Denki would be devastated."

"Hearing you use his name would fix it." Eijirou joked over his shoulder.

"Why doesn't your family want me to know about this?" Katsuki ducked into the forest, village out of sight now.

"I don't really know." Eijirou shrugged. "I haven't been to the actual shrine in years. The last time I was there was... fuck, I mean I was four? Five?"

"What?!" Katsuki choked on his spit. "But you said-"

"Yeah. And I do know the woods and the mountain. I just wasn't allowed near the shrines." Eijirou shrugged off the concern with a wave.

"How much of this does Pony know?" Katsuki liked to see the sting of his question hit Eijirou in the way he skipped a step.

"Eh. She knows I'm uncomfortable around my family." Eijirou's voice was slow; careful. "She knows that they aren't the best people in the world."

"Yeah." Katsuki forced himself to sound bored, "I know about that part, stress gives you performance problems. Clever excuse."

Eijirou sighed loudly as they rounded a curve, the walking trail fading away to a deer path. "I wish you wouldn't be so-"