Fuselage

♡~♡ Chapter 24 ♡~♡

"So..." Katsuki peeked over his shoulder, breaking through the awkward silence of the fuming Eijirou. "You're brother really gunna follow us all the way to town?"

"Fucking maybe?" Eijirou hissed. "Fucking asshole. I can't believe him."

Katsuki chuckled. "I can't believe you. I can't believe you backed down like that. What the Hell man?"

Eijirou tensed, flinched. "I mean... what do you think he meant when he said that he had to give things up to protect other things?"

"I don't know." Katsuki's face contorted. "Hey Blockhead," He spun on his heel, walking backward, ignoring Eijirou's mortified squeak. "The fuck you mean when you said you gave something up to protect something?"

Tetsu glared, brown eyes flashing nearly red in the light. "I ain't answering to you, Short stuff."

Katsuki stopped moving, bristling. "Say that again."

"Tiny, Shorty, Small Fry-"

"Tetsu, please." Eijirou sighed, eyes rolling before they closed. "We fucking listened. Could you not antagonize on top of it?"

"Why?" Tetsu crossed his arms, muscles prominent through his pale suit shirt, smug smile. "Why should I? You asked me to stop being a lapdog, when are you going to stop rolling over for them?"

Katsuki lost the edge to his anger, shock and realization replacing it. "Are you trying to bait Ei into getting angry and rebelling."

"No." Tetsu's smile dropped, eyes pinning Katsuki with deadly seriousness. "And if anyone heard you say that there'd be Hell to pay in every sense of the word. He and I just don't get along and I like to fight him. He has everything I want and I have everything he wants, right?" That gaze jumped back to his brother.

And Katsuki watched awareness dawn, spreading like a wildfire over Ei's face.

"You're right." It was a breathless revelation. "I always wanted to be accepted; for them to just want me like they do you. They take care of you so well and it feels like no matter what hoops I jump through-" Eijirou laughed, a hand running through his hair as he fell against a tree, eyes watering he looked up to Tetsu. "But it never mattered, did it? No matter what I did - what you did."

"Classic narcissism." Tetsu shook his head. "Pitting people against one another to keep them at each other's throats, like an ouroboros. If the snake is attacking itself it can't be bothered to go after any outside aggressors."

Katsuki didn't miss the way Tetsu stepped closer, the way his voice lowered. "To me, you had freedom. The freedom I've desperately craved. And for you I had acceptance. And they made enemies out of the two of us where allies should have been." Tetsu crouched, clearing his throat. "I didn't mean to tell. I didn't know, you know?"

He breathed in deep, feet from his twin. "When I saw you two, I didn't understand what was happening. I hadn't... liked people like that. I never had... and it was such a... strange thing to see someone so close to me-" Tetsu ran a hand over his face as though to wipe away the blush. "And I just had so many questions and I got carried away and it popped out that it was you and him and-" He shook his head, eyes cinched tight, fists clenched, shoulders trembling. "Ei, I'm so sorry!" Tetsu's voice was strained, tight in his throat. "Ei, I never-" He swallowed sloppy and hard. "When I saw what happened- Oh my God I couldn't sleep. I knew, they made sure I knew it was my fault."

"Tetsu I-I-"

"Of course you didn't know." His voice watery, thick and sad. "They never wanted you to. God if they knew I was telling you this do you have any idea what they'd do to you? To me?"