Fuselage

×~❄ Chapter 42 ❄~×

"Wake. Up!" A pillow collided with Katsuki's face.

"What the fuck?" He sputtered, falling off the couch in a panic.

"You should see your face!" Eijirou crowed.

"You fucker." Katsuki hissed, pushing himself off the floor, returning the pillow in a fluid motion to the idiot cackling just above him. "I'm going to kill-!"

Eijirou held a finger to his lips. "Shh." Gaze drifted over his shoulder to the darkened space where his bed sat. "Tetsu sleeps like the dead, but I don't wanna risk it." Finger pulled away, that familiar bubbly excitement that was so trademark Eijirou returned. "I made us breakfast and it's still a pretty warm morning. C'mon."

The fuck? Katsuki frowned, following Eijirou out to the small balcony.

Promptly blown away.

The food was modest; toast, scrambled eggs, black coffee. Even the view wasn't spectacular. Skyscrapers and huge buildings blocking any kind of nature view. Smog leaving a more orange stain on the sunrise, a brown stain over the blue of the sky.

But it was warm. Birds trilled. The sky smelled and felt like summer. It was quiet and peaceful. The wind blew just enough to keep Katsuki from sweating.

"Not bad, right?" Eijirou smiled off into the horizon. "This is my favorite thing about my days." He looked at Katsuki, "Though I think this has probably-"

"You know since you've left I can't fly now."

Fuck. Why did he have to ruin the moment? Katsuki sat, Eijirou followed suit, grabbing a coffee cup, watching Katsuki redden, frown, stab at his eggs. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

"Okay." Eijirou lowered his coffee cup, urging the blond to continue as the silence stretched between them.

A deep inhale that smelled so different from home. "My favorite thing in the world and I can't fucking do it." Katsuki took a violent bite of toast, refused to make eye contact. He felt like his chest would collapse. "You've ruined it. You've ruined everything." Katsuki wanted to laugh about it, to make it seem less serious. To take the edge off the way the words hurt, the way his eyes began to burn and his nose began to sting. But he couldn't. "You're everywhere on that damned mountain."

A shuddering breath. "Kat..."

"What if I ruin this for you too?" He blinked, wanting to cry. But fuck if he could anymore. Katsuki couldn't. Not over this anyway.

"Kat, you've never ruined anything." A hand on his back, warm and supportive. "You've always made it better. Maybe that's one of the differences. Where I was trapped you added a sense of freedom for me. God Katsuki, look at me." And he obeyed. Fuck why did he always- "You're..." Eijirou moved closer, fingers tangled in his own. "You're always the thing that makes it better. There's nothing you could ever ruin for me." Eijirou laughed, but it was choked up, wet. "To know that I... hurt you like that. That I took something away-" Head dropped. "God I'm so sorry. I-I thought I was doing the right thing. I know I am... my family-"

"It's changing, Kirishima."

"Wha-"

"It's different now." Gazes met, clashed; fear and confidence. "You don't have to-"

"Change isn't so easy, Kat."

Silence fell over them again. Eijirou dropped his hand, moved away. Took a drink as he resumed looking out at the campus. People were moving now, slowly. The early birds.

"Why do you call me that? My family name." Eijirou clarified, voice scratchy. "Why not 'Ei' like before?"

Katsuki snuck a glance. "Does it bother you?"