"Hey," The recording light turns on and Eijirou is sitting on an over stuffed sofa he gives a deep sigh, "It's been a while, hasn't it man?" He runs a hand wearily through his hair and irritably rubs his tired eyes. He hasn't gotten a decent amount of sleep for the past month. He says nothing for a few moments, and looks around his room, trying to avoid the camera.
"I really miss you, y'know. Everyone misses you." He has to stop himself again and bites his lip, not wanting to do this anymore.
"Fuck, man, I just-" His voice is thick and he pauses to take another breath, "I just wish that we were there sooner. I- I can't do this right now. I'm just so sorry Katsuki." He reaches over and turns off the camera.
Eijirou had thought that he had everything going for him. He was accepted into his dream high school, he was constantly surrounded by friends and he had an explosively hot boyfriend- literally and figuratively. While on cloud nine, he also knew that the dangers of having strong connections with his peers. The life of a hero is full of glory but it's also led by some of the loneliest people in the world. Having to walk away from family is better than having to see them get hurt or even killed by ever vengeful villains.
Now to say that all heroes walk the road of singularity is an understatement. In fact, Eijirou had been ecstatic to hear that their homeroom teacher was happily married and had a few cats to boot as well. Of course Class 1-A started pooling bets to find out who their teacher was so enamored with. Aizawa never really spoke of his spouse but their prying eyes would catch him staring endearingly at his phone with a soft smile flickering across his lips.
Sometimes he would take phone calls and excuse himself to the hallway and they would all strain their ears to hear him. Hagakure had once sneaked out the hallway to better hear who he was talking to. Naturally she was caught and was threatened with expulsion for violating a teacher's privacy. Not that he would carry out with his threat, Class 1-A learned that despite his tough love attitude- Aizawa had too much of a soft heart for them and wouldn't expel someone over something so minimal.
Even with a soft heart, Aizawa would still not tell them who he was married to, much to the chagrin of everyone. Instead of letting the matter die down, they just increased their efforts ten fold and after a month of putting on their best detective hats- they finally learned who Aizawa's spouse was; none other than their much loved English teacher- Present Mic. The class was in chaos that day and even with another threat of expulsion could not quiet down the class, much to Aizawa's irritation.
A surge of pride and hope ran through Eijirou's heart that day. He thought to himself that if even their eternally tired and prickly teacher could find love then perhaps Eijirou himself could find love as well.
"Let's try this again." Eijirou murmurs as he fiddles with the camera, the recording light blinks on and he breathes in deep. He stares at his reflection in the camera and for the first time, sees how haggard he is. Dark circles hang low against his red eyes, his skin is starting to look sallow from a combination of not getting enough sleep and staying indoors and the dark roots of his hair is starting to show. All in all, he looks as exhausted as much as he feels. he rubs the back of his neck and smiles sheepishly at the camera.
"Sorry for just leaving like that yesterday, man. Shit, this is hard to do," Eijirou trails off and chews on his lip thoughtfully, "Aizawa-Sensei said that this might help me and why not? It's not like I have much else to do with you gone these days." He drums his fingers against his thigh and glances up at the clock behind the camera.
"I don't even know where to begin. Everything is just so jumbled without you here Katsuki," The room falls into silence and Eijirou swallows thickly, "You've been gone for thirty-two days now." He refuses to look up at the camera and suddenly finds his hands that are resting in his lap to be the most interesting things in the world.
"Thirty-two fucking days," A whisper so soft, that the camera barely picks up on it, "Why couldn't it have been me instead?"
His stomach was full of fluttering butterflies as he gave himself another pep talk for the twentieth time that morning. Today was going to be the day he thought as he made sure every strand of his brilliant red hair was in place. He gave himself a bright smile and a quick finger gun. He sat down with Present Mic the night before and asked him for some pointers on asking someone out, which his teacher was more than happy to share.
He arrived early to school and sent a quick text to his friends to ask them to wish him luck, most of them were still sleeping but he did get a reply back from Sero a few moments later. Eijirou perched himself up on his desk and swung his feet mindlessly. He knew that Bakugou always arrived to school early and should walk through the door any moment. Eijirou took in a deep breath as he watched the door slide open and hopped off the desk to greet him.
He wasn't sure what he was expecting out of the fiery blond but his answer was better than what Eijirou could ever ask for. Ever since then, they were dubbed the power couple of Class 1-A.
Much to the smug satisfaction of both boys.
Since that day, Eijirou's life had been filled with a whirlwind of romance. Most not think it, but Bakugou was surprisingly romantic. Oftentimes, he would be greeted with a bouquet of flowers at his front door- usually with a variety of flowers that would come in assorted shades of soft yellows, bright oranges, and his favorite- bold reds. Every flower he'd received would be neatly labeled and Eijirou would curiously look each flower up. Not in a thousand years would Eijirou think of Bakugou as the type to speak the language of flowers but he certainly was not about to start complaining.
Never had his home been so filled with such vibrant pops of color before and he would tastefully ignore the soft smiles and joking quips of his parents about how they could open a flower shop.
Their dates consisted of anywhere from coffee shop and movie dates to star gazing to even rock climbing.
Eijirou would have to say that his absolute favorite would be strolling along the beach during the sunset. Hand in hand as they talked about anything and everything. He loved watching the setting sun's rays cast comforting colors across the sky with the ocean reflecting them and how with the last gleaming light of the sun would play upon Bakugou's hair, which would glow like a brilliant golden halo.
They both loved people watching, whether it was children playing in the rolling waves of the ocean or their parents lazily soaking up the sun's warmth to even teenagers up to whatever antics they could think of to annoy other beach goers with their obnoxious laughter.
Bakugou hated the greasy food sold in stands at an outrageous price with burning passion, but always got a kick out of how some poor soul that would end up having to defend their food against the screaming and usually always overly aggressive seagulls.
He loved how his toes would dig into the warm sand and the salty sea air would reinvigorate him. No matter how many times he told himself that this wasn't a dream and he was actually dating the one and only Bakugou Katsuki, he would still be overrun with those butterflies in his stomach.
Starting up the camera again, Eijirou offers it a soft smile and for the first time in thirty-three days, he feels good enough to actually make a video longer than a few minutes. He starts to talk about his day and the things that they have done in class so far.
"We still have our little study group, yanno. Ashido, Jirou, Kaminari, Sero and me. Sometimes we study with Midoriya's group too. They're all pretty fun! I still have a hard time with math but Iida is pretty good at making sure I stay on track." Eijirou lets out a chuckle and shakes his head making his red hair fall into his face.
"Mineta finally got transferred out, took long enough huh? We got a new kid now, you remember that cool guy with the crazy purple hair that Midoriya fought, Shinsou? Man, I think you would like him! He hangs out with us a lot and he's really smart too! When we don't study with Midoriya and company, Shinsou helps us out." Eijirou chews on the inside of his cheek and tries to think of something else to say.
"I kept the flowers that you gave me for the last time." His gaze trails over to his dresser and to the vase of dried roses. Once a bright crimson, now faded to a color that would better be labeled as old blood after he dried them out in his closet. He lets his mind roam as he continues to stare at the flowers. Still remembering the day that they were given to him.
"I still sometimes can't believe how much of a romantic sap you were." Eijirou chuckles and continues to study the dried roses.
"It's cool though, y'know? You really kept me on my toes." He leans his head against the wall and closes his eyes, trying to fight off the growing frown and the knitting of his eyebrows.
"I feel like this is just all a really long ass nightmare and I'll wake up any second now. No matter how many times I've tried to pinch myself, though, I'm still here and you," Eijirou lets out a choked sob, "...and you're still gone. Fuck, when will this ever get easy?" His voice rises with anger and he pounds his fists against his legs- his quirk automatically activates and a sharp ring fills the room.
"It's just not fair." He stares into the camera for a few quiet moments before reaching over and turning it off.
Of course, they were never the perfect couple- just like every other couple in the universe, they would have their little spats and petty arguments. Eijirou was particularly irked the day that he found out that Bakugou had thrown all of his crocs into the trash. Well, a better way to put it is, when Bakugou incinerated Eijirou's poor and much beloved shoes and then threw their ashy remains into the trash.
Bakugou's only standing argument on the matter was "I absolutely fucking refuse to let my boyfriend dress like some sort of fashionably impaired idiotic asshole that gets his clothing from the dumpster behind a god damned Denny's." Eijirou decided that arguing further with the explosive blond would get him nowhere; knowing he got the last laugh because Bakugou never bothered to look under Eijirou's bed to see three more pairs of crocs. Just waiting to be worn.
However, on most days, the two got along and were like two peas in a pod. Or, as Kaminari was fond of saying: "You two get along better than a house on fire."
Whatever that meant.
Kaminari was Eijirou's best bro but deciphering Kaminari's cryptic idioms was too much sometimes, and Eijirou would find himself biting off more than he could chew when he would try to understand them.
Eijirou lies down on his bed, trying to ignore the emptiness of the room as he takes in a deep breath and forces his exhausted eyes shut. He clings to his dreams, hoping with every ounce of his being that he might be lucky enough to dream of Bakugou.
Author's Note
Wow, look at me. Making a new story and ignoring my other uncompleted one...
The title meaning is a flower called a Pheasant's Eye which means sorrowful remembrance. I've always been in love with the flower language, I used to work in a flower shop so that's probably why lol.
Anyway! So, I've been mulling around with this one for a bit and while it was going to be a one shot... I decided to cut it shorter and make it into a small series because I got a second job (now I work a night and a day job. Wow! Rip my sleep.) so in order for me not to die, I'll be uploading shorter chapters instead of my normal longer ones. This story in itself won't be too terribly long but the kind of layout will be a bit different than to what I usually write. I hope it won't cause too much confusion but I don't think it will. I also have other works lined up and I'm pretty excited!
Confession time. When I was like fourteen, I totally owned a pair of crocs and I loved those shoes to death lmfao. Until a series of very unfortunate events led up to my family's paddle boat flipping over in a lake and my poor and much beloved crocs floated away into the sunset, never to be seen again. Well, that's it for now. I might be releasing another story later tonight if I can focus and not fall asleep on my shift. I'm so exhausted. Until then, fairwinds.
Comments are always welcome!