breathing you

by queerheda's

"Katsuki closes his eyes and leans more heavily into Eijirou, sighing softly." In which there's a long day, a hospital, a few tears, and some cuddling.

bnha hurt/comfort alphabet

letter: c
word: collapse

(i told y'all these wouldn't be in order)

title from euphoria by loreen

XxX

"I mean it, Blasty, you look like shit," Denki repeats himself, again, because it's true. Bakugou looks very much ready to keel over, pale and shaky, and Denki is about ninety-nine percent sure he's injured. Sure, he's also covered in dust, having climbed out of the ruins of a collapsed building not thirty minutes ago, and has dried blood crusted here and there (not his, or so he says), but beneath that, under the dirt caked in his hair and the smudge of soot on his cheek, his face is bloodless and drawn.

And Denki is kind of worried. The way Bakugou is holding himself is… off, somehow. And yeah, maybe he's exhausted from the hours-long rescue mission – Denki sure as hell is, and he didn't drag a dozen kids to safety alone unlike King Murder Dynamight here (he may have dropped the epithets, but what kind of a friend would Denki be if he just forgot about them?) – and just wants to go home and take a nap, but Denki really thinks he should at least get checked out by a medic.

"Drop it, Pichu," Bakugou mutters, eye twitching in obvious irritation as he stares past Denki, and that's just rude. Not that he doesn't know that Bakugou is rude as all hell, of course, but seriously, Pichu? Denki doesn't bother to suppress his long-suffering sigh, or the eyeroll.

"Dude, seriously," Denki groans. "Go get checked out, they'll probably send you straight home instead of having you help with the clean-up." Which is by far one of the worst parts of being a pro hero, thank you very much. Now don't get him wrong, Denki will gladly do his part because helping people is helping people, but that doesn't mean he doesn't think post-disaster clean-up sucks ass.

Bakugou doesn't answer him, because of course he doesn't. If Denki could travel backwards in time he would find his fifteen-year-old self and tell the brat to make better friends. And start talking to Hitoshi earlier.

Whatever. If Bakugou won't listen to him, Denki is just going to have to find Kirishima. He heaves as dramatic a sigh as he possibly can and turns around with his hands up in surrender, resigned to his fate of having to look for the spiky-haired asshole who left him to work with another spiky-haired asshole (those two really are made for each other) in the sea of heroes and volunteers, scattered around the scene in clusters waiting for the a-okay to start clean-up much like Denki himself.

He gives his immediate surroundings a cursory glance, hoping against his chances that he'll spot Kirishima close by. He doesn't. Instead, though, another familiar figure catches his eye – a pair of familiar figures, in fact.

Huh. Denki was under the assumption that Tetsutetsu was in Nagano these days, but that's definitely Real Steel, chatting with who Denki is pretty sure is Tsuburaba not too far from where Denki is with Bakugou. Denki doesn't even remember the last time he saw Tetsutetsu live – hell, it must have been Kirishima and Bakugou's housewarming party over a year ago. Sure, they follow each other on social media, both public and private profiles, but seeing a guy's gym selfies (fucking jacked), him gushing about his girlfriend (admittedly worthy of said gushing; Kendou has really made a name for herself since graduating), and a hundred pictures of his dog isn't the same as seeing him in person.

It's a cute dog, though. Denki might have never met him in person, but he still likes him much more than the fucking demon cat Bakugou and Kirishima adopted last year.

(Denki doesn't hate cats, okay? Hitoshi has three and Denki loves all of them. It's just that for some reason Kirishima and Bakugou had to go and pick a deceivingly fluffy beast with Bakugou's personality.

And then name her Princess.)

Anyway.

Denki raises a hand to wave. "Hey, Steel!" Normally, he would just walk to Tetsutetsu, but he's relatively sure Bakugou wouldn't follow him on a good day. And today is not looking like a particularly good day for Bakugou, so Denki isn't too keen on leaving him alone.

Tetsutetsu perks up and swirls around as if on reflex, back straightening as he does and immediately relaxing when he recognizes Denki. An easy grin spreads on his face and he breaks into a jog, while Tsuburaba trails behind him at a slower pace.

"Dude!" And of course, Tetsutetsu is still ridiculously similar to Kirishima and just has to come at Denki with his stupid muscles and booming voice and crush him in a sweaty hug. Eh, he needs to shower later anyway. This might as well happen.

"Yeah, good to see you too," Denki tells him as Tetsutetsu lets go. "I didn't know you were in town."

"Yeah, I'm technically just on a visit, but, you know," Tetsutetsu shrugs and gestures at the scene around them, "that happened, and what kind of a hero would I be if I hadn't come to help?"

"So you just had your costume and gear with you?" Denki grins. "Anyway, you haven't happened to see Kirishima anywhere, have you?"

"Nah," Tetsutetsu says, glancing to the side. "Figured he's probably somewhere, but it's a big scene." Which is true enough, Denki supposes; he doesn't know much math, but the odds that he'd spot anyone he knows in real life probably weren't in his favor. "Whoa," Tetsutetsu then says. "He's not looking too hot."

Denki follows as Tetsutetsu gives a nod at something, twisting his neck until eyes land on–

yeah. Bakugou looks like shit. Denki sighs.

"Hear that, Blasty? I'm not the only one who thinks that." He turns back to Tetsutetsu. "Yeah, and he's very stubborn and annoying about it."

Tetsutetsu snorts. "And you're hoping he'll be less annoying if it's Kirishima telling him that."

"No, I happen to know for a fact that he'll be less annoying, because he's fucking whipp– shit!" Denki glances behind him, intending to tell Bakugou straight to his face that he's very much whipped, but he doesn't get to finish that sentence because he sees Bakugou's posture slump, hears him make a choked noise, and then he just drops.

Denki whirls around fast enough to catch him, but fuck, Bakugou is heavy as shit. There's not much more Denki can do but to make the fall a little less crashy. He's already bracing himself for the impact with the ground when Bakugou's deadweight suddenly disappears from his arms.

Tetsutetsu lowers Bakugou to the ground in a much more controlled manner than Denki could, and quickly starts checking him over. Denki gets himself moving, too, getting on his knees next to them. He hears Tetsutetsu mutter a curse and turns his focus to Bakugou's face, and for fuck's sake is that blood? Yeah, it is, Denki concludes pretty quickly; fresh blood sliding towards the ground on Bakugou's face. Denki traces it with his eyes back to Bakugou's mouth.

"Come on, dude," he mutters through his teeth, reaching to turn Bakugou on his side so that he doesn't choke on his own blood. "Don't do this to me now. Or at all, actually, like, ever. Shit." Tetsutetsu yells for a medic, but Denki barely registers that.

It's clear, now that Bakugou has no conscious control of his body, that he's hurt, and a lot worse than Denki initially thought. Denki had originally assumed it was some scrapes, a few bruised, maybe cracked ribs, and possibly a minor head injury at most, but even before a medic reaches them, Denki and Tetsutetsu come to the mutual conclusion that Bakugou probably has a punctured lung and more than just one or two broken ribs.

How does a guy come out like that from a rescue?

No, really, Denki would like to know, because he's the one who is going to have to explain this to Kirishima. How in the fuck did Bakugou go into a building's basement to find a bunch of kids and a teacher and then come out of there, all rescuees accounted for, like this. Maybe he could find the teacher? Shit, he's getting sidetracked.

A medic arrives and pushes both Denki and Tetsutetsu out of the way, Tsuburaba says he's going to try and find Kirishima (Denki might have forgotten he was there. Might), and the next however many minutes or hours – Denki can't say – go on speedrun until Denki finds himself standing next to an ambulance and arguing with– who is that, actually? Anyway. He's arguing with some purple-skinned medical professional about going with Bakugou. Well, Dynamight. Pro heroes here.

And Red fucking Riot, you know, this guy's partner, is still nowhere to be seen, or heard, or… whatever. So Chargebolt is fucking going, thank you very much.

In the end, something he says or does must convince them, because they let Denki inside. Bakugou has two people working on him, both of them calm and seemingly relaxed, so Denki sits down and allows his posture to slump a little. He digs his phone out from its protective pocket to check the time, see if anyone has tried to contact him, give Hero Network a brief scroll that he retains nothing of. There's one text from Hitoshi, asking Denki to stay safe and accompanied by a video of Neko having the time of her life with a laser pointer.

(God, Hitoshi really has a cat named Neko. And Denki is dating him.)

Right. He should probably be contacting people. He confirms the hospital they're going to from the medics – he knew which one it would be, it's the only one in the area that's actually press-proofed and crawling with security, why did he ask? – and relays that first to Kirishima and then to the one group chat Bakugou agrees to be in. After a brief pause he also sends it to Tetsutetsu – who knows, maybe he wants to check in later.

It's not a long ride, and soon Bakugou is being wheeled away and Denki is presented with a stack of papers. He takes one look at them and decides that he wants to fucking cry. Not only does he not know what to write in most places (personal information? Just scattered details. How was Bakugou's name written again? He doesn't fucking know how Bakugou got hurt. Hey, should someone be contacting Bakugou's parents? No, fuck, he's an adult), he's also so goddamn tired at this point that the words are barely making any sense anyway. The characters keep blending into each other and switching places. Can't they pull up Bakugou's info from some database or something? Or maybe he's just going to have to wait for Kirishima to show up.

He takes another look at the papers and yeah, he's actually going to start crying at this rate. He would actually prefer doing clean-up. No, shit, he's getting too worked up over this. Bakugou is getting treatment, Kirishima will show up eventually, and it's just a stack of papers with some text.

Sighing, Denki pulls out his phone and calls Hitoshi. At least that will help get his thoughts organized. Or at least he really fucking hopes so.

XxX

Eijirou has grown pretty good at keeping himself together even when he feels like fear and worry are making it hard to breathe, if he might say so himself. But being told out of the blue that Katsuki has been taken to the hospital with very vague details, and then arriving at said hospital to find his best friend having a quiet meltdown, is really putting that ability to the test right about now.

He shouldn't be taking this out on Kaminari. He's really trying not to. But he's tired and sore and worried and no one can tell him what the hell is going on with his boyfriend, and it's just. God fucking shit why won't anyone tell him anything? He's listed as Katsuki's medical proxy and next of kin and emergency contact, and he's still in his hero costume, too.

"I told you, I don't fucking know," Kaminari says, for the fourth or fifth time. His frustration and exhaustion are evident in both his voice and body language, tone strained as he rakes his fingers frantically through his hair. "I wasn't with him when he got hurt, and what makes you think he told me shit? I told him to go get checked out, but you know what the only thing I got out of him was?" Yes, Eijirou knows, even before Kaminari says it. "Told me to drop it! More than once, actually."

Because of course Katsuki did just that. Eijirou sighs and closes his eyes; presses his fingers to them. This isn't helping, not him and not Katsuki and not Kaminari. "Okay," he breathes. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be interrogating you like this."

"No, I get that you're worried. But so am I, Kirishima. He's my friend and he just fucking collapsed on me, out there." Kaminari drops his weight on the chair behind him and gives a humorless laugh that's a little too much on the hysterical side for Eijirou's liking. "Then we got here and I was given these," he raises a hand he's holding some papers in and makes a little waving motion, "and I can't fill even half of this stuff. Or even understand what a lot of this says!"

Well, at least that's something for Eijirou to do, he thinks as he reaches for the papers. "Give it here, I'll do that. Should be my job anyway." He hates how this is something he could do in his sleep. "Call Shinsou, have him come and get you," he tells Kaminari as he turns to look for a pen. Shinsou should be home, right? His shoulder is still busted from that raid last week, Eijirou is pretty sure, so he couldn't have been doing rescue. "You look like you could use some rest." Sounds like it, too; if Kaminari's focus is that shot, he must be exhausted.

Kaminari, however, leans back and crosses his arms. "Um, no? I'm staying here until you get to see him." And okay, now Eijirou wants to cry. Just a little bit. He sets the papers down and turns back to Kaminari.

"Thank you," he tells him, a little choked up. "Now come here, man, give me a hug, we both need that." And if they end up shedding a few tears, well. They probably need that.

It takes another hour or so until they get anything on Katsuki, but after that things go fast. Suddenly everything is information and details and apologies, but the only thing Eijirou can pay attention to is that Katsuki should be fine now, and that he gets to see him.

Katsuki is still unconscious, of course, so Eijirou drags a chair as close to the bed as he can and takes Katsuki's cold hand in his. He should probably inform Katsuki's parents, he thinks. He has a few texts he needs to answer, all asking about Katsuki. He also kind of needs a shower.

Soon. Now he just needs to sit here for a moment, he decides. Needs to sit here and hold Katsuki's hand and know that he's breathing. Everything else can wait for a moment.

XxX

It's just Eijirou's luck, isn't it, that the one time he steps out of Katsuki's room is when Katsuki decides to wake up. The nurses were nice enough to let him take a shower, and Shinsou was nice enough to stop by their place to get clean civilian clothes for both Eijirou and Katsuki on his way to come and get Kaminari home, so Eijirou is now walking back to the room clean and suitably caffeinated.

He slows down before he reaches the door, though, because he can hear someone talking in there. First he assumes it must be Kaminari talking to Shinsou – both of them are still here, promised to stay with Katsuki until Eijirou gets back –, but then he's standing in front of the door and hearing a voice that's definitely not Shinsou answering Kaminari.

A strange mixture of relief and enthusiasm washes through him as he opens the door, and Eijirou has to stop himself from throwing himself on Katsuki's bed. Because Katsuki is awake now, awake, talking, okay, and Eijirou wants to crush him in a hug and kiss him and never let go of him again.

All eyes in the room, all three pairs of them, turn to look at Eijirou as he steps in. "Hey, look who's awake!" is what Kaminari greets him with, but Eijirou doesn't have the patience to grace him with a reply, because Katsuki. And then Katsuki says his name, his voice a soft croak, and it's the most beautiful goddamn thing Eijirou has heard in his life.

"Katsuki, hey," he manages through the grin that's forcing itself on his face and threatening to split it in half. "Hey, welcome back, we were worried about you," he continues as he hurries to Katsuki; reaches one hand for his face and the other for his hand, and things are a little more right again when Katsuki gives a weak squeeze back and leans into the hand that settles on his cheek.

After a moment Eijirou thinks is far too short, Kaminari clears his throat. "As adorable as you two are," he starts, "Lord Big Boom Murder here was about to give me a goddamn explanation."

"Tch," is the only response from Katsuki. Kaminari groans dramatically.

"Dude, I swear on your demon cat's– "

"Don't involve Princess in this," Shinsou interjects from where he's leaning on the wall. Kaminari whirls to him, mouth hanging open.

"Babe, do not defend that cat," he says, clearly horrified. Eijirou bites back a laugh.

"She's a beautiful creature and deserves nothing but love," Shinsou deadpans.

"She tried to murder me!"

Princess did not, in fact, try to murder Kaminari, though it is true that she doesn't like him very much. She doesn't like most people, really, being a half-blind rescue and probably not very social in the first place. Eijirou can't say he minds much. She's still adorable and affectionate and loving with the people she has claimed.

(So maybe he has a thing for grumpy introverts. Leave him alone.)

"Cats don't do that," says Shinsou. Kaminari looks like he's going to continue, and while Eijirou appreciates Shinsou defending Princess' honor, it will take Kaminari an hour to get back to the original subject if no one stops him.

So Eijirou is about to do just that, but Katsuki beats him to it. "Stop insulting my cat, Pikachu, you were gonna say something," he rasps.

"Oh so now I'm Pikachu again?" Kaminari asks, swiftly changing the topic. "Not what you called me when I told you to see a fucking medic before this happened. Hitoshi," he says as he turns to look at Shinsou, "he called me Pichu ." And without waiting for a reaction, he then switches his attention back to Katsuki. "Anyway, this, by which I mean the punctured lung among other things, and the subsequent collapsing, that was fun. Explanation, Your Highness King of Murders That Go Boom."

Katsuki looks a lot like he has no intention of providing such an explanation, and while Eijirou can understand the unwillingness to share, he would like to know as well. He also thinks Kaminari deserves it, on the basis of having been there, so he nudges Katsuki a little and tells him that.

So with a long-suffering sigh, Katsuki gives up. "Fine. Went to get a group of kids out from the basement, opened the door, and one of the kids freaked and threw me through a concrete wall," he mutters. "Had some kind of a repulsion Quirk."

Kaminari doesn't look very satisfied. "And the whole tough guy act?" he demands.

"You mean did I think a punctured lung would heal with a nap? No." He pulls away from Eijirou and stiffly moves himself so there's space for two on the bed, and Eijirou doesn't need to be told twice. It's a little cramped, sure – neither one of them is particularly small –, but Eijirou has never had a problem with holding Katsuki close. And while he would much rather be doing it in their own bed, without the IV or the monitors, this is a familiar enough setting that he knows how to be careful with those.

"You're welcome to continue," Kaminari says dryly, an unimpressed look on his face as he watches Eijirou maneuver himself on the bed so Katsuki can lean on him comfortably.

"I've been thrown through walls without damaging any vital organs before. Hurts like a bitch every time," Katsuki says, as if that was a totally normal thing for a person to say. Or, well, Eijirou supposes it kind of is, in their line of work. He's experienced the same himself, fighting close combat. The difference is that he can make himself indestructible.

For a moment, it looks like Kaminari has no clue how he's supposed to respond to that. He opens and closes his mouth a few times before actually managing to get some words out. "Dude. Blasty. Bakugou. Are you seriously telling me right now that you did not realize you were bleeding internally and one of your lungs had a hole in it?" Which, Eijirou thinks, is kind of a valid point, actually.

"Yes," Katsuki hisses, effectively silencing Kaminari, and Eijirou feels worry raising its head in his chest again. He presses a kiss to Katsuki's temple, but decides that now is probably not the time to start chasing that issue.

The silence that follows is uncomfortable, to say the least.

It doesn't last long, though; small miracles. There's a loud knock that startles apparently everyone, if the way both Shinsou and Kaminari jump is anything to go by; Eijirou feels Katsuki flinch in his arms.

The door opens before anyone gives permission to enter, but Eijirou can't bring himself to mind when it's Tetsutetsu who steps into the room, costume changed to sweatpants and with a giftbag in hand. He feels a grin spreading on his face as Tetsutetsu takes a look around the room.

"Bro!"

"Bro!"

Tetsutetsu walks closer for a fistbump, goes to give one to Kaminari, and makes a valiant attempt with Shinsou as well. The way Shinsou stares at the offered fist in front of him, blank with a hint of disappointment, makes Kaminari burst out laughing.

"Hitoshi, babe, it's a fistbump," he wheezes, to which Shinsou says "No". Tetsutetsu shrugs.

"Eh, nice to see you too," he says before turning back to Katsuki and Eijirou.

"Heard you saved some asses today," Eijirou tells him. "Katsuki's included, so thanks."

"Huh?" Katsuki asks, confusion freely bleeding into his tone. Eijirou frowns.

Ignoring that, Tetsutetsu makes a dismissive motion with his free hand. "Nah, man, I just helped out."

"Backtrack," Katsuki says. "The fuck are you talking about?"

"You don't remember passing out?" Kaminari asks.

"No."

Kaminari and Tetsutetsu share a look that Eijirou doesn't like one bit. He turns back to Katsuki; brings one hand up to trace his face. "Babe, what's the last thing you do remember before you woke up here?"

Katsuki closes his eyes and leans more heavily into Eijirou, sighing softly. He looks like he's starting to fade, Eijirou thinks, and although it's a little more difficult to say about sounding like it when his voice is as raspy as it is, Eijirou is willing to say he's starting to sound like it, too. Katsuki croaks through a very vague recollection of the events preceding his eventual collapse that ends around the third time Kaminari told him to go see a medic because he looked like shit, and Eijirou is already getting ready to panic again, until Shinsou decides to remind the room of the fact that he is, in fact, the only one here with a functional train of thought.

"The doctor said some short-term memory loss wouldn't be abnormal," he says, not looking up from his phone even as Eijirou, Kaminari and Tetsutetsu all snap to look at him.

"She did?" asks Kaminari, at the same time as Eijirou asks, "Doctor?"

"You weren't here," Katsuki mutters, breath ghosting over Eijirou's collarbone. "Left a little before you came." Right. That makes sense. Eijirou wasn't gone for thirty minutes, yet somehow he apparently managed to miss a lot.

"She did," Shinsou is telling Kaminari. "And if your short-term memory is functioning like that, that's my cue to get you home."

Fair enough, Eijirou figures. Kaminari looked like he needed a week's worth of sleep when Eijirou initially arrived at the hospital, and though he calmed down significantly once they started getting answers and even more once Shinsou got here, that's still a full day of hero work plus a good amount of panicking.

"I'm not saying no to that," Kaminari says, though he doesn't get up from his chair. "That okay with you guys?" he then asks, bending backwards to look at Eijirou instead of turning his head like a normal person.

"Go, we'll be fine. We have everything we need here," Eijirou tells him. He's got Katsuki, safe in his arms – what else would a guy need, anyway? He hides a smile into Katsuki's hair.

"Kirishima, I swear, if you say each other I am going to have to do something drastic," Kaminari warns, standing up and stretching. "I have a key to your place and I know the password for Bakugou's laptop."

"I wasn't going to!"

"The fuck you do," Katsuki mumbles.

"You were thinking it though," Kaminari accuses. And, well, yes, yes he was. Eijirou still opens his mouth for a retort of some kind, but before he gets anything out, something soft hits him in the face, shutting him up.

The something soft falls on his lap, and Eijirou sees that it's a little mouse-shaped kick toy. A bright red one. The hell? He lifts it up by its tail to dangle it in the air and notices the grin on Tetsutetsu's face.

"We all know you were thinking it," Tetsutetsu huffs. "That's for the cat, as is the whole bag, actually," he then says, dropping said bag at Eijirou's feet.

"The dude is in the hospital and you bring stuff for his cat?" Kaminari asks, clearly highly amused as he makes his way to Shinsou.

"Hey, I wasn't going to get anything, but I told Itsuka I was gonna pay a visit here," and here starts Tetsutetsu's detailed presentation on Kendou Itsuka again, doesn't it, "and she said that showing up without anything is rude and that I'll be sleeping on the couch for a week if I do that. But getting flowers would have been weird–"

"Eh, true."

" – so I asked her, and she suggested I get something for the cat–"

"Her name is Princess." There goes Shinsou again, defending the honor of a cat.

"Okay, Princess, Itsuka suggested I get something for Princess instead, because cat people are like that, and then she sent me a few links so I hunted some of those down."

"Dude, you are so fucking whipped," Kaminari says, though the effect is greatly dampened by the fact that he currently has one hand in Shinsou's hair and is looking at him like his eyebags are made of stardust. Yeah, they can go, Eijirou has no interest in watching Kaminari eventually fall asleep in Shinsou's lap and then claim that Eijirou and Katsuki are shameless.

"Honestly, I don't mind," Tetsutetsu shrugs, a stupid smile on his face. "I am an idiot dating a beautiful genius," which is the most relatable thing Eijirou has ever heard, actually, "and if she's willing to share her beautiful genius ideas with me, who am I to question that?"

Katsuki snorts. "Better cat toys than fucking flowers," he says.

"Oh, it's not just toys," Tetsutetsu says, and now Eijirou is seriously curious. But reaching for the bag at his feet would require dislodging himself from Katsuki, and that's not something he's willing to do right now. Katsuki makes an inquisitive noise and opens his eyes, tilting his head on Eijirou's shoulder. "Yeah, there's also this nest thingy, and a blanket. Itsuka said she looked at the pics you post and decided on these," Tetsutetsu explains as he pulls a few items out.

The nest is a shark.

Somewhere on the other side of the room, Kaminari starts laughing.

A shark.

Eijirou is going to start crying. That is the best thing he has seen in his life.

"Tetsutetsu, my dude, my bro, your girlfriend is a goddamn genius," he whispers. Katsuki nods quietly against his shoulder, and lifts a hand to wipe one manly tear from Eijirou's cheek.

"I'll let her know," Tetsutetsu grins. "But hey, we should probably get going," he then says, nodding in the direction of Kaminari and Shinsou, "let you guys get some rest. I'll be in town for the next week or so, hit me up."

Eijirou promises to do so, and Tetsutetsu leaves with that. He starts saying his goodbyes and thanks to Kaminari and Shinsou as well, but Shinsou, clearly still the only one present with a properly running brain at the moment, interrupts him.

"You're probably gonna spend the night here, right?" he asks.

"Yeah, I'm staying with Katsuki for now."

The look Shinsou gets at that is almost excited, which is kind of weird for him. Eijirou is about to ask about it, a wary why do you look like that already on his tongue, but it seems that Kaminari is ahead of him, because he takes one look at Shinsou and grimaces.

"Oh, absolutely not, don't even think about–"

"If you need," Shinsou cuts him off, "we could take Princess for the night."

"Hitoshi!"

Eijirou considers that for a moment. Princess should be fine for one night, even if it would be good if someone could drop by and feed her, but it would definitely make both him and Katsuki feel better if she wasn't alone. And maybe it would be good for her, too, to spend some time with other cats – Shinsou's cats at least are fairly well behaved, and generally get along with other animals. Maybe it's not such a terrible idea.

"You know what, thanks," he ends up saying. Kaminari groans. "I'll text you a list of where you can find her things."

"I demand consistent updates," mutters Katsuki, somehow still fighting sleep.

Kaminari groans louder. Shinsou shrugs. "I can do that," he says, and then turns his head to tell Kaminari, "Denki, stop being so dramatic. She's a cat." And then he switches to English, just to say, "Ever heard of closing the goddamn door?" with a little smirk before switching back to Japanese to tell Kaminari that their bedroom has a functional door. Eijirou watches as Kaminari deflates with a sigh.

"I give up," Kaminari declares. "You're adorable and I give up. Let's go pick up the damn cat, I want to sleep." Shinsou wraps his arm around his shoulders, looking unbearably fond, and drops a kiss to his forehead. Absolutely disgusting, those two.

Eijirou ignores the fact that he's currently cuddling with his boyfriend.

Eventually they get actually done with the thanks (for everything, and for staying with him, and for getting us clothes, and for taking Princess, and again everything today) and the goodbyes (drive safe, get some rest, thanks again by the way), and Eijirou is finally left alone with Katsuki in his arms. The silence is a little jarring; Eijirou realizes that this is the first time since this morning that he's not being bombarded with some kind of noise, and the sudden lack of it takes him a second to get used to.

After a moment of just existing like this, listening to Katsuki's steady breathing and tracing patterns through his hair, Eijirou whispers, "Katsuki," and is rewarded with the flutter of lashes revealing red irises. "Hey there," he smiles.

"Ei," Katsuki breathes, the name like a sigh of relief on his lips. It sounds like trust, like love. Like safety. Like the only important thing in the world. "Hi." Eijirou leans to press a soft kiss just under his eye.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner," he offers, pressing their foreheads together gently. Katsuki closes his eyes again.

"You're here now," Katsuki hums, breath dancing on Eijirou's skin as his hand sluggishly seeks out Eijirou's; laces their fingers together.

"That's true," Eijirou agrees. He moves his free hand from Katsuki's hair to his face, thumb coming to rest at the high of his cheekbone. Katsuki leans into his palm. "And I will stay here, with you." His own eyes are slipping closed as well.

He snaps them back open, however, when the next breath Katsuki takes audibly shudders, and what follows is the soft, most sincere, affection-filled, "I love you."

Eijirou's heart swells in his chest. Gods how does he love Katsuki; beyond words, beyond his own understanding, even. "Katsuki," he whispers, emotion clouding the word as he feels the burn of tears behind his eyes. "Katsuki."

He knows Katsuki doesn't think he says it enough, but he couldn't be more wrong about that; Eijirou knows, has known since years ago, that the expression of feelings doesn't come easy to Katsuki, so every time is that much more beautiful, that much more important. Eijirou is more open with his affections, wears his heart on his sleeve as best as he can to this day because he firmly believes it's the kind of person he was meant to be, but he doesn't expect the same from Katsuki.

Expecting the same from Katsuki wouldn't be loving him. It would be loving some false, idealized version of him.

Eijirou doesn't want that person. He wants Katsuki, loves Katsuki, this Katsuki right here, and he cherishes these moments when the walls are down and the world is just them loving each other.

(He doesn't necessarily like that they're here now because Katsuki is hurt, but it's barely a nagging background thought. Here is more important than why.)

"I never want to lose you," Eijirou breathes, the words falling from his mouth in a way that sounds, feels, almost like a prayer.

"You won't have to," Katsuki says, eyes opening again and giving Eijirou a full view of the kaleidoscope of emotions they reflect. He leans in and catches a tear from Eijirou's cheek with his lips.

"As long as you'll have me, you won't have to."

XxX

bakugou named the cat, but if you ask him, it was kirishima.

thanks for reading!