I do not own Boku no Hero Academia.
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Hitoshi is sprinting on full speed. His breaths are getting ragged and his limbs are turning into lead but he obliges his feet to keep on moving so he can continue to run away from the person chasing him. Or so he thinks because he can't remember anymore why he is so desperately running. There's simply this drastic and urgent need to move forward and not stop.
In retrospect, he seems to be in a dream. He usually can tell whether he is dreaming when the element and attribute of his existence are far too incomparable to his original state and his surroundings don't make sense anymore. But the thing is, even if he is aware that it's only a dream, he can't exactly will himself to wake up. He's stuck here for as long as his brain decides it's ready to regain consciousness.
He takes another dash and stumbles over a building that looks dilapidated in the outside. The size is huge and impressive and based from the way it has been structured, Hitoshi deduces it as an old church. He catches his breath and saunters at the entrance.
The inside of it is dark and looks just as worn out and abandoned as it does from the outside. Because this is only a dream, Hitoshi's senses and comprehension are becoming bizarre. He doesn't remember walking by but the next thing he knows, he is in front of the aged and broken down altar. He squints his eyes on it and shivers at the eerie vibe it strongly emits.
He turns around and plans to get out of here only to find the entrance missing. "Fuck."
There are still a few benches that have stayed on their spot, though most of them are already damaged and crumbling, and on the farthest one from where he is, a lone figure can be seen sitting. Hitoshi takes a walk forward, feels his heart beat speeds up with every step, and ignores it anyway just to get near the figure. He just really hopes it's a person, for anything is possible with how spectral this place is making him feel.
As he nears the figure, he distinguishes the ash blond spikey hair and pale complexion that can only belong to his brother. When he looks a bit closer, he sees that it really is Katsuki, but he appears unconscious and unmoving. Hitoshi doesn't know if he should be relief yet.
Out of nowhere, he hears the grating sound of metal being scraped against concrete as he sees through his peripheral another figure heading straight to his brother's crouching and possibly sleeping form. The third person is a woman he doesn't recognize, covered with white clothes and white translucent veil that hangs over her head down to her waist. Her back is already on Hitoshi so he can't see her face but she is slowly yet steadily dragging her heavy feet as she starts to chant in a resounding manner with a dialect and accent that he surmises only old people in the countryside can understand. Dread washes over him and he panics. He can't let the woman get to Katsuki first.
"Katsuki!" he screams, or at least he believes he does, yet even he can't hear his own voice over the pronounced steps and loud chant the woman is making. Katsuki remains still on his seat, the woman closing in on him.
"Kats! Katsuki!" he tries again, but the only thing it results to is making the woman stop unceremoniously on her feet.
He takes that opportunity to go to his brother before the woman moves again and beats him to it, but Hitoshi's knees suddenly weaken and buckle under him when the woman makes an abrupt turn to him. His breath catches in his throat and he tenses up. She is facing him now and Hitoshi's pulse picks up again when he notices that her eye sockets are empty and blood is oozing out of them instead. Still, Hitoshi can make out her expression as something irate and resentful as she resumes on chanting again, but now, her verbose is in fast paced and her focus is on him, causing all the hairs at the back of his neck to stand in alarm and fear.
And as if that's not frightful enough, the woman changes her destination and decides to go for him instead, in a surprisingly rapid walk too.
His eyes widen and he runs.
He knows this is only a dream, his real body is unconscious somewhere yet safe, but he can't help the feeling of cold sweat and pure terror surrounding him as he tries to get away from the woman who has clear intent of doing something to him. He runs and runs again, never once looking back in fear of seeing that bloodied face again, until he reaches the bottom of the bell tower. Without a second thought, he climbs the high, narrow spiral stair case up to the top. In the middle of it, his legs become hefty again and the place is circling even darker it's almost impossible to navigate, but he can hear the sound of the woman's footsteps again so he just rushes to ascend.
When he arrives at the top, Hitoshi sees the gigantic bell, but what he fixes his gaze on is the unconscious form of Katsuki leaning on it. There isn't any light in here, but the illumination from the moonlight is seeping through the windows and it's making Katsuki's skin look ashen and ghastly.
Hitoshi takes a tentative step towards him, only to get surprised that the woman is already at his brother's side, ready and in position to grab him.
"Shit."
The woman is by now holding onto his brother, hauling his limp body like a crippled doll, and Hitoshi internally growls at how rough Katsuki is being treated.
"This is just a dream. This is just a dream. Katsuki is not here, Katsuki is safe." Hitoshi mumbles to himself like a mantra yet his heart refuses to listen as it grows heavier and heavier with trepidation. However, he is too occupied in appeasing his nervousness that he fails to keep up with where the woman has hauled and brought his brother.
That is until the woman is pushing Katsuki's body through the unbarred and gaping hole of the bricked wall and out of the tower. Hitoshi blanches.
"NO!" He stretches his arm and attempts to reach him, but he finds it too late as Katsuki is already free falling from the high tower and plumetting into the hard pavement. "KATSUKI!"
The last thing that he remembers seeing is the lacerated and deformed face of his brother as life is being drained out of him.
Then he wakes up with a start.
Hitoshi gasps on his breath. His heartbeat is pounding loudly on his ears and his palms hurt from where his nails are digging into. There are beads of sweat on his forehead and tears on the corner of his eyes. He ignores all of that and jumps out of his bed. He can feel his body shaking from fear and he can't put strength on his limbs, but he still gets out of his room to go to Katsuki's.
He needs to see him, he needs to touch him and confirm that he is not deformed or bloodied or deathly pale, that he is not lifeless. He needs to hold Katsuki.
Hitoshi knows that going to his brother's room while they're in dorms and surrounded by their classmates is questionable and almost frowned upon. Shouji's hearing is impeccable, Tokoyami may be awake and lurking in the night, and Kirishima may coincidentally go to the bathroom and see Hitoshi sneaking into Katsuki's room on his way. Their classmates are already looking at them suspiciously and giving their interaction judging eyes, commenting on how awfully close and sweet he and his brother are acting.
But Hitoshi honestly doesn't care.
The only thing that can calm him down before he completely succumbs into anxiety-induced panic, that can hold him in ground before he can drift some place far from sanity, that can alleviate and soothe his nerves from the terror, the consternation, the nightmare of possibly losing Katsuki is to have him in his arms, to erase the scary image from his mind and replace it with Katsuki's body radiating life and vitality and color and heat.
Hitoshi arrives at Katsuki's room without so much of a disturbance, thankfully. He enters with soundless steps and continues to proceed to his brother's bed where he is peacefully sleeping, the soft snores that he lets out providing great relief to Hitoshi's heart. He takes a moment to watch the patterned rise and fall Katsuki's chest makes with every breath and confirms that he truly is all right. Hitoshi is still feeling a bit shaken but he gladdens.
Just as silently as he approaches, he lifts the end of the thin blanket and crawls inside of it, lying sideways so he is facing his brother's back. He scoots closer and closer until he expels the unwanted distance between as he gently envelops his brother with his arms in an embrace.
He leans his forehead to the back of Katsuki's head and revels in the heat that outlines them. He touches Katsuki's wrist and feels his pulse beat, it's stable and strong. He revels in it, too, and finds the peace that he is searching desperately for.
"Hitoshi, what the fuck?" groans Katsuki and Hitoshi also savors the sound of his voice, regardless of it being groggy and leaden with sleep.
"Sorry," he whispers softly, breathlessly.
Katsuki shifts from his position and faces him, being cautious and thoughtful enough to not dislodge the arms on him. Their gazes meet and Hitoshi can only imagine what Katsuki sees in Hitoshi's eyes because his own gaze softens marginally and he wraps his own arms around Hitoshi's back, tightening his embrace in the process.
His brother leans into him as well and lets their forehead touch. It's an act that's rarely being done by him, but Hitoshi is familiar with how Katsuki uses it to comfort him because it works so well and effectively. "Don't bother sneaking out later, stay the fuck here until morning."
Hitoshi hums. He is grateful that Katsuki mentions it, meaning that he cares as less as Hitoshi does that they will be seen sleeping in the same bed by other people, and to be honest, he just doesn't have energy and will to sneak out later, not now that he is in total solace. He wants to stay here forever, he wants be with Katsuki all the time, he wants him to never leave his sight again just so he can be certain and assured that everything is fine and he is alive.
He examines Katsuki's face a bit longer, amazed and relieved that his skin is soft and smooth looking as ever and that there's some color of life in there. The room doesn't have a nightlight but the curtains in it isn't blackout so it's not completely dark and Hitoshi can still see what he needs to see.
Perhaps it's true that your biggest fear can manifest in your dreams no matter how much you deny it. Hitoshi's biggest fear used to be the one where he's back to his old house, never meeting his current family and staying there his whole life. He has believed that it's still is, but with what he has just witnessed, he has had a taste of how it will be, what it will be like, if Katsuki's life is taken from him right in front of his eyes, if Katsuki leaves him, and he thinks that nothing can be bigger than this.
Hitoshi loves Katsuki as a family, but it has always been more than that, he probably really won't be able to take it if the worst happen to him. And that has just become his biggest fear.
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