Fuck, he was tired, Katsuki thought as he made it home from school.
He was already planning on going straight upstairs to his room to enjoy the rare occasion that he didn't have anything planned for the evening. He'd finished his schoolwork during lunch so he had no homework and he wasn't scheduled to work at the restaurant until the next day.
For once, the only thing that was going to take up his evening was reading and relaxing. Shit, maybe he'll even go to bed early and get some damn rest. It would be nice to take a nap for once.
His old man's car wasn't in the driveway, and Katsuki briefly wondered what the man was doing before he realized that he didn't actually care. All he cared about right now was how good his bed will feel when he flops down on it after taking off his shoes and pants. His pillow became a daydream in that moment as he slipped inside his house.
Fuck, he couldn't wait to face plant on that thing.
Walking in, he noticed his Mother in the kitchen, the room adjacent to the front door.
Ah, shit. He grouched to himself as he took in the scene.
The woman was cleaning up, rag in hand and apron tied around her slim waste. Her hair was put up in a rat tail behind her head, the spiky and layered locks non-effectively tied back by the hair clip she had on. She appeared to be putting a lot of elbow grease into cleaning, which was weird because it wasn't as if their house was dirty. Everyone cleaned up after themselves and there wasn't a night that went by without one of them making the kitchen and floors spotless.
"Oh! Katsuki!" She said with a smile as she turned towards him, and he cursed to himself that she noticed him.
Katsuki was in the middle of taking his shoes off when she spoke and he hated himself for not being quiet enough. He knew what it meant when she cleaned this way, her stress and anxiety were peaking and that by itself was a red flag. He wouldn't say there was anything wrong with the act of cleaning her frustrations out per say, but his mother had a history of becoming a bit bipolar when she was in the type of mood to clean up dirt and grime that wasn't there.
Blaring alarms to abandon ship flashed above his head at her uneven smile and the twitch in her eyebrow. He could tell she was doing her best to appear approachable, but she wasn't successful as every nerve in his body screamed to go upstairs and mind his business.
Still, he greeted her, "Hi."
"Your Father is out having dinner with some clients," Her voice was sweet but the air around her was bitter and tense, her stress rolling off her like traffic cones and caution signs. Things to be avoided.
He didn't ask, but okay, "Cool, I'm going upstairs." Katsuki could tell that she had been having a bad day and he didn't want to be around when she finally blew. He could tell she was at least trying to keep her calm by distracting herself, but Katsuki was a firm believer that in his Mom's case there was a point were obsessive cleaning became less a distraction and more a crazy habit.
"Oh," She said as she scrubbed the counter harder, scraping away imaginary grime.
Katsuki kept aware of her presence in the back of his mind as he escaped up the stairs to his room and shut the door. He sighed in relief, he was safe as long as he stayed in here because there was no way to piss her off if he kept to himself.
His older phone dinged in his pocket, and then immediately after his iPhone buzzed on vibrate. Work then. Mr Aizawa was probably going to ask him if he wanted to come in.
He groaned, pulling out his blackberry.
Low and behold, they were short staffed. Even more annoying was the fact that he knew that without the person that had to leave in the middle of his shift for an emergency, the whole crew would be having a rough dinner rush.
Dammit.
Katsuki sighed, "Well, I got nothing better to do, may as well make some money."
He texted his boss back, saying he would be there in 20 minutes and then got dressed in his work pants and nonslip steel toe boots.
Running down the stairs, he hoped that he could slip by his Mother without being noticed, but he wouldn't have such luck today.
"Katsuki? What are you doing?" She asked as soon as he came downstairs, stopping him before he could make it to the front door as she put down her multicleaner and rag.
"Going to work, someone's baby is on the way and the cook had to leave so they asked me to go in for him."
"How come you didn't tell me about this when you handed me your work schedule? This is so unexpected."
"How would I be able to foresee someone having to leave for a family emergency?" He tried really hard not to sound too sarcastic, but he was in a rush and this shouldn't have been as hard to understand as it was for her. "I have to go, I'm going to be late."
"No! Hold on a minute, young man. They need to learn to be a little more considerate with your time, they know you're a high school student."
"Yeah? So what? I had nothing else to do today, I would have just went to bed, least this way I'm earning money." He shrugged because his logic should have been undeniable.
"No, sir. You call them back right now and tell them that you won't be making it."
"What?" In retrospect, he should have seen this coming, but he didn't realize that she would be this unwilling to let him come out of his schedule a little. So what if they called him in? He wanted to be the reliable one, not the one who said they could come in only to have to call them back because mommy said no. "That's crazy. It's 5, they said I'd be out by 10pm. I don't even have to close with them, I just need to help them through the dinner rush."
"That doesn't matter," Mitsuki had her hands on her hips now and spoke by nodding her head around, "I think they're trying to see how comfortable you are with being flexible on your schedule. Next they're going to be asking you to come in during school hours."
Katsuki narrowed his eyes, he was wasting too much time here, "You know that even if they did, which they wouldn't, I could just say no, right?"
"Well, you can say no right now. I don't like this late notice, you probably have school work you need to complete anyway. Go upstairs and do that instead of trying to get out of it by going to work at your nothing-nowhere job."
"I finished all my work during lunch."
"You have a test next week."
"My flashcards are in my pocket, I can study for that on break."
"Katsuki. I already told you no." She was getting angry and Katsuki was getting impatient now.
"I don't need your permission." He said as he grabbed the front door handle and opened it boldly, not looking away from her flabbergasted face.
If he could hear it, Katsuki thought that this would be the moment when he heard her patience snap.
"You know, just because you turned 18 doesn't mean you can just go and do whatever you want. You're still just a fucking child doing whatever you can to piss off your Mother! Just like a little brat running away from his responsibilities."
"I'm going to be late."
"I said you aren't going you stupid piece of shit!" She walked up, slammed the door shut and shoved him back. He gasped as she did so, flashbacks of when she would slap him running through his head, he quickly got away and backed up towards the back door. If he had to, then he would hop the fence.
Katsuki shivered at the glare he was given, as if she knew what he was thinking. The teen wished that he wouldn't be so afraid, but her death glares after everything was like a sandpaper on his brain now, "And I said I got to go."
She started laughing, and the noise started out a condescending giggle but a tense second later it morphed into a malicious cackle. "You really think you're all that now, huh? You think this kind of attitude is going to do you any favors when you're my age?"
He took another step toward their back door, already deciding that he probably shouldn't come home after work. Katsuki did his best to keep his voice level even as his heart started to beat harder, phantom pains from memories and flashbacks started to beat down on him just as her fists used to, "I'm leaving now, Hag."
Katsuki could already tell this was the point in the conversation where she starts releasing her temper on him, saying the worst type of crap that stays in his head like someone put gum in his hair no matter how hard he tries to ignore it.
He wanted to leave.
"Katsuki so help me I will ground you for a month, and when I get through with you, you won't even be able to cry without me controlling how many tears you fucking shed. I said you arent going." She started walking towards him and that was it, he started walking backwards faster.
She had promised that she wouldn't hit him ever again a long time ago but it was the way she laughed and talked and the way she approached... Those eyes.
It was in her eyes. The clenched fists. The sadistic way she smirked at him as she threatened everything that made him human. There was a tightening in his gut and he knew it was fear, he knew it was warning. His body, his brain, his mind all screaming at him that he should get away quickly. He shrank even as he forced himself to stand tall, even as fight or flight drove every instinct to keep out of direct reach.
"Goodbye." He waved and opened the back door, but he didn't dare turn his back to her.
"Katsuki! Get back here! Oh my fuck, you are such a disrespectful little shit!" She chased after him but he was already half way across the yard. The door in his gate leading to the parking lot of the church his mom attends now his best chance of escaping. If he could make it there, he just had to book it. "I bet you aren't even going to work, I know you. You wouldn't hurt me this way just to go make chump change. You're going to a girl's house, aren't you."
Katsuki froze in sheer shock and he turned to her, hands undoing the locks on the back gate even as his attention was on the stupidity of her words. It occurred to him that he had never actually come out and told her that he was gay, but if she hadn't figured it out then should he even tell her at this point? Would she bash that sensitive part of him? Tell him that he was evil for that, too?
"You think I'm stupid? You're going to go and fuck some little slut, aren't you? You think I don't know about what boys your age think about?" She looked so satisfied with herself as if she had cracked some kind of code and Katsuki wondered what kind of delusional mental disorder had made her so smugly ignorant.
Katsuki shook himself out of his own stupor, opening the gate and pushing out the door, "Whatever, I'm leaving. I don't have to listen to this shit."
"Yeah, you never want to listen to me anymore," Mitsuki raised her voice so that even though he was hastily making his escape, he would still be forced to hear her, "I'm just the bitch that carried you for 9 months and gave birth to you, right? I don't deserve any fucking respect for wasting the best years of my life raising such a disgusting man-whore."
"Shut up! God, why are you always so crazy?"
"You make me want to drink!" She broke into a sob. "You're always so fucking horrible to me. You never listen to me anymore and it makes me want to fucking die. I hope your happy putting your Mother in an early grave, Katsuki!"
Pain lurched in his chest, but he kept walking. She didn't actually mean it when she said she wanted to die, she just says it to make him feel bad. He knew because she had done it before many times. She says it to get him to turn around and do what she says or risk her being in a depression. An actual whole pissy fit where she will stay in her room and not come out for anything, even food or water, and refuse to eat or drink anything just so that everyone will feel sorry for her. If Katsuki doesn't go in on his knees begging for forgiveness, then after some time she will come out and give him the dirtiest fucking looks he had ever seen. He knew she was blaming him for the pain she put herself through, like her manipulative tendencies were his fault.
He guessed in a way, they are; he always makes the mistake of letting the hurt fill his eyes and now she thinks she can talk about her self-righteous death whenever she sees fit or whenever she feels like making him feel guilty.
"I love you, too, Hag." Even as he said it, he wished that he didn't. Katsuki knew better, the rejection of any kind of love or affection would always hurt the most.
She didn't disappoint.
Er... well. She did, but in the predictable way.
"Yeah, right, bullshit. You don't love me anymore. Ever since you were a stupid little brat you have always had such an attitude with me. You have always been the only one who could make me feel miserable, you're going to wind up fucking alone with the toxic way you make everyone hate themselves!" Why the hell was she still following him? He was already halfway across the empty parking lot and he was sure the neighbors could hear her hollering at him. He guessed he gave her too much credit in thinking she would at least have some shame not to do this where others could see. Or hear for that matter.
He sighed, giving up on saying anything back to her. She was going to keep following him until she finally gave up on making him go back. Now that she knew she couldn't, she was going to let him know just how mad it made her.
That's when she started screaming like she was being murdered and he turned his attention to her simply because the noise was startling, but she was red in the face towards him and he rolled his eyes when he realized she was screaming out of anger. "Katsuki! Get your ass back in the fucking house! Fuck!"
She was going to get the cops called on her if she kept up, and he was sure that was her intention. If the cops came she would probably blame that on him too. He was further away now, hands in his pockets, already aware that he was running late. Hopefully they wouldn't be too mad at him.
"Good luck finding someone who's going to love you more than I do with that bitchiness of yours Katsuki, you unlikable bastard." She was full on screaming at the top of her lungs and sobbing her eyes out now, but he couldn't let himself be fazed. He had to keep going, eventually he was too far away for him to hear and he let out a breath of relief.
Work was an even bigger relief though, as nobody mentioned his tardiness and were simply grateful that he showed up at all. He stayed quiet for a bit, not in the mood to really talk to people, but that wasn't abnormal for him. People tended to leave him alone in general because his personality was so abrasive.
Katsuki may have been pissed off, but at least he was out of the house and making money while he was at it. Halfway through the shift, his mood simmered down a bit, to the point where he felt like he wouldn't blow up at the first person who tried to talk to him.
Nobody did try, but then again nobody really ever did.
Because he was an unlikable bastard.
He sighed as 10pm hit the clock and he was relieved from the kitchen. Katsuki clocked out and hummed when his boss thanked him again for coming in so quickly.
He called Deku when he stepped out, as promised a long time ago after the run in with the vampire that attacked him. Deku was worried as shit at the thought of him walking home at night now and made him promise to call him when he was on his way home. Something about him feeling better staying on the line with the blonde until he was close enough to the house that he could smell him. Katsuki would never tell Deku that it was nice that someone genuinely cared about him and didn't do such things for ulterior reasons like smothering him.
"Hi, Kacchan."
"On my way, nerd."
"On your way here, right?"
"Yeah, if it's okay?"
"Oh, Kacchan, you never ask me permission unless you're really upset." Deku stated, sounding worried.
Fuck he hated being called out.
"Quit it, nerd."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'll leave the back door open for you."
"M'kay," The blonde hung up when he was down the block, knowing this was the mark when Deku could smell him. It was a little weird that the vampire could track him from this far away, but more weird in the way that he wished he could have showered after work or something, he probably reeked of sweat right now. He couldn't possibly smell too nice at the moment.
Slipping into Deku's house from the back door, he felt a bit of joy fill the emptiness in his chest when he caught sight of the nerd coming from the kitchen. A bowl of popcorn and a new bottle of Tabasco were in his hands, and Katsuki realized too late that he had an appreciative grin on his face.
The knowing look that the vampire gave him subconsciously made Katsuki shrink. He knew he was being read like an open book, but maybe it wasn't so bad if it was Deku.
Deku, who said nothing and just came over to hand him his favorite snack.
Deku who told him to go over to the couch and set up their show while he went to get him a Gatorade.
Deku who had probably heard everything that had gone on with his Mother earlier in the day, but said nothing about it.
Deku who just wanted to help him forget about it and feel better.
Katsuki's shoulders relaxed as he did as he was told, a familiar fondness for the vampire filling him for not ever mentioning anything about the fights he has with his Mom. Just an understanding that Katsuki wouldn't want to talk about it, or think about it, or dwell.
The blonde just wanted to think about something else, a distraction.
No exhausting words of comfort, no unhelpful advice or words of hope that everything would be fine. They were all lies.
He was tired of liars.
...
