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Eijirou didn’t want to come out. He wasn’t planning on it, and he never thought his parents would find out. Until he was an adult and long gone from them, at least.
But his dad found his flag in his room. The one Mina had given him when he came out to her. It was small, and he thought he’d hidden it so well, his parents wouldn’t find it. He’d put it inside his old bookbag, in a little pocket he’d never used.
Eijirou visibly paled when his dad stood silently at the dinner table, the little flag pinched between two of his fingers. He was holding it by a corner, as if it was on fire, and could burn his fingers at any second.
“Is there anything you’d like to explain about this, Eijirou?” He says, glaring. His eyes say it all. The disappointment, the anger, the shame in having a weak, gay son.
“I… It’s not mine! It’s something a friend gave me! It’s not for me.” Lying like this, it wasn’t manly. But Eijirou was terrified of what his father could do to him. He didn’t know what he would do.
“Eijirou, tell me the truth! Who’s is it, if it isn’t yours.” He advances towards Eijirou, who stands and backs away from him quickly.
“It’s not mine, and I’m not telling you!” Eijirou tries to keep himself from shaking. He was better than that. And stronger.
His father backhands him, and Eijirou freezes, unable to even activate his quirk from the shock of it all. The next thing he knows, he’s hitting the ground and his face burns. He scrambles away from his dad, his eyes flashing to look at his mom.
She’s still sitting at the table calmly, watching her son with a hollow look in her eyes. Not an ounce of compassion in her face.
Eijirou doesn’t cry. If his parents don’t care, he shouldn’t either. He stands and holds his face.
“Fuck you.” He spits out, his heart heavy in his chest. He runs to his room, managing to not trip and fall back down the stairs. He throws a bunch of clothes and belongings into two bags of his. He doesn’t know if he’ll be back, so he grabs his school uniform, not caring if it’ll get wrinkled in his bag. He looks around one last time, then grabs his phone and a notebook.
-
There’s a knock on the door. It’s almost two in the morning, who the hell is awake this late? Mitsuki looks out the window, seeing a teenager with red hair standing at the door with two stuffed backpacks. Is that Katsuki’s friend?
Mitsuki opens the door, worried and confused. “Katsuki! Get down here, your friend’s here!”
“I don’t have friends!” Katsuki shouts back, pulling a hoodie on and coming downstairs anyway. He stops short when he sees it’s Eijirou, stuck standing on the stairs.
Eijirou isn’t smiling like usual, his shoulders drooping. He hardly looks up at Katsuki when he sees him. This isn’t normal for him, what even happened to him to fuck him up this badly? Who hit him hard enough to leave a mark?
“What the fuck, shitty hair? What are you doing here so late?” Katsuki grumbles, walking the rest of the way down the steps.
Eijirou drops his bags by the door and rushes towards Katsuki, relieved to see him. He wraps his arms around him. He finally, finally starts to cry, crumbling against his friend.
Katsuki freezes, then he notices he’s crying. He wraps his arms around Eijirou, his need to comfort him taking over his anger, for now. He’s going to kill whoever did this to Eijirou.
“Kirishima, what happened? Who did this to you?” Katsuki holds him tight. His voice is softer than it was, worried.
Eijirou just sobs into his shoulder, shaking his head.
“What could have happened? What do you know about his family?” Mitsuki is not hiding her anger as well as her son. She saw that bruise forming on Eijirou’s face.
“Shut up, I don’t know shit. Can you leave us alone?” Katsuki shakes his head, just wanting to get Eijirou alone to calm him down.
“Katsuki! If it was his parents, we need to do something.” She warns, and Katsuki rolls his eyes.
“Mom! Leave us alone so he can calm down.” Katsuki snaps.
“Okay, okay!” She sighs and leaves.
Katsuki tries to lead him to the couch, but Eijirou is shaking too much to try and walk. He ends up picking him up and carrying him over. He sits down with him on his lap.
“Kirishima? I don’t know what happened, but I’ll get whoever did this to you.” Katsuki mutters, holding him.
Eijirou lays his head against Katsuki’s shoulder, sniffling. He shakes his head slightly.
“Will you at least tell me what happened, shitty hair?”
Eijirou wipes his eyes, taking a shaky breath. “I dunno…”
Katsuki groans and tugs at his own hair, pissed off. “Eijirou, you got hurt!”
He flinches, and Katsuki regrets shouting at him. He rubs his back, deciding to just shut up until Eijirou is ready to talk. He hated seeing Eijirou sad like this. It wasn’t normal! Eijirou shouldn’t be crying, he wasn’t a damn nerd like Deku!
He just holds him, pissed off at everything that was going on already. It was late, and Eijirou refused to talk about what happened. He never talked about his family, just brushed it off with a smile and let someone else talk, or changed the subject. But what would have caused them to be angry enough to hit him? And why hadn’t Eijirou used his damn quirk! He could be fine right now if he had, if only physically fine.
Eijirou silently lets himself be held as he gains control of his breathing and thoughts, which had all been jumbled and racing through his mind. As he becomes more aware of the situation he’s in- curled up on his crush’s lap in the middle of the night-- he flushes slightly, unnoticeable since his face is already tinted red from crying. He pulls away from him and moves off of his lap, rubbing his face again.
Katsuki shifts in his seat and rubs his neck. “Are you, uh, feeling better?” He grumbles, not looking Eijirou in the eyes. He’d realized just how awkward their position was when Eijirou had moved off his lap.
“Kind of. Thank you for that… I didn’t think I’d cry seeing you.” Eijirou shrugs. “It’s not manly of me, and I understand if it weirded you out b-”
“Shut up, Eijirou. You’re hurt, and I don’t care about manliness right now. Neither should you. Tell me what happened.”
“Oh, okay. Are you sure you want to know? It’s not all that good. I just need somewhere to crash tonight.”
“Eijirou, I want to know. Why didn’t you use your quirk!”
“I- I was scared. He hit me before I realized he would.” Eijirou covers his face, his fingertips grazing the headband resting near his forehead.
“Who.” Katsuki puts a hand on his shoulder, awkward, but an attempt to be reassuring.
“My dad… He found out I’m gay. He hit me and I ran away. This was the only place I could think of.”
“He hit you? For being gay? That motherfucker. If I ever see him I’m gonna-!” Eijirou pushes his hand over Katsuki’s mouth.
“Shh! I don’t want your mom knowing yet.” Eijirou stares at him with wide, scared eyes, and Katsuki pulls him into a hug.
“Okay. You’re safe here, then. You’re okay.” He awkwardly mumbles, not used to comforting someone else.
“Thank you.” Eijirou hugs him back, leaning heavily into him.
“Yeah. Whatever.” He grumbles.
Eijirou smiles softly into his shoulder.
“Just let me know when my mom can come in. We need to tell her.” Katsuki huffs, acting frustrated. He’s still angry about Kirishima’s parents, but he’s glad his friend is safe. Eijirou is safe as long as he’s right here with Katsuki.
“Just give me a few minutes, I want to stay right here for a second.” He leans against Katsuki, taking a deep breath.
“Yeah, yeah. Shut up and relax.”
After a few minutes of Eijirou calming down more, he pulls away from Katsuki again, nodding slightly at him.
He stands up and calls his mom back into the living room. Thankfully she had actually left them alone, rather than hanging around and eavesdropping.
Mitsuki sits across from them in an armchair. She listens quietly as Eijirous explains what happened, a fire in her eyes, but she remains much calmer than her son had when he was told. She sighs.
“You’re not going home. You can stay here, but you’ll have to stay on the couch until we can prepare the guest room tomorrow.” She gives her son a look. “We’ll figure the rest out tomorrow, I don’t want you going back there alone. Neither of you has to go to school tomorrow if you aren’t up to it.”
“Yes ma’am.” Eijirou nods.
“Why the fuck can’t he stay in my room, hag? It’s not like we’re gonna fucking do anything.” Katsuki complains. Eijirou shoves his shoulder.
“Bakubro, it’s fine, okay? I’m good staying here if that’s what she wants.”
“It’s still stupid and unfair!”
“Katsuki, don’t raise your voice! Just go back to bed, I’ll get your friend settled down here.”
Katsuki grumbles and heads back up the stairs to his room.
-
Eijirou knocks softly, ignoring the “no trespassing” sign on the door. There’s no answer, but he quietly comes in anyways, a blanket draped around his shoulders. He watches Katsuki’s sleeping form from the doorway for a minute, then walks into the room.
He closes the door behind him and lays across the end of his bed. He didn’t want to be alone in an unfamiliar house. Katsuki never brought his friends home.
“The couch is comfier than laying across the foot of my bed, dumbass,” Katsuki grumbles sleepily.
“I didn’t think you were awake, man.”
“Light sleeper. I woke up when you opened my door. Now get up here. If you’re really going to barge in here like this, shitty hair, you at least need to be comfortable. It’s a fucking bed for fuck’s sake. I don’t give a fuck what my mom said.”
Eijirou nods sheepishly and gets up. He climbs into bed with Katsuki, pulling the covers back up where Katsuki had flipped them down for him to get in.
Katsuki fixes the blankets and moves closer to Eijirou, wrapping an arm around him. “This is just ‘cause I’m worried about you.”
“Thanks, man.” Eijirou gets comfortable, reassured by the arm laying across his waist. He closes his eyes and finally gets some sleep.
-
When Mitsuki goes to wake her son up the next morning, she sighs at the sight she sees. Eijirou and Katsuki are fully cuddling, Eijirou’s head on Katsuki’s chest. She closes the door, smiling softly, and lets them rest for a few more hours.