Chapter Text
Katsuki scratches at his scalp vigorously, filled to the brim with pure frustration in the corner of a rural library few minutes from his own place. He claims it 'helps him focus,' as the tranquil environment did wonders at easing his nerves, but he's nearly visibly shaking in anger. His phone vibrates atop of the table, buzzing against the wood before he reaches over and turns his ringer off, feeling so overly stimulated and nothing could get him to focus; his essay on 'whatever-the-fuck-we're-doing' was due soon, and he's so far come up empty-handed with a few crumpled up balls of paper to spare.
"This is so stupid. Nothing about modelling and sitting fuckin' pretty teaches me any of this shit.." He grumbles, utterly defeated. He can feel the warm rays of sunlight sit against his back; the beauty of the solitude city being unravelled every sunset as the sky is painted hues of pink and blue.
Aiming his phone towards his face to unlock it, the first app he goes to is Twitter to let out some steam in his system and vent about his unfiltered hatred for his major, to which he still hasn't changed. He doesn't even know what to change it to, if he chooses to. His fans, which he quotes, 'weird as fuck', tend to not mind whatever Katsuki puts onto his socials, which they guessed to not be monitored. They find amusement in it, so who cares.
He taps the little blue circle at the bottom corner of his screen and starts typing whatever comes into mind, like usual.
kat @ KatsukiBKG ⋅ 1s
fuck essays. @ nerds who like english, i hope u go to sleep and dont wake up
The notifications he gets after are nearly milliseconds after he posted it, and he skims through the replies. He scoffs lightheartedly at some, like how someone pointed out how Katsuki doesn't give 'two flying fucks about digital footprint'. He likes the tweet and turns his phone off once the heart icon blinks pink, sighing as he shoves his phone back into his pocket. "I'm not gonna get shit done like this..", as he pushes himself up from the chair.
To be fair, wandering around the library aimlessly wouldn't help in getting his essay done, but Katsuki felt as though he needed a breather to get him in the mood of writing. It was such an obscure topic too that Katsuki didn't even know where to start; He could barely even remember the essay prompt, only knowing the words 'other half' or whatnot.
A few minutes of Katsuki simply pulling out random books that catch his eye out of the shelf and placing them back pass, and he's bored out of his mind. He wants to leave but the deadline slowly but surely approaching him kept him bind in the library until he finishes it. It didn't help that this was one of the few days he had where his schedule was free, meaning it was a catch-up day for any work he missed during class.
A gentle tune, recognisable as Katsuki nearly put his finger on the song, being hummed so quietly that he could barely hear it pulls Katsuki from whatever he was doing at that moment, interest piquing. It sent chills through his body, slightly creeping him out; knowing the library was almost completely void of people, not counting the few people he saw as he was passing by aisles.
But aside from the eerie feeling that was creeping up to him, it was hauntingly beautiful. He follows the sound, and once he gets through a few more aisles, he's merely a single bookcase away. Curious, but refusing to check directly, he starts pulling books that were blocking his field of vision out of the shelf in an attempt to look at however was humming. Katsuki infers that it's a masculine voice the closer he gets, and with one final book out of the way, he looks at the boy.
His knees nearly give out from under him, and he has to tightly clutch at the bookshelf to keep himself upright and standing. His knuckles nearly go white. Holy fuck.
Out of all things, Katsuki wasn't expecting that.
A boy, presumably the same age as Katsuki, which was 18, sits comfortably, chunky headphones covering both ears as he reads. Katsuki doesn't fail to notice the freckles speckled across his face or how his slightly tanned skin glowed in the saturated sun, light violently hitting against him as he sits beside the window. He doesn't mind, clearly, with the calm smile plastered onto his face.
Katsuki was utterly dumbfounded. Awestruck. Something fluttered within him, and his first instinct was to pull out his phone and take a picture. Like he was appreciating art. He feels slightly disturbed and disappointed at his own actions, but his fingers were moving on their own at this point as he gets a good angle with the limited space he was working with and took the picture. He feels a blush creep his face once he goes to look at the photo.
The photo was near perfect, but Katsuki felt as though the camera didn't do the boy justice. When he goes to sneak another glimpse, the boy sits up, humming coming to a stop as he looks slightly alert; his head turns to scan around, as if he heard a noise. Katsuki sucks in a breath and doesn't dare exhale; or move, for that matter. Time feels like it freezes when the boy slowly stops moving and goes back to his book, changing his position of the chair.
Katsuki lets go of the breath he was holding, the apples of his cheeks flushed a deep pink. He lets himself sink to the carpeted floors of the library, completely ignoring his ego that was internally screaming at him, and he almost drops his phone as shaky hands reopen Twitter.
Is he seriously going to tweet about a boy he saw a minute ago?
Yes. Yes, he was.
kat @ KatsukiBKG ⋅ 1s
hgolyj fuck im gay ????????
He hits the tweet button right after typing, switching to his profile right after and scrolling deep into his tweets.
Katsuki tweets often, mostly about things that just pissed him off moments before. But, there was one thing he vividly remembers. He scrolls rapidly, white text flying across the black background of the app.
He finds it after a few minutes.
kat @ KatsukiBKG ⋅ 20XX-07-15
i just saw the most breathtaking dude in my dream and ive fallen in love. what the fuck do i do extras. i've woken up half an hour ago and fuck
He scrolls at the replies, trying to find the one tweet he replied to which asked for a physical description. Katsuki rereads familiar words.
"he had sm freckles. he was lwkey short as fuck and he had green eyes n hair. ims o gay its not even fucking funny anmyorefuck"
Katsuki slightly cringes at the tweet, but as he switches to his photos and looks at the picture he just took of the boy, he can almost immediately see similarities.
No, not even similarities.
It was him, down to the tiny details, such as the placement of his freckles or how some strands of hair were out of place. It was the exact boy in his dream. His hands feel sparks as they start to gather sweat.
It's him.
Katsuki pulls himself off of the ground, cursing at the dirt that stuck to his pants as he dusted them off as quietly as he could. Turning his head around for one final look, he watches as the boy gently tugs his headphones off of his ears, resting around his neck. The boy must've noticed eyes on him, because he does one more final scan around and sees Katsuki glancing at him through the shelf.
He smiles, a slight one that still managed to reach his eyes, and lifts his hand up to wave it to the latter. Katsuki can feel the air get knocked out of him violently as he averts his eyes away, too embarrassed to maintain eye contact.
Fuck.
kat @ KatsukiBKG ⋅ 5m
pretty boy @ library ill be back
Katsuki's twitter is nearly on fire, as everyone (including his own friends from school) watches him lose composure in the span of a single hour. The mystery boy had left the library, and Katsuki does too shortly after, far too distracted to even think about his essay. He lays on his bed, chest against the mattress as he rests his head against a pillow.
He can almost remember it as if it actually happened; like it happened yesterday.
"What's your name?" Katsuki asks in a whisper, afraid to lift his head and turn to see him no longer there beside him. The water on the white sand dances between the two as they sit close enough to the shore that they're hit by the waves. It's a clear day.
"I'll tell you soon Kacchan," The boy starts, eyes not moving away from the painted horizon. Katsuki turns his head slightly just to face him, confused. "I know yours. That's all that's important for now." The words are gentle, coating Katsuki lightly and making him warm from the inside out despite his slight disappointment. "How do you know mine? 'Kacchan'?"
"I know you."
Katsuki purses his lips before opening his mouth once more. "We're in a dream, aren't we? Right now, I mean."
The greenette hums affirmatively, going quiet and the two sit in silence afterwards, listening to water crashing against water; wave after wave. The sun hits their faces just right and Katsuki breathes in the underwhelming smell of cinnamon and gardenias.
"Yeah. We are. But, that's okay. Come, up." The boy starts, letting out a little 'hup!' as he jumps up, brushing the sand that gathered on his shorts away. He holds his hand down for Katsuki to take, which he does hesitantly. He can feel the roughness of the scar on it, but it all feels too gentle. Too sweet. "Why? Are we leaving?" The boy shakes his head no and smiles as he looks directly into Katsuki's eyes before he turns towards the setting sun.
"Come on, dance with me. The earth is spinning, we can't just stand on it." His laughter fills Katsuki's head slowly, like sweet honey. It was intoxicating and Katsuki was drunk on it. He takes hold of the boy's hand and spins him, ignoring how it was a hassle to move around so much on the sand.
When he goes to dip him, he leans close into his face. He can feel the other boys' breath hit his cheek.
"I'm gonna wake up soon, nerd. Please," Katsuki can count how much freckles he has sprinkled on his face, and he connects them like constellations before he looks into his glowing eyes. "What's your name?"
The boy doesn't do anything but merely cup his cheek tenderly, eyes speaking a language he can't quite understand. He senses pity in them and his stomach nearly drops to the sand.
"You don't need to worry about it. I'll find you."
"Promise?" Katsuki croaks, afraid that if he speaks too loudly he'll break the boy in his arms. He lifts him up from the dip and holds him close, looking right at his eyes.
"I promise."
It's been a year and a few months since he's had that dream, and no matter how much times he tries to fall asleep in hopes of seeing the boy again, it doesn't work. He wakes up seething and the feeling of longing is buried deep within him. How stupid, he thinks when it first started happening. He isn't over some random dude he met in a dream. So what if he looked like he was carved by the angels themselves? It was just a dream.
He was starting to forget him; loses little bits and pieces despite his previous attempts of trying to find the boy. It all felt too real, and Katsuki wasn't ready to accept that it could've just been his mind playing tricks on him. The city he lived in was so small, perhaps it had just been someone he saw on the street before. It wouldn't be too hard to find him with his connections, but ever since he's had the dream, there was nothing he could come up with. No results, no nothing; even when he used to occasionally talk to his followers on Twitter for any advice.
But today.
Today was different. They saw eachother. Katsuki saw him.
The boy saw him too.