Chapter Text
“You go back! I’ll be fine from here on out.” Reigen bellowed as he slapped his palm onto the center of Serizawa’s shoulder, his hand not even taking up half of the space of it.
As quickly as the dirty blonde put his hand on his business partner’s shoulder, it was gone in an instant while Reigen began to trudge on, battling against the massive wind while shielding his face with his forearms.
“There’s no way you’ll be fine!” Serizawa shouted after with desperation in his voice. Maybe a little too much for his liking, but in the moment it didn’t necessarily matter, all things considered.
His best friend was heading into the center of a extremely strong tornado.
Katsuya Serizawa was not an idiot, despite the times he may be a little gullible or just a little slow to get things sometimes. He was not a child who took all of Arataka’s words with confidence and belief.
He knew Reigen. Not: the employee in the Spirits and Such’s office Reigen, but the real version of him that stepped out whenever a client left the room, whenever they would walk each other home and have long talks about all sorts of things, and the one that Serizawa loved and cared for most.
Katsuya knew very well that Arataka did not have psychic powers. Not in the slightest.
If Serizawa himself was struggling to continue on, feeling drained and scared, how was Reigen Arataka, a (literal) powerless man supposed to do in this situation?
It scared Serizawa just imagining the possibilities that could follow this event. Katsuya gripped the handle of the umbrella he was forced to use this one time, and felt his arms start to shake.
A lump in his throat formed as he watched the dirty blonde march forward, even if Reigen was struggling to keep himself on his own feet. He hadn’t even gone that far from Serizawa’s umbrella, but to him, it felt like miles away.
“There’s something I need to talk to Mob about, alone. Let me go!” Though Arataka’s sentence sounded like he would let anyone persuade him otherwise, Serizawa knew very well that this was unfortunately not up to debate.
At the very least, Serizawa wanted to provide a shoulder for two people he desperately cared about, but he could sense a feeling from Reigen that he had never seen before. He was so incredibly focused and determined on doing everything he could.
By himself. In typical Reigen fashion.
Katsuya wasn’t sure what to do. Whether Reigen was once again, putting too much onto his shoulders to carry alone because he truly had to, as it was his own weight and problem to deal with, or, he just wouldn’t accept help from anyone.
Serizawa felt the shakiness from his arms follow all the way through his whole body as he struggled to continue moving forward. His legs shook and his shoes scraped against the dirt, barely able to keep him from flying away, himself.
“REIGEN!!!” Katsuya shouted even more desperate than the first time, but nothing changed.
Serizawa’s eyes began to sting, holding back tears that eventually would escape, but just not now.
A huge sign hurled towards the brown haired man. For such a big guy, his yelp was incredibly high pitched as he gripped the handle of the umbrella even tighter, slamming his eyes shut and feeling the weight of the sign bounce off of it.
When Serizawa opened his eyes again, Reigen was out of sight.
Katsuya was huddled underneath his umbrella towards the way that Reigen and him had entered the area of destruction.
He wished he didn’t have to use it today.
He thought for sure maybe by this point he would be okay around the object that held such significance to him at one point in his life, but it was now more scarier than ever to be around it.
The opposite of what he was expecting, really.
An umbrella is a basic tool in life to use, so it was bound to happen one day or another when he would have to face his crippling fear of them.
When it had rained before, he simply tried to avoid it by staying in his apartment or maybe convincing Arataka to meet him halfway to work just so that the dirty blonde could hold it above their heads without Serizawa having to touch it.
Sometimes he would even just come to the office drenched even though he had the ability to create a barrier sort of thing above his head. Shigeo liked to do that. The boy had taught him how to do it once after Reigen and Serizawa had awkwardly got caught in the morning weather together.
Katsuya was never one to flaunt his powers, though. Yes, he could make the most of them by being useful but some part of him was still terrified and disgusted with himself for even thinking about using his powers for anything other than was necessary.
Maybe it was because the man spent so long wishing and wanting his powers to be gone that he just simply decided that it would be much better if he didn’t use them. Serizawa wished so badly to have Reigen’s self confidence, because if he did, maybe he would feel much better about himself.
Katsuya was fairly sure most of Reigen’s behaviors were all a front. A mask, if you will. Serizawa never had the guts to ask the man about himself or if he had any powers to begin with.
Maybe it was something that he could get to know later, after all this.
He would love to get to know more about the real Reigen that his business partner tried so hard to keep hidden.
Something moved in the corner of Serizawa’s eye that made the tan man flinch out of instinct. It didn’t stop him from the curiosity of knowing what it was, though.
Katsuya tucked his thumb into the center of his palm and raised his hand up to the clear roundish tool that was giving him shelter, using the bits of his powers he had left to hold it into place.
Serizawa pushed down his palms to the dirt floor and using the strength of his arms, he shoved himself off the ground to at least stand long enough that he could figure out what was going on.
His body was still shaking. Not nearly as much as before, but still there. In the pile of rubble next to Serizawa’s umbrella, there was a roughed up pair of brown dress shoes.
Dust from the buildings and dirt were all over it and so were scratches from the damage of the tornado.
It was unusual to notice, but…roughly it looked like the size of Reigen’s pair of shoes.
He didn’t know what could possibly cause his consciousness to conjure up that thought but he had no time to figure it out.
The wind wasn’t as strong towards the entrance, but it still was enough to continue to let Serizawa slip around with minimal effort. Quickly, Katsuya crouched and got underneath the umbrella again, bringing his knees up to his face and raising the shoes that were hung around his fingers, up to his eye level.
For whatever reason, Serizawa decided definitely that the shoes belonged to Reigen.
But…Reigen had been wearing them earlier, obviously.
Did the wind really rip them right off his feet? There were no signs of any seams being undone.
In fact, other than the scratches on them, there seemed to be no damage whatsoever.
What could possibly be the cause, then? There was no other explanation than—
Katsuya’s thinking stopped, eyes widening so much he felt like they were going to pop out of his skull. His heart rate somehow was able to pick up faster than it was before as his stomach twisted into deeper knots.
God, Reigen…no. Please say that’s not what he did.
Serizawa trembled even worse as he glanced slowly back towards the shoes that were shaking in his grasp. The brown haired man felt like he was going vomit and bawl his eyes out at the same time, which…he hoped wasn’t actually possible.
Maybe he would find out.
Katsuya wanted to also scream his lungs out until his throat was hoarse from it. It was hard not to imagine the worse case scenario when there was a huge, destructive tornado from possibly one of the strongest ESPers in the world, only a couple miles away from him.
Fuck, if he had just been more persistent— If he had really told Reigen how much he meant to Serizawa— Maybe, just maybe things would’ve been different.
He couldn’t help but blame himself in such a awful hopeless situation. It was at least distracting him from the horrible mortifying thought of Reigen being…dead.
All Katsuya could do was wait, unfortunately. Wait for things to die down, assuming they would.
The man took a deep shaky breath and gripped his knees tight, laying the shoes down right beside his thighs. He placed his forehead on the top of his knees, face buried deep within his legs and was silent for a moment.
His body was shaking, tired, and his brain desperately was worried about Reigen and of course, Shigeo.
His eyes couldn’t take it anymore.
Serizawa’s lips trembled. He bit them lightly in a attempt to stop himself from what he knew was coming, but it didn’t help.
His eyes burned in one final attempt to stop himself from crying but it lasted no more than 10 seconds before he completely broke down.
Katsuya was sobbing.
Loudly.
His fingers gripped even tighter onto his pants as he let himself cry it out. He couldn’t even stop to breathe normally. He hiccuped and sniffled over and over but it was no avail because right after he would end up crying again.
It was heartbreaking. Truly.
Serizawa wasn’t sure how long it had been, because eventually he had passed out after getting out most of his bottled in emotions from this hell of a day. His breathing was still shaky, but more steady than it was earlier by a hundred percent.
His eyes were shut and burning, utterly exhausted from, well, everything.
Katsuya had the shoes now in between his stomach and his thighs, still huddling himself together under his umbrella.
Regrettably, he did feel more safe with it there. JUST this once.
Serizawa shifted a little in his sleep, his grip on his knees looser while he was less conscious.
Muffled voices echoed in his head, the sounds bouncing around the corners of the dark void of his brain.
They felt far away, but slowly kept getting closer.
Instinctively his heart rate started to pick up, half aware and half too exhausted to care.
The noises or voices or whatever they were, got closer and closer and Serizawa’s internal panic and conflict became more urgent. But he didn’t move.
Someone or something was trying to talk to Katsuya. But he wasn’t making any sense of what was going on or who it was.
Something touched his arm. Something cold but…somehow warm.
His chest gave him a feeling that somehow, Serizawa knew who or what it was, but his eyes were still passed the fuck out.
Wake up. Katsuya, wake up.
Wake. Up.
“Katsuya. Hey. Big Guy. You with me? You alive?” The voice was more clear now.
Serizawa slowly lifted his head up, groggy and feeling like he was rising from the dead. After a couple seconds, he finally managed to open his eyes.
He felt like his eyebags had grown from how tired he was, even though physically, he looked the same as always.
Katsuya shot a sleepy and exhausted look towards the voice and blinked once or twice before his eyes widened, suddenly more awake than he had been in a while.
Serizawa jumped up, even though he still felt a bit wobbly due to the energy he had lost earlier.
The shoes fell out of his lap and the umbrella was knocked away in an instant as Katsuya Serizawa lunged towards this person who the voiced belonged to.
It was none other than Reigen Arataka’s.