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They sat together. They ate together. They slept together. They fought together. They hid together.
That’s what soldiers do after all. There was no privacy for them or their comrades during their time in service. Hell, there probably still isn’t now, not that either of them had bothered to look into it.
This was past them now. Finally, it was over. Finally, they could rest.
Resting comes with a price when it comes to war though.
They paid it in full and never turned back.
Eijiro inhaled deeply, quick to wake up thanks to his strict body clock. They were all like that though- his comrades- and sometimes Katsuki even more so.
Maybe that’s why the man isn’t next to him right now. Eijiro felt around the bed, not bothering to open his eyes as if the sunlight peeking through his curtains would give him a headache. He wouldn’t be able to feel the warm light shining into his retinas anyway.
Eijiro is blind, after all.
“Katsuki?” The redhead whispered, sitting up for the first time that morning. He felt around the entire huge mattress, hoping to find some sort of warm skin on his fingertips. He felt nothing. “Katsuki?!”
Ah, why bother yelling. Eijiro mentally punched himself for such stupidity. Katsuki wouldn’t hear him no matter how loud he screamed. No matter what he said, or how he said it, the man would not come.
Katsuki is deaf, after all.
Eijiro lifted the covers off his legs, settling his toes onto the cool wooden flooring. He hesitated though. The house was new to him, and as much as he tried to memorize the layout, there was only so much doubt in himself he could ignore.
He was a soldier, Eijiro reminded himself. He’s been through hell and back more times than he’d like to count. This was nothing. He could handle navigating a house by himself. Granted… when he was a soldier, he could see.
“Katsuki?” Eijiro tried again, continuously forgetting that the man could not hear him just as much as he could not see the man. His frown deepened, finally lifting himself from the edge of the bed and putting his hands out in front of him until he reached a wall. The ridges and bumps of the drywall were cool against his fingers, guiding him through a door frame that the redhead could only assume lead to the hallway.
Eijiro’s mouth opened, then closed again. His groggy brain was finally beginning to understand the situation- that Katsuki would not hear him, and there was no point in speaking. So he felt along the drywall once again, keeping one hand out in front of him while he walked slowly down the hall.
This was only Eijiro’s third time navigating the house by himself, or anywhere for that matter. Katsuki was usually always there, guiding him every which way with a tight, loving grip on his hand- the only upside to Eijiro’s blindness.
A tuft of fur brushing against the redhead's leg caught his attention, and he smiled at the sound of nails clacking against the floor. Well, this was certainly someone who could hear him. “Crimson! C'mere boy!” Eijiro clapped his hands in an attempt to get the dogs attention, bending his knees and sitting back on his heels as he balanced. “Hi Crimson! Hi buddy,” he laughed, ruffling the big dog's fur and trying to figure out which part of him he was touching. “Do you know where Katsuki is? Huh? Can you find him for me?” He joked. It was a useless request after all, since the dog only listened to the word ‘food.’
Crimson was used to the attention he was getting though, leaning into it even more and pushing Eijiro onto his back.
Only, Eijiro didn’t necessarily land on his back.
“Shit!”
“It’s an ambush! Ambush! Take cover!”
Eijiro watched from the small ditch as bullets flew everywhere. The smell of gunpowder and wildlife filled his nose. It was strong enough to make him gasp for air, burning his lungs from every breath.
He paid no mind to it though. Of course not. He was shooting at the enemy every chance he got, which was far and few between thanks to the wave of bullets constantly headed in his direction.
Katsuki was by his side, as usual, shooting with such precision one would think he was a train assassin if they didn’t know any better. His eyes were empty at the time, mind focused on nothing but surviving and killing. He didn’t even realize Eijiro was there.
Well, that’s what the redhead would have thought had it been for the bomb. It happened so fast, Eijiro still couldn’t remember the details, no matter how hard he tried.
Katsuki had screamed something as soon as a grenade found its way into their ditch. Not a second after that, Eijiro was tackled and his head was being squeezed by two large, calloused hands.
Come to find out, Katsuki had sacrificed his hearing for Eijiro’s sake, protecting the redhead with his body and covering his ears before the bomb went off. It wasn’t enough to prevent what had become of Eijiro now though. The redhead, stupid as he was, had never seen a grenade go off up close before, and therefore knew not of the consequences of keeping his eyes wide open as he stared at the explosion.
“Katsuki! Katsuki, I can’t see anything! I can't see anything, Katsuki!”
“Eijiro, I can’t fucking hear you! We need to retreat!”
Eijiro woke up at the bottom of the stairs, limbs spread out, battered and bruised from the tumble he had taken on his way down.
His eyes watered from the realization of what had just happened. Or perhaps, was it the flashback? It was both, plus the pain, and before he knew it, he was wailing like a small child.
“Katsuki! Katsuki,” he screamed, limbs flailing every which way as tears fell down his face like waterfalls. “Katsuki,” he sobbed, not caring if the blonde could hear him. He just wanted to pretend, for once, that his stupidity hadn’t resulted in the loss of his husband’s hearing. “KATSUKI!”
No one came, not even Crimson, who watched from the top of the stairs with his tail tucked between his legs. Eijiro had never yelled like this before, or at all for that matter.
“KATSUKI! PLEASE! Please! Please,” Eijiro weeped, his voice weak and raspy from the tantrum. Tears continued to fall, even as he squeezed his eyes shut to try and stop them. “Please…”
It was no use. For now, at least. Eventually, Katsuki would make his way back towards the stairs from wherever he was and find Eijiro crying like a damn baby. Soon, he would find the redhead’s bruised body laying on the stairs, his legs still resting on the steps as the rest of him lay flat on the floor.
So, for now, Eijiro just curled in on himself and cried.
Katsuki watched the silent world move past him in slow motion for only a moment before opting to watch the screen of his phone instead.
It often became too much to fathom- the realization that noises were instead being made by everyone around him, but he could hear a thing. The worst part of it all was that he could not tell if he was making noise either.
The baristas called out orders that weren’t his, not that Katsuki could tell. All he could do was glance up every once in a while to see if his drinks were available yet. But they were taking too long, and his anxiety rose at the knowledge that Eijiro should be waking up any time soon.
With the exception of using the bathroom and retrieving something for Eijiro, this was the first time Katsuki had ever truly left his husband's side for more than five minutes. What if Eijiro woke up and noticed that he wasn’t there? What if he tried to navigate the house by himself again? God knows the first two times only ended with him tripping over Crimson or bumping into a wall- nothing too tragic but enough to make Katsuki’s knee shake from the nerves as he sat there, waiting for his and Eijiro’s coffee.
The barista’s mouth moved again as she placed a couple of drinks on the pickup table. A black coffee and a chocolate frappe with extra whipped cream and drizzle. That was his order alright.
He rushed out the coffee shop with drinks in hand, nearly running down the block back to their house as he thanked himself for choosing a place so close to a marketplace.
He fumbled with the keys, imagining the sound of metal jingling while unlocking the door. Had he not been in such a rush, Katsuki would have enjoyed the slight vibration the jingle gave off. It was like he could hear again, but with his body instead of his ears.
The door swung open, only to slam shut as Katsuki kicked it closed. He did that on purpose though because, again, the vibration felt nice.
His eyebrows furrowed though. Crimson was usually always there to greet him, especially if he had something potentially worth eating in his hands, like a frappe.
Something wasn’t right.
Katsuki didn’t have to wait long to find out what exactly it was though. The house was somewhat small- a decision based on Eijiro’s blindness- and Katsuki simply had to turn his head to the right to see the bottom of the stairs.
Both drinks fell out of his hands. Or did Katsuki throw them? He didn’t fucking know, or care where they landed. No, not with Eijiro silently weeping as he laid at the bottom of the steps.
He was weeping, alright. But silently? Katsuki couldn’t exactly tell. He huffed, dropping on his knees in front of his husband’s body and hands cupping both of the redheads cheeks.
“You fell?” Katsuki asked, swallowing from the feeling of speaking for the first time in a while. “Eijiro. Eijiro, you fell? I’m sorry.”
Eijiro opened his eyes, face immediately turning red once again as he began to cry. He had, for a split second, expected to see the blonde's beautiful face when he opened them. It broke his heart when nothing changed. “I tried- I’m a burden. I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry you have to take care of me! I’m useless! I should have died so you don’t have to deal with me!”
Katsuki pulled his husband into his arms, his chest pressing tightly against Eijiro’s back. “I can’t hear you, Eijiro. I’m sorry.”
“I miss your face! I miss your furrowed eyebrows and your little forced frown and your beautiful eyes! I miss when you didn’t spend every waking moment taking care of me! I miss your voice from when you knew how loud you were! I miss our lives, Katsuki! I don’t wanna do this anymore! I ca- I can’t! It hurts! It hurts so bad! Katsuki, my legs hurt because I fell down THE FUCKING STAIRS! I’M BLIND! I’M FUCKING BLIND, KATSUKI!”
“Eiji…” Katsuki shook his head as he felt his voice break, tears threatening to fall. He turned Eijiro around to face him, grabbing his wrists and forcing his hands to touch his face. “I can’t fucking hear you, but I know you’re talking. We’re gonna… gonna get through this. Look at me.”
Eijiro ran his fingers along Katsuki’s face, feeling each ridge of his nose and bumps of his lips. The length of his eye lashes, the beginning of his hairline, the placement of his cheekbones- it was a grounding effect, slowly but surely calming him because, in his own mind, he was finally looking at Katsuki.
“Are you seriously hurt anywhere?”
Eijiro shook his head, fingers focused on the blonde’s nose.
“We’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out, okay? Look- look at this.” Katsuki grabbed Eijiro’s wrist once again and forced his hand to touch his own. He signed the word ‘love’ in sign language, allowing Eijiro to feel every detail of his hand. “Love. I love you. Eijiro, I love you no matter what.”
Eijiro took it upon himself to try and replicate the sign, doing a decent job in one go and holding his hand up to make sure Katsuki would notice it. “Me too. I love you… I love you Katsuki.”
“Alright, let’s go get you patched up.”