Chapter Text
Katsuki screams through gritted teeth in frustration as he’s forced to give up on the buckle of his belt for a second time. It’s stuck, fucking jammed from the fight earlier, and his gauntlets got busted so of course his wrists are a wreck and he can’t get it.
He breathes out, harsh. No. He can do this. He’s a fucking hero, he is not going to have a stupid meltdown over his stupid clothes.
It just…it really hurts, and everything has gone wrong today, and he just wants to be done and maybe cry and maybe ask Hitoshi for a hug–
Fuck, no, get it together.
Katsuki tries again, but pain flares through his hands and his wrists and he only lasts a few seconds before he has to give up and muffle a scream again. He kicks one of his discarded gauntlets, sending it into the wall, and sits down in the middle of the bedroom. This is so fucking stupid. Why can’t he just do it?
Someone knocks on his door, then Hitoshi pokes his head in before Katsuki can suck in a breath and tell him to fuck off. He’s frowning, but it morphs quickly into concern. A very familiar brand of concern.
“Oh, Kats–”
“Don’t,” Katsuki bites out. “I’m not—’m not little, leave me alone.”
He sniffles. He fucking sniffles. Ugh.
Hitoshi notices, of course, stepping all the way into the room. “Sure, but you don’t look all the way big to me, either.”
“Frick off,” Katsuki mumbles, wincing at the baby swear. It’s—it just felt weird, for a second, to swear like he usually does, but he’s fine, it doesn’t mean anything. He tries to summon the will to correct himself, can’t find it, gives up.
“You wanna be small, Kats?” Hitoshi asks.
Katsuki grunts and looks away. No he doesn’t. It’s stupid and weird and a waste of time and he’ll just be imposing on his boyfriend who would probably like to hang out with someone who is not a toddler for once. He has work he should be doing. He’s too old for this crap. It was one thing in high school, but now…
“You’re allowed to, if you want,” Hitoshi says, interrupting his train of thought. “You know I don’t mind. Work’s over, you don’t have anything to do for the rest of the day. You can be as little as you want.”
Katsuki sniffs again and rubs away a traitorous tear that starts to form, clenching his jaw until his teeth ache. He knows that if he says no, Hitoshi will drop the act and treat him like an adult, let it drag him out of this half-headspace he’s slipping into, and Katsuki will probably stay grumpy and irritated the entire night for it.
Is that any better?
His gaze flicks back to Hitoshi, his traitorous brain reminding him that he does really want to be held, to not have to take care of everything by himself, to just…
He nods, a fast little thing, but of course Hitoshi notices.
“Okay,” he says. He crouches down, speaks in that soft, gentle way he only brings out when Katsuki’s like this. “Hey, baby-cat.”
Just like that, Katsuki’s adult headspace crumbles around him. Usually it’d make him smile, but today all he can do is scramble into Hitoshi’s arms and start sobbing his heart out. It just hurts too much. It’s so big, and he’s so small, all his feelings exploding inside his chest.
“Oh, I know, baby, I know,” Hitoshi soothes, easily rearranging them to sit more comfortably. “Shh, you’re alright. You’re gonna be okay.”
Katsuki clutches at his shirt and sobs harder. It’s not gonna be okay, he knows it, it’s never ever going to be okay again.
“Hurts,” he slurs out, the only thing he can manage.
“I know,” Hitoshi murmurs, rubbing his back. “I know it hurts, angel. I promise it won’t hurt forever. I’m gonna take care of you.”
Another loud round of cries wracks Katsuki’s frame, but at least this time it’s relief. That’s all he wants, really. Just for Hitoshi to stay, to help.
“‘orry,” he whines. As much as he wants it, he still has to apologize. He’s taking up time, being weird, making Hitoshi take care of him when he’s probably just pretending.
“Now I know my kitty-cat is not trying to apologize for being small,” Hitoshi says lightly.
Katsuki makes a loud noise of protest.
“You don’t have to be sorry, or embarrassed, or anything like that. I love helping you, you know? You’re my favorite, angel, big and little.” Hitoshi sways back and forth, rocking them gently while Katsuki processes that. “You wanna talk about it, sweetpea?”
Katsuki nods, definitely smearing snot all over Hitoshi’s shirt. He wrinkles his nose and moves away from the wet spot.
He does want to talk about it. He wants Hitoshi to know so he can fix it, or at least tell Katsuki he’s not the worst baby in the world. It’s just…he’s still crying, and his voice when he’s little is always high and soft and wobbly, and it’s worse when he’s upset, and he can’t quite stop being aware that he’s talking weird and bad so he always pulls himself older trying to do it.
But if he doesn’t start talking then Hitoshi is gonna talk right over him and assume he doesn’t have anything to say, and Katsuki can’t let him do that.
“‘s jus’…” he starts, broken and barely audible and not good enough. A little whine creeps out, and he struggles to pull himself upright, to be big enough to talk normally. “I…I…”
He whines again. Everything’s mixed up and he’s going too slow, Hitoshi’s going to interrupt and move on and Katsuki won’t get to say it because he’s being stupid and oh, he’s crying again, isn’t he?
“Shh, baby, don’t push yourself,” Hitoshi murmurs, finally catching on. “It’s hard, I know, you’re doing such a good job. Take your time, we don’t have anything to rush for.”
Katsuki whimpers a little more and finally manages, “‘s in trouble.”
“You were in trouble? At work?”
“Mhm. Bad.”
“Kats, you’re not bad—“
Katsuki whines, growls, and squirms around to smack Hitoshi in the shoulder with the heel of his hand, repeatedly. He might be small in his head, but his body is still plenty strong, and he can hear Hitoshi grunt. “Liar.”
Hitoshi’s stupid, does he think Katsuki’s going to believe him when he wasn’t even there? Katsuki is a baby but he’s still smart enough not to get tricked.
“Okay, okay, shh, no hitting.” Hitoshi gently but firmly takes his hand and tucks it back into his lap. “Gentle hands, Kats. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lie. I don’t think you’re bad, how’s that?”
Katsuki grumbles wordlessly. Acceptable.
“You wanna tell me why you think you’re bad?”
It’s because Katsuki’s dangerous, volatile, mean, loud, angry…everything people have ever said about him. Most of those words are well outside the scope of his current vocabulary, though, fitting all wrong in his mouth even though he knows them.
“Bad job,” he mumbles. “‘an’t save ‘veryone.”
Hitoshi kisses the top of his head. “Thank you for telling me, angel. That was really brave, telling me what you think you did wrong.”
“Not,” Katsuki protests. He’s not brave. He’s barely doing anything. He’s mean and bad and terrible.
“Hm, I think it is.” Hitoshi squeezes him gently. “I think you’re my good, brave baby no matter what happened at work. Everybody has bad days, everybody messes up sometimes. Doesn’t make you bad.”
“Feel bad,” Katsuki says.
“Oh, I know you do. I know it feels so bad right now. But not for always, right?”
“Yes,” Katsuki says stubbornly. “Yes f’r always.”
Hitoshi chuckles. Laughs at him. But it’s gentle, so Katsuki only bristles a little. “Well, let’s think. You don’t feel as bad right now as you did when you first slipped, right? No more crying?”
Katsuki squirms around on his lap and finally has to admit that he’s right with a small nod.
“Yeah. So I think it’s maybe possible that in a little bit longer, you’ll feel even better than you do right now. Right?”
Katsuki shrugs.
“We’ll see,” Hitoshi promises. “Let’s see if we can get you out of your costume and into something comfy first, okay? How do we feel about a bath?”
Katsuki shakes his head.
“Baby, you’re kinda dirty.”
He shakes his head harder. He doesn’t want a bath. He wants to lay down with Hitoshi and maybe eat a snack, not spend forever in the water and the uncomfortable tub.
“No?” Hitoshi asks. He slowly helps Katsuki up, lifting him a little to sit on the edge of the bed. “You don’t want to get all clean before you put on your sleep clothes?”
Katsuki whines, starting to tear up again. No, he doesn’t want to, he just wants to get dressed and be done, why won’t Hitoshi just listen to him? At the same time, he can feel dirt and dust and sweat sticking to him, especially his face, and he doesn’t like that either. He doesn’t know what to do, he just doesn’t want a bath today.
“Okay, no bath, you’re okay. I hear you, kitty-cat, no more tears, alright? You’re good.” Hitoshi’s thumbs swipe over his cheeks.
Katsuki hiccups and nods, swallowing the rest of his near-meltdown. Hitoshi smiles at him, pets his cheek just a bit for the fun of it, and steps back.
“What do you want to wear tonight, sweetpea?”
Scowling, Katsuki shakes his head. He doesn’t want any decisions, Hitoshi knows what he likes. He’s done too many hard things already, it’s not fair.
“No, you don’t want to pick your clothes, or no, something else is wrong?” Hitoshi asks gently.
Katsuki holds up one finger because he’s tired. Hitoshi cradles the back of his head to kiss his hair.
“Good boy, thank you for telling me. I’ll get it.”
It itches under Katsuki’s skin to see Hitoshi disappear into the closet—he isn’t even fully out of sight, just has his back turned. But there’s nothing Katsuki hates more than being left alone.
He kicks his feet, watching closely until Hitoshi returns. He’s holding a pair of fuzzy, light blue sleep pants with stars on them (they’re all six-pointed, so Katsuki likes to pretend they’re explosions instead), a worn-in gray tshirt, and a plain black hoodie. Or at least, it looks plain. Once Hitoshi helps him wriggle out of his costume and into his better clothes, Katsuki hooks his thumbs through the holes in the sleeves so the paw-print design sits over his palm, and pulls up the hood to show off the cat ears attached to it.
It was Hitoshi’s hoodie first, so it swamps him a bit. Katsuki loves it more than anything, not that he’ll admit that when he’s not soft and small like this. He contents himself with flapping around the overlong sleeves for a minute, just happy to have it back, then fixes them and looks up at Hitoshi for approval.
Hitoshi smiles and ruffles his hair. “C’mon, I have an idea to get you a little bit cleaner without a bath, okay?”
Katsuki can feel his expression fall. Warily, he takes Hitoshi’s hand and allows himself to be led to the bathroom. The floor is cold. Katsuki doesn’t want to be in here and the floor is cold. He doesn’t want a bath. He’s hungry and it’s cold and he doesn’t know what Hitoshi’s idea is but it’s probably going to take forever and he’s not even touching Katsuki anymore and all of this sucks.
He tugs on Hitoshi’s shirt. He’s going through the cabinet under the sink, doesn’t look up. He’s not paying attention, he’s just ignoring Katsuki, why is he ignoring him? Is he annoyed? Should Katsuki have just agreed to the bath in the first place?
His vision blurs. He tugs again.
“Hang on, Kats, I’m just getting something.”
Katsuki whimpers almost silently and tugs harder. He needs Hitoshi to look at him, he needs to tell him that everything is bad and he’s a little bit scared, he needs Hitoshi to explain what’s going on and also fix everything.
“Just a second, just a second.”
Hitoshi’s distracted. He’s not paying attention. He’s not listening. He’s not listening and Katsuki is crying again and he knows he’s being way, way bad, too much, needy and small, but he can’t actually stop himself because his chest really hurts and he needs–
“Baby, I said hang—ow! Katsuki, what the fuck?”
Hitoshi is on the floor, holding the back of his head as he glares up at Katsuki. The cabinet is hanging off one of its hinges, a few slivers of splintered wood on the tile.
Oh.
Oh, Katsuki really messed up.
He stumbles back, everything twisting up and squeezing inside of him. He pushed Hitoshi. He broke things. Katsuki hurt Hitoshi.
And now Hitoshi is really, really, really mad. He never swears around Katsuki when he’s little. He definitely never, ever swears at Katsuki.
“‘m sorry!” he chokes out. “I‘m sorry, ‘m really really sorry I didn’ mean it, ‘m sorry–”
“Shh, no, hey. Baby, you’re alright,” Hitoshi tries, scrambling up, but Katsuki just shakes his head and wails.
He backs up further, his legs hitting the lip of the tub, but he’s panicking too much to stop his momentum, tripping backwards—he’s gonna fall and it’s going to hurt—
Hitoshi lunges forward and grabs him, yanking him close into a hug. Katsuki yelps, startled, and dissolves into tears again because everything is just so scary and guilt is sitting heavy on his chest and he’s just, just sorry.
“You’re okay, you’re okay, just breathe,” Hitoshi says, petting over the back of his head, where he would’ve cracked it against the tub. Where Katsuki hurt Hitoshi’s head.
He’s shaking so badly his legs won’t hold him. Hitoshi grunts when they give out and he has to abruptly take Katsuki’s weight.
“Okay, we’re gonna sit down for a sec, here, like this. Yeah, angel, just like that, good job.”
Katsuki sniffles and curls up closer in Hitoshi’s lap. He’s being so selfish, so bad, the worst ever, and he can’t even make himself stop. He’s the one that hurt Hitoshi and somehow Hitoshi is holding him.
“Sorry,” he whines. “Sorry, Toshi, sorry, scared.”
“I know, I know, I’m not mad, okay? You’re still my good little baby. You just wanted my attention, huh?”
“Mhm, ‘m sorry.” He really has to make sure that point gets across.
“Shh, you’re alright. Somethin’ upset you, huh?”
Katsuki nods, tearing up again. Stupid, stupid, he should’ve just handled it. He’s a big boy. He can be a big boy. Now he ruined everything.
“You wanna tell me about it?” Hitoshi prompts gently.
Katsuki whines. He’s tired of words. But he’s gotta tell Hitoshi, he has to be good and at least explain himself. He doesn’t want Hitoshi to think he was just being mean.
“Not lookin’ ‘t me,” he finally whines. “And…”
He doesn’t have the words together yet to keep going, he just wants Hitoshi to know there’s more. Hitoshi waits him out for a moment, then says, “And?”
“Stupid,” Katsuki mumbles. “Cold. Don’ wanna bath. Dunno wha’s goin’ on.”
“That’s a lot of not-good things,” Hitoshi says sympathetically. “Lots of things for my little baby without his words, hm?”
“ Yeah, ” Katsuki whines. It is a lot. It’s good that Hitoshi gets it.
“Yeah,” Hitoshi says contemplatively. “Here, can I move you a sec? Not far, don’t pout at me, sweetheart—there we go.”
Katsuki ends up sitting facing him, his legs bracketing Hitoshi’s waist. They’re pretty much at eye level now, but Katsuki is nervous, so he keeps his gaze down.
“Kats,” Hitoshi says seriously, touching his chin to make him look up. Katsuki raises his head, but he’s too worried to look him in the eyes and too small to force it. “Okay. That’s fine. But I want you to listen to me, okay? I’m sorry I didn’t look at you right away. That’s my fault. I wasn’t doing anything urgent and I know that’s super important to you, so I should’ve looked. I just forget sometimes. I’m really sorry and I’ll try to remember better. Okay?”
Katsuki chews on his lower lip and reluctantly nods. “M‘kay.”
It is a really good apology, and he doesn’t like being mad at Hitoshi anyway.
“Thank you, sweetpea. But we also have to talk about the pushing.”
Katsuki whimpers sharply. “Said ‘m sorry. ‘m sorry, be good, don’t, don’t–”
Hitoshi holds onto him before he can try to scramble away. Katsuki shields his face with one arm, the other still trying to push out of Hitoshi’s grip.
“Katsuki, hey, I’m not gonna hit you. I know you’re sorry, let me see your pretty eyes? Please? No one’s gonna hurt you, honey.”
Reluctantly Katsuki lowers his arm and stops pushing. “Sorry,” he whispers, just in case he wasn’t clear enough.
Hitoshi pets his hair. “We don’t push people just because they aren’t doing what we want, Kats. I know you know that. But I know you have a hard time talking when you’re little and upset and you were just trying to tell me something was wrong, yeah?”
Slowly, Katsuki nods, a little afraid that it’s somehow a trap.
“Yeah. And I think you’re pretty well punished for that, huh? Had a big scare and a whole lot of sorries. That's definitely a bad enough time, you agree?”
“‘m punish,” Katsuki mumbles.
“Not this time, sweetpea. You weren’t bad, we just had a little miscommunication.” Hitoshi kisses his temple. “And you know pushing’s wrong. We’re all good. As long as you promise to try to be a little more patient next time, like I promised to remember better, yeah?”
“Yes,” Katsuki agrees, nodding emphatically. “Sorry, Toshi.”
“Good boy.” Hitoshi grins and ruffles his hair. He reaches behind him, into the broken cabinet, and pulls out what he must’ve been looking for—baby wipes. “Do you wanna clean up yourself, or can I help you?”
Katsuki should probably do it himself. He’s been enough trouble. But he really doesn’t want to let go of Hitoshi, and Hitoshi will probably do a better job anyway, so…
“Helps.”
“Good job. Hold still, and tell me if I hurt you or I’m going too rough, okay?”
Katsuki nods and closes his eyes, letting Hitoshi clean his face off. He’s meticulous, going all the way behind his ears and even up into his hair a bit. He does give Katsuki a wipe for his neck, and Katsuki whines about it a little, but they both know Katsuki hates people touching his neck so it’s better if he does it. Hitoshi gets around what he can reach of his collarbones and shoulders, then pushes the sleeves up to get his arms. Katsuki starts crying again and yanks his hands away when the pressure makes his dormant pain flare.
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry,” Hitoshi murmurs. “They hurt real bad, huh?”
Nodding jerkily, Katsuki cradles his hands against his chest.
“Can I see them, angel? I’ll be the most gentle, I promise. And we can get your braces after, ‘s that sound okay?”
Wary, Katsuki lets him have one hand. It still hurts—it hurts even without Hitoshi touching—but it’s not so bad. He can be good. He’s a hero. So he lets Hitoshi do his other hand without even crying about it this time.
“There you go, come here.” Hitoshi pulls him close again as soon as he’s done. “You’re so brave, thank you for letting me do that. You feel better? All nice and clean?”
Katsuki nods. “Hurts.”
“Oh, I know. Let’s go get your braces, up we go.”
Katsuki giggles a little as he’s lifted and carried back into their bedroom. Hitoshi fumbles around and grabs both his wrist braces from the top drawer of his dresser. Usually Katsuki only sleeps in them, but when his wrists get bad he wears them around the house, too.
Hitoshi sets him on the bed and carefully straps them on, checking that they’re not too loose or too tight. The splints hold his wrists straight, taking the pressure off of…whatever nerve is in the middle that hates him. The name is a little beyond him at the moment. It feels better immediately, and Katsuki tells Hitoshi as much when he asks.
“Good. Tell me if they start hurting too much, okay? We can try something else. But for right now I think it’s snack time, how ‘bout you?”
“Snack,” Katsuki agrees, looping his arms around Hitoshi’s neck to be picked up. The braces also make him feel smaller, in a strange way; he can’t move his hands the same and he knows it’ll be harder to hold things. It makes him clumsy, like a little kid still figuring out motor skills.
“Snack,” Hitoshi parrots back.
Katsuki rests his head on Hitoshi’s shoulder. He’s content, and not hurting so much, and he can feel himself slipping more. He turns his face enough to bite on the collar of Hitoshi’s shirt, suckling gently.
Hitoshi hums, rubbing his back. “Oh, do we have a tiny baby on our hands?”
Katsuki hums back. He is tiny. Very small and soft and warm and safe. He doesn’t have any words to communicate that, though, so he just hopes Hitoshi gets it.
“Yeah.” Hitoshi’s voice is even softer than before, almost a whisper. “Sleepy baby, hm?”
Katsuki’s eyelids flutter open. He didn’t realize they were closed.
“‘nack,” he mumbles, and feels Hitoshi’s chest shake.
“I know, don’t worry, I didn’t forget. What’s a good snack for my littlest kitty cat?”
Katsuki doesn’t bother to process the question, let alone answer. Hitoshi sounds happy, that’s good enough for him.
“Oh, hey, I haven’t talked to you about this yet—Kats, hey baby, sit up a little for me? Good boy, check this out.”
Katsuki blinks, slowly focusing on the bottle Hitoshi is holding up. Something pings in the back of his head, embarrassment, denial, but he’s too tired to care about it. He lays his head back down and clumsily reaches out.
“Aht, no, not just yet. There’s nothing in there, silly baby.” Hitoshi boops him very gently with the bottle and goes to the fridge. “Let’s get some milk and–”
Katsuki screams.
Hitoshi starts to say something, and there’s the hollow sound of an empty container bouncing before two hands are trying to hold him, but no, no, no, Katsuki needs out, needs away, right now or he’s gonna die.
He flails until he’s crashing to the floor, landing hard on his left side and scrambling away as fast as he can. All he can process is sharp, animal fear; the knowledge that he’s going to die if Hitoshi gets him again. There’s logic behind it, a flawed kind, but he’s not even thinking about that right now.
There’s no good place to hide in his panic, so Katsuki curls up on the floor behind the couch where he can’t be seen from the kitchen, sobbing his heart out yet again.
“Baby,” Hitoshi calls. “Kats, hey, what’s the matter? Why is my baby-cat crying?”
“Scare,” Katsuki wails. “‘way.”
“I can’t go away, baby. I gotta make sure you’re safe, you hit the ground pretty hard.”
“‘way,” Katsuki repeats, kicking out with one foot even though Hitoshi is nowhere near close enough for it to connect.
“I’m not gonna hurt you, sweetheart. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, okay?”
Katsuki doesn’t trust him. Katsuki’s gonna die, he’s gonna choke to death while Hitoshi laughs because he’s just a little kid.
He’s too small to explain, though, so he just whines, “Scare,” again.
“I know you’re scared, I know this is really, really scary. Can you tell me about it, so I can help make it less scary?”
“No’ gonna,” Katsuki slurs.
“Of course I’ll help make it less scary, sweetheart. I never want my baby to be scared even a little bit.” Hitoshi inches closer; Katsuki allows it. “Please? Promise I’ll listen.”
“Mmm.”
It’s not a real word, but it’s trying to be. Hitoshi leans forward. “Yeah?”
“Mil’,” Katsuki forces out. He’s so tired of talking. It feels like the hardest thing in the world.
“You don’t want milk?” Hitoshi asks, confused. “Is…is that scary?”
Katsuki nods.
“Scary because you don’t want to tell me no?”
Katsuki shakes his head.
“Okay, I…I don’t know…” Katsuki tenses, worried, because Hitoshi doesn’t get it so he’s gonna make Katsuki do it anyways and– “Baby, are you scared of the milk?”
He nods.
“Okay, I gotcha. Thank you for telling me, I know that’s really hard and you’re doing such a good job right now. Do you think you can tell me why it scares you?”
Katsuki shakes his head, but he does sit up enough to wrap a hand around his own throat. He has to pull it away quickly, thinking too hard about slime flooding through his mouth and muzzles clamping his jaw shut and fingers squeezing out all his air. Hitoshi frowns at him for a long moment.
“Oh,” he says finally, like a revelation. “Okay. Does it make you remember some bad things, angel?”
Katsuki nods.
“Yeah,” Hitoshi agrees. “That’s really scary, I’m sorry I suggested it. That was pretty mean of me to not ask first, huh?”
Katsuki shakes his head, lower lip wobbling. Hitoshi’s not mean. He’s the best ever even though Katsuki is so, so bad, he could never be mean.
“Well, it definitely wasn’t a good choice,” Hitoshi says.
He sounds sad. Katsuki hates that he sounds sad. He crawls forward and plants himself in Hitoshi’s lap. Without any words, he just has to cling on as hard as he can and hope that fixes everything.
“You’re so sweet,” Hitoshi murmurs. “My sweet little baby. I think we need to get some water in you to replace all those tears, huh?”
Katsuki just sighs. Water is good. Whatever Hitoshi wants, as long as it’s not scary. Katsuki’s good with that.
“Let’s put some warm water in the bottle, does that sound okay? I can put lemon in it, if that helps.” Hitoshi asks. He’s rocking them gently, not getting up yet, giving Katsuki’s slow baby brain time to decide.
He nods eventually, and Hitoshi kisses his forehead. “That’s so perfect, sweetheart, thank you. You’re just the bravest boy today.”
Katsuki grins into his shoulder. Good. He likes being the bravest.
He sort of half-dozes through everything Hitoshi does in the kitchen, only opening his eyes when they sit down somewhere.
“Hey, baby-cat, you awake? Yeah, there you go.” Hitoshi smooths his hair out of his face. “Drink some water for me, bug, you’re dehydrated.”
Katsuki makes a grab for the bottle, but the braces make his hands clumsy and he almost drops it.
“I gotcha, Kats, lemme do it.”
Katsuki whines, a little bit of embarrassment bleeding in. He’s not even supposed to have a bottle, he doesn’t get small like this.
Except he does, apparently.
“Sh-sh-shh, I know, it’s a little bit scary, but I promise it’s okay. Let me do it.”
Katsuki whines again, but lets Hitoshi hold the bottle. Right away Hitoshi is grabbing the remote with his free hand, turning on the TV. There’s lights, colors, music—Katsuki watches, but he’s too tired to track much. He does notice when a dog comes onscreen, brown and white with a red bandana. He’s singing. Katsuki turns his head, making Hitoshi pull the bottle away.
“‘up-py.”
“Yeah baby, that’s a puppy, good job,” Hitoshi murmurs. “You like ‘im?”
Katsuki nods and goes back to his water. Hitoshi hums softly along with the song. It’s bouncy and upbeat, something exciting to get the story going. Somehow, with Hitoshi, it still manages to lull Katsuki into sleep.