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“Twinning is not restricted to feldspars…” As Professor Ishiyama continues his lecture, Eijirou tries to take notes as his gaze moves rapidly from the lecture presentation, his notebook, and the clock on the wall above the whiteboard.
It’s not that he isn’t interested in the lesson—tectosilicates are fascinating—Eijirou just doesn’t have the attention span left for the last few slides. He has plans after class that he’s been looking forward to for months.
The last few minutes of the mineralogy lesson are hazy to Eijirou and the moment his professor dismisses them, he’s hastily throwing all his things into his bag.
“Dude!” Satou chuckles at Eijirou as he rises to his feet. “I was starting to worry you’d break your kneecap on the desk you were bouncing it so hard.”
Eijirou rubs at the back of his neck, offering a small grin and a shrug as he swings his bag over his shoulder and stands as well. “I’m just too excited about tonight.”
“Oh yeah! Your movie date is tonight, right?”
“Yeah! I’m surprised you remembered that.” The two of them fall into step together, heading out of the classroom with the flow of their classmates.
Satou offers a shrug of his own. “You honestly have mentioned it so many times that it’s hard to forget. Plus I definitely wanted to see that movie too but the tickets for tonight’s special premiere sold out too fast.”
“If I knew how Katsuki did it, I’d tell you the secret.”
As the two of them make their way down the hall toward the exit, Satou nods toward the bathroom door coming up on the right. Eijirou prefers avoiding the public bathrooms but his bladder is telling him it doesn’t want to wait.
He’s safe with a friend, anyway.
Eijirou follows Satou into the bathroom as the other man replies, “Definitely let me know if he ever tells you. But in the meantime, no spoilers, Kirishima!”
“I’m a spoiler-free zone!” Eijirou insists with a laugh. Then he ducks into a toilet stall while Satou squares off at a urinal. “You just need to see it ASAP so we can trade thoughts on it.”
“Deal.”
Eijirou hears the urinal flush, followed by a quick run of the sink before Satou calls out, “Have a good night, man. I’ll catch you later!”
“You too, Satou!” Eijirou replies just before his friend exits the bathroom.
It takes Eijirou a moment longer to finish, wipe, and flush. Once he dries his hands after washing them, Eijirou pulls out his phone to send a text.
Ei > Made a pit stop but headed to you now, babe!
As he hits send, Eijirou strides out of the men’s toilets and down the hall toward the exit. He pushes through the door stepping out into the dark fall evening. Eijirou happily steps on crunchy fallen leaves scattered around the building’s parking lot. He has to get to the art building across campus. When his phone vibrates, Eijirou unlocks it as he walks across the shadowed lot, smiling to himself as he reads the text.
Kats > See you soon then, don’t get distracted with your dumb leaf crunching
Eijirou’s fingers start to tap out a reply as he chuckles to himself.
“Wipe that smile off your face, fake fucker!” A hand smacks Eijirou’s phone out of his fingers as a classmate invades his space. As he instinctively steps back, trying to put distance between them, Eijirou sees two other men approaching him from behind.
The shock of his phone being slapped away curdles into stark fear as Eijirou’s gaze turns to search for escape or a passerby. All he sees are deep shadows stretching through the empty parking lot. The three men hem Eijirou in before he can dash out of reach. His body runs cold, tension pooling in his gut. Not again.
“H-Hey, guys, I—“ Eijirou’s attempt at diffusing the situation is cut off as hands shove him by the shoulders, sending him stumbling backward into the push of another set of hands.
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Yeah, don’t want to hear your nasty voice.”
“Gunna teach you a lesson about what it /really/ means to be a man.”
The voices of the three men overlap each other, their words wicked sharp as they lash at Eijirou. One of the men catches him behind the knee with a quick kick, sending Eijirou down to his hands and knees on the pavement. Another foot shoves him at the hip, forcing him down to the ground fully. When he tries to regain his feet, Eijirou’s bludgeoned with kicks to keep him down and his mind spirals, panic making his chest tighter and tighter as pain blossoms inside him.
He’d been shattered by violence as a child, but after the beating his freshman year of high school, he’d been saved. And his saviours had surrounded him, becoming his dearest friends. With time, he healed, broken pieces being reinforced and glued, stitched, rebuilt.
The blunt force of a boot clips Eijirou’s chin, sending teeth into tongue. Eijirou tastes copper and feels his reinforced pieces buckle just before a fist meets his ribs.
“Fucking piece of shit!” one of the men above him snaps. “You’re disgusting.”
Eijirou hears it echoing with memories of his parents, the kids on his childhood playground, classmates. It calls to his old self, the boy full of self-loathing for the very wrong body he was trapped in. He felt disgusting then, and what difference does it make now? The barrage of fists and kicks send eruptions of pain starbursting across his nerves; physical suffering that twines sharply with the weeping emotional scars.
“Can’t believe this bitch thought she could hide and pretend!” The laugh beneath the cruel words oozes with acidic hatred.
“You fuckin’ know what? We’re gunna expose your lie! Take her clothes off, come on.”
The beating stops but Eijirou curls in on himself tighter. “Please, don’t,” he wheezes. He hopes it’s just a bruise causing sharp pain in his side.
A boot connects with the side of Eijirou’s face, pressing him down into the asphalt. “Shut the fuck up, fake trash whore. Do it already, man!”
The second assailant hesitates before Eijirou senses him coming closer, the crunch of loose gravel underfoot. When he replies to his companion, he’s far louder, likely kneeling just over Eijirou’s prone form. “Dude, it’s a bit extreme, taking—“
“Then I’ll do it myself!”
The moment the man lifts his foot off Eijirou’s face, the redhead raises his head, tears and snot running down his face. “P-Please, I’m begging—“
“The fuck did I say?!” When the boot collides with his jaw, Eijirou’s vision wobbles dangerously as blood begins to pour from his nose. “Pick the cunt up, Gomi. Keep this bitch from fightin’ back.”
Eijirou trembles, unable to sort through the pain, the fear and horror; the agony of living a hated existence. He can’t stop this, won’t ever be free of the violence.
It’s so unfair. Why? Why does he have to hurt just to try being happy in a body they’ll always want to abuse?
Soft hands grab for Eijirou’s arm, drawing a whimper from him. His skin smarts already. “Fuckin—come on, get up,” the uneasy one insists as he tugs at Eijirou.
Eijirou silently begs to the heavens, heart racing. Please, let him vanish, let this stop forever. He doesn’t want to be here, to suffer and cry. If they expose him, remove the comfort of fabric; if they go beyond violating him with fists like this, Eijirou knows he’ll never recover. Not broken but irreparably destroyed.
The second man, Gomi, gets a solid hold of Eijirou and starts lifting him off the ground. It’s then that the sound of gravel crunching reaches Eijirou’s ears, followed by a meaty thud, a grunt, and the movement of air passing by. The hands gripping Eijirou’s shoulders vanish, sending him falling back to the ground. Every bone protests the jarring shift and collapse but Eijirou forces himself to open his eyes to try to discern what’s happening.
“Who the fuck?” the ringleader snaps.
Someone else? Friend or foe? Eijirou’s tears blur his vision, the shadows of the overcast night keeping details from him.
Knuckles crack just to Eijirou’s other side where Gomi had been crouched. “I’m going to fucking end both of you sick pieces of shit.”
That voice strikes up a torrent of colliding emotions, creating a perfect storm of anguish in Eijirou’s chest. He can barely grasp the thoughts that swirl inside his head. Katsuki shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t see this.
Please, help. Save me.
He’ll be expelled if these bullies report him.
I need you, Katsuki. I’m so sorry I’m so weak.
In the background, Eijirou can hear his boyfriend shout profane demands as he beats at least one of them. A tiny rational voice tries to tell him to get up, stop Katsuki and leave with him. But his body isn't his own, his mind gripped by feverish anxiety and broken shards of agony.
Some sibilant part of himself cuts through all the frantic thoughts, breathing his darkest fear into existence: you’ve done it now, too weak and naïve to fight your own battles; Katsuki’s going to save you now, but he’s done with the relationship after tonight. He’s strong, vocal about standing up for what’s right. No way he’ll tolerate you after this.
You’re wrong! he shouts back into the darkness of his mind. Eijirou muscles tremble as he attempts to pick himself up from the pavement. Katsuki loves me, just the way I am.
Weak? Spineless? A coward? Yeah right. You’re confusing pity for love .
A fresh sob breaks through Eijirou’s split lips, tears falling anew. They sting the cuts the stony asphalt dug into his skin. His arms shake and threaten to give out but he grits his teeth and keeps pushing.
If he doesn’t walk away now , the dissenter in his head hisses, then he’ll walk later when he sees how pathetic you are. When he gets tired of sticking up and sticking his neck out for you, because you won’t fucking do it for yourself .
Stop, please. It’s not true . He can’t let it be true, because Katsuki is all he has. The bright star that keeps the depths of his shadows at bay. Without him…
That insidious voice fills it in for him. Light’s snuffed out and you’ll finally have to accept that no one, absolutely no one, wants you to exist—society despises you. You’re parents, disgusted. And Katsuki’s sick of your failure.
Stop, stop please. Just…
“St-Stop.”
The word sounds as weak as his resolve, faltering and choked by the pain and tears. But he’s sitting up and no one has come to knock him back down. Not physically. The ugly destructive inner voice still stabs at him.
“St-Stop. Just stop.” Eijirou hardly registers that he’s speaking aloud. Not until a voice responds just next to his right side. Gruff yet gentle.
“I stopped. Swear he’s still alive. Fuckin’ prick doesn’t deserve it but—“ an exhalation and then, “Ei, hey, look at me, babe.”
Eijirou’s head turns, unable to refuse this man even as a muscle in his neck twinges angrily.
There’s an angry red splotch on Katsuki’s left cheek but otherwise, he looks fine. Eijirou knows he probably looks horrific by comparison. Katsuki’s eyes scan over him, getting a glassy wet shimmer to them the longer they examine.
“Goddamn, Ei,” he says roughly. “Let's get you home.”
Eijirou lets his eyes fall shut, giving a slow careful nod. When Katsuki’s hands first touch him, Ei has to fight down a flinch. He follows his boyfriend’s softly spoken instructions that direct them back to their campus dorm, his mind finally falling silent, filled with static that he feels his awareness hide behind for the time being.
Striding alongside the silent man, Katsuki takes great pains to quell the tremble in his limbs, the violence that demands retribution for the state his boyfriend is in.
Eijirou limps heavily, favouring his left side. One arm guards his ribs while the other hangs at his side, covered in scrapes. The darkness casts much of his face in shadow, obscuring what might be bruises forming but Katsuki sees the vacant hollowness in those vermillion eyes. It terrifies him, that detached gaze. Katsuki worked so hard to keep it from appearing ever since they were teens.
The scorching rage in Katsuki’s veins wants to destroy the world that makes it possible for the love and light of his life to look so empty in this moment. It demands he turn around and go hunt down the bastards responsible for tonight; show them how deep six feet really is.
But Katsuki won’t. Eijirou is more important than revenge and if he were aware enough, this beautiful man would tell him that it’s not worth it. Ei has always been the better of the two of them.
With effort, the fury rumbles down to the depths of himself as Katsuki scans his student ID and walks them both into their dormitory building. A supporting arm wraps around Eijirou as they walk down the hall and Katsuki observes how his boyfriend stiffens at his touch.
The motherfuckers.
They make it to their dorm room without encountering anyone, which Katsuki is grateful for. Right now is not the time for one of their well-meaning friends or hallmates to happen upon them. He knows Eijirou wouldn’t want to be seen like this, fretted over. And Katsuki doesn’t think he can explain what happened without putting holes in walls.
The moment the door to their shared room falls shut, Katsuki ushers Eijirou to their bed, flicking on the bedside lamp to see by rather than turn on the overhead fluorescent light. A flinch is the only reaction he gets from Eijirou as the man gets settled into the pillows.
“Gunna grab the first aid,” Katsuki says as he moves away to one of the two wardrobes in the room. As a rugby player, Katsuki gets into enough scrapes that their first aid is stocked with more than the typical plasters, and it’s invaluable now.
Once in hand, he turns back to the bed only to freeze. Tears shimmer in the warm glow of the lamplight as they slip silently down Eijirou’s face.
“Ei.” Katuski’s voice cracks around the swell of pain that echoes for his boyfriend’s suffering. Then he’s back on the bed, setting the first aid box aside so that he can ever so gently cradle Eijirou’s face in his hands. There are scrapes on his cheeks, along his jaw; gravel sticks to him in places and his eyes are rimmed red, one partly swollen already.
And he’s still the most beautiful person Katsuki’s ever laid eyes on.
“Ei, I’m so fucking sorry.” His own eyes burn with the threat of tears. If he’d just insisted on picking Eijirou up from class instead of meeting him at the car, this wouldn’t have happened. Katsuki knows if he’d decided to go check on him sooner, maybe his partner wouldn’t be this badly injured. If he’d done better, Eijirou would never have to fear being assaulted.
Eijirou shakes his head softly, tears flowing faster as he opens his mouth and starts, “No, no I’m s–”
“Don’t you fucking dare apologise,” Katsuki snaps with feeling. He thumbs away some of the damp tracks before reaching out for the first aid and pulling it into his lap. “This isn’t remotely your fault.”
“We’re missing the movie, though. I’ll–I’ll pay you back for the tickets.”
“Like hell you are.” Katsuki rips open an alcohol pad and begins to sweep it over the cuts on Eijirou’s face, gentle but thorough. “If anyone’s going to pay, it’s those fuckers.”
“It wasn’t your fight,” Eijirou states in a whisper. “You shouldn’t deal with this. With me .”
His hand stills for a beat before Katsuki continues cleaning out the wounds, simmering gaze focusing on his task. “You’ve said that shit before and yet I’m still here. Because we’re a goddamn team. So your fights are my fights. And I’m not going anywhere .”
Eijirou sniffs, only to hiss and grab at his ribs. Katsuki immediately reaches into the kit and pulls out the pain killers. There’s still a bottle of water on the nightstand and he grabs that before shoving both into his partner’s hands. “Take that.”
Eijirou holds them but his gaze swims with pain and worry as he looks at Katsuki. “What if … what if they report you? Katsuki, you can’t get in any more trouble.”
“If they did that, they’d have to explain in front of the university court why I beat their asses,” he returns as he takes the pill bottle back, shaking two out into his palm and pressing them against Eijirou’s lips. “Take them.”
The redhead finally does as directed, letting the pills slip onto his tongue and washing them down with the water. Katsuki takes that time to take out two insta-ice packs, pressing the release on both to activate the gel freeze. Once he yanks his shirt off and wraps the packs with it, Katsuki trades Eijirou the water bottle for the packs. He doesn’t have to elaborate as Eijirou promptly places the pack against his left side where the sharp pain is the worst.
Katsuki finally speaks as he pulls out a few plasters and butterfly stitches next. “Ei, I’m going to say this like I have before and will continue to say forever after—you are the one who deserves to be happy. It’s your motherfucking right , and I will gladly fight with words and fists to protect that right. To keep you safe .”
“I should—should be able to keep myself safe!” Eijirou’s voice rises with his frustration and Katsuki lets him get it out as he leans closer to start bandaging the scrapes and cuts he can see. “I—There’s the taser your mum gave me. And the kitten stabbing keychain from Mina. But there was no time and it just—I don’t even know where the taser is .”
Pausing in his ministrations, Katsuki moves until he captures Eijirou’s gaze. His expression brims with sincere devotion and determination as he insists firmly, “You don’t have to do this alone. You won’t ever have to do this alone.”
Silence falls between them after that, the only sounds coming from the bandaging Katsuki opens and Eijirou’s sniffles. When Katsuki finishes with the last of the broken skin, he shifts position so that he’s face to face with Eijirou. A hand reaches up to cup Eijirou’s less damaged cheek as Katuski’s words rasp softly, “What do you need from me right now, Eijirou? Whatever you need to feel comfortable and safe right now.”
“I—I don’t know?” Eijirou whispers back.
“That’s okay.” Katsuki’s thumb brushes against the spot of unmarred skin, his gaze intent on his boyfriend. “Will a kiss help at all?”
There’s a pause before Eijirou gives a small nod.
Katuski offers a warm smile. “Okay. Promise not to piss off your split lip.” Then he leans in, lips caressing Eijirou’s with the softest pressure. In this intimate contact, Katsuki tries to express every iota of love and respect, adoration and dedication. He can’t imagine his life without this man in it.
When the kiss ends, Katsuki lets their foreheads meet. “I love you, Eijirou.”
“I love you too, Katsuki.” Eijirou inhales deeply, eyes falling closed for a moment. When he opens them again and meets Katsuki’s gaze, he breathes, “ Thank you .”
Katsuki hears the layers to that thanks. On the surface, it’s thanks for coming to find him, rescuing him tonight. Thanking Katsuki for supporting and defending him. It’s thanks for the love. But also thanking Katsuki for being the first person to ever accept Eijirou without reservation when he came out during their freshman year of high school. Thanks for having his back when classmates were cruel. Katsuki knows he’s being thanked for getting his parents to welcome Eijirou into their home. A thank you for being there for every step of Eijirou’s transition; the therapy, the first hormone injection, the top surgery and recovery process. And Eijirou’s thanking him for always being his biggest supporter, even in moments like now when he doubts himself and the self-sabotage tries to take hold.
“You’re my forever,” Katsuki replies in the scant space between them.
“You’re my always,” Eijirou answers before moving to steal a kiss of his own volition, making Katsuki smile. They’ll be okay.
Finally, Katsuki draws back and glances at his shut laptop resting at the foot of the bed before returning his attention to Eijirou. “If you need to talk, I’ll hear every word. If you want a distraction, I’ll bring out an arsenal of them.” He moves to settle beside Eijirou instead of in front of him as he adds, “But after what you’ve been through and the late hour, we can also just fucking go to sleep.”
Eijirou doesn’t answer immediately, his eyes trained somewhere in the middle distance as he holds an internal assessment with himself. Katsuki waits patiently at his side.
“I feel like…talking will just make me feel worse. Because…this isn’t something we can fix. Transphobia is just—it’s part of being trans, as shitty as it may be.” Eijirou lets out a sigh weighed down with the reality they live in. Katsuki can feel it bearing down on his boyfriend and he hates it with every fibre of his being. “A-And if I talk about what happened, I’ll just–be stuck reliving it in my head the whole time. I–I don’t want that.
“I just…Can you hold me? Cuddle while I distract myself with my mobile game until we fall asleep?”
Katsuki shuffles on the bed until he’s lying down with his arms open to Eijirou. “Of course.”
Once Eijirou finds the most comfortable way to lie curled up against Katsuki, minding his injuries, Katsuki strokes gentle fingers through his boyfriend’s hair. Eijirou relaxes into the warmth of Katsuki’s body as he lets the soft sounds of his mobile game lull him into a temporary sense of calm, focused on his game and not concerned as Katsuki takes his own phone in hand and begins to type across the screen.
Katsuki still sends and receives texts even after Eijirou sleepily gives his love a goodnight and drifts off to sleep beside him. He may not be able to fix the entire world of its awful views of transgender people, but Katsuki won’t just let Eijirou be left to fend for himself on this campus.
Eijirou shouldn’t be surprised when his friend Satou decides to walk with him after their mineralogy lab lets out the following week. Despite having talked with Katsuki and learning that his boyfriend asked their mutual friends to look out for him to and from classes, it has still felt like a shock to see how those friends have stepped up and done as asked without questioning why.
Katsuki never told them what happened, knowing it’s Eijirou’s choice alone who he shares the trauma with. He simply asked, expressing some concern for Eijirou’s safety. Their friends readily volunteered. Better still, none of his friends try to force him to explain where he got the injuries from. Eijirou realises that he’s needed the reminder that it’s not just him and Katsuki against the world; he has a great group of people to support him too.
“Did you want to do some studying tonight for the upcoming mineral exam?” Satou asks as they make their way across the campus.
Crunch . Eijirou steps on another leaf, this one particularly brittle. These days, he envisions that there’s an ugly transphobe trapped in each dead leaf and he’s doing the world a service by crushing each one beneath his feet. “Oh gods, yeah. I have been so distracted I’ve not prepared at all for it.”
Satou nods and steps on a leaf of his own, joining in the game. “Okay, cool! I’ll even bake some midnight study cupcakes.”
“Alright!” Eijirou cheers, fists pressing together as he jumps on a small group of leaf litter. “The best study fuel!”
Satou’s laughter echoes across the lawn as they continue up to Eijirou’s dormitory and head inside to find Katsuki and tackle their rock studies.