Familiarity

Chapter Thirty

hey sorry for taking a while to write this chapter.... AGAIN. i've lost a lot of motivation for this fic (also, again) but i'm also very determined to finish it off right.

chapter 31 is almost finished already

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There stood a time when silence was needed but was unreachable. Because Katsuki responded immediately, and he did so out of indignation.

"Why the hell would I need to talk to him?" His eyebrows were knitted against his eyelids, forming lines that drew the distaste clearly on his face.

There was a lot you could've said, but you settled with a shrug. "Just to talk."

He turned away and folded his arms, clicking his tongue in defiance. "That sounds stupid."

"I didn't say you had to. You two just... you used to be close. And... maybe you don't as much now, but it used to seem like you hated him at some point. And—I mean—for no reason." Those memories, though mostly disconnected from you, bled through and stained your skin. They found connection to your own faults. They found ruin in your sister.

"I know I'm no better," you began. "I left him, too. I abandoned him like everyone else." You sighed, staring down at your lap, just as defiant as Katsuki. "But... I  need to get better. And I want to do more than that. More than  just with Midoriya. I don't want to feel the way I do when all I see is my sister in those stupid toys she played with, or when things like that happen. I'm sick of it. I don't think I could take any more of it."

He perked up as the attention that once landed on him was directed onto your own weaknesses. "What?" he asked. "The shit with the dorms the other day?"

Everything. You're sick of everything.

"All of it," you admitted with a tight voice. "I'm already sick of what's to come with the people in black armor. I'm over everything with my brother being threatened and upset and... changing... becoming like me. I'm done with my stupid mom."

There was a pause in the air. The urge to speak rumbled in your chest. It was a fire rising to your throat.

Katsuki was looking away from you, at the wall across from him.

Fire turned to steam as water dumped over the flame.

"And even the beginning, with the plane. With my grandmothers' house," you said. Then your head tilted and you teased, "You know, when you told me you had a school girl's fucking crush on me."

He whipped around to push you, anger striking across his face. "Hey, you're the one who asked me all of that shit."

You could tell he was trying to swerve around the topic, to ignore everything regarding
Midoriya and the mistakes he swore were his, so you helped the change along. He needed to make the decision to talk to Midoriya on his own, anyway. It would not benefit him if you were the cause for their reunion. It would mean nothing. Katsuki needed to reach out to someone, himself.

You sighed, relaxing into the comfort of the meaningless conversation. You were sure you'd have to deal with plenty of intricacies later, with figuring out the stuff with your aunt, your brother, and making up with Midoriya. And you wouldn't lie and say you didn't want the topic to be off of your faults, either.

"Listen, I was joking." You folded your arms. "We had a hard day—no, several days— and I was just trying to lighten the mood, but no, you were dead serious."

"You asked me a question, so why wouldn't I answer?" He rubbed his nose bridge and threw out his hand his pure disbelief. "You make no goddamn sense."

A shrug tugged at your shoulders.