The Story Of Forever (Todobaku)

Farewell

"Baseball hoodie."

Shouto, sitting cross-legged on Katsuki's bedroom rug, swayed side to side and pretended to think it over.

"Me," he said with a guilty smile.

Katsuki snorted. "No surprise there."

He tossed his old Heroes sweatshirt to his boyfriend. Shouto held the garment out in front of him, already swooning over how snuggly he'd feel once he got to put it on. Best of all, it smelled like Katsuki. Shouto put the sweatshirt into the cardboard box by his hip where it laid atop several new items of his possession.

Katsuki grabbed another piece from his closet and showed Shouto. "Green button up."

"You," Shouto replied. It was a nice shirt, but its appeal was how nice it looked on his boyfriend.

Katsuki wasn't leaving for New York for another few weeks, but having the same bedroom for nineteen years meant he accumulated a lot of stuff. He needed to be particular about what he took with him. Of course, his parents were staying behind, so he didn't really have to say goodbye to anything. But to ease Shouto's pain from him leaving, he offered Shouto the opportunity to hold onto anything of Katsuki's he wanted. Naturally, it was a lot.

They continued combing through Katsuki's belongings. Most of what Shouto held onto were hoodies or sweatpants. His favorite gift, however, was Katsuki's signature pine scented cologne. Since Katsuki's contract with the Yankees had a sign-on bonus of over four million yen, he had no qualms of gifting the used bottle to Shouto and purchasing a new one for himself. Now whenever Shouto missed Katsuki extra hard, he could spray his boyfriend's scent on his blankets or new comfort clothes as a way of keeping him near.

Once all closet and dresser items were sorted out, Katsuki moved to the highlight of his room, his baseball memorabilia shelf.  

"Autographed baseball from Toshinori Yagi."

Shouto grinned. "I already have one of those."

Katsuki smiled too. "Just making sure." He picked up the next items. "Championship rings. I've got three of them," he bragged. "One middle school and two high school. So you can take one if you want."

While he'd probably never wear it out in fear of damaging it, Shouto already envisioned rearranging his bedroom desk to designate a small piece to Katsuki. A championship ring would look nice beside Katsuki's photograph.

"I'll have one."

Katsuki's smile widened as he shuffled to where Shouto sat on his rug. He dropped to one knee,  a swoon worthy cheekiness to his gaze, and slid his prized jewelry piece over Shouto's left ring finger. The obvious implication made Shouto giggle. And when Katsuki followed up his gesture with a kiss to Shouto's knuckles, Shouto's imagination drifted to the future when he and Katsuki could recreate this moment for real.

He knew it was coming. All he had to do was be patient.

Katsuki pushed a few strands of Shouto's hair away from his face. "How about we take a break and go get some ice cream?"

"Okay," Shouto replied, but Katsuki kissed his cheek mid-answer, signifying that it wasn't up for debate anyway.

*

Shouto gripped Katsuki's hair harder than usual. Their foreheads pressed together, moans echoing one another's, and the moonlight dancing along the midnight waters of Selkie Lake lost all its beauty tonight. They could've been in an old junkyard for all Shouto cared. The only setting that mattered was one where he could be with Katsuki.

He refused to cry. They just finished another evening skinny dipping session and as always, Shouto had a blast. Making out in the ocean with his boyfriend, legs wrapped around his waist, no clothes to hinder their bodies and souls molding together, there weren't many things that could compare. Shouto had no issues with any of that. No, he was struggling with the aftermath.