Chapter Text
“Why do you have this?” Kirishima asked, gripping the necklace tightly.
“It was given to me over ten years ago,” Katsuki said.
Suddenly everything made sense. For years after he was given the necklace he kept it close, a certain warmth emitting from it that made him feel comfortable and happy. The aura embedded into it became familiar, a feeling he cherished.
After he buried it, he forgot about that feeling. Until he met a man with a similar aura.
Katsuki took it and shoved it into his bag. He took Kirishima’s hand.
“We have to go,” he said. Kirishima squeezed his hand in response and nodded.
-
He didn’t know how long they’d been walking. They watched the sun go down, and now it was starting to peek over the treetops again. He didn’t want to stop until he was far enough away from the city to feel comfortable, but he wasn’t sure when that would be.
Until they were out of the country? Farther?
Kirishima hadn’t said a word since they left, but his walking had slowed considerably. He said he could go a long time without sleeping, but Katsuki was starting to thing that was a lie. He hadn’t slept for over a day and a half now, and every time Katsuki looked back at him his eyes looked bleary.
“We can stop if you want,” Katsuki offered when Kirishima had fallen about twenty feet behind him. Though he was desperately hoping Kirishima would say no.
“I should go back and turn myself over,” Kirishima said, voice dull and shaky. He sounded completely unlike the Kirishima that Katsuki knew.
“What are you talking about? You’ll be killed. We’re not doing that,” Katsuki snapped, standing his ground. He wasn’t letting Kirishima sacrifice himself for any of that king’s bullshit.
“I’m ruining your whole life, Katsuki. How am I supposed to live feeling like this?” he asked. Katsuki let out a breath, and a small amount of weight left him with it.
Katsuki walked back to him. He had to resist the urge to headbutt him right there for being so stupid.
“If you’re feeling guilty now, then imagine how I would feel if you ended up dead to protect me. You didn’t make this decision, I did,” Katsuki said, as softly as he possibly could.
“But you wanted so badly to be a hero. You worked your hardest to get a job working under the royal family. Now it’s all gone because of me.”
Kirishima’s eyes were starting to glisten.
“Shut up. It’s not because of you. If the country I’m serving wants to kill someone as innocent as you, then I don’t work for that country anymore. Okay?” Katsuki said. Kirishima looked down, and Katsuki took his chin in his hand to lift it back up to face him. “No more feeling guilty. This isn’t your fault.”
Kirishima stared at him, like he was trying to find any trace of a lie in his expression. It was taking too long, Kirishima didn’t believe him.
Katsuki sighed, dropping his bag to the ground. He bent down to fish through it, while Kirishima stood above him, waiting.
Eventually he found what he was looking for, a small silk bag. He stood back up and held it out to Kirishima to take.
“It’s not a family heirloom, or some thing I spent my whole life looking for. But I got it for you,” Katsuki said through gritted teeth.
Kirishima took the bag from him and opened it with shaky hands.
Katsuki turned around and started walking again, too embarrassed to watch his reaction.
“Katsuki… this is…” he heard him say.
“She said she could offer a fair price but it was still too expensive. She even charged me extra for the fucking bag,” Katsuki said, stopping and waiting for Kirishima to catch up.
“Why are you giving me this?” Kirishima asked, voice filled to the brim with doubt.
Katsuki turned around, the distance between them was annoying. Katsuki wished he didn’t walk so far away, but this would be easier to say from afar.
Kirishima was ogling the pendant in his hand, the one he had fallen in love with a few days ago at the market. Katsuki had waited until Kirishima was asleep, and then rushed out to buy it before someone else got to it first.
“I- I thought that if I ever decided I want to accept your proposal, that I’d give you this. Usually not just one person gives a gift, right?” Katsuki said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Kirishima looked back up at Katsuki, and he felt his face get hotter. And even hotter when Kirishima shoved the pendant into his pocket and started rapidly closing the distance between them.
He wrapped his arms around Katsuki’s neck too hard and too fast, causing them both to stumble. Katsuki landed on the dirt on his back while Kirishima buried his face in Katsuki’s neck. Katsuki could hear him sniffling, and feel a wetness on throat from the tears. He tangled his fingers in Kirishima’s hair.
“You’re such a baby,” he said with a small laugh.
Kirishima replied unintelligibly, making Katsuki laugh some more. He forced them both into a sitting position so he could see Kirishima’s face properly. He didn’t know it was possible for someone to be so cute while they were crying.
He wiped at Kirishima’s tears until a smile formed on his face. He’d missed it so much in the short time it’d been gone.
“You changed your mind?” Kirishima asked.
“Not necessarily. It’s not like we can really actually get properly married now,” Katsuki answered. Kirishima pouted.
“Give me my mom’s necklace,” Kirishima ordered. Katsuki raised an eyebrow at him before reaching into his bag and grabbing it.
Did Kirishima want to take back the proposal now?
He handed the necklace to Kirishima, who looked at it for a moment before frowning.
“What’s wrong?” Katsuki asked.
“I wasn’t even the first person to give this to you. It’s not fair.”
“The first time it wasn’t given to me as a proposal. It was an award,” Katsuki explained.
“Why’d you bury it then? Is it some kind of Yuuei ritual to bury your trophies?”
Katsuki snorted. Honestly, the real answer seemed stupid now.
“No. I got it from All Might. Remember when I told you about him?” Katsuki asked. Kirishima nodded. “After he picked Deku over me I wanted to get rid of this so badly. I hated looking at it, but at the same time, I couldn’t bring myself to put it anywhere far away. I wanted to stay close to it.”
“Why?” Kirishima asked.
Katsuki didn’t want to say it was because it felt like what loving Kirishima felt like. He didn’t want to say that they must be soulmates, because how else would this happen? He received Kirishima’s engagement offering eleven years ago, only to be proposed to by its rightful owner as an adult.
He kept the necklace because he must have had some sort of foresight about what it was, and what it would mean to him later.
“I love you,” Katsuki said, and he couldn’t believe he was the first one to say it. He never thought he would utter the word love again in his life, not since he stopped saying it to his parents.
“You love me?” Kirishima repeated.
“Don’t make me say it again. Now, are you gonna offer me it or what?”
“What do you mean?” Kirishima asked. Katsuki pointed at the necklace in his hands.
“I mean that you’ve never actually proposed properly yet. Get on with it,” he said, looking to the side to avoid eye-contact.
Kirishima beamed. He held out the necklace and looked at Katsuki with the biggest smile he’d ever seen, eyes still red and puffy from crying.
“Katsuki, will you marry me?”
Realistically, they couldn’t get married at all. It was a legal process, and they were no longer part of the country as far as the law was concerned.
But, until they could get back to Yuuei, when Todoroki had control, Kirishima was going to be his everything. Even if he didn’t love him, even if he wasn’t his soulmate, Kirishima was all he had left.
But he did love him, and they were soulmates. Somehow, the gods wanted them to be together. It was set in stone the moment Kirishima’s mother left for Yuuei, to hide the gift that would end up in Katsuki’s hands after three years, that would end up in his garden eight years later, that would be in the hands of his lover only three years after that.
“Yeah, I will,” Katsuki said. He couldn’t keep the smile off of his own face when he saw Kirishima’s stretch so wide it probably hurt.
Kirishima sat up on his knees before placing the necklace over Katsuki’s head. Katsuki realized that although he had the necklace for over ten years, he never wore it even once. He held it a lot, stared at it even more. It never even occurred to him to put it on.
Kirishima took Katsuki’s face in his hands and kissed him, and this time Katsuki ruined it by smiling. Kirishima laughed when he realized that Katsuki wasn’t kissing back anymore and sat back on his heels.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the pendant again.
“I don’t have a chain to wear this on,” he said, looking down at it with a childlike wonder.
“Oh, I bought one of those too,” Katsuki said, shuffling through his bag until he found it and handed it over to Kirishima.
Kirishima immediately hung the pendant on the chain and clasped it around his neck while he giggled to himself. It looked nicer on him than Katsuki thought it would. It looked even prettier knowing that it was now a symbol of their commitment to each other.
“I’m fucking crazy,” Katsuki said under his breath. Kirishima hummed.
“You are, it’s true. But why do you think so?” he asked, still not looking up from the pendant.
“Because I literally ran away with you and got engaged less than two weeks after we met. My entire life is completely different forever now.”
“I don’t think that’s so crazy. I told you, this is actually slower than it goes for most of my people,” Kirishima explained. “Plus, I think we were meant to be, don’t you?”
Yes.
“Soulmates aren’t real. I told you that. Now let’s go. We’re still on the run and we don’t know how long it will be before they start looking for us, if they haven’t already,” Katsuki said, standing up and brushing himself off.
“I’m so tired though,” Kirishima whined. Katsuki rolled his eyes before grabbing his forearm and yanking him up to his feet.
“Let’s go,” Katsuki said, softer. To give Kirishima the extra push, he kissed him, running his fingers through his red hair. A dopey smile spread across his face.
“Whatever you say,” he said. Katsuki turned around and started walking again.
He was comforted to hear Kirishima following closely behind, his big feet stomping into the dirt with a happy bounce. He heard Kirishima’s pace quicken, and felt his arms wrap around Katsuki’s middle.
Why was he always so warm?
“Hey, Katsuki,” he prodded.
“What?” Katsuki responded, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
“I love you too.”