Trainspotting

I got a little weird with this one, hope it's enjoyable all the same! 😂

“Does Kacchan ever text you?”

Katsuki rubbed at his eyes with his fist, cursing the lead weights that seemed to have sewn themselves into his eyelashes. A yawn was fighting its very hardest to pry his mouth open and escape, too, while Katsuki valiantly fought it back with a hard swallow and a bit of distraction.

“Sure! I mean, not a ton or anything, but sometimes!”

The view was spectacular; it had been one of the biggest selling points when he was looking for a new apartment, somewhere decent and liveable instead of the shitty rundown place he’d subsisted in while he clawed his way up the rankings.

“He only ever messages me late at night. I’m worried he’s having trouble sleeping, again.”

Headlights drifted by in tiny pairs, the rest of the vehicles lost to the darkness, the sounds faded away by the time they reached three floors below him. Streets glowed orange, marked by streetlights and storefronts, while sidewalks shone with blues and greens, lit by the signs and billboards scattered throughout the city.

“Well, you do tend to be his go-to-guy, right? Maybe he just needs someone to talk to.”

In the distance, a brightly-lit train pulled into a completely-dark tunnel, disappearing little by little, swallowed up by the station that would deliver its passengers home safely for the night. High-rise buildings with their checkerboards of window-wall-window-wall had all but fallen dark, only a few stragglers left behind, little yellow squares scattered seemingly at random, like the blinking lights of a server room; sometimes he felt like they were trying to tell him something, like the universe was spelling out this is a simulation in morse code, or showing him the binary for a program that would cure cancer, if he only knew how to translate it.

“I hope he’s doing okay. And that he’d tell me, if he wasn’t. He denies anything is wrong if I ask.”

And Katsuki, on his window sill, slumped against a wide frame that willed him upright for just a little longer, just watched.

“You get each other in a way the rest of us don’t. It must be nice to have someone like that in your life, someone you know will always understand you and be there for you.”

The yawn won. Katsuki didn’t bother to raise a heavy hand to cover his mouth, since he was alone in his one-room apartment anyway, he just let the yawn claw its way out of him, sending signals to every bone in his body to get on the same page, to agree it was bedtime, to save his work and start the shutdown process for another day.

“Oh. Um. Yeah, I guess you could say that. I’m just lucky he lets me be a part of his.”

His left eye twitched, so he allowed it to close for just a minute, hoping if it got a little rest it might shut up about it. Once it was satisfied, he’d let ol’ righty have a turn, and maybe that way he’d eke out a few more minutes in his favourite spot, staring out over the city.

“Here’s your stop, don’t forget your laptop.”

The pedestrians on the street below seemed endless. No matter how late it got, they always seemed to be out in droves, walking briskly from place to place or stopping with their friends in the middle of the pathway, making Katsuki’s other eye twitch in response. They gathered in groups or strode off alone, they ducked into buildings or came out wobbly on their feet. Every one of them was a little different, a new shade in an endless spectrum, but still they just kept coming. And going.

“Right, thank you! See you tomorrow?”

Another wave of lights, another train, disappearing into the deep station. It was the last one of the night, he was pretty sure. They ran late as hell, but not all night. Eventually, the station went quiet, just for a few hours at a time. It was a peaceful time, when the world seemed to slow just for a little while, when the hustle and bustle of the city came to a stop. Or at least a pause.

“Looking forward to it.”

A slow-moving mob funnelled out of a comically small stairwell, exploding from the top like a shaken-up soda bottle that someone had pulled the lid off. Or maybe a bunch of vacuum-sealed beans, bursting out a tiny hole the moment they got a taste of freedom. Tiny figures scattered in every direction, quickly absorbed into the existing masses, becoming one of those colourful threads of nightly activities.

“How can I ask him subtly? He’ll just tell me to fuck off if I ask directly. Maybe I should—oops, sorry, excuse me.”

A tiny speck of green appeared in the crowd, and Katsuki opened both his eyes, watching it closely as the mob began to diverge. It wiggled its way through the crowd, ducked around a few dumbasses standing in everyone’s way, and started down the street, heading Katsuki’s direction. It only took a few minutes to get close enough, for him to make out the features he knew better than anyone else in the world, even from what felt like a thousand miles away. He’d seen that face every day of his life, usually multiple times a day. He probably knew it better than his own, considering he didn’t look in mirrors all that often. If he’d looked in a mirror one morning and found out his hair had turned green, he probably wouldn’t be able to pick out exactly when it happened, but if those green curls turned blond? He could get it down to the hour.

“It’s late, why are you still up? All sorted for the weekend, I’ll send you my notes tomorrow. There, perfect, nice and casual and unassuming, but a hint of concern in there, in case he wants to take it. Oh, no, sorry, just talking to myself, my bad!”

Katsuki’s phone buzzed beside him, and he reached out a fumbling hand, patting around until he managed to find it. A familiar name lit up his screen, and despite himself, he cracked a little smile.

“I’m fine, just keeping an eye on something for a bit. What about you? Heading to bed? Aww, that’s so cute, he’s even making sure he doesn’t interrupt my plans! He should know better, though – who’s in bed by midnight these days?”

The phone buzzed again, in his hand this time, but Katsuki didn’t look right away – staring instead at the quiet little street his green man was walking down, pausing in a doorway before he disappeared inside. A minute passed, and another, and then his phone buzzed for a second time, and this time he deigned to look.

“Don’t stay up all night, dumbass. Eat your damn food and get in bed, how do you expect to beat me if you can’t even stay awake? Oh Kacchan, it’s always a competition with you, isn’t it? Okay, okay, I’ll be a good boy or whatever. Yes, Kacchan, understood, on my way. Get some sleep, call me if you need anything, you know I’ll pick up. No, delete that last bit. Call me if you need anything. That’s fine. He’ll understand.”

Katsuki groaned as he slowly climbed to his feet, taking one last glance out the window, at the still-quiet doorway, before he pulled the curtains closed.