Who: Setsuna Mudou and Yue Katou What: Katou keeps his word and stalks Setsuna When: August 1st Where: Homeless Shelter Rating/Warnings: Medium High - language, stalking, smoking and pointless threats Status: Complete
Katou hadn’t realized how preoccupied he’d been with the Badass Rock of Doom until Little Red and her friend had come and forced it away from him. He’d been pissed for a full day, thinking of how he’d get revenge on the both of the plus Natasha, and then whatever hold the stone had had on him slowly started abating, and he’d taken a good hard look at his behaviour over the last month and a half, and he didn’t especially like what he saw. He’d treated Michael like shit - hell, he’d even held a blade to his neck.
And, well, he’d treated Setsuna like nothing. Maybe Setsuna preferred it that way, but Katou didn’t. As Setsuna’s champion, it was his job to protect Setsuna. If that meant that he had to get Setsuna out of the county before he ever dreamed of Katou taking on that role, then that’s what he had to do. And yet, he hadn’t even tried to get in touch with him since their run in more than two weeks ago. What if Setsuna had already started Dreaming?
He made good on his promise to stalk Setsuna. With the Agency resources at his fingertips, it hadn’t been hard to track Setsuna down to the library where he’d spent the next hour looking at fucking animal videos, and with his shapeshifting abilities, it hadn’t been hard to go unnoticed either. And so, for the next week, Katou had followed Setsuna from the homeless shelter, to his jobs - Kat was a little glad he’d managed to find work, and a little frustrated too - and really, not doing anything. Once he’d thought Setsuna actually had friends, but it became pretty clear after a while that he had no idea who the guys he’d played basketball were.
It was painful to watch. It wasn’t like the sunny idiot from his Dreams at all. He’d made a point of avoiding the people in his shelter, and didn’t seem keen on making friends with his coworkers. All Katou wanted to do was to go up to him and beat some sense into him. After a week, Katou couldn’t handle it anymore.
Maybe it wasn’t exactly okay for a guy with a house and a pretty good job to waltz into the soup kitchen and help himself to some food, but no one had to know he wasn’t homeless and free food was free food. Anyway, he had been homeless for like, five years and hadn’t ever really taken advantage of homeless shelters, so he was just making up for lost time.
He glared at the old man sitting across from Setsuna until the man hunched his shoulders and moved over a seat, and then sat down across from the other boy. “I smoke Marlboro Reds, by the way,” he said.
To be fair, the idiot from Katou’s dreams had a couple of people this Setsuna didn’t have, and he only knew he was missing one of them. They made more of an impact than they probably would ever know. Luckily, for Katou, Setsuna hadn’t started to dream, yet.
Truth was, an attempted beat-down would have been appreciated. Setsuna would have turned that into an all out fight and maybe exhausted some of his aggravations out. But later? He would have just regretted that, whole-hardheartedly. For that sake, events played out for the best.
The poor old man was one of the few people Setsuna hadn’t pushed away. He sort of harmlessly sat across from Setsuna and didn’t make conversation, so when he moved away, Setsuna actually took notice.
He looked up to find Katou in his place, and stared for a second, surprised.
His blood pressure rose, more out of embarrassment, than anything else, showing as his cheeks turned a bit red. Katou knew where he was staying. How much more humiliating could it get?
But in a mere five seconds he actually gave a real, pure smile and laughed. It wasn’t much, and he felt ridiculous for it.
“You actually did it?” Setsuna asked, that smile turning fond faster than he could squash it out of existence.
Katou’s lip twitched a little when Setsuna laughed. He hadn’t really seen Setsuna laugh at all during the last week, and he was pretty sure the only time he’d smiled was when there was some cute fuzzball in front of him.
“Of course I did,” Katou said, spooning a mouthful of stew into his mouth. “I said I was gonna, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but I thought it was one of those bullshit things people say. You know, ‘We’ll keep in touch after graduation.’ Or, ‘We’ll be friends forever.’ And all of those bullshit plans people make but never make good on,” Setsuna explained, kind of touched. Nobody did this sort of thing. No one. At least, not for him. He was still embarrassed, but strangely pleased.
He had eaten the stew at first, but at the point Katou joined in, Setsuna was mostly just pushing it around, no longer interested. Some part of him had hoped Peter would show up, then he would give the rest of it to him. The stew seemed good, though. Considering he was done, he rose up and said, “I’m done. So if you want those smokes, best come with me now.”
Maybe Katou would just not mention the whole homeless shelter thing. Maybe.
"Now?" Katou asked. "And here I was hoping you'd give me the tour of your luxurious new digs. Real quality living you've got going on here." Still, he pushed his mostly untouched food toward the old man he'd made move from his spot and stood up. It wasn't like he needed the food anyway.
He wasn’t really surprised at the comment, and had to keep himself in check, face going red again.
“Pretty sure you’ve seen enough,” Setsuna countered. If he had been more comfortable with touch, he would have pushed Katou out the door, but instead he shoved his hands in his pants pockets and started to walk out the door.
“But yeah, now, or never.”
Katou took a couple quick steps so he could catch up and walk side by side with Setsuna. "You know, if you're gonna be homeless anywhere, why would you pick here? You could get out and move to," Katou hesitated. He'd left the country a couple times, but he'd never actually been anywhere other than the OC in America. "Florida."
So much for all of that fuzzy warmth filling him. Setsuna gave Katou a hurt look, before he shut down completely. He pulled his shoulders in and went right back to scowling.
“I didn’t exactly have a choice. And I don’t have the money to move yet. But don’t worry yourself. I’ll get far away from you as soon as I can,” Setsuna said, caustic tone returning full force. But considering he was trying to save up for a one-way ticket to England, it was going to take a while.
Katou refused to feel guilty. Whatever he was feeling, it wasn't guilt, that was for sure. This was for Setsuna's own good whether he realized it or not, and there was nothing for Katou to feel guilty about anyway. But did Setsuna have to wear his emotions so openly like that?
"Glad to hear it," Katou muttered, stuffing his own hands in his pockets, and falling silent for a moment. 'As soon as I can' might not be soon enough. Some people started dreaming as soon as they got on the Network, some people not for a lot longer; there was no way to know how much time Setsuna had. "But you know, all you need is a thumb and you can get all over this country for free."
He truly tried not to be so open, regardless of the emotion, but Setsuna couldn’t help himself, and he was getting worse about it the more he interacted with people.
“Where I’m going isn’t your business,” Setsuna muttered back, darkly. A thumb wasn’t going to get him to England. Maybe it could, but he didn’t want to risk it if he had to come back. He never wanted to see the OC again.
Katou hadn’t expected this to be easy. He hadn’t expected Setsuna to just smile and cheerfully tell Katou that he was glad that Katou was trying to get him out of the OC, but he hadn’t expected it to be so hard.
Katou used to be good at this kind of thing. He used to be good at being a complete and utter asshole and destroying even the people he liked, but apparently he’d fallen out of practice and it wasn’t like riding a bike at all. He didn’t want Setsuna to hate him, even if it would stop Setsuna from dreaming of their other life. He didn’t want it, especially not after he’d missed Setsuna for so long.
“Listen, I’m just trying to look out for you,” Katou muttered, looking off in the opposite direction of where Setsuna was standing. “This place ain’t great, and the sooner you leave the better it’ll be for you. Even if it’s just to like, LA or something.”
And Setsuna hadn’t expected spending any time with Katou to make it harder, and harder to keep Katou at a distance. It felt more than that; just this act of keeping his word alone made Setsuna feel softer all around.
Setsuna clung to Katou’s attempt to get him to leave town, using it to keep his anger fueled, making distance easier. But just as he reached for the gas station door, Katou said he was looking out for him, and Setsuna stopped. He turned, letting the door shut behind him.
“How does that even make sense? I’ve lived here half my life, and it’s a pretty good place.” Setsuna took a step closer to Katou looking right in his eyes, as he accused, “And since when do you give a damn about my well-being? Guilt getting to you that bad? Because you sure didn’t care about it in school! It’s a little weird going from us fighting everyday to this. I feel like I missed something!” He really didn’t mean to nearly shout towards the end, but his voice had definitely gotten louder.
Katou tried to meet Setsuna’s eyes, but he couldn’t hold his gaze for more than a second before he had to look away, looking over Setsuna’s shoulder instead. “That was before you joined the Network,” Katou muttered. He wondered if anyone had filled Setsuna in on the weirdness of the Orange County, or if he was just going to sound like a crazy man. He was pretty sure that even if he did tell Setsuna all there was to know, there was no way that Setsuna would actually believe him. They had too much history for Setsuna to just take him at his word.
“You’ve missed a lot,” he finished.
“That-!” Setsuna’s face went red, and his voice definitely rose, this time. “That doesn’t answer anything!” He didn’t just yell, but stomped one foot, hands balled into fists.
“You didn’t answer any of my questions!” Before he could lose his temper further, Setsuna turned to the door, intending to walk into the gas station, finally, but his shoulders started quaking. His hands went up to his face, hiding it from view.
Katou took a breath, prepared to yell back even though he had no idea what he was planning on yelling about, but the words got caught in his throat when Setsuna turned around and started… Was he crying?
“Oi, Mudou,” Katou said hesitantly. He reached out a hand, pulled it back, and then put it on Setsuna’s shoulders. “You uh, don’t haveta cry or nothing.” God, this was awkward. The fuck was Katou expected to do when a grown man started crying in front of a gas station door. “I mean, I’d tell you, but I figured you wouldn’t believe me on account of the whole hating me thing, you know?”
At feeling a hand on his shoulder, Setsuna tensed up, but as he pulled away his hand to push Katou’s off of him, there was an obvious smile on his face when he looked back.
“I’m not crying.” His shoulders went back to shaking as Setsuna laughed, and laughed, arms around his stomach. He finally laughed out loud, before he took in a deep breath of air.
“I don’t remember the last time I felt that pissed off,” Setsuna admitted, giving Katou a bright grin. It was cleansing, in a disturbing way. And that smile? Was the first real one Katou would have seen while stalking him. One more laugh.
“And I don’t hate you, you idiot.” The distaste and viciousness Setsuna had been forcing into his words were completely gone, leaving an almost sweet tone to his voice as his expression softened, and he said, “Never did.” Fuck. So much for keeping his distance.
That was… not the reaction that Katou would have expected, and even if Setsuna hadn't pushed Katou's hand away, Katou still would have taken a step backwards, a confused half-smile on his face. Setsuna was clearly insane. Completely and utterly insane. Who the hell laughed and smiled like that when they were pissed off?
Still, by the time Setsuna smiled at him, Katou's own confused smile has turned into one that was a little more genuine, and he felt a weight lift off his shoulders when Setsuna admitted he had never hated him.
"I'd hate me if I was you," Katou said, and then shrugged. "Then again, you always were kind of an idiot."
“But you’re not me, and I don’t,” Setsuna said in return, with his own shrug. “Hell, I wanted…. Never mind.” No use in bothering with that now. Setsuna shook his head, an attempt to reel himself back in.
“That still doesn’t answer anything,” he tried again, arms crossed, but he maintained a light smile.
Katou frowned, wondering if he really should fill Setsuna in or if Setsuna would just take it as some sort of bizarre joke he couldn’t quite find the punchline to. But, well, Setsuna had to learn sooner or later and if there was a chance it got him out of the county then Katou didn’t have much of a choice.
He sighed, his shoulders slumping a little, and then he moved to put his hand on Setsuna’s head so he could shove him into the convenience store. “Alright, I’ll tell ya,” he said. “But not ‘til I get my smokes.”
“Hey! Just ‘cause I don’t hate you doesn’t mean you can touch and get all friendly with me,” Setsuna hissed out, trying to slap Katou’s hand away from his head, but he didn’t sound truly annoyed. He still did as Katou said, and, finally, stepped into the convenience store.
It was a quick exchange for Katou’s cigarettes, which he tossed in Katou’s direction and quipped, “That’s the real reason you showed up, isn’t it?” but there was no malice, not this time. He had officially given up on pushing Katou away, even if he wouldn’t let him any closer, yet.
“Now what the fuck are you going on about?”
“Why else would I bother stalking you for a week?” Katou asked, raising an eyebrow. Aside from the fact that he had actually had wanted to check up Setsuna and make sure that everything was going alright, which it obviously wasn’t. But now that he’d gained this much ground, at least, he’d be damned if he was going to give Setsuna the satisfaction of thinking Katou was the one more invested in their relationship.
He pulled a smoke from his pack and lit it, before offering one to Setsuna. “Alright, I’ll just be straight up. When you join the Network, you start dreaming of some other fucked up life and get superpowers.” Or, in Katou’s case, a string of waking up bleeding all over Wendy’s furniture for months on end. He didn’t want to think about how she’d explained away all the bloody mattresses and sheets back then. Of course, not everyone had fucked up Dreams, and not everyone got powers from them, but he was relatively certain he knew exactly what Setsuna’s dreams held in store for him.
“It ain’t fun and the only way to stop it is to get the fuck outta dodge, so, you know, you should probably do that.”
Setsuna, in his current mood, wasn’t going to advance anything if Katou didn’t, so whatever relationship might be able to be claimed was to stay in stasis, for now. At the least, Setsuna took the offered cigarette.
Then he just stared, holding the cigarette, still in passage from package to his mouth, on pause.
“What?” A few more beats passed.
Finally, Setsuna broke with a harsh laugh, his head rolling back.
“That’s the best you could come up with? What the fuck? We ain’t still in grade school, Katou. You gonna keep playin’ games with me like this, and I’m gonna kick your ass!” Setsuna threatened, expression between a sneer and a glare, mixed with sadistic humor. Combine this with what one of the guys on the Network said, and Setsuna was going to start believing everyone on the Network had mass hysteria.
“Yeah? I’d like to see you try,” Katou snapped back. Setsuna was scrappy, but without dreaming, Katou was more than positive he’d be able to take him without a problem these days. He’d had years of legitimate training with the Agency on top of the experience he’d ganged from his dreams. And his astral powers didn’t hurt in that regard either.
But, as suddenly as it had come, Katou’s annoyance was gone and he sighed, running a hand through his shoulder length hair. “I knew ya wouldn’t believe me though. Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
Setsuna just rolled his eyes at Katou in return. It didn’t occur to him that four years allowed for a lot of change, and just because Katou used to need other people to help him take Setsuna down, didn’t mean it was still the same situation. Wisely, though, he let the matter drop. He wasn’t going to start throwing punches so easily, not now. “Don’t make me,” was all he said.
While he wasn’t remotely convinced about the dreams, Katou seemed sincere, in a way that bothered Setsuna. Must be mass hysteria, he told himself.
“Well, you got your smokes, and had your fun. See ya around, Katou,” Setsuna told him, before starting to head back to the homeless shelter, cigarette still unlit in his hand. He would get a light from someone at the shelter. At least, that was his intention.
“Yeah, sure, just take my smoke and leave,” Katou complained, though without much malice. Setsuna had paid for the smokes in the first place, after all. “See ya around, Setsuna.”
Setsuna didn’t bother to give that a response, or even turn around. He just waved the hand still holding the unlit cigarette.