Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Please cal———n!"

…?

Where am—?

Augh. My back. And face…

The air stings.

… the fire. I was on fire, I think.

But why am I lying on my front?

"———! I could hurt him more…"

Did I pass out?

The little girl!! Did she—?!

…!!

…

I—

I can't feel my legs.

Or wings.

Shit, I can't even see clearly… but it's only in my right eye.

Has that one… gone blind?

Can barely feel anything. At all.

Am I even alive?

"—be alright?"

… everyone's behind me. Will hurt like a bitch, but turn… left.

Fuck…

…

… is that you? Hard to tell. If I didn't know better… without all the grease, and dye, and… scars.

You don't look like yourself… despite looking more like you were always meant to. Sounds stupid, doesn't it?

Eri, was it? If Himiko didn’t tell me about her, you'd be… dead.

Right. I told her to forget about me, and tend to you instead.

You are alive, right?

"He'll be fine now."

Thank god.

Must be… true. For the family to have calmed down so much.

Your sister, and brothers… and Jin, Mister, and Himiko, too… There are all these people who care about you. See more than just a villain. More than Dabi.

They want you to be fine… even if you have already given up.

"— is coming to!"

That must be so nice… I want to be more than just a hero, too.

I envy you so much, Touya.

"Eri,-——— enough?"

My blood pressure is…

"Yes, I can still---——"

So tired. I know I shouldn't fall asleep, but… I need to… rest a little---————

Chapter Text

——————————— - ——— - —— - --- beep--- beep—

Beep.

Hawks blinks the blurry oblivion away from his eyes, although some part of it is oddly stubborn and to stay indefinitely. There are three things he's certain of: first, he’s alive. Second, just by looking at the bed and windows he can tell this is no villain hospital or torture room. Third: something feels wrong. Very wrong.

The silence… is deafening.

He can’t feel anything save soreness, and he feels and hears all kinds of things, all over the place, all of the time.

There's no itch.

Not a single feather that should be on its way, or have grown back already.

There's not even a limb to attach them to.

Just hospital robes and a soft pillow pressing into his back where they never did, never could before.

He can hear the machine echo his quickening heartbeat as he attempts to lift wings that are nowhere to be found, with muscles that are missing entirely, spreading phantom pain across his spine and ribcage.

He jolts up then upon remembering what happened, and the only thing stopping him in his tracks is that his legs respond to the stimulus. He… he thought those were also…

"Take it easy, dear," comes a creaky little voice from basically beneath the bed a second before Recovery Girl takes the bedside seat. "You have yet to recover from that surgery."

Hawks quietly freaks out about her presence, but holds her gaze.

He didn't notice her. At all.

Long story short… the sweet girl tried her best, but couldn't keep going after his spine was salvaged, and no one in their right mind would have let her, anyway. What she had managed to restore of his wings, however, was still beyond saving. Fleshy stumps and roasted bones. It was common sense that using her just to patch him up later wouldn't be fair.

She was barely seven.

No license.

No obligation.

Nobody willing to give permission — for good reason.

Wings weren't necessary for survival. She could restore them in a decade, maybe - if she felt like it.

So they took them.

Every last bit.

He figures that's why he only caught wind of his mother coming.

She’d been there once, before he came to. Before she was told that he'd lost his wings.

It’s understandable. All that's left is just him in the room — a burden.

The thing she's never wanted in the first place.

Recovery Girl also bid farewell for good after another checkup in the afternoon.

Others didn't visit, either. Not the next day… or the one after, he supposes. With the drugs and irregular sleep he’d already lost track of time by then. There was no one to scold, threaten or interrogate him when he came to. Nobody to say hi to. Not a soul cared to send flowers, or even an assassin.

It's ironic, somehow. Before, he wasn't able to rest because of all the noise… and now the world has become too cold and sterile to fall asleep in safely.

All that's left is empty silence. Everyone's forgotten mistake.

There's also no news about what is supposed to happen to him, only a pair of tight-lipped guards standing by the door. Do the press not want information, or his opinion…? Do the police not want a confession or statement? Has he been put under protection, or declared dead, and just doesn't know it?

The familiar grip of anxiety has a firm hold on his heart every time his mind clears, its talons pressing down harder than ever before. 

It's nothing bar exhausting. The makeshift smile he's always forced onto his face quietly fades until there's nothing left… and it stays that way. He doesn't even notice. The pressure burns up what little energy he may have had before he knows it, and he becomes numb; to fear, to people entering and leaving the room, and the pain in his back that shouldn’t exist.

He feels incomplete.

And tired.

Irreversibly so.

Too worn to go outside, provided he'd be allowed to. Too tired to walk down the corridor. To even get past the toilet door. To talk to the nurses and doctors that come inside. Pay attention to anything they say.

To eat.

Instead, the gaping hole within that he hid and cradled for so long goes rampant and unchecked, and threatens to swallow him whole. He has no idea how long he's been in, but the machines and tubes that disappeared came back some time later. Otherwise, every day is like the last.

Sometimes rain drums against the glass panes.

Other days, it's just windy and some bad window outside keeps rattling throughout the day.

Then the sun shines, painting the dew on the windows of his room every color visible to the naked eye.

Rainy season must be starting… or ending.

Who cares.

Once, when he wakes from a restless nap again, there's a full moon and a nice, purplish-blue sunset sky. As he keeps staring at the picture perfect scenery, he starts remembering that day. He wonders what's become of the guy the view reminds him of.

Also in a hospital, maybe? Supervised like him, perhaps right here?

In jail?

At home with Shouto and his other siblings?

Did he go back to that ragtag bunch, maybe?

… what's become of them, anyway? Maybe the world has ended already, and he happened to sleep through it. Maybe he should try and tune in for tomorrow's news. Maybe. The common room must be… so far away.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

It would be nice to talk to Jin right now. He always has something unexpectedly thoughtful to drop between two dumb or funny lines. Bring up something mundane and turn it into one of the deepest discussions he’s ever had. Have something… nice and encouraging to say.

A crow flies onto the top of the maple tree opposite the window as he opens his eyes. It looks at him, as if in thought, and so does he.

It caws over to him twice, then flies away.

Tokoyami.

That night, he remembers how to cry.

Chapter Text

For a while then, he finds he's more alert, and the hospital staff also seems to take note of it; that must be why there are multiple voices talking outside the room an afternoon or two later. That alone wouldn't necessarily catch his attention… but the fact that not one, but two of said voices sound rather familiar, does.

They are not hospital personnel.

Hawks sits up with great difficulty and turns towards the door; he should recognize that one voice especially… he really should. But without his feathers, all has been so… muted and muddy, he just can't pick up on the finer details. It's like trying to read something from up close without his glasses on, squinting at the letters to get the message.

He’s lifting a hand over his left eye now so that he can phase out the pesky sunlight shining from the worst possible angle, both blinding him and leaving the man who's just entered in a murky shadow. Being able to see the overall appearance of the person still gives him no idea who it could be; that’s not one of his sidekicks, nor any other hero he knows, and certainly not anyone from the Commission. The fact that his soft, light hair falls into his eyes and hides part of his face doesn’t help the case, either.

But the gut feeling gets stronger, saying that Hawks really, really should know who it is.

And that he ought to deck the dude posthaste for whatever reason.

The other does the same for a few seconds — just staring back, not saying a word.

"Hey," he speaks then, a little hesitant and raspy, in that exact voice that should have put a name to the face immediately.

And yet, Hawks keeps staring, because he still cannot quite put the man anywhere. It takes him almost a minute of slow blinking and elimination to realize with a knot forming in his stomach where he last saw someone with what appears to be soft, pink hair.

Oh no…

Touya starts feeling uncomfortable in the growing silence… He can’t really make out his eyes, but the vacant way Ha— No, not Hawks, it's Keigo. The way Keigo looks at him is getting unnerving fast. He knew that the other had been deemed unsuitable for interrogation by the time authorities were informed of his coming to, but neither him, nor the others ever considered the chance of something like amnesia. The doctors certainly did not mention that… Fuck. That would make all of this so…

Why did he have to be the one doing this, again?! Damn all three, no, four of them, he knew this was a bad idea…

Then, he can see realization flash over Keigo’s face before turning to stare at the opposite corner of the room instead.

Or maybe it was just that the dumb bird's a little out of it and also not used to him looking like this.

Which, to be fair, he's also yet to get used to.

He steps closer, circling in like some predator, as they’re both used to. Bad habits die hard… but at least he gets to have a proper look at the other without all the stark lighting.

Maybe it's the dark circles around the eyes, and the disappearance of all the baby fat on his washed-out face that's usually a gentle golden hue… or just the lack of those huge, glaring red wings. The scarry tissue around that milky, damaged eye, maybe. The way he shrinks into the bed doesn't help, either, but the stout little jerk who could have snapped Touya in half about a month ago is so…

"You look very… not good."

… thin and fragile.

The words are analytical, there’s no bite to them, Hawks notes. It all feels so weird… maybe he's just having another fever dream?

"Did you come here just to roast me?" Most of the words start broken and die off before their due time; he hasn’t used his voice in so long, and it shows.

There’s an apathetic sigh mixing with the answer: "You’re all skin and bones, that doesn’t make for a good meal."

Hawks' eyebrows twitch closer as some kind of reflex balancing between discomfort and anger kicks in. That… is more like it. Yes, he knows this dance.

“It certainly doesn't look as if they were feeding you properly,” Touya adds with what must be a raised brow under that strawberry mess. His face is still rather blank, stuck in the unemotive state that was comfortable when there were staples pulling on his skin to keep dead tissue in place.

Okay, Hawks has no reason to question it anymore — this is no dream. Nobody pisses him off with their sheer presence as much as the real deal.

“… there’ve been attempts,” he croaks as his eyes glide over the tray next to the bed; he ate the soup for a change, the rest is basically untouched. That meager slice of chicken is such a waste, but some vegetable or spice they use in the kitchen fucks with his stomach too much. They also keep putting daikon in everything. He doesn’t even like radish.

… why didn’t he tell the staff any of this, again?

More importantly, the rise in blood pressure makes him consider getting some of those leftovers, anyway. Lacking the resources his body would need to be alert like this has made him peckish right away.

Touya looks over to the IV he was put on once more some time back, then takes a judgemental look at the sad bedside display as well. "Go figure, they slapped the 'private' to 'hospital' for decoration only. You should sue them for animal cruelty."

The corners of Hawks' mouth pull on his face, twitching into the tiniest of smiles. It fades away just as it came, leaving a bittersweet aftertaste of familiarity.

He's been a vegetable himself for a while, and now this jerk is causing him to have rational thoughts, and also making him hungry, and angry, and amused, and it feels like an eternity since he last felt his heart beat against his ribs and somewhat alive.

Needing this of all things… it's quite pathetic, isn’t it?

“Why are you here?” The other would be so much better off just living his own life now, forgetting Hawks and Dabi or any of all the other shit ever existed. Whatever happened, the family clearly managed to cover for him. Unless the authorities run a face and DNA check, no one will be the wiser at this point. Maybe they did the same for Hawks, seeing how this is playing out.

Still, the two of them aren’t exactly the best of buds. He just can’t wrap his head around why Dabi, that is to say, Touya… No. Todoroki would even come near his potential death bed. Not unless he was there to make sure it lived up to its potential.

His unexpected visitor reaches up to his nape, scratching away at it. “Look, I’m… not saying that there was no arm-twisting involved in me being here. My mom and sibs are all onto me, hell, I bet good money that one of them is at the door, listening in on my ass.” He raises his voice for the second half of the sentence, leering back at the door. Then there’s a pause, as if he was waiting for anyone out there to get lost or get caught red-handed; when he looks back, his eyes meet Hawks' again, this time without glaring sunlight to obscure them.

The blue irises soon find an interesting speck on the ground to focus on instead. “… but, when I started to think about it… I had to admit that, in a way, they were right.”

Todoroki blinks over to the bed, then drags his stiff legs closer, step by step, before nodding towards it. "May I?"

There are two slow seconds of consideration before Hawks nods, his attempt at scooting over more of a gesture than anything of use.

Funny situation, huh?

He never would have thought that he'd find himself with the other anywhere near his bed, in a hospital or otherwise. Or that he would sit by it. And especially not sit on it, by his side.

Neither would he, Hawks supposes. What do you know.

Touya sighs after settling down, deciding to look at some wrinkle in the sheets. They sit like that for a minute, getting acquainted with the situation. Then, he speaks up:

“So… the moment I decided to play the stupid cat and mouse game, I took responsibility for whatever you did. Right?”

Hawks nods again as an answer; the same goes for him.

“And I see things through. Guess you don’t actually need to be told that I don’t do things by halves. We are… pretty similar in that aspect.”

Another small nod, to himself mostly. Many have praised him for his hard work and tenacity, but sometimes… it really seemed more of a curse than anything else. Touya’s case was no better, either.

The latter continues after a short pause of acknowledgement. “Sure, I thought along the lines of… having to body you, eventually, but you have to make everything awkward like this, don’t you?”

“Complicating things… is my one and only talent,” Hawks mumbles. Making things harder for others, for himself… that’s how it’s always been. Everything he’s ever done ended up being wrong. Maybe, if he didn’t exist in the first place… everything would be fine already. “The only reason I’m not in a confinement cell or actually ten feet under is because of your family, isn’t it?”

Come to think of it… what happened in regards to Endeavor? If the info got leaked… there’s no way he has this much influence left. How much time has passed, again? He must be so out of the loop, god…

“Ah… They can get nosy in some ways,” Touya drawls, drawing a finger up and down his face a few times; Hawks cannot see, but he’s pretty sure that he’s tracing the line where his scars used to be. He’d be picking at them now if there was anything left for him to harass.

“Does anyone even know I’m here?” Or that he's alive? Like, seriously… his mother be damned, there’s been no one in since Recovery Girl had left. Or maybe… he just didn’t notice. All things considered, that's also likely.

Touya hums, obviously displeased. “Unfortunately, some do… that’s why there are guards around the place.”

Hawks has figured someone must have sent the two by the door… and he supposes it makes sense to cover the entire area if they legitimately wanted him safe. Mister, for example, could have made an easy entrance right through the glass panels otherwise. Although… he has to wonder whether any of them are part of this security that’s been established, be it in an official manner or not.

… well, rather not. It’s not their style. He might be in a hospital under the watch of the Liberation Front, however.

“Consider yourself lucky that the granny and the rest of the staff agreed not to let those control freaks near you right away,” the other continues, then adds a sigh before moving on. “Of course, the plan was to let you rest for the weekend. Nobody expected you to cave in like this… I suppose the only reason we are allowed to see you at last is because not only were you being totally useless to visiting officials, but your relatives seem to have bounced for good and the doctors realized it would be only downhill from here.”

“ … ”

… he’s trying.

Hawks is trying his best to feel disappointed, or sad, or angry, or… anything, about his family. He really does. But his parents have always been barely more than acquaintances, and quite frankly… of all people, Dabi (he will have to get out of the habit of using this name) is better fucking company than either of them had ever been.

Mom would never sit next to him like this.

It’s hilarious in the most twisted way possible.

Warmth is slowly seeping through the bedsheets from Hawks' occupied side, and Torodoki is also radiating some kind of inhuman heat through his light jacket, warming Hawks' skin like the sun does from his left. Anyone else would hate it in the sluggish early summer heat, but his body temperature is also higher than average by nature, so it feels just right. It would be really nice if this could drag on for a little longer, but he has to mind himself here.

“You still haven’t answered. I doubt you just wanted to visit.” People come for reasons, and leave for others. Nothing is for free. Question is what Todoroki wants from him, because there’s not much left that he can give, if anything at all.

“... indeed.”

Touya looks down at his locked hands in concentration, hesitant about the way he should go about this. As he stops for the moment, his eyes also skim over the shedding, hardened patches of skin that peek out from under the short sleeves of Keigo’s hospital gown and dot his arms lower still; Eri’s attempt to heal him was concentrated onto rather small area, trying to undo the worst of the damage that direct hit in the back had caused. The bird’s damn lucky his costume was so thick and somewhat heat resistant, too… Dialling it back before the impact or not, Enji could have killed him in an instant. Unlike the single, big spot stretching from Keigo’s ear to his eyebrows, where his burning wing lay for too long… these will fade with time, barely leaving a mark.

Not quite facing him, Keigo turns a little towards Touya, listening. The afternoon sun illuminates his overcast iris.

He better get over this.

“Long story short, when… she learned that your parents cannot be reached anymore,” he starts, looking for the words still, “and that you cannot keep your government issued apartment, meaning there’s nowhere for you to go once booted out of here,” One of his arms raises ever so slowly; “… my mother came up with… quite an insane idea.”

… right. Keigo didn’t think about that, among many other things in the past weeks or months. This career of his… well, all careers of his have certainly been terminated. He can neither play the hero, nor be a model any longer, and he’d rather take a hefty break from other public service and borderline political shit if he can. As far as housing goes… he could still move someplace until he figures out what to do with his life, he's got enough money saved up. If his bank account didn’t get frozen, that is. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise.

“Fuyumi jumped on it immediately, and my brothers also didn’t have any objections, quite the contrary, so…”

Hawks snaps out of his thoughts when something very warm is placed ever so tentatively on one of his hands as the man beside him sighs.

“Bear with me for a sec, I have no idea how to put this without sounding like a fucking creep.”

That something being Touya’s own hand.

There’s some vague scarring to be felt around where the marred edges used to be, but it’s much, much warmer than before. And softer, every last bit of it. It rests over his hand like a blanket, it's like… sitting by a kotatsu, it's—

“Keigo, was it?”

Hearing that name being dropped like this after a decade, if not more… causes a reaction not-Hawks can only compare to the meltdown of what suddenly knowing things felt that day: a cold shower soon leaving him with lightheadedness, ringing ears, and a sensation of suffocating heat burning a hole through his stomach like a flood of molten rock.

Too much. This… is too much.

His mouth is agape to breathe in air that refuses to enter its lungs, and he's hyper aware of the breath next to him that would be a sigh in name only. "I know mom and the others will get pissed if they hear any of it, so do me a solid and don't mention this. But the thing is, it would be dumb to drag my family into the clusterfuck that is our relationship or whatever it is. So… I want to ask in my name only."

Too much, too much, too— Space. He needs… space.

Now.

The horrified boy can feel his shallow breaths and heartbeat get faster upon the boiling lava suddenly spreading out, stretching all over under his chilled, wet skin that gets numb with static right under the heat of Touya's touch that he desperately needs to get away from—

— the very same hold that's pressing down harder now as the other prepares to get over whatever he wants to say, oblivious to having trapped him and squeezing all remaining air out of Hawks' lungs along with his hand.

Shouto once said that in others' stories… his brother had the kindest hands, and the—

“Stay with me.” … gentlest voice.

Keigo barely remembers shuddering under the second shower of icy needles down his back, or slapping the hand away before collapsing into an incoherent mess gasping for air, cowering under his arms for feeling unutterably small and naked and vulnerable.

Touya, meanwhile… finds himself standing two steps away, bewildered and at a loss as to what to do. He occasionally glances towards the door in mild panic, then back at the shaking man, torn between wanting to ask someone for help and hoping to god nobody opens the door to catch him red-handed doing— doing what exactly?

Wait, wait a second… ground yourself. Think about what's just happened.

You meant no harm, right? Yet, he’s clearly very upset. He— right, Hawks is in a bad place, looking like shit and basically starving himself to death. You got too close, and came on too strong. He's is just spooked. If it was the other way round, you’d already be burning the place to the damn ground. It’s fine. It’s fine, you just need to… calm down. And calm him the fuck down. Somehow.

First, Touya opens his mouth without a sound coming out. What the hell does Natsu do or say when he’s like this…? It happens on a weekly basis, but hell if he remembers. He just did it to himself, too, god damn it all, and yet can't tell how. Fuck.

“I… Are you okay?”

Nailed it?

When he hears a sob escaping, his own panic returns. He really, really doesn’t want any judging looks on him, but he even reallyer should just go and get Natsuo for this, god dammit—

“—orry…”

“Uh?”

It takes Touya a second to realize that Hawks is mumbling something under his breath between whimpers, seemingly over and over. Had he been doing it all along, and he was just too preoccupied with  himself to notice?

He steps back to the bed, crouching down ever so slowly as to not startle the other, listening closely.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m so… so sorry, I’m sorry…”

… that’s nothing but a flood of apologies. Some sort of blue screen, most likely.

But what is he sorry for? Needing help? Being vulnerable? Weak? This situation? Does he think it’s his fault, even if, in some fucked-up way, it actually is? He may even think that accepting help from Touya of all people, or even thinking about it, is shameful. That's also possible. Or maybe…

No, he couldn’t think he’d want to hurt him right now.

… Or would he?

The thought both upsets Touya and maybe… reminds him of someone he knows a little, dragging him further down onto the sickly blue linoleum flooring.

The stench of antiseptic, which he hadn’t noticed thus far, is now burning a hole into his lungs along with memories he’d rather have forgotten long ago.

Even so, he’s the first to stumble back from the precipice of a bottomless pit, raising his head back above the mattress. He stays quiet for a few seconds of thinking; the word he speaks after is tentative, and perhaps a little too quiet to be heard.

“… Hawks.”

When the other doesn’t react, he leans in closer… and down to bed level. Natsuo did something similar quite often, being taller and having a build similar to Enji. It didn’t take him too long to realize it was a tactic to appear less threatening. Their father never moving like that did help a lot at not freaking out too badly before realizing that it was only his kid brother, too.

Touya reaches out with a single finger to gently touch the ex-hero’s arm — ah, right, he totally forgot about not wanting to call him 'Hawks' for a hot minute — and there’s barely a twitch. He seems to be calming down by now, but it’s best not to push his luck. He speaks up again, only a breath above the previous attempt:

“Hey… Birdie.”

The hiccups and sobs outnumber the creaky sorries at this point. After a short while, the blonde pulls his legs closer to bury his face into the bedcovers instead of facing the intruder, and his muscles, while twitchy, loosen with time. He slowly curls up sitting like that into a ball.

Touya lifts his head from the mattress; he may not be of any actual help, but that's halfway there regardless. The other should be listening at the very least.

"Have you managed— are you okay now?"

No response. He may either leave it at that and walk away… or poke around some more for attention.

The fingers of his extended hand brush against Keigo's arm with such care that Touya would be surprised by himself, but he finds something even more distracting: the hero’s arms, as cold as his hand seemed a minute ago, are as much of a heat trap as his own. With how much of Keigo's skin his stupid-looking work clothes had usually covered, Touya never had a chance to tell just how warm the other was actually.

But, that's beside the point right now.

"Are you mad? Like… does me being here… upset you?"

There's another hiccup, but soon after, Keigo's head moves; it's hard to tell, but it looks as if he was shaking it to sign a 'no.'

Touya pauses, barely resting the fingertips on a patchy spot of skin. “Do you want me to leave?”

There’s no answer unless the contemplative, little movements of the blonde’s hands and feet are something to go by. As much as Touya wants to read a ‘yes’ into whatever Keigo does, all he sees is the uncertainty of the latter. In that case…

"Then… I’ll just finish telling you what I came for and be on my way.” Having said that, he pulls back to rest his head on both arms against the mattress. “You probably don't care, but it's related, so… I've kind of decided what to focus on, at least in the long term. I want to make my family feel safe and happy. They want me here for now, so I'm staying; if they wanted me gone… that's that. I’ll do anything as long as they are better off with or without it. And… basically, it is what I want for you, too. Everyone thinks we owe you one, anyway. That's why… I’ve come."

He stops for a second to check on the other again, but the man remains motionless.

"... Look, if you can't stand my mug I'll just keep my distance. I did some disgusting shit to you, and wouldn't be surprised if you refused to accept the offer altogether, even if… it would be awkward.” A small wrinkle digs itself between his thin brows. “Since they are now all over the idea of you being there, meaning I'll definitely disappoint someone… Guess this is not a very well thought-out plan."

After that, the silence only grows. Keigo is still huddled-up and unresponsive, not making a single sound.

In fact, he's listening to his own breathing and is focused on the throbbing of skin against the IV in his wrist, trying to make sense of what's been said.

It cannot be true, can it?

They have nothing to gain with him, or from him. Especially not Todoroki Touya. He's never shown any signs of tolerating him in the least.

The bed shifts a little and Keigo can hear shuffling nearby; the other has stood up, and is now taking a sluggish step towards the exit before stopping for a moment.

"... We'll be back in a week or two. We have to move into the new place, and… make some room for you. Decide till then whether you are in or not, will you."

The ball of fabric shifts a little; what would nice people… kind people want him around for? He's nothing but a disturbance. A no good, annoying, manipulative bastard, unsuited to be a pet or, as of now, even just decoration.

He listens on quietly as Touya’s shoes make tiny squeaking noises along their way towards the exit. The door handle gives a high-pitched shriek upon being pressed down, and for some reason Keigo’s filled once more with some sort of unnamed dread, and his skin is covered in cold sweat as the squeaks are replaced by taps on cold stone.

"Sorry for bothering. See ya."

Then, the door clicks… and after a few muffled, fading steps, the deafening silence returns.

And it scares Keigo more than any villain, manager, mother, or deformed monstrosity could ever hope to.

Chapter Text

Less than two weeks later, Keigo’s terrified out of his mind again; this time, the reason is as mundane as the automatic door leading outside. He does his best to hide it behind a smile, but his anxiety should be blatantly obvious to anyone with eyes or telepathy as it takes him multiple minutes to make sure that this is any good of an idea. And even then he steps outside only because of a good shove from an impatient Dabi— that is to say, Todoroki Touya. Meanwhile young Shouto watches on with mild wonder, or rather confusion while carrying the released patient's few belongings. 

Keigo questioning this decision is an understatement.

First of all, he feels guilty for ever having considered accepting help, and is straight-up ashamed to have done so for selfish, cowardly reasons. He should make sure to get his shit together and leave the Torodoki family alone as soon as possible. Also… the resurrected strawberry nightmare tailing him is making him even more nervous with his oddly mellow, neutral demeanor, acting as if nothing had ever happened.

Plus, Keigo barely knows the rest of the family. He may have met Shouto a couple of times, so he’s his best bet at chatting away time… but he also knows that the youngest is perfectly capable of the unnerving judgemental stare his brother and father both excel at, and it's the last thing he needs right now. Then there’s Fuyumi, to whom he has talked twice altogether, he’s seen Rei one time, and he hasn’t even had the chance to introduce himself to Natsuo.

As much of a first impression he may have left on the aspiring doctor, though, he also leaves one of his own, for the first thing Natsuo does is slap Keigo's shoulder hard enough to sting. The reason turns out to be the fake smile he’s spent hours piecing together. Apparently, it reeked from miles and wasn't appreciated.

This may be followed by an apology and making sure he was alright, but none of it helps with his feeling absolutely misplaced.

Meanwhile he catches Shouto smiling at their awkward attempt at socialisation and it is both cute and really weird. Rei is trying to do him a solid with a gentle hand on the shoulder (hers are super warm, too,) but Fuyumi is touchy-feely to an extent that cancels the good intentions out and makes him more nervous instead. If not for Natsuo reminding them all that they should get going because the parking ticket is about to expire, he'd have another breakdown on the spot.

As they all move towards the entrance and Natsuo jogs away to fetch the car that’s apparently outside hospital grounds, Touya does nothing but lag behind and stare somewhere unidentified, as if standing guard. It basically translates into him also being antsy, Keigo knows that much.

And, oddly enough… the one to make him the most flustered out of all the family flocking Keigo is… him. Like, yeah, Enji is nowhere to be seen, — oh, he's positively relieved about not having to deal with that can of worms right now, rest assured — but even past his vaguely off behavior, Todoroki... how should he put it?

He knows it’s rude to stare.

Keigo knows it, and still does it every other minute, because he can’t help not being boggled by the way the other just… looks. The man’s barely kept any of the punk look the blonde is used to, or rather… made it fit with his pale complexion and the baby pink haystack on his head. He certainly kept his love for piercings and torn-up clothes, but if Keigo hadn’t realized back in the hospital room that the guy standing there was fucking Dabi of all people… mere days later, he would have walked past him on the street while staring like an idiot. Scars, wardrobe, and hair dye can take you a long way if you want to stay incognito, can’t they. Guess the death certificate helps, too, but that's besides the point.

It really is only a matter of time until Touya catches on. Keigo is glad that it’s when they are already separated from the family, waiting under another tree at the exit, because being out of earshot spares him quite a bit of embarrassment.

“What is it, Feathers?”

Dig yourself out of this one if you can, golden boy.

"Well… it’s just, I didn’t really have a look last time, so…” Keigo moves a finger to have an awkward scratch-slash-rub at his cheek, but his arms also move to involuntarily cross themselves. Like… what else can he bullshit apart from saying the obvious?

His fumbling seems to irritate Touya as his voice gets snappy.

“What?!”

“You’re really, uh,” There's no way in hell Keigo can look at him with a straight face here; he turns away. "… looking not bad.”

That is to say… Well, the cheesiest thing he can think of is ‘like pastel poetry in motion.’ Or something along those lines. The guy's always had some kind of looks, but he's become disgustingly easy on the eyes, especially now that Keigo's also noticed the cute-ass blush Touya seems to be sporting naturally. There are people with quirks to crank up beauty to 11, his siblings are also lookers, and Keigo is aware that he himself used to be handsome, but he doesn’t think there's anyone objectively better-looking he's ever seen than the rewound ex-villain. Especially remarkable for someone who died a fiery death, lived as a decaying pseudo-zombie for a decade, and then got hurriedly patched up by a seven-year-old god while burning and bleeding himself towards a second demise.

"Uhhh…" First, all Touya can manage are several processing bats of the eye, followed by him looking around as if making sure he’s not being pranked. "Thanks? I guess?"

"You're… welcome, I guess." Having said that, Keigo averts his eyes for good and settles for looking at Shouto’s mismatched socks that peek out of his white trainers.

Yeeeah… this is about as well as this exchange could have gone. And how they are bound to go for a looooong time.

"Yeah."

For a moment, it seems as if the topic is dropped for good, but Touya has some afterthoughts to share even with the awkward factor both of them are painfully aware of. "That's rich, though… especially coming from you."

Keigo’s eyes keep being glued to the blue and pink socks, but he raises his less stiff brow. “Elaborate?”

“I'm just saying that people have straight-up puked from being in my general proximity mere weeks ago, Birdie — and you are the wet dream of thousands, if not millions out there,” states Touya in a painfully monotone voice while on the lookout for an interesting cloud in the sky.

The blonde’s thoughtful fascination over Shouto’s color choices and the man next to him fade to gloom near immediately, and he can’t help but note how upsetting the bird remarks are getting.

“… not anymore.” He lifts a hand to brush his fingers over the burns and partially missing eyebrow on his right. "It would take a stalker to find me attractive now."

Apart from the burns and patchy hair around them, he's got a legally blind eye he may want to cover up (because frankly, being able to see vague shapes and colors to one eye is worse than not being able to see with it at all), and a positively malformed rib cage revealed under the amputated parts. Anyone who thinks he's more than just expired eye candy has questionable taste. Even people with a serious mutant kink would be turning their noses up now that he’s missing the wings.

It begs the question whether people will recognize Keigo like this at all.

Probably not.

Also probably, it’s for the best.

Touya crosses his arms in disdain, too. "Was that meant to be commentary on your facial burns? You do realize who you're talking to, right?" he scoffs.

"Not everyone can pull them off, Mister Cotton Candy," Keigo drawls.

That’s the point where the other has had enough of his shit and steps up close, close enough to be positively intimidating. "First of all: shut the fuck up right now," Touya hisses. "Second: that thing you've just called me? It's out of bounds, got it…? Third," here he jabs a pointing finger into Keigo's sternum, "I can and will take all self-deprecating shit like that personally. Was I clear? " He emphasizes the last three words with a poke for each. Keigo could swear to see a flicker of blue by his mouth, too.

" … " It takes all of the former hero’s self restraint not to flinch away; instead, he starts nibbling at the inside of his lips.

Touya heaves a sigh to let go of the pent-up irritation with a huff before he backs off.

"Good." Popping his neck, he takes note of the hybrid Highlander turning into the street with Natsuo in the driver's seat.

This fact seems to remind him of something, because he addresses Keigo again as the huge car slows down near the entrance. “… right. I forgot to tell you, but since you still need some checkups and shit, Natsuo will be your stand-in nurse. His studies require field practice and all that jazz, so he asked whether he could take over as you’ll be around, anyway.”

It takes two and a half seconds of processing, but Keigo feels the blood come to a halt in his veins right then and there; he snaps his head towards Touya. “H— wait, he what?”

The surprised and upset tone makes the other’s head tilt the slightest bit as he observes the outburst. “I’m telling you that you’ve become my brother’s first homework. Rest in peace.”

And in that moment, Keigo's barely existent comfort crumbles along with his decent blood pressure figures, turning him into even more of a ghost than he already is.

“It was a joke, god damn it, you’ll live, man! He’s an ace student,” Touya tries to reassure him while putting up his hands to loosen his stance, because this attempt at neutralizing the mood with banter has backfired really bad out of nowhere. There’s no way he could get away with causing another breakdown in broad daylight, and upsetting the blonde is straight-up against what he’s trying to do in the first place, fuck.

He’ll really have to mind his fucking mouth from now on.

Unknown to him, it was the information itself that hit Keigo hard, and Touya wouldn’t have the slightest idea why that would be the case even if he was told as such.

Truly, the reason Keigo is freaking out is… because he has access to his records.

Todoroki fucking Natsuo has access… to his motherfucking records.

Even worse than that… he has read them, and he knows. And even if he hasn't, he will. Very, very soon.

The moment the vehicle stops, Keigo bolts up to it at what would be his trademark top speed from now on, leaving Touya with a conundrum.

The short jog and wave of adrenaline suck out every ounce of power Keigo's collected in the nine days since Touya has given him the ultimatum, but that's only part of the reason why his hands are literally shaking as he puts them into the rolled-down windows. If nothing else, he already has Natsuo's full attention.

“Can… can I talk to you for a moment?" he squeezes out the question between wheezes. "Like, in private?”

Natsuo takes only a fleeting glance at him before unfastening the seatbelt. “Sure.”

A minute later they’re standing under the tree Keigo and Touya were using to hide from the midday sun. The blonde can see the latter sparing a suspicious glance towards their direction before slamming the door shut. Seems like he’ll be sitting in the front; based on what Keigo knows of the man's rocky relationship with any kind of transportation, it’s not surprising.

He decides to deal with that problem later and turns back to face Natsuo. "Sorry, it’s just… your brother said you would be my stand-in nurse, and… and I,” the words come in a quick-paced, choppy flow that the doctor-to-be has to put a halt to himself.

“Sssh,” he soothes him, raising a finger to the lips. “You’re getting loud. Not very private, right?”

“I… I just…” He’s fighting for the words he’s looking for. This came out of the blue and he has no idea what kind of a person Natsuo is… Enji, Shouto and Touya all tend to be too stiff and literal minded, but Fuyumi is not, and he doesn’t think any of them would have what it takes to ‘ace’ a medical career, so he can’t use them as a guideline. How can he bring this up right now without it being too obvious, but still make him understand…?

Natsuo puts both hands on Keigo's shoulders just as his nervous shaking returns. “It’s fine, take deep breaths. We are not in a hurry to go anywhere. In… and out. Okay?”

Once he complies, Keigo closes his eyes to block out anything else around him. After the third breath, he already feels more grounded and less panicking. Yep, he can’t see either of Natsuo's brothers do this as effectively. Also, he may be mistaken, but… these hands feel just a bit cool to him, in contrast to all the burning and freezing ones he just got to know. Is he the only one in this family with a normal body temperature?

The doctor apprentice takes him back to the present when letting go of his shoulders. “That’s it… good job.” After a pause as long as his own sigh, he continues. “You wanted to talk about your birth certificate, didn’t you?”

That… confirms it. He’s already seen everything.

Fighting off the embarrassment, Keigo whimpers a yes.

"Don't worry, if you'd rather I kept it a secret, it's safe with me. Wouldn't want to upset you… and the fact that my girlfriend would eviscerate me if I outed you without talking it over first isn’t even a factor."

It's hard to say anything to that, even if Keigo’s tempted to ask an out-of-place question about the other’s partner. The thought that Natsuo is one of the people who understands works like a charm and dispels his worries in a blink, too. "… Thanks," he nods.

Natsuo's answer is a wink, followed by him pulling a nonexistent zip on his mouth.

Keigo can't help but put on a genuine smile at that as the last shreds of doubt dissipate, mimicking the gesture.

The other cracks a grin of his own, pleased that he could put the blonde at ease. "After you," he nods then towards the rental car which everyone is waiting in already.

Both Touya and Fuyumi seem to be ogling them on their way back; once Keigo has taken his place in the back with Rei, he can hear them whispering to their brother.

“Was something the matter?”

“Healthcare related, we talked it out.”

“What was that goofy shit for, then?”

“Sorry, bro… any other detail is confidential and Hippocrates will steal my toes if I say more.”

“Huh?! The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

This is going to be a long ride.

Chapter Text

The trip ends up being about half an hour long, but even that was getting overwhelming. It’s not that Rei is scary, but she certainly comes off as… well, cold, and a little detached. It vaguely reminds Keigo of his first impressions of Fuyumi and Touya, neither of which having been the most fortunate of circumstances. The mother also asks him some questions that are either generally uncomfortable to talk about, or… currently a sore issue.

He quickly realizes that this covers virtually every small talk topic ever: work, family, news, private life… hell, even his godforsaken, nearly nonexistent, to-do listed hobbies aren’t up for discussion, because he himself cannot talk about them in depth.

She, meanwhile, is not very well-versed in social media, and Keigo has a hunch that nobody in the family is into the only thing he could pick up on the fly as a hero, that is to say, programming. Fortunately, she seems to notice these hangups of his and doesn’t push for more. They end up chatting a bit about Shouto, then spend most of the trip discussing a show both of them happen to know. It’s mostly just her catching him up to what has happened while bedridden, though.

Then, he finds himself… in the room. That is to say ‘his’ room, alone. Fuyumi takes him there, telling him to make himself at home and ask for anything he may need since it’s very bare-bones as his belongings have yet to arrive. She’s off to do her thing then, and everybody else is also busy returning to what they left lying about in the morning. Natsuo, for one, is on his way back to the rental with the car.

Keigo takes a look around. It is not as huge as his luxury flat was where he had more than enough space to spread his wings. And the thought is likely supported by feeling smaller himself, but for a simple bedroom for one, wingless person… it still appears to be big. Big and tidy, if not spotless with fresh tatami covering the floor and barely anything past bedsheets already laid out for sleep inside.

A little too plain and orderly perhaps. The smell of fresh paint is still apparent and it does feel as cold and empty as Fuyumi has said. Just like the apartment did.

He remembers being excited over moving in there. Thinking about how nice it would be if the tall space up to the ceilings was filled with plants and knickknacks, or how there was an oven to bake cookies in… thinking all naively that he would bake aaaaall of the cookies he’s ever missed out on. But the gaping, white space remained as such forevermore, and he barely had the chance to sleep or microwave something, save find time for baking. So his expectations of the new place are… low.

Keigo turns around to slide the huge door into place, because the corridor feels a little too revealing right now. His neighbors are Natsuo and some small space to the left (storage, perhaps?), and opposite is the room that would be Fuyumi’s. Plus there’s another door leading somewhere that is likely Rei’s space. At least he suspects so as Da— uh, Touya slunk off direction upstairs, and Shouto soon followed suit. He must be the one moving stuff around up above as he’ll be returning to the dormitories after dinner. All in all, it’s a quiet spot and it could be worse, he supposes. Too bad that silence is one thing freaking him out a lot in its unnatural natural way. He’s going to need to find a distraction as soon as possible.

Speaking of which… He would not necessarily want to cover up the glass door to the garden at the far end of the room, but the huge wall-to-wall window looking onto it is another story. There are no blinds to be found, though… so he does the next best thing and drags the shoji screen found in the closet somewhere between the scenery and bed. It’s not as if the area is super easy to access for paparazzi and the like, but he still feels exposed and wary.

With no better idea on what to do until someone inevitably picks him up for a family dinner that will feel awkward as all hell, he drops his bag next to the futon and crashes down on it. The sheets smell really nice… like wild flowers and hay. At least this is what he imagines those things would smell like. The garden outside is nice, too, and the faint sound of running water is really soothing. Still, he may want to fetch a nice playlist once setting up a phone.

… Right. A new phone. Without the ever-pinging hero network, or appointment alarms, or the dread of being called by his manager or handlers as soon as his head hits the pillow. With every single app he may want to install, and nothing but some annoying, undeletable basic trash otherwise.

It sounds… a little too good to be true. Along with everything else. Like this room.

But… there’s also a cool air surrounding the entire place. It’s like getting a present… Having to try on a new jacket or step into a new pair of shoes somebody else has bought for you. Not quite sure if they look cool or garish yet, and they could be the most uncomfortable monstrosity you’ve ever had to try on, or the best thing that has ever happened to you. But no matter what they turn out to be, they will have to be accepted regardless. Because they were a present, and accepting them is your duty.

It’s his… duty.

…

… isn’t it?

Following some time of just listening to the trickling water and chirping of birds, Keigo curls up into a ball and pulls whatever he can grab from behind, folding the sheets around his body like he would his wings.

He doesn’t want to think about such scary things. He’s dead tired and just wants to fall asleep. Wants to enjoy being invited without thinking about the horrors this family has gone through and what a nuisance he is to top it off. Not to stress about sitting around a table with them in a few hours.

But he can’t.

This entire situation is so… surreal.

The foreboding feeling doesn’t change with the dinner that evening, or the one after. It even gets stronger as Rei seems to take on low-key mothering him once she notes how little he’s eating. He’s past the stage of feeling like roadkill after the first two days, but this weird problem has resulted in him barely leaving his quarters by day regardless.

Then there is the curious case of Shouto dropping by on patrol and asking for Keigo’s help with science homework for when he comes home next. (Natsuo seemed jealous at the time... but the two of them talk enough for Keigo to know that the boy was correct in assuming that his brother will have been way too busy preparing the paperwork for his degree, studying for exams, and being at the nearby clinic when he was free.)

This alienation peaks a mere week after his arrival while everyone is all attending Natsuo’s birthday party in the garden. It’s a little early; the first will be on Friday. But this was the closest date for everyone to be available at the weekend, including the boy’s girlfriend.

Keigo’s sidekicks did organize Christmas parties that doubled as birthday and New Year’s celebrations, but… he only managed to attend one to an extent, and spent like twenty minutes at another. Walking into his study that was decorated with warm lights and stuffed to the brim with presents and good wishes in the middle of the night, and no one inside… always made him feel lonely. Even more than usual.

And observing the family from some distance with a mostly empty, green piece of melon rind in his hands was no different.

Touya scares him out of these thoughts as he throws himself onto the swinging couch Keigo’s sitting on, sending the both of them cradling on the garden terrace. The huff accompanying the action is about as telling as the almost-frown on his flushed face, the previously rosy cheeks glowing nearly red in the summer heat.

He nudges Keigo’s leg with the foot still dangling on the side. “Make space, Budgie. I’m done roasting in the sun.”

“Desperate enough to sit next to me?” sighs Keigo, then flings a pillow into the other’s lap as he hops to the side. ‘Sitting’ next to him is putting it lightly, though. The guy’s just arrived and is already occupying two thirds of the thing, but that’s apparently not enough. What a space hog.

It’s also annoying Keigo because, apart from the bothersome, little things and dinners, sharing space with a bunch of people has merely been a technicality thus far — and now this jerk is trying to kick him out of his new favorite spot all of a sudden.

Like, okay. It’s a dumb thing to get upset about. He is the one who’s started a part-time hikikomori gig and barely interacts with people, after all. It’s time well spent, at least; he’s been writing a decent-looking CV, browsing courses he could-should take, initiating administrational humbug he had access to online, and he’s also ghosting job offers for when he gets the previous points sorted out.

Fuyumi and Natsuo are the only people willing to invade his messy, budding nest of sorts. The former usually arrives to have a quick chat, then ask whether he needs something from the shops or what he would like to eat… and the latter visits him every day for checkups, also chatting the time away. It’s plenty enough for a start to socialize.

Now, Touya… is at the opposite end of the spectrum. He’s been more of a ghost than the freeloading bird himself as he’s scarce even during dinners despite being at home 24/7.

The guy must have been making good on his promise of steering clear of Keigo, because they’ve run into each other three times altogether. The first of these encounters was in the dead of the first night when Touya was coming out of the downstairs bathroom (following what Keigo suspects was a snack in the kitchen), and him going inside. Embarrassing or not, locking eyes with him nearly evoked a fight or flight response. Judging by the looks of the other back then, this was a mutually upsetting experience; old habits, and all that jazz. Would have ruffled his wing feathers real good if he still had any. It occurred to him back then that maybe the ex-villain was right in keeping his distance.

The second time they met was just the other day, while Keigo was discussing the problematic lecture with Shouto. He came in to borrow a couple of textbooks from his younger brother. This, Keigo has yet to make sense of… but strongly suspects that Touya’s trying to catch up on his high school exams. Wonder how that’ll go. He’s never struck him as the brightest of bulbs.

Keigo spotted him last time through those way too big and revealing windows that his room has, a mere hour before installing the blinds he’d asked for. The guy was splashing around in the garden pond for whatever reason. It wasn’t much of an interaction… Keigo was just creeping for five solid minutes before returning to the borrowed laptop to fill out the data for his new ID.

Ever since later that very same evening, though, Keigo’s also been spending more and more time outside. Specifically in this specific spot, on the couch. The air wasn’t as stale and stuffy as in the room, and the morning and afternoon sun felt just right on his skin… unlike whatever was going on right now at 4PM. The temptation to sneak back inside is strong. Or, there’s the other temporary solution...

“You could just grab another slice of watermelon, Milkshake… or get a straw hat like your mom,” Keigo muses along as the pastel monster makes himself comfortable, considering to grab another slice himself.

Then, he also sets a mental reminder for the appointment to have his ID photo taken, because thinking about it, that’s tomorrow morning.

Mmm. Wonder if he should gussy up and hide that scar for the occasion. Then again, he won’t be photographed or be wearing makeup all that much anymore, anyway.

“I’m all partied out. And watermeloned out,” grunts Touya. Shit will suck in about half an hour, but what’s he gonna do? Eating melons is risky business like that. And being with the entire family is plain exhausting to top it off. He’s never been the type to spend considerable time around a bunch of people, and this fact doesn’t seem to be subject to change; he needs a breather.

And while at it, he might as well have a look at the bird. He’s been moping over here all day. It’s not like he’s keeping a close eye on him, but if he’s already taken upon himself to look after the guy he ought to check how he’s doing here and there. For the time being, he’ll offer some questionable company.

Touya pulls the extra pillow from under his arm, then stuffs it under his head to lie down across the mattress as intended. As he puts his other leg up, he also tucks the right one under the remaining cushion behind Keigo. Now settled down, Touya’s attention returns to the rest of the Todorokis and he remains silent after.

Keigo meanwhile reconsiders going out into the Sahara sun for another slice, and, having nothing better to do but nibble at the remains of his previous piece of watermelon, gets the couch into a nice swing again. They both focus on the silly blindfold game of trying to crack the last of three fruits open.

Keigo catches up with the fact that he’s been staring at his empty, all-green melon rind after a while. “... I feel so out of place,” he mumbles under his breath eventually.

What the actual hell… is he doing here, really?

Touya sighs; if that’s what is bothering him, it makes sense.

“That makes two of us,” he moans afterwards, also low enough for nobody else to catch.

Keigo peeks over at him; the eldest still looks troubled, but not in the annoyed way as when he arrived a few minutes ago. It’s more like… growing frustration.

And oh, he did figure that much, but still… “Come on, you at least are family.”

With that, the piece of rind is flung neatly into the bowl full of them. Still can aim, if nothing else.

He almost believes the conversation has run into another dead end when the lounging man speaks up again.

“I know, it’s just… I’m still not used to… this.”

Keigo tilts his head with a questioning hum as he picks his feet from the ground to sit cross-legged and simply enjoy the last big swing he starts by doing so. The soft, gentle push and pull of the wind... in the near exact way he knows it. If he closes his eyes, it will feel just as if he was soaring high, high again. Over sea and hay and watermelon scented fields.

“This peace and quiet. It’s so—” Touya’s brows pull into a frown again, bigger than before.

Keigo can feel the foot behind him move when the birthday boy finally manages to hit the melon for good; Natsuo’s girlfriend is cheering alongside the rest of the family. Touya on his left gives a few claps, too.

“All of this is too good to be true,” he finishes the sentence then.

Keigo can’t help but open his eyes and break the illusion at that. “Same.”

“I keep expecting him to barge in and ruin everything whenever they look so happy,” Touya continues against his better judgement, a bitter upset seeping into his voice. “Which also ruins it.”

“Ah—”

He didn’t think about Endeavor.

At least tried not to, successfully. It did take effort, since the news kept bringing him and new cases up, but Keigo ended up scrolling past as fast as he could before blacklisting some common tags on his most visited news feeds. If the current number one hero — who will surely have to say goodbye to the position come the next ranking — was ever mentioned under the roof of this house, he remained blissfully ignorant to it. He… will need some time to deal with the matter before finally swallowing the pill.

He blacklisted himself as well, as soon as he saw a photo of him leaning into the driver’s window with Natsuo inside. Didn’t even bother to check the accompanying headline, especially as it was some tabloid link. He has not the time, nor the energy for that shit.

Keigo remembers considering to do the same for #Dabi and #TodorokiTouya, but the worst of the digging was already over by the time he created private accounts across sites. So yeah, the truth, or at least part of it, got out to the information hungry public. And the subject of interest took as much shit from journalists as anyone else. Most attempts at an interview or article were about his death and resurrection, but ballsier and shadier folk also tried to churn out info from when he was an ‘undead abomination,’ to quoth the raven.

Honestly, it’s a miracle Touya hasn’t got a body count to his actual name yet. Keigo wouldn’t even blame him, sensationalist journalism is the worst. His attitude doesn’t sit well with the general populace, though. There’s a bunch of folks demanding he be put on trial at the very least, even if it’s formality only. And Keigo would be lying if he said they weren’t onto something, there. There’s no proof, but Touya did know damn well what he had been doing.

And so had he.

“—understandable.”

There’s a pause before Touya pushes himself into a sitting position. Something about this issue has him beyond irate, the reason most likely being… that man.

Or, it could be the melon curse kicking in. Both are as good of a guess as anything.

“Tell them I went back to my room,” he states while leaving.

As the couch gets swinging over Touya’s disappearance, Keigo hums.

“Should somebody call you down for the cake?” he asks after short consideration as the other is passing behind him.

There’s no answer to be had.

Chapter Text

Hanabi was always more trouble than it was worth.

As a hero, at least. Being a mere spectator on the biggest day of a summer festival is a very different, if not alien experience. The fact that this is the first time Keigo has left the house to legitimately socialize instead of just queueing in offices and frowning upon all the jobs they were trying to fob off to him does not help this one bit. (Every single hero agency under the sun would want him as a spokesperson, secretary or some similar shit, including his own one that still exists somehow and will do so for about two more vegetative years. He literally cannot pick out the offers he may have leitimate interet in among all that garbage… Seriously, what the fresh, but predictable hell. If he could cancel the obligatory job agency newsletter, he would — he did the next best thing and set the mail to go straight into the spam folder instead. He’s better off looking online at his own pace and expense like he did before.)

Anyway, natsumatsuri. It's alright, in theory; the sheer noise of such celebrations used to bother him a lot, but it’s tolerable without his feathers around. Who knows, maybe he won't wish his brain imploded already upon the fireworks going off, either.

By the time they get to the heart of the scene, however… darkness is setting in. With that, the quickly growing masses of people, and the patrolling heroes around, Keigo starts feeling… tense. Tenser than an hour before, when he was more worried about people recognizing him, because that happened on occasion and had been a nuisance every single time thus far. Now he's more alert in the sense of standing guard, being ready to take down any villain that may crop up and swoop in on any accident lying in wait.

He feels the urge to do something.

Anything.

But over and over, as ingrained instinct tries to take control, he has to remind himself… that he can't.

And every time, he turns to his yakitori instead, biting down hard enough to make the bamboo crackle in agitation.

Young Shouto isn't faring much better; they zero in on the first crying toddler at the same time, and if not for being off-duty and joined by Death Arms in a minute flat, the student would have accompanied the lost child to its parents himself.

Regardless, both of them are trying their darndest to just enjoy the summer festival surrounding their group. As such, the first thing on the to-do list is finding a distraction — which Shouto seems to be excelling at. He tries pretty much every kind of snack available, takes thoughtful looks at the scooping games as they pass…

And then stops at the one with goldfish.

“Those are not for snacking,” notes Natsuo to his curious little brother. As a joke, of course… but it’s best to make sure.

“I know,” the latter notes, cracking the candy coating on his last piece of apple. After a couple of seconds, he points into a corner of the tub: "That one looks like a kitty."

And indeed, the most strikingly calico goldfish near and far was swimming there, in the mild panic shared with its brethren as people kept whisking them away, one by one.

"And that one looks like you," notes Natsuo, nodding straight down to where the youngest stands… towards a specimen that's near perfectly white and red on each side.

"Ah," is all the boy can manage upon the realization, but he gets distracted soon enough by a silvery white colored one that has nary a yellow scale on its tiny body. "… Mom's also there."

Touya sighs in defeat at the exchange and turns towards his twin sister. "A turn each?"

Fuyumi's holding the base of her nose by the time the question is posed. This is a terrible idea. But they are already locked on the target and there is no way she'd win an argument against all of her brothers.

" … two fish per head, tops." And even then, they have nowhere to put them, for goodness' sake…

As she pays for the game and is mildly bothered by her mother not seeing the issue here, Touya hands out the poi to everyone else and finishes the task by sticking the last one into Keigo's hand.

The latter stares at it for a second with a small frown, then blinks twice in confusion before turning to Touya, who's already looking for a good spot to start at. "I— me, too?"

"Of course, 'you too.' Make yourself useful and get the ones those idiots have been gawking at for sure." Having said that, he crouches down next to the corner the multicolored fish Shouto first spotted is swimming towards.

Keigo squints; wait a sec. "Fuyumi said we can have two catches each."

Touya answers with a long hum of approval. "She did set a max amount… didn't say we had to snatch them ourselves, though."

Unfortunately for him, she can hear the discussion just fine. "Touya, stop getting stupid ideas, or the fish will be all yours to take care of, you hear?!"  Fuyumi threatens him with a fistful of crumpled change from the counter.

Her brother sighs with a deadpan expression. "Yes, ma'am."

A moment later, Keigo finds himself smiling at that. Touya finds the loopholes in everything, doesn't he?

Or he just sucks at the game, as it becomes apparent in a minute flat when the toy snare’s paper has already begun to come loose. Although, Keigo also notes a small fault in his, so it may be the quality of the tool, since otherwise Touya's doing a rather good job staying on target and keeping the calico fish in his reach.

Meanwhile, Fuyumi has already picked a fish and passes her poi over to Touya, because she can already see that he’s not going to be able to keep going with his. (And, the paper does give in just as he attempts to snatch the damn fish already, leaving him robbed. He ends up fishing out the half red, half white one before the other poi rips under the weight of two squirming specimens.)

Rei also picks a single one, more specifically the very energetic number one target. She also passes the lightly damaged poi over to Shouto, who has missed the silvery one he was gunning for, and got the one next to it before his ripped.

Natsuo is a natural and pockets two simple goldfish that seem to be a perfect match colorwise.

After some consideration of how many he should be allowed to get, Keigo also gets down to work; first priority is the small, silvery goldfish, which erred into his scooping range after Shouto’s botched attempt. And just like that… it's already in his bowl. Not much of a task, really. 

Afterwards, he just goes for whatever he thinks the family would like, so he picks out a rather white one with red spots that are Fuyumi-esque, a plain black one that just looks cool, and another calico fish that has many small dots of color instead of the big spots Shouto liked.

The game demands quite a bit of focus, but it still registers to Keigo that Shouto has managed to catch a second fish. The thought that he's got more than enough crosses his mind when he zeroes in on a fish that has a mix of scales on its side that make it look almost… strawberry pink.

Guess who will not be amused over Cotton Candy Junior joining the family? Scratch pulling the brakes, he's so going to get that one.

A couple of minutes later, he's second guessing the decision while observing the thick plastic bag with all twelve fish swimming inside.

"You know… it's all and well that I managed to fish out half a dozen, but what will happen to these poor animals?" Keigo muses while watching them in the light of lanterns. They are nowhere near big enough to eat, and releasing them into the wild is bad for both them and the environment…

Touya shrugs. "Guess you could toss them into the pond in the garden?"

"You really should not do that," chimes in Fuyumi. "The carp will likely eat them, you know."

" … oh. I see."

His sister and Keigo let out a sigh in tandem; the dumbass thought he could solve the problem like that without issues, didn't he. And now Keigo had made the issue worse by catching so many, too…

"Guess we could get an aquarium set up?" thinks Natsuo out loud. "There's plenty of space left upstairs, or in the hall."

"It's either that or giving them away," adds Fuyumi.

Shouto may not join the conversation, but Keigo can see a glint in his eyes, signaling that he would like the aquarium idea very much, indeed. Rei also notes his excitement and strokes his head in compliance.

“We’ve still got about twenty minutes until the fireworks start," notes Fuyumi when checking her watch. "Any ideas?”

“I need to find myself a loo,” sighs Natsuo this time around. “I guess you’ll also need it after eating all that junk?” he says then, turning towards Shouto who simply nods after a moment's consideration.

"I think we passed one when leaving the candy apple shop," informs Rei as she puts a last pat on her son's head. "It's been quite a while since we've passed it so maybe there is another one not much further ahead."

"Alright. Are you feeling adventurous, Shou?"

"… I'd rather have more apples."

Natsuo and Keigo both respond with a snort. This blunt boy is a gem, alright.

"Okay, backtracking it is, then," the former acknowledges, although it's obvious that he'd rather have looked for something closer by. "See you soon and don't go too far. Then again, we can give you a ring in case we can't find you."

Fuyumi waves her handbag around. "I've made sure that I'm not muted today. Godspeed, you two."

As the boys disappear in the crowd, Touya takes a thoughtful look around. "Well then, what do we do? I guess we could look for a decent spot, but we've kinda botched up getting the best ones while fishing already. So… games, until they come back?"

"I guess so… We didn't bring all that much money, though. So choose wisely," his sister notes.

“I wanna try gun shooting over there,” mumbles Keigo under his breath. There’s a snack on display that he swears he remembers liking as a kid, and he's brought a bit of change to spend. If it is the blatantly fake caramel flavored thing, it’s a miracle it’s still being produced.

“I would like to try the ring toss next to it,” speaks up Rei, too, pointing at the game.

“Huh?” is what escapes both Fuyumi and Touya at once as they turn towards her.

“You… want to play?” the former asks, still not believing her ears.

“Sure thing!” the woman assures her with a bright smile, then swings her hands as if she was already busy tossing for a prize. “I picked up some amazing old lady seed-tossing skills in the last month at the hospital, don’t underestimate them!”

Keigo can see Touya stifle a laugh and it makes him bite back a smile, too. Despite her son’s best efforts, Rei also takes note of it.

“I’m dead serious, Tou-kun.” She’s yet to be anywhere near the stall, but is already rolling her sleeves higher up. “Let me tell you, kids, I may have been sick half of the time, but still was handball captain at school…! Come on!!”

This rouses a chuckle of mixed amusement and embarrassment from Fuyumi. “Mom…!”

“Well,” sighs Touya while passing a thousand-yen bill between two fingers to Keigo, “I’ll be damned if I don’t watch how this turns out. You know where we’ll be stuck at.”

Keigo's eyes get glued to the piece of money before scrunching it up in his palm and flashing a malicious smirk towards the game stall; someone's gonna go out of business today.

"Woah, great aim! I will have to close shop early if you keep hitting targets any longer, kid!" the man standing inside yells over the crowd and another loud pop of a toy gun, visibly unsure whether he should be legitimately worried or more impressed.

"Thanks, mister~" Keigo beams over to the owner with a salute before receiving the snacks he's just shot off the shelves. There was one he missed so bad it hit another one dead on instead, but he remembers hearing that Rei liked strawberries so she may want that package of daifuku. "I'll have another round and then be on my way, though, don't worry!" He's spent two thousand already, and, although he made good use of seventeen bullets, it's about time he called it quits.

"Five, then?"

"Yep, here's the 500 yen."

He's aiming his gun with the last of those shots when an unexpected hand presses onto his shoulder, startling him into one last miss.

"Oh my! Hawks, is that you?!"

Oh, bother… play it cool.

"As I live and breathe!" he manages to laugh through a smile upon turning to this total stranger. "Although, I haven't heard that name in a while."

"One can barely recognize you… let yourself a little go, ey?" So says the painfully plain-looking and slightly balding man around forty with all the flashier yukata to make up for it, likely meaning the statement as a joke of some sort. It doesn’t take an expert to tell that he’s one of those kinds of people; the obnoxious buddy-buddy sort that brings back a couple of positively unpleasant memories.

Apart from the general nuisance the man’s going to become real soon, he is right. Keigo never plucked the little feathers framing his cheeks after leaving the hospital, and there was no need to cover the small and often bloody spots up with makeup, so his freckles were also on full display. He hasn't been wearing headphones (his used to be earmuffs against the cold and noise, anyway) or sunglasses to make the connection easier to make, either. Instead, he's started putting on an eye patch to see clearly. He also stopped using nail polish, so the natural blackness of his nails was there for all to see. By now even the scales dotting his fingers have mostly grown back.

But, guess what? Maintaining that picture perfect shit was painful as all hell. He's not about to pick up a pair of tweezers, and DEFINITELY won't douse his fingers into boiling hot water to peel the yellowish crust off, either.

"Dear, don't be rude," the woman accompanying his disturbance chides. She may be just a smidgen younger than her likely husband; medium length midnight black hair frames her vaguely reddish face that is accented by piercing red eyes, a nose that is a little longer than average, and perhaps just the hint of canines hiding under the lips, probably filed down for good measure. In fact, she has a vague mutation that is along the avian type… maybe a tengu or something like that. At least her eyes are telling of this, because otherwise there's not a single feather or talon in sight. Not for the untrained eye, anyhow. Plucked clean and neat… the tables turn and Keigo suddenly feels underdressed and way too scruffy for the occasion, sheesh.

"Oh, it's fine. Can't say I haven't been all over the place lately," he notes, along with the woman's locked hands in front of her in a defensive stance made less obvious by the purse being held. Whether it's his or the guy's fault, or the situation altogether, he doesn't know, but it makes him uncomfortable all the same.

It is then that the shop owner presents him with the last of his loot, as well as a big bag to put all his prizes into.

"My, I knew you were familiar!" he exclaims with some shame to his voice. "My eyes really aren't what they used to be. As a kid we made a sport of spotting heroes in civilian gear… Well, no matter. I'm honored to have gotten ransacked by someone like you."

A sheepish smile appears on Keigo's face as he receives a well-stuffed plastic bag.

“My pleasure. Hope I won’t cause too much of a problem,” he mumbles.

“Oh, never mind that. Have fun watching the fireworks, kid. You’ve earned it,” the man waves, turning to the lady who’s trying to catch his attention.

“Ah, true, true,” the middle aged guy nods as his wife is paying for the game. “The show is starting soon. Say, Hawks… would it be too much to ask you to join us for the occasion? Eh? ” he winks.

The smile freezes onto Keigo’s face. Oh, nooo… he’s never going to get rid of them if he complies. He needs a timeout from these people, all of the people, in fact. And if he needs to play dirty, so be it.

“Oh, I’m glad for the offer, really! But I came here with Endeavor-san’s family and I better not lose them entirely. Wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve started looking for me, actually,” he adds, peeking in the direction of the hoop toss stall where he may or may not see Natsuo’s hair towering over the crowd while on his tippy-toes. How he can't spot Touya's glowing pink head which he was looking for is beyond him. He lets out an awkward giggle before flashing his best 24-karat smile at the couple. “But, I’m sure they wouldn’t object to others joining us for the fireworks! It’s a once in a lifetime chance, isn’t it? I’ll ask right away, if you want. They are right here, at the next game.”

Please, please, please, be somebody who thinks Shouto is too weird or stains their pants upon the thought of having to deal with Dabi or Endeavor…

“O ho ho,” is the first thing leaving the weirdo’s mouth when he looks back at him with round eyes. “Them all? They are right out here?”

He nods. “Yes, Shouto, all his siblings, and even Mrs. Todoroki,” he counts, lifting and wiggling a finger for everyone present.

“Huh… I don’t actually think I’ve ever seen her,” the older man muses before mouthing an indignant yowl as the neatly clipped nails of his wife pinch his back.

“Mikoto, what the hell?” he whines while rubbing the sore spot.

“You are being way too pushy, Riku,” she states, reaching a refilled gun to him and taking another for herself. “Leave people some space to breathe.”

Keigo couldn't properly express his gratitude even if he wanted to. His internal cheer of 'YESSS, bless you, lady' is all he has to offer.

“Yes, yes, I know,” the husband moans before returning his attention to the blonde. “Well, pal… if you’re not on your own out here, it’s fine. Didn’t want you to spend the evening on your own, is all. Pass our greetings to the icy hot bunch, will you?”

“I will,” Keigo assures him. Perhaps not meaning to do so in earnest, but he's playing along regardless. His hands turn to point to his left where he’s about to disappear to. “You sure you're giving the pass?”

“She’s my impulse control, you know?” he murmurs to the former hero still as his partner gets down to shooting at prizes. “Probably rightfully so, the parents have just separated and I’d likely say something out of place.”

“That sounds reasonable,” nods Keigo in agreement. The dude really is too pushy for his own good. At least he seems to be vaguely aware of it. Likely a feat of the wife. “Well then… I’m off to regroup, have a nice eve’!”

“Same to you, kid!”

The woman hums a ‘likewise’ before shooting a package of nuts and dried fruits off a shelf.

Keigo slips into the shadows of the gap between the shooting game and hoop toss next to it. There's a nice, tall container he can hide behind, too. He pricks his ears for a minute from the secluded spot, making sure nobody will bother him.

It becomes clear soon enough that he's not being followed, but he involuntarily overhears the conversation of the couple he's just escaped from.

"Kid puts on a good attitude… must be hard, though. Both for him and that other UA student who has lost his quirk."

"Who— what are you talking about?"

"I'm just saying that… it must be quite a shock to become quirkless, just like that."

A shot is fired with a loud popping sound.

"Dear, Hawks had a horrible accident and lost his limbs. The other child you must be thinking of was hit by an erasing bullet. There is little to compare."

Two more shots leave the guns, and one of them hits a pretty big target from the sound of it.

"Fierce Wings, Mikoto. Where did you see any of that? His telekinesis side doesn't work on other things, either. If somebody with stretching hair were to go as bald as I will be in a few, you'd think them quirkless, too, wouldn't you?"

" … I suppose."

"Sure, the boy still has some traits that are vaguely bird-like, but I'd say… that it must feel the same."

The man fires the last two bullets and the shopkeeper takes it for refilling.

"My… That poor thing had such a bright future ahead of him, too."

Pop.

Keigo stares at the plump plastic bag hiding his feet as he's slouching against the raw bamboo wall. They are talking about him as if he were dead or something.

He's here. Right here…

Isn't he?

Keigo moves out once convinced that those two are nowhere near him anymore, just in time to stumble into Touya and Fuyumi.

"There you are. Hope you didn't do your thing behind a shack that stores food. Should have gone with Shou and Natsu if you needed to pee," Touya scolds him in a somewhat familiar, detached tone.

It takes him a moment to put on something resembling a smile. "Oh… no, just wandered off after what I thought to be a cat, but I must have imagined things. Did you try to call?" he asks upon remembering he has a phone, fumbling to get it. "I never unmuted, though… sorry about that." Shit, they actually did try… four times already.

“We were getting worried, you know,” says Fuyumi, but Touya's squint is telling plenty; he can smell his bullshit from a mile away. “The fireworks are about to start!”

He would attempt to bullshit some answer when, from the crowd, and alarmingly close to them at that, a voice of a person can be heard crystal clear.

“I heard Shouto and Hawks both have been spotted around here… I wonder if we will see them, too.”

“Wait, he’s alive?! Haven’t heard of him all summer!”

Touya and Fuyumi both turn toward the voice for a moment while Keigo freezes up, barely catching a glimpse of the chatting schoolboys pushing further onward before the other two turn back to… uh… 

"Keigo…?” probes Fuyumi, taking a hesitant step inside to have a better view of the man hiding by the container. Touya behind her moves to block the alley from prying eyes. “Are you doing alright?"

"Can we… go somewhere less crowded, please?" he asks with a creak in his voice as the first rockets whistle in the air.

Hanabi is always more trouble than it is worth.

Late in the evening Keigo has to stumble out of his room for a visit to the bathroom, feeling unwell still. He ended up missing nearly all of the fireworks in his little corner of shame.

While moping around and wondering if he’ll throw up or something already, he overhears some noise and swift steps that could belong to anyone but Natsuo in the kitchen, so he has a look around upon leaving. His not patched-up eye gets stuck on the packages from the festival.

 Something's… different. The stuff wasn't left like this… and nothing seems to be missing to indicate the most likely scenario of Shouto having had a nighttime snack.

He steps up to the kitchen counter to take a closer look at the festival loot… and sure enough, there's another wobbly bag next to the one everybody put their fish in. Seems like a single red specimen from afar.

Upon lifting it to have a gander, he takes note of a short message awkwardly scribbled on the other side. It's hard to decipher in the twilight, so his eye wanders back to the animal while strolling back into the light of the bathroom. It certainly looks a little… awkward.

As literal light is being shed onto the matter, it becomes obvious why.

The lopsided creature is missing almost an entire fin and the one on its belly is also hanging in rags… must have had a horrible accident. At the same time… those are the most wonderful cherry red scales a fish like this could ever be born with, fading into black towards its head.

He stares at it for a while. This one… he remembers. It was in the pool with the others, too. He noted it for its odd movements, but with so many more around it, he couldn't tell what the matter with it was.

But why had somebody gone back to pick it up…?

He turns his attention back to the writing. The scribbles aren't much easier to figure out with the light on, no lie… the issue must have been the curve of the plastic bag, fear of puncturing it, and maybe haste.

He mouths the words one by one:

You… are not… bro--- He has to swallow at the last syllable, knowing what it will say in that moment. "---ken…"

Keigo just… stares at the bag, or its general direction at the very least. He can feel the tears burning against his eyelids as the minutes pass, but that's as far as they are willing to go.

Somebody… one of them also must have heard that conversation.

He hugs the fish to his heart.

They are too kind.

Next day's decision is unanimous— the new fish tank goes into Keigo's room.

Chapter Text

Another month later Keigo is on his way to the swinging couch to take a nap. The stormy season is just about over for good and he found that watching the fish with the rainfall ambience was an alright tactic to catch some shuteye… but the backdrop noise to fill the nook of this empty vacuum sticking to him is no more, and so is his best bet to get some decent sleep.

No, he still hasn’t gotten used to being deprived of his hundreds of sixth senses, or rather the overwhelming amount of white noise this came with. He's tried everything he could think of over the past days, really: putting those chill playlists to work, burning incense, sticking lavender everywhere. Even tried opening the door a little bit to listen to the water of the pond at night, but then it was too cold in the room, waking him a bunch of times in and of itself, and… the only thing he could possibly change at this point is getting a high quality sound system to imitate the rain with and stuffing himself with sleeping pills. Which, for the record, don't really work anyway because he became immune to all of them years ago.

It's all wrong, all of those approaches were. The one thing that provides relief to his current problem is to make his place of rest as comfortable and warm as possible so the cosiness knocks him out for a while. Since his room has failed him, this translates into taking naps in the snug afternoon sun.

Thing is, though… Touya has also found the very same couch to be the ideal napping spot. It was fine while Keigo was mostly inside, because he was never a fan of wet conditions while this psychopath would sleep through typhoons out here. But right now it irks him to find it occupied.

“Make space, Pinky,” he mumbles while poking at the man with his knee.

“Nah,” is what the other hums, not moving a muscle otherwise.

“Moooove,” he moans back, the impatience strong with his voice as he gives the couch a shove. He’s been waking up by the hour for days and needs this now.

“No. Go look for another-” Touya falls silent upon opening his eyes and just… gets stuck on the bedcover and big pillow Keigo has dragged along, needing a second to process them. “What the hell. You want to move in, or what? Build a nest right fucking here?”

“I wanna sleep and it’s getting cold in the evenings. Move. ” His voice knows no buts or ifs.

Touya seems to have some further withheld opinions about what he’s just said. Furrowing his brows, he sits up at a snail's pace while staring him in the eyes, but that’s as far as he's willing to go. "If you can squish yourself in, fine. But I just got here and am not gonna leave.”

“Hmph… fine.” He’ll have to try and kick Touya outta there. Or, at the very least, see if sleeping in a semi-seated position works.

Having ‘settled’ that, he chucks most of the small cushions on the unoccupied side over to the other and nestles into the bedcover with the big, fluffy pillow he’s brought set towards the now freed-up space.

Touya seems to be over it after an annoyed grunt, piling a few of the cushions under his elbow for support and settling in himself. 

Once Keigo has also gotten comfortable, he notes that the cover is pointedly warmer on his right side. That is to say, his Touya side.

… oh, right. He tends to forget about it, but Touya is, like, a walking heater. Maybe this isn’t much of an issue, after all… in fact, it will be more comfortable.

Being tempted to use him as a snuggie is a problem, though. He surely wouldn’t appreciate that. Oh, well.

Minutes pass, and Keigo has tried just about every position possible, but none of them feel right.

Well, almost every position. He didn't want to mess with a sleeping Touya after all, so he kept a good inch of distance at least. But this isn't working out, and he's tired, and desperate, and, and… frankly, he's about to cry from frustration.

Before he could fall apart, an arm pulls him not too gently into the nope-zone, then pushes the pillow and whatever it can grab from the covers onto him with just as little grace or patience.

"Can’t sleep while you’re rattling the whole-ass structure like that, dammit," growls Touya while sinking back into the couch. "Knock yourself out already.”

Keigo can't muster a thing to that, mainly because he’s still under the effect of surprise. And another part of it is that… this… this feels… nice?

He doesn’t dare move a muscle until he notes the other's breathing slow down under his head, and afterwards… he doesn’t want to. He’s already settled in and warm, too comfortable to try anything different.

And he notes other things, meanwhile. Many, many small things.

The sound of Touya's heartbeat by his ear, his soft breaths that tickle the hair on the back of his head, the weight of his arm around him, the way he smells... it's so much to process, but not overwhelming, just very… comforting.

He's surrounded by warmth. All of these little things, including the voices of Touya's siblings quarreling in the kitchen, fill a much bigger part of the aching void that the loss of his wings had left him with than the drumming of rain ever did. Keigo still doesn't feel complete… but his heart's at peace at last.

Falling asleep like this feels like going to bed for the very first time. 

Keigo's newfound peace causes quite a scare when the family goes out to fetch them come twilight. He doesn't start moving until shaken awake, and he's been getting such little and so light of a sleep for months that the Todorokis almost think him dead.

Touya, who was also woken, doesn't seem to understand what the commotion is about. He's just miffed that the nice dream and the nap he was having got interrupted; as soon as they return to other tasks, he lays himself back across the couch and continues where he had left off.

Once in bed after dinner, Keigo wraps himself up in the sheets like always and watches the fish in their illuminated tank float by. As the smell of fresh laundry reminiscent of the smoky fragrance of Touya's tee and leftover incense fills his lungs, he thinks back to how nice it felt back there… and falls asleep just like that, not waking until sunrise.

Chapter Text

Everything comes at a price, though, and it doesn't take long before Keigo can't hold back and gets clingy- sitting close to someone else whenever possible, tapping shoulders, even going as far as seducing the cats with treats to sleep on-slash-with him instead of Touya and Rei, both of whom are even better heaters. He even helps out when more hands are needed, which happens to mostly include cooking, and the day he gets to learn how to bake chocolate chip cookies is the day when life is great and wonderful and just perfect. If Fuyumi and Rei weren’t around when he gets to try them he would cry a waterfall for sure.

And then come autumn and soon winter, and even though the weather's mild and sunny… with no feathers to cover his back, the chilly breezes numb him to the bone right away.

Cats don't cut it anymore, and with the house lacking a furnace, he ends up wanting to snuggle up to something person sized.

So the complaint slips out the day they are getting the garden ready for winter.

"... I'm cold."

It's embarrassing beyond words.

Touya stops raking leaves and turns towards him incredulously. "... you have a coat on. And boots. It's barely November."

And that right there doesn’t help the shame; he pulls the collar higher.

Fuyumi just laughs as she passes them with a pretty sizable potted plant in her hands. "It's not surprising, you're scorching hot to the touch, Keigo. To you, this temperature must feel like it's freezing already."

"Mom and I are also basically on fire,” her brother replies. “It's no excuse. Maybe he should help with something more tiring than just shoveling these leaves into a bag every now and then, no!?"

"So what, you are useless in summer instead. And ask him not me, dumbass!" With that, the door slides shut behind her.

After shrugging wide towards her general direction, Touya turns back to Keigo, who’s uncomfortably close to shaking like a leaf from the constant breeze. "Okay, Prince Frost… let's switch. Grab this thing and rake like your life depended on it… and if it does depend on it, then even more so."

Unwillingly, but Keigo forces the handle into his now shaky hands and starts where the other left off a minute ago. “‘Kay.”

Said shivers don’t go unnoticed. "Sheesh… the hell are you gonna do in winter?!” Touya nearly complains with a frown and crossed arms, sounding somewhat frustrated in his helplessness. Natsu swats his head while passing, mumbling something along the lines of ‘stop being a bully,’ but the angry ball of fluff stays focused. “Live under the kotatsu?” he adds with a head tilt.

Keigo sniffs once, holding back an ‘I guess.’

It didn’t use to be like this. He was always just fine with stuff appropriate for the weather, if not wearing even less than most people. This, despite cooling off real damn fast when soaring a little too high and going a little too fast even during summer.

And even then, all he had to do was land, bundle up for a few minutes, and maybe find a hot drink.

The wrinkles between his eyebrows deepen as he stares at the brilliant red maple leaves gathering by his feet. "... they were warmer than I gave them credit for."

Touya blinks. "The what?"

The rake stops in the air only for a split second before grabbing leaves with reignited vigor. "... my wings."

" … " Touya has no commentary left after that and gets to shoveling the ripe pile into the half stuffed bag Keigo left him with.

After a good bunch of minutes, he can hear the blonde heave deep breaths and some sniffles as he starts working on the other side of the garden. It crosses Touya's mind that he may be crying, but… it's much more likely that he's getting a little too warm for his own good. "Might wanna drop the coat, burrito. You're going to get the bird flu."

Keigo stops raking to sigh. "... a cold. What you're thinking of is a cold."

But Touya has opinions. "No, flu. Bird flu."

The other has a hard time to decide whether to be annoyed or laugh. Touya is joking, right? "That doesn't m--- the flu is viral, you egg. It doesn't matter how you're dressed." Right??

But that poker face is unmoving and eternal. For the time being.

The first answer Keigo gets is two blinks and what seem to be some pissed-looking nods, but it’s hard to tell with how miniscule they are.

"... egg,” Touya says then. “I'm worrying about your health, and you call me an egg."

… he did. By god, he did.

And that's how Touya reacted. Pensive and annoyed and barely batting an eye, and, and… Fuck, the strict expression and answer, too, why is it so damn funny??

"Fine. Fine, I'll take the damn coat off," he huffs. Having peeled it off himself, he chucks it in the other’s direction. "Happy now?"

"Yup," declares Touya, and puts on the coat himself after catching it.

It looks… only a little short on him. A wee bit. What kind of planet alignment clownery is going on with him today, seriously?

Keigo shakes his head and returns to the task at hand instead. Don't think about it.

A while later Touya ties up the now full bag of leaves, putting an unofficial end to the cleanup. Potted plants are inside, the pond pump has retired until further notice, dry grass has been cut and leaves have been collected along with them. All in a day’s work. However…

"... you can give my coat back now," Keigo notes as soon as Touya's definitely finished up and just fucking around. "We're done ‘ere and I'm getting-"

"Yeah, yeah, cold, I know," Touya rolls his eyes before making his way up to him. "You could have long ran inside, but fine, you plucked chicken. I'm on it."

Keigo thanks any god out there for Touya having listened. The sigh of relief is interrupted by feeling something positively not coat-like over his shoulders, however.

"-buh," is what the reaction ends up sounding like. It takes him a moment to process what's happening… because it's a little too surreal for him to accept. So he just ought to make sure.

"What are you doing?!" His attempt to straighten himself fails with all the weight behind him. The motherfucker's actually using him as something to lean on.

"Warming your quaking ass. You're welcome, by the way."

"Why---" Actually, never mind. Touya's been acting weird all day, there's no point in arguing with him. "Just give me the damn coat back."

There's an audible smile to the answer; "It’s on you already. I just happen to be wearing it, too."

Keigo's next attempt at breaking free gets thwarted when Touya wraps his arms around his chest. He can feel his blood heating up, because this asshole is definitely laughing at him right now. “Oh, come on…!”

His indignation must sound comical to anyone else and elicits a cheeky cackle from behind, too.

“Hey, Yumi’s assskinnnnng, umm… what the hell are you two doing?” asks a very concerned looking Natsuo from the doorway. It's not as if he had had expectations of what he would run into outside, but if he would have had any, this was definitely not among the listed things.

"Tell her I want chicken,” Touya drawls with a pleased grin even as Keigo’s seemingly trying to snap his neck by pushing his chin upwards on the quest to fight himself out of the firm grasp. “It’s still too damn cold to my attempts to warm it up, though. Natsu, come help me unfreeze it."

“Please don’t?!” Keigo pleads with a fruitless kick into thin air. Air… yes, air. He… he needs air. 

The reaction rouses a hearty laugh from Natsuo. "Man, what's wrong with you two… fine, I'll contribute just a little."

By the time Natsuo says that, Keigo can’t make out a single word spoken around him and is already feeling a sting in his lungs despite his best efforts to gasp for something to fill them with; it just seems to be useless…

His vain attempts to both get free from the trapping arms and get some air quickly fill him with panic.

"Leggo," he manages with the most distressed whine he can squeeze out of himself still, while Touya says something behind him that may be a question.

Now, the moment Touya finally pays attention and notices the tears in Keigo’s eyes… is the one where he knows he’s fucked up big time.

A quickly spluttered ‘oh shit’ is all he can manage before dropping and backing up from Keigo in a hurry, but the damage is already done and the man stumbling into Natsuo’s arms is the same shaking, crying mess he saw back on the hospital bed months ago.

Seeing how his brother is trying to calm Keigo down and being bafflingly good at these things still, it occurs to Touya that he definitely should have mentioned this issue beforehand, because a fleeting glance of Natsuo’s tells that he is also at a loss as to what has just happened, and--- oh… oh shit, he's so dead.

Touya gets a Fuyu-noogie once Keigo gets a hold on himself for making him cry.

And no dinner.

Chapter Text

"Yo, Natsu. Want me to fling you around for old times' sake?"

Time flies, and before anyone knows it’s already nearing the end of December; snow seems to be lagging behind that year, but that doesn’t stop the entire family from visiting and having a look at whatever the late Christmas fair has to offer before it fully transforms into a quiet place to shop for New Year’s.

As it happens, it offers plenty of sweets, hot drinks, and an ice rink which everyone was eager to enjoy as soon as they had grabbed something from the previous two to fit their taste buds. Most of them seemed to be familiar with the how-to of not falling on one's buttocks apart from Shouto and the very unsure Keigo, who may have had excellent balance but the ice was uncharted territory.

Touya in particular was on a whole other level, apparently. Keigo doesn’t think he’s ever seen him this much in his element.

"... you'd fall face forwards. Don't bite more than you can chew, Tou-nii," comes Natsuo's answer to the debatably serious question.

Just to demonstrate, he lets himself slide into his brother, who may be handling it well balance wise, but gets pushed back without resistance.

Keigo has to muffle a snort; add a bit more force, and Natsu could push all of them if he really wanted to.

“Well then…" Touya doesn't even make a face before moving on. "Shouto?”

The boy who’s been turning into a young man at an alarming rate in the past few months spares him a five-second-glance before saying the obvious and returning to practice:

“I can’t skate.”

The unsaid ‘yet’ is strong with the statement.

The blonde can’t hold back snickering any longer after that; unfortunately for him, this means he becomes a pouting Touya’s next target.

"What about you, Birdie?" he asks, popping his finger joints as he turns to him. "Shou is a killjoy and Natsu half a mountain, but I could do this shit with you, no problem, hm?"

Keigo gives him a suspicious look from top to toe. “Sorry to doubt your skating skills, but I don’t think you have a license for whatever you're trying to pull and the criticism is… strong. And I can’t skate, either.”

It’s obvious how hard Touya is trying to hold back a sigh. “You don’t actually need skills for this, Birdie. It’s just bullshit twelve-year-olds do instead of skating in the rink like normal people.”

"That doesn't make it sound any better, you know?"

"Is that a yes or a no?" the other asks, wondering as he slides around his prey at a leisurely pace. Blondie has yet to give a definite answer, so he might agree… but he also doesn't want to get his hopes up too high.

Keigo heaves a sigh. It's a rarity to see Touya this openly stubborn about something, but he really seems to be into this. A lot.

Dare he…? The siblings seem to have survived getting ‘flung around’ in the past, but still… his first time skater status aside, when even was the last time Touya himself put skates on?

After drawing one last circle around him, Touya grabs onto the blonde right under the wrist to tug him along; with how bundled up Keigo is, his slender fingers don't even connect with the lack, teasing grip. "Well?"

" … " Keigo makes a face that's mostly a pout of some sort… then a number of other ones, displaying a row of emotions with varying degrees of discomfort, inner dispute and exasperation. Finally, he sighs again in defeat. "I'm going to regret this, won't I?"

Keigo would never have thought he'd see Touya smile in earnest… especially flash a smile that is, without a doubt, one of happiness.

And it's radiant and suits him so much, and Keigo feels his heart pound a little too hard for it to be normal or healthy.

He's just about ready to let himself get dragged away to wherever Touya would like to as he takes his other hand as well, when all of a sudden… there's a pause. The shadow of doubt falls over Touya's eyes and that oh so beautiful smile is no more. Keigo is both confused at this (he obviously wanted to do this a lot, didn't he? what happened?) and feels the tiniest pang of worry as time drips by and they stand around like that.

Before he could voice this, Touya looks at him with a serious expression. "Are you sure… you will be fine?"

Keigo tilts his head in thought. What an odd question… he can't make any sense of it. Touya wouldn't be talking about his scars… "What do you mean?"

The other's eyes flick to the hands he's holding for a second before looking back and speaking up again.

"The last time I got close, you… freaked out." He swallows. His voice is almost trembling.

… oh.

"… even told me to let go. I should have listened."

Keigo's crest flattens against his scalp upon remembering that shameful display. On the first weekend of November, yes… It's understandable Touya's worried about that happening again. Still…

"It's okay. You meant well." Back there, everyone with eyes could have seen that Keigo was under the weather, mourning his wings once more. He came to realize after the fact that Touya was only trying to say and do odd stuff to cheer him up, or at the very least provide some means of distraction. He didn't really have the chance to bring it up thus far, because Touya closed himself back off into his room upstairs, actively avoiding Keigo for a couple of weeks again. "It just backfired, I'm not mad. I never was."

Touya takes a long look at him before he would speak up, studying Keigo's features. " … you sure?"

He nods and gives the smallest, reassuring squeeze to the other's hands.

A boulder seems to roll off Touya's shoulders upon that. However, he won't have Keigo think too hard about it all.

"Well… if it really is alright by you… don't mind if I do, you egg," he smirks without missing a beat, then pulls Keigo along with such eagerness that the latter stumbles and nearly faceplants himself on the ice.

"H-hey…!"

The reaction elicits a light cackle. "Take it as revenge for zooming the fuck up with me that one time and humiliating my ass in front of everyone."

"It's not my fault you can and will scream like a little girl when lifted above sea level," Keigo huffs, but there's also laughter in his voice because he couldn't forget that if he wanted to. He was caught off-guard so bad that he almost dropped Da--- excuse him, Touya, back there due to a mean laughing fit.

His mood deflates somewhat once they are sliding across the rink at high speeds and the railing is getting close at an alarming pace.

"Better hold on or you'll fly for real, you hear?" Touya advises at the last second, once there's no way to stop apart from hard brakes and the most likely result of this tomfoolery is sliding on their asses until hitting the wall. 

Before Keigo could start thinking and back out from the risky business, his face is pressed against Touya's neck and his feet have already left the ground.

And his senses… must be playing tricks on him.

They must be playing tricks on him, because… he knows this sensation from a past life, and from his dreams. Being swung around like this feels almost like… it’s really as if—

The realization fills his chest to the brim with the most wonderful feeling, something so intense it draws tears from his eyes with his next breath. Whether it's happiness or freedom, or something else entirely, he doesn't know, wouldn't know, but he also doesn't care. 

He wants to hold onto it forever… hold onto Touya forever. Touya, who is so, so warm, and laughing, and happy, and also holding him safely as he's in the air for that eternal ephemeral moment. Right then, right there, he's with Touya, he's free, free and flying, and there's literally nothing more he could wish for.

To Touya, it all flies by in a blink; he swings the bird around until their momentum dies, and next thing he knows, the other is bawling his eyes out. He's already cursing under his breath (what did he fuck up now?! ) and preparing himself for Fuyumi's wrath, but Keigo assures him and everyone else that he's fine and that Touya did nothing wrong… then latches onto him and continues crying against his chest for whatever fucking reason.

Having no better idea, he returns the hug to make the whole thing feel less awkward.

Keigo soon calms down but keeps clinging to Touya, so they stay like that in the middle of the rink until one of Shouto's more enthusiastic attempts eventually hits them head on, knocking everyone down.

Chapter Text

It's Wednesday.

Everybody is out in town, except for Touya who's busy preparing for the last batch of school exams, and Keigo who is just… there, since he has no better place to be, with nothing but the agonizing wait for his application replies on his mind.

Both of them just not-chilling in the living-slash-dining room, as they have been all week thus far.

So yeah, the year has barely started and they are bored shitless and out of their minds.

After the noon bell toll, Touya eventually settles for gently banging his head into the table to the rhythm of the sound.

Once Keigo is getting used to the thumping enough for it to be mere background noise, his phone buzzes. The speed at which he taps onto the alert is remarkable; if Touya saw, it would be the reason to stop easing himself into a light concussion. Why he must have stopped momentarily is the disturbance of the 'ding,' though.

Keigo lets out a whiny moan upon reading the 'we are sorry to inform you' of the email and sinks into the couch. Throwing a tantrum has never been so tempting. "If this goes on for much longer, I'm going crazy…"

He's been unemployed for almost a year… slowly picking up baking aside, he needs to do something already. What is it that makes him so unappealing to these employers, anyway? All he can think of is being too famous for comfort or… his right eye, being legally blind and so garbage that he covers it up near always. He's also been told that he cannot get a driving licence like this, which contributes to this stalemate. He vaguely remembers hearing that his eye could be fixed with surgery… should look into it while he's still got money to spare for shit like this. He really doesn’t want to resort to office work at a hero agency.

From his pile of notes and books, Touya grunts in agreement.

There's a few long minutes of peace and quiet, broken only by the turn of pages or scratching of a pen on paper as Touya gets back to work.

Then… there's somebody at the door. At least that must be the case as the bell is positively ringing, long and impatient as it shreds the quiet moment to smithereens.

Touya's head rises over the paper barricade and both of them have a look at the clock on the wall, then at each other as their own cogs get turning.

Twenty-two past noon.

Fuyumi is at school, teaching or maybe having lunch, her schedule notes are impossible to make sense of as she’s somehow inherited the ugly doctor writing genes instead of Natsuo.

Rei is at school with her for something they organized for the kids as a welcome after the holidays. Anyway, she won't come until Fuyumi does. They also have two keys among themselves.

Natsu shouldn't be barging in until tomorrow evening even if he is hauling half a pharmacy home under his arms, or perhaps a day later depending on his exam schedule.

Shouto does drop in during lunch breaks sometimes, but he's miles away right now and also doesn't fucking ring the bell, because he has a goddamn key. He didn't call or message that he'd come, either.

The postman always arrives between half past two and three.

Enji has never dared to show his mug here.

So… whomst the fuck?

The next time the door bell should ring, there is an impatient knock, or rather ungodly banging at the entrance that sounds as if somebody was beating the poor object into submission with a metal rod.

Keigo and Touya exchange another look; the latter shakes his head. I’m not going.

The blonde sighs disapprovingly, mimicking the gesture. This is the Todoroki household, for god’s sake… He slowly creeps off the sofa and makes his way to the door in dead silence that is disturbed halfway through by another aggressive entrance beating.

Once he's arrived at the object of interest, Keigo considers taking a peek, but… if it's something like an angry neighbor or some small-time villain who has a bone to pick— which it positively sounds like— then it’s just putting off the inevitable.

He drags a hand down his face, turns the key, and prepares for an unpleasant surprise.

And rightfully so, because the door nearly explodes in Keigo’s face, and judging by the force it is slammed open with it sure is only a hair away from a literal explosion. That's… gonna leave a mark on either the wall or the hinges, but likely both.

Keigo, though, is currently preoccupied with the foot that has missed him by a mile and still managed to ruffle his hair real good. He also can see almost nothing through his way too thick membrane of a third lid that's been frankly useless all his life and was the reason he had to get those visors, but he wouldn't have to see a thing, anyway. He knows this kick, and even if he had managed to forget…

"CHICKY!!!" comes the battle howl of a girl his way.

None of it makes this any less out of the blue, though.

"BUNBUN?!?" he yells back in surprise, falling ass backwards at last with an undignified, but soft chirp. He was much more graceful when he still had something to counter these with…

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!”

"I— thanks?" he manages to squeal before being picked up from the ground like a puppy.

Miruko… no, she’s in civilian clothing: Rumi gives a long, studious look to every last hair on Keigo's person. "You have grown slim… in muscle!!! And comfortable everywhere else!!” she states with a mocking frown settling in. “Even though you had like 20 hours of workout every week… What even is the matter with you?!"

"Hi to you, too, full metal pankrator…?” he manages first, to which she replies with a hearty laugh. He sighs as the position has already gotten uncomfortable. “Rumi, I’m glad to see you, really, but…”

“Tell you what? I think I’ve got ten hours to give away to anyone at the gym for free, let’s hit you up with that before you reach stuffed turkey status, shall we?”

“I…" No matter how bored he gets, he'd rather he didn't spend ten whole hours at a gym of all places. Not with strangers ogling him left and right, trying to decide whether they know him, whether they don't, and whether they want to voice their thoughts once they believe they do. "Rumi…”

“Hell, we could stretch and shit together sometime, they are forcing me to take two days a week off because of my joints or whatever!" the rabbit woman complains, forcing her eyes not to roll three times over. "It’s bullshit, though, because my ass has never been so fine. They just don't wanna admit it!”

“Rumi," he manages to interject before she could go on; "I never did any of the training because I wanted to, you know," he whines, squirming under the steel grab. He doesn't think he'd ever have gone near a single stinky gym all his life if he had a choice in the matter, in fact. “It was all for job performance. I don’t even like sports.”

Her ears droop an inch and the smile on her face gets replaced by another wrinkle between her brows; this time around, they fold in stern seriousness. He would have… should have challenged her to a race by now. Made a dare. A cocky remark on having the better ass or winning without his trademark wings…

The bunny hero’s voice lacks the energy of her usual self once she starts speaking again. "Not even the races? To get to the chicken place or that one-off navigation thing?"

The more she thinks about it, the more it doesn’t sound right. He’s barely even putting up a fight. Where are the sick burns and obnoxious jokes?

Why isn’t he smiling?

Keigo remembers the navigation race. Groups were competing with each other for information until someone found the hidden bunker on a huge terrain full of trees. It was some kinda PR stuff neither him nor Miruko were especially happy participating in because of it being a team game. Almost nobody was, really— it seemed like they chose the lone wolves specifically.

Movement was restricted by rules, and he was only allowed to glide or lessen impacts with his wings. Having to stick to the ground was an odd challenge, but the race aspect quickly got fun enough. They ended up on the same team made up entirely of heteromorphs and won by a mile because most 'normal' people apparently suck at both directions and maps outside the city. They had to take about one look to see where they had to bail next and then follow their ears, eyes, noses, tongues and feathers.

" … okay, that was positively hilarious, but had nothing to do with workouts, to be honest." Also to be honest, because of the rules he should be able to do it again, no problem. If some buddy time is all she needs, a race like that is up for fucking consideration. But, besides that…

“Could you put me down, please? Hanging like this is really uncomfortable, my scars hurt,” he complains, squeezing his eyes shut upon the first jolt of legitimate pain.

One of Rumi’s ears twitches. “Huh… you even got manners now.”

Despite her apparently having heard Keigo, she doesn’t move right away. Not to mention Rumi’s eerie and contemplative silence compared to… how she usually is. Keigo looks back at her through his squint just as she starts lowering him down to the ground.

Her big, red jewel eyes are staring into his as she skims Keigo’s features for a breath of familiarity while looking at a total stranger.

The feeling of having likely, maybe, definitely misplaced something somewhere sticks, and Keigo doesn't even mind the footsteps closing in on them, followed by Touya peeking around the corner. At least not until the moment Rumi takes note of the strawberry head and her flustered eyes turn cold.

"Oooh, look who it is…"

The blonde turns pale as soon as he realizes the gravity of the situation; shit… this is turning out to be a huge problem right off the bat. The last time these two saw each other…

Touya merely bats his eyes. " … ah. It's you."

And this half-boiled egg is not helping.

“Watch your mouth, pom pom boy. I’m all hells of sure that I still owe you a curb stomping,” she sneers with ears erect and tail swished. Her bravado is back as if it had never left. Rumi drops Keigo on the last inch, but she’s not looking at him any longer; instead, she’s focused on Touya and her expression darkens by the second. “Official reports be damned, you freak are the reason Hawks is like this, aren’t you?!”

Sensing that she’s getting pissed and also taking the first thundering step inside, Keigo’s heart starts pumping blood like crazy— if Rumi feels like it, she will beat up villains when on leave. And even if she’d be satisfied with a single punch, he doesn’t want her to take out the frustration of him acting weird on someone else, and definitely not on Touya who's in barely better of a condition than he used to be as a fried stickman despite the family's best efforts. A light hug of hers has crushed half of Keigo’s ribs before, and there’s not a shred of doubt in his mind that a right hook of Rumi’s could be straight-up lethal.

“Did you do something to this idiot, huh? ”

Keigo does his best and latches onto the woman's intact arm, trying to hold her back as she walks up to the other. Needless to say it’s a futile endeavor and he’s getting dragged across the floor. “Rumi, please…!” His voice falls on deaf rabbit ears that are pointed elsewhere.

The brows over Touya’s tired, slightly bloodshot eyes also pull closer. “I guess it is my doing,” he admits in a calm voice.

Keigo cringes. Oh, god, just shut up already…!!

“His name is Keigo, by the way.”

Rumi slows down. Her last steps lose the pent-up anger till she stops in front of Touya with the blonde still clutching at her right arm. She seems to react in kind, thinking for a moment.

“… Keigo,” she rolls the name across her tongue to have an exploratory taste.

The man in question is still under the pressure of the worst case scenario playing in his mind, but has enough presence left through the panicked beating against his ribs and eardrums to be surprised at Touya’s declaration himself.

“Yeah. That’s the stupid bird’s name.”

Rumi pauses for a few seconds, then turns to Keigo, which is oddly scary of her. And his fears are well-grounded, because he receives a hit on the head right after, a loud knock resounding across the entrance hall.

And even though it was a little bop, it feels as if his head was split right open. "Owoh…!"

"Why'd you never introduce yourself, you wimp?!" she huffs.

"It wasn’t relevant…!” he cries through his welling tears. The pain is only getting worse… is that prosthetic made of solid steel, or what!?

“Like I give a rat’s ass about what’s ‘relevant’ or not!! You just made me feel like an idiot,” Rumi continues, placing both hands on her hips.

Touya lets out a pained sigh. The screaming is giving him a headache of his own and he has to take only a fleeting look at Keigo to tell that this is going to end in more noise for his brain to throb to. “Why’d you hit him, now he’s going to wail all day…”

“I’m not,” the blonde sniffs in protest, fighting off the pain. He’s not going to cry that long, but… he needs to lower himself to a squat for a moment. “But it hurts like hell, what the fuck is that arm made of…?”

Hearing that snaps the woman out of her grump and replaces it with embarrassment strong enough to pale her skin to match Keigo’s. “Oh… oh shit, I used the wrong hand,” she moans with ears pressed down, eyes jumping between her fists. She turns to Touya. “You people have ice lying around?”

The first two cubes stare her down right away. “Great going, hero. Yes, we do.”

About twenty minutes later Keigo’s slowly getting over it, but has a huge swollen bump on the top of his head and still suspects to have a cracked skull while Rumi is laughing at the whole situation.

“Good thing you’re so thick,” she cackles, then stretches her new left arm in front of her to its fullest. “I think I understand why they’re so adamant on me wearing gloves all the time. This shit is like real life adamantium, after all. I still forget sometimes.”

“Sure gave me a present…” Keigo moans, swallowing his tears and bundled up on the sofa with the leftover ice pressed against his freezing head. He’ll have a headache for the rest of the week. And then a cold. “I’d rather you had forgotten my birthday.” He certainly regrets ever telling her at all.

“Ah… right, I forgot about this, hopefully you won’t mind that it’s cold,” Rumi muses, wiping away a tear of her own. She bends over the arm of the furniture to fumble around in the bag she almost forgot by the entrance after the noogie incident. “Having seen your condition already, you don’t need the contents… but you can use the metal bucket for whatever.”

Having said that, she places a KFC bucket filled to the brim with a mix of every fried thing available in front of Keigo and leans back to watch his reaction.

The Todoroki household doesn’t serve hot dishes. Not as far as Keigo knows or remembers, and he has just realized this fact. (With how much his head hurts, his memories may be lacking due to a concussion, though.) But now that he has a whole-ass bucketful of spicy chicken in front of him…

“Woah, there. You’re gonna drool all over everything.”

“Don’t eat on the coffee table,” is all Touya says back from behind his barricade.

“… actually, never mind,” he adds a moment later while Keigo swallows hard enough for him to hear, realizing he himself is occupying a third of the dining table as he straightens above the material once more. “Knowing your feeding habits you’d get crumbs and oily patches all over my shit. Just… mind the carpet and couch, will you.”

Keigo needs no further encouragement to start devouring the meat on the spot. He even forgets about his pain for a while. The other two get lost in watching the blonde go ham and gorge down over half of the load in one go, both Rumi and Touya stuck somewhere between wonder and horror, each leaning towards either emotion respectively. At one point Keigo gets to the first wing, and eats every last bit of it, bone and all cracking under his teeth. That’s when a quiet ‘Jesus Christ’ escapes Touya, finally shaking his head in disgust and withdrawing to his studies.

About three drumsticks, a wing and some fallen-off strip bits survive the massacre before Keigo starts cleaning himself up. He licks the leftovers and crumbs off his fingers and the corners of his mouth at a leisurely pace, eyes closed in bliss and sporting a content little smile all along.

“I’ll never get over how gross you get when eating this shit,” Rumi mumbles against her fist in her corner seat.

The sole reply she gets is a hum between Keigo sucking the coating bits off his thumbs, its intonation being that of a ‘really?’ .

“Yes, really,” the heroine sighs, sitting back up. “It’s always as if you have been starved for days. Geez… I was getting peckish when I arrived, but I don’t think I will be able to stomach anything after your shameless display.”

He licks his lips one last time, looking at his still kinda messy hands for a long moment; the smile loses its air of fulfilment. “I suppose so.”

There's a little pause where only Touya’s pen can be heard, knocking at the table through a few sheets in its indecisiveness and mimicking the rhythm of its owner’s head banging from earlier that day.

It is near immediately joined by Keigo's scalp throbbing against his skull. He moans again, pressing a palm against the temples to detract from it. The plastic bag with the iced water must have warmed up considerably by now.

“Natsuo can’t come back soon enough,” he mumbles. The earliest he’ll arrive isn't until tomorrow this time, plus some change. Worst case scenario, he’s taking one of his exams on Friday… but he doesn’t even want to think about that.

“You should ask mom to cool it,” Touya’s voice suggests as the pen pauses, stopping the additional source of irritation. “She has plenty of experience with bruises and burns.”

What follows is an awkward silence on everyone’s part.

Rumi stares into apparent nothingness for its duration before thinking better of it, and hops straight onto her legs. “Well, I wanted to check out your shack, but I guess I better take a hike before having to explain that lump and myself to the rest of the bunch.” She turns toward the hunched-over examinee-to-be surrounded by books. “Hey, pom pom.”

Touya doesn’t have to stretch his neck again since Rumi is already glaring at him while standing there just fine.

"I see you’re feeding him at least, but he’s an impulsive idiot and now a lazy fuck,” she says, pointing a thumb at the corner where Keigo sat down after getting his ice. “So take fucking care of this dumb chicken, you hear?!" In the background, the blonde moans something about not being lazy. (Or dumb.)

Touya blinks away slowly, barely engaging in the one sided staredown contest. It’s like… she was going to give him the shovel talk or something? Who cares, he’s still mentally stuck on how the fuck a cubic equation works, hasn't even looked into the literature and IT materials yet, and doesn’t understand shit anymore. There's no way in hell he'll need this in the future. Ugh…

No. No thinking about anything any longer, just… state the facts. "I mean, that's the plan, so… sure."

She looks at him for another long moment, ears and stance as rigid as a gargoyle. Then… she cracks a smile. "Taking responsibility, eh? I can respect that."

“Whatever," he sighs. "You should not feed him too much trash when you visit, though. And keep the door in one piece, please and thank you.”

"Pff, alright.” She flips her hair. “No fattening up the bird more than you already do, gotcha." She turns towards Keigo for a moment. "Heard that, right? Treasure the chicken you got today, because you won't see more until your next expiration date!”

Another whiny moan can be heard in the background, this time due to disapproval. There’s also some rustling as the man gets up from his seat.

Rumi snaps back around to shoot a somewhat less hostile glare towards Touya before leaving; Keigo’s mouth is suddenly full with long, white hair and it looks as if it has him grossed out.

That lunch better stay inside of him.

"Just so you know… If you let anything happen to him I'll kick you to kingdom come, capiche?" she warns with a finger pointed at Touya.

There’s a small pause on his side as he's holding her stare. Ah, it is a shovel talk. Better reassure this overzealous rabbit.

" … If that happens I'll have to kick my own ass first," he states at last.

A correct answer, which Rumi’s face lights up at.

"That's the spirit!"

Once he cannot hear Rumi’s yelling any longer, Touya puts his pen down and lays himself flat across the ground. He can’t do this anymore. He just can’t.

It takes the other quite a while to come back, so he peels himself up from the tatami to drag himself back out to the hall.

“… Um, Keggo… do you have a sec?”

Keigo pauses and squints at the door he’s been examining for damage before he turns around to face the now cross-armed Touya. Did he hear that right…?

“That’s no name I know.”

Touya’s first answer is a sigh and he frees a hand to flick a wrist. “Look. You started calling me egg first, haven't stopped since… and I will not throw in the towel just like that.”

“… suit yourself, Dobby.”  His wit disappoints him for not being able to come up with a twist on the other’s current name, but by the looks of it, the new nick still had the desired effect, because Touya purses his lips for a long, long moment.

“I’m going to keep it to myself for now, but be aware that I’ll get back at you for this,” he says eventually. Judging by the burning glint in his eyes, he’s already plotting something abhorrent. This is war.

He sends a cheeky wink Touya’s way. “Noted~ Anyhow, what is it?”

Hearing that, Touya’s squint turns into a frustrated frown. “I… may need some help with studying.”

Chapter Text

Keigo takes a deep sigh while staring at his reflection in the mirror. He lightly taps the bandages and cotton lump over his eye; he had dug into his financial reserves to get the dead tissue covering his vision cleaned up. It was done real fast with only two days between the examination and operation. Which is for the best, because frankly, it was long overdue. By autumn he should have been able to quit the pirate life for good and see in 3D again- without an annoying haze on the right side.

The huge, just as annoying thing welded to his head will be there for about two more weeks before he can continue the rest of the treatment with a normal medical eyepatch, which he has plenty of. Until then, apart from the professionals, only Natsuo is allowed to readjust or check on it, or wrap him up again when it gets too messy. It’s a pain in the ass.

Also, and just as importantly, he'll finally be admitted to a driving course. Some jobs he'd be interested in require it and yes, public transport is good in the area, but it feels… restrictive. To him at least. The masses stifle him.

There's an uncharacteristically loud bang out in the hall as, let's see: Wednesday afternoon, house not shaking enough for it to be Rumi, roughly half past three equals... Natsuo enters the house after taking some biology exam. Think of the devil.

Keigo walks out into the living room to check what’s up, but the sole reason for the door mishandling seems to be the young man’s unprecedented levels of high spirits.

"Hey, Keigo!! Sorry for the noise, but guess what?!" Natsuo beams with a huge grin from where he’s just dropped his bags before the blonde could even greet him. He's also nearly shaking with excitement. One would think he's high on sugar, or something…

Keigo does his best to raise a questioning brow, although it's hard to do with one of them all covered up like this. Did the exam this morning go that well? "What?"

Just like that, he’s picked up and sat by the kitchen island as Natsu basically chucks him onto the bar stool; the student doesn’t miss a beat starting his story.

"So yesterday, I was doing the most boring paperwork a first time intern like me is allowed to do… and there was this chick, tattooed to hell and back, looking for one of the patients at the clinic. And I was guessing she was related to the lady, right? Buuut, they were actually talking about prices and methods when I walked by, so I got nosy,” he says while Keigo shakes off the initial shock of being manhandled. (It has just dawned on him that nobody, parental figure or otherwise, has ever picked him up. Is that normal? Probably not. Also, it is almost as good of a feeling as being 'flung around' is, but only third to being cuddled up to someone. There's a pattern here and he may have way more screws loose than he's always assumed.)

“And bro… there's a thing called medical tattoos. She has shown me some pictures, and she blends in and covers up scars like no one's business! Give me a sec, her card has some examples…" The humanoid whirlwind nearly spins around to fetch the item from his pocket.

Keigo doesn't even have the time to think of an answer before a piece of paper is shoved into his face with an enthusiastic “here, look.”

The business card is more like a small brochure that's two times the size of any ID or bank card, folded in half to make it fit the slot anyway; there's nothing extraordinary on the cover apart from a design that seems to be a stylized rosehip bush reminiscent of a mandala. The back has the phone number, e-mail and parlor addresses and opening hours listed, the only decoration being a faded fish watermark in the background and the box around it all. Opening the piece of folded paper, however… is another thing.

There is a pair of pictures of a middle aged man with darker complexion whose face has obviously been burnt, before and after the process. The left side comparison leaves a bigger impression, though; it shows the little arm of a very young girl, after what must have been a high voltage electric shock or lighting strike, leaving zigzagged scars in its wake… then how it looked years after when she was at school, and a final follow-up of her smiling face and the pretty cherry tree branch that was crafted from the scar.

"Should I ask her for an offer?" Natsuo asks then, regaining Keigo’s attention. Or rather confusion, which barely had time to leave.

"Um… why?" he asks, tilting his head the slightest bit. He may have entertained the thought of having tattoos ages ago, but…

Natsuo heaves an exasperated sigh. "Don't be stupid, Keigo. I'm asking whether you would be interested in getting your face done."

It's only then that it clicks why Natsuo wanted to talk to him so bad. And he… he doesn't know how to react to that. This must be reflected on his face when he looks up to the man again, because he sighs anew.

“Don’t look at me as if I had grown another head,” Natsuo says, raising a brow of his own for a moment there, but his smile never really leaves. “Like, I know I’m off and a mess, because Nezuko also commented on it, but seriously… you could become the heartthrob you’ve always been, no questions asked.”

“ … I see.” Or does he? A sinking feeling settles in Keigo's stomach.

He doesn't mind the scarring much… Is it that ugly? So bad that it bothers them?

Should he have been covering it up completely, after all?

Having shared most of what he has to say, the med student seems to calm down a bit and a more thoughtful look takes over his face.

“You know… I’ve noticed that people keep giving you those… looks, and the whispering, and…” he starts again, then bites off the rest with a light head shake. “Sure, you’ve mentioned liking how few people recognize you in the streets, but… at the same time, I know you are a cool dude and don’t want onlookers staring at you like a two headed cow frothing at the mouth, only because you have injuries all over your body instead of actual horns and multiple heads. Those assholes must piss you off even more than they do me, so… you have been the first and only thing on my mind ever since I've heard of it.”

Keigo’s mouth pulls into a soft smile upon hearing that as he looks back at Natsuo. He doesn't have the slightest of ideas where all the doubt and fear from a moment ago disappeared to, but he also doesn't care. In their stead, there’s some tiny being tickling him in between his lungs, evoking a feeling that's very similar to what he felt upon finding his fiery red goldfish Firecrackers on the counter.

"Thank you. I'll look into it… once I'm able to, wink~" he sings then and starts swinging his legs upon breaking into a full-blown grin right after.

Whatever was left of Natsuo’s sugar rush gets consumed upon hearing that and leaves him deadpan.

" … did you just…?" Did he really…?

Yes, he did.

Keigo shrugs and taps a finger against his gauze lump twice. "Wouldn't be able to tell otherwise, would you?"

"Well, I mean… uh, okay. Got me there, you absolute madman,” sighs Natsuo in defeat, but puts a smile back on anyway which Keigo returns a hundredfold.

“You’re welcome,” he beams, earning another round of manhandling, as well as a backhanded threat that if it weren’t for possibly causing a hemorrhage in the operated eye, Natsuo would flip the blonde upside down for making terrible jokes like that.

And Keigo just laughs, because it’s the only thing he can do upon embracing the thoughtful kindness Natsuo has been showing him since day one.

For the first time in literal decades, he feels the iron grip on his instincts slip, overcome by the urge to let out an inhuman sound resembling a coo in delight. If it weren’t for a whole heap of reasons, he may have fallen for him already. But instead, it feels like having a friend again… a family.

He has a sweet younger brother who is big enough to fit inside, and is all kinds of amazing at everything he does and even more, and the mere thought makes him feel a whole range of wonderful emotions that he’s positively not equipped to handle.

“Woah,” Natsuo says once having lowered him to ground level again. He sounds a little worried, but Keigo can’t see much to confirm it right now.

“Is… everything alright?” he continues, unsure how to deal with a certainly happy person whose eyes are leaking tears by the dozen and is unable to answer verbally as Keigo simply nods before giving him a tight hug which he returns. “There, there.”

He soothes him until Fuyumi arrives home, only to receive a wet faced squeeze hug and coo of her own once she asks what has happened.

They don’t have as much time to fraternize, though, because Rei sneaks out of her room to announce that it's time to bake Touya’s birthday cake.

That it’s technically a month after when he was supposed to get it is somewhat irrelevant- he insisted on it being held on the 18th, and even though Fuyumi was angry with him for a week (which he may or may not have bribed himself out of by helping her correct a bunch of first grader tests during the holidays,) everyone accepted the decision.

Keigo just hopes they don’t bring up his birthday any time soon since it’s also long passed; every time Touya’s was mentioned, he took an anxious glance around him, watching everyone’s body language. Because Rumi has no true low volume setting, and there’s no way Touya didn’t hear her declare “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” loud and clear in the hall before stumbling out to them. Not to mention her half-assed, but very legit present which he also knew the purpose of. Keigo may have forgotten about his birthday entirely himself, but… the family would surely be hurt if they knew.

Unlike for Fuyumi’s cake, which he got to make the filling and whip the cream for, and Shouto's which he coated with chocolate and then decorated, all Keigo has to do is peel the huge pomegranate due to his still sniffly-snotty nose; needless to say, the damp bandages over his eye itch like hell. He doesn’t mind the task as much as he thought he would. It’s just some juice, he can handle getting his hands red with that. (His pastel yellow hoodie… less so. Now it’s reserved for house work and pajamas.)

The actual celebration in the evening is rather modest. Well… as modest as them going all out on the first cake Touya received since he became fourteen could get. (“You all are aware that I'm only ever going to eat one slice of this thing, right…?” “Don’t worry about that, Shou is going to make half of this disappear like a magic trick as soon as he gets home. Like this…” “Natsu, wait until everyone has their share, will you.”) There’s a very small, but just as stubborn little smile on Keigo’s face all evening, nearly forgetting about the tattoo parlor entirely while just enjoying himself during the game night after. Once he checks the kitchen counter to put the card away, though… he finds it missing. When being asked about it, Natsu doesn’t know a thing, either. It’s also not among the paper litter or in any of the other dustbins.

That's just weird. He could still collect the number from Natsu since he added it to his contacts right away, but who the hell pocketed the thing?

A phone's alarm goes off a few hours later in a less crowded, little street of Yokohama, about two seconds after the rush hour starts. It's time to open shop.

"--- yes, I'm on it. By the way, did you know that one of the Todoroki boys is studying to be a doctor?" chats away the voice of a young woman that her colleague can only see the elbow and forming ponytail of. The snippet of information makes her perk up from the screen that's also alerting her of a new customer e-mail as she puts the jingle to rest.

"Huh? No, I didn't. Why?"

"Met him two days ago at the hospital in the center. He seemed to be pretty interested in what we are doing for a living."

“Oh…? Was he the real thing, though?”

“He was the spitting image of Endeavor except for the white hair and grey eyes, so I have no doubts. I'm pretty sure it was the guy you can see in some tabloid photos sometimes, along with the pink one who had been a hot potato last spring, actually.”

Her shadowy form walks towards the doorway, pulling up the blinds while at it to let some natural light creep into the studio where only the workstations are lit up properly.

"Ah, the one villains experimented on… And, did you get his number?"

"No, didn’t even think about it. He did ask for a business card, though."

"That's something." As her co-artist flips the sign on the door to show OPEN, she's reminded of a detail she's overheard a while back. "... hey. I might be mistaken, but isn't Hawks---"

The ringing of the landline interrupts their chat, and her colleague is already on the case. The caller is the first one speaking, however. How hasty.

"Good morning, Mandala Tattoo Parlor?" she can hear through the receiver. Whoever it may be, the voice alone tells that this guy means business, even if there's a hint of hesitation woven into it.

"Hello, yes, tattoo artist Hanaki Ike speaking. How can I help you?"

"This… is Todoroki Touya."

Chapter Text

“I’m ready,” Keigo declares, looking scarily determined and also as if he was dressed for an expedition to the North Pole.

“You sure are… for something,” breathes Natsu, the hand with the car keys supporting his chin in thought. “Can you move at all?”

It’s late March and rather cold outside. In fact, the other week every other morning was still freezing. The spring discounts at malls have started for anyone who was even remotely into plants and gardening, however. Which was something Rei was remotely into and Keigo… supposed he could be-should be into.

“I can move just fine,” Keigo says, flexing an arm that goes only as far as… well, 90 degrees or so. He hasn’t left the house since the temperature plummeted with a cold wave (allegedly the last one for a while) about two weeks ago and is not going to risk freezing his ass off in a parking lot.

“You look like a little penguin,” Rei muses with a gentle, but just as amused smile; she’s fine wearing a light jacket outside. Enviable.

“… that’s the best compliment I've ever received.” And also the weirdest one, but it’s from mama Rei so he’s going to treasure it forever.

“Well, if you’re sure you won’t fall over under all those onion layers, let’s get going,” Natsu says, giving Keigo’s back a little push which registers as some kind of mysterious force making him lean forward a bit.

“Yeah!” he says, waddling out to the family car which is only ever used by Natsuo, making him the de facto owner.

Having arrived at the scene, Keigo has a good look around. He had a few theft and smuggling cases to solve in these aisle mazes, but never actually stepped into a department store for shopping reasons. Somehow it seems bigger than he remembers.

“Let’s start with your pots,” Rei says as they pass the entrance gates, looking at her own shopping list. “They take up a lot of space, but we can put other things inside them for the time being. Did you figure out how big you want your garden to be, Keigo?”

“Well… I’m not sure I wanna use the actual garden yet,” he confesses, taking off the hood and unzipping his coat since it’s decently warm inside. “So I was thinking… to use the terrace upstairs, at least some part of it. So I’ll need something pretty big I think.” As Keigo muses about this, looking someplace indefinite in front of him, he spreads his arms to symbolically measure what he can see in front of his mind’s eye.

“Just don’t put in any jumbo jets for pots, okay~?” sings Natsu, visibly doing his best not to use the cart as an oversized skateboard. “If you do, you are going to be the one pushing this thing around, you hear, Kei?”

Keigo manages to get out a “got it” before Natsu notices their target aisle surrounded by greenery up ahead and nyooms away. (He quite literally says “nyoom” as he shoots himself off with the makeshift vehicle that will hopefully support his weight. What a dork.)

“That sounds like a great idea,” Rei hums. “Upstairs has been a little empty, all things considered.”

Which is true in pretty much every way possible, Keigo thinks; because, apart from the huge balcony or whatever he should actually call that huge space over his and Natsu’s bedrooms, there are three rooms and a bath, right? One of those three is a rather empty storage, Shouto is barely home even during the holidays, and Touya likes to pretend he doesn’t even exist. Even the hallway and balcony are eerily empty.

He’s been up there three times: first, to store half of the junk he thought better of or didn’t need once his belongings arrived; second, to help Shouto with school; and third, to retrieve some of the previously mentioned junk. And frankly, the last evening walk in the winter felt like stepping into a horror movie scene. The terrace he wants to invade now did not help that impression in the slightest- all that’s out there is a desolate sun lounge, two suspicious and by now definitely unsalvageable boxes, and the leaves and litter the wind blows up because somebody has no living standards and prefers to just look at the sad scene through the panorama window every time he leaves his room instead of sweeping the damn place every now and then.

Rei moves on with the conversation and snaps Keigo back to the present. “What about the plants? I want some old favorites back and a couple of herbs.”

“Oh, that’s gonna work out perfectly, I want fruits and veggies,” he states with confidence. “If I’m already picking up what you and Fuyumi teach me around the kitchen, might as well, right?”

“That’s even more exciting! But you will have to work most of it out yourself, I'm afraid,” Rei states almost apologetically. Seeing Keigo’s confused-slash-disappointed face, she goes on to elaborate. “I have experience with indoor… or rather, potted plants only, you see,” she says, fingers brushing over the leaves of a palm bush as they pass by. “They are mature plants and need different care than something you will have to raise from seeds, even those that you can replant parts of.”

“Ah… I see,” he hums. Boy… this just became a lot more intimidating. What is he going to do when she can't help…? Wade through every single gardening blog in existence? All he knows for sure is that all greenery needs sunshine, soil and water.

Rei looks back at him with a smile. “I’m excited to see what you will get!”

… he can see himself killing all of his plants already.

Once they pick up the containers and pots and get to the aisle with the options for soil, things officially go South. After the shelves with fertilizer and a stack of real-ass, smelly cow manure, there’s just options upon options as far as he can see and tell. Why is there acidic soil?? Why are there pictures of cranberries and hydrangeas on the bag of acidic soil?!?! Is that the reason some fruits are sour?!

Are… are hydrangeas sour?

“... how are there so many types of dirt?” This is madness. Keigo is ready to panic. Why didn't he do more research than checking what kind of pots the store has?!

“I thought you came prepared?” interjects Natsuo as his mother grabs a smaller package of something from the cart that she’s put in a minute ago.

“I checked for pots and a list of recommended newbie crops?” There was obviously more to go into this new hobby if it survives this stage…

“Some plants have special needs,” Rei informs Keigo. “Most potted plants you see are planted in their preferred soil, then maybe replanted into a less specialized one that serves to support their size. This one, for instance…” She shows off the small and light looking bag in her hands. (The boys’ eyes meet and the other is way too amused at Keigo’s turmoil, whose brows pull close together; don’t you dare laugh at me, young man…! ) “… is for orchids. What they need is basically little pieces of tree bark. You also won’t see cacti in dense soil, and so on. They won’t feel well and could wither in foreign soil.”

Keigo scratches his head. “Okay, then… where do I need to start?”

“I think there should be seedling soil mixes,” she says, looking around with a wrinkle between her brows, then checks the labels as they walk down the aisle.

Around the very end, they find what they are looking for. “Here you are!” Rei says triumphantly, shepherding Keigo towards the bags. “Seedling pots are small… you didn’t pick the tiny ones so I’d say every kilogram fits ten to fifteen pots at the very least. You have about forty, so I think that five-kilo-pack should suffice, then we can mix the leftovers with all purpose soil once they are ready to be planted.”

He hesitates for a moment but picks up the bag he’s told.

“I’ll uh, have to go and dump all of this into the car once you are done here, mom,” chimes in Natsuo at this point while scratching his chin. “Nothing else will fit the cart apart from the seeds maybe. You both can look for what you wanted meanwhile.”

"Sound idea, Natsu." She turns to face the blonde again. "Let’s get a big bag of the all purpose sort and be on our way."

Ten minutes later Keigo is overwhelmed and frozen in place at his destination. There are just… so. Many. Seeds. And apart from being able to decipher the little diagrams to tell the sowing period, estimated height and such, he knows nothing about the millions of kinds of anything on display. Remembering that ‘cherry tomatoes’ were a recommended choice is of little value when there are twenty sorts of that alone.

He stands around long enough among the abundance of options that an older shop assistant lady notices his turmoil. Once he overcomes the shame and tells her through pink ears that he wants to start gardening from scratch, he is given some incredibly useful info, especially about plant care. This includes potential dangers and pests such as fungi and slugs that pose a danger to the seedlings, or how squash, cucumbers and such don’t like to be replanted so it’s best to put them where they go right away or calculate the setback into your plans. She even instructs him to buy or build a trellis or two for those plants and try to make those bushy creepers creep upwards once she learns it was going to be a container garden.

Maybe it’s just the fact that he has tons of concrete facts to file away for later, but the encounter brings immense relief after getting so shaken in his decision to go green. The confidence of being able to do this returns at last and it better stay this way, or so help him.

“Hey, how was the seed section? Exciting?”

Keigo sticks his tongue out. “More excitin’ than hauling dirt, sire,” he replies to Natsuo’s blatantly sarcastic question once he and Rei come his way at last.

“Oh? Are those flower bulbs?” she asks, derailing the brewing bicker fight.

“Ah, yeah!” he says while lifting them a bit and gets dangerously close to spilling a bunch of stuff in a paper bag while doing so. “There was this real nice lady, she told me all kinda useful things, like what doesn’ mind bein’ kept in a pot n’ whatnot! An’ she said you can make balcony gardens a lil prettier an’ more useful if you mix in stuff that grows at a difren’ time or has less needs, so we picked a climber flo’er, radishes, an’ some late tulips for the… hell of it…”

It takes him until the last few words to notice how the other two are looking at him. “Um… what is it?”

“Dude… some days you slip up with sentences, but just now, you started talking like a totally different person,” Natsuo states, emphasizing the hell out of the last three words.

Keigo’s face lights up once more, mimicking the red of the radishes in their bright pictures. The embarrassed shift he makes lets a bunch of the precariously balanced seed packets slip onto the floor, turning some heads as people walk by.

What--- oh, shoot,- no, he… really was using his dialect, wasn’t he? It’s been so long, though, why on earth would he…

… the lady. The lady was talking like him. He didn’t even notice that he'd switched codes and just kept going.

“Keigo?”

Hearing his name and noticing that Rei is standing in front of him washes the embarrassment off his face with pure shame. Using that tone with her of all people… in front of all these people… “I- I’m fine. And I’m terribly sorry, I really didn’t mean to—” There goes an entire paper bag.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about, dear.”

The warm hand on his and the way he gets addressed silence the rest of what he would want to say about being rude and uncouth and—

“You didn’t do anything wrong. Let’s pick up all these seeds, shall we?”

And just like that, Keigo is being guided ever so gently to the ground where Natsu is already dumping packets into the bag that fell as-is. The tiniest, sad chirp escapes him, but she’s not mad about that, either. Rei’s smile is like a pillar of peace he can cling onto until the stifling flood of emotions passes.

Picking up the last of the seeds, he feels some pressure through the many layers of clothing he’s put on. “You still seem a little pale. Everything alright, bud?” asks Natsuo while squeezing Keigo’s shoulder a little.

There’s a second of consideration, but the blonde nods.

“We can get a warm drink before leaving,” Rei says in a soft voice. “Do you have everything you wanted?”

“Um… trellises,” he mumbles. “I want some trellises, or… something to make them of.”

“Okay, let’s see what we can find, alright?”

Keigo just nods.

Once they’ve had a cup of hot chocolate each, the three of them arrange all the fragile plant stuff so that it will survive the trip home. Keigo is already inside the warming car, with a tall plant between his legs and a pot of peace lilies cradled between his arms. Sometimes he lets go with one hand to keep his paper bags in order since they are rather stuffed and it looks as if the seeds could make another run for it the second Natsuo has to hit the brakes. On the seat next to him there are just a bunch of other greens placed into a long pot and secured with the belt so they don’t fall over, and a pretty big palm tree stuffed behind the seat that will hopefully not fall on Keigo in a roundabout, but will definitely be poking at the driver all the way home.

Natsuo takes one last look at Keigo's blonde mess of hair before closing the boot on the rest of the wares.

"You did great, mom," he says while turning to her, in a low enough voice that the other man shouldn’t hear a thing.

“So did you,” she whispers back before opening the car door. “Learned from the best, didn’t I?”

He rolls his eyes over a lenient smile and gets in himself.

“Okay, now you sprinkle the seeds in,” instructs Rei once he has a few planting pots mostly full of soil.

“Oh,” Keigo says in surprise; “These are green?” he wonders as he nudges the pepper seeds out of the first packet he’s ripped open onto a palm. A very unnatural, wild green at that. Every single pepper seed he’s seen in the kitchen was some light shade of yellow.

“Must be some kind of protective layer,” she ponders. “Maybe some built-in antifungal like the packet we bought.”

“That sounds logical, yeah. How many should be in one of these?” Keigo wonders now, meaning the pots… but the packet doesn't offer all that much in the first place. The term 'robbery' should be redefined. “She said peppers and tomatoes are replanted once they have a few pairs of real leaves. Four a cup?”

“Seems sensible, yes.”

They have been home for fifteen minutes maybe. He barely shed the coat, hoodie and jacket to regain his mobility and wasted no time ripping the soil bag open to get to work. Just to mitigate the mess, Rei took some old newspapers to put under the biodegradable planting pots he chose before starting to stuff them. Meanwhile, Natsu comes and goes, bringing the leftover stuff from the car in; he finishes with the huge bag of normal soil they are going to use to fill up the containers once those are set up. “Okay, sheesh. I'm dropping this off upstairs. If you don’t need me for the container, I’m off to have a shower.”

“What the… hell are you doing,” Touya’s voice drawls upon stumbling into the mess in the living room, obviously only reconsidering his choice of words mid-sentence because of Rei.

"Sup. Kei’s planting some weeds," Natsu informs him with a barely raised hand, the other pointing down at the mess that Keigo is currently; the blonde stiffens for a second and takes a look at the poison green whatevers in his dirty as sin hand.

"Welcome home,” Rei greets her eldest, then points up to the kitchen island next to him. “I've bought some indoor plants for the house. You can pick a couple for your room, if you like."

As she talks, Keigo tries to ignore the burn of Touya’s eyes on his back, as well as the burning of his own face. He places four seeds into the biodegradable pot with utmost care, perfectly spaced halfway toward the round edge from the center. Having filled a second one, he stops to reconsider; how many pepper plants do they need, exactly? Then again… there’s also the possibility that some die or won’t start growing at all…

“You mean these?” Touya asks once tearing his eyes off Keigo’s pitch black fox paws (not even a ‘hi’? is the dumb bird ignoring him for real now?), looking at the green mass on the kitchen island and poking at a fleshy leaf of… something.

“Yes, it would be nice to have some life around, don't you think?" As she says that, Rei stands up to show him some that she likely has had in mind.

“So, can I go?” Natsuo's voice can be heard above Keigo’s head.

“Yes, Natsu, we won’t need that for a while,” his mother says. "Just take the bag, please, you are free to go."

"Aaalright." With a huff and heavy steps, the young man disappears into the hallway with the bag.

After some careful consideration while smelling the oddly pleasant odor of the earth on his fingers, Keigo jams a fifth seed into the middle of each pot. Better safe than sorry. The rest, they can keep for the next season. And if they won’t germinate… the seeds from shopped stuff should still work, right?

As Rei lists her wares to Touya and Natsu goes to do his thing, Keigo covers the seeds with a thin layer of additional soil and evens it out. As weird it was to touch it first, it's really therapeutic, honestly. Digging around in dirt, that is. Also rather messy, but, it's part of the fun! This must be what playing in a sandbox feels like.

Keigo then peeks into a tomato packet just to see if it's also covered in some kind of grime, but it looks pretty normal. He will find some use of the antifungal, after all. But before that, he just has to try out the best thing he's ever seen.

" … but the most resilient one is this here. It says snake plant, but most people usually call it mother-in-law's tongue. All it needs is a bit of water every now and then. It doesn’t mind shadowy corners, either."

"Okay, I’m kinda sold on that one," Touya grumbles. "And did I hear devil's something?"

"Yes, this one, devil's ivy,” Rei says, grabbing it from the middle so Touya can have a proper look. “It doesn't necessarily need much light, but you will have to water it more often and it gets long once it grows, so you will have to put it somewhere high or tuck the vines back towards the pot so it doesn't start spreading."

"Hmm…" Touya tries, really tries his best to unsee the tackiest goddamn watering can with bird imagery smithed and painted on its side when Keigo passes them to fill it at the kitchen sink. After closing his eyes for a few seconds to delete it from his reality, he thinks about the offered options again. That long tongue thing isn’t really to his liking, but something that crawls all over the place… sure, the plant won’t strangle him in his sleep, but he’ll have to keep an eye on that weed.

“Okay, I’ll take this vine thing and try to keep it in check,” he says after some thinking as a loud thud upstairs marks the arrival of the bag and the blonde behind him hurries back to his mess that he better clean up soon.

Rei is beaming. “Really? I’m so glad!”

“Be glad once it survives the first month,” her son sighs as he takes the plant. “You better nag on me about this thing every now and then.”

“I’m sure you will do fine,” she says while giving Touya a big hug that he, one hand being full of a huge folder and another preoccupied with the ivy, just bears for a minute with his chin resting on her head.

“If you say so,” he mumbles.

“I’m gonna drop my stuff off, then… come down for dinner in a bit?” Touya says once his mother lets go and he takes a look at the clock. Also, it’s been bothering him… “Yumi?”

“There was a staff meeting. She, too, should be home soon,” Rei says, pushing the remaining flower pots closer together so there's enough space to put the other groceries and dinner material away.

“… okay.” If she knows the reason then he won’t waste time worrying.

“You can tell about your days by the table. I’m sure it was a busy one for both of you!”

He hums. “Be right back, then.”

He slows down on his way up to take a look at Keigo as he stuffs paper pots with more of that weirdly smelly, black stuff, then puts that accursed can to work. There is no way in hell he hasn’t noticed him staring yet. “… hey. Switching gears to blackbird? You found any worms yet?”

Once Keigo dares a questioning look at him, though… Touya nearly drops the guinea pot in his hands while unsuccessfully stifling a snort and flees the scene fast enough to escape the other’s questions. When he turns to Rei with a cocked brow, she starts giggling, and it wouldn’t be Natsu if he didn’t start howling with laughter the moment he comes back. Fuyumi is in tears at the dining table upon hearing of it, too, and even Touya loses it when Natsuo pulls out the photographic documentation of the case for her.

Moral of the day is, wet soil is sticky, it takes time to wash away, and a smeared-on black earth mustache is hard to get rid of.

I swear I'm gonna update a bunch of chapters with illustrations one day, but rn all I have to offer is this silly doodle:

Chapter Text

It’s Golden Week. The family is out on Okinawa for the occasion and it’s almost hot for May, which the clear skies contribute a lot to. They are on a beach where the sun shines and everybody seems to be having fun… except for Keigo, who’s sulking on the stairs of the bar under one of the many palm trees the place has to offer, kneading the white sand under his scaly, mutated feet.

Every now and then, he can hear Touya’s voice from the hotel’s terrace and he lifts his head to peek over to him and the dopey, dark blonde girl the other’s been talking to for the past hour before returning to his Blue Hawaii that honestly tastes like shit. He grew to acknowledge his dislike of the way alcohol tastes in the past year, but felt like a drink might help, because…

His fingers twitch around the glass and the ice on blue liquid sways.

No… no, he's not jealous.

He can't be, because there's nothing to be jealous of. Touya will listen to people and things he doesn’t give a single flying fuck about. And even if he is interested, he’ll be vaguely grumpy, rude, and short tempered with his reactions, despite being rather nice in his own, roundabout way. Occasionally, he's even open about being kind to those he likes.

It's precisely because of this that Keigo knows that they are barely friends, save… something more. Hell, he’s literally living with Touya’s family. He may not have much of a personal opinion on Shouto since he’s around so little… but Rei was the one who looked after him when he got a cold due to the overuse of the ice pack after Rumi’s visit. That’s when they agreed to start gardening next spring together, actually. She even bought him some Kentucky chicken after learning of his love for it, then looked up an online recipe to replicate the taste… and on game nights they tend to gang up on the others. While still more of a caring friend, she’s the mother he’s never had, really. Fuyumi is his private baking teacher who tells the funniest stories about what kids do or say at school, and Natsuo… Natsu is his best friend. The very best he’s ever had, the only one who’s never left him behind. Yet.

So it’s super awkward to think of Touya, the barely friend, this way in the first place, even if Keigo has to admit that he feels… something.

Something heavy and very stubborn that just wouldn't leave him any rest unless Touya was nearby. It's akin to an unquenchable thirst, being lost in the desert and yearning for water whenever it is out of reach. When that wish is fulfilled and Touya's near, it starts quivering, moaning and whining for a scrap of attention, and whenever Keigo does have his full, undivided attention all for himself, the insatiable thing just starts killing him from the inside out. The shameless burden weighing on his lungs just expands until there's no space left between his ribs, tearing his heart apart with the blood rushing through it, and suffocating him with wistful sighs. Catching a dying wave of heat from Touya’s being scalds his skin, and… and when Touya touches him, tapping his shoulder through the fabric of his shirt or brushing against his fingers, he… he---

Keigo rolls the cold glass against his burning cheeks, then rests it on a wrist, shivering at the difference in temperature. His entire being is on fire, slowly cooked by the boiling of his own blood when he’s like this, but being apart… is somehow even worse. And now, this.  The last fumes of his heat, acting up and being a nuisance. What a joke.

Ridiculous. Even if they were a thing, Keigo wouldn't have the right to police who he gets to talk to.

But there's laughter, the kind that stole his heart back at the ice rink.

She's obviously into Touya and making him happy where he can’t.

And he doesn't seem to mind.

And it feels… bad.

Worse than this cocktail makes him feel because he’s an idiot and hasn’t eaten a thing since brunch.

Another wave of giggles and laughs rouse him to stand up and move someplace more secluded where voices don’t bother him as much as they do here and he can fill the ocean with more salty water in peace, one droplet at a time.

That’s what the plan is, at the very least- but there’s someone on his tail, prompting him to postpone the crying session to a later time or date. Turning around, he finds himself face to face with… Shouto?

“Keigo-san?”

He shakes the surprise off before finding it in himself to put on a semblance of a smile and answer. “What is it, Shouto?”

“You looked really upset just now,” he states plainly.

Keigo’s eyes blink back to the bottom stair which he’d left the drink on, then seems to think better of opening his mouth; the barely present smile fades into near nothingness. When he avoids Shouto’s eyes to stare into the sand, the boy continues. "If you need someone to talk to, I'm here to listen. We're friends."

The statement both warms the blonde’s heart and pushes against his jugular like a double edged sword. "Man… all I ever did was revise some biology and half-ass the icing on your birthday cake," he sighs with a half hearted laugh and a head scratch. Even when he is home for more than a weekend, they usually end up talking heroes, because that’s what they both know. This kid really doesn't beat around the bush when he has something to say, though… but he's sweet. As much as his intern, really.

"That's not true," Shouto says after a short pause. "You also brought my brother back home."

A lenient smile appears on Keigo’s lips. "False accusation, yo. If it weren't for the baby girl, I wouldn't have been able to do anythin' for y'all."

"You were the one to bring Eri along, though."

Keigo sighs. Even that wasn't entirely his accomplishment. Himiko snitched on the girl being nearby, and even that was more of a fun fact on her part. Just a familiar face to reminisce about to her; and a foreign face to know far more about than necessary for him. All he had to do was put two and two together to make an improvised plan for a worst case scenario. "… technical KO. Suppose you could put it like that."

Shouto falls silent for a bit before they hear Rei call for him. He waves back in his own awkward way, then turns towards Keigo again. "We’re going sightseeing. Would you rather be alone?"

His shoulders pull into a half-hearted shrug. "Guess so… can't help with my bug, and I'd only drag y’all down." Having said that, he stops himself from putting his hand over the boy’s head, leaving the limb hesitant in the air for a second, and places it on a shoulder instead. "No need for a hero here, Shou. Go and have some fun. I can take care of myself."

Truly, the biggest lie of them all.

For a moment, he almost believes that the student sees right through it, but even if Shouto does, he keeps it to himself and decides to nod instead. “See you later.”

With a wave of his own, Keigo is left alone on the beach with the other random tourists.

He spends the rest of the afternoon drawing circles in the sand and combing his fingers through it, far enough from the shore so the ground is dry and doesn’t make that big of a mess of him once it’s time to stand up again. He’d done a bit of this yesterday afternoon when they arrived, frolicking across the entire beach twice over; the sand is just as surprisingly soft and silky as back then. Better than he’d ever imagined, and with more little creatures hiding in it and among the waves than expected. But, unlike the first time around… his face stays glum for some reason. Even though he was looking forward to spending the free afternoon here.

This should be fun.

But it isn’t.

A bitter sigh escapes him; everything he touches is cursed. This isn't even about that girl anymore… she's long gone and her phone number is somewhere in the side pocket of Touya's backpack, among the dozens of flyers that have been handed to him in the past months, but especially this week. It's nothing of importance. He couldn’t get into the book he brought along, either, so he was left without distractions. He feels miserable for the sake of feeling like shit now, and cannot begin to understand why.

Time doesn’t seem like a real thing in that sad vacuum, but it still manages to run past as fast as the microscopic seashells and pebbles under his fingertips. There’s few voices left on the beach; the sun only shines with enough force to be an inconvenience and blind people, but not strong enough to warm anyone this early in the year. If it’s sunset already, it must be around seven o’clock… suppose he should eat something.

It is then that he can hear somebody wade through the soft soil, stopping a few steps away from him. There’s no other noise but the splashing of waves for a solid minute.

“You’ve been falling, Birdie,” Touya's voice behind him states at last. “Do you not like it here?”

His head sways lightly to signal a no. “I like beaches. A lot.” He finishes the smiley face he’s been doodling by drawing in a nose. As it’s staring back at him, it doesn’t look happy at all.

“What’s the matter, then? You have been this moping little pile all day. … did you eat something funny? Shouto got sick after him and mom came back from the trip to that hill… I’m gonna guess it was that sandwich bar.”

The only reason he could name is the one he really doesn’t want to burden the other with… what is the matter with him, really?

“The cocktail did make me feel sick… but that’s not it. I… I don’t know. I’ve… always wanted to visit a beach like this.” It has been one of his greatest wishes. A forbidden dream he never thought would come true. He was elated to hear where they were going. And yet… it feels as if he was drowning on dry land. He should be enjoying this, not feeling down, or this… this restless. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot put words to the way he feels right now.

His eyes skim across the shore on the lookout for answers perhaps, then he stumbles back onto his feet.

“Are you telling me that you've never been to one?” Touya asks with wonder and disbelief in his voice as the towel in his hand whips over his shoulders. “What about Fukuoka?” he adds. Aren’t beaches the staples of seaside towns…?

Judging by the light sizzling sound that follows the first question, that towel must be stuffed with fine, white sand. Keigo cannot see, but it’s definitely an eyesore on the black tank top the other’s been wearing that day.

“I’ve been to some… but only on business.” Stuck in a hotel or on a wooden platform, there was no time to enjoy himself there. He’s always wanted to just… be on the beach. A real, nice, sandy beach that wasn’t just a three-skip-wide strip of  land by the ocean. With sun bleached shells, stray crabs, and towels, and colorful parasols. “Couldn’t visit any nice ones when I was little. They had to be paid for. Then I never had the time.” He looks back up towards the sunset which doesn’t hurt to look at anymore. It’s a deep red sky.

Tomorrow… tomorrow is going to be windy.

“I wanted to be in a place like this when there was nothing going on, and I was free to come and go whenever I pleased. Pick some nice sea shells, discover some cool trees and caves or tiny islands along the coast, and… when the wind would blow,” He raises his arms against the breeze coming from sea, and follows the line drawn by a plane crossing the horizon with his uncovered eye. “... I’d hold my wings against it until I got tired of them getting… all ruffled.”

……… ah.

Keigo lowers his arms with a loud, pained breath. That’s what this is about, isn’t it. He was supposed to be over this. But the fact stands: his forbidden dream will be out of reach forever.

Thinking about it… it's been a year already, hasn't it.

Tomorrow, in fact. On the windy day. On the second.

He spaces out until there is something warm pressing against his back, but they are no wings for sure. No… it's something even warmer.

Keigo peeks down; there’s sand on his tee now, smeared on by the heavy towel and messy arms against his chest, and drizzling from Touya’s hair. It evokes a sensation of déjá vu.

“… you don’t have my coat on,” he notes, riding the wave of nostalgia.

It takes a second for Touya to catch on… or, at the very least, to answer.

“I don’t.”

"And I’m not cold."

“... are you really,” he’s asked after a pause. 

Keigo lifts his head again, looking out to sea; there’s but a strip of orange left on the horizon and the evening star is also twinkling in the dark, purplish blue haze above, accompanied by a select few others. The night sky is pretty in its otherworldly, infinite, and incomprehensible way… but also eerily cold and empty. As it tends to be. The breeze dancing against his naked arms and feet seems to agree.

The blonde’s mouth twitches, which is accompanied by a small hum. “… a little.”

“Thought so,” sighs Touya as he lets go of the man who would regret the answer if not for being offered a hand. “Come on, Prince Frost,” he nods towards the illuminated hotel building; “lest you catch that bird flu for real.”

As he lets himself be led back to the hotel, a weak smile returns to Keigo’s face for the first time in what feels like forever, but was a day ago at most.

Early May evenings are cold regardless of weather… but it doesn’t really matter when one has another sun right by their side.

Chapter Text

A visit to Sea Paradise on the way home seemed innocent enough. If Keigo had the slightest idea in advance… he definitely wouldn't have been the decisive vote to go there. The least he could have done was pay fucking attention. Suppose Rumi was perfectly right in her assessment of him having grown too comfortable.

That was a problem for future him, though. Past him is way too charmed by the sea life surrounding the visitors to think of his troubles, and the endless calm that they radiate may have been a further factor at him lowering his guard.

"I wonder if the fish tank gang would enjoy it here," he thinks aloud as a huge sea turtle passes over their heads. It's so peaceful down here… and so quiet. The hum of the air conditioning and distinctive noise of the sea blanket above are quite pleasant to listen to, even if they are the very reason for the trip being cold as hell.

His musings elicit a deep sigh from Touya who’s tailing him; they’ve been separated from the rest of the family ever since… pretty much everyone separated, frankly. Shouto and Rei went straight for the petting zoo, Fuyumi disappeared soon after to look for souvenirs that she can maybe give out to her class or use at school, and Natsuo beelined for the new reptile and other exotic enclosures as soon as he realized they exist. Sometimes he talks about wanting a pet tarantula… wonder if he’ll find any.

Keigo's steps pick up pace as he sprints closer up to the glass walls in the next portion where the current star, a young whale shark, comes their way. He’d love to pet it… they are rumored to be gentle giants. The place probably isn't equipped to let a dumb blonde anywhere near that animal, but maybe he can scratch his itch in the manta ray pool. 

“We’re all going to lose each other for good if you, too, walk off to wherever. Come on,” Touya drawls upon catching up to him.

Feeling his hot hand press against the small of his back makes Keigo gasp and sends a shiver down his spine, one big enough to rattle him from head to toe before grabbing onto himself. He nearly bumps his head into the arch of the ceiling.

Just like that, the hand shies away. Now Keigo’s back is aching from the disappearance of the source of heat… damn it, he was fine with it being there.

“… sorry.”

“No, no, I’m fine!” he reassures his one man entourage while rubbing his arms as additional little shivers dance across his skin. “It’s colder than expected down here, it’s… feeling something so warm was… it just surprised me a lot, really. I don’t mind.” The last sentence makes him blush to the eartips as soon as it registers what he’s just said. Most light comes from above and it’s quite dark down here, thankfully. Maybe it’s not that obvious, oh god…

“You’re… cold, then?” Touya concludes after short consideration.

“It’s more that it’s been quite warm outside,” Keigo sighs, slowing down on the rubs. 25°C plus whatever the sunny weather must throw on top on RealFeel… it may be a spring record of some kind. “But yes, I guess I am.”

Touya lets out a thoughtful hum, maybe even checking himself for something, but… has to realize that he has nothing to give because he himself has only a T-shirt on. In fact, Keigo is wearing more layers than any other visitor in the first place.

He blinks away in annoyance, finally looking at his hand to maybe… indeed, why not.

“Well, I… have no idea how far the next exit is and leaving would make regrouping just as much of a hassle. All I can offer is… me, though. If that’s fine by you.”

If he wasn’t already certain that he looked like a tomato and it couldn’t get any worse, Keigo is convinced that his head would be glowing like a lava lamp under the broken light by now.

“I--- really?” he manages to squeeze out. If he could, he would pull his fully free eyebrow higher with the awkward laughter.

“ … ” Touya purses his lips, also feeling the awkwardness seep into the situation. “A 'no' would have sufficed,” he growls.

“It’s… not a no, though.” Must have come off as quite rude there… “I just never would have thought I’d see you offer something like this,” he muses. The receding blush is creeping back the moment he thinks any further than that. “Especially not to wee little me, you know?” Keigo adds with a lilt. ( God… Did he really just do that? He cannot believe himself.)

Touya lets out a groan ridden sigh. “How did you survive me for this long? You’re insufferable.”

“Guess some find it charming,” the blonde shrugs, mentally beating himself into a pulp. Stop.

“Guess I must be one of those clowns,” groans Touya as he steps beside him, offering an arm to lean into again. Even despite looking pissed as all hell.

Another shiver runs down Keigo’s spine when he does that, feeling the searing heat radiate from Touya’s body and being so, so close to it, but still not touching. He’s not flirting, he’s not flirting, he’s just being a nice ass, Touya is Not. Flirting. Pull yourself together, you tool.

The image of his greatest nap ever and that feeling of wholeness make a valiant attempt to taunt him regardless… but he’s too weak and already past temptation and presses himself against the other’s side, finally sating the beast that shall not be named and has been torturing him all spring. Man… maybe it's the lack of poison he’d been fed non-stop at the HPSC, but he doesn't remember his heat ever being this bad, not even at its peak.

Then again, he also doesn't remember liking anyone this much or being touched ever feeling this good, either, so you know what? Fair. He'll take it, well played.

Touya is rather surprised at how enthusiastic Keigo is to, for lack of a better word, nuzzle into him, but being able to feel how shaky the blonde is makes him shoo those thoughts away and pulls him close instead.

“Better?” he hums a minute later as he’s rubbing away at the other’s side.

His answer is a very soft, very content hum.

He blinks down at Keigo who certainly looks very comfortable just leaning against him with his fingers tugging at his T-shirt and watching the fish float by with half lidded eyes. He’s seen him just stare intensely at the fish tank or the pots at home that have life in them by now (and attract even more of it; usually it’s something to Keigo’s chagrin) a few times already. Lately he’s even caught him reading books in the mornings. The bird… really seems to like these observatory kinds of things, doesn’t he?

Eventually Touya starts watching, too. Just to see what the deal with this is. Once he’s settled down he has to admit that ogling sealife is actually nice and calming. Usually, he prefers zoning out on a rooftop or in the woods to... literally watch the grass grow instead of crops, he supposes.

They should probably visit zoos and shit more often. Keigo stays inside way too much if left to his own devices. He does occasionally kill time in the garden or on the balcony where he’s set up the pots, but it’s obviously not enough. Touya’s long since lost count the times he saw the guy stimming so hard he could hardly work on anything with all the shaking that came with… or how many times he’s seen Keigo throw an overly dramatic tantrum over declined applications, which sometimes came with the most adorable side effect of an angry red, teary, almost pitiable pouting face.

Musing away like this, neither of them could keep track of how long they could have been standing there in one place. Apparently, it had been a solid twenty minutes. At least that’s approximately how long it was, based on the timeframe, and also interrogation info of the family and witnesses.

It’s when the huge whale shark appears on the horizon once more that it occurs to them both that they must have been there for a while.

“Oh, fuck me,” states Touya as soon as he has a look at his phone, turning some heads. He then looks around for white and red heads, (as if he'd be able to see any color apart from blue in this twilight…) but his arm does not leave the confused blonde under it quite yet. “Where are these idiots? Everyone must be at the kiddie pool, splashing around like on a school trip.”

Keigo lets out a soft ‘ah’ upon understanding the situation, also digging up his own phone.

Man… sure hope everyone didn’t just leave them and went home.

… man, sURE HOPE NOBODY SAW THEM STANDING AROUND LIKE THAT, HOLY SHIT. That would be so embarrassing… there’s no explanation he could give. And the passive-aggressive bullying at home? God, why didn’t he die when he had the chance to leave with no questions asked…

He could cry in shame. But he better not.

“Hey, Birdie! Are you listening?! There is no signal in here, come on," Touya nudges him along after waving his phone in Keigo's face.

"Where are we goin’? Just outta here?" he asks with the phone still in his hand when they reach a rather shadowy linking room with two ways to proceed. He takes off the tracksuit he’s had on now that embarrassment is keeping him heated and ties it around his waist.

"Honestly? Looking for the way to any display that lets you get close to the animals, because that's where they'd be," says Touya as they walk up to some vague signs which rouse an annoyed growl out of him. Okay, the lizards and creepy crawlies are to the left, but what are the damn chances of Natsu still being there?

"Wait a sec, there should be free Wi-Fi," Keigo notes as they slowly-maybe take the route to the right, pulling up the browser and starting to tap into his search bar. "I can check the map of this place." With how slow public internet can be, it may take a minute, though.

Touya sighs; that’s a better idea than running around like headless chickens. “They sure could put a proper map here, too.” They all must be at the exits. “Hey, look for any petting zoo like things you can find near this huge-ass puddle.” As good of a starting place as any other.

Okay, using the connection makes the park’s site pop on right off the bat so opening google was unnecessary… “Alright, it should be under… ‘displays,’ maybe?” At least it shouldn’t be among contacts, but they might have it in ‘about us.’

“I can’t believe they haven't noticed us missing yet,” fumes on Touya while checking on the people going up and down the walkways again. “Like, we’ve been separated for over thirty minutes from everyone by now. Did they even bother calling? And if yes, why not go looking for us once they’ve realized we’re still under gallons of water!? That’s what I’d do. That’s what I’m doing right now. ”

Keigo’s lips pull into a smile and he tries his best to ignore the possibility of ‘they have come but decided to leave us standing all lovey dovey there’ that he cannot get out of his head. Wonder if anyone else notices the smell of a very, very slowly burning T-shirt. “Easy, there. You’re going to pop a--- ”

Next thing he knows, he’s thrust aside when a flash of light also reflected on his loading screen blinds the room of people behind him, which is followed by a heat wave hot enough to singe his hair. 

What does register immediately after turning his head among somebody cursing and the panicked screams and shouts makes his stomach turn in mixed worry and fear; what he sees is not a hero, or even a villain… it’s Touya’s fire.

He’s lashed out at something, and now his face is scrunching up in pain.

Keigo doesn't hesitate a moment to let the phone drop on the ground and grabs onto him instead, using the leftover momentum to swing the other away from the lingering heat and who- or whatever it was that elicited such a reaction.

Touya doesn’t use his fire all willy-nilly.

He’s barely ever used any of it ever since he got rewound.

This is no accident… Touya jumped to push him out of harm's way. Something’s here. Somebody is out for him.

The moment he stops, a long, spear-like object comes his general direction; he almost second guesses redirecting it with his bare hands, but maybe it’s just the fact that he’s been watching spiky, poisonous stuff swimming about. The surface of the thing is certainly not kind to skin as the sting of cuts and bruises quickly inform him from where the spike tears him up; it wedges itself into the ground away from Touya and the other people who have already started to clear themselves from the scene.

Worries about a potential poisoning and a few drops of blood are of no concern, though, especially not when he can hear another huff and more of these incoming. This time, he flings his leg around the stick that flies high enough to get highlighted under the otherworldly glow from above,  ripping up the denim of his jeans in the process; it doesn’t get impaled into the stubborn plastic flooring, though, so he can grab it for his own use.

There’s a momentary pause in the barrage accompanied by the noise of something relatively heavy landing on the ground and the first thing Keigo notes while skimming the premises is that there’s the remains of some kind of jacket engulfed in fire a few steps away from them. Mainly because the flames and grey smoke kinda obscure his already impaired vision, but it also highlights another one of these things skewered into the soft ground, likely showing the escape route of the assailant.

Gotta move, I need a good scouting spot.

His eyes dart to the glass wall; it’s restrictive and makes him an easy target as well, but the offender is already in the shadows, there are no civilians around there, and the light will help him identify the attacker instead of blinding him. He can't stick around, anyway. Not unless he wants to risk Touya’s wellbeing or him doing more stupid shit.

His eye never stops searching the scene as he stalks to the side. He turns the long, wood-like stick in his hand to get a feel for it.

It was surely sent as some kind of thrown or ejected projectile and is near definitely the product of someone’s quirk.

Some kind of thorn bullshit, in fact. Now that his sight is adjusting to the shadowy backdrop, he can see that there’s another one of these things standing nearly upright further back, towards where the suspect disappeared to.

Was it used for taking a high ground? Makes sense. Easier to hit the intended target.

His skin doesn’t recall the roughness of the material, but all it takes for him to know what he’s dealing with is to actually spot the silhouette of the culprit idling about as the rest of the people crowd towards the exits.

He remembers this guy by the thorns growing among his hair alone… stabbed three people when robbing them before he put an end to the rude-ass hobby. One of his early cases.

Four years of jail, one civilian gravely wounded.

He’s coming back for seconds, though, and Keigo has a feeling the backstreet punk wouldn't mind if the injuries caused today would prove more than just ‘serious.’ Wonder how long they’ve been stalked. Has he been waiting for a low light environment?

The moment the other shoots high on another makeshift stilt, Keigo darts towards him too, his dilated eye never leaving the target who’s growing a second weapon from his free wrist. There’s a fresh-looking rip in his pants, over his right knee.

Quick burst, slow finish. Hypothesis: they all grow from the joints.

Having reached a high enough spot, the man throws the first spear.

Seems to be rather proficient at his schtick. Left himself enough room to do it in close quarters, too.

The relatively smooth surface of the weapon leaves decent room for error, though, so Keigo can avoid it, earning a quick curse before the other javelin is launched and the guy drops to the ground again.

They can grow only about two meters long and detach once done.

This second one he has to deflect, slowing him down enough for the villain to charge at him head-on full of spikes. He's propelling himself forward with a pair of pokers grown from his hip area for momentum and ready to skewer the blonde someplace that will definitely hurt with those bared hands. “Stop moving around so much already, you son of a bitch!!”

Keigo grabs the tracksuit around his waist that hasn’t really been keeping him warm enough anyway, and darts towards the guy as well. If this prick wants a piece of him, so be it. Hopefully he won’t think too hard about his movements. “Nah.”

Also hopefully, he can pull this stunt off, because if he doesn’t, he’ll end up being yakitori today.

A second before the man could ram his dangerous head into Keigo, he uses the thorn in his hands as a pole to get over him, spreads the tracksuit…

… and traps the spikes on his head in the fabric.

Keigo’s pupils shrink into slits when the new thorns emerging from the palms miss their target and an otherworldly calmness overcomes him- the rest will be child’s play. At least until-

Breaking his neck is the most efficient.

The fabric is yanked towards the ground and the assailant’s spiked head drives into the soft material to get him stuck and near harmless for a couple of minutes.

The blonde himself lets go and rolls across the ground to avoid pulling himself into the still sharp growths and then just stays there. He lets out a deep, ragged breath as the jolt of fear wears off, then a bunch of less grave ones as the coldness of the underwater passageway seeps back into his bones.

He doesn’t want to hear that voice ever again.

It’s not like he wasn’t familiar with even worse, but nothing can prepare a body to bear such extremes with or without training. Touya wouldn’t describe the sensation he feels while the image of the guy with a pointy thing trying to stab Keigo in the back fades into a blue blur followed by possibly tumbling down someplace as ‘seeing stars.’ It’s more akin to being surrounded by a hot white canvas of pain that rattles him to the bone and makes his entire being cramp over in a concentrated wail, covering him in sweat in a panicked attempt to soothe the wound and wash the danger away, and forcing as much oxygen down his lungs as possible to fuel the investigation after the sudden catastrophe.

He has no idea how much time passes until the emergency sirens ringing in his ears subdue and he regains control over himself. After a few more huffs he hisses as the cool air hits the new, throbbing burn spreading on his arm, already swollen and red and forming big blisters. He went there, didn't he… fucking hell, this will leave a mark. Again.

His aching hand balls up into a fist and he only notes Keigo not being with him any longer when he can hear someone shouting followed by a grunt of Keigo’s farther back. He sits up at once; that son of a…

Immediately, he's doused in cold water. It stings as much as anything else, but grants momentarily relief and lessens the painful, pulsating irritation in his skin. Combing the flattened hair from his eyes, an object sounding positively like a metal bucket is placed next to him.

"Put your paw in this one, ribbit."

Well, so much for his plans of strangling both Keigo and that asshole.

Keigo is getting cold again. He wants… something warm. Somebody…

That’s when he remembers Touya being nearby and hurt, making him jolt alive only to see Selkie a few steps away, coming to check on him. His head snaps around to catch a glimpse of Sirius and one of the boys peeling the pokey punk up from the ground, but that’s not what he’s interested in. He catches a glimpse of white with a red cross hurrying someplace behind the seal man, and the froggy classmate of Tokoyami’s by their destination. Inbetween, there’s a dripping wet figure with a bucket.

Having realized that all is fine now, he drops back on the ground. His hamstring is aching like a bitch, and it's hardly the javelin's fault… and so does something under his shoulder blade and his entire left side. And upper arm. And his ankle. God damn.

"Hawks, you alright?" asks Selkie as he moves to crouch over him.

Well, hadn't heard that name in a while… a long, long while. It doesn’t seem like a real name anymore. Maybe because it never was. "Pulled a few muscles, but fine, thanks," he assures him with just the hint of a whine. "I'm not exactly in the shape to be doing acrobatic shit like this as of late." He should definitely start stretching again, if nothing else. Rumi was onto something… he's really let himself go. And that was after New Year's.

“Getting rusty already?” the huge man asks with a somewhat baffled face. “You’re making me scared of retiring, bud!”

“Hey, hey, no mind reading, please!” he protests before a hiss of pain ruins the joke upon trying to lean onto an injured arm. Keigo takes a miffed look at the one he was using as leverage; his right is bleeding quite a bit, actually. That’s… a cut. Not too deep, but pretty big. They’ll have to tend for that one for sure.

He takes the hand offered then with a weary sigh to prepare himself for the media coverage; so much for trying to keep a low profile.

Next thing Touya knows while watching the hero kneel down by Keigo’s side, there's a strong hand ruffling his damp hair… 

"I've had more than just a few doubts, but… good job, Pinkie."

… and that Rumi is extending an arm towards him. He looks at it for a bit before it clicks that she's offering a hand.

“… can’t take that one,” he notes then with a sigh, lifting his throbbing right out of the bucket to show the state it's in. (Probably worse for the wear than what he last saw, but he can’t bring himself to have a second look.)

“Ah, right. My bad… still, gotta scrape you off the floor,” Miruko states, grabbing onto his unburnt arm to pull him up. “I’m gonna guess you can walk, but protocol states I oughta ask whether you got your butt kicked elsewhere before moving your ass. Report on your condition, chump.”

“I’m fine,” Touya moans, and is immediately dragged up and away to the first place they can sit and treat him.

“Huuuh, Miruko? How come you are here?” asks Selkie a minute later what Keigo also wants to put into words.

“Hopped over from Kawasaki once I heard this lot are involved,” she informs him as she spares a nod towards Touya, then cracks a smile. She’ll keep the detail of the mention of “Blue Flame” being suspected tipping it off to herself.  “What’s with you, dragging that leg along like dead weight, Chickie? Told you to work out, didn’t I, loser?!”

“ … all of you can stop reminding me,” he pouts, sitting down beside Touya while Selkie clicks away behind him as a way of a snicker.

“How is your arm?” Keigo turns to the other man then who doesn’t look any better than a drowned, pink cat.

“Could be worse,” Touya grunts, wincing at the way the disinfectant stings by now, having seeped in and alarming some leftover nerves.

Keigo takes a peek and the stomach knot returns, spreading an uncomfortable numbness in his chest that he cannot quite describe, unless he likens it to bitter and sour, much like lemon rind.

The gentle hand that he took the other day, all swollen and red. And on the back, all the way to the elbow and even above, it’s…

He hugs onto Touya’s other arm and drops his head on his shoulder.

“Don’t do shit like this.” Not for my sake.

“None can do… promised, didn’t I?” Touya mumbles. “Even to your white knight here,” he nods over to the rabbit hero. As the guy doing first aid starts to loosely bandage up his sensitive arm, he flinches. He got used to not being used to pain a little too much.

Keigo lifts his head to look at the other through both of their messed-up hair and his eyes meet the icy blues. The glowy impression they leave is heightened by the dim blue light of the tunnel and wet hair; he can even spy something glinting in the light. Seems like an eyebrow piercing, but that’s beside the point. “Promised what?”

“Safe and happy, remember?”

Keigo didn’t think a simple combination of words like that could work as a trigger, but he’s proven wrong when his thoughts flash back to the hospital bed and his stomach turns anew. “… these kinds of safety measures don’t make me happy in the slightest,” he sneers while letting go at last.

“Well… I also told you it wasn’t a very good plan,” Touya states as a fact, taking a fleeting look at the arm being wrapped up. Wonder how bad the scarring will be. “I’m still working on it.”

The blonde closes his eyes to take a deep breath, then plants a palm on the man’s face to shove him away by the head, which earns nothing but a grunt and a disapproving sigh of the guy doing first aid. “Fuck off.”

“My, my…” hums Miruko after following the exchange in silence, resting her chin on a thoughtful hand as Keigo crosses his arms, which he regrets immediately upon remembering the cut on his hand.

“Wazzat supposed to mean?” her friend retorts to the unwanted input, grumbling.

“Oh, nothing… absolutely nothing,” she sings to herself, stepping away backwards to the entrance; her shift is not over yet. “You kids have fun, I’m still on patrol.”

He sticks out his tongue at her figure that quickly disappears upon getting her leg game on.

“Sir, let me see your hands, please,” the nurse accompanying the youngish doctor treating Touya addresses him then.

“Ah, sure… sorry.”

Two minutes later, Shouto and Rei arrive; they are dead silent, but the looks in their eyes tell plenty. Once they are allowed to see them, Touya says he’s fine… but when his mother breaks down in tears and latches onto him, cradling his head close, an apology slips out instead. Keigo’s eyes meet Shouto’s for a second only as they exchange a few really awkward words; he feels like a third wheel. Watching Natsuo, pillar of peace and safety stumble his way to his brother all fallen apart and scattered is somehow even worse. She holds it together at first, but Fuyumi is also crying while chopping up the vegetables for dinner. Not that anybody has much of an appetite. In fact, Keigo is convinced that Natsu doesn’t eat a thing while he stays at the hospital with Touya. Not until they come back around lunch time the next day.

Between idling around and his eye wandering between the bandaged arm and the family, guilt nestles among Keigo’s guts instead of the feeling of not belonging, and it grows even after the smiles grow from faint to their usual shine.

If he’s not here, none of this happens.

He needs to get out.

Chapter Text

He didn’t get the normal kind of education normal kids get in their normal lives.

There was no PE and football with friends, only non-stop rigorous training all day. Instead of writing equations and drawing geometry in his exercise book, he had to practice real time physics by catching, destroying, and avoiding a barrage of clay pigeons. He had no teachers, only information to acquire about a hostage situation two rooms over at all costs. Instead of being introduced to kanji more complicated than “cat,” he had to learn how to deduct meaning by radicals alone.

He never really learned how to write. Anything he does jot down looks like misshapen printed characters. There was no room for creation or redundancy at work, only reproduction and dry facts. Anything elaborate he may have needed for a tweet or such was fed to him by an app immediately. What use did writing have, really?

He didn't even have a name.

Then again, for as much as he had to read and decipher and encode and decode, he didn’t really read that much. The book Touya shoved into his hands upon not believing Keigo’s statement that he didn’t know was the first piece of literature that ever graced them. But he really didn’t know. Had no idea that Kiki’s Delivery Service was a book. He’s only ever seen anime stills and gifs online.

It was his first. It took him days to get started after the first two pages, perhaps because it seemed silly, reading about people who never existed in a world that is comparatively so mundane to theirs. He also didn’t know what to pay attention to, there was just so little of significance once the characters and stage had been established.

Boredom did get the best of him while waiting for the eye examination, though, and before long the book became a pleasant way to pass the time, and when on the operation day he reached the part where Kiki couldn’t fly any longer… it became a little too real, maybe. A lot of other things also became relatable in retrospect. The worst of all was to leave the book behind in favor of the appointment right when things started to get interesting. He just couldn’t believe that he spent a sleepless night stressing about the last twenty-something pages that he had left, never having seen the movie that could provide him with the answers he desperately wanted.

After a month-long pause came Heidi, read by morning coffees, a couple of pages at a time. Having finished that one sometime in March, he decided to pick something possibly more mature from the meager library of the house that consisted of little more than recommended readings for school. The Tale of Genji was… something. Something to behold, but not read- or so he concluded after seeing the total girth of the books and having read a few lines. He was curious because of the extra fancy spines and because it was part of Touya's syllabus, but the well-loved books looked more tantalizing. Still kind of a mixed bag, though. He plowed through Romeo and Juliet one especially dull afternoon, but honestly? It kinda sucked. It wasn’t even about the story, but… don’t they teach this in high school? It’s concerning. That girl was thirteen… Toga must know this one for sure. In fact, she must have written her own vampire story based on it.

No wonder people end up as messed-up as him.

There were some English prints, too, but he had to realize that his language skills were rather sub-par since he didn’t understand half of the sentences. It’s a pity, he remembers hearing good things about that Pratchett guy and that opener made him laugh out loud. One ought to wonder who these newer books belonged to… or where the older library came from, most books being really old editions twice his age.

In the end he picked The Little Prince which he also took to Okinawa to read by morning coffees and Dracula for other time-stalling, which turned into a bedtime read for better or worse. (He would lie if he hadn’t had any nightmares regarding blood suckers. He’s pretty sure he was sipping something red with Toga and someone who was supposed to be Shigaraki at some restaurant at one point, too. Then Eraserhead took them to a graveyard-beach combo in a truck that looked suspiciously like a coffin with windows from the inside. It was… wild.) The latter provided quite a change in both tone and style, though. He had no idea books could be just a series of letters.

He’s engrossed in the Sherlock Holmes collection he’s been reading since April, bit by bit to take his mind off of all the things plaguing him, when Touya appears seemingly out of the blue in front of him.

“Aaaah… hi,” he says getting over the initial jump scare, not quite there still. Wait, when did it get dark? Shit, he forgot to water the  plants… Or is it just the rain that was forecast? Never mind, then it's the laundry he promised to bring in that he should be more worried about.

(And, just on a side note, he’s so, so happy to be able to act normally around Touya now. Well… as normally as he can, he supposes. His current behavior is everything but.)

Touya tilts his body to see what he’d been so lost in, then checks back on Keigo. “After telling you off for being illiterate in the worst sense of the word… you are becoming an addict, aren’t you? I’ll be damned,” he says, but for some reason he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it or mocking him in the slightest.

Ever since Touya had to couterlecture him on literature, Keigo found himself reading more and more, true. Addiction was a strong word per se, but… he has to admit that as of right now, it has become a problem. He’s anxious about a bunch of things at once, after all; the day he’s being allowed to sit in the driver’s seat is so near he can taste it, he’s taking the first theoretical exam in a few days, the first week of the intensive month-long programming course he’s applied to is also starting fairly soon, and he’s doing his best to hide his sudden interest in real estate. That, and the eyepatch is about to come off after a second operation, too (unfortunately a checkup proved that there were still soft boiled floating bits left…). He is in need of distraction.

(He’s still doing other stuff, like watching his crops grow like he did in the beginning. Literally just… staring at them for a bunch of minutes multiple times a day. There is momentary magic in seeing that there are little, unassuming flowers and the tiniest of beginnings of peppers. The morning glory vines have taken over the railing and are getting out of hand, but they are also in bloom every morning, and guess what?? They attract fuzzy bees and butterflies. He couldn't be happier. But it distracts him only for so long before intrusive thoughts start happening.)

Anyway, about becoming a bookworm: "What is it to you?" The frown on his face may be borderline comical, but Touya should still buzz off.

"Nothing much," the man says, stepping back towards the kitchen. "I simply found it weird that you weren't checking on the entrance door like a needy puppy as soon as it opened." While saying that, he picks a glass from the dishrack and fills it with tap water. Goddamn humidity is killing him already. And the damn course will run pretty much non stop all summer… thank god the trains have air conditioning.

As much as Keigo would like to hide it, the blood rushes to his face when his heart skips a beat. "Hey…!" He’s been getting much better at not doing it, too! Part of it was that… he can now tell who comes based on the way they handle the door. Which is actually a little concerning, now that he thinks about it.

"It's what you do, guard pigeon. Don't even try to deny it." He takes the first sip, savoring its coolness. Having taken another, he nods towards the estimated location of the book in the angry bird's nest with eyes' hands that's glaring at him over the kitchen island. "How is it?"

The blonde bush blinks, eyes disappearing as they look at the likely topic of the question. "The book…? It's pretty good." Keigo's head lifts back into view. "Has different quirks than what I'm used to, but the mysteries are a fun aspect."

His shiny, golden eyes find Touya again as he drinks and refills the glass before he continues. “How was the one you’ve been having around lately? The thick tome."

The strawberry-haired man stops to cock an eyebrow for a moment. Guess there was no hiding that one. “The Tolkien? It was rather… well, I reached page 100. That’s about as far as I was willing to go," he confesses. "It had some neat descriptions and language, but that’s all it had going for it. Not really my thing.”

Hmm. Keigo disappears entirely as he sinks back into the couch. “With how you talked about literature when pissing you off with my nonexistent knowledge, you seemed to like dry, serious stuff.” At least that’s what that book looked like- and sounds like.

Having gulped down his second glass of water, Touya shakes his head. “Nah. I prefer them short and not necessarily serious, but… thought provoking and impactful,” he says, walking back up to Keigo, and picks up the next title the other put out on the coffee table. “Short books can’t disappoint as much since they don’t waste your time with unnecessary flowery descriptions about everything… this one isn't bad. But, like, the one you asked about?" The book lands on the cushion by Keigo's side. "Imagine reading two and a half pages of nothing but a river and crossing it on a trunk of a huge, fallen tree. The most exciting thing that happens is a fish splashing under the posse’s feet or it being grabbed by some predator. Shit never even gets mentioned again, I bet. Miss me with that junk.” He quints at the surface of the coffee table while talking, then wipes his knee across an edge. His eyes did not deceive him, this one is ready to be wiped.

“Fair, that does sound like a waste of time." Keigo’s head follows Touya on a detour to the cupboards for a cloth and back. "Do you have recommendations? About short stuff, I mean?”

“I… honestly don’t know what to recommend,” says Touya with half a moan as he chucks his scarily heavy looking backpack on the seat next to Keigo, making him bounce just a bit. “Because… you’ve been reading kiddie stuff only and I don’t do that,” he shakes his head while cleaning the table. Having earned a pout, he lets a smirk slip by for a moment. “Even if I had a couple that may be down your alley… they are all mood reads. Dunno what you want.”

“I don’t know either," he shrugs. "I feel like I’ve been stepping into some shit with the ‘kiddie books,’ anyway,” Keigo says squinting at the cover of the next one, Anne of Green Gables . They all hit deep in certain aspects and made him uncomfortable. And sometimes what bothers him doesn’t get resolved at all, leaving him a restless mess for days. So he tries to drown out the feeling by starting something new, which makes him run into the same issue, and then it just becomes this self feeding ouroboros of a problem. "It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but… y'know."

Scrunching his nose, Keigo looks at the top shelf where the- both literally and figuratively- heavy looking stuff like Genji is. “What about the ones up there? Anything interesting?” Perhaps he’d enjoy longer works where he can gather relevant looking information for later… but he’s not sure he wants to start something that long for kicks alone.

Touya takes a languid look at the dusty top row as he finishes off the table by placing the bonsai back in the middle. After skimming them and the ones Keigo has with him, he clicks his tongue. “Not really. Honestly, I haven’t read half of those, but… the rest don’t seem my thing and it’s hard to find stuff I like in the first place.”

“Huh? You seemed to know everything when preparing for the exam, though… I thought you’ve read them all.” Honestly, he doubts Touya needed anyone’s help to revise for literature at all. He sure seemed to enjoy poking fun at him for having no idea about it and lecturing him on everything instead. He was still being a smartass about Keigo having had to decipher how simple, quadratic, and then cubic equations worked for himself before being able to help. Set him damn straight at IT, though. Asshole.

“Read excerpts, mainly. And summaries… that’s usually all you need for that kind of shit.” He contemplates throwing the cloth back to the sink, but thinks better of it and makes a third turn to the kitchen.

Keigo lets out a long hum, pulling his legs up and sinking into the furniture again. School sounds like a strange place. Judging by the vague memories he has from the short time he went to one, he supposes it is one, indeed.

“Maybe you could write a book of your own?” he muses aloud once he can hear Touya pass by. “Or write poetry, you have great handwriting,” Keigo says; he closes the Sherlock collection in his hand and hugs it against his chest since it’s unlikely he’ll read right now.

The other rolls his eyes. “… what kind of emo loser do you take me for?”

“The kind that appreciates descriptions and language within the realm of reason?” Keigo asks in all honesty, following Touya with his eyes as he walks by.

The latter switches places with his backpack and dumps it next to the couch with a deep sigh of exasperation, also slumping backwards. “Why would I do something as tedious as writing a book?” he asks then, and turns to Keigo with a confused look. “Where did that even come from?”

“Hey, I’ve heard you axing a number of readings for legit sounding reasons and have seen how meticulous your study notes look like. Also, if there are few books you like and you wrote a couple you suppose you would like… there would be more books you like out there, no?” He couldn’t put it any simpler than that.

Touya’s officially lost the thread and digs into his hair with a hand. “Why--- who reads their own books?”

Keigo rolls his entire head. “It doesn’t have to be you, dumbass. People with a similar taste would like it too, wouldn’t they?”

Touya turns his head towards the ceiling and heaves a sigh with closed eyes. It is a moment of peace, resetting the pace. “If you are serious about the dust brigade on the top shelf, I recommend The Count of Monte Cristo, ” he says when speaking up again. “Has some themes you may vibe with.”

“ Eeeh…?!” Keigo rips himself up from the cushions after a moment's delay. “That one is the longest!! Why’d you recommend that of all things?!” It’s right up there with that Genji tome!

“Length doesn’t indicate quality, and you asked for a recommendation yourself, so shut it,” says Touya with a stink eye that soon changes into another expression. “Which reminds me…” Touya digs into his all-purpose backpack to present four whole-ass books. “Here, I figured these are something you’d like. Judging by your current readings, I was right.” There’s the smallest hint of smugness hidden in his voice.

The blonde is handed a scarily big tome that makes his entire body tilt towards the other and seems to be a detective story collection of ten by the looks of it; the silhouette of a plucky gentleman sporting an enviable moustache can be seen on the cover. Then there’s a gardening book (for dummies, of course,) the first volume of a manga titled Goodnight Punpun, and… a brand new print of Kiki, one of those editions which have a fancy, golden sheen around the edges of their pages.

In fact, all of them are brand new. The tickle of excitement quickly turns into a sinking feeling which sits out on his face on full display; these are not lent books from a library, are they?

“Thank you, but…”

A hand is put up to make him stop right there.

“It’s been almost a year,” Touya states before he could even start. “And we also missed your birthday so I made them step off and leave it all to me.”

That doesn’t make him feel any better about the situation. Manga are cheap, but the rest must have cost a fortune… “You… didn’t have to.”

"I am going to go ahead and say ‘bullshit’ in the name of the entire family."

Touya turns his head in time to catch the twitch of the bird’s mouth, muffling thoughts better not left unaddressed. Not with how hunched over and lethargic he looks. With how under the weather he’s been looking for a while now, in fact.

“What is it?” he sighs. The blonde keeps silent, though; his mind’s eye can almost see red wings nestling in discomfort while the scaled thumbs drift up and down the shiny, new book covers. “You know I won’t let you off the hook until you spill it, Birdie.”

An awkward pause later Keigo musters an answer. “I just… I owe you all so much already.” And have yet to give anything.

Touya licks his lips in growing frustration. “Okay. Let's pretend you do owe us shit," he muses out loud as he tries to keep the sentiment out of the conversation. "What exactly are we talking about?”

Keigo sighs. “You gave me a place to live for free." For starters. And even if the bills are covered by Endeavor's paycheck… "You are feeding me, even though I do little to contribute. Natsu has been taking care of me, too, sparing me most extra expenses and trips to a doctor. And now you're even spending good money on my stupid hobbies even though you've got no savings." Thinking about it, he could have bought all of these himself instead of Touya wasting his near nonexistent earnings (two McD's shifts on the weekends ain't shit) on him. Even if Rei and the others chipped in… that's still not balanced in the slightest.

"Why's that a problem again?" He swears, this idiot… “I spend my money in whatever way I like. It’s none of your damn business.”

"I don't deserve it?" Keigo says, not getting what's so hard to understand. Touya is good at these subtleties, too, so he's just bullying him. "At this point I don’t even know what I could do to repay all the things you've done for me." Or that he ever will do enough to earn this.

"Who the fuck ever said that you should, egg boy!?" There goes his patience.

"It feels wrong," snaps Keigo back at him at last; "I should fucking move out already and not ruin entire family outings."

His jaw clenches shut and he casts his frowning eyes down, trying to hide behind his light tracksuit’s barely existing collar. Despite the number of accommodation ads he's got saved, this is not a topic Keigo wants to discuss. Not yet, and also definitely not openly. Only once he's finally gotten a job and hopefully his license will he be able to reasonably leave without any questions asked. Then he can express his worthless thanks with a meaningless present and---

"If that shit is what rubs you the wrong way, fine." Cat's out of the bag. Now they're speaking the same language. "But don't you think for a moment that you can just pack up and I'll let you leave just like that. I'm going to fucking haunt you anywhere you go, motherfucker," Touya threatens.

But of course. They were getting too chummy for it not to go wrong. And Touya can't even blame the bird for blaming himself… still, he's bound to do something stupid. Has been planning for a while for sure, too. Knowing him, Keigo had considered disappearing in the dead of the night at least once already. Also knowing him, picking up his tracks would be nigh impossible even for Giran and company. God. Damn it.

First, Keigo is also just mad at himself for having said too much, but Touya's last statement leaves him dumbfounded. "Come again?" Is he understanding this right?

Oh? Caught his attention, didn't we. "I'm a ghost duct taped to your sorry ass. A nasty curse that you won't be able to lift until the day you die. That's what I'm saying." The weird talk is a total success at throwing Keigo off; it's written on his face in the most beautiful calligraphy. His confusion is nothing but hilarious.

"That's… what?" Keigo shakes his head in bewilderment. He’s got the overall idea that he’s being threatened with stalking, basically, but where did that even come from?! If anything, Touya does make it sound unsettling. He’ll have to make sure to close his blinds and lock the doors for the night anywhere he goes. And also put the shoji screen in front of the glass door for tonight.

… is Touya trying to get him to leave faster, or what?

Touya swallows his grin for a minute and throws an arm around Keigo's shoulder so he can be up close and personal while looking him in the eye. “You’ll never get rid of me, Birdie. That's all.”

"I always knew you were a stalker bumf-" Touya squeezes the blonde's face with his free hand. He's had enough of his yapping for today.

Miraculously, it works at shutting Keigo up for a moment, too. It's just the surprise and indignation, but the more he looks at him like this, the less he can leave it without commentary. "Your face looks dumb when squished." Birdie seemed to have tragically lost the positively adorable baby fat as time went by while going underground and then with their little accident, but Fuyumi managed to magic the plump cheeks back. Bless you, sis.

Keigo’s brows furrow and fuse into a fuzzy caterpillar. Or moth. Either way, it’s out of this world. "I bed yoo’s wud loog dumba."

Touya's face has long given up and is split in a shit eating grin. It’s quite lucky he got this brewing problem out of the way, or at least put on the radar. And if they’ve already brought up writing things, be it in a notebook, a file, or on a face…

The hands release Keigo and Touya leans back into the couch with a smile that screams trouble. “You know what?”

Keigo lets out some kind of noise resembling a grumpy hum as he rubs at his cheeks. He peeks into the gold dusted book then to check on the shiny pages at last. Oh. They are so… silky.

“We should get our own bamboo tree to put wishes on this year,” states Touya while crossing his legs.

Keigo is momentarily interested in the idea… and immediately after, mortified by it.

“NO!!” Everyone would see his abysmal handwriting and know by the rule of elimination who it belonged to, and Touya… this prick would go all out on his calligraphy skills and write a legit poem just to stick it right next to his flimsy note.

“Objections, bird brain?” asks the other without the tiniest smidgen of fucks given while daring to look at him from the corner of his eye.

“Yes?!” Keigo squawks, flinging his arms up into the air and nearly smacking the other with his new copy that he definitely should be more careful with. He’s really trying not to think about the price tag that the bar code of this small book has attached to it.

“Name them.”

“You know I can’t write for shit,” Keigo hisses. Pinkie knows damn well he mixes up his chis and jis, he spent an entire day laughing at him once he noticed back in the day.

The smug smile on Touya’s face is beyond intolerable. How they haven't ended up killing each other thus far is a miracle; or, in this case, an elaborate riddle for the ages fluttering in the wind. Oh… Oh!! Did he just think of that himself? Maybe he can flex with the choice of words. So what if it’s ugly as sin or is written with the wrong kanji? He can out-vocabulary this stale bookworm any day and chalk his kanji errors up to creativity.

Keigo must be making quite the faces, because Touya starts laughing under his breath until a distant key jingle followed by the click of them entering the already unlocked entrance door disrupts the moment, making the man sit up proper and direct his sharp blue gaze towards the hall.

“Huh?” He’s pretty sure he caught a glimpse of his mother in the garden and Fuyumi is all kinds of busy these weeks. “Who is---” He doesn’t finish the sentence and the usual pink blush disappears from his face when the keys get pulled out in an oddly awkward manner and the door opens. It’s internship week for Natsuo, he comes home every day, and he comes home early.

Touya takes a panicked look around and his eyes pin on Keigo when the latter moves to ask what the matter is.

“Your tracksuit, now,”   he says in the most aggressive whisper he can muster.

Keigo blinks. “Huh?”

“Just give it to me,” he slurs, tugging at it by the arm.

With a moment’s delay, the article is basically flung over to Touya who manages to magically slip into the not quite fitting garment right away.

Heaving a deep breath, Touya looks back again to see his brother enter the scene. “Hey. Knew it was going to be you,” he says casually, noting the huge folder in one hand and an old, beaten-up doctor’s bag in another. Plus, he also has his usual backpack going on. “When exactly did you become a part time pack mule?”

Upon hearing that, Keigo secures the books that almost slid onto the floor with the previous magic trick and also pokes his head from behind the kitchen island.

“Ever since I got a number of X-rays to analyze and also the contents of a doctor’s bag to dissect at the same time. Hi,” moans the younger Todoroki, obviously not being at his best as he trods inside.

Touya gets fidgety as he closes in on them, pushing the hem of the tracksuit over his right hand as far as it goes. It took Keigo a second to realize, but he is already aware of what he’s trying to do; Natsu got worked up easily whenever Touya’s new burns were brought up. He took long sleeved shirts for dinner even in the slowly creeping summer heat that he can’t tolerate. Usually, Keigo would think it unnecessary, but seeing how worn Natsu is today… it was probably a good call.

"Wow… you really outdid yourself,” the tired student says after a delay upon noticing the new books surrounding them. “Can I expect such a bountiful motherlode for my birthday, too?" he asks his brother then with a sly smile.

"Do I look like somebody with the cash for books and junk that you would want?" asks Touya with a barely noticeable cock of a brow under his messy hair. His words carry no bite.

“Just kidding, I know your ass is broke,” Natsu chuckles, forcing his weary legs to move on towards his room. “Invite me for a round of sashimi or something and I’ll be happy.”

Touya lets out a deep sigh. “You say, as if that shit doesn't cost a fortune,” he grumbles, getting onto his legs to help Natsuo before he tries to wrestle his sliding door open. “Be happy if you get decent ice cream. In with you, now.”

The brothers likely exchange stuck-out tongues from what Keigo can see and hear before Touya slams the door shut with more force than intended; at least that’s what the small wince is telling of.

The shadow of that feeling from a couple of weeks back settles in the blonde’s chest, drawing a faint smile on his lips as Touya returns for his bag once getting over the awkwardness.

"You're a pretty cool big bro," Keigo tells him when Touya notices him staring and sends a “what?” kind of look.

His returning pink cheeks turn red and he grumbles his way out of the room.

A minute later Touya storms back downstairs to chuck the tracksuit back into Keigo’s face and his smile gets even wider under the fabric as he peels it off. Because Touya got him a nice present, he doesn’t want him to leave, and now he’s gotten super embarrassed over a little compliment. It’s all just super cute.

And his tracksuit smells like him, too.

Chapter Text

"How is it?" asks Natsuo when the eyepatch finally comes off - for good, if everything goes according to plan.

"A little hazy,” Keigo says, squinting and blinking around. The eye can't really handle the sudden direct sunlight. “But I can already tell that I can see more than just muted colors of vague shapes, so that's something."

Maybe it just needs to readjust a bit after all the time spent in twilight and it will be as good as new. If not, he’ll still take it. Make it functional, it's all he'll ever need.

"Once your eye has adjusted, please read all the hiragana you can off the board, sir," instructs the skeleton thin elderly man running the checkup, pointing at the grid. Keigo has been trying his best to ignore the notion that his forehead wrinkles look like grates on a ventilation shaft. “I’ll check the eye fluid for irregularities afterwards, when it’s less sensitive to light. Ah, and cover up your other one, will you.”

“Got it, boss.”

They are at the local hospital and if all goes well, there will be only two more check-ups next week to see if his vision is still clear and sharp enough and he’s free to go. True to himself, he was a little hasty and is already halfway through a driving course. This time tomorrow he should be done with the written exams and be set to start driving whenever he wants to.

He was even allowed to skip out on the first aid portion due to his former hero licence, which was an opportunity he took since he doesn’t want to really dig into his rainy day funds just yet. Yes, almost four million yen is still a lot, especially now that he's postponed moving out for just a little longer. But if he wants to make use of the driving license, he'll need to buy some kind of vehicle, and things could get hairy real fast with such a big investment. Especially with the time buffer needed to finally find a job and maybe get some additional qualifications.

Still, he did brush up on the stuff with Natsu the other day. It ended up in goofing around a lot, though. That fiend even got an underhanded jab into his ticklish side; it became a problem both of them had to deal with as soon as he headbutted back on reflex. He feels bad about it, though, even if it’s just the smallest amount.

Both the bump of his own making and having wasted time like that. It’s so stupid… but the thought that he’s hogging Natsuo and keeping him away from his family crossed his mind when Touya’s head poked through the door to ask whether Natsuo was ready to go to the movies yet. Then the two of them dragged him along, too… but the whole time, the feeling of being an intruder weighed on him again and it hasn’t left since. Even though there is zero rationality behind it.

It really is so stupid.

And yet, when he tries to rationalize his thoughts he has to remind himself of the fact that Natsu did forget to pick up his birthday present for Touya -the fucking birthday present for Touya - back in January, because he was so preoccupied with the tattoo salon. And that just ain’t right, no matter how he looks at it.

But he'll have to deal with that later.

“Okay, I think I can start. Yo, i, me, ga, ne…” Keigo squints- wait a sec… do they really put fucking megane on these?!

“Yes, any more?”

“Uh, sorry… ha… umm, to, and… u?”

Ten minutes later he’s read every single direction and kana he was able to off the damn board and his eye was successfully approved to be functional for the road. Thank god.

He’ll have to wear glasses for reading and driving instead of just looking at shit from an arm’s length, though. Will have to see how that goes- what definitely will go is another 100 grand, though. That’s his estimation for a good quality of both a normal pair and sunglasses, at the very least. Maybe he should invest in those lenses that darken in light instead…

His train of thought is derailed right then and there when he sees who else is crossing the very same corridor.

“Good morning,” murmurs Aizawa Shouta to them, and in his arms…

“Hello,” is what Eri squeaks, her eyes getting stuck on Keigo as she tries to decide whether she's seen him before. The realization of when and where she saw the blonde man sinks in eventually; it would be surprising, if not for the circumstances. It has been a while, after all. Especially for a child.

“Why, hello, there,” he greets back as Natsuo says his own, vaguely intimidated good mornings. “What’s the occasion?” Keigo asks then, staring back at the child, then glancing up at the teacher. “Hope it’s no big deal.”

“Routine checkup,” Aizawa informs him with the trademark exhaustion of his voice. Somehow he looks even more tired than usual. “Utterly unnecessary, but it has to be done due to our circumstances.”

“I see,” he replies, and a slowly growing awkward silence would settle in if not for Natsuo’s sheepish babbling.

“I’m so glad I can finally meet you in person,” he says after recovering from the proper bow. “And also Eri, was it? My brother has told quite a bit about you. It’s been a while since we saw each other!”

The girl pulls her hair into the face with one of her little fists in shy embarrassment.

“This young man is one of Todoroki Shouto’s brothers,” the teacher informs her, things visibly clicking into place in her head… but then she is embarrassed over not recognizing him earlier.

“Hello,” she mumbles again into the mouthful of hair before Aizawa puts her down. Once standing on her own feet, she discreetly steps behind his leg.

“You boys are here for a reason, too, I presume.” 

“Ah… a checkup for my eye was all,” Keigo answers. Being addressed as just “boy” feels odd. “I had it operated, since I wanna get a driver’s licence and all.”

The tidbit of info perks Aizawa’s thoroughly hidden ears up. “Ah? How is it?”

“Well, um… for the time being, it seems to be doing okay,” he admits. He needs to squint at anything that’s more than a couple of steps away, but otherwise, he’s good. “Just curious?“ He wasn’t expecting it to be a point of interest.

The teacher pauses. “I’ve been considering having mine done. Collecting recommendations as we speak.”

Oh. Right, he had a dry eye, or something. Odd of Eraserhead to consider it now of all times… it would have been much more useful when he was active. “I see. I’ve had two operations, but they’ve told me in advance that three, or even four of them may be necessary with something as severe as mine. There were still some bits clouding my vision.”

“The main thing was clearing the liquid of grime, and they also replaced Keigo’s lens since it was both damaged and had come loose,” adds Natsuo. “The doctor managed to do the hard part in one go, and as far as I know, the operation was even faster than usual. So I can only recommend him!”

The rather one sided discussion of eye ills goes on until all of them find themselves outside to leave the facility.

“Unless you are planning to have the weaker eye operated along with it, a dry eye would need nothing more than one afternoon visit and it would heal over the weekend,” Natsuo states after another monologue. “Keigo went to a private practitioner, so he had to pay up, but any hospital would have someone who does this as a routine treatment. I’m not sure about the financial side, but no matter where you go, it shouldn’t cost more than thirty thousand yen. Considering your valid hero licence and how it impacts its use, I’d say you could get it for free.”

Aizawa hums in contemplation while casting a quick glance at Eri who’s walking up to the rose bushes blooming at her height planted by the pavement. “You are right. I should dig into the paperwork side of this.”

“I was glad to be of help,” Natsu says, swinging an arm for a playful salute but has to realize that he’s got a folder in his hand. “Well, kick me,” he mumbles then. “Um, sorry, Kei, I forgot to drop off your progress report that my sensei here asked me to do today, so… see you in about ten minutes.” Having said that, he also turns to the teacher. “And Eraserhead, I was very glad to get to meet you in person at last. Oh, wait… I’m repeating myself, aren’t I…? Regardless, thank you a lot for taking care of my little brother,” he bows with a sheepish laugh.

Aizawa scratches his nape. “No need to, really. He can take care of himself, more or less. I just provide support where needed.”

“That’s really good to hear, too! From what I’ve learned, he’s a little anarchist,” Natsuo laughs, then really does sprint off with a goodbye.

The teacher turns towards Keigo once he’s out of sight. “And, how are you holding up otherwise?”

“So-so. I’m really lucky to have them looking out for me,” Keigo admits, turning his head for a moment towards where Natsuo went and disappeared to. “I feel like an intruder, but I also don’t want to be rude and just up and disappear. At the same time… the job market doesn’t make it easy to just get a life of my own.”

“No offers?” It’s obvious that he doesn’t believe it to be the case.

The blonde scrunches his nose. “Plenty from hero agencies, at least that’s where every agent tried to push me towards.” Thankfully, at the job centre from which he’s still got the e-mails blocked, they’ve almost given up and he’s getting mostly normal offers. Mostly. “I’d rather avoid working for one if possible, though.”

Aizawa sighs. “It is questionable how long they’ll be around, anyway. Probably a wise choice. UA won’t be starting a new hero course next year, either.”

Well, that may be a factor to consider, too. Keigo is trying his best not to fiddle with his fingers too much. “So I’ve heard. Frankly, even if everything was fine… I wouldn’t want to get back into the industry.”

The tired man takes a thoughtful look at Keigo, then closes his eyes. “I see.”

A few pensive seconds pass in which Aizawa eventually takes out the drops to soothe his eyes- as soon as he’s done with that, a phone rings- by rule of elimination, it’s his.

The phone is fished out from a deep pocket with a just as deep sigh; the grimace on the teacher’s face upon seeing the incoming number is telling plenty. “Could you keep her company for a bit?” Aizawa says then, neglecting the buzzing phone for a little longer.

It takes Keigo a second to realize that the question has to be directed at him. “Wha--- me?” Him? Really? All alone? Without Natsu?

“This one could get long and… tedious,” he says with eyes jumping over to Eri for a moment. She’d been watching a bee going ham on a rose with utmost wonder until noticing that something’s off.

It takes little from Keigo to take the hint. He doesn’t want her to listen in, huh.

“Well, what even could go wrong in eight minutes or so, huh?” he asks with a wide shrug, facing the returning girl halfway through which makes it look as if he was asking her. Eri tries to mimic the gesture, but ends up looking more surprised than clueless. Keigo turns back to Aizawa. “… right?”

A whole bunch of shit is what. He has no idea about what to do with kids, especially those under the high school threshold.

“As long as you don’t take her on unsolicited trips to what qualifies as a war zone, you should be fine,” says Aizawa. The look in his eyes while swiping to get the call tells everything Keigo has to know and he could die of shame on the spot.

He was wondering if the man would bring up his child kidnapping stunt at all. Well, there he has it. “Understood.”

The man gives Eri’s head a pat and has a mute exchange of ‘behave yourself’ with her that she acknowledges with a nod before he takes the conversation elsewhere.

“ … I’m sorry,” the girl says then in a small voice once they are alone.

“Nah, this is entirely on me. What happened was one hundred per cent my fault.” Having said that, he sighs. “That aside… Aren’t you hot out in the sun? I’m cooking.” There’s only so much of it he can enjoy.

She thinks it over, then turns to him. “… a little.”

“Okay… how ‘bout that bench, then?” he asks, nodding towards the one they’ve passed before getting stuck halfway out of institution grounds.

“Okay.” Having said that, her feet are already tapping towards the destination- she stops halfway to wait for him, though.

Once they’ve found relief in the shadows of what must be cherry trees, Keigo stretches his legs and an awkward silence sets in as Eri swings her legs with reckless abandon. While it’s only about five more minutes, Keigo would rather die than have all of it be this cringy.

“So, uh,” he starts, “do you know what’s up with that call? The old man seemed to be all kinds of done and I suspect it’s not the first time.”

“It’s probably about Ten,” she tells him.

Keigo cocks an eyebrow. (God, it feels great to be able to do that without issues again.) “Ten?”

Eri nods. “Ten or Kumo. They are both in trouble with the important people. Sensei keeps getting calls because of them.”

“Huuuh…” Those names don't ring a bell, although… Eraserhead’s former classmate? Yeah, he got turned into a--- and if Eri’s also involved, that would make sense. Her ability is a ray of hope for everyone involved in that case. Who the fuck is Ten, though?

“Do you know them? Because I don’t.” Which is a fact.

The girl shakes her head and her legs come to a halt. “No, not really. But, I’ve met Ten. A few times.” A flash of guilt crosses her features. “I used my power on him, but was too scared and worried and I couldn’t stop it. He’s little now.”

Yikes. It’s better not to think of what could have happened to Touya. Or him. One has to wonder if that would come with a memory wipe… sounds nice. At the very least, he would have welcomed it back then. But he’s over it now and he better don’t pry, anyway. “Well, he’s… okay at least, right?”

“It’s okay,” she says with another nod. “Mister Aizawa says he would be in danger if he was big and it’s probably for the best. And since I’ve been good, he may get to stay with us.”

She sounds rather happy at the prospect, to be honest. And, indeed, she gets back to swinging her legs and Keigo can spy the smallest of smiles on her face.

Keigo straightens himself with a lopsided smile. “Well, if you are looking at it from that perspective, then things cannot be that bad, can they?”

She blushes slightly. "No. And we train, sometimes. So I’ve gotten a lot much better now. Sensei says that maybe maybe, I can even make something come back that I didn’t make super disappear, one day.”

“That sounds really cool,” Keigo muses with a frown slipping on.

Too cool. Her power of rewinding people and their injuries is in and of itself incredibly useful. If she could unbreak people just to ruin them again…

Those ‘important’ son of a bitches better fuck off and leave her alone, he swears to god.

“If… we're alone," Eri looks left, then to their backs, and then finally right, staying still to listen for a few seconds for anyone nearby. Thinking it is safe to do so, she looks up at him and speaks up. "I can undo your face."

Keigo’s concentrated face cracks and he puts on a smile; how sweet of her. "I'm good, but thanks a bunch for thinking of me. Also…" This has been bothering him ever since seeing what there was in the admission letter the postman handed to him. He knew Touya applied to some kind of course in February, but…. "I'm sure Strawberry… that is to say, the boy I asked you to help, enrolled in a tattoo course to help me out himself. Would be rude if we fixed up my face without even asking him, wouldn't it?"

" … " Eri seems a little disappointed at her offer to help being rejected, but she also seems to get his reasoning.

After a pause she turns back to him; there's still something Touya cannot help with. "And… your wings?" Those huge, red wings scared her when the man swooped in to get her, but they were also really beautiful. She’d heard that he was called the “Winged Hero,” so they must have been important, right?

Keigo’s smile melts away. It is true, some part of his was still missing them, and the same piece of his was now trembling with excitement over the prospect of taking off to the skies and feel the howling wind bite into his feathers, hair and lungs once more.

Another, rational part of his has grown wiser over the months, however. Being able to fly would make him stand out, and there's plenty of scavengers left circling the very same sky still.

"You know,” he starts, “I've started thinking that I may be better off without them. While I miss the sky… the freedom those wings granted was an illusion," he explains with eyes pasting the infinite blue above. The cicadas are really at it today. "They were useful in many ways, and more often than not, I felt my wings were more important to people than I've ever been. They turned out to be what kept me chained to the ground. I,” The realization is so out of the blue, but now that it’s been brought up, the words just keep coming, and he cannot help but think--- “I’m happier without them."

Much happier than he’s ever been; the truth leaves a bittersweet taste in his mouth.

Keigo notes Eri lifting herself off the bench a silent pause later. He can see a notion of deepest understanding in her eyes before receiving a tight hug. He returns it, soothing her once he can hear a sniffle, and cursing his wavery voice when he speaks up.

"Hey, hey… I'm gonna make the old man mad if he sees you this sad. Let's just… both stop moping, okay?"

Eri wipes a tear away as her knees sink onto Keigo's thighs once she pulls back. " … okay."

He leaves a gentle pat on her head. "I'll be fine. You and Eraser both would get into big trouble if you gave me a pair of wings, anyway. And I don't want that to happen." Just getting the authorities to let the teacher take care of the girl was an arduous undertaking and she has obviously gotten attached to him a lot… he'd hate himself for ruining this for them.

“So… wanna do anythin’ while we wait for them?” he asks soon, not wanting to brood more over the issue than necessary. “There’s a pond and some kinda street food place nearby, but if you ‘ave any better ideas, please share.”

“ … do they have apples?” is the first thing Eri asks.

He has to let out a doubtful hum since whatever they may sell, it didn't look like a greengrocer's, or a candy shop. “Dunno, let’s check.”

They stand up and Eri grabs onto his hand; what a proper girl she is. She shows immediate interest in the scales when feeling them against her skin, as well as his black nails… but she just keeps inspecting them until speaking up a minute later.

“Say, Mister?”

“You can just call me Keigo."

“Mister Keigo, what’s a, ‘tattu’?”

… that's not the question he was expecting.

Chapter Text

Keigo looks out into the howling typhoon raging outside. The water comes down in torrents, sizzling against the window panes, and the wind is tearing into the tree standing opposite the house as if trying to upturn it. Through Natsu’s open door, the muffled squeaks of the swinging couch outside can be heard. They are telling of ghosts and storm spirits having their own fun in the early darkness. They’ve barely gotten home from the hospital before the sky came crashing down. His skin recalls the wind's bite.

He sighs, painting the cool glass opaque with his breath, then walks to the dining table to crash on a pillow. The entire week had been terrible.

What bothers him most right now was today’s encounter at the hospital. Once Keigo quit his time killing game and put his phone away to check in with Shouto, he ran into an old acquaintance. The moment in the hallway is vivid in his mind and leaves him restless.

The first and most imminent issue as far as Keigo was concerned upon finding Shouto: third year student of UA’s penultimate hero course class, Tokoyami Fumikage.

First and most imminent issue to Tokoyami Fumikage: former hero Hawks.

“…Yo,” he managed after a second of blanking out, giving the boy a wave with a twitch of a smile. It may as well not have existed.

“Greetings.” Tokoyami nodded, taking his former pseudo-teacher in bit by bit.

There was no denying him doing the exact same. His eyes got stuck on some gauze poking out from under his former intern’s t-shirt, as well as some disinfected scrapes on a lower arm.

“Got a nick in, huh?” he noted, tilting his head a little. “Nothing too serious, I take?”

“Indeed.” The boy lifted his wounded arm carefully to have a second look at it. “Suppose I must make my cape more fire resistant. It's hard to fly when bright lights surround their prey and my shadow has no place to hide in.”

There was something else they briefly discussed before the rest of the family fetched them, but he can't remember.

He wants to be glad that Tokoyami is doing well and that he could meet him at all, but the encounter was rather unsettling. The mere notion that the bandages had to do with fire doesn’t agree with Keigo’s stomach.

Also, as one may already suspect, the visit wasn’t due to his eye troubles. Those checkups are a thing of the further past. He didn’t think he’d have to visit a hospital again any time soon, in fact.

But, considering the current state of affairs… he should have been expecting it. Shouto’s job is quite a dangerous one, after all. He was bound to wind up injured, sooner or later. For as long as the system allows him to be a professional hero, and as long as there’s danger lurking around him, that is.

Which, there is. There was no big bang, the entire world going up in flames like everyone expected… but with so many ugly wounds and skeletons being dragged into the daylight, there’s a general sense of unrest all across the country—glowing embers slowly consuming the fabric of society at their own pace. Society, as they all had known it, was tearing at the seams, and no might could pull it back together the way it used to be ever again.

It also meant that crime was on the rise. In fact, if anything boomed nowadays, it was petty crime—as misleading as the statistic was, with all of the so-called 'vigilante renaissance' being mixed into it.

Which, in turn, also meant that there was a boggling lack of trouble across the suburbs Keigo and the Todoroki family lived in. Hardly a feat of Endeavor, who’s fallen from grace in every circle imaginable, from the very bottom to the top of the food chain. With all the (in)famous fresh blood entering the scene soon, he should be lucky to fall into the top 50 upon the ranking next year. Provided the charts won’t be abolished entirely, that is.

All things considered… Keigo can’t help but suspect Touya.

There’s a bang followed by muffled cursing coming from the entrance, dragging him back to the present. The devil he’s just painted on the wall kicks off his flooded shoes, then squeaks his way through the kitchen and living room in a pair of wet socks; the folder he’s been seen carrying around in the past months is wrapped up in a frankensteinian plastic bag layer. Touya drops it on the coffee table and walks straight into the bathroom.

“I’ve just mopped up,” sighs Fuyumi with her hands on her hips as they listen to more grumbling while he’s trying to peel the drenched clothes off. Eventually, one of them can be heard splatting against the cold bath tiles. She shakes her head. “He better start the washing himself. Well… I’ve wanted to put some water up to boil, anyway. Do you want some tea?” she asks Keigo then.

“I’ll… have some, thanks,” Keigo says, smiling up to her. He could use a warm drink right now.

“Alright. Mom~ What about you? Any tea?” she shouts, walking up to her room.

The roars of the storm beset the living room again, suppressing the chatter and soft thuds of feet; Keigo’s eyes are still fixated on the monstrosity of a folder and he sinks back into his worrisome thoughts about Touya. Mister Cotton Candy occasionally disappeared for a day or arrived in the morning, although nobody noticed him leave beforehand. And, even if he was never talkative about anything—and it may as well have been some outing with the tattoo people he mentioned here and there—Keigo just couldn’t help but question it after a while. There was no proof for him to have, but he was convinced that the former villain had never really severed his links to the underworld.

But even if he was in contact with the League or the big time broker, it shouldn't have meant that there weren’t wild cards willing to go against them. Their hands seem to reach far still, separated and all.

It also didn't mean that they themselves weren’t afraid of giving Shouto a black eye and a broken leg if he happened to be in the way. As it was currently the case.

But, even if it weren’t for all these bugs piling up in his head, he'd been feeling like garbage since Tuesday.

There was supposed to be a funeral this afternoon.

More specifically, he wanted to say proper goodbye to one of his goldfish, now that he's got the time to do so over the weekend. The reason for it, well…

The tiny calico fish they picked up last year had always been very energetic, playful, and fast.

Too energetic. Too playful. Too… fast, for its own good.

Suppose it was only a question of time till it hopped out of the net while he was preparing to clean out the tank.

And one of the cats just had to be right there, watching him intently, and it jumped on the fish right away as if it had been a toy, and… and then Kitten just wasn’t there anymore.

Keigo just stood there for an entire minute, eye to eye with the grey cat staring back at him with a mirror of his own wide-blown, yellow eyes. Perhaps she was hoping for another snack until she sensed the imminent meltdown and backed away, turning tail and leaving as fast as she’d come in.

It was just a couple days short of the anniversary.

Surely it was his fault, wasn’t it?

He could look for excuses all day: it having been too early (he never was an early bird, and fuck everyone who kept making jokes about it whenever he had been up at 4am, running on a sugar rush of oversweetened coffee and maybe six hours of sleep in the 48+ hours preceding the unsolicited comment), not having slept proper in a while due to the stale, humid heat, being out of it because of taking studying way too seriously and that contributing to his insomnia in turn, his reflexes having dulled with time, or generally not having exercised enough to keep said reflexes sharp. He could also say it was him plain not noticing that he had left his door ajar and Haihai had snuck inside… but it is what it is.

He doesn't remember being so bad at… handling stress and time management. More specifically, he doesn't remember these taking a toll on him. He used to thrive under pressure. He could wade through enough data and paperwork to do three people's jobs.

Driving a couple of hours every other day and attending the programming course on top of his gardening and fish-tending is leeching him off like crazy now. He just cannot understand why.

Maybe he's fallen out of pace and needs to unrust.

Or maybe that speed was not intended for human beings in the first place, and he just never noticed.

He cannot know for sure, but based on his recent evaluations, he suspects it to be the second option.

Fact stands, however, that there’s a storm. He cannot even say a proper goodbye to a pet that died because of his own folly.

So now, he’s fiddling with a wonky tuft in the carpet instead, like the most useless loser ever. This sucks.

"Still miffed about the fish?" comes Touya's voice from up above. By the time Keigo bothers to look at him, he's already sitting on the corner next to him and offering a cup of tea while holding his own. A white towel covers his head and he “borrowed” one of Natsu’s shirts and sweatpants. They look ridiculous on him. But also enviably comfy.

"That's about 40% of it," Keigo drawls as he takes the drink.

"Huh… that low?" the other asks, taking an experimental sip.

Keigo blinks into the steaming tea. Touya wouldn’t know about Tokoyami unless someone told him. And, even then, they couldn’t possibly know how affected he was.

“By the way, just in case you haven't noticed… we bought the bamboo tree I threatened you with while you were out yesterday,” Touya sighs while making himself comfortable with his own cup. “Do you know what to put on it yet?”

Keigo heaves a tired sigh and takes a sip. It warms his cold bones. He completely forgot about Tanabata this weekend, and Hanabi the next. “Dunno. I forgot it was today,” he mopes. So much about his plans to write a roundabout ‘fuck you’ to Touya for having such nice handwriting. Then again… he has no idea what to write at all. Right now, Kitten comes to mind. But there’s no bringing him back.

The murderer slinks up to them as if to taunt Keigo, guided by the interest in their cups and the freshly opened snack package reeking of bacon on the table. The tip of Haihai’s tail flips around and she sits down in front of them. She takes a thoughtful look at Touya, then him. He can hear her faint purr. The nerve this cat has.

Keigo’s eyebrows pull close as he takes her into the lap for some rough loving that mainly involves aggressive head and back scratching once having put the cup down. The testimony of her enjoyment is a resounding purr to Keigo’s chagrin.

He leans back with a huff and the cat decides to stay for loafing, although she stays alert about all the noise outside. “Asshole acting as if I’m not upset because of her.”

“Haihai is a stupid cat,” grunts Touya, then looks back at Keigo. “And you’re a no less dumb bird. Pretending like you have never looked at the fish as if about to swallow them all whole… With them big ol’ eyes and all that shit.” He takes a miscalculated swig and scalds his tongue.

“I have something called self-restraint!!” Keigo objects.

Touya almost burns his lips next with the snort that escapes him over hearing that. “Is that why you ate literally all the leftovers yesterday?” he asks once the tea has found a semblance of balance again. The dumbass ate half of Natsuo’s share once having finished his own (How did he mooch so much out of his brother’s favourite dish? HOW? Is he crazy or are they really having an affair…?), and then the rest, too.

“It was depression eating,” he grumbles, hanging his head.

There’s a loud crack outside instead of a reply, making all of them wince— it’s accompanied by what Keigo would describe as a shriek when asked about it. Haihai jumps out of his lap as if possessed upon hearing it just when the lights start flickering. A second later, they are engulfed in darkness as the ground shakes. Everything stands still after and the storm rages on.

“What on---” Fuyumi starts as she gets over her surprise, but Touya cuts in.

“The fuck was that,” Touya  says as small, purplish flames light on the back of his hand; his twin sister is squinting at him in the twilight. The look of utmost disapproval.

Keigo looks out of the window—there’s no tree anymore.

“Are all of you here?” comes Rei’s voice upon her bedroom door sliding open.

“I’m coming,” Shouto mumbles somewhere back, the light of his fire indicating his arrival downstairs.

“There should be some candles in the cabinet by the wall,” the mother says as she carefully walks up to said object by the meager light of Touya’s flames.

"Natsu?" Fuyumi asks while she joins Rei with the lit flashlight of her phone, wondering why her brother hasn’t come outside yet.

"He's not having a fit about losing connection to Nezuko so he's out cold, I guess," answers Shouto once he’s entered the room, too.

Keigo also walks up to Rei and Fuyumi to hold some of the knickknacks they have to dig through on the way to the thick candles that have maybe been used twice thus far.

"I'll have a quick look," Shouto says once having pinged some networks and preparing to go outside. "If the power is still on, this could be dangerous."

The provider's workers arrive just another minute or two after he exists. They start fixing the problem while there’s still some daylight, although, it's rather obvious that all they can do for the day is restore power and clear the road just enough for individual cars to pass.

The candles engulf the living room in a warm light by the time Shouto's back. Once he's recovered from his own involuntary bath outside and has had Touya's towel shoved on his head, they have dinner followed by an impromptu game night. Natsu joins about halfway through once realizing, in his nap stupor, that there's no power in the house—or the rest of the street, for that matter.

It’s a whole lot of fun, but also rather tiring; the exhaustion of the week catches up to Keigo fast.

"Drink your tea, Birdie. It'll get cold." Touya nudges the half asleep man who's long dropped out of the current board game round. He groans softly into the pillow he used to sit on from under the table, nestled between a warm Rei and Touya.

"I didn't ask for more," he grumbles while rubbing at his eyes, but pushes up regardless before slurping away at the perfect temperature tea. Once the cup is empty, he lies back down and the limbo between dreams and chatter returns soon enough. At one point, there may be a delicate hand gently combing through his messy hair and a voice from somewhere else says something with the words "sleepy bird" strewn inside.

He dozes off for good soon after to the raindrops still drumming on the windows and wakes up in his bed the next morning. It's early enough for the sun to be hiding behind the hills and a kajillion birds of many kinds are singing outside. Suppose he can be the occasional early bird, after all. Not too hard with such a racket going on, though.

There's an otherworldly calmness clinging to him as he sits up and quietly muses about how he could have gotten there. It’s not really something to think about, though—one of the boys must have carried him inside. Oh well… he better do something with himself.

Keigo figures some cold morning air to wake him up for real would be fine, so he ambles onto the board walkway of the dew-filled garden with his bedcover draped around his shoulders. His exit puts a momentary damper on the noisy neighborhood before they return to their chatter. He takes a deep breath of stinging, fresh air and his eyes find the couch—probably soaked through and through. It would be ill advised to try and use his blanket to sit on. Regardless, he takes the couple of steps needed to reach the bare piece of furniture.

What catches the blonde’s eyes while doing so makes him stop halfway through. By the wall of the house, he spies what looks to be bamboo. He wouldn't find the information to be any interesting—as he’s been told, after all—if it weren't for the war-torn remains of a tanabata card hanging among its leaves. He crouches down to have a closer look.

It seems to have been decent quality paper as it has survived the monsoon, but only the top of the three lines are anywhere near legible. The words “all,” “heart” and “pre-something” are not much to go on, though. He lets out a thoughtful hum and returns to his room to grab a pen and some paper of his own.

The next weekend Keigo hears a soft tapping against the door to the garden at dusk, and looks up to see Touya standing there. There are some raindrops still sticking to the glass after a less severe shower from earlier. He lets out a thoughtful hum and opens the door.

“You doing the active part of stalking right now?” he asks with a cocked brow.

Touya blinks, mimicking the gesture. He looks away in thought for just a moment before focusing back on Keigo. “Might as well be. Whatever. Word is that the weather is gracious enough and they’re going to have fireworks down by the channel in five minutes. Wanna watch?”

He blinks as well. “Um… yeah, why not.” He’s too surprised to be embarrassed over the invitation, or be worried about the details. Fuyumi and Rei will likely be there, too, but there’s no denying that being invited to watch fireworks with Touya feels just a little bit special.

“Okay, then. Go up to the balcony; there’s a ladder leading to the roof.” Having said that, he turns around and tries the door to Natsu’s room before moving on towards the entrance. “I’m locking the doors meanwhile. There’s been some burglars about.”

Keigo hums in acknowledgement and makes his way up after locking his garden exit.

“Ah, Keigo!” Fuyumi waves his way once his head pops up from under the roof. “Come here, it should start soon!” She pats the space next to her. There’s a steaming kettle and some popcorn set on a hard plank of wood on her other side, as well as Rei who’s drinking a hot cup of tea and flashes a faint smile of her own.

“Oh, man… you thought of everything,” he says upon noticing the pillow he promptly hops down on once navigating the probably slippery roof tiles.

“Let’s give credit where it’s due, most of this was Touya’s doing. Tea?” she asks.

“Sure!”

A few seconds later, Touya’s light head also comes into view—there’s a bag of freshly popped corn in one of his hands, as well as a blanket and pillow under the same arm. He drops the latter next to Keigo, who may or may not be a little abashed over having to sit beside him. The cool air surrounding Fuyumi’s body makes him positively invested in that blanket, however.

“You wanna sleep out here, or…?” he asks, cocking his head.

“Nope,” Touya huffs as he drops beside him. “I’m not a weirdo who builds nests on people’s porches. Figured your quaking ass may need it, though. You are welcome, by the way.” Having said that, he flings the blanket into Keigo’s lap.

The latter puts on a smile that radiates as much heat as the setting sun did when Touya scrubbed the tiles clean enough to sit on half an hour ago.

"How nice of you~" he sings, happily accepting it and wrestling it on with some trouble. Luckily, Fuyumi takes his tea so he can put it around himself properly, before taking it back. “Thanks!”

No less he says it out, the first red fans comb through the dark blue sky before fading to nothingness under a myriad of new sparkles.

The sound they make is nothing like what he’s used to from up close. In fact, it might as well just be some corn being popped. At least, that's what he figures when being offered some of the heavy, buttery goodness straight from Touya's rattling bag.

“Say, Touya?” he says once the first fireworks he's ever really enjoyed are over and they’ve picked up all the shit that was dragged onto the roof.

There’s a hum to say that the man’s paying attention. The collapsed ladder rattles into its corner in the storage room upstairs.

“Did you really leave your tanzaku out in the rain last week?” Keigo put up a half-assed little thing wishing that everyone would stay healthy the morning after (despite him being the only one who’s caught any kind of bug since squatting here…) but every other slip of paper that has appeared during the week obviously belonged to someone else. The one that was now entirely unintelligible mush was definitely Touya’s wish.

“What’s the point in hanging it out the next day like you losers? Of course I did,” he says with a hand dusting of a job well done.

“What was on it?” He's genuinely curious. Nobody had the chance to read it, but there’s no way Touya didn’t put a whole load of effort in that thing.

Touya looks scandalized by the question. "It's like birthday wishes; you're not supposed to say them out loud, dumbass! If you missed your chance to read it, too bad. I’m not telling you shit."

"Oh, come on!!" Keigo whines as the man passes him on his way outside. “You know that’s bullshit!”

He continues to nag on Touya for a while, but the decision is final.

Chapter Text

“Fancy going down to Shimoda?”

It's been a couple of weeks, and with a brand new driving licence in his pocket, Keigo has found some semblance of balance in his life again. There was time to study, tend to his fish, and even to spare a few minutes to ogle his plants after watering them. They were showing the odd sign of new ills or old age by now. Which is fair, as most of them are monocarpic and have borne fruit already.

When Touya’s random invitation surprises him, he's in the middle of inspecting a more complex lesson for the soon-to-be-held programming exam.

“Shimoda?” he asks with wonder. He slides his new reading glasses on top of his head as he turns towards Touya, who arrived home a couple minutes ago. “Don’t see why not… what’s the occasion?” Guess the walking heater was cooking alive in this weather to suggest something like that.

Touya barely bats an eye. In fact, he looks out of it. He’s been rather melancholic all week, and him standing around the doorframe idly doesn't change that fact in the slightest. “Well, you like beaches, if I’m not mistaken.”

Um… “Yes, but… do you mean right now?” Keigo asks while checking the clock. The request being weird aside, Shimoda’s on the southern edge of the peninsula nearby. Seems a bit too far away for just a random trip, especially this late… By the time he packs everything it’ll be well past lunch time. Sure, it’s August and the sun doesn't set until, like, eight, but the trip should take three hours, if not more. Taking the bike that he bought about a week ago (following a lengthy argument with himself) wouldn’t be much better, either. They'd likely have to stop about three times for Touya to puke. “It will be close to evening by the time we arrive.”

There’s no way they can actually enjoy themselves; public transport on that route stops pretty early. Does Touya want to book a room? Or is he two steps ahead and made arrangements already?

The weary strawberry head scratches his nape. “What about… Glass Beach, then? The one to the east. Been there before; it’s pretty this time of the year.”

That's a resounding “no” as far as Keigo's question is concerned. And also really unlike Touya. The mere suggestion to go out is, especially with him backpedaling immediately. Why would he specifically be asked out in the first place, right when there’s nobody else at home? This reeks from every angle imaginable.

Everyone has picked up on his sour mood this week, to be frank. The family has been trying their best to cheer him up with Natsu going as far as getting a batch of chestnut manju as soon as they were available, to no avail.

Suppose it’s his turn. And, since gestures don’t seem to cut it…

“What’s wrong?” he asks, taking the blunt approach.

Touya stands there for a few more seconds, staring into nothingness. His eyes wander around as he's seemingly thinking about the issue, and whether to discuss it… Then, he ambles to the sofa to drop down once the question is settled in his head.

Keigo quickly tosses the notes and his glasses aside to join him. He sits down by his side quietly. There’s a pause, but before he could ask-

"Say, Birdie… did you ever learn why we have the time to be sitting around here? On a soft-ass couch at home, the both of us?"

It’s Keigo’s turn to rub his neck. "... No," he admits eventually, ignoring how odd the “at home” in the middle of it makes him feel. As much as the sudden freedom bothered him in the beginning, he's long lost interest in the whys and hows of the issue. He'd have to buckle up and start digging, but he genuinely doesn't feel like investing time and effort in the endeavor. Espionage was mostly a task for his feathers, anyhow. All he could do now that he's been getting back into programming is maybe hack a server with minimal protection. But if that La Brava girl was put on the task of protecting the case servers, he has no chance, anyway.

"It's hilarious, really… but it's because of how much shit you-know-who has on the system, including your mole life and the cleanup of my death, to name some."

A plain explanation.

As black and white as it could get, delivered in the most detached way possible.

Keigo doesn't have to stop and think to know who this is about. "He… blackmailed them?" he asks with brows wrinkling at the prospect. It sounds so… off. That man wouldn’t take the roundabout way. And yet, there hasn’t been a peep.

Touya hums. "Our lives, in exchange for Enji's silence and further cooperation as top notch cleanup personnel… that they would frankly be screwed without. Funny, isn't it?"

An uneasy silence sets in as both of them are digesting that’s just been said. Keigo looks over to Touya after a minute- the way he's staring into nowhere, thrown against the pillows all boneless. He looks so… defeated. It feels wrong.

“How do you know about this?” he asks, breaking the silence.

There’s a series of blinks before Touya rasps an answer. “Humored the old fart for a minute.”

It takes a moment for Keigo to react. “You… met him?” The wrongness of his demeanor suddenly makes all kinds of sense, as does his reluctance to talk it out with anyone else. In fact, Keigo's more surprised at how well Touya seems to be handling it.

He nods. “The first time was a long time ago, actually. Soon after you had moved in, in fact. He was already waiting when we arrived at the station with Shou one Sunday. I looked him in the eye, expecting to get riled up and make a scene, but… I didn't feel a thing. We never talked at all when running into each other, though. Not until last week.”

“ … ” The corner of Keigo’s mouth twitches with the nerve building up. As limp as Touya’s body is, he can feel his budding frustration and decides to take a step back when speaking. “Do you wanna talk about it?” It’s a stupid question, considering they are already in the middle of discussing the matter. Whether Touya would go any deeper is questionable, though. It’s best to make sure.

The man heaves a sigh and closes his eyes. “You don’t remember what happened after getting hit that day, do you?”

Keigo shakes his head after short consideration. "… Not really." The pain of his bones breaking and flesh cooking was so overwhelming that he passed out immediately after tanking Enji's hit for Touya. The memory of coming to after is also a haze.

Touya buries his face in his hands and just… stays like that with deep breaths breaking his silence. “Once I came to, he had already realized… and he was being… so weird.” His palms slide lower, revealing his eyes that are now burning a hole into the unfortunate bonsai sitting on the coffee table. “I never saw the monster I grew up with think for a single fucking moment. He was just staring at me from afar. It was so jarring.”

The brows of Touya’s furrow and there’s invisible lightning burning in his sky blue eyes. His breathing keeps getting quicker at a steady pace. “Then he had the nerve… to kneel before me and beg for forgiveness.”

His fingers slip into his pink locks then and latch on with careless force. Keigo can hear some of the strands giving in as his fists rip into his hair. " … I never wanted to. But… as soon as he… when he apologized, I…" The smell of smoldering cloth about to catch on fire fills the air and his paling knuckles are starting to tremble with rage.

Keigo is getting nervous. There’s nothing he could say to him that wouldn’t be shot down immediately. That, and frankly… he’s a little afraid.

It’s not an emotion he missed.

“Touya…”

"I’m still pissed over it!!” the man snaps then, punching both fists into the softness around him as he kicks into the coffee table, making Keigo jump. He continues through the rattling of the china pot the plant is in as it settles back down: "All that suffering and pain, and… I killed for it, for fuck's sake. And just like that… just like that, it was over. All for naught." His rant slips into a hiss as it comes to its conclusion. All along, he's staring down the poor ginseng caught up in the crossfire of his confused emotions.

Touya digs his nails into his burned arm in an attempt to sate his need to destroy something. He takes a peek at the flustered Keigo once he is feeling a smidgen calmer, then leaves his head hanging. "... Sorry,” he breathes in a weary voice, resting his elbows on his knees. “I just keep thinking… what all the struggle was for. Why I ever begged for my life to that sick fuck… lived any of that cursed existence, got blood on my hands, or what the everloving hell I tortured you for if… if a fucking apology was all that it took."

Keigo’s muscles relax a bit as Touya’s voice mellows. As for the part concerning him… there’s not much he can say. He pretended to take it in stride at the time. The tasks were honestly not much different from any other intel bullshit he had to do in his early teens, anyway, including the more unsavory parts.

“Well… it’s okay, isn’t it?” he asks after a moment of thinking. "I am okay, I mean. And you are, too." They are not doing phenomenally… but they are doing okay.

"How am I fucking okay?" Touya mumbles in a monotone voice.

Keigo sighs. There's no denying that he's a mess… but it’s also obvious that it’s the last encounter that has him so on edge. “What was it that upset you so bad?”

Touya keeps staring at the carpet, blinking away. “Following some awkward drivel… he said his only wish was for us to be happy. But… it felt wrong. It feels wrong.” He lifts his hands to look at them: two fingers are smudged with rust from a bleeding spot. “I… I don’t know what to do about this feeling.”

The first thing crossing Keigo’s mind is “of course he cares,” but as soon as he thinks any further, he’s got to realize that the notion is, by far, not as natural as it may seem. Take his mother, for instance: were she to appear one day and tell something like that to him… he wouldn't be able to believe her, either.

"Keigo…" The name is little more than a grunt to get his attention again. Touya pauses, then straightens himself. There’s an air of vulnerability about it all, especially when… "I'm sorry, but… but can I…?"

Keigo takes a look at the awkward, shaking hands turned his way, then at the other’s face with eyes still downcast.

He’s asking for a hug.

Never would he have thought to see the man so vulnerable. Especially in front of him, and definitely not of his own volition.

Touya's eyes stare right through him, unfocused and lost as he's given up on finding the exit, the solution out of someplace so foreign to him, an endless wasteland that has had him erring with no aim or rest for the past weeks, and months, and year. It makes him look so defenseless and small, and…

And he's never addressed Keigo by the name since the hospital. He barely used it, and never when talking to him. It feels foreign on Touya's lips, but Keigo cannot say he doesn't like it.

His own feelings aside, how could he possibly turn him away?

As Keigo leans in to hug Touya, the thing the other’s just said wedges itself into the back of his mind: his only wish was for us to be happy.

It's much like what Touya told him back then. "I want to make them feel happy and safe."

Maybe that’s it. That’s what he should do.

Make him happy.

Make sure Touya is safe and happy, too.

The man is now hugging him back, with as much force as his healing body, one that's finally started to gain muscle and fat, can muster. And, it feels… heavenly.

Keigo cracks his eyes open and forces down a sigh of bliss that wants to escape him with dire need; this moment is not for him to have. But, even so… Touya is holding him so close and so fast, it's doing jerky, fluttery things to him that he won't be able to suppress for long. So… what is he to do but hold him even closer and just as tight, inhaling the other's scent, and playing along with the childish fantasy of melting into one, singular entity with the person he loves more than anything else in this miserable, little life he got to keep after all.

As for Touya?

Feeling Keigo around him is reassuring. It grounds him, way more than him clutching the blonde does. Even his scent is really pleasant, now that he can make it out over the softener that Fuyumi uses. Like talcum powder and fresh apricots.

His arms are getting weak from squeezing the warm body soon enough, so he parts with the other. It's a little too abrupt, perhaps- the bird looks surprised, if not disappointed. But, that’s fine. He shouldn’t have invaded his personal space in the first place.

“Touya?” Keigo asks. It sounds so soft, even with the worry woven into it. It’s just nice. Touya can still feel the ghost of his gentle touch around him.

The man sits still for a while, staring at the increasingly worried face in front of him. If nothing else, he should definitely make up for being a nuisance.

"I think I wanna go anyway," Touya says finally.

Keigo returns to being surprised; he tilts his head. "You… ‘wanna’?" he asks with some delay.

Touya's just as stumped: first, over the pause, then upon catching up with what he’s said.

Even stressed it the same way Keigo does… He may have been spending too much time around him. It's not a bad thing, though. Not really.

"Wanna," he nods with a devil-may-care shrug. “To the beach.”

Keigo bites back a lenient smile. “You sure?” he asks after a short assessment of him. He reaches up to brush a longer lock of messy hair from one of Touya's eyes. He should probably have it cut again. “You look like shit.”

Touya blinks; he’s certainly had no good night’s sleep in the past days. Then again, he never really sleeps all that well, so it’s all the same to him. “Yeah, sure enough.”

“Can you actually ride it like this?” he asks about twenty minutes later while reluctantly putting on a light jacket that Keigo insisted on. “With a passenger, I mean.”

“Sure!” comes the cheerful reply from Keigo who’s already sitting on the purring motorbike. It looks a wee bit too big for him. Also very nice, if Touya wanted to be honest. Not sure about the gamer-brand colors of red and black with the occasional silver poking out of it… but overall, the bird’s got good taste.

Touya lets out a doubtful hum while taking a hand-me-down helmet that’s nowhere near as cool as Keigo’s in his hands. “Have you ever tried to?”

“Okay, GPS is set. And, uh… well, no,” the blonde admits, pausing for a moment as his own helmet slips on, muffling every word after. “Can’t be much different from my old stunts, though. I’ve still got good balance, so unless you want to do gymnastics on the way, we should be fine."

“ … You aren’t going to kill us, are you?” he grunts while figuring out how to put on the bulbous thing based on how Keigo just did it.

“I mean… we both are dead meat already, if you wanna get technical,” comes the very much not reassuring answer.

“Suddenly, I feel so safe.” Having said that, he puts on the helmet and can hear even less of Keigo's yapping. Both a blessing and a curse.

"Come on, you were the one who wanted to go. Just don't barf my back full, will you?" The other’s muffled voice reaches him as he slips onto the vehicle. To say Touya's not apprehensive about this ride would be quite a lie. He’s never been on a motorbike, either… and doubts it’s much like riding a bicycle.

“I'll do my best for my own sake," Touya says, raising his voice to make sure it reaches the nano-tech bullshit Keigo has on. "It will go into the helmet, so shut up, Chicken.”

Keigo snorts as he kicks up the stand and his visor snaps down, distorting his voice some more. "Tap my shoulder if you need a roadside pause, okay? And hold on tight, the wind will blow your lanky ass off."

Without further ado, he takes off with a short shriek of wheels, prompting Touya to clumsily grab onto the blonde to prevent that exact scenario from happening as his backpack drags him just a bit astray. There's a faraway sounding chuckle as Keigo evens out the acceleration after the sudden start.

Once Touya dares to look up and around instead of grumbling, his nausea starts to lift, too. It’s an entirely different sensation to what being in an enclosed car (or being haphazardly swung around in the air, for that matter) is. The helmet is a little claustrophobic, but he could get used to it.

Regardless, the first roundabout low-key gives him a heart attack. No human being should ever be allowed to exist at that angle.

Once they enter the highway, the trip becomes rather dull, though. The speeds at which Keigo zooms down it sometimes would make one concerned, but if there’s one thing Touya trusts the bird with, it’s speed.

They also cross his second home of sorts: Yokohama. The trip to the centre of Tokyo he takes four days a week to the tattoo course is unnecessarily long, even by train. But, despite all the time he’s spent “home” by now, the stinky alleys of the metropolis still feel more homely to him. He often ends up erring around instead of going straight back at the end of the day, or takes the additional trip to hang out at Mandala till the evening, which is a strangely welcoming place. It rarely sees a positively upright citizen, though. Tattoos are mostly for thugs, even if the yakuza are basically nonexistent.

He even sees the odd familiar face nowadays.

The tall buildings fade out as fast as they came, and next thing Touya notices is that there’s nary a building in view and they have slowed down considerably. After a right turn, the sea flashes bright on his left, making him look at the parking lot to the beach below instead.

“Are you alright?” comes Keigo’s now loud and sharp voice in the sudden silence as the engine comes to a halt. “You never responded when I was talking to you.” His hair has grown drenched in sweat under his helmet and sticks to his head now, making the stronger feathery locks in front stick out like a sore thumb.

“Why are you surprised? I can't hear shit in this thing,” Touya grumbles. His own helmet seems insufferably hot now that he’s gotten it off, and he can tell by the bite of the salty wind that he also looks no better than a drowned cat. How he never noticed in this heat is a miracle in and of itself.

“You get used to it. I’m more surprised that you didn't need a stop, though… Proud of you, even.” The blonde laughs at the end, then stretches his back with a pop.

“I’m honored, and all,” he sighs, following suit. His legs are numb and have fallen asleep a bit. “But I likely just zoned out enough to not notice how sick I was feeling.”

"Eh?!” Keigo makes a face. “You were zoned out of being sick? Man, you really are low on brain cells."

“Shut up.”

Touya looks around without paying the other any more heed. The place looks pretty much as it does in his memories. There’s different kinds of flowers planted next to the path leading around the green hill overseeing the area to their left, and different boats being kept on the beach down to the right, but that’s about it.

“Still nice,” he says to no one in particular.

"It's not much of a beach… but you were right, it's really pretty out here," Keigo agrees and gulps down half of a water bottle on the spot after the two hours of concrete-fueled late summer heat.

Then, he proceeds to wade through the small beach for seashells, has Touya take pictures of him on a boat on the shore, and after a quick brunch, they also take on the hill with the reconstructed, ancient lighthouse on it. The sunset looks great from there, so Keigo proceeds to drag Touya up on top of the lighthouse to take some pictures as long as nobody’s looking.

All of it is kind of a hassle, but watching Keigo having fun makes Touya feel oddly accomplished. He must score like a billion points with him when they explore the rockier parts directly underneath the cliff as evening rolls by; at least he suspects as such, because the blonde seems to be really happy with the pretty shell he was handed. Last time they saw something like this, it was in Okinawa.

Probably as a joke, he also gets a small marguerite flower stuck in his hair that he has to jam into a pocket as they leave the place behind. He can feel the other's heartbeat thunder against his wrist at an ungodly speed on the way back home. It’s amusing, in a way… and also surprisingly enjoyable and calming.

He keeps it to himself.

After an hour and half of going just a bit over the speed limit, they arrive at their neighborhood as it gets dark for real. The house they are going to is warmly lit, much like an old lighthouse on an insignificant, little beach; it was a given that the lights would be on in the living room, but Natsu also seems to be at home, and Shouto must be back for the rest of the week before his last term at UA starts.

“Get going, slowpoke!! There’s barbecue tonight, and I wanna eat some yakitori and ayu!!” Keigo shouts back with his helmet under an arm. He twirls around once before skipping inside like an overexcited school girl.

Touya cannot help but smile as he ambles after him on his stiff legs, especially as he catches a glimpse of Fuyumi and Keigo exchanging a quick hug through a window as the blonde’s likely already rambling about the pretty seashell they found.

It even sticks as he presses the door handle down and steps inside.

Honestly?

Returning to this building feels right tonight.

At long last… he can rest in peace.

Today’s the day he’s finally arrived home.

Chapter Text

Somehow, he’s never been in, nor has he ever seen, Touya’s room before. Not until now that he was invited inside. They’ve been hanging out a little more in the past weeks, but it still feels strange to enter.

As strange as the room itself. It's not to say that looks weird, but it’s also nothing like Keigo imagined.

Instead of barren blackest black thick with dust and rebellious imagery, there’s warm red mahogany furniture framing the modern room painted a faint cream color, shiny enough to tell that it has been cleaned recently. The odd band poster or sticker decorates the reddish wardrobe creating a dark nook at the desk, and the late afternoon sun makes it all look extra cosy. The view of the street running down the hill outside is not really something to write home about, but Keigo can already tell that the sunset will be pretty. While thinking about that, he also notes that the window itself is just as bare bones as it is at his place, but instead of blinds, Touya’s got thick curtains to pull in for the night.

Under it is also the plant Touya picked up back when Rei bought them in spring, and it's quite alive, if not thriving. Then, there's a bean bag chair- a bean bag chair- left to the window for reading and a couple of books (most of them are obviously manga) next to it. A bunch of paper and drawing supplies on the desk make the place smell like ink and… as if it had just rained? There's a strong, earthy smell mixed in, at the very least. Overall, it leaves an impression of an atelier or study more than anything else.

"You done snooping yet?" asks Touya when Keigo's looking at the bed hidden behind the door and the more artsy than practical rectangular shelves over it.

"Not quite," answers Keigo while closing the door behind himself. "It's different from what I expected. There's a lot of interesting little…" A pause wedges itself between the last words upon noticing the fire proof coat from the past hanging on the back side of the door. The couple of shirts sharing the hanger with it, especially the red checkered one, look all sort of out of place. "… details."

Well, didn't expect to see that one ever again. A funny, apprehensive feeling appears in his guts as the lock clicks itself into place.

"Sorry for the smell… been like this for a while," says Touya then, maybe as an attempt to redirect Keigo's attention as he nudges a book under the bean chair, or as far as it's willing to go. “I don’t think any amount of fresh air can clear it until I get rid of that shit.”

"You could try and get something to suppress it, if it bothers you," he replies, thinking that the other issue is better left at that. Mentioning the coat at all would just open an old can of worms. A bunch of them. "What is it that packs such a punch, anyway?" There’s nothing Keigo knows that reeks like this apart from a freshly opened bag of rich soil and now he’s just curious.

“They have us practice with henna for the time being,” the other says, sitting into the office chair that likely belonged to the desk but has erred out to the ivy at some point in time. “On the tattoo course, I mean. Wouldn’t want to fuck up somebody for a lifetime, and so on.”

"Ah… I see." So this is what he's been smelling whenever he checked on his garden lately, and not the plants themselves as he's assumed.

Keigo peeks over to the desk when going a little farther in to see some practice sketches, which do include the kind of stuff the temporary ink is used for. At least he suspects as such… He’s never actually seen anyone with body paint like it.

Also: Touya can draw, damn.

"We've had some skin imitation practice with the needle in the past week, too. It's not a big deal, you just have to make sure the thing doesn't move around at all."

"When are you finishing?" he asks while lifting and flapping through a couple of sheets where Touya practiced copying the same few designs.

"I'm going to power through the whole thing around the end of the year and January," Touya says, keeping an eye on him with one arm draped over the back of the chair as Keigo looks over the contents of the table. "The hardest part is the practical exam, but I'm not worried about it in the slightest. Well… the non-medical part of it, at the very least."

Keigo keeps staring at the edgy scorpion and cross design he's picked up to have an excuse to be silent for a moment. He's never brought up the business card, not even after it was obvious where it had disappeared to. Even then, this course could have been just a normal tattoo artist one. Could have been… until now.

The sheet of paper is laid back silently onto the surface.

“You’ll need somebody to work on,” he notes without further commentary.

"Well, yes," agrees Touya, rocking the chair to the sides. "I'm pretty sure we'll be handed a list of willing patients whose injuries can be fixed in two sessions, tops, and that's that."

It's when their eyes meet with Keigo's scarred face on full, sunlit display that the penny drops, along with Touya's heart. It takes him a moment to pull it back up from the ground for an answer. "I… I will need to do it on somebody, but the face… Listen, I don't want to fuck yours up more than it already is. We only need to do something small and the face is the hardest, and one of, if not the most, painful—"

“I’m sure I’ve had worse.” Keigo shrugs. A moment later, he finds himself avoiding Touya’s stare and casts his eyes down to the ground, betraying his faked nonchalance. “Besides… it’s why you enrolled in the first place, wasn’t it?”

As soon as he says it out loud, his heart starts beating in a frenzy and his ears get muffled under a layer of invisible water. What if he’s wrong, after all? God… he must be coming off as a self-absorbed jerk of unparalleled proportions.

Touya is gaping for a couple of solid seconds. The… the nerve this bird has, holy shit. And the worst part?

“Well, doing that would be, like… a logical part of this thing, I figured that much. So you’re not wrong,” he admits… and moves on immediately when his cheeks start burning up all of a sudden. Sure, he wasn't hiding a thing, not really. And he’d been thinking of asking someone in the house to let him practice a bit. But there's plenty of embarrassment in having been so obvious about the end goal; his face must be as red as hot iron by the way it feels. “But I would never accept you as a test run for this shit!” he exclaims, throwing his hands up to channel the building frustration someplace. “Apart from the idiots who got all buddy-buddy during breaks or bored enough to paint themselves, we haven’t even, like, drawn henna shit on a living thing yet!”

The fact that he was one of the people who doodled something on their own arm as soon as the chance presented itself is none of anybody else’s business. And neither is him having exactly five minutes of surely illegal first hand experience with a needle at the tender age of seventeen.

There’s a brief pause; Keigo’s eyes are still fixated on the floor, but a solemn smile appears on his face soon enough. “Guess you better start practicing, then,” he says, blinking up to what he assumes to be a henna tube nearby.

Touya’s eyebrows furrow more as he follows Keigo's eyes, but the reason is shifting from misplaced anger; he has to think about how to handle the situation the chicken’s putting him in. Because he knows for a fact that many of his makeshift classmates come from a background of body painting or makeup, which also includes people with henna experience. So, on that front, he is behind for sure.

And some of those folks being pretty cool aside, he's not going to settle for second class grades.

But, for some reason… he’s hesitant about this. Maybe it’s just that his plans have been spat on by Keigo specifically, or that the surprise has blown up into his face, but he doesn't want to touch him until he’s ready.

For whatever he should be ready for. This wouldn't be an issue with anyone else at all.

The unsettled origin of the “some reason” is irritating Touya to no end now. So much that maybe it’s best to ignore it altogether.

He sighs. “You’re one bold motherfucker, but are you actually going to go through with it?” he drawls as he’s getting up from the chair. He steps up to Keigo and takes the barely used cone tube. “This shit sticks for two weeks at the very least, and there’s nothing stopping me from drawing hidden dicks all over your arm.” The tip is pinched and gets tapped a bit against a piece of paper until the stuff gets running.

Hearing that makes the corners of Keigo’s mouth twitch upwards.

"If your opinions are anything to go by, my face is doing the job of dicks on display fine enough already. A couple more won’t make a difference."

" … Fair." He forgot he said that once upon a time.

There's an asshole-brand slimy smile on Keigo's face to assure him that it's as true as it was at the beginning.

"Well then," Touya sighs with head lifted in conceit, then points towards the chairs and bed. "Pick your poison to sit on. After you." There's no mercy to be had here.

“By the way… why did you even ask me to come in?” Keigo questions with a cocked brow as he drops on the closest option available, that is to say, the bed. “Just to make me play model? I’m rusty, you know.”

“ This is entirely your fault for derailing the conversation,” Touya says in an accusatory tone and waves the henna in front of Keigo’s face. The book he thought of shoving into the blonde’s hands before the latter started snooping around will stay put for the time being.

Not to say that things did not go his way, though. After all, he got someone to help out and let him practice this shit on at the end of the day. One day at the end of which he definitely did not plan to be doing any of it… but he did get a guinea pig, sure. “Now scoot to the window so I can see, then shut your mouth and keep still.”

It is such a different sensation. The annoying urge to fawn over Touya isn't pestering Keigo, here and now, sitting in the other’s room while having his hand painted. None of it. The embarrassment over being flirty disappeared within a couple of minutes, and there’s nothing left but infinite calm and peace.

Minutes drip by in total silence, and Keigo finds himself staring at Touya for an indefinite amount of time; the sunset gives him a not necessarily softer, but definitely warmer, appearance. He really is just so pretty. Keigo’s certain that even people without crushes find their hearts aching if they look at this man for too long.

“When d’ya get the piercing?” he says after a ray makes it glister though the messy locks when Touya adjusts himself a little. It breaks the silence so abruptly that it almost spooks him with how off it sounds.

“Huh… took you long enough to notice.” Touya stays focused, but he does seem to cock an eyebrow. “Back in… February,” he muses a moment later, his eyes never leaving Keigo’s hand, even as a miniscule squint appears when Touya thinks about the date. “Had it done the same day I applied.”

“Noticed it back at the sea park, actually. T’was shiny.” Like now.

While it admittedly isn’t the nicest memory he’s ever had, Touya looked so haunting down there that the image was hard to forget, and thus, also hard not to appreciate. If he could draw or paint or whatever just half as well as Touya does…

" … I never got around to it, did I?” asks Touya. His eyes are still trained on Keigo’s arm, but he stops drawing. “Sorry for the scare back then."

Keigo heaves a sigh. “Why are you the one apologizing?” They’ve been over this, kind of.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Touya’s eyes trace higher to Keigo's elbow, maybe, and he raises his tube-holding hand for a moment to rub away at his nose with the back of it. “Hell, I still don’t understand why you were so hung up about that. Why would you have to apologize?”

“You saved me… You hurt yourself badly and then I went head-first into danger anyway.” He still feels ashamed.

Touya takes a long, deep breath. “Isn’t that the very same thing I did after you crippled yourself?”

“You know I don’t remember,” Keigo says, then sighs. “Guess we are just two idiots.” The same one, more or less. Two of a kind.

Keigo’s eyes find Touya’s busy ones, watching once more as they turn his left arm into a work of art. It just keeps coming back to that day, doesn't it?

"When I was blacking out… I was thinking something along the lines of how nice it would be… to be more like you," Keigo continues eventually. It seems he wasn’t that far from getting that wish fulfilled in the first place.

Touya’s hand slows. "In what way, exactly, would my miserable existence be something nice?"

"... Love."

The word tastes bitter on his tongue.

That’s a curveball Touya doesn’t expect. He looks up at the blonde. "... Pardon?"

Keigo cannot bring himself to look him in the eyes. "You were loved… and are loved. In ways I never was… or will be." His voice turns into a mutter by the end.

After all was said and done, Touya ended up losing nothing but his integrity.

Keigo himself never had anything to begin with, and still managed to lose it all.

And sure, he's grown fond of living with the family… and even if he often feels like a burden, nobody seems to mind him, either. It's already more than what he could have hoped for, but he's hardly one of them. And he's deeply ashamed to be wanting even more than that.

There’s silence for a minute. Everything seems to be frozen in time, including Touya’s hand with the henna hovering over Keigo’s skin that he’s now staring a hole into, and the sun staring them both down from the sky.

He shouldn't have said that.

Keigo blinks upon realizing that Touya’s hand is moving towards him. His eyes flutter shut as it draws close to his face until he can feel the wet tip of the henna bottle thing tap the space between his brows and draw a small circle- and then something else. The thin line of ink running across his skin feels like the tip-tapping of ants against it. The sensation seems to make him shy away from the cool touch of paint, because he can feel the heat of Touya’s free hand, the one that’s left him a moment ago, gently pulling him back by the nape as he rolls a little closer on his chair. The hand then slides forward to keep him steady and tips his head up a little. It must be because of something as simple as preventing paint drip and smudge, but Keigo's breath hitches at the intimacy of it all. It's… scary, in an odd way. Nobody has ever touched him like this before.

Touya's thumb presses against his cheek as he's getting used to it, and maybe it’s just that Keigo's eyes are shut, but… but when it rubs against his face as the tickling of his temples continues and the rest of the warm fingers slip under his chin, the feeling changes. The entire world, along with his needs and worries, ceases to exist around him as he’s held on a single palm in the quickly emptying vacuum of the universe.

Touya's voice breaks the fragile balance a little too soon for Keigo's liking. " … What's wrong?"

He blinks his eyes open with a questioning hum. The world is oddly washed over.

"You're crying, Birdie."

Is he…?

Keigo reaches up to his face, and finds that there really are tears falling from his eyes. Even though he's not sad, or happy, or… anything. He still finds it hard to believe that those tears are real. All of this feels like a dream.

Ever since Touya started painting, everything has felt like a dream. A really nice dream.

And yet, somehow… he never could hear the voices and noises of the street this clearly. Not even with his wings intact. Never could he smell the many things in the air he breathes this distinctly. He's never noticed the breeze crossing a room caressing his skin before.

He's never felt so at peace, so… real.

He blinks at his wet fingers once more, then lifts his gaze to meet Touya's perhaps worried, perhaps confused one. It makes him think that perhaps, he's not just being nice and does care. That there's people here who actually care.

This is nice. This is just really nice. It feels nice. It makes his heart ache. It's good.

Too good to be true.

That's the thought that sinks the cold talons of fear into his heart.

Touya can see as the color fades from Keigo's face; the moment after, he looks around with scared eyes and his breaths go shallow.

"Hey…  hey, hey, dude," he calls out to the blonde again, and this time his voice is definitely loaded with worry. Keigo jumps in surprise and his frenzied eyes snap to Touya as his hands take hold of the other’s shoulders. The tube dropping on the ground seems to freak him out even more, making him jerk away. "What the— seriously, Birdie, calm down, what has gotten into you?"

It's too good… too good to be true.

The warmth of Touya’s hands brings some comfort, and Keigo finds it in himself to speak words again. "I'm… afraid," he rasps.

"Did… did something I say upset you?" Or was it something he did? Could he have accidentally burned him somewhere?

"No, it's…"

What if this isn't real?

The blonde shakes his head; it’s erratic and hardly a reason to stop worrying. "No, no… that's not it. Never mind, it's nothing important. I'm… I'm fine." Breathe. Slow down and breathe .

A 'tch' leaves Touya's mouth and he picks the henna off the ground with one hand to drop on the bedside table. He turns back to Keigo. "You are a crying mess and saying that you are afraid, dumbass. If you don't feel safe then I've fucked up big time. It's not nothing, and definitely not fine, you hear?"

What if this really is a dream? What if he'll wake up in the morning and forget it all?

Keigo shivers.

"What's the matter?" Touya asks again, but he has to realize that it’s useless. The idiot’s still shaking and on edge. He needs to calm him down first.

His grip on the shoulder that he’s still holding loosens, and he takes Keigo’s unpainted hand, gently starting to rub away at them. "Birdie. Please," he murmurs once the blonde’s shallow breaths start to slow. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

… It's that voice again. The one Keigo heard back at the hospital, the one that wraps him in a feather-light embrace as warm as a winter fireplace. So soft… so gentle. Makes him think for a moment that all will be right.

But the little voice in the back of his head —what if this is all a big lie?— is relentless. He cannot chase it away… not alone.

"What if—” he starts with a ragged breath interrupting the intrusive thought; “What if none of this is real… I don't want to wake up on that hospital bed, Touya… I don't want to see that empty apartment ever again," he sobs. He wants to hug Touya. He really wants to hug Touya again, but his body just won’t move.

The man is thinking hard under the mess that’s his strawberry haystack; his soothing hands come to a halt which Keigo’s body protests against with another shiver. " … That's no good," Touya mumbles before pulling the chair close up to him. “Hey, Birdie. Look at me, will you?” he coos, soft and playful, unlike anything else Keigo’s heard from him before. And if that weren’t enough to grab his attention, one of his super warm hands cradling his face certainly does the trick. “There you go.”

Soon enough, the hand lifts and all Touya leaves is a pointing finger tapped against Keigo’s nose. “When are you going to get rid of me?”

He blinks. They definitely did talk about this. And, back then, Touya said… "Never?"

“Correct." Having said that, the fingertip lifts. "Even if you somehow manage to go back there… I’ll be on my way. Don’t you ever forget that. Okay?”

He sniffs once, then nods. “Ogay.”

"Not until the day one of us bites the dust, capiche? Or, at the very least… until I know you do feel safe and happy." He lets out a frustrated sigh as he has another look at the other. "But, you sure as hell are neither of those things… Man…"

After a couple of seconds, Touya gives up figuring this shit out alone. "Throw me a bone, Birdie… what is it that you need…? What do you want me to do?"

"I--- I'm… just, uhh… blease don' go," Keigo whines through a muffled sob, his body leaning just a little closer to where it wants to be.

His secret wish comes true when Touya leans in to pull him into a very awkward hug. “I won’t, Birdie. I won’t.”

Keigo latches onto him as if he were his ultimate lifeline, and they stay like that for a while. Just like that, hugging in the quiet of Touya’s room, broken by the odd sob and bathed in the light of the setting sun. It’s too warm for comfort, even for a fake bird, but he finds it hard to let go. Touya must be cooking, though; he can feel his cheek growing sticky with sweat against the other's neck. Thus, sniffling one last time, he lets go.

“Sorry,” he mumbles then, wiping his eyes. “Didn’t mean to be a weirdo.”

Touya sighs as he pops his stiffened neck. “Never mind.” His eyes then err to the tiny lotus he drew on Keigo’s face and the sweat turns cold on his body. “Oh, shit…”

The blonde lets out a creaky, questioning hum.

“Sorry, I was so dumb… I painted on your face.” He moves to wipe it away, but his hand stops halfway; if he smudges it, that's just going to make it worse. He's visibly slipping into a state of panic. “It’s going to stick for a week or two for sure… Shit, you are going on a job interview in a week, aren’t you? Fuck.”

Keigo's hand errs into the general vicinity of the drawing that doesn't really feel wet anymore. “It’s fine, I’m sure it’s just pretty.”

“You may get rejected again because of me,” Touya groans. In fact, he definitely will be rejected because of him… To reiterate: FUCK.

The hand slips away. “Hey, I’ve been getting nothing but rejections for an entire year by now. Who cares if there’s another one?”

Exasperation finds its way to Touya’s face. “ And how many of them were personal interviews instead of a fuck-off letter?! What if it’s the one shitty office that is seriously considering hiring you??? I fucked up, plain and simple.” How can someone so smart be such a simpleton at the same time?!

“Well, I can put on a shitton of makeup,” shrugs Keigo. “And if it’s too dark to hide and they don't like it… too bad. It’s not like I will ever get rid of you, will I?” The usual color of his voice is starting to return as it becomes easier to breathe.

Touya wants to say something to that, but the breath to do so is frozen in his throat. And, frankly, even if he could speak… the hell would he even say? That one was too low of a hit; it makes him feel some kind of way that he’s not sure about. But it’s not an entirely unfamiliar, or even unpleasant, sensation… even if annoying and way too frequent as of late. At least it’s not making him flush red this time around.

He must be showing quite a face, though, because Keigo starts cackling fairly soon. First at his impotent rage, then at the sheer bafflement settling in.

"If I knew how easy it was to embarrass you, I would have been doing it the entire time," the blonde snickers, wiping away a couple of new tears.

Not receiving any kind of retaliation at all, Keigo looks back up at Touya. The startled look on him was funny at first, but it’s also unusual and has grown mildly concerning. "Um… What is it?" he asks with half a smile still stuck on his face.

Touya’s staring at him as if he saw a ghost. "You're… laughing."

"I— yes, I laugh, sometimes," he says, confused. The stubborn smile turns into a small, uncertain frown.

"I never saw you laugh before. Not because of… me." There’s a pause. "You have dimples."

Keigo stops in his tracks, staring at Touya with his puffy, red eyes and a little, half-dry henna lotus sitting between his extra messy brows in the golden light of the setting sun.

“Huh?”

There’s another pause where Touya’s expression slowly turns into that of wide-eyed bewilderment in the span of three long seconds.

A pillow is smushed into Keigo’s face the next moment, and Touya kicks himself away on his office chair that crashes down near the door. He tears it open to go straight for the balcony, then throws himself off onto the awning of the swinging couch by the sound of it to run off to wherever.

Keigo lowers the pillow, now sporting a choppy lotus imprint, that he hastily grabbed onto. He looks at the half open door in a surprised daze and blinks.

What's happened?

But all that’s there is the cool breeze coming from the half-open route to the garden, and no Touya to ask. Not that evening.

Or the next day.

Or the rest of the week.

He’s gone.

Chapter Text

As the last person Touya talked to, Keigo tried his best at an explanation once they decided to inform the police. But no matter how detailed he got, he just couldn't tell what exactly prompted Touya's disappearance, or where he had run off to, despite the scene playing on a loop in his head. The more they asked, the worse he felt. He should have checked the overall direction, at the very least.

Days go by, and there’s no news or life signs from Touya whatsoever. An entire week passes.

Needless to say, Keigo doesn’t get the job on Friday morning. At least, he strongly suspects that they won’t call him back. Covering up the paint on his temples was one thing… but he could feel its burn all throughout the interview. Everything about his performance felt off. It's likely for the best, though… the office seemed stuffy and lifeless; a hotbed for the bureaucratic bullshit that he’s always hated.

The family decides to visit the local police station later that day. 

Keigo saw Rei take a photo of Touya, one that was made back in spring. They want to put up posters, for sure.

He stays behind to “revise” for his exam the next week, but it’s pointless. Keigo honestly doesn’t know how he’ll be able to focus when the time comes. He already can’t recall what the interview was like, or what he’s done all week, for that matter.

He finds himself in Touya’s abandoned room after an hour of walking up and down and finally watering his sad, neglected and dehydrated garden. He has no idea why he opened the door on his way back down. Near sunset, as he did the day the sweet strawberry disappeared, exactly one week prior. It must have been denial or guilt.

He stares into the warm room bathed in sunlight for a while, then ambles to the bed. Keigo sits down in the same spot, and stays there, waiting for… something to happen. He doesn’t move until twilight when the family car rolls in, disturbing the peace. It’s miserable.

This is exactly what he was afraid of.

Just where is Touya now?

He promised he would be there. Always there.

Then, exactly one day later, he is there.

Just… there.

Keigo doesn’t want to believe his eyes when he notices Touya’s shoes and jacket missing from the hall upon checking whether the others are already coming back from having Touya’s MISSING posters printed. He bursts out of the entrance door without changing into his outdoor gear, looking around frantically.

He steps out and moves back towards the garden; there are no clues whatsoever, but his instincts tell him he’s right on track. His heart is beating in a frenzy as he skims over every last detail on the plot. Then, he turns to the pond, and there he is. Staring into the water with hands in his pockets, and just…

There he is.

A weird bubble swells in Keigo’s chest as he struggles to breathe. It’s something between  uncomfortable, frustrated anger, the feeling of terror, and his lung shattering relief.

He’s noticed pretty much right away.

“Uh… sorry for leaving you there like that,” Touya says once he finishes the awkward walk of shame up to him. “I was being really weird.”

Keigo gapes, and honestly doesn't know whether to cry or laugh. “You… Is that really the first thing you’ve got to say?!” His voice sounds beyond distorted with the mishmash of emotions trying to gain control over one another, making him shake from head to toe.

Straight-up bawling it is, then.

Touya’s vaguely uncomfortable face drops entirely, along with the penny of his quickly slipping control over the situation. “Like I said, I’m sorry!”

"How is that enough!?" Keigo hiccups through his angry tears, fighting off the need to scream at full toddler volume. "We thought you'd never come back." The sentence ends as a high pitched squeal.

Touya’s arms raise to comfort Keigo… then stop half-raised in the air, only to finally retreat again. “I… I get that, but… What else could I say? Like, look… we need to sit down and talk, okay?”

The blonde cannot get a single word out, and is gasping for air so fast that it’s bordering on a panic attack. It prompts the other to gently shepherd him to the couch, after all. He shivers under Touya’s warm touches.

“Why’d you run away? Why are you here?! You didn't… didn’ even bother pickin’ up your phone… or message back. No nothin’…” he slurs finally as he’s sat down. 

It wasn’t that bad when things weren’t happening and he couldn't feel a thing, but now that Touya’s back, Keigo feels the real bite of being utterly bitter and betrayed. Touya didn't even check the messages from the second day onwards.

He promised he would be there. Always there.

And, the very next moment, he ran.

His eyes are clear enough to see Touya’s lips purse and guilt riddle his face, as if confirming his fears, as if he had been thinking of running away for real.

“For better or worse… I ran into Himiko the other day,” the man says as Keigo’s teeth sink into his bottom lip. Only Himiko’s name registers. It’s been so long since he’s last heard it. “She beat some sense into me.”

Keigo attempts to say her name again, but it comes out as a mangled moan.

Touya shrugs. “You know, she can literally smell bullshit from a mile away.” There’s a moment of silence. “… That, and emotions stuff. She, well… threatened me to come back. Regardless of how things turn out. So, yeah… as much of a stabby son of a bitch as ever.”

Keigo sniffs. He doesn't really understand what Touya is talking about, but at least the latter can read his face enough to tell as much.

After a couple of thoughtful blinks and a tense swallow, he continues, “Anyway, what I want to say is… she said I should sort my shit out. Decide whether I really have it bad enough to make a move or just leave it be.”

“I don’ understan’,” creaks Keigo through his sore vocal chords. Make a move, as in leaving, or…?

There’s a deep sigh to balance out Touya’s basically nonexistent breath, mumbling something along the lines of ‘why is this so hard.’ “Keigo,” he says then, putting his hands on the blonde’s shoulders, “are you… interested in anyone?”

The question spooks Keigo out of everything he may have felt before, replacing it all with the uncharacteristically cold evening air that fills his lungs in surprise. The same cold air licks away at his damp cheeks as he looks up to Touya in horror.

The only answer he can muster is a tremble of his half opened lips.

“You don’t have to beat around the bush, Birdie. A nod in either direction will suffice,” says Touya with a rather familiar kind of determination burning in his eyes.

But instead, all Keigo can manage is… “Are you?”

It breaks the pink haired man’s focus. “Wha— what am I?”

“Are you… interested? … in someone?” He can feel his worn-out, sore throat starting to shut off again. Why is Touya asking him? Why would Touya ever ask this, if not for being interested in somebody himself? If he didn't figure Keigo out, and was in love with somebody else? 

"Like… that girl you talked to at the hotel?" Keigo adds in a faint voice.

Touya’s thrown for a loop. He looks totally disoriented for a few, slowly ticking seconds as Keigo watches him. He regains his composure with a shake of his head.

"The hotel, as in…? Oh, wait,” Touya says immediately after, as if saying that out loud was all it took to remember. “During Golden Week? Hina?"

There's a sinking feeling in Keigo's guts, reaching depths he didn't think existed before. He even remembers her name…? 

“I… guess so. If that’s her name.” His voice is that of a mouse.

"She's got a great sense of humor, not gonna lie. A colleague of the artists at the parlor I checked out. The Mandala one."

Keigo must be pulling the most pathetic sad face ever because a shadow of fond exasperation flashes over Touya’s face, making him act so normal for that moment as if Keigo wasn’t feeling his insides shrivel up and die under the weight of his palms. 

"Why would you even ask that, dipshit? Are you jealous, or what?"

A frown makes its home on Keigo’s face for what feels like an eternity. He doesn't think of uttering a thing, and when he does, the words get stuck in his throat. No matter how hard he tries, not a single sound escapes him before his silence draws Touya's attention to him, and any answer is too late, way too late.

Touya's face freezes over in gut-wrenching nervousness.

… no. No way. No, no, no, this is not happening, this… there's no way he--- Fuck.

Fuck him sideways, this dumb chicken really is…

The first sensation surging through Touya’s body upon the realization is something akin to embarrassment, threatening to light his face on fire, but it’s quickly washed away by a cold shower trickling down his spine as Keigo shrinks and backs away in shame.

It's… it's not just him.

This is mutual.

In fact, he's the one late to the party. Months late, judging by Keigo's question.

"But— if you…” he stutters, looking for some coherent words to throw out there. “Dude, why didn't you say anything?"

Keigo is having a meltdown of his own, illustrated by the chameleon-like color changes on his face. He grabs onto the back of the couch. It creaks under the force of his grip. "You said… that thing back at the hospital,” he croaks at last, his mood settling for ‘ghastly pale and about to keel over’. “That you'd do anything to make both me and your family happy, right?"  His voice trails away almost immediately until it’s barely audible. He swallows. 

"I know you well enough to tell you wouldn't say no. Not even if you didn't like me that way. And I don’t want you to... to get stuck with me just because of that."

Keigo takes a shaky breath. Now that it’s out of his system, he starts trembling with an emotion that… that is familiar, yet so foreign. It’s not anxiety, or worry, or even fear… but bone rattling dread.

Dread of being left behind.

"You don't need to worry about that," Touya's voice says after torturous seconds while Keigo awaits judgment with his eyes squeezed shut. "You really don't."

Keigo dares a look at him.

“I promised, didn’t I?”

A gentle hand peels him off the furniture to hold both of Keigo's hands in Touya's own.

He did.

He promised he would be there. Always there.

And now, Touya’s clutching his hands, warming them like precious little things: just hatched little chicks in need of shelter. His face looks a little stern, as if he was preparing to say something very serious and very important. 

Keigo is waiting with bated breath.

"I think… I think I'm…" Touya starts, but it seems to get him nowhere. Getting frustrated with his inability to find the words, he looks Keigo in the eyes with a look that could kill, and…

Keigo is frozen in place as the other leans in, coming up close, dangerously close.

He shouldn't. He really shouldn't do this. But his body just won't obey, and he's already doing it. He… he's kissing Touya. Or, more specifically, Touya is kissing him.

It's awkward, but also soft and tender. It makes this feel… genuine. And it’s getting to him, so much that he almost forgets to breathe. Soon, his head is so light he doesn't even remember where they were when it happened.

"I think I love you."

Touya's face lights up, becoming as bright as the last pink clouds illuminated by the setting sun when he says it, suddenly embarrassed by his statement and staring somewhere else. If his hands (that heat up dangerously for a moment, too) weren't still on Keigo’s, he’d likely hide behind them.

Said statement is the only thing Keigo knows, however. An ultimate truth sealed with the warmth of Touya’s lips on his own, one that lifts a weight off his shoulders that he never knew of. He suddenly feels as light and inexplicably safe as he did in the welcome comfort of Touya’s bedroom.

Keigo can feel something run down his cheek, then fall right after. It makes the smallest noise upon colliding with the first thing in its way: Touya’s hand. The latter’s eyes swerve down before finally looking at him again. He seems a little concerned.

"... are you crying? Again?" It sounds more sceptical than anything, though.

The answer he gets is a sniffle and whimper resembling a 'no.' Two more tears break free to follow the first one.

"Were you always like this?" Touya sighs, combing through Keigo's soft locks after letting go of his hands at last. "If so… you sure hid it well. Couldn't get an honest reaction out of you for the life of me when I tried."

Keigo wipes his tears away, to little effect. He was trained to bear pain, excruciating pain, both mental and physical… but not this.

"I dunno, I'm jus'... so happy," he slurs in a wavering tone.

Every time it finds its way to him, happiness is so incredibly overwhelming. He cannot help it.

He can hear Touya releasing a breath that seems to have been stuck inside him before he feels the warm hand comb through his hair some more. "I guess… I must be doing something right then, after all. Huh, Birdie?"

Instead of an answer, Keigo lifts the other hand to press his cheeks against and nuzzle into. So soft. So warm. So kind.

It soon starts moving on its own, caressing the raw skin in tandem with his scalp. Keigo lets out a little hum of joy. He doesn't even notice the smile creeping on his own face.

As he sniffs his tears away and looks at the other, a pang of worry crosses Keigo’s chest.

"Touya…?” He lifts the palm off his cheek. “Why are you crying?"

There’s a tear stubbornly clinging to the man’s eyelashes as he smiles through it all.

" … guess I'm happy, too, Dove,” he says then, pulling Keigo in for another quick kiss. “Guess I'm happy, too."

It makes Keigo crack a wobbly, tearful smile as he leans in for another one.

The curious, careful exchange of lips slowly turns into a make out session in each other’s arms in the comforting twilight of the porch. Keigo's barely gotten a taste and cannot get enough.

He has always hated people touching him all over, especially his hypersensitive feathers that got snapped, and sweaty, and greasy, and covered in filth with ease. The ones he had no more.

Still, curse the blessing. He wouldn’t hesitate to give his life right now just to feel Touya’s hand fist and rip into his downies a single time. Imagining the sensation alone shakes him to the very core and he feels the need to be closer, much closer. Impossibly close to Touya. He wants to hold onto him, and never let go.

Touya stiffens under Keigo when he finally kicks himself onto his lap. "Yo, Birdie, if… if you wanna go there, we better take this somewhere else," he whispers, trying to break away from the other. He takes a mental note to remember that his new boyfriend of sorts is much clingier and much more eager than anticipated.

Keigo lets out a grumpy moan while pulling him close for one more kiss.

Much, much clingier.

The blonde giggles into the other’s shoulder once he’s willing to move. Touya is carrying him bridal style, and it just makes him so giddy, it’s unreal.

(When did he become a giggler? He doesn't remember ever doing it… this will seem all kinds of embarrassing later, but he’s impossibly high on a brand new emotion he’s never felt before, and couldn’t give a damn if he wanted to.)

They enter through Keigo’s bedroom door, but Touya doesn't stop and moves on to carry him upstairs.

At the very least, he makes a valiant attempt; his strength starts leaving him halfway through.

“You can put me down if you can’t go on,” Keigo snickers when the other stops for a moment to catch his breath.

“Shut up, I’m gonna do this,” Touya heaves. Damn, his hands are shaking already…

“Don’t you wanna, like… save your strength for other things?” the blonde taunts him with pretend obliviousness to what he’s saying.

Touya takes a deep, irate breath, and stomps up the rest of the way until kicking his door open. He chucks Keigo into his unmade bed that he left as is over a week ago. “Fuck you!!”

Like it’s his fault this asshole is heavy… and now he’s laughing. The nerve.

“What’s so funny, pipsqueak?” he hisses into the other’s red, tear-soaked face as he crawls up to him.

Keigo can’t help but start laughing again, which earns him the torture of having his sensitive ribs tickled. It forces out a squeaky shriek that would leave anyone without dignity.

“NOOO!!!” he squawks, out of breath and with new tears running down his cheeks as his jerky hands finally grab onto Touya’s arms to keep him away. His legs stop kicking random shit off the bed as he starts regaining control over himself, too. Guess this is one way to even out the playing field.

“Had enough yet?” Touya asks after a few seconds, still staring down at him as if he was planning to tickle Keigo straight into the afterlife the moment he got free.

“What are you so angry for?” Keigo breathes. The tears are making his eyes itch.

The frown on Touya’s face shifts into something more bitter. “Don’t mock me.”

Keigo lets go of Touya’s wrists to caress his face instead. The gentle touches of his -Since when can he touch anyone like this? How did he survive his whole life without touching anyone like this?- leave the man above startled. “Sorry, didn’t mean to.”

Touya’s eyes soften and he plants a kiss on one of his wrists, then leans down to drown Keigo in more soft kisses while drowning himself in the other.

Each caress of a finger and kiss makes Keigo’s heart soar with happiness and warms him like nothing else could, not even his wings. With Touya’s weight against him, it almost feels as if he were whole. Someone who is capable of love, someone who is worthy of love.

A real human being.

It’s so greedy to want even more than what he’s always dreamed of, and yet… he can’t help it.

“Weren’t you yelling something about fucking me?” Keigo breathes when Touya starts suckling his neck.

Touya hums into him, changing his butterfly touches into something firmer and more inquisitive; it’s as if the tickling of smoke and embers has finally made Keigo’s flesh catch on fire, tearing it to pieces inch by inch. Blissful sighs and gasps escape Keigo as Touya discovers his body, first through his shirt, then slipping underneath. He moans into the next kiss while a pair of warm hands brush up and down his back.

The man above him is savoring every inch his palms can reach while licking away at Keigo’s throat until the fingers run into a pair of little humps in front. He gives them a squeeze, which earns him a sweet, little shudder. It’s almost as if someone had some man boobs… perhaps he should make sure Birdie gets enough exercise, after all.

On it.

As he’s exploring the uncharted bits and pieces that the other has kept hidden from view since forever, Keigo is enjoying the tender care and attention under Touya’s warm, bony hands and even warmer, soft lips. He is simply clinging onto him for dear life, his own hands erring into the messy strawberry pink hair of the other to dig into and tug at.

Judging by the reactions, he must be doing something right. It makes him swell with pride; makes him forget about himself a little too much perhaps, but it’s hard to care at the moment.

The same goes for the happy little noises he makes while relishing in the soft touches, and him nibbling away at the pink strands in a, perhaps, misguided attempt at grooming the other’s ‘plumage’ once Touya’s lips move from his neck to the clavicle. But instinct tells him otherwise, and it is an extremely important task, indeed.

Unfortunately, this opinion on undivided attention without any other care in the world changes soon enough.

One of the exploring hands moves from his hips and slips between his pants and underwear while its owner is busy nipping at Keigo’s collarbone. By the time it registers how low it’s gotten…

"Wa-wai---!!" he manages to gasp, but… it's way too late. "---t…"

Touya stiffens and a jolt of fear freezes Keigo in place, too.

Shit.

He must be as white as a sheet or glowing akin to a tomato, but he's way more worried about what Touya is thinking of him right now.

"You, uh…" the other starts with his head lifting, but the rest of the words are lost to a million others.

Keigo averts his eyes, even though Touya is not looking at him, not really. His head is still close to his chest, hot breath dancing against Keigo's exposed skin— but he can't bear to see him at all. And all the while, that dumbass still has a goddamn hand in his pants. Touya pauses for what feels like a whole-ass minute, too… someone put Keigo out of his misery and kill him, please.

Eventually, the other squeezes out a single word, posed as a question. "Natsu?"

He sucks his bottom lip in to chew on in plight. "Has known since the beginning."

Keigo can practically feel the cogs under his fingertips turning beneath the messy stack of strawberry hair as things click into place.

Touya is thinking about the stuff Keigo has excused himself from, such as the onsen trip during Golden Week which he chalked up to him not being comfortable with his mutations and scars... or him wearing some kind of loose top all of the time even though he can’t take the stale, humid summer heat all that well. Or why those two conspiring little shits even had a weirdly deep discussion on bikinis and swimsuits, which stuck with him because, he quotes, “I wouldn’t be able to pull off a two piece.”

So A, that wasn't a joke… and B, he wants to see the bird in that one piece he allegedly has, stat.

Finishing up his thinking session, Touya pulls his brows into a frown, because C: he knew. He knew all along, and instead of telling him that he’s legally, literally not allowed to answer his questions in earnest and to go and ask Keigo, Natsuo kept deflecting and changing the topic and made him honest to god believe… that they were low key a thing. "... that little shit."

Keigo's mouth twitches into a sheepish smile, more embarrassed over being amused at the statement than the more pressing issue at hand.

Speaking of which… why hasn't he removed his hand already, he swears to God...

"Doesn't it… bother you?" Keigo asks finally, unable to bear Touya’s silence any longer.

The man looks at Keigo again at last, filing away Natsu’s betrayal for later. He’d be lying if he said it didn’t blindside him, but… Keigo is still Keigo, the rest is kind of a moot point, isn't it? He shrugs as his hand leaves the warmth of Keigo’s pants. "Doesn't make me like you any less."

He can see the weight rolling off Keigo’s chest as he starts breathing again. He still looks hella nervous, though.

Touya crawls off of him to sit. “Hey… real talk. Do you, actually… want to do this?”

The blonde gets onto his elbows, then sits up as well upon hearing the question. He swallows hard before answering. “Yes.”

“One hundred percent serious?”

He nods. “Yeah.”

“Are you sure?” Touya asks once more.

Keigo blinks. This is… weird. “Yes, I do? Why are you asking this much?”

Touya sighs and closes his eyes for a moment. “Okay, apart from maybe being a little nervous about this myself… I need you to know what it entails.” He looks up at Keigo again, reaching out with a palm turned upwards. “Your hand.”

Unsure, but he takes the other’s hand.

Or rather, tries to- Touya holds him by the wrist. “If you need to stop, tell me immediately. Okay?” he says with a serious expression on his face.

Keigo nods, determined. Whatever this is about, he’s ready.

When Touya starts guiding his hand lower, he knows he’s everything but.

Yet, he never feels scared enough to tell the other to stop. Not even as his hand is slid against Touya’s underwear to brush against—

His free hand flies to cover his mouth. If Keigo wasn’t red to the eartips thus far, he sure is now. “Pierced?” he squeaks in an embarrassingly small voice.

Touya nods. "Pierced."

"Well, um… that's cool," Keigo mutters, suddenly wondering about the basics, such as sizes and shapes now that he's thinking about it. "Is that all?"

The deadpan expression on Touya's face tells plenty. "I guess. Yes." After a short pause, he continues. "You… have done this before?" It sounds like a question, but is more of an observation.

Keigo nods with red cheeks. This is so embarrassing… "It didn’t go far in most cases, but… I did. A few times, I think."

Touya's brows furrow. "You think?"

An uneasiness starts to shroud Keigo that threatens to pop the balloon of good feelings in his chest. He hunches under its weight. "I don't wanna think about it. There are some… no good memories."

The expression on Touya's face darkens considerably. He sits still for a few seconds, then reaches out to hug Keigo to himself. "I won't let anyone touch you ever again."

The bonde hums, snuggling into Touya. No prison. No slimy adult hands. No fear of being killed. No misery and guilt. No aching wounds.

This is the safest he's ever felt.

They spend a silent minute like that before Keigo’s strawberry monster, who will keep all the bad at bay, speaks up again. “Do you still want to stay right now?”

There’s a promise in there. A promise of a next time, and one after. An always.

Keigo nestles out of the hug and nods. “Yeah.”

“Super sure?” Touya asks before planting another kiss on Keigo’s temples.

He hums. “Super-duper couture pierced weenie sure.”

Touya laughs into his hair. “You can write a review later.”

Keigo chuckles and crawls onto Touya’s lap again, stealing another kiss. “How about a live review?” he asks with a mischievous little smile as the safety of the other’s arms surrounds him once more. As long as they are alone…

Touya huffs a laugh, and his eyes err to the backpack that should be hiding a couple of little packets if he digs deep enough; Ike is one stubborn son of a bitch, but he’s glad she’s wrestled some of those things into his hand. “Fine by me.”

“Man… Mom has already asked around for legal help, paperwork and advice and all,” Touya hums between two lazy kisses. “This is gonna make it awkward.”

“Huh?" Keigo is forcing his brain to tick, but doesn’t know of anything Rei may want to buy or sell that would require the assistance of a lawyer or such. Maybe there will be an official divorce? But it still doesn’t make sense in this situation… "What are you talking about?”

“Adoption,” Touya answers, curt as he's moving his lips down to his neck while pulling him closer with one arm and tracing his fingers gingerly across his lover’s back with another, mindful of the leftover scarring.

Keigo’s reaction is barely in the realm of realization. “Ah...”

He feels he should be bothered by that… but he’s so spent, just so tired, in the best way he’s ever been. The only one who’s ever brought him anywhere near this peace was Jin.

He takes a deep breath, filling his lungs with Touya’s scent while sneaking his arms around him and slipping a leg between his, essentially trapping the other. He has no idea what the time is, or whether the others have returned home already. He cannot find it in himself to think about anything right now, though.

“Are you tired?” breathes Touya into his ear after placing one last kiss behind it. “Should we sleep?”

The only words reaching Keigo as he’s dumbly staring into the dark room are tired, we and sleep.

We…

He’s wanted a ‘we,’ wanted to be with people he loved and who loved him back. And he wanted to be with Touya. Even more… even closer. Wants to become one with him again. But he’s so exhausted.

Sleep. There may be no word to express how tired he’s been, tired since forever. But he can rest now. Rest together.

“Yes,” he mouths, maybe only hallucinating that the word has ever left his mouth.

The weight on his neck lifts and Touya kisses him goodnight.“Sweet dreams, Angel.”

He takes one last, sleepy blink at the spark reflected in the pretty, blue pair of eyes he’s been drowning in, and the next moment, he is out like a light.

Keigo is awake already, leaning onto his knees in the dull silence. He’s most likely the reason Touya woke up. The blonde is seemingly having an early morning reverie of sorts as he's staring into the general direction of the wall. The sun reflected from somewhere breaks through the room's curtains and makes him glow with an otherworldly light… If he didn't have other things on his plate, Touya could watch him for hours on end. Full of scars inside-out as he may be, Keigo is so beautiful…

Touya's eyes trail up a specific pair of narrow scars on his back, stopping only at the thicker tissue that covers the spot where the joints used to be.

Keigo shivers under the brush of a finger against his back, and at the lips pressed against it a moment later even more so.

It's as if Touya was reading his mind, because he wraps his arms around him right after, warming his body and soul with an all engulfing warmth.“What’s on your mind, little pipit?”

Touya’s voice is groggy and soft as he places another kiss on the back of his neck, dragging Keigo deeper into the sensation until it becomes almost too much to handle. It is getting hard to breathe, almost as if he had to keep his head over the water of a warm pond with no bottom.

“Nothing much,” he answers after a few seconds of bobbing on its surface.

“Liar bird.”

Another kiss.

Keigo submerges for a moment.

“… everything.”

It sounds like a gasp for air.

Touya sighs into the crook of his neck. “It wouldn’t be you if you weren’t overthinking every little thing.”

It’s true… He worries about the family having seen them (Why wouldn’t they have? They surely have looked for him by now.), whether he would still be welcome (He had no idea Rei was planning something, and now he’s ruined it…), whether Touya will think better of him (If he’s not just used for a fling, they can’t even keep this a secret. Not if she wants to adopt Keigo.), and whether it really is just an elaborate dream or long con (What if they were so worried about Touya that they didn't even notice him missing?) plague his mind.

“Are you sure… about this?” Keigo asks finally.

The warmth disappears as Touya lifts himself to turn and sit next to him. It takes all of Keigo’s self restraint not to get flustered over seeing his bare chest… or the fact that he is also laid bare in front of the other.

“About what?” his heart throb asks, sounding more confused than interested.

Keigo heaves a sigh to pull himself together a little. “About… me.”

Touya’s bottom lip juts out after a moment of thinking.

“Well, I do have one condition,” he says another second later with his pinky raised.

The blonde is puzzled; a frown appears on his face while waiting for Touya to explain himself. If he is uncertain, then they really should reconsider this.

Touya sighs, too, then lays out the condition in metaphorical black and white: “You need to guarantee my life today.”

Keigo blinks. What on Earth…? He presses a palm against his temples and stops the train of thought right then and there; it’s time to stop overthinking stuff, especially when it's something so vague.

Focusing back on Touya, he hooks his own pinky around the other’s. “Weirdo.”

The finger curves around his in turn. For a long moment, Touya looks at him with an unreadable expression before it turns into the sweetest little smile that Keigo’s ever seen on him and he forgets about all of the troubles piling up in his mind.

He has no time to enjoy it, as Touya suddenly moves to fetch a tee from the ground that’s less grubby than the one he’s had on all week. He leans in for a quick kiss. “Let’s get dressed.”

Keigo blinks away some more at his boyfriend-to-be as he gets up to find some pants.

Getting on his feet and walking down feels like a dream… of the not too pleasant kind. He feels dizzy, and if not for Touya being his physical and mental crutch, he would tumble right down the flight of stairs. His presence is the only thing keeping Keigo from fainting as they approach the both empty and overly crowded kitchen.

Three weary pairs of eyes are looking up at him. Everyone apart from Shouto is home. It’s a Sunday. It is to be expected.

The next time Keigo looks at them, they are shocked and frozen in place before getting up from the dining table as one unit. For a moment, it’s as if Keigo didn’t even exist; later he would conclude that he must have looked just as bad for the wear, and they likely assumed he must have met Touya right before they entered.

Until they knew better. Because next thing he knows… is the announcement. It feels like straight-up self-humiliation. He has to break his stunned silence and apologize, right then and there. He has to.

But… they don’t need it.

They aren’t mad.

Not at all… or rather not at him.

And it works.

It just works.

He has a boyfriend. He is allowed to have a boyfriend, one that is none other than the eldest Todoroki, and he is still welcome.

And all he had to do was make sure that Touya survives Fuyumi’s murder attempt one minute after he’s arrived back home.

Chapter Text

"I'm just glad you didn't have to haul pizzas all day," Touya says while doing something mysterious. Seeing how it’s nearing evening, it must be a present in the making.

Keigo smiles into the vaguely illuminated darkness of his eyelids as he waits. "I'm not working for KFC for today being a big deal.”

There were more pizza deliveries the past week due to the approaching holidays, but even his less fortunate coworkers from the last shift should be able to leave in about two hours, or whenever they will have managed to deliver the last order. He wouldn't have minded working late, anyhow. It’s a fun job.

But, he’s also perfectly content to be able to spend the whole afternoon with his family.

Touya lets out a pensive hum behind him. “Was there any news from the doctor, by the way? You never said so.”

His boyfriend’s smile wavers a little. “There hasn't been. Dunno what the hold-up is, apart from flu season. I guess I won’t get feedback this year, but they've been sitting on it for a while, so it shouldn't be a big deal.”

Touya can’t muster anything past another hum to that. The thing with the odd, small bleeding was probably better left at that for the time being.

The blonde feels something rather heavy slide onto his shoulders before Touya steps in front of him to tug the object into place and smoothen it against his arms in a finishing stroke.

After some delay, maybe to consider holding Keigo’s hands for a moment, he steps back.

“Happy early birthday, Keigo.”

Hearing that, Keigo opens his eyes to have a look. A smile is tugging at the corners of his own mouth; he already has a good idea what this might be.

Touya seems to always have had a good, artistic eye, and his hands were no second to that hidden talent. With the tattoo artist course coming to an end, he took what little tailoring skills Jin left him with, and picked up embroidery as of late. (And became the occasional interior designer for his siblings, much to his chagrin.) Seeing one of the few custom-made jackets Touya’s made in the streets always cheers Keigo up. Frankly, anything he touches turns into a work of art.

Works…

“You made one for me?”

… like his scarred face that’s just healed up from the first patch-up session, or this wonderful winter cape. Keigo’s been wondering why he bought such a huge haul of wool right after his first finished cape went up for sale online, only for Touya to never be seen knitting again.

He knew he was working on a present. The question was, for whom?

Keigo runs his fingers over the seams; so soft… and there's a myriad of details in the small spot he's looking at. It’s not one of those super long ones Touya has just gotten two commission requests for, but there must be so much love and work in it already. Dozens upon dozens of hours…

"I did," Touya acknowledges with a delayed blink. “That one's special. Nobody could pull it off like you do."

Keigo takes his eyes off the article for a moment to throw a playfully disapproving look at him. "Please… you're exaggerating. This dark, earthy brown would flatter your siblings or mom more than it does me." Rei especially would wear it with grace, with her pink cheeks and milky white hair (the golden and broken white accents matching Keigo's own complexion notwithstanding).

There's a rare, openly soft smile spreading on Touya's lips as the chuckling blonde twirls around in the cape. "No… it's a perfect fit. I'll vouch for it."

Touya’s smile rouses one from Keigo, too.

“Everything you make is special, dumbass.” He hugs the garment to himself and stops moving around to appreciate it a little more. It's so nice. And warm. He should definitely wear it for Christmas Eve tonight… or New Year’s, if not both. “You really gonna give me a single present for Christmas and my birthday, though? Cheapskate.”

“Nope,” answers Touya after short consideration. There’s something impish in his eyes and the way he speaks. “I have something even better planned for that.”

“Better, huh?”

Keigo wants to poke around some more, because, of course he wants to know what other kind of present Touya has in stock, but his fingers brush over something else along his shoulders. Something that is even softer to the touch than the cape, and so eerily familiar. He turns his head so he can take a better look with his sharper eye. In the corner of his view, right under his fingertips, he sees…

Red.

The man’s eyes go wide as a breath catches fire in his lungs, heart skipping a beat. That’s…  

Touya watches in silence as the other snatches the cape off of his shoulders in a hurry before staring at the back as if he were spellbound. His smile softens more as Keigo processes what there is in his shaky hands. When he finally turns to face Touya, his mouth opens as if to say something, obviously fighting off tears.

Keigo does indeed want to call out Touya’s name, call him all kinds of stupid, croak out a ‘thank you’, say anything at all from the millions of thoughts and feelings that threaten to tear his body apart. But the flood of words is trapped, much like the breath he’s kept in for too long. And, even if he found them… they just wouldn't cut it. Words don’t cut it.

“It was a pain in the ass to collect enough pieces to finish," muses the other, tearing his eyes from Keigo's face to look at the cape. "Your former sidekicks provided most of them. Some were in a pretty rough shape, though… so I had to ask other heroes, fans who could keep a secret… Even bought some off of stingy fat cats to complete it on time.”

Keigo's eyes fall back to the blood red feathers sewn onto the coat, covering the entire back surface just the way his wings once had.

"I-it's beautiful, I— I…" he manages eventually after swallowing hard.

"You sacrificed them while trying to save my sorry ass,” Touya says in a soft voice before he could go on. When the man continues, he sounds somewhat mournful. “I can't bring your wings back… but I can go out of my way and make the next best thing. So I did."

Blinking away tears, Keigo flounders back to Touya. “You didn’t have to, you… you really…” His voice is airy and gruff, hardly above a whisper as a pair of soft lips are placed on his forehead. Two warm hands reach out to cradle his face, wiping the droplets away.

Touya’s touch works like magic, calming him in mere seconds. Keigo reaches up for the hand on his right, marred cheek to lean into the touch and leaves a small kiss of his own on its palm.

“You didn’t have to,” he repeats in a small voice again.

The gentle hands pull him into an embrace in return, and another kiss is planted on his head. “It's the least I could do. Do you not like it, Angel?”

"Of course I do, silly…!" Keigo wraps his arms around him, still clutching the best present he’s ever received as he nuzzles into his lover’s shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. "But I don't need another pair of wings, Touya… I've got you right here by my side. It already feels like I'm flying.”

The initial answer is a deep, frustrated breath that soon gets blown into blonde locks. "I can't believe… even now, on this damn fucking day, you manage to brutally out-cheese me."

As he goes on fuming, Keigo starts giggling under his chin and hugs him closer. Judging by how wet the shirt feels by his cheek, he must have started crying again.

"Birdie, if you make me cry, too, I swear to God…"

Touya knows it’s an empty threat. Even if he does cry a little, he can't be mad about it… nor help the grin through his own tears, because, seriously… the dumb bird is already a mess.

What is he going to do when he sees the ring?