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Surrounded by warm wooden walls, cloaked in well-worn quilts, and curled into a cozy ball, Keigo didn’t want to get up, much less go out into the frost and snow. He was far too comfortable lounging in the cabin that he and Touya now called home. It had taken him quite some time to engineer a blanket cocoon that worked with his wings rather than against them, and he wasn’t going to throw away his hard work without a damn good reason.
“Come ‘ere, Chickadee.” Now there was a voice - hot embers from a log fire left to burn out, citrus and cinnamon with notes of honey - that could get Keigo to do anything. If there was a way to bottle it, keep it for himself, and listen to it for a lifetime, he’d sell his soul faster than the frantic beating of a hummingbird’s heart. Maybe he already had.
Somewhere in Japan, the tangled story of a villain named Dabi and a hero named Hawks had come to an abrupt and unsatisfying end. Villains and heroes alike tilted their heads in confusion. Dabi and Hawks had met in a magnificent clash, flames and feathers flying. It was to have been an epic conclusion to their tango, but when the smoke settled, there wasn’t a soul that could find hide nor hair of the pair. Perhaps, they’d both been crisped, cremated by Dabi’s tactless attacks and reckless rage, and lost to the wind.
Perhaps.
Somewhere in a different country, two young men, Keigo and Touya, penned a new chapter - a chapter that would never find its way into the records of Hawks and Dabi. No, it was simply a story just for them. Coveted, private, and for once, untainted by outside influence. An alternate ending where things were different: where snow fell from the sky rather than ash, touches were tender, and words didn’t hold hidden meaning.
“But I’m comfy,” Keigo pouted, knowing he’d already lost. Being cutesy didn’t work on Touya, and it was a moot point when Keigo would do anything to please the other.
“I found some good ice.” Enthusiasm melted into the gentle breath between Touya’s words, glazing his lips and painting his chilled cheeks. “Get your skates on.” Fighting the frost, Touya shuddered hard, shivers rattling his thin shoulders. His glacial eyes never left Keigo, tracing the blond’s face even as he pulled his crimson scarf tighter around his neck, holding a hand between the fabric and his skin to prevent it from catching on his edges.
Keigo’s will to resist melted. Shedding the quilts, he found Touya’s arms, reaching up to hold scarred cheeks. “You’re cold,” he frowned, feeling condensation gathered around the metal in Touya’s face.
“It feels good,” Touya whispered, brushing Keigo’s hands away and gathering him into a kiss. Weight from the words rippled goosebumps across Keigo’s skin. His heart ached for Touya but not out of pity. It wasn’t an ache of sorrow or regret - not one of melancholy.
Finding a secluded cabin in the snowy rural landscape of a place they couldn’t pronounce the name of had put Touya at ease for the first time since Keigo had met him. It wasn’t just being free of Japan and all that they’d left there. The painful heat that lived ever-presently under Touya’s skin mellowed, tamed by friendly frost and serene snow. It wasn’t perfect. His staples grew icy, slick with condensation, but now, the heat coiling within worked to melt the aching of his old injuries, abating biting breezes.
Pulling back, Touya kissed Keigo’s forehead, drawing a deep, relaxed breath in through his nose, eyelids still closed, before resuming his grin, eyelashes fluttering to reveal the flurries in his frosty irises. “Skates. Get ‘em on.”
Touya was right: it was good ice.
Bordering the frozen lake, impossibly tall trees cloaked in heavy snow sheltered the pair as they raced each other across the ice - playing like boys who are not yet men. Carefree and uninhibited, their blades sprayed ice shavings around them as they carved out their paths, breath ghosting over their lips and escaping in wispy vapors.
Keigo was fast, endurance and strength working in his favor, but Touya was better at skating, maneuvering with surprising grace and poise. There was a story there, and someday Keigo would ask. Today, however, nagging questions about the past could wait. The heart-stopping, soul-stealing, breath-taking grin and rosy flush on Touya’s face were far more captivating, and Keigo couldn’t look away. At least, until Touya caught him staring.
Caught ogling, embarrassment rippled up Keigo’s spin, his feathers fluffing. Hunching in on himself out of habit, Keigo made to hide his crimson flush behind his equally vibrant wings, forgetting himself and earning a spectacular spill on the ice.
His indignant squawk on the way down was perhaps the least flattering sound he’d ever made in front of Touya, and he prayed to the spirits that the snowbanks and frosty air had muffled the noise.
Skating over, Touya offered Keigo a hand, his loving smirk peeking out from behind his scarf, silent laughter crinkling his eyes. “Planning to slide around on your belly like a penguin?” he teased, pulling Keigo up and dusting his forehead and nose with kisses.
“I thought we agreed to leave the bird banter back with your rap sheet in Japan,” Keigo groaned, his blush deepening to a ripe cranberry hue.
“Mmm,” Touya hummed, using a thumb to tilt Keigo’s chin up, stealing a proper kiss. “Did we? My memory is foggy.”
“No more killing. No more heroics. No more bird-” Keigo didn’t get to finish. His breath caught in his throat as Touya’s fingers crept into his hair, knotting and pulling his head closer, kissing the corner of his mouth with a cheeky grin, eyes hooded and simmering with warmth.
It didn’t matter how they’d gotten to this point. All that mattered was that they could kiss each other anytime they wanted now. No more hiding out. No more surveillance. In the middle of snowy nowhere, there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do or say to stop them from being together. Not even the ghosts of their former lives.
When Touya began to pull back, Keigo surged forward, chasing his lips. It was freeing - flying after his impulses, no longer shackled by the watchful eye of the commission. Humming into the kiss, Touya smiled against Keigo’s mouth, welcoming him as their lips parted, deepening the kiss, their heads tilting in perfect harmony.
For far too long, Keigo had ached to hold Touya close, feel the heat from his core seeping into his skin like a kiss from the sun. Like a cat, coy and cautious, Keigo had carefully kept his distance, but Touya had a knack for drawing him near, welcoming him to curl up in the sun patch of the other’s molten presence. Melting in his warmth. Saved by his fire.
Now, supported by arms that would free him as quickly as keep him, Keigo embraced his whims, gratifying himself one tender touch and comforting kiss at a time, huffing in frustration as Touya teased him, pressing into his body with restrained hunger but peeling back languidly before Keigo could react.
“F-fuck,” Keigo whined, reaching to tug Touya closer, “Can we go back now?”
A wry smirk twinged Touya’s features as he raised an eyebrow knowingly at Keigo, puffs of warm air huffing out of his nose.
“Come on,” Keigo snorted, swatting at Touya. “I just wanna snuggle, okay? Get your mind out of the gutter.”
“Sure.” Sarcasm spilled from Touya’s lips, goading Keigo. “If you say so.” And with those words, Touya lost whatever battle he’d been waging with his smile - a wide grin dawning across his face in a welcome sunrise of affection and amusement. “Lead the way, little bird.”
Every moment with Touya affirmed everything Keigo had thought before they fled Japan. It had all been worth it - risking it all to run away with Touya was worth it. And now, curled up with Touya in a nest of quilts and soft, warm sheets in their cozy cabin bed, Keigo didn’t have a single regret.
“Hey,” Keigo murmured, snuggling into Touya’s bare chest, cheek pressed to warm, unscarred skin as he wiggled closer - the familiar scent of Touya’s skin lulling him into a comfortable haze.
“Mmm?” Touya breathed out, his soft hum ruffling Keigo’s hair.
“Marry me?”
It wasn’t a premeditated question.
Lost in living in their heaven, Keigo’s heart had run away with his tongue, allowing the words to slip out, falling from his lips as if they were nothing more than an ordinary utterance, carrying no more weight than, “What’s for breakfast,” or, “How do you take your tea?” His eyes blew wide, heart-stopping - not unlike the way Touya froze beneath him - but he didn’t laugh it off, unable to find a reason to retract the request despite the fear twining around each of his ribs.
Propping himself up, Keigo found Touya’s gaze, breath catching at the sight of Touya’s ruby flush, lips parted perfectly, eyes wide as genuine surprise molded his unguarded expression.
“We-” Touya blinked, the syllable quivering through the air with strange inflection. “But-”
“I just,” Keigo interrupted, heat flooding his face, heart rate spiking. “Uh, I- I was-”
“We can’t,” Touya frowned, perplexed as if Keigo had asked something wildly foreign or impossible - handed him a puzzle with no solution and asked him to solve it. “Can we? It was your idea to lay low.” Teasing a lip between his teeth in thought, Touya’s eyes drifted across Keigo’s face, searching for answers.
Without warning, boisterous fire flickered to life in Keigo’s veins, conviction coursing through him that sang of a truth they need only reach out and claim.
“I didn’t think I could ever be anything more than my parents’ mistakes. I found a way. I was tasked with a suicide mission, but I survived. Didn’t think I could change the heart of a wanted villain.” With a small smile, Keigo kissed Touya’s clavicle. “Couldn’t shake the commission's shackles. I did.” The burning blush crawling up Touya’s neck was enough to tell Keigo that they both knew where he was going with this impromptu recap.
“Touya, you didn’t know if you could run away or if you’d survive on the streets when you did. Shouldn’t have been a villain, let alone one that later left Japan to reform. But… you did. We can’t get married, but-”
Surprising Keigo into silence, Touya rolled them, pushing Keigo into the bed and hovering over him with glacial eyes hotter than the sun. He dipped his head, kissing Keigo, pressing so hard into the blond that Keigo could feel the way Touya’s forehead wrinkled with emotion.
It wasn’t until both were panting, Touya’s arms shaking and their lips bruised, that he pulled back, hooded eyes finding melted ochre.
“We’ll find a way.” Touya’s purr was soft, Dabi’s devilish ghost flickering over his features as fire sparked behind his eyes.
“Really?”
“You doubtin’ me, birdie.”
“Never… hot stuff.”
Bundled up beyond recognition, Dabi looked down at Hawks, eyes alight with the ghost of yearning - for what, Hawks wasn’t sure. Snowflakes dusted their hoods as they huddled closer, breathing in biting frost and exhaling wisps of warmth as the winter wind nipped at them.
Maybe Hawks hadn’t slept enough lately, maybe he was losing it, or maybe his heart knew something he didn’t, but as he stood, an arm twined through one of Japan’s most wanted, he was hit by a wave of want for something just outside his grasp. However, the no.2 hero wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge, and he was just loopy enough at the moment to reach into the fire and grab it.
Dropping to one knee, Hawks pulled his gloves off, pocketing them and reaching to grip Dabi’s hand between his. Confusion pinched Dabi’s features, apprehension ebbing in and out of his expression as he turned to face Hawks.
“Dabi,” Hawks’ mouth was dry, but his heart was humming far too fast in his chest for him to notice or care. “Touya.”
“Yes?”
The air between them hummed with errant electricity as they held each other’s gaze, breath held and lips parted.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
Palpable tension cloaked them in a bubble entirely of their own, poised like two perfect figures in a novelty snow globe, frozen in time as snowflakes whirled around them.
“I’m tired. So fucking tired - of hiding, of loving you in the shadows and watching my back every moment we’re together.” Hawks inhaled deeply, steadying himself, vulnerability and determination melded together in his expression. “And I know you’re tired too.” Dabi didn’t respond, but Hawks could feel a slight tremor in the hand clasped tightly between his.
“Will you,” Hawks breath caught, his eyes burning from a sudden surge of emotion, lungs full of air he couldn’t expel. He swallowed, pushing his fear down. “Run away with me?”
A lifetime passed as Dabi’s fingers curled around Hawks’ hand, his grip tightening from the weight of words he couldn’t speak. Breathing in a long, rattling breath, Dabi’s brow pinched, eyes reddening from tears that couldn’t form.
“You’d leave this? Japan, your agency, all of it?” Knuckles whitening, his jaw tightened, an uncharacteristically vulnerable grimace tugging at his raw edges, saying more than he was able - more than his reforged spirit could manage.
“If you’re at my side,” Hawks stood, reaching to cup Dabi’s face, “In a heartbeat.”
Scarred arms wound around Hawks, hugging him in as Dabi leaned down, Hawks’ head tilting back, their lips meeting in a kiss that tasted like yes.