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"Tenko! You ok there, buddy?" A familiar voice called, yanking Tenko out of his reverie.
"Huh? I- yeah… I'm fine…" Tenko winced under the unbelieving stare he felt on the side of his head. Mistakenly, he chanced a glance at the man beside him only to quickly look away again and start scratching at his neck. "You don't believe me…"
"Uuuh no! Shockingly, I don't. I don't know what on earth would give me the impression that you might not be being honest! I mean it can't possibly be the fact that you are so very obviously distracted that I called your name five times and you didn’t answer… or the immediately guilty look you had as soon as you said-"
"OK ok, I get it, Oboro. I'm bad at lying. Shut up." Tenko huffed, earning him a playful, good natured laugh from the other pro hero. He rubbed his face with a bit of sigh. "I just… had a real fucked up dream last night. It's got me all messed up in the head. But I'm fine. I'll get over it."
Oboro hummed softly and paused their movie, turning a bit to face him. "Yooou wanna talk about it…?"
"... I… don't know if I can...”
“Try for me?”
Tenko looked at him for a moment, suddenly looking very small, shaken… but he wasn’t met with any sort of irritation or annoyance… only the same bright, comforting smile he always got. The smile that saved his life when he was a child. The smile that guided him through school, the hero program, graduation. The smile he could always find at his side even during the most difficult missions… The smile he had grown to love so much. And yet…
It did very little to ease his fear this time.
“I… I had a dream last night that you didn’t… You never found me that day. I… I-I became just like that Shigaraki kid! Filled with hatred and a thirst for destruction. I did… so many bad things… Destroyed so much…” Tenko looked down at his hands, which now trembled under the weight of everything he felt. “I never became Pro Hero Dust Storm… I-I became a villain… just because no one was… no one came for me…”
Oboro blinked, unsure of what to say at that moment, though he understood now why this had been bothering him so badly. “Tenko…”
“What if… What if that’s what happened to Shigaraki?? He was just a kid in a bad situation but no one… one one came for him! ” Tears started to prick at his eyes the more he talked, voice shaking and beginning to crack. “That could have been me, Oboro… I-I…”
“Hey, hey, hey, come here…” Oboro reached over and pulled Tenko closer, nosing into his hair a bit as the other man instantly clung to him and broke down.
“T-there has to be something we can do… We can’t… He…”
Oboro leaned in quickly and kissed him silent, hands coming up to rest on his cheeks, lingering until he felt Tenko relax against his chest. Slowly he pulled away, staring into those wide red eyes before him. “We are Loud Cloud and Dust Storm. Best pro hero duo on the scene… If anything can be done to save a life, we can and will. Ok?”
“Yeah but…”
“Nope! No buts. If you think he can be saved, or at least want to try, we will find a way. After all… Everyone deserves a second chance, right?”
-
“I-I…” A little boy asked, terrified by what had just happened and shaken at the blood on his hands, staring up at the blue wispy haired kid offering him a hand.
“C’mon! I know someone that can get you help!”
“B-but why…? I-I… Th-they...”
“Hey, it’s… it’ll be ok! You didn’t mean to!” The happy go lucky kid stated, offering out his hand with a little more insistence. “You got dealt a bad hand… but everyone deserves a second chance at something better...”
-
Tenko made a soft noise and cast his eyes down, the memory echoing in his ears as if it had happened only moments ago. Oboro had said the same thing about him back then… a young kid, only fourteen at the time, holding his hand out to a scared, bloodied five year old, telling him he deserved a second chance. That an accident or a bad starting hand didn’t have to doom his future. And because of that, look how far he had come. Just because someone had reached out a hand for him. “You… You don’t think it’s too late?”
“Eh… dunno. He might be too far gone… ” Oboro admitted softly, glancing away for a second. However, he quickly found himself once again smiling at the other man, eyes bright, confident, and determined. “But there’s no expiration on getting a second chance. If there is even the smallest hope, deep down, that he can be helped. You and I will chase it. Together. Yeah?”
Tenk studied him for a moment before nodding, a small smile of his own tugging at the corners of his lips. “Yeah… Together.”
“Thaaaat’s better, but you could be a little more enthusiastic! C’mooon Tenko! Say it with your chest!” Oboro’s smile shifts to a cheeky grin.
Tenko rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help but laugh at the antics. So in true Dust Storm fashion, he puffed up a bit and thumped a fist against his chest. “Together!”
They both erupted into laughter then.
“Gah, I sound like a loser when you make me do that!” Tenko huffed between chuckles.
“Yes, but at least you’re cute!”
“Asshole!”
Oboro started cackling more then, earning him a pout from Tenko. As the laughter died away though, Oboro pulled Tenko a little closer and hugged onto him tightly, burying his nose into his hair with a content sigh. “You are also a good man with a big heart… and I love you. More than anything.”
A blush rose to Tenko’s cheeks then at the praise over his character and the sappiness right after. “Heh…” He started oh so eloquently, “I… I love you too, Oboro… Um… thanks for listening…”
“Of course babe…” He hummed, leaning away to retrieve the remote then kissing him softly just before starting their movie over again. “Anytime.”