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Home had always been a foreign concept for Keigo.
As a kid, he never associated that word with the rickety hut he and his parents were living in. The garbage scattered all over the floor, the broken shards of glass he always had to tiptoe around, the endless shouting and beating -- they didn't make a cozy environment. Keigo would always seek a chance to go out and spread his wings and each time, he dreaded going back.
The Commission Headquarters, where he spent the rest of his childhood and all of his adolescence at, were also far from what home as a concept should be. It would sometimes remind him of where he used to live with his parents; it was expected of him to mind his own business, but not cause any trouble or get in the way of anyone. Keigo considered that place as only a roof over his head.
His old apartment, the one the Commission bought and designed for him a week before his debut, was another roof over his head. Nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes, Keigo thought it was way out of his league. The expensive furniture, the patterned carpets, the modern art frames on the wall, and basically anything else in the rooms would only make him feel uncomfortable. He didn't even need most of those things. A simple bed for him to sleep in for an hour or two before leaving again would have sufficed. It's not like he would spend more time than that there anyway.
After the war, he moved to another place. It was smaller, and he didn't have much to decorate the place with, but it still didn't feel like home to him. Sometimes, he felt like the walls were closing in on him, suffocating and threatening him to crush him under their weight while shadows crawled towards him across the floor as he curled into himself, but he stayed optimistic that, one day, he would find his home.
And he did, but he never thought he would be sharing that place with Touya Todoroki of all people.
Running into him years after the war, somehow managing to have casual conversations with one another and starting up a tentative friendship that later bloomed into something more -- he supposed life was simply unpredictable.
Keigo opened his eyes and tiredly blinked. There was a familiar, comforting weight behind him, an arm draped over his side.
He had shed his feathers. Most of them were scattered in the room and some in the living room, but he had kept his primaries near him.
It had been a long time since he was a hero. Long enough that he didn't bother counting the years anymore, but old habits die hard.
There were moments when simple things would kick old instincts back into his system. All it could take was detecting a simple movement from the corner of his eye, a shadow falling across the floor, or warm hands wrapping around his waist from behind.
But then he would turn back and see what he saw from the corner of his eye was a lone bird flying high in the sky, the moving shadow belonged to their cat as she jumped down from the back of a couch, and the heat he felt from those hands was meant to offer him comfort.
Some things were easy to get rid of throughout the years. Some weren't, but he supposed he had gotten better at leaving them behind and moving on.
It had been easier for him to do so since he met Touya again. Both of them were there for each other.
He yawned, moving to sit up and leave the bed, but the arm holding him tightened its grip and pulled him back.
Keigo chuckled softly, turning on his side to look at Touya, but he had his eyes closed. "Why are you up so early?"
"You woke me up," Touya replied, pulling Keigo closer to him, so that their bodies were completely pressed together.
"But I didn't even do anything."
Touya slowly opened his eyes and stared at Keigo. Blue was fixed on him, and Keigo found himself drowning in Touya's eyes. It wasn't the first time, but each time somehow left Keigo breathless, bewitched .
" Your eyes alone could have countless armies defeated in moments," Keigo had once drunkenly said. " You should've seduced your enemies instead of burning them back then. "
Touya had snorted, looking disinterested in what Keigo was telling him, but even drunk and sitting in the dark living room of Keigo's small apartment, Keigo could see his face flush red. Touya would argue that he had been drunk, but Keigo knew better.
"You're talking out of your ass, little bird," he lifted a hand and gestured at his face. "You already forgot what I was like? Nobody noticed crappy shit like that back then. All they would see were the burn scars."
Keigo had shifted uncomfortably in his spot then. Touya was right; even he hadn't bothered to look past his facade in the past. Too focused on his mission and duty as a hero to spare any thoughts about his villain contact. He had no reason to, anyway.
In lieu of a response, he had cupped Touya's face and kissed him.
"You're zoning out," Touya's voice brought Keigo back to the present. It felt like coming up to the surface after nearly drowning. Touya's eyes always had that effect on him.
"Just thinking," Keigo mumbled, tucking his face under Touya's chin and nuzzling his neck. Their feet were tangled, blankets covering them. Keigo considered re-attaching his wings to cover them both with - he liked wrapping his wings around them and feeling safe from anything that might hurt either or both of them - but then he remembered he was wearing one of Touya's shirts and put the thought aside.
"You always get lost in your own head. The sun isn't up yet. It's too soon to do that."
"I know," Keigo smiled when Touya gently kissed his head, his heart fluttering like the first time Touya closed the distance between them and instead of kissing him on the lips like Keigo had anticipated, kissed his forehead instead. Keigo had lightly laughed at Touya's embarrassed expression, his voice getting muffled after Touya finally kissed him on the lips to shut him up.
"Go back to sleep. You don't have shit to do today."
"We gotta clean the house," Keigo said, but he wasn't really protesting. His eyelids were getting heavy. "All the rooms and shelves. The garden, too."
Cleaning the house was an excuse. What Keigo actually wanted to do was touch every single thing that made their home home . The photographs - some of him and Touya during their trips and their wedding, one of Touya's Mom and siblings sitting all together in their little garden and one of Rumi as she held Touya in a headlock - the books Touya had bought over the years and arranged in alphabetical order - the knick-knacks Keigo had bought himself.
Sometimes, he couldn't believe he had found a home. Sometimes, he needed to prove to himself that he did.
"There's plenty of time for that," Touya said in a quiet voice. "Get more rest, Keigo."
As Touya's arms held him close to himself, Keigo distantly thought maybe his home was the place he had found for himself in Touya's arms.
Knowing that Touya felt the same was simply heartwarming to him.