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As soon as he felt the first droplet, Touya immediately regretted not checking the forecast before they left.
It was supposed to be a nice day, giving them more than enough time to find shelter, once they put some room between themselves and home. He had tried to plan it all out in advance. Maybe too in-advance. A week ago, it wasn’t supposed to be raining today.
Shouto looks up at the sky as he keeps walking, letting the rain fall on his face. Touya watches out of the corner of his eye, more of his focus on making sure he doesn’t trip on a crack in the sidewalk.
He doesn’t need any other bruises to add to the ones Touya knows litter his skin underneath the pants and hoodie he’s wearing.
—
Touya was tired.
The kind of tired that seeped into his bones more than the kind that held him back. A normal kind. It was worse some days than others, and today was one of them, but he wouldn’t let it hold him back.
So, he’d changed out of his day clothes into some of his fireproof training clothes, and gone to slip into the training room. One day, Dad had to let him get involved. It had to get boring training someone like Shouto all the time. Maybe today would be that day.
He grabbed the handle of the training room door with that hope settled deep in his chest.
He slid it open to feel that hope fizzle entirely.
Shouto was on the ground, one arm pinned awkwardly under his body (not broken, just pinned, Touya could tell), his other arm curled protectively around his head, and Dad was screaming at him. Touya had never heard him scream at him like that before. He hadn’t seen Shouto on the ground during training like that since they were little.
Every part of his body was screaming at him to move towards his twin, to do something, get in the middle the way he used to when he was trying to get Dad to look at him. Anything to get him to stop screaming, anything to get Shouto out of there, to check him for injuries in their room like he used to, even if it is just Shouto’s room now.
He couldn’t move. His blood roared in his ears, boiled under his skin, and it’s only that heat that made him realize that flames were flickering to life along his arms and shoulders, burning out before he could stop them.
It’s that that made Dad look at him. He moved his mouth. Touya couldn’t hear him, and even if he could’ve, he didn’t care what he had to say.
“Get away from him,” Touya said, core burning. He didn’t know if he was telling Dad to move or Shouto to. He repeated it anyways, flames burning hotter, higher. “Get away from him!”
The next thing he remembers is waking up with fresh bandaging over his arms, and Shouto’s own bruised arms clinging to him like a lifeline.
—
“Touya?” Shouto speaks up, grabbing onto his arm and stopping him mid-step, foot dropping into a puddle. “Do you know where we’re going?”
Touya presses his eyebrows together. “Of course I know where we’re going.”
“Where?”
“Away.”
“ Where? ”
“Does it matter? ” Touya asks, pulling his arm out of Shouto’s grasp. “We’re getting away from him. That’s the important part, right?”
—
“How long has he been doing that?” Touya asked, pressing his hands to one of Shouto’s older bruises and channeling just enough heat to ease it.
Shouto shrugged, eyes far from Touya’s. “Since before he sent Mom away.”
They used that metric a lot, lately, talking about the past, where time blurs a bit too much for any further specifics.
“You never told me.”
“I thought you knew.”
And God, that hurt. He should’ve known. He should’ve thought about the injuries he learned to treat young and realized.
“I’m sorry,” he says, warming his hands a little more.
—
There’s a crease in the center of Shouto’s forehead, barely visible past his wet hair. Touya would bet money that their faces are mirrors of each other right now.
“Is there any real plan?” he asks.
—
Touya slammed Shouto’s door open, hand firmly around his twin’s wrist as he dragged him in, grabbing the first functional item he saw and jamming it in the tracks of the sliding door.
“We’re leaving,” Touya said, breath heavy, skin burning even after his flames died out. “We’re leaving.”
“What?” Shouto asked, wrenching his arm out of Touya’s grip. “What are you talking about?”
“I have a plan. We’ll be okay if we leave, we can’t stay here. You can’t stay here.”
Shouto’s eyes were wide, terrified, a fresh bruise already forming on his cheek.
“Come on, my bag’s already on Sekoto Peak, pack. Clothes, anything.”
He wasn’t moving. Touya’s heart was ready to beat out of his chest. He couldn’t just wait for him to move again.
So he didn’t. He tore open Shouto’s closet and pulled out the first passable outfits he found, emptied his school bag onto the ground to have something to put it in, and then shoved it into Shouto’s hands.
“We have to go , Shouto,” Touya said, again, voice threatening to break with every word. How was he just frozen? How did he not get it?
“Okay,” Shouto responded, finally, taking his bag and hesitantly pulling it over his shoulder. “Okay.”
—
“There’s a plan,” Touya says, shaking his head. “I told you I have a plan.”
“What is it?”
“To– to get away and find somewhere safe.”
“And?”
“And–” Touya’s breath is getting caught in the back of his throat, he can’t breathe– “and–”
“You don’t know.” Shouto looks so resigned to it, raindrops slipping down his face, clinging to the ends of his hair.
Touya doesn’t have anything to say, his throat closing in on itself, his mouth clamped shut. The rain is coming down harder, now, hard enough for him to feel every drop through his clothes as it hits him. His hands clench into fists, tight enough that his arms start to shake, as he tries and fails to hold back the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
Shouto steps closer, right hand taking Touya’s left. The cold makes goosebumps start up along his arms, but it’s also the only thing reminding him to keep his own temperature down as tears start falling freely, dropping into the puddles at his feet as Shouto stands there, Touya’s hand in his, and waits.
“I’m sorry, I just– I couldn’t do it anymore,” Touya manages, after a few long minutes. “I couldn’t let Dad treat you like that.”
Shouto hums, squeezing Touya’s hand. “It’s okay.”
“I shouldn’t have said I had a plan. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this without a plan.”
“We can figure it out, Touya.” Shouto’s voice is firm, but gentle, and Touya’s first thought is that it sounds like how Mom used to talk to them.
He takes a deep breath, squeezes Shouto’s hand in a delayed response, and nods, raindrops falling from his hair and the last few teardrops falling from his chin.
“We’ll figure it out together,” he says, holding Shouto’s hand tight. “I’m not leaving you to deal with anything alone, again.”
“Okay. I’m not leaving you alone, either.”
Touya smiles, lips twitching upwards before he can stop it. Shouto’s eyes drift skyward once more.
“We should find somewhere dry.”
“Yeah. Right, yeah.”
Shouto doesn’t drop his hand, and Touya doesn’t drop Shouto’s. They walk side-by-side with no real destination in mind, and a starting place they can’t go back to.
They wouldn’t have it any other way.