Chapter Text
Keigo’s life was honestly amazing.
Ever since him and Touya had become friends, things had genuinely been going a lot better for him. It’s not that there had been anything wrong with his life before, it had just been… lonely. Of course, thanks to his handlers, he knew he had to start preparing for that – heroes don’t get to have personal lives, Hawks. He still appreciated what he had with Touya, though, even if it wouldn’t be his reality in the future.
“I’m so glad we became friends,” Keigo sighed wistfully.
Him and Touya sat under an oak tree in the back garden of the Todoroki home. It was the spot they’d meet most often, now that Keigo was finally allowed to leave the Training Centre again. When Keigo was still grounded as punishment, they had to sneak around the building, which proved difficult when their handlers, and even the President herself, seemed to be everywhere.
“Sappy much?” Touya snorted, but Keigo could still hear the affection in his voice. He decided not to point out the fact that Touya was currently lovingly playing with Keigo’s feathers; if he did, the older boy would get embarrassed and stop, and he didn’t want that, either.
They were both silent for a minute, and Touya eventually said, “Me too, Birdie,” in a voice so quiet Keigo almost couldn’t hear.
There were a lot of instances like that between the two of them. They were together almost all the time, which lent itself to sappy conversations. They had training together, and despite their handlers’ distaste of their friendship, even they had to admit they made good partners in combat. Between that, their regular classes, and hanging out in their free time, Keigo and Touya spent almost every waking hour together. Keigo still had his private lessons to attend, but besides that, they were barely seen apart.
There was just one thing that got in the way, ruining their bliss: their respective home lives. It was the one thing they couldn’t agree on, the one thing that kept coming up.
When Touya had forgiven him after everything that had happened back in September, Keigo assumed that meant he had acknowledged the abusive tendencies of his father, the No. 2 Pro Hero. Keigo thought it was fairly obvious, based on what he’d seen and pretty much anything Touya said about the man. He didn’t even realize it was something up for discussion. Except when he brought it up, it didn’t go well at all.
“And he thinks he’s so fucking cool,” Touya had droned on, telling Keigo about his latest training session with Endeavor. “And-”
“I don’t know why you even train with him anymore,” Keigo interrupted, getting increasingly angry every time Touya mentioned his father. He didn’t mind listening to Touya rant, but he did hate hearing about him hurting in so many different ways.
Touya’s eyebrows knitted together. “What do you mean ‘why I train with him’?”
“Seriously?” Keigo asked, genuinely surprised Touya didn’t get what he was hinting at. “You spent the last ten minutes ranting to me about how much he sucks, how he makes you feel bad about yourself, how he basically beats you during training. He’s abusive and I just don’t get why you let him do that to you.”
Touya had the audacity to laugh. “Endeavor’s an asshole, but he’s not abusive.”
“I saw what he did to you. I’ve listened to countless other stories since then. I know.” Keigo was getting a little desperate, not believing Touya could be so oblivious to what was happening.
“What you saw was training, Kei,” Touya’s voice was low now and forcibly even, the way Keigo knew it got when he was started to get upset. “Don’t go around making claims you don’t understand.”
“Touya, you have burns and bruises all the time,” Keigo said, grabbing Touya’s sleeve and pointing at his arm for proof. “Not to mention your freaking hair!” Moving his hand to gesture at Touya’s hair, which in the past month that he’d known him went from adorable white speckles, barely noticeable in the sea of red, to harsh streaks that dominated the colouring. Touya claimed it wasn’t a big deal and just came from stress, but Keigo didn’t buy it.
“That’s all a part of training, Kei,” he said, swatting Keigo’s hand away and shoving down his sleeve. “You of all people should understand that. Besides, you don’t see me ragging on you for the Commission’s abuse.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he dismissed immediately. “You’re just trying to change the subject because you don’t want to talk about yourself.”
“Really, Keigo, are you serious?” Touya asked, a bit sarcastically. “You literally had a broken ankle from what they put you through just last month!”
“That was a one time thing! I almost always get healed; I was just being punished for making a dumb decision. It’s not like they’d let that happen if it wasn’t my fault.”
Touya stared at him for a second. “Do you even hear yourself?” he asked incredulous.
Keigo’s eyes narrowed, and he spoke carefully. “I’m training to be the No. 1 Hero, things have to be different for me, Touya. At least I know my handlers and the President support me and my decisions.”
“Support your decisions? They make all your decisions for you, Kei! They decide what you wear, what you do, what you eat for lunch – and that’s when they’re pleased with you!”
“They’re only doing what’s best for me,” he replied defensively, a small pout appearing on his face. “These are important things to consider when you’re training to be the No. 1 Hero. They’re just making sure I’m able to stay on my path. Training, decisions – that’s all a part of it.”
“And what the fuck do you think I’m training to do, Kei? I want to be No. 1, too, better than my stupid ass dad and better than All Might. I’m not saying I like the man, but what Endeavor puts me through is training. He may be a dick, but he’s not abusive. Not really.”
“Neither is the Commission,” Keigo replied, pettily.
Touya looked like he wanted to say more, but he forced a couple of deep breaths. “Agree to disagree?” he suggested.
Keigo sighed. He wasn’t ready to let this go, but at the same time, he hated fighting with Touya. “Agree to disagree,” he confirmed.
“Great!” Touya said, putting an arm around Keigo and ruffling his hair with the other. “Now, why don’t we go get you some government-approved ice cream?”
For someone who could hear what was going on outside field of vision with his feathers, Keigo still jumped when Touya grabbed him from behind, whispering, “Come with me.”
“Where are we going?” Keigo asked immediately, as Touya pulled him by the arm down a hallway. “We have training in five minutes.”
Touya turned and flashed him a mischievous grin, his blue eyes shining. “C’mon, Kei, don’t you trust me?”
Keigo rolled his eyes. If there was one thing he had learned form hanging out with Touya over the past couple months, it was that his answer should’ve been no. Touya had basically no regard for the rules and had gotten them in trouble a handful of times. So far, it’d been nothing that they couldn’t talk their way out of, but still… he was terrified of the President finding out. Except Keigo had also learned that whenever he did agree to go along with Touya’s plans, he usually ended up having a blast. And the training was just hand to hand combat, something Keigo and Touya were both fine at. So with only slight protest, he grumbled out a, “Yes,” and let himself be dragged by Touya.
Touya led him down the hallway and out a side door. Keigo was honestly surprised no alarms went off. Stupidly, he realized that he’d never actually tried to leave the building using an actual door without his handlers present, opting to fly out his window any time he had exited alone.
Touya grinned at him. “Some of us can’t fly, birdy. We gotta get out somehow.”
Keigo smiled back. “I’m just not used to peasant travel, that’s all,” he joked.
“Peasant travel? Fine, then. Good luck keeping up, my lord,” Touya snarked with an overexaggerated bow.
Touya took off running and Keigo readied his wings to take off for flight. As if reading his mind, Touya turned around, yelling, “No quirks! You can’t fly and I won’t throw flames in your path!”
Keigo rolled his eyes and flew just far enough to catch up with the older boy. Touya scowled at him.
“Now no quirks,” Keigo said firmly, taking off at a run and pulling slightly ahead of Touya, though it didn’t last for long.
The Commission Training Centre was fairly large. The building itself was ginormous, with multiple different wings to house its training rooms, labs and living quarters for the few other heroes in training like Keigo who stayed overnight. The building was nothing compared to the grounds, though. There were acres upon acres surrounding either side of the building. There was open field that bled into forest which was then closed in by a big gate. It usually didn’t feel too big to Keigo; he could fly over the entire thing in mere minutes with his speed. But running on foot with Touya made it feel like the greenery dragged on forever.
“Where are we going?” Keigo groaned as he tried to keep pace with an excited Touya.
Though he hated to admit it, Keigo, while unmatched in speed when he flew, wasn’t actually the fastest runner. It was all because of his wings. While he’d gotten use to maneuvering with them when he was younger, he’d never quite learned how to be particularly fast on foot with them – it wasn’t part of his regular training at the Commission, with everything being so focused on his flight and his feathers. It was something his handlers had recently discovered, though, and put him in rigorous training to fix. They were almost disgusted when they had found out, and rightfully so, too, not realizing quite how behind Keigo really was in some of his physical, non-quirk related training. He understood their disappointment and was thankful for it – honestly it was pathetic he hadn’t successfully fixed the issue on his own. He now started every day with a morning jog at 5am. It had only been a week and he was already showing some improvement, but clearly not enough to beat Touya.
“You’ll see!” Touya said excitedly. “We’re almost there.”
Touya’s definition of ‘almost there’ was ten more minutes of running. Keigo very quickly switched from actively trying to beat Touya in the race to desperately trying not to lose sight of him completely. Least Keigo end up lost in this forest, or worse, Touya tease him for it.
He succeeded, but barely, Touya already having stopped and settled down by the time Keigo rolled up to the area.
“I thought you were supposed to be known for your speed,” Touya mocked. “Can’t even beat a mere fire-user in a race.”
“I know, it’s pathetic,” Keigo said solemnly. “Can’t call myself a hero, let alone the fastest, when I can’t even run a simple 5k.”
Touya’s expression dropped slightly. “Whoa, Kei, I was just kidding,” he backpedaled. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“You can’t be a good if you’re not tough on yourself.”
“Yeah, there’s a difference between being tough on yourself and actively hating on yourself,” Touya corrected. Then he added, “Despite what they tell you.”
Keigo sighed. “I thought we weren’t going to do that anymore,” he countered. “Or should I start bringing up the ways you’ve been too hard on yourself?”
“No, you’re right,” Touya relented, hands up in the air as surrender. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” Keigo said, taking the time to look around the scenery for the first time since stopping.
They were in a clearing of the forest that was covered in bright green grass. The space looked about the size of his bedroom, which kind of surprised him – not because his bedroom was big, but because from above you couldn’t tell there was any patches in these woods, so even this small section was shocking. Keigo looked up and confirmed his suspicions that the branches hung low and wide enough that they managed to cover the area from the sky almost entirely – you could just see the sun barely peaking through. Keigo sat down in one of the few small sunny areas. Touya plopped down next to him, lying down on his back with one leg bent and the other laying across that knee.
“This is my secret hideout,” Touya told Keigo after a moment of silence. “Before I met you, this is where I’d come on hard days of training or whenever I didn’t want to go home.”
“It’s nice,” Keigo answered. “Peaceful.”
The peacefulness of it lasted all of five minutes before being broken by Touya and Keigo rolling around on the ground wrestling.
“I can’t believe you think All Might is better than Crimson Riot!” Keigo exclaimed, playfully pushing Touya.
“All Might is literally the No. 1 Hero, I can’t believe you think some top 10 wannabe stands any chance against him,” Touya replied, using his feet to push Keigo away.
Keigo rolled to the side and sprang up, ready to defend himself against Touya’s oncoming attack. “All Might is just so overrated!” he grunted as he pushed Touya down and laid on top of him. “What’s so special about him, anyways?”
“What’s special is that he’s No. 1,” Touya replied, squirming underneath Keigo and gaining leverage.
“And what could be more interesting,” Touya continued, grabbing Keigo’s side and flipping him, so that Keigo was pinned beneath him, “than being on top?”
Keigo dramatically fell back down as he was poked, pouting. “No fair,” he whined. “The sun got in my eyes!”
“Aw, poor little Hawksie,” Touya mocked. “Bested by the sun!”
Keigo was about to counter when he heard a small rustling somewhere in the distance. Amongst the shading of the trees, he noticed a tiny shadow across the clearing that moved differently. He strained to hear whatever it was, but the forest seemed suddenly silent except for Touya’s breathing. Perhaps it could have been an animal or something – though Keigo had never seen any animals around the CTC – but he had an uneasy feeling. He focused for a second, using his feathers to discover that someone was indeed around them somewhere.
“Touy, someone’s here,” Keigo said urgently, but quietly.
Touya eyebrows crinkled in confusion as he slowly rolled off Hawks. “No one else knows about this spot,” he insisted. “And I don’t see anyone.”
“I can sense them with my feathers,” Keigo explained. “I’m sure of it.”
Touya looked at him for a second before nodding. “Okay,” he said finally. “What do we do?”
Keigo supressed his shock. Touya was turning to him for leadership. He was in charge here. He wanted to dwell on that more, question the decision, even, but there was no time for that. This was exactly what he’d been trained for. This was his chance to prove himself.
“This is Commission grounds, so we are allowed to use our quirks,” Keigo began. He rustled his feathers. “I sense that the presence is close, but I can’t tell size or shape or anything. We could be dealing with someone with some sort of invisibility or camouflage quirk. Or perhaps maybe-”
Before Keigo could even finish his sentence, a giant person was standing in front of him. They were at least four times his height, so tall that Keigo had to crane his neck, and even then, still couldn’t properly see their face. From what he could see, they were probably human, despite their alarming size. Female, it seemed. She appeared to have a pretty thick build, although he wasn’t sure how much that meant with a quirk that changed your size.
He flew up to her eyelevel to get a better look. She had black hair, tied back in a tight ponytail, and piercing eyes, so dark they were nearly black. She looked fairly young for an adult, though Keigo couldn’t pinpoint exactly how old. Nothing about her face or her posture gave away what she was thinking. She was just standing there, unmenacingly, almost completely still, with her face was blank and unreadable.
“Who are you and why are here?” Keigo asked, trying to keep his voice steady and confident.
The woman did not reply, just continued to stare at him blanky.
“I demand you state your purpose here,” he tried again. “You are on the grounds of the Hero Public Safety Commission. This is trespassing.”
Keigo stared directly into the eyes of the woman, who still didn’t offer a response. He carefully weighed his options. The first question was whether this was test. The idea that someone broke into the CTC unnoticed was highly unlikely. Keeping people away was half the purpose of this giant forest and grounds, after all. It was unlikely they’d gotten this close to the building without someone finding out.
On the other hand, the idea that his handlers noticed he wasn’t at training and decided to send him a little… surprise, was incredibly likely. Except, Keigo didn’t recognize this person or their quirk at all. He definitely had taken stalk of not only his five handlers’ quirks, but also the ones that were assigned to the other kids in the program. He didn’t remember anyone having a size quirk at all, but it wouldn’t be impossible to think the Commission had outside employees ready to be brought in for this sort of thing.
Either way, real or fake, his best course of action was to treat it as though it was real. It’s what his handlers would expect – “How could you be sure it was just us, Hawks? Is that how you would act when you’re a Pro Hero?” – and truthfully the smarter option, anyway.
The first thing he did was send a feather back to the building. He’d been doing a lot of recent training to explore the different uses of his feathers. He had been tasked to find new and creative ways to use them for battle and communication, and then to practice and perfect those methods. One of the methods he’d discovered was sending a singular feather as a sort of SOS signal to ask for help and lead them to the area of danger. It was a clever idea that nearly impressed his handlers, except for the fact he wasn’t entirely able to execute it. He was able to control his feather without seeing them, something he’d mastered nearly a year ago, but he wasn’t yet able to do that and other things. Such as fight. Or distract a villain. Controlling an out-of-sight feather took all of his attention, and even then, it was still really difficult if the distance was too far, or it was an area with which he was unfamiliar. Both of which were true right now. But if this was a test, he knew his handlers would expect him to at least try, and if it wasn’t, he definitely needed to attempt to get backup as soon as possible. Either way, Keigo’s lack of skill in this particular area made it a lose-lose situation, but it was still better then nothing.
Keigo’s feathers were also pretty strong, so in theory he could handcuff the villain, which is something he had practiced and was decent at, but he wasn’t sure it would hold with someone this large. He could tie his feathers together to make a band of any size, but what if the super-sizing came with super strength as well? If the opportunity arose it might be worth a shot, though banking on it seemed like a risky choice.
Him and Touya could fight, too, obviously, but that required violence and actually hurting someone. It could be a last resort, but he didn’t want to be the first to initiate a violent situation – that would be very un-hero like.
He supposed that left him with more talking.
“I’ve notified staff from the Commission of your presence,” Keigo informed them, stretching the truth only a little and therefore not feeling bad about it. “They’ll be on their way shortly. You’d best be advised to vacate the premises before they get here.”
There was a beat before the woman disappeared before Keigo’s eyes. Fortunately, his eyesight was very good, so even though he was way up in the air it only took him a second to locate the now mouse-sized figure on the ground.
Looking down at the ground, he also saw Touya, looking confused and desperately trying to find their enemy.
“There!” Keigo shouted, diving down to the spot just in front of Touya where the woman now stood.
As soon as Keigo spoke, she grew again, standing significantly taller than Touya, but not quite as tall as before. Keigo wasn’t expecting the sudden size shift, and he ended up crashing into the woman’s surprisingly sturdy back. He crumbled to the ground. He recovered quickly, but not quickly enough to stop the woman from grabbing Touya by the arm and throwing him into a tree.