Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Age 8

Keigo is perched on a rooftop. 

He’s not supposed to be here. His father will be mad if he finds out, but his mother won’t notice he’s gone. If he’s back soon there won’t be a problem. 

His feathers are bothering him again. Itching, tingling. Home was too cramped. He feels better up here. He can look over everything like a bird in the sky. There’s a 360 view of the city and anything in it that could cause trouble. The sight eases that bothersome buzz in his mind that something bad is going to happen. 

Keigo watches the sun glitter on the windows of high-rises. He follows the path of cars and counts the number of pint-sized people bobbing up and down the streets. 

His feathers are feeling better. His wings have settled. A breeze causes them to lift up as he sits. 

He’s contemplating leaving when he’s suddenly startled by the sound of something slamming. Metal clanks against brick and Keigo whips his head around to see a rooftop door flying open. 

Someone, a boy, storms out. He’s short, but taller than Keigo, with a head full of fiery red hair. Icy-blue eyes lock onto Keigo immediately. The boy looks upset, angry maybe. 

He sends Keigo a mean glare. Keigo tries to make himself smaller, curling up as his wings slowly close around him. He holds still as if he’ll blend in with the skyline behind him and the boy will forget he exists. 

It doesn’t work. 

“You’re not supposed to be up here,” the boy says. 

Keigo stays quiet. 

He should fly away, but the sound of the door frightened him. His wings are stiff as a board.

The boy tilts his head and appraises Keigo with judging eyes. He looks expectant. He must be waiting for Keigo to say something. When Keigo doesn’t and enough silence passes, the boy scoffs. 

“Why are you up here?” the boy asks, stalking closer. 

Keigo watches him carefully. He tracks each movement, eyes flicking from footsteps to burned hands to blue eyes. 

Again, Keigo doesn’t answer. The boy bristles at the silence. 

He’s closer now. Just two or three steps away. 

“I won’t tell anyone you’re here if you give me an answer,” the boy tells him. After another bout of silence from Keigo, the boy’s demeanor changes. His tense shoulders drop. The anger seared on his face simmers. 

In a mutter the boy says, “Or if you say anything at all.”

Realizing this boy isn’t a threat, Keigo’s feathers loosen and his wings go soft. He slowly turns his gaze to the city. 

He’s not sure what he wants to say, but if he wants to diffuse the situation, he knows he better say something. The other boy is waiting impatiently. His heated gaze burns a hole in the side of Keigo’s head. It makes Keigo want to squirm. He thinks of his mother's quirk and her tired eyes. 

He quickly tries to pull himself away from those thoughts.

He scrunches his nose and looks back at the impatient boy. 

“Are you allowed to be up here?” Keigo asks, nothing but genuine.

The boy looks offended. His mouth opens and closes, and then he huffs and says, “My dad works here.” 

“Oh,” Keigo says. 

He hopes the boy will let him stay here. He doesn’t really want to leave. There’s still time before he should be heading home. Moving to another building means there’s more risk of being seen. And if his dad hears that a winged kid was seen flying around the city, he’ll be in trouble. 

“Do your parents work here?” the boy asks, blue eyes still narrowed, but tense posture slowly unraveling.

“No,” Keigo answers. 

“Then why are you here?” 

Keigo doesn’t say. 

The boy sighs, blowing red bangs away from his forehead, and then he climbs up to sit next to Keigo. 

Keigo doesn’t know if this is a normal thing to do or not. Do other kids act mean and then sit down? Is Keigo supposed to leave? 

The boy pulls his knees to his chest, crosses his arms over them and rests his head on top, chin jutted out and a frustrated expression on his face. When he lets a breath out through his nose, Keigo realizes that maybe the boy isn’t as annoyed with him as he might be with something else. 

“Are you okay?” Keigo asks. 

“No,” the boy answers curtly. 

Keigo frowns and stares at the boy who now refuses to look at him. He really doesn’t know what to do. 

“Should I leave?” he asks. 

“I don’t care what you do.” 

Keigo’s thoughts get scrambled further. If the boy wants him to go, then why sit here? 

He decides to stay, blanketing himself with his wings to show he’s settling back into his spot. After a few awkward moments of watching the city next to the angry boy, the boy speaks again. 

“I needed to cool down somewhere.”

And now the boy is telling him things? Without being asked? Keigo is mystified.

He takes a stab at trying the same thing. 

“It’s nice up here,” he says. “You can see the whole city.” 

The other boy sniffs. 

“Guess so.” 

“I’m Keigo,” Keigo says. 

The boy glances at him, looking skeptical. Keigo tries offering him a smile, but it must look funny because the boy grimaces. 

“Touya.” 

“Touya,” Keigo says. He gazes at the city. “I like that name. Tou-ya . ”

He tries the name out a couple more times until Touya tells him to be quiet. He’s never heard Touya’s name before. It’s fun to say. 

He feels better sitting quietly now with Touya, even if he can feel Touya eyeing him down every couple of seconds. 

Eventually Touya’s eyes stick to him, causing Keigo’s feathers to shift uncomfortably. 

“Can you fly?” Touya abruptly asks, nodding at Keigo’s wings. 

Keigo’s not supposed to use them. He’s not supposed to be out of the house, let alone flying away from it. But Touya doesn’t know that, so Keigo answers honestly. 

“Yes.”

“Did you fly here?” 

“Mhm.” 

Touya doesn’t say anything else, but he sticks out his hand palm up and suddenly red flames spread across it. 

Keigo’s eyes widen. The fire is warm and coaxes Keigo out of his wings. He turns and leans forward to get closer. 

“Wow,” he whispers. 

Touya smiles, looking pretty proud of himself. 

“That’s so cool,” Keigo says. 

Touya’s smile softens. 

“Thanks.” 

Keigo tries smiling again and this time must be better because Touya doesn’t make a weird face. 

He douses out his fire and they sit for a little longer before Keigo has to go. 

“Thanks for not telling anyone I was up here,” Keigo says with a polite little bow after he stands. 

“Whatever,” Touya says, looking down at his shoe and flicking an invisible piece of rubble off of it. 

“Bye, Touya. It was nice meeting you.” 

“See ya, birdbrain.” 

When Keigo gets home, his mother is right where he left her, sitting with a blank face before a blank television screen. She’s lucid enough to stir at his presence, mentions to him that the remote isn’t working, and then he’s forgotten. He hears her mumble about his father. 

He wanders off to one end of the house and tries to sleep before his dad comes home. 

-

Keigo should probably pick a different rooftop, but he likes this one. The building is tall and closer to his house than others in the city. He thinks the view is particularly nice as well. He’s used to calming his mind and stretching his wings here. 

But he’s not used to someone else being around. 

“Oh, it’s you.” 

Keigo looks over his shoulder to see Touya in the frame of the rooftop door. 

Keigo hasn’t been here long, having only landed a few minutes ago. 

He tenses, wondering if Touya will tell him to leave.

“Are you cooling down again?” Keigo asks, quiet and timid. 

Touya just shrugs and takes a seat next to Keigo on the ledge. He doesn’t look at Keigo, instead he looks out at the city like Keigo does. He fiddles with multicolored bandages that are wrapped around his fingers. Keigo notices the angry red skin around the band-aids and remembers seeing burns on Touya’s hands the last time they met. 

He wonders if they’re from Touya’s quirk.

Keigo breathes in and rubs at his ribs. 

His mom was more on edge than usual last night. It happens periodically, like she suddenly remembers that his dad did something bad and that she’s harboring him in secret. His dad gets more angry on those days. 

“Who did that to you?” 

Keigo blinks and then stares at Touya, who must have spoken. 

Touya’s eyes are on Keigo’s arm. There’s a yellowing bruise there, purple in spots where fingertips dug into his skin. 

Keigo looks away, embarrassed. 

He pulls his arm to his chest and rubs his hand lightly over the marks. 

He should lie, but he doesn’t.

“My dad is a bad person,” he admits. 

Saying the words makes his stomach hurt. 

Touya goes stiff. 

Keigo doesn’t know if he should have told him. But he thinks that maybe he and Touya are friends and friends should be honest with each other. 

“My dad isn’t a good person either,” Touya huffs.
Keigo realizes belatedly that Touya has scooted closer. Closer now, Keigo can see the delicate color of Touya’s eyes and how his hair is fiery in the golden sunlight. He also notices that there are bandages wrapped around Touya’s arms, not just his fingers.
Keigo’s wings ruffle, feathers feeling funny. 

“How come you’re here again?” Touya asks. 

“I’m here a lot,” Keigo says. “My feathers get…itchy if I don’t use my wings. And sometimes they make me feel like something bad is going to happen. So I come up here and watch. It helps me feel better.” 

Touya hums and tilts his head to the sky. 

“Flying helps?” 

Keigo hums in answer and looks up at the sky too. 

“I won’t tell anyone if you want to fly up here,” Touya says. 

Keigo’s chest floods with warmth.

“Thanks, Touya,” he says softly. 

There’s a quiet moment where they both stare at the clouds slowly drifting overhead. There aren’t many, but the ones that are there are big fluffy splotches in the sky. Some hide shapes in their outlines like cookie cutters do. Others have wisps that curl into faces. One cloud looks like a hand with puffy fingers reaching across the sky. 

Keigo wonders if he should tell Touya. He wants to. That must be something friends do. 

“There’s shapes in the clouds,” he says quietly. 

Touya scrunches his nose. He presses his ear to his shoulder, turning his head as he continues to look up. 

“You’re right. I see a giraffe.”

“A giraffe?” Keigo questions. 

Touya lifts a pale hand and points to the cloud Keigo had been fascinated by a second ago.

“There.”

“That’s not a giraffe!” Keigo says. His own loud voice takes him by surprise. He shrinks in on himself, hoping Touya won’t get mad. His eyes drop to his hands. Softly, he adds, “It’s a hand.”

Touya squints at Keigo and then his blue eyes are back on the sky. He moves his head side to side, testing out angles, before saying, “Oh, I see it.” 

Keigo breathes a sigh of relief. Touya didn’t seem to mind his words nor the volume of his voice. 

“But,” Touya suddenly says, knocking his shoulder against Keigo’s, “ that one looks like a butterfly.” 

Keigo follows the guide of Touya’s hand to another white cloud, this one being pulled into four parts by the wind. Butterfly wings.

“A butterfly,” Keigo agrees quietly. 

He sits with Touya and watches clouds until it's time to fly home. 

-

The next day, Keigo is back again.
Touya is already there on the roof. Keigo accidentally startles him when he lands behind Touya’s turned back. Touya jumps from where he’s leaning against the roof’s three-foot lip and spins around.
“You shouldn't sneak up on people, birdbrain!” he declares. 

Keigo’s wings fold tight against his back.
“Sorry,” he says, looking shyly away.

Not only is he embarrassed for scaring Touya, but he also realizes he’s in the same clothes as yesterday. Touya probably notices and sees that Keigo’s clothes are a bit filthy too. Keigo’s cheeks burn. 

“It’s okay,” Touya says, though he wears a grumpy expression. 

“Okay.”

It’s a cloudless day, no shapes in the sky to talk about, so Keigo carefully approaches Touya where he sits on the ledge and takes a seat by his side. 

Touya assesses him from the corner of his eyes.

“You’d make a good spy,” he finally says, a smile on his face. 

“A spy?” Keigo parrots.

“Y’know, like in the movies?” 

Keigo’s wings sag.

“Oh, I haven’t seen any movies,” he says. 

Touya wrinkles his nose like he’s confused, but then he lifts his chin and says, “Spy movies are all the same. They go like this–” 

He suddenly hops off the ledge and tugs Keigo with him. Keigo’s wings fan out to balance him on his feet and he gives a chirp of surprise. Touya doesn’t say anything about the sound. 

“You be the owner of the casino,” Touya says.

“Casino?” 

“And I’ll be the main character,” Touya says. “Pretend we’re playing a card game.” 

Touya holds up his hands as if he’s fanning out some playing cards. Keigo tentatively mirrors him. 

“You ask me if I have the eight of diamonds,” Touya instructs.

“Do you have the eight of diamonds?” Keigo asks. 

Touya shakes his head.

“Go fish.”

“Go fish?”

“And then I ask you for the two of hearts. Do you have the two of hearts? You say yes.” 

“Yes,” Keigo repeats. 

Touya sticks out his hand and Keigo hands him the imaginary card. Touya tucks it into his imaginary hand of cards. 

“Well, well,” he says. “Looks like I won the game. I’ll take the money now,” Touya says. He’s acting, playing pretend, but Keigo doesn’t fully understand. Upon Keigo’s confusion Touya adds in a stage whisper, “I’m swindling you.” 

Keigo’s wings puff up.

“Hey!” he says. 

Touya grins and starts running to the opposite end of the roof. Keigo chases after him. Their play turns into a mess of laughter and shouting. Touya pretends to shoot at Keigo with his fingers, Keigo claims he dodges all the bullets. It turns into a game of tag, one boy chasing after the other over and over again. 

Eventually Touya resumes his place on the ledge. Keigo accidentally collides into him and goes rigid, worried that Touya will be angry. But instead Touya laughs. 

“My character gets away,” he tells Keigo. 

“And that’s how the movie goes?” Keigo asks. 

“That’s just the first scene,” Touya says. 

By the time Keigo has to bid goodbye and fly away, Touya has acted out half a movie for him. Keigo’s time on the rooftop ends with a fit of giggles. 

-

It’s nearly a week before Keigo comes back.
His dad had a scare with police while he was out and he stayed home for a few days in a row. He only left when Keigo’s mom started realizing there was no food. Keigo was already going hungry by then, but he didn’t dare say or word or lift a feather. The less he kept out of sight of his father, the better. 

Today his dad left again.
With his mother content watching tv, he slipped out the door and flew off to the same building in the city as usual. 

His wings are stiff from no use. They itch, the barbs buzzing all throughout the flight. When he lands on the rooftop gravel, he shakes out his feathers before perching on the ledge. 

He doesn’t focus on the city skyline as much as he usually does. His eyes keep flicking to the door behind him. He doesn’t understand why, but his heart pounds in his chest as he waits. He hopes Touya will show up.
He waits long enough, that the sun is starting to dip lower and lower on the horizon. Soon, it will disappear behind all the tall buildings. The breeze sweeping over the rooftop has a chill to it that makes Keigo wrap himself up in his wings. 

Just as he considers leaving, knowing the chances of his mom noticing his absence are increasing every moment, there’s the groan of the metal door. He swivels his head around and sees a familiar face. 

Touya does not look happy. There are angry tears in his eyes. He’s clutching a little kit. First-aid. 

Keigo’s wings droop at the sight. 

Touya sniffles a bit and then looks up, noticing Keigo for the first time. He wipes his eyes, but doesn’t hide his tears. 

Keigo flares out a wing on instinct and moves his hand out to the side, palm against the cement of the ledge. A small gesture to beckon Touya over. 

Touya sees and listens. 

He comes right over, sitting down and setting the medkit between the two of them. Keigo gently lets his wing press against Touya’s back. He’s never comforted anyone before, but he’s seen people on the tv do similar things. Throw an arm over someone’s shoulder, hold onto someone’s arm, kiss their cheek, ruffle their hair. 

Touya pops open the kit and pulls out spools of bandages. He keeps sniffing, tears dripping down his face as he unwinds them. His hands are shaking from too much emotion. The burns running up his arms are no help. 

“I can help,” Keigo offers as he watches Touya try and wrap up one arm. 

Touya gives him a quick look and then a roll of bandages is shoved into Keigo’s hand. He stays true to his word and starts rolling the spool around Touya’s arm. 

Touya had made it look so easy, even with trembling fingers. Keigo overwraps to make sure the bandages stay snugly in place. He’s almost to Touya’s elbow when Touya suddenly starts laughing. 

“You’re not very good at this,” he says with half a taunting smile.
Keigo flusters.
“I’ve never done this before,” he says in his defense, trying to look stern about the matter. 

“Here, I’ll show you,” Touya says, grabbing another roll out of the first-aid kit.
“But you’re hurt!” Keigo says. “I’m not done helping!”
The bandage on Touya’s arm starts to loosen, but he just shrugs. “I’m fine.” 

Keigo wants to protest but he gets distracted when Touya suddenly takes his hand. He unravels the wrap and begins looping it around Keigo’s wrist. 

“If you start here, it’ll secure the whole thing,” Touya says, then he begins weaving the bandages through Keigo’s fingers and bringing the wrap back over Keigo’s wrist and up his arm. Touya lists off instructions as he goes. Keigo watches intently and his feathers bristle every time Touya’s cool skin touches his own. 

“There,” Touya says once it’s all done.
Keigo’s arm is now pointlessly bandaged up, but now he knows what to do if he ever needs to help Touya again.
Touya keeps holding Keigo’s arm, presenting it to Keigo like a wrapped gift.
Keigo snorts and draws it to his chest. He runs the fingers of his other hand over the bandages.
Touya glances at Keigo’s unwrapped arm, observing the faded spots of where he had seen bruises before.

“Do you have one of these?” he asks, nodding to the kit.
Keigo shakes his head.
“You can have this one.” 

Keigo tries to refuse.
“But it’s yours!” he says.
“It isn’t,” Touya says. “The office has tons .”

They sit together for a while. The sun sinks lower. Touya talks about school, his siblings, his quirk, and Keigo listens. Eventually the conversation fizzles out into comfortable silence. 

It’s only when the city lights start turning brighter than the sky that Keigo decides to leave. 

“I have to go home,” he says softly.
He wonders why Touya has stayed up here so long. He wonders if anyone has noticed he isn’t inside. He wonders if anyone cares. 

“Okay,” Touya says, just as quiet. 

He lingers, as if he doesn’t want to leave.

“I’ll see you soon?” Keigo tries.

He cringes at how uncertain he sounds. He hopes he’s going about this whole making-friends thing right. 

Touya hops down from his spot on the ledge. 

Keigo flusters under the bright-eyed gaze that lands on him. Touya’s smile is strong. It makes Keigo want to smile too.

“Yeah,” Touya says.

-

The next time Keigo shows up, Touya makes an appearance a handful of minutes later. 

“Hi, Touya,” Keigo greets with a happy smile and wings fluttering behind him. 

Touya smiles back, blue eyes bright and pale face looking happy. But he moves stiffly. There are still bandages on his arms and after a quiet moment of observation, Keigo realizes Touya must be injured in other places too. 

“Are you okay?” Keigo asks. 

“I’m fine, are you ?” Touya responds teasingly, even sticking out his tongue at Keigo. 

Keigo breaks open with laughter. The sound is strange. A little hoarse, and birdish, the way someone who doesn’t laugh often sounds. 

“I’m doing fine, thank you,” Keigo says, repeating dialogue he heard on the television a few nights ago. 

It’s Touya’s turn to laugh. He snorts. 

“You talk funny sometimes,” he says. 

Keigo goes red. 

“Oh.” 

“I like it.” Touya says.

Keigo looks at Touya nervously, wondering if he’s making a joke, but he begins to smile again when he sees the smile on Touya’s face. Touya is a very honest person. 

They sit down together, shoulder to shoulder. 

“Do you have a favorite hero?” Touya asks. 

“Like the ones on tv?” Keigo says.
“Yeah.” 

“I think All Might,” Keigo says.

“Yeah, All Might is pretty cool,” Touya agrees, though for a moment his face looks like he ate something bitter. “I met him once.” 

Keigo’s little wings fan out.

“You met him?” he asks in awe.

“Yeah, at a hero gala.” 

Keigo’s face twists.

“A hero gala?” 

“Yeah, you know,” Touya says dismissively while circling his wrist in the air, “When all the heroes gather at a fancy place and raise money for charity. It all gets put on TV.”

Keigo tilts his head, quick like a bird. 

“Heroes are real?” he asks in his quiet voice. 

Touya turns to Keigo with a bewildered expression.

Keigo shrinks back from him. 

“Like…they aren’t just on tv?” he peeps.

Touya’s eyes only grow wider. 

“Of course heroes are real!” he suddenly explodes. 

He isn’t judging, just shocked. 

Despite being yelled at, Keigo’s heart hums in his chest. Heroes are real. If they’re real, then maybe someone will come save him. 

“How did you not know that?” Touya scoffs. 

Keigo shrugs, hoping Touya will let it go rather than make it even more clear that Keigo is different from him. From most kids. 

“I’ve only ever seen them on tv. I thought it was like a cartoon. Endeavor was on a cereal box!.”

Touya’s disgust grows. 

“Endeavor? Gross.” 

“I like Endeavor!” Keigo says, offended. 

He usually doesn’t raise his voice, but he knows around Touya he can. Touya’s safe.

“Endeavor sucks,” Touya says. “Pick a different hero to like.” 

“You’re being mean,” Keigo says, wings folding over his shoulders. 

Touya observes the movement Keigo makes.

“You’re right,” he sighs. “I am being mean. Sorry.” 

Keigo suddenly doesn’t feel like talking. He hugs his knees to his chest

Touya frowns when he watches Keigo fold in on himself. 

“I’m really sorry, Kei,” he says. “You can like whatever hero you want.” 

The name catches Keigo’s attention. It fills his ears and a pleasant feeling runs from his head to his toes. He looks up at Touya, still clutching his legs. Touya mistakes his silence as disapproval. 

He frowns more and takes a hesitant seat next to Keigo. There’s a gap big enough for another kid to sit down between them.

Touya looks at Keigo, who just stares back in return, and then he looks down at the gravel roof top. 

“I’m not being a very good friend, am I?” 

A trill instinctively rises in Keigo’s throat. He’s never made the sound before. 

“We’re friends?” he mumbles into his arms 

Touya’s eyes flit to him and then away again. 

“Yeah,” he says. “Aren’t we?”

Keigo suddenly smiles, shy and unsure. 

“We’re friends,” he agrees, lifting up his head. 

Touya smiles back at him. 

“Good. And since we’re friends, you can tell me if I’m being mean. And I promise to stop.” 

Keigo isn’t sure what to say. 

“I don’t really…I don’t have other friends,” he admits.

Touya is unbothered by the statement.

“Neither do I,” he grins instead.

Oh, Keigo thinks. He thought Touya would have lots of friends. 

Touya doesn’t seem to dwell on what he’s said. He reaches his arms over head and stretches before scooting closer to Keigo.

“Guess that makes you my best friend,” he says.

“Best friend,” Keigo repeats in a whisper, eyes sparkling. 

“Yeah, best friend,” Touya assures him. 

Keigo’s wings flap a few times without his notice. Touya watches with mild interest and smiles. Keigo should be embarrassed but he just smiles too. He stares at his best friend and for the first time in a long time he feels a burst of happiness. It makes him feel weightless, like he’s doing loops in the air. 

He wants to see Touya everyday. He wants to talk to him and learn from him and do all the things friends are supposed to do with each other. 

“Are you here everyday?” Keigo asks. 

Touya shakes his head and Keigo tries not to look disappointed. 

“No, most of the time I’m at school or at home,” he says. 

“Oh.”

“Where do you go to school?” Touya asks. 

Keigo’s wings sag. He looks away from Touya. The burning feeling of embarrassment washes over him. 

“I don’t go to school,” he mumbles. 

“Hah, that’s awesome,” Touya says, seemingly oblivious to Keigo’s discomfort. 

Keigo wrinkles his nose and his wings fluff up.

“It’s not awesome,” he says, looking at Touya in confusion.

Touya blinks back at him, eyes lazily half-open as he processes Keigo’s words. Then he breaks into a smile.

“Yes it is.” He grins. “No school means no homework.”

Keigo frowns.

“But I don’t get to learn anything,” he says. 

Touya leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. He plops his chin on his hands and holds his head.

“What do you want to learn?” he asks. 

Having never been asked that before, Keigo takes a moment to think.

“How to be a hero,” he eventually says. 

Touya huffs a laugh through his nose. 

“I’ll teach you how,” he promises. 

-

The next time Keigo sees Touya, it’s been a few days. Keigo came to the rooftop a couple times before but Touya was absent. Today, he’s already there and he watches Keigo land. He looks grumpy, arms crossed over his chest and restless from impatience. 

“Fight me!” Touya demands when Keigo’s feet are on the ground. 

“Fight you?!”

Touya is already charging.

Keigo yelps and his wings take him off his ground before Touya can reach him. Touya doesn’t hold back. He lobs a ball of red fire in Keigo’s direction. Keigo ducks, but can feel the heat as it passes by. Touya’s fire is hot like the sun on a cloudless day. 

“Touya, I don’t want to fight!” Keigo cries.

“Well I do!” Touya shouts, throwing more fire Keigo’s way. 

Keigo darts to the otherside of the roof and 

“You said to tell you when you’re being mean. You’re being mean!” 

“I don’t care!” Touya snaps, storming over. 

That’s when Keigo notices the shine in Touya’s eyes, how delicate long lashes are clumped together from old teardrops. 

“Touya,” Keigo says, reaching out towards him, concerned. 

He’s met by a wall of flames that he jumps back from. 

“Hero lesson number one: don’t let your guard down!” Touya huffs. 

He’s determined to have a scuffle and his determination makes Keigo nervous. His wings are flammable. One spark and Touya could accidentally burn them away. Keigo almost considers asking Touya to stop again, but before he can, Touya is suddenly yanking Keigo out of the sky. They tussle on the ground for a moment, Keigo scrambling to get away and Touya scrambling to pin him down. 

Touya gets a good grip on Keigo’s arm, holding them to Keigo’s sides, and shoves his face towards the ground. On instinct, Keigo’s wings defensively fan out and Touya gets a faceful of feathers. He shouts at Keigo, but his war cry is cut short by a sneeze. 

Touya pauses, his manners leading him to turn his sneeze into his elbow. Keigo seizes the moment to bounce back. He lunges at Touya and pins him down. 

Touya could throw Keigo off him easily, but he’s too stunned at Keigo’s success.

He stares up with wide blue eyes, red hair falling in front of his face. Keigo sits on top of him, exhilarated and exhausted. 

Touya sneezes again and in the wake of his sneeze, Keigo starts laughing. 

It starts as something quiet, like the first morning bird, but then it grows. Keigo’s mind replays smacking Touya with his feathers and changing the course of the fight, all because Touya sneezed. His laughter becomes infused with genuine joy. His giggles become boisterous. His whole body shakes. 

And then Touya begins to laugh because Keigo’s laughter is infectious. Touya practically glows as he laughs. He laughs so hard that his eyes squeeze shut and he holds a hand to his stomach. 

When he stops laughing, Touya says, “Ready for hero lesson number two?” He looks determined again, but this time there’s no desperate anger in his eyes. Instead there’s a flicker of joy. Neither he nor Keigo knew fighting could be fun. 

-

Keigo doesn’t know why his wings are so bothersome today. They itch for movement and twitch as if invisible hands ruffle them up. It makes Keigo restless. His ears buzz, his leg won’t stop bouncing. Even in his usual spot with a perfect view of the cityscape, Keigo isn’t at ease. 

Usually he finds calm up here. The wind is like a balm for the itch, the view assures Keigo he can fly wherever he may be needed. But today, nothing helps. He sits, uncomfortable and frustrated. Tears well in his eyes but the muscles in his face don’t move. His parents hate when he cries. It's not the tears that upset them. It must be something about the way his face moves that always sends his dad into a fit when he cries or makes his mom start rambling. Keigo has learned to still his emotions.

The tears come, but nothing else shows on his expression. 

When Touya shows up, he doesn’t even realize anything is wrong until Keigo’s tears catch in the sunlight. 

“You’ve been crying,” Touya states.

Keigo quickly palms at his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he says. 

Touya frowns. “It’s okay.”

Keigo’s throat becomes tight, like he swallowed something hard and it won’t go down. 

He tries to fight the feeling. 

“I don’t know why, but my wings are giving me a lot of trouble today,” he explains. 

“Do they hurt?” Touya asks.

Keigo shakes his head.

Touya lifts his head up from his hands.

“They just…” Keigo can’t find any other way to put it so he says, “they won’t stop talking to me.” 

Touya assesses Keigo for a moment. He draws back from the rooftop ledge and inspects the wings on Keigo’s back like he’s evaluating how to fix a problem. 

“Hmm,” he hums.

Keigo’s left wing flaps, sensing the slight rumble in Touya’s voice that he gets when he tries to sound older than he is. 

Without warning, Touya plunges his hand into Keigo’s wing. Keigo chirps in response, startled. Before he can fully comprehend the sensation of Touya’s hand on his feathers, a new sensation overwhelms him. Touya carefully cards his hand through Keigo’s wings, righting misplaced feathers. An instant calm washes over Keigo. 

“Does this help?” Touya asks. 

“Yes,” Keigo answers.

His wings naturally push into the touch, feathers fluffing between Touya’s fingers.

“We learned at school that birds preen themselves. They use their beaks to fix their feathers.” 

“I’m not a bird,” Keigo says.

Touya shrugs. “You kind of are. You’ve got wings. And you chirp.” 

Keigo chirps again and shakes a wing.

He’s so used to being quiet at home that he forgets his bird-ish tendencies. 

“You learn about birds in school?” he asks. 

“Sometimes. In my science class,” Touya explains. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell you about everything I learn.” 

Keigo’s mind fills with thoughts of birds. He wonders how many bird things he can do. 

Touya’s hand warms as he continues to fix Keigo’s feathers and Keigo trills. 

“Thanks, Touya,” he says. 

Eventually all of Keigo’s feathers are back in order. They bother him less. His wings still ache to soar and his feathers still warn him that danger could be around every corner, but they don’t itch anymore. Even with all feathers righted, Touya doesn’t stop stroking Keigo’s feathers. 

When Keigo steals a glance, Touya has a faraway look in his eyes. So Keigo lets him keep brushing fingers through feathers. 

They both revel in the comfort of each other. 

-

Touya is running his fingers through Keigo’s feathers again. He’s been doing that a lot more now. Especially on days like this, when a first aid kit lays between them and Keigo has Touya’s injured arm in hand. 

“What do you want to be when you grow up, Touya?” he asks as he works. 

“A hero,” Touya says. 

Keigo's wings flutter. 

“Why?”

Touya is silent for a moment. His hand stops moving through Keigo’s wings. 

“I have to be,” he says, staring gravely at the bandages Keigo wraps around his arms. “If I’m not, there’s nothing else for me.” 

Keigo fumbles with the final wrap. 

He looks at Touya with concern. He doesn’t like the way he’s talking. But he doesn’t know how to put his worry into words. He assumes most kids wouldn’t have an answer like that. 

“What about you?” Touya quickly asks. He sniffs and grins, adding, “Wanna be a doctor or something?” 

Keigo tilts his head, confused, but then he looks from Touya’s smug expression to the freshly finished first-aid. 

“A doctor?” he parrots, wings puffing up. “No, I wanna be a hero too!” 

Touya doesn’t look pleased with that.

“And why do you wanna be a hero?” 

Keigo’s answer comes easily. 

“I want to help people.” 

It’s a quick answer, but so honest that it stuns Touya for a moment. He looks at Keigo, almost dumbfounded, lips parted and eyes searching for something to ease his confusion. Keigo’s answer starts to settle and his shock melts away. 

“Yeah,” he says. “That’s a pretty good reason.” 

“We could start an agency together!” Keigo chirps. 

Touya tsks in response. 

“I wish,” he says bitterly, “but if I become a hero, I’ll be stuck with my father’s agency.” 

“Your dad is a hero?! How come you never – oh.” 

It feels like a bucket of ice-water raining down on him. Flashes of Touya’s injuries and his tears go through Keigo’s head. My father isn’t a good person, Keigo had once said. Mine isn’t either, Touya had answered. 

Keigo’s wings droop. The realization weighs heavy on his heart. 

Touya looks uncomfortable. Typically, he’s a bleeding heart, emotions sewn on his sleeve. But he hides away from this topic, fencing himself in. 

Quietly, he mutters, “Not all heroes are good people.” 

It’s a hard lesson learned. Keigo tries to take it on the chin, but it bruises and aches. 

-

One afternoon, Keigo is creeping his way through his house to leave. His father has been gone for a few days and his mother has been quiet. But when he moves past the living room, the television is off and the spot she sits in is empty. He frowns, wings tentatively stretching out to sense her. 

His feathers pick up her racing heartbeat in the kitchen. 

Something is wrong. 

He should go to her. He should see if she’s okay.
But he wants to see Touya and he knows she’s distracted enough that he can slip out the door. He passes by the kitchen entryway and has a hand on the doorknob when suddenly he feels the eyes of his mother. 

“Your father has been arrested,” his mother says.

Keigo freezes, hand clenching the doorknob.

His mother looks frantic. She bites at her nails. Her extra eyes shake in the air.

“By that hero – Endeavor,” she says. 

Endeavor.

A hero. 

An unsettling feeling begins to fill Keigo’s stomach. 

“They’re going to find us,” his mother mumbles. “I’ll be arrested for harboring a fugitive.”

Keigo doesn’t listen. He’s still stunned at the fact that his dad is gone and it's Endeavor who helped. A hero has saved him.

“We have to go,” she says. 

Keigo tunes back in. 

“Go?”

His hand cramps from how tightly he holds the doorknob. He can’t let go. 

“We have to get out of here. Before the police come. We’re moving.” 

“But…” 

He doesn’t mind leaving. He doesn’t want to stay in this house. Not with its rotting wood and hoarded filth. But he wonders how far they’ll go. His mother seems nervous, scared. She wants to run and what if she doesn’t stop? 

What if they move to a new town, a new prefecture? 

He wouldn’t even have a chance to say goodbye to Touya. 

He doesn’t have time to think about the matter. His mother is already hurrying him out the door. They don’t pack a bag. There’s nothing to pack. There aren’t any clean clothes lying around and they have no money. 

His mom drags him out of the house and she doesn’t stop, just like he worried.

Keigo fears he’ll never see Touya again.