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“Congratulations on getting out of that pretty cage of yours, Hero.”
Dabi… Touya’s voice was rough but thin, it didn’t even have enough air behind it to be properly called a whisper. Keigo could follow Touya’s eyes to where his wings used to be before slowly moving to make proper eye contact. It was hard seeing him like this.
“Not a hero,” Keigo corrected, surprised his own voice didn’t hold the anger he thought would be there, “not anymore.”
It was unnerving how still Touya was. Dabi had always been one to put so many little motions in everything he did. Now, all he could do was struggle to move his eyes and speak a few precious words a day. Today’s were, for some inexplicable reason, granted to Keigo who had been requested to come while Enji was busy with his own post-war care.
“You’ll always be a Hero, license or not, quirk or not. You were always so annoying in that way, little bird.”
Keigo let the old nickname wash over him. He held it for a moment in his chest before letting it settle into his bones. Dabi rarely called him little bird and he knew what he was doing by using it now.
“Not a little bird anymore either, Touya,” Keigo said solemnly, but he smiled up at his lover, to let him know he wasn’t trying to be mean.
There was a long silence and Keigo wondered if that was all Touya had in him today. While he was contemplating if he should leave or not Touya spoke again.
“What are you going to do now?”
Now that Hawks is gone.
Keigo felt his face pull into his feral grin because Touya was right, maybe he did still have that heroic streak that just couldn’t be torn out of him along with his wings. He wasn’t sure why he had been unsure of his decision to take the job, of course, he was going to do everything he could to fix what had been broken long ago and revealed through the violence of those who were sick of the system.
“I’m going to take the key to my
pretty cage
and make sure no one ever gets locked inside of it again.”