Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Staring was not Touya’s thing; his brand of eye contact was just as shameless as it was hypnotic. His sultry, often tired, blue eyes lured people closer in a way that could make Bela Lugosi himself roll in his vampiric grave.

It’s been said that the best way to catch a fish is to make it think it’s escaping, the skill of luring one in being a simple game of pulling and relaxing the line. Giving casual interest, but not too much. Touya had quickly learned how a cursory glance across a room could effectively reel in his catch by the way it made them starve for his gaze, teasing them into the chase. 

Staring in its most juvenile and bold form was Shouto’s thing, and he did it unabashedly with a wide-eyed blank face that was somehow both adorable yet disconcerting. Especially to those who had only just met the young boy. Touya would never forget the confused and concerned expression Rumi gave Keigo the first time she saw Shouto staring over the rim of his Shirly Temple glass until he gingerly pointed to the maraschino cherries he wanted more of. 

So why was it that, during a stroll through the park on a rare day off with Shouto and Keigo, Touya found himself staring.  

Staring like a kid that wanted nothing more than to dive into that whole fucking jar of those damn cherries until his blood mainly consisted of red dye 40.

“This is the right blue!” 

Touya ripped his eyes away from casually looking in Keigo’s vague vicinity in favor of turning his full attention to his little brother. The nine-year-old proudly held a tiny blue flower clutched high in his small fist like he was anxiously holding it to be judged by the sky itself while simultaneously demanding, “G-Get the board! Get the board, Keigo!”

A smile and an amused huff was knocked out of Touya, a sense of pride hitting him from how Shouto’s voice was gradually taking on a new confident cadence that years in their father’s household had previously ripped away from the boy. At this rate, Touya just might be unable to deny the kid a damn thing. Which really ain’t the best for a man with a budget tighter than a politician’s asshole. For god’s sake, he was couponing now with the intensity of a thrill-seeking Karen who did it for the simple sport of it.

“Alright, let’s see!” 

Kneeling down to shouto’s height, Keigo presented the kid with what he had so far accomplished of his given project. It was a cheap makeshift craft Touya came up with, the kind of kitschy pinterest shit the queen of a suburban beehive might have come up with to show she ‘connects’ with her kids before handing them an ipad as soon as they’re home.

But, sue him…Touya was still proud. 

Some free color samples were procured from a paint peddling hardware store where the clerk was not exactly happy with a suspicious figure like Touya perusing the aisle. The color cards were free though so Touya ignored the bastard and, in the end, clipped those samples to a large poster board he managed to scrounge up. 

The idea was that Shouto could run around the park and find things that matched the colors he could pin them onto the board against each correct shade. While explaining the little project, Touya had suddenly worried that such a thing would be far below Shouto’s age bracket of entertainment but the kid took the task so seriously that one would think it was a personal quest which held dire stakes. Especially once he knew Keigo would be there as well. 

“That’s a pretty one,” Keigo commented in an attempt to fill the space of Shouto’s intense silence as Shou held the flower up to the blue shade Touya had haphazardly plucked from the shop wall. He’d been on the way home from a long shift and was exhausted while he also avoided looks from that cashier that knew this punk would never be back to purchase shit. So really Touya just grabbed what he could and got the hell out of there, he didn’t expect that Shouto would study each color like it was hand-selected by Michelangelo. 

“It’s not the right shade, the color looks more purple-y but the flower looks m-more, uh, yellow-y.” 

Shouto’s lips were pursed with disappointment and Touya started to reason, “I’m sure it’s close enough—” 

“Well, someone seems to have an eye for art like his brother.” 

The interruption failed to annoy Touya in the slightest when Keigo grinned with an air of pride as he looked at Shouto before turning to Touya with teasing glint in his expression.

Staring. Yeah, Touya really had to stop staring lest Keigo realize why . 

“Your eyes!” The excited outcry came in tandem with Shouto grabbing at the project board as if he was Sherlock Holmes himself connecting the last piece of some grand conspiracy thanks to Keigo’s statement.

Curious where this idea would go, Keigo watched as Touya dutifully knelt down to allow the comparison to his irises with a gentle, “Yeah?”

He couldn’t help indulging in his brother’s enthusiasm. Especially after having to witness the look in Shou’s eyes at that trial. Seeing the light return to his face was something Touya would never take for granted.

Shouto held the color sample beside his brother’s face and Touya tilted his head, patient yet prodding by raising his eyebrow as Shou deliberated, but the kid’s nose scrunched and Touya knew the answer before he even heard it.

“No.”

For a second Touya almost felt offended but then Keigo let out a long and loud laugh.

“What?” Keigo rested his chin on his palm, kneeled down to Shouto’s height, with a fascinated but amused smile while he took a look at the blue card himself, “So you were just going to pluck one of his eyeballs out if it was a yes?” 

“Well, if Van Gogh could sacrifice an ear…” Touya trailed off with a glance that made Keigo sarcastically huff as if his joke was exhausting. Which was absolute bullshit because that joke was clearly hilarious and Keigo was still smiling.  

“Yeah, hardly seems a price to pay for real art,” Keigo mused, unaware of how Shouto studied them both.

“Well, all good art has to come with some sort of dramatic tragedy, doesn’t it? Though it’s flattering you think my eyes are pretty enough to be clawed out of my head by a nine-year-old. Unless you tell everyone that, of course.”

“Weird, I was telling your friend Jin that just the other day.”

Loud sounds had been unacceptable in the house the Todoroki siblings grew up in, unless it was by their father of course. It was part of why Shouto hesitated so much with his words that he developed a stutter and stumbled over sentences in his haste to get them out when given the chance. However, in that moment, Shouto’s amusement was strong enough for his hands to give a single happy clap together with a surprisingly loud laugh. Keigo’s eyes snapped to Touya as if to confirm he also just witnessed this rare precious moment they had caused. Which was almost incomprehensible to Touya considering the lengths he would go to get a quiet giggle or amused snort from his brother while Keigo could get a full damn laugh-fit in hardly a minute without even trying.

Fuck, Touya needed to stop staring at Keigo. But how was it that one man could just fit right into their lives so perfectly? Sometimes Touya just needed a moment to process it before pushing that thought away to where it wouldn’t ruin the fragile normalcy they built. 

Eventually it was a blue bottle cap that satisfied Shouto’s blue fixation, rather than any flowers or human eyeballs, but as the kid further perused the park’s grounds Touya hung back to walk beside Keigo.

The silence between them was amicable, but there was something that certainly lingered between them in a way neither wished to address and usually ignored in favor of giving Shouto their attention. In truth, Touya never really knew what to do in situations like this, which is probably why he thought about the stupid shit he was about to say next in future sleepless hours of the night because in the moment, he didn’t really think at all. 

Scooping up a golden fallen leaf, Touya held the dry flora up between two fingers beside Keigo’s face. “Pretty good match.”

“A rotting leaf?” Keigo raised a fluffy eyebrow, keeping the conversation somewhere unserious and safe. Though perhaps ‘safe’ was relative, and not something either of them could gauge correctly on a scale that felt so unknown for their situation.

That’s why what Touya said next didn’t feel like a risk. It was just a normal thing to say. At least, it was their normal. Always had been. 

“A pretty rotting leaf.”

Keigo cast his gaze downwards to obscure his face a bit with a huff of a laugh out of his nose from the absurdity of Touya’s ‘compliment’, as if the inner strands of his golden irises didn’t perfectly match the brown veining of the yellow leaf.

“Sure, Touy.”

Touya let out a hum, letting the leaf unceremoniously flutter back down to the dirt with a soft, “An artist's eye, angel. Can’t say I’m wrong.”

He didn’t wait to see what kind of a response that would garner across Keigo’s face, but really he didn’t have the time to worry about it considering how Shouto ran up to Touya so fast he collided with his the back of his legs hard enough it made his older brother’s knees buckle.  

“I found orange! S-So that means I-I can invite Keigo to dinner!”

“Since when the fuck— shit! Put that down, kid!” 

Before Touya even had a chance to move, Keigo already plucked the sharp glass piece of a broken beer bottle from Shouto’s hand with an urgency that would make a person think the shard could cut the kid’s palm to damn ribbons. There was a short second where Shouto looked heartbroken, as if he did something wrong even though a nine-year-old could do far worse. As Touya himself would know, of course. Keigo didn’t even give Shouto much of a chance to frown, though, before he clipped the facet of glass to its coordinating color on the poster board as a beacon of success in Shouto finishing his artistic mission. The man didn’t even flinch when the glass nicked the tip of his finger. He just popped the digit in his mouth after saying matter-of-factly, “Dinner sounds nice.”

Touya stared for a moment, but at least this time Shouto stared too despite there being no reason for him to be just as befuddled considering the kid invited Keigo over in the first place.  

Then a clap rang through the air and Shouto said with the full confidence of a preacher on a Sunday, “Touya’s making hot dog noodles!” 

Keigo smiled at Shouto around the injured finger until Touya plucked it from his mouth to examine the hand as Keigo now looked up at him, mouth briefly agape, with wide panicked eyes that eased when Touya said, “So you don’t have to eat your fuckin’ fist then.”

Jokes kept things ‘safe’. Keigo’s soft resulting laugh said as much as Touya got out a Bluey bandaid he’d learned to keep in his wallet since becoming Shouto’s guardian. 

However, Keigo seeing the apartment was no laughing matter to Touya. It was actually something that terrified him far more than he liked to admit. Meanwhile, the blond center of that fear matched Shouto’s enthusiasm by excitedly clapping with a grin after Touya released his bandaged hand and mimicked how his youngest brother stomped his feet excitedly. So dinner was happening, whether Touya liked it or not, and it certainly wasn’t going to be the perfectly cooked steak delicate enough to be cut and fed to Keigo by Touya’s own fork the way Touya pretended to not daydream about. 

Steak wasn’t even Keigo’s favorite dish, chicken was the base of most of the man’s favorite foods, so why would an expensive cut even matter?

The answer to that was held within the way Touya had to throw his whole weight into shouldering the door of the apartment open thanks to its shitty lock. The answer was in the baseball bat Keigo eyed up the moment they entered that served as their home security beside where Shouto took off his shoes with a respect most people wouldn’t give their small entryway. The answer hung in the stuffy air that Touya couldn’t even fix by opening a window because the damn landlord haphazardly painted it shut when he painted everything the same grim tone of white that reminded Touya of the hospital walls of his childhood.

The creak of the floorboards, the shouting from other tenants through the thin walls, the distant sound of sirens, the radiator that hardly worked but was their only source of heating, the protective metal bars that covered their window. 

Shame. For all the hard work Touya did for this roof over their head, it was a feeling of shame that hit him like a truck when he quickly lifted the creaky back of their futon into a couch position as if that could hide the fact it was obviously his bed. It shouldn’t matter, but it did to Touya. Especially when the best dinner he could give on short notice with his limited budget was buttered noodles with slices of hotdogs in it. Touya just wasn’t a man with anything to truly offer.

Then there was Shouto who quite proudly held up his arms to gesture around as he happily said, “This is ours!” 

“Oh…” Keigo softly breathed out as he looked around.

“Make yourself at home,” Touya grunted with a wave of his hand, feigning a casual air as he kicked a small pile of laundry under his couch/bed that he regretted not bothering with after back to back shifts at his jobs. 

“You two did all of this?” 

Touya quickly looked up at the question but it was difficult to read Keigo’s expression while the bartender looked around at the apartment walls, however it was clear that judgment wasn’t one of the many emotions Keigo was experiencing. Touya didn’t even know what to say to that; it wasn’t really something he had prepared for. There were many things Touya tried to rehearse in his mind during the walk to his and Shou’s place, but Keigo admiring the art made by them to stave away the depressing color of the walls since the day they moved in was not something Touya anticipated. At least, it was not what he thought would attract his attention first . 

Keigo smiled softly at the art, the collection a mix between things the two siblings made on their own and pieces they made together, until a distant look started to come to his eyes. It was the kind of look that made Touya want to reach out, or just say anything really, but whatever it was that Keigo was feeling… It felt like Keigo needed a moment to dwell in it. 

Shouto had none of the same hesitations as his brother though and eventually pulled Keigo out of that moment by telling him, “Y-Yeah! And this one is for over there!” 

Their new finished project looked comically large being carried around by the kid as Shouto ran to the corner of the room where there was a large open space ready to be covered by brightness. Shouto carefully propped it against the wall, appraising the spot scrupulously just to be sure it was perfect. Touya crossed his arms as he watched the boy stand on his tiptoes to see how it would look higher up and felt an unexpected feeling of relief in his heart. Choices were never something given to the Todoroki siblings under the crushing weight of their father’s expectations. Now that he had finally been able to take Shou away from that place, Touya often found himself taking a step back to allow the boy to make up his own mind no matter how small the choice was. Maybe Touya was actually doing something right for once, because Shouto seemed to be finding himself more day by day. 

Keigo seemed to notice the little dude looked fairly keen on pinning up their creation higher than the kid was capable of reaching. So, placing a gentle hand on Shou’s back and eying the spot Shouto seemed fixated on, Keigo good-naturedly asked, “Need some help?” 

“You’re too short.”

The words flew out of Shouto so matter of factly that Touya swore he saw them shoot right through Kei’s chest like an arrow through the heart. 

Keigo choked out a gutted sound at the kid’s brutal honesty and quickly tried to retaliate with, “ You’re too short.”

Shouto looked Keigo up and down before casually dropping an absolutely devastating, “I can grow.” 

Watching these two interact… fuck, it was the best thing in the world sometimes.

Keigo knelt down to Shouto’s height. “I’m about to test you on how many curse words you know if you keep talking.” 

It wasn’t lost on either of them that Shouto hadn’t even stuttered once during the exchange and Touya could see the secret happiness in Keigo’s face even though it had come at his own expense.

Then there was an embarrassing shriek let out from Shouto when Touya suddenly lifted him up under his arms from behind, ready to just hang this shit up already before these two made him feel anything more.

“Maybe slow down with that growing thing, though, because my back ain’t gonna be able to take you springing up like a daisy the way Natsu did,” Touya mumbled out around some thumbtacks he’d popped in his mouth for the job, speaking as if he was pushing thirty rather than just being nineteen. 

Going limp like a kitten picked up by the scruff, it seemed like Shouto didn’t have much fight in him but he always had to prove his brother wrong. Which, this time, came out in the form of him mustering up everything in his tiny body to stumble out the words, “F-Fuck off.” 

It was sweet how Keigo tried to hold back a laugh, knowing Shouto apparently had something to prove. But Touya nearly dropped those thumbtacks he was holding like a cigarette between his lips. He collected himself quickly, thankfully, and huffed out, “Just pin it up before you cause me to accidentally swallow these things, kiddo.” 

Immediately Shouto reached back and took the pushpins and Keigo stepped in to help out by holding the project against the wall exactly where Shouto wanted it. Shouto was quiet as he pushed the thumbtacks in at each corner and watched cautiously as Keigo removed his hands to show the work was now steadily attached. There was a beat of silence as the three of them looked at it, until that was broken by Shouto once more.

“Sorry.” Guilt clearly weighed on Shouto’s conscience for cursing even though Touya could care less about that aspect of the kid’s vocabulary. Hell, Touya himself cursed around his little brother all the time. Excessively. 

“Apologies ain’t needed, shortstack. Just don’t do that shit in front of the social worker, yeah?” Touya grunted as he put his brother down and gave his hair a rustle before giving Keigo a bit of side eye, “It's not like you called me short, anyway.” 

The comment made Keigo bristle but then he looked at Shouto expectantly, as if he was waiting to hear a similar apology from the kid, but the-nine-year old just stared at him right back in a deafening silence that was more brutal than words could ever be. 

“You’re lucky you’re cute, you know,” Keigo pinched the bridge of his nose, “Must be a Todoroki thing.” 

“Well, three out of four of them,” Touya responded easily, only to glance at Keigo when the man was silent, “That’s a joke, angel.” 

Keigo snapped back to himself and rolled his eyes, pretending he hadn’t been briefly lost in thought and fidgeted by tapping his thigh with his index finger, “You steal a lot of hearts for someone who jokes about that kind of thing.”

The loud single-syllable laugh that escaped Touya nearly made Keigo jump and the blond gave a half-hearted glare when Touya said, “Well now look who’s joking.” 

Shouto of course picked that moment to butt in, “Jokes should be funny, Touya.” 

Keigo pointed at Shouto like he was the smartest person in the room, “And that’s why you’re so much funnier than your brother, Shouto.”

The compliment clearly struck something in Shouto with the way he puffed out his chest a little in pride and Touya was almost offended by how quick Shouto was to say, “O-Oh. Thanks.” 

However, a couple minutes later when it was time for Touya to head to the kitchen to scrounge up some dinner, Touya hissed under his breath to the kid, “Quit making me look bad.” 

Shouto just eyed him with an amused and dare Touya say smug look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite the chipped thick layer of ‘the landlord special’ the walls of Touya’s apartment were plastered in, Keigo found everything about the place to be warm .

Apparently a bowl of ’hot dog noodles’ was exactly what the doctor ordered to make a nine-year-old droopy eyed after a long day despite how badly Shouto wanted to stay up while Keigo was here. With a full stomach, he was no match for a couple of soothing episodes of Bluey before he fell asleep between him and Touya on the lumpy futon. 

A keen observational skill was something that became vital to Keigo’s survival growing up, but this time Keigo’s sharp eyes kept a rapt attention simply to memorize just how overwhelmingly gentle Touya was as he carefully moved his arm from Shouto’s sleepy grasp. Keigo’s gaze didn’t waver as a tattooed hand soothingly ran through the young boy’s hair before cradling his head so Touya could lift him up without the risk of startling Shouto awake. 

Keigo found himself relaxed from witnessing such a scene, even more so when blue eyes met his with an apologetic smile and a silent promise to be back in a moment as Touya carried his little brother off to bed. 

It made his heart squeeze as he watched Touya’s back as he slipped away to the singular bedroom he’d given to Shouto over himself. There was something about Touya that made Keigo ache. He had felt that ache ever since he first met him. Sometimes it hurt that at Touya’s core he really was such a good man. It hurt even worse that Keigo knew Touya didn’t even see it himself and often pushed aside help believing himself to not be worth it. 

The pain of the past had rooted its weight so thoroughly on Touya’s shoulders that the man could hardly feel just how much he also lifted up others in his life on top of that load, Keigo himself included. Touya had no idea how much his presence often eased a weight off of his chest that Keigo didn’t even know was there until Touya’s lazy smile released it. God, he wished he could ease Touya in the same way.

Left alone to his own devices, Keigo once again took in his surroundings and felt another pang of that ache in his chest. 

At Shouto’s age, Keigo would have given anything to live like this. In this kind of warmth . The apartment itself was probably just as shitty as the one Keigo lived in with his mother but it was somehow so vastly different, which really was all thanks to one thing. 

Love.

 And Keigo had never seen the ability to create that in the way Touya and Shouto managed to. It made Keigo realize just how much his mother didn’t try when raising him as he witnessed Touya attempt to sculpt a beautiful childhood for Shouto with nothing to his name while he worked harder than anyone Keigo has ever known. 

The ache in Keigo’s chest was want, though he didn’t attempt to delve into it further. He couldn’t define it. It wasn’t his place.    

“Hey.” 

Keigo hadn’t even realized how distracted he was, which was very unlike himself, until Touya pulled him from his thoughts by how he flopped down beside him with a tired sigh. Exhaustion pulled at Touya’s already frayed edges like a fragile string at the end of a rope but there was still a curve of a smile to his lips as he looked at Keigo through white lashes as he leaned his head against the back of the couch. Keigo found himself sinking further into the couch himself subconsciously from the easy sense of comfort Touya unknowingly radiated. 

“Hey,” Keigo breathed out softly in return, earning a stare from Touya through a beat of silence before Touya sat up a bit straighter and then looked away towards the door.

“It’s getting late,” Touya seemed to choose his words carefully and looked back at Keigo from the corner of his eyes, “ain’t that man of yours gonna get worried?” 

“I can leave if you’re tired—”

“I didn’t say that.”

Another beat of silence befell them, both staring until Keigo broke it.

“...He’s actually visiting his family right now.” Keigo admitted, causing Touya to immediately raise an eyebrow that said more than words, which urged him to continue, “They, uh, aren’t exactly big fans of me. I usually sit out of those trips. Thankfully he doesn’t seem to mind.” 

“Trip? How fucking far does his family live?”

“Florida.” 

“He must miss you to hell and back. Fuck, that practically is hell and back,” Touya mostly muttered to himself before speaking more freely, “His family must be assholes, who in their right mind wouldn’t immediately be charmed by you.”

Keigo shrugged, “I mean… they didn’t seem like such bad people before they found out we started dating and stuff.” 

Obviously being gay wasn’t easy, especially with a boyfriend that had a conservative family, but it certainly didn’t help that Keigo was transgender as well. It was mortifying watching his boyfriend’s family debate the intricacies of that in front of him as if Keigo wasn’t even there. His boyfriend loved his family though… he wasn’t going to stop him from seeing them despite Keigo’s own discomfort. 

That was probably why his boyfriend had been so silent that day, rather than truly defending Keigo. 

“Kei…”

Keigo sucked in a breath and quickly began talking before Touya could delve deeper into any of that, “It's not too bad actually. I usually don’t hear much from him but… the house is a bit cleaner at least.”

Keigo clutched his fists for a moment and then released them, trying to rid himself of his nerves as he felt Touya’s eyes boring into the side of his face. 

Then Touya sighed and a weight lifted itself from Keigo’s chest. 

“You need a beer, angel.” 

He shouldn’t. Keigo really shouldn’t. He should go home exactly where he planned to tell his boyfriend he had been the entire day. 

However, Keigo released a relieved sigh and nodded.

“Yeah…yeah, I think I do.” 

That night Keigo fell asleep on Touya’s shoulder on the futon feeling far less lonely than he would have at his own place, even if his boyfriend was actually home. 

Chapter Text

Touya never gave much thought to the whole 'f alling in love’ thing. Why would he? Life just didn’t have shit like that in the cards for him, he was sure of it. 

He had to be sure of that. The world had already burned the lesson to not hope for shit into him. 

But if something like that had crossed his mind, it certainly wouldn’t involve direct eye contact with a cute blond boy while Touya shoved cold food in his mouth from someone’s used plate in the back of a restaurant.  

Getting a job while just barely seventeen wasn’t easy these days, but it was damn fucking hard when Touya was also a disowned high school dropout and secretly homeless as well. Not that he was going to complain, there was no point in that. It wouldn't change his circumstances. No, Touya hid that part of himself to the best ability and somehow did it effectively enough to land himself a shitty job washing dishes at a restaurant with a dickish owner who ‘attended’ a different prestigious culinary school every time he was asked for his accolades. 

This was a diner . A diner that didn’t even have good coffee.

But this shitty blessing of a job now dangled by a tedious thread thanks to a pair of stupidly gorgeous gold eyes locked on the spoon that hung from Touya’s mouth. 

Touya didn’t even like seafood and now it was going to get him fired from his only source of income. 

And of course it had to be the ‘pretty waiter’ too, the one with the charming smile that surely made more in tips serving one table than Touya made in a day scrubbing dishes until his scarred hands felt dry and raw.

“It was a fucking clean spoon.” 

The blond bastard nearly jumped out of his damn skin when he finally spoke. It was kind of hilarious.

Whether it was the sound of Touya’s voice that caused the boy to trip or over his damn feet or the clatter of Touya tossing the spoon and plate into the empty metal sink with unnecessary force, Touya didn’t know. But after catching himself with a hand on the edge of the metal counter, the boy just said, “Oh.” 

Oh. 

Touya laughed, if only to hide himself at his lowest.

It’s not like he wanted to be someone who did shit like this, but sometimes the unyielding squeeze of hunger outweighed shame. The last thing Touya ate was Pringles he bought a day and a half ago with some cash he swiped from the wallet of a one night stand after he slipped silently out of their apartment. It was annoying how the feeling of shame still managed to grab him by the throat this hard when he already had stooped so low so many times now it shouldn’t even matter anymore. For fuck’s sake, why would this guy have even cared if Touya had eaten with a clean or used spoon anyway? 

Whatever, Touya wasn’t sticking around to find out.

“Take a picture or just go scram and snitch to the boss already. The whole staring thing is getting annoying.” 

Despite all the bravado Touya attempted to project, his hands tremored slightly as he untied his apron to throw it aside as his stomach twisted itself into knots. He planned to simply storm out of the place without even a second glance at the waiter, despite how easy he was on the eyes, but Touya didn’t get a choice in the matter.

“Hey, wait—” 

Physical touch wasn’t exactly something Touya was used to, let alone the gentle kind, and the speed he turned around when his wrist was grabbed in a soft grip was fast enough it was a surprise his neck didn’t crack. 

On any other occasion, Touya would have ripped his arm away and snapped at the guy but when he opened his mouth he found himself unexpectedly speechless. To be fair, most people didn’t exactly touch Touya without some semblance of hesitation thanks to the scars that marred his skin. Even late night hook-ups would take pause as if his mottled skin was somehow contagious. Yet here was this stupid waiter still holding onto him with his panicked eyes nearly the size of the dinner plates Touya cleaned as he searched for words Touya couldn’t help but be curious to hear. Perhaps that was what rendered Touya to his own idiotic silence.

“I’m not telling him,” Blondie said like it was simple, quick to get his words out like Touya would catapult himself out a damn window at the first given opportunity, “It's stupid someone didn’t even finish half of the most expensive thing on our menu anyway. Why order it just for it to be trashed.”

Touya scoffed with a roll of his eyes, “I ain’t a garbage can.” 

“I didn’t mean it like that, asshole.” 

Now that was intriguing. Blondie’s cute face twisted itself into a scowl and Touya found himself raising an eyebrow as he pulled his wrist away with a gentle tug. The waiter gave no resistance, letting him go without any fuss, and this time Touya made no attempt at running off. The pretty little thing swallowed thickly when Touya took a step closer and he half expected that he would be the one to run off now. 

Crossing his arms, Touya looked the boy up and down with an unimpressed air that challenged the other to back down, “So what did you mean?”

“I mean I’ve been there before.” 

The statement was already enough to make Touya’s impassive gaze briefly buckle but then Mr. Handsome had the audacity to punctuate his statement by shoving the apron Touya had tossed aside against his chest. Taking a step back, angelface continued after a brief huff, “Look, food is food and… well, they didn’t want a box for it despite how many times I asked.” 

“Not used to hearing no with a face like that, are you?” Touya didn’t give a moment for the boy to respond, though he did enjoy the battle between flustered and annoyance in the waiter’s expression. “I don’t need your pity, pretty boy.”

Touya’s voice came out far softer than he wanted it to, wavering in a way that fell right to the pit of his stomach in shame which did not go unnoticed. He averted his gaze when he noticed the waiter take pause, not wanting to be privy to whatever the blond found in Touya’s brief lapse. Really, the silence was likely only a few seconds before Blondie broke it, but it felt like eons to him.

“Well, I don’t need yours either.”

Something uncoiled inside of Touya. His tense shoulders relaxed ever so slightly from the lack of change in the waiter’s tone. When he looked back at him, the same resolve in those gold eyes challenged Touya just as they had before. It spoke volumes, and Touya instantly realized that this guy also had experienced enough useless sympathies from others to know how fucking exhausting it was. There was no tiptoeing around his circumstance the way so many others liked to do with Touya and for that he found himself ever so slightly grateful. Especially when he had to deal with Fuyumi’s worried calls weekly when she risked using the secret phone his siblings had hidden to keep contact with him without their father knowing. 

“Deal,” Touya grunted dismissively with a wave of his hand. “Now go play guardian angel for someone else.”

“Fine.” The waiter shrugged with no indication of being offended by Touya’s jab. “I will once you put the apron back on, I have an 8-top that's about to pay their bill and I’m not doing those dishes myself.”

“Fine,” Touya barked right back, making a show of putting the garment on and felt at least some satisfaction from the way the boy’s eyes flicked to his waist as he tied it. “Happy, blondie?”

“Very.” The smug look was something that made Touya bristle, though he could admit to himself it sort of turned him on a bit, too. Who could really blame him? 

When the waiter turned on his heel to leave Touya thought that would be the end of the conversation, but of course the bastard had to surprise him one last time by stopping in the doorway just so he could say before getting back to work, “It’s Keigo, by the way. It’s on my name tag, you know.”

Indeed it was. And Keigo seemed pretty amused when Touya glanced down to confirm that.

“Dabi,” he carefully supplied in return.

Keigo was clearly unconvinced and raised an eyebrow but didn’t press the matter. Though he was fairly pointed in the way he said, “Sure.” 

“Fuck off, angel.” 

“Keigo,” he corrected before he walked out the door. 

In hindsight, Touya wished he’d been gentler the first time he called Keigo by the nickname that would last a lifetime between them. 

***

He also wished he’d been gentler the second time as well.

It was a few days later when Touya yanked a surprised Keigo by the back of his apron into a supply closet and shoved him against the door of the concealed space with a glare. 

“The fuck are you playing at, angel? ” 

It was adorable how Keigo’s cheeks flushed a sweet shade of pink as the waiter swallowed thickly, eyes briefly flicking to Touya’s lips, and Touya would have loved to explore that but then the bastard had the audacity to say, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” 

“Don’t play cute with me,” Touya warned.

“I’m always cute.” The attempt to hide how clearly flustered Keigo was didn’t work in the slightest and would be downright amusing any other time, but Touya had a fucking point to get across.

“Yeah well that is only gonna get you so far once the boss finds out you fucked up that guy’s order on purpose.”

“Oh because a steak sandwich is going to send him into bankruptcy.” Touya narrowed his eyes at Keigo’s remark while the waiter rolled his own and Touya wasn’t having it. 

“It’s not, but that bastard acts like that kind of shit would or are you forgetting about the time he practically wanted to drown me in the sink over a broken mug.” 

Keigo bit his lip and averted his gaze, only for Touya to make him look at him with a gentle but firm grip on his chin that he could have sworn made the pretty boy shiver. 

Lowering his voice, Touya started to growl, “I told you I don’t need your fucking pity—”

But Keigo interrupted him when he snapped, “Help doesn’t equate to pity , you dick. Now suck it up already because, if anything, I’m helping myself so I don’t have to listen to your stomach growl all day. I’m not looking for a ‘thank you’ so just shut up and eat something!”

The grip Touya had on Keigo loosened a fraction which gave the waiter a moment to take in a deep breath after his outburst before continuing, “I get it. The whole pride thing. I also hated talking about it. So how about we don’t do that and instead let’s say that you owe me for not ‘tattling’ on you to the boss while I am making you get rid of the evidence of my fuck up by eating that sandwich.” 

There was a moment when the only sound passed between either of them was their breathing as they stared at each other until Touya finally let out a huff of a laugh.

“Did you just say ‘tattling’? What are you? Five?” 

Keigo shoved him but a smile graced his lips, “Oh shut up!” 

It was odd. Life had a way of fucking Touya over and people seemed to fuck him over even more so. In many ways. Kindness for the simple sake of being kind was unknown to Touya. In his world, people only used each other for their own gain. Touya himself was no better. Kindness was something he likely didn’t even deserve. 

Yet here he was, being shoved back into the kitchens by a waiter that didn’t know when to leave shit well enough alone. For fuck’s sake, the bastard wouldn’t even leave until he actually saw Touya start to eat that damn sandwich. 

“You’re going to get yourself fired pulling shit like this,” Touya grumbled around a mouthful, hiding how ravenous he was, while the two of them now sat beside each other on the floor leaning against some cabinets. 

“I don’t plan on working at this diner forever,” Keigo shrugged and Touya raised an eyebrow.

“That so?”

Keigo tilted his head back to look at him, “What? You don’t want to leave this place?”

“Never exactly got to think that far ahead.” 

Keigo stared thoughtfully as Touya chewed with an air of indifference despite those words. Wants and dreams were a luxury and right now the only thing Touya had the time to think about was if he would be able to find a warm place to sleep that night. 

Touya didn’t expect Keigo to say anything. After all, how would someone respond to something like that? He had to learn to stop underestimating Keigo, though, because soon a knee knocked against his own grabbed his attention.

“When I was little I felt trapped. I mean, when you are a kid you don’t really realize there is a bigger world out there than your own small scope of it. I was also born… different and felt trapped by my own body. Kids would dream about what they wanted to be when they grew up, but all I wanted was for my dad to disappear and for my mom to even just look at me.”

Touya barely even breathed as if even just that would be loud enough to interrupt Keigo speaking. The reason for Keigo revealing any of this eluded Touya but he still hung on every word as the boy continued, “The first time I held onto a dream for anything was watching the birds outside my window. I would daydream about having wings just like them and being able to just… fly away. I pictured myself as a man with wings that could go anywhere . It’s silly and obviously unrealistic but it gave me something to hold onto…”

Keigo trailed off almost like he surprised himself with how much he revealed as he tensed slightly but Touya eased that by knocking his knee gently against Keigo’s just as he had done to him before.

“Wings, huh?” Touya mused, taking a moment to absorb the words. Oversharing wasn’t something Touya ever did, he had learned to keep his cards close to his chest. Getting personal just… complicated things. However, he found himself speaking before he could second guess himself, “I wanted to be an artist.”

Keigo lit up and just maybe it was worth it for that.

It probably wasn’t a good idea to just ignore doing their jobs in such a bald-faced way but Keigo and Touya continued to talk together for god knows how long sitting on a floor that was questionable in cleanliness at best. Neither prodded anything out of the other. They simply… talked. About everything and nothing at all.

It felt good. Which was something Touya didn’t really know could happen.

They were both leaning in much closer now, their voices far quieter than before in a way that felt like it only lived only between them. Keigo laughed and Touya was so distracted by his breath on his cheek that he nearly missed what the boy said.

“Rumi is like a sister to me, we were in foster care together and she…she knew me better than anyone. That being said, I’m never going to forgive her for that haircut she gave me.” 

Touya gave a lazy smile, his head resting on the cabinet they were both leaning against as he looked at Keigo. “And just how long does it take for you to style your hair to look so perfectly unkempt?”

“And how long does it take you to dye your hair with shitty box dye? Your roots are insane.” 

“You should have seen the bathroom sink at the CVS I dyed it in.” 

“Wait, did you dye it in the bathroom of the place you bought it?” 

For a moment Touya’s stomach dropped. They may have talked about a lot of things but he wasn’t ready to dive into his homelessness even though Keigo had probably figured that out by now. However, Keigo started talking again before Touya could continue his panic about what to say.

“You can come to my place and I can help you if you want, you know. I’m not far from a store that sells hair supplies…” 

It was then that Touya really realized just how close their faces were, especially when Keigo’s eyes briefly strayed to his lips.

Of course that’s when Touya’s phone went off.

Touya cursed as he leaned back and pulled the device from his pocket. It was an old thing but it got the job done. He sighed with some relief when he realized it wasn’t an emergency call from one of his siblings but that sigh turned into something far more exasperated when he saw that the name Overhaul lit up the screen. What a stupid name to even have for someone in a gang. 

Touya silenced it without hesitation but the texts he saw in that short second felt like a bucket of cold water poured over him.

Overhaul: We’ve got a simple job for you. Just a drop off. Low risk. Good money if you're interested.

Overhaul: If you’re a good boy about it you can even stop by my place. 

Overhaul: Don’t waste my time.

“Are you alright, Dabi?” 

There was a brief second where Touya tensed but it unwound a bit when his eyes met worried golden ones.

“Just peachy,” he lied. Which was something he was usually quite good at but royally failed at  in that moment. “Just some stuff from another job that came up. Don’t worry your pretty head over it.” 

“Alright…” Clearly Keigo wasn’t convinced, judging by the dubious look he gave him, but Touya didn’t give up any more information. 

Touya wasn’t a good man. That was one truth about himself that he was sure of. He used people and they used him, Touya was numb to it. He made peace with it.

That’s why he never gave much thought to the whole ‘romance’ and ‘love’ thing. He just wasn’t that kind of guy.

He didn’t deserve to have that kind of thing.

Keigo… Keigo was into him. That much was obvious and, in that moment, Touya decided that Keigo’s heart was one he didn’t want to break. 

He deserved so much more than whatever the fuck it was Touya had to offer. Which, realistically, was just himself and he himself was… not good. 

“Might need to take a rain check on that hair dye thing,” Touya tried to say indifferently, leaning a bit to put more distance between them. “I’ve got places to be.”

“Oh.” Keigo said softly. Touya may have expected disappointment but he didn’t expect there to still be worry in Keigo’s expression when he glanced at him. “Hold on, give me a second.” 

Touya furrowed his brows and turned to Keigo fully this time, watching as he grabbed his server notepad and started scribbling in it. With a satisfied grunt, Keigo ripped it from the notebook before he handed it off to Touya.

“It’s my number,” he explained, biting his lip for a moment before he continued, “Look, I know you are a dick about accepting help but I know a lot of resources. So just… give me a call sometime, yeah?”

“I’m not some project—“

“You’re not some project,” Keigo confirmed, interrupting Touya once again. “You’re… a friend. So act like it.”

Touya stared at the number on the paper for a long moment before he breathed out, “Thanks, angel.”

The third time he called him angel was gentle, as it would be time and time again afterwards. 

Of course, the job at the diner had not lasted. That tends to happen when a person decides to swipe some cash from the lock box during a particularly difficult week. Winter jackets weren’t exactly cheap and, despite how global warming did its damndest, winter still got colder. Truthfully, Touya didn’t give a fuck about the job anyway, which was masterfully punctuated by the double middle fingers he gave his boss as he stormed out.

There was only one regret he had, and that was not saying goodbye to Keigo. The months he got to spend with him there were… Well, Keigo just had a way of making his shitty life feel a little ok. Just for a moment.

He had his number. A simple text or call could solve the problem in an instant but… what good could someone like Touya do to Keigo’s life. 

Touya needed to change. That much was obvious. 

It became necessary , though, after a phone call from a sobbing Shouto on the emergency phone with the sound of sirens in the background.

If Touya could go back in time he would have called Keigo. He would have asked him everything he knew about dealing with lawyers and social workers. Anything that would help him with the case against his father and the custody of his little brothers. He also… might have found some comfort he didn’t allow himself to have at the time.

Hindsight was 20/20 though and, for once, life decided he deserved a bit of luck when on an outing with Shouto he heard a voice from behind him that shook him to the core.

“Dabi!?”