Archive of Our Own ^beta

As the power flickered out in Keigo's flat for the third time in as many months, he had to come to the disheartening conclusion that vigilanteism simply didn't cover the bills. But what could he do? He wasn't going to stop the vigilanteism; that was his calling. He wanted to help people. Which meant he needed to find a job that was happy to employ a man who would regularly turn up with various injuries, was liable to disappear at any given moment with no explanation and take many, many sick days when the injuries were too much to come in with. Such jobs didn't exist, or he'd have one by now. But he also really needed his bills paid. He didn't want another cold shower. Another night sleeping without any heating. Hell, he couldn't even make a hot water bottle because he had no electricity and therefore no working kettle or stove.

Finding freelance work was difficult, especially when all your specialist skills were combat- and surveillance-based. He didn't want to go into private security or crime. One meant he would be subject to questions about his injuries, and the other was literally the thing he was fighting. He huffed, heading to the cupboard to make himself a pot noodle while he thought, and then he remembered that he couldn't boil water. He booted up his shitty laptop, aware that he'd need to conserve whatever battery life it had left, and started trawling through job sites, which turned up nothing applicable, and then forums for people discussing their struggles with employment. In which case, the only thing he could really do to get immediate cash was sell some stuff. Keiog didn't exactly have nice things, though - if he couldn't afford to keep the lights on, he couldn't afford much else in the way of luxuries. He didn't have a television. He didn't have a speaker system. He had a laptop, but he needed that for researching his vigilante jobs. Couldn't exactly do that at an internet cafe. Maybe he could get rid of some of his summer clothes? And hope he found a better way to make money by the time he needed more? But most of his stuff was already from charity shops, it wasn't really worth anything. Not enough to get his lights back on. Not unless he sold it all and became a nudist. He went online and started looking at the going price for secondhand clothing anyway- he wanted to eat hot food, goddamn it. It was there, trawling through various secondhand clothing sites, that he first encountered the idea without any hint of irony or judgement around it - scent services. 

Selling scented items online, usually clothing, to people who wanted them. There was a stigma around it that only sad-sacks bought scented items online, because they didn't have anyone in real life who would scent anything for them, but Keigo was starting to realise, sitting in his powerless flat with no prospects and yellowing bruises from his last fight, that he might fall into a similar clique. He certainly wasn't a success story. The stereotype was also that it was omegas looking to make a quick buck selling to desperate, lonely alphas. Which didn't help Keigo since he fell into the second category, and he'd be looking to sell. It didn't seem like a good option, but it did seem like the best option. He started looking up the whole deal properly, clicked through on a few forums geared at answering questions to beginners and the curious, before finally finding a few that included omegas who bought from alphas - though most of those forums seemed to be invite-only. But there were one or two public ones that gave advice about what was usually being looked for: clean, soft clothes, with calm, happy scents seemed to be the general consensus. Apparently, getting a decent sweatshirt and wearing it to sleep for a few nights was a good starting point. Keigo had a sweatshirt he slept in! There might be some blood on it, though. 

Through a proper scent-service, rather than just a random secondhand online retailer, the price was almost double, if not triple, thanks to the quality assurances. He started opening up new tabs with the sites that were most often mentioned positively and looking through the joining processes for potential sellers. There were quite a few that asked for upfront payments for buyers and sellers to join, he x-ed out of those, some that followed a subscription-like service with a free-trial, and few completely free ones, though those seemed to be less popular. Something about quality control and scammers.

When he was down to about six or so tabs, he started looking through the sites in a more general sense, comparing them to the things he'd read in the forums. In the end, he chose one that had a one-month free-trial and a reasonable fee after that, an in-depth review system, and scent-profiles that could be peer-reviewed by buyers. Those seemed to be a big deal. There was a limit of twenty items for what he could sell in his first month, but Keigo wasn't even sure he had twenty items of clothing, so that didn't bother him. 

He checked his laptop battery (40%) and decided he'd better start now and hope he didn't have to spend too long showering at the gym so he could head to the konbini with his noodles and asking the man who owned it if he could have water from the staff kettle - Keigo had saved him from a hold-up once, so he always said yes, but it wasn't a long-term solution. The scent profile confused him slightly - it was...in depth to say the least...(what the fuck was a heartnote?) but he did his best to fill it out and put a disclaimer underneath that he was mostly guessing at his own scent. Airy, citrus, musk. It looked pretty empty compared to other sellers, but he didn't want to misrepresent himself. Checking the forums, it seemed like it was normal to start with a vague profile, and then your reviewers would help refine it by adding, agreeing, or disputing whatever you'd put down, though you'd have the ability to moderate. It seemed like people tended to go into even further detail in the reviews, which was interesting - Keigo had never thought about someone's scent in as much detail as these people did. How the hell did someone tell the difference between a raspberry note and a raspberry sorbet note? Were they not the same thing?

The forums advised that you start with small, cheap items that acted like a tester for you scent - blind-buys were a thing, but not really something you should rely on. Larger ticket items would get bought after someone had received a small tester and decided they liked your scent. More established sellers had handkerchiefs or fabric squares that they bought and scented specifically as testers, but Keigo didn't have time for that. He took the kitchen scissors to one of his pillowcases. That gave him about twelve decent-sized squares that all smelt like him when he was (mostly) calm and happy. He listed them and then powered down his laptop - he'd have to take it to a cafe tomorrow and charge it. He'd see if he had any buyers then as well. 

Two days later and Keigo sold his sofa; he couldn't wait for money to trickle in. He'd sold half his scented squares, which was pretty good turn around but not enough to get his electricity bill paid. He'd also applied for some more jobs but had been rejected from two and hadn't heard back from the others. Which was a shame - there had been a delivery firm that was looking into using quirks to aid delivery that he thought he'd have been a good match for. Probably needed some kind of special quirk licence that he didn't have. The sofa was a necessary sacrifice. At least, that's what he told himself when his butt was numb from sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table as he studied the schematics for a condemned building he was pretty sure was being used to store illegal weapons. At least he could get up and go make himself a coffee now. He wasn't sure if he was going to try and do anything about the weapons yet - best to send some feathers in, perch where he was in range, and listen to what he could. Something like this was better sorted with a tip-off to law enforcement of some kind. When he sat down again, he realised that he had a new email and clicked over, wondering if it was something pinging back from his research into the case. It wasn't, it was from the scent-service. Someone had sent in some amendments for his scent profile. He clicked through, more curious than anything.

By God had they amended it:

Top Notes - Ozone, Juniper, Green Apple, rain notes

Middle Notes - pink pepper, bergamot, ginseng

Base Notes - Amber, Cashmeran, Oakmoss

Longevity - Long-lasting

Sillage - Mild

Projection - Minimal

Keigo still wasn't sure what sillage was and how it differed from projection, but reading that he had bad projection had him worried. Was that bad? He knew his scent was considered pretty light, especially compared to other alphas, but was that going to be a mark against him?

Underneath the proposed amendments, the email included the review from the user as well:

Very light, unobtrusive scent. No major projection at all - if I left it on the other side of my room (about 14ft away), I couldn't smell it unless I was looking for it. Great if you don't want someone to smell your nest from the doorway. Sillage is mild - I imagine you'd only be able to smell it if it you were wearing something larger with it on, like a sweatshirt. Really good longevity though. With the sillage and projection, I thought it would fade quickly, but so far it hasn't, though that might be due to saturation. Will update review in a week about how it holds up.

Actual scent is fresh without being harsh - the citrus is more of a bergamot or orange blossom than lemon, the ozone doesn't burn my nose like some other scents with the note and there's something with the citrus that's a little sweeter but still tart, like a green apple. Listed the rain notes as top notes, but they could be heart notes and I'm confusing them with the ozone. Some spicy, earthy notes that aren't overpowering, like a ginseng and a pepper. Base notes aren't nearly as musky as I expected, much more of a cashmeran note than a classic musk.

Huh. Keigo had never had someone go into so much detail about his scent. Hell, not even he'd thought about it this much. Then again, he was around it all day. It was impressive and a little flattering whilst also making him feel a little bit self-conscious; should he have been noticing this? Should he have known this? Is this what everyone thought when they smelt him? The reviewer said they liked it. It wasn't the way he'd expect (hoped) to be told an omega liked his scent, it was quite objective, almost professional, but it made him feel better about what he was doing. 

He approved their amendments to his scent profile since they seemed to know more about this than him and it certainly made it look more like some of the other profiles he'd seen and then stood up, stumbling slightly where his legs had gone to sleep, stretched them out with a groan and then put the kettle on for a coffee before heading into his room and rooting around in his drawers and laundry basket for his sleepshirts. He needed something soft to sacrifice.

Apparently, Blueflame was a pretty well-respected reviewer, because within a week all his listed sleepshirts had gone and he was now going out to buy more sleepshirts to wear, specifically to scent them for his shop. Something that he could afford to do now. There apparently were a few differences of opinion about whether his ozone notes were top or heart, and a few people who thought orange blossom was more accurate than bergamot, but other than that his reviews seemed to be overwhelmingly positive and his scent profile considered accurate. Apparently, 'lighter' alpha scents with less projection were popular in certain circles because it let the buyers have more discreet nests. It had never occured to Keigo that 'discreet' was something someone would want for their nest - he'd always assumed that the goal was to create the biggest, squishiest, fluffiest pile of bedding possible. Though they were considered a private space. And on an evolutionary level, having a nest that wouldn't be discovered by strangers or predators would have been the goal. All those infomercial ads for nestware must have convinced him that nests were a maximalist affair meant to show off a collection of materials.

He'd started getting a few requests as well, but hadn't fulfilled any of them - it seemed a bit dicey to go out and buy something more expensive just based on someone's word that they'll pay more for it later. He was testing the waters for it at the moment - the sleepshirts he was buying were 100% fairtrade cotton, and the first clothing he'd bought new for himself in years, but he'd gotten enough money from selling his old clothes that he could take the money out of his scent-service earnings and still some left for other things. Like a new sofa. Possibly even actually new, instead of secondhand, if he waited a few more weeks for the sales to add up. He'd never bought any furniture new. The shirts were pricier than he would normally go for, but it had been a popular enough request and they were still reasonable enough in price that he wasn't worried about them not selling. While he was there he grabbed a decent cushion to stop him from getting dead legs sitting on the floor until he finally chose a sofa. The cashier gave him funny look as he paid, but that was probably because of the shiner on his left eye and jaw. They were a very striking purple at the moment. 

When he got home he changed into one of the shirts right away, tossed the cushion down in front of the coffee table and booted up his laptop again. He was keeping an eye on a few smaller local news channels in case the police or heroes moved based on his tip-off, but if they wanted to stage a more in-depth investigation then that would take time and Keigo, unfortunately, would not be in the loop. It was frustrating because he was always caught between the hope that his concerns were being taken seriously and he was helping people, and the fear that his tip-off were brushed off as amatuerish paranoia. He tried to include as much evidence as he could, but there was only so much he could get hold of sometimes.

Then he opened another tab to one of the forums he'd started reading through when he was looking into scent-services and finally made an account.

FierceWings: Hey, I've starting selling on a scent-service site and it's going great but I have a few questions; I've recieved some requests but I don't have a lot of spare income and I'm worried about buying something someone's requested only for them to change their mind and leave me with something I don't want, or can't afford unless I sell it on. I can't be the first person to have this dilemma, so I was wondering what the best thing to do was?

He then clicked back into a different tab on the council website where he was looking through sewer schematics to try and figure out if they could be being used by gangs. Less for travel, more as drop-off points. There had been a few cases where stolen items had just 'disappeared' when someone was apprehended, and of the three instances that Keigo knew the whereabouts of, there was a manhole or drain cover nearby. It was just a theory, but he didn't have anything else to go on. 

About two hours later a notification noise drew his bloodshot eyes up to his other tabs. He blinked repeatedly, suddenly feeling how dry they felt along with his parched throat. He should probably eat something too, he groaned as he rubbed his eyes. He was going to be seeing sewer schematics in his dreams tonight, he just knew it. He could still see their vague lines behind his eyes when he closed them. He reached his arms above his head and yawned as his spine let out a series of clicked that let him know that his posture hadn't been good for the last couple of hours. 

He clicked on the tab and realised it was the scent forum. Someone had replied.

BlueFlame: It depends what site you're using. There are some that use paypal as an inbetween so some customers are fine paying the upfront cost so long as you can get the item to them in the 'cancel transaction' window so that they don't get scammed either. There are some that allow a dm feature for the organisation of private sales which means you can get a better idea of what someone wants and compromise if something's too expensive; those often get used to put together a split-payment to keep everyone happy. Otherwise it's pretty common to buy the requested item from a retailer whose policies would allow you to return the requested item if the sale falls through. That does only work for some retailers and some items, but it's a pretty good system. 

I personally really like some more expensive fabrics, like silk, what I usually do when something I want is out of the scenter's budget is to order it and have it sent to a PO box for them to pick up - that way if they steal it I can report it as stolen or as unarrived to the retailer. Then I'd buy it back through a private sale at an agreed upon price. But that would require you to have a PO box. 

Another thing I've done if I can contact the seller directly is buy other things from their shop that add up to the price of whatever item I want, that way they have enough money to get it, and then buy it off them after. But that only works if there are enough things in the shop that I like to justify spending twice as much on the item I originally wanted. 

If I know a scenter well enough and trust them, then I have just straight up sent them the money upfront, but I wouldn't hold out hope for people doing that. 

I think that if you're just starting out then buying things with a 30-day return policy is your best bet. It limits you to what you can buy but it's the simplest way.

 

It had to be the same guy, right? How many people with the username BlueFlame were in the scent-service space? He typed out a quick reply thanking them for their time and grabbed the discarded reciept and packaging for the long-sleeved t-shirts. 14-day return policy. Okay, well that wasn't the end of the world. It was common to list how long you'd been wearing something in it's description, to give an idea of scent saturation, so this just meant that he could wear them for three or four days each before selling them. Although, since they were in a multipack, he'd probably have to return all of them if he wanted his money back. Well, he'd learnt something at least. 

Another ping from his laptop had him looking up. BlueFlame again.

BlueFlame: Another thing you could do if you're comfortable is link either a social media account (can be a burner) or a profile in one of these forums and list potential items there - it's pretty common and it lets you get a better idea of what people are willing to pay for. If there's something multiple people are willing to buy, then it wouldn't matter if someone backed out of a sale, because you'd have other customers you already know are interested.

Some people also use that method to allow pre-orders - posting what they're scenting at the moment or in the near future so that people can either keep an eye for it going up on the shop, or request a private sale before it goes up. 

 

FierceWings: I haven't touched the private sale function yet, but I'll defineitly check it out!

He clicked back onto the site and started browsing through other shops, until he'd found a handful with social media or forum profiles listed in their description and followed them to get an idea of what information they included, how they laid it out, and what kind of time frame they gave. The longest he could find listed items two weeks in advance, but that was bedding - easily one of the more expensive options out there. The price made Keigo let out a low whistle, but if they were buying brand-new sheets for this sale, it made sense. They even seemed to be auctioning some things, with the highest bid listed in the description. Another (very well established) shop had a patreon so that subscribers could see what they were selling a week in advance and snap it up before it even got to the shop. Keigo was not at that level. He wasn't planning on getting to that level. 30 items in the shop? That would be his entire wardrobe. No, he would be quite happy with some semi-steady income that could help plug the holes in his finances until...well, he wasn't sure what. He wasn't going to stop vigilantism, but that stopped him from holding down a job very easily. He tried not to think about his future too much; vigilantism didn't often end well and he didn't have anything to fall back on. Yet.

He sighed and got up to start making himself some cup noodle to eat - he could sort out his profile while he ate and hopfully distract himself from thinking about sewer schematics to the point that they followed him into his dreams.

The sewer schematics did follow him into his dreams, unfortunately. And the shiner he'd earnt stopping a mugger was looking worse - it was starting the yellow and green stage of bruising that really wasn't helping him look less tired and pitiful. He dragged his hands over his face, wincing as it pulled at the sore spot, before splashing cold water on his face and brushing his teeth. He made another instant coffee loaded with sugar and downed it before making another and sitting down at his coffee table. He opened up his laptop and went to go pour over the schematics again, but saw that he had notifications on the forum. He had five people requesting his sleepshirts. Which, considering he had three shirts listed was pretty good! It wasn't an insane amount of interest but it was more than he had expected. And more than he had shirts for. He decided that he should go for a 'first-come-first-served' basis, so messaged the earliest requests first saying he'd be happy to organise private sales for them, and then messaged the two later ones to say that if they were interested then he could get hold of two other shirts and they could have those some time in the next couple of weeks. He may have noticed that one of the earlier messagers had been BlueFlame. He also had an email back from the delivery firm inviting him in for an interview, which he was pleasantly surprised by.

He got a quick bus into town and grabbed some hankerchiefs, concealer, a colour-correction palette, arnica, melatonin, and then some more shirts. He considered getting more, maybe even grabbing some sweaters as well, but even though he'd had three people pre-order that didn't put the money in his account and he was loathe to buy anything else until it was. He also grabbed his shampoo and conditioner while he was out, along with some protein powder that was on clearance. He'd had it before and it was chalky as hell but he wasn't in a tax bracket where he could eat meat as regularly as his mutation would like. 

The cashier looked between the concealer, the arnica and the melatonin and back up at him and quietly put a flyer for domestic abuse hotlines in his bag, which wasn't what was going on, but it was kind of nice that she was looking out for people like that. He took the bus home, trying to keep his wings tucked in tight so they wouldn't get bumped, but it was busy today and he was fighting a loosing battle. He was going to have to preen when he got home. He had been planning on doing it tomorrow before the interview so that he'd have a nice calm start to the day, but looks like he'd be doing it tonight. The listing had been for a delivery person, which would work around his odd hours and help him earn some more money - he'd never gone for a delivery role before since he didn't have a vehicle, but this firm was run by a heteromorph and was apparently able to give out preliminary quirk-use licenses that, if he got the job, would allow him to fly as his method of transport. He'd only be permitted to do so while on an official job, so it's be useless against any charges if he was found flying around as a vigilante, but he was damned fast and he was sure he could get the job if he could prove that. And if he didn't show up to the interview with a shiner. 

He opened a new tab on his laptop and started looking for make-up tutorials. He'd been injured plenty of times, but he'd never bothered to try and cover them up before. Most of his neighbours just thought he was a delinquent, from what he could tell. But even he knew that a shiner at an interview was a no-go, and if he was going to be working there, it would probably be worth learning to cover up at least some of the damage. He realised as he started watching through a few videos, that picking up a brush might have been a good idea as well. Would a feather work? He tried using one to pick up some of the pot concealer and found that, no, it wasn't going to work. Finger it was then. He used some of the lavender to neutralise the yellowing bruise and then tapped the concealer on over the top. It hurt to keep tapping the bruise, but he wanted to make sure it would actually work. He had to start again a few times, but after getting the hang of it he had a mostly normal looking face afterwards - the skin over the bruise looked a little waxy and some of the discolouration was peeking through like little shadows but it wasn't obvious. Hopefully it would be fine for an interview. 

He grabbed the make-up and his hair stuff and headed into the bathroom, deciding to just shower rather than wash it off in the sink - he need to preen anyway, might as well start with a (literal) clean slate. He ended up preening in front of his laptop - he usually put something on to watch while he did it but ended up scrolling through more of the forums. If he used a feather to pressed the up and down key then he didn't even need to pause to scroll. He found himself sort-of following BlueFlame around the discussion boards; they always explained in detail and they seemed to have been in the scent-service scene for a while. From what he could tell, though, they'd always been a buyer, never selling. Also, despite it not being listed anywhere on thier profile, Keigo was pretty sure they were an omega, simply based on the discussions and groups they were part of: they were active in a lot of the boards that advised omegas who didn't want an alpha, or didn't feel comfortable with an alpha, on nesting and scented items. BlueFlame themselves mentioned at one point that the smell of an alpha could often make them nervous, so they chose scents with weaker projection so they could head into another room to calm down without the smell following them if they needed to. A few of those conversations moved off to private, invite-only forums. They were also active in a lot of discussion about nesting ideas for people who tended to overheat; apparently finding nesting materials that weren't insulating as all hell could be quite tricky. A lot of people in those ones where lamenting the fact that with autumn beginning, the few lighter-weight nesting materials available were going to disappear. Might be a good idea for Keigo to buy some summerwear while it was cheap then, and sell that throughout the winter. 

The interview seemed to go well - they said they'd get back to him within two weeks. He'd also scented a new batch of handkerchiefs for his shop and the first of the sleepshirts would be sent off tomorrow. He got into his vigilante gear, which was mostly just whatever was dark, hard-wearing and had the least amount of holes in it at any given time; black compression shirt, gloves with the fingertips cut off for his talons, thick hoodie with a leather jacket over the top, combat trousers, combat boots, a cowl mask and a tinted visor. He'd really like to invest in proper tactical gear, at the very least a proper mask to protect his face and identity more, maybe a stab-proof vest, but it would have to wait. Maybe after the sofa. He wasn't expecting a major fight tonight - unfortunately learning to cover a bruise with make-up would be rather pointless if he also got stabbed, so he was just going to go patrolling, keep an eye out to make sure people got home safe from the clubs (which should be pretty dead since it was a Tuesday) and he might scout around some of the drains he thought were being used as drop-points. He could send a feather or two down, but not many since whichever feathers ended up in the sewers were not ones that he'd be bringing to the interview. He'd have to float them back home seperate to his wings and wash them later.

He perched himself up a tower in downtown where a lot of the nightlife for this area gathered, huddling into his hoodie as he watched people laughing and stumbling about as they made their way between bars and clubs. There weren't many: it was a few after-work groups and some student but the elated screams and giggles still made their way up to where he was perched, mixed in with the whistling wind and the sound of traffic. Keigo liked making sure people got home safe. Not just because it made him feel useful, or because it was the right thing to do, but because there was something about watching people relaxed and friendly and having a good time that he liked, and he wanted to be a part of that, even if it was only in a small way. He'd never quite gotten the hand of making friends. He hadn't had any as a kid. He'd never actually gone to school - he'd sort of twigged when he was younger that school was somewhere kids went and he should be there, but he knew better than to ask his parents. He tried to watch shows about school, but they never showed the class content. He'd tried reading what was in the flat, but there basically wasn't anything. He'd managed to teach himself to read thanks to subtitles, and then when he was a little older and able to sneak out without anyone on the street questioning where his parents were he tracked down the nearest library and started asking questions there. Thankfully, they stocked quite a few schoolbooks and no one at home would miss him if he turned up every day to read through them. 

There were a few times when he'd have to ask a librarian for help, and he was pretty sure that they thought he was home-schooled or something. He got pretty far on his own, but not far enough. He didn't even realise that he needed to take exams, needed to get diplomas and stuff, to even begin to function in society at large. He also didn't find out about emancipation until long past when he needed it - by that point he'd already run away. He'd gotten a minimum-wage job and lied about his age so he could put a roof over his head and found out that middle- and high-school diplomas would open up better jobs for him, and took all those exams as soon as he could. But he'd never actually gone to school. Never spent time around kids his own age. Didn't really spend time with any of his peers, even after he ran away because he was working while they all went on to higher education. He didn't...have friends. He'd like some. But he wouldn't know what to do with them after he got them. Watching people on the street gave him an idea though; go out for drinks, be a bit stupid, stumble around while holding onto each others shoulders before crashing at someone else's place. It seemed nice.

By 1am most people had headed home and Keigo left his perch to do a quick sweep of the area and investigate some grates. He even went so far as to send a handful of feathers down a drain and then use them to lift a manhole cover from the inside so he could peer in with his pocket torch. Nothing. Theory might be a bust. He sighed and returned the cover to it's rightful place, leaving the stinky feathers to float a few feet behind him as he flew off home. 

He peeled off his Hawks gear, hid his stinky feathers in a spare compost bag to keep the smell contained, and dropped his wings so he could have another shower and make sure that none of the sewer stink clung to his hair. He just about remembered to pull on the sleep shirt before collapsing into bed, asleep before he hit the pillow. 

When the money from the shirts came in, Keigo bought himself a kevlar vest instead of a sofa. And with the money left over he bought a light linen shirt, some loose cotton tank tops, a fuzzy sweatshirt, a blanket and one of those over-priced squishy plushies that doubled as a pillow that seemed to be popular. The tank tops and blanket were for dipping his toe into some new areas: selling bedding and selling used workout gear. So far he'd only been selling clothes that had been slept in, which was the most popular - the scent would be calm, happy and relaxed. But there was also a market for clothes that had been scented with different moods; there were a considerable number of omegas who he'd found out liked buying clothing scented in a possessive, territorial mood to help them feel safer out and about if they lived alone and sometimes just because they liked it. Keigo wasn't going to go that far because...well, he felt self-conscious trying to scent territorially. He barely even did it in his flat, preferring to just let his continued presence make it clear that it was his. He didn't really have anything that he was so emotionally attached to that he even felt territorial about it. Maybe his old childhood Endeavour toy, but not much beyond that. He lived his life with the awareness that he couldn't really afford to have, and keep, nice things. He had useful things. But nothing with the emotional connection that would prompt him to scent it. He wasn't sure if that was unusual for an alpha of his age, but he didn't know any other alphas his age to ask. But sweaty workout gear apparently also worked. Keigo couldn't afford a gym membership right now, but he'd run around the block when he wasn't injured, and if he got the delivery job then he'd be out flying a lot. 

He took some pictures of the clothes (kevlar not included) and uploaded them to the forum with basic descriptions and an estimated sending date and price. Then he made himself some food (heated up a konbini curry) and sat down to pour over the map with the missing stolen goods marked on it. Maybe one of the gang members just had a teleportation quirk that worked on small enough objects? He sent feathers to grab the new blanket from off his bed and draped it around his shoulders. He wasn't cold, but why miss a good oppotunity to scent it?

He was getting to the 'maybe they have a secret pigeon ally' stage of paranoid theorising when he decided it was time for a break and switched over to the forum. He'd had interest on everything, but noticed he had more messages from BlueFlame than anyone else and clicked on their chat.

BlueFlame: I would like to call dibs on the linen shirt

BlueFlame: If someone else has already grabbed it I'm willing to wait for another one

BlueFlame: Also, would you be willing to sell one of the tank tops sleep-scented instead of workout-scented?

FierceWings: Yeah, you can have one sleep-scented, np! It'll be the same price and I could get it sent a few days earlier since I won't have to wait until after a workout. Linen shirt's urs too, I'll send em together!

Okay, well keeping at least one summery shirt available was a good way to go, it seemed. He clicked through the other DMs, accepting offers and deciding that it was time for him to start a spreadsheet to keep track of who wanted what and when he could send it, clicking that open and typing in the info as well as list of requests - two people had asked if he was willing to do something workout-scented but warmer than the tanktops, like a sweatshirt. The over-priced plushie went faster than anything else, which surprised him a little, but it had been a gamble anyway so he was mostly just happy that it had paid off. He wondered how much a scented body-pillow went for? He went over to the scent-service site and typed it in. There were a few for sale and they were doing numbers that were only beat out by the full bedding sets. Jeez. Keigo might look into selling one further down the line then. 

Things were going well! He'd sold almost all of his last batch of clothes, along with a few older sweatshirts of his that he didn't want anymore, he'd finished his second week at the delivery job and he was already having conversations with his boss about offering him as a 'premium' option for delivery when he was on shift since he was so fast, and that would be reflected in his pay. They were going to have a meeting later to figure out the logistics, since it would make more sense for him to work every day so they could offer the service, but with reduced hours so he wasn't overworked. And the papers had released a story about the police cracking a weapons-smuggling case. Keigo's tip-off wasn't mentioned but it was the same case, so he'd been helpful at least! Which meant of course that something had to go wrong. 

He'd gotten home from a full-shift work, gone to make himself some dinner, only to notice that the fridge light didn't come on when he opened it, and it did not feel cold. It also smelt bad. There was a large, discoloured puddle at the bottom. Uh oh. He slammed the door shut, and looked at the freezer door aprehensively. Best to leave it alone. His food was more likely to stay cold if he left it alone. Shit. That's what he got for grabbing the cheapest secondhand fridgefreezer he could find. Most of whatever was in the fridge was probably a write off, but the food in the freezer might survive if he left the door closed and gets something new by tomorrow. He sighed and made himself two cup noodles in a bowl before heading over to his laptop, booting it up and searching local sites for any secondhand fridgefreezers. It was slim pickings; he didn't have space for anything other than a fridgefreezer combo, he needed something currently functional, and he needed it to be available for pick-up tomorrow. There were only two that seemed decent, but one's freezer was much smaller - a little shelf at the top rather than the entire bottom half of the appliance like he currently had - and the other one wouldn't be available until the end of the week because the owner was away. Which isn't even considering how much difficulty Keigo was going to have manouvering the whole thing out of one person's place, somehow getting it to his own place without a car, and then getting it up the stair to his flat. 

He opened a new tab and typed in 'fridgefreezer next day delivery'.

He found one that was at the cheaper end of the scale, came with a waranty and help with installation, and would let him pay in three installments, but the window for next-day delivery had closed at 2pm so it wouldn't arrive until the day after tomorrow. He ordered it with slumped shoulders, hoping his card wouldn't bounce the purchase and then went out to see if there was anywhere open where he could get a coolbox, checking the notes in his wallet as he went because he doubted his card would approve two large purchases this evening.

He was right - his card had bounced at the checkout. He'd gotten the cheapest electric coolbox he could find which meant that he managed to pay for it in cash but effectively emptied his wallet of all physical money. He plugged it in and started emptying his freezer as best he could - there was no way it was all going to fit in the coolbox, so he moved over things that could survive being defrosted - meat, fish, that kind of thing and anything from the fridge that was still good shoved in the gaps, before closing the door and praying that whatever was left in the freezer would survive the night. He rubbed his hands over his face with a defeated sigh and then reached to the top of the cupboard to grab some cheap scotch and pour himself a glass. When he'd finished and the clock was pushing midnight, he got into his pyjamas (sleepshirt would need to be sent off the same day the new fridge arrived) but before he got in, he made the bed, fluffed the pillows a little and took a photo.

Full Set of Bedding (sheet, duvet cover, blanket, 2 pillowcases) 

Size: Double

Fabric: brushed cotton

Slept in for 3 weeks, can be sold as a set or indiviudually

And then he listed his minimum price and noted that he'd be running it as an auction, sighing before collapsing into it. He only owned two sets of bedding. But if he got his minimum price than that'd cover one installment on the new fridge. If he was willing to sleep without bedding for a bit, then he could sell his other set after three weeks to make up the second installment. After that...after that he'd have to figure something out. He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes and let out a long breath - he didn't want to stink up the bedding with a stressed-out scent, not if he was going to sell it.

When he woke up, he made his coffee, glared at his broken fridge and opened the coolbox to grab some eggs and started scrambling them as he drank his coffee. He shot off a text to his boss asking if there were any extra hours he could pick up over the next couple of weeks as well. He settled in front of the coffee table (still no sofa) and booted up his laptop, logging into the forum. 

He had six bids, which was a relief. He updated the price with the current highest bid. He was also planning on going through his clothes and finding everything that wasn't 100% essential and putting it up for sale. He had another message from BlueFlame but it wasn't a bid;

BlueFlame: if you're doing bedding, would you be open to buying and scenting something specific for me?

FierceWings: i'm open to it, but the reason I'm selling my bedding rn is bc money's tight

FierceWings: so it would really depend on what u want

He left his laptop open as he went into his drawers and started dragging everything out, then did the same with his wardrobe. He seperated his Hawks gear from the pile, then his underwear, then started taking out only the bare minimum, starting with his tops. He had made his way into the pile of trousers when he heard the notification ding and returned to the laptop.

BlueFlame: I understand

BlueFlame: what if I bought the currently listed bedding off of you for just over the price of the bedding I want, then you buy it and scent it and I buy the one I want off of you. Then I return the original bedding, you refund me and then you can sell it on again? That way you should always have the money to cover my purchase?

Keigo paused, thinking it over to make sure he understood him.

FierceWings: What bedding is it u want?

BlueFlame: 100% silk flat sheet

Then they sent a few links to different sites, which had flat sheets that cost more than Keigo's entire bedset. More than his fortnightly food budget. Equal to four installments on his new fridge.

FierceWings: So, u buy the cotton bedding I currently have listed 4 the same amount as the silk sheet. I use that money to order the silk sheet. I scent the silk sheet. u buy THAT as well and after it arrives u return the cotton set and I refund u 4 it?

BlueFlame: Not quite, because that would leave you with no profit. I was thinking the cost of the sheet + 20000 yen?

That would...do a lot to pay for the fridge. And then he could still sell his other bedding. He quickly x-ed out of the chat and headed over to the scent-service site and clicked on BlueFlame's profile - Keigo knew they were pretty well-respected in the forums, and they'd been a great customer for him before, but sellers could also leave reviews and this was a large enough sum of money that he wanted to check. 5-star buyer. All the written reviews were very positive. They seemed legit. 

FierceWings: we can do that

FierceWings: I'm happy 2 do that. But wouldn't it be easier for u to wait until I have the money to just buy it myself rather than having to do all the song and dance with the cotton set?

BlueFlame: yeah, probably

There was a long pause and Keigo thought that was all the response he was getting until he saw three dots appear, and then a message.

BlueFlame: but my heat's due to arrive next month, so I want the freshly scented bedding in time for that

Oh, okay! Okay. Keigo could be normal about this. Keigo could be so normal about this! His stuff, scented, wanted for an omega's nest. He could be normal about that. It didn't mean anything - they didn't know each other, it was understood that when you used a scent-service then your purchases might be used by someone during their cycle. A lot of scent-services started specifically so that people could get hold of scented items to help them through their cycles without having to find a partner. There was a possiblity that Keigo's scented clothes could already be found in multiple nests. But that has always been pretty abstract. A possibility, rather than a known truth. Now he was knowing that truth and feeling like hopping around the flat and chittering about it. But he wasn't actually going to do that because he was going to be normal. 

He sent back a thumbs up emoji. 

FierceWings: okay then, we can get this done before then! I'll put together the private sale for the cottons. What colour silk do u want?

BlueFlame: not fussy, but I prefer dark colours. So black, navy, plum, anything like that.

FierceWings: cool, they've got the black available. Do u want anything else though? If we're already doing this then if u want any other silks u should say now so I can add em to the price. 

BlueFlame: You're sure? If you're okay with it I'd love a duvet cover (double) and maybe a pillowcase?

Keigo clicked through on the website, opening up a few different tabs with different items in them. Very normally. Like a normal person, who was normal.

FierceWings: they don't have the double in black but they have it in plum. Do u want them to match or do u not mind? Also they do a set of duvet cover and 2 pillowcases, should I go for that or buy em seperately?

BlueFlame: I'm not super bothered if they match, but ig it would be nice. Get the set, yeah. Can never have too many pillows. Not when nesting at least.

Keigo was so normal and calm and normal. He added them all together and then sent a picture of the checkout with the items in before sending it.

FierceWings: this good?

BlueFlame: yeah that's great. If you make that + a commission fee the price of the cottons, I'll buy them as soon as you like and then you just sent me a screenshot of the order confirmation for the silks?

FierceWings: Sounds good! 10% for the comission fee ok?

BlueFlame: yeah, that's fine

Keigo let out a sigh of relief - he really wasn't sure what kind of price was normal for a 'comission fee' so he'd kind of winged it. He went over to the forum and removed the post about the bedding, before heading over to the scent-service site and typing in the information for the private sale and sending it to BlueFlame. The sale was accepted and payment confirmed within five minutes. Keigo's heart was pounding; it was the largest sum of money he'd ever recieved in one go. Granted, the bar for that was quite low, but still. He headed back to the bedding site and put in his details for the order, opening another tab to check his online banking and wait for the money to come in - he wasn't going to risk going into his overdraft for this, even if it was only for a short time. It popped up after a little while and he went back to the bedding site to confirm his order. 

He blew out a nervous breath and then took a screenshot of the order confirmation and sent it to BlueFlame, his phone buzzing as he did. When he checked it was a text from his bank:

We've noticed some unusual activity on your account (sort code **-**-**). If this was not you, there's still time to cancel this transaction and take action to prevent further fraudulent acitivity. Check your online banking or call **-***-***-***

Wow, way to call him poor. But probably for the best. He went back to his banking to check that the purchase was listed in his upcoming payments and made a note to check again tomorrow, just in case. He really wanted his first private sale with BlueFlame to go well. His feathers fluffed at the thought of his scent being...wanted in a nest. During a heat. He leant back and ran his hands through his hair, only to realise his palms were sweaty. 

Sleeping on silk sheets had been an...interesting experience. Slippy. Smooth. He wasn't sure he liked it at first, but his wings had never been shinier. Something about the fabric meant that they weren't getting nearly so mussed up in the night, so he was preening less in the mornings, and he didn't need to add as much preening oil either. His hair had been looking pretty good to; he'd always kinda looked like someone had stuck some straw on his head and he was still using the cheapest shampoo and conditioner he could get (which he doubted helped his split-ends) but that had been smoother and less tangled in the mornings too. He was trying to convince himself that the texture of the silk wasn't nice, but in fact too slippery, because he'd never be able to afford silk again so developing a taste for it would be a very bad idea. It was definietly too slippery. And not warm enough. He didn't want his own.

His manager had managed to get him some more shifts and some higher-paying gigs to help with his financial problems, which was good but taking away from his vigilante work terribly - he was fit, sure, but he'd never had the oppotunity to be flying around all day, and now that he was he came home after a full shift absolutely whacked. His pecs ached every day with how much flapping he was doing, his abs aching from having to hold a plank-like position in the air for long periods of time, not to mention his actual wings. He wouldn't have been able to patrol even if he had the energy. But he'd already done some calcuations and when he got this month's pay, it'd cover his rent, utilities, food, and the final installment on the fridge. Which had arrived and was now sitting pretty in his kitchen like a shiny monolith of incoming bills. It was good though. It worked much better than his old one (not a difficult task), and all the replacement food he'd had to buy was doing well - no blocks of ice forming at the back that meant he had to keep things close to the door. His cotton bedding had arrived and he'd decided to rescent it before putting it back up for sale. It had smelt freshly washed when it had arrived, which sort of implied that BlueFlame had taken it out of the package rather than just leave it until the silks arrived. Keigo wasn't sure if it had ended up in the nest, but it must have had at least some of BlueFlame's scent on it to warrant another wash. Their detergent must have been one of those unfragranced ones because the bedding couldn't have smelt less interesting if they were fresh from the shop. It was warmer than the silk. And it felt almost fleecy in comparison. His feathers and hair looking more ragged wasn't an issue - he wasn't a professional model he didn't need to look polished all the time. It was fine. 

He hoped BlueFlame's heat went well, but he didn't know how to say that to them without it sounding creepy and invasive - he was basically a stranger after all. Even if his scent was in their nest. Everything he knew about heats came from tv and movies, so he was probably way off base with any details but it seemed like it could be pretty intense. He'd picked up a bit more information from the forums, but a lot of those conversations were only surface level before they moved to a private server or DMs. He'd sent a few other things to Blue as well - the tank top and another linen shirt. They'd chat a little, usually about the orders and Keigo really was doing his best not to make it obvious that he'd never spent time around an omega before. Not in a wierd way! But he just...didn't know some things and he was never sure when (or if) it was appropriate to ask. Blue also just gave really good advice when it came to the shop - Keigo had floated the idea of a scented body pillow as a future sale and Blue had mentioned that while it was a good idea, both body pillows and weighted blankets (two very popular items) come in such a wide range of vareties that he'd be better off asking for requests rather than buying one outright. Blue had then also recommended that if Keigo wanted to make more money by selling larger-ticket items, which he couldn't afford to not sell, then he'd be better off looking into opening a PO box and offering re-scenting services. They were less money, but more consistent since it was just people sending stuff in to be scented and then sending it back. It would mean that he didn't have to keep buying new things to sell, or sell his way through things he already owned. 

Keigo had decided to look into it after he had paid off the fridge and felt confident enough to look into another expense. It did seem like a good idea. And technically he could just use his actual address which would cost him nothing, but Blue had mentioned on many, many different forums that it was always safer to use a PO box for scent services since you were dealing with strangers on the internet. Which Keigo understood, he really did, but he'd looked up PO box prices and promptly closed his laptop. Definitely an after-the-fridge-was-paid-off kind of investment. He was getting paid more now, it was true, but...money was scary. In the end he'd posted on his page that he was considering re-scenting and wanted to get an idea of interest levels. He hadn't checked back yet.

His laptop binged.

BlueFlame: btw, I forgot to mention that if you do scent weighted blankets, CHECK the weight recommendations for YOU as well. If you go any heavier you might find it harder to breath while you're sleeping. Idk what size you are, but all decent sellers will have a conversion chart for you to check.

FierceWings: *salute gif* understood!

FierceWings: Thx for looking out for me

BlueFlame: Also, re:interest in re-scenting, I was going to ask how you'd feel about re-scenting the silks at some point.

FierceWings: I don't have a problem with that! I'm trying to gauge interest since I'd want 2 open a PO box and I want 2 b sure that it's worth it.

BlueFlame: Understandable. I'd be willing to pay extra to cover the cost for opening one to re-scent the silks. Still cheaper than buying a bunch of new ones again.

Fucking hell, how much money did they have? The silks, the PO box, the regular orders, they must be pretty well-off to be able to bankroll all of this. Well, not like it was really Keigo's business, not really. Sure, BlueFlame was one of his most loyal buyers but that didn't mean he needed to know anything about them beyond what they'd be interested in ordering. And they were interested in having the silks re-scented. He shook out his wings and thought it over for a few minutes before replying.

FierceWings: I was going 2 give it a week or so to gauge interest. If there's enough then I'll open a PO box myself, if there isn't then we could revisit that? I don't see the point in passing the cost onto u specifically if other people are interested. Unless u want the silks done quicker??

God he hoped that sounded alright. He didn't want to sound like he wasn't up for it, but Blue had already spent time and money working around Keigo getting the silks that he didn't want to be more of a bother with this as well, not if he could help it.

BlueFlame: yeah that's fine. We can talk about it again next week then.

Keigo hoped they weren't mad at him. 

He'd finally, finally managed to put aside some time to do more vigilante work. The fridge was paid off, he'd been able to reduce his hours to something more managable, and the re-scenting was going well - he now didn't have to keep spending money to try and bring more in, he had the PO box and it paid for itself with the amount of work he got. It took a little while to get going, since he usually scented things for at least a week before sending them back, but after a month his finances were stable and...comfortable, almost. He had his new kevlar, which was good since he wouldn't be able to clock in as a delivery guy if his was too injured, he wasn't constantly sore from flying all day, and tomorrow was one of his days off. He had been doing a patrol of his usual area, mostly just seeing if anything was amiss after his brief hiatus, and had a welcome-back knife-fight with a mugger when an alarm pierced the air. It was a few streets over, just about where the slightly nicer part of town started and Keigo shot off to go investigate.

Wheeling overhead he could see a small jewellers' with it's windows smashed in, whatever metal grate usually protecting the shopfront torn off and scattered around in twisted lumps of metal all over the street. He sent a few feathers down to investigate, drifting in through the empty window frames and mapping the interior as best he could with only sound. It was mostly just the noise of boots on glass and more smashing. Some tinkling, some murmuring but it was hard to pick up on the individuals sounds with so much going on - his feathers picked up vibrations, so pinning those down to words was difficult. But there were at least three people and he had a good idea of where in the shop they were. He started circling lower, trying to decide it he should engage - smash and grabs like this one where designed to be fast rather than covert, getting out before law enforcment could arrive. If Keigo could delay them, then that could give the authorities enough time. But it would also involve a 3-on-1 fight, and he didn't know their quirks. He decided to start small; he landed in the alleyway opposite the shop and angled himself so that he could see inside as best he could, then started using his feathers for things like slashing open bags and tripping up feet. It was easier to do when he could see his feathers, rather than relying on the little hints offered by sound and his memory of the room, which was basically impossible for anywhere that wasn't his flat. 

The robbers quickly realised something was going on, but his feathers were small and fast. Not to mention, 'self-sharpening psychic feathers' didn't tend to be someone's first guess in these situations. He could hear exclamations, both through the feathers and from in the alley though he couldn't make out particulars. He was confident, however, that there were plenty of swearwords. Especially when he managed to send one of them falling back into the smashed display case, the shattered glass undoubtedly making for a very un-soft landing. The feathers would only keep them busy for so long, with escape as their priority and as Keigo was readying himself to fly out the shadows and do his best to start an aerial attack - perhaps attempt to snatch their ill-gotten gains while they were running, an orange glow started to take up one end of the street. He paused, moving further into the shadows as it drew closer quickly. 

One of the robbers snuck past his feathers while he was distracted and a whoosh of fire vomited down the street, burning off a few of his feathers and leading to shouts of terror from the thieves. A hulking figure moved forward, faster than Keigo would have expected from a person of such size. Tackling of the robbers down and grabbing one as they tried to escape, spinning around while still holding them, sending them careening into one of their allies.

All the robbers were subdued within minutes, Keigo backing away further into the alley in the hopes of not being spotted, focusing on trying to bring back his errant feathers as covertly as possible, sending a few directly into the still-burning flames to get rid of any evidence of his presence. Then he went through the alley and out the other side, taking off his visor, hat and mask and shoving them in his coat pocket before doing his best impression of someone minding their own business as he walked the winding route back to his flat. But the entire way back, even after his heart had calmed to a normal rhythm, he couldn't help but think: what on earth was Endeavour doing in Fukuoka?

"Takami," his manager said, "do you have time for one last delivery today? I know you get off in half an hour."

Keigo hesitated, water bottle halfway to his mouth after his last flight, "depends where it is and where it's going."

"From the depot by the old factory to the big hospital."

"Oh yeah, I can managed that," Keigo said. 

"Brilliant, I'll confirm it to the client and send you the details."

Keigo nodded, finishing his water while giving them a thumbs-up, then pulled down his flying goggles before taking off again, banking in the direction of the depot. His felt his phone buzz in his pocket on the way there, no doubt the job confirmation with all the info he'd need to pick-up and deliver the package. Pretty much everyone at the depot recognised him by sight now, so he could just give a friendly wave on his way in and then read off the item code to the guy behind the desk, sign for it and take off again. Depot to hospital was only about ten minutes, flying. Driving, maybe forty. Driving during rush hour? You'd be better off waiting for all the commuters to get home, it'd take you just as long. 

There were actually two packages included, but they didn't go over his weight-limit when they were together so it was fine. He wasn't sure what was in the bigger one, but the smaller, flat one was one of those postal-bouquets where you could fit them through the letterbox and have the reciever arrange them themselves. He could smell them a little through the cardboard, which made them one of his favourite things to deliver. It had been a pretty good day for flying - the windspeed was mild, there were some gentle thermals and it had been sunny all day. There were clouds threatening rain later, but the forecast had said it wasn't due until nightfall. He hummed to himself as he trailed over the cityscape below, listening to a podcast - he had to download them to listen to them up this high, but it was worth it when he spent so much time up in the sky on work days. The hospital was always busy, but he'd had to deliver there before so he knew the procedure. Land, check-in at the desk, get directions to the room, deliver and get a signature.

The ward he was directed towards was in one of the seperate buildings with private rooms you could book for a cushier hospital stay. The hallways weren't quite so charmless and the air smelt of clean laundry and fresh flowers as well as the usual bleach and lemon-scented cleaners that the hospital had. Keigo wandered along the corridor until he found the right door number and then knocked.

A bit of shuffling and quiet swearing preceeded the opening of the door and a scowling, scarred face poked out to look him up and down. Keigo wasn't overly bothered - he assumed that anyone staying in a hospital likely had a very good reason to scowl. He had some pretty devestating scarring, going down his cheeks and neck, and stretching over the delicate skin of his undereyes. There was some pretty dramatic hyperpigmentation on them, which really emphasised the long white eyelashes that otherwise would have blended into his pale skin. His hair was just as white, and the kind of fluffy spikes that came from scrubbing them after a shower and leaving them to airdry. His eyes were incredibly blue - like seaglass. Keigo had to look up a little to meet them, the other man a couple of inches taller than him. 

"Delivery!" He chirped, holding the boxes higher, as if they weren't already obvious. 

There was a pause, "I didn't order anything."

Keigo blinked, before double-checking the address on the packages, "Todoroki Touya?"

"Must be from my sister, or something," the guy said.

"You happy to sign for them?" Keigo asked.

"Yeah, sure," he replied, "is all the postage paid?"

"Yeah," Keigo assured him, trying to slip back into the normal script of his work day and not focus on the truly heavenly smell that was haloing the other man. He sent a few feathers into his jacket and pulled out the little touchscreen and stylus and floated them over to get the recipient's signature.

"Okay, cool," the other man said, after staring at the feathers for a moment before signing and passing the device back to Keigo. He picked up the small box of flowers, turning it over in his hands before looking up at him again, unaware of the minor crisis Keigo was having, "I'll just go put these down and come back for the other, yeah?"

"No problem!" Keigo said, perhaps sounding a little dazed. He wanted to bury his nose in the other's hair and fall asleep on him. 

The omega disappeared back into his room and Keigo took in a deep breath, hoping that if he did so now he'd be more clear-headed for when he came back. But the scent was still thick in the air and just as rich. Good sillage, part of his brain added unhelpfully. He could feel his fangs tingle a little and had to consciously keep them retracted. The other guy returned and Keigo reminded himself that he only had to get through the rest of this interaction before he could leave and finish his breakdown somewhere else. The other box was a bit heavier, and Keigo thought about offering to carry it into the room for him, but stopped since that would basically be inviting himself into an injured omega's space. Probably shouldn't be doing that. Besides, there was a weight-limit so it didn't impact his flight too much, so even though it was heavier it wasn't heavy-heavy. But maybe he shouldn't be making assumptions about what someone in the hospital might consider 'heavy'? Oh god, should he offer to carry it in?

The omega leant forward to take the other box, and Keigo realised that if he didn't want to be a dick he was going to have to lean forward too to help pass it over. There was a pause.

"You got it?" Keigo asked. 

"Uh..."

He turned to see the omega staring at him with wide, blue eyes. Shit; "is it too heavy?" Keigo asked, already starting to lean back again and take weight - he should have asked! He didn't want the guy to hurt himself! "I can take it if you like, you just tell me where to put it-"

"No!" The other man said, grabbing the box tighter, "it's fine! I'll take it!"

Keigo blinked at him; maybe he'd been right when he thought that he really shouldn't be going into the rooms of injured omegas? He didn't know enough about them, really, and he didn't want to stereotype. 

"O-okay," he said, making sure his scent was calm, even though he doubted he could smell it, "you got it?"

"Yeah, I've got it," the omega inisisted, before rushing back into his room and slamming the door shut behind him. Keigo stood in the corridor for a few moments. Had that been weird? Had he done something wrong? Or was the guy just like that? He was in hopsital after all, Keigo doubted he was having a good time. Besides, if it had been weird then the best thing he could do was leave the poor guy alone, right?

Keigo would have thought that was the end of it, but actually the hospital became a regular client for the delivery crew. He wasn't sure if everything he normal got delivered was being re-directed to the hospital through them (expensive, unless everything he got was time-sensitive somehow), regular flowers, and sometimes food. The food was the most difficult for Keigo, bringing the omega food and having him accept (because he ordered it, duh) was getting some wires crossed in his brain. The instinctual wires of providing food and having it accepted, as though courting. The kind of wires that weren't making it any easier for him to act normal. Which really wasn't fair on the guy; he was already in hospital, he didn't need his delivery guy getting overly familiar. But it was tricky - when Keigo was home alone he kept finding his mind drifting to blue eyes, and wanting to make enough food for two. Or looking at his bed and having the urge to get more pillows. Double-check all the windowpanes to make sure they weren't letting in any drafts. Scenting the frontdoor so it was clear where his territory began. It was kind of embarassing - he'd smelt an omega and immediately gone into den-building mode. He should really nip it in the bud, but he wasn't quite sure how; in the end he'd caved and gone to one of the forums;

FierceWings: hi, so this is really embarassing but I'm looking for some advice: I (22AM) have met someone (20s?OM) through work. Long story short, he smells really, really good. Like, really good. I haven't really smelt an omega before and now im struggling with den-building at home. I need to see him for work, but I don't want to intrude on him at all. I've tried just repressing the den-buildings but I got wierd and anxious and nearly whined at him the next time I saw him. I don't want to be weird, what's the best way of nipping this in the bud?

Username1: how have you made it to 22 without spending time with omegas???

FierceWings: I was homeschooled until i was 18 and i live in a pretty bad area. There are omegas around, but they tend to be on blockers/wear scent patches, so ive never really smelt them. 

username2: god, alphas who immediately blame omegas for 'smelling too good' and use that to excuse their bad behaviour are so disgusting. get over yourself.

FierceWings: I don't blame him?? I'm trying to figure out a way to stop this from affecting him at all?? Thats what the post is for??

BlueFlame: stfu. op didn't say anything like that, you're projecting. 

BlueFlame: I mean, if this is a lack of exposure issue (you mentioned not smelling omegas much before) then maybe try ordering from some other omegas on a scent-service? That would give you exposure and possible help stop your instincts from focusing on one, singular person.

username3: hey op, no offence, but why not just ask the guy out? If u like the way he smells so much and ur den-building why do you have to stop?

FierceWings: honestly, id feel weird asking someone out when i dont really know them. Also, I don't want to go into detail but the way we're meeting at my workplace has me very confident that asking him out would be inappropriate and possibly invasive.

 

There were a few other questions popping up, but Keigo was mulling over BlueFlame's idea. It hadn't really occurred to him to use the scent-service as a customer before. But it might be a good idea to stop being so weird about Todoroki. The search function for the website he sold on had an extensive filtering section so you could search by notes as well as by item, seller, popularity, etc. the only thing was that he had no idea what kind of notes he liked beyond...whatever Todoroki's were. Should he buy ones that smelt similar, or would that just enforce his fixation? Maybe a grab-bag of a bit of everything would be a better way to go. He just went for scraps and neckerchiefs - he didn't need anything fancier and he didn't want to spend too much money. Apparently smoky-scents for omegas were pretty rare, since there weren't any options under the 'incence' note filter and only about three for 'black tea'. 'Rose' had loads of options, 'lychee' a little less, but there were still multiple. Then he started branching out into things that he thought he'd probably like; coffee, cocoa, whipped cream, caramel, pomegranate, raspberry, melon, persimmon, pear, peach. Damn, looking for scents was making him hungry. There were other things that he recognised, but had no idea what they smelt like; tonka bean, cashmere, ambergris (which was apparently different from amber) so he just rolled the dice on those. 

He had two more deliveries to Todoroki before the samples started arriving, and he took to wearing a medical mask and pretending he had a minor cold. Todoroki looked at him a bit strange, but hadn't commented. Just signed for his stuff and taken it again. He'd been wearing a soft-looking jumper that matched his eyes at one point and Keigo had to cover a chitter by coughing.

When the first few samples started arriving he breathed a sigh of relief, before sorting them out on his coffee table (still didn't have a sofa). He was excited, but nervous - what if it turned out that there was something wrong with him? God, what if it turned out that being under-socialised as a kid had even more effects on him as an adult than he thought? What if he started scenting his territory borders again? He shook his head and reached for the first one. 

He opened the bag, and before he could get the neckerchief out, the scent had already hit his nose; black cherry and almond. That was one of the ones he'd thought he'd like most. And he did! It was nice! But...not nice like Todoroki's was. It was a very pleasant smell, but his reaction was more like...walking past someone who used a nice shampoo. A mild delight - something that might improve your mood for a little while, but he didnt have the urge to bury his nose in their hair like he did with Todoroki. Maybe one of the others would do it? He opened the next. Oh, that was the pear one! He didn't like it. He liked pears, but this was too sweet. It was like pear-flavoured candy, not the fruit. He closed the bag. Next one; coffee, almond and cocao. That one was also nice. Once again, something that he'd notice if he walked by, but wouldn't react more than just thinking that it was a nice smell. Maybe buying himself a coffee if he hadn't had one yet. The other two were about the same; the peach and jasmine was pleasant enough, and the black tea and peach was nice too. It was...well it was exactly how he'd thought he'd react to an omega's scent. He didn't feel overwhelmed, he didn't have the urge to chitter or try and get closer to any of them, he wasn't experiencing an irrational need to re-do the grout in his bathroom. He huffed and slouched down, resting his cheek on his fist. He tapped his talon on the coffee table for a bit before grumbling and reaching for his laptop; he now had the scent-service site and the forums open indefinitely.

FierceWings: UPDATE: I took some the advice for the original post and ordered some items from a scent-service! The service was really good, and I do like some of them but I'm just not having the same reaction?? Like, I smell them, and I enjoy the scent and it's nice, but it doesn't colour the rest of my day, yaknow? Definitely doesn't follow me home and have me fighting the urge to do diy. Have I just not found the right ones? Do I keep ordering more samples?? Should I be looking for scents that are similar to OM or is that just going to reinforce the fixation??

Username4: r u noticing a pattern at all? Like in the scents you like? It might just be that his is ticking ALL ur boxes and the others are only ticking one or two

FierceWings: yeah, I defnitely like a deeper, richer note, like incense/black tea/coffee, off-set with something lighter and sweeter, maybe a little fruity like lychee/peach/pear. My favourite out of the scent-service ones is probably one that's almost like a peach iced tea scent, but even that doesn't have quite the same depth as his.

Username4: yeah, ngl smokier/darker notes like those tend to be rarer in omegas, so it might be that ur preference doesn't come up often and this guys a perfect storm. Doesn't really help ur problem tho, sorry

FierceWings: thx anyway

Username5: idk, surely smelling multiple omegas will make the den-building WORSE since, yaknow, ur lizard-brain thinks there's more omegas around to impress??

FierceWings: shit, I didn't even think of that! I don't think that's happening - I'm still only really having the urges on days when I see him, or if I think about him too much.

BlueFlame: I mean, it kinda sounds like if you want to de-sensitise yourself, you'd be better off trying to do it with something of HIS. Making his scent mundane might help stop the fixation. But I'm guessing from what you've said earlier that you wouldn't feel comfortable asking for something from him?

FierceWings: no, not at all. It would be so inappropriate.

Username6: what if you didn't outright ask?? Just get ur coat or something to brush up against him? If he's got a heavier scent then you've got a good chance of having it stick.

FierceWings: idk, i see your point but it would feel like an invasion of privacy.

Username7: I went through something a few years ago that was a tad similar - if it helps it helps, if it doesn't just ignore this bc I am making a few assumptions here. So I was never fixated on one specific person, but for a few years whenever I had a crush I'd get REALLY intense den-building urges and it was starting to get dangerous (a lot of it was actually my landlord's responsibilty and I did NOT have the training or know-how to be doing half the things that my instincts were telling me to do). Anyways, long story short I went to a councillor about it eventually and they said that while den-building is pretty common in alphas, it's normally smaller scale; scenting doorways, checking locks, keeping spaces clean and tidy, maybe getting a few more blankets and pillows than necessary. Den-building is about making ur space nicer; nice enough that someone else would want to spend time there, right? But I lived in a rough neighbourhood (you mentioned something similar) and there's no two ways about it - my flat was a shithole. It was what I could afford at the time, but there was a chronic damp problem, mould, the place always stank of cigarettes from the last tenant and I had rats a few times. If your living situation isn't very nice, the den-building is going to be stronger, because there's simply more work to do to make it nice! I've since moved out and am in a much nicer place, it's small but clean, and my den-building pretty much begins and ends at tidying up any visible messes and putting some draft-excluders under the windowframes. Maybe I put the heating on for an extra hour.

FierceWings: that's a really interesting take, thanks!

BlueFlame: ngl, I've been reading through this again and I don't really see any reason why you would need to change your behaviour. From what you've said I don't see how your fixation is affecting anyone but you. You say you try to act normally around him, you do your best to act professionally and with consideration of his feelings in mind. And then you go home and act on your instincts in a way that doesn't harm anyone and only affects yourself? So why change? Is the den-building really that intense?

FierceWings: ig it's more that it's so unsettling for me to suddenly have such a strong reaction. I'm usually pretty laidback and people don't tend to bother me, except now, apparently. Also, esp before I started ordering from the scent-service, I was worried that I would have this strong reaction EVERY TIME I smelt an omega, and that just doesn't scream 'well-adjusted'. Tbh I thought it was just another social thing I'd missed out on learning bc of home school. 

BlueFlame: I was homeschooled too, so I get the social thing, but I really don't see any reason here for you to be feeling as guilty as you seem to be.

Well, that made Keigo feel better about seeing Todoroki again. He'd still rather not make an ass out of himself in front of a cute guy, but he might be a bit late for that. It's not like he'd managed to be suave when talking to Todoroki so far.

FierceWings: Hey, I was wondering if i could ask u a question without i thinking im an idiot

BlueFlame: ask me and we'll find out.

FierceWings: It's kinda about being homeschooled. but also not.

BlueFlame: Fascinating. Neither of those sentences were questions.

FierceWings: shut up. anyways, tell me to stfu if its too invasive but i was wondering how u get away with having scented items from an alpha that isnt ur pack alpha in ur nest?? Ik you prefer low projection, but surely they'd notice??

BlueFlame: my pack alpha isn't allowed near my nest.

FierceWings: oh

FierceWings: srry, idk much about pack dynamics

FierceWings: i thought they normally were??

BlueFlame: In a functional pack, yeah, probably.

BlueFlame: I don't like my pack alpha, so he's not allowed near my nest. He's not even allowed in the room it's in. But yeah, if he smelt you in there he'd hit the roof.

Shit, he wasn't putting Blue in danger by sending them stuff, right? They shouldn't be in danger from their pack alpha anyway - the whole point of a pack alpha was to protect the other pack members. Keigo didn't know much about pack dynamics, having only ever learnt about them secondhand, but he was pretty confident about that. Should he refuse to send Blue stuff? But then surely they'd just buy from someone else. And besides, Blue was adult, they could mae their own choices. It'd be a bit presumptuous for Keigo to assume he knew better. Right?

FierceWings: rlly?? Even tho weve never met??

BlueFlame: he wouldn't care. Just having your scent in my nest is a pretty bad indictment of him as an alpha. Not to mention if I was seen to be showing preference like that to another alpha then it would -technically- make them a rival for head of the pack.

FierceWings: wait what?

Was Keigo unwittingly challenging another alpha? No, he couldn't be. By that logic he could be challenging the alpha of any customer he sold to. And so would every other alpha that sold for scent-services.

BlueFlame: You said you don't much about pack dynamic - how much do you know about the role of pack alpha and pack omega?

FierceWings: they're a mated pair that act as the head of a family right? Usually over a pack that's their kids??

BlueFlame: *incorrect buzzer noise*

BlueFlame: That's a nuclear pack. Like, the sterotype. A pack alpha and a pack omega do not need to be mated or romantically involved to hold their position, and the rest of the pack doesnt need to be blood relations. 

BlueFlame: techincally I'm an 'inheriting' pack omega, which is the term for when another omega in the pack takes on the leadership role of the original for some reason. They use the term 'inheriting' because it's usually a child taking over the role from a parent. Usually happens when a parent gets sick, dies, or gets too old and retires from their duties.

FierceWings: damn. sorry about your pack omega.

BlueFlame: she's happier where she is. 

FierceWings: so what do u do? Like, what's your job? I always thought pack omega basically just meant, like, parenting? Do u have to co-parent ur siblings with ur dad??

BlueFlame: yeah, kind of. I'm an authority figure in the house, so arguments get brought to me. I'm expected to keep track of everyone and what they're doing. I play therapist a lot. Technically speaking I'd count as the legal gaurdian of any packmate under 18.

FierceWings: that sounds like a lot of responibility. Especially if u didnt even ask for it. Just inherited it.

BlueFlame: it is.

FierceWings: do u get a choice? Like, can u refuse to inherit?

BlueFlame: in theory. But if you inherit young, as in, you're still a minor and the pack alpha is your legal gaurdian, no not really. And even if you're an adult, there's a lot of pressure to say yes.

FierceWings: can u leave? like, can you step down?

BlueFlame: Technically. But unless there's another omega to take on the role you risk dispersing the whole pack.

Blue changed the subject after that - asking if Keigo was thinking about getting any more linen things and he was happy to have the conversation steered towards safer waters. Especially when he felt like he might have poked at some sore spots. He made sure to get a linen sleep-set in, and he bought it in plum so that it'd match the silk sheets. If he sent an extra sweatshirt along with it, well, Blue was his best customer. And also...a friend. And if his friend didn't mind risking the wrath of a pack alpha they were stuck with, well, Keigo thought that they should be getting something that was worth the risk.

The next time he saw Todoroki, he was thrown a curveball. He was delivering a parcel (obviously), knocked, the door opened, he reminded himself to Act Normal, breathed in through his nose, and...nothing. No scent. Todoroki reached for the stylus to sign and even that close all Keigo's nose could pick up was a very subtle laundry detergent. His eyes flicked over to Todoroki's neck and caught sight of the semi-translucent square of a scent-blocker. His stomach dropped to his feet. Had he been that obvious? Had he been making Todoroki uncomfortable this entire time? Shit, shit, shit.

Todoroki reached an arm up to rub it against his neck, an action that would normally send Keigo into an exquisite hell by stirring up more of his scent, but there was nothing. As his sleeve was ruched up by the action, Keigo noticed another patch on his wrist. His wings drooped until his primaries were pooling on the floor.

"Sorry," Todoroki said, like Keigo wasn't the one who should be apologising, "they're itchy."

"S'fine," Keigo said, ducking his head and passing the box over, "w-why not get different ones?" He asked, awkwardly.

"Got to wear these ones," Todoroki said, "doctor's orders."

Keigo wrinkled his nose in confusion. 

 "They need samples from my scent glands - these will absorb all the oil they produce and then they'll be sent off for labs. It's less invasive than biopsies and more accurate than swabbing."

"Oh, oh!" Keigo said, "well, I hope it goes well. Hope they stop being itchy soon."

"Thanks," Todoroki said, "me too," then shut the door.

Well. At least it wasn't because Keigo was a weirdo. 

FierceWings: saw him again today and he had scent patches on.

BlueFlame: that must have been a bit of a relief for you

FierceWings: not really

BlueFlame: ???

FierceWings: it was like walking past the cherry trees in june and realising all the blossoms are gone :(

Username3: omg just ask him out already

Keigo closed his laptop with more force than necessary, face hot. He couldn't ask Todoroki out! That would be incredibly inappropriate! Unprofessional! Invasive! He got up to go and stare at his grout. 

After glaring at his grout for a few minutes he took down his shower curtain to put it through the wash and scrubbed down his taps whilst making unhappy clucking noises. There was a patch of damp appearing in the corner of the ceiling. He'd reported it, but they'd claimed they couldn't see anything in the photo. Well, Keigo had the eyes of a literal hawk and he could see mould! If they left it until they could see then it would just need all the more work to fix! He grumbled to himself and went around the taps again, before re-organising his products. 

He wandered back into the living room/kitchen area and paused, eyes narrowing at the space where his sofa should have been. Still empty. Made the whole room look weird. No where to put pillows. He went back to his spot on the floor and opened his laptop to order a new sofa.

He didn't buy a new sofa, he bought a police scanner. It was cheaper than a new sofa. And since he had less time to do vigilante work with his actual job cutting into the time, it would be better to find a way to do it more efficiently. So, police scanner. The sofa...the sofa could wait. A bit. He didn't need to buy it immediately, that was just the den-building. The police scanner was a great idea too! He'd even found a few other forums, not for scent-services, with some tutorials and advice that had even let him link it up to a pair of headphones so he could leave the scanner on a rooftop near the centre of his patrol area instead of trying to lug it around. He'd already stopped three muggings tonight thanks to it, and it had given him similar numbers throughout the last couple of weeks when he'd gone out. He had been hoping to keep tonight quite brief - he was re-scenting BlueFlame's sheets and that meant that he was going to have to shower and meditate when he got in to make sure that he didn't send them something that smelt stressed-out or sweaty. It also meant that he didn't want to risk getting seriously injured since blood was such a strong smell and he had no idea how to wash it out of silk.

They were talking more. Now that Keigo was more active on the forums, sometimes it just made more sense to move a conversation to the dms, or even ask Blue directly before making a post. Instead of being just for order information it had slowly turned into a place where they...had conversations. It was nice. Felt like they were friends. It was hard to think of Blue as a customer, now. Even if he didn't know their real name or where they were or what they smelt like, they talked about other things. Lot of bonding about feeling left behind because of home-schooling. Blue apparently found it hard to make friends in the real world too, something about a chronic condition that meant they couldn't be as active as other people. Overprotective siblings and a pack alpha that they apparently locked horns with on the regular. Keigo didn't want to dig, but it kinda sounded like a lot of Blue's issues with alphas came from that one. Not that Keigo was much better - his dad had been a piece of shit alpha and he'd wanted to avoid others too. Blue apparently found his predicament with Todoroki some strange type of endearing, which made Keigo feel better about still tripping over his tongue whenever he had a delivery there. Which was about twice a week. Not that Keigo was keeping track, or anything.

He was just having another loop around the district to make sure he hadn't missed anything when the scanner spat out the name of the inpatient facility and the code for a break-in, citing a potential stalker. Keigo wavered in the air, hearing the same address in such a different context spinning his head for a moment, before banking and flying hard towards it. His mind immediately went to Todoroki - of course it did, he was the reason he was there most weeks! But it was unlikely to have anything to do with him. They said a potential stalker, and if it wasn't that then it was probably someone looking to steal drugs or medical equipment. He didn't actually know what the specialty of the facility was - he didn't need to know for deliveries, and it felt invasive to look it up when the only plausible reason would be to know more about Todoroki, but now he was wishing he had the extra information. The skyscrapers whizzed by, but it didn't feel fast enough. He kept his eyes peeled as the buildings came into view, approaching from the side and starting to circle so that he could get a look at the whole perimeter. Would it be as simple as looking for a suspicious figure trying to get in through a window? Probably no-

Oh wait. Maybe. How many staff members would be trying to climb up the guttering at 2am? Okay, potentially it could be a patient, with that likelihood depending heavily on what they were being treated for, but Keigo was still willing to drift in under the assumption that they were the reason someone had called the police. All of the little flats here had small balconies, usually with a generic plant and some outdoor seating (another reminder that Keigo and Todoroki were not in the same tax bracket) and they'd gotten far enough up the pipe that they'd bypassed two balconies. Which, another point towards them not being a patient - why would they be climbing up if they were trying to escape? And ignoring two balconies meant that they weren't just looking to get in - none of the ones above had open doors that Keigo could see, so they weren't aiming for an easy access point, they were headed for a specific balcony. Todoroki was on the fourth floor. They weren't moving very fast. Keigo continued circling - if it was a stalker then it was probably just the one person, if they were a thief then most likely there would be others.

When he couldn't see anyone else outside he moved back around to check on the pipe-climber. They'd gone past the third balcony. Keigo let out a nervous cluck, counting along the windows. When he delivered he entered the building from the front, turned left and into the welcome wing which would be over there by the north corner...then the elevator up to the fourth floor...and along to room B7 which was the third one along. He retraced his steps, hackles rising, as things start to match up too much for his liking. Whoever they were, they were right below Todoroki's room.

He moved to swoop down, fully intending to land on the balcony rail above them and see them off, when the door opened and Todoroki stepped out. No, no no no. He opened his mouth to scream out a warning, but Todoroki headed to the edge of the balcony and looked down, easily catching sight of the stranger. Okay, good, he'd head inside, lock the door, and call security. He'd be safe and taken care of until the situation was dealt with.

But instead of running inside and raising the alarm, Todoroki was...picking up the patio chair? He headed back to the balcony ledge and Keigo watched with rapt confusion as he started brandishing the chair, the distance stealing away any words that might have given more context as he thrust the chair downwards at the stranger like a lion tamer. Huh. Okay. 

Keigo started circling lower, catching the end of their conversation as he approached:

"please, your father, I need to tell him-"

"He's got a fucking PO box, get off my balcony, freak."

"He doesn't respond to my letters! Someone's getting rid of them! I know that if I could only speak to him, he'd see that I'm-"

"I'm gonna drop this on you if you don't shut the fuck up." 

"You don't understand!"

"I understand that you're a creepy stalker-fan who seems way to comfortable trying to get into my room when there's a three-storey drop and I don't have any patience left."

"Please! Your father-"

"Oh my God - go climb through his window if you're that desperate!" Todoroki yelled back, nearly getting them in the face with a chair leg.

The stranger reached for the chair, their hand starting to glow a sickly pink. Okay, time for Keigo to step in. 

He tucked his wings into a dive, angling himself close to the side of the building so that when he reached out with his talons and plucked them off of where they hung on the balcony like an owl after a too-slow squirrel, he could pull up and away from Todoroki. The stranger let out a shriek, the pink glow on the hand growing with the panic but Keigo had already sent a feather to pin their wrists together so they couldn't touch him. Unfortunately whatever quirk they had seemed to work on themselves, since as soon as their hands touched they zipped back towards the balcony, Keigo letting out a squawk as his tight, taloned grip meant he was brought along for the ride. He saw the balcony rush up towards himself quickly enough that he could move into a roll, the balcony railing only checking his shoulder painfully, rather than all of him, as he careened over onto the balcony. A tearing noise accompanied the movement as his stress-grip meant that he couldn't let go of their jacket and part of it came with him. His roll across the balcony floor was helpfully cut short by the furniture not being wielded by Todoroki, and they were definitely going to leave bruises. He shook himself off, rolling into a crouch and looking towards where Todoroki had thrown himself towards the wall to get out of his way as he rolled, and the stalker was now cresting the balcony rail.

Todoroki followed his gaze before swinging the chair at them. A pink glow was the only warning as the chair shot back towards him like it had a life of it's own. Keigo hissed at them and lunged, dodging the pink hand reaching out towards him to grab them by the forearm and swing them round and into the mess of furniture that he'd just vacated. They let out a cry and their hand landed on the table, which immediately jumped up and righted itself to where it had been standing previously, clipping their shoulder on the way. They cried out and Keigo prepared to pounce again. Seeing him move, their eyes widened and they dart towards the open door into the flat with Keigo close behind, slamming into them while they were trying to slide the door shut on him.

The temperature difference between the night air and the softly-lit apartment was stark enough that it felt like a tingling sensation over Keigo's skin and he was sure his face was going to flush with the heat. The stalker cried out and their hand started to glow again, swiping out at him and he had to duck under and back up out of range, his eyes darting around for anything he might be able to use to block their quirk. If it was just touch-based, that was going to be harder, if it was a five-finger activation then getting something he could wrap half their hand in could neutralise it. His eyes caught on something else instead. Since it was just a small inpatient apartment, it seemed to be open plan. Very open plan. There was a coffee table and sofa in front of the main door, with a wall-mounted television on one side, and further in, where they were, a little kitchenette opposite the bed. Decent-sized bed. Nice bed. With a nest in it. Keigo felt himself freeze as an instinctual knowledge took hold of him. The knowledge that he was in a very, very bad situation.

There was a growl at the balcony door and whatever warm, rich, pleasant scent had been in the room was quickly overpowered by something bitter and acrid. Oh God, he was in so much trouble. There was a clanking noise and he looked over his shoulder to see Todoroki finished removing his suppressor cuffs, letting them drop to the floor as smoke started to leak from his mouth and his eyes zeroed in on the two of them.

"So sorry!" Keigo said, immediately falling into a bow, feathers shooting forward to scoop up the suppressor cuffs and shoving them onto the intruder quickly, before they could stop him. They yelled, spluttering and trying to stop the cuffs from closing properly as Keigo fisted his talons in their torn jacket, bow profusely at Todoroki and continuing to apologise as he dragged the stalker away, making a large circle around Todoroki who stepped into the room and glaring at them both with the low growl still rumbling out like thunder. Keigo backed away, moving further from the nest and dragging the stalker along who was still desperately trying to argue their case for seeing Todoroki's dad. Keigo had half a mind to shove a bunch of feathers into their mouth to shut them up before Todoroki decided that he would, in fact, be defending his nest from intruders. Keigo kept apologising, kept his eyes averted, kept whatever scent he had reeled in and unobtrusive. As soon as he had edged away from the nest enough that there was a line to the door, he shot off with the stalker in tow, zipping out over the courtyard as fast as his wings could carry them. He dropped the intruder onto the grass, feathers keeping the suppressor cuffs together as though they were handcuffs, and wheeled around the hospital until officials arrived, chittering nervously to himself the whole time.

God, he was so screwed. He sat in front of his coffee table, leg jiggling as he stared distractedly at his laptop. He hadn't had any deliveries for Todoroki for two weeks. That was easily the longest he'd ever gone without using their firm. Did he know? Had he figured it out? How many heteromorphs with red wings were there? Not to mention he'd have had the oppotunity to pick up his scent after Keigo had made his hasty exit - mid-fight and injured there was no way he hadn't been letting out some kind of scent while he was there, even if he'd had the good sense to try and tamp it down. The police hadn't arrived at Keigo's flat yet. Would he be arrested? Vigilantism was a crime. If they could prove that was what he was doing. At the very least they'd want to take him in for questioning. Would they call his boss first? Could he lose his job? He'd definitely lose his job if he went to prison. Would he go to prison? Maybe he'd just get community service. Definitely a fine for inappropriate quirk use. God, how much would that fine be? He'd shut up his shop since that night since he was incapable of keeping his scent relaxed. Everything he scented smelt stressed, until he ran out of energy to be stressed and then he just smelt exhausted. Not going to do his reviews any favours if he sent that out. He got up to make himself another coffee and then thought better. He clucked to himself for a bit before pulling on a medical mask and his fleecy coat and going out the door. 

The coffee shop was nice, a little higher-end than he'd normally go to but he wanted something artisan. And uncaffienated. He didn't know loads about herbal teas, but he knew enough to grab himself two small lattes - one chamomile and one lavender. He sat down in a dark corner and started on the chamomile, nearly burning his tongue in his haste. He made himself sit quietly and finish the whole thing before getting his phone out. He wasn't sure that he was much calmer, per se, but he was now sure that he didn't particularly like chamomile. He needed to sleep properly; not the stressed-out, light doze that he was managing for a few hours every night. He was avoiding any of his vigilante work for the time being, not wanting to draw anymore attention to himself, but the closest thing to social media he had was the forums. Which he hadn't looked at since he marked his shop as 'on holiday' since it stressed him out to think about the orders he was missing and how he couldn't even maintain a calm scent right now. He had some messages from Blue.

(13 days ago)

BlueFlame: Hey, I know you're on holiday but i was hoping to get my bedding rescented. I was wondering if you could give me an idea of when you might open the shop again? Enjoy wherever you're going.

Keigo was going to jail. He took a long draught of the lavender latte. He didn't like it much more than the chamomile, but he definitely needed something. He'd have gone for some cheap whiskey, but he tended to be an anxious drunk so it didn't seem like the best plan. 

(11 days ago)

BlueFlame: i'm happy to send my stuff to you now and have you rescent it whenever youre back, if that helps? So you don't even have to wait for it to arrive.

(10 days ago)

BlueFlame: someone in your reviews is trying to claim you have a civet note and i dont even know where to begin explaining how wrong they are. I think they need their nose checked.

BlueFlame: someone else is deadset on you having a lime blossom note too, but that I can at least understand - they're just smelling the bergamot and are wrong. I don't even know where the other person got civet from. 

(7 days ago)

BlueFlame: hey, I know you're still on holiday (hope its going well) I was just wondering when you'd be back?

(4 days ago)

BlueFlame: I don't want to badger you, but I'd really appreciate you getting back to me. Even if it's not about the shop.

(yesterday)

BlueFlame: I would really like to get my sheets rescented though. Or something smaller if it's they're too inconvenient. It's just that they don't smell like you at all anymore.

Keigo should go to jail. He'd been worrying the closest thing he had to a friend for what? To be stressed out and alone in his flat? To work himself into a tizzy, sleep poorly for a few hours, rinse and repeat? His wings drooped behind him. He stewed for a bit while he finished his perfume-y latte and then got up and ordered himself a decaf with caramel and hazelnut syrup.

FierceWings: sorry Blue, i didnt see any of these until today!!

He thought about lying and saying he was on holiday somewhere with no internet, but he already felt guilty and exhausted. Besides, it's not like he could really overshare that much - they didn't even know each other's real names.

FierceWings: I closed the shop bc ive been really stressed recently and i cant scent anything w/o it reeking of it 

FierceWings: I can go thru my wardrobe and see if ive got anything i can send u, but even if i do itd be stale. no charge!

There was no sign of a reply, which was fair enough, but it still left Keigo high-strung and still feeling guilty. Would sleeping pills be enough? They might get him to bed, but would he smell calm and comforting? Or would it just be eau du stress with top notes of well-rested? He chewed on his lip, staring at the messages for a little longer, before grabbing his coffee and heading out. He stopped at the pharmacy and grabbed some over-the-counter sleeping pills, a weighted eye-mask and a lavender pillow spray.

When he got home, he dropped them on the coffee table and headed straight to his wardrobe and almost started digging through it all before he got a whiff of his own wrist as he went to grab something. Bad. He hadn't smelt that sour since his exams. He sighed and moved back into the living room and pulled his laptop closer, flicking through some recommendations before putting on a guided meditation. He didn't like it. There was a lot of sitting still and being present and he didn't really want to do either of those things. But he just growled to himself and stayed sat down, scowling. Blue needed his sheets done. It was the least Keigo could do, really, after accidently ghosting them for a fortnight. When the meditation was over he was grumpy, but less wired. He huffed, stretched, and then put on another one. And then another one. After that, he'd calmed down enough that he felt exhausted and there was still a hinge of hopelessness in his mind, but it was progress at least. Even if his body did feel like lead. He got up and sniffed his t-shirt before recoiling. Stress. He trudged into the shower and went through the motions of scrubbing himself down, barely keeping his eyes open. Maybe he could go through his wardrobe tomorrow? Wait, no, he was working, wasn't he? Was he? He groaned, the sound echoing off the tiling and he opened his eyes, only to be met with his shoddy grouting. He scowled and then gave himself one last scrub before shutting the water off. He went through his wardrobe in his towel, sniffing things as he went, trying to find something that actually held any kind of scent and wasn't too stale. It wasn't going well. After he'd been through a second time and still not found anything he just pulled something on. Maybe the meditation would be enough to have tonight's pyjamas soak up something that could pass for 'calm'. He shook out his feathers and headed towards his bed, but recoiled when he lifted the duvet. Stress. He sighed. He couldn't even give up and sleep on the sofa. He went back out to the kitchen and made himself a decaf coffee and grabbed the pharmacy bag before returning to his room to strip the entire bed. God, he'd be lucky if he didn't have to air out the mattress. 

Fresh sheets on, lavender pillow-spray spritzed, sleeping pill taken and eye mask primed, he got into bed feeling like life had hit him a truck a couple dozen times (plus some for luck) and left him out to dry. He better fucking sleep after all this. He hoped Blue wouldn't mind the lavender pillow-spray.

He did wake up feeling better. Still exhausted, but better. The sun was streaming through the window and he must have wiggled out of sleepmask in the night. He blinked over at the window. It looked it was the afternoon. Was he supposed to be at work? He dropped his head back into the pillow and closed his eyes, barely enough energy to care. He stayed there for a moment before rolling over and checking his phone. It was 12:40. He was supposed to do an afternoon shift today. He sighed and called his boss. 

He didn't have to fake the grogginess and exhaustion in his voice when said, "I'm really sorry. I've only just woken up, I know it's late notice, but I really can't come in today."

His boss hummed at the other end, "yeah, you haven't been looking well the last couple of weeks. It is short-notice, but if you're sick, you're sick. Do you think you'll be in tomorrow?" He asked.

Keigo rubbed a hand down his face. He didn't want to. But it was late notice. "What shift am I on tomorrow?"

"Afternoon again," his boss said. "I can reshuffle a few things so you have less runs to do, but I won't lie, even just a couple of hours would be a great help."

"Yeah, I'm probably going to be flying slower anyway, but I'll do what I can."

"Thanks, Takami, I'll remember this when bonuses come up!"

A bonus would be nice. He hung up. He'd care more about the bonus when he'd slept some more. He rolled over and pulled the covers over his head. 

Another two hours later had him crawling out to use the bathroom and eat something, starting to feel a little more human. He even washed his face. While he was waiting for the kettle to boil for his coffee he sniffed his shirt experimentally; not calm, but not stressed either. Sort of just...sleepy. Tired. Passable. He nodded to himself and then made sure to rub the fabric against the scent glands on his neck and wrist to try and make up for the fact that he'd only worn it for one night. Last collection for post would be in an hour, if he went directly to the post office himself. First-class would mean that it'd go out first thing. He wasn't sure how far away Blue was, but it could be with them by tomorrow at the latest. He drank his coffee and then headed back to the bed, dragging his laptop along with him and putting on another meditation as he clambered in and did his best to scent as much of it as possible. When the meditation was over, he looked at his phone and ran a hand through his hair: he wanted to see if Blue had replied. But he also didn't. He still felt so guilty. And he wasn't going to smell nice if he did that. He put his phone down and nestled back into the duvet, nuzzling into it. He'd get the package in the post and then he could check. Yeah. That was only putting it off for half an hour, and it made sure that his scent would be as unstressed as he could make it right now. Shit. He opened his eyes. Half-an-hour. He needed to get dressed and strip the bed! He flew into action, almost literally, digging out his mailing bags from where he'd stashed them a few weeks ago, using his feathers to help shake pillows out of their cases as he tugged his pyjamas off. He did his best to fold everything neatly but quickly, (deciding that the fitted sheet was a lost cause and Blue would have to do without it - there was no way Keigo was going to be able to fold that in a rush) and bagged. He wrote out the PO box with one hand while he used feathers to pull on a pair of sweatpants. He smacked a stamp on it and pulled a fresh shirt over his head, grabbing his wallet and keys with some feathers as he went out the door with one arm in his coat and the package under the other arm. God, he hoped he didn't have to run.

He ran. He didn't want to risk missing the collection, and he also didn't want to risk flying when he was still so paranoid about being caught out in his vigilantism. Why was running so hard? He flew all the time. He was panting like a dog in a hot car the entire time he was in the post office, but he was regular enough that the staff managed the transaction without him having to speak. He wandered home much, much slower, not looking forward to having to remake his bed and even stopped at a kaarage stand to reward himself. In his meandering he realised that he hadn't grabbed his phone before leaving the flat, so he'd have to wait until he was back to surprise Blue. He was still a bit drained from everything so he was debating just sending them the postage receipt. Would that be too transactional though? What if he sent the reciept with a heart emoji? Or was that too forward? God, this would be easier to navigate if he'd bothered to make friends before this. He chittered quietly to himself as he ate his karaage, ruffling his feathers a few times to get them to sit nicer - honestly, he needed to take some time to preen them properly, just letting them air-dry from the shower wasn't good enough. Maybe that was something he could do tonight to try and keep this meditative-destress ball rolling. 

Back in his flat he also decided to open the windows and air the place out a little to get rid of the lingering stress in the air, and re-scented the doorways now that his scent was less sour. He finished the last of the karaage and there was even a slight rumble threatening from his chest as he picked up his phone and opened it up to his chat with Blue:

BlueFlame: im sorry to hear youre going through a tough time. You don't have to worry about doing shop stuff if it's inconvenient

BlueFlame: if youre finding it hard to regulate though, have you thought about trying another scent-service to see if that works?? I know you tried it once before to see if youd react the same way as you did for your scent-crush at work. But it might help?

BlueFlame: or you could visit your scent-crush and see if that helps

Keigo stomach dropped at the thought of going to see Todoroki, though not for the usual reason. To be honest he was still terrified to see the guy after the altercation with the stalker. He was, sort of, the source of all the stress - whether or not he'd recognised Keigo, if he'd identified him to the police. No matter how good his scent, Keigo really wasn't sure if seeing Todoroki would make him feel better or if it would just exacerbate all his stress until he had a panic attack in front of the guy's room. He hadn't heard anything for two weeks, and if he'd been recognised he would have expected to have been contacted, either by Todoroki or the police, by now. And it's not like he could stop delivering Todoroki's mail for no reason either. He was going to have to see him for work. He was going to have to see him for work. Keigo felt his chest tighten - he was going to have to make sure he didn't give himself away. Like, by having a panic attack in front of him. He needed to be able to act normally. Or, at least, as normally as he ever managed to act in front of Todoroki. Fuck. 

Keigo headed over to his laptop and booted it up to play some whalesong. Really, if he wanted to destress, a good long flight would normally help, but he wasn't working and his permit only let him fly when he was on the clock. So at least he'd have that tomorrow. And, potentially, a parcel for Todoroki. Although, considering he hadn't had anything for him for the last two weeks, there was no reason to think it would happen tomorrow. He was just panicking. That thing that he really shouldn't do because it made his flat stinky and might make omegas he'd fought the stalkers of suspicious. He grabbed some of the lavender pillow-spray and spritzed it around himself before sneezing. Fuck. He leant forward to let his forehead thunk against the coffee table. 

What was he going to do? He breathed in deeply and tried to listen to the whalesong. Whales were so high-pitched. It was almost grating. But it was supposed to be calming, right? Maybe he was listening to the wrong one. There were different types of whale, so maybe there were different types of whale song? he started clicking through videos trying to find one that was nicer to listen to, which lead him down a rabbit-hole of asmr channels. Which wasn't too bad - he found he liked the ambient forest, and the cafe soundscapes. His favourite though were the purring ones. He felt like a wierdo for listening to them, kinda the same way he did when he was getting into scent-service; listening to purring audios, especially of omegas, tended to be stereotyped as the pasttime of lonely freaks. Maybe Blue was right about getting something from another scenter. Did Keigo still have some of those samples laying around? They might have gone stale, but he could try. His eyelids felt heavy though. Fuck, was he about to start making listening to purring asmr part of his routine now? He rubbed his hands over his face and looked up at the screen, scrolling down to read some comments. 

Yeah, okay, there were one or two inappropriate wierdos, but most of them where respectful and supportive. Apparently, like scent services, there were more than a few people with anxiety who found them soothing. Quite a few liked to use them to fall asleep, apparently. If someone had asked Keigo an hour ago if he'd empathise with that, he'd probably have said no. But that Keigo would have been a liar. This is what he'd wanted the chamomile latte and lavender spray to do. It was like someone was gently running their hands through his hair. He clicked through a few more, trying to find some with less ads, and no other asmr going at the same time, like clacking nails or brushing the microphone. A lot of the videos had numbers followed by an 'hz' which he quickly realised where describing the frequency of the purr. It hadn't even really occurred to him that omegas would purr at varying frequencies. There were a few alpha-purring ones that came up too, and they were nice but he found himself drawn to the lower-end of omegan frequencies. Shocker - Keigo being attracted to male omegas. He nearly put his head in his hands: he was developing a type. He'd never heard Todoroki purr, but his speaking voice was low, and pretty rough actually. His purr would probably be on the gravelly side. He yawned. He might able to start scenting stuff again if he listened to more of these. Blue. He blinked his eyes open, remembering what he'd opened his phone for in the first place. He took a picture of the postage reciept and sent it to them. 

FierceWings: <photo attachment>

FierceWings: hope this is ok! Ive been using a lavender pillow mist, so u might be able to smell that 2, I hope u dont mind

FierceWings: im trying out a few different things to destress ill lyk if 1 works so that u can get ur sheets 2 me asap!

Part of him wanted to wait and see if Blue would reply, but another part, a part that was swiftly taking ground, wanted to curl up in his bed and snuggle down with an 8-hour 30hz omegan purring asmr with ambient rain noise video. The bed. His eyes snapped open and he felt his wings droop - he still had to put new linens on! He groaned and plonked his head back on the table.

He slept like a log. He slept like a baby. He slept like there was a prize for Most Well-Rested up for grabs. Asleep by eight and not up until noon, waking up felt like he was coming out of another plane of existence. His hair was a mess, his feathers were everywhere and he had the subtle buzzing sensation in his chest that told him he'd been rumbling for a considerable amount of time. He'd never known himself to rumble in his sleep before. He could think about that later, though. First he needed coffee, breakfast and to at least attempt to preen his wings before heading off for work. If he went out with them still air-dried and now mussed up from sleep, flying was going to be harder. He already had a text from his boss saying that he hoped Keigo was feeling better and that he'd split a third of his usual workload between the rest of the team, and Keigo let out a sigh of relief as he shoved some toast in his mouth. He logged in to the work database so he could get an idea of his route and deliveries and he was so blissed out from sleep that when he saw Todoroki's name he just rumbled happily.

He put on some loud music so that he wouldn't be tempted to fall back asleep while he preened; the repetitive, soothing task often making him sleepy. He couldn't risk it right now. He set all of his feathers to rights, bundling up the shed ones. He normally put them in his compost, but he'd been debating selling them. They held his scent well, the preening oil doing a lot of work, and they were soft. But he just didn't know how he felt about it yet. And it would out him as a heteromorph; he didn't think anyone would be hateful, but it was the internet and he could imagine getting a few invasive questions at the least. He might offer some to Blue. Preferential treatment and all that. But for now they could sit next to his compost until he made a decision. He grabbed his coat and made sure to head out for work with enough time to pick himself up a coffee.

He decided to deliver Todoroki's post first, so that he couldn't spend the whole shift overthinking it. Picking up the large parcel and a few smaller ones to do on his way back, his boss letting him know there were tissues and lemon-honey tea in the staffroom as he gathered his things up. Keigo nodded, holding onto the lip of his coffee cup as he juggled the parcels into his delivery bag as best he could and heading out with some in-hand as well. The address had changed. Which made sense - someone had tried to break into his room. But he was at another outpatient clinic in a different part of the city so Keigo had to pay more attention to the route than he was used to. The other one had almost become muscle memory. 

When he got to the new clinic he had to show his staff ID for the delivery company, along with the postage reciept with Todoroki's address on it, before being waved on past reception and into the residential block. Todoroki was now on the top floor, and Keigo hadn't noticed any balconies when he was flying over. He hoped Todoroki didn't miss it - he'd have been a bit put out if he had to move and lose his balcony because someone tried to break in. He knocked.

"Who is it?" Todoroki called out.

"Delivery," Keigo replied.

He heard quick feet on the carpet and the door opened. Now, there was always a chance that Todoroki didn't somehow smell even better than he ever had before. It might just be that Keigo had been building up a slight tolerence to it, and after 2 weeks without, his tolerence was gone. It might be that after such a stressful 2 weeks, he was more susceptible to the smell. But what was most likely, was that the fact that Todoroki was audibly purring when he opened the door had made Keigo even more useless than normal.

"Uh," he said, sauvely, as he attempted to have a thought that wasn't some variation of "!!!!!!<3<3<3!!"

Todoroki chirruped at him and all attempts ceased. He stepped into Keigo's space and Keigo let out croaky gieger-counter noise that was raptor for "!!!!!!<3<3<3!!"

Todoroki cocked his head in confusion and Keigo felt his face flush bright red as he held out the package, using it to put a little bit of space between them before he did something stupid.

"Haven't seen you for ages," Todoroki said.

Oh God, were they going to start having conversations now? How was Keigo supposed to manage that? The only strategy he had for not making (more of) an ass of himself in front of Todoroki was keeping his damned mouth shut.

"Didn't have any deliveries," Keigo said.

Todoroki hummed, the noise harmonising with his purr. "Yeah, I think a bunch of stuff got re-directed when they decided to move me. Most of it must have gone to the family house."

Keigo nodded.

"Do you have a pen?" Todoroki asked.

"Huh?"

"A pen," Todoroki repeated, making a writing motion with one hand. "Like, when people have to sign for deliveries. Do you have a pen on you?"

Shit. "Um, uh," Keigo said, trying to search his pockets, while his hands were full. He put his half-drunk coffee on top of the parcel so he could start sifting through his pockets. "We have those little electric things," he said, "with a stylus."

Why didn't he have a pen? Surely a normal person would have a pen in their pocket. Keigo had so many pockets too, why wasn't there a pen in any of them?

"It's okay," Todoroki said, turning around and heading back into the flat, "there's one in here."

"You don't need to sign for it!" Keigo called after him.

"You can come in!" Todoroki called back.

Oh god. Keigo hunched down, trying to hide behind the parcel as best he could as he stepped into Todoroki's new place. It was nice. About the same size as the last one with a similar layout, though the kitchen was on the other side and the windows had the tell-tale tint of privacy glass. The nest was in full view, again. Keigo kept his eyes averted like it was the ark of the covenant. Todoroki was going through the drawers of a desk nearby and Keigo debated putting the parcel down on it, but that would involved heading further into the flat. He loitered in the doorway with puffed-up feathers until Todoroki walked back towards him with a sharpie. He then plucked the coffee cup off of the parcel in Keigo's hand.

"W-what are you doing?" Keigo asked.

"Giving you my number," Todoroki replied.

"Uh, uh-whuh, um..." Keigo was really, really trying to figure out what was going on. 

"In case you want to ask me out on a date," Todoroki clarified deadpan.

"Okay," Keigo said, after a long pause.

Todoroki put the cup back down on the parcel, turned it to him so he could see the clearly written string of numbers, along with the name 'Touya'.

"Do you...want to go on a date with me?" He asked, still feeling confused.

Todo...Touya gave him flat look, "yeah, that's what the number's for. I just said."

Keigo ducked his head. "Um...thanks?" He mumbled, looking back towards the door. How exactly did one exit this kind of situation? Preferably without fucking up the date he'd been miraculously offered.

"Do you have one of those things for cutting through tape?" Touya asked, taking the parcel off him, Keigo quickly grabbing the coffee off the top. "I only moved in yesterday and I haven't found a pair of scissors yet."

"Oh, uh-"

"And I don't want to use one the kitchen knives," Touya added hastily, "it blunts them."

Keigo blinked at him in confusion. "I just use my feathers. Or my talons."

Touya put the parcel down on the desk and looked from it to him expectantly. Keigo edged closer and Touya's gentle purr got louder. A shiver went through his feathers and he had to stop them from giving little excited flaps. He carefully reached forward and slid a talon down the tape, easily slicing through it, before also doing the sides and stepping back to give Touya some more space. He opened it and Keigo was just grabbing his coffee so he could sneak out and overthink this entire interaction on his flight back, when he recognised the package being pulled out. He cocked his head, but hawk eyes didn't lie: he could see his own handwriting on the label. Touya's purring jumped a few decibels as he pulled it out before turning to Keigo, the package held to his chest. It was a large one - it had to be to fit all that fabric in. 

"Can you do this one too?" He asked., the timbre of his voice distorted by the purr.

Keigo opened his mouth to answer but no sound came out. He wasn't actually sure what he would have said anyway. Had Keigo been hit on the head? Had he finally had a mental breakdown and this was all a stress-induced hallucination? Why the hell would Todoroki have Blue's parcel? There was no way he'd been delivery his own parcels this whole time. That would be ridiculous. He hadn't been talking to Blue about himself this whole time. Why was this happening? He'd been worried that he was going to get arrest. Interrogated. Not...whatever this was. What was going on? His chest felt tight again. Was he breathing?

"You're really pale," Touya said, his brow furrowing.

He voice sounded far away, like Keigo was underwater.

"Hey, do you need to sit down?" 

Keigo tried to answer, but the edges of his vision were getting dark and then he thought he saw the ceiling for a moment before the darkness swept over everything.

When he blinked his eyes open, he was still staring at the ceiling. Touya's ceiling. Fuck. He could hear him purring still, but it was stressed, tense sound now. He turned his head and realised it was pillowed on his arm. Their faces were barely inches from each other, and he could see every fleck of blue in his eyes and his white lashes as he stared at Keigo in concern. This close his scent was unavoidable, thick in the air like syrup, but souring a little. Double fuck.

"Sorry," Touya said, confusing Keigo further.

Keigo chirped in confusion. 

"Didn't mean for you to black out."

Was that what Keigo had done? What'd he done that for? God, there was no saving this, was there? Touya was going to think he was a weirdo. And he was.

"Neither did I," he said. "How long have I been out?" He asked, horrified about how long Touya might have been staring at the idiot that collapsed on his floor after being asked on a date and opening a parcel.

"A few seconds," Touya said. "Do you want me to call someone? There are plenty of doctors here."

Keigo shook his head, feeling like his brain was coming back online pretty quickly. "I, um, haven't been doing well the last couple of weeks. Probably wouldn't have taken much to be honest."

Was Touya Blue? Why hadn't he said anything? Did he know?

"Do you still want me to open that?" Keigo asked, pointing at the package.

Touya looked down to where he was still clutching it to his chest like a safety blanket, "oh, uh, yeah. If you don't mind, that is."

"I don't mind," Keigo assured him, sitting up slowly and reaching for it.

Touya sat up with him and crossed his legs so he could slouch next to him as Keigo sliced a talon along the edge.

"I really didn't mean to stress you out," Touya huffed, "I was just trying to be cute about it."

Keigo blinked at him, but Touya was staring at the carpet with pink cheeks. Keigo passed the package back to him, a whiff of his own sleepy scent leaving the plastic as he gripped it.

"You were," he said, as Touya took the package and reached inside to drag some of the linen out and lift it up to his nose, half hiding his face behind it as he looked at Keigo with a questioning look. "Being cute, I mean," Keigo clarified.

"Do you normally faint when guys are being cute?" Touya asked.

Keigo felt himself flush, "Well. You could try again and we can find out," he said, a little combatitively.

Touya pulled a face and scoffed out a laugh. There was a pause and he looked down at the package.

"Are they okay?" Keigo asked.

Touya looked back up at him in surprise, "yeah, they're great."

"Are you sure?" Keigo pressed, "I can do 'em again."

Touya shook his head. Then paused, before asking, "could you do my silks again yet?"

Keigo nodded.

"Should I give them to you now?"

Keigo thought about it and then shook his head, "I'm still on the clock. I can pick them up later? Or you can post 'em like normal if you prefer."

Touya wrinkled his nose, "You know," he said, "you should probably tell your boss you collapsed. Since you fly all over. You probably shouldn't be doing that if you're a fainting risk."

"I should be fine," Keigo said, "I doubt I'm going to be ambushed by any guys acting cute."

"You should still tell them."

Keigo hummed in acknowledgement.

"What if you fall out of the sky and into a powerline before you can take me out on a date?" Touya pressed.

"I'm not going to fall into a powerline."

"Yeah, because you're going to text your boss."

"You're bossy," Keigo said.

"Yeah, I am," Touya replied, giving him a shove. "Now do as you're told."

Keigo texted his boss and looked back up at Touya, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do next. Touya was pulling more of his bedding out of the package and draping it around his shoulders. He chirped in delight when he pulled out the sweatshirt as well, then caught Keigo staring at him and his cheeks turned pink again.

"What?" He said, "You're not the only one who's been stressed!"

"You've been stressed?" Keigo asked, wings drooping and leaning forward slightly.

Touya looked at him in surprise, "of course I've been stressed! One of my dad's wierdo stalkers tried to break into my hospital room and then my internet friend-come-delivery boy-come-scent-alpha decided to fall out of the sky to fight them and then disappeared for two weeks!" He complained.

Keigo flinched and went even redder. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Touya whacked him gently on the arm, "I was worried!" He said. "I thought that the stalker might have blabbed and the police had frightened you off. Or taken you into custody. Even though I said I wouldn't press charges and didn't give them any kind of useful description."

"You didn't?" Keigo asked, already a little taken aback by how opening he was talking about it.

Touya scowled at him, "I'm not a fucking snitch! Besides, what would there be to arrest you for? All you did was stop a crime in progress," he said, crossing his arms petulently.

"Vigilantism and inappropriate quirk use," Keigo answered bluntly.

Touya scoffed, "vigilantism would need way more evidence than stepping in on one crime, and I didn't see you fly. It was dark."

Keigo wrinkled his nose, "they could get me for vigilantism if they really wanted to," he said.

Touya shook his head, "Nuh-uh! Unless they caught you with evidence of pre-meditated investigation, which is hard to prove isn't journalism or due to personal interest, and you were found at the scene of multiple crimes getting yourself involved, there's no way they'd be able to get you for it."

"You seem to know a lot about this," Keigo said, resting his chin on one hand, "you been looking it up or something?"

Touya shook his head before looking sheepish, "my dad's in heroics so he's always talking about it. And I may have considered vigilantism as a pasttime when I was a teenager."

Huh. That was a little unexpected. Then again, they hadn't spoke loads about their pasts on the forums. Mostly just current stuff and some conversations about homeschooling. Keigo hummed thoughtfully, before leaning back on his elbows, "and what do you think of vigilantes?"

Keigo cleared his voice, "hot?" He repeated.

Touya nodded, "even if he is a little pathetic sometimes. Like when he faints because someone was being cute."

Yeah, okay, Keigo deserved that. He'd already waved goodbye to any chance of Todoroki thinking he was suave weeks ago. "Do you mind?" Keigo asked, "me being a bit..." His cheeks heated again.

"Pathetic?" Touya asked, and Keigo chirped self-consiously. "No. I quite like it actually - alphas with too much bravado tend to get my hackles up."

Keigo nodded. Well, at least that went some way to explain how the fuck he'd managed to pull him.

Touya nudged him with his knee, "sorry, that came out really mean. I like that you're not confident- no that's mean too," Touya said, scratching the back of his neck and Keigo could smell the frustration starting to leach from his neck. "I like that...you don't assume I'm okay with things. I like that you double-check instead. I don't worry that you're going to do something I'm uncomfortable with, because you'd ask first. And I don't actually think you're pathetic - I think you're sweet."

"You're pretty sweet too," Keigo said.

Touya wrinkled his nose, "that's a bold-faced lie; I just called you pathetic to your face, like, three times."

"I think you're sweet," Keigo insisted, "you're always really patient with people in the forums, and you're always trying to help. You've been very sweet to me while I've been..." he grimaced, dropping his head into his hands, "crashing out about the cute guy I deliver to."

Touya grinned, "yeah, I won't lie, I wasn't sure how I was supposed to navigate that."

"Did you know?" Keigo asked, peeking up at him through his fingers.

Touya snorted, "of course I knew, Keigo," he said, "I knew since the first time you delivered something to me. I'd have to be fucking nose-blind to not realise the guy handing over my parcel smells exacting like the things I'd been ordering."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Keigo whined.

"What was I supposed to say?" Touya shot back, "'hey, by the way, I know you have a crush on me because I'm the stranger online ordering your stuff, isn't it great the way you have my legal name and current address now?' I didn't bring it up at first because I didn't even think I wanted to - there's a big difference between liking the way someone smells and chatting online, and giving them your personal information."

Keigo ducked his head.

"Especially when you were making it clear online that seeing me stressed you out."

"I wouldn't say 'stressed me out'-"

"Do you need me to scroll through our chats and make a tally of all the times you brought up your grout?"

Keigo grimaced again and hid his face in his hands.

"And even after I'd decided that you were fine, and knowing my personal info wasn't a big deal anymore, when was a good time to bring it up? Besides you always took off so quickly after delivering anything," he complained.

"Didn't want to make an idiot of myself," Keigo muttered.

"By doing something like fainting?" Touya prodded.

Keigo nodded. They sat in silence for a bit.

"Then, of course, you decided to apologetically break into my apartment to deal with a stalker."

"I, uh, I don't remember doing that," Keigo said, lamely. "That sounds less than legal. Definitely unlisenced quirk use at best."

"Haha," Touya said, dryly, "guess I should be treating someone else as my knight in shining armour."

"'Knight in shining armour'?" Keigo repeated, "sounds kinda like he botched it a bit, to me."

"Well, you weren't there, apparently," Touya shot back.

They fell back into a silence where Keigo was mostly focused on being mortified and trying to get his blushing under control. 

"Are you going to say anything?" Touya prodded after a while, and Keigo noticed his scent going a little anxious.

"When do you want to go get a coffee?" He asked, taking his hands away from his face and trying to be at least a little bit...not pathetic.

"Maybe not right now - I don't know that caffiene would help your whole-" he gestured to all of him.

"I could get decaf," Keigo offered. "If you wanted to go now."

"We can order some in - the coffee here's pretty good. Could move from the floor to the sofa if we're feeling really fancy," Touya said.

Keigo nodded, before standing up slowly. If he fainted again, he'd never live it down. Touya was up before him and reached out steady his shoulders before dragging him over to the sofa by his hand and shoving him down. Keigo stayed where he'd been put as Touya moved over to the phone by the bed and called down to the kitchen to have two coffees brought up, one decaf and one regular, hung up, and then grabbed two silk-clad pillows from his nest before returning. They were both shoved unceremoniously into Keigo's chest with a purr, and he grappled to stop them slipping to the floor as Touya flopped down next to him. 

They smelt divine. It was the same rich, dark scent Touya always had, but layered and softened over time, and leaning heavily into the slightly sweet, slightly musky scent of sleepiness. It made the lychee-esque note more prominent, along with the smoky black tea and pomegranate, and Keigo could already feel his own eyes drooping, even as his brain tried to go into overdrive.

"You want me to rescent 'em?" he asked.

Touya nodded, still purring. Keigo pulled the pillows closer and started rubbing his cheek against the nearest one, tucking it into his neck before looking over at Touya again, who had his head propped up on one hand leaning against the sofa back as he watched.

"I'll probably need them back for a week or so if you want me to do it properly," he said.

"That's fine," Touya replied, "I've got your other stuff now to tide me over." Seemingly remembering the package, he got up to grab it off the floor, fishing the sweatshirt out before pulling it on and joining Keigo on the sofa again. "So, other than express deliveries and definitely no crime fighting, what do you like to do?"

Keigo shrugged, turning his head into the pillows a little, "that's pretty much it, to be honest. I don't do much, all things considered. What about you?"

Touya shrugged, "I live at home for now. I'm hoping that the new grafts and some physio might be enough that dad can't stop me from moving out. Might be able to get work that isn't online."

"What do you do?" Keigo asked.

"At the moment? Translation work mostly. I had enough private tutors, and it's the kind of work that you can do freelance from home pretty easily. I'd like to go to university at some point though."

"Do you know what you'd study?"

Touya shrugged, "not sure yet. There's plenty of stuff I find interesting, and I was always a good student. It's just picking one that I'll like for that long. And that I'd enjoy doing after I graduate."

Keigo hummed, "I never really thought about it. I did alright in school but university seemed out of reach."

Touya looked at him with a furrowed brow, "I thought you said you aced your exams?"

"I did," Keigo said, "but I had to do 'em all at once and teach myself everything. I've never been in a proper classroom. Never been around that many people, really. Even if the work was fine, I think the enviroment would send my brain haywire."

"You could do part-time. Or online, if you really wanted to." Touya pointed out.

Keigo shrugged.

"If you wanted to, at least," Touya continued, "I thought about doing it online, but I'm tired of doing everything behind a screen, I want to actually go to a school again. Don't want to miss out on another damn thing."

"Are the new grafts what you're in for at the moment?" Keigo asked, cirling back.

"Yeah," Touya said, stretching his arms out in front of him and looking at the warped purple skin of his forearms, "I had surgical staples in to hold them on. Taken them out now and I'm under observation to make sure they don't reject or anything. They normally wouldn't, but I've got so many of them and my dad's loaded, so everything's being triple-checked."

Keigo nodded, "how long do you have to be in observation for?" He asked.

Touya snorted, "oh, I can leave whenever. The official time came and went weeks ago. But like I said, dad's loaded so I'm staying in inpatient until after I've had every damn check-up imaginable. So a couple of months."

"You homesick?" Keigo asked. "If you live with your family isn't it wierd to be away?"

Touya wrinkled his nose, "I'm not...close...with most of them."

"Yeah, I know you don't like your dad, but what about your siblings? You've mentioned them a couple of times."

Touya blinked at him, like he was shocked Keigo would remember, then shrugged again. "To be honest they all visit me enough that it's like they live here. And to be honest I like having my own space. It's been nice, makes me feel like an actual adult rather than a teenager still under my dad's thumb."

Keigo nodded, "it's a nice little apartment," he said, looking around.

"Mmhmm," Touya hummed in agreement, "and I can have guest round without my dad trying to give them a grilling," he said with a rougish smile, looking Keigo up-and-down purposefully.

Keigo didn't know what to say to that, so he settled for scenting the pillows again and letting out a shy attempt at a rumble. Touya's eyes darkened and then the pillows were being tugged out of his grasp and thrown to the floor.

"You can scent those later, actually, you don't have to do it now," he said, and Keigo would have worried that he'd done something wrong, if he wasn't very preoccupied with the fact that Touya was seemingly climbing into his lap. He put his hands against Keigo's shoulder and shoved him back so that he fell across the sofa with his head on the armrest, before settling himself down with his head on Keigo's chest, pillowing it on his arms. 

After a quiet pause, Touya nudged him, "do it again," he demanded.

Keigo thought for a moment, but could only assume he meant rumbling, so he start up another, even more self-conscious, one. There was another long pause where it seemed like Touya had drifted off, eyes sliding shut and seemingly content to just splay himself over Keigo's chest as he rumbled.

After a while though, he cracked open one eye and asked, "so, if, hypothetically, you were a vigilante, what would have drawn you to that?"

"Uh, I don't know. I guess I'd kinda just...feel like it was the right thing to do?"

Touya hummed, "if everyone thought that then everyone would be a vigilante."

"I mean," Keigo said, shifting but not sure where to put his hands, and thinking about what Touya had said earlier about appreciating him not assuming anything he didn't want to put them on him, so he let them flop over the armrest he was pillowed against, "it's not like I have anything better to do. There's not a more meaningful way for me to help people available."

"Hypothetically."

"Hypothetically," Keigo agreed.

"What part of vigilantism would you enjoy most?" Touya asked.

"Uh, probably being helpful," Keigo said, "I'd want to be helpful. And the research is- would be pretty interesting, I reckon."

"Yeah?" Touya pressed.

"I mean, there's always going to be something knew to learn about or look into depending on what you're investigating," Keigo explained, "you'd need enough to put together a good enough case that law enforcement took your tip-off seriously, if you go that route. Actually taking on thing yourself..." he hummed, "I think that if you do it for anything larger-scale then you run the risk of getting in an official investigation's way, putting yourself or others in danger, tipping whoever you're investigating off, that kind of thing."

"So you think you'd mostly just do work as, like, an investigator?" Touya asked, shifting to prop his head up on an elbow as he looked down at Keigo.

"Maybe I'd do investiative stuff and also night patrols. Just to stop, like, pickpockets and the like. Making sure people got home safe. That kind of thing."

Touya opened his mouth to say something else when there was a knock at the door, and they both turned, Keigo suddenly wondering if he'd said something incriminating.

"Coffee!" A voice called from the other side of the door.

"It's open!" Touya called back. 

A woman in a neatly pressed uniform and a lanyard stepped in, balancing a silver platter with two cups on one hand as she closed the door behind her. When she turned around and saw the two of them on the sofa she paused before giving Touya a put-upon look. Keigo thought about trying to wiggle out from underneath Touya, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't get anywhere and would draw more attention to the situation. 

"Todoroki-san, what are you doing to that poor delivery boy?" She asked, walking over and holding out the coffees to him. 

"Laying on him," Touya replied, unrrepentant as he took one off the platter and sipped it black. 

The woman looked down at Keigo, "do you want to be there?" She asked.

Keigo felt his face go red and nodded.

"Would you add him to my list of approved visitors, please?" Touya asked.

"I can do that," she replied. "Is he staying for dinner? The kitchen would appreicate knowing sooner, rather than later, if possible, along with any allergies or intolerances."

Touya turned hopeful eyes onto Keigo.

"I can stay for dinner," he said.

Touya chirped and settled his head back down on Keigo chest, putting his coffee on the platter, which was then placed on the low table next to them. Keigo looked to the side and saw another cup, along with a sugar bowl and milk jug.

"Thank you," he said.

"That's quite alright. Supper will be brought up to you around six, if that's okay with you both?"

Keigo nodded.

"That's fine, thank you," Touya agreed.

"Call if you need anything else."

"Will do," Touya said as she left.

When she'd shut the door he put his head back down on Keigo's chest, looking up at him with half-lidded blue eyes that had Keigo's pulse doing strange things.

"Uhhhh, what were we talking about?" He asked.

"I was going to ask about what kind of investigative stuff you'd probably do, and then I was going to ask if you've ever thought of being a PI or something." Touya said, "and then I decided I might just do this instead," he continued before Keigo could answer, pulling himself up Keigo's body so he could wrap his arms around his neck and nuzzle into his throat, letting out a loud purr as he did so. Keigo's own purr decided to do it's best impression of someone starting a chainsaw in response, but when he dukced his head to hide, the only place for it to go was in the crook of Touya's neck. Rich black tea. Inscence. Pomegranate molasses. Lychee. Soft silk sheets. Fresh coffee. Lavender pillow spray. Keigo. He shivered, letting out a croon as his eyes drifted shut, shoulder relaxing like someone had cut the strings on a marionette and not even caring that he could hear Touya laughing at him, because he was purring as well.

"Keigo. Keigo," someone shook his shoulder.

"Huh? Wuh?"

"Dinner's here."

Keigo srubbed his face with his hands, "dinner's not til six, though."

"Yeah," Touya replied. "It's six."

Keigo blinked open his eyes, snapping his head around in horror. The sky outside the window was darkening with just the last hints of peachy sunshine on the horizon. 

He turned to Touya, mortified, "I am so sorry!"

"Why?" Touya asked, wrinkling his nose and getting up to answer the door.

Keigo sat up, a small collection of blankets falling off him as he slung an arm over the back of the sofa to keep looking at him as he answered the door, murmured a few words to the person on the other side, and returned with a large tray.

"Fuck yeah - it's hot pot tonight," Touya said.

"I fell asleep!" Keigo said.

"So?" 

"Isn't...isn't it rude? I'm a guest, I shouldn't have fallen asleep?"

Touya brought the tray over to the coffee table - fuck, Keigo should have offered to do that! 

"We didn't have other plans," Touya pointed out, "and I already know you haven't been sleeping well."

"Weren't you bored?"

"Not really," Touya said, "I took a nap too, then I watched a documentary. Cyberbullied my dad for a bit. You chirp in your sleep, by the way."

"Sorry," Keigo said, ducking his head again.

"Don't be; it's cute. Now stop apologising for dumb shit and come eat," Touya said, picking up his chopsticks and starting to load up his bowl.

Keigo scrambled off the sofa, some of the blankets still clinging to his wings, and rushed to kneel at the other side of the low table. He quickly bowed his head and said; "Itadakimasu!"

Touya paused in his chewing, "itadakimasu," he repeated before going back to eating.

The hotpot was really good, but Keigo struggled to really appreciate it as he realised that he hadn't really ever been invited round for dinner before and had no idea what he was supposed to do. Didn't most people start doing this when they were kids, with friends from school? He'd been invited out for work a few weeks ago, but had passed because he didn't want to spend the money. He still hadn't bought a new sofa, after all, he needed to be saving up. What was he even supposed to do? Were they supposed to talk? Wasn't it rude to talk with your mouth full? But then do you just eat in silence? Keigo could manage that.

"What are you having a conniption about over there?" Touya asked.

Keigo started, looking up at him. Apparently you didn't eat in silence.

"I've never been invited round to dinner before," he blurted out.

Touya cocked his head, "never ever?"

Keigo shook his head.

"You really don't have any friends," Touya said, before both of them cringed. "Sorry."

"It's fine. You're right," Keigo said, looking down at his food, "I wish I did, but I never figured it out in time. I think I just come across wierd when I try now."

"Kinda comes across like someone's got a gun to your head, to be honest," Touya responded. 

"I put a gun to my own head and tell myself to be normal or else," Keigo joked.

Touya snorted, "I don't think it helps," he said. "I think you'd have a better run if you let yourself be a bit weird. Or you might do something like faint on someone's carpet."

"Lack of sleep was a contributing factor as well!" Keigo insisted, cheeks heating. 

Touya hummed.

"Besides, it's hard to practice as an adult - everyone else is already so good at it."

"They aren't," Touya said, "I've met loads of people who weren't even homeschooled who suck at making friends."

"You have?" Keigo asked.

Touya nodded, "some of my youngest brother's friends make me question if I'm as bad as I think I am sometimes."

"You don't seem bad at making friends," Keigo said.

"Well, you would say that," Touya pointed out.

"You've got three siblings, right?" Keigo asked, changing the subject.

"Mhmm," Touya said, mouth full of hot pot. After he'd finished he continued; "I'm the eldest. Then Yumi, then Natsuo, then Shouto."

"I always liked the idea of siblings," Keigo admitted, "but maybe that's just because I'm an only child and I don't know what it's like."

"Depends on your parents a lot," Touya said, "If you've got one that likes to play favourites it gets pretty nasty."

Keigo shrugged, "I think I managed to be my parents least favourite, despite being the only one," he joked.

"There's no accounting for taste," Touya replied, and Keigo ducked his head.

"I'm guessing you weren't the favourite?" Keigo said, cautiously.

"I was and then I was replaced," Touya replied.

Keigo winced. Shit. That might even be wose than never being the favourite. "You're still in contact with them though?" He asked. "I dropped mine pretty early. Well. My dad wasn't around by that point anyway," he admitted. He hesitated and then decided that he didn't want to clarify that he'd been incarcerated. Still was.

Touya shrugged, "I was planning to, but my mum went into assisted living when I was fifteen, leaving me as the only pack omega, so dad suddenly had a vested interest in keeping me around and at least somewhat happy again. Playing favourites leaves a lot of sore losers, and without mum or me acting as an emotional achor for the others the liklihood that they'd leave is...pretty high."

"Yeah, I imagine the only one that would stick around would be the favourite," Keigo mused.

"Actually, Shouto hates his guts too."

"Really?" Keigo asked.

Touya nodded, covering his mouth as he finished another mouthful, "he was never allowed to play with us, and being dad's favourite always came with insanely high expectations and harsh punishments. You got his attention, but I look back on when it was me, and it was so stressful, even when I was small. Not actually that fun; just marginally better than not being the favourite."

"Shit," Keigo said.

Touya shrugged.

"But you're still pack omega?" Keigo pressed.

"Didn't have loads of choice at first, since I was a minor and he was my legal gaurdian," Touya said, "but even then I knew that I could get them to mutany if I really needed to. Put me in a pretty good position to negotiate some things."

"Yeah?" Keigo asked; he'd never really had such a candid look into a pack dynamic before. And he already knew some pieces from their talks online. He'd always sort of hoped he could help in some way, even if his inter-personal skills were...lacking.

"All my medical's getting paid for now, and I'm getting good care instead of just the bare minimum to stop neglect charges," Touya said, "my youngest brother's allowed to stay in his school dorms if he wants to, the conservatorship over our mother is split between my dad, myself and Yumi."

Keigo stared down at his bowl for a few moments, before saying, "it kinda sounds like you're stopping your family from abandoning him in return for the bare minimum." He couldn't look up from his bowl. He didn't want to see if Touya was offended or upset. If he was going to chased out for saying it.

"I guess," Touya agreed. "But once I'm medically cleared and stable he can't use that to argue his case to remain a legal gaurdian of an adult, and there'll be no reason for me to hang around. If they want to stay in contact because he improved under duress then that's on them. But when I leave, I can do that knowing that the rest of them also have escape routes. If they want them."

"Oh," Keigo said, understanding dawning. "You're playing a long con."

Touya wrinkled his nose, "I wouldn't call it a 'con'. I'm just delaying the inevitable so that my siblings get a better deal. And my dad gets a worse one."

"Is that not...really hard though?" Keigo asked, "having to play support for a man you hate?"

Touya shrugged, "I don't see him much to be honest. When it first became apparent that mum wasn't coming back, he tried making me the favourite again, I drew blood about it. He tried again, and I attacked him again. Repeat that for a few month until he got the message and now we mostly communicate by emailing each other from opposite wings of the house."

"He never..." Keigo was pretty sure at this point that he was asking far too personal questions, but the entire conversation felt like it would be considered far too personal. Touya seemed fine though. "Tried to find another partner? Surely that would put him in a stronger position? Like, having an omega that was his mate, not a packmate."

"My mum's not dead," Touya said bluntly. "He wouldn't be able to mate with someone else while she was alive. Also if he tried to replace her, we'd riot."

"Ah," Keigo said, nodding. He really didn't know enough about pack dynamics.

"Not to mention he sucks. The only reason he managed to get a wife in the first place was through an arranged marriage. He would not be able to successfully court anyone."

There was a pause as they both ate more hotpot and Keigo tried to digest what he was learning. 

"When you say you went no-contact 'pretty young', how young are we talking?" Touya asked.

"Oh, uh..." Keigo paused, rubbing the back of his neck. But, if they were being this candid... "well, my dad was incarcerated when I was small. About seven. He was a piece of work - threw his fists around a lot."

Touya nodded, like the idea was familiar to him. That made Keigo feel both good and bad, since it was nice to be understood, but he'd really rather neither of them did, actually.

"My mum was...pretty absent, as a parent, I guess?" He said. "It's hard to say when I went no-contact because it didn't really happen all at once. We just...drifted apart. I'd have been about fifteen when it really started though, and fully independent by about seventeen."

"Fifteen?" Touya repeated, looking surprised.

"Uh, yeah?"

"How'd you manage that?" Touya asked.

"She wasn't really around, even when we lived together, so I was pretty used to taking care of myself anyway. I'd spend most of my day at the library to try and get my diplomas and there's always plenty of outreach programmes there. Used a few of those to learn how to cook, do some basic DIY maintainence, how to move out, eventually. Got a job at fifteen. In my own crappy place by seventeen. I don't think she noticed me moving out, to be honest."

"That sucks," Touya said.

"Yeah," Keigo agreed.

"I'm surprised she didn't get done for neglect."

Keigo shrugged, "by the time I even realised it wasn't normal it was pretty late in the game," he said, "didn't find out about emancipation until I was seventeen either, and it felt a bit late."

"Ah, emancipation; the white whale," Touya said, raising his glass in a faux-toast.

Keigo chuckled.

"I always used to dream of moving out when I was a teenager," Touya said, "I know it was probably hell for you, but it's hard not to be a little jealous."

"There were rats in the walls," Keigo said. "And mould. But it was worth it."

"I wouldn't have managed it anyway," Touya said, putting his chopsticks down and stretching. "Not with my injuries. Wouldn't have been able to work. Everything unsterile was a potential health hazard. This," he said, gesturing to the flat around them, "is the closest I've ever gotten to independent living."

"Do you like it?" Keigo asked, propping his head up on his hand.

"I love it," Touya said with a grin.

"How long you think until you can move out?" Keigo asked.

Touya shrugged, "he's got good lawyers, but I'm on the mend. It's kind of an ongoing chess match. He starts making claims that I'm unstable, I make Natsuo my emergency contact and next-of-kin so that if conservatorship comes up, he's the clear choice, not my dad. Natsuo's studying medicine," Touya clarified, "he tries to postpone my treatments to buy himself more time, I call up the office and kick up a major fuss. He claims I'm not fit for work so I can't put together a nest egg for when I leave, I take up freelance translation from my room. It's a work in progress."

"If you ever need to escape, let me know," Keigo said.

"You'd let me run away to your flat?" Touya asked, "despite your grout?" He asked with a grin.

Keigo ducked his head, feeling his ears burn, "if that would make you feel safe."

"Your Saviour Complex is appreciated," Touya replied with a wry smile. Then his expression morphed into contrived bashfulness, "will my invitation always rely on emergencies?"

"Uh, well, I, uh..." Keigo said suscinctly. Fuck, he needed an excuse that wasn't 'I procrastinated buying a sofa for months and am embarassed to have guests round because of it'.

Touya cocked his head, his brow starting to furrow the longer Keigo floundered. Fuck! 

Touya dropped his head to look at his empty bowl, "you don't have to-"

"No sofa!" Keigo said.

"Pardon?"

Keigo hid his head in his hands, "I don't have a sofa. I sold it."

"Why?" Touya asked.

"Money was tight."

"I thought you were doing better now that you're selling on the scent-service?" Touya asked.

"I am. I sold the sofa before that," he peered at Touya from between his fingers, watching as he did the mental maths.

"You haven't had a sofa for...four months?" He guessed.

"Five," Keigo corrected.

"If it bothers you so much, why haven't you bought a new one?" Touya asked.

"I kept meaning to," Keigo said, "but there was always something else."

"Like what?" Touya asked.

"Fridge. Kevlar vest. Police scanner."

"You have such fascinating priorities," Touya said.

Keigo sunk into his wings.

"So you won't have me round unless there's an emergency or you get a new sofa?" Touya pressed.

"It's not that I won't let you, it's that I'm embarassed," Keigo said.

Touya hummed, "well in that case, I think for our second date, we should go and look at sofas and see if any catch your eye."

"Second date?" Keigo echoed, looking up at him.

Touya nodded. 

"Okay," he said, taking his head out of his hands, "that sounds good."

And that was how Keigo finally got his damned sofa.