Work Text:
“Being in love is so. Fucking. Hard,” muttered Touya, face buried in one of those merch pillows (with tiny red feathers and a beige color, not the gross ones) that were mostly sold for a target audience of dumb, obsessed sixteen-year-old girls.
Or, people like Touya, who had decided he liked bullying Hawks during patrols, but had ended up tripping over his feet and falling in love like an idiot. Making him a dumb, obsessed nineteen-year-old boy.
(To add to the insult, it wasn’t even his pillow - it belonged to one Midoriya Izuku, whose room he was currently in.)
Izuku gave him a pitying look that went unseen but not unnoticed.
“You could always text him. He’s got Twitter and, uh.. Instagram? I could also get you his number if you want,” they offered, like that was a normal thing to say - like hacking into a few high-security systems just to get their lovesick best friend someone’s number wasn't a big deal.
Touya retracted that statement. Izuku was one of the best hackers in all of Japan, if not the best, so to be fair it probably wouldn’t be a big deal for them.
He shook his head mutely and immediately stopped upon rubbing his surgical staples against the rough texture of the pillow. “Ouch,” he complained to the very inanimate object because that was the kind of person he was.
Rolling over, so his face wouldn't be buried in a low-quality merch article anymore, he could now see Izuku, sitting in a green swivel chair in the corner of their room.
They had their back turned to him and their laptop on their lap, typing something. There were lines and lines of text, and Touya would bet money (if he had any) on it being another strictly confidential case file that had aroused the kid's interest. Because he simply could not have friends with normal hobbies - Himiko hunted down birds to eat in her free time.
Touya took a moment to wonder why they hadn’t placed the device on the desk directly next to them, before noticing the mess on said furniture. He also wouldn’t know where to put a laptop between the mess of half-finished support items and vials containing some dangerous-looking liquids.
Seemingly noticing Touya’s movement, Izuku postponed whatever highly-illegal thing they had been working on in favor of spinning around to face their suffering best friend.
“Why’re you so depressed? Like, what do you think is the worst thing that might happen?”
They asked in a purely methodical tone as they slipped out of the chair, holding their laptop to their chest. They always used that voice - the “everything you preceive is an illusion, it cannot hurt you” voice as Touya and Himiko had dubbed it - when they were struggling to grasp the issue or find any kind of solution for it - to be fair, Touya supposed he would find lovesickness incomprehensible, too, if he was aromantic.
But alas, he was a morosexual.
He raised an eyebrow. “He could, I dunno, start hating me? Turn me in to the police? Reject me? Be disgusted by my interest?”
Izuku snorted and plopped down next to him, the mattress dipping only slightly under their meager weight. “Sure, but isn't love, uh, worth the risk? Also, nobody’s saying you have to text him and be like "hi, i'm todoroki touya, hehe- aka cheshire :DD. i live at that and that place and my partners' names are midoriya izuku and toga himiko. also i'm super in love with u so-"”
“Don't quote stupid romance novels at me. And I’m disgusted that you used my voice to say that.”
They shrugged with a grin and ran their fingers through their green hair, dyed just like Touya’s raven one. They also couldn’t bear to face the person they saw instead of themself when they looked in the mirror’s reflection.
“Touya,” they started again, averting their eyes to the pinboard on the wall. “Hawks is, like, he's a hero, right?” The raven-haired teen cocked an eyebrow but nodded in affirmation. He already did not like where this was going. “So, you’re aware... you know that he could die at basically any point?”
Touya winced, the movement small and barely there but Izuku still took note of it.
“See? D’you really want your entire existence to be unknown to him or, or would you prefer taking a shot at an actual friendship, even if it might ultimately end in excruciating anguish no better than your current lovelornness? Wow, I got a bit poetic there...”
Touya closed his eyes. The sunlight filtering through the huge window in Izuku’s room suddenly seemed a bit too bright, too blinding. The spring air felt warm on his face and Izuku’s mouth forming undeniable, harsh truths was painful to look at. And he hadn’t slept in a few days, which didn’t help anyhow.
“Hey, Zuku, do you want me to talk to him, or not? Cause I'm getting mixed signals here.”
“I do, totally! I mean I don’t trust ‘Hawks’ all that much.” Aren’t all heroes the same? “But you should be aware of what you’re getting yourself into. Losing people hurts a lot, remember?”
He opened his eyes again and frowned. “Is this a psychological trick? Are you trying subtle emotional manipulation again?”
Izuku huffed out a laugh at his indignant tone and opened their laptop again, entering passwords and pins at the velocity of light, leaving their best friend to his own mess of thoughts with zero remorse.
Touya briefly entertained the idea of shoving them off the bed, but then again, this was Izuku’s room. That, and Midoriya Inko was at home and the day he wouldn’t desperately hide from that witch would be the day he would come to murder her in cold blood.
(He still grinned wolfishly at their startled yelp when he ruffled their hair.)
:::
“Google says I should change my profile so it looks appealing? How am I supposed to do that? I’m self-aware enough to know that I look like, like a burnt toast.”
Himiko cackled like the madwoman she was while Izuku barely bothered to look up from their homework. Touya saw them smiling at the English essay though, the little shit.
Once Himiko had actually calmed down enough to breathe correctly and maybe form a coherent sentence, she dropped down onto the armrest of his chair and peered at his phone where he had opened his twitter account’s settings.
“Uh, yeah so! Using a profile picture with your face is a good idea,” she said with a professionalism Touya hadn’t know she had. “It makes you more approachable. But there’s a tiny issue, hm~”
“Touya is dead,” interjected Izuku cheerfully. “Nobody would recognize you with the scars and your hair dye, I guess, but you can't really cover the scars. Your face is, hmm, pretty memorable?”
Himiko sighed dramatically and leaned back, deep in thought. The greenette gave her a strange look. “Though you do realize we could just use one of his disguises? Like, the one where you went full out with contacts and latex? I'm pretty sure you took some pictures back then, Himi-chan.”
“Yes, but what if they get it on – ” Cue to Touya choking. “ – and then our favorite serial arsonist has to go like, ‘this isn’t what I really look like, sorry babe :(’?” Himiko shuddered at her own words, which she deserved for subjecting her friend to vaguely traumatizing mental images.
“Mhm,” agreed Izuku, tapping their pen against the desk's surface, “but it’s better than using the appearance of a dead man, or like someone with a fucked up face, uh, no offense..”
Suddenly they fixated their gaze on Touya, who squirmed under its intensity. They smiled though quite frankly, it if it was due to their friend’s discomfort or because of their idea was up for debate. “Nevermind, let’s use your real face.”
Touya, the dead or facially fucked-up man in question, quickly switched to his phone’s camera app, just to check his scars hadn’t miraculously disappeared; they had not. Himiko looked equally confused.
“What, why?”
“Your scars aren't ugly? They’re unusual, sure, and a bit of a shock but... they also really complement your eye color.”
That remark earned Izuku two very disbelieving looks. They huffed and rolled their eyes. “Nevermind. But, as Himi-chan said, do you really want to have a conversation with him about why your face actually looks like a very messed up Frankenstein’s monster make-up?”
“Right. We do not want that,” agreed Touya. Izuku nodded sagely. “Anyway, profile picture aside. How would I make my account more... appealing?”
Himiko hummed and pulled out her own phone while their youngest friend rolled their eyes once again and went back to their homework. They paused after a second though - “Make your bio read ‘even though I look like a burnt chicken nugget, I still love myself’, I dare you.”
Touya entered the text, word by word, and ignored his friends’ hysterical laughter.
:::
“I cannot do this,” lamented Touya.
Himiko was draped over his lap, watching a horror movie she was definitely too young for. He didn't comment on that though, since they were literal criminals and the girl herself had lived through worse things than what was happening in the movie. In fact, she had been the cause for half of those.
Himiko kicked him, or rather, she moved her legs in his general direction. “You can! Go get your man and all that. I’d give more support but! The main character is about to see his girlfriend being roasted alive so.”
Touya wisely decided to ignore that last part and pointedly didn’t look at the screen, deciding that the screams he could hear even through her headphones were nightmare-inducing enough.
Hawks ✓
@birbofprey
I’m sure you get tons of messages like this every day,
but I really wanted to at least try to talk to you so
[ Apr 21, 2XXX, 14:51 ]
Uh, I’m aware you probably won’t
see this, but I admire you a lot..?
[ Apr 21, 2XXX, 14:52 ]
:::
“Well,” said Izuku. “I guess,” added Himiko. It meant that Touya had fucked up somehow but they were too nice to tell him. He cocked his head, prompting them to elaborate.
“You tried,” began Izuku. “And it doesn’t sound too bad!” continued Himiko.
“But?”
“A bit awkward. That’s fine though! It’s... cute?” said Izuku, who would call a charred corpse cute if there was any chance of insulting it.
“Right. I’ll just... pass away now.”
Himiko shook her head, pouting. “No! You have to keep trying, alright? You can just send one per day.”
“Yeah, like he doesn’t have enough shit to put up with. I tried, alright? Let’s keep it at th-”
“You’d just give up after all the effort Himiko put into your profile?” asked Izuku, voice filled with feigned disappointment.
Touya stared at them. They stared back, as did Himiko.
He caved in after thirteen minutes and forty-seven seconds. He always did. He couldn’t win against either of them and didn’t even stand a chance when they teamed up with each other.
Fucking subtle emotional manipulation.
:::
I was bullied into keeping this up, so I really
hope you don't mind the daily messages
[ Apr 22, 2XXX, 07:12 ]
That aside, I hope you have a good day and please
don’t overwork yourself like an idiot (again)
[ Apr 22, 2XXX, 07:18 ]
:::
“Hey~ Hawksie!”
Keigo looked up to see a red blur jumping towards him, a white-blue one not far behind. “Mary, it’s - ” He dodged a knife. “ - nice to see you! You’re with Cheshire?”
He was very glad that this was a night patrol and not a daylight one. He had no idea what to do if the vigilantes were to sneak up on him in front of a crowd and he really, really wouldn't know what to tell the commission. If he was honest and said something like “yeah, so, I talk to some criminals every once in a while instead of arresting them because they’re all super nice and also I’m in love with one of them?” they would send him straight to a mental hospital.
“Yup!” She laughed like he had just told her a joke which was... a bit concerning but not that bad. She twirled around, making her pastel skirt swirl.
That was when Keigo noticed - “You got a new costume?”
“No shit, sherlock,” drawled a familiar voice behind him. Keigo didn’t jump when an arm came to rest on his shoulders and didn’t whine about being used as an armrest when Cheshire leaned against him. He complained far less than he was given credit for.
(He would like to know how the vigilante managed to evade his notice until it was too late every time, though.)
“Oh?” cooed the voice again, warm breath tickling Keigo's ear, which should not be possible consdering Cheshire wore a mask above his face. “Cat got your tongue or what? The, hm, Cheshire cat, maybe?”
Keigo laughed awkwardly and shook his head.
“Only in your dreams, sweetheart.”
:::
Morning. You better start taking care of
yourself. Don't let villains sneak up on you
[ Apr 23, 2XXX, 06:02 ]
Being friends with a suicidal child is h a r d
but being the suicidal kid? Even harder
[ Apr 23, 2XXX, 19:40 ]
:::
Izuku folded their hands. “In the spirit of unity, I think we should all commit a... triple suicide.”
“No.”
“I'd rather not!”
“But, Cheshire, Mary! We could make a statement.”
Touya eyed his friend. “No committing suicide. I won’t be able to kill Endeavor if I die.”
Someone hiding in the shadows of the alley choked. Probably Hawks, considering the person hadn't tried to arrest them yet. It might've been Eraserhead though or Ms. Joke, which would be bad for Izuku, who still had lasting trauma from the one and only encounter they had had with the Smile Hero.
“Cheshire!” Izuku turned to him, full of hope for their idea. “You could - ”
“No murder-suicide either!” chirped Himiko, punching a man and stabbing his thigh after he'd already fallen. Huh. Touya hadn't even noticed him. “Murder-suicide isn't a cute name at all.”
Izuku's mask covered all of their facial features, but their dejection was still obvious.
“Hawks,” they began, turning to the hero that had, in fact, choked earlier. “Do you - ”
“Thanks, but, uh, no thanks.”
:::
Good morning (or noon, what even is time)
[ Apr 25, 2XXX, 11:58 ]
also stop panicking about that 1 interview, you already got hundereds of them
done- i mean just do some exercise or chew gum, heard that's supposed to work
[ Apr 25, 2XXX, 12:11 ]
:::
Keigo opened his mouth to greet his handler with as much passive-aggressiveness he could put in a few words. Unfortunately, the woman, who had called him in at nine o’clock after he’d finally finished his patrol, didn’t give him a chance to talk.
“You had a mission, Hawks. You failed to complete it. The interview was a disaster,” said his handler with a shake of her head, blonde curls falling over her shoulders.
Keigo reopened his mouth, but closed it almost immediately. What was he going to do? He was an asset, nothing more. He couldn't protest, or say that she was being unfair, that no one else thought the interview had been anything but a success.
He wasn't Cheshire or Bloody Mary, or even Zero. He didn't change the unfairness in the world, he simply did his best to not be a victim of it.
(Though he wondered if he wasn’t one already.)
He stayed quiet when his handler continued chewing him out, tearing him apart verbally in a way that made Keigo question if he was even a person in her eyes.
He almost hoped not.
:::
why're you limping? did you get hurt last night??
[ Apr 27, 2XXX, 10:47 ]
what's your favorite color?
[ Apr 27, 2XXX, 13:38 ]
you can't say red. unless you can give a
reason that isn't "because of my wings"
[ Apr 27, 2XXX, 13:38 ]
:::
“Birdbrain, the fuck do you think you're doing?”
Hawks didn't look up, eyes focused on the ground as if the cold fucking concrete was that interesting. The grip he had on Touya’s wrist was like iron and the vigilante attempted to desperately stifle the panic that was beginning to set in.
Hawks wouldn't arrest him, would he? Why now?
“Hawks?”
This time, the hero actually reacted and Touya almost wished he hadn’t when all that came out was a string of panicked apologies (“I'm sorry, I can't release you, I'm trying, I'm trying, please, I'm-”) and a plea (“Don't break them, I'll get them off, I'll-”).
“Don't care, birdbrain. 's fine as long as you're not trying to put cuffs on my wrists. Your hands aren’t that bad as an alternative, anyway.”
Hawks stilled. The tiny tremors travelling over his entire body came to a halt and his breathing stopped. Then, a weak grin spread over his face. “Careful,” he laughed softly, almost sardonically. “I might start thinking you actually care.”
Touya blinked behind his mask. He was suddenly annoyed at the fact that the hero couldn't see his face when he was in his vigilante costume. “You’re so fucking stupid,” he stressed and noted how the fingers around his wrist tightened infinitesimally, how Hawks’ breathing stuttered.
There was something seriously wrong with him, if that was enough to send him half-way into a panic attack.
“I’m sorry, I-”
Touya cut him off. “Do you think I usually hang out with people who are authorized to arrest me on sight? Because for the record, I don’t.”
“Oh.” Hawks' eyes narrowed but the vigilante couldn't tell if it was in suspicion or something else. “You’re not, uhm. Mad?”
“Why would I be mad that you’re what, stressed? Or scared?” A thought came to him, unbidden. “You’re not scared of me, right?”
“No, no! It’s, uh, abouttheinterview. Not that you’d know which one, but.”
Touya's eyebrows, though unseen to the hero, climbed to his hairline. He wasn’t obsessed with Hawks’ media appearances, but he usually saw upcoming events on the hero’s official twitter page. The only interview that Hawks had had in the past few weeks was one where he talked about Quirk discrimination with a few other heroes in the top 10.
The whole thing had been considered an overall success by the public, even if Endeavor’s image suffered a bit in the face of his Quirkist bullshit. (Izuku had kept a tiny smile on their face for two days. Double win.)
“Ah.” Touya aimed for a conversational tone and judging by the hero's once again narrowed gaze he failed spectacularly. “What about the interview? Did you even have any recently?”
“Uh, yeah. One.” Hawks laughed again. Touya might've been fooled had the hero not been stress-gripping his arm, still. Shit, he'd read about that once, on some article about raptor traits. “It was one about discrimination based on Quirks and Quirk status. Endeavor and Best Jeanist where there too, y’know.”
“Why’s that stessing you out?” Touya hesitantly let his own hand rest on top of Hawks’, thinking about how his higher-than-usual body temperature helped his friends relax. The hero didn’t tell him to fuck off, so he kept it there. “I thought it was pretty great.”
“Thanks, Cheshire, I didn't know you were such a fan of mine. Want an autograph? A kiss on the cheek?”
“No,” said Touya, like a liar, but then again - Hawks was only teasing him. “Your hand's not going to write anything in the near future, birdbrain. How about you talk about why a successful interview’s causing you enough stress to make you latch onto a criminal.”
Hawks faltered and tried to tug at his hand again. To no-one’s surprise, it didn't work.
“Yeah, sorry. I, the commission said it was bad and they, they sort of punished me I guess? I mean, it wasn't that bad, my handler only yelled at me and the actual punishment only lasted a bit. They just, er, upped my workload and it's, it's a bit, uh, overwhelming. And you, you probably don't actually care and just, uh, want to get me to leave you alone which, which is, fine and really, I-”
“Idiot. Bird.” Touya wasn't good at working with his or other people’s emotions. His to-go method was fake-it-till-you-make-it or ignore-it-till-it's-gone. He had a feeling neither of those would work in this situation.
He placed his other hand on top of his first one and the hero flinched. Violently. A full-body flinch that made Touya's blood boil in righteous anger.
“I'm not going to hurt you,” he promised and interlaced their fingers as best as he could. “Believe it or not, but I really do, uh, care about you and your wellbeing. I have to listen to so much shit from my two only friends for that, y’know.”
Hawks stayed silent.
“On the topic of Zero and Mary, your second and third favorite vigilantes after me obviously, they're both sick with the flu right now. They kicked me out of the house, too. Something about me not being allowed to get ill as well since my immune system's fucked. It's almost sweet if it didn't mean that I'm temporarily back to living on the streets. Zero can't even talk about fucked immune systems ‘cuz they could keel over and die just because of a goddamned sneeze, I swear...”
:::
morning. i just realized that i
never talk about myself. fuck?
[ May 2, 2XXX, 08:23 ]
i'm not a murderer or anything
[ May 2, 2XXX, 08:24 ]
very reassuring, i know:)
[ May 2, 2XXX, 08:24 ]
:::
Keigo's handler didn't have anything to yell about after he received his punishment for ruining the interview. She complained about his performance, and how he shouldn't be so slow even if his new schedule didn't let him sleep for more than four hours a day at most, but she did so with a normal volume.
“Oh,” she said then. “Last week’s night patrol in Musutafu didn’t go too well, did it?” She was commenting on the villain attack that had happened a in the lower area of the city, at around five in the morning which Keigo had missed. “Do you want me to change your route? You’d have been closer to the scene if you’d been, well.”
“No, it’s alright,” assured her Keigo.
He wasn't sure how to tell her that he had heard the sounds of the villain attack but hadn’t made a move to intervene. If he told her that Cheshire had told him to stay still and that the vigilante had essentially taken over his patrol, she’d definitely have him relocate.
If he told anybody that he’d spent hours and hours with a hand gripping Cheshire’s arm while he listened to stories about the vigilante and his friends, who were also vigilantes, there’d be hell to pay. Both because he had wasted a chance for the commission to finally get rid of Cheshire and because stress-gripping was something that was supposed to have been trained out of him a long time ago. They wouldn’t be pleased to hear about it happening again.
Keigo forced himself not to think about it as he continued listening to his handler's words.
Cheshire only wanted to get rid of him quickly, he reminded himself.
:::
hi.
[ May 3, 2XXX, 03:13 ]
d'you ever use music or meditating
fall asleep? have you ever tried?
[ May 3, 2XXX, 03:21 ]
are your wings really hawk-like or is hawks just a random
bird name you thought sounded badass as a hero alias?
[ May 3, 2XXX, 04:02 ]
:::
A sneeze came from Touya’s right and he scowled. “If you’re still sick you should’ve stayed at home, Mary.”
Himiko giggled and wrapped her arms around Touya. “But then you’d be all alone again! And Zu- Zero only ever sleeps!”
The fire-user sighed deeply and dodged Eraserhead's capture weapon that had come out of nowhere. The tired hero glared at the two of them with glowing red eyes, but stayed back.
“Cheshire, Bloody Mary. Zero isn’t here?”
Himiko jumped off his back and took out two of her knives, playing with them in her hands. “Mhm! They got like su~per sick and they're really bad with stuff like that. And their mother's being really mean about it too, so they're staying with us!”
Eraserhead raised an eyebrow. “And you're just feeling charitable today which is why you're offering so much information for free?”
“Meanie,” whined Himiko. “We’re friends, right? Friends tell each other these things!”
Touya quickly disguised his laughter as a cough, lest Eraserhead decided to get back at him for finding the hero's suffering amusing. But the man didn’t make any attempts to capture them, not even the half-hearted ones he usually used to intimidate them. He simply dropped down to the ground and gave the two vigilantes a quick look-over.
“Did any of you talk to Hawks recently?”
“Uh, birdie? He only really talks to Cheshire, so I didn’t. Sorry, Ai-chan!” Eraserhead did a fantastic job at not wincing at the nickname, instead eyeing Touya.
“I talked to him a while ago, actually,” ventured the teen. “I think it was the first of May. Why’re you asking?”
The underground grumbled under his breath and slumped slightly. “He’s pushing himself too far, anybody can see that,” he said. “It’s illogical and he’ll burn himself out like this. I’ve been trying to talk to him for days but he never gives people his private number and his patrol routes are unpredictable.”
“Oh,” hummed Himiko. “That’s not good! Did you try Miruko or Best Jeanist? I think they have his number. Or maybe the HPSC?”
“Don't, don't call the commission. It’ll just cause more trouble,” interjected Touya trying not to sound desperate.
“Ah,” said Eraserhead, as though that hadn’t occurred to him before. “I’ll try. But if either of you - or Zero - see him, tell him he’s being an idiot. Also don’t leave Zero alone at home, even if they’re only sleeping. Someone should make sure they’re alright.”
And then, without as much as a goodbye or a threat about putting them behind bars, Eraserhead scaled the roof again and left.
Himiko turned to him, amusement radiating off her. “How cute, he’s like a worried dad! Zero’s definitely gonna get adopted soon!”
Touya snorted. “Bold of you to assume they didn’t already adopt Eraserhead.”
:::
realitätsflucht is my one (1) healthy
coping mechanism and it shows
[ May 5, 2XXX, 16:32 ]
oh fuck wait
[ May 5, 2XXX, 17:10 ]
i'm talking abotu escapism. my friend is apparently
rubbing off on me with their linguistic confusion
[ May 5, 2XXX, 17:10 ]
i don't even speak german tf
[ May 5, 2XXX, 17:11 ]
:::
Keigo looked at his phone, half-expecting to see the familiar username and a [new message!] on his lock screen but it remained perfectly vacant, save for his handler’s brief text to meet her once he was done for today.
His expression nearly fell when he noticed the latter but he quickly plastered another smile onto his face when a reporter came up to him, hair slicked back and eyes glowing incandescently.
Keigo sent a silent prayer to whoever was listening that the bags beneath his eyes weren’t as noticeable as he thought they were and that this whole thing would be over in only a minute. His lids were as heavy as lead and standing still in the cool autumn air wasn’t making him any more aware.
If he were to collapse right here and now, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to him. But Cheshire would laugh at him, he thought as he gave the reporter a bland grin, if he were still around.
“Hawks-san!” exclaimed the reporter - a man in his late thirties maybe, likely well-paid judging by his clothes. “That was a magnificent capture for such a difficult situation. How did you come up with the strategy to keep the hostages safe?”
Keigo responded mechanically, stifling a yawn. “Well,” he chuckled sheepishly, “I bluffed my way past the villain so from there on it was only...”
He was so tired. Sleep hadn’t come to him ever since Cheshire had vanished from his life, just for Touya, the person who had sent him Twitter direct messages every day, to follow him soon after. Not even Zero or Mary were around, so he couldn’t ask them what had happened and if Cheshire was still alive.
Every single night he listened to the sounds outside of his apartment and fought back images of broken bodies and mangled corpses. And during the day, the Commission sent him running around like a headless chicken to a point where even Eraserhead had told him to take it slow, that he was being irrational by overexerting himself like that.
Keigo had nearly laughed in the man’s face at that. He was Hawks - he couldn’t take anything slow.
“Uh, Hawks-san? Are you feeling alright?” asked the reporter, snapping Keigo out of his musings. He probably missed a question or something, shit.
“Sorry, sorry. What was that?”
:::
Touya woke up with an odd taste on his tongue and a prickling sensation all over his skin.
He seemed to be lying on a bed. The room he was in was musty and in severe need of a good dusting but looked like it used to be a hospital room.
Touya tried to groan. He didn’t want to be stuck in that Bastard’s highly illegal clinic. He’d rather die than end up at the mercy of the Bastard, who had all kinds of torture and surgery instruments but claimed he couldn’t get his greedy little hands on some anesthetic.
Unfortunately, he thought sourly as he surveyed the room and took notice of the slumped-over form of one Midoriya Izuku, nobody gave a fuck about his opinion.
At least his skin didn’t feel as though it was rapidly disintegrating this time. There was also no sadistic unlicensed wanna-be medic in sight, which was a bonus too.
He sighed and flinched at the how dry his throat was. Izuku jolted awake and took a second to observe their surroundings.
Then, their eyes landed on Touya and they lost their sharp edge, melting into something far softer.
The older teen tried a weak grin and suppressed another sigh at how his face felt like it had been taken off and reattached without the nerves being reconnected. It left him feeling strange and uncomfortable.
Izuku picked up on his distress within a second. “Do you remember anything from what happened? Just nod or like blink twice if you do.” They tilted their head. “I’d offer you water but I’m not sure if that’s devoid of like, drugs.”
Touya had no fucking idea what had happened, so he just continued blinking slowly. It must’ve been bad, though. He had zero recollection from what had sent him in one of the beds in the Bastard’s clinic that he swore were made from concrete, but were usually only considered when the injury was really severe.
The last time they had been there was when Himiko had gotten impaled with a stake, which was funny in hindsight.
Izuku sighed and stretched, joints popping as they pulled their arms above their head.
“You got caught in a villain attack – because Endeavor is an idiot.” Todoroki Enji’s alias was said with so much venom, that even Touya marveled at it for a second. “He had the, hm, brilliant idea to throw a fireball at the villain, y’know. There were like, three people in his line of fire.”
Touya stopped breathing.
“No one died! The other two were taken away with the ambulance but they’re stable now. Anyways – ” Izuku played with the rings on their fingers, expression grim. “ – the heat melted your staples since you were so close too. It didn’t get caught on camera or anything, which is good, but also bad, because now there’s no fucking proof that that fucker set you on fire. Not that his stupid lawyers wouldn’t have taken care of it but I could’ve gotten the recording somehow and leaked it to the press, and...”
Their speech dissolved into muttering, as it often did. Until, “Oh!”
Izuku had apparently remembered something important enough to snap them out of their plotting against Endeavor.
“So, Zan-sensei replaced your staples with fire- and heat-resistant ones made from tungsten, which won’t melt even if you use your flames because the highest temperature you can currently achieve is still beneath 1 500°C and tungsten has the highest melting point of all metals. Even if you train your Quirk, it’s unlikely you will ever be able to create a temperature above 3 422°C, considering that blue flames can have a heat of 1 700°C at most. Although, I wonder if...”
Touya let the muttering wash over him like white noise and internally cackled. Both because Zan-sensei from Zankoku, cruel, was a very fitting nickname for the Bastard and because he could use his Quirk freely now, without worrying about accidentally liquifying the medical instruments literally holding his skin together.
Also, having his surgical staples replaced at least explained why he couldn’t feel parts of his own skin since the procedure had to have frayed his nerve system pretty badly.
Then the door opened and Touya was dragged out of his thoughts and rudely shoved back into the real world instantly.
“Ah, and,” said the Bastard of a medic that had entered the room, smiling with all teeth but no lips because he had no fucking skin on that skeleton head of his, “you’re on strict bedrest for at least four days, Dabs. My beds are... free and I’m sure moving you would be unnecessarily stressful. How about that?”
Touya closed his eyes and cursed at the man inside his head before remembering that he should calm down.
“Oh, that. Hm, I forgot you can’t talk. Zero? It’s up to you, now.”
Touya might have been unable to form words, but Izuku was smart enough to see the panic in his eyes and take it for what it was.
He had no intention of being a sadistic psychopath’s test guinea pig. The sick Bastard had probably done some experimenting while he’d been unconscious and the mere thought made him want to throw up.
:::
sorry for being MIA for so
long, i had an accident
[ May 12, 2XXX, 00:22]
:::
“Who’re you texting?” asked Keigo as he tried to peer over Cheshire’s shoulder. The blue light of the screen illuminated the vigilante’s mask and it looked eerie.
The hero didn’t think about how he had nearly hugged Cheshire when he’d shown up a few hours ago, with Zero mother-henning him. The underground informant had left after a few minutes though, muttering something about someone called Shigaraki being an idiot.
Keigo could admit that the main reason he hadn’t jumped onto Cheshire was because his body was still sore and aching all over from the Commission’s most recent punishment. He’d thought he’d handled the hostage situation well, but clearly he hadn’t since his handler disagreed.
Even now his chest hurt with every breath and his wings just - made him wish he could piss off Cheshire to a point where he actually burnt off all of his feathers.
“Nunya,” said Cheshire.
Keigo blinked slowly, trying to figure out if the pain was affecting his thought process or if he was being messed with. “Nunya?”
“Nunya fucking business.” The vigilante shut off his phone with a click and turned to Keigo and – yeah, they were too close.
Keigo stumbled back, ending up against a wall with a racing heart that wouldn’t calm down but not from the physical closeness to Cheshire for once.
His wings hurt. Why did his handler touch his wings? She knew that he needed them for hero work. His handlers knew best, but it would be nice if they told him why it was a good idea, so he could at least understand them.
“Hawks?”
They hurt like they had when he’d first gotten them. His walls had been covered in blood because the wings had sprouted from the skin below his shoulder blades and he’d been screaming, begging for the pain to stop. He’d tried to cry but it hadn’t worked because over night he had also developed a third eyelid that kept his tears back.
Cheshire stalked up to him and his voice was almost distressed as he repeated the blond’s hero alias again, but Keigo wasn’t listening, caught up in his unwilling tumble down the memory lane.
His mother had stared at him with wide eyes and had only recovered when his father had started screaming. Then she had told him to shut up and deal with it before he made his father mad. Five-year-old Keigo had no idea how to simply deal with suddenly gaining another set of appendages.
He (had) sobbed and tried to pull out his wings because that’s why it hurt, right –
“Hawks!” Someone grabbed his wrists, stopping him from tearing off his feathers, and pushed his back against the alley's wall. Keigo’s eyes met terrified turquoise ones. “Calm down,” said Cheshire softly. “Breathe with me, alright?”
Keigo did. Every single inch of his body hurt and his chest screamed in protest but he continued breathing in and out in the same rhythm Cheshire was setting. It was hard to disobey the vigilante.
“Good boy,” murmured Cheshire once his breathing was back to a normal pattern. Keigo wanted to think of something other than the pain, and tried not to melt into the hand that landed on his cheek. He failed miserably when Cheshire began to slowly drag his thumb over his jawline.
He glanced at the vigilante. Tired, he was so tired of being hurt. “Do I, do I get a reward?”
Cheshire’s fingers stilled and his half-lidded eyes met Keigo’s in a questioning gaze before falling onto his lips. Turquoise met yellow again, flickering back up, before he leaned in.
“Hold on – ” Cheshire froze and made a move to pull back. “ – take off your mask.”
Keigo wondered if his voice had cracked, since the blood rushing in his ears made it hard to hear himself talk. He thought about who the vigilante had been texting and if Touya had recovered from his accident. His mind wandered to the three case files on his desk at home as his eyes focused on the metal glint of staples that reflected the streetlamps' dim lightning.
His thoughts were scattered everywhere until dry lips met his own.
And then there was nothing and everything.
::
Touya’s first thought upon kissing Hawks was, you’re Icarus and you’re gonna get burned like a fool.
His second thought was far less coherent as a hot mouth opened against his own.
::
Keigo eyed his swollen lips in the mirror and then looked at the vigilante laying on his bed with his phone in hand, typing something.
“So,” he tried and deemed his voice steady enough. Cheshire’s head snapped up and Keigo stared at the uneven skin, burnt and dead and attached to the healthy one with surgical staples. “Do you have Twitter, Cheshire?”
Cheshire smiled and for the first time in his life, the hero understood where the alias had come from. He gracefully rose from his position and pulled Keigo into a loose hug, resting his head on Keigo's shoulder. “You know my name now, don’t you? Use it,” he whispered against the blond’s ear.
Keigo tried to, failed and made a second, a third and a fourth attempt. “Tou-ya. Touya. Got a last name too?”
Ch- Touya traced light patterns against Keigo’s back and smiled. “Not one I like, no. Maybe I could use yours?”
“Maybe,” agreed the hero and laughed when the other man choked.
Takami Touya, huh.
bonus:
Zero stared against the wall, absentmindedly playing with a coin, tossing and catching it again and again. “I have so many regrets, Eraserhead,” they lamented.
Shouta sighed and dropped down into the seat opposite of them, not entirely surprised they had noticed him sneaking up to them. “Like, committing crimes?”
Zero shook their head and let out a very long-suffering sigh, letting the coin disappear in one of the many pockets of their pants. “Bugging Hawks’ apartment, for one.”
The underground hero raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you’re showing repentance for an intrusion of privacy? Careful there, Zero. You’re tiptoeing into lawful territory here.”
The vigilante ignored his interjection and continued. “Fuck the HPSC, by the way. Glorified child abusers, all of them.”
Shouta was suddenly very glad he had decided to start a recording on his phone when he'd sat down because he wasn’t touching that with a ten feet pole. Tsukauchi could deal with that, the man had got connections.
Zero then dropped their head into their hands and added, in a terribly defeated, muffled voice.
“I should’ve never let Cheshire have Twitter, dad.”
Yeah, Shouta wasn’t even going to acknowledge that sentence. The title though?
He was noting that down.