hello! before i start this chapter, i'd like to add a trigger warning.
TW; ab!se
there are also spoilers from chap 299 of the bnha manga, so please ONLY continue if you're comfortable :)
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"Let's start with the house, shall we?" he asked me, even though this entire thing was revolved around him.
"You don't have to be so formal." I laughed, stroking the sides of his hair with my fingers. "But yeah, let's start with the house."
"It was nothing like our current one, I'll tell you that." he chuckled, fluttering his wings at the touch of my comforting hand. "The house was wooden, and located far from the city."
"We had like what, three damn rooms?" I slightly smiled as he spoke, every word branding into my brain. Looking up at him, it was hard to believe that the guy had been through events so tragic. The guy basked in glamour and wealth, who got swarmed in paparazzi every time we left the house.
"I had no siblings, it was just my parents and me. Kinda wish I did though, maybe we should get Aki a friend." he teased, which ended up with my hand lightly hitting his chest. "He gets that from you, y'know?" Keigo laughed.
"Mhmm, no more kids!" I made sure he knew and didn't try anything. "I've moved on from my diaper changing days."
Keigo groaned and stretched out his wings, the shine from the moon failing to reach past his feathers. Falling back, I sat up and tackled his laying body. The two of us giggled in sync, before he wrapped his wings around my back and pulled me closer to his chest.
Our fingers locked and entwined, and our hearts skipped beats together. I could feel my stomach fluttering, the look in Keigo's eye never failing to make me blush. I didn't need to tell him to continue, before he starting venting his feelings out once more.
"It's so weird, being surrounded by so much.. money. I never had anything like that when I grew up, in fact, my father-" he gulped down his saliva, a quick breath before starting up again like a rusty car engine. "He stole and killed for money, any last speck he could get his filthy hands on, he would take."
"Eventually, he was on the the run. My mother helped him hide, and that's when I was born." Keigo sighed.
"And one day I snuck out, ran out to the city. There was a sting on my wing, so I thought maybe someone could help. However, I quickly turned around after it suddenly stopped bothering me."
"That was one of the worst days in my entire life. My father yelled at me, continued to bash me about how I was a liar. He yelled and yelled, probably until my eardrums bled."
"Told me, that he regrets my birth. I was blamed for everything, the reason he wasn't free- the reason we were so damn poor. Everything was my fault."
"No, that's not true!" I interrupted, but not even I saw the words incoming. "None of that is your fault, it's not right now, and it will never be. You couldn't have prevented anything."
He breathed up into the sky, tightly clutching onto my head of hair. I could feel the warmth in his chest, the feeling screaming at me to never let go. Keigo knew that I could be his shoulder to cry on, that special one in a billionth. I wanted to hear his voice, but all he said were the next words in the story.
"I sat back, and barely endured all the abuse. I didn't want to become broken people like them, and if I did, then I would've never forgave myself."
"Her name was Tomie, my mother. One day, she told me that my father had run away, and we became homeless. The two of us lived at a train station, a damn train station!" he grunted.
"She told me to bring money back, no matter how. And just like my father, she constantly beat me with words. Words regarding my birth, and even the wings that I'm holding you with."
"But then all of it changed, we were found by the hero commission. They offered us full financial support, so we could start a new life. That was the day when we had to cut ties with 'Takami', my real last name."
"After my incident with the Cremation villain, I found out some news about my mother. The same guy visited my house, and threatened her unless she exposed information about me."
I winced to those words, as they cut through me like honed knives. "I'm sorry." was all I could say. "None of it should've ever happened."
"Don't apologize, we weren't even related anymore. The commission cut all ties with Hawks, so that character doesn't even have a family!" I wondered how he could smile at a time like this.
"Character?" I boosted myself up with my arms, glaring down at the pro hero who had been laying between them. "What do you mean?"
"It's simple! Hawks is a character, he's not me. Yeah, we share the same wings, the same eyes, even the same face. But we're two different people, who live worlds apart."
"You're the only person that knows me, the real me. I've never told this story to anyone else except Best Jeanist, but I was practically inclined to. Anyways, there's something I need to confess."
"After the incident with the failed mission, the entire commission has been crumbling down. It came close to doing so a few years ago, but now we're at the tipping point."
"So, you know what? I'm done, done with this life as a fraud. Heroes only exist behind TV screens and red carpets, their existence is nothing different than something you'd see in an anime."
"We can move to a new house, maybe even start a brand new life outside of the city. Because I can't do this anymore, I can't- I can't."
"Keigo.." I mumbled, speechless.
"What do you say, (Y/N)? Let's ditch this place, this place filed with lies." he asked me, but what could I respond with?
"Let's run away together, and be free."
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AN; let's run away together and be free🤤😭😭WRONG EMOJI WRONG EMOJI
good morning all, i need to finish a history project and a literature (🥲) assignment so i'll be hopping off now, i'll probably update the story again in a few hours.
credit: Kohei Horikoshi
words: 1096