#instead of yk. just being glad your child is alive
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jasontoddenthusiastt · 1 year ago
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The New Titans #55 (1989)
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Batman (2010-) #641
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Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016-) #6
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Batman and Red Hood (2011-) #20
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Batman (2016-) #138
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They sure do bAT&Tman. They sure as hell do.
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Yet Jason never thought this way about you.
#Don’t you dare kill them with a simple headshot Jason! I have to keep them alive so I can torment them until they wished they were dead#they’ll never use their hands again. this is the superior way#and you should follow in my footsteps as any self-respecting non-criminal vigilante would in order to keep your conscience squeaky clean#also how dare you not be more understanding of the fact that I completely betrayed your trust#and threw your unhealable trauma in your face and shamelessly admitted to it#after I slit your throat in front of the murderer responsible for that same trauma while he laughed in your face a few years back#god you are a terrible son u are so selfish everything I ever said about you while u were dead was true ur being such a burden rn#also I just love how in batman 640 Bruce was going around interrogating Ollie and Clark (ppl who died + came back)#to find a *~rational~* explanation for how Jason was even here#instead of yk. just being glad your child is alive#and when Damian died he does all this shit to Jason to figure *how to* bring Dami back#after he burned his artwork the same way he emptied out Jason’s room#god you flaming turd of a father never change#the fact that lobdell boiled down Jason’s reasoning to ‘he’s the bad guy and you’re the good guy Jason’#already shows we’re starting off on the wrong foot but#Jason coming back to Bruce in every new comic and saying the same ‘I tried it your way. or sucks’ thing is so silly because#it*#he already learned that decades ago#all the way back in batman 424 lol#you’re just. making him. look like an idiot. but yk what maybe that’s still better than the self-deprecating diversion bs#that’s actually convincing more people ‘yay Jason want redemption this is revolutionary & has definitely never been done a billion times b4#and is a step in the *right* direction’#my post
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sorcerous-caress · 1 year ago
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I’m glad you mentioned about Sean viewing Randgrid differently after his bad ending because I have definitely thought about how he’d be around his fellow Merry Men after his bad ending. Bad ending Sean would be very hateful towards anyone who doesn’t agree with him or anyone who even ever had a past of selfishness and greediness. He’d take low shots at people’s background “Zarek wasn’t your mother so consumed by greed they turned you into one of those statue actors on the street?” Stuff like that. Him hating Randgrid because she is the spawn of a dragon would also show how far he’s fallen because I always imagined him believing that there are no naturally evil races. “All goblins are evil? Nonsense those guys just suck.” He’d turn on the companions too even if they had their good ending, Astarion and Gale for being power hungry, Wyll just for having a noble background, hell maybe even Karlach for fighting for a devil and working with Gortash even if it was against her will. If Sol was a companion he’d probably turn on her for her dragon heritage.
But enough about that the last Merry Men kid is Alfred Nikolas a goblin Artificer nicknamed Fun-Sized Fred. He is based on Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol. He was taken in by Lord Marion (genderbent Lady Marian) as more of a protégée than an adopted child given his parents are still alive and still on good terms unlike the rest of the kids. He became a well-known artificer using the money of his version of Scrooge after he gave all his money to Fred’s family when he passed. Fred uses modified crutches to get around but they double as his weapons. Really wish they had Goblins as a race in bg3 so I could make him in it. I’ll just have to make him in Hero Forge at some point.
Okay, wait, I'm obsessed with the potential for Sean and Sol interactions. Let's play barbies with our OCs for a hot second.
Let's say by some miracle the two of them end up kinda friends in act 3. Maybe a series of failed bullying attempts from Sol that just strengthened their bond instead.
Now bad endings! Sean gets hyper-vigilant and vindictive with his judgment. Everyone is put under the microscope and all their hearts are weighted on a scale against a feather just so they wouldn't end up on his list of enemies.
What if, Sol gets their bad ending too. But since Sean bothered to befriend them, they think "oh. Maybe he belongs to my hoard."
It's basically about 2-5 years of life before they die. Might as well make the most out of it yk? So eventually after amassing all the gold and gems they want, they think it's time to round up the people they care about.
Romanced Tav tied up in gold chains in their chambers? Check.
That one druid who was nice to them and restored their flower? Check.
That dog who didn't bite them too hard when they tried to pet it after he smelled dragon on them? Check.
Now, time to get the friends.
Ascended Astarion and God Gale would be too hard for Sol to manage with their short lifespan so they'd skip them. Sharran Shadowheart would hide too well for them to find and Lae'zel is on another plane of existence serving Vlaakith.
Halsin is there, free to grab. They pass by his village and don't look back. He can stay, he's not on the list.
Minthara IS on the list however. Although they have no idea where she is in the underdark or how to get to her. Did she get killed? They'll pay some drows to search for news about her and wait.
Now Sean, he would be fun because Sol is on the list of his enemies. He would seek them out himself. Afterall it is his fault for being kind to them to the past, now they see him as a part of their hoard.
And oh they'd be so delighted, he spared them the trouble of hunting him down, how kind of him, now off to the cage.
But he just keeps escaping, it's driving them crazy how time after time he comes trying to steal from them or kill them, and they throw him in a pure gold cell and the next day he's gone.
Do they have to pin him down with magic? Curse him with a tracker? How does he keep managing it? They follow him in their dragon form and take back their gold, pick him up with their claws and return him to the hoard.
It's a constant cycle of playing tag, except it is murder and steal tag.
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If it's their good ending they'd just be confused, there is as much dragon in them as there are wings in a fish, even their scales fell of buddy. They're fully human.
If he brings up their past, it would anger them. After all, they sacrificed? After all the effort they've put in to change? Now he brings it up? Sol would call him a hypocrite for befriending their awful self before and coming to hold them accountable now.
I doubt it would work or convince him but honestly words is all Sol has at that point. They're a low level human fighter who lost all their powerful magic, not even a family left to hide behind. They're weak and defenceless and an experienced rogue could easily take them down.
So they'd keep attempting to use their high charisma to convince him or at least distract him from their trail. They might be able to overpower him with strength, but he'd be too tricky and slippery.
Him coming after them even after their half-frienship would hurt them but they'd never show it. It wouldn't anger them.
But him going after his own family? That'd infuriate them so much because he definitely talked the whole camp's ears off before about his family and moms and how much he loves them. They'd take more offence to that than him betraying them
At least Sol knows themselves, they were shitty and deserved it, but his family weren't shitty to him. Especially if he brings up Sol's greedy family after condemning his own. They'll dig at him for being just as rotten and greedy as the rest of them.
But also, that is all hypothetical bc I'm not even sure if Sol would bother kidnapping anyone but romanced Tav, yk? Like platonic Tav wouldn't interest them and they'll just increase their security against Sean instead of putting him in their hoard.
Man Jaheira has her work cut out for her, first Ascended Astarion neighbour, then vigilante Sean lurking the streets and now a dragon-human mutant flying over the city and stealing everything.
Not mentioning corrupted Arch-Duke Wyll and the Shar cult just below the city with Justicier Shadowheart.
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Anyway goblin guy let's goo!! When I read fun-sized-Fred, I thought of scooby doo Fred ngl. And omfg modfied crutches that actually shoot bullets? It's like that one meme with "call the hospital call the hospital...but not for me" and Fred lifts his crutches and starts firing and it's glorious.
The only one on good terms with his parents, if he is adopted I wonder if he ever thinks about his bio parents. Sol would probably encourage him to, because they feel a special connection to their kin, be it another draconic being or their actual family and would think that Alfred needs to experience it too.
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katana-zero · 1 year ago
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TUMBLR USER GAMMANULLZERO I LOVE YOU
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Hold on let me try to answer to all of your tags dkdmmfmmc I woke up this morning and it was the first thing I saw AAHHH
Also sorry english is not my first language so I might struggle with some sentences!! (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)
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I'M GLAD THAT THIS PIC CAPTURED HER WELL 🥹🥹🥹 I wanted to draw something chill because!!! Well!!! She is chill!!
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TY I love when people like my coloring (⁠´⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠.̫⁠ ⁠.⁠ ⁠`⁠)
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I LOVE YOUR MIND
I think actually he would feel trouble feeling anything. He'd probably regret killing kids if he ever done that (because of LG) but otherwise I think he wouldn't feel anything. At first I thought that he'd feel alive, since canonically he feels alive only when taking someone else's life, but I'm not sure he'd feel anything just watching the record.
Or he'd feel the stinging feeling of regret, if church monologue is actually his (I have a theory that it's actually Fifteen's thoughts, but I'm not really sure so!! Just a fun thought) and he felt bad watching all those people cry.
Or he'd feel everything at once like one big complicated feeling (⁠*⁠﹏⁠*⁠;⁠) I don't know how to describe it.
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THANK YOU!!! 🥹🥹🥹
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I love SnowHunter SO MUCH my favourite lesbians. They have me in chokehold since I first thought about them I just. Need more of them in my life.
I think Snow uses something similar to chronos! Like that green thing Psych used in boss fight. He mentioned that the government created more than just one drug for war, so it's safe to assume that she will most likely use something similar. Or it might be something that organization Snow works for created, since they somehow recreated chronos. I hope we'll see what she uses in the dlc 🙏
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I LOVE USING RED THANK YOU SM
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🥹 jsjxjjsk Zero and Fifteen cuddling Leviathan and Behemoth... The eepies
Fifteen stop being mad just hug a biblical creation bro chill out
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:3 I love drawing Zero with a scruff, I'm glad someone else likes it too!
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Fifteen katana zero I need you Fifteen katana zero
AHHH I'M SO HAPPY YOU NOTICED THE EFFECT!! I like drawing it on my artworks with nulls because it shows how their time is running out yk yk (⁠。⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧ mentally ill guys
THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALL THE FEEDBACK I LOVE YOUUU AGHHHHHH
YAYYYYYY IM SO HAPPY YOU LIKE ALL OF THESE!!! I GOT A FEW THINGS TO SAY BACK
ykw ykw. i think he'd feel so much about everything that he'd just go numb. his normal blank expression on his face but somehow even more unreadable than normal. idk if he'd be able to feel anything after that. him feeling "alive" while killing is just him feeling like he's actually having an effect on the world around him yk? that's how he was raised, a child soldier. but losing your memories of that and then running with the mindset that only the lives of criminals and corrupt police deserve less value only to see yourself killing children? beings that physically cannot have less value because they have so much more life ahead of them? brooooo brooooooooo he's done for he's donneeee. I really like the theory that the monologue is from fif instead of zero too- and it makes sense! fifteen has such strong connections to his past that of course he'd have such strong thoughts about what it was like. zero for sure could say it himself but he's so warped about whats real and not that i dont think he could form that strong of an opinion (and if it IS his thoughts then its just what psych planted in his head)
SPEAKING OF PSYCH im pretty sure the green mega chronos or whatever the psych uses was confirmed to be not actually canon and (speculation from here) just a hallucination from zero's end considering the path to getting that boss is just by pissing him off. BUT but but i do think her amping herself up on the fake chronos that the company is making is soooo real. i hope we see in the dlc god ugh. either way i definitely gotta draw some snowhunter myself since i havent stopped thinking about it.
anyway YEAHHHHH RUNNING OUT OF TIMEEEEEEE. i loveeee how subtle it is in your art but also directly staring you in the face. youre soooo good at it !!!!!
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alaskasmonsters · 4 years ago
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No Strings to Hold us Down | Takami Keigo
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(spoilers for chapter 299 ahead!) 
requested by @waffleareniceandfluffy​: can I request a hawks x reader where yk how ehe in the car with best jeanist faked his death all that yeah and he says he’s free of his shackles can you do where they’re both free and they discuss his backstory (reader is childhood friend she knows about his abuse) and can you include any other thing chapter 299 with him as like can u make it hella angsty but with a little fluff and definitely a fluff ending.
part two
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pairing: takami keigo x fem!reader
w.c: 4.269
warnings: spoilers for ch. 299, some amount of angst (with happy ending), mentions of neglectful parents
a.n: so this took me a hot minute and i’m so sorry you had to wait for so long! it’s also like 4 k words and i don’t know how or when that happened i-... i hope it’s angsty enough and i hope you like it! please enjoy :) <3
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The silence hung thickly in the air of the freshly washed car, weighing heavily on you. A glance to the side told you that Keigo was still asleep, head propped up against the window.
He’d fallen asleep as soon as you’d taken off from the hospital, the only sign he was still alive was the even lifting and lowering of his chest.
You knew he was fine, Keigo was the most stubborn person you knew and as long as he hadn’t given up yet, there was nothing that could keep him from going on. Still, there was this little voice at the back of your head, barely an itch, that urged you to make sure just once more, if he was still alive, still breathing, still going.
He’d taken a lot of damage during his battle with Dabi. The villain hadn’t held back, hadn’t even hesitated when he’d burned his wings off, almost ruining the cells in his shoulder blades they were sprouting from beyond fixing, before he had moved on to his face and neck, leaving nasty burn marks behind wherever his hands had reached.
You remembered when you had stormed into his room, ignoring everyone who told you to take care of your own injured first, to take it slow, saying Keigo needed rest now, and you had first laid eyes on his battered form. The bandages covering his body, the absence of his wings, the peaceful look on his burned face as he was still sleeping soundly.
For a moment, a never ending moment, you had thought he was dead. You wouldn’t have known what to do then, when Keigo had actually left you behind, all alone in a big cold world, a world even colder without his silly jokes and genuine smiles. It had been awful, that feeling of dread, heavy and suffocating, that had taken a grip on your throat and squeezed.
Then the beeping of the vital signs monitor had reached your eyes, barely audible through the ringing of your ears and the loud beating of your eyes and you’d been able to breathe again.
Since then you hadn’t left Keigo’s side, even denied Best Jeanists help when he’d suggested to accompany the two of you. He’d wanted to drive, since you were still heavily injured, but you’d denied.
It felt too personal, visiting the house of Keigo’s mother, a woman you’d only met once before but had heard too many stories about, to not be by Keigo’s side when he had to face her after years of separation.
Luckily, Best Jeanist had realized this and instead agreed to meet you back at the hospital later, leaving Keigo and you alone on your ride to your destination.
Out of the corner of your eyes you saw your friend’s body stirring, straightening out of his hunched over position, his eyes blinking open tiredly before he seemed to recognize where he was.
“I’m sorry. I fell asleep,” the robotic voice of the translation app he was using, chimed through the car.
Another reminder of how close Dabi had gotten to him, you thought.
You glanced at him, your eyes falling on the muzzle he was wearing that prevented him from using his voice.
You smiled at him, hands tightening their grip on the steering wheel as you stopped at a red light.
“It’s okay. I’m glad you’re alright.”
You seemed to repeat yourself around him a lot since he’d woken up. “It’s okay.”, “I’m glad you’re alright.”, “How are you feeling?”. At this point you felt like a broken record. If he noticed, Keigo didn’t mention it.
“I’m glad that everything with Best Jeanist went smooth,” the voice chimed back.
You remembered when Keigo told you about it. The plan involved Best Jeanist. Before he’d even asked the man himself about it.  He probably hadn’t been allowed, the commission usually forbade any exchange of important information between the two of you, but Keigo never cared.
He had always told you anything, it’s been like that since forever.
The rest of the 40 minute ride was endured in silence. Keigo was looking out of the window, eyes unfocused, and you tried to focus your attention back on the street. The concerned voice was pushed to the back again.
You arrived soon after, parking the car in an empty spot and exiting the vehicle together with Keigo. The mansion at the end of the street caught your eyes immediately and you were once again impressed how much money the commission was willing to spend to keep their little pet obedient.
“Is that it?” you asked, covering your eyes against the blinding winter sun.
“Inside that house,” Keigo assured, passing you without giving you a second glance.
You let out a sigh, sensing his nervousness, maybe even fear to see his mother again. Locking the car, you followed after him, stomach churning with something you could only identify as dread.
When you arrived at the door Keigo rummaged around in his pockets before he pulled out a key card. He hesitated, grip tight around the little piece of plastic, before turning to you and typing a few words into his translation app.
“Before I fully recover and show my face again...you know there is something I need to be sure of.”
Maybe he felt like he had to explain himself, as if you didn’t already know exactly why he came all the way here to see his mom again after he hadn’t even bothered to keep in touch with her the last few years. His eyes were searching your face, hand on the handle and you gave him a soft nod.
“I know,” you replied quietly.
He opened the door wide and you entered the house.
It looked just as spacey and clean as the outside let suspect. The interior was beautifully put together, the furniture was expensive looking and excessive. It looked all very tidy and you knew that the way everything was decorated has probably been the work of interior designers.
Something about the fact that the place reminded you strangely of where Keigo was living stuck with you. His apartment was just as clean, just as nicely decorated by the hands of strangers, just as well put together.
How ironic.
The similarity of it. Mother and son both separated and still connected through the hands of the commission, the organisation the woman sold her son to.
It made you feel sick, no matter how much Keigo acted like it didn’t bother him, it just seemed to anger you twice as much.
How these people working for the Hero Public Safety Commission managed to make it appear all nice and clean from the outside, sweeping all the unpleasant details under the rug. They made Keigo the perfect hero, paid off his mother and ensured their comfort, ensured your comfort to him. Only to have the man in their debt.
The commission loved how close you and Keigo were, if only to use your friendship against you and use it to their advantage. Although it had only been him they had taken in, fixed up and trained for years, you were just as much controlled by them as he was. Due to your friendship.
They didn’t think of you as talented or as perfect as him. Hawks was charming, impressive, loved by the public, the number two hero! You weren’t even in the Top Twenty, your quirk wasn’t as flashy as most of Japan’s Top Heroes’ and you weren’t as loved by the public either.
You were only useful to them when it came to the dirty work, keeping Keigo in line that was (and you hated it hated it hated it), being the one responsible when he had to get punished after a mistake he made because it was on you when you didn’t pay enough attention, wasn’t it?
And only because the two of you had been childhood friends. Because you knew Keigo better than anybody else in this world, even himself. Keigo did have no issue sacrificing himself, burning himself out in the process if that meant he did a good job. You were the one who had to ensure he was at peak performance at all times.
Of course, being the commission, they had also used their sources (you didn’t believe it was Keigo who had told them, he would have never done as much) to uncover your awful past and find out about your family home just to use those things against you. As leverage. As if Keigo’s safety and wellbeing wasn’t motivation enough.
Your past was filled with pain and regrets.
Your mom, who’d left you with your dad after you were born and your dad who’d turned to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain.
The man had neglected everything. His health, his job, his life...you. So it had been your responsibility to keep the both of you afloat. You had started shoplifting when you were merely old enough to tell the difference between left and right. Everything you’d stolen, you’d taken to keep your dad and you alive.
The commission knew about this and liked to use it against you. It didn’t matter that you’d only been a child, old enough to know better for sure but too young to see any other possibilities for your hopeless situation.
You had met Keigo back then, too, when you’d been 7 and he’d been 8, after you had stolen from a small shop and accidentally caused havoc when you were caught and ran away, causing two cars to crash into each other when you’d crossed the street without looking, which forced one of them to swerve the other way so it wouldn’t hit you.
Keigo had found you hiding behind a group of trash cans in an alleyway crying, saying his feathers had tingled and that’s how he knew something had happened in the city. He had wanted you to return what you’ve stolen but when you had told him in tears about your situation and begged him not to tell anyone he had taken pity on you. Making a promise to not snitch on you if you were being more careful.
That’s how you’d become friends.
Although he’d gotten in trouble for leaving his house, beaten and screamed at by his paranoid piece of garbage of a father, who believed he’d tried to rat him out or something...That didn’t stop Keigo from seeing you again.
You would both sneak out in the middle of the night to see each other, meeting in forests and on playgrounds all around the town. He’d share food with you or bring you little things he’d managed to sneak from his dad’s newest gig.
Since that day in the dirty alleyway, Keigo had never stopped taking care of you. The both of you felt connected through your abusive fathers and (in Keigo's case emotionally) absent mothers. You both had scars you'd rather hide with everyone but never each other and you both felt lost, unable to be yourself in a home you didn't belong in.
You had realized, even at your young age, that you could never let him leave because you’d never find a person like him ever again.
So when the commission got involved, when they took him away, isolated him from his old environment, which involved you as well, your heart broke.
Although Keigo, sweet caring Keigo (who now had to go by Hawks. Commission’s orders.) still never entirely left you. He’d asked the commission for one more favor beside taking care of his mother and him. They had to ensure your safety, get you away from your father and into a better household.
You were the very first person he’s saved and although he tried to downplay it you knew he was proud of the fact that it held him together on days he didn’t feel much like a hero.
These days, it was rather often...
The house remained silent, the calls of the robotic voice for Keigo’s mother echoing through the big room.
No answer followed.
You looked around the room, noticing that what you had called clean before was really just the absence of everything that was supposed to tell someone that this mansion was inhabited. No dirty dishes, no books or newspapers lying around, not even a glass of water on the sink.
“Do you think she left overnight?” you asked, strolling around.
Keigo didn’t answer your question so you turned around to see him standing with his back to you, something clutched into his hand. Curious of what he had found you stepped up from behind him to look over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of what looked like a letter addressed to Keigo.
From his mother.
“Did Dabi use people for this...? How did he even get this far...?”
You hummed softly, reaching up to grasp his shoulder tightly. Keigo had already suspected that it must have been his mother to tell Dabi or people Dabi sent about his real name and family background. Still you knew there was a little part of him that had hoped this not to be true.
Now, though, with the letter that his mom left behind in her abandoned home, there was no doubt about it.
His shoulders sacked and his body hunched over as he let out a deep sigh, barely audible through the muzzle.
“Guess it really was my mother that leaked it then,” for some reason even the robotic voice sounded heartbroken about the fact.
You reached up to card your fingers through the hair at the back of his head, or rather the part that wasn’t covered by bandages.
“I’m sorry, Kei,” you mumbled lowly.
He leaned into your touch and let out another deep sigh, the tiredness that had been edged into his features ever since he had woken up in the hospital bed seemed even more prominent now under the cold lights of the living room.
“When the name “Takami” had been taken from me, the relationship between my mother and i had finally disappeared. I had always thought i was fine with that,” he explained, the robotic voice breaking the silence again.
“What i thought of as being saved was just me turning my back on everything. Even on you, y/n.”
You looked up in surprise at his words, staring at the back of his bandaged head with furrowed brows.
“You’ve never turned your back on me, Keigo,” you assured him, giving his shoulder another squeeze.
How he could even think that he’d ever done as much was beyond confusing to you.
Keigo reached to put his hand on your hand, the skin warm against yours and the touch comforting. He tightened his grip ever so slightly.
“Yes I did,” the speech assistant continued, “After we’ve met again a few years back, I’ve run from you, kept my distance, because you represented what i wanted to be but couldn’t.”
After we met again a few years back.
You’d seen him in the news one day, when you were still training in hero school, and recognized him immediately as your childhood friend, even after all the years you’d been separated.
The huge red wings were a distinct tell.
You had run out of the Starbucks, leaving behind your freshly ordered drink to where you’d heard the incident had occurred. Out of breath and disheveled from all the running you’d gotten there just in time to reunite with Keigo for the first time in years.
Since then you’d never left him out of your sight again, too scared you’d end up losing him again.
Hearing Keigo say that he’d tried the complete opposite, keeping a distance to you because of what you’d represented, something he wanted to be but couldn’t...what did that even mean?
“A guy who helps people...”
Your hand felt cold when Keigo dropped his own again, letting it hang off to his side.
“That’s the only thing that’s returned. Actually it’s refreshing,” he continued.
The air around you felt heavy, suffocating, just like earlier in the car, just like when you’d stepped into his hospital room. Although now the reason for it was a completely different one.
“What do you mean?” you asked quietly, your voice barely a whisper.
“The commission is currently at a stand still, y/n, in total dysfunction.”
You swallowed thickly at the reminder. The commission, the one thing haunting the both of you whenever you were with each other, the organization holding Keigo in an iron clasp and ensuring his obedience with your help...since the Jaku Hospital Raid, since Dabi exposed Endeavor and Hawks, the number 1 and number 2 heroes of Japan, they’d been silent.
Scarily so.
“There is no one to give me orders anymore. And they won’t be able to control you anymore either. I won’t let them.”
You took a step back away from the man when you noticed how violently he smashed the screen, his shoulders tense and the recovering wings under his jacket bulking.
“Keigo...” you tried weakly.
“They won’t get to abuse your kindness anymore, have you chained to me..”
You didn’t have to see the look in his face to know what emotion was displayed on it, neither did you have to hear his voice.
Your heart dropped at the words, at the bitterness he so desperately wanted to put into them but couldn’t because of his injured throat.
“Keigo,” you repeated, this time with more insistence.
“I know why you did it. You wanted to return the favor. I saved you, you save me,” the electronic voice sounded awfully smug all out of the sudden.
Your stomach twisted, a horrible hot sensation built in your chest and you had to clench your jaw to stop yourself from saying the first thing to come to mind.
Which would have been an insult.
You clenched your fists, pinned them to your side as you stared at Keigo’s back, your face twisted into an ugly expression.
“No, fuck that,” you spit, “how dare you?”
His face came into view when he turned half to look at you over his shoulder, eyebrows lifted in surprise at your outbreak.
You snarled, unable to contain the hurt as tears started to build behind your eyes.
You’d always been an emotional crier and you really hated it.
“It’s not about a favor. Don’t say shit like that.”
Hawks cocked his head, eyeing you for a moment before he fully turned towards you. His posture was more relaxed than before but there was a question behind his eyes.
He lowered his glance only to type in the next words...
“What? You care about me so much, sweetheart?”
You scoffed, wiping at your eyes in frustration.
“You know i do, stupid bird brain,” you said, still angry.
How could he even believe for a second that you endured the commission’s whining and yammering out of guilt. How could he not know how much you cared for him after all the years you’d been by his side now, after all the times you’d been there for him.
Keigo grasped your wrist, stopping your frantic wiping to push them away and make place for his own hands, thumbs softly brushing the wetness from your cheeks.
He found your eyes, his own wrinkling at the edges.
“No chains left,” the phone chimed.
You watched in anticipation as Keigo reached behind him, hands moving to his neck, and removed loosened the clasp, pulling the muzzle off.
Now you could see the smile, too.
“To shackle us down,” he told you with a hoarse voice.
“Kei,” you scolded him, looking down at the muzzle between his fingers.
You took a step towards him, closing the distance between you. Then you reached forward to gently run your fingers down his throat. The fabric of the bandages was rough against your fingers.
Hopefully he hadn’t started talking too soon.
“Y/n.”
You looked up at him and caught his eyes that were staring down at you with a determination you’d seen directed at you so often before, but couldn’t deny they had still the same effect on you as if it were the first time. Making your head all dizzy, that was.
“When we’re driven into corners, we find liberation. That’s when a true person’s nature rears its head. That’s why Bubaigawara was such a great guy,” he explained, gripping your wandering fingers into his hand, holding them close.
“At heart, he was desperate to be a help to others. I also want to be like that.”
You smiled up at him, squeezing his skin between yours.
“You’re already like that, Kei. You’ve always taken care of me, haven’t you?” you teased, hoping to ease the tension between the two of you a little.
“I think it was more the other way around, y/n.”
“I don’t-“
“Without you...i would have never known what it is like to have someone care for you. To have someone by your side no matter what. To understand...i think i would have never understood what it meant to love.”
You froze, staring up at Keigo with wide eyes. He tightened his grip around your hand, feeling that you wanted to draw back, instead keeping you close, thumb softly stroking the back of your hand as a way of calming you down.
“I think i love my mother, but that’s more out of obligation than anything,” he explained, searching your eyes but you couldn’t tell what he was looking for, “I never feel like i have to be anything than me when i’m with you. Nothing about being with you feels forced, or like it’s an obligation. It’s just...us.”
The room was spinning suddenly as you felt something cold wash over you. Your chest tightened, your heart daring jump out with every harsh beat against your ribcage.
He couldn’t be saying what he was saying...right?
He didn’t mean that. He couldn’t mean that.
“Keigo...are you saying you love me? As in...in love with me?” you wanted to laugh, just a little, to lighten the mood, but it got stuck in your throat on its way out.
Unlike you the man in front of you looked calm, not at all deterred by your panicked state.
“Yeah, I do. I think I have for a while now, but i didn’t fully realize until recently.”
Still gripping your hand in his left one he raised the other to your face, gently cupping your cheek. You leaned into the touch instinctively.
A faint smile tugged at his lips at your action.
“It’s alright if you don’t return my feelings, but I think you do.”
You frowned in thought.
You’ve never thought of the man in front of you as anything else than just Keigo, the kind hearted boy whom you met in a dirty alleyway, the one that brought a little girl food and presents every now and then. The teenager who wrote letters once in a while to keep you up-to-date. The man who you spend your free days with, eating chicken and watching movies.
You meant it when you’d said you wouldn’t leave his side, not if you had any say in the matter. Now, you weren’t entirely sure what you meant with that.
Stay with him? Forever?
Maybe Keigo was right.
He was always able to read you better than anybody else, just like you were the one to know him best as well. That’s also why he noticed your inner turmoil just by looking at your screwed up face.
“May i kiss you?”
Your breath hitched, warmth spreading through your chest as your heart fluttered in your ribcage.
“Yeah.”
His lips were warm against yours, the touch soft and delicate. Like he was testing the waters, giving you the opportunity to pull away if you wanted to.
The feeling was foreign to you. You had kissed other people before, quick pecks, sloppy kisses, passionate making out...But this, this felt different to all of them.
He kissed you gently, carefully, holding you with a delicacy you weren’t used to.
Your heart pounded in your chest as your knees suddenly grew weak, hand reaching out to curl around the back of Keigo’s head, urging him even closer.
He pulled you in, accepting the closeness happily as he deepened the kiss. The taste of toothpaste invaded your mouth.
Your mind went blank, the only coherent thought you were able to grasp was that you were making out with Keigo...in his mom’s house.
How ironic.
Your lips tingled when the two of you parted again, the aftertaste of peppermint lingering on your tongue. The warmth in your chest had spread to your face and you weren’t sure if you were blushing out of embarrassment or glowing because wow...that was something.
Keigo was staring down at you with an undefinable look in his eyes, but he looked happy, content like this and it made something in your chest flutter softly.
You did that.
“I-“ you started but the wide grin spreading on your face against your will, growing despite your attempts to suppress it with a bite to your tongue, made your voice die with a squeak.
The man chuckled, the outline of his wings moving under the fabric of his jacket and the thought of Keigo ruffling his wings joyfully in response to your obvious happiness...you wanted to kiss him silly.
“I think i love you, too, Keigo.”
He might have been the happiest bird man in the whole entire world when you said those words and for a moment...just one small moment, you really felt like the two of you could be free.
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Taglist: @crystal-lilac​
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