For The Better

Then


Touya hasn't visited his bird friend for six days, and Keigo is starting to worry. He doesn't want to be clingy, but he's worried. Maybe he just doesn't like you anymore, his mind says. But Keigo doesn't want to think like that. On the seventh day, Keigo's nerves are controlling him, and he makes his way into his closet. It's a hassle to get his wings through the hole, but he manages (not quietly, but still manages). "Touya?" he whispers loudly.


"Keigo?" Touya blurts, jerking up in his bed with wide eyes. His neck and arms are covered in bandages, and even the slightest movements send waves of pain over his body. But it's Keigo, and he has to make sure this is real. "What the hell are you doing in here, Birdie?"


"Touya?" Keigo squeaks, stepping toward the red haired boy. But his hair isn't very red anymore. The majority is white, and the tips of the mess are a much lighter red than it was before. "Touya, why are you covered in bandages? What happened?"


"It's nothing," he snaps. "Go back to your room, Keigo. I don't want you to get into trouble. Lights haven't gone out yet."


"Why are you so angry?" Keigo asks, sitting up on the bed beside his friend. "I haven't done anything to you."


"Keigo," Touya growls. "Get out."


Keigo pouts, folding his wings around himself like a cocoon. "I don't want to. I want to stay with you."


"It doesn't fucking matter what you want!" Touya yells. "Get the hell out of my room! I don't want anything to do with you!"


"But–" Keigo gasps.


"GET OUT!" Touya's words push Keigo back to the hole, and this time he slips through easily, though one of his feathers gets caught and plucked off. Touya follows him to the closet and slams the door behind him, feeling every section of his burned skin as if it was still on fire. Touya didn't mean the words he said, but it was the only way to protect his birdie. Because unlike Keigo, Touya was not success-bound. His body couldn't handle his quirk, and if he kept training the way he was, he'd kill himself before he'd be able to graduate.


So as he listens to Keigo cry himself to sleep through the closet wall, he buries his head in his hands and tells himself it's for the better. It has to be. 

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