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He blinks his eyes open slowly, gaze slowly drifting over the setting sun through his balcony windows.
The only thing he sees are the balcony doors, mocking him; knowing he has been grounded. Yet his eyes still linger, empty and cold, but shiny with hope (despair).
But the last feather has fallen - scorched and cremated - he would never fly again.
The bird lay on his side, the only position that didn't aggravate his injuries further.
His back was a painting of purple, ranging from delicate to violent.
Forced to look out at the sky - he takes in the beautiful scenery, also dipped in varying shades of purple, mangled and interlocking. But the sunset would fade, the purple shift into blues as the day began again.
His eyes grew blurry, the curse of his inability to shed tears also shielding him from admiring his only escape.
His life has been reduced to nothing. His only purpose in life gone out the window as fast as his quirk.
Hawks was no more
He would never feel the wind grazing his cheeks, floating through his hair, and running down his back - in between his bright red limbs.
At a certain point his worries about being a replaceable pawn in the commission’s hands diminished. Since he could fly.
He could soar through the heavens - and even if only for a moment, forget all his worries.
Leave it all behind.
Keigo feels a part of his soul has been lost.
He was alive for the purpose of being a hero - an obedient soldier at the hands of whoever he ended up with.
The only reason his life amounted to anything was because of those wings.
The infiltration assigned to him was clearly a suicide mission - and yet having survived didn’t seem to be the better outcome.
He was glad; that, at least, Jin was safe.
Hawks knew it was going to end this way. It always was.
Dabi's rage isn't something that he could ever replicate or ask him to fake.
Especially after what their relationship turned into - the promises that fell from his lips turning into dust as the world went dark around the couple.
Yet at the very end - Touya's boot forcing his face further into the ground of the balcony - Keigo smiled.
He closed his eyes, the moisture behind them forgotten, and surrendered to his fate.
"Jin! Wait!" he was struggling to catch up to the man, even with his wings.
The preparations were already in full swing, nobody had any time to waste.
"Jin listen to me!" he pleaded, "please, Jin!"
The chase came to an end abruptly - as the other man turned angrily towards the bird.
"How can you tell me you're a traitor and expect me to simply wait by!" tears are pouring down his face, "I thought I had made a new friend, just because of who I am - I never liked you!"
Keigo hesitated. He shouldn't have said anything, this wasn't going to work.
Jin's split personality only made things harder. How was he supposed to make this work?
"Jin, I need you to do something for me."
"I don't think you're in any position to ask for favours - Of course, anything for you, my friend."
A whine was stuck in his throat, he knew this is the way it had to be. Hawks knew that there was no other way.
That didn't make what he was about to ask of Jin any easier.
The less Twice cloned, the more realistic they looked - being able to sustain more injury based on the amount of clones there are.
"I need you to clone yourself - only once," his voice broke anyway, "and wait for me here until I return."
His lips quivered, the bitterness of the last lie he uttered hitting him.
"What?" Jin's voice broke as well., "Hawks.. you can't"
Their gazes locked onto each others. They knew.
Later, Keigo would explain his place in this world to him.
Later, he would spend the night recounting stories from his past - exposing his undeniable true self to Jin.
Later Jin would cry for Keigo, mourning over his friend.
Later..
But right now, a silent deal was emerging between them.
"You said that we're friends.. and this is the only thing I will ever ask of you as a friend. So please, Jin, grant me this favour."
Keigo can still see Jin's expression of horror once he came home. The way his eyes widened, and his throat closed; how he fell to his knees as he tried to reach him. Crying, shaking, no sense of control remaining.
And the bird simply joined him - unable to hold it in any longer. Sobs raged through his frame at once. Body straining at the miniscule amount of effort it took him to cry out, to grieve, to mourn.
The sobs turned into wails, rocking him back and forth.
He wasn't supposed to wake up.
He can still see how the vigilante cradled him closely, carefully. Mindful of his injuries - mindful of his pain.
How Jin tucked him into his nest; the only small comfort in an ocean of pain. Even leaving his shirt with the bird.
Trying his best to ground him. To keep him aware, and alive with him.
Eyes blinking back open to the canvas covered in purple before him - Keigo drifted.
Mind as still as can be.
Slowly, fading in and out - like waves hitting and retreating for a rock-filled beach. Rolling through him, never constant, yet always present.
The little hawk inside him was mourning it all - not only the loss of his wings, his limbs but also the fact that all his other repressed aspects of his quirk could not offer any comfort.
There was no part of him left to see. No part of him left to be.
Keigo wrapped himself up tighter, ghost wings falling protectively over his body.
He wishes for things to be different for them; for their life to come out unscathed by his.
The blurriness that renders the collage of purple outside his window fades again.
He's glad.
The bird settles slightly, exhaustion pulling him under the thick fog of unconsciousness.
As he falls back, a bandaged hand drifts, gently, to rest over his stomach.