Archive of Our Own ^beta

"I just need a little more tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!"

Keigo's vision swooped upside down as he was slammed against the wall and swung in a circle like the world's unhappiest clock hand.

"Oh, you've had plenty of time," Re-Destro said. "I want my money, Keigo, and I want it now."

Re-Destro's newest goon leered at him.

"Yeah, Keigo," Dabi said, rictus grin firmly in place. "Time's up!" He pushed him higher up the wall to emphasize his point.

As a waterfall of loose change rained out of his pockets, Keigo thought about the life choices that had brought him to this moment. Being adopted by a workaholic lawyer, taking over the family business when she passed away, agreeing to keep her least favorite client on as his own, and then that client's daughter and her wife after his passing as well...

All told, none of this specifically spelled "financial ruin." However, it was difficult to get other clients to respect your shingle when you'd spent your whole life working for the Todorokis. Their style as a family was... a bit unconventional.

They wore a lot of black, swore up and down that they kept congress with the dead, and regularly conducted seances in an as yet unsuccessful attempt to contact their dead brother.

Hang on a minute, Hawks thought as Dabi's upside down face stared. He'd never noticed it before, but...

"Touya?"

Dabi looked at him with total incomprehension. Hawks could suddenly see it so clearly though. If he just bleached his hair white and you looked past the scars, Dabi would be the spitting image of one Todoroki Touya.

"I know how to get your money!"

"Drop him, Dabi."

"Wait, wai—" Keigo's request, as usual, went denied. Dabi at least had the decency not to let him fall on his head.

"Thank you for the invitation, as always." Keigo loosened his tie a bit before joining the Official Todoroki Seance Table, also used for family meals and the occasional human sacrifice anytime Natsuo was feeling particularly annoyed with little Shouto. Rei smiled serenely at Keigo as he sat down next to her, and held out her hand.

"We're delighted you've finally joined us," she said.

Across the table, Fuyumi was too busy being lost in Miruko's eyes to notice his presence.

"Ah, 'yu," Miruko said. "A bitchin' gathering, as per usual."

Fuyumi's stark white hair laid a dramatic contrast against her slim black dress. Her lips were as red as the streaks in that snowy hair, and one pristine eyebrow arched serenely. She reached out to smooth the collar of Miruko's suit.

"Not at the table, you animal," she said, but in a voice other people would reserve for the bedroom.

Keigo suppressed a sigh. One didn't find a love like that every day. Or love at all, as his extended relatives liked to remind him at every available opportunity.

Rei squeezed his hand consolingly—she was too perceptive, must have seen him looking longingly—

"SWEET FUCK!" Hawks leapt out of his chair, shaking his hand like it burned, and Enthing flopped down on the table once he shook it loose. It immediately righted itself to prance on its fingertips.

Hawks wasn't sure if a disembodied hand could laugh, but Enthing looked downright gleeful.

"So sorry, dear," Rei laughed—no, cackled! "You know how 'thing likes his pranks."

Keigo swallowed hard. He was playing up the terrified dunce act a bit, but even faking it could have real consequences on his blood pressure. Still, better for the Todorokis to find him silly than suspicious.

"It's time to start," Shouto intoned. Fuyumi smiled indulgently his direction, Natsuo scrambled to the table, and Keigo took his seat. Hands were outstretched—all attached this time, thankfully—and Fuyumi began the chant.

“Sing oh spirits, hearken all souls, every year on this date we offer a clarion call to Todoroki Touya.”

Across the table, Natsuo took up the call.

“From generation to generation,” he said, “our beacon to the beyond.”

“Let us ransom you from the power of death,” Shouto picked up. “Tonight, oh death, let us be your plague.”

A chill ran down Keigo’s spine. He was the only one at this table who knew just how soon this request would be granted. Granted, and betrayed.

“Mom,” Fuyumi asked, voice soft, “if you wouldn’t mind?”

Rei nodded and sweetly intoned: “Todoroki Touya, we—” she froze. “I…” she started, but stopped again. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I feel that he’s near.”

Wide eyes marked all the faces gathered.

"Todoroki Touya,” Rei said, breathless, “knock three times.”

Rain began pattering on the roof.

"Todoroki Touya,” she said again, “knock three times!"

Wind started howling against the eaves.

"Todoroki Touya, knock three times!"

Thunder rumbled in the distance, then closer, louder, higher!

"Todoroki Touya, knock three times!!"

Lightning snapped against the windowpanes. The thunder increased to a roar, shaking the house and banging on the very walls.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Several sets of shocked eyes met around the table. Those bangs weren't made by the wind.

"It's him!!" Natsuo yelled over the slamming of a fist.

"Todoroki Touya!" Miruko yelled just as loud. "Knock again!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Enthing couldn’t wait any longer. It leapt off the table to scramble frantically for the source. It careened around corners, smacking fingersfirst into walls, but never stopping as it raced to the door. It scrabbled at the hardwood before finally, finally getting a grip on the doorknob.

The door swung open with a crack of lightning.

Todoroki Touya walked in from the rain.

Hawks wasn't sure he'd ever forget the look on Natsuo's face when he saw a soaking wet Dabi tracking rainwater all over the front carpets. Fuyumi, too, had nearly cried off her mascara out of happiness; tears and lipstick were smudged in equal parts on Miruko's clothing. Enthing had refused to let go of Dabi's shoulder, and only did so briefly to get its tiny, tattered black cloak Touya made for it all those years ago. Rei bustled around with a fervor Hawks had never seen from her, and the whole time Hawks refused to let the guilt at seeing their joyous faces gnaw at him. If he did that... no. He wouldn't do that.

At least little Shouto seemed unaffected by "Touya's" return. He'd just stared at Dabi with those intelligent little eyes and asked: "Are you really Touya-nii?"

"Of course!" Dabi had said. He'd reached out to ruffle Shouto's hair, and narrowly dodged a set of pearly whites snapping shut with a click.

"Yeah, Shouto's still a biter," Natsuo laughed.

"Ah, right," Dabi said lamely. "Right, how could I forget?"

"I dunno, bro,” Natsuo said. “He almost took off your pinky once.”

Lightning flashed, and a cloaked figure stood in the doorway.

“The Bermuda Triangle has many effects on one’s memory.” Re-Destro strode through the front door. “Pleaze do not be too hard on poor Tou-ya, I only recently pulled heem from eet’s grasp!”

“You were in the Bermuda Triangle?” Shouto asked with his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“And who the hell are you?” Miruko called over the chaos.

“I am Dr. Ujiko,” Re-Destro said in the worst German accent Keigo had ever heard. Re-Destro flung off his cloak, and Keigo tried not to roll his eyes. If he wasn’t already up to those same eyeballs in debt, he certainly would have.

“Dr. Ujiko must be Touya’s psychiatrist,” Keigo piped up. Re-Destro sent him a quick glare, but Keigo refused to look. “I think I’ve heard that name before… yeah, yeah I read about him in a book once!”

For reasons Keigo would never understand, the Todorokis assented to this explanation like it was the most natural thing in the world. They cheered as Re-Destro told them a phony tale of pulling Dabi from the Triangle’s clutches, and either believed or politely did not mention his sad attempts at the accent. They accepted the explanation that Keigo would be visiting each day to keep tabs on Touya’s recovery, and that “Dr. Ujiko” would drop by occasionally as well.

It was so easy. It was too easy.

Keigo didn’t know what to think.

“Look at her,” Miruko said reverently. Keigo had just stopped by so he could tell Re-Destro he did, and he’d walked in on Miruko staring at Fuyumi sleeping on the couch like she’d hung the stars in the sky.

“I would die for her,” Miruko continued.

“Right,” Keigo said, inching for the door. He’d lived through this script before. As soon as Fuyumi woke up, these two wives were going to need their privacy. Pronto.

Miruko wasn’t finished. “I would kill for her,” she said. “Either way, what bliss.”

As if on cue, Fuyumi’s eyes fluttered open. Miruko gasped, and Keigo beelined for the door.

“Mon Sauvage,” Fuyumi said, regrettably still in earshot, “last night, you were like some desperate howling demon. You frightened me.”

Another gasp, and Keigo ripped open the door.

“Do it again.”

Keigo practically sprinted down the hall. The world, however, had other plans.

Several things happened at once: A scarred hand tried to clothesline him, Keigo bent in half backwards to dodge, and a second scarred hand slipped under his back to catch him.

Gold eyes blinked up at blue.

“Uh,” Keigo said.

“Oh,” Dabi replied, and promptly dropped him.

In the split second before his tailbone met granite, Keigo again wondered why the universe was cruel enough to saddle him with a thousand debts.

“The hell, Dabi?!” he cried from the ground.

“Dude,” Dabi said instead of answering his question, “you gotta get me outta here. The little one knows too much about the Bermuda Triangle; he keeps asking me questions I can’t answer! And Natsuo won’t stop asking for some secret password we had as kids that I obviously don’t know, and—”

Loud moaning echoed down the hall. Dabi closed his eyes as if pained.

“And Fuyumi and Miruko are really, really in love,” he finished.

Keigo grimaced as he stood.

“Have you found anything out about the vault?”

“Oh, yeah, Natsuo took me down there the first morning I was here.”

Keigo thought his eyes might bug out of his head.

“What?! And you didn’t think to mention that?”

“Chill, birdbrain,” Dabi said. “It’s a complicated system. There’s pulleys and shit.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I believe in you… Touya.” Keigo needed to get used to thinking of Dabi as Touya before he flubbed it in front of an actual Todoroki.

“Thanks,” Dabi replied, and rolled his eyes. “Your support is noted.”

Several seconds passed in increasingly painful silence.

“Well…” Keigo started, but Dabi took off down the hall.

“Nice chat!” he called over his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Keigo said, a little bewildered.

This was not shaping up to be the fun kind of heist.

Despite the initial awkwardness, hanging out with Dabi turned out to be… kind of nice. Keigo would drop by in the afternoons, and Dabi would regale him with things he’d had to pretend were normal for years.

“Miruko’s tried to duel me thirty-seven times this week.”

“You’re counting?” Keigo laughed.

“Of course I’m counting,” Dabi replied. “You’re lucky I know how to use a sword, or you’d be digging my grave right now.”

“Yeah,” Keigo said, and held up his hand to show the fencing callouses he’d been forced to acquire. “Tell me about it.”

As if on instinct, Dabi grabbed his hand to look at the callouses closer. He must have realized the forwardness a moment too late, because Dabi instantly froze.

“Wow, yeah, those are callouses alright,” he said.

“Uh huh,” Keigo said, a little dazed.

“Sit in the chair, Natsu,” Shouto demanded quietly.

Keigo peeked his head around the doorframe.

“Hey fellas, it’s time to—what are you doing?!”

Shouto had one hand outstretched, pointing at what appeared to be an electric chair.

“I’m going to electrocute him.”

The ‘him’ in question was indeed one Natsuo Todoroki, and he was currently lowering himself to sit in the aforementioned electric chair.

“I’m not sure that’s safe—”

“What’s goin’ on?”

Keigo glanced up as Dabi leaned against the opposite side of the doorframe. Keigo wasn’t sure Shouto would listen to him, but maybe he’d listen to his “oldest brother.” Hopefully, for Natsuo’s sake.

Shouto began fastening leather straps around Natsuo’s arms.

“I’m going to electrocute him,” he repeated.

Keigo waited for Dabi to make a move as Shouto continued fastening straps. Natsuo grinned.

“It seems like forever since we’ve gotten to hang out, lil bro,” the willing lamb said to his red and white slaughterer. “I’m gonna miss this when summer break ends.”

Keigo’s eyes looked between the three Todoroki brothers. Surely, one of them would say something. Right? This machine wasn’t actually going to electrocute Natsuo, right?

But Shouto finished fastening Natsuo in place, and stepped back to reach for his switches.

“Wait,” Touya said, just as Keigo was really starting to sweat behind the knees. “Don’t you dare pull that lever.”

Shouto pulled a sour face as Touya moved swiftly across the room. He grabbed something from behind Shouto’s head, pressing it into his younger brother’s hands.

“If you don’t put something between his teeth, you’ll ruin the experience.”

Shouto beamed up at Touya like he’d just solved one of life’s great mysteries. Keigo wondered, not for the first time, how the hell Dabi managed to fit in so well with this family.

Rei leaned on a particularly large gravestone.

"Hello, dear," she said.

Hawks nudged Miruko as they walked.

"Isn't that your father-in-law's stone?"

"Yep!" Miruko confirmed. On her other side, Fuyumi sighed wistfully.

"Too bad mother had to poison him," she said. "It was over so quickly, Shouto wasn't even old enough to remember it, the poor thing."

Hawks stopped short, but the two women kept walking, lost in each other's eyes.

"I would never allow her to poison you," Miruko said, and pulled Fuyumi's hand to her lips to kiss it.

"I would hope not," Fuyumi replied. "A poison from anyone but you? Unthinkable."

Miruko swooped them into a dip, one hand supporting Fuyumi's back and the other still gripping her hand. They looked frozen in a dance.

"To live without you is what's truly unthinkable," Miruko stage whispered. Hawks began to slowly back away. There were some things he simply Did Not Need To Overhear.

Fuyumi gasped. "But to writhe in perpetual agony at the hands of my beloved," and she smiled wickedly at Miruko, "what a delightfully torturous way to go."

Ah, walking backwards because he couldn’t process that statement long enough to turn around, what an un-delightfully torturous way to sneak away from a conversation. Keigo had almost exited earshot when he smacked into something solid. Maybe he should have looked where he was going—

"They're at it again, huh?"

He jumped at the sound of Dabi's baritone tickling his ear. He hoped he wasn't blushing too hard as he turned around.

"Always." He laughed.

Dabi squinted.

"Why is my fake mom laying on a gravestone?"

"It's your fake father's gravestone," Keigo supplied, "but I think she real killed him."

Dabi laughed, then slouched over to a nearby stone couch. He looked up expectantly, and Keigo took the cue to go sit next to him.

Chill out, he berated himself when the butterflies started. You’re in a graveyard for Pete’s sake. You just saw Shouto dig up one of his ancestors. This is NOT romantic!

Keigo put a bit of space between them when he sat. But not too much space. Hopefully? He felt a little bit like a teenager again, acting silly just because a cute boy was nearby.

Wait... cute? Dabi?

“As far as assignments go, this one ain’t so bad.”

Keigo glanced up as Dabi spoke. He was looking wistfully out into the graveyard, his eyes unfocused in the direction of Natuso’s booming laugh. Keigo wasn’t sure he agreed with this assessment, but some situations didn’t require 100% honesty.

“It’s… interesting,” he said.

One corner of Dabi’s lips pulled into a grin.

“Sure is,” he said. “Gotta make sure I don’t get too comf—”

“Touya-nii.” Shouto’s deadpan interrupted that thought. Strangely, Dabi didn’t seem to mind.

“Hey, pal, what’s up?”

Shouto pointed to a stone vulture.

“Dig up the bird for me.”

Dabi closed the distance between himself and Keigo. He clapped a hand on Keigo’s shoulder and shoved him forward.

“Who needs that bird, when you can just take this one’s bones?”

“I am not a bird!” Keigo squawked. Ok, so that denial came out a little birdlike. But still!

“If you’re not a bird,” Dabi said, “then why are you always eating bird food?”

“It’s called salad,” Keigo replied.

“You also wear bird clothes,” Shouto contributed.

“What? I do not wear—”

“Keigo,” Dabi said. Had his voice always been that low? Had it always held that hint of gravel? “You literally have a bird on your shirt.”

Keigo looked down, and, well, yeah. His favorite clothing label had a logo of two red hawks circling each other.

Dabi laughed again while he was still processing this information, then hauled him onto his feet.

“Come on, Shouto,” he said. “You, me, and the hawks guy will go dig up that vulture.”

“Yes,” Shouto said, and took off in a little running trot that was, frankly, unnecessarily adorable.

“Hurry up, hawks guy!”

They couldn’t get into the vault.

Dabi tried every combination of chains he could think of, but none of them opened the correct trap door. One week, he and Keigo spent seven hours being flushed out of various parts of the house after choosing the wrong pulleys.

It was exhausting. It was disgusting. It was hilarious, seeing seaweed clumped in Dabi’s hair. It was breathtaking—literally, since they kept getting sent through pipes filled with water—seeing Dabi’s filthy white shirt plastered to an unfair amount of ab definition. It was terrible and doomed and Keigo never wanted it to end.

He was just here for a job, just like Dabi. And yet…

And yet nothing.

They still couldn’t get into the vault.

“Touya-nii, tuck me into bed!” Shouto demanded every single night.

“Touya dear, try my newest recipe,” Rei said more often than not.

“Waltz with me?” Fuyumi asked in the evenings.

“Duel me!!” Miruko yelled in the mornings.

“Hang out with me!” Natsuo cheered in the daytime.

And all the while, Keigo sat in the office space they’d put aside especially for him, right next to Miruko’s sprawling receiving room with all its swords. He wrestled with Natsuo in the afternoons, ensured Rei packed at least one typical vegetable in Shouto’s school lunches in the mornings, and wandered the house with Dabi in the evenings. He started spending more and more time at the Todoroki household. So much that even the snarling gate snapped at him only occasionally.

Keigo had never had much of a family before.

He did his best not to think of them that way, but...

Keigo might be developing a bit of a crush. It was only natural, he assured himself. Dabi was objectively very good looking, and they were spending a lot of time together lately. He told cheesy jokes and wore a ridiculous black coat at all hours of the day, and Keigo couldn’t stop the thrill that ran up his spine every time Dabi threw an arm over his shoulder.

Still, Keigo tried his best to act natural. Given the circumstances, he thought he was doing a pretty good job.

"Fuyumi!" he cheered as she glided past. "You look radiant!"

Miruko winked at him as she twirled her wife through a waltz, and Fuyumi smiled up at her like she'd hung the stars.

It was beautiful, it was true love made real, and Keigo decided to bask in the moment. Yes, Re-Destro had ordered Dabi to get his money while everyone was busy with the ball tonight, but maybe Keigo could sneak some hors d'oeuvres out for him to snack on when he got back from scoping out said vault.

"Touya! You came!"

Oh, Keigo thought, surprised, had Dabi found a way into the vault that quickly? But then why would he come to the party at all?

Keigo raised up on his tiptoes, but couldn't see above the crowd.

Re-Destro expressly forbade Dabi from coming tonight, though Dabi had clearly been genuinely heartbroken about it when Keigo checked on him earlier. So either Dabi was world’s quickest burglar, or—

Keigo’s train of thought had never derailed quite as quickly as it did in the next moment. Because the crowd parted, the lights were shining, and Dabi was radiant in the center of the dance floor.

He was just wearing his usual black coat, but something about him looked totally different. His white hair seemed to soak in the light, and his teeth gleamed as he smiled wider than Keigo had yet seen. Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. Keigo had seen him smile like this before, when an audience of horrified play-goers were being drenched in fake blood at Shouto’s recent school play. A school play that Dabi had snuck out to attend in direct defiance of Re-Destro’s orders...

Oh.

Natsuo pulled Dabi into a bro-hug, Fuyumi stopped dancing to place a kiss on his cheek, and little Shouto demanded Dabi pick him up and swing him in a circle.

“You’re staring,” somebody sing-songed in his ear.

“Miruko!” he admonished. She just cackled in reply.

“Ah, Keigo, I can see pining from a mile away,” she said. “That’s exactly how I used to look at Fuyumi.”

“I am not pining,” he said, and she snickered.

“Denial,” she cried, and swept off to find Fuyumi again.

Hawks turned his eyes back to the dance floor. Dabi was mid-twirling Shouto like a yo-yo, and Shouto’s rare, gleeful whoops carried even over the music. The ever-dancing crowd shimmered across Keigo’s view, and he lost sight of the siblings just as Dabi twirled Shouto in Natsuo’s general direction.

View of the wholesome family moment obstructed, Keigo made his way over to the buffet table. It was his best friend at this party, after all. Even so, he knew who was approaching him from behind.

“You’re not dancing?”

Keigo popped a tiny skull-shaped piece of chicken in his mouth. He deliberately finished chewing before responding.

“Nope,” he said. “Nobody to dance with.” It was supposed to be a joke, but it came out a little pathetic. Keigo had plenty of friends, just… not here. Not with the people he was supposed to betray.

“Liar,” Dabi said.

Keigo’s eyes widened.

“Excuse me?” he demanded.

Dabi leaned in close, and blue glittered from mere inches away.

“I said, you’re a liar. There’s somebody here for you to dance with.”

Tension bled out of Keigo in a waterfall. A very different kind of tension filled him right back up. Touya was gorgeous under these lights, and Keigo wanted to run his fingers through his hair. White really suited him.

Wait, no, Dabi hates my guts, Keigo reminded himself. He’s probably just trying to butter me up so I won’t freak out and ruin the plan—

“Hey.” Dabi tilted his head lower. It brought him even closer. “You gonna make me ask twice?”

Keigo swallowed all that for later.

“You didn’t even ask once,” he replied.

A gruff laugh, a hand at his waist, and Keigo was on the dance floor. Dabi was shockingly smooth in his steps. He twirled them directly into the center of the action, and glimmering gold shimmered in the air above their heads.

Keigo stared into the bluest eyes he’d ever seen and wondered:

“Why are you here?” The words came out a little breathier than intended. Hopefully Dabi would chalk it up to the (albeit fairly unstrenuous) physical exertion of this slow waltz.

Dabi levelled him with a long look.

“Can I be honest with you, Keigo?”

No, Keigo thought. But Dabi didn’t wait for an answer.

“Because I felt like it.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly an earth-shattering answer. Keigo raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not a very complicated guy, are you?”

Dabi laughed. He opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by a mass of white hair yelling: “TOUYA!”

Both Dabi and Keigo jumped, then Miruko was running over.

“Cousin Itt!” she hollered on her way. “You made it!” She skidded to a halt next to the trio, and Keigo was officially yanked out of whatever Cinderella moment he’d been having.

He took a second to examine the newcomer. ‘Cousin Itt’ was a pretty regular looking dude if you could overlook the flowing mass of silky white hair cascading over both shoulders and down his back. Keigo shuddered to think how much this man spent on shampoo.

“Hello again, Miruko,” Cousin Itt sighed. “Please stop calling me that.”

A cackle was all he got in reply.

“You know, I’ve never met anyone from your side of the family, Miruko,” Keigo piped up.

“Oh, no,” Cousin Itt said. “We’re not related. We met a few years back, and I just happened to be in town for a bit. My name is actually Tenko; the ‘Cousin Itt’ thing is a movie reference that nobody but Miruko understands.”

“And yet it’s still funny,” the woman herself cackled. “Hey, have you met my brother in law?”

Miruko pulled back to reveal Natsuo walking up behind her. His eyes locked on Cousin Itt, and his steps stuttered. He walked the rest of the way with, in Keigo’s opinion, a suspiciously large and dopey smile.

One glance at Cousin Itt… er, uh, Tenko, however, revealed a pink blush beneath all that hair.

Interesting.

Keigo wasn't sure what made him do it. They were operating on borrowed time, yet here he was, pretending like Touya was real. Like the way blue eyes watched him had a chance to make it out of this alive.

"I can't get you out of my head," he whispered in the centimeters between their faces. Sneaking out after the party hadn’t been too hard. Miruko and Fuyumi were wrapped up in each other, and Natsuo was wrapped up in a metric ton of white hair.

Touya—Dabi—sucked in a soft gasp. In a reversal of fate Keigo didn’t want to explore too deeply, Keigo had Dabi pressed against the wall, his hands on Dabi's waist.

"Keigo," Dabi whispered, and Keigo couldn't wait any longer. He pressed forward to—

"Touya-nii."

To say they leapt apart like two electrocuted cats would be an understatement. Shouto stood in the doorway, his headless doll tucked under his arm.

"Hey, uh, hey, Shouto," Dabi stuttered. "What's up?"

"You forgot to tuck me in."

"Right," Dabi said, teeth grit tight. "Why don't you go on ahead, and I'll be up in just a minute, ok?"

Shouto nodded solemnly. He marched out of the room, and Keigo released a breath. His ears were burning a bright red to match the blush residing high on Dabi’s cheeks.

Dabi jerked his head in the direction Shouto had gone.

“I better…” he started, and Keigo nodded.

“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?”

Dabi grinned.

“See you tomorrow, Keigo.”

Keigo’s steps felt lighter than they had in years. It was like he had a big set of wings on his back, pulling him lightly across the grass as he walked to his car. Touya’s smile danced around his brainwaves; his touch lingered on Keigo’s skin. Maybe Fuyumi and Miruko had a point with this whole “love” thing. The obsession had crept under Keigo’s skin like a thief in the night.

He hoped this particular thief would stick around.

His good mood lasted all the way until he climbed into his car. But it was waiting for him on his front seat, and Keigo felt ice slice into his veins.

Re-Destro had paid him a visit. All the paperwork Keigo had drawn up weeks ago, and Dabi had signed when he finished. Re-Destro had left it here for him to find, with a note on top:

File tomorrow. ASAP.

"Don't do it." Dabi's eyes were fiery, his grip tight on Keigo's arm.

"Dabi—"

"It's Touya," he said.

"It's Dabi." Keigo held steady eye contact. Dabi might have forgotten who they worked for, but Keigo hadn't. He’d come all the way here to the county courthouse because he hadn’t. He couldn’t. "This is how it has to be."

"It's not," Dabi insisted. "If you don't file that paperwork, we can—"

"We can what? Pretend like you're the real Todoroki Touya? This paperwork will make sure you get to be the real one for the rest of your life."

Hurt flashed across Dabi's face, quickly replaced by a cold fury. His eyes searched Keigo's expression.

"You've already done it, haven't you." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah."

Dabi dropped Keigo's collar like it burned him.

"It doesn't matter," Dabi said. "It'll be my house, I can let them stay when it's my—"

"Au contraire," a third voice said.

Dabi's eyes flared as something thwacked the back of his head. His body hung suspended in the moment, just for the moment, then his body crumpled.

Keigo barely managed to catch him.

"Hello again, Mr. Takami." Re-Destro brushed invisible lint off his lapels. "I see I've arrived in the nick of time."

Keigo didn’t want to be here. The house felt oppressive and horrible, missing everything that gave it life.

He couldn't stop running their faces through his mind. The betrayal behind each set of eyes as he'd delivered Re-Destro's news.

"The courts have reinstated Touya as a living person in the eyes of the law. As the eldest child, he is in control of the house and grounds. The court also granted his request for a restraining order effective immediately. None of you are welcome in Touya's home any longer."

It hadn't gone that smoothly, of course. Miruko threatened him with impalement no less than twelve times, Natsuo tried to wrestle past the chains on the snarling gate, and Rei began throwing rocks at him halfway through.

And now, here he was, sitting at a too-large dining room table with two people who certainly hated his guts. Dabi on one end, kept cowed by the brand new locks on the doors and Re-Destro’s personal mix of guilt and brainwashing, and Re-Destro himself, holding the only keys to those locks until Dabi figured out a way into the vault.

This situation simply could not get worse.

The situation could definitely get worse. White hair streaked with red had waltzed right through the front door, and Re-Destro wasn't about to let Fuyumi go.

"Tighter!" he hissed, and Dabi glared, hands frozen over the leather straps holding her down.

"Do it yourself," he spat.

Fuyumi smiled serenely up at him.

"Oh, Touya," she said, and Dabi flinched.

"I'm not..."

"Aren't you?"

The two of them stared at each other.

Keigo didn't know what it was exactly, but something passed between them in that moment. Fuyumi, perfectly arched eyebrows and slim black dress strapped to the rack (that the Todorokis just happened to have? In their house??), and Dabi, blue eyes reaching depths the Bermuda Triangle could only dream of.

“Dabi,” Re-Destro hissed. Dabi’s head snapped up, then right back down as he averted his eyes. HIs shoulders slumped, and he stepped back. The perfect picture of dejected obedience.

“Now,” Re-Destro said, and Fuyumi looked his way. “The vault. Any thoughts?”

“None whatsoever.”

Re-Destro narrowed his eyes. A black cloud seemed to descend over his features. Keigo blinked, and Re-Destro’s salesman grin was back in place.

“I see,” he said.

“Keigo Takami,” Fuyumi said mournfully. “Charlatan. Deadbeat. Parasite. How Miruko adored you.”

“Fuyumi,” Dabi cut in. “Just tell me which chain to pull. Please.”

“Touya,” she sighed. “Which is the real you? The loathsome, underhanded monster you’ve become? Or the loathsome, underhanded monster we came to love?”

A crash saved Dabi from answering. Miruko bounded across the room in a smooth roll to snatch a sword off the wall.

“Betrayers!” she cried.

“Mon cher!”

Keigo lunged for a sword of his own, and she spun on him first.

“Cara mia!” she yelled to Fuyumi. “Sit tight for a minute, darling!”

Miruko's strikes landed with ferocity, but Keigo was no slouch. He even managed a quick slice across her hand. And because she was Miruko, it was met with a: "good show, pigeon at law. One for you," and she twirled her sword, "and one for me!"

She lunged on the last word, and their fight resumed with fury. She stabbed, he parried, she spun, he followed, she sliced, he felt the steel of two swords pressed criss-crossed against his throat.

It was a disarming feint, not a slice. Keigo sank to his knees as she pressed him down.

“Miruko!” he gasped. “I’m on retainer!”

“Enough!!” Re-Destro’s shout silenced them all. He held a small silver pistol in his hand. It was pointed directly at Miruko. “No more games,” he said. “Open the vault, Ms. Usagiyama. Now!”

Miruko straightened slowly. With purpose. She pulled the swords away from the tender skin of Keigo’s throat, and let them drop unceremoniously to the ground. She kept her eyes trained on Re-Destro as she stalked over to Fuyumi.

“‘Yu,” she said, and Re-Destro sighed in irritation. “Seeing you like this,” she continued, “my blood boils.”

“As does mine,” Fuyumi breathed.

“This wheel of pain—”

“—our wheel.”

Miruko reached up to cradle Fuyumi’s jaw.

“To live without you,” Miruko said, “only that would be torture.”

“A day alone,” Fuyumi replied, “only that would be death.”

“Would you two knock it off!!”

Four sets of eyes glared in irritation at Re-Destro. In response, he cocked the gun.

“Open the vault,” he said again. “Now.”

“Boss,” Dabi cut in, an oddly nervous tone in his voice. “We don’t need to—”

“Oh would you SHUT UP!!” Re-Destro exploded. “You are the worst employee I’ve ever had!” Dabi flinched at the insult, and seemed to cower deeper into himself with every following word. “You’re a useless,” Re-Destro shouted, “worthless, idiotic piece of garbage! We wouldn’t even be here if not for your incompetence! So shut up, keep guard over the Todoroki while Ms. Usagiyama and I go empty her vault, and try not to screw this up any further!!”

Dabi was pressed against the bookshelf by the time Re-Destro finished. It was weird seeing him so deflated. The Dabi that Hawks had come to know over the past few months was bold, brash, not easily intimidated. He’d even eaten Rei’s wiggling lasagna without flinching, then asked for seconds when he was done!

Maybe that wasn’t exactly comparable to having a pistol pointed at someone he’d clearly come to care for, but Hawks couldn’t dislodge the visual from his brain.

Dabi, sitting at the dinner table, laughing with the Todorokis when Natsuo stole a nearby stop sign and the squeal of tires rang out for miles. Dabi, teaching Shouto which poisons were best suited for each season. Dabi, who never needed his hair redyed because his roots grew in white. Dabi, whose stupid dry humor was way funnier than Keigo ever wanted him to know.

The air in the room was thick with misery. It didn’t suit this house at all.

“Go ahead, Ms Usagiyama,” Re-Destro said, his voice back to a normal volume.

Miruko sneered, but reached out for the book that would open the secret door.

“Miruko!” Dabi suddenly shouted. Everyone (except poor Fuyumi, who was still tied down with leather straps) jumped from the noise. “No tricks,” Dabi said, and inclined his head at her hand. “That’s the wrong book.”

Re-Destro’s view was blocked by Miruko’s body, but Hawks could see Miruko’s fingers slip off the green book with “GREED” printed across the spine. He’d seen it enough times to recognize it anywhere; they’d spent the last several days on repeated (failed) attempts to get into the vault, and pulling the right book was by far the easiest step.

Dabi grabbed a book Keigo couldn’t see, but he knew what else was on that shelf.

“Dabi, wait—!”

Dabi spun with a flourish, the “Hurricane Nejire” book gripped in both hands. He advanced a few purposeful steps, and Re-Destro backed up instinctively.

“Dabi,” he said with a wheedle, “let’s talk about this.”

“Dabi,” tried Keigo, “that’s not just literature. Come on, Dabi.”

Their eyes met when Keigo said his name. There was something in that look. Keigo felt rooted to the spot. It was like Dabi had thrown him to the ground and held him there with a boot to his neck. LIke Dabi knew, and wished he didn’t.

But maybe Keigo was reading too much into it, because Dabi turned a look of pure glee on his employer.

“You know what, Re-Destro?” he cried, eyes alight. “I quit, asshole!!”

Dabi ripped open the book, and wind poured out in a battering ram. Keigo and Re-Destro went flying, but Keigo had always been quick.

He got a hand on the doorframe before being blown completely out of the room, and he felt Re-Destro clawing at his leg as he flew past.

“Hold on, Takami!” Re-Destro howled over the wind. He began pulling himself hand over hand up Keigo’s body.

Keigo looked up, eyes stinging in the gale, and realized how close Dabi was to them. The wind was pulling at him as well, and soon he’d be sucked into their vortex. If Re-Destro could claw his way to the book, there was no doubt he’d go straight for Dabi’s throat.

Keigo shut his eyes against the onslaught. When he opened them, blue was staring back. The world shrunk down to nothing but that blue, and Hawks was drowning in it. He was also literally being rained on, but that was beside the point. Behind Dabi, Fuyumi and Miruko were slipping into the vault and to safety, and behind Keigo, Re-Destro was moving ever closer.

Keigo stared into blue. He let go of the doorframe.

The hurricane whipped him and Re-Destro straight back and circular, slamming them into debris and tossing them around like laundry in the wash. Keigo had never been motion sick before, but there was a first time for everything. Just as the nausea reared its head, Keigo caught a glimpse of what looked like lightning arcing into Dabi’s forehead. There was no time to see anything else, because Hurricane Nejire smashed through a high window and sent him flying straight into a waiting coffin.

When Keigo woke up, it was from the inside of an open casket. He blinked several times to orient himself, and the frowning face of Todoroki Shouto came into view. On second blink, it wasn’t just Shouto. The entire Todoroki family stared down at him from the edges of his grave.

“He’s a traitor,” said Miruko.

“A scoundrel,” said Fuyumi.

“Imposter,” said Natsuo.

“Charlatan,” said Rei.

“Mountebank,” finished Shouto.

Dabi nodded.

“He is.” There was a look in Dabi’s eye, though, that Keigo genuinely could not place. It looked like…

“How,” Dabi continued, “could I possibly resist such villainy?”

Uh. What?

“So you’ll be keeping him, then?” Fuyumi asked. She wound an arm around Miruko’s waist, and Miruko pressed a kiss to her hair.

“Obviously.”

“Hang on,” Keigo protested from inside his casket. Granted, maybe he should get out of the grave before turning down what was absolutely the weirdest romantic confession he’d ever received, but he was still a little confused from getting tossed around by a paperback hurricane. It was light above his head, so it must be daytime, which meant he’d been knocked out for the rest of the night. Clearly, the Todorokis had reclaimed their home in the meantime. He started to pull himself up, but was squashed back into place as Dabi leapt into the casket with him.

“Dabi,” Keigo wheezed, “what the hell are you—”

“Time to go!” Miruko yelled. “I do not wanna see these two sucking face.”

“Hey!” Keigo protested, but she was already gone. The other staring heads retracted, and Keigo was alone.

With Dabi.

In a coffin. A large coffin, granted, but a coffin nonetheless.

Embarrassment curled up Keigo’s ears; a hot flush that was only half to do with Dabi’s legs tossed across his own.

He shoved a spikey elbow out of his ribs.

“Look, Dabi, I—”

“Touya.”

“Huh?”

Dabi’s eyes still managed to glow even in the morning light.

“It’s a great name, don’t you think? That bit of lightning to the brain helped me remember.”

Keigo had to blink a couple times to process.

“You’re the real Todoroki Touya?”

Dabi—no, Touya—laughed. “The one and only,” he said.

“But, how…”

“I made a deal,” he continued. “Did you know the devil lives in the Bermuda Triangle?”

In the approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds he’d been conscious, Keigo had been required to process a lot of information, including the ongoing assault of Touya’s minty breath tickling his ear. There was also the matter of Touya’s left arm, which was draped casually across Keigo’s stomach. His blue eyes searingly close, warm skin running a tantalizing line up Keigo’s side.

“Hang on a second, you made a deal with the Devil?! Like, the actual Devil?!?”

“Maybe.” Touya shrugged. “Might have just been any ol’ devil. Traded it my memories for a second shot at life. Getting shipwrecked’s a bitch.”

“Cool,” Keigo squawked out of an exceptionally dry throat. “Well, at least those papers I filed weren’t actually fraudulent. Good luck filing a Bar complaint against me now!”

“Yeeeeah,” Touya said, “maybe don’t joke about the thing I’m still pissed about.”

Keigo screwed up his face in what he hoped was an apologetic grimace.

“So, uh,” he said, ever eloquent. “Why… are you in the coffin with me? Don’t you hate me?”

Touya smiled. A cheshire cat.

“Deeply,” he said. “Utterly,” he breathed.

Keigo’s hand snapped up to grip Touya’s bicep. He would have cursed his body for moving on its own, but Touya just leaned closer.

“You disgust me,” he practically purred. “I think I wanna marry you.”

“Touya,” Keigo whispered, and one perfectly manicured eyebrow raised. “You’re demented.”

Touya laughed, Keigo smiled wide.

“You really wanna be disgusting with me forever?”

Touya shifted them so he could wrap both arms around Keigo.

“I do,” he replied. “Deeply,” he continued, and pressed closer. “Utterly.”

Keigo resolved, then and there, to wake up every morning and kiss this man senseless. And maybe to never betray him and his whole family again.

Keigo could handle this mission, and he’d already embarked on it via pressing a set of mismatched lips to his own.

After all, there was no better time than the present.