DabiHawks Escaped Convict A/U

21, Tears and Troubles

Day fourteen
~

"What?"

Tomie managed a weary smile.
"You're all grown up."

"Oh, so you noticed," Keigo answered back sarcastically. Last night, he let his mother sleep in the bed while he slept on the floor - his back now ached terribly, but oh well.

(just ignore that keigo cummed in the sheets alright. i do not like to think about that when his mother slept there so can we just forget that shit☠️☠️☠️☠️i just couldn't be arsed to write him changing them so let's just pretend he did)

After taking the time to check up on his recent scars and bruises, he had come out of the bathroom to see his mother standing around awkwardly. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking over him for a moment.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. Keigo huffed.

"Well it's a bit late now. Nine years too late."

"You're the one who ran from home."

Keigo ignored her. "Where did you get this from?" he asked as he took hold of a box of cereal that was sitting on the chest of draws. Tomie blinked.

"There was money in the car. I went out. Here." Tomie held out her hand, showing a few yen notes. Keigo skeptically took them from her and put them in his pocket.

"Yeah, that's nice, but that obnoxious therapist woman would have called the police. There'll be people out looking for you by now."

"Can I at least get a thank you for providing you with food this morning?"

Keigo rolled his eyes as he sat down on the bed cross legged, one hand in the cereal box, the other holding the TV remote, switching through the available channels.

"Thank you Tomie, for following your motherly instincts and buying me food that will probably only last a few hours. Also for revealing your location and possibly alerting the police that were both here, and they probably think I've kidnapped you or some shit. I don't fucking know."

"Language, brat."

"Whatever."

Tomie frowned and made her way over to the bed, sitting on the end of it, since Keigo didn't intend on making space for her. She gently plucked one of his larger flight feathers from his wings, and watched as the rest of them fluttered lightly. By now Keigo's wings were still not fully grown, but just about big enough for him to fly with them.

"Can you feel this?" Tomie asked, as she waved it in the air.

"Yeah." Tomie let the feather go and flinched slightly when it moved on it's own, going back to it's designated spot on Keigo's wings.

"...I never really understood your quirk, you know." Keigo didn't reply, and she sighed. "Can you explain it to me?"

Keigo's shoulders jerked as he shrugged.
"It's kind of a two-in-one. The wings, and being able to control each individual feather." He demonstrated by using a few big ones to close the curtains for the glass balcony doors. They all flew back to his wings except for one, which he held by the quill. "I can also harden them, so they're like little red daggers."

Keigo poked at his arm with the end of the feather and accidently drew blood. He clamped his hand down on the cut but Tomie saw and grabbed his wrist, yanking it away from his arm. Blood seeped through the creases of his palm.

"You idiot," she said. Tomie then narrowed her eyes. "You haven't ever hurt yourself purposely, have you?" she asked suspiciously.

Keigo shook his head wordlessly but Tomie wasn't convinced. With his wrist still in her hand, she turned it around so it was facing up, and squinted at it. There on his skin were several tiny, almost unidentifiable white lines. Definitely not new - but it was clear they weren't accidental.

"Keigo." He drew back his hand rapidly, his eyes going wide.

"What? Well I- basically haven't. Kind of, but not really. I mean, it's only like, only three or four scars. And they were from years ago. I'd forgotten about them."

"How old were you?"

Keigo hung his head. "Twelve. Or thirteen," he mumbled. Tomie's expression was almost worried now.

"Don't tell me...I was the reason for some of them?"

Keigo bit back his words. He wanted to say 'Yes, because you and father were horrible to me,' but Tomie seemed like she was trying to be nice and make an effort after all these years. Keigo really didn't know what to feel. Everything was still a muddle, and he couldn't even tell if Tomie was being genuine or not.

He'd never payed that much attention to her when he was a boy because he'd been so busy staring at the cracks in the wall, watching the seconds tick by on the broken clock, or ruining that poor spider's webs in the corner of his room.

He hadn't studied her behaviour. He didn't know how she acted normally, he couldn't predict how she'd react to anything - he knew next to nothing about her favourite things.

It was almost like he didn't know her at all.

"Kei."

He blinked, looking up at his mother. They had the same amber eyes, he noticed.

"What are you thinking about?"

Tomie looked concerned, but was she really? After running from home nine years ago, Keigo had taken to second guessing everything.

Well, fuck that.

Keigo slowly knocked his head against her shoulder, much to her surprise. She froze for a second, not knowing what to do, but then started stroking his head, tentatively at first. When Keigo continued to be silent, she gently ran her hands through his hair in a soothing manner, but Keigo soon found that his vision was starting to blur. He rubbed his eyes with his fist, frowning, but sniffed.

"Shh, um...it's okay. We'll be okay," Tomie said softly, being able to sense his turmoil of emotions. Keigo broke down a bit at her words, but still, even though he was in this state he couldn't help but snort.

"Since when were you the sympathetic type?" he asked, laughing a little through his tears. Tomie sighed.

"I'm not. Honestly, I don't know what to say. I never really comforted you as a child. You were a really emotionless kid." Keigo said nothing to this. "So, are you gonna tell me what's up then?"

Keigo blinked, fiddling with his hands. He smiled sadly as he explained.
"I kinda had this idea that when I came here, I'd sort things out with you and maybe...maybe I could live normally or something. I don't know. It was a stupid thought." He chuckled as another tear slid down his cheek. "And with yesterday I've just made things worse. You'll be wanted for questioning, and I've just committed another crime, so..." He bit his bottom lip, furrowing his eyebrows together.

"Are you serious? You wanted wanted 'sort things out'? Fucking impossible. Get your shit together, Kei. You should never have come here. I'm...I'm just a waste of time. It'll be a few more years until you can really live normally."

Keigo choked on his saliva. "I-"

"You should have waited until you were released legally. This isn't a movie. There won't be a happy ending if you try to fix things this way."

With a grunt, Keigo raised his head, wiping his eyes quickly. "Yeah. Thanks, Tomie. Great advice," he said, obviously meaning the opposite. He sniffed loudly, not looking at her. "I'm just gonna make a call real quick, alright?"

Tomie opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked liked she wanted to say something, but kept quiet as Keigo opened the balcony door, sliding it shut after he exited the room. Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he sighed shakily, swiping on the only contact he had.