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“I can't believe we're doing this,” Touya said, wrapping himself in towels on the chaise longue to shield himself from the sun's rays hitting his skin. There was a big umbrella on top of it, but it was impossible to avoid the sun. Just like an extremely annoying blonde guy who doesn't let up.
“Come on, hot stuff,” Keigo pouted and put his hands on his hips. Touya's eyes certainly did not wander over his sun-kissed and wind-licked bare chest. And he didn't skidded further down and glanced at his swim shorts. “Let's have some fun!”
Touya slid his sunglasses down his nose and looked at him and grinned. “We could have stayed home if you wanted to have that much fun. I would have kept you busy all day, angel.”
Touya winked at Keigo as his cheeks began to turn red. Even though they've been together for years, it's always easy to fluster his boyfriend. Touya wanted to kiss him.
He stood up with superhuman speed despite the hideous sun and pulled Keigo under the umbrella and kissed him. The blond made a sound of surprise, but immediately fell into the kiss and parted Touya's lips with his tongue and tasted it in his mouth. They both moaned as Keigo's tongue touched his fangs, and Touya found himself lying on the chaise longue, with his lover top on him.
“Fuck, Kei,” groaned Touya as his boyfriend kissed and sucked his neck. His own hands roamed his mouth-watering body too. Keigo groaned and rolled his hips as Touya's hands wandered between his perfect wings. “If you continue like this, we will definitely not be able to continue the mission.”
Keigo grunted at this and rested his head on Touya's shoulder. “Fuck the mission.”
While playing with his golden hair, Touya raised his eyebrows and looked at the vampire lying on his chest. “What happened to the hero in you?”
Keigo looked up at him and rolled his eyes, then quickly stood up and straightened his shorts. He had a big problem to take care of, but he was stubbornly ignoring it.
“I'm not a hero,” said Keigo, wrapping himself with his wings, “you know that. I— I'm—”
“You're a murderer,” Touya finished, and saw the sadness in Keigo's golden eyes, the pain radiating in his heart that had stopped beating years ago. “I'm a murderer too, Keigo.”
Keigo didn't fight him about it, because they had had this conversation a million times over. But there was something Keigo didn't understand.
“But you killed bad guys, criminals— villains to save people,” Touya said slowly, walking over to his lover. The red-pinkish magic that was beginning to spread around Keigo resembled a cloud of dust. “You killed the people who kidnapped hybrids and wild magic users, who tried to sell them to the HPSC, the Witch Coven. You killed those who wanted to harm children. You didn't kill someone just because you were bored. You killed the corrupt people in this corrupt world.”
“Why are you talking as if you killed people because you were bored?” said Keigo, as Touya cupped his face and wiped away his tears. “You and I are in this together. You saved me.”
“You saved me first.”
Touya could never forget that damn day. His family and life were starting to fall apart because of his father's obsession with creating the perfect wizard with wild magic. His father, Enji Todoroki, was a well-known and exceedingly important wizard among all monsters. But magic always came with a price.
And that price was Touya.
Enji Todoroki was an archmage who had mastered fire magic, but he always wanted more. More power, more magic, more respect. That's why he had an arranged marriage with Rei, a Himura who had mastered all kinds of ice magic. And they had four children. Touya, who had their father's flame. Fuyumi, who had their mother's ice. Natsuo, who has no magic, and Shouto, who has both, just as their father wanted.
But it later turned out that Touya had his mother's ice magic as well as his father's fire. The only problem was that his body could not balance these two great powers like his younger brother. His heart was a center for the two of them, and he would die if he continued his father's heavy training.
And he did.
He lost control of the blue flames while crying on Sekoto Hill, and his heart stopped when the ice magic that was trying to save his life combined.
But death was not his end.
Death had become a path that opened the door to his other life.
When Touya opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was gold and blood red. Golden eyes, blood-dried lips trying to hide the fangs, burnt scarlet bat wings.
Keigo had pulled him out of the flames and bit him to save him. Neither of them still knew exactly how Touya turned into a vampire. They didn't know when his heart stopped. But perhaps the unknown mysteries lurking in the blood and magic of Keigo Takami, both a witch and a vampire, were the truth behind it.
Keigo had saved him, but as always, magic had come with a price.
Because magic always came with a price.
The price this time was Touya's magic. Touya had lost his biggest part, his magic.
But that wasn't entirely true.
Touya had lost his pure magic, if he used his blue flames, he would need to consult dark magic. Because he was dead and resurrected. He was already a dark magic in a way, wasn't he?
After the fire and his resurrection, Keigo —who was only 12 years old— dragged him to safety and took care of him. He had been by his side every moment of Touya's transformation into a vampire, crying and apologizing to him.
I heard your screams.
I couldn't let you die.
I didn't know what to do, you were dying.
I'm sorry I turned you into a monster.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Touya, on the other hand, watched with admiration as Keigo apologized crying in front of him and put a bowl of blood on his lips. He had never seen a vampire with bat wings before.
He was like a demon rising from hell.
He was like an angel fallen from heaven.
This was the story of how Keigo saved Touya.
The story of how Touya saved Keigo took place a few years after the two parted ways.
Keigo stayed with Touya until he was completely used to being a vampire and losing his magic and became his best friend. Keigo had taught him a lot about how to hunt, how to feed, how to hide, how to protect, how to kill.
Touya had learned a lot about Keigo during their years together. For example, Keigo's father was thief Takami, a vampire thief who stole the magical artifacts that Enji Todoroki had been after for a long time. His mother was Tomie, an independent wild witch who was intoxicated by the power of his own magic.
And Keigo Takami was the son of a witch and a vampire. He was a hybrid. He was a witch-vampire with bat wings and able to objectify and shape his magic.
And Keigo Takami was the most wanted hybrid by the HPSC.
“It wouldn't be right for me to stay with you,” Keigo had said one night while the two of them were watching the stars. Keigo was 16 and Touya was 17 back then. And at that time, Touya Todoroki was known to be dead. “The Coven is after me, I don't want to put you at risk any more.”
And those words had broken Touya's heart so much. Because Keigo was his savior, his friend. And maybe, maybe Touya was slowly starting to develop feelings for him.
“Together we are stronger,” Touya had said, trying to hide the desperation and sadness in his voice. He turned his head to the side and looked at Keigo lying next to him, but his golden eyes were staring at the stars as if he would never see them again. Look at me, Touya had thought at that moment. I'm the only star you need. Don't leave me.
But like everyone else, Keigo had abandoned him. And even though Touya knew why he did it, his heart started aching after that day.
Touya, then a lone vampire at the height of his teenage era, was trying to decide how to spend his immortal life alone. He would never have been an archmage like his father and depended on the Coven. But he didn't want to be a villain using purely dark magic, either. So he created a middle ground for himself and made a name for himself as Dabi, the vampire using magic— dark magic.
Meanwhile, he met a rebel group of three wizards, a vampire, an elf, a ghost, and a leprechaun who called themselves the LOV, and found himself part of their family. Two of these three wizards were Tenko and Shuuichi, who used wild magic. Shuuichi could transform into a dragon as Tenko decayed the things he touched.
And Touya now had a new family, even though it had been 2 years since he and his best friend parted their ways.
But magic always comes with a price.
And it was time for Keigo to be paid the price.
An organization calling themselves the MLA, which advocated that everyone should use wild magic, and which was followed by more wizards and witches than archmages loyal to the Coven, also loved to possess rare creatures and items. And the most precious and rare thing everyone —whether dead, alive, magical or cursed— wanted to acquire was Keigo, whom everyone called Hawks.
While Touya was spending time talking to people who wanted to join their small rebel squad that day, hearing a scream and a cry of pain echoing in the forest where he was hiding, he jumped up and went to check what was going on. The sight he saw terrified him, and blood stained his eyes.
Because a group of MLA wild witches surrounded Keigo. His Keigo. He was trying to get rid of the net that was catching his bat wings as a few of them marched towards Keigo with long spears in their hands. There was genuine fear, horror, and acceptance in his golden eyes that had once looked at Touya with joy and happiness. Keigo thought it was the end of him at that moment.
Touya's body was moved before his thoughts, and he summoned the blue flames that, although cursed, came back with him from hell, turning everyone there to ashes except for the one person who Touya's dead heart is beating for.
“Keigo!” had cried Touya, ignoring the smoke rising from his body and the pain of new burn marks, and went to his crying friend, holding his head in his hands. With his burnt hands reaching for him, Keigo snarled forward and knocked Touya down. Although his bat wings were entangled with a black net and he raised his taloned hand to slit Touya's throat, all he could think about at that moment was how beautiful Keigo was.
Keigo has always been beautiful, a fact Touya had known from the first time he saw him. But since the last time they saw each other, in those 2 years, Keigo had gotten more beautiful, more breathtaking.
His golden locks were long and resembled a bird's nest. The marks around his eyes became even more darkened. His cheekbones were even more exposed. Even though his lips were chapped, they were still kissable. He was getting taller and his body was starting to get muscular.
But there was something wrong with him. Because Keigo's irises had thinned into a line and he was staring at Touya with pure hatred.
It broke his dead heart.
“Don't you remember me, Keigo?” Touya had asked quietly, and slowly brought his hand to his cheek. Even as Keigo hissed at him, he blinked in surprise. “Because I have never forgotten you.”
A chill ran across Keigo's wings as Touya's thumb gently caressed the corner of his lip. “I missed you so much, Altair.”
However, Keigo's cheeks were starting to get wet with tears, his pupils sucking his gold in a huge circle.
“T— Touya?”
“Hey, angel.”
After a night of snuggling with Keigo, Touya had stopped looking for new members for their squad, took out his motorcycle, which he had hidden in the bushes, and drove with Keigo to the LOV base at full speed.
And the beginning of their relationship was a different matter, because after Keigo recovered from the attack, he joined the LOV and became a part of the family. And Touya couldn't be happier. Well, a few people distantly related to the LOV might have been flirting with Keigo, everyone else was flirting with him (except those in the LOV). Whether it's for their mission or for something else. Because Keigo was breathtaking, beautiful, wonderful, perfect. And at one of their meetings, Atsuhiro suggested that perhaps they could use Keigo as a distraction in their mission. That day, Touya angrily denied it, saying that if they needed a distraction, he could be the distraction.
“You can't set fire to anything,” Tenko had said.
“Well, I have other talents too,” Touya had replied to him. That day, Keigo had cast a glance at him, but said nothing. Just like after the MLA attack, Touya had allowed that distance between them to get bigger and bigger.
In their later missions, Touya had flirted with people when needed, and that was pretty easy, because there were no feelings, nothing. He was just doing this for duty and felt nothing. And to the surprise of Tenko and the others, he had succeeded more than once. Because it was just flirting, sometimes just a few little touches in between. But there were no kisses nor sex.
And one day they went to the bar they always go to to celebrate and this time a very handsome guy —who looked the same age as him— came up to him and started flirting with him. Touya just grinned and rolled with him. Because he wanted to do this. Not for his mission, but for fun, and perhaps to forget the intense pain he felt in his chest every time he looked at Keigo, or saw him having fun with people flirting with him.
Touya didn't know if he was seeing anyone, because oddly enough, the two weren't as close as they were when they were younger, and it was hurting him so much.
As the auburn-haired guy he was flirting with placed himself between Touya's legs and his hands began to roam his body, Touya caught a glimpse of gold watching them. But he did nothing, instead Touya placed his hands on the chest of the guy who had given his full attention and squeezed his pecks. As the guy groaned softly and almost pressed his body against his, Touya's hands swept over his body, lowered, and gripped his ass. The handsome guy did not stop there either. But Touya wasn't sure if he wanted that. He had never been with anyone before, he had never even kissed anyone. And the thought of this person being his first didn't feel right, but Touya also didn't want to stop. He wanted to feel more than that pain in his chest.
Red filled Touya's vision as the guy's hand moved closer to his leather pants and his face to his lips. Blinking to see what was going on, Touya saw the auburn-haired man being pushed back by Keigo, who got between them and snarled at him.
“What the fuck man?!” had cried the handsome guy.
Keigo had replied with a growl. “Leave. Now.”
The guy laughed and shook his head, approaching them. “No, you leave. The two of us were having such a good time here—”
“I said, leave.” The guy stepped back as a magic dust surrounded them and the feather-shaped blade of red-pink magic appeared, but everyone was watching. Touya didn't know what to do. He was still high from making out with that guy, but Keigo's strong arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him closer. Before long, the two of them walked past the bar until they reached the base. When they entered, Touya began to speak.
“What the fuck was that for Keigo?!”
“Sorry,” Keigo had replied too quietly, and distancing himself from Touya, turned on his feet to go to his own room. But Touya needed answers.
“No,” Touya had said and quickly grabbed his wrist. “You're not going anywhere after all this!”
“Watch me,” said Keigo, and freed himself from his grip, but never once bothered to look at Touya.
“Keigo!” Touya had shouted angrily after him. “Why have you been acting so weird since—”
“Since you saved me and welcomed me into your new family?” Keigo had finished his sentence and quickly turned around. His fists were clenched on both sides.
“Why do you sound so mad? So what? Should I have just left you alone and let them kidnap you? My best friend?” Touya had asked, clenching his fists to avoid accidentally unleashing his flames. “And it was you who abandoned me when we were kids!”
“Because I wanted to protect you!” Keigo had shouted back.
“This is not a decision you can make!” had said Touya, and he ran his hands through his hair and angrily tugged at a few strands. “And now you're acting so weird as if we're strangers! You don't even look at me half the day, and now you're interrupting my fun?”
“Your fun?” Keigo had repeated, and to Touya's surprise, he threw his head back and laughed bitterly. “Right… Sorry, but don't worry. I won't do that again.”
“I don't care if you do or not!” Touya had said, raising his hands in the air and shaking them furiously. “I want to know why you did it! You're always flirting with people, always having a good time, maybe even enjoying your nights— so why can't I?!”
Keigo looked at him, bewildered by what he had said. “I— What? I don't— I never—”
“Never mind,” Touya had said, raising his hand to silence him, he was so tired. “I'm going to bed.”
“I've never been with anyone before,” Keigo had whispered. Touya stared at him with wide eyes.
“What?”
“I never—” Keigo had muttered, but he shook his head sharply and fixed his golden eyes on him. “I flirted with people because you folks asked me to— don't look at me like that, Touya. I wanted to help you, and it wasn't all that bad. I didn't let people touch me like you did. You're the one who really enjoys your time.”
“What I did was for missions!” Touya had rebelled. Although he took on the job himself, he knew that Keigo also occasionally flirted with someone for the missions.
“Was tonight for a mission too?” Keigo had asked, crossing his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow at him.
“No?” Touya had replied in a tone that wasn't sure what to feel. “Can't I be— Fuck Keigo, can't you just come to the point? What's the problem?”
“I—” Keigo had said and closing his eyes tightly, Touya noticed his blood-red bat-wings trembling as he pressed them tightly together. “I don't like seeing you with other people.”
Touya stared at him with his mouth open in disbelief. “What?”
“For God's sake, you heard me!” Keigo had shouted and wrapped his arms around himself, as if trying to hug himself. “God, I hate to see you flirting with someone else! When you touch them, let them touch you— I hate that!”
“Why?” Touya had barely asked, as if the words had chosen to leave him alone in this battle. Just when Touya needed them the most. “You do this all the time—”
“I hate this because you're choosing a random person over me! You care about a stranger and flirt with them for your goddamn missions, but you don't care about your best friend and his feelings!” Keigo's body was also starting to tremble now, and tears of frustration wet his cheeks, which were a little red from alcohol.
“Kei,” Touya had said, and slowly, carefully approached him, “what are you talking about? Of course I care about you—”
“You wouldn't do this if you cared about me!” Keigo had said, and slapped hard Touya's outstretched hand.
Touya stood in the middle of the living room of LOV's base, not knowing what to do. “What—”
“Do you know how hard it is for me to watch you with other people?” Keigo had asked in a shaky voice, and he wiped away his tears harshly. Touya tried to reach out for him again as his talons gently scratched his freckled cheeks, but Keigo backed away quickly. “Seeing you like another guy and not me? Never me? Fuck you Touya. I've loved you since we were kids and it hurts!”
“You—” Touya had said, trying to put the goddamn words together, but his brain made him stop as if he had just realized exactly what Keigo had just said. “What?!”
“Yeah…” Keigo had said, and took a shaky breath. His shoulders shook with the sobs he tried to suppress. “Sorry about that—”
But before Touya could give him more chances to speak, he stepped forward, grabbed Keigo by the collar, pulled him, and kissed him. He didn't have a single thought in his mind. But he stumbled as Keigo backed off.
“Why did you do this?!” Keigo had asked, sobbing, no longer holding himself back.
Touya looked at him confused and extended his hands to him. “You said you loved me—”
“Yes I did,” Keigo had said, and he backed up until his wings hit the wall, followed by Touya. Because he couldn't understand what was going on anymore and he needed an answer, especially after what he had said. “But that doesn't give you the right to use me like this!”
Touya ran his hands through his hair and groaned in anger. “What the fuck are you talking about?!”
Keigo let out a bitter laugh as Touya's sapphire blue eyes focused on him again. Touya could hear the cries of pain behind that laughter, those suppressed, hidden emotions.
“What am I talking about? You were making out with this guy a few minutes ago and now you're kissing me?” Keigo had asked, and he sat slowly on the floor, leaning against the wall. “Do you want to get laid that badly? You're an asshole—”
“Fuck Keigo, I love you too! If you'll just let me talk—” Touya had said, feeling like he was drowning in all the emotions he was feeling. Unable to stand it any longer, he knelt in front of Keigo and pressed his eyes to his hands, taking a deep breath. “You asked me if I knew how you felt— do you know how I felt? God, do you know how I felt when you left me that day? Or the days when you never contacted me? And when I finally found you, you know how I felt when I saw that you were almost about to be taken over by the MLA? When I could almost lose you?”
Touya let the smoldering anger flow from his own lips like the venom of a snake, and looked into Keigo's golden eyes to make him see that anger.
“Do you know how I felt when I saw you act like we were never close— as if we weren't friends at all?” Touya had asked through clenched teeth. “Do you know how I felt when I see how easily you flirt with people? You think I'm flirting with those people for a mission? No! I can't take the pain anymore and hope someone can fill the void in my dead heart you gave me!” Touya had cried, and he became even more angry as he felt the warmth of his own tears on his cheeks. Whenever his feelings got more intense and he couldn't handle them, he found himself crying, and he hated it. He hated himself.
“You saved me! You were and still are my best friend and first love, but it hurts so much!” Touya had said, this time he was pushing away Keigo's outstretched hands and hitting him hard on the chest. “Because you don't care about me!” Another hit. “Fuck you!” Another punch. “How dare you do that and say you love me?!”
As Touya punched him on the chest, Keigo only slowly pulled him towards him, wrapping his wings around him like a blanket. Keigo held him tightly as Touya continued to hit him, curse him, and cry. It was as if he was afraid to let him go.
After a while, as Touya's blows weakened and he gripped Keigo’s collar tightly, he whispered in Touya’s ear as if he were telling the wind a secret. “You— you love me?”
Touya let out a sobbing laugh and looked up at Keigo, who looked just as devastated as he was. “Do you love me?”
But he had never guessed what was next to come out of Keigo's strawberry-pink lips. “Always.”
“Fuck, Kei,” Touya had said, groaning and resting his head on Keigo’s shoulder, his eyes never leaving the golden ones that enchanted him and were brighter than the sun he hated. “Then why didn't you say anything?”
With his taloned hand, Keigo pushed back the hair that had fallen on Touya’s forehead and gave him a crooked smile. “Why didn't you say anything?”
Touya rolled his eyes and looked at him, the fact that he had a hint of regret. If only he could be a little more daring… “You were too reserved after what happened with the MLA. You haven't even been talking to me properly for the past year…”
“I didn't have the face to talk to you because you saved me that day because I was weak,” Keigo had said sadly. “And I know you want strong people in your life—”
“You were all I ever wanted in my life,” Touya had whispered. He wanted to shout it out to him. He wanted to hold Keigo in his arms, kiss him for hours and moan it in his ear. But at that moment he was so afraid… It was as if this was the effect of alcohol, a magic. As if it was all a dream.
But the longing press of Keigo's soft lips against his mismatched lips was enough to rule out those possibilities entirely. Keigo pulled back after the brief kiss, and the two looked at each other, then quickly grabbed each other's cheeks and collars, captured each other's lips, and pressed their bodies together. Keigo was on top of Touya like an angel as he lay on the cold hardwood floor. Every time he rolled his hips, Touya was losing his mind a little more.
Touya didn't know how the two of them had managed to get to his room that night, but he was thankful for that, because if their friends had found them naked and making out in the middle of the living room, he would have actually died. This time, he couldn't even come back either, because of embarrassment.
When he awoke the next day, he was awakened to the sight of Keigo right next to him, hugging him and sleeping peacefully. Touya smiled so much that his cheeks hurt. And after they both finally woke up and took a shower, Touya was still smiling as they went downstairs. And seeing him in this state, Tenko thought he was possessed by a demon and almost attacked him with holy water. But when Kenji and the others saw their swollen lips, messy hair, and hickeys around their necks, they put the two of them together. There was a big awkward silence dancing in the kitchen and then, a big
‘I WON THE BET!’
It turns out that the LOV had a long-standing bet on when the two of them would get together, who would make the first move, and more. Because it was a bit of a long running bet and Toga was the winner in the end.
They've never been apart since. It had been 5 years, and Touya was now 24 and Keigo was 23. And years later, the two of them were on a beach, having fun instead of chasing a man they were supposed to be following.
Touya slowly approached his boyfriend and took him in his arms. “You know what, my love?” he asked and kissed his nose as Keigo looked at him curiously. “Fuck the mission. We deserve a vacation.”
Although Keigo looked at him in surprise, a smile bloomed on his face, and Touya closed the distance between them and kissed him.
“Yeah?” Keigo asked with a chuckle and laid him back on the chaise lounge and climbed on him. Touya grinned at him and placed his hands on Keigo's hips.
“Yeah.”
Keigo leaned forward, brushing their lips together and whispering. “But you hate the sun, Nova. My stardust.”
Touya, on the other hand, just hummed as his hands began to roam his lover's back. “I hate the sun. But I love you,” he said, and looked at Keigo with his eyes capturing all shades of blue. “You are brighter than the sun, Altair. My star, my angel.”
Keigo blushed from his ears to his neck and groaned. “You're so stupid.”
“Yeah?” Touya asked, his hands stroking the junction of his bat's wings. “So what are you going to do about it?”
Keigo grinned at him and murmured, closing the breath-like distance between them. “I have a few ideas in my head.”
As Keigo's lips and hands swept over his body, almost letting his blue flames nearly unleashed into the world, Touya could feel his stopped heart pounding.