Chapter Text
Touya likes to believe he has a decent life. His pockets aren’t filled with money, but he’s not living in the streets anymore. He knows how to get out of many situations and he can learn new things with an ease that makes a lot of people around him angry, but gives him a lot of opportunity to help people and earn some money which kept him out of the streets most of the time in the past. There’s not a lot of jobs he hasn’t tried at least once so he has a great understanding of his abilities. He tries about every possible hiring place in one town before he has to move out into the next town over because no one has ever wanted to keep him around for more than 3 months. Too smart, he would say. Too angry, others would say. When everyone in town knows who you are, and not always for the good reasons, it’s probably time to move out. Still, he likes the change, even if said change has pushed him closer physically to his family town after town.
He was kicked out of the family house only a few days after being considered an adult by his father who probably couldn’t deal with him anymore. Touya knew what made his father angry and he made it his life goal back then to give him hell every second they spent together. But more than anything else, Enji must have seen something in Touya that told him that his son’s tendencies would only worsen with time and didn’t want to deal with the damage. So it wasn’t a surprise when his father sat him down one afternoon at the dining table with all his siblings and told all of them that Touya would leave the day after for a town 3 hours by train from here. Weirdly enough, he hadn’t been surprised. After all it was a logical decision, Touya had to remind himself again and again while he heard Natsuo screaming and Fuyumi crying. He mostly blocked out this entire conversation, couldn’t tell you what bullshit his dad told the others to justify this decision, he only remembers Shoto quietly squeezing his hand under the table, not even looking at him.
He didn’t stay for long in the apartment Enji paid for him. Back then, he didn’t want anything to do with the Todoroki name, even if it meant cutting ties with his siblings or not using the huge amount of money his father left him. He used a different name for most of the years he was away, trying to make it impossible for his siblings to find him again. This name now has too many dark memories linked to it and he fought tooth and nail with himself to feel like he could be Touya Todoroki again to still use his fake name. He dyed his hair a different color in every town he went to, thinking it would give him a “fresh start”. It was a shock when Natsuo managed to recognize him in the street while his hair was freshly dyed black. He still isn’t ready to go back to his white hair, the physical reminder of the stress his father put him through his young years.
He did a lot of, sometimes illegal, jobs to pay for a room in the first few years until he had a decent amount to get an apartment and then later on, move out. Thinking back on it, Touya believes it was a miracle that he still woke up every day and survived on his own during those years.
He tries to not dwell too long on those memories now, most of them being not so great or too depressing to deal with anymore.
But still. He has a decent life.
He did lose touch with his siblings for a few years because of this but as of the last two years, it was like this whole thing never happened. His life is on the uphill. He has a cheap but clean house he shares with people he can call his friends, he texts Natsuo and Fuyumi regularly and meets with Shoto and his classmates every two weeks to help them with their homework to the best of his ability. When Shoto had reached out to him to ask if he could help him with homework because he was “good at explaining stuff”, Touya had been delighted to spend more time with his little brother, even if he had to share this moment with 15 other kids. He was nervous at first, with his dark hair and body covered in tattoos and scars, he thought the teenagers would be too scared of him or intimidated to ask for his help. He shared his fear with Shoto who’s only answer was “I sent a photo of you in our group chat and half of the class finds you hot and one guy even called you manly. You’re good”. After their first meeting, he had jokingly said that his teachings were a 100$ per hour and he spent half of the second meeting telling various kids that no, he “would not take their fucking money” and to focus on their homeworks. They all came to an agreement that Touya would help them for free but they could bring him food to pay him back if they felt bad. Let’s just say that Touya was the one responsible for feeding his housemates.
All in all, Touya has a great life right now. So he doesn’t really know what happened for him to be standing in front of a flaming swing in the middle of the night. It truly was an ugly thing in his opinion but he doesn’t believe it deserved to end its life in this way. Maybe. The fire had caught way faster than he predicted so it was a miracle that the entire playground wasn’t a giant fireball at this point.
And it is at this moment that he realizes that he should probably call the fire department before it happens. The call doesn’t last very long, asking for his location, what was happening and a quick “we’re on our way, stand still” before he is once again alone in front of a growing fire. The sound of the crackling fire makes his shoulders relax a little bit more before it gets drowned out by the shrilling siren of the fire truck which ultimately makes him tense his shoulders back. What a waste. Touya probably waits a maximum of two minutes before he hears the tires crunch over the gravel-covered parking lot. When he turns around, he sees a small team of four rush out of the truck and in the time it takes Touya to put his lighter back into his pocket, the fire is already nothing but embers.
“Hey, you’re the one that called, right?”
Touya has seen a lot of attractive people in his life. Hell, he would consider himself one of them if he didn’t vividly remember a specific interaction he had with a girl at 5 in the morning in a queue to get his coffee…better not to dwell too long on that. But this guy is a whole new kind of attractive. Yes, the firefighter uniform isn’t the sexiest thing in the world but he truly believes that if this guy can run and move under this heavy jacket, he should have no trouble sweeping Touya off his feet and carrying him around. Not that it’s likely to happen but who doesn’t like a strong guy. The firefighter apparently removed his helmet before talking to him and when Touya’s eyes landed on the dark golden mess of hair in front of him, it took everything in him not to run his hands through the locks to smooth them down. It seems to take him a while to answer because the pretty guy has tilted his head slightly to the left and his face softens into a smile.
“I did it.”
Fuck.
The handsome firefighter's only reaction is a slight twitch in his eyebrows before tilting his head to the other side, a look of confusion crossing his face before narrowing his eyes at him.
“You did…what?”
“I did it. The…the call. Yeah. I’m the one who called. Took my good old cell phone, dialed your… I mean the fire department number and called. Sorry, i think i stood too close to the fire before you guys got here and my brain probably fried haha. Must smell like, i don’t know, fried chicken around here Don’t you think? I…uh…”
Can’t he shut up for ONE second? He is embarrassing himself! In front of the pretty guy no less! Touya can already see his vision darkening on the edge of his vision and his chest tightening before he hears the firefighter laughing and feels a hand land on his shoulder.
Holy shit.
“It’s OK, calm down! I was getting worried you were like, confessing to arson or something right there! We’ve heard from a few neighboring towns that they had a few too many cases of arson in the past and I was starting to suspect you, sorry! But still, you shouldn’t stay too close to any fire, smoke can do some heavy damage if you’re not careful.”
Touya definitely needs to get his heartbeat under control because he cannot tell if the thumping he hears in his head is a growing migraine, his heart going crazy for this guy or a heart attack. He decides that having a heart attack just so he can feel the guy’s hands on him more is not that good of an idea in the long run so he tries to take a deep breath and closes his eyes. He can faintly feel the hand on his shoulder glide down the length of his arm before he’s led further away from the smoking remains, a concerned voice barely being heard over the roaring in his ears but no words being understood. His heartbeat only gets stronger though, now paired by a pressure in his head and chest. Why is this happening right now? He was doing great, being a normal and functioning member of society! Yes, he got dumped earlier this week, after a whole month of dating, and yes maybe he got fired again for telling a customer to “leave the store right now before I kick your ass out myself” and let’s not forget that his estranged father had tried to call him twice today but still, he was doing GREAT. He gets gently pulled down by two warm hands before he feels the cold ground under his pants which only reminds him that the fire in front of him has finally died down. What a waste. This week had been bad but he thought that the flame inside of his stomach would burn out if he ignored it long enough. He should have listened to Bubaigawara and started smoking as a coping mechanism instead of whatever he was doing.
“....me? Can you take a deep breath for me right now? I need you to focus on your breathing. You’re having a… you need to slow down. I’m going to inhale and exhale and I … my breathing to the best of your ability…, don't worry. I’m going to ask you a few questions. Do you understand?”
He tries to speak, telling the other that he’s fine but his tongue won't move and his brain is too scrambled to do anything but panic. Obviously. He’s having a panic attack. Never thought he’d have one of those. He nods his head after a while and is rewarded by a warm smile when he finally opens his eyes.
“Cool, cool, deep breaths please. Come on, we’ll start easy! What’s your name?”
It takes Touya a few seconds, or minutes he can’t tell time anymore, to answer after succeeding on matching the firefighter breathing the best he can manage with the remnant of the panic attack.
“T…Touya. What…what’s yours?”
At first, the firefighter seems taken aback by Touya’s answer before his face radiates happiness.
“Touya you say…? I’m Keigo. Nice to meet you, Touya. You were most likely having a panic attack just now. You’re safe right now, thank you for staying strong for so long before we got here to deal with the fire. It was only an old playground swing, nothing too important.”
The thing is that Touya knows how unimportant this thing was. That’s why it burned down instead of the wooden memorial closer to his house. Before he can dwell too long on what just happened, he manages to focus on Keigo in front of him, still smiling. He probably won’t meet him again. Hopefully.
“You’re kind of –”
“KEIGO! WE’VE GOT A HOUSE FIRE CALL JUST NOW. LET’S GO! THE POLICE WILL DEAL WITH THE REST”
“OK!”, shouted Keigo back before turning back to look at Touya with his stupidly gorgeous golden eyes. “I have to go ,like, right now, I hope you feel better. Will you be able to get to your place without trouble? Do you want me to call and pay for a taxi for you? I wouldn’t mind, I'd feel bad for leaving you all alone right after you had a breakdown. You seem like a good guy and I don't want to leave and then you get harassed by the police because you’re still there and then I have to get you out of trouble while I could have helped you before. haha. Uh…”
Is this guy also a mess or is Touya projecting right now.
“Nah, I'll be fine. Don’t worry, it… it would take more than this to get me down. Go do your job, fire boy,” he wheezes out, smirking.
Smiling, Keigo doesn’t waste another second before standing up and running off, leaving Touya alone on the ground already missing the warmth from his hand. He barely turns around to wave at him before he literally jumps into the truck who drives off in a cloud of dust.
Touya leaves 5 minutes later, a burned piece of wood in his pocket and soot covering his hands.