phoenix ✦ k.takami (hawks)

Prologue

And in those moments when you feel afraid to trust love, remember that I have crossed a great ocean of loneliness to find you.
Mine is not a fair-weather heart.
It was built to outlast storms.

Track 1: Forever by Halsey

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His wings reminded you of the sunrise. That bloody horizon that signaled a new beginning; the terrors that dragged you further into an inescapable abyss shied away from the striking colors that pierced the waking sky. He was an impenetrable fortress of protection and unspoken promises. His wings were a shield to the dark memories of your past that crawled from the shadows once again to leave a screaming echo that rang in your ears in desperate situations.

You'd always presented yourself as an unbreakable being, your four walls stacked brick by brick and sealed with your regrets. You refused to let them down for anybody, even those who were closest to you once the last sliver of humanity you had began to circle the drain.

But with only a vermillion feather those four walls crumbled as if they were a sandcastle. He was a walking time bomb, and the closer he got to your heart the more his risk of self-destruction increased. He was blind to it but you could see it clearly. You had always lived life looking through rose-colored glasses until he ripped them from your face and showed you the true colors of the world.

You'd thought of life as a tango: two steps forward, one step back. He changed the tempo and made the dance you'd grown accustomed to transform into something that left you breathless. It was almost as if there was a red string attached to him and the end of it was you.

Desperately you dreamed to feel a tug on that string. You clung to it like a lifeline, ignoring every single warning sign that was tossed your way. He found your stubbornness admirable. The way you were flexible and able to be stretched past your own limits, only to snap back into a memory-retained shape was a characteristic he wished he had.

Every inch that he was pulled away from you he fought tooth and nail to get back. You did the same, never giving up until you were on the brink of death. His dedication stirred a hurricane in the person you once were. The lost little girl who had no promise of a satisfactory future was molded into a typhoon of a woman who kept one person in the eye of the storm:

Keigo Takami.

Though that typhoon laid dormant under the light of a full moon, swinging from chains attached to the rafters of the ceiling.

The ring in your ears was a foreign oddity that overpowered the familiar tune of television static. The blood that pooled in your head caused by your uncomfortable predicament made the underlying concussion worse with each second. It felt as if a sledgehammer was beating your brain into mash, the pulse traveling down the back of your neck and into the base of your wings.

The quirk-disabling cuffs had been dug into your ankles for so long that you were numb to the pain. The constricting metal around your torso kept your wings pressed agonizingly against your back, the base warping in torturous ways from the elongated confinement.

How long had it been?

Hours?

Days?

Weeks?

Time was untraceable thanks to the unchanging darkness. You weren't sure if you were actually in a pitch black room or if it was just your (e/c) eyes refusing to cooperate due to the pressure behind them. You had to mentally reassure yourself that he was coming.

He would never forget about you.

Or leave you behind.

Hawks was a man that had little semblance of self-control. He always found it difficult to let things slide if they didn't go his way.

"I guess I just have a hard time holding back."

His voice echoed in your ears, a welcoming thought that continued with repetition.

Not knowing how much time had passed since you'd first woken from your unconscious state, it felt like a decade had passed when you recognized the unmistakable sound of a fight outside the room you were hung upside-down in.

A sigh of relief crossed your lips and you felt yourself beginning to succumb to the exhaustion coursing through your veins. The tension in your limbs faded once light pierced through the seeping shadows that filled your prison.

"Took you long enough, you overgrown chicken."

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words; 763