Miles Too Late
Keigo Takami x Reader
heâs too late to save you.
warnings: angst, no comfort, death, i donât use capital letters, might be ooc, not proof read
wc: 997
a/n: this has been sitting around for a while honestly. i enjoy writing sad stuff. also if u read this and thereâs something specific u want written, pllllease ask :)
he'd thought this fight would be easy. simple. fast. before it even began, he'd looked at you and made a joke. something soft, lighthearted.
he'd seemed almost relaxed, though that was normal for him when he was around you. you were one of the few people he'd ever met that he'd felt safe and comfortable around. one of the few people that saw him as more than just 'hawks'.
he'd flashed you a charming smile before the two of you had split up.
"see you in a bit, yeah?" you'd smiled softly at him, your heart fluttering at the softness he held in his gaze, always directed at you. his golden eyes had locked onto yours as he winked at you before he spread his wings, turning his back toward you.
you took that as your cue to run into the fight, the opposite way he'd go.
he hesitated before he left. he didn't like the way his feathers kept lifting when you'd walked off. it was like they were sensing something he couldn't see.
he found himself repeatedly looking back at where you'd left to rescue civillians. something in his gut wouldn't settle, wouldn't calm down.
the only thing that kept his wandering min in check was the fact that he could feel you through the feather of his that you kept with you. he'd given you the feather months ago. the moment had been soft and sweet. something he hadn't felt in a long time.
you'd turned it into a necklace, one you never took off. keigo had an issue with worrying for you, and that feather had been his only grip on sanity many times that you'd gone off to do something dangerous. it was how he stayed connected with you whenever the two of you were apart.
something in his chest dropped mid-fight when he realied that he couldn't feel you anymore. at first, he thought you'd just lost the feather. maybe it had come off while you were doing your hero work.
so he checked.
when he started to pull the feather back, there was some sort of resistance. like it was caught around something. like it was still around your neck.
if it was around your neck still, but he couldn't feel you-
his wings were out in half a second, flying him through the air at unmatchable speeds, his heart pounding in his chest like he knew exactly how things were about to go.
everything around him seemed to slow down and blur. distance became his sole focus- you were too far. how could he make it in time?
he should've never let you walk away. he shoudn't have let you go off alone- especially not during a fight like this. he should've known. but the thought had come too late.
his wings carried him faster than they ever had- through collapsed buildings and fires. but it hadn't been fast enough.
he wasn't fast enough.
he'd felt it before he'd seen it. the absence. the emptiness. the silence where you should've been. he called your name like you could still answer.
like you always did.
keigo had never been a religous man.
but as he searched- frantic, desperate, tearing through debris with shaking hands- he found himself praying anyway.
to anyone. to anything.
he just wanted you safe. he wanted you alive.
for a second, he convinced himself he was wrong. maybe he'd made a mistake. maybe you were still there.
that tiny sense of hope was torn away from him as he spotted you- as he spotted your body. bloody, bruised, and trapped under cement from a collapsed building.
he dropped to the ground a few feet away from where you were, frozen. behind him, his wings twitched just barely with emotion he wasn't sure how to express.
he took a step forward, then another. his hands shook as he knelt down and reached out to you. the brightness you always had in your eyes was gone. and so was the brightness in his own.
his feather had slid down the side of your neck, hanging there like it felt the same way he did in that moment.
for the past year, you'd been the one person he'd always gone to. you'd been there every time, always takin gcare of him in way he'd never been cared for before.
he pulled the cement piece off your body, using his feathers to help carry the weight of it. he couldn't look you in the eyes.
he was so used to your soft expression, the kindness in your eyes.
now all of it was gone.
he hadn't gotten enough time with you. there were still so many things he'd wanted to do with you.
like the move you two were supposed to see together the next week, you'd been planning it since the movie trailer had come out.
his hand moved to cup your cheek, his thumb sliding over your jaw. and then he realized something that absolutely destroyed him.
no amount of time would've ever been enough. because you weren't his best friend.
you were the love of his life.
and he'd realized it too late.
now, he'd never be able to tell you. he'd never get to see your eyes light up again. he'd never hear your stifled laughs when he did something stupid. he'd never get to experience you again.
he couldn't control the trembling in his hands as he pulled your limp body into his chest.
every part of him ached with unsaid words and with words he'd never be able to say again.
"how do you get over a loss like this?"
the words came out whispered. it was the kind of question he only ever asked you.
his eyes dropped down to your face as if he expected an answer, but none came.
how the hell was he supposed to get through this when the person who got him through everything was the reason this feeling existed?
