Thread by @GreyFrey3

#seroroki #srrk lil drabble to go with this amazing gift!

Shouto shifts and feels his collar move, the weight of it heavy on his neck. He lets out a forlorn sigh, reaching up to brush the metal with his fingers.

https://twitter.com/catquarium/status/1619467949110341632

Supposedly, if he tries to run and gets too far, it’ll kill him instantly. The space pirate captain told him as much.

He also said that if he isn’t on his best behavior—if he doesn’t smile sweetly or flash his pretty wings on demand—

his new owners can just activate it as they please and get rid of him.

Wrapping his arms around his legs, Shouto knocks his forehead against his knees and sighs again. What an awful situation to be in. He’s feeling pretty sorry for himself…

which is not good since he’s planning another escape attempt. He’ll need all the courage and willpower he has if he hopes to make it out alive.

Right now, he just wants to give up.

He’s tried to run three times. Three times he failed.

He’s pretty sure that if he doesn’t manage to get away today, then he never will. They’re in the middle of space. Even with his ability to survive out there in the vacuum, he has nowhere to go.

The first time he tried to run was during his initial capture.

He almost got away, too, until a net tangled his wings. Before he could pull it off, a pirate tackled him to the ground, holding his limbs down and preventing his escape.

Later, he learned the name of the boy who’d caught him. Hanta.

Shouto became well acquainted with him over the next few weeks.

Hanta was the one who kept him from getting away. Every time.

His second attempt was the day after being brought aboard the pirate’s vessel. During meal time, before the collar.

He waited until Hanta deactivated the containment field and then rushed him, trying to slip past and get to the upper deck. After that, he wasn’t sure what he’d do.

It didn’t matter. Hanta hit him with a jolt of electricity and he didn’t go anywhere.

Shouto expected him to get angry, to scream at him as he threw him back in the brig. Instead, after reactivating the field, he stayed for a while and tried to get him to eat the food he brought with him. Shouto kept his mouth shut, silently refusing.

But Hanta didn’t give up easily. He came the next meal time, bringing even more for Shouto. Then the next. And the one after that. For three days—when all Shouto allowed to pass his lips was water—Hanta stopped by every couple of hours to convince him to eat.

Finally, on the fourth morning, he sat down on the other side of the field and started talking. He told Shouto about his past—how the pirates had saved him and how he owed them everything. He was young when he was orphaned, and had no one to rely on.

If they hadn’t adopted him and made him one of their crew, he probably wouldn’t be alive today.

Shouto understood where Hanta was coming from, in a way. They were both trapped. Shouto, caged in by bars and a dim future. Hanta, by obligation and loyalty.

This time, when Shouto refused to eat, he broke his silence long enough to murmur that he liked cold soba better.

Hanta brought him soba for his next meal, and Shouto ate for the first time in four days. They spoke during that encounter, and every one after.

Shouto was alone after all. Whenever Hanta left him, he had nothing but his own thoughts to keep him company. And the space pirate didn’t seem that bad, despite what he’d done. He was friendly when they spoke, and those dark eyes that watched him seemed kind.

His third attempt was during the auction. They’d dragged him, shackled, on stage and flaunted him before thousands to drive up his price. Shouto waited until the crowd was at a fever pitch before he spread his wings and broke the measly bindings they’d placed on him.

He nearly managed to fly away, too, until Hanta pierced a wing with his blaster gun.

After being laid down gently on the floor of his prison cell, Shouto listened as Hanta apologized profusely. He hadn’t meant to hurt him, he was just doing his job.

It’d all be okay soon, once he got into his new home. His owners would take good care of him, he’d see.

Shouto didn’t care to hear any of it. When Hanta helped the captain fix the collar around his neck, he gave up speaking again, entirely.

It’s now been a week. They’re approaching the space station where the buyers live, and he still hasn’t uttered a word.

His final attempt will be today, during the handoff to his new owners.

He figures that’s when he has the best odds to spread his wings one final time and attempt to flee.

He doesn’t like to imagine what will happen if he fails.

Drawing in a lungful of air, he attempts to steady himself. Just in time, too.

He hears boots tapping on the metal floors near the entrance of his cell and looks up to see a familiar face. Hanta. Again. He buries his face once more, squeezing his eyes shut tight. The churn in his stomach is positively nauseating.

Is it time already? But he’s not ready to be brave.

“Come on, Shouto. Let’s go,” Hanta murmurs quietly. When Shouto stumbles to his feet, their eyes meet briefly. For a split second, he sees a grimace pinching Hanta’s expression, almost as though he’s in pain.

Then it smooths out, a reassuring smile taking its place.

Shouto makes a noise of disgust, ripping his gaze away.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, Hanta guides him forward. They move quietly through the hull of the ship, neither speaking a word.

Shouto is too busy trying to find the perfect moment to break free… though he isn’t provided many in such a tight corridor. This is a different route than they took for the auction. He’s completely unfamiliar with the narrow hallways and winding route,

at a loss for what to do other than wait.

“Almost there,” Hanta breathes. Shouto’s mismatched gaze snaps to him. What was that feeling he just sensed in his tone? Anxiety, yes, but something else… Something that sounded less like dread or regret and more like nerves.

But when he peeks over his shoulder at him, Hanta gives nothing away. Once again, he tips a smile at Shouto, the fingers bracing his shoulder squeezing lightly.

“It’ll be alright,” he whispers. “Don’t worry.”

Shouto feels like something is off, but he has no time to dwell on it. Their quick journey ends one minute later when they enter the cargo bay, and then he’s too busy trying to figure out what’s going on to think about Hanta’s nerves.

He expected a heavy crew presence during the handoff, blasters out to keep him from getting any wild ideas. His owners paid an obscene amount of credits for him and the captain made it very clear that he’d rather give Shouto to them in pieces than risk losing any of that money.

There’s not another soul present in the bay when Hanta ushers him inside.

The pirate hurries over to a small vessel, types in the access code, and sets to work clearing it out… all while the other man watches, dumbfounded.

After a long minute, Shouto finally breaks his silence. “What’s going on?” he croaks.

“Everyone’s up top right now, preparing to dock,” Hanta tells him, out of breath. He throws some boxes from the hardly used vessel onto the floor without ceremony.

“Take this yawl and pilot to the nearest moon—we’re near Ganymede II, just a short flight from here.”

“I don’t understand.”

Hanta continues talking as if he doesn’t hear him. “You’ll find help there if you make it to the embassy.

Gotta move fast though, before they discover you’re gone.” He finishes clearing out the cockpit, kicking a toolbox out of the way. When he reaches to grab Shouto’s wrists, the other pulls away instinctively.

“Hey, now.” He levels a serious look at him.

Unusual, for a pirate whose smiles usually come easy. “Sho, this is your chance.”

Shouto’s overwhelmed by what’s happening, confused and cautious. He feels a little stupid as he asks, “My chance?”

“To escape.” Hanta huffs an exasperated laugh, jumping down to his level.

“Time for you to get out of here.”

His movements are careful as he unlocks the collar around Shouto’s neck, almost tender. An accidental brush of his fingertip on the nape of his neck makes Shouto shiver.

Then the weight is falling off, the collar clattering to the ground, useless.

“You’re letting me go,” Shouto emphasizes slowly, still hardly able to comprehend. “…Why?”

“Gotta do something right in my life. Just once.”

His smile is crooked when he circles back to Shouto’s front. The sight of it makes Shouto’s stomach swoop, his heart flutter.

He stretches his wings, clearing his throat lightly.

“I don’t blame you for hating me.” Hanta tells him, grin fading.

“That’s not it—”

Shouto’s explanation is cut off when the doors to the cargo bay suddenly seal shut. The sound is jarring, making both of them jump.

A voice comes over a speaker, one that Shouto recognizes as the captain’s. “Of all the whelps…

Never thought you’d be the one to bite the hand that feeds you, Hanta.”

“Captain!” The pirate shouts, looking around wildly. “It’s not like that. I was—”

“Don’t bother lying. Save your breath—”

There’s a horrible screech as the cargo bay doors open.

The vacuum of space lies just beyond it, dark and ominous. It instantly starts to steal the air from the room.

“—You’ll need it.”

Space is death awash in stars… at least for most people. /Most/ people. Not Shouto.

He has an ability that few know about.

Though his wings are the most eye-catching part of him, earning him stares wherever he goes, they aren’t the most valuable. That honor belongs to his ability to survive in space… and to share it temporarily with someone of his choosing.

If the universe knew what he was capable of, he’d go for a lot more than an obscene amount of credits.

He moves without thinking, wrapping his arms around Hanta’s neck and slotting their mouths together. It’ll keep the pirate alive,

at least for a few minutes until they can make their escape. Doesn’t mean that Shouto can’t enjoy the feel of those lips against his own. Tingles bloom where the two of them touch, little electric charges that move between them as he draws Hanta closer, melting into him.

They kiss for just a second, but it feels like minutes have passed when they finally part.

“You’re wrong. I don’t hate you,” Shouto tells him softly, observing the pirate through half-lidded eyes.

The air in the room is gone completely, but they won’t need to breathe for a while.

Still, after that kiss he feels light-headed, like he’s just run for miles.

This close to Hanta, Shouto can see more than just the surprise in his eyes.

He’s lost as he falls into dark pools that sparkle like the night sky—almost a mirror to the vastness of space just a short distance away. Except, instead of cold and empty, Hanta’s gaze is filled with warmth and affection.

“You…” Hanta’s voice is hoarse, filled with shock. “How?”

It’s Shouto’s turn to smile reassuringly—a gesture that feels foreign, but one that he doesn’t mind when he’s directing it at the boy in front of him. He grabs Hanta’s wrist gently, spreading his wings wide.

A sense of freedom grips him, charging his movements and filling him with confidence.

He doesn’t need courage right now. Because he has Hanta with him, and he knows without a shadow of a doubt that they’re going to make it. He sets his sight on the nearby Ganymede II. So close.

Only a short flight away.

“It’s time for us to get out of here,” he tells Hanta, an echo of his earlier words, and then propels them through the cargo bay doors.

/end

I got the email from ao3, clicked to read, and audibly gasped when I saw the artwork! So pretty!! The colors! Shouto’s scar! I just had to write something and was so happy that I got permission.

The original concept is not mine.

I just expanded on it so I could write a kiss scene ❤️

And thank you so much for the wonderful gift @catquarium ! They’re so gorgeous 😭

Original 👇
archiveofourown.org/works/44428186