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If life was a movie, then you definitely felt as if you were starring in one as the main character.
Three hours or so had already passed since you and Touya began the climb up Sekoto Peak, and currently, you had your arms wrapped around him unabashedly as the both of you cruised through the nearly empty streets. With no traffic, the drive felt calm and easy, and you opted against wearing the helmet so that you could feel the wind blowing against your face. Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes and smiled.
It had been a long time since you’ve felt this relaxed.
Touya was now (thankfully) driving slowly and carefully, unlike how he did earlier that night when you were on the way to the mountain. And since he was driving you home now, you wanted to think that he was actually driving slowly on purpose just so he could spend more time with you.
As Touya turned at an intersection and joined with a steady stream of a few other vehicles, you let your mind wander to the conversation you had back at Sekoto. You thought of the way his cheek felt against your palm… his slender fingers resting lightly on top of yours. You thought about how he reached out to hold your hand as you walked down the mountain, and how he had laughed out loud when he saw the furious blush on your cheeks. Suddenly, the darkness of the night and the shadows around the trees hadn’t felt as daunting anymore.
You’ve never felt this relaxed in your entire life. You’ve never felt this happy.
But alas, your street finally came into view, and you felt your heart sink in disappointment.
Oh, hell. I can’t believe Touya just held my hand this one time and I’m already feeling this lovesick. You grimaced in self-disgust.
Touya eased the motorcycle into a halt in front of your house with a soft click that echoed in the emptiness of the night. Gingerly, you loosened your arms around him as you unwillingly stepped off. In the steadiness of the wind, you suddenly realized that your hair had been exposed during the whole ride and was probably looking like a tangled mess now. You furiously patted down the strands in a rush.
Touya didn’t get down the bike and used one leg as a stand to balance himself. He removed his helmet with one hand and regarded you calmly.
You smiled. “Congratulations. That was a better drive than the first one.”
He chuckled. “So you’re finally going to rate my skills a 10 out of 10?”
“Nah… maybe a 9.5.”
“Ah,” he shook his head in pretend dismay. “A mere .5 was all I lacked, such a shame. But that just means I need to improve and then take you out for a ride next time. Hm?”
You felt your chest and stomach churn simultaneously—undoubtedly the work of a throng of invisible butterflies. Oh no. I am so down bad. Yup, I am too far gone and there’s no going back.
Feeling like a stupid, lovesick teenager, you nodded. “Right. Yes. Okay, that sounds like a good plan.”
Touya laughed and then glanced at the sky. “I didn’t notice that it was already this late.”
You fished out your phone from your pocket and checked the time. It was already 12:48 am, the longest you had been outside of your house in years. Damn, you really lost track of time flirting and acting lovey-dovey with your crush. But what can you say? It was definitely worth it.
“Yeah, but it’s fine,” you replied. “I’m betting that I’d still be able to wake up on time for work tomorrow. Besides, I badly needed that break from everything else.”
A shrug from the man. “I’d tell you that I was sorry and that I was guilty, but I’d be lying if I did that.”
“Correct,” you rolled your eyes and laughed. “Let’s not pretend that you’re not a bad influence.”
A flash of amusement and a challenging raise of an eyebrow graced Touya’s face. “Are you having second thoughts now?”
You feigned a clueless expression. “Second thoughts about what?”
He tossed back a confident smirk . “You know what I’m talking about, princess.”
“First it was baby girl, and now it’s princess? Make up your mind, Touya.”
“Hm.” He paused and licked his lips. “Alright then, I’ll just call you mine.”
You couldn’t stop the half-choke, half-guffaw that bursted out of your mouth. Touya cackled unapologetically at your reaction.
“Sorry, sorry. Too fast?”
“N-no, I just,” you cleared your throat, struggling to keep your composure. Again, you never tried being in a relationship before—never even had someone who made flirtatious pick-up lines and comments like this. You were surprised that you were even able to respond at all. “I just wasn’t expecting that… I was just caught off guard, y’know?”
“Ah, you better get used to it, then.”
He was just so confident and smug, you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at the cheekiness. “As you command, sire.”
A few seconds of silence ensued, and both of you took the time to enjoy it. The past few hours felt like a fever dream, and you found yourself still reeling from the realization that Touya and you actually shared the same sentiments and feelings for each other. It was crazy… real crazy… and a part of you suddenly felt scared that you’d wake up in the morning and find out that it everything would be simply gone. At that moment, the hecticness of the day finally got to you, and you began feeling the fatigue seeping into your bones.
You swayed slightly on your feet.
Touya was quick to reach out and steady you with his hands. “Alright, alright. You should rest now.” Voice concerned and soft, he wrapped an arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him. “I’ll walk you to your door, come on.”
You let him lead you across the front yard, up the stairs, and onto your porch. With the remaining energy you had left, you fished for your keys and unlocked the door. Then, resting your hand on the knob, you looked back up at Touya.
“Do you want to stay for the night?”
Your eyes widened only after the words left your mouth. Touya raised an eyebrow in a teasing manner and chuckled. “You really just want me all to yourself, don’t you?”
The scoff you responded with did not sound convincing. “Well, I’m sorry I was just trying to be a nice person and offer a house to sleep in because it’s already late.”
“I was just joking,” he laughed. “I would love to accept the offer. But there are still matters I have to take care of.”
You bit your lip and nodded in understanding. Then you smiled. “Thank you,” you said softly. “For tonight. I definitely enjoyed it.”
Touya looked down at you, returning an intense gaze without changing his neutral expression. Again, you found yourself noticing every detail on his face that was visible in the moonlight. Again, you found yourself unable to look away from his deep turquoise irises—lost in thought, lost in emotion.
And then, without a warning, Touya suddenly bent and leaned closer to you, and you didn’t even have a second to react and process the sudden light weight on the corner of your lips. Eyes wide, breath held—your vision was clouded with Touya’s dark hair and your entire body was paralyzed in shock and confusion. A gush of warmth snaked down your spine.
It took you a second more to realize that Touya’s lips were resting on yours. There was neither a forceful intention nor an expectant invitation behind it. It was tender and light. Warm. Soft. Genuine.
He was kissing you. He was kissing you.
And your brain was not in its best condition to react to that.
You remained still, even after he had slowly pulled away.
“I… I—” you began, but Touya shushed you with a chuckle.
“You want more?”
“No! I mean, yes! I mean, no, but like… I mean that I do—but it’s just that—”
“Y/n.” He said, voice falling into a serious tone. “It’s alright. I’d also not want to make this too fast.”
With your jaw agape and eyes blown wide, you managed to nod slowly, but you were sure that you looked stupid with a tomato-red face and your heart audibly pulsing in the air. “Okay. Yes. Not too fast.”
The small smile was back on his face and he raised his gloved hand to cup your cheek. “Go on in now. And don’t get naughty dreams about me just because I kissed you, alright?”
You returned back to your senses and gasped audibly, smacking his hand away. “You wish, asshole.”
A laugh. “I call you mine and you call me asshole?”
“Good night, Touya. Now, shoo. It’s been a few hours but I’ve already got tired of your face,” you rolled your eyes, laughing, and stuck your tongue at him.
Touya jogged down the stairs and walked towards his bike, his body still facing you so that he was doing it backward. He waved a hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow, y/n.”
You twisted the knob and took a step back into your living room, gaze still on him. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Drive safe.”
You stood by the doorframe and watched Touya climb back onto his bike and, with one last wave, speed off into the night. When he was gone from sight, you closed the door with a soft click and a heavy sigh.
The house suddenly felt too big and empty.
It was dark in your living room, and you debated whether or not to turn the light on or just immediately head into your bedroom in the darkness and collapse on the bed. A shower obviously sounded nice, but sleep was the only thing you could think of at that moment.
But before you could come up with a decision, a sudden chill coursed right through you, making you stop in your tracks.
You whipped your head around the room and squinted your eyes to adjust them to the darkness.
Something was off….
Standing as still as possible, you scanned the room slowly, breathing deep and controlled. There was nothing obviously out of place and even in the little illumination filtering through the windows, you were certain that everything looked the way it had been when you left this morning.
So what was it?
You couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong with the room. It was as if something was missing… no… it was as if something was there when it shouldn’t have been.
You gasped softly.
That’s it! The eerie and disturbing feeling I got earlier—it was as if someone was looking at me! Maybe it was just a stray animal that got in? A burglar? No… a villain?
This time, your exhausted body was set back into fight or flight mode. The adrenaline quickly took over as you slowly inched your way towards the light switch on one side of the wall. Without taking your gaze away from the space of the living room, you tried to move and breathe as quietly as possible. Your eyes briefly flickered to the dusty and unused baseball bat you had kept a short distance away from the door. A quick mental calculation—it would take three to four steps to grab it.
If worse comes to worst, will I be able to reach it on time?
No. I will reach it on time. I have to.
You felt the wall against your back, and you blindly raised your fingers in search of the light switch.
Okay, here we go.
Inhaling deeply, you counted to three and braced your legs in case you needed to leap to the side and grab the baseball bat. Then, you flicked the light on.
What you saw made all your plans of defending yourself crumble into pieces.
Your breath hitched in your throat, your eyes grew wide. Your breathing began increasing into a manic pace, and your legs refused to move even a single inch. Sweat began to dot the expanse of your skin, and you couldn’t even raise a hand to wipe it away.
You were paralyzed. You were vulnerable. And most importantly, you couldn’t move your eyes away from the figure sitting on your couch, silent and unmoving.
It was a man. Or, you assumed that it was. You couldn’t tell clearly because of a hand that was covering his entire face. Moreover, it wasn’t just his face covered in… hands. There were hands on both of his arms and legs, and staring at them longer made you realize in dread that they were real human hands that had been cut off and bent in a certain way that they were able to grip the limbs of this man currently sitting in your living room.
He was wearing black clothes and had a messy mop of light blue hair. His own hands were laced together and resting calmly on top of his lap. He was really lanky, but his aura told you that he was the most dangerous man you have ever seen so far—maybe even more dangerous than Touya.
Not even a single squeak came out of your throat. This definitely wasn't your normal thief or villain, this man was way worse.
You simply stared as the man moved, unlacing his hands to scratch an area on his chest. Even that simple innocent gesture looked menacing and deadly. Your mouth suddenly went dry.
“You,” he suddenly spoke in a croaky and breathy voice that was almost enough to make you collapse in fear on the spot. His head was turned towards you, although you weren’t sure that he could actually see you behind the hand on his face. “We finally… found you,” he continued.
Found me?
Mustering up the little courage you had, you inhaled. “W-who… who are you?”
The man suddenly leaned forward in his seat, but it wasn’t him who answered your question. Instead, a small, shrill female voice echoed across the room.
“The question is… who are you?”
You whipped your head to your bedroom where a small girl suddenly emerged, bouncing in her steps as she entered the living room. The first thing you noticed was her school uniform. Then, your eyes trailed up to a scary and complicated-looking piece of equipment around her torso. Then, you looked up at her young face—at her wide grin and sharp fangs, and at the crazed cat-like eyes regarding you in amusement.
She couldn’t be older than 18, but there was a certain aura about her that made her seem like a different kind of dangerous. While the man appeared to be cold, calm, and calculating, this girl looked like she didn’t think twice about her actions and could easily kill you on the spot if she wanted to.
But luckily, it seemed like the man was in charge here, as the girl flickered her eyes towards him as if waiting for a rebuke or an order. When she received none, she happily bounced closer towards you.
“Oh, wait. I know the answer,” she smiled sweetly. “You’re Dabi’s girlfriend.”
She spat out the last word as if it was poison on her tongue. You held your breath as she walked around you slowly, and you couldn’t help think about a tiger circling its prey.
“What? Girlfriend? Dabi? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you said in a breathy rush.
“Ssssh,” the little girl replied, stopping back in front of you. She was shorter than you, obviously, but the way she was bringing herself made you feel weaker and inferior. “It’s okay if you’re going to keep it a secret. Honestly, I understand. If I dated someone as hideous as Dabi, I wouldn’t want to admit it out loud, too. But we know for a fact that it’s true—it was him outside just a few seconds ago, wasn't it?”
With a giggle, she leaned closer and held up a finger against your throat. Your eyes widened even more, daring your entire body not to move. You watched as she greedily licked her lips, a famished gaze in her eyes.
“And I understand why he likes you. You’re so pretty,” she breathed out. “Maybe if I just took a little bit of your blood, then I can be pretty, too….”
“Toga,” the man interrupted. “Didn’t we agree that you’d keep your hands off her until we get what we want? Let her go.”
For a few more seconds, the girl—Toga—didn’t remove her finger and continued to stare at your throat.
“Toga…”
“Fine,” she finally huffed and withdrew her hand, and you slowly let out the breath you had been holding.
She walked towards the couch and stood behind the man, arms crossed. You waited for any of them to begin speaking again.
“I’ll get to the point,” the man was the first to break the silence. His voice was almost like a whisper, and it took all of you to pay attention to what he said. “We’re here to use you as bait. There’s someone who had been part of our little group but just recently, he was suddenly gone without telling us. Normally, we don’t care about that kind of stunt, but the thing is, we badly need this person for a certain goal… although I hate to admit it.” He paused. Raised a hand to scratch his neck. Lowered the same hand to scratch his arm. He let another extra moment to pass before continuing. “And it took us quite a while to find out what he’s been up to. But now, we know that you have connections with him, and you’re coming with us as bait. We could have just confronted him a few moments ago outside—”
“—But if we did that, we knew he was still going to escape, anyway, probably even taking you with him. If that happens, it’s going to be even harder to look for that jerk. And I am done looking for him if ever he gets away again,” Toga continued, grinning. “We thought… no… I thought that getting Dabi back would be more effective if we took you hostage. I’m so brilliant. Right? Right?”
Your breath was coming out now rapidly. Is this real? Am I going crazy? You were beginning to feel dizzy as you tried to make sense of what these strangers said.
Then in that moment, everything clicked in your brain. Dabi… Dabi was Touya, and these people in your house right now were also villains, presumably his companions or something of the sort—but now, they were looking for him with malicious intent. You didn’t need to be a genius to figure out that these were two of the most dangerous people you’ve ever encountered, and if they ever laid their hands on Touya….
You gulped, you didn’t want that to happen.
“Look, I don’t know who you are or what you’re talking about, but I’m telling you that whatever this bullshit is, I have nothing to do with it. I’m not the person you’re looking for, and if you just leave right now, I won’t tell a single soul about you both.”
Toga blinked twice and then groaned. “Tomura, this is taking so long. I told you we should’ve knocked her out immediately instead.”
The man—Tomura—didn’t respond, but he fell quiet as if considering the comment and his options. He raised his own hand again and scratched an exposed area of skin on his throat. “Honestly, I was hoping you’d just come with us without a fuss… I didn’t want to exert more effort today, especially because Kurogiri is not here. But, obviously, I shouldn’t have expected that this would go smoothly.”
Tomura stood up and waved a hand in Toga’s direction—a sign of permission for the girl to do what she wanted to do. You stared in paralyzed horror as she slowly moved toward you with a grin and a raised hand.
Eyes flickering to the baseball bat and then back to the approaching girl. I could still reach it… I could still—
But before you could even move away from the wall, you felt something hard hit your head and in the next moment, a deadly shade of black consumed your vision.
When you woke up, the first thing that registered was the intense pounding of your head. You winced when the pain hit you and was about to raise an arm to massage it away when you then realized that you couldn’t move either of your arms. Something thick seemed to dig harshly into your wrists, and you instinctively let out another groan.
It took you a couple more minutes to fully figure out what was going on, and the effort that it took for you to do it was enormous. You were sitting on a wooden chair in the middle of a large, dark storage room that had only one equally large window where the only source of illumination—the moonlight—was entering through. Your legs were bound to each of the chair’s legs, your arms were tied together behind you, and a piece of cloth was securely wrapped around your mouth. The room smelled of dust and rot, and in the darkness, you could make out a few wooden crates, a small bed, and several plastic bags containing what looked like to be empty food cans and plastic utensils.
To summarize: you didn’t know where you were, you didn’t know what time and day it was, and you didn’t know how the hell you would manage to escape from this place and from your kidnappers.
The only thing you were sure of was that you were fucked.
You forced your system to fight away the grogginess and soreness your entire body was feeling and began scanning the room again to check for the most achievable escape route. There was one door—closed shut—and you could see two door latches on the inside part, but you had a feeling that the door was also bolted from the outside. Maybe the window would be a good option, too… if you somehow managed to find a way to get up there.
Getting out would be a challenge, but first, you had to figure out how to untie your arms and legs before those people returned.
People, you had said. But just a few minutes of being in their presence convinced you that they were more like monsters. These were the type of beings Touya—no, Dabi—knew and worked with, and it was crazy that you couldn’t even imagine him doing the same things, like barging into an innocent person’s home and kidnapping them as hostages. Right… he had been showing you another side of him since you met, and it was your fault for forgetting how different your worlds really were.
Tears began prickling at the corner of your eyes, but you steeled yourself and began wiggling your hands back and forth, hoping to loosen the rope and free yourself. You forced yourself to not think about the pain as the rope dug and cut into your skin and pushed through.
I need to get out. I need to get out. I need to get out. I need. To. Get. Out.
In that moment, a tiny part of your brain suddenly voiced out, “What if I just wait for Touya to come and save me?” It was a tempting idea…really… assuming that he would really come in the first place. But now that you have been finally exposed to the world he’s living in, your emotions were in a state of war and you couldn’t help but think that “Touya” could have been a farce. You suddenly felt furious.
Make the helpless girl fall for you, then get her companions to kidnap her so that she could be divided into spare parts and sold to the market. That would definitely be a good strategy.
But even if that horrible thought crossed your mind, you couldn’t bring yourself to readily believe it. Flashbacks to images of Touya’s cocky smile and raised eyebrow every time he made teasing remarks, the soft lines of his face under the glow of the television screen, the pain and helplessness in his eyes on Sekoto, and the warmth of his lips on yours cemented themselves on your brain. Okay, you were going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but that didn’t mean that you were going to sit still like a damsel in distress and do nothing.
Maybe it was because of luck, but the rope wasn’t made with a strengthening Quirk of some sort and was haphazardly tied (you couldn’t tell if you felt relieved or offended that they thought you weren’t strong enough to untie it) and after a few more grueling minutes and muffled screams, you managed to loosen the rope enough so that your hands could wiggle out of them.
You then ripped off the cloth around your mouth and began gasping for air. Your mouth was dry and your throat was sore, and you made a mental note that the first thing you were going to look for when you got out of here was water.
Leaning back into the chair, you glanced at your bloodstained wrists and winced. It would probably take a week or two for them to really heal, and the accompanying soreness or bruises would make even picking up a spoon a pain-in-the-ass.
You bent over and began untying the rope around your legs, biting your lip to hold back from screaming out in pain. When you were finally free, you wobbled to the door and, with shaking fingers, unlatched the bolts.
But when you tried to push it open, you found that it wouldn’t budge, as you had expected.
A sob finally escaped from your lips.
“Oh, no… this can’t be… this just fucking can’t be,” you rambled under your breath, shaking your head in disbelief.
I’ve gotta slam into it… slam into that fucking door with everything I have.
Drawing your arms to your chest, you took four steps backward, eyeing the door in concentration and tensing your muscles as tight as you can. But just as you were to charge towards it, the wind suddenly became cooler and thicker in the room, and a wooshing sound erupted from behind you.
Shit. They’re here.
In horror, you spun around to see a dark mass of fog emerging in the middle of the room. You could do nothing but watch as the fog gradually became larger and four figures began coming out of it—Tomura, Toga, and two other men you haven’t seen before. The first one was a tall man wearing a black and gray bodysuit that covered his body completely from head to toe. His head was also covered with a mask, and it was darting back and forth between you and the empty chair rapidly, as if not able to comprehend that you were able to escape. The second man was more composed and reserved, wearing a dark orange shirt, a black waistcoat, and black dress pants. But just like the first one, he was also wearing a disguise over his face—a combination of a mask, balaclava, and to top it off, a tall top hat. He looked like a magician, you comically thought, and the absurdity of it all made you want to burst out laughing.
When all of them entered the room, the dark fog began condensing, and another figure began taking shape. It was a figure of a man wearing an elegant suit and a metal brace that went from his collarbone to just below his eyes—which were mere yellow slits glaring from the purple mist that made up his “head”. It seemed like the portal earlier was this guy’s Quirk.
The group regarded you with varying looks, and you allowed your harsh gaze to settle directly on Tomura, whose face was now visible with the absence of all those hands that had covered his body the first time you met him. What you saw shocked you—it was a pale and thin face, skin wrinkled a great deal around tired and empty eyes, with lips chapped and uneven. It wasn’t the face you imagined the leader of a group of villains would look like. It was the face of someone who was in pain and was silently screaming for help, forcefully hardened by years of anger and vengeance.
It was the face of someone like Touya.
“Boss!” the man in the bodysuit suddenly yelled, making eccentric and wild movements with his hand. Everyone except Tomura turned to him.
“I’m 100% sure that I tied those ropes properly! I have no idea how she could have possibly got out of them… maybe we were wrong about her being Quirkless? Yes, that must have been it….”
Then to your surprise, he slapped himself hard. “No, idiot. How could the boss be ever wrong about something? It’s your fault for doing a half-assed job.” The man then shook his head wildly and turned back to Tomura. “You’re right, you’re right… Well, should I tie her again to the chair, Boss?”
You snapped your head back to Tomura, hoping to whatever supreme being that was listening right now to not make it happen. Tomura regarded you blankly for a few seconds, and then his eyes dropped towards your wrist and towards the streams of blood falling onto the ground.
“No need, Twice. In her state, she won’t be able to get away.”
From the corner of your eyes, Twice made a salute gesture just as Toga approached him and patted his arm. Toga had her cat-eyes roaming over your arms, undoubtedly thirsting over your blood and planning how she could have her sweet time with you later once their boss no longer needed you.
You looked at Tomura. “Let me the fuck go,” you snarled, patience running thin and anger flaring up.
“We will let you go,” the portal-man said. “But you have to wait until Dabi shows up.”
“Speaking of Dabi,” the man with the top hat raised his hand in a polite manner. “Spinner said he already has details of his current location and is currently keeping his eyes on him. It seems that he is aware of the current—”
A glance at your direction. “—situation. It might be just a few minutes more before he shows up.”
“See? I told you he’d come,” Toga grinned sweetly. “I’m honestly jealous… I also want a man to save me when I’m all helpless and trapped.”
“R-really? Do you want that, Toga-chan?”
“Will you do it for me, Jin….”
Their voices blurred out as you tuned out from their conversations, your own heartbeat raging inside your own head. Touya was coming… and you don’t know what would lie in store for him here. The group said that they just wanted him to come back to them… but what if they weren’t really his companions and this was all just a trap? What if they wanted to kill him? Or what if this was all just a trap for you… and Touya was in on it all along and was coming here to finally reveal the evil plan he had this whole time….
You shook your head then regretted it, feeling the wave of nausea hit. If you weren’t going to die at the hands of these people, you were surely going to die from blood loss. Your legs threatened to buckle under you, and you were surprised when the man with the top hat took a step forward.
“You should take it easy,” he said, walking in your direction. “We don’t have any reason to hurt you if you just sit still and wait.”
But before you could even think twice, your hand instinctively curled into a fist and, with the little strength you had left, swung it towards his face. It connected, and you heard the sound of bone against bone as the man stumbled backward, both from the impact and the shock.
In an instant, Toga and Twice rushed towards you and grabbed each of your arms tightly and painfully. You yelped out in pain.
Suddenly, a certain memory flashed inside your brain. It was the morning after the first night you had brought Touya into your house. You had been talking with him in the kitchen, and he was still his distant and cold self when you both began opening up to each other. You remember telling him that if you encountered a villain again, you wouldn’t even try fighting them.
If a villain attacks me next time and I die, then so be it.
What would a Quirkless girl like me even do?
You recalled watching in amusement as Touya took that first sip of your soup and his eyes immediately sparkling. You recalled the shy gaze he averted when he told you that one line you could never forget.
I’d appreciate it if you didn’t die at all….
A chuckle escaped your mouth at the thought. It was just then that you realized how much Touya changed your outlook in life. You once said that you wouldn’t even try saving your life when it came to it, but here you were, a Quirkless person who just threw a punch at a villain in an attempt against death.
“Listen here, bitch,” Toga hissed, twisting your arm behind you. “You heard what he said. We have no reason to hurt you if you just stop being stupid and sit still. You should be thankful I can’t kill you yet because we still need your boyfriend to come. But if you hurt any more of my friends, I will make sure you’re going to regret it. Do you understand?”
“Don’t hurt him,” you choked out, wincing from the pain. The warp-man had helped the man you had punched to stand up, and the latter made no comment or visible body reaction as he dusted his suit off.
Toga narrowed her eyes. “What did you say?”
“I think she said ‘don’t hurt him,” chimed Twice.
“I know. But what the fuck does it mean?”
You panted and tried to peel yourself away from their grip—a fruitless effort. “Don’t hurt him,” you repeated, softly this time. “Don’t kill him.”
For a few moments, no one spoke or dared move a muscle. Whatever they had expected you to say, it definitely wasn’t that. Twice was looking frantically back and forth at you and at the rest of the group, Tomura showed no reaction, and Toga had tilted her head in a curious manner as if inspecting a newly-discovered specimen.
It was Tomura who broke the silence first.
“You’re starting to become fucking annoying,” he said, and he began slowly approaching you in a seemingly bored gait. He raised a hand to scratch his face, then his neck, then his arm. You felt Toga and Twice loosen their grip on you before they stepped back. As exhausted and dizzy as you were, you defiantly kept your head up and stared at their leader. If you were going to die right now, you wanted to at least feel brave doing so.
He halted a few steps in front of you and sighed. “This whole thing would have been easy if you just sat still like a good girl and waited… but you had to fight back, punch one of my men, and then order us around?”
In one sudden motion, Tomura lifted one hand and rested his fingers lightly around your neck. It was as if they were merely grazing a fragile vase on display, and you realized there were only four points of sensation on your skin. He was touching you with only four fingers.
Your eyes widened in shock, and it wasn’t only you who was alarmed—Toga, Twice, and the two other men jumped on their feet, their eyes wide and attentive as they passed questioning looks among themselves. None of them looked eager to stop their leader, though, and that only made you understand that none of them would stand a chance against Tomura if they tried to fight him.
You were a dead woman. Whatever was his quirk, Tomura was going to demolish you now.
You dared not move a single muscle and waited for him to speak.
“Why are you protecting Dabi?”
No good answer came to mind, and so you kept your mouth shut and stared back at him.
Tomura narrowed his eyes. “Who are you to him?”
“Nobody,” you breathed out. “I am nobody to him… but I’m certain that he has his reasons for disappearing from your… from your group.” You gulped. “So… when you see him, just hear him out.”
A nasty scowl grazed Tomura’s lips and he squeezed your throat harder, on the four points of sensation that were now starting to feel like they were about to break. You whimpered, a hand instinctively grabbing his outstretched arm in an attempt to break free.
He didn’t even flinch and continued to stare you down intensely. “My Quirk allows me to disintegrate whatever I touch with all five of my fingers,” he whispered menacingly, leaning down closer to your face. “Do you know how many of my fingers are on your neck right now?”
You pursed your lips without answering.
An impatient intake of air. “I said… do you know how many of my fingers are on your neck right now?”
When he squeezed even harder, you croaked out a weak “four.” Tomura’s mouth slowly grew into a smile and nodded. “Correct. If I just place my index finger on this lovely skin of yours… that’s going to be the end of you.”
“Should I do it?” he tilted his head in thought. “Do you want me to do it? Dabi is on his way, anyway. You’ve already served your purpose….”
Staring into Tomura’s eyes—into the red irises that were both hollow and enraged at the same time—you supposed that you should have been feeling more scared right now. But strangely, you felt a sense of peace… of acceptance. This was how it should have been like all along. This was how the world worked. The strong win, and the weak die. You were born into this world without a Quirk, after all, and your life was now going to be ended by someone who had one.
Tomura was now gripping your throat firmly. You slowly closed your eyes and a shade of turquoise filled your vision.
I’m sorry, Touya. I wish we could have had one last meal, at least….
BOOM.
A sudden cacophony of glass shattering and wood breaking erupted from above.
You instinctively raised your arms over your head in an attempt to shield yourself from the torrential downpour of glass shards coming from the room’s broken window. You heard Twice yell something indecipherable followed by Toga’s manic giggle. Several thuds echoed across the room, presumably from the footsteps of everyone trying to escape the debris.
Despite the common, Tomura remained unfazed, and his fingers remained on your neck as he calmly looked up to the source of the destruction. You peeked through a gap in your arms, hoping to figure out what was going on, only to find the task to be nearly impossible—thick smoke had now begun filling the entire space. You shut your eyes and coughed.
What the fuck is Tomura doing? Will he let all of us suffocate to death here instead of letting me go?
And then… the scent of fire and burnt leather hit.
And then you knew that Touya had come.
Your head shot up as tears began prickling at the corner of your eyes, and a relieved sob threatened to bubble up your throat.
A second later, the figure of a man began to take shape behind the smoke, and after another second more, Touya finally emerged—looking furious, annoyed, and ready to burn the entire room down.
“Take your fucking filthy hand off her, you asshole.”
The sound of his voice sent a shiver down your spine. At that moment, you then realized how mistaken you had been—you might have thought that Tomura was the scariest person you’ve met so far, but the look on Touya’s face right now was bringing you a different kind of fear you’ve never felt before. You looked directly into his eyes, but his dark gaze was pinned on the guy holding you hostage as he jumped down the windowsill and approached.
Tomura slightly tilted his head at the newcomer. “What a dramatic entrance for someone who disappeared on us like a ghost.”
Touya didn’t slow down in his steps, eyebrows furrowed in an angry and directed gaze. “I told you to fucking let her go,” he sneered, and then in one swift motion, a blue flame erupted from his hand, which he had raised over his head as if ready to hurl it at Tomura.
You frantically looked between your captor and at him, but Touya was still adamant about not returning your gaze.
The two men continued to stare each other down for a few moments, and the rest of you didn’t dare to move or speak in fear of being caught between the tension. At the side, the warp man seemed to brace himself to intervene if he had to.
Finally, Tomura withdrew his hand, and you stumbled backward as you gasped for air and out of relief.
“No need to be so angry,” Tomura calmly said, but Touya was having none of it. The flames in his hand grew even larger.
“Why the fuck did you do all this, huh? Even getting someone innocent involved in your stupidity?”
“Hey,” Toga intervened. “It’s not our fault you suddenly became missing in action, Dabi. And besides… since when did you care about getting innocents involved in our stunts?”
An exasperated scoff escaped Touya’s mouth. “Hey… you’re fucking idiots, aren’t ya? Has the stress of all the bullshit you’ve been doing finally got to your brains? Did you forget that I had been undercover this whole time and trying to get on one of the heroes’ good side? Didn’t you think about how I wouldn’t be able to gain his trust if he finds out I’ve been in contact with all of you and he’ll figure out that we’re only going to use him? Are you all fucking dumb or what?”
You flinched at the intensity of the last line, and Touya finally became aware of your presence. He jolted slightly and turned his head toward you, only holding your gaze for no longer than a second. In that brief moment, you saw the cloud of emotions tormenting his irises—shock, guilt, shame, and sadness. You retreated to the wall and sank to your knees, debating if you should stay and wait or use the chance to escape.
The rest of the villains shared unsure looks among themselves, and a hint of guilt painted their faces. It was obvious that they indeed forgot about what Touya had just said. Twice let out an awkward laugh, “Ah… Dabi-kun… this was all just a misunderstanding, yeah? Calm down, now… it’s all good since we’ve already cleared everything out….”
Just then, the door flew open, and another figure came rushing in, wild-eyed and breathless. The newcomer was a young man with a reptile-like appearance, with bright green scales for skin and a shape resembling that of a lizard. His long purplish hair was in a tangled mess. It seemed like he had been running.
“I… I tried to… stop him… from rushing in and burning the hideout,” he panted out in between gulps of air. “But he was too pissed… he attacked the rest of my men….”
Tomura turned to Touya and raised a questioning eyebrow. Touya returned his gaze coolly and scowled.
“Serves you all right. What you did is fucking unforgivable. Not only did you involve someone else unnecessarily, but you’ve also fucked up my mission. We better find somewhere else to hole up before the HPSC burns this place down.”
Twice laughed. “Well, you kind of did that already, Dabi….”
Touya ignored the comment, extinguished the flame on his hand, and turned away from the group. You stared at him as he walked towards you, an unreadable look on his face. You remained silent as he crouched down, his gaze falling to your wrists. He ripped two strips of cloth from his coat and wrapped them securely around your wounded skin. “This will have to do for now,” he whispered without looking at you before gingerly collecting you in his arms and lifting you bridal-style. You hesitantly placed your arm around his neck as he stood up and looked back over his shoulder at his comrades.
“I’ll be back with a report in a week. Until then, get off my ass.”
It was dark and quiet outside, and it seemed that you were somewhere remote, judging from the lack of other industrial lights and the abundance of tall trees. The sound of the rest of the villains discussing among each other slowly faded as Touya wordlessly carried you in his arms further away from what you guessed was their hideout.
You knew you should say something… but one look at Touya’s pained face made you at a loss for the right words. You simply tightened your hold around him instead.
Both of you remained in silence until his motorcycle came into view.
“Will you be able to ride?”
You nodded.
Touya set you down slowly on the ground before he hopped on the bike. You slowly followed suit, forcing back a groan of pain down your throat. Touya said nothing and tenderly reached out to your arms and wrapped them around his waist.
“I’ll drive slowly,” he said, his tone soft. “Hold on.”
You said nothing, and Touya understood that the unspoken words will have to be said later. He nodded tersely, started the engine, and took off.
A yelp of pain escaped your lips before you could think twice.
Touya’s hands froze mid-air and he glanced up at you in a panic. “Was that too harsh? You good?”
You let out a long exhale, nodded slowly, and then leaned your head back into the couch before another wave of dizziness had the chance to hit you again. “Yeah… I’m good.”
His concerned gaze lingered on you for a few more seconds before nodding and returning to his task. You watched as his fingers readjusted their grip around your left ankle, which was resting on one of his legs. Touya resumed dotting an ice pack on the bruises which were beginning to form on the area of your skin where the rope had been tied. He had already cleaned and bandaged your wrists properly minutes earlier, and despite your protests—“trust me, Touya, I’ll be fine”—, he was now treating the injured parts of your legs.
The time was 4:30 in the morning, around three hours since Touya had dropped you off at your house—three hours since your first encounter with two of the most dangerous villains to exist. You had no clue about the location of the place where you were kept, and you had actually been dozing in and out on the ride home—Touya had to hold your arms in place with one hand so you didn’t fall off the bike.
Both of you were now splayed on the couch in your living room—the same couch where your abductor had been waiting for you earlier. You could still see the way Tomura had looked sitting comfortably in the same spot where Touya was right now, and you shook your head to forcefully erase the image from your mind. Touya was also adamant about not turning the lights of the living room on, in case any of the villains, especially Toga, was still out for your throat. Instead, he had taken out the bedside lamp from your room and placed it on the coffee table to serve as your illumination.
The darkness of the house, added with the fatigue in your bones, made you feel like none of what was happening was real.
Moreover, you couldn’t help but think about how that was the first time you’ve actually seen Touya’s Quirk in action. Although you had guessed his fire-based power correctly during the first time you met each other, you didn’t expect that it was that powerful and dangerous to his own body. You didn’t know if that scared you more than it worried you.
So much had happened during that single day. Suddenly, you wished that it was all just a dream.
“How’d you know they got me?” you asked Touya, your voice hoarse and weak.
Touya let another second pass before answering. “One of my men called me. He’d actually been calling me for an hour or so… but I was preoccupied with something else that time—”
“Your mission.”
A bobbing of his throat. “Yes. He said that Spinner—that’s the reptile-looking guy you saw earlier—had some info about a kidnapping. ‘Tomura has someone important to you’ was what he said. Was easy to figure out by then that it was you. Came as fast as I could.”
Touya let go of your ankle and began treating the other one. He was moving as gently as he could, but you could still see that he was still slightly shaken from the entire ordeal.
“Oh,” was all you could reply.
“How’s your head?” he asked.
You raised one hand and gingerly touched the spot where Toga had hit you to unconsciousness earlier. “Swelling. But I’ll live.”
Touya nodded without looking up and the silence was back once more—thick and tense. It was uncomfortable. You decided that you could no longer stand it.
“So…” you started slowly, subconsciously biting your lower lip as you hesitated to spill out the words. “Dabi, is it?”
Touya froze. His eyes narrowed as he inhaled sharply.
You lazily rolled your head to the side to look at him, but the man was avoiding your gaze.
“When Tomura and Toga found me here… they said that they were looking for Dabi. I was confused at first, obviously, but I realized that they were talking about you.”
Still no response. Touya set down the ice pack on your leg.
The silence was beginning to annoy you, and you decided to press one more time. “So which is it? Your real name?”
Now that finally got him to look at you, and your eyes widened in shock when you saw the pained expression in his eyes.
“I’m… Touya,” he whispered mostly to himself, dejectedly and unsurely. “Dabi is my villain name.”
Even though you were the one who wanted to break the silence, you found yourself incapable of thinking of what to say, and your mouth opened and closed itself again and again as it tried to form the right words. Touya noticed this, and he spared you from the task by speaking first.
“I’m sorry.”
Well. If words can shatter a heart into a million pieces, then those two words just drove a hammer into your chest. You sucked in a shaky breath.
“Sorry for what, Touya?”
A frustrated sigh. “I ruined such a good night because I wasn’t careful. I thought I was careful. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have gotten you involved in this shit.”
You removed both legs from his lap and crossed them under you as you shifted in your seat to face him at a better angle. “Well, it wasn’t exactly your fault,” you responded. “Don’t carry all the blame about this becau—”
“You don’t fucking understand,” he snapped, his eyes suddenly furrowed in raw anger. You blinked in shock and held your breath. It had been a while since Touya’s anger was directed at you, and in the dimness of the room, the lines of his face looked harsher and stronger. He was fuming. A glance at his curled fists told you that he was trying his best not to explode.
“I almost got you fucking killed, y/n,” he continued. “Those idiots… those fucking idiots there wouldn’t have spared your life if they didn’t use you to bait me. Hell, they wouldn’t even have known about your identity if I didn’t get you involved in the first place.”
You wanted to disagree… you wanted to pull him into your arms and tell him that it wasn’t his fault at all, but you couldn’t deny that Touya was right. The villains did want you in the first place because they found out that you were linked with their comrade. But he looked so ashamed of himself and you realized how much it was breaking you that he was beating himself up because of what happened.
“I’m okay now, though,” you offered weakly. You began reaching out to him slowly. “And they’re probably not going to come after me again because they already understood the situation….”
Touya deflected your hand, letting it fall back to your side. The consequent twist in your chest was more painful than you expected it to be.
He let out a short bitter laugh. “You think it’s that simple? You think those guys would just leave you alone like that? No… they are going to hunt you down and make sure you are not going to reveal their identities to anyone else. In fact, if I hadn’t arrived on time… Tomura would have,” he paused, closing his eyes and squeezing the bridge of his nose. “Tomura would have already killed you.”
Touya’s eyes furrowed in frustration, and you could detect a quiver on the corner of his lips.
Oh no. He looked like he was about to cry. You could feel hot tears beginning to form in your own eyes too.
“Touya…”
“Stop it, y/n. It doesn’t matter what you’re going to say… it’s always going to be my fau—”
“Can you shut up and let me fucking talk for a second?” you finally burst, surprising Touya and yourself. But everything that had happened that night was finally beginning to get into your head, and you decided to allow yourself to let out all the unsorted emotions into the air.
“You’re right. You’re right when you said that if it hadn’t been because of you, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened to me. But I hate it that you’re treating me like a goddamn child! I am also responsible for my actions—I also got myself into this mess. Stop acting all down and shit because I was the one who brought you into my house in the first place. I was the one who asked a stranger like you to enter and stay in my life. And that’s why I hate that you’re carrying all the burden and blame here. It makes me feel guilty. It makes me feel weak. And I’ve had enough of feeling weak.”
You paused to catch your breath, and Touya unwaveringly held your gaze, his mouth parted slightly.
A shaky exhale fell from your mouth. “Back when I was still tied up there… I admit that I thought of the most horrible things and possibilities. I wondered if you were just a fake… if everything was just a fake… and that you were only making me fall for you just so that you can use me. I managed to escape and I tried to fight back… but when Tomura had me in his grip, I suddenly realized how fruitless my attempts at fighting death were. I realized I didn’t stand a chance. I was ready to accept that I was going to die. But you were there, Touya. And you saved me.”
You let the last words hang in the air, allowing him to feel the weight behind them. You searched Touya’s eyes for a reaction, but he simply lowered his gaze onto the floor and shook his head.
“This was a mistake.” He said and suddenly stood up from the couch.
Your heart sank.
“A mistake? What do you mean?” you frantically asked, your head turning as you followed his movement. You shot up from the couch, wincing slightly at the movement, and took a step forward towards him. His back was facing you, and you watched in increasing panic as he walked slowly to the door.
“Touya, wait.”
He paused a few feet away from the door.
“Hey… where are you going?” your voice croaked.
Touya stood still for what seemed to be forever, his back towards you and his shoulders rising and falling in a tense manner. Then, he slowly turned back to look at you. When he lifted his head up, you felt the world crumble under your feet.
The life in his turquoise irises was no longer there. Touya was looking at you with a blank expression. It wasn’t even the furious and wild face of the stranger you had met in the Alley. It wasn’t even the pained and helpless man you had talked to at Sekoto. This was an entirely different person—with the expression of someone you couldn’t recognize painting the familiar features of the face belonging to the person you had cared for and fell for after all this time.
The unfamiliar gaze pinned you on the spot. “I’m sorry. We’re just too different….”
“You can’t just fucking let me fall for you and say that shit, Touya! Can't you see how unfair that is?”
“What is it that you can’t understand, y/n? We live in two different worlds… and we were wrong for forgetting that. I know it was you who let me in, but I take full responsibility for bringing you into situations you shouldn’t be part of. I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing!” you half-yelled, half-sobbed. For a brief moment, a flicker in Touya’s eyes threatened to break his composure. It was gone as soon as it appeared. The stolidness remained, even as he raised a finger and wiped away a drop of blood that fell down from the corner of his eye.
But you weren’t done with your outburst. “What are you even worried about? It’s just like what your comrades said earlier… this was all just a misunderstanding. No one’s going to come for me again. I’m alive and I’m fine. I don’t see what’s the problem here.”
“That’s the thing, y/n,” he responded, voice rising one notch higher. He paused, realizing that he was close to yelling at you. He took a couple of deep breaths before continuing in a lower and calmer tone. “It is a problem as long as I am with you. Someone else… someone dangerous is still going to come after you because I am a dangerous man leading a dangerous life. Aren’t you scared? Aren’t you scared that what happened tonight will happen again?”
“I am scared,” you choked out in the most heart-wrenching voice you could muster. “I have never been more scared of my life before tonight. I am terrified, Touya," a sob erupted from your chest. "But I’m just more scared of losing you.”
The silence was deafening this time around as both of you stared each other down for what felt like a lifetime. The ticking of the distant wall clock was the only sound in the room, and it was on par with the incessant beating of your heart.
Finally, Touya blinked and looked away. Another drop of blood ran down his face. This time, he made no move to wipe it away.
“I’m sorry, y/n,” he began, and you found yourself holding your breath. “This brief time that I’ve known you were the happiest I’ve been in years. With you, I could be Touya. But at the end of the day, I can’t turn away from the life I’ve been living as Dabi.”
Then, he decided to break out of the cold and blank expression by offering a small, sad smile. “The rest of the world doesn’t know Touya. And those who know Dabi will make sure that everything he holds dear will be taken away from him. I hope you understand why I have to leave you out of this.”
Before you could react, hot tears began spilling down your cheeks. You held his gaze silently, but your mind was racing with things you want to scream out.
I understand… I understand all too well. But please, stay. You can’t just walk out right now, Touya. We didn’t even have one last meal again. I didn’t even get to kiss you properly. Don’t leave me out of your life….
But you could not voice any of them. You let your head shoulders fall dejectedly. There was nothing you could do—Touya had already made up his mind.
Seeing that you had now admitted your defeat, Touya took a long and deep inhale. It was only then that both of you realized that it was nearly morning, and the first rays of the sun were now gracing the waking sky—shining down on the unknowing city, shining through the windows of your house and onto the increasing space between you and Touya.
He cleared his throat and shifted to his emotionless facial expression. He was all business talk now. The Touya had grown to know and care was nowhere to be seen.
“In the meantime, we still can’t be too confident that you’re safe,” he said. “I’ll send a couple of my men to monitor your house secretly just in case. I’m guessing that the crazy Toga will attempt to make her move again, but I’m going to make sure I get a good talk with her. And, just to be sure, you might want to add more safety locks on your door and your windows.”
You heard all these words, but you couldn’t find the will to care about understanding them. It was like the life had just been taken out of your soul, and you simply returned a blank gaze at the man standing before you. You were tired… so tired… and the only thing you wanted to do right now was crawl into your covers, cry yourself to sleep, and wake up in the morning to find out that everything was just a dream.
When Touya understood that you weren’t going to say anything back, he nodded tersely and reached out to the doorknob.
“I better get going,” he slowly said. “And y/n? Don’t forget to clean and redress your wounds.”
Then in one swift move and one last longing glance, Touya opened the door and stepped out of your house—stepped out of your life.
For good? You didn’t know. You didn't hope so.
The door closed itself shut with a soft click at the same moment another teardrop rolled down your face. In the emptiness of your house, it was only then that you finally find the words you had wanted to say.
“Don’t leave me, Touya….”
A woosh of the wind was the only response you received.