REVERIE

Ever since you had discovered your quirk, the chances of you having a normal life vanished instantly. Teleportation was a rare quirk, and so obviously once word got out about it, AFO pounced on the opportunity to use you. And your parents, instead of protecting you, used you to get something in return.

So since that dreadful day, whenever his associates wanted a distraction to the heroes, a quick escape plan, they called you in, the special kid. Most of them didn’t even bother to learn your name, you were referred to as the “portal”. That’s all you were to them.

At some point you had enough. Enough of them, of the disrespect, of the blood that you never spilled yourself yet somehow could never wash off your hands. For the past three years, you’ve hidden city to city, changing your identity, never getting comfortable, never forgetting who you really were, who you were really meant to be.

But if we are being for real, nobody besides a very young child or a person with amnesia could really forget about their past, and in your case ? It literally hunted you down.

It was very early in the morning, you were just coming back from the gym, sweaty and tired, only thinking about relaxing a couple of hours at home before going out again. That plan was thrown out the window when you noticed your door unlocked.

Thieves ? Maybe the police somehow found out about your fake documents ? The quickening of your heartbeat didn’t let you thin properly, so you just sprung to action. Teleporting yourself on your balcony, you didn’t waste time kicking the intruder right in the face when you saw him.

The man was on the floor, grunting in pain, and yet your body was still in a fighting state.

“Ugh, I really thought you would star thinking before getting into a fight”

You stepped back from the stranger, looking around to see how you should defend yourself. It would be a pain to kill him here, authorities would definitely be digging up dirt on you once it was found, but if you didn't kill him he would just come back.

"What do you want from me ?"

Red eyes looked up at you, scowling as if you had insulted him.

"Three years away from me and you can't even recognise me without father ?"

"Father ? No. No, no, no... this can't be..."

"Tomura ?"

He smiled at the name. The same cruel smile AFO would give you, even the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach returned. He didn't look like a kid any more, still scrawny, still looking like a walking dead corpse, but something dangerous radiated off him.

Suddenly he got up, analysing, observing as well what kind of person you became since disappearing from his life.

"It was hard to find you, you know. I had to go through to much people in such little time to get even the slightest clue on where the hell you went"

He tried to approach you, but your body stiffened, and he must have taken the hint that he came any closer, this would end in a fight.

"Why look for me now ? Three years passed and nobody seemed in a rush to get me"

"All for One got captured, so I don't have much to rely on besides the league. And now we got ourselves involved with the Yakuza"

You scoffed. Of course, the only time someone goes out of their way to find you is to use you again, it's your childhood all over again, just with a new face to match the misery.

"Go to hell Shigaraki"

You vanished in front of his eyes. You could wait him out a week or two in some cheap motel, or even on the streets if the situation called for it. You weren't going to be someone's slave. You were a free woman, well technically on the run, but still better than whatever was the life that you left behind.

Unfortunately for you, you couldn't even get a week straight without your plan getting interrupted. You were returning from grocery shopping when you sensed a presence.

You tightened your grip on your knife, pretty sure that Tomura had sent someone from his group to intimidate you. Well, you have trained enough for him to have sent them to their death. But to your surprise, it was a familiar face.

"Hello. I have guessed that after Shigaraki's failed attempt, I should try and change your mind"

You relaxed after seeing Kurogiri. It was stupid, he was still sent by Tomura, but he was the only one amongst the adults that treated you with any amount of decency in all those years of knowing him. He was the only one you could trust to not hurt you.

"Talk, while I'm still in the mood"

He came closer, and you could've sworn you still needed to look up as much as when you last saw him. It's like he had never changed, and for some reason it brought some sense of comfort.

"Shigaraki is in a delicate situation. Right now there are multiple people wishing to take over All for One's place, and the Yakuza are his biggest concern right now"

You sighed in exasperation. You were trying so hard to leave all of this behind. Hell, you weren't even trying to play hero and stop them, so what was their deal of recruiting you back ?

"They have killed Magne" he continued "and Mr. Compress was rendered handicapped. We can try to somehow weaken them and fight them off eventually, but the league of villains needs help, Shigaraki needs your support"

You stared at him. Tomura needed your help, the idea made you laugh bitterly. It's like he was toying with you in the most foolish way possible in the hopes that it sounds ridiculous enough for you to believe it's real.

"And what's in it for me ?"

He didn't answer you. He knew how much you hated your old life, how you despised being used like a tool and nothing more for the majority of your existence.

Kurogiri was ready to leave, but it seemed he something else to say before warping away.

"I know it's hard to believe, but Shigaraki is nothing like All for One"

These words kept returning to you and keeping you awake in the middle of the night. You doubted them, believed them to be trickery to get you to work for Tomura. But at the same, what was the point of this life you've created for yourself ? Working a 9-5, living in an almost empty flat, with no friends, family or boyfriend to keep you company.

It’s the morning after that you decide to seek him out, teleporting yourself directly to him. When you opened your eyes and saw him, surrounded by what you assumed was the League of Villains that he had assembled. Everyone looked at you like you were a threat, and honestly, it gave you a sense of thrill and satisfaction.

Tomura turned slowly around, and you could see the surprise in his eyes.

"Guess who decided to join you, Shigaraki Tomura"

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The night Tōya Todoroki died, you looked out of your window to look at the beauty of the moon. Everything felt so peaceful, so right, like only a real tragedy could disturb your calm state. A week after you and your family returned to Japan, you were made aware of Tōya’s death; your two families were quite close, your fathers even planned a potential marriage between the two of you for the benefit of quirk evolution. But that didn’t matter anymore, not when you lost someone you thought would spend the rest of your life with.

That same night you learned about your friend’s passing, you felt like you yourself had died. Your spirit was broken, it felt as if nothing mattered anymore. But you were too much of a coward to attempt suicide, so you continued to live in your corpse. You ended up graduating high school and became a pro hero like it was expected of you, with your harsh training and flying quirk, you quickly rose among the ranks of popularity.

But your days were boring, repetitive and didn’t feel like you made a true impact in society. But at the very least you grieved a little less each passing monotone day, you learned how to cope with your loss, how to enjoy life without him. It didn’t feel wrong to smile or enjoy the quiet evenings that you had to yourself, you just had to imagine that your best friend's ghost was somewhere smiling along with you, and it lifted the guilt of your consciousness.

That satisfaction didn’t end up lasting long after being acquired, it seemed like fate was set upon making you guilty either way, though it felt like it would connect one way or another to someone you thought would be dead for good. When class 1-A and B from UA were sent to a training camp, you joined the wild wild pussycats to ensure the safety of the students. What you thought as an unnecessary waste of your time turned out to be a much needed precaution, since a new group of villains ended up attacking the kids, even attempting to kidnap the angry one.

When you flew around the camp to spot them, you came across Kurogiri, their “escape plan” as Aizawa quoted when talking about the USJ attack, and so you quickly apprehended him. All of you work had gone to ashes when you spotted the villains retreating, among them a scarred man who's gaze pushed you back to your buried memories, into the depths of your mind that you thought were gone for good.

His name came out as a whisper, a verbal exclamation of your disbelief, heard only by the man in question as if you were calling out to him personally. It made him physically flinch, as if you had spilled a secret you weren’t even supposed to be aware of. The villains ended up fleeing, and you were left wondering if your mind was playing games with you. You didn’t say anything to the Todorokis, the youngest wouldn’t even be able to recognize his older brother if that even was him, and you didn’t want to give false hope and possible grief to his father, so you kept your mouth shut.

Later that evening, you retrieved to your house, shed your costume, showered and decided that a nice relaxing dinner would calm your mind. But then you shivered from the wind coming from outside and your flight or fight response came back like it never left.

“You still close all of your windows ? I forgot how sensitive you are to the cold”

Even at the sound of his voice, you didn’t dare turning around. Any wrong move and not only he would burn you alive, he could potentially put the lives of your neighbours in jeopardy by starting a fire they won’t even have time to attempt an escape from. You heard the sound of his boots against the parqueted floor, heavy steps that guided him right behind you. His hand, whose touch should have felt uncomfortable because of the harsh burns, felt strangely familiar and comforting against the skin of your throat, and then it crept up all the way to your jaw and made you look up at him.

“Long time no see” He finally spoke. His smile teasing, like you were just two children speaking nonsense to each other again. Yet his eyes held something deeper, something more serious.

“Tōy-”

“You’re all grown up, nothing like in my memories. You’re a lot more stronger” His smile was becoming less innocent, matching the look in his eyes that you still couldn't pinpoint. He leaned in to whisper in your ear “But the same can be said for me too, ya know ?”

“Are you going to kill me ?” You just blurted it out. If you were going to be killed by your previously presumed dead best friend, the least he could do is let you say your last words, and maybe answer some of your questions about his “death”.

He stilled at the question, tracing your arm with his finger nails, presumably deciding on the spot if he was going to kill you. By how long he kept doing it, you figured t was a difficult decision to make for him. At least he still somehow cared about you.

“Not yet. At least not while you keep your mouth shut. It would be a shame to kill you off when you could be so useful to me”. You felt him him breath in your scent on your neck, nuzzling in, it made your stomach twist in a way you didn’t think was possible with you.

Without another word, he left you alone and disappeared into the night. If in your childhood you felt like you were dead in spirit, then right now you were definitely walking on the edge of the realm of death, and Tōya Dabi was holding your string of life without much force.

divider and support banner credits goes to @/saradika-graphics // post // post