Chapter Text
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"Y/N! Don't!"
It was the sound of his voice, between the clinking of weapons.
My head instinctively turned towards the source, eyes searching for red and white of him. I found him, between the monsters that haunted me at night, subdued, neutralized, defeated. 'Not him, please gods, just not him...' My mind was overflowing with panic as I dashed towards him, towards the two Nomus that held the man I loved who overused his quirk to push us out of the danger, accepting this, accepting to end like this.
I couldn't allow this. It could not end like this, with them killing the last good thing that remained. Shouto and I were with one of the last groups of heroes left after Shigaraki Tomura, with his Paranormal liberation front, destroyed hero society.
The war was lost.
Months ago. Rubble and destruction followed in their wake, as they conquered cities, massacre by massacre, decaying every pillar of society that offended them so. Midoriya Izuku was dead. No one has seen him, but we all knew it, with the sole exception of Bakugo, who refused to admit stupid Deku perished.
All Might was dead. Shigaraki claimed that life too, citing mercy, laughing at how dear mentor will be reunited with his student. There weren't many of us left. Endeavor, Shouto, Bakugo, Yaoyorozu, and I tried to hold them out of Tokyo but we lost too.
Endeavor died shorty after, killed by Shouto's insane older brother, who was one of the Shigaraki's inner circle men. It was a gruesome sight, so I was pressed not to think about what Shouto saw in the burned body of his father while Dabi laughed like Christmas came early. At least until his features contorted into a frightening glower upon realizing Enji Todoroki died while protecting Shouto from his older brother.
Dabi. Or Touya. Or charred shitstain as Bakugo referred to him. He went by Dabi these days, controlling the entire residential area (or what was left of it) for Shigaraki.
'Fuck, shit-' My mind was a whirlwind of bad ideas and this was by far the worst one because two more Nomus just fucking crashed the party.
"Y/N Please! Run!" The discernable pain lacing the tone of his voice hit me like a bulldozer. Harder than any Nomu could ever hit me. Blood was seeping from the side of his head and his eyes were tired, beaten. Shot with a quirk-suppressing drug, he was helpless against them.
Bakugo would kill me if he knew I snuck outside our hideout to look for Todoroki. Yaoyorozu might as well.
"Shit! Nooo! Let him go you pieces of shit!" I hurled my quirk toward them, shards of glass levitating and spiraling in their direction.
Shouto and I met back in the U.A. - I got my ass handed to me by him at the tournament, we saved angry gremlin together, watched as All Might sent All for One into Tartarus, trained as a team, got our license and first kiss. Got teased by Mina about being inseparable, got teased by Bakugo about simping (at least Shouto was), got teased about being tomato-faced by Uraraka when she saw us holding hands.
Then the war came, and two years later, we were here. So few of us. I dodged the humongous black monster with a visible brain and tried once again to aim at the two subduing Shouto. This was my only chance, this was his only chance because they were dragging him to his brother. Dabi made it no secret that now after they've won, it was Shouto's life he was after. Hate was a weak word to describe the bonds between the two.
Nomu tried to grab my left as I maneuvered over the broken table.
Loud wailing made me halt in my tracks. It was a horrible, harrowing sound - the type of sound which pierces one's skull and lodges itself inside, ricocheting between the thoughts. Seeing your friends tortured cannot be described and seeing Shouto tortured was something my nightmares were constantly indulging in. They say you can feel the pain of your beloved ones and I didn't know if it was the truth but my heart ached for him.
Blue, lethal flames licked at his right side as another figure approached us through the narrow passageway that was left of the ruined building.
"Enough. Cease now or he dies." Tall, lanky, and white-haired Todoroki Touya regarded us with a savage smile that made his staples look painful. No, no, no please.' I caught my breath, fearing the worst. He will kill him.
Dabi eyed his brother and tuned his flames down.
"Is that you, doll? I was hoping we would meet again." After being satisfied enough with observing and savoring Shouto's suffering, his eyes zeroed in on me.
"Release him and I won't hurt you." I attempted to sound threatening, but it came out as a whine.
Dabi chuckled, his gaze flickering to Shouto once again.
"Please." Cerulean and gray met cold cerulean.
"Please, let her go. You want me dead, Touya. Here I am." Staples tightened once again as Dabi smirked and released a small huff of smokey air.
"You're right little brother, there you are. Defeated. And father thought I was a failed experiment. What would he think of his golden heir?" he mockingly questioned.
"Oh right. Bastard is dead so we'll never know."
Before I could snarl something sharp flashed through my back and I faltered down on my knees.
"Hey, sweetie!" I felt her breath near my ear and her weight on my back slamming me into the ground.
"Cuff her Toga and give her the drug." Footsteps approached, echoing down the hallway. Toga laughed and my struggle was cut short when she almost dislocated my shoulder in an attempt to cuff me.
"Ah, dollface...This isn't how I wanted for you to end. " My head almost came in contact with Dabi's boots. Something pricked me in the upper arm and I winced.
"I thought masterpiece's stupid bitch could be useful to us..." he crouched down, rough fingertips tilting my chin upward. Two dark pools of sapphire blue blinded me. The color was similar to Shouto's. I wished I could kill him despite my moral code forbidding it. I wished this all would end.
"But like that idiot with explosion quirk..." he continued, his finger tracing my lower jaw.
"You proved completely fuckin' useless. Tell me though," The villain clicked his tongue.
" - are you in love with my lil' brother?" He asked tauntingly, head again turning in Shouto's direction. I could see the panic written all over my partner's face.
"Touya, please. Let her go, she has nothing to do with this."
Dabi snorted haughtily before his gaze dropped to me again.
"Well, answer doll. We don't have all day. We're busy rebuilding the hero society you see."
I tried to struggle but Toga's grip on my back was strong.
"What is it to you huh?" I spat getting another hit in the back. Dabi observed me, cocking his head sideways.
"You must be when you came all the way here trying to save him after he so bravely..." He made a gagging sound, the skin around his ruined mouth stretching dangerously taut - "...saved you and those other runts. Unfortunately for you, little Shouto is going to die."
My mouth felt extremely dry and I felt like thousand tons of concrete fell on me.
I hit Toga with the back of my boot and heard her hiss.
"You piece of shit. You fucking piece of shit!" Her grip relented for a brief moment and I spat at Dabi.
"Of course I love him. We all love him and we would die for him. Shouto is worth a battalion of you." A Flash of bitter animosity was barely noticeable in the blue of his eyes before I felt Toga grab my head.
"Next time you hit me I will drink up all of your blood!" She hissed. Dabi stood up and pulled his buzzing phone out.
"Oi lunatic, I need to deal with some shit. Take my brother and her to the tower." He glanced down once again and the look in his eyes made me shiver down to the bones. It wasn't simple hatred, but something much, much darker, and who knew the depths of dark Dabi's soul went. He turned on his heels and walked out and then I saw black.
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A soft bump on my shoulder roused me and I saw a large window high on the white wall.
I was dumped on the hardwood floor, my back against the wall. There was the warmth of a body to my right.
"Are you awake?" Shouto's soft voice called me. I turned my head and almost threw up seeing the extent of his injuries. His right arm was a mess, scorched, blistering. It extended upwards his neck and some parts of his torso where his clothes were blackened, bits of the fabric glued to the open wounds.
"Shouto...I'm sorry..." My voice trembled like a leaf met with autumn wind.
"I failed you." He opened his mouth trying to muster a sentence, then closed them. Heavy, oppressive silence stretched until he spoke.
"Why couldn't you stay with Yaoyorozu and Bakugo?" The tone of his voice told me he was angry. As angry as broken people can be.
"And let you die? Let you be tortured by that insane monster?" Crawling upwards from my stomach, my fury had risen to answer his.
"You couldn't possibly think that I wouldn't have come and tried to save you even from Shigaraki himself."
Shouto sighed and winced as he accidentally touched the wall with the burnt shoulder. "I would have preferred Shigaraki..." he stated quietly.
There was something heavy in his eyes when they met mine.
"I don't like the way Touya looked at you earlier," he spoke like it was some painful, dark truth I didn't have to know. I blinked, if anything he should fear for himself. Dabi will probably kill me as well, but him...him he will torture with the glee of a child with a new toy.
"Do you remember when we were at Jaku's hospital and he told me he was Touya?" Shouto continued and I nodded. "When he saw me protecting you from Gigantomachia...he had smiled like he had an epiphany before attacking you too. Now though..." his eyes closed, bringing back a memory from almost three years ago. We changed so much since then - we were forced to by the war and people like Dabi.
"I would rather have Shigaraki just kill me." I sat in silence stroking his chained arms with my own. The motion seemed to calm him and he remained like that, eyes closed, for a while. I glanced around the room trying to find anything that could help us break the chains.
The loud knock jerked Shoto's eyes open and we saw Toga enter, a slight jumpiness to her step.
"Dabi wants to see you!" she exclaimed excitedly and I stared at Shouto in panic.
"Please, don't kill him, Toga please!" I begged until she put her hands up.
"Ah, are you cray cray sweet Y/n! He wants to see you."
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My legs felt heavier than lead as Toga jumped and chirped a few meters in front of me. I considered turning on my heels and dashing in a different direction, but decided against it when she spun around and winked, as if she knew my innermost thoughts, and was doing this on purpose. The corridor was large, although not very bright and we came in front of an elevator that dinged obediently when she pressed a button.
"You know how good the view is from up there?" she went in and gazed at me expectantly as I hesitated. She was insane, and the last thing I wanted was to be in an elevator with her.
"Oh come on, I'm not going to kill you. I may taste you, but it's your fault for being sweet." She gave me a nasty grin.
When I didn't react she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me inside.
"And I was just trying to be nice." She hissed, the door closing behind us and the metal box going upwards. I glanced at the buttons. We were already on the 20th floor and now it was going much higher. I tried to think which one of the remaining skyscrapers this one was but I only knew some of the skyscrapers in Tokyo.
Something sharp pricked me again and I jumped like a cornered animal. Toga was holding one of her syringes.
"You know, just in case I wanted to play a bit with that hot brother of Dabi's. Don't you think it would be so funny-" She smiled.
"W-what do you mean?" My voice was horribly coarse and my throat was dry. Her eyes were full of mirth, in a way friend's eyes are, and I felt like throwing up.
"Do you think he would like it more if I looked like you? He's not my type but these days one can't be choosy for love -" She huffed, annoyance coating her foxlike features.
My mouth fell open. 'What? Did she really just...' From the hero agency intel; Toga was in a closer than coworkers relationship with Twice, but he was killed almost two years ago when Hawks, in a desperate bid, pulled a feathered sword on him.
"You should learn to share!" she hissed when I hadn't answered her. The door binged and I was blinded by the light. 'It's sunny.'
Ironic, that such nice weather greeted this hell. The area was incomparably elegant and I walked slowly behind her. She knocked on massive double doors at the end of the hallway that had large windows on one side, a view of Tokyo under it. My breath caught in my throat when I saw the extent of destruction Shigaraki's army inflicted upon the city. Other than this one only a few tall buildings remained and streets were littered with rubble from the devastating effect of his quirk. Those streets were mostly empty, but I couldn't really see people from this high. Toga spun around and pulled me inside by the upper arm. It was a large room, with another set of floor-to-top windows that overlooked the entire city, or rather, the entire carcass of a city.
"Took you long enough you freak.." Dabi was sitting behind the desk, his long legs stretched on it, staring at the ruins that went far and wide around the city center.
"I have better shit to do than run your errands, Touya-kun! Do you know how much work I have to do!?" Toga rebuked and, giving me a nasty look, turned on her heel. I heard the door close behind her a little harsher than necessary.
"Come closer, dollface. Can't see you from all the way there," Dabi chuckled and I wondered if he was going to throw me through those windows, as one of them was already suspiciously destroyed. Making a few uneasy steps, I avoided looking directly at him, yet I knew he was staring right at me.
He got up and rounded the table as I followed him closely with eyes now, on high alert.
"Ah look at poor little you, we can't really talk with your hands bound like that." He tutted and I felt him behind me, an uncomfortable heat around my wrists as the metal restraints melted.
The villain moved and hairs on my forearms rose from uneasiness. Now that hellish heat was terrifyingly close as he appeared in front of my eyes again.
For the first time, I noticed he actually changed his clothes, from that large black coat and combat boots he always wore, to a more relaxed dark t-shirt, pants, and similarly colored socks.
Dabi leaned on the table and I felt like the room contained a painfully low amount of oxygen when his eyes danced over me. The silence stretched and his gaze was on my face again.
"It's rude to stare like that at someone." I managed, hoping I won't regret opening my mouth, though it felt hollow, daring to hope in this situation. Hope wasn't for losers and villain's prisoners.
"Like what dollface?" The corner of his mangled mouth went upwards.
"Like...like that." I crossed my arms over my chest, looking elsewhere. There were other double doors near his desk that led to who knows where and a painting with muted colors hung on the wall above it, a painting I'm pretty sure he stole from a museum because I saw it before.
"Perhaps I should just kill ya both." His voice brought me back to the present. His eyes were boring into mine and I felt I would suffocate again.
"Kill me then." I somehow croaked out.
"What about my father's pet? Aren't 'cha gonna plead for his life?" It must've been another jeer but before I could retort he straightened and walked towards whatever was behind me. I followed with my eyes and saw a large conference table and an open area that was probably home to some billionaire they killed when the city fell. Dabi disappeared around the corner and reappeared a second later carrying a bottle of water.
"Drink, you sound like shit." He pushed it into my arms. I wondered how long the effects of the quirk-erasing drug lasted since they had to manufacture it again after Overhaul's stash was destroyed.
I still felt my quirk's absence, a horrible, gnawing feeling of helplessness.
The water was cold and it washed down some of the rawness. Dabi was watching me quietly, like a large cat before it aims for the prey's neck.
"I would if I didn't know it's hopeless." Finally, I managed an answer.
"You won't..." and I had to collect myself because the mere thought of Shouto not being alive hurt. "You won't spare him. I see how you look at him, your own brother, who was a victim too." It just poured out, and I wasn't able to stop it.
"Why? Why do you hate him so much? Shouto was a child, he was hurt and he loved you! He has no blame for what happened to you!"
Dabi glanced towards the ceiling, bored almost.
"You suppose I should let him go, dollface?" I couldn't fathom the amusement in his voice. This was a game to him.
"You won't. You clearly want to kill us, so just do it. Why am I even here?"
"I wanted to make a deal with you." He tilted his head while leaning against the table again.
"A deal?" 'He must want me to sell out my friends. So they can kill all of us and be done with it.' My mind was screaming, tumbling, racing three hundred miles per hour.
Dabi sneered, staples on the corners of his mouth crinkling.
"Yes, doll, a deal. It depends on how much you want that younger brother of mine to stay alive. I don't have to kill him you know, it's up to me." Lancinating dread formed in the pit of my stomach, Shouto against my surviving friends.
"I...I can't...betray them. Shouto wouldn't want that."
Dabi raised his eyebrows, running a scarred hand through his ivory strands. They used to be dark when I first saw him in that forest years ago when he and the League kidnapped Bakugo.
"Ah...that's unnecessary, the others are taking care of that you know. I can't damn well hunt all of you. Who has the time?!" He laughed, seemingly delighted at my blunt conjecture.
'He...didn't want me to betray other heroes? What the hell does he want then?' I was trying to think, but nothing came up as a solution. He knew where all of his family was, at least the surviving ones that he made a spectacle of pretending to forgive on national TV after their army took down the President. Dabi wasn't in any hurry to tell me what the hell he wanted judging by the amused look in his eyes.
"What do you want then?" I asked, I dared, gazing directly in the pits of cerulean blue.
He seemed to postulate the answer briefly before clapping his hands together as if an idea suddenly came to him. Unimaginable bastard.
"I want you..." My stomach turned to lead and tumbled to the floor as his voice lowered. "and I want you willing."
'What...'
The room seemed very warm and I could barely pull any air into my lungs.
"You for Shouto's life." Ivory-haired villain continued, his tone saturated with wicked delight.
"I'll let him live, promise-" he made the obscene gesture of crossing his heart and laughed again.
"What do you mean me?" my voice was barely above a whisper, afraid of its own sound.
"You..." he stood up straight, as tall as Shouto.
"Willing," -first step,
"Pliant," -another step,
"Wanton-" Dabi closed the distance, his rough hand lifting my chin up.
"-In my bed."
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