#IT'S GIVING KAMISAMA KISS | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pinkydevil16 · 7 months ago

Text

Kamisama Kiss

Tomoe x Land God! Reader

18+

Tomoe was seething, to think this incipit child was to be his new God? This weak, fragile human girl was believed to be worthy of Him? He scoffed as she scratched her head awkwardly, confused as the spirits explained her role.

"Look guys, i don't know what's going on if i'm honest. Some guy kissed my head and suddenly i was here. I didn't sign up to be a God but i do really need a place to stay." Tomoe could feel his aura grow dark as he stepped forward, taking a deep breath of his pipe and blowing it in her face before speaking.

"You are not worthy of Mikage's Shrine. Leave now." Y/n let out a small laugh and shook her head.

"Sorry, no can do. I'm sort of between places and Mikage? I assume offered me to stay here for a while, so as much as i would love to run out of here because you are giving off some bad energy right now i really need somewhere to stay. I just got evicted so." Tomoe turned and left in huff, swiping his claws to open a portal and disappeared before Y/n could say anything else.

"Well...i guess i can stay for a little bit then? Who was that?" Y/n mumbled, one of the spirits answered enthusiastically.

"That's Tomoe! He's a fox yokai, a very powerful one and he was Mikage's familiar before he left. He's spent the last 20 years looking after the shrine since Mikage abandoned us." Y/n contemplated for a moment as she looked around, the Shrine was in perfect condition, it was beautiful even. He must have put a lot of time and energy into making it so spotless.

"So what would happen if i accepted this whole Land God thing?" The spirits almost cried as they begged Y/n to stay, pulling at her arms as they tugged her inside.

"You would be an amazing mistress! You will help others, going through prayers and helping the earth grow! Please Miss Y/n stay." Y/n could feel how calming the Shrine was as they showed her each room, including Tomoe's which was almost bare compared to the many other rooms.

"This is all the prayers Master Tomoe has written in the last 20 years in preparation for Mikage's arrival." Y/n was stumped as she stared at the well organised piles, there must have been thousands, no tens of thousands, filed by year. The first 10 years were filled to the brim, but the last two had dwindled to only a few hundred compared to the magnitude of the beginning.

"He's been doing all of this? Alone?" The spirits nodded as Y/n walked around, her hands touching Prayers, feeling the pure devotion within them as she read some.

"Why did he not leave?" Her voice came out as a whisper as she stared at his handwriting, it was beautiful, just like the Shrine.

"He didn't want to abandon the Shrine, he hoped one day Mikage would come back. At first he was sad but then he accepted it, when he sensed your presence he was angry thinking you were Mikage." Y/n nodded along, placing down the prayer before turning to the spirits.

"Well then, if he can have that much passion perhaps i can borrow some from him and try to assist yes?" The spirits cheered as they showed Y/n all her jobs, the first being cleaning, which much to Y/n's chagrin was a long winded chore but once she finished she felt accomplished.

"What next?" Y/n worked day and night for three days before she finally dropped into her bed, having only cat naps before now she snuggled into her blanket and tried to sleep but it was no use. She knew there was more to do, how Tomoe had been doing this alone for 20 years was astounding and now she felt guilty for passing off being Land God and only concentrating on not being homeless, she'd essentially invaded his home and now he was out somewhere alone again. Forcing herself up she stretched her body, she knew what she needed to do.

"Onikiri, where is Tomoe?" The spirit appeared, with shining eyes as they explained that he was in the yokai world.

"Please take me to him."

Tomoe was lounging on a futon, the front of his Komodo barely held together as he drank sake, beautiful yokai around him as they fawned over his beauty.

"Tomoe. It's Y/n, may i enter?" Tomoe's ears spiked up as the silk draping separating him from the other yokai parted and Y/n entered, her hands sheepishly hidden behind her as she looked down.

"What do you want?" Y/n sighed as she heard the hatred in his voice but she could not find it in herself to respond harshly back, looking up she gave him a sad smile.

"I am sorry for how i acted, you have kept the Shrine in beautiful condition and i came in with such a selfish outlook. Please forgive me and return to your home." Y/n bowed, her hair covering her face as she stared at her trainers, keeping her pride pushed down.

Tomoe scoffed, letting out a mocking laugh as the other yokai laughed with him. Y/n jolted up and watched as he took another deep breath of his pipe and once again blew it in her face as he had the first day he met her.

"My my, what a pitiful human you are coming here to beg me to return because you cannot handle the work of being a God!" Y/n clenched her hands and bit her tongue as he taunted her, drinking his sake as one of the yokai women ran her hand inside his open Komodo, her long nails striking against his pale skin.

"Be gone useless woman, i do not call that place my home nor do i wish to return to such a horrid life. I am now free to do as i please, including eating you if you continue to enrage me." Y/n could now feel her eyebrow ticking as she tried to contain her anger but his words were too much.

"You ungrateful fox! I came here to try to make amends, so that you would feel comfortable to come back not because i am unable to look after the Shrine! You want to stay here and drown your sorrows in booze and women then do whatever you want you...you...argh!" Y/n shouted and stormed out, unable to come up with a good insult in her anger, leaving Tomoe's eyes wide before he gripped the woman's hand and dragged it off his chest. He was now intrigued, to speak to a powerful yokai such as himself with no fear for her life was almost admirable. He felt an almost guilty twang in his chest as he thought of her storming through the village, the mark on her forehead a target whilst she most likely drew more attention to herself with her anger. Sighing he stood, if she was to find her demise atleast he could watch.

"That damned stupid fox! Who does he think he is huh?" Y/n let out a huff as the spirits tried to talk her down.

"Please go back to Master Tomoe, it is not safe for you out here." Y/n turned around quickly and pointed where she'd just left.

"Did that sound safe? That arrogant asshole said he's eat me! He should be glad i didn't take a bite out of him to show him i'm not afraid of some yokai."

"You're not afraid of Yokai Land God?" Y/n turned slowly, a large Yokai in front of her as he grinned maliciously down at her, Y/n was engulfed in his shadow as he cracked his knuckles.

"Seriously am i cursed?" Y/n asked herself before stepping back, pivoting and running away from the large Yokai as he let out a bellowing laugh and chased her.

"Come back here delicious girl, you look so scrumptious, i just want to taste those legs." Y/n shivered in disgust as she heard him get closer, darting to the left as he lept at her, his claw dragging along her calf as she let out a loud cry falling forward. The Yokai made a loud crash as he hit the ground, skidding a few feet forward allowing Y/n time to get up and continue her running.

"Oh my, aren't you in trouble now Y/n?" Tomoe taunted as he laid on his fox fire, hovering next to her as she glared at him.

"What do you want?" Y/n huffed out as she hid behind a tree trying to catch her breath as the Yokai ran past her. Tomoe grinned as he leaned closer, his face so close to hers as he inhaled the sweet smell of her fear.

"If you want my help all you have to do is admit you are incompetent and unable to protect yourself and i the Great Tomoe will help you." Y/n let out a scoff as she pushed him back, slowly creeping around the tree trying to spot the Yokai but it appeared she had outsmarted him.

"Fat chance fox face, you're not here to help me, you're here to gloat. If you care so little for the Shrine and the spirits who reside within it then just leave. I don't need your pity." Y/n began walking back where she came from hoping to find her lovely spirits and hopefully get back to the Shrine in time to do the days prayers.

"There you are girly." Y/n turned seeing the large Yokai come back, shrieking she jumped away as he swiped out at her side, the Yokai snarling as she hurried to climb a tree. His large claws coming down just below her legs as she gripped the branches and climbed higher, her hand covered in scratches and splinters as she fought for her life.

"Leave me alone!" Y/n screamed as he shook the tree, her hands clutching the oak as hard as she could to try to stay on the highest branch away from him.

"Come on Y/n, just say it, beg me to help you and i'll seal the contract." Y/n shook her head as Tomoe purred in her ear, enjoying how fearful she was of falling.

"No! I won't beg you to care for me!" Y/n slipped slightly, her trainer dropping into the Yokai's mouth as he moaned and began clawing at the tree harder.

"I can taste the sweetness of fear on your clothes Land God, fall down and let me devour you. I promise it will hurt." Y/n let out a cry as her leg slipped, the cut along her calf scraping against the bark as she dug her nails in. Tomoe was now beginning to panic as she shook her head, she was barely holding on but her pride would not let her be belittled by him.

"Just say the damn words human and i will rescue you!" Tomoe growled as Y/n slipped more, one of her legs gripping the branch tightly as her other dangled just out of reach of the Yokai, but her grip was not good, her naked thigh didn't have enough friction to hold her body up as she slipped further. Tears now poured out her eyes as she scrambled to climb higher but the burn on her inner thigh and the blood dripping from the cut on her calf was hitting her full force as she looked up at Tomoe.

"Please look after the Shrine." Y/n begged as she finally slipped, her eyes wide as she fell quickly, the Yokai's mouth wide as he laughed, Tomoe moved faster than light diving down and catching her. His flames engulfing the Yokai as Y/n's body snapped in his arms, the wind knocked out her lungs as she cried in pain at the sudden resistance. Her eyes staring up at Tomoe as he looked over her, one of her hands gripping his neck before he could stop her as her lips sealed over his and the contract was sealed. Tomoe's eyes closed as he felt her soft lips press against his, he knew this is what he had unconsciously wanted, when he took the plunge and rescued her he had made that decision for himself. However as he felt the shackles fall onto his wrists, and his body entwine with hers, his previous decision weighed heavily on him as she parted too soon for his liking.

"Thank you Tomoe. I'm so tired." Y/n's body gave out as Tomoe smelt the sweet scent of her blood, it was along his Komodo as he looked over her injuries, he could feel the exhaustion in her body as he shook his head and returned to the Shrine.

Y/n woke up groaning in pain, her head pounded and legs felt weak as she pulled back her blanket. Her skirt and top were now replaced with an oversized shirt, her legs both wrapped as well as her inner thigh and palms. As she stared in confusion she suddenly recalled the previous events and went bright red, holding her face as she dropped her head and tried to control her breathing. She'd forced Tomoe into a contract, not just a contract but a kiss, her first kiss. Oh gods her first kiss was with that damned fox, she hoped he wasn't too angry. Getting up she winced as she pulled the shirt down, it was her own from her small bag of belongings, looking around she found a pair of pyjama bottoms and pulled the door open. Wiping her eyes she could feel the blisters on the backs of her feet pulling as she walked towards the kitchen smelling food as she took a deep breath and sighed at the comforting aroma.

"You are awake." Y/n humped as she opened her eyes to Tomoe stood before her, a tray with soup, rice and a dark green drink in his hands as he looked down at her with scrutiny. She felt a shiver run down her back as she nodded, voice caught in her throat as she stared at his lips recalling how they fit against hers. Gulping she shook her head and awkwardly scratched her neck.

"Morning Tomoe, i hope you're okay. I'm just going to use the toilet and then i'll continue with my chores." Y/n was stopped as Tomoe almost growled out his words.

"You fragile human, you are covered in cuts and wounds, you almost died yesterday and you are now rejecting the healing process. Go back to bed before i drag you in there." Y/n yelped as his tail smacked her calf reminding her of how they throbbed the longer she stood.

"Sorry." Y/n spoke sheepishly, turning around and walking back to the room she had woken up in, she could hear Tomoe following her as she sped up, ignoring the pain in her legs as she opened the door and sat back on the futon.

"Good girl." Y/n felt her face heat up as she felt an unfamiliar rush in her stomach.

"Don't..don't say that." Tomoe's face changed into a smirk as he placed the tray down and crouched beside his Mistress, his clawed hand gripping her chin as he forced her to look at him.

"Why not Mistress? Do you not want praise for following instructions?" Y/n gulped as he teased her, her nose wrinkling as she pulled her head free and tucked her legs into her chest.

"You don't need to call me that. I don't need praise." Tomoe's grin turned cat like as he tutted, taking a seat and lounging beside Y/n, placing a hand on her knee and pulling them back down before he brought the tray to her lap.

"But when my Mistress is so obedient how can i not praise her." Tomoe continued his teasing, enjoying how she blushed a deeper shade but didn't dare to look away. Y/n used a hand to push her hair back before smirking back at him, reaching over and placing a hand between his ears, fussing his hair and running his fluffy ear between her fingers as he too turned a deep red and jerked back.

"Thank you for looking after me, good boy Tomoe." Y/n mocked back causing Tomoe to sneer at her before his eyes turned to slits and he stood.

"Eat your meal and restore your health, you are neglecting your Land God duties." His voice was low as he walked out, Y/n letting a small giggle out.

"Will do." Y/n chirped as she picked up the chopsticks and placed veggies in her mouth, moaning lightly at the warm soothing broth that coated them, placing down the chopsticks and collecting a spoon to fully indulge.

"This is amazing, i need Tomoe to teach me how to cook." Y/n praised as she drank some more of the hearty soup, gushing over Tomoe's cooking as he stood by the door listening to her as she did so blissfully unaware of his presence. His nail spiked as she praised him, his ears twitched and tried to control his thoughts. He knew praise from your Mistress/Master was always a nice feeling, when Mikage had praised him it made him beam with pride but this feeling was different, it made his whole body stand straight and the urge to make her say it over and over was deeply rooted in his soul. Tutting he walked away, he was not some silly familiar who would be taken control of so easily, not like the pathetic ones who would beg their masters for attention. Why should he, the great Tomoe, need attention from a silly girl like Y/n.

Y/n placed the tray beside her before standing, she felt exhausted both mentally and physically but she could feel the grease in her hair, probably blood and tree sap aswell based on all her wounds. Exiting the room she found the bath house quickly, turning the hot water on as a sweet aroma filled the room, inhaling she sighed out before undressing. Staring in the mirror she took in all the bandages wrapped around her body and winced, slowly unwrapping herself she touched the bruises on her thighs and legs, aswell as the lighter ones on her upper arms from holding the tree.

"Good job Y/n, do a full number on yourself 2 days before you have school. Guess i'll be wearing dark tights to hide these." Rolling her neck she felt it crack as she let out a satisfied moan, checking the water she looked around and grabbed shampoo and conditioner. Climbing in she let out a pained groan as she lowered her aching legs into the hot water until she was fully submerged and able to lay back. Laying still for a few minutes as she felt her muscles relax and a tension headache roll in from her beaten body.

Y/n cleaned her body thoroughly, her hair finally felt soft and silky once more as she braided it out her face whilst it dried, sat on the side of the bath as she dried her legs. She felt rejuvenated, granted the bath didn't contain healing powers where she came out brand new but she wasn't as achey and sore compared to when she woke up. Wrapping a towel around her body she began looking through the cupboards for some moisturiser, anything that would bring her skin back to life and get the bruises to heal quicker.

"What are you doing?" Y/n let out a scream as she stumbled back and into Tomoe's chest, his clawed hands catching her waist as she looked up at him horrified and clutched at her towel. Stumbling over her words she tried to pull away, turning around as he gently let her go, her face now pink and eyes wide before her face changed to anger and she placed a hand on her hip.

"What am i doing? What are you doing you pervert! Why are you in here?" Y/n's voice grew louder as Tomoe's tail whipped behind him, his hands together in his kimono a steely look in his eyes as his ear twitched at the insinuation.

"I am not a pervert Y/n, you should not have taken your bandages off and now i need to tend to your wounds again. Sit and i shall put some ointment on and wrap them." Y/n blushed harder as the mental image of Tomoe on his knees, touching her leg and thigh popped into her head.

"N-no thank you! I can do it myself." Tomoe raised an eyebrow and shook his head, leaning down and picking Y/n up as she squirmed and panicked, her hands coming to hold down the towel as best she could.

"Tomoe! I'm not wearing underwear! You are a pervert!" Tomoe ran his hand up and down the back of her knee, keeping them from going too high as he kept his head straight and didn't look at how the towel formed around her thighs.

"My Lady i would never disgrace you in such a way, i simply wish to look after you as is my sworn duty per the contract you sealed me into." Y/n shut her mouth as she held down her towel, her face now bright red and her ears burning from embarrassment, she had only been a God 5 days and wasn't sure if this was normal for a familiar to do or if Tomoe was truly a perverted fox. Tomoe placed her on a stool, her hands coming to grip her towel as Tomoe exited and entered within moments, a basket in his hands as he crouched in front of her.

"Tomoe, i need to put some underwear on and a top." Tomoe bent down, ignoring Y/n as he dipped his hand into the ointment and raised her foot, Y/n grunted as his cool hands ran along her legs and up her thighs before he reached the towel and stopped. His eyes stayed on his hands as he ran them back down and Y/n let out a low moan at the pressure against her muscles and massaged the knots out slowly.

"Tomoe..." Y/n groaned out as she closed her eyes and enjoyed how his claws grazes her legs tenderly, his hands leaving one leg to collect more ointment and return to the other, Y/n sighing as she felt her stomach warm and hands clench the stool to hold herself up.

"I'm going to do your inner thighs Y/n, i won't look i promise." Y/n's eyes snapped open as Tomoe stared downwards, his fingers dipping into ointment before he gingerly spread her legs, one of her hands coming to cover herself as she blushed dark red and shivered at his hand touching her knee and slowly pushing higher until his claws almost touched her hips. Rubbing along her inner thighs he held his breath, her skin so soft and pliable under his hands, this wasn't his first time touching them but before she had been in her skirt and underwear. Hidden from him, now if he were to look up he would see her, open for him and only him but he would never destroy her trust in such a way, not his Mistress. Y/n couldn't stop staring at his hands as they dipped below the towel and out, his claws tickling her hips as she bit her lip and tried to remind herself he was only doing this to heal her, not for his or her pleasure.

"Are you okay Y/n? You are so red." Tomoe's voice was full of concern as he inhaled the sweet smell of her arousal, pushing her thighs back together as he looked up at her.

"Y-yes, sorry i'm just not used to being looked after." Tomoe stood slowly, bowing to Y/n before collecting his basket.

"It will be best to air your bruises and cuts then we will bandage them tomorrow for support when you walk." Y/n nodded, her mouth unnaturally dry as she stared at his back before the door closed behind him. Letting out a deep breath she placed a hand on her forehead and willed her body to cool down, standing on shaky legs as she dressed in her pjs and climbed under her blanket.

Tomoe laid on his futon, his pipe in hand as he sipped on his sake, his eyes closed and mind reeling as he recalled how her skin felt under his touch, how she had moaned ever so slightly. How she'd spoken his name in such an unholy way he was sure her title of God had wavered even for a second at the sound. His control was slipping too quick, he had only been her familiar a day, a singular day and he was willing to drop to his knees and serve her in every sense of the word. His tail bristled as he parted his kimono to cool his body, lying back as he stared at the ceiling and took a deep breath of his pipe.

The weekend flew by, with Y/n regaining her strength and attending to the Shrine as much as her familiar would allow, which meant she was allowed to sit and read Prayers and practice talismans. When she had deemed she was healed enough to put the ointment on her own legs Tomoe had all but forced her to sit down and accept it was his job. When monday rolled around Y/n was dressed for school, dark tights covering the bruises and half healed cuts, her shirt buttoned and tucked into her skirt as she pulled on her blazer and adjusted her bow. Brushing her hair she stared at herself in the mirror, she hadn't been in school for over a week now and was prepared for the immature response from other students.

"Where are you going?" Y/n turned as Tomoe stood behind her, giving him a small smile she turned back to the mirror and continued to brush her hair trying to decide what to do with it.

"School. I only have a few months left and i'll be able to graduate." Tomoe glared at Y/n before taking the brush and slowly detangling her hair before placing it down and running his fingers through her hair, claws grazing her head as she closed her eyes and enjoyed how calming it was.

"You should not go alone. It is not safe for a Land God to be unprotected. I shall come with you." Y/n barely registered what she said as she agreed, too relaxed as he braided her hair and placed a hair pin in, taking his hands away as she opened her eyes and gasped at her hair. It framed her face beautifully and the jewel in the hair pin matched her eyes uncannily.

"Where did you get this? It is beautiful." Y/n didn't dare touch her hair but hovered her hand over it as she moved closer to the mirror astonished by how quickly and well he'd arranged her hair. Tomoe preened at the praise, his ears twitching as he smiled proudly, transforming himself into a 'human', Y/n gasping as she spun and grinned at him.

"You look so human! Although i do miss your ears and tail, i can almost tell what you're thinking when you have them." Y/n pouted slightly before checking the time, her eyes widening as she grabbed Tomoe's hand and pulled him to the Shrine's exit.

"Come on i can't be late." Tomoe allowed her to pull him along, enjoying how excited she appeared for such a mundane and boring task.

Y/n sat at her desk, her head in her hand as she wrote down whatever the teacher said even if it went in one ear and out the other. She could feel Tomoe's gaze burning into the back of her head as he ignored the class in favour of remembering how soft she was, if he inhaled deeply he could smell the sweet citrus on her skin.

"Kurama!" Y/n jumped at the sudden screaming, all the girls fangirling as the door opened, smoke and lights seeming to appear as a boy walked through the door with dark red hair and eyeliner.

"Please, do not stop on account of me." Even the teacher swooned as she told him to not be silly, he was welcome to come in whenever he could, Tomoe glared at the tengu as he entered.

"You're in my seat." Y/n stared at the redhead as he hovered over her, his eyes slightly widening as he noticed the God mark on her forehead.

"Your name isn't on it." Y/n spoke back, her eyebrows knitted together as she glared at the cocky redhead, who in return cocked his head and gave her his signature smile which almost every girl swooned at. But not Y/n, instead she was more confused.

"I haven't seen you before, if you wanted my attention congratulations you have it, now why don't you move your pretty butt to another seat or take a seat on my lap if that was what you wanted from this exchange." Tomoe's claws scraped the table as he watched someone disrespect his Mistress in such a way, Y/n gave a disgusted look and stood up, her face close to Kurama as she looked up at him.

"I don't want your attention and i certainly don't want to sit on your lap so why don't you take your arrogant attitude and sit in the back." Kurama grinned as he heard his fans start mumbling and telling Y/n to move, sighing he ran a hand through his hair and spoke.

"My and i thought i was doing a fan a lovely service. I guess some people just can't take a compliment." Y/n ground her teeth as he walked away, the girls swooning at him before glaring at Y/n for being so cruel to their crush, sitting down with a huff she looked forward to see even the teacher giving her a harsh look. Rolling her eyes she looked out the window and waited for the stupid lesson to be over. She hoped that asshole wasn't in all her classes, she didn't need more eyes on her when she had Tomoe burying a hole in the back of her head already.

Y/n was exhausted, Tomoe had been non stop, telling her to avoid Kurama and the other boys in the class, he meant well since he'd scared off someone who tried to bully her. She was grateful to have him around, especially with her legs aching as she walked between classes.

"I am sorry Y/n but i need to go to the Shrine, i will return when you finish." Y/n yawned, nodding as Tomoe apologised, waving him off as she walked towards her next class.

"Well hello pretty God." Y/n froze as she entered a lone hallway, Kurama stood opposite her with a smug look, Y/n clutched her bag to her shoulder as she shook her head.

"You must have the wrong person. Move out my way i don't want to be late." Y/n went to side step him when a large black angelic looking wing covered her exit, stumbling back Y/n dropped her bag falling on her bottom.

"What the hell!" Y/n shouted as Kurama rolled his shoulders and grinned showing off his wings.

"What's wrong Y/n? Never seen a tengu before?" Y/n shook her head as she crawled back, Kurama now walking towards her slowly, his eyes on her with a piercing gaze which made her feel like prey.

"It is a shame to waste such a pretty face but if i consume you then the power i'll hold will be unimaginable, plus to be known as the fearful tengu who killed a Land God is just too much to pass up. I promise to make it quick." Y/n winced as she scrambled up, running towards the nearest exit as Kurama laughed and chased her.

"Come here bunny." Y/n yelped as she ran up the stairs, cursing herself for missing the stairs down, her legs throbbing as she threw open the roof door. Panting as she slammed it closed snd ran towards the other exit, hoping to put some distance between herself and the tengu.

"Nice try Y/n, atleast now i can take my time with you." Y/n ducked as he landed on the roof, falling on her knees as her tights ripped. Could she not have one normal day? Forcing herself up she turned to where Kurama now strode towards her too confident for her liking.

"I suggest you step back from my Mistress." Y/n felt her body be tugged backwards into warmth, an arm snaking around her waist as blue flame appeared beside her. Gasping she looked to see Tomoe, his full yokai form revealed as Kurama let out a laugh and crossed his arms.

"Well, you've got the fox watching over you? I guess today will be the day i kill a God and defeat a fox yokai then." Tomoe let out a humourless laugh as his face darkened, a talisman hitting Kurama as it turned him into an ostrich. Y/n's jaw dropped as Tomoe sent a flame after him, hearing his laugh in her ear as he pulled her even closer.

"Shall we have roast tengu for dinner Y/n?" Her jaw was still wide open as she watched Kurama run around wildly trying to avoid the fire as Tomoe laughed and mocked him. She could feel the heat from his body warming her insides, she felt so exhausted and now he was holding her up she was able to drop her weight. Tomoe stopped laughing as he picked Y/n up, cradling her legs in one hand so she could drop her head against his shoulder.

"You must be more careful Y/n, your fragile body cannot handle it." Y/n nodded before she heard a yelp, her head turning to see Kurama's tail on fire as Tomoe let out another laugh. Y/n scowled, smacking Tomoe's chest.

"Tomoe stop, he doesn't need to be killed." Tomoe ignored her as he pushed her head back into his shoulder and enjoyed Kurama panicking. Y/n pushed his hand away and grabbed his face, forcing the fox to look at her as she spoke in a forceful way.

"Do not kill him. Turn him back to normal." Tomoe felt the harsh pull of the familiar bond tugging at him as he stopped his fire and Kurama turned human. Y/n sighed as she moved her hand from his face and Tomoe wanted it instantly back, to see that fire in her eyes as she commanded him. He wished she would command him more, to feel it deep in him, the need to do what she wanted. It was addictive.

"You insolent fool, if you ever go near my Mistress again i will not be as lenient as i was today." Kurama panicked as he agreed, stumbling back as he exited the roof, leaving Tomoe and Y/n alone. The latter now barely awake as Tomoe stroked her legs, he could smell the metallic blood that seeped into her tights.

"I shall need to wash your legs and bandage them again." Y/n let out a small whine before nodding and closing her eyes.

"Am gonna just have a nap." Y/n barely spoke above a whisper, her words slurred as she slouched more into Tomoe's hold and he could hear her breathing evening out.

The next week passed quickly, Kurama apologised and decided he was going to steal Y/n's heart, whether to eat it or keep it he wasn't too sure either. Y/n's legs finally healed and Tomoe was letting himself relax more around her, allowing her to do her chores around the Shrine and he had taught her how to cook the soup she'd enjoyed so much. Her praise whilst he showed her was too much, his tail had spiked up and his body was sweating by the time he had plated up the food. It was angelic, he'd lapped it up and thoroughly enjoyed himself. Now monday rolled around once more and as Y/n stood in her uniform, this time without the black tights and knee high socks instead which frankly Tomoe was ready to force her into a longer skirt and dark tights to hide her beautiful skin.

"I must stay at the Shrine today Y/n, you should stay here too without me able to look after you that Tengu might try to harm you again." Y/n let out a laugh as she grabbed her bag, patting Tomoe on his chest with a grin.

"Don't be so silly, he's just a dramatic pop star. I'll fine, i'll see you when i get back okay?" Tomoe's eyes dropped to where her hand grazed his bare skin between the fold on his Kimono, electricity striking where her fingers touched before he felt them leave along with her out the door. Letting out a shakey breath he shook his head and regained his composure, he would not fall for a human ever again.

Y/n entered the classroom, placing her bag down before she heard the commotion, all the boys crowded around a small white snake trying to scare it away as she scowled and pushed through the crowd.

"Leave the poor thing alone!" Y/n bent down allowing the snake to wrap around her wrist as she gave it a small smile and walked towards the window, the boys in the class all making comments as she opened the window.

"Come on little guy, it's not safe here." She lowered her hand as she bent put the windowsill, the snake seemed to stare at her for a while before slowly unwrapping and landing on the soft grass. Y/n smiled as she closed the window, the snake turning and staring at her retreating figure.

"Are you okay Y/n?" One of the girls said as Y/n raised an eyebrow confused and went to answer before another girl pointed at her arm. The snake had left a red mark where it had been wrapped around and a white mark around her wrist. Tilting her head she shrugged and wiped at her skin but it stayed.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Y/n gave them a reassuring smile as she continued on her day.

Tomoe tried not to stare at the entrance of the Shrine for the whole day as he sorted through everything, dinner was boiling away and the odd miasma which had appeared that morning was now gone. Sighing he fanned himself as he saw Y/n approach, smirking he watched as she took in the beauty of Shrine as she did everyday she left, he felt honoured at how proud she was to call it her home. His eyes narrowed as she placed her hand in the water, moving quickly as he grabbed her arm causing her to gasp at his sudden appearance.

"What is this?" Y/n's eyes were wide as she yanked her arm back and crossed them, cocking her hip out as they both stared each other down.

"I helped a snake earlier and i must be allergic. I'm fine." Y/n huffed as she moved and rubbed her arm, it didn't hurt but the mark was still there although now the white mark looked more like a bracelet than an actual allergic reaction.

"That is not an allergic reaction. That is a nark of marriage!" Y/n raised an eyebrow at the angry fox as he lectured her on being careful and how he now would have to be by her side every waking moment.

"You're a very dramatic fox y'know." Y/n finally spoke in between Tomoe's lecture making his eyes snap to hers as his aura darkened, hands now inside his kimono sleeves as he glared down at her making Y/n laugh awkwardly and step back.

"What did you say?" Tomoe's voice was deep and full of threat as Y/n shot him a nervous grin.

"Nothing...the Shrine looks amazing by the way! Absolutely magnificent, have you done something new with your hair? Your ears look so fluffy and.." Tomoe huffed as he walked past Y/n, pretending her compliments and praise hadn't instantly made his anger diminish. Y/n breathed out a sigh of relief as she looked at her arm and poked at the mark.

"Why do i have to be nice?" Y/n slumped as she walked into the Shrine, smelling the lovely dinner Tomoe had prepared as she went in her room and changed into her casual clothes. She had better start making some talismans to protect herself, was this God thing ever going to get easier?

Y/n walked through the corridor, Tomoe stood beside her as he glared at any male who looked at her, it was starting to warm up luckily so Y/n's spirit had cheered up and she had easily forgotten about the marriage mark from the previous week. Tomoe however had not and every man that looked towards his Mistress was met with a fiery gaze which sent them running, it gave him great pride to see them scamper away. He had heard rumours of Y/n dating him and although Y/n had been disputing them left and right to any girl who came up to her he had only been shrugging when someone asked him. What harm would it cause for the humans to believe Y/n was his? In a way she was, just as he was her familiar, they just didn't understand that was what he was inferring too, not that he ever tried to correct them. He enjoyed how Y/n would blush and quickly try to dispute the rumour compared to his bored attitude to the question, it only furthered the idea that they were hiding their relationship.

"Hey Tomoe, i just need to use the toilet i'll be back in a minute." Y/n chirped as she waved her hand and entered the girls bathrooms, within moments a few girls came up to Tomoe, trying to steal away his attention as he reminded himself to be polite yet firm.

"Why don't you walk us home today Tomoe? Y/n said you're not together so you can do whatever you want right?" The girl said as she pressed her chest against Tomoe's arm, he tried not show his disgust as another girl played his the hem of her skirt. Were human males so easily tempted by such things?

Y/n exited the toilets as she looked around for Tomoe before seeing him with the girls who had flagged her down earlier than day in gym class, she had panicked and told them to do whatever they wanted just so she could finish changing without them crowing her. Shrugging her shoulders she decided to wait outside the building for him, if he wanted to walk one of the girls home she would find out then but she didn't want to deal with his wrath if she walked by herself and left him to walk alone. Humming to herself she watched the rain as she sat on the step, going through her notes from class when a strong wind blew a few pages towards the bushes, standing up she quickly raced to get them before they got soaked. As her hand went to reach for the paper a white clawed hand collecting the paper, looking up she stared into the pale eyes of the male holding her papers, a smile on his face that made her feel uneasy as she stepped back.

"Here you go Y/n." His voice was smooth, white hair and eyelashes but she swore she knew those eyes from somewhere, taking the paper from his hand she spoke quietly.

"Thanks..." Y/n then frowned as she looked from her paper to him in confusion.

"Wait how did you know my name?" Y/n took another step back as the stranger grinned wide and stepped closer, his umbrella now closed and by his side.

"Why wouldn't i know the name of my beautiful bride?" Y/n panicked as she turned and went to run, her arm grasped before she could make it further than a step, with the hand on her she suddenly lost consciousness and fell into the yokai's arms.

Y/n woke up with a headache, pushing herself off the futon as she held her head eyes still closed, she tried to recall how she got back to the Shrine until she opened her eyes and the panic returned.

"Nope. Nope. Not good. Tomoe's gonna kill me." Y/n stood quickly, jumping as the door slid open and two spirits entered with too much energy for Y/n to process falling back onto her butt as they hovered over her.

"Hello Miss Y/n!" They cheered, each of them holding her cheeks as they pulled her about.

"You are a pretty human like Master Mizuki said!" Y/n slapped the hands away and crawled back, the spirits now pulling out bugs as they offered her something to eat making Y/n cringe as they dangling a centipede in front of her face.

"Good morning Miss Y/n." Y/n snapped her head to the door as it once more slid open, this time revealing the mysterious man from before, the spirits all cheered as he entered.

"Master Mizuki!" Y/n panicked as he came closer, Y/n stared at him as he stood over her with a gentle smile.

"I wanted to thank you for rescuing me the other day when i ventured into the school. It was very sweet of you." Wracking her brain Y/n recalled the snake she had saved over a week ago and her jaw dropped as she looked the yokai up and down.

"Hang on, you kidnapped me because i helped you?" Mizuki crouched and knelt before Y/n as he nodded and took her hands, Y/n stared at him as he spoke.

"Of course, you will be my beautiful bride. I am the familiar of this wonderful Shrine and now we can live here for eternity together. Isn't that wonderful?" Y/n felt a shiver go down her back as she yanked her hands back and scrambled backwards away from him, his eyes turning darker as he seemed to crawl towards her.

"I think you've got the wrong girl. I'm not marrying anyone! Especially not like this." Before Mizuki could reach her Y/n found her footing and got up, pushing her legs to run as fast as she could out the Shrine, the sky was a dark green as she sprinted into the forest. Mizuki stood at the entrance of the Shrine with a subtle smile on his face, she would be back before she knew it.

Panting Y/n rested against a tree, looking back at the vast forest behind her with a sigh, hopefully she had put enough distance between herself and the creepy familiar.

"I really need to listen to Tomoe more." Y/n placed a hand on her head pushing her hair out her face as she took deep breaths, she needed to continue running to keep the distance between herself and the snake. Shaking the slight ache out her muscles she continues running, trying to figure out how to get back to the main roads or atleast somewhere she could recognise.

Tomoe was seething, none of his flames could find his blasted God and his anger was reaching new heights as he imagined all the horrendous things that snake could be doing to her.

Y/n's eyes lit up as she saw lights, a burst of energy entering her body as she pushed herself to sprint again although the joy was quickly replaced by confusion as she noticed the Shrine. Mizuki and the spirits stood by the entrance, a gleeful smile on the snake's face as he walked towards her.

"What the hell." Y/n turned her head to see the forest she had ran into, her eyebrows knitted together as she turned back to the Shrine, Mizuki now stood before her with his hand outstretched.

"You must be exhausted my Lady. Please come and rest." Y/n thought about returning to the forest but it was now dark and she didn't know what lurked in the shadows, atleast here she knew where her danger was. Nodding she took his hand, his skin soft under hers, Mizuki blushed at her warmth in his hand and smiled walking her towards her bedroom.

"This our bedroom Lady Y/n. But i will let you rest now, i will not do anything you don't want me too." Y/n crossed her arms over her waist as she stared at the double futon, rose petals around the room with candles, this snake obviously had other ideas for how her kidnapping was meant to go.

"Thanks." Y/n mumbled out as she closed the door in his face, pushing her weight against it as she collapsed on the floor and stared at the room. She was deep in it now, with no way out she just had to pray Tomoe found her before the snake could marry her. Crawling to the futon she blushed dark red at the lingerie left for her, the thin white silk would barely cover anything as she quickly threw it across the room as though it burned. Mizuki definantly believed this kidnapping was going to go his way, shivering she crawled under the blankets in her uniform and tried to sleep. She tried to imagine she was in the Shrine, her spirits squabbling whilst Tomoe called her to wake up or he'd drag her out of bed but it only made her heart miss being free more. Eventually she fell into a dreamless sleep until morning when she awoke to a weight over her waist, cuddling into her pillow she mumbled for Kotetsu and Onikiri not to hide in her room if they upset Tomoe but when she felt a hand pull her closer her eyes snapped open.

"Good morning my beautiful bride, you looked so angelic i had to join you." Mizuki purred in her ear as he cuddled closer to her, Y/n bolted up, turning so her feet were between her and the snake as she gave him a horrified look.

"What are you doing in here! Y-you promised not to do anything unless i said so." Mizuki let out a small laugh as he blushed and hid his face, crawling towards Y/n, his hand grabbing her leg and pulling her under him. His face now nuzzling against her ribs and chest as she placed her hands on his shoulders and struggled to push him away with a yelp.

"I know but you just look so delicious, just let me have a taste, i know we should wait until we're married but what does it really matter? You're mine anyway." Y/n now full panicked as Mizuki placed a kiss on her waist and pinned her hands beside her, her legs kicking out as he climbed between them, her skirt pushing up as he sunk further down, eyes on her with a gleeful glint.

"Get your hands off my Mistress right now." Y/n's eyes lit up as the wall between the Shrine and there stood Tomoe, flames around him as he glared at Mizuki on top of Y/n, his eyes darting over her as he saw her skirt against her hips and the snake between her legs with fear in his eyes.

"Ho-how did you get here?" Mizuki shouted as he moved off Y/n allowing her to close her legs and push her skirt back down, scampering up and rushing to Tomoe as he held her against him.

"If it is for my Mistress i would move heaven and earth to find her. Now, it is time for punishment for touching her in such a disgraceful way." In a way only i should ever touch her, Tomoe thought as he began burning down the Shrine, Mizuki rushing out the Shrine towards a beautiful sakura tree, his eyes filled with tears as he turned to Tomoe.

"Please, do not harm my tree." Y/n felt pity as he guarded the tree, the spirits of the Shrine rushing to him as they cried out that their house was being destroyed. Y/n teared up as she pulled against Tomoe.

"Please Tomoe, i just wish to go home." But Tomoe would not listen, not when this snake had touched Y/n in such a way, not when she had been pinned down and almost dishonoured, all he saw was red as he conjured a fire ball.

"Thank you for showing me what you love most, i shall take great pleasure in watching it burn." Y/n's eyes widened as she shouted Tomoe's name and moved out his arm to stand in front of Mizuki and the tree.

"Stop! He has learnt his lesson!" Tomoe froze as he felt the cold wash of her words splash him, forcing his fire to distinguish as she stood before him. His hands balling up in anger as he stormed towards her, her head at his chest as they both glared at each other.

"This yokai touched you, he kidnapped you and almost disgraced you and you dare to stand in my way from destroying him?" Y/n placed her hands on his chest to try to soothe the angry kitsune as she shook her head and looked down.

"I know it sounds silly but please Tomoe. He knows what he did was wrong, don't take the last of his happiness because of me." Mizuki fell to his knees in tears as Tomoe stared down at Y/n, her head now turned to look at the broken familiar as he explained his God had died. It sparked pity and guilt in Y/n's chest, he was so lonely and wanted company, he had done wrong but he just wished for a Mistress to serve. Crouching down Y/n took his hand gently which made Tomoe's chest hurt in a way he wasn't used to as she promised to return and see him.

"You what?!"

Y/n stood sheepishly in front of Tomoe, now back in the Mikage Shrine as he once more lectured and shouted about how reckless she was and how dare she agree to see that pest!

"Come on Tomoe, everyone deserves a second chance." Y/n gave him a smile as she moved forward and lifted her hand to run it through his hair, her nails scratching his ears making his tail swish as he tried to keep his composure.

"Thank you for saving me, i don't know what i'd do without you y'know?" Y/n blushed as she complimented the fox, his eyes wide as she ran her nails along his ears making his body heat up and mind go blank before she let go and gave a small giggle.

"I'm going to have a bath and go to bed. I missed you all so much." Tomoe let her walk past him as her words ran around his mind, she had missed him. The words were like the first drink in the dessert, a meal after being starved for centuries and he was sure it would feed his desire for months.

Y/n laid on her futon, her hair now braided and half dry as she tossed and turned unable to settle, her door sliding open as she squinted and looked towards the light. Tomoe stood in the doorway, his kimono half open as he entered and slid the door closed behind him, Y/n now sat up and called out his name rubbing her eyes.

"Are you okay Tomoe?" Y/n mumbled as Tomoe crouched beside her, his eyes piercing into her soul before he pushed her lay back down and crawled into the futon next to her, her body still as she took in Tomoe cuddling her.

"Shh my Lady, go to sleep, i will keep you safe and warm." His hand came to pull her head into his chest as he wrapped around her, Y/n's eyes were wide as she stared at the pale skin that pressed into her cheek, she was sure this was some dream. Y/n gulped and nodded as she forced her eyes closed and tried to calm her beating heart, he was right, he was so warm and she hadn't realised she was cold until she was engulfed in his warmth. Tomoe wrapped his tail around Y/n's waist as she began to drift off, he was aware of how bold of a move he had made but could not find it in himself to care as he heard her breathing even out.

Tomoe glared at the sky as he watched the lightening strike closer each time it appeared, Y/n wrapped a raincoat around herself as she grabbed her school bag and her lunch, waving bye to Tomoe as he hummed back. The Shrine was to have a visitor who appeared to be in a bad mood, sighing he continued with his duties. Atleast Y/n would be at school and away from the God's anger as she was prone to be set off easily.

"Princess Narukami." Tomoe greeted as she grinned and walked into the Shrine.

"Hello Tomoe, when i heard the Shrine had a new Land God i did not expect to hear rumours of them being a puny human girl." Tomoe scowled at the insult to his Mistress, his hands tucked in the sleeves of his kimono as Narukami walked around the Shrine.

"That damned man, stealing Tomoe away from me and then leaving him in the hands of this little girl. I won't forgive him." Narukami shouted as she picked up a picture of Y/n throwing it against the wall as she stormed out. Tomoe's eyes widened as he rushed to follow the angry God.

Y/n watched the lightening as it seemed to get closer, bored out of her brain as she barely listened to the teacher, her mind recalling Tomoe saying the Shrine was to have a visitor. She wished she could have stayed home but she had a test today she could not miss, not that Tomoe had tried to convince her to stay which was off since he tried to keep her close at all times. Shrugging Y/n looked down at the pages she had scribbled in and sighed, jumping at the lightening seemed to strike directly outside the window.

"Y/N L/N!" Y/n jumped back as the window next to her smashed, the room turning dark as a woman appeared with lightening flashing around her, Y/n fell back and stared up in shock at the God.

"You do not deserve the title of God and i am here to relieve you of the burden." Y/n crawled back as the God got closer, bending down and gripping Y/n's face as she flinched, this was how she was going to die. But instead of violent murder a kiss was gently placed on her head, and Y/n's eyes opened as the God moved back, the gold glow following her as Y/n watched her Godhood be taken.

"Let go of her!" Tomoe shouted, throwing fire at Princess Narukami, causing the angry goddess to move back from Y/n as Tomoe caught her, looking over her as he cradled her face.

"Tomoe." Y/n whispered with a small smile as the kitsune sighed in relief that she was still alive, glaring at Princess Narukami as she looked down at him with a smug smile.

"Come Tomoe and be my obedient Familiar." Tomoe growled as Y/n gripped his arm, his anger rising.

"No." Princess Narukami deadpanned before a malicious grin came over her face, a mallet appearing in her hand as she hit Tomoe over the head with it. Y/n shouted out as smoke appeared around Tomoe until it cleared and in his place was...a child Tomoe? Y/n caught him as he fell back, his eyes wide as he looked at himself in horror.

"If you wish to be restored to your true body come to Mikage's Shrine and seal the contract." Princess Narukami laughed as she left, leaving Y/n holding Tomoe as she stared out the window.

Y/n sat on the bench with Tomoe's head in her lap, fussing over him as his temperature seemed to rise by the minute.

"Huh? Y/n?" Kurama's voice jolted Y/n as she looked up at him, the popstar pushing back his hair as he gave her a cheeky grin.

"What are you doing outside my apartment building? Did you want to come cuddle with me instead of that stupid fox?" Kurama winked at Y/n before a leaf hit him harshly in the face making him scream out as Tomoe sat up on Y/n's lap and glared at him. Kurama stared at Tomoe for a moment before bursting out in laughter, Tomoe now crossed his arms as Y/n wrapped her arms around him and stood.

"You live here Kurama?" Kurama composed himself and nodded, looked down at Tomoe as Y/n explained what happened with the Mallet, her Godhood and now baby Tomoe's temperature.

"Well you're more than welcome to stay the night with me Y/n but the damn fox can freeze out here for all i care. But don't worry, i'll keep you company." Kurama grinned as he got closer, his nose almost touching Y/n's when another leaf landed on his nose causing it to burst into a nose bleed, his body jumping back as he shouted at Tomoe.

"I won't leave Tomoe out here." Y/n declared which made Kurama sigh before agreeing to the fox coming into his apartment aswell.

Y/n's jaw dropped as she entered, looking around as she carried Tomoe towards the bedroom.

"This is my bedroom, you can stay here tonight Y/n but the kitsune can sleep on the floor, i can keep you warm." Kurama purred out as he took a string of Y/n's hair between his fingers and went to nuzzle her neck. Y/n glared at him as she walked over and placed Tomoe on the bed, his eyes glaring deeply into Kurama as he watched Y/n bend over in her school skirt.

"He is not sleeping on the floor! If i'm staying in this bed so is he." Kurama huffed as he looked at Tomoe and conceded, not like the little guy would stop him from being able to make a move on Y/n, even if she wasn't a God she was still hot and he wanted to bite the forbidden fruit so bad. As though Tomoe could hear his thoughts another leaf smacked Kurama as Y/n called out and they all began shouting at each other until Tomoe collapsed, Y/n panicking as she told Kurama to get some cold water and a flannel.

Kurama sat on the bed as Y/n placed the flannel on Tomoe's head.

"Why will his fever not go down?" Y/n questioned as she moved Tomoe's hair and caressed his little face before she looked at Kurama.

"The mallet only changed his body, his powers are still running rampant and his small body can't handle it. He won't get better until he becomes normal again." Y/n bit her lip as she looked back at Tomoe, Kurama moved over to his bedside, collecting a pill as he explained it would help, shoving it into Tomoe's mouth as Y/n gasped. Tomoe clenched down on Kurama's finger as he screamed out and threw Tomoe onto the floor, Y/n rushing over and picking him up as she scolded Kurama.

Y/n fussed more over Tomoe, the soup he had taught her to make being spoon fed to him as Kurama leaned against the doorway watching, mumbling to himself about the damn fox. Y/n changed the flannel on Tomoe's head, placing a gentle kiss in his skin as she begged him to get better, standing as she awkwardly rubbed her arm. Kurama stood in his pjs watching her as she looked up at him with an adorable expression that he was sure she didn't know she was giving.

"Umm, can i borrow some clothes to sleep in please?" Tomoe's ears perked as he opened his eyes and looked at Kurama's smug face, handing her a shirt and some boxer shorts which made Y/n's face go red as she thanked him and scurried to the bathroom. Kurama turned to Tomoe as he huffed.

"Go sleep on the sofa or something fox." Tomoe glared at him as Y/n came back in, the boxers peeking out the oversized shirt as he tried not to stare at her nipples poking through the thin material, her clothes neatly folded but both Kurama and Tomoe could see the frills of her underwear poking out as she placed them down. Smiling at them both she sat next to Tomoe and checked his temperature, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Kurama in joy.

"His fevers gone down! The tablet must have worked thank you Kurama." Y/n beamed as she grabbed the flannel and replaced it with a cold one, Tomoe staring at Y/n as she tucked him in.

"Well i guess we'd better get into bed then Y/n." Y/n's face went red as she turned to look at Kurama, a smirk on his face as his wings expanded.

"Huh? I thought you'd sleep on the sofa." Y/n chuckled awkwardly as Kurama deadpanned, grabbing a pillow as he offered it to Y/n.

"This is my bed, i'm not sleeping on the sofa, if you don't want to join me then you can take yourself to the sofa and put that pest on the floor." Y/n pouted as she looked at Tomoe, his eyes now closed as she ran her hand through his hair.

"Fine. But stick to your side alright?" Kurama grinned as he pulled the blanket back, his wings taking up half the bed whilst Tomoe took up the other half, Y/n bit her lip as she climbed in, the shirt crawling up her body as she laid down making Kurama lick his lips at how her body looked in his boxers. This must have been some kind of wet dream, if only Tomoe wasn't here he would believe it, instead Y/n placed a pillow between her and Kurama and cuddled up to Tomoe's body. Huffing Kurama crossed his arms and turned to face the other way, so much for running his hands up and down her legs until she was panting and asking him for more.

Y/n woke up as she felt small hands tug on the shirt she wore, yawning she looked down at Tomoe's little body curled into her chest, his hands gripping the shirt as he breathed evenly. A sudden tug made her aware of the arm around her waist and warmth on her back, looking down she saw black nails against her naked skin where the shirt had ridden up exposing her midriff, her face turned dark red as her ears burnt, trying to shift away from him she heard Kurama groan and pull her closer. His face now nuzzled in the nape of her neck as he moaned, his nails now grazing her stomach as he rolled his hips into her butt. Holding her breath Y/n stayed deadly still before the hands loosened and Kurama turned over mumbling something before snoring. Letting out a breath she looked down at Tomoe, jolting up as she saw his face red, her breasts smothering his little face as she pulled him free. Tomoe taking a deep breath as Kurama fell off the bed at the sudden panicked movements, holding his head he sat up seeing Y/n fussing over Tomoe whose eyes were wide.

"I'm so sorry Tomoe! I didn't mean to suffocate you." Kurama's jaw dropped as he realised the lucky fox had been face deep in Y/n's chest, glaring at Tomoe as he looked away trying to hide his embarrassment. Damned Fox Kurama thought.

"Why are you cooking whatever he wants?" Y/n turned her head to where Kurama sat, tilting her head in confusion.

"He always does everything for me and makes sure i'm okay, this is nothing compared to what he does for me." Y/n grinned a she rolled the rice into balls and placed them on the plate, she wasn't quite sure if she'd made them right but hopefully he would enjoy them. Kurama watched in envy as she took them through to Tomoe, sitting him up and watching as he ate them, Y/n beaming with pride as he praised her for the cooking. Kurama walked in as Y/n stroked Tomoe's hair before he smacked her hand away.

"You must be on your guard with him. He is not so innocent." Y/n waved her hand away before Kurama grabbed one of Tomoe's ears.

"Talking about me huh?" Kurama laughed as Tomoe fell over, Y/n picking him up and cradling him to her chest.

"Don't be so rough with him!" Y/n chastised as Kurama pushed his hair back and looked at Tomoe.

"Getting Y/n to come to your aid, not bad Tomoe. Anyway i need to get to rehearsal, find a way to get that mallet or he won't make it more than a few days." Y/n nodded as she placed Tomoe down and moved to clean the kitchen. Tomoe stood by the window as Kurama mouthed to him. His eyes going wide as he looked down in shame, he was supposed to protect Y/n and instead she was caring for him in his useless body.

Y/n heard the door closed as she turned, calling out to Tomoe she found the bedroom empty, rushing to the window she watched as he walked towards Princess Narukami's spirits and left. Her jaw dropped as she rushed to dress, pulling on her uniform and rushing out the apartment. As she stood where he had been she felt tears in her eyes, he had gone to Narukami, he must have truly been desperate.

"Oh Tomoe i knew you'd come back!" Tomoe was lifted from the floor as Narukami cuddled him into her chest and he couldn't help but recall how much softer Y/n had been when she cuddled him.

"You are so cute like this but i much prefer you in your true form, so big and strong. Now. Seal the contract with me and be mine forever." Narukami declared as she let go of Tomoe, closing her eyes and pouting before she opened her eyes to an empty hallway.

"Tomoe!" She screamed as she sent her lion spirits to search for him.

Y/n sat on the bench outside Kurama's her knees draw to her chest as she stared at the ground, a blue butterfly landing on her shoulder as Kurama approached.

"What are you doing out here?" He questioned as she raised her head, the redness around her eyes betraying her.

"Tomoe left. He went to the Shrine." Kurama's eyebrows rose as he sighed out before handing Y/n a feather, Y/n took it gently.

"They have been with you since you arrived and i'm sick of being the only one to hear them." Y/n gasped as Onikiri and Kotetsu appeared.

"Lady Y/n!" They cried as Y/n hugged them, both of the spirits crying out about Tomoe as Y/n tried to listen.

"Tomoe is hiding away!"

"He refused to be her familiar and she is going to destroy the Shrine."

"Please help!"

Y/n stood by the entrance of the Shrine as she watched the poor lion spirits be shocked.

"Find me Tomoe!" Princess Narukami screamed as she turned and spotted Y/n.

"I have a deal for you." The Princess' eyebrow raised as Y/n gulped and stepped forward.

"If i can find Tomoe you give me back my Godhood and return Tomoe to normal." Princess Narukami thought about it for minute before agreeing.

"Agreed. But if my spirits find him before you, you can stay as a lowly servant for the rest of your miserable human life. You have 30 minutes. Y/n nodded quickly as she ran inside the Shrine, hunting for Tomoe, calling out to him but it was no use. She only had 10 minutes before she would become a servant regardless if anyone found him. Onikiri and Kotetsu popped up as Y/n was losing hope, shushing Y/n as they directed her to the table, a small mirror surrounded in butterflies laid hidden under a book. As she removed the book she saw Tomoe, his little body laid down and his body covered in a red flush, gasping she held a hand over her mouth.

"You need to retrieve him." Onikiri whispered before they disappeared, Y/n bit her lip as she pushed a hand into the mirror, begging Tomoe to take her hand as she willed him to come out.

"Tomoe." Y/n whispered as she held him in her arms, his body boiling as he struggled to breathe, rushing out the Shrine she called out Princess Narukami.

"I have Tomoe!" The lightening God huffed as she snapped her eyes to her spirits, a silent threat that they would be paying for this.

"Fine. I am a woman of my word and i do not want him if he does not want me." Princess Narukami bent down and placed a kiss on Y/n's forehead, bestowing her Godhood once again.

"They'll explain how to fix him." With that she left, her spirit holding the mallet up to Y/n with wide eyes.

"Swing the mallet and will him to be big again." Y/n nodded as she held the mallet, swinging it at Tomoe as she shouted out for him to grow.

Tomoe grew instantly, the smoke clearing as Y/n stared at him, his hair now long which enhanced his beauty making Y/n turn red as the lion spirit took the mallet and left. Y/n gulped as Tomoe looked at her, the Shrine's energy now clean and the repairs fixed within seconds of Tomoe being normal once more.

"You look...beautiful." Y/n stuttered out as Tomoe approached her, pushing her hair out her face before he cupped her face.

"Thank you Mistress." Y/n didn't have time to react before his lips sealed over hers, her hands coming to touch his chest as he hungrily pressed into her, deepening the contracts kiss until he pulled away against his own desires. Y/n's eyes opened as she watched him become a familiar once more, her hand moving to her lips as she bit them. He had sealed the contract once more, and yet that did not feel like a contractual kiss.

Y/n was struggling to not stare at Tomoe as he stood in the garden, the broom he leaned against whilst a butterfly landed on his hand was what he had been doing. Now he stood gracefully, his long hair tied behind his head, sun beaming down on him like he was being blessed by the Gods and Y/n couldn't help the rush of arousal that ran through her veins. She blamed the contract kiss for the confusing emotions, or maybe she was coming down with a fever, that had to be it, that's why she was rubbing her thighs together as she watched him. She couldn't ever call him a pervert again whilst she was doing this. Tomoe turned his head to Y/n as he smelt her sweet arousal, his whole body reacting to her as she jumped and scrambled inside hiding away from Tomoe as he chuckled.

"My sweet Mistress. One day you will beg me to follow you and that will be the day i finally break." Tomoe looked at the sky as he inhaled still able to smell her sweet aroma, the butterfly flying away as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment.

Y/n sighed as she laid in her futon, her shirt rode up as she tossed and turned until she finally stood, pulling her shirt over her underwear as she left her bedroom. Entering Tomoe’s bedroom she found him reading a book under candle light, his eyes finding hers as she shuffled her feet around.

“Can i sleep in here please?” Y/n whispered but Tomoe heard clear as day, his ear twitching as he nodded, his eyes raking along her half naked body as she scampered into the futon and turned her back to him.

Tomoe grinned as he leant close to her neck, his hand coming to her thigh as he placed a kiss on her neck, his canines gently pressing into her skin.

"Thank you for looking after me Mistress. I owe you." Tomoe purred out, his tail coming to caress her legs as she closed her eyes, his nails now gently running up and down her thigh as he nuzzled her neck. Y/n let out a quiet moan as she rubbed her legs together, Tomoe preening at her bodies response to him until Y/n's eyes opened and she slammed a hand over her mouth. Tomoe let out a laugh as she rolled onto her stomach and away from his ministrations.

"You're so mean." Y/n mumbled into the pillow as Tomoe stared at her, how the moonlight lit up her skin and each freckle and curve was his to take in, including her cute frilled underwear which made his mind go feral. Forcing himself to control himself he laid down on his back, one arm over his eyes as the other ran through her hair.

"Goodnight Y/n." Y/n turned her head to see him relaxed, moving to lay her head on his arm and cuddle into his side as she whispered goodnight back and settled into sleep.

Y/n laughed with Ami and Kei as they walked home, Kei was going on about her amazing boyfriend and teasing Ami as she blushed whenever Kei implied more.

"Oh come on Ami, you're telling me you've never wanted to kiss a guy? I mean Y/n back me up here you think about kissing Tomoe all the time right?" Y/n went red as her mouth opened and closed in panic at Kei's words, Kei let out a laugh as Ami rushed to poke Y/n.

"Come on you're so obvious Y/n." Kei joked as Y/n closed her mouth and began shaking her head.

"I don't think about kissing Tomoe! I just..." Y/n went silent as she realised how much she thought about Tomoe, sometimes it was kissing which she could admit to her friends but she couldn't admit all the other dirty thoughts and feelings she had. The worst part was most of the thoughts were based on things Tomoe had done to her, his act so innocent and caring and here she was being perverted towards him.

"It's normal to think about it Ami, don't let Kei scare you." Y/n finally spoke as she reached over and flicked Kei's forehead making the girl yelp and a friendly argument begin.

Y/n walked into the Shrine, her thoughts away from her as she noticed Tomoe sat with a mirror, his nails raking through his now short hair as Y/n's jaw dropped. Tomoe turned with a smirk to look at Y/n before his face dropped to one of a confused at her face.

"Is something wrong?" Y/n wanted to cry as she got closer and ran her hands through his hair, thinking about all the things she hadn't been able to do with his glorious long hair.

"You cut it." Y/n whispered with a pout as she imagined brushing his hair, braiding it, washing it. Tomoe scowled as he stood up, looking down at Y/n as she continued to pout.

"Are you upset i cut my hair?" Y/n nodded before she looked away and sighed then smiled at Tomoe.

"I'm only a little sad because you have gorgeous hair and i was hoping to brush and braid it but i understand it's your hair so you can do as you wish. It looks lovely short as well so please don't worry." Tomoe smirked as he leant down.

"If you want to brush my hair so bad why didn't say? I still have a tail." The last few words came out as a purr as Y/n gulped and looked at his swaying tail in awe, she really hoped this wasn't some cruel joke as she nodded quickly.

Y/n sat happily as she slowly brushed the fur on Tomoe's tail, his book in his hand as he read, the pair in silence as they enjoyed each other's company.

Y/n sat with Ami and Kei as they talked about their plans for the weekend, Kei had just broken up with her boyfriend and wanted to go to the beach to see all the cute boys and show him she was worth more than him. Y/n smiled as she agreed although she could feel Tomoe's gaze in the back of her head as she explained she didn't have a swimsuit, Kei grinned deeply as she agreed to bring one for her.

Tomoe grumbled as he walked on the sand, Mizuki next to him as Y/n ran towards Ami and Kei, the latter glaring at the boys as she loudly protesting to them being there saying they would deter all the cuties. Y/n laughed it off and said they'd stay out their way, Kei relented with a pout and handed Y/n a bag before shooing her to the dressing rooms. Y/n waved the boys off as Tomoe laid on a sunbed in the shade, a book in his hands as Mizuki commented on all the cute girls.

"What do you think?" Y/n spoke as she twirled before Ami and Kei, Ami gushing over Y/n in the light blue bikini which seemed to fit every curve and notch of her body perfectly.

"Wow, doesn't Y/n look amazing? I see everyone else here thinks the same way as well." Mizuki teased as he leant over and watched Tomoe glaring at the males who openly gawked at his Mistress's body, much the same as Tomoe was doing from behind his book. He could not tear his eyes from her as she pulled the hair band from her hair and splashed in the ocean with the two girls, her breasts bouncing as she jumped around and squealed at the cold water hitting against her body. This was torture to watch her be so carefree, so innocent to men as some boys got closer, Kei happily inviting them over as Y/n climbed out and ran towards Tomoe and Mizuki. Her bikini holding her in as she bounced and stopped before the two men, Mizuki now grinning widely as he stood and placed a hand around her waist whilst Y/n gave Tomoe sparkling eyes.

"Would you like to join us Tomoe? The water is lovely." Y/n grinned, her head tilting as Tomoe pulled the book up higher to hide the dark blush on his face and the irritable glare he was trying to hold in at Mizuki's hand almost touching her bikini bottoms where they tied perfectly on her hips.

"No thank you Y/n." Y/n pouted slightly before shrugging and leaning over Tomoe to pat his head, her hands finding where his ears were concealed to give them a small scratch of appreciation. His eyes now staring at her chest as she bent over him, teasing him with no knowledge of the power she held before she stood straight and waved at him.

"Have fun Tomoe." Mizuki sing songed as he followed Y/n into the water, the fox now overcome with jealousy as he watched Mizuki and the other males flirt and splash with Y/n as she held Ami's hands and spun her in circles in the water. She looked angelic and he wished deeply to pick her up and hold her body against his to show everyone she was his but he could not enter the water. His past self was being cursed as he glared at the water in disgust.

Y/n giggled as she let go of Ami, allowing her to paddle around as she went for a swim, Kei busy flirting with the boys as she ran her hands along one of their abs and winked at him, she was too good at it honestly. Y/n stared up at the sky as she swam backwards, it was so calm and beautiful she could stay in the ocean forever if she could breathe underwater. Closing her eyes she drifted out before she felt the current pick up, forcing her to open her eyes and look around as the waves rolled in, panic setting in as she heard Ami trying to swim closer to the shore. Swimming towards her friend Y/n tried to maintain composure, if she panicked she'd drown, just as she reached Ami she was dragged under, Y/n watched in terror as her hands disappeared into the water and didn't waste a moment before screaming out and diving under to find her friend. Tomoe sat up straight up as he heard Y/n's voice, searchign the ocean as he watched the waves crash harshly against the rocks, Kei and Mizuki now rushing to him as Kei explained Ami had gone under and Y/n was trying to get to her. Tomoe raced towards the water, his feet almost in when Y/n emerged, her head bursting through the water as she coughed and spluttered, spinning around until she locked eyes with Tomoe.

"Tomoe!" Before she could continue her sentence the kitsune was diving into the water, his body disappearing for a minute as Y/n dived under trying to spot either Ami or Tomoe but was forced up by the waves as she swam to shore trying to get the water from her lungs. Kei ran to Y/n trying to help her up as she coughed and clung to her friend both of them staring as the water became calm, it felt like hours passed before Tomoe surfaced, Ami in his arms. Y/n called out to Tomoe and Ami as he carried her to shore, both girls throwing her arms around the pink haired girl as they checked on her. Y/n breaking away and throwing her arms around Tomoe as she thanked him, his hands gingerly coming to hold her waist as she pressed her wet body against his and for a moment he forgot his feet still stayed in the water.

"Hahaha! The Great Tomoe finally has made a fatal mistake." The sky darkened as Y/n and Tomoe turned, his hands clutching at her as they watched a yokai exit the water, half fish with an eyepatch and long hair. Y/n's eyes widened as she turned her head to see all the humans passed out, Tomoe's grip tightening on Y/n as he held her close to him, his eyes glaring at the Dragon King as he laughed.

"Here you are, right before i gave up trying to find you. I have been waiting a lifetime for you enter the waters Tomoe." The man shouted with a deep grin as Y/n scowled.

"Who are you?" Y/n shouted as Tomoe pushed her behind him.

"I thought you'd never ask. I am the Dragon King ruler of the sea! Now if you'll excuse me for just a moment whilst i retrieve a debt from an old friend." Y/n placed her hands on Tomoe's arm as he kept her a distance from him.

"A debt...if i only i knew what that meant." Tomoe's voice smooth and calm before the Dragon King laughed, yokai appearing from the water as their tendrils grabbed Tomoe flying him high in the air.

"Tomoe!"

"I am more than happy to remind you, you ignorant fox! Exactly 526 years 208 days ago at 18 minutes and 41 seconds past 2am a certain yokai fox called Tomoe wiped out 7 dragons, 3 sharks, 5 rays and one sea slug at the north gate of my Palace. He then destroyed the north gate and surrounding buildings and finally he stole my right eye and fled! It is tome for you pay it back!" As he finished his speech he called out the oyster, shoving Tomoe inside with a laugh as Y/n ran towards the sea shouting for Tomoe.

"You will slowly turn into sustenance for the oyster and i shall return in a day or so to a lovely big pearl. Now let us head back for a celebration!"

"Wait hold on!" Y/n shouted as she approached the Dragon King, his eyebrow raising as he looked around.

"Why are you awake?" He questioned as Y/n picked up a rock and threw it at him, the Dragon King easily dodging it as she shouted at him.

"I am Y/n L/N Land God of the Mikage Shrine and Tomoe is my Familiar now release him at once." The Dragon King let out a loud laugh as he bent over clutching his stomach before standing and wiping a fake tear from his eye.

"No can do little girl now run along." Y/n scowled as she saw the oyster begin delving deep, panicking she gripped it with all her might holding her breath as it dragged her under. Y/n recalled how Tomoe had said he couldn't enter the ocean and now because of her he was captured. As she struggled to breathe she tried to push through it until she felt hands grip her body forcing her out the water as she coughed up water.

"Your persistence is obnoxious." Y/n opened her eyes to stare at the Dragon King before he dragged her to a near by rock, placing her down as she coughed more water up, her eyes darting to him as she glared.

"Where is he?" Y/n demanded, now crawling towards the Dragon King as he laid his head against his hand and looked at her in boredom.

"I had the sea slugs relocate him, he's far far away. Yes i did carry you to safety now you owe me." He placed a paper down as Y/n scowled gripping in her hand before she chucked it behind her, the Dragon King rolling his eye before placing another down making Y/n hit her hand on the rock in annoyance.

"Fine! Whatever could you possibly want huh? Just give me Tomoe back!" The Dragon King stared her down as he explained his debt.

"I want my eye returned, that fox stole it years ago and i demand it back. I had defeat carved into my face by that useless yokai." Y/n leaned forward as she stuck out her hand.

"I get your eye and you give me Tomoe yes?" The Dragon King let out a laugh as he put his hand out.

"It won't be that simple, my eye has been gone for 526 years. Do you really think it possible to retrieve my eye after so long?" Y/n nodded as she grabbed his hand, shaking it firmly with a determined look.

"If it's to save Tomoe i will accomplish anything."

"Fine, but i am only holding onto the fox as collateral for two days." Y/n nodded as the Dragon King dove under the water leaving her on the rock as she sighed out.

"Damn you Tomoe, why did you have to be such an idiot 500 years ago." Y/n looked up at the sky as she climbed back into the water and swam to shore. She needed to find Mizuki and fast, she only had 2 days before Tomoe would become a pearl. Y/n ran towards the beach as she found Mizuki and her friends all panicked as they called out to both Y/n and Tomoe.

"I'm here!" The girls ran to Y/n hugging her as she quickly lied that her and Tomoe had been swept ashore further along the coat and Tomoe was on his way to the Shrine. Grabbing Mizuki she hid behind a beach hut pressing him against the wood as she looked up at him.

"The Dragon King has Tomoe, i need to find his eye that Tomoe stole 526 years ago. I have 2 days before he turns Tomoe into a pearl!" Y/n whisper shouted as Mizuki pulled her into a hug, a smile on his face as he almost jumped with joy at the idea of the fox being gone allowing him to move in on Y/n.

"Oh that is so awful Lady Y/n, it is such a shame there is nothing we can do to save him." Y/n pulled out his arms and hit his chest as she scowled at him.

"I know you have that time travel thing. I need it to go back in time and find him." Mizuki was shocked as he nodded quickly, turned on and a little fearful of Y/n's determination as she pulled him towards the lodge.

"Come on."

Y/n sat across from Mizuki as she explained what had happened as well as the debt Tomoe owed. Mizuki scowled as he sighed.

"I have to ask you a question. Do you love Tomoe?" Y/n's eyes bulged out her head as she stood quickly, her face bright red as she shook her hands.

"What! Whe-where did get that idea from?" Mizuki let a small laugh out as he looked down.

"One of your friends told me. They said you changed a lot after Tomoe came around and i have to admit i am jealous. I feel so much envy of that fox, i do not believe he deserves such a kind and beautiful Mistress. It does not matter to me whether he were to stay in the ocean or be rescued but i will do this for you. To show you my devotion to you and only you." Y/n rubbed her arm as she listened to Mizuki's confession, her cheeks blazing as he collected his items and burnt the sage to begin the adventure to the past.

"I shall accompany you to the past to keep you safe, but i do not think it is wise to anger Tomoe's past self as he was a blood thirsty murderer." Y/n nodded as she inhaled the scent, her eyes slowly drifting closed as Mizuki placed a t shirt over her bikini to cover her in the world over yonder.

Y/n woke up in a dark area, standing up as she looked down at herself, she was all in one piece with a long top covering herself as she began walking around.

"The eye! You have the Dragon King's eye!" Y/n screamed as Yokai grabbed her legs, a lady gripping her tightly as she clawed at her stomach.

"Give me the eye!" Y/n smacked the Yokai as hard as she could, trying to push the lady from her body as she kept screaming about an eye. Y/n fell to the ground as the Lady's clawed hands came towards her stomach with wide eyes and a menacing grin. Y/n panicked as she shoved her foot against the Yokai's face making her fall backwards before a blue flame smashed into the Yokai, the lady screeching as the flame chased her away.

"Stupid wench." A voice spoke.

Suddenly a yokai dropped before her, gasping she froze as the yokai turned, long white hair and white ears perked up as Tomoe grinned at her. Y/n was in shock as she stood from the ground on shaky legs, stepping back as he looked her up and down.

"Well well, what is a young human doing here?" He purred as he walked closer, she had not seen his long hair since he had cut it and was once more mesmerised by his beauty, she stayed frozen as he approached her. Y/n's eyes were wide as his clawed hand came up to her face, her hair twirled around his fingers before he tugged her into him, forcing her to look up at him as she yelped in pain.

"You smell so delicious." Tomoe took a deep breath in as he smelt her hair, something in him recognised the scent but he couldn't pin point it, almost like he was smelling something so familiar it should have been obvious.

"To-Tomoe, can you let go please?" Y/n whispered as she placed her hands on his chest and pushed him back slightly but he didn't move instead he flashed her a sharp grin and tightened his grip.

"So you know who i am puny human? And what pray tell made you search for me hmm?" Y/n could feel her blushing as he brought his face closer running his nose along her cheek as he inhaled her scent once more, it was irritating him that he could not place the smell on her.

"I...i need the Dragon King's eye." Y/n stuttered out as she felt his tail wrap around her legs, reminding her of the night she had spent asleep next to Tomoe, his tail tickling her thighs as he slept. Tomoe's eyes widened as he pulled back and stared at her with a look she couldn't decipher before she felt her hair be yanked hard making her cry out in pain as his other hand gripped her waist, nails digging into the shirt she wore.

"You were sent by the Dragon King to seduce me and steal the eye hmm? Well then, i guess it is time for you to die." Y/n dug her nails into his chest as she pushed him back, trying to get out of the harsh hold he had on her before she freed her hand and managed to grab his ear. Tomoe froze as she tugged on his ear and shouted.

"Bad boy! Don't be so mean!" Y/n chastised as she recalled all the times she had to part Kurama and Tomoe by dragging their ears and how it worked so easily each time. Y/n pulled his head down as he quickly let go, almost compelled by something deep in him as Y/n glared at the fox.

"Say you're sorry!" Y/n shouted as she placed a hand on her waist, the fox yokai's eyes wide as his mouth opened and closed confused.

"Sorry." Tomoe rushed out as he felt another tug on his ear, Y/n huffing as she loosened her grip and rubbed his ear until his cheeks went red with a small smile.

"Good boy Tomoe. Now, can i have the eye please?" Y/n asked sweetly as she now caressed his hair, his eyes still wide and now his whole body seemed to be that of a tamed cat compared to the wild fox that had been stood before her.

"Tomoe!" A deep voice called, Tomoe now standing to full height forcing Y/n to let go of his ear as he pulled her behind him, his tail curled around her.

"I am busy Akura-ou." Tomoe spoke to the unknown yokai, Y/n trying to see as she clutched at his Kimono to try to look receiving a smack on the thighs from Tomoe's tail in warning.

"Too bad. I am ready to move on, this place is boring. I want some fresh blood. The girls in this village did not satiate my urge." Y/n gulped as her eyes closed, she wished she wasn't here but hoped whoever the Yokai was he wouldn't notice her.

"What is that delicious smell? Are you hiding something from me Tomoe? I thought brother's shared everything." Y/n could hear the smirk as Tomoe pulled her around in front of him, her face in a panic as her eyes met the Yokai, his hair red and horns coming out his head whilst he dressed in a long black feathered coat. Y/n squeaked as Tomoe pulled her into his chest, his hands on her waist as he gripped her tightly.

"Not this one, this one is going to be mine. And i plan to force every noise i can out of those pretty lips." Y/n looked at Tomoe in fear as he grinned down at her, his claws pushing into her waist as he pressed her against his front. Akura-ou let out a laugh as he got closer, his hand coming out to hold the same strand of hair Tomoe had, but his claws were longer and painted black, his energy was darker aswell which made Y/n lean back into Tomoe as the yokai smelt her hair.

"You're no fun Tomoe, she looks like she'd burst in your mouth so easily." Y/n blushed red at his insinuation, gulping as he moved his claw to run along her lips before slicing her lower lip, she winced as he ran a finger through the blood and brought it to her mouth. Moaning to himself with eyes closed as she sucked her lip into her mouth tasting the metallic blood on her tongue as his eyes opened.

"Such a shame. Well, i will continue on, i'll try to leave you some fun at the next village if you don't too much time with her." Akura-ou let out a deep laugh as he left, Y/n felt Tomoe's grip loosen allowing her to turn to face him as he lightly held her face inspecting the cut on her lips.

"You owe me for saving your life human." Tomoe swiped his thumb across her lip and placed it in mouth as he walked past her, leaving her stumped as she blinked in confusion.

"Tomoe!" Y/n shouted as she spun but he gone, sighing she ran her hands through her hair.

"Are you okay Y/n? Did you meet Tomoe?" Y/n jumped as Mizuki appeared behind her his eyes full of concern as he rushed to her side, a small drop of blood made it's way from her hip to her thigh as Mizuki fussed over her but Y/n had her mind on other things.

"I found him but i couldn't get the eye." Mizuki nodded as he checked her wound, it was only a small claw mark but he was furious with Tomoe, that damned fox had manhandled Y/n. Standing straight he looked around to see if he could spot him but by now he was long gone and Y/n wasn't sure what to do.

"Which way did he go?" Y/n shrugged as she looked in defeat at the floor, she should have chased after him but he'd made her feel some way inside that she didn't understand. She shouldn't feel so weird hearing him talk about her or touch her that way, her Tomoe had touched her in far more delicate areas, but this wasn't her Tomoe. This was the past and she didn't know what he'd do if she found him again, the way he'd looked at her was now engraved in her mind and some part of her wanted to know how he'd have gotten her make all the noises he wanted to hear from her.

"I've found his tracks come on Y/n." Mizuki pulled the girl out of her thoughts as he ran towards the village, Y/n could hear the screaming and crying of villagers as the flames burned in her eyes, thick smoke coated the air. Coughing Y/n wiped her eyes and searched for Tomoe but he wasn't in sight, letting out an aggravated shout Y/n turned around stomping her foot before she froze. In the slight distance a pale blue flame burned inside a house, but unlike the village that was being torn down the flame appeared to be staying still. Y/n ran towards the light as Mizuki followed, the pair creeping towards the house as Y/n let out a yelp as she heard a door slam. Tomoe stood by the back door, his eyes staring into the forest as he took in the smoke and terror Akura-ou was creating across the way, sighing he shook his head and reentered. Y/n crouched by the window, watching as Tomoe approached a young human girl, her Y/c hair laid against the pale wood and skin looked greyish as she coughed and stared at Tomoe with lidded eyes. Y/n held a hand over her mouth as Tomoe tried to feed the Dragon King's eye to the girl but she refused, Tomoe shook his head explaining it would save her and they could be together forever. Y/n couldn't believe her eyes as Tomoe left to find something to help the eye go down, Mizuki gripping Y/n as he pulled her into the house.

"Tomoe risked his life to save hers?" Y/n whispered as she watched the girl, her eyes now closed and her breath was laboured, the Dragon King's eyes rest in her palm.

"Take the eye Y/n before he comes back." Y/n crouched down holding the eye as she looked between her hand and the poor girl, she didn't know what she would call the feeling in her chest. Maybe Jealousy or Envy, but she couldn't call it that, Tomoe risked his life for her time and time again, he chose to be her Familiar. But would he do it all if she wasn't a God? If she was human like the girl on the ground. Gulping Y/n ignored Mizuki as he tried to rush her, hovering over the girl as she grasped her lips and placed the Dragon King's eye in her mouth. Mizuki watched in disgust as Y/n threw away her chance of saving Tomoe to save the life of the pitiful human, Y/n was too human, she had too many morals and loyalty to those she didn't know. It sickened him that she could not be selfish like he could, like Tomoe could, they were here because of Tomoe's selfish behaviour.

Y/n huffed as she sat in the beach house, rubbing her head as she tried to come up with ways to get the Eye in the present day, she'd had enough lectures from Mizuki for a life time and now she just wanted to hit the Dragon King over the head and demand Tomoe back to save the headache. She recounted the events in the past back to Mizuki before she froze, her eyes lighting up and she stood quickly and grabbed his hands.

"That Yokai! She said i had the eye! She said i had it and kept trying to take it off of me!" Y/n starting pointing at her stomach where finger bruises had formed from the lady's grip. Mizuki stared confused as Y/n babbled on about the lady, trying to explain exactly what she looked like.

"I know who you're talking about." Y/n let out a cheer as she pushed Mizuki out the door demanding he take her to her yokai.

"You have not changed in 500 years." Mizuki spoke as Y/n rounded the corner, the yokai who attacked her now drenched from head to toe in her bikini top and long skirt looked angry.

"And who the hell are you?" The lady screamed before her eyes made contact with Y/n and she froze, a grin coming on her face as she stood.

"You're the one with the eye. My my you look good for a human after 500 years, that stupid fox isn't with you i presume? Damn Yokai burnt my cloak." Mizuki repressed the eye roll as Y/n moved towards the Yokai.

"I want to make a deal with you. You get the eye from wherever it is, without killing me, and i'll give you anything you want within reason." The yokai grasped her chin examining Y/n's body before a malicious grin came over her face.

"In that case, i want 30 years of your life. Take or leave it sweetheart." Y/n stared at the Yokai as Mizuki stepped forward with a scowl.

"You're being ripped off Y/n! That eye is not worth 30 years of your life." Y/n ignored Mizuki's words as the yokai turned to Mizuki with a scowl.

"And how do you suppose she gets it out then? Both my eyes have second sight, without me you can kiss that eye goodbye. Stay out of this you pathetic snake boy." Mizuki's face dropped as Y/n grabbed the Yokai's arm and turned her around.

"Okay you can have 30 years of my life." The yokai grinned as she stuck out her hand, Y/n lifted her hand.

"Hmm there's a girl who knows how to bargain."

"Y/n don't, don't do it!" Mizuki grabbed her hand, standing between Y/n and the Yokai with a terrified look. Y/n let out a small laugh and ruffled Mizuki's hair.

"Don't worry about me Mizuki, 30 years of my life won't kill me and Tomoe only has one day so i can give up 30 years so he can live." Y/n walked past Mizuki as she shook the Yokai's hand, not noticing Mizuki walking away as the Yokai assisted her to lay down. Y/n let out a small whine as the Yokai placed a hand on her sternum, Y/n's eyes closing as she felt something begin exiting her sternum, the energy depleting from her body as she passed out. The Yokai laughed as she held the gold glowing flame in her hand.

"Well it seems you have something much for valuable than years Land God! I've got the Dragon King's eye and a Land God's soul! What a lucky day for me!" She twirled as she stared at the soul, she had succeeded.

"I tried to warn you this might happen. Why can't you just listen and trust me to protect you. You are too kind, too moral and Tomoe does not deserve such a wonderful person to love him. To take on his debt, you're relentless and nothing would have stopped you. I cannot stop myself from needing to serve you, i'm like a moth to a flame." Mizuki bent down, placing his hand on her pale face as he pushed his lips against hers, savouring how she felt as the contract sealed. He felt freed, an odd feeling after being sealed into a contract but his heart fluttered as he pulled away and turned to the yokai.

"You just...but why?" She questioned, confusion on her face as he approached her, water suddenly exploding on her as she dropped Y/n's soul, allowing Mizuki to collect it and place it back into Y/n.

Y/n felt like the air was returned to her lungs once more as she yawned, her eyes opening slowly before she sat up, placing her hand on her head as she looked around to find Mizuki kneeled before her.

"Good evening Mistress, do you feel better? Today is the first day that i, Mizuki, serve as your familiar! I'll be so amazing you'll forget all about Tomoe." Y/n's jaw dropped as she watched Mizuki almost floating on air, his face one of pure happiness as he stared at her.

"What?" Y/n shouted as Mizuki blushed, a sheepish grin on his face.

"Good new right?" Mizuki's happiness was stopped as he used his snake to grab the yokai as she attempted to crawl away, his aura turning dark as he placed her in front of Y/n.

"How dare you try to deceive my Mistress, i suppose i have no other option than to end your life." His smile was sickening as he raced forward to slash her, Y/n's eyes widening as she panicked.

"Stop Mizuki do not touch her!" His whole body freezing as he took in the sacred word binding, feeling the sweet pinch of her command forcing his body to stop and obey her. It was euphoric, sweet paralysis, a true pleasure to be held in Y/n's power. Turning to her he went bright red as he fell to his knees and begged.

"Do it again, please give me commands and tie me up with your sacred command!" Y/n cringed as she stared at Mizuki, his whole body wiggling in pleasure as he stared at her waiting for a command.

"Don't be a pervert Mizuki. I already have to deal with Tomoe and now you." Rubbing her forehead she closed her eyes before standing, Mizuki rushing to her side before she pushed his hands away.

"You truly are a beautiful Goddess Mistress." Y/n glared at him as she placed her hands on her hips.

"You kissed me in my sleep against my will! If we don't get Tomoe back i'm going to feed you to the spirits!" Y/n shouted as Mizuki wiggled at the threat making Y/n scrunch her nose up before slapping him across the face as he blushed.

"Stop being a pervert!" Mizuki held his face as he held in his excitement, his new Mistress was so fierce, it made his whole body tingle.

"I'm so glad you're adapting to the new changes." Mizuki whispered.

"This is the Dragon King's eye." Y/n deadpanned as she stared at the pearl in her hand feeling defeated as she laid on the sand and let out a small scream.

"Why is everything so difficult!" Mizuki held in his giggle as he watched her temper tantrum before he crouched beside her.

"We still have the eye, that was the deal wasn't it?" Y/n nodded, her nose in the sand before she sat up and shook her head, staring at the pearl in thought. Mizuki pulled the tickets the yokai had given him, a thanks for not murdering her, which he couldn't have done even if he wanted to with the sacred command in place. Thinking about it he repressed a wiggle of pleasure at the thought of being held against his will once more.

"I still think you should have let me punish her. Instead we only got these." Mizuki spoke as Y/n scowled at him and grabbed the tickets, flicking sand at him.

"Don't be so silly, i just wanted her out of here before you tried to kill her." Mizuki looked down at Y/n as she stood, brushing off her shirt as she looked over the tickets, atleast they had a way to the Dragon King's palace now.

"I assure you a familiar will never kill in front of their God, surely Tomoe was the same right? He would never want you to see his dirty work. It might have angered you." Y/n raised an eyebrow as she thought about Tomoe but pushed it out her head and hurried Mizuki to the ocean.

"My Dragon King someone is coming right at us!" The Dragon King ignored his subordinate before the sea slug opened the door in panic. The King looking up bored from his calculations.

"It's the oyster with the fox!" The Dragon King's eyebrow raised as he hurried up shouting Tomoe's name as he flung open the doors to the banquet room. There stood Tomoe, the oyster now ripped open from the inside and the fox gave him a dangerous look as he spoke.

"Good grief. The sensation of being wrapped up in flesh brought back such fond memories. It has been a long time Dragon King. However showing yourself in front of my Mistress Lady Y/n, well that is unacceptable. You knew i would not conduct such bloody business in front of her. You had such a nerve to believe you had one, but now we have changed venues and she will not see the mess i am to make of you as i did 500 years ago. Well, the fun is to begin." The Dragon King's eye went wide as fire began to grow from Tomoe's hand.

Y/n fiddled with her shirt as she sat across from a Lady, her dress beautiful as she explained the item in her hands before the Lady asked what a Land God was doing in the Dragon Kingdom.

"My friend is being held as collateral so i'm venturing there to return the item her stole and bring him home." Y/n smiled as the Lady smiled back and spoke of her husband, her voice smooth and body language full of poise and pride. Y/n felt herself be chucked against the wide of the cart as the Turtle rolled, the half coat flying out the window as the Lady's eyes widened. Y/n rushed to the window before Mizuki caught her, pulling her back as the Lady asked her to sit.

"It is okay, it has been swept away by the current and i fear it will be long gone by now. I imagine that tremor came from the palace. I can always make another half coat, let us carry on our journey." Y/n reached over taking the Lady's hands in hers as she sympathised with her.

"I am so sorry, it was a beautiful garment and i am sure your Husband would have adored it." The Lady smiled back before Y/n sat back, the three of them relaxing as they waited for the journey to finish.

Y/n's eyes were wide as she looked at the Palace, the Lady behind her looking around with distain as sea slugs got closer.

"This is beautiful." The ground shook once more almost knocking Y/n off her feet as the slugs spoke to the beautiful Lady.

"The King is trying to put the fox down." Was all she needed to hear as she began running towards the banquet hall, following the sounds of crashes and the blue flames coming from the room.

The Dragon King fell to the ground under the rubble as he grinned at Tomoe and stood, Tomoe encased in Blue flames as they stared each other down.

"You look far more beastly now than you did on the beach. Even a thousand year love would cool if someone saw you like this." Tomoe raised an eyebrow as he took in the King's words.

"So you know Y/n?" The Dragon King laughed as he stared at the fox in defiance.

"She came pestering me to bring you back, she offered to get my Right eye in exchange for you." Tomoe's fire diminished as she leaned against the wall with a small pout.

"That stupid girl, she is the only Land God who is so incapable of doing such a thing." The Dragon King deadpanned as his jaw dropped.

"That crazy girl is a Land God! I thought she was your lover! Why were you holding her so damn close!" Tomoe threw a fish at the Dragon King as he stood and placed a hand on his hip.

"She may not look the part but she is still the God of Mikage's Shrine! She is not some woman to be touched so carelessly with sullied hands." Tomoe glared at the Dragon King before the door flew open revealing Y/n as she panted, Tomoe's eyes widening as he took in her appearance. The shirt she wore barely covered her bikini, small rips in the waist and hips that resembled claw marks as she pushed her hair back and stormed in. Tomoe felt panic rush through his veins as she stormed towards him, throwing his body into the oyster and slamming it closed. Y/n stared in disbelief as the oyster rocked back and forth from the sudden movement, her jaw open before she clenched her jaw and slammed her hands against the oyster.

"Get out here right now you stupid fox! What do you think you're doing in there after almost destroying this palace huh? And speaking of this palace 500 years ago you were just as stupid as you are now so come out here right now and deal with your punishment or i swear i will pry to you out of there!" Tomoe stayed silent as he felt her hit against the oyster, his hand on his heart as he thought about her, caring for him, coming to save him. It was so admirable and now he felt too embarrassed to face her. Y/n huffed before she pointed at the Dragon King making him jump as she walked over and poked his chest.

"You! Take your stupid eye and get him out of there so i can take him back already! I have had a hell of a day and quite frankly i want a hot bath and to go to bed. You're grown yokai for goodness sake!" The Dragon King nodded in fear as he tried to force the oyster open but Tomoe gripped it from the inside as Y/n face palmed, she had two idiots fighting each other. Mizuki appeared next to Y/n with a grin as he placed an arm around her shoulder.

"If he is causing so much trouble Mistress shall we return to the Shrine and i will run you a bath and massage your body?" He almost hissed in her ear, Y/n looking at him in disgust ready to shout at him before the oyster flew open and Tomoe launched at Mizuki. Tomoe held Mizuki's kimono in his hands as he glared down at him.

"Mistress? What did you do you pathetic little snake!" Tomoe froze as he realised he was out the oyster, turning his head to where Y/n was almost breathing fire as she grabbed his ear and forced him to kneel before her as she scolded him.

"You came out the damn oyster to shout at Mizuki!" Tomoe could feel her nails dig into his ear as he inhaled, he could smell himself all over Y/n as he always could, he made it as habit of scenting her, reminding every Yokai she was his. But now, now he could smell that disgusting snake on her, tainting her. Pouting he crossed his arms listening to his lecture before Y/n sighed and let go of his ear, falling forward as he caught her in his arms, a content smile on her face as she looked at him.

"I'm so happy you're okay! Y'know, i went into the past and you weren't as scary as everyone says." Y/n let out a laugh as Tomoe froze, staring at her deeply before bowing down and placing a kiss on her lips, shocking Y/n as he pulled away a second later. Licking his lips as he tasted the faint hint of her blood, the taste familiar as Y/n blinked in confusion.

"I had to get that snake off you." Y/n nodded slowly as Tomoe stood, Y/n carried in his arms as he glared at Mizuki before departing.

Y/n seemed to be in this position too much with Tomoe as she sat with her arms crossed, pouting as he lectured her on letting her guard down, his hand pointing to Mizuki as he yelled animated.

"Don't even get me started on agreeing to 30 years of your life in exchange for that stupid eye!" Y/n shot a glare at Mizuki as he blanched and hid behind Tomoe who quickly kicked him away shouting at him for allowing her to make such a stupid decision.

"And then to come to the Dragon Kingdom with him? What would you have done if he attacked you and i was inside that oyster!" Y/n went to argue back but Tomoe continued his rant.

"Do you think this snake can protect you like i can? I swear you enjoy making my blood pressure go up!" Y/n pouted again as she looked away, she felt like a child being scolded by her parent. Tomoe sighed as he reached down and placed his hand on her chin, bring her face up to look at him as he tilted his head and spoke calmly.

"Do not put your life in danger for me again." Y/n nodded, she could feel his breath on her mouth, could smell his scent and recalled how his past self had been so similar yet so different it made her mind spin.

"Good, now." Tomoe moved away and turned to Mizuki with a dark aura.

"You are going to be punished for kissing Y/n." Y/n blushed as she watched Tomoe throw Mizuki outside shouting at him to clean and stop slacking but she kept replaying his words. He was being punished for kissing her, not for tricking her into being her familiar, but for kissing her.

Y/n sighed as she brushed her hair, she had 30 minutes before she had to meet Kei and Ami for the mixer. Tomoe stood behind Y/n with his arms in his kimono as he watched her, his chest constricting as she bent over to put her brush away, her skirt riding up and showing the frills on her underwear making him blush. He thought about how foolish humans were, Y/n had no idea her skirt was so short or that when she bent over she could flash anyone which made him agitated as moved to stand right behind her.

"Change." Y/n jolted as she looked over her shoulder at Tomoe, confused as she stood and looked in the mirror, she thought she'd picked a nice outfit. Nothing too fancy or flirty, just a simply black skirt and jumper.

"Why? I think it looks nice." Y/n shrugged off his demand as she tried to decide how to style her hair, Tomoe scowled as he looked down at her. He hated the feeling that over came him at the idea of any other man seeing her like that, to see her legs or to feel them the way he had, it burnt him like fire deep in soul to imagine it.

"That skirt is far too short and i will not have you parading around in something so indecent." Y/n'e eyes widened as she turned and looked at Tomoe, his face serious as she looked down at her outfit and back at him. Placing a hand on her hip she raised an eye in defiance and shook her head.

"No." Y/n grinned to herself as she saw Tomoe's ear twitch at her resistance, although it was short lived when she felt herself be hoisted over his shoulder as she yelped in shock.

"Tomoe! Put me down!" Tomoe let out a chuckle as he walked towards the wardrobe, one hand holding her over his shoulder as he looked through her clothes, trying to find something that would hide her body from others.

"Tomoe!" Y/n whined hitting his back as she felt his hands grip the back of her thigh, she could feel her stomach growing hot at his touch. Embarrassment was now flooding her veins as she wiggled in his hold causing him to readjust her on his shoulder, his hand now holding her inner thigh to keep her still as she sucked in a breath. He hadn't touched her thighs since he'd had to change her bandages and now her skin pricked up at the warmth of his palms on her soft inner thighs.

"Stop squirming or i will spank you." Y/n froze, she hadn't been meaning to rub her thighs together, directly on him either but she had been lost in her thoughts and was sure if Tomoe stood in front of a mirror there would be a wet patch on her baby blue underwear. His threat was still hanging in the air as she tried not to think about it but it was like a bee to honey as she imagined him slapping her gently before massaging it better as he punished her. She was now certain if his hands moved higher he would be able to feel how wet she was, this was a whole new level of embarrassment, she'd never be able to look at him again.

"This should do." Tomoe spoke, trying to keep his voice steady as he smelt her arousal, directly next to his nose, it was too much and he hadn't expected her to react in such a way so quickly. It was making him insatiable, the need to throw her down and take her, to hear her moan out his name instead of going to this stupid mixer. He'd already tried to convince her she had Godly duties but it had fallen on deaf ears. Placing her down he handed her a baby blue dress, the sweetheart neckline was not the most modest choice but it was the same colour as his kimono and his flame, he couldn't have made it more clear she was his. Y/n looked at the dress, her face flushed red as she agreed and hurried him out the room, sighing when she was alone as she looked at the ceiling. Tomoe was going to be the death of her if she couldn't get this attraction under control.

Ami and Y/n sat beside Kei as she flirted with one of the boys across from them, Y/n wasn't the least interested in them but Kei was still trying to get back at her ex and Ami was too cute to say no to. Y/n's eye twitched as one of the boys said they had a girlfriend, she was sat across from him as he stuck his tongue out.

"So Fox, stalking Y/n whilst she's on a date?" Tomoe's ear twitched as Kurama dropped onto the branch next to him with a smirk. Tomoe ignored him until Kurama whistled.

"Wow she really dolled up for this huh?" Tomoe preened as he looked at Y/n, the blue complimented her well and the length almost touched her knees compared to the little black skirt from before.

"Yes, i dressed her beautifully, the colour suits her well does it not?" Tomoe flicked his fan, covering his face as Kurama looked closer before deadpanning and looking at Tomoe.

"Sly fox." Tomoe smirked as he fanned himself, proud that his message had been received loud and clear by the tengu. Kurama smirked again as he leaned on his hand and teased Tomoe.

"You're taking this well, Y/n on a date, anything could happen and as her familiar you can't stop her from wanting more...human relations." Tomoe's hand froze as he listened to Kurama, his eyes turning to slits as he looked at him. Kurama now grinned widely as he continued to torture Tomoe.

"She is an 18 year old girl, she'd bound to want more in life than just being a Land God, most humans want children...or atleast to try to make them." Kurama let out a laugh as Tomoe broke his fan. Kurama let out a screech as Tomoe threw fire at him making him fall out the tree.

"So what are you girls into?" One of the boys asked, Kei instantly answering as Y/n took a sip of her drink and looked up, finding the reddish pink hair coloured boy looking at her. Going red she looked back down as she heard him chuckle, his foot coming to touch her leg as she jumped and looked at him in shock, his eyes not even on her as he engaged in conversation with his friends. Y/n was sure she had imagined it before she felt his foot rub up and down her leg again, his eyes now full of mischief as she moved her leg away making him stick out his tongue. Y/n didn't want to ruin this mixer for Kei but the guy across from her was getting on her nerves as he suggested Kei and him swap seats so Kei could get to know his friend more.

Tomoe glared at the back of the boys head as he scooted next to Y/n, watching her sit up straight as she moved further away, Tomoe praising her in his head for not letting the boy sit too close until he threw his arm behind Y/n's seat and leaned against her whispering in her ear.

"So, what do you like Y/n?" His voice grated her as his other hand landed on her clothed thigh and she was now thankful Tomoe had made her change or it would have been her naked skin he touched. Scooting closer to Ami she gave him a friendly smile.

"Oh uhh, i like cooking, i especially like cooking soup." Y/n scratched her neck anxiously as she thought of Tomoe, recalling how much she enjoyed cooking for him and when he would teach her new things. The guy laughed as he twirled a piece of Y/n's hair around his finger.

"Really? I think it's so cute when a girl loves to cook." Y/n let out an awkward laugh as she moved her head away watching her hair fall put his hand as he let it drop next to her head.

"That's cool, does your girlfriend like cooking?" Y/n put emphasis on girlfriend hoping he would get the hint or atleast act as though he wasn't single but he only laughed and shook his head.

"No, she likes being a pampered princess. But i think it's nice to be the one who's pampered, especially by someone as pretty as you." Y/n cringed inside before she suddenly half stood and looked at the boy.

"I need to some fresh air. I'll be back soon." The boy's eyes were wide as she scooted past, scurrying out the restaurants door and away from the awkward tension. Sitting down Y/n put her head in her hands as she tried to calm her heart, she didn't understand why that guy was acting like that when he had a girlfriend.

"I'll keep you company." Y/n jumped as a hand landed on her shoulder and she held in a groan as he sat next to her, a smirk on his face as he looked her up and down, almost enjoying how she tried to hide her face from him. Moving forward he placed a hand under her chin to pull her face out her arms, making her look at him as Y/n frowned at him.

"Come on, smile for me atleast. You were the prettiest girl in there and i know you were loving the attention i gave you." Y/n scowled as she pulled her face free from his hand.

"I don't want your attention, i'm not that type of girl thanks." Y/n went to stand, feeling his hand on hers as he pulled her back down making her fall into his lap as he held her waist. Her eyes now wide as she pushed against his check, his eyes dark.

"Then what kind of girl are you huh? I think if me and you got out of here i'd see how freaky you really-" Y/n yelped as her arm was tugged, the guy suddenly flying off the fountain as Tomoe stood behind him, his hand on Y/n's arm and foot raised from where he'd kicked him.

"Finish that sentence and you die." Tomoe threatened as he pulled Y/n against his chest, his eyes staying on the guy as he scampered up with fear in his eyes.

"I didn't know she had a boyfriend!" He stuttered out before running back into the restaurant. Tomoe turned to Y/n, his hand on her chin as he looked her over, he could see the slight tears in her eyes.

"Thank you." Y/n whispered, she felt silly, she'd dealt with Yokai trying to kill her, being kidnapped, losing her home and the first thing to make her cry was a human boy. Tomoe's eyes softened as he ran a finger under her eyes, catching the tear that almost fell making her eyes close as he held her gently against him.

"You do not need thank me. I will always keep you safe." Y/n nodded before opening her eyes with a sad smile.

"Can we go home now?" Tomoe nodded, his urge to chase after the human and enjoy some bbq was replaced by the need to see Y/n smile with joy.

Y/n stared at the wall, steam filling the room as she lay with half her face in the warm water, the scent of citrus filling the air as she bathed.

"Are you almost done in there Y/n?" Y/n squealed as she sat up, Mizuki's voice scaring her as she heard the door begin to open, seeing his face with a wide smile on it as she screamed and covered her chest.

"Mizuki!" Said yokai only laughed as he held up a towel with an innocent smile, Y/n ducked into the water as she stared in horror at her familiar coming closer.

"There is no need to be shy Lady Y/n, i am only here to assist you." Before he could get any closer a leaf hit his head causing him to fall face first onto the ground, Tomoe stood behind him glaring at his body.

"Were you trying to look at Y/n in the bath?" His voice was deep and terrifying as Mizuki smiled up at him and waved.

"Of course not i simply wished to help her out and dry her body off, it is only my job as her familiar." Mizuki's voice filled with innocence as Tomoe grabbed his kimono and dragged the snake out, Mizuki waving goodbye to Y/n as she deadpanned at the stupidity of her familiars.

"I'd better get out now to make sure Tomoe doesn't kill him." Y/n sighed to herself as she stood, turning her back to the door as she wrung out her hair.

"Y/n i have taught the snake a lesson, he should know to respect your..." Tomoe's voice stopped as he stared at Y/n, her head turned to him as her face went bright red, hands still holding her hair as her naked body was in his sight. Squealing Y/n covered her chest, luckily her back faced Tomoe as she shouted at him.

"Get out!" Tomoe slammed the door as quick as possible, staring at it as he felt frozen in his spot unable to move. His mind replaying how her body looked, every inch of her free for his eyes to roam, her body covered in a layer of water that made the view even more perverted.

The door opened as Tomoe looked at Y/n, his eyes wide as she bumped into him, his hands catching her as he pulled her wet body against his kimono and held her still. One of her hands pressed against his chest whilst the other clung the towel wrapped around her middle.

"Y/n." Tomoe breathed out, her hand fisting in his kimono as she blushed but could not look away.

"Yes Tomoe." Y/n's voice barely above a whisper as he gulped, his mind overflowing as he looked down at her, her chest pressed together and smushed against his, he could feel the slight dampness under the towel where his hands touched. He couldn't hold back any longer, not when she looked at him with half lidded eyes, not when he could hear her breath hitch as he got closer and especially not when he could feel her cross her legs and squirm.

"I'm sorry." Tomoe whispered as his lips met hers, the kiss feral as he gripped at her, pushing her back into the bathroom and sliding the door closed to be able to press her to it. His entire body on fire as he slotted a leg between hers, a hand beside her head as he devoured her.

Y/n moaned against Tomoe's lips, her hand coming to clutch his neck as his hand pulled her waist to press her into his chest, rubbing her along his thigh as she whined at the feeling. Tomoe's hand clenched around the door, his nails scraping loudly as he groaned as the feeling of her pressed into his thigh, all his senses completely encompassed by Y/n. Pulling away he kissed her jaw, running his canines down onto her neck as she curled her hand in his hair and tugged him further into her. Gripping the towel he yanked it from her hand, throwing it behind him as he moved back to stare at her naked body, loving how her eyes glowed with innocence yet she didn't move to hide herself from his gaze.

"Perfection." Tomoe whispered as he dropped to his knees, Y/n squealing as he ran his hands along her thighs before holding her right leg up and throwing it over his shoulder, his nose nuzzling against her inner thigh as he inhaled.

"You do not understand how hard it is to deny myself this pleasure everytime i smell your arousal, it is constant torture Y/n. To see you squirm, to hear your heart beating so fast i worry you'll faint but worst of all, it's the sweet smell that seems to taunt me. It is divine." Y/n let out a moan as he leant forward, his tongue sweeping across her clit as one of her hands came to grip his hair whilst his other hand held hers beside her waist, forcing her to arch her back and push her pussy into his mouth.

"T-Tomoe." Y/n stuttered out, breathless as she looked down with half lidded eyes, his eyes piercing into hers as he continued to swipe his tongue across her clit, enjoying how her body twitched with each movement of his tongue. He was a man starved, a feral fox and not even the most powerful God could pull him from between her legs in that moment. Y/n's eyes closed as she bit her lip, head bumping the door as she arched further into him, his tongue now finding it's rhythm as she panted at each figure of eight he created. Her nails digging into his head as she squirmed. Tomoe moaned against her clit as he ran a hand along her thigh that rest next to his head, nails scraping the vulnerable flesh as he sucked on her clit enjoying how she jumped and moaned loudly.

"Tomoe." The moan, his name, her taste, God's he was done for. Moving his hand along her thigh he curved it around her thigh under he could glide a clawed finger along her pussy, listening to her gasp at the coolness of his finger tip as he moved his mouth down allowing his fingers to play with her clit as he pushed his tongue in and out her pussy.

"You are being such a good girl for me Y/n." Tomoe moaned out, rubbing his fingers quicker as he matched the pace with his tongue, her hands clenching harder in his hair as she panted out his name. Tomoe wanted so badly to push his fingers into her pussy but his claws would hurt her too much and he never wanted to change the pleasure to pain unless she asked. Y/n whimpered as she threw back her head and moaned his name, barely able to open her eyes as she chased her orgasm, Tomoe lapping at her pussy as he held himself back.

"Tomoe, i..i feel funny." Y/n whispered as her eyes barely cracked open to see Tomoe grinning between her thighs as he removed his finger and sucked harshly on her clit, Y/n crying out as she came hard. Tomoe helping her ride out the orgasm as he continued his torment, his hand now pushing her thighs open to keep his head between them. Y/n tried to push him away as she moaned and cried out, her pussy clenching around nothing as she whimpered his name. It felt so amazing yet she felt like her pussy was going to explode if he didn't stop, Tomoe sucked harshly once more as Y/n yelped out making him grin against her leg as he pulled away and watched her. Her hair stuck to her forehead as she panted, eyes blank as Tomoe placed her leg down, his hands holding her hips as he held her up.

"Y/n." Tomoe spoke softly, bringing her attention to him as she nodded, mouth slightly open as she breathed in and out, chest rising and falling as her nipples grazed his kimono making her sigh out another moan at the stimulation. Eyes closing as she leant against the door, Tomoe looking her over before removing his Kimono, his trousers underneath covering his lower half as he draped it over her, Y/n inhaling his scent as she fell forward into his arms.

"You did so well. Try to get some rest." Y/n nodded as Tomoe picked her up, carrying her to his bedroom as he laid beside her, curling into her body whilst she fell asleep.

Mizuki laid with his face against the floor, tears flowing from his eyes.

"Is Lady Y/n okay? Is Tomoe hurting her?" The spirits asked eyes filled with concern as Mizuki raised his head.

"No...he is not hurting her." Mizuki dropped his head again as he continued to cry.

Hey guys, i'm not properly out of my slump but atleast it's something right?

#kamisama kiss #tomoe x reader #tomoe x reader smut #slow burn but not #feral fox #am feral for tomoe #i wish i was nanami #kamisama kiss for life

547 notes · View notes

dashielldeveron · 1 year ago

Text

soulmate trope | dabi

Dabi’s route of soulmate trope.

"post-canon dabi? canon isn't even finished as of when this was posted on 30 july 2023!" to you. i know he's doing just fine. and obviously i will be wrong about some things. warnings: female reader. manga spoilers up to chapter 390: specifically about touya's body but vaguely about ~all of that~. sexual content. food mention/discussion. injury descriptions (burns) that aren't reader's. weeb slander. a note: part of the plot revolves around...analysing anime. i use hunter x hunter here, and if you are not into that, i have, to the best of my knowledge, included neither spoilers (aside from early story arc names) nor information that cannot be understood via context clues. additionally, there is a brief pokemon metaphor that also can hopefully be understood with context clues as well.

~27.7k

You’re being watched.

Or rather, you had the eerily intense inkling that you were being watched, or as if you were some sort of recently awakened sleeper agent—as if you were somehow the key to someone’s spying into U.A., even though the most secretive thing going on right now in 3-A’s common area was that Hagakure’s facial features were somewhat revealed by the drying face mask.

“Jirou,” you said, bookmarking your place, “Would you mind checking for—I don’t know, any kind of outside surveillance devices in here?”

Jirou bit the stem of the carnation she’d been about to weave into Yaoyorozu’s hair and shifted all the strands of the braid into one hand, and she tilted her head to jab the arm of the couch with her earjack. After a few moments, she unsheathed it, the hole in the couch sealing itself, and shook her head. “Nothing out of the ordinary. What’s up?”

Furrowing your brow, you shoved your book between the cushion and arm of your chair. “I’m not sure. It’s—I have this weird feeling that someone’s looking at me. Or through me, really. Both? I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels like someone else is seeing what I’m seeing.”

“Do your eyes hurt, ribbit?” Asui asked from her spot on the floor, where she was sorting her m&ms by colour.

“No. More like I’m hyperaware of them,” you said, “But I can’t shake the feeling that someone’s watching all of this because of me.”

“What’s there to watch? It’s nothing but a Girls and Todoroki Night. There’s nothing worth seeing and or any big secrets being spilled. Well, spoilers for the New Year’s episode of Kamisama Kiss, but it’s been out for years already,” said Mina, gesturing towards the television, and Uraraka snatched Mina’s hand out of the air and laid it flat on the coffee table again, because she’s not done painting her nails, damn it. Mina sighed dreamily at the sheep whose wool fluffed enough to take up the entire screen. “What I wouldn’t give for my hair to have that much volume.”

“I guess you’re right,” you said, settling down into your chair, pulling Shinsou’s blue-pineappled blanket up to your neck (he was out on his bike, so he wasn’t attending this Girls and Todoroki Night [Shinsou and Todoroki were the only boys allowed, since their presence wasn’t obtrusive or contrary to the vibe. Additionally, Shinsou thought it was funnier if his name weren’t included in the title of these events]). “Y’know, in the manga, the New Year avatar isn’t a sheep. It’s a dragon.”

Mina blew on her hands as Uraraka rebottled the nail polish brush. “Whaaaaat?

“It was changed to a sheep to align with the year the episode was released,” said Todoroki, his thumb and index finger pinching his lower lip with his eyes glued to the screen, “I understand the change on a narrative scale, but I believe the dragon had more of a character arc than the sheep. The dragon didn’t think it was as appealing as other years’ avatars, and it had to learn to accept itself and accept others’ love for it. It was rooted in misunderstanding.”

For some reason, when you looked at Todoroki, you were doused with regret. Sharp and cold, followed by a splash of something more muddled: envy, maybe? Gratitude?

These…these feelings weren’t yours.

***

“I can’t believe I missed a Girls and Todoroki Night,” said Shinsou, grinning, his legs dangling off the dorm’s kitchen counter, “but alas! The night was calling, and I had to go out in it.”

“We will not spoil Kamisama Kiss for you,” said Todoroki. He was crouched in front of the oven, hands clasped as he stared through the tinted window at the browning potato wedges. “You will have to watch that episode on your own.”

“You should really read the manga,” you were saying as you scanned the inside of the refrigerator, looking for anything that might go well with the potatoes—ah, Aoyama’s got some bougie-looking sauce. Savoury, by the looks of it. “It goes farther than the anime covers, and it’s so sweet. The worldbuilding gets better, too.” You took out the bottle and gave it an experimental shake.

“Really?” Shinsou wrinkled his nose. “I don’t know; that villain guy isn’t very fun. Feels like too much time is wasted on him.”

Todoroki’s head snapped towards Shinsou at the same time you slammed the refrigerator shut. “No,” the both of you said at the same time, and you continued. “The anime hasn’t been quite as accurate in tone regarding that character, but he’s really wonderful, eventually. You really feel for what happened to him and for his past relationship to the main characters. Simple but effective job of deconstructing his villainy and granting him humanity.”

“Huh.” Shinsou propped his cheek on his fist, his ankle resting on his opposite knee. “I wonder how much nuance I’m missing because I’m only watching the anime.”

For a second, you felt as groggy as if you’d just woken up, your eyes focusing a bit more precisely, blurring the kitchen tiles for a moment before re-focusing, and it crept in again: the feeling that someone was watching you, that someone else was here.

“Hey, Shinsou, Todoroki,” you said, blinking several times, Aoyama’s brown sauce clutched in both hands, “Do my eyes look any different?”

Both of them looked you over. Shinsou shook his head. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I’ve got—” You nodded towards Todoroki. “I have that same feeling from last night. Like someone’s watching. But Jirou said nothing was wrong.” Shrugging, you tossed the sauce to Shinsou and sat in front of the oven with Todoroki. “I guess Kamisama Kiss must bring out the voyeur in me. Or being voyeur-ed. Watched.” You crossed your legs at the same time Todoroki jolted because of a crushed peppercorn popping in the oven. “Maybe we should start reading manga alongside the anime so that we can judge how accurate they are. See how much character nuance is lost or preserved.”

Todoroki’s eyes bulged. “You have no idea how much that appeals to me. I desperately need to discuss the differences between the Hunter x Hunter 1999 anime, the 2011 anime, and the manga. Sero refuses to watch the 1999 version.”

Amusement. Condescension. Bubbling to the top of your consciousness.

Distinctly not yours.

Why would you be feeling these things in the face of something that sounded so wonderfully, uselessly pedantic? A project like Todoroki’s just proposed sounded like an absolutely ideal waste of time that would allow you to be more accurate than the vast majority of people when it came to plot, lore, and characterisation. Why would emotions you’d associate with making fun of someone pop up now? You didn’t want to make fun of Todoroki; you were enthusiastic about joining him in this pointless endeavour.

The timer on Shinsou’s phone blared, and he tapped it off, patting his pockets (?) for the oven mitt, which he spotted on the counter next to him. “Why would Sero refuse to watch the older version?”

Todoroki helped you stand and guided the both of you away from the oven. “To be fair, in the 1999 anime, the animators did take liberties with panel composition and brought in new angles and lines sporadically. Colours are also odd and inaccurate, and those are corrected, for the most part, in the 2011 version. More of the manga is covered, and the animation is smoother in the 2011 version as well.”

Why did you feel the distant sensation of laughing? Nothing about this has been funny, per se, but the…what was going on?

“Okay, I’ll bite,” you said, strangely heavy and hyperaware and surveying the tray of steaming potato wedges as Shinsou shuffled it to the stove, “I’ll do it with you, all this manga accuracy checking.”

“Me, too,” said Shinsou, shaking the over mitt off, “My suggestion is that we keep it to just the three of us, to prevent exhausting arguments, like we’d have in a big group the size of Girls and Todoroki Nights.”

“I can lend you the first few volumes,” said Todoroki, opening a cabinet to search for Aoyama’s sauce bowls, “After that, I have a link to high-quality scans I can send you.”

“Sounds perfect,” you said, reaching for a potato wedge that did not sizzle and screech as much as the others, “Should we watch the first episode tomorrow night?” When you retracted your hand at the burn, you felt your own pain and someone else’s sense of nostalgia.

***

You’d already been on the precipice of falling asleep during Present Mic’s lesson, but when a concentrated shot of fatigue pierced you, you set down your pen and reluctantly resolved to get the subsequent notes from Iida. God, couldn’t this wait until you were out of class? No one needed to see how terrible your own notes were. No one needed to see your drawings in the margins.

Burying your face in your hands, you dug the heels of your palms into your eyes, rubbing them as the lethargy kicked in, and you braced yourself for the uncanny sensation of being your own worst voyeur.

When you opened them, after the lightheaded dots blinked away, you weren’t in the classroom, instead entrenched in darkness. Well, wait—you groped around on your desk: physically, you still were upright in your desk at U.A., able to grasp your pen, set it down, able to faintly hear Present Mic, as if he’s in the next room over.

Blindly, you tapped Mina’s desk behind you, turning your head over your shoulder. “Do my eyes look weird to you?”

“No. Should they?” she whispered back—or maybe she said it at a normal volume, and the classroom had been so far removed the distance silenced her.

Biting the inside of your cheek, you faced the front again. Looks like you have to figure this out yourself, or else you’ll be sitting in pitch black for who knows how long.

A minute passed. Your eyes adjusted to the darkness, shapes appearing—you’re inside. In a room with the lights off. Sideways, for some reason. One of the shapes was so rigidly rectangular that it had to be a shoji divider, and you were just trying to estimate its size when all of your mental facilities halted at a loud, rumbling groan.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” a scratchy, masculine voice said, “Must be my turn, huh?”

He flipped over, and barely cracked venetian blinds behind dark curtains just barely illuminated part of the scene: you were seeing this sideways because he was lying in bed, an out-of-place, opulent, Western-style bed in what you assumed was an Eastern-style room, judging what you could make out of traditional wallpaper and tatami flooring.

“Well, you’re not getting anything out of me,” he said, reaching for one of the many strewn pillows and hugging it—you lost half of your sight when his face sank into it (too dark for you to get a good look at his hands or arms), “Sucks for you, but I’m going back to sleep. Don’t care how curious you are. Not sharin’ anything with someone who can’t cook potato wedges right.”

No, get up. Get up. Say more right now. Who was he? It’s—it’s the middle of the day, anyhow; what is he doing asleep?

“Hah. You’re angry with me.” His laugh sounded more like a hiss, somehow. “Get used to it.”

He shut his eyes. After about a minute, the darkness faded, and Present Mic’s voice hit you at full volume, and you winced, clamping a hand down on your notes when the classroom came into view.

***

“You are not dropping out of school the semester you’re supposed to graduate,” said Aizawa, pinching the bridge of his nose, elbow digging into the puffy leather chair by Nezu’s desk.

“From my perspective, it does not appear you are a liability to U.A.’s security.” Nezu steepled his paws together, his pink toe beans preventing him from pressing them completely flat. “Simply seeing through each other’s eyes and feeling some of his emotions are no cause for the drastic security measures you are proposing. I believe that so long as you have some sort of indicator that either situation is happening, faculty can prepare for your temporary debility.”

“Don’t even think about abusing it to get out of class,” said Aizawa, propping his chin on his fist.

“You think I would? Shocked! Shocked and offended,” you said, “I’m gonna be in class; I don’t trust anyone else’s notes. I want my own interpretations of lectures.” You slumped down in your seat, tilting your head back to stare at the ceiling. “Principal Nezu, do you have an idea of why this is happening to me?”

“I do.” Nezu opened the top drawer in his desk to retrieve a stack of yellow-green papers, torn from a legal pad and crimped because of whatever was spilled on it. “Recovery Girl and Midnight have been analysing the results of Tainted Love’s quirk for some time now. The female rehabilitation centre with which Midnight works, Sakura Grove, has uncovered evidence of two other incidents that caused a soulmate bond with similar qualities to form.”

“What? No,” you said, letting a whine creep into your voice, “That means my soulmate’s a jerk. He was rude to me. He insulted my potato wedge recipe.”

Aizawa raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth twitching upward as he crossed his arms. “You can’t expect there to be love at first sight, can you? Love is a choice. You work at it every day. You have to keep choosing it.”

“Yaoyorozu and Jirou were already dating when they got assigned soulmates,” you said, listing on your fingers, “Midoriya and Uraraka had been pining after each other for years—”

Aizawa scowled. “Stop that.”

“So, do you want me to report anything? Do you want me to duck out of class when he—checks in?”

“If you feel unsafe, let us know. Otherwise, it is of my opinion that you will be just fine,” said Nezu, and he reached for his paw-sized coffee cup to remove the melting stroopwaffle cookie off the top. “Report what you perceive as dangerous, but you deserve privacy. When you decide on your signal that the bond is active, please send an email to faculty members. Whether or not you inform your peers is at your discretion.”

***

So, of course, you told everyone.

Meaning no one batted an eye the next time the soulmate bond activated, which was in class. Feeling the exhaustion and the slight buzz from your soulmate popping in to watch through you, you made the phone call symbol, grabbed a marker from the whiteboard, and headed out into the hall, no questions asked.

“Hey,” you were saying, shoving your forearm against the concrete-block wall and popping the marker cap off with your mouth, “Good to hear from you. Didn’t know I could see through you, too. Excited to see how we’ll deal with that. This is my phone number.” You scrawled it across your arm, along with your given name above it. “If you can’t memorise it now, that’s fine. I’ll write it down next time, too, so you could prepare to have something nearby to record it with. I look forward to getting to know you.”

No strong emotions on his part. But he was there.

“Okay,” you said, and you turned to sink down against the wall to sit in the deserted hallway. “Some basic stuff: I’m a student at U.A., in my last year. I’m in that—uh, I’m in the class that’s gotten into a bit of trouble over the past few years. Midoriya, Bakugou, and all of them, if you watch the news. I’ve just ducked out of class with everyone.” You kept looking at your arm so that he could memorise it. “I don’t really wanna talk about my quirk, since that seems like such a boring, capital-A adult question, but I can tell you about it later, if you really want to know. Oh! I do not suck at making potato wedges. It was just a recipe that none of us had made before, and they were fine. They were good. I—”

And he’s gone, link severed.

Crossing your arms, you slumped against the wall. Did he choose to end it? Could he? He didn’t seem very receptive, so you wouldn’t put it past him.

***

You woke up from a nap watching through him play a video game, some non-discernible, first-person shooter. Again in the dark, but perhaps not in the same room. The windows weren’t open enough to let in enough light to tell.

Your soulmate never acknowledged you were there by gesture or word. Just played his stupid fucking game. You were trying to send him foul vibes of frustration and indignation, but he ignored you.

After a mere six minutes of the world’s worst Let’s Play, you decided you could be a little bitch as well.

***

“Oh! He’s here. Excuse me,” you said to Shinsou and Jirou, making the phone call gesture as you pushed yourself up from the lunch table, “I’ll be back in a moment. Please guard my gummies from Monoma.”

A flash of curiosity, finally, from your soulmate as he got the image of Shinsou and Jirou smirking to themselves and waving you off.

Once you were alone outside in the courtyard, you pulled out and unfolded the piece of pink construction paper, at this point every inch covered by doodles of flowers and increasingly shitty bulbasaurs. You tapped at the writing in the centre. “This is called a telephone number,” you said, “This one belongs to me. If you dial this number into a phone to call it, you will reach me. Then, we could have a conversation and arrange to meet up, instead of this unreliable, one-sided bond.”

You flattened your hand to smooth out the creases, halting midway when it struck you. “I’ve just realised you may be confused by this situation. Don’t worry; I am as well. But be assured, due to a quirk incident, we’ve been assigned soulmates. Yeah, I know they’re fake, but with this villain Tainted Love’s quirk, soulmates are real.”

He evidently was feeling like he wanted to walk straight into the ocean.

“I’m assuming you’re not a U.A. student, so—do you remember breathing in some sort of pink dust? Within about the past—I don’t know, two and a half years? That’s how long Tainted Love was active. She only got arrested about a month or so ago.” You couldn’t garner anything from him except for exasperation, so you continued. “And not, like, snorting a line of pink dust. It would’ve been in a dust cloud. A bit like fog. You would’ve noticed it.”

Staring at your phone number the whole time, you allowed him silence to think. Whatever he was feeling was very subdued, so you couldn’t really surmise what it was, but ten seconds before the bond broke, a livid, fiery ire consumed your whole body in the heat of recognition.

***

Shinsou, Todoroki, and you were all crowded around a laptop in Shinsou’s dorm to watch the beginning episodes of Hunter x Hunter the next time your soulmate spoke to you. He’d gone a couple of times ignoring you in silence, once outside on a walk during the day on a path uptown you didn’t recognise, and the other on some rooftop while playing on his phone and watching a meteor shower. Completely disregarding your attempts to give him your number or talk to him in real time.

It just figured that he bothered to spare you any information when you were trying to see what the next phase of the Hunter Exam was, so Todoroki and Shinsou paused the show for you and waited. With a stab of affection for your friends, you moved to the corner, waiting for your soulmate to say something.

And he was. Your soulmate knew more combinations of swear words and general filth than you’ve ever cared to consider, and you were almost impressed with the creativity of his vulgarity. Outside under the night sky, he was furiously ripping open some medium-sized, cardboard box as he stomped towards a carefully cultivated, lilypad-covered, manmade pond towards the back of a highly organised, traditional garden.

Eventually, non-profanity was added. “Goddamn fucking shit-ass fish and goddamn fucking shit-ass crusty motherfucking doctor can’t take care of his own goddamn fucking pet project.” Tips of his house slippers stopping at the pond only by way of running into the stone wall, he stumbled, growling in frustration, before regaining his balance and yanking out the plastic bag inside the remnants of the box. “Wants a goddamn gift for fucking Mom but can’t be arsed to do it him-fucking-self. Deserves every fish fucked into his respiratory system, clogging up his arteries to give himself a goddamn heart attack. And then I can’t be blamed for—” The plastic stretched, and he ended up tearing it in half above the water, pieces falling atop waterlilies. “Shit on a cuntbag. What the fuck. I don’t deserve this.”

He stretched to reach the waterlilies, cupping his hands to sweep the fish food off and into the water. And—the moonlight struck the gently rippling water, enough for you to see a flash of an orange koi tail break the surface tension, but not enough to see whatever was going on with his hands—not that he was doing anything strange with them (just picking shreds of plastic out of the water), but they somehow were strange. They moved stiffly and had some sort of bumps on them, but—does this guy live in darkness? You couldn’t tell anything about what his hands looked like aside from the shadowed bumps, which could be anything.

“I deserve a lot, but I sure as hell don’t deserve this.” He rounded the pond and punched a few buttons on a small, hidden, monitor, checking the pH of the pool and water levels. “Not my fucking job. Not my fucking job. Why do they think—why am I the one to do this shit. How come I can get in trouble with my fucking brother for him not taking care of his project.” He swatted at his wet bathrobe sleeve, pissed, and shook out some of the water. “Hey, you. I know you’re there.”

Back in the dorm, you jolted in your seat. In the distance, you could hear Shinsou ask what was wrong. “Nothing,” you said, sounding distant yourself, “He acknowledged me is all. Hasn’t done that for a while, so it felt like a fourth wall break.”

Your soulmate sat down on the edge of the pond, glaring out at the rest of the garden (wisteria heavy, vines swaying in the night wind). “Are you hot?”

You’d never wanted to be able to transfer direct words or actions to him so much, because he needed to be strangled.

“I’m not kidding.” He crossed his arms, covered by a dark bathrobe, sticking his hands in his armpits. “Are you hot? I don’t like the idea of being connected to some hideous fuckwad.”

Never mind. Now you have never wanted to be—

“This quirk shit isn’t gonna last long, but if you’re hot, you need to get on my dick before it goes away. I wanna see how it looks giving me a blowjob from your perspective.”

Kill. Destroy. Maim. Eviscerate, even.

“Ooh, watch out. We’ve got an uptight, prudish bitch over here,” he said, and he laughed—again, sounding more like a hiss than anything else. “Well, then. If you’re not gonna put out, then I’ve got no use for you. Don’t need anyone, especially not some goddamn lunatic who claims to be my soulmate. Too many people are interfering in my life, anyway. And to be honest, it seems like you’re dumb and irritating. I don’t like people like you.”

Maybe you’re soulmates because you’re destined to kill him on sight. Your soul, calling out for his to suffer extreme violence. He’d deserve it.

May all his potato wedges burn.

***

Monoma was at the next Hunter x Hunter anime viewing, because he’d been dying to know why you were wearing an actual and literal clown costume, wig and enormous foam nose included.

“I’m liking the new hero outfit,” Monoma said, flipping his hair back with a flourish, “but why are you wearing it during our off-hours?”

“Shove off,” you said, grinning as Shinsou tossed you a pillow to hold, “Did you bring your peach gummies?”

“I did,” said Monoma, sitting next to you on Todoroki’s tatami mats, and he pulled a massive bag of white peach gummies from inside his jacket, handing it to you to open. “May I ask if it’s seriously part of your new uniform, or—”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Monoma,” you said, ripping open the bag at the notch, “I’m making a point.”

“Her soulmate,” Shinsou supplied, pulling up the next episode, “He wants to know what she looks like. So, she’s been dressing up in horrible, gawdy shit so that he can never really tell, even around mirrors.”

“He’s pissed,” you said, beaming, digging into the bag and popping a gummy into your mouth, “He wants me to stop playing around, but he was mean to me. Mean to me, unprovoked, and in a way that wasn’t hot. Tomorrow, I’m wearing a sheet and running around like a ghost. I will say nothing to him but boo.”

“I suppose that explains the influx of regular face masks you’ve taken to wearing during class.” Monoma scoffed, his incredulous, open mouth stretching into a grin. “You are impossible. If your humourless soulmate is worth his salt, then he should at least value the effort you’re putting into it.”

“Sero has sent me a message,” interrupted Todoroki, thumb swiping his phone screen, “He says that he has changed his mind and would like to join us. He’s started rereading the series and likes it more this time around.” Todoroki looked up and around his room, lips pursed. “There is not much space for five people. It is getter harder to see the laptop.”

***

The five of you started the Heaven’s Arena arc of Hunter x Hunter in Aizawa’s dorm apartment, seeing as he had the best television setup: for one, having an actual television instead of simply relying on his computer. His sound system held up, too, though you suspected Present Mic had something to do with that, instead of Aizawa’s own preferences.

You, Shinsou, Todoroki, Monoma, and Sero were scattered across Aizawa’s living room, all cosied under blankets and pillows and pointed towards his wall-mounted television, sitting on his cat-hair covered couch and armchairs, mugs and snacks on his coffee table, socked feet loose, and house slippers at the edge of the shag rug. The cats, Dango and Konpeito, chose to snuggle up towards Todoroki and you (beat that, Shinsou!), so you were careful not to disturb them from their slumber on your lap. No sudden movements, even when the tired dizziness of your bitch soulmate faded in.

“Spoilers for Hunter x Hunter, I suppose, even though it’s been out for decades,” you said under your breath, raising your hand to signal to the others that your soulmate was looking in. At your movement, Dango raised her head from her cocoon in your lap to yawn, her face nearly turning inside out, and she flinched, her pupils dilating, at the creak of the door.

Laden with groceries, Aizawa stepped into his own apartment, his brow furrowing at the sight of his students in his living room. “You have ten seconds to tell me what you’re doing here.”

“The fuck?” Sero whipped his head towards Shinsou and back at Aizawa. “Shinsou told us you were okay with it.”

“I said that he wouldn’t mind, which he can’t if he doesn’t catch us,” said Shinsou, bracing himself when Aizawa tugged at his capture weapon around his neck, “It’s my fault, Aizawa-sensei. Please don’t get angry at anyone else.”

Your soulmate seemed pleased that you were getting in trouble. Bastard.

Aizawa set his cloth bags on his kitchen counter, the insides shifting with the weight of the groceries. “Is this appropriate for Eri to watch?”

“Well, in general—”

A character onscreen chose that moment to seductively moan another character’s name, over and over again.

Aizawa winced, scrunching his eyes shut tightly. “Turn that shit off. Find another place to watch it.” Shaking his head, he unbagged the first of his groceries. “Shinsou, never bring anyone, including yourself, into my personal space again with express permission.”

“Damn it,” you said, reaching for the remote. You pressed the power button, watching the screen fade from the vibrant colours of Heaven’s Arena to black, with Aizawa’s living room reflecting back at you. Forlornly, you scratched the back of Dango’s neck, watching her mirrored reaction, before you realised what you were doing: giving your bitch-ass soulmate a clear view of your bare face. Eyes bulging, you gasped and bent over to hide your face, with Dango scurrying away at being disturbed.

The connection cut at the faint suggestion of intrigue.

***

YOU

hey i know we said we’d keep it small but. i think midoriya would really enjoy the battle analysis that the hxh characters are doing

YOU

bc they be doing some QUICK analytic work based on their opponents’ personalities

TODOROKI 💅🎏

Midoriya has been asking more questions than usual during our sparring sessions.

SERO 🧃🍊

ffs why isn’t he already in the group? should’ve thought of him

SHINSOU 💜🍡

want me to add him?

YOU

would that be okay, todoroki?

TODOROKI 💅🎏

There’s more than enough room at our new venue. We should invite him.

SHINSOU 💜🍡

why don’t you text him then? it’s at your place

MONOMA 🔇🎭

Midoriya CANNOT sit next to me

MONOMA 🔇🎭

I’d like to hear the onscreen dialogue instead of whatever he’s saying under his breath

MONOMA 🔇🎭

He CANNOT shut up

YOU

WHOMST won’t shut up??????

SERO 🧃🍊

don’t worry no one will sit next to you

MONOMA 🔇🎭

Good

MONOMA 🔇🎭

Wait

TODOROKI 💅🎏

Midoriya can attend! He’ll be a little late today, but I think we should wait for him, since it’s his first time joining us.

Startled by the waiter, you put your phone down on your notebook and accepted your coffee graciously. You shifted your laptop and notebook over so that you could cup the mug in front of you, its warmth seeping through the sides, and you took a tentative slurp. Interesting. You’ll finish it, but you won’t order this again.

You were killing time that Saturday by getting ahead on your work for Put Your Hands Up Radio: editing and fact-checking news segments that Yamada would read between songs towards the evening. Electing to get some sunshine on your skin before hunkering down with the group again to analyse some anime, you’d chosen to edit the articles outside at a café you’d discovered recently, one at which you hadn’t decided on a regular order yet and were shopping around the menu each time you came. Plus, if you’d stayed on campus, no doubt Shinsou or Monoma would’ve found you to distract you.

The café’s patio with scorching, cast-iron furniture and haphazard parasol installation led to most of its customers sitting inside, but that meant you had space to think, even with the hot groves of your seat imprinting patterns into your skin.

Your soulmate was probably being rude because he was scared, or perhaps he didn’t believe that Tainted Love’s quirk was legitimate. You’d have to assure him that it was, as you’d run through Nezu’s report with Midnight and Recovery Girl, fact-checking that. Either way. Some frustrated guy—living at home, apparently, and pissed about it—was paired out of the blue with some student at U.A. He might be scared that you were a creep.

Tainted Love’s team’s notes on her quirk that Midnight had confiscated explained that each soulmate bond, somehow, was moulded around the pair’s personalities and would fulfil a lifelong need. A lot of responsibility, it seemed, but if it were true—and other pairs proved it true—you would fulfil it naturally, and so would he.

So, even though your soulmate had been rude, you’d give him a chance. The soulmate bond existed for a reason. Plus, he might be a real-life tsundere, and wouldn’t that be fun to crack? To be the only one a rude, evil person was soft for was the ideal, wasn’t it? Someone so naturally cruel and heartless but learning to be kind for you—

Get a hold of yourself. He’s a real guy who will be in your life forever, not just someone you can throw away, like a celebrity/pro-hero crush. Treat him seriously.

“I’m…being serious,” you said to yourself, pouting into your coffee. You hunched in your seat to drink from the mug without lifting it, and you slorped away the neck of the latte art swan the barista had so carefully poured. “He’s probably not even be a sexy sort of cold-hearted. He’s just a type of bitchiness I haven’t learnt how to handle yet.”

Those boys in the anime analysis group? You could play their types of bitchiness like the world’s smallest fiddle. They were all so easy to handle (especially Monoma because of his predictability; Todoroki gave you the most trouble due to his complete non sequiturs), and it was fun bouncing off the petty parts of their personalities. Your soulmate spun things differently, but you’d learn his inclinations in time. If not, it’s not worth your time trying to “fix” someone who has no redeeming vulnerability.

You sighed. Now that you’ve lost your editing groove, you might as well do some last-minute reading before watching the next few episodes tonight. Closing your laptop, you reached down into your bag to get the next volume of Todoroki’s manga, and your vision blurred over, dizziness incoming. Well, at least you’re sitting down.

You held the manga volume in your lap and waited for your soulmate’s line of sight to appear. If he were in a darkened room yet again, you could buy yourself a little treat. The café’s display case had some sort of new chess square that you’d been eyeing. And—shit, sunlight was coming through. No little treat for you.

Well, maybe you’ll get one, anyway. You slumped farther down in your seat, blinking as dappled, sunlight-covered pavement and an empty terrace outside a business across a busy street came into view—your soulmate jumped back off the road when a car whooshed by, and after that, he jaywalked, horns blaring in his wake.

He did a little hop to get on the opposite sidewalk, hands in his pockets, and peered past the iron fence into the window of the shop—a packed coffee shop; maybe you could at least learn his coffee order, because then you’d have some shred of information about him. But no, he unlatched the iron gate and wove his way through the cast-iron patio chairs and tables, and—

You’re staring right at you: sitting, legs crossed, not taking up space, stuff spread out over your table, and he’s gaining on you. You flinched, watched yourself flinch, and your gaze darted around until you were able to meet his (your) eyes (your head making minor, nervous movements you wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t seen them), expression cautious, curling in on yourself on impulse. When you saw how, through an outsider, that made you look small, you made the effort to sit up and roll your shoulders back, elbows on the table. You watched yourself recoil at the heat of the iron, and you had to use his perspective to know where your notebook was so that you could rest your arms on it.

He brushed past your table’s open chair, instead yanking the table by the edge away from your lap so that he could stand closer to you and grabbing your face. He first cupped your jaw with his whole hand, pale skin and leather of a fingerless glove cold to the touch, and then, when he seemed sure you weren’t going to protest (his vision turned slightly to the left—he must have tilted his head), he narrowed his grip in little jerks of his hand, sliding erratically from gripping your jaw to just tilting your chin upwards towards him. He turned your head to the left and to the right before returning to centre to stare you down (you’d been pliant under his control, because the doubling of you watching you do things was throwing off your senses of balance and direction).

“Not as hard as you fucking made it out to be, huh?” His thumb rubbed over your chin. His nail was cracked. “Now, are you gonna stop acting like a little bitch, or are we gonna keep playing your stupid game?”

“First of all,” you said, fascinated by the way your lips curled in under your teeth to shape the consonants, and judging by where your soulmate was looking, he was, too. “It’s not an act. I am a little bitch.”

“No more of that hiding shit.” He tapped your cheek a little harder than he needed to with his middle two fingers. “Don’t know why you’d wanna hide this, anyway.”

You wouldn’t’ve said you winced at his rough touch, but you noticed enough of an aggravated microexpression around your eyes that you could tell you didn’t like it. “You’re doing the same. Hiding what you look like from me.”

“And I’m gonna keep doing it. You get nothing. There is no us. Soulmates don’t exist, and even if some hack fraud’s quirk has paired us off, I don’t need anybody, least of all you.”

“Well, maybe you don’t need anyone,” you said, your eyes dipping to see more of his hand (hot damn, we forgot we can’t see through our own eyes that quickly?) and then raising them to look directly into your soulmate’s—hyperaware of the way your eyelashes fluttered against your skin, of the slight pinch of your eyebrows, of the way the sun struck your cheeks, “but you could want someone.”

A sliver of a cool breeze wove its way through the patio, some of your hair swaying with it.

“I won’t pressure you to do anything you don’t want,” you said, lying, “but at the very least, we could communicate enough for this to be easy for us. Please let me give you my phone number, and please save it this time.”

His thumb inched up to press into your lower lip.

“Please,” you said, eyes dark but slightly glassy, letting your tongue tap the tip of his thumb, so lightly wetting it that it was as if you hadn’t touched it at all.

Your soulmate tilted his head again, lurching to the side as he shifted his weight to lean on the table. He knocked your pen onto the ground, and when you made the slightest movement to grab it, he pressed his thumb harder against you to still you, and he shook his head.

Your throat ran dry. Your (his) eyes honed in on the bead of sweat dripping down it and into your blouse. “Give me your name, then. A name, if you hate me that much.”

“It’s Touya,” he grumbled, and he closed his eyes in the moment before he kissed you, cold lips open before even touching yours (both rough, but his lower lip was much rougher for some reason). Blind, you startled back at the initial touch, but he held your chin firmly near his, sliding his gloved hand to your cheek as his tongue did into your mouth, pressing against the roof of your mouth and along your gums, alternating pressure where he pleased, not seeming to care what you did with your tongue—not that you were doing much at all due to surprise, but you at least had the mind to press your lips back, because while yes, his style was unorthodox, it still felt good. He laughed through his nose, once, when you slid your tongue against his, but when you raised a hand to cup his cheek, he pulled away before you could do more than graze him.

“Touya,” you said, and now that he was looking at you again, you—well, you looked kissed out, leaning towards him to chase that feeling, to encourage him to touch you again, and you looked fucking hot (the hell? It took a lot for you to think of yourself that way, and today hadn’t even been a good day for you, but now, freshly kissed, saying your soulmate’s name, you found yourself thinking you were pretty. Uh. Could this be what he was thinking instead of you? You couldn’t tell; it felt like it was coming from somewhere deep in your gut). “Touya. Let me write—”

You watched yourself grapple for your pen for a while. He huffed, crossed his arms, and bothered to look down where your pen was for you, and when he did, you finally grabbed it.

“Touya,” you said, uncapping the pen and hovering over your notebook, and you paused after the first stroke. “Touya spelled like that Todoroki Touya who released that Endeavor video during the war?”

The ink bled through the sheet of paper from being pressed in one spot for too long.

“Yeah,” he said eventually, voice rasping, “Spelled just like his.”

“Okay,” you said, bending over your paper and writing based on muscle memory, and under his name, you wrote your phone number for him again, with your name written beneath it, just to hammer it in. You ripped the page out of your notebook with some difficulty before passing it to him.

Touya scanned it and rubbed his thumb over your name, the leather of his fingerless glove catching on the uneven tear.

Cute. Nerd. “Do the gloves have something to do with your quirk?”

“What? No,” he said, crumpling the paper and stowing it in his pocket, and he kept his hands there, hiding them, “I don’t have a quirk.”

Okay, so Touya spoke in a rush and concealed evidence. Sounds like a lie. Monoma took that route on occasion, so the obvious thing for you to say was “Oh, so you wear them because of Naruto? Do you run like him, too?”

“Fuck off,” he spat, and you watched yourself grin: you’ve got him. “As if I had time to be a fuckin’ otaku.”

“Good to know,” you said, “So, all the manga re-analysis I’ve been doing with my friends is new to you? I hope you’re not planning on reading or watching any of the works that we’re covering, then. Unless you wanted to read along with us?”

“I don’t need that shit to scorch my brain.” For some reason, he winced, scrunching his eyes shut for a moment, and you waited in the dark for him.

“You have enough going on?”

He pried his eyes open, blinking blearily at you, still grinning, still smug. “Yeah,” he said, and he dug his left hand out to stare at the back of it, leather shining in the sunlight while he wiggled his fingers. He bent across the table to grab your coffee, fingers spidering over the rim to grip it, and he brought it to his mouth. “This is fucking awful; what’s wrong with you?” he asked after an audible swallow.

“It’s not my usual order.” Closing your notebook, you crossed your arms, staring down at you and feeling more and more like you’re in a dream. “You can either tell me what your quirk is, because I know you’re lying, or you could stay? For coffee? I’ll buy you something better.”

(You would have asked what’s up with his appearance that he didn’t want you to see or feel, but considering how early in your first official meeting it was, the question may be too insensitive, especially if he were born with it.)

Touya glanced over his shoulder, saw something you couldn’t, and set your mug on the iron table with a quiet clink. “I’ve got to go,” he said, and he spun around, taking the first step away.

You slammed a hand on the table purely on guesswork based on where he left your mug, and the sound of shaking iron and tinkling porcelain resounded, distant when you heard it through his ears, yet feeling the vibrations travel through your own arms. “Tell me your goddamn quirk, you daft fucker.”

Touya paused, and he turned back to you. “That’s more like it.” He sat on your table, at the place over your lap, and he reached out towards your face. You saw yourself lean back, eyes wide, but he simply dug his fingers into your hair at your hairline, scratching your scalp and digging his nails in enough to hear the movement.

(You saw yourself frown the moment you noticed his skin was colder than the glove.)

“Barking at me like that is how information is usually torn out of me. Makes me feel at home,” he said, a bit too cheerfully for your liking, “You can be trained to be a bitch towards me yet.”

“Touya,” you said, raising your head to embolden more of his touch, “Who’s—who’s been treating you like that? You don’t deserve it.”

“Shut up.” Touya laid his hand flat atop your head, the weight of it pushing down on you. “Sure, I lied. Said I didn’t have a quirk. Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters.” Your tongue swiped over your lower lip, and Touya’s gaze darted to it. “I want any scrap of you I can get. Everything I’ve already learnt I’ve filed away in my heart: your name, the way you speak, your hatred of your brother’s fish and living at home—”

The hand on your hand slipped to slap over your mouth. “Jesus Christ, stop noticing things about me. Freak. Goddamn.” Touya lifted his hand off of you, and based on his perspective, he ran it through his own hair. “So that you don’t go making your own intrusive observations, I’ll tell you about my quirk: I effectively don’t have one anymore. I used it a lot, and it fucked me up. So, for my own self-preservation, which I’ve been told I should value, I can’t use it anymore. Good enough for you?”

“Great enough for me,” you said, “I’ll take care not to talk about my quirk or hero course stuff too much. I don’t want you to feel left out.”

“Holy shit,” said Touya, and he broke eye contact with you to stare at his boots (scuffed, black, but new, so the scuffing must be intentional), blinking rapidly before pressing—probably—his thumb and forefinger against his eyelids.

Something was deeply wrong with this man. You needed him to kiss you again. You opened your mouth to ask him to, but wooziness and your dry throat called; the ripped page of your notebook you’d been staring at dripped back into your own perspective at a glacial pace. You heard the scuffle of his shuffling off the iron table and the grit of his boot against the concrete, and when you grappled for him in the dark, your hand clenched around nothing.

You rubbed your eyes until the vertigo passed, and when you opened them, Touya was gone.

***

Later that afternoon, you were scrolling through your phone on the end cushion of one of Todoroki’s couches in the living room in a poor effort not to gawk at everything. You expected some of it could be excused, since it’s your first time at his house, but good God, rich people were insane. This was the biggest, traditionally-styled building (estate?) you’ve been in since you toured a castle preserved from the Edo period—but it was apt, you supposed, since Endeavor had been acting as a sort of daimyo of his own.

Dormer gables. Hip-and-gable roofs, with golden shachihoko shibi cupping the corners—though instead of the customary sea monsters, if your eyes weren’t deceiving you, they appeared to be made for flame-swimming instead of in water. A recessed entryway, its wooden flooring tiles hand-cut in tiny designs to make you aware of the space, with brand-new guest slippers already provided before you could ask. Todoroki’s house (estate?) screamed business, or at the very least, don’t touch anything.

At least the living room in which you sat stiffly had a touch of clear modernity—and so it seemed that the inner rooms actually revealed that they were living in the modern age, but the barrier of traditional architecture to get to actual living space heaved a hyperawareness of outsider onto your shoulders.

Todoroki himself, bless him, moved around like the elegant austerity didn’t even occur to him. Waiting for Midoriya with the rest of you, he’d helped everyone spread out their notes and manga over the short table and floor, gathering blankets for everyone when it occurred to him that not everyone’s body tolerated temperature like he did (since the house was kept oddly cold), and, instead of offering tea, like he’d said his sister would expect him to do, he provided a peculiar but pleasant combination of snacks: cheap-ass cup noodles, strawberry chardonnay-flavoured cheese on soup crackers, old mooncakes that had been in the fridge for a month but he declared were still good, and gummy worms for Monoma.

The bitch even bought everyone a fancy little drink according to personal preferences—and no one had even requested them or informed him what to get, but he’d gotten everything right, regardless (you suspected he’d asked Shinsou for help).

“Thank you,” you said, turning over in your hands the poshest bottle of pink lemonade you’ve ever seen, “You’re a very gracious host, Todoroki.”

He slurped his own caramel frappe. “I’m very excited to have so many friends over at once.”

“Of course,” you said, your weight jostling on the couch cushion as Todoroki sat next to you, “I can’t believe we didn’t think of going off-campus to watch this shit earlier. There’s way more privacy here.”

“Our doors are always open nowadays,” he said, and when Sero tapped Todoroki on his shoulder to help open another package of cheese, he held up a finger to pause your conversation.

Smiling softly, you twisted off the bottlecap of your lemonade, holding it up to your nose to inhale that pressurised burst of lemon scent, and—oh, hey, you felt a little lightheaded as you did so. Two times in one day? That’s new. At least it was from your perspective this time, so you didn’t have to worry about knocking anyone’s drink over.

“Hey,” you said, snuggling down into the couch, your palm atop the opening of your drink (when Monoma shot you a questioning look with the phone call hand signal, you nodded, and he relaxed and leaned towards you, his teeth cutting into his lower lip as he grinned). “Funny how we keep meeting like this, yeah?” you asked, feeling soft and full of love for this fucker, and you reached towards the coffee table to set down your drink and grab a flower-shaped mooncake. “I guess I can stop hiding from my reflection now, sweet boy.” You made eye contact with yourself in the reflection of the Torodokis’ enormous flatscreen, and you held your mooncake up in a toast before biting into it. “Hope you’re well. You seemed stressed earlier. I’m currently—”

Your phone rang in your lap, and you narrowed your eyes at the unknown number before answering it. “Hello?”

“Where the hell are you right now?”

“Wow,” you said, chewing, “No greeting, even? No mention of how much that you miss my voice or my lips now that you’ve—”

“Just tell me where the fuck you are,” said Touya, at the same time that Monoma’s eyebrows shot to his hairline at the kissing implication, and he thumped Shinsou in the chest for him to look up from his phone.

“Does it matter?”

“I told you my quirk shit when I didn’t want to, so fucking tell me,” said Touya, sounding muffled and, again, like he stood near traffic.

Swallowing mooncake in a rush and choking a bit, you cleared your throat and said, “Fine. I don’t know why it matters that much to you, but I’m at a friend’s house. Our anime analysis group has gotten too big for the dorms, so we’re trying out his place.”

You had to ensure the call hadn’t dropped due to his long response time. “What friend?” he asked.

You raised a brow, though he couldn’t see you. “I doubt you would know—shit!”

Struggling to tear the plastic covering the cheese, Todoroki had accidentally slammed his elbow into your collarbone.

“Geez.” You winced at Todoroki and rubbed the spot. “No, no, I’m fine,” you said when he reached towards your collarbone, his fingertips already icing over, “You may want to go get a knife to open that, though.”

Nodding soberly, Todoroki lowered his thawing hand and rose from the couch, tossing the cheese to himself. “I’ll do that. Anyone need anything from the kitchen while I’m up?”

While the others answered, you spoke into your phone again, hand on your chest. “Sorry about that. I guess if you paid attention to the news last year, you’d know him: one of Endeavor’s kids, Todoroki Shouto.”

The soulmate connection started to trickle away, but Touya stayed on the phone. “Do you not have any other friends who have a place?” Plastic crinkled on his end, along with a car horn in the background. “Hell, the library downtown rents out portable TVs—”

“Why should I be at another friend’s house?” Touya wouldn’t be able to see the reflection of your self-satisfied smirk now, but surely he could hear it in your voice. “Jealous that I’m at the house of another man?”

Touya gagged into the speaker. “Someone’s full of herself. Don’t wait up for me,” he said, and he hung up.

You pulled your phone away from your ear, pouting at the call screen before creating a new contact.

“You didn’t tell us you’d met your soulmate,” said Shinsou.

“It only happened this afternoon,” you said, saving his number under Touya 🐠🚷 (the fish for the koi pond he hated, and the no pedestrians sign for his apparent propensity to jaywalk), “and I’m not sure what to make of him. I was hoping to form my own opinion before telling all of you.”

Todoroki perked up and tilted his ear skyward at the sound of the front door opening. “I’ll get it,” he said, standing, “I bet that’s my brother. He’s back four hours late from physical therapy; I hope everything’s okay.”

Your eye twitched.

(Todoroki had warned everyone before coming over that his family would probably be in and out. Less so Fuyumi and Natsuo, because Fuyumi had recently moved in with her significant other and Natsuo had his own place near campus, but more of his parents and Dabi. Well. Touya, now, but you had your own Touya to worry about.

You’d met Dabi. Twice, during freshman year. When he’d been a villain, instead of whatever was happening with him in recovery. Rather formulative experiences for you, ones you only permitted yourself to think about in the hollowness of lonely nights—but you didn’t need those memories anymore, because you had your Touya now.

Remember? You have your own Touya. You don’t need another.)

“Do you want me to carry that for you?”

Todoroki’s voice trailed behind boot scuffing and a sliding door, and in Dabi/Touya shuffled—hoodie yanked up (layered over a longer coat?), strings pulled firmly around his face, plastic bags from the convenience store down the street on his wrist, very determinedly staring at the floor as he strode past behind the couch instead of at the four of you strewn across his living room, ducking into the kitchen as soon as possible.

You’d barely seen him for five seconds, and your heart was going to beat out of your chest. Or maybe that was just the bruise forming on your collarbone.

Todoroki nodded after his brother, standing behind your place at the couch. “There’s no ceremonial introduction, I assume. That’s my brother, Touya. You’ve all,” said Todoroki, scratching the back of his neck, “met him before. But! If you’re nervous, we will not be seeing much of him. He doesn’t spend much time in the main house; he lives in the old-fashioned teahouse towards the back of the garden. Privacy, you know, even though we’ve got to keep him close.” Todoroki wetted his lips as he looked towards the emptied shrine on the far wall. “He shouldn’t be any trouble, but I may have to zip out on occasion to help him. Not all of his skin grafts are taking.”

The doorbell rang, and Todoroki started towards it. “That must be Midoriya. Sero, would you please pull up the next episode?”

When Todoroki stepped into the entryway to greet him, you couldn’t suppress your curiosity. “I’m gonna go pour this over ice,” you said, gesturing with your pink lemonade bottle, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Shinsou—the only one whom you’ve told about what happened with Dabi back then—shot you a crooked grin, but he distracted Monoma from noticing exactly what you were doing while you sneaked away down the hall.

His back was to you. Water flowed out of the kitchen faucet while he yanked his hoodie over his head and tossed it over the back of a chair, and he did the same with a longer, black coat—similar in shape to the coat he’d worn as a villain but not the same one. Maybe he’d grown accustomed to having the weight of it on his body, so what he wore now was a type of security blanket. While he ran a spoon under the faucet, he fumbled behind himself for his plastic, convenience store bag and fished out a pudding cup.

Backtracking a little, you purposely made your footsteps audible so that you wouldn’t startle him, and you entered the kitchen, shaking your lemonade for more noise to alert him of your presence.

His white brows pinched when he saw you, and he hastily shut the water off and scooted off to the edge of the counter while he put his stuff away, his movements rigid and close to his chest.

“Hi,” you said (oh, my God, you were talking to Dabi; holy shit), “Where do the cups live?”

Dabi blinked slowly, unable to look at you, and he peeled the lid off of his pudding cup. He glanced towards the door and back towards his stuff on the table, and he pointed towards a cabinet, his finger returning to his fist in a rush to get back what he was doing.

“Thank you,” you said, opening the one he’d pointed to. Oh. Fancy. Lots of choices. “I hope we’re not bothering you. We can—we can always leave, if you need us to. Or you could join us, if you like.” You turned around in time to see the flat of his tongue lick pudding off of the lid, stitches showing at the back of his tongue, and in the moment where he ducked his head, the tiny, unblemished part of his skin near the corners of his eyes blazing pink, your brain short-circuited.

(Dabi had been your first kiss.

During freshman year, in the week of that first round of internships, you’d been planted in Hosu City, around the time Stain closed his fist around the public consciousness. On a night patrol, your mentor had slipped into a restaurant that the yakuza frequented and stationed you in a nearby alley to watch for other yakuza incoming from the employees’ entrance.

An official sidekick had caught up with you—late forties, spandex, unrecognisable. You’d been terse in your replies, since he’d been essentially blowing your cover, but he couldn’t take a hint.

It’d only occurred to you that he’d been hitting on you when he’d propped an arm on the brick wall above your head to dominate your personal space, and an all-consuming dread had erupted in your stomach when he’d said, moving to take your chin in hand, “You know, you remind me a lot of my daughter.”

Before he’d been able to touch you, something rabid and ravenous about the size of a labrador had tackled him to the ground, the force knocking him almost two whole meters away, and the thing ripped into the sidekick’s chest, blood spewing—and somehow having the sense to cover his mouth to stifle the shouts.

In the moment you’d moved to get a better look at what was, in retrospect, a nomu, another figure had stepped between you and the sidekick, his own arm resting on the wall to keep you from getting closer.

“Hey,” Dabi had said, an easy grin stretching across his face, “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about anything. Just testing some shit out for someone. So long as you don’t go making any noise, I’ll let you walk away.”

Dabi hadn’t made his villain debut back then, but even so, it hadn’t seemed like it was just testing something out for someone; this guy had seemed his own brand of dangerous. Your gaze had started to creep towards the source of crunching, but he’d tapped your cheek, making you look at him. “Nuh-uh. Keep your eyes on me. If you don’t know anything, I don’t have to kill you, do I?”

“I, I’m—” You’d steeled yourself somewhat, your hands clenching into fists at your sides. “I’m not just gonna let you kill a hero while I stand here.”

Again, Dabi had stopped you before you could take a full step, this time by gripping your jaw, letting it rest in his palm while his fingers dug into your cheeks. “Can’t call him a hero. Was comparing you to his daughter—didn’t you hear? And it looked like he was gonna assault you. Some guys aren’t meant to be fathers.” His syrupy gaze had fallen to your neck, and he’d squeezed your face. “Jesus, your heart is beating like crazy.”

“I don’t normally calm myself down to the sounds of someone getting maimed,” you’d said, blood splattering in the air behind him, “Oh! Fuck.” You’d scrunched your eyes shut and curled in on yourself, trying to block out the sound of bones snapping.

“Some hero you are.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you’d said, “You’re more of one than I am, tonight. Thanks—?”

“Dabi,” he’d said, and at the time, it had just been a name. When you’d pried open your eyes, he’d been smiling, mouth closed, head tilted at being called a hero. You’d smiled back, but at an enormously strident crack from behind him, you’d had a full-body jolt. “Fucking hell, calm down,” he’d said, his arm sliding from the wall to your upper arm, “For once, you’re safe with me.” Seeing you try to look over his shoulder again, Dabi had dragged you forward by the jaw to kiss you, closed-mouthed but hot, leaning into you, his mouth overwhelming you with hardly any effort on his end, and he’d kept kissing you, stroking your cheek with the back of his hand, until the nomu slinked into silence.

Dabi had broken off when the nomu scuttled farther down the alley. “Right.” He’d taken a deep breath. “You gonna tell anyone about me?”

You’d shaken your head, confused as to why he seemed more concerned about descriptions of him rather than descriptions of the murder. But he’d been nice to you. Had given you a hell of a first kiss. “I can say someone in the yakuza killed him.”

He’d roughly patted your cheek and dropped away from you, stowing his hands in the deep pockets of his coat. “His death isn’t worth reporting, but I’ll take it.” He’d spun on his heel, raising a lazy hand in a wave as he disappeared into the night. “You’d better hope you never see me again.”)

And now, here he was, hunched over shitty gas station snacks in his family kitchen, a spoon hanging out of his mouth while he stowed things away. His naturally white hair showed now, and…he seemed terribly shy. Dabi, shy. Fucking ridiculous. But, you supposed, there’s guilt and shame around, uh, doing what he did. And—and his body was horribly, horribly mangled and mottled. He might not think anyone should look at him.

Todoroki (Shouto, you supposed you should think of him as, since Dabi was a Todoroki, too) had mentioned not all of Dabi’s skin grafts were taking. It was obvious. He’d burnt up during the war, and while you’d heard Recovery Girl and Eri had worked on him, despite outside protests that he wasn’t worth it, he still was very clearly cobbled together.

He still had a lot of staples, though faded stitches filled in new gaps, and those that remained had been replaced with medical-grade staples that wouldn’t get infected. Patches of successful grafts left a waning diamond pattern, particularly around his neck. Very little purple, overall, but going by the scars, you could still tell where it had been. Based on his appearance, he shouldn’t be alive, let alone able to walk around.

But he scooted with such speed out of your way when you got ice out of the freezer. “But really, you could stick around with us, if you wanted to. No pressure, though, if you want to be alone.” Calmly. You were calmly popping ice out of a tray and letting them clatter into your glass. “We’re watching Hunter x Hunter right now, if you’re interested. Have you read or watched it before, either the 1999 or 2011 version? Do you have a favourite character?”

Dabi clutched his snacks and discarded clothes to his chest, almost at the door, with his eyes darting all around the kitchen except on you.

Yeah. Must be shy. You were one of the U.A. students who fought in the war, after all, even though you didn’t personally fight him in the end. Probably feels guilty about the whole thing. Shy could be refreshing, after those bitches in the living room and your cunning soulmate.

Finally, tentatively, Dabi shifted his belongings to his right arm, and he raised his left to pat his throat, swallowing so that his Adam’s apple bobbed.

“Oh,” you said, ice melting in your hand, “I’m sorry. Are you on vocal rest? Vocal cords messed up somehow?”

After a moment, Dabi nodded. He edged towards the hallway.

“Okay. I hope you feel better soon,” you said, and you poured your lemonade over the ice. “I’ve kept you long enough. Please go rest; I hope we don’t disturb you further.”

Before you finished, he’d already skibbled off, his house shoes slipping on the wood.

***

(The second time you’d met Dabi hadn’t been as hands-on, but it’d still left an odd impression.

It’d been in an urban jungle-type battle, after knowing his involvement the League but before his backstory reveal, and you and some classmates had been fighting a handful of PLF-aligned villains.

You’d slithered underneath a lean-to created by a partially collapsed building to catch your breath, along with shielding yourself from an explosion Bakugou had been building up. You hadn’t even known Dabi was in the group you were chasing, but he’d slinked underneath the same, protective ruins as you had, barely slipping underneath the cover before Bakugou’s explosion had shaken it.

Dabi had braced himself on the crumbling entrance, scrunching his face away from the explosion, and once it’d stopped, he’d noticed you were barely two paces away from him, sweat dribbling down your face the same as it’d been down his.

You still didn’t know if his startled, constipated expression had been of recognition or simple surprise to see someone else taking cover under something that could collapse and kill them. He’d taken in your U.A. gym uniform—your personal hero costume had been in repairs that week—and there’d been a couple of heavy seconds where neither of you had done anything besides pant and let sweat drip onto the rubble.

He'd slipped out first, since he’d been blocking the entrance, and you’d left soon after. You hadn’t been five steps out of the lean-to before someone on the PLF side had destroyed it, and in the privacy of your heart, you liked to think that Dabi had waited until you were out to raze it.)

***

You made it a habit to call Touya whenever the soulmate bond activated. Though he never initiated a call, he answered most of yours. What else was he going to do, if it were on your side, besides sit there in the dark? He continued to be hold information about himself like a miser clutching coins, but you found it refreshing to have a charismatic grouch of a pseudo-pen pal.

You’d closed the door of a library study room behind you as you called him this time, setting your stack of books on the table.

“You’re finally reading something besides manga? I thought your brain was gonna rot,” he said upon picking up.

You slung the strap of your purse over a chair. “No greeting? No admittance of missing the melodious sound of my voice?”

“Why in the hell would I do that,” he said over the screech of pulling out your chair.

“Because you missed the melodious sound of my voice?” You pulled out your notebook, flipped it to a new page, and fossicked around for a pen. Clicking the one you found, you reached for the first book in your stack, a rudimentary sign language dictionary, and you jotted down a list of common words as they came to you, such as thank you, help, and, of course, the all-important cat.

Touya clicked his tongue. “Are you seriously gonna make me study with you?”

You made the final stroke in the word pudding. “I don’t expect you to absorb the information. If you rather I read manga, I can go to that section for a while. Pick out a shoujo.”

“Get fucked with that otaku shit,” said Touya, and—he must have had his phone on speaker, because a couple of people were speaking to each other nearby about what must be the latest Assassins’ Creed, and the sound changed after some scrapes, with Touya sounding closer. “Why study sign language?”

“There’s someone in my life who recently became unable to talk all of the time,” you said, “and I’d like to help give him some way to communicate.”

“Just text him,” said Touya, “Well—never mind. Who’d wanna text you, anyway?”

“Sometimes, people put away their phones, Touya. Have you heard of it?” You drew a line down the half of your paper to make a new column, one sorting the words in groups—places, family members, requests, and the like.

“What are you getting out of it?” Touya must have scratched somewhere on his face, the sound coming over the phone. “You makin’ fun of him? Making him feel bad? If he wants to talk to you, he can just write shit down.”

“I think he might hate it because of how slow it is. And what if I luck out, and he knows sign already? Then half of my work is done for me,” you said, listing off all of the terms for family members, “Text-to-speech may be okay, but I don’t know. Still slow.”

“He probably doesn’t even want to talk to you,” said Touya, “let alone learn something for you. That’s a lot to ask for someone you ain’t fuckin’.”

You hummed and ignored him. You titled a new column Body, and the first word under it was burns. Followed by healing, surgery, hands, skin, hurt, and rest. For the first time in a while, Touya’s emotions were strong enough for you to feel, but you couldn’t name them. More like some pitiful, fearful soup, if anything, and other stuff you couldn’t put your finger on.

His voice still came in confidently derisive, though. “What kind of fucked up guy are you spreading your legs for, since those are what you’re writing down for his body? Seems like you’d be better off as a cocksleeve for someone else actually capable of fucking you.”

“Oh, rude! Rude!” Scowling, you set down your pen. “That’s rude to both me and him. I’m not talking to you anymore. Enjoy studying, asshole.” You flipped to a random page in the dictionary and started memorising, a bit too pissed to be productive for real, and you kept it up—if Touya were going to be here, then he’s not learning productive sign language, either. Try using marble and mare in everyday conversation, jackass.

Later, you caught yourself zoning out while staring at an entry, only shaking yourself out of it when Touya grumbled under his breath for you to turn the page already.

***

Todoroki paused the episode when the pizza arrived.

Moaning way too sensually, Kaminari stretched his arms above his head and arched his back. “My electricity is cooler than Killua’s, right? I have more swag than him?”

“No.”

“In your dreams.”

“Yikes.”

“Wrong,” said Shinsou, pelting him in the face with a popcorn kernel.

Kaminari picked it up off the floor and ate it mournfully. “I’m getting beaten by a fictional twelve year old.”

“I’m going to the bathroom,” you announced, pushing yourself up from your seat between Shinsou and Monoma (which was just as well, since they were comparing scans of the current manga chapter over your lap), and you set off with the intention going to the farthest bathroom to increase your chances of bumping into Dabi.

No such luck, even though you deliberately stomped your slippers as loudly as you could to try to draw him out. Sighing, you backtracked to a tiny bathroom you’ve used before, one that wasn’t as intimidatingly wealthy as the rest of the house and therefore actually felt like it was meant to be used, and you opened the creaking door onto an exhausted, shirtless Dabi trying to rub some sort of cream on the back of his neck, a massive jar open on the sink, blood seeping down his biceps at the strain around his staples.

Both of you froze. He took a quick glance to the gobs of cream on his hands and managed to kick the door shut from his seat on the closed toilet, but your foot caught in the door, which struck your nose and cheekbone, with you yelping and clutching the area.

“Sorry! I’m sorry,” you said through the crack in the door, shakily dragging your bruised foot out of it, “I didn’t know anyone was even in this side of the house. Are you okay? No, wait, sorry again—you’re bleeding; of course you’re not okay. I’m sorry.” You checked your nose for bleeding of your own, but nothing leaked out of your nose. “Can I—may I help with whatever you’re doing?”

No answer. But he hadn’t shut the door.

“Fine,” you said, and you spoke into the crack, only able to make out the granite on the near side of the sink. “I don’t know what’s going on with you nowadays, but I hope you’re doing okay. Or that you’ll be okay soon, at least. I can’t begin to imagine what you’ve been through, and I’m sorry you had to go through it. But I can grasp, I think, that having a bunch of your brother’s friends over can be intimidating and isolating. If nothing else, I’d like to get to know you better—or you could just get to know me better, if you don’t feel like sharing—so that having all of us over isn’t as terrible. I’m sorry we’re bursting into your life when you’re working out a lot of stuff in recovery—”

Dabi yanked open the door, brow furrowed, and instead of looking at you, he clamped his slimy hands on the sink and stood on his toes to arch towards the mirror, opening his mouth wide to breathe hot air onto it, teeth bared, as if he were roaring. In its fleeting fog, he traced out kanji, streaked with lotion and hidden by his left hand as he wrote, and he blew over it a final time before stepping back and jabbing at the message.

Stop apologising.

“Ah—oh,” you said, while Dabi squatted and rooted through the cabinet under the sink, “Okay. I’ll try. Thank you for saying so.” How do you talk to someone who was formerly 1) an S-tier villain and, more importantly, 2) your longest-running crush?

Dabi plopped a meagre first-aid kit on the counter and pointed to the source of bleeding on one of his arms, the inside bicep where two staples had come loose.

“I don’t know shit about first-aid,” you said, reaching for the kit anyway, “I know you have to keep pressure on it, and stuff, but—”

And so the first time Dabi looked you in the eyes was to shoot you an incredulous, suspicious glare that accompanied his snatching the kit back from you, clutching it out of your reach. Relaxing once it was in his hands, he hesitated a moment, shifting his jaw, before nudging the open jar of lotion with his knuckle, reverting to his fixed gaze on his feet.

“I can do that,” you said, heart racing, “You wanna—why don’t you sit back down?”

Not lotion, you noted, as Dabi pulled out disinfectant wipes and a roll of gauze near its end, burn cream. Aw. You dipped your first three fingers into it (heavy, roll-around slimy, like holding a frog) and hoped to God that your soulmate didn’t tune in during this. Touya didn’t like a lot of things you did, but he’d probably loathe your gawking over the scarred back of someone who wasn’t him.

Yeah, Touya would probably hate how you would hone in, laser-sharp, each time Dabi’s muscles flexed as he wrapped his wound, how the space between his shoulder blades with the tiny dent along his spine (well, his spine indented at the top of his back, where he was broader and still held muscle, and poked out towards his lower back as he bent over) held your focus far too long to be impersonal—and you got to touch it. You kept the contact to your fingertips, because as much as you wanted to flatten your hands to feel every moving tendon, you didn’t want to scare him. He’s probably not used to outside touch, and you shouldn’t come on too strongly, especially when someone else’s soul was fucking bound to yours.

But as your fingers smoothed over the marks around his shoulders where burns used to be, skin cold to the touch, as Dabi turned his head to the side just barely so that he could watch you out of his periphery, you found it hard to remind yourself that you already had a Touya. Can’t have two.

“I know it’s none of my business, but, uh, if you’re on vocal rest this often, I could—I could help you learn some sign language?” You scratched underneath your eye in a nervous gesture and smeared some of the burn cream on your cheek. “Nothing intensive. Only simple, everyday stuff, like—well. I don’t know what frequents your vocabulary. You don’t have to, but I’m offering. Just in case.”

In the mirror, Dabi halted in tying the gauze to glare up at you, his lip curling up in flash of a sneer.

“Okay, that’s cool. That’s fine. I can—I can leave a sign language book with your brother, if you—if you ever change your mind.” You nodded, just to have some sort of reaction he could see, and he tucked away the disinfectant wipes and tossed the empty roll of gauze into the trash bin. “Hey,” you said, noting how he’d only bled at his left arm, which was covered with mottled patches of skin, staples, and stitches, along with the faint diamond-pattern of skin grafts, while his right arm needed no medical attention, pale and unblemished without any sign of damage, “What’s up with—if you’re comfortable with sharing, why doesn’t your right arm have any scars? Was Recovery Girl able to heal that more effectively, or something?”

Holding your gaze in the mirror, Dabi raised his eyebrows, nearly vanishing under the drooping, white spikes of his hair, and he reached over with his left hand to rub his thumb over his right shoulder and curving down into his armpit.

He actually laughed (a laugh through his nose, yes, and one without the humming sort of vocalisation usually accompanying a laugh through a nose, but a laugh nevertheless) at how hard you jumped when he popped off what was apparently a prosthetic.

***

“If you hate gardening this much, why keep doing it?” you asked, once again trapped in Touya’s perspective late at night while he tended to a traditional, Japanese garden. You lay flat on your back in bed, hands and phone resting on your chest (laptop closed to the side. Your essay was due at eight o’clock in the morning. Would Present Mic accept late work due to soulmate interference?).

“Lots of dumb fucking reasons that all fold in together,” said Touya, shovelling gravel out of a wheelbarrow and into the man-made brook he was trying to shape, “One: my stupid fucking family has decided that doing this earthy shit would calm me down. Zen gardening, or whatever.”

“Oh, do you have issues controlling your anger, Touya?”

“Stop that. Two.” Gravel pittered off the shovel blade, falling into the trickling water with a series of tiny plops. “One of my brothers brought up how Mom always liked the garden but was stopped from taking care of it herself, and since I did some shit to—it’s not like I could’ve helped it; they were keeping stuff from her, too. Anyway, Mom’s fucking sad nowadays. Better, but sad.” Touya sank the shovel into the gravel to lean on it, tracking the flow of the water for a moment, twisting through the previous path currently being overtaken by moss and fallen stone. “And my brother thinks the garden being fancy again will make our mom happy, especially if I’m the one to do it. Dick. Saying if we hired people to do it, it wouldn’t be the same. Started with just the damn fish, but now the whole fucking thing’s my job. It’s fucking shit. It’s blackmail and family obligation and rent all at once. It’s a fuckin’ nasty trick.”

Touya dug into the wheelbarrow again. “And my fa—that guy had the nerve to suggest that I needed something to do during the day. As if I’m not busy enough.”

“During the day? Touya, I’ve only seen you garden at night.”

“Because it’s too damn hot outside all the time. And I don’t want anyone watching me. I’m no one’s business. But I bet they’d like staring out of a window at me, while I break my fucking body again moving all of these shitty rocks and shaping Mom’s fucking evergreens.” He shovelled with deep malice. “Did you fucking know that there’s goddamn symbolism in these shitty gardens? That you can’t just put things anywhere without it meaning something? Somehow ponds are supposed to be oceans. Rocks are supposed to be mountains. Forced perspective shit, paired with tenets of Zen and Shinto, and it’s the pettiest, most unnecessary bullshit I’ve ever had to deal with, and I dealt with a friend’s abominable driving for years. Never got any better at it, even though I got fucking motion sick.”

He knelt, and when two, fat glops of Touya’s sweat dripped onto the stone at the impact, you rather enjoyed the gentle wafting about your dorm room at the blades of your ceiling fan.

He must have felt your appreciation. “Stop that. I’m making a point. Look at this shit,” he said, gesturing to the brook and then up at the three-quarter moon, “I’ve gotta change the course of the water, because it’s better to face towards the moon to capture its reflection, and I’ve gotta make it somehow cascade or waterfall at some point over there.” He pointed far across the garden towards a flickering pair of stone lanterns. “How am I supposed to do that? I can’t even make it flow through gravel right. I might have to move some of the stepping stones again. I fucking hate those things. They’re too heavy for one person, and I’ve already had to rearrange them because some of them weren’t fucking weathered or natural-looking enough.”

“Sure. Death to aesthetics,” you said, blindly feeling around for a pack of gum you kept in your bedside table, “I’d come help you if I could, but somebody—”

“You’re not getting a location out of me, princess.”

You paused, hand on the knob of the first drawer, and a wide, smug smile broke across your face (Princess, Touya? You’re gonna call me princess? You sure you don’t care about me?).

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“I could feel it,” said Touya, flexing his fingers on his knees, “so shut up.”

Gloved hands clenched into fists, he glared at the brook, the gravel, up at the moon, and back into the water.

“You know, it looks like if you moved most of the gravel to one side, the water might flow the direction you need it to.”

“Who’s the one busting their ass here, me or you?” But he plunged his hands into the water, grabbed heaping fistfuls of rocks, and patted them onto the far side of the stone bed.

“Touya,” you said, feeling around in your drawer for the pack of gum, “Take your gloves off! You’re gonna ruin the leather.”

“Like I care.” He dragged more gravel underwater. “If I took ’em off, you’d see my hands.”

“Come off of it, Touya. I bet they’re perfectly fine,” you said, successfully grabbing gum and sliding your drawer shut, “Hands are often the most attractive part of a man.”

He paused, water flowing around his arms up to his elbows (he wouldn’t roll up his sleeves, either. Stubborn boy. He must hate whatever’s going on with him). “Not the dick?” He sounded like he was grinning.

“Not always. Some of them look like sad, sea creatures,” you said, unwrapping your gum into your phone’s speaker to annoy him, “It takes talent to have a pretty cock. Hands, however, can easily be lusted over because of what they’re capable of. Or what you know they’ve done.”

(Hee hoo hah, like burn down a city. You’re so normal about it.)

“Not how they look?”

“Appearance can help, but it’s not the whole cow,” you said, chewing while the flavour faded fast.

Touya scoffed, his fingers sinking into gravel. “You makin’ fun of me?”

What? “Of course not. Why?”

“Don’t say shit like that to get on my good side. I’m more than aware I ain’t got anything besides my shitty personality goin’ for me.” He cleared his throat. “That sign language guy got anything I don’t?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You sure seem obsessed with him,” said Touya, leaning more deeply into the water, soaking his hoodie even more, “even though he sounds pathetic. You tryin’ to fix him to make yourself look good?”

“Of course not. I know no one can fix anyone else. He has to choose to do that himself,” you said, “Not that there’s anything about him that merits fixing.”

Laughing (oh? hot), Touya scooped a handful of gravel out of the wheelbarrow to add it to the far side. “Yeah, you’re fucking obsessed with him. Am I not your soulmate?”

You rolled your eyes, even though he couldn’t see it (and…you…couldn’t see it). “You haven’t given me anything to obsess over, unless you want me to research gardening tips or how to breed carp.”

“I would love for you to be obsessed with breeding, sweet—”

“Oh, my God, you have to ease into that sort of thing, Touya.”

He pulled his hands out of the brook, drenched sleeves gushing water back into it. “D’you want me to start with how much I wanna suck on your perfect tits?”

“Touya,” you said carefully, shoving the gum to one cheek, “Is everything okay? You’re acting—strange.”

“What do you—”

“Where’s the blind hatred for me? Where’s the disdain?”

Sitting back on his knees, Touya shoved his leather-wet-dripping hands into the damp, double pocket of his hoodie with a muted slosh. “You think I hate you?”

“You’re that rude to people you don’t hate?”

Water seeped through the pocket and through his jeans, visibly darker in the moonlight and soaking his thighs. “Fuck off. I mean—what I mean is that I’m not used to people like you. Who don’t talk like me. Who aren’t mean to me back. Or who don’t seem to want anything from me. Didn’t know you really thought I was rude.”

You screwed up your face. “Who have you been hanging out with? What the hell is wrong with you? Spend time with people who like you, please?”

“No one likes me—”

“Get your head out of your ass, edgelord,” you said, sitting up in bed and holding the phone up to your mouth, “Newsflash, dipshit, it sounds like lots of people like you. Your brother, who wants to help you make your mom happy, in an easy, physical way that you’re more than capable of. Your mom, who sounds like she’s happier now that you’re back in her life. The rest of your goddamn family, who want you close by so that they can help you if you ever fucking accepted it. Your stupid friends who are into Assassins’ Creed.”

“Stop fucking noticing things about—”

“And me. I like you, dipshit. Get over yourself. You’re digging yourself your own lonely, self-deprecating hole, where I guess you’re at your most comfortable. But tonight alone you’ve shown in your garden that you fucking hate digging holes. They mean unnecessary work.”

Inhaling sharply, you threw your phone into the bedspread, but all that came through was a distant deer scare, bamboo hitting rock.

“Since when do you like me?” he asked, pushing on his knees to stand.

The artificial-yellow light from your lamp starting creeping in around the rim of your vision, blotting out parts of Touya’s silhouette in the moonlight. “I talk to you, don’t I? I wouldn’t even acknowledge the bond if I weren’t open to—we’ve been hanging out. You didn’t know?”

“Like I would know what that looks like,” said Touya, the walls of your room coming into view while Touya pulled his own phone out of his inner pocket, tapping the screen to see how long the call has lasted, “Like I would know how someone like you would behave when they like me.”

“Stay on the goddamn phone,” you said in the moment his thumb hovered over the end call button, the last thing you made out before fully sinking back into your dorm room, “If you don’t know what I—well, what does your love look like, Touya? What do you do when you like someone?”

“Sexually? Romantically?”

“Not necessarily,” you said, pissed to have the connection severed and sliding off of the bed to turn off the lights, “Just when you care for someone at all.”

“Gimme a minute,” came Touya’s voice, and after you flipped the lights and the ceiling fan off, you wandered over to your window, switched your phone off speaker, and held it to your ear as you stared up at the same moon Touya was under, and you waited.

“Right, I don’t know for sure,” he said after a while (but it sounded like he’d stopped dealing with the gravel to think about it), “but this is the only thing that’s coming to mind. Before I was living at home again, me and some friends didn’t have consistent sources of food. Don’t interrupt to say you’re sorry. But. So, whenever I’d, uh, buy stuff. From a store. I’d make sure I got some sort of snack for whoever I was with, even though we were all too proud to ask for shit. Didn’t really think about doing it on purpose. But I guess I did.”

“You are deliciously, delightfully, tender as fuck,” you said, clenching a fist over your heart, your boob jostling with the fervent impact (and it pleased you knowing that Touya would’ve laughed if he’d seen), and you kept talking over his sounds of disapproval. “And I am gonna cook for you. I am going to set you a table so vast that you’re gonna be eating off it for a long, long time. You’re never gonna be fucking hungry ever again, Touya.”

When he didn’t answer, you worried you said the wrong thing, but you stayed on the line, listening. Two minutes later, he hung up, and you could have sworn he cut off in the middle of a wet sniffle.

***

What can you cook? What were you good at cooking that actually constituted a filling meal?

Start small, you supposed.

Fuyumi kept the Todoroki kitchen much more well-stocked than the kitchen to which you had access, and so, with welcome permission, you headed over to the estate earlier than the scheduled viewing time to prepare, with Shinsou and Todoroki hanging out in the kitchen with you.

“Jirou says she can attend,” said Todoroki, thumb swiping across his phone screen, “Turns out her tipping point was stating the merits of studying Melody’s music powers. She’s asking if Yaoyorozu may attend as well?”

“It’s your house.” Shinsou was folding his napkin into an origami frog. “If there’s a need for excuses, you can always say Yao might like—I forget his name, but he’s that character in the Phantom Troupe whose hair looks like a mop? She might like analysing how his power lets him copy anything, even though it doesn’t have the same limitations like her quirk.”

“I will mention that,” said Todoroki, nodding sagely.

The plan was simple: with a captive audience of anime nerds, you could get feedback on your cooking until it was good enough for Touya (a small part of you still cringed thinking about how he reacted to your potato wedges). You would lure your friends into a state of complacency with your smaller dishes—baked goods, and the like—until there was no escape when you served them something more filling, like soups.

Today, you were making teeny little lemon ricotta pancakes (the recipe called for them to be regular-sized, but if you made them around the size of a potato chip, it would be more accessible to eat with fingers in the living room) that gave you the air of being fancy but were actually mindless to make, it turned out, and right now, you were stirring the stewing blueberry syrup that you’d decided would be a dipping sauce rather than drizzled over—the Todorokis had an excess of white furniture, and you would like to be invited to use their kitchen again.

“I think,” you said, once the syrup was behaving like syrup when you let it dribble out of the ladle back into the pot, “I’m gonna take some to your brother. I don’t want him feeling left out, if he comes through. He’s home right now, yeah?”

“He’s in his teahouse. It’s towards the back of the garden.” Todoroki got up from the table. “Do you want me to show you?”

“I’m sure I can find it, since it’s the only building not connected to the main one,” you said, but you did accept his help finding a tray and sauce cup for the syrup, and once it was set, you picked up the tray and strode with purpose towards the garden.

Walking through its seemingly-natural landscape while balancing food and liquids proved to be miraculously easy. Their hired gardeners must be doing insane upkeep to ensure its deliberate, natural-but-not cosiness. You made a mental note to ask Touya what some of the structures symbolised, like the recurring patterns of three rocks of different heights close together. He’d know, reluctantly, since he did stuff like this, and you considered his work to be superior to this, anyway.

In the blistering sun, you had to narrow your eyes to slits, regretting that both of your hands were full so that you couldn’t shield them from the light, and you found a gated, stone path to the teahouse. Clearly, it had once been slightly dilapidated but had since been worked on; another room had been latched on to the side to double its size, judging by the change in architecture styles, and the roof reflected sunlight a little too well for its polished, stone tiles to be less than a year old.

Bracing the tray, you took the steep step onto the neatly swept, bamboo engawa running around the edge of the teahouse, and you—was the door around to the side? Around the left side of the original part of the tearoom, two shoji panels had been spread to let in sunlight upon an empty room with an actual fucking sunken hearth, unlit, with one of the same fire-fish as on the estate’s roofs for the crank’s lever. Behind what would have been the seat of honour stood a dishevelled tokonoma, devoid of scrolls or incense burners but instead housing an unzipped backpack atop a long coat, its sleeves trailing onto the floor outside the tokonoma, with sticky notes taped to its inner wall. A red-tinted wood dresser had been pushed into the corner, tissues and hand sanitiser atop it and a single stack of books propped next to it.

A pair of boots was tucked inside the open shoji. Maybe he’s asleep.

At your first step inside, you jolted so hard you had to struggle to hold onto the tray—the floor had chirped at you. Dead ringer for a bird call. Tentatively, you took another step, and it chirped again, this time with a bit of a wheeze, more artificial-sounding.

You jumped and stumbled again at another wall sliding open, giving the impression that a flock of birds had flown inside, and Dabi poked his head through the gap (you could make out the gleaming pause screen of a gaming system in the newer room behind him). His face had relaxed when he’d seen it was you, but it pinched into a strange, unnameable expression when he saw what you were carrying.

“Hi,” you said, holding out the tray, “I’ve made too many snacks for the anime group today, so I thought you might like some? I can take it away, if you don’t want any.”

Since he probably didn’t know the amount of people attending nowadays, he probably didn’t recognise your lie. Dabi held up a finger for you to wait while he exhumed a short table and two floor seats from storage in the walls, and he waited for you to sit before he did, slowly, crossing his legs on the cushion, his joints creaking.

“They’re little lemon ricotta pancakes. Todo—Shouto told me you didn’t have any food allergies, so it should be fine. That’s blueberry syrup,” you said when he pointed at it. “I’m—I guess you could say I’m practising recipes for cooking for someone else. If you don’t like it, please let me know. I’ll make it better next time.”

Dabi fiddled with two of the tiny pancakes before selecting one, inspecting it in the sunlight, and dipping it into the syrup (you went a little crazy when it dripped onto his tongue stitches, but you managed to suppress it). As he chewed and swallowed loudly, Dabi’s eyes bulged, brow furrowed, and he, panicked, fumbled around for probably his phone, patting the pockets on his jeans. Hands pausing after slapping the empty pockets on his ass, he sprung up, grabbed a pen off of the dresser, and snatched a sticky note off of the inner wall of the tokonoma. He returned to the table and knelt half on the seat, scribbling furiously, and when he pushed the sticky note to you, under a crossed-out potting soil, sledgehammer, he’d written fuck you marry me NOW.

There’s a moment in which you forgot, a moment in which you laugh, head tilted back, flooded with endorphins at your long-time, pseudo-celebrity crush liking something you made to even joke about being in a relationship with you. You opened your mouth to make some joke about how you’d like to go on a few dates first, to have some sort of courtship, but you stopped at the first word: “Touya.” You cut yourself off, brow pinched. You can’t have two.

Not that…not that Dabi/Touya could ever genuinely like you, who fought against him and now witnessed his debasement, but in the far-flung chance that he could, you should clarify about your Touya.

“Touya,” you said again, this time sober and grim, hands folded on your lap, “I know you were only joking, but I was in a quirk-related incident a while ago, and it assigned me a soulmate. So, even if you could like me, I’ve got someone waiting. Presumptuous of me to say, I know, but. I want to treat you with kindness and not make you wonder, in the case it arises. Funnily enough, his name is Touya, too—”

Your phone rang loudly in your back pocket (you kept it on loud nowadays so you could easily feel around for Touya’s call, but it’d led you to awkward moments like this, too). Dabi scowled when you brought it out to silence it and dipped another pancake in the syrup, letting it absorb what it could to tinge it purple.

“It’s him, actually. Odd timing.” Lying flat in your palm, your phone flashed an incoming call from Touya. Leaning across the table, Dabi grabbed it out of your hands to answer it, put it on speaker, and lay it in the centre of the table while he ate his soggy pancake, shaking his head when you moved to undo all of that.

“Hey,” came a tinny, raspy voice that was very much not your Touya’s, “You’re the soulmate, right?”

Dabi shouldn’t have to hear this. Before you could tap the speaker button again, Dabi swatted your hand out of the way, gesturing for you to answer.

“Uh, yeah,” you said, shifting in your seat, “Who are you? Where’s—”

“Tell Touya he left his phone at my place the next time you see through him.” A repetitive, techno instrumental played in the background (video game music?). “At Shiiiiiiiimura’s place. Yeah.”

“I can do that, Shimura,” you said, unsure if you should hold out the vowel as long as he did, and perhaps you can take advantage of the situation for a brief moment, because Dabi was staring at your phone with a constipated sort of expression as he listened. “I can’t control when the bond activates, but I’ll let him know. Do you know what sort of food he likes?”

Shimura barked out a laugh, filling the room in a wide, cleansing way you wouldn’t expect from someone with his scratchy voice. “I heard your potato wedges are shit.”

You sputtered, “He didn’t even have any—”

Dabi ended the call, frowning, shaking his head, and tipping your phone off the table to gently bounce twice when it hit the tatami. He held up a tiny pancake and made a show of looking at it, at you, and back at it, and he shot you an aggressive thumbs-up.

***

Uraraka spent an entire patrol gushing about how she would fuck the author of Hunter x Hunter if she could, so she showed up to the next get-together, along with Asui, whom everyone already thought would be friends with the story’s protagonist if he were real. When you Aoyama caught you in the act of stealing one of his posh cookbooks, you explained the situation to him, and so he tagged along to taste what you were cooking, along with supplying some of the fancier ingredients you wouldn’t’ve known how to obtain. Then you’d asked Sato for advice on how to make the swirl in a strawberry swirl loaf not go to shit, and then the group had spent a few hours discussing the good relationships with animals that Hunters are inherently supposed to have, so Kouda was summoned for his opinions.

The long of short of it was that there were many more spectators than necessary to when Dabi strode into the viewing room, drenched in sweat from his walk back home, to pelt the back of your head with a two-pack of Sakeru cheese. As you rubbed the back of your head, pulling the cold plastic from between your shirt collar and skin, he at least had the decency to drop the single-wrapped fish bread into your lap.

“Hey, Touya,” you said, grabbing his hand before he could skitter away as usual (his wide eyes couldn’t decide to look at both of your hands or at your face), “I’ve set aside slices of both strawberry swirl bread and garlic bread for you in the kitchen. I recommend heating the garlic bread up so the cheese gets all melty again, but it’s good at room temperature, too. Thank you, by the way. For these.”

Nodding hastily, Dabi tore his hand away from your in two, spasming jerks, and he slithered into the kitchen.

Though the rest were watching the show, Shinsou was turned towards you, his head tilted with an incredulous sort of smile. You stuck your tongue out at him and crinkled open the cheese.

Dabi returned with both slices on a paper towel and stood behind you at the couch for a minute, watching the episode. Shifting his weight, he pulled out his phone. “This is garbage,” came a droning, text-to-speech voice from behind.

He stood behind the couch for three more episodes.

***

Through another moonlit, soulmate connection, Touya was failing to prod stray ducks out of the koi pond with the skimmer.

“They’re tenacious little bastards,” you said, sitting on the counter of the dorm kitchen and praying to God that the oven timer wouldn’t go off while you couldn’t see.

“Why. Won’t they. Move.” Touya nudged a duck with the flat of the skimmer, its width as long as the entire duck, and the duck kept gabbing to its friends. “I have no idea if ducks upset the chemical balance of the water enough to kill koi; I’ve never seen them in here before ten minutes ago. Goddamn.” He waved the skimmer over the water’s surface, filtering some debris, and he flipped it onto a duck, who remained vexingly apathetic at the new source of wet. “Tonight was gonna be easy; I was only gonna put up windchimes; I was gonna get to go to bed early. Now I—no, no, no, don’t—!”

One duck bit at the skimmer net, and having pierced it, the duck led the rest of them to the centre of the pond, where the skimmer couldn’t reach, no matter how Touya strained.

“I fucking hate birds,” said Touya, slamming the skimmer on the ground, “and I fucking hate fish. They’re not even good when they’re alive.” Seeming to have a change of heart, Touya picked the skimmer up and took care to lean it against the stone wall of the pond. “Tell me something good, won’t you?”

Does that imply you don’t have to work on any fish dishes? “You’ll be thrilled to hear that my little anime analysis group is almost through the Hunter x Hunter anime, probably. We got to the end of the 1999 version last night.”

Touya sat and splayed his legs on the koi pond stone, watching the moon’s reflection ripple as koi tails broke surface tension. “That’ll only make your process more streamlined, since you’re not watching two episodes covering the same chapters in conjunction anymore. The Chimera Ant arc takes forever, though. You’re not almost done.”

Groping around for your oven mitts, you smiled. “How do you know that, Touya? Thought you hated—”

“What are you going to watch next?”

Stupid boy. Shy boy. “Well, Sero is pushing for Pokémon since there’s so much of it.”

“God, no,” said Touya, leaning back on his hands, “Iconic, yeah. Fun, not really, because in the games, you’re the one getting to battle and bond with the things. It’s not fun to watch someone else get to do it.”

“I can rely on you for negative reviews of everything.” Oven mitt? Oven mitt. Now, where’s its pair? “You want a pokémon, Touya? Which ones?”

“You are such a fucking child—”

“You want a pikachu, don’t you?”

“Hell, no,” Touya spat, “None of that cliché shit. Pikachu isn’t even that good. I—” Cutting himself off, he hunched forward, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his gloved hands together. “You’ll shit on me for it. Forget I said anything.”

“Should I let you make fun of me first?” You slipped on the other mitt. “I’m cliché as hell. My top choice is either a certain starter or an eevolution.”

“No, I—”

“All right. How about you tell me your favourite as a kid and the one you would choose now?”

“You’re pushy as hell. When I was a kid, I wanted a Ninetales. I was—my mom had read enough for me to know about traditional kitsune,” said Touya, and he ducked his head to stare between his legs (crotch unfortunately hidden in shadow), “and Ninetales is immune to fire. It can use it and not burn up, and it’s not affected by outside fire attacks.”

The memory of rubbing burn cream across Dabi’s shoulders and how delicate his skin looked surfaced. You wouldn’t wish that on anyone. “You scared of being burned, Touya?”

Touya kicked the stone beneath his boot, scuffing it. “Just seems like it’d be neat.”

“Perfectly reasonable,” you said, wrapping your muppet-y, mitted hands around the oven handle in preparation for whenever it would go off, “and a perfectly logical pokémon to latch onto. It’s fairly popular. I don’t see how I’m supposed to make fun of you for that.”

“Sure.” Touya bent farther to re-tie his bootlaces. “I like my current choice for a dumb as hell reason, though. Shiiiiiiiimura,” said Touya, yanking the laces tightly (and he dragged out Shimura’s name, too. Was that the proper pronunciation?), “was trying to hype us up for something stupid we had to do that some of our friends were scared of. Shimura’s teacher—’scuse me, abusive fucking manipulative shithead of an adoptive father—wanted him to make a speech to show leadership, or some bullshit. Instead, Shimura pulled out his phone and showed us someone’s video of playing one of the early Pokémon games, for the battle at the end to win the game. And to defeat the last boss’s toughest Dragonite, the player used this…this fuckin’ weak-ass, all-around insignificant pokémon picked up from the beginning of the game, and it fuckin’ won. It won against the toughest opponent, and—and Shimura was saying, oh, the Venomoth is us, and we can win against our big-ass enemy, oh, ho, ho—”

“Excuse me. A Venomoth? You only use them temporarily at the beginning of the game, when you don’t have anything cool yet. They fucking suck.”

“See, you’re making fun of me. I’m not going to say anything else.” Touya leant back on his hands again, this time crossing his legs to prop his ankle on his opposite knee.

“No, I’m—I’m sorry. Sorry. First impressions. But you’re convincing me. Go on. I’m listening.”

Touya flicked water towards the ducks. “Are you gonna keep insulting—”

“I won’t! I won’t,” you said, sliding off the kitchen counter to stand directly in front of the oven, “So, Venomoths. I hear they’re fantastic.”

Touya rolled his eyes, and it was cute, you thought, how you had to follow the motion, seeing the moon at the upwards roll and back at its reflection in the pond. “Yeah. I bet Shimura’s forgotten all about it, but it stuck with me. Not immediately—at the time it was stupid, and to be fair, it’s still stupid. But now that I’m back here, living at home, it’s—it’s stupid. It’s, like, if that stupid fucking bug can defeat a goddamn dragon, then I can tend the garden. I can keep that stupid tsukubai clean. I can hang out with my brother. I can fucking—” He cut himself off again, this time striking the water hard enough to splash one of the ducks (it quacked at him with disdain and simply swam a couple of centimetres away).

“Do what, Touya?” The oven timer started beeping, and you tensed. “Hold on; don’t say anything. Don’t say—I have to concentrate; I’m getting stuff out of an oven.”

Touya stirred the pondwater with his ring and middle fingers while you blindly approximated the logistics of getting the tray out of the oven, and by standing at the oven’s side inside of reaching into it from the front, you were eventually able to remove the tray and rest it on the counter above it—you’re not going to bother feeling around for the pot holders.

When you sighed in relief once you’d closed the oven again, Touya asked, “What are you cooking?”

“Strawberry cheesecake muffins,” you said, frowning in the tray’s general direction, “They’re supposed to have a marbling effect, and I’m supposed to be putting on some sort of streusel-type sugar on top right now, but I’m not gonna risk it. I hope they’re done. You have to trust the recipe’s bake time with cheesecakes exactly, so I’m hoping it’s the same for—”

“I am gonna make you come so hard,” Touya was saying in a strained sort of way as he ran his hands down his face, “I am gonna fuck you so hard that you leave in a permanent dent in my mattress. I am gonna hold you and kiss the back of your neck and make you cry out as you gush around my fingers. You’re—you’re so fucking per—I am gonna take care of you back.”

“Cool.” Right, so bake the muffins again at some point. “Do you have any food allergies?”

“I’m allergic to you not saying anything hot in response to what I just said.”

Sure, Touya. “I’m also gonna make you this really sexy tomato soup with what the recipe calls a grilled cheese top. It’s got cheesy bread cut into chunks that coat the surface so that you can’t even see the red, and it melts into the soup—”

“Stop, I can only get so hard—”

“Show me your cock, then.”

“No,” said Touya, deliberately looking at a trio of fish convening near the pond’s surface, their o-shaped mouths blorbing and blobbing underneath the water towards Touya’s waving fingers, “I meant—well, first, you are gonna make that soup, pl—please—but I meant that—I mean.” He twirled his finger under the water, and the koi were fascinated. One of them kissed his finger. You were feeling a similar impulse—and perhaps that’s what prompted Touya to continue. “I came the first time someone stuck their tongue in my mouth.”

It occurred to you that anyone could be walking by the dorm kitchen to overhear. Now that the muffins were out of the oven, you elected to turn off the speaker setting to hold you phone to your ear. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I was sixteen and insane with hormones, and it hadn’t been long since I’d woken up from—well. When someone kissed me with tongue for the first time, I came in my pants. Taken completely by surprise that someone was even kissing me, that someone could even want me when I look like—and then that. We were outside, on a public bridge, during the day. I haven’t seen that fucker since.”

You had been contemplating whether it’d be worth fumbling around for a knife to ease the muffins out of the tray, but all cogs stopped at Touya’s story. “Why are you telling me this?”

“So you’ll tell me something back. I already told you some embarrassing shit about pokémon and shit, so you have to embarrass yourself back. You’re the one who brought up cocks, anyway. So—so you have to share something back,” said Touya, allowing a fish to rub up against his hand in a pseudo-sort of petting it, “Something about when you were young and stupid.”

“And preferably sexual, right? I know what you’re about, you shy, baby boy.”

“Ffffffuck that.I ain’t shy—”

“You won’t show me your face, Touya. You’re scared for me to see it. Shy boy.”

Touya scratched along the side of the koi like it wanted, and another nudged the back of his hand to be scratched, too. “Fuck off.”

“I’ve only told one other person about my first kiss,” you said, moving to sit on the counter again, “Wanna hear that story?”

“Fine,” said Touya, and he pulled his hand out of the pond, flicking water off his fingers and into the open, mournful mouths of the koi he’d been petting. “You had better be about to tell me about seeing through me at that coffee shop.”

“Come off of it, Touya; isn’t it better for me to have outside experience and still choose you regardless? My first kiss was way before that,” you said, hoping how pleased you were at his mild possessiveness was being transferred to his side of the bond, “and I didn’t even know the guy’s name at the time. And it was—it could’ve turned really bad, really quickly. Because my first kiss was with Dabi, before he made his villain debut.”

“Do—huh?” Touya shook his head, causing you to wince and steady yourself at the dizziness. “Beg pardon? Beg your fucking pardon? I didn’t—know that that Dabi guy went around kissing people.”

“He did at least once. It was back in freshman year, and I was out at night during my hero internship.” Getting comfortable on the kitchen counter, you crossed your legs and leant against the cabinets to support your back, exhaustion kicking in. “Some older sidekick hit on me in what was an exceedingly creepy way—he made it pseudo-incestuous by saying I reminded him of his daughter. In retrospect, the interaction could have gone much, much worse, if Dabi hadn’t inadvertently rescued me—scratch that, it may have been intentional, looking back, because he’d said stuff about the sidekick being a shitty father, and now he’s, uh, let us know about his own dad.”

It took Touya a moment. At least he wasn’t shaking his head anymore. “Are you saying Dabi burnt some guy to death in front of you, and you still kissed him?”

You sucked in through your teeth. “Not exactly. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was testing out a nomu, and that ripped the other guy to pieces. And—this is gonna sound wild—I think Dabi may have kissed me to comfort me? I know it was a distraction from the gore and from getting a good look at the nomu, but I think he may have also done it to calm me down. It was—oddly sweet.”

Touya gripped the edge of the stone wall, his fingers dipping into water (but not deep enough to remoisten his leather gloves) and koi swarming. “What did the nomu look like?”

Even though you couldn’t see it, you held your phone away from your ear for a second to shoot it an incredulous look. “Wha—Touya, weren’t you going to ask if he were a good kisser, or something?”

His knuckles popped when he clenched his fingers and asked flatly, “Was he a good—”

“You’re better.”

“Thanks,” he said, not sounding like he cared about that at all, letting a koi drag his hand into the water by biting his finger, “What did the nomu look like?”

“God, I don’t fucking know. That wasn’t important to me. I, uh—it was around the size of a good-sized dog, like a golden retriever or a lab. I don’t—I guess it walked on all fours,” you said, wondering why the fuck—oh, the dizziness must not have come only from Touya shaking his head, because it’s sweeping over you again, waves emanating from the bond. “Now that I’ve seen other nomu, I can recognise that its head looked whacky because its brain was exposed, and I think its skin was more green-tinged than the others who had that navy-black colour going on. Honestly, Touya, I wasn’t—”

Through the phone came such a strident, alarming crack that you halted mid-sentence to listen for it again. It’d come from Touya’s side, clearly, but nothing in his line of vision betrayed its source, although—and you would not have noticed this if you hadn’t been scanning his environment for any hint—something that looked like split glass frosted the inside of Touya’s fist before he unclenched his hand a second later, any illusion of something there melting into the water.

But something was wrong. “Touya?”

“You still see that Dabi guy when you watch anime at Shouto’s house, yeah? Stay on the line,” he said, darkness of the bond fading drabbling at the edges of his vision from your perspective.

“I am,” you said, uncrossing your legs, “I do.”

“What do you think of him? Ugly fucker, isn’t he?” Touya fell still as a duck approached him as it navigated through the water lilies, and Touya’s outstretching his hand to its head was the last thing you saw before the bond gave out. “Still as pathetic as he was in the war? Think he should be in prison?”

“Negative reviews of people, negative reviews of television, negative reviews of potato wedges—so cool, bro. Now say something true and beautiful.”

“Answer me, damn it.” A disgruntled quack.

“You’d better not be strangling that duck.”

“You think so little of me? Do you want me to put the duck on the phone?”

“I don’t think it could sit comfortably,” you said, pushing yourself off the counter and walking to the knife drawer now that you could see, “I see Dabi every once in a while when I’m at Todoroki’s house. He’s shy. I don’t mind. It’s not my place to assume anything, but. I don’t think he’s doing okay, since it seems like he’s spent a good part of his life wanting someone to look at him, to pay attention, and now he’s getting that in a way he probably didn’t anticipate, and I want him to be okay. I think I’d like to help him get there, if he’d let me. But I know I’m nobody important to him, and that’s fine.”

“Sounds a lot like pity,” said Touya, and when you made a noise of protest, he kept going. “Or maybe you’re fucked up enough that you like him? From when he kissed you?”

You couldn’t exactly tell your soulmate that you’ve been suppressing naïve, celebrity-crush-type feelings for someone else. “Well,” you said, grimacing as you slid knife edge between a muffin and the tray and started to remove it, “He’s very babygirl-coded.”

***

TOUYA 🐠🚷

looked it up. definition of babygirl does NOT help

TOUYA 🐠🚷

incidentally

TOUYA 🐠🚷

what should a guy wear to impress someone

YOU

a guy? or you specifically?

YOU

because i am, of course about to suggest the golden standard of rolling up thy sleeves to thy elbows, but you won’t even showing your fucken hands asldkjfa;

TOUYA 🐠🚷

gloves necessary.

TOUYA 🐠🚷

but think formal. formal setting.

YOU

why are YOU going to a formal event?

TOUYA 🐠🚷

have to. blackmail/family obligation/rent.

TOUYA 🐠🚷

open to suggestions. about style more than brand, because if I go too expensive, my dad will think I’m making him pay a lot as sabotage.

YOU

and here i was about to recommend that you go skinny-dipping in a vat of liquid gold

TOUYA 🐠🚷

you just wanna see my cock, don’t cha

YOU

what makes you think I’D be invited to some shitty formal event

TOUYA 🐠🚷

I’m betting you’d hear about it on the news

YOU

i think i’d be more interested in what food is provided

TOUYA 🐠🚷

…

TOUYA 🐠🚷

no, I shan’t say

YOU

is this a cum joke

TOUYA 🐠🚷

but seriously. what should I wear. assume I will do something awful and evil and that you will see the outfit on the news when I get arrested.

YOU

touya, how would i recognise you. idk what YOU even look like. not that it matters, i guess. all that matters is that you wear something that fits you well. you don’t need to impress me; you’ve already won me over

TOUYA 🐠🚷

i what

TOUYA 🐠🚷

wait what do you MEAN it doesn’t matter

YOU

does it help get it through your thick head if i tell you that you are also babygirl-coded? perhaps not even coded but genuinely babygirl??

TOUYA 🐠🚷

it does not.

***

Adjusting your lace shawl, you gripped Shouto’s arm as the both of you furtively sneaked away from the hordes of pro-heroes, industry workers, and flashing press to slink back to the enormous table of hors d'oeuvres to see how many of them you could pack into your purse and his strategically planned inner coat pocket, sewn into the inside of his lapel for the occasion.

When Shouto had invited you to this ghastly awards ceremony for Endeavor, he’d claimed his motivation was that so he could talk to you about how the 2011 Hunter x Hunter anime was wrapping up, since he (flatterer!) said you had the best interpretations of certain characters, unlike some of your classmates, and Shouto tempted you with how you could stake out whatever posh food they had for you to try to recreate later. So, you’d dug out the dress you’d only worn to All Might’s official retirement party and agreed to attend.

Those present were a strange conglomeration of people, since the public opinion of Endeavor has been odd and tenuous lately. Essentially, the handful of attendees you knew were busy ingratiating themselves to people you’ve never seen before but they evidently were acquainted with, so those with whom you could hold an actual conversation with were scattered and few.

However, you didn’t even need to bring a book, because once you and Shouto had settled at a back table with both of your plates stacked with the most variety you could fit on them, he deadass pulled out his anime analysis notebook, which was starting to resemble Midoriya’s quirk analysis notebooks in terms of extensiveness and insanity, with lines crossing several pages to connect ideas. As you discussed where the two of you thought the characters were going, you had your own notebook—a new one, this one for recipes, and whenever either of you thought one of the appetizers was interesting, you wrote it down.

You were chewing on what Shouto had informed you was a water chestnut when the chair on your other side was pulled out with a screech against the tile, and Todoroki Touya plopped into it, his legs hardly having the time to spread before swiping a piece of candied salmon from your plate. The instant he bit down into it, his nose scrunched up.

“It’s fish, Touya,” said Shouto, dipping his own crudité in a tiny bowl of raspberry vinaigrette, and he passed his napkin to him. Touya spat the salmon into it, bunched it up, and edged it underneath the edge of your plate.

On your list, you wrote no fish! at the top, but before you even lifted your pen from the paper, you froze. The list wasn’t for this Touya; it was for your Touya. You crosshatched it out, trying to remember if your Touya had ever said anything about liking fish. He’d said he hadn’t, right? He didn’t like them alive, at the very least.

Shouto chomped down harshly, the crunch of raw celery distinct even through his closed mouth. “What brings you over here, Touya?”

He already had the text-to-speech function pulled up on his phone, and he held a parmesan palmier between his teeth as he typed. “People were asking Natsuo and Fuyumi about what they’re doing with their lives. It was only a matter of time before they got to me. Don’t wanna hear anyone else describe the nothing I’m doing. At least I know you guys are too busy talking about nerd crap to shit on me.”

“Oh, sweet boy,” you said, pursing your lips, “You’re in recovery. That’s enough. You don’t have to do anything to be worthwhile.” Wait. Fuck. You don’t talk to this Touya this way. Reel it back.

Crumbs fell from his mouth to the tablecloth. “The hell is wrong with you?” he typed.

Yeah, reel it way back. You elected not to respond, instead biting with difficulty into a brie/fig/prosciutto crostini and not being able to taste any of it.

“Would you like to discuss some so-called nerd crap with us?” Shouto arranged his notebook father across the table to be more in the middle of the three of you. “I know it’s been a while since you read Hunter x Hunter, but it’s been on hiatus so long that there’s not much new information that you need to know.”

“Hey,” you said, rushing to swallow, “You’ve read this before? How come you haven’t been sitting in to watch stuff with us?”

Touya shot Shouto a dark look, tongued a chunk of palmier into his cheek, and furiously typed on his phone. “I’m not interested in that shit anymore. It’s for kids.”

Shouto looked taken aback. “This is news to me. Do I have permission to take your manga volumes out of the house, then?”

“Fuck you,” Touya had already typed while Shouto was talking.

You bit back a smile. You’ve been borrowing a former, major villain’s manga? Cute. “But if you read it a while back, that means you’ve had more time to think about the characters,” you said, resting your elbow on the back of your chair as you shifted to face him, “Most of us are absorbing the story for the first time. It’d be cool to hear what you think.”

That parmesan palmier had looked good. Trusting this Touya on his taste, you wrote it on your list to investigate later, while he typed his response.

His expression fell flat enough to match the robotic tone. “Do you just want to hear me project my daddy and mommy issues onto the characters in the Zoldyck family?”

“No, Touya,” you said, laughing, “You have valuable things to say across the board, and I want to listen.” You almost nudged his knee with yours, but you had to stop yourself, something dark swirling in your chest. This wasn’t your Touya. You’re not allowed to.

His eyes flicked down towards the movement, but he didn’t comment. Shifting his jaw, he slipped off his white tuxedo jacket to drape it over the back of his chair, and for some reason, his gaze kept darting to you while he rolled the sleeves of his button-down up to his elbows, but he tried to give the appearance of being very focused on whatever skewered meat and pineapple was on the rim of your plate.

You were frowning. Fuck this. Fuck him. Touya was probably one of those guys who knew their effect on women, so he would know about the rolling-sleeves-to-elbows move. And fucking hell, was it effective for him, because the way he’s lost a lot of weight but was currently gaining it back made the tendons in his forearms much more noticeable when they tensed and strained, and the asymmetry of the burns and scars up his left arm in comparison to the smoothness of his prosthetic right only made him even more horribly, horribly attractive, and you were pissed about it, only getting more furious as he wrapped his tongue around the base of the first pineapple chunk and used his teeth to maneuver it off of the stolen skewer, hooded eyes staring you down. This Touya can act like a fucking slut, sure, but your Touya won’t even show you his goddamn hands.

“Hey, watch out.” You scratched your forehead in an attempt to conceal how enraged you were. “I’ve already had one of those. That lump at the end is an overly-breaded coconut shrimp. So—fish—be careful,” you finished lamely.

Touya’s hands and mouth were full with the skewer. Unable to type on his phone, he shifted the skewer to his left hand, flattened his right, and tapped his left wrist with it—the JSL sign for thank you.

You nodded and didn’t think anything of it for a moment, but when it hit you, you seized up and stared at him, chest swelling, proud and confused and frozen. Getting a little lightheaded, actually, but oh, God, who wouldn’t at the sight of Todoroki Touya, quiet and subdued but still suave as fuck, sitting so close to you in a freshly dishevelled white tuxedo that fit like it was custom-made for him, smelling so, so good and smiling with his perfect teeth (how are they that good when he was with the League for so long?), leaning towards you to steal your food and showing that he’d been paying attention to you, that he’d taken the JSL book you’d left with Shouto, that he’d thought about you when you’ve been apart and cared enough to try to learn something new with you, and you were going to kiss him; he deserved it; you were going to grab that stupidly adorable face and—no, that lightheadedness was also stemming from the soulmate bond activating.

Nausea swept through you for more than one reason. If your Touya discovered you were fighting the urge to kiss someone else, let alone the other Touya, then—you didn’t know. You didn’t know how you’d ever recover. Please let this be from your perspective, so he can’t feel your feelings, please.

“I have to go,” you said, pushing up on the table to stand, not even bothering to flash Shouto the soulmate hand signal. You had to get away. No matter if it were from your perspective or his, distance would help you suppress your fucking shameful crush on your friend’s older brother.

Good God, you were crossing the streams, you noted and fumed as you escaped onto a vacant alcove. Because they have the same goddamn name, your brain has been conflating the two of them. Shut up. You’re only allowed to have one Touya. Two would be greedy and dismissive of the soulmate bond in the first place.

Vertigo struck you so severely that you had to brace yourself against the nearest column, but you swopped to the balcony railing because you could grasp it and put most of your weight on it, and because your brain was swimming, you hand to get on your knees to wait for it to pass. “No, you can’t,” you said, trying your hardest to push thought of that Touya out of your head in case your Touya could feel them, “You can’t—that one doesn’t need to be in a romantic relationship right now. He’s working on himself. It’d fuck him up.” And ohhhh, you left your phone at the table, so you couldn’t call your Touya, and fuck, you didn’t want him to feel confused or betrayed because you weren’t calling him—

“Whose future are you deciding, here?”

Your Touya. He was here?

You opened your eyes to the sight of the balcony and the garden below, thank fuck. Okay, you could work with this. You could work with this; he’s not supposed to be able to feel—

His voice came from close behind you, as if he were leaning on another side of the column. “What’s got you feeling this guilty?”

Holy shit holy shit, has the bond evolved? Can feelings be felt from both sides regardless of perspective? “Hey, Touya.”

“Don’t turn around,” he said, even though you’d made no movement to.

“Can you see?”

“Only through you, angel. Otherwise, I’m in the dark.” With the sounds of clothes shifting, Touya must have crouched behind you, joints cracking. A fingerless-gloved hand brushed down your arm, and he moved your lace shawl out of the way to stroke your bare skin. Your mind was already going haywire at your betrayal, and his cold, gentle touch was not helping. “What’s wrong, hm?” He adjusted himself again behind you so that he could wrap his other arm around your waist, pulling you back into him, and his cool, rough lips pressed against the curve of your neck as he rested his head there.

You were going to cry. You’ll do it. For real, this time.

“Did that Todoroki Touya guy bother you? I saw him sitting at your table.”

God, no, he brought up whom you were trying to avoid, and you cringed, hating yourself as Touya’s hand sank down your arms to entwine his fingers with yours, rumpled shirtsleeves grazing your bare skin and leather gloves curbing the maximal skin-to-skin contact.

“He’s so fucked up that I wouldn’t be surprised if you hated him,” Touya was saying into your ear, “I could grind him into a pulp for you. He’d deserve it, wouldn’t he, for what he did to everyone? And I was burning up with jealousy from across the room; someone as pretty as you shouldn’t have such a hideous thing by your side.”

You made a noise from the back of your throat. You didn’t know, and you especially didn’t need the one person you were trying to hide your internal conflict from while you were actively trying to work out the internal conflict. First things first, you supposed. “Touya’s not fucking ugly.”

Your Touya snorted against your neck, hot air washing down the hollow of your throat. “I forgot how twisted you are. But there’s no way you could actually like him, right?”

“I can’t,” you said, releasing the balcony to clench your fists on your knees, “I can’t like him. He needs to discover who he is as an individual before he finds out how he functions in a relationship. He doesn’t need romance—or me, at this point in his life.”

“Interesting,” he said, more clearly now that his mouth wasn’t muffled against your skin, “Sounds like you think something’s wrong with him. Like he’s not whole. And isn’t he broken? You’d have to be, if you pulled the shit he did, burning cities to the ground and murdering—”

“Shut up,” you said, hunching in on yourself, “You’re don’t know. You’re believing what other people have told you about him. You’re just—you’re just like people who talk about that nerd shit you hate without checking the source material. They’ll talk about certain characters in terms of false narratives they’ve crafted, and they’ll talk about them for so long that the false information becomes conflated with the characters, with everyone thinking the wrong stuff is real. I—fuck.” You winced, but he was listening, his free hand winding around your neck to adjust the migrant clasp on your necklace to the back of your throat. “I know my ideas of Touya stem from propaganda, but I want to learn about him from him. Just based on what I’ve seen, there’s so much out there that’s wrong—it’s even subconsciously perpetuated in his own home, since the shrine where his family mourned him is still there. And I hate it. I hate it, because he seems so lovable, but so are you, and I hate myself because I want to love only you, because you’re my soulmate, and I’m so, so, so goddamn terrified that you’re gonna reject me and leave me alone forever now that I’ve betrayed you. By feeling stuff for someone else.”

You were crying. You were crying, nose stopping up, and Touya kissed your throat, over the clasp of your necklace. “Rejection’s a bitch. I know that,” he said under his breath, “So, I’m not gonna do that to you, even if…” He trailed off, instead latching his mouth to your neck again, letting his tongue flick over your skin once, as if it were an afterthought. “You really like him?”

“I’m scared that I do,” you said, taking a corner of your shawl to daub at your tears.

“The only thing to do is feel it out, I guess.” Touya settled at last, shifting weight and moving his legs so that they’d be on either side of you, and his left arm joined the other around your waist to hold you close. “Or let it die, if you want. The soulmate bond doesn’t matter in the end. You don’t have to love him or me.”

“But Touya,” you said, sniffing, dying to look back at him but restraining yourself, “I do.”

***

Later that night, you were researching how to make little cheese balls that were shaped like pumpkins like they’d had at the awards ceremony when you felt the familiar wooziness. Funny. It’s not often that the bond activates twice in one day. You closed your laptop and set your notebook aside, waiting for the slow, drowsy fade into Touya’s eyes.

Tonight, it’s a jarring, instantaneous slam into his perspective, and you felt like you’d been knocked about in the baggage rack of a train. You threw out your hands to balance yourself, even though you hadn’t been physically moved, and the queasiness made it hard to concentrate, blackness blotting at the edges of your periphery.

But the darkness of Touya’s bedroom wasn’t helping, with only partially drawn curtains letting in moonlight, and—and oh, my God, he’s flat on his back in bed, tousled bedsheets, cock out, and it’s so pretty, unfairly pretty, thick as hell but thicker at the head than the base, blushing deep pink, leaking onto the faint lines of re-developing abs and a vaguely red trail of hair, and—

The hand touching it has skin grafts.

“—ugh, darlin’, fuck, you know what I’m gonna—gonna do to you, angel?” Touya was muttering to himself, too caught up to realise you were there. “You don’t—you don’t know what you do to me.”

You’d registered his pubic hair as vaguely red because, now that you were staring, only the very tips of the untouched hair trailing down his stomach were red, with what he’d probably shaved at some point lower on his body snowy against whatever unburnt skin could still grow hair. He’s gripping himself at an angle that doesn’t make him rub against a strand of load-bearing staples on his upper thigh (did someone say load?), connecting a stretch of familiarly burned skin to a healing graft, diamond-speckled and twitching with his cock the closer he drew to orgasm (from the back of your mind surfaced a questioning thought of if he’d advocated for healing his hands first, since staples would hinder smooth masturbation). His prosthetic arm lay unattached at his side.

“Hahh, I wanna,” said Touya, drawing in a ragged breath, “wanna make a mess outta you, y’always too put together, too fuckin’ pretty for y’own damn good, fuck.” He rubbed his thumb over his tip, the skin there giving everso slightly at the pressure, with another bead of precum swelling before it dripped onto his stomach. “Gonna find wha—whatever I can do to make you fuckin’ whine, and I’m gonna, hah, follow that sound for the rest of my goddamn life, and, oh—fuck, fuck, how, how sweet you’d feel wrapped around me, how much I don’t fuckin’ deserve—”

He cut himself off to take a deep, stuttering breath, and you saw the gates of heaven in the way his chest surged forward when he arched his back, lines of burns and scars carved into his skin like a roadmap. And Touya moaned for you, and you didn’t know how much you’d needed to hear both Touyas do that until now, but before he could finish the first syllable of your name, you were lurched out of the bond and back into your room, just as abruptly as it had begun.

Your hands were shaking as you tied your shoelaces, aware of the leak into your underwear when you bent over, and you dashed to the nearest train depot, navigating in fervent, distant buzz all the way to the Todoroki estate. You must have appeared sufficiently crazy, because the only vacant seats on the train were next to you.

(In your heart of hearts, you had known.

If you’d put it into words, consciously, where both Touyas overlapped, it would’ve been too hard to bear if they’d been different people, which was, regardless, the most logical situation. Getting excited for your soulmate to be your former crush and then being disappointed when it wasn’t him felt like a betrayal to your soulmate. You hadn’t wanted to set yourself up for disappointment or betrayal, because you shouldn’t feel guilt when you look at your soulmate. Someone who holds your heart in his hand should never be second best to you. Touya’s had enough of not being enough in his life.

Surely the random chance of a stranger’s quirk wouldn’t be so kind to give you whom you’ve been wanting. You haven’t allowed yourself to hope.)

You didn’t even go in the front door. You clambered over the garden wall and berated yourself for not recognising Touya’s garden earlier, even though you’ve usually been around the kitchen and living room when you’re here. It took you longer than it could’ve to get to his teahouse, because you were deliberately staying on the garden path instead of walking on his hard work, but you didn’t even take off your shoes at the entrance, the nightingale floors chirping out in the night as you surged towards his bedroom door.

Touya lay facing the window in his very Western bed that took up most of the room—and much of his bedroom was like that, with his modern belongings scattered across other outdated furnishings, clean but cluttered, thought it startled you to open the door onto a Naruto poster taped in the space designated for a hanging scroll.

You only had time to absorb poster and lived-in before you saw the face of God in how Touya stretched and groaned in bed, arching his back and holding it until his back popped (a little too fixated on his moonlit nipples, like seeing them would fix you, flip you back to your factory settings). “Natsuo,” he said, coming out of his groan, eyes scrunched shut, “Don’t say you’re here to make me re-hang the windchimes. I spent all day tracking how air flows through the garden.”

You sat at the foot of his bed, mattress dipping slightly, still in your coat and shoes and hesitant to spread dirt, but the need to be near Touya, even if it were through blankets, consumed you. Hands folded behind his head, Touya cracked open an eye at the weight, and he froze.

You hadn’t prepared any confession on the train. You’d been too focused on the memory of his thighs. So, what garbled nonsense that came out of your mouth was “I figured your dick would be pierced.”

Touya appeared to snap back into reality, and he sat up in bed, pulling the blankets up to cover more of his bare chest (mourning for his nipples. Inconsolable about it, even) and quite obviously tried so hard to be chill (the way his leg started jiggling underneath the covers and how he wouldn’t look you in the eyes for more than a couple of seconds gave him away, though). “Is that what they say about me?”

You folded your hands in your lap, bent over for a swift escape in case he wanted you to leave “Jirou conjectures that you have a Jacob’s ladder.”

“Just what I need. More holes in my body.” He ran his tongue over his lower lip—much more scarred than the upper one, clarifying some things about kissing him. “Don’t know how to take that a bunch of kids who resent me talk about the state of my dick. You a part of that crowd?”

“I was shown a picture of what was advertised to be a very realistic dildo,” you said, scooting your ass farther back onto the bed now that he wasn’t going to send you away, “It had many, many piercings. It wasn’t as thick, if that makes you feel better.”

“It does not,” said Touya, brow pinched. He brought his legs up to hug them to his chest, but he must have changed his mind, instead just letting them block your view of him, hiding behind the cover of the lumpy comforter.

You waited for him to elaborate. His tuxedo was thrown over a wicker trunk, bowtie tossed onto a kotatsu, even though it wasn’t cold enough outside, with his gaming controller next to it and an open can of black tea. Two floor seats were haphazardly tucked underneath the kotatsu’s blanket, the one facing the TV flatter and duller than the one nearer the door. His only bookshelf had the illusion that it was constantly being added to, with the first shelf arranged neatly and the rest completely shoved together, the lowest one still mostly empty—your sign language book lay horizontally on it.

He should’ve said something by now, right? Antsy, you shifted your weight, staring down at your shoes. To have something to do, you slowly took them off, lining them up with Touya’s house slippers (with seahorses on them?) next to the bed, and you swallowed your pride to break the ice. “I’m glad it’s you, by the way. Very glad.”

Touya grunted and draped an arm over his knees. “Did you know?”

“I will be generous and say not really,” you said, shuffling off your coat to hang on the bedpost, “I didn’t permit myself to make the connections.”

“Eh.” He shrugged with one shoulder—the left one, the natural one. He’d reattached his prosthetic in the meantime. “There are around one hundred Touyas in Japan, according to the last census.”

“Sounds like a prepared statistic,” you said, holding back that the name frequency has probably plummeted in the last few years, “I’m serious, though. I wanted my Touya—soulmate, you, Touya—to be Todoroki Touya. So badly.”

He covered his mouth, thumbing at his lower lip and simply staring at you. In the moonlight, his eyes were as fucking bright blue as—well. As his flames. More things were clicking into place.

“Really, Touya,” you said, desperate for him to believe you, “I liked you as the stranger in the alley, and I liked you as Dabi, and when my soulmate seemed to share some traits with the other Touya in my life, I didn’t give myself permission to think about it. Because I was growing fond of the you that spoke to me, that I was getting to know, and while my feelings for the other you were being rekindled, too, I wanted to love the soulmate you more, because it's become fucking evident to me that I was made to love you, even without this soulmate stuff. You’ve been scattered throughout my life, anyway. It just happened to speed things up, since it forced you to talk to me. Otherwise, you’d probably still be at the point where you’re the brooding-older-brother figure who isolates himself in his room when his brother’s friends are over.”

Touya was frowning, but you waited it out entirely this time. “You saw…all that,” he eventually said, gesturing down himself, “and you still want me?”

Biting back a smile, you lifted your knees to the bed, moving slowly to gauge his reaction before getting closer to him. “I saw you decapitate someone, and I still want you.”

“You’re insane,” said Touya, tensing up as you neared him but twitching into a nervous grin, eyes falling to your boobs, away to the window, and back to your face.

“Correct,” you said, and you knelt next to him, taking all of your restraint to keep from reaching out the final few centimetres to run your hands down his chest. “Don’t you need someone a little insane, though?”

The comforter fell a few inches down his chest, and you throat ran dry at the long line of fading stitches and staples.

You raised a quivering hand to his face, and it’s strange: both of you flinched in the moment your fingertips felt the tiniest bit of body heat emanating from his cheek, and it’s strange: it’s the first time you’ve felt any heat come from Touya at all, and it’s strange: you could see yourself so clearly waking up next to him every day, putting your chin on his shoulder while he picked out fruits at the grocery store, feeding the koi late at night together while you lured the ducks away, watching his eyes soften in the same way both when he sinks his teeth into something you’ve baked and his cock deep into you while he cradled you closely to his chest, but at the moment, it might be too much for you—and perhaps Touya as well, judging by the nearly incomprehensible, jumbled sort of expression—if you even touched his face.

Perhaps the prospect of romance was too much for him at this point in his life. The last thing Touya should be feeling about that was guilt.

“I don’t mind being on the backburner while you figure things out,” you said, returning your hand to your lap and trying very hard not to look at his nipples, “I’ll wait for whatever you need to do. I’ll—”

“No,” said Touya, shaking himself out of whatever spiralling dive he’d been leaning into, “Hell, no. No fucking—” He snatched the hand you’d almost touched him with and clenched it hard, smushing your fingers together (startled by the physical contact, even though he’d initiated it), and after a flash of frustration at his prosthetic arm, he passed your hand to his left. “You’re fucking sticking around. You—you don’t just look at me; you see me, in such a different fucking way than anyone else, and you did it immedia—it took my family so long to look, and you—you’ve been watching. Been paying attention. It’s all I’ve ever—” He frowned, rolling his tongue along the inside of his cheek. “It’s good to have you around while I dig myself out of this hole,” he said, squeezing your hand harder but glaring outside through the window, “I wish I had known you sooner.”

“I’m here now, and I want to get to know you better. I want to hear more about you, things that are true,” you said, “and don’t start with anything self-deprecating, Touya. The next time the bond lets you see through me, I’m gonna show you what you look like through my eyes. And I’m not lying to you when I say you are so very, very pretty.”

Grunting, Touya fidgeted in bed, the covers slipping down to his stomach, drawing your hand closer to him, with your body leaning in to follow his pull. “Shit,” he said, “Don’t say shit like that right now.”

“Touya, I am gonna tell you how gorgeous you are until you believe it, and that starts now.”

“Not tha—well, yes, that, but I—” He sucked in through his teeth (also sucking in through a tiny hollow in his cheek caused by a loose staple, with a faint, wheezing whistle) and threaded his fingers through yours, pulling your hands towards his shoulder so that you loomed over his chest, “I have a hell of a refractory period now. It’s fuckin’ hard for me to get hard a lot, and you saw me; I just—” Inhaling sharply, he jerked his hand away from yours and frantically started wiping it on the blankets. The new skin around the tips of his ears bloomed pink. “I haven’t washed my hands.”

“Touya,” you said, “Like I care.” You took the hand he was trying to hide in the folds of the blanket and licked up his palm, holding eye contact and relishing the way the blush spread to the untouched skin around the corners of his eyes. “I want all of you. Both sides you’ve shown me, and more. So long as it’s real. So long as it’s you.”

“All right. First step is getting on top of me,” said Touya, and, palm wet, he took your hand again, and he tugged on it, guiding you into his lap, other hand sliding down the thigh you swung over him. “Makes it easier to talk, y’know. To look at you.”

“Oh? Are we starting with your tragic backstory? If you’re taking requests,” you said, sliding your hand up and over his shoulder to run your fingers over his collarbone (jutting out from under both burnt and new skin), “then I’d like to hear your perspective of when you first kissed me.”

Touya lift his prosthetic hand to your cheek, just as cold and strong as his real one, and he placed his thumb at the corner of your lower lip, tip breaking the seal of your lips to press in just barely. “Actually, I think we’ll start with this pretty mouth of yours.”

***

Iida was shouting and gesturing from the living room that you only had fifteen minutes before the episode viewing was scheduled to start, and Shinsou shut him up by reminding him that Tokoyami had to pick up Ojiro and Hagakure from the floristry across town and that they’d start watching whenever they started watching, so chill out, Iida. Go help Mina pick the bugles out of her hair, or something.

You and Touya crouched together in front of the oven, staring through the glass at the rows of potato wedges—the recipe he claims his mother made when he was five, but surely a woman as sensible as Todoroki Rei wouldn’t put that much fucking cayenne pepper or paprika or chili sauce or—listen, it was a lot.

“C’mon, pretty boy, tell me something else true about you,” you said, nudging his shoulder with yours while you made eye contact with him in the oven’s reflection.

“Hm,” he said, scratching the underside of his chin with a bare hand (the gloves lay folded back on the teahouse dresser), “I hate fish.”

(Here you sighed dramatically, because you obviously already knew this. His loathing was intensified at the moment, though, because he’d had to get up and leave you in the middle of the night last night because the koi pond monitor was blaring at a stupid clog in the filter.)

“Tastes fuckin’ gross dead. Bitch to take care of livin’.”

You pushed on your knees to stand, and you held out a hand to help him up. “Enough with the negativity, dickhead. Tell me more about what you like.”

“Besides you?” He took your hand and grinned, putting all his weight into it as you strained to lift him, and when the oven timer beeped and you’d shot a few choice words his way, he had mercy and stood up by himself. He grabbed the oven mitts and tossed them to you, and while you removed the tray from the oven, he ran his hand through the sharp, white spikes of his hair, inadvertently wiping specks of paprika into it.

You set the tray on a cooling rack. “C’mon, Touya. No need to be so cheesy.”

“I can be worse,” he said, winding his arms around your waist before you could even take off the oven mitts, cradling you close to him, no room in between, and he propped his chin on your shoulder. “I can even incorporate—you call me cheesy; you’re the one who called me pretty boy not a minute ago.”

Blindly, you raised a hand to run it back through Touya’s soft, soft hair, and you gently bumped your cheek against his. “I am not being cheesy by simply stating the truth. You’re gorgeous, Touya.”

“Bet I’d look even better throbbing inside you.”

“Please follow a logical flow in conversation like the rest of us,” you said, and when you couldn’t grasp the spatula you were reaching for, Touya grabbed it for you, scraping up some of the first row, having to release you during the process.

Leaning on the counter to face him, you flinched at the heat before pinching a potato wedge between the tips of your fingers, but Touya held one like it was completely cool. It had almost touched his tongue before he paused and waited for your reaction to his recipe.

His potato wedges were bad. Too crunchy on top because of the odd broil time and not-fully-ground peppercorns and too soggy and soft underneath, especially in the part where it’d stuck to the tin foil and peeled off, and the combination of spices didn’t quite mesh together well. With a sliver of quiet triumph, you swallowed a bite of potato wedge decidedly worse than the ones you made.

But Touya was looking at you, eyes brimming with hope despite his otherwise carefully cultivated cool exterior, watching, waiting for you—and it was Touya, after all; Touya was the one who cooked these—made them for you, deliberately, on purpose—and so that made what words were about to come out of your mouth true and beautiful.

soulmate trope taglist: @bakugouspsycho, @pansexualproblemchild, @doonaandpjs, @sunsetevergreen, @the-coffee-is-on-fire, @liberace2, @ladymidnight77, @nonomesupposedto, @gooooomz, @kissmebakugou, @pachiibatt, @celestair, @tiredkittykat, @cheshireshiya, @90s-belladonna, @infjsnightmare

#bnha #dabi #dabi x reader #dabi/reader #dabi imagine #dabi fic #mha #dabi headcanons #dabi fanfiction #dabi fanfic #soulmates #soulmate au #soulmate #dash it all

953 notes · View notes