#and the only 3 people that have ever called him keigo

[1am-s0-veryt1red]

calling hawks by his first name makes me wildly uncomfortable

[dawn-moths]

"I'm So Dreadful, But I Still Need You"

Werewolf!Dabi x Female Reader

word count: 16,300+

part 1 * part 2 * part 3

(As Keigo closes in, you and Dabi dream of foreign lands, of places where you could be free to love each other in peace. But the hunter is relentless, vowing never to stop the chase until he’s claimed you from the wolf’s vile clutches, dead or alive. So the only question that remains is… who will emerge victorious in the end? The hunter or the prey?)

disclaimer/content warning: 18+ content! minors dni! title taken from “RUINED” by WesGhost, size difference, reader is called “baby, good girl”, yandere Keigo, character death, some smut in the middle but mostly plot, some descriptions of body horror towards the end, reader is choked (and not in a fun way).

*ao3 mirror*

***

Dabi sat at the tavern’s bar counter, a half drunk pint slowly warming in its stein as he abandoned the idea of finishing his drink and instead became mesmerized by you— watching, guarding, protecting you from afar while you basked in the reverie of your fourth face-paced dance of the night.

You kept up with the quick yet precise patterns of the intricate footwork, your skirts bunched in your fists and slightly lifted to allow you more room to jig alongside the crowd of boisterous patrons, some stray men lining the walls shouting hoots and hollers towards the circle of dancers as the fiddle player picked up the tempo, other onlookers clapping in time with the beat to encourage all of those inhabiting the dancefloor to continue until the end of the song. When the final note rang out, the human circle in which you’d found yourself ensnared ceased its motion, everyone turning to face the outside of the ring and clapping with their hands over their heads.

When you turned, you were facing Dabi, seeing him staring at you from the barstool a few feet away. His patches of pale, scarred skin were bathed in a low amber glow from the lanterns hanging overhead, that entrancing cobalt gaze shimmering with mirth. There were no pointed ears perched upon his inky black spikes nor was there a mischievous ebony tail swishing at his heels. Tonight was the new moon, one of the handful of nights clustered together in the month where the notorious wolfman was free to see what life could’ve been like if only he’d been granted a different fate.

And he was smiling. Really, truly smiling. It took your breath away, the way he was looking at you now, like you were the only thing in his entire world worth protecting, like he loved you. 

And maybe he did.

It was just too bad he’d never be able to make himself admit it, that he’d never be able to trust in that kind of careless hope.

As you migrated closer to where he was perched, you were smiling too, big and bright and blinding him with your joy. Your forehead was shining with a thin sheen of sweat and your breathing was a little labored, as expected from how many dances you’d participated in tonight, but you didn’t care how hot or tired you became.

You knew you had to enjoy it while it lasted.

Back in your devout little town, there was only one tavern, mainly where the hunters gathered to relax on their way out into the woods or having just arrived back, a bundle of dead rabbits or ducks, or, one time, an entire deer dragged into the tiny brick building and heaped in a pile of bloody fur and mangled flesh on the floor at the foot of the counter.

Needless to say, whatever your village had to offer, it was nowhere near the freedom and frivolity this place provided, all the laughter and the lighthearted joking and pleasant conversation between men and women alike filling the room with its joyous melody.

Plus, even though the people back home also liked to talk, it was usually of scandals and gossip and suspicious speculation, so if you were ever spotted so much as peering in through one of the latticed windows to see what all the commotion was about, it was likely word would spread, rumors would start, and you wouldn’t feel comfortable enough to pass the place at night again.

“You should come do the next one with me,” you suggested to Dabi, hoping to entice him as you took his hand, his own instinctually outstretched towards you once you were within the range of his reach, still staring at you with that love-drunk grin. You even swore you could see a warm blush to his cheeks, only, you knew he wasn’t actually drunk. He’d been too intent on making sure he could stay sharp in order to protect you if anything went sideways. And, while you’d tried to assure him one night couldn’t hurt, promised you’d stay out of trouble, Dabi just wouldn’t hear of it.

“Anything could happen when we’re least expecting it,” he’d reminded you, the worry of the prey sounding odd when coming from the mouth of the predator. “And if he shows up, we gotta be ready.”

But that had been a week ago and you and Dabi had already crossed through three towns, having hidden on the outskirts of the first one, been bold enough to break into an abandoned farm house to escape the cold in the second, and then, by the time you’d reached the third— the one you were currently in— Dabi had shed all of his more obvious wolfish traits. And, though you’d had to beg him to let you explore, to actually enjoy some of what this place had to offer, he’d eventually given in.

“Tonight’s our last night…” he’d told you, hating the way disappointment filled your eyes, all the optimism in your gaze slowly dying out like embers in a hearth. He’d put his hand on your head, given it a gentle pat as you’d started sulking. Then he’d said, a new lightness to his usually dark and heavy tone, “So you better make the most of it.”

You’d looked up at him then like you didn’t actually believe him, yet still somehow hoped it were true. “Really?!” You’d exclaimed, glittering excitement refilling your gaze. “We can really go out? Oh, Dabi!” You’d flung your arms around his waist, buried your face into his chest, inhaling the familiar scent of pine and campfire smoke that always seemed to cling to him. “Thank you…” you’d murmured, words muffled by his shirt. “Thank you, Dabi…”

And so you two had tried a taste of what other young people did for fun when they weren’t burdened with a curse or kept cooped up inside a house on the hill. You ate delicious, foreign foods. You laughed with boisterous strangers. You danced until the music stole the breath from your lungs. You allowed yourself to live. Because, the truth was, neither of you really knew how much time you had left. Not with Keigo hot on your trail, knowing full well he’d hunt you to the ends of the earth or die trying.

But there was nowhere Keigo wouldn’t go, no path he wouldn’t follow, no choice he wouldn’t make, if you were somehow found at the end of it.

And so die trying it seemed to be…

***

TWO WEEKS AGO

Dawn broke over the horizon, painting the sky in an aurora of colors, a collision of amber and silver that gave way to the pale blue and gold of early morning. Among the newborn buds preparing to unfurl from the spindly twigs on the early-spring trees, Keigo sat beside the final dregs of serenity and watched the fledgling finches hopping among the natural debris gathered beneath where their nest lay.

They would be soon to leave their mother’s protection, venturing off into the cold, cruel labyrinth of the surrounding woods. Perhaps some would survive into adulthood. Others would fall into the sharp-taloned clutches of the falcons or the hawks. Only the strong would survive and only the lucky would evade a gruesome end.

The hunter stood from his perch among the open campsite he’d constructed, the small fire he’d made to keep warm for the short night stomped out before morning’s first light. He couldn’t have his mark catching sight of the smoke. Not when he was so close to his main territory. If he scared the wolf away now, he might risk losing you along with him.

Enough stalling, Keigo told himself as he tested the tension of his bow string, two calloused fingers curling around thin sinewy rope and envisioning an invisible arrow finding a new home between two flashes of sapphire. A wolf might not’ve been as fragile or easy to kill as a finch, but, Keigo felt confident, the hawk would still prevail.

Keigo began his stealthy approach towards the cabin, every step more careful than the last. He was intent to locate the wolfman, hopefully through one of the cracked windows, knock an arrow, and finish the job in one precise shot. But then something made him stop short, his next breath catching and sure footing staggering as he felt a rush of ice surge through his veins.

Because there you were, sitting at the villain’s table, unbound and of your own free will it seemed, given the carefree grin spread across your face as you shared breakfast with the beast.

Keigo could’ve been standing between those mammoth pines for six seconds, or six hours. In truth, he didn’t know. Because in that moment time seemed to flow in reverse, everything that had led him here— led you here— flashing through his mind in bright bursts of violent color.

For a while, caught in his stupor, Keigo merely observed, his hands going numb as they clutched his weapons, watching in equal horror and intrigue as the wolf sat across from you at the table, a snarky grin tugging at one corner of his lips before breaking out into a laugh, looking for a moment— dare Keigo even consider it— authentically human. 

You know, so long as you didn’t spend too much time focusing on the ears and the tail.

You were barely clothed, and while Keigo perhaps would’ve been inclined to blush under less dire situations, the emotion that replaced his bashfulness was betrayal and rage.

The loose shirt hanging comfortably from your form no doubt belonged to the monster with which you’d chosen to share a bed with.

But Keigo, despite having all the evidence he needed to convict you of witchcraft or whatever other crime that having such relations with a monster and a murderer would behold, still couldn’t quite bring himself to blame you.

Because you’d been seduced, hadn’t you? You’d been lured into sin, naive little Eve who’d been tempted by the sinister snake.

He could still save you.

All he had to do was not miss.

With trembling hands and shallow breath, Keigo drew back his first shot and aimed for the back of the wolfman’s head. He let out a shuddering exhale, hesitating a mere flicker of a moment, then let the arrow go.

The arrow struck home in the back of Dabi’s chair, the resounding twang of the shot causing his wolf’s ears to perk up at the same moment you sucked in a sharp, startled gasp. Neither of you had seen the arrow fly through the open window and bury itself in the chipped wood so much as you heard it, felt it, the evidence you were under attack only revealed once Dabi turned in his chair to peer around the back of it.

His eyes followed the weapon’s path out through the dew-speckled glass and between the barricade of trees until it found the hunter. Keigo knocked a second arrow, this time looking much more focused and determined than he had before, and prepared to fire again.

Dabi’s eyes widened with dread as he stood abruptly from his chair, backing towards you as he ordered, voice low and dark with severity, “Run.”

You didn’t think. Only acted. Every survival instinct you didn’t know you had flaring to life inside you as you sprinted towards the back door after Dabi, who made sure he had secured your hand before you departed the threshold of the cabin’s false sense of safety. It was only when you were halfway down the porch steps that you realized your clothes, or rather, lack thereof, and attempted to go back, but Dabi’s grip on you was firm. He made it apparent by his strength in pulling you along alone that there was no time for that now, lest you wish to leave the property wearing an arrow through your heart.

By the time you reached the forest’s edge, two more arrows were on your heels, and as you cast a terrified glance over your shoulder, the sight of Keigo growing smaller in your vision, watching with defeat and forlorn as the wolfman whisked you deeper into the lush evergreen, a small part of you couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of guilt.

Because what would your family think once he returned to tell them the news— to tell them that their sweet baby girl was caught so shamelessly uncouth with the very wolfman himself, the successor of your baby brother’s killer?

The hunter called your name, and the way it broke with a type of vengeful promise at the end of his shriek made you want to pull away from this path you’d chosen, something about hearing that level of pain in someone’s voice cracking something inside of you, even if a part of you still knew it was selfishly motivated.

“C’mon!” Dabi urged, continuing to pull you harshly after him, the two of you soon disappearing within the piney labyrinth and leaving the distraught, vindictive hunter before the empty wolf’s den. You realized that the two of you would never be able to return there again, Dabi’s cabin full of little keepsakes, trinkets, and mementos doomed to collect dust, rot, and collapse over time if it wasn’t burned to the ground all together. 

But Dabi didn’t care about the cabin right now. If the hunter so chose to strike a match, then let the cabin catch flame and disintegrate into bitter ash.

All he cared about— all he’d ever care about from that moment on— was protecting you.

***

The winds began to pick up as night fell, the dusk-tinted horizon fissured with the last wisps of pale peach as you and Dabi slunk through the last neighbourhood on the outskirts of the village’s perimeter, the sparse little homes dotting the sloping valley hosting glowing ghosts flickering in the windows, the candles placed on the sills likely to burn for only another hour or so before the residents turned in for the night.

You shivered beneath Dabi’s arm, the precursory chill warning of a long, cold night ahead, one that you and your meager means of clothing would suffer to endure.

“Just a little longer,” Dabi murmured, sympathetic, pulling you in closer to share some more of his abundant body heat. “We just have to wait till they kill the lights. Then I’ll sneak up and steal you something from the clothesline.”

In the dim dark, the breeze made the bedsheets and tunics flutter like lingering spirits. The laundry left out to dry was mostly men’s clothing, though there was one modest brown dress among the damp garments, and though it looked a few sizes too big, you supposed you’d have to find a way to make it work.

You just wished you had some of your sewing supplies with you, even just a simple needle and thread. With that, at least, you might’ve been able to tailor it to better suit your figure. Perhaps you’d be able to procure some along the way, or find another innocent clothesline to skim from, but for now, you just had to find a way to enter into the next town without being too conspicuous.

When the time came, Dabi told you to wait under the veil of shadow that had served as your cover while he skulked closer to the house. You watched him cautiously, stealthily making his way to the clotheslines, trying not to imagine a scenario where the cocking of a shotgun echoed out across the clearing before the heart-stuttering blast of two shots rang out as they tore through the thieving villain and left him twitching and gasping, his blood turning the crisp grass beneath his body black with death.

But Dabi was a professional when it came to swiping things that weren’t his. He’d survived the last decade on such methods. This was nothing new. So, in what felt all at once like too much time and the blink of an eye, Dabi returned with a bundle of brown fabric bunched in his wiry arms.

“It’s still a little wet…” he informed you as he handed it over, allowing you to unfurl the garment and hold it lightly against your form to gauge how much excess fabric you’d have to swim around in.

“That’s ok…” you sighed, draping the dress over your arm. “It’ll be dry by morning if I find a place to hang it…” You then considered him, studied those two pools of sapphire that always seemed to glow through the dark. You wanted to ask him now what? What would happen to the two of you from here?

Seeming to read the uncertainty in your gaze, Dabi let out his own sigh through his nose, pressed his lips into a firm line, then said, “I know…” He placed a soft, apologetic kiss to the top of your head, once again gently tugging you into his side. “I know, but we’ll figure it out…”

When you wrapped your arms around him, allowing Dabi to feel your weight sagging with exhaustion, he returned the gesture, more than willing and capable to carry you the rest of the way if you needed him to.

For a while now, he’d realized— at first to his own horror— that he felt more than just lust for you. He wasn’t sure if he could yet call it love. Love was still more terrifying than anything. But he knew he felt an innate sense to protect you, to cherish you and care for you and make sure you had what you needed to be satisfied.

Whether that lied with or without him, he still was on the fence about, but he was willing to fight like hell to prove to you that he was at least willing to try.

“Let’s find a place to camp for the night,” Dabi suggested, and your sleepy nod against his chest was more than enough confirmation of just how badly you needed to rest after such a long, arduous day. You worried about Keigo tracking you while you slept, but Dabi said he knew a place that not even the hunter would be able to find you. 

“It’s not exactly close…” he disclosed with an apology fringing his tone. “But if we can make it that far, we should be ok for a couple days at least.” He spoke of an old boat house on the edge of the shore, a place where he and his maker used to retreat to back when things in the village started to get a little dicey. He promised to make a plan, assured you you didn’t need to worry, but the moment you stopped moving and you closed your eyes, the rest of his words and your encroaching worries were lost to you.

***

NOW

The time of tavern dances and reckless reveries was bound to come to an end sooner or later, but when just two days after your carefree night of fun and joy Dabi’s signature ears and tail began to show the first signs of his dreadful moonlit monstrosity, it was time to kiss the cheerful twang of the bard’s fiddle and the buzzing warmth of overpoured drinks goodbye.

Going into hiding wasn’t anything new to the wolfman, but for you, it was quickly becoming unbearable. You wanted a bath and some clean clothes. You wanted a warm bed and a hot meal. You weren’t built for the scarcity and savagery of what a life confined to the edges of the wilderness beheld and, pretty soon, even Dabi was beginning to become concerned for how you were faring.

But you’d found an abandoned barn a few miles off from the nearest civilization, which, needless to say, was a much better, safer place to sleep than the open expanse of the woodlands. Discovering the shelter had helped raise your spirits, even if only a little, but there was one thing neither of you could deny much longer, and that was the fact that you needed something to eat.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” you promised him after he’d finally given in and agreed to let you take a quick trip into the nearest town. You were planning on, hopefully, swiping some fresh fruit or bread from the edge of a merchant’s kiosk while his back was turned and, while you had no doubt Dabi would’ve been able to pull that kind of brazen mission off without a hitch, he was currently indisposed.

“Don’t worry,” you further attempted to comfort him. “If I see Keigo I’ll turn right back around.”

But, while you wouldn’t admit to it out loud, you both knew that if the hunter really wanted to find you, he would. Dabi wasn’t worried about you seeing him. He was worried about him seeing you first.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come?” he asked for about the tenth time. “I can just keep an eye on the perimeter, maybe see if I can sniff him out—”

“Dabi,” you cut in, sounding half firm, half contrite. “It’ll be fine, really. I promise I’ll be ok.” He wanted to remind you that you couldn’t promise that. Not really. But you were placing a peck on his cheek and telling him to get some rest while you were gone before he could.

He’d been so close to saying it as he watched you leave the barn’s lopsided embrace, so close to telling you he loved you, but he hadn’t.

Instead, he settled for watching you walk into the distance until your figure became an indistinguishable shadow amidst the trees, wishing he weren’t such a coward.

***

This town was much more intricate and lively than your own. From the outside it had been hard to tell just how hustling and bustling the inside became at the height of the day, the high stone walls that surrounded the place blocking most of your view even from the top of the cliff that served as the outlook at the forest’s edge.

Street vendors called out with booming voices at passersby with promises of fairly priced goods and wares, messenger boys ran to and fro with bundles of parchment clutched in their hands or overflowing from their satchels, busking musicians played and sang in the town square, and there were even ladies of the night already draped over the banisters and leaning in doorways of the many brothels that spotted this foreign civilization.

You had to remind yourself that you were here for a specific purpose and couldn’t afford to find yourself distracted by all the curiosities that shimmered from around every corner and turn. You hoped that if you just pretended to belong here that no one would mark you as an outsider. As a lone woman especially, that could prove particularly disastrous if you happened to find yourself in the wrong part of town. However, just when you were starting to think you’d have to approach another young woman in order to ask for some directions, you stumbled upon the market street.

The cobbled paths stretched on for what seemed like forever, the ever shifting crowd moving along like bees in a hive all with a different intention to their stride. First, before you made a move, you tried to survey your options. A little bit of fruit and bread wouldn’t get you far, not to mention you knew Dabi needed to eat too, but you didn’t see how snagging any more than that from the edge of a distracted vendor’s stand was going to allow you to sneak away unnoticed.

And if you did get caught, you had no idea how severe the consequences might be. It could be as simple as making you return it and exiling you from the vicinity of the city walls or as harsh as tossing you in a prison cell or, what you feared most, the loss of one of your hands, as you’d heard rumors of being the punishment for theft in some far off civilizations that some of the hunters frequented during the herding seasons.

You kept circling, slowly but surely studying each of the merchants until you found one that looked like your best chance. He was an old man, appearing like he was just a few more nods away from falling asleep based on how he sat back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest, eyes struggling to stay open as he kept jolting back awake. His stand was mostly empty so you knew that, if you approached now, his eyes would be on only you.

So you waited for someone else to take interest in his goods.

You were just about to lose hope and move onto your next best bet when finally a mother and her three young, rowdy children stepped up to his stand. The two boys kept trying to chase and hit each other with sticks they were pretending were swords, much to the embarrassment and exhaustion of their mother, while the girl, who appeared to be the youngest, clung tightly to her mother’s skirts until her brothers inevitably began to pull her into their teasing little games too.

The old man forced himself to stay conscious as the woman looked over his fruit— most of which was bruised or close to going bad— and chose some to put into her basket after haggling the price down a little. While she was contemplating, you swept in to complete your mission.

Your heart was beating so fast and so hard you swore anyone standing close enough to you would be able to hear it, but as the smaller of the two brothers began to wail and cry, the mother and the merchant’s head turning towards the sudden noise, you quickly grabbed an apple in each hand, shoved them deep into your oversized dress’s pockets, turned on your heel, and hurried away.

To get as far away from the market street as quickly as possible just in case someone had seen you, you cut down one of the crooked, narrow alleys, hands still shoved into your pockets as if the apples would simply disappear if you let them leave your grasp. By the time the end of the alley was in sight, you felt your heart rate slow just a little. It looked like this path led back to the square, and when the musician’s guitar registered to your ears, you let out a breath of relief.

Just a couple more yards and then you’d practically be homefree.

Just a couple more yards and then—

You gasped as a hand, calloused and firm, grabbed your wrist and wrenched you back. Instantly, instinctively, you tried to pull away, but when you turned to see who’d caught you, you froze, your next breath hitching, eyes widening and limbs beginning to numb with adrenaline and dread.

“Kei—” You began to blurt, but the hunter clapped a hand over your mouth and pushed you back against the wall of the alley, being a little rougher with you than you’d expected. 

“Don’t speak,” he ordered, though his voice was low and somewhat gentle given his gestures. “Just shake your head yes or no…” He paused, clenched his jaw, swiveling his gaze from one end of the alley to the other before asking, “Is he here with you?”

With tears welling in your eyes, you shook your head no. You were too startled and scared to even consider telling a lie.

“Good…” Keigo sighed, easing up a little bit and removing his hand from your face, though still kept your body caged between his and the wall, watching you carefully for any sign that you’d bolt. “I need you to listen to me,” he began, still keeping his voice low, more of that dire urgency seeping back into his tone. “Whatever this is, whatever’s happening between you two, I need you to stop. I need you to come back home with me—”

“Keigo—”

“No,” he growled, frustration swelling before gradually deflating as he recognized the fear in your eyes and that fact that he was currently the cause of it. He took a pause, collected himself, then continued, “No, listen—” He said your name and again something in his voice broke with desperation upon it. “Do you have any idea how distraught your parents are?” he said. “Do you have any idea how fucking terrified they are that their only daughter has gone missing?” When you didn’t answer in the space of silence he provided, he made you jump when he snapped, “Do you?”

You couldn’t hold back your tears anymore, pairs of them racing down your cheeks and dripping from where they met beneath your chin. Only stuttered, incoherent ramblings could escape your trembling lips.

You could imagine it, how heartbroken your family must be, how each night that passed where you hadn’t returned home was likely a sleepless, torturous one for them. It hurt you to know you were hurting them. But just going back wasn’t so easy now.

You didn’t know if you were ready to accept that you might never be able to go back at all.

You weren’t sure what to say, but it turned out you didn’t have to say anything, because after another frustrated huff, Keigo was pushing off from the wall and allowing you room to escape as he scowled at the ground and muttered, “Just tell me what he gives you that I can’t…”

And you didn’t feel sadness or fear anymore.

You felt anger.

You felt rage.

“You’re— That’s what this is about?” your voice was quiet, but the fury felt through your words didn’t go unnoticed. Keigo flicked his severe gaze to meet yours, his chin still tilted slightly towards the ground. “You’re chasing us down because you’re jealous—?”

“Of course that’s what—” He scoffed, incredulous. “Do you know what would happen if anyone ever found out the truth about all of this? You’d be tried and hanged for witchcraft. The church would drag you to that pyre, tie you down, and everyone that you’d ever known or loved would watch you burn!” He let out another growl of frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose as he huffed out a short-tempered breath. “Y’know what, no. What this is about is that you’ve been lying to my face for months. You’ve been lying to everyone around you for months. Probably even longer than that!” His expression changed from hurt to one of betrayal, one of disgust. “And all for what? To protect him? To protect some monster?”

“He’s not a monster!” you cut in. “You don’t know anything about him. Or us. You—”

“Then explain it to me!” shouted Keigo, immediately catching his outburst and lowering his voice again so as not to attract any suspicious or nosy townsfolk who might want to eavesdrop on your conversation. “Explain to me why you’re willing to risk everything— to risk your entire life— all for some— some—” He couldn’t find another word that wasn’t akin to monster in some way, so instead he opted to let you fill in the blanks yourself as he gave a defeated shrug.

You exhaled a quick, curt breath through your nose, then began “It’s not…” you paused, searching for the right words. “It just happened that way. I don’t know… I can’t explain it. I never intended to get so… involved. I— He’s changed, Keigo,” you insisted, looking up into his eyes wearing a pleading sincerity. “He’s not the kind of evil, malicious person you or anyone else in town makes him out to be. He can be… kind and gentle and…” You thought of all the times he’d been so tender with you, all the times he’d treated you like you were the only person or thing in this entire world he dared to hold dear. It hadn’t started that way, of course. It had been terrifying. Exhilarating. It had been something you hadn’t known you’d wanted until it was happening.

And then you couldn’t forget him.

You couldn’t stay away.

You saw him in every flash of blue that crossed your vision. You saw him in your dreams. When you gazed out the window of your little cottage home into the vast woods that lay beyond, you could swear you saw his figure shifting from between the trees.

He’d plagued your imagination until you swore you were going mad.

And then he’d returned.

He’d changed.

And maybe you were still far too naive to think you could truly trust him, but you couldn’t help but try.

“Please, Keigo,” you began again, voice trembling at the edges. “Please just… don’t kill him. If you promise to spare him, I’ll…” You knew that, once you spoke the words, you’d never be able to take it back. But, if it meant sparing Dabi, you thought you might be able to live with that. “If you let him go, I’ll marry you…” You hung your head in defeat, as if you’d just offered yourself up for a beheading rather than a betrothal. Then, snapping your gaze back up to meet his, a new fire blazing within your stare, you added, “But you have to swear to me that you won’t try anything. That you’ll be good on your end of the deal.”

“Does that mean,” he asked, a twinge of innocent hope to his voice, “you’ll come back with me?”

Nervously, you chewed on the inside of your cheek. You didn’t see how this could end well. Because if you chose to return with Keigo, Dabi was sure to become the hunter in pursuit of you. But if you rejected Keigo and returned to Dabi, the hunter wouldn’t stop until his prey was dead. You just wished Keigo would turn a blind eye, return to town with some story about how he’d tried but he’d lost the trail.

But that would never happen.

Not when both the hunter and the wolf were vying for your hand. One would inevitably result in a marriage you didn’t want, even if that meant you’d have a comfortable life as the prized hunter’s wife, while the other damned you to a life of running and hiding, running and hiding, your existence dictated by the cycles of the moon.

“Just let me see him one last time,” you said, feeling your window of opportunity closing in. “Just let me say goodbye…”

Keigo said your name again, and the way it came out as a condescendingly sympathetic coo made you feel that wave of dread wash over you all over again. So when he said, “You know I can’t let you do that…” you weren’t surprised in the least.

Both of you were still as stone in that alley. For a moment, it seemed like only the whistle of the wind and the distant tolling of the church bell could be heard between you.

Then, everything snapped back into razor sharp focus as Keigo darted forward with both hands outstretched to grab you.

He was going to force you to come back to town and marry him whether you wanted to or not.

But you threw yourself out of the way just in time, the side of your arm scraping against the rough brick wall before you were sprinting out of the alley like a rabbit giving chase.

Keigo was close on your heels, but not for long. You weaved your way in and out of the dense crowds, only a few people casting odd looks your way before continuing on with their business, and slipped down another short alley to discover a different way to exit the confines of the city walls.

You didn’t stop running until you’d reached the woods and beyond, your lungs burning and legs aching as you pushed yourself forward yet another wild, anxious step, constantly glancing behind you and expecting to see Keigo closing in.

Perhaps the hunter was skillfully stalking you, trying to use you as bait to lure him to his real target. But by the time you reached the valley that led to the farmhouse and saw not another soul in sight, you figured that you were probably safe for now.

“Hey—” Dabi began as you rushed back into the barn, but the moment he saw the look on your face and noticed how out of breath you were, he was coming over to your side and placing his hands on your shoulders, feeling just how badly you were shaking. “What happened?”

“I— He—” you stammered, tears beginning to sting in your eyes again as you relived the scenario you’d just barely managed to escape. Anything that came out of your mouth after that was incoherent, frazzled nonsense as your sobbing took over. You hadn’t even realized Dabi had taken you into his arms until your terror had subsided enough for some of the buzzing numbness in your limbs to fade and your breathing went from hyperventilation to stuttered hiccups.

He’d been trying to ask you what happened in between attempting to comfort you, but when nothing seemed to get through he’d resorted to stroking your hair and your back, rocking you gently as you clung to him until you’d seemed to return to yourself. Only then could you attempt to verbalize the horrible realization that, had things gone just a little differently, had you not run fast enough, you might’ve never seen Dabi again.

“Ok,” Dabi said, his voice low and quiet, but resolute. “We can’t stay here for long then. We’ll sleep here tonight…” He ran his fingers over your hair again, smoothing down some of its disheveledness but ultimately not doing much to erase the evidence of the frantic rate at which you’d fled town and went rushing through the woods. “But in the morning we’ve gotta keep moving.”

You didn’t respond. Didn’t have anything to say. You could only sag under the weight of the day’s trauma— and all the trauma you’d experienced since fleeing the cabin— and hope that you could trust Dabi to know what was right.

But time was running out.

As much as he was trying to keep the chaos as bay, Dabi knew it was only a matter of time until the hunter caught up with you and the three of your fates were set in stone.

Because whether it was Dabi or Keigo who was left at the end of all of this, your entire world would be forever changed.

***

In truth, he’d let you get away.

Keigo had forced himself to slow his pace and watch as you were folded into the crowd and swallowed behind the teeth of yet another jagged brick alley. He’d stood in the middle of the square, itching to reach for one of his arrows. To knock it. To aim. To take the shot.

To end your suffering before things got so much worse.

Because if he couldn’t have you, why should he let anyone else?

Why should he let a monster lay his claim to you?

You were meant to be his.

He’d seen you first.

He knew, if only he’d had a little more time before you’d encountered the wolfman, that you would’ve been his.

No, if he couldn’t have you, then no one could.

And if he had to be the one to end you, at least he’d know he could make it quick.

He could make it painless.

A beautiful death befitting of a beautiful girl.

And when he took your body, so small and still in his arms, back to your family— When he told them how the ruthless, brutal wolfman had sank his savage teeth into your supple flesh, had stolen your purity, had stolen your life, and by the time Keigo had arrived it had been too late…

He’d still end up as the hero at the end of the day.

He’d become even more revered in your small, pious little town despite not being able to save the life of the pretty girl who lived on the hill.

So, yes, while Keigo had let you go, while he’d lost your trail, he knew that you couldn’t have gone far. He’d find you. There was no doubt about that. But first, he had to prepare something special for when he met you next.

So he walked into the nearest hunting shop and picked out a knife.

***

The hayloft was more comfortable than you’d originally given it credit for on sight. Sure, it still wasn’t a soft, warm bed, but after consecutive nights of sleeping out in the cold, raw wilderness since you and Dabi found yourselves on the run, it was the closest thing you were going to get to some sense of comfort and home.

“Found some blankets in the shed,” Dabi announced after returning from scouring the place for any resources the two of you could use. “They’re a little tattered but should at least keep us warm through the night.”

Suddenly, for what might’ve been the first time in two weeks, you found yourself smiling and, not only that, but giggling as well.

“Dabi…” you began, an edge of sympathy to your otherwise amused tone. “Those are saddle blankets.” When he simply continued to stare at you as if waiting for you to elaborate on why that was an issue, you pushed up from your seat and said, “It’s fine. Either way, that’ll work.” You neglected to mention the fact that you two were lucky to be finding yourselves in such a predicament during the late spring and not the dead of winter, in which case those thin, handmade blankets probably wouldn’t have done much good, but overall just found his lack of knowledge on the subject endearing.

“I’ll keep watch,” Dabi stated once he’d made sure to get you all tucked in and as cozy as currently possible. “Don’t worry about the hunter. If I so much as catch his scent—”

“Dabi…” you began again, much sleepier this time. “Why don’t you just take a moment to relax. If he was on our heels, you’d sense him, wouldn’t you?” It felt like an eternity since the two of you had been able to just relax, to trust in a false sense of security like the cabin had once provided.

“I know, but—”

“Just lay with me,” you cut in, your voice laced with the softness of oncoming sleep. “Just for a couple minutes…”

Glancing over his shoulder at the wide barn doors, ears twitching, tail swishing slightly across the dusty floor, debating whether to indulge you— indulge himself— or do the more responsible thing for once, Dabi ultimately decided that a couple minutes couldn’t hurt.

Even if those couple minutes turned into an hour.

“Hey…” he murmured eventually, rousing you from where you’d very nearly drifted off into dreamland. Your eyes fluttered back open, blinking a few times until he came into focus through the dark. “So… What’s his deal anyway? Why is he so…”

His words trailed off, but you knew what he meant.

“What?” you asked, nuzzling in a little closer to him, trying to bask in as much of his warmth as proximity would allow. “You mean why is Keigo so obsessed with me?”

Dabi didn’t want to phrase it like that but, he admitted, yes, that’s exactly what he meant.

You explained that you’d known Keigo since childhood, or rather, your family had known his— the hunters who’d brought him in after finding him as a baby abandoned in the woods raising him as their own, teaching him to track, to lure, to kill. You said that you’d first met him at the church, that you’d noticed him a few rows ahead of you peering over his shoulder throughout the entire service, his golden eyes always finding yours as if he had something he desperately wanted to tell you, beseeching you with his stare.

“At first,” you recalled, “it sort of freaked me out. Every Sunday he’d be there, a few rows ahead, just glancing at me throughout the entire mass…” Keigo was five years older than you, and back then, it had seemed like much more. As a little girl, you remembered tugging on your mother’s skirts or your father’s shirt sleeve whenever his stare became too oppressive, afraid that the boy had the devil in him and was plotting something against you like the pastors were always telling cautionary tales of during their sermons.

But then, after about half a year of silent, mysterious stares, your parents had introduced you to the renowned Takami family and their prodigy of a son. It was then that you got a taste of Keigo’s more charming side, the easy smiles and polite manners, though something mischievous had always lurked beneath the surface of his laugh.

From then on, your families attended church together, standing in the same pew, breaking bread after service and helping each other out during the harsher seasons, trading your mother’s handmade coats and quilts and father’s extra firewood for the Takami’s rabbit and deer meat.

Keigo had always been enamored with you, had always tried to say and do all the right things.

But deep down, you knew, just like you’d caught a glimpse of during those six months burdened by the amber of his predator’s gaze, that there was something subtly, inexplicably, inherently wrong with him.

“And then he got the idea that he was going to marry me,” you sighed, as if the mere notion was exhausting. “And no matter how many times I tried to avoid him, no matter how many times I tried to brush him off, he just wouldn’t give up…”

Dabi blew out a low whistle, the note laced with sarcasm. Then, jokingly, he said, “So… what? Were you the only girl in your entire village, or…?”

You hummed out a short chuckle, gave Dabi a light nudge, and said, “Sure seems that way…” But then your mood darkened yet again, causing you to add, “But, I dunno… I have a feeling all of this has more to do with you than it does with me…”

The admittance had sort of just slipped out, the thought having been on your mind since your run in with the hunter this past afternoon, your intuition unable to shake the feeling of unease that came along with it.

But before you could ruminate on that unsettling idea for much longer, Dabi pulled you in closer and muttered, “Yeah, well, if he wants to marry me, the guy’s got another thing comin’.”

Now you laughed for real, body shaking with mirth, and you thought of all the ways that Keigo could never, would never, be any match for Dabi when it came to your affections. Because who else could make you laugh like this during such dark, dire times?

If it was a monster’s love that had sunk its teeth into you, then so be it.

You would accept it with open arms, even if that made others view you as a monster just the same.

As your amusement simmered down and your body once again prepared to become heavy with sleep, Dabi remained alert and awake. He knew he should force himself from your tangled embrace and assume his post for watch. And he would.

He just had something he needed to do first.

You were stirred awake yet again as his hands slowly began to wander, the shape of his palm and the press of his fingertips a familiar, welcome thing. And, while you wanted to get some much needed rest, you also wanted whatever he had in store for you as well.

Because how long had it been now since you’d had enough time to partake in these kinds of pleasures?

You were pretty sure you’d lost count.

But, this time, Dabi decided, he was going to be soft with you. If this was the last time he might ever get to have you like this, the last time he’d ever get to have anyone like this, if Keigo succeeded in finally killing the infamous wolfman like he so desperately aspired to, then he wanted you to remember him as gentle, as more than the monster that the myths portrayed him to be.

With the two of your bodies pressed close, limbs loosely entangled as you shifted slightly, as if gently turning in sleep, he nudged his nose against yours, those blazing blues at half-mast as he drank in the sight of you so vulnerable and tender beside him. When your eyes fluttered back open, slowly blinking him back into focus, you leaned forward, lazily chasing after his lips for a kiss. Normally, he would’ve denied you. Would’ve teased you until you were practically begging for any and everything he would give you. But now, tonight, Dabi was content to oblige you.

Like a dying man’s last meal, he was going to savor every kiss, every touch, every inch of your skin until there was nothing left to give. Nothing left to take.

He was going to draw it out.

He was going to make it last so, when the hunter finally came for him, he’d have no regrets if the worst befell him.

Your lips first met with a soft, chaste touch, the ghost of affection reaching out between each other in a silent plea for more. You felt his fingers flex where they gripped your waist, tugging you just that much closer to him, wanting to have you so close he could feel your heartbeat against his skin, so close that your pulse and his own became indistinguishable.

When his tongue gave a gentle suggestion for you to part your lips for him, you obeyed, melting further into the kiss as you hummed out a sated sigh, a breathy moan working its way up your throat. As you relearned the shape of each other’s mouths, rememorized the taste, Dabi’s hands began to wander some more, mapping out the familiar curves of your body as he so liked to do, his fingertips rough but the touch itself gentle, delicate.

You sucked in a small gasp when he groped at your ass, feeling his lips split into a smirk as one of those sultry chuckles escaped him. He couldn’t help but find your reactions to such things amusing yet adorable. It was like you were his helpless little virgin all over again. It made him hard just thinking about it, that first night he’d had you.

He began to strip you of your clothes, the bundle of oversized brown fabric gathered around your waist while he pressed a kiss to your hip, your tummy, then pushed up higher to expose the soft curve of your breasts to him, nipples pebbling as the cool night air brushed up against your skin, then over your head and discarded completely in a pile off to the side, Dabi pulling his own shirt over his head to expose the expanse of his chest, pale and etched deep with scars, just as lovely as you remembered him to be.

With a knee between your legs, he gave one of them a nudge as means of encouragement to open for him, his hands aiding in getting you the rest of the way there when you seemed to suddenly become a little shy.

As his head lowered between your spread legs a shiver wracked through you, a tremor of anticipation at the magic, be it witchcraft or a miracle, that he had a habit of placing upon you with his fingers and tongue. His warm breath fanned over your wet cunt, causing you to whine when you felt just how soaked you’d become, raising a palm to cover your mouth as your face grew hot with the humiliation, muffling your next precursory moan. But that was when Dabi stopped, just inches from tasting you, moments from delivering you the most divine pleasure you’d known, raising his head and appearing above you again, lightly taking your wrist in his grip and tugging it free from your mouth.

“No,” he stated, plain and simple, yet still retaining that err of gentleness that he was becoming more accustomed to displaying around you. “Don’t try to hide it. I want to hear you, understand?” Despite your face growing hotter still, you swallowed down your apprehension and nodded for him. “Good girl,” he praised you, slowly retracing his descent down towards where you were most needy for attention. Then, as if talking only to himself, he muttered, “I wanna hear you when you come for me,” and upon hearing those words you felt your little hole flutter, your belly clenching just at the thought of what you knew it would feel like once he was buried deep inside you, the sensation all too familiar yet, at the same time, always feeling like nothing could’ve prepared you for it beforehand, the ecstasy created by your two bodies becoming one stronger and more potent than any other brand of euphoria the world could offer.

You let out a broken mewl as his long, slick tongue began lightly teasing at your dewy folds, gathering more of your arousal as he made you obscenely drenched with his spit, taking his time to flick the tip of his tongue along your sensitive little bud, making you jolt and writhe, wrestling you still with his arms looped snugly around your thighs. Your melody of moans and whimpers only ever made him desperate to hear them more, engaging in the skillful dance of bringing you right up to that edge but always pulling you back before you tumbled over.

“You’re being mean—” you lightly chided, a feeble quiver to your quiet voice, the teasing soon becoming too much.

But, at this, Dabi only chuckled, placing a wet, open-mouthed kiss to the inside of your thigh, stroking the other with the pad of his thumb as he rested his head against it. Gazing up at you with glittering eyes, he cooed, “Promise I’ll make it worth it, baby…” Another kiss, this time closer to your soaked core, caused you to flinch. “Besides…” He began to leave languid kisses up your body, shifting his position to reach your tummy, your chest, your collarbones, your neck. When he was face to face with you again, the sight of your arousal shining on his chin making your stomach clench yet again, he said, “Don’t I always?”

But he didn’t give you time to answer before diving back into his ministrations, his tongue lolling out to lav at your perked nipples, making you moan and arch further into the warmth of his mouth, Dabi lightly tugging at one of the furled buds with his teeth, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to hear you give him one of those cute little gasps again, balancing on the precipice of fear.

After he’d coated both of you breasts with his saliva, making nearly as much of a mess of you as you’d made of him, Dabi’s kisses once more made the migration towards your neck, sucking a few dark bruises into that tender flesh, your grip tightening around his biceps as a wave of goosebumps raced across your skin, your breath stuttering at the sensation.

Then he was coaxing your mouth back open for him, taking a moment to hover there, to taste each exhale that leapt from your lungs. The kiss he gave you next was sloppy and open-mouthed, and you could taste the salty tang of yourself on his tongue now, only distracted from the flavor when you felt two of his long, lithe fingers glide through the glistening petals of your pussy before slipping inside of you, pumping in and out, slow and steady, before beginning to scissor you open wider in preparation.

“Hurts—” you hissed when he stretched you a little too far a little too fast, but the feeling of your cunt trying to suck his fingers in deeper, the way your silky walls clenched around them as if in hopes of holding them prisoner, only made him that much more painfully hard. He could already feel himself leaking through his trousers. He was just as needy as you were, only better at hiding it.

“I know, baby…” he cooed, unable to keep some of that saccharine condensation from fringing his raspy tone. “But you’re doing so good for me…” Another kiss placed to your temple as he reached into his waistband and took hold of his cock, feeling it pulse against his palm when the cool night air hit the velvety length of him. He didn’t waste time lining himself up, his other hand stroking gentle lines along your hip. “You’re always so good for me.”

You half expected him to bury himself to the hilt with one harsh thrust, as he sometimes had a habit of doing, but tonight, as he’d already decided, he was going to take his time with you. So, inch by inch, he sunk deeper into your slick heat, sucking in a hiss through clenched teeth when your little nails bit into his back at the sting of the stretch, your delicate skin breaking in fragile fissures as his cock split you in two.

Once he was fully inside, both of your bare chests pressed close, Dabi gave you a moment to adjust to the feeling of him stuffing you full, but before he could move, you made a request of him.

“It hurts a little,” you said, then further clarified, “The hayloft. It hurts my back. Can we…?” But before you’d even finished your question he was carefully propping you up, helping to hold you into a position that allowed you to straddle his lap, the shift making you wince a little as his length nudged against your cervix, but you definitely felt more comfortable now than you had laying back against the rough wooden surface.

Letting out a soft chuckle as he picked pieces of straw from where they stuck in your hair, Dabi asked, “Better?” and you nodded, adjusting your position just a little bit more before you felt like you were in the perfect spot to take him. As he began, he kept a strong palm pressed to the small of your back for support, your little hands gripping his shoulders and becoming tighter the more he fucked into you, urging you to ride him to the best of your ability, and you did all that you could to match his pace. But, as always, eventually he became relentless, hips meeting yours with ruthless stamina, drinking in every cry or yelp or moan you would grant him, soaking up every clench of your cunt around his cock until, finally, he came, his body shuddering as a breathy moan was punched from his chest, filling you to the brim with his sticky warmth. But he wasn’t done with you yet. He wasn’t done until he’d made you come, made you gush all over his cock, coating him in so much of your love and your lust that he swore he’d never be able to clean it all away. 

Rubbing some more of those torturously skillful circles on your swollen little clit, Dabi soon worked you over that sharp edge, feeling your body tremble and tense before your weight sagged against him, your shallow, panting breaths gradually returning to something much more even and controlled.

Normally, he’d take this time after to clean you up, to lay with you as he watched you drift off to sleep, only then daring to fall unconscious himself. But out here, in this unfamiliar and unequipped place, there wasn’t much he could do besides wipe the excess of your shared arousal that drooled in thick globs from your sore little hole with the edge of one of the blankets, murmuring promises of the life he’d create for the two of you once you’d escaped the hunter’s grasp as you feel unconscious. 

He’d build you a house. One with a fireplace and a balcony and a back porch. He’d build you a bed. One with four posts and a canopy and a quilt. You’d have a wardrobe full of the finest clothes money could buy, making a living by selling your handcrafted sundries in the market of the nearest town. Your world would smell like honey and pine. You’d spend your days surrounded by the trees and the songs of the birds. You’d get married in the backyard in a wedding dress you’d made by hand, freshly picked poppies adorning Dabi’s makeshift lapel, trading matching rings carved of oak or birch or stone. He’d make love to you on that bed he’d built, on that quilt you’d sewn, every night leading up to the full moon.

You’d bake bread.

He’d hunt deer.

You’d be safe.

You’d be happy.

You’d be his.

But first, before the house and the honey and the hunting of the deer, there was one thing Dabi knew he had to do in order to make even half of that fantasy possible.

He had to kill Keigo.

He had to pave the way for a world where not a single hunter would follow in pursuit of you.

***

The blade caught the morning’s glow, sunlight on silver a burst of blinding light.

Keigo couldn’t help but admire its pristine shine, the flawless edge of its craftsmanship, the way he could view his reflection in it, the amber of his eyes cutting across the weapon wearing determination but also something sorrowful.

He didn’t want to kill you. Truly, he didn’t. If Keigo got his way, you’d finally see reason once the demon who’d tempted you had been slain. You’d come to your senses. You’d accept his offer to return with him and take his hand in marriage.

You’d choose the path that let you live, left your family pleased, and ensured that Keigo had you all to himself.

He could give you a good life.

He would give you a good life.

All you had to do was let him.

And if not, well…

Keigo had always thought you looked best in the color red.

***

The countryside by the shore was comfortingly desolate, the hills sprawling out in every direction as far as the eye could see until the rolling waves of the ocean crept up to meet them. The breeze tasted of salt and the lingering smoke from the small campfire that had just been stomped out.

The old boat house stood on the border between the sand and the seagrass, the exterior half rotted by the caress of the brine, flecks of once-white paint hanging onto the planks for dear life, the decaying wood turned a pale shade of teal. 

It was so quiet out here, not another soul for miles beyond the seagulls that circled come high noon.

You’d never seen the ocean before, your little village too far inland to ever make the journey, even by horse, so you found much comfort and wonder by simply sitting in the soft sand and staring out at the froths of foam lining the waves far off in the distance, nothing but water meeting sky. It gave you time to think, to really put some things into perspective.

You and Dabi had been on the run for over two weeks now. You’d traveled so far, seen so much, and the further you distanced yourself from home, the less you found yourself wanting to go back.

“We could do it, y’know…” he’d said the first night you’d arrived, the crumbling little structure one of his maker’s old hideouts.  “We could head south to the ports. Sneak onto a boat…” He’d gone from gazing at the stars to gazing at you, those half-lidded blues sparkling as if he’d reached up into the constellations and plucked down two of the stars just for you. “See where it takes us…”

You’d hugged your knees up to your chest, turned your view back to the expanse of black sky above, and tried to contemplate what that would be like.

A new country.

A new life.

No one to chase you, at least, for a little while.

But maybe then you could put down some roots, still away from the center of society, of course, but you could create a life where you wouldn’t have to live day by day, hour by hour.

Though now, as the sun rose on a new dawn, you wondered how many days you had left.

“How long have you been awake?”

You turned as Dabi’s voice registered to you. He was standing on the porch that sagged under the weight of every pace, each step surely the last one it would take to cause the whole thing to crumble as it creaked and groaned beneath his feet. He had a moth-eaten blanket wrapped tightly around his shoulders, the nights out here so much colder than what the dense forest provided.

Dragging one of your bare feet across the sand, you carved a smooth arc out before you as you sighed. “Maybe an hour,” you responded, your voice just loud enough for him to hear with the couple of meters between you. You were about to approach him but then he was the one closing the gap, coming down to join you on the soft, cool sand.

“I was worried,” he admitted, now standing before you, close enough to reach out and touch. “I thought maybe he’d…” and his words trailed off. But you didn’t need him to finish the thought to understand.

“Sorry…” you whispered, feeling the threat of tears prickling in the back of your nose. “It’s just—”

Dabi pulled you in close to his chest, wrapped you up in the thin blanket along with him, and he murmured into your hair after a shuddering sigh, “It’s fine. It’s just…” He didn’t want to think about it. Didn’t want to say it out loud. How he’d thought the hunter had come and stolen you in the night. But he really should’ve known better.

Had Keigo come around, he would’ve ensured that Dabi never got the chance to wake up ever again.

“Once we get through the next full moon,” Dabi concluded, “we’ll head to the ports.”

And so it was decided.

The next full moon was two days from now— you’d grown accustomed to reading its phases based on the current state of Dabi’s wolfishness alone over these past few weeks— so that didn’t leave much time.

Not for you to decide whether you were truly ready to turn your back on everything you’d ever known and plunge into the uncertainty of what a future with Dabi would hold, or decide this was all too much too fast and return to the damning familiarity of had once been your normal day to day.

You’d tasted freedom.

You were so close to grabbing it with both hands and swallowing it whole.

How could you give that up?

How could you forget all of that in just forty-eight hours?

Though, for Keigo, forty-eight hours was more than enough time to take some drastic measures.

It was also more than enough time for him to catch up.

“The ports…” you repeated, your words sounding far off to your own ears, as if you were hearing them in a dream. It seemed almost impossible to you, this plan that Dabi felt so sure would work. And Dabi, well…

He was just hoping he could convince you to cross the border before you changed your mind.

Once he got you on that boat— currently speculating that stowing away on a cargo ship would be your best bet, even if the journey could take days or maybe even weeks until it reached the next port, Dabi sneaking out at night to maneuver around watch patrols as he sniffed out any food that he could steal— and whisked you away from this place, escaped the hunter who swore he’d pursue the two of you to the ends of the earth…

Only then would he feel like he’d won.

Only then would he let himself believe that he’d be able to have you forever.

“Don’t worry,” he was telling you again, placing a kiss to the crown of your head as he stroked gentle patterns down your back, his palm warm through your clothes, a welcome reprieve from the chilly sea air. “I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to you.”

It was the only lie he couldn’t bring himself to stop telling.

He thought that, if he said it enough, it would become true.

You turned in his arms, your back pressed to his chest, so you could once again face the sea.

Those waves both beckoned and terrified you, pulling you in with every frill of foam lapping at the shore, yet pushing you further away with the hiss of its rhythmic ambience.

Once you crossed that water you’d never be able to come back. You’d only have Dabi and the moon and whatever little life the two of you could manage to make for yourselves after that.

And so you asked yourself…

Would that be enough?

“I know…” you told him, your voice so fragile, so small and trembling, when you wanted nothing more than to look him in the eyes, so firm and resolute, and give him that answer with your whole chest. With your whole heart.

You wanted nothing more than to believe that, no matter what stood in your way, as long as you had each other, nothing could break you apart.

Nothing could hurt you.

No one could take you away from him again.

Yet, every time you closed your eyes, you saw it— that flash of tawny and gold. It haunted your nightmares, crept up behind you between every shadow or sudden movement out of the corner of your eye.

You didn’t want Keigo to die. Not really.

But, you were coming to accept, there might be no other way.

It was going to be him or Dabi.

You didn’t need to take the time to figure out which one you most wanted to fall into the arms of once all was said and done.

***

When Keigo could taste the salt in the air, he knew the sea couldn’t be far. He quickened his pace, the sting of the open blisters on his feet and the pain twisting in his stomach after three days without a meal no longer registering to him once the thought that the wolf could’ve already stolen you away across the water struck him.

Or maybe he’d arrive to find your body strewn across the shore, your blood being licked at by the waves.

He thought he’d prefer the latter. At least then he’d have closure.

At least then, he wouldn’t have to do it himself.

And if he was lucky enough to discover the two of you still there, what would he do?

There would be nowhere to hide. He might be able to finish things once and for all, if he was able to knock an arrow and aim for the heart faster than the wolfman could sink his fangs into the hunter’s soft human throat.

He was so close he could feel it in his bones, this insatiable ache for something he couldn’t quite describe. Perhaps it was the thrill of the hunt calling to him, this new, intelligent prey so enticing to a man who’d pursued the same game ever since his father before him had handed the little boy a knife and a bow and taught him how to kill. He’d learned to get into the mind of his targets, able to trace the path of their steps as if they were his own. With the two of you, he’d been kept on his toes, always trying to predict what you’d do or where you’d go next but unable to get three steps ahead like he was used to.

The swish of the waves mingled with the whistle of the breeze, and when Keigo could tell the two apart, he knew he had to keep moving. He would reach the sea tonight. He would face whatever awaited him at that shore.

When the boathouse appeared in the distance, at first Keigo didn’t let himself believe it, figuring that he’d somehow dozed off and was caught in a dream. Or maybe he was delirious from lack of sleep and food and was wandering aimlessly towards some sort of mirage. But the closer he trudged, the bigger that crooked hut became and he knew it was all too real.

He drew his knife, slinking up to the side of the little house and listening for any signs of life. It was silent, so he thought fuck it and tried the front door.

Keigo winced when it opened with a creak, his body going still and he anticipated an attack. But when nothing came, he gathered up the courage to travel further into the house, going room by room, of which there were only four, and expecting to find a pair of glowing blue eyes peering at him around every turn.

But the boathouse was empty, as far as Keigo could tell.

All that was left behind was a tattered shawl and some empty crab husks.

***

The morning before the full moon, you and Dabi headed south. It would be easier to catch a boat if you weren’t running on at the last minute, and this way you could sneak on under the cover of night when there would be less people around. A few towns back, on the way to the shore, Dabi had found himself a long, stiff piece of fabric that could pass as a cloak to hide his wolfishness. The plan was, if anyone asked or seemed suspicious, you would just tell them that you were traveling with a sick relative who was, unfortunately, horribly deformed beneath that cloak, and that you were setting sail in search of a specialist overseas who you hoped could cure him.

By nightfall though, he’d be man no more, and then the cloak would be used to keep you warm as the ocean’s breeze tangled around your limbs. Dabi would curl up around you, keeping watch while you slept, and in the morning, when he looked just as human as you did though still hiding beneath the cloak to maintain your cover story, the two of you could merge with the other passengers and blend into the crowd. Depending on the length of the journey, Dabi would have to sneak off periodically once the moon became full, but somehow, some way, he’d make sure that both of you were delivered safely to a foreign shore.

He’d find a way to start over.

He’d find a way to live and not just survive.

“Look!” you’d called from where you’d ventured up a little ways ahead, the edge of the forest fading from a cliffside. You pointed a finger out at a horizon Dabi couldn’t yet view, though as he marched up the incline to stand by your side, the sight of the town’s edge lined with vessels— passenger liners and freighters and sailboats— finally revealed itself.

“We’re so close!” you beamed, and it was the first time in a long time that Dabi had seen you smile like that, heard the giddy excitement fringing on your words.

He slung an arm around you, gently tugging you against his chest before reaching forward to twine both of his long, thin arms around your waist. “Just a little bit longer…” he murmured, though whether it was more to himself or to you, you weren’t exactly sure. “Just a little bit longer and we’ll be free…”

And so you made plans to camp out on the hem of the forest until dusk. You sat by the cliff, counting the hours until the sun would set, sharing the meager stock of berries and nuts you’d collected as the sky changed from blue to a beigey gold, and when hints of lavender tinged the edges of nature’s great canvas, the two of you stood, staring out at all the little boats bobbing and swaying and beckoning you on board, hands clasped, hope high, and prepared to commence the final and possibly most daring piece of this crooked jigsaw puzzle of a plan.

Too bad you only made it a few paces before the weathered figure of the hunter appeared between the trees in the distance, causing both sides of this long, treacherous game you’d been playing for so long to stop short, the wolf and the hawk sizing each other up.

Then, just before you could squeeze Dabi’s hand, a silent imploration to him, though for what exactly you did not know, without taking his sharp gaze off the hunter he merely said to you, “Head for the port. I won’t be long.”

Before you could protest even half a syllable or a single sound, Dabi took off running, darting towards Keigo faster than you’d ever seen a living creature move.

Keigo drew his knife and gave chase.

And you, however frustrated and terrified, started in a sprint to follow.

***

With every leap and bound through the uneven path, closing in on the hunter but not quite near enough to catch him and take him to the ground, Dabi could feel the pull of the full moon running through his blood like fire and ice colliding in a burst of cruel fireworks.

His senses became sharper, his reflexes quicker, his vengeance and bloodlust flaring molten and deadly between the grooves of his ribcage. It wouldn’t be long until this curse placed upon him took control and his bones twisted into canis lupus.

But, for perhaps the first time since he’d been turned, Dabi longed to become a monster. Because, when he did, there’d be no chance for the hunter to get away. He’d rake his razor-sharp claws down Keigo’s back, drag him to the ground, and sink his teeth in deep, savor the man’s blood as it gushed into his maw and ran in thick rivulets down his throat.

Just a little longer, Dabi told himself, not slowing down a single beat as he forced Keigo back further into the woods. Just a little longer and it’ll all be over.

Only, the hunter wasn’t keen on playing the part of easy prey.

Keigo was guiding Dabi, bringing him deeper into the darkness of the green in hopes of having a chance to spare you.

He’d give you one last chance to accept his offer and return home with him once the wolf was dead.

If you still refused, well…

At least then no one from the town on the coast would hear your screams echo out across the sloshing water.

The moon became brighter still, cutting through twilight’s haze like a window opening into the silvery heavens, and with that illumination came the protruding of fangs, the curvature of claws, the sprouting of thick, black fur down the nape of Dabi’s neck and along the column of his spine. The blueness of his eyes became bluer still, glowing sapphires slashing through the shadows to pierce his target’s back every time the hunter dared to glance behind him, panic striking as the wolfman closed the gap more and more with every step.

You’d lost their trail long ago, rushing frantically through the dark woodlands in hopes of spotting the imprint of a familiar shoe tread or catch a glimpse of Keigo’s tawny hunting jacket from between the rustling pines. Your lungs were starting to ache, every breath of the evening’s cool air sucked down in short, panicked breaths stinging from inside your tightening chest the longer you went without any sign of them.

You were about to give up. To turn around and hope you could find your way back into hiding and pray that Dabi would be the one who came back to find you. 

But then you heard a scream.

Not a scream, exactly.

More like a low, guttural, raspy growl.

Dabi’s tone echoed in sharp, staccato bursts from somewhere off to your left, his voice sounding pained, like he was in the throes of agony.

And so you took off running again, this time faster than you’d previously thought yourself capable of.

Just before the wolfman had been able to take hold of the hunter, an invisible force seized his limbs, an acidic suffering surging through his veins, lacing through the very marrow of his bones as they began to crack and shift inside his frame, the pain splintering through him like white hot electricity as he arched and bent with the torture of the transformation.

By the time you reached him, he had only a few more breaths left of being a man. You’d never seen him during a shift. He’d always gone away, done it somewhere privately, somewhere you couldn’t hear his misery.

And when you looked at him, even just for those few seconds he was caught in the horrible in between, he could see it in your eyes.

The terror.

And you…

You’d be lying if you said you could no longer understand why so many viewed his kind as monsters.

It was only once Dabi’s haunting hisses and moans ceased that you registered Keigo’s own groans of struggle and dread and revulsion filling the air as he panted through clenched teeth, attempting to scramble up from the ground where he’d tripped as he’d been backing away, golden eyes wide with fear of all that was holy and damned and everything in between.

You’d never seen Keigo afraid and, somehow, that in and of itself was terrifying to you.

“Dabi!” you called out to him, something more akin to concern than disgust breaking at the end of his name. He peered over his shoulder to find you running towards him, immediately swiveling to help close the gap, mindful to let you collide with him and not the other way around, as his current size might do some damage if it crashed into your fragile human form. You threw your arms around his neck, buried your face into his fur, the scent of campfire smoke still clinging to him even in this form, and he could feel your whole body shaking, trembling like a fall leaf one breeze from being shorn from the tree’s withered branch.

A short, breathy whine was sighed out through the wolf’s nostrils and you felt his massive weight sag a little further into your desperate embrace. Man or wolf, you just wanted him to be alright. You wanted him to whisk you away from this nightmare and deliver you both safely to one of those boats, the promise of a new life, a new land, awaiting you. 

But, while you two were having your touching little reunion, the hunter wasn’t wasting any time. He knocked an arrow and drew back the bowstring in one swift, deathly precise motion, the sharp tip of the weapon aimed for your beating heart as soon as you parted from your beloved monster. He took one steadying breath, not a single flicker of doubt or apprehensive shudder to be found.

Keigo had no other choice.

You’d forced his hand.

You’d made your choice and now he’d follow through with his.

Dabi saw the hunter turn his aim onto you, and before he even had time to think he was springing into action, vaulting towards the hunter with his teeth bared as the arrow was set free.

The world seemed to slow around him as he dove into harm’s way, a dozen memories flashing through his head all at once, though still seeming to draw out and take their time. He remembered the first time he lay eyes on you, so enticing and vulnerable as you’d waded your way through the fog, the fur of his maker wrapped around your pretty neck, the look of terror you’d worn when he sang your lullaby back to you and you’d spotted the glow of his eyes through the trees.

He remembered how he’d terrorized you, chasing you through the woods, his cruel laughter ringing out and startling the birds from their resting branches. And when he’d caught you, he’d been even more horrible still, earning himself a bite and a cut from the knife you’d carried back then. And when you weren’t afraid anymore, that’s when things had gotten interesting.

That’s when things had changed.

Dabi no longer viewed you as the scared little rabbit, the prey that indulged him in the thrill of the chase.

You could be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, if you wanted to.

And Dabi’s curiosity of what a girl who was as beautiful as she was fierce could be like— could feel like, could taste like— had ultimately won.

And he’d grown attached.

Because you weren’t afraid of him like everyone else was, like everyone else had warned you to be.

You were compassionate and smart and empathetic and kind. You were so many things that he’d convinced himself he didn’t deserve, convinced himself he’d never experience again since damned to live by the cycles of the moon.

You’d given him a reason to live.

And now, for you and only you, he’d be happy for you to be his reason to die.

“No—!” Your shriek cut through the dark as Keigo’s shot buried itself in Dabi’s shoulder, the arrow piercing his rough wolf’s flesh and causing the beast to yelp and stagger. You watched as the blood shone on his matted fur, soaking it to his scarred flesh, and felt like something in the center of your body had been yanked clean out of you, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.

But it would take more than one measly arrow to kill the werewolf, and when Dabi turned his gaze back onto the hunter, his lips pulled up in a vicious snarl to reveal two rows of sharp teeth, he glared with every ounce of hate he’d ever felt for anyone or anything in this world. Yet, at the same time, he was relieved. Because he’d much rather it be him than you who had to experience such pain. Besides, Dabi was no stranger to the sensation. It had been a while, yes, but it greeted him like an old friend.

And now, Dabi would relish in introducing Keigo to this bitter acquaintance.

Keigo took aim once more, firing off another arrow that, that time, missed the beast by only a hair, merely grazing along its side as it lunged at the hunter. Keigo threw himself out of the way, his full weight hitting the ground with a thud before frantically rolling away as the wolf snapped its razor-toothed jaw where his neck had been just a moment ago.

You’d fallen to your knees, the cool earth curling its damp tendrils around your bare legs, creeping up and up and up until the chill seemed to seep into your brain, leaving you frozen and helpless to watch everything that was about to unfold, the cruel crescendo of these past weeks— this past year— finally coming to a close.

The blonde was springing back to his feet with another arrow at the ready before Dabi could attempt his next strike, and the following, from what you could see, was a tangle of claw and limb, black and beige caught up in a deadly, face-paced dance.

The tears running down your cheeks had stopped flowing, leaving behind salty, shimmering streaks, your eyes wide with fear and hurt and anticipation.

The hunter was holding his ground, even in such close proximity, but what Dabi didn’t know was that this was all going according to Keigo’s plan.

Just a little closer, the hunter hoped. And, with one more luring motion, he had the wolf within his circle.

Keigo drew the knife, raised it above his head, then plunged all eight inches of the silver blade down into the werewolf’s back.

The sound that Dabi let out wasn’t quite a howl, wasn’t quite a scream, but something caught in between the realms of monster and man. You felt a pain in your chest upon hearing that sound, letting out one last hiccuping sob before your body truly had no more grief left to give. You couldn’t even call out his name, to let him hear it with your broken voice one last time.

The wolf went still, sagging heavier against the blood-soaked earth, and the hunter, satisfied with finally claiming such a victory, hoisted himself up to stand using the blade’s handle as leverage, sinking it just that much further into his prize’s flesh. When he did it, he locked eyes with you, the gold of his stare suddenly a much muddier shade, rusted over with apathy and scorn.

But when Keigo looked over at you, it wasn’t with relief.

It was with contempt.

It was with the tired, heavy realization that this wasn’t over yet.

Starting toward you with a slow stride, boots dragging more and more with every step, Keigo flexed his hands and clenched his jaw, his throat working as he attempted to swallow down the final ounces of sentimentality that he held for you, to let them burn away in the churning acid of his stomach. It wasn’t until he was five paces within your reach that you recognized the danger you were faced with and began to scramble from your awkward sitting position on the ground.

But the moment you even so much as hinted at giving chase, Keigo was on you, pushing you back so that your head hit the ground with a nauseous thud and stars sparkled in your swaying vision, giving no time to recover from the rattling in your brain before he was wrapping his cold, calloused hands around your throat and squeezing hard, causing you to claw at his grip as the oxygen was wrung from you.

You couldn’t hear Keigo speaking over the hammering of your pulse in your own ears, but as your vision began to go black you saw his mouth moving, caught slivers of the murmur of his voice in between your asphyxiation

“Why are you making me do this?” he was asking. “Why couldn’t you have just come home?”

Even as he squeezed harder still, the strength of your struggle fading away more and more by the moment, Keigo’s eyes filled with tears, his chin beginning to tremble as he bit back a sob, drops of his sorrow flecking your face as your eyes rolled back and he watched as the life began to drain out of you.

Once upon a time, you would’ve been the girl he’d married. You would’ve been the mother of his children, the beloved wife he returned home to at the end of every hunt.

He could’ve provided for you, protected you, given you a good life.

But you’d gone and burned it all to ash.

And for what?

All because you’d been tempted by the monster that now lay in a heap among the shadows of the trees.

Keigo wondered how long it would take for your bodies to be found and, when they were, if Dabi’s would be that of a human or a wolf.

He supposed it didn’t matter. His job was done. There was nothing left to do now but return to your village and deliver the grim news to your family.

“I tried…” Keigo wept, his words barely above a whisper. “I loved you.”

It was only half a breath later that the hunter’s grip released from your neck, two bruises in the shape of his hands marring your tender flesh, making you wince as you wheezed and gasped for air, the final shreds of mortality he’d nearly stolen from you breathing you back to life one painful cough at a time.

Once the ringing in your ears subsided, you turned halfway onto your side, looking out at where the hunter was granted but one final scream before the wolf sank its teeth into his jugular with a sickening crunch, tearing ruthlessly at his windpipe with a rapid shake of its head to deliver the killing blow. You pushed up onto your elbows as you saw Dabi open his jaw and let Keigo drop to the dirt, his eyes still open, blood drenching his neck and down his chest, soaking dark into the fabric of his coat, running up the side of his face, staining his curls a vengeful crimson.

It was then that you collapsed, though whether from trauma or shock, you did not know. Dabi was quick to return to your side, walking with a limp on his front left paw from where the knife had yet to be pulled free. He breathed in your scent, sensed your heart still beating, and curled up beside you.

It wouldn’t be until dawn, when the moon faded away back into the pale horizon, that he’d be able to change back. He just hoped that, when he did, you’d both have survived through the night.

***

The sun was just beginning to tinge the sky with all its newborn colors when you woke, your eyes fluttering apprehensively open, the light that flooded your vision making you wince and retreat back into the dim, pinkish darkness the back of your eyelids provided.

Your head throbbed and your neck pulsed with pain, your entire being sore with the aftermath of the night previous. You wondered, for a moment, if it had all been some kind of horribly vivid dream, but when you looked further into the field, your sight adjusting into focus, you saw Keigo’s corpse still lying dormant amidst the grass, his blood congealing and his expression twisted into a sight you had to force yourself to look away from, rigor mortis settling over his once handsome features in a grotesque display of death and decay.

You went to speak, to call out for Dabi, but found you couldn’t make a sound, your voice less than a wheeze and feeling ragged and raw even upon the gentlest whisper. You feared, for a moment, that Dabi hadn’t made it either. That he’d dragged himself off somewhere far away to die. But then you glanced behind you and felt at least that part of your panic settle, finding him asleep and hopefully alive.

He was man once more, having shed all of his wolfish parts by daybreak, though was left naked and vulnerable against the earth, the blood from his wounds showing bright against his pale flesh, new scars likely to form on his shoulder his back, flaking rust still around his mouth and down his neck, all the evidence of Keigo’s attacks and Dabi’s victory staining his skin with gore.

But, as you curled back up beside him, moving closer so your two bodies could touch, wrapping your arms around him in hopes of sharing some of your warmth as he’d done for you so many times before, it was confirmed that he was, indeed, still alive.

You could feel him breathing, feel him occasionally twitch or wince amidst his slumber, you keeping watch over him this time, finally able to feel like you were the one capable of doing the protecting.

An hour or so later, when Dabi finally began to stir, it was with a hiss and a groan, all of last night’s pain resurfacing from its rest as well. The moment he laid eyes on you though, all of his suffering was forgotten, all of his worries chased away.

“Hey…” he cooed, gently threading his fingers through your hair as your eyes filled with tears. “Hey, it’s alright…” he continued to assure you, pulling you in a little closer. “We’re safe now… I’ve got you… We’re safe…”

Despite the pain, you still attempted to speak again, but to no avail. Once Dabi realized this, remembered how he’d almost been too late to pull the hunter off of you, he had you sit up, allowing him to carefully inspect the damage done to your throat.

It would take some time to heal, that was for certain, but he had confidence that you’d end up ok. For now though, he told you not to push yourself, not to speak, that he’d take care of everything and get you what you needed as soon as you boarded one of those boats.

Helping each other to your feet, Dabi instructed you to head up the hill and wait while he procured some clothes. You didn’t protest. You knew it was so you wouldn’t have to watch him strip Keigo’s body of his belongings. Because even if he had tried to kill you, it still wasn’t easy to see the corpse of someone who’d once been so familiar.

It wasn’t long before Dabi returned to meet you, now wearing Keigo’s clothes, the sleeves of the jacket and the legs of the pants a little short on him, but seeing as his garments were destroyed during the shift, he had no other choice. Keigo’s body would be left behind, whether for the vultures to begin scavenging from or some unfortunate hunter to find, that wasn’t the concern of either of you.

You had a boat to catch, after all.

A proper burial would take too long.

So, heading in the direction of the shore, passing through the last remaining town that you’d probably ever see of your home country, Dabi used the last of the coins that he’d found waiting patiently in one of Keigo’s pockets to purchase you both some new clothes and, the real shock of your entire pre-voyage excursion, two third-class tickets onto one of the passenger liners headed east.

You didn’t know what would await you in the next land you set foot on, if things would fare better or worse than the situation you’d just escaped, the family that you’d heartbreakingly left behind. But there was no way to know unless you tried.

All you could hope was, perhaps there, you could start over.

Perhaps, there, you could be free.

***

Hello and thank you so much to everyone for reading (and for being so patient in waiting for the finale). Also, happy halloween! It’s always a bittersweet feeling to wrap up a series, especially one I started so long ago despite it only being three chapters, so I sincerely hope you enjoyed and were satisfied with the way things turned out. Since going back to school I’ve been very busy and not had very much time for writing as I’m used to, but little by little I intend to continue other projects of mine that I’m still in the middle of, so please continue to be patient with me on that. Anyway, I want to say thank you again if you’ve come this far and hope you have a wonderful rest of your day/evening! See you next time, byyyyyyyeee! <3

[freya-fallen]

Little Dove 2/?

Check part 1 for story triggers, though none really apply here.

Part 3

You frown at the text. It’s from your bother’s number, but it’s clearly not him. You don’t know if you should respond or wait to talk to Keigo about it. But who knows when that will be.

>Where should I drop this phone off?

>Your the only contact outside the HPSC

>hello?

You didn’t realize that. Surely, Keigo had other people— sidekicks or… then again, he had multiple phones. He said it was easier that way; he could ignore calls from one phone, but keep the other on in case of emergencies.

You should probably respond, right?

<Who is this?>

>I asked you first

You scowl. This is getting you nowhere. There must be some question you can ask that this person will answer. 

<Are you a hero? What agency are you with?> 

>I’m not with an agency. I’m more underground

Whoever this is must be a contact. Keigo does all kinds of work for the commission, to include intel gathering. 

>You bird brain’s gf?

<Ew no lol>

It’s such an automatic response that you type it out before you can help yourself.

>You gotta be a little sister then

“Shit.” No one outside the HPSC is supposed to know about you. You stare down at the screen in your hands, your heart pounding as your mind rushes to find an excuse.

>Don’t worry I won’t tell

<Hero families get threatened a lot> 

>I understand completely

>I still gotta know where to drop off this phone tho

You’re not dumb enough to invite this stranger to your home, not that they’d get through the door without being vetted.

That begs the question of what you can do. You can meet them somewhere, maybe at a cafe or something, a public place. You roll your lip between your teeth as you consider. That might be the best option.

<Do you know XYZ? The cafe?>

A minute passes. You approach the black car awaiting you outside the school and hesitate to open the door.

>sure

You release the breath you weren’t aware you were holding and open the door, climbing inside. 

<Meet me there in ten?>

>you got it dove

“We need to make a stop before home,” you tell the driver. “It’s not too far, so I can probably walk from there.”

XYZ is a small cafe only three blocks from home. You’ve been allowed to walk there on your own a few times, usually on weekends where you decide you want a sweet pastry. The driver sets up and you pull outside the cafe only a few minutes later. Nervous hands waffle your phone as you find a seat and cross your legs under the table. You’ve never met another hero, let alone one who works with your brother. Something tells you itt’s a guy and you wonder what he’ll be like, if he’ll judge you for being a highschool girl, or for having such a weak quirk compared to your brother.

“You like coffee, little dove?” You didn’t even notice the person approach. His smoky voice makes you jump and you blink up at him with wide eyes.

He’s a little taller than Keigo, with black hair and the brightest blue eyes you’ve ever seen. They’re familiar, but strange above the black mask that covers the bottom of his face. Maybe if you could see his whole face you could put a name to him, but you’re lost at the moment.

“I’m not allowed to have coffee,” you admit awkwardly. 

His eyes crinkle at the corners in a hint of a smile. “I won’t tell if you won’t. C’mon, it’s a caramel latte.” He sets the steaming cup in front of you and slips into the other seat at the tiny round table.

You can’t see all of his hands from beneath the cuff of his jacket, which is buttoned up all the way to tickle at the bottom of the mask. His fingers are long and pale. There are half-moon scars beneath his eyes, though the mask covers a bit of that, too. And his ears are similarly trextured and lined with silver piercings.

“Thank you.” You wrap your hands around the mug and bring the steaming cup to your lips. It’s sweet with just a hint of coffee bitterness beneath. You like it. It must show on your face, because the stranger chuckles.

He leans against one fist. “I don’t know what I expected, but not anyone as cute as you.”

One of your wings flutters at the compliment and your cheeks burn. You hope he didn’t notice, but something tells you he sees everything. “You have Kei— Hawks’ phone?”

He pulls out the red-cased cell and taps it gentle on the table. “I could just leave it as his agency or something, but when I saw your contact, I was intrigued. Seriously, why isn’t he sharing you with the world? He should be taking you to galas and shit.”

“He’s more concerned with my safety.” Your face is so hot you’re sure he can feel it from across the table. No one talks to you like this. At school, you’re so shy that no boy has ever confessed to you. The adults in your life are typically all business. Keigo calls you pretty and says you’re perfect, but he’s family. 

He nods. “Your boyfriend probably shows you off though, right?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” You almost choke on the words. Keigo has told you it isn’t safe to date either, not until you’re a little older. Once you have your own place, it’ll be different.

“No way. A cutie like you? Have you ever been on a date?” You shake your head. “So you don’t have a boyfriend and Hawks never takes you out.” He sighs and his eyes bore into you as he seems to consider something. “How about I take you out some time?”

“What? You? Really?” You’re lost for words.

“Sure. Why not?”

You gape at him. “But you’re a hero. And I—I’m…” 

One of his hands crosses the table to lay over yours. You’d expect it to be cold given how pale he is, but it’s warm, almost hot. “It’s not like I’m famous. Your brother and I mostly just pass intel.”

“I’m not really allowed…” You shrug. The weight of his hand is nice on yours and he gives it a little squeeze.

“So don’t tell. It’ll be our little secret, like the coffee.”

You smile brightly. “Okay.”

“I’ll text you, pretty bird. Enjoy your coffee.” He stands and you suddenly realize something.

“Wait! What’s your name?”

He glances back at you and says, “Call me Dabi.”

want to be added to the taglist? lemme know

[scary-grace]

Love Like Ghosts (Chapter 13) - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

You knew the empty house in a quiet neighborhood was too good to be true, but you were so desperate to get out of your tiny apartment that you didn't care, and now you find yourself sharing space with something inhuman and immensely powerful. As you struggle to coexist with a ghost whose intentions you're unsure of, you find yourself drawn unwillingly into the upside world of spirits and conjurers, and becoming part of a neighborhood whose existence depends on your house staying exactly as it is, forever. But ghosts can change, just like people can. And as your feelings and your ghost's become more complex and intertwined, everything else begins to crumble. (cross-posted to Ao3)

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Chapter 13

There’s something wrong with your house, but you knew that when you bought it, and you’ve never felt the oppressiveness and terror that everyone else seems to experience when they come near it. Not until the first streetlight goes out at the top of the street, a split second too late to conceal the shadow that slinks past beneath it.

“Shit,” Spinner hisses over the comms network. Atsuhiro stole the pieces of it, enough for every adult human in the neighborhood, on the search team’s way back. “What was that?”

“Get back from the window,” Magne hisses. They’re inside their house. All according to plan. “Stay down. This isn’t about us.”

“It’s about all of us,” Shinsou argues. He’s got a headset. Hizashi lost headset privileges on the grounds that he’s a ghost, and he’s in the house anyway. “If we just – there’s another one!”

Another streetlight goes out, on the other side of the street, just a second too slow behind the shadow that passes under it. You get a look at the shadow’s face, or where it’s face should be, before the darkness cloaks it. “That’s not Garaki.”

“No,” Aizawa agrees. “He brought reinforcements.”

“What are those things?” Jin’s mother asks, just as the light in front of Atsuhiro’s house goes out. “Tomura, do you know?”

Tomura doesn’t have a headset. Tomura’s dematerialized, and keeping his head down as part of the strategy. But your house has two former ghosts in it, and since Hizashi’s getting the most malevolent silent treatment ever, Eri speaks up, and Aizawa repeats what she whispers in his ear. “They’re like Shirakumo. But they like it.”

Keigo’s voice crackles over the headsets. “What does that mean?”

“The ghosts signed up for it.” Tomura’s voice is barely a whisper in your ear. “They let a conjurer make them his puppets. They’re too weak to do what they want otherwise.”

You convey Tomura’s message to the others, then ask a question of your own. “What do they want?”

“Guys, there’s another one. We’re up to six.” Spinner says what you’re thinking a moment later. “That’s one for every house in the neighborhood.”

Mr. Yagi was right – if one former ghost in the neighborhood is discovered, you’re all compromised, and you’re all fucked. A moment later, a voice rings out down the street. It’s not a voice you recognize. “Hizashi,” it calls out, and Hizashi freezes in place. “Touya. I know you’re here. Come out, and we can avoid any – unpleasantness.”

Everyone in your house glares at Hizashi, ordering him to keep quiet, but Keigo doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of backup. “My name’s not fucking Touya,” Dabi says. “Get out of my neighborhood.”

Hizashi opens his mouth to chime in and Aizawa slaps his hand down over it. “Suit yourself,” Garaki says. “Nomu –”

There’s a sudden crash, and you hear Jin’s mom scream into the headset – the thing in front of her house just took down her fence. But it’s only a warning shot. A second later there’s another, louder crash. “They’re going after your house, Aizawa,” Atsuhiro reports. “When they find out you aren’t there –”

They’ll come here, to your house and Keigo’s. “It’s time,” Aizawa says. “Nemuri, go.”

You’ve never see an unbound ghost flex its powers in public before, and now you know why – powered up with dozens of plants’ worth of life-force, Nemuri is blindingly fast. She knocks the ghost-thing away from Aizawa’s house so hard that it dents one of the doused streetlights, then bolts towards Garaki. Garaki’s ready for her. You don’t know how you know that, but he must be, or he wouldn’t be standing still.

“Wait for it,” Hizashi hisses. “Tomura, now.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Tomura snaps, and his influence crashes back down over the neighborhood with the force of a breaking tsunami.

Garaki staggers, gasping for air, but the effect on the monsters he brought with him is even stronger. The one attacking Jin and Himiko’s house stops immediately and lunges at the one Nemuri just knocked away from Aizawa’s front steps. You hear a harsh, heavy whoosh, followed by a shriek like metal on metal. A rush of wind blasts up the street, visible even in the dark, and you can see something flickering within it, fighting to get back where it came from. “That’s essence,” Hizashi mumbles. “Nice work.”

Tomura doesn’t answer. If you had to guess, you’d say he’s focused on keeping the pressure on the street. The two monsters are tearing each other to shreds, which means that Nemuri’s less outnumbered than she was before, and you’re pretty sure that the monsters parked in front of your house and Keigo’s are there to keep you from leaving. That still leaves two loose monsters, though. Both of them turn and run towards whatever’s happening between Garaki and Nemuri. You can barely see it. There’s no light on the street, anywhere, but there’s one place where the darkness is completely opaque. You don’t know what’s happening in there. You don’t think you want to.

The first sign that something’s going wrong is the cold that begins to spread, worse than anything Tomura’s ever generated, radiating out from the opaque patch of darkness and creeping steadily up the street. Your house and Keigo’s are farthest from the trouble, but ice begins to spiral over your windows, and when Spinner speaks up over the comms, his teeth are chattering. “What’s happening? Magne won’t say –”

You’re pretty sure Magne can’t say. Jin breaks into the comms, reporting that Himiko’s down for the count, and in your own house, Aizawa’s trying with increasing desperation to rouse Eri. Hizashi’s on his feet, still. He speaks through gritted teeth. “Nem’s in trouble,” he says. “I’m going out there.”

“Dad, no!” Shinsou grabs for him, but Hizashi moves fast. “Dad –”

Aizawa’s too focused on Eri to notice before it’s too late. He reaches out futilely to Hizashi. “Zashi, don’t –”

Your front door slams shut behind him. “You’re in the way,” Hizashi says to the thing in front of your house. “Move.”

“Idiot,” Tomura snarls, from everywhere and nowhere. A moment later, Hizashi seizes the monster and drags it into your yard.

Having passed the responsibility for the situation over to Tomura, Hizashi bolts into the street, and Tomura materializes in the front yard just as the monster starts to pick itself up off the ground. Tomura knocks it down again, then straddles it, pinning it in place. “What are you?” he demands. The creature snarls. “You can still feel pain. I’ll hurt you. What are you?”

The monster snarls again. You don’t see what Tomura does, but you hear it let out an agonized howl in response. “Nomu. We are – Nomu.”

It tries to fight free of Tomura’s grip. Tomura slams it against the ground. He looks tiny compared to the monster – the Nomu? – but it’s clear that he’s got the upper hand. “Tell me. How many does he have?” You still can’t see what Tomura’s doing to the Nomu, but it lets out an earsplitting screech. “Now!”

Whatever answer the Nomu gives, it’s not what Tomura wants to hear. He blasts the Nomu apart, then dematerializes, reappearing again inside the house. He’s barley breathing hard. “He’s got too many ghosts. They can’t win.”

“Then do something,” Shinsou demands of Tomura. “My dad –”

Tomura can’t do anything more than he’s already doing, and Shinsou knows it. You hear footsteps behind you and turn to find Aizawa heading for the door. You couldn’t stop Hizashi, but you can sure as hell stop him. You block his way. “Where are you going?”

“This is a fight between ghosts. I’ll be beneath their notice.” Aizawa puts his hand on your shoulder and shifts you firmly aside. “If they lose, we all do.”

He’s out the door before you can stop him, and across the street, you see Keigo sneaking out as well. If you had to guess, you’d say Spinner and Jin are heading out, too. Now it’s only you, Shinsou, Eri, and Tomura inside your house, and you can feel Tomura seething, the air crackling with his power. He wants to fight. You can tell he does. You just don’t understand why. He doesn’t care about the neighborhood or the people in it. Is he really that bloodthirsty? Or maybe it’s not that he’s bloodthirsty. Maybe he just cares more about this, about everything, than you’ve let yourself realize.

“You idiot,” he snaps suddenly, and you and Shinsou both jump. “Stay inside!”

He’s not talking to you. You race to the front window just in time to see Dabi emerging from the house. He’s never looked more frightening than he does right now, half-embodied, half made up of the same darkness that’s now swallowed up half the neighborhood. He strolls up to the Nomu guarding Keigo’s house like he doesn’t have a care in the world. The Nomu doesn’t move. “Are they talking?” Shinsou asks. “What are they saying?”

Before Tomura has a chance to answer, Dabi speaks out loud, his voice bright and full of fury. “You really are stupid, conjurer. Of all the ghosts you could have brought to kill me, you picked my brother.”

You didn’t realize ghosts could have brothers. Then you remember what Keigo said about his old house having multiple ghosts in it. “Nice to see you, Natsu,” Dabi says to the Nomu. “Go get my human.”

The Nomu – Natsu – turns and dives into the darkness, followed by Dabi at a more leisurely pace. You think through the battlefield as it stands now. Garaki is down to two Nomus on his side, and Nemuri’s getting a helping hand from Hizashi, Spinner, Jin, Aizawa, Dabi, Natsu, and Keigo. The fight has to be in the neighborhood’s favor now, doesn’t it? Garaki’s outnumbered, and no matter how much ghostly power he has, he’s still human. He can be killed like any human. It’s going to be –

Eri lurches upright, her red eyes wide and terrified. “Papa!” she screams. “No –”

Everything outside the windows goes completely black. If you couldn’t see into it before, you definitely can’t see out of it now. But you can see what’s inside of it, at least until the frost starts to spiral across the glass – Garaki advancing down the street, flanked by two Nomus. Nemuri’s nowhere to be found. Spinner’s injured, somehow. Jin is dragging him backwards, away from the fight. Aizawa is carrying Hizashi, who’s fully unconscious. The only people in any shape to do anything are Keigo, Dabi, and the Nomu. The fight’s narrowed down to three on three – a conjurer and two monsters versus one monster, one scar wraith, and one human. Suddenly you understand why Eri’s in tears, why Tomura’s materialized next to you with that look on his face. So much for the fight being even. It’s not anywhere close to even. They’re going to lose.

Garaki clucks his tongue, shakes his head. “Touya, you disappoint me.”

“It’s too bad. I was just living for your approval.” Dabi pushes Keigo casually behind him. “I’d highly recommend pissing off. Stick around and I might get angry. You’re not going to like it when I’m angry.”

“In your position, I’d be angry, too,” Garaki responds. “You’ve been a scar wraith for four years. Don’t you want your powers back? Isn’t this mortal form exhausting to inhabit? Wouldn’t you rather be free?”

You thought Dabi was trying to stall. Now you’re not so sure. “You could do that?” Dabi asks.

“Of course! If you doubt my abilities, just look at my Nomus.” Garaki gestures proudly. He tortured six people to create them, and he’s proud of them. “There’s no reason why the same process can’t run in reverse. I would have offered it to Hizashi, too – but it appears he’s a lost cause.”

“What did he do to him?” Shinsou asks in a cracked whisper. “He’s not dead. He can’t be dead.”

“The conjurer went after Aizawa and he took the hit instead. He’s coming around.” Tomura’s hands are clenched into fists at his sides, so hard his knuckles are white. “Idiot. They’re all idiots!”

Garaki is still talking. “I expected much better of Hizashi, truthfully. He was so eager to enter this world and play his part, and he threw it all away for a human. But you’re wiser, Touya. Step aside and I’ll help you reverse your mistake.”

He wouldn’t. There’s no way Dabi wants to be a ghost again that badly, is there? There’s no way he’d sacrifice Keigo. Is there? Dabi glances away from Garaki, over at Natsu. “What do you think, little brother? Should I take him up on it?”

The Nomu doesn’t answer. In Aizawa’s arms, you think you see Hizashi stir. “Nah,” Dabi says finally. “You can go to hell. Natsu, now!”

The Nomu moves at terrifying speed. It seizes Keigo and hurls him through the air, over the fence and into your front yard. Tomura swears under his breath and you watch as Keigo’s fall slows slightly, enough that he’s got time to turn and land heavily on his feet. But he’s not the only one in flight. Hizashi’s struggled to his feet, and he and Nemuri launch Aizawa together. Their throw isn’t as good. Aizawa crashes through the fence and sprawls out flat in the yard. Jin drags Spinner through the hole and both of them collapse.

They need help. You grab your first aid kit out of the hall closet and try to open your front door, only to find that it’s sealed shut. It doesn’t move even when you yank on it with your full weight. You turn to glare at Tomura, who glares back with his arms crossed. “It’s not safe.”

“I won’t leave the yard,” you say. “That’s your territory, isn’t it? Are you telling me I’m not safe there?”

Tomura’s expression darkens even further, but before he can respond, an ice-cold hand settles on your shoulder. “I’ll go with her,” Shirakumo says in that odd doubled voice. You forgot he was here. He hasn’t moved off the couch all day. “I can help.”

You don’t know how much help Shirakumo will be – the hand on your shoulder is shaking badly – but the front door unseals itself, and you leave without a backward glance. Once you’re in the yard, though, you’re temporarily paralyzed. Aizawa’s not moving, but Spinner’s the most visibly injured, and Keigo’s awake but stunned, like his landing might have been harder than you thought. You’d rather help Spinner or Keigo, but Aizawa’s the only one who’s unresponsive. He helped you when you first found out about Tomura. He’s done nothing to you other than be abrupt bordering on rude, and he’s like that with everyone except his children. Are you really going to let him lie there just because you and his husband despise each other?

Shirakumo heads for Aizawa, making the decision for you, and you hurry towards Spinner instead. Spinner’s bleeding from two stab wounds, one in his left shoulder and one in his right thigh, just above his knee. There’s a lot of blood. You pry open the first aid kit for bandages and gauze and press Jin into service bandaging Spinner’s leg, working on his shoulder yourself and doing your level best to ignore whatever’s happening outside the fence. Spinner groans in pain. “I have to get back out there,” he says. “They can’t do this.”

“We have to!” Jin agrees, determined. Then his face falls. “We can’t help. That’s why they made us leave.”

“They’re outnumbered. Nemuri burned up too much power and the cold killed a lot of the plants before she could.” Keigo waits until you’re finished bandaging Spinner’s injuries, then helps you and Jin pick him up. “Me and Aizawa were useless out there. All we did was distract them.”

He means Dabi and Hizashi, but there’s something turning over in your head. You’re not sure what it is just yet. You see Shirakumo carrying Aizawa up to the porch out of the corner of your eye. Next to you, Jin is shaking Spinner’s non-stabbed shoulder, panicked. “What about Magne and Atsuhiro? Why aren’t they out there?”

“Not their fight. I stayed in – long as possible.” Spinner’s face is beaded with sweat. “So maybe she’d come out. But –”

You don’t think the other ghosts are cowards. You know they’re tough, you know they care. But neither of them are the ones the conjurer is after, and their humans might as well be an afterthought. You don’t blame either of them for staying out of a fight they can’t win. When it comes down to it, it’s not your fight, either.

It’s not your fight. It’s also not your neighborhood, according to Hizashi – but you’re done with Hizashi’s bullshit. You’ve got your bracelets on, which means you’ll be hard to spot, and none of the ghosts still fighting in the street care enough about you to distract them from the fight. You won’t distract the neighborhood ghosts. But you can damn well distract the Nomus. Or the conjurer.

You’re alone in the yard now, except for Shirakumo. Shirakumo looks like he’s got an idea, too, and all you can do is hope that the human half of him is enough to hide his intentions from Tomura. The two of you make eye contact. Shirakumo raises one hand from his side and shows you a broken fencepost. If you bend down slowly to grab one of your own, Tomura’s going to figure it out, and he’ll stop you. You have to move fast. You crouch, seize a fencepost, and lurch across the property line.

A howl rises up from the house behind you, enough to set your teeth on edge and make every hair on your arms stand on end. Tomura’s furious, but he’s going to be even madder if you get hurt because you were standing there, doing nothing, instead of doing what you came here to do. You glance to your left and realize that Shirakumo’s already run off to help Hizashi and Nemuri deal with one of the two remaining Nomus. That leaves you and your fencepost to join the remaining fight. You’re the only help Dabi and Natsu are going to get.

Your fencepost has a broken end, jagged and dangerous, but you’ve got no faith in your ability to stab someone with it. You’ll be better off using it as a club. The question is who to hit. You creep along the sidewalk towards where Dabi and Natsu are facing Garaki and the remaining Nomu. While the fight between Natsu and the last Nomu looks pretty even, it’s clear to you that Dabi’s losing his. Tomura said Garaki has too many ghosts. Dabi’s only one, and only half a ghost in the bargain. You have the thought that his human side is protecting him from being blasted apart, but it can’t last forever. You can see the ghostly sections of his body, rippling, bulging, as Garaki pours more and more energy into him. Neither of them are paying any attention to you.

Good. You work your way behind Garaki, take a firmer grip on the fencepost, and swing.

It’s not your best swing. Some part of you is still wrestling against the thought of bashing another human being over the head with a piece of wood, and it’s really dark. But even your not-the-best swing collides with the side of Garaki’s head, producing a dull thud. He lets out a grunt of pain and turns Dabi loose, wheeling around to face you.

You swing again, but it’s even harder to hit somebody when you’re looking them in the eye. Your blow strikes his arm, and he staggers but doesn’t fall. Garaki is bald, your height or maybe shorter. He has a mustache, and his green-tinted glasses are cracked and lopsided. Blood is tricking down the side of his head from your first swing. He steps forward. You step back.

“Not so brave now, are we?” Garaki laughs, but he’s grimacing. You swing at him again, but he dodges it. His hand closes on your shoulder. “Have some of this.”

You know what’s coming, courtesy of Hizashi’s lessons this afternoon, and unlike Tomura, Garaki’s got no plans to be gentle with you. You lock your jaw against the screams that are dying to get out and squeeze your eyes shut. You don’t want to see the world between. You need to see what’s in Garaki’s head. You need to know, so you can warn –

You can’t see. Maybe you can. You can’t understand it – a void full of open, howling mouths, pain worse than anything you’ve ever experienced, hatred stronger than you can even fathom. It’s nothing like what you saw in Tomura’s mind. It’s hell. You keep your jaw locked as long as possible, but eventually you can’t hold it in a second longer. You open your mouth and scream until your throat bleeds.

Or maybe you don’t. A hand closes around your wrist and jerks you away, out of Garaki’s grip. The hand is cold and warm at the same time. When you open your eyes, you find yourself looking up at Shirakumo.

He’s not the only one who’s here. Nemuri’s here, and Hizashi, Hizashi steps into the space where you were standing and promptly decks Garaki, hitting him about twice as hard as your strongest swing of the fencepost. “That’s for making my friends cry,” he hisses, and hits Garaki again. “Hit it, Toasty!”

Every plant on the far side of the street bursts into flames at once, and Dabi plants both hands on Garaki’s back and shoves him hard. With the rest of the plants’ life-force on board, Dabi’s charged up with enough power to send Garaki flying, and there’s only one possible place he could be headed. You turn slowly, your entire body numb and frozen, just in time to see Garaki land in a heap in the middle of your front yard. Tomura’s on him a split second later.

You think it’ll be over quickly. If Tomura is as powerful as everyone says he is, it should be. But you think of how many ghosts you saw in Garaki’s head, of the fact that Tomura’s never faced a conjurer before, and fear like you’ve never felt in your entire life surges through you. You can’t help him. All you can do is watch.

The sphere of darkness Garaki summoned before starts to descend, only for Tomura to blast it apart seconds later. Garaki reaches out for Tomura’s shoulder, but Tomura dematerializes just enough that Garaki’s hand sinks straight through him. He raises one hand, reaching for Garaki, and Garaki’s hand rises to block him. There’s a clear six inches of space between their palms, but it’s clear that they’re both pushing as hard as they can.

Cold wind whips out from the space where the two of them stand, rattling your windows loudly enough that you can hear it from the street. Your teeth are chattering almost as loudly. Garaki’s face shows intense concentration, and so does Tomura’s. His free hand is scratching frantically at his neck, and he’s bitten into his lip so hard it’s bleeding. There’s a sudden lurch, and Tomura takes a step back. Then another step back. “Fuck,” Dabi mumbles, then calls out: “Hey, asshole! Get your shit together!”

Tomura plants his feet, stopping Garaki’s advance, but you’re not stupid enough to think he’s got the upper hand. In fact, he’s got the opposite. His right hand, the one pressing back against Garaki’s, is beginning to bend backwards, past the point where a living hand would break, where living fingers would snap like twigs. His physical form, still mostly embodied, is beginning to bulge and waver, just like Dabi’s did. If Garaki’s able to do this, his power level and Tomura’s must be nearly equal. Aizawa’s words flash through your head again: Conjurers are human. Humans don’t want to die.

You want to call out to Tomura, beg him to fight harder, but your teeth are chattering too hard to speak. Someone else does it for you. Hizashi grabs your arm, pulls you away from Shirakumo, and drags you towards the fence. “Hey, guess what?” he shouts at Tomura, his voice loud enough to be heard above the wind. “I lied about what ghostly power does to humans. It does hurt them. It hurts them a lot.”

Tomura’s eyes dart sideways towards you. Then he turns his head to stare, and takes another step back, giving up ground to Garaki. “Yeah, you heard me,” Hizashi continues, even though he’s breaking Tomura’s concentration. “You hurt your human, and she let you do it. But guess what? The guy who’s beating you hurt her a whole lot worse.”

Tomura snarls. “Oh, you want to kill me over that? I’ll believe that when I see it,” Hizashi spits, and suddenly you understand what he’s trying to do. “How are you supposed to kill me when you can’t even kill him?”

Tomura looks away from Hizashi, away from you. Back to Garaki, who was just starting to look confident. “You won’t win. I have the power of a thousand ghosts behind me! There’s nothing you can do that will – what are you doing? Don’t –”

Tomura’s free hand materializes and clamps down over Garaki’s face. The hand pushing  back against Garaki’s breaks through the space between them and seizes it in a crushing grip. Garaki howls, but not so loudly that you can’t hear Tomura’s voice. “A thousand ghosts?” he says, gleeful and savage. “There’s one less now.”

The wind roars up from behind you this time, still ice-cold, as Tomura draws his power inwards, forcing more and more of it into Garaki. He bends Garaki’s hand backwards until the conjurer’s wrist breaks, keeps pushing until his forearm snaps in two. “Where are your ghosts now?” he taunts. The smile on his face is terrifying to look at, but you can’t look away. “Without them, you’re just a human.”

“Wait,” Garaki chokes out. “Don’t –”

“You’re just a human,” Tomura repeats. “Humans die.”

You’ve watched Tomura turn things to dust before, but never a person. Garaki crumbles, the same as the wasps and the other insects and the plants. You hear a last gasp of air leave his lungs, choked with dust towards the end, and see his eyes go blank a second before they turn dull and dusty and pop from his skull. It’s over in less than two seconds. Garaki’s clothes crumple to the ground, empty. And after that it’s quiet.

Next to you, Hizashi breathes a sigh of relief. “That was close.”

“That wasn’t close at all,” Nemuri corrects. She’s only partially materialized. “It was over the instant he stopped messing around. What were you doing, anyway? You – watch it, Zashi –”

Hizashi leaps away from the fence with a yelp. Tomura’s right there, struggling to reach past the property line, his eyes fixed on you. “Give me my human.”

“You sure about that?” Hizashi asks. He gives you a little shake and keeps talking to Tomura. “You’re looking a little rough, my friend. Why not dematerialize and get some of that blood off your –”

“Now!”

Tomura’s voice isn’t particularly loud, but it still shakes the ground, and you feel Hizashi’s grip on your shoulder tighten with shock. He laughs it off, but you aren’t fooled. “One human, coming right up!” he announces. He picks you up and tosses you over the wreckage of the fence.

You’re not in any way prepared to catch yourself, but Tomura doesn’t let you hit the ground. Wouldn’t let you hit the ground. Maybe. He’s mad at you the instant he gets ahold of you, snapping at you even as his arms lock tightly around your waist. “You idiot! You’re just a human. That guy could have killed you! There are bugs under the house that are smarter than you are! Why would you even – what? What are you doing?”

You’re twisting in his grip, trying to get your arms free, and when you manage it, you wrap them around him, holding on as tightly as you can even though being this close to him isn’t helping your rapidly advancing case of hypothermia. “Are you okay?” you ask senselessly. “Your hand – your neck – are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. Don’t be stupid.” Tomura shakes your shoulder with the hand you were asking about, the one Garaki bent completely back at the wrist. “My neck is fine. The scratches will go away once I dematerialize. Why are you acting so weird?”

You pull your hand away from his neck with an effort. It comes back smeared with blood, and you curl it into a shaky fist. “I was worried.”

“I said not to be stupid,” Tomura says. He shakes your shoulder again. “I had it right from the beginning.”

He didn’t. You know what you saw, and he didn’t. “You had it once you flexed,” Dabi says from just outside the fence. “You dumbass. Why did you think the guy who summoned me and the megaphone with legs would be weak? Give me back my human.”

You have a rule about not laughing at Dabi’s jokes, but ‘megaphone with legs’ as a description for Hizashi is too funny to ignore. You’re giggling weakly to yourself as Keigo emerges from your house, stepping through the wreckage of your fence to join Dabi on the street. He’s got one arm in a sling and a few scratches on his face, but otherwise he looks okay. “Was it just me, or was that way too close?” he asks the ghosts and the Nomu and Shirakumo still hanging out in the street. “If we do anything like that again, we need to fix – hey, watch the arm!”

Dabi’s grabbed him, not dissimilarly to the way Tomura grabbed you, and he plants an incredibly weird-looking kiss on him. You’ve never tried making out with Tomura while he’s half-materialized, and there’s a good reason. There’s – tongues. You can see them. Keigo puts his hand against Dabi’s face and pushes him partly back, but that doesn’t dissuade Dabi at all. He picks Keigo up and marches right back across the street, up their front steps, and into the house.

“Uh, goodnight,” you say faintly. The door slams shut.

“Is there a human saying for post-victory sex?” That’s Magne’s voice. She and Atsuhiro are making their way up the street. “Humans have the silliest names for the most disgusting things they do.”

“I think post-victory sex is about as descriptive as it gets,” Shirakumo says in that strange doubled voice. The other Nomu is still standing there, hands down at its sides, and Shirakumo turns to it. “Hey. Natsu, right? I think we probably need to talk.”

“He’s doing better,” Nemuri remarks to Hizashi as the two Nomus cross the street. “Did something happen?”

“They merged. Him and the ghost,” Tomura says. He’s still holding you, and you’re starting to get really cold. “They wanted to help more than they wanted to die.”

“Good,” Hizashi says after a moment. He looks relieved. “Can I have my humans back now?”

“I don’t want your humans.” Tomura doesn’t look up, but when you peer over his shoulder, you see Shinsou carrying Eri and helping Aizawa navigate the stairs at the same time. “If you even think about setting foot in my yard again, I’ll kill you and I’ll make it hurt.”

“Deal,” Hizashi says. He glances at you, still relieved even though Tomura’s just threatened to kill him. “I misjudged your human, anyway. She’s not so bad after all.”

You didn’t trust Hizashi very much before today, and now you don’t trust him at all – but you think you’ve got a handle on what he’s like, which means his comment makes absolutely no sense. He doesn’t like you. He sees you as a threat to his family’s safety because he thinks you could compromise Tomura. Why would he say that he misjudged you in front of another ghost, knowing that Tomura can probably tell if he’s lying? If he wasn’t lying, but if he wasn’t lying, why did he change his tune about you?

The question’s a little too much for you to answer right now. Your brain is still scrambled and you’re freezing cold. Tomura refuses to put you down until Jin’s mom, who’s coming over to retrieve Jin, realizes your lips are blue and makes him do it. You stagger into the house under your own power, peel off your shoes, and head straight upstairs to your room. You get under the blankets fully clothed and curl up into a ball, trying to stay warm. There’s no way you’ll be able to sleep until the shivers die down.

You hear the front door close and lock like it’s coming from a long way away, then footsteps up the stairs. Tomura drops Phantom on the bed and she snuggles against you over the covers. It helps, sort of. You sneak one icy hand out to pet her ears, only to bump against Tomura’s hand doing the same thing. “You feel cold like me,” he says. You make some kind of awful, teeth-chattery noise of agreement. It’s quiet for a second. “I hurt you. You let me. Why?”

“You had to learn.” You don’t want to talk about this. “I was fine afterward. What the conjurer did was way worse.”

“I hurt you. Are you scared of me again?” Tomura sounds miserable. “You’re scared again. You’ll leave.”

“Not scared,” you mumble. “Not leaving. I just wanted to help. I wanted to make sure you won, and I wasn’t sure you could.”

You’re hoping that doubting his strength will set him off on bragging about how tough he is, so he’ll forget all about this. But you’re not so lucky. You spent all of tonight’s luck somewhere else. “I don’t understand,” Tomura says. “You let me hurt you for the neighborhood?”

“Don’t be stupid,” you say, just in time for it to occur to you that you’ve never really let on that you’re concerned with anything but the neighborhood as a whole. “I let you to make sure you won. I didn’t want something bad to happen to you.”

“So I could keep protecting the neighborhood.”

“No,” you say, too fast and too sure. “So I could keep hanging out with you.”

There’s probably a better way to say it. A more honest way to say it. If you were a ghost you’d be one hundred percent busted, because you’re lowballing this to a ridiculous degree. You want more stupid movie nights where he spends the entire movie asking questions and you have to rewind it and watch it again. You want more moments where you spy on him playing with Phantom, more moments where you watch him try to understand humans and succeed a little more each time. You want to teach him how to cook more things, not so he’ll cook for you but because he likes to know how things work and how to do them right. You want more makeouts and hookups and moments where he stays close to you without either of you understanding why.

You want to keep hanging out with Tomura, sure. You want that because you love him.

“That’s what I want,” Tomura says, surprised. “Wait, do you –”

“We agree. We don’t need to talk about it anymore.” You curl up into a tighter ball around Phantom and look up at Tomura. “Are you staying or what?”

Tomura looks even more surprised than before. “You said I don’t get to stay on your bed at night.”

“And you don’t listen. I know where you are even when you’re dematerialized,” you say. “You might as well do it embodied. And outside the sheets, so I don’t freeze.”

You can tell Tomura’s confused, but he hops onto the bed anyway, sprawling out on the other side. “It wasn’t hard to kill that conjurer,” he says. “I could do it again.”

For some reason, that’s when it clicks for you – the reason Hizashi doesn’t hate you anymore, the reason he was relieved. His problem with you is that you’re a reason for Tomura to give up being a ghost. The only way to give up being a ghost is to completely drain a human being and take their place, and it only happens if the ghost wants to be human more than they’ve ever wanted anything else in the whole world, in all of time. Tomura completely drained a human being tonight. If he was going to embody himself permanently, this was his chance. And he didn’t.

You knew he wouldn’t. You’ve always known that. You’ve known forever that loving Tomura would mean loving him as a ghost and nothing else. It’s best this way. The neighborhood stays protected. Hizashi stops hating you. This is how it’s supposed to be.

“Hey.” Tomura shakes your shoulder, then touches your cheek. “What are these? Are you crying?”

“Humans do that sometimes to relieve stress,” you say. You’re amazed with the steadiness in your voice. “It’s fine.”

“Mm.” Tomura sounds skeptical, but he doesn’t argue with you. He edges closer to you, drapes one arm around your waist and presses against your back. All you can feel through the blankets is the faintest chill. “You can be the spoon this time.”

“The little spoon,” you correct. “You’re the big spoon.”

“What if I don’t want to be a spoon?”

“Then find a different way to snuggle.” You don’t want him to do that. You want him to hold you like this until you fall asleep, and when a vaguely aggrieved silence falls, you know you’ll get your wish. “It’s not so bad.”

“Idiot,” Tomura mumbles. “Go to sleep.”

You close your eyes, sandwiched between your ghost and your dog, not quite cold and not quite warm. It’s almost comfortable. Maybe you should fall asleep like this every night.

If you ever sleep again. When you wake up in the middle of the night, frozen with incomprehensible terror from a dream of the world between, you’re not sure you’ll even dare to close your eyes.

[beevean]

Volume 1 of the MF manga! A follow up of my re-translation of volume 2. Once again, I'll also redirect you to @radiant-featherball's post and @the-crow-binary's comments on the French translation.

English: "Demonic alchemy. Some used powerful demonic forces to create servant devils loyal only to their creator. It was said only two seekers had successfully achieved this horrible feat."

Japanese: "悪魔精錬術。強大な魔力をもとに己にのみ忠実な使い魔「イノセンスデビル」を作り出す悪魔の技。忌まわしいその技を極めた者はこの世でただ２人と言われている。"

"Devil Forging. Originating from great magical power, it’s a demonic technique to create a familiar (Innocent Devil) that is loyal only to oneself. It is said that there are only two people in this world who have mastered this abominable technique."

In the text, "Innocent Devil" is written in furigana over "familiar". Also yes, the translator was really struggling with the terminology :P

I wanted to keep some nuances in certain words. I'd translate 忌まわしい as "abominable" to reflect Hector calling himself an "abomination" (忌むべき) later on. Also 極める has the general meaning of carrying to the extreme, reaching the peak, or exhausting something: it emphasizes how Hector and Isaac are true masters of the craft.

Isaac speaks in perfect keigo when summoned by Dracula... except when he starts bragging about how humans are no match for them, or how they will repent for their sins. Only he could swing between unpeccable formality to his Lord and casual ravings <3

English: "It was truly, jaw-droppingly easy."

Japanese: "実に実にあっけなく。"

"It was truly, truly disappointing."

As pointed out, the nuance is slightly different, and even more insulting.

(this is very minor, but when Isaac talks about "well-trained monks", he uses the word 鍛錬, which literally means "tempering metal". Considering that the 精錬 in 悪魔精錬士 means both "refining metal" and "training", I wonder if it's an intentional pun)

English: "Calling himself the genuine vampire hunter, this heir to an insolent and disgusting clan dares to bear a grudge against us."

Japanese: "真正ヴァンパイアハンターを名乗り、我々に仇なす忌々しい一族の世跡ぎ。"

"He claims to be a genuine vampire hunter, and is the heir of an infuriating family that resents us."

(I don't think the word 世跡ぎ exists. I only found 跡継ぎ and 世継ぎ)

There is a difference between "a" genuine vampire hunter and "the" genuine vampire hunter, and to me the former makes more sense. Although I like to imagine Isaac is accusing Trevor of being so arrogant that he believes to be the only real deal :P

Also, it's not him who bears a grudge, it's the entire clan. Although why is Isaac telling this to Dracula, who knows the Belmonts much better than he ever could, that I don't know.

Interesting that 忌々しい, which has the connotations of being "annoying", was split into the much stronger "insolent" and "disgusting". Good for the translator.

As pointed out, what the narration calls "Evil Lords" in English is actually the singular Evil God (邪神) mentioned in the Japanese manual of Dracula's Curse.

English: "Having molded the territory as he pleased..."

Japanese: "自分の領土を思うがままになぶり尽くした彼は..."

"Having toyed and used his territory to his heart’s content..."

Nothing major, but I like the usage of the verbs なぶる, "to play with, to fiddle with", and 尽くす, "to use up, to exhaust". "To mold" is a perfectly good translation, but those verbs convey the idea of just how much of a tyrant Dracula is. Also, the territory was "his".

English: "Like today, just because my dad hasn't come home, you don't have to…"

Japanese: "今日だって俺の父ちゃんが帰ってこないからって別に…"

"It's not like my dad isn't coming home today…"

The return of Ted's father gets hyped up in this first section, before of course the reveal that the werewolf killed him already. In Japanese it's clearer that Ted is still clinging onto the hope that he'll come back soon.

English: "The fact that he was hurt and ended up at the church... it might have been God's will."

Japanese: "あの人が傷ついて辿り着いた先が教会だったのも、神様の思し召しかもしれない。"

"He was hurt, and he found his way to the church; perhaps it was God’s will.

辿り着くhas a specific connotation of "finally reaching your destination", after much effort and hardship. To me, it carries the implication that Rosaly thinks that Hector has found salvation thanks to God, no matter the sins he has committed.

思し召し is also an interesting word. It's the honorific word for "thought, opinion". It's also used to indicate fondness.

English: "You're too nice!"

Japanese: "やっぱりお人好しすぎるって言ってんの"

"I told you! You’re too much of a good person!"

I don't know why all this emphasis was eliminated. This is Ted getting lowkey frustrated at Rosaly's endless optimism regarding Hector, who she's 100% convinced to be a good person because... he has pretty eyes and birds seem to like him :P also this calls back to a previous conversation they had, where Ted also called Rosaly "too nice" because she overworks herself for small rewards.

お人好し also has the connotation of being simple or naive, which is what Rosaly looks to everyone's eyes.

English: "If I was one of those people whose hobby was to save others, like some hero in a well-told story, then maybe I would have been happy to save you. But unfortunately, I'm not one of those people."

Japanese: "よくある物語の英雄のように人助けが趣味の人間だったらお前たちを喜んで助けたかもしれないが…　あいにく俺はそういうたぐいの人間ではない。"

"If I were a person who enjoyed helping people, like the heroes in popular tales, I might have gladly helped both of you… But unfortunately, I am not that kind of person."

The English translation sounds a bit weird. The よく in よくある can mean both "good" and "often", and in this context the expression means "something common, popular, that occurs frequently". And while 趣味 does mean "hobby", it just sounds weird in the context of being a hero, at least with this serious language; it likely means a more general "something you enjoy doing".

English: "So you weren't dead after all... were you, Hector?"

Japanese: «やはり死んではいなかったか…» "…ヘクターが？"

"So you weren’t dead, were you…" "… Hector is…?"

As @radiant-featherball said, the two boxes are two different dialogues. The second one is a transition to the flashback with Dracula.

English: "Hector... I hesitate to considerate the possibility, but..."

Japanese: "へくター…　まさかとは思うが…"

"Hector... it's absurd to think so, but..."

The English translation is perfectly fine, but in comparison, it's just a little too soft :) the idea that Hector would willingfully run away is absurd to Dracula :) he's rejecting the idea by instinct :)

The page with Isaac and his underlings is just rife with things to point out :P

English:

"To have us search for someone who may not even be alive? The Count must be mad." "That's true." "Even though Sir Hector, along with Sir Isaac, led both wings of our army... If both were gone, then there would be plans in case of emergency, but..." "Oh well... it means that the Count favors Lord Hector that much..."

Japanese:

“生きているかどうかわからない者の探索とは伯爵様も酔狂な。” “確かに。” “へくター様はアイザック様と我が軍の両翼をなす、お方とはいえ…　両者とも不在となれば、方が一という事もあるやもしれんが。” “何…　それだけ伯爵様はへくター様を可愛がって…”

"Searching for someone who we don’t even know if he’s alive or not? The Count is having a tantrum." "For sure." "Although Sir Hector and Sir Isaac lead both wings of our army… If both of them are absent, there’s a chance the worst-case scenario might happen…" "Well… The Count cherishes Sir Hector this much…"

酔狂 means "whim, caprice, eccentricity". I love it even more than accusing Dracula of being insane lol. It's just the whim of a Lord. They aren't taking him seriously at all :P

Rather than talking about a plan of emergency (what plan?), it makes more sense that they're sharing Isaac's doubts of the dangers of leaving the castle unprotected.

As it has been pointed out in the past :P 可愛がる does mean "to show favoritism to", but it has connotations of affection, pampering and doting. They are literally calling Hector Dracula's special boy 😂

tl;dr absolute kings, but also maybe don't be like that under isaac's nose, no wonder he killed you :P

English: "No matter how much I prayed, no matter how much I knelt, God would do nothing for me."

Japanese: "いくら祈ろうとすがろうと、神は何もしてくれはしない。"

"No matter how much you pray to God, or cling to him, he won’t do anything for you."

This is ambiguous. The line in Japanese has no subject, but both translations work. Either Hector is talking about his experiences and what led him to seek power from Dracula, or he's talking in a general sense, what he used to believe and perhaps still does.

I cannot help but notice, however, the use of the word "cling to" (すがる), because in PtR Hector uses it in the context of clinging to Dracula. Very... interesting accidental parallel.

(pronouns about God deliberately keps in small caps because Hector doesn't bother with honorifics :P)

"Cursed power brings nothing but unhappiness" - I believe the actual translation is "misfortune" (不幸), but both work. "Misfortune" makes more sense in the general context, but I also like the idea of Hector admitting he was unhappy during his stay at the castle.

Some nitpicks. "A place where God is celebrated" should be a more natural "They probably worship God" ("おそらくは神を祭る"). And "I thought that one day we would face each other to the death" would be better as "I knew the day would come when you and I would kill each other" ("いつかお前とは殺し合う日が来ると思っていたよ").

When little Julia starts to complain that she's tired, Isaac's response is a dry "駄目だ", which in this context more or less means "Too bad". Poor Julia...

English: "In following the Devil's path, he became an undead who surpassed all human knowledge."

Japanese: "魔道の追求者にして人知を超えた不死者。"

"An undead beyond human understanding, a pursuer of black magic."

A typical case of a too-literal translation. Technically it makes sense, but 人知を超えた (which means "surpassing human knowledge") is a fixed expression, and it slightly changes the tone; in the English translation he comes off as a holder of ancient knowledge, while in the Japanese original text he comes off as monstrous.

Same for 魔道, which technically can be split into "Devil's path", but actually means "heresy" or "black magic".

As pointed out by @radiant-featherball, when Isaac tries to create a Fairy, he actually uses the Devil Forging formula heard in CoD, which differs from the English version. (also it's complete, there's no line missing :P) Here it is for posterity:

Demonic powers, converge here! Play the melody of a soul without reason,  under my command,  a person not of the human world. Innocent soul, be born and come forth!

English: "Since when have you become so kind? Talk! What do you want from me?"

Japanese: "お前らはいつからそんな親切な存在になった？言え！俺にいったい何の用だ？"

"Since when have the lot of you become such kind creatures? Speak! What the hell do you need me for?"

It's plural. Isaac really, really doesn't like succubi in general :)

I don't think we talk enough about the uncomfortable implications that Isaac had bad experiences with succubi, or maybe just this one, in the past...

When the Succubus says "And moreover... you have a strong... strong... scent of desire about you...", the word for "desire" is 欲望, which has also the connotations of greed and lust. Interesting word to describe Isaac: he does incarnate greed, in a way, mostly in how desperate he is to prove himself. Were he an adult in this scene, I'd say he incarnates both sins, but he's a teen here and the Succubus is preying on him so I'd rather not :)

And there you have it! Like I said the previous time, the official translation is good, but you can spot some unnatural, too literal phrasing. I'm happy that I had the chance to read it in original, and I hope you also find the nuances interesting!

[vermillion71401]

MY REVIEW ON PSYCHO PASS PROVIDENCE- part 2

SOME ISSUES (and THOUGHTS) THAT I NEED TO ADDRESS:

I still don’t get the reason why Prof. Saiga and Prof. Stronskaya made the paper. What are they aiming with that? Did I miss something? And conflict coefficient is too much like crime coefficient. This is personal reason, but honestly conflict coefficient is much more reasonable than Sybil. At least, they don’t judge based on how cloudy people are.

I like Saiga and Kougami relationship, and for once we get to see Kougami use Keigo.

No hate, but idk some people debate over Kougami calling Frederica by her name. Akane also called her like that too, except she always use -san, like she did with Shion-san. Kougami also address Shion with her name and nothing happen. He’s just comfortable with both of them, I think. (idk how close they were, need novel)

Why Azusawa never appear on this movie? I thought since we don’t know anything about him in PP3 we somehow have explanation in PPP, with Shindou especially. Well, I despise PP3 anyway, pls don’t ask me why. I appreciate PP staff work tho.

Sugo is cute, loyal hound to his inspector. He’d make quick call, inform anything suspicious to Akane.

I find it funny Kougami act childish in this scenes:

He clearly keep his distance from Akane and div 1 after he and Akane’s convo late night call, even Saiga asked him. He only dare to look at her face again after their body almost exploded with c4, meanwhile Akane from the first time act as if nothing happen. Nice writing, I guess.

Until PPP, I think so many characters have died. And their death is almost have no meaning nor progress to the story (yet with Saiga’s case). PP is dystopian anime, I get it, the story is dark and tragic, I get it, but why they shown so many death after s1? No, it’s not meaningless, it’s actually create situation or drama (for ex Sugo killed Aoyanagi), but not with audience. They don’t make us fully feel related or attachment to the character, but suddenly they’re gone. (like entire div 3 on PP2.) This is just personal opinion, but Saiga’s death is kind of ashamed, they shouldn’t just kill him as a mere bait for Peacebreaker, it’s too bad. There’s so much potential to his character in the future instalment if they ever make one  :’(

Akane running away to fallen Saiga is kinda throw me off. Why not help Kougami or Frederica first? This is out of character. The old Akane would never.

I like that Akane bursts in front of Kougami in elevator scene. When it’s just the two of them, she actually lower her wall because in my case, I never want to cry in public or in front of strangers. Well, she cried near the fountain holo before though, but you get the point.

Kougami sympathy to Akira.

Akira is precious, that’s it. Everyone who watch it already know why.

Just for a brief second, I can see Akane’s eyes shaking when she heard Kougami’s tone on the call. She must be aware he’s in pain.

The scene where Tonami had possessed Akira, Akane could have done so much more or at least TRY something. Where’s the badass Akane we always adore?

Akane always have puppy eyes for one man and one man only. Guess who?

Those puppy eyes can kill me.

Also, I find this script is irrelevant. In the hospital, first Akane relief that Kougami is unhurt, then suddenly he said ‘my mistake’? Why is he suddenly apologize, lmao.

Sybil is a bitch. After Yabuki and Shindo’s tasks done, they told Shindo to just die. Sigh.

I HATE that Tonami has low CC. In s1, we only learn that people with low CC can’t even commit crimes except being asymptomatic, and suddenly this new villain who basically terrorist has clear hue just because he feel sympathy to low life and wants fairness for them (cmiiw). He kill people for God’s sake! This shows inconsistence of writing and will create plot hole in the future. And for Akane’s case, I tolerate it probably because Kasei isn’t actually human.

Akane is so strong, she has been shot twice by Tonami, yet she can speak clearly, even sit. Meanwhile we can find waver in Kougami’s voice on that call (he only get one bullet on his thigh.)

I find this interesting.

Akane is NOT aware that Tonami is about to shoot her. If she knows, would she see Kougami’s sin differently? But after much thought, I think it’s still wouldn’t change a thing, because she wants to arrest Tonami. But dude, Kougami shoots because he can’t lose her, if he shoots his leg or hand or whatever, anything could happen and Akane would’ve been died. If I were him, I’ll shoot his head also without hesitation. I wonder if she understand that she’s at stake.

Who transfer Sugino to SAD? Akane?

Imagine Kougami’s feeling when he can’t do anything to stop Akane. Wow.

Akane’s decision to do that is actually admirable, she honour Shindo and Akira’s death.

This is the end of my chattering. I hope I’m not seen for being a pathetic shipper. I love psycho pass as anime.

[frierenscript]

About Honorific Words and Titles / 敬語と敬称について

In Japan, the way people use words differs depending on their relationship with the person they're speaking to, or the situation at that time.

Also In English-speaking countries, when you call someone with "Mr." or "Ms.", it means he/she is in the position to be respected, I guess. It's similar in Japan, but we Japanese use 敬語(Keigo=Honorific Words) and 敬称(Keisho=Honorific titles) much more clearly as a matter of etiquette.

In "Frieren" stories, Fern calls Stark with "Mr." in spite that they two are in completely equal position. There is the following scene in episode 7.

ーーーーー

シュタルク「…なあ、そのシュタルク様っての、やめない？落ち着かないんだ。歳だって、そんな変わらねぇだろ。」

Shutaruku “Naa, sono Shutaruku-samatteno, yamenai? Ochitsuka-nainda. Toshi-datte, sonna kawaranee daro?”

Stark “Hey, could you stop calling me Mr.Stark? It weirds me out. We’re not that different in age.”

フェルン「そうですか…　分かりました。シュタルク、さっさとこっち手伝って。早く」

Ferun “Sodesuka… Wakari-mashita. Shutaruku, sassato kocchi tetsudatte. Hayaku.”

Fern “I see. Very well. Stark, quit wasting time and help me already. Hurry up.”

シュタルク「タメ口？！」

Shutaruku “Tame-guchi?!”

Stark “So rude!”

シュタルク「そういうのじゃなくてさ。さん付けとか君付けとかいろいろあるでしょ。」

Shutaruku “Soiunoja nakutesa. San-zuke toka, kun-zuke toka Iroiro arudesho.”

Stark “I meant more like, can’t you speak to me in a more casual or familiar way?”

ーーーーー

When I saw this scene, the first thing I thought was that It would be difficult to translate into English, because there is no word for "tame-guchi" in English.

"Tame-guchi" means "how to speak to someone in an equal position". "Tame" is youth slang which means "equal" or "same age/position", and "guchi" means "mouth", and it's a new word which has been used for these 30-40 years.

In this case, Stark wanted Fern to talk much more friendly, but Fern changed her words suddenly into commanding tone, that made Stark shocked and discouraged.

In the above, pink colored sentence is translated as "I meant more like, can't you speak to me in a more casual or familiar way?". But in the original words in Japanese means "I meant more like, can't you call me with "san" or "kun" or something like that..."

We have some honorific titles;

No.1.様(sama): The most polite and respectful way of addressing someone, which is often used today.

No.2.さん(san): A common and polite way to call someone.

No.3.くん(kun): Mainly for boys or young men

No.4.ちゃん(chan): Mainly used for girls, or young boys before school

No.5.苗字で呼び捨て(myoji de yobisute=calling by last name without any title) : When a person in a higher position calls someone in a lower position, or between classmates, etc.

No.6.名前で呼び捨て(namae de yobisute=calling by first name without any title) : Within a family, from an older to a younger such as when a parent calls a child, or an older brother/sister calls a younger brother/sister, or only when we call a partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend, or someone very close.

As you can see, Fern switched from "Shutaruku-sama"(No.1) to "Stark"(No.6) and said "Quit wasting time and help me already", instead of the words like "Could you please help me here?".

So I laughed but felt sorry for Stark at this scene.

Fern's way of speaking is always very polite, (although the content of her conversation is sometimes harsh...) not only to Frieren or Heiter but to any other people. Maybe it's because of her characteristic and also because she was taken in by Heiter, the highest ranking priest, from an early age and later studied under Frieren, who is not only the greatest mage but has been lived over 1000 years... Maybe Stark is the first person she has ever met who doesn't need to use honorific words, and she doesn't know how she should speak to him.

日本語でこれを読める人なら、この内容を逐一和訳する必要はないと思うので割愛しますが、日本のアニメを英訳する時に敬語や敬称をどう表現するかは結構難しいですよね。

フェルンは誰に対しても敬語で『様』呼び。ハイターは敬称を付けては呼ばないけど、パーティーメンバーに対しても、幼馴染のヒンメルに対しても、それどころかフェルンに対してもいつも丁寧語。

ヒンメルは誰にでもソフトで優しい語り口。アイゼンは少し堅苦しい年配男性な感じで、フリーレンは失礼ではないけど素っ気ない口調が多く、シュタルクは年相応な少し悪ぶった感じの言葉遣いです。

英語では例えばPleaseを付けるか、Could you～？Would you～？といった言い方が敬語っぽくなりますが、日本のように例えば会社で同期や後輩に対する話し方と、上司に対する話し方と、客先に対する話し方が全部違う、というようなハッキリした使い分けは日常であまりなさそうです。

ちなみにこの投稿を書くにあたって、グーグル翻訳で「タメ口」と入れてみたら、Tamero　と訳されて爆笑しました。

フェルンが今後シュタルクと距離が近付いていくにつれて、呼び捨てに変わるなんてことがあるでしょうか…？キャラ的にあまり想像できないけど、ちょっと楽しみですね。

[ehimemo34]

Authors note: hihi this is my first ever story (that will have multiple chapters) and I've never written anything super long before but I'm giving it a go. So here we are. I wanted to write something about hawks that was dark and angsty. Please enjoy. This is just the prologue and isn't the first chapter yet.

Please be kind and reblog

This story may contain things that may trigger you, please read the trigger warnings before preceding

Tw: angst, violence, blood, gore, death, fluff, use of characters real name, smut, rough smut, Dom! Hawks, Fem! Reader, toxic relationship, manipulation, gaslighting, mental abuse, emotional abuse, kidnapping, Pervert! Hawks, Mean/asshole! Hawks, Murder! Hawks, stalking. Yandere! Hawks

PROLOGUE:

Keigo Tamaki was a simple man in reality; he didn't like flashy cars or big events. He would rather be anywhere else than where he is right now. sitting next to Enji Todoroki, in some meeting about dumb hero shit he really couldn't care less about. "Hawks, pay attention," he turned his head to find his assistant smacking him on the arm, looking rather pissed off with him. "Sorry, sorry..aha," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, his eyes now trailing down his assistant's body. 

God, she was hot, especially in that pencil skirt of hers; he would eat her up if he could, but alas, he could not. 

She huffed and went back to where she was originally sitting, behind him. Keigo moved his attention to the front of the event, where the stage was being lit up by lights so bright you might as well be staring into the sun. "Ah fuck, this is why I wasn't looking up," Keigo thought, covering his eyes slightly with the sleeve of his jacket. Couldn't they find less blinding lights?

"Further, the deaths of civilians need to be less frequent; they are happening way too often for our liking," some man behind a podium speaking for the commission rambles on, "maybe you should try saving 100s of people at once, you fucking lunatic," Keigo thought. 

The commission has been on everyone's back since the number of deaths went up by five last month. It's not easy being a hero. saving everyone and doing their bidding at their beck and call. It's frustrating to deal with the grumpy asses who drank too much on the subway and let their quirks loose or some dumb villains thinking they would get away with robbing banks on the main street. 

Keigo didn't think it was his fault for this meeting; in fact, he thought he was doing a rather good job, but apparently not because next thing he knows, he's being called out for the deaths he's apparently caused. "Hawks, you're the best out of everyone here with only 7 deaths in the last 3 months, but it's still not good enough, you need to improve," the balding man said. Keigo let out a sigh, 'time to shine' he thought.

"Yes, I'm sorry. It's been so difficult these past 3 months, with villains rising more than ever. It's a struggle to keep up with them and all the people running around" Keigo said, putting on his best "of course I give a shit about these random people" face. 

Across the room, he could hear the other heros whispering, "He really thinks it's okay to blame "struggling" on not saving people?"

He scoffed quietly. "Yes, Hawks, we understand, but these deaths need to stop now. Do you understand?" Okay, yes, maybe he "accidentally killed" two or three people, but it's not like he had a choice; they were after HER. The man looked at Keigo, giving him the eyes as if to say, "We will no longer be covering for you." "Yes, sir, I understand," he said, leaning back into his chair. "You asses," Keigo thought. It's not like they didn't order him to kill villains on the daily, so why should it matter when he takes matters into his own hands now and then? Enji turned to look at him, his eyes narrowing, before moving back towards the commission. He always did that, like he suspected Keigo of something. 

Keigo's eyes narrowed in his direction, but as quickly as they narrowed, they disappeared. He has a reputation to keep.

Once the meeting ended, Keigo let out a sigh of relief. If he could, he would stop being a hero now and live a normal life, not having to worry about everyone else. Well, he would stay up all night worrying about someone—his beautiful little Y/N. God, she is perfect in every way in his eyes. 

If only she would notice him, and not just as the number-two hero but as HIM. He wished she would; he has been following her for weeks, months, and yet she still keeps him hanging by a thread. Can't she see how much he loves her?

Ah well, it won't matter soon enough. She will be his and only his soon enough. 

[starseverance]

aW thank you for the compliment about the emoji choice! i know it might be a small thing but it geniunely made me smile :']] and thank you again for letting me talk about it! i dont really have anyone to talk to about this because id probably just get called cringe anywhere else lol

ive been a fan of an anime called my hero academia for long time now, and about 3 years ago they introduced a character called hawks/keigo takami. ever since i saw him i was in love, but i expected it to go like any other character i liked where id eventually settle down and move onto a new one. but he was honestly really different than the others to me. all the scenes ive imagined, the fanfics ive read, audios ive listened to, ive just never stopped being so smitten. and only after 3 years i find out about something called a f/o, and the title just feels so right. i have never been able to express how much i love him to anyone, or if i did i had to tone it down to just "yeah i think hes cool."

ive only had a relationship one time and it didnt turn out good, but ever since ive known about keigo i just havent felt any strong romantic connections with other people. its just been him, i mean theres a few characters i fall for but not like him. he brings me so much comfort and i just feel at home. he also helped me get over my insomnia, i get so easily relaxed thinking about being able to lay on him and feel his soft feathers of his wings against my skin. keigo is like the puzzle piece that completes me

though the only bad thing about it is i do get geniunely upset and jealous when i see art of him being shipped with endeavor (anotjer one of the characters from it), i sometimes feel stupid for it

sorry this ask is so long, ill wrap it up now. thank you for letting me talk about him!! it means a whole lot to me <3 -🪶

Hi hi 🪶! I'm glad that you smiled, and I'm so happy that this can be a place for you to be open about your feelings!

I so get what you mean by not expecting for him to become such a big part of your life for so long. Love defies all expectations, huh? I think it's so beautiful the way that we can make these connections, and how they make everything and everyone else just fade away into the background.

I'm not surprised that Hawks has been able to help you with your insomnia, those feelings of safety and comfort are unmatchable! Love is many things, but I think that one of those things is feeling at home.

I don't think there is anything stupid or bad about feeling upset/jealous when you see him being shipped with someone else. I believe that feelings have no inherent moral value; they aren't good/evil/bad, they're just feelings.

Thank you so much for the ask, and for sharing your thoughts and feelings with me! :) I feel very honoured!

[inkykeiji]

Hey Clari I hope ur good!! I just saw a gif set you reblogged and I was curious how you feel about twice as a character? I love him I have so much love for him and so many opinions and headcanons and stuff he’s one of my great loves but I think your brain is so gorgeous n wrinkly n u word things so eloquently so I was sooooo curious to hear your thoughts on him!

Sorry it’s been a while since we chatted ily :((

-💸

hey!! it's so lovely to hear from u again!! i love twice as a character!

i think his story as a whole is really interesting and i feel like he really exemplifies all the league stands for; he highlights their sense of camaraderie and their found family dynamic, he calls attention to why they’ve all ended up together as a result of a society that has shunned them, and despite being a ‘villain’ he has a huge, huge heart and is so genuine, and thus works as this fantastic moral benchmark—he’s almost like moral greyness personified. he demonstrates the complexities of morality in a stark and obvious manner; because EVERY member of the league exemplifies this, but none are as obvious with it as jin is with how readily and loudly he announces his loyalty to the league, not only because he believes in their cause but because they’re his family, they’re the only ones who accept him and love him just as he is, they’re the only ones who can understand his suffering in this world, they’re the only place he fits perfectly. and that is invaluable, especially in a world that hates and discards you. that means more to him than the relative right and wrong of so-called heroes, and so he is willing to aid them in their villainous schemes and actions, because they are so cherished and special in his heart; they are the most important thing, higher than any sort of morality. this isn’t something that someone who hasn’t suffered immensely (like every single member of the league) can even begin to understand.

i think the one who comes closest to getting it is keigo. and, honestly, i think that’s because keigo could’ve so easily fallen into a sort of vigilante role (not necessarily a villain, but kei clearly has his own opinions + moral code and a strong sense of both right and wrong and the complexities between those ever-changing liquified boundaries, and i think he is sometimes made to suppress these in the name of his job and who ultimately holds his leash) had he not been swept up by the commission at such a young age, and because keigo deeply understands human beings, especially humans that come from traumatic backgrounds, like himself.

anyway, those are my thoughts on twice in a nutshell! i think he serves a very important function within the series and he helps people who may not as readily pick up on those nuances within the league realize and hopefully feel sympathy for them in some capacity. i hope this all makes sense HEHE i just woke up like half an hour ago so my brain is still mushy <3

you don’t have to apologize!!! ily lots n i am always happy to hear from u no matter how little or long it’s been! <3 i hope everything is well on your end <3

[tkworks80]

Wings

Chapter 3

Hero name=h/n...I'm working on chapter 4 that might be a finale

"Okay y/n one more round then we are done for the day…25 wing flaps…you got this," the rehab specialist cheered you on.

"Shit Mirio, I'm so exhausted, can we take a break?" You asked while trying to catch your breath. Taking a big gulp of water and smiling "that was awesome…well, back to work, gotta patrol tonight," you cheerfully said.

Walking up the stairs to your agency, you just preferred the stairs for some more exercise. Reaching your floor, you opened the door and was greeted by your receptionist. "Good morning Ms. H/n how are you today? You have 4 messages and here is your mail," the receptionist said while handing u/n the bundle of letters.

You walked to your office without looking up you were reading the letters and came to a halt when you saw a name that was in a red envelope it was Keigo Takami. You went into your office and closed the door behind you. You plopped on the office sofa and opened the red envelope. It contained a letter.

Y/n,

I know you didn't expect to hear from me ever again but, please hear me out. I've been searching for you ever since I woke up from the hospital. So I was shocked to hear you broke our bond and divorced me. Stop acting petty, what we have together is nothing, and I mean nothing can break that. I know you felt some kind of way from the actions I took but, you have to understand that Moni doesn’t have healing capabilities as you do. She would’ve been for sure disintegrated like nothing. Come back to me my dove, if you don’t then I’ll come to you.

Love,

Keigo

You crumpled up the letter and tossed it in the waste bin. Then you thought about it, you should keep it for some physical evidence in case this escalates. Sighing you called Fatgum.

“Hey Fatgum I’m not feeling too good do you think you can cover for me I need to go back home and need to rest,” you asked.

“I don’t see why not…get some rest y/n and see you tomorrow,” Fatgum replied.

You hung up and left the office. You flew back to your home and quickly locked all the doors and windows because God only knows he will try to find an opening if he found out where you lived. He already found where your agency is located.

You kept on thinking about Keigo and how he found you. Your phone rang with a private number you knew in your soul that it was Keigo. You pressed to decline than the phone tinged, it was a voicemail. You called your voicemail.

“You have one new voice mail,” the automated voice stated as it automatically played.

You heard the sound of traffic and some wind. Then you heard his voice.

“Hey y/n, it’s me…I think you left something at the hospital and I want to return it to you. I would return it in person considering I know where you work but, I think that my appearance would bring a lot of media people and I am in no mood to be in the papers. When you get this message please call me…I want to hear your voice” you pressed the number three to save it.

Pacing back and forth deciding to call or not to call, your anger got the best of you and decided to call and tell him in person that you don’t want anything to do with him. And, just to marry Moni. you dialed and he quickly answered.

“Hey…fancy you returning my call babe,” you heard a little happiness in Keigo’s voice.

“Why are you trying to contact me? We are divorced you know,” you answered, your left wing twitched.

“Nah, I don’t accept that y/n…besides the bond, we have,” Keigo was interrupted by you correcting him.

“Had…past tense Keigo,” you scoffed.

“Playing hard to get? I get ya… let's play…but, I’m warning you I never lose,” there was a slight threatening undertone to his voice.

“Your funny Keigo…you truly are…you thinking that I can’t fight? You think I am as helpless as a little bitch…oh speaking of little bitches…how is Moni? I think Moni would be upset if she knew you're contacting me,” you smirked.

“Oh come on sweetheart, do be like that…she was just a piece of pussy,” he playfully teased.

“Keigo, Keigo…your actions proved otherwise…besides she already confessed,” you chuckled incredulously. There was a thirty-second pause. You knew you had got him there.

“You won’t win y/n,” was all Keigo said.

“Is that a challenge Keigo?” you asked.

“Yes…yes it is,” was all he muttered out.

“Well then…challenge accepted,” you smirked. You heard Keigo ending the call.

The night was hot and humid due to the Summer weather. Your air conditioner was off because Keigo could easily exploit the noise in order to sneak into your house. Sweat started to trickle down your neck while you became stealthy in your movements because you didn’t know if he was around. You were startled when the phone pinged due to the text message from Keigo.

Unknown 10:34 pm: Damn y/n…it’s hot…why isn’t your air conditioning on…ah… no matter…my place is cold.

Even though it was scorching hot you still felt cold chills up and down your body. You answered back.

y/n 10:39 pm: Didn’t the commissioner warn you not to look for me? Are you pigheaded?

There was no reply but, a call and you quickly answered.

“You're coming home with me tonight,” Keigo said in a serious tone.

“You are in my element, ass wipe! You’ll never win,” you yelled into your phone.

“Temper, temper y/n…how about when we get home I’ll massage those pretty violet wings of yours and then…” Keigo trailed off.

“I am home dick…and if you attempt to enter my home, I will clip your fucking wings!” you threaten.

“Ohhhh…being so violent…that's so sexy baby, hope you can talk to me like that when I ram that sweet pussy of yours,” Keigo playfully chuckled.

“Ram my pussy you say…that’s laughable…not only do you have wings like a bird but, you have a bird cock,” you chuckled.

There was once again a long pause to the phone call.

“Awww…did I hit a very soft spot, you limp dick,” you playfully teased.

“We’ll see if I have a bird dick the moment I make your cunt my home,” he chuckled.

“What you don’t understand about me Keigo is that I am…” you said then hung up on him and whispered against his ear. “Stealth,” holding a serrated blade to his neck. Keigo swallowed hard.

“Well played pretty birdie but…” Keigo said while two of his feathers were aimed at your throat and you dropped your knife.

“I win,” Keigo smirked.

“Come on Keigo, let's play fair I’ll even make a deal with you,” you tried bargaining with him.

“I could always love games…and what's the deal?” Keigo was intrigued.

“Remember when we were teens? And how we snuck out and played hide and seek in the darkness…if I win then never contact me again and if you win you can court me once again,” you bargained.

Keigo thought about it and smiled. “Fine, I’ll play…location?”

“Where you lost humanity Keigo…The World Mall,” you answered.

“You're kidding me, right? That place is under construction,” he explained.

“Awww…Keigo…you could always change your mind and leave me the fuck alone,” you said giving him an option.

“Fat chance pretty birdie, when?” he replied.

“Tomorrow at midnight, oh by the way…don't be late,” you chuckled while walking back in and closing the door behind you.

[imagineanime2022]

Unknown Known Threat

Rumi Usagiyama (Mirko) X Male!Reader

Word Count: 1109

Requested: Anon

Request: If you're ever running low on requests I got you kinda my thinggggg. Anyways could I request a Miriko (and any other characters that you may want to add) x preferably male reader that got taken hostage for about two years by an underground organization and came back a completely different person than they once knew?

Rumi had long since given up on ever hearing from or about you. You had disappeared two years ago and they had lost the trail of the organization that had taken you hostage, they never made any demands or gave a ransom so it was clear that they had wanted you at the time and she had failed to get you back. She could never think of any reason that they had wanted you, you weren’t a hero, you did have a strong quirk but you never really used it to no one knew of it, you were often mistaken for quirkless.

After 2 years she finally did hear something though, it came from Hawks who informed her that he had managed to get a hold of someone that he thought she might want to see, he was being coy and refused to give a name over the phone, her curiosity got the better of her and she ended at Hawks’ agency so that they could go to Tartarus. When hey got there they already had whoever they had come to see in the room waiting for them “Bird brain your back! I assume you want to ask me more questions, you being reinforcements this time?” She couldn’t believe her ears, she hadn’t heard your voice in so long and when she looked up she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Oh sorry that was rude, Keigo right?” “How do you know that?” He asked through gritted teeth. “As soon as you connect to the network you know everything.” You winked. “His quirk allows him to use any electronic connection to control devices or collect information from them.” Rumi spoke up. “Are you really just going to out me like that?” You asked, eyes moving over to her and you didn’t even seem to falter, she would have said that you didn’t recognise her if it wasn’t for the smirk that sat firmly on your lips and the spark in your eyes. “What happened to you?” She asked as she walked closer, you leaned forward in your chair and shrugged. “Some call it reformation, I call it adapting.” You answered leaning back in your chair “oh full disclosure I have 5 escape plans 3 of them involve letting every person in this place out so don’t piss me off too much alright?” “You can’t get out, those cuffs-” “Are defective.” You shook your wrists and the cuff fell off “but I have like half an hour to kill so ask your questions.” “Who took you?” Hawks asked and you looked at him. “Doesn’t matter they aren’t alive anymore.” You answered resting your chin on your hand as you smiled, it was soft and it reminded Rumi of some of the more domestic memories she had with you. “You killed them?” Hawks asked. “Of course I did.” You rolled your eyes “it took a lot of planning to take out a group that big but I did it.” “Are you expecting praise?” Hawks asked. “Not from you.” You smirked as your eyes moved to Rumi “you remember you told me that strong people rely on no one but themselves? Guess I’m pretty strong now.” “That’s not what I meant, don’t you want to come home?” She asked. “Hun if I wanted to come home I wouldn’t have bothered climbing the criminal ladder.” You sighed as you looked at the glass behind them “times up.” you disappeared the only evidence that you had been there at all was the smoke and the scorch mark on the floor.

“You took your time.” Dabi glared at you as you climbed into the car on the other side of the bridge to Tartarus. “Well you guys were the ones that wanted the plans for the prison, it took longer than I thought considering I had to hide what I had taken.” You argued. “Mm. Did you enjoy seeing your girlfriend again?” Dabi asked as Spinner started the car. “Would you enjoy seeing dear old dad again?” You asked and his gaze hardened still. “Be careful I could still kill you, whether you're part of Redestro’s trusted group or not.” Dabi warned. “Yeah and if I was scared of death I would have stayed in prison.” You passed him the USB with the plans that you had stolen before disappearing again.

Rumi looked at the space that used to be occupied by you “I thought that seeing you would have helped him.” Hawks sighed as the door opened revealing the police officers that were watching the exchange. “He's too far gone now.” Rumi answered. “You don’t think that we can bring him back?” Hawks asked. “Why did he stay so long if he didn't want your help?” “I don’t know… He’s not the same man that went missing 2 years ago, I don’t know anything about him, what he does and the way he thinks is nothing like the person that I lost.” Rumi answered. “So what? You’re giving up?” Hawks asked. “This is the closest I’ve been to bringing him home in years of course I’m not giving up.” Rumi pumped her first as she looked at the scorch mark on the floor. “Well then I’ll leave him to you.” Hawks winked “I gotta go, man this is going to be a lot of paperwork.” “Good luck.” Rumi waved him off.

Hawks pulled out his phone the moment that he was high enough in the sky “you get out okay?” He asked. “I’m fine bird brain.” Your voice emitted from the speaker. “I’m back at the hideout.” “Good now stay there, she’s looking for you.” He informed you. “Now who’s fault is that?” You asked. “If I didn’t bring her, it would have looked suspicious.” Hawks argued, he heard you shuffle. “Yeah, yeah whatever but the next time you pull a stunt like that I’ll roast you and feed you to your biggest fans.” You threatened, hanging up the phone. “Pleasure.” Hawks muttered, stuffing the phone back into his pocket.

You leaned back in the chair, the light from the monitors showing you a few agency buildings “lay low.” You mumbled, shuffling through pages on your desk before smiling when you pulled out the file you wanted “I can still have some fun from here.”

*Part 2*

Request Here

[nanasparadise]

hi! if you want to and don’t have too many requests, then may I request hawks from bnha with the daffodil prompt? he’s my favorite character :) thanks if you decide to do it

Thank you for your request! <3

"Determination" Yan!Hawks x female reader

Daffodil (unrequited love): “What do you mean? But I love you!”

Summary: As his therapist, you try to be professional with Hawks. Unfortunately for you, the pro-hero sees things differently.

TW: toxic relationship, therapy session, slight allusion to NSFW, MATURE AUDIENCE ONLY/MINORS DNI

I do not condone any yandere behaviour in real life.

“How are you doing today, Mr. Takami?”

For a moment, the number two hero’s face falls into a frown. However, his expression quickly changes into his typical easy-going grin, making you doubt you’ve even seen the sombre look in the first place. “I’ve told you before to call me Keigo, sweetheart.”

“And I’ve told you before to not use pet names,” you sigh, internally rolling your eyes at his stubbornness, “plus, I do think I already have accommodated your personal wishes by referring to you by your legal name, Hawks.” You make sure to accentuate his hero name in a warning tone.

“Alright, alright, I get it,” Hawks chuckles while playfully throwing his hands in the air in mock surrender, “ever so professional, doc.”

“It comes with the job,” you reply curtly, not entertaining his antics, “but if I may point this out, you haven’t answered my question yet. How are you feeling?”

Hawks bashfully rubs the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact.

‘Strange’, you think, ‘this reaction is new. Did something happen? Maybe something good?’ Automatically, you lean out further from your chair, anticipating his next reaction.

“Well, y’know” he continues, “stressed. Tired. A bit hollow at times. The usual things you experience working as a hero.” Oh. So he didn’t make any progress. A feeling of disappointment is manifesting itself deep in your guts. The past few weeks, you tried every method possible to help the pro-hero handle the high pressure and expectations that come with his job. Despite that, he obviously hadn’t felt better yet. You can’t stop thinking you’re not fulfilling your task as a therapist.

Trying not to let your patient see your inner turmoil, you keep your stoic facade.

“But,” Hawks interrupts your train of thoughts, unnecessarily drawing out the word, “I’ve been thinking about finally confronting this certain woman. She actually makes me really happy, ‘butterflies in my stomach’ kinda happy, but I always chicken out whenever I try to confess my feelings, you get what I mean?” At the end, he slightly laughs at his own joke, though you know through your countless sessions he’s only attempting to hide his sadness with humour.

Your head turns slightly to the side as you listen to his words. “I see,” you eventually say, giving the man a small smile, “What has been hindering you from asking this woman out, if I may ask? We’ve been talking about building relationships with other people for a while, after all.”

A smug smirk appears on the winged man’s face, his red feathers puffing in a manner you assume means amusing. “For one, she’s awfully stubborn all the time. Always must have the last word in a conversation.” He gives you a funny look, but you don’t know how to interpret it. Though a feeling of unease rises in your stomach. “Secondly, she’s kinda distant at times.” He suddenly stops talking, opting to stare at you instead.

“Really?”, you reply, hoping to pry some more information out of him, “Would you elaborate on that?”

“She’s so cold to me when I try to show her how I feel. For example, I can’t even call her a cute nickname.” Your eyes widen at his statement. That sounds awfully familiar to your earlier conversation, doesn’t it? He couldn’t possibly mean…?

“She keeps insisting it’s because she needs to be ‘professional’. I mean, I get it, but I work as a pro-hero and still get away with a flirt and a smile towards a charming civilian once in a while.” Hawks suddenly leans closer to you from his opposite chair, his knees nearly touching yours, his face invading your private space by far. His gorgeous crimson wings trap you in your seat, the way they fall to your sides almost reminding you of an embrace, if it didn’t feel so oppressive. “What do you think, doc? Might give me some advice to help me get the girl around?”

It’s hard to stay calm when his golden eyes keep being fixated so intensely on your form, living up to his hero name. He’s interested in you?

Sure, you’d called out his frivolous nature many times, but you’d never thought he’d be serious with his attempts. After all, he’s well known for his flirts and one-night-stands.

“I’m sorry Mr. Takami if I ever gave you the impression that I’m interested in more than a professional relationship. Sexual encounters with my clients are strictly against my-”

“Who said I’d only want sex with you?”, Hawks cuts you off immediately. You scrunch your eyebrows in confusion. “Don’t get me wrong, baby bird, I’d love to worship your gorgeous body, but you’re more to me than just a fling.” He grabs your hands at these words, effectively catching you off-guard and making you gasp. His thumbs brush tenderly over the back of your palms,

“Mr. Takami, I-” “It’s Keigo, Y/N, you know that,” he interrupts you again, an exasperated tone swinging in his voice.

This is going way too far for your taste. He’d already crossed more than ten lines during your appointments, but simply referring to you by your first name was the last straw. You feel anger bubbling inside you. However, you choose to let him finish his thought.

“I just wanna take you out on some dates, is all. Make you laugh, pamper you, show you how good of a couple we could be.” He shoots you a soft look, this time without any smugness in it. “I think you should give me a chance, Y/N.”

Suddenly, you feel bad for immediately rejecting his advances. You’ve been telling him for weeks to open up and be sincere, to not hide behind his hero persona, only for you to exactly disapprove of it. ‘No, stop, you think, He’s disrespecting the clear boundaries you set, you have every right to be upset.’ Determined, you tear away your hands from his grasp.

So you try to tell him this as nicely as possible. “Keigo,” you say, attempting to appease him. Clearly, it’s working as his whole face lights up in joy. “I feel flattered by your invitation, but I don’t date my patients. It’s against my policy and puts both of us in an undesirable and uncomfortable position.”

Hawks smiles at your explanation. “No need to worry your pretty little head about that, honey,” he coos patronisingly, “I’ll just stop coming to the sessions. You’re not my doctor anymore then, we could be together.”

You sigh at his stubbornness. “It still would have an immense impact on my work. Dating the number two hero will put me on the front page of the tabloids, I won’t have any privacy. How can I guarantee my patients effective therapy when there will be people after me, milking me for any information they get? It’d be too much stress and I’d be scared to not be able to be there for my patients anymore or even reveal some of their confidential information by accident.”

“Do you have to make everything complicated?” Now it’s Hawks’ turn to let out a frustrated sigh. “You can just quit your job. It’s not like you earn more money than me, I can take care of us just fine. Anything you want, you’ll have it in a blink of an eye.”

“No, Keigo, I don’t want this. I love my job, I won’t give it up for you.” You try your best not to sound too harsh, yet it doesn’t seem he’ll understand you if you keep being nice. “I would have gone on a date with you if it hadn’t been for the circumstances. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is.”

Hawks glances at you as if you had crushed his world. With glassy golden eyes, he suddenly looks away from you and instead keeps his attention on a spot on the wall behind you. “What do you mean?”, he mutters, the question barely audible to you, “But I love you! Why would you not want me? You make me feel so incredibly happy, something I thought I had lost before I met you. Why would you not let me return the favour? I know, I can take care of you like no one else ever could!” With every sentence, his voice increases in volume until he basically screams at you. He seems so different now from the charming man you’ve got to know. From the broken hero you’ve learnt to help.

He scares you.

“I think it’s best we end this meeting,” you manage to say without showing your fear, though your heart beats so fast, you think he might hear it, “I understand if you don’t want to work with me anymore. In that case, I could suggest to you other great therapists who’ll love to help you.”

Finally, Hawks looks at you again. His eyes are filled with an incredible rage now, you’re afraid he might actually hurt you. Eventually, he gets up from his chair and marches towards the exit. You’re a bit disappointed he leaves without saying a word, but you can’t deny the relief that washes over you to see him go at last.

To your surprise, he turns around at the door, shooting you a final glance.

“If you think I’d just let you go like that, then you’re wrong. No matter where you are and what you’re doing, I’ll always catch up to you, darling.” He offers you a grin that sends fearful shivers down your spine.

“I’m the fastest hero out there and I finally have something worth chasing.”

[i-cant-sing]

Promise: Yandere Godfather Hawks x Todoroki reader

This is a side story takes place in the YRHR series, after part 1, when the reader returns home, blind.

Check out my MASTERLIST for more!

"Y/n... Come on, wake up. Its 9 already." You heard him say, feeling the bed dip as he sat on it, gently touching the back of your shoulder. "Aren't you hungry? Mom's making your favourite."

When you gave no response, Shotou pulled the covers away from your face, his brows furrowing at the bandages around your eyes that had loosened up. You had did that, clawing at the meticulously tight knot Natsuo had done; you didn't like how it settled on your eyes.

"You're awake, right?" The only answer he got was you turning your cheek further away from him when he tried to caress it. Shotou didn't like your silence and he missed it when you used to ramble about almost anything to him. He missed when you were happy.

The door bell rang.

Shotou looked at his watch confused. Wasn't Natsuo supposed to come around at 11? He could hear Enji walking to the main door, and after a few seconds of silence, he heard footsteps coming towards your room. But then he heard some scuffling, and people talking- he recognised Enji's and Dabi's voices, his brother's getting louder by the second.

"I'll check who's there. Stay."

Stay? You would've rolled your eyes if, you know, you still had them.

A few more minutes passed and you could hear Dabi arguing with someone, and you think that Shotou is trying to calm him down. Deciding to take advantage of the situation, you got up from the bed. For the past whole month, Shotou would come to wake you up everyday, carrying you in his arms to the bathroom, never letting you walk on your own, claiming "you'll get hurt".

Idiot.

Taking one small step at a time, you stretched your arms out trying to reach the wall. Once you felt the cold, smooth surface, you used it to guide you towards the door.

No matter what you did, or how many times you told them to back off, that you can do this on your own, they wouldn't let you. Hell, you were pretty sure that if they could, they would breathe for you too. As if trying to instil in your mind that you're helpless without them, incapable of making your own decisions.

I'll show them how fucking capable I am.

After stubbing your toe only once, you finally reached the door, your hand gripping the metal knob. You placed your ear on the door, trying to figure out who and where everyone is standing. The corridor seemed empty and you think everyone is downstairs.

Opening the door, you used another wall to guide you towards the stairs. You hoped Shotou doesn't see you; he'd throw a hissy fit at you attempting to walk down the stairs.

As you took one careful step at a time, you heard the commotion grow louder. You could hear Dabi yelling profanities at the other person, certainly not Enji because Rei or Fuyumi would've stepped in by now to stop him. You used to stop him too, but ever since what happened, you don't really care anymore.

"Why the fuck are you even here?! She doesn't fucking want to see you!"

"Dabi-!"

"And who is gonna stop me? You? I'd be happy to knock you down on your ass- its about goddamn time!"

"Hawks!"

Hawks?

Hawks.

Hawks!

You almost stumbled down the last few steps, but you needed to know- was he, was he really here?

"K-Keigo?"

You heard his wings flap before you felt him, the wind gushed at your body strongly, making you lose your balance. But muscular arms wrapped around you before you could fall, and the winged hero lifted you up and spun you around, making you burst into laughter.

Rei was the first one to cry.

You laughed.

Not a bitter, sarcastic one.

A genuinely happy laugh.

And she missed her baby's laugh so much.

Dabi's eyes widened slightly. His heart clenching up a bit as he realised how he missed that beaming look on your face. He realised how fucking naive you were, how you were his little sister that he needed to protect.

Shotou felt envy. Why- why didn't you laugh like that with him? Why didn't you laugh for him? Was he... not a good brother?

Fuyumi actually rushed out of the kitchen when she heard you, her hands coming up to her mouth to suppress the sob that was building up. Too long. It had been too long since you were happy.

Natsuo smiled. He smiled as he saw you chortle when the hero's feathers tickled your cheek. He wished you would smile more often.

Enji's breath hitched as he saw you chuckle into Hawk's shoulder. It was so natural, so lively, so radiant. He had been dying to hear that sweet sound again.

Your heart was beating fast and your stomach was doing somersaults as you felt the air rushing through your hair and cooling on to your neck, the soft feathers brushing across your skin.

He really was here.

But so were they.

And you could feel their eyes on you.

Keigo frowned when he saw you curl yourself into him, as if trying to bury yourself into his chest. When he looked around, he saw them glaring and that's when he puffed out his wings before curling them around you; shielding you.

"I'll be spending time with my goddaughter. Do not disturb us." And with that, Hawks flew you up to your room, locking the door before they could sat anything. He could hear Dabi arguing, but he trusted Enji to handle him.

He set you on your bed, chuckling as you didn't let go of his collar.

"Its okay, dove. I'm here, now- ow!" You cut him off by punching his arm.

"Where were you?!"

"In your heart- ow! Stop hitting me!" He caught your wrists.

"You said you were gonna visit me at home! Its been a whole month-"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry but believe me, I really was busy!" Sighing, he continued. "The hero commission sent me to Europe for a mission and things got a bit messy, so I got caught up."

Yanking your hands out of his grip, you scowled. "Would it have killed you to call?"

"I mean I wouldn't say kill, but I probably could've lost a limb or two-" He started laughing when when you began getting up to walk to the door.

Keigo wrapped his arms around you, smiling cheekily"Y/n- I'm sorry, I'm just kidding. Come back-"

"No, let go! I don't have time for your bullshit" He continued laughing, easily picking you up and dropping you back on your bed.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Come on, now. Stop being mad." You heard him shuffling. "Besides, I've got something for you!"

He dropped something in your lap. You picked an item, your hands feeling around it, trying to figure out what the rectangular shaped box was.

"Whats this?"

"Oh, here. Let me help you." He lifted the lid of the box and you were immediately hit by a familiar smell.

"Chocolate?"

He hummed in confirmation"Your favourite ones too! They were always sold out! Luckily, I was able to use my charm on the owner."

"Charm? Oh, you mean where you pull that ugly smirk and do that half lidded look with your eyes, and you think that you look hot but you actually just look creepy?"

"Yeah- hey!"

And then the next 3 hours were spent like that, Hawks telling you about Europe and the bad guys he caught, you telling him about the way your family had been treating you.

"They don't let me do anything, they don't give me any privacy! Its like- its like they want me to be a doll!" You gave an exasperated sigh. "They- they act like they are being so generous. Like it was somehow my fault that my eyes got fried!"

"Oh come on. They can't be that bad-"

"They are! So much worse than before. Look, I'm a grown up- I need my space too! You know what Shotou said when I asked him to get me a walking stick? He said I don't need one since he can carry me everywhere. Do you know how embarrassing it is to get carried to the toilet every single day? Do you?!"

"Well, no-"

"And then Fuyumi cuts up my food and spoon feeds me herself! I know I'm blind but its not like I'm gonna stuff the food up my nose or something!"

The hero snickered at that.

"And then Enji reads me these novels or the newspaper and he skips over the parts he thinks I'm too "young" or "immature" to understand! They even monitor what I listen to! Fuyumi or Shotou would be quick to change the channel if something above pg 10 comes on!" You ran a hand through your hair frustratedly. "I asked Enji to get me a Braille and the first few time he pretended like he didn't hear me, before finally saying that I don't need one!"

"Don't worry, I'll sneak in a Braille for dummies the next time I visit."

"Hey-! Wait... what do you mean "next time"?"

"Oh come on! I promise I'll come earlier next time. Maybe in like 2 weeks-"

"No."

"What-"

"No. I want to leave this place today. You promised."

"Y/n-"Keigo reached to place a hand on your shoulder but you pushed him off.

"You. Promised. You said you'll get me out of here when I leave the hospital" You inhaled deeply. "Well, guess what, Hawks? Its been a whole month."

"I know but you're not well enough-"

"I AM! If anything, staying here is harming me more!" Your tone was getting angrier. "You said- you said you would take me away from them."

"I can't do it right now. The hero commission needs me-"

"I need you! Or am I just not worth your time?"

"Please, dove- try to understand. How will I take care of you if I'm out at the agency?"He tried to pet your head but you smacked his hand away, snarling at him.

"You're a liar. A big fucking liar! Was this the plan all along? To give me hope that you'll save me, only to fucking crush it?!" The hero managed to dodge the box of chocolates you threw at him. "I don't need fucking chocolate or your stupid presents. I need to get out of this goddamn house!"

The hero began walking towards the door. "You're not thinking rationally- I'll- I'll leave." But before the hero could manage to take another step, you were leaping towards him, but since you couldn't see, you only managed to fall near his feet. When he grabbed your shoulders to help you up, you were quick to latch onto him, wrapping your arms around his torso tightly.

"No- no! Don't go. Please, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that. Please, don't be mad. I swear I'll behave, just don't leave me here!" Your hold onto him was becoming painfully tight.

Keigo felt like someone was breaking his heart piece by piece as he looked at you. The way your body shook from your pitiful sobs, the way you held onto his jacket as if your life depended on it- he was forced to remember how vulnerable you looked the night he brought you back to the this house. The same night when you begged and begged him to fly you away, that you'll do anything as long as he didn't dropped you back at the Todoroki estate.

"Y/n- darling, love, listen to me. I promised you that I'll keep you save, didn't I? I promise I'll come back soon-"

"YOU BROKE YOUR PROMISE! CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT SHE'S DONE TO ME! SHE BURNED MY FUCKING EYES HAWKS! I'M FUCKING BLIND! DO I NEED TO LOSE A LIMB FOR YOU TO GET ME OUT OF HERE?! DO I HAVE TO SUFFER FROM ANOTHER "ACCIDENT"?!"

Hawks knew that bitch Rei did this on purpose, he knew and it killed him that he couldn't save you from her. He wanted to tell you that he believed you, and he was preparing a place for you. But the hero knows your siblings were eavesdropping, right on the other side of the door.

He had to be careful and play the fool if he wanted to get you out of this hell hole.

"Y/n please-"

You shook your head repeatedly, pulling him closer to you as you shrieked at him. "No. NO! I wont let you go! I WON'T LET YOU LEAVE WITHOUT ME! Keigo, I'm begging you! Take me with you, please! I'll die! I'll die! I'LL FUCKING DIE, KEIGO! PLEASE!"

Your loud screams had your siblings bursting through the door, obviously using a spare key. "Y/n, whats wrong-" You jumped away when they touched your shoulder, giving Hawks chance to slip away.

You instantly reached out for him, flailing your arms around to get a hold of him again. But the hero was already out the door and your siblings quickly pulled you back into their arms, shushing you, trying to calm you down.

But you were inconsolable. Thrashing around in Shotou's arms, you kept begging for Hawks to come back. "HAWKS COME BACK! LET ME GO! HAWKS, PLEASE! I'LL DIE! I'LL DIE! I'LL DIE!" It pained them to see you like this, so hysterical; Shotou and Fuyumi whispered sweet nothings but you payed them no mind. Natsuo knew you were going to hyperventilate soon, but he was more worried about you bursting a vessel in your head.

Thinking fast, he quickly brought up a tranquilliser- and the moment the sharp smell of the alcohol swab hit your nose, you were wrestling harder to get out Shotou's and Fuyumi's arms.

"Y/n, please calm down-"

"FUCK YOU! LET ME GO! KEIGO! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! COME BACK- STOP! STOP TOUCHING ME! STOP!" You screamed louder than before when you felt her cold hands gripping your arm, holding it still so that your brother could administer the dose.

As the drug began taking effect, your thrashing slowed down before you finally slumped into Shotou's arms. The tranquilliser numbed the headache that was forming, and you felt Fuyumi use a tissue to wipe the snot and the spit off your face.

"I'll die... I'll die... And you won't be there. And I'll die..."

Hawks was in a trance like state as he watched Shotou tuck you under the covers. He wanted to use his sharp feathers to slice off that cold bitch's hand that brushed the hair out of your face, before pressing a kiss to your forehead. Your daunting screams rang through his ears; his chest felt like some was shoving a knife through it slowly as he played back the image of you trying to wring yourself free from their arms, one hand still reaching out for him. It took everything in him not to grab it and pull you away from those monsters, but he had to remind himself of the bigger picture.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't even notice the pyromaniac standing next to him until he spoke.

"This is all your fault."

Hawks looked at Dabi. His fault?

"You shouldn't have come here."

"She's my goddaughter-"

"Shut the fuck up." Dabi narrowed his eyes at the hero. "She's like this because you gave her false hope. Hope, that one day she'll get away from us. You and I both know that's not gonna happen." He sighed before continuing. "You call yourself a hero, but in reality, you're no better than us."

As Hawks turned to leave, not willing to let the villian get on his nerves, Dabi spoke again.

"Dont bother coming back. She won't forgive you. She'll never forget this betrayal."

Hurtful as they were, he knew the words he said were true.

Hawks was almost out the gates when he saw Enji sitting in the garden, looking at the koi pond. He should've left, should've flown away but there was something in Enji's eyes that had the winged hero walking towards him. He recognised the emotion as soon as he got close.

Sorrow.

Or was it guilt?

Perhaps a mixture of both.

"Endeavour, are you... alright?"

The number 1 hero looked away from the fish and blinked at him.

"Hawks? What are you still doing here?"

The blonde chuckled nervously. "I was just on my way out." He gazed at him. "Are you okay? You seem to be in deep thought."

Enji only stared at him. Taking his silence as the answer, Hawks turned to leave.

"Why did you come here today, Keigo?"

Keigo.

He suppressed the urge to shudder the way his name rolled off his tongue.

"She's my goddaughter too. Why? Do you think it was a bad decision to come?"

"No." Enji sighed. "I just- she hadn't laughed like that in a long time."

Hawks stood beside him. "She's still traumatised from the kitchen accident. Its understable-"

"No. She hadn't laughed like that for a long time, even before this happened." Enji's eyes moved towards the night sky. The stars were twinkling extra bright tonight. How he wished you could see it. "Before she lost her sight, she used to look out the window, her eyes searching sky." He gulped. "She was looking for you, Keigo. You- you made her happy, you make her laugh. I don't."

Hawks placed his hand on Enji's shoulder. "That's not true, Enji. You do make her happy. She loves you. She feels safe with you. She sees you as her protector."

"She does?"

He nodded. "Of course. If you want things to return to normal, you need to treat her normally too. Just- just talk to her. Sort out the issues and wash away whatever fears she has." Hawks wanted Enji to listen to you, to really listen to you and protect you from Rei. He could only hope that Enji understood what he meant.

Hawks was right, Enji realised. Whatever delusions you have of Rei wanting to hurt you on purpose, of being the "bad person", they can all be cleared up if he just talked to you. Ever since the incident, the family avoided talking to you about Rei or the events that had occurred that day.

If he just talked to you, things will return to normal. You'll become happy again.

"Thank you, Keigo."

Hawks only smiled in return. "I'll be leaving now."

"Okay. When will you visit again?"

"I'll be gone for longer now. The hero commission is sending me on another mission again."

"Oh. Safe travels, then."

As Hawks flew away, he began thinking about the house.

The house where he was going to take you to soon. He just needs to add a few finishing touches before he sets his plan in motion. The plan to rescue you, and eventually Enji, from those sadist that call themselves your family.

He will not let his dove get hurt again.

He'll save you this time.

He promises.

Thoughts?

Idk how this turned out, angst wasn't the plan initially. Guess I'll write godfather Hawks fluff for another day.

Anyways, now that this is done, I'll start working on RE 8 fic now.

[softxsuki]

Hi, can I please send in an urgent request? I'm just having a really night, I can't stop crying. I keep remembering what happened and I feel like I'm in that place again and I'm all alone. I don't want to trauma dump so I'll put in some warnings. If you see something that triggers you, please disregard this request, I understand and I can manage.

Warnings: Manipulation, Gaslighting, Cheating, Insecurities (body image, mentions of scars and size)

I was a teen when I first had my first "serious" relationship. It lasted 3 years and it was on and off. We broke up multiple times due to them cheating and me not being able to cope with it. We had a 12 hour time difference and lived on opposite sides of the world. I wasn't perfect. I wanted him to be here when we were both teens, expected too much. He gaslit me when I questioned him when he became cold. Truth be told, I think he's a good friend and person but wasn't a good partner to me. I got traumatized by this relationship and second guessed my every move. I got into a relationship after that one and I promised myself to do absolutely right by this person. He didn't have confidence in our relationship and other people were telling him I'd leave him for someone who was "better" looking. He believed them. Over the period of a year, I'd tried my best at showing affection. Texting, updating, and trying to call but he wouldn't answer. It even reached a point where there was 10 days where he didn't talk to me but I still texted good morning. I went to his college to give him a gift and he basically shooed me into a bus terminal to make me go home. I didn't even know the way back home because I didn't know the area. He then got sick while I was in uni class. I blew my month's budget for food and necessities to buy him what he needs while he was in the hospital. I went there right after class, still in my school clothes and tired after 10 hours of class. He wouldn't say which hospital it was. I had to call around to find him and when I got there, he wouldn't even look at me. After that, he broke up with me. Soon the person he was cheating me texted me just to rub in into my face that he chose her. It hurt. It still hurts. And we got back together after half a year with promises for him to change for the better and he has changed. He did everything I asked. Been nothing but regretful and trying his best to change and show that he's changed but here I am still hurting. And all of this started when I saw that he had a reminder set for her birthday that he forgot to remove.

I just need comfort, please. Like maybe a scenario where there are rumours that Hawks (he's my comfort character) is cheating and he comforts me, tells me that it's not true and reassures me that he loves me through and through, even my scars and my size. or I'm vividly dreaming that he's cheating on me to the point that I'm crying in my sleep then he wakes me up to comfort me because I'm really wishing that this is all just a really bad dream and I just wish someone would wake me up.

I'm sorry. I found your blog a lot earlier and I told myself to only send an urgent request when I couldn't handle it by myself anymore. I just need reassurance from my comfort character.

Hawks Comforting Reader Who Hears Rumors That He's Cheating On Her

Pairing: Hawks (Keigo Takami) x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of cheating (he's not actually cheating), mention of scars, low self-esteem because of body image

Genre: Comfort, Fluff

Post-Type: Oneshot

Word Count: 1k

Summary: In which you see an article that suggests that Hawks is cheating on you with another woman. As soon as he gets home, you confront him about it and he denies the rumors as he tries his best to reassure and comfort you.

[A/N: Hello anon! First, thank you for coming to me with your urgent request. Please don't ever hesitate to send one in, I'm always grateful to be able to help you guys like this if I can. Second, I am so sorry you had to experience all that. Cheating is such a horrible thing and I know it may seem like you're the one who is having bad luck finding a man who won't cheat on you, but please know that you are NOT the problem. You deserve someone who makes you feel secure in your relationship with them. I really hope it works out with your boyfriend that you have now, but if it doesn't (which is normal), then I know the right man is out there waiting for you. Someone who will treat you like royalty, who won't make you feel insecure in your relationship, and someone who will love and appreciate all the efforts you make, while making efforts of their own. NEVER SETTLE. You deserve so much more <3. With that being said, I hope Hawks is able to provide you with some kind of comfort through this oneshot. I also made reader Fem so please let me know if you'd prefer a Gn! Reader and I'll change that up for you. Take care <3]

Not again, please not again.

You read the headline over and over again.

“Is Number Two Pro-Hero Hawks Seeing Someone Else?” you read the title out loud for the nth time.

Attached to the article is a picture of Hawks with another woman that wasn’t you; his hand was placed on her lower back as he looked lovingly at her. You eye the woman in the photo– she was perfect. Everything you wished you were–thin, beautiful– not one imperfection in sight.

Why did this always happen to you? You always did your best to show affection to your partner, giving him all your love and attention, putting him first before yourself whether he realized it or not. What were you doing wrong?

Your boyfriend wasn’t even home yet so you couldn’t confront him about it, but truth be told, you wished he wouldn’t come home yet. You weren’t ready to talk about it. What if he really was cheating on you? How would you deal with that again after your numerous previous relationships where you had been cheated on? If only you could just close your eyes and wake up from this horrible nightmare.

Your thoughts are cut short as you hear the jiggling of keys at the front door. He was home. Your heart hammers loudly in your chest–so loudly that you can hear your heartbeat in your ears.

“Baby I’m home! You here?” you hear him announce himself as soon as he gets the front door open.

You peek around the wall you were sitting behind, trying to hide yourself from him as you see him walk further into your shared home, still in his hero clothes. You almost jump out of your skin when his eyes flick to yours, his eyebrow raising slightly as you scurry to hide yourself behind the wall again.

“What’re you hiding for?” he asks now crouching right beside you.

You screech at his sudden presence and move away from him.

“N-nothing,” you say, not ready to know the truth yet.

“Oh c’mon baby, you can tell me,” he moves closer to you, bringing a hand up to cup your face lovingly.

You swallow hard, hating the way your body reacted to his touch, leaning into the warmth of his hand, but you stop yourself and scoot away from him once again. You hold your phone up to him, allowing him to read the gossip article you had found about his alleged cheating.

He stops in place and takes your phone from you, reading the article and scrolling through it, the frown on his face grows longer the more he reads. You can’t help the warm tears that come falling down your face as you admire him. Will this be the last time I ever get to see him as mine?

“Y/N, baby. These aren’t true, I promise you. I had just saved that woman from a gang of villains. These reporters just happened to capture the moment I was putting her down as she thanked me. I’ve never seen her before other than that,” he explains as he finally looks down and sees your tear stained face.

“But she’s so beautiful. Not like me with my disgusting body and horrendous scars. I can see why you’d want someone like her,” you confess the dark thoughts that had been eating away at you.

Cheating or not, you always felt like Hawks would eventually leave you behind whenever he found someone more appealing–someone worthy of loving.

“Baby no. Don’t say that about yourself,” his eyebrows furrow as he sits on the floor beside you, taking your hand in his, “I love you and only you. I love your scars, I kiss them all the time, don’t I? I love your body too! Every inch of you is complete perfection to me. No one on this earth could capture every inch of my heart as strongly as you have. I just wish you could see for yourself how amazing you really are.”

“Really? So you don’t love her?” you sniff, turning towards him to see if he was being sincere.

His eyes were pooling with love for you as he responded, “Of course I don’t love her. There’s only enough room in here for you my love.”

He pats his chest where his heart is located and once again cups your cheeks.

“Let me know whenever those negative thoughts come back into your head. I’ll kiss them all away,” he says as he leans in and kisses your forehead, “And please know that I would never cheat on you, ever. A man never lets his woman feel insecure in their relationship, so I’m sorry for not showing you enough, how much I love you.”

“You do!” you assure him, remembering all the moments he’d take care of you and make the first move to call you or tell you he loves you, “I just let my insecurities get the best of me. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t ever apologize,” he whispers before leaning in and leaving a lingering kiss to your lips, savoring the feeling of your lips on his–his favorite feeling–before pulling away, “Always question me whenever you feel insecure or suspicious, I’ll make sure to ease your mind instead of having you worry about it by yourself. I love you so much, please remember that.”

“I will,” you hum, leaning your head on his shoulder as you close your eyes and enjoy his presence.

You feel him leave your side for a second, before warm hands wrap around your back and thighs, lifting you off the ground.

“Off we go for cuddles!” he announces with a laugh as he carries you to your room.

You laugh along with him, swinging your arms around his neck, glad that he wasn’t cheating and still loved you dearly.

He lays you on the bed before jumping in beside you and pulling you into his arms.

“I love you,” he rests his forehead on yours, “so much.”

“I love you too,” you reply, closing the distance between you with a kiss of your own.

REQUESTS ARE OPEN :D

Posted: 12/26/2021 (yes ik it's the 27th, but I haven't slept yet so no <3)

[gaysimpsstuff]

BNHA Characters + Their Biggest Kinks

PT 2 Here

PT 3 Here

Genre: smut, obviously

Warnings: NSFW themes, hard kinks, BDSM kinks, lots and lots and weird kinks

Other: felt horny, wrote this

NSFW Taglist: @smolchildfangirl @combat-wombatus @mandalorian-baby-bird @waffleareniceandfluffy

Characters: Hawks, Bakugou, Dabi, Shigaraki

Keigo Takami/ Hawks-

Authority Kink- mans has spent his entire life being bossed around, he needs you to submit to him completely and without question. Call him ‘sir’ and he’ll melt. When he’s in this mood, there’s no room for brattyness. Just bend over and let sir take his stress out on you.

Wing Kink- Pretty self-explanatory. The underside of a bird’s wings are very sensitive, and get them horny in no time. Same thing with his back, one when you were cuddling, you were playing with his wings and massaging his back, and you noticed he had his face hidden and he was breathing kind of heavily. It was an embarrassing situation to explain...

Breeding- This one comes more into play during Nesting Season, he just has you pinned down and just keeps going and going and going, trying to fill you up with his babies even if you want get pregnant. You’ll always be his little breeding slut. Even better if you have a bird or lizard quirk and you lay eggs (infertile usually). Even with a male reader he’d want to ‘breed.’

Pegging- He likes to bottom sometimes, so that he can whine and cry and beg and be a good boy for his y/n. Expect him to come home from work feeling more tired than stressed. Total pillow princess. He needs you to fuck him into the mattress so hard that he’s only flying tomorrow.

Praise/body Worship- This goes both ways. You’re his everything, and he wants to make sure you’re aware of how much he appreciates you, but he’s so insecurities that he needs it in return. Soft, teasing touches, whispered I love yous, doing so wells, my pretty baby, go a long way for this man.

Dirty Talk- he wants you to know just what he’s going to do to you, how he’s going to fill you up so good, make you need him and his cock, make you cry for him to keep going, beg for his cum. Even when he’s on bottom, he’s babbling and whining. You can’t get this man to shut the fuck up. It can get annoying at times.

Bath/shower sex- this plays more into his bird instincts. Bathing/ cleaning oneself usually gets birds horny. They usually preen prior to mating season so look out for that. There’s just something about ducking you in his bathtub (jacuzzi) that gets him going like nothing else.

Katsuki Bakugou/ Dynamight-

Switch- this man will present as a top, but he has absolutely nothing against getting manhandled and having the life fucked out of him. Just so long as he can do the same to you. Fuck him rough and good and then take his revenge tomorrow.

Rigger- after all he’s been through, he does not wanna be tied up at all. But he has no problem with handcuffing you or wrapping your pretty body up in Shibari and watching you struggle against them. Will totally tease you the whole time.

Gags- You’re still talking? You need to shut the fuck up. Or else you’ve got something keeping your mouth shut. Tape, underwear in mouth, his hand or fingers, or an actual gag. Loves your muffled sounds when he asks you a question. “Want me to keep going? You gotta say so. Aw I didn’t hear anything so I guess you want me to stop...”

Dirty Talk- Just like Hawks, he can’t keep his mouth shut. But this one is spilling the dirtiest filth you’ll ever hear. Plays into a minor corruption kink. Wants you to repeat it all back to him. On the flip side, gets so flustered when you talk dirty to him. Whining about how you’re a pervert, but just ignore him, he’s hard as shit right now.

Dacryphilia- All those years of Deku crying and you think he wouldn’t have a crying kink? Thinks your tears are so beautiful, might even lick them off your face. “Aww, look at you~ crying for my fuckin cock.” Don’t be weirded out if he licks them off your face. He also cries during sex, though. It’s just too fucking good and he hasn’t had a good cry in a while. Tease him about it and he’ll hide his face, but praise him for it and he’ll cry even harder.

Praise- This man shouts enough degradations outside the bedroom, he wants sex to be different from everything else. Gets a little embarrassed first time he praises you, but if you look at him with those shy eyes and a quivering lip, he’s just gonna keep loading it on. He also wants to be praised, both out of insecurities and superiority. When he’s bottoming just repeat how amazing he’s doing, how no one else is as pretty as him. When he’s on top, he still needs you to be praising him. Tell him how good his cock feels, how he’s gonna make you cum, how no one else fucks you as good as him.

Impact Play- mostly spanking. Uses his quirk. He loves it when your skin forms a light burn in the shape of his hand. Spanks you even if his handprints don’t show up on your skin. He needs it to, just keep smacking his stomach and thighs with a paddle until he’s sobbing.

Touya Todoroki/ Dabi-

Degradation/ Brat Taming- Starting off with the roughness with this guy. These two go hand in hand for Dabi, you need to know where you belong. Underneath him, begging and crying for his cock, his mercy, anything. You need to understand your only purpose is to service him, moan for him, and be his little personal cumdump.

Hard Dom- he won’t go easy on you, no matter what, you’re not getting it sweet or easy. It’s always going to be rough, fast, and difficult. Just try and complain.

Size kink- We all know this man is hung like a donkey, too big to handle. Loves it when you’re trying to suck him off and can’t even get down halfway. Even better when he’s pushing in, and can’t get further than six inches in. Just laughs at how “your cute little hole can’t take my fat cock can it, baby?”

Sadism- Pretty obvious, he likes hurting you. Knives? He’s got plenty. Fire? More relunctant but sure. Impact play? Yes sir. Loves seeing you cry and you babble about how much it hurts. His favorite thing is to write his name on your back with light burns that usually fade in a week or so. Always takes care of your injuries afterwords.

Bondage- Can’t have his little baby trying to touch themself can he? Can’t have his darling trying to escape from him, can he? No no, you’re better off tied to the bed, taking everything he gives you like a good little slut.

Sensory Deprivation- He wants you waiting, dreading maybe, anticipating, his next moves. You don’t know where he’ll touch you, what he’s saying, and you can’t do anything to stop it.

Corruption- He has a thing for people who seem innocent, and he wants to corrupt that innocence. To everyone else, you’re naive, doe-eyed, and probably can’t do anything for yourself. He’s going to change all of that. Bonus points if you’re actually fully capable and he morphs into a co-dependant mess. This man is all Yandere nothing else.

Teasing/ edging- Loves working you up to the grand finale, then pushing you back to the first scene. You’ll never forget his laughter as you beg him for your orgasms. You’ll be lucky if he lets you cum at all. He’ll humiliate the fuck out of you for your pitiful begging.

Tomura Shigaraki/ Symbol of Terror

Mommy/Daddy/Renny (Renny is the gender neutral term for Mommy/Daddy)- This man will call you whatever you want, but this is his go-to nickname for you. You’re taking care of him in and out of the bedroom, at least until he matures.

Switch- Up until he matures, your on top of him the whole time. Loves it when you’re in control, but after certain events in the manga and anime, he starts to gain an apprentice for being on top, although being so unused to it, he has a lot less kinks for being on top than on bottom.

Pegging- self-explanatory. He was always afraid of disintegrating his dick, and anal stimulation meant most of his fingers were pointed away from his body while only two or three were touching his skin. Safer. Now he’s got a huge appreciation for anal play, anytime you see him naked, he probably has a butt plug in.

Pet-Play- he’s your dumb little puppy, okay? Treat him like a bitchy little animal and he’ll do whatever you want. Feel free and drag him around on a leash or feed him food out of a bowl on the ground.

Feet- he doesn’t know why, but your feet are such a fucking turn on. Whether you’re wearing combat boots with spikes, fancy heels with a flower on them, or normal tennis shoes. Socks, thigh-highs and tights? Man is already begging. Just step on him and give him a foot job already! He’s begging, come on!

Water sports- kind of gross, skip this one if it’s gross for you (it is for me but for some reason I’m writing about it) but it’s something he appreciates more as a top than a bottom. Controlling when you go to the bathroom, giving you so many drinks, watching you squirm, begging and crying for him to let you relieve yourself, only to piss yourself. And when you do that, he’s on his knees in front of you, drinking it. Loves how embarrassed you get. Says “anything you make is always gonna be the best” while licking his lips.

CNC- something he enjoys as a top or a bottom. Skip this one if it’s weird or wrong to you, or a trigger. Always pre-planned with a safe word and everything, but he always pretends it’s real. Something about you or him not having a choice, being forced to take whatever the other gives them, begging for it all to stop but being betrayed by your body, it all just drives him crazy.

S&M- Doesnt care of he’s the S or M. He just loves pain. Crying when you spank or slap him, watching you scream as he cuts his name onto you.