#It's in progress

[aro-of-argentum]

The Judas Arrangement

WC: 2,629

Notes: This is a snippet from a Dabi/Touya Todoroki xReader project I'm currently working on and I wanted to share it as a sneak peek for the full fic I will eventually be putting out! Mentions of character death, grief and attempts to manage it, mentions of arranged marriage, Natsuo is doing his best, it isn't enough.

Beta'd by: @teaspacebar

You were sitting in the same place you always did on January eighteenth, staring at the words carved into stone. Beloved son and brother. The sentimental phrase made your stomach turn. Touya was beloved, certainly, by you, by his siblings, and even by his mother, despite the strain in their relationship toward the end. But the man who paid for the headstone couldn’t have cared less. Endeavor had pushed his family to move on from the boy’s passing as soon as the cameras were pointed elsewhere, and despite their grief, they obeyed. You were the only one that visited this place now, the only one that tended to it.

Your knees were settled into the dirt at the base of the stone, and you remained, as you always did, despite the chill that seemed to seep into your very bones. The sound of footsteps on the earth was your alert you were no longer alone.

“You shouldn’t be out here like this, you’ll freeze.”

You knew he meant well, you honestly did, but for some reason you’d woken up in worse condition than you had in years for these visits. You were emotionally raw, and there was no room in your heart to be understanding of Natsuo’s feelings when the only thing you felt was despair.

You swallowed thickly to dislodge the lump in your throat before you spoke. “I’ve asked not to be disturbed while I’m here.” You continued to stare into the stone, eyes glassy but refusing to drip in front of your fiancé. He’d try to care for you if he saw you cry, and you couldn’t handle that right now. You wouldn’t have the patience to thank him and tell him he was being a good partner and dote on him in return.

He explained, “It isn’t your usual day,” as though that excused the interruption.

“It’s his birthday, Natsuo.”

“I know that.” He sighed, a tiredness creeping into his voice, though if it was caused by your behavior or the day, you weren’t sure. “That’s how I knew I’d find you here when you stopped answering my messages.”

A hum of disinterested acknowledgement left you as a vague awareness pinged in your brain to tell you that, yes, your phone had been buzzing the whole time you’d been here. You’d left it tucked in your bag anyway. “Why did you come here?” There was no accusation in your tone despite the 12-year-old little girl in your chest screaming that Natsuo should come here because he cares, not just to find you.

“My father asked to see us for lunch at his agency. We’re going to be late if we don’t-”

“Go without me,” you refused without hesitation. “Tell him I’m sick; I’ll apologize to him tomorrow.”

Natsuo was quiet for a moment before he admitted, “He wants to know about our plans for the wedding. And an explanation on why it was pushed back another six months.”

You shook your head, “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

He sighed your name. “We have to-”

“I already agreed to the contract,” you reminded him. “You’re the one that’s holding out on hope of something that’s never going to come.”

The choked noise of hurt surprise that left him did not escape your notice, and yet you still refused to turn to look at him. “Y/n, please.”

“Just-” you had to smother the irritation bubbling in your chest, knowing it came from your emotional distress more than anything he’d done. “Natsuo, please,” you barely withheld the mimicry, “go away.”

The man was dejected, you could feel it without having to see him, and it rang through his voice when he finally relented, “I’ll see if he’ll meet with us tomorrow. Do you want me to bring you a blanket?”

A pulse of guilt pushed through your chest at his words, because of course, even when you were being belligerent and hurtful, Natsuo cared, he loved you, and wanted to make sure you were alright. “No. Thank you.” You needed the cold; it was a biting reminder of what you’d lost.

He sighed but pushed no further, and a moment later there were receding footsteps.

“He’s been doing that more lately,” you explained to the open air behind Touya’s headstone, the fatigue in your voice plain as day. “His expectations of me are growing, and he thinks I shouldn’t still be here, that I shouldn’t still be feeling this way. He doesn’t understand why I can’t-” you stopped, sentence unfinished at the sound of approaching footsteps. “Natsuo, please, just leave me alone.”

A voice you didn’t recognize responded, “Sorry to disappoint, but the guy that just walked out of here looking like a kicked fucking dog is long gone.” The man’s tone was low, dangerous, and his phrasing almost felt like a threat. You braced your hands on the ground beside you, slowly moving to stand until he spoke again from behind you. “No, no. Don’t get up. Don’t turn around.”

The command was clear, and your skin crawled at the sense of danger that was clawing its way up your spine. “What do you want?” you asked, eyes searching for something, anything, that might be able to help you right now.

“Now that we’re alone, you and I are going to have a little chat.” The rasp in his voice spoke to overuse and strain, and you couldn’t help but wince at the memory of the first time you’d done that to your own voice, just after a funeral when you were twelve. “Who was he?”

“My fiancé,” you answered, tone as cold as the air around you.

“Not him,” he clarified, “The headstone.”

A huff of a dark and humorless laugh escaped you. “Would you believe me if I said the answer was the same?”

He snorted. “Dates say he was a kid.”

You could hear the unspoken question of ‘how’ in his statement, so you answered it. “We were arranged.”

“And you’re grieving? What, seven years later?”

The question was almost mocking, and you knew it was stupid to be snarky right now. But knowing that didn’t stop you. “You never loved anybody like that?”

There was a pause, nothing audible in the near-freezing silence that covered the cemetery. Then, “Tell me about him.”

You actually laughed that time, gaze still downcast at Touya’s name. “Is that your thing? You corner people at their loved ones’ graves so you can watch them cry?”

He chuckled and for a moment you thought you recognized the sound, but the rasp took back over. “Just you. Tell me.”

Your fists clenched where they sat on your thighs, nails digging into your palms as you attempted to gather the words. “He was smart, and strong, and kind,” you decided was as good a place as any to start. You wanted this man out of your space as soon as possible, and maybe playing his game was the way to do that. “He was my best friend, and I loved him, at least as much as a child can understand what love is.” You could feel fresh tears in your eyes, still doing everything in your power not to let them fall.

“I thought you said it was arranged.”

“Yeah, we got lucky; got along like a house on fire.” You laughed barely audibly at your own joke, and heard him snort before immediately coughing and clearing his throat. Odd, you thought, given the lack of context for that comment, unless he’d seen the Todoroki name and assumed. “We spent every day together, went to all the same schools, did quirk training together, he was everything to me.” The sentimentality of your rant nearly had you forgetting the reason you were on it in the first place. A nostalgic, though slightly saddened smile crossed your features when you added. “We even called each other husband and wife.”

“And the new fiancé?”

Your expression soured, and you didn’t have the bandwidth to consider how messed up of you that was. “His younger brother. He offered to fulfill the marriage contract so that my family would still be taken care of.”

“Tch. Noble.”

Your irritation bubbled out of you before you could stop yourself from spilling your guts to the stranger that still stood behind you like a ghost. “Yeah, except he wants to get married because he’s in love with me and he refuses to accept that I won’t ever feel that way about him.”

“Why not?”

“Because Natsuo’s not him!” You almost shouted, gesturing toward the headstone. You felt a tear finally slide free, and you were quick to wipe it away, despite the fact you were sure the man hovering behind you could see it. Perhaps you could blame it on the phenomenon that it’s easier to open up to strangers than people you know that this was all suddenly ready to pour out of you for the first time in your life. “And maybe it was a long time ago, and children don’t know what love is, so how do you explain to someone that while all of that is true, you don’t think you could ever be in love with them. Because just being near him felt like waking up with the sunrise on your face, and losing him felt like loosing the sun, and you haven’t been able to find anything that feels like that since.” When your words ran out, the sobs finally ripped free of your throat, tears flowing uninterrupted. You did your best to catch your breath enough to speak again. “So, if you’re gonna steal my wallet or kill me, now would be a great time, cause even if I could so something about it, I might let you do it anyway.

“I am freezing and I am miserable and I wish To-” Another sob broke off the end of your sentence, the end of your wish that he was there to comfort you, to wrap you in a hug and lean down to burrow his head into yours and let his body heat and affection chase it all away just as he did when you were kids. You were so wrapped up in the idea that even as you heard the man behind you move closer, you made no attempt to protect yourself. You sat still, head bowed, and eyes closed, nails digging so hard into your palms so hard you were certain you’d bleed if not for your quirk.

The first thing you felt was heat. Rolling in waves like someone had opened a furnace door. His knees hit the ground, and you felt the man’s arms wrap around your waist. His chest pushed into your back, and his chin landed lightly on your shoulder, head knocking softly into the side of yours and pressing there.

Your eyes shot open as you froze, shock overtaking every other emotion in your body as you tried to reconcile the fact that this person somehow knew.

You heard him speak again, now so much softer in tone and volume, though the rasp was still present. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come for you sooner.”

You voice felt lost, and you barely managed a broken whisper of, “What?”

His arms tightened around you, grip almost crushing when he spoke again. His voice was choked and watery, and quiet enough that if you weren’t so close you were sure you wouldn’t have heard him. “I saw photos of the family a year ago, you were with Nats, I thought- fuck I should have known. I should have come to get you, I’m so sorry.”

He seemed to be spiraling, hold on you fluctuating as his arms tensed and relaxed and tensed again. Your own thoughts were running at light speed, and your eyes finally trailed down, filling with emotion when you saw the scarred and mutilated skin of his arms, the staples at his wrists. “Your arms…”

The muttering over your shoulder stopped, and for a moment you weren’t sure he was even breathing. When you moved, there was no resistance in his hold, so you turned to face the man. Your gaze trailed up the sleeves of his jacket, and you found more of the same purpled skin where the garment ended at his throat. More scars, more staples, and his eyes.

A watery gasp filled your chest. You’d had daydreamy conversations when you were children about one day matching an engagement stone to those eyes. “Touya?”

He nodded, the movement small, hope in his eyes and something almost a smile on his lips when he pressed his face into your hand where it cupped his cheek. A sigh relieved the tension in his chest, the worry that all the changes in him would make you see him as a monster.

“You’re here.” Your disbelief was evident in your tone and your eyes.

“I’m here, it’s me.”

“You’re alive.”

“I’m alive.” His volume remained quiet, withheld, like he was scared to shatter the bubble around the two of you.

You smiled through the tears now freely flowing down your cheeks, which despite there being no sign they’d slow down, the man in front of you seemed content to continually wipe away with his thumbs as his palms cradled your face. Warmth spread from his touch, hot, but not enough to burn, never enough to burn you, even if he could. He’d always touched you with that kind of careful awareness of his quirk. “How?” you questioned, hands latching onto his wrists as overwhelming confusion and concern took over almost everything else. “In the park- you- we didn’t-”

He flinched at your grip but made no attempt to remove it as he cut you off. “I promise, I can explain, but I don’t have a lot of time right now, I-”

His own sentence was cut off by an explosion close enough to rock the ground, followed immediately by a phone ringing in his pocket. “What-” you tried with wide eyes, but your own phone blared Natsuo’s ringtone from your bag.

“Shit! Y/n, I have to go.” He moved to stand up, his hands pulling away from you as he did, and you panicked.

“Wait!” You stared up at him with wide eyes as your heart and mind raced alike. Your breathing grew labored as you considered what you were about to ask, but what else could you do when your best friend, your purpose in life, your everything was back within reach, staring down at you, about to leave you behind again. “Take me with you.”

“It’s not safe, I can’t-”

“It doesn’t matter! I can’t lose you again,” you were begging; you didn’t care. “Don’t leave me.”

His jaw tightened for only a moment before, “Fuck! Come on,” he commanded, pulling you to your feet.

You made no attempt to grab your things as he stormed away with you in tow, and you couldn’t help but notice that even though he’d said he was leaving, he’d never dropped your hand.

“You have to stay close to me, you have to do everything I say, without question, and you have to call me Dabi. Good?” He threw the question into the air, knowing you’d be listening. He waited until he heard you respond with an ‘okay’ far too sure, before shaking his head, unable to determine whether he was happy or terrified for what he was about to do. “You’re not going to like where we’re going.”

And now, as his fingers intertwined with yours to pull you along as the pair of you broke into a run, you cleared the boundary of the cemetery, leaving your things, your grief, maybe your entire life, at the headstone of Touya Todoroki.

[cosmeretrek]

Above image is a pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.

[graveyarrdshift]

"I'm just a girl", "girl math", "girl dinner", "divine feminine energy", "bimbocore", "clean girl", "girl's girl", "girlfriend brain" SHUT UPPP!!! SHUTT THE FUCKKKK UPPPPPP !!!!

[kallypsowrites]

Imagine being JD Vance, who makes such a huge part of his personality being catholic. The pope himself takes time to lecture you on compassion then promptly DIES. The pope uses one of his last hours on earth to tell you that you suck at your religion on EASTER. And then DIES. Anyway RIP Pope Francis

[politijohn]

Source

[botanyshitposts]

so was anybody gonna talk about the new ecology paper proposing Ethiopian wolves as potential pollinators of native nectar-rich flower inflorescences positioned on stalks conveniently within wolf enjoying height AND that it includes photos of said wolves doing said unconfirmed alleged pollination (delightful) AND that it has observational evidence suggesting some wolves do like 1 flower and are done and other wolves just get really into it and spend upwards of an hour going between 20 and 30 flowers for up to 4-5 minutes per cluster just utterly going at it, lost in the nectar sauce? because I cannot BELIEVE I haven’t seen something on this webbed site about it yet. it just has everything this site enjoys

[gaysexofficial]

based off this post by @75screamingtoads that made me start watching. as you can see my art gets progressively worse each panel lol

[dramatic-dolphin]

you guys are so fucking stupidddd omg "rapists and pedophiles should be chemically castrated, this is a good thing" quick tell me about historical precedents of this idea and who or what ideology they are connected to......... 🤔

[honorlessrogue]

today i wrote zero words! but i did think about my story twice in passing. that probably counts for something

[varpusvaras]

I think one of the best and unintentionally funniest worldbuilding aspects in Star Wars is the reasoning of why did Bail and Breha adopt Leia instead of having their own children. Leia is first established as the princess of Alderaan before she is written to be Luke's sister. So now we need to figure out how she got to Alderaan. She was adopted because she needed to be hidden and separated from her brother. Bail was placed there to be one of the only people who knew so there would be a reason why it was them who got her. They specifically wanted a daughter. Why? Because Alderaan is a matriarchal society, so they needed a princess. Why didn't the Queen and her husband have biological children? Because they can't. Why? Because the Queen can't have kids. Why? Because she got injured as a teenager and got her internal organs replaced and her body can't handle a pregnancy. How did she get injured so badly? She fell off of a mountain. How did that happen? She was climbing it. Why was the future Queen climbing a mountain in the first place? Because she needed to go through three challenges in order to inherit the throne and one of them required her to go through something physically impressive. Why? Because before that they just held a Battle Royale for all the heirs and the one left alive got the throne and they at some point figured out that maybe they shouldn't be doing that, actually. Oh, okay.

[ohholydyke]

Maybe we’ll get to see the first American pope in history be the first pope to excommunicate the US vice president

[bloodmoonlich]

[kosmogrl]

the scary part about getting better is that there's this constant fear that things will go back to what they once were

[benjaminallhope-fulltimemind]

just a handy little info chart on the spectrums of sexuality.

/Edit: I forgot to give credit this is a screenshot from a video made by a content creator called Lily Orchard you should check her channel out it's amazing

[politijohn]

It’s not lost on me that Bernie Sanders is the only mainstream politician touring the country rn listening to Americans’ concerns, giving them hope that a better world is still possible. Not campaigning for President, not an election year, just inspiring swing town voters to use their power to incite change in their communities.

Bernie is 83yo, doing the work that every single Democrat could be doing simply in their own district. He’s packing overflow rooms by the thousands in suburban and rural towns, not “democratic strongholds”. It is possible to get through the next four years but the status quo Dems aren’t going to make that happen.

Imagine what a true progressive party could do for the US. Leftist policy is popular and wins elections. Bernie and others have told us this for decades. If you tuned out his message before, I have to wonder what side you’re truly on. Because his shtick has not wavered with everyday Americans.

Not me, us.