#deathgods

[shysoftbebe]

Celestial Key {Crossover} {1/3}

Everyone x Reader {?}

Reader discovers that the Gate should remain closed.

~~~

“Natsu,” you mutter grabbing the man’s upper arm halting his movement but his posture remains tense, serious expression replacing his carefree one as his eyes filter over the new group of strange people.

Ezra steps forward, past the two of you, gloved hand resting on the hilt of her sword, posture at ease, but the tenseness of her shoulders tell you something else.

“Master Makarov is expecting you,” she informs the group, eyes focusing on the child-height man that steps forward, he looks like a child but the power and experience radiating from him says differently. 

“I am Captain Hitsugaya these are my companions,” he replies, gesturing to the handful of people behind him, who seem to be want to be anywhere else than here. 

“Can you please lead the way to him?” he asks, drawing a curt nod from Ezra, who turns back to the five of you, gesturing for you to follow. 

Slipping your hand into Natsu’s, you tug softly as you begin to walk and with a little trouble he allows you to pull him along. 

Stepping into the Guild-Hall brings silence, and tension as the members watch the strangers with watchful, guarded gazes as Ezra speaks with Master Makarov. 

After a few moments of barely breathable silence, he turns to the group.

“Captain Hitsugaya wonderful to see you again,” he greets the man, who returns the greeting with a sharp nod.

“I would say the same if it wasn’t for the circumstances,” the man replies, Gramps’ expression grows serious at his words.

“What seems to be the problem?” he asks, voice deepening with worry as you tightening your grip around Natsu’s hand, while he draws you closer, the warmth of his body slightly calming you.

“There seems to be a new threat and we do not know what to make of it,” Captain Hitsugaya states, as you barely recall being told stories of their world, remembering a traitor Captain and their world almost being destroyed. 

He turns to the female, who is only a few inches taller than him, handing him a key of some sorts.

From the sharp gasp leaving Lucy’s lips, and her widening eyes, you take it that she knows what it is.

“That is a Celestial Key, why would a Celestial Key be in your world?” she asks, having gained everyone’s attention, hands trembling as she gazes at it wanting to hold it but something about it doesn’t sit right with you.

Captain Hitsugaya meets Master Makarov’s eyes, who nods in reply to his wordless question, gesturing for Lucy to come and take it.

Your feet move, hand slipping free from Natsu’s as you halt Lucy in her tracks, gaze solely on the Key that holds an aura around it.

“Y/N?” Lucy whispers, you shake your head as Gray steps forward, tugging the blonde away who goes with little resistance as you now stand a few feet from the Captain.

“May I Captain?” you ask, holding out a hand as you try to ignore your twisting insides as you meet his eyes.

He places the Key in your palm without much prompt, the coldness of it floods your entire body, releasing a shaky breath as you take a step back muttering words under your breath as a blue fire graces your fingertips. 

Something cold slams into you, drawing a sharp yet choked gasp from your lips, fire dying as you stumble fingers curling tightly around the key; as needle-like pain stabs at your chest. 

Hands catch your shoulders, you yank yourself away, balancing yourself against the bar as your ears ring and eyes  shut trying to get a grip on yourself.

Once back to yourself, your eyes flutter open finding concern, worried eyes on you as you give a shaky smile.

“I’m fine that was just...I haven’t felt anything like that in a while,” you muster, Lucy tilts her head confused yet curious.

“I suggest we do not open the Gate, not until we have more information on it,” Ezra states, everyone nodding in agreement as the Key hums in your grip seemingly pleased with your magic.

“Y/N?” Natsu asks, brows furrowing at the look on your face, everyone’s eyes snap to you; your heart thundering against your rib-cage as you think of a way to place it.

“It seems to like me, my magic to be more accurate.”

[missrosegold]

and if my body should fade I’ll trust you with my soul

Synopsis: You’ve always been able to see the man with white hair and charred skin around your village, even though it seemed that nobody else could.

Or, you ended up making a deal with death, and now he’s come to collect.

Word count: 30k

Paring: Dabi x Reader (fem reader)

Warnings: Mentions of death, strong language, smut, so Minors or ageless blogs DNI. This is rated 18+ Additional tags listed below. This does take place in a somewhat medieval inspired AU so there are some misogynistic tones in some parts of the story.

Playlist: Sparky Deathcap – September (we got fire) instrumental version, slowed.

A massive thank you goes out to @candycandy00 for beta’ing this for me! Thank you for helping me get used to this writing style. Your advice was so incredibly helpful!

You can find me on A03 under the same username: MissRoseGold. This story is posted there too if the formatting on here is throwing you off!

Likes and relogs are always appreciated! I hope you enjoy <3

As far back as you can remember, you’ve always been able to see the man with white hair and charred skin.

You remember being just a small child when you saw him for the first time. You were at the market with your mother when you happened to look past her, and saw a tall, lanky man dressed in a black robe with the hood up, standing just a few feet away from you. He seemed to focus intently on something in the distance, but you couldn’t follow his line of sight.

You remember not being able to see much of his face from where you were standing, but then the stranger had shifted. The hood that had been concealing most of his face had fallen slightly, allowing you to catch a glimpse of unruly snowy white hair and the dark, mottled skin that made up the man’s lower jaw.

You remember feeling alarmed, having never seen anything like it before, and you had tugged on your mothers’ skirts, whispering that the hooded man next to you looked very strange. Your mother had stopped what she was doing and had looked in the direction you were pointing at, but the moment you turned your head to point the man out to her, he was gone.

Your mother had scolded you something fierce about lying to her, before taking you by the hand and half leading, half dragging you out of the market. You looked for the hooded man as she pulled you along, trying to see if you could spot him in the busy market crowd, so you could prove to your mother that you weren’t lying, but you didn’t see him again.

You don’t remember much else from that day, but you do recall that the next morning you were informed that your best friend’s aunt had passed away late in the night, and that you and your family were attending the funeral that afternoon.

You didn’t see the white-haired man for a while after that.

Over the years you swore up and down that you saw brief glimpses of the strange man around town from time to time. He always seemed to be just out of sight, lurking in the corners of your vison, disappearing completely if you turned your head too fast, or tried to look directly at him.

For a horrible while during your early teen years, you thought you had been going mad, but you were sure that the person you were seeing wasn’t a ghost, just a man with what looked like horrible leathery burns from his jaw down to his neck, and possibly down his arms too, from what you could remember seeing of the skin on his hands, where his cloak didn’t fully cover.

You had tried a number of times over the years to point out the brooding stranger whenever you had someone else with you, but every time without fail, he would be gone by the time they turned to look in the direction you were pointing in. You quickly learned to keep your mouth shut whenever you saw the stranger, as it became very apparent from the mixture of dirty and worried looks that your family and friends gave you whenever you brought the man up, that you were the only one who could see him.

So, you never spoke of him out loud again.

You had no idea why you seemed to be the only one who could see the mysterious man. You found yourself wondering if you were in fact losing your sanity, or if you were somehow under an illusion from one of the mischievous Fae that called the woods surrounding your small village home. You hoped you weren’t – you didn’t feel like you were, but there was only one way to find out, and that was finding the stranger yourself.

And so, you started actively looking for the man who’s name you didn’t know, whenever you were alone or had some time for yourself.

One evening, several years after you started your search for the stranger, you found him.

You had wandered into the forest that surrounded your town, just as the sun was setting behind the tree line. You knew that it was dangerous to head into the woods near dusk, as that was the time that the Fae who called the woods home were most likely to try and lure unsuspecting victims into the thick of the forest, never to be seen again. But you knew the woods too, as your family home backed directly onto it, and you knew which paths were safe to travel, even though your grandparents had warned you countless times as you got older not to enter the forest without an escort.

There was one trail in particular that led you straight through the underbrush and to a lovely, secluded pond near the middle of the woods that your father had taken you down once when you were small. You remember feeling a lot happier back then, giggling and dipping your toes in the cool water with your father before he took you back to the house; only for your mother to scream at you both, about how it wasn’t proper for a future lady to wander around in the dirt, and how your father should’ve known better then to take you to such a place.

That was the last time he had taken you out into the woods, but you had never forgotten the path he had taken you on all those years ago that led directly to your pond.

You can’t remember the last time you had smiled like your child self had done once.

Pushing back branches that obscured the pond from the covered path, you breathed a sigh of relief as you stepped out into the open. The glade was relatively unchanged from the last time you had been there: the sun was slowly sinking behind the tree-line, turning the sky a deep burnt orange, casting long shadows over the still water in the pond. Crickets chirped and you could hear the distant song of birds echo around the open space, like some sort of somber melody that signaled the coming of night.

It was peaceful, and you were alone. Until you weren’t.

A dark shape standing perfectly still under the massive willow tree by the pond’s edge caught your attention. The stranger looked glaringly out of place against the reflection of the sunset caught in the water’s surface. You froze in place, not daring to breathe as you took in the sight of the strange figure before you. The stranger had on a long dark cloak with the hood up that obscured any distinguishable features from view, but you could tell that it was a man based on the stranger’s height and build. He wasn’t massive, but he was tall, taller than you, and while he was wasn’t overly muscular, something told you that he wasn’t weak or frail either.

In all your years of coming to the glade, you had never once run into another person. You had started to think that you were the only other person in your village aside from your father who knew about the secluded clearing, and yet, there was someone here. Someone you didn’t recognize.

You stood at the entrance to the clearing quietly, contemplating what to do, when you heard the cloaked figure exhale loudly. You watched with bated breath as he reached up with his large hands and pulled the hood off his head to reveal-

White hair, bright and pale like you were gazing at moonlight.

A strangled note of surprise left your mouth before you fully registered that you had made it. It was him, it was really him: the man that you had been looking for all this time. You couldn’t see his face, but you knew it was him, it had to be.

You watched as the man suddenly perked up at the noise you’d unwillingly made, and slowly turned around to face you. Suddenly, you found yourself unable to look away as his eyes met yours.

Time seemed to slow down in that moment, and the second you locked eyes with him, the air suddenly shifted, and the sun sunk fully behind the tree-line, plunging the clearing into twilight dusk, shrouding you both as the creatures of the night who lived in the forest slowly came to life around you.

None of it mattered though because you couldn’t stop staring at his eyes. You’d only been able to see glimpses of him from afar but now that he was here in front of you, his eyes were as deep as the ocean and just as captivating. His skin was a patchwork of dark purple burns, just like you remember seeing from the few times you had managed to look at him for more than a few seconds, held together by what looked to be staples – some silver, some gold. The burns extended from under his eyes, to his ears (which now that you had an uninterrupted view of him, could see that he had multiple piercings in each ear), that extended down his jaw and neck, and though his cloak prevented you from seeing more, you were fairly certain that they probably went lower. A quick glance to his hands confirmed your theory, as you saw more burns creeping down past the loose sleeves of his robe, down to his hands.

“It’s you.” You breathed. You blinked and suddenly you found yourself much closer to the stranger then you remembered being initially. He hadn’t moved from his spot under the willow, but instead opted to give you an unreadable look.

“You see me.” The low gravel tones of his voice shook you from whatever trance you had fallen into. It wasn’t a question; it was a statement.

You couldn’t help but snort, damn your mother and her etiquette lessons that she tried to cram down your throat. “Obviously. I see you perfectly fine, but I seem to be the only one who can. Care to explain why that is?”

The scarred man gave you a flat look, and suddenly, you found yourself unable to look away from the deep blue of his eyes. “You’re not supposed to be able to see me. No one is. Have you always been able to?” Completely deflecting your question, as he began to reach into the pocket of his robe.

You hesitated before answering, all of your earlier bravado had faded upon noticing the guarded way the man was acting. Clearly the stranger didn’t seem thrilled with your revelation of being able to see him, and for whatever reason, it didn’t seem like you were supposed to be able to at all. It also didn’t escape you that you knew absolutely nothing about the strange man in front of you. He could be an assassin for all you knew, and you were painfully aware that if you didn’t answer him carefully, this conversation with him could very well be one of the last ones that you’d ever have.

“…What’s the correct answer?” you finally mustered up the courage to ask.

The stranger sighed, but didn’t relax his stance. “Just answer me truthfully.”

“I… have. Always been able to see you, that is.” You murmured, hating the way your voice faltered, as you tried to maintain eye contact with him.

The stranger hummed, but didn’t take his eyes off you for a second. “I see. Has anyone else been able to see me, or is it just you?”

“Just me, as far as I know. I’ve tried to tell people about you, but nobody believes me… I’ve stopped talking about you to anyone.” You paused upon realizing that you were rambling as an amused look entered the man’s eyes. Still feeling like you were frozen in place, you hesitantly added,

“I just… I just wanted to find you to prove to myself that I wasn’t seeing things. That you do exist. Now I know you do.”

“Interesting…” The white-haired man seemed to look through you once again, then he blinked, and the tension that had locked you in place seemed to disappear as quickly as it had come on, and you felt as if an invisible weight had been lifted off your chest.

You let out the breath that you didn’t realize you had been holding in as you watched the burnt stranger relax his posture and withdraw his hand out of his robe pocket. “Well. You found me, now what?”

It was almost embarrassing. You had spent the last couple of years so focused on finding him, and proving to yourself once and for all that you were in fact, not crazy, that you never stopped to think about what you would do once you actually found him. Worse, this stranger seemed to already know that.

“I- your name.” you choked out, silently cursing yourself as the man cocked an eyebrow at you.

“What?” he asked you, completely deadpan.

“Your name. Could you tell me your name? I don’t think I got it.” you repeated, forcing yourself to go slower this time.

“That’s because I didn’t give it.” The man’s piercing blue eyes washed over you again, this time with a hint of amusement. He ran a large, scared hand through his hair. “So, you want to know my name huh?”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“It’s normally not the first thing people ask me, if they manage to see me.” the man countered as he tilted his head to the side and pulled down the hood of his robe, reveling more of the deep purple burns that covered the expanse of his neck and traveled down his collarbones. “Normally they want to know how I got these… It’s fucking annoying.”

“I don’t care about that.” you murmured quietly, causing the man to shoot you a look that, wasn’t quite shock but bordered on surprised.

“No?”

“No, I mean… they used to intimidate me when I first saw you, but after so many years of seeing you around my village, I’m used to them.” You shrugged your shoulders, trying to fight down the flush that you could feel trying to creep up your neck at your admission. “They don’t bother me, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

The stranger inhaled sharply at your words and fell deathly silent, averting his gaze away from you. He didn’t speak for several minutes, and you suddenly started to worry that you had somehow offended him. You had just opened your mouth to apologize to him, only for him to murmur something under his breath that you couldn’t catch.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” you asked him gently, causing him to look up at you and fix you with his soul piercing gaze once more.

“Touya. My name is Touya.”

“Touya.” You tested his name out with a giggle and you could have sworn that you saw the skin that wasn’t mutilated on his cheeks flush with a light dusting of pink. You quickly told him your name, and he only nodded with a hint of a smile on his face – like he knew something that you don’t. You asked him about a last name and he only shook his head.

“I go by a lot of names, but you can call me that. That name will be the easiest for you to remember.”

“You have multiple names?” You asked incredulously. Touya only nodded. “Depending on where I am, yes. Names are important. They hold a lot of value.”

That made you pause.

Taking a closer look at him, you noticed that despite the burns on his face looking slightly worse since the first time you saw him, he didn’t look like he’d changed much physically. Had he even aged from the first time you saw him?

“I have another question for you,” You admit.

Touya only leaned back onto the trunk of the willow and nodded at you, as if he already knew you were going to tell him that. “You can ask. Doesn’t mean I’m going to give you an answer though.”

“You… You’re not human, are you?”

If the question caught him off guard, he didn’t show it. The lanky man only laced his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, this time a full-blow smile pulled at the corners of his mottled lips. “No.”

You knew you should have be concerned at his admission, you knew that. You had no idea what he was or what he was capable of – what he could do to you if he wanted to.

The rational part of your mind screamed at you to leave this place and forget about Touya, forget that you ever came here and forget that this encounter ever happened. But even though you knew that you should’ve felt panicked, you didn’t. You felt drawn to him in a way that you had never experienced before. You didn’t feel threatened by him (though maybe you should’ve), and you got the impression that if he wanted to hurt you, he would have done so already.

“Are you… a Fae?” you guessed lightly, causing the tall man to snort as a look of annoyance passed over his face.

“Absolutely fucking not. Does it look like I have a pair of wings growing out of my back?” He rolled his oceanic eyes. “I don’t need to resort to cheap tricks like getting you to tell me your name to hold dominion over you. I have more then enough power as is.”

“So, you’re a sorcerer then.” You smiled triumphantly, placing your hands on your hips. The man let out a raspy chuckle and shook his head as he straightened back up.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m more than just a humble magician, sweetheart.”

“Then what exactly are you?”

The man’s piercing blue eyes seemed to look right through you, as he fixed you with an unreadable look. “Maybe I’ll tell you later.”

For some reason, you couldn’t stop the smile that spread across your face. “So, am I going to get to see you again? You won’t disappear?”

The staples holding the seams of his skin together seemed to pull slightly as he offered you a ghost of a smile. “You’re not annoying like I thought you’d be… I guess I’ll keep you around, for now.”

“Well, that’s- Hey!”

The stranger – no, Touya, you corrected yourself – threw his head back and laughed at your expression – the staples connecting the burnt skin of his jaw to the rest of his face were pulled taught as he cackles. You felt your heart flutter inside of your rib cage as he calmed down and shot you a boyish smile that made him seem much younger than he was.

Against your better judgement, you made your way towards him and sat down beside him under the willow tree, and a moment later, he followed you down.

You don’t remember how long you spent talking to him that night under the willow tree. You only remembered leaving because the first rays of the morning sun had started to peak over the tops of the trees. You remembered that it has cast deep red light across the pond’s surface, making the water light up until it resembled liquid fire.

You remembered leaving the clearing and Touya behind with your heart still pounding in your chest and a smile on your face – ears still ringing with his promise that he would see you again soon.

That had been the start of something beautiful.

                                                           ----

Over the years you grew closer to Toyua.

It was impossible not to. His presence, though commanding at times, was magnetic and kept drawing you back to him. If anyone else had been able to see him the way you could, there was no doubt in your mind that they would have called him intimidating or unnerving. But you find his presence comforting, like curling up next to a warm fireplace in the dead of winter.

His visits to your town are sporadic. He claims he only comes to your town due to his work (aside from stopping by to see you), and that his job takes him all over the continent, which was why he could never stay in one place for too long. He’s never told you what exactly he does for work, claiming that he isn’t allowed to discuss it when you asked him about it once.

When you tried to bring it up again, he had quickly shut down your questions, making it clear to you that he wasn’t going to entertain your curiosities, and you had never brought it up again.

You never know when he’ll be visiting your town next, but every time he comes to your village, he makes good on his promise that he would come to see you. Whenever he did, he would track you down, regardless of where you were, and take you back to the clearing where you had first met, so you could talk uninterrupted.

You’d once mentioned to him that you were rather envious of him, as he got to go to so many different places around the continent – even if it was because his job demanded it of him. Meanwhile you had never left your small town in your twenty something years of existence, even though you desperately wanted to go and explore the world and see what it had to offer.

From that moment on, he made it a point to tell you stories of his travels and what he had gotten up to since he had last seen you. There’s been a few times that he’s brought you back small trinkets from his travels, and you have a small jewelry box dedicated to the little things he’s brought you that only you know about.

Some of the things he’s brought you back include a necklace with a small pendant charm from the West, a set of small blue stone earrings from somewhere in the South that remind you of his eyes, a few coins from different kingdoms around you, and a book that’s written in a language that you can’t understand, but have combed through about three times now. You wear the earrings and the necklace every day, but are mindful to keep them out of your mother’s line of sight, least she asks questions that you can’t give her an answer to.

Strangely enough, there’s one thing that you’ve noticed about Touya’s visits to your town: they always seemed to land during a grieving period. Someone always seems to pass away either right around the time that he appears, or a few days after he’s left. You feel bad, as he’s never gotten to see how vibrant your town can be while not in grieving. He’s only ever seen your town and its people dressed in the customary dark colours used for when a member of the village has passed away. If it bothers him though, he never comments on it.

The one thing you hate the most about the unique friendship that you’ve built with Touya, is you never know when you’re going to see him again. You’ve learned very early on that his work is not consistent in the slightest, and pulls him all over the place. Mostly you see him at least once a month, once it was twice, but sometimes he’s gone for weeks – months even.

There was one period of time where you didn’t see him for five months. That had been a particularly lonely time in your life. When he did come back, he had appeared in front of you – seemingly out of thin air – while you were walking home from a friend’s house. You were so happy you almost cried, completely forgetting that you were in the middle of town, and that other villagers couldn’t see him like you could. From that point on you made it a point to treasure every single interaction with him, as you don’t know when you’ll be able to see him again.

It’s early spring, and once again, Touya is back at your side. His head is in your lap as you leisurely play with his hair (which you’ve come to discover, is much softer than it looks, despite its unruly spikes) You’re both resting by the edge of the pond, underneath the willow tree, simply enjoying each other’s company in a peaceful silence.

You know your mother would lose her mind if she knew that you were letting a man that you weren’t married to be so familiar with you, but you could care less. Touya had never once tried anything salacious with you, and aside from the occasional snarky remark, he was a perfect gentleman to you… which was more then you could say for some of the men your age in your village. The very ones that your mother was trying to set you up with-

You shook your head, quickly dispelling those thoughts. You didn’t want to think about that when you were with Touya. For some reason other men and him didn’t mix well in your mind. Of course, it’s not like the man lying beside you was courting you – but with the way that he treats you, the way he brings you things from his travels, and the way that you’ve seen how his hypnotizing blue gaze softens on occasion when he looks at you; a part of you wishes that he would. You’ve never really seen yourself marrying anyone from your village. None of the men from town have ever made you feel like Touya does--

You shake your head violently, dismissing that train of thought.

That’s dangerous territory as well. You didn’t want to make things complicated between you and him. You know that it’s foolish to develop a crush on the burnt man, especially since no one else can see him and it’s not like he was constantly around to begin with, but with how close you had become and how easy it was to be around him, it was hard not to develop some kind of feelings for him.

Regardless, your feelings meant nothing if he didn’t feel the same, and Touya has never been an easy book to read. For all you knew, he treated every woman the same way he treated you… provided that they could see him like you could, that is.

You feel your mouth dip into a scowl at the thought. It wasn’t like you to get jealous, but you’d be fooling yourself if you said that you didn’t enjoy what you had with the burnt man. Even if sometimes you weren’t sure what exactly it was.

In an effort to distract yourself from your increasingly difficult thoughts, you redirected your attention back down to Touya, who hadn’t moved from the moment he had brazenly dropped his head into your lap, claiming that he was going to rest for a few moments, before shutting his eyes and dozing off into a light sleep. You gently trace your fingers along his strong jaw-line, the skin feeling slightly leathery and dry underneath your fingertips, and you can’t help but feel your heart clench painfully as you take in the entirety his resting face.

His burns are getting worse.

You hate that it’s the first thought that crosses your mind the second you lay eyes on him nowadays, but you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t acknowledge it. The worst ones that you’ve seen are the ones on his face. They now stretch past the staples connecting his jaw to the rest of his face and are creeping up to the ones that are underneath his eyes. They almost touch now, and you can’t even begin to imagine how uncomfortable they must be.

You’ve never bothered to ask about the plethora of burns that cover his body. He’s never shown you more than the aggressive one that starts at his ears and travels down his neck, past his collarbones and the ones that travel down his arms, but you know inwardly that there are probably others that you can’t see. They don’t bother you; they never have. But you’ve always wondered how he got them. Even if he’s not quite human, you imagine that those kinds of injuries probably take a toll on the quality of life that someone has, and subsequently, probably shortens their life quite a bit.

You hate thinking about that though, so you speak up, breaking the peaceful silence that had enveloped you both, causing the man in your lap to crack one cerulean eye open, so he can look at you.

“I wish you’d stay longer. It feels like whenever you come, you’re only here for a day or two and then you’re gone again.” You pout, causing him to open his oceanic eyes with a chuckle as he slowly sits back up.

“Sorry Princess, my work takes me all over the place, you know that.”

“I know, I just wish you had a more consistent schedule. I miss you when you’re not here,” you admit. You smile cheekily at him, certain that you see a light dusting of red flash across the parts of his cheeks that aren’t damaged. “Are you ever going to tell me what exactly it is you do for work, or am I going to have to keep on guessing until I get it right?”

“I think I’m going to keep you in the dark for a little bit longer. It’s entertaining seeing you guess all the wrong things.”

“I still think you’re a sorcerer, you just don’t want to admit it. That, or you’re some kind of assassin who ages very slowly.” You tease him lightly. “I know you must be able to do some kind of magic. I mean, you may not be human, but you still look almost the same as you did when I was small. If that’s not because of some magic spell, I don’t know what it is.” You laugh, missing the tense look that passes over Touya’s face. “There’s only a few races I know of that have longevity like you: you’re dead set that you’re not a Fae, and you don’t look like any Elf I’ve ever seen.”

“I promise you, I’m neither. As for my… longevity, it’s not a spell, but you’re right: I can do magic, but it’s not the kind you’re thinking of.” He interrupts you, fixing you with a cool expression.

“Really? Can you show me?” you ask excitedly. This is the first time since you’ve known him that he’s openly admitted that he has more powers than what you initially thought.

“I will, but not here. Do you know where the temples dedicated to your gods are?”

Ah, your village shrines. You haven’t been to them in years, but you know exactly where they are – everyone in your village does and many go to pray at the temples regularly. There is a pantheon of gods and goddesses that the kingdom you belong to worships, even more depending on where you travel to, but your village likes to focus on four in particular:

All Might, the All Mighty One, the most powerful god in all of the pantheon and the guardian of all those who walk your lands. Legends say that he was once a mortal who fought valiantly against an ancient evil and was granted godhood in return for driving the darkness back.

Endeavor, the King of the Underworld and its fearsome protector. He preferred to stay in the Underworld, dutifully watching over all the souls that inevitably pass through his realm, and giving them an eternal place to rest, as well as serving his own brand of justice to those who had committed heinous acts of violence while alive on the surface.

Hawks, the God of Winds – one of his many titles. He was an interesting deity. He was the only one out of the many gods you worshiped who had large, red wings on his back. No one is quite certain of his origins. Some say he was born a Fae before he achieved godhood, others say that he was a traveling warrior, but no one knows for certain. He is a popular god among those who are traveling either by land or sea, and travelers often pray to him for safe passage during their trips. You’ve heard rumors from the priests who work at his temple that he is closely linked with the Underworld, and sometimes helps shepherd lost souls down there – but you can’t say for certain if it’s fact, or if the priests just want to mess with you.

And then there was the final one, the one that you knew the least about:

Dabi, the God of Cremation, or Death itself – depending on who was telling the story. He was an interesting one. From what you could recall of him, he was the oldest of Endeavor’s many children whom he had with his queen, and resided with his father and the rest of his immediate family in the Underworld. He was responsible for ritualistic death practices, and was the overseer of proper cremation of the deceased. Afterwards, he would supposedly take the souls of the deceased back to the Underworld with him so they could be judged by his father before arriving at their final resting grounds.

Out of all of the gods, he was one of the most mysterious and the least was known about him, compared to the rest of his kin. Many people, even in your town, believed that his name was taboo, and to use it would invoke an early demise – not that you believed that yourself. As much as people feared him, you had yet to hear of someone dying early from the use of his name alone.

Touya touches his hand to your cheek, and you’re snapped out of your reprieve, not realizing that you had gotten lost in your thoughts, and that he was still waiting on your response.

“Yes of course I know where they are, but Touya, why can’t you show me here-“

“Meet me by the Death shrine tonight after the sun goes down and I’ll show you what I mean. You’ll understand why I can’t show you right now.” He cuts you off, reaching out to give your hand a squeeze, pride soaring in his chest when you don’t pull your small hand away from his damaged one. “I’ll see you soon. When sun goes down, come find me.”

And with that, he seemingly vanishes before your eyes.

Night has fallen by the time you’re able to sneak out of your house. It took a while, but you had to make certain that both your parents were asleep before you attempted to sneak out.

You’re wearing nothing but a loose petticoat and a small coverup as you make your way in the direction of the village temples. You shiver and pull your wrap closer to you, as you give the dark forest a sideways glace and quicken your pace, thanking the stars that the snow had melted early this year and that the well-worn trail bordering the forest was clear of ice.

You had debated going through town since it was the quickest way to reach the shrines, but it was late at night, you were unmarried and without an escort, wearing thin clothes, and you were certain that the pubs in town were still open. The last thing you needed was one or multiple bar patrons seeing you walking past and trying to make an advance on you, or worse: alerting your parents that you had snuck out.

You were very certain that your mother would never let you out of the house again if she caught on to what you were doing. A young woman wearing nothing but underclothes, sneaking out in the dead of night to meet a strange man that only she could see?

Yeah, that would go over well.

So, you opted to take the trail that bordered along the edge of the forest instead, which was all the same. It would take you a little longer to get to your destination, but Dabi’s temple – or as many villagers liked to call it: The Death Shrine – was situated further away from the other three temples and was located in a more secluded spot on the edge of the wood, away from praying eyes. Perhaps Touya already knew that from the multitude of times he had visited your town over the years, and why he wanted you to meet him there in the first place.

You just wished it wasn’t so cold. It was early spring, but the nights were still crisp, and tonight was no exception. You desperately hoped the temple was unlocked so you could huddle in it to escape the crisp wind that whipped through your hair and clothes. You hoped that Touya was already there waiting for you. When he had first allowed you to get closer to him, the first thing you noticed about him was that he was exceptionally warm, and always seemed to run hot no matter what season it was. Hopefully he would allow you to take advantage of that if the temple wasn’t an option.

Finally, you reached your destination. You glanced around warily, as you slowly made your way towards the large building that was harshly outlined on the horizon against the surrounding woods.

The Death Shrine didn’t look as derelict as you thought it would, but you could tell that no one had been there for a very long time. The small gardens outside the temple were overgrown and dead and a mixture of new and old ivy was covering every inch of available surface on the outer temple walls. Aside from the rampant weeds growing over it, the building itself looked alright, but the roof had seen better days.

You call out for Touya, once, twice, and are greeted with silence aside from the occasional hoot of an owl far off in the distance. You look around the area for boot prints, a tell-tale sign that he’s here, but you can’t find anything. Now you’re starting to worry.

Did he forget about you? No, he wouldn’t have, he’s always kept his word to you before. Maybe he got held up somewhere? If that was the case, you wouldn’t have the faintest idea where to find him. Aside from the first time the two of you officially met, he was always the one who found you. Never the other way around-

A powerful gale of wind rips through the clearing and seems to push you towards the ruined temple. You have to stifle a yelp as the icy wind blows right through you, and you curse yourself for not thinking to change into warmer clothes before you snuck out.

You bolt towards the temple without a second thought, and reach the massive pair of doors that serve as the only way in and out of the temple. You grab the large iron knocker on one of the doors, fully prepared to test the door to see if it’s locked, but to your surprise, it swings open easily with a deafening groan.

You find it odd that the temple is unlocked. Even if no one has been to it for years, you figured the other priests that serve under the Gods of your village would’ve made sure to lock the temple to keep out vagrants – unless, people were genially too scared of the Cremation God to trespass on his lands.

Another powerful torrent of wind blasts through the clearing, and you don’t think twice as you run into the dark temple. You don’t bother shutting the door behind you, if Touya is looking for you, at least he’ll know where you are.

You rub at your arms, trying to bring some warmth back to them, only to look around the stone building in confusion. You thought for sure that the inside of the temple would have been an icebox seeing how cold it was outside, but for some reason it seems oddly… warm. Not warm enough for you to remove what thin layers you have on, but the temperature in the temple is noticeably different compared to outside.

You take a few more hesitant steps into the temple and look around, fascinated by what you see. Back when it was first built, the temple must have been a sight to behold. Even now, after years of neglect, you can still see bits and pieces of its former grandeur. Though dusty, the inside of the temple is spacious and open, even though it’s in desperate need of a good cleaning. As you look around, something among the gloom catches your attention and you slowly make your way to the opposite end of the temple.

Situated on the wall furthest away from the front doors, on an elevated platform with several stone steps leading up to it, is a massive statue, carved out of marble of the deity himself:

Dabi, God of Cremation and Death.

Every rendition that you’ve seen of the Death God is the same: a seemingly young man, clothed in flowing white burial robes, with a long hood covering the majority of his face, obscuring it from view. You aren’t sure if the hood was intentional, or if it was because no one actually knows what he looks like, but it certainly made the Death God more mysterious, adding to his strange charm.

Stepping closer, you realize that there is a sizable hole in the ceiling directly above the statue, casting moonlight down onto it, making it glow brightly in comparison to the rest of the dim temple. You glance around timidly, not entirely sure if you should kneel, or if there was another way to pay your respects to the elusive god.

As you look around, you notice the sculpture is surrounded by dozens of melted down candles. Even in the dim of the temple, you recognize they were once special prayer candles that priests use to pray with. You didn’t bring any matches with you, but you silently made a promise to yourself that if you ever did come back to the deserted temple, you would bring a new candle – even if he wasn’t a deity that you actively worshiped, it seemed rude to sneak into his temple without giving him some kind of acknowledgment.

Allowing your gaze to travel up the hooded statue, you paused as you realized that instead of a dark space under the hood where the god’s face should have been, that there was, in fact, a face concealed by the long hood of his robes. The darkness surrounding the statue, and the shadows cast down by the moonlight pouring in from the hole in the roof, hid most of his distinguishable features from view. But you could make out the lower half off his jawbone from where you stood.

It might just be a trick of the moonlight casting shadows down onto the hooded statue, but you swear that from what you can make out of the god’s face, he almost looks like T-

“God, this place is depressing, isn’t it?”

You let out a started shriek and slap a hand to your mouth, whirling around only to see a shadowed figure standing at the entrance of the temple as the echoes of your voice bounce off the stone walls.

“Touya!” You breathe as you let your hand drop. “Don’t do that! Here I am thinking that you forgot about me! Where were you anyways?” Touya only lets out an amused chuckle as he strides towards you, the sound of his boots echoing off the barren walls as he glances around lazily.

“Fuck, what a dump. Doesn’t your town have any priests that serve this temple? Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here for years.”

“I… don’t think so.” You mumble as you think about it, suddenly feeling embarrassed, even though you can’t figure out why you do. “I don’t think there’s been any priests or followers dedicated to him in a long time. At least, not in the time that I’ve been alive.”

“You can say his name, Doll. Contrary to what most people think, his name alone won’t cause you to die.”

“Alright…” you swallow, your mouth suddenly feeling dry. “I can’t remember there being any priests that follow Dabi’s teachings around here. I’ve always found it strange, considering he’s one of the four major deities that we worship here, but everyone seems to be so wary of him for some reason.”

A shudder seems to run through your companion at the mention of the God’s name, but you don’t think much of it before Touya is speaking again. “Figures. No one’s ever told you his legend then, right?”

“There’s an actual story behind him?” You ask, turning back towards the stone stature behind you. “I thought he was just this elusive figure who brought souls to the Underworld to be judged.”

“He does that, but there’s more to him than that. A lot more.”

Touya isn’t looking at you, a quick glance behind you confirms this, and you see him gazing almost wistfully up at the hooded figure, before he catches onto you staring at you and sends you a smirk that almost seems a little forced. “Want me to tell you what really happened to him?”

You nod your head enthusiastically. You love the stories that Touya tells you, and one about the most mysterious God in the pantheon seems like it’d be an interesting one. The scarred man rolls his eyes playfully and gestures to the stone steps in front of you. You dutifully take a seat on one as he follows you down. He’s silent for a moment, staring at his large, scarred hands, seemingly figuring out where to start. After a moment of deliberation, he speaks – voice suddenly very quiet.

“Long ago, there was an… uprising of sorts amongst the gods, that split the entire pantheon into two factions. Some of the lesser-known gods were tired of the way that things were run amongst the divine and the mortals alike, and wanted a change. There was an ancient dark force that aided them and they almost overthrew the old gods that had been ruling for centuries at that time.” He paused before continuing again.

“A small group of fledgling gods – young but powerful, went up against the oldest and strongest gods, forever changing history… Dabi was one of the gods who led the uprising.” Touya huffs, as he glanced upwards towards the hole in the ceiling.

“It was chaos, it was the time that is now known as “the Dark Age”, and the aftermath of the war was brutal for both the gods and mortals alike. Many died during those times, not just humans, but gods as well.”

“How can you kill a God? I thought they were immortal?” You found yourself asking, mystified. Touya only snorts, fidgeting absentmindedly with the piercings in his nose.

“Believe it or not, gods can die too. Sometimes they die on their own, sometimes they die in battle. They’re hard to kill, but it is possible. You have to be a God yourself in order to do it though, or at the very least, a descendant of one, so don’t go thinking you can go murdering divinity now, Princess.”

“Obviously not.” You snort, entertained by the idea. “What happened next?” Toyua grimaces openly, and his eyes wander back to the hole in the ceiling – following his gaze, you can see stars twinkling brightly in the inky heavens above you.

“The gods leading the rebellion lost, and the ancient darkness aiding them was destroyed permanently. I think you might know where this story is going.”

You nod, you had heard this story countless times during your childhood. “It’s the legend of The Chosen One – Allmight’s successor, Deku, isn’t it?” the burnt man nods without looking at you.

“The very one.” He reached up to touch the staples in his chin. “They weren’t evil… the gods who rebelled. They just had their own idea of how things should be. They saw flaws in how the old gods were handling things and they decided that enough was enough, so they took a stand.”

You redirect your attention back towards the scarred man, only to see him looking unblinkingly up into the inky abys – almost as if he was lost in a memory. You reach out to touch his hand – the one that isn’t playing with staples in his chin – and he almost flinches before tearing his attention away from the sky to look at your small soft hand, holding his large, calloused one. He squeezes it reassuringly, before continuing on.

“After the fighting, a lot of historical records were lost… many of the records that were destroyed, happened to be about the gods that had started the uprising. After the war, they were all punished severely, and made an example of. Their temples were razed and decimated, and their followers were either executed or exiled. Even years later, the original followers who believed in the teachings of the usurper gods still won’t return to the temples which they once served in fear of retribution, and there still is a lingering stigma around those gods to this very day.” He looks around the derelict temple with a frown pulling slightly on the staples in his cheeks.

“This place is a prime example. Not all the temples dedicated to Dabi were destroyed – many of them were simply abandoned and the followers were driven out. You can’t get rid of all of the temples anyways. Even though he may be feared, he still plays an important roll in death. Without him, there would be no cremation practices and the dead would simply pile up and spill out into the streets. That and you’d have an overflow of souls with nowhere to go if he wasn’t there to guide them to the Underworld. Hell and the mortal world would be pretty fucked up if he wasn’t there to keep the balance.”

“How do you know so much about him?” You ask, enraptured by the way Touya’s voice seems to reverberate off of the walls as he speaks, sounding almost hypnotic.

“Like I said, I travel for my work. You hear about the legends no matter where you go, and some places know more than others. Some re-telling’s are different, some are the same. Some even tell you the legend from a different perspective. None of them are wrong – you just have to piece them together yourself.” Touya hums as he taps a long finger against the step you both were sitting on. “That happens to be my rendition of Dabi’s history, but it’s the closest to the truth that you’re going to get.”

The white-haired man gives you a sideways look. “What do you think of him?”

You lock your gaze with him. “What do I think of who?”

“Dabi. Everyone I’ve ever encountered says different things about him, especially depending on where I’m visiting. I’m curious to see what you think.”

“Oh gods, I don’t think I should speak about him in his own temple, that seems mildly disrespectful.” You mutter, glancing around again, only for Touya chuckle with a shake of his head.

“I think people make him out to be more temperamental than he actually is. He’s not Endeavor – you wanna talk about a god with a notoriously shit temper, it’s him.”

He sounds so certain of himself that it pulls a giggle from your throat and Touya winks at you boyishly. You sigh and look back towards the solitary statue bathed in moonlight. You bite your lip and the word slips out before you can think about it.

“Lonely.”

Touya blinks, looking oddly surprised. “Come again?”

“I think… he’d be lonely.” You respond carefully. “He’s probably got one of the hardest jobs out there and I’m sure that comes with a lot of responsibility… but I feel it be a very solitary job.” You shrug your shoulders helplessly at your companion. “But who am I to say, I’m just a village girl who didn’t know anything about him until you told me. I just think he’d probably get lonely from time to time.”

Toyua doesn’t say anything. He glances between you to your intertwined hands, then looks back at you, and then to the statue behind you on the alter. “Huh.” He mutters, more to himself than anyone else. He runs a hand through his snowy roots and nods. “Yeah, I guess he would be. “

He falls quiet again, and you don’t have anything to say in response. There is something hidden just below the surface of his story – something that he’s not telling you. You feel the implications hanging heavy in the air, but something is telling you not to push him any further, so you don’t. Finally, unable to take the tension in the dusty atmosphere, you stand, dragging Touya up with you.

“Alright, enough of that.” You tell him. “You promised me you’d show me what kind of magic you can do, and I’m holding you to that. What didn’t you want to show me in the glade?”

At your insistence, Touya perks up and a slow, almost maniacal grin spreads across his face. “Oh, that?" he asks with a teasing look in his eyes. “Are you sure you wanna see what I can do? I don’t know if you’d be able to handle it.”

“Oh, please Touya, I’ve known you for how long now? I don’t think there’s anything you can do that would surprise me-“

The words die almost immediately on your lips as Touya extends one large hand towards you, and in the next second it’s engulfed in bright blue fire.

“Oh.. oh wow!” you gasp in delight as you watch him curl his fingers inward, shrinking the blaze down until a small blue fireball rested comfortably in the palm of his hand. “You’re a pyromancer! I’ve heard of people who can control fire, but I’ve never seen anyone wield blue fire before!”

“That’s because I’m the only one who can do it.” The pierced man responds smugly. “Watch.”

He turns back towards the stature and there is a sudden burst of heat that forces you to close your eyes. Once the worst of the heat has rolled through you, you open your eyes only to see that the candle wicks surrounding the Cremation God are all alight with small blue flames, basking the temple walls in an otherworldly glow. The flames are small, only about the size of your fingernail, but exude a surprising amount of heat, chasing the remaining chills you have away.

“Oh, Touya, this is amazing.” You breathe as you pull your attention away from the blue wisps, and back to your friend, “I can’t believe you never showed me that you could do-“

You freeze. There is a faint smell of something burning emanating off of Touya. You glance down at his left arm and you quickly piece two and two together. The seams in his skin, the ones held together by staples, connecting the healthy tissue to the dead, are smoking. A faint trail of foul-smelling steam is hissing from the seam in his forearm – the very one that he had set ablaze to light the candles not a moment ago.

Oh. So that’s how he got the scarring, you think to yourself numbly. You’re unable to pull your gaze away from the steam that’s still bubbling out of his arm, until it finally stops, and he turns his cerulean gaze to you once more.

He knows you see it, he must, because he turns to you with a knowing smirk on his mottled lips, the staples in his face pulling uncomfortably as he gestures at his arms – at his burns. “There’s always a price for power like mine. D’ya get it now, Princess?”

“The burns… they’re self-inflicted.”  It’s not a question. Now you know. You know his secret.

“Not intentionally, but yes. They are.” He confirms. He doesn’t sound upset or ashamed. Only reserved.

“Is it some sort of blowback?” you ask him gently as you inch your way closer to him. You’ve heard of people like him, people who wield incredible powers. Some of whom cannot use their powers without it affecting them in some sort of way, whether it be physically or worse.

You never bothered asking Touya about how he’d gotten his gory collection of scars, or why they seemed to be getting progressively worse as time passed. You had been honest with him when you met him for the first time, when you told him that they didn’t bother you, you had meant every word. But now that he’s shown you the truth behind his burns, you can’t help but feel a strange warmth bloom in your chest, along with a touch of sadness.

“You could say that.” He answers finally, toying with the piercings in his ears. “If I use my flames for an extended period of time, it sears my skin. The hotter they are the worse it is. But they’ve been running pretty hot lately and it takes me longer to cool down than it normally does.”

“Why?” You extend your hands outwards to touch his arm, and for a split second, it almost looks like he’s about to pull his arm away from you, but thinks better of it and relinquishes the burnt appendage to you, allowing you to gently caress the hot skin of his arm. Touya shrugs, but you don’t miss how he slowly moves towards your touch.

Inwardly, the white-haired man feels like he’s melting. Your hands feel fucking amazing on his skin, cool and soft, and even though he can’t feel much of anything on the dead parts of his skin, the pressure feels nice.

“Comes with the territory Sweetheart. It’s just the hand I was given, I don’t question it.” He shrugs nonchalantly.

“Does anyone else know?” you ask, genuinely curious. That causes another one of his grins that you enjoy so much, to slowly spread across his lips.

“Just you and these walls.”

You don’t say anything for a few minutes, thinking of a good way to respond to his admission. Touya frowns at your silence and just as he’s about to ask you if you were alright, you gently trace one of your hands down his arm and lace your fingers together, in a motion that’s become so familiar and comfortable, and just feels so right with him.

You smile up at him. “Thank you for trusting me with this. It means more to me then you know.”

Touya swears he feels his heart, the organ in his chest that he believed to be shrived up and dead, beat in his chest for the first time in a very long time.

How you came to have so much power over him, he’ll never know for sure. He wants to surge forward and capture your lips with his. You, the pretty girl from the village, one of the very few people alive who can seem him… is happy to see him. He wants to take you right here in this temple – show you just how much you mean to him-

But he won’t, he’s not some wild animal (But gods, do you make him wish he was sometimes.)

Instead, he swallows thickly and manages to mutter, “S’nothing, just thought it was time for you to know.”

You give him another one of your pretty smiles and squeeze his hand reassuringly. You both watch as the hot, blue flames eat away at what’s left of the old prayer candles in a comfortable silence. Once they’ve all burnt out, Touya walks you back to your house, making sure to stay close to you. He keeps you warm and protects you from the cold spring winds as you walk together, muttering something under his breath about an idiot with wings all the while.

He watches as you sneak back into your house, miraculously not waking up either of your parents. He only leaves once you open your window on the second floor to wave down at him, and wish him a quiet ‘goodnight’. He gives you a lazy wave in return and pivots on his heel; walking away from your house, away from you, and into the night.

He makes a silent promise to himself to come back to you soon.

                                                       -----

 It’s now summertime and you are currently at your best friend’s wedding.

You’re in a flowing dark blue dress, clapping along with the rest of the wedding guests as your friend spins gracefully around her new husband. The ceremony was beautiful. It had taken place outside, near Hawks’s shrine so his priests could bless the new couple, and then the newlyweds and the rest of the wedding guests had gone back to the center of town to continue the wedding festivities.

You stifle a laugh as your friend purposely dances past you, and swiftly hands you her bouquet of flowers before her husband pulls her back towards him to continue their dance. You smile down at the arrangement of white and pink wildflowers and absentmindedly pet some of the petals, before you feel eyes drilling into the back of your head.

You don’t need to look up to know that it’s your mother, sitting across from you at the small table you’re seated at, with your father beside her, staring at you pointedly with the bouquet in your hands. You have to fight the urge to roll your eyes and chuck the gift of flowers several feet away from you in response to her glaring, knowing that she would only reprimand you later when you go home tonight, though inwardly you know she has her reasons for why she’s so frustrated with you:

You’re approaching your mid-twenties, and you’re still not married. You don’t see this as an issue, but your mother does and now the ladies from town are starting to talk openly about it.

In your village, it wasn’t uncommon for girls to be married off as early as eighteen. Typically, that was normally done amongst poorer families and thankfully, you and most of your friends came from wealthier upbringings, so you had the luxury to be a little choosier with your potential suitors. But at the end of the day, you were still a young, desirable woman, who was still expected to marry, and give her husband strong, healthy children.

The thing was, among the men around your age who lived in the village, you didn’t see yourself settling down with any of them. You simply weren’t attracted to them and you had very few things in common with the majority of them.

Many of them were polite and you knew they weren’t bad people by any means, but you just weren’t interested in getting to know them any further then as an acquaintance. Besides, based on the few dates your mother had set up (more so forced you to go on) with several of the men from town over the years, you didn’t want to get to know them any more than what they had shown you.

The worst of the bunch had acted like a perfect gentleman in front of your parents, but the moment he had you alone, he had revealed that he simply wanted a perfect little housewife. One who didn’t have any opinions of her own and who never left the house. He wanted a wife who was submissive and had plenty of his children without question. Somehow, he thought you were the perfect candidate.

You had remembered leaving the date early and all but running home, feeling a mixture of panic and disgust, snapping at your mother as soon as you got home that you never wanted to see that particular man again and to not fix anymore dates for you. Thankfully, that had been one of the few times she had listened, and it had been the end of the courtship dates for a while.

Men still asked for you, you couldn’t stop them from doing that, but at least you weren’t currently being pressured into going on any more dates with them. Some of your would-be suitors were too persistent for their own good. The inn-keeper’s son and the blacksmith’s son were the worst culprits. At least the inn-keeper’s son was sweet, if not totally clueless, but the blacksmith’s son…

Ugh. You didn’t want to ruin your night thinking about him. Especially not after he ‘accidently’ groped you during some of the earlier dancing tonight. Twice.

Pulling your thoughts away from the other man, you glance around the nearby tables, looking at the single men sitting at them and shake your head.

You knew it wasn’t fair, but you couldn’t help but compare the men in town to Touya. While he could still be crass with his comments, he never had any malicious intent behind them. He had taken the time to get to know you and listened to your interests, meanwhile the men you had briefly been forced to court only seemed to want to get to know you on a surface level.

You knew that it was foolish, harboring feelings for the pyromancer, a man that as far as you knew, only you could see. But it was so hard, when he was the only one who seemed to enjoy you as you – all of your strange little quirks and all of your hopes and dreams.

He listened to them all and responded in his own way. Recently, whenever he had to leave, you had been finding it harder to bite your tongue to keep from asking him to take you with him-

Almost as if he could read your mind, you feel a new pair of eyes on you. They were chilling but oddly warm at the same time, causing your body to erupt into goosebumps, as you slowly turned in the direction where you felt them on you.

Sure enough, Touya is there, standing a few feet behind you, partially concealed behind a nearby building. The moment your eyes lock, he sends you a smirk, and crooks a finger at you in a ‘come hither’ motion.

You feel your heart race in your chest, and you have to fight down the smile you feel tugging at your lips. You stand slowly and tell your parents that you have to run home to use the bathroom and before they can get another word out, you’re all but running towards the burnt man.

The second you’re in arms reach, he takes you by the hand and pulls you along with him. You don’t ask where you’re going, you know that he’s taking you back to your spot together in the woods, the one place where you feel like you can truly be yourself.

“I’ve been wondering when you were going to come back!” you tell him with a giggle as you both reach the edge of the forest. “Here I was thinking you forgot about me!”

Touya snorts at your antics and rolls his eyes. “Please. Forget about you? I don’t think so.”

“So, let me guess: you’re back here for work again?”

A fond look passes over Touya’s face, but he blinks and it’s gone in the next second. “Not this time. Actually, I’m here to see you specifically.”

That’s a new one. Normally when Touya comes to see you, it’s because his work brings him to town and he comes to visit you afterwards. He’s never come just for you – at least, not that you know of. You know it shouldn’t, but his confession makes your heart speed up.

“Really now?” you tease him lightly as he leads you deeper into the underbrush. “What makes this time so special?”

“I wanted to see what your town normally looks like during a festivity. You’ve always told me I should visit outside of a grieving period, so here I am.” His cerulean eyes find yours and he nods at your dress. “I won’t lie, I wanted to see what you looked like outside of those dark funeral clothes the town forces you to wear… you look beautiful.”  

You don’t bother to hide the bright red flush you know is dancing across the tops of your cheeks. This is the first time he’s ever been so forward with you aside from the comfortable hand holding that you’ve become accustomed to over the years, and you find yourself rendered speechless.

You can’t hold his gaze anymore and choose to look down at your dress as the dark blue fabric swishes around your legs as you walk, as you force out a meek word of thanks, feeling his large hand squeeze your own in response.  

Your companion pulls back the branches that cover the opening to the clearing and lets you step through first, following behind you as he lets the leafy coverings drop behind him, and follows you to your usual spot by the pond. You let your dress flare out around you as Toyua drops to the grassy floor beside you with a shit-eating grin pulling at the staples in his face. “If I had known that all it takes for you to blush like that for me was to give you one little complement, I would have done it more ages ago, Sweetheart.”

“Stop it, don’t tease me.” You wave him off, only for him to bark out a laugh.

“Wasn’t teasing you at all, I’m serious, you look beautiful.” He tells you honestly, as he reaches over the toy with the end of your dress. “Blue is a good colour on you. It’s my favourite.”

“Yes, well, I… thank you.” You sputter out, completely at a loss for words. This interaction with him was different from the ones that came before. He had never been this forward with you. There was something different about the last couple times you’ve seen him. Something was changing between you both. At first, you thought that you were simply overthinking it, but now you don’t think that you are.

“So,” Toyua’s slow drawl snapped you out of your thoughts. “That was what a wedding in your village looks like, huh? It’s… nice.”

You nod, smiling as you think about your friend in her pretty white gown. “It was my friend’s.” you tell him, as you reach down to slide off your shoes, massaging your feet. “She passed me her bouquet.”

“I saw. Why was your mother glaring daggers into the back of your head?”

“Oh, you saw that did you?” You sigh as you wrap your arms around you knees, pulling them towards you. “See, out of all my childhood friends, I’m the last to get married. My mother seems to think I’ll end up as an old crone if I don’t get engaged and married soon, but… I don’t really want to get married. At least, not to any of the men my age from my village.”

Touya is quiet as you talk, his face oddly passive as he stares out into the reflection of the sunset sinking into the pond, but you know he’s listening from the way his torso is slightly turned towards you.

“What’s wrong with them?” he rumbles quietly. You shrug.

“Most of them are fine… but some of the ones that my mother has tried to set me up with have been awful. I could never be with them. I don’t want to be with them.” you find yourself rambling, but now that you’ve started, you can’t seem to stop.

“They want some subservient house wife, but I don’t want that. I don’t want to be reduced to nothing more than a womb that gives them children whenever they want. I want more out of life than that. I want to leave this village at some point and see the world like you do. I wish… I wish-“

You feel a tear threaten to roll down your face before you can stop it. “I wish I could go with you.” You tell him in a voice so small that you barely hear it yourself, so you’re surprised when you hear him sigh, and wrap a warm, strong arm around you; pulling you close to him so that you’re practically in-between his legs.

You fist your hands in his cloak and bury your head into his chest, as he rests his chin on the top of your head. He’s humming low in the back of his throat, and you faintly recall hearing the melody from somewhere long ago. The raspy tune does stop the tears from welling up in your eyes however, and you feel a deep sense of gratitude towards the scared man.

“Everyone walks with me at some point.” You hear him murmur into your hair, like he’s telling you a secret. “One day, you will too, but not for a while. I’m sorry.”

You don’t bother asking him what he means. You stay wrapped up in his arms for a long time as you try to calm down. Touya doesn’t loosen his grip on you and keeps you pressed to him. He’s always been warmer than the average person, and you find that heat soothing, as it soaks through his cloak and into your skin.

Finally, after a while, he speaks, keeping his voice low and controlled. “You know… if you need me… all you need to do is call for me, and I’ll come to you.”

“What?” you ask as you lift your head from its spot on his chest.

He repeats himself again. “If you ever need me. If you’re in trouble or you just want to see me, all you need to do is say my name and I’ll come for you. It doesn’t matter where I am. I promise, if you call, I’ll come.”

“Even if you’re halfway across the country?” you ask.

He nods. “Anywhere.”

“How?”

He smiles at you, the purple scaring beneath his eyes and the burns creeping up the unmarred parts of his cheeks, touching at the action. “Like you’ve always said: magic.”

“Don’t tease me.” You beg him and he shakes his head.

“No tricks Sweetheart. I can do more magic than just my fire, but I think you figured that out a long time ago.”

It’s true, you always assumed that he had more tricks up his sleeve then what he let on, but nothing quite like this.

Just what exactly was he… who was he really?

“Could you always do that? All this time, if I really wanted to… could I have just called for you, and you would’ve shown up?” you murmur, causing him to look away towards the pond.

“Yes.” He confirms.

“Then why did you never tell me until this moment?” you hum gently, reaching up to cup one side of his face. He lets you turn his face without any resistance so he’s looking down at you again.

He gently covers your hand with his own as he responds quietly, “Because I’m not supposed to tell you, and you’re not supposed to know.”

“Are you going to get into trouble with someone?” you ask, almost fearful. You still don’t know what he does for work or who employs him, and the last thing you want is for him to get into trouble with one of his superiors. If they’re anything like him, then they’re probably powerful people in their own right

“No.” Touya dispels your worries with a shake of his head. “We’ll just keep this between us. It’s not like they can do anything about it anyways. I’m… untouchable in my line of work. They need me more then I need them.”

You realize that you’re still holding one side of his face and his own hand is still covering your own, keeping it there. There is something unreadable in his eyes, and you have the sudden urge to be as close to him as you can be.

What you’re about to do is dangerous, you know that if you do what you want to do, things will never go back to the way that they are currently, but you can’t bring yourself to care.

You want him, you want him more than you have ever wanted anyone.

You tuck your knees under you and straighten your back, bringing your other hand to his marred cheek so you are gently cradling his face. He doesn’t say anything as you swallow thickly, running your thumbs across the staples in his flesh – feeling the difference between the heat raising off his skin and the chill of his staples. He keeps his piercing eyes trained on you at all times, watching the subtle changes in your face, as you struggle to voice what you want.

“Can I kiss you?” you murmur softly, afraid to raise your voice any more in fear of it giving out on you. Touya’s eyes darken and he nods, bringing his free hand up to slowly wrap around the back of your neck to pull your face closer to his own.

He stops just short of his lips and you feel him brush the back of your neck with his thumb. “Are you sure?” he asks you, and you can feel his breath ghosting over your lips. That’s all the motivation you need. You push yourself forward, and capture his lips with your own.

The contrast between both textures of his upper and lower lip is interesting but not unpleasant. His upper lip is soft while his lower lip is rough and chapped from the scarring, but it creates a unique sensation as it brushes against your own lips. You let a small moan escape you, and the reaction from Touya is instant. He releases your hand holding his cheek, and loops his free arm around your waist, drawing you even closer to him as your hand drops from his face and rests on his chest. He pulls you in further by the hand holding onto the back of your neck, and slots his lips against yours. You feel his tongue gently trace along your lower lip and you part your lips for him without a second thought, allowing the wet muscle in to trace your own, and you let out an involuntary whimper, feeling him smirk into the kiss.

He pulls back all too soon, leaving you breathless. Nether of you say anything. You don’t know what to say. What happens now? What are you to each other? You’re not sure anymore.

Touya must sense your inner turmoil, because he rubs your cheek with the back of his knuckles and draws you in close to him, holding you there for a while, as you feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest.

“…I can’t stay.” He admits quietly. “Honestly, I wasn’t supposed to come here at all, but I wanted to see you. I’m glad I did.”

“Me too.” You whisper. “Will you come back?”

He laughs and gives you a small squeeze. “For you, always. I’m not going to leave you, I promise.”

You release the breath you didn’t realize you had been holding in. Good, he wasn’t leaving permanently, not like some men who take off after getting what they want.

You immediately feel bad after thinking that. Touya has never once acted like that in the time you’ve known each other. He’s never given you a reason to think otherwise.

He pulls you back a little, only to press a kiss to the corner of your mouth, as he holds your chin between his thumb and index fingers. “I’m going to be gone for a little while. But if you need me, all you have to do is call for me, and I will be there.”

“You swear?” you breathe, as you watch the final rays from the sinking sunset catch the piercings in his ears, making them glow as if they were molten chips.

“I swear.” He promises you, and then he’s dipping back in to capture your lips once more.

When you do eventually part, this time is harder than the other times that came before. Night has fallen once you’ve made your way out of the clearing, and Toyua makes sure that you get back to your house safely, but he doesn’t come any further than the tree-line.

When you turn to him, he presses a chaste kiss to your knuckles and then another lingering one to your lips that has you closing your eyes. Before you can open them again to ask him when he’ll be back, he’s gone.

You do end up using his name not a month after your friend’s wedding.

You’re sprinting through the underbrush in the forest, your parents’ frantic calls of your name fading behind you.

The only thing on your mind is to get as far away from your house as possible.

She did it. Your mother did what she had been threatening to do if you didn’t find a partner by yourself: she would find one for you.

and gods help you, she picked the worst one she possibly could.

The Blacksmith’s son was a pig, to put it mildly. His family was well off, which you know is why your mother agreed to fix your engagement with him, as you certainly wouldn’t starve if you were wed to him, but there were several reasons why he was a few years older than you, and unwed:

He had a notorious reputation as a violent drunk, and unfortunately his temperament wasn’t much better when he was sober. You would know. The few times you’ve spoken to him while shopping in town has made you want to go home and forget that it even happened.

Worst of all, he unfortunately shared a lot of similar opinions to your last potential suitor: women were to stay at home and were not to be heard. Your thoughts, your hopes and dreams for the future; they all meant nothing to him.

You screamed bloody murder at your mother when she dropped the news on you after you had come home from visiting a friend. According to her, he had been asking about you for quite some time, and she and your father had finally agreed to give him your hand after months of him asking for it.

“Why him?” You screeched at her, nearly pulling out your hair as you desperately tried to keep your tears at bay. “You know what he’s like, you must! Why would you do this to me? Why would you set me up with him knowing what kind of a person he is?!”

“Because there is no one else!” your mother roared back at you. “You left it too long! Out of all your potential candidates, he was the only one that your father and I knew could provide a comfortable life for you – there was no one else good enough for you! You are our only daughter, our only child! I will not let you become a spinster! Who will look after you once we’re gone?”

‘Not him!” You screamed as the tears you’d desperately been holding in, came pouring out. Your father at least had the decency to look mildly ashamed as you broke down into sobs, but it still hurts, knowing that he had the final say in your betrothal.

You bolted from the house, making a beeline for the forest, ignoring your parents as they called for you to come back, but you couldn’t face them. Not after this.

You burst into the clearing and fall to your knees at the side of the pond. You don’t know what to do, you feel like you can barely breathe, and you know there is no one who can help you-

Suddenly you think of Touya, how sincere he had been when he held your face in his hands, and told you, that if you ever needed him, all you had to do was call for him.

You don’t even know if it will work, and if he’ll hear you, but at this point you don’t care.

“Touya!” you scream across the stillness of the pond. “Touya! Touya! Tou-“

There is a sudden blast of heat a few feet away from you, and you have to bring your arms up to protect your eyes from the searing air. Once the worse of the heat has faded, you lower your arms, only to gasp at what you’re seeing:

Touya is standing before you. The ground beneath him is scorched. The long grass completely burned down to nothing around him, and there are residual blue flames clinging to his cloak. You don’t know how, but he’s here. Just like he promised you he would be.

“I’m here Doll, I’m here, what’s wrong?” He stops short as he notices that your cheeks are wet and shining, and his eyes narrow dangerously. “What happened? Who did this to you?”

“I-I—” you choke, as more tears pour down your cheeks. Now that he’s here, how can you possibly tell him? What do you even say?

“Please help me Touya, I don’t know what to do.” You manage to get out after a moment, before a fresh wave of sobs roll over you. Touya immediately crouches down to your level, and holds your face in his large, rough ones.

“What happened?” he presses you. “Tell me everything. What’s gotten you so upset?”

“She- my mother- she-“ your chest heaves, and a fresh wave of sobs rips its way out of you. Touya doesn’t say anything, silently wiping away your tears with his abnormally warm thumbs. You find yourself leaning into the warmth, and he holds you there, as your breathing calms down. Once you feel like you’ll be able to speak without crying, you avert your eyes away from his, knowing that you can’t look at him when you tell him the reason why you’re so upset.

“I’m engaged.”

Touya’s breath hitches and his thumbs stop their soothing movements. He falls deathly silent, and you risk sneaking a glance at him, only for your heart to drop upon seeing his face.

His devastatingly handsome patchwork face has a range of different emotions strewn across it, ones that he’s not bothering to hide from you.

Rage, confusion, disappointment, and-

“To who?” he asks so softly you almost miss it.

“The blacksmith’s son…” you murmur back. “I don’t want to!" You feel another sob well up in your throat. “He’s vile! He’s condescending and drinks too much… All I am to him is a way to move up in our village. He doesn’t care about me at all. He’ll force me to have his children and I can’t-“

You feel yourself break again. You reach up to cover his hands with your own. “Please Touya.” You whisper. “Please, I’m begging you. Take me with you. I don’t care what you are, or what it is that you do. I can’t marry him. I won’t. I don’t care what my parents want. I don’t care if he can provide me with a comfortable lifestyle. I don’t care where we go. Anywhere would be better than being forced into marriage with him.”

Touya looks conflicted – pained even – and his fingers twitch where they’re resting on your skin. He leans in closer to you and you feel his breath ghost over you lips. For a second, you think he’s going to kiss you again, but he simply holds you at eye-level.

“…I can’t take you with me… not right now.” he tells you honestly. You open your mouth to protest, but he cuts you off. “One day I will, I promise you I will, but I can’t right now.” he pauses and a dark look enters his cerulean blue eyes. “Do you trust me?”

You blink back the tears that you feel forming in the corners of your eyes. “Yes… why?”

“I can do something about the… situation you’re in.” His thumbs brush your cheeks gently. “But only if you trust me.”

“I do.” Your voice is steady. “Of course, I do, but Touya… what do you mean? What are you planning to do?”

But Touya isn’t looking at you anymore, his focus is shifted to the still water in the pond. “It’ll be early, too early, but that’s fine, they can handle one early arrival.” He’s muttering to himself, before he shifts his attention back to you and kisses your forehead briefly, before abruptly standing up and backing away from you.

“Go to Dabi’s temple and wait for me there. I’ll meet you there later. The temple is considered sanctuary, no one will bother you there.” He tells you sternly, as he reaches the burnt circle where he reappeared earlier. “I’ll handle this, don’t worry Doll.”

Before you can ask him what he plans to do, a brilliant burst of blue flames erupt around him, engulfing him in unforgiving heat, before disappearing as quickly as they appeared. You blink, and Touya is gone.

Dusk has fallen by the time you’ve made your way to the ruined temple.

You took the long way to Dabi’s temple, opting to use one of the multiple forest trails to reach your destination instead of going through town. No doubt that your parents are searching for you, and probably have other members of the village looking for you as well, possibly even your soon to be husband-

No, you don’t even want to think about him. You’re not sure what Touya plans to do once he finds him, but you can’t bring yourself to care right now. You’re so tired, all you want to do is sit and rest.

It’s that thought that makes you pull on one of the doors – finding it unlocked again – and slip inside, closing it gently behind you. Much like last time, the temple is unseasonably warm, though that may have something to do with the hole that is still in the ceiling above the statue of the death god, allowing the warm, summer air to seep in.

You slowly make your way towards the massive white statue and bow your head. “Forgive me for intruding. I’m just here to rest, I’ll be on my way soon.”

You hope that your actions aren’t seen as disrespectful as you take a seat on the long stone steps in front of the alter. Hopefully Touya won’t be long with whatever he’s doing. A part of you still can’t believe that he had been completely serious, and that he come to you – just by you calling out his name. You knew he had powers, but even then, this was unexpected.

Just what exactly was he? Who was he?

Suddenly, you feel tired, more tired than you were before stepping into the temple. Your eyelids are drooping, and your body feels heavy. You have just enough time to shift yourself into a more comfortable position, lying down at the foot of Dabi’s statue, before the fatigue overcomes you.

The last thing you remember is staring up at the hidden face of the Cremation God, and closing your eyes, as you fall into a dreamless sleep.

You wake again to the sound of the temple doors being swung open.

You blink away sleep out of your eyes, and force yourself into a sitting position, as you squint at the figure illuminated by moonlight in the entrance.

For a moment, you’re scared that it’s one of the townspeople, but then the moonlight reflects off of the shadowed figure’s shockingly white hair, and you allow yourself to relax.

“Touya?” you call out gently, voice scratchy from a lack of use.

“Just me.” The low timber of his voice answers you as he closes the doors behind him, plunging the room into darkness again. You can’t see anything, but you hear the heavy clunking of his boots making their way towards where you’re seated in front of the statue.

That’s when the smell hits you.

The distinct smell of ash and smoke, with the faint undertone of something rancid burning, invades your nose. It takes you a second to figure out what the awful smell is, and when you’re finally able to place it, you wish that you hadn’t.

It’s the same smell from before, when you first came to the temple with Touya, and he revealed his affinity with fire to you – when he let you in on his secret. When he told you the reason behind his scars.

There is a sizzling sound, and a small blue flame lights up in front of your face. Touya is kneeling in front of you. A small wick of flame is concentrated in the palm of his hand, illuminating both of your faces, and oh gods, his face-

The burns are worse than they were when he left. The deep, purple burns underneath his eyes and the ones on his jaw, now run past his staples, and are touching, finally connecting them together. His face is more dead skin than healthy, and you feel your eyes water involuntarily.  

Touya notices too, as he brings the hand not holding the open flame, to your eyes to wipe at them. “What’s wrong?” he rumbles. “What’s with the tears?”

“What happened?” you croak as you reach up to hesitantly touch the fresh burns. ‘It wasn’t like this when you left.”

Confusion flitters across his face for a moment, before his eyes widen in realization, and he jerks his face away from your hands, extinguishing the small ball of fire as he does so – though really, all he wants to do is let your gentle hands caress his face, care for his wounds, but he doesn’t want to worry you anymore then you already are.

“It’s nothing.” He mutters. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve had worse. I’ll be fine.”

“It’s not nothing, and it’s not fine.” You say sternly as you pull him back towards you by his cloak. “What happened? Please tell me?”

“Remember I told you that there’s a price if I use my fire for too long?” you nod, and he taps the new patches of burns, before snapping his fingers, and a few wicks on the remaining prayer candles at the base of the statue light up around you. “Well, that’s it. Seriously, don’t worry about it. “

“You mean to tell me you used your fire for too long? What where you doing out-“

Your blood runs cold, and you peer back into his azure eyes. “What did you do?”

He only shakes his head, avoiding your question. “I need you to promise me right now, that you will never ask me about it. Trust me”

“Touya, you didn’t-“

“Sweetheart please. I’m serious. I can’t tell you what happened. All you need to know is that he’ll never bother you again. I promise.”

The implication hangs heavy in the stagnant air, and you fall silent, not breaking eye contact with him.

This man, this being has done something unspeakable in your name, for you, to protect you. You know that you should be pushing him away, trying desperately to get away yourself… but you don’t. This is Touya, your Touya, and you know that he would never hurt you. Certainly not intentionally.

“You… you did this for me? Why?” you whisper. Touya lets out a small chuckle as he slowly places his hands on your knees. You can feel how hot his palms are through your skirts.

“You know why.” He murmurs, as he slowly closes the gap between your faces, and you do.  

This man… loves you. When he looked at you earlier, the last emotion that you had seen in his eyes… had been adoration.

He loves you, Touya loves you so much that he can’t even vocalize it. You’ll never know how much you mean to him, you can’t, because you still have so much time here, and he… he is bound by his duty. He can’t stay here with you in the village, and he knows it’s not fair to you to ask you to wait for him, but gods help him; he can’t see you wed anyone else. He can’t. Especially not the low-life that your parents had engaged you to.

He feels the tell-tale signs of rage creeping up on him, so he quickly closes the remaining space between your faces, and presses his rough lips to yours once more – catching your gasp in is mouth.

You wrap your arms around his neck – being mindful of the heavy scarring – pulling him closer to deepen the kiss as your eyes slide shut. He tastes like how ash smells, and any other time, it would have made you cringe, but it suits Touya; and you can’t bring yourself to care as he swipes his tongue along your lower lip, asking for entrance, which you grant to him.

He kisses you deep and hard, trying to convey to you all the things that he wants to say to you, but can’t vocalize. You whimper involuntarily, as he bites down on your lip, and you feel him smirk into the kiss.

You only pull away when air becomes too much of a necessity. Touya doesn’t let you go far, keeping a hand on the back of your neck to keep your face close to his. You reach up to touch the fresh burns on his face, and this time he lets you. You smooth your thumbs over the newest patches of burnt skin on either side of his face, and lean in to kiss them. You hear his breathing hitch, and you swear you see something red trickle down the sides of his face, before he quickly brushes it away.

He pulls you back after a moment to study your face, and gives you a lopsided smile. “Let’s get you back home. Your foolish parents are probably losing their minds wondering where you’ve gone, and half the town is out looking for you.”

He makes a move to stand up, but you take his hands in yours and pull him back down, shaking your head. “No, please, not yet, I’m not ready to go home yet.”

Touya looks like he wants to say something more, but decides against it, and sits back down beside you, pulling your legs over his. He wraps an arm around you and tucks you in close to him. You both fall silent, and you watch as the tiny blue flames around you cast disjointed shadows up along the walls. You close your eyes, and rest your head against his chest, listening to the steady beating of his heart in his chest.

“I love you.” You tell him in a voice barely above a whisper.

He doesn’t say it back, but the arm around you squeezes you so tightly that it almost hurts.

You wish that you could stay with him forever.

                                                          -----

 You sigh to yourself as you check medical supplies in your village’s apothecary, making a mental note to tell the healer you’re training under that you’re running low on Feverfew and Echinacea.

Fall has arrived in full swing. The dense forest that surrounds your town has changed its leaves from vibrant green to beautiful shades of red and yellow. It’s beautiful, but you’ve never been much of a fall person. You know what comes next. The autumn months mean winter is close behind, and you’ve never liked the cold. For some reason, you can’t shake the feeling that this upcoming winter is going to be a particularly bad one.

You shake your head and return to your task at hand, but you can’t stop your mind from wandering as you continue to take stock of the medical inventory.

After the mysterious disappearance of your betrothed, your parents didn’t try to engage you to anyone else, and you can’t help but feel relieved. Marrying one of the men from your village was never in the cards for you, a fact that you made very clear to them after your formal betrothal’s disappearance. You weren’t interested in marriage or raising a family of your own. Not right now, possibly not ever.

In the end, you decided to train under your village’s healer – a kind old woman named Chiyo, who’s been the town healer for longer than you’ve been alive – as a means of getting out from under your parents.

Despite word of your betrothal’s mysterious disappearance quickly spreading throughout your village, there had been some other potential suitors that had come to you after you had started training at the apothecary. While none of them were rude or malicious, you always turned them down with a gentle smile before sending them on their way.

Besides, none of them held your heart the way a certain pyromancer did.

You haven’t seen Touya for a few months now, not since the disappearance of your betrothed. You’re not completely sure what happened after Touya found him – you’re not sure if you want to know, even though you have a pretty good idea of what happened if the fresh burns he had come back with had anything to say about it. You know better than to ask though, knowing full well that Touya will never tell you the full truth, even if you already know without him having to say it.

You sometimes wonder if there’s anything left of the blacksmith’s son.

You know that you should feel shocked, horrified even, that your pyromancer was capable of doing such an atrocious thing. But all you feel when you think about it, is a strange sense of relief.

You wonder if that makes you a bad person.

Inwardly, you know it probably should, especially when the blacksmith came looking for his son not long after his disappearance. When he had asked you if you knew anything about why his son had seemingly taken off without so much as a word to anyone, you had said no, of course, because what else could you have said to him? It’s not like anyone aside from you could see Touya to begin with, and there no way to explain to the blacksmith the fate that had most likely befallen his son.

Regardless, all you knew was that you’d never see him again. Touya had made sure of that.

There are still search parties that go out every once in a while, looking for him and a part of you wants to tell them that it’s a waste of time, that he’s nowhere to be found, but you won’t. It’s yours and Touya’s dirty secret to share now, and it will stay that way until you take your dying breath.

You suppress a sigh as you take a break from checking inventory, and your thoughts wander back to Touya of their own accord. He had warned you that he wouldn’t be back for some time after he had brought you home – he had serious business to take care of in the eastern part of the country, and he wasn’t sure when he’d be back. You hope he’s doing well, wherever he is.

Your heart clenches when you think of him. You’re not sure what you are anymore. You told him that you loved him, and even though he didn’t say it back to you, you’re certain that he loves you too.

“You know why.” Those words have echoed in your head since he said them to you. You’ve known that the two of you have been bordering on the cusp of something for a while now, and that solidifies it.

You promise yourself that the next time he comes to see you, you’ll ask him what you are to him. What this is.

Eventually, Chiyo dismisses you in the midafternoon, and you find yourself taking the lonely path up towards Dabi’s temple. You’ve started going there a lot more in Touya’s absence. Ever since you kissed the white-haired pyromancer in Dabi’s temple, you had started making a habit of coming back to the derelict temple, in an effort to clean it up a little.

For some reason, Touya seems to have a fondness for the place, and you’re starting to understand why. Despite its outward appearance and dust covered insides, you’ve never once felt unwelcome in the temple itself. It’s calm and quiet, and the more you visit the abandoned shrine, you realize it’s really a shame that it was abandoned by the priests, because it was probably quite beautiful back in the day.

With that thought, you had decided to take it upon yourself to try and restore the temple back to its original glory.

When you had brought up what you wanted to clean Dabi’s shrine to the priests at Hawks’s temple, you had been met with disbelieving looks, as the temple itself had sat vacant for well over a century. But once you had assured them that you weren’t there to cause trouble, and that you only wanted to clean it up a little, they had relented, and even gave you cleaning supplies, telling you that if you needed help, all you needed to do was come and get them.

You had laughed to yourself as you took the cleaning supplies back with you to the temple. The only reason why you had gone to them in the first place was to tell them what you planned to do, regardless of whether they liked it or not. Hawks’s temple was the closest to Dabi’s, and you’d end up walking past it to get to the secluded shrine more often than not. The last thing you needed was them assuming that you were doing something strange, when it was the exact opposite.

You soon found yourself in front of the large double doors once more, but unlike the first time you had entered the temple, you didn’t hesitate to let yourself in this time, shutting them softly behind you. You set your shawl down by the entrance and take off your shoes to avoid tracking any dirt in from the outside. You breathe in deeply as the faint smell of incense hits your nose, looking around the large room with a content smile on your face.

It’s not perfect, but its far better than what it was previously. You’ve washed and cleaned the floors and walls, sweeping out almost a century’s worth of dust and other debris. You’ve scraped the ancient remains of melted candle wax off the alter in front of Dabi’s statue, and replaced the melted down prayer candles with new ones. You brought in some pillows and plush rugs from home that your mother was about to throw out, not wanting them to go to waste, and also wanting to make the temple more homey, in case anyone aside from yourself wanted to visit. You keep incense burning constantly to get rid of the musty smell that has always lingered around the temple, and it finally seems to be working. Lastly, with the help of two priests from Hawks’s temple, you were finally able to fix that damn hole in the ceiling above the statue of the Cremation God.

Now you’re at the temple to do one last thing: clean the giant marble statue of the Death God himself. You didn’t see much of a point cleaning it before the hole got fixed, but thankfully, the sculpture doesn’t seem to be very dirty. Still, you want to go over it, and wash down what you can reach – it’s only polite after all.

Besides, after what you learned about him from Touya, you figure that it’s not a bad idea to stay in the illusive god’s good graces--

“Hello Princess.”

You jump at the sound of a familiar smoky rasp, and whirl around, only to see Touya standing a few feet behind you, a smirk plastered across his dis-coloured lips.

“Touya! When did you get here? I thought you said you didn’t know when you were going to be back! Did you finish with whatever you were doing in the East early?” you gasp delightedly, as the tall man strides towards you. He shakes his head.

“No, the situation there is a bit more… serious then I originally thought. I’m probably going to be there for a while yet, but I had some time, and I wanted to see you.” He stops directly in front of you, and his smirk becomes softer. “How have you been? I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve been… keeping busy.” You tell him, lacing your hands together in front of you. “I’ve started working at the village apothecary. Chiyo runs a tight ship, but I’m learning a lot from her and she’s good to me.”

“What did your parents think about that?”

“Well… they weren’t pleased, but that’s more to do with me telling them that I won’t be courting anyone anytime soon. I told them I wasn’t interested, nor will I ever be. My mother isn’t happy, but at least she hasn’t forced me into any other engagements… not after what happened before you left.” You tell him honestly, and Touya only nods, his expression not giving anything away.

“Glad they’ve finally taken the hint. What else have you gotten up to, pretty girl?”

“Take a look around, you tell me.” You tell him with a tiny smile. You watch his brows furrow together in confusion, and he looks around the room, only for his eyes to widen, like he’s seeing the temple for the first time.

You watch as he investigates the plush rugs and pillows you have scattered around the base of the alter, how he takes in the sight of fresh prayer candles lit at the bottom of the statue – how clean and bright and warm you’ve managed to make it, since you were both here last. He seems overwhelmed, like he’s at a loss for words.

“I did it for you.” You admit softly, feeling your face heat up with your admission.

“You did this… for me?” he asks slowly, not looking at you, as he takes in everything that you’ve done. You smile softly at him even though he can’t see it.

“You seem to be pretty fond of this place, and you know so much about its history, I thought that maybe I could fix it up a little so I could have something to show you when you came back.” That gets his attention, and he fixes his azure eyes on you, locking you in place.

“You did this for me.”

“I… yes… Do you not like it?” you sputter, suddenly worried that you’ve done something wrong.

“No, Gods no. You did this for me.” He says breathlessly. “This is more than I could have ever hoped for.” He closes the remaining space between you, and his obscenely warm hands find your waist, while yours automatically come rest on his chest. “God’s you did this for me.”

“Yes.” You whisper. “Touya? I don’t understand--?”

The words die on your lips as Touya surges forwards and presses his rough lips to yours. You feel the grip he has on your waist turn bruising, as he kisses you hard and deep, bordering on desperate.

“I love you.” He tells you, pulling away momentarily to bring one hand up from your waist to cup the back of your neck. “I love you. You were the first person to see me in so long – I knew you were different, I knew you were for me, and then you did this-“

He smashes his lips back onto yours, and you wrap your hands around his neck. Normally, you’d be mindful of his burns, but you’re so engrossed in his feverish kisses that you squeeze him tightly, and feel him moan into your mouth in response. He pulls back slightly for air, and pants heavily against you.

“Let me have you.” He growls against your lips. “Right here, right now. Gods help me I can’t wait any longer. I need to have you. I need you.”

“Okay, I—okay—yes.” You hear yourself gasping, and suddenly you’re swept off your feet. You feel your back hit something soft. Turning your head slightly to the side, you realize that Touya has placed you down onto a small pile of pillows. The realization of what you’re about to do hits you full force, but you don’t feel scared. You want this, you want him. You’ve wanted him for a long time.

Touya looms over you, caging you in, and runs the back of a heavily scared hand over your cheek. You shiver from the sensation of his feverishly hot skin and the cooler tones of the staples in his hand running over your skin. He gives you a wicked smile, as he sits back on his haunches, and starts to push your skirts up, revealing your bare legs.

You lurch up and grab his hands, forcing him to pause. He chuckles low in his throat at your actions, and pries your hands off of his own, placing a kiss on the back of one as his azure blue eyes meets your flushed face. “Relax my love. Let me take care of you.”

“It’s just- I mean, I’ve never done this before. I’m-“

“I know.” Touya damn near purrs, and you feel heat pool in your belly. “I’ll take care of you. I’ll be so gentle with you, I promise.”

You nod shakily and lower yourself back down onto the pillows, as Touya hikes your skirts up, revealing your legs and bottoms. He groans deeply as he kneads the plush of your thighs. “Fuck Princess, you’re perfect. Just like I knew you would be.”

“You’ve thought about me?” For some reason, his words of endearment strike a chord with you.

“Of course.” Touya murmurs, coming up to kiss you briefly, before taking your hand in one of his own. “Whenever I’m away, or I’m in the middle of a mission – alone and lonely – I think of you.”

He brings your hand down to his crotch, and sure enough, you feel a bulge underneath his pants. “See what you do to me?” he growls as he releases your hand so that he can work on shimmying your panties down your legs. You go to move your hand away, but he fixes you with a stern look. “Keep it there. Don’t move until I tell you to.”

You nod as he hooks his fingers into the band of your panties and leans back slightly to pull them down your legs, almost ripping them off in his haste. As soon as the offending material is gone, Touya gently wraps his hands around you knees and pulls them up so your feet are planted on the ground, before nestling his way back in between them, not taking his eyes off of the junction in between your legs.

“Gods.” He whispers. “Fuck.”

You feel him throb in the thick canvases of his pants as he runs a finger through your folds, causing you to shudder and clench around nothing. “God love, you’re fucking soaked.” Touya hisses, as he pushes your hand away from his hardness and rips his cloak over his head, revealing his bare chest to you.

In all the years that you’ve known him, you’ve never seen him this exposed. His chest is a patchwork of scars and staples just like his arms and face. Most of the skin is dead and badly burnt, but you do see some spots where there are still glimpses of healthy skin amongst the mess of purpled burns. Just like you suspected, his body is lean but ripped with corded muscles that bunch and flex with his every move. He looks like he was built by a god – a god with a twisted sense of humor – but you could care less. You think he’s perfect.

“You’re beautiful.” You tell him honestly – not wanting him to think you were focusing only on his burns – and he looks almost bashful at your words, letting a small chuckle escape him as he gently picks up one of your hands to press a quick kiss on the back of your knuckles.

“Look who’s talking.” He fires back at you, as he uses his thumbs to spread your lower lips apart. It should be embarrassing how wet you are from a little teasing, but Touya looks absolutely enthralled.  

“Is all this for me?” he muses to himself softly. Before you can ask him what he’s doing, he bends down and swipes his tongue through your folds, causing you to moan loudly and try to slam your legs closed on impulse, but Touya is faster – forcing them to stay open with a hand on each inner thigh as he continues to lap at your pussy.

You whimper involuntarily from the ministrations, and Toyua squeezes your thighs as he comes back up. “I know, I know love. I can’t wait any longer either. Goddamn-“ he almost snarls; his hands immediately going to his belt, as he unfastens it and tosses it to the side somewhere.

“I can’t believe someone as beautiful as you is letting someone like me do this to them.” he mutters as he pushes his pants down to just past mid-thigh, allowing his dick to spring free – and through you’ve never seen a man’s cock until now – you’re certain that it’s the prettiest one that you’ll ever see.

It’s long and thick and curves slightly upwards. It’s as pale as the undamaged parts of his skin and you think it looks quite lovely. You’re a little nervous about the size of it, but Touya doesn’t allow you to look at it for long, before he’s lining himself up to your entrance.

You swallow thickly as you feel how big and hot the head is pressed up against your tight entrance, and Touya must sense your hesitation, because he drapes himself over you, supporting himself on his hands, as he takes both your hands in one of his own, and gently pins them above your head, stooping down to kiss you once more.

“Breathe.” He murmurs, his breath ghosting over your lips hotly. “I’ll make you feel so good. Just lie back and breathe for me, my love.”

And with that, he slowly pushes himself in.

The stretch is delicious and you know that he’s ruined you for any other potential man. But there’s never been anyone else, has there? From the moment you officially met, it’s always been him. It will only ever be him.

Touya is cursing above you, but you can’t hear him – too lost in your own pleasure. It isn’t long before he’s picking up a steady rhythm, his hips hitting against yours with a wet smack. You’re so wet from his earlier teasing that he glides in and out with little resistance, and you feel your legs starting to shake from the waves of pleasure he’s inflicting upon you.

“Gods, how are you so tight?” Touya groans as he leans down to capture your lips with his. You kiss him back eagerly, wishing that your hands were free so you could wrap them around his neck, but he only tightens his grip on them when he feels you start to resist against his hold. He pulls back after a moment to take in your pretty face and glassy eyes, his hips not slowing down, as they continue to rut into yours.

“You’re mine.” He snarls hotly, swooping down to suck a mark onto the junction of your neck and shoulder, causing you to cry out and clench around him.

“You’re mine- fuck it, you’re mine, no one else’s.” He sucks another mark onto the other side of your neck, and you feel your eyes roll to the back of your head, as something in your lower stomach snaps – the wet sounds of your union becoming louder as you cum around his cock. Touya’s hips falter for a fraction of a second as he registers what happened, before he the last shred of restraint he had snaps, and starts pounding into you relentlessly, ignoring your sobs as he stimulates your already oversensitive insides.

“When you told me… that they had engaged you to that bastard-” He hisses lowly in your ear, as you continue to sob. “-I almost burnt your damn village to the ground. How dare they try to take what’s mine?”

A dark look enters his blue irises. “I wanted to fuck you right here in this temple afterwards – send a message to your parents and anyone else who thought they could have you, that you were spoken for.”

“Touya- I’m-“ you barely manage to choke out in between sobs. Your body feels like it’s on fire from his words. You feel the tell-tale signs of another orgasm quickly approaching, and you didn’t think it was possible for you to feel so good with the way he’s now mercilessly drilling into your insides. You had talked with your married friends about sex before, that was a given, but even they didn’t describe it as feeling this good.

“Tell me who you belong to.” He pulls away, his eyes never leaving yours. “Tell me who you belong to, and I’ll give you everything.”

“You!” You manage to scream out, voice cracking as he hits a particularly sensitive spot in you. “It’s you! I’ve always belonged to you—you alone! I’ve only ever loved—Oh GODS!” you wail as you cum around his length again. The glint in Touya’s eyes become frantic and his hips stutter as you spasm violently around him. He finally let’s go of your wrists, in favour of grabbing your hips with both hands to pull you down onto him and meet his powerful thrusts.

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” He breathes. “Fuck love; I’m going to fill you full of me. Let the whole world – the gods – all of them, know you belong to me-“

You keen at his words, and he manages to grind out a breathy, “Shit-“ as he spills himself inside you, swooping down to capture your lips with his rough ones again, as he fucks his cum into you. You’re so blissed out, all you can do is wrap your arms tightly around his leathery neck, until his hips still; still buried deep inside of you.

Eventually you break the kiss, but Touya makes no move to get off of you. He moves his hands up from your hips, so he can take some of his weight off you, and rests his head on your collarbone, as he struggles to calm his palpating heart. You wriggle your hips and Touya grimaces, mouthing over one of the marks he sucked onto your neck.

“Wait.” He mumbles. “Give it a minute. It’s sensitive.” His comment pulls a laugh from you, and you feel him grin against your skin.

You stay joined like that until you feel his dick soften inside you, and Touya gently pulls out of you. You whimper at empty feeling, and close your legs as you feel a rush of fluid that you already know is a combination of both of your releases, leak out from in-between your legs. Touya smiles at your reaction, the staples in his face pulling slightly as he strokes the leg closest to him gently.

He rolls onto his back on the pillows beside you, and pulls you onto your side, so your head is on his chest. You listen to the rapid beating of his heart, and watch as his chest rises and falls with each breath he takes. It almost lulls you to sleep, but Touya suddenly speaks up after a moment, catching your attention.

“I am the only one allowed to see you like this.” He rumbles low in his throat, running a warm hand down your side, feeling the muscles jump underneath his touch. “No man, no one. You belong to me. I’ll take such good care of you.”

“But you’re going to leave me again.” You whisper, hating how you feel tears prick at the corners of your eyes. “You said so yourself: you have unfished business in the East still. Who knows when you’re coming back…Besides… No one can see you aside from me. How can I possibly explain this to anyone?”

“It’ll be different this time, I swear it.” Touya shushes you, smoothing a hand over your hair. “I’m going to be in the East for a while yet, but when I come back, I’m going to stay here with you, for a long time. No more disappearing acts for a while.”

You lift your head off his chest to stare at him in shock, to gage if he’s saying it to make you feel better, but you see nothing but honesty in his eyes. He touches your cheek. “I promise little one. I’ll make it work. I will stay with you. For as long as I can.”

You don’t mean to, but you can’t stop the tears that well up in your eyes and spill past your cheeks at his promise, as you place your head down on his scared chest and cry. You don’t know how long you stay like that, but Toyua makes no effort to get up – simply holding you close and murmuring sweet nothings into your hair as you weep.

It’s getting harder and harder to say goodbye to him every time he leaves. You feel like your heart is breaking inside of your ribcage, whenever he has to go. This time is no different, but it will certainly leave you feeling hollower than the other times that came before.

Eventually, once your tears have dried, you separate to get dressed and fix yourselves up. You’re straightening out your skirts as Touya tosses his dark traveling cloak back over his torso, obscuring his muscular chest from view. He must see you blushing, because he tosses you a grin over his shoulder at you, moving to grab your shoes and shawl for you from the front of the temple.

He kisses you as you wrap your shawl around yourself, and rests his forehead against yours. “Thank you.” He tells you, gesturing around the temple. “For doing this. It means more to me than you know.” You nod in response, and he intertwines your hands together as he leads you to the temple entrance and you exit together.  

He kisses you deeply once more outside the temple. He has a pained expression on his face when he pulls away, and he looks like he wants to tell you something important, but something is holding him back. He’s quiet for a moment before he squeezes your hand.

“I need you to promise me something while I’m gone.” He tells you seriously, and you nod, signaling for him to continue. He sucks in a sharp intake of breath.

“Promise me that you’ll take care of your health while I’m away. If someone comes to the apothecary with a strange sickness, or any signs of odd infections outside of a normal fever – I want you to go home and stay there.”

You furrow your brows, not understanding what he’s saying, but one look at his face tells you that he’s deadly serious and it’s not open for discussion.

You agree that you’ll be careful, and you’ll keep your eyes open for anything strange, and that seems to put him at ease. He kisses you once more before letting go of your hand, and slowly backs away from you. Once he’s a good distance away from you, he smiles sadly at you, before a raging torrent of blue flames engulf him once more, and he’s gone.

Life in the village goes on as normal for the next two months. The brightly coloured leaves that once decorated the trees surrounding your village have started to fall off the branches with large gusts of wind as winter draws closer.

You throw yourself into work at the apothecary, grateful for how busy it keeps you. You haven’t heard anything from Touya for a while now, and you can’t help but wonder what’s going on in the East that has him so tied up. You haven’t heard any news from the Eastern part of the county in a long time, so if something big is going on, your town will probably be one of the last places to know. You don’t see much sense in worrying about it though, so you divide your time between visiting Dabi’s temple, and Chiyo’s teachings.

You’ve almost forgotten about Touya’s cryptic warning – until the stranger shows up in town one day. (Or rather, stumbled in – since he didn’t even make it three feet from the town’s entrance before collapsing in the streets, leading to several concerned townspeople finding him and bringing him to the apothecary for treatment)

He’s malnourished and sicker than you’ve ever seen anyone in your life. You and Chiyo spend days caring for him, with no results.

He dies one week after arriving in town, and is buried just outside of the village borders. An unfortunate tragedy, but you can’t save everyone. A harsh lesson that your mentor has drilled into you. You never even figured out what was afflicting him, though Chiyo think’s it may have been an advanced case of pneumonia.

At first, it was just him.

Then, another man got sick with symptoms eerily similar to what the stranger had.

Then it was two.

Then three.

Then twelve people in one day.

The number of infected only skyrocket from there.

Before you know it: there is an entire epidemic in your small town. Chiyo eventually figures out what it is, but by that point, eight people are dead and the number of people sick is quickly spiraling out of control.

Plague. The black plague of decay. Death.

Your parents beg you to come home, as they don’t want you around such a deadly sickness, and truthfully, you don’t want to be anywhere near it either – but you can’t leave Chiyo by herself. She’s the town’s only healer and she’s old. You know if something happens to her, the whole town is screwed, so you grit your teeth, mask up, and stay by her side.

For a while, things are going about as well as they can be. People are still dying at an alarming rate, but you and Chiyo somehow manage to stay healthy, and you keep trying to treat those who aren’t as sick the best you can with what you’ve got.

Then one day, you feel light-headed and nauseous out of the blue and you look down, only to notice an alarmingly dark black spot on your arm that you know wasn’t there the day before.

Everything goes downhill from there.

                                                          -----

 Winter has arrived in your village full force, but you can’t see it. You haven’t seen anything outside of the four walls that make up your room for a while now.

You had caught the plague. The second you had shown Chiyo the black mark on your arm, she had immediately sent you away with some herbs crushed into a tablet for you to take to slow down the spread of the sickness.

Slow down being the key words. There was no cure for the decay plague. Once you had it, it was a death sentence. It was only a matter of time before it took your life.

Your parents had grabbed you and locked you in your room the moment they had seen you stumbling back from the apothecary. You hadn’t seen them face-to-face since. You only saw brief glimpses of them when they opened your door to slide food into your room on a tray, or when they came back to collect your dishes, though these days, you didn’t have much of an appetite.

They didn’t even have to let you back into the house once they saw the mark on your arm. But they still did without any hesitation. Despite knowing how ill you were going to become, they still insisted on taking care of you. You may not have agreed with their choices when it came to your personal life, but it was comforting to know that at the end of the day, your parents still loved you. Even if you went against everything they wanted for you.

A violent fit of coughing racks your frail body, and you automatically lift your arms to cover your mouth. When you pull your arm away, you cringe at the sight of red splattered across your forearm, before dropping it back down beside you on your bed with a muffled thud.

You can’t even look at your arms right now. Your skin, which used to be sun-kissed and clear, is now pale and speckled with ominous looking splotches of black, as the sickness makes its way through your body. You don’t even want to know what the rest of you looks like. You haven’t looked at yourself in a mirror since you were confined to your room. You’re not sure you’ll be able to handle what you see.

The room starts to spin around you and everything hurts. You close your eyes in a weak attempt to stop the jarring movement, but it does little to help you. Opening your eyes doesn’t make things better – your vison has become burry lately, and you can’t focus on anything anymore. Normally this would upset you, but you don’t have any strength left in you to care.

You know that you don’t have much time left. You don’t want to say it out loud, but you know your time is drawing closer. Based on the few times you’ve heard your mother – and on occasion, your normally stoic father – sob outside your door as they collect your untouched dishes, they know it too. You’ve held out longer than most people have, but you know that soon you’ll be making your way to the Underworld, it’s inevitable.

You only pray that all the visits you’ve made to Dabi’s temple over the last few months have paid off, and the Cremation God will be kind to you once he comes to collect you.

Dabi. His temple. Touya.

You feel tears prick at the corners of your eyes at the thought of your white-haired lover, as a single tear falls from your eye, and crashes onto your pillow, humble and silent.  

You’re never going to see him again. You don’t want to acknowledge it, but it’s true. As far as you know, he’s still in the East while you’re here, dying in your room. As tempted as you’ve been to use his name to call him to you one last time, you won’t.

Powers or not, you don’t want him to potentially end up with the plague too. Not to mention, you don’t want him to see you like this. You don’t want him to remember you sick and frail as you are now. You’d rather have him remember you fondly: full of life and happy. There’s no need to put him through that kind of anguish.

Still, it doesn’t stop you from wishing you could see him one last time-

Suddenly, your room feels unnaturally warm. It’s been very cold lately, and you don’t know if it’s because you’re dying that it makes your room feel colder than it should, but now your room is borderline sweltering.

You swear that you see a faint blue glow out of your blurry peripherals, followed by the tell-tale smell of something burning, before the glow dissipates into nothing. The intense heat remains and even though you can’t see very well, you know that someone is in the corner of your room.

“Who is it?” you manage to rasp out and you hear the stranger’s breath falter, as if they weren’t expecting you to be awake. The stranger takes three slow, purposeful strides until they are at your bedside, hovering over you. You blink hard, trying to see who the intruder is, but your vision must be getting worse, because all you can make out is a tall, white being above you.

You have no idea who, or what you’re looking at and are about to panic, until the figure bends slightly, and two familiar, warm, rough hands cradle your cheeks like you’re the most delicate thing in the world.

Choked sobs rack your body despite how much the movement hurts you, because you know who’s by your side, even if you can’t make out his finer features. Your suspicions are confirmed the second you hear his low, gravelly voice.

“Beloved… what has happened to you?”

“Touya… is that you?” you whisper, and you feel his fingers tense under you. His thumbs swipe at your cheeks, even though you can’t seem to make any more tears to shed.

“I’m here beloved. I’m here now.” he rumbles quietly. He falls silent for a moment, then you hear him ask “ Why didn’t you call me to you?”

He sounds… sad… heartbroken even.

“I didn’t want you to see me like this…” you trail off, not knowing what else to say. Touya doesn’t seem to know either, but from the way he sighs, you think he’s holding back tears as well.

“Did I not tell you to be careful?” There is no anger behind his words. Just defeat. You don’t think it’s directed at you though.

“I know.” You tell him, wishing desperately that you could lift your arms up enough to touch his face like he is doing yours. “It just happened so suddenly. There was a strange man who got sick, and then the next thing we knew, almost the whole town was plague-ridden. I couldn’t leave Chiyo by herself.”

“I know.” Touya sighs. “Are you… are you comfortable?”

“I can’t see very well anymore… I think I’m dying very soon.” You admit softly. You manage to reach up to cover one of his hands with your cold one. “You shouldn’t be here… as much as I love seeing you one last time, you might catch the plague as well – I don’t want that for you.”

“The plague doesn’t affect me. Don’t worry yourself about it.” Touya murmurs gently, and you swear you faintly see something red and thick, roll down his face. He leans down to press a light kiss to your forehead, and you’re not sure why, but suddenly your vision clears, and you’re able to see the best you have in weeks. You look up at him in wonder, only for your breath to catch in your throat.

Instead of his normal dark clothes that you’re used to seeing him in; Touya is dressed in a flowing, white burial shroud that exposes his chest. It makes him look eirthral, like a ghost that had come back from the grave. What really concerns you though, is the right side of his face – the side closest to you. The burnt flesh on his lower jaw by his mouth is gone, and you swear that you see the bone underneath starting to appear.

“Touya—Touya what happened to you? What have you done to yourself?”

“Don’t worry about me. It looks worse than it is.” Touya grumbles, dismissing your concerns. “The person that you should be worrying about, is you.”

“I think it’s a little late for that, love.” You tell him softly. “I’ve been sick for a while now… I’ve held out longer than a lot of other people have, but I think my luck is running out fast.”

This time you know you’re not seeing things. You watch in shock as a large droplet of blood oozes out from underneath the burnt skin under his eye and slowly rolls down his face, leaving a shiny red trail behind it as it makes its way down his ruined skin. You try to bring a hand up to wipe it away, but Touya beats you to it, releasing your cheeks long enough to turn away from you and compose himself.

“That crusty bastard. He promised me that he would keep it away from here… guess it got past him too-“ you hear Touya mutter under his breath. “It doesn’t matter now, gods… fuck.” He turns to face you again, and you see a red streak running along the side of his face, where he tried to wipe the blood tear away. His hands return to yours, and he wraps them up tightly.

“I tried… I tried so fucking hard to keep it contained. I thought, if I could contain it to the East, then it wouldn’t spread and it wouldn’t come here, to you. Even though I’ve seen it happen, so many times over the years. I thought I could change it.”

“Touya what are you talking about, you’re not making any sense.” You beg him, but he doesn’t seem to hear you, too wrapped up in his own head, as he squeezes your hands in his own.

“It’s not fair. You’re so full of life. I don’t want you to die like this.”

Something in his gaze shifts and the sadness from earlier is gone. Instead, a determined look has appeared in its place. He cradles the back of your head and neck with one of his hands as he gently lifts your head up to him, flinching at your pained whimpers.

“Do you trust me?” he asks you urgently.

“Of course.” You whisper, your vison is starting to darken again, but you try and keep your focus on Touya’s bright blue eyes.

“I can stop this.” He murmurs. “I can stop this and save you and what’s left of your town. But you need to make a deal with me. Do you accept?”

“A deal…? Stop this… I don’t…” you whisper, and Touya squeezes your hand, desperate to keep your attention on him.

“The full extent of my abilities come with a price. I can save you, but at a cost.”

“What’s the price?” you find yourself asking. You’re not sure how he intends to save anyone from something as severe as the plague with no cure; much less yourself, considering that you’re almost certainly on death’s doorstep, but you’re curious. Even if you’re beyond saving, maybe your town still has a chance.

“You.”

“Me.” You echo, still fighting to keep your gaze on him. “Why?”

“I told you already, you’re mine, you’ve always been mine. But this will bind us to each other indefinitely. Your life will become mine in exchange for me removing the sickness from you and your village. Do we have a deal?”

“Am I really worth that much?” you tease hoarsely, as you feel your eyes start to close against your will.

“You mean more to me than anything in this pathetic life.” You hear Touya grind out. “Let me do this for you. Please.”

He squeezes your hand, and his next words sound almost desperate. “I’ve never begged anyone for anything in my lifetime and I’ve lived a long time. Please let me do this for you.”

You know that under different circumstances, you wouldn’t agree to anything like this. Touya’s words are carrying an underlying weight to them, and you know there’s something that he’s not telling you. Normally, before agreeing to anything, you’d make sure everything was out in the open and that there weren’t any catches to your deal… but really, how much time did you have to ask about the finer details?

You were out of time. You knew it, and he knew it too.

Really, how bad would it be being his? Wasn’t that what you always wanted anyways?

“I accept.” You whisper, as your world fades to black, not even sure if Touya heard you or not.

He did.

The next few moments are a whirlwind. You feel Touya stand up above you and his hands go to your left forearm – to the spot where you first noticed the sickness. It’s arguably the worst spot on your body. The darkness has spread underneath your skin and takes up almost your full forearm now.

You feels his warm hands press into the skin of your forearm, and for a moment, nothing happens. Then his hands start to heat up, hotter and hotter, and you can smell something burning. You don’t know whether it’s your flesh or his, but you don’t have the energy to scream out, even though the pain is excruciating.

There’s a bright blue flash and you feel something being seared into your arm – in the same spot where your original plague mark was. Heat spreads through your body like a wildfire, and you feel like you’re being burned from the inside out. Suddenly, as quickly as the pain started it’s gone.

You’re shaking, gasping for air as you try to control your rapidly palpating heart, but you can’t open your eyes. Exhaustion hits you full force, and you feel what little strength you had left in you bleed out. Touya is still there, and you feel him slowly ease you back down onto your pillow, placing your arm down at your side once more.

“Rest now beloved. I’ll see you soon.”

No sooner than he says those words, you feel yourself slip off into slumber, and you allow the darkness to take you.

You wake to the sun streaming across your face

It’s the first time you’ve seen any hint of the sun in months, and at first, you think that you’ve died, but the tell-tale signs of stiffness in your muscles tell you that you’re still very much alive, if not very dehydrated.

The thought draws you up short.

You’re alive. You’re alive when you probably shouldn’t be. That means… Touya… he’d done it.

A burning feeling races through your left forearm and draws you up short. You slowly bring your arm up to look at what’s causing the pain, only for your eyes to widen impossibly.

The dark stain under your skin caused by the plague is gone, as are all of the other signs of sickness that had marked your body. What is on your arm, is nothing short of confusing.

A strange symbol is on your arm, in the spot you remember Touya gripping the hardest. A long, straight line runs horizontally done your forearm with three smaller lines running through it. Another long, straight line along the top of the first line completes the marking, and you stare at it in shock.

It covers the spot where you had your original plague mark, almost as if you’d never had it at all.

You reach out and gingerly touch the mark, only for your door to open suddenly – causing you to yank your nightgown sleeve down in a hurry. You glance over to see both of your parents standing in your doorway. It seems to take them a moment to process that you’re awake, and seemingly plague free, before they rushed to your bedside and have pull you into a tight hug.

“You’re awake! Thank gods you’re awake! We thought that we lost you for sure!” your mother sobs, as she clutches you to herself. You’re shocked, and you ask her what she means, only for her to hold you tighter.

“You’ve been asleep for three days. You wouldn’t wake up! Nothing we did worked.” Your mother cries, and you feel your heart drop.

Three days? What did that mean for everyone else?

“We’ve heard from Chiyo that all of the patients at the apothecary have also recovered. She’s not sure how, but the plague seems to have disappeared.” Your father states gruffly, as he strokes your hair. “It’s some sort of miracle.”

Yes, and his name is Touya. You think to yourself. Just what was he, to be able to have the power to dispel a sickness as deadly as the decay plague from an entire town?

“We do have a visitor downstairs, if you feel up to meeting with him.” Your mother informs you as she passes you a cup of water. “Some of the priests are visiting homes on Chiyo’s orders, to check in on families and see if anyone is still sick. The head priest from the Endeavor temple is here. I’m sure he’d love to check in on you now that you’re awake.”

You don’t particularly want anyone to see you right now, knowing that you must look awful and you would much rather go find Touya, provided that he was still in town somewhere – but you nod anyways. Your mother tells you to take your time getting ready, as she and your father leave your room, saying that she would tell the priest to wait downstairs.

The process to get ready is painfully slow. Your muscles are weak from a lack of use, but you’re able to wash yourself if you move carefully. You slip on a clean dress, making sure that the mark on your forearm is fully covered, and run a brush through your wet locks before deciding that was enough, and gingerly make your way downstairs.

You slowly make your way into the living room where you see the priest from Endeavor’s temple sitting in one of the armchairs, waiting for you. He’s a large man, dressed in Endeavor’s traditional colours: dark blues and fiery oranges and reds. Your parents leave when you enter to give you some privacy and the priest points to the chair across from him.

“Have a seat girl.” He tells you, and you sit without a word. You fidget uncomfortably as he looks you over carefully, before finally speaking. “Chiyo specifically asked me to come check on you and see how you’re doing. She wanted to thank you for all your help at the beginning of this mess. She wanted to come herself, but she has a few things to take care of at the apothecary. She sends her regards.”

“Oh, it was my honor. I couldn’t leave her there all alone.” You tell him, lifting your arm to wave off his praise without thinking about it. You realize your mistake too late, as the sleeve covering your forearm slowly rolls down to your elbow, revealing the mark etched into your skin.

The priest stops dead the second he glances at your forearm, ad his eyes widen impossibly. He points shakily to the mark etched into your arm. “Where did you get that from girl? Who did that to your arm?”

You hesitate. How can you possibly explain Touya to him? No one aside from you could see him. They’d call you mad if you tried to be honest, and would cast you out from your home. What would you do then?

‘I… I don’t know if you’d believe me if I told you.” You mutter, clutching your arm close to you. “Why, what’s so special about this mark?”

“That is Dabi’s seal.” The priest hisses as he snaps his fingers at you, and you feel your heart drop into your stomach. “I haven’t seen a mark like that for decades now, but he is closely connected to my lord Endeavor and I’d recognize it anywhere. It has been rumored that he puts that mark onto people who enter into deals with him. I’m wondering how you ended up with it on your arm.”

Your world crumbles around you at his words, and the illusion that you had unknowingly walked into, shattered.

Dabi, Touya, Dabi, Touya, Dabi, Touya, Dabi, Touya-

Touya is Dabi.

How could you not have seen it sooner? Looking back on it, the signs were obvious: how he knew so much about Dabi – or rather, himself. How he could seamlessly travel across large areas with very little effort. How he had powers that far surpassed any mage or race you’d heard of. How he never seemed to age… How his body had lasted so long despite the burns that were very clearly getting worse as time passed by-

The thought draws you up short. A hazy memory of Touya standing over your deathbed. A chunk of his flesh missing from the side of his mouth… looking more worn down than you could ever remember seeing him… Suddenly, you have to find him.

And you think you know exactly where he is.

“I-I have to go.” You mutter, shakily rising to your feet. The priest tries to get you to sit back down, but you shove him off. You barely have time to throw a light shawl around your shoulders and put your shoes on, before you’re running out the door in the direction of Dabi’s temple, ignoring the surprised shouts of your parents.

You are reminded how weak your body currently is, as you have to stop and catch your breath several times on the way to the temple, ignoring the looks that a few curious townspeople are giving you, as you eventually make your way to the temple.

This time, you don’t need to reach for the doors, since they seem to open on their own for you. You step through the entrance and they close behind you softly, shutting you away from the sunshine outside. You notice the temple is seemingly empty, but the prayer candles are lit at the base of Dabi’s statue, and the flames are blue.

He’s here, somewhere, you know it, you feel it, but for some reason, he hasn’t shown himself to you yet. It makes you worry and prompts you to call out his name softly.

“I’m here, beloved.”

The familiar rasp of his voice echoes from behind the larger-than-life sculpture. You smile in spite of yourself, and move closer to the sound of his voice, where you can just make out a shadowy figure partly concealed behind the base of the stature.

“Don’t come any closer.” The harsh growl makes you pause.

“Why?” you ask the shadow and you see two familiar blue eyes staring back at you from the gloom.

“You’re not going to like what you see.”

You hesitate for a fraction of a second before you shake your head. “I don’t care. You know I don’t care about what you look like.” You swallow before adding on. “I think you and I need to talk about some things… about you.”

“So, you figured it out?” the figure rumbles, and you nod.

“There are some things I need to know. Things that I need to understand. But please, I just want to see you. Come out.” You extend your hand towards the shadow, and hear him sigh deeply, before shuffling closer to you.

A burnt hand takes hold of yours, dwarfing it, and the man—no, the deity, pulls himself into the light provided by the candles. He watches as your face changes from confusion, to shock realization, then to—

He doesn’t think he can do it; he can’t watch as you reject him. He knows that he doesn’t look pretty. He looks like a walking corpse and he knows this. He looks more dead than alive and honestly, he is. He knew he shouldn’t hang around the temple, knowing that you’d eventually come looking for him once you had recovered enough, but he’d wanted to see you one last time before he made the inevitable trip back home to the underworld – even if it meant you seeing him like this—

“Oh, Touya. Did… did you do this to yourself to cure me?” you whisper so softly; he wasn’t sure if he heard you correctly. He risks glancing back at you, only to see that your face hasn’t twisted in disgust upon his reveal. You’re holding his hand so tightly, like you’re afraid that he’ll crumble to ash if you don’t, and maybe he would, he’s not sure anymore.

Your eyes meet his, and he sees unshed tears in them. There is no repulsion or fear in your eyes like he thought there might be, there is only concern and worry for him, and he feels his once dead heart thunder in his burnt chest.

He wishes he could feel the texture of your soft hands on him again, but the burns are deep and have spread everywhere now. All he can feel is pressure on his hand where you’re holding it in your own. Suddenly, he feels more vulnerable than he has in a long time.

You stare back at him, trying your best not to shed the tears you feel forming – knowing that they won’t help anything. What remained of Touya’s once beautiful, pale skin is gone. His entire body is covered in deep russet scaring. The mess of staples that he hadn’t bothered to remove or replace, were scattered across his body where they had once held the damaged and healthy skin together. Parts of his body – where you assume the skin had been thinnest on him – are burned almost completely down to the bone. The skin by one side of his mouth is almost gone, and the flesh near his wrist on his other hand – the one that he didn’t give you – has been burnt down to where you can see the tendons flexing when he moves.

He's still wearing the white robes from before. He looks like a wraith, a sight that would terrify even the bravest of people, but it stirs no such feelings in you.

“Does it hurt?” You whisper, not knowing what else to say. He shakes his head.

“I can’t feel anything anymore.”

“Oh.” You croak, not sure if his answer made you feel any better. It doesn’t, but you try not to let it show on your face.

The deity gently removes his hand from yours and moves several paces back from you, as if he’s trying not to upset you. You feel a lump rise in your throat, but push it down. “Did you do that to yourself to cure me from the plague?” you ask him again and he only nods once.

“You and what’s left of your town. I told you; I make good on my promises. It’s the blowback that gets me. Shigaraki won’t like what I’ve done, but he can’t do anything about it.”

You frown at the mention of the other name. You swear that you’ve heard it before somewhere, but you can’t place where from. Maybe if you remember, you’ll ask him about it later, but right now, you have other things you need him to clarify.

“Can I ask you something, my lord?” Dabi snorts at your formalities, and waves you off.

“Please. None of that from you, Princess.  If I wanted you to call me by my titles, I would’ve made you do it when we first met.”

You can’t help the small smile that pulls at your lips. You’d been slightly worried that knowing his identity would change the dynamic of your relationship with him. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case.  

“How come I could see you when no one else could?” you question him. Dabi pauses for a moment, seemingly trying to figure out how to explain himself.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” He responds after a moment. “We walk amongst mortals all the time; we’re just hidden in plain sight. Some humans are different than others, and are able to see us for what we really are, but most mortals can’t see through our disguises. I choose to be invisible, it’s much easier to do my job that way. Normally, the only time humans can see me is when I come to collect their soul, or when I let them see me purposefully. But you,” he fixes you with his intense stare that you’ve grown used to.

“you were an abnormity. I’ve only ever met one or two other mortals in my time alive that were able to see me, even when I was invisible to everyone else.”

“What did you do to them?” you don’t know what prompts you to ask. Dabi looks away from you.

“I killed them.”

“Why though?” You’re not sure if you want to know his reasoning, but this may be the only time you get to ask him.

“Because no one is supposed to see me – it’s taboo. The only time I’m supposed to be visible to mortals is when I come to take you to the Underworld with me. I can’t let people wander around telling others that Death himself is coming. Do you know how much chaos that would cause on the surface?” Dabi snickers to himself.

“But I could see you, and you didn’t kill me.” You press. Dabi lets a small smile pull at what remains of the muscles in his cheeks.

“No, I didn’t.” he agrees quietly.

“Were you going to?” you ask, remembering how tense he was the first time you met face to face.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you?” You’re not mad about the revelation. You’re just curious. What made you so different from the others that came before you?

“I was going to… But something told me not to.” Dabi trails off, seemingly not having the words to describe why he did what he did. “I couldn’t tell you why I hesitated back then… but I’m glad I did.” The hint of a smile ghosts across his face. “You’re so beautiful. I couldn’t predict everything else that came afterwards. But I’m certainly not complaining.”

Your face flushes a brilliant shade of crimson when you realize he’s talking about when you fucked in this temple… his temple.

You can’t bear to bring yourself to meet the smug look in his eyes, so you try to compose yourself best you can, but it’s hard when you feel his oceanic eyes boring into your being.

“I… I just have one final question to ask you.” You stammer out, trying to fight down the colour in your cheeks that you know he can see. The burnt deity nods, signaling for you to continue. You suck in a breath, suddenly nervous for some reason.

“What… what exactly does this mark that you’ve given me mean? To you, that is.” You ask, touching the mark on your arm with your other hand, and you swear that you hear Touya- no, Dabi, bite back a moan.

“It marks you as mine. To humans and other gods alike, it means you are mine and under my protection.” He growls, a possessive edge in his raspy voice.

“Is that all?” you probe softly. Dabi bites back a laugh, and fixes you with a warm expression, blue eyes glowing like a cat in the dimly lit temple.

“What do you think?”

He answers your question with another question, but it’s weighted. The mark definitely has another meaning to it, you’re sure of it, but you want to hear it from him.

“I think it means something more… but I want to be sure. I don’t remember the finer details of our conversation, since I was… well… dying.” You shrug, trying and failing to look nonchalant. You don’t particularly want to be reminded of that time.

Dabi must see it in your expression, because he immediately drops the teasing act and takes a hesitant step towards you, slowly, as if he’s trying not to scare you.

He points at your arm and you lift it up so he can see the symbol burned into your skin. “That is my personal mark. It means that you’re not only under my protection… but it also marks you as my consort.”

Your eyes flick up to meet his, and you can tell that he’s not joking. He’s deadly serious.

“Your consort? You mean, like… like a bride?” you breathe, hardly daring to believe it. Dabi cracks a smile.

“So that’s what you humans are calling it these days. Yes, you are. Unlike some of my kin, I don’t take multiple wives. It’s just you.”

It takes a moment for his words to sink in, but when they do, you have to fight yourself to stay upright.

“Oh gods. I’m the bride of a god.” You mutter, swaying slightly in place. “You’re a god. You’re an actual god.”

The burned deity only chuckles. “I can’t believe that you never figured it out. It’s not like I was trying to hide it from you at the end there.”

“I mean… It’s obvious you weren’t human, but I didn’t think you were a God.” You mutter. “You just… you acted so… casual. Not like what I’d expect a god to act-- not that I’m complaining of course!” you add on as you hear Dabi let out an amused snort.

You point up at the statue of Dabi- or rather, him. “Besides, it’s not like I knew what you looked like. You’re always depicted with a hood over your face.” You frowned. “Why is that exactly? You’re not wearing a hood. You’ve never worn one when you’re with me. The only time I ever saw you with one was when you were traveling. Not as you are now. You never let any of your disciples see you?”

“They depict me like that because it’s easier that way.” Dabi explains smoothly. “My face changes depending on what part of my… cycle I’m in. Sometimes I look like how I did when we first met – other times I look like… well, this.” He gestures to himself after a brief pause. It makes your heart ache.

“My kind are supposed to be divine beings. Perfect. I am not. I don’t need to be depicted looking like a walking corpse to the few people who still worship me and visit my temples.”

His gaze flicks back up to you. “You were never supposed to see me like this.”

You know that you shouldn’t psychoanalyze him, but you can’t help but find him endlessly fascinating. He may be a god – a divine, primordial being – but his emotions were so very human.

He may go by many different names, but Dabi was Touya. Your Touya, the man you fell in love with over the years you spent getting to know him. The man who would willingly burn down your village to keep you by his side, only to save it in its time of need, for you.

What he looked like was irrelevant.

“What you look like doesn’t bother me.” You tell him softly, taking a hesitant step closer to him. “It never has. You know that.” Touya’s muscles flinch, like he’s fighting against moving away from you, but he stays rooted to the spot as you slowly advance, until you’re close enough to place a hand on the exposed part of his chest – right above his heart.

“I will love you no matter what form you take, because no matter what: you’re still Touya. You’re still the man I love. God or not, you always will be.”

You lean forward and press your lips to what is left of the flesh around his mouth, and you feel him release a shuddering breath, as his arms come up to wrap themselves tightly around you. You pull away slightly to tuck your head against his chest, returning his embrace, ignoring the burnt smell that always clings to him; and you feel him rest his chin on your head.

You don’t know how long you stay like that for, but eventually Touya reluctantly removes his chin from his spot on your head, and lowers it so he can speak directly into your ear.

“I have to go.”

You try and pull away so you can look him in the eyes, but his arms keep you tightly pressed up against him, like he’s afraid that if he lets you go, you’ll turn to smoke and disappear.

“But… you said that we’re bound to each other now? You promised me that you wouldn’t leave again-“

“I know, but this will be the last time I leave without you, I promise.” He rasps in your ear. “This cycle is at the end. I’m dying.”

You feel your heart clench painfully at his words, and suddenly, you’re taken back to the spring, where he took you to his temple for the first time, and where he unknowingly to you, explained his history. Where he also revealed that gods themselves could die, however difficult it was.

“You’re… you’re dying? How, why? I thought you said it was almost impossible for you to die?”

You feel Touya shake his head and squeeze you again. “It’s different in my case. I die a lot. But the difference is: I come back. It just takes a while.”

“I don’t understand, please Touya, what do you mean?” you feel frantic, and cling to his robes like small child. “I-I can’t lose you!”

“You won’t.” Touya promises you firmly, pulling back to fix you with an unwavering look. “It’s difficult to explain, but I’m more like a force of nature then a ‘traditional’ god. My power is great, but it destroys my body and I ‘die’. However,” his eyes narrow dangerously as he thumbs over the mark on your arm, “I’m a god of the Underworld, and we play by different rules than those that reside upstairs.” He points a finger mockingly up to the roof of the temple.

“I have what you humans call a ‘cycle’. Whenever I ‘die’ I return home, so that I can rest and regenerate my body. Eventually I come back to how I was before I got all of my scaring, and start again. The cycle repeats itself over and over again on an endless loop.” He sends you a crooked grin.

“That’s the other half of my secret: Cremation and Reincarnation tend to go hand in hand. But nobody needs to know that except for you.”

“How many times have you done this?” you breathe, but Touya only shakes his head, shooting you a forced smile.

“More times than I can count. I’m not the oldest God in the pantheon Sweetheart, not by a long shot, but compared to you, I’m ancient.”

“Oh.” You murmur. trying to fight down the blush at the stark differences in your ages, and Touya’s smile becomes more relaxed. You fist your hands at the front of his robe and try your best to return his smile. “So, you’re going to come back… for me?”

“Yes. I’ll eventually return to my original form. But it’s going to take me a while to regenerate.”

“Oh gods, you mean I’m going to be an old woman by the time you come back to get me.” You joke, trying your best to lighten the somber mood, and Touya barks out a laugh.

“No, no. It won’t take that long, I promise… but, that being said, it won’t be anytime soon either. I’m sorry.”

You nod, and try to relax your grip on his robes. You smooth your hands over the soft fabric, and inwardly you hum in delight, as you feel Touya’s abnormally warm hands run down your waist. He brings one hand up to your chin and gently tilts your face up to meet his.

“I will be back for you. Make no mistake about that.”

You feel his other hand glide up to your left forearm, the one that now bares his mark, and press on it possessively. “This binds us together. I’ll make good on my promise, and when I come back for you: I’m going to take you around the world with me, just like I promised you I would. I’ll give you everything.”

You feel your eyes water with his declaration. The sincerity in his eyes tells you that he’s not bluffing. He will be back for you the next time he comes to your humble village, and he will show you the world if you so choose it.

“…How will I know?” You finally manage to ask him quietly.

“How will you know what?”

“How will I know that you’re coming back to get me?”

Touya lets a deep laugh rumble out of his throat, and pushes his face close to your ear so he can whisper directly into it:

“Oh, don’t worry… you’ll just know.”

                                                         -----

 Three years have passed since that day.

Spring has come again, symbolizing rebirth and renewal, and yet seemingly nothing has changed in your little village. You still work at the apothecary with Chiyo, but now you spend most of your time at Dabi’s temple, keeping it clean, and trying to educate those who visit it, more about the reclusive Cremation God.

More people have started to visit the temple in the three years since you last saw Touya, and you’d like to think that he’d be pleased if he could see it. You’re headed to the temple now to do your daily cleaning, and make sure that everything is orderly, before you head back home for the night.

You smile as you watch a group of small children run past you, as you think back to the day that Touya had left you one final time.

Word had spread like wildfire after you had returned from the temple that day – about how you had made a deal with the elusive Cremation God himself to cure the town of its plague, and how you now bore his mark on your own skin, binding you to him.

You thought that you’d be ostracized, a pariah in your town – but surprisingly, the majority of people seemed to accept it with very little backlash. You suppose that’s the closest to thanks that you’ll get for playing a part in saving your town from destruction, but you’ll take it.

More people do tend to keep their distance from you now, largely in part due to your lover’s fearsome reputation, but you don’t hold it against them.

They’ve started calling you Shaoha – Death Woman. Normally, it’s a derogatory name for a demon or witch, but you know they don’t mean it in that way, and you can’t help but find it fitting given the circumstances and your ties to the Death God himself.

You smile sadly in spite of yourself as you make your way through the forest trail towards Dabi’s temple, leaving the village behind you.

You dress mostly in black or deep blues these days, mourning the fact that you haven’t seen your god in years now. He promised you that he would eventually be back for you once he had healed, before you were old and gray, but you wished that he would have given you a rough estimation of how long that would take, because with each day that passes, you miss him more and more.

Your friends have started families of their own, and while you never had the urge to have children of your own, seeing them happy with their husbands makes you wish that Touya was here with you. Your friends give you sympathetic smiles, and try and comfort you best they can. While you’re grateful that they try, it’s not the same.

It’s strange: you’re surrounded by people who care for you, and yet; you feel more alone now then you ever did before.

You reach Dabi’s temple and push the doors open, finding a few people milling about, paying their respects inside, and the sight pleases you greatly. Ever since it was revealed that he had been behind the disappearance of the plague, the townspeople had started coming to the temple more frequently to pay homage to him. You’re glad that you had cleaned up the temple beforehand, even if it was just for you and him initially.

Several of the people take notice of you, and they quickly file out to allow you to do your daily inspection. After deeming everything to be orderly, you make your way back to your home, just as the sun is starting to disappear behind the tree-line.

You reach your house just as dusk has fallen, and you talk with your parents over dinner for a while before heading to bed. As grateful as you are for their company and their efforts to keep you occupied, the constant ache in your chest never fully dissipates, even when you aren’t alone.  

As you lay in bed, waiting for sleep to take you, you send out a silent goodnight to Touya, hoping that he can hear you, wherever he may be. Just as you have done every night for the last three years.

You hope that wherever he is, he knows how much you miss him.

You don’t remember falling asleep. You open your eyes again and your room is pitch black, letting you know that it’s the dead of night. For a moment, you lay there confused, wondering why you’ve woken up at a seemingly random time, only to realize that you feel different.

You don’t feel physically sick, and the sensation that is coursing through your body like liquid fire in your veins doesn’t feel ominous or wrong, but you suddenly have the intense urge to get up and leave. Like you have to go somewhere urgently.

Your forearm – the one that bears Touya’s mark – feels hot. You trace it absentmindedly, quietly musing that the last time it burned like that was when he gave it to you--

Something clicks in your sleep addled mind, and you slowly sit up and push the covers off of you as you stand. You get dressed in long, dark skirts, and throw a traveling cloak around your shoulders for good measure – knowing deep down that you won’t be coming back.

As you walk through the hallways of your dark home like a ghost, you crack open the door to your parents room to gaze fondly at their sleeping figures. You send them a silent I love you, before closing their door, thanking them for everything. You pad silently through your house until you reach the front door, and pull it open soundlessly, stepping out of it for the final time, before shutting it firmly behind you.

You don’t look back.

You feel like a wraith as you walk through the deserted streets of your town, taking in each and every shop as you pass. The bright, pale moonlight is your only source of light as you walk, and before you know it, you’re standing in front of Dabi’s temple.

The burning in your forearm has lessened considerably and you know this is exactly where you’re supposed to be. You step inside, and slowly make your way to the foot of the hooded god’s statue. You smile slightly and take a seat facing the entrance doors that you didn’t bother closing, allowing moonlight to spill into the dark temple. You sit and you wait. You vow that you’ll wait all night if you have to.

You don’t have to wait for long.

There’s a tell-tale flash of blue outside the temple and a blast of searing heat follows, before everything stills again. The sound of slow, deliberate footsteps approaching the temple makes your heartbeat quicken, and the tall silhouette of a man spills across the floor to where you’re sitting at the altar.

A familiar man dressed in white funeral shrouds enters the temple, and makes his way towards you. You can’t help but smile lovingly as you take him in. Even though he looks incredibly different from the last time you saw him, you’d recognize Touya anywhere.

Gone are the dark scars and staples that wreaked havoc on his skin. The man, the god, that stands before you, has skin as pale as snow, almost blending into the white of his shroud. He looks like he’s bathed in moonlight, with eyes as bright and blue and beautiful as the flames he wields. Upon closer inspection. you still see faint seams in his skin where his burns were previously. A remnant of his past life, and one that you find incredibly endearing.

He is not perfect, but neither are you. You selfishly think that maybe you were made for each other.

He stands before you, seemingly at a loss for words, but his deep turquoise eyes tell you everything you need to know. You, however, have quite a few things you want to say to him. So, you start with the obvious.

“I’ve missed you.” You tell him quietly, and he smiles, cerulean eyes looking sad.

“I know. But I’m here now, so that’s got to count for something right?”

“It means everything.” You confirm breathlessly as he cups your cheek, running his thumb across your soft skin. You shamelessly lean into his touch and watch as he smiles at you.

“Ready to go?”

You nod. “I’ve been ready for a long time. You kept me waiting long enough.”

He laughs, the sound deep and rich in your ears.

“I promise I’ll make it up to you. There are so many things I want to show you.” His free hand sneaks down and intertwines with yours. “I make good on my promises, you know.”

You give his hand a squeeze. “I do.”

His heart – the organ in his chest, that he was sure had stopped working after his fall from grace – thunders into irregularity in his chest. Now he’s sure that it beats for you, and you alone.

You, the first person in a long, long time, who’s made him feel something aside from hatred and scorn. The first person to see past the scars, the first one to see him at his worst and still show him unconditional love where others couldn’t, or wouldn’t.

He loves you, and he always will.

He lifts the hand that’s still laced with his, to his mouth and presses a kiss to the back of your knuckles, sending you a smile that makes you melt.

“Let’s go home.”

                                                         FIN

[poorly-drawn-puppet-history]

got some new brushes & its first saturday of pride. you know what that means............................

[koro-is-caffeinated]

SCREW THIS

*SEXYMANS YOUR GOD*

@poorly-drawn-puppet-history

Please do not mind the fact that I haven't drawn anything in weeks and this was done at 3:50 am on a drawing program I've never used before <3

[en8y]

deathgod + deathgoddess + deathdeity + deathgoddex

[IMAGE ID: four rectangular flags, each with horizontal lines that vary between being straight and wavy. all of the colors are different shades of dull purple, dull green, dull teal, and cool grey. there is a complicated symbol in the middle. END ID.]

deathgod: a gender relating to, or influenced by, death and being a god, being a death god, or a god of death.

deathgoddess: a gender relating to, or influenced by, death and being a goddess, being a death goddess, or a goddess of death.

deathdeity: a gender relating to, or influenced by, death and being a deity, being a death deity, or a deity of death.

deathgoddex: a gender relating to, or influenced by, death and being a goddex, being a death goddex, or a goddex of death.

[mogai-headcanons]

Death from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a queer aroacespec boyflux redgender deadthing deathkiss redeathic rivmorticayn freshkillic assoftmemoric decaytemasc rotfluid deathgod who uses he/him, hunt/hunts, kill/kills, death/deaths, reap/reaps, and sickle/sickles pronouns!

dni link

[w4t3rgun]

Felt silly, Drew this

God who is transfem and bigenderflux using She/They x Death who is transmasc and bigenderflux using He/They fr

[tatsugiriroll]

♣️ oogh

mutuals send me “♧“ and I’ll do this

You’re my: treasured mutual i will defend How I met you: PH fandom... u left me enthusiastic tags and that instantly won my loyalty Why I follow you: i am recently striving to be more social, so i thot i would try 2 make pals despite my fears of Being An Annoyance/Overbearing/Etc. u have cool interests n art so im more than happy 2 follow Your blog is: not beating the vampire allegations. also ur header is cool as shit, id definitely use it Your URL is: A Warning, Perhaps... /j Your icon is: pictures taken moments before disaster struck (handshake of liking puppets) A random fact I know about you: FELLOW WILL WOOD AND REANIMATOR/HORROR LIKER........ OUR BATTLE (theoretical collaboration) WILL BE LEGENDARY General opinion: VERY cool, definitely a MILS (mutual i'd like to support) A random thought I have: Idk if ur still doing ur lore bits but ur lore guy would Hate my lore guy, despite me Personally loving that asshole

[hattusha]

“Hehe”

Charon

[rowyn-25]

Thano from Among Gods

You can now read my comic up on my patreon

My art shop

[theycrydeath]

[missrosegold]

Thinking about trying my hand at writing a Merman!Dabi x reader fic for MerMay since said month is coming up. 

He’d be just as snarky and aloof as he is normally, just with gills and a tail instead of feet. He’d utilize wicked blue bioluminescence instead of fire, since I’m imagining that he comes from out in the deep sea, but is hanging around the shallows near the island that reader is vacationing on for unknown reasons. He and reader meet more so by accident, and I think he’s a bit... feral, when they first meet. 

I’m thinking I want to write this now.  

[poorly-drawn-puppet-history]

boquet for his sweetie sunday. yeah

theres a lot of things i want to kno in puppet history lore and one of them is why death is posed almost like some girl on a frank franzetta cover in the puzzle illustration. look. this isnt hetero behavior

[milolol]

GODS!!!! and stuff

[pi-peeppeep-pi]

I KEEP ON FORGETTING TO POST HERE, BUT HERE IS THIS GOD

[serpentandlily]

Arcane - Azriel x Reader

Azriel x DeathGod!Reader

Summary: Azriel never thought he’d find his mate, was convinced the Mother hadn’t even given him one because he was unworthy. That is, until he stumbles upon his mate while looking for the most unusual ally.

Based on this request.

Warnings: very brief illusion to past SA

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

“We’ve exhausted all our options,” Rhys declared, dropping his head into his hands. “I’m afraid another war is on the horizon. Koschei cannot be dealt with alone.”

“I don’t understand. The weaver and the bone carver were able to be killed,” Cassian interjected. “Why is it impossible for us to find a way to kill Koschei?”

“It took the might of the cauldron to defeat them,” Rhys explained.

“Well, then let’s ask Miriam and Drakon if we can use the cauldron,” Cassian replied, giving the obvious answer.

“It would be no use,” Feyre sighed. “I destroyed the book. We’d have no idea how to cast the spell the King of Hybern used that day. And we risk Koschei, himself, getting his hands on the cauldron.”

“There’s got to be another way,” Mor chimed in. “Something, someone, that could be as powerful as the sorcerer himself. He wasn’t the only God that found their way to Prythian.”

“Most of them are locked up in the Prison,” Rhys said. “And the Prison would not allow us to free any of them even if we wanted to.”

“Az, how has your search for Bryaxis been going?” Feyre asked.

“Not good,” Azriel answered honestly. “It’s like that thing disappeared from Prythian entirely.”

The room was silent for a moment until Amren sat up straight. “Wait, there is someone we could go to for help. As a last resort.”

Rhys lifted his head, staring at her with a heavy resolve. “No, absolutely not. It is too dangerous.”

“You said it yourself, we’re out of options!”

“What are you two talking about?” Feyre asked, looking between them.

Rhys let out a long breath. “Bryaxis…had a sibling. If you could even call her that. Someone who also came from wherever he slipped through from.”

“And why haven’t you mentioned this before?” Mor asked with a glare, crossing her arms.

“Because,” Rhys started. “Like I said, it’s too dangerous to get into contact with her. She’s…well, to be honest, no one really knows much about her. She keeps herself in a dark cave somewhere in the middle. Likes the darkness as much as Bryaxis does.”

“If no one knows much about her, then how do you know she’s dangerous?” Feyre asked. “Everyone was scared of Bryaxis until I went down there and was helped by it.”

“I’ve been told stories of her from my father,” Rhys explained. “How in the past, long before any of us were born, she could cause the fall of entire armies. Could level any court into rubble and dust.”

“And if that’s true, then doesn’t it speak to her character that she hasn’t done any of that? Maybe she is good of heart,” Mor suggested.

“We’re out of options, Rhys,” Amren said. “She might be our last hope.”

“Fine,” Rhys sighed. “I guess we better get ready for a trip to the middle.”

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

“Alright, maybe this was a bad idea.”

Azriel glanced at Cassian to see him frowning as they stood in front of the dark cave. It was just him, Cass and Rhys who had come here to try and find this creature to ask for help. But it seemed Cassian was already losing his nerve.

“I tried to tell you,” Rhys muttered under his breath. “Azriel, can you scout ahead with your shadows?”

As soon as those words left Rhysand’s mouth, Azriel’s shadows darted ahead, trailing into the cave in a flurry. Azriel’s eyes widened as he was left standing completely bare, exposed. Not a single shadow had stayed with him, which was unusual. He tried to brush it off, tried to hide how uncomfortable he felt without them.

They waited expectantly but his shadows never returned. Azriel’s brows furrowed in confusion.

“I can’t call them back,” he said to his two brothers watching him. “They aren’t listening to me.”

“That’s…unusual,” Rhysand said, stroking his jaw.

Nothing more was said as the darkness in the cave seemed to grow and grow, almost extending out towards them despite the sun overhead.

“Who are you?”

The feminine voice was sensual yet sweet, playful almost. Nothing like he had been expecting. It struck something inside of Azriel, making his chest ache. Rhysand stood up straight, switching from brother to the High Lord in a mere second.

“I am Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court,” Rhys answered, plucking a piece of lint from his coat. “If my sources are right, I believe you are y/n, sister of Bryaxis.”

“That I am,” the voice answered. “Why are you here? No one ever dares come here.”

Those words might’ve seemed like a threat, but her tone was light, curious.

“We’ve come to beg a boon,” Rhysand answered honestly. “There is another Death God who threatens war. We have been unable to stop his efforts.”

“Nobody has ever asked for my help before,” the voice said back in that same curious tone. “And what of Bryaxis. Will they help as well?”

“Bryaxis…Bryaxis was freed by my High Lady. We have been unable to find them.”

A step in the darkness. Another. Light footsteps came closer and closer to the edge of the cave. Azriel’s heart rate picked up, his hand falling to truth-teller. Cassian’s face was white and he looked ready to flee.

“You are afraid.”

It was not a question. Just a statement. But Rhysand answered it like it was.

“Bryaxis is made of nightmares,” he explained. “Something so terrifying to us. Perhaps you do not see it the same way but I imagine you are much the same and that is why we are…nervous.”

A laugh. A light, lilting laugh. Something sparked in Azriel’s chest.

“Me and Bryaxis are not made of the same thing, but opposite. A balance for our world,” the voice said. “Bryaxis is made of nightmares but I am made of dreams.

“Then why do you hide in the shadows?” The question came out of Azriel’s mouth before he even realized he was speaking. He could see his own shadows now, twirling in the darkness as if they were home.

“When we were captured, Bryaxis caused them fear so they were locked below the earth.” Her voice was sadder now, more serious and Azriel found himself hating that. “But I-I caused them…something different than fear. So they kept me locked in their bed chambers for decades, centuries, until I was able to escape. But then I learned those that did not desire me, feared me instead for the same reason. I was either caged or hunted. That is why I hide here.”

A shiver ran down Azriel’s spine. His face hardened at what she was implying. The fae who had captured the two Gods had locked one beneath the library and had used the other for…He felt sick to his stomach.

“If you are to help us,” Rhysand spoke, “I can promise you that we have no intention of keeping you locked up at all.”

“I do not trust the fae. Bind your words to magic and perhaps I will help you in return.”

“What is it that you want from us?”

It was silent for a moment, as if she were pondering.

“A place to stay. A place to live. Somewhere safe from being hunted or kept as a prisoner. A chance to live in this world, outside of this cave. To get to experience all that you do. That is what I wish for.”

Azriel knew that wish. Knew it all too well. For it was one he had for years while being locked in his father’s dungeon. So maybe that is why he found himself stepping closer to the cave, found himself unafraid of the darkness that had captured his own shadows.

Maybe that was why those words slipped out of his mouth before he could think of the repercussions, before he could be held back by one of his brothers.

“I will promise you that, y/n. I will promise you the opportunity to experience life outside of this cage, outside of the darkness.”

He could feel the heavy stares from his brothers on his back but he didn’t turn around, didn’t look anywhere but that darkness, even though he felt so exposed without his shadows.

Another footstep.

And another.

Until a figure began to emerge from the darkness, finally stepping into the light.

Azriel’s breathed hitched, his eyes widening in surprise. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but it hadn’t been this.

Because before him now stood the most beautiful female he had ever seen. The type of beauty only a Goddess could possess. The type of beauty that had his head spinning, had his heart palpitating in his chest.

She smiled and he felt the whole world pause in that moment. It was a sight that would bring any male to his knees. A sight that could start wars.

She held out a small, delicate hand.

“Then I will help you, shadowsinger,” she said.

He mindlessly took her hand in his, shaking it as the sting of magic burned on both of their skin forming a bargain tattoo on the inner wrist. He looked down at it to see what the magic had created out of their promise to each other.

Swirls of shadows with a small lunar moth emerging at the end. A creature that sought light, finally leaving the darkness.

When he met her eyes again, those beautiful expressive eyes, he stumbled back a step. Stumbled as a golden thread unwound itself in his chest and pierced straight through the universe to the female standing before him.

⋆˙⟡☾𖤓☽ ⟡˙⋆

The battle lasted thirty-seven days. Koschei was defeated, the females he had spelled were freed. Beron had been exposed for helping him and was killed by Eris finally, bringing a new leader to Autumn.

And things were finally at peace.

“What are these again?”

Your index finger poked at the spongy thing on your plate. It smelled sweet, good. And it was warm to the touch. You glanced up to see the shadowsinger watching you, amused.

“Those are pancakes,” Azriel answered with a chuckle.

“Pancakes,” you repeated, slowly, testing the word on your tongue. “I thought cakes were desserts. Not breakfast.”

“They are a bit different from cake. Made in a pan instead of baked in the oven, hence the name,” Azriel explained.

You hummed in response, taking a bite out of one of the pancakes. “Hm, just as sweet as cake.”

“I might’ve added a bit more sugar than normal to them,” Azriel said, rubbing the back of his neck. “To satisfy that raging sweet tooth of yours.”

Your cheeks heated, that ticklish feeling in your stomach came again. A feeling you had never felt before this month and still had yet to make sense of. It made something in your chest ache when you looked at Azriel.

“You made these?”

Azriel nodded. “Someone slept through breakfast with the others.”

Your cheeks turned even redder.

“You should’ve woken me up,” you muttered before stuffing more bits of pancake into your mouth.

“You deserve to rest, y/n.” Azriel was still watching you with that little glint in his eyes. “After everything, you deserve to rest.”

Since coming to Velaris to help with Koschei, Azriel had been the one to show you around, to help you learn the customs of the fae. He had so much patience for you and your endless amounts of questions.

The others had helped you as well, had welcomed you into their home with open arms, but there was just something special about Azriel. You felt some sort of pull towards him. As if the darkness inside of you called to his.

He was beautiful, more than any God or male you’d ever seen before. And beneath his icy exterior, he was sweet and kind. Thoughtful. Witty.

You enjoyed being with the others but you preferred times like this, when it was just the two of you. He was less shy, more at ease, when it was just you. And something about that made you happy.

Seeing him smile, even when it was just the faintest expression, brought you joy like you’ve never felt before.

And Gods, he brought out so many emotions you had not felt in a very long time, some you hadn’t even known you could feel. You had begun to crave his presence. Desire it. You wondered if he felt the same.

“Did you still want to come with me to the city today?”

Azriel’s voice pulled you from your thoughts. That’s right, Azriel had cryptically told you he needed to pick something up from Velaris today. When you had asked him what he was getting, he had refused to answer.

“Yes, I would like to.”

“We’ll leave as soon as you’re ready.”

An hour later, you found yourself in Azriel’s arms, flying down to the city. Your heart was pounding in your chest at how closely he held you, like he was afraid you’d suddenly fall from his arms. You kept your own arms around his neck, playing with the ends of his hair.

You still remembered the few hours after the last battle. The showdown with Koschei had left you depleted, covered in wounds, but otherwise okay. Still, Azriel had burst into your tent with panicked eyes and only seemed to be calmed when you had let him tend to you like a mother hen.

You didn’t know what to make of his behavior. But you did know that being in his arms made you feel safe.

“Can we get more of those honey mooncakes on the way back?” you asked, trying to distract yourself from the ticklish feeling in your stomach again.

Azriel laughed, his chest rumbling against your body as he tightened his grip on you. “That sweet tooth of yours really is insatiable.”

“I didn’t get to finish mine from last time,” you said in defense for yourself. “Cassian got to them before me!”

“Well, next time tell Cassian to go get his own,” Azriel said. His breath ghosted against the tip of your ear, causing a trail of goosebumps on your skin. “I buy them for you, not him.”

Once again, you found yourself with red cheeks and a swelling heart. Ever since he had discovered your sweet tooth, Azriel had a habit of leaving sweet treats out for you. At first, he found it hilarious that a Death Goddess craved pastries of all things. But now he found it just downright adorable.

When the two of you returned to the House of Wind, you found Feyre and Mor waiting for you. You barely got out a small goodbye to Azriel before they were pulling you away, telling you it was time to start getting ready for the night.

Tonight was Starfall. Something you hadn’t seen in centuries. The girls helped you get ready as day turned to dusk and finally night.

“Come on, we’re going to be late,” Mor giggled, leading all of you out of the room and up to the main balcony. You could already hear the crowd and the music.

You felt nervous as you reached the top, your eyes instantly darting around to find that one person you were always looking for these days.

Azriel stood with Rhysand and Cassian, dressed in all black, finely tailored pants and a matching coat. He looked handsome, yet still beautifully lethal. The darkness and light bounced off the elegant planes of his face, causing his hazel eyes to glow golden.

When he caught sight of you, those eyes widened and you felt them roam your entire body. You’d always hated being looked at in such a way, but not with Azriel. Never with him.

In fact, you found yourself getting heated under his stare.

Rhysand and Cassian moved to their respective mates, leaving you to greet Azriel alone. He took your hand in his, pressing a gentle kiss to your knuckles.

“You are stunning,” he whispered. “Absolutely stunning. Happy Starfall.”

You blushed. “Thank you.”

Azriel gave you a rare smile that had your heart pounding. You peered at the crowd, watching the faeries enjoying their evening. Azriel stood with you, his fingers brushing against yours in a comforting gesture. He knew you weren’t the biggest fan of crowds, not when your presence was met with so many stares of both fear and desire.

“What are they doing?” You looked at the crowd of faeries that seemed to all be paired off, moving to the music from the band.

Azriel’s lips twitched, like they always did when you asked him a question like this. “They’re dancing.”

“Dancing,” you repeated. The word sounded familiar, like something you had known in a past life. You had spent so many years in that cave, you had turned into a mere shadow of who you used to be.

“Would you like to dance?”

Azriel had turned to look down at you, running a hand through his hair. His shadows curled around his wings.

“I don’t think I know how,” you whispered.

He held out his hand to you. “That’s alright. You can follow me lead.”

You bit your lip but decided to take his hand. He had promised you a chance of experiencing the world as it should be. He hadn’t led you astray yet.

He pulled you to the dance floor and you mimicked the other pairs, keeping one hand in his and placing the other on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around your waist, yanking you closer to him.

The music started up again and Azriel began to lead you through the dance. It was easier than you thought it would be or perhaps he was just a good lead. Still, it wasn’t long before you were smiling and being twirled around in his arms.

You danced like that for a while, basking in the feeling. The soft music, the laughter, the gentle faelights above you. You had never felt so alive. And it was all thanks to the male who held you in his arms.

A slower song came on, some pairs leaving the dance floor. You looked around in question until you realized the pairs who had remained held a more intimate position. You copied them, placing your arms around Azriel’s neck.

Both of his arms wrapped around you now, resting on your lower back.

“Is this okay?” He leaned down to whisper in your ear.

You nodded, letting him drag you even closer until your bodies were pressed together. The dress you were wearing was thin and you could feel all of him through it. His hard chest, his sculpted muscles.

Azriel swallowed audibly, swaying you gently to the music. You laid your head on his chest, letting him rest his chin on top of your head. Every inch of you that touched him was on fire.

You closed your eyes for a moment, just letting yourself feel this, embrace it. You’d never felt like this before. So warm and light. It felt like it was just you and him that existed.

That is until you opened your eyes. You suddenly felt overwhelmed as you noticed lingering stares. A lot of them. You felt uncomfortable under the weight of them.

“What’s wrong?”

Azriel had some sort of sixth sense when it came to you. He always seemed to know what you were feeling before you said anything.

“Everyone’s looking at me,” you muttered under your breath, staring up at him.

He raised his head, looking around with narrowed eyes. That caused most of them to look away, not wanting to risk the shadowsinger’s wrath.

“Come on,” Azriel whispered. “I know somewhere we can go that’s more private.”

He enveloped you in his shadows until you were stepping out of the darkness and into a rounded alcove somewhere else on the balcony. Vines dangled down from the roof, trailing down the pillars holding it up.

You stepped forward, placing your hands against the stone railing. You could see the crowd below, the one you had just been in. Still hear the music and still see the night sky. You turned to face Azriel.

“Thank you,” you said. “I-I just hate it when they stare. Like I’m some weird creature.”

Azriel stalked forward until he was right in front of you, so close you had to tilt your head up to look him in the eyes.

“They don’t stare at you because they think you’re weird,” Azriel replied. “They stare at you because you are beautiful.”

His hand rose and brushed a strand of hair behind your ear. Your heart skipped a beat. Your mouth parted to say something but a roar of cheers cut you off. You whirled around to see thousands and thousands of stars beginning to soar through the sky.

Your mouth dropped open. It was more beautiful than you remembered. The stars kept falling and falling, like cascading fireworks. So bright and breathtaking. You couldn’t stop the small laugh that escaped your mouth, standing on your tippy toes to lean over the balcony as if you’d be able to reach the stars.

An arm circled your waist and Azriel’s front was pressed against your back as he held onto you.

“Careful,” he whispered in your ear, scared you were going to tip right over the edge and fall down the steep mountain.

“So beautiful,” you murmured, staring up at the stars. “Oh, it’s so much better than I remembered it from all those years ago.”

“It never stops amazing me,” Azriel said. “No matter how many times I watch it.”

You both watched in silence for a little longer, letting the music and laughter and cheers fill the space. Eventually, you turned in his arms, now pressed against the railing.

“Thank you,” you said again, “for bringing me here.”

“Anything for you,” Azriel whispered, raising a hand to rest on your cheek. His eyes were filled with a reverence that stole your breath away.

A brush of magic zipped by in the air and you gasped, raising up your wrist. The tattoo was gone. The bargain had been fulfilled. You had defeated Koschei and Azriel had given you the opportunity to live a life more than you had dreamed. That chance at life was in your hands now.

“The tattoo is gone,” you said, grasping his arm and pulling back his sleeve.

Your eyes widened to see his tattoo still there. The lunar moth emerging from the swirls of shadow.

“Wha—”

“I got it tattooed,” Azriel cut in. “Permanently.”

You glanced up at him in question. “Why?”

“Because I always want a reminder of what I promised you,” he said, his thumb stroking your cheek. “What I still promise you, y/n. A life worth living. I want to continue showing you the world, to be there when you experience new things.”

You were speechless. Completely, utterly speechless.

No one had ever shown such devotion to you, such care and love. Your heart swelled up, your chest ached.

“Azriel,” you stuttered out. “I-I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything,” he replied. “I was trapped in the darkness once too. I know what that’s like and I never want you to fall back into it. I don’t need anything from you, just the chance to be there with you while you learn, while you feel.”

Something was building inside of you, building and building until it was ready to break out. You rubbed at your chest, at the unusual feeling.

“I feel this…I feel this thing inside,” You said, gesturing to your chest. “Do you know what this is? Do you know why I feel this way?”

Azriel grabbed your hand and placed it on his chest, in the exact same spot yours ached.

“It is the mating bond,” Azriel answered, softly. “I feel it too. Right here. I have since the day I met you.”

His shadows swirled around like they had been waiting for this. You felt your own darkness rise in response until the two had joined together, watching together from the dark crevices.

“A mating bond,” you repeated.

Something snapped the moment you said it out loud. As if a question you had been asking your whole life had finally been answered. A gold thread was woven between the two of you, a beacon of light in the darkness. A place for that moth to call home.

You gasped looking back up at Azriel. Now that you recognized the bond, it grew more taut. You stumbled closer to him, fisting his coat in your hands.

“A mate,” you whispered. “You're my mate. I..I didn’t even know Gods could have mates.”

“Say it again.” Azriel’s voice was as dark as the shadows. A shiver ran down your spine.

“Huh?”

“Say it. Say that I’m your mate again.”

“You’re my mate,” you whispered, looking up at him through your lashes. “My mate.”

A quiet whine came from the back of Azriel’s throat that sent heat between your legs. Your eyes widened. A muscle in his jaw clenched. The air around you was charged and you felt like you had been set on fire.

“And you are mine,” Azriel growled. “My mate.”

His possessive tone only made that heat grow. Your lips parted, a small breath leaving your lungs. His eyes glanced down to your lips, hungrily. You gave him the smallest dip of the head, the permission he was waiting for.

Azriel surged forward and crashed his lips against yours. You stumbled, your backside hitting the stone railing behind you. You met his vigor with your own.

His lips were soft and warm. And his kiss felt like heaven and hell all mixed in one.

He groaned as you deepened the kiss, tilting your head back to give him more access. You yanked him closer, wanting to feel him everywhere. You never craved someone as much as you craved him.

His tongue swiped your bottom lip and you opened for him, letting him claim your mouth. His scent was intoxicating, he tasted like pure sin. You could drown yourself in him.

Your hands trailed up from his chest to circle around his neck. His own hands were holding you by the waist, pulling your hips into his. They traveled down your thighs until he was lifting you up, seating you on the stone railing, never pulled away from your kiss.

You parted your legs, letting Azriel step even closer as he finally pulled away, trailing kisses down your jaw to your neck. You whimpered at the feeling of his canines grazing the sensitive skin.

His nose traced the column of your throat before he rested his forehead against yours. You were both panting, both completely lost within each other.

“Wait,” Azriel breathed out, squeezing his eyes shut for a second. “I got you something. I don’t want to forget to give it to you.”

Because he would. He would forget his own name as long as the sweet scent of your arousal filled the air. Would forget the whole world existed if you kept staring at him like you were.

He pulled a small black box from his pocket, handing it over to you.

You opened it, gasping at the beautiful ring displayed inside. It was made of gold with a mesmerizing amethyst gem in the shape of a teardrop, accentuated by crescent moons on both sides and tiny stars.

“Azriel,” you breathed out. “This is beautiful.”

A small smile ghosted his lips.

“May I?”

You held out your hand and he pulled the ring out of the box before sliding it onto your ring finger. It was the perfect fit. You admired it, twisting it under the faelights to see the gem glow.

“It’s perfect,” you sighed.

“I had it made just for you,” Azriel said. “It’s what I had to pick up in the city today.”

“I-I really don’t know what to say, Azriel.”

Azriel rested his forehead against yours. “Just say it again. Tell me you feel this too. I’ve been searching for you for over five hundred years now and I just need to hear you say it. Again and again. Until I can wrap my head around it. Until I realize I’m not dreaming.”

You smiled, lifting up to press a small kiss against his lips. Your heart fluttered in your chest at his words, at the realization of why exactly the bargain had been fulfilled. You had asked for someplace to be safe, for a home, a chance to live. Azriel was giving you all of that and more.

“You are my mate. And I am yours,” you murmured against his lips. You pulled back to look him in the eyes. “All I’ve ever wanted was to find somewhere to call home. Being with you, being in your arms—that feels like home to me, Azriel. The one I’ve been looking for my whole life.”

Azriel’s eyes searched yours, as if he was trying to find the lie in your words. But there was none. Of course there was none. You were falling in love with him.

“Does this mean you want it?”

“It means I want you. I want all of you, everything.”

Azriel smiled and the sight nearly blew you away. You giggled as he held you close to him, buried his face in the crook of your neck. He kissed your throat once, twice.

“Then I think we’re due for a long vacation,” he murmured against your skin.

You knew what he was referring to. The frenzy that would come with this. Just that thought alone caused a tantalizing ache between your thighs.

“I think so too,” you whispered back as Azriel pressed kisses up your neck and jaw.

He held your face in his hands, his thumbs brushing against your skin as he stared into your eyes. His gaze was filled with so much promise, so much love. And then he kissed you again and everything felt right in the world. You were home.