The War// Dabi x OC

Chapter 6

Dabi

"What do I need to know?" Reiki asked, quietly. Dabi hesitated. "Dabi?" Reiki nudged her head against his.

"My...real name is Touya. Touya Todoroki," Dabi said. "The firstborn son of Endeavor." Reiki blinked.

"You aren't joking, I can tell." Dabi bit his lower scared lip and nodded. "Want to tell me why you ran away?" He sighed and hugged her tighter.

"I loved that man once. I adored him. I wanted to be just like him," Dabi shakes his head as he thinks of the man he was supposed to call father. "He beat me every fucking day of my life. He pushed my body past its breaking point until I threw up. And when I did throw up from his beatings, he would just hit me even harder for being weak. I cried every night! It was what he made me believe went into being a hero, and I wanted that. I wanted to be a hero because I wanted to be something to him. So, when he found out that my quirk was burning me, suddenly he stopped. And all those beatings, all those nights crying and building myself back up again were for nothing. He instilled in me that I had to be a hero to be worth something. That I was nothing if I wasn't a hero. And then, suddenly, despite how much I tried and everything that I wanted, I was nothing to him.

When he deemed me insufficient, he went to my mother to breed him for another experiment," Dabi shut his eyes and rested his head in the crook of Reiki's neck. He took a couple of deep breaths, trying to shake the memory away. But the memory was still as clear as day. "It was the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep. I tried talking to Natsu, but he was already out. I decided to get some water and go outside for some fresh air- figuring it would be good for me."

He swallows hard, "I remember hearing a commotion down the hall and I thought someone was breaking into the home. I thought 'Now's my chance to show my old man just how much of a hero I can be. I'd take down the thief and there'd be no way he'd deny training me.'" Reiki could only sit there shocked. Dabi is lost in the memories of that night as he relives it again. Dabi shamefully admits and Reiki's eyes water and tears fall down her cheeks at the retelling. She thinks about Dabi, young and confused as he watched his father rape his mother before his very eyes. "I didn't do anything, I just sat there and watched, while she looked at me with tears streaming down her cheeks. That's when he finally noticed me. He got off her and approached the door. Hell," Dabi exhales while shaking his head. "I thought he was going to kill me. He looked so angry but he didn't. He just grabbed the door, looked down on me like I was nothing, and said 'go back to sleep.'"

He nuzzled Reiki closer as she felt his bloody tears stream down her shoulder. She reached up and ran a hand through his hair. His fingers dug into the skin on her shoulders, it hurt but Reiki didn't care. "He slammed the door shut. And then Shoto was born nine months later. Dad showed me what love really was when he refused to look at me after his Quirk developed. I didn't just learn love from him. No, I learned what love was from Natsu too. When my concerns weren't enough for him. When he ignored me and my cries for help because I had become a burden to him. Because I was too exhausting to listen to.

I tried to talk to him about Dad, and how it was destroying me that he didn't give me the time of day anymore, and he pawned me off and told me to talk to Fuyumi. Fuyumi was equally to blame, brushing everything under the rug and pretending we were the perfect family. She was lost in her fantasy that everything was okay, and nothing was falling apart around her. She was so trapped in it that she never even noticed how much pain I was in.

Or Mom? A mother's love is unconditional they tell you. Not mine... Because that woman acted like nothing happened that night when I watched my father overpower her. She pretended as though all was fine, and never even once addressed what I saw happen to her. And when that fucking child was born, she looked at me like I was a monster when I turned my flames to her Shoto, I was a child!

I was crying out for help! And how did she respond? She sheltered father's favorite, and closed the doors on the rest of us! She never held me like that. Never sheltered me from his abuse! But what the fuck did I expect? That I could be someone's hero? That for once I was fucking enough for someone?" Dabi's voice cracks as if he were going to cry, but his tear ducts are long gone. Reiki twisted in his arms to bury her face in his chest. She was sobbing at that point and then again he was too.

"You're enough," Reiki wailed. "You're enough for me." She looked up at him, his turquoise eyes were still glossed over with so so much grief, fear, suffering, hate, and rage. "Know that, please." Dabi rested his forehead against hers.

"I know that now. I knew it after I met you." A small weak and sad smile crept its way onto his face.

"You're not alone anymore." I know, Reiki. I know that now. You helped me so much. I love you so much for that. You, Sakura, Shigaraki, Toga, Twice, Spinner, Compress, Kurogiri, Magne, Eri, you all showed me that. You all showed me that I'm enough for all of you. "I-I love you."

"I love you too." Dabi pulled her into a kiss. She kissed him back. That's when he felt it. The first time he felt loved by someone. He pulled away so he could stare into her eyes. "Are you going to tell me about your past?" Reiki opened her mouth to tell him but closed it a second later.

"I want to but..." She leaned away to bury her face in his chest. "I can't... maybe it's because...I've never told anyone this before." Dabi hugged Reiki.

"Tell me when you're ready."

"Okay."

"One question."

"Hm?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?" Reiki looked up at him.

"Yes!"