Love's Flame {Shoto Todoroki x Reader}

Chapter Twenty-Four

(Listen to the song after chapter. You'll find out in the A/N why)

*Shoto's POV*

Three weeks. 

Three weeks I've been in this hell. Arresting, beating, killing. Arresting, beating, killing. Arresting, beating, killing. It was a never-ending cycle and I couldn't escape. 

I'd locked myself in the King's office. It was my safe haven from the chaos the door led to. In here, I was able to keep myself from running away and getting (Y/N) executed. But even in this place, I couldn't constantly get away from the darkness outside. 

"Sir," someone said as they walked in. It was a housemaid. "We have some people to deal with. A family."

"What'd they do?" I ask. I perched in the chair, clenching my fists. 

She sighed, glancing away. "They rebelled against your system in the Capital." 

I lingered quietly. The maid left without another word. I resented myself for what I've done. I always wanted peace between all the kingdoms. Bloodshed is distasteful and heartbreaking. Yet, I've disrupted that wanted harmony to the point of no return. 

I stand and travel to the torture room. There's a family of four. A father and mother with their children, one a girl and the other a boy. The girl seemed to be fifteen and the boy ten. The kids resembled much of their parents. The boy had young, the child-like feature of his fathers, but the chestnut hair and stem green eyes. The girl was vice-versa. Blonde with a lighter green set of optics. They seemed like a pleasant and peaceful family. 

But the sight I was fronting wasn't. The girl was on her knees in front of a soldier with a whip. The rest of the family were being blocked by the other men. The whip was at the ready. "Please, don't hurt her!" he stepped in front of her. The boy ended up getting hit in his left eye. He cried out and raised his cuffed hands to cover it. Surprisingly, he still was standing. 

The fighter went in for other.

"Son, no!" his father ran toward him but was kicked down by a guard. The wife didn't dare move when a sword's tip reached her. 

I held my arm out, freezing the soldier. They withdrew. 

"Have mercy on her!" he defended. A soldier stepped aside from my arm and gave the boy a slap. The others pulled him back. He waved them off and retained his composure.  

The sister desperately crawled and clutched his shirt. "What are you doing?! This isn't one of your books!" she wailed. "Don't be the hero..." 

He gave his elder sister a smile and patted her dirty blonde hair. Some of the blood on his face got tangled in it. "It'll be okay, Aneko. I'm gonna protect you, momma and pa." he faced us bravely. "Torture me. Not her." he offered. "Wouldn't it be more satisfying to hurt those who stand up to the torture? I bet I'm the first to do so." he gave a grin. But I noticed the underneath the tough layer was a begging boy. Pleading to spare his sister. 

"You are. And this makes all the more fun!" a soldier was drooling with eagerness to brutalize the kid. "Prince, do I have your permission?!"

Shoto couldn't face the family as he signed in agreement. The soldier smirked. A female guard pulled the sister apart. 

"NO! Unhand me! Don't do this, PLEASE! He's just a boy!" Aneko held onto him for dear life. "I reject his offer! I won't allow it!" 

"SHUT UP!" the guard struck her in the head. The blow causes Aneko to let go. She hauled Aneko away. 

But she wasn't done yet. Her nails burrowed into the ground. "NOOOOOO!" Aneko was weeping so laborious I swore she had no tears left and cried oblivion.