Chapter Text
God, why is this happening? Why did he have to get kidnapped by Dabi of all people? He’s just torturing him for some kind of sick twisted kick. He just loooves to belittle heroes, so much so that he’s willing to strip a 15-year-old and humiliate him. This was all wrong. Going home is the only thing that he can think about. And taking a nice bath in his own house, in safety with his family there and most importantly, away from this place.
He was still shaking, the world was blurry and shaking like he was on a crazy merry go round. The soap bottle was on the floor next to the bathtub but he couldn’t get it, too afraid that he’d fall down. But he has to get it, he wants the sticky feeling to go away. So he tries his very best to make sure that his balance is stable. He put one of his hands on the rim of the bathtub and bent over for the bottle. Then his hand slipped making him fall into the bath. Fed up with it all, he just leaned completely over, quickly grabbed it and fell back into the water.
He was sure that his falling was supposed to hurt, however, everything is just a haze, it feels a bit like a dream, to be honest. If only.
When could he get to go back home? Sometimes he will look back to this, and be glad that it’ll all be over. One day.
How much school work will he miss? Hopefully not enough to set him back a grade. The class that he managed to get was incredible. So many people that he could rely on. Those types of people aren’t just right around the corner. And even the B class were living it. All of them would become competent heroes one day. Some of them would have an interesting journey that Shouto would like to see. Especially Midoriya. He’s a weird one for sure. At the start, he didn’t really think much of him. Just some wimpy kid that happened to make it in. Statistically, it was bound to happen someday. Nothing to really bother about. When the physical tests were taken on the first day it threw him for a loop. Usually, this would be an introductory day, however, given what school he was in it kind of made sense in its odd way. His eyes were on two people, Yaoyorozu and Bakugou. So when Midoriya rolled around he just ignored him for the majority of the time. Then, his fight with Bakugou changed that. He was like All Might. The pillar of hope and admiration. The one that showed everyone what a hero should be like. Naturally, his immediate decision was to challenge him. It wasn’t soon after that he learned just how closed-minded he was.
When starting school he never imagined that something like that could ever happen. Having friends that he could truly rely on, and those who could do the same for him. It's nice. He misses them. When he gets back he's gonna go to karaoke with others more often, and he's not going to shelter himself so much. He's gonna ask Fuyumi how to relax and how to teach so that he can help others. It's gonna be fun. Real fun.
He had cleaned himself so many times now. Some might say far too many, but in his mind, he needed it. Some parts still felt sticky and even though his hair was squeaky clean, it felt as if though it was made out of wax. Now Shouto was exhausted, there was a want to relax however his body felt so tense. It would probably hurt to unwind. Although it seems as if though the day that will happen is so far away. There was goo in his throat and it felt disgustingly sweet. His pounding headache hasn't fully left since the day he arrived here. The marks on his wrists still sting, it felt like it was on fire. Which is most likely the most ironically cruel thing that Dabi could have done to him.
All of a sudden, the door opened up without warning and the familiar dark man appeared. Before Shouto knew it he was being dragged out of the bathroom and towards the door by the stairs. Dabi ripped it open and just kept on pulling the schoolboy along.
"Stop! Let go!" The boy shouted as loud as he could. Still hoping in his heart that someone might hear him.
Shouto wasn't wearing any clothes, and although Dabi hasn't so much as glanced at him, the fact that this was happening was sickening. The struggle between Dabi, his physical and mental condition as well as his dignity and himself was all too much. The temptation to kick the man anywhere was great, but he didn't want another punishment. He needed to choose his battles wisely.
"Do you hear me!?" Todoroki shouted. "Let go of me!"
Dabi had hauled him from one end of the house to the other. They were approaching a nice looking door which leads to the second bathroom in the house. Which strangely enough had a washing machine in it. It was silently humming away and doing its work.
Now Dabi let go, a giant handprint went over Shouto's wrist. He pulled the hand towards himself defensively and glared at the man for a second only to turn around to make a run for it.
It might have been his stressed brain that misinterpreted the way that the world worked. But he could have sworn that Dabi was at least two meters away from him when Shouto had turned around. Yet somehow, he was right there and locked the door.
"So what?" The young boy scowled. "This is my new prison? Huh? You're so pissed off that you are trying to deprive me of the 'luxuries' that I had before, is it?"
Dabi simply stared at him. It was strange, to say the least. His eyes didn't contain the fury that was present a few days ago. It didn't contain the giddy joy that a sick sadist would have in this situation. It was just, blank, vacant. Like a robot. Not even assessing the boy or checking for additional scars out of pure curiosity.
He was waiting. For what?
Shouto looked around. There were several wooden shelves lined in a column with towels neatly placed on top of each other. A shower connected with a bath that had sliding doors frosted glass. And on the toilet was a pile of clothes.
Did he want to make sure that he wasn't up to any funny business? Really? As if though he could do anything in his current state.
Shouto went over to the pile and picked out the underwear. Scarily enough it fits perfectly, they were his size. The next thing though surprised him, there were three different pants. Jeans, sloppies and chinos. When looking to the pile once more he could see that there were five sets of shirts and two different cardigans.
What? Why? They were all the same size, so it wasn't like Dabi was unsure of what size he had. Why give him the freedom of choice here?
It was a bait. But for what? What did Dabi want? Is this what he was waiting for. To see if he took it? But what was it? These are just clothes.
Shouto turned each piece of clothing inside out and back and inspected every inch of the material. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just ordinary clothes.
Was he trying to make him go paranoid? Or doubt himself?
That's what he was waiting for? To see me freak out? Shouto looked back at the villain. Nothing had changed. One would think that it was a statue, the way he stood perfectly still.
Shouto put his clothes on while staring Dabi directly in the eye. To not back down. After he had put the jeans, t-shirt and cardigan on the man opened the door and stood alongside it.
Understanding the gesture he walked out of the room and felt a grip pull behind on his new clothes.
He let out a noise of surprise, although it was more like a whimper, and was roughly placed onto a chair and cuffed. This time it was only his right hand, and there was a chain on it that went underneath the table. He pushed the chair back and leaned down to see where it was connected to. It wasn't connected to anything. In fact, the chain went into the table. It was made of some kind of wood. However, it was far too thick to ever break.
Shouto got out from under the table and sat back onto the chair. The table was made for 6 people. Which was surprising as Dabi didn't strike him as one to have so many people at his at once. Speaking of which. Where had he gone?
Scanning the first-floor Shouto could notice a lot more than he could the last few seconds that he managed to steal away. Everything was clean. Not unused, just well kept. And the apartment was big. Certainly, nothing to scoff at. The living room, dining room and kitchen were all connected. However, they were all decently sized. What would a single person do in an apartment of this size?
Looking up towards the second floor, he could see that Dabi was walking into the bedroom that Shouto had been suffering in. He didn't stay there for too long. A couple of minutes, and then he came out and walked down the stairs looking at his feet as they practically flew down. Then he proceeded to walk into the kitchen. Not even once did he look in Shouto's direction.
"Did the league pay for this place?" Shouto question calmly yet firmly.
However, Dabi just opened the refrigerator at the far right of the kitchen, looking up and down at all of the different groceries.
"Was the reason why you bought this big apartment to have a shelter in case we found your hideout again?"
Again, no answer. Just ignoring the little boy and carrying and as usual. Although. It doesn't make sense that this would be a safe house. There only seemed to be at most three different bedrooms. And one of them only had a single bed.
Inspecting the table once more, Shouto could see that in contrast with the rest of the furniture in this house, this was brand new. Which limits the possibility that this was made for someone to guard a hostage. Although this is extremely excessive for a simple hostage situation.
"You know," Shouto raised his voice, "having a top hero on your tail isn't exactly the best idea for someone in your position." However, UA's PR is already going down the drain, and this fiasco didn't make matters better. So in a lot of senses, it wasn't the worst of plans. "There are far too many risks you run when you kidnap the family of a hero."
Unsurprisingly, Dabi continued on in similar fashion. Could he just be out for the money? No. He must have a lot seeing as he probably paid or renting this enormous home.
The villain had stopped cooking and turned around towards Shouto. Even whilst approaching him, he didn't look the boy in the eye. He tightened his fists, preparing for the worst, mentally and physically. This man was most certainly hard to read, however, his body knew when danger was approaching. Each creak on the floor felt like it got louder. The shadows grew longer and the lights were dimmed.
He was just a step away from Shouto when the child stood up from his chair to show his confidence. And then, he walked right past him. Towards what most likely was the entrance and started to fiddle around with the radio on top of a shelf that also held lots of other items. After some searching, the blackhead had decided on some odd retro music from the ‘80s. A really cheesy love song in fact. Just like before, Dabi returned to his chore and strangely enough didn't change at all what he was doing. Usually, people had a strange way of immersing themselves in music. Small changes in body language. However, Dabi hadn't changed one bit. What was the point then? To scare him?
After some time Dabi was done with the cooking. He grabbed to plates and divided the food equally. He had cooked some fish and put it together with some sauce. There were cooked potatoes which were covered with the sauce that was leftover and some veggies. Dabi put one of the plates down in front of Shouto along with a knife and fork. Then he went back to the kitchen to get a glass of water for him.
“This is odd. Why are you suddenly letting me eat properly?” The young boy pried.
“...” The lack of an answer didn’t upset the boy greatly, but it did none the less.
Perhaps the man did this because he was fed up with babying him. Which is the most plausible explanation.
Both of them ate their food in tense silence. The little boy kept on pondering the other one’s motives and question him. Time and time again, with no progress. Eventually, he gave up. Instead, he started surveying the room, again.
The front door was thick, or at least it looked like it. Anyone would have a hard time breaking it down, which is most likely why it’s there. The food table was the only one that had anything that would chain him down, excluding the handcuffs upstairs.
It was quite late, the large windows in the living room granted the moonlight entrance into the home. The other lighting came from a warm and calming lamp from the ceiling or smaller wall lamps. If he wasn’t a prisoner and tortured here, then this would all be quite cosy.
Shouto finished before Dabi, not knowing what to do he simply turned away from the table and stared out of the window. There was no life outside. No one walking for a late-night run, or any birds making their way home. All were asleep or in their warm homes.