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Dust filled everywhere, it made sense because it was his quirk, but it felt like it clouded his head. Shigaraki had a vague memory that he had been with the league, but had gotten split up. The city block he drearily recognized. A cafe and a couple stores with an apartment complex a little down the street. They were crumbled - still crumbling - to make the area look like an apocalypse zone.
A shrill yelp pierced silence and cut off within seconds.
Shigaraki’s movements became frantic. That sounded too much like Todoroki; his Todoroki. Had his Shouto been with them, he was a villain with them but, he doesn’t even remember why they were in this situation. He tried to run to the scream, tried to scream himself, tripping over chunks of past buildings and general reccage. His legs felt so sluggish, like he was trying to run through a swamp, almost a sinking feeling. Was it the dusty air?
The telltale sign of white and red made his heart soar. Then drop as he noticed it was much closer than it should be. It only dropped more as Shigaraki squinted through the dust to see a fallen light pole just under the multicolored hair.
The bluette’s breath hitched and soon he was running, but not feeling like he was getting any closer. In the back of his mind he hoped that for some reason it was only a stupid red and white rag. Though the heterochromia he could have sworn he saw when he squinted pushed that idea further every time he thought of that possibility.
An invisible god was almost pulling Shigaraki back. Not by the shirt collar, but as if the decintegrater’s spine had been ripped out in the middle, only to be used as a whip to beat him down afterwards. His hands and arms were a blur of black and pale tan as he moved them to desperately get the stars and blotches out of his vision.
It felt like hours passed before Shigaraki collapsed in front of Todoroki. Without looking down he intertwined his and his disciples hands. The split-quirk user was in a sorry state. His shoulder looked like Shigaraki own when he had his fight with Stain, and his legs were definitely crushed under the light pole. The old scar was reopened with only frostbitten skin and ice keeping it from fully coming off. It didn’t fit him, he didn't even like it when Dabi’s scars opened, Todoroki’s freeze burn had never opened and it never should.
“No, no, no! This isn’t supposed to happen. You’re supposed to follow me around with those damn puppy dog eyes that I melt under. You’re supposed to call me Shishou and ask me to do stuff no one else can while Dabi calls me whipped. You’re supposed to-”
“I always wanted to hold your hand properly, Shishou.”
“...What?”
It took Todoroki´s eyes to weekly drop to see what that meant. Todoroki´s hand was cracked. No, it was decaying.
Shigaraki twitched trying to pull his hands away, only for them to be stuck like glue. When did he take his gloves off? “You can decay bigger things much faster. You’re getting better at controlling your quirk, Shishou.”
“Don’t you dare fucking compliment me right now.” Todoroki coughed up dust, dust that Shigaraki shakingly noticed that should be organs in his body. “You’re going to be okay, you’re not dying on me so don’t act like it.” A choked sob was present in his scratchy voice.
The dust Todoroki coughed up was dust from the air. The dust in the air from the buildings, not Todoroki’s dust because Todoroki was explicitly not dusting.
Shigaraki managed to get his right hand away only for Todoroki’s left to come off with it. That’s all it took for his left to become limp and his lover’s entire arm to crumble over it. How had he been such an idiot to not hear the cracking sounds before he saw it?
Shigaraki managed to get his right hand away only for Todoroki’s left to come off with it. That’s all it took for his left to become limp and his lover’s entire arm to crumble over it. How had he been such an idiot to not hear the cracking sounds before he saw it?
“Didn’t you sometimes tell me to die? Isn’t this better?”
“I said that playfully!” The taste of salty tears infected his chapped lips, “I need you to stay here with me.” One hand hooked around his own shirt collar while the other tore at the sides of the scarred neck. Silent pleases moved the chapped lips.
Todoroki hacked up blood and dust into the older man’s face. The blood splattered across his cheeks with some sinking down, fittingly mixing with his own peeking out of his neck, and dust stung his eyes. The younger male’s rib cage began to collapse in on itself from the right side. Shigaraki’s vision blurred from dust and tears failed to catch it. The other’s obsession for turtlenecks wouldn’t even let him see the full extent of the damage.
As a last ditch effort the teal haired villain grappled for Todoroki's head. The pinky finger curled and hand stretching for the back of the multicolored boy’s head. If nothing else he wanted to hold him close and wait until someone else arrives. To have their head on each other’s shoulders as they wait until Kurogiri or someone else arrives. Right now he wouldn’t care if it was a hero. As long as Todoroki would be safe.
The others would have a car; they’d bring them to safety and have Todoroki healed. He might not know how, but everything was going to work out.
A flourish of dandelion seed fluff erupted when Shigaraki’s hand made contact. They flew into the pale blue hair and got everywhere. The hand going for Todoroki’s nape hovered in front of where his lover's nose should be. The red white hair and top of skull disintegrated before gravity could bring it down. A teasing breeze blew the new dust away, like trying to steal still more of Todoroki away from him.
With a finger down, Shigaraki drew a line through his boyfriend’s head.
The turtleneck no longer could hold away the sight of the quirk’s effects. The wanted criminal only watched as the cracking from decay crawled up. Chunks of jaw fell off like Jenga blocks and some cruel twist of fate still lifting it up. What didn’t he obtain the absolute pleasure of seeing his own quirk moving up the jaw then the teeth. Molars slipping into a fine powdered dust at the top. The exceptionally slow dusted the interior first, starting with the tongue.
Then a chunk that could hardly be described anymore as an Adam’s Apple sank into his lap.
Hyperventilating, shaking, tear soaked face with more, sweating, and… blankets? It took his eyes a moment to adjust and realize he was on a mattress in his bedroom. In blaring red his clock displayed 1:38 am. His mind was running to keep up to a body flailing to try and find another body laying next to him.
Todoroki wasn’t next to him. Is what's going on a hallucination? Shigaraki killed Todoroki. That couldn’t have been just a dream.
Shigaraki rolled off the bed, hitting his head a little harder than he would have liked. Then he tried to get to the door. The piles of clothes and the I’ll do it tomorrow’s stacked up against him in his haste.
It was okay until he got to the stairs. Shigaraki tried to take a step and all too fast he was falling.
Suddenly he was frozen. Not like time stopped, but his entire body felt enraptured in ice and his head banged off something. Stars exploded in his sight, it became a struggle to keep his eyes open. He gave in and just let his eyelids drop.
It took a minute for Shigaraki’s vision to clear again. Only to be met with real sparks and the air around him suddenly getting a lot hotter. It was unfair with how hot and sweaty his body already was.
In a matter of seconds he was falling again only to be caught. He was being lifted up and directed over to a couch. Shigaraki tried to shove them off, he was Japan’s most dangerous villain, he didn’t want to be seen like this. He nearly slipped out of his holder’s grasp when he looked up to see a pair of worried blue and grey eyes.
In a matter of seconds he was falling again only to be caught. He was being lifted up and directed over to a couch. Shigaraki tried to shove them off, he was Japan’s most dangerous villain, he didn’t want to be seen like this. He nearly slipped out of his holder’s grasp until he looked up to see a pair of worried blue and grey eyes.
Instantly Shigaraki melted. His knees buckled as he tried to stand up properly while the tears started anew. Again Todoroki started maneuvering the older man, with much less difficulty this time, towards the couch. Shigaraki stumbled trying to move his feet along to the pace.
Todoroki gingerly lowered Shigaraki onto the couch. There were questions he wanted to ask, but he could tell that wasn’t what Shigaraki needed right now. He used his hand to brush away a few locks of messy blue hair. He leaned up and turned around to go back to what he was doing.
“It hurts to cry.” Shigaraki’s voice grated even more than normal.
“Not usually. That’s because you don’t drink as much water as I tell you to.” Todoroki tried to suppress a flinch when Shigaraki latched a hand onto his shirt. The last thing he wished right now was for Shigaraki to think he was afraid of him.
“What’s that gross smell?”
Todoroki didn’t even attempt to force down a cringe before he turned around, “It was soup for you. It burnt and I was about to try and remake it.”
“How the fuck do you even burn soup?”
Todoroki chuckled before sitting down as well. When Shigaraki curled into his side Todoroki chose not to mention it. “I think I had a nightmare. It was weird and confusing like some dumb fever dream."
“That’s because you do have a fever.” Todoroki said, adjusting so his boyfriend could easily look at his face. That showed him how sweaty his boyfriend actually was. Slowly he pressed his right hand to Shigaraki’s forehead and activated his quirk. “Would you tell me about it, Shishou?”
"No."
“Please?” To Shigaraki’s misfortune, that was the moment he chose to look at Todoroki clearly. The puppy-dog eyes were on full force and it was only milliseconds till he saw the ears and tail forming.
“Fine.” He meant it as a yell, but it came out more as a grumble. He chose to bury his face in Todoroki’s chest to ignore the taller boy’s small smile, “It looked like it was after a fight and I was alone. I heard you, but it was only you screaming.”
Todoroki started rubbing small circles into the other’s back, as if urging him to continue, “I got to you and grabbed your hands, but-”
"You disintegrated me.” It wasn’t even a question. Shigaraki has had nightmares about this before.
Todoroki resisted the urge to lay his chin on the blue haired man’s head.The chance was lost though when Shigaraki pushed himself to the other side of the couch. Shigaraki moving his hands into his lap was not lost on Todoroki.
Almost cautiously the fire and ice user reached for his hands, grabbing them around the wrists. No resistance happened as the hands were lifted in front of their faces. With his thumbs he rubbed the thin gloves partially covering pale skin. “What are these?”
"My hands."
"Try again."
"Gloves?"
He gave a nod of approval. It made Shigaraki feel like he was staring at a dangerous predator.
"Now, what do they stop from happening?"
"They stop my quirk from working."
A sigh. The hands let go and the disintegrators fell into his lap again. “They stop you from disintegrating things while you’re wearing them, including me. What you dreamt was only your imagination.”
For some reason that made him feel better. Maybe there was a little voice telling him that it was stupid for him to be comforted at 2am and that he wasn’t supposed to be treated like this, but maybe, just this once, he wouldn’t listen to that voice.