Chapter Text
Shoto could not, for the life of him, remember his vows. Set to be married the next following day, it wasn’t like he had much time to prepare them anyway. The priest had been hounding him all afternoon, yelling and berating him in front of both his own family and Yaoyorozu’s. His future wife, he supposed.
He wasn’t opposed to the marriage, not… really. Yaoyorozu was beautiful, the most beautiful woman in town. Shoto should consider himself lucky that her family decided on him to be her husband. Though… it was all very impersonal. He knew nothing about Yaoyorozu, other than her first name, which she insisted he used. Yaoyorozu Momo, soon to be a Todoroki. The whole ordeal made him feel dizzy.
Yaoyorozu came from a noble family. They were well off, money wise. The marriage wasn’t really for their sakes, more so their families. Yaoyorozu’s parents insisted she marry someone who was in the same social class as she was, and Shoto’s father had the exact ideals. They were a match made in heaven, according to some. Shoto was unsure how to feel.
He’d made a fool of himself during the ceremony rehearsal. Mixing up his vows, dropping the ring, setting his future mother-in-law on fire with his candle. He scrambled out the door right after that, unable to handle the embarrassment of it all. That’s how he found himself walking aimlessly through the woods residing next to his small town, muttering the vows his brain refused to digest.
“I don’t understand what’s so difficult about a few simple vows.” Shoto spoke under his breath, lifting one of his hands up to his face as he continued to trek. “With this hand… I will take your wine— agh, no. ”
That wasn’t it.
“With this hand…” He started again, trying to appear more confident. “I will cup your—!” His hands came up to his chest in a provocative manner and his face reddened instantly. “ Goodness, no. ”
That wasn’t it, either.
Shoto continued muttering the vows to himself, repeating the same mistakes he made inside Yaoyorozu’s home. It was beginning to seem hopeless.
He stopped in front of a crooked tree protruding from the ground.
“With… this… candle, I will—!” Shoto held up his hand, mimicking what it would look like if he were actually holding a candle. “I will… set your mother on fire .” He sighed wearily, sitting back on an old tree stump.
“It’s no use…” Shoto trailed off, a lump in his breast pocket making his words disperse. Reaching a hand in, he pulled out that dreaded ring. It was a simple band, gold, traditional.
Suddenly filled with a new vigor, he stood from the sad stump, and began restating his vows.
“ With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine. ” His voice held a confidence he did not know he possessed. He was impressing even himself. “ With this candle, I will light your way in darkness. ”
Shoto walked towards a scraggly branch sticking up from the ground.
“ With this ring, I ask you to be mine. ”
The ring slid onto the makeshift finger remarkably well. Almost as if it were a real—
Shoto sensed he was being watched. Turning over his shoulder, away from the branch, scattered all over the trees were crows. Watching him.
Something rough and sharp wrapped around his wrist, and pulled him down towards the dirt, sinking his arm all the way through the earth. A violent gasp tore itself from his throat as he managed to retrieve his arm back from underground, only to find the same branch he slipped the ring on gripping onto his wrist with an inhuman amount of strength.
He gasped and grunted, trying to pull away from the hand, terrified and overwhelmed all at once. Shoto’s arm felt as if it were on fire, most of the pain radiating from his wrist when he finally managed to break free, though he had taken the hand along with him.
He quickly shook the bony arm off, and stared in horror at the ground where the branch had first been. It was pulsating, pounding , even. As if someone were trying to escape hell. Shoto could only watch in terror as another arm popped out from the dirt, sticking upright before rooting its fingers into the snow, slowly pushing out a head, shoulders, and a torso, until the outline of an entire human body stood against the light of the moon.
The human — zombie? — appeared to be wearing traditional wedding clothing for a male. Though it was incredibly dirty, and ripped in various places, it barely even looked like clothing at all. The person— was… pale. His body looked incredibly frail, short stature, muted green hair with matching eyes. And if Shoto’s own weren’t deceiving him, he could even spot freckles on the boy’s cheeks.
The entire situation dawned on Shoto much too quickly. This person— this boy was dead.
Unperturbed by his sudden epiphany, the boy aimed an eerie smile down at him from where he sat sprawled on the floor, and for a split second Shoto could have sword his eyes glowed.
“ I do. ” He whispered in a voice so sweet, Shoto almost ignored everything else just to hear him use his voice some more.
But, Shoto was a coward. And so he ran, not bothering to turn around to check if the boy was following him.