Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ready As We’ll Ever Be

Fumikage stared glumly out the train window, his beak hardened into an impassive expression of calm. There was little he could do about his middle school uniform ruining his ‘brooding loner’ aura, so he just had to work a little harder to get the expression just right.

Internally, he was an absolute mess of nervousness and annoyance at the other passengers of the train.

It was the day of the UA Entrance Exam. Months of practice and meditation all culminated in this one destiny-defining day. For too long had he struggled in the dark, unsure of the weight of his sins. Would they find his feathers too weak to fly alongside his peers? Would his talons be sharp enough to pierce through their mightiest foe? Would there be quadratics on the written test, if only to assassinate his very fate?

‘You’re overthinking again,’ the demon inside of him interrupted his internal monologue. ‘Come on, we studied for this! We’re as ready as we could ever be!’

‘I had studied for this, you mean,’ Fumikage corrected Dark Shadow. ‘Regardless of the views of our family, even UA would deny you the chance to prove your worth without me.’

‘Don’t bring that up now, Fumi! You’re deflecting ‘cause you’re scared. And hey! I’ll be there the whole time!’

Fumikage sighed. Dark Shadow did have a point. No matter what their parents had said, no matter what the policy was on UA High School’s campus, they were inseparable twins with their own unique strengths. Fumikage would take the written test, and Dark Shadow would rend the practical exam apart with her claws. It was how they conquered all challenges presented to them up to that point.

Well, it would have been how, if Dark Shadow had been allowed to exist beyond Fumikage’s soul.

The indescribable sensation of Dark Shadow stirring uncomfortably within his body made itself known. It was almost as though her beak was being rubbed against his heart in a familiar and comforting way. It was a trick she had been forced to learn after a particularly unfortunate run-in with public quirk use laws.

Before Fumikage could allow himself down the dark path of enraging memories, a commotion on the train drew his attention outward. Children his age laughed nearby, and the crowd of commuters shuffled away from whatever ruckus had just been started. There was a single voice behind it all, a higher pitched voice that likely belonged to an underclassman or a girl. She was too quiet to understand from a distance, but the way that her voice shook with fear was still evident.

‘Seriously?! They pick today of all days to be pricks?' Dark Shadow growled from within Fumikage. Disdain and anger ignited on her side of their shared soul with such a fury that his real fist clenched tightly.

‘Calm yourself, Dark Shadow,’ he attempted. ‘We can’t hear what they’re saying. It could be completely unrelated, or perhaps that is something that their circle of friends do. We cannot leap to conclusions and overreact, not when we are so close to judgment.’

Dark Shadow scoffed and curled up tighter within her host. ‘You heard the same thing I did. There’s no way that was nothing.’

‘Even still, there’s bound to be heroes on this train. Whether they do something or not, we would definitely get in trouble should you run amuck.’

The sounds of juvenile laughter continued for several long seconds. If Fumikage strained his hearing, he might have heard one of them say “Where’re you running to?”

It could have been his imagination.

‘If they were picking on a cute guy, I’d be the one to stop you from picking a fight.’

Heat rose to Fumikage’s cheeks, conveniently hidden by the midnight-black feathers on his head. “Silence, demon,” he whispered to his quirk.

Once more the commuters that separated Fumikage from whatever that racket was shifted, and someone in a middle school uniform slipped out of the crowd in a rush. His fluffy hair, its dark, forest green hue reminding the bird-headed boy of the endless expanse within Aokigahara Forest, bounced easily with every shake of the train. Four freckles dotted both of his cheeks, perfectly arranged into an ominous diamond shape. Despite those entrancing omens, his face appeared soft and gentle; boy-ish, as some might say.

With the right application of makeup, the cute guy could absolutely pass as a cute girl without issue.

Dark Shadow burst out laughing from within Fumikage’s soul, and he tore his attention away from the boy that had escaped the mob of bystanders. ‘Be SILENT, Dark Shadow!’ he growled ineffectively.

‘Are you kidding me, this is GOLD! He IS a cute guy, and you know it!’ his quirk cackled. She rose to the very surface of Fumikage’s soul, her shadowy form pressing against the inside of his skin like a kid outside of a candy shop. ‘Watch this, watch this: he’s gonna trip on his shoes and land RIGHT in your lap!’

‘Dark Shadow, I swear to all that is unholy, if you ruin his balance on purpose—’

‘Woah, you’re already getting protective of him? Now that’s record time on a new crush!’

“It’s not a crush—!” Fumikage hissed out loud.

The whole train jolted violently. Passengers all around the middle school boy cried out in surprise as they were forced to brace themselves against the sudden shift in momentum.

Dark Shadow lunged out of her host in an instant. One of her claws took hold of Fumikage’s shoulder to keep him still, while her other claw immediately took hold of a ceiling strap to stop the both of them from moving.

Conveniently, her quick action also put her directly in the path of the boy with green hair. Already uneasy, he was thrown from his feet and would have collapsed to the ground. Instead, he slammed face-first into Dark Shadow’s form, automatically grabbing hold of her middle to avoid falling any further.

Several moments passed as everyone came to terms with their break in routine. The boy that had collided with Dark Shadow looked up to her looming form and immediately righted himself before letting go of the sentient quirk. With flailing arms that might have been gestures, he addressed the quirk, stammering, “I-I’m so sorry, I lost my balance and I didn’t mean to touch you, this doesn’t usually happen, I’m really sorry—!”

“Hey, why’re you apologizing?” Dark Shadow chirped and adopted a smirk on her shadowy beak. “If not for me, you would have been a bit more intimate with the steel floor.”

The boy’s mouth slammed shut, and his cheeks gained a red hue to them. He quivered with fear and fidgeted with the straps of his yellow backpack, his eyes jolting this way and that as his mind visibly raced to come up with a response.

A pleasant chime rang out over the speakers of the train, saving the boy from having to speak at all. In a pleasant tone that had to be fake, the conductor announced, “To all passengers: I apologize for the sudden stop; an incident has occurred on the tracks ahead of us. For your safety, please remain where you are until the incident has been resolved. Thank you.”

Fumikage sighed, as did many of the other passengers within the train car. Delays in the train schedule were not common near UA, on account of just how many heroes there were close at hand. Despite this, they do still occur. ‘Hopefully this does not force us to miss the exam,’ the bird-headed boy thought to himself.

“Th-Thank you for saving me,” the cute boy finally said with a respectful bow toward Fumikage. His nervous green eyes flicked between Dark Shadow and her host, untold thoughts and what must be self-conscious feelings racing through his mind. “I’ll leave you alone now.”

Just as the boy turned to leave, Fumikage felt a flash of disappointment, although he couldn’t quite tell which side of their soul it came from. What he did know is that Dark Shadow adopted an even sharper smirk and curled around the nervous boy. “Come on, you don’t need to do that! We’re stuck here for some time. Sit and relax! Fumi doesn’t bite!”

“Uh?” That was all he was able to get out before Dark Shadow all but forced the cute boy to sit down in the seat right beside Fumikage.

“Dark Shadow, leave him be,” Fumikage scolded his quirk. “If he does not wish to be trapped next to a stranger, that is his right.”

Judging by the look Dark Shadow gave her host, she could absolutely feel not just Fumikage’s annoyance, but also his embarrassment. With the UA Entrance Exam (hopefully) minutes away, he had to be focused and prepared. He couldn’t afford to make himself look like an absolute fool in front of a pretty boy with the personality of a freshly-rescued animal.

At least there was no chance of that boy noticing the blush beneath his feathers. Small mercies.

The boy’s large green eyes danced between Dark Shadow and her host, and his nervousness visibly doubled. “W-Wait. Do— Uhm, are you… a sentient quirk?” he asked Dark Shadow directly.

Dark Shadow and Fumikage looked at each other. It had taken the both of them a very long time to learn what they were to one another. Countless conversations with their shared family, hours of research looking for any term that fit them, and many outbursts from the quirk who felt too real to simply be a dark mimic of her host had led them down a perilous journey of self discovery. As far as they knew, they alone had two souls in a single body.

In a world where quirks were merely extensions of oneself, how did this random stranger correctly guess Dark Shadow’s true nature?

“You are,” the stranger whispered reverently. Like the flip of a switch, all of his nervousness was burned away by a brilliant, excited smile and sparkling eyes filled with wonder pointed directly at the living quirk. “That’s so COOL! I never thought I would actually meet a sentient quirk, and some people don’t believe they exist, but you’re here and you’re real and I’m talking to you!”

It was Dark Shadow’s turn to be bitten by her growing embarrassment. She unwound herself from the excited boy and retreated back to Fumikage’s side. As a creature of little more than shadow made real, her form could not blush, no matter how hard her soul tried. “Heh, we’re shocked you even know what I am. There’s nothing about us online.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry, I just— I really like quirks,” the boy admitted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “When I first heard about sentient quirks, I-I could hardly believe it. Quirks are a part of us, like our arms and legs, but so much more unique, and they can grow in ways no one can possibly imagine! A sentient quirk, though, they’re basically their own person. Like us! A-At least, I think so. I mean, that’s what sentient means, right?”

“Y-Yeah,” Dark Shadow stuttered. Her form shrank further before settling in the space between the excited boy and her host, and her side of the soul quickly became a mess of untold emotions that Fumikage couldn’t even begin to parse. “It’s not the same as being real like you. I’ve lived with Fumi long enough to know that we have our differences. He’s a lot better at controlling his emotions than I am, especially in the dark.”

“Woah…” Dark Shadow’s new friend murmured in awe. “I guess that makes sense. Maybe without a physical body, you experience your emotions differently than humans do, or you feel them too quickly to be able to manipulate them, or maybe it’s related to the specific mechanics of your quirk? Uh, his quirk? You. Specific mechanics of… nevermind.”

Dark Shadow burst out laughing and the strange cocktail of emotions she was feeling gained more than a hint of mirth. “I like you! Hey, Fumi! Can we keep him?”

Fumikage took a moment to roll his eyes theatrically, as he had done every time she asked. “Once more, humans make for poor pets. You can hardly keep a plant alive, let alone an individual of such complex needs.”

“Aww…” Dark Shadow sagged excessively, her shadowy arms hanging off the edge of the seats she had nestled between.

The green-haired boy couldn’t control his smile upon witnessing the timeless act of a boy and his quirk, as much as he had attempted to. His earlier faux pas was forgotten, yet the redness of his cheeks had only diminished slightly. “S-So, uh, I’m Midoriya Izuku. What’s your name?”

“I’m Dark Shadow, and this is Tokoyami Fumikage!” Dark Shadow announced easily, popping up to hook her arm around Fumikage’s shoulder. Fumikage offered Midoriya a nod in acknowledgement, content to allow Dark Shadow her chance to interact with someone that saw her as real as she saw herself.

“Oh. I thought that sentient quirks would have their own names. Did you name the quirk yourself, or is that… am I wrong?” Midoriya said quietly, his excitement bleeding out of him sluggishly.

Dark Shadow fell silent. Her half of their shared soul turned into an unrelenting maelstrom of thoughts and feelings, all of her desires clashing against one another mercilessly. Her playful demeanor fell apart and was replaced with a solemn introspection. With her outside of Fumikage’s body, he could only guess what thoughts were going on through her mind.

Another chime rang out over the loudspeaker of the train car, and the conductor began to apologize for the delay again and report that the incident had been resolved. Fumikage ignored it in favor of coming to his quirk’s rescue. “Dark Shadow, return. You must conserve the darkness within you for the trials ahead of us.”

Without protest, Dark Shadow reeled herself back into Fumikage’s soul. He felt her mind racing harder as she grappled with something she will no doubt share with him later, and her typhoon of emotions buffeted at her host’s soul. With a little effort, and much practice, Fumikage wrestled his heart away from the emotions that did not belong to him and addressed Midoriya in her stead. “Dark Shadow was a title that we had constructed together, upon realizing the nature of her being. Where all documentation is concerned, that is her name.”

“Oh…” Midoriya seemed to deflate, overcome by a strangely empathetic sadness. His eyes fell to his hands in his lap, and his eyes began to shine with unshed tears. “I’m sorry.”

“You needn’t be,” Fumikage replied quickly. He swallowed the lump in his throat and ignored the stabbing pain in his heart, choosing instead to lay a hand upon Midoriya’s shoulder in comfort. “You have done nothing to harm her. In fact, she has taken quite a liking to you already, nearly as fast as she had to me.”

Midoriya’s head snapped up, instantly locking eyes with Fumikage in utter shock. The crimson that colored his cheeks returned, and he stuttered out, “R-Really?”

Fumikage nodded and took his hand away from Midoriya, in case the boy did not wish to be touched longer than necessary. “Indeed. It is rare that we encounter another that treats Dark Shadow as her own individual, and she yearns to continue your conversation. By chance, are you headed toward the UA High School to attend the Entrance Exam as well?”

“Yeah, I’m… I don’t know,” Midoriya admitted. For just a moment, he seemed to shrink into himself, becoming small and pathetic. “I am going there, but I don’t think I’ll make it in. I just… have to try anyway. One last time.”

It took Fumikage longer to suppress the stabbing pain of indignation and empathetic sadness that clouded his soul. Midoriya, much like Dark Shadow, felt his emotions wholly and utterly, his very presence being infectious to the bird-headed boy in a way he rarely ever experienced. There was little he could do for the poor boy subsumed in preemptive grief.

Little. But not nothing.

“Have faith, Midoriya, for you have already impressed two others of your worthiness of heroics,” Fumikage intoned. He extended his left hand toward his new friend and put on the best confident smirk his beak would allow. “You have seen that which none other had attempted to see, and your mind races faster than any could claim. If anyone would have a chance at success, it would be you. And, if you would permit us, we would be happy to join you as far as our trial would allow as your friend. Together, we might conquer the day ahead of us both.”

Midoriya stared at Fumikage for several long seconds. There was no comprehension in his expression, merely surprise and unprepared fear. He glanced down at Fumikage’s extended hand only to flick back up to his feather-covered face.

Just as the moment between them had begun to turn awkward, Midoriya returned Fumikage’s smirk with a wobbly smile of his own. His eyes dried slowly, and he clasped his hand around Fumikage’s, sealing their pact. “I’d love that.”

Fumikage ignored the flutter that overtook his heart for a moment. Such a choice of words was coincidence, and nothing more.

Plus, he needed to focus on Dark Shadow with the remaining time he had before the Entrance Exam. She was being unusually quiet, and he could not survive the challenges before him without her.

I Think, Therefore, I Am

Within the deepest depths of Fumikage’s soul, Dark Shadow rolled and writhed. Indignant rage burned her from the inside out while disbelief tried to tear her memories apart. A crushing sadness weighed down upon her relentlessly, even as an explosive joy slammed against the edges of her part of their shared soul. Fear, craving, disgust, desire, all of it mixed into a typhoon of emotions that Dark Shadow couldn’t escape from.

She wasn’t real, not like her brother was. She didn’t have a body that had much more to worry about than her own soul. The smells and senses and sights and sounds all distracted their physical body from everything contained within their souls. The chemicals that coursed through their liquid blood kept a tight rein on the organs that contained their mind, for good or ill.

Without a body, all Dark Shadow could do was feel her emotions in their entirety.

She was jealous of Fumikage, in a way. As he was the one who was born, he had the right to be the most human of the two of them. It was his body that kept his soul contained and separated from itself, it was his body that held their hearts and minds, and it was his body that everyone ever cared about.

Dark Shadow could simulate a body of her own, of course. Expending the energy that she held within her soul to lift herself out of Fumikage’s body and solidify her existence was as easy as breathing was to a human. When she had manifested herself, she could interact with the world as humans did.

Which was a lie.

She was a mere shadow, darkness itself in solid form. She did not have senses, not in the way that humans understood them. She did not need to breathe or eat or drink. She couldn’t feel anything but physical resistance to her solid body.

Fumikage could plunge his hands into cool water on a hot day and feel relief. The difference in temperature, drawing ever closer to that magical number that humans feel most comfortable at, would feel heavenly to him.

Dark Shadow would only feel the liquid sliding around her claws.

She could have lived with her limitations if it was all she had known. She was a quirk, a mere extension of Fumikage’s abilities. She was not born, and she will not die.

But she could remember. She could learn. She could think.

Dark Shadow could almost feel with her body.

Dark Shadow could definitely feel with her soul.

And Dark Shadow felt hate.

Hate for being aware of her failings as a sentient creature. Hate for existing in a world built for humans and humans alone. Hate for living so close to reality, so close to sights and sounds and senses that she couldn’t ever partake in. Hate for the one horrible human that dared to show her everything she couldn’t ever have.

Dark Shadow hated Fumikage for giving her access to his memories.

Which was also a lie.

She loved her brother, the other half of her shared soul. She loved it when he asked her for her input, and when he offered her his memories of everything he had experienced in the day. She loved the phantom feeling of a sweet apple on a tongue she didn’t have. She loved the warmth upon skin that wasn’t her own as Fumikage was embraced by their mother and father.

Such feelings were never for her. Yet the entire Tokoyami family did everything they could to give them to her anyway.

Everything but a name.

To have a name was to become your own person. If she had a name, Dark Shadow would stop being ‘Fumikage’s quirk’, and she would become a Tokoyami just like him.

She would become real.

But she would not become human.

It didn’t matter that Fumikage’s family offered to name her just as they had named Fumikage.

It didn’t matter that her host, her brother in all but flesh, constantly fought to grant her as much independence and importance as possible.

It didn’t matter that Izuku instantly and earnestly treated her as though she was just as alive as her host, or that he was on the verge of tears at the very idea that she had been denied such a basic human characteristic.

Dark Shadow still didn’t have a body of her own. She was a quirk, and nothing more.

An indescribable sensation brushed against the edges of Dark Shadow’s half of their shared soul. It was almost as though a hand was gently caressing her entire being all at once, checking her soul for any entrance it could find, but not daring to invade without her permission.

If Dark Shadow had lungs, she would sigh. She couldn’t hide from Fumikage forever, obviously. With great effort, she stuffed as much of her emotions as she could into the deepest parts of her soul to spare her brother from feelings that did not belong to him, and then rose up within his body and claimed her spot right next to his side of the soul.

At the surface of existence, Dark Shadow could see what Fumikage could see, hear what Fumikage could hear, and feel what he did. She had no control over what he chose to do, as the body was still his own and not hers, but at least this close to the top, she would not have to beg for him to explain what was happening around them.

Several emotions began to leak out of her, spilling over to her brother’s side of their soul, despite her best efforts. She felt his own emotions mixing with hers, his concern and fear and empathetic determination forming a question both of them knew he was going to ask.

‘I’m alright, Fumi. We can crush the Entrance Exam no sweat!’ Dark Shadow reassured her host as confidently as she could.

‘I am certain of that,’ Fumikage mentally answered, his internal voice betraying his doubt with ease. ‘But that is not what I am most concerned of. You are never this quiet for this long. Have Midoriya’s words rattled you that much?’

Dark Shadow hesitated.

She felt Fumikage sigh quietly. His soul leaned into Dark Shadow briefly as an awkward attempt at comfort that only they could experience. ‘He had not meant to offend you, sister.’

‘He didn’t,’ she admitted bluntly. 'That’s not the problem. The problem is that I liked it too much.’

“Too much?” Fumikage said out loud. He looked over his shoulder at Midoriya, who was still staring, awestruck, at the immense buildings of UA High School. Fumi stepped off to the side of the brick pathway and crossed his arms to appear mysterious and introspective. ‘I was not aware that your happiness was a bad thing to experience.’

‘You know what I mean. I’m just a quirk, I’m YOUR quirk, and that’s all I’ll ever be. He shouldn’t be treating me like a real person, especially when—’

‘Enough,’ Fumikage interrupted. ‘I will not allow such slander against you, even from your own mind.’

Annoyance swiftly flooded Dark Shadow’s being and made her growl dangerously from within their shared body. ‘It’s not slander if it’s true! No matter what we try, I can’t ever feel the world with a real body! I’m always going to be “just a quirk.” I was not born, and I will not age. I do not eat or breathe, and I will die when you do.’

If she were capable of crying, Dark Shadow would be certain that the heavy lump that weighed down her very soul would burst into a waterfall down her shadowy face. When Fumikage wiped the start of tears from his own eyes, she dove deep into their shared soul and forcefully pulled her emotions away from her brother’s heart.

‘Sister, you—’ Fumikage tried, but was swiftly interrupted.

When she was so far from the surface of their body, Dark Shadow couldn’t tell what had caused her brother to cut himself off so suddenly. She did feel his emotions, however, and she recognized the burning sensation of rage and indignation. It was unusual that he would feel both of them so strongly, though.

Dark Shadow stuffed as much of her sadness and anger as she could, as to not compound with Fumikage’s emotions, and then returned to the surface of their shared body. She was just in time to witness another boy around Fumi’s age stomp into Midoriya’s personal space with a feral snarl. Both of his palms were turned up and curled into claws, and explosions as bright as firecrackers popped and crackled violently within his hands.

“What part of ‘don’t even show up’ didn’t you get, Deku?!” the blond boy growled menacingly. The firecrackers in his palms popped even stronger when he spat the insult right into Midoriya’s face.

Midoriya tried to back away from the angry boy, waving his hands frantically in a panicked attempt to placate his bully. “I-I know, Kacchan, I’m sorry! I swear— I swear I’m not— It’s not like that, I—!”

Fumikage hurried over to Midoriya’s side, his protective anger burning brightly on both sides of their shared soul. He put himself in between the cowering boy and the bully and held his arm out to deny the blond boy’s approach any further. “And just what do you think you are doing with my beloved?”

“BELOVED?!”/‘Beloved!?’ Midoriya and Dark Shadow shouted in uncanny sync with one another, despite one of them speaking aloud and the other within Fumi’s soul.

Embarrassment instantly consumed Fumikage, and his face ignited with such a powerful blush that it nearly shined through the midnight black feathers on his head. ‘I panicked, okay?!’ Fumikage squawked internally. ‘Back me up here!’

That was one thing that Dark Shadow was capable of. Despite her desperately wishing she could tease the living hell out of Fumi for instinctively playing the ‘fake boyfriend’ card, she pulled her half of the soul away from Fumikage’s half, gathered up as much dark energy as she could muster, and lifted herself away from his body. Shaping the energy into a vaguely corvid form was little more than muscle memory for her, and the outermost parts of her form solidified into something tangible.

The moment she was free from her host’s body, save for a tether of dark energy that kept their two halves of the same soul from unraveling, Dark Shadow wound around Midoriya’s middle before settling on his right shoulder. She slung one of her arms over his other shoulder and gave the blond asshole a dangerous half-grin. “You should back the hell away from our boy if you know what’s good for you!”

Dark Shadow felt Midoriya quivering against her as terror and confusion still held his heart captive. Despite her being unable to feel temperature, she could tell that his entire face was burning hot from the deep crimson that colored it. Under his breath, just barely loud enough for Dark Shadow to hear him, the shaking boy whispered, “Our boy…?”

The blond bully went slack at the twin declarations and openly stared at Dark Shadow. His red eyes, blown wide from shock, slid over to Fumikage. “Seriously?” he asked incredulously. “You chose Deku?”

Fumikage stood up as straight as he could and glared. “Of course,” he intoned.

The blond bully recoiled with thinly veiled disgust. “Why?”

The boy’s question sent both Fumikage and his quirk through a loop. It was not a demand that craved an answer. It was not laced with suspicion or gentle curiosity. If anything, the question had seemingly slipped out of the blond boy on its own accord, as though the very idea of “Deku” having a boyfriend was entirely incomprehensible.

Rage and hatred instantly flooded Dark Shadow’s entire being. Not only did this bastard think it was a brilliant idea to terrorize Midoriya, (on UA grounds at that,) but he was completely convinced that Izuku, the only boy outside of her family to ever treat her as a living being, could never be loved by another. Such levels of dehumanization struck a dangerous chord within Dark Shadow’s side of the soul, and she could feel the edges of her form sharpening to fit her rapidly darkening mind.

“Who the hell’re you to ask us that, huh?!” Dark Shadow snarled. Her solid form slowly began to grow in size as more and more of her dark energy pulsed through her. “You don’t deserve to know about him. You don’t DESERVE—!”

“Dark Shadow,” Fumikage snapped. She could feel his influence reaching into her side of their shared soul and strangle the influx of darkness into her form. His half of the soul was the stronger half, and she could feel him trying to pull her back into his body. It was a weak pull, just enough to make sure she felt it, but not enough to completely override her will yet.

Dark Shadow growled in an animalistic fashion. She knew that she was beginning to lose control over her emotions, and that would always lead to serious consequences for Fumikage and her family.

A hand gently rested against her left claw. Izuku did not look at her, his attention almost entirely focused on the prick that was trying to scare him. Despite this, he had reached up and carefully hooked his fingers around the hand that dug into his school uniform.

Izuku’s hand was not shaking. If anything, it was… weird.

It felt warm.

Red eyes rapidly bounced between Izuku and Fumikage, entirely ignoring Dark Shadow as though she didn’t exist. After a few moments, the bully scoffed, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and whipped around to continue down the path into UA High. “Whatever,” he drawled without looking back. “Your own damn fault if you want to waste your time with the quirkless dumbass.”

Izuku flinched. Hard. When he tried to pull his hand off of Dark Shadow’s claw, he found that it had curled around his fingers possessively, refusing to allow them escape.

“Quirkless?” Fumikage wondered out loud.

“Yeah,” Izuku whispered. Tears sprang to his eyes as he looked away from both Dark Shadow and her brother. “I’m sorry for not telling you.”

All of Dark Shadow’s anger fled from her soul as if a dam holding it in had shattered completely. Some of her dark energy had escaped alongside it, leaving her feeling helpless in the face of Izuku’s tears. Despite this, she curled around the quirkless boy just a little tighter, trying to replicate how their mother would hug Fumikage tightly to combat a bad day. “Hey, we didn’t ask. And it doesn’t matter anyway.”

“Of course it matters. You never would have called me— th-that if you knew,” Izuku refuted, unable to speak of Fumikage’s declaration of love aloud just yet.

Fumikage shook his head solemnly. “Perhaps. But perhaps not. Regardless of your quirk, or lack thereof, that boy was terrorizing you for reasons unknown. I could hardly call myself worthy of heroics if I allowed such villainous behavior before me.”

“Besides, being quirkless doesn’t make you look any less cute,” Dark Shadow admitted with a grin.

Izuku’s face immediately turned an incandescent red just as embarrassment and shame overtook Fumikage’s side of the soul. “Seal your beak at once, demon! Can you not see that—?”

“Aw, but if I stop having a beak, how could I bite whatever the entrance exam throws at you?” Dark Shadow whined theatrically.

Izuku jumped. “THE EXAM! Oh no, we’re gonna be late!”

Fumikage’s eyes blew wide. Both he and Dark Shadow had forgotten about such a momentous event in the wake of their protectiveness. “Dark Shadow, return! We must go NOW!”

Dark Shadow did not fight the intense pull that her brother’s part of the soul applied to her being. She unwound from Izuku and smoothly retreated into the depths of Fumikage’s body before settling just below his skin to observe the world around him.

Not quite hand in hand, Izuku and her brother took off running toward the entrance of UA High, both of them desperate to avoid missing their chance to attend the prestigious school.

And, if Dark Shadow’s luck held out, perhaps she and her brother could share a class with their beloved.

Chapter Text

Not-That-Slowburn

Exhaustion pulled heavily on Fumikage’s entire body and penetrated deep enough to affect his quirk as well. While she did not suffer from adrenaline withdrawal, due to her lack of a physical body, she still chose to curl up tightly in the very depths of their shared soul to calm her mind and gather her dark power once more.

The disaster that was Class 1-A’s field trip to the USJ had taken a lot out of both of them. It was impossible to describe the horror either Tokoyami had felt when villains —actual villains, keen on the murder of Fumikage and the others he had only just met— had stepped through the swirling portal like a wave of hungry demons. It was nothing short of a miracle that he had not lost his composure when the same portal villain had haphazardly scattered their class across every disaster zone.

Fumikage felt Dark Shadow forcefully nudge her half of their shared soul against his own to rebuke his doom-filled thoughts. ‘You’ve dealt with worse, Fumi, and I was there to protect you. We had it under control the whole time.’

‘I do not recall a time when we had to fight against death itself,’ Fumikage mentally pointed out.

‘I do. The first time you tried to sleep without your nightlight, I nearly killed you.’

Fumikage raised an eyebrow at his quirk’s guilty tone. ‘It is strange that we have different memories of that night. You have never once thought to attack me directly, not even when your side of our soul was still developing.’

Dark Shadow did not respond, although she did loosen her form slightly and rise just enough to peer through his eyes once more.

“So, uh…” the girl beside Fumikage suddenly started.

The bird-headed boy looked over to his painfully pink classmate. Ashido was an energetic one, but she was also incredibly friendly and people-savvy. By the time they all had rushed to the training field for a pop fitness test, she had already started calling the other female members of their class by their given names.

The ordeal at the USJ had stifled her energy severely. She did not bounce as she walked beside Fumikage toward the front entrance of the school, and she frequently smoothed out the plaster that had been applied to her cheek even when it had not gained a wrinkle. Despite this, Ashido gave Fumikage the best smile she could offer him, weakened as it was by her matching exhaustion. “Thanks again for saving me back there. I really didn’t wanna try to use my acid on those guys. It can be very… dangerous, if I’m not careful.”

Fumikage nodded seriously. “You need not concern yourself with apologies. I could never call myself worthy of heroics if I had not come to your aid.”

Ashido chuckled and crossed her arms behind her head in an effort to seem more relaxed than she was. “So formal~” she teased lightly. “But really, it was super cool how you used your quirk to keep Kouda and me safe from that misty villain. You acted super fast! Have you practiced a move like that?”

“I have never had to act in such a desperate manner before, thankfully.”

Ashido nodded and accepted his answer.

Fumikage cursed his lack of experience in social situations when he felt the silence between the two hero hopefuls stretch into an awkward length. He couldn’t tell if Ashido was trying to talk to him to help herself calm down, or if she was simply filling in the silence between them until they could arrive at the main gate.

“Hey, is Izuku your boyfriend?”

Fumikage startled and dropped his outside shoes on his foot. It didn’t hurt, but it did cause him to squawk in surprise and promptly ruin his appearance in front of Ashido for the rest of their tenure at UA High.

“Oh sh— My bad! Sorry, sorry!” the pink girl apologized quickly and visibly stifled the laughter that wanted to break free of her playful personality.

Dark Shadow, hidden beneath Fumikage’s skin, made no such attempts and openly laughed at her host’s misfortune.

A quick flex of his internal authority to push her away from the surface of his soul carried enough of his displeasure with it, although that only served to heighten Dark Shadow’s mirth. In an instant, she returned to her place just below his skin and made a sound to mimic that of her sticking her tongue out in a childish fashion.

Fumikage sighed forcefully. “It’s fine. Why do you ask that?”

“Curiousity, mostly,” Ashido admitted before pacing slowly up and down the shoe lockers. “When you and your quirk were talking to yourselves, it had said that you were glad that Izuku wasn’t there with all the villains. Plus, when that blasty guy with the blond hair yelled at you, it seemed like he didn’t like your boyfriend all that much.”

‘I was talking to Fumi, you mean,’ Dark Shadow grumbled from within Fumikage’s soul. Annoyance flooded their shared heart, much stronger than it had been in the past, for just a brief moment. His quirk was quick to reign her emotions in to avoid polluting her host’s feelings, but it was enough to give Fumikage pause.

Before he could address his ethereal sister’s sensitivity, he finished changing into his outside shoes and addressed Ashido out loud. “Midoriya is a fellow student that we had met on the way to the Entrance Exam, and his impressive empathy made him desire heroics. He did not succeed in joining us or our sister class, but perhaps that was for the best, considering the unique difficulties we were just forced to overcome.”

Ashido nodded seriously and hugged herself loosely. “Yeah, I can get that. Might’ve been nice to see him right after the police showed up, though. Is he in another course?”

“He is. I had insisted that he not let his nerves consume him, and he had applied for General Education, where he now resides,” Fumikage confessed.

Both classmates, one with black feathers and one pink skin, left the main building of UA High School side by side. Before they could even descend the stairs at the front, Fumikage noticed that two students were loitering just inside of the main gate. Fumikage recognized one of them instantly, as did Ashido.

“HEEEEYY!!” Ashido yelled and waved her arms above her head, entirely ignorant of Fumikage’s unprepared ears. “TSUYU! I THOUGHT YOU WENT HOME ALREADY!”

The girl with the Frog quirk looked over to Ashido, turning her head to put the energetic girl in what remained of her eyesight. With one of her eyes completely covered in bandages that also wrapped around her forehead, reading her already subtle expressions proved to be an impossible task for Fumikage at that distance. Despite this, Tsuyu smiled when she noticed Ashido and croaked happily in response.

The other student was none other than Midoriya, who visibly jumped when Ashido yelled. His attention violently snapped onto the source of the noise before immediately getting distracted by Fumikage descending the staircase. His large emerald eyes widened further, and he took off running toward the bird-headed boy. “Tokoyami!”

“Midoriya? What are—?” That was as far as Fumikage could get before Midoriya collided with him and wrapped him up in a tight, desperate hug.

“Thank god you’re okay,” Izuku whispered into Fumikage’s feathers. He drew in a shaky breath and his hands quivered as they clung to Fumikage’s uniform. Even through their nearly-matching uniforms, Fumikage could feel Izuku’s heart pounding against his chest as though it were screaming to escape from the rib prison that held it back.

For a moment, Fumikage couldn’t react to the sudden, frantic display of affection. The warmth from the hug seeped into his body smoothly and burned away the exhausted fear that had tried to consume him ever since he had been thrown into the false city of rain and shadows. His arms encircled Izuku’s shoulders and he allowed his beak to fall against the boy’s collarbone. Fumikage felt Dark Shadow press harder against the surface of their shared soul as both of them did their best to memorize the feeling of Izuku’s shaking form pressing against their own.

“Yes, I’m alright,” Fumikage murmured against the collar of Izuku’s uniform. “I wasn’t alone, after all. We handled it.”

“W-What about Dark Shadow? Is she alright?” Izuku asked quietly. He pulled away from Fumikage slightly, yet he did not let go of the bird boy’s uniform just yet.

Right on cue, Dark Shadow emerged from Fumikage, right in between the two boys, and swiftly wrapped herself around the both of them. Izuku let out a surprised squeak when he was forced back against Fumikage’s chest, but ultimately, he did not pull away. Dark Shadow took her place behind Izuku and settled her head on top of his other shoulder, officially sandwiching the quirkless boy between the quirk and her host. “Of course I’m alright!” she chirped. “Those chumps didn’t stand a chance against Fumi and me!”

Izuku laughed breathlessly and pressed his head against Dark Shadow’s as a subtle display of affection. “Oh thank god you’re both okay. I was so worried when I heard that your class was attacked by real villains. A-And Asui told me that they were trying to hurt all of you and I don’t know what I—”

“Shush, it’s fine! We’re here now, and we didn’t even get injured! You worry too much,” Dark Shadow teased before poking the very end of Izuku’s nose lightly.

“So, you must be Izuku~” Ashido said in a singsong voice.

Izuku and Fumikage jumped in sync and pulled away from one another. Or, at least, they tried to. With Dark Shadow still wound around them both, they couldn’t get that far from each other. Worse yet, Fumikage’s quirk did not share the embarrassment that her host did and refused to let go of the quirkless boy.

Even when Fumikage tried to nonverbally recall his quirk, using the natural authority granted to him by holding the stronger half of their split soul, Dark Shadow tightened her grip on her physical form. Fumikage could feel her gathering what little dark power she had recovered from their ordeal in order to fight fang and talon to remain in the outside world.

“I’m Ashido Mina!” Ashido introduced herself, rapidly recovering her excitable energy from before the USJ Incident. “And I have to say, you have a really cool boyfriend. He was thinking about you the whole day.”

Fumikage’s blush returned with a vengeance, and he could not bring himself to look at the cute boy whom he had claimed to be his boyfriend. “Do not make assumptions you know nothing of!” he hissed. "I was not obsessing over my beloved!”

Ashido threw up her hands in mock surrender, yet her pleased smile betrayed her teasing nature. “I didn’t say anything about obsessing. I’m just sayin’, as soon as things got serious, the first thing your quirk talked about was Midoriya. You talked to it about ‘your beloved’ to calm yourself down. He’s really special to you, huh?”

Again, annoyance and rage built up on Dark Shadow’s side of their soul, strong enough that Fumikage had begun to feel it in his own heart despite his sister lingering outside of his body. She did not allow her expression to fall where Ashido could see it, but the tether that connected her to her host tightened around Izuku and Fumikage.

“She’s not an ‘it,’” Izuku murmured darkly, causing Fumikage and Dark Shadow to blink at him in surprise.

“Huh? What was that?” Mina asked. Her smile had not faltered even for a moment, although her abyssal eyes did bounce between Izuku and Fumikage rapidly to tell who would react to her first.

“Dark Shadow isn’t an ‘it,’ Ashido,” Izuku said in a louder, more stern tone. He refused to look at anyone, and Fumikage could feel him start to shake as his courage swiftly crumbled. Despite this, he continued to scold Fumikage’s classmate. “She’s not a thing. She’s a girl like you and Asui.”

Dark Shadow froze and her half of their shared soul was instantly overcome by countless emotions that all swirled into an endless hurricane of confusion. Fumikage couldn’t blame her, either, as no one had ever come to Dark Shadow’s defense before.

To everyone, she was his quirk, and nothing more.

To everyone except their beloved Izuku.

Ashido’s grin cracked. Finally, her dark gaze fell upon Dark Shadow as though she was seeing her for the first time. “W-What?” Ashido stuttered. “Wait, his quirk is a girl? But he’s a boy. Right? Wait, is he a girl? Or was?”

In Fumikage’s peripheral, he noticed Dark Shadow slip her claw into Izuku’s hand. She gathered more darkness from the depths of their soul and bolstered her external form. She grew in size, ever so slightly, before she pressed herself against Izuku’s back and peered over his shoulder at Ashido.

Izuku looked over his shoulder briefly, took note of Fumikage’s surprise and Dark Shadow’s clingy comfort, and then turned back to the thoroughly lost pink girl in front of the three of them. “Dark Shadow is a very rare form of heteromorphic quirk that grants her the same intelligence as a person. She can think, she can feel things, and she has preferences. Her emotions are different from ours, and she can’t separate herself from Tokoyami without her tether due to her emitter qualities, but she’s still a person. She’s a girl, not an it.”

Ashido stared at Izuku for several very long and very awkward seconds. Asui croaked slowly, as though she had hummed in a thoughtful manner, and Fumikage watched Ashido’s smile fall from her face and twist into a look of utter shock and absolute horror. Shame colored her cheeks dark enough to pierce straight through the coloration of her skin. “Oh god… Have I been misgendering it— her, this whole time?”

The absolute mess of emotions that twisted and writhed within Dark Shadow turned into a feverish typhoon so strong that the edges of her physical form seemed to soften and fade. Even still, her thoughts and feelings changed so rapidly that not a single one survived long enough to affect Fumikage through their unnatural tether. Oddly enough, the longest surviving emotion that brushed against the outer limits of his side of their soul was very similar to hunger.

In the face of Ashido’s guilt, Izuku’s resolve failed him. He attempted to say something, though the words were lost within his halting stutters as he struggled to find words that would not escalate the pink hero student’s pain.

“You would not be the first, and you will not be the last,” Fumikage intoned in Izuku’s stead. “Yet, the fault does not lie with you, Ashido. Dark Shadow’s intelligence is not well known, even among those who understand quirks. Midoriya is the only one we have met that understood that her true nature was even possible.”

“That’s so cute,” Ashido said in a watery voice. She hesitated for a moment before bowing very low toward the three of them, with one of her hands gripping her opposite wrist tightly. “I’m really, really sorry for offending you, Dark Shadow. And, um, thanks for saving my life back there.”

Dark Shadow was able to pull herself together and pull away from Izuku and Fumikage, unwinding herself until she left herself hovering over her host’s shoulder. She was able to give Ashido a grin and waved off the pink girl’s apology. “Sure thing! Izuku would have been really upset if I let something happen to you!”

Fumikage groaned at his quirk’s poor attempt at accepting their classmate’s apology. “Dark Shadow, do not—”

Ashido laughed as she straightened up. It was a weak laugh, made fragile from her own guilt that still clung to her soul, but it was still genuine. “We all have someone like that, huh? I guess I owe my life to you as well, Midoriya~”

Izuku froze up and rapidly looked between Ashido, Fumikage, and Dark Shadow, visibly unsure of how to respond to the heroic allegations.

“Anyway, we all should be going home,” Ashido said awkwardly. “I think the only reason my dad hasn’t blown up my phone yet is because he normally keeps his off during work. He’s gonna be suuuuper upset when he learns about today…”

“We will not keep you, then. The staff has generously given us time to recuperate from our ordeal, and I would not dare deny you the chance to spend it with your family,” Fumikage intoned, effortlessly falling back into a more controlled and dramatic persona.

Ashido smiled again, yet the weakness from before was nowhere to be seen. This time, her grin was sharpened by a teasing desire made evident by her golden eyes flicking between Izuku and the twinned birds. “You said it, man! Hope you and the new addition to your family have fun this weekend~”

Fumikage could not bring himself to regret saving the life of a classmate, no matter how easily she shatters the composure of his quirkless friend.

He almost missed the way her grin softened when she watched Dark Shadow bump her form against Izuku’s arm in a gentle show of comfort. Before anyone could call her out on her antics, she whirled around and bounced over to Tsuyu’s side. “I gotta say, I’m really glad you’re alright too, Tsu. Is your eye going to be okay?”

Tsuyu offered Fumikage a polite wave goodbye before turning toward the front entrance of the school to leave. “Yeah, the villains missed my actual eye, kero. I’ll be fine on Monday.”

Ashido jumped and pumped her fist victoriously as she followed Tsuyu. “Thank god for that! No offense, but I don’t know if I can see you wearing glasses.”

“Me neither. That’s what the contacts are for.”

“The What.”

Izuku released a breath that he had been holding and visibly deflated. “I should… probably apologize to her when we get back, shouldn’t I? I didn’t want to be mean to her, but—”

“You need not bother,” Fumikage interrupted before Izuku could fall down another spiral of mutterings. “We have not known her long, but what we have learned is that she is quick to forgive, and quicker still to make up for her shortcomings.”

Izuku hummed, not fully accepting Fumikage’s reassurance, while Dark Shadow retreated back into her host’s form, her shadowy figure dissipating as her dark power settled next to his soul once more. The unstable cocktail of her emotions touched the edges of Fumikage’s heart for a brief moment, but she was quick to reign herself in and away from his side of their shared existence.

‘Find out what he’s doing this weekend,’ she demanded quickly.

‘What?’

‘Izuku!’ Dark Shadow clarified. Embarrassment bubbled up to the surface of her soul, and she hissed within him, ‘Ask him if he’s doing anything before school opens back up!’

Fumikage’s brow furrowed slightly. ‘Whatever for? Have we not already—’

‘Just ask him!’

“Is everything alright?” Izuku asked gently. His sharpened gaze, full to bursting with concern, danced across Fumikage’s face.

Fumikage cleared his throat and settled his expression into a much calmer appearance. It never ceased to amaze the bird-headed boy how easily Izuku could read his expression, even with the secondary mutations that rendered them so different from one another. “Of course. Dark Shadow simply wished to know if you had any plans for the long weekend that UA has provided us.”

“N— Not really,” Izuku admitted hesitantly. “Just schoolwork, but with the, uh, Incident today, the teachers didn’t give our class all that much. My mom is probably going to ask about you two, though.”

“About the class that was attacked?”

A cute blush bloomed on Izuku’s cheeks, wrestling his freckles for dominance of his face, and the suddenly embarrassed boy looked away. “A-About you two, actually. My mom and Kacchan’s mom have been friends for a really long time, and Kacchan must have complained about you (or about me, I don’t know,) but he told his mom that I have a b—”

Izuku swallowed, and his blush deepened. “…a boyfriend.”

Fumikage sighed. Despite how often the two had talked between their first meeting and the third day of UA High School, he still could not bring himself to talk at length about the impulsive declaration he had made at the Entrance Exam. To have forced himself upon Izuku’s life so callously was unlike him, yet he could not gather the courage to ask his ‘beloved’ about his own opinions on the matter.

A more perfect time would never occur again.

“And when I told her about Dark Shadow being a girlfriend, she almost fainted. She’s probably going to want to meet you two at some point,” Izuku admitted and scuffed at the ground with his shoe.

Fumikage felt Dark Shadow’s side of their soul lurch, and the maelstrom of emotions that she tried to spare her host from picked up fervor once more. This time, excitement, nervousness, and something hot began to leak into his heart.

“I… I would be honored,” Fumikage said awkwardly, failing to ignore the blush that hid beneath his feathers. “There should be plenty of time this weekend for us to meet with her.”

Izuku’s attention instantly jumped back to Fumikage, and after a beat, he broke out into a brilliant smile that nearly blinded the twin-souled boy.

The perfect moment had already passed. Yet, as he felt his heart begin to race, Fumikage didn’t mind in the least.

Chosen

From an outside perspective, Fumikage was calm and confident as he walked through the streets of Shizuoka prefecture.

Internally, however, a war raged between the two halves of the boy’s souls.

Dark Shadow didn’t even try to pull her terror away from her host, and it bled profusely from her indistinct form. ‘His mom is the only family he’s got! If she doesn’t like me, that’ll be it for us!’

Fumikage kept his breathing level and instilled the comfort of their own mother’s affection into his part of the soul for Dark Shadow to consume. ‘She was the one who had raised him, and he likes you as you are now. Would that not mean that she had taught him to embrace his empathy?’

‘That doesn’t mean she would get it!’ Dark Shadow whined as her nerves tore a deep chasm through her entire existence. She pressed herself harder against her brother’s side of their soul and felt Fumi’s determination eat away at her feelings, little by little. ‘What if he didn’t tell her that I wasn’t real? What if he only said I was a girlfriend and she’ll only find out I’m a quirk when we get there?’

Fumikage rolled his eyes and failed to hide the hint of annoyance that he felt before Dark Shadow stole it from across the divide. ‘In what possible realm would Izuku ever not talk about a quirk as enthralling as yourself?’

Dark Shadow faltered. Her brother did have a point, after all. Izuku did nothing to hide his love of quirks from either of them. If anything, he embraced it wholeheartedly when Fumikage or herself asked him about it. The day that had returned from their first day at UA High, Dark Shadow had been on the phone with Izuku for two hours just talking about his classmate’s quirks before he had assumed that he had talked too much.

Some might say that he was obsessed with quirks, but Dark Shadow wasn’t sure how he would feel about her if he hadn’t been.

‘Fine, so she knows I’m a quirk,’ Dark Shadow relented. ‘But that doesn’t mean she’ll approve. He only said that she fainted and she wants to meet us. That doesn’t mean she’s going to like us. Or maybe she’ll just have a problem with me.’

‘You are searching for things to be nervous about, my sister,’ Fumikage internally intoned with an audible sigh.

‘You should be too! You’re showing up at his place as a BOYFRIEND! And I’m his girlfriend? Apparently?!’

Once again, nervousness gripped onto Dark Shadow’s soul and squeezed it until it felt ready to pop. Hot embarrassment scorched her and replicated the sensation of crippling nausea, limited only by her utter inability to vomit from within her host. No matter how much she thrashed and writhed within Fumikage, nothing could successfully work through the painful self-consciousness and shame that tore her apart.

Nothing but the excitement and ecstasy that still ricochetted around her half of their shared soul. Every time it slammed into the divide between Dark Shadow and her host, Fumikage’s own excitement pulsed as though to act as a response to her call.

Dark Shadow wanted to SCREAM until she could not maintain her physical form. Or, barring that, she wanted to curl herself around Izuku and bathe in his warmth and affection and listen to him talk and talk and talk and call her—

Call her…

Dark Shadow curled up as tightly as she could within Fumikage’s body. Despite not taking up any space, she could only ball her soul so small before she could not condense it any further. Even still, she tried to squish herself and crush herself until she would stop feeling that new feeling that she didn’t even have a name for.

Fumikage used his natural authority to take hold of Dark Shadow in her entirety. He did not force her to the surface, respecting her autonomy, but he did pull at her to encourage her to unwind herself. ‘Panicking will grant us no results, my sister. Return and embrace me so that you might be ready for our coming trial.’

Dark Shadow was slow to unfurl. She did not feel exhaustion like her host did, yet she could not deny that everything felt sluggish as she crawled her way back to the surface of Fumikage’s body.

As she felt her soul overlap with her brother’s, she noticed that he was ascending up the stairwell of an apartment building. She felt his own nervousness build slowly and antagonize her own nervousness, threatening a dangerous feedback loop.

Despite this, Fumikage kept his breathing even and his gait remained sure. He took a moment to check the details of Izuku’s address on his phone and then turned into the floor that their beloved lived on.

Dark Shadow pressed herself harder against her brother’s side of their soul, desperately trying to soak up as much of his calmness as she could. It was far, far too late to do anything else. ‘I can’t even fake being sick. I can’t GET sick.’

Fumikage finally arrived at Izuku’s apartment, and he wasted no time knocking on the door. Every rap of his knuckles against the door made Dark Shadow’s core jump. If she had a physical form, she would absolutely need to double check her appearance or perhaps smooth out her dress.

If she had one. Clothes were for humans, after all.

Girlfriends were also for humans, but Izuku had considered her to be a girlfriend too, so wouldn’t that mean that she needed clothes as well?

‘Hey, Fumi? Am I underdressed for this? I mean, it’s not a date or anything, but you didn’t bring anything for me to accessorize with,’ Dark Shadow murmured nervously.

Fumikage’s brow furrowed, and confusion bloomed within his side of the soul. Before he could question his quirk’s last-second inquiry, Izuku’s front door opened wide.

A slightly heavyset woman stood in the doorway, anxiety practically radiating from her form in a matter very similar to Izuku’s own. She was shorter than Izuku, closer to Fumikage’s height, and her straight hair was a much lighter shade of green. Even with the differences, both the birdheaded boy and his quirk recognized the large green eyes that didn’t even try to hide her emotions.

“Oh! You are Tokoyami, correct?” Izuku’s mother wondered out loud. “Izuku had told me that you were coming over today. Did you have any trouble finding our apartment?”

“No, ma’am. It was an easy journey, not even requiring a train ticket to do so,” Fumikage denied politely.

‘No time like the present.’ Dark Shadow gathered as much of her courage as she could, as well as the dark energy that sustained her, and emerged from Fumikage’s chest to hover right beside him. “It gave him time to psyche himself up, too! It’s not every day that you meet your boyfriend’s mom,” she fibbed.

Mrs. Midoriya startled when Dark Shadow lifted herself from her host, but her surprise was swiftly replaced with mirth as she stifled a smile. “And you must be Dark Shadow. Ah, come in, both of you, come in!”

She quickly stepped away from the door to allow Fumikage to enter. As her brother changed out of his outside shoes and into the guest slippers, Dark Shadow decided to take a chance with Mrs. Midoriya and try to relieve some of her nervous energy through chatter. “So, what have you heard about me? Nothing good, right?”

Fumikage sighed harshly and tugged at the tether through the authority of his soul.

“Goodness, no! Izuku has had nothing but good things to say about you and your— ah, your user, I suppose? No, wait, I think he said ‘host’…” Mrs. Midoriya trailed off for a moment before her own anxiety began to climb. “I’m really sorry, I don’t know all that much about quirk science. Izuku was always better at that.”

Dark Shadow waved off Mrs. Midoriya’s apology. “Don’t sweat it, quirks are really weird, even when you study them. I should know! I am one!”

Mrs. Midoriya chuckled lightly and calmed her nerves. She was really similar to Izuku in that regard.

With pleasantries out of the way, Izuku’s mother turned away from Dark Shadow and her host, approached the door with the All Might-brand name placard hanging off the front, and knocked gently against it. “Izuku!” she called out. “Your boyfriend and girlfriend are here!”

All three of them heard a THUMP from inside of Izuku’s room, then a clatter, and then Izuku yanked the door open and instantly locked eyes with Fumikage before his gaze snapped to Dark Shadow.

“Hi,” he squeaked. A blush was already dusted across his freckled cheeks.

“Greetings,” Fumikage replied.

Before the moment could turn awkward, Mrs. Midoriya hurried over to the main door to the rest of their apartment and held it open for the two boys and quirk. “Can I get the two of you anything to drink? If you would be willing to wait, I can prepare a pot of tea,” Izuku’s mother offered.

Dark Shadow barely listened as her brother made his choice and proceeded to explain that she couldn’t eat or drink, being a quirk and all. Instead, her mind was occupied with Izuku and her own mounting anxiety.

She was supposed to be a quirk. Her body was nothing more than a dark energy spawned from the depths of shadow and chaos.

So why did it feel like her heart was racing?

S(he) (can’t) Be(lie)ve

“And of course, Mitsuki was not having any of that,” Inko said through her giggles. “She said (in much harsher words, mind you) ‘Go put on a hero documentary for Izuku, and in exactly one hour, you won’t have to worry about rent ever again.’ I could hardly imagine how she could have convinced the landlord inside of an hour, right up until I heard her screaming. Four entire stories between us and the landlord’s office, and I still had to turn up the volume on the TV to protect Izuku from her profanity!”

Fumikage chuckled quietly, but Dark Shadow openly cackled. “No way, from all the way down there? How did he not go deaf after that?”

Izuku cringed noticeably, and Inko gained a sly glint to her eyes. “Luck, I would imagine. Even to this day, he needs hearing aids, and he has yet to raise our rent since.”

“It appears that karmic justice has embraced its arbiter wholeheartedly,” Fumikage intoned before taking another sip of his tea ominously.

“Something like that,” Inko murmured and swirled the tea in her cup absentmindedly. “She and I have always been close, and I had hoped that Katsuki and Izuku would be the same.”

“We are, Mom, he’s just—” Izuku started to lie.

“And now you have a boyfriend and a girlfriend! At the same time! You’re growing up too fast, Izuku,” Inko said, her eyes gaining a misty sheen to them.

Dark Shadow curled away from the table and drummed her claws against its surface. After Inko had insisted on being polite enough to get the quirk a chair of her own, and Izuku’s encouragement, she had found her place hovering at the fourth side of the small square dining table. She couldn’t exactly sit in the chair, as she didn’t have a real body to sit with, and resting her tether against the seat of the chair felt pointless.

She had never spent so much time outside of Fumikage before, and if she was being honest, she didn’t know how to feel about it. The emotions that came through the tether from her brother’s half of their soul had grown weaker than she had thought possible, like he was an entire prefecture away from her and not within arms reach. She should have gotten exhausted from the constant effort she needed to remain solid enough to exist in the real world, as the lights around the room constantly ate at the edges of the shadows that made up her body.

Izuku had noticed that she was growing quiet because of course he did. Of course he had noticed that the outline of dark energy that kept her together had grown fuzzy and soft. Anyone else might have suggested that Dark Shadow returned inside of her host to gather her energy again.

Well, they actually would have told Fumikage to “put your quirk away.”

Not the Midoriyas. Inko had actually apologized to Dark Shadow herself for exhausting her, as if it was her fault that Dark Shadow wasn’t a real person that could live peacefully in all light levels.

After Izuku and Inko worked together to find the perfect lights around their apartment to use to cast the dining room in just enough darkness for the quirk to recover her energy…

Dark Shadow had no idea what to think. Was this what it meant to be speechless? The absolute silence in her side of the soul, even when she knew that she had to feel something strong enough to tear her mind to pieces?

All because Fumikage had claimed himself to be Izuku’s boyfriend.

She was his girlfriend. But was she really?

She wasn’t real. She didn’t drink or eat or breathe, and she didn’t have a name.

She shouldn’t make Izuku laugh joyously, as if all of the anxiety that had plagued his soul had been cast into the deepest abyss. She shouldn’t color his cheeks with an affectionate blush with cheesy pick-up-lines that made her host cringe. She shouldn’t have been nervous about meeting the one who had given birth to Izuku, the one who had made him far more real than she could ever be.

Dark Shadow was just a quirk. Not a—

A ringtone interrupted everyone and made all but Fumikage jump in their seats. After a beat, Inko rose out of her chair and hurried over to where she had placed her phone and checked it. Dark Shadow recognized the ringtone as one of the many default options that came with the device.

“Hm. It’s your father,” Inko explained with an almost imperceptible frown.

“Hisashi?” Izuku’s brow furrowed. “Isn’t it in the middle of the night for him? I thought he would be sleeping by now.”

“Normally, he would be.” Inko turned to Fumikage and Dark Shadow and bowed apologetically to them. “I am so sorry, I need to take this. I’ll be right outside, okay?”

When Fumikage nodded in acceptance, Inko answered her phone and quickly walked to the exit. “Hisashi, what’s wro— Hisashi slow— Breathe, dear, you’re going to set your phone on fire!”

“On fire…?” Fumikage muttered.

As soon as Inko left the room, Izuku sighed. “My father can breathe fire. Sometimes when he gets too worked up, flames slip out of his mouth.”

“I see.”

No one moved.

“Dark Shadow? Are you okay?” Izuku asked.

“Why me?” Dark Shadow snapped. The silence in her soul cracked, and countless emotions began to leak out and rage against her body. “Why are you doing all of this? Fumi said you were his beloved to get Bakugou off your back, and everyone keeps saying that you and him are boyfriends. Everyone but you. Why?”

“Wh— What?” Izuku stuttered with a lost expression. “I— I didn’t know if Tokoyami wanted to— I mean, we haven’t really talked about—”

“Forget Fumi, what about me? Why did you call me your girlfriend? Why did you turn down the lights and tell your mom about me and— WHY?!” she demanded as the edges of her form sharpened with a maelstrom of horrid feelings.

Izuku only continued looking like a lost puppy. His attention rapidly jumped between Dark Shadow’s beak and her main body as anxiety overtook his composure. “B-Because you are? I thought you— You called me your boy. I thought— I thought you two had decided together that—”

“You weren’t supposed to take that literally! I was doing my part to get that ‘Kacchan’ asshole to back off of you! I’m Fumikage’s quirk, that’s what I’m supposed to do. Why are you treating me like this?!” Dark Shadow hissed. Her form grew as her dark energy fed upon her anger and anxiety.

“Dark Shadow, that’s enough.” The unmistakable authority of Fumikage’s half of their soul made itself known and dug its talons into the tether that connected him and his quirk and began to draw her back. “You’re losing control.”

Dark Shadow violently ripped her side of their soul as far away from her host’s authority as she could. The inevitable draw of his authority still held tight to her tether, slowly eating away at her darkness and autonomy. She flew right into Fumikage’s face and the endless storm of sickening emotions forced her beak into a snarl. “And you’re a coward! You’ve refused to talk to your Beloved about any of this, and you still think you have the right to tell me to shut up about it?”

Fumikage glared at his quirk and his authority doubled its efforts to draw her back inside of him, drawing a harsh growl from the shadow. “Do not change the subject. You are allowing your emotions to run rampant. Return at once.”

“Wait.”

Dark Shadow felt a hand touch the hardened edge of her form.

A small part of her soul desperately wished to lash out with claws at the ready and prove why no one should trust a quirk like her.

“It’s okay,” Izuku said calmly. He did not remove his hand from Dark Shadow.

His hand did not shake at all.

Dark Shadow turned her burning red gaze onto the only human outside of Fumikage’s family that tried to understand her.

Izuku did not flinch. He did not look away. If anything, he looked sad. “You’re not just Tokoyami’s quirk. I’ve only known the two of you for a couple of weeks, but I’m really happy I got to meet the both of you. Even you, Dark Shadow. You’re really kind and you’re always willing to joke around and make me laugh. When you’re teasing me or your brother, I can tell that you’re doing that because you like us.”

Dark Shadow felt her rage bleed out of her like a gushing wound. Her form shrank and softened, but the moment she lost the will to fight against Fumikage’s authority, it had also pulled away from her, leaving her feeling empty and exhausted. There was plenty of room for regret, horror, shame, and sorrow to saturate her side of the split soul and weigh her down until she laid flat on the tabletop. “Stop it. It doesn’t matter,” she groaned. “I can’t not like my host. I can’t get away from him.”

“You’re still kind to me, though,” Izuku pointed out. His hand shifted over to rest against the back of Dark Shadow’s form and he lowered his head to address her at eye level. “And if what Ashido said was true, you thought about me when things went badly at UA. I can understand if you would rather stop pretending to have me as a boyfriend, but please don’t think that you don’t deserve to be a girlfriend.”

“That is hardly—” Fumikage tried, only to be interrupted by his quirk.

“How could I not?! I’m not real, dammit!” Dark Shadow snapped and slid away from Izuku, settling into the seat that Inko had provided her as if she was another guest of the house.

“But you are!”

“I don’t have a body, Izuku. I can’t eat, I can’t drink, I can’t shit, I can’t even feel anything, not like you and Fumi can.” Never for her to dunk her claws into cool water on a hot day. Dark Shadow buried her beak into her claws. It didn’t matter how heavy her form became, or how sickened she felt at her own existence. Tears would not come to her glowing yellow eyes, and she had no cheeks for them to run down either.

“You’re scared.” Dark Shadow heard Izuku push himself away from the table, circle around it, and again place his hand against her back as a show of comfort. “And you’re sad. You can feel happy and you can feel angry and— I’m sure there’s a lot of other things you can feel, and I think that’s what’s important. Your quirk might limit your sense of touch, but it doesn’t make you less of a person.”

“Dammit, Izuku, I don’t even have a NAME! Humans have families that love them and NAME them!” she snapped again, lifting her head to glare at Izuku for saying so many hopeful and hollow things. She was certain that if she was truly real, she would never survive the crushing pressure against her core that would drive all the wind from her lungs.

“Dark Shadow, you do—”

“See?! That’s all I am. Dark Shadow. Fumikage’s quirk,” Dark Shadow insisted.

“Do you want a name?” Izuku asked.

No one moved.

“What?”

“Do you want to have a name?” he asked again.

Dark Shadow froze.

A quirk shouldn’t want anything. Humans want things, and humans can get them. Quirks are only supposed to be a part of their humans, existing only as an extension of them. Quirks do not have feelings or desires.

Dark Shadow loves.

Dark Shadow hates.

Dark Shadow wants.

“Our family has discussed such an option with Dark Shadow before,” Fumikage finally explained. “When our parents had learned of her sentience, they had offered to name her just as they did with me. At the time, she had turned down the offer, content with Dark Shadow.”

“I wasn’t,” she admitted quietly. Her eyes fell to her claws. She watched the edges of her solid form waver in an uncertain fashion. She couldn’t care to fix it.

Neither Izuku nor Fumikage said anything, both of them waiting for Dark Shadow to explain herself.

“Dark Shadow is what I am. Just a quirk. But I’m…” She hesitated. “I’m not. No one gets it. No one cares. I won’t get a birth certificate, and no one outside of our— no one outside our family would call me anything but a quirk. I thought it didn’t matter. I tried not to care.”

She couldn’t look at her host— her brother— in fear of what expression he could be making. She still couldn’t feel his emotions. Was he confused? Shocked? Was he disgusted and angry? She couldn’t feel him. She couldn’t feel anything.

She felt Izuku’s hand pressing against her back.

It was almost warm.

“You do care, don’t you?” Izuku murmured rhetorically.

After a moment of hesitation, Dark Shadow nodded. Something deep within her, among the confusing mass of feelings that she shouldn’t be capable of feeling, took hold of her throat and squeezed until her beak would not make any noise at all. She couldn’t even swallow the feeling down without a real throat to swallow with.

Izuku hummed to himself. “Have you thought about giving yourself a name just for you and your family? I would call you by your name too, if you want.”

Something burned within Dark Shadow. It could not climb up above the putrid lump of hatred and sorrow, but it refused to be extinguished.

Fumikage did not answer in her stead. His emotions did not make it across the tether.

She didn’t want to look at him. She didn’t know what his reaction would be to—

She looked at her brother.

He looked back at her. His hands were carefully wrapped around the teacup that Inko had given him. His expression was locked in place, and his concern was painfully obvious to her.

Fumikage would not answer for his sister.

Something BURNED within her and scorched the edges of the lump that yearned to crush the throat she did not have. It curled away from her soul, once more leaving her empty.

Her soul was quiet. Her mind was silent. Her voice was soft.

“Hikari.”

“What was that?”

“Hikari. I—” Her words failed her. She could not swallow. But she could be brave, or at least get the words out before they too were consumed by the burning sensation that might have been anticipation.  “I thought of it when Fumi was asleep one night and I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t think I would ever get to— that I would ever be called it. Still… I like it. The name. Hikari, spelled like light.”

“Hikari,” Izuku said quietly, as though he was tasting the name on his tongue. “I think it suits you. You’re brighter than your brother. And you can’t have shadows without the light. I like it, too. It’s really pretty.”

Hikari turned her attention to Izuku. His smile was radiant and proud. His cheeks were dusted with a red tint. He was happy for her. He was happy to call her Hikari.

He was happy that she was real.

Hikari burned.

“Can I try something?” Hikari asked in a whisper, slowly rising from the chair she was hovering over and twirling around to be face to face with Izuku. “Please?”

Izuku did not stop smiling, but it did falter slightly from confusion. “I guess? I-I mean, yes, please do, Hikari.”

Everything burned. Her soul felt hot and empty, like it was missing something important that she didn’t have a name for. Whatever it was, Dark Shadow did not have it, and could never know what it was.

But maybe, just maybe, Hikari could find out.

Hikari wanted to find out.

Her claws softened like warm clay, both of them melting into hands of darkness with no claws. Each one rested against the sides of Izuku’s head with her palms just next to his adorable, diamond-shaped freckles.

The boy that had claimed her to be his girlfriend blushed at the contact.

Hikari WANTED.

She closed her eyes, pulled Izuku in close, and pressed her beak against Izuku’s lips.

He almost felt warm.

Against the burning hot sensation that she still didn’t have a name for…

Hikari pulled away as disappointment smothered the feeling within her, and when she opened her eyes, she—

Izuku’s entire face resembled a tomato, so red that it nearly hid his freckles from view. His eyes were as wide as saucers of liquid emerald and saw absolutely nothing. A sound tried to escape his slightly parted lips, but it was much closer to a whistling tea kettle in another room than anything a human could make.

All at once, all of the emotions that Hikari could have felt fell away from her side of her shared soul, and something with no name burned her from the inside out. She felt her beak twisting into a pleased smile and drifted closer to Izuku’s face once again and purred, “Thank you, Izuku~”

Izuku squeaked, still incapable of speech from Hikari’s kiss.

Hikari burned with love. A single touch was all it took to render Izuku dumb and blind all because of love. He loved her, and she loved him. She could hardly imagine all the things he would do for her as her boyfriend. What other sounds would he make if she just kept kissing him? What sounds would he make if she bit him?

She wanted to find out. Hikari pulled Izuku in for another kiss, once again pressing her beak against his lips with obvious need and desire. Her claws dug into the sides of his head to keep the two of them connected for as long as Izuku could handle. What would he do if she—?

Inko stepped back into the room. “I am so sorry that took so—”

Hikari yanked herself away from Inko’s son and held her claws, still unbloodied, up and away from him.

Inko stared at Hikari as her mouth dropped open in shock.

“Mrs Midoriya, I can explain—” Fumikage started to defend his sister.

“Sorry, I’ll give you three a little more time together,” Inko finally said as an embarrassed smile overtook her expression before she whirled around to grant Hikari and her boyfriend privacy.

It was only then that Hikari realized that she had been caught trying to make out with Izuku by his mother, all while she had done so in front of her own brother. Of all the things that she had expected to happen that day, being walked in on was NOT among them.

Hikari had no idea what to do, or what to feel, in such a unique situation. So she did the only thing she knew she could do.

In an instant, she retreated back to the depths of Fumikage’s body and buried herself in the deepest parts of their shared soul. Down there, she couldn’t embarrass Izuku further.

Plus, all alone with nothing but her thoughts and feelings, she could finally deal with the burning craving her boyfriend had given her.

She only hoped that Izuku felt the same way that she did.

Awkward Love

Fumikage stared into his teacup as his mind raced faster than it ever had before. He couldn’t even begin to parse out all of his thoughts and feelings. The only thing he was certain of is that all of the feelings were his.

Even the desire that threatened to burn straight through the feathers on his face.

Izuku sighed harshly as he visibly tried to calm his heart rate down to a less dangerous level. “Mom’s never going to let me hear the end of this…”

“Indeed,” Fumikage said awkwardly.

Neither boy moved. Both of them felt the heat on their faces that his quirk— his sister— Hikari had caused by her obvious desire.

Izuku coughed. “S-So, um… Did you—- Do you feel the same? The same as Hikari? About me?”

“It is…” Fumikage trailed off as he searched for the right words to use. When his eloquence failed him in its entirety, he elected to just use the truth and hope for the best. “Hikari feels things in ways that no one can. Her emotions are much stronger than mine.”

“R-Right, due to her being a quirk. Basically just emotions and darkness,” Izuku agreed.

“Precisely. Still, her attraction to you is not unique to just her. I had called you my Beloved to protect you because you are, as they say, very cute.” The moment the compliment left Fumikage’s beak, he wished that he could steal it straight from the air and burn it atop a pyre.

“Oh,” Izuku squeaked. The deep coloration of his blush returned with a vengeance, as though it was mocking both boys at once.

Neither of them said anything.

“Am I still your Beloved?” Izuku asked quietly.

Fumikage hesitated. “Do you want to be?”

Izuku did not hesitate. He nodded.

Fumikage nodded with a pleased smile on his beak. “Very well. Shall we see what had occurred with your father, Beloved?”

His boyfriend, cute and compassionate as could be, broke out into a bright smile. “Yeah. We should. We sh-should, B-Beloved.”

Yup. Fumikage was just as screwed as Hikari was. Oh well.