Too Deep In Your Skin
Chapter 1
Childhood friends, Touya Todoroki x reader. Also read on Ao3 (more in depth notes/tags)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dabi’s POV
A smile. Something that happens to come by so easily with happy people. Stupid fucking happy people with their fucking carefree lives. People like that just don't understand—don't understand hatred, the pain, don't understand any of his shit. Not that he'd share his fucking life story to someone. Touya, Dabi doesn't remember the last time he smiled with happiness. Well, not since her.
Fuck. Not again. You don't have time for that.
Dabi could technically smile if he wanted to, all he needs to do is just think of her, literally anything about her. Her messy hair that never grew back perfectly from being chopped miserably from the salon. He remembered her being so fucking pissed.
“I swear it looked good when they were cutting it!”
You kept ruffling your hair, twisting and pulling trying to make it at least a little more presentable. Touya couldn't contain his laughter on their way to walk back home from school, the two teens would always walk together back and to school. You just rolled your eyes.
“I am never going to forget this, you know what—” Touya pulled out his phone and took pictures of your shitty hair, cracking some mediocre ass jokes along the way.
“Would you stop already!”
Whoops. Yeah that might have been pushing it too far, though Touya was always known for pushing it too far.
“How ‘bout I fix it for you when we get to your house?”
And thats how two, 12 year old idiots manage to make a fuck ass haircut even more fucked up. Hair was all over the floor and on your shirt, Touya genuinely felt bad for you. He really tried, but in the end he realized that a barber would not be a good job for him. Not that he wanted to be one anyway. When both of yall came out to the living room, leaving the bathroom with a hairy mess, your older brother screamed with laughter.
“Holy shit- what the fuck happend? DAD! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS SHIT!”
Your dad– a single father of two just sighed and shaked his head when he saw the mess that yall made.
“At least it ain’t drugs.” He muttered.
Stop. Stop thinking about her.
But he couldn’t. He would never admit it outloud, but in reality, all he could do was think about her. He tried burying you deep, deep down in a place he couldn’t reach. Nevertheless, her giggle lives in his ears and he can still feel the pressure of her rosy cheeks up against his own.
Dabi sighs and brings his palms to his face, rubbing them up and down. It's easy to forget. It is easy to throw away memories and to hate or be angry at you instead of accepting the cruel, agonizing fact that you—are in fact—gone.
He first met you at school. It was 5th grade in the middle of the school year. His teacher made you introduce yourself in front of the board. Touya first noticed your flushed cheeks and your bright blue sneakers. Wait a damn minute– shes fucking taller than him! (although he quickly outgrew you in the next few years)
You quickly said your name to the class and began your—definitely not practiced—introduction (He also thought your Japanese was shitty, which was honestly a bit true).
“Hello! I recently moved from the U.S. I really like music, dancing, and uh talking! I'm really excited for this year.”
Boy did he find out you were not kidding when you said you loved talking. Ever since the teacher placed you next to him in class, you would not stop talking and asking him questions.
“WOW, I love your hair!”
It's not even that great.
“Whats your favorite color?”
what a fucking basic question.
“...”
“Yeah, blue is my favorite color too.”
WHAT. HOW THE HECK DID SHE FIGURE THAT OUT. (you just took a random guess which happened to be correct) That led to Touya asking you his first question.
“What quirk do you have? A mind reading one?”
You huff and roll your eyes, “Why is that question always the first thing people say to each other? It’s honestly so tiring, there are so many more fun questions out there! Like how’s your day? Or what’s something interesting you did? Even asking what your favorite color is more fun than asking about stupid quirks!”
“I don’t know! It’s just a question, you don’t have to get all mad!” Touya wasn’t used to kids talking to him much, especially having arguments about how stupid questions can be.
You stared at him for a couple seconds until continuing.
“To answer your stupid question, I don't have one yet, OK? My dad said I'm just a late bloomer. To be honest, I think he just says that to make me feel better. I rather have no quirk than having some stupid spray bottle for a head. Like why the hell would you live with a spray bottle head than having no quirk at all? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! Then you have people who are born with everything you could ask for. My brother has this really cool arrow quirk. He can pull arrows out of his tattoos! Isn't that so awesome? If you had a tattoo, what would ya get? I think I would get a really cool arm sleeve with inky clouds. My dad’s quirk is some quirk that helps him aim, like he usually never misses any shot he hits. Makes him really useful in the marines. I really hope I get some quirk like theirs—if I even get one. I don’t really have high hopes to be honest.”
You were running off your mouth crazy while all Touya could think was when you would ever shut up.
“What about your mom?”
If she was gonna talk all day, he should at least learn more about her.
“...” He noticed your smile faltering. “I don’t have one”
Huh?
“Ok, well of course i had a mom you dummy! If she didn't exist, I wouldn’t even be here!”
Sometimes Touya had no common sense at all. You didn’t really elaborate, because who gives a sob story of their mom being a deadbeat when meeting someone for the first time?
“Anyway, tell me more about you! It's not fair if you only know all about me, I’m curious—what’s even your name?”
He remembered you smiling so brightly and tilting your head. No one really talked to him as a kid—even being the son of the number two hero, he had no friends.
I don't need friends. Not when you're too busy training to be the next greatest hero.
He’s content with being alone if that makes him the strongest. Now this random ass kid from a random ass place suddenly starts talking to him like he’s the most fascinating person on earth?!
He took a deep breath and sighs before saying his name.
“Touya Todoroki”
This is the part where everyone opens their stupid mouths and says, “Wow you’re Endeavor's son! You will be a great hero someday!”, and then all the kids try to talk to him, not because of how “interesting” Touya is, but rather because his father is Endeavor, then quietly and slowly leave him when they realize that he is not as interesting as they expected of him to be.
“...did you know if you write your initials in english, it would be two T’s? Like TT, kinda like the crying emoji!”
You got to be shitting me. Does she even know my father is Endeavor?!
“Ok, because you asked about my parents, who are yours?”
“My father is Endeavor! The number two hero! Oh and my mom is uh my mom.”
“...Who the fuck is Endeavor?”
“...”
Fearing that you might have made your newly made acquaintance upset, you ask him another question to move the conversation along.
“What’s your quirk then?”
With that question, Touya lit up like a flame, “I have an awesome quirk, better than everyone else in this room!”
“Yeah, have fun with that buddy.”
You grabbed homework that the teacher was passing out while Touya stared at you with a scoff. He might have looked annoyed, but he would be lying if he said he didn't want to talk more.
Ever since that day, the two of you became closer and closer, practically inseparable.
So why did everything have to go downhill? Why did I had to fuck everything up?
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dabi’s POV
Dabi’s arms felt like hell. Being the league of villains’ prymanic is no easy task. After a relatively successful mission for once, his whole body was steaming, and he smelt like burnt flesh. Usually most of his injuries were self-inflicted from his quirk, but today, he was sloppy and unfocused. He knew the reason why— a certain someone kept creeping back into his mind, stubborn and inescapable. Of course he would never admit this out loud, he even likes to pretend that he’s not thinking of her.
A walking dead man, that's what I am.
As much as Dabi wanted to fall down, and pass out on the cold, hard road, there could be heroes patrolling in the alleyways. Heroes recently have been getting more strict around these parts, he might need to relocate soon.
Sighing, he treads back to a familiar, old raggedy ass building. At least the alcohol there is decent.
Damn. I could really use a drink right now. Bourbon? Or Vodka? Fuck it, just drink both.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------Your POV
Your life isn’t the easiest, but hey? At least you got yourself a roof over your head and mediocre food to eat.
Damn, I sound like my old man.
The apartment where you live isn't the best, it's old and has cracked fading walls. It's a small one bedroom, one bathroom, the tiniest kitchen unit ever to exist on earth, and just enough room for an old, raggedy, beige couch that you have a bit too much emotional attachment to. The rent is relatively cheap (which was definitely a key factor when you were looking for a place) and the heating is so fucked up to the point you think there is no heating in the first place. The faucets sometimes leak and it’s not particularly in the best part of town. Heroes tend to skip patrolling allowing for more shit to happen in the streets. Unfortunately the tattoo and piercing shop you work at thrives in shitty towns. At least your apartment is quite close to the shop, allowing you to have a short commute to work.
Speaking of which, you’re going to be late if you don’t leave soon. Throwing some shit on and trying to look a little presentable, you grab your keys and bag. It’s 6:00 am, and you need to open up the shop and set up everything. Today is going to be very busy with many appointments planned. You're thankful that you have coworkers, but not even all of yall can have breaks with the ungodly amount of people coming in today.
Running straight to the shop in less than ten minutes, you put your keys in the door and pray that none of your shit was stolen or broken into—which as you check around the shop, you were safe for now.
After setting up, the next hours passed as a blur. You had your clients with appointments for tattoos and some walk-ins for piercings. Your coworkers arrived later, just in time when business started to slow down (just great…) and handled the rest of the clients, so you took a much needed break by taking over the front desk. As much as piercing people is fun, having to do the same lobe piercing over 20 times in one day is a bit boring. You sighed as you slouched over the counter, flipping through tattoo designs. You do some tattooing but you mainly prioritize piercing.
Just as you were about to take a nap on that damn magazine you heard the bells on the door chime. You look up from the counter, disappointed that your small break was over. Sighing, you put the magazine away and look to see who entered the shop.
It was a teen with blonde hair a little past her shoulders while wearing a black, surgical mask. Dressed in a school uniform, she wandered in the shop looking at the displays. Obviously she was supposed to be in school.
Oh great. Lemme guess, she wants a belly or nose piercing but doesn’t have an id?
Wiping the tiredness of your face and putting on your best professional face, you spoke to the teen.
“Welcome! Is this a walk-in or appointment?”
“Walk-in…Oh wow! I love your snake bites!”
“Aw thanks. Are you interested in any piercings?”
I swear I’ve seen her face before somewhere, but I just can't place it…
You were debating if you wanted to be the responsible adult or the adult who is bitchass poor and needs extra cash. You decided to be the bitchass poor adult, to be honest, this kid probably isn't even enrolled in any school. Being in the town you are, you get your shady clients quite frequently. You just never had a teen like this before.
The teen’s yellow eyes sparkled when she looked at the lobe piercings.
“These earrings look cute! Can I get them today?”, she pointed to some gold earrings, though they were on the pricey side.
Does she even have money?
You wanted to say something but her grin was just so off putting you decide not to deal with that.
“Sure. You got an ID?”
Fuck why did you say that? She obviously doesn't have one!
“You need an ID for a piercing!? Mannn I didn't bring mine, it's all the way home and I don’t think I have time to get it before the shop closes…”
You honestly didn’t have the time to argue with a teen who is more than likely to be on her own, besides you dealt with tons of sketchy clients before, a teen is practically nothing.
“Fine, I’ll give you an exception, just know that most pierces won’t do this…”
After sighing, you motion the teen to follow you through the back of the shop.
“Here, just sit at the chair right there”, motioning to the chair in the corner. You turn your back to wash your hands and prepare stainless steel tools on a tray.
“So, what's your name kid?”
“Him-, uh, Hikaro!”
“Your name is HimHikaro?”
God damn, who in the fuck names their kid that?
“UH NO! Not even shitty parents would name their child a name like that. I said Hikaro, not whatever you just heard.”
“Oh man, my bad.”
What in the actual fuck is this kid on?
You pull a pair of disposable gloves and grab an antiseptic wipe to clean Hikaro’s earlobe.
“You’ll feel a quick pinch just so you know, don’t worry, it's nothing too bad.”, you mark a small dot on her ear to make sure the piercing aligns. You notice Hikaro looking in the mirror slightly nervous, perhaps this is her first time getting a piercing? Using the sterile needle, you make a quick precise motion through the spot, and immediately insert a small stud earring that she picked out earlier. After securing the backing, you wiped the area one more time and motioned Hikaro to look at the mirror.
“All done! It wasn't too bad, right?”, you say with a small smile. “Just make sure to clean it twice a day and try not to touch it while it heals. If you clean it improperly, you might get an infection, ok?”
Hikaro smiled wide as she looked at the mile, eyes glinting with her piercing shining as well.
“Oh, and the piercings on me, don’t worry about it.”
“Really?! Thank you!”
“Yeah, no problem.”
I actually just don’t give a fuck and I realize you dont have any money and this was a complete waste of my time, so I just want to get home early. Yes, I am being the irresponsible adult today.
She hopped out of the chair and walked past you as you stretched in front of the mirror and sigh. Looking into your reflection, you internally cry.
Damn.
Your dark circles and untamed hair (not to mention hair loss) is not helping you feel better. Your back is hurting, your posture isn’t even in the same room with you, and if you die, your cause of death would be that constant dull headache at the back of your head.
Little you would be so disappointed if she saw you in the mirror. Little you would say, “Get yo ass up right now and STOP BEING A BUM!”.
You groan and watch the strange teen walk away giddy outside the shop, while you start cleaning up the studio. Most of your coworkers clocked out already, so you’re closing the shop today. Looking through your drawers of supplies, you notice some of the piercing tools and anesthetic spray is missing.
What the in the actual fuck, I just restocked my supplies.
Half of the piercing needles were missing and 3 of the aftercare piercing sprays were completely gone. Even the bin where you contain the alcohol wipes looked like it was raided through.
Sure—you can be a bit forgetful sometimes, but you aren't dumb.
THAT SCHOOLGIRL BITCH! FUCKING HELL! I knew she was suspicious! Little shit.
“Great! Now I have to restock half of my supplies! This is just awesome!”, you scream and tug your hair at the scalp.
Anyone watching you would’ve thought you belong to a psych ward. Alone, yelling in a dark room and talking to yourself whilst waving your arms in the air. Completely normal. Ah—what wonders a job can do to a person.
