In the shadow of bright light

7 - Kissaphobic

Chapter 7

It was a few days after that rainy day, and I found myself at the door of the famed Elysium prison. I wished I could've discussed this with just about anyone else, but everyone else who knows of the situation I'm in, disapproved my choice to turn back to 17, so if I told them I wasn't sure if I could be with Oboro now...

I don't even want to imagine that scenario.

Walking into the hospital like entrance, I arrived at the front desk. "Hi, I'm here to see Touya Todoroki. Is he in?" The lady behind the counter looked me up and down. "Ah." She said as if she knew who I was.

"You must be the young lady Mr. Aizawa mentioned." Oh crud. She actually does know who I am. Does she know about who I am? It's better not to risk it... looks like we'll have to take this outside.

"Could be. Can you see if he's here?" I repeated my question. She chewed her gum loudly while narrowing her eyes. She gave me an obviously fake smile and walked away, and returned several minutes later with Dabi.

"Narumi?" He seemed surprised to see me, on the contrary of his confidence when he declared my 'maybe' meant 'yes'.

"Ah... shall we talk outside?" I nudged him out of the building, away from anyone who might know about my situation and tell someone who's involved.

As we walked, we automatically wandered into a park. I noticed a particular slide that sheltered me from the rain a few days earlier. My gaze shot to the tall man walking calmly by my side. Am I really about to discuss that with him?

"So..." I started, "Did you ever get back in contact with your family?" I managed to break the silence and grab his attention. "Hm?" His face didn't differ much from his neutral expression, but a forlorn smile showed itself.

"Ah... I did contact them." He halted his steps for a moment, but regained his rhythmic pace soon after. "They... weren't interested. I don't blame them, I was horrible to them even before I became Dabi. I just wish I could at least see Natsuo or Fuyumi."

He used to talk so fondly of them back when I was undercover, so I always just figured they'd welcome him back with open arms. I huffed, letting him know I didn't agree with his statement.

"They were horrible to you, weren't they?" Even though he wasn't looking directly at me, I could still see how his eyes widened. His head turned my way. "That may be, but-" I reached up to shut him up with my index finger.

"You deserve their forgiveness just as much as they deserve yours." My hand fell on it's place by my side again. "They may just need time. They believed you to be dead, for gods sake." I cracked a smile to lighten the mood. "I'm sure they'll come around."

Another forlorn smile appeared on his duo-colored lips before they moved. "Thank you." We continued walking in silence for a while. This time, he was the one to break the silence.

"Was there something you needed to talk about?" How did he know? I figured my face gave away what I was thinking, when he spoke up again, "You mentioned wanting to visit me to take a look inside Elysium, yet you requested we take a walk outside. Now I don't mind either way but..."

"There is something, yes." I hit one of the bigger pebbles on the path with my shoe to send it flying into the grass. "But don't feel too confident about me coming to you with this." I pouted.

Strangely he didn't look overly cocky I came to talk to him about this. Rather, he looked quite calm and composed, he did ever since I first saw him after him being in Elysium. It makes me wonder what they did to him in there...

"I did kind of want to ask for your help, or rather, your advice?" This grabbed his attention. He pointed at himself. "Mine? I'm not exactly the person to go to for advice, you know." He remarked.

"I'm well aware of your past choices, but this is something only you can help me with." I paused before continuing, as he seemed to be okay with it. "You're no doubt aware I turned back to 17, and I did it... well, to be with Shirakumo. To keep him safe but also..." I felt a pair of bright blue eyes fixed on my head as I looked at the pebbles on the path in front of us.

I swallowed the lump in my throat away. "Also because I love him. And I wanted to be with him." It felt weird having to say this out loud, since most people just knew that to be the reason. Even weirder was telling this to a man who was once infatuated with me to which I pretended to feel the same.

"But now that I've gone all this way, there's still so many secrets I'm keeping from him. And the age gap he's unaware of... I'm just not sure if I can live with myself, lying to him every day." I sighed in defeat.

He burst out in a fit of laughter. Did I just make an accidental pun or something? I pondered some more but there's nothing I could think of that could've been that funny. Instead, I raised one of my eyebrows, as if asking what's so funny.

He sighed with the smile from earlier still on his mouth. "Are you really gonna make me say it out loud?" His azure irises so bright, it almost hurt my own eyes to look in them. It was as if they tried to talk to me, warn me of a danger that was coming, but it was in a language I didn't speak.

He gulped. "I still like you too, you know?" He averted his eyes, his face finally portraying an emotion; embarrassment. His cheeks flushed for a few seconds, in contrast to mine, who felt like they were on fire for several minutes.

Did he just confess?? Wait isn't this the second time?! "B-but I'm not Kurai anymore!! That was all just an act! I'm sure you're just in lo-" He copied what I did earlier, and placed the tip of his index finger on my lips.

"I know you were acting, even so it was still you." His eyes... they looked at me the same way they used to when I promised to be his forever. A promise I broke, nonetheless. "I know you were trying to be with him, but if you're doubtful about whether you actually want that..."

Oh no. What have I done? I didn't mean to let him think he has a chance!

However... it would be rude to just flat out tell him that, right? Even if it wouldn't be, I don't think I even have the courage to do so. Besides, he's been nothing but good to me.

...And maybe saying he has no chance at all wouldn't be the truth anyways.

Made our way to the exit of the park, both too flushed to say anything. I never thought about whether his feeling for me would've changed with Elysium's treatment or not. But after seeing how much he changed... part of me believed that love would've been gone too.

Passing some older buildings, I started hearing voices in a small alleyway that seemed to be a dead end. "...heard that he forbid anyone else from going there." One of the voices mentioned. It sounded like a middle aged man, and one that smoked a lot at that.

"Who does he think he is? An old pal of mine said he got hurt when he escaped that hero raid a few months back." The first man scuffed. "He was lame before, I mean, who names their organization 'the league of villains'?"

I stopped walking to continue listening. Dabi appeared to have heard the name as well, but instead of stopping to listen, he looked eager to leave.

"Wasn't he going to challenge those who opposed him or something? We should back those heroes up and take him out once and for all." I couldn't quite tell if they were vigilantes or villains themselves, but one thing was for sure; they knew something about Shigaraki.

Published: 19/06/2021
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Yikes, work is stressing me out so this is late. Again. My sincerest apologies.
I will fix any errors in this later.