Blue Madness (Touya/Dabi x Reader)

X. The one they call Blueflame

I'd only been home about ten hours, and despite my post-trip exhaustion, the evening was dragging on.

My parents, just as Fuyumi had predicted, had been overjoyed to see me on their doorstep. Thus, that evening, over a delicious dinner cooked by Dad, we had shed many - many - tears, both of joy and sadness.

For long hours, we talked about everything, just trying to catch up the time we had lost. Indeed, although I had given my parents some news over the last two years, our conversations had always been rather brief. That night, however, for the first time in far too long, I had been totally transparent with them about the somewhat nomadic life I'd led, telling them about almost all the experiences I'd had during my travels - keeping the more intimate anecdotes to myself, of course.

We also talked about what I was planning to do in the near future. I told them that a few days before I left the USA, at Fuyumi's suggestion, I had applied for the position of clinical nurse at Hosu General Hospital. They'd nearly had a heart attack when they heard about it, only too happy to see their daughter trying to get on with her life. Although I was still waiting to hear back from the hospital's HR department, the mere fact that I'd sent in my CV was, in my parents' eyes, an achievement in itself.

Naturally, during our long discussion, the subject "Touya" inevitably came up.

In the first few years after his death, my parents had hardly dared to mention his name, since the reactions I had when I heard it were out of proportion. Later, they had simply stopped talking about him, considering the subject taboo. That evening, however, I had turned the discussion over to him. I finally felt ready to talk with them about the best friend I had so sadly lost.

For almost an hour, I had reminisced, telling them a little more about our secret meetings at Sekoto Peak. For all those years, my parents had known only the bare minimum about it; that is, that I was healing my friend because his Quirk was burning him. However, the time had come to tell them more. After all, I didn't really have to lie anymore; Touya had passed away and I was no longer a kid doing something behind her parents' backs.

I'd finally told them part of the truth, confessing that Enji Todoroki had once ordered his son to stop training, and that Touya had disobeyed because of me. I had also told them that I felt horribly guilty for having helped my best friend chase the unattainable dream of becoming the hero who would surpass All Might, since in doing so, I had indirectly provoked his death. Mom had hugged me and cried, telling me again and again that I had nothing to do with it, that his death had been a terrible accident and that I had perhaps, on the contrary, allowed my friend to live longer - because, according to her, if I hadn't been there to look after him, Touya might have burnt himself to death much earlier.

Needless to say, I didn't go so far as to mention the domestic and child abuse I'd witnessed in the Todoroki household during my youth. My parents were never to learn of Enji's wife-beating and rape, as well as his mistreatment of his children. Otherwise, not only would I have betrayed the promise I'd made to Touya and Fuyumi never to speak of it, but I'd also have betrayed Natsuo, Rei and Shouto. Besides, if my parents had the misfortune to go to the police with this information, they'd be in big trouble, since it was unlikely that the situation would have improved over time. Moreover, Enji always had to have friends in high places. So, once again, I had kept the dark side of the story to myself.

Thus, after chatting for so long, when we finally decided to go to bed, it was already a little after midnight. With an unspeakable nostalgia, I returned to my old room and found, with a lump in my throat, that nothing had been moved. During the two years I'd been away, Mom had continued to clean my room on a weekly basis, but she'd never gone through my things or thrown anything away.