Leave Me Here To Burn

by FireFaceOutlook

Summary:

“What have you done...?” Fuyumi croaked, drawing not only her father's eye, but Touya's, and it took what little strength she had to not join his cries. He must've tried to turn and face their father while being burned, because the blackened marks extended up the right side of his neck, curling around his collarbones, his jaw, and even under his swelled-shut eye, which was such a bloody mess that she feared that he'd lost it.

Notes:

A/N: The Great Escape that should've been!

 

Shouto = seven
Natsuo = ten
Fuyumi = thirteen
Touya = seventeen

 

This takes place after the work in my Dabi Week 2018 series (which is the first part of this series). You don't have to read it before you read this, but it's highly recommended; it's not that long, and it's essentially the backstory that birthed this one. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The Future's In Our Hands And We Will Never Be The Same Again

“Fuyumi.”

This wasn't the first time that the only daughter of number two hero Endeavor heard her older brother calling for her in her dreams. Usually, though, he was screaming it – pleading through tears for her to cease rubbing ointment over his fresh burns, or yelling at her to go to her room when their father was in a mood. This time he sounded calm, almost peaceful; she couldn't ever recall hearing him sound like that. He had always been on edge, or in pain, or afraid. It was a nice change... just one that she wished she could've witnessed in the waking world, before he'd disappeared and was presumed dead, a lost cause, to the world.

“Fuyumi...”

Her heart clenched painfully. She was standing in the middle of a blizzard – her safe spot, where she retreated in her mind when she wanted to block out the sound of her father's yells, Shouto's cries, Natsuo's tantrums. Through the blinding snow, a figure was approaching her. Feeling heat and smelling smoke, even with the distance between them, she knew who it was.

“Fuyumi!”

The snow faded from her vision as her eyes opened, and she would've screamed at the sight of a figure towering over her in her bedroom had they not clamped a warm, calloused hand over her mouth. The heat and scent increased as they leaned closer and even in the dark, she could make out azure eyes, almost appearing to be glowing. They were familiar, so, so familiar.

“Touya...?” she whispered, prying the hand from her face.

A crooked grin crossed his face, a breathy laugh escaping him as she sat up and wrapped her arms around his chest, burying her face in his shirt. He returned the embrace, fingers carding through her hair, as if he were the one who could hardly believe they were reuniting. She pulled back with much reluctance a moment later, wiping her eyes with trembling, frost-covered fingers; she pretended not to see the watermarks on his own face.

For a moment they just sat there, staring at one another, as if imprinting the memory of each other, just in case. Touya had four close-set earrings in each ear, and a triple nose piercing on the right side. Bags clung to the undersides of his eyes, and he was a bit more lean than she thought was healthy.

In Touya's opinion, Fuyumi hadn't changed one bit – physically, anyway. She had a tired air around her, clinging as tightly to her as the constant fear she refused to acknowledge. He'd noticed it even when she was sleeping; it made his blood boil with anger towards their father. It reminded him too much of their mother.

“What are you doing here?” she finally asked, taking one of his hands in her own, now just noticing the bandages encasing his arms from his elbows to his palms. “Father declared you dead; Natsuo and I thought you left the country!”

“I'm sorry it took me so long to come back.” He sucked his bottom lip between his teeth briefly, looking terribly guilty as he admitted lowly, “I almost didn't...” He squeezed her hand. “I wasn't ready to face him, not after...” He made a vague gesture towards his face, where angry red marks on his jaw and throat remained, even though months had passed since the incident. “I'm stronger now, though. I'm... I can't stay here, but I'm not leaving without you guys.”

Fuyumi's breath caught in her throat. “You-”

Touya smiled again, broad and proud. “I have a job, and I found a cheap apartment a couple weeks ago.” He barreled on before she could ask where he'd been living before then. “It's small, and dingy, but it could be home, if you guys were there.”

She covered her mouth, nervous snow crystals riding her breath as it left, hardly able to believe this was happening. She'd wanted so badly for their family to be whole, but after the incident with Shouto and Mom...

“Okay.” She returned his smile, smaller but no less sure. “Let's go get the others.”

Collecting their first brother was simple. Ever since Touya vanished, Natsuo practically spent every day counting down to when he could leave the house and never be under their father's heel again. He'd been shocked into silence upon seeing their older brother, and she was pretty sure he nearly crushed Touya's ribs with his hug. (She didn't say anything, but it seemed to her that Touya had thought that Natsuo would be mad at him.) Getting Shouto was the complicated part of the whole thing. Fuyumi had taken the time to explain to the eldest that their mother had been submitted to a psychiatric hospital after burning Shouto a few months ago, and the temperature had spiked so sharply that she almost feared that the room would combust, but Touya only seemed more determined to go through with his plan. Sending Fuyumi and Natsuo to pack as much as they could, Touya went alone to get Shouto.

Walking the halls of the Todoroki household once more felt like a terrible dream. Touya could honestly say that he dreaded being in any kind of proximity to his father, but when his steps faltered, the tears of absolute relief staining Natsuo's face, the hope gleaming in Fuyumi's eyes, kept him going. He crept past his father's bedroom with steps lightened from almost ten years of sneaking his baby brother to his mother. He could hear sobbing even before he reached Shouto's room. He stopped outside the door, gently testing it, but of course it was locked. And that angered Touya. Shouto was a child, being locked in his room to keep him from interacting with those “beneath” him. As Touya grasped the door handle again, it warped beneath his hand. The embers at his fingertips caught and spread across the shōji, melting and warping the flimsy material. Shouto was curled up in the center of his room, though he quickly looked up at the soft crackling of his door burning away. Touya stepped through the hole, a hand buried in his pocket as he stifled the heat wafting from his skin at the sight of the bandages concealing Shouto's left eye.

“Hey, buddy,” he said softly, crouching in front of his youngest sibling. “C'mon. We're getting out of here.”

Shouto looked stunned, and when Touya offered a hand, he slowly reached for it, but then his gaze was suddenly fixated behind him, and when the temperature skyrocketed, he knew that things had just gotten much more complicated. And that was before the wave of searing pain slammed into his back.

Fuyumi and Natsuo had been waiting by the front door, which was cracked open (for a quick escape, just in case) when the screaming began. They hardly spared a second to exchange panicked glances before they were dropping their bags and running to the side of the house they usually avoided lest they spark their father's wrath. The air was sweltering when they reached Shouto's room, and the scene inside drew them up short, Fuyumi immediately bursting into tears. Todoroki Enji stood just within the room and, collapsed against the furthest wall, Shouto was in a similar state to his sister, his bandages slipping from his face and revealing the still too-red burn. Tendrils of frost crept across the floor from his fingertips on the right; on the left, the tatami mats began to smoke. On hands and knees in the center of the room, back arched and a horrifying, choked wail escaping between clenched teeth, was Touya. The entirety of his back was a canvas of crisped black skin, blisters popping with more forming beneath them, blood staining what little of his skin that hadn't been touched by flames not his own. The stench of burnt flesh filled the air, twisting Fuyumi's stomach; at her side, Natsuo leaned over and retched, his dinner staining the hallway floor.

“What have you done...?” Fuyumi croaked, drawing not only her father's eye, but Touya's, and it took what little strength she had to not join his cries. He must've tried to turn and face their father while being burned, because the blackened marks extended up the right side of his neck, curling around his collarbone, his jaw, and even under his swelled-shut eye, which was such a bloody mess that she feared that he'd lost it. The bandages around his arms had been turned to ash, revealing dead purple flesh that began at his wrists and disappeared under his sleeves; only staples kept it clinging to his body, and she knew that that had to be the aftermath of their father pushing him to overuse his Quirk, “make it stronger.”

“He was trespassing,” Enji stated, as if that was a reasonable excuse for the violence he just used.

“He's your son!” she cried.

His eyes sharpened and he took a step towards her that had her skittering back, colliding with Natsuo. He was sweating heavily in the wake of their father's Quirk, while Fuyumi had frosted the entire hallway in her fear, though even that was melting away quickly.

“Stop!” Touya gasped.

To the shock of everyone, he was somehow back on his feet, somehow standing tall, a hand braced in front of him with eerie purple sparks flickering between his fingers.

“We're leaving,” he said, voice hardly wavering; as he spoke, a blister that'd formed on the seam of his lips popped, a gush of blood splattering onto the floor. Natsuo heaved, clamping a hand over his mouth. “If you don't let us go, I'll expose you as the monster you are.”

“Like Hell,” Enji growled, flinging a new wave of flames at him.

Fuyumi did scream this time, moving as if she could do anything to stop him, but Natsuo held her back. She needn't be too concerned, though; Touya thrust his hand forward and an explosion of violet overwhelmed the fire before it could reach him. Though it looked as if that simple movement had caused him immense agony and exhaustion, he continued to remain upright, glaring at their stunned father. The surprise returned to rage pretty quickly, but this time, the unspeakable happened: he bowed to his son's will.

“Take them, then,” he scoffed.

“And if you lay a hand on mother,” Touya added, sounding desperate, almost feral, “you'll have four reliable accounts of your actions against you.”

Fuyumi could hear Enji's teeth grinding from where she stood, but he gave a stiff nod and stood aside. Fuyumi and Natsuo didn't dare enter the room to collect their siblings, especially with the flames still billowing from their father, but Shouto barely hesitated to dart to Touya's side and take his hand and, with Touya staggering like he'd pass out any second, they left the room, and the four of them made their way down the hall – despite his reaction to Touya's injuries, Natsuo lingered in the back to make sure that Enji wouldn't attack when their backs were turned while Fuyumi took the lead.

“Sorry we couldn't pack any of your stuff,” Touya mumbled to Shouto as they lingered just inside the front door.

Shouto looked up at him with glossy eyes, then released his hand in favor for wrapping his arms as far around him as he could, squeezing with all his strength. “Thank you, Touya.”

Touya pressed a hand between Shouto's shoulder blades, trying to blink away the moisture that was definitely only forming due to how dry the air was; it was hard to do, especially with Fuyumi and Natsuo looking at him like he was... like he was their hero.

“Come on, guys. Let's go home.”

Chapter 2: Good Karma

Summary:

“I hope Touya knows what he’s doing,” Natsuo mumbled, leaning his head back against Touya’s arm, eyes slipping closed.
Fuyumi sank closer to Natsuo’s side, pressing her shoulder to his, trying to ignore the frost spreading beneath their fingers and creating webs of patterns across the floorboards. “Even if he doesn’t,” she whispered as her younger brother’s breathing evened out, “we’ll figure it out together.”

Notes:

A/N: An update? On this story? It's more likely than you think.

Slipping away in the dead of the night wasn't easy when a member of their group was injured. They managed to make it to the nearest station without drawing too much attention, thanks to Natsuo swaddling Touya in one of his hoodies – which was almost baggy on the older boy because despite the age difference, Natsuo never seemed to stop growing and Touya was somehow even scrawnier than when Endeavor controlled his diet –, and successfully concealing his burned clothes and skin. They even found, in an extreme stroke of luck, that the final train of the night was due to arrive in half an hour, so they settled down on a bench in the corner of the otherwise void station and the younger siblings let their situation fully settle. They were free. The idea had been an idle fantasy just hours ago, but now that it'd come to pass, they had no clue as to what to do. So, naturally, they turned to their eldest for the answers.

“What are we going to do now?” Fuyumi whispered, as if afraid that speaking any louder would shatter their hard-won release from under their father's thumb.

“Mm...” Touya stirred, roused from the blank-minded state he'd fallen into. “My apartment's on the other side of the city. As far from this place as I could get without completely abandoning you guys.”

“Do you know what stop it is?”

He mumbled a station name, which she had to ask him to repeat twice before she finally made it out, and she went to check to make sure it was an actual stop on the incoming train's route. Natsuo let Shouto climb onto his lap, not wanting him to do so to Touya and risk making his injuries worse. Fuyumi returned with a positive answer just as the train pulled into the station. The younger siblings herded their eldest aboard and sat as far from the other scarce passengers as possible; with the jacket's hood up, Touya's gruesome burns were hidden, but it was harder to shake the scent of burnt flesh and fabric.

Despite the Todoroki family's notorious media coverage, none of the others in the car seemed to recognize them, or at the very least didn't care for them. Though it was harder to remain under the radar when, two stations from their destination, Touya began wheezing, followed swiftly by him hacking up thick globs of blood. Fuyumi made Natsuo take Shouto and sit a couple rows away while she hovered around her older brother, trying to block him from the few curious glances cast their way and discreetly check his condition. He waved her off as they finally came up to their stop, though, so she settled for helping him out the door, following the youngest two. They took another break on a bench outside the station when Touya doubled over, coughing for so long that Fuyumi feared he'd pass out.

The black of Natsuo's hoodie hid any blood stains, so it was hard to judge how he really was, but she managed to convince him to lift his head and look at her when his fit passed. The sections of his lips that weren't burnt were gaining a blue tinge.

“Touya,” she breathed, eyes watering as she fought down the building panic in her chest. “You really need to go to a hospital.”

“No!” he said, almost desperately. “No, uh... The apartment’s not far from here. I’ve got medical supplies there.” He rattled off a street name and address. “I’ll be fine. Let’s… Let’s just get there first, and decide what to do then.”

Though she was skeptical, it was either that or risk him straining himself resisting them - not to mention she didn’t know where the nearest medical facility was -, so she relented. “Let's go, then.”

By the time they found the apartment, Fuyumi was trying to console a visibly shaken Shouto as Natsuo half-carried Touya up the stairs and through the (unlocked) door, the eldest's head lolling and feet dragging as he struggled to remain conscious. As Fuyumi shut and locked the door behind her - their bags of belongings set to the side, Shouto clinging to the hem of her shirt -, Natsuo deposited Touya facedown on a threadbare couch in the living room, whispering almost-frantic apologies when the eldest gave a breathless groan of pain. Fuyumi took a quick glance around; the place wasn’t really “dingy,” as Touya had put it, but it probably seemed so when one previously lived their entire life in a large, lavish estate. It was… quaint, and bare of all but essentials; no personal objects or even anything to provide entertainment was in sight. She almost feared taking a look around, as Touya had never been stellar at taking care of himself; that task fell on her shoulders.

“Shouto.” She kneeled down in front of the youngest, trying not to focus too hard on the now-exposed scar around his left eye. “Why don’t you go find a bedroom and try to get some sleep.”

“But…” He tried to turn his head towards Touya’s prone body, Natsuo having disappeared further into the dark apartment, likely looking for a first aid kit or any medical supplies. Fuyumi cupped her brother’s face, keeping him from looking too closely at the blood seeping past Touya’s teeth.

“Touya is going to be okay,” she assured him - trying in-part to install the confidence in her voice to her heart as well. “I know you want to help, and you can, but you need to get rest first so you’re not too tired to, okay?”

Shouto looked down and nodded solemnly. Fuyumi stood, watching him shuffle past the couch, taking a quick peek at his older brother before disappearing into the hallway that led to the rooms. Natsuo emerged from the same hall, a grim expression on his face. His hands were empty and Fuyumi’s heart sank.

“I couldn’t find anything,” Natsuo said stiffly. “The bathroom is empty; the bedrooms are empty except some clothes in the room Touya’s been using. I bet if we checked the fridge and cupboards, there wouldn’t be anything, either.”

Fuyumi sucked in a sharp breath between her teeth; though that was about what she expected, she had hoped…

“What are we going to do now?” Natsuo asked, a slight waver in his voice, a pleading look in his eyes.

With Touya out of commission - now unconscious or on the verge of it, splayed across the couch, with numerous wounds of varying degrees of severity -, Fuyumi was the one her younger siblings would turn to. Fortunately, she had plenty of experience with that after Touya disappeared and their mother was sent away; she was good at keeping her head under pressure, even if she felt her nerves fraying rapidly at the stress of her newfound responsibility.

“I… I’ll see if any of our neighbors will be willing to lend us their first aid kits,” she slowly decided. “You stay here, keep an eye on him. If anything happens, call emergency services. Try to get him out of the hoodie, that way we can start bandaging him up as soon as I come back.”

The frantic edge in Natsuo’s expression eased at his new tasks and he nodded firmly. Fuyumi unlocked the door and stepped out into the hall, easing it shut behind her. She slowly traveled from door to door, pausing outside each one and leaning in, hoping to hear any indication of someone awake at this hour. She got lucky at the opposite end of the hall, hearing a television or radio playing on the other side of the door. She knocked, trying not to be too loud to draw unwanted attention, but loud enough to hopefully be heard. No one answered, at first, and Fuyumi was stuck on the border of knocking again or moving on when she heard the lock click on the other side. The door swung open to reveal a tired-looking woman with long, dark green hair and similarly colored eyes. She yawned, covering her mouth, and blinked rapidly.

“Sorry,” she mumbled sheepishly, offering Fuyumi a smile that eased some primal fear in her core; this woman didn’t recognize her, which was a blessing as she hadn’t considered the possibility of someone knowing who she was until the door was being opened. “I was just heading off to bed. Is there something you need?” She blinked again and frowned slightly. “I… don’t think I’ve ever seen you around.”

“I’m…” Fuyumi faltered, mouth drying as she realized that she didn’t know if Touya had a faux surname he used with his neighbors, or what story he had circulating amongst them. The woman’s brows creased further and Fuyumi could feel tears coming to her eyes. She bowed abruptly, causing the woman to flinch. “I’m Fuyumi. My brother lives in the apartment at the end of the hall, and he got into an incident. But he doesn’t have any available medical supplies, so I was hoping you would be willing to lend us some of yours.” She barely managed to get through her plea before the tears began to fall, her shoulders trembling.

The woman eased her up, hands warm and firm on her shoulders, an expression of concern on her face. She offered a soft smile.

“My name is Midoriya Inko. Your brother is the young man with the red hair, right?” Her smile turned sad. “I don’t even know his name, but my son said he helped him once when one of his friends was playing too rough with him. Here, why don’t you step inside? I’ll go get the first aid kit.”

Fuyumi allowed herself to be pulled into the entryway and Midoriya disappeared through the doorway that led to the rest of the apartment. Only a few moments passed before she returned, a stocky first aid kit in her hands.

“I used to be a nurse,” she offered as an explanation. “My husband works overseas and sends money back for us, so I stay home to raise Izuku.” She offers the first aid kit, and Fuyumi takes it gingerly. There’s a part of her that wants to insist that they don’t need the entire case, but she holds her tongue, knowing that in all likeliness, even the entire kit wouldn’t be quite enough. “Don’t worry about returning it. I hope this helps.”

“It does,” Fuyumi said, voice cracking, clutching the kit close. “Thank you, Midoriya-san.”

The kindly woman insists that Fuyumi stop by again if she needs anything before sending her on her way. As soon as her door shuts, Fuyumi is almost running back down the hall. She returns to Touya’s apartment to find that Natsuo had managed to not only strip the hoodie and burnt remains of Touya’s shirt off, but he’d also eased towels under their older brother to soak up the blood seeping from the burns. His back was to the couch, hands clamped over his mouth and nose and eyes squeezed shut until Fuyumi entered the room.

“What’s next?” he asked immediately.

“Get me a bowl of water,” she instructed, opening the first aid kit. She took out the tube of petroleum jelly and all the non-stick bandages she could find.

Natsuo returned with a pot and a couple washcloths. She sent him for more towels as well, laying them across the floor in front of the couch. While Fuyumi had learned how to care for burns - both for the aftereffects of Touya’s “training” with their father and when their personal doctor was caring for Shouto’s burn -, she’d never had to deal with such severe burns directly after they happened. Still, she had to do something, so she dipped a washcloth in the water and decided to start with Touya’s face. She wrung out the cloth over his burned eye, watching blood and flecks of burnt skin come away. Natsuo was looking away again, his skin taking on a nasty pallor.

“You can go,” she offered gently. “I can do this.”

“No,” he said stubbornly, taking a deep breath before reaching for the other washcloth and dipping it into the pot like she had, beginning to drip water onto the mass of burns on his back.

Between the two of them, they slowly cleaned the burns to the best of their abilities before coating them in a liberal amount of vaseline and wrapping them all in non-stick bandages - except for Touya’s face. By the time they finished, sunlight was easing through the curtained windows. Touya had barely stirred through the entire process; the only sign that he was still with them was the faint rasp of his breathing. After cleaning up from their makeshift doctoring, Fuyumi and Natsuo huddled together in front of the couch, listening to the soothing sound of their brother alive, even if not well, behind them.

“I hope Touya knows what he’s doing,” Natsuo mumbled, leaning his head back against Touya’s arm, eyes slipping closed.

Fuyumi sank closer to Natsuo’s side, pressing her shoulder to his, trying to ignore the frost spreading beneath their fingers and creating webs of patterns across the floorboards. “Even if he doesn’t,” she whispered as her younger brother’s breathing evened out, “we’ll figure it out together.”

Notes:

A/N: Soooo... We don't actually know how old Shouto was when his mother burned him, but I'd always just assumed it was when he was around six or seven, so that's what I went with. If it seems too soon after Dabi/Touya left in the first part... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
*shōji – traditional sliding doors, usually made of paper/sometimes made of plastic, in Japan
Also, most importantly, Dabi has almost all his original scars. So you know those Dabi edits that are pretty popular, where people are either removing the scars from Dabi entirely, or from only half his face? Yeah, Dabi only has scars on the right half of his face/neck/chest.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of I'm Gonna Let It Burn