Untethered: Bakugou x OC x Todoroki

Chapter 35: I Never Knew

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Dabi's POV
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Every ounce of my blood is screaming for me to obey as my body strains to move; my muscles fiercely clenching and my tendons stretching and flexing over my aching bones, forcing my body to mindlessly submit to the order I've been given at the command of my beloved.

Now...I wouldn't call myself a romantic but I'd be a fucking idiot not to realize how beautifully dark and ironic it is, that the love of my life would be asking me to take down my 'one that got away,' so to speak.

Or rather, forcing my hand...but...

Anyone else that could be subjected to the effects of her quirk wouldn't be even remotely conscious enough to understand what they were doing, too stunned to be able to comprehend the puppet strings steering their every movement like a spiritless marionette, too hollowly and robotically senseless to discern the complete compulsion claiming them.

But we'd been practicing my self-control while being under her spell—before we were forced to separate; purposefully kept apart, in order to make sure our actions weren't for each other and only for Kazz's plans, instead—so that I might hopefully remember anything she'd ever be required to compel me to do, a minor speck of hope that one day I could possibly even fight against it. We thought, 'maybe, just maybe, this will help,' but damn, were we wrong. It wasn't long until he'd noticed we'd been training in secret and finally split us up, so I hadn't gotten far.

Just like everyone else who had ever had the displeasure of being influenced by her quirk, I was powerless.

However...right at this moment, I'm starting to realize...something has...changed?

I'm...seeing everything I'm doing...I can feel my body's movements, though not of my own, and I understand what's happening.

Maybe it is different with me...

And, though I thought I'd be excited by this development, right at this very moment it's fucking horrifying, infuriating even; the recognition of the measures that my body was taking, under the command of another, and yet still being unable to do a damn thing about it. I was aware of every single move, slow and deliberate, as the weakened defenses of my body reluctantly followed my beloved's directions.

Burning, sapphire flames forcefully billow from my scarred, unwilling hands as they outstretch before me, turning my still bloodied chin away from the radiating heat with one eye squinted shut, my hair wafting out of my face. My teeth grit harder in utter powerlessness as I try my damndest to stop myself...come on, damnit, come on! Turn it off!

I don't want to fight. I want to run. I was so close to telling Sho what was going on. So fucking close to finding another possible way for us to escape our damned situation, but I couldn't have guessed that the walking nuke would show up; couldn't have predicted in a million goddamn years that Luna fucking Hoshiko would be tagging along with the impetuous bastard.

"Boyfriend," she'd called him.

Fucking really, Luna? He's your fucking boyfriend? Seriously? This walking billboard for red flags and toxic garbage? You're better than him. Hero trash. If only you knew some of the shit that Sho has told me about him...and speaking of Sho...weren't they just hangin' out?