Skin & Bones (bnha au)

7

I sprinted though the pouring rain, a black hoodie sheilding my bruised face and a small school bag filled to the brim with clothes, food, and supplies, slung hastily over my shoulder.
It was getting dark and I didn't know where I was going, and 'anywhere but here' was beginning to seem like a fantasy.
Eventually, after what seemed like hours but was most likely only around half, I finally found shelter in a rundown kids playpark, under one of those climbing frame/slide things.
I was out of sorts that night so I didn't think twice before I ducked my head and slipped under.

Inhaling a deep breath and shaking off some of the raindrops, my hood slid down in the process.

"Umm, hi."

I jumped out of my skin. Defensively backing away into a corner and sheilding my face. He'd found me already, I was done for.

"Woah! Calm down it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you."

That was when I realized it wasn't my father. Thoroughly embarrassed I awkwardly brushed myself off accidentally knocking down my hood in the process.
We shared a glance, the boy and I.
Me with a glare of insecurity and mistrust, and him with more empathy than I'd ever been shown.

"What happened to your face?!"
He asked cautiously, clearly more than a little unnerved.
"Did you get in a fight or something?"

I failed a maths test.

"I fell down the stairs."

He nodded but there was a flicker of discomfort in his soft golden eyes.
"Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I'm homeschooled. Shouldn't you?"

"Same actually." He looked away, and I noticed something on his neck when his collar shifted. I thought they were hickies but then I realized how familiar they actually were. Cigarettes burns.

The comradry was instant but I played it cool.
I was old enough to know it wasn't normal, but in that moment trauma bonding was the most natural thing in the world.

I slipped down next to him and we stayed like that until sunrise the next morning. His head eventually found it's way onto my shoulder and a fluffy blanket I'd packed covering both of us to keep us warm.
We talked a out things we liked, we didn't bother with family or names.
The only reason he ever found out mine was because right around nine o'clock, five hours after I'd left, an unmarked police car made it's way slowly by the park with it's window down yelling angrily.
"Touya?!"

I wonder what I would've told him my name was if I'd had the chance to make something up back then...

How had I not known?

I walked past the park, or what was left of it atleast.
The city had clearly tried to fix it, sanded out all of the sharp bits and gave it a new paint job, but it was still mostly only populated by teens now, a vaping spot far enough away from their house that their parents wouldn't catch them.

Did Haw-Kiego know?

One said teenager ran up to the fence as I was making my way past.
They weren't much older than me and Keigo where when we first met but their face held an innocence I'd never had the pleasure of learning.

"Hey, are you Dabi from LoV?"
They asked in awe, a huge smile plastered on their face.

I chuckled quietly in a way only a shell of a man could.
I was a horrible person.
"No."