Fates Entwined (A TodoBaku ff) ✔

II

The distant crackling of an open fire, warm and heavy touches on his limbs, murmured incantations all drew him back to consciousness. Fighting the urge to fall into the peaceful blanket of darkness once more, he opened his weary eyes and gazed with blurry eyes at a thatched roof. It was low, with leaves and vines and small colourful charms hanging from it, the colours all swimming together making him nauseous. 

He drew in a shaky breath, feeling the prickling numbness slowly seep from his limbs, a river of life coursing through his veins. It felt like water was still rushing through his ears, the sharp crackles of fire breaking through the low humming. A creak to his left, long and whining, forced his head to turn, following the sound until a woman's face hovered above him. 

"Hello," she greeted, smile warm and cheeks rosy in the fire, "I'm glad you're finally awake. Please," she placed a gentle hand on his chest when she noticed his attempt to sit up, "rest a while longer. You're safe here."

He heard the woman move around him, glasses clinking here and there, sounds of scraping and enchanted whispers melting into the haze around him. He kept his eyes on the roof, mind distant and not yet with him in the present, until the door opened once more, the slam sending a jolt of fear through him that left him wide-eyed and ridged. 

"How many times have I told you not to come in here so loudly?" the woman chided, coming back over to Shoto. He couldn't see past her shoulder at the figure standing by the fire, his attention drawn to the silvery liquid inside the bowl that she was pressing to his lips. "Drink this please, it'll help."

The liquid didn't have a taste, rather it felt like warmth from gentle arms in an assuring him, of sunbeams resting on his face in the morning stirring him awake from a late night of reading, of the fleeting smiles his mother blessed him with all those years ago.

"Can you tell me your name?" she asked quietly, ignoring the frustrated huff from the person behind her.

His name... As the last of the haze slipped away, waves of horror and memories washed over him, like the dangerous river that had dragged him to its deepest depths, clawing at his lungs until his breaths were stolen. Where was he? How long was he unconscious? He didn't know these people, he shouldn't give them his name...

But they helped him. This woman helped him without knowing him, he was saved from a violent fate of drowning in water and fear. He could trust them...

"Shoto." he said at last, voice quiet in the silence, accompanied by a shaky breath.

"My name's Ochako." the woman smiled, warm and assuring before stepping away towards a pitcher of water on a nearby table. 

With her gone, he could now see the person who had entered this place so aggressively, whose growl was almost animalistic in nature. It was a man, broad and strong, with wide shoulders which upon rested a rich red cloak lined with white fur. Blond hair, wild and untamed, gleamed like threads of gold in the firelight, his eyes a deep red, furrowed as they looked right back at him. Dark brown trousers, fur-lined black boots, and an array of wild sharp necklaces adorned his chest. 

He was unlike anyone Shoto had ever seen before. He looked strong, like he bowed to no-one, like he could stare his father in the eye and feel no trace of fear. He looked strong, like he had seen darkness in his past and fought his way through it with courage and bravery. He looked strong, with scars littering his body, gleaming like trophies in the firelight. 

He hadn't realised he was looking so intensely until the man frowned further and made his way over, footsteps heavy and intense as he crossed the place. Before he could utter a word a large hand grasped the collar of the shirt he was wearing, one that definitely was not his, and hauled him forwards. A ripple of blind pain burst across his skull, the right side of his ribs twinging uncomfortably against his torso, and he gasped to chase the air that had so violently left his lungs.