Fates Entwined (A TodoBaku ff) ✔

L

The moon kept him company as he watched over his friends as they slept. Tucked into the window seat, head resting against the cool glass and eyes languidly watching small flurries of snow flutter down from the sky, it was easy to forget about his worries. Mina and Denki were right: the sleepover was actually quite fun. From delicious food and drink, to learning new games and even teaching Momo one himself, he found himself simply existing in the present. His shoulders loosened and his posture relaxed, yet when it was time to sleep he couldn't quite hold it in his grasp yet. 

So, here he sat. The smooth stone against his back, the plush cushion and blanket over his lap. It was rare, for everyone in this room to be so quiet. They looked young, free, and peaceful as they slept, like they had not a care in the world. Like war was not looming ever closer. As he watched over them he felt the tendrils of guilt begin to clasp onto his chest, so he turned back to look out the window. 

The moon was full, her beams bright and unwavering. The snow on the ground glistened under her attention, and he wondered if soon that snow would be splattered with blood, the blood that coated his hands with every nightmare. He hadn't received a vision in over a fortnight, and whilst it was comforting in the sense that there was nothing coming that the maiden wanted to warn him off, he felt a sense of loss too. Why would she visit him, let him discover the truth, only to abandon him? Had she lost hope in him too, as he had in himself? As others did when they turned their backs, leaving his small and battered frame to the mercy of his father's fists?

Sighing deeply, his breath misted the window pane, the lattice icy to the touch. Shutting off both his mind and heart, he let himself breathe and relax, in and out, until fatigue caught up to him and he fell asleep...

"Your heart seems to have grown heavier, dear Shoto."

He shot up at the sound of that voice, her voice. His body was cold, frost coating his fingertips in the same vein-like pattern that crept in from the edge of the window. The room was cold, and as he looked around his friends were gone leaving him alone with the women in front of the doorway.

"Why are you here?" he asked, voice dry from sleep. "Why now, and after so long?"

"I do as the Goddess wishes, her words are my work. Her heart is my hands. I appear when you need me, when there is something you must know, when you need a light to see through the darkness that follows you."

"I do not wish for poetry." Shoto replied, frustration hidden in his tone. "What do you have to tell me?"

"You are scared, little one." the Maiden sighed, walking closer to him at the window. Her dress floated around her, no sound from her footsteps, and the moonlight embraced her as she stood next to him. She gave him a smile, somehow warm despite the cool air around them. "It is okay to be afraid, I was too when she called upon me."

Shoto didn't know how to reply. These visions, these meetings, were always puzzling. He could ask all the questions he wished yet the answers he would have to discover for himself. 

"You have done well so far, Shoto. Your leadership is invaluable for the future of our world. Your power too. Although..."

She didn't need to finish her sentence for him to know what she was thinking. He had yet to use his full power, burying it beneath the skin as the snow outside buried the grass and the flowers. It was too dangerous, he would survive without it as he has done his whole life. His ice was strong and safe, it would protect both his and Katsuki's people. 

"You need not be afraid. You, Shoto, in your entirety, are good. Your strength, your wit, your beauty and your kindness, are all good. But to reach the future you desire, you must accept each part of yourself."