Burning Bright | Keigo Takami x Male Reader

Chapter 3

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One year after the fall. Present Day.

He kept having the same dream.

It always began pitch black. Completely dark. He wasn't sure if his eyes were even open. It was like he'd been woken up while the power was out. All those familiar bits of light snuffed out, swallowed up. Just him and an empty night.

He couldn't help himself. He reached out, hoping that it was just a blackout, that he could just push away the weight of being alone like too many heavy blankets. But the darkness didn't move.

He tread through midnight like water in a well, all the while the cold drop of loneliness slipped down his back. Then he realised that there was no surface to break. His chest tightened. His panic rose and it became hard to breathe. He was in way over his head. Then someone or something pulled the plug at the bottom of the darkness and he was sinking further into the inky black. His mouth opened to yell, to scream, but only silence came out.

His heart was beating too fast. Just when he was about to give up, just when he was about to let go, he felt them.

Shoto. Mina. Ochaco. Katsuki. He felt their light. It was like warmth and joy and comfort and laughter got balled up together so tightly they had no choice but to catch fire.

A new face suddenly entered his mind. Someone unfamiliar. It was a boy. He had (h/c) hair and (e/c) eyes. They held such sadness. Why? Who was this? The boy disappeared as quickly as he appeared. Then, everything was clear.

His eyes were open. Maybe they were from the beginning, but this was the first time he could truly see. He looked at all four of them. Their faces were so beautiful, so peaceful. They were sleeping, dreaming maybe, untroubled by the darkness that surrounded them. He stretched his arms out, but they were too far. That's when he realised they were all falling.

The horizon of a world big and blue rushed up to meet them. He couldn't concentrate on where they were going, the danger that was fast approaching. At that point he didn't care. All he could see was his family falling. The atmosphere of the planet below them burned hot, and their lights ignited.

His arms ached to the bone. He tried to catch them. He tried to hold on, but he couldn't stop them from falling. He wasn't strong enough to keep them together. He wasn't enough for them. The tips of his own fingers began to glow and break apart. The last thing he saw were their emblems darkening as their light shattered into a rainbow of ragged cinders.

And then he woke up.

Izuku was in his bed, the blanket in a sweaty tangle. The darkness was gone, replaced by a muted grey. He'd taken to sleeping with one of the windows open. He walked over to it and watched the street below. The soft glow of the lights outside painted him and his room in shadows.

Above all the sleeping quiet was darkness. He could still feel it, stretching on and on. It was hard to see the stars from the city. Just a few pinpoints of light broke it up. But he knew more were out there. Somewhere.

He crawled back into bed and waited for dawn. He didn't go to sleep. He couldn't. The dream was the same. Always the same.

Well, until now.

Who was that boy? Izuku thought. He had never seen him before. But he'd shown up in the same dream Izuku had been having for ages. He had to be important somehow. Why else would someone he'd never seen before show up, or had Izuku seen him before? He didn't think so. If he had seen this boy but forgotten his face, then surely he couldn't have been impactful or important enough to him. There was something about the boy, though. Something strange...