Blue Madness (Touya/Dabi x Reader)

IV. Happy birthday, Touya!

The days passed, turning into weeks, then months.

The holidays had passed some time ago. For several weeks now, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons after school, I'd been going to Sekoto Peak to help Touya. At first, I had wondered what lies I could tell Mom to get her to let me go. I was now six years old, but I knew I still wasn't old enough to go outside on my own at night! My first idea had been to make her think I was going to Fuyumi's house to do homework, but I knew that was absurd. Doing homework two evenings a week? Mom knew very well that at our age, we didn't have much to do at home. Then I had considered telling her I had to catch up in class. However, because of my good grades, she wouldn't have believed me, and besides, it was rare for teachers to keep children after school just to teach them to read...

In the end, I'd made the only possible decision: to tell her part of the truth. I'd just told her that a friend of mine needed my Quirk for training, because his own Quirk was hurting him. Mom had obviously asked me questions, but I'd cleverly avoided mentioning what was going on at the Todoroki's, and she'd finally agreed to let me join Touya to help him. Luckily, Sekoto Peak wasn't too far from my home and I could walk there without Mom having to drop me off. The only condition she had imposed on me was to return before dark, and Touya had agreed to this.

So twice a week I went to Sekoto Peak, armed with alcohol swabs so I could clean Touya's wounds before closing them. Thus, the only real lie I'd told Mom was that I'd be under adult supervision. I was incredibly lucky that she'd taken my word for it, without even checking if I was telling the truth, because I knew she'd never have allowed me to go if she'd known I'd be alone with another kid my age, with no adult to look after us. Mom trusted me blindly, and it only worsened my shame to lie to her like that, but I had no choice.

Touya was counting on me.

The first time I'd seen Fuyumi's brother in action, I'd been incredibly impressed to see him produce such powerful flames at his age. However, I had quickly realized that unfortunately, it cost him a lot: indeed, it only took a few minutes for his skin to start burning. Luckily, my presence allowed him to train a little longer, since as soon as his burns became unbearable, I healed him. This meant he could do it again until I was too weak to use my Quirk.

At first, I could only heal him once before collapsing to the ground, exhausted. However, by combining these exercises two evenings a week with those I continued to do three or four times a day, I quickly became more powerful and my stamina strengthened too. We were both winners in this arrangement.

There was only one thing that saddened me: I would have thought that, over time, I'd get to know Touya a little better since he'd agreed to become my friend, but that wasn't the case. We hadn't really developed the kind of bond I had with Fuyumi. Obviously, the word "friend" didn't mean much to him, but that didn't really matter in the end. I knew he just wanted to get stronger. He didn't talk much, but whenever he opened his mouth, it was only to say that he'd be stronger than All Might, that he'd be the best superhero in the world and that his daddy would finally be proud of him. Even though he wasn't really talking to me, I found Touya's presence very pleasant. As I'd guessed when I first met him, he was really, deeply kind.

Moreover, spending time with him like this had allowed me to witness a phenomenon that amused and fascinated me just as much: Touya's hair kept turning white. Over the months, I'd seen white streaks appear week after week, and now the whole left side of his head was white. However, for some time now, the progression of the white in his hair seemed to have stabilized, but sometimes I wondered if he would ever have hair as immaculate as his mother's when he grow up. It was really weird that he had two colors in his hair, but I thought it suited him.

On that day, I was standing under a tree, shivering in the heavy snow. I was watching Touya who was a little further away, as he manipulated his flames with increasing dexterity. That said, from where I stood, I could see his skin reddening and even bleeding profusely, as it emitted ominous wisps of smoke. I hated it, because I knew he was in terrible pain, but I also knew that when I became a doctor, I'd see far worse things. So I'd better get used to it right away.