Dark Shadow and Tokoyami. Tokoyami and Dark Shadow. The quirk cannot remember a time where they'd been apart; before him, there had only been darkness; an empty void of pitch-black emptiness where nothing was ever born nor destroyed.
Big eyes as red as rubies — that had been the first sight to welcome it into the world. Tokoyami had just celebrated his fourth birthday eleven days prior — and on that day of Summer where the moon at been at its fullest, it had detached itself from the child's shadow and officially had met him... the boy who would, over the years, become its best friend.
Yes. Together, they were one. They never strayed apart, they were inseparable — literally and figuratively. The concept of a life without this companion of his — his first and only friend — was just as impossible as the day without the night.
It was both a blessing and a curse.
— It had followed Tokoyami everywhere, had watched him grow up into the teenager he was today. No one knew the boy as much as it did — because Dark Shadow was his first friend too. His friend, his confident, his sibling. The sole entity on this earth he could trust as much as himself. Secrets had been exchanged under bedsheets, worries shared in times of distress and victory in times of battle. Happiness during their everyday life.
Tokoyami made Dark Shadow happy. Dark Shadow helped him, protected him, loved him.
— Because fate had to be cruel, didn't it?
It'd been a slow process, one initiated so long ago it couldn't remember when — and by the time it'd become conscious of it, it'd been too late for the poor quirk now forever enamoured with its owner until the grave; and the shadow — poor, oblivious, hopeless Dark Shadow who had never felt anything of the sort ever before — hadn't needed a dictionary to give a name to the knot in its stomach and to the invisible but present blush upon its cheeks.
Alas, it also knew of the tragic tales of romance — and of how its own wouldn't be different. It'd been doomed from the start — and the entity of the dark knew better than to hope.
It doubted of Tokoyami's understanding of his quirk, of him. Of how it possessed a consciousness so developped. But against all odds, Dark Shadow was alive and sentient and undoubtly, utterly in love with its comrade.
.
— - - - - x
Her name was Asui Tsuyu. She was kind and brave, independent and a wallflower while never refusing to hang out with the crowd either — but she preferred the calm and silent of an empty classroom or of the pond.
She and Tokoyami — they were similar in their differences.
It hurt Dark Shadow — to see them get along so well, to see its friend fall for the frog girl at the same slow and steady pace that it had taken in its case.
It knew of Tokoyami's feelings — if red cheeks, quicker heartbeat and butterflies in his stomach hadn't betrayed him, then the confessions made by the very oblivious and IGNORANT bird boy to his quirk certainly had.
And that — that had killed a small piece of its heart.
( there was a different between suspecting out of rational thinking and knowing with certainty )
What was harder, however — was that it needn't a crystal ball to predict exactly where this was going.
.
— - - - - x
Every kiss was like a jab of a dagger — and if it'd been human, most likely it would've succumbed to its wounds by now.
.
— - - - - x
It'd been there for every step of the way. The first day of school, the first battle — but also the confession, the first kiss, the first time. The first 'I love you'. Even if it'd done its best to sleep through it all, Dark Shadow and Tokoyami — together they were one. Always would be. Their soul were linked, it was merely the way things worked.
It recalled Tokoyami telling Midoriya that light was its only weakness.
— As it watches the ivory, pearly white dress of Asui walking up the aisle, it's never agreed more; truly it felt like a cruel death for Dark Shadow on that day, blinded by the love it could never have for itself.
.
— - - - - x
It hurts less now. Dark Shadow lives, survives — because Tokoyami is happy, and that's the only thing that matters to it.
— Yes, Dark Shadow mused as its friend shows off the small bundle in his arms — a little girl, a perfect match of him and her. He's happy. The quirk of darkness looked at her and felt the familiar jab — but it had become accustomed to the pain over the years. The grief and sorrow, the heartbreak — it was but a part of its daily routine nowadays.
He's happy.
After all — never the red eyes it adored so much have shone so brightly before.