Everything hurt. That was the first thing that crossed her mind as Aoi blinked open her eyes only to be looking down into her own lap. It took a moment for her brain to process that she was looking down at her lap because she was sitting up in a chair. Apparently she was also tied up to said chair when she tried to lift a hand up but the appendage would not move. But that was fine, she was not even sure she had the strength to lift the hand even if it had not been tied down. Her head was throbbing. Her chest ached with each breath. She could taste the heavy copper of blood in her mouth. Running her dry tongue along her bottom lip had her hiss. She apparently had split her lip open.
She was pretty sure her entire body was covered in cuts and bruises or at least it damn well felt like every inch of her was hurt. Or maybe it felt that way simply because every breath shot pain through her body. She probably broke a rib. Great. Still better than breaking her back at least. She had not even been able to pick her head up and try to look around when she heard a door open. Someone walked into the dimly light room and approached her.
"Oh good you're alive. Almost thought we might have killed you. After all it's hard to hold back against someone so weak," the voice that spoke up seemed familiar. Where had she heard it before? Then again how had she ended up here? And so hurt?
Slowly she was able to get her head to move enough to be able to look up at the man who spoke. Light hair hung around his face, his eyes closed or nearly closed it was hard to tell. And an odd creepy grin pulled at his lips. Oh that's right. He had broken into her home.
"Where?" Her voice croaked. It was so hard to get her body to work enough to produce sound. It hurt to talk, her mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton.
"Where are you? Nowhere important that you need to worry about," he answered the question she had but had not been able to force her mouth to work well enough to answer him.
"Why?" She asked once again struggling to get her voice to work.
"Well as bait. We noticed you seem to be close with the hero Deku. The boss figured that he would come to save you. I saw you two walking together last week. I wasn't sure I had the right person. But that mop of green hair is kinda hard to miss when added with the big build of a pro hero. And when I saw him and Endeavors kid walking with you. That solidified that there is apparently some sort of connection between you and two top hero's," the man was pretty much rambling on with his villain monologue but Aoi really did not care.
"Shoto," she said, interrupting him.
"What?" He asked looking down at her as her head hung down before she picked it up to look up at him.
"Todoroki Shoto is his name," she growled softly. Mostly it was the fact that she did not like hearing Endeavour's name. But she did not think that Todoroki liked being seen as nothing more than a shadow of his father.
"Who gives a shit. He's still that damn hero's son. You seem pretty upset about that. What are you sleeping with him and Deku? What you stooped so low as to fuck hero's? Or are they paying for it? Must pay pretty good being a slut for hero's," he hissed at her and the insult stings but not as much as the assumption she was sleeping with hero's.
"I ain't no slut," she hissed as she glared up at the man, "and I am not sleeping with them. Nor am I important to them."
She was rather irritated and pissed with the assumption she was sleeping around with hero's. She had prided herself on noting being forced to sell out her body in order to survive, and she would not have done so for hero's either. She was pissed with his assumption that she was a slut or hore.
"Oh are you sure about that? Because our sources have said that your disappearance has caused a rather big uproar," she watched that creepy grin of his grow only wider as she looked at him with heavy skepticism. She did not believe him at all. Why would Deku care? Maybe he would simply miss the home cooked meals she had been making for him lately. Especially since he had apparently been living off a lot of fast food and questionable food choices.
"You're lying," she hissed at him.
"Not at all. The police radio has been going off I hear. Apparently no one even called in after all the noise we made grabbing you. But Deku found it himself. Apparently he must have been planning to visit. He showed up to find your door on the floor in the middle of your house. That did not go over well with him I imagine," the stranger said as he strolled over to be able to physically lean over her.
"I wonder how upset he is? It would have been interesting to be around and see his reaction. Not much upsets the number one hero. But touching those who are important to him is one way to get to him. And you my dear are a nice target. You were easy to spot, a little hard to grab off the streets. But finding your home is not hard. After that we just had to make sure you were home when we showed up. You put up a good fight for a quirkless woman," he probably would have continued to talk had she not spat at him.
"Oh shut up. I don't need your stupid details about how easy to kidnap I was," she growled up at him which had him laughing at her.
"Little spit fire aren't you? That's fine. You can run that mouth of yours all you want to. Just stay out and be a good little bit of bait," he said grinning at her as she tried to glare up at him.
"Your plan will not work," she growled at him.
"Oh but it will. He will come for you. And he will fall into our well planned trap. Now be a good little hostage. Make a little noise," he growled as the back of his hand collided with her sore and swollen face. She bit her tongue trying to hold back any noises as her face was snapped to the side.
"Oh stubborn aren't you," she heard among the ringing in her ears. Her headache, everything hurt, but damn her head hurt. The taste of blood was disgusting as it coated her tongue. She gathered up the spit in her mouth and did not hesitate in spitting it at him as she watched the glob of more blood than spit landed on his shoes.
"Go to hell," she hissed.
"Oh that is big talk for someone in your shoes. Did you get too fearless? Just because you had connections with some powerful villains does not matter. Anyways your little shields are gone. The League has long since been gone. There is no one who will kill anyone who touches you now. And you're oh so brave hero's are useless. They will not be able to protect you," he was sneering at her. And yet his last two sentences strike hard. She was all too aware that she had never found hero's to be any sort of safety net. She was well aware of how the law could tie their hands. Where villains were villains because they did not allow that red tape to keep them from doing what they wanted. And the villains knew all too well how useless hero's could be. This was a quick reminder that villains would kill and hero's would stand back and do nothing.
Her head hung as she looked down at the floor beneath her. Cement. She had not even noticed it before but she did not care now.
"So then why not just kill me already?" She asked barely above a whisper.
"Well you are no good as bait if you are dead. So for now you get to be my little plaything," he said before pulling a knife out of what she assumed was his back pocket.
She was well aware of what was going to happen. But that still did not prepare her for the red hot pain that shot through her as the sharp blade easily cut through the skin on her forearm. She could stop the scream that escaped her as the blade cut through her flesh.
She tried to bite down on her tongue to keep from crying out any more than she already did. But it was hard. It hurt. But it did not take a genius to know that the sadistic asshole was truly getting off on watching her cry or hearing her yells.
She almost wished the pain was enough to knock herself out but she was not lucky enough for that. How long he decided to torment her she was not sure. It felt like days but really it was probably only a little over an hour. The final blow was a fist to her gut which knocked the wind out of her lunges. Leaving her coughing and gasping for an attempt to refill her lunges. Her ears were ringing. She could not even hear what he was saying to her as he left her alone in the room.
How long had she been passed out before she had woken up and he tormented her? She had been to out of it when she first came around, but now with being awake and having taken a beating to clear her mind a little she was now trying to figure out how long had she been gone for? She was tired, hungry, thirsty and just every fiber of her being hurt. This is what she gets for not just dragging Deko out of her home that first night. She should never have patched him up. She should have called for an ambulance and just let him be taken off of her hands. Then this would never have happened.
But then again she would never have had a full kitchen like she does now. She would never have had company to eat dinner with after a long shift. She would never have gotten to know the man that is Midoriya Izuku. The man who is Deku. She would not have noticed how someone so strong and big could be so sweet and innocent. Who blushed like an idiot at the sight of her in a t-shirt and shorts in the middle of the night. The man who wears All Might boxers. The man who owns more hero merchandise than normal street clothes. The man who could mumble and ramble on about the slightest thing he found interesting.
Even now in pain and suffering she truly could not bring herself to blame him after she realized that she had truly enjoyed his company. She liked the man, not the hero. Midoriya had been a great neighbour, always worried about her even if she hated it. And now she could only hope he would not do anything stupid. She wanted to wish he would forget about her. But she knew that was a stupid wish. He would never just abandon her even if he should.
She could only hope and pray that no one would get hurt or killed while trying to free her. That was all she could hope for as she sat there trying to let sleep drift over her so she would not have to put up with the pain.
She drifted in and out of consciousness a number of times. How long in between she was not sure. At some points she woke up to choking on water being just poured into her mouth. She did not enjoy the rude wake ups. But she did enjoy the desperately needed drink. She did not enjoy the feeling of waking up to being nearly waterboarded. Was it days or hours that went by? She may never know.
But at one point some loud noises had her stir from her much wanted sleep. It made the pain more bearable sleeping through it. Especially after the one man she was feeling far too familiar with would visit. Sick sadistic bastard lover to pay her a few visits, some more physically painful. But on visits she was more lucid; it seemed he liked to play mental games. At first telling her about how Deku would die if he came from her. But at some point it had turned to him trying to tell her no one was coming for her. And a part of her had hoped he was right. She was worried about Midoriya getting hurt.
But this time the noise was odd. It didn't sound like the odd arguments she had heard from the odd lacky. Though she never saw them. She could hear the odd conversation or more often arguments. She assumed after someone lost some sort of bet or maybe card game she could not tell. It was too hard to tell usually.
No this was louder, sounded more chaotic. The sound had her heart racing. Was that the sound of fighting? She could not tell. It sounded like she had her head underwater. It was all she could do just to be able to pick her head up when the door to the room she was in blew off the wall. The air that wafted into the room was cold. But she did not even have the strength to shove at the sudden chill that washed over her already cold form.
She could hear someone but could not make out what they were saying. She actually was not sure it was not multiple voices. She could feel the ropes around her body suddenly disappear. No longer being held back to the chair her body slumped and she nearly thought she was going to go face first into the hard cement floor. Warm arms wrapped around her. So warm.
"Aoi. Open your eyes," she could hear the nearly frantic begging. Aoi. That was her name. So they were talking to her. Why did she need to open her eyes? They were heavy and the world would spin if she was not careful. But they sounded so worried.
She tried to blink her eyes open. And the first attempt was useless. Her eyes seemed to refuse to focus. Everything was blurry and out of focus. Her body felt heavy and she could not even stop her head from rolling back as she felt warmth around her body. Floating. That's what it felt like as she once again tried to get her eyes to open as she looked up at just a dark grey. Was it the wall or ceiling? Hell it could have been the floor. She did not know. Her tired brain refused to focus on what was around her.
She could hear voices around her. People were talking, and they were so loud. Her head hurt. Her body hurt, yet it was still floating and so warm.
But the warmth did not last. It seemed too soon that the warmth was pulling away. No. Come back. She desperately wanted to feel warm again. She tried desperately to lift her right arm. She wanted the warmth back. She wanted to go after it. But her arm would not work. She could not force it to move. A panic set in. Her breathing picked up. Her eyes opened as she looked around. But her eyes still did not seem to focus as she struggled as she panicked.
Even more unfamiliar voices filled her ears. As she felt herself start to struggle and panic. The two faces that filled her vision were blurry. But by what she could see she did not recognize them. Though in her current state she probably would not recognize anyone as panic set in. What the voices were saying she could not make out. But still she tried so desperately to move. That is till her hand felt warm again. It was only her hand but feeling the warmth again had her panic settle a little.
And within seconds of settling her eyelids grew heavy again. She struggled to keep them open as she found herself drifting off. Turning her head hurt so much, but still she forced her head to turn and her eyes to open dark colours filled her view but she was pretty sure she also saw the colour green. Midoriya? It had to be him. He had come for her after all.
That was the last thought that filled her mind before she was once again drifting off into darkness as she listened to the voices frantically calling out to her. She wanted to open her eyes and see him more clearly but she could not fight the darkness any more again.
