Author's Note: This story was inspired by the compelling storytelling under the #fadednamesau tag on TikTok. The tag was originally created and populated by electricchocobo, , and skyfullofcosplay. Please be advised that while this story is heavily inspired by the #fadednamesau tag, I began writing before the tag was complete (It's amazing! If you're interested I highly recommend checking it out!) and my plotline diverges early in the story. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and explore this story. I hope you enjoy your time here. ^_^

Prologue: Burn

Pain sizzled across Shouto Todoroki's forearm, lighting up his nerves all the way to his shoulder. Cool air burst into his chest and rattled against the jagged edges of his heart. The soulmate bond he could feel at his core beat its barbed edges against his ribs until the light and heat flashed out of existence.

Shouto blinked at the raw, weeping mess he'd made of his wrist. He'd utterly obliterated the name of his soulmate. He hadn't left any trace of the elegant lettering he'd loved and hated for almost a decade. He also might have gone overboard… the skin around the edges was lightly charred. This was a deeper, more concentrated wound than the scald that scared his eye, and it hadn't made one damn bit of difference.

Fuck.

He leaned forward, resting his chin over the trembling ache that spasmed with every heartbeat. The soulmate bond that tied him, irrevocably it seemed, to Midoriya Izuku nestled in his chest like a ball of thorns.

Shouto forced his fingers to flex, opening and closing the fist above his new injury. His movements were stiff and shaky. The flames might have reached his tendons. His range of motion could be permanently affected.

"Shouto…"

He turned, confronted his mother's sad brown eyes and outstretched hand. Fuck. He thought she'd gone to bed. Had he made a sound?

Rei stepped into the smoky quiet of Shouto's bedroom. She was still reaching for him. "Let me see your arm, Shouto…please."

There was no fear in her voice, no anger, just love. From the day they'd first reconciled he'd heard little else in her gentle tones. It was an unspoken apology for all the damage Endeavor had wrought.

Shouto didn't resist when his mother's cool, slim fingers settled over the hole he'd burned through his skin. He was expecting more pain—the price for his foolish heart—not gentle tingles that rippled along his frayed nerves like a balm.

"Mom?"

"Shh."

Rei's determined gaze never wavered from his wrist. Oozing droplets of blood receded against the angry red mark, soothing the skin until it was almost dry. The heat and char marks began to bleed away under Rei's fingers. Shouto watched the angry red of the fresh wound grow a few shades lighter. Cool water and ice could be used to treat burns, of course. Shouto was intimately familiar with the process. This, whatever his mother was doing, was different. No amount of ice could heal this quickly.

A soft grunt pulled Shouto's eyes back to his mother's face. She was swaying on her feet.

"Mom!" He jerked his hand out of her firm grip and steadied her with the fingers of both hands against her waist. The chill from her fingers seeped through the shoulders of Shouto's shirt creating a whisper of the tingle's he'd felt before.

"Sorry…" She shook her head gently and blinked her eyes back into focus. "It's been a long time since I've healed someone this way."

Shouto nudged her backwards until her knees hit the edge of his bed. They both sat, leaning against each other. Rei's fingers found their way into Shouto's hair and he let his eyes flutter shut. "Can you teach me?"

He felt her nod. "Will it make you happy?"

Shouto's scalp was sensitive. The gentle scrape of his mother's nails brought goosebumps cascading down both of his arms. It wasn't the same as the healing power of her quirk. Those cool tingles brought absolution to his body, but they didn't touch the bond. Nothing could.

"Bakugou proposed today…" It was an abrupt jump in topic, but Shouto knew his mother wouldn't be confused. That was the way all the remaining Todoroki's spoke to each other. Emotional conversations were constructed from fragments and trailing sentences that left so much unsaid. Maybe it wasn't healthy, but it was something they all understood. It might have been an emotional scar leftover by Endeavor's heartless cruelty, or a shared bond that allowed them to express layers of painful truths without actually having to breathe the words.

A misty sigh ruffled the hair across his temple. "Midoriya said yes."

It wasn't a question but Shouto nodded anyway. The news was all over the internet; there was no way he could have missed it. He hadn't been able to stop scrolling through article after article and the pictures… The muscles of Shouto's throat pressed tightly around the lump in his throat that let no room for oxygen to pass.

Rei's thin arms tightened around his shoulders. She wasn't strong enough to squeeze the air from his lungs, but Shouto released a breath anyway. He didn't want to think anymore today; thinking made everything hurt. Instead he concentrated on the cool sweep of his mother's fingers across his back and down both arms.

"You'll need a few more treatments before we've set this right."

Shouto blinked. He watched his mother's thin fingers trace over his injured wrist. He could feel the physical pain again, throbbing and twisting inside him, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it should be. "Will there still be a scar?"

Rei's eyes found and held to Shouto's mismatched ones. "It can't be helped with a wound this deep." Her thumb smoothed back and forth across the palm of his injured arm. "I can't change how things heal; I can only help the process along." Her fingers threaded through his longer ones.

"Endeavor didn't know." Shouto wasn't asking; if Endeavor knew it would have been one more thing he tried to exploit from his children.

"I had to be so careful. I never used it on myself, and I never used as much as I wanted to…as much as I should have when he was rough with any of you."

Shouto squeezed his mother's hands tightly. "We survived. He can't do anything to us anymore."

Rei pressed a short, sharp kiss against his temple. "I think we can leave your wrist as is tonight. Letting it cool in the air will help a scab form. You should keep it bandaged when you go to work."

Shouto lifted his right arm, turning it this way at that in the dim light of his room. There wasn't the slightest trace of Izu… of Midoriya's name. "At least I can stop using your concealer." He glanced back at his mother.

The corners of Rei's mouth twitched, and Shouto knew he'd amused her. They'd never talked about it—there was so much they didn't speak about—but he'd never tried to hide it. He might not want the world to see his heartbreak etched into his skin, but he wouldn't lie to someone so precious to him.

Rei and his older siblings never threw platitudes at Shouto, and he was beyond grateful. He didn't have to pretend he was okay when he was home with his family. It was one of the many things they never talked about. They were the only ones that knew Shouto's bond to Midoriya remained unbroken since it first manifested during his time at UA.

Fuyumi liked to pretend Shouto would have another name on his wrist one day, if he only kept his heart open to forming new connections. For her sake he tried to live as normally as possible, but there was no room for delusion anymore. Midoriya's name was gone forever now, but the bond prowled like a wounded animal in Shouto's chest.

Soulmate bonds weren't supposed to hurt. They were supposed to fade when they weren't nourished from both sides. This bond had no mercy; it was every bit as tenacious as the man who inspired it. Shouto was never getting his heart back; he'd lost it completely to a pair of kind green eyes that had never looked at him with the same feelings he harbored.

Thank you for taking the time to read what I've posted; I promise this is only the beginning! I will post every Friday afternoon/evening PST until the story is completed. 3