Dreams…..there is no room for them when you grow up in an abusive household as day in and day out you claw and scrape and mangle your sense of self just to be able to see the next sunrise.
When I got to high school I saw my first glimpse of what it meant to really dream…to really accept yourself and others….to strive for a potential you could create. Then we graduated, went to University, became hero's or sidekicks and got real jobs as the world stabilized.
Sure hero's were still needed, but now we all shared the responsibility via Portal, the hero app that linked all reported crime in the area. Sure we still roamed the streets but a hero's job wasn't limited to the street.
So here I am in a shitty relationship with my high school "sweetheart" helping AU rejects get a second chance at being a hero. So much for fame and fortune.
But life is about chances so imagine my surprise when the quiet bi-gene (what we called dual quirks like mine) from Class-A falls into my life like a ton of bricks and I am forced to see if her Wind will stoke my flame or her Earth will smother it and my frozen heart.
Crystal Lies and The Fire In My Eyes
*vvvvt*vvvvt*vvvvt*
My phone vibrates on my work desk as I look over the last of yesterday's assignments. Knowing who it is, I ignore it. I'm almost done, she can wait.
*vvvvt*vvvvt*vvvvt*
*vvvvt*vvvvt*vvvvt*
*vvvvt*vvvvt*vvvvt*
*vvvvt*vvvvt*vvvvt*
"Jesus FUCKING Christ." The immeasurable exasperation seeping through every syllable as I scratch hasty marks on the last paper before opening up my phone to the verbal emotional diarrhea I know awaits me as soon as I look at my texts.
I wish one of these days I would be wrong.
Krys (8:30 P.M.)
So which one of your little
prepubescent cunt rags are
you fawning over this time?
Krys (8:40 P.M.)
I bet she is sucking that flaccid
pipe dream you call a dick
under your desk right now.
Krys (8:42 P.M.)
Are her plump little lips treating
it like a sucker? Bet that's the
only time she's seen a bulb
that small.
Krys (8:45 P.M)
Don't come home smelling like
her cunt or I'll encase it in
crystal so you die of infection.
I consider taking a video of the area, including under my desk, but it's pointless. I needed to do it as the barrage was happening to shut her up for good. Now I would have to go home and deal with her compounded hatred.
Shutting the screen off, I take the papers and neatly tuck them in my briefcase before standing up and exiting the room.
—
As soon as I get to the door to our apartment, I create a visor of thick ice transparent as glass before opening the door. Krys's quirk was her ability to manipulate crystals using the carbon in her blood, going so far as to encase her whole body in a thin shimmering layer of them as her armor while she fought with crystal fist weapons. That being said, after 8 years, I knew when to expect a projectile. This was one of those times.
As soon as the door was all the way open a crystal slams into my visor then clinks to the floor. I don't bother to greet her, I just put my suitcase down by the door and remove my jacket before heading to the kitchen for a beer.
"What did she fuck you speechless? Bet you came and burned the back of her throat so she can't complain to the Dean about an indecent relationship." She spewed in venomous anger as she sat on the couch clutching a beer with tear stained cheeks.
I sit down in the one person sofa chair perpendicular to her before taking a sip and adding my two cents. "I'm not feeding into your self deprecating, attention seeking, jealous, outlandish, abusive, selfish behavior. You are a god damn adult so why don't you fucking act like one."
I take another sip as she stares at me in a mixture of horror and self loathing. "Get your head out of your own ass and realize I don't come home because I can't fucking stand you anymore. All you do is bitch. You don't work, you don't clean, you provide no substantive value and honestly, a sucker tastes better than trying to swallow your shallow dreams and delusions of grandeur."
I knew I was asking for it, but I no longer cared. I couldn't do this anymore. She wasn't the girl I had liked in high school. Somewhere along the way she had decided to give up and do only what mattered to her or made her look good.
It made me think of my dad.
I took another sip of beer...then another...then another. It felt good to put it all out there. No more hiding behind the glass kingdom of her fairy tales where she lied to our friends as she shattered the dreams we had tried to create.
It stayed silent for so long I almost forgot she was even there. Then, it was like the fault erupted. Anything she could touch she threw or tossed over. She screamed, she raged, she cursed me over and over.
I tried to care. Part of me knew I should, but I had thrown us away a long time ago. So I sat there finishing my beer as the Category 10 hurricane Krys destroyed the apartment around me.
When her steam ran out some time later, after I had turned on the T.V. to an action movie that made the explosions surround sound when paired with her tirade, she packed a bag and headed to the door. As her hand hit the knob my voice hit her like a ten ton weight.
"I expect your shit gone by the end of the week. Leave the key or not, the locks will be changed. I'm not doing this anymore. I have the right to be happy and not abused by someone I should love." Then I turn up the volume effectively ending the conversation.
She stood there a moment staring at me before glancing around the room. She knew there was nothing more to say or do. Nothing more to salvage.
So with a turn of the knob and not a single word, she was gone.
After a few moments I walked to the fridge to grab another beer. "Thank god tomorrow is Saturday, gives me two days to pull this shit together." Pulling a beer out, popping the top and leaning against the fridge, my eye catches a picture by the door she managed not to destroy.
My curiosity piqued, I walk towards the door and smile as I see a picture of Me, Ocho, Baku, Deku and...
Squinting, my eyes I try to recall the girl kneeling on the ground in front of us with the knee high stalagmite boots, crystal blue eyes, and black and mud yellow one piece hero suit.
I rack my brain a moment longer before it clicks.
"Mysti. She has a dual quirk like me. Earth and..."I tap the picture with my finger "...WIND! That's it! Something to do with earth tremors and kinetic energy manipulation. Wonder how she is doing."
I glance around the room again. "Shame I'm not dating her, she'd be real handy right about now."
That's when I polish off my beer and set it on the counter. This shit hole can wait until tomorrow.
Sighing heavily I walk to the couch and attempt to pass out. No sense using the bed. I don't feel like thinking about her anymore than I have to.
The problem with trying not to think about something, is that you end up thinking even harder about it.
I knew I had done the right thing. I also hadn't been an ass. So many times in the last we had yelled and screamed, thrown things, she had gotten violent, and then we had made up.
But when even the makeup sex was bad...tell tale sign something had to change.
So how had it lasted 8 years past high school? Thinking back, I could see where the cracks had begun to show. She never liked the idea of me teaching because it meant I would be around younger "more talented" girls.
Despite having the most efficient defensive AND offensive quirk, Krys was insecure about what it did to her body. She hated that it made her skin look fake, so as she got older and her skin started showing the strain of supporting such a durable substance, she began to tear herself apart.
Nothing looked good on her. I had to CONSTANTLY validate her looks and my attraction to her. It got so oppressive that we stopped going out. That meant we were stuck in the same space day in and day out without getting a break from each other.
If I even tried to have a life, she lost her shit. That's when I started staying late to finish all my grading. Except that began to backfire too, hence the conversation earlier.
We were at the point where misery no longer liked company. So why did I feel guilty?
I barked a laugh as the realization hit me. This is what releasing myself from an abusive relationship felt like. It's how I felt when I was coming to terms with my parents abuse and was a necessary part of the healing process. Maybe one day she and I could meet on even terms as friends but a lot of things had to change before then.
It would take another hour before I would pass out, but it would be the best sleep I had had in the last god only knows how many years.
Quakintaor vs Fire Eyes
Before I knew it the weekend was over and I had nothing to show for it but an apartment that looked like the scarcest bachelor pad ever.
Krys had picked up her shit the next day and headed to some friend's house that I'd never heard of. Whatever, she was their problem now. All I needed to focus on was moving on with my life, which was easier said than done now that the entire female student populace somehow knew I was recently available.
"Mr. Todoroki?"
It was my free period, so I was using it to catch up on grading the papers I didn't get to this weekend as well as designing the written test for the upcoming mid-terms. So much for not being disturbed.
"Yes." I say before looking up and seeing that accosted would have been a better choice of words. Instead of meeting the eyes of the female student in question, I came eyes to tits with Char, aka Double Decker or Double D's as the boys called her which referenced her tits as well as her glass cannon dual blade wrist chakrams that detached and became long range boomerangs.
Clearly dressed to impress, she had 'neglected' to button her shirts top three buttons after combat training, thus allowing her cups to runnith over. Sighing heavily, making my lack of interest as blatantly obvious as I possibly could, I shift my gaze to her eyes.
"What do you need. I have work to do and your state of undress isn't going to change that." My voice flat.
Gasping in "shock" which made me roll my eyes, she feigned ignorance. "Really?" She brought her hand to her mouth and blushed. "I could have sworn I buttoned them! Could you possibly help me? I don't think I'm able to do it myself very well." She bends down taking my tie and running it through her fingers as seductively as an awkward child raging with hormones is capable of.
I don't have patience for this shit. Pushing my chair back, which pulls my tie the rest of the way through her fingers, I stand and walk to the door motioning with my hand for her to leave as I say, "If you came here for an educational reason I am happy to help, but if you just wanted to flaunt those dual hot air balloons in an attempt to seduce me then you can leave the same way you came."
She stares at me in shock as she straightens up and drops the hand that held my tie to her side.
"I'm not joking Char. I don't want any piece of you or any other child here. I'm here to teach you and give you a chance to get into UAU so you can become a real hero instead of a parlor trick, though if this is any inclination of your parlor skills you have a long way to go and shouldn't quit your day job."
I knew all too well how effective verbal abuse was on a fragile mind and by the look on her face I knew I had hit the mark.
Her eyes welled with tears and within seconds she was running out of class.
I sighed and shook my head before heading back to my desk. I still had a lot of work to do and that little charade has cost me precious time. As I sat down and picked up my pen my phone vibrates signaling so had gotten a text.
When I opened it I frowned.
Unknown Number
Hey Fire Eyes been a while.
Heard you might be able
to have a life now so why
don't you and I catch up?
Fire Eyes
Who is this?
Unknown Number
My bad it's Mysti. You
know...Trick Shot,
Quakinator, Fly By,
Lead Foot?
Fire Eyes
Oh holy shit how are
you? And how did you
get my number?
Trick Shot
Uhhh...you gave it to me
during a school project and
I banked on you never
changing it so...
Fire Eyes
Wait seriously? That was
during high school!
Trick Shot
Seriously. Glad I was
right, and that you are
still a predictable idiot.
:)
Fire Eyes
Fuck off. Least I wasn't
famous for projecting
myself into the head
masters car TWO FIELDS
AWAY because I couldn't
control my Wind powers at
full strength during training!
Trick Shot
Least I'M famous somewhere
half breed :p. So are we on
or not?
I smile as my left thumb rubs up and down the edge of my phone case. I'm a free man, it couldn't hurt and I needed a distraction. Besides, what I remember of Mysti told me she wasn't anything like my ex.
Fire Eyes
Sure why not. Where you
wanna meet?
Trick Shot
Why not at Gladious, the
bar down on 5th. Just
hit me up when you get
off work. I'll be off by 5
so that should give you
a little cushion.
Fire Eyes
Sounds good see you then.
Trick Shot
Later hater.
I would stay staring at my phone with a dumb smile on my face until my students began filing in. Then when classes were done, I sat at my desk and let the memories of better times wash over me. Once I had stopped being an asshat, I had had some great times as a student of UA.
No matter what memory I picked from after the sports festival, I was smiling and enjoying myself or at least enjoying someone else's "misery".
There was the time Ocho got drunk when we went camping because someone's dad had bought alcohol and she decided to play drunk hide and seek, but forgot how to control her powers so she got stuck on a tree and Baku had to save her.
Then there was the time that Mysti decided to break into the school pool to go for a swim at night with me Baku and Ocho, but had gotten a cramp and sank to the bottom. In her panic at drowning, she had activated her earth boots effectively adding 50lbs to her weight and the only way to get her out was me going all out and evaporating all the water in the pool. Still to this day no one knows how the pool emptied overnight.
Definitely some good times.
Then the lights start going out, signaling the building closing up for the night and I am ripped from my reverie as reality crashes back down around me.
12 more hours until I can try to get a piece of that life, that happiness back. Would I even be capable of falling back into that life? Then I look at my phone and smile.
"Fucking Quakinator." I said quietly to myself. She had been everyone's friend, but never stood out overly much. Her suit wasn't flashy and her quirk wasn't dynamic. Her grades had been above average, but not perfect. She had even gotten along with dad, which was weird because he hated useless people but if it was one thing that everyone knew about Mysti it was that her personality was infectious. Everyone wanted her around, even though no one sought her out. She just showed up in the right place at the right time.
It would be interesting catching up after all this time, yet that text made it seem like only days had gone by and we would be able to pick up right where we left off.
I gathered my things and headed out the door. When I got to my car, my phone went off again.
Sonic
Hey Icey Ass, heard from
Ocho you got in touch
with Trick. You guys
are meeting up at
Gladious after 5?
Shall we invite ourselves?
Icey Ass
Sure...? It's not like it's a
date or anything. I mean I
did just call it off with Krys.
Sonic
It's about fucking time!
Sparkly Twat was a stone
cold bitch. Why the fuck
did your stupid ass stay
with her? I know it
wasn't because she was
a good lay. You guys
never fucked the entire
time we were dorm
mates in college. And
when you did, you
always looked like hell
when you finished and not
the good kind either.
Icey Ass
Heh. Thanks man. If you
guys wanna show up I
could use the distraction.
I'll let you know when I
leave work.
Then I close my phone and head home. Guess word travels fast. Not necessarily a bad thing. I hadn't been out in forever so why wait when I had nothing holding me back?
Don't Pussy Out
It's no great secret that Sonic and I didn't get along in high school. Hell, it's safe to say he didn't get along with ANYWAY except Ocho, but us being flame based, even partially, really added an edge to things. It also didn't help that he was a show off and I a cocky son of a bitch ( literally and figuratively). Really added fuel to the fire so to speak.
So how did we go from damn near killing each other every day to hanging out at the bar down the street?
—
"Look who decided to finally drag their bitch ass in. Took you long enough Icey Twat." Baku said with a challenging grin as he leaned against the bar sipping a Bud Light in his hand.
"Real original shit for brains." I said sarcastically back as I walk up to the bar and order a Yuengling Black and Tan.
"Well that Vejazzled Twat Monkey spent most of the time wearing the pants in the relationship so you got no one to fucking blame but yourself.
I'd love to argue that point but I can't. Instead I throw a punch of my own. "Speaking of twats, how's pink lips? Wasn't she supposed to be here?" I say with a sadistic grin as I take a sip of beer.
Ever since Baku's and my blow up in University that resulted in THAT nickname for Ocho and his and my eventual friendship (as fucked up as that sounds), he and I had referred to "his Uraraka" as pink lips between me, him, Ocho and Mysti.
"Wouldn't you like to know? You haven't seen one that nice since you came out your Mom's." He clapped back with a similar grin.
"At least I'm not the twat that came out of my Mom." I said turning to face him while still leaning nonchalantly against the bar.
"I could always make your face look like your Mom's beef curtains." He said cracking the knuckles of his right hand as he turned to face me and lean on the bar as well in a similar fashion."
This is how it was between us now. Insult or injury, we 'fought' because we cared. The only real affection he showed was reserved for Ocho. Everyone else knew it was HOW he insulted you, not IF he insulted you that defined your friendship with him.
That's when the doors opened to a very excited Ocho followed by the woman who started it all.
As mentioned, Mysti had a habit of being in a place without ever needing to be told. That same trait is what created my current relationship with Bromeo and Juliet. Though we had all gotten along to some degree, even dysfunctionally, in high school, College had created its own hostile dynamics as we were coming into our own and completely without adult supervision.
One Friday night before exams, Ocho had decided to go out with some friends. Baku had insisted on going because he didn't trust anyone with her, but she refused and it caused a huge fight. Needless to say she went anyway and Baku went to the gym.
Still being a relatively solitary person, I had gone out for a run when I got a text from her asking if I could stop by. Not seeing a reason not to, I met up with her at her dorm room. Though nothing happened, I was painfully unaware that one of the girls in the dorm had the hots for me, even though I was on again off again with Krys (at this point we were off) and when she saw me go into Ocho's room, she called in a favor.
Long story short, Ocho got slipped some pills that night at the bar courtesy of this bitches jealousy, thinking Baku would beat me up, which he tried to do, and I would lose interest in Ocho, which I clearly had none as far as I was concerned.
That night Baku came at me with the intent to kill me, and we would have ended up killing each other had Mysti not stepped in (thanks to Ocho texting her) and explained the situation as she broke it down scene by scene based on the course of events.
If it had been anyone other than Mysti, Baku would never have bought the discussion but having gone to high school together and knowing that her recommendation to enter based on her superior leadership skills wasn't bullshit, he knew she was worth hearing out.
Needless to say, a truce was called until we got to the bottom of what happened...and Baku and I took care of everyone involved.
That had been 6 years ago and it had been 4 years since I saw her again, since Krys and I had moved in together right after college and my social life had come to a screeching halt. She had been slender then with shoulder length brown hair highlighted with red and blonde. Her boobs had been average just like all her measurements and she had been quiet except when she got mad.
That, and what I saw before me, was two completely different images. Gone was the baby face and doe eyes, long slender arms and legs with a tight little ass, pretty smile and plain face. All to be replaced by a vivacious, brazen, snarky, dark copper haired vixen with curves for days and a mouth that could hold its own.
When had she gotten so god damn hot?
—
"So are you even a little excited to see Todo after all this time?" Ocho asks with a knowing smile as she pushes into Mysti.
"Shut it Pink Lips!" Mysti says in embarrassment as she sticks her tongue out at her best friend.
"Mi Miiiiii!" She whines. "Why do you have to call me that it's soooooo embarrassing!" Her face is bright red and she I had pinned her arms against her sides as she balls her hands in fists trying to be mad, but failing.
Mysti laughs. "Hey I'm not the one that decided to get locked out of the dorms with a skirt and tank top on not wearing a bra or panties because "you just needed to go to the mail box really quick so you could pass by Baku's class and kiss him before he went to his advanced hero course only to meet him on the steps to the building as a gust of wind came outs nowhere and Marilyn Monroed you to the best inside joke EVER in front of the very man you wanted to kiss but couldn't bring yourself to sleep with."
Ocho groans in embarrassment as she kneels on the floor trying to shut out the image.
"Awww come on. It got you laid after all." She winks and holds out her hand to help her up.
"You are the worst friend ever." She grumbles still embarrassed as she gets up from her crouch.
"Yet you still love me." She bats her eye lashes and links my arms with hers as we continue walking.
"I love how you always try to dodge questions you don't want to answer." She pushes into Mysti who rolls her eyes.
"Why do I have to answer a question you seem to know the answer to."
"Because I want you to to admit you have liked him since High School." She pinches her friend who jerks sideways.
"Damnit you harlot!" Mysti snaps causing Ocho to giggle and squeeze her arm. "You are insufferable."
"Truuuue...but nows your chance! He's single and you're totally hot so why wouldn't you go for it?"
Mysti rolls her eyes but finds herself unable to argue. Why not go for it? I mean maybe not right away since he just got out of a bad relationship, but it's not like she planned on staying with Cas anyway. He was just an in between for when she was bored and lonely.
Sighing heavily she opens the door to the bar for Ocho. "After you my lady." She bows playfully and Ocho curtsies, whispering the most amazing and inspirational thing she has ever heard from her bestest friend.
"Don't be a pussy Mi Mi. They like it when you take them by the dick." Then she winks before entering.
"Someone's gotten balsey since getting laid." She says with shock before pulling herself together and entering the doors that hopefully signified the beginning, and end, of everything.