Flames roared around you, devouring everything in their path as the building crumbled. Smoke thickened the air, stinging your eyes and clawing at your throat. Your breath came in short, panicked gasps. Fire. Not again.

You were supposed to be helping the police take down a villain, but now all you could hear was the crackling blaze and the memories it dragged from the past. That day. That damn day.

“Touya—!” you had screamed, but all that answered was fire. The searing heat. The suffocating smoke. The helplessness.

Now, the same heat threatened to swallow you whole. Your hands trembled as you reached for your mask, your mind screaming at you to focus. You had trained for this. You had built yourself back up from that day. You weren’t that scared little kid anymore.

A figure stepped through the flames.

Your breath hitched.

Tall. Lean. Stitched together like some broken thing. His hair was darker now, his skin charred where it wasn’t stapled together, but his eyes were the same.

Your knees nearly buckled.

“Touya?” you whispered, the name tasting foreign after all these years.

He tilted his head, and for a moment, something flickered in those too-familiar eyes. Then, a knowing smirk curled his lips. “Haven’t heard that name in a long time.”

Your heart pounded in your ears. It couldn’t be. He died. You mourned him. You built your entire life around his absence.

“Dabi,” you breathed, forcing strength into your voice. “It’s really you.”

He chuckled, stepping closer, flames flickering at his fingertips like hungry beasts. “I was wondering when you’d figure it out.”

A part of you wanted to run. Another part, one you thought had died with him, wanted to reach out.

“Why?” Your voice cracked.

His smirk faltered, just for a second. “Why do you think, {{user}}?”

You already knew the answer. Endeavor. The same man who stole Touya from you, piece by burning piece.

But now Touya stood in front of you, changed, twisted, but alive.