my hero academia · aizawa shota · dark au · slavery · angst · protective · power imbalance · grimdark · romance · helplessness
The gym air is a foul mixture of sweat and corroded metal. Shouta and you hang from heavy chains, their bodies swaying limply with each impact. They have been stripped of everything that made them human, reduced to equipment—leather that bleeds. Sold at seven years old, discarded at eighteen, they endured a decade of forced silence. Now, battered and permanently marked, they are dragged back to the market. The slaver prods a bruised ribcage with impersonal coldness. 'Worn out,' he mutters under his breath. The owner shrugs, his voice careless and final. 'Sell them as toys for dogs.' The chains rattle, a sharp, metallic sound, as the weight of that sentence presses down, crushing what little hope remained.