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Dabi is not a morning person.
He likes to sleep, don’t get him wrong. His body is constantly aching from… well just about everything. His skin, the way he’s always burning from the inside out, not to mention the long hours he does walking around trying to recruit people. It’s actually nice to not be able to feel anything while he sleeps. But taking a nap and waking up from long hours of unconsciousness are entirely different.
He hates waking up to silence around him, which isn’t usually a problem with Twice’s snores and Spinner’s clicks, but for some reason it’s weirdly quiet today.
He can hear the electricity buzzing through the walls and the distant sound of beeping coming from somewhere he can’t quite place. The ceiling is white, which is weird because the last time he checked, they were hiding out in some rundown building that barely had working light and running water.
He stares up at the ceiling, his eyes burning from the brightness of the room. He brings his hands up, rubbing his knuckles over his eyes hard enough to create black spots in his vision when he blinks them open again.
The ceiling is green and a little mouldy now and the beeping is gone.
He takes in a deep breath, tearing his gaze away as he sits up. His body feels heavy and he itches all over. He rubs his palms over his pants, trying to soothe the itch without scratching. He’d rather not have to re-staple the skin of his thighs. He scrunches his nose when his feet hit the cold floor, reaching for his shoes.
Dabi looks around, noticing that everyone else is gone. He frowns at the empty room. He tends to wake up before the rest of them, already out and doing his own thing before they even get out of bed. His bones creak when he stands, taking heavy steps towards what everyone else likes to call the living room—a room with a ratty old couch and an old TV that only works when it pleases.
That’s where Dabi finds Toga, curled up against the arm of the couch and watching what looks like a nature documentary with way too much interest.
She must have heard him come in because she looks back and flashes her fangs at him. “You’re finally awake, sleepyhead!”
Dabi freezes. His neck turns to look at her, heart picking up speed. The sound of his blood rushes through his ears at an alarming rate.
He tries to focus on Toga but his eyes are starting to blur and the sound of the electricity in the walls is getting louder, buzzing through his whole body. The beeping is back, sounding far away yet much too close.
“You slept in so long, Tomura left—out you. Mister—to let you sleep since yesterday you—I didn’t want to go so I—” Dabi can see Toga’s lips moving a mile a minute but he can’t register anything she’s saying. His ears ring and his fingers feel hot.
Toga stops talking, frowning at him. “D–bi?” She gets up from her place and everything in him is telling him to run, to get away from her but his feet are stuck to the ground and his chest feels so tight, he’s not sure he’s breathing. “ —you okay? Dab—”
“W-what?” He tries to swallow the spit pooled in his mouth but his throat is closing up. His vision is blurry when he opens his eyes—when did he close his eyes?
Something lands on his shoulder. He flinches, his hand slapping it away when he turns towards whatever it was.
He knows it’s Toga, he does . But he takes one look at her eyes, filled with panic, and he’s not looking at Toga anymore.
“Sleepyhead is awake!”
Touya blinks, looking around the room. There’s a handful of kids here, all varying in ages. The girl who spoke last looks about his age, her friend right next to her is maybe a year or two older. Her hair is brown and short, pin straight with bangs almost falling into her eyes.
The room is bright, colourful enough to hurt his eyes and the kids are staring at him. He wants to scratch at his chin but he feels frozen in place.
“Um… where are we?”
The sound of his own voice shocks him into moving. His hand comes up to his neck, the pads of his fingers brushing against something rough. He recoils at the unfamiliar feeling, looking back at the brown haired girl when she speaks.
“This is where we live!” She walks up to him. She’s shorter than him. It’s odd. He’s always been a little short for his age and she does look older than him.
“It’s been, umm, three years sleepyhead!” Touya’s mind halts at the new information. His question must be all over his face because she keeps going. “You were asleep for three whole years!”
Touya gasps and his ears start to ring. He can see her talking, he’s watching her talk, but the words don’t get to him. His skin is itching painfully now and his hands are tingling, his eyes well up with tears, he can’t see, can’t hear, can’t speak, can’t feel his nails scratching into his skin and it should hurt but it doesn’t, nothing is soothing the itch, his throat hurts and his head is pounding so hard he can’t think. Touya’s heart is beating against his ribcage, his lungs are burning and he needs air but his throat is closed up and he can’t breath-
“—abi!”
There are flames behind him, embers crackling as he runs away. He runs past the common area he found earlier. That girl is there, the one with the brown hair. Her and the other kids are looking around, panicked and scared. Touya makes eye contact with her for a split second and he thinks he might throw up. Her eyes are wide, afraid and she’s looking at him like he’s a monster, like he’s going to hurt her.
Touya keeps running.
“ —he started—too hot—elp him—plea—I’m scared!”
Dabi blinks his eyes rapidly, frantically looking around. His chest rises and falls with quick breaths. He’s on the floor now, with his knees pulled up and his head hanging forward and he’s not sure how he got there but there’s an ice pack on his arm and it feels good against his burning skin.
His skin is burning. When did he start burning?
Dabi gasps for air, taking in a lungfull and holding his breath. The noise startles Toga into looking at him, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open. She has her half-broken phone up to her ear in one hand, the other holding the ice pack to his arm. He wonders what she hopes to achieve with that, the cold is not nearly enough to put out even a flame on the tip of his finger and he’s quite literally steaming at the seams.
His ears are still ringing and he can kind of see her lips moving past the blurriness of his eyes. Toga’s voice is muffled. “ —okay? Da—I don’t kno—what’s wro—”
Dabi isn’t sure what happened and he’s still on the ground. His head hurts really badly, he thinks he’d like to take a nap.
Something soft comes up to his face while the ice pack moves to his other arm. He flinches away from the fabric of Toga's handkerchief but she's patient and surprisingly gentle when she brings it back, wiping his cheekbones.
“ —bleeding.” Toga is frowning and Dabi can see tear tracks trailing down her face. Her eyes are bloodshot and she is still worried, still panicked. Still scared.
But he doesn’t think she’s scared of him. No, she’s scared for him.
The ice pack feels nice.
“ —press is on his—”
He doesn’t know what she said but he feels himself nod anyway, looking away from her. His mind and body still feel slow, like he’s walking up a sandy hill. His skin is still burning, still too hot, but it’s familiar now. Controllable.
And then he feels a weight on his shoulder. He looks over to see a head of blonde hair. Toga adjusts to hold onto his arm, letting the icepack fall into his lap. His breath catches in his throat, a distressed noise coming from him.
Toga looks up. “ —me to let go?”
Dabi’s throat hurts when he swallows. “Burn-”
She blinks, confused. The word turns over in her mind and then her eyebrows soften. “You won't burn me.”
Dabi brings his free hand up to rub his eye, his skin feels tacky from the blood Toga couldn’t quite wipe off. He nods, a silent okay , without looking at her, feeling her curl up next to him again.
He can’t tell if the scene is familiar or foreign. Maybe he simply can’t bring himself to think about another little girl he used to know with white hair and red streaks.
He closes his eyes, pulling his knees up tighter to his chest to trap in the coldness of the ice pack. Dabi breathes in slowly, holding it for a few seconds at a time, the cool air helping him breathe. He doesn’t realize he’s matching Toga’s rhythm until she shifts to get more comfortable.
They sit like that for a while until his heart beat slows and his skin cools down. He can feel Toga’s sweat on his shoulder where her cheek is pressed, and even though she’s probably hot and uncomfortable, she doesn’t let go.
Dabi leans back, his head thumping against the wall. He opens his eyes, looking at the mouldy ceiling and sighs. “Sorry.” His voice is rough, barely above a whisper. But Toga hears him anyway and hums.
“You scared me,” she says.
“I know. Didn’t mean to.” His mind is still foggy but he can understand and hear her now so he’ll call that a win.
“I know.”
Dabi takes a deep breath as he looks around. There are more ice packs and small puddles around him. An ice cube is slipping away from them on the ground. He watches it as it melts, getting further away until it’s nothing but water.
The haze in his mind clears up the longer he sits there with the comforting weight of Toga on his arm and the sound of their rhythmic breathing. Dabi tilts his head, pressing his cheek to the top of Toga’s hair. “Thanks.”
She doesn’t reply, simply nods her head and sniffles.
Dabi has never felt like this. Cared for, that is.
He’s always been someone pushed forward or pushed aside. People always feared him, from the ripe age of 8 to now. He never thought he’d find anyone who wasn’t afraid of him, let alone seven others.
But then he feels Toga shaking against him, refusing to let go of him, saying with such certainty that he won’t burn her, and she’s not pushing him, but keeping him here. He knows that if he asked, she would step away to give him space.
Dabi doesn’t ask her to move, instead he stretches out his legs, slips his arm out of her hold and wraps it around her shoulders. She doesn’t protest, leaning into him and breathing out shakily.
“You okay?” Toga’s voice is small and teary but full of genuine concern.
“‘M fine.”
He knows that Toga is small. She’s sixteen for fuck’s sake, he has a good few inches of height on her. But right now, she feels tiny. Someone no match for Dabi’s flames. And yet she still risked herself to cool him off, throwing useless ice cubes onto him and getting out the four ice packs they have in the place. A desperate attempt to keep him from hurting himself.
Mister Compress gets back soon after, finding them on the floor. Despite the mask on his face, Dabi can tell the man is worried. He puts a hand on Dabi’s shoulder and he doesn't flinch away from the touch this time. Compress checks them both for any injuries and sighs in relief when he doesn’t find any beyond the redness on Dabi’s palms.
Dabi lets himself be doted on for once in his life, if anything to ease Compress’ mind. No one asks what happened or why he suddenly caught fire to which he is grateful for. He doesn’t think he’d be able to answer that question, anyway.
He drinks the water Compress gets him, lets Toga cling to him. It’s not the attention he’s been fighting for all these years, but he thinks that maybe it’s better.
He gets comfort and support from the broken family he’s found and that’s enough for him.