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Midoriya sat at the bar with his notebook set before him, watching a clip of Eraserhead’s most recent recorded fight with his phone in his left hand while he took down simple jot notes with his right. He’d watch the video again and expand on his points later of course, Sensei only wanted the best when it came to his analysis. A short squeal brought him from his musings.
Toga was hopping excitedly in front of the television, leaning closer to the bright screen as it showed an ad for the zoo in Taito City.
“Awww! They’re so cute!” She leaned closer, almost tipping over if it wasn’t for Spinner pulling her back up by her shirt collar. “Oops. Thanks, Spinner!” She sent him a smile with a thumbs up before she turned back to the TV.
“No problem,” Spinner replied. “What’s on the TV that’s got you on cloud nine?”
That got Toga’s attention. She whirled back on him with a wide smile.
“Bats! They’ve got bats at the Ueno Zoo!”
“Bats?!” Shigaraki’s voice resounded from the lounge. He marched over, scrutinized the screen before he forced a gag. “Why keep ‘em? They’re just rats with wings.”
“Hey! You take that back!” Toga looked absolutely scandalized. “They’re adorable and they have cute teeth like me.”
Midoriya began tuning them out after Shigaraki made another remark and Twice had come to Toga’s aid. Magne entered the room after coming downstairs, pausing at the scene before moving to stand next to Izuku who had returned to writing his analysis notes.
“How do you focus in all this noise, lil’ guy?” She sat on a stool to his left,” I can hardly hear myself think.”
“I pretend like they’re not here,” Midoriya remarked as he looked between the video and his notebook.
“You what?”
Midoriya’s head shot up at the question and he made direct eye contact with Shigaraki.
“N-not like that! I mean— I don’t find you guys annoying or anything, I actually like being around you guys because you’re so lively and- and ya know… heh. Uh,” He cleared his throat, suddenly feeling very small. “Sorry?”
Shigaraki looked bemused for a moment and opened his mouth to respond but Toga cut him off.
“I forgive you, Izuku! But, you didn’t answer me earlier!” Toga looked at him expectantly, her eyes twinkling with anticipation.
Midoriya suddenly felt guilty.
“Sorry, Himiko. I didn’t hear you the first time. Can you ask me again…?”
However, Toga’s good mood wasn’t swayed.
“Sure! Will you pretty please go to the zoo with me?”
Midoriya blinked.
What?
—————
The next thing Midoriya knew, he, Toga, and Dabi were standing in the middle of a zoo, all in disguises with matching admission wristbands and he was holding a milk ice cream cone in his hand, a sun hat on his head. It was sunny out and the zoo was surprisingly crowded for a week day.
Long story short, Midoriya said yes to the zoo and Sensei added his two cents in about them needing adult supervision, they did the process of elimination, and Dabi was elected to be their babysitter for the day. Sensei also hit them with an illusion quirk to help conceal their identities, and so that they all looked like siblings. Black hair and brown eyes… original.
“Ah! We’re here! C’mon!”
“What’re you—“
“Himiko, wait!”
She grabbed Dabi’s right wrist and Izuku’s left one before she took off running, dragging them towards the nocturnal section of the zoo to see the bats. Midoriya heard a few people chuckle when they passed, even catching a whisper about them looking like a sweet group of kids. If only they knew…
By the time they made it to the gates of the nocturnal area of the zoo, Midoriya was out of breath, licking his ice cream to try and cool down.
“You’re… haa… a really.. fast runner. Oh, oh my gosh, it’s so hot…” Midoriya said in wonder, pausing between words to take a few gasps of breath, the colour on his face slowly receding to normal.
Dabi seemed to almost be in a similar situation, bracing himself with one arm on the brick fence as he leaned against it. For a guy with a fire-related quirk, he sure doesn’t do well with heat. Talk about unlucky genes, Izuku would know a thing or two about those.
“Oopsies! Sorry, Izuku, you’ve got to work out more. Dabi, maybe bring a bottle of water next time.”
“Hey, where’s my sympathy?” Dabi questioned after straightening up and walking over so that the three were properly grouped together. Toga fanned her hand around.
“Oh, you’re a grown man, you’ll be fine.”
Dabi looked slightly offended.
“Well, fuck you too.”
—————
Toga pressed against the glass as she gazed at the bats longingly.
“Look, Izu! Aren’t they cute?”
“Yeah. Bats are really interesting when you think about it.” Midoriya stood next to her and looked at the bats with slight interest and a small smile. “Oh,” He looked at Toga. “Do you think they have vampire bats?”
“Mh… probably not. Vampire bats’ only food source is blood and I don’t really think the zoo would be able to accommodate their needs after just implementing the enclosure. Maybe later?”
Midoriya nodded and hummed thoughtfully before he turned back to the bats.
Dabi leaned on the wall next to the glass and listened as the two teens talked about the bats, bouncing facts and theories off each other. If he smiled, seeing their two youngest members actually acting like the children they are, it’d only be something he was privy to.
“Excuse me, young man.”
Dabi stiffened before he turned around, forcing his face to calm down. Oh. It was an old lady.
“Uhm, yes? May I help you?”
The lady smiled.
“Such nice manners for someone so young. Mm, but yes; Are those two your younger siblings?” She pointed towards Midoriya and Toga who were currently trying to guess the names of the bats.
“Oh, yeah, they are,” He was uninterested in this conversation but it was easier to be nice rather than be rude and gather attention on himself if the old lady was the type to cause a scene.
“They’re just so sweet. You’re such a nice older brother, taking them out like this. I know you’ll become something amazing in the future.” With that, the old lady patted his arm and waddled back to her own family, leaving Dabi stuck in some kind of stupor as he just watched her leave.
“A nice older brother, huh?” Dabi looked down at his hands as he murmured to himself, clenching his fist and furrowing his brows.
Meanwhile, Midoriya and Toga had just named bat #11 when Midoriya turned to call out to Dabi but paused when he noticed how down he looked. He tugged on the back of Toga’s shirt.
“Huh?” She looked in his direction. “What’s up, Izu?”
“Dabi doesn’t look too happy…”
“Eh? Oh.” She just caught sight of him. “Come on, let’s go talk to him.”
Once they were close enough to whisper without gathering attention or suspicion, they called out to Dabi.
“Dabi,” Toga whispered next to his ear with her hands cupped around her mouth, “What’s making you such a Debbie Downer?”
Dabi’s eye twitched and the corners of his mouth were pulling into a scowl, making Midoriya’s eyes widen in slight panic as he tugged Toga back by her midsection before waving his hands placatingly.
“W-What Himiko means is; Are you okay? If being here isn’t your jam, we can just leave, ri-right, Himiko?” Midoriya quickly looked over at Toga for reassurance. She hummed, putting a hand on her chin.
“Sure,” She shrugged. “The bats’ll still be here the next time we visit, right? Let’s go.”
She began walking towards the exit and Midoriya followed her after giving Dabi a nervous smile.
“We’ll meet you out by the gate.”
“Uh- I… wait.” Dabi stumbled over his words as he tried to get the two teens to stop.
They stopped walking before turning and looking at Dabi curiously.
“Let’s stay. I can get you guys more ice cream or something? Stop by the souvenir shop? Sensei gave me some spending money so…”
“Oh! Really?! Why didn’t you just say so?” Toga latched her hand onto Midoriya’s wrist again before she all but sprinted out of the bat cave and headed straight for the ice cream stand.
“Himikooooo!” Midoriya stumbled to keep pace with her, using his other hand to hold his hat to his head as they left Dabi staring after their retreating forms with slightly wide eyes.
Dabi laughed, more of a huff than anything before he sprinted after Midoriya and Toga.
“Hey! Wait for me!”
Later, when they were on the train to head back to Musutafu and Dabi had both Midoriya and Toga dozing against him, holding onto their brand-new souvenirs, Dabi would look out the window to see the sun beginning to set in the orangeing sky and decide that maybe he was something of a good big brother.