Chapter Text
Alright, it was decided. Dabi was never, never, ever going on last minute recruitment again. Because either Shigaraki is shit at any general background checks or he wants him dead.
The answer was probably a bit of both.
In any other situation. In literally any other situation, Dabi would have cremated the two of them without a second thought. The moment he felt something was off. It made no difference to him.
In any other situation except for when suddenly his quirk doesn't work.
Dabi had thought a lot about what would happen if there was no fire burning under his skin. No searing pain that had been his new normal since he first got his quirk.
He never dared to hope something like that would happen, but he had imagined how it may feel. He didn’t expect to collapse almost as soon as the pain faded. Maybe because it was the first time his body had truly relaxed since he was five years old. But either way, he felt heat melt away as his knees hit the pavement.
He knew he had been hit with something that erased quirks. And his first thought was dread that it was temporary. The pain would be back.
His second thought was that he had nothing else, no way of protecting himself. Just because he threatened to roast Spinner and Shigaraki every time they called him a ‘glass cannon’ doesn’t mean it wasn’t true.
In other times when he found himself in danger he’d think that maybe this was it. Maybe he could finally rest. What would it matter to him? He’ll fight for his life but the second he loses? He’s dead. So what does he care.
That thought was quickly overtaken by the image of Keigo sitting in his room waiting for him to get back.
So, like hell he was going to go down easy.
~
“You look like shit,” Shigaraki called from the bar.
Toga must have smelled the amount of blood soaking his clothes, because as he dragged himself to a chair, she had the wherewithal to look concerned. He had never seen her look concerned before.
“Dabi,” she said, settling down next to him to pull off his jacket, “what the hell happened?”
“What happened,” he started, coughing slightly before continuing, “is that I am not ever going on another one of Shiggy’s fucking recruitment meetings unless one of you fucks is coming too. Like hell I can’t handle myself out there but I’m not stupid.”
He turned his head as far as he could back to where Shigaraki was sitting. “Next time could you at least figure out what kind of quirks these assholes have? Because the second my fucking quirk gets erased I don’t have many more tricks up my sleeve.”
“Oh shit,” Spinner said from his place on the couch.
“Dabs can handle them! You suck!” Twice called out, before apologizing for the second part.
Dabi rolled his eyes, using the last bit of strength he had to pull himself out of the chair and towards the stairs.
“Do you need help?” Toga asked.
“Fuck off, vampire,” Dabi said without much heat, and didn’t shove her away when she put his arm over her shoulder.
~
Keigo had thought about Dabi a lot over the past year and a half since he first started his mission to infiltrate the LOV.
First, it was pure annoyance. Because Dabi took any and every opportunity to be an absolutely unhelpful brat. But that nagging quickly became teasing, and teasing became casual conversation and witty volleys and then he didn’t know what to think.
He should hate Dabi, but he couldn’t bring himself to. He had never been able to bring himself to hate anyone, actually. Not his parents. Not the HPSC. Not even murderous villains.
It had taken about six months of working together before Keigo had worried for the first time about his villain contact.
Granted, he had worried about his own well being in the presence of said villain, but he had never felt a twinge of concern when he was five minutes late to a meeting. Until then.
Worrying grew exponentially after that. Even just weeks before he had lost his wings, he had turned the tv on and, with no reason at all, had thought about some time in the future when he would turn the television on and see that the vanguard leader of the League of Villains had been caught… or worse.
Now, Keigo was curled up against Dabi’s headboard, for no other reason than the sheets smelled like campfire smoke and against all odds he loved it.
And he was worrying about when and if Dabi was going to walk through that door again. If they could pick up where they left off. If Dabi even wanted to pick up where they left off.
Keigo had never been treated as gently as Dabi treated him. Not just like he was injured, but like he was breakable. Like he was worth preserving for no other reason except that he liked him and his company.
It was that thought Keigo had settled on when Dabi and Toga pushed the door open together.
Keigo glanced up before quickly jumping off the bed and running to catch the momentum Dabi was slowly losing control over and Toga couldn’t keep steady.
“Hey, hotstuff, hey. What happened?”
Dabi just gave him a blissful smile, “hey, pretty bird.”
“He got attacked after one of the recruits erased his quirk,” Toga filled him in.
“Holy shit,” Keigo breathed, taking more of Dabi’s weight and steering all three of them towards the bathroom.
“We really do have to stop meeting like this, Kei, one day one of us isn’t gonna make it all the way to the med kit.”
Toga frowned, stepping back once they had settled Dabi on the counter. “What did he call you?”
“Nothing,” Keigo said quickly, “I’ll take care of him from here, kid.”
Toga narrowed her eyes, but turned to leave.
“Wait,” Keigo caught her arm, “thank you, Himiko. I’m serious.”
Her gaze softened and she smiled. “Go easy on each other will you? Oh, and Dabs–” she leaned around Keigo to look at Dabi, “–you look really cute all covered in blood like that.”
“Okay–” Keigo said, turning her around and steering her toward the door, “I’ve got it from here, thank you.”
“You know I’m right!” Toga called as he closed the door behind her.
When he made it back to the bathroom, Dabi was holding tightly onto his stomach.
“You okay?”
“Just peachy, little bird.”
“Where are you hurt worst?”
Dabi sighed heavily, and it occurred to him as he spoke that he could taste iron on his tongue. “A little bit of everywhere. They just hit me really fucking hard, and… a lot.”
Keigo pushed his jacket off of his shoulders carefully, and began sizing up what needed bandages and what was just going to have to hurt. Some of his staples were missing, a lot were out of place.
Good thing Keigo had helped him with this before.
“Do you know why?”
Dabi shook his head then seemed to immediately regret it. “I think they just wanted to see if they could take a real League member. Hardly counts since they knew they couldn’t take me with my quirk. But they knew which nerves to hit for sure. Haven’t gotten a beating like that since I lived at home.”
Keigo froze, looking at Dabi cautiously. The villain had never talked about his home life per se. There had been the comment earlier about his siblings, but other than that.
“I’m sorry,” Keigo’s voice broke over the words even though he tried to speak clearly.
“Oh, shut up. It’s not your fault my dad was what he was. Wasn’t anyone's fault except his. We did fuck all to deserve the shit he put us through, that didn’t stop him.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
Dabi stared at him for a moment before blatantly changing the subject.
“I can’t feel my quirk,” he said quietly.
Keigo had begun putting gauze and bandages where he could. Had even replaced a few staples while they spoke. But he stuttered in his movements then, because he didn’t know what that meant . What would that mean for Dabi, whose entire body revolves around holding itself together just enough to keep using a quirk that hurts him so badly?
“Keigo,” Dabi whispered, pulling weakly at the front of his shirt until he looked at him. “Their quirk is going to wear off eventually.”
Keigo stared blankly for a moment before he realized what Dabi was implying. The quirk was going to wear off, and the pain was going to come back.
“Dabs, I–” he started, and couldn’t think of how to continue.
“I’ll be fine, pretty bird. Just– will you stay with me?”
Keigo gently, so gently, held Dabi’s face in his hands. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Can I kiss you now?”
“Yes,” Keigo nodded, already halfway leaning into Dabi. He was pulled the rest of the way by the villain himself, and they shared a slow, comparatively chaste kiss, with Keigo still holding Dabi as though he was made of glass, and Dabi gripping the front of Keigo’s shirt.
When Keigo pulled back, Dabi’s face was twisted in pain. “Well, that’s shitty timing.”
Keigo smiled even though he tried to stop it. Leave it to Dabi to make Keigo laugh when he was beginning to burn from the inside out.
“Distract me with something, little bird. Will you?”
Keigo nodded. “Yeah, uh–” he thought for a moment as he secured the last staple in place and helped Dabi off the counter. “No childhood questions?”
“I could care less right now, to be perfectly honest.”
“Okay, then… if we had grown up in some other situation, do you think we would have been friends?”
Dabi paused for a moment before nearly doubling over in pain. When he was able to stand and keep walking, he waited till he was sitting on the bed to speak. Keigo sat with his legs crossed next to him, waiting for any sign that he needed something besides company.
“Fuck it,” Dabi mumbled, then started speaking for Keigo to hear, “my dad is pretty important.”
Keigo’s eyes widened, he hadn’t expected Dabi to actually answer in detail, but maybe he was going to after all?
“When I was about ten, it was abundantly clear that no matter how much training he put me through, my quirk was going to hurt me. My flames were even more powerful than his, then. Still are, I might add.” He shot a smirk at Keigo that quickly faded when he groaned at what had to be another stab of burning pain through his body.
“Everything that happened after that has led me here. But, if it was different…”
He looked at Keigo then. “When did the HPSC take you?”
Keigo frowned, “when I was six.”
Dabi nodded. “Okay. So, if our lives happened differently. I would have been given help with my quirk, since I was a fucking ten year old at the time and shouldn’t have been expected to just deal with it and move on. I wouldn’t have become a hero, but I wouldn’t have become a villain either. I could have stayed with my family. Helped my mom–”
He swallowed hard, and Keigo could see blood begin pooling below the scars on his face.
“I could have watched my little brother grow up and go to U.A. and be so much better than what our dad wanted him to be.”
Something about that caught Keigo’s attention. All of this was beginning to feel horrifyingly familiar, even though he couldn’t quite place why.
“You would have gone to U.A.” Dabi said, giving Keigo a once over before smiling. “You would have gotten in on recommendation the second someone important saw your quirk. You would have been able to be a hero and still have a life and friends.”
“But you wouldn't have gone to U.A.,” Keigo said quietly, “so how would we meet?”
Dabi hummed, “you underestimate the importance of my name, little bird. It’s still important for all the siblings to show up together when there are big important hero dinners that their parents make them go to.”
Keigo raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment.
“I think… I would be at one of those dinners. Maybe after the hero billboards or something. And this dumbass, beautiful, newbie hero would catch my eye and suddenly I wouldn’t be able to get him out of my head all night. I’d offer him a drink, ask him to da–dance.”
Dabi's words faltered, and he let his head fall back against the headboard for a moment as another wave of pain washed over him.
“Almost back to normal,” he said grimly, before looking back at the ceiling.
The way he was talking, Keigo could almost see the dinner. The dance floor. The food. The blue eyed boy he would catch watching him from across the room.
“I’d ask you what your name was, and you would say ‘I’m Keigo’, I’d say ‘oh, are we on a first name basis already?’ and you’d say yes and ask me my name.”
Dabi paused, making the decision in his mind and sticking with it. He looked at Keigo when he finally spoke.
“You’d ask me for my name, and I would say ‘it’s Touya’.” Keigo’s mouth tilted up a bit with a small smile. 'Touya'. A pretty name for a beautiful person. Appropriate.
“And you would say ‘ah, the oldest, huh?’ and I would say ‘yeah, but don’t ask me to put in a good word for you, my dad can’t fucking stand me’ and I hope you would say something like ‘eh, I never liked him much either’. Only he is number one, and you wouldn’t have had any way to know what he was like at home, so you’d probably brush it off and humor me.”
The number one… holy shit . Endeavor ?? Keigo looked at Dabi, the silent question hanging in the air between them. Dabi tilted his head slightly, enough of a nod or affirmation that Keigo understood.
“The first time I would ask you to dance would be to piss him off,” Dabi said, watching Keigo process the information he had just (in not so many words) told him.
“And the second time?” Keigo asked quietly, still shocked but also not wanting Dabi to stop talking.
Dabi smiled, “there wouldn’t be a second time. The first dance wouldn’t end, I wouldn't be able to let you go for the rest of the night. So long as you wanted to keep dancing with the oldest Todoroki sibling. It would be a lot of awkward publicity to drag around the dance floor.”
"You would love that, though," Keigo smiled, "wouldn't you?"
"I'd live for it," Dabi said absentmindedly. "Not sure a fucking gorgeous bachelor pro hero would."
“I’d stay, Touya,” Keigo whispered, “all night.”
Dabi’s small smile had a hint of doubt in it, like he didn’t quite believe him. But it didn’t matter, because that wasn’t the world they were living in.
Keigo was going to stay the whole night in this one too.
“How are you feeling?”
He was met with one of Dabi’s signature smirks, “like hell. So, pretty normal. Fine.” He finished with a shrug.
“Would you say that, in your professional opinion, I am currently safe?” Keigo asked cautiously.
A genuine smile threatened to beat out the grim smirk when Dabi realized what he meant.
“Yeah,” he breathed, “I’d say this is an acceptable level of ‘safe’ for now, Keigo.”
Keigo’s answer of, “good”, was cut off when Dabi kissed him. Firmer than the first time. A bit more confident that nothing was going to show up and take Keigo away from him.
~
It felt like hours before they were finally curled up on the bed together, still sharing kisses in between otherwise quiet conversation.
“Are we going to be okay?” Keigo asked, somewhat muffled from where his face was tucked into Dabi’s neck.
Dabi thought for a moment. Were they? What was going to happen in a day, or a month, or a year? When there was no war and no plots and no revenge?
What if there wasn’t anything at all? Could he bring himself to leave if it meant Keigo would come with him? Even just a month ago, the answer would have been ‘no’. But now? Whatever this was, whatever had led Keigo here, his bed. He wouldn’t trade this for the world.
He looked down, raising a hand to brush hair away from Keigo’s face as he looked up at him.
“Yeah,” he whispered, placing a kiss to his mouth before looking at him steadily.
“We’ll be okay.”