Chapter Text
At ten after everyone else is asleep meet me in la la land. We can plan our grand escape! His handwriting wasn’t that great, looked more like scribbles on paper but what did he expect? He was just a kid. He walked outside on the porch and tucked the scrap of paper under the flowerpot sitting on the steps. He did this every day; it was mainly out of boredom. He hated this place, he hated that he got tossed into the foster care system. But it was his fault it happened, so he had to live with his punishment. That’s what he told himself. Dabi let out a sigh and hurried back inside to go eat dinner with the rest of the kids before it was lights out.
Dabi never really expected anyone to read his little notes he left. He usually burned them the next day on his way to school. He was always the last kid to leave oversleeping like always and being yelled at by the school and the leader that ran the group home. He was used to it, so it stopped phasing him. Tonight was going to be different, he was going to go out. He would make his grand escape and climb out the window. Maybe stare up at the stars. If he got caught so be it, it couldn’t hurt to try.
Once the house fell silent and he saw the heavy breathing of the other boy he shared a room with, he got up and slipped his shoes on walking over to the window trying to be quiet as possible. He lifted the window up and looked down, it wasn’t a big drop since the house was only one story. He put his feet out first and slowly lowered himself out the window. The step stool he had moved there earlier today was leaning against the bush and he moved it closer to the window, it made him tall enough to reach the window and he closed it before jumping off the stool.
He stepped back and looked around, it was dark outside the streetlights illuminating the sidewalks. Dabi smiled to himself and shoved his hands in his pockets and started his walk to the nearby park. Once it was in sight, he took off running and launched himself onto the swing set putting his feet onto the seat and started rocking it back and forth until it moved. He laughed looking up at the sky, the stars were bright tonight and the air was cool. It was amazing. Why hadn’t he done this sooner? He let out a laugh as the wind rushed by him.
“…what are you doing?” Dabi closed his mouth quickly and looked over from where the voice had come from. The swing slowing down until it came to a halt. It was that new kid that got placed in the home with him three weeks ago, he hardly ever spoke. He also got his own room by himself. Dabi was jealous. He hated sharing.
“Swinging what does it look like?” Dabi shrugged his shoulders and hopped off the swing set walking over to stand in front of the boy. “What are you doing? Why are you here?”
The boy was silent for a minute lifting his hand up and brushing his black hair out of his face. He eventually pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. “I found this and then tonight…I saw you run down the sidewalk from my window. I wanted to know what you were doing.”
“Wait…you found my note?” Dabi reached out snatching the note from his hand. It was indeed his stupid note he left under the flowerpot.
“What is this la la land you wrote about?”
“What’s your name again?” Dabi never gave any of the other kids he lived with much thought. He never intended to learn their names since they always winded up being shuffled around to different homes anyway.
“I go by Shigaraki now.” The boy bit his lip and glanced away.
“Well Shigaraki this is where I go when I want to escape. At this time of night, it’s my own personal park!”
“Do you do this a lot? Won’t they get mad you left?” Shigaraki questioned curiosity on his face.
“Who cares? I get yelled at all the time in case you haven’t noticed.” Dabi shrugged Shigaraki didn’t need to know this was his first escape.
“No…I’ve noticed.” He sighed.
“Don’t you ever get tired of being there? Don’t you just want to run away?”
“I…guess so…” He seemed unsure as he looked at Dabi.
“Then this is where we should meet up from now on. We can run away here and pretend nothing else exists!” Dabi exclaimed and held his arms up to the sky. “This will be our sanctuary Shigaraki, where nothing can ever bother us. Doesn’t it sound like fun?”
“Yeah...I guess so.” Shigaraki gave a small smile and looked up at the sky. “Wow…there are so many stars.”
“Yep! This place is the best gives you the best view cause there are no trees!” Dabi laughed and grabbed his hand dragging him over to the swings.
Dabi never expected anyone to read his note, let alone decide to follow him all the way out here. But…it made him happy maybe he finally had a friend he could talk to. Someone he could drag away in the middle of the night and just escape from everything. He laughed as they swung hearing some laughter escape from Shigaraki as well.
“So we meet here every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday night. Just scream all our worries out. Got it?” Dabi told him as they made their way back to the home. “Also no one can know about this remember that.”
“I got it. I’m not stupid.”
“Then it’s a promise.” Dabi nodded his head.
“Sure. A promise.”
Promise. Dabi sat up in bed shaking his head. How long ago was that? He had almost forgotten. Dabi looked over at the window near his bed staring out into the city lights. It was only three in the morning; he still had more time to sleep but for some reason his body wouldn’t let him. So, he stood up and walked onto the balcony of his apartment lighting up a cigarette.
“A promise huh?” He smiled to himself and shook his head as he looked up at the stars.