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The bandage on Shigaraki's hand is overdue for changing. Dabi can tell because he's been through this before, only it's usually he's the one who's bandages are soaked through with way-to-much blood, not Shigaraki. He really should change Shigaraki's bandages. He knows as much, but there are problems with that.
Problem 1: They don't have enough bandages in their current hideout.
Problem 2: even if they did have enough bandages, they have too many people injured right this moment.
Problem 3: they don't have a way to get more bandages if-slash-when they run out because
Problem 4: they are too well known to risk showing up at a pharmacy to get more medical supplies, and
Problems 5 & 6: if they break into a clinic to steal the shit they need, they'll A ) be giving away a rough approximation of their location, and B ) they'd be tipping the heroes off that at least some of them are injured.
Still, Shigaraki's bandage is overdue for changing and if Dabi doesn't do that for him he will probably get an infection...at best . At worst he'll lose the rest of his goddamn hand .
There is a lot of reasons to be afraid for Shigaraki right now...and while losing two-thirds of a hand is one of them, there are many more. Like the whole sleep deprivation thing. Shigaraki has barely slept (if he's slept at all) in the last month. Sure, they finally put Gigantomachia into submission to Shigaraki
(Having him knockout the Liberation Army for them certainly helped in making their fight more manageable but it certainly didn't create enough of a distraction for Shigaraki to rest beforehand, so really, it's a miracle that Shigaraki Tomura is still even alive. )
Shigaraki keeps staring at his hand . Blinking rapidly and then not , every so often...it feels more like he's trying to use Morse Code with his eyes than any sort of organic function. Except he's only really staring at his hand (or what's left of it), so maybe it's just that he's in shock.
Dabi sighs, kneeling in front of where Shigaraki's just sort of plopped down on the floor of their new hideout ("hideout" is a strong word. In reality it's a little rickety shack in the middle of nowhere and the only secure thing about it is that they're over 20 miles away from the nearest populated location).
"Gimme." Dabi is demanding, which, what the fuck I'm your boss, but Tomura can't respond. He doesn't have the words, too distracted by the fact he's missing two-thirds of a hand.
Drip.
Drip.
Dripdripdrip.
Oh…
I'm still bleeding.
"For fucks sake. I need to cauterize your goddamn hand , Creep. So either gimme or bleed to death. I don't care...just tell me which you prefer. "
He is staring at his hand again, when Dabi goes to change his bandages. It's unsettling. Dabi isn't used to this version of Shigaraki Tomura.
"...hand."
"Hhn?" It's the closest Shigaraki has come to talking since they finally exited combat with both Gigantomachia and the Liberation Army. It's probably a combination of shock from his injuries and the fact that he still won't let himself sleep.
"I said 'gimme you're goddamn hand', Shigaraki. Time to change your bandages." Dabi snarks, smirking lazily. Though anyone who's been around him as long as Shigaraki has, it's clear Dabi is putting up a front, "unless you want an infection."
The ' or worse' goes unsaid.
Tomura lifts his eyes, still keeping silent.
"Can't believe I'm sayin' this, Mophead," Dabi says, carefully cleaning the cauterized wound that used to be Shigaraki's hand, "I miss yer voice."
"Oh." It's not much, but it's something. It's a sign that whatever was fucking with Shigaraki's brain isn't going to be permanent if nothing else.
Shigaraki wants to know why he's remembering this now . Of all the times for his childhood to come back full force it had to be in the middle of combat.
He told himself he'd worry about it after his battles had come to an end for a time. But now that a moment had arrived where he could do just that, he realized it was a bad idea.
For starters, he's sleep deprived, but also, that's a whole can of worms he's not ready to dive headfirst into, sleep deprived or not.
He doesn't want to think about his sister or Tomo-chan or Mikkun or the goddamned dog. The idea of thinking about it all makes him nauseous and any thought of rest goes the fuck out the window for the foreseeable future and fuck he's so tired. So so so tired. So no. He doesn't want to think about it.
"I'm just sleepy," Shigaraki says eventually, so quietly Dabi has to ask himself if he was imagining things in the overall sleep deprived state. "it'll be fine." Probably…. and fuck if that one unspoken word doesn't scare Dabi to the very core of his being.
"Then sleep." It's actually pretty shitty advice and while Dabi doesn't claim to be a doctor (They have a doctor, he's just an asshole who clearly doesn't care nearly enough about Shigaraki's wellbeing) but he does know that if Shigaraki goes to sleep with this much blood loss they're playing Russian Roulette with the odds of him ever waking up again.
'Since when do you care?' Asks an annoyingly observant corner of Dabi's own sleep-deprived mind.
'Shut the fuck up.' He tells it….and wow he really needs to get some fucking sleep... the inside of his mind is starting to sound like Twice on a bad day.
The whole league needs to get some sleep but there's not enough of them left who are whole enough for Dabi to risk sleeping...unless he asks Twice to make some clones. Unless he asks Spinner to do… something... anything . Unless he could figure out how to get Shigaraki to sleep first so he could stop worrying about his boss keeling over from exhaustion in the event they get raided by the heroes anytime soon.
"I can't. Not yet." Dabi isn't sure why that's so unsettling.
"I was born to destroy." The words are so soft Dabi isn't sure Shigaraki was even speaking at first. He wasn't used to his boss acting this way. "I didn't know that for sure until now."
He gets the feeling he's not supposed to respond to this, but something in the words make him feel...something….something he'd put a lot of effort into forgetting because fuck…being born to destroy ain't that a familiar feeling he'd much rather ignore.
"I killed them all…"
Huh?
"My whole family. I killed them when I got my quirk. I didn't mean to...especially not Mon-chan."
"Mon-chan?" Dabi asks before he can stop himself.
"The family dog."
Oh. Oh yikes .
"I wouldn't have this quirk if I wasn't born to destroy things...destroy people ."
Touya cringes… because it's Touya and not Dabi who's feeling bad for Shigaraki.
"I mean...my dad deserved it." Shigaraki is staring at his hand again. This time, he seems to be a little more lucid. "My mom and grandparents deserved it because they didn't help me...but Hana didn't. She was just a scared little girl who didn't want to be hurt by our dad. Tomo-chan didn't. Mikkun didn't. Mon-chan didn't. All Tomo-chan and Mikkun did was care about me. They cared about me and I killed them. "
Dabi doesn't respond to that. At least not with words.
Shigaraki is almost grateful. Almost.
He was kind of hoping for some semblance of compassion or comfort, but in truth that would probably just make him feel worse .
It almost like he's Tenko again and that's absolutely terrifying for him to even consider, because Tenko can't survive the life Tomura leads.