Chapter Text
He didn’t mean to stop.
It could’ve been a cat, and he couldn’t care less about stray cats.
He didn’t give a shit if there was a hurt animal or a dying man lying on the trash, so it wasn’t curiosity what made him stop in the middle of the alley.
Perhaps what made him wander into the shadows and open the garbage container was his own surprise, since it was such a bizarre thing to hear coming from a dumpster.
It had been such a faint noise, as well. He was sure his mind was playing him tricks. It probably came from one of the cheap apartments, he thought, as he opened the lid, because there was no way in hell, he was hearing what he thought he was hearing.
The alley was dark enough for him to not notice it right away. It was just his imagination, he thought, shaking his head.
And then he saw it: the small movement and the faint cry, making itself clearer now that the lid was open.
Inside the garbage container, Dabi found a baby.
An ugly looking one.
Just by looking at it, Dabi could tell it had bird traits, if the bird-looking head was anything to go by. Animal traits were cute at certain ages. Having a puppy-faced baby was always welcomed with smiles and celebration but birds, as he could see, were ugly looking at birth. It was a feather-less ball of hides, with huge, closed eyes and a tiny peak.
As it whimpered, Dabi could see the insides of a drool covered mouth. One didn’t need to be a genius to guess what had happened. Not even a mother’s love was big enough to like a monster-looking baby.
It’d be merciful, to kill it. It wouldn’t be the first time Dabi took an innocent life, anyway. He had never killed someone this young, though, but there was always a first time for everything. He would be making the bastard a favor, anyway. The cold or the rats would kill it at some point tonight, anyway. That was the kind of world they had been born into.
“You wouldn’t have ended up here if you had wings, instead. Haven’t you heard? Those are quite popular, nowadays,” Dabi said, before reaching for the lid and closing the container. Maybe, if it was lucky, a hero would find it. If it was luckier, it wouldn’t survive more than another hour.
He turned the other way and started walking. It was late and he really wanted to get out of his wet clothes. He had no busyness with other people’s trash. If it was strong enough, he’d survive for long enough to be found by someone who would give a shit.
But, then again, if being in the League had taught him something was that people never cared. Useless, all of them. That was why they were following Stain’s ideal. That was why they wanted to break this society in two.
Rejects like them were not meant to survive in a world like this. The League was a testament to that, as well.
He reached the main street and started to make his way to the base.
From the distance, he could hear the chick cry louder than before.
“What took you so long? Shigaraki is pissed!” Toga said, giggling.
“I was busy.”
“Doing what? What is that? Did you steal something? What is it?”
Dabi rolled his eyes and pushed her away from the lump he was carrying with one arm. It wasn’t even heavy.
“Could you stop nagging already? Go call the boss. We need to talk,” he said, putting the package down, on top of the table.
“What took you so long?” Asked Shigaraki as he walked into the room, right hand lazily scratching the skin of his neck.
“I found something,” Dabi said, letting himself fall on the couch, next to Spinner. There was half a sandwich on the coffee table, so he reached for it. He was starving.
“Hey, that was mine!” Spinner protested.
“Was, indeed,” Dabi said, as he took a bite.
“A new recruit?” Shigaraki asked, ignoring their exchange.
Dabi didn’t say anything, instead he took a second bite and pointed at the table with his chin. Turning around, Shigaraki leaned against the package and moved the rags that covered it with two fingers.
“What is this? It stinks…” Shigaraki mumbled, moving the last rag before freezing. “What is the meaning of this?”
Curious by the sudden change of voice in their boss, the others came closer to take a look. Dabi was unpredictable, but he was also weirdly reliable when it mattered, so they had no idea what he could bring to make Shigaraki react like that.
“Is that…” Compress started, voice quiet.
“It’s a baby!” Toga announced with a big smile. She was the first one to reach for the baby and pick it in her arms. “It’s so tiny! Can we keep him? Where did you get it, Dabi? Is it yours?!” She asked with a gasp.
“It’s not mine, don’t be stupid,” Dabi said, rolling his eyes.
“Dabi, who is this? We are in the middle of a big operation, why did you bring a baby?” Shigaraki finally asked, scratching himself frenetically. “Are you out of your mind?!”
“I mean, yeah. Most of us are, aren’t we?” Dabi mumbled as he finished the last piece of the sandwich and cleaned his fingers on the couch.
“Did you steal him?” Toga asked.
“Is he… someone important? Are we asking for ransom money, now?” Compress asked, leaning down to take a look at the baby. It was sleeping.
“Did you abduct a baby?” Shigaraki asked, frowning.
“No,” Dabi said with a sigh. “I found it.”
“Well, obviously, but we need more details than that, don’t we?”
“I found it in the trash,” he said. Suddenly, the room was so quiet all they could hear was the baby’s whistling breaths.
“What do you mean?” Spinner asked, frowning.
“I was on my way back and heard it crying inside a container.”
“So you decided to bring it here?” Shigaraki asked. Dabi ignored his angry tone and just shrugged.
“I thought it could be useful. You need people to make Nomus, right?”
“People, not- babies!” Shigaraki said, shaking his head. “It’s too small, anyway. There’s nothing the doctor could do.”
“Well, it was worth a shot.”
“But… why would he be in the trash?” Toga asked, confused.
“Just look at him, crazy, why wouldn’t it be in the trash?” Dabi asked, rolling his eyes. “Its mother was probably a pretty lady with very faint bird traits. Just look at it. No one wants to raise a monster.”
“You mean… you mean his mom did it? You think she threw him away like that?” Toga asked, her voice small. It was a strange thing to hear a murderer sound so horrified. Life was like that, people didn’t care about their offspring if it wasn’t what they expected, Dabi wanted to say, but instead he said:
“Could’ve been its dad.”
“Maybe it was the father,” Shigaraki said, almost at the same time as him.
They both exchanged a weird look, but no one said anything about it.
“We are keeping him, right?” Spinner said, breaking the awkward silence.
“We can’t keep it. We are a criminal organization, not a daycare center,” Shigaraki said.
“But he has no one in the world!” Toga said, standing next to Spinner.
“We don’t even know anything about children, much less a baby.” Shigaraki said.
“I mean… I know we are villains, but we can’t just put him back in the trash, can we?” Compress asked.
“He’s too young to survive on his own,” Spinner said.
“So what, you want us to put him in a basket and leave it on a hero’s doorstep?” Dabi scoffed.
“Heroes are good for nothing. A villain found it first than a hero.” Shigaraki said, rolling his eyes.
“Exactly! So we should take care of him!” Toga said. “Heroes won’t save him, but we can! Don’t you know how it feels? To be tiny and scared and be left alone in the streets?” she asked.
“It’s its own fault for being born weak,” Dabi said with a sigh.
“If you think like that, why did you bring him on the first place?” Spinner asked.
“Shut the fuck up, Lizard…”
“Enough,” Shigaraki said, scratching one of his eyes. Everyone looked at him, expectantly. “It can stay. At least, until we find somewhere we can leave him.”
“YES!” Toga said, before wincing at her own loud tone and whispered: “Yes!”
“I’ll text Twice, we are going to need more things from the store, now” Compress said, pulling out a phone from his jacket.
“Oh, we need to think about names! A baby should have a name!” Toga was saying.
Shigaraki removed himself from the epicenter of the discussion about baby products the others were having and sat on the couch with a sigh.
“Why did you do that?” Dabi asked. “I thought you’d disintegrate it or something.”
“Why? Didn’t have the guts to kill it yourself?” Shigaraki asked.
“Whatever.” Dabi mumbled.
They were keeping the weird looking baby, apparently.
How hard could it be to take care of such a tiny kid, anyway?