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You knew your tricks would catch up to you one day.
You just didn’t expect it to be right now.
“You can either come with me or I can roast you right here.”
Your tails flicked nervously. “How about a third option?”
“Your tricks are what got you into this mess in the first place. You really wanna try that again?” He said, taking a step closer, putting your shoulder to shoulder.
This really wasn’t your day.
Just as you opened your mouth,
your daughter came barreling outside.
“Mama!” She squealed as she collided with your legs.
“Sweetie!” You lifted her into your arms, possibly squeezing her harder than intended. “How was school?”
You needed to keep her distracted.
You needed to get away from him.
Maybe since you had a child in your arms, he would leave you alone.
He wouldn’t hurt a child,
Right?
You turned away from him
but his arm snaked around your waist
Your daughter noticed him.
“Mama, who is this?” She sniffed at him, “And why does he smell like burnt meat?”
“That’s rude!” You immediately chided her. “Apologize!”
Her ears turned down, or at least they tried to, seeing as her hair was done up in afro puffs. She did as she was told, however.
“Doesn’t really bother me.” He dismissed it.
“Who are you, though? I’ve never seen you before.” And just like that, her curiosity was back.
“He’s no one—”
“I’m her boyfriend.”
Every inch of your body stood at attention.
Dabi of the League of Villains as your boyfriend?
Maybe in your wildest dreams.
But your daughter looked at you expectantly
And it was your only you at the moment, so
“That’s right, this is my boyfriend…” You nudged him with a tail.
“Tooru.”
She gave him one last once over before turning her full attention back to you.
“I’m hungry.”
“Of course you are.” You gave her ear a scratch then turned to Too— Dabi. “Well, thanks for waiting with me. I’ll see you another—.”
“Tooru should join us!”
Your daughter would be the end of you.
Dabi smirked.
You should have known it wouldn’t be that easy to get away from him.
Dinner with Dabi was interesting to say the least. He had table manners, which was good. And he made sure to mind his language around your daughter, which was also good. But you didn’t like the way he was looking at you.
Well, you did kinda like it.
But not now, not at the table.
He also decided that playing footsies was an absolute must. You just tried to ignore him as well as keep your daughter in check.
“What kinda job do you work, Tooru?”
“I’m an exterminator.”
She scrunched her nose up, “Yuck, you deal with like… mice and stuff like that?”
He nudged his foot against yours. “And stuff like that.”
Your nose twitched.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
She gasped. “Mama’s the same age!”
You pointedly avoided Dabi’s curious gaze, choosing to instead focus on your daughter.
“Hun, you’re doing a lot of talking and not enough eating.” You continued before she could pout, “If you keep messing around, you won’t have any playtime before bed.”
That got her to be quiet—
for the moment at least.
The rest of the meal was silent beside the scrape of silverware on china.
Unfortunately, after dinner, you and Dabi were confined to washing the dishes.
“Why are you still here, Tooru? ” You hissed out the question.
Him being in your den was beginning to agitate you.
“It’d be pretty rude of me to not clean up my mess before I left, don’tcha think?”
Your ears stood at attention.
What did he mean by mess?
He couldn’t have just meant the dishes,
right?
“Relax, vixen. I’ve decided to give you an extension of sorts.”
“Oh?” Your tails flicked curiously with an edge of nervousness. “We’re going with option three?”
He nodded. “We’re going with option three.”