Chapter Text
Dabi woke up at 2 in the morning to the feeling of being watched. Blinking back sleep while trying to get his brain to turn on long enough for him to figure out what was happening.
The shadowy figure that Dabi had just now noticed standing in his doorway scared him half to death, and would have freaked him out a lot more if said shadowy figure didn’t look so pathetically small upon him glaring over at it.
“Shoto?” He guessed, mind too foggy and still half asleep to remember where he currently was at. “The hell you wanting?” Truly his younger brother was the best guess that the fire user had at the moment.
Until the silhouette shook its head ‘no’.
“Toga.” Came a soft response.
Oh. Right.
He resisted the urge to rub at his eyes, instead blinking forcefully a few more times. He withheld a snide remark towards the teen, that she certainly deserved to hear after waking him and scaring him half to death, but decides that there must be something seriously wrong for her to risk waking him in the first place.
“What do you want?” He tries not to snap and only partially succeeds.
Toga was fiddling with something in her hands nervously, and Dabi for the life of him couldn’t figure out what it was that the teen was holding. Whether it was safe or if he needed to be on guard for a sudden knife attack. (Who was he kidding, it was Toga.)
“Had a bad dream…” He could barely hear what she had mumbled, head tilted towards the floor. “Can I… sleep with you?”
He sat up more, getting a better look at the teenager. Trying to figure out what the hell was happening and where the trick was. But she seemed genuinely frightened, small tremors coursing through her body, visible even in the low light that seeped into the room. The thing she was fiddling with wasn’t a weapon, but a small pink bat plush, with wings that she was currently opening and closing.
He wanted to tell this fever dream version of Toga, (because why else would she every come to him for something like this?) no. To get angry at the girl for disrupting the very little amount of sleep that he got to begin with, to curse her out of the room and tell her to find someone who actually cared.
But she still looked so much like his youngest brother, stood trembling in his doorframe. No doubt his younger brother had been beaten, dizzy with grief and exhaustion, coming to Dabi’s room as a last-ditch attempt at getting comforted.
He had always told Shoto no to similar requests like this. When he did the boy would barely even pout, just agree, turn, and leave. Find someone better to take his dilemmas or deal with them himself. He was sure that Toga would do the same. A part of him, at a very young age learned that when Shoto was upset it meant that he was safe. It meant that their bastard of a father was focusing on someone other than him. Dabi hated his former self for every thinking like that, towards a boy who had done nothing wrong to deserve such treatment, but it didn’t change the fact that he had ignored the boy in order to keep his father’s rath off of himself. To keep himself safe.
He realized almost a moment too late that he had gone completely silent without answering the girl, and as anyone in her situation would do Toga took that silence as a rejection and started to leave.
“Wait!” He doesn’t know why he doesn’t let her leave without say anything. It wouldn’t be his fault if Toga decided to take his silence as denial. Certainly, he wouldn’t feel bad about going back to sleep without comforting her. “Come back here. I didn’t say no.” He lifted the corner of the blanket in invitation.
Dabi couldn’t help but roll his eyes as the girl scrambled into the spot next to him, clinging to him not a moment after he let go of the blanket and it draped over her. He patted her hair awkwardly as she snuggled closer.
“Clingy little shit,” he muttered.
“You’re warm.” Came her muffled voice, face squished into his side.
“Yeah, fire quirk will do that to a person.” He chuckled softly.
She hummed. “Cosy. M’ like. Don’t like bein’ cold.”
He gave a small noise of acknowledgement, lying down and trying to get comfortable himself with his newly acquired companion. The fire user ended up on his side with Toga tucked close to him, head resting partially on his arm. His other arm was draped over her in a half hug. Dabi would be lying if he said he absolutely hated the warmth of another person next to him.
They laid there in a kind of peaceful silence. The fire user was nearly back to sleep and thought that Toga was too, when the girl spoke up once more. “Who’s Shoto?” she asked.
“Hmm?” He feigned ignorance, sue him for wanting to fall back to sleep at something like two thirty in the morning.
“You t‘ought I was him.” Dabi could feel her fidgeting once again with her stuffed animal, the small plush was squished between the two of them.
“Yeah well,” the fire user sighed, he didn’t want to be having this conversation now of all times. “Just reminded me of him, that’s all.” He gave a fond huff. “He used to ask to sleep together like this. I never let him though.”
Toga giggled softly. “Does dat make me special then? Cause ‘m here?”
“Maybe.” He half agrees, going to pet her head, careful not to let one of his staples catch in her hair. “No more questions. Go to sleep matchstick.”
“’Tay.” She sighed and snuggled just a tad bit closer to him. “T’anks Dabi. Nighty night.”
“Night kid.”
It was safe to say after, that Dabi didn’t fall back to sleep until much later. Instead staring at the wall across from him, wondering just how he got to the point of comparing Toga to his little brother.