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It was close to midnight and everyone was asleep by now, except for Dabi who was just laying on his crappy bed scrolling through his many burner phones. He sighed, he never had a good sleep schedule which usually had him ending up dead asleep in the afternoon or even earlier if he was unlucky.
He was just about to "try" to sleep when he heard someone… crying. Opening his eyes he listened to the cries through the wall of his dimly lit room, only lit by the moon. The raven haired villain huffed as he slowly got up from his bed which didn't even have a frame and slipped on a black t-shirt and sweatpants as he headed towards the crying. The crying didn't sound like it came from anyone he knew, wasn't too high pitched nor was it deep it sounded somewhere in between.
"Hello?" He spoke, giving the door a few soft knocks.
"Everything okay in there?"
No response, only more crying.
Dabi debated with himself in his head about what to do before finally deciding to open the door since the crying was getting louder, his old instincts kicking back in, the one's he thought were long gone.
There he saw a familiar looking teenager with wavy and sandy blonde hair crying on his bed, it was obviously Mustard from all the history books and the helmet on a desk by his bed. The teen had both hands covering his face, shaking and crying. The sheets had been thrown off in a haste leaving the poor boy shaking from the cold. Dabi gently approached the sobbing teen who seemed to finally notice and in a panic moved back from the burned male, looking around in a panic.
"Easy there kid, I'm not gonna hurt ya, it's just me Dabi." He held his hands up.
He noticed a dark spot on the bed and despite Mustard wearing dark grey shorts there was an even darker spot near his crotch. Dabi hissed, it was easy to put 2 and 2 together. Poor kid must have had a nightmare and wet the bed. Mustard for his part only started to cry harder, being the youngest member of the league he got a better sleeping arrangements then most and it only made him feel even worse as not only did he ruin something nice that was given to him, He felt gross, embarrassed and afraid. His mind started to race through all the scenarios that were going to happen to him and he didn't even notice two arms wrapped around him and started to carry him out of his room.
"I-i fucking peed myself!" Mustard managed to cry out before erupting into more sobs.
"Shh shh, your fine kid I got ya." Dabi reassured, his voice still gruff but not threatening.
He gently picked up the crying boy and slowly carried him to the bathroom, rubbing his back and whispering reassurances and comfort.
Once there he sat Mustard on the floor and switched the lights on which bugged Mustard causing him to cover his eyes and whine loudly, Dabi forgot that Mustard eyes weren't used to the lights yet.
"Ah, sorry." Dabi said and took a few of the lightbulbs out leaving only a soft light in the room that wouldn't hurt the younger villain.
"Stay here for me bud okay? Gonna go put your sheets in the washer and get you some clean clothes." The scarred villain turned the bath on and gave Mustard a small head pat before leaving and saying that he'll be back soon. Mustard hiccuped and started to take off all of his clothes, he felt so icky and gross and it made him upset he started throwing them to the floor aggressively. He just needed something to take out his emotions on, realistically it only took a minute or two but it felt like hours in Mustard's mind and after all his clothes were off he just stood there with nothing on, he brought a closed fist to his face as the tears began to start again.
Mustard didn't even notice that Dabi was watching him, tilting his head and looking like a shadowy monster in the dark. Dabi sighed, this was a grossly familiar sight to him. It reminded him of a time before he became Dabi. He wouldn't say it out loud but he felt bad for the boy and a part of him just felt the urge to protect whenever he saw him in any sort of distress.
"Alright I got everything ready for you bud." he said quietly to not scare him.
Dabi slowly guided Mustard into the bathtub filled with warm water and slowly sat him down on it, the younger villain felt the water and started to feel relaxed.
"I'm gonna wash you now okay?" Dabi warned as he got out a washcloth and began to gently wash him.
"m’sorry.." Mustard finally spoke up as Dabi cleaned him up.
"Hmm?" Dabi responded.
"M'wan be big boy an i don mean too, it jus happen…" Mustard mumbled, his hands softy doing little splashes in the water.
Dabi stopped the washing and put his hand on his shoulder. "Hey look at me." Dabi gently lifted Mustard's chin up to make the boy look at him.
"Kid, listen to me, you're fine now, you don't have to be sorry for anything and I'm not mad at you, and no one else is gonna be mad at you. You just had an accident and that's it, hell even I had accidents when I was your age." Dabi wasn't really the best at comforting people with words but it seemed to help Mustard relax a fair bit, Dabi used some shampoo to wash Mustard's hair and Dabi worked the shampoo in. Mustard leaned back as he felt the warm hands massaged his scalp, closing his eyes and leaned back in pure bliss, feeling all that stress melt away as the other villain got him all cleaned up.
After the bath Dabi grabbed the softest towel he could find and dried off mustard the best he could. He somehow managed to get mustard into a pair of clean clothes, the boy on the other hand could barely keep his eyes open and he held his arms up wanting to be held again mumbling something, it made him feel safe.
"Seepy."
The scarred villain scooped the younger one in his arms, bouncing him slightly. "Alright bud let's get you to bed now c'mon." It was decided that the couch would be the best place to sleep for now.
Dabi flopped on the couch with a tiny Mustard on his chest, exhaustion taking over his body. The younger villain felt a blanket come over him and he also felt this feeling of safety, was Dabi always this warm? He snuggled closer, head resting on Dabi's chest.
"Get some sleep kid, and don't worry I'll still be here when you wake up."
It was cold in the base and the warmth Dabi's body gave off made him so cosy, warm and safe, the sounds of the air conditioning and Dabi's warm body and Mustard was finally asleep, softly snoring.