I do not own Boku no Hero Academia.
Just palying with characters for fun. And to tell an untold story.
Dabi crossed the room filled with the League's members playing cards, talking to each other or just being occupied by their own businesses.
It was his turn to check on the kid, freeing Himiko from the duty.
He scretched his neck, rough skin under his nails, before opening the door with a creak.
By contrast to the illuminated room Dabi left behind, the smaller one was rather dark and quiet.
The blond was seating, tied up to the chair with lather straps, grimaced at the light that hit his eyes and blinking to adjust to the new additions, before Dabi shut the door.
Himiko tilted her head, hair shaking with the movement, causing a makeshift ponytail loosening its tension.
She sat at the bar, leaning on her straight arms. Just one, unexpected blow and her whole body would be open to serious damages.
Dabi made few quick steps, before kicking the stool, and trying to grab her by her throat.
He was fast and efficient, but Himiko must be used to it, because she dodged the attack and initiated her own, with intention to harm Dabi's stomach. Her footh nudged his cloths, but at this point Dabi lost any interest in the activity, so he just held her ankle, rising an eyebrow.
Himiko smirked, so Dabi pushed her footh from the lower part of his body.
"Get lost" he grunted, before taking a seat at the bar on the opposite side of the chair, where the kid was glaring at them. A frown mixed with confusion at the scene he just witnessed.
Tilting his head back and leaning on the table on his elbow, let Dabi some of the tention to loose.
It was a stressful day, even if the rest of the League didn't know a half of problems a little soulmark revealed. Dabi wasn't sure what to do with the knowledge himself, doubting that others villains would not use the fact against him.
But Dabi knew a few things about soulmates and the rules. Especially those that made the whole thing hard to ingore.
He heard a rustle and quiet footsteps, before Himiko opened the door.
"You can tell me more about my Izuku another time."
She must wink or, which was even worse, sent the kid a kiss, Dabi mussed, when he glared from under the crack opened eyes. Blondy grimace at the same time as a giggle accompanied a annoying creak.
Soon after the silence fell, the kid sent Dabi a glare worth a reward in evilness.
He snorted in an answer, and without changing his current position, responded in similar manner. Dabi directed his amused look at blondy's hands.
"It must be uncomfortable" he mussed with a low voice.
The kid jerked, like he had woken up from a sleep. His jaw clenched so hard, that Dabi's teeth ached from the effoct.
Blondy was such an intense kid.
"Fuck off" he splited, and narrowed those angry red eyes at his target.
Dabi smailed at the lack of epithet at the end, but fell into silence, closing his eyelids again.
He heard only panting, before it turned into a regular breath.
The moment lasted for a few minutes, before a shriek procceeded the loud bang and chorus of laughs bursted in the next room.
Dabi lifted his head, glaring at the door, but it didn't make them be quieter.
He sighed, scretching his neck.
That was for a nap during his duty.
From lack of better things to do, Dabi focused on the wall, just above the kid's spikey hair.
It had interesting pattern, a little bit like flames eating the wooden house, bursting into life after another portion of screams.
Dabi grinned at the image in his head, his eyes wide and body itching for action, to put the sweet vision into reality, just to see if his mind had made a justice to the force of the nature his arms yelded.
"What are you grinning at, shithead?" the kid barked.
Dabi blinked.
He almost forgot about their little guest. Shame of him. Wasting such an entertain to stare into nothing.
Well, if blondy was craving for attention, who was Dabi to refuse him?
After all they were soulmates. For the better or the worse, they stuck together until their deaths.
Dabi scolded his expression into more relaxed one, just to tease the kid.
"Just wondering" he stated, shifting into less awkword position, but not changing the angle of his look – directed on the pattern on the wall.
"About what, dumbass?!" blondy shouted.
Noises from the next room quited at the sound.
Someone decided to look into the affair, because Dabi heard steps approaching the door.
"Everything's alright there?" Mr. Compress asked, cracked them open.
"Yeah, kid's just jumpy" Dabi admitted, challenging blondy to say something.
"Boss don't want us to make him, you know, angry, well, more angry as he is, which is rather hard... Just be nice until he could talk to the kid" the man reminded.
His voice was muffled, but Dabi could hear the unvoiced threat and touch of anxiety about the temper of their boss.
"Keep him quiet, don't firghten too much. Sure" Dabi honed.
"That's not what..." a pause, then "Never mind. Just don't scar him to death, or, well, burn."
The door closed, leaving them alone.
"What was that about, asshole?" the kid demanded an answer, but his voice lost a volume or two.
At least he could learn, Dabi thought, taking blondy in.
He stopped at the left arm.
The kid must noticed after Dabi held the look a second too long, because he jerked his body, like he tried to avoid the somewhat harmful gaze.
"What, shithead?" came the bark, not short after the creak of lather straps.
"Just wondering" Dabi answered, scretching his neck.
He had no intention to share his thoughts, but the kid was persistent.
"Do you do that often? Are you retarded or just playing stupid, you patched asshole?" blondy smirked, provoking him to take an action, which would result in punishment, or so the kid tought.
Dabi wouldn't have problems, even if their little guest ended up a bit damaged.
But entertaining him seemed a lot more amused than sharing the secret.
"Mine" he started, looking at the edges of dark letters formed into kid's soulmark "burned in a fire."
There was heavy silence, before the kid shifted. Rustle of his clothes made the move more dramatic, which made Dabi rolled his eyes.
"Like I care, moron" blondy murmured.
Dabi blinked, sitting straight on the stool. He grinned at the sudden piece of evidence on the kid's face.
"Aw, the little bird being compationed about the sob villain's story" Dabi couldn't help himself from a laugh that built in his chest, before releasing it to the small cubical space around them in a form of mad giggles.
"Shut up! Like I could feel sorry for a criminal, you dumbass!"
But his words made something shifted in Dabi's stomach, something light and tickling.
He stopped with a hand on his abdomen. He didn't like it, because the feeling reminded him of a life that should be buried in a deep hole somewhere in the past.
Under his glare the kid fidgeted, seeing something disturbing enough to shut his filthy mouth for once.
After a few minutes of silence, while Dabi tried to force the feeling to vanish from existence, the kid grunted.
Dabi stand and came to the chair.
His fingers itching for setting something on fire, burn into ashes, making the odd feeling to dissapear, occupied by something more enjoyable.
With hands in pants' pockets, Dabi glared at the sitting kid underneth him.
"You heroes" he started, disgust coloring his voice. "You heroes think you're better than us."
Blondy's mouth twitched in one corner, but he stayed on guard and, for once, silent, waiting for the conclusion.
"But what you are, is just a sad excuse for violent people, who's craving for power, money and fame" Dabi said. "How can you be different than us, as you are just the same, but in more flashy cloths?"
"Heroes are not criminals. Are you stupid? They fight for justice, unlike you little shits" the kid argued through gritted teeth. "Don't compare them to you, assholes. You think you can do whatever you want!"
Blondy leaned forward, like he wanted to split or bite Dabi, but then smirked, an ugly expression on his face, but oddly suited his temper.
"Just wait and see, how your ass will be kicked, dumbass, then lecture me about similarities" the kid sounded proud of himself, until he looked into Dabi's eyes.
Right at that moment he fell into silence.
Blondy blinked a few times, because of whatever he saw there.
Then gulped, retreating himself with a careful, measure move.
Dabi wasn't angry. Not like people were in such situation, overwhelmed by a strong, unbearable feeling that pushed them to edge.
He didn't felt such emotions at the moment, but something made him bent into the kid's personal space and rest his arms on both sides of the chair.
"Where are you heroes now then?" he asked, a cruel remark on the tip of his tongue. Dabi held it there, no need to use it right now. "What are they doing, if not licking their wounds, counting losses and gains, valuing your life over their reputation, money or their own lives?"
They were so close that the cool breath touched his mouth and nose.
Dabi held the glare, continuing his little speech.
There wasn't anything between them that could make him regret breaking the kid.
The world was harsh, the sooner he woke up, the better for him. And to Dabi's pleasure, while seeing him strugle.
"Who, do you think, you are for them, if not a little scared kid kidnapped by villains. You've got noone on your side, kid. Not your precious heroes, nor your good-for-nothing friends. Here are just we – villains. And you – a smart dumbass kid, who's one step from death."
Dabi enjoyed the sudden change in the kid's eyes.
His expression scolded into indifference, but the anger was flickering in the look full of helplessness. An expression blondy was trying to hide.
"If you don't tread carefully, you can burn yourself" was the last warning, before Dabi straightened with a smile on his lips.
He rubbed his neck, tired of the conversation, feeling like something changed between them.
A heavy, unforgivable wall had broken, leaving them in open, unknown territory.
Few years ago Dabi's biggest wish had been to erase the last evidence of a weak, scared kid that followed his daddy into the woods, where had been abandoned to die and rescued, then forced to live by madness.
Dabi refused to aknowledge the feeling he started suspecting had something to do with their little bond. Even if they didn't said each other's names, the marks on their forearms must been activated somehow.
But the kid just snorted after a few minutes of silence.
"So you're done, shithead?!" the kid mussed with one corner of his mouth up. "Because I have only one thing to said to that bullshit you just spitted" he announced.
"Don't cry, when heroes will come here and kick your sorry asses."
Dabi didn't know if he admired the craziness he saw in those eyes or was impressed by the kid's spirit or simply pitied him for the stupid hope in people that would never come.
Or come but lose to the League.
They plan was too good to fail, at least the main part, in which the kid was playing the main role.
Heores never come, when kids were suffering. They never won against villains stronger and smarter than them. They just left them to their fate, not carring about a precious life they promised to protect in their hero oath.
Any single one of them.
Dabi grinned at the stupid remark.
"Don't cry too hard when you figured out the meaning behind your little treasure on the arm" he countered, eyes became heavy and narrowed onto one target.
"Like I care about your stupid words, asshole" the kid answered in similar manner, madness clear in his shining eyes. "Just eat the dust, before you'd got a chance to regret your life choices, shitty villain."
Dabi smile a toothy smile, an expression that send chills through blondy's spine.
"Could you bet your own head on it, kid?"
Blondy's lips twitched in amusment.
"Of course, shithead."
"We'll see."
"Yeah, we'll see" the kid agreed.
The rest of Dabi's shift they spent in silence, locked inside their own heads.
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
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There will be a sequel to this fic too, so if you're interested, you can subscribe the series, to know when I'll post it.
To the next time!