TWISTED EMBERS
Chapter 2: Friends & Enemies

Nejire felt both the coolness of the pillow and the dull stinging at the back of her head as she slowly regained consciousness. Brows twitched and furrowed, a quiet groan escaping her lips as she opened her eyes, fingers reaching up to touch and poke at the bandage around her head. Where am I...? With another groan, she sat up on the bed, yawning and sleepily rubbing at her eyes before looking around the room. It was pretty bare, and seemed to be some kind of storage area converted into a makeshift bedroom.

A finger rose to push gently against her lower lip as she tried to remember what happened before she blacked out. She remembered being out on patrol with Ryukyu when a villain attacked, and she remembered flying up behind him and blasting at his jetpack to knock him to the ground... Then he ran, and she followed... Her eyes suddenly widened. The League of Villains! I have to tell Ryu he was with them! Sliding off the edge of the bed, her feet hit the ground and she realized she was barefoot. Looking around again, she noticed a change of clothes on a small table by the foot of the bed, with a pair of shoes on the floor next to it. It seemed to be a uniform from another school, but the size seemed close enough to fit. She'd been wearing the blue and white bodysuit of her hero costume, though her spiral horns, gauntlets, boots, and anklets were resting on a desk in the corner. Curious~ she thought to herself, they must have found me and brought me back somewhere safe.

Changing out of her bodysuit, she pulled on the new clothes. It was a more traditional-style Japanese school uniform — a light tan cardigan with a dark blue collar and a red bow, a matching blue skirt, knee-high socks and classic loafers. She tugged at the edges of the skirt and at the collar, adjusting things here and there before admiring the cute style and wondering what school this came from. Before letting herself get too distracted, she shook her head and clenched her fists in a nearly theatrical show of determination and focus, and swung open the door. . . and nearly knocked someone over.

"Ah~! I'm so sorry, I—" her apologetic flails froze as she stared at the other, a lizard-like male with a long tuft of lavendar hair, dressed similarly in fashion to the Hero Killer she'd seen on the news. "—hey hey, I've seen you before! You're a villain!"

He'd spun on his heels to face her, eyes widened already in shock yet widening further as he nervously reached over his shoulder and flexed his fingers as if something was supposed to be there. She'd already taken a defensive posture, hands up, fingers outstretched and ready to blast some energy, but hesitated on making the first move when she noticed a sweatdrop form at his temple. "Wait, no fair! I don't even have my sword on me!"

She blinked for a moment, her eyes softening as she slowly lowered her arms. "You're right, that isn't fair."

"Yeah I know it— wait... what? So you're not attacking?" He narrowed his reptilian gaze at her, his own arms lowering.

"If you're unarmed... that must mean I'm somewhere you're comfortable. That makes me the guest!" With a wide grin, she let out a laugh. "So I guess attacking you here wouldn't be very heroic at all."

It was his turn to blink at her, before scratching at the side of his head. "No, I guess it wouldn't." His eyes widened again as she suddenly darted towards him, ready to defend himself but caught off guard again as she squealed and pet at his hair. "Wh-what are you doing?!"

"It looked so fluffy! Which is funny, because you look like a lizard! Lizards usually aren't fluffy!"

Reaching up to smack her hand away, he snarled with a huff. "I'm not fluffy, little hero!"

"Oh! I'm Nejire~" she mused without missing a beat, completely undeterred by his snarling and trying again to pet him. "Are you a dragon maybe?"

"NO I'M NOT A DRAGON, STOP TRYING TO PET ME." He continued to swat at her hands as she kept trying to get around him, huffing every time he blocked her attempts. He finally managed to catch her firmly by her wrist as it hovered over his head, but she only giggled in response.

"It's just... I really love dragons. And lizards, too! You're just so cute!"

Again his eyes widened as he froze, a light blush surfacing through the dark green scales. "I... I'm what?!"

"Oh! You probably like being called handsome better, huh! SO! Didja hear me? I'm Nejire! Now you gotta tell me your name, Mr Handsome Lizard!"

His blush deepened ever so slightly as he furrowed his brow, trying to pull himself together. "S-Spinner."

"DID I JUST HEAR A STUTTER~?" Another male's voice rang out from behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder to see him emerge from around the corner; he was much taller, and dressed head to toe in a black bodysuit with white markings and white boots. "That's no fair teasing the poor guy! He's hopeless! Some villain, right? Besides..." Closing the gap between them, he reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder. "...everyone knows I'M the handsome one in this group."

"Is that right?" Spinner muttered, nudging his reddened cheeks with the back of his hand, as if to wipe away the blush. "Then by all means, Twice, show her those stitches and see what she thinks."

With a loud, dramatic gasp, Twice glanced between the two of them, a hand at his mouth in pretend-shock. "How dare you talk about Dabi like that! You know how self conscious he—"

"You assholes talkin' shit about me again?"

Both males seemed to jump as they all turned to see another approach them. Nejire's eyes widened as they settled on his distinct features - icy blue hues gazing out from under messy black spikes of hair, thick metal staples along every edge where burned scars met healthy flesh. It was the guy from before...!

"Hey hey! It's you!"

Dabi shifted his gaze ever so slightly to her, his expression otherwise blank and if anything, unamused. The other two seemed a bit uneasy, as if they were expecting him to lash out. "And?"

"I remember what happened now! Are you okay?"

"Is he okay?" the others asked each other quietly as they exchanged glances.

Dabi's expression remained unchanged. "Yeah, thanks to that idiot head of yours. Tch, and you're training to be a hero?"

With a gentle smile, Nejire nodded. "I'm training to be someone who fights to protect everyone from harm. Doesn't that... include you, too?"

He was silent for a moment, though his features refused to show any hint of emotion. "If it does, you're gonna be a shitty hero. Either way, now that you're awake, boss man wants to speak to ya."

"Shigaraki?" Spinner nearly hissed. "What's he gonna do with her?"

"How the fuck do I know, and why the fuck do you care?" He asked coldly, glaring back at the lizard villain. "This girl's one of the top 3 students of U.A. I'm sure he'll have some kind of use for her. Anyways, follow me, I'll take you to him." Turning around, he slumped his shoulders, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Like a blinded deer, Nejire's body almost refused to move. That name... Shigaraki... the leader of the League of Villains. She'd only seen pictures of him on the news, but it was just enough to terrify her. All those hands... what were they for?! It freaked her out, and she knew how dangerous he was. And that he was covered in hands. Why did he have so many severed hands?!

She must have trembled, or whimpered quietly, because even Twice and Spinner glanced over to her and shook their heads, giving her gentle pats on the back. "You'll be fine, don't worry! He obviously doesn't want you dead, so just... try not to piss him off and you'll be fine."

Dabi glanced over his shoulder to her, that icy gaze seeming to cut right into her. "Don't make me repeat myself." With a heavy sweatdrop, Nejire nodded and joined him, following as he walked off.

"I'll write you a nice eulogy!" Twice called out in a loud whisper, giving her a thumbs up.

Nejire somehow expected him to break character once they were both out of earshot from the other two villains, but Dabi remained quiet, eyes heavily lidded as he sauntered on. The silence ate at her until she couldn't hold words back any longer. "Hey hey, no hard feelings about our fight, right? It's funny, we were pretty even with each other, huh? Isn't that funny?" She looked over to him but got no reaction at all. "Hm? Didja hear me?"

". . . yes. I heard you."

"Oh! Good! So do you think it's funny?"

"Not really."

"Oh. Well... what things do you think are funny?"

"Please stop talking."

"Do you like jokes? What about puns? Do you like to laugh?"

Dabi slowly inhaled, then exhaled with a groan. "I think it's funny that one of U.A.'s top students is a naive little airhead. That's pretty funny to me."

"Naive...?" She pouted her lip childishly. "I'm not naive!"

"Then you're just plain mad."

"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?"

His eyes narrowed as he turned to her. "Did you just... quote Don Quixote to me?"

Her warm blue gaze met his, and she smiled, a soft laugh erupting from her lips. "And, perhaps the maddest of all is to see life as it is, and not as it should be."

He didn't know why he was suddenly so focused on her lips, or when he realized how cute her laugh was, but as he brought her to Tomura Shigaraki, a villainous human dripping with venom and toxicity, he couldn't help but notice she was the exact opposite. She was young and inexperienced and naive and stupid and quoting a romantic philosophy novel, and deep down within the dusty, dark, rotten confines of his chest, his heart seemed to stir — if just for a tiny little flutter.

"Whatever, Miss Curious. Shigaraki's just through those doors, how about you go talk to him and then get back to me about madness."

Nodding, Nejire stepped forward to push open the doors, but paused for a moment to glance back to him with a grin. "Hey hey, if I'm naive, then you are, too! After all, you're the villain who kept the hero safe after she was knocked unconscious~"

"Yeah yeah," he waved his hand dismissively at her as she entered the other room, closing the doors behind her, "maybe we're both a little mad."

a/n;
Awww, thank you guys so much for the reviews, faves, and follows so far! ;-;
I wasn't sure how much attention/love this story would get, but it did better than I thought!
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