I was walking home from the grocery store as I passed by an ally on the sidewalk, and at the corner of my eye, I saw a lost, dirty child staring at all the crowd in front of them. I immediately halted my walk after making eye contact with the child. My heart wrenched from knowing the pain of poverty and being alone. Closing my eyes, I sighed, knowingly that I wanted to help the child at least before leaving. I could feel every fiber of me tightening if I left the child. Although I had a small goodness in my heart when it came to children and poverty, what I did for a living wasn't good to justify my small act of kindness.

Moving my way towards the lost child, I kneeled down to look at them. "Where's your family?" I asked nicely, to not scare off or make them cry. The child was a mess: hair disheveled, dirt on their precious skin, and eyes swollen from constant tears.

I wanted to cry right on the spot. I knew the feeling, I knew the coldness of people— I've been through it all— and I wished it didn't have to exist.

"I-It's only...me," the child whimpered out, avoiding eye contact with me. Through the looks of their physical features, the child has been through a lot. I knew I couldn't really do much for the child, but I was going to make someone take them to foster care if that's the last thing I'll help.

"Hey," I moved in front of the child so I could look at them in their eyes. "I'm going to make sure that you will have a better future." My fingers pushed their hair behind their ears. "I hope the foster place will take good care of you, and I hoped you'll never have to face this again." My rising emotions were getting to me. The more I looked at the child, the more I saw myself in them. I had knifes stabbing my heart as I wished I could stop this problem. I wanted to do so much more but I couldn't.

I used my quirk to lure someone random who I thought could be worthy to take the child to foster care, and I watched the child go.

"You have such a soft heart." I jumped from a voice behind me, dropping my grocery bags on the ground. "Chill, it's just me." I slowly turned around to see the lanky man again.

"You didn't have to creep up on me," I picked up my bags and stared at him. I didn't know that he was even lurking around here.

"I do whatever I want," he trudged around me, as if he was a free spirit with no responsibility. "But if you're gonna be working for the boss, you have to be more cold and brute." His turquoise eyes sharpened at me, then he proceeded to close the space in between us with a wolfish smile on his lips. "Being a villain and doing villainous jobs won't be cut out for you, doll. You're gonna struggle because you have a tiny goodness in your heart."

"You speak true, dear… but there are certain things that don't involve you, and it's none of your business of what I can and cannot do. Besides, I'm not you and you're not me. Don't compare me to you. It's kind of cute of you to be concerned about me, and we've never even exchanged names or worked with each other too." I forcefully changed my whole attitude so it wouldn't have to be a bothersome for him to deal with. "I bid you farewell," I blew a kiss and winked, leaving the ally and him.

On my way back to my house, I knew I wasn't alone. Someone was following and I had a finger on who it could be. "So you are a creep?" I turned to the shadows, waiting for him to step out.

"As if. I'm just observing what kind of person you are." He didn't come out and play which made me a bit sad. It would've been nice to see him out of the dark.

"Are you also going to sneak inside my house or ask to come in?" I smirked, keeping my eye straight ahead. "Because I have a feeling that you'll break in." I rolled my eyes from the headache of it.

"You wanna bet that?" He asked.

"I don't need to bet if I know it."

Soon after I got home and put away the groceries, the lanky man was sitting in my living room, staring at the stuff I had. "Did you steal these from your sugar daddies?" His finger pointed at everything in the room. I wasn't sure if he was intrigued by it, or that's how he started conversation out of the blue.

My house did have some expensive things that I've owned or got as gifts, or possibly stolen from but not really. "Maybe… or maybe not. What's your name? You haven't told me." I made my way down to him on the couch and sat very close to him as our shoulders touched. "Mmm?" I waited for his name to be told.

"Dabi,"

I leaned into his ear and whispered, "Mayumi,"

"Aren't you a little flirt?" Dabi had an amused smile plastered on his face. His tone of voice stayed fascinated by me.

I pulled back, laughing a little bit before replying, "Of course, dear. I'm naturally enticing to others, I might as well embrace what I've been given and use it to its full potential. I love to be physical with people." I drew circles on his left shoulder.

Dabi was pretty attractive after staring at him, but I shouldn't fool myself over a man like him. Too bad I can't break my own rules of being romantically involved with men I found hot.

"Well, explore if you will. I'm going to make food since you're here." I had a guest over and I shouldn't let him leave with an empty stomach. "I'll call when food is ready," I tried to poke the tip of his nose, but he again caught my hand, stopping me from doing it.

"A little too slow, doll."

I broke into a big smile. "It's nice to know that you're very warm." I loved it when men were warm blooded because I easily get cold and it was harder for me to warm up through layers of blanket if I didn't have a heater nearby.

Dabi's face let out a confused look, releasing my hand. "Is her seducing skills good as her cooking skills?" He teased, watching me walk to the kitchen. I wasn't sure if he was trying to test me or not, but I wasn't going to back down from it.

"Be my guest and taste the chef's cook." I looked at him confidently before entering inside the kitchen where I wouldn't see him til food was ready.

I was going to make tataki for him to eat up his words.

"Hey, I didn't know you have a sister." Dabi shouted from another room. I couldn't detect if he was interested in her or not because she was always the first and best choice. I felt stupid for forgetting to burn anything that my sister sent me.

I felt shitty now that he found out that I have a sister, I hated when people knew about her. It made me feel worthless. My chest was drowning, I wanted to sink to the bottom of the ocean and die. My older sister was always better than me, in every shape and form… and I was the other child who had to compete against her to show my worth.

I tightly gripped the handle of the knife and aggressively sliced the meat on the cutting board. "Yeah, I do." I tried not to show any annoyance in my voice.

"She's hot!"

I bit my lips, in hopes it bled and ruined my not-so pretty face. I've tried to pretend she never existed, but it didn't work. She always tried to find ways to drop into my life and taunt me of what she had that I didn't. It was a constant game for her to one up me. Some days I wished I was dead.

I breathed in and out to soothe my irritation, mumbling words to boost up my self esteem so I could feel better. "Ahaha! And so am I, dear Dabi. Having a siren quirk makes us very beautiful and deadly. So watch out before you become those fools." I forcefully laughed, subconsciously thinking about how inferior I was to my older sister.

"I don't know why I'm still trying to live…" I whispered quietly, continuing to make dinner as waves of sadness washed over me.

"Why don't you try to be like your sister, Mayumi? She's out here gaining more things from men than you are." Mother stared at me in disappointment and I couldn't look at her in the eyes. I was ashamed of what I was doing— seducing men for their goods to survive the poor life we lived. "Your quirk you received from me makes us powerful. We are very beautiful that no one can take their lustful eyes off from us, take advantage of that and make the rich pay. I've built you up for everything to go to waste!" Mother's passive aggressiveness was spiteful. I hated being useless in her eyes. "If you can't put anything on the table then you're not eating tonight." She threatened, knowing that it would force me to bend at her will.

I clenched my fists tightly.

"Hmm, father should've taken her when he left." My older sister commented, making me feel horrible of being alive. "I only shadow her more since I'm better and way prettier at my job than she is."

The both of them irked me, making me want to show them that I do better than my sister. I could get anyone that I wanted. "Fine! I'll show you who's best!" I glared at them in dismay and ran out of the house.

I was only fifteen.

"Hey, your bleeding…. your bleeding…!" I was suddenly brought back to earth when I felt my legs forcefully moving forward.

"Oh… I am," I tried to suppress my dazed voice. "Sorry," I broke into a weird smile, trying to look like I was okay or something around that line. I really didn't want him to question me and I hoped he wouldn't. "I was—"

Dabi didn't want to hear my excuses when he brought me to the bathroom and wrapped my cut finger. "Should I still eat your food? Because it seems like you were tryna spill blood to cast me under your spell, doll." From the way he was talking, I really couldn't pick out if he was mad or being sarcastic, but he was gentle when handling my cut finger.

Interesting enough, I didn't have to justify why I wasn't conscious in my body if he didn't ask. "But I think you wouldn't have minded a small drop of me since you did say—" his index finger landed on my lips to seal them.

"Your sister is hot, not you." Dabi definitely cleared my words before I could twist a lie in there.

What a stab to my insecurity.

"Tch," I scoffed, slightly glaring at him. I didn't know what to say to him. I didn't want to show off that I had no love for my sister because I know he will have no problem pestering me.

Dabi leaned over, pushing me to the counter of the bathroom as his hands gripped the ledge. A nasty grin was printed on his face. I could tell he was going to say something that had to do with me. "Is someone jealous that I didn't call you 'hot'?" Dabi licked his lips. From his eyes, he wanted a certain reaction from me, but as if I was going to give him one because I was dazzled by something else— his face. It was amazing to see the up close details of his face now that the light was present. So mysterious yet beautiful it was. "Are you not going to answer? Or continued to be enthralled by my face?"

"You're right that I'm not 'hot'. I am extravagantly beautiful. Nice try thinking you'll tick me off, dear." I roughly broke his trap and stood at the doorway. "Keep stalling me and you won't get the best quality food from me." I chuckled, winking at him before resuming my work in the kitchen.