In the morning once Dabi finally woke up, Natsou was gone. The night prior, Natsuo had as promised worked on his paper for a while and let Dabi rest in his quiet company until finally he declared it long enough and said that Dabi could go to sleep without fear of more brain damage. Digging into the duffle he brought with him he took out a thin blanket; since Dabi didn't need any help getting warm it was more for comfort's sake than functionality. Relocating to the kitchen island, Natsuo left Dabi to fall asleep on the couch to the quiet sounds of him typing and playing music very softly.

It hardly took any time at all for Dabi to fall asleep, which was customary when he was exhausted but now more so than ever. Thankfully, he didn't have a nightmare tonight, though that was likely only the case because he was so tired that he didn't dream of anything at all.

Waking up to the quiet of the apartment Dabi let out a sigh, blinking slowly a couple times as he was still groggy before pushing himself up to a sitting position. For the first time in a long time he actually felt well rested; that sort of heavy, lethargic feeling occupying his body that came with having a good night's rest. Though his stomach was screaming for food now, and that hunger was what finally made him get up from the couch and head into the kitchen to see if there was anything worth putting into his body.

Running a hand through his hair he made his way over to the fridge, opening the door to find that it was now fully stocked with food and all the half eaten containers of old ordered takeout were nowhere to be found. Furrowing his brows in slight confusion, Dabi turned around to look at the kitchen table, which had a few full grocery bags of pantry items sitting on its surface. Digging through one of the bags he found something easy that he could eat, munching on that as his eyes caught the piece of paper and envelope that were sitting on the table as well.

[ Eat some real food for once, please. I understand money is probably hard to come by, so text me if you need more. And drink some water. ]

The note was written out in Natsuo's neat handwriting, and Dabi rolled his eyes at the motherly tone of the letter though he did have to admit that it was nice. The envelope with the note had some cash inside, far more than Dabi was expecting, and he questioned if Natsuo had dipped his hands into his father's earnings to provide this for him.

Looking down the note further, three names and phone numbers had been written out; Shouto, Fuyumi, and Rei. Dabi had contacted Shouto through his other form of social media, but having his phone number would likely be useful too. Fuyumi, well, Dabi still felt terrible about not remembering her at all, but that was trumped by the name and number that came after it.

[ This is your mother. She is currently in the hospital. Please call her. ]

Natsuo's handwriting came right under the name, also including the information that he would need to know to give to the hospital in order to speak to her.

Dabi stopped chewing, swallowing down the food that he had in his mouth as he stared down at the note, eventually putting down the half eaten item in his hand. Standing up, he went to gather his phone back from the coffee table by the couch, pressing a number to call before returning to the table.

His hand hardly felt the weight of the phone in it as he held it up to his ear, sharp turquoise eyes staring down at the paper though no longer making sense of the ink lines scratched onto the surface.

He couldn't remember her.

The only sort of recollection that gripped him was a tight feeling that seemed to suffocate his lungs, along with the worst case of bittersweet nostalgia and a longing that sent numbness tingling all the way out to his fingertips.

Two rings passed before Natsuo picked up, but Dabi didn't let him get a word in before speaking.

"..Natsuo, why is she in the hospital?"

Dabi's own voice sounded like it existed in a void, ears deaf to any other sound that echoed around in his apartment.

"Touya, do you not remember what happened to her?"

"I-" He did. He absolutely did. There was no way that the mix of emotions currently gripping him was fake, along with that dreadful sense that something very, very bad had happened. But he physically couldn't remember what had happened exactly, it was like there was a mental brick wall blocking off that information from Dabi right now.

"Our father made mom have a mental breakdown. She's doing better now, but she's staying there while she recovers."

She had a mental breakdown? Dabi was the one having a mental breakdown here.

"Touya? Breathe, please. Let me know you're still there."

Though Natsuo called his name, it didn't register in Dabi's mind right away, the forgotten title not jogging his memory and striking him out of his thoughts like Natsuo probably intended it to.

"Dabi?"

Calling his second name did the trick, causing Dabi to suck in a deep breath before managing to respond even though his voice to his own ears sounded like the grinding of sandpaper.

"-Yeah.."

"Okay.. you're okay." Natsuo exhaled on the other end of the phone, like he was relieved to get confirmation back from Dabi that he wasn't totally gone yet. "You need to ground yourself so you don't start anything on fire."

Right, that would be bad.

"You're in the kitchen, yes? Go stick your hands under the cold water in the sink to cool off."

If nothing else, having Natsuo keep talking helped Dabi from needing to do so himself, and eliminated thinking about anything other than doing what Natsuo suggested. He didn't even realize that his hands were hot until he went to put the phone down on the sink's edge and the plastic of his phone case was deformed where his hand had been grabbing it.

How did Natsuo know that Dabi's hands got that hot when he started to freak out?

… Touya. Obviously.

After running the sink water over his hands for a sufficient amount of time until they actually started to get cold, Dabi pulled them out, splashing some water on his face too just for good measure before drying them off.

"- Dabi?"

Natsuo's voice over the phone drew Dabi back to it, and he carefully picked up the device before answering with a more steady tone. He felt like he could breathe now, and the dissociation from before was slowly fading away.

"I'm here."

"Are you gonna be okay? I have to get back to my lecture but I can stay and talk if you need me too."

"No, I- I'll be fine."

"Let me know if you need anything else, okay? I want to help you."

Dabi just responded with a slight hum of acknowledgement to the offer, enough to let Natsuo know that he understood but also didn't really want to respond with more words. He had been feeling rested when he first woke up, but the freak out put him into a funk that he likely wouldn't get out of for a while.

Once the call was finally hung up Dabi let out a sigh, pulling the phone away from his ear as he glanced over at the table where the note was still sitting. Nope, he wasn't dealing with that right now. He was still hungry though, so he snatched the food he'd set down without looking at the note again.

Instead, he retreated back to his couch, grabbing the blanket that he'd been sleeping with and throwing it over his lap as he sat down and pulled his legs up onto the cushions to finish eating.

He wasn't quite sure what to do with himself right now. The call with Natsuo had calmed him down but Dabi was still in limbo. He didn't want to talk to anyone, but he also didn't want to just sit around in silence. Maybe he'd slink off to the seedy gas station in a bit and get some more cigarettes with some of the money from Natsuo, it wasn't like he'd be able to tell what Dabi used the money for.

Returning to his phone again Dabi went back to the League's group chat, clicking on it to get rid of the unread messages that were there from while he was passed out. He hadn't seen them since he was preoccupied with Natsuo, who's phone call he still felt he had to rectify.

[10:33 am] sender - forget about yesterday, won't happen again

[10:34 am] doubles - Why? He seemed nice :)

Dabi let out a sigh, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was not in the mood to explain to Twice why Natsuo should not be interacting with the League even if he was related to Dabi or even if he was interested in helping them out. Dabi was not going to be the reason why Natsuo lost everything that he was working so hard for.

However he didn't get a chance to deal with that yet, as another text in the group made him set down his phone and search for the remote of his old TV.

[10:34 am] crusty hands - check the news

Flipping through the channels, Dabi didn't know what he was looking for, but he definitely could tell when he found it. How could he not, with Endeavor's body taking up most of the frame.

It seemed like some sort of private press conference that was being aired, there were lots of people off to the side that Dabi didn't recognize. The only ones he did know were Endeavor, Shouto who was standing beside him, and Hawks who was on Endeavor's other side.

After Dabi got over the sight of Endeavor and Hawks, his attention turned to Shouto.

Dabi had seen the expression on his face once before, but now it was even stronger. He knew that Shouto didn't like Endeavor, that much was clear from how he had talked about his father in the first video Dabi watched, but Dabi hadn't been focused on that since he was just questioning his identity then.

What caught his eye this time was Endeavor's hand that was clamped down on Shouto's shoulder. The boy was still wearing his school uniform, and the grey fabric wrinkled under the grip. It seemed like it would hurt, which might have been part of the reason for Shouto's expression. There also was... bruising peeking out from underneath the collar as well.

With that observation still burning in his mind, Dabi finally turned up the volume so that he could hear what was being said.

"- outlandish rumors that are going around regarding my son. Touya is not Dabi. Dabi is a selfish murderer that continues to terrorize this city and needs to be stopped. My son Touya would never do such a thing. My son Touya died in a tragic fire, and here you are dragging his name up and associating it with a criminal. My son-"

Endeavor's voice cut out as the TV screen suddenly burst out in a spiderweb pattern of cracks.

Dabi was on his feet now, unable to restrain himself from having thrown the remote into the TV at the sound of the bullshit that this man was spewing. Dabi might have been uncomfortable being associated with Touya in the past, but those words made him boil with a heat so fierce he was ready to march right over there and declare to the world that he was Touya if it would just get the old man to shut up.

Storming over to the door Dabi threw on his boots and cost, not caring that he was just wearing sweats at the moment, digging through his pockets to make sure he had his keys with one hand while the other slammed a finger down onto his phone screen to call Hawks.

"Is this live. Right now. Tell me where you are."