Days drag on slower than ever. Tomura and Kurogiri had left the morning after yours and Dabi's fiasco none the wiser to the newly formed alliance. Tomu had failed to say goodbye in person, instead opting to slip a small, poorly written, note under your door explaining ,very vaguely, where he was going.
You stayed confined to your room most of the time, only breaching your own walls late at night when most of the League had scampered off from the common areas. Despite the silent understanding between Dabi and you, without Tomura around you couldn't help but feel like an intruder within these walls.
When you would hear Toga and Twice laughing, or Magne cooking in the kitchen, or even Compress flailing around, you couldn't help but feel your heart sink to the pit of your stomach. You missed the comfort of interacting with others, but these people seemed to be a family already. And you, you seemed to be a stranger roaming their halls. A ghost watching from the shadows longing for a place amongst the living.
You sat on the floor beside your bed late one night, listening to the soft talking coming from Togas room. It sounded like she was talking about Ochako again, the pink haired gravity girl Dabi had told you about that Toga so desperately had a crush on. Likely, she was talking to Twice or maybe Magne since it seemed there was little response coming from her companion. You found a soft solace in Togas muffled voice, closing your eyes and listening hard, you try to focus on her words. Maybe, you think, if I close my eyes tight enough I can pretend I'm the one she's confiding in.
A soft rap at the door startles you, you glance at the rundown clock on the wall, it reads 1:00am.
"Who the hell…" you murmur as you stand up, wrapping the blanket you'd been cradling around yourself tighter, and open the door. Dabi is standing on the other side, you narrow your eyes slightly before going to speak. But, before you can form any words Dabi presses a smooth finger to his lips and points down. You look, confused, in the direction he's pointing.
Togas room.
He motions for you to follow him, you want to protest against it, but he's already walking down the hall back turned to you. You sigh and slip your slippers on before practically jogging to catch up with him. He leads you towards his room and your heart speeds up when you watch him walk through his door and leave it open for you to follow. As if this was a normal, comfortable thing that you had done many times before.
You hesitate before walking through the threshold.
"Close the door." He's already sat on his bed, a cigarette struck between his lips.
You comply, letting the door latch noisily. He winces, but doesn't complain.
"What do you want? It's late!" You whisper
"You can talk normally, I just didn't want blondie snooping in on our conversations." Despite his calm voice, Dabi's on edge. Shigaraki hadn't returned yesterday as planned and now, the whole plan seemed to be askew.
"Okay," you blush lightly, "what do you want then?"
You're still standing at the door, unsure of what to do with your body. Your hands fold and unfold irritatingly.
"Stop doing that it's annoying." Dabi motions at your hands and you glare at him, "just Jesus, just come sit down or something."
"Oh my bad!" You yell, hushed, "I wasn't sure where to go at 1am after being led away from my own room for no apparent reason."
You don't move, this is annoying. If he just wanted to mess with you it could have waited until morning.
"Whatever. Don't sit, it's your blood flow." He takes a long drag, the cherry of his cigarette burning intensely. "I just want to know if you've heard from Shigaraki."
That takes you by surprise, Tomura? Why would you have heard from him when he's on a mission?
"No, why?"
"I was afraid of that." Dabi sighs, thinking hard on what to do next. He shouldn't tell you what skin flake is up to, in fact Shigaraki explicitly told him not to. But, he was also supposed to be back by now and if that fucker went and got himself killed then that would fuck up Dabis entire plan. Not to mention Shigaraki's plan too.
"If that's all, I'm going to bed." You turn to the door
"Wait!" Dabi stands up quickly, "Just hold on."
"Dabi, it's late. What's going on?" You're starting to worry now, Dabi's brow is furrowed and his cigarette lay abandoned on his bed, still burning.
"Shigaraki was supposed to be home by now. Him and Kurogiri. I think somethings wrong."
"What do you mean?" You step towards him, hand tightening around your blanket. "Is Tomu hurt?"
"Well I don't know now do I genius!" He's back at his bed in an instant, slapping his smoking covers and relighting his cigarette. "That's why I'm asking you if you know anything. We were supposed to go to our next phase when he came back but it's kinda hard to do that when he's a no show."
"He didn't say goodbye, I don't kn- wait."
You take off and jog, as quietly as possible, to your room. Dabi follows begrudgingly. When he gets to your room you're pulling a torn piece of paper from beneath your bed.
"What.."
"Tomu left me a note, he didn't say goodbye but he left me this! Maybe it says something I just didn't catch. I read it right when I woke up and didn't even think about it."
Your eyes are sparkling, and Dabi can't help but notice how childlike you seem in this moment. Blanket wrapped around your shoulders, paper clenched excitedly in your fist, hair messy and eyes bright. He smiles softly before wiping it from his face, disgusted with himself.
"Give it to me then." He pulls it from your hands easily. "What the hell is this? Gibberish? Nothing even makes sense in this note. It looks like crusty scribbled nonsense and left trash at your door."
You snatch the paper back from him, "This is why we don't snatch papers asshole. It's something we made up." You flush, guilt washes over you as you admit just a childish and private secret, "It's like a language kind of, but it's mostly just short hand."
It's your turn to sit on your bed, you look at Dabi and the closed door behind him. Your heart jumps as you take in how much larger he is than you once again, and fear crawls up your throat. You push it down and remind yourself of the memories you'd forced yourself into. Remind yourself that Dabi's eyes are his, before patting the spot beside you in a similar manner as he did to you just days ago.
Dabi complies nervously. You both sit leg to leg again, but this time the room is yours and it's very dark. You both can still hear Togas voice a floor below.
"What does it say?" He fidgets beside you.
What a weird thing to do, he thinks, making a secret language? They've absolutely got to be fucking. He left (Y/N) and goodbye letter? God what is this a K-Drama?
"Hold on.." you scan over the note again, whispering slightly as you go. "It's just telling me to be careful and not piss anyone off while he's gone, then an apology for not saying goodbye in person, and then a vague mention of where he's going. I don't think it's a very important note."
"Where did he say he's going?"
"It's vague, no city or even county. Just says 'I'll be in the woods.' Not very helpful." You shrug and put the note by your bed.
"I'll be in the woods. God, he's such a drama queen." Dabi rolls his eyes and leans back on your bed, your heart quickens once again.
"Yeah, well Tomu's always been one for the theatrics. But he's rarely late."
"Looks like I have to go after them then." Dabi groans as he sits up again and nods at you as he stands, "thanks for your help anyway."
"Wait!" You catch Dabi's hand in both of yours and look up at him with pleading eyes, "let me go with you."
"What? No." Dabi's face scrunches and you brace yourself to have to fight with him, "Actually, you know him pretty well and he'd probably have a better reaction to you finding him than me."
He'll probably try to kill me if he comes back to his little play thing dead here anyway, Dabi thinks begrudgingly, might as well take them with me.
Your eyes light up again and this time you catch Dabi's quick smile. You're so taken aback by his quick change of mind that you forget your hands are cradling his. Dabi makes no move to remind you, basking in the coolness of your touch and the light reflecting off your eyes.
Time passes in silence as you both stare at each other, Dabi can't help but bask in this unwavering comfort you seem to have with touching him. You'd done it before, once when you hit him and later that week when you invaded his memories. You'd caressed his scarred face without so much as wincing. And now here you were, holding desperately onto his hand as if the scars weren't even there. As if the staples holding his mauled flesh together weren't digging into your skin too.
You barely registered the staples though, your breath was caught in your throat. For the first time since seeing Dabi's too familiar eyes they looked different. As if you were finally separating them from Endeavors. They shone in the dark, blue ice splitting open the blackness. For a moment you saw something unfamiliar flitter across his irises before it disappeared. You let the breath out of your throat and the sound cut the silence in half. You both pulled your hands apart, blushing under the blanket of night.
"When do we leave?" You ask, rubbing your now warm hands together.
"Now. Pack some things we have about a day's trip ahead of us."
"Wait, you know where Tomura is?"
Dabi rolls his eyes and chuckles, "Of course I do, after all it'd be sad if I couldn't make my way to my own hometown wouldn't it dolly?"
He walked out of your room, reiterating that you need to pack fast and not to slow him down.
Neither of you notice how quiet Toga's room had grown.