"Nice one, kid," Dabi granted when they were safe in Chiyo's flat.
It was the closest, only being a five minute walk away from their confrontation with Eraserhead, and, once inside, Izuku felt relief wash over him. The adrenaline of the encounter with the pro-hero had diminished and he felt weak, though the small bit of praise from Dabi made him feel better.
He smiled at the 23-year-old.
"Yeah, Zuku," Kakusareta ruffled Izuku's dark curls, having taken a few deep breaths to counteract the long minutes he had been cut off from oxygen. "Fast thinking kid."
"While I'm disappointed the situation happened in the first place," Chiyo brushed her long hair out of her face, flicking it over her shoulder effortlessly, "I'm proud of you, Zukun. And we got what we came for," she declared, patting a pouch that had been fixed about her waist. "Now, let us not stand in the genkan like we have nothing better to do." Chiyo pushed the boys through to the living room after they had all removed their shoes, and insisted they sit down.
Kakusareta flopped onto the plush sofa with practiced comfort, pulling a phone from his pocket and busying himself with it, as Chiyo traversed the room and disappeared through a door.
Dabi took a seat on one of Chiyo's armchairs, a bored look on his face as he picked up a remote that sat on the coffee table and switched on the large TV mounted on the wall opposite.
Much less comfortable, Izuku awkwardly sat on the sofa, trying to take up as little space as possible. He looked around. He had never been inside Chiyo's flat before. It was very clean, with pale walls and colour-blocked furniture. Everything looked expensive, completely different to Dabi's home.
Chiyo returned shortly, having changed out of her previous clothes and into a comfortable pair of tracksuit bottoms and an oversized, pastel pink t-shirt. She looked the most casual Izuku had ever seen her. It was a strange sight, he wouldn't lie.
She made her way to the sofa and gave Kakusareta a look. With a slight grumble, the man shifted positions to allow Chiyo to curl up between him and Izuku.
"Put on something relaxing, Dabikun," she insisted melodically. "Not that action crap you've decided to watch."
Dabi had been absentmindedly watching an old action movie, that Izuku had barely been paying attention to himself, and rolled his eyes at Chiyo.
"I'm not putting on some chick flick, grandma," he drawled.
"Did you hear me say chick flick, darling?" Chiyo asked condescendingly, and Izuku stifled a small chuckle. The dynamic between Dabi and Chiyo was something he found very interesting. Both were stubborn, only amplifying when together, and neither backed away from a challenge.
Izuku got the impression that the pair respected one another, but that Dabi found Chiyo to be pretentious and preening, where Chiyo thought Dabi rude. She seemed to love winding him up, and vice versa.
With a disgruntled huff, Dabi flicked through channels until he landed on an old animated movie that Izuku could remember watching when he was a little kid.
He watched the screen absentmindedly, letting the familiar movie drown out his thoughts and distracting himself from the hum of conversation going on around him.
"Kiddo, you're way too quiet," Kakusareta eyed him after a good twenty minutes. "Usually you're muttering about something or other."
Alarmed out of his trance, Izuku frowned, hiding the lower half of his face in the cushion he was holding. "I'm sorry I led Eraserhead to you guys," he muttered a moment later. "I didn't think he would follow me."
Dabi raised a brow. "Has that been eating you all this time?" He asked.
Izuku nodded.
"Darling, it's fine," Chiyo crooned. "We got what we needed to get, and you fixed the situation. Pay it no more mind."
Izuku frowned deeper behind his plush shield. "I just- I feel like I just give you guys more trouble."
Dabi scoffed, but didn't deny Izuku's claim.
"You're doing fine, Zuku," Kakusareta assured. "You should have seen me when I was just starting out. I was a mess, right Chiyo?"
Chiyo let out a tittering laugh.
"Still…" Izuku muttered into his cushion.
Dabi sighed, "If you're that bothered, we can go to the warehouse again day after tomorrow. You're down to, what, 36 hours?"
"35," Izuku corrected. "But I doubt I'll be able to actually learn something useful," he murmured.
"Don't go all depressed on us, Zuku," Kakusareta cocked his head, tone teasing. He nudged Izuku in the side with his foot.
Izuku eyed him mutely, and Kakusareta sighed.
"What've you been learning, kid?" He asked.
"How to turn my flames on and keep them that way."
"He's finding it hard keeping the fire lit for long," Dabi shrugged.
"Why don't you try something different then?" Chiyo asked, chiming into the conversation.
"What do you mean?"
"If he's getting caught up on the fire aspect of his quirk, teach him something different."
"Yeah," Kakusareta nodded. "Like, what about all that smoke he makes when he's nervous. Could be real handy if you need to disappear and I'm not around," he said.
Izuku and Dabi blinked in surprise, glancing at one another. Why hadn't they thought of that?
Izuku furrowed his brow in thought. If he could make and sustain a smokescreen, he could help Dabi and the others a lot better than he was doing so far. He could be useful. And he made smoke accidentally all the time. It might be easier than the fire. How would he do it without the emotional connection though? But then- it wasn't just when he was nervous, right? He did it when he was overthinking. Just like now! Wait, he was overthinking again…
He shook himself and glanced around the room. His friends were speechlessly watching him, varying levels of amusement in their eyes.
"I was muttering, wasn't I?"
Kakusareta's lips tore into a grin, and he leaned over to ruffle Izuku's hair with a laugh. "And he's back to normal!" He declared.
Izuku and Dabi spent the rest of that night at Chiyo's flat, heading home when the sun began to peak over the horizon.
They headed to the warehouse, where Dabi watched as Izuku bled out, before he stored his body safely behind a pile of metal sheets.
The next day, Dabi returned not long before Izuku resurrected, and they spent hours trying to get Izuku to get a handle on his smokescreen.
It was going well, all things considered, until Izuku managed to lose himself in the dark smoke, coughing and hacking as the substance coated his lungs. In the haziness, he stumbled into Dabi, causing the taller boy to go crashing to the ground, along with a few barrels.
The clanging of the metal careening to the floor and the thud of flesh meeting concrete was almost deafening, and Izuku pushed himself up again. The smoke began to dissipate and he was able to make out an annoyed looking Dabi glaring at him.
"For fuck's sake, kid," Dabi grunted. He shifted, and tried to get his arm from underneath one of the toppled barrels. He hissed in pain. "Damn it! Zuku, get this thing off me and help me up."
Izuku rushed to do as he was told, internally berating himself. He let out a string of coughs every now and then from the slowly disappearing smoke, but worked to shift the heavy metal barrel.
Once free, Dabi stood and held his arm close to his chest. "We gotta get you some infra goggles or something if you're going to do more with the smoke. Gas mask too," he added. He sighed, "Alright, I think that's enough for today. Let's head back. You're cooking me dinner tonight for this," he grumbled.
Izuku was silent as he nodded, ashamed at having caused Dabi pain, and readily accepted the task of cooking dinner. If it would taste good, he didn't know, but he would try.
The walk back to the flat was unsurprisingly loud, with crowds of people out and about despite how late it was.
Izuku knew it had to do with heroes.
Many tended to patrol late in the evening, and the public always wanted a shot at seeing one up close. Izuku payed it no mind, used to it, but then he paled.
He tugged at Dabi's uninjured arm, urging him to stop walking.
"What are you doing?" Dabi frowned at him in confusion and irritation.
Izuku's eyes glanced over at a pro-hero nearby, straight ahead from them. Directly in their path. The hero was surrounded by a group of fans, clamouring to ask questions, and he looked overwhelmed.
Izuku looked back to Dabi, "Can we just go this way instead?" He asked, trying to pull him in a different direction.
"Why?" Dabi looked to where Izuku kept glancing. "It's just some random hero," he said. "That new guy in town. What's-his-name," he scoffed. "Begins with a P, or some shit. He won't bother us," he rolled his eyes.
"It's P-Pendragon," Zuku said. "Please, can we just go?"
"Zuku, what's with you? You weren't like this with any of the other heroes we passed by."
"Dabi," Izuku stressed, and Dabi sighed.
"Okay, fine, we can go this way. But you owe me an explanation." He rolled his eyes and let the teenager lead the way.