You drifted in and out of consciousness for what felt like hours, but you didn't dream. Instead, images of the past fluttered across your mind like an old film reel, as though your life were flashing before your eyes: the limited memories of your childhood with your mother, your placement in the program, and your time spent with your two closest friends; your transfer to Stiller's care and your move to the states. For whatever reason, it all ran through in chronological order and ended when you got on the jet to Japan.

When you finally gained any sort of awareness of your surroundings, you were in a new place. Your mind was entirely cloudy, and your eyelids felt heavy as you willed them to open. Dirty, grey cement walls met a dusty floor in cobweb-covered corners. A long line of dim light shone along the floor of the far wall, indicating, what you assumed to be a rather large, pull-down door. The rest of the building appeared much too large to be an ordinary garage, though. As your eyes adjusted to the low lighting, different shapes came into view: massive metal shelves with randomly placed crates lined the wall to your left, and a pile of mid-sized metal pipes lay on the ground to your right. It was a warehouse, you deduced.

'What… happened?' You dug deep, trying as hard as you could to clearly remember how you'd gotten here. You recalled fire…. Lots of fire, and the small army of nomus you and the others had fought. You looked down at your body awkwardly from your lying position. The first thing you noticed was that your hero suit was gone. Instead, you were dressed in a plain white t-shirt and a pair of grey shorts, and your leg was partially wrapped in pristine white bandages. It looked like you were on some type of metal table, and, from what you could see, it was surprisingly clean compared to the surrounding area. Your head throbbed as you rolled onto your side and pushed yourself up onto your elbow. Looking down at your wrist, you found that it was also neatly dressed in bandages.

'Huh… where's my watch?' You wondered, noticing the device you'd been linked with for years was missing. There didn't appear to be any kind of watch-shaped lump under your wrappings either. Though there was a dull pain underneath them, the muscles in your arm and shoulder showed no signs that you had overused your quirk. That was strange. You were certain you would've felt some kind of strain after a battle like that. You groaned softly as the pounding in your skull subsided. You tried hard to remember how you'd gotten here, but drew a blank. From your left, you heard a voice.

"Hey, there, sleepyhead." It took you much longer than you would have liked in your groggy state to process it. You sloppily turned your entire body to get a better look at the man in the room with you, but he protested immediately.

"Don't try to move too quickly." He insisted. He rose from the crate he'd been seated on and stepped closer. Gradually, his charred and stapled skin became illuminated by what little light crept in through the garage door. His blue eyes, somewhat hidden by strands of jet black hair, observed you calmly. There was just a tiny smile on his face. The sight of him startled you, forcing you to become more alert. "You've still got some injuries. I guess no one ever told you not to put water on a gas fire, huh?" Dabi chuckled.

You blinked a couple of times, eyes locked on his steadily-approaching frame. It seemed you were having trouble deciphering what he'd just said- it sounded a bit muffled. It didn't matter, though. Whatever he said was irrelevant. The only important thing in your mind right now was the fact that there was a wanted criminal right in front of you. Not just any criminal either; a member of the League of Villains. This man had stalked you, broken into your room, blackmailed Keigo, and, you were pretty sure, orchestrated the most recent nomu attack. How many people had he endangered? You doubted even he knew. Rage pumped adrenaline through your body.

"You son of a bitch!" You yelled. You flung yourself off of the table and attempted to use your quirk to hurl towards him, but wound up falling to the ground instead. "What the hell?"

Dabi laughed and began to squat down next to you, offering his hand to help you up. "Woah, slow down, there. Your body might still be trying to clean the venom from your system, you gotta take it- OOF-" You silenced him with a quick left-hook to the face. The punch was enough to knock him onto his ass. You slid underneath the table quickly and took hold of one of the metal pipes that lay beside it. Using it as a crutch, you managed to pull yourself off the ground. Now that you were actually on your feet, it wasn't too difficult to stand on your own. You craned your neck to look over the table at the villain. Dabi was still seated on the floor, rubbing his cheek with his hand. A small stream of blood leaked from one of the staples you'd slammed your fist into and trickled down his chin. He looked up at you with a neutral expression.

"Ow… hey, that hurt, y'know." He complained.

You glared at him with virulent intent as he got to his feet. "Oh trust me, you're about to be in much more pain than that!" You raised your pipe like a baseball bat above your head. With your quirk inactive, you'd have to rely on your hand-to-hand combat skills. In the moment, however, you weren't thinking about a strategic attack, nor about the fact that there was a metal table separating the two of you. The only thing you were concerned with was landing a hit on this psycho's head. You jumped forward and swung the pipe at him, ramming your gut into the table in the process. The sudden impact made you nauseous for a moment. Dabi jumped back quickly, narrowly avoiding your attack.

"Woah, hey! Chill out-" His usually stoic demeanor had vanished and given way to a slightly more expressive side; presumably, due to you now threatening him physically.

"Shut the hell up!" You growled. You took off to your left around the table and Dabi did the same, doing his best to keep himself on the opposite side. You swung, and missed, once again.

"What the hell did you do to me?! Why can't I use my quirk and where the hell am I?!" You shouted as you continued to cartoonishly chase him around the table.

"I didn't do- woah! Jeez, would you take it easy? Don't take any of this personal, alright? That nomu wasn't supposed to- ack! Can you wait a minute? I'm not too great at close combat…" He placed his hands on the metal surface in front of him and pushed it in your direction in an attempt to slow you down. You easily slid the pole between the edge of the table and yourself to prevent it from hitting you before returning to your assault. You felt yourself growing more annoyed the longer he evaded you. It seemed all sense had left your brain.

"Grr- get over here so I can hurt you!" You snapped. Dabi laughed wholly. His apparent joy only irritated you further. Was he enjoying this? Was this all a game to him?

"Now how am I supposed to answer your questions if you beat me to a pulp?" His use of logic ate at your own rationality. This dude was seriously just trying to piss you off.

"I'll leave the important parts intact." A blush spread across your angry expression as you began to realize how silly you sounded. A cocky grin spread onto Dabi's face and you felt your blood boil with embarrassment.

"Ha, it's pretty cute when you blush like tha- Ah, jeez, (Y/N), put the damn pipe down." You'd raised your weapon above your head in preparation for another strike, but his words sent a shockwave through your being. You paused for a moment and stared at him, eyes wide with shock. He shouldn't know your name. You hadn't used it in years; even most of your legal documentation used your 'hero name.' Keigo wouldn't have sold you out… would he? Feeling a bit more energized now, you leapt onto the table, and it wobbled slightly. You did what you could to stabilize yourself, but figured you must've looked ridiculous. You shoved the metal pipe forward towards Dabi's face, but he managed to dodge it by slipping to the side.

"How the hell do you know that name?!" You screamed.

"Just calm down-"
"Did you get access to Commission records?!"

"No, I-"

"Did Hawks tell you?!" You cried, voice nearly cracking.

"You told me!" He replied.

"No I sure-as-hell-fucking didn't!" You hissed, taking another swing at his head.

"Thirteen years ago!" He yelled. Dabi grabbed the pole firmly at the end, effectively preventing you from attacking him as he spoke. "In a fucked up classroom at a fucked up place of a fucked up organization."

You were frozen. You reluctantly sifted through your brain and found yourself plagued with multiple memories of your old secret meeting place. Back then, it had only ever been the three of you. The metal beneath your fingers felt warm and your hands began to sweat. You grasped the pole tighter as your nervous secretion affected your grip. Dabi's expression was soft as his blue eyes peered intensely into yours. He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"...and you know mine, don't you?" He asked politely.

You stiffened your upper lip as you forced hot tears to stay in your eyes. From your spot on top of the table, you were able to look down on the villain rather menacingly.

"Touya's dead." You stated abruptly. It was only after you'd spoken that you realized it. It was the first time you'd openly and outright admitted the death of your friend, but there was something else as well. That name: you hadn't said it in almost a decade. Not out loud, at least. Dabi smiled kindly- a stark contrast to the emotionless face you'd seen before.

"Afraid not." He spoke to you gently, the way someone might coax an injured animal. You swallowed hard, but the lump in your throat remained. You wanted to scream. To take that metal pipe and put it straight through his throat and shut him up forever. That would fix it. How dare he make up such an unforgivable lie. His psychological warfare wouldn't work on you. Dabi sighed. "Oh come on, (Y/N). You're smart. Use that brain of yours and figure it out."

You didn't want to, but it seemed your mind worked almost involuntarily to put the pieces together. He knew about your friendship with Keigo. He knew your name. He had a fire quirk, and he didn't even try to attack you, even when he had you all alone.

"Y-you're a liar." Your voice trembled and your knees became weak. "How dare you!" Gradually, your legs failed, and you were left sitting on the table with them folded on either side of you. You scoured your brain for anything that could disprove him, but only felt yourself fall further into despair as you took in his appearance. Though it was a different color, his hair was spiked in nearly the same fashion as your friend's, and those piercing blue eyes were undeniably Touya's. Your mouth hung open slightly as if you were going to speak, but nothing came out. The metal underneath Dabi's hand began to glow a soft red and you felt the heat spread down the pipe to your palm.

Dabi leaned in, leaving your faces less than a foot away from each other. "Let go." He almost whispered. With the rising heat against your skin becoming too uncomfortable to bear, you obliged. Dabi released the pipe at the same, and it clanged as it hit the table and dropped to the floor.

Violent tremors racked your body. You couldn't seem to look away from him. Your breathing became heavy and staggered- it felt like you'd forgotten how to inhale for a moment.

"Y-you're ly-ing…" You barely squeaked out. Dabi placed his hands on the table on either side of you.

"I'm not." His breaths were steady, but rather deep for someone who appeared so outwardly calm.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

You forced yourself to swallow again in an attempt to clear your throat, but your voice still came out raspy.

"Y-you're… you're a-a…"

Dabi sighed. "A villain? Yeah, I think we've been over thi-"

"Alive." You finally managed. His status as a criminal was void in your mind, at least for the time being. This was much more important to you. Tears stung your eyes as they spilled over uncontrollably. You slowly raised your shaky hands to his face and stroked the skin above his staples with your thumb. Your arms felt heavy as they slid down his neck and came to rest on his t-shirt just under his black jacket. Though you felt feeble in that moment, you held onto his shoulders as if your life depended on it. Dabi's fingertips carefully traversed your folded legs and made their way to your lower back. He rubbed gentle circles with his thumbs before moving his hands across your sides to your shoulder blades. He pulled you in as tenderly as possible. Your foreheads met, his hair tickling your skin as you were brought closer.

"T-Touya…" You peeped.

"I'm here." Dabi murmured, bringing a hand to the back of your head. "It's good to see you again."

Your anxious shaking showed no signs of letting up. Without hesitation, you wrapped your arms around his neck and stuffed your face into the crook. Dabi's returned the sentiment, holding you in a tight embrace. You sobbed profusely, no longer trying to hold back your emotions. His shirt was soaked in seconds, but he didn't mind. He kept you close to him as you cried, rubbing your back lovingly as your muffled wails echoed throughout the mostly-empty warehouse. You stayed like that for a while. After a few minutes, you felt his own body begin to shake and something wet stained your shirt as well. You pulled back to look him in the face again. His eyes were filled with emotion, but no tears. Instead, a thin line of blood poured from the scars around his orbital region.

"You're bleeding." You exclaimed calmly.

Touya huffed. "Oh, yeah. That happens." He said, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand. "I didn't expect that kind of a reaction."

You sniffled and rubbed your nose on your arm. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't think you missed me that much." He said, flicking away a small drop of blood from under his eye.

You looked at him as though he were crazy. Did he really not know? "I thought you were dead… everyone did- er- does." You reasoned.

Touya let out a short, breathy chuckle. "That was the idea." He rubbed the back of his neck and turned his attention to your leg. "Looks like you can walk okay. That's good. I just changed your bandages a couple hours ago, so they should be fine for a while."

'Has he been taking care of me?' You wondered in awe.

Touya gingerly took your right hand in his and lifted up. "And this? How's this feeling?" He asked, nodding towards your wrapped wrist.

You didn't answer. You weren't sure what to say. You couldn't stop staring at him, taking in every new aspect of his features. You must've taken too long to respond, because Touya easily noticed your gawking.

"(Y/N)? Is it the scars? I get they can be kinda unsettling at first"

'Shit, was I staring?!'

"Oh, no, no! Not at all. It's just…" You paused as you searched for the right words to describe what you were feeling. "...this is all just a bit… overwhelming. It's like you're back from the dead."

Touya shifted his hand, lacing his fingers with yours.

"I get that. Look, you can ask all the questions you want, I promise. But first, I'd like to check on your recovery." That was him. Always so worried about your well being. You nodded and hung your legs off the side of the table. As Touya went over the different injuries you'd sustained, you spaced out. The harsh frown you'd sported when you'd first awoken now gradually gave way to a brilliant grin.

By some miracle, Touya Todoroki had been resurrected.