You pouted childishly as Touya and yourself made your way up a ladder on the side of a small, empty building. The cold air nipped at the exposed skin on your hands as you reached for the next rung. The two of you had just finished a tour of a local convenience store. To your dismay, however, your friend's jacket was quite a bit puffier than when you'd entered. Though you were certain no one had caught on to Touya's thievery, you couldn't help feeling embarrassed. You were a hero, for crying out loud. Touya stepped over the ledge of the roof and turned around to help you up. You took his hand firmly.
"Y'know…" You grunted as you stepped onto the roof. "...we could've paid for all that stuff. I've got a bank card on my phone."
Touya led you to the adjacent ledge. "Always the goody-two-shoes, aren't you?" He teased with a smile. You huffed and Touya sighed, sitting the two of you down shoulder-to-shoulder in the hard-to-spot corner.
"If everyone's looking for you, then I'm sure they're looking out for any bank transactions. If you take money out, or buy something with that card, they'll immediately know where you've been." He explained, dropping your hand. "Besides, you stopped a robbery at that very store about a week ago- remember? Consider it payment for helping them out."
You breathed a small laugh. No, you really didn't remember. With all of the cases and paperwork that regularly piled up on your desk, it was difficult to recall one little robbery. "Damn stalker." You stared up for a moment. The sun, now invisible beyond the horizon, still maintained a tiny influence, painting the sky a dark raspberry color. You had to admit, despite your annoyance with Touya at the moment, it was soothing. "That's… not why I do it, though." You grumbled behind your mask. Touya cocked his head and took off his sunglasses.
"Hm? What?"
You pulled the cloth covering off of your face. "I don't save people and stop crime for the payoff, Touya. I do it so people can live their lives in comfort and safety. Seeing people happy and knowing that I'm the cause of it- that's enough of a payoff for me." You brought your hands to your head and pulled the hood of your jacket down. "It might sound a bit selfish…" You went on, giving Touya a guilty look. "..., but I wanna be the reason people are happy."
Your friend scoffed at the statement. "What planet do you live on where that's selfish? You just wanna help people. And from what I've seen, you're not in it for the recognition."
You nodded. "Truthfully, I could do without the recognition altogether. I know public appearance is an important part of being a hero and all, but- well, you know I've never really been a people person." You admitted. Touya nodded knowingly and began to pull a few snack items from his oversized jacket. From his other pocket, he brought out a bottle of water and offered it to you. "Drink up. You need to rehydrate. Your quirk should come back soon." He instructed. You took it gratefully.
"Thank you. Honestly, it's been pretty overwhelming since I got here. I'm not used to all the attention." You said, struggling to open the bottle cap in your shaky state. You grunted as you strained, clearly putting in way more effort than should be necessary. Touya grabbed hold of the bottle while it was still in your hand and twisted the top loose with ease.
You smiled weakly.
"Thank you." You said again through a puff of air, breath now visible in the cold. You felt a bit embarrassed having him help you so much. You'd clung to him nearly the entire time in the store, and now he had to open a simple screw-on cap for you. You rubbed the back of your neck sheepishly. "I'm sorry for all this. I must've been such a burden on you." You apologized.
Touya shook his head and took a swig from his own bottle. "Ah- nah. I wouldn't've bothered if it were a burden." He paused to take another drink, and you did the same with your water. "But if you want to think of it that way- we'll just say we're even now. You almost died because of me, after all." He said with a smirk. You rolled your eyes and stared down into your water bottle.
"Heh. I owe you. You did save my life after all, and now you're nursing me back to health." You glanced over at him, but his eyes were trained down on the concrete roof. His smile had faded, and he looked as though he were deep in thought about something. You remained quiet. You were quite certain he was going to say something, but for nearly an entire minute, he was dead silent. His stern face was disconcerting.
"Uh… Touya?" You spoke up finally, clearing your throat. "Is everything okay?"
As if a switch had been flipped on in his mind, Touya put on a smile and snapped his head back to you. "So. Where the hell have you been for forever?" He asked curiously.
"Oh? I thought a super stalker like you would know." You said coyly. Touya rolled his eyes and began to tear into the wrapping of one of the food-stuffs he'd snagged.
"Shockingly, I'm not omnipotent." He retorted sarcastically. You chuckled, bringing your knees to your chest and holding your water bottle close.
"I'm enlisted in the U.S. Army." You answered simply.
"So the pigeon wasn't lying." Touya noted, biting into his convenience store sandwich. You shook your head and nudged him with your elbow.
"Hey, be nice. What's Keigo ever done to you?" You reprimanded playfully.
"Well, he's been trying to play double-agent for the League, for one." He stated, annoyance clear in his voice. Your eyes widened, but you couldn't say you were surprised that Touya had caught on to Keigo's little scheme. He wasn't stupid. Still, you were sure that your knowledge of the situation would only upset Touya if he found out. You searched for the right words but failed to wipe the stunned expression off of your face in the meantime. Touya took notice.
"You look shocked. I'm not surprised he wouldn't've told you. That shitty Commission has probably got their hooks in him so deep." He hissed. You felt your breathing hitch.
'But… Keigo did tell me. Maybe it wasn't right away, but…' The thought was comforting for a moment, but you decided it was best not to say anything just yet. 'If I hadn't pressured him… If I hadn't told him about Dabi- er… Touya sneaking into my room, would he still have told me?' Doubt began to creep into your mind again like a drop of black ink spreading through a clear bowl of water, muddying the image of your winged friend. A familiar lump formed in your throat, and you forced yourself to swallow another mouthful of water. Touya eyed your face. It was clear you were uncomfortable.
"Forget about that, though." He said, purposely interrupting your thoughts. "You promised me an explanation. So tell me… why are you part of a foreign military. Shouldn't you be living it up as some big-shot hero?"
You sucked in a deep breath and exhaled with a sigh. "Ahh, let's see. Where do I start?" You reached over Touya to take a snack from his pocket. "I'm not entirely sure why, but, from what I've been told, I'm considered 'special ops.' I help out on more highly classified missions; a lot of the time it takes me overseas." You explained as you used what little strength you had to awkwardly tear into the packaging of… wait, what was this? You shrugged and popped a couple of the savory-tasting crisps into your mouth.
"You have no idea how excited I was when I heard we were coming to Japan- I hadn't been back since…" You hesitated and began to stammer. "...uh… since- well, you know. Since I left." You felt idiotic. Surely now wasn't a good time to bring up Touya's supposed death. It seemed, however, that Touya, himself, didn't care.
"Since I 'died', you mean?" He corrected bluntly. His phrasing, though, came off as more of a question than a statement.
"Erm… y-yeah." You affirmed, feeling abashed. Aside from your conversation with Keigo, you hadn't spoken about the incident in years. You'd unwillingly thought about it a number of times since you'd been back in Japan, but before that, Stiller did a pretty good job of keeping it out of your mind.
"Sorry if that was too direct. I'm just trying to get an idea of when exactly you left." He looked away from you and up at the darkening sky. A cold gust of wind blew across the rooftop, ruffling his hair and causing you to hide your chilled face away in the tall collar of your jacket. When you peeked over the fabric, you saw that his expression had gone serious again. No. He looked almost sad.
"I looked everywhere for you y'know." He said. "After everything that went down, I guess I just wanted to see that you made it out okay. By the time I was able to get any information about you, though, you were already gone." You stared intensely at his eyes. They looked as though they were fixed on some invisible, far-away object in the sky.
"Mm. Yeah, that's about when I left. I don't really know how soon after, but it couldn't have been long." You told him softly. A barely audible gasp left your mouth as you noticed the bead of blood form in his eye.
'He's bleeding again!' You moved to wipe it away with your sleeve, but Touya beat you to it, using his thumb to flick it away without a word. 'That's the second time.'
Touya finally looked back to you with another genuine grin on his face.
'What is with these mood swings?' His actual mood was getting harder and harder to read by the minute. "Plus, I had a promise to keep." He stated.
You returned his smile, but furrowed your eyebrow in confusion. 'A promise? What could he possibly…' Your thoughts stopped abruptly, and you felt your face heat up, despite the assault by the winter winds. You quickly hid your blushing cheeks behind your collar. The faint memory of Touya's pubescent voice rang in your mind. Back then, you never stopped thinking about it. It was the most comforting thing you'd ever heard. Once you'd begun your training with Stiller in America, however, you hadn't given the conversation much thought. There wasn't any point.
"So…" Touya continued. "Why'd you miss this place so much anyway?"
"O-oh, uh…" You stuttered, trying to get your brain back on track. "I dunno." You had to think for a moment. Why were you so happy to be back? It wasn't like you were living the dream while you were in the program, and you felt you saw a bigger improvement in your power training with Stiller anyway. But even so…
"I dunno. I guess… as horrible as the commission was, I did have more freedom. I didn't have people constantly watching me all the time, and every decision wasn't made for me. Plus I could actually sneak out of my room back then without being tracked. Hell, the overseers didn't even know when I was sleeping." Your tone was almost happily reminiscent as you shoved more chips into your mouth. It was only when you saw Touya's expression contort into one of disgust and concern that you realized how horrible you'd made it sound.
"It's not all bad, though." You started up again with your mouth full. "Whenever we go to another country, Stiller will usually take me to get some of the local cuisine, or to a gift shop or something." You finally swallowed your food. Perhaps it was because you were feeling a bit more ravenous (or maybe just more uncomfortable), you immediately threw more into your mouth. "Honestly, I think it was just his way of keeping an eye on me at all times, but it was still better than being stuck in a guarded room all day."
'Crap, stop making it sound like prison, Y/N!'
"Hey, what are these things? They're really good." You asked, diverting your attention to the bag in your hand. Touya wasn't having it.
"There's that name again. You said he's your 'guardian?'" Touya asked, using air quotes on the word "guardian." You swallowed the thick, under-chewed glob of mush in your mouth, nearly choking on it in the process.
"Mhm." You nodded. "I'm not entirely sure about the legalities of it, but when I turned seventeen, he went ahead and enlisted me himself."
"Can he even do that?" Your friend asked. You shrugged.
"I guess so. Anyways, I'm guessing that, because of what happened the year before, they appointed him to be in charge of all of my missions and training and stuff. Almost immediately after I joined up, he started strutting around with some new officer's ranks."
"So he's an overseer." Touya confirmed with a venomous stare.
"Oh, no no no!" You denied fervently, waving your hands out in front of you. "He's nothing like that. I mean, maybe before, but…"
"What happened the year before?" Touya prodded, not giving you the chance to finish your sentence. You were taken aback.
"W-what?"
"You said something had happened the year before this 'Stiller' guy signed you up for the army."
'Damn, he's perceptive.'
"Ah, well… there was an incident… with my quirk. It's kinda why he keeps me on such a short leash." You admitted meekly, turning away from your friend.
"He put a tracking device on you that monitors your sleep cycle. That's not a short leash, that's straight-up gripping you by the collar." Touya pointed out.
"It also monitors my vitals." You informed, stupidly. The silence that followed was deafening.
'Crap, why the hell would I say that so openly? Am I really that used to it?'
Touya stared at you in subtle disbelief, likely thinking the exact same thing. "So, what happened? I don't remember you ever losing control of your quirk before." He said.
"Ah…" Your gaze involuntarily shifted all around: at the ground, the sky, distant buildings; pretty much anywhere but at Touya's face. Did you really have to talk about this now? So soon after reuniting? "Well, uh… how do I explain it?" You were hesitant. Of course you were; it wasn't exactly something you looked back on fondly.
'Oh come on, just spit it out. Why is this so difficult, he's your best friend for crying out loud.' You mentally scolded yourself.
"I may… or may not have… blown up an aircraft carrier?" You sunk your face into your coat once more, feeling too scared to see Touya's reaction. It took all of the courage you could muster to finally risk a glance. Yep, he was staring at you. His eyes were wide with astonishment, and his mouth hung slightly agape. Your heart pounded away furiously in your chest and your entire body began to shake. This wasn't a topic you were comfortable discussing. In truth, it was something you'd hoped to leave in the past completely, but now you'd told someone with very little coaxing. Had it been anyone but him, you'd have happily told them it was none of their business.
Touya's shoulders began to shake slightly. It was quiet at first, but gradually, his chuckling grew louder. And louder. And louder still, until his soft chortle was an unconcealed cackle. He wrapped his arms around himself, holding his stomach as he erupted with laughter.
"Y-you wh-aat?!" He blurted out, still in hysterics. "HA! I'm sorry, are you sure you're who you say you are? That doesn't sound anything like the Y/N I know." He placed a hand on your head and playfully ruffled your hair.
"H-hey- knock it off!" You protested, shoving his arm away from you. "It's not funny, Touya! People got hurt." You muttered. You felt utterly ashamed all over again.
"Alright, alright." Touya yielded, removing his hand from your head and bringing it down to gently grip your bandaged wrist instead. "So what happened, then?"
"Mm… I had just finished a mission in… I wanna say it was somewhere in Russia? I don't remember. We'd just arrested the guy we were after and Stiller and I were on our way back to the states. I'm not sure why we stopped off at the carrier in the first place, but I'm never really given details about anything. I do think I remember Stiller mentioning some kind of new training opportunity, though." Touya listened respectfully as you told your story. "I didn't notice the device that the villain had attached to my uniform. One second I was fine, the next, I started feeling really uneasy and my quirk wound up going haywire in the reactor room." You rolled your eyes in an attempt to hide the tears that now sat at the edge of your bottom lid, but your voice was uneven.
"I don't even know why the hell we were down there in the first place. It was a dumbass decision on their part, though. If it had happened up top, the damage wouldn't have been nearly as bad." You pulled your arm away from Touya's hand and used your sleeve to wipe away the tears before they could fall.
"We managed to get a lot of people to safety, but I was chucked onto a helicopter with Stiller and flown back to America. I was arrested as soon as we landed. Spent the next two weeks in an isolated, quirk-proof cell. Talk about torture. When Stiller finally showed up- let me tell you, I'd never been so happy to see someone before in my life. That's when he gave me that tracking bracelet, though. Said I couldn't leave the facility without it. No one would tell me what happened afterwards. People avoided me entirely, though, so I assume it wasn't anything good." There. You felt you could finally breathe again, now that you'd finished. Surprisingly, it felt nice to tell Touya about it.
"Huh. Well, whaddayaknow…" Your fiery friend chuckled. "...I guess we're both criminals, then."
You sniffled and gave him a feeble smile. "Is that true? You're really a villain, then?"
Touya shrugged nonchalantly. "'Fraid so." Your face dropped.
"Oh." Was all you managed to say at first. Of course, you had questions. You were sure there was more to it than just what your brief internet research had pulled up.
'Should I ask? Do I even want to know? Oh, come on; it's Touya.' You did your best to soothe yourself, even if it was just a false sense of security. 'I'm sure he has his reasons.' You cleared your throat.
"Why?" You asked with almost child-like curiosity. Dabi peered down at you, intrigued. "Huh. You don't, like, wanna know what I did?" He questioned.
You pursed your lips and grumbled. "Well, I know you and your little emo band kidnapped a high-schooler. And tried to kill All Might, apparently."
Touya stretched his arms above his head and yawned.
'Oh, I'm sorry, is this boring you?' You thought sarcastically.
"Yeah, I was part of the kid-thing-"
"Kidnapping?" You interjected.
"Yeah, yeah, that thing." He agreed insincerely. "But I never actually had a part in All Might's retirement. Truthfully, I never really cared all that much. That was more Shigaraki's thing, to begin with."
You were puzzled for a couple of reasons. As a kid, surpassing All Might was practically all Touya talked about, and now, suddenly, he didn't care about the man's retirement? Secondly, you were under the impression that he was part of the League and their mission. Were they not as unified as you had thought?
"Aren't you guys going after the same thing?" You asked suspiciously.
"More or less." He responded. "I'm not really concerned about him or the others all that much." It was so strange. He seemed reluctant to share any information with you, but you were confident he could justify his actions.
"Alright, then… why?" You asked again with more conviction.
"I thought you said you didn't know what I did. What was it you said? You put it so elegantly… 'I could I, in good conscience, arrest-'" He was mocking your voice now.
"Touya." You spat firmly. You weren't going to let him keep dodging your questions. The two of you locked eyes for a moment, and the air felt tense around you.
"I guess I've just got a new way of thinking." He said, voice low and gravely. "I get you're a hero now, and all- but if you're willing to hear me out..." The choice was easy. In your mind, there was no debate. It was Touya, so there was no doubt.
"Of course; I'll listen."
Touya's expression was borderline flabbergasted; it was as if he'd fully expected you to turn away from him, but there was no way you could. Not now, after a decade of believing him dead. Whether it was wrong or right, you wanted to cherish the time you were getting with him.
'Besides, just hearing what he has to say isn't going to hurt anybody.'
Touya stood up abruptly and dusted himself off, leaving the wrappers to scatter in the wind. "If you still have questions once I'm done, feel free to ask. I can't promise you'll like the answers you get, though." He leaned down and offered you his aid once again. You took hold of his hand and he pulled you onto your feet with very little effort. You were feeling a bit stronger than you had been now.
You smiled up at him tenderly. "Sure thing." There was no way you'd turn him away. As the two of you made your way down the ladder again, you began to feel an uncomfortable pressure in your lower abdomen and were suddenly reminded of your natural bodily functions. A new fear crept its way to the forefront of your mind.
"Hey, uh… Touya?" You whispered as he hopped off of the ladder and into the alleyway.
"Hm?"
You rotated yourself on the bars to face outward. "While I was unconscious, I didn't… y'know… have an accident did I?" You felt your cheeks flare up with embarrassment once again, and you were certain your friend had caught on. Touya reached his arms out and waved his hands inward, bidding you to come forward. You leaned forward, grabbing hold of his shoulders and allowing him to wrap his arms around your torso.
"Oh, nah." He said. "Only like four or five times."
Your entire body went stiff as he set you down. "What?!" You cried much louder than you intended. You deliberately kept your eyes to the ground, pretending that the tiny rocks and bits of trash were suddenly the most interesting things in the world. Touya's soft chuckle pulled you right back to Earth.
"Haha! Relax, (Y/N), I'm just kidding. You didn't do anything but sleep. Why, you gotta go now?"
You nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. "God, don't mess with me like that!" You griped. Touya simply rolled his eyes. The wind blew roughly through the narrow alley, and you pulled your hood up for warmth. "Still…" You said. "Thanks for taking care of me."
"You said that already, but thank you for agreeing to hear me out." Touya didn't look down at you, but took hold of your hand once again.
"Oh, I think I'm fine to walk by myself now." You informed, not wanting to trouble the man further. Without looking down at you, Touya responded:
"Did I ask?"
You were taken aback by his rhetorical question. The embarrassed blush on your face was now less from mortification at the thought of soiling yourself, and more from the flustered feeling you got from feeling his fingered lace between your own. Hoping he wouldn't object, you grabbed onto his arm with your other hand and leaned your head blissfully against him as you walked. You huffed out a slight laugh.
"Two days, huh? Man, I'm gonna be so out of shape from doing nothing all day." You joked. Touya continued staring straight ahead and answered plainly.
"We can work on that when your quirk comes back." His comment caught you off guard again.
'Huh.' You thought to yourself. 'I guess we're training together again.'