Shield

Summary : Dabi wanted to burn down her entire home. He wanted to take everything away from her so she wouldn't have any choice but to follow him, but he couldn't do that. His flames wouldn't even lick at his skin at the thought of being what caused her smile to falter. He could barely stomach the idea of being behind such tears. Dabi wanted to see Yua cry, just not in that way. He wanted tears to be in her eyes as she cried out his name over and over again, as she withered and shivered beneath him. It was how he knew he was in deep for her, deep in whatever sticky feelings made people want only good for someone else.

NOTE : It has come to my attention that I never made clear when exactly this story takes place in the BNHA universe. I apologize for this. When Yua and Dabi first met, in chapter one, it was January 23rd which is a little over a year out from when Izuku goes to U.A. On March 4th Dabi and Yua met again in an alley, where he killed someone before her and Yua's clothes got burned off. Then, we proceed to about mid-to-late April (which is where part of the previous chapter and the one below takes place in). I really wanted to build up a bit of a relationship between Yua and Dabi before things take off in the manga and anime. Mainly before Dabi discovers Stains ideology and he joins the LOV. Anyway, that is all for now! I hope this helped those confused, if not feel free to message me and I can explain in more detail! Please enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Four

Home.

Why would Yua have ever suspected anything?

This was where she had grown up. This was where her love for the smell of cinnamon had come from, a fixation that she had freely let her father pull her head first into. Yua could still hear the sound of her mother teasing the two of them mercilessly about it. Playfully complaining that her house would never smell like anything but cinnamon ever again.

The hallways and rooms that made up this two story house was where Yua had learned to walk. She had slipped and fallen down the stairs on more accounts than she would ever care to share. She had broken windows, colored on the walls, and ruined the lawn by digging holes in it. When she was a preteen she had rode a tricycle right into the upstairs bathroom wall. It had been a silly dare from a friend. One that had resulted in her parents grounding her, and leaving it to Yua to figure out how to fix the hole her stupidity had caused.

She didn't think much as the years spiraled past her. As her body, her mind, and her memories all randomly jumped about. She was twelve with a black eye. She was seventeen and crying over the boy who had broken her heart. She was seven with gum in her hair.

There was no reason to turn around, to glance behind her, as the pretty walls decorated in pictures and homely decorations shriveled, decayed, and dimmed. As the ceiling flashed with cracks, or the window seals briefly dotted themselves in mold. As solid wooden doors, painted with flowers and peppered in random stickers, occasionally appeared scratched and dented with brown spots.

Everyone's floorboards creaked every other step - didn't they? There was nothing off about the doors. They had always taken a bit more muscle to open and a bit more effort to yank shut. Everything was normal, even the faint traces of dankness and smoke she could smell tangled deep within the cinnamon.

Yes, it was all as it should be.

This was her home. This was where her mother would read story books to her as she fell asleep. This was where she had shoved a plastic bean so far up her nose that her parents had to take her to the hospital to get it removed.

It wasn't a perfect life. There had been issues and heated arguments carried on behind her home's walls. Conflict over money, family events, and those teen years Yua had spent night after night screaming at her parents. Her sixteen year old self believing nothing was more embarrassing than not being able to go out past nine-thirty. That her parents didn't trust her and that was why they put such unfair rules into place. Still, despite the ups and downs and stupidity that bred like ADHD roaches this was Yua's precious home.

A home where she would always be welcomed back with open arms.
A home that smelled of cinnamon, dirt, and paint.
A home her parents smiled, laughed, and were alive within.

There was no reason she needed to fear the sound the floor made. Here Yua didn't need to be antsy each time she rounded a corner or entered a new room.

Her home was where her parents had announced that she was going to be a big sister. Her home was where she had opened her acceptance letter to college. This place, with four walls and a roof, was where Yua had grown up. It was where she had been shown just how bright of a future was ahead of her. That anything was possible as long as she put her mind and heart fully into it.

Her heart felt so light here, her spirit so free.

Yua was happy - genuinely happy.

Why? Because, this was her home and her home was -

GONE.

That was Yua's first thought as her mind discerned that the world she had been floating in had only been a figment of her imagination. Nausea swirled unrestrained as her heart coldly ached and her head swam with half-formed regrets. A broken whimper trapped in the depths of her throat shattered the silence of steady breathing and had an overly warm body beside her shifting beneath the comforter.

Green hues flickered to the body laying half exposed inches away. Her vision briefly blurred from the light shining from a lamp on her nightstand that had been turned on at some point in the early morning hours. She could hazily remember her fingers jabbing at the square button at the base of the lamp as she laughed wholeheartedly. Even now it had her lips twitching upward slightly. Something about the big bad and intimidating Dabi slipping off the side of the bed when he had been repositioning the two of them and fumbling about on the ground in the dark was still just too entertaining. Mentally noting to replace the dimly glowing bulb, her gaze soaked in the exposed scared flesh being held down by medical staples. The sight of her one nippled adventure and the musky scent that came with being a man, a burning one at that, had her mind spinning as her night's events flashed quickly behind her third eyes.

Then, her phone began to ring. A noise she had heard in her dreamland echoed loudly through her ill-lit bedroom. Was this what had pulled her from her slumber, or had it been her own brain not being able to handle the fact that she had been subconsciously thinking about a home she no longer had?

Dabi's eyes cracked open from behind the arm he had slung over his face. Muscles buried beneath the burned skin coiled in preparation as he felt the bed shift and a weight cross over him.

He'd been awake for a while. Passing the time with closed eyes and a weak concentration on two different beings breathing patterns. Rhythmical beats that weren't helped in soothing the pulsating pain in his head, or encouraging him to leave Hibiki's bed. Even if he hadn't had a migraine it was likely that he'd have already been awake by now, gone to. For Dabi it had never been as simple as closing his eyes and stilling his mind. Sleep just wasn't something that came easily to him - like a lot in his life. His mind always seemed to find something or another to keep him awake, and it had only progressively gotten worse as he aged. Sleep had at some point become nothing more than a fleeting chore. A battle where he sought between the dark and light for a moment of comfort. A place where he wouldn't be such a lucid dreamer. He hated how reality would aquiver - shake and blur around the edges till Dabi felt trapped and claustrophobic.

"what" - "failure" - "try"

He'd have liked to think that he had become accustomed to the sensation of becoming lethargic, and it's creations of horrors personally put together so skillfully for Dabi to relive during his sleepless hours. It was what was to blame for why he didn't get much sleep. He knew if his face wasn't already so messed up, littered in burns and staples, there would be dark bruising like bags beneath his eyes.

"Hello?" Dabi physically winced, the painful shock making his eyes burn as they clasped shut, but still he welcomed the disturbance with metaphorical open arms. The lingering haze of sleep that clung to her voice, with a hoarse hint of being overly misused, was something Dabi never thought he'd feel gratified towards. Though as soon as he inhaled deeply his body went as rigid as it possibly could without actually turning to stone. The pain and unpleasant thoughts were being briefly whisked away by the ghosting of soft calloused fingers trailing his skin. Of cinnamon still burning the insides of his nostrils in a similar fashion that his flames chard his body, and the memory of his teeth sinking into supple flesh.

Last night in the few hours Dabi had actually been able to sleep there had been no traces of his past, or the future he no longer thought about. He hadn't dreamt of anything, and as strange as it seemed Dabi couldn't remember when the last time he had slept so deeply. It wasn't often that he found himself just waking up with no recollection of when he had fallen asleep.

Maybe, he had been dreaming and that was why his mind had taken him down such a dark path. Why his mind instantly was situated around things he didn't like lingering on. Forcing sore muscles, and burning skin where his staples had torn out, to loosen beneath him Dabi took another sniff. What was going through his head now was purely self inflicted, and he was enjoying every second of it. Even as his head pounded, throbbed, like there were actual fingers digging into the soft gray matter.

Dabi wasn't a gentle person, and the way he had used and abused her body was far from being considered tender and humane. Hibiki hadn't minded. There was a thrill in the fight to keep dominance and power. One she had willingly let herself slip into. It had been just as invigorating as it had been annoying for her as it had been for him. Dabi got off on degrading and insulting and dominating but with Hibiki it had been a fight since the get go. A constant shifting in power. A challenge to see who could break the other the fastest. Who could make the other squeak and squawk, squirm and beg, beneath them.

Dabi could still feel the bite of her nails as she pierced and marked his broken body. The feel of her mouth against his thighs, chest, and stomach where he'd surely find faded red and blooming purple. The dull ache she had left him in though was nothing compared to the migraine raging on in his head. Making molars grind and Dabi wanting nothing more than to melt the phone she was groggily muttering into.

The deep sea blue of his irises constricted as pupils further dilated. Even through the sharp pain he didn't want to close his eyes. The sight of bruising along her stretched body had his attention, pacifying him from lashing out.

He had been a bit harsher on her than he had on others he had slept with. Deep bruising marks had only gotten darker as the hours passed. Dabi's mind had decided without him that if he couldn't burn her then he'd just learn to leave other sorts of marks everywhere. Bruising hand prints on her hips and throat. Bite marks along her thighs, ankles, shoulders, and neck. At some point during their blinding lustful haze he had even etched her body into his memory.

It had been a while since Dabi had allowed himself to be consumed by his lust like he had. Rarely did he ever stay but minutes after the activities. Always leaving as soon as he had his fill.

So, one could understand how odd it was waking up in a warm bed with a soft body. Truth be told, Dabi wasn't even sure when he had ended back up on her bed and under the covers let alone been able to fall asleep.

Swallowing a uncomfortable groan, azura hues clasped shut as his brain shuttered and pulsed. The pain involuntarily making bloodshot eyes burn.

Yua could say with great certainty that she had no clue who was fast-talking on the other end of the line. It took the switch in her groggy brain a few seconds to flip before raspy vocals were doing their best to not come across as too offensive in her sleepy state.

"I'm sorry… but, who are you?" The comforter, the dip in the bed, all adjusted as an overly warm body below her stirred. The feeling of scarred skin rubbing against the arm Yua was using to support herself had her attention flickering down to Dabi, and for a moment she stared - studying the sharp lines of his face. Then, she was pulling away, moving so instead she was slouching on the empty side of her bed. Despite the amount of physical contact the two of them had shared Yua had no desire in her to keep leaning over him like she had been.

"Did I never introduce myself? I'm Tama Reiko, one of the full time employees at the Crown Nara Motel." Yua felt split, between the wolf-whistling of calloused hands and scarred skin ghosting across her skin and the person speaking in volumes into her ear. Yua's attention dramatically bounced between a rapidly muttering woman to the memories of Dabi and the way he had managed to electrify every nerve in her body and brain.

'What's wrong with me?' She shouldn't have been biting her lip and rubbing bare thighs against each other for friction. Blood hell, her whole mind was being infuriating with the uncalled for activity. Yua had barely just woken up and already her horny self was aching for something she wouldn't be able to handle again so soon.

"Oh, really?" Yua cut in, her words just as stiff as her body's unwillingness to move further away from Dabi. Numb legs, dotted in finger shaped bruises and bite marks, swung over the bedside as she tested the durability in the appendages. Never once minding that she had just rudely cut Tama Reiko off in the middle of her nonsense blabbering. "What about Takahashi?" The man was the only employee that Yua could actually recall by name. The only human that never seemed to leave and was constantly lounging about in the empty rooms. How the man was managing to hold onto his job was beyond Yua, but then again it wasn't like the gig was anything flashy or special. After all, how impressive could a job be where you weren't even properly interviewed?

"The moron got himself fired-" Tama patronized. "-and he brought the situation on himself! Should have known squatting and smoking shrooms in the same room he got caught in last time wouldn't be a smart move."

'Would that be because of karma or irony?' Yua pondered, under the underwhelming desire to say yes to helping the pleading woman. After what had happened yesterday, and the fowl mood threatening to flood back into her veins, Yua was only concerned with satisfying her own selfish desires. It wasn't her fault that Tama's kid was sick, or that the woman couldn't find anyone else to take care of the rest of her assigned rooms. Yet, still Yua's mouth moved in contrast with what her brain was thinking. The more logical, adulting, part of her taking over as she comforted the woman and guaranteed that it wouldn't be a hassle to come in today. That she was more than happy to be helping. That it wasn't like she had anything planned for today, and that she'd be there as soon as possible. Yua just needed to clean up a bit first.

Her graze, that hadn't really wondered from the floor below her feet, drifted to the still body behind her. Dabi still hadn't really moved, or said anything, but Yua knew he was awake. The arm laid across his face was being pressed down too harshly for him to still be unconscious.

"You are a wonder, Hibiki! Say, do you like American Enchiladas? I'm baking some later for a family reunion. If you'd like I can put together a thank-you batch if you're willing to accept them. I know it won't be much but I can't really afford to pay you back in any other way." There wasn't a need to thank her, but the gesture still lifted Yua's heart and casted a warm glow in her belly. Out of courtesy she tried to tell Tama that it wasn't necessary, but as these things went in the end Tama announced to Yua that she'd be getting a pan.

Then, Yua was saying her goodbyes and Tama was hanging up. Pulling her cell from her ear Yua's attention was snagged by the time, 7:32 am, and then the texts that she had received from Choi. A jumbled paragraph of how the sleepover was going, how wonderful the kids were, that they really seemed to be enjoying themselves, and not to worry about picking Kayda up. That after Koda got picked up Sunday Choi and her sister would miraculously show up at the apartment and to be on the watch for them when she got off work Monday evening.

Yua's fingers hesitantly hovered over the text bubble before swiftly pulling away and turning her screen black. A part of Yua wanted to vent to Choi about what had happened Friday night at the club, about how she had been assaulted. That despite defending herself Yua had in all terms been laid off until the new week. It had her molars grinding as she let her phone drop from her hand to the bed sheets below.

Yua didn't have any right in bothering Choi with the drama she brought on herself.

Glancing over her shoulder, as guilt and shame swelling in the depth of her belly, Yua silently leaned backwards as her bed dipped and creaked when Dabi rolled onto his side. His blue eyes tightly screwed shut and face pinched.

'Is he in pain?'

Yua specifically didn't want to confess to the elderly woman, especially after being warned not to make a project out of him, that she had allowed herself to slip back into a toxic habit. One that Yua had barely been able to slap a bandage over.

What had she been thinking sleeping with him would do? Dabi had squatted in her home, burned a man alive, and had shown a level of insanity that should have scared her. So, why was he laying in her bed? Why had she let a stranger back into her home? Why had she invited him into her bed?

'I'm a bloody mess.' An unstable trouble that was a ticking detrimental time bomb. What hope did she have in raising Kayda when she couldn't even handle something as small as being grabbed at work on her own?

Breathing deeply, Yua looked away from Dabi as her mind flashed with blurry memories and her ears burned with his harsh words. She felt disgust wash over her body but nothing seemed to stop the heat pooling between her thighs. Yua needed to grow up. She didn't have time to be acting like a horny teenager. She didn't have time for mental breakdowns. She didn't have time for half attended to addictions.

"Hey, you're gonna need to get up. I have to go to work." One second passed. Two seconds passed. Three seconds passed. No answer. "Hey, Dabi, did you hear me?" Unintelligent mutters, brows scrunching, and his face burying further into the pillows was all Yua got.

Jemstone6259 : Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited! It means so much to me! As always I don't own any characters or plot that originally are from BNHA. I do own my own plot and characters though!