Dabi parted his way easily through acres upon acres of tall and moist grass as he wandered capriciously. There was a soft, cushioned straw bedding beneath him that was nice against his bare feet, and dew from the surrounding flora dampened his shorts and legs lightly. The sun was present, but not overwhelming; offering him a gentle and comforting warmth. The air smelled subtly of something sweet, but it was so faint Dabi nearly missed it. All was still, calm, and quiet. He continued walking straight forward with no destination in mind, simply enjoying the imperturbability.

Suddenly, in the distance, there was smoke.

Dabi smelled it before he saw it.

It quickly overtook the slightly sweet aroma and made Dabi frown. He wouldn't turn around, though. He was walking in that direction anyway, and changing course would be annoying, so he continued out of curiosity.

The actual sight of the reeking fumes practically phased out of nowhere, as if there was an invisible fog masking his surroundings. It was unsettling.

He trekked on towards the source despite this. Dabi wanted to know what was burning, but a nagging unexplainable urge told him to turn around. Warned him that it was pointless.

He ignored it.

The closer Dabi got, the larger and more pungent the exhaust cloud was getting. It tainted the once blue sky, and blocked out the sun, making Dabi feel suddenly cold. The nasty stuff was making it kinda hard to breathe. He used his shirt neck to cover his mouth.

The voice was getting more desperate now, heeding and imploring him to leave, but Dabi refused. All he needed to do was see it once, and then he could go. He had to know.

All at once, the coolness from the lack of sunshine was swept away by an oncoming gust of thick heat and smoke. Dabi produced a startled noise when it hit his face and made his eyes sting and water. He used his free hand to wipe his eyes as he rasped, but he kept on.

Finally, he was close enough to see the origin. It too had phased out of nowhere, just like the smoke, but at a farther distance. He couldn't yet make out what it was.

He sped up his walk to a near jog, because literally all that he needed to do was know what it was and then he could get the hell away but he just had to see what was burning .

There was desperate screaming hammering at his head now, demanding and begging that he absolutely couldn't be there anymore and that he had to leave right away or something really bad would happen. It took all Dabi had to soldier through it (it was impossible to ignore now) as he powered forward.

Then Dabi saw it.

Or, more specifically, it suddenly just teleported directly in front of him all at once.

It was the house Dabi had grown up in.

𝔗𝔬𝔲𝔶𝔞's house.

He stood in his place, just kinda. Standing. The wood crackled and yelled as the place was devoured by fire that was red and angry(he wasn't sure if he was happy or not about that).

The voice had gone dead silent.

But hey, that was cool, because another one replaced it from inside the house .

"...𝔗𝔬𝔲𝔶𝔞?"

Dabi turned, and then ran.

He ran as fast as he could, pretending that he couldn't hear how the voice feebly cried for him to wait as it presumably ran after him.

The sky was no longer blue and the atmosphere no longer peaceful—it seemed that the smoke from the fire had contaminated everything, and Dabi was heaving it in laboringly in gasps as he sprinted away. The voice was relentless, though; he couldn't shake it.

"𝔗𝔬𝔲𝔶𝔞! 𝔗𝔬𝔲𝔶𝔞, please, please don't leave me! DON'T GO!!"

The young and far too recognizable pleading broke at so many parts as he practically sobbed them out, but there was no way Dabi would be able to face it. Not after what he'd done.

The once clear meadows were growing thicker and harder to traverse as he escaped. Twigs dug and scratched him all over his legs, and he could tell that his feet were bleeding from the copious amount of thorns he was stepping on.

He wasn't running anymore, moreover just trying to hopelessly tear his way through the dense thickets. The voice was closing in on him.

The storm raging around him was drowned out by the drums in his ears and his ragged breathing as fear got a hold of him. He wouldn't turn around. He couldn't turn around.

A small, shaking hand was placed on his back.

Dont.

"𝔗-𝔗𝔬𝔲𝔶𝔞….p-please look at me…."

He couldn't. He couldn't do it, not after—

" 𝔗𝔬𝔲𝔶𝔞, LOOK AT ME!" the voice all but screamed suddenly, it's bravado dying off towards the end into wet hiccups.

So Dabi looked at him. He turned around, and he looked.

He didn't see who he thought he would. He didn't see who matched the voice and it's crying.

He saw Izuku.

He looked dreadful, wheezing and panting with an overabundance of raw emotions clear on his scrunched up and tear-and-snot covered face.

Then, before either of them said anything (what could Dabi even say— ), he started screaming a shrill and terrifying scream.

Dabi came awake in the dark with a small gasp and a rapidly beating heart, blinking. He was relieved for about a split second when he identified his location (fucking stupid trippy-ass nightmares), but then his groggy and impossibly slow brain also identified that the screaming was in fact, still happening.

"Holy fuck holy SHIT—" he tussled with the blankets, his brain already going on overdrive. The instinct to activate his Quirk in response to his panic was so strong and powerful he had to bite down on his tongue to keep it under wraps as he turned to the source of the screaming, which was, of course, a flailing Izuku.

Dabi's shaking, useless fingers tore the last of the blanket off of himself bringing himself to the kid's side. He looked incredibly frightened, and even Dabi's attempt to wake him up through a gentle(ish) tug of the arm resulted in a frantic and terrified squeal. Throughout all of this, his eyes remained shut, although his the shape of his iris could be seen darting around the room even through his eyelid.

Dabi had vaguely wondered before this if, or when, the kid would start getting nightmares. Frankly, he was surprised it had taken this long. Dabi's, they hadn't taken this long to appear.

However, even to Dabi—who had seen and had his fair share of nightmares—this was a bit intense. The only time Dabi had seen someone react even close to this fiercely was when they were having a really, really bad nightmare, and even then—

He heard Izuku make a small squeaky noise that sounded painfully like a cry for his mom, and that was the final straw.

Dabi shook him none too gently, barely even able to refrain from slapping him awake from the building panic rising inside of him. Somehow, it did nothing; Izuku continued lashing out and crying. Was it something more than a dream? Was he in, like, a coma, or something? And if he was, oh god if something really awful was wrong, they wouldn't be able to seek professional medical attention. Not without revealing his name, or Dabi's, or anything.

If the kid got hurt, ever , they would be royally and fully fucked.

He shook the kid's small frame with a brand new sense of fear, possibly(but hopefully not) giving Izuku bruises with his strong grip.

"Wake up kid, please, please just wake up,"

He had to remove his left and dominant hand from the kid and shake it for a second to avoid actually burning him with how hot it was getting, but he continued harshly prodding him with his right side to make up for it, but it just wasn't working—

Finally, finally his eyes opened, and the screaming ceased as he stopped squirming all at once, almost unnaturally so.

His breathing audibly shallowed as his eyes fluttered open, looking startled and a bit confused, but otherwise fine. Like, completely fine. Like, 'why did you wake me up, I was dreaming of sugarplums, santa and god the father, son, and holy spirit?' kind of fine.

What the fuck?

"Dabi-what's going on, is everything okay…?" he asked sleepily while rubbing at his eyes. He didn't look the least bit shaken up or even phased like Dabi expected a kid would with what he assumed was a nightmare like that.

What the fuck ?

"The hell you mean 'is everything okay'!?" And okay maybe he was just overreacting a tad bit (and he really should get a hold on his swearing better), but it wasn't like it was unjustified! Izuku was losing it like he was literally actively on fire ,(Dabi prayed that he didn't somehow accidentally fulfill that metaphor) and now he was just, 100% a-ok and Dabi was the one acting out?? No sir-fucking-ree.

Izuku looked even more confused, and a little frightened, when he meekly replied,

"...What do you mean—" he stopped rubbing his eyes as they widened with something akin to realization, and his posture changed to a more shameful one.

Dabi waited for an explanation as he calmed himself down, still shaken up from his own dream and heart still beating out of his chest.

'You can calm down now you fucking moron, it's fine now, everything's fine, you're fine, chill out.' he reminded himself stiffly, focusing back on the kid.

"I….I get, uh, night terrors….sometimes…?" he asked feebly as if it was a question, playing with his hands again and looking away. He looked ashamed, so Dabi didn't push him (even though he sorta wanted to).

"Oh...you..?" he squeaked quietly. Dabi answered the implied question:

"No. I've never heard of a night terror. Mind, uh, filling me in?" he grilled softly, leaving it very open for a 'maybe later' or flat out no.

Kid did a quiet gulp, focusing on his entangled hands, and carried on.

"They're kinda like nightmares...but I don't remember them when I wake up. I had them a lot, you know, b-before…"

He hiccuped at the end and—oh christ now he's crying,

"H-hey, don't worry about it, it's okay—" he comforted awkwardly, his posture deflating at last.

Wrong choice of words apparently, because he was sobbing now fuckfuckfuck—

Dabi wrapped his arms around him like he'd done countless times before, and the kid, although rather hesitant at first, welcomed it wholly. He rested his chin on the kids' quivering head, and sighed deeply.

"I'm s-sorry for waking you up…" Izuku sniveled miserably into Dabi's chest.

Another, deeper sigh.

"Don't be. I shouldn't have gotten so angry at you, I was..."

He fished for a word—

"...worried?" the kid supplied easily.

Dabi's breath hitched for whatever fucking reason, but he covered it with another deep breath.

"Yeah...Yeah, I guess, yeah." not the word choice Dabi would have used. 'On edge' or 'terrified' would have done the job, but. But yeah, worried. It worked too, he guessed.

They waited for an untraceable amount of time on their couch-bed for Izuku to rile back down whilst Dabi's stupid-ass brain was still deciding if there was danger or not.

"You don't have to be embarrassed or anything either. It's, kid, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, even a little bit," he tried quietly into Izuku's weirdly greasy hair (didn't he shower, like, yesterday?).

He responded with a wince and a mumbled, but very sad and genuine apology.

Dabi responded to that with a long and drawn-out groan.

"Kid oh my god would you stop that already, christ, why are you even sorry?"

He nuzzled further into Dabi's shirt and sniffled a bit. Despite himself, Dabi chuckled airily.

"We're going to have to work on that then,"

Silence.

"And don't say sorry to that. It's fine, and it doesn't bother me but—okay it does, but I'm not angry at you or anything. Look, alright kid; what I'm trying to say is you shouldn't apologize for things that aren't your fault. Apologizing is important and all, but you don't have to be sorry for any slight inconvenience you cause to another person. It makes you seem small and insignificant; like you're less worthy than they are to be there, be human, and you're not. Frankly, I think that you're probably more worthy than most people. So please Izuku, for the absolute love of god , don't say sorry for having night-terrors when you're the last person on the list to be blamed." Dabi lectured sternly, but kindly even still.

Izuku didn't respond at first, but it didn't take long for him to hunch over even further, arms tightening around Dabi as he shook and sniveled against him once again.

Somehow, however, it didn't make Dabi feel worried, or troubled, or even sad. He felt contented.

Dabi rubbed soothing circles into the child's back as he hummed words of comfort into his hair-obscured ear, mouth upturned slightly.

This was progress. This was progress, and they were going to get better.