-x- Keigo -x-

After a week of working, he had enough money to buy new clothes. He went out to a thrift store to get more for less. He had his wings in his backpack and a hat on as he tried on clothes. Now that he wasn't being monitored and actually had a choice in what he liked, most of the clothes were shades of brown or gray. He got new jeans and some sweat pants, as well as a new pair of sunglasses. He was smiling the whole time, enjoying time where he wasn't focused on his public image and loss of self.

Well, that wasn't true. He had lost who people wanted him to be. Jeaniest said he was on a path of self discovery. Since he had no friends, and no false thought of people that cared, he did a little fashion shoot in his room in his new repurposed clothes. He would continue to thrift shop. If he was ever a hero again, how happy would it make people to know that their clothes were so good they were worn to events? If someone saw him in their clothes, it might make them happy. Not right now, the owner of his new clothes could possibly hate that he had them.

Oh well! That was for the future.

-x-

"I got new clothes," Keigo said. "With my paycheck."

Soho nodded, saying, "That's a good way to spend your money. But ya only need a few outfits. Excessive clothing is a waste." Keigo took notes, and Soho chuckled, handing him a crate of newspaper. "Especially since ya can never repurpose your clothes." He gestured to the long tears he had to make in the back of his clothes.

"Maybe I can learn to stitch and fix them up," Keigo said eagerly, excited at learning how to do something new. "I'm off!" and he flew out with the crate, following the same map he'd been for another week, going as fast as possible. After he dropped everything off, he went to a park and brought some bread.

"Being a grown up is fun. Well, not a real grown up since I don't pay for my rent and food. But I cook my own food and do my laundry. And I shop for things, I haven't ordered anything online in a long time. No that I can! I don't have a credit card, and Soho-san is paying in cash," he said to the birds, as he didn't have anyone else to talk to. "Maybe I'll get a real job before trying to be a hero again." He tossed another bit of bread. "I wish I had something better to feed you guys. I bet you wouldn't like eating chicken. I haven't had fried chicken in a long time. Maybe I should try making it myself. Though I might mess up and everyone at the dorm will hate me more," he rambled.

He got some odd looks from people about talking to himself, but it was better than when people looked at him like he was a smear of dog shit on their shoe. Keigo continued to speak to his audience until he ran out of bread and the birds got bored of him. "Well, bye everyone! Hmm, maybe I'll dress up next time I come," he mused happily, flying back to his current home. It was a good day.

-x- Dabi -x-

Dabi sat on his bed under the blankets, knees drawn up to his chest. Why did Hawks have to be anywhere near? He should have stayed in Fukuoka where he belonged. Why come up so far north? Dabi hadn't actually seen him, and he hadn't seen Dabi's new appearance, and he also didn't follow them or plant any feathers, so they should be safe.

But Dabi hadn't bet on ever meeting him in public unless he purposely went out to do so. And Dabi had been seeing the papers. Well, not read the papers but saw the news online. He knew it was wrong, but he was scared of Hawks and Enji coming after him, since they were both seen together. Had Hawks been tracking Dabi, then, and that's how they ended up in the same place? It's too much to be a coincidence.

I need a way to watch out. I need a way to monitor. Security cameras aren't enough.

He'd go quirk shopping for a solution later. He had all his senses primed, and was told to get a bag together of things in case he needed to flee. That backpack of necessities was at the foot of his bed. But nothing came that night. He was still scared, and used his creation quirk to form bars that he put over his window. He screwed it in place so nobody could easily get inside without him realizing.

But was Hawks even a hero anymore? Did he want to be? He was hated by almost everyone. He was only caught moping in public spaces, as if he didn't deserve all of this. As if he shouldn't have to pay for what he'd done. He deserved all the misery, and Dabi didn't care if it was from being groomed as a kid.

Dabi had been, too! But he resisted, he was fine and ended up running away from home and doing what he wanted. He wasn't a tool, Hawks was a tool. A mindless zombie servant. Dabi was glad he was miserable and hoped that Enji was livid he couldn't find Dabi. Touya was dead, but he proved he was not when he brought Natsu the gift. Hopefully he was happy with it.

Mei came in with dinner, and saw Dabi's new modification to the window. "You sure save a lot of money, Dabi," she said in a kind voice. "We're making brownies, would you like to help?" she asked, lifting the blanket off his head to show his pouty scowl. He gave a curt nod. "We're trying something new. Red velvet brownies."

That sounded interesting. Dabi had never had red velvet food, so he didn't know how he'd help in this. He shrugged the blanket off and started on the food. "Has this happened to you before? Having a kid people are after?" Dabi asked in a quiet voice, even if it was only the two of them in there. Mei's pink hair was pulled into a bun. She was taller than Dabi, but everyone was taller than he was.

"I was in your position. Yup! Me and my dad ran away from our family. My quirk was able to reverse my grandfather's quirk erosion. That's all my quirk seemed to do, help him out with his. Well, he was very abusive, in many ways, and claimed that the only reason I was born was to assist him. That god proved it by the quirk I ended up with.

"The whole family came after me, telling my father they'd cut my legs off so I could never run and actually fulfill my god given purpose. So we hid. Eventually, we were found, but my father used his own quirk, a lightning quirk, and he killed anyone that walked into our hotel room. He went to jail, but his actions were what allowed me to be free to do as I wish. So, I take things like this very seriously.

"Every child deserves to feel and be safe and loved. We will fight for you to get that. All of us, including Hikari, Sheri and Rika. They showed you today that they want to protect you, too." Dabi was stunned. Mei's life had been awful.

"I'm sorry. That your life was like that," Dabi said hoarsely. "That's really… shitty."

"Yes, it was quite traumatizing. Since I was 'born to serve', I was sterilized as a child, illegally. Which meant I could never have children myself. So, I decided I wanted to help other little boys and girls feel safe in their homes, whether it was in mine or someone else's," she said. "You're the oldest one I've had. I hope I'm not babying you."

"N-No, you're doing a good job," Dabi said awkwardly. "Today made me really angry. All of Japan and he had to be there. But… I was ha-happy," he said, his face burning hot. "Cause you were all worried over me, and even left your smoothies for me."

"You mean far more to us than smoothies, Dabi," Mei chuckled. "Besides, that's what family does. They help each other."

"I didn't. I left my siblings."

"They still have their mother-"

"She's a useless woman," he interrupted bitterly.

"I can see why it feels that way. But it's not right for you to be their caretaker. You're still a kid yourself, and if your only way to find reprieve was to leave it all behind, then there was a good reason to. I am all about family protecting one another, but you can protect nobody if you can't protect yourself. It… it is unfortunate that your siblings may not get the help they need and deserve, but that can't be put on you," Mei said firmly. "A child should get to be a child."

Dabi sniffled and wiped his eyes, the staples yanking his skin a bit but not in a painful way. There was no way they could split his face since they were literally part of his appearance, practically welded into the skin of his face. "I don't want to cause you more problems," he said in a nasally voice, doing his best not to cry.

"Then it's a good thing we aren't housing Todoroki Touya," Mei said. She stood up, and told him she'd be getting the kitchen ready for baking. Dabi nodded, and finished his food in silence. He went downstairs to help with baking, seeing the three girls that helped protect him. It hurt that his real siblings probably wouldn't have done that.

Hey helped to bake the brownies, but in the end they weren't Dabi's cup of tea. The others liked them, so that was good. Dabi looked at the calendar at the wall and clenched his hands. The staples at his wrist stretched a bit when his skin was pulled taut. He was so used to them that he felt weird without them. And he didn't feel like "Dabi" otherwise. It was fine to turn into other forms for fun or messing around with his quirk, but this was Dabi. Touya was gone and Dabi hadn't brought his appearance back out in weeks.

School was starting soon, and Dabi was cleared to go, he was smart enough, thankfully. He'd left over summer after his schooling was over anyways, not that a school knew this. Nobody knew who he'd been or where he'd come from. That woman who helped him had done paperwork and Dabi knew he probably wouldn't have gotten here without her. Either he'd be in jail, dead or back trapped at the Todoroki house.

After the brownies were in the fridge for the night, Dabi asked if he could go out. "Oh, you're asking this time?" Mei said, and Dabi grew red in the face. "Yes, you can go out. Not too far." Then she didn't know about him sneaking out to travel many miles to his former place of residence. So he grew wings after going onto the roof and flew away. He did end up going to the beach.

Since it was night time, late at night, there weren't any people there, nobody to question someone falling out of the sky and cannonballing into the ocean. He tossed his phone down onto the dock before he splashed. He smiled under the water and switched on his water breathing quirk and looked around. He couldn't see too well so he used the night vision quirk he'd seen on a spy movie years ago. He'd very rarely used this one as he never really had to.

The ocean was creepy with no sunlight. He saw various kinds of fish and he turned into his preferred water dragon body, swimming deeper and enjoying the thick darkness. Creepy, but not scary. Eventually he heard his phone ringing through the water since the rest of the night outside was silent, and returned to it.

It was Mei. "Hello?"

"Time to come back, it's getting too late." If it had been Rei or Enji to say something like this, he'd have rolled his eyes, but Mei clearly did care about him, and wasn't obligated to help him. He wasn't her bio kid, he wasn't necessary for her to look after and take care of. Not that he wanted to need to be taken care of. But he agreed to come back and returned home, dry by the time he got back and went to change and wash his clothes for the night. He watched a movie in his room, and fell asleep to it. He was scared for school and hoped people weren't dicks to him so he didn't need to be a dick back.

Having a friend would be really nice. He'd never had one, so would he suck at it? Only one way to find out, really.

-x-

Dabi was sleeping on the couch one morning with both foster parents out school shopping for the youngest. Hikari's first day of school. It was also Dabi's first day of school, kind of, but he wasn't offended and would rather not bring attention to his complete disadvantage of the other students in his future school. He'd done a lot of research on how high school works and just hoped he'd do alright. He was prepared for bullying, but again he knew he'd feel fine because it was his choice to look this way. He'd only find real friends who would want to be with him for him, regardless of his appearance.

He woke up to screams from upstairs, and jumped up before spriting up the carpeted steps to the bathroom. "Sheri?" he called. "Everything okay?"

"No!" she cried back. Oh. This was familiar. Rika looked worried, and Dabi decided to be bold. No use dancing around the subject.

"Do you need me to get some of Mei-san's, uh, pads?" Sheri was just crying and wouldn't say, so Dabi went into the master bathroom and got out a box of pads from under the sink before he called Mei to ask if there was anything else he could do to help. She suggested giving the phone to Sheri with the box of pads.

So Dabi did that. "I'm gonna open the door and put the things down, okay?" Dabi said. He felt sorry for her, and remembered when Fuyumi started her period and had a melt down. After that, Dabi ended up being a care taker a lot of the time, which he resented. His mother should have been helping her, not Dabi. He didn't want to be yelled at or begged for snacks or complaining. It had always annoyed him. But Mei would be better than Rei was. Hopefully. Dabi had no interest in taking care of Sheri every month for a week.

He opened the door just barley and slid the box and phone on top through the crack before closing it again. He heard the box be torn open, and he and Rika left to give her some privacy on the phone. "Will she be okay?" Rika asked in worry.

"I think. If not, Mei and Asahi will help," Dabi said with a shrug. He was still tired, but didn't want to go back to sleep until Sheri came out and was proven to be fine if not still upset about the whole ordeal. She did come out not much later and gave Dabi his phone, her face bright red. He didn't have any words to say, and she just thanked him before hurrying back to her room.

Dabi sighed and slumped on the couch. Rika grabbed his hand and he jerked away. "Sorry," the seven year old said. Dabi huffed at his own reaction. If he acted like that at school, what would happen? Would he be made fun of? Movies and TV shows depicted high school as some hellish landscape where everyone were awful to one another. Especially to the ones that acted different.

"It's not your fault I react like that," Dabi replied. Rika frowned and nodded, getting a puzzle and calmly working on it on the coffee table while Dabi was on the couch browsing YouTube on his phone with earbuds in. when the two adults got home, Dabi wanted to go out on his own, go shopping.

He was very thankful when they gave him permission. Not that he wouldn't have just gone out anyways. He was trying to be a good foster kid, but didn't take isolation very well. He hated being trapped somewhere he didn't want to be, it had been that way most of his life, so he was so glad he was able to leave the house, both with permission and sneaking out without it. He didn't want Mei to learn and not trust him. Sheri was great and didn't blab about that stuff.

Dabi hoped she got adopted soon, she deserved a family. Same with Rika though he thought Hikari would be better off staying a bit longer to get used to things, since she was still not sure how to do many things regular children could. Deprived of so much in her very young years of development.

Dabi was given some spending money, and he decided to get some new clothes and some piercings. He didn't need his hand held to go to a jewelry store. He wanted to get something pierced. He looked older than he was with his scarring, and so he wasn't asked about parents or anything when he said he wanted piercings.

He spent all of his money on piercings. And the man doing them was super lax about it. Dabi didn't know how to make piercings only in transformation since he wouldn't be able to actually remove them or replace them with real ones. He had both ears pierced. He already checked before what he was allowed to wear in his future school. It was open about piercings, otherwise he wouldn't waste money.

So he had three helix piercings in both ears, and a nostril piercing. He had to go to another shop to get his tongue pierced, and may or may not have aged his body up to get permission. He grinned, and his regeneration quirk healed up fast, so there was no recovery period. He was fine! The tongue piercing was a good fidget. He would try and hide it from Mei and Asahi, not knowing how they'd feel about it.

They weren't like the staples, which weren't real. But he was able to have body autonomy! He would have never been allowed to do something so frowned upon at Enji's home. They'd be ripped out and confiscated immediately. Never again, he'd do whatever the hell he wanted with his body.

It made him feel good that so many people would look down on his choice to get piercings, and so many. They can all go shove it. He relished in the looks of disapproval by parents at the edgy looking teen. He was in a great mood when he went home. He took his shoes off at the door and looked up to see Sheri had wide eyes.

Dabi stuck his tongue out to show the ball before he pulled it back in when Mei came into view. "Whaaat are those?" she asked.

"Piercings. I like them, I can do what I want to my own body," he said confidently, fiddling with his helix loops. "And with my regeneration, they don't hurt and are perfectly fine," he added with a smile. Mei didn't look thrilled about it, but she knew what it was like to not have control over your own body and she respected Dabi's freedom to choose.

"Alright, but you need to understand you'll be required to take them out some times." Dabi nodded. "Did you get anything else at the store?"

"I bought a milkshake. Oh, and some gum," he said, tossing it to Rika across the room. "It was on sale and I know you like that kind." She smiled and zoomed upstairs with her prize, throwing a thank you over her shoulder. When it was clear Dabi was moving something around in his mouth, Mei's eyes narrowed.

"Dabi, did you get a togue piercing?" she asked, not sounding that happy.

"...Maybe," Dabi said defensively.

"How? There should have been an age restriction, or at least asked for a parent." She had her hands on her hips, knowing full well what Dabi had done. "Did you use your quirk to convince someone to do this?"

"I only looked a few years older!"

"They could get into legal trouble if found out."

"But they won't because I'm not complaining," Dabi said. He didn't want the guy to get in trouble, but he was littered with tattoos and piercings so Dabi really didn't think he'd care anyways. "It was only this once. I won't get anything else pierced!"

"Well, I sure hope not," Mei said firmly. Dabi's face grew red in embarrassment about what he'd accidentally implied. "At least not until you're no longer a minor." Dabi put his hands to his face to try and hide. The foster mother sighed. "I support you having freedom of your own body, but there needs to be limits. You will not get a tattoo until you are an adult, do you understand?"

"I don't need one, I can just design one on my body," he said, still with his hands to his face.

Mei sighed and walked into the living room and started on her book again. Dabi hurried up to his room. Sheri looked amused and he stuck his tongue out at her petulantly. He admired his face additions in the mirror on the closet door. He liked them! Who knew he would enjoy metal sticking out of his face so much? The horror his grandparents would feel from his appearance. He grinned widely. Everything he did here felt like a nice, big "fuck you" to his father.

He flopped onto the bed on his back and twisted his helix piercings. The guy who did them had been wary of piercing the scars, but it caused no issue. Dabi hugged a pillow to his chest and looked at his bedroom ceiling with watery eyes. He was so lucky. For once in his life, luck won out and he was here for it.

-x- Keigo -x-

"I've decided to take some time off to be a hero," Keigo told Best Jeanist. "I think I need some time to become a real person before becoming someone for the people." It was hard to tell from his super high neckline, but Keigo was sure he was smiling. "Once I'm able to land a real job, I'll try and find somewhere else to stay. Maybe find a place with roommates," he said.

"You can stay until you have a real income." Keigo brightened and thanked him with a smile. "Did you ever want to go to school?"

"I'm too old for highschool."

"What about college?" Keigo blinked, not knowing what he would want to study. "Well, it's your life, now. You are owned by nobody. Do what you like. Even if you never become a hero, you did a lot of people a great service. You may have done something unsavory to get there, but reporting the misdeeds and immoral actions of the HPSC was for the good of everyone."

Keigo beamed and thanked him before heading out to look for work. Delivering was fun and all, but he wasn't paid nearly enough. He had his wings in his backpack as he went around the city looking for jobs. Jeanist told him he'd be better off finding somewhere to look by going in person. His name was well known so any online application probably wouldn't be accepted.

He had to put in effort for first impressions. So he was doing just that. He had a list of places on his phone and was taking public transport to them. In the jobs he went to, they didn't recognize him without his wings, but was rejected when he gave his previous occupation as hero. Then they'd ask what hero. "Hawks."

"We're looking for a positive person to uplift our team," was what he got most of the time. It was a bit disheartening. He'd tried charity work, but he was shunned. Maybe moving countries would be better in the short term. Or maybe just moving somewhere more rural, where there weren't so many glares and all.

Keigo wondered how Touya - Dabi - felt. If he was happy he still was hated. He wouldn't blame him if he was, even if Keigo wasn't good at holding onto his own hatred. Hate was a nasty feeling and he was glad he could discard it. He'd moved on from his handler as best as he could. He didn't think of her as much even if the things he'd been taught about himself stuck.

He didn't count on them ever going away, but as long as he learned how to work around it, that was fine. He was getting a drink of water from a fountain outside of a small gym when a buff dude came out and looked at Keigo with a look of recognition. He got ready to leave before the man said, "Hawks, right?"

"Formerly, but yeah," he said, scratching his cheek. "Don't go by that anymore, though."

"You lookin' for a job?" Keigo nodded, curious about where this was going. "You were trained by them government dudes, right? Exclusively? That Atlas program?"

"You're well informed. Yes, I was," Keigo replied conversationally.

"We're looking for someone to teach self defense at the studio. You learned how to fight from practiced trainers. Remember any of their teachings?" Keigo was surprised.

"Who would I be teaching?"

"Anyone who wants. You can do what you want. We just need someone who knows what they're doing and how to translate that into lessons. I think, even if people don't like the shit you did under the old Commission, you're still skilled and learned recently. People put up with a lot when they really want something. It'll pay minimum wage and I doubt you'll get many tips. Still good work, though. My name is Orion. I'm not a hero, my parents had bad taste in naming me." Oh, Keigo liked this guy. He smiled and laughed.

"Sure! I'll take the offer for sure!" Keigo agreed brightly. He was brought inside and fitted for a uniform. He would be happy to help people help themselves. Maybe, even if he wasn't a hero again, his combat training could help others. He had been taught how, but he knew those tactics wouldn't fly when it came to him.

It was appreciated that he was given a schedule sheet, and he realized he would be teaching lessons and should make sort of lesson plans. He was immediately on top of it in his head, going over the best solutions and time management to get everything done on time. He zipped around the agency gym looking at what normal equipment would be best for teaching self defense, not any marital arts. He didn't think he was qualified. And he wondered what adults would take lessons from someone who wasn't even a legal adult yet. Not to mention one with a bad public persona.

What parent would let a minor learn from him? Well, he'd find out.

The next morning he left early and zoomed to the gym, arriving just before opening. Buff Orion let him in, the gym owner and enthusiast. "Now, don't let people get you down, there will be assholes, plenty of them in this business. Just do your think and let your skill shine through." Keigo looked at him in surprise and confusion.

"Why are you being… so nice? My presence could bring down your business," Keigo said, truly confused as to the man's unprompted kindness. Just like Soho. There were nice people out there, maybe they just shone so much more to him right now in the place he was in in life.

"I was a troubled kid once. If I hadn't been helped out, I'd likely be in prison. Your case is wildly different, but I still want to help you out, bro."

Keigo beamed a real smile. "Thank you!" he said with a bow and happily got ready. A sign was put up saying there would be self defense training. For starting, it was free, but Keigo was being paid a wage. More money than when he was out delivering things. Keigo had his wings in a backpack on the shelf above the front desk so it was in view but still safe. He was currently wingless and in exercise clothes. Cheap ones; he was forced to be but had also had fun finding ways to be frugal. Life would not be handed to him on a platter as a hero and he wouldn't ever make it in that mindset.

Some people did come in and went to their routines while Keigo was still stretching. He stood up and beamed at them, prompting them to come on in. "You tortured that kid, right?" a girl asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," Keigo said honestly. "But, I found out he's safe and happy now."

"You think that makes it right?"

"Of course not. My actions likely caused life long issues. Nothing will ever make what did okay," Keigo replied honestly. She and her friend looked contemplating before they ended up being his frist "students" even if they were older than him. It was only them that day, so Keigo tried to get to know them and they did stretches before starting. "What are you desirable outcomes for this?"

"I want to be able to defend myself."

"Do you mind me asking what your quirk is?" Keigo asked.

"I can make things solid if I touch them with my fingers."

"Have you ever tried quirk training?"

She flushed. "Yes, I wasn't very good at it."

"Then we'll go with physical defense and not quirk. Are there any other factors from your quirk?"

"No."

"Have you ever done sports?" She had done gymnastics as a child, but wasn't in practice and didn't think she'd ever be again. "Then we'll just start with basics. Self defense is mostly about getting away, not beating your opponent. You win by getting away. Would you still like to learn under that guise or fighting?"

"I just want to get away."

"Great! Then we have a plan!" Keigo ented up teaching her and her sister the same thing since they both had similar circumstances. They spent two hours, half of it was him teaching them range of motion and how to properly hold their body in a panicked state. The other half was drilling into them the main techniques used for fleeing.

He was so happy at the end that both were beaming and thought what he'd taught them was useful. For free, they had an in depth training session. Maybe Keigo went too far or too in detail, but seeing them relieved and confident felt nice. Nobody else came, so Keigo had permission to just work out.

Orion came up to him at closing, and said, "That was pretty impressive."

"There weren't many people," Keigo said a bit sadly.

"You were just a personal trainer. That's more valuable to people than a generalizer. Would you like to be hired as a personal trainer instead of a group worker?" Keigo wasn't really sure. But he liked that he was able to work with both of them closely, and if it had been a group, little might have been accomplished. "I'll give you some time to think. But nice job, man! You did great!"

Keigo brightened at the positive praise, and thanked him before he left to head home and make himself some dinner and think about things.

One day passed and he decided he'd like to help people more one on one and have a more relaxed feeling while also more targeted. He didn't want to waste people's time. He had one guy sign up, and Keigo's training hours were in flux so he had two hour time segments for people to see if that was reasonable for him. Orion wanted him to do his own thing, and Keigo assumed he was pretty wealthy if he was so lax about this when hiring Keigo might have come with financial problems, like loss of business.

The former hero really liked the guy! He was offering good pay for someone who technically had never graduated high school.

The man he was training seemed to have a pretty bad attitude and was embarrassed he even needed to do this, but Keigo wasn't deterred. "Do you mind me asking what your quirk is first?" he asked.

"My fingers can secrete slime." Keigo looked at his fingers, and saw they looked pretty damaged. Brittle and discolored. He was wearing rings, as well, on all of his fingers. While he didn't want to make assumptions about someone else's quirk and body, his mind was fling away the information he was getting. "What's the issue?"

"Do you have problems with your fingers? Are they stiff?" He looked deeply affronted and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I'm only asking so you don't get injured if I do something wrong-"

"You already tortured a kid and lost your job, you've already done something wrong!" he shouted, face red. The man looked humiliated, so obviously the subject on his fingers was a touchy one. Keigo knew how to handle angry people and gave an awkward laugh.

"Well, I have made mistakes, but me asking you this isn't meant to be another. I just want to make sure I don't make more mistakes, at the cost of your health. You don't need to disclose it, I would just see it as being safer and more helpful if I knew any issues beforehand." The angry client was cooling down, and then looked ashamed and stormed out.

Keigo sighed and let the tension release from his shoulders. He turned around and saw a few people had been watching in abject horror at what went down. "Yikes," an older man said. "That was uncalled for. How disrespectful."

"I pressed a button somewhere," Keigo replied, and sat down on the mat. It was disheartening. He made plenty of mistakes and he wanted to make up for them, but he couldn't do that unless people gave him a chance. He hoped they would, and he just had to persevere. It had only been a few months since everything went down, he couldn't expect to bounce back like some heroes might have.

He was taught to be patient even if patience was never awarded to him. He needed to be patient with others, too. He had to be patient with the world and hope it forgave him. Because even if Touya some day did, Keigo doubted he'd ever see him again to find out.

-x- Dabi -x-

"You can't wear the tongue ring at school," Sheri reminded him when he was putting his backpack on to walk to school. He wasn't going to show off his chosen quirk by just flying there. He didn't want a lot of attention for his quirk. If asked, he'd talk about it, but didn't want to make it flashy.

"Shut up, I'll hide it," Dabi replied, adamant about not taking it out. "Besides, I'll just say it's a fidget I need. I'm damaged I need my fix." He said it in a teasing voice. "Being tortured does shit to ya. They'll feel pity and let me keep it."

"That's kind of messed up," Sheri said, but clearly didn't mean it. Dabi also didn't mean it since nobody outside of his foster family knew he was once Touya. "Everyone is gonna think your edgy emo."

"I know, right?" She snickered. "Not like I can show I cut or anything, with my arms all gnarly and burnt." He heard her silence and looked down to see her look worried. "I don't cut myself. I'm happier now than I ever have been before. Besides, even if I did cut, I'm not gonna die from it. No need to worry about me, it's a waste of time."

"Do you worry about us?" Sheri asked.

"Nope! Cause I know you guys are cool enough and wouldn't want me freaking over you. Besides, Mei and Asahi are there for Hikari. And you'll all get adopted anyways," Dabi said a bit dismissively. "I don't think I will be, but that's okay. As long as I'm not trapped somewhere again… then things are fine."

Sheri said, "You don't sound convinced. I can see right through you, even with one eye." Mei came down, Hikari crying about wanting to not leave, so she hadn't heard what they were saying.

"I'm good at lying. After all, my name is Dabi, isn't it?" he said with a toothy smirk. "Or!" He changed forms into Sheri herself. "Perhaps my name is Sheri, and my brain grew bigger to take up the space of my missing eye." She started giggling and he turned back into his Dabi body. "See you guys later. Let's hope nobody comes home crying."

"Good luck, Dabi," Sheri said. Dabi saw Mei give him an encouraging smile, and he nodded. He walked to the school, which wasn't too far away to walk. He was picking at his cheek staples, pilling on the skin. They had turned into morbid fidgets. He yanked at them, stretching his skin out. He knew it looked gross when it wasn't actually pulling on split skin, but it was hard not to do, which was why the tongue ring was a better fidget.

He didn't want to take it out, and he wouldn't. He would indeed reference it was the only way he felt safe. They didn't know his actual trauma or how he handled it. At least the appearance he went by showed he'd been through some real shit. The uniform for the school clashed badly with Dabi's purple burn scars. It was a grayish lavender toned uniform, and he refused to tighten the tie.

His shoes were black boots with metal toes. He was very visually off-putting. And he liked that, because he had an off-putting personality. If anyone wanted to be his friend, they're be able to see what they were getting into. Everyone stared at him when he walked into the high school. He honestly didn't care. This was just the beginning.

What was peer interaction like? Everything was new. He was short compared to a lot of his classmates, even as a first year student. Stupid being a pre-mie. He slid his classroom door open and everyone in the room went quiet at seeing him. He did a once over, most of them looking conventionally normal, or completely heteromorphic. When his eye drifted to the very back, he knew who he wanted to sit next to.

A guy with white, messy and unkempt hair with red eyes and extremely damaged skin, as well as a general look of misery was staring out the window. Dabi wordlessly sat in the seat next to him. Dabi glanced at him, and he stared back. "You a fuck up, too?" Dabi asked bluntly.

"Yeah. You?"

"Oh, yeah," Dabi nodded, and grinned. "This is my first ever day of school."

"You won't be getting any help from me. I'm Shimura Tenko."

"Kaneko Dabi. Just call me Dabi," he said. "Shimura?"

"If I'm calling you Dabi, you're calling me Tenko." The class mostly ignored them. Dabi didn't want to be a pariah really. He just wanted to not have people expect so much of him when he just couldn't give it. The seat next to them stayed open until the last minute before a blonde girl with yellow eyes and dark circles under them came in and slammed down into her seat so hard the chair skid a few inches. Dabi rose a dark brow at her, and she grinned a wide, devious smile.

Dabi smiled back, glad to see other misfits appear. He wasn't a bad student, and he did the classwork as best as he could with the lack of knowledge he had. He wasn't aware that he had to stand every time the teacher left or came, so he lagged after them all. He also wasn't sure how to properly interact when asking for help, so he just didn't.

His teachers already had an IEP for him from the most embarrassing online meeting ever, but that was before he got the face piercings. So hopefully his history bullshit kept that safe. Thinking of taking the ring out caused deep feelings of anxiety.

"So, what's your damage? Only skin stuff?" Dabi asked, Tenko eating absolute garbage at lunch before Dabi started sharing his own, much better made food. Neither of them said a thing about it, just as they didn't say a thing over Toga's food that was all mushed into the shapes of human organs. She literally crafted her food to look that way, it was mostly dyed rice pressed into shapes. Dabi's was better than anyone else's, he was certain.

"I had a quirk that hurt a lot of people, so it was taken away. I'm quirkless." Dabi's harsh face softened, feeling sorry for him. His own quirk was the best thing to ever happen to him. Well, maybe not. Maybe being dropped off at Mei's home was the best thing. He couldn't really make out what was the thing that set it all in motion. What brought him to this point. Was it his decision to run away? His bout of torture? Was it the hero woman taking him to the foster home?

He wasn't sure and would probably never find out. "That sucks," Dabi stated. Tenko looked at him in a way expecting answers. "Uh…" He poked at his beef. "I was… very, very heavily abused and put in foster care." He tugged on his staples a bit. Neither Toga or Tenko seemed bothered by it.

"What about you?" Dabi asked Toga, who wanted to go by her last name instead of Himiko.

"My parents abandoned me because I like to drink blood. It's my quirk."

"So? That's your quirk, what's their issue?" Dabi asked skeptically.

"They think I'm creepy so now I live in an orphanage. Nobody wants to take me home."

"I feel it. I don't mind. As long as I'm not back with my old family or in jail somewhere, I'm cool," Dabi said, hands behind his head and leaning back in his chair. He was really happy when Toga was the one to ask if they wanted to be friends. She asked after looking around at everyone else making friends and exchanging numbers. "I'll be your friend. And yours." His tone maybe came across as too eager, he didn't know.

Tenko gave a dry smile, the skin on his lips cracking like he didn't usually make that expression. "I'll be your friend." Dabi beamed, staples on his cheeks pulling. Toga grinned, too, her fangs very visible and defined. Tenko had a much less offending smile, though he still looked slightly dead inside.

"So, what club are you gonna pick?" Dabi asked, trying to hide just how damn happy he was. He had friends! Weird people, like him, who didn't judge his appearance. He didn't have any bullies yet, too. This was great! And his tongue ring stayed in. "We have to have one, right?" Tenko shrugged, having no idea.

Toga said, "I want to learn to cook!"

"I can see why, all you had was colored rice," Dabi mused, sipping from his juice box.

"It's flavored, too. I mixed Hot Cheeto dust into the ones to make them a creamy color." Tenko looked mildly disgusted. "But I want to learn better. Do either of you cook?"

"I do. I made all my lunch and me and Mei bake stuff. I'll join the cooking club if you guys want to," he said eagerly.

"I don't do sports or art… cooking is fine. But they'd need to accept us, first. People don't generally like me. Toga, you look off putting in your own way."

"You could claim that learning to cook would make you less likely to eat people," Dabi stated, and Toga giggled. Dabi's blue eyes sparkled with a smile. "Besides! We just look like weirdos. We don't gotta be complete assholes. And if we don't get into a club, maybe we could make one for ourselves."

"Ooh, like what?"

"We could do band stuff. I want to learn the guitar," Tenko said. Dabi admitted he knew how to play the piano.

"Ooh! We could make a band! And make emo pop music. You totally look like two band guys, we should do it for sure!" Toga cheered. That sounded fun! "Sounds so much more fun than cooking." Dabi smiled, and Tenko shrugged. After class was over, Dabi tried to interact with the other students. He had nothing to lose by doing it.

"Uh," he floundered when he looked at a group of girls. "Um, I carry pads in my backpack, if anyone needs one." They looked surprised.

"Um… thanks?"

"You're welcome," Dabi said with a smile. A guy scoffed at him. "What, you think bleeding out the pussy is a clean business?" The girls snorted and hurried out of the door while Dabi shrugged at the looks of disgust and went to get his backpack.

"Just so you know, I don't like that kind of blood," Toga said.

"Gross! You guys are disgusting," Tenko scolded. They giggled and wandered around looking at clubs, being shunned at each one as collective. Not that any of them look especially fun, and Toga was chanting that she wanted to have a band. So they went through the work of making a club. Someone else could join it, so they waited in a small room and wondered what kinds of instruments they could get.

Dabi said, "I can buy some." After all, he couldn't tell them he could just make one out of thin air. "Um, my foster family is well off."

"Nice! I want a pink drum set, hehehe," Toga cheered.

"I want a xylophone," Tenko said. He seemed the most uninterested despite making the idea first. Someone knocked on the door from another class, a lizard heteromorph. "You here to join our punk rock band?" the quirkless teen asked.

"I like to play electric guitar. Am… am I welcome?" Dabi spread his arms wide.

"Welcome to the weirdo's club," he said. He was currently the leader of it, so he allowed him in. "Name?"

"Iguchi Shuichi," he said with a smile in relief. The three gave the names they'd like to go by, and he sat down at the table. "We're… a unique looking bunch," he said brightly. Dabi smiled. "I can play piano okay, but I want to learn guitar." Suddenly hope and excitement bubbled in his chest about having friends, having a goal. A hobby! Other than video games, that is.

When their time was over, all four had shared their numbers, and Dabi pretty much skipped the whole way home, a smile pulling at his cheeks and the staples. He hummed the whole time, swinging his bag in one hand as he happily headed home. This was the best day of his life! He made friends on his first day of school! He didn't get in trouble for anything of his appearance, and he was heading home to people that actually seemed to care about him!

When he entered through the front door, Mei and Asahi were on the couch, looking nervous. Their heads jerked up, but when they saw Dabi's smile, they both stood up, beaming in happiness and relief. "I made friends! I made three! Three of them!" he called, and for one of the only times in his life, he cried in relief and happiness.

-x-

"I don't have to buy the shit for us! They have instruments available in the band room that aren't being used. We'll have to fix them up a bit," Dabi said as he and is three band members were eating cookie brownies. "They don't have a xylophone, Tenko."

"Tch," he said in annoyance.

"They have a guitar, some old drums, a bass, and a piano. Tenko, you have the longest fingers and are all twitchy, maybe you could do the piano. Toga, you could try the drums, and Iguchi could do the bass."

"We need a singer, though!" Toga whined. "We should have auditions." Dabi blushed a bit, as he'd been practicing with Sheri to sing on an old refurbished Wii game. They sang Disney Channel songs together. She said he wasn't bad but Hikari laughed at them when they did it, so that was discouraging a bit.

"We should find out what kind of music we even want to make," Shuichi said. "We're all kind of messed up so that would be easy! Just angsty music. But we'd have to do covers for awhile to figure out our sound." Dabi nodded in agreement.

He said, "Maybe we should all practice separately and see where we need to start from. All of us but Shuichi haven't really had musical backgrounds. So we should work on ourselves first." They agreed on this, and headed to the old music room and looked for any usable instruments. Toga ran to the drumset and Tenko poked the keys of the dusty piano. Dabi and Shuichi found the string instruments. While they weren't electric, they would be good practice and a better investment instead of starting something they really weren't interested in after all and spending a lot of money on equipment.

"I can teach you the basics," the heteromorph said.

"That would be nice," Dabi said with a smile. There was a bang on the door and it slid open to show the third year music club, which were into classical music - more like concert music instead of a band.

"Oh, it's the freaks," the seemingly notorious asshole said.

"Ooh, I have a good name for our band. The League of Freaks. Or maybe Freakshow. Thanks, man, that's really helpful," Dabi said in false cheer. This ticked him off, and his left eye twitched. His face looked like a mix of a human and a pig and that wasn't even his quirk. Dabi gave him a too wide smile that pulled at his skin and he stomped past them and nabbed the guitar that Dabi had been holding. "Oh, are you offering to teach me how to play? A senpai as amazing as you must know how to play the guitar."

"Shut up, Staples!" he snapped. Dabi gave an exaggerated shrug, and they took out the instruments they needed plus the guitar. Once they were gone, Toga pulled out a second guitar she'd hid under the desk. Dabi smiled and took it, and Shuichi got the bass before he started to try and show him how to work properly. Of course Dabi did research on how to play the guitar, how to do chords and finger placements. But he hadn't actually tried, and figuring out what positions the fingers should all go in was fairly difficult.

"You'll need lots of practice." Dabi was fine with that, and was excited to get better. Tenko was sitting at the piano and pressing the keys randomly. "We'll need to learn how to reach sheet music, too." It was a big commitment but sounded so fun. When Toga dropped the cymbal it sent Dabi into a panic attack, the noise too loud and too sudden, like the door of his cell slamming open in the dark silence.

It shocked the other three, even if they briefly knew he'd gone through some shit. He grabbed at his hair and started to breathe rapidly before Toga carefully took his hand and convinced him he was safe and okay. Once it passed, Dabi was humiliated, and grabbed his things and fled the room, running straight home without a look back. Tears were in his eyes at how weak he must have looked. When he got home, he threw his backpack onto his bed, and then went on a long flight. Ignoring the calls from his friends.

His tears of shame dried in the wind in his face, sniffling dry as he heeded to the beach and landed in the docks, sitting with his feet hanging over the edge. He wrapped his arms around his body and shuddered. He thought he was better. But he wasn't, he was just on a fucking winning streak for a little while.

He was still damaged. It was just a sound! And lots of people were scared of the dark, it wasn't just him. He only answered when Mei called to see where he was. He kept his voice even, but she could tell something was wrong. An hour later, she showed up at the dock with a small basket of treats.

She just sat down, and neither said anything as they ate the candies and baked goods in silence.

It was more comforting than Dabi expected it ever would be.

And the band has formed! The fuck ups have joined together!