-x- Dabi -x-
He was very embarrassed that he texted Keigo that he could possibly be gay. It was horrifying, and Dabi really had no idea how Keigo reacted over text. Better than seeing it in person. His vacation was ruined, and he was clearly wanting to go home. At least they made it through most of the time before he soured. His bio family didn't know what caused the shift, but they were honestly lucky they had him in a good mood for as long as they did.
When he got back home, he went into his room and shut the door without saying anything to anyone, which was a pretty dead giveaway that something had happened. He didn't want questions but knew he'd still get them regardless of what he wanted.
Finally, he texted Toga, feeling she was the safest person to talk about it with. I need to tell you something. Promise you won't tell anyone else.
Ooh, ok promise.
He deliberated for a long time, wondering if this was the right thing, but he wanted someone to talk to about it. He felt she was the best bet. He finally typed out, I think I'm gay. His finger trembled over the send button before he took a breath and pressed it.
It showed she was messaging back immediately, and said, Awesome! R u happy?
Dabi smiled, unsurprised. Not really.
Y not?
Idk. idc what people would think but at the same time I don't want them to know. I texted you cuz I thought you were gay, too.
Oooh cuz of my posters?
Yah.
Girls r prettier than boys. ┐(︶▽︶)┌ hehe, not 2 u. How'd u find out?
So, it seemed she was not gay or at least just didn't admit it, which was fine, he wasn't going to grill her for answers. Dabi honestly said he thought a dude at the resort was hot. While he was texting, there was a knock on his door, and he sighed before getting up and opening it to see his foster mother, looking concerned, probably thinking the trip had gone poorly.
"Is everything alright?" Mei sked.
"Yes," Dabi said. "It was fine. I'm fine." His tone was short, he clearly didn't want to talk about it, and of course she realized this.
"Good, I'm glad. What kinds of things did you do?" she asked.
"Played in the snow, went sledding and snowboarding. Hung out at the lodge and then at the cabin. It really was fine. We all got along fine." Mei smiled, relieved at this. She asked what he wanted for dinner, and when he said stir fry, she gladly went downstairs to work. Dabi followed after changing into comfortable clothes. He played with the ball of his piercing in his mouth in nervousness.
He hadn't meant to send it to Keigo, and it was very embarrassing. If he had a choice, if he didn't make the mistake, he wouldn't have told Keigo at all. It wasn't his business, they were friends but not close. He felt stupid for it, and wanted to forget. But he couldn't help but be spiraling in worry over it.
Would he suddenly find all guys hot? He only thought that one dude was because he was… well, he couldn't figure out what he thought was hot about him. He had been an annoying person, but his looks… what was it? Maybe he was wrong, and he was jumping the gun. He'd thought women were pretty, right? He searched his mind for proof of that, but he'd never seen anyone that way before. Fuck. He was so worried.
He didn't really look gay. Gay people wore pink, right? He wasn't sure, he didn't know. But Dabi didn't look stereotypically gay, did he? What would he have to wear to come across that way? Were piercings gay? Maybe he shouldn't get his nipples pierced to look edgy once he was old enough.
It was confusing and scary. Was he making a big deal out of nothing? Looking at his foster mother made him wonder what she'd think. Maybe be supporting, he wasn't sure but didn't plan on telling anybody. He had Toga (who was not gay, apparently) and he felt he could talk to her for some reason.
Well, Geten was right in the end, wasn't he? But Dabi didn't find him attractive, he was ugly as fuck. The guy he thought was hot definitely didn't look like a "pretty boy" like Geten or even Keigo.
The nameless dude that sent Dabi spiraling had been muscular with a hard face and green eyes. He had brown hair. Did Dabi like brown hair? Did he like buff people? He'd never thought about someone else's appearance before.
Wait, did he feel comfortable handing out tampons and pads to girls because he was gay all this time, and that's why menstration and tits never bothered him? He felt nothing about seeing women shopping for bras back when he went to the store with his foster sister and his female friend. Did straight guys get turned on by bras?
Dabi had been a woman before, transformed, had boobs and everything, and he realized he'd not even been bothered to look at anything. Would straight guys in his position look down there? He felt lost while eating, not paying much attention to the others at the table. Dabi was so distracted he didn't even remember to pop the cat ears out for Enzo.
After food, and after putting his dishes in the washer, he hurried back upstairs. He'd left his phone there, and he had a message from Keigo. He winced, worried about it and what he'd told him. What if he didn't want anything to do with Dabi again? That would make him sad. Despite their rocky history, he still wanted to be friends with the guy. So different from his closest friends, it was kind of refreshing.
I'm done with the movie! I tried out for another one but didn't get the role.
Good, a normal text, nothing to do with Dabi's accidental message. Nice. How's the bitch? She do anything in the end?
En protected me pretty much. It was kind of embarrassing. He was really nice all through everything. I hope that another movie with have nice people in it.
If not you can become a bombass bitch and learn how to tell the world to fuck off.
Lol maybe. About the other text. Shit. I don't want you to think I'm bothered, I just feel bad you accidentally texted me something personal. It's all good.
Dabi smiled, and texted a thank you. He flopped down on his back on his bed, and curled onto his side. He was totally trapped in a gay panic, wasn't he?
-x-
At school, he didn't care, or think anyone was suddenly attractive. He felt the same, really. Nobody was good looking to him. It was a relief, and Toga didn't tell anyone or make any show that anything had changed. They were all in good moods since they'd gotten 500 subscribers on their YouTube channel. Small, but a good start! It meant 500 people outside of their friends or family liked it, and wanted more!
So, Dabi was able to think about that and not worrying about how being gay was. He was sitting in his chair with his feet up on his desk when the homeroom teacher told them about the school festival. She gave them all free reign to figure out what to do, and sat in her chair. The class representative, a nice girl that Dabi had voted for in the beginning of the year, went to stand at the chalkboard.
They started shouting suggestions. "Quiet! We have to be organized!" she called. To their credit, they stopped shouting, and wrote suggestions on pieces of paper and put them in a box. Dabi wanted a play so he could do makeup and hair, a good excuse. Did he liked doing that because he was gay? He wasn't sure at all.
Sasaki wrote what was on the 20 slips of paper on the board, and they voted. The highest votes were for a concert along with a dance to it, a random play they didn't need to write themselves, and a cafe. In all of these options, Dabi could be a big help.
Their raised hands for each option, and Dabi voted for the play, while the majority did not vote for that since it could be a lot of work. They chose to have a concert with a dance. Almost all faces turned to the back row. Everyone knew that they had a band, but didn't know it's name or anywhere on YouTube. League of Freaks, which didn't really mix with the kind of music they played.
"You guys can do the music!"
"So put all the work on us?" Tenko asked in a bored voice.
"Well, we'd all learn to dance," some suggested. Dabi didn't really want to do the singing, he could play the guitar and have someone else sing.
"Who wants to sing?" Dabi said in a bland voice.
"I can sing!" Beros said.
"I thought Dabi would."
"Maybe we can sing together!"
"Are you even any good?" Dabi asked bluntly. "I'd rather just be the guitarist." Beros scowled, her face pinching at his rudeness. "It was just an honest question. We also need to pick a song that's easy to dance to," he said.
"What, so we have auditions?" Shuichi asked.
This sounded like a hassle, but maybe a fun one.
-x-
Learning the dance was actually pretty fun. Dabi wasn't going to be a dancer, he would be singing with Beros, who was surprisingly good. Their voices mixed well enough to not sound terrible. The song was not like the ones the group had sung or written before, of course, since none of those would be able to support a dance.
They took inspiration from kpop videos, and created outfits for them all, which looked pretty extra but also would be a blast. Everyone thought he dropped a load of cash for buying the costumes. The dance group were really good, too. They all chose a upbeat song, which Dabi and his friends found out he was possible to sing, opening up other music styles if they ever wanted to branch out.
For the look, everyone would have glitter makeup on. One of the girls was well off and bought a massive amount of product. Even the guys would wear the make up, with none of them really bothered by it, as it fit the style they were going for.
Dabi and Mimi were both the best at applying the makeup, which was mostly eye makeup and lipgloss for the girls. They also had all single dutch braids and if the hair wasn't long enough, extensions were bought from cheap places. So, on the practice night before the next day, which Dabi had invited Keigo to come check out and have some fun (but he should come in disguise to avoid any drama), they put the makeup, hairdos, clothes and instruments together and played the performance.
There would be a nice camera filming the class, and Dabi was sure that their concert was the best compared to the other classes that were doing a music piece. They didn't bring their real keyboard or the drum set, there were some on campus, but Dabi brought his own guitar and the amp. By their third practice performance, everyone were sweaty and it great spirits.
They all pitched in and ordered food that they snuck into school, Dabi packing up the amp and it's chords, sliding his guitar into it's padded case. Toga grinned and jumped on his back. "Do the sparkly boys make you go goo goo?" she asked in a whisper.
"Get off me, fucking weirdo," he grumbled, shrugging her off. "And no, we all look dumb as hell." And it was true, he didn't think any of his class was hot. There was a third year he thought looked nice, but not at all in the same way that the nameless ski resort guy had. More… how you would call "cute" rather than hot.
It had been two weeks since he came to the sudden conclusion, and he was still feeling awkward about it, and keeping it secret, but it was fine. It was fine to admire guys from a distance and not be creepy or get caught. It was fine…
In the morning, Dabi had his equipment boxed up, and was in his outfit, which was black and reflective silver, really imitating kpop or jpop style. This would be pretty embarrassing, but it didn't matter. Mei drove him to school, and Dabi texted Keigo a reminder that it was today. He was on another movie set but had the day off. He was playing a character who was not the main cast, but a more secondary character who would end up dying, so he was super excited to pull that off.
Dabi hurried inside once they got there, carrying his guitar on his back while he had the case with his amp in his arms. When he entered the backstage, he was glad they were the first performers so they had it reserved first. Already, makeup was being put on and most of his class were wearing their outfits.
He got to braiding hair, threading in rainbow and reflective extensions into the dutch braids. He worked quickly while others got to applying the eye shadow and reflective bits on their cheek bones. Dabi did his own, though he also added the reflective bits to the staples and piercings on his face and in his ears.
Behind the curtain, they set up the stage and the put in the programmed lights. Tenko had used the orchestra program to add more instruments into the background that would play from the speakers. It was risky, they had to follow the song perfectly or the orchestra bits wouldn't match correctly. So, the pop song also had an "epic" feel to it.
Overall, everybody were very happy with what the had put together. Tenko's hair was in a pony tail, as was Geten's, as they didn't want to have their hair braided like the girls, they were completely against it and nobody pushed them. The crowd gathered in the gym, and Dabi poked his head out and spotted Keigo near the front, wingless with a baseball cap on and concealer over the marks on his face.
He looked nervous but also excited. He'd never been around so many teenagers near his age, so he looked a bit worried.
Everyone were nervous and worried that they'd mess up, but Toga kept trying to convince them all that it was a school festival, not a real live performance. They were still apprehensive about failing, though. Well, if they sucked, then that was upsetting, but it had been fun anyways and they all put a ton of effort into it. The drums and keyboard were already on stage, behind the curtain, so the other musicians moved the mics and guitars over. Toga sat behind the drum set and Tenko at the keyboard. He had the laptop on the table beside him and would be the one to press play on the orchestra music.
All of the dancers got in places, exchanging nervous glances. "Well, let's get to it," Dabi muttered, securing the guitar strap and finger pick wrapped around his pointer finger since when he was nervous his hands got sweaty, so a pick ring was the better choice.
The curtains opened, and everyone cheered. Time to either do well, or utterly bomb.
-x- Keigo -x-
He flew to the block over and then removed his wings to stuff into his large backpack, and shoved the baseball cap on. He put his backpack back on, hiding the wing bumps, and walked a few streets over to Dabi's high school. Of course Keigo had never been to something like this - or a school in general, so it was new. There were a lot of people, a lot of teenagers bustling around frantically, setting up stands with food and other oddities.
Dabi's class' performance was first thing, so he headed to the auditorium, following signs directing him there. He was one of the first to get inside, and went to the back wall, not wanting to be spotted, even though he was a teenager himself and didn't look out of place at all. He could hear noises from behind the curtain, frantic shuffling of feet. Keigo hoped they did well for Dabi and his friends' sakes.
The room filled up and Keigo moved to stand more near the front so he could see well. Everyone were chatting and excited to see the performance. All Dabi had said was it would "be lit or a trainwreck, and either would be highly entertaining". When the curtain opened, it showed Dabi's class, all of them dressed in reflective, over the top clothing with braided hair and glitter make up.
Keigo saw Dabi near the back, his staples and piercings all glammed up, too. He was also wearing the reflective clothing, completely different from his usual black attire. Keigo laughed behind his hand. He saw Dabi's band friends, and they did indeed all look unique. The crowd cheered for them, smiling faces all looking at them.
They all took a deep breath, and the teen at the keyboard pressed something on the laptop. The music started, and the band started to play, Dabi not needing to look at his fingers at all while they strummed. The dance number started, and this song sounded nothing like the music on LoF channel on YouTube.
It was peppy pop music, but it wasn't like any of the style Dabi had played before were good for a dance number. But they were really good, the choreography was very impressive. Dabi was singing with another girl, their voices actually complimenting each other despite their differences. It really showed off just how versatile Dabi's ability to sing was..
Keigo thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and the crowd were cheering. The whole thing lasted about three minutes before it ended, and all of them bowed, their eye makeup not streaming despite the sweat they were all pouring. Keigo clapped and cheered for them, too. Dabi wiped his forehead and saw Keigo and sent him a cheeky, triumphant grin before the curtains closed.
Deciding to wait for him to come out, thinking just leaving would be rude and he wanted to see more, he waited outside the auditorium entrance. The whole class came out, rubbing make up off and wearing normal clothes. When Dabi did, his staples still shimmered a bit but not as much as when he was singing. Keigo appreciated the shininess for a few beats.
"Yo, what'd you think?"
"It was really fun to watch! Weird seeing you in anything but emo goth colors."
"It was awful," Dabi complained. "This is Toga Himiko, Shimura Tenko and Iguchi Shuichi. My bandmates and best friends," he introduced. "Guys, this is Keigo/Hawks."
"Keigo's fine. Nice to meet you." He was nervous at first that they'd hate him for what he did to their friend in the past, but they didn't glare or anything.
"You're the movie star, right?" Shimura said casually.
"Well, not yet. I think. It's not for sure how the public will react," Keigo said with a laugh, relieved that there were no hateful glares.
"Dabi, braid my hair," Toga demanded.
"I just did and you took it out," Dabi complained.
"I'll keep it in this time. He shaved my head, doesn't it look nice?" Toga asked, a slight crazy grin on her face. She was definitely Dabi's friend.
"Why did you shave her head?" Keigo asked. They were all walking around, visiting other classes stands and ordering food.
"One of her foster siblings chopped it off so she came to me for help. For some reason, so I shaved it instead." Keigo snorted. "It was consensual, I'm not a complete asshole."
"You told a mom you'd eat her child, you are a complete asshole," Iguchi stated.
"What?" Keigo asked, baffled.
"She started it, I just ended it."
"Please, tell me the story."
"Well, I was checking out groceries, minding my own business when this woman with a sleeping toddler told me I should cover my face around children. I asked if my appearance bothered here, and she got bitchy and tried to scold me for being rude. I told her she had a cute baby and wondered what it would taste like. She freaked out and I left, it was glorious," Dabi explained in a proud voice.
"Oh my god," Keigo said.
Dabi quickly braided Toga's hair like a pro and tied it off with a rubber band in his teeth. "I wish I was there so I could have filmed it," she said. "Then put it on tiktok and see all the angry mommies in the comments."
Keigo laughed, and Iguchi and Shimura rolled their eyes. They went to the haunted house, and went in in pairs, Keigo going in with Dabi. It was dark, and not all scary. But the students did their best. When they were going through the darkest part, he turned around and saw a literal monster, towering over him with its mouth in a sharp grin, teeth razor sharp and red with what looked like blood. He screamed, and the monster turned into Dabi, laughing.
"You asshole!" Keigo accused, shoving his arm, Dabi continuing to laugh when they got out back into the daylight.
"Thank you," Dabi said with a bow, an obnoxious, mocking smile on. Keigo's face was red and he had an angry pout on, arms crossed. They met up with the other three, and Toga came running out.
"Did it really scare you?" she asked Keigo, who sputtered about Dabi turning into a monster on him and scaring him.
"Yeah, he's an ass. Have you realized that, yet?" Iguchi said. None of them were laughing at his expense but for Dabi, who looked completely proud.
"Yes, I think I've realized that," Keigo agreed, nodding. Dabi looked very proud, and Keigo spent a few hours wandering around and talking, eating food and watching more performances. Dabi's class's was Keigo's favorite. Keigo wished he'd gone to school and could do this, too. Could take part.
When it was time to leave, Keigo was a bit sad. "Thanks for inviting me, it was fun," he said, taking the backpack on and unzipping it to all his feathers back to their places. They waved goodbye, and Dabi told him to not get shot out of the sky on his way home. "No promises. Someone may have a torpedo from below, I can't know."
He flew away, grinning. It had really been a fun day. He should make friends his own age for sure. Man, he wished he'd gone to a high school. Maybe someday he could go to college. No idea what he'd study, though. If the acting gig panned out, things would be different then. When he got back home, he texted Dabi that he wasn't shot out of the sky by a torpedo.
Bet it would have made feather fireworks. Poof!
Jesus you are awful.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Keigo snorted, laying on his back on the bed with a smile. Today was very, very fun.
Thanks for coming. You seemed like you had fun.
It was really fun. Thanks for inviting me.
Finally made friends your own age.
Keigo gave a watery smile and pressed his face to his pillow. Guess I did.
-x-
The people on his new movie were mostly people in their thirties and forties. He had no En to help him. But there was also no Karin to target him specifically. However, he was treated a bit dismissively by some of the cast, but the crew adored him, actually having layover from his old movie so he knew some of the people on set.
"And how old are you again?" Keigo was asked often.
"Eighteen. Almost nineteen."
"And this is your first production?"
"Second, I just finished my first a few weeks ago," Keigo answered. They were in the makeup room and Keigo was washing the fake blood and prosthetic injury off of his face, as he'd been slashed across his face by a monster. He peeled it off, and it pulled on the peachfuzz of his face, which wasn't the most comfortable feeling.
"What role did you play in that film?"
"I was the main character's best friend. One of the three main cast," Keigo answered.
"Your first film and they put you as a starring role?" she asked, despite this being known by everyone. Mori was a middle aged woman that passed as looking in her thirties, so she was one of the mains, the oldest of the cast, while Keigo was the youngest. There were two children but they had one scene and were in and out in a day. Keigo played the bratty, frat boy, asshole son of the main. He was a unlikable character that an audience would not feel badly about dying.
Keigo peeled the last strip off his face and put them down on the velvet square for use later.
"Yup. Hopefully it pays off for them," Keigo said simply. He left the makeup room and went to the costume room and undressed and put back on the clothes he arrived on set with. He wished he had a friend on this set, but he just didn't due to the age gap. En had still been in his early twenties. Keigo would rather work in a film with those his age, that he got along with, but En told him he would often not have things in common with the cast.
They were likely at very different stages of their life and careers and all.
It had been nearly 18 months since Keigo was freed from his bird cage. One month until the preview for Engraved came out, so he was nervous about that. He was not talked about in the news at all anymore, so he had pretty much faded away, the torture incident. Sometimes Keigo wondered if he'd ever see his handler again, if she got out of jail. He assumed that it might be the same way Dabi felt thinking about the day his father came out of jail.
Who knows? Endeavor did not hold the power anymore and would not when he returned. Keigo was sure Dabi would work to make him miserable in 18 months himself, when the two year sentence was over. Would he try to be a hero again? He was completely removed from any rankings, losing his number two place indefinitely.
A few days later, Keigo was going thrifting with Dabi. Rumi didn't want to go so he invited Dabi, who was surprised by the invitation. "You should go to set one day just dressed as an old dude since you're surrounded by them," Dabi said, holding up a pinstriped suit.
Keigo snorted. "They'd get offended or think I'm stupid," he said, and pulled a jacket off the rack. "How's this look?"
"Boring."
"That's what you've said about everything that isn't all black!"
"I know what I like," Dabi said with a shrug. He turned and picked out a dress. "How's this?"
"It's a dress."
"Well, I wouldn't wear it as Dabi, dumbass," Dabi said. He walked into the changing room, and Keigo was curious. Dabi could create any clothes he wanted, but agreed to hang out like this. He walked out a second later as a girl in the sundress. "How's it look?" his voice was completely different.
"Dude, you'd be the ultimate catfisher," Keigo said. Dabi snorted. "And it looks fine. You look better as Dabi, though."
"Yeah, I think so, too." He went back into the changing room and came out normally, back as a man and in all black. The dress was put back on the rack. He went looking for some things again and got distracted in the cutlery section. He was looking at the fine china and all the prices, making that look that showed he thought the price was reasonable. Then Dabi picked up the set and walked over with it. "Think Rei would like them," he said. "Cheap as dirt, too," he added.
Keigo smiled, glad the trip wasn't wasted for him. He got a large amount of clothes, and was annoyed a bit that he always had to go through the effort of modifying the tops for his wings. They got bags for the items, Dabi carefully filling his bag with conjured packing peanuts behind the building.
"Wanna get something to eat?" Keigo asked. Dabi agreed, and they headed to the many restaurants in the area before picking a random buffet. Both of them could eat an alarming amount of food at once, so their table was full of food by the time they sat down.
"When you're a superstar, this won't be so easy," Dabi said, nodding towards Keigo's wings. He was already recognizable enough for people who thought any way about what happened anymore, but otherwise was usually left alone.
"Yeah. But I can go out in disguise just fine," Keigo said. "You'll be friends with a celebrity."
"It will look worse for you than it will for me," Dabi stated with a mischievous smirk. "I'll try not to do anything too embarrassing around you."
"I don't doubt you'll be an asshole about some things. Maybe you could come to events with me." Dabi rose his brows in mild surprise. "I wouldn't want to go on my own. Rumi could come with me, too. And if you don't want to be seen with me, you could always go as someone else. I didn't mean it to sound insecure, I just meant in case you don't want to have your face known, you could be in some other form," he said at the look of sadness that momentarily crossed his face.
Dabi said, "You sure you'd wanna be seen with me? I don't exactly school my emotions much." He popped a chicken nugget into his mouth.
"I guess that's true in a way. I don't really care, you're my friend before I'm famous. If it even works out for me in the first place. This whole thing might be a huge waste of time. At least I've made some decent money and have it stored safely," Keigo mused. He took very careful care of his money, not wanting to run out in case he didn't get a good job. He took out money for rent, bills and food, but didn't spend much else. He saved a lot of money from thrifting when most people in his place wore designer clothes.
He could buy a shirt for a few yen compared to the exorbitant price of designer shirts. It was silly. "I got a nice stash of money, too," Dabi said with a grin. "Totally enough to help pay for a place to live when I move out. But I assume Rei has made arrangements for all of us when it comes to helping adult life. It's not like our family doesn't have money, she was let into Enji's bank account possessions. Hah, I bet it was out of hatred for him over anything else. Fantastic."
Keigo laughed at how proud Dabi was of that. "Still getting paid the same as before?"
"Nope! I got a raise," he said proudly. Keigo was happy for him. After they finished eating, they parted ways, Dabi making the long flight home.
"Don't get shot out of the sky," Keigo called.
"I won't! It wouldn't be very impressive!" Dabi shouted and flew away, holding his bag of dishware. Keigo happily headed back home. The other was honestly so fun to be around. Hopefully Keigo didn't make him uncomfortable with the invite to events, even if it would totally be as friends. Nothing more, no ulterior motives. He was lucky that he thought Dabi wouldn't think it was a set up, and it was just as friends.
When he got home, he put the clothes through the washer and then got to modifying them to work with his wings once they were dry. He hummed to himself, and Rumi came back an hour later, holding a bag from the candy store. "My cheat day, bitch, let's get on it!" Keigo happily ate her treats with her on the couch, enjoying the honeycomb treats. "How was your outing?"
"Really fun! Dabi's fun to be around since he's so damn weird," Keigo said happily. "I'm so glad I made friends with someone my own age, even if our meeting was obviously very awful." Rumi smiled, very happy for him.
-x- Dabi -x-
Dabi formed the camera dolly rack throughout the abandoned building. It was an industrial site that hadn't been used for anything in years. They'd already cleaned the place and turned it into a set. They were filming their first music video. They usually did lyric videos, but they were doing a real music video for one of their favorite songs. A more upbeat one, so the camera movement was more important.
It went through the first and second floor, spinning on the rail down the stairs. A random looking double would be the one followed through the set. The band would be playing on a stage behind the couches, with dozens of transformed doubles playing random people in the party that was being staged.
Really, it was so fun already. There were stage lights everywhere, Dabi's quirk absolutely helpful to the extreme. The camera was not made, but bought specially by Dabi, a pretty penny but doable with his savings. Most of his paycheck went into savings and helping with bills and food. "Alright, ready everyone?" Dabi called.
"Yeah!" all of his various doubles replied.
"Three, two, one! Go!" Tenko started the song playing. The audio would be cut out, but it was a way to know the pacing. When the camera spinned down, his male double, conventionally attractive, at least to Dabi, slid down the staircase. The lights flashed everywhere, the double being followed by the camera with another clone pushing it.
The band played along with the song going on, singing the words until the song was over and the camera panned with the double falling down on his back, the camera panning out to raise out the door and up at the sky.
"Cut!" Dabi called. All of his doubles and his best friends whooped, and watched it replay. It wasn't perfect, but pretty good for the first time. "Everyone, you did fucking awesome." They were versions of him, so they made snarky comments about him praising a bunch of his doubles. Dabi rolled his eyes. They refilmed a few times, with nobody finding them there, so they caused no trouble. Dabi erased his doubles, and they packed their things up, destroying the lights, the camera track and the track. He could always remake them, it was fine.
They kept their instruments and the camera. He went outside, and turned into a dragon, the others moving the instruments onto his back and strapping them down. They climbed on and flew to Dabi's house. When they got there, landing in the backyard, the four moved everything back into the studio and got to work.
It was a ton of fun and took three days to finish. It was their most popular song that had 50,000 views. It made them super happy, as that was equal to a half of their city. They nervously posted the video, and then sent it to their families, having not wanting to spoil it.
The four were extremely happy all day, getting floods of praise from extended family and friends, mostly on Shuichi and Dabi's sides since Tenko and Toga didn't really have people who cared much.
When they got back to school, their video had been seen by almost everyone, and they were bombarded with questions about how they'd managed to make it look so professional, and how many people and gadgets were used. Of course they didn't tell them the truth, but said that Dabi had a cousin who could make doubles, and someone who could create anything that wasn't organic.
They had researched camera movements for hours and hours before figuring out how to pull it off.
By the end of the week, their video already had 200,000 views and 300 comments, which were mostly all positive, but they weren't butthurt by the jackasses, used to being shunned and bitched about. It was fantastic and fun. He was lucky to look older than 16, so his coworkers and boss didn't see him as younger than he did when he came into work.
Honestly, he bet even if they found out, he wouldn't be fired based on how useful he was, how much money his involvement was saved. He was irreplaceable unless the person he copied this quirk from did the same, which was unlikely.
They threw a party for themselves, with cake and everything, in the backyard with their own music playing. Life was really good for Dabi. Things were going great and he was enjoying it. He had good friends, a purpose and dream, a future he was sure he wanted to pursue.
A day later, Keigo's movie's preview came out. Keigo wasn't in it much, but when it was, he was hanging off of a cliff, covered in dirt and dry blood, looking panicked. Then he fell, and the scene cut. His name showed up at the end, and Toga squealed over it in excitement. Dabi called Keigo, who sounded very nervous.
"The preview looked awesome!" he said brightly.
"Thanks. I'm super nervous. The director put out our video, and changed your voice a bit for privacy's sake, thankfully. I'm so fucking nervous already."
"Don't worry, dude! Not like you can be kicked out of the movie if there's backlash!" Dabi said in an encouraging voice. He was glad that his voice was changed or his school mates might recognize it. But he looked nearly unrecognizable with the different hair and the burns.