-x- Keigo -x-

The movie trailer looked pretty cool and intense, he had to admit. He was on the phone with En, both talking about it, excited but Keigo nervous. En was very happy for him having a new job and also some friends his own age. Because Dabi called his friends Keigo's friends, and he and Dabi were definitely friends, Keigo was very positive about that even if he hadn't outright told him.

Keigo kept Twitter open, and soon the internet made their opinions known. He was scared, but the comments weren't all horrible, and those that were started arguments with others about just letting it go and live his life. Keigo and "Touya"'s video was posted underneath the real preview, which also fueled the watchers to think it should all be blown over by now, being over a year and a half since it happened, and that Touya obviously was so done with the drama.

People commented that he seemed like an asshole, so that was good, he wasn't too likable to have a ton of sympathy. En thought Dabi was funny, and how Keigo looked a bit uncomfortable at some moments, side eyeing him when his voice grew a bit more annoyed.

Almost immediately after the short video came out, the internet turned Keigo's face into a gif meme, but not in a bad way. It seemed that it wasn't as bad as Keigo feared, and when he woke up the next morning, many of his costars and the crew praised him for his good attitude and superb acting on his first movie.

He was brought to tears many times, Rumi giving him hugs and cooking his favorite food. Honestly, he was excited to see the final thing, but worried over going to events, like talk show stuff, or award ceremonies. Keigo wasn't expecting to get an award no matter how encouraging they had been on his last set.

On the next Saturday, Dabi invited him to hang out while they did another music video. He gladly agreed, interested in how they pulled off their first so fantastically. The commenters had no idea it was a four person production by some 16 year old kids in an abandoned warehouse. He flew to where he was sent the directions and landed in a sketchy looking abandoned factory.

A ton of random people were there, who were Dabi's transformed doubles, all setting things up. They'd spray painted the walls it seemed, to look dreary and sad. It wasn't going to be a bright music video like last time. He saw Dabi creating the camera dolly, which Keigo was used to with being an actor and all.

It was a straight line before it raised next to a small staircase that was in the middle of the warehouse area so clearly made by them. They didn't have their instruments, so probably wouldn't feature them in the video like last time.

"Keigo!" Toga called brightly. "You're here just in time." Keigo hurried over, interested and excited to watch.

Dabi walked over, and Keigo was just confused at how he seemed to get taller every time he saw him. Keigo had been stagnant at 5'6 for years. "Ready? We made a story board on how it's gonna go," Dabi said, and gestured to laminated boards in a stack. Keigo curiously looked at them. Someone was walking along a strip of pavement, rain clouds drizzling on him as he walked further and further, looked more and more depressed before he walked up the stairs and jumped the small distance, and then disappeared in a puddle of water.

"Does this compose suicide? That's a big risk to take publicly," Keigo said.

"So?" all four asked bluntly.

"If they don't like it, they don't have to watch," Shimura stated with a shrug. Keigo grinned, and shook his head. "Okay, ready Dabi number seven?" he asked the main character, who looked like a really depressed teenager, dark clothes on but not in Dabi's form.

"Yeah," Dabi number seven said. He walked to the strip, one of the other Dabi doubles stationed with the camera dolly. Dabi conjured a dark rain cloud, and started the rain. The music began, and Toga called "Action!"

The song was really depressing, Dabi's deeper voice somber, the song having that computer made orchestra that they'd used and gotten good at, adding violins to the sad, slow music. The camera followed the main Dabi copy, as he walked at a slow pace. As he walked, a dark shadow crawled up from his feet, and after the fairly short song was over, at the end when he was on the stairs, he was all black but his face before he jumped, and landed on the ground in a plash of water.

"Cut!" Toga cheered. The four zoomed over to the camera, and Keigo was extremely impressed with how they mostly used Dabi's quirk alone for this. Extremely creative and resourceful. Keigo waked over, too, and saw that it had performed very well. "Hmm, we should add something else," Toga stated.

"Like what?" Dabi asked.

"We could have the dripping rain be what turned him dark."

"But then we'd lose his face first," Iguchi stated. "Face shows most of the emotion."

"True… Maybe we should have people in the background. Other people covered in the shadows. Maybe when he jumps, then he could be completely in shadow and then can join the other shadows."

"Ooh! Nice idea," Dabi said, and they got back to their second try. Dabi made more random people and made their entire bodies blacked out. They were strategically placed a bit away from where the main subject would be walking. There were only a few in the beginning but by the last shot, there were much more.

Keigo watched with a smile as their idea came to life, Dabi having complete and utter mastery on so many of his quirks. The Commission missed out big time on him. Well, they'd never have him or anyone else again, so that was a relief. It still was for the best that Dabi not expose to a lot of people what he can do.

After three tries, they were satisfied with the shooting. Dabi's clones went away after there was no more use to them, and they got rid of everything but the stereo and camera. "That was really cool, you guys! Thanks for inviting me to watch," Keigo said sincerely.

They smiled and nodded. "We'll send it once it's finished to get an outsider's perspective."

"How cruel, your words hurt," Keigo said with a fake gasp.

"You're too pretty to be an insider, sorry," Dabi said sarcastically with a mocking smirk. Keigo stuck his tongue out at him, and Dabi laughed. He turned into his large dragon form and his three friends loaded onto his back. "We have cake back home if you want to join us, outsider."

"Thanks, but I have a night shooting for tonight, so I gotta get ready for it."

"Have fun with the old people!" Toga said, and both parties flew in different directions. It was nice of Dabi to call him good looking, and for them to include him at all. On his way back home, he wondered just what the scope of Dabi's abilities were, and if he had stayed under Endeavor's control, if he'd even have the freedom to be who he was like what he did now.

Running away was probably the best decision in Dabi's life, no matter how awful the beginning of it had been. Keigo wondered where Lady Nagant was currently. He assumed she'd left the country by now, which would be the smart move for her.

He was excited when he got to the set, as he was finally filming the death scene, which he'd been practicing for weeks, Rumi judging him on it harshly. He was supposed to be unlikable till the end. He had the prosthetic wounds put back on his face was covered in the dirt, both on his clothes and his skin. His wings were gone, of course, locked in his trailer.

Hopefully he could get a role that would actually use his wings, as he could convey quite a bit of emotion through their movements.

Keigo's unlikable character was shot in the stomach, and all of his "friends" and even siblings left him to die. "Y-You fuckin'… assholes!" were his last words. Angry tears streamed down his face as he clawed at the dirt, trying to get away for help. He didn't get it, and died then and there, all alone and hated.

"Cut! Nice job, Takami!" Keigo was praised by the director. He smiled and thanked him. "That's the last scene of you in the film, but once reshoots are started, we'll call you back in if needed. Honestly, it's unlikely for any scenes you're in to be reshot unless there are other actors in it. Don't tell anyone I said that."

Keigo beamed. "Thank you," he said brightly. "It was definitely a different experience from my last film. I'm happy I got to, though! Playing an asshole was fun."

"I'm glad that you and Touya made up, it makes you much more palatable in this career."

"Heh, yeah, it also helps they made memes out of me. The internet's gonna internet." The man laughed, and said they'd be in touch soon enough. "Thank you for casting me," Keigo said with a deep bow.

"You're very welcome," and Keigo left, heading to take his dirty costume off and peel the wounds off of his face. There was fake blood all over his front, so he showered in the trailer and changed into normal clothes, bringing his wings back. It wasn't the last time he'd see any of his costars, so there was no big goodbye, and he wasn't close enough to any of them to go out to eat. Especially since "going out to drinks" wasn't inclusive to him, as he was still a minor. A highly independent and self sufficient minor, but still too young to drink.

Not that he wanted to, his sperm donor had mostly been drunk when he abused Keigo the worst. He honestly hadn't been around anyone drunk since then besides Rumi, and when she was drunk, she wasn't violent but annoying. Deeply, deeply annoying, but not bad or often enough to warrant moving out, even if he could technically afford a small place by himself. But he would be lonely, so as long as Rumi wanted him around, he was staying.

The next day, he was sent the finished video, and excitedly opened the file, and watched the video, the music audible well, Dabi's sad, calming but depressing voice while his double slowly turned dark, the atmosphere looking a bit dimmer, some natural sunlight turned a bluish tone in post processing. Keigo watched it a few times, and it really did look like flawless editing, that a program was used to make the rain or the darkening subject.

Knowing it was all done practically was amazing.

Perfect!

Pretty fuckin happy with it.

You should be!

Toga pointed out I could do a flash mob all on my own. If I learned, all my doubles would know it, too. Minimal effort.

Lol wouldn't be as much fun tho.

True. If our music was more upbeat, it would be helpful to pull that shit off in a video. We're posting it today. Our other video has almost a mil views. Classmates don't know how we managed to get that many people together lol.

Keigo smiled, happy for Dabi and his friends. Keigo wasn't sure whether they were his friends, too, yet.

Gtg to work. Ttyl.

Byeeee.

-x- Dabi -x-

"Don't worry, if I become a super star I'm not gonna forget everyone," Dabi said nicely to Enzo, who was crying, thinking Dabi would outgrow them. He didn't seem to understand that they probably would not keep in touch once Enzo was adopted. Dabi had his cat ears out and even a tail to try and make him feel better.

Mei was very happy that Dabi and his best friends were doing well on their own, not needing any financial backing by anybody but themselves, with Dabi being the breadwinner out of the four of them with his modeling job. They had already agreed to decline any offers if something was bid. Like a record deal kind of thing. None of them felt like losing their freedom to do whatever they wanted, and were in no huge rush.

Will you get famous and turn mean?

Enzo didn't know Dabi's mean side, so he just said he wouldn't. Sheri and Rika were on the floor, talking to each other about wanting to choreograph a dance scene to make a flash mob out of them and all the Dabi's. He really wasn't interested in that, as it would be very embarrassing, even if it wasn't Dabi's body dancing.

He hated pop music, so dancing to it would be annoying. He hated listening to it from the bathroom when Sheri was showering, why the hell would he want to put the time and effort into both writing something that wasn't their band's style as well as hearing it hundreds of times for the dancing bit? There wasn't much more he could do to get them to drop it since he'd already said no. Shuichi and Tenko weren't interested in that kind of thing either, though Toga insisted it would be fun. She was outnumbered, nothing to do about that.

Besides, he was very busy every day. He had school, homework, work, everything having to do with their band, as he wrote the music and did a lot of the editing. It didn't bother him too much, it was better than doing nothing and being stuck inside like he had most of his life, so being constantly needing to do something, have some commitment, wasn't that awful.

He didn't have much allotted leisure time, but at least he saw his friends at school everyday. He didn't have much time to see Keigo, but he was busy, too. His movie was coming out next week and Dabi and his friends planned on going to see it in theaters with him, who would be in disguise, of course.

Dabi was genuinely excited to see it. Keigo supported and was excited for their music stuff, Dabi would be for his movies.

He ruffled Enzo's hair. "Don't worry so much about the future. I'll always be your foster brother." It was true, no matter if they didn't keep in contact. Speaking of being a brother, he hadn't visited his bio family in awhile. He texted Fuyumi and Natsuo, and exchanged emails with Rei, but hadn't seen them in awhile.

He stood up, walking past Enzo and flicked his tail in his face, earning a silent giggle, and grabbed an apple from the kitchen and headed upstairs to finish his homework and then go to work. On his way there, an idea hit him. Both for a video and the song. He wasn't the one to rite the actual music, that was Shuichi, he just wrote lyrics. Shuichi was the amazing one with coming up with the actual sheet music for all of them.

Their group was like a well oiled machine, the oil being their excitement in the short term. Day to day, week to week. They were still only 16, and they also wanted to go to college, so they weren't hell bent on getting famous anytime soon.

His idea would be quite taxing on his body, but the idea was firmly planted there. While he was at work, the brand deciding to delve into fitness clothing. This required Dabi to be able to manipulate the muscles in some places, and it was a bit tricky at first, but he got the hang of it enough.

Honestly, he could see himself keeping this job for a very long time as a side gig, maybe after he was done with college. He'd probably cut back work once he graduated depending on work load. He was happy with how he thought his future was going. Had a caring family, both bio and foster, amazing best friends, a quirk he loved to death, and all the freedom in the world to be who he wanted, how he wanted.

The opposite was for Enji, and it was fantastic. He was miserable, away from any family, his hero career in the mud, growing older and perhaps out of shape, his quirk off limits in the prison, and having nothing fun in life to do. Two years was a very short time, but he still was miserable those two years.

Thinking of his misery always brought a grin to Dabi's face.

-x-

Dabi shoved his shirt into his pants so it didn't fly up. It was long sleeved and tight. He was in the body of their "playable character", the guy they'd had as their subject in their last two videos. His friends were all on the roof, too. "Hopefully I don't get sick as fuck," Dabi muttered.

He secured the selfie stick, which was glued to him with a quirk, the phone camera pointing at his face, to make sure it was tight and wouldn't be thrown around like sky diving videos. "Good luck, Dabi!" Toga squealed.

"I promise I won't fall to my death," Dabi said. He brought out wings, and started recording. They would just cut the filler out. He flew up and up and up until he was just below the cloud bank. He took a deep breath, got rid of his wings, and let himself fall, tumbling around, looking sad and singing so the words would match his lips when they connected the audio.

He sounded like shit right now, the wind deafening in his ears. Of course he needed multiple shots since a fall could not last a full three minutes. He landed on the building, and said, "I need to slow the falling or this is going to take forever. Anyone got any ideas about a quirk I can find online?"

His mouth was incredibly dry, so Tenko tossed him a water bottle, which he chugged. He felt deeply dizzy, but didn't vomit, which was a complete plus. They were all searching on their phones. "Oh, got one!" Toga said brightly. "A guy who can make his body weigh nothing!"

"Nice," Dabi said, and she brought up the video of the quirk being used at a quirk database website, which recorded different quirks, though they never showed the faces, for research purposes for the public. Names, faces and addresses were never posted, but there were plenty of quirks ripe for Dabi's taking.

He watched it a few times, and let his body become light, jumping and having a slight lag before landing. "Fuck yes. Alright, I'm gonna give it another try." He jumped off the side and flew up higher and higher. He lightened the density of his body so he drifted a bit, but still tumbled. He had to try many times to get the hang of it, and it was growing frustrating, but he didn't want to have wasted their time there.

Finally, he got the right density, and let himself fall, the new composition making the fall much more graceful. He shouted the lyrics, face relaxed before he was completely done for the day and landed. He threw up over the side of the building, and Toga laughed if anyone was below. "Shut up," Dabi grumbled. "I'm gonna fucking have an aneurysm if the camera angle was wrong."

They unstrapped the stick from him and played back the video. "Fuck that looks miserable," Shuichi said.

"The things we do for our music," Tenko mused. It actually turned out pretty good. Not shaky, and Dabi's face didn't look tense or frightened, as he had complete faith he would be just fine and was in no danger. "Maybe we can try during different times of the day. Sunset or night time might look good."

"Ooh! What if you did it while the sun was setting so the beginning of the fall is light out and the end is dark?!" Toga said brightly.

"That would be sick, but a ton of work. You up for the challenge, Dabi?" Shuichi asked.

"Sure. Be nice to prove we can do cool shit on our own. I bet it would be pretty cool. Man, my quirks really make life easier for us, don't they?" Dabi laughed.

"I have no quirk and these weirdos' are useless. You're our only source of both income and assistance," Tenko said bluntly.

"Yeah, but that's fine," Dabi replied. "You guys are worth the effort."

All three had such deep, emotional looks on their faces. All of them didn't have great families, and their quirks or lack of quirk affected how they were treated. Dabi smiled, and turned into a dragon. They got onto his back, and he was glad that they didn't resent him or were jealous of his quirk. He'd been through a lot of his own shit, too.

He may have forgiven Keigo for taking part in his torture, but Dabi might always be averse to people he wasn't close with touching him. He might always pay close attention to his surroundings out of self-preservation. He might always be scared of others realizing what he could do fully. He enjoyed his life how it was now, but he had by no means had an easy time until just a few months ago.

At least Keigo was in that same boat, too. He might not have the damaged look - he looked nice and healthy and vibrant - but his life had been far from easy, as well. So he fit in with them in that regard. They all liked him, though he definitely didn't have their dark humor, and was more concerned with his image for obvious reasons.

The next weekend, the five of them met up at the movies, Keigo having been driven there on a bus, much to his disdain, since it was unlikely his massive backpack full of feathers would be allowed in the theaters. It was not opening night but the teens had promised to avoid anything about it on the internet so the experience was fresh.

Keigo was nervous for them to watch it, as he'd already seen it himself, but didn't look like he thought they'd hate it. Right now he had slightly baggy clothes on, which he no doubt thrifted from the plus size section at his go-to shop, with a beanie on and sunglasses. He looked quite ridiculous but Dabi didn't have the heart to tease him.

They sat in the back, buckets of popcorn and sodas. Dabi had an ICEE in the largest size. Keigo was antsy. "Chill, man. You think we're gonna judge you if your movie sucks?" Dabi whispered. Keigo took a deep breath. "No popcorn unless you can calm down." The movie star snorted. "We don't know shit about it, but if it got awful reviews, would you want to see it with us in person? See our reactions?"

"No, I guess not. It did get good reviews. I think… I think I did alright," Keigo said a bit shyly. It was adorable. The trailers came, and Shuichi smacked Toga upside the head when she threw a Skittle a few rows ahead and landed it in the open coffee cup, making the woman exclaim.

"Problem child, behave," Dabi hissed. She giggled, and their interaction seemed to calm Keigo a bit, so Dabi allowed him access to the popcorn. The previews started, but nothing looked too interesting. He didn't usually watch movies or TV shows. He liked reading and playing videogames more. When the movie started, and Keigo's name was on the big screen, Dabi beamed, happy for him.

It was an action adventure movie, and Keigo's wings were completely gone. It looked like he didn't have any wing bumps, though he did wear a tight backpack almost the whole time.

Dabi glared when Emi Karin's character came, as she gave Keigo a ton of issues, but they were good at putting that aside, because their characters looked like best friends. Keigo's acting was fantastic, there was a very obvious, real emotional struggle in his character and the way he behaved. When he wasn't the main character in a shot, he rarely smiled in the movie unless one of the other characters interacted with him directly.

His eyes grew distant in silence. The action fighting looked really fun, with Keigo doing his own stunts, and Dabi wondered just how much of every scene was a green screen or CGI. Then, the scene that Keigo had told him he'd auditioned with and had been praised for came, and his acting hit like a fucking freight train.

There was so much guilt and resentment and self hatred in the scene where he broke down about going on from his girlfriend's death, which had flashbacks of the scene of him holding her dead body. It was just very hard to watch. Toga was crying and Dabi couldn't blame her. Keigo was leaned forward, staring at them in apprehension over his pivotal scene.

Dabi knew the PTSD in that scene was very accurate as he'd had it himself. Anyone with PTSD would recognize that. It wasn't like other movies where it was played up to have more screaming. His struggle wasn't with everything around him, but what was going on inside his character's head. It was just very, very moving and Dabi was shocked this was his first ever movie. And it wasn't like his hero/spy gig had him giving emotional performances like this, so he likely had never tried it before this movie.

When it was over, Dabi looked forward to the second movie. The lights turned on, and Keigo asked, "Did you like it?" in an uncertain voice.

"Dude, that was fucking amazing!" Dabi said. "I mean - yeah, you should get an award." Toga nodded vehemently.

"I didn't expect, really, to see you act like that. You're always… goofy and happy when we've seen each other," Tenko said honestly. "It was kind of hard to watch." Shuichi nodded, and a relieved grin broke out on Keigo's face, letting out a sigh in relief.

"Hard to believe you and Emi Karin disliked one another - your characters had a lot of chemistry," Dabi said, throwing the empty bowl of popcorn away. "Shows you're a good actor. If I had to be anywhere in close proximity to Geten that long I'd probably break his neck."

"Whoa you hate him that much?" Keigo asked.

"Well, maybe not kill him but maybe shaving his head from behind. That wouldn't be too bad, wouldn't put me in prison," Dabi mused. "But yeah, I hate him that much. Thanks for dragging us to see it with you."

"Your word choice does not match your tone of voice," Keigo laughed. "I'm glad you guys liked it." Dabi grinned, really, very happy for Keigo in finding something he enjoyed and was good at. He would bet this performance would open him up for more role offers. A really good start. Engraved's casting team knew what they were doing. En was a great fit, and as much as Dabi disliked what Keigo told him about the female main protagonist, she was pretty good herself at acting.

Dabi hadn't read the books, not wanting anything spoiled, so he didn't know if the movie was a faithful adaptation, but even if it wasn't, it was enjoyable. He was proud of Keigo dragging himself out of the pit he'd been in after he exposed the HPSC to the world, sacrificing his own future and reputation to do the right thing.

He threw everything away to get Dabi his justice. Dabi was in this life because of Keigo, telling Nagant to rescue him. If Keigo hadn't been at the Commission, where would Dabi be now? He'd still be Touya. Trapped or dead.

"Do you think you could go to an award show with me?" Keigo asked Dabi quietly. "I don't want to go alone."

"I'm only 16, you sure you want me there?" Dabi asked with a raised brow.

"I'm sure you'd be on your best behavior," Keigo said with a shrug. "If not, it looks bad for your brand."

"Guess that's true. I can always go looking as someone else. Someone more professional. Could go as your sister."

"You can just go as yourself, you know. You look nothing like Touya."

"Hmm, we'll see," Dabi said with a grin.