A/N: First of all, thank you all for the positive comments on this story! All of your amazing words really helped me churn this out quickly!
I actually had 2 beginnings and endings written out for this chapter and couldn't decide on what to post, so I asked people on instagram for help, so thanks for your votes! I might do more stuff like that in the future, so if you're interested, follow me there for sporadic AF posts!
Also I am pulling a Hori and taking my sweet time ending this story! I said 5 chapters like 3 chapters ago, and... yeah it's not going to end soon... so enjoy 14K words!
Chapter 59
Present Day – Day 180
The first thing Hawks notices when he presses through the threshold of her bedroom is that her bed is not made. There had been a few nights that he had come over to see the sheets in disarray atop her mattress, but he always wrote it off as meeting up with her after she was laying on her bed. Now it is undeniable that she isn't making her bed.
It wouldn't have been that big of an issue had it been anyone else, but this was Asami. She was the clean freak; routine and structured with everything that she did, she would never let her bedroom look like this. It was a dead giveaway to her mental state whenever her apartment wasn't tidied up.
Hawks can only recall one instance where he saw the slightest bit of a mess in her home, and it was after she was required to leave his agency. When he surprised her by coming over to her place after he was forced to fire her, he found her on the couch, dishes left in the sink after her lonesome dinner and blankets stripped from her bed to be splayed out on the couch.
He had come to tell her that he was sorry, and to explain himself. He was going to tell her that everything was going to be alright and that he arranged something with Endeavor for her. But he didn't want her thinking that she'd gotten the job because of him, since she had just lost the one that she had because of him.
So instead, he told her he was sorry, but better things were on the horizon for her. Unsurprisingly, she hadn't wanted to see him that night. She pushed him away and told him to leave while she decompressed. She was mad, and sad, and lost. It was the only time that he saw that her bed hadn't been made in the four years they've known each other. The only time, save for now.
She's clinging onto him, hands gripping at the collar of his shirt as she tugs and pulls him closer to her. Her lips are quivering as they press against his with a hesitation and uneasiness. Hawks lifts his hand to cup the side of her cheek in the palm of his hand, turning her face so he can kiss her harder and deeper.
They sloppily fumble through the small room, refusing to detach as they try to reach the bed while pulling at their clothing. Asami tears off the tan jacket of his hero costume, tossing it to the ground and reaching her hands back to his shirt.
Hawks tugs onto the shirt that she wears, pulling it over her head and detaching their kiss only to allow the fabric passageway and return almost instantly. They messily pull their pants down while maintaining their desperate kiss, but find themselves in nothing but their underwear soon enough. Hawks backs her to the edge of the bed, slowly laying her down atop the unmade sheets before crawling on her.
He's laying on top of her, hands placed on each side of her head at an arm's reach. He uses his knees to pry open her legs and situates her against his hips.
It's then he notices the change in his body between them. He looks down, seeing the growing bump situated between them. Now, without a shirt on, it looks so much more prominent than what he's seen before. He lifts one of his hands from the side of her head to get a better look down at her stomach.
Asami notices the hesitation in his tight shoulders and a red-hot embarrassment stains against her cheeks. "Is…is something wrong?" she asks him in a timid tone.
His head lifts back up to hers and he realizes how rude he's being. He can't really tell her that she's gotten so big; he doesn't want to insult her, but he didn't expect it to be so… noticeable.
"Is it safe?" he asks her instead, feeling like a fool for asking.
She smiles at him with a soft look in her eyes and simply nods at him to proceed.
He licks his lips, nodding back at her and moving his eyes from her stomach, only to land on something harder to ignore.
A frown reaches his lips when he stares at the red blotches covering her neck and crawling down her clavicle, shoulders and arms. Asami's scars are more severe than his, despite how much work Recovery Girl did to heal her because she placed herself in front of flames that were directed with the intent of killing its target.
Hawks isn't sure if he'll ever get over the sight of Asami's body destroyed by Dabi's flames because she tried to save him. He isn't even looking at the worst part of her, having not seen her back since she was in the hospital. Hawks isn't sure how he's to stomach looking at her when this is the state that he led her to be in. He feels so emasculated by her scars because they are a constant reminder of how he failed her as her hero.
She was the closest person to him and was supposed to be the safest because of that. But he couldn't save her from Dabi. Not from his flames… or his love.
Asami notices the hesitation in Hawks' eyes as they glaze over in thought, but more glaringly, she can feel that he is not hard for her behind the thin fabric of his black boxer-briefs. She suddenly feels self-conscious when she sees them lingering on the scars riddled all over her body. She hugs herself, reaching for her neck and wrapping her hand around the mark.
Hawks blinks away his daze and looks into her pensive eyes. "I'm sorry," his tone is rough as his voice scratches at the back of his throat.
"Keigo," she returns with an exhale and a slight shaking of her head. "How are you going to say yes to my father if you can't even look at me?" she asks him with tears stinging in her eyes.
He leans back, sitting on his knees as he kneels at the foot of her bed. She lifts herself from between his legs, pulling her knees towards her chest.
"You don't have to say yes," she reminds him. "This…" she looks down at her stomach at the ambiguous outline of a growing child protruding to the surface. "This isn't your problem."
He shakes his head at the clear sadness reaching her face. "I still love you," he tells her with his hands grabbing for hers and squeezing them reassuringly.
"You can still love me without doing this," she tells him. "I don't want you to do this out of obligation."
"They need me out there, Asami," he brings up shamefully. "Endeavor, Deku, and the people of Japan need my wings."
Something about his admission hurts her more than she would like to admit. She doesn't want him to marry her out of obligation, but she also doesn't want to be married off for that same obligation. She wonders when they will be granted their true happiness. Hawks has been bred for heroics since he was a child, and here he is being forced into a marriage to continue that same imprisonment. Even in the face of freedom, he still feels like he can't escape from his responsibilities.
"Maybe I can speak with my father, and we can work something out without you giving up your freedom?"
"It's not out of obligation, Asami," he says so sternly that she's taken aback when she sees the severity in his golden eyes. "I can have a happy life with you. I want to. It's just," the strength in his eyes staggers as he looks down her chest and onto her scars and her messy room. "It just hurts to see you like this."
Asami lowers her shoulders and slumps into herself. She thinks about marrying Hawks and she knows that eventually he will become comfortable with the situation she is in. He is a good man, and he could look past something like this. He would be a good father—even to a child that isn' his. He is good to her, too good for her and she should be happy that he is even considering doing this with her but all she can think is—
"My husband… Touya… I… I love you!"
Asami shuts her eyes and ignores the clenching of her heart in aching want. She ignores the fluttering in her stomach from his seed growing inside her. She ignores the presence of the ring that he gave to her as a vow for their love hiding shamefully under her bed because she's too pathetic to get rid of it.
"So, it's a yes?" she asks him as her heart beats wildly with anticipation.
"It's always been yes," he responds and she feels her heart fall into her stomach.
And with that, he pulls her into a hug and presses her face into his chest while he cradles her head because it is the only thing that he can do. They ruined the moment of any sexual tension that was building between them, but if this is what she needs to get closer to accepting her life again, Hawks will take it slow. Because he can't deny the reality that despite the many times he's reassured her that this is what he wants, he is still waiting to hear the same from her.
Present Day – Day 182
Taking a break from working at the hospital, Asami takes some time to practice her Quirk with Vlad King. He has still yet to agree that she has control on her manipulation side of the Quirk to be able to hold off multiple foes, but he tells her that she is getting close. He wants to make sure that she is careful in clotting the blood of others so not to lead to any lasting damage before introducing another person for her to puppeteer.
She keeps her father away from these sessions, knowing that if he doesn't approve of her using her Quirk to heal others, he will certainly not approve to know that she is using it to manipulate the movements of her opponents.
After her session with Vlad King, she notices Shouto hanging out with Tokoyami and Iida. She smiles at the trio and heads towards their group. "Hey guys, how's training been going?" she asks them.
They begin to tell her how they've progressed since they last spoke, with Shouto showing her his new Phosphorus move that he hopes to use to apprehend his brother. Asami smiles, hating that this has been place on his plate to do since she, Hawks, and Endeavor failed in that front.
"Asami," Tokoyami begins, "Have you been able to speak to Hawks much?" he asks her with a hint of a hopeful tone in his voice.
"Yeah," she says simply as they spend every night with each other.
"Would you be able to ask him to speak with me?" he asks her. "I've been trying to reach him, but he hasn't responded to me."
Asami's brows press together in confusion as to why Hawks would be avoiding Tokoyami when he's made time to spend with her. She can see the longing in his eyes and knows how important this is to him. "I'm sure he's been distracted by helping out in the search efforts for prison escapees," she tries to sell. "But I will let him know it's important."
"Thank you, Ma'am."
She nods at him when she notices two figures approaching them in the gym. Asami smiles when her eyes reach the duo that join the group.
"Natsuo, Fuyumi, what are you two doing here?" she asks them with a soft smile reaching her lips.
"Well, well, would you look at that? She lives!" Natsuo rolls his eyes as he teases Asami. "And here I thought you were living in Central Hospital!"
Asami laughs at his playful mocking. "Yeah—yeah, I'm kind of a big deal around there!" she teases him back with a flip of her short hair.
"I've heard!" he returns with lifting brows. "And here I thought I was going to be the one in medicine around here!" he grumbles under his breath.
"I can get you a good referral," she says as she nudges him with her hip.
"I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks!" Fuyumi says as she reaches for a hug that Asami strategically makes a side hug to avoid her feeling her growing belly.
"Yeah, I've been so focused on working in the hospital or training down here, that I feel like I haven't had much time for anything else," she grumbles at the thought that she hasn't given her best friends much time since this has all happened around them. Ever since the blow up between Asami and Fuyumi regarding her relationship with Dabi, Asami has been avoiding Fuyumi for fear of how she will react when she finds out the full extent of her actions.
"I'm planning on having a dinner at the end of this week with the family and I could really use your world-famous katsu chicken there!" she says with a wide smile that Asami can't help but match.
"Ah, please tell me you'll make me some!" Natsuo practically drools.
Asami laughs as he grabs her arm and shakes it with need. "Yeah okay, I can totally make some," she returns with a waving of her hand. "Is it alright if I bring Hawks?" she asks and this seems to make Fuyumi beam.
The white-haired Todoroki smiles wildly mostly because she can see that Asami is coming back to what she used to be before the incident. Fuyumi can see that Asami hasn't mentioned her time with the League and hopes that she is finally healing from the trauma that she endured.
"Sure he can come!" she happily tells her. "So, are you guys official now?" she asks her with a cheeky grin.
Asami laughs awkwardly, "Well—"
"Of course you are, I mean why else would you be wearing his baggy shirt around?" she says pinching at the fabric of her shoulder.
Asami looks down at the ill-fitting shirt of Hawks' that she wears. Naturally, she is wearing it to cover the growing belly that she can no longer hide or write off as bloating from a large meal. But she is still not ready to disclose that information with Fuyumi just yet, and especially not in this moment.
"It's just a comfortable shirt to work out in," Asami tries to sell with an awkward chuckle.
Fuyumi shakes her head and her friend's failed attempt at explaining this. "You work out in a sports bra and bootie shorts!" she accuses her. "You're not wearing that because it's comfy," she laughs.
"I don't know, it looks pretty comfy to me!" Natsuo scratches at the back of his head as he tries to awkwardly insert himself to save Asami from Fuyumi's inquisition.
"You're not convincing me otherwise!" Fuyumi points at her brother with an accusatory firmness.
"Oh hey, can my dad come tomorrow night too?" Asami desperately tries to change the subject. "He's been on my nerves recently, so maybe your dad can keep him busy for a while?"
"All are welcome!" Fuyumi smiles as she excitedly claps at the idea and Asami lets out a breath of air that she was able to effectively get her off of the topic.
"Great!" Asami adds with a huff. "Well, I better head out," she tells them. "I wanted to head to the hospital for a few hours before the tunnels close up."
"Okay, we'll see you tomorrow!" Fuyumi happily smiles as the girls share another hug before she departs from them.
Asami exhales at her ability to dodge the conversation about her stomach, but she knows that she can only dodge it for so long. Sooner or later the truth will have to come out that Asami is pregnant with Touya's child. She can only hope that the snowy haired woman will understand. She begins to prep herself for how she is going to broach this conversation with her, because at this point, she's showing too much to hide it any longer.
Spending the rest of her day working in the hospital and helping around, Asami focuses a lot of her efforts on aiding Lady Nagant's body to heal itself. She moves the blood from her heart through the vital points of her body, activating her white blood cells to fight off any infection and begin the restorative process. She has to be careful when she engages her Quirk like this, because too much use can cause the heart to be overworked and go into cardiac arrest.
Lady Nagant is in critical condition and hasn't been conscious since she was brought here, but Asami is optimistic that with her continuous work, the woman will come to soon. Nagant is a needed distraction from Hawks, her baby, or anything else going around her. She's able to disassociate from her obligations when she's here healing Lady Nagant, and that's probably why she spends most of her time with her.
Nagant is in rough shape, but with her constant work on her, she's healing up far nicely than she or Hawks did considering that Asami has been working around the clock to help her out. She isn't sure what it is about Nagant that has her so focused on helping her, but she finds herself drawn towards her.
Nagant was a former hero, forced into the undesirable work that the Hero Public Safety Commission placed on her and lost her sense of self because of it. Asami can't help but see herself and Hawks inside of Nagant. She was an agent of the HPSC like Hawks, forced into work for them that she may not have agreed with, and like Asami, she worked to build a lie of a narrative that did more harm to herself and the public than it did good.
She can see how someone like that would be driven to the edge if she felt like she was backed into a corner. Maybe if she can give something back to Nagant, then Asami can get a piece of her back that's been missing this whole time.
"Hum?"
Asami jumps when she hears the moan coming from Nagant as she begins to come to. She stands up from the stool she was sitting at and watches as the purple-haired woman begins stirring in her bed.
"Where…" she manages before groaning and silencing her attempt.
"You're in Central Hospital," Asami informs her. "Don't move too quickly, you're hooked up to I.V.s and your body is in pretty rough shape."
"Are you… doctor?" she questions as she struggles to open her eyes.
"Not really," Asami says with a scratch at the back of her head at how she can explain her role in all of this. "But I've been helping you out for the past few days. I can get the doctor if you would like."
"How long… I've been out?"
"Two days," Asami tells her and she groans at this information. "You were in pretty rough shape when you arrived. I was told you were boobytrapped by All For One?"
"Where's Hawks?" she questions as she turns her head to Asami, still unable to open her eyes.
"He's casing the city for jailbreakers," Asami informs her. "I'm sure he can fill you in tomorrow morning when he's back."
Nagant starts to lift herself into a seated position when Asami quickly reaches her hands out to her. "Woah, take it easy!" she tells her quickly as she places her hands on her shoulders lightly. "You're in no shape to be moving like that!"
Asami activates her Quirk on Nagant, and she lets out a soft moan as her muscles relax and her heart races. She turns her head towards her, now glaring at her with pressed eyes. "The hell are you doing to me?" she grunts.
"Sorry," Asami quickly says as she pulls her hands away from her. "It's just my Quirk. I'm moving your white blood cells to your wounds to help with the healing."
Nagant looks at her now, taking in the sight of her. She looks at her short purple hair brushing against her jawline, her lilac eyes looking up at her, and the obvious scars painting her neck and shoulder blades.
Asami takes a step away from Lady Nagant when she feels her tense eyes weighing down on her. She clears her throat as she searches the room for something else to look at and not the forceful glare of the woman lying before her.
"I should go—"
"You're the girl from the video," Nagant speak over her, rendering Asami's voice powerless. Asami's mouth is left agape as Nagant continues. "The one who threw herself in the flames to save Hawks." Asami tries to speak when Nagant silences her once more. "You're the Butterfly," she says and the word sends shivers down Asami's spine.
Asami's smile wipes completely off of her face as she stares at the woman with shock lacing her widened eyes. "What did you call me?" she questions with a shaking in her voice.
Dabi did not call Asami 'Butterfly' on the video, so the only way that she would know that nickname would be if… "You saw him?" Asami asks her with the most pathetic sounding voice that she hates herself for sounding so meek.
"Are they keeping you from looking outside?" Nagant questions her with a grunt as she tries to lift herself into a seated position. "Or do you not give a shit that he's burning down all of Japan to get your attention?"
Nagant quickly groans, reaching for her abdomen and abandoning her attempt to sit and ends up crashing down on the hospital bed with a rough thump.
"Careful!" Asami hisses at her as she reaches for the woman and activates her Quirk on her. "You'll tear your stitches," Asami scolds her with a saddening tone.
Asami uses the hospital bed's mechanical lift to incline Nagant into the seated position that she desperately tries to reach. Nagant's heart races as she watches Asami use her Quirk on her. Her eyes wonder to Asami's soft hands gliding just out of reach of her bandaged limbs. She feels an irresistible force of friction rubbing against the empty space between Asami's hands and Nagan't body. Her heart is beating wildly at the thought and she can't help but stare at the purple-haired woman while she works on her.
When Asami releases Nagant from her Quirk, Nagant feels like she's fallen from a high, desperate to get back the feeling of her hands back on her.
"Don't," Nagant begins, trying not to give in, but failing. "Don't stop," she asks her with a heavy sigh.
Asami's eyes reach Nagant's and the former pro feels fucking elated. She can't put her finger on it, but she feels validated and seen when Asami looks at her the way that she does. Nagant waits for Asami to use her Quirk, and every passing moment that she doesn't feels like an eternity that she's begging to end.
Asami lifts her hands and Nagant wets her dried lips when Asami begins using her Quirk on her once again. Nagant sighs when she feels her heart racing through her limbs. She feels like she's home, as if she knew where home was. She feels warm and at peace with her here.
After a few moments of basking in Asami's touch, Nagant finally opens her eyes through the euphoric feeling. She examines the face of the woman who is making her feel like this. Asami's features are lax as she focuses on her task at hand. Her skin seems soft, and Nagant can't ignore how beautiful she looks with pieces of short purple hair falling in front of her eyes. A soft wrinkle reaches the base of her brows as she concentrates on healing Nagant, making her wonder why it takes so much effort for her to use her Quirk like this. She figures it mustn't be easy for her to use her Quirk, or she isn't highly trained in it to be that focused on using it.
Nagant also notices the dark and heavy circles under her eyes that paint just how tired and fatigued she must be. She looks like she hasn't slept well and when she clears her head of the initial fog that she had when looking at her, she can see that Asami seems tired.
"So, you have noticed," Nagant begins with a heavy sigh. "And you do care," she points out while Asami's eyes reach hers once more, causing her heart to become giddy. "You don't just run yourself ragged trying to heal a villain and not give a shit that another one is burning down all of Japan because of you."
Asami's eyes turn away from Nagant's and she feels a panic set into her chest at upsetting her, but she shakes her head of the feeling.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Asami sighs as she keeps her eyes focused on her hands releasing her Quirk. "Is he…" she clears her throat when her voice cracks, "doing okay?"
Nagant blinks at Asami, feeling completely baffled at her comment. She wants to ask her if she's blind or just an idiot, but she refrains from saying either. "He wants you back," Nagant tells her and Asami's frown deepens against her lips.
Nagant separates her lips, preparing herself to say something when the door to her hospital room opens, causing both women to look up at the intruder that has disturbed them. Nagant's eyes grow dark when she sees who interrupted them, and how it is the last person she wants to see right now.
"Eat shit, I'm not speaking with you," Nagant spits out at the president of the HPSC in the doorway.
The blonde woman presses her lips into a flat line, deepening the wrinkles around her mouth to show more prominently. "Miss Hatsuse, would you please give us a moment alone?" she turns to Asami.
Asami looks down at Nagant, retracting her hands from using her Quirk and rubbing them against her pants. Nagant frowns when she releases her Quirk and steps away from her without another word. She watches as Asami leaves her, seeing a familiar tense interaction between her and the HPSC president that Nagant is accustomed to.
Once Asami leaves the room, Nagant finally feels herself again. She takes in a deep breath and clears her head of the fog that Asami cased over her. She suddenly feels a clarity now that she is out of the room and not putting an overcast on her mind.
"Gotta say, you really outdid yourself finding someone with a Quirk like hers. And here I thought you were above psychological warfare," she shakes her head with disappointment. "No wonder that burnt psychopath was obsessed with her," she adds under her breath.
Nagant expects the HPSC president to respond with a narrowing of her eyes or a humorless scowl at her plans being found so obvious, but instead, she returns Nagant's words with genuine confusion. "What are you talking about?" she questions her.
Nagant tilts her head to the side, trying to determine if she is playing coy with her, but when she sees the sincere confusion in her eyes, she realizes that she has no idea what she is talking about. "You seriously don't know?" Nagant questions her, trying to see if this is some trap of sorts.
When she determines that it's not, she begins to chuckle. "You've never had her use her Quirk on you, have you?"
"It's a cheap blood Quirk, what of it?" the president responds with no enthusiasm at Nagant's beating around the bush.
The purple-haired woman shakes her head at how unaware she is. "It's not her Quirk, but rather the way she's using it," Nagant informs her. "She could easily move the blood from my veins, but it's because she's pulling blood from the heart that makes it beat faster, causing me to feel like this."
The president shrugs her shoulders, "So?"
"Heart's racing, endorphins releasing, suddenly everything just feels so good," Nagant tells her and sees that the president is still not getting it. "I felt fucking enamored by her," she tells her bluntly. "She made me feel like I was in love for the first time, like I've known no other love. Giddy and fucking euphoric; I didn't want her to stop touching me."
The president's face drops as her eyes widen with understanding. Her hand reaches her mouth as she brushes her palm against her lips in thought.
"Yeah," Nagant says now that she understands. "Shit, I'd do anything to have her come back here," she says shaking her head, feeling like a junkie begging to feel that high again.
The president is lost in thought, wondering if Asami is aware of her Quirk's side effect, or if she's completely oblivious to it. She thinks about Hawks and his infuriating loyalty to her, or Dabi's addiction towards her, and now it all suddenly makes sense.
The president knows that she has to table this information for now and get to the task at hand. "All For One hired you to bring Deku to him. Where did he want you to bring him?"
"Like hell I'm going to talk to you," she turns her head away from her.
"Kaina," the president implores her. "With this information we can—"
"Spare me the first names and pleasantries," she scoffs at her. "You had me imprisoned for years; you think I'm going to shrug that off because some kid saves me from getting blown to bits?"
"Does it not beat the alternative?" she questions her with a tilt of her head as she digs her hands into her pockets. "You and I both know my predecessor would have had you killed on the spot."
"Something tells me Keigo's influence had more to do with that," she sneers at him.
"Yes, well his infatuation with you was irritating to say the least," she says when she side-eyes her. "Seems to have a type though," she offhandedly adds when she notices the similarities of the two girls.
Nagant's brows press together, but the president chooses not to elaborate more and instead continues with, "I can make you a deal." Nagant's eyes narrow at the blonde immediately not trusting anything she says. "You give us the location that All For One instructed you to bring Deku, and I will give you an official pardon. You will be free of the commission, and your past with us."
Nagant snorts at this, only to begin erupting in laughter when she sees the president is serious. "A pardon?" she questions, "To return to what? This hellscape your heroes are battling to regain? You really think having the ability to walk freely amongst the streets is going to entice me? Have you looked outside recently?"
The president's face drops into a scowl. "Giving us the location of All For One can have us turn the—"
"You're out of your mind," she snaps at her with a finality in her tone. "All For One is just going to boobytrap the location just like he did that Quirk." Nagant scoff, "But then again, you've never really had any regard for the lives of heroes, have you?"
"Fine," the president says with heavy sign, "If that is how it is, then I suppose there is not further use in having Miss Hatsuse coming here to heal up your wounds," she lifts herself from her stool as Nagant's lavender eyes widen at her threat. "What a shame, she had so many more sessions with you planned out.
Before the president can reach the hospital door, the villain calls out to her. "Wait…" she releases with a pent-up sigh. "Alight," she scoffs pitifully, "I'll tell you, just…" she shuts her eyes, feeling so shameful for being desperate to have that woman's hands on her again. "Just have her come back."
The president is taken aback by how well that worked, but she schools her expressions to appear neutral. She's in shock that a simple threat like that was enough to have her crumbling to her needs. It now brings up the question to the president of how powerful Asami's Quirk really can be if she has Nagant wanting so badly.
Present Day – Day 183
The president of the Hero Public Safety Commission wrings her hands as she thinks about what to do with the information that Lady Nagant gave her about Asami's Quirk. All night she was considering how this could pan out in her favor. If it were as strong as Nagant made it out to be, it could give explanation into why Keigo is so enamored by her, or how Dabi was tamed by her. And if that were the case, it opens her up to being far more useful in this war than she already has been.
As much as Nagant teased her for not being above using psychological torture, the president is not against doing what needs to be done to end this war. If Asami can use her Quirk to dissuade Dabi from fighting, or cloud over Shigaraki's mind to turn against All For One, they could gain the upper hand on the villains and end this. It is one of the better outcomes she can come up with, considering they are facing a massive war on the horizon.
There are children fighting this war, and so many heroes have died, been critically injured, or completely abandoned their posts because of the power that the villains hold in this moment. How can she lead this nation into a victory when everything around her is falling into disarray.
She cannot get support gear for her own heroes, she cannot rally together the oversaturation of heroes that she once had under her belt, and she can't even find where her enemy is hiding! The intel from Nagant was correct, but clearly a trap. If she cannot protect her most valuable players, how can she be trusted to move the game pieces?
All For One has been playing this game for generations, and she was just given this job at an unprecedented time. She is in a desperate circumstance, and despite her promise to herself that she wouldn't fight this war with sneaky tactics and unnecessary bloodshed like her predecessor, she feels as though she has no other choice.
The blonde first needs to determine if Asami's Quirk works in the way that Nagant explained, and isn't a side effect of the pain medication they have her on.
She looks down at her very hands that she wrings nervously. She stops her nervous tick and looks onto the palms of her hands. She's shaking and for some reason, she questions if what she is about to do is right. But then again, what will the details matter when the outcome means the survival of so many depending on her?
Asami enters the Support Course shop where she looks for the pink-haired Hatsume. She smiles when she sees the goggled girl hunching over some weapon that she is working on.
"Hatsume!" she calls out to her with a small wave.
"Ah Hatsuse, what brings you here?" she asks without looking up from her experiment.
"I was wondering if my father came by?" she asks her. "Has he given you any information on financials regarding Hawks' prosthetics?"
The pink-haired girl looks up from her work, pulling her goggles onto her forehead to look at Asami with her yellow scope eyes. "No, I haven't heard from him. No funds were transferred from what I know…" she lingers, glancing over at Powerloader who confirms the same with a nodding of his head.
Asami bites the inside of her cheek, figuring her father would wait until the contract between Hawks and her was signed and set before moving a single yen towards helping Hawks, but she was hopeful in thinking that he would do it prematurely.
"Thanks," she says with a sigh, "Can you let me know when the funds are transferred?" she asks and the support girl gives her a thumbs up.
Asami leaves the shop, heading for Central Hospital until she's to meet with her father this afternoon. She decides to help Recovery Girl with inventory of medical supplies while the old woman is at Shiketsu. She pulls out a clipboard and begins mindlessly immersing herself in the monotony of cataloguing the materials to keep her mind busy.
Tomorrow is the day that she and Hawks have to give her father their answer, and though Hawks seems to be at peace with his decision, Asami still can't help but question herself. Today she spent hours holding onto the ring, wishing that she didn't wonder what could have been while she held onto the diamond. She can't—despite how much she tries—find this answer to be the right one. It isn't that she doesn't want to marry Hawks; she often fantasized about it for years. It's just how they're being brought together that she can't seem to stomach. That and—
"She's my wife, hero!"
Asami groans at the memory of his visceral declaration on the dreadful day.
"Tell him, Butterfly." His voice reels into her head over and over again.
Asami hunches over, holding her head as she presses the palms of her hands onto her eye sockets. "Please stop," she begs under her breath with a soft whine, trying so desperately to will away the demon in her mind that won't stop speaking to her.
"Hatsuse?"
She jumps at the sound of her name being called out, and turns on her heel to attention at the blonde woman that stands in front of her.
Asami blinks back at the image of the President of the Hero Public Safety Commission entering the room. Before she can inquire in what she is doing here, Asami's lilac eyes glance down to see the woman's trembling hands outstretched before her to show a gash on the palm of her hands.
"Oh," Asami releases as she jumps into action, propping up her palms to examine the cut. "Are you alright?" she asks her.
"It's nothing, just a silly cut. I was being reckless with a blade and slipped," she says dismissively, trying to appear aloof and cool when her heart's rapid beating gives away the truth.
Asami examines the cut to see that it's deep enough that she will need stitches. She thinks about administering the aid herself when the image crashes into the forefront of her memory at the last time she gave someone stitches. She didn't know what she was doing back then, but she wanted to help him; he looked to be in so much pain and if she was able to alleviate any of it, she would do whatever she needed to.
She didn't know Dabi was Touya back then, but she cared for him. She saw how much he cared for the League back then, and she saw how much he cared for her back then.
"You make me… want to give up on it all…"
She closes her eyes for a moment while she focuses on willing away his voice, and his face, and any other haunting image of him that won't go away. She doesn't want to let her mind wonder on if those words still ring true because she knows they don't.
She told him to stop his advancements towards Hawks and to leave with her for the countryside. She told him that she could have saved Twice, but he wouldn't stop using his flames. He didn't give up on it all for her in the end. And she needs to fucking remember that.
Asami releases her palm, turning from her as she says, "I can clean it up for you, but you might want to meet with someone about stitches," she says in a flat tone, unwilling to stitch up the woman as chokes on the memory of the dark-haired man
"Well, I don't want to be a bother," she begins with a false smile. "There's no need to waste medical supplies on something so harmless."
She keeps her golden eyes on Asami as the young woman opens a cabinet full of medicine. She reaches for the isopropyl alcohol and a handful of gauze. "Some of the most harmless wounds can fester into something more serious," Asami tells her with a quiet voice.
The blonde presses her lips into a flat line, accentuating the lines near her mouth as Asami begins pouring the clear liquid on her wound. She hisses at the burning sensation, feeling the wound to be deeper than she had intended it to be.
She stares at Asami's passive look in her eyes as she works on cleaning up her wound, seeming to look at peace in this moment. Unlike Lady Nagant, Asami doesn't tell her to fuck off, despite probably wanting to. She's sure Asami isn't a fan of hers—seeing as how she's given her every reason to hate her. And yet here she is, doing this kindness for her for no reason in particular.
"Thank you," she finds herself letting out before she can silence herself. She quickly rolls her lips into her mouth when Asami's lilac eyes turn to her. "You didn't have to, is all," she explains with a shrug.
Asami shakes her head slightly, "It's nothing," she begins. "I'm not doing much right now anyway."
"To be candid with you, I didn't expect you to be so willing to help," the president starts as she watches Asami with wary eyes.
Asami lets a soft smile reach her lips when she hears this. "Thought I'd tell you to eat shit like Nagant?" she questions her with a light scoff.
"Yes, actually," the blonde returns with a blunt tone.
Asami responds with a shrugging of her shoulders. "I'm sure she has her reasons to hate you, but I don't."
The blonde is taken aback by this comment, looking up at Asami with shock seeping through her relatively stone-cold exterior. "You don't?" she questions.
Asami's eyes are now on hers, "Why would I?"
The president is taken aback by her words once more, knowing that she's not toying with her. "Because of Keigo?" she offers.
"I'm not going to deny that buying off a child from his impoverished family to join your secret sect of child soldiers isn't a bad thing," she begins with a hint of critical malice. "But you did make Keigo's life better for it. The public image you wanted to peddle from there made sense."
"And…" the blonde hesitates, "You're not angry about what happened?" she thinks about Hawks and his hatred for her in that moment. The way that he snarled at her and demanded that Asami be transferred was the type of visceral reaction she expected for Asami, but so far, she was… level-headed.
"I'm not blind to what would have happened had that information come out when it did. I was a direct report of Hawks. At best, the media would have called me a Starfucker." Asami sighs when she's brought back to the moment that she was caught on Hawks' desk and her cheeks turn bright scarlet. "I would have preferred to have never been caught, but considering how it happened, me being transferred to Endeavor was a courtesy I shouldn't have been afforded; we should have both lost our jobs for our inappropriate conduct."
Asami looks down at the cut, figuring that the woman wants to speak with her, or might need the catharsis in this conversation finally being voice, so there's no use in delaying the treatment that she needs. Asami sighs when she decides to stitch her up herself and turns from the president to get the proper tools.
"I'm not going to deny that I was emotional," Asami continues as she rummages around for the equipment. "I didn't want to lose my job, and I didn't want to be caught with Keigo like that. Naturally, I wanted a relationship with him, and at the time, I never really understood why he couldn't just come out with it."
"I told him I would end your career if he did," she returns with a harsh bluntness, trying to get a more emotionally charged response from the woman.
Asami returns with a sad nod of her head, figuring as much now. "Keigo really has a way of worrying about others," she says as she turns to begin sewing up the woman's palm.
"What about Dabi?"
The question causes Asami to grow rigid as her fingers tense up against the woman's palm. The president examines her every miniscule detail for different tells on how she's receiving this question. Eventually, Asami schools her emotions to return to a more neutral stance.
"Hawks told me you were far from pleased to hear about the assignment I asked of you," the president begins, referring to Asami sleeping with Dabi for information.
"I wasn't yours to assign things to," Asami tells her in a more leveled way than how she responded to Hawks in that moment.
"Do understand, we were at a loss for what to do, and your position within the League—"
"You got what was needed," Asami cuts her off in a slightly aggressive tone that the president has been trying to get from her.
The blonde looks into Asami's eyes, seeing hurt lacing over in them at the mention of Dabi. She can see the longing in her gaze for the man and a sense of regret begins bubbling up in the blonde's stomach.
"I'm curious," the blonde begins as she watches Asami's eyes focus on stitching her. "Why did Dabi's dossier that you provided Hawks with not have his identity as Touya Todoroki in it? Surely you knew?"
Asami inhales deeply, hands visibly shaking as she attempts to keep her hands steady. "At the time, I didn't think it was necessary information in taking him down," she states plainly, but the blonde can hear her truth between those words.
The president can see the clear lie in Asami's tone, knowing that the information was extremely vital for Hawks to understand the situation he was entering. "You also didn't mention that his Quirk was not suitable for his body," she reminds Asami. "That would have been useful information."
Asami finally finds the strength to match the woman's gaze, looking at her with heavy eyes that intensify. "Because I loved him and I was afraid that Hawks wouldn't help me escape with him if he knew that Dabi was Endeavor's son," she tells her candidly with a flat tone. "Had he known his weakness, Hawks would've subdued him and I wouldn't have been able to leave with him. Is that what you're looking to hear?"
Asami's tone is more combative, and what she was expecting from the beginning from her, though she supposes she deserves this pushback with striking the sensitive subject that Dabi has become to her.
It's not that the president wanted to come here looking for a fight with Asami, she simply wanted the girl to express her true feelings towards her. It's clear that she is not harboring as much hatred towards her as she expected, but there is still some clear resentment for her, or for the situation Asami has been placed in since she was returned from Dabi's grasp.
The president sighs, turning her head from her and looking off into the nothingness of the room. "It wasn't just for information," she begins with a shrug of her shoulders. "It's that…" she thinks about the lack of killings and sightings when Dabi had her captive. He was more willing to spend his days with her than with the League. She had a hold over his heart that no one seemed to have. "It's that you tamed him," she finishes and Asami's eyes soften up on her. "When you were with Dabi, he wasn't killing, or burning, or doing anything the League asked of him. He was docile around you. Because of you."
"You make me want to be a better man."
Asami turns away from the president, unwilling to look at her with those words hanging heavily in her memory. "None of that matters anymore," Asami mumbles under her breath as she desperately tries to calm the beating of her heart.
The president watches Asami's chin quiver as she tries to keep herself from breaking down in front of her. She feels sorry for the girl, seeing just how much she's been left broken and destroyed—burned—by the villain, and yet she still can't stand here and hate him for it like she ought to.
"Ever since I was a young girl, I've wanted to be a hero," the president begins outload, but doesn't seem to be speaking to Asami. "But there was never really a way that I could have made it onto the scene in such a spectacular way like All Might, or Endeavor. Years of comparing myself to others and realizing that I didn't have a flashy Quirk like theirs. I didn't have something that could save civilians from robbers, or fight Nomus in a grandeur battle."
She turns to Asami to see the girl focusing on stitching her, and she continues speaking to herself because there's almost a cleansing in just talking to someone who will listen. "I can detect when someone is lying," she divulges to her and is relieved to see Asami doesn't react to the information. "I can hear this secondary speech when someone speaks to me, like little tiny murmurs in the white spaces between their words whispering the truth to me. If you don't speak to me, I cannot hear the truth from you; so naturally no one wanted to speak with me growing up. And there's not much I can do in fieldwork, so I was destined for an office job. I was pretty quickly scouted by the HPSC for that reason," she says with a bitterness building in her tone.
"I suppose it gave me an edge in the field, but it was tiring hearing these combating voices of what we tell everyone versus what we truly believe. Maybe that is why I've always come off so bluntly?" she questions, "I never really felt the need to hold back and play it safe with my words."
She sighs, shooting her head back and looking at the ceiling of the hospital room. Her eyes fixate on the abrasive florescent lights sizzling above them. "I don't know why I've become all reminiscent right now," she waves her uncut hand dismissively.
"I don't mind," Asami tells her as she tugs on the thread of her stitches.
"I'm guessing you hate it here," The president cranks her head towards her. "I remember you when you worked for Hawks—even under Endeavor you had more spunk in you."
"I think skipping in the halls of a war-torn hospital with glee in my stride might be a bit insensitive, all things considering," Asami snorts back.
The president releases a humored scoff at Asami's response. "What I mean is you've seemed to have been burying yourself with your Quirk these past few days. You've been spending most of your days here in Central Hospital among the wounded rather than with your friends at UA."
"I never really worked with my Quirk before," Asami explains to her. "I want to reconnect with that side of me."
The president uses her Quirk on Asami and can hear the clear truth hidden behind her words, instead hearing withing the white noise of her words plainly speaking, "It's because of me that Twice is dead."
The blonde frowns when she sees the guilt that Asami holds from not having a better grasp on her Quirk.
She was informed of what happened between Hawks and Twice, as well as Asami's involvement in the situation. Things could have played out differently had she trained her Quirk at all, but that is not the facet of her Quirk that she is interested in.
"Or do you choose to continue spending most of your time at Central Hospital because the view of Dabi's rampage is blocked by UA?"
Asami pulls her hands from the president's and her face falls flat with annoyance. "You're all finished," she says dismissively as she leaves the wound unbandaged.
The President looks down, examining the sloppy stitches she was given. "What about your Quirk?" she questions her, getting to the point of why she is really here.
"The wound isn't deep; you should be fine if you take it easy."
"I've watched you run yourself ragged with your Quirk on everyone in this building," she begins. "You're clearly not getting any sleep, you're pushing the limits of your Quirk beyond its threshold, and the fatigue is starting to show," she tells her bluntly as she looks onto the dark circles under her bloodshot eyes. "There is clearly something you're trying to prove." Asami focuses on cleaning up the tools that she used on the president while she speaks. "I'm sorry about what happened that day, but it doesn't do you any good killing yourself over it by overusing your Quirk."
Asami turns on her heels, grabbing the woman's palm, "Here then," she mutters under her breath as she releases her Quirk.
The sensation of Asami using her Quirk on the blonde is a strange one at first. Initially, she feels the rapid beating of her heart. The pounding against her chest feels like she's in the middle of a run that she's not physically equipped at completing. It's a strange sensation in the beginning as her heart works in overtime to pump the blood she needs to reach her hand. But when the blood begins rushing through her veins, that is when she feels what Nagant described.
It's almost instantaneously when her brain begins to equate the beating of her heart as a euphoric sensation. It's the high of finishing a workout, the excitement of seeing the smile of the one you love, or the weightlessness of a drug lifting up your limbs to a limitless sky.
Her heart is racing, her cheeks are blushed over, her brain is lightheaded, her vision is blurred. There is a tingling sensation zapping through her arms that ich for her to hug Asami in an inescapable embrace.
She feels starry-eyed and relaxed as a warmth wraps around her, and she cannot help but cry at the sensation.
"Are you alright?" Asami asks her, pulling her hands away and deactivating her Quirk when she sees the tears falling from the blonde's eyes.
Suddenly, the blonde is plummeting to the ground with clarity. She feels feverish and needy to have that feeling once again like a junkie begging for a drug's high once more.
"Oh wow," she releases breathlessly. "Kaina was right," she shakes her head of the fog while wiping her cheeks of the wayward tears that spilled from her lashes.
Asami looks at her for an explanation and the president considers how to approach this next moment. She wasn't expecting the feeling to be as strong as Nagant had described it, but considering how she's feeling, she cannot help but tell her.
"Your Quirk," she begins with a heavy sigh as she tries to ground herself from the high. "Do you understand how you're using it?"
Asami's brows press together with a confusion building in the base of her forehead. "I pull the blood from the heart to command white blood cells to a damaged spot of the body to quicken the body's natural healing process," she informs her in an almost rehearsed way.
"And you train like this?"
"Well, I use it differently when I am working with Vlad King," she informs her. "I just stop the blood flow in his veins to puppeteer him."
"I suppose it's starting to make sense," she speaks with herself as she thinks about just how Hawks has always been so willing to overlook everything with Asami, as well as Dabi's tonal shift. "He's become enamored."
"What are you talking about?" Asami puts her hands on her hips with a frustration at the woman's unwillingness to speak clearly.
The blonde turns to her, golden eyes on her with a harshness now that takes Asami aback. "Your Quirk is making the recipients feel high," she returns bluntly.
"Huh?" Asami blinks at her with utter confusion.
"I just felt it," she confirms it. "The way you move the blood from the heart, it made me feel elated. I would do anything to feel that again; throw any amount of money your way or fall for you deeply. It's clear that your Quirk has become a drug to Keigo that he's been abusing."
Asami widens her eyes, feeling her body stiffen as her limbs tense up at the information dump the president is piling onto her. "I… I… don't…"
"These circumstances are far more interesting than I had initially anticipated," she begins scheming to herself.
"No, this doesn't make sense…" Asami says as she runs her fingers through her hair, trying to find a point to focus onto the room and calm her beating heart.
"It's clearly worked on Dabi; he's burning down all of Japan just to get his fix back," she mumbles. "With the promise of having you back, he'd undoubtedly be willing to cooperate."
Asami feels a heat crashing into her as something begins building and rising up her throat. She lifts her hands to clutch onto her lips to hold herself from retching at what the woman is insinuating.
"I'd give anything just to feel like that again," she drones on with a plan and Asami can no longer stomach this anymore.
She turns from her, running out of the room as hot tears begin stinging her cheeks. Asami barely makes it to a trashcan before retching all of her breakfast into the wastebin. Her fingers turn white from how hard she's clutching onto the edges of the trashcan as vomit spills from the back of her throat.
A sweat kisses her face as she looks up from the bin to the windows that show UA in the horizon lit up by a blue haze of flames. She takes a step from the wastebin, entranced by an irresistible pull to look out of the window. From here, she can see the city burned in a sapphire glow of Dabi's flames, and the burning feeling in her chest is too painful to bare, knowing that he's not burning the town because he loves her and wants her back, but because he's addicted to her. And in this moment, she feels useless, loveless, and empty.
Present Day – Day 183
Dabi leans up against a tree, hands dug deeply in his pockets as he watches the mansion in the horizon. He has a smile plastered on his face so wide that despite the pain of his staples pulling taut, he continues to press his grin to his ears.
The rest of the League members fled the scene when the purple-haired princess was captured, figuring that she would rat them out to the heroes. But Dabi opted to stay back at the location every day since her seizure, sitting and waiting for the heroes to come and raid the home. He isn't waiting to fight them, but rather just to get a good look at them.
The green-haired kid is the first that he sees, heading steadfast towards the trap with that look of hope in his eyes like he could actually make a change in the world.
The next he sees is that denim fucker Best Jeanist and just the sight of him makes Dabi rage with a red-hot heat. What a sad excuse of a fucking hero. What hero allows himself to be incapacitated at the most pivotal moments of a war? It was because of him that people died and Dabi was able to ravage his Quirk the way that he has.
After him, come Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and Edgeshot. Dabi pays them no attention seeing as how none of them were in the thick of the fight where he was. He's sure they gave their best, and their best wasn't good enough.
Then there's Hawks, and Dabi can't ignore the complicated feelings flowing through his chest. He's elated to see that pretty little face of his all scarred and marked by his flames. Dabi's sure that Asami probably hates looking at him knowing that she couldn't stop his rampage. But all those feelings of happiness and excitement at his messed-up face are all crushed when he sees those tiny red feathers peaking from the hem of his jacket.
Why the fuck are your wings growing back!
Dabi was sure he burned Hawks to a crisp that his back would never grow a single puff of feathers; the birdface's shadow practically confirmed it. So why the fuck were his wings coming back? It completely devalued him as a villain that he wasn't able to permanently ground that fucking chicken.
When Dabi watched from the wayside as the hero tried saving Nagant from her plumet, the deepest pits of his stomach ignited with a fury at the fact that he got to walk away unscathed and without punishment for what he did to Twice.
Hawks killed a man.
He isn't allowed to get his wings back. He isn't allowed to keep being the hero. He isn't allowed to get the girl!
Dabi slams his fist against the tree that he is leaning on, unintentionally setting the trunk ablaze as he releases his Quirk from the fury building inside him.
"The next time I see you, Birdy, I'll burn your fucking skin off," he promises him with a growl in his tone. Twice isn't going to die for nothing, and this he will make sure of.
Dabi is so distracted by his hate for Hawks, that he practically misses the last hero to enter the building.
"Endeavor," he sneers at the red-haired man who saunters towards the mansion like he isn't a fucking disgrace. How can he continue working with everything that Dabi has aired out to the public. How are people not more outraged that this child abuser and rapist is allowed to serve them? Atonement, action, servitude. None of it matters when the truth is out there.
"I'm watching you, Dad," Dabi says with a widening smile as his eyes flare open to watch as the heroes enter their trap. "Burn in hell with your failure son!" he announces as the explosion rings through the quiet forest night.
The horizon lights up with an orange hue as flames devour the surrounding trees. Dabi watches with glistening eyes as he's brought to tears at the beautiful sight. He's always been an emotional kid, and something about watching these false heroes come together to roast at a trap that he laid swirls an overwhelming mixture of feeling in him, that all he can do is cry.
Dabi returns to the new safe house with a smile plastered on his face, despite the gnawing pain of his sizzling flesh eating away at him.
He's feeling overjoyed in this moment because despite not getting Asami's attention just yet, he's leaving little fires all over Japan that are beginning to spread at a rapid rate as the heroes scramble to contain them. He's setting the country ablaze and it's all her fault. Soon, her stupid little conscious will break and she will come crawling back to him to take her place by his side where she belongs.
He groans as he enters the small room that he's made his home in the interim until she returns. His skin is tight and his wounds are festering under the surface with his lack of care recently. The healthy skin of his cheeks have since burned with purple blotches and he's stopped stapling his loose skin together, allowing it to melt off of him, leaving him looking more disfigured and nightmarish. When he sees Asami again, he imagines she'll be so horrified to see his body deteriorated in such a fashion. And Dabi's eagerly waiting to entrap her in this nightmare that he lives.
Dabi hears someone shifting in his room and he's quick to light a flame in his left palm, readying himself to strike, but his blood runs cold when his eyes land on the lilac orbs of his doe-eyed lover.
Dabi is left standing there frozen in shock at the sight of her. He blinks to see that she's not disappearing like she does when he fucks his hand at the ghost of her.
Dabi blinks once more, confirming that Asami is in fact standing in front of him in the flesh. Her purple hair is vibrant in the dreary room he's found himself in, and her eyes are practically magnetic as they drive him in. Against all inhibition, he steps towards her. He lifts his hand out in the space between them, reaching for her face and touching the soft ivory skin with his calloused fingertips.
His heart races at the warmth of her face and realization that she is whole in front of him. This isn't a vision or a trick of the light. She is here in the flesh. But seeing her long hair, and flawless skin has him dropping his hand from her face and his eyes narrowing into uninterested slits as his shoulders loosen from their high alert.
When he realizes what is going on, his lips part as his hoarse voice croaks out, "When'd you manage to get her blood?"
A wide toothy grin reaches the purple-haired woman's lips as she speaks, "you recognized that it was me," her voice is still Asami's, but Dabi can sense Toga's presence.
"I left her a scorched mess," he flatly returns, keeping his mind off of the desperate panic he felt when he held her in his arms and begged her to come back to him. "I imagine when I see her again, she'll look like shit."
Toga frowns behind the mask of Asami's face and Dabi steps toward her. He reaches towards her porcelain face and brushes his calloused thumb against her soft cheek. Toga manages to look so much like her when her eyes reach his, looking up at him with a wide-eyed innocence that makes his heart beat erratically.
Fuck, this complicates things.
Just looking at her makes Dabi melt and his heart ache with something he's suppressed for years. He's longing for her, more than he's ever longed for anything in his life. More than even being a hero. He wants her back so badly that the feeling in his chest makes him feel like he's going to die without her.
He feels a tightening in his throat that makes him feel sick. He feels helpless, like he wants to cry just thinking about the state she must be in. Her body was ravaged by his Quirk. Red blotchy scars scratched their way up her back and around her neck. And when he tried to burn them both into an afterlife they could share with one another, he probably burned her even more.
Dabi wants to hate her for choosing to save Hawks in the end. He wants to hate her for allowing Twice to die on the floor while she stupidly ran into his flames. She was supposed to choose him—the bird told him that she chose him—but she still ran after the hero as if the time she spent with Dabi meant nothing.
He wants to hate her for all of those reasons, but having her standing here before him—even if it's Toga under there—just seeing her here makes him want to give up on it all.
Dabi doesn't know how she managed to survive his flames, let alone the fall when Gigantomacia rampaged through the building, but he doesn't care about the details. He knows she's alive; he can feel it eating away at his barely beating heart.
He's felt so much hate these past few days as he rages through Japan, leaving a fiery trail in his wake. He wants to get her attention in the worst way possible because he wants to punish her for leaving with the heroes, but seeing her in the flesh before him makes him question his methods.
Fuck if she has a way of calming his ravenous rage. He just wants her back. He wants to hold her again and smell her flowery scent invade his space. He wants to wrap his disfigured arms around her milky skin and bury himself inside of her. He wants to fuck her until she's so full of his seed that there'd be no way she wasn't carrying his little bastard.
He wants to beat his father at his own game and fuck her with so many Todoroki brats. Only he'd be a good dad to them, or at least a better father than Endeavor ever was. And she would be beautiful swollen with his seed while doting on the others.
Why didn't I fucking leave with you?
"How much blood did she let you take?" he asks Toga as his mind is lost in thought at what he destroyed.
"Not much," she frowns as Dabi continues to brush her cheek. "I told her I wanted her blood because I love her, and I want to be just like her," she shrugs. "I don't imagine this will last long."
Dabi frowns at this. He knows he's not going to fuck the little psychopath, even if she's in Asami's skin, but he was at least hoping to do something with her. Maybe use her body to infiltrate the heroes and get the real Asami back, but that doesn't seem to be possible now.
"Why'd you use it now?" he asks her, pulling his hand away from brushing her cheek.
She sighs, "You've seemed sad recently," she tells him and he rolls his eyes at her assessment. "I wanted to make you feel happy again. And I knew seeing Asami would make you happy."
"I'll get her back," he promises her.
"Is that why you keep leaving to burn those buildings?"
Dabi turns from her, hands dug in his pockets as he idly paces his room.
"Do you think she knows about the fires?" she asks him.
"I'm sure the heroes are keeping it from her," he answers with a dismissive tone.
"What are you going to do when you get her back?" she asks with a tilt of her head and Dabi turns to her.
He looks onto those lilac eyes as they stare up at him and await his answer. He pulls his hand out of his jeans and reaches out for her once more. Each time his hands graze the soft skin of her face, his heart leaps pathetically in his chest.
He needs to forget this shit. He needs to be done with her so she doesn't have such a powerful hold on him. He needs to be in control of his emotions and not let her have that power over him.
His hand moves from brushing her cheek to wrapping his fingers around her neck. Her eyes widen at his change in touch and he pulls her closer to him, examining the look of panic sweeping over her features.
"I'm going to take her as my prize," he begins as he examines her features. "I'm going to parade her before that flying fuck tard and dear ol' dad to show them just how much I've won."
His irises are swirling with a deviance on how he will show off his winnings to the two of them. Hawks will know that he was the lesser man of the two of them, and his father will perish by the flames of his failure creation.
"And when I'm finished with her," he begins, eyes focusing on hers once more. "I'm going to kill her." He announces in a finite tone, despite the tightening of his throat that makes him question if he even can. "And then I will burn Endeavor to hell with us."
That is his plan, and that is the plan that he will commit to reality. Because the truth of it is that seeing her standing before him, none of it is what he truly wants. Having her standing before him with her silky skin beneath his own makes him long for nothing more than that quiet life together.
But Endeavor doesn't get a free pass, and neither does he. He must pay for the lives he's taken, Hawks must pay for killing Twice, and his father for what he did to him and his mother. They will all join him in that sentencing.
"That's so romantic," Toga swoons with glistening eyes. "Two lovers dying together to be side by side in death!" Dabi scoffs at the little freak's idea of romantic.
He lets go of her neck and the vision of Asami begins to melt before him as Toga loses her power over her appearance. Dabi takes a step away from her as a naked Toga stands before him with a soft pout on her face.
He sighs, as he watches the last glimpses of Asami melt away from him, ignoring the breaking of his heart all over again.
"Come on," Dabi's voice rasps as he turns from the blonde. "Get dressed, I'm taking you out."
Dabi rests his lips against his rough knuckles as he watches the blonde from the windowsill of an adjacent home. He examines the young blonde as she walks into the home with slow and hesitant steps. The home has been abandoned—probably longer than the war has been going on—and covered in graffiti slandering the girl that ventures into the building.
He praises her for having the strength to face her childhood home on her own, asking him to stay behind while she does this by herself. He doesn't imagine that he could enter his home again, having been only in the courtyard all those months ago with Asami being enough to drive him mad.
Dabi wonders what Toga is thinking when he's watching her, and if it's hurting her to see her home with the memories of her family destroyed and vandalized like that. He wonders if she holds any nostalgia or longing to return to her life back then. She doesn't seem to dwell on it much, or at least not outwardly with Dabi. She doesn't seem to long for retribution like he does, and he guesses that he admires her for that strength.
He doesn't have visual on her anymore as she walks through the modest home. He considers going down there and being by her side, but figures that she needs to work her shit out alone first. He scoffs and shakes his head at how much he cares for the lunatic now. He worries about her and doesn't want her to be sad. He thinks about what he told Hawks, and how he doesn't care about Shigaraki or the rest of the League; how they were all steppingstones to his goal. But they've all become a cancer invading his empty chest; growing and festering inside of him. He wants to protect them, and he doesn't really know how to do that.
Dabi is brought back to his surroundings when he sees Toga stepping out of the front porch of her home. She looks sad, and he can see that she's no longer smiling. He feels a pit growing in his stomach, and he doesn't like seeing her like that.
He wants to make her feel better, get her smiling again, and to stop being haunted by the death of Twice. "Never knew you actually had a heart, Nutjob, but even you can get caught up in emotion, huh?" he reverts to his defense mechanisms—calling her names, and teasing her, but he's sure she can read right through the ruse.
But when she turns to him, her eyes are bloodshot and red from crying. She wipes her eyes quickly, making an effort to conceal that she's sad and been crying. "I was just curious about my old house, that's all," she fails at selling. "Totally normal."
"You sure you're ready for what's coming?" Dabi scoffs down at her. "You ready for us to put an end to this rotten world, and each hero that has failed us?"
Toga turns from him as she walks down the street away from him. "It's a little late for that," she returns, considering the destruction they've left behind and how no one will take her in now.
"Good," he returns with a low reverberating tone. "Seeing this place makes you sad," he notices as she turns to look at him. "You've always been one to smile—you and Twice," he mentions his name with a scratching in his throat. "Before that hero took his life, he was running for you and the rest of the League." Dabi looks down to see Toga turned away from him, but he can tell by the hunching of her shoulders that she's crying. "He was a class act," he tells her. "Twice once told me that whether you're crying or smiling, the sun will still come out."
Toga looks up at Dabi now with tears streaming out of her eyes. He extends out his arm, igniting his palm and looking down at the stain in her past. "So why spend your day crying, when you can be smiling?"
Dabi flings the fireball towards her home, igniting and engulfing the structure with his sapphire flames within seconds. He watches down at his creation with gleaming eyes. "Let's smile, Toga," he tells her with a wide grin on his face. "Because smiling is the only way we can live our lives in spite of the heroes who look to tear us down."
He remembers dismissing Twice when he told him those words, probably telling him to fuck off or something of that matter. A weight stacks against his chest, making him wish he could have responded any other way.
"You're going to get us caught, Touya!" Toga yips as she jumps from the blast zone of his Quirk.
Dabi jumps down from the windowsill that he was laying back in, landing harshly on his feet. He walks up towards her, seeing the wayward tear falling down her cheek as he looks down at her. He steps towards her, lifting his hand and brushing the tear from her cheek.
"That was kind, thank you," she says with a melancholy still in her tone.
He looks down at her shining eyes, glistening from tears but still holding some glimmer of hope that things will work out. Dabi knows they're all going to die by the end of this—or at least he's not planning on making it out of this battle alive. With Spinner taking a Quirk from All For One, he'll probably end up like Nagant, Shigaraki is a shell of what he used to be, and All For One won't let him come back without a fight. If there is anyone left of the League that has a shot of making it out, it's her.
"It's not a kindness, it's me twisting the knife in Endeavor some more," he tries to play his characteristic dismissive way, but Toga can see through it.
"Thank you," she tells him with a smile now reaching her lips.
"You still have it, yeah?" he asks her, looking down at her utility belt as the blonde reaches for a small vile of Twice's blood. "You'll be able to use it and use his Quirk because you have love for him. You'll be able to unleash that sad man's parade, and keep marching on in his memory."
She presses a smile to her lips and Dabi looks down at her with a weird constricting in his chest. He feels a connection towards her, like a love that he should have had for Fuyumi but never did. He scratches at the back of his head, taking a step away from her because that's just absurd.
But if it weren't absurd, and if there was something to it…
"I have this too," he begins, handing her another vile of blood. He becomes bashful, figuring that there is nothing to it, and he's an idiot for asking but at this point, none of it really matters.
"It's my blood," he tells her. "And if you can use it… or if there's a way you can have my Quirk…" he beats around the bush shaking his head before finally saying. "If they try to take you, just… use it to protect yourself. I just don't know if I will be around to help you, so this is all I can give you."
"He was really trying to save us all, huh?" Toga looks up at him with glistening eyes as she thinks about Twice's final moments with Dabi.
"He was always thinking about us," Dabi affirms as he shoves his hands in his pockets and looks down at the little girl. He pulls his left hand out of his pocket when he sees her sulk into herself. He lifts his hand and places it atop her blonde head, rubbing it and ruining her hair. "I might not have your back when this is all going down, so you gotta promise me you'll do what you gotta do to get out of this."
She looks up at him, shoving his hand off of her head and ignoring the static mess he's left of her hair. "Jin said that Asami wasn't our friend anymore before he died," she says with a saddening look on her face at all the memories the trio had together laughing and smiling. "When you see her again—before you kill her—can you ask her why Jin wasn't allowed to survive?" she asks him and Dabi can't ignore the coiling of his heart at the sadness flowing through the girl. He can see something swirling in her irises, wondering if she's going to be another causality to war like Twice was.
He wants to tell her to fuck the heroes and their fucked-up world. He wants her to know that her life is worth living, and that Twice deserves life just as much as she does. But Dabi turns from Toga and looks off into the horizon to see the large circular structure reaching the cloudy skyline instead. He's reminded of cotton candy skies and boyish feelings of wanting to be her first kiss. "Yeah," he grunts as he buries those memories in favor for the girl that chose a hero over him and allowed an innocent man to die in her arms.
"I just gotta give her something she can't ignore," he says as he lights his left palm ablaze.