Dabi sighed as he drummed his left hand's fingers against on the table Red had been so generous to let him sit at while he waited for the Twinkie to show up, and he was already dreading what was going to happen despite what everyone had told him.
Because even if the Twinkie wasn't as draconian as his sperm donor Touya had very, very few good memories associated with training period, and it was bound to rear its head once they actually started this crap show, Dabi was under no illusion that because he had a somewhat steady life and a roof over his head that all his issues were just going to disappear.
The cookies Red made for him did help to take off the edge though and Dabi reached for another one with his right hand, glancing at the plate just to make sure he didn't knock it to the ground by accident... again.
The pain in his right arm had faded long before he finally could remove the bandages but as the Twinkie had warned him Dabi felt almost nothing from that arm, even when he tested to see if he could feel pressure it took Red squeezing to the bone for him to feel it, which sucked because he had no idea how frustrating it was to make his fingers move when you couldn't feel them.
Not to mention all the accidents that had happened since he'd knock over things because he couldn't feel them there (he'd also smacked Zilla by accident and felt way more guilty than he normally would've for it), Red had been very understanding though she tried not to baby him since he snapped at her one morning, Dabi's head hit the table as shamefully thought of the incident because apology or not it was a dick-move to be an ass to Red because his head was more fucked up than usual.
Today was obviously no exception and he woke wishing that he could just skip it or something but a single glance at his right arm made him kick himself for considering that, the appearance wasn't all that gruesome, and he still had some skin on his shoulder but looking at it never failed to remind him what had happened that fateful night or exactly why he needed to get a grip on his quirk.
The nightmares while unwelcome were better than any cold shower or the dozens of lectures his sperm donor had given him over the years about getting his shit together.
(Especially those where he had basically became Endeavour and the young versions of his brothers were staring at him in complete horror.)
Shaking his head Dabi focused on grabbing a damn cookie and decided his right arm was about as effective as one of those claw games Zilla told him about once because his fingers just weren't responding quite right.
The little bell for the door rang and low and behold the Twinkie had arrived with a few textbooks in hand and muttering to himself in Russian "Welcome to-" Red cut herself off once she saw who it was "Oh hey Midori-Chan, here for Dabs?" she guessed leaning on the counter and the Twinkie bobbed his head "Ага надеюсь ты готов, Шрам?" the Twinkie questioned turning to him and Dabi blinked owlishly at him wondering if he was supposed to know just what the fuck the kid had said.
"Uh, could you repeat that in Japanese, kiddo?" Red asked for him and the Twinkie turned bright red "R-right, sorry! I was asking if you were ready to go train yet Dabi." the Twinkie sputtered flustered.
"As I'll ever be Twinkie." Dabi answered getting up from his seat with his stomach in tight knots, the Twinkie nodded then turned to Red who gave him a bag of something "Try not to break him Hun." Red requested and the Twinkie snorted.
"I'll do my best, Magne-San." the Twinkie replied motioning him to follow out of the shop, Dabi sighed glancing at Red and got an encouraging smile as she waved him to go on, glumly Dabi did and after a few minutes Dabi realized they weren't heading towards the community center.
"The fuck are we going?" He asked as the Twinkie brought him closer and closer to the waterfront "I've got a small plot by the beach, used to be a warehouse before the #2 burned it down. We're going to do your training there since training a fire quirk indoors is just asking the fire insurance companies to blacklist you and having a waterfront nearby is quite the boon." the Twinkie explained to him off-handedly and Dabi found himself frowning but ultimately understood.
His sperm donor had a big enough pay cheque that he didn't have to worry about those kinds of things and Dabi doubted the Twinkie had the money to shell out on that kind of thing, and they did have to rebuild the training room a bunch of times now that he thought about it, like four times a year minimum.
"What's the big deal about a beach?" Dabi asked since he wasn't sure what that could have to do with training his quirk, it did explain why the kid told him to bring a pair of swim trunks of all things.
The Twinkie waved him off "Training with readily available water is a staple of working with fire quirks, even if the user doesn't have an accident it's important for them soak in cool water for about ten minutes for every hour, they spent training to help the body recover, you know." the boy told him as if it was common knowledge, despite this being the first time Dabi has heard of that ever and he had a fire quirk.
His sperm donor had never in all the years of training he endured had never had any water at the ready or let him cool off after using his quirk, the few times he was caught cooling off had ended up with Endeawhore punishing him for doing so when he was supposed to be 'better than that'.
Reaching the area Dabi had to admit it looked pretty nice for a red-light district, but he'd keep his shoes on since he didn't fancy getting any of the "decorative" glass in his feet.
"We're going to start with some stretches first as a warmup then we'll ease into things by taking off the cuff just to see how well your quirk has settled under your skin." the Twinkie instructed putting down his bag on a worn old bench "Just follow my movements as best you can okay Dabi." the Twinkie added, Dabi took a deep breath and tried to swallow his nerves before he nodded.
Stretching wasn't too bad, and he didn't have to do any crazy moves like bending in half, though Dabi thought spending over ten minutes on it was a bit much (and no he wasn't salty because the Twink could touch his toes and he couldn't).
When the moment of truth came the Twinkie forced him to sit down on the sand before he took the quirk band off of his left wrist, Dabi closed his eyes waiting for the rush of heat and was surprised when it wasn't that overwhelming, he was still too hot to be comfortable, but this was very mild compared to how it usually felt and the Twinkie must've seen his confusion.
"Have you been wearing the band since I got you a new one?" the boy inquired from where he sat across from Dabi "Well, yeah? Red would have hounded me if I didn't, except for showers of course." Dabi answered, which was kind of a pain since it was uncomfortable to sleep with a needle in your arm.
"Ah, that would do it. By not taking it off you've given your body an almost 24/7 rest period and only removed it for taking showering would've boosted your bodies tolerance in the best way possible given your condition." the Twinkie mused a hand on his chin "Huh." Dabi unintelligently replied.
"So, what should I do now?" Dabi questioned and the boy reached back for his bag and pulled out two candles "I want you to just light one of these with a single finger." the Twinkie instructed.
Dabi frowned at the simple request but complied, raising his left hand he slowly drew fire to the tip of his index finger only for the Twinkie to stop him "No, Dabi not like that." the boy said, and he scowled "What? I was just doing what you wanted me to do." Dabi said slightly irritated.
"Dabi why were you trying to funnel all of your quirk through your finger?" the Twinkie asked back and Dabi blinked "I'm, not?" he answered, the Twinkie opened his mouth then closed it.
"Dabi, I want you to try thinking of your fingertip sizzling for few seconds okay." the Twinkie requested and though he was unsure Dabi turned his gaze to his left index finger and tried to well, imagine the prickling sensation of his fire on it, it had to be working pretty well since he felt some phantom heat build under the skin.
Then without any fanfare a tiny blue flame sparked into being on his fingertip and Dabi's mouth fell open "What?" he muttered staring at the impossible little thing, how could that be so easy? Dabi could hardly even feel it's heat compared to every other time he's ever used his quirk.
"Like many fire quirks, yours is spread throughout your body and some users can light any of part of their body on fire. Heroes often train to be able to draw all of their fire to a single point, say their hands and to force it through a narrow opening for a more devastating blaze at the price of a more painfully output." the Twinkie explained his hands absence-mindedly miming along as he spoke.
Dabi blinked wondering why in the ten years Endeawhore had spent "training" him he had never heard anything of this, but he figured out the answer pretty quickly and gritted his teeth seething.
His sperm donor had picked his mom because he wanted to use her ice quirk to have a child that wouldn't need a cool down period and of course the man never cared about him and his siblings as people, they were just tools he was using to further his stupid grudge against the number one hero, and he couldn't care less if the way he trained Dabi was the "correct" way or if Dabi's quirk hurt him.
So long as Dabi was a good little mindless follower who'd do whatever that bastard said... something that must have reflected in his training since he could only remember being pushed to force more and more of his fire out of his hands.
"Dabi!" the Twinkie sharply said, and Dabi realized in his stewing he had lit both of his arms were on fire and he quickly turned his quirk off, not wasting a second the boy grabbed his right arm to examine it for any damage while Dabi kicked himself for letting his emotions run so wild.
The Twinkie sighed letting go of his arm "You haven't damaged your arm any further, but we should wait to try using your right until we're sure it won't cause any permanent damage to you Dabi." the boy said, and Dabi didn't need to be told twice as he felt the muscle of his right arm start to sting and just nodded.
Done with that little mishap the Twinkie moved on and held a candle up to him "Now, try to light this." the boy said repeating his earlier request "Right." Dabi replied then using this new method lit just his index finger and easily lit the candle "Good, now remove your finger and try to move the candles flame." the Twinkie instructed.
Dabi a touch more open-minded did so trying to see if he could still feel the connection to the little flame after he extinguished the flame in his hand and it took him a few minutes of glaring but he finally felt this tiny, little wispy... thing dancing around his fingers and mentally he tugged it and the candle's flame moved in the same direction just a little bit.
Dabi felt his breath catch as he reached for the wisp again and tugged it once, twice, three times and each time the flame moved with at his willing, Dabi had never done something like this, sure he could move flames in the direction he wanted but that was always more like a whip following the motion when he shot it out and he couldn't do it after he put out his hands despite a lot of trying on his end when he was younger.
The Twinkie smiled with a self-assured nod "Just like I thought, you got some elements of your grandparents quirks. I did some digging on your maternal side of the family and your grandfather on that side could make his ice move without touching it, it looks like you can do that too, but your connection isn't very strong so you'll have to practice with it more if you want to control larger fires." the boy explained to him.
Dabi pursed his lips as he tried to recall anything he knew about his grandparents but couldn't remember much of either of them. Endeawhore's parents had been dead since before his parents got married and he had only met mom's folks once from what he recalled. Dabi knew his mom still spoke to them and even asking them to come over, but they would always reject or refuse for various reasons, and they never sounded that sympathetic the few times he managed to overhear them, so he had never taken any interest in either of them before now.
But if he could move his fire now then that was cool to know and he decided he wanted to see if he could feel anything with his other hand and nearly jumped when he instead felt a thin string at his numb fingertips, Dabi stumbled a moment as he tried to get his fingers to cooperate and pull the string but when he did the flame moved much more clearly.
"Huh, your right has more control? Hmm... maybe your nerve damage makes it easier to isolate the connection since you don't have to filter out any other stimuli aside from your quirk." the boy mused and that sounded like as good a reason as any Dabi could come up with seeing as he knew dick all about quirks apparently.
"We'll have to work on that theory next time, for now let's work to see if you can remotely extinguish your fire." the Twinkie redirected and curious now Dabi tried to feel if there was any way for him to snuff out the flame without touching the fire, his sperm donor hadn't asked him to ever put out his fire on other things but the bastard clearly was just the worst teacher ever.
He couldn't so far but he almost did it with his right hand, and the Twinkie decided that was enough experimenting with his quirk's boundaries for the day (to his unexpectant disappointment) and just had Dabi cycle between the three activities, light a candle, wiggle the flame, then try to put it out for the rest of the hour.
An hour that had passed way faster than Dabi would've thought though the boy shrugged it off saying that time always slipped away once someone got into a groove, but Dabi personally knew that one hour of training with Endeawhore felt like three different eternities happening at once, but he didn't argue and just took off his shirt and went into the water at the greenette's prompting.
The water though icy-cold immediately felt like heaven against his muscles and he found himself neck deep in the water seconds later just so he could relish in the feeling "Fuuuck... " Dabi groaned more blessed out than he could ever remember as he let himself start floating on his back "Feel good?" the Twinkie asked from the shore and if anyone else had asked Dabi would've thought they were being snide but a single glance cleared up any reason for him to think the boy was being arrogant.
"Kind of." Dabi admitted in a whisper, he barely heard the boy's soft sigh before he muttered "I'm glad." and his chest tightened at how sincere he was.
In fact a very strange feeling had insnared him since he got in the water and he couldn't place it for the life of him, opening his eyes to look up at the sky and spotting a few clouds his mind was quieter than it normally was and he briefly thought about how odd that was before it struck him what this feeling was.
He wasn't feeling anything, he felt the absence of something... right now he didn't feel threatened by anything, something that hadn't happened for years, even before his mom had been locked away in the loony bin.
And perhaps it was this brief moment of clarity that allowed his mind to wonder back to a question that had sat dormant on the tip of his tongue for a while since he learned what an Antithesis quirk was but never had the nerve to ask before now.
"Hey, Twinkie." he called, "Yeah, Dabi?" the boy responded almost immediately, and Dabi opened his mouth and closed it once before he finally asked.
"How impossible would it be for someone to be born with the perfect mix of an ice and fire quirk?"
The Twinkie didn't answer right away, taking a few moments before he finally said "Every year 100 people are killed by a coconut falling on their head, you are statistically thirteen percent more likely to be one of those one hundred people than for a child to have a blend of an ice and fire quirk that wouldn't be an Antithesis quirk."
Dabi huffed tears building in the corners of his eyes *Of course that bastard would bank everything on something he didn't understand was almost guaranteed never to happen.* he morosely thought unsurprised.
Ага надеюсь ты готов, Шрам?
Yep, I hope you're ready Scar?