You woke up after Dabi for once.
You'd woken up, sprawled over his bed with the blanket half over you. Considering you'd been up for most of the night, you felt surprisingly well-rested.
You sit up, rubbing your eyes sleepily. They were sore and swollen from the sheer amount of tears spilled last night, and still felt a little heavy because of it.
You stumble a little through the hallway as you go back to your room to change before going downstairs. It sounds lively down there today, everyone sounding pretty chatty from what you could hear as their voices travel up from the bar.
Once dressed, you plod downstairs, a little surprised to see two new extra people sitting at the bar.
One was a redhead, wearing sunglasses and a really ugly hawaiian shirt, it was worse than even some of the clothes you'd seen Giran wear with confidence. The other was masked and wearing a top-hat. The people Shigaraki had hired were getting stranger and stranger as time goes on.
You quietly approach Dabi, blushing a little when Spinner gives you a soft smile.
You tug on Dabi's vest a little to get his attention, pulling him away from the conversation he was having with the new masked member.
"Mornin' Star." Dabi greets, reaching to cup your cheek and run his thumb over your cheek. "Feelin' okay this morning?"
You nod a little, cautiously looking at the tall man who was in the bar stool directly next to Dabi.
This seems to be encouragement enough for Dabi to introduce you.
"Star, this is Mister Compress." Dabi says, nodding towards the man beside him.
The man tips his hat towards you.
"You may call me Atsuhiro, little lady." Mister Compress says, his voice confident and cheerful behind the blank mask. He almost sounded like a radio host.
You decide you like him in that moment, the only other person to allow you to use their name like that was Jin, and you loved Jin.
This is only solidified when there's a random flash of blue, and suddenly he's holding out a small bouquet of flowers towards you.
You let out a noise of pure amazement, your eyes widening and your jaw going a little slack.
Dabi chuckles a little, his hand making its way to the top of your head.
You take the flowers from Atsuhiro while chanting your thanks very enthusiastically.
"Let me take those for you, Miss Star." Kurogiri interrupts as he brings you your usual morning juice. "I'll put them in a vase for you."
You swap the flowers for the juice with Kurogiri, your attention now pretty much fully on the masked magician, hanging off his every word, even if he was just talking to Dabi and not you.
You barely even pay attention to Spinner, who was sat on Dabi's other side.
Eventually, you look shyly at Dabi. You really wanted to sit next to him, but Atsuhiro was taking a seat beside him and so was Spinner, you didn't want to be rude and kick either of them out of their seats for your own selfish sake.
He's busy listening to Atsuhiro's tales of stardom, looking pretty bored, although that was just how his face naturally seemed to sit.
Once you take some time to pluck up the courage, you tug at his shirt again, immediately garnering his attention.
"Yeah, kid?" He asks, his blue eyes lazily flickering over you, as though checking you weren't in any distress.
You look between Spinner and Atsuhiro, not wanting to embarrass yourself, before motioning for Dabi to lean closer to you.
He gives you a small smirk of amusement before entertaining your silent request by leaning forward, his ear relatively close to your lips.
You cup your hand to stop Atsuhiro from being able to read your lips as you close the gap between you and Dabi, whispering in his ear.
Dabi chuckles a little, but the instant you move away from him, he's lifting you up as though you weigh nothing, and placing you on his lap.
"Better?" He asks, thankfully not announcing that you'd asked for him to do that and embarrassing you in front of everyone.
"Mhm." You respond a little shyly, fiddling with the straw in your apple juice.
They return back to not really paying you much mind, Atsuhiro continuing to talk about his past and Dabi listening intently while he leans his face onto his fist.
Kurogiri places the vase of flowers on a counter behind the bar, placing a bowl of cut up fruit in front of you before attending to serving everyone else little snacks, whether they were asked for or not.
You eat your snacks, perfectly content perched on Dabi's lap. He doesn't attempt to hold you, which is nice. He was always so considerate of when you were open to being touched and when you weren't, and it was nice not having to verbalise it. He just seemed to get it.
Shigaraki eventually shows up, wearing that horrible hand mask again. You try not to pay him too much attention, you had a feeling it was him that had come into Dabi's room while you were panicking and crying last night, and you didn't want to get told off.
He slides into the seat next to Spinner, his eyes definitely still piercing into you even though you don't look.
Particularly loud giggling from Toga and the new red-headed member draws your attention.
She'd put their hair up in a pair of buns either side of their head, highlighting the facial hair along their jawline. It also highlights how thick their neck is, and suddenly you're noticing the thick, muscular arms instead of the hideous shirt they're wearing.
You press your back against Dabi's chest so you can speak quietly to him.
"Dabi?" You ask quietly, keeping your eyes on Toga and this new person, watching them laugh together as Toga keeps fussing at the new hairstyle she'd given them.
"Yeah, doll?" He replies, plopping his chin on top of your head.
"Who's that man Toga's playing with?" You ask in a hushed voice.
"Her name 's Magne, Star." Dabi says, emthasising the word 'her' patiently.
"But that's a man." You reply, the bluntness of your reply still harsh despite how softly you say it.
Shigaraki seems to stiffen noticeably, and you wonder if your voice isn't as hushed as you intended.
Dabi seems to pick up on this too, his own body stiffening behind you for a split second.
You begin feeling like you may have accidentally said something upsetting, and it makes you a little antsy, you shifting your weight uncomfortably on Dabi's lap.
Magne and Toga clearly hadn't heard the discussion, as they were now conversing with Jin, Toga enthusiastically introducing him to Magne.
"You callin' me a liar, squirt?" Dabi asks lightheartedly, moving so he can flick you gently on the nose. "Listen here kid, if someone tells you they're a woman, ya listen, 'kay?"
"Even if they're not?" You ask with a confused frown.
Dabi seems to find this hard to answer, his lips pressing together as he seems to think of a reply.
"Yeah, kid. Even if you think they're not, y'gotta be respectful. People don't lie about that kinda stuff. Magne is a lady, through an' through." Dabi replies, his voice sounding a little more uncertain. "Hey, tell ya what, come wi' me outside a sec, little Star."
He picks you up, placing you on the floor and pulling a cigarette out of the carton that was always so loyally in his pocket. You follow behind him as he walks towards the fire exit, holding the heavy door open for you as you duck under his arm.
You settle yourself atop a pile of boxes, giving Dabi the distance that he usually liked whenever he was smoking.
You weren't stupid, you knew there was a reason why he had dragged you outside, and you were waiting for him to explain, hugging your knees as you watch that familiar blue flame light the end of his cigarette.
He takes a deep breath of it, releasing the smoke through his nose as he leans on the giant dumpster outside of the bar.
"Ain't gonna lie to ya kid, I'm no good at explainin' things." He begins, sighing a little. "So ya gotta listen real good, 'kay?"
You nod, willing to do nearly whatever to keep him happy.
"Attagirl." Dabi praises, taking another toke and exhaling it before continuing. "Magne is a trans woman. You know what that means?"
You shake your head.
"Alright..." Dabi says, clearly beginning to think hard about what he was going to say next.
"Okay. So, Magne was born with a male body. But that wasn't right, 'kay? In here..."
Dabi points at his heart.
"An' in here."
He points at his head, coming dangerously close to singing his hair with his cigarette.
"She's a woman. Y'understand?"
"Her body's wrong?" You ask, still a little confused.
"For her, yeah. In layman's terms." Dabi
"Can she go to a doctor about it?" You ask.
You'd watched all kinds of plastic surgery shows on TV, and this conversation had reminded you of someone you briefly knew back when mom remembered to take you to school. She had gotten into trouble a lot for wearing the boys uniform, but always argued that it was because she was a boy.
You wish you'd had Dabi to teach you about this sooner, now you wish you could go back and fight his corner with the mean teachers that would force him into skirts no matter how hard he cried.
"She could. Shi-It's expensive though." Dabi sighs. "Japan ain't exactly forward-thinkin' with all that. Would probably hafta go to a different country."
You think about this for a while, a frown slowly forming between your eyebrows.
"But that's not fair." You argue, outraged for Magne, and that little boy you had no idea was going through this too.
"Life ain't fair, kid." Dabi says, sounding a little apologetic, his hand moving for him to take another breath of his cigarette.
You're quiet for a little while. You feel a little stupid for not knowing about this sooner, and feel all kinds of guilty for calling Magne a man, even if she hadn't heard you.
"Anyway..." Dabi sighs, flicking his cigarette across the small alley. "It's important to listen to people when they tell you they're a man or a woman, 'kay? Don't go questionin' it like that again. I know you were confused, and I ain't mad, but it can be really upsettin' for trans people to listen to someone say they're the sex they don't identify with. You followin'?"
You squint a little, you think you understand what he's saying.
Clearly this isn't quite good enough for Dabi, and he crosses his arms as he looks at you for a second or two.
"Let's try this." He eventually says. "Imagine one day you woke up an' you were a boy. That'd feel wrong, right? Kinda scary?"
You nod eagerly.
"Alright. So, imagine you hadta come downstairs and see us all, an' we all kept callin' you a boy, and refusin' to listen to you when you tell us you're a girl." He continues, speaking slowly and patiently. "Ya know you're a girl, but you're jus' in the wrong body. It'd be upsettin', right?"
You nod again, suddenly understanding a little bit more what he was trying to tell you.
"Smart girl." Dabi praises, uncrossing his arms. "Y'just gotta be more thoughtful about who's listenin' yaknow? People like Magne exist everywhere, an' they all deserve to be seen for who they are."
You nod, beginning to approach him.
You were feeling guilty, despite not knowing any better when you'd said what you'd said.
You wanted one of Dabi's little hair ruffles, something that had become a touch of reassurance for you. But you didn't want to simply ask for it. You felt undeserving of it, and were also a little worried that he was mad at you despite him saying he wasn't.
"Now, don't go buggin' Magne about it or ask her any questions, 'kay? Some people wanna talk about these things, others don't. Wait for her to talk to ya about it when she's good an' ready." He says, cupping your face and looking down at you with a soft gaze of blue.
"Okay." You agree, leaning your face into his touch.
He looks down at you silently for a moment, his thumb grazing over the skin of your cheek.
"You're a good kid, Star." He says effortlessly.
He retracts his hand, and encourages you to follow him back inside, voicing a concern of you potentially catching a cold without a jacket on.
When you get back inside the bar, you make a beeline for Magne, introducing yourself and joining Jin and Toga in playing around with Magne's hair.
Within no time at all, you're giggling alongside Toga, enjoying the warm and safe aura that Magne gave off. You're having fun with the only two female members of Shigaraki's staff, and occasionally, you'd catch Dabi's eyes, and spot the small proud smile on his face.
*â¢*
Dabi had to go to work again tonight, so you were sent to Girans again.
Whenever you saw him he was always wearing something ridiculously garish, one of the times you'd shown up he'd been wearing a purple feather boa, and you'd burst into laughter despite knowing it was a little rude. Dabi had poked fun at him too, calling him a 'pimp wannabe'... whatever that meant.
Today, though, he was dressed in ugly white and black tiger-print overalls, which were splattered in paint. You're a little surprised to see him looking a little more scruffy than usual.
"Lil' Star." He greets you with a lazy smile.
"Uncle Giran!" You reply, a little more enthusiastically, padding over to give him a hug. You'd learned that it was okay to hug him, it was safe. He would never hug you back, just place his large hand on the top of your head, almost weighing you down until you stopped squeezing him.
His hand goes to the top of your head automatically as you wrap your arms around him, your face smushed into his stomach.
"Ya ready to do some paintin', little love?" Giran asks, his voice rumbling through his stomach.
You let out a little gasp, looking up at him with sparkling eyes.
"Painting? Really?" You ask, excitement clear in your voice.
"Sure, kid. Didn't Dabi tell ya?" Giran asks, smiling softly at you.
You squeal, immediately letting go of him and finally clocking the fact that he'd cleared his desk and placed two little canvases surrounded by paints on there.
You go to throw yourself on your usual seat, only for Giran to 'ah, ah, ah' at you, passing you a plastic apron that was practically a dress on you.
"Those look like some very lovely clothes. Don't go ruinin' them now." Giran compliments, and you nod, wrapping the plastic straps behind you.
Once your clothes were safe from any paint spillages, you sit opposite Giran with a wide grin, eager and willing to listen to whatever he was going to tell or teach you.
"Alri' little love." He begins, rolling up his sleeves. "Shall we paint some flowers on the canvases? They seem to be ya favourite."
You bob your head up and down eagerly, picking up a paintbrush.
Giran stops you again gently, his hand blocking yours from picking up a little tube of paint.
"First things first, Star. We gotta paint a background colour on the canvas. Y'know what colour ya wanna do your flowers?"
"Background colour?" You repeat curiously, before giving a thoughtful 'hm'.
Giran looks over at you patiently before leaning back in his seat, lazily lighting the cigarette that had been hanging through the gap in his teeth.
"So, if ya wanna do purple flowers, we gotta paint th' canvas a light purple as a base. Or if ya wanna do yellow flowers, ya gotta paint the canvas light yellow first. Y'get me?"
You nod, thinking about what colour you wanted to tackle today.
"Blue." You say confidently, with a little bob of your head.
You'd never directly heard what Dabi's favourite colour was, but you had a feeling it was blue, and if this went well, you really wanted to gift him this canvas.
You were already excited to hear the praise and see the prideful look in his eyes.
"Very nice, sweetheart." He encourages. "So ya wanna mix one of them blues wi' a little white."
You pick up a blue, and a white, thinking for a second before looking up at Giran, who was picking out yellows.
"Um, can you help me...?" You ask shyly.
"It's easy, hun. Just put a little blue, and a whole lotta white to dull it down." Giran instructs patiently.
"No, I want a specific blue." You admit quietly. "You know... like Dabi's eyes?"
Giran looks a little taken aback before chuckling a little, and picking up one of the other blues, putting it in the pallete for you and mixing it with white, creating an almost teal colour.
"There ya go, kid. Tha' look enough like your pa's eyes?" He asks, his pink eyes meeting yours.
You nod. "Thank you!"
You use the blue Giran made for you to paint a base coat, happily humming as you do so.
Once the base is down, you get to sketching out a flower, excitedly telling Giran about the flowers Atsuhiro had managed to summon out of nowhere and give you. You also tell him about Magne, and how you, Toga and Jin had been having fun giving her silly hairstyles earlier.
Giran does a good job of multitasking as he listens to you, smokes and sketches out a flower on his own pale yellow canvas.
You spend your time with Giran peacefully following his instructions of picking out where you want the light to come from and work from dark to light.
You both work in relative silence, which is unusual when you were so used to Giran constantly being on his phone. It's nice and comfortable, and you relish having his undivided attention.
When you get to a point where you're relatively happy with it, you wash your paintbrush for the last time and peek at Girans painting.
It's incredible, way better than yours, but you try not to let it dishearten you too much. He was a lot older than you, and he took painting lessons.
You pat his arm to get his attention, wanting him to look at your painting, and he does with a proud smirk.
"Gorgeous, little love." He praises. "Dabi'll love it."
Your face lights up, and you wiggle happily in your seat.
He spins his own painting around gently to show you, and you make an effort to verbally express your admiration of what he'd created.
It was a canvas full of tiny, little buttercups. They were so detailed that it looked like it belonged in a gallery.
"Pretty!" You exclaim, moving your face closer to inspect every brush stroke.
"Yellow, like a star." Giran chuckles. "It's all yours, kiddo."
You look at him with your mouth in a little 'o' shape.
"Really, really?" You ask in surprise.
"Yeah, kid. Really. We gotta wait for 'em to dry, an' then we gotta varnish 'em though, 'kay?" Giran says, lighting another cigarette. "Y'worked hard, Star. Well done. Want a little candy?"
"Okay!" You agree instantly, excited to see what candy Giran had hidden in his desk drawers for you this time.
He gives you a little packet of gummies, softly pressing his finger against your nose before he pulls his hand away.
You giggle a little, thanking him and diving into them. Kurogiri had made a curry earlier, but with so many mouths to feed, you'd ended up getting less of a large portion than usual because of it.
He returns back to his phone calls while the paint dries, but does keep them a lot shorter, occassionally using the end of a paintbrush to see if the paintings are dry.
The varnish is eventually applied when the paintings are dry, Giran giving you a juice box while that dries.
It's getting later and later now, and you're beginning to get a little sleepy. You didn't have your teddy this time, feeling comfortable enough without bringing it these days, but you kind of wish you had brought it tonight.
There's a gnawing anxiety settling in your stomach the later it gets, and the more Giran looks at his watch.
Dabi never left you here for more than a few hours at most, and usually called to let Giran know when he'd be coming to pick you up.
You nervously begin mimicking the way that Dabi would cup your cheek and stroke his thumb over the skin there, hoping it would bring you some kind of feeling of comfort.
You really wish you had the teddy. You needed to rub those familiar areas of its body that would soothe you, even if they were wearing a little thin.
An hour and a half later than usual, Kurogiris quirk opens up a gate, the breeze from it rustling the papers all over the room.
You perk up from where you'd curled up into a ball on the big seat opposite Girans desk, your eyes beginning to glitter a little with hope, only to slump a little more again when you see Toga appear through the portal.
"Toga, wasn't expectin' ta see ya this evenin'." Giran greets, giving her a lazy smile. "Where's Dabi at?"
Toga looks over at you with a grin, before cocking her head at Giran, her hair swishing elegantly as she does so.
"Back at the bar. Sorry about that!" She then turns to look at you with her sharp teeth still exposed. "He really wanted to come pick ya up, Star! But you know what he gets like."
She says all of this in a sing-songy voice, as if her tone was meant to stop you from worrying about what it was that even meant.
But you didn't know 'what he gets like', and it sounded worrying.
Giran, however, nods as though he completely understands, taking a deep breath of his cigarette.
"Star made him a paintin'." He informs her casually. "She was all excited ta show him."
The way he's speaking sounds a little stern, disappointed. Like how you had seen fathers talk to their sons when they lost baseball games on TV.
You slowly gather your things, putting them in your rucksack.
Toga's leaning over the desk, staring at the paintings with glistening eyes and a wide, razor sharp grin. Her hands are clasped behind her back, and you spot a few splotches of blood on her clothes, hands and legs.
You wonder if she'd hurt herself, a little frown beginning to form on your forehead.
"Very pretty! So cute!" She exclaims, her eyes sparkling.
You pack the canvases away too, trying to do it as gently as possible. You slowly stand, reaching over the desk to give Giran a hug.
It's only a quick one this time, you wanted to go home and find Dabi. But you're polite and thank him for the lesson in painting, quietly expressing how excited you are to put the yellow flowers up somewhere in your room.
This seems to cheer him up again, and he waves you both off as you walk through the warp gate.
"Where's Dabi?" You ask Toga the instant you're back in the dimmer lit area of the bar.
You barely register Shigaraki sat alone at the bar, still wearing the hand even though he usually took it off this late at night.
You can hear him flicking the rim of the glass in front of him, the sound relatively rythmic as it rings around the bar. Kuroguri is still up too, which is unusual, cleaning a glass and seemingly watching the news alongside Shigaraki.
"In his room, but-" Toga begins to reply, only managing to get out the information you needed before you begin rushing off to find him.
Toga calls after you, but you hear Shigaraki hiss at her to shut up.
You're on a mission anyway, thumping up the stairs to Dabi's room, slowly opening the door. He'd know it was you, everyone else always knocked before they came in.
And his room is hot, hotter than usual.
"Dabi?" You ask quietly, slowly entering his room.
He groans a little, and you can barely make out the image of his arm motioning for you to climb onto the bed in the darkness.
You shrug your rucksack off, and remove your sweater too, knowing the closer you got to him, the warmer you are likely to get. There was no way he wasn't the reason his room was so hot.
You climb onto the bed on your hands and knees, yelping a little in surprise when he grabs you, and pulls you so you're lying with your back to him, his scarred arms wrapped tightly around you and his face burying itself into your hair.
"Are you okay?" You ask quietly, surprised by the sudden physical affection.
Usually Dabi was pretty cautious about this kind of thing, you hadn't really hugged much because he was so respectful of your personal space. Whenever you had, it was because you were sad and needed the feeling of someone enveloping you to feel safe and at ease again.
"Hurtin' a little, doll." He explains, his voice muffled by your hair. "'M sorry for lettin' you down. You musta been so scared..."
"Did you get hurt?" You ask softly, wishing his hold on you was less tight so that you could turn around and try to look for any kind of injuries he might have. "Toga had blood on her... was that yours?"
Dabi squeezes you a little tighter, not responding to your question.
You can feel his warm breath fanning over the back of your neck, but it's not scary when it's him, it's like a sign of safety. He's behind you, watching you, protecting you.
Plus, something told you that the urgency with how he'd pulled you into an embrace, and with how tight he was holding you, that maybe he was the one that needed comforting right now.
You lay there quietly for a while, letting him squeeze and nuzzle you a couple times. You wonder if this was how your teddy felt when you were clinging onto it for comfort.
When you finally begin to consider asking him another question, you realise that his arms are a little heavier, more lax, and his breaths are slower.
He'd fallen asleep, and you were trapped in his arms, unable to move away from his warmer-than-average grasp, even if it did feel a little cooler now.
You're a little disappointed, you wanted to show him what you'd made him, so you pout a little in the dark, and sigh as you try to remind yourself he was hurt, and he'd apologised for not coming to pick you up.
Unable to move, and still wide awake with worry for him, you do the only thing you can think of to do, and whisper everything that had happened while you'd been with Giran for the evening, wanting to tell him you'd made him something, even if he wouldn't hear it in his sleep.