You'd probably gotten too attached to Dabi far too quickly.
You'd been following him around for a few days now. He had kept true to his word, not losing his temper again in front of you, and not touching you without permission, even if it was just to ruffle your hair like he did every so often.
So you trusted him.
What other choice did you have? You were alone, with only your stuffed toy and one change of clothes in your rucksack.
Now that you were no longer alone, forced into a position where you had to be brave, you found yourself mindlessly getting closer and closer to Dabi whenever you did anything. Your arms brushed against his when you walked, as if you needed that subtle reminder that someone was there to protect you, to help you if you needed it. When you sat next to him, you made sure something was pressed up against his leg, whether it was a foot, a knee, your own leg. You just needed that reminder that he was real, that he was there, and that he wasn't going to up and leave you to fend for yourself again.
So when he handed you a five hundred yen coin and pointed towards a public bathhouse, you immediately panicked, shaking your head violently and trying to push the coin straight back into his hand.
"Less'a that." He sighs, crouching so he's eye to eye with you, just like he always did whenever he needed to talk to you about something serious. "You haven't washed for what, over a week?"
You flush immediately, feeling your cheeks heat up.
He had a point, though.
You hadn't.
In fact, it could have easily been longer, as mom only allowed you to have one shower a week to keep the bills down. You would wash the ash, dirt and general ick from your face when you managed to get to a public bathroom, using your hands and water from the sink, but that didn't really allow for the rest of your body. You weren't about to strip off in a public bathroom, the locks were too unreliable.
His usually cold stare takes on a slightly more sympathetic appearance before you look down at the floor, just wanting to avoid his piercing gaze. Sometimes even when he was being friendly and trying to look out for you, it felt as though he could see straight through your eyes into the core of who you were as a person.
It could be intimidating, even if he didn't seem to mean it to be.
"I'll be in the mens half, alright? You won't be alone. And no-ones gonna be creeping on you or makin' your life hard. You know how bathhouses work?"
You shake your head, still looking down at the floor.
There's a moment of silence before Dabi sighs a little, and you see his arm move to brush his hair back with one hand, almost as though he was exasperated.
"Alright, you go in there, hand this over to the lady in the reception, 'n then you'll be given shampoo, soap and a towel, 'kay? You just put your stuff in the locker and then you can go bath. It'll be nice and warm and you can get rid of all that dirt. Sounds good, huh?"
You falter a little. It does sound nice, but it also means you'd be separated from Dabi until either one of you were done.
You'd never had a bath before, only ever seeing them on TV, and they always looked so peaceful. Mom refused to allow you to have a bath unless you were really really sick, because it cost too much to fill.
You flip the five hundred yen coin over in your palm. You hadn't realized he had money. Sure, five hundred yen wasn't much, but it was something.
"Listen, kid."Â Dabi says, taking a brief moment of silence to think about what he's about to say next. "I can't go in the women's side, so you jus' gotta be brave, 'kay? It's important to be clean, 'specially at your age."
When you glance up at him, it looks like a brief cringe passes over his face.
"Look, if you really need me, I'm not exactly gonna be hard to find, am I?" Dabi jokes weakly, gesturing vaguely to his face. "Jus' gotta ask a staff member to come find me. But I bet, when you get in that bath you're not gonna wanna come out."
Again, he had a point, although you didn't really want to admit it. He wasn't hard to miss. Even without the scarring that covered so much of his body, those blue eyes were hard to forget, you'd never seen anything like them before.
You continue flipping the coin in your hand. You were honestly expecting him to start losing his temper soon, like everyone always did whenever you were hesitant to follow their orders. You just needed a second to swallow down the panic that came whenever Dabi wasn't near you.
Even when you saw him pull a cigarette out of its carton, you began to panic.
He never went too far, he was always within sight when he decided to smoke, but you worried that if someone passed and blocked your view of him for even a second, he'd disappear, leaving you alone and scared again.
"Alright, I'll level with ya, Star." He says, utilizing the nickname he'd decided he was going to use on you after you denied renaming your teddy to Star. "I gotta meet someone later, ok? It's important. For me and you if you wanna keep hanging around me. And we can't rock up lookin' like shi- dirty. We can't rock up lookin' dirty, can we? It's rude. Especially if you want a job. Ya get me?"
You nod.
That one you kind of understood, sure. You've seen movies and TV shows. You knew job interviews were important, the kind of thing you needed to dress up for, and to be clean and polite to the people you were talking to.
You were a little curious as to who would hire Dabi. Even though you knew he was friendly, and that he was trustworthy, he definitely didn't look like he was.
He had several piercings, even outside of the metal hoops that seemed to keep his scars to his clear skin. His scarring drew attention from everyone, whether it be horrified looks or looks of pity. His clothes were tattered, and he didn't seem to carry a rucksack or have any other belongings besides what he wore, his phone, and his cigarettes.
"Attagirl." He says, smiling at you. "Can I pet ya?"
"I'm not a dog." You mumble, embarrassed.
"That a yes?" He asks, his smile turning into a smirk.
You pout a little, although it's only out of embarrassment from how loud he asked in front of strangers walking past. It wasn't often that you received physical affection before, so whenever Dabi asked, you always obliged, even if his staples sometimes got caught in your hair.
"Fine..." You say, trying to sound like it was a hassle to let him pet your hair.
The instant you agree, Dabi's hand is atop your head, ruffling the hair there playfully like what you imagine an older brother would do. It's short, but sweet, as he removes his hand, gently plucking a few stray strands of hair from his sutures before standing.
"C'mon then." He says, motioning towards the bathhouse with a nod of his head, beginning to walk off towards the entrance.
You jog to keep up with him at first, your heart beating quicker and quicker the closer you get to the front doors.
You swallow it though. You swallow the panic down in favor of being brave and proving you weren't some baby that he had to keep his eyes on all the time, that you could manage this just fine without him, and a little, small part of yourself, really hoped that by doing this, you'd prove to yourself that it wasn't just some ridiculously elaborate plan for him to ditch you and go wander the streets alone again like he said he'd done for so many years.
You hand the coin to the staff member, sneaking one last glimpse at Dabi before he wanders off to the other side of the building.
"That your daddy?" The lady at the reception asks.
She seems friendly compared to nearly all the other shop tellers that you'd experienced so far while being on the streets and being with Dabi. But Dabi hadn't really prepared you for this. You could pretend to be a mute, like he said before. But something told you that she'd see right through it.
You just go for a silent nod. She looks over at the back of his head for a second, regarding him even though all you can see is the back of him as he walks away.
"Huh. Never knew he had a kid. You don't look like him, but I guess it's kinda hard to tell, right?"
You scrunch your nose up a little. You knew she wasn't deliberately being mean, but you couldn't help but get a little offended on his behalf when people made blatant references to his scars. He never seemed to think too much of it when it happened, his facial expressions never really moving outside of the look of boredom and indifference, but you knew that if it were you, you wouldn't want people making comments about it all the time.
He hadn't explained them, but he didn't need to. You'd seen the way they traveled up his arms, and when he took his hoodie off, you could see that it covered most of his chest too. His exposed ankles were scarred, and you were just assuming at this stage that most of his body was covered in the purple marks.
You walk off before she can say any more, cradling the basket of toiletries she handed to you moments ago. You were nervous, but if something was happening that Dabi deemed important to you both, you would put up with the anxiety for now.
At least there wouldn't be any men around in this side of the building.
You shyly take off your belongings, placing them in a locker, wrapping the towel tight around yourself and padding off to the baths.
The second you enter that room, your body is enveloped in a comforting warmth, not too different from the heat that would radiate off Dabi when he was asleep. You learned that his body ran a lot warmer than most other peoples thanks to his Quirk, and sometimes at night, when he started sleep talking, steam would start pouring out of his body and wake you up. When you'd wake him to get him to try to regulate his temperature, you always scared him. It made you feel guilty every time, but sometimes if you drifted a little too close to him during the night, the steam would burn you a little bit.
Sometimes he'd get confused and call you Fuyumi, but you just assumed that was someone he knew, and that he was still half asleep. Sometimes if he was really scared you'd pat his head softly. That tended to bring him around a little more, and stop the hot air from streaming out of the skin between his scars and clear areas.
When you saw how quiet the bathhouse seemed to be, only a few older women roaming around, you felt a little more relaxed. None of them paid you any mind, which was nice. You'd been a bit more relaxed since Dabi had taken you under his wing, but in this enclosed space, with the heat, and a few older and aged women around that didn't seem to care about what you were doing in the slightest, you felt a lot more relaxed, the anxiety that had been gnawing in your stomach earlier dissipating slowly.
And sure enough, Dabi was right.
The second you were brave enough to remove your towel and sink into the warm bath water, you really didn't want to get out.
You hadn't realized how much your body ached from all the walking until you'd been embraced by the warmth. You'd curled up, hugging your knees as you got as much of your body underneath the water as possible, trying your best to let it soothe your aches. You even had a few cuts on your legs that you hadn't noticed before getting into the water, and took a little extra time scrubbing them.
You could have stayed where you were for hours, but took the sweat sheen on your body and the slight lightheadedness you were beginning to feel as a sign to get out and rejoin Dabi if he was already done.
When you gather yourself together and leave the bathing area, there's no sign of Dabi at the reception area.
The anxiety returns, and you begin to fear the chances of him having left you behind. He was young himself, you could tell. He wasn't anywhere near mom's age. He probably didn't want to have to look after an annoying young kid like you as well as himself.
The nervousness you're feeling must show clearly on your face as the nice lady on the reception peers over the desk to look at you.
"He takes a little while, love." She says softly, her brown eyes warm and kind as they look down at you. "You know, because of all your daddy's scars? He has to be super careful. I'm sure you know that already though, right?"
You falter for a second.
You hadn't really thought about it, no. But now someone else had pointed it out, it was pretty obvious that he may have to take extra care. You'd already experienced his staples getting caught in your hair a few times, so you could imagine how often they must get caught on other things like loose threads and trying to clean the tiny things must be a nightmare.
"Yeah..." You reply quietly.
She looks at you with an almost pitying look for a moment before returning her attention back to what she'd been doing before.
You sit down on one of the seats opposite the window, first sitting politely with your feet on the ground and then slowly but surely hunching up into yourself again the longer you wait for Dabi, one arm around your knees and the other hand placed with your thumb in your teeth.
Eventually he does appear within eyesight again, although this time his hair is black.
This is enough to have you staring at him. He chuckles as he gets closer to you, going to pet your hair before stopping himself.
Instead of verbally giving him permission, you bump your head into his outstretched palm, seemingly catching him off guard for a second before a wide grin pulls his facial sutures tight as he ruffles your hair playfully in his usual Dabi way.
"Surprise." He teases. "Whaddaya think?"
You give him a proper once over. He'd really done a good job of it. His eyebrows were even black too, without any staining unlike mom's dye jobs whenever she tried doing it herself. Sometimes her red dye would be splashed all over her face, which was why-
"You missed your eyelashes." You comment, hoping that it'll stir up your memory enough to stop you from remembering what your brain was spiraling towards.
He smirks at you. "That's what mascara's for, kid."
You frown a little. "Mascara? But you're a boy."
He raises a newly black eyebrow at you, his smirk falling ever-so-slightly. Something you wouldn't have thought about before, but something you picked up on instantly now.
"Anyone can wear makeup, kid." He says simply, ruffling your hair again before motioning for you to stand up. "C'mon. We got places to be. Attagirl for changing."
You beam a little at the praise. You'd automatically gone to put on the clothes you'd been wearing before, but figured that you needed to look clean if you were accompanying Dabi to this job interview he mentioned earlier. He was still wearing the same clothes as before, minus the hoodie he usually adorned, exposing the scars on his chest that he usually hid with it.
"Ya got room for this in your bag, Star?" He asks as you stand, lifting his hoodie.
You regard it cautiously. Your rucksack wasn't that big, but you may be able to stuff it in there. You gently take it from him, now a lot more considerate of what may pull at the metal linings of his skin. You manage to squish it in and he gives you a lazy thumbs up before shoving his hands in his pockets and turning towards the exit.
You don't even hesitate in following behind, looking up at his new mass of raven hair.
*â¢*
You're very uncertain about where he's taken you.
It's a big office with dim lighting, papers scattered all around the place, and it reeks of smoke. Any damage that Dabi tried avoiding by allowing you to have space from him whenever he lit a cigarette was completely undone when he left you with this chain-smoking old man.
You'd actually heard Dabi say not to smoke around you before he left through some kind of black portal, the whole thing happening so quickly that you wondered if you were hallucinating.
But when you'd brought it up with the graying man, Giran, he'd scoffed at you and told you he was doing Dabi a 'favor' so he'd 'smoke if he damn well wanted to'.
It had taken everything within you not to lose your temper when Dabi agreed to let you stay here with old man Giran, who looked like some of the men that would come around to your old house and ask mom for money. But you'd done it.
It took everything within you, but you'd trusted Dabi's trust in Giran, hoping that he wouldn't let you down by leaving you with someone that was unsafe or scary.
Luckily for you, Giran seems to stay on the phone the entire time you're in his office, his loud voice booming in a way that you weren't used to. It was loud, but not in a scary way. It was enthusiastic, friendly. He seemed to have a lot of friends, and he would throw you wide grins whenever you accidentally caught his eye.
You pick mindlessly at the threads of your clothes. You were thankful that you at least didn't have to speak to him, you hadn't really had much experience in talking to other men outside of the few times you were allowed to speak around mom's boyfriends and Dabi.
However, you're thankful far too soon, as before long, Giran puts his phone down, stubbing out his cigarette and finally addressing you.
"So, Star is it?" He asks, looking down at you over his glasses.
You're about to correct him when you remember rule number one. Don't give out your real name.
So you nod, looking over at him with hesitancy clear in your eyes.
"Pretty name." He says, giving you a sympathetic smile. "So dear ol' Dabi's lookin' after you, huh?"
Your eyes shift away. You're unsure how much you can tell this man.
Dabi clearly had a decent amount of trust in him to leave you with him considering Dabi seemed pretty analytical and had picked up on your clear distrust of other men. The way they spoke to each other didn't exactly seem very friendly, though. Dabi kept calling him an old man, which wasn't ever commented on by Giran, but you knew enough to know you weren't meant to call people old.
"Never known Dabi to take pity on anyone." Giran says, snickering a little to himself. "You must be one hell of a special kid. How old are ya?"
"Ten." You reply quietly, staring at the floor.
"Ten?!" He practically squeals, before visibly collecting himself, straightening his purple suit jacket and fiddling with his necklace before taking a deep breath and muttering something to himself. "How- What happened, kid?"
Your mouth slams closed and you immediately turn your head away, treating it as if you weren't looking at him, he would disappear, and you wouldn't have to answer the question. You stare at the floor, hard.
You were probably being rude, and breaking Dabi's fourth rule of 'behave', but you didn't wanna cry, not in front of Giran. Not in front of a stranger.
You can feel his eyes on you for a little while before you hear a small sigh, and you hear his chair creak as he leans back.
"You're all so young. Breaks my heart, kid. Really breaks my heart." He says, sounding genuinely emotional.
You peer up, curious at what he's talking about. He's looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully with his pink eyes, his arms crossed behind his head, his half-smoked cigarette still dangling loosely from his lips, the ash looking like it was about to fall straight onto his lap any time soon.
"Here's hoping Shigaraki's plans all go well. It's hard seein' you all come through here. All such promising kids. Ain't fair. Ain't fair the world's done you all like this." He shakes his head, leaning forward again and removing his cigarette from his mouth to tap the ash off finally, only after taking a deep inhale beforehand. "Somethin's gotta change."