"Dabi."
Touya groans. That was Shigaraki's voice, and thanks to both his innate ability to tell when something's wrong, and the clear snappy tone from his boss, he knew he was in trouble for some bullshit reason again.
"What?" He asks, turning his head to look at the other man with a slight frown.
"Your kid's calling for you." Shigaraki informs him dryly.
"An' you didn't tell her to come down here?" Touya asks, raising a thin black eyebrow.
Shigaraki's eyes shift to their sides.
"Sounded like she was crying."
Touya gets up from his seat quicker than he was even aware he was capable of. He feels his body heat rise instantly in his anger.
"You didn't think to fuckin' check on her?" Touya snaps, shoulder barging the smaller Shigaraki as he rushes past him.
If Shigaraki replies, Touya doesn't hear him, too busy rushing to Star's aid.
Typically she always woke up before him, and would cuddle into him until he was awake too. He really should have known something was up with her when she'd overslept, but he was so glad to see her sleeping peacefully for once.
Sure enough, the second he exits the elevator, he hears it.
Tearful cries of 'pawpaw'.
He opens the door to the room in a hurried panic, practically throwing himself into the dark room.
"Star? What's wrong?" Touya asks, heading straight to the little sobbing lump under the blankets, placing a hand atop her.
"I can't see! And my head hurts really really bad." She sobs.
"You can't see?" He asks, trying not to sound as worried as he feels.
He knows full well if he sounds worried that'll push her over the edge that she was already clearly teetering on.
He crouches beside the bed, pulling her covered body towards him under all the blankets.
"Let me feel your temperature." He says quietly, moving the blanket down a little to try and reveal her face.
He wasn't even confident he'd be able to feel if she was cold or feverish, but he was going to give it a damn good go.
"Hey doll." He greets softly as her face is revealed.
Her poor little eyes are all squinted like she genuinely was struggling to distinguish what was in front of her, a sheen of sweat on her forehead, her hair damp from it and stuck to her face in certain places.
"I can't see you." She sobs again.
"I'm right here, kid." Touya soothes, moving her hair out of her face and placing the unmarred area of the back of his hand against her forehead.
Sure enough, she was burning up (from what little he could tell), but he wasn't too sure if it was because she'd wrapped herself up so tight within the blankets.
"You said your head hurts?" Touya asks, petting her hair again.
She nods weakly.
Touya sighs, cuddling her little wrapped-up body gently for a second.
"Sounds like a migraine." He mumbles. "Didn't think little babies like you could get 'em."
"I'm not a baby." She whimpers.
Touya chuckles dryly. She still had a little fight in her, as always. He kisses her forehead, before raising to his full height again, looking down at poor little Y/N as she shivers under the covers, her eyes closed.
"Ya cold?" He asks, frowning a little.
"Mhm." She hums, despite visibly dripping sweat again.
He doesn't like seeing her like this one bit. He doesn't like not understanding where this sickness has come from. He doesn't like that a ten year old is having a migraine, and he doesn't like that he doesn't know what to do.
"You stay there, an' I'll grab ya some water an' try and find something you can take that'll make your head hurt a little less. 'Kay?" Touya asks, trying to keep his voice as quiet as he was physically able to in mind of her headache.
She nods, curling up under the blanket again.
Touya watches her sympathetically, his hands clenching open and shut, wishing he was able to reach out and fix her with them alone.
He doesn't allow himself to waste too much time, though, quietly leaving the room before rushing down the stairs, his panicked brain tricking him into thinking it'll be quicker.
Touya doesn't even think twice about going behind the bar, Kurogiri's designated spot, grabbing a glass and hurriedly pouring a refrigerated bottle of water into it, grabbing another for spare.
He tries not to prickle at the fact Shigaraki hadn't even looked up from his stupid handheld console to ask if Star was okay the second Touya walked in.
"What can we give Star for a migraine?" Touya asks Kurogiri, spinning around with a glass in one hand and the spare bottle in the other.
Kurogiri hums thoughtfully, before rifling behind the bar with a practiced expertise, as though they hadn't only been here for a few days.
He doesn't even read the packets before thrusting a box of painkillers and cooling strips towards Touya.
"Here." Kurogiri says. "Check the date on the cooling strips, we used to get them for Tomura Shigaraki before he-"
"Kurogiri." Shigaraki warns.
In any other situation that probably would have piqued Touya's interest, but he was more interested right now in ensuring little Y/N was safe. So he nods, balancing the boxes in his hands and taking the elevator back up.
The hallway is quiet this time, a little eerie considering the amount of people that were residing in the hotel in comparison to the bar, never mind how she'd been wailing for him before.
He opens the door quietly again, and is immediately hit with the smell of sick.
He scrunches his nose, willing his incredibly sensitive stomach to just play ball this once. He had to hold it together until she was feeling better.
He quietly approaches the bed, his heart dropping the second he sees her sprawled out on the bed, her chest visibly heaving with each breath, and a puddle of vomit barely visible in the darkness.
"Oh, Star." Touya sighs, placing everything on the bedside table.
He leans over to see the extent of the damage. Her little eyes are closed, her body limp, and luckily it only seems to be her hair that had been in contact with her sick.
"'M sorry." She mumbles as he rolls her gently away from her vomit. "Don' be mad at me..."
"I'm not mad. Jus' worried." He soothes quietly.
He was mad. Mad at himself for leaving her alone in a state where she couldn't even get to the bathroom, despite knowing that migraines often caused nausea.
He was also, annoyingly, a little triggered.
God, he hated admitting that.
But seeing little Star like this, all sweaty, distressed and sick, made him mad. It made him angry that his own father had seen him in this kind of state time and time again and would still encourage him to train. Or force him to.
He stares at her, fighting himself internally. He knew he needed to get her in the shower, or the bath. But he knew she would not be able to look after herself in the state she was in, so he'd have to get Toga to keep an eye on her.
But he wasn't stupid, he knew she was nervous of Toga, and he didn't totally blame her.
He didn't want to make her any more uncomfortable than she already was.
"Can ya sit up?" He asks, shaking her shoulder gently.
She groans, but as she always is, ever so eager to be obedient even in her sickness, sluggishly trying to pull herself up so her back's against the headboard.
Touya gently tries to help her up, getting her to a point where she can hold herself up.
"Attagirl." He praises, moving her hair behind her ear and wincing as he narrowly avoids touching the sick inbetween her strands of hair.
He pops out one of the painkillers, throwing a quick once-over at the back of the packet, holding it in his palm and grabbing the glass of water.
"Still can't see?" He asks quietly, rubbing his thumb over the side of her face that isn't caked in dry puke.
She shakes her head, her bottom lip wobbling.
He shushes her, wishing he had a stronger stomach to allow him to give her the affection she probably wanted and needed.
"Kurogiri gave me some medicine that should get ya feelin' better." Touya coaxes. "Gonna be a good girl and take it?"
She drops quiet for a second, opening up her eyes finally, although they are squinted again.
"Not sleepy medicine?" She asks, nerves clear in her voice.
Touya blinks, taking a second to understand what exactly she meant by that, her mother and her dependency issues having dropped completely from his mind.
His eye twitches a little.
"I wouldn't give ya that." He says firmly. "C'mon, lets get this medicine in ya, an' then I'll get Toga to help ya bathe."
"I don't wanna." She argues weakly, but obediently swallows the pill Touya drops into her mouth, gently handing her the glass to help her swallow it down.
"Well you gotta." He replies with a sigh. "Drink more o' that water, doll."
Ever the good girl, she continues taking sips of the water until Touya tells her she can stop.
He kisses her damp forehead before taking the glass from her and sending Toga a quick text to come up to their room to bathe Star.
"I don't want Toga to help." Star tries arguing again.
Touya sighs. He really didn't want to argue with her while she was sick, he didn't want to argue with her in general.
"Tough, kid." He replies, the words leaving him a little harsher than he'd actually intended.
Luckily he goes into damage control before the words can set her off into a panic.
"If you're a good girl with Toga, I'll let ya cuddle Ducky on the bed 'til you feel better. How's that?" He bargains.
Little Y/N's lips press into a tight line, and she reaches blindy for her teddy, the raggedy thing never being too far from her reach, grabbing it and rubbing her thumb over the worn star on its stomach.
"Please, pawpaw?" She asks quietly.
Those two words are almost enough for him to relent. She was too cute, and he hated seeing her upset.
Touya was convinced that his empathy and sympathy had died in the flames along with his thirteen year old self, 'Dabi' being born without those two traits.
But something about her broke that stoicism in a way that no-one else had been able to since waking from that coma and seeing that his old man hadn't changed, training that stupid little brat like Touya had never been in his life in the first place.
He stops himself there, knowing nothing good would come from dwelling on that too much.
If she were truly his, he'd do it.
But she wasn't, as much as they could both trick themselves into thinking she was.
And as much as he hated it, the media was still playing in his mind. The most unforgivable thing a person could do, and they'd accused him... the whole League of doing it.
He knew that there was nothing nefarious going on. He knew that he just wanted to protect her like a big brother... no, a father would. He knew himself and what his true intentions were.
But it still sat there at the back of his brain, gnawing away at him as much as he tried to ignore it.
"Sorry, little Starshine." He sighs. "You're jus' gonna have to be good this time."
She doesn't complain again, but silent tears do streak down her cheeks, threatening to break the heart he'd thought had frozen over years ago.
He watches with guilt eating at his stomach as Toga takes her by the hand, leading her to the bathroom, politely ignoring the fact that little Star was crying, and chirping to her happily about how they could play a little in the water if she started feeling a little better.