"Good morning, Miss Star." Kurogiri greets. "Dabi."
"Easy on the enthusiasm." Dabi grumbles sarcastically as he slides into a seat at the bar.
"Star." Shigaraki greets, a rarity in the mornings. "How are you?"
"I'm okay." You reply, climbing onto a seat between him and Dabi. "Thank you for looking after me."
He waves at you dismissively, watching the news intently. This was part of his usual morning routine whenever he actually got up on time. You wondered if he'd actually really slept properly since moving here, never mind since Magne had passed.
There was nothing being shown on screen that interested you, so you turn your attention elsewhere, reaching for your hot water bottle from Dabi, who had been warming the water in it again for you.
"S' it hot enough?" Dabi asks as he passes it to you. "Careful."
You nod as soon as you feel the warmth that's close to Dabi's own in your hands and press it against your stomach.
You blink when Kurogiri places a bowl of muesli in front of you, with pieces of dried fruit and what looked like kinds of seeds in it too.
You don't mean to be rude, but your face must say it all as Kurogiri pushes it closer to you.
"It's integral that you have an iron-rich diet during your menstrual cycle." Kurogiri informs you, and you see Shigaraki roll his eyes, even with his hood up.
"Looks like chicken food." Dabi deadpans from beside you. "Let the kid have somethin' fun."
"If you put sugar on it, it makes it easier to eat." Shigaraki offers, not moving his eyes away from the TV screen. "Kurogiri."
Kurogiri doesn't need to be told twice, retrieving some sugar and sprinkling it over the bland-looking cereal.
You thank him, finding that it looks far more appealing with sugar poured onto it.
"That's okay, Miss Star." Kurogiri returns back to making coffee. "I used to make this for Tom-"
"Kurogiri." Shigaraki warns, his eyes narrowed and gaze dangerous.
"Apologies." Kurogiri bows, and doesn't speak again.
Dabi pets your head as you eat, watching the news too, paying no mind to the interaction between Shigaraki and Kurogiri.
You swing your feet as you eat, watching the TV too, not that you really understand anything that's happening on the screen, but Shigaraki and Dabi seemed interested in it.
That is until Dabi huffs and demands Shigaraki turn it over when a man who seems to be on fire appears on the TV. Shigaraki waves at him in a way that everyone knew meant 'shut up', and Dabi's expression darkens.
"He's on fire!" You yell, pointing at the screen.
"He's fine, Star." Dabi sighs, rolling his eyes. "It's just for show."
"Doesn't it hurt?" You ask, panicked at the potential harm this huge man on the screen may be in by having facial hair made of fire.
"He wouldn't do it if it did." Dabi replies dryly.
You 'hm', still a little worried about him, slowing down as you eat as you watch the TV too, now, watching as the news shows a clip of the fire man fighting another huge man with a spear made of flames.
"He has fire like you." You comment thoughtfully.
Dabi stiffens beside you momentarily before giving a small huff.
"Mine's cooler." He replies, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest.
"Mhm! 'Cause it's blue!" You agree. "It's pretty."
Shigaraki gives one of his amused breaths, not even bothering to turn to look at you both.
You don't understand what's funny about what you said, but you appreciate the little hair ruffle that Dabi gives you.
Spinner comes into the bar area next, yawning and scratching the back of his neck. His violet hair is tied back, and he's only wearing sweatpants.
Dabi's hand goes to the back of your neck, his thumb rubbing over the skin there.
"We jus' walkin' around naked now?" He asks dryly.
"I- Sorry man. You guys aren't usually up this early." Spinner apologises, holding his hands up in surrender. "My bad, Star."
You blush, looking down at the empty bowl in front of you. You didn't care, you tried to avoid him anyway because you always ended up blushing around him regardless, which was never not embarrassing.
And it wasn't like he was naked naked.
You look over at Dabi, trying to read his expression. Maybe he was still in pain like he was yesterday, he'd already been a little grumpy towards Kurogiri and Shigaraki too.
He looks a little blank, as expressionless as usual. His jaw isn't clenched, and he looks as slouched and as relaxed as he usually tended to around the others.
You lean your head against his arm anyway, holding the hot water bottle tighter against your stomach.
His thumb quickens the pace, and he dips his head a little to talk to you quietly.
"Hey, Starshine, ya think you'll be okay with Shigaraki, Spinner and Compress for a couple'a hours?"
His icy eyes slide to meet your own.
You kind of know the answer that he wants to hear, and although you want to say no, and have him around for comfort when your stomach still aches and you still feel a little teary for no real reason, you know you won't.
You feel especially teary about the fact Dabi seems to be in a bad mood and you don't know why, so your mind is immediately jumping to what you could have possibly done wrong.
You nod slowly and he smiles down at you, the scars under his eyes tightening as he does so.
"Attagirl." He praises, ruffling your hair.
"Are you going to see Uncle Giran?" You ask, seeing if that's why he seemed to be in a bad mood.
He scoffs as Kurogiri places some food in front of him. "Hell no."
"Oh." You murmur, moving away from him so he can eat comfortably.
Cold metal atop your head alerts you to Atsuhiro's presence. And although you gasp when you first feel it, not really liking being approached from behind like that, you giggle when you realise it's him, swatting at his new hand playfully.
"Good morning little lady." Atsuhiro greets. "Dabi."
Dabi grumbles something about enthusiasm again before digging into his food.
Himiko and Jin seemed to be gone again. You missed them, and you really wanted Himiko around, having new questions about what was happening to you, and now understanding that Dabi, Jin and Uncle Giran weren't the best people to ask. And you certainly weren't going to ask Kurogiri, because he sometimes used words you didn't understand. He also had a tendency to come across as quite cold with how matter-of-fact and emotionless he was.
Spinner and Shigaraki seemed to be having a more animated conversation than usual, and Atsuhiro ends up not really talking after asking Dabi if he could get his advice on something, only for Dabi to shoot him down by saying he didn't want to talk about work in front of you.
Atsuhiro had waited for him to turn his attention away from him to pull a face at you and then wink.
You had smiled a little, but quickly returned back to worrying about Dabi.
Especially when he'd decided to go away for a couple of hours and not tell you beforehand like he usually does.
Although that doesn't come back up until Shigaraki tries sending him to go and do something.
"Can't. Busy." Dabi replies simply.
Shigaraki's eyes narrow angrily. "You clearly aren't."
"I got somewhere to be." Dabi shrugs. "You guys don't mind looking after Star for me, right?"
He begins getting up, and you spot Shigaraki's hand inching towards his neck, your hand outstretching to grab ahold of Dabi's shirt.
"I told you already. We're not a daycare." Shigaraki replies coldly. "Take her with you."
Dabi freezes for a split second, his body going rigid enough for you to notice through the cloth you're gripping.
"Can't." He replies.
"Why n-" Shigaraki begins to argue, but Kurogiri cuts him off.
"It'll be better for Miss Star to stay with us." He agrees. "Her body's already under stress. She needs to be comfortable."
Shigaraki scowls, making you question how nice he'd been to you last night, and Dabi pries your fingers off the handful of his shirt you'd managed to get a grip of.
You look up at him, a little fearful, your eyes following him as he crouches slightly to talk to you.
"I'll be a couple hours. 'Kay?"
"Okay." You agree.
"Four." He reminds you, bumping his forehead gently against yours momentarily.
"Four." You agree. "Come back soon... my tummy hurts."
"I know, princess." He sighs. "Oi, Kurogiri, give her some painkillers."
Kurogiri hums an acknowledgement, immediately moving to obey the order.
Dabi digs in his pocket to put a cigarette in his mouth, waving lazily at the others, even Shigaraki, who looked like he was trying to summon some kind of laser vision with the way he's staring at Dabi.
"Later." He drawls, not turning to look back.
You slump a little in your seat, the hot water bottle you were clasping to your stomach beginning to get a little cool.
Atsuhiro tries to cheer you up with silly magic tricks with his marbles and Spinner goes off upstairs to change, coming down a little later and heading off through one of Kurogiri's portals.
Atsuhiro seems to get the hint that you're not as into his magic tricks as usual, as he stops playing around, looking at you with thoughtful brown eyes.
"Have you done any painting since I last saw, little miss?" He asks, leaning his face in his prosthetic hand.
And that's all it takes to get you distracted again.
*â¢*
You had shown Atsuhiro all the drawings you had created over the time you'd been with Dabi, despite the masked man having seen a lot of them before. And just like the nice, friendly man he was, he had expressed awe at them all, and occasionally pointed at the odd detail and asked questions.
You were more than eager to speak about your art with him, even forgetting about the hot water bottle you'd been clinging to earlier in the morning once the painkillers started working.
He had listened diligently until Shigaraki had come behind him and told him to go and help Spinner.
The way Shigaraki had told him was a lot gentler than you'd heard him speak to Dabi before, although he was still painfully to the point. It reminded you of how he had been with you last night.
When Atsuhiro had left, Shigaraki had allowed you to play his handheld console for a bit again, sitting on the booth seat beside you, offering advice here and there as well as asking the odd question about where Dabi had gone and what his problem might have been.
He seemed a lot more tolerable of you today, ordering Kurogiri to keep your hot water bottle warm, and making sure you had plenty of food and juice.
When your stomach started playing up again, he'd made sure to give you some more medication and retrieved a blanket, throwing it over you, handing you your giant Ducky and telling you to 'sleep it off, brat'.
You didn't mind too much. You were pretty tired.
And you're even a little dazed, unsure how long you'd been out for when you hear a faint voice.
"Where have you been?"
No answer, just faint footsteps.
There's a high pitched squeak that rouses you a little more.
"I asked where you went for the past four hours."
You hear a raised, raspy voice in return.
"...Medical shit!"
There was no doubt about it, that was Dabi's voice, and the fact he had cursed meant that you were absolutely not meant to be hearing this conversation.
So you pretend to still be asleep.
"I can see that." You hear Shigaraki reply, his voice even. "How did you pay for all of these?"
Dabi scoffs, and you hear footsteps and then the sound of a small scuff on the floor again.
"Are they sending an invoice?"
"I sorted it. Get offa me."
You try not to let your breath hitch, but you sneak a peek to make sure Dabi wasn't in any imminent danger.
When you open one eye slightly, you notice that Shigaraki seems pretty calm, his pinky raised high, far far away from the rest of the hold he has on Dabi's wrist.
"How? You have no money." Shigaraki replies, and you close your eye again when he tilts his head at Dabi.
"Got a tab."
"Doctors have tabs now?" Shigaraki asks sarcastically.
"Get off'a my dick, crust-ass." Dabi snaps.
You hold your Ducky closer, anxious about where this fight is going. Dabi had cursed at Shigaraki three times now, and called him a name. That wasn't bound to go down well. You didn't want to go back to the cold streets and lose your family again.
"You'll wake Star." Shigaraki replies, never raising his voice once.
There's footsteps, and you have to fight not to flinch when suddenly there's a warm hand in your hair.
"Compress do this?" Dabi asks softly.
"I did." Shigaraki replies coolly.
"What, you got a soft spot for her now?" Dabi retorts with a scoff.
There's no answer from Shigaraki, and you feel your heart sink a little.
He definitely still hated you.
You feel someone shift the blanket so it's higher over your shoulders before the footsteps and voices become distant again.
"Where did you get the money?" Shigaraki asks, his voice faint.
"I don't have money." You hear Dabi practically growl.
"Then how did you pay for the procedure?" Shigaraki asks.
The sounds of clattering glasses and Kurogiri fussing at Dabi to get back on the other side of the bar in case he wakes you up travels through the room.
"I have ways of payin', 'kay?" Dabi snaps eventually.
"Right." Shigaraki says, his voice dry.
The room goes quiet, and you wonder if you can begin to feign waking up now the argument seems to be over with.
"I don't like it." Shigaraki speaks up again just as you were planning to fake wake up.
"You don't gotta like it." Dabi hisses. "I don't wanna owe you, or anyone else shit."
You whimper a little at the tone Dabi's using, as well as the harsh words spilling out of his mouth.
You'd seen Dabi snappy before, as well as a little grumpy, but you'd never seen him lose his temper quite like this, and for a second, you're actually relieved you're pretending to be asleep, because you can continue to pretend that Dabi isn't capable of being one of those scary men you fear so much.
The temperature in the room is beginning to rise, too, you notice.
"You're waking Star up." Shigaraki comments. "Go outside and clear your head."
"I don't need to fuckin' clear my head."
"You're steaming." Shigaraki deadpans.
"Get outta my business then." You hear Dabi sneer.
Another silence.
You stir again, a wave of stabbing pains rocking through your stomach once more. The booth creaks a little as you do so, and the silence becomes even heavier for a second.
"Leave." Shigaraki orders. "Come back when you're calmer."
There's the sound of loud footsteps and clattering, and you begin to sit up slowly, looking a little worriedly at the back of Dabi's head as he storms out of the room, smoke pouring from his body.
Shigaraki looks over at you, slowly approaching as you back into the corner of the booth, clutching your giant plushie like a lifeline.
"Are you scared?" He asks, pausing in place.
You nod, unable to move backwards any further.
"Nightmare?"
You want to agree, but know that lying was bad, and lying to Shigaraki was definitely a no go, especially after Dabi had been mean to him.
So you shake your head.
"You heard." He says simply, his red eyes sliding to the sides momentarily.
"Am I in trouble?" You ask.
"No. Why would you be?" He replies.
You shrug. You were just used to being the source of arguments, used to being the one that was sent away, the one that was blamed, the one who was punished.
He approaches you again, slowly, as if you were a spooked animal, before sliding onto the same seat as you, although right at the edge.
He crosses his arms, leaning on the table.
"I'm sorry." You blurt out, despite Shigaraki seeming perfectly calm.
He waves that 'shut up' wave at you, his eyes trained on the door that Dabi had stormed out of.
"Do you know where Dabi gets his treatments?" Shigaraki asks.
"Treatments?" You ask, confused.
You loosen up a little thanks to his clear disinterest in you, and his relaxed demeanor, stretching your legs out a little so you're not curled up so tight.
Shigaraki turns to look at you, his face softer than usual. He doesn't even look as irritable as he usually does when he has to explain things to you.
"Medical treatments." Shigaraki explains slowly. "Like his staples, or skin grafts?"
"What are sk-"
"Do you know or not?" He asks, getting to the point.
His patience for explaining things to you had clearly run out, but you couldn't be mad, because it was more than you usually got anyway.
You were also beginning to grasp when he was actually mad and when he was just being his usual blunt self.
You shake your head, pulling your legs a little more towards yourself again, just in case you weren't getting a correct read on how he was coming across.
Shigaraki just hums a little to himself, one of his hands going up to scratch at his neck.
"Um, Shigaraki?" You ask shyly, ready to be snapped at from the mere fact he was clawing at himself alone.
"Yes, Star?" He grunts.
"Why were you and Dabi arguing?" You ask, holding Ducky tight once more.
He pauses, his hand lowering, moving away from his scratched up throat.
Crimson eyes meet yours, his face solemn as he gazes at you.
"I wasn't arguing with Dabi. He's just angry because he did something he likely didn't want to do just to save face."
You blink at him, not understanding a word he just said.
"He did something bad for himself, and he's mad at me for it." Shigaraki tries to re-explain, his narrow shoulders lifting into a shrug.
You frown, no less confused by that explanation.
Shigaraki huffs irritably, deciding to abandon that conversation with you.
"How are you feeling now, brat?" He asks gruffly.
"A little better... My tummy still hurts a bit, though." You admit.
He hums to himself again, giving you a once over and picking up the hot water bottle that had fallen to the floor in your sleep as he slides back out of the booth.
"Go check on your dad." He says simply. "I'm sure he'd like to see you."
You nod, uncurling yourself from under the blanket, carrying Ducky under one arm and reaching for your hot water bottle with your other hand.
He passes it to you, patting your head twice before returning back to the bar wordlessly.
*â¢*
It takes a while for you to find him, but the smell of smoke gives him away, and so you climb through the open window he left behind him.
He's sitting on the flat roof above the kitchen, smoking on the edge of the roof, sitting cross legged and overlooking the courtyard.
You take careful steps towards him, worried the roof may cave in underfoot, and he appears to hear you, his head tilting, but not turning to look at you.
"Go away."
You pause, knowing he had no idea whether it was you or not thanks to his refusal to turn around, but your brain still began to tell you that he didn't want you around anymore.
You take a few more steps towards him.
"Can you heat my hot water bottle up again?" You ask quietly, unsure if he would even hear what you said.
His head snaps towards you, a look of sheer concern on his face as he flicks his cigarette to the courtyard below. Someone yells 'ow!' from below, and Dabi peers over, giving one amused 'heh' before returning his attention to you.
"Star, get back inside. It's dangerous out here."
"But you're okay, and you're bigger than me." You reply, taking a few more cautious steps.
Dabi sighs, looking away once more. "Be careful, then."
You take careful steps all the way out to him, moving to perch with your legs hanging over the edge of the roof like him, only for him to swing his arm out to stop you, the sun gleaming off shiny new staples.
"Sit properly on the roof." He orders. "Ain't tryna scrape you off the pavement."
You don't know what he's talking about, but follow his instructions, sitting cross legged beside him and handing him your hot water bottle.
He takes it from you, holding it to his own torso and continuing to look over what little you could see of the city from the rooftop.
You sit in silence for a moment or two, trying to get a good read of his face, but he looks pretty stoic as usual.
"I missed you." You try, to see what kind of reaction it gets.
He huffs in amusement. "Yeah. Missed ya too, kid."
You look away for a second, registering the use of 'kid' instead of any of the multiple other nicknames he used for you.
"Your new staples are shiny." You compliment.
He laughs humorlessly, but doesn't offer any more of a reply than that.
You do notice that his lips fall down at their corners ever so slightly though, and that his eyes begin to look more thoughtful, and ever so slightly duller.
"...Yeah." He finally says.
You take that as a sign to keep the conversation going, maybe try to distract him from the argument he had.
"The sun shines off them pretty." You continue.
"Like Spinners scales?" Dabi teases, giving you a knowing smirk.
You whine at him to stop, your face heating up immediately at the mention of it. Dabi chuckles and looks away again, his smile slowly fading once more.
"Did it hurt?" You ask curiously. "You look sad."
"A little." He replies, handing you back your hot water bottle.
He turns his wrist to show you a line of staples that look a little red and painful on his inner arm as you press the hot water bottle against your stomach for relief.
"These ones were a little infected." He tells you. "Gotta take extra good care of 'em. You got that?"
You nod diligently, puffing your chest out slightly with pride of being given a task to do.
After all, if you were helpful, he might stop being angry. And maybe you'd stop worrying about him not wanting you for a little while too, if you had a purpose.
"Why were they infected?" You ask, your eyes following his arm as he leans back on it.
"Ah, well, funny story that." He says dryly. "They asked if I knew any ten year olds."
Your blood runs cold.
Did the heroes find you? Were you going to be taken away?
Dabi doesn't look at you, keeping his eyes trained on the city's horizon as he sniffs and scratches his nose slightly.
So he doesn't see the look of sheer horror on your face before he continues.
"Yeah, they said: 'you know any ten year olds that need a knuckle sandwich?'"
"A wha-" You begin to ask, only to be cut off by Dabi wrapping an arm around your shoulders and quickly pulling you to his chest.
You squeal in horror at first when his hand flies towards you, squeezing your eyes shut, only to realise he was only ruffling your hair slightly rougher than usual.
When you realise you're not in any imminent danger, your squeal of horror becomes a squeal of playfulness.
You try shoving him off, but it's unsuccessful and you're left to wait for him to release you, giggling the whole while.
Once he lets you go, you see he's grinning, which makes you feel better, at least.
"Now go back inside, Starshine." He says, pulling out another cigarette from his pocket. "I need some alone time. 'Kay?"
"Okay." You agree, bumping your head against his scarred arm lovingly before getting up and brushing yourself off.
When you turn around to leave, you swear you see a flash of red and a cloud of blue in the window for a second, only to blink and have it be gone.
When you climb through the window, however, you resign yourself to the fact that it must have been a trick of the light, because there's no-one around in the hallway.