"Will you go to sleep, Star?" Dabi groans as you stir next to him again.
"I can't sleep." You whisper.
"Try harder." He replies shortly.
"I'm scared." You tell him, turning over again to press your face into his warm back.
You feel him sigh. "You don't needta be scared. 'Mura already told Re-Destro and Skeptic they're not to come near ya."
"But what if they don't listen?" You immediately counter.
"You think they wouldn't listen ta Tomura?" Dabi asks back.
You pause. He had a fair point. Everyone listened to Tomura, even Dabi himself- although sometimes he'd be sassy about it at times.
"Tha's what I thought. Now get ta sleep." Dabi says gruffly.
"I don't like my outfit." You try instead.
"Star."
You huff, making sure you do it hard enough for Dabi to feel the movement of your breath against his back.
You really didn't like the outfit picked out for you tomorrow. Some black leotard with a star printed on the chest. Dabi said you could wear it with some black pants and a cardigan, and Tomura said that it was a 'peace offering' from the men that had taken you, so you had to be good and wear it.
"It's one a.m., you know what that means?" Dabi asks.
"What?" You ask curiously.
"S' time for little squirts like you to go the f- hell to sleep. Quit buggin' me, close those eyes and get some z's. Or else."
"Or else what?" You question. Dabi hadn't ever really given you an 'or else' scenario before.
"Or else I'm gonna hide your teddies in the spider nest yer uncle found in the basement." Dabi replies.
You frown, clinging to him tighter. "You wouldn't."
"Wouldn't I?" Dabi asks with a yawn. "I'm the oldest of four, kid. I've done worse for less."
"Liar." You murmur.
"Really wanna risk findin' out, Starshine?" Dabi asks in a way that makes you doubt your confidence in him.
You let your silence speak for you, and not long after, Dabi's asleep from what you can tell from his breathing.
You hold onto him tight, squeezing your eyes shut and praying that sleep will come to you. You try every method that Dabi has taught you.
Counting ducks, thinking of a time you were really happy, counting the staples you could feel across his belly, trying to recite English words and sentences you'd learned with Uncle Jin and Spinner in your head...
But none of it works.
So you decide to go and see Tomura downstairs. You know he's usually awake all times of the night, and he probably gets lonely having to sleep downstairs with his bad leg.
You slide away from Dabi slowly, not that he tends to wake easily anyway. He's in the sleep-mumbling phase of his sleep now, so you could probably get away with moving a little clumsier if you wanted.
It's hard to navigate in the dark, and your heart is pounding as you feel around in the dark, taking careful steps down the staircase, but you get to the bottom floor and head towards the main recreational room where you know Tomura has been sleeping.
"What're you doing, Star?" You hear in the darkness when you open the door to the room.
"How do you know it's me?" You ask back.
"Tiny footsteps." Tomura replies with a smirk in his voice.
"I can't sleep. Can I come and sit with you?" You ask quietly, as though anyone upstairs would be able to hear you speaking if you were to talk any louder.
"Does your dad know you're down here?" Tomura asks, and your eyes adjust and spot a mass on one of the couches in the darkness that must be him.
"No... but he'd come and look for you first, right?" You ask uncertainly.
There's a moment of silence, and you see the mass on the couch move slightly in the darkness, a rustling sound coming from there.
"Come on then."
You make your way across the room blindly until a light switches on, revealing Tomuras face, and you realise he's holding up his handheld console so you can see.
When you get close enough, he pats the slim space next to him, lifting the blanket covering him so he can throw it over you when you join him.
"Careful of my leg." He warns as you slide beside him and rest your head on his arm.
"Okay." You agree, both of you shuffling until you're comfortable.
One of Tomuras arms lays under your head, wrapping around you and holding his console up with his other arm as you lay your head on his chest.
"Wanna help me do some more shrines?" He asks.
You nod, watching as he loads up one of the games you played together before he worked away for a while.
When he loads up the map, you can see he's found lots since you last played, but not completed any of them.
"Why didn't you finish any of them? Are they hard?" You ask.
"I didn't have you with me." He replies simply.
"You need me to do them?" You ask, feeling a little proud that Tomura needs you for something.
He huffs in amusement. "Sure, Starlight. Can't do them alone."
You smile to yourself as Tomura chooses one and places the console in your hands.
"Try this one." He encourages. "It's called Shatter the Skies."
You nod, running the in-game character around the room and remembering all the buttons while Tomura lays still and quiet underneath you.
"Why can't you sleep?" Tomura asks as you try your first method.
"I'm scared about tomorrow." You reply thoughtfully. "I told Dabi and he said that I don't need to be scared, because you told them to stay away from me."
"I did." Tomura confirms, and you feel his head bob slightly as he nods for extra reassurance.
"But I'm worried they won't listen to you and they'll do something bad again." You explain.
"They'll listen." Tomura replies confidently. "Because they know if they don't, nothing good will come of it."
"Because you'll get mad?" You ask, huffing when your plan doesn't work like you wanted.
"Exactly." He confirms.
You see Tomuras injured hand move into the stream of light, pointing at the block you're trying to move in the game.
"Do what you just did again, but move the camera up to see if it hits the blocks."
You follow his instructions, grumbling when you see it hit the blocks but not break them.
"What do you think, Star?" Tomura asks, leaning his chin on your head as he watches you pace in-game.
"I need two. One on the top and one at the bottom, but I can only have one..." You mumble.
"Can you?" He asks, gently trying to lead you to the right answer.
You spend a while trying to get it right, Tomura gently trying to lead you towards the right answer, and you finally get there after about ten minutes, collecting the little orb you win at the end of every shrine before travelling to another one.
Your eyes are already getting heavier after the first one, having to use your brain and Tomura's cool and calm exterior working wonders in getting you to finally feel sleepy.
"I missed you." You tell him quietly midway through the second shrine.
Tomura is quiet behind you, but the back of his knuckles brush across your cheek softly and affectionately for a moment.
"You won't go again, will you?" You ask, yawning.
"You missed a barrel. Be careful not to touch it." He leads, his voice quiet and soft.
You don't even register the fact he ignored your question, your eyes heavy and your tongue poking out as you try to focus on your character moving around metal objects but not touching them while electricity is running through them.
When you complete the second shrine, you yawn, passing Tomura the console and closing your eyes.
"Are you sure you want to sleep here, Star?" Tomura asks, and you feel him move slightly under you, putting the console on the back of the couch.
"Mhm."
"Alright." Tomura replies, moving the blanket higher up your body.
You see a small light turn on again even with your eyes closed, and you turn away from it, your head still resting on Tomuras shoulder, even as he moves his arm so it's not curled around you, but hanging over the edge of the sofa.
"Love you, 'Mura." You mumble sleepily.
There's a short silence before Tomura replies to you.
"I care about you too, Starlight."
*â¢*
You were uncomfortable, that was for sure. What felt like thousands of people were looking at you, and Tomura was saying things that didn't really make sense to you, but were making the crowd really happy. You wanted to go back with Dabi, Atsuhiro, Himiko and Uncle Jin and eat more sushi.
You stand beside Dabi, his hands in his pockets so you can't hold onto his pinky finger in your nervousness, and instead have to make do with holding onto his jacket.
From what you can understand, Dabi has had a promotion and Tomura is now working with the big, balding man who took you.
You don't approve of that, but you trust Tomura enough to know that he wouldn't do that if it was going to put you or anyone else in a dangerous position again.
You can tell that Dabi and Tomura were telling the truth about Tomura having told him off, because whenever he stood a little too close to you and Dabi while he was giving his speech, Dabi glared at him, his body temperature spiking. Tomura was wearing his face hand thing, so you couldn't tell what he was thinking or doing, but you imagined he was glaring too.
Once the speech is over and everyone is done cheering, Dabi nudges you gently off the stage that you had been standing on awkwardly for what felt like forever.
You ignore the giant mountain of a man in the room as you pass him, terrified of him despite Tomura and Dabi both telling you he was friendly.
Dabi grabs your arm gently before you can wander off with Tomura and the others.
"This way, Star." Dabi says, pulling you towards him.
"But 'Mura said that he would rot this outfit for me..." You complain.
"He can rot it later, hon. I got someone I want you to meet." Dabi replies.
You look longingly at Tomura and the others but sigh and allow Dabi to lead you through the crowd, your pinky finger wrapped tightly around his.
You didn't like these people because you couldn't really tell who out of them took you and Giran that day, but knew they were somewhere amongst them all, and it made you feel like you were on edge constantly.
"Did you get a promotion, pawpaw?" You ask as he leads you towards the center of the room.
"I guess you could say that, Starshine."
"Well done. I'm proud of you." You say warmly, squeezing his pinky with your own.
He pauses in the middle of the crowd, turning to look you with slightly wider than usual eyes.
"What'd you jus' say?" He asks.
"I'm proud of you! Good job!" You repeat, sticking your thumb up like Uncle Jin would.
Dabi looks at you in disbelief for a moment before shaking his head and allowing a smirk to tug his mouth up on one side.
"You're too adorable, kid." He replies, squeezing your cheek in the middle of the crowd.
"Dad!" You whine, your face heating up.
Dabi's smirk turns into a grin and it looks like he's about to say something when someone calls out loudly and draws his attention away from you.
"Heya!"
You turn around to look too, spotting a blonde man about the same height as Dabi walking towards you with a big, friendly grin and a casual wave. He has big red wings too that draw the eye more than his brown and black clothes.
The young girl he's with you do recognise, though. The big white wings give her away as the girl who was in the abandoned building that Dabi took you to that one time.
You turn to give Dabi an excited look, happy to see another person your age around, but he doesn't look excited or happy to see the two winged visitors at all, his face is devoid of any emotion apart from the slightly twitching eye.
"I told you not to bring the kid, Hawks." Dabi says, using his angry voice.
"Aw, come on, they'll be great friends! Right, HakuchÅ?" The man Dabi called Hawks replies, nudging the girl with white wings forwards as she eyes you with scrutiny.
"Sure." She agrees with a small shrug before smiling at you and bending her knees slightly to talk to you. "Hey."
"Hi." You reply shly, stepping behind Dabi a little.
"No need to be shy!" Who you could only assume her dad was, says, crouching down like Dabi does to talk to you. "I'm Hawks, and this is HakuchÅ. You must be Starshine, right?"
"Only Dabi calls me that..." You reply, tucking yourself behind him some more.
"Call her that again." Dabi says, but the way he says it sounds like he really doesn't want Hawks to say it again.
"Aw, come on." Hawks rolls his eyes and juts his thumb at Dabi. "He always this much of a sourpuss?"
You don't reply, not sure what to think of the winged man opposite you.
"Funny you should say that, 'cause don't cats eat birds?" Dabi hisses.
"Don't eat them." You whisper.
"Not literally, Star." Dabi sighs quietly, ruffling your hair.
"Just let the kids play, yeah?" Hawks grins, giving up on winning you over and standing, patting HakuchÅ's shoulder with a grin. "They don't wanna hang out with us old guys."
You look at Dabi for the answer. He looks torn for a moment but sighs from his nose, crouching to talk to you properly, his warm hands on your shoulders.
"Alright little Star. Are you gonna be okay with HakuchÅ? I'll stay where you can see me." He asks quietly, blue eyes searching your face for any sign of discomfort.
You nod, wishing you had your teddy with you. You hadn't played with someone the same age as you for a while, you wished you at least had Himiko with you, too.
"Attagirl. Tell me if she says anythin' weird. Anythin' at all." He says in a whisper, his eyes going serious for a moment.
"Okay pawpaw." You agree, wondering why she would say anything weird.
"Good girl. Love ya." He presses a kiss to his finger before booping your nose and making you whine and scrub at it in embarrassment.
He chuckles at your reaction, standing and patting your shoulder. "Go on then Star. I'm sure you'll learn a lot."