You hadn't even been aware that you'd been dozing off in Giran's arms the second that he started telling you the story, only drifting in and out enough to know that it was a story about a woman who had to spin straw into gold.
You hadn't been able to fall asleep that easily in weeks. You're warm underneath the blanket, you can hear Giran's raspy voice telling the story even if he sounds distant, and you're safely cuddled up in his arms. It may have been all the tears tiring out your eyes that made you so sleepy, too.
It feels the most peaceful and safe that you'd felt in a long time, and you don't want it to end.
But the sound of a door slamming startles you awake, a surprised yelp leaving you, and Giran holds you closer, hushing you.
"Where is she?" You hear your pawpaw ask, almost angrily.
Automatically, you try leaping out of Giran's lap, calling out for Dabi.
Unlike Hawks, Giran just lets you get off of his lap without a fight, only stopping you briefly to remove the blanket from how it's been wrapped around you while you bounce impatiently, hearing footsteps rush towards your voice.
You don't even get a good look at Dabi before he's dropped to his knees and you run forwards to slam your bodies together, one warm hand pressed against your head, holding your face to his shoulder, and his other arm wrapped tightly around your body. He presses his face against your shoulder in return, making a choked noise.
"Pawpaw!" You cry out, wrapping your arms just as tightly around his torso, too.
"Starshine." He says, his voice cracking a little bit. "Yer so small again..."
He squeezes you even tighter, like he's trying to make you a part of him, and you wheeze a little.
"Can't... breathe..." You gasp, but you don't really mind. Because even if he's hurting you by accident, that means that this was real. That he was real.
"Shi- shoot. Sorry darlin'." Dabi says, his voice rough as he loosens his grip. "Fu- shi- damn, I'm outta practice... I've bled on ya."
"Don't care." You say, pressing yourself a little closer to him again, burying your face into the side of his scarred neck and breathing in the smell of smoke. "You're real?"
"As real as it gets, hon. I missed you so much." His chest heaves for a moment as he takes a shaky breath and nuzzles his face against you. "So much."
You immediately start bawling and gripping him tightly, which only makes Dabi cling onto you closer too, shushing you and peppering kisses on every area of your head and face as he can reach without moving you away from him.
You begin babbling tearfully and completely incoherently about everything that had happened while you were away from him, and he rubs your back, listening intently despite you not making any sense.
After a while of tears and complete nonsense spilling from your lips between heaved breaths, Dabi gently tries peeling you away from him, but you shake your head and whine, gripping his clothes tighter.
"Star, ain't lettin' you go anywhere, I promise. Jus' wanna get all cuddled up with ya. Can we do that?" He asks patiently, sniffing and still rubbing your back.
"We can cuddle?" You double check.
"Of course, ya think I'm gonna not cuddle you?!" He asks in mock offense. "Come on, let me get up little Star. Want me to make you into a Star burrito?"
He sniffs again as you let go, and when you move away, you gasp when you see his blood-smeared face. The scarring under his eyes now met the scarring that ran along the middle of his face. You immediately move to touch it, not even caring about maybe touching his blood as your bottom lip wobbles, but he grabs your wrist gently. You cry again when you see the scarring has extended over his hand a little more too.
"You're hurt." You whimper. "And your hair's white again."
"So are you." He says with his lips tugging downward, his thumb gently running over the tube stuck down to your cheek.
"This doesn't hurt." You deny as he picks you up easily for once, taking the blanket from Giran, and settling you down on the couch over his lap.
"Maybe not physically but if you needed a tube ta eat, that means that you got hurt in here." Dabi taps your head with his fingers, tucking the blanket around you so you're wrapped up tight. "Look, ya nearly cried your bandaids off."
"Giran said you'd like them." You sniffle.
"Well, I'd prefer you didn't have 'em." Dabi sighs. "But they're cute hon. Anything's cute on you."
He looks at you with a soft look in his eyes, despite all the dried blood on his face. His own lip wobbles, and fresh blood spills from the seams on his face.
Giran passes him a tissue, Dabi taking it with a grunt of thanks, roughly cleaning up the blood.
Once the blood's been mopped up, he presses his face into your hair again, squeezing you tight.
"Get her some juice, ey Zero?" Giran asks the stitched man gently.
"You gonna drink some juice?" Dabi asks against your head and you nod.
"Apple juice please." You request.
"Of course, Star." Zero replies with a small smile.
Dabi watches him leave the room, blood trickling down his cheeks again.
"I could damn near kiss him for gettin' you back." He says with a single laugh.
"You're bleeding again." You say worriedly, and then scrunch up your nose. "Zero agrees that kissing is gross and 'Mura wouldn't like that."
"I am?" He asks, touching his face and then grimacing at the blood on his fingers, retrieving the tissue again to dab at his face. "Sorry, doll."
"I don't care." You say simply, pressing your face into his chest again.
He holds you closer, kissing your head and taking the cup of juice from Zero, and waiting for you to get your arms out from under the blanket so you can drink.
"Ya done so much cryin' huh? If ya finish that juice I'd like it if ya could drink some water." Giran says as you sip the juice with Dabi's worried eyes on you.
"You eaten today hon?" Dabi asks softly.
"Just what they put in the tube." You say nonchalantly.
He takes a deep breath and nods slowly, stroking your hair with the flat of his hand as you drink your juice slowly.
Giran watches you too, not smoking at all now Dabi's back. They both look concerned, but you're back now, safe with your family. You don't understand why they still look worried.
"If ol' Uncle Giran makes ya a special pancake, will ya eat it, lil' love?" Giran asks, brushing the back of his fingers over your cheek.
"S' she meant to eat wi' that thing?" Dabi asks curiously.
"Hawks said I could eat and drink as long as I can swallow." You say, gulping exaggeratedly so that Dabi can see it won't be a problem.
"Say ah?" Dabi says, ducking his head slightly.
"Ah!" You say, opening your mouth wide. Dabi looks at the tube with his white eyebrows pulled together, sighing a little. "Alright. But small bites, okay?"
He strokes your cheek softly. "And don't eat too quickly. Remember what I told you when we first met? If ya eat too quickly you'll get sick, and that ain't gonna be fun with a tube."
"Okay!" You agree. "Thank you Uncle Giran."
"'Course, love. Grandpaw loves you." Giran says, leaning to kiss your head.
"Love you." You reply, leaning your cheek against Dabi's shoulder again.
"Hey, hon, can I ask you a question?" Dabi asks, shifting you a little so you're leaning against his body.
You hum a little noise of agreement, closing your eyes as you lean against him, soaking up the heat you hadn't felt for quite some time.
"You got some teeth missin'. Somethin' happen?" He asks, his voice a little darker than usual.
"I made them wobbly when I bit the wood." You explain, opening your eyes again. "Look! I have one here!"
You open your mouth, wiggling a tooth at the back, Dabi's eyes widen and then he's batting your hand from your mouth gently.
"Ya bit furniture?" He asks, shocked.
"And Endeavor." You huff.
He blinks. "What?"
"Well he said sorry to me for what you did and then said he was your dad, so I told him I hated him and to go away." You explain, leaning your head on his chest again. "Then he tried to touch me so I bit his hand as hard as I could!"
There's a long silence for a moment before Dabi begins belly-laughing, his whole body shaking and making you jostle too. You're surprised at first, you hadn't expected him to react like that when you'd broken rule four, even if his dad was mean.
"Attagirl Star!" Dabi praises, his tired eyes sparkling for the first time since your reunion. "I'm so prouda you. I hope you really went for it, kid."
He even cups your face between your hands and kisses all over your face, and you're too relieved to see him to whine in embarrassment over it.
"Hey! Old man! Star bit Endeavor!" Dabi calls to Giran in the kitchen, and then snorts, blood running down his cheeks again as he laughs. "You're gold, doll. I'm so glad I get ta be your pawpaw."
"But that was bad. I broke rule four." You say in confusion.
"You got my permission to bite him any time." Dabi snorts. "Man. You've just made my day even better, little Starshine."
You stare at him for a moment, overwhelmed with the reality of the situation again.
"Dabi-" Zero begins, sounding like he's going to warn him of something.
"What's the matter?" Dabi asks you, his eyebrows furrowing slightly.
"She's becoming anxious." Zero tells him as though you're not there.
"You're really real?" You ask Dabi again, everything begins to seem a little surreal, like everything's out of place although you know everyone in the house and exactly where you are.
"Of course, hon." Dabi tries to reassure you, rubbing your arm. "Who'd wanna fake bein' me?"
"I don't feel right..." You murmur.
Everything suddenly seems loud, the clicking of the big clock in Girans room, the TV, the sounds of him humming from the kitchen. The colours in the room seem too bright, but too muted, like it's all out of place compared to how white and tidy Hawks' house is. And the smell of food was making you feel sick even though you were safe to eat now, because Dabi was here.
"S' been a long day." Dabi says, frowning ever so slightly. "Too much excitement. Probably tired ya out. Why don't you get some more sleep?"
"I'm scared I'll wake up and this will all be a big, scary, sleepy medicine dream." You say, beginning to tear up again.
"Sleepy medicine?" Dabi asks, quietly but dangerously.
You nod. "They made me sleep a lot because I was bad."
Dabi's jaw clenches visibly under ruined skin. "Made you sleep."
You nod again, cuddling up to him as close as you can once more. "I don't wanna be like mom."
Dabi's tense for a moment, but you hear him exhale through his nose, and then loosen up again, bundling you up properly and cuddling you back.
"Not the same thing, Star. You're not gonna be like your mom." He explains.
"But-"
"I'll tell ya why, but I think you need a nap first. You had a busy day. I'm gonna be here the whole time, an' no-one's gonna be able to take ya from me, okay?" Dabi says, kissing the top of your head. "Sleep. You'll feel better after, an' then you can tell me everythin' that happened, an' I'll explain some stuff to you too."
"You promise?" You ask nervously.
"Promise. Not even the whole of the Japanese army could take you away from me right now." Dabi says firmly. "Nap. You can eat your pancake later, too."
"Tell Giran I'm sorry." You say, nestling into Dabi.
"He don' care, doll. None of us do. As long as you're here." Is the reply back.
*â¢*
You wake up curled up in Dabi's arms still, the older man talking lowly with Giran and Zero. Your face crumples automatically when you see him the second you wake up, but you can't cry, so you just kind of breathe weirdly at him and he looks concernedly down at you, moving your hair out of your face.
"Scary dream?" He asks, his touch featherlight.
You shake your head.
"Happy to see me?" He asks, smiling a little.
You nod, and he gives you an even bigger wonky smile, ruffling your hair in the way you'd grown so used to over the time you've known him, and in a way you had missed.
"I'm out of tears." You tell him, rubbing your sore eyes.
"Ain't surprised, darlin'. Zero says ya cried all the way here, and Giran says you cried for two solid hours here too." He sighs. "Poor baby."
You don't even deny it this time, you'd like to be treated like a baby after the time away from him that you'd had.
He kisses all over your face again, Giran chuckling to himself as he does so, muttering something under his breath.
You hold onto him the entire time, not complaining once even though there's still bits of dry blood on Dabi's face. When you peer over to Zero, you see he's asleep on the other armchair, curled up like one of the cats in the café, his silver hair falling over his face.
"Been workin' hard tryin' to find ya, lil' love." Giran explains when you catch his eye. "Ain't really slept much."
"You didn't give up?" You ask, amazed.
"Hell nah." Dabi murmurs, still fussing at moving your hair out of your face with soft but concerned eyes. "Told ya. 'Til death, my sweet little Star."
You glance at the slumbering Zero and then back at Dabi, moving closer to whisper to him. "Zero killed someone."
Dabi looks impassive when you move away to look at him, your eyes scanning his face for any kind of sign that he's surprised.
"Ya see what happened?" He asks quietly.
You shake your head, and he nods slowly, glancing at Zero too before returning his attention back to you, tilting his head.
"Does that scare you?" He asks.
You think about it for a minute. "A little."
Dabi nods again, looking a little guilty for a split second, but his expression soon turns stoic again, and he rubs your cheek with his thumb softly.
"Zero would never hurt you. I promise, darlin'. An' he'd listen to you if you wanted to stop anythin' he was doing." Dabi explains in as much of a whisper as his voice will allow. "Zero is here to protect you, me, us all."
"Killing people is bad." You say, looking him in the eyes.
He nods slowly again, as though he's trying to think of something to say in response.
Giran gets up from his chair to pass you a plate with cut up pancake and fruits on it, all of it sliced into bite-sized pieces. He places it on your lap with a smile and a wink.
"Give it a try, lil' love. Can't live offa air forever." He says, brushing his fingers over your cheek. "Heard ya were in th' hospital. Didn't think the food was tha' bad though."
"I didn't want to eat." You say simply, your attention diverted by the plate on your lap. You pick at the pancake pieces idly, a little nervous to eat after so long of not eating anything physical.
"Why's that, princess?" Dabi asks, resting his chin on your head. "You love ta eat."
You shrug harshly. You don't know why the subject's making you bristle. They weren't forcing you to try to eat like Hawks and the handler, Rai did. The food was just there, within reach if you wanted it, and they were just curious and making jokes about it.
Dabi picks up on it, rubbing your back gently, sighing when his fingers run over the bumps of your spine through your shirt.
"You don't gotta if ya don't want to." He says, wrapping his arms around you and giving you a little squeeze. "Tell me about the hospital?"
"It wasn't very nice..." You mumble, still picking at the pancake. "I was confused, and scared, so I kept screaming and crying and they put me to sleep a lot. Nurse Tachihara said I couldn't see you again, too, which made me really sad. But Nurse Wani was nice."
"Yeah? What's so great about this Wani?" Dabi asks, picking up the piece of pancake you'd been picking at and popping it in his mouth with a wink when you glare at him.
"She listened to me when I said my name was Star. And then when she put my tube in my nose she said I was brave and told me about her little boy because he's not brave. And then if I was good she would bring me colouring books. Otherwise I would be quiet all day and talk to you in my head."
"In your head?" He whispers sadly and then shakes his head a little bit.
"Did it hurt?" He asks, pausing and then asking: "They do anything that hurt ya?"
"The injections hurt sometimes. And the burn was a little painful when I bumped it... And then they wanted to look at..." You say quietly and glance at Giran, who was smoking out of the window without any cutting comment from Dabi. "My... you know."
Dabi's face goes completely expressionless. "Right."
"But I was bad so they put me to sleep." You say sadly. "I kicked one of the nurses in the face and she cried."
"Good. Wantcha to do that whenever anyone tries touching you there." Dabi says darkly. "Make 'em cry, make 'em hurt, whatever you gotta do. Your dad will always back you up, 'kay?"
"You're not mad at me for being bad?" You ask nervously.
"You weren't bein' bad." Dabi shrugs. "You weren't bein' listened to, or respected an' that does things to a person. Didja say you got a burn?"
You nod eagerly. "Yup! From your flames!"
His expression turns horrified, but you're busy rolling up the sweater sleeves that HakuchÅ had let you borrow earlier on in the day to show him the large colourless patch of skin on your arm, as well as the still healing second degree burns around it.
"See! We match a little!" You say cheerfully, as Dabi takes your arm in his hand gently, his eyes running over the marks there silently.
"I burned you?" He asks quietly.
"It was an accident!" You defend him for himself. "Because you were trying to help Uncle Jin. Is Uncle Jin okay?"
Dabi and Giran exchange a look. "Sure, hon. He's alright."
Your eyes sparkle. "He is? Can I see him?"
Dabi's blue eyes roll to the sides, his jaw clenching under the skin. "Naw, doll. He's sleepin'. It's late. Maybe another time."
Your shoulders sag, but Dabi seems to be invested in your arm again, his thumb running over the paler area very faintly.
"Can you feel that?" He asks gently.
You shake your head. "Nope! Nurse Tachihara said I won't feel anything there because of the nerve damage. Which means I can't get hurt! That's cool, isn't it?"
Dabi looks at you as though he's conflicted, a pain in his eyes but also as though he's a little confused. "Are you being serious, Starshine?"
You nod. "You can pinch me, I won't feel it!"
He shakes his head. "You know I'd never do that, squirt."
The words are meant to sound teasing, but they don't, they just sound kind of flat and sad.
"Hon, listen to me?" He requests.
You nod, immediately focusing all your attention onto him.
"Attagirl." He praises, and then his mood seems to dampen again. "You're bein' very cute about this, darlin', but something like this ain't cool."
He raises your arm gently as if to highlight his point, Giran watching from the window.
"This means now, if you do get hurt an' you can't feel it, ya might not know it's there an' you might make it worse or get an infection. An' that's dangerous." He explains as calmly as possible. "I'm so sorry my flames caught you that much, Star. That musta really hurt you."
He sniffs deeply, looking away for a second and gulping before continuing. "So you're gonna have to look after this arm real well, 'kay? Need ya to promise me."
"I promise." You vow easily.
"Good girl." He says, caressing your cheek. "...I'm so sorry. I'm sorry babydoll."
"I don't care. I love you." You whisper, wanting to cry again.
Dabi smiles at you, his bottom lip twitching slightly too.
"Love you too lil' princess Starshine. You're the light of my life, kid." He whispers, kissing all over your head and then saying: "I'm so happy I have you here where you belong again. I missed you so much darlin', was fallin' apart without you."
He looks at you for a second. "That a nice strawberry?"
You blink, you hadn't even realised you'd been picking at the food. It was kind of bland, but it was something.
You look up at him, taking the news and old scars in again. You push the plate away, climbing onto his lap and wrapping your arms around his neck. He hugs you back without question, kissing your temple.
"You stayin?" Giran asks.
"F' ya don't mind. Don't wanna move her about too much." Dabi replies, resting his cheek on your head, the staples scraping against your scalp a little.
"Well. If it were jus' you, I'd say ya can take th' couch, but lil' love here changes things." Giran says, in a teasing voice. "I'll let ya have my room for the night."
"Thanks pops." Dabi says, stroking your hair back again. "Jus' gonna go to the kitchen an' smoke. Need five minutes to..."
"You can't leave!" You panic, grabbing his sleeve.
"Star, I need five minutes to get my head together, 'kay? Like how you had your nap earlier." Dabi says. "I got a lotta feelings too. I promise I ain't leaving. I'll be back in five minutes."
You don't let go of his sleeve, staring at him in panic, like a deer in headlights.
"F' ya go with Uncle Giran to brush your teeth an' get changed we can have a race to see who's in bed quicker." He says, raising a white eyebrow. "But you'll lose. I'm a quick smoker."
You're still frozen, so Giran pipes up.
"Borin' without incentive to play." He grins, closing the window. "How 'bout we have prizes?"
"Yeah?" Dabi responds, looking at Giran and then at you. "What would ya like if you win, Star?"
"To stay in yours and Tomura's room for a month." You say, still unsure that that's even enough to make you want to play.
"A month?! Pushin' it there princess. How 'bouta week?" Dabi tries to compromise.
You shake your head, and Dabi rolls his eyes.
"Fine, but one day in your room, one day in ours." He agrees.
You nod reluctantly. "...What about if you win?"
"F' I win?" Dabi asks, pretending to think while tapping his scarred chin dramatically. "Hmm... A never ending supply of Star hugs. That means even when you're all grown up and think it's embarrassin' to hug your old man."
"You want to keep me that long?" You ask, surprised.
Dabi rolls his eyes, smirking and shaking his head to himself, and Giran chuckles.
"What part of 'til death' do you not understand, hon?" He asks in faux exasperation. "Now, ready? Set... Go!"