Chapter Text
“Ugh, it’s heavy.” You complain, struggling to pull your bag over your shoulders.
“Let me help.” Dabi says, using the top handle to lead it to the top of your shoulders. “Jesus, kid, what you got in there? Rocks?”
“Thanks.” You say gruffly, rolling your eyes at his dramatics.
His hand doesn’t leave your back though, the cool metal apparent even through your shirt.
“Dad…” You sigh.
“All grown up.” He mopes, like he has been all morning.
“I’ll be back later, don’t be a crybaby.” You tell him, turning to give him a quick hug.
Except it’s not a quick hug, because he refuses to let go of you, which really you should have seen coming.
“Dad, I’ll miss the train.” You remind him.
“Wish you’d just let me drive ya.” He mutters grouchily.
“Nope!” You say quickly, using your freedom to head for the door. “Can’t be the only one there who’s dad drives them!”
Dabi grumbles a little behind you, but follows you to the door with his arms crossed, the disingenuous smile only given away from the worry in his ice blue eyes.
“Good luck, Starshine.” He says, rubbing your arm. “F’ ya need anything you call, yeah?”
“I know dad. It’ll be fine!” You reassure, beaming at him as if feigning your own confidence will stop him from worrying.
You bend down to give Cloud a fuss before leaving, scratching the top of his head affectionately a few times before standing and beginning to twist the door handle.
“I love ya.” He says pointedly, and you roll your eyes again while your backs turned to him, but turn to give him a soft look.
“Love you too, dad.” You reply, blowing him a kiss before rushing out of the door, paranoid about getting the train in time.
The train station isn’t too far, not really, and Tomura and Dabi had made sure it was one of the safest, nicest ones when you all moved out of the tiny apartment above Zeros bar.
But you still didn’t want to risk being late on your very first day of physically going to art school.
Dabi had shown you the basics of buying a ticket, reading the time tables and listening to the announcements and ensuring you’re on the right platform, but it all seems so much more daunting alone.
You can see other people your age doing the same things, although their movements look more natural as they do it and less nervous, like they’d done it a thousand times already. A lot of them seem to be in pre-established groups of other students, and the ones that aren’t have their headphones in, and their attention focused solely on their phone screens.
You’d love to reach out and try to make friends, but there was no guarantee that they’d be going to the same school as you anyway, and besides, you weren’t really too sure on how to communicate with people outside your family, because you never really got to while growing up.
So you keep to yourself, taking in everyone else’s behaviour and putting one of your own earphones in, some lo-fi playing quietly so you can still hear the trains as they’re announced.
You’re surprised by just how many people are so absorbed into their phones.
And yeah, you had one, you’d had one since Dabi burned his arm off and ended up in hospital, but your parents had drilled it into you not to become reliant on it for anything other than contacting people.
When you get onto the train, you eventually relent and actually check your messages, looking to kill some time.
All of it is just your family wishing you luck on your first day, Himiko promising to come to you in an instant if you need someone dealt with and Uncle Giran reminding you that you worked hard to get into that school, and even Shuuichi has sent a brief text wishing you luck.
You reassure Himiko that you’ll be okay, thank your grandpa for encouraging you all this time and promise to make him proud, and briefly hover over Tomuras icon.
✨: Hi dad. I missed you this morning, I’m on the train to college now.
Surprisingly, he answers pretty quickly, a rarity for Tomura now he’s so busy.
🤚🏻: Did you pick up the money I left by your water?
✨: Yes, dad. Thank you, you didn’t need to do that.
🤚🏻: Its better you don’t go in with a Touya made lunch.
🤚🏻: Trust me.
You snicker a little to yourself, drawing attention to you by the people around you, some faces curious and others scrutinising.
You give an apologetic smile to the people whose eyes linger before looking back down at your phone. You’re beginning to understand why everyone else is doing this now.
✨: I’m a little nervous. :s
🤚🏻: To be expected. But you’ll be fine.
Ever the man of few words, but you know that there’s more behind his words than what he’s giving you.
🤚🏻: Take pictures for us.
✨: Ok. Are you not working?
🤚🏻: Made sure I could be available if you or Touya needed it.
Your phone pings when your other dad sends a message, and you immediately swap to that chat.
🔥: did u get on the train ok?
✨: Yeah dad, you don’t need to worry.
🔥: always gonna worry about u bbydoll
You smile softly at your phone. Through the years he’d never changed. He’d always been protective, patient, loving and supportive of you, even when you probably didn’t deserve it.
You played it off when he says things like that to your face, but did treasure the knowledge that despite everything, you always had him to fall back on.
A painful impact against your leg pulls your attention away from your phone, your smile turning into a bewildered look as you make direct eye contact with a reptilian heteromorph who has nothing but concern in their slitted green eyes.
“Sorry.” A gruff voice says instantly, and he raises his taloned hands in surrender.
“Oh, that’s o-“ You begin to reply with a genuine smile, a little taken aback to see a dark haired guy around your age grab his arm and pull him away, further down the carriage.
“C’mon man, let’s go. Without whackin’ people with your tail this time.” He leads, sounding teasing.
Then they’re both gone without another word, leaving you alone again. You notice your mouth is still open to finish your sentence and you snap your mouth shut, dropping your shoulders a little.
It would have been nice to interact with someone instead of just sitting and waiting, even if you were sure that the hit from their tail was going to leave a bruise.
*•*
The building you end up in front of is massive.
Massive .
When you’re told that the art blocks are based outside and you wouldn’t have to try and navigate all the corridors, doors and swarms of students, you can’t help but release a little of the tension you’d been carrying in your body on the short walk from the train station to the art school.
You follow the group of students being led to the art blocks, a few steps behind the pre-established groups, smiling at anyone who spares you a glance in the hope that someone might take you under their wing.
It doesn’t happen, though. Until you hear heavy footsteps like someone’s running behind you. You spin around, narrowing your eyes until you see a small girl running behind you, trying to catch up.
“Wait up!” She calls, her voice higher than even Himiko’s.
You turn to see if anyone else stops, on the off chance she was talking to someone else and not you , but no-one even turns to look.
So you stop, waiting for her to catch up with a curious look on your face.
When she gets closer you realise the reason she’s so small is because she’s a mouse heteromorph, something you’d never seen before, and you find it really hard not to stare at her as she beams up at you with cute, chubby cheeks and elongated front teeth.
“Illustration?” Is the first word out of her mouth.
You blink. “Uh, art?”
She gives you an almost pitiful look but holds her hand out, still smiling. “I’m Katō.”
“Oh! Todoroki.” You introduce yourself, taking her hand and letting her shake it.
“Thanks for waiting.” She continues to smile, walking beside you and panting slightly. “My siblings were running riot this morning so it was hard work getting out the door.”
You relax a little that if nothing, this person seemed to want to spend time talking to you.
“How many siblings do you have?” You ask curiously.
“Eight.” She sighs, and your head snaps down to look at her. “Yeah. I know.”
“That… That’s-“
“Horrible.” She finishes for you, shaking her head.
You open the door to the smaller building everyone else had gone inside, her scuttling under your arm before you even walk in with her tail tucked up against her back in a way that tells you she’d definitely been caught out by a door before.
“Alright guys, is that everyone?” A middle aged man in a flannel shirt asks, lounging behind a desk with his ankles crossed on top of it.
You glance out of the window set in the door and nod, not spotting any more strays.
He nods back, sighing as he removes his feet from his desk and pushes himself back to stand up.
“Look for your names on the tables. For the first term we’ve got you all sitting next to others from your schools so there are familiar faces. When you all get comfortable, we’re happy for you to move places as you see fit.” He says boredly, looking over his glasses at everyone.
Everyone immediately moves to search for their names, and although you want to ask the teacher where you’d be, what with you being homeschooled and all, you follow suit, your newfound friend a lot quicker than you’d expect, dodging people with ease as she rushes to find her name on the white tables spread across the room.
When she finds her place and sits down, you hope that you’d miraculously be placed next to her, but you’re not. Instead, you’re placed at the end of the same table, with only one person sat next to you.
When you sit down and catch the blonde girl’s eyes you smile and say a quiet ‘hi’, which she hums an acknowledgement at before practically turning her back to you.
The sinking feeling returns, and you practically slide back into your seat, trying not to have a ‘defeatist attitude’ like Tomura would say, and just take it in your stride by convincing yourself that if you continue to be friendly and try to open yourself up for conversation, someone will finally acknowledge you for longer than a second.
The teacher, Sato, who refuses to be called ‘sir’, announces that your first project will be to draw something that represents you for the class to look at by the end of the day. It’s a shorter time span than you’re used to from the recreational classes you’d taken with Uncle Giran for years, but you’re confident that you can think of something you can draw up relatively quickly that shows everything about you as a person.
And you do. You decide to recreate the tattoo on your chest of the sun, moon and star, putting together the pieces of you you’d gotten from each of your parents. You decide on the moon to have a controller in it, and the sun to have people embracing in it. You struggle with the star, though. You initially decide on paintbrushes, but figure that’s pretty self-explanatory considering the class you’re in. While you think of something else, you sketch out a cat hanging over the star, its body hidden behind the star and its legs hanging at the bottom.
You couldn’t include your family and neglect Cloud, after all.
*•*
The first break is hard.
Kāto disappears the second it’s announced, and no-one else makes an effort to introduce themselves or even really look at you.
You don’t know where the cafeteria is, and don’t want to risk trying to find it alone, so you sit on the steps outside of another outbuilding and think about what to do for your own section of the drawing, absentmindedly scratching your face.
✨: how do you make friends?
🔪: Coming now!
✨: Don’t do that
🔪: 🥺
✨ : Please don’t
🔪: Okaaaay
🔪: just keep being yourself!
You sigh. Clearly that wasn’t enough.
You jolt when you feel a small hand on your shoulder, your head snapping to see who it is.
You’re met with Kāto’s friendly eyes, round cheeks and closed-mouth smile.
“What’re you doing here?” She asks.
“Waiting for break to be over.” You reply, a little less enthusiastically than you’d usually talk to someone new.
She raises an eyebrow at you. “… Here?”
“I don’t know anywhere else.” You reply, slipping your phone into your pocket. “Or anyone else.”
“You know me.” She says, grinning.
“I…”
“Come with me next break! I’ll introduce you to my friends!” She encourages, sitting down next to you on the steps. “…Don’t sit here again.”
“Why?” You ask curiously.
“This is the bad kids block.” She says thoughtfully.
“Oh.” You murmur.
It was probably meant as a deterrent, but your whole family had been labelled as ‘bad’ at one point, and yeah, sure they’d done some things you’d rather forget, but they weren’t bad people to the core .
Being told something like that only made you kind of want to seek them out.
After all, your big, ‘bad’ dad had been the one to save you from starving on the streets.
You take a deep breath and force a smile, turning to look at her properly again.
“I’d like that. Thank you.”
*•*
“Nice work Todoroki.” A male voice says right by your ear, making you startle instantly.
When you remove your earphone and turn to look, you see Sato looking at you with vague amusement in his warm brown eyes.
“Nervous disposition, eh?” He asks you.
“I don’t like being crept up on. Sorry.” You smile apologetically.
“Not to worry, we all have our quirks.” He says, shrugging it off. “Nice details in the clothing.”
“Thanks, my aunt taught me.” You smile fondly at the memories of Aiko teaching you how to shade and colour clothing.
He hums and pats your shoulder which makes you tense, and then walks off to the next table, looking over another student's shoulder.
You smile softly to yourself at the reassuring comments and accidentally meet the eyes of the blonde girl next to you again.
She is not smiling.
In fact, she’s staring at you as though she wishes you would drop dead right in front of her.
Your initial instinct is to ask her if she’s okay, but you think better of it. Something you’d done had clearly annoyed her, although you were completely oblivious to what that could be.
Desperate to not be looked at like that again, you turn your music down a little more, even though it’s already quiet. Just in case it was louder than you thought.
You also move all the materials you’re using to the side of the table furthest from her in case you’re accidentally in her way and hindering her from doing her work.
You keep your head down and try to continue even though you can definitely still feel her eyes on you.
“You know…” She says finally, and you immediately look over at her, your lips pulling up again.
Finally, someone other than Kāto was talking to you. You can’t wait to-
“The heart in the center just makes it look tacky.” She says, smiling straight back at you, but she’s dead behind the eyes as she says it. “You some kind of edgelord?”
Your smile slowly drops, and you look down at the artwork in front of you that you were already hours deep into shading.
The moon, with a controller and a red watercolour background in the center. The sun with people embracing and a blue watercolour background in the center. And then the star, with an anatomical heart in the center, bandages holding it together and flowers growing from the arteries. Cloud was shaded and finished.
You were even going to paint the background of the star your favourite colour.
“Um, no. It’s just…” You pause. “This is me?”
She gives you easily the most judgemental look that you’d ever seen at your answer, one that even put Tomura’s looks to shame.
And then she turns away again, moving her long hair over her shoulder to create some kind of shield to stop you from looking at her work.
You try to ignore it, and continue on, too deep into it to restart.
But you carry on with a lot less enthusiasm than before.
*•*
When the second break is called, Kāto is practically straight on your arm, acting like you’d known each other for years as she chews your ear off about her own drawing, surprisingly strong for such a small person.
“It’s so hard thinking about what to draw about myself!” She complains as she drags you through the corridors like she knows the huge building by heart already. “I pretty much only work with the HRG and-“
“HRG?” You ask.
“Heteromorph rights group!” She tells you like she’s sick of having to explain whatever that means. “It's important , Todoroki.”
“I understand.” You placate immediately, because there’s a slight whine in her voice that tells you the mere mention of it has her getting emotional.
“Anyway, that’s where I met my friends. In my old school, we ran the group! All the others we worked with are in different schools now, but Tsume, Takagi and Wani are here.”
The name Wani sounds vaguely familiar, but you can’t really place it. You can’t help but try to dig for the memory of where you’d heard that name before as she continues on telling you about them all.
Tsume is in the photography class, and Takagi and Wani are in a music class, and that’s all you really pick up on through your own thoughts.
Soon you both get to a door opposite a vending machine in the corridors and Kāto throws it open with confidence, pulling you in with her unnatural strength.
A room full of eyes land on you both, and you kind of want to shrink into yourself.
“Hi guys!” Kāto calls, leading you to a table at the back of the room. “I brought a new friend!”
Your eyes widen when you see the heteromorph from the train sitting with his feet kicked up on the table, his black hair tied up this time, revealing piercings in his pointed ears.
With him sitting in front of you, you can see him clearly now and take the time to soak in everything about him.
He has sand-coloured scales in comparison to Shuuichi’s green scales, and they don’t look shiny either, but kind of rough instead. Above his slitted green eyes he has ridges that you suppose are in lieu of eyebrows with small spikes lining them. There are some running down the line of his face, too. Somehow he has a piercing in one of his nostrils as well as his ears and you can’t help but wonder how that was even possible with how tough his skin looks.
He looks kind of menacing sitting there with his feet up and his strong arms crossed over his chest, a little like he did on the train, but he reminds you too much of Shuuichi for you to not smile warmly at him.
But he looks away the second you do, and his friend you recognise from the train, the dark haired one, grins and turns to whisper something to him.
Whatever he says only gets a sharp look from the reptilian man, and a hissed response, his forked tongue flicking out in a manner that Shuuichi had never exhibited.
“This is Todoroki!” She announces, holding her arms out like she’s presenting you as artwork. “Todoroki, this is Tsume,”
She gestures to a pretty girl on the opposite side of the table to the two boys. One of the feline ears on the girl's head flicks as she acknowledges you, giving you a small smirk as she leans the upper half of her body over the table, the simple, casual pose somehow looking like she’s a model while doing it.
“This is Takagi,”
Kāto gestures to the dark-haired boy that’s grinning at you lazily, which when paired with the black hair, piercings and leather jacket, reminds you of Dabi enough to make you relax a little. You can’t spot any heteromorphic qualities straight away, but you suppose that they could be hidden.
“And Wani!” She finishes, almost proudly.
“Train girl.” Takagi greets, grinning still, and Wani tuts disapprovingly.
“You know each other?” Kāto asks, sitting beside Tsume.
“Naw, Vesper hit her with his tail this morning.” Takagi explains, sounding entirely amused as you take a nervous seat beside Kāto.
The name Vesper sounds oddly familiar too, but the memory of where from is so distant you can’t quite reach it.
“I said sorry.” Wani replies defensively.
“You need better control of it, man.” Tsume says, her voice as amused as Takagi’s.
“Oh fuck off. ” Wani grumbles, looking what could be passed as embarrassed . “I’m sorting it, alright?”
“Not this again.” Tsume rolls her eyes and leans back in her seat, mirroring Wani as she crosses slender arms over her chest. “You’re not going to get rid of it.”
You look at him, horrified that someone would even think about doing something like that.
“It’s really fine!” You reassure. “It didn’t hurt that much.”
He looks at you like he wants you to shut up, and Takagi seems to revel in his friend's anguish.
“Didn’t hurt?” Takagi chuckles. “Musta gone easy on her Ves, remember that time you dented a truck?”
Smoke begins to slowly leak from Wani’s nostrils as he hits his friend with a small smack at the back of his head, which only entertains Takagi more , but they all seem to change subject quickly.
“Anyway, Todoroki huh? Like the famous ones?” Takagi asks, digging around in his pockets.
“Uh…” You cringe.
You had agreed not to tell anyone who your parents are, on the off chance that it caused uproar.
Although Tomura was working hard in office with Atsuhiro and Kurogiri to ensure that society was managed better than it had been when you, and they , had been younger, it didn’t erase all the lives taken and changed in order for him to get to that place.
He’d also, in a roundabout way, expressed concerns that exposing who your family were would bring harm upon you.
Luckily Tsume scoffs, rolling her yellow eyes that so closely resemble Himiko’s. “Don’t be an idiot, Akito. Why would they send one of their own here?”
“Never hurts to ask, babe.” Takagi says, beginning to roll a cigarette.
Tsume doesn’t look impressed still, but you could hug her with how easily she just saved you from that situation.
“You must get that all the time, huh?” Kāto asks, giving you her full attention. “Shame you gotta be shoved in with them.”
And, yeah, she probably has a point. Dabi has never hidden the fact that his dad was an asshole, but Fuyumi was lovely, Natsuo was kind, and from what little you had seen of Shoto, he seemed to be okay.
But you know really that the focus on how bad the Todoroki family is all boils down to your dad and his dad, as much as you could ignore it.
“It’s not too often really, I was homeschooled, so…” You begin.
“Woof.” Kāto and Tsume groan in unison.
“First time out in the world.” Tsume adds thoughtfully, her tail flicking slightly on the floor behind her.
“Well, we’ll look after you!” Kāto announces cheerfully.
“Smoke?” Takagi asks Wani, passing him the cigarette he’d just rolled.
Wani hesitates, but plucks it carefully from his friends fingers with taloned fingers of his own and you can’t help but watch him intently.
“So you’re doing art too?” Tsume asks, leaning forward to look at you, her cheek resting on her fist.
You nod. “I’m sure it’s not as interesting as photography, though.”
Tsume smirks at you. “ All art is interesting.”
“Unless its Hana’s.” Takagi interjects as he rolls another smoke.
“Hey!” Kāto snaps.
“Hers is meaningful, you just wouldn’t understand it.” Tsume says calmly, even though the swish of her black tail behind her hints at agitation.
“I don’t do politics.” Takagi shrugs, grinning.
“You write songs about villains!” Kāto accuses, grinding her teeth.
“ Allegedly .” He replies, clearly winding her up.
“Cut it out, man.” Wani says, his voice a low rumble.
The second he talks, you return your attention to him. When you accidentally lock eyes, his throat flares slightly like it’s puffing up and his eyes shift instantly as he stands.
“Come on.” He says to Takagi, who hums lazily and gets up in no hurry at all in comparison.
You watch them leave as Tsume and Kāto talk between themselves about Kāto’s drawing for today, distantly picking up on the fact she’d been drawing herself doing something or other.
When Kāto pulls you back into the conversation, asking what you’re drawing, you notice that Tsume’s giving you an amused look not too dissimilar from the one you got from Takagi, but you talk about your own project with the same enthusiasm you caught Kāto talking about hers in.
“Actually…” You say before really thinking about it. “Can you look at it when we get back and tell me if it’s a little… edgy?”
Kāto raises an eyebrow and Tsume snickers, leaning her cheek on her fist again.
“And so it begins.” She says dryly.
*•*
“This isn’t edgy .” Kāto says loudly beside you, loud enough for your blonde tablemate to hear.
Maybe telling her why you were worried about it was a bit silly, but the look on the other girl's face is priceless.
“If it were edgy it’d have holes in it, blood and shit. Not flowers. ” She continues pointedly, staring directly at the offending person.
“Don’t you have a stick to go chew on, Kāto?” She asks in return, her face as sour as usual.
“Not right now, but your pencils might start to look tasty if you’re not careful.” Kāto replies with a sickly sweet disingenuous grin, the reply so instant that there’s no way that she didn’t have any kind of experience rebutting comments like that before.
The girl, Itō, Kāto had told you her name was, just scoffs and turns away from you both again.
Seemingly pleased that she’d won that round, Kāto returns her attention to you, her smile back to being completely genuine and friendly.
“It looks great, like, wow! ” She says, a little more quietly. “I can’t wait to see it finished!”
And this gives you enough confidence to keep your head down and finish it to a degree you’re relatively happy with.
When it’s the end of the day, and time to look around at everyone’s drawings, you immediately start with Itōs.
It’s good, there’s no denying that. You actually really like it. It’s drawn in charcoal, shattered glass with random scenes in them. It’s messy, messier than you could ever work, but it looks good regardless.
The others are pretty standard apart from the odd stand-out pieces from other students that definitely put you to shame and you just know they’ll do well, it taking everything within you to not reach out and touch the canvases and paper to as if to try and soak up some of the talent etched on them.
Kāto’s is one of them. It’s block artwork, like a poster that’s meant to catch attention straight away, and the art style is cute, developed like she’d been drawing and painting this way for years.
You’re inspired by the time you leave, exchanging numbers with Kāto at the end of the day before you both have to scurry off for different trains.
At least you met two nice people today.
That’s better than none in your book.
*•*
“I’m home!” You call as you open the door.
You may as well not have bothered because Dabi’s already leaning against the wall like he knew you were outside the door moments before, his scarred arm and prosthetic arm crossed over his chest and a small smile upturning his lips.
“How’d it go?”
“Did you check the tracker dad? Creepy.” You lead with, dropping your bag to pick up Cloud.
“Your first day out in the wild, kid. Was worried.” Dabi shrugs, coming forward to scratch Cloud's head. “Spill it.”
“It was scary at first, but it was fine when I met Kāto.” You reply, carrying Cloud through into the living room. “She’s this really cute little mouse girl. Really friendly, but she’s really quick with comebacks too. You’d like her.”
Dabi listens without comment, following you through the house until you sit on the plush couch, holding Cloud to your chest and petting his fluffy body.
“She introduced me to Tsume, Takagi and Wani. They all seemed nice.” You pause. “I think I upset Wani though. I don’t know what I did wrong. He accidentally hit me with his tail on the train, but it was totally fine!”
Dabi immediately looks mischievous as he smirks. “Were you starin’, hon?”
Your face heats up instantly at the accusation. “ No !”
He hums knowingly, his smirk pulling up even more and his eyes beginning to get that twinkle that only came before he’s about to tease you relentlessly .
“Don’t start.” You warn.
“Ain’t startin’ nothin’.” He says, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “Tell me about the others.”
And so you do, you tell him about Tsume, how pretty she is and how smooth every movement she made was. You tell him about how she validated every type of art and stood up for Kāto when Takagi tried teasing the friendly girl about hers.
You then tell him about how Takagi reminded you so much of him, and how he writes songs about villains. Good songs, you hoped.
When you’re midway through telling him about Wani, Tomura comes in, his hair down for once instead of being tied up in a ponytail on the back of his head.
“Hey, babe.” Dad calls, a grin taking over his face. “Star’s gotta crush already.”
“I do not !” You defend, throwing a pillow at him which immediately has Cloud jumping off your lap and hissing.
“And?” Tomura says, almost expectantly .
“Pay up.” Dabi says, looking like the cat that got the cream, holding his hand out.
“You can’t be serious.” You deadpan.
“We made that bet years ago.” Tomura says boredly.
“Are you serious ?” You ask again, more offended this time.
“A bets a bet. Ain’t you a man of your word?” Dabi teases.
You watch in disbelief as Tomura glowers at him and digs into his pocket for his wallet.
“You guys are the worst .”
“What’s his name, Starlight?” Tomura asks, ignoring your complaint.
“I don’t have a crush on him.” You continue to defend, sinking further into the seat. “Dabi just thinks because he’s some kind of dragon heteromo-“
“Name.”
“Dad, come on. ”
“Wani.” Dabi answers for you, wiggling his white eyebrows teasingly.
“I hate you so much.” You complain as Tomura pauses mid putting money into Dabi’s hand.
“Wani.” He repeats, looking over at you with scrutinising red eyes.
“I don’t even know him!” You exclaim, taking the look as Tomura getting protective over you.
Tomura looks at Dabi as if expecting something from him , too, but all he gets is a smug look as he shoves the money into his pocket.
There’s a second where he raises his wrinkled brow slightly, but whatever it was he was expecting from Dabi doesn’t happen, so he turns his attention to you, his eyes back to being the softer versions of themselves that he tends to look at you with these days.
“It was a good day then?” He asks, and you nod. “You think you’ll stay?”
“Yeah, I liked it.” You smile softly, petting Cloud when he revisits your lap.
“I’m glad.” Tomura says fondly, crossing the room to go into the kitchen, placing his hand on your head briefly as he passes. “You forgot to send pictures, though.”
“I’ll send one tomorrow.” You promise, following him with your eyes.
“You’re going tomorrow too?” Dabi asks in fake devastation, flopping to lie down with his full weight to the side of you, which makes Cloud happy, the fluffy cat immediately climbing onto Dabi’s chest to leech off his warmth.
“Every day dad, like we discussed.”
“Tryna kill your old man from heartbreak.” He accuses.
“Runs in the family.” You tease, and he gasps, but the grin on his face is instant.
“You never saw a thing, s’all rumours.”
“Mmmhm.” You reply, trying to nudge him away with your shoulder unsuccessfully.
“Baby girl all grown up, makin’ fun of me.” He complains, likely only half -teasing.
“Kiss.” Tomura says simply as he reappears, leaning over the chair to peck Dabi’s lips.
“Gross, guys.” You whine, their faces too close to you for your liking.
Tomura looks at you amused, and Dabi immediately turns to torment you.
“Aw, all jealous like when you were a lil’ Starshine? Wanna kiss?”
“No.”
He grabs your face between one scarred and one metal palm, that evil twinkle in his eyes again.
“Dad! No! ”
“Stop it, Touya.” Tomura says, flicking his temple.
Dabi pouts genuinely this time. “Never get any love anymore.”
“Oh, stop being a baby.” You roll your eyes. “I love you loads.”
“Touya, help me with dinner.” Tomura leads. “Star needs to rest.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Dabi groans. “Missed ya, Starshine. Glad you had a good day.”
He bumps his head against yours gently before slowly extracting himself from the sofa so that he doesn’t upset Cloud too much.
Cloud is smart enough to know that when they both go into the kitchen, that means it’s feeding time, and quickly follows behind Dabi, meowing all the way.