Blue Flame |Dabi x Reader|

a thing of value.

Shigaraki yanked what was left of his arm from the elbow-up back as the dust that was his hand and forearm crumbled and fell to the ground, and stared at me in utter shock. Both Dabi and Toga leapt back, frantically shouting and rapidly looking between me and Shigaraki.

"How did you do that??" Toga shrieked, her voice equal parts amazement and fear.

I didn't say a word. Honestly, I couldn't  believe it had worked.

Shigaraki gingerly touched the stump of arm he had left, and his eyes - wide open and alarmed - never left my face. He blinked hard for a few minutes, visibly processing the loss of his left hand. He knelt down in front of me, still holding the stump at the elbow. He took a deep, shaky breath, his eyebrows furrowed.

"What," he said, slowly and deliberately, in a hushed tone, "exactly, is your quirk?"

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I, I have a mirroring quirk, Mr. Shigaraki-"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and waved his hand at me dismissively. "Don't, don't call me that." He took another breath, staring into my face. The look in his eyes was wild and unrecognizable. "I've never heard of a mirroring quirk," his voice softened the slightest bit, "how does that work, exactly?"

I couldn't decipher the change in his tone. Pity? Fear? Both? I swallowed again. "I can mirror other's quirks," I bit my lip anxiously, "but I can only do one at a time. And only power quirks. I can't mirror mutations."

He stared at me in disbelief. "Anything else I should know about this quirk of yours?"

I took a shaky deep breath. "It also has the same repercussions as the other person's quirk." I pulled my hands into my body, wringing them together. My right side was still tingling. "What they experience, I experience. And, at least right now, I can only activate it when they do," I looked into his eyes apologetically, "or, at least when they're about to. At least, I think so," I stammered.

Shigaraki nodded blankly as his face fell into an unfamiliar expression. "Tell me," he paused, keeping his voice flat, "did you ever think about being a hero?"

I glanced over at Dabi, who was staring at me in fear, disbelief, and maybe even awe. We met eyes and something flashed across them, something warm and intense that sent a shiver down my spine and created a knot in my gut. Then I stared immediately back at my own hands, flushed and nauseous. "Well of course," I mumbled, "but this isn't a consistently useful quirk." My voice started shaking as I swallowed hard again, "I failed the entrance exam at three schools."

Shigaraki and Dabi exchanged a long, silent look before they both looked back at me. No one said anything for a few minutes and the silence became unbearable. I could have cut the silence with a knife. "I'm not useful enough, consistently enough, to be a hero," I paused. I hated this. I hated thinking about it. Let alone talking about it in what I assumed to be the final minutes of my life. "Or even someone's side kick." My voice cracked at the end. I stifled a sniffle. "So," I glanced back at Dabi, where the slightest touch of pity and familiarity flitted across his face, "I just started living a normal life. Like everyone else. I'm not particularly someone of relative value."

I looked back up into Shigaraki's bright red eyes, which danced with excitement now. "No value?" He said incredulously. "No value?"

Dabi patted my shoulder, far less aggressively and much more affectionately compared to earlier, but still just as hard. He slid his hand up my shoulder, up my throat, and gently grabbed my face and turned it towards him. "That's quite the quirk you've got there, doll." He cocked his head to the side as he softly grazed my cheek with his spindly first and middle fingers. I watched his eyes reexamine my face as another one of those devilish smirks spread slowly across his face like honey. "Quite the quirk, indeed."