Disdain [Dabi x Reader]

IV

Touya watched the clouds slowly stray away, hiding the sun behind their white forms. The sky dimmed for a minute, before the clouds ventured away to reveal the blinding star once again. The boy looked down at his arm, eyeing his deformed, radged skin for what felt like the hundredth time.

Then he looked at his hand, turning it to eye his pale palm. He remembered the flames that once circled around them, so beautiful yet so dangerous. He hadn't activated his quirk in a while. To be fair, he didn't see any benefit in it anymore, ever since his past desires seized to exist.

Would it still burn him? He pondered. Would it still sting him as it did back then? Would it sting even more? Curiosity clouded his thoughts. He stared intensely at his upturned palm, his eyes narrowing.

He was too curious.

Hot blood pulsed through his veins, a steaming orange fire seeping from his hand, matching the color of his irises. The tiny flame swayed steadily on his hand. He stared silently at it, almost mesmerized. It stung, but not enough. He could handle more. He wasn't sure to whom he was trying to prove his point.

Perhaps to himself? Perhaps.

The blaze grew larger, slowly enveloping his entire hand. I can handle more. He told himself, excreting even more fire. The flame now reached his wrist, over the stitch mark separating the skin on his hand and the rest of arm. His eyes enlarged when he felt a tearing stinging pain shoot through his wrist and across the entirety of his arm. He flinched and extinguished his flames, hissing at the raw pain.

He stared down at his wrist which had foreign burn scars marking them. His face was painted with distraught and confusion. This wasn't supposed to happen, yes he would sometimes burn himself while using his quirk but not to this extent. He tried again, hoping that the pain was only a deceiving trick his body created, but when the pain stung his wrist again, even harder this time, he knew this was all just reality conveying how cruel it was.

--

'The skin on his hand probably belonged to someone with a fire-related quirk, considering it's not burned.'

(Y/n) wordlessly wrapped Touya's wrist with bandages, their handwork gentle and professional. They glanced at the boy's scrunched face a few times, while he visibly held back cries of pain. 

"Sorry I didn't inform you about this beforehand." They sighed, tieing the end of the bind. Touya's pained look mixed with a look of confusion. "I thought it was too disturbing, but I can't keep it hidden from you forever."

"What do you mean?" He asked, almost in a strained tone. (Y/n) kept quiet for a few seconds, attempting to rearrange their choice of words to make the situation sound less gruesome to the child than it already is, but sighed when they realized that no matter how hard they tried to downplay it, there was no escaping the truth.

"Your skin." They began. "It's not yours." 

"Huh...?" He frowned. They felt their palms moist with sweat.

"Well... What I mean is that I might have used... other people's... you know, skin? to... stitch you up?" They coughed into their fist. Touya just gawked at them with his mouth slightly agape. He had never witnessed them speak so awkwardly in the many weeks he spent living under their roof.

"It was the only way I could save you." (Y/n) tried to justify. "You were burnt to the crisp, the only way I could keep you alive was... you know..." The soft breeze of air emitting from the window was all that could be heard between the two. 

"Oh, ok..." Was all he mustered out. (Y/n) was confused when he didn't look shocked or disgusted or even angry, it was only fair to expect a negative reaction from him, so why didn't he look disgusted at them? Maybe he was in shock?

"You're not upset...?" They pressed on.

"I mean... It kinda makes sense now. I'm surprised I didn't guess that earlier though." He muttered with a hand propped on his chin, completely unphased by the information he just inquired. (Y/n) stared at him, dumbfounded. How could he be so nonchalant about this? especially at his young age.

"Really?" They raised a brow.

"I don't really expect any less from you, you're supposed to be evil after all."

"You knew?!" They exclaimed.

"I recognized your name." Touya could only purse his lips at their mildly stunned expression.

"Why didn't you say anything??" 

"I don't know! What was I supposed to do?! You saved my life so at least I know you're not that bad of a person..." He shook the back of his head with his uninjured hand.

"I... ok then..." They murmured. The atmosphere around them filled with suffocating awkwardness as silence stretched between them.

"So... I can't use my quirk anymore?" He asked, looking at them with a troubled expression.

"Not yet, but don't worry, you'll be able to use it once the skin adapts to your body." They replied, leaning back on their chair with their arms crossed. "Just wait a few more months and your skin- the skin will fix itself up, it'll look just like your former body."

"That's a thing?"

"It's a recent medical procedure. Actually, not that recent, it was invented about 10 years ago, and only skilled people who've perfected it can perform it. It's mostly used to fix up burn victims, like yourself." They explained.

"You must've paid a lot of money to whoever you hired then." He commented. (Y/n) raised their brows at him, amused by his obliviousness.

"Who said I hired anyone?" They flashed him a grin. "I used to go to medical school, you know. I was so fascinated by transportive skin grafting that it's all I studied about whenever I had free time. Obviously, I studied to be a dermatologist and eventually graduated. I was only able to do two, legal, successful surgeries for transportive skin grafting, before, you know... I turned out like this." They cringed at themselves at the last part. When they glanced back at the boy, they blinked at how focused and interested he looked. He was about to fall off his seat from how close he was inching towards them.

"I must've been really lucky then!" He grinned at them. It amazed (Y/n) how he was so unbothered by everything.

"I guess so."