Despite their conversation, her viewpoint still hadn't changed. A few days passed and Tomura didn't bother them, but Touya knew he would, eventually. It was only a meeting, but she only refused, and after the third time asking, he figured he'd rather just deal with the consequences than force her.
Instead, he thought he'd simply listen. He'd previously done recruiting for Tomura, anyway, and he'd found most of the people that he'd speak to absolutely grating to listen to, but her voice was one that he could drown in all day. Touya liked to just exist around her, following her from room to room in a very feline fashion, waiting patiently for her to return when she was working and he wasn't going on outings of his own. He'd been away that morning, but when he returned, he found the house quieter than normal. No songlike voice greeted him. On a regular day, she'd play music, the television would be on... silence wasn't something she seemed to enjoy most of the time.
"(Y/N)?" He called for her, and he could hear her shuffling in the living room then before she coughed. "I'm sorry, I'm here." She replied, and he could already hear it in her voice. For as lonely as he'd been for the last decade or so, Touya was incredibly perceptive towards other people. Not quite empathetic, but he could sense what they were feeling one way or another. She sounded... desolate. A surge of discomfort sliced through him as he remembered the last times he'd heard her like this, short conversations on the phone to her family thousands of miles away, moments she'd sighed when he wasn't conscious, when her eyes watered as she told him to go. It made his heart ache.
"You good, doll?" A few footsteps more and he could confirm his suspicions. Sat so small on the couch, (Y/N) had managed to curl herself into a ball, long limbs tucked up underneath themselves as she held onto a wooden box. Her cheeks were wet, that much he could see in the light through the window. "Mm, yeah. I'm sorry- today is hard for me." She'd said the words quickly, a forced, quiet laugh at the end to try to soothe him from being too worried. It wasn't his job, after all... to worry was all her responsibility, as far as she was concerned.
That might have been what she thought, but in practice, it was the fact that he did worry that made him so irreparably attached to her. "Why, somebody die or something?" It was nonchalant as he plopped down on the couch next to her, thighs spread and arm slung over her shoulders before he angled his chin towards her. When her eyes didn't meet his, it hit him that his poor attempt at a dry joke didn't land. "Fuck." He pulled his arm away from her and opted to put a warm hand on the shoulder nearest to him.
The light had gone from her eyes as she lifted something from the box and set it down on the coffee table, not a word flying into the air. A stony, cool version of the warm glow that he loved so much looked down at a dried white rose bloom that sat in her small palms. His dark brows twitched as the cogs and gears in his brain got to work, trying to figure out why she was crying over a flower.
"(y/n)." The grip of his fingertips to her shoulder tightened ever so slightly, bunching the black fabric encasing her skin beneath them. He thought she looked rather beautiful in black. "Dollbabe." He repeated, voice dipping ever so slightly lower.
After a few moments of his soft probing, she shook her head, hair flying in her attempt to clear the fog that had taken over her brain. "I'm sorry, you should go, uh... go check in on Himiko and see if she needs me to get her anything."
Absolutely not. "You and I both know I'm not going. I don't go anymore... it was a mistake the first time." He'd already left that morning, anyway. (Y/N) had quite taken to Toga and had begun to look after her almost like a mother would. Touya got the feeling that, to a certain extent, she could relate to her. Her quirk was also rather scary, though Toga liked to live up to the stereotype. At least once a week, she'd send Touya back with things for her and the rest of them. While she hadn't meant it in that way, he thought it was rather tactical of her- Tomura would see that she cared for them all, not just Dabi, and perhaps he would understand that she didn't mean any harm.
YOU ARE READING
peril; dabi x reader
Fanfiction"fear of present danger doesn't exist if the present danger is you." dabi x reader. ♡ ex-pro hero bypass is disillusioned with the hero world and helps the way she knows best, at least until blue flame swallows her in. 18+, thank you.
