Ashes And Hair Dye

Chapter Thirteen

The pair made their way into her room, sitting down on the bed. She had crossed her legs as she looked at Dabi for a moment.

"Hana is a special case. She and Yuki are a package deal. Yuki was treated fine in his home. But things changed when Hana was born. Her mother had an affair, and Hana had developed the other man's quirk. She was so scared when her quirk came out. The man was a random guy in her mom's life so no one really knew what his quirk was since he never used it. Their quirk is called darkling. They turn into a creature of the night. It makes them able to hide in shadows. When Hana first got her quirk at home Yuki said she was so scared she hid in a shadow for over an hour, too scared to come out and be seen. He mother screamed when she saw her and her father....he knew he wasn't the father at that moment. The marriage crumbled and they both blamed Hana for it. She was mistreated in that house for a lack of better words. Yuki did his best to stand up for her but it didn't change anything. So one night he packed their bags and asked her to transform so they could escape using shadows. She did and they ended up in an alleyway. She was three then. Yuki's parents didn't even bother reporting them missing. It just made their divorce easier. Yuki went back to their house one day, and he saw his dad with a new wife and a new baby. Like he and Hana never existed."

"...That's fucked up." Dabi merely said, his hands now balled into fists in anger. "Who just hurts a kid like Hana?"

"They were monsters. So when I found them Yuki was ready to throw rocks at me. I managed to calm him down and tell him I'm a hero. I offered help and they were worried but accepted it. They told me their story and since they could still go to school without any suspicion I just changed their parent's phone number to mine in the school file. I wanted to report them for abandonment and abuse but they begged me not to. They didn't want to get separated at an orphanage so I let it go. Let me tell you I was so close to just hiring some guys to beat up the mother and the father for that. Little Hana was mostly healed from all her bruises when I met her but she was still skittish with adults. It took time to gain their trust and meet the rest of the gang. Soon enough they joined the Saturday gang and they've gotten better thankfully."

"You did a lot for those kids Fumi. That's, really nice of you."

"Like I said, I just want to be the person I needed. Yuichiro was the first. His story was similar to mine so I couldn't turn away when I found him."

"You keep saying that. How is he like you?" He asked, looking at her as he waited for an answer. She merely sighed before laying down on the bed. He followed suit, laying next to her as she began to speak.

"My father is Japanese, my mother is Ecuadorian. At this point I don't really remember their names but I remember they both used to work in a hospital. They were some dynamic duo. My dad had the transference quirk and my mom had regeneration. They worked together to save more patients in critical condition. My father would transfer parts of the wound to himself and my mom would heal him. Her regeneration was better than mine so she didn't get as tired as me. Pretty soon she realized she could just heal patients on her own and didn't need my father as a middle man. He wasn't part of the dynamic duo anymore. That really hit his pride as some important aspect of the hospital." She said, looking up at the ceiling as if looking for answers.

"Then I was born. By then my father was bitter and quit his job. My mother worked all the time I think. I didn't see her at home. But sometimes I'd wake up and there'd be food in the fridge. That's how I'd know if she visited us. My father used the little money he had to drink his sorrows away and my mother did whatever to stay out of the house. Since I had no supervision other than a drunk, he started beating me when I didn't do things right. At first it was breaking something in the house. Then he'd beat me if I brought him the wrong beer. And he'd beat me if I couldn't do something like make him breakfast the way he wanted it. I could barely fry an egg and I was somehow supposed to sit on a stool to reach the stove to cook for him. The worst part? Neighbors called the cops when they heard glass breaking and little me crying. Cops would come but since I regenerate I could never show them my bruises or cuts or even black eyes. Eventually the cops thought my neighbors were just nosey and stopped responding to the calls." She took a moment to pause, tears welling up in her eyes as she remembered her tormented youth. Dabi watched silently, unsure of what to say but wanting to give her support somehow. Sure his childhood was bad, but hers was...sad. She was trapped with nowhere to run. Just like how he was.

"When I got a bit older I ran away. I was somewhere in middle school when it happened. I stuffed my backpack and a lunchbox and ran. I filled my lunchbox with coins I saved around the house. I still remember the sound of those coins jingling as I ran to the main road. From there, um, I kept going till I found a spot under a bridge. I hid there until drug addicts showed up. I wandered until I settled in an alleyway. That became my spot at night. Mornings I'd go to school, then change in the bathroom to my other clothes so I don't get my uniform dirty. That's how it was for a year until I met Fatgum. He was interning I think. He saw me beating up some punk rich kid to take his lunch money. He smacked the back of my head, gave the money back to kid, and then pulled me by my ear while lecturing me. I was gonna tell him to piss off and run but he grabbed me and offered me free food if I hear him out. I said okay for the food. That's when he asked why I was bullying kids. I told him my sob story and he told me the craziest thing."

"You were a runaway?"

"Yeah, Fatgum like to affectionately call me a scruffy little punk since that's what I looked like when I was homeless."

"What did he tell you after that?" He asked, by now the pair were cuddled closer to each other to ease their pain; his physical pain and her emotional pain.

"He told me go home. I told him that was a stupid plan but he just winked and said to go home tomorrow in the afternoon. So I figured he had a plan. I went home, my father was drunk and he started giving me the beating of my life from running out on him. That's when a hero was passing by. He was on patrol and heard the noise so he ran to check in on us. Cops were called as well as Fatgum came in and he berated the cops when he found out that there were several complaints made about the house and they never thought to open an investigation on my father. A whole scandal erupted. Cops were fired, heroes got a nice spot on the newspaper, and my dad lost parental rights. My mom vanished so I ended up in an orphanage. Also not a good place."

"So you ran again."

"I ran. And Fatgum tracked me down and scolded me until I told him the conditions of the orphanage. That's a government issue so he couldn't do anything about it. So he asked me to think of what career I wanted to pursue. I thought it was random but I couldn't find anything I wanted to do. We talked it over and I realized my only talent in this world was taking in pain. My pain tolerance is incredible thanks to my dear old dad. So I was going to use my quirks to help others. I didn't have the brains for medical school or the money, so he suggested I be a hero. That way I have a license to use my quirks. It was settled I'd go to UA, hide out on campus, and go to be a hero. Luckily my senior year we got dorms because freshmen kept getting attacked by the League."

"You're welcome." Dabi said. She stared at him, unimpressed with his joke. "Too soon?"

"A bit." She said with a laugh at his dark humor. "By graduation Fatgum had his agency so I had interned there, got my job there, and slept in the lounge area when the office was closed. I got this house not too long ago, thanks to Fatgum as a reference. I owe everything to him. If it wasn't for him I'd still be in a random alleyway."

With her story now finished, Dabi felt his hands twitch with a desire to hold her close. He was so blessed to be with this woman, and to think if Fatgum never stepped in he never would have met her.

"I'm glad...that Fatgum helped you." He said. She turned to look at him as she smiled, their hands barely touching.

"I'm glad I got to help you too."