𝕍𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕒𝕚𝕟 ℝ𝕠𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕖 |𝔻𝕒𝕓𝕚 𝕩 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣|

ℕ𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟

"What are you doing?" You ask, still in shock from his actions. He was still hugging you, he felt...warm. "Just shut up and relax." Dabi muttered. You didn't know why, but your arms rose, and wrapped around him as well. "Good, now just focus on your breathing." Your eyes slowly close, and you did as he said. You breathed in and out slowly. "That's it." Dabi says, surprisingly softly. He didn't know why he was doing this as much as you did. But he was. "Thank you." You suddenly say. "For what?" He asks.

"I just didn't want you going back to that state before at your work." You silently agreed. You didn't want to feel like you did back then ever again. What you couldn't figure out, is why him of all people was so comforting in this moment. "I think I'm ok now." Dabi pulled away as soon as you said that. "Alright. Now, let's get a drink. I'm stressed as fuck right now, and need to relax a little myself." Dabi walks away from you. "How are we going to do that? You can't exactly go out to a bar anywhere." You ask.

"I saw the wine in your fridge." Dabi says as he looked over his shoulder. "We're you saving it for a special occasion?"

You shook your head no. "One of my coworkers gave me that for my birthday. And I uh, never really got around to it." Dabi gives you a confused look. "Your birthday?" He distinctly remembered that wine was not there in your old house, which means...

"Yeah, my birthday was a few days ago." You awkwardly admit. Dabi hummed in response before pulling out the wine. It wasn't his choice of alcohol, but it will do. "Then, let's celebrate." He popped the top off of the wine before taking to glasses from your cabinets. You didn't have any fancy drinking glasses, but neither of you minded. "Celebrate? Why?" You ask. "How old are you turning anyway?" Dabi asks. "Twenty three, but wait, you didn't answer my question."

"How about you answer this instead." Dabi takes a sip of his drink. "Why didn't you do anything for your special day?" He asks. You walked over and picked up your own glass, you took a sip. It was actually pretty good. How much did your coworker spend on this? Hopefully not too much. "I stopped doing that a while ago, doing something for my birthday that is. I...I was super depressed for a long time. And I just, stopped doing nice things for myself, I felt like I didn't deserve it."

Dabi set his glass down. "And what about now? You still depressed?" You shook your head. "Not as bad, at least. But, I just don't do anything for my birthday." Dabi finished his drink and poured another glass. "I see."

"Easy." You chuckle. "You're going a little fast there, savor your drink."

"Nah, I drink to get drunk. Though, it'll take a lot more than wine to get me drunk." He smirked. "You a lightweight?" You scoff. "Boy please. I can handle my alcohol."

"You said you were stressed, I thought you smoke when you're stressed, not drink?" You took another sip. "I'm trying to drop that habit." You raise and eyebrow. "Drinking isn't a good substitute you know?" Dabi laughed. "No, no it's not."

• • •

Things seemed to have calm down between the two of you after that. Though, you couldn't help but to think back on that argument you both had. You really shouldn't had gone as far as to assume something happened to Dabi, in order for him to turn out the way he is. Maybe he didn't have a motive, maybe he was evil simply because he wants to be. Either way, it rubbed you wrong.

You glance at Dabi, who's bored eyes were set on the TV in front of you. You looked down at your hands, fingers awkwardly fiddling together. You sigh, catching Dabi's attention. "Problem?" He asked, not taking his eyes away from the screen. "Yeah..." You mutter. "What is it?" He asks. You weren't sure how you would go about answering him. So, you just came right out and said it. "I'm sorry for assuming something happened to you. It was wrong of me and way out of line." Dabi finally looked at you, his bored expression stayed the same.

"Ok? What else?"

You met his eyes. "That's all. I just wanted to apologize." Dabi rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "You're not totally wrong." You blink in surprise. "You don't have to explain yourself to me. I just-"

"Nah, it's fine. Let's just say...me and you got a lot in common when it comes to shitty fathers." Dabi said before turning his attention back to the TV. You half expected he continue, and he noticed that. "That's all you get for now." He finished. A part of you liked that "for now" part, curious to know more. While another part of you needed to remind yourself that he didn't have to explain anything to you, and that it was really none of your business.

Did you even want to know, like really want to know him? What if he's much worse than he acts already? Curiosity killed the cat, as the saying goes. And it was about to get you murdered. "I'll tell you a little about me if you tell me a little about you." Dabi gave you a look. "I know a lot about you already, don't I?"

"Do you?" You counter.

Dabi shrugged. "Fair enough. Go on then." Were you really about to explain your daddy issues to a villain? Well, telling by what he said, he had some issues himself. You took a deep breath before speaking.

"My father is a business man, to say the least. His quirk isn't anything to look at, but his money is. It's why he's got the position he's got today, he works at the best hero internship in Japan. When he and my mother had me, and when I got my quirk, you could imagine he was eager to basically exploit my powers to the best of his abilities." Dabi Listened as you went on.

"Ever since I got my quirk, he's been wanting me to put it to good use. But not like how my mother wanted me to, he wanted me to become a hero. To make him even more wealthy than he already is. But I refused to go to UA once I was old enough, you could also imagine the disappointment he had for me. But that didn't seem to stop him, to this day, he tries to make me a hero. He wants so desperately for me to become something I'm not."

"Oh and get this. Way back when I was a teen, I told him that I had thought about becoming a doctor. So then I could really put my quirk to good use, like he wanted me to." You felt anger bubble in your chest as you remembered what he told you. "He said, don't you want to become a real hero? Like doctors weren't shit, you know? It didn't take long after that for me to stop wasting my time on him."

You lean back into the couch with a sigh. "And that's my dad story. Your turn." Dabi was silent for a moment or two. He leaned back as well.

"My father, is a complete and utter scumbag...He was an abuser from day one, he's a big reason why I'm doing this whole villain thing. He wanted the perfect child, and he got a failure. So he tried, and tried again...until he finally got it. The perfect child. Then I was nothing to him, nothing but a stain on the family name. I eventually broke down, and left with nothing but the clothes on my back. I faked my own death just to get away from it all."

A dull ache filled your chest at his words, you had no idea. He went as far as to fake his own death. You couldn't help but feel for him.

"Was Dabi always your name?" You suddenly ask. He faked his death, surely he changed his name as well. "No it wasn't." Dabi stood up from the couch and began to walk to his room. Before he closed the door, he said this.

"But, I'll tell you when the time comes."