Midnight Skies - A DabixReader Story

Don't Break It

You had made little to no effort before leaving the house. It was two in the morning, and he was honestly pretty lucky you agreed to see him in the first place.
You had shoved your hair up into a ponytail, put on a baggy hoodie and sweats, not bothered with makeup, grabbed your keys, gotten into your car and headed to the address that Dabi had sent immediately after getting off the phone.
It was a little weird having him be so active with his phone considering how dry the communication had been between you both prior.
You're a little surprised when the GPS takes you to a nicer area of town, a lot of the homes a lot bigger than you'd usually see, and expensive cars lining the off-road drives, leaving the streets completely empty. You recognised it, despite all the newly built houses.
You can't remember who, but there was a gorgeous traditional Japanese home somewhere around here where one of the higher ranking pro heroes lived when you were growing up.
You and your siblings used to beg your parents to slow down whenever you drove past this neighbourhood, fawning over the expensive looking houses and making believe you would live in houses like that too one day.

The GPS announces your destination is on the right, and you raise your eyebrow when you see it's a playground.
The fencing around it is as fancy as you'd expect from this neighbourhood, and the equipment itself was a lot higher quality than you'd experienced yourself growing up.
You can see a hunched over, hooded figure, sitting on the swings, pushing themselves slightly. You can safely assume that it's Dabi even from this distance.
You take a long breath in through your nose as you shut off your engine and turn the lights on your car off.
You give yourself a second to prepare yourself internally before letting go of the breath, and opening your car door.
You close it as quietly as you can, not wanting to draw too much attention to yourself and Dabi in such an affluent area, and enter the playground, lifting your own hood over your head and shoving your hands in the torso pocket.
You feel his eyes on you as you approach, although you're unsure if it's just you expecting it, knowing the intensity of his gaze like the back of your hand.
You pause in front of him, his legs stopping himself from swinging slightly as you do so.

Your eyes stay on his feet for a second before they travel up to meet his eyes.
Granted, you were going off the dim lighting provided by the streetlights behind you, but Dabi's face looked softer than you remembered, his face a little more rounded as though he'd stopped clenching his jaw, his gaze less intense, and his pupils a lot, lot smaller than you remembered.
"Hello." You say, crossing your arms over your chest.
Dabi smirks a little, although the sight is a little less patronising than it usually came across, and he holds out something towards you.
You look down at his hand with a raised eyebrow.
Another flower. One you didn't recognise. Probably one he yanked out of the fancy gardens that surrounded you on the way here, considering it was practically just the head of the flower.
"Another one." You say, trying to sound unimpressed.
"You got your phone on ya?" He asks, his voice sounding tired. You wonder if he'd stayed up waiting for you to call for a split second.
"Of course I do." You reply, looking back up at him.
"Shine a light on it." He says, pointing at the flower head. "It's the same colour as your eyes."

You stare blankly at him for a second.
The scars were there, the blue eyes were there, the mass of unruly black hair was there, the smirk was there, but this didn't feel like Dabi. Not one bit.
"Are you high?" You ask, trying to make a joke of how different he was being. It was almost a little unsettling.
"A little." He replies with a shrug, and you roll your eyes, not having expected him to go along with it.
You reluctantly pull your phone out to shine your torch on it, looking down at the flower again and admiring the admittedly intense yellow petals, before tucking it behind your ear, and sitting on the swing beside him.
"Weird place to ask me to meet you." You state, beginning to swing yourself a little.
There's a short silence, Dabi's thoughts muddled and blurry as he seems to revisit a few memories of small silver haired children.
"Used to come here when I was a kid." He says simply, looking up at the sky. "Now I come here to think."
You look over at him, taking in the odd peacefulness in his expression.
"About what?" You ask, your curiosity getting the better of you.
He doesn't respond straight away, and his thoughts are a little more incoherent than usual, they sound distant, just out of reach for you to hear them properly.