A Lost Creation

Cared For

You can hear the rumbling of voices as sleep begins to slowly release you from its hold.
You can feel a warm hand stroking your hair gently and rhythmically, and cool skin against your forehead in contrast to the one on your head and in your hair.
Your pawpaws.
You nuzzle, still half asleep, into the cooler skin. You feel the muscle underneath flex as though it'd tensed at your movement.

"Move her away?" You hear Tomura say quietly.

And then you're completely enveloped in warmth, warm arms curling around you and dragging you back against your pawpaw, away from your pa.
The warmth just makes you more sleepy, but the movement stirs you a little more, your consciousness slowly returning to more coherent thought.

"Thought you were in control." You hear Dabi rasp in his attempt of a whisper.

"I am. But I'd rather not take any risks." Tomura whispers back. "Tell me what you've tried already."

"We tried making really nice food. Sweet stuff that kids usually like. We tried leavin' food in her lap to pick at, but she started getting grumpy about it so we hadta stop. We tried bribing her with stuff, alone time with her uncle paintin', her Switch, goin' to see the ducks... But that jus' got her all stressy 'cause she couldn't force herself to eat an' then would get sad about not havin' those things."

Tomura hums, and you feel his cold knuckles brushing over your cheek faintly.

"Told her if she got better we'd get her a cat." Dabi admits quietly, sounding like he might be smirking.

Tomura snorts. "I'd prefer a dog."

"Too bad. If ya hadn'tve fucked off, you mighta got a say in it." Dabi says, and the tone of it sounds like he might be mad.

At this point, you are awake. You decide to keep your eyes closed though and feign sleep, knowing that by the fact that Dabi had sworn you weren't meant to be hearing this conversation.
Tomura doesn't react to the snarky dig, or stop caressing your cheek gently.

"For me, it was a control thing." Tomura whispers, ignoring the jibe completely. "I felt like I had no control over anything, but the one thing I could control was that."

Dabi is quiet, but he squeezes you a little tighter and you grumble, trying to make it sound sleepy, but feeling like they're definitely talking about you and you are not enjoying it.

Dabi just gives a quietly amused huff, and kisses your head softly, before addressing Tomura again.

"That'd make sense. She's not had control over anything from the sounds of it." Dabi replies. "Said they've taken her quirk, that they locked her in a fuckin' room. Can you believe that? Like she's a prisoner."

"You'll get hot and wake her up." Tomura warns. "Just leave it to her. She'll eat when she wants to, for now, keep doing what you're doing."

You're thankful that Tomura doesn't want to force you to eat like the others had bordered on doing. He was right, you could eat when you wanted to. You'd had some fruit and pancakes at Giran's just fine. But the more they pestered you about eating, the less you wanted to do it, and the more anxious you felt about it.

"You're in control?" You hear Dabi ask quietly.

"Yes, Dabi."

Dabi goes quiet for a bit again, and you shift to turn around to cuddle up to him properly, making sure to pretend you're asleep when you do it. His warm arms wrap around you, and you feel his face bury into the top of your head, his staples snagging in your hair a little bit.

He takes a deep breath against your head before looking up again, leaning his metal-lined cheek against your head.

"I feel useless." Dabi whispers, his voice sounding like it's going to give out.