Through The Forest Of Flames

Chap 22- Blood, Trees & Water

A/N: I'm reminded again, from the last chap, how fight scenes go great in my head but when it comes to typing them out, the seem frazzled to me, forgive me lol

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You were sitting at a small desk that sat next to the register of your parents' shop, intensely focused on the drawing you were scribbling as the sounds of people talking mixed with the sounds of your colored pencils scratching against the paper. Your dad walks over, carefully leaning over your shoulder to see what you were coloring before chuckling quietly.

"And here I thought you wanted to run the shop," he remarks, his voice causing your little body to jump, in turn making your pencil mark a giant line across the paper in a way you didn't appreciate. You groaned, setting the pencil down and turning to angrily look at your dad. His blue eyes sparkled against the light coming in through the window as he smiled at you, ruffling your hair as he sat on the stool behind the register.

"Sorry my little water drop, didn't mean to startle you," he said, his hands resting on his knees as his warm face continued smiling at you. Your little angry face softened, never being able to be mad at him for long.

"S'okay dad, but I do want to run the shop, I just get bored," you whined, turning back around to your drawing.

"I can give you some stuff to do if you'd like," he remarked as he stood up, kissing the top of your head before turning around to start writing something down in the book he kept by the register to help keep track of payments throughout the day.

"It's not that,-" you say, cleaning up your drawing supplies into your bag, "-you and mom are always busy and I get lonely doing stuff by myself," you explain, voice coming out a bit shyer than intended. Your dad hums in response, the sound of the book closing behind you as you feel his presence against your back again.

"Maybe I should hire some help for you, keep you company," he says, gently pulling your hair behind your ears as you tilt your head back to look at him. "Maybe that Touya boy you like so much?" He teases, your face turning bright red as he chuckles, kissing your forehead before he wanders away.

"Daaad!" You whine, jumping off your stool to chase after him.

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You don't know how long the eye contact between you and Dabi lasted, his stance not changing from his careless head tilt mixed with his hands resting in the pockets of his pants. You felt your heart thumping through your ears as you tried to pick apart everything about him, as if you'd be able to tell if this was a Twice double or the actual Dabi standing just a few feet away from you. Your mouth became dry as you tried to swallow what little saliva you had left, the mixture of anxiety and anger filling your body.

"Tch, I'm not going to wait around all day," he sneered, took his left hand out of his pocket before it became consumed with blue flames. You almost got lost in the alluring colors of the fire, missing the smirk that grew heavy on his face. His left foot shifted forward as he thrusted his left hand out, the blast of fire narrowly missing you as you rolled out of the way, the flames burning a black mark into the floor to your right.

You cursed yourself for not making a plan ahead of time for something like this, but then again, the idea of Dabi playing into the mix, -Twice clone or not,- was not something you discussed with Tomura. Your moment of relief didn't last long as Dabi turned towards you, blasting fire from both hands in your direction, causing you to shoot roots from your feet to boost you into the air. The roots caught fire, rapidly spreading up to your feet before you detached from them, the ashy and burnt roots falling to the floor with a soft thud.