Maybe We'll fix Each Other

Chapter 28

He would never tell Eri, but that look he had shared with Hawks had communicated one thing: Dabi didn't know if he was going to make it out of this.

The pressure he felt building in his stomach was excruciating, but what worried him even more was that as time went on the pain was being replaced with a cold numbness.

He wasn't a doctor, but he knew that couldn't be good.

So while he normally wouldn't even entertain the idea of letting Eri do something that so clearly terrified her, something that could so clearly traumatize her if something went wrong, what choice did he have?

Dabi was dying and Hawks could hardly sit upright without falling over. Right now, their problem was the League. But he'd be damned if he let Overhaul get his fucking hands on Eri again.

If letting Eri use her quirk on him would help him protect her, then so be it.

His heart had swelled when Eri took his hand with determination.

"I love you, big brother," she had whispered to him.

"Love you, too, Eri," he had whispered back.

Dabi's breath stuttered as the feeling of prickling static burst from where Eri held his hand. It raced down his arm and spread like ivy across his chest and up his neck until his entire body felt like a livewire.

He grit his teeth as the sensation sharpened, the wound in his stomach pulsing with his heartbeat.

His teeth bared and he let out a growl of pain as it somehow felt both like the injury was healing and was being torn back open. He couldn't describe it if he tried.

Dabi forced his eyes open–when had he closed them?--and lifted his head up to look down at his stomach. He almost threw up as the motion caused the room around him to completely spin on its axis, but he managed to keep everything in.

Good thing, too, because the stab wound had fully reopened and the bandage was completely drenched in red.

He thought he heard Hawks yelp in surprise at his side before he felt his other hand get snatched up with a firm squeeze.

Dabi couldn't even process that, eyes widening as the wound began to close on its own.

Not its own, he thought, flicking his gaze to Eri at his side.

Her eyes were screwed shut, both hands gripping his between them like a lifeline. Dabi almost let out a mixture of a sob and a laugh at the way her tongue was sticking out in concentration, just like when she was focusing really hard on drawing a picture.

Because fuck. She was just a kid.

Dabi let his head drop, not caring at the hard impact the back of his head made with the concrete underneath him.

She was just a kid and she was going through all of this. Using a quirk that terrified her to keep him from bleeding out. She never should have had to do that.

Dabi grimaced as the static in his stomach spiked, not liking the way the edges of the wound itched as it laced itself back together. It felt like a million needles biting his stomach in random intervals, not letting up as his body pulled and moved and pulsed.

And then suddenly he could breathe again. There was no more building pressure in his abdomen. No more feeling like his muscles were giving out on him. No more feverish sweating.

He nearly froze at the feeling of pain leaving him, risking a look back down at his stomach. While the bandages remained stained red, there was no longer any injury.