change of plans || todoroki shouto x reader

chapter nine

"so, i'm so strong you haven't sparred with anyone like me for years, huh?"

"stop twisting my words and making you sound op and all! i haven't used my quirk in a while, that's literally what i said!"

the two bicker as they walked. it was already 7 in the evening, time flew faster than they had noticed.

being with dabi, [name] almost forgot how much she hated it in UA. it was making her stay in japan pretty worth the while.

a formidable opponent. something she hasn't had in a long time.

[name]'s eyes light up, remembering. "dabi, your quirk is fire, right?"

"well, considering you got burns on your fingertips after we sparred earlier then sure, i guess you could say my quirk is fire-centric."

[name] punches his shoulder for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "all jokes aside, i've dealt with a lot of fire in developing my quirk, alright?" she says.

"it's just, this is the first time i haven't been able to manipulate flames, and i thought i'd already mastered fire," she continues staring at the slightly burned bits of her hand.

it wasn't something she's not used to. as she said then, it took a lot of practice to master fire manipulation and since her quirk needed contact with her hands to work, she's touched a lot of fire.

most of the time it didn't result in burns but she and dabi sparred for quite a while and she continuously kept trying to touch and control his fire.

fire was a difficult element to control, and it was kind of stressing her out that maybe she is not as strong as she thinks herself to be.

"don't beat yourself up over it," dabi comforts [name], placing his warm hand on her shoulder. "my dad and some of my siblings have fire quirks too and my fire is just inherently different. i guess you could say i'm the freak of the family."

"is that why you have all those burn scars?"

dabi went silent, but they didn't stop walking.

he only looked down on his feet as he kept moving and looked to [name] to see her little face staring up at him and waiting for an answer.

"that's something for a different time."

"sorry for trying to bring it up," [name] apologizes.

"it's fine. i understand why you'd be curious." it wasn't the first time someone's asked dabi anyway.

"tell you what, though," he says. "i'm pretty sure that you'll get the hang of my fire after a few more of these sparring sessions, don't you think? i've forgotten how fun it is to fight. we should do this again sometime. i'll train you, you train me."

[name]'s heart fluttered just thinking about it. the euphoria from the adrenaline of battling with someone, uncertain if she's capable of defeating them, but pushing on anyway. it was what made it fun to fight, and pushed her to be stronger in the first place.

"that sounds great," she smiles.

"oh, my hand doesn't seem to think so yet, though."

---

fuuuuck.

[name] severely underestimated the severity of the burns on her hands.

her dominant one was the main victim, parts of her fingers and a small part of her palm suffering nearly second degree burns—thankfully, no blisters.

her non-dominant hand was let off easy, with just a little bit of swelling on some parts of her palm.

being no stranger to hand burns, she carefully treated them, remembering how the helpers in her home in america used to do so when she was younger.

dabi had offered to stay for a while and help her with the injuries but she declined and said that she needed no help and bid him a polite yet casual goodbye.

she wraps the entirety of her right, dominant hand and the palm of her left hand.

ah, shit. i won't be able to use my quirk as much for a couple of days.

her quirk needed physical contact with her hands or forearms to be used and since her dominant hand, the thing she uses to activate her quirk most of the time, was wrapped, she could only use her forearms or non-dominant hand for her quirk for a couple of days.

thankfully, it was only for a couple of days. usually burns take more than a week to fully heal. but her hands and forearms recover pretty quickly when it comes to injuries, probably a side effect of her quirk.

ah, i hope this goes unnoticed, especially in hero basics, tomorrow.

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tl;dr: [name] and dabi agree to make sparring a routine to train each other to be better fighters. the feeling of injury from a battle after quite some time excites [name].

a/n: im sorry for the short chapter TT