We Bloom | shigadabi

8. See You

They have been talking on the phone each day. Video Calls? They're a routine for Tomura now. One time, Dabi caught him having an attack while on a call. That was the time where Kurogiri found out who Tomura was talking to. There was a series of explanations after that but few weeks passed and Kurogiri seemed to be happy that Tomura has a friend aside from him and the Nomus the Doctor brought once in a while.

It was 7PM on a Friday. Tomura knows that Dabi would usually be attending parties later that night but he decides to stay in. Toga, Jin and the rest of their friends were worried that Dabi might've been sick since he never skips parties especially if its to celebrate his idol, Stain.

Right now, Dabi is too immersed in the conversation he's sharing with the pale man through another video call. "You've played with Nomus?"

"Yeah, The doctor makes a lot of those — don't tell anyone! The heroes might come rushing in!" He added, making Dabi chuckle. "But yeah, he brings over some Nomus that are only meant for playing. The ones that doesn't require the creepy brain stuff. Though, my favorite was Johnny. He still visits with the Doctor."

Dabi was unconsciously smiling at Tomura's little stories about his childhood. He found it amusing, how a boy like him lived his entire life inside a house under the care of the supposedly-most-ruthless-villain.

"How about you?" asked Tomura.

"What about me?"

"Tell me stories too."

"Hmm, I don't have any good ones." It was true though. All he had back home was feelings of pain. He played with his siblings but there was always the lingering feeling of tension in their house. Their parents fought, they never got to see their baby brother nor play with him, his father drove his mother crazy— it was toxic.

"I'm sure you do. I'm sick but I still managed to steal a few bits of good memories."

"Alright, well— I have 3 siblings. Natsuo, Fuyumi and Shoto."

"They seem to have perfectly normal names." He feels like he knows what Tomura is trying to get him to say — his real name.

"Alright, I trust you enough with this and its not like you can tell anyone else, so my real name is...." He paused for a moment. Dabi has not once told anyone about his real identity. Not even to his friends. Once he left their house, he disowned his own name. For the first time in years, he's gonna say that name again. "Touya. Touya Todoroki."

Tomura smiled. "Seems like we're both running on fake names huh?" Dabi frowned but he let the latter continue. "My real name is Tenko. Tenko Shimura."

"It's nice to meet you, Tenko," Dabi said teasingly, causing Tomura to roll his eyes. "Its nice to meet you too, Touya." They both laughed at that remark.

"So continue with your childhood story." Tomura said.

"Right," Dabi chuckled once more. "There were my three siblings right? Mom would lock herself sometimes in her room. And I'm the eldest one so I'm pretty much in charge of my siblings when Dad's out and Mom's feeling gloomy."

Tomura could feel it. Even through the screen that separates them, he could feel the longing and sadness.

"And I didn't know how to cook and stuff like that. I didn't wanna bother my sister so I asked my closest brother Natsuo to help me cook. Basically, both of us don't know how to work the stove," Dabi let out a soft chuckle. It made Tomura smile. "Note that I was very young when this happened! So we're like, okay there's another way for me to cook!"

Tomura have started laughing at the silly attempt of Dabi to imitate his 'kid voice', "So then I put bacon on my shoulders and activated my quirk. It hurt but long story short: we ate a fine dinner."

"What the heck? It has your germs all over it," Tomura commented in between his soft laughter. Dabi watched through the screen as the latter laugh at his story — he should tell them more often. He likes the sight of a happy Tomura.

"Well, that's the point." Dabi replied, sounding proud. Tomura only rolled his eyes playfully.

"That's a big 'ew' for me." The pale man said. "Anyway, your quirk is fire?"

"It is but I call it cremation. Stronger than your average fire, burns bright blue you see." Dabi showed his hand, emitting blue flames. "Its supposed to be powerful — more powerful than my old man's — but my mom's weakness to fire got passed onto me. So I'm basically a self-destruct button."

"Wow, that's... that's tough," Tomura said. He knows how it feels. To have a quirk strong enough to destroy. His destroyed his relationship with his family and his dog too.

"You never told me about your quirk though," Dabi asked. His eyes curious, eyebrows slightly lifted.

"Uhm, it was a very destructive quirk. I can decay anything that I touch with my hand but it got taken from me," there was a slight pause before he continued. "All for One took it so I could use my hands normally while I'm recovering from this sickness. Once I heal, I can get it back he said. But its been more than a decade since I last used my quirk and I'm nowhere near recovering."

"Do you wanna get it back then?"

Tomura shrugged, "Nope. I'm fine being quirkless. Its not a good quirk anyway." He said. Dabi is not the best in reading people but he can see through Tomura, despite the little time that they've known each other, he knows when the other is in pain.

"Its still your quirk," Dabi replied.

"I don't need it," the pale man insisted. "Heck, I would give anyone my quirk if that meant I would recover from this disease." Tomura tried to pass it as a joke but it only came out as a sad statement.

"I'm sorry," Dabi said. "I can't help you yet."

"No need to-"

"I can do something though."

Tomura's eyebrows furrowed. "What something?"

"You said you wanted to see the sea right? Well, I think I could take you there."

"What?" His ears perked up. Excitement rushed through his veins. "For real? How?"

"I can talk to Kurogiri then i'll pick you up from your house then we'll hit the beach." Dabi said his plan as if it was nothing.

"Will you really do that?"

"I'll try my hardest. I'll get in touch with Kurogiri tomorrow," Dabi said with a smile. "Then I'll come to you on Sunday."

Sunday. Tomura was feeling all giddy, he doesn't know if the flowers in his lungs also came with butterflies that rampage on his stomach but he was feeling it. Its strange but it felt nice. "Alright, i'll see you on sunday."

"I promise you if Kurogiri wont help me," he paused. "I'll still get you out there."

"Thank you," Tomura felt tears rimming his eyes. "This is too much for a friend who you just met online."

"You're the friend that deserves the whole world, Tenko." The way Dabi said his real name made the butterflies go wild. "Ew I sound real sappy on that one," Dabi laughed loudly and Tomura went along but he was already feeling things.

His heart feels like its going to explode. What is this feeling? Its certainly not an attack. Then what is it?

Tomura's curious. Even when he had already ended the call, he can still feel it. It kept him up that night. The desire to know what he just felt when Dabi went all sappy on him kept him up till 3AM.

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a/n: im sorry! i havent updated in so long but here we are ❤ thank you for all your support!