Stay with me at dawn, hide me away at dusk

3. Natsuo

Natsuo stood at the other end of the graveyard, clutching a bouquet of poppies, creeping forward at a snail's pace compared to Dabi's own unaltered stride. Both parts eyed each other as they approached Touya's grave, meeting in the middle with a heated glare.

Natsuo had always and will always be Natsuo, even in this tense/nervous/challenging atmosphere that begun his third encounter in the graveyard. The white-haired man placed the poppies on top of the rotting roses and wilting sunflower, quickly and without care, probably the result of being in Dabi's company.

"Why are you here?" And of course his little brother didn't recognize him, because Touya was kind, virtuous and loyal. Dabi, he concluded, was not. And maybe it was better that way, because if he was true to himself, he'd find that he loved his little bro too much to let him see how far Touya had fallen.

"To visit a friend, why else?" He leered, letting Dabi slip in place and claws to come out. Because Dabi was dangerous, and that meant he wasn't Touya.

Natsuo glared, and if he was frightened, he didn't let it show. "I don't know, villainous reasons that might include digging up my brothers' corpse and using it as a weapon, perhaps?"

Dabi looked down at his hands. He was a weapon, right? So technically Natsuo wasn't far from the truth. And maybe the truth would've been truthier if there actually was a corpse to uncover.

"As much as I'd love to bring dear Touya back into this oh so joyous world, I'd need his corpse for that, and I can tell you in confidence that there is nothing in that dirt but ashes and worms," the villain stated, amused and sarcastic as ever.

That was until Natsuo's eyes widened, and then narrowed, and then widened again, in a kind of fish mouth response, but with his eyes. "You're kidding, right?" And Dabi just stared back.

"Um, no. He literally burned to death in a deserted alley, how did you not know that?" Because how did he not know that? It wasn't that hard to put together, what with the burned-to-death, unrecoverable-body and in-an-alleyway headlines that had sprung up all over the news just days after, much to Dabi's chagrin and partial relief.

"I was in a remote medical school for 6 months, and when I got home, Mum was gone, Touya was dead, Shouto was in hospital and Fuyumi was trying to support us all with a single finger. I didn't really press for details..." Natsuo trailed off, looking down at the grave with new eyes. "Now I kinda wish I did."

Dabi would've snorted if not for the horrifying summary of what just exactly he had left his family in. For the first time, he kneeled next to the slab of marble and touched it, something unbidden to him until this day. "I'm sorry, Natsuo," he murmured.

"Yeah, well, me too," Natsuo said, sounding a little surprised, but content at that. "Who was Touya to you anyway?" Curiosity replaced the tension from before and lit a candle to a new path.

Instead of replying with the same answer he had given to Hawks, he chuckled and decided to toy with his brother a little. After all, he was Dabi, wasn't he?

"I was his drug dealer." He supplied, holding his face in a look of apathy as his insides burned with the need to cackle as Natsuo's features moulded themselves into one of shock, unbelief and mild disappointment. Dabi could've done without that last emotion, but it was still priceless nonetheless.

"And now that I think about it, I have a client who needs a new supply of heroin," he mused, as if he was really thinking about whichever crackhead was looking for a villain's drugs. "Adios, small fry!" He said as he patted Natsuo's head on the way out, the man still in a state of shock.

And for the first time, he left his grave behind in a silence that wasn't melancholy.

...

Can you hear that sound? That's me screaming because I haven't even read this over and therefore I know it is dying along with my soul.