Into the Fire - a Shigadabi Fanfic

8 - Chapstick

Dabi's head jerks up, and even Compress gives me a questioning glance, as if confirming that this is real. I nod. Just like that, he flicks the marble onto the floor, and the student appears on her knees, gasping for breath. Endeavor's son barely takes the time to release Dabi before rushing to his girlfriend. We turn our backs on the heroes, and stride quickly, but not so quickly that it seems we're desperate to get away, to where the others wait. I don't spare them a word; just continue the fast pace into the portal and out the other end, into the main room. I go to my room, closing the door, and gently, reverently, remove the hands from my body and place them in their spots.

My door clicks as Dabi closes it behind him.

"Would you call that mission a success, Shigaraki?"

Still facing my wardrobe and not him, I shrug. "In one way or another. There are plans greater than that one in play here."

Footsteps as Dabi advances closer to me. He stops only when our breath mingles, when I turn around and see him so close that if I tried to walk away, I'd have to go through him first. My breath comes faster, harder. His blue eyes blaze with an emotion I've never seen before.

"What are you doing, Dabi?" My voice is the quietest exhalation, a breath, a whisper on the wind. He leans closer, closer than anyone has ever come to me before, propping his forearms on the wall behind me. I'm surrounded, encircled, trapped. The metal staples on his face glint dully in the small amount of feeble yellow lamplight coming through my window.

"Why did you give up the student to save me? You could have walked away with her, but you didn't."

My breath comes shallow and ragged at his dizzying proximity. I have to tilt my face up slightly to meet his gaze, and it feels like there's something so intimate about it, about him seeing my bare face without the markers of violence and pain I carry with me always. But I don't break the look. I keep staring into that bright blue fire that burns in his eyes.

"You're a member of the League. We don't abandon each other."

He scoffs. "Sure you do. Like with Stain. Tell me the truth, Shigaraki. Why did you save me?"

"Because you're useful still. Stain had outlived his usefulness to me, but you have potential and purpose yet. I wasn't going to let that be wasted in Tartarus, you know. But, really, it's none of your business. I make my own decisions. I call the shots."

He grins, and I notice his eyes dip to my mouth and back up again. For a moment, a fire of my own lights, burning-

"Haven't you ever heard of chapstick? It'll smooth your cracked lips out in no time."

I almost choke. Just like that, with him pushing off the wall, the words we shared evaporating, I can feel hatred kindle in me once more. Bastard. I glare at his retreating back, longing for nothing more than to lunge forward and splay my palm on his flesh, all five fingers, and watch him decay until he is no more. Until this mess goes away, and I can feel like myself again. Until that strange way he makes me forget to breathe is gone.

"It's late, Chapstick. You should get some sleep."

I splutter in my fury, but he only laughs, not even turning around as he closes my door behind him. The burn on my fingertip from earlier throbs.

Dabi.

The man that makes me want to kill him with every breath he takes.

The man that for some reason, I saved when I could have succeeded in my mission instead.

I groan and flop into bed. I must have been too tired or too cold when I saw him like that, trapped in the enemy's hold. You can't think clearly if you're cold. I grip the pillow tightly-

Shit.

A crackling sound, and then a pile of ash lies where my pillow was. I sweep it into the bin, having to remind myself as always that I have to be more careful with my Quirk. I'm too tired to get a new pillow before I fall deeply asleep.