Preydator || Todoroki x OC

•21: Hurt•

"I don't fucking pity you!" He shouts back. My eyes widen, a little taken aback since I've never heard him this upset, especially at me. "The reason why I've been trying to help you is because," his voice cracks a little as tears brim him eyes to match mine. "I FUCKING CARE ABOUT YOU!"

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The tears that I've been trying so hard to hold back cascade down my cheeks like a waterfall. "WELL DON'T!" I manage to choke out between sobs. I don't mean what I say and I know it, but I can't help but let everything I've been bottling up come crashing down.

Tense, thick silence fills the tunnel as we both stand in front of each other, not saying a word. "Fine then." He hoarsely says under his breath as he walks past me and leaves. I watch as he crosses the road and disappears in the distance.

 The tears eventually stop and I sniffle, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. 'Why did I have to go and open my big mouth.' I scold myself mentally. 'I probably hurt him a lot.' I bite my lip. All my frustration and anger had disappeared and left a disastrous mess behind. The wind breezes past me, flowing through my damp, cold, locks. My hair is extremely cold from behind wet and having dried in the chilly air. A shiver runs down my spine. I didn't notice how cold it is until he left. Sobbing so intensely had only left me feeling even colder and more fragile than glass.

A blue light suddenly shines down on the sidewalk. I look up and a warm, blue flame meets my eyes. "Dabi?" I meet eyes with the tall, black-haired man I haven't seen in ages, blue fire flickering in his palm.

"You cold, Rin?" He asks. "I haven't seen you around lately. I thought you got caught- or worse, died." He chuckles lightly. "You aren't looking too good."

"Just..." I trail off. It probably wouldn't be nice of me to blab on about Todoroki. "I had a rough day."

"Were you crying?" He asks. "You're eyes are all red and puffy."

I shake my head. "It's fine." I flash him a small smile, now much warmer with the help of his small fire. In all of the hectic chaos I've been surrounded by lately, I had almost completely forgotten about Dabi. It's comforting to see he hasn't changed.

He smiles back. "Did you get some new place to stay? You haven't been at your flat in a while."

"Eh, I guess you could say that." I reply as we begin to walk down the street.

He sighs. "I'm telling you, you should just come crash at our place." He says. "The League's quarters are pretty cozy."

I suddenly freeze in my tracks, letting him walk ahead of me. 'The League...' My eyes widen in realization. 'No wonder the people who attacked USJ felt so familiar! Wait, does that mean he was also at USJ? Does he know about Carnal and my mom? Has he known about my mom this whole time?!' 

Dabi turns to look at me. "Rin?" He calls out. "Rini? Earth to Rini Utano?"

I snap out of my thoughts, meeting Dabi's gaze. "I-I just remembered something. Thank you so much Dabi, you really cheered me up!" I say as I begin to walk in the opposite direction. He doesn't follow me, so I assume he doesn't know. I walk back towards the tunnel and turn the corner, leaving him behind. 'There's so way Dabi could have known all this time, right? I mean, I genuinely trust him and I think he cares about me, right?' I inhale a sharp breath, remembering what Todoroki had said, "I FUCKING CARE ABOUT YOU!" I shake my head. 'Now isn't the time for that!' I say to myself. 'I need to get home asap.' I think. 'Ah, fuck.' I had gone the complete opposite direction and actually needed to head back to Dabi. 'I'll just go around.' I glance at my phone. 'Ten o'clock?! Holy shit! I've been out for over an hour! Aizawa and I are going to get in trouble if the police finds out.' I begin to break into a run. Luckily, there are barely any people out and about right now.

'How much does Dabi know, though?' I wonder as I run down the sidewalk. 'Judging by the amount of villains we saw at USJ, it's likely the League of Villains is a huge organization and Dabi is just a single villain. Now that I think about, he never really told me anything about his work. All I know about him is that he's part of the League and has connections to a bomb chinese take out restaurant.' I think to myself as I begin to run out of breath. 'I also know how much he loathes Endeavor. He might not be too keen on me hanging with Endeavor's son.' A twinge of guilt pangs my chest as I recall what I had said to Todoroki. 'I really fucked up this time.'

I slow down my sprint to a jog- at least training to the Sports Festival helped me improve my endurance. 'If I tell Aizawa, would they go after Dabi?' I stop in my tracks. 'But it could be really useful information, especially if Dabi knows where my mom is.' I let out a frustrated groan. 'I should've just played it cool and got more info out of him.' I reach Aizawa's house from the opposite side of which I left. I had come full circle. I walk up the steps to the porch and open the front door.

"Have you calmed down yet?" I hear Aizawa ask from the kitchen.

"Yeah." I reply, slipping off my shoes and walking in. "I need to tell you something."

"If it's not an apology I don't want to hear it." He responds sternly.

I wince. "I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have stormed out like that. It would have been really bad if the police found out." I admit. 'One out of the two apologies I need to give.' I think. "Are you mad at me?" I feel myself sheepishly asking, like a little kid who is being grounded by their parents.

"No." He states. "I understand you were really looking forward to the Sports Festival and the police informed us very last minute. I'm a little upset myself, to be honest." He explains. "At least you've cooled down now."

I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you." I say, taking a seat in the wooden kitchen chair across from him. "But there's something else I need to tell you about."

I tell him everything I know about Dabi. I tell him about how he's part of the League, but also takes really good care of me. "Hm." Aizawa mumbles in thought. "Alright. This is valuable information that we're going to have to share with the others that are part of this investigation." He explains. "You don't know exactly where he is, right?"

I shake my head. "He usually comes to find me." I reply.

Aizawa nods. "Okay. I think I can arrange something." He says before glancing at the clock. "We can talk about this tomorrow. Right now, it's time for you to head to bed. Even though you aren't participating anymore, we still need to head over there early for prep work and I'm one of the MCs." 

I nod and walk up the stairs. "Goodnight." I say to Aizawa and he nods back to me. Collapsing on my bed, I feel a wave of fatigue wash over my body. 'After all that exertion and adrenaline, I'm really exhausted.' I turn over in my bed and my mind wanders back to what I had said to Todoroki. Although a lot of what I said was truly how I felt, most of it was just unnecessary lashing out. 'And I definitely didn't mean what I said before he left.' Guilt hangs over me like a cloud. 'Nothing good ever comes out of letting someone this close.'