Fly High, Burn Bright

Chapter 56

By the time Shigaraki was done with the questions, I felt like my head was splitting in two. The first hour or so had been fine, but after that, it started going downhill very fast. His questions got harder and harder to answer, and I had to give Shigaraki a thorough description of every single hero in the agency, along with the specific strengths and weaknesses of their quirk. Though I didn't have any problem with it before, now it felt like I was betraying the heroes completely, which didn't even make sense. I never spoke to them outside of work, and they never bothered trying to talk to me, either, so it shouldn't have been that hard to sell them out.

Still, it felt like I was completely shoving away that life, once and for all, and even though I didn't regret the choice, the guilt of choosing the League over the agency sent a pang through my  heart. A part of me was horrified with how much I was willing to tell Shigaraki, but that was only a small fraction - the rest was proud at how loyal I was proving to be. No way would I have revealed this much if I'd been sent as a spy from the agency, and that fact seemed to settle into Shigaraki, too, because he started getting less aggressive and demanding with his interrogation closer to the end. By then, however, it already didn't matter, because I felt sick and exhausted and, most of all, disgusted with how willingly I spoke with the same villain that I'd been trying to catch not even two weeks ago.

When he finally said that he was done with the "friendly questioning" and told me I was free to go, I almost couldn't get out of the chair. Maybe all of the conflict in my head made me even weaker, or maybe I ran out of the adrenaline that I'd gotten from Dabi earlier. Either way, my legs shook as I started to leave the room, and the back of my head screamed in agony. I paused in front of the door, frowning at the pain before remembering that I'd been knocked out by something hitting my head. Well, at least that makes sense now, I thought to myself before remembering what it was that I'd wanted to ask Shigaraki and turning to him.

"What is it?" Shigaraki asked, raising an eyebrow. "I have things to do other than wait for you to open a door properly, you know?"

"I was hoping I could get my phone back," I started carefully, hoping that he was in a good enough mood to let this slide. "I noticed it wasn't in the room when I woke up."

Shigaraki crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at me as if to ask if I was serious. When I didn't say anything else, he sighed and shook his head. "Fine. I'll get Toga to bring it to you later," he caved, "but you have to understand that we'll be tracking it the whole time. We can't have you trying to contact the agency."

I was about to protest about how he should know by now that there was no way I'd go back to the agency now even if they welcomed me with open arms because of a certain someone who wasted a good fifteen years of my life just to let me down, but another flash of pain shot through my head, so I stayed silent. With a nod of thanks to Shigaraki, I pulled the door open and stepped back into the hall. I wasn't even wandering the halls for half a minute, with Shigaraki leaving in the opposite direction, when Dabi came running up to me from behind one of the corners. His eyes visibly lit up when he saw me, and despite the horrible headache, I grinned back at him.

"How'd it go?" He asked, not wasting a second. "Did he go too hard on you?"

"It was fine," I replied, almost laughing at how concerned he was about me. We hadn't even known each other for that long, and yet, he seemed to care more about my well-being than I did. Then again, I'd never really been one for safety, anyway. "You know, you really don't need to worry that much about me. I'm trained to be a pro hero. I can handle pretty much anything you can."

"Right. Sure you can. That explains why you got hit on the head once and got knocked out for four days." Though his tone was playful, I could tell it didn't sit quite right with him, and he furrowed his brows down at me. "Maybe I should take you back to your room. You don't look too good..."

"Hey! I'll have you know that I always look good," I replied, a little too energetic even for myself, but there was gratitude in me, too. I swayed on my feet as waves of exhaustion came and went, though with Dabi here, some of the earlier adrenaline came back. "But, uh, yeah, that'd be nice. I have no clue where I'm going."

Dabi chuckled and shook his head before tilting his head down the hall. "Come on. Don't worry about memorizing where to go for now. I'll give you a layout of the place later."

I gave him a thankful nod and followed his lead, and even though he told me not to pay too much attention to the turns, I still tried to remember where we were going. The confusing halls, however, only left my head in even more pain, so after a few minutes of walking, I decided to give up and focus on walking without falling instead. It was a little strange how dizzy and sore I was, not to mention how the headache only got stronger and stronger, when I was barely doing anything out of the ordinary. Then again, maybe I had a concussion. That would certainly make everything make sense.

I was more than grateful that Dabi's hand was on my arm, keeping me more or less balanced as he silently led me through the halls. I wondered for a brief second how he knew where everything was if the entire building, from what I saw, looked exactly the same, but I decided not to question it. Soon enough, we came to a stop outside a door that I actually recognized, even though it was the same metallic gray as most of the others. Dabi pushed it open to reveal the same cramped room that I'd woken up in, and I almost sighed in relief as I collapsed onto the bed.

Dabi closed the door behind us before hesitantly bringing the chair closer to the bed and sitting down, resting his elbows on his knees to prop up his chin. I rolled onto my side to face him, but he was busy examining the room as if he saw it for the first time. I had to admit, I was a little confused - he'd brought me back so I could rest, and yet, he stayed behind, too. I brushed it off and sat up on the bed instead, slowly and carefully unclipping the belt from my waist before laying it down on the floor next to the bed. I should've probably put it in a better place, like at least on the table, but I was too dizzy and tired to attempt to stand again. Interrogations really did drain a person's energy.

We sat in complete silence, neither one of us knowing what to say. The air between us had gone from friendly to romantic to tense, and now it hung quietly at awkward. I wanted to ask why he'd been so mad at me earlier, or why he even threatened Shigaraki back there, but it was like my lips couldn't move. I wanted to find out what he'd meant by that second kiss, because I knew what I meant by the first - I'd meant to leave him flustered and blushing, and although I succeeded, I didn't expect myself to end up the same way. I wanted to talk to him freely about it - about what we were supposed to do now, because he was a villain and I was an ex pro hero and we'd fought and tried to kill each other and now we sat silent in a tiny room.

All of the worry made the headache flare up yet again, and I grabbed at my forehead in an attempt to somehow soothe the pain, but it was pointless. Dabi shot me a concerned glance before gently pushing me into the bed. "Get some sleep, okay? It's all fine."

I wanted to protest, I wanted to spring back up and tell him that I was perfectly fine and I didn't need sleep, I wanted to ask him what the hell was going on between us because I had no idea, but the feeling of the soft mattress and warm pillow were a little too much for me. I gave Dabi a small smile. "Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good," I whispered, slowly closing my eyes, and within moments, I was off to dreamland, obliviously unaware of the kiss on my forehead that Dabi left me with.