FLAWED - Dabi x Reader (BNHA)

SEVENTY FIVE: Prodigy

After dinner, we both made ourselves comfortable in the bedroom, cross-legged across from one another in our pyjamas.

"So...where do you want me to start..?" Dabi looked beyond nervous, his fingers fiddling with whatever he could reach, which at the moment happened to be the duvet.
"Wherever you're comfortable. I just want to know you better." I gave him an an encouraging smile, hoping it would ease him.

"I guess the beginning would be easiest..." Sighing, he lifted his chin, eyes training onto the ceiling fan. "So, everything was pretty normal for the first few years, I guess. Fuyumi was born a year after me, and we did everything any other normal kids would do...until I turned four, and my quirk manifested..."

He's so tense...

I shifted closer, giving him my full attention, ready to dive into comfort mode if called for.
"Endeavor threw me head first into training the second he found out, even though I couldn't even write my own name. Even before all that I'd been scared of him, but once he took an interest...it was weird. I feared him, but I guess I also...feared that I'd let him down..."

Dabi's gaze dropped down to the duvet, pinching it tight between his fingers, and I reached out to cover his hand with mine.
"I get that. He's intimidating." It was difficult to think of words to say. I didn't want to upset him any more than he was already.

"He didn't give a shit about Fuyumi or Natsuo. Barely even glanced at them. He'd drag me along to all kinds of stupid events, making himself look like a great father, even though he never even called me by my actual name...It was always boy this, boy that...but my mother...she was soft and gentle..."

Flipping his hand over, he held mine tightly, and I could feel his pulse beat heavy through his skin.
"Did you and your mother have a good relationship..?" I couldn't help myself. Despite being a villain, I knew that somebody in Dabi's life had been there to shape the kind side of him. I wanted to know who.

"At the start, yeah. I was a timid little shit, always running crying to her after training, making her kiss me better. After a while, though, I began to realise she was somewhat scared of me...That was when Shoto turned four..." The way he spoke his youngest brother's name was slightly spiteful, but I didn't comment on that.

Come to think of it...if Touya's hair wasn't dyed...

"Shoto was a frankenstein's monster of the two of them, stitched right down the middle...and I was the spitting image of that bastard. He began training him too, separately to me, and whenever the little shit ran to our mother...I could see what I hadn't before. Our existence made her sick."

I couldn't even begin to imagine a mother who hated her children. Already, it explained a lot, but still, so much remained a mystery.
"I'm sure she loves you..." I murmured, and Dabi lifted his eyes to meet mine.

"In a way. Simultaneous love and hatred. I can't blame her. Endeavor married her for her quirk. Bought her from her parents. She never wanted any of it." His grip around my hand tightened for a brief moment before it released, and he pulled his knees up to his chest. "Between beatings, and dealing with two normal kids and two monsters, she started to crack...and Shoto came whining to her at the wrong damn time..."

You're not a monster...

"I watched her pour boiling water over his face. He was barely five. Then she tried to cool it off...hence the scarring. She didn't think, then ended up in a mental institution. Darling husband didn't like the fact she risked his legacy..." The fear in his voice had warped to disgust, and I crawled across to him, reaching out and running my hand through his ebony hair, which was still damp to the touch.