You wake up all curled up in Dabi's bed.
He was sprawled out beside you, his patchworked legs spread out across the bed, with one of his scarred arms underneath your head, his other arm folded up, allowing his hand to rest on his stomach.
He seems peaceful, his breaths soft and slow, and you watch the rise and fall of his chest, worried that somehow, this little piece of heaven you'd found would just end some day.
After watching him breathe for a little while, and counting the newly exposed staples from where his shirt had ridden up, you sigh, bored, and begin to get up.
The second you stir, though, he wraps the arm underneath you around your head, pulling you to his chest again.
"Mornin' little Star." He mumbles sleepily, blinking his eyes dramatically as though it was going to help him wake up quicker and see better. "Lets have a look atcha now it's all light an' stuff."
His hands place themselves either side of your face, tilting your head back so that he can see your face clearly.
You squirm a little under his gaze, not enjoying the close, undivided attention.
He sighs a little, gently running his thumb under your eye.
"Your little eyes are all swollen. They hurt?" He asks, letting go of your face and beginning to get up, stretching carefully like he usually did in the morning.
"I just feel tired." You reply, copying his movements.
He hums thoughtfully, yawning and wincing when the staple at the corner of his mouth buckles slightly.
"Toga'll know what to do wi' that." He murmurs, gently rubbing his eyes.
His hands flop to his sides, and he looks at you as you perch yourself on his bed, looking up at him, waiting for his next word like a eager puppy.
He gives an amused huff of air, ruffling your hair playfully.
"Ya feelin' better today Star?" He asks, rubbing his thumb over your cheek a couple times.
"A little." You murmur. "Is Shigaraki mad at me?"
"Kid. No-one's mad at you." He reaffirms. "We were all worried about ya, tha's all. Stop stressin'."
He flicks your nose gently, before finally getting himself out of bed, twisting his back slowly, a series of loud cracks sounding out.
"Rise an' shine kid. You got a room ta clean." He says, paying you no mind as he begins putting deodrant on, and changing his clothes.
You look away out of respect, knowing you wouldn't want him looking at you.
"How did you know?" You ask quietly.
"The magic of havin' ears." Dabi chuckles. "What's left of 'em, anyway."
You pout. You hate when he makes jokes like that. His ears were fine! A little scarred, and full of metal, but they weren't missing.
He pouts sarcastically straight back at you, making a show of sticking out his ruined bottom lip as far as it'll go, tilting his head to one side.
You giggle a little at his antics, giggling even more when he picks up his pillow and throws it at you playfully.
"Better get goin', otherwise I'll tell Kurogiri to give ya bran instead of pancakes." He teases.
"What's bran?" You ask, picking up teddy.
"Wanna find out?" Dabi retorts, grinning.
You shake your head, hopping out of bed and rushing towards your room as Dabi chuckles.
Your room is... a lot worse than you remember doing. There are clothes everywhere and your bed is bare. There are even drawings scattered everywhere from where you'd thrown clothes at the wall.
You start dutifully cleaning your room. You needed to anyway, Dabi had done it wrong last time, all of your clothes had been arranged into type instead of who gave it to you, so you started to correct that, separating the clothes Giran and Toga gave you and placing them in different sections of your wardrobe.
It takes a little while, but you get it all tidied up again, sweating ever so slightly from trying to haul your blanket around.
The smell of cooking is a lot stronger now as you jog down the stairs.
You greet Kurogiri as you pass him, heading straight for the empty stool between Dabi and Jin.
Everyone seems surprisingly enthused to see you, Toga calling your name happily from the other side of Jin, and Jin reaching down from where he sits to give you a hug.
You practically slam yourself against him, giggling when he picks you up.
"Little Star returns!" He announces excitedly, lifting you in the air like you were a baby that weighed nothing.
You squeal, and don't miss the annoyed glance you get from Shigaraki when you do it, distracting him from whatever he was looking at on his phone.
"Ah, the energy of the youth." Atsuhiro comments wistfully, resting his face on his hand.
You realize he's not wearing a mask today, instead covering his face with a balaclava.
You can see his warm brown eyes for once, which seem like the friendliest set you'd seen in the bar.
Dabi ruffles your hair as you scramble off Jin's lap onto your own seat.
"Ya want these?" He asks, sliding the plate in front of him towards you.
You scrunch your nose up at the steaming, plain pancakes in front of you.
"Boring! Where's the toppings?" You ask, looking up at him.
He snickers, pulling them back to himself, highlighting the steam coming off them. You realize now why he'd offered them to you, he tended to wait until things were cooler anyway.
It's not long before Kurogiri places your own pancakes in front of you, smothered in cream and fruits.
"Thank you!" You chime, eagerly digging in.
"Hol' up, how come she gets cream?" Jin asks. "Pickin' favourites!"
"You don't live here, you're lucky you're getting anything at all." Shigaraki snarls, looking over his phone. "Shut up and eat."
Jin mouths 'sorry' before a loud, sarcastic 'oooh' leaves him, likely aimed at Shigaraki's attitude.
His hands clamp over his mouth, but all he receives from Shigaraki is what you can imagine is a warning look.
You're beyond caring anyway, chowing down on the mountain of food in front of you, happily swinging your feet.
"Young Star needs to have a higher calorie intake. She's a little underweight for a child her age." Kurogiri informs. "Probably due to negl-"
"Those nice, Star?" Dabi asks, loud enough to interrupt Kurogiri mid-sentence.
"Mm! Yummy!" You exclaim with a mouthful of food. "Thamks Kurogiri!"
Too quick for you to stop him, Dabi digs a fork into your food, taking a large mouthful and popping it into his mouth, grinning at you with a playful look in his eyes.
He was in a really good mood this morning.
"Hey!" You exclaim, trying to sound mad, but you can't help Dabi's upbeat mood having an effect on your own feelings.
Shigaraki groans, sliding off the bar stool and pads over to one of the booths at the other end of the bar, slumping into the chair carelessly enough for it to sound like it would have hurt.
You look over at Dabi, who pays him no mind, poking his own pancakes to check the heat.
Everyone else seems happy enough, so you join in with the playfulness of everyone else and the upbeat conversation, beyond thankful that nobody commented on what happened yesterday, and seemed to be perfectly normal with you.
After you'd finished with your breakfast, Kurogiri swaps your empty plate with worksheets.
Today, there was no Japanese sheets to break up the diffculty of the others.
Jin rubs your back when you huff a little and pick up a pen, immediately moving to help you as much as he can with answering the questions. Even Toga and Atsuhiro attempt to call out answers and tips for you while you work.
Eventually, Shigaraki slinks back over, dropping his phone in front of Dabi.
The sound makes you both jump, you squeaking a little in surprise, and Dabi rolling his eyes up at Shigaraki.
"I want that one." The slighter man orders, raking his nails against his throat.
You go to peek at the phone screen, only to be distracted by Jin tapping your worksheet.
"Ah, ah, you gotta finish your homework." He tries to say firmly. "Don't look! Don't look!"
You grumble, reluctantly obeying Jin, and slumping your face into your palm and huffing a little brattily.
You were stuck on your English worksheet without Spinner to help you out. Jin was trying his best, but he wasn't too good at English either.
"I'm not a fu-freakin' miracle worker." Dabi scoffs beside you.
"You were talking a big game last night." Shigaraki returns, sounding a little smug. "Is it a matter of confidence, or lack of ability?"
You can feel Dabi's heat rising beside you, so you flop your head onto his arm to ground him, wanting to deescalate the situation before they started fighting again.
Whatever they were about to start arguing about is left unresolved, as there's a moment of silence between them before Dabi returns his attention to you.
"What does this word say, Star?" He asks, completely ignoring Shigaraki.
You huff. "I don't know! I need Spinner."
"You don't need Spinner. C'mon." Dabi replies, running his finger along the word and pronouncing every letter clearly for you.
"Tonight." Shigaraki says firmly, interrupting Dabi's attempt to try and help you.
"That doesn't seem right..." You murmur in confusion.
"Not you." Dabi sighs, ruffling your hair. "Giran's away. It'll have to wait."
"Just leave the kid here." Shigaraki snaps, and you hear the familiar sound of his nails running over his throat.
The mention of you makes you look over at him, your eyes wide and curious. Dabi hadn't left you alone in the bar while he worked for some time, getting sick of coming back and finding you smeared in makeup that he had to wipe off while you complained, thanks to Toga.
Shigaraki is scowling as he scratches at himself, which always ruined his softer features and made him look an awful lot scarier.
Dabi's cold eyes move to the side, looking at you and waiting for an answer, his hand going to pick at one of his staples.
"I don't mind..." You reply without any question directly being asked to you.
It was mostly to appease Shigaraki, but it also helped if it stopped Dabi from getting into any more fights with him.
Dabi's upper lip twitches a little, as though he's displeased with your answer.
"See." Shigaraki huffs.
Dabi rolls his eyes while his head is turned away from Shigaraki.
"Fine, boss. Have it your way." He grumbles quietly, spitting the word 'boss' out as though it's the dirtiest curse word he knows.
He taps the worksheet again, his back turned completely to Shigaraki, trying to get you to focus once more.
You can't though, not with the way Shigaraki's crimson eyes are piercing into the back of his head. You're worried there'll be a repeat of last night, so you stare at the rough-skinned man standing behind Dabi.
When he goes to reach for his phone again, you yelp, thinking he's going to touch Dabi, and yank on the arm closest to you, making Dabi's eyes shoot open, an azure flame rising on his opposite shoulder suddenly.
He takes a sharp inhale of air and shakes you off, distinguishing the flame that had begun spreading down his opposite side.
"What're you doin', kid? Ya can't go yankin' on people, that hurts y'know?" He asks, his voice straining as he tries to keep it even.
"He just-" You begin, but notice that even Shigaraki is a little surprised by what had happened, his hand hovering over his phone as he stares at you.
You gulp, looking down at your folded up hands in your lap.
"Sorry."
There's an awkward silence, even Jin, Toga and Atsuhiro falling silent.
You hear the scrape of metal on wood, the sound informing you that Shigaraki had lifted his phone from where it lay, and you see Dabi roll the shoulder of the arm you pulled a couple times in your peripheral vision.
Dabi stands, his hand going into his pocket the last thing you see before he disappears from the edge of your vision.
Off to go and smoke.
"Can I do this upstairs?" You ask Kurogiri, wanting to get away from the silence in the room that you had created.
"Do what you wish, Miss Star." Kurogiri replies blandly.
He was the only one acting as though nothing had happened, cleaning a glass and taking a brief glance at Shigaraki as he slides into a bar stool at the opposite end of the bar, from what you could tell from his flame-like eyes.
You quickly gather your worksheets, carrying them in a rush upstairs, your jaw clenching as you try to bite back tears.
You kept messing up.
You kept breaking rule four, and upsetting or inconviencing Dabi.
He was going to get rid of you if you didn't stop being so useless, you knew it. The comfier you got here, with him, with everyone, the more you kept slipping up and doing things wrong.
Maybe if you tried really hard to get the worksheets right at least, and keep drawing things that he likes and helping Kurogiri, you might stand a chance to stay.
Maybe.
You continue working on those stupid worksheets that were too hard for you to do alone, silent tears rolling down your face in frustration with yourself.
You could have just verbally warned him. Why did you pull him like that? You knew that the scars looked really painful, and sometimes his staples would threaten to pop if put under too much strain.
You just didn't want Shigaraki to touch him. You didn't want to lose the only thing you had left.
In a desperate attempt to find comfort, you grab teddy as you work, petting the worn star on it's belly.
After what feels like hours, multiple tears and three struggled through math questions later, there's a quiet knock at your door.
You wipe your eyes roughly.
"Yeah?" You call.
"Can I come in?" Dabi calls back softly, always sure to ask, even if your door was ajar.
"...Okay." You reply quietly.
You see Dabi's half-scarred hand push the door the rest of the way open, revealing his lanky frame and messy hair.
He doesn't look mad, or sad, just bored and stoic as usual, his hands in his pockets as he takes a quick look around, likely looking at your clean up job from this morning, before approaching your bed, and crouching, folding his arms over the edge of your bed.
You look at him, your heart beating a lot quicker than usual.
He wasn't yelling. Yet. But that could always change.
He could always be quiet angry, which was almost worse.
His pale blue eyes meet yours from underneath a mass of black hair.
"Got somethin' to say to me, Star?" He asks, his voice still soft, but his expressionless face doing a good enough job of scaring you a little bit.
"I'm sorry." You reply immediately. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I was scared Shigaraki was going to hurt you because last night you were fighting, and I interrupted him because he was going to touch you and hurt you! But I stopped him and now he's mad, and I thought he was going to touch y-"
"Star."
You shut up immediately, your mouth audibly clamping shut.
He doesn't say your false name with any malice, anger or any kind of negative emotion, but the way he speaks is firm and final.
"Quit wiggin' out. 'Kay?" Dabi sighs, moving to sit on your floor instead of crouching. "I'm sorry for snappin' at ya, but ya really gotta be careful, kid."
You watch as he settles a bit more comfortably, feeling guilty the whole while.
"I pop a staple an' you're gonna have to fix it, doll. Ain't a pretty job." He adds, clearly trying to sound a little more teasing, but it didn't help.
"I was just scared he was going to touch you like last night. I don't want you guys to fight..." You murmur, clutching onto teddy and looking down at its stitched-up head. "...I don't want to lose you, too."
Dabi seems to take a second to soak this in, before his hand reaches to tap your thigh a couple times, one of his staples almost catching on your teddy as he moves away.
"Listen little Star. I told ya already. We weren't fighting." Dabi admits, clearing his throat a little.
"It looked like fighting, and you didn't talk about it properly last night." You argue.
"You don't gotta know everything, Star." Dabi sighs, looking away for once.
"Rule three, no secrets." You announce, making the new rule up on the spot purely to get him to tell you the truth.
Dabi groans, burying his face into the edge of your bed.
"You're killin' me, kid." He complains into the sheets, his voice muffled.
"You gotta tell me why you were fighting, it's the rules." You say, poking within his nest of black hair until you prod at his scalp a few times.
He mutters something under his breath, something that sounds like: 'kill me now', but couldn't possibly be, because he promised to stay with you forever. Even if you didn't believe it, you hoped. And you really really hoped he wouldn't wish death upon himself to get away from you.
Eventually, after another groan, he buries his face even more into the sheets, saying something else that is way too muffled for you to hear.
"Huh?" You ask, leaning closer.
"We were kissin'." He admits quietly.
You're stunned silent for a moment, your face going through several expressions in rapid succession. Shock, disgust, and then a frown.
"Ew!" You exclaim. "You can't do that!"
"Well I did." He replies dryly, still refusing to move his face away from where he was hiding it.
"You can't! You're both boys!" You deny, fighting the urge to pull at his arm again.
"Boys can kiss."
"Nuh-uh!"
"Uh-huh."
"No!" You deny, scrunching your nose up. "Gross! Kissing is gross! You're gross!"
Dabi chuckles, even after you called him gross, peeking up at you finally over his arms. You can see his face is a lot redder than usual, really highlighting the piercing colour of his eyes.
"You're gross." He teases.
"No! You! You kiss boys!" You say, shoving him a little.
He chuckles even more, pretending your push was a lot harder than it actually was.
"You hate crimin' me, kid?" He teases, cupping your face again, his thumb stroking over your cheek softly.
"I don't know what that means!" You say in exasperation, your body instinctively leaning into his touch.
"Ah, don't worry about it. A silly joke, just for me." He explains, finally moving away from his hiding place now his skin tone had settled back down to its usual colour. "But I'm tellin' ya kid, boys can kiss boys, an' girls can kiss girls."
You scrunch your nose up again. "Gross! Any kissing is gross!"
Dabi grins, rolling his eyes, his white teeth gleaming in comparison to the darkened scarring of his jaw.
"Glad ya think that, kid. Keep it that way. Kissin' is gross." He chuckles.
You scowl a little, still disgusted at the idea of those two kissing, and also a little annoyed that of all the people Dabi could have chosen to kiss, it had to be Shigaraki, the one that seemed to like you the least, and want you gone.
"Now, ya gonna be alright while I'm gone this evenin'?" He asks, retracting his hand. "Toga's gettin' that compress for your eyes, 'cause they're still all red an' swollen."
"I'll be fine." You huff. "I haven't done my sheets, though."
"Hm?" Dabi cocks his head, looking at the worksheets on the bed, they'd been scribbled all over in your annoyance at your inability to understand the figures all over the page. "Ah."
"I'm sorry. I really wanted to be good and smart and make you want to keep me even though I'm bad but-"
"None'a that." He says firmly, grasping your face gently in his hands. "You don't gotta be good all the time, or smart to stay with me. 'Kay? Told ya, little baby Y/N. 'Til death. Ain't ever leavin' you. You are always gonna be good enough. Ya hear me?"
You hadn't heard him use your real name in quite some time, which told you what he was saying was serious. You weren't too big a fan of being called a baby, but sometimes it felt good to be looked after like one like he insisted on sometimes.
You nod, his hands still placed over your cheeks.
"Say it back to me." He demands, his tone soft but meaningful.
"Which part?" You ask, hoping you weren't expected to remember what he just said word-for-word.
"Say 'I'm good enough'." He replies expectantly.
You falter. That was uncomfortable, and also it felt incredibly untrue.
"I'm good enough." You manage to say, although it comes out horrendously uncertain.
"Alright." He says, letting go of your face. "We're gonna say that every day 'til you believe it, doll. Ain't raisin' a kid like h- I am not raisin' a kid in a way that makes 'em feel like they ain't good enough."
His face goes serious, his thumb and forefinger catching your chin in a loose grip.
"I want you to be so sure o' yourself that even if no-ones lookin' at ya, you can be your own biggest fan. I don't care how bad you are, or how much you struggle to understand math, you are my little Star, no matter what. Got that?"
You nod your head, your eyes wide. You'd never seen him look quite like that directly at you before. Clearly the subject had hit a nerve.
You weren't scared, or intimidated by any means. His words were all reassuring, maybe even loving.
But those eyes, that hold of you, and the sheer sincerity of his words were intense.
He rubs your cheek a couple times with his rough thumb, the staples across his palm accidentally scraping you a little.
"Take a little break, Star. Go let Toga sort your eyes out, an' then carry on wi' your sheets when ya feel more up to it." He says, standing up. "Now, I'll tell ya who can help ya with your math. But you ain't gonna like it."