"Get dressed, we're going out." Dabi tossed a plastic bag at me.
Looking inside, I saw clothes. My clothes.
"You went in my apartment."
Dabi hardly even glanced at me. "You can either stay here or change. Your choice, but let's go."
I quickly put on the clothes he'd brought, stuffing the old ones into the bag. He didn't even try to look away, but I also didn't try to cover up.
I kept Dabi's white tshirt on but changed into a skirt and tennis shoes, throwing on a sweater over the tshirt.
"Where to?"
Not long after, the purple mist, created by a man named Kurogiri I learned, transported us to the roof of a home in what seemed to be a fairly upscale neighborhood, with several large houses lining the streets below.
"What are we doing here?" I asked, catching myself and trying to find some balance. I certainly didn't have any options for running away; I could hardly even find a place to sit where I didn't feel like I might fall off the roof at any moment.
"You don't know where we are?"
"Nope."
"Interesting. Okay. Well, we're on lookout duty."
"Let me rephrase that," I said. "What am I doing here?"
"I told you that you're not leaving my sight again. Now that I know what you can do, you're my insurance policy."
Great.
"You make it sound so glamorous."
Taking in the houses below, this neighborhood was certainly nicer than any I'd ever lived in. Since it was during the day, everything looked so peaceful and quiet.
"These are big houses," I said. "Is the League robbing some rich people?"
"No."
"I know we're not just going to stare at houses all day, so what's the plan?"
"You ask too many questions."
"Oh, so I have something else I should be doing? Sure doesn't seem like it. Please enlighten me."
Dabi continued to stare at the houses below.
"You've never seen these houses before?" Dabi asked.
Glancing around, nothing looked familiar.
"Nope. You know, fire boy, my own home burned down," I said.
"Oh yeah?"
"Well, it wasn't really my home. It was a home, a government-run home where I lived with some other girls. My parents died when I was little, and for awhile I had a couple different foster families, but nothing ever stuck, so I lived there for a few years."
"Families suck. You didn't miss much. What happened to the house?"
"Electrical malfunction or accident or what, who knows. In the end, only a few of us made it out. Most of that is a blur. I know you're not surprised now to know that I was mostly fine. The tough part was being alone through all of it. This probably sounds stupid to you, but there was no one to hold my hand and tell me it was okay. That's when I realized I was really on my own and was going to have to make some tough decisions on my own."
Silence.
More silence.
I looked over at Dabi who was staring off toward the houses. It annoyed me that he looked like he hadn't been listening.
"Hello? I just shared a major crisis of my life, so now I need you to say something."
"Where you lived, this house that burned... was it in the Jaku region?"
"Yes, you heard about it?"
"I hear about fires. I remember that one. That was the same night Endeavor caught one of our biggest villain competitors near there." I could hear the contempt in Dabi's voice.
"Oh yeah? I didn't know that."
"I'm pretty sure it wasn't in any of the newspapers. I only knew because we were watching their organization." He looked me up and down. "I heard that the whole neighborhood was on fire, but you were fine and no one thought that was odd?"
"The whole neighborhood? I didn't know that."
"Seems like there's a lot you don't know. Okay, stand up," he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "We're going to climb down and get closer."
After climbing down, we used the back alley to cut between houses, finally sneaking into a back yard where Dabi led me to a small tree. Dabi started climbing up the tree, and motioned for me to follow him.
"I'm not really a tree-climbing kind of girl," I told him, looking around.
I debated just leaving him there and running, as fast as I could, in any direction. He was far enough up the tree that I might be able to make it for at least a while. But...
"Don't do something stupid and make me burn all these nice houses to the ground. Get up here," he called down to me.
So I did.
Using the tree to get on the roof of the house next to it, it was a short climb for Dabi onto the balcony of the house next door, with me following. Dabi tried the handle of the door on the balcony; and to my surprise, it was unlocked. I saw a small smile on his face.
This isn't the first time he's done this. This isn't the first time he's been here. He knew exactly how to get up on this balcony.
"You were counting on it being unlocked," I whispered, but Dabi didn't respond.
Opening the door, we quietly walked into a bedroom. Nothing unusual or extravagant, just a very typical, normal bedroom, fairly devoid of any personality with the exception of some purple flowers in a vase on the dresser.
"What are we doing?" I said quietly. Dabi still didn't answer, but grabbed my hand and pulled me into the hallway.
Leaving the bedroom, we snuck down the hall and then down the stairs and into another bedroom, this one much larger than the first. As I looked around, I knew what felt so odd.
The complete lack of personalization.
It was as if someone had walked into a store and asked for all of the model rooms to be transported into their own house, with no thought put into it. Missing was everything that made a home a home. Those purple flowers had been the only sign of decoration anywhere.
I knew that impersonal vibe because it was my vibe, or at least the vibe of my current apartment.
While I looked around, wondering where we were, Dabi shoved me onto the bed.
"Hey. Hey! Back up there, mister," I said, pushing back on him.
Dabi was already on top of me, one hand up my skirt, reaching and grabbing onto the edge of my panties to pull them down.
"Come on," he growled as his hand fought with mine. "The idea doesn't turn you on, just a little? Doing it in someone else's house? In someone else's bed?"
I tried pushing his hands down. "Wondering if a stranger is going to come home any minute? No. No thanks."
But his hands were stronger than mine, and he managed to yank my underwear down and off. I used that second to roll over and start to get off the bed, but his hands grabbed me from behind, pulling me back.
"Sure you don't want to have a little fun, doll?"
"Yep," I said, kicking him off me. "Positive."
Dabi only shook his head and chuckled as he backed up and walked into the adjoining room.
"Can I have my underwear back?" I called after him.
"Maybe later. If you behave."