Chapter Text
“Todoroki, move!” Midoriya screamed as he saw the newest villain from the League sneak up behind his current partner and best friend. He didn’t even register that he had used the other boys real name and not his hero name, as he should have done when they were on their patrol.
Todoroki turned instantly but even Midoriya could tell from where he was standing that the other boy wasn’t going to be fast enough. Midoriya pushed himself forward, activating One for All, and flew forward to help his friend. He ignored the sudden pain in his back as Dabi’s blue flames scorched him. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to move more quickly but the League’s newest recruit was faster. The woman smirked triumphantly as she pressed her hand against Todoroki’s forehead. Midoriya yelled out and pushed himself faster as a bright light engulfed his friend. Then he was barreling into the woman, knocking her to the ground. They landed hard and the woman screamed angrily as she reached out to press her hand against Midoriya’s head…
...and then all that Midoriya could see was a blinding light before everything went black.
________
Dabi let out a bark of laughter as the annoying green kid fell victim to the idiot woman’s quirk. He had to admit, he had been irritated when Shigaraki told him to babysit the bothersome woman, but she had certainly proved her worth in that moment. It might make up for the hell he had been forced through for the past two hours.
He hadn’t expected to run into Shigaraki’s little obsession on their little tour. Just his luck that the green midget had appeared as he was showing the Leagues newest pet around the neighborhood. Considering the kid and Endeavor’s youngest son were both interning at the same place, he assumed that they were just doing their rounds and happened to come across Dabi. They had both tensed when they saw him, understandably so. Actually, he was a bit flattered that they both saw him as such a threat. He had told Shigaraki’s new pet to keep Endeavor’s son busy as he took on the other kid. He was pretty sure he had even managed to get in a hit in when the boy turned his attention away from Dabi.
Served him right.
Dabi let a vicious smirk cross his face as he stalked toward the down heroes. He barely spared a glance at the newest operative. She was unconscious and a pool of blood was growing under her head. She must have hit it hard against the concrete as she fell. Dabi let out a hiss of displeasure and kicked her legs aside as he moved toward the bundles on the ground. Her first encounter with a hero, training hero actually, and she already proved how useless she was going to be. At least they had found out now, before he spent time bothering with her. Though, Shigaraki might be a bit upset. He had seemed excited about the woman’s quirk.
Which was a bit disturbing, actually.
He probably should have listened to his ‘boss’ as he mumbled the explanation of what the woman did. Anything that made that crazy freak excited was bound to be irksome.
Dabi’s right hand lit with blue flames as he raised his leg to kick at the green figure collapsed on the ground…
“Who’re you?” a small and familiar voice questioned. The flame died instantly as Dabi whirled around. A pair of eyes peered at him, one brown and one a bright blue, from a young face. “Where’m I?” the boy questioned, his brows furrowing as he glanced around the alley.
Dabi could only stare. The same red and white hair. The same eyes. But...but Endeavor’s youngest son was no longer eighteen years old. Dabi’s eyes trailed over the pale, unblemished skin. No scar. Younger than six.
Those eyes filled with tears as Dabi continued to stare at him silently. He was growing more and more panicked, his feet shifting nervously and his hands wringing in front of him.
That was a habit that Endeavor had trained out of his favorite project. And crying was something that the man would never have allowed. So, before the training had started. Before the quirk had manifested.
Four or younger.
“Shouto?” the word slipped out before Dabi could stop it. The boy’s eyes snapped toward him instantly, wide and curious.
“Who’re you?”
Dabi sucked in a quick breath and stared down at his younger brother. This wasn’t fair. It had been easy to fight against the boy when he was a stoic eighteen-year-old that was training to be a hero. Especially since the twerp didn’t recognize him. Even if he did, the kid had been training with Endeavor long enough that Dabi had no doubt he would turn him over to the authorities in seconds. No matter who he was.
But this...this was Shouto. Before Endeavor got his claws into him and twisted him until he was unrecognizable.
“Huh? Where’s Kacchan?”
Dabi pulled his eyes away from his younger brother and groaned loudly when he saw the small, green haired child.
Well, wasn’t this just great.
“Sorry, kid. No clue,” Dabi muttered to the boy. He hesitated for a moment and knelt down so he was eye level with the red and white haired boy. “Shouto? There’s been a bit of an... accident.”
The tears returned instantly and the small body tensed. “Accident? Momma?”
Dabi’s hands clenched at the mention of that woman. “No. It’s, uh, look. See that woman?” he pointed toward the still unconscious woman on the ground. Dabi should probably be concerned about the rapidly growing pool of blood. He wasn’t. Shouto looked at her curiously before nodding. “That woman has a quirk that can make people younger. She used it on you.”
Shouto’s brows furrowed for only a moment before recognition lit in his eyes.
He always was a smart little freak.
“On me? So I’m really bigger?”
Fucking intelligent twerp.
“Uh huh,” Dabi muttered, tilting his head slightly. “You’re actually much bigger. So things are going to be a bit different for you.”
Shouto’s tilted his head and stared at Dabi. Dabi forced himself not to fidget at the action. Fuck, maybe he hadn’t trained all of his family’s traits out of him after all. “You know me?”
Shit.
“Nope,” he said quickly, pushing himself to his feet. He stared at Shouto and the green haired kid. Fuck, it was one thing to fight them when they were hero wannabes but it was something completely different to go after a couple of kids.
He wasn’t that fucked up.
Well, not yet, anyway.
He scowled and turned toward the idiot still on the ground. He grabbed the ridiculous cloak she was wearing, uncaring that the woman slammed down against the ground harshly yet again as he pulled it from her body, and wrapped it around himself. He pulled the hood up and then held out his hands toward the kids. “Come on. I’ll take you somewhere safe.”
Shouto only hesitated for a moment before slowly placing his hand in Dabi’s. Long forgotten feelings threatened to overtake the villain at the gesture. He firmly pushed them away. This was a onetime thing. No one needed to know. Shigaraki didn’t need to know that he had these two in his grasp and he didn’t take the opportunity to kill them.
Or mold them into his perfect toys.
Dabi couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of his younger brother, Shouto, not the eighteen-year-old hero, being in the psychotic man’s hold. No thanks.
“I don’t know you,” the green haired boy said stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Mom said not to go with strangers!” his head turned frantically, looking from one end of the alley to the other. “Where’s Kacchan?!”
Who the fuck was Kac-
A pair of furious red eyes flashed through his mind and Dabi snapped his mouth shut. Oh. He knew exactly who the midget was talking about.
“Listen kid, you heard what I said to Shouto, right? About that woman’s quirk?” The kid nodded, his eyes bright as he looked at the villain still on the ground. “She got you too. You and Shouto are friends.” Maybe. Possibly. The seemed like friends. Of course, Dabi didn’t have the best experiences when it came to friends. The last one he thought he had turned out to be working against him the entire fucking time they knew each other.
But the kid’s green eyes lit up at Dabi’s words and he looked at Shouto in excitement. Shouto wasn’t doing much better at holding back his own happiness at the words. Dabi winced. Right. Even at this age, his father had strict rules about Shouto being around other children. To know that he had a friend…
“He is?!” The kid asked happily, bounding over to be closer to Shouto. He promptly tripped over his too big costume and fell face first onto the concrete.
There was a moment of silence before loud wailing penetrated the night air.
“Fuck!” Dabi hissed as he knelt down once again. He pulled the kid to his feet and grimaced at the tears and snot running down the small face. Fucking disgusting. “Stop that! You want every villain in the area to show up?!”
The crying faltered for a moment and the kid sniffled as he glanced around uneasily. “Villain? Why would they come after us?”
Dabi rose an eyebrow. “Look at your costume, kid. You’re training to be a hero.”
All the tears instantly disappeared as both boys glanced down, wide eyed, at their clothing. “I’m a hero?!” the kid asked in excitement.
Dabi winced at the high-pitched voice. “Training to be,” he glanced down at Shouto. “You too. I’ve gotta take you two back to school so your teachers can deal with this…”
“School?” Shouto questioned, tugging on Dabi’s hand and peering at him with awe filled eyes. “What school?”
“UA,” Dabi admitted, bracing himself for what was coming. Shouto had been talking about going to UA and becoming a hero since he understood what the words meant. Shouto’s hand tightened around his own and Dabi had the...pleasure...to see his brother jump up and down ecstatically. The other boy was doing some sort of dance or something in his own happiness.
Idiots.
“So, you coming with us or not? I can always leave you here,” Dabi asked as he moved forward, pulling Shouto behind him. He couldn’t take the kid with him, no way in hell was that happening, but he was going to make damn sure Endeavor didn’t get his hands on him either. He really didn’t care about Shigaraki’s obsession. If he didn’t want to come with them, he was welcome to stay in the damn alley.
He made it only a few steps before his other hand was taken by the kid. “Okay, you can take me to UA,” the kid said happily. “But we need to find Kacchan! You’ll like him,” the kid chattered happily to Shouto. “If we’re friends then I’m sure you’re friends with Kacchan too! He’s so cool!” Dabi scoffed. He remembered this kid screaming “Kacchan” when they interrupted the training camp a couple of years ago. His time with Bakugou hadn’t exactly endeared him to the kid. And ‘cool’ wasn’t the word he would use to describe him.
Prick.
Bastard.
Arrogant.
Conceited.
Asshole.
Those were good words to describe him.
Dabi was beginning to reconsider taking Shouto to UA. Being around Bakugou might not be any better than being around Endeavor.
But the school had more than that kid. Endeavor had taught him to never trust a ‘hero’. Just because they appeared to be one thing in public didn’t mean that’s how they were behind closed doors. Endeavor was the number one hero, someone the public was supposed to trust with their lives.
Funny considering he destroyed his own family. Drove one of them to attempted murder. Scarred the youngest for life. And, of course, turned one into one of the most wanted villains in the country.
At least two of his children made it out relatively unscathed.
As far as Dabi knew, anyway. It wasn’t as if he had attempted to contact any of them since the day he woke up tied to that hospital bed with the burns all over his body.
Anger cursed through his veins at the reminder and he took a deep, shuddering breath. He had two kids holding onto his hands. His flames could burn them both to ash if he lost control. Thinking about that time, about Endeavor, was risky.
Best to push it from his mind for now.
He could take it out on Shigaraki later.