Chapter Text
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Scene: Dabi and Toga – Sketches in the Ash
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It was late. Everyone else had retreated to their corners—Spinner downstairs cleaning blades, Twice humming lullabies to himself, Compress pretending he didn’t care.
Toga sat cross-legged on a mattress in the corner of the hideout, sketchbook in her lap, a broken pencil between her teeth. Her drawings were messy, vivid, dripping with emotion. Some were of blood. Others of her teammates. But most?
Most were of fire.
Dabi’s fire.
She didn’t look up when he approached. Just mumbled, “Don’t breathe on my neck unless you want me to stab you.”
He snorted. “Relax, vampire. Just watching.”
She finally glanced over, eyes gleaming in the low light.
“You wanna model for me?” she teased.
Dabi didn’t answer. Just sat beside her, not close, but not far.
After a long silence, she asked:
“Why do you burn all the time?”
He didn’t look at her.
“Because it’s the only way I know I’m still alive.”
Toga blinked. The air between them shifted.
Dabi ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t sleep much. Don’t eat unless someone reminds me. But flames? Flames hurt. They scar. They remind me I’m not a corpse in a pretty coat.”
He looked over at her finally.
“You get it.”
Toga swallowed. “Yeah… I do.”
And then she surprised both of them—reaching out and gently tracing one of the stitch lines on his collarbone.
“Still alive,” she whispered.
He let her.
Just for a moment.
Scene: Spinner’s Truth
The next morning, Toga woke to find Spinner scrubbing the blood off her favorite hoodie.
“What are you doing?” she asked, shocked.
He didn’t stop scrubbing. “You like this one. I figured you’d want it clean.”
Toga tilted her head. “You hate laundry.”
“I hate watching you sleep in blood that isn’t yours even more.”
She blinked.
He set the hoodie down, finally facing her.
“I didn’t join the League for Stain. Not really.”
“I joined because no one else looked at me like a person.”
He gestured at her, at himself. “We’re not… normal. But here? No one calls me a freak. No one laughs when I talk. I’m not invisible.”
He paused, voice cracking.
“I stay because you guys made me feel seen.”
Toga didn’t say anything at first.
Then, with uncharacteristic gentleness, she reached for the hoodie.
“I’ll wear it again,” she said. “But only after you draw something on it.”
Spinner stared.
“Deal.”
Scene: The Mission – Cracks in the Armor
They were called to intercept a private hero transport rumored to be moving children from Quirk “rehabilitation centers.” Compress said it was too risky. Shigaraki said it was necessary.
Dabi was silent.
Toga grinned, bloodlust hiding her fear.
They went in quiet—until the first child screamed.
And everything fell apart.
Toga was the first to snap. The smell of fear, the flash of needles, the cage—it broke her.
“NO!” she screamed, lunging toward the guards before anyone could stop her.
Shigaraki tackled her mid-air, arm around her waist.
“Not like this, Toga!”
But she clawed and kicked like a wild animal.
Then: a dart hit her side. Sedative. She slumped.
Twice caught her before she hit the ground.
Dabi lost it.
Fire roared out in every direction—walls collapsing, guards screaming. Even Shigaraki had to pull back.
“You touch her, you die,” Dabi snarled, voice deeper than anyone had ever heard it. “SHE’S OURS.”
Spinner dragged the kids to safety. Compress warped them out, two at a time.
In the smoke, Shigaraki stood beside Twice, watching Dabi burn everything around Toga’s unconscious body.
They said nothing.
But in that moment, the League understood something:
No one touches their own.
And no one breaks Toga again.
Chapter End: After the Fire
Back at the hideout, Toga woke to find Dabi dozing beside her, one hand burned from protecting her too closely.
She touched his fingers gently.
“I don’t like the fire,” she whispered.
“I know,” he murmured without opening his eyes. “But I’ll burn the whole world if it keeps you safe.”
Twice left soup outside the door. Spinner sat nearby sharpening a blade. Shigaraki stared at the wall, whispering rule #3 under his breath.
League Rule #3: Protect the broken parts. Especially the ones we hide.