4 - Don't Push Me

"Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going, Staples?"

He doesn't turn around. His hands are slung in the pockets of his jeans, the hood of his jumper pulled low over his face, but I recognise the way he walks, like he owns the streets, like he owns the people who cross the road when they see him, like he owns even the sky, swollen with dark clouds. Rain pours from them, pattering on the roofs and soaking through my clothes almost instantly. I barely feel the cool droplets sliding down my face - I had to leave the hands inside to avoid being recognised and reported to heroes - through the fog of my fury. I pull bracingly chill air into my lungs, stalking after the man who, even now, dares to ignore me.

"I'm your superior, bastard. Or are you not with the League anymore?"

He increases his pace, forcing me to lengthen my own strides to keep up. "I'm with the League, Shigaraki. But I'm not reporting my every breath to you, because I don't answer to you for everything."

"The hell you don't."

Suddenly, he stops, and I manage to stop just short of crashing into his back.

"Why are you following me? Surely you have better things to do, like bossing those idiots around with the plans for tonight. I'll do what you ask because I am with the League for now, but don't think you control me in any way other than that, Tomura."

"Or what? You'll make me regret it?"

Blue fire ignites in the darkness. Finally, Dabi turns and looks over his shoulder at me, his sapphire eyes shadowed.

"Don't push me."

"Get back inside, Dabi. You're getting soaked."

"Why are you acting like you care about me?"

I lean in closer, making his eyes focus on me and nothing else. Then I whisper, quiet and deadly:

"I don't."

Just as I turn around and make to walk away, I hear his low laugh echo from the walls of the dark alley we entered a minute ago. My feet grate to a stop. I glare at my reflection in the puddles on the concrete. I look furious, but there's a kind of light blazing in my red eyes that there wasn't before. Then again, I've never been this angry and this unable to kill someone who angers me like that before.

"Is something funny?"

He doesn't answer, but his flames blaze higher, filling the alley with a beacon of reflected light.

"Are you an idiot? You'll draw attention to us-"

"Then you'd better leave before the real fight begins."

"I don't run from a fight."

"And neither do I, but haven't you got 'troops' to organise?"

I snarl, but Dabi just chuckles.

"You ought to get out of here, Tomura."

Who gave him the right to call me by my first name? Nobody calls me by that name. Not anymore.

"And you ought to return before you miss the briefing."

"I saw enough of my role earlier. But you might need to return, just in case you need a drink before you leave."

"The only reason I'd need a drink is you downing half of mine."

I don't need to turn around to see the smirk that curls his lips. This time, the last word is mine, bastard. So I walk into the rain and darkness, and leave him behind with his smirk and fire and mystery. He can go fuck himself for all I care. The only thing that counts is that he'll be at the attack when I need him to be; for all his infuriating behaviour, I know I can rely on him in a fight.

"All Might and those UA brats are going to regret everything they've ever done to us. We'll bring about a world without the rule of these heroes. And we'll control everything - and everyone."

Kurogiri is the only one that notices my glance flicker involuntarily to the door and back again. Wisely, he keeps his silence. Good. There's a reason that Master and I have kept Kurogiri for this long - not only is his Quirk incredibly useful, but he knows how to shut up when he needs to. Unlike a certain somebody.

"Tonight, we take back everything that was stolen from us. Tonight, we stalk the shadows and people cower at the mention of our names. Tonight, we burn the world into blood and dust."

The villains gathered in the room cheer as one, their drinks sloshing as they raise them high and toast to the living hell we'll unleash. I survey them all slowly, carefully, in their battle gear. Yes, I decide. Yes, they're ready for this.

A flash of blue eyes outside the window. I meet Dabi's gaze for just long enough to let him know he isn't off the hook, and then I gather our forces and we slip into a world of shadows and rain.