Ch. 43 A Meeting of the Minds

Dabi took a drag off his cigarette and leaned back in his chair as he exhaled, his legs spreading as he took in the view and tried to ignore the blood drying on the wall.

Palming himself through his pants, Dabi lazily watched the two girls making out on the couch in front of him. No doubt, this was a lot better than what he'd been doing earlier, and so far, at least, a lot less messy. Maybe that would change soon.

The visitor interrupted the sloppy sounds of their mouths by clearing his throat, the noise making the girls stop for a second, awaiting instructions like good little puppies. Dabi wasn't sure how they had been trained this well,but he was impressed.

If he had kept the guy alive, Dabi might even have asked him for pointers for training you. Oh well.

"You're late," Dabi said. As if he cared.

"I had an event. I had to at least make an appearance."

"Which one do you want?" Dabi asked his visitor, motioning to the girls. Dabi was feeling generous.

"I want both."

"That's the spirit!" Dabi laughed. "Some things never change, huh? You always were the spoiled one."

"Hardly."

"But we can make that happen," Dabi said, snapping his fingers and signaling for the girls to scoot apart. "Especially since you've brought the files, correct?"

Shoto came in and sat down in between the girls, holding up the flash drive. "It's all here. Names and addresses, quirk summaries." Dabi reached for it, but he held it back. "Not yet. Once I give you these files, it's time for you to hold up your end of the bargain."

"What do you need from me that you don't already have? From where I'm sitting, you look like you're doing pretty great, hero. That's a nice suit."

The girls nodded in agreement, and one girl began undoing his red tie before starting to unbutton his shirt.

"You agreed to allow y/n to stop working for the League if I got you this information. I'm here, I did it. Now go tell her she's fired."

"What if I don't want to?"

Dabi patted his lap, and the second girl came over to him, prompting balancing herself on his knee. "It's pretty cute that y/n keeps up this act with you, pretending to be your little goody two-shoes during the day and my whore at night."

With a brush of his hand, Todoroki waved the girl on him away. "But now that's over," Todoroki said. "You burned down her building for me, I got the files for you. That was the agreement."

"I might have changed my mind. Anyway I'd have to ask my boss if I can fire her, and he's unfortunately grown a little fond of her."

"Then change his mind. We've been over this. I need her with me. The higher on the hero ladder I climb, the more information I'll be able to give to you and your band of degenerates. We're going to take down the vile hero culture that creates monsters like our father and end this once and for all."

"Whatever you say. Forgive me, but I still have my doubts that you're committed to that. Especially since you seem to be enjoying the attention," Dabi noted as Todoroki's girl got on the floor between his legs, her hands unbuckling his belt. Todoroki didn't stop her.

"I'm doing what I have to do to become the top hero. I've spent my whole life training for this, and I'm not going to let you mess it up. I'm so close to having everything."

"Including that hot piece of ass you're borrowing from me? Tell me, have you hit it yet? When are you going to let me watch?"

Todoroki petted the girls hair as she worked on his zipper. "It's not my fault that she prefers my lifestyle to... " he looked around the dark room with sticky walls and dirty carpet. "To this."

"I guarantee she prefers my dick."

The girl at his feet giggled and Todoroki gave her a sharp yank of her hair. Dabi only laughed.

"You're delusional if you think you're the only hero she's entertaining," Dabi said.

"I'm working on that. It's a process."

"Right."

"I'm going to have the perfect career," Todoroki said, wrapping the girls hair tightly around his hand. "The perfect wife, the perfect family. I'll be the model hero. And just when everyone is looking to me, that's when we'll make them pay."

-------

There was someone watching them.

Even in his current state, blissed out with the feeling of you in his hands, more than tipsy from too many shots, Bakugo was confident that someone else was out there. He wasn't entirely sure where this person was, but he'd been on enough patrols to know that something felt off. 

Fuck it all. If that burnt bastard had seen you two together already, another second wouldn't make any difference. So he kissed you again, and your fingers toyed with the hair on the back of his neck, sending chill bumps up his spine as he held you there. 

"I shouldn't be out here with you," he said quietly, but he kept you close against him, the two of you anchoring yourselves together, your head tucked under his chin. 

"Well, you shouldn't be back in there with her," you said. "She has a boyfriend, by the way. A couple of them actually."

"And how do you know that?"

You looked up at him and tapped the side of your head.

"Oh. Yeah. For a second I forgot you could do that. But that's not what I meant. This...being out  here... it isn't safe."

"For either of us," you agreed. Reluctantly, you untangled yourself from his hold and took an unsure step back. "You need to leave. Even if I don't want you to."

Every second that you were in the alley with him felt like you were tempting fate. If Dabi were to see you out here, see you out here with him, then what? You didn't want to find out.

But from Bakugo's view, what kind of person would he be if he left you, half drunk, in the alley behind a bar? Certainly not a hero. What he wanted to do was carry you back to his bed, tuck you under the sheets with him, and make you gasp for air as you moaned his name.

But that didn't feel very heroic either.

"Leave with me," he said.

"I can't." But you wanted to. You really wanted to, but you also didn't want to him to be murdered by the blue flames that would surely follow your path. "I... I have to work."

"That's a lie."

"No, it's not!" you insisted.

"Damn it, y/n. Can you stop lying to me?"

"It's not a lie. I have to work. You of all people know that about me."

"Sometimes I think I don't know anything about you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Y/n... all I want to do is protect you, take care of you, make sure you're safe. But you make it so damn difficult because every time I try; it's like I'm blocked by this wall of secrets you put up."

"I'm sorry. I don't want it to be like this. I don't. But..."

There was so much he wanted to say, so much that needed to be said, and there was no time to say it and even worse, someone might be listening. But what if he didn't get another chance like this? What if something happened to you later? How could he get you to see that he could be trusted? 

He had an idea. 

"What....?" you asked, surprised when his hands went on each side of your head, pulling you back to him. 

"Y/n, we don't have much time. I need you to do something, quickly."

"Okay...what?"

His eyes met yours. "I need you to listen."

Ah. Now you understood. Your head in his hands; you closed your eyes and rested your forehead against his. You didn't even need the alcohol to slip into his mind. You never did. 

The speed and force of his thoughts were only dulled slightly by the alcohol; his memories came at you fast and powerful. 

A small gasp escaped your mouth as you saw it all, his thoughts tumbling toward you with a speed you couldn't stop. He knew. Oh no, he knew you were working for the League. Instinctively you started to jerk away to explain, but his hands kept you firmly rooted where you were, forehead to forehead. So you kept going.

A vision of him waiting for you in the lobby of the hospital with... Keigo. Shoto. 

A surge of anger coursed through you when he remembered when Dabi approached him, threatened him. Oh, and the police. They thought he...

No way. No way, no way. 

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen, I had no idea--"

"Stop," he interrupted you, bring you back against him. "Listen."

So you did. As more memories came at you, that anger that was building in your stomach slowly melted away to something else, something much softer but just as sad.

You saw him spending hours during the day at the office researching the League, and then there were nights at home, alone. Nights spent checking his phone, reading through old texts between the two of you. 

There was no way for him to know this, but you'd done the same thing. All this time you'd felt so hurt, all this time you'd thought that he had killed those people. But even though you'd thought that, you'd still held on to the idea of who you thought he was before.

That's why you had picked up the book you were reading earlier today; it was the same book you'd seen at his apartment, and somehow it made you feel closer to him, even if so far it wasn't the most exciting thing you'd ever read.

"That's because you haven't made it to the good part yet," he chuckled.

Your eyes popped open. "Wait, what?"

He was staring straight back at you, eyes just as wide. "Holy shit," was all he said. "You..."

"Did I just..."

"That's never happened before?"

"No, never."

"You.... you sent me your thoughts?"

"I guess?"

You broke your contact with his mind and stared at him in awe. Somehow he had been able to tell that you were thinking about that book. He'd been able to access your own thoughts, or you'd sent them to him, who knows and who cared.

Oh god, what else had come through?  Memories from earlier in the night flashed through your mind, and you remembered what had happened once you put the book down, in Shoto's bedroom, on Shoto's bed.

"Do it again," he urged you. "That was cool as hell."

"Um, no, maybe not right now."

"Why?" he grinned. "The mind reader doesn't like it when someone knows her thoughts for a change?"

"That's beside the point. Bakugo, you know. You know all of it and still... still you're here? With me, right now?"

"Of course I'm here. I know there's more to this, there's more you're not telling me. I want to know it. I want to know it all." 

As scared as you were, you knew he deserved to know. Hesitating, you slowly reached up and this time you took his head in your hands. You brought him to you in a kiss, and as soon as your lips touched, there it was again. You forced yourself to remember, so he could see and know. 

Dabi. The house fire. Meeting Shigaraki. The missions. Kirishima. 

You didn't lose the connection to his mind, but you broke away from the kiss and buried your face in his chest.

He was already seeing so much; you didn't want him to also see the tears that were streaming down your face and wetting his shirt. 

He hugged you tight against him as you cried, all of the hidden emotions and memories pouring out faster than you could contain them. You knew you needed to show him everything, so you did, no matter how hard you sobbed. The sadness. The embarrassment. The helplessness. The pain.

"If I hadn't fired you... " you heard him say. 

"No, no, no," you said, looking up at him. "This wasn't your fault. I was so naive... Bakugo, I'm a..." You had a hard time making yourself say the word, and when it finally came out, it was muffled by your broken sob. "I'm a villain."

"Shut up. We'll fix this. I don't know how but we will."

"No. You don't know them. They'll hurt you, or me, or both. Or our families. And there's more," you told him, bringing your head back closer to his. 

You felt sick to your stomach, but you needed to show him the rest. As you remembered that night, the night you'd come home to Bakugo sitting on your doorstep, you felt him tense up and clench his fists at his sides. You hadn't even made it to the night your apartment burned down when he tore away from you and the connection was lost. 

"God damn it." He started pacing in front of you, taking deep heavy breaths to control his racing heart. "I'm going to murder.. someone. Everyone. All of them. You didn't tell me that they... those fucking bastards, they're dead. Do you hear me? They're dead."  

Bakugo started to storm back into the bar, but you caught his arm, stopping him. 

"There's nothing we can do," you tried to tell him, wiping the tears from your cheek. 

"So we give up?"

"I don't know what else to do!" 

"Here's what I know," he said. "You are the most important person to me. You."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. It's always you. Always, always you. And I refuse to let anyone hurt you like this. Do you understand?"

You nodded, sniffing back tears. You wanted to trust him. Seeing him like this, red eyes focused and intense, you wanted to believe that maybe he could fix everything after all. 

Maybe, for just a second, out there in the dark, in this alley behind a disgusting bar owned by terrible villains, where a man with beautiful red feathers listened from a distance, there was hope. 

Maybe.