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“-And then he just left! After all those years of being together, all i got was some shitty letter,” Lucy huffed, slamming her glass down on the bar in frustration. It’d been a long while since she’d indulged like this, so she welcomed the burn of the alcohol in her throat.
“That’s messed up. I can’t believe you spent all those years with that Natsu guy just for him to leave…makes me want to stab him,” Toga said darkly, knocking back more of her own drink.
Lucy laughed at the girls strange way of showing support. “Thanks, Toga, but it’s alright. It’s not like I’ll have to see him again.”
“Yeah, screw that guy! You’ve got us now! We’re way cooler,” She replied excitedly, her little fangs showing as she grinned.
It had been a few weeks since Lucy had joined the League, and the initial shock of her situation was finally wearing off. They’d been cold in their suspicion at first— not that she could blame them, with her story about coming from another world where they only existed as fictional characters. Even Dabi’s attempt to burn her face off on the first night felt, in hindsight, at least semi-understandable. She probably wouldn’t have believed the story herself. Hell, she could hardly believe her eyes when she’d awoken on the dusty floor of their hideout.
Luckily, they slowly came around after she revealed some of her knowledge about the past and future events of their lives. Showing her powers had helped as well, since there was no way that summoning celestial spirits and star dresses could be possible through a quirk. The looks on their faces after she’d summoned Taurus for the first time were priceless.
“Y’know what this is the perfect time for?” Toga began, quickly scanning her golden eyes across the dingy room. Most of the main League members were around tonight, since no one seemed to have anything better to do than drink. In that way, Lucy supposed it wasn’t so different from Fairytail.
Shigaraki and Spinner were playing Mario Kart on the TV, while Twice and Compress were sat at the table playing some card game. Across the room, Dabi was slumped across the sofa with his legs dangling off the end, slowly nursing a vodka and coke. The atmosphere wasn’t exactly lively, but Lucy didn’t mind it. Chatting with Toga like this…it was nice— normal, even.
“What’s it the perfect time for?” Lucy repeated Toga’s question, quirking an eyebrow.
“Drinking gamesss!” Toga loudly dragged out her sentence, springing up from her stool beside the bar and almost knocking it over. Dabi, Shigaraki and Spinner collectively groaned at the suggestion.
“Sounds awesome, let’s do truth or dare!— Sounds awful, no way.” Twice added, with Compress nodding at his first statement.
Lucy shrugged. She was pretty good with handling her alcohol, thanks to all those late nights with Cana that her liver had suffered through. “I’m down. It seems like a good way to get to know everyone better.”
Toga squealed excitedly and herded everyone up, dragging them all into a circle on the floor despite their many protests. Lucy found herself between Compress and Toga, with Dabi directly opposite her, looking as apathetic as ever.
“So, what rules are we playing by?” Compress asked, looking around the group.
“We’ll go around in the circle spinning a bottle, with whoever it lands on having to do a truth or dare from the person who spun it. If you don’t want to do your truth or dare, then you take a shot.” Toga explained, excitedly placing an empty bottle in the centre of the circle and handing out shot glasses.
Twice was the first to grab the bottle. “I wanna go first!— Leave me out of it.”
The bottle spun for a minute before landing on Shigaraki, who rolled his eyes before asking for a dare.
“Let Toga take some of your blood right now!— Sounds scary.” Twice said, gesturing frantically.
“No way in hell.” Shigaraki said, quickly pouring himself a shot. Toga pouted, clearly disappointed by the lack of bloodshed.
Dabi was the next to spin, though not without a low mutter about how “moronic” the game was. It landed on Lucy this time and she didn’t really feel like getting toasted, so she went for the safer option. “I’ll go truth.”
Dabi’s icy blue eyes trailed over her figure, as if trying to assess her. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him. Aside from Toga and Twice, he was probably the person she was closest to in the league— not like that was saying much, though. She’d been trying to get closer to him, but it was proving to be a slow process. Despite the several missions they’d now been on together, she hadn’t yet managed to get beyond surface level conversation or teasing with him.
“Back in your old world, were you a hero? No offence, Princess, but I didn’t really take you as the villain type when you joined us.” Dabi said, his voice a low rasp.
“None taken,” Lucy hummed, idly twirling a strand of hair around her finger while she took a moment to think. There wasn’t really a clear cut answer…though she supposed Fairytail would be closer to yakuza or a group of vigilantes, rather than the clear-cut labels of ‘hero’ or villain’.
“We didn’t have heroes or villains in Earthland, so I guess I’d have to say that I was somewhere in between? My guild and I went out of our way to help people, but we also got in a lot of trouble with the government, and protecting our own was always our top priority, so it’s kinda subjective.” Lucy explained, doing her best not to ramble. Society in Japan was much more black and white than it was back home, so she wasn’t quite sure how to put it.
“You got in trouble with the government?” Dabi repeated in disbelief, his stapled mouth pulling into a slight amused grin.
“What, you don’t believe me?” Lucy scoffed.
“Didn’t think you had it you.” He hummed, looking her over once again with his inscrutable gaze. Was he judging her or praising her? Lucy had no clue. She didn’t grace him with a response, instead choosing to just stick her tongue out, earning her a giggle from Toga.
A few more rounds passed without anything major happening, though everyone was starting to get a bit more than tipsy. Thankfully, Lucy wasn’t feeling too far gone yet, having more of a pleasant buzz going on. She’d have to thank Cana for the training if she ever saw her again.
Eventually it looped back around to being Toga’s turn to spin, with the bottle once again landing on Lucy. “Truth again,” She said quickly, hoping to keep her blood in her body.
“Aww booo…but fine, give me a sec to think,” Toga hummed, chewing slightly on her index finger, “Ooo- I got it! Back when you watched our world as a show, who was your favourite character?”
Lucy tilted her head to the side with a slight frown. She always felt a little uncomfortable when they brought up her prior knowledge of them as characters. It felt almost unfair. “Isn’t that sort of an awkward question? It feels kinda weird, since I know you all as actual people now, instead of just characters on a screen.”
“Oh, so it is one of us?— Terrible taste!” Twice exclaimed.
Lucy opened her mouth to reply in a panic, but Compress began before her. “Nonsense dear, I’m sure none of us would take offence to it. If anything, it would be an honour.” Compress assured, with most of the group nodding along.
“I mean…If you’re sure,” Lucy said hesitantly. She’d always preferred the League when she’d watched the show. It’s not that she disliked most of the heroes or anything, she just couldn’t help but want better for them. She’d always wondered if they would have found better lives in a world like her own, where everyone wasn’t forced into such strict categories.
When Dabi’s— or rather Touya’s— backstory had been revealed, she’d been brought to tears. Despite the inarguably awful things he’d done, she couldn’t help but empathise with him. Endeavour had seen Touya as merely an extension meant to live out his own dreams of becoming the number 1 hero, and Lucy’s father had seen her as an asset to marry off to whatever rich old man offered the most money. They’d both just been puppets, at the end of day.
There was also the matter of Dabi’s 3–year-long coma, which Lucy couldn’t help but compare to the 7 years she’d spent stuck on Tenrou. Waking up, only to find that time had been marching on without you was a terrifying thing. For months, she’d felt like a walking ghost, like she was entirely out of place in the world.
Lucy’s eyes slowly trailed over to Dabi, debating on just how much of an explanation she should give. “I guess it would have to be Dabi, since I could relate to him on a few..uhh…family matters.”
She did her best to ignore the manic grin that appeared on Toga’s face after she said that.
“What can I say? I am pretty irresistible.” Dabi chuckled dryly. If he was perturbed by her mentioning his family, he didn’t show it.
Lucy rolled her eyes, hoping the slight warmth in her cheeks wasn’t visible in the dimly lit room. “You know I didn’t mean it like that, so don’t make it weird.”
“Sure you didn’t.” He quipped back.
“Kinda concerning that you can ‘relate’ to him, though.” Shigaraki mumbled, with Spinner nodding in agreement.
Lucy just smiled in response, not really wanting to elaborate on why. Her daddy issues weren’t something she wanted to share with the whole group just yet, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to go around telling people about Dabi’s past— both out of respect for him and fear for her safety.
Toga leaned towards Lucy and whispered in her ear. “Looks like you’ve got a thing for flame users, huh?”
Lucy immediately regretted telling her about her previous feeling for Natsu. She flicked her softly on the forehead, muttering a hushed “Shut it.” Though, that didn’t stop the girl from laughing manically.
The game moved on and they kept playing for a few more rounds, until people started getting tired, or in Twice’s case, a bit too drunk. Toga had to drag him over to the bathroom before he started throwing up on the floor.
As the night drew to a close, everyone left for their beds one by one, until only Dabi and Lucy were left in the main room. It felt a lot colder without the lively energy of Twice and Toga, like the stillness of the night outside was beginning to fill the place. With all the drinking and laughter, it had been easy to forget that they were living in an essentially derelict building, at least for a bit. Lucy’s eyes flitted over to Dabi. He looked like he was in a world of his own, with his slender figure slouched against the wall as he stared into space. Small slivers of moonlight crept through the half-drawn curtains, casting a faint glow over his still form. He looked almost peaceful this way.
Lucy wanted to say something to him, but she couldn’t think of a way to initiate conversation without it feeling awkward. She’d already overstepped by bringing up his family issues earlier, so she didn’t want to push it. Placing her drink down on the table, she got up to take her leave.
“Hey, Blondie, hold on a sec. I wanted to ask you about something.” Dabi’s rough voice resonated through the room, with him apparently having snapped out of his daze. Lucy paused in surprise, stopping mid-step and turning back to face him.
“Uhh…sure. What about?” She said, cautiously perching back down on the sofa. She watched him walk over to sit beside her and hoped she hadn’t upset him with anything she’d said earlier.
“You said you could relate to me on ‘family stuff’…does that mean you know about my dad and shit?” He grumbled, absentmindedly staring down at the floor.
“…Yeah, I do. I know about what he did to you…and your family. I haven’t told anyone though, and I won’t, so you don’t need to worry,” Lucy assured, holding up her hands in surrender. Back when she had first arrived here, she’d mentioned her knowledge on small parts of Dabi’s past, but she hadn’t yet shared the full extent of what she knew.
“It’s creepy as shit that you know all this stuff, but whatever, I guess I can’t do anything about it. Too late to torch you now,” He sighed, jokingly letting a small blue flame bloom up from his fingertips. He’d taken it better than she’d expected.
Lucy smiled softly. “I’m not sure if I should be telling you this, but… he gets what’s coming to him, in the end. He ends up a broken man full of regret. In the future I saw, at least.”
Dabi’s eyes widened in slight surprise for a moment and Lucy worried that she’d said too much.
“Broken, but not dead, huh? I guess that means I burn out before I can finish things then,” He sighed contemplatively, letting his head fall slack against the cushions.
Lucy frowned, looking at the now exposed charred skin that covered his neck. “It doesn’t have to be that way, you know? Things can end differently this time around, if you want them to.”
Dabi’s gaze narrowed sharply at her and she almost shivered. If there was a line, she had certainly crossed it.
“And what about your dad? Since you said that you can ‘relate’— did he suffer the way he deserved to?” Dabi asked, completely ignoring her comment about changing things. She was relieved he hadn’t barbecued at her, at least.
Lucy thought back to her return from Tenrou— her dusty room filled with years worth of presents and birthday cards. She supposed he had gotten his comeuppance, even though Lucy hadn’t wanted any of it to happen.
“You could say that.” She said thoughtfully.
“Did you kill him?” Dabi asked, sitting back up and shifting to face her. His voice had dipped now, into something other than his usual detached tone, something more pointed.
Lucy shook her head. “No, but he died alone and full of regrets. He didn’t even know if I was still alive.”
“You sound sad about it,” He hummed.
“Maybe I am…After I ran away, I hated him for a long time and I don’t think I’ll ever fully forgive him, but…I had to let go of it all. If I kept carrying it with me, it felt like letting him win, in a way. I know my mom wouldn’t have wanted that. So, no, I didn’t want him to suffer…though, I guess you can’t relate to most of that?” Lucy acknowledged, her mind replaying Dabi’s final scenes in his fight against Endeavour. He’d been an unrelenting inferno of resentment and need for recognition. His hatred had burned so brightly that it was only extinguished once his body had been scorched beyond recovery.
“No way in hell I’d ever feel sorry for my old man. He deserves the worst of the worst…and there’s no ‘letting go’ for me. If yours was even half as bad as mine, then I’d say you’re way too soft.” He said, frustratedly combing a hand through his thick black hair.
For the first since Lucy had been in this world, she felt like she was talking to Touya, not Dabi.
“And I’d say that you shouldn’t throw your life away on him, but you’d just end up toasting me.” Lucy coaxed him.
“Damn right,” Dabi huffed, though his lips tugged upwards, “So is that the only reason I was your favourite? ‘Cuz we both have shit dad’s?”
Lucy paused for a moment, pushing the cold edge of her glass against her bottom lip. She wasn’t sure if he was asking out of genuine curiosity, or if he just wanted to change the conversation topic. She assumed the latter.
Lucy wasn’t stupid. She knew she couldn’t force her views on him. If she pushed too hard, the newly formed bridge of their relationship would shatter. She had to be gentle.
“I mean, I guess I thought you were pretty cool, too. Don’t know if you’re as cool in person, though.” She teased, allowing their conversation to fall back into the territory of comfortable teasing.
Despite the deep purple burns that covered his body and the jagged staples that dug into his skin, Dabi was a very attractive man— in Lucy’s eyes, at least. She’d always found herself drawn to him when she’d watched the show, and perhaps even more so now that she was actually getting to know him. On screen, he’d been a compelling character, but in person…it was like his presence burned up all the oxygen in her lungs. Not that she’d ever tell him that.
“Oh? Is it the nasty burns putting you off? They’re a lot grosser in person, huh?” Dabi taunted, running a finger against the staples along his cheek.
“More like the nasty attitude. I’ve seen literal demons, a few burns don’t scare me.” Lucy quipped back, sticking her tongue out again.
Dabi definitely wasn’t her usual type— a far cry from Natsu’s soft smile and kind eyes, his soul dripped black with bitterness and rage. He had committed innumerous sins, and yet her interest remained. She wasn’t quite sure what exactly she felt towards him now— some strange amalgamation of empathy, attraction and unrelenting curiosity, perhaps?
“Ouch, too bad. I was just starting to come around to you as well.” Dabi said in mock disappointment, though his eyes glinted with something close to amusement.
Lucy raised a brow, not quite believing him. In the show, he’d always had a certain level of detachment from the league. He never formed bonds like the ones between Toga and Twice or Shigaraki and Spinner. More than anyone else in the league, he had a one track mind that left little room for others needs. That’s not to say he didn’t care at all, though— the gesture of burning down Toga’s childhood house had proved that much.
So far, Lucy hadn’t been able to tell whether Dabi actually enjoyed her company or just enjoyed messing with her. “Really now? You sure that’s not just the alcohol talking?”
“Nah, just makes me more honest,” He admitted, resting his head against his hand. “It’s nice to have someone to talk to about this shit with, not that it’ll matter soon.”
Lucy frowned. “It matters to me.”
You matter to me, she wanted to say. She ached with the burning desire to reach out to him— to take his hand before it was too late.
Dabi stared back at her, his glacial eyes misted with confusion. “I don’t get you. Are trying to save me or something? Trying to stop me from fighting my dad? If that’s it…then you shouldn’t bother. You’re wasting your time here, Princess.”
Lucy winced, knowing that’s exactly what she was trying to do. Seeing him tearing himself apart on screen had been heart wrenching enough, so to have to witness it in person…she hated to even think of it. Why had she been brought to this world, if not to help the character she adored most? It was wishful thinking and she knew it, yet she couldn’t help but hold out a bit of hope.
She fiddled with the hem of her skirt, trying to find the right words. Ultimately, she couldn’t stop him from walking his original path if that’s what he wanted. All she could do was try to make an impact on his life…try to be there for him.
“What you choose to do with your life is up to you. If that’s what you truly want, then I have no right to try and stop you. All I want…is to be your friend. That’s it.” She spoke at last, keeping her voice steady and firm.
“That’s it?” Dabi repeated, his eyebrows knitted together slightly.
“Thats it.” Lucy reaffirmed, with a nod. She was slightly surprised he wasn’t making fun of her for being so forward.
Dabi stayed silent for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak again. “Twice was right when he said you have bad taste, but…sure. I’ll be your friend, Lucy.”
Lucy almost felt her heart pang when he called her real name, instead of one of the many nicknames he seemed to delight in annoying her with.
“Don’t start acting all sappy and shit with me though.” Dabi added, raising a pointed finger towards her.
Lucy couldn’t help but giggle. “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it.” She said, trying and failing hopelessly to suppress a grin. Her friendship with him would be very different to the ones she had with her guild mates, she was sure. “It’s getting late…I should probably head to bed now. I think Shigaraki’s gonna have me running errands tomorrow.”
“Sounds about right…Goodnight, Lucy.” Dabi chuckled, pushing himself up off the sofa.
“Goodnight, Dabi.”
Goodnight, Touya.
As Lucy retreated to her own room, she cast one more longing glance over her shoulder. Dabi’s tall figure was already being swallowed by the inky darkness of the far corridor, leaving only the fading scent of smoke and leather to linger in the air. She was surprised by how quickly she began to miss it. It was proof that he was here, real and alive— and she desperately didn’t want that to change.
She knew how things were supposed to end. She knew the dark, fiery path he would soon descend down. Even worse, she knew that he had no desire to fight against his fate.
Yet, if there was even a single glimmer of a chance that she could change things…she had to try.