Non-Believer (Chapter 5) <Metamorphosis>

Izuku wiped off a bead of sweat by the side of his cheek. The heat on his hands radiating across the dirty and littered beach while he peeped at the person from the other side.

"You need to to better than that Izuku..." Dabi spoke out, his arms covered in the blue flames that danced around in his palms.

"I'm trying..." The green-headed teen whispered out, the spirals on his hands growing hotter. Izuku launched himself at the other boy, running in a zig-zagged line to dodge the numerous spouts of fire headed his way. The quirk thief neared the Todoroki, his palms sizzling from the heat it radiated. Izuku was nearing the older teenager, his arms ready to burn and melt.

Dabi clicked his tongue in annoyance, he was horrible at aiming. "Think quick!" he warned before lashing out his arms. His azure flames surrounding him and bursting out in a wave, Izuku stopped and ducked quickly to avoid getting burnt to a crisp.

The greenette stumbled over, his hands scorching and melting the sand below him as he fell over into the dirty beach's ground.

*Ding! Ding! Ding!*

"Welp, that's time..." Dabi spoke out, rolling his shoulder and hearing the soft pop of his bones moving back into place. "You got a lot closer than last time..." He praised the middle-school kid affectionately.

The two have been training with each other for quite some time now, almost meeting up every day after school. The meeting spot always was the dirty beach. Aside from all the scorch marks that were scattered around it, the beach did look a bit better after the two managed to trash the garbage that occupied the space before.

Dabi squatted besides the huffing teens body, offering a hand at the wheezing quirk thief. "Th-Thanks..." Izuku replied out, his voice hoarse from getting his face smacked against the sand.

"Yeah, no problem kid..." the redhead replied nonchalantly, tossing his arms behind his head as he walked towards the broken coach that the two usually loitered by when they were tired. It was a little grimy and had one of its legs missing, but it was a luxury compared to the other things that the two had found within Dagobah beach.

Izuku let out a gasp of breath as he plopped himself down onto the sofa, the redhead following by as he too took a seat, although, in a much more formal position.

"Hey, when are you going to have those U.A tests again?" The fire-user asked, Izuku wiping his face off of sand and sweat. And a little bit of rust from the trash pile he fell beside.

"About a month... I think... I'll have to check..." Izuku replied, unsure while he fished out his phone and did a quick search on his web browser. "Yeah, it's around a month..." he added to his comment.

"Nice..." Dabi commented, there was a pregnant pause in between the two teens speech. Until Dabi broke it off.

"So, when are you going to start that whole... Quirk mixing thing that you kept on telling me?" the spiky-haired 18 year old asked Izuku.

Said boy paused a bit, his brow furrowing in thought. "I don't really think I should be mixing quirks... I could barely even control the first one... I still get headaches from the sensory overload..." he replied, Dabi nodded in understanding.

"Then just use one of your weaker quirks..." he said, his eyebrow raised up in suspicion as he saw the boy sheepishly rub the back of his head and give out an awkward bit of laughter.

The redhead gave a sigh. "What's wrong now, Izuku..." he spoke out, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well..." the boy thumbled with his fingers with a bit. "I don't really *Know if I have any *weak quirks." he replied out.

"How?"

"Uhh..." Izuku scratched his head. "Well... whenever I take a quirk. I don't get any info about it... just what it feels like. I don't know if it's a mutation, transformation, or emitter..." he explained. Dabi let off an "Oh..." of understanding.

"Then just mix two random quirks up..." the older of the two replied. Izuku shook his head.

"If I'm going to mix two quirks, I need to know what they do... I can't just go in blind." He said, Dabi (again) nodded.

"Then test other quirks..." he spoke out. "You've only really been using that black monster quirk and your freaky stove-hands quirk whenever we spar. And besides, you barely even use the monster one."

"That's because you almost blinded me when you shot a fireball at my face. You know I have thermal vision and you still thought it was a good idea to strike fire in front of me." Izuku replied, cheeks puffed in annoyance as he scolded his friend.

"Oh please, it only happened once." the cremation user replied.

"And I'd like to let it stay that way, Dabi..."

"Gah... Well, whatever. We should really start and test out your other quirks..." Dabi announced, lazily getting off of his spot on the sofa to stand around in the sand.

"Hang on..." izuku pocketed his phone and gave his face one last wipe from his towel. He joined his friend on the sands of the beach.

There was a minute of pure inactivity, Dabi looking at the boy awkwardly shift under his gaze. "Well? Weren't you supposed to use one of your quirks?" he asked, gesturing for him to continue.

"Oh! Y-Yeah..." Izuku closed his eyes, giving off a soft breath to concentrate.

He shut his eyes tighter, searching for another quirk within himself.

He felt it.

It was plain, airy and soft. He doesn't know any other way to describe it.

The boy gave out a long breath and tugged out the quirk, pulling at its seams to use it's abilities.

There was a large gust of wind, Dabi shielded his eyes from the sand and debris that flew out.

"Sick dude..." He spoke out, seeing the transparent swirls of wind that surrounded the boys arms. "What's it called?" the redhead asked the green-head.

"I don't know..." Izuku spoke out in wonderment, looking at his arms in amazement. The streams circling and snaking around his arms looked absolutely astonishing. They had this slight white tint to it, other than that, it was purely see through.

"Well?" Dabi asked, gesturing to the boy and then gesturing to the heaps of trash behind them.

"Let's fuck shit up."

>Break

Dabi went home a bit early, so Izuku was left to his own devices to practice his quirks.

He didn't like the thought of risking his friends safety just to train himself.

So he waited for the Todoroki to leave, making sure to check if he actually left the dump-beach.

"Mix quirks..." Izuku was reminded of Dabi's words as he looked at his palm. The spirals heating up and igniting in a grand shade of hot orange and bright yellow.

The All for One user exhaled a breath, releasing his hold on his quirk and picking a familiar one from his library.

"Gale..." it was what he had decided to name this quirk. The ability to shoot off strong winds from his arms. It also had the additional effect of having some-sort of protection towards his arms. Not as destructive as his other quirks, but not something he should just scoff at.

He thrust his arm forward, the mini-tornado covering his left arm shot off and hit a tower of old and decaying tires. The tires got knocked over, the sand surrounding them getting scattered in the warm afternoon breeze.

Izuku brought his palm and stared at it for a moment, his brow furrowing in thought.

"...Maybe..." he whispered out for only himself to hear, he gave one last look over his shoulder to confirm that his friend Dabi was not there. Once he affirmed that the older teen was indeed not there, he focused.

"Both at the same time..." he exhaled a long breath, the winds around his arm growing more and more violent as he felt the tips of his palms starting to heat up.

He felt the sweat trail down his forehead, he felt increasingly... HOT.

In fact, the heat climbed and snaked its way from his palms, to the backs of his hands, to his arms, and then finally towards his back. It felt like it was getting increasingly... BURNED!!!

His arms, hands, and even his back were brought into an intense sizzling blister. He couldn't...

Izuku couldn't take it anymore, he ran towards the seashore and took a dive towards the cool sea water.

The boy crawled out of the low-tide sea and wallowed in a little pool of seawater and failure.

He gurgled out a groan, his body aching from the immense pain and suffering that he had just felt. It took a few minutes, maybe tens of minutes, but the boy eventually got up. Reluctantly of course.

"That... was a bad idea..." he groaned out, wiping his eyes free of water and tears. The now very wet teen slowly cracked his neck and joints free of strain, wincing while hearing the loud pop that emanated.

Izuku looked down, he was completely and utterly soaked. From head to shoes, the boy reeked of saltwater and seaweed.

"Oh no..." and like lightning, Izuku now noticed that his shirt was nothing more than a few black strands of cloth that used to be a nice white polo.

And yet, another problem has risen.

"Wh-What!?" izuku almost screamed out when he took a glance at his arms. He didn't even notice it at first, he only took a passing glance and saw it at the corner of his eye.

He had these thick black lines running around his arms, they were more akin to tattoos but they were pitch black. He shuffled as he shifted and moved to see to what extent these markings reach to. He couldn't really see it, but he assumed that they reached up to his back considering that he couldn't really see his back and that the lines were still going strong until it escaped his point of view.

Not only that, but the lines stopped at the back of his hands, they were connected to a circle that had a thick black dot in the middle. Unknowing to Izuku, he too had a large black dot with a circle surrounding it as the lines were connected to his back.

"Mom's gonna kill me..." he whispered out to himself. First: he was wet, second: he was shirtless, third: he looked like he just got tattoos, and fourth: he reeked of sea water.

He closed his eyes, reeling in a deep breath as the calming wind washed over his body.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!" he screamed out, absolute horror and stress written all over his face. Izuku doubled over, wallowing in a small duvet of self loathing and pent up anxiety.

He was completely lost. And to be honest, he was completely drained of energy as well.

"Well well well... look at what the sea washed up..." the boy looked up from his sad little sand-hole to see Dabi, squatted over eye level to the boy and offering his hand to grab.

"I thought you went home?" the now tattooed teen asked, grabbing the other's hand and propping himself up.

"I did... but I came back, since I had nothing else to do..." Dabi said, glancing over Izuku to see the boy with black marks all over his body. "Nice ink" Dabi commented.

"This isn't a tattoo..." Izuku clarified, bringing his arm to his eyes to look at it from a much closer angle. "It's a mistake... from fusing quirks." He added.

"Nice..." Dabi replied, whistling as he circled around the boy and looking at the black lines and circles. "Which did you pick?" He asked, the other boy coughed a bit before mustering up the answer.

"Melt Down and Gale..." He said, Dabi's eyebrows rose a tad after hearing that. "Looking back at it, maybe mixing those two wasn't the best of ideas." Izuku gave out a dry chuckle, Dabi sighed and pinched his nose.

"Foresight is 20/20, people say that a lot... now I know it's true." He jokingly shook his head. Izuku sighed and rubbed the side of his arm sheepishly, feeling the phantom pain of being burnt.

"I don't really have another shirt on me, so you'll just have to drop by my place if you don't want to worry your mother to death..." Dabi explained, pointing behind him as Izuku suddenly got shivers down his spine. "I live like a block away from the beach..." The redhead added.

Izuku winced, a bad wind seemingly looming over him. "Somehow I don't really think that it'd be a good idea..." Izuku replied. "And what would Endeavor say if he sees me?"

"Eh..." Dabi kicked a pebble, disinterested. "He's training Shouto around this time... the flaming fuck won't spare time to see you..." Dabi added.

"Alright then." Izuku scratched his head, thinking of reasons to why he'd be there if he meets endeavor. "Just walk close I guess... I hope no one I know sees me..."

Dabi nodded, and started to walk towards his home. Izuku was trailing behind the older teen closely, feeling cold and awkward that he was following someone half-naked across the street.

Exhibitionists are a mystery to the boy.

>Break.

The walk was pretty much as expected. Izuku was practically clinging to the older teen as his face heated up to a flurry of cherry red as he saw some of the people laugh and point at him as they made their way across the street.

"I... I want to die..." Izuku scream-whispered to Dabi, the elder one gave out a snicker as waved the boy off while they walked their way.

"Same." Dabi replied, Izuku huffing while trying to keep his gaze down while the two treaded through the bustling street of civilians.

Izuku was feeling cold. Which was pretty understandable since it was pretty late in the afternoon. Izuku momentarily looked up from the sidewalk, which was a bad decision overall. He managed to look at a woman from across the street that gave him a playful wink.

His face heated up a few degrees hotter and his head shot down faster than the speed of light. Dabi could practically see the steam emanate from Izuku's forehead.

"You should walk around like this more often. You look like someone who'd be a hit with the girls." Dabi jokingly spoke out, Izuku glared at the redhead. The Todoroki just chuckled even harder, bordering on a laugh.

>Break.

Izuku was expecting a large house... but this... this was something else.

He didn't know whether he was in 2028 or a classic oriental history museum. This mansion reeked of elegance and asian grandeur. The boy felt very, very, VERY poor after a quarter of a second just gawking at the damn building. His jaw was almost hitting the floor at just seeing the scale of the set of buildings.

Yes, SET of buildings. As in, several buildings within a fenced property.

"You'll catch flies." Dabi said, slightly amused that Izuku was absolutely gobsmacked at the sheer scale of his 'home'. "C'mon, let's go before you catch hypothermia..."

Dabi nudged the shirtless quirk thief to continue onward, izuku gulped his nerves down. Yeah, he was just visiting. It's not like anything bad will happen.

Dabi opened the large gate, the metal making a creek of noise from its hinges as it moved. Izuku winced, he thought they were supposed to be sneaking in.

"Fuyumi! I'm back!" Dabi called out once they reached the main entrance to the central building, lightning shot through Izuku's body. He cringed as he heard the volume at which Dabi had called out his possible sibling.

"I thought we were supposed to be hiding..." Izuku whisper-shouted at the older Todoroki as they walked across the wooden floor. The latter shrugged, not showing any sign of caring or worry.

"The training grounds are separated from the main building, they're still out back so the old man won't hear you. Besides, Fuyumi's been asking about who I've been hanging around lately..." He replied nonchalantly with a careless shrug. Izuku didn't know if dabi really didn't care, or knew that nothing bad would happen. Either way, Izuku is still skeptical of his sanity.

Izuku saw the slightly shorter todoroki arrive, her snowy-white hair being invaded by short strips of crimson. She had black-framed glasses and a soft expression on her face as she turned heel from the corner. "Oh, you're back. Did you get the gr-..." her speech was cut short when she laid her eyes on the hunched over and shirtless boy hiding behind Dabi's form. She could clearly see him fail at covering his (surprisingly) marked body. "Wh-Who's that?" She asked, Fuyumi's voice getting a bit hiccuped at seeing his brother drag an under-aged kid half-naked into his home.

"Oh, This is Izuku. He's the one I've said I was was hanging around with, remember?" Dabi shrugged, not noticing the two awkward teens looking very uncomfortable around each other.

"D-Dabi, C'mon! I-I need to get home already!" Izuku horsed out a strained whisper, shaking the taller of the two as he just rubbed his neck uncaring.

"Wh-Why isn't he wearing anything up top? I-Isn't he g-getting cold or something...?" Fuyumi never really cared for boys, even if she's well above the age where she'd normally be swooning over them. She lives with boys, in-fact; she's the only female Todoroki within the household in a few years, but seeing someone else shirtless did really get her flustered and uncomfortable. Especially so with a kid who looked like he hadn't even gone through high school yet. Let's just say she wasn't comfortable with her older brother bringing in shirtless children.

"Oh, he just had a little quirk mishap. So I'm letting him grab a tee real quick and he'll be off." Dabi replied, completely missing how the teens were pretty flustered at seeing each other. "C'mon Izuku, my room's over there." He said, nudging the shorter teen into entering the room that looked to plain to be a bedroom.

The door shut behind them, and the girl was at a loss for words. Well, she was sort-of happy that Kasuo was interacting with people other than her. But a pang of worry shot through her, she knew by the other boy's reaction that he was a loner too. She pursed her lips as she turned heel and went back to walk to the kitchen. She didn't really make a good impression, and even though her brother attracted other anti-social people she had to admit that it was good for him to find friends that could understand him. And his every questionable move.

Fuyumi did admit to herself that she probably overreacted a bit. She sighed, maybe she was socially closed off too. No, of course not. She had tonnes of friends. Like maybe, 2 of them. She grabbed the teapot, pouring some hot water within the cup and dropping some honey and tea leaves in. Hopefully this could make up for the rather awkward first meeting and patch some stuff up between them.

Looking back at it now, she probably was a social outcast too. Too many people just wanting to be friends with her because of that Todoroki Last name. She scratched her head and huffed, placing the teacups on the tray before setting off to Kasuo's room. Maybe she could find a new friend in that Izuku boy, too.

>Break.

Dabi was rummaging around his small beige drawer, tossing a white tank top over to the boy. "D-Dabi, I can't wear this. Mom would see the markings the moment I come home." Izuku complained, The other boy rolled his eyes and started searching again.

He searched through white tees, and sleeveless tops. He didn't really have anything that had long sleeves that could cover izuku's arms. Well, except the long black trench coat with metal along it's sleeves that he had. It was more of a cosplay piece than anything, he'd be damned if he would just give it away.

"Oh!" He found an old hoodie that he had. He kinda buried it under every single piece of clothing that he had. Since the design was so corny. It was a pure white hoodie that had the Kanji of "Hoodie" on the chest. "Here, use this" Dabi spoke out, tossing the cloth at the boy.

Izuku caught the hoodie, making haste to put the damn thing on. Once the piece of plain clothing was on, Izuku already noticed that it was a bit tight on him. He turned to dabi with his slightly confused face.

He shrugged back at Izuku, not really caring about what his thoughts were on the clothing that he had provided. "Hey, it's a couple years old. Beggars can't be choosers." he replied.

Izuku just ignored him and looked at the backs of his palms, still very visible black marks were present. He could manage with hiding these. Well, for a bit longer he guessed.

"Kasuo? Are you okay in there?" Fuyumi's voice echoed against the closed door as the two boys heard a soft set of knocks on the door.

"Uhh, yeah. Sure. What do you need?" Dabi asked, opening the door and letting Fuyumi shuffle her way into the room.

"Uhh... I made tea. I'm sorry for the awkward introduction a while ago. It's just so strange that Kasuo brought someone in for once..." The girl spoke out, glad that Izuku wearing clothes now. "I'm sorry about a while ago. It's just that I'm not that accustom to having visitors, it's usually just Dad that has them." She awkwardly said, Dabi growling a bit at the 'Dad' part.

Izuku nodded, having a slightly red tinge on his cheeks as he leaned in to grab a cup of steaming tea. "I-It's okay. I was the one who came in uninvited." He stuttered out, he didn't really have anything else to say. He already apologized and she too said sorry for the very awkward and embarrassing fiasco that happened earlier.

"So... Izuku-san, I didn't really catch your last name." Fuyumi asked, grabbing her own cup of tea while she shuffled to give Dabi his own.

It took a few seconds for Izuku to register that someone had asked him a question, "O-Oh... It's Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku..." He replied, earning a soft yet slightly embarrassed smile from fuyumi. Okay, maybe apologizing didn't undo all the damage.

Dabi just snickered after taking a sip of his tea. "Green" he muttered underneath his breath. Izuku sighed, Dabi never really gave up on teasing him whenever he had the chance.

"I think it suits you." Fuyumi added, Izuku's attention now on the girl as she slightly choked on her drink when she realized her (not-so) carefully picked words. "N-Not that I mean that having any other name wouldn't fit you or anything, it's just that Midoriya really fits you and your..." She paused, looking at the boy for any connections to his name. "...green hair." she added.

Dabi's snicker actually got louder, catching the two other teenagers in the room off guard. Neither Fuyumi nor Izuku had heard or seen Dabi express his emotions this much other than aloof and indifference.

"E-Eh?" was the two other teen's reaction to Dabi's fit of laughter, after a couple of seconds, the laughter died down and dabi wiped a tear of happiness.

"You two are really similar aren't you?" Dabi asked the two, eliciting a confused look from Izuku and a confused head title from Fuyumi. "I'll be honest, make Izuku into a girl and you pretty much end up with a green version of yourself, Fuyumi..." He added.

It was Fuyumi that was first to contradict Dabi. "I-I'm not that awkward!" she retorted back to him, for a moment Izuku looked a bit hurt. Well, he knew of this already, he just wasn't that used to hearing it from Dabi.

Izuku didn't really have something to retort on his own, but he needed to have a comeback if he wanted to look like a decent and well-adjusted teenager.

Ah well, Izuku didn't get to say anything as Dabi managed to snake his way in and add another one of his speeches.

"Uh, yeah you are. Well, around Izuku you are... you aren't really that stutter-y with other people, aren't you?"Dabi asked, eliciting a fuming fuyumi and a blushing crimson Izuku.

"I-I'm sure she was just surprised that you had company..." Izuku tried to defend himself (and possibly Fuyumi against his bully friend).

"Y-You know I don't deal well with strangers!" Fuyumi retorted back to Dabi, he just snorted a snicker as he readied his reply.

"We've had a lot of strangers in our home, why's Izuku the only one you're so riled up about?"

"He was shirtless! You can't just expect me to believe that a shirtless kid would waltz in with you for no reason!" She fumed, the room getting a bit hotter (possibly from her quirk).

"Y-Yeah... She didn't know I'd be sh-shirtless and visiting..." Izuku whispered out, feeling very tiny at the two older teens arguing it out with him just getting in the crossfire.

"Aww, little ZuZu defending his girlfriend? That's cute, kid." Dabi spoke out, a dreading silence washing over the room.

.

.

.

"I don't like him!" Fuyumi half-screamed, her face flushing red while little sparks of fire came out of her mouth. Dabi was practically laughing at this point.

Izuku was... well, Izuku was pretty much starstruck with embarrassment. His face was practically steaming with the soft air of his dignity getting charred.

Before the conversation could continue, there was a harsh knocking on the door that startled the three teens. It was followed by a deep gravelly voice call out. "Oi! What's all the racket in there!?"

Fuyumi pursed her lips and glazed her look over to Izuku, seeing the boy very nervous and kinda scared (?) at hearing that voice. She then saw Dabi, his face angry and showing his eyes twitching.

"N-Nothing... It's just that we have a visitor." Fuyumi tried to disarm the problem, only to quickly cover her mouth and slap herself on the face after hearing herself talk. Ah, no wonder she never took on public speaking in college. She was so shit at talking, even if she'd die she would probably say something stupid.

"Who?" the voice was commanding, No doubt that it was endeavor that was behind that door. Fuyumi just swallowed her nerves and fears and just decided to follow on her faith that it would be much better to just let the old man see Izuku rather than make it up to be some sort of big deal.

She opened the door, revealing a very large and muscular man with spiky red hair and cold blue eyes. The most prominent feature on his being was that he had flames in place of a beard.

"D-Dad, this is Izuku Midoriya... He- He's a friend of Kasuo's" She gestured to the boy, Izuku instantly stood up, and taking on a polite bow.

"I-I-I'm Izuku Midoriya. Th-Thank you for having me!" he said, a little bit too loud with his voice cracking at certain parts. Sweat was dripping off of his face as the tall man just stared at him.

"Raise your head boy, I hate seeing weak-willed men." Endeavor commanded with an eye roll, izuku complied immediately.

"Shouldn't you be going home? It's late... very late..." Endeavor said, looking at his watch izuku didn't know that he spent quite a bit of time at the Todoroki's in fact. It was already 6:30 pm on his watch.

"O-Oh... I'm sorry, I'll be taking my leave then." Izuku squeaked out. Endeavor grunted, Fuyumi followed Izuku to lead him out and away from the tall man.

This left Enji and Kasuo in the room. A pregnant pause filled the air as Endeavor just stared at the other redhead.

"You shouldn't bring in commoners if you don't benefit from them..." was the only thing Enji said before leaving.

Dabi gripped unto the bed sheet, blue flames started to emerge from his head and shoulders. "No, fuck you..." he whispered out.

"I'm not like you..."

>Break

"Don't be afraid to visit again..." Fuyumi said to Izuku, making sure that her voice didn't raise higher than it needed to be.

Izuku nodded and smiled a bit even though he was blushing quite a bit, he even noticed that Fuyumi had a little bit of red flush on her face. But he decided not to comment on that. "Y-Yeah..." he weakly replied. Deciding he should start walking back home.

The walk was relatively stress free, thank the gods. But izuku was still feeling kinda worried.

He didn't need to look back on when Endeavor stormed in the room to know that Dabi was monumentally holding back from burning the man into kingdom come.

Izuku scratched the back of his hand, the phantom pain still itching at his skin. He didn't know of any valid explanation that he could say to his mother when she would find out about his... 'markings'... but he hopes she'll be understanding and just accept him.

Izuku shook his head, no. Of course she would accept him. No matter what would happen, his mother would graciously accept him with open arms.

It started to drizzle, Izuku hasted his walk back to the apartment.

It was dark, the pitter-patter of the light drizzle covering the sky put a worried expression on his face. Izuku didn't want to get a cold. And, judging by those marks on his arms, he didn't want to worry his mother even more than he already will.

Briskly pacing throughout the bustling street he makes his way towards downtown Kyoto. Izuku scoots and shuffles his way through the crowd, umbrellas sometimes hitting his figure as he made his way.

With his final step, he was in front of the minimal apartment. He sighed as he saw the raincloud shrouding the city grow heavier. A cold shiver ran down his spine as the boy knocked on the door.

There was a shuffling a bit of clatter behind the door, izuku only assumed that his mother was cooking dinner.

"Izuku..." His mother greeted him with a warm smile and kiss on his forehead. "How was your day sweetie? You've never come home this late before..." she exclaimed, Izuku just rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"It's a long story... But I visited a friend."

Inko was surprised at that, looking at the boy for a bit before smiling at him lovingly. "It's nice to hear that you're finally finding people you can hang around with..." Izuku flushed red, his mother giggled at the boys expense.

"I-I'm not that anti-social, mom..." he retorted.

>Break.

Kasuo wheezed out his shaky breath, he shook his head to get the water off. He exhaled a breath, taking a longing glance at the bottle of black hair dye and splotches of black that covered his fingers.

He was doing it...

Kasuo never liked the bastard anyway, he never asked him to be his father.

"You shouldn't bring in commoners if you don't benefit from them" the words echoing in his head repeatedly. Kasuo pondered, pausing for the moment to reflect.

Was he using Izuku?

Every time he went out, he'd use the boy saying that he was working on school projects. He always used him to vent out and strengthen his quirk.

Kasuo growled, looking at his blacked out fingers as he balled them into a fist.

Like a whetstone to a blade, Izuku was the tool that helped him gain better control over his quirk.

No, it couldn't be. Kasuo was the one helping Izuku, not the other way around.

Was it?

Dabi huffed, looking at the mirror with his cold blue eyes and now raven-black hair. He grit his teeth and balled his fists, "Commoners... Benefit... Todoroki" the words swirling around in his head.

He jumped back a little, surprised that he saw the reflection of Enji on the mirror for a split second. He turned around and sent a small shot of fire behind him, only to hit the empty door and char the paint.

He exhaled a breath, he was having hallucinations again. The fumes from the dye were probably messing with his head, but he didn't care.

Kasuo blinked, he saw endeavor again in the mirror, looking back at him with his uncaring and commanding eyes.

"You were a mistake..." the reflection spoke out, Kasuo snarled and stomped his way over to the glass.

"You'll never live up to what you little brother will be... why try?" Blue flames started to lick at his shoulders and hands, his vision was going red.

"You don't know Jack-Shit about me, old man!" He yelled back, the flames growing bigger and hotter at the seams of his fingers.

"Neither do I want to know..." the hallucination bit back. Dabi growled, using his right hand and breaking the mirror as the shards scattered across the bathroom floor.

He exhaled a breath, looking at the mixture of blood and dye on his hands. He grit his teeth and washed his hands free of residue.

"You're nothing but a weak-willed boy who clings onto the coattails of his father..." He paused, and widened his eyes. He turned around to see all the little shards still having the mocking face of Endeavor plastered unto it.

"You can't escape blood..."

"No!" Kasuo yelled back, engulfing the tiles and the shards with blue flames. His breath was ragged, and his face was wet with sweat.

He didn't like this.

He tried to change it, but he can't really escape it.

Kasuo... no, Dabi looked at his palm. He lit it aflame as he remembered a little snippet of his childhood.

"Hey! You look like Endeavor..." the flames grew hotter and condensed into a roaring white. He would never look like that cursed man.

So, that's why he dyed his hair black. He rejected every thought that he was related to that man. The only reason he would use his flames was because he knew that his were strong. Possibly stronger than that fucking old man's flames in the coming years. He would change his appearance, dye his hair black to reject the Todoroki blood running in his veins. But right now, Dabi felt that-

It wasn't enough.