Top pic credit: tecochet

A/N: hello, beautiful readers! To clear up any confusion from last chapter, Touya/Dabi has been in love with Violet for the last eight years (back when he was still Touya, living with Violet in the Todoroki home). Yes, his love for her is a new revelation to the readers, but nothing new for him (meaning he still has A LOT of character development and Dabi sass to work through in this story).

I saw some of you in the last chapter, saying that he fell in love with her very fast and that he finally admitted it, buttt just know that this has actually been something brewing in Touya's feelings for a long time. I will continue to show how with the flashbacks :)

He did not just begin developing his love for her within these past few days of their partnership team up 'reunion.' He's been in love with her since they've been kids. He just has very complex, deep rooted emotions about the whole situation. He hates acknowledging the fact that he fell in love. He doesn't view it as something positive, which is why we only just got him to admit it to us in the previous chapter (when he was wasted and a little vulnerable).

The flashback chapters are very important, because they are meant to show how exactly he fell in love with her, while also simultaneously showing his transition into Dabi. They show his struggle, conflict, and the changes he experiences with his emotions and his feelings, and how these components affect his future as 'Dabi.'

Okay, I hope this makes sense! If you ever have any questions, don't be afraid to reach out. Back to the story <3

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Violet POV:

"Hey....hello?.....are you alive?" I asked for the millionth time, continuing to prod an unconscious Dabi with a canister of cleaning wipes.

I don't wanna touch him. He really stinks.

After five minutes of trying to wake this guy up, he finally showed some semblance of life with the weak, low groan that muffled out of his throat.

However, whatever sound that was, it apparently did not mean Dabi was awake as he continued lying face down on the bed, looking as if he was barely breathing.

I sighed softly in annoyance, reluctantly forgoing the canister of wipes now as I placed my hand atop his scarred, shirtless back to shake him, ignoring the curiosity of his burns that tempted my wandering eyes as I kept them locked on his disheveled hair.

Even in his dazed state, he flinched slightly in surprise from the contact of my touch as the muscles of his back strained a bit.

"Alright. Come on. Stop messing around and...." I began, trailing off when my hand began to heat up massively atop his skin.

It doesn't seem like he's purposely activating his quirk, either.

Pursing my lips in thought, I removed my hand from his back-only now noticing the way the bed was covered in sweat.

"Hm. Are you sick?" I asked pointlessly, as all that came from Dabi was another incoherent groan.

Not bothering to wait for his answer this time, I lugged his heavy shoulder over to try and roll him onto his back, but he quickly fell back to deadweight, face down a few moments later.

"Ridiculous. You're just ridiculous..." I sighed tiredly, using my hand to dig his face out of the satin pillows so I could feel his forehead for a fever.

Dabi's face was clammy and flushed. His eyes remained closed, but his brows were also furrowed together irritatedly in a way to let me know that he wasn't totally asleep. He just wants to be.

Swiping his sweaty hair away from his forehead with my hand-that I will be disinfecting after this, I placed it atop his skin and felt my palm starting to sear.

Normally, I'd have some sympathy for him. But, I know where he went last night-rather, a night and a half ago now, thanks to his dog tracker.

"Hm. Well, you either have a fever.......or you overdosed on strippers and bad things. I'm gonna go with the second one. So, up you go now! Come on, the day's fresh." I stated with purposeful vibrancy, crossing my arms smugly when he groaned with the annoyance I was looking for.

"Aw. You knew I overdosed on strippers and bad things, but didn't use your dog tracker to come and save me? That's not very heroic. What would people say about such a thing?" He finally spoke through a voice raspy with morning and whatever rough night he had.

I chuckled softly as I went to set my overnight bag on the kitchen counter....unable to set it on my own bed at the moment, unfortunately, due to a certain reason.

"Well, according to you, they wouldn't say anything, because I'm a nobody, remember?" I retorted nonchalantly, whistling softly to myself as I unzipped my duffel.

"One less of a nobody now though, right?" He countered from the pillows before he could stop himself.

My brows raised in slight surprise to his comment, completely taking me off guard.

"Wait-you know about my hero spot rank up? I didn't think a rebel like you was into that sort of thing." I pointed out barely curious, scooping up my unpacked clothes in my arms before padding over to the small dresser in the corner to put them away.

Dabi was a bit slower on the return comments, either still drunk or trying not to be as he went groggy silent for a moment before responding.

"Mm. And why would I not wanna know the ranks of the trash I kill? How do you think I've killed so many bootlickers, sunshine? Rule number five, always know who you're playing with." He drawled out much too casual, humming a bit in exhaustion as he smothered his face deeper into the pillows.

I chuckled nervously at his words, stumbling a bit on his single shoe that had been lying in the middle of the walkway.

"Ha! You know, I thought you were just getting lucky with your kills-well, I guess not really lucky-I mean, lucky for you, sure! But, not lucky for the people you....you know-and, hey, for a countless time-please stop admitting to me all of the crimes you've committed." I groaned out, tossing my clothes back into the expensive dresser with a huff as I trudged back to the kitchen.

Dabi's groggy laugh could be heard from the kitchen as he sensed he was making me uncomfortable, causing him to continue blabbing his mouth.

"Oh? Fine. We don't have to talk about my arson, if that doesn't tickle you pink. Why don't we talk about your new position rank number." He proposed with a knowing smugness that caused my brows to furrow.

"What about it?"

My question finally caused Dabi to wake up a bit more as his head barely turned to the side now, with one blue eye forcing itself open to try and find my position in the room.

"Sixty-nine, stupid. You know, the sex position? Hah, something you and your square boyfriend don't do apparently." He smirked, already closing his only visible eye as it appeared he lost interest.

I shot him a small deadpan glare that he couldn't see, before something else dawned on me.

"Wait, how do you know that I have a boyfriend?" I pondered in realization, hearing Dabi hum tauntingly.

"Has all that obviously bad sex you're having ruined your memory, too? I snooped through your phone, duh. And then I burnt it-"

"Oh, yeah, yeah. I remember-and, hey, I am not having bad sex! My sex is....great, okay? Fantastic....wild, even." I defended pointlessly, not even knowing why I felt the need to justify something so personal to Dabi-

"Says the unsatisfied clown." He chimed in a bit more awake now, causing my lips to scrunch up in frustration.

I resisted the urge to walk over and shove his face further into the pillows, instead making a beeline to our little work station in the corner to check any hero commission emails.

Don't respond to Dabi. He's obviously just trying to egg me on and look for attention-

"You know-Not that it's any of your business, anyways, but I am very satisfied with my sex life, thank you very much." I blurted out in defense, cringing a bit in embarrassment as I quickly turned back to the computer in regret.

The room went quiet for a moment in awkward silence as I remained at the computer table and Dabi remained face down in the bed pillows. I almost thought he'd fallen back asleep until-

"I bet twenty yen that all you do is missionary." He stated with casual challenge, finally starting to shift around in the bed now as I could sense he was gonna start really waking up.

"I'm not betting you anything. Especially not on my sex life-"

"I bet another twenty yen the guy's an ugly fuck."

"What?! He is not an ugly...guy! He's very handsome!"

"Ha. Clearly not, if you're not sixty-nine'ing him-" Dabi began, before I abruptly turned around in my swivel chair.

"Can we just stop this..." I huffed out in exasperation, leaning forward on the back of my chair as I watched Dabi lethargically roll over onto his back now.

He remained sprawled and shirtless atop the bed, still having yesterday's jeans hanging low on his hips-I noticed they also had liquor stains on them, meaning he must have spilled something. He stretched both of his arms out to the side, arching his back a bit and throwing his head into the pillows to stretch his body free from the tension of his exhausting night.

"Fine, whatever, sunshine. Don't get those granny panties in a twist now." He mumbled out in a voice thick with residual sleep.

I rolled my eyes in slight annoyance with his words, still keeping my eyes on Dabi's movements. He stretched his arms out a bit deeper, groaning lowly in content as a few of his bones cracked. His mouth fell open slightly with a cathartic sigh before he finally opened his eyes and directed them towards the sound of my voice in the corner.

Realizing I'd been unintentionally staring, I was quick to avert my gaze from him and swing back around to face forward in my chair.

"So. What does the great and all mighty Glimmer have on her little rule book agenda for the day, huh? I'm just buzzing with excitement to know." Dabi drawled out, clearly only saying the words to taunt me as he remained lying on the bed.

But, his words still perked me up anyways. A few days ago, we wouldn't have even been able to have a condescending conversation about starting work, considering Dabi blew me off every chance he got.

"Well, I'm glad you asked!-oh, and speaking of rules, I'm glad to see my whiteboard is still hanging on the wall. I really thought you would have burned that down while I was gone like a caveman-"

"If I remembered it had been there, I would have-"

"Once you get out of bed, shower, shower again, check yourself for STDs, then bathe yourself in bleach....we can get started." I beamed warmly, turning around to face him again before gesturing for him to get up and go to the bathroom.

But, of course. Dabi's still not perfect. Duh.

"Oh, yeah? And what makes you think I'll even be leaving this bed today? If you wanna be so heroic, you should be helping me get rid of this hangover-"

"What makes me know you'll get out of bed, Dabi, is your new positive attitude to cooperate on this mission, remember? You said it yourself, you'd stop being so difficult now. I very much look forward to that. Not to mention, I've got your little ankle taser ready in case you don't comply." I sighed contently, pulling the controller to his ankle monitor out of my pocket.

"Put it on the highest setting, don't be shy."

"If you don't get out of my bed and clean that liquor puke off the floor, I will." I pointed out, causing the smug, dazed look to fade away from Dabi's eyes a bit as he took in my words.

"Huh? Your bed...?" He muttered in slight confusion, looking around the premise to realize he was, in fact, sleeping in my bed.

He was drunk last night. He probably just went to the first bed he saw-except my bed is actually further away from the door-

"Yep. My bed. Once you hop in the shower, I'll be disinfecting the sheets. And the mattress. And frankly, that whole area." I explained to him nonchalantly.

Upon realizing he'd fallen asleep in my bed, Dabi was a bit more motivated to get up this time, cursing mean things at me under his breath before finally stumbling to his feet-

"Fuck. I'm shirtless, too...?" He mumbled more to himself, grabbing his crumpled shirt off the floor with subtle quickness before shrugging it back on to conceal his scarred torso.

"Mhm. Best to follow up on my suggestion about the STD testing. You look like a walking pile of chlamydia." I pointed out distractedly, beginning to clack around on the laptop keys with my fingers.

Dabi let out a small scoff for my words, padding his way over to the kitchen to grab a rag and some floor cleaner.

"At least my sex is fun." He shrugged.

"Well, you know what they say. Safe sex is the best sex. Plug your funnel, before you enter the tunnel. Sex is safer with a packaged wiener. Don't be a condumb, use a condom-" I countered in positive distraction, before a flying pillow hit the back of my head.

"Ow!! Hey!!" I called out, abruptly turning around in my chair to chuck the pillow back at him.

"Your parents should have taken that advice." He countered nonchalantly, causing me to sneer in irritation and turn back around to face the computer.

"Oh, just clean up your puke and shut up." I huffed, furrowing my brows in slight anxiety at the unread emails Dabi and I had from the hero commission over the last few days.

I ignored his incoherent mumbles of whatever the hell he kept blabbing about me, feeling my heart jump a bit when I saw Dabi and I had already been sent a new mission from the hero commission.

"Cause the last one worked so well..." I sighed nervously, quickly clicking on the email before starting to scan the instructions.

I vaguely heard Dabi complying in the background at my request to clean up his vomit from the tile, yet I was too focused on the computer to care.

That is, until I felt both of his hands abruptly rest on the back of my chair a few moments later, caging me in as he hovered over me to look at the screen for himself.

A noxious concoction of leftover perfume, alcohol, nicotine, and weed clouded my nostrils with his presence, causing me to gag a bit.

"So, what is the clown committee ready to nag about this time?" He uttered more to himself, practically bumping the top of my head with his abdomen as he had to squint his horrible eyes to read.

Seriously, get this guy some glasses.

"It's a mission that we will be declining." I explained to him bluntly, swiping the can of disinfectant spray off the table next to me before spraying it behind me to cloud Dabi's...'Dabi' presence.

He shielded his face a bit from the incoming attack, yanking the can out of my hands before spraying it directly on top of my head.

"Ah-stop!! I didn't spray you that hard!! And I did it because you smell!" I groaned out in irritation, abruptly standing up from the chair to get out of the way from the spray.

"Why decline the mission? Huh? The more missions we go on, the faster we catch this guy-and the faster we catch this guy, the faster I can get away from you." He pointed out nonchalantly, relentlessly continuing to hold down the nozzle of the disinfectant spray that began to hot box us with its chemicals.

"Ugh!! You're so annoying!!" I called out, involuntarily smacking his hand and knocking the can of disinfectant out of his grip...

....and causing it to go flying into the framed picture on the wall a few feet away.

Dabi and I watched blankly as the can slammed into the small, glass picture frame, causing the expensive item to slide off its hinges and go crashing to the ground.

My eyes rolled closed in snapping patience as I felt my jaw begin to tighten up-

"Wow. For a fancy fucking hotel, you'd think they'd bolt the pictures to the walls better-" Dabi started nagging casually, before I lost it.

"SHUT UP!!! JUST SHUT UP!!! YOU ARE SUCH AN AS-" I blurted out with a yell, quickly cutting off my last word before I could truly say it.

Dabi's bored eyes turned up with smug question now as he caught my almost slip, causing his arms to cross as he egged me on.

"Oh? Such a what?" He asked knowingly, causing me to groan and brush past him to clean up the broken picture.

"A nothing. You're a jerk. But, you already know that." I huffed out lowly, clenching my fists together when I heard him laughing.

"You were gonna swear-"

"No, I wasn't-"

"Now, you're a liar, too?! Oh my god! Talk about character development!" He cackled, sliding down in the chair I'd been sitting in as he took over the computer.

"You know what?! Since we're on the topic of character development, I thought you agreed to change!! It's reasons such as these that I want to decline the mission, because your drama queen stuff is going to get us killed!" I countered a bit loudly, angrily picking up pieces of broken glass as Dabi began reading through the information.

"Nah, I never agreed to change, sunshine. I said I'd help and cooperate, and that's exactly what I'm trying to do. Now, you're the one who's fucking everything up by wanting to pussy out of it." He shrugged unbothered, scrolling through the computer boredly.

I tossed the broken picture frame in the trash with a loud crash, shooting Dabi a deadpan glare from the kitchen.

"Oh? Really? Okay, so you're saying that while we can't even be in the same room together without messing something up, we'd have a better time going into villain territory and kidnapping someone? That's the next mission the hero commission has given us, after all! Kidnap a member of Midas' group and get information out of him-in case you're too lazy to read the instructions for yourself." I explained exasperatedly, trudging my way back over to Dabi's area of the room.

"Piece of cake. I've kidnapped plenty of people in my day." He admitted effortlessly.

"STOP TELLING ME ABOUT YOUR CRIMES!!!-" I snapped in frustration, before he finally decided to get somewhere with this.

"Look, airhead. In case you're the one not reading directions, this kidnapping mission has a deadline. See here, at the bottom of the page? A three-days-from-now deadline. That means I have time to shoot the shit, or whatever, and figure out a plan." Dabi explained with surprising patience, causing me to calm down a bit and take a seat next to him.

"Why in the world would it be just you figuring out a plan when you've-" I started off before he cut me off again.

"Cause, as squeamish and weird as you get when I tell you all the stuff I've done....the fact remains that kidnapping people and doing hoodrat shit is my expertise, sunshine. Not yours. Whatever plan you come up with won't be as solid as mine, cause you're a damn goody-two-shoes kiss ass. Guarantee it. So, you in? Or out?" He asked impatiently, looking away from the computer now as he turned his gaze on me with lethargic annoyance.

I remained quiet for a moment in begrudging silence as I realized he had half a point. Only half. A plan-even if it's the greatest plan in the world, will be completely useless if Dabi and I can't work together to complete it properly.

"Look. I'll go along with whatever plan you come up with-but, only if you agree to train with me, so we can get to know each other's fighting styles and quirks better. If we're gonna work together-really work together.....we need to be able to rely on each other and get comfortable." I explained half heartedly, clearly not a fan of my own words but knowing they were necessary.

Dabi obviously wasn't a fan of them either, judging from the dry chuckle that fell from his mouth.

"What a hero thing of you to suggest."

"And what a villain thing for you to come up with a full plan to kidnap someone." I countered stubbornly, refusing to back down on my suggestion as I fearlessly met Dabi's eye contact.

He looked at me with matching challenge for a moment, before backing down as if he remembered there was a reason he needed to.

His eyes lingered into my own for a few moments too long, before he abruptly turned his attention back to the computer in begrudging silence.

"Whatever. Knock yourself out, little sapphire. I don't care." He mumbled, distractedly scrolling through the laptop now with more interest than before.

I nodded in reluctant agreement to his point, leaning back in my chair as I already felt exhausted from the morning-and I've only been back at the hotel for twenty minutes.

"Good. A compromise it is then. Let's get to work for real this time."

Finally.

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Thank you for your comments and votes! See ya later this week <3

Next Chapter Title: Rings A Bell