Top pic credit: Tilly

Violet POV:

"He's. So. Hard. To. Work. With." I grunted out in frustration, shooting a layer of crystals underneath my body to create a smooth slide down the hill now instead of a rocky, bumpy one.

Cringing in pain as my back slid over a particularly big rock, I created a thicker layer of crystals, calling Dabi every swear word in the book as I tried to slow my fall.

Upon reaching the bottom of the hill faster with the help of my quirk, I ignored the cuts and bruises on my arms from the fall-rather, the backwards push that Dabi gave me-also ignoring the subtlety this situation was supposed to have as I stomped my way over to him.

He was already more than halfway across the empty parking lot when I'd caught up to him, ignoring my whisper yells of irritation for him to stop walking.

"That is enough!!" I practically wheezed out as I desperately tried to hold a whisper, grabbing onto his arm again.

A small blue flame trickled at his wrist now, just inches away from where my hand was holding as he attempted to shove me back.

"Oh? Back from your waterslide down the rocky hill already? Careful there, little sapphire. Don't wanna get burned, do you? I mean, if you really want to, I'd be happy to grant your wish. Just say the word." He taunted, voice coming out just a tad raspy as he worked to continue walking with me pulling on his arm.

"This was just supposed to be a stakeout mission!!! You're gonna get us in trouble!!" I growled out, forced to keep moving my feet with his to try and stop him from going inside the convenience store.

"Tell it to someone who cares." He countered back.

"Stop!!"

"No."

"Dabi!! Come on-"

"I don't remember inviting you to come along, anyways-"

"Are you crazy?? I'm not going in there with you-"

"Is that what you think? Maybe you should look around then." He stated casually, causing my heart to jump out of my chest as his voice suddenly sounded more....enclosed.

I gasped sharply as I realized Dabi and I were now standing inside the abandoned, pitch black convenience store. I spent so much energy and focus trying to stop him from going in, that I indirectly followed him inside, too.

The place looks abandoned, but the front door was unlocked? That's not a good sign.

"Uh-oh." I breathed out, causing Dabi to sigh impatiently.

"Yeah. 'Uh-oh' is right. For you, anyways. Get out, I don't need you getting in my way." He uttered lowly, more focused on starting to walk around the premise as he dismissively pointed at the door for me to leave.

And as much as I would have loved to turn around and book it out of here, I have to admit I'm a little curious as to the eerily, suspiciously empty place. It's either truly abandoned....

Or, the perpetrators are hiding-

"Oi. If ya wanted to hide better, you should stop breathing so damn loud." Dabi suddenly stated, tone coated in a thicker layer of intimidating villainy.

I quickly froze my footsteps at his words, keeping a close distance next to him as he remained still as a stick.

His hooded cerulean orbs glowed brightly in the black night, slowly sliding from food aisle to liquor aisle to food aisle, assessing every aspect of his surroundings.

No longer focused on trying to make fun of me, Dabi finally decided that now was the time to get serious, continuing to trail his eyes around the premise before they landed on one particular aisle.

"A little rude that you're hiding back there when you have some loyal customers out here. I think I'd like to speak to your manager." Dabi laughed, starting to silently smoke his hand as his gaze zeroed in on that area of the store.

His comment was met with a silence that made me incredibly uncomfortable, before I felt my heart start beating out of my chest.

I don't have a good feeling.

"Dabi. I think we should go-"

"Aw, still no response? Now, you're just hurting my feelings-" He taunted again, waiting for some hidden person to react.

"Even if they are here, they aren't trying to attack us-" I reminded him.

"Doesn't matter. They already tried to attack us at the warehouse raid. It's time we send them a message back...." He said a bit louder this time, before a blue flame quickly struck up his arm.

Keeping his eyes on the pitch black aisle, he spoke again.

"Rule number four, little hero-always take away the enemy's sense of peace." Dabi said lowly, before quickly shooting his fire out aggressively.

I jumped at the blinding light and swelter of his fire, watching the flames slam into the shelves of food to get things into motion.

And they definitely did.

Diving out from behind the aisles now was one man-actually, now two men....three....four....five....six....seven-

Along with a blood curdling shriek of an eighth man, stumbling out from his hiding place consumed in blue flames.

I matched his shriek with my own, tapping Dabi's shoulder repeatedly to get his attention.

"Ahh!!!! Oh my gosh!!! Uhhhh, I think h-h-he needs an ambulance!!" I exclaimed in a panic, about to pull out my phone before Dabi quickly grabbed my wrist to stop me.

"Nah. That's already most of his body burned up. He'll be dead soon. Not to mention, look at the uniform he's wearing-that they're all wearing. They've got the crest of Jeweled Bitch Midas on their shirts. Looks like this stupid place was a hideout, after all." He explained, holding his fire for a moment as the group of men began walking towards us.

Well. We're dead. Thanks a lot, Dabi.

"That was a big mistake, you ugly, burnt fuck." One of Midas' men growled out lowly over the dying screams of his comrade.

Dabi simply smirked a half lidded gaze of challenge, lighting up his arm with flames once again.

"Aw. Was that supposed to hurt, coming from trash like you? Well, since you're trash, at least burn and be kindling for my flames. Not like you're good for anything else." He called out, shooting more fire towards the villains.

I sighed softly in defeat for this mission, already knowing how much trouble Dabi and I would probably be in when the commission got word of what happened here.

Blue flames immediately began to destroy the store, and possibly any evidence or information hiding in here about Midas.

Weak quirks from the men began coming towards Dabi and I, causing me to try and help somehow by putting a crystal wall up in front of the both of us.

It didn't have the effect I thought it would.

"Crystals?! Hey! It's the girl who shoots the crystals!!" One of the bad guys shouted in some knowing explanation that I did not understand in the slightest.

The crystals?

Dabi's brows furrowed faintly in confusion for the words, barely shooting a glance over at me before quickly turning his attention back to blocking the quirks.

Only now, instead of trying to kill Dabi like they'd all been doing before, the group of men immediately began sprinting towards me all at once, causing my heart rate to spike in alarm at the predicament I've suddenly found myself in.

Oh. Fuck.

And why did my crystals catch their interest?

I felt my jaw drop to the floor in panic as I watched the stampede of sweaty, gross men getting closer, causing me to do what any normal person would do...

Run away!

"You're the worst partner ever!!!" I screamed at Dabi as I sprinted past him, effectively knocking him in the shoulder along the way and causing him to stumble.

He simply laughed as he saw me take off towards the opposite end of the store, starting to pick off the villains one by one as their attention was focused on trying to kill me.

"Yeah, I know!" He cackled, consuming another man in flames to make for his second kill of the night.

I think I'm gonna hurl!

And so, I did hurl. Heroically, of course. Everywhere. All over the floor, as I continued sprinting around the burning store like a chicken with its head cut off, quickly shooting crystal pillars under my feet to give me a push onto the very top of the aisle shelves.

I heard Dabi's feral laugh get louder as the sound of someone's shoes skidded across the floor, causing me to look down and see that one of the villains had slipped in my puke as if it were a banana peel.

Mario Kart, but with puke, fire, and death.

"Ew. That's disgusting." I dry heaved at the sight, starting to leap from aisle shelf to aisle shelf as I continued being chased.

"Keep it up, track star. I've got three more left to make for a strike." Dabi called out to me unbothered, picking off more of the men who chased after me.

"Stop killing them!!!" I shrieked at him in fury, losing my footing atop the aisle shelf before slipping and falling face down onto the floor.

"Oh? Should I let them kill you then? We can arrange that, I guess. I'm pretty flexible." He pointed out nonchalantly as I scrambled to my feet, quickly taking off into a sprint again.

"Ask them why they're here!!! Ask them about Midas!!!" I growled, shooting crystals behind me to try and slow the three remaining men down.

"Why don't you do it? Isn't that part of this intel you keep preaching about?" He gloated, quickly picking off a third man with his flames instead of doing what we came here to do in the first place.

I shot my wild eyes over at Dabi in fury, about to scream at him from the top of my lungs before something behind him caught my attention.

Another sweaty man leaped out from behind the cash register, about to take a swinging ax to Dabi's head.

"Duck!!!" I screamed at him involuntarily, causing his eyes to widen a bit as he immediately listened to my words.

He wasted no time shooting flames behind him, only he missed the man and ended up hitting the glass window instead.

To make matters worse, three cars that definitely weren't there before had now pulled abruptly into the abandoned parking lot outside as more villains began showing up to the place.

Seriously. If there was an award for the worst partner on this assignment, I promise that Dabi is the winner.

"They're gonna overpower us!!! We need to retreat!!" I yelled at Dabi, shooting crystal pellets at the villain on my heels while Dabi continued to spray his flames.

"Only three cars out there. How many people can you fit into three cars?" He called out in response.

But, the answer was apparently very many people as gigantic men began piling out of the little cars as if this were a circus act.

"I really hate you." I sighed to Dabi, already looking for a back way exit to take since I thought things couldn't get any worse.

That is, until I saw a feral grin curl onto his face as he pulled something out of his pocket.

Oh, what do you know. It was the gadget from the hotel. The one I told him not to bring, of course. Am I surprised that he swiped it off the table when I wasn't looking? Absolutely not.

"Try eating this, fuckers." Dabi drawled out, quickly pressing a random, giant red button on the device....

Which did absolutely nothing.

"Huh, really? It's not that one? Well shit, could have fooled me. What does this one do then?" He uttered nonchalantly, pressing another button with no luck.

I ground down on my teeth in stress as I saw the men running closer towards the entrance of the shop, watching Dabi's brows furrow in confusion as he casually began fiddling with the device to try and figure out how it worked.

"This is why you read the manual!!" I screamed at him, seeing a little emergency exit in the corner of the building.

"Ah-hah. Bet it's the green one." He concluded to no one in particular, quickly pressing the green button before a countdown timer of fifteen seconds appeared on the device.

Great. It's a bomb.

Dabi froze for a moment upon watching the countdown timer start, opting to finally let go of the device and set it on the cashier counter, sliding it far away from himself. As if that will help.

"Come on! There's an exit in the back!" I called out, grabbing onto his arm and dragging him to the back of the building as the bomb timer and the villains running towards us began to close in.

For once, Dabi opted to say nothing as he went with my pull, quickly matching his pace with mine as we sprinted out the back exit of the convenience store.

"Keep running! We don't know how strong the bomb is." I warned him, continuing to pull on his arm so he'd run out of the parking lot faster.

"Oi, relax. It's already been fifteen seconds by now. That countdown probably wasn't even a-"

BOOM!!

The explosion of the bomb was ear piercing, but luckily Dabi and I were already far enough away from the premise to be able to avoid it.

However, that didn't stop the force of it from knocking both of us off our feet and to the pavement, quickly looking behind us to ensure no stragglers were able to follow our trail.

Luckily, no one did. How could they when the only thing Dabi and I could see was black thick smoke and flames in the spot of where the convenience store used to be?

Oh my god, the commission is going to be so damn angry.

Dabi and I stared at the explosion in silence, both of us panting heavy from the adrenaline sprint we just did as we took a second to compose ourselves.

I turned my attention to him after a few moments, glaring tiredly as I spoke.

"You just had to break the rules, huh?"

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Next Chapter Title: Kinda Feels Personal

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