Into the Fire - a Shigadabi Fanfic

11 - Poison

I pick the drink up and swirl the red liquid for a moment, thinking, considering.

"Are you sure you didn't poison this?"

He takes the glass out of my hand and drinks some himself. My eyes don't stray from him as he swallows. "There. No poison," he promises, holding out the cup. Well, if he drank some himself... Carefully detaching the hand from my face, I put my hand around the glass and our fingertips just touch, but Dabi holds on for longer than necessary, his thumb brushing my wrist; the movement is subtle enough that nobody else notices, but intentional enough to make me forget how to speak for a while. Instead, I take the glass and swallow a large mouthful-

I almost start choking on the bitterly potent liquid. Dabi grins devilishly, his turquoise eyes glinting with mischief.

"What the hell's in this?"

"My own special mixture. What - is it too strong for you?"

I give him a burning side-eye, and then I raise the glass to my lips and swallow it down until I've finished the lot. My hand drops to the counter, the glass clattering. Instead of clearing my head up, it's making me feel even dizzier, but not in a totally bad way.

"Never," I reply, but my tongue feels thick and strange already.

"Steady on, that stuff's strong, Chapstick," Dabi laughs.

"Don't know what you mean. I'll have another one."

He gives me another look, as if to ask if I can handle this, but when I wave him on he walks around to the other side of the bar and makes another.

"Last one," he warns. "You don't want to get too drunk."

"Just do it, bastard."

He smirks. "As you wish, boss."

Involuntarily, my fingers tighten on the empty glass-

It turns hard and brittle like stone, and disintegrates into nothing but dust.

"Oops."

Dabi turns and gives me a searching look; after deciding it was an accident, he only fills the second glass halfway. He probably thinks it isn't a good idea to get me too drunk with a deadly Quirk that goes out of hand when I forget about it. He's probably right. Father's hand feels heavier, almost suffocating, in my pocket. Dabi's likely afraid I'd accidentally disintegrate him... I can't blame him for being scared of me. I blow out a sigh - a glass thunks on the counter in front of me. I look up and find Staples leaning on the surface, looking straight at me.

I pick up the glass and down the contents in one gulp. When I open my eyes, the whole world is spinning already-

"Whass in this?"

Dabi cocks an eyebrow at me. "You've never had alcohol as strong as this, have you?"

"Course I haf."

"You're slurring way too much to even pretend to be sober, Chapstick. Come on. If you're as drunk as I think you are, you're going to be hurling your guts up in a minute."

I crack a bleary eyelid open at that. "Huhhh?"

He shakes his two heads at me. "Can you stand?"

I manage to move one leg off the stool and then I sway and the ground is rushing up to my face-

Warm, strong arms wrap around me and the world spins again, followed by a similar spinning feeling in my stomach. I close my eyes, and when I open them again, we're outside, the air cold but the wintry sun bright. Then there's shadows, and a bush, and hands guiding me to my knees in the wet grass, but when I open my mouth to complain, nothing but a heaving waterfall of acid comes out. I'm coughing, sucking in a breath in the quick reprieve, but another pulse deep in my gut makes that short-lived. Oh, this isn't fun, I can barely breathe-

Warm hands drag through my hair; and I realise that it's Dabi, holding my hair back. A warm surge goes through me - no, more acidic bile forcing itself out of my mouth. In between bursts, my head slowly gets ever so slightly less fuzzy.

"You tell... anyone... about this... and I'll kill you," I gasp out eventually, leaning heavily on the black-haired man, my hands clutched around decayed patches of grass.

"Okay. You done?" he asks, and I nod slowly, though the resulting rush of dizziness makes me need to close my eyes. I reach out for Father's hand where it fell onto the grass, putting it in my pocket until my face is clean again, and I let Dabi lift me up and swing me onto his back. My head rests on his shoulder, and my arms swing loosely in front of him as his arms go under my legs. His body is warm, like a radiator... He carries me gently, slowly, using his feet to nudge doors open and closed after us. I only open my eyes when he sets me down on the tiled bathroom floor.

"Hold still," he commands, kneeling in front of me. I let him wipe my face with a warm, damp flannel, and then a dry one. I let him carry me to his room and put Father's hand on the desk, and me in his bed. I let myself fall asleep even though it's only early afternoon. When I wake up shivering and the sky is dark outside, I watch Dabi light the fireplace with blazing blue flames. When he goes to sit back on the armchair he was sleeping in before, I take his wrist with finger and thumb and pull him over to the bed. I let myself fall asleep again huddled next to his warmth, and I forget about every other thing in the world.