A Lost Creation

Calm and Chaos

Dabi was in a bad mood again.
This time it was a lot worse than it had been before, because he was even being a little snappy with you. He'd always apologize immediately after, and give you a hug and sigh a little, but it was beginning to make you not want to be touched by him, and you hadn't felt that way for a little while.
You suppose you were to blame. You'd lost control last night and cried for hours, keeping him up.

You didn't want to do that. It was embarrassing and babyish, but whenever you had begun to calm down, your brain would imagine you being torn away from Dabi as he was on the floor, just like the heroes had torn you away from mom.
So you'd start crying again, and panicking.
You never wanted to go through that again, especially with Dabi.
Even when he was in a bad mood he made an effort to try and make it up to you with apologies, and little shows of affection. Mom would just leave you for days with very little care for your well being mentally and physically when she was in a bad mood.

He eventually went back up to bed after a few hours, leaving you to do math worksheets with Shigaraki again.
You were actually a little relieved that he was leaving you alone for a bit, happily chewing on some cut up apple that Kurogiri had slid to you while you worked on math.
Shigaraki was pretty good at leaving you to it unless you asked him for help, offering you none of the smothering help that Jin and Spinner often gave you.
So you're a little surprised when Shigaraki actually initiates conversation with you.

"What was wrong with you last night?" He asks, not even looking at you.

His eyes are on the paperwork in front of him, it looks like some kind of poor drawing, circles with hiragana inside them, with arrows pointing in all kinds of directions.
It almost looks like a messy map.
You gulp a little, your pencil pausing. You hadn't realised that Shigaraki knew, too. That made it a little more humiliating, especially now you were expected to answer the question.
You weren't allowed to lie either, because lying was bad.

"Dabi said something that upset me." You reply honestly, but vaguely.

Shigaraki gives an amused scoff. "Sounds about right."

You frown ever-so-slightly. You didn't like it when Shigaraki spoke of Dabi like that, after all he couldn't think that lowly of him when they had kissed before.

"What did he say?" He pries, his crimson eyes sliding to meet yours.

You shrug. You didn't really want to revisit it.
He stares at you for a second before shrugging himself, scratching his neck a couple times and then returning to looking over his weird map.
You both continue on in silence for about ten minutes, the quiet not uncomfortable between you both. You liked it like this. He was less intimidating when he didn't speak, and you enjoyed the quiet, knowing there was no pressure to fill it.

"All done." You announce eventually, pushing the papers towards him to check over the answers.

He scans over the page, giving nothing away facially. Once he's done, he holds his hand out wordlessly, signaling for you to place the pencil in his grasp.
You do, a little confused. You must have gotten a question wrong, and he was likely going to show you where you went wrong.
Except he doesn't, instead, he writes down a new sum.

"Work that one out." He says simply, thrusting the pencil towards you.

You glance at the numbers, they were all negatives, and big negatives too.
You look up at him in exasperation, and note the playful glint in his eyes.

"This is too hard!" You huff.

"If you solve it, I'll let you play the new game I've bought later." He smirks. "You'll like it. You can collect mushrooms, and catch fish."