Baptized in the Fire of Your Greed

Even the Worst of Us are Human

  The people that Dabi has come to associate as colleagues and, dare he even say- friends, all sit around a table under the dim light of their hideout. Each one nurses their own pick of poison. Shigaraki, to his right, occasionally takes a shot from an ochoko that seems to never to run out of sake. Twice, to his left, guzzles down some foreign import of beer. Dabi never really bothered to learn English during school and, in his drunken haze, can barely make out the letters that seem to blend all together in a squiggly mess on the amber bottle. Toga sits across from Dabi with glazed eyes and a smile as she stares fondly at her knife in the middle of the table, a couple of empty glasses of what used to be long island ice tea sit discarded next to her.

"We all know the rules right?" She sings out in an airy voice. Dabi pushes away from the table, wanting to just enjoy his buzz.

"This is stupid. We've worked together for how long? A year? Who needs a fuckin' ice breaker?" He grumbles into his glass before taking another shot of whiskey. Twice sighs and shakes his head before letting out a soft chuckle.

"Yeah, he's right; this is pretty lame. No shut up, stop being such a pussy. This is a good bonding activity! Whatever." Shigaraki smirks over the rim of the ochoko as Twice continues to debate with himself. Over time, they've all grown used to Twice's quirk and the complications that come with it. Just another day in the life for a villain in the League.

"Well I think it's a great idea!" Toga slurs as her hand twitches closer to the knife, Dabi's eyes narrow at the slight movement of her hand. This is his first time drinking with Toga and he sure as hell doesn't want to be near her- better to be safe than sorry in case she gets the case of the stabby.

He grumbles again and finds his shot glass empty, Dabi pushes back against the seat and stumbles to his feet. Making his way to Kurogiri, he suddenly finds himself a lot more drunk than he previously thought.

"Imma step out for a smoke." He mumbles, the others around the table grunt something that he doesn't catch and he shoulders through the creaky front door.

Taking in a deep breath of the cold night air helps clear the fog from his head as he lights a cigarette. He doesn't take a drag from the cigarette and instead finds himself lost in the swirling of the smoke, his mind slowly looping back to the others in the room. Dabi really doesn't want to participate in the little ice breaker or whatever Toga wants to call it. This isn't school and even then, he never once gotten a participation trophy. Why start now?

Except he knows that he'll be dragged into this, like it or not.

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Dabi stares up at the cold light of the stars above as he takes a drag of his cigarette.

"It would just be easier if you let them have this one thing." A soft voice startles Dabi- chomping down on his cigarette and nearly choking on the butt.

"Fuck man. The hell's wrong with you?" He growls as Kurogiri stands next to him. The bartender regards him with his smokey yellow eyes and chuckles.

"Guess I forgot how on edge you really can be."

"Fuck off." It doesn't hold any sort of bite and both men know that. Instead, Kurogiri just sighs.

"It might help to talk about it." Dabi feels his shoulders sag and he flicks the broken cigarette into the dark alley.

"It won't help jack shit." He shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket and glowers at the man next to him, Kurogiri says nothing- instead he watches Dabi. They continue their stare down until Dabi's eyes eventually grow dry and he blinks. With a growl he turns away and reaches for the door.