Mind Boggled

Chapter 32

Third person pov

Dabi stared at Harper, and Harper stared right back. The scarred man had tried to make himself presentable, but the brunette had insisted it wasn't formal. He'd settled for one of his nicer pairs of jeans and a plain shirt that looked fairly new. In comparison, Harper looked like shit. The bags under her eyes were deep and several unhealthy shades of purple, and she was wearing sweat pants and a hoodie covered in what looked like grease stains, or perhaps nacho ones. Either way, the kid looked like shit. Her hair was a tangled mess even Dabi-- a man who gave no shits, generally speaking-- wanted to furiously attack with a comb. 

"You're shitting me." Right. Tsukauchi and Sansa were here too. The look on Dabi's face when she'd walked up with not only a man in a trench coat and fedora, but one with a cat head in a police uniform had been priceless. He'd also been quite perturbed by Kurogiri, who appeared to be using silence as an intimidating tactic. That, or he was once again at a loss for what to say. Neither would surprise her. Honestly, her fake dad and Sansa were more freaked out by Dabi than he was by them. Sansa didn't fail to voice his incredulity. He continued, "This guy? This is the guy you thought'd be good?"

Alright, so maybe Dabi didn't look all that family friendly. So what? He was nothing more than a guy trying to make it in this crumbling economy. Yeah, he'd probably done some illegal shit, but who hasn't in this world? It was dumb as hell how big of a deal they were making of this, just because of his scars. Sansa had a fucking cat head. Kurogiri was a ball of gas shoved in a suit! And as far as anyone could tell, he didn't even have a face! Tsukauchi's best friend was a skeleton that could turn into Johnny-fucking-Bravo for a few hours a day. He literally had dead voices following him around, and they thought this guy was weird?

"He looks like he sells drugs! Do you sell drugs?" Tsukauchi asked, eyes wide and questioning as he reached out and grabbed Dabi by the shoulders. "Is he gay? If he's not gay, I don't want him near Harper. Wait, he could be straight but not a pedophile. What if he's a gay pedophile? Then Harper's safe, but is Kurogiri? Well, he's not a minor, but it's close enough. I don't like this dude. Did he get in a fight with an oven and lose? Wait, that was rude. It could've been a stove top. Fuck, I did it again!"

"No, he doesn't sell drugs. And no, he's not a fucking pedophile. You need to calm the hell down." Harper tugged at Tsukauchi's arm, pulling him away from the stunned Dabi, who blinked down at her owlishly. "He's a decent guy, and is terrifying enough to make for a pretty efficient body guard. You don't have to like him, as long a he does his job." 

"What's his quirk?" Sansa asked suspiciously. Dabi was frozen in place. This kid was with the police? They pretty clearly weren't here to arrest his trash ass, which meant there really was a job he could potentially obtain. Protection detail didn't sound like the worst; especially if it were legal. All of that aside, he quite literally had no idea how he was supposed to act. What did he do with himself? This was law enforcement, and he wasn't all that much of a stand up guy, especially where laws were concerned. "This guy looks like a total douche canoe. I never forget a face, but in this case? I'll make a damn exception. What a poser. So what if you've got physical scars? I've got just as many, but you know what, baby? They're all mental. Trapped on the inside, along with the constant screaming resonating in the space my soul used to be! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

"Fire." Dabi finally managed to find his voice, snapping Harper away from the god awful sound coming from Sansa's... you know, Harper wasn't even sure the officer had a brain in that furry head of his. And if he did, there weren't all that many cells left in it. She wondered how many mental illnesses he had stuck in there. Sansa was one of the few people she hadn't dug too deep into. She was far, far too afraid of what she'd find.