Chapter Text
"Okay, if you're gonna live here, you gotta know the ground rules," said Dabi before reaching his hand out to Shouto expectantly. "First off, gimme your phone."
Shouto's eyebrow twitched. "No."
"It's okay you'll get it back," Hawks informed him, giving Dabi a chastising swat on the arm. "We just need Giran to make it untraceable, if you want to call anyone in the meantime you can borrow one."
"So if you've got any numbers saved in there that you can't live without for a couple days write 'em down now," Dabi added.
That wouldn't be a problem, Shouto had the numbers of everyone important to him memorised, it hadn't been very difficult, it was a short list.
He pulled his burner phone out and hesitantly handed it over with narrowed eyes. "If I don't get it back I'm setting your bed on fire."
Hawks snorted loudly. "Yeah he's your brother alright."
Dabi's lip twitched up in a hint of a smirk. "Fair's fair, 'you break my shit I'll break yours' is basically the law around here." He took the phone and pocketed it. "Alright so, names, Hawks goes by Keigo exclusively-"
"I won't blame you if you slip up a few times, I get it's an adjustment," Hawks, or Keigo he supposed, assured him. "I'm going through a whole 'reclaiming my identity' thing and I'm starting to associate that name with some unpleasant shit."
"So our theory was right, the Commission was mistreating you." Shouto nodded thoughtfully. "I'm sorry you went through that, it must have been very difficult."
"Extremely!" Hawks- Keigo said jovially. "And I thought I was doing a pretty damn good job hiding that, how did you figure it out?"
"We can go over this shit later," Dabi interrupted. "Back on topic, Shigaraki goes by his real name Tenko in the base and in the base only, if All for One's goons find out he's rejected the name he gave him and report that shit back to the fucker that's bad news for us, if you call him by that asshole's name in the privacy of the base, that's bad news for you."
"Does this mean the League aren't working for All For One anymore?" Shouto asked, it was a surprising turn of events if so, he should probably tell Izuku about this.
"Tenko was the only one of us who ever gave a rat's ass about what that guy wanted and he finally figured out the fucker was using him so now he's on his shitlist, but he's got connections fucking everywhere so we're playing it safe and actin' like everything's still chill for now," Dabi explained. "So in the base, Tenko, outside the base, Shigaraki, got it?"
"Got it." He was definitely telling Izuku about this.
"Great, moving on. Mum goes by Yuki now, it started as an alias but she's gotten pretty attached to it, and even though the League know who we are and who dad is now, if you call me Touya in front of them I will set you on fire, they only know me as Dabi and I want it to stay that way."
Shouto nodded. "That won't be a problem, I've only known you as Dabi too."
Dabi's face did something that was almost a wince before he continued. "You've lived in a dorm with other heteromorph kids so I'm gonna assume you know the basic etiquette on how to not piss them off?"
"I think so?" Nobody had gotten mad at him for saying anything wrong so far.
"Good enough. Toga's gotten pretty decent at not stabbing people unprovoked but if she does you can tell her to fuck off, just don't call her a freak or anything like that, okay?"
"Okay." It wasn't like Shouto made a habit of calling people names anyway.
"Twice's tics make him say nasty shit, he can't control it and doesn't mean it, mum's tryin' to help him find medication to stop it, so if he says something shitty just ignore it, alright?"
"Alright." He'd had more than enough practice ignoring Bakugo saying nasty shit on purpose.
"Compress is a gossipy bitch, don't tell him anything you don't want the whole League to know."
"So Ashido rules apply," Shouto nodded in understanding.
"I don't know who that is but sure." Dabi crossed his arms impatiently. "Any other questions?"
"Am I sleeping over here or over there?"
"You're taking my old room over there, it's furnished and the bedding and shit is clean."
Shouto stared apprehensively at the closed front door for a long moment.
"Can't I stay over here?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I fucking said no."
"Why?"
"Because there's already a room made up over there and I'm sure as shit not dragging all that furniture all the way over here."
"That's fine, I'm used to not having much in my room, I can sleep on the floor."
Keigo winced. "Jeez kid."
"This place is gross as fuck with rats and bugs and shit, nobody sleeps on the floor," Dabi snapped, looking increasingly more pissed off with every question. "You're sleeping over there, end of discussion."
Shouto narrowed his eyes. He had absolutely no intention of ending this discussion, but Keigo swooped in to mediate before he could argue further.
"Tou, I've worked with this kid on team ups, he's blunt as a mallet, has issues with authority, and won't let shit go if he doesn't get a satisfactory answer, much like somebody else I know," he said pointedly before turning back to Shouto and clapping his hands together. "Kid, I am going to be super real with you right now, I do not want you sleeping over here because I do not want you to hear me having extremely loud sex with your brother."
"Oh."
Dabi choked on his spit. "Keigo what the fuck-"
Shouto closed his eyes and nodded. "I also do not want that."
Keigo gestured toward Shouto with a grin. "You see? Just gotta be straight with him."
"There's nothing straight about anyone in this room," Dabi shot back. "But fine, whatever, let's just get this over with."
Shouto could feel the tension curling in his spine as Dabi opened the door to the apartment across the hall, he hated standing up and talking in front of people, UA's mock interview classes were always excruciating, being confronted by a real journalist was even more stressful, but being the centre of attention in a room full of relative strangers? That was by far the worst.
As soon as he entered the apartment though, he realised that would not be a problem.
It was bustling with activity, Toga ran across the room carrying a mess of towels toward his mother, who was kneeling by the couch stitching up a ghastly wound on Twice's torso that was bleeding heavily onto the cushions. Compress rushed out of a side room to put a bucket down on the floor by Spinner, who was sitting with his head in his hands and looking extremely nauseous, before running back into what Shouto now assumed to be the kitchen based on the sound of a running faucet.
"Hot water or cold?" Compress called out.
"Warm but it'll need to be boiled first," Rei called back. "Then add some salt, but not too much!"
"How much is too much?!"
As Rei barked something about measurements and ratios, Spinner glanced downwards and then lurched suddenly, grabbing at the pink plastic bucket Compress left by his side as he violently threw up.
"Oh god it's still attached," he groaned into the bucket. "Someone... someone's gonna have to cut the rest off."
"You can't do it yourself?!" Compress asked from the kitchen, sounding only mildly hysterical.
"Dude I can't even look at it without blowing chunks," Spinner put the bucket down and covered his eyes. "It's just attached by a few hurgh- by a few scaleurgh-" He heaved into the bucket once more.
Shouto only had to glance down to realise he was talking about his tail, which had been almost entirely severed about thirty centimetres or so up from the tip, but was still stubbornly clinging to his body by a small strip of scaled flesh. The bleeding appeared to be mostly under control with the assistance of a makeshift tourniquet in the form of a belt that, based on the garish orange colour, probably belonged to Compress.
"I got you Spinner," Keigo said as he quickly passed Shouto and knelt down beside the villain, a sharpened feather in hand.
Shouto decided against watching the next grisly moment and raised his gaze back up to his mother, whose tidy stitching was very quickly closing Twice's wound, the man in question was babbling rapidly, as if he were engaging in several conversations at once, Toga had shoved as many clean towels as she could manage between his body and the lounge, and was now sitting on the floor beside him, holding his hand and whispering to him soothingly.
"What the fuck happened here?" Dabi finally asked. "I thought this was a low stakes raid!"
"It was supposed to be," Compress appeared in the kitchen doorway, mopping at the sweat dripping from his balaclava into his eyes with one of his own gloves. "We were just caught off guard by... an unexpected security feature."
"Cut the dramatic tension shit and just tell me what the fuck happened!" Dabi snapped, swiftly crossing the room to help Toga hold Twice down as he began to thrash in distress. "Fuck, Keigo, my pain meds, the good shit-"
"On it!"
A handful of feathers shot away under the front door as another group wrapped themselves around Twice's limbs and body, holding him firmly in place so Rei could finish her work.
"Thank you Keigo," she breathed, wiping down the wound with antiseptic. "Himiko sweetheart, don't pick at that please."
"But it's full of rubble!" Toga whined as she dropped bloody fingers from a nasty abrasion across her shin.
"Then wash your hands and use tweezers," Rei instructed. "But please wait until the bleeding is under control first, where's the gauze I gave you?"
"It got too full," Toga replied, as blood kept sluggishly dripping down past her ankle.
"Keigo, could you please-"
"I got it."
A feather deposited a pack of fresh gauze next to her, she took one and pressed it to the wound with a disappointed pout.
"So am I gonna get an explanation any time this year or what?" Dabi grilled as a feather flew back in from under the door, depositing a packet of pills in his hand. "Damn, I'm gonna have to crush these if we want him to swallow it, Compress grab me a plate, a knife, a cup of water, and a god damn fucking explanation for why Twice is bleeding the fuck out on our couch!"
As if everything weren't already chaotic enough, a large mass of black gunk began to grow in the corner of the room, eventually taking the shape of a gagging, retching Shigaraki, who slumped against the wall, breathing heavily.
"Got your fu- fuck, Garaki was an absolute fucking bitch about it but I got the fucking supplies you dipshits left behind." He threw two large duffle bags on the floor. "Now can one of you explain to me how you got your asses kicked by a fucking robot?"
"Three! Three fucking robots!" Compress yelled from the kitchen.
"Robots?!" Dabi exclaimed incredulously as Rei handed him some antibiotics. "At a med clinic?"
"Not just any robots," Compress began as he entered the living room with the items Dabi requested. "The same bloody robots they make hero students train with."
"You three seriously couldn't take on a few robots made to fight children?" Dabi asked incredulously as he crushed all of the pills and dissolved them together in the glass of water. "Seriously?"
"They took us by surprise," Toga whined as she bled through her third piece of gauze. "We weren't ready! And then they got Jin and we panicked!"
"Is that still bleeding?" Rei frowned at Toga's leg as she fished a blunt-ended syringe from a first aid kit by her feet. "It should have slowed down by now."
"Himi-chan." Keigo left a pale and shaking Spinner, now sans a tail, to crouch by Toga and assess her wound. "You didn't lick that did you?"
Toga stared down at the carpet and did not answer.
"Oh Himiko," Rei groaned, syringing up the med mix from the glass in Dabi's hand. "We talked about this, anti-coagulation! Remember?"
"I'm sorry!" Toga cried. "But there was just so much and it smelt so good-"
"How the hell did you manage to lick your shin?" Compress asked in amazement.
"You've seen cats groom themselves right?" Spinner said in a weak, trembling voice, he looked very close to passing out.
"Is he stable?" Shigaraki asked Rei as he took in the bloodstains all over the towels, lounge, and carpet.
"He should be once we get some medicine into him," Rei assured him as Dabi held Twice upright. "Jin darling, can you hear me? I need you to drink this, it will help with the pain and prevent infection, I'm going to put it in your mouth, okay sweetheart?"
Shouto found it remarkably disturbing to hear his mother call a fully grown villain sweetheart but it seemed to have some effect, the babbling and twitching never ceased but he locked eyes with her as if he were listening.
"You gave me medicine when I needed it," she continued, her voice soft and soothing. "It's my turn to do the same for you, do you trust me?"
Twice nodded and shook his head in rapid succession, but he managed to still his mouth for a few precious seconds so Rei could insert the end of the syringe and press the plunger. He swallowed and then immediately returned to his gibbering and convulsing with a vengeance.
"Compress, how's the water coming along?" Rei asked, stripping off her bloody gloves.
"It's just finished boiling."
"Okay, give it a few minutes and we can use it to flush Himiko and Spinner's wounds, Himiko! I told you to stop picking!"
"Sorry..."
As Toga reapplied the gauze, a feather quickly wrapped itself around her leg, holding it in place. Keigo ignored Toga's betrayed glare as he assessed the room.
"Alright? We're good? Everyone's stable?"
"I think... I'm gonna..." Spinner began before his eyes rolled back and he toppled to the side, Shigaraki jolted as if about to try and catch him despite being all the way across the room, but Keigo's feathers beat him to it, gently easing Spinner down to the ground in the recovery position.
"Okay, now everyone's stable?"
"Looks like it." Dabi took a step back from Twice as his wild babbling and body spasms slowly began to ease. "So, why the fuck did a civilian building have fucking robot security?"
"That's a new policy with the robotics manufacturers," Shouto informed him. "Since the increase in villain activity after All Might's retirement there was a change in legislation that let them start leasing them out as security to public services, events, and medical facilities."
Everyone went very quiet as they all finally noticed the new body in the room.
"Oh," Rei gasped. "I'm so sorry! I was supposed to let you all know he was coming..."
"I think you've got a pretty fucking decent excuse for being distracted," Dabi pointed out.
"Oh my gosh Shouto's here?!" Toga squealed, she tried to leap up from her spot beside the couch but a handful of feathers held her back.
"Slow it down Himi-chan, you're still bleeding," Keigo reminded her. "How about you go sit with Spinner and keep an eye on him until the water is ready, alright?"
"Ugh, fiiiiine."
"I thought you were grabbing the other brother?" Shigaraki sauntered up to Shouto, he didn't appear to be upset by the change of plan, if anything he seemed... concerningly excited, a disturbing grin stretching across his face. "How the hell did you snag the UA kid?"
"He's not here to be a League member," Dabi explained.
"Another 'consensual kidnapping' huh?"
"Exactly, kid's sick of getting the shit kicked out of him and wanted an out, but he's not up for doing villain shit. He's just crashing here."
"Pretty sure you said the same thing about your mum," Shigaraki replied with a raised eyebrow. "And we all know how that turned out."
'We' certainly didn't include Shouto, he was feeling extremely left in the dark, and maybe a little disturbed by the implications. He really needed to speak with his mother.
"He's a fucking hero brat, it's not the same," Dabi shot back.
Even though he was only reinforcing a boundary Shouto himself had laid earlier, the phrasing sent a sudden pang of unexpected annoyance through him.
It wasn't my choice to be a hero.
"I dunno man." Keigo crossed his arms and gave Shouto an appraising look. "He has been running around as one of the Wraiths, legally speaking vigilantism is only one step away from villainy."
"He's fucking what?"
"Oh yeah," Dabi grinned. "You're gonna shit when you find out who the other Wraith was."
"Hey guys?" Toga spoke up from the floor beside Spinner's prone body, she was holding up the severed piece of his tail. "If I ate this would that be cannibalism?"
There was a long, long silence, eventually broken by Compress.
"Hm, technically-" He put a finger to his chin in thought. "I would usually say yes seeing as heteromorphs are still biologically human, but this particular appendage not being one shared with standard human anatomy does muddy the waters."
"So it's a no?"
"Either way you aren't putting that in your mouth," Rei admonished with a frown.
"I wasn't actually gonna eat it!" Toga whined. "I just wanna know."
"I mean it would probably depend on the nature of the meat inside right?" Keigo chimed in. "Hey do you think my wings would taste like human or bird meat?"
"What about DNA or whatever?" Shigaraki pointed out. "Even if it didn't taste like human meat, if a lab can test it and find human DNA it's probably still cannibalism."
"Stellar first impression guys," Dabi said in a deadpan tone. "Five stars. No notes."
"It's okay," Shouto assured him. "My class already had this debate when Kaminari saw Tokoyami eating yakitori."
"Oh? And what was the verdict?" Compress asked.
"Um, I think we decided that Tokoyami eating chicken was okay, but if he ate a crow that was cannibalism, but if we ate him, or he ate us, that was also cannibalism."
"What if a crow ate him?" Toga asked, eyes wide with intrigue, the severed tail was still clutched in her hand.
"I think we decided that was cannibalism too," Shouto shrugged.
"But that doesn't answer the question of non-human body parts," Shigaraki pointed out, apparently now so invested in this ridiculous hypothetical he'd forgotten all about the Wraith topic. "Do they count or not?"
"Um, I don't know, nobody could agree on an answer before Aizawa broke it up, we weren't allowed to discuss eating our classmates anymore after that." It was a fairly reasonable request in his opinion.
"I'd also rather we stop speaking about this." And apparently his mother agreed.
His class did not.
Neither did the rest of the League it seemed. As the debate continued, Dabi gave him a slight nudge with his elbow and an amused smirk.
"Welcome to the League of fucking idiots."