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He’d just snuck out of his apartment, he’d had to wait till his mother fell asleep. He was laying on the roof of the short playground tube that connected two of the play structures and looking at the stars, connecting the constellations together in his mind. He heard someone move into the tunnel below him, he didn’t say anything he only put his earbuds in and found a playlist.
That’s how it went on for a while, every night he would lay on the top of the tunnel and the same person would lay in the tunnel, they never spoke to each other but that was fine. Until one day when Izuku forgot his earbuds in his room, he couldn’t just go without music so he played it anyway. That night was the first night they ever heard each other's voices, they didn’t speak, they only hummed along with the songs that were playing. It was nice.
That was a one time occurrence, Izuku thought about doing it again but decided against it. They were both once again laying there in the dark around a month later.
“What’s your name kid?” Izuku took out his earbuds and paused the song that was playing.
“What’s yours mysterious voice?” The gravelly voice snorted before answering.
“It’s Dabi.” Izuku nodded, “Izuku. It’s a pleasure to speak to you I guess.”
They went back to silence for the rest of that night and quite a few nights after.
“Why do you come out here Dabi?” Izuku asked out of the blue one night. Dabi was silent for a moment, “To get away from everything for a bit. Responsibilities fucking suck. What about you Izuku?”
Izuku didn’t have to think he just sighed. “It used to be to look at the stars but now it’s just so I can not feel as suffocated by everything.” For a few minutes they were quiet.
“What are you gonna do when it gets cold?” Dabi asked Izuku, “I’ve been coming out here for a few years. I’ve always just thrown on a hoodie and hoped I didn’t get too sick.”
Dabi was only quiet for a moment. “I don’t want you getting sick at all, if I offered you a place to get away from everything would you want to take it?”
Izuku hopped down off of the tube. “Fuck it, why not. If you wanted to kidnap me you would’ve done it months ago.”
Dabi chuckled and crawled out of the tube. Both of them were slightly shocked at each other's appearances, after getting over the shock Dabi was the first to speak.
“Damn you really are a kid, a tiny one at that.” Izuku’s eyes narrowed at Dabi, “You’re not exactly all that big either.” Dabi laughed and shook his head. “C’mon cotton ball.” Izuku ignored the nickname and followed Dabi.
They walked quietly through the neighbourhood because no one wanted to disturb the sleep of some people that lived around there. When they got to the place Izuku assumed Dabi was taking him he heard the guy who came around his mother's apartment sometimes.
“You finally selling yourself, you quirkless piece of trash!” Izuku heard Rodney yell, Izuku just sighed and shook his head.
The shop owner and Dabi looked disgusted. “No Rodney I’m not. You’d like that too much, wouldn’t you? You call me trash but what was it you used to call me while you tried to groom me, sweetheart I think it was? Go back to my mother.” Rodney looked at Izuku with wide eyes, that wasn’t the kid he’d targeted. The shop owner cut Rodney off and threw Rodney out, Dabi resolved to find him later and rough him up at the very least, even criminals had a slight moral code.
“So where are we going Dabi?” Dabi just told himself that he’d ask about that later. “Well right above this shop there's some apartments, that’s where I figured I could bring you but I’ve seen you staring at the walls this whole time so go look around.” Izuku smiled and bounced around looking around the whole shop like an excited puppy, analyzing the sketches and just staring at everything.
“Who drew these? They look so cool!” Dabi chuckled at the blushing shop owner who raised his hand like he was in a classroom.
“I did. Thank you for the compliment, cotton.” Izuku smiled and began to think of questions he wanted to ask the man. “When did you start drawing mister?” The shop owner looked at Dabi who just shrugged.
“You can just call me Oboro kiddo. I started drawing when I was in highschool just because why not. Do you draw?” Izuku seemed satisfied with that answer and nodded at Oboro’s question before pulling out his phone to show him some of his drawings. “Yeah, here's one I did recently.” Izuku pulled up a picture of his newest finished sketch and heard Oboro gasp a little bit.
“Holy shit. Dabi if you don’t bring him back with a sketchbook one of these days I’m gonna beat your ass. Kiddo that is awesome and I’d love to see a sketchbook if you ever have the chance.”
Izuku rubbed the back of his neck and put his phone away. “The sketch was blown up, I accidentally brought my sketchbook to school and the whole book was destroyed. That was a few days ago and I haven't been able to get a new one.”
Oboro looked at him and at Dabi wondering how that happened and then walked away for a brief moment before returning with a clean sketchbook. “Go wild cotton, you can use the stuff here anytime you want, in return I want you to come around sometimes.” Izuku smiled brighter than the sun and opened the book to inspect the pages, he pulled a pencil out of his pocket and just started drawing. Completely immersed in his own little world he didn’t notice Dabi or Oboro watching him draw. He was in that world for only a few minutes before he finished the rough sketch of what he wanted to draw. He pushed the book away and smiled at the two men in front of him. “Do you want to learn to tattoo?” Oboro asked Izuku, Dabi was taken aback, he brought this kid here so he could stay out of the cold and a potentially dangerous situation and now the man infamous for being an artistic hardass and quite frankly dangerous information broker wanted to take him on as an apprentice.
As the newly dubbed ‘cotton’ walked home that night he thought about how his night had gone, certainly not how he’d expected that’s for sure.