Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The weekend couldn’t come fast enough. Hell, Dabi didn’t even know what day it was and here he was complaining about the weekend. He just wanted more answers, he wanted to understand himself better. It frustrated him that Shigaraki was taking this all so well. At least…that was the air he gave off.

If I had my cellphone, I could learn more about myself damn it! Where is it? He hunted and searched all over the place last night but could not it. He had to have one so where the hell was it?

“Dabi.” He heard the voice through the door and quickly walked over to it opening it. “It’s going on noon so I’m assuming you’re skipping class?” Shigaraki sighed and walked inside the room closing the door behind him.

“What? Noon?” Dabi looked around for an alarm clock or something but there was nothing. Only his laptop. “Well I don’t have an alarm and I don’t know where the hell my cellphone is so not my fault I slept this late. I’m not used to having to be up by a certain time anyway. We did what we wanted before.” He crossed his arms over his chest narrowing his eyes at Shigaraki.

“Yeah I get that but we have to blend in Dabi.” Shigaraki groaned. “Today’s Friday so tomorrow we can go out and see if we can find anyone else.”

“And test out our quirks?” Dabi questioned creating a small blue flame with his hand.

“Yeah and that.” Shigaraki rolled his eyes and sat down on the bed. “I’m going to see if I can find any recordings of the school festival from last year. We were in it so that should give us an idea of what we do with our quirks and how we use them.”

“I can’t believe you’re going to class.” Dabi shook his head. “Why don’t we just ditch this place and try and find a way back?”

“And go where exactly?” Shigaraki raised an eyebrow. “Nothing we know is the same here. Not to mention most of the people know us as UA students.”

“I don’t know, anywhere but here.” A knock on the door startled them both and they stared at it.

“Are you going to answer it?” Shigaraki finally asked.

“I guess I have to.” Dabi rolled his eyes and walked over to the door pulling it open.

“Got your phone.” The guy from the photos, the one with purple hair was standing there holding out a phone towards Dabi. “I replaced the back on it so pay up.”

“Shinso?” Shigaraki came up to the door now.

“This is where you vanished to.” Shinso sighed. “Thought we were going to meet for lunch.”

“My phone?” Dabi reached out slowly taking it from him.

“Yeah and your dad called like fifty times so you know. You were supposed to come get it yesterday.” Shinso told him.

“He’s been sick.” Shigaraki explained.

“Well get better. Class is about to start up again, lunch is almost over. I’ll get my money from you later.” Shinso turned and walked away giving a small wave as he vanished down the hallway.

“Found my phone.” Dabi held it up to Shigaraki smiling. “Thank god there’s not a password for it.” He swiped the screen seeing how it unlocked without anything else needed.

“Congrats. I have to get back to class. I’ll see you at dinner we can make our plans for tomorrow then.” Shigaraki hurried to leave.

“What you’re leaving already?” Dabi frowned.

“Yes, I’m trying to do what the me here normally did in this time. You should attempt to as well before people start to wonder what’s going on with you.”

“Easy for you to say I have no idea who I was here.” Dabi grumbled and Shigaraki shrugged leaving.

If I didn’t know better, I would say you enjoy being here Shigaraki. Dabi shook his head trying to clear the thought away. No way he liked it here, they were meant for the life they had prior to this. Villains to the end.

Dabi closed his door and locked it before sitting back down on his bed. He started skimming through text message conversations. It looked like he always gave one word replies most of the time. In the group chat he didn’t talk much either. It looked like Shigaraki was always the one to start a conversation with him as well. “This is not the Shigaraki I know. He’s so…happy?” Dabi was confused. The Shigaraki from this time period was happy, was excited about being a hero, and quite the talker according to his text messages. “Okay…so who am I?”

Dabi continued to go through messages. He found ones to his siblings. There was a sibling group chat titled Fuck Dad that it looked like he had started. So…when Shoto was born dad took the heat off me and put it on him that didn’t change…looks like we all live in another house though and dad lives by himself for the time being?

Touya how is school going?! Dabi looked at the new message that popped up. It was from Natsuo.

Shoto: He’s been skipping class and I’m assuming lost his phone.

Natsuo: He lost his phone?! What? That’s like his lifeline!

I have my phone. Dabi typed a message. It was weird…it was so fucking weird he couldn’t wrap his head around it. The last time he had ever spoken to them…he couldn’t even remember. In his own timeline he had never even spoken to Shoto until he was a villain. He never got to see his brother grow up, he was long gone from home by then. This felt surreal. Like he was in a dream.  

So he speaks. Shoto placed an eyeroll emoji at the end.

Why are you skipping school? That’s worrying Touya you seemed so dedicated the past few months. Fuyumi finally messaged the chat.

Have I been? Maybe he could work this in his favor. Pry information from them if he worded everything carefully.  

Natsuo: Uh yeah? Bro what’s wrong with you? You even have a job lined up when you graduate this year!

He does?? Fuyumi and Shoto both sent the same message. “I do? Please explain Natsuo.” Dabi mumbled seeing that Natsuo was typing.

Natsuo: Yeah he was going to be Hawks sidekick they haven’t officially announced it yet. Touya obviously isn’t going to work under dad so he chose the closest thing to the number one hero.  

“I did what?! No way in hell am I going to work with that asshole! We don’t even have anything in common what the hell?!”

Ah that makes sense since Dad was working with him anyway in the past. Are you going to try and create your own agency one day? Fuyumi questioned.

“No I don’t want any part in this bullshit.” Dabi refused to respond reading what they were saying instead.

Shoto: I thought you were going to do something with Shimura? That’s what you were talking about last week at least. Or did you change your mind?

Natsuo: What? Why didn’t you tell me Touya? I’m hurt :(

Honestly I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing can we just drop this? Dabi had read enough. He obviously was close to his siblings and the version of himself here had plans to do some type of hero work which just infuriated him. He hated heroes.

Fuyumi: Shimura…I have a lot of faith in him. He’s going to take over Nana’s office right? I saw something in the paper about it. He’ll make a great hero. Are you guys coming home for the weekend?

I’ll be there. Natsuo send a thumbs up.

Shoto: Probably not.

No. I have plans this weekend sorry. He tried to not sound like so much of an ass he was sure the version of himself here did care for them.

Fuyumi: Well have fun and be safe!

Dabi moved on to the next text messages. There were so many from his father and it looked like he never responded to him so they just built up constantly. A few from just Shinso and then a shit ton from Shigaraki. It seemed Dabi had changed his mind and decided to go with Shigaraki just like Shoto was saying. They would work together to bring Nana’s agency back to life.

“I don’t think I can do this…it all just…seems impossible.” Dabi sighed. Sleep sounded like a nice idea all of a sudden.

Shigaraki made Dabi leave the dorm room for dinner dragging him down the hallway and out the door. “A lot of people that do stay here go home on the weekends.” Shigaraki informed him. “So it won’t be crowded.”

“Did you normally go home on the weekends? It looked like sometimes I did.” Dabi questioned looking at his phone while they walked do the cafeteria.

“Sometimes but not often.” Shigaraki shrugged. “I’m assuming you finally went through your phone?”

“Yeah and there’s no way I can pretend to act like the me from this world. Sure, he was still like me but…he wanted to be a hero? Like what is that bullshit?” Dabi shook his head.

“It’s weird how one little thing in your life can make a difference growing up. What happened differently for you?”

“Dad gave up on me a lot sooner and didn’t continue to push me which made me want to be a better hero than him…I’m assuming anyway because of a lot of the same shit happened so who knows what changed me. When are we leaving tomorrow? I’m dying to get out of here.” Dabi looked around a few people were in here eating, they didn’t give them a second look thank god.

“I was going to say we can head out at noon. We’ll have to take the trains.”

“Why can’t we just warp…god I hate this world.” Dabi grumbled. Their easy transportation was stripped away from them here as well.

“Dabi you got my money?” Shinso walked up to their table.

“Wait you just called me Dabi?” Dabi looked over at Shigaraki confused.

“Yeah it is your hero name.” Shinso rolled his eyes. “Plus, you punch anyone that calls you Touya.”

“…right.” Dabi frowned. “Uh how much do I owe you?”

“Twenty bucks.” Shinso sat down waiting patiently.

“Shigar—” Dabi stopped himself. “Do you have any cash?”

“Really?” Shigaraki rolled his eyes and pulled out his wallet handing Shinso the money.

“What would you do without him?” Shinso raised an eyebrow at Dabi.

“Die obviously.” Shigaraki answered for him.

“You guys sticking around this weekend?”

“Kind of…we’re going out tomorrow.”

They continued to talk and Dabi tuned them both out staring at his phone as he googled more information trying to make more sense of this world.

“You know what’s weird?” Shinso grabbed Dabi’s attention by smacking his hand. “You both have been acting really weird almost like…you’re someone else.”

“What makes you say that?” Shigaraki asked.

“It’s like you’ve both forgotten everything. Did your head injury really mess you up or something? No idea what your excuse is though.” He looked back over at Dabi.

“What have we forgotten then dear Shinso?” Dabi rolled his eyes. Of course they would be different they weren’t the same people here. Why did we have to be friends with him? He’s just going to continue asking questions.  

“Tomorrow we were going to go to the mall together. To celebrate.” Shinso raised an eyebrow.

“Ah…yeah we’ll have to cancel on you sorry.” Shigaraki told him.

“Celebrate what?” Dabi was curious. Shigaraki shot him a glare.

“For you both finding jobs as soon as you graduate in two months. How could you forget that?” Shinso smirked. “Has your memory been wiped? Because trust me I would believe it right now. It was your idea to go Dabi.”

Shigaraki let out a long sigh. “You’ve caught us.”

What is he doing?

“It seems we’ve come from a different timeline so we have no memory of what has happened here.” Shigaraki shrugged.

“Really?” Shinso laughed. “And here I was being serious.”

“I am being serious right Dabi?” Shigaraki looked over at him.

“Obviously.” Dabi wasn’t sure what he wanted him to say. Did he really want to blow their cover this soon? Or was Shigaraki planning to use him? He couldn’t figure out his intentions and it frustrated Dabi.

“…I’m waiting for the joke to be over.” Shinso looked back and forth at them. “Okay wait are you two actually serious? There's no way.”

“Yes, but could you keep this to yourself?” Shigaraki smiled at him.

Shinso sat there staring at Shigaraki for a moment before laughing.“You are messing with me, nice joke. So where are you going tomorrow?”

“Into town, you can come with us if you want to.” Shigaraki shrugged.

“Nah…I’ll head home for once. Man, you two really had me for second.” Shinso chuckled.  

“It was a pretty good joke.” Shigaraki agreed.

“You’re both assholes.” Shinso shook his head.

“I’m leaving you two can keep chatting it up.” Dabi got up and left trying to find his way back to the dorm room and struggling. A lot.

“Stop forgetting where your room is idiot.” He groaned as he walked down a second hall that looked the same as the first. Where the hell am I now?

“Touya?” He froze and turned to see who was talking to him. “Why are you in the freshman dorm?” It was Shoto.

“Why aren’t you going home?” Dabi shot back. I’m in the wrong dorm?! Ugh!

“I have plans. Are you lost or something?”

“…possibly.” Better to be honest than for him to think I was looking for him.

“How can you never remember where your own dorm is?” Shoto sighed. “Follow me.”

At least he doesn’t seem surprised. I’m guessing the me here was direction challenged as well.

“Here.” Shoto stopped walking as they got closer to another dorm building. “Are you really going to work wit h Hawks?” He turned look at him worry on his face.

“No way.” Dabi shook his head.

“Then why did you tell Natsuo that?”

“At the time I thought it was a good idea. I’m good with staying with…Shimura.” Dabi had to watch him. He couldn’t let Shigaraki’s name slip again. “I’m calling it an early night. See you.”

He quickly ran into the building trying to get as far away from Shoto as possible. Why did Shoto care so much? Were they actually close in this life? Dabi groaned in agony. He had to figure out a way to get back and soon.

Tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some answers. Dabi walked into his room and collapsed onto the bed trying to shut off his thoughts.