Healing Touch
Dabi x Fem!Reader fan fiction
Synopsis: You encounter an injured Shigaraki and offer your healing quirk to his aid. Little did you know, healers were hard to come by in the underground and Shigaraki takes a liking to your skills. To further his cause, he kidnaps you and holds you captive under the watch of the LOV. You play the role of the LOV's little healer while you think of a way to escape. Unbeknownst to you, the pyromaniac with a cold heart begins to melt in your presence. Your compassion and wit draw him in, all the while he swears it's only curiosity he feels toward you. But when your touch heals his burns and your personality soothes his anguish, Dabi begins to wonder, what exactly is he feeling for you? And why the hell does he feel so torn up when you slip away?
Warnings/Tags: canon-typical violence, kidnapping, threats, mention of blood, Stockholm syndrome, eventual smut, kidnapping, female/afab reader, healing quirk
Author's Note: This is a reworking of my old fic, "Healing Hands". I've changed some stuff around, gotten rid of unnecessary paragraphs/sentences, and made the pacing faster. I felt like my last one dragged on for too long and I kept getting stuck. It also didn't help that I wrote most of it while high but I'm not gonna make that mistake again lol. I hope you enjoy the new version.
Abbreviation Guide: Y/N (your name), E/C (eye color), F/C (favorite color)
Word Count: 3K
Chapter One: Imprisoned
“Tomura, I do hope you intend to inform us what the emergency is,” Mr.Compress says to Tomura. There’s annoyance in his voice, thinly veiled by his usual aura of elegance and typical polite tone.
“Yeah, this better be important. What gives? Didya really need to have Kurogiri warp us here without notice?” Dabi agrees and further criticizes Tomura.
“Don’t question my judgment, this is extremely important,” Tomura defends. “We have a new member.” The league members’ faces seem deadpanned, bored and unbelieving. There was no one new in sight.
“You hallucinating or something? I don’t see a newbie,” Dabi contests with sarcasm. Toga giggles at Dabi’s statement of the obvious. “This better not be a chick with an invisible quirk.” A loud, exasperated sigh escapes Tomura’s lips and scratches at his neck in palpable irritation.
“You idiots, she’s not here yet. It’ll be any minute now so listen up. She’s not a willing addition, but her quirk will be useful to us. We’ll need to keep an eye on her to prevent her from escaping,” Tomura explains, still somewhat agitated. Toga squeals in excitement as some of the other members converse with one another in whispers.
“I’m so happy! Another girl is joining? This is gonna be so much fun, we could be like sisters!” Toga squeals and gushes with excitement. She blushes at the next thought of the new female addition. “Maybe she’ll even let me drink her blood!”
“Hold up, how’s she supposed to be useful to us if she doesn’t even follow our mission? Couldn’t she just use her quirk against us?” Dabi opposes.
“Impossible. She has a healing quirk, there’s no way she could overpower us. Besides, we have too much offense, every party needs a support class,” Tomura counters. “Healers are hard to come by and we need her cooperation,” Tomura adds. He glares at Toga and addresses his following words to her. “So no stabbing and bloodsucking, Toga. I’ll dust you before I warn you again.”
A warp portal appears in the room, suddenly. Everyone in the room tenses in alert and anticipation. Kurogiri partially steps through, with one of his arms still in the haze. The nomu continues to step through, pulling out a very terrified you from the mist. You attempt to thrash and bolt, but after a few well-placed portals, Kurogiri has you restrained by the wrists with his own hands.
Your eyes are wide and darting everywhere around you. Your panic is on display for a bunch of strange people, who you can only assume are villains. You had just started your (study abroad program/work transfer) in Japan. You were only in Japan for a couple of weeks, not even familiar with your route to (campus/work). How were you supposed to know what parts of the city were dangerous? How could you have known what the local villains looked like? Your ignorance and vulnerability are what led you to these circumstances. An ill-fated encounter with a wounded Tomura led your good intentions to be taken advantage of. You just wanted to help someone who could have been close to death. Your conscience would have haunted your thoughts if you ignored him, especially when you had the power to help. How could you have known he was a villain looking for a full-time healer? If only your quirk had blessed you with a stronger constitution and strength, for all it took to kidnap you was a hard blow to the head. A phone call to Kurogiri made it easy for you to disappear without a trace. You were stacked up against impossible odds. Luck was never on your side.
“Speak, tell them your name,” Tomura commands you.
Despite your precarious situation, you can’t help but let your emotions show. You furrow your brows and the corner of your mouth twitches. “I’m not your fucking dog, stop commanding me like one,” you spit with malice. Your e/c eyes narrow in contempt.
Tomura’s head whips around and he turns to face you. You suppress a shiver when his angry red eyes peer at you through Father’s hand. Time seems to slow as his steps close in on you. He roughly grabs your chin with four fingers, his pinky hovering close to your skin. Your face is pulled closer to his, making it easier to see his glare. “When I give you an order, I expect it to be followed. Do I need to remind you what my hands can do? Now tell them your name.”
Not wanting to piss him off further, you wager your best interest entails complying with his demand. You clench your jaw. You had to swallow your pride, the situation called for it. “Y/n. My name is y/n,” You respond, voice filled with bitterness. Tomura loosens his grip on your jaw, mumbling something about wanting to ‘fix your attitude’. He instructs Kurogiri to unhand you and the two of them give you some space.
“Y/n is pretty! We’re going to be best friends!” Toga exclaims and jumps off the barstool, approaching you. You give her a confused look at Toga’s giddy and friendly demeanor. Toga throws herself at you to embrace you in a hug, a gesture that borders on insanity given how the two of you barely know one another. Your apprehension and stiffness go unnoticed by the blonde.
“Um, thanks?” you reply with reluctance. Worryingly, the teen is much stronger than she appears.
“Since we’re friends and all, can I have some of your blood? I think people look even prettier when they’re covered in blood,” She gushes. Your expression can only be described as that of dawning horror. You’re beginning to realize how a girl like her ended up in such a crowd.
“Miss Toga, I understand you have an affinity for blood but please keep in mind what Tomura said,” a masked man wearing a trench coat remarks. The man lazily swirls marbles in a gloved hand. His demeanor and speech are quite eloquent and formal, standing out from the rest of the group. You note that perhaps he could be reasoned with. After all, he’s almost defending you against the teen’s apparent blood lust.
“Ugh, that’s so boring!” Toga whines. Tomura shoots her a warning glare from behind his mask, or rather his hand. She releases you from her embrace, sighing loudly. She spins on her heels and grabs your hand. Her tone sounds a bit dejected when she speaks again. “I guess since we can’t do that, I’ll introduce you to everybody.” She parades you around the room, introducing you to everyone. You already knew of Tomura and Kurogiri of course, so no introduction is needed there. The process is awkward at the very least, but the other members don’t seem to care much. There’s not exactly a social script for meeting your captors.
You learn the esteemed man in the white mask goes by Mr.Compress, or just Compress for short. It seemed like a strange name initially until Toga explained his quirk involves compressing and reducing anything he desires into small marbles. You shudder to think of what it would feel like to be trapped in such a way. The next introduction is for a man in a black and white body suit. His suit covers his face as well. The man’s name is Twice and he makes clones of people. His behavior is quite erratic, as he’ll often say one thing and immediately follow with a statement saying the opposite. You’ve been shuffled around the room and learned the names of almost everybody except for one other person. Toga pushes you in the direction of a man adorned with many piercings and staples.
“And this is Dabi! He’s got a fire quirk,” Toga introduces. You take in his features quickly, not wanting to stare too much but wanting to pair his face with a name. There’s a lot about him that sticks out to you. There are large swaths of deep scars on his arms, neck, and face. The seams between the scars and healthy skin are joined together with silver staples. Even the scars beneath his eyes are littered with staples. But apart from his scars and piercings, his gaze is piercing. He has eyes that seem to see right through you, scrutinizing you with his cobalt blue irises.
“Y/n, was it?” He asks. His voice catches you off guard, as this is the first time you’ve heard him speak. It’s deep and smoky. In different circumstances, it’d make you weak in the knees.
“Y-yeah,” you confirm. Your voice sounds meek when you speak. He merely hums in acknowledgment and doesn’t question you further. Though, with the way his eyes still follow you and the way his brows are slightly pinched together, you wager there’s something he still wants to ask you.
“Toga, Twice, you two show her to her room. It’s the last room off the hall,” Tomura instructs, shooing the two of them off with a gesture.
“You got it, boss!” Twice agrees, enthusiastically. His tone and voice rapidly shift to a more whiny and annoyed attitude, “No! Why me?”
Toga agrees without refusal, unlike Twice. Though, despite Twice’s uttered resistance, he complies with Tomura’s request regardless. You think that Twice’s mannerisms will take some getting used to. Maybe eventually his switches won’t be as jarring. As the two of them are about to lead you up the stairs, Kurogiri interjects.
“Miss y/n, we found your residence. We went ahead and gathered most of your belongings, excluding devices of course,” Kurogiri informs you.
You blink once, then twice. You can’t help but think, ‘Excuse me, but what the fuck?’
“Wow, you broke into my house, looked through my things, and took my stuff? Thanks, how considerate of you,” you sarcastically remark.
“It’s no problem, y/n,” Kurogiri accepts. You think he surely cannot be serious, but nothing in his mannerisms or tone of voice makes you believe so. This guy has seemingly no sense of your sarcasm. He’s almost robotic in that sense. Toga, once again, grabs your hand and leads you around. The three of you climb up the stairs and walk down the hallway without further incidents.
“This is yours!” Toga announces. She swings the door open and invites herself in. You begrudgingly cross the threshold as well with Twice coming in behind you.
Boxes of your things are stacked, rather neatly, in the corner of the room. They’re all categorized and labeled. Evidently, Kurogiri is efficient and meticulous with details. You walk over and open the box labeled clothes. Sure enough, you see your clothes, neatly folded in the cardboard. Kurogiri was not exaggerating when he said they gathered most of your things. The thought simultaneously scares and humiliates you. For them to figure out your address and take your thing raises three concerns. One, Tomura and Kurogiri could access information that you did not carry on your person. Two, now that your apartment is now empty, it could appear to the authorities that you ran away without notice. Lastly, and arguably a much smaller concern in comparison, is that you can’t remember if you had brought anything embarrassing with you from home.
“I’ll help you unpack!” Twice offers, before immediately countering himself. “No way, that’s too much work.”
Before he’s able to open a box, you interrupt quickly. You shout, “No!” Your outburst catches him off guard. He freezes in his tracks. You realize your reaction might seem odd, so you try to salvage the situation to the best of your ability. “Please, let me do it. Organizing stuff calms me down. Today’s been a lot for me.” Truthfully, it’s not exactly why you’d like Twice and Toga to leave you be, but the lie is plausible enough to be believable.
Toga taps a finger to her cheek, thinking over it. “Well I guess Tomura didn’t order us to move you in, so it should be fine. Unpacking stuff sounds really boring anyways,” She admits. You feel your shoulders relax a bit. The two of them walk to your door before Toga stops in the doorway. There’s a more threatening aura about her when she adds, “I’d hate to have to chase you down and get yelled at by Tomura, so don’t try anything. Twice and I will be down the hall, okay?” She looks at you, either gauging your reaction or waiting for you to confirm. You decide to just nod and mutter out an ‘okay’, to which she gives you her signature manic smile and resumes her usual happy-go-lucky demeanor.
The two of them finally leave your room. You listen to their footsteps travel down the hall before fading out. The breath you didn’t realize you were holding releases. You’re finally alone. You take a moment for yourself, sitting on the creaky bed frame and mattress. You look around the room, trying to take note of everything. You’ve been provided with a bed, desk, and dresser. The walls are plain. The room is windowless. When you stop to think of it, you can’t remember seeing any windows in the other parts of the building so far either. Not to mention, you noticed that this particular hallway was a dead end. These four walls already feel suffocating to you. It’s a perfect prison, and it’s filled with wardens.
As hopeless as your situation feels right now, you can’t afford to wallow in it. You decide to busy yourself instead of spiraling into despair. There are stacks of boxes filled with your things, after all. You’ll be kept busy and away from your thoughts for at least a while. Your situation sucks, but you’re thankful you have the comfort of having your things. Surrounding yourself with familiarity might help you.
You’re in the process of unpacking your third box when you hear the sound of heavy boots coming toward your room. The door is still ajar from when Toga and Twice left, so you’re able to see who it is. You’re a bit surprised to see Dabi, considering he didn’t say much to you initially. He leans leisurely against your door frame. Clearly, he’s in no hurry to do much. You’re not sure why, but his staring makes you squirm.
“You guys should invest in a surveillance system, isn’t hovering around me boring?” you say, breaking the silence. Your attitude must have been amusing to him, as he gives a light chuckle at you. Just like his voice, his laugh is a bit naturally husky.
“Not when you act so feisty, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone bite back at Tomura like that,” he snickers. “It’d be a shame for him to break that attitude.”
“Is there something you need from me? Besides entertainment?” You quip.
“Your quirk, how does it work?” He questions. He straightens his posture, no longer leaning on the doorway. His expression is more serious. If you squint, you think there’s a hint of curiosity in his gaze.
You think it’s best to just show him. You activate your quirk, focusing it on one part of your body. Your hands glow a f/c hue and begin feeling cold to the touch. “I create a layer of stem cells on my skin. It’s at the expense of my metabolic energy and makes me freeze, so overuse can be dangerous,” You explain. You shut off your quirk and glance at your hands. Your fingers feel a bit stiff.
“So what can you heal?”
“It’s easier to explain what I can’t heal.”
“Go on,” he says and motions. He seems to be intrigued.
“Anything that’s already been healed by the body, like scars or old injuries, won’t react to my quirk. Neither will infections or autoimmune diseases. I can’t regrow lost limbs either, unless the original arm is still mostly intact and… um… ‘fresh’. As a whole, I work best with more surface-level injuries than deep, internal ones.”
“You seem to know a lot about this. You some sort of doctor or nurse?”
“Tried to be at one point. I know people with healing quirks are expected to be surgeons, doctors, or nurses, but I don’t want to be defined by just my quirk.”
“Would your quirk work on me?”
“It should. I could try and see,” you offer. He nods, permitting you to touch him. You’re about to ask him where you should heal him, but he offers his hands, palms facing you. You stand up from your place on the floor and walk over to him. His appearance starts to make sense to you when you inspect his hands. Dabi’s wrists and parts of his palms are slightly burned. The scarring must be a mixture of burn scars and grafts. Does his own fire hurt him?
Not wanting to scrutinize him any further with your staring, you clasp your hands around one of his. His hands are much larger than yours. The familiar f/c glow emanates from your hands, along with your quirk’s characteristic cooling effect. Meanwhile, Dabi’s hands are incredibly warm to the touch, a stark juxtaposition from yours. Even his metal staples, which you’d expect to feel cold, are warmed to a comfortable temperature.
“You weren’t kidding, your hands are like ice,” he comments. Aside from the coldness, he feels the rawness from the burns slowly subsiding. The seam between his healthy and grafted skin even seems to close over.
“Small price for you to pay for good results,” you muse. You release his hands from your grasp and inspect your work. His skin appears to have healed over, taking on the same pale shade as his other healthy skin. He retracts his hand from you and sees for himself. There’s just a hint of relief and awe in his eyes as he flexes his fingers, noticing the difference.
“Heh, not bad,” he admits. “Sorry to disappoint, but your ice hands don’t bother me. In case you haven’t noticed, I run hot.” He glances at his hand one more time before nonchalantly shoving both hands in his pockets. He turns on his heels but doesn’t leave yet.
“See ya around,” he adds. He strolls away, leaving you to recollect yourself and unpack everything.
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