warning ; slight manga spoiler—a character's appearance

     "Yeah. . . yes of course, see you in a few. Okay bye," Dabi watches as you shove the phone—who's call he was pretty sure you forgot to properly end—gracelessly back into your pocket, swinging your bag over your shoulder properly and nodding to the two of them. Stiffly, and robotically. "Let us head out, gentleman, I got us a meeting with Dr. Layla Blue."

     "She called you first."

     "Yeah I know I just thought I'd sounded cooler if I say that anyway let's go! The sooner we can get this shmuck to her the sooner this'll all be over," Elijah looked visibly taken aback, to which you sheepishly smile, "Sorry, I don't know what got over me I'm feeling very giddy right now I'm actually starting to worry myself." You went to go round the corner to where the ladder-stairs where located, before coming back a few passing beats later, "Also no offense, sorry for calling you shmuck, I don't know why I didn't start with that first okay see you guys upstairs."

     The two men were left downstairs to contemplate. Dabi being left to unwillingly reminisce of how Blue mentioned mood swings as a side effect of the drug, and the overthinking scientist's nerves getting to him at the thought of being the one to blame for that because he worked so closely with the creation. Different worlds, similar problems.

     You emerge the closet door with a weird feeling in your stomach (it wasn't bad it just felt weird, like an emotion you haven't felt in, like, five years, give or take) coughing a few times as you stumbled in their bathroom that smelled like a put out fire. Weird was you making that correlation, even noticing it in the first place, your sudden change of mood and an unfamiliar figure standing outside the bathroom door with his back turned. But of course your coughing had him turning, revealing a. . . totally normal human face.

     "Oh! Y/N, didn't know you were here," You squinted as he talk, your brain somehow thinking that that would help in recognizing his voice. It took him a few moments too, a weirded out look on his face before he whispers out an 'oh', "Oh!" There it was again, "Of course, yeah sorry hi it's me, uhh, Mr. . ." He seems to sigh to himself in disappointment and embarrassment, the plastic bags between his feet shuffling as he still tries to unlock the door behind him, "Compress."

     . . .

     . . .

     . . .

     "TOPHAT!" You suddenly exclaimed a little too loudly, pointing an accusatory finger with a large 'aha I got it!' look on your face, "You're tophat guy!" He quickly nods, his pushed back curly black hair falling over his face as he did so, "Yup, yup that's me, totally. Hey, you don't happen to have Dabi nearby, do you?" 

     Almost as if spoken by the devil himself he emerged—literally—from the trapdoor, also unceremoniously coughing and stumbling all over before appearing by your side with a short nod to his colleague, a final small cough exiting his lips, "'Sup."

     You saw him mouth something along the lines of 'don't you 'sup me!', before losing interest and turning around to go make sure your leverage and only source of viable information wouldn't accidentally piss himself on the way up the stairs thinking too hard about climate change. But you passed by the mirror in turn, frowning as you approached it with a finger reaching over to your forehead. The small red bumps from your lack of sleep had worsened, remembering this as yet another side effect from that stupid fucking drug. "Dammit I'm breaking out," You almost whined, only turning upon hearing a yelp from downstairs followed by a shaky apology.

     . . .

      But you immediately turned right back to complain to the cracked and stained mirror about the new found acne on your forehead.

     Just a few feet away from you was a conversation you didn't bother to listen to, a slightly pissed-off tophat guy constantly looking past his shoulder and corner from where Shigaraki was lounging around with his socks poisoning the room's limited air, "Why did you give him a key. . ?! He locked my bedroom. . ! You know this thing's lock is fucking busted. . !" 

     "I can hear you, nerds!" Came his raspy rat-voice, to which Atsuhiro gladly rolled his eyes at. "Your walls are real thin, geez. . ."

     "You picked this place!" He argued, trying to look at him to say it with a look but deciding it wasn't worth it and turning back to the shrugging phoenix. "Hey dude, I was drunk, it just happened."

     "Wording, Dabi, or your girlfriend might kill all of us. Woman's been quietly yelling at her reflection since earlier," He then sighs, running a glove hand through his hair and shaking his head, "You know what? Whatever, you sort out the groceries, I'm gonna crash in your bedroom and trash your pillows." He tosses the. . .messy assortment of keys to his roommate, before turning to slump to the only other door in the entire house that didn't look like it was caving in. No, this one had more termites. He mumbled under his breath something about it being practically impossible with how much of a mess his room already was, but the owner of said room simply ignored him as he leans off the doorway and turns to face you with one move.

     By the time you realized you were acting like a Sims character not being able to move past a perfectly-movable object but not being able to because it was in front of a door, Dabi had already placed both hands above the the doorframe to dramatically loom over you. "Hey."

     "Hi. Don't know why you're, saying that I've been here since earlier but yeah, hi." He snickers, shaking his head before looking past you and at the other man still quietly mulling what to do in this situation next to the open trapdoor. "Anyway you ready to leave? Your friend here looks like he's about to fall back into the hole if I don't stop him."

     "Title of your sex tape—I mean!" You shook your head almost immediately as that slipped out, ignoring the growing grin on his face as you made it comical how easy you were making it for him to tease you. "I don't know what's going on with me, I found an olive in your sink and almost cried can we go now?" He nods, opening his mouth to make a joke on your little comment but not being able to as you had already speed-walked past him. He sighs, a smile still on his face with a shake of his head. 

     . . .

     "Can. . . Can I go, now. . . too?" Elijah quietly asks, not knowing if it was appropriate to break the silence. To which the phoenix sighs again in remembering why you were here in the first place and pointing his head to the door, "Yeah whatever let's go."

     He walked past Shigaraki loudly sipping on a can of beer on the couch, but upon noticing him he practically shot up from his seat as he grabbed a bundled up coat beside him. "Alright let's go." Dabi eyes him weirdly, staring at, one, the amount of layers he was willing to wear, two, the fact that that was Mr. Compress' coat, and three, why he was suddenly offering to join them on their little adventure. 

     "Okay first of all shut up Frankenstein,"

     "I didn't. . . I didn't even say anything."

     "Your eyes said enough and second! This red jacket is very much enough for me, I can handle the cold, I just wanted to piss off Marbles here." A muffled 'hey!' gets ignored by everybody, "And thirdly!" He wobbles his way up, clutching onto the back of the couch for support, "I wanted to know what was so important that you had to lie to Kurogiri for it."

     "Wait lie to Kurogiri?!"

     "Shut it, Atsuhiro!" He yells back, "Tell anyone and I'm crumbling your fucking dick off!!" Dabi snickers, his snide comment of how that would require his boss technically giving their magician friend a hand-job for that to happen not being voiced as Shigaraki struts off to the door. You were by the little entrance hall, quietly nodding to yourself as you stared at their shoe rack, so it almost looked like you were having a quiet and philosophical conversation with that. 

     A little disappointed that he didn't get to make his joke because the moment already passed, but Dabi still had to address the elephant in the room. "Okay, but mind telling me why you're going while drunk?" 

     "Well I don't exactly want to be sober when you fuck up both our jobs," He hiccups, almost falling over by the fridge as he puts on the shoes he had previously tossed trying to get comfortable the TV. "Also alcohol makes me kinder, so shut your fucking trap if you don't want me snitching on your damn ass." He then forces on a smile that didn't match his face at all, the shaggy blue hair falling on his face before he blinks a few times and pushes himself up. "God-fuck I should not get drunk I thought I just saw Jesus for a second there. Come on! I got a new truck."

     Dabi scoffs, watching him push his way past you and leave the apartment all together with a head start. Great, not only were you saying weird shit, his boss was drunk and was offering to drive to a high-tech science thingamajig facility where he couldn't afford fucking up. He wasn't exactly in the mood to be chased by cops, and having a drunk and reckless Shigaraki wasn't exactly going to help that case. 

     "Wait!" Atsuhiro stumbles out, his mask improperly put on his face as he wore a flashy orange turtleneck, (he says flashy because it should be illegal for turtlenecks to be anything but beige or monochrome) his gun dragging behind him. "Take me with you! I want to see what you two idiots are hiding from the All Knowing!" The phoenix scoffs, shaking his head as he lifts both his arms in defeat, "Great! Why not just call the entire neighborhood and bring them with us!" He cries out in sarcasm, glaring at Compress as he starts grabbing his phone after announcing something about calling Toga. "Okay I won't. But bring me with you! Do that or I'm blackmailing the both of you."

     "Like how, genius? You have no photos of us." Dabi asks, him shrugging as he leans on the doorframe, "Call the cops on you, duh."

     "They'd catch you too, moron!" He laughs wryly, clicking his tongue, "Oh poor, poor and naïve little bird."

     "Call me that again and I'm burning your anus."

     "They'd never catch me! The cops know me by mask, and you already burned my fingerprints off a long time ago so thanks to you, I'm practically invisible," He smiles sweetly, tossing his mask onto. . . somewhere inside the room, "I could live as a new—innocent—man in Queens if I wanted to." Dabi sighs in exasperation, running a hand down his face. One because of that, and two because apparently busting them wasn't even on the list of probabilities for blackmail and three because all his thoughts are being counted like this, he has no idea how to stop it. "Okay fine! But leave your freaky mask and hide your gun, we can't risk a run-in with the cops." He glares at him before he can yell out a 'duh', squinting his eyes some more before turning to leave now.

     The three of you waited by the sidewalk, the weapon on Atsuhiro's back barely noticeable thanks to the large puffy jacket he had thrown on in a hurry (it was Dabi's and smelled like cigarettes, ugh) giddily rocking on the balls of his feet. "Where the hell is Shigaraki?" The phoenix calls out to break the ice, scoffing as, for some sick twist of fate, he had filled in the position as voice of reason. "He said he had a car, right?" The. . . unmasked, man, calls out. God, it was weird hearing Tophat's voice coming from someone who wasn't wearing one. "Yeah, like it'll ever be his." He groans, leaning his head back with a heavy sigh, "So? Any bets on what it is? He stole a minivan last before we lost it in a cop chase. Practically banned from Brooklyn now."

     "That wasn't that long ago," Compress scoffs, before shrugging, "Knowing him, especially now that he's damn wasted, he probably got a garbage truck."

     "Don't encourage him," You cut in, before realizing you knew nothing about them and backing out as you got more interested in your nails. 

     But Lord be praised because Compress laughs, slapping a hand to your back, toppling over with a slight wheeze. "Man, you're actually funny." Trying to ignore that because it sounded more like an insult than anything, and also the fact that Dabi was standing in between you so that act of assault in itself was unnecessarily complicated, (because it was unnecessary. . . and complicated) you all stop to turn in quiet awe at the car pulling up from the left.

     A red. . . car, (you didn't know much about them, they were all just metal boxes with seats on wheels) comes up, a side whistling coming from the phoenix beside you. It looked pretty decent, a few dents and scratches, but it was overall good enough. "Huh, nice, didn't expect that one out of—nope I was right, my expectations were low and they were met, that's not Tomura." The car completely ignored you three—which would've been in-character for him but he was drunk and it wasn't at all impossible for him to act out of range—but right behind it was a different, much more beaten up looking black car.

     Dents and scratches and what looked to be a slashed tire stitched back together, wobbling its way over to park in front of you three. Embarrassing, to say the least, as his head pops out and addresses you. "What do you think? Got this bad boy for free!" He slaps the door through the open driver's seat window, a loud metallic bang that shouldn't have sounded as broken as it had.

     "No wonder," You cringed, a sigh from somewhere beside you. "I can see smoke in there, I think the engine's on fire." Compress announces, shoving both his hands into his pockets as he leans his head to the right, "But I mean hey, I've never owned a car so what do I know."

     "Yeah no I'd rather take the subway," You announced proudly, turning on your heels and walking off to the nearest station. It didn't take much for the phoenix to trail behind you, a shrug and soon it was three. Shigaraki curses somewhere from behind you, burping out an 'I'm coming' as with a clearer head you can hear the rumblings from the breaking down vehicle. "God, reminder to never let him go car shopping."

     "As if any of us could even afford," Compress sighs.

     "I can."
     "She can."

     . . .

     He stared at the two of you with a look of pure and unbridled amusement (or was it confusion? Or even disappointment, you couldn't read him that well) before laughing awkwardly and clearing his throat, "Oh-kay uhh, moving on. What are you guys hiding from Kurogiri anyway?"

     "Wasn't it obvious? The scientist," Dabi responds like its the most obvious answer in the world (if it wasn't obvious enough yet), "We're trying to figure out where this drug is from, and that anxiety ridden knucklehead used to work in it." There was a few miments of silence, before earning a slow nod, "Oh. Cool, little so-so on you saying knucklehead, but cool. So where is he?"

     . . .

     . . .

     . . .

     You both turned around to go back to the apartment that was practically already a block away, mumbling a respective 'we forgot the fucking scientist' as you did so.

• • •

     "And then there was a left. . . no, no a right, and then another left. Or was it straight ahead?" Layla sat in her chair in pure agony as she listens to two voices at once, the idea of shoving three boxes full of cancer sticks all at once into her mouth a much more tempting way to die compared to having to sit through this.

     One voice from Taneo trying to explain the directions to the laboratory in straight, fast Japanese, while another, more robotic voice accompanied it to translate in real time. Melissa had been kind enough to lend it to her, the translator apparently being the reason she got a scholarship in. . . somewhere a few years ago and gladly letting her friend borrow it upon finding out of her little dilemma.

     But the noise of two voices had gotten too much for her sleep deprived, coffee induced brain to handle, having zoned out long ago as she only mindlessly nods to make herself think she was listening. This didn't really matter that much, (or so she says, while recording the entire thing because she could never trust her fluctuating attention span) these general directions not much of a help as it is a gateway to hopefully more breakthroughs with his memory.

     In the short, short time of having gathered yesterday to talk about what was happening with you, she had of course, no other new leads.

     She honestly just called you in the low, wishful thinking chance of Taneo remembering something else while he rambled about directions. She had no plans on relaying it to you if he ever did, so calling you was pretty much her only option.

     "And then I think the car took a road that had a lot of rocks. Unstable terrain, I remember bumping my head a lot and then turning another—" The urgent knocking on the door cut him off, sparing the brunette as she quietly thanks whoever was listening to her up there. Goodness, who would've thought that the day Layla appreciates someone knocking on her door would be today.

     She excuses herself, both the voices shutting up as she went to go unlock it and actually let whoever inside.

     As soon as she did however, she immediately regretted it and seriously thought of just shutting the door on their faces.

     "Dr. Blue! There you are, you weren't answering to any of the announcements and calls," One of her preppy coworkers called out, shuddering at the sight of her wide smile at seven pm on a Thursday. "Oh. Oh yeah I'm uh, working," She clears her throat and puts down her hand before she can point back at Taneo, uncomfortably aware of how exposed she felt without a lab coat and her new, supposedly secret project out in the open behind her. "So? What's this about?"

     "Orientation, silly!" Same girl laughs, already forgetting her name as she forced on a smile. "Oh. Oh right. Yeah uh, at seven? At night?" She nods, standing out like a giddy sore thumb amongst the other two who were sent to fetch her. "Yup! It's time to welcome Harriet's Institution of Modern Science and Technology's new partnership with!—"

     "You don't have to announce the entire name each time, Gina."

     "Please don't cut me off and yes I know but I will anyway. Hope we'll see you there!" Layla tries her best at another smile, before being cut off with the same sickly sweet look on her co worker who's name she doesn't bother remembering, "It's mandatory. It's starting around seven thirty, don't be late!" Their little group of three go to walk off, by the time she turned back around to yell 'don't forget your coat!' Blue had already shut the door with a groan. Goddammit, that's what she got for turning off the notifications on her phone from important events. No wonder she missed so many fire drills.

     Either way she sighs in exasperation, grabbing her lab coat and phone before leaving a small message in the translator for Taneo.

     This couldn't be that bad, right? It was just a fancy gathering for a person they don't know anything about, socializing with coworkers she doesn't regularly talk to or see and eating food she probably doesn't have an appetite for. Yup, just a fun, normal gathering in the normal place she worked at.

notes ; HI THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1K READS LOVE YOU GUYS AHHH
and yes ik I'll be posting the smut soon lmfao lemme just get this small little arc over and done with before we get to that
IT ISN'T REALLY IMPORTANT TO THE STORY SO IF YOU DON'T WANT THAT ICKY HORIZONTAL GREASED WEASEL TANGO SHIT, YOU CAN FREELY SKIP THAT CHAPTER
...
ONCE I POST IT
OKAY GOODBYEEEEEEEEE