After surviving yet another impromptu, unplanned, uncalled for date that you may or may not have enjoyed (results still pending), you were left to walking the busy streets at the height of the heat that was one pm.

     . . .Well it wasn't really hot, but the sun sure was fucking blinding. The cold air was a good enough contrast to not completely toast your skin, cancelling each other out quietly. The middle ground? Cold winds that whipped at your face gracelessly while the sun continued to glare at you like you just committed the outmost horrifying sins against humanity. 

     "Where are we going, might I ask?" You broke the silence, not even sure if he heard you as you went against human traffic. You bumped shoulders, smelled both cologne and alcohol—and was that sewage?—as you tried your best to keep to yourself just aimlessly following Dabi. "Dunno, was kind of just following you, babe."

     "What?" You shot him an incredulous look, earning a hearty laugh as he shook his head. "Obviously I'm kidding, my God." He easily accepts the hit to his arm like a champ, continuing to walk with both hands still in his coat pocket and quietly humming a tune. "Back to your place," He pauses, "Like your. . . job. Not your house, your job. That place, whatever. There. Why? You got somewhere else to be?" You sigh, scratching your forehead in thought, taking that time to just rip off the hat you had put there a few minutes before. You did it in hopes of protecting your head from the sun—not exactly appreciating the idea of burning your scalps off trying to survive through typical city sidewalks—but all it did was make your head itchy, and it didn't exactly help all that much so you found it less of a relief and more of a burden. Like this whole situation you managed to get yourself into!

     "No, not really. I'm lost here, Dabi! I don't know what I'm doing!" You swing your bag off your shoulder, shoving the hat back inside and zipping it up harshly, (you didn't mean to of course, it just happened) "Alright." He offers, the two of you quietly pausing by a traffic light, "You heard of the rubber duck debugging?"

     "Have I heard of the rubber—yes I've heard of the rubber duck debugging, that's what my cat and the thing on my desk is for." He nods, like a scientist getting the answer that he wants in a testing, "Good, good. Do that. I'll be your rubber ducky and let you rant." You pause—not physically, obviously—slowly swinging your bag back over your shoulder as you eyed him suspiciously with your brows furrowing with each second that passed, "Are you just suggesting that so that you don't actually have to offer advice?"

     "Oh wow, was I that obvious?" Another hit, this time to his stomach. "Okay ow! Fine, fine, obviously not. Just. . . I don't know, I feel like I'm better help just shutting up and letting you do the talking." You were about to hit him again—maybe this time not so playfully—but get taken aback as you actually try and understand his actual implications, "Oh. . . oh," A smile grows on your face, walking subconsciously in an untold pattern as you two crossed the street when the lights turned green after an obnoxiously long wait, "Well if you put it like that. . ."

     "I'm starting to think that suggesting that was a mistake."

     "Shut up. So! Okay, uhh," You cleared your throat, "So Taro has it out for me and he's sent a group on my ass in hopes of murdering me. So far all attempts have failed, in killing me, I don't know if the 'injecting me with the serum' thing was part of this plan, so the success of that may or may not be different from the killing attempts," He just wordlessly nods, his sign of saying that he was still listening despite his expression. "So! That. But now that they injected me with the stuff, in a panic, I went to my scientist friend looking for answers. She gave me the best effort that she could—or not, who knows—and told me that in order to give me the rest of the sure answers, I'm gonna have to get some documents from a lab that may or may not exist. And if it does, the possibilities of it being in city are low, much less it even being in Manhattan." 

     You didn't even mind that he wasn't answering, this whole process feeling like you were talking to yourself with the lesser chances of a person calling you crazy because you were technically talking to someone, he just wasn't talking back, much like a rubber duck. Because if it did talk back, chances are that's not a rubber duck. "And then I went to Freddie to ask if she has any idea where it may or may not be made. A drug like this, doesn't feel like it can just be made at your everyday lab. Or maybe it does, who knows, I don't work at one, whatever. So! I go to her, tell her what's happening, but!" You sigh and slump dramatically, the phoenix beside you chuckling, to which you held up a finger, "Rubber ducks don't talk, shut up."

     He lifts up his hands in mock surrender, letting one rest on your back upon rounding a corner and coming across a larger hoard of people. He uses this as a guide, completely trying to ignore the years lost from the lack of physical affection creeping up in a shiver from where his hand laid and trying not to get sidetracked, "She has no idea where it might be made because of the amount of labs this Godforsaken city has. Then I get dragged into another date by an unreasonably charming bastard to eat lunch and then finally after that! I'm stuck not knowing what to do." He keeps nodding for a bit—hand still on your back—before realizing that you had caught up in all of that day's events. "Okay, hey, my charm is not 'unreasonable', okay, it's what made you fall for me."

     "Keep telling yourself that, buddy. Anyway yeah, that didn't help at all, because I still don't know what to do." He nods again, expecting him to look discouraged that his attempts at helping had failed but instead being met with a, get this, completely neutral Dabi! "Yeah, but you got your thoughts and story straight, right?" 

     You nod, although you weren't all too confident with it. "Uh yeah, I guess." 

     "So it helped, just not in a way you were expecting. What do you want to do now?" You shake your head, "No clue. Guess I just go back to my job and play the waiting game until Freddie figures out where this lab is. Meanwhile, I do my own research and hopefully—what?" He stops walking, pausing right in the dead center of a New York civilian walkway. You weren't sure if all cities had this rule, but you damn well knew that standing still in the middle of a heavy foot traffic in this city was an invite for death. "What? What is it?" You honestly felt like you were asking Sir Hamilton what he was seeing in a blank wall at three in the morning, the still image of your cat unblinkingly wide-eyed and interested in the paint somehow managing to invade your thoughts and overwriting the actual image before you that was of Dabi glaring at someone. 

     "Dollface, we gotta go the other way." You raise a brow, your thoughts getting rudely popped like a bubble you wanted to see float into the heavens, "What?" You scoff, before following his gaze, "But this is the way to my. . . shop. . ." You trail off, catching sight of. . . Juan? Him again? 

     "What the fuck does he—it's the middle of the day!" You reasoned, slowly ushering you and the phoenix to the side to avoid getting trampled on. Said man was quietly standing next to a bakery looking like a criminal, with his hood up and head hung low in an attempt to blend in with the rest of the crowd. Ironic how it just made him stand out even more, somehow managing to catch both you and Dabi's attention that easily. You were surprised you even recognized him, but you guessed that having an enemy like him had its weird quirks.

     "Well, too bad, because he's here now. If we're lucky, we can avoid running into him." You scoff, probably sounding a little harsh but you didn't really mean to, "Yeah sure, no way he's gonna notice us right after you glared at him so intensely I could've sworn you wanted nothing more than to see him dead." You then stop, actually thinking about it, "No yeah that sounds about right, go on." 

     He gently but firmly grabs ahold of your hand, quietly tugging you the other way and thankfully going with the tide. For your sake and his, at least you weren't constantly hitting people on the way as you tried to swim upstream, letting this new direction just drag you into the momentum and walking off quicker. Not that you saw any use in that, because it doesn't seem like he's recogni—and he was walking your direction now, how nice.

     "If we just keep walking, we'll be fine right?" Nope, jinxed right through your statement because the next thing you know, Dabi had grabbed hold of your shoulders and ducked the both of you down just as one familiar tendril announces its presence, stabbing the air in where your head had been just mere moments before. "WHAT THE FUCK!?" You shamelessly cry out, sending back a glare as that little commotion caused more than a little bit of a panic throughout the crowd, dispersing quickly as, as dramatic as it could get in simply seeing Juan's face, you were forced onto your feet and sent running. 

     "Is he even trying anymore?!" You call out as though it wasn't obvious enough, referencing to the way he just so shamelessly reveals his not-so-human nature. Dabi's grunts as he grabs you past another corner was answer enough, yelping as he pulls you along the street and completely ignoring traffic, feeling your soul leave your body upon feeling the heat coming off of one of the car's hoods that you barely missed by a hair. "Watch where you're going, assface!" 

     "You're the one on the fucking street, lady!" You don't get a chance to respond in even more vulgarity as you were once again forced to keep running. You didn't even know why the man was making such a big deal out of this, finding that simply putting enough distance and hiding in plain sight was easier than turning this into a game of Temple Run. 

     You run past another store with way too many displays and shit set up outside, almost tripping on multiple signs as Dabi drags you along. You dare look back to see if you could perhaps go with your more sensible plan, but stop in horror as, he was right there! Gaining on you! You don't remember being that close?! "HOW THE FUCK," You weren't sure if you meant that as a question as you started to feel the toll this whole chase sequence was taking on your legs, the exhaustion slowly catching up and the excessive movement letting some of your bandages slowly loosen. The crowds easily got out of the way at the sight of the two of you speeding past with the looming threat a mere few feet away, speed that should never be possible for a regular human—much less for someone who looked like that—right on your tails. 

     You cry out again as a sign for a coffee shop (why were there so many of those?) flies right by you, managing to hit Juan, but not slowing him down at all, "Dabi! You almost hit someone else!" You scoff, "And pretty sure you weren't even allowed to touch that!"

     "Collateral damage, babe," He calls out—not even just slightly out of breath—from somewhere in front of you, only snapping back into it as he gives you another strong tug forward. You scoff again, yelping as you barely dodged yet another strike from his weirdly inky tentacles, "That was just regular damage!"

     Arriving at a more open area—what with the sight of an actual tree beside a building that didn't seem like it was right in front of your face constantly—you weren't even given a moment to breathe as Dabi curses looking around, before huffing as he drags you along again. "Look I get that this is serious and all but can you stop treating me like ragdoll?!" Your complaints get ignored as he grabs onto one of the poles stationed outside of the familiarly green entrance of the underground subway—the sign 'Downtown and Brooklyn' greeting you—swinging himself and using the momentum to jump down the stairs as if physics paid him no mind. With you still in tow of course, but you weren't given a chance to realize the way you almost landed on your leg the wrong way had it not been for his grip, looking back in horror as Juan crashes into the railings, missing the turn you and the phoenix exploited.

     Down in the depressively grimy surroundings of a station you hadn't visited in literal years, you were left stumbling around blindly as you weaved past many of the city dwellers just trying to get on with their lives and going where they needed to go, too much of a rush happening for you to respond back with some wise-ass comment of your own to anyone who dared complain. But you heard the screams and random outbursts of panic from behind as Juan no doubt caught up, shakily—and barely—swiping your card upon bursting through the turnstiles. 

     Giving the surroundings a quick scan, he spots a car just about to leave. How convenient, just the miracle you needed as you get pushed inside with no warnings whatsoever. You heard complaints as you bump into people the way in, ignoring them as you see Dabi barely slipping inside from slowing down with a hiss, about three of the black tendrils piercing straight through his shoulder and somewhere dangerously near his neck. Juan does some gestures with his hands, but get distracted upon being pushed around by the people who, quite frankly, had better shit to do. Sensing this, the phoenix grabs hold of the things that went straight through his body, gripping it and, seeing as you were paying attention to it, seeing the small, barely noticeable glowing blue from inside his fist and smoke rising from the sides. 

     He snaps it, cursing in pain as he forces his way inside the car you were in and letting the rest of the inky shit crumble back towards the original source. A source who was right outside of the doors that weren't closing fast enough. 

     With quick enough reflexes, Dabi catches more of the tendrils with his good arm, ignoring the blood that seeped from his hand as he holds up his leg. Landing his boot straight onto the fucker's chest, he thrusts him backwards right as the sliding doors closed. He gets pushed away easily enough, ending in the mercy of an angry New Yorker who just had their—much needed—coffee spilt from that rude shove. 

     The yells of the man with a gray beanie and a lot of layers disappear as the train gets to moving, the sounds of engine and coughing somewhere along the car quickly filling out the background noise. Juan, however. . . didn't look like he was at all bothered. You didn't notice, because you were obviously running for your life, but you never did see that much emotions of the man's face. Usually you'd be expecting a crazed grin, or at least an angry look at his plans getting foiled paired with being lectured by a random citizen. But he doesn't.

     Nothing of the sorts.

     Just blank staring as you slowly lose sight when you got to the tunnels, a last look showing the owner of the coffee being taken aback as Juan's hood falls off and seeing the nasty scars left there, before letting out one last hurrah and walking off.

      Panting and finally letting the aftermath settle, you were in the safe ignorance that was more or less a conscious choice regarding your city, much to your delight. 

     You stumble on the way to collapsing beside Dabi, the seat left wide open as a woman with a large framed photo held between her legs shamelessly moved off when he sat there. You didn't blame her, you were glad that you were given the spot, but wow rude. "Well fuck, isn't this nice," The phoenix sarcastically announces from beside you, leaning his good shoulder onto yours as he sighs. "Ironic, remember the times when you were the one getting injured?"

     "Oh yeah, I make it an effort to think about it at least twice a day," You shot back with just about the same amounts of sarcasm, earning a hissing laugh, before he sighs. "I don't even know where we're going." You snort, leaning your head back and praying to whoever was up there that you didn't just lean straight onto dried-up puke, "Downtown, apparently."

     "Oh yeah," He whispers with a knowing look, nodding proudly at what seemed like a memory he so fondly recalls, "That was where I first kissed you."

     "Oh yeah!" You forced on enthusiasm, smiling unnaturally wide, "Right in front of a burning building! Yeah me too, I remember that." Now it was his turn to snort, sounding more like he choked on something as he did so, "Actually, we were at the back of said burning building. Just a correction, but go on." You roll your eyes, sighing as you tried to push back down the smile creeping on your face. 

     Silence—or at least, the closest thing you had to it—just easily settles in the rest of the trip, only realizing a few minutes later that the man beside you was most definitely still bleeding. "Say, noticed anything weird about Juan?" He raises a brow, only moving when you shuffled to get your bag, "Who?" You send him a look, before he lets out an 'oh' and lets you continue. "He seems. . . unlike himself." The laughter that kind of, kind of not cut you off that came from him made you frown, your way of telling him that, 'hey, I'm being serious here, you dick, let me continue'. "Dollface you are literally, literally the only person I know who would even pay attention to a man trying to kill you. Much less actually notice if anything got off. Impressive, really." 

     "I'm serious, Dabi," You say, about to continue before your eyes widened. "What?"

     "He. . ." Your face contorts, the roll of bandages in your hand getting forgotten as a dawning realization settled in, "He. . . Since when did he get the black tendrils?"

note ; confession, i didn't actually mean to kill juan??? oops ig lmfaooafoafjajfopjfa

hope y'all doing well!