Surprise bubbled within, but Dabi kept it suppressed. Natsuo wasn’t supposed to be here, anywhere close to here. He was damn near powerless and did a good job of staying out of things. But here Natsuo was, in the middle of the shit. Dabi turned to the younger Todoroki, and slammed his fist into the man’s gut, hard enough to double him over. That was a great effort on Dabi’s part, due to the fact that his physical stature wasn’t all that impressive. He wasn’t strong enough to last in a fistfight. “Get out. Before you get incinerated.” It was an obvious departure from the usual, as Dabi would have never given the warning, and just launched flames at an intruder. He was trying to save Natsuo from a gruesome fate. For their mother’s sake.
Whatever the other man lacked in muscle, he made up for by being both unexpected and desperate. Natsuo clutched at his stomach as all the air fled his lungs, then fell to his knees on the ground- Coughing and gasping for air.
He had tracked the villain down for a reason and there was a good chance that he could be wrong and endangering himself needlessly, but the evidence was there as clear as day. Even if he didn’t recognize the man standing before him now, he knew those flames. He’d watched from balcony when their father had forced Touya to master Flashfire, smelled that sickening and cloying aroma when the heat proved too great to sustain for long periods of time. Stood by and did nothing as it ate away, piece by piece, the body and sanity of his elder brother.
He’d never once raised a hand against Enji back then, never once tried to defend Touya the way Touya protected him. Natsuo knew it deep in his heart, as much as he hated to admit it, but he’d always been too afraid. He always been a pathetic, whiny burden when Touya had been suffering for so long- Had stupidly added even more responsibility to the already crushing weight on the elder boy’s shoulders. Always useless, always crying. A failure of brother. They had always been so close, thick as thieves- Yet what had he ever done for his sibling?
He may as well have helped Enji kill Touya, himself.
“No-” he managed to grind out from between clenched teeth, reaching out to grasp at the ragged and fraying hem of the duster coat Dabi was wearing.
“I’m not gonna leave you... Never again,” he promised, forcing himself back onto his unsteady feet.