Violet POV:

"Hold on a second, you can't just go out like that. We haven't even finished reading all of the directions." I explained to him in annoyance, as he was already one step away from the door.

Dabi simply laughed without looking back, giving his head a little shake of amusement.

"I listened to your little briefing, sunshine. I did things your way. Now it's time to do them my way." He said smugly, before I quickly began walking towards him to stop him from leaving.

"Oh, please. I'd hardly call that listening. You heard two words and then stomped away like a boneheaded idiot!-hey, stop! Seriously!" I chided in irritation, instinctively grabbing onto his wrist to stop him from getting the other half of his body out the door.

Surprisingly, he actually stopped when I told him to. Begrudgingly, but still.

He quickly yanked his arm out of my grip, turning around to face me in his own impatient question.

"As if there could possibly be more to say. It's a stakeout. You think I haven't done one to you heroes a thousand-and-one fucking times? You just show up and stalk people." He countered, causing me to scoff.

"One, please stop admitting to me all of the crimes you've committed, because it makes me feel incredibly conflicted about working with you. Two, there's more to this than just showing up. You don't have a time. You don't have a number of people who will be there. You don't have-"

"Eh, fuck what the clown committee says. Can't trust those assholes to be truthful, anyways-" He said dismissively, before I quickly cut him off.

"Listen, Dabi. If we're not on the same page tonight and you get hurt, I can't make any promises that I'll be able to heal you again, alright? Not if I don't know what's going on with the situation beforehand. You said it yourself, I'm the number seventy hero in the country, okay? It's not as if my multi-tasking skills tonight will really be that great. Work with me here to make this safer for both of us." I disciplined tiredly, taking advantage of his reluctant eye roll to grab his arm again and quickly drag him back inside.

This time he was the one to let out a small sigh of frustration as he harshly kicked the door closed with his foot, broodily shoving his hands in his pockets as we walked back over to the computer.

"Alright then, you low grade James Bond. What's your plan?" He asked with dwindling patience, causing me to quickly take a seat back at the computer.

"Well, to start, it says here that we need to wear all black to blend in-oh, wow, look at this-it's because the stakeout is supposed to take place tonight and not twelve in the afternoon. See? So much new information in ten seconds, and all it took was two more sentences of reading and patience." I retorted with sass, causing Dabi to rub his face with his hands tiredly as he begrudgingly plopped back down in his seat.

"Ah, whatever, so we wear black and sit around for five extra hours doing nothing. Doesn't sound like any breaking news to me." He countered stubbornly, yet his harsh tone was just a tad on the defensive side this time as he clearly knew I had a point.

"You have something all black, I assume? I'd be surprised if you didn't. Your entire presence just screams decade old emo." I stated, rolling my eyes for emphasis as I stood up from the chair to check my own suitcase now.

Dabi got up from his seat and moved to my, now empty, one in front of the computer, finally deciding to scroll through the information himself so he could stop looking like a grade A jackass.

That's impossible.

"Yeah, well at least I look cool. You walk around in that bright, white suit all day, looking like a marshmallow." He snickered, looking over at me as he said the insult so he could catch my appalled look.

Oh, and it was appalled.

"I do not look like a marshmallow! I look cool, too!!" I defended pointlessly as Dabi's snicker had turned into a small laugh now.

He quickly lost interest in the information at the computer, doing a 180 spin in the swivel chair to face me.

"Rule number one of my rules, sunshine-anyone who has to say they look cool is definitely not cool." He smirked.

My brows furrowed in slight annoyance with myself as I continued throwing clothes out of my suitcase to try and find something all black.

"Oh? Well, if that's true, coolio, then it looks like you already broke your own rule, cause you said you were cool first." I pointed out distractedly, grinning happily as I found a pair of black jeans.

"Yeah, but that's different, cause I'm actually cool-oh, and rule number two, anyone who says 'coolio' is a fucking nerd." He chuckled just a bit genuinely, not sounding so naggingly irritating when he actually laughs and doesn't fake it with sinister stuff.

"Hey, hey. There's nothing wrong with being a fricking nerd! I'll have you know that I was the spelling bee champion at my high school. Yeah, everyone called me 'Queen Bee.'" I smirked triumphantly, choosing to leave out the part of how only Akio called me 'Queen Bee' and it was meant to make fun of me-

"Of course they did." Dabi agreed condescendingly, lazily throwing his head back against the chair as I continued looking for a black top.

"And that's cool!" I followed up determinedly.

"Rule number three, it shouldn't be that hard to find black clothes. You look like a rainbow flag with all of those stupid colors you keep pulling out of your bag." He nagged lightly, starting to spin around in the swivel chair as he impatiently waited for me to find something.

A small chuckle escaped my lips at his comment, before it was quickly replaced by a victorious grin as I found a long sleeved black undershirt.

"So? Your clothes make you look like a piece of coal. There's nothing wrong with rainbow flags! I think they're cool-and besides, I always like to have a little bit of color in my wardrobe. It spices things up, not to mention, it makes me happy." I beamed honestly, as I looked at all the different colors that were splayed across my bed space.

While I may not be the toughest person in the room, I've become pretty confident in who I am over the last years with non-hero things. I may have the tendency to be quiet on certain things, but I've come to know what I like and I'm not afraid to admit it, even to judgers like Dabi. Guess the good thing about being at the bottom of the barrel in the hero world is that it made me realize fast that there's no pressure to be perfect.

Mom always said to just 'be myself,' so I've really been trying to honor her and follow that advice.

"Whatever. Just hurry up and find something so we can finish this." Dabi uttered, already dropping the subject as he lost interest.

But, I didn't mind. Not in the slightest, because I realize that, even though it was incredibly small and short, this talk was the first real conversation that Dabi and I have had since meeting.

Sure, he still insulted me and didn't really seem to be paying attention, but the point is that it was a neutral, somewhat civil, conversation. It proves that, while it might take awhile to get there, Dabi is capable of not being so difficult when he wants to be.

It gives me hope that maybe this mission might be successful after all.

•••••••

After finding some all black clothes, and sitting around for five hours doing nothing, it was finally time for the stakeout.

Unsurprisingly, Dabi's civil, compliant attitude didn't last very long. Once I found the clothes and we finished reading through the briefing notes together, he claimed for a second time that he didn't wanna be stuck in that 'crummy room' with me all day, and was quick to take off to another part of the hotel.

While I wasn't totally comfortable with leaving the notorious villain to his own devices, ever since I brought up the threat of bringing the hero commission into the mix, he seemed to be just a tad more complacent. I didn't think he'd be super motivated to try anything sketchy today. He probably just wanted to get away from me while he could.

The feeling's mutual, so I'm not complaining.

He returned five hours later-well, five hours and ten minutes later, but I guess ten minutes late is better than forty-five, right?

The sun had gone down and I was dressed in all black ready to go.

While it took me an hour to find black clothing, it took Dabi a literal minute to find a black hoodie, black pants, and black sneakers before he walked out of the bathroom.

Yep. Definitely a walking piece of coal.

"Oh, good! You changed fast this time." I called out from my bed, continuing to pack the small duffel full of little gadgets we could use for the stakeout.

"Yeah, well we already established that the faster we get this done, the faster I can get away from you." Dabi stated casually, adjusting the collar of his hood before his eyes trailed to my bag.

"And what the hell's all that?" He followed up, becoming just a bit curious at the cool looking tech stuff I was carefully setting into the bag.

"It's some resources the hero commission gave us to complete our assignments. I'm bringing this little radio, a portable tracking computer, high grade binoculars-I even read the manuals on how to work them ahead of time, to make sure we are totally and completely prepared. I assume you didn't, right?" I asked patiently, already preparing myself for his answer so I wouldn't get so annoyed.

"Got that right, sunshine. I don't need prissy manuals. Not when I got these." He smirked smugly, sparking a small flame on his fingertip as he walked over to the table filled with other cool gadgets.

"Yes, because that's an intelligent way of thinking." I pointed out dryly, starting to zip up the bag before Dabi called out to stop me.

"Hey, hold on. Why are you only bringing useless binoculars, when you could be bringing this thing right here? Looks way more interesting." He mumbled, holding up some fancy looking portable weapon in a position that seemed completely incorrect.

I gasped slightly as he began sloppily twirling the device between his fingers, quickly strutting over to him to grab the item from his hands.

"Don't touch it like that. And I'm only bringing the items that I read up on and know how to use. In case you haven't noticed, there's a lot of objects here and all of them have their own instruction manual. I haven't had the time to familiarize myself with all of them yet, so there's no way I'm gonna bring that." I huffed with discipline, carefully setting the item back down on the desk.

Dabi rolled his eyes with judgement as he watched where I set the device, surprisingly leaving it alone now as he walked over to the bag I packed.

"Alright, well get the bag of granny shit and let's go then. I don't wanna be up late doing this." He stated, giving the backpack a small flick with his fingers before stepping a few feet behind me.

Happy that he was deciding to comply, I quickly situated the backpack over my shoulders, turning around to face him.

"Well then, let's not wait any longer in getting out of here. We might even be back before midnight."

•••••••

2:37 am.

"Fuck this shit." Dabi groaned out boredly, lightly slamming his head down atop the dirt we've been uncomfortably laying on for the past eight hours.

Yeah. That's right. It's been eight hours since this stakeout began. Eight hours since we've been situated atop this little hill overlooking the empty. convenience store. Eight hours of Dabi's constant nagging about how boring and pointless this is.

If you think he's cranky about this whole thing, I promise I'm ten times worse.

"Mhm. I heard you the first seventy times. If that's all you're going to keep saying, then how about not saying anything at all-or! Better yet, how about you actually help me?" I hissed out in a whisper, pressing the bulky headphones to my ears tighter as I began fiddling with the dial of the radio once more to try and catch any conversations going on inside the convenience store.

Dabi let out a small scoff of impatient disagreement to my methods, giving his fingers a small snap before a little blue flame sparked from his hand.

"Already offered to help, sunshine." He pointed out, naggingly waving the flame a few inches from my face before I shoved him away by his wrist.

"No. The hero commission's orders-"

"Are ones that you've already blabbed about seventy-one times tonight. I get it, alright. They want us to sit on our asses and do nothing. I mean, seriously, is this what you clowns do when you're trying to catch me? It's no wonder I'm able to prance around, doing whatever I want all the time." Dabi huffed out, starting to feel sore from laying on his stomach all night as he lethargically rolled over onto his back now.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance as his shift in movement caused his leg to knock harshly into mine, watching him look up at the night sky boredly, before I quickly directed my attention back to the shop ahead of us.

"Sure, maybe for you it's doing nothing, since you refuse to have a listen through the radio with me. But as for my job, it's called 'gathering intel,' which is exactly what the commission's orders were for this assignment." I explained, giving the dial of my radio another turn to try and hear something.

Dabi's lips curled up into a smirk as he lazily turned his head in my direction.

"Oh yeah? Then enlighten me, James Bond, what intel have you gathered here tonight, sitting on your ass with your little radio?" He asked, voice taunting but also quiet with desired sleep as he didn't try very hard to hold the mock.

Regardless, my focused movements faltered at his question, considering we both already know the answer to his question.

"Well....Uh-007-"

"Not a new person. Just another name for James Bond, stupid-" He tried to correct.

"If you've been paying attention to anything tonight, other than your own complaining, you'd know that I haven't gathered anything, because not one single person has come in or out of that shop, since we've been here...." I started in defense, trailing off towards the end as I really took in the failure of my words.

I let out a small sigh of annoyance, taking another look at the abandoned shop before frustratedly slinking the headphones off my ears.

"I dunno. I mean, the lights aren't even on, and there's no cars in front of the place. Maybe no one's here." I muttered admittedly, positioning the headphones around my neck now as I was tired of listening to silence.

Dabi lazily kept his gaze on me as I did so, letting out a small hum of confident disagreement.

"Nah. I bet they're already inside. Probably have been there for hours and just found a different way to get in. Underground entrance, or something." He explained civilly, causing my brows to raise in slight surprise for his insight.

I quickly met his eyes in question, hoping he'd elaborate. But, he didn't.

"What makes you think that?" I urged to get him talking again, causing him to laugh.

"Because that's what I would have done. What, forget who you're talking to already?" He smirked.

He's got a good point. Part of the reason the commission even thought of the idea to take the league on as an ally for this assignment is because we need partners who can think just like a villain. What better resource than to use one of them?

But, even so....

"T-The...well, the instructions for this assignment were to simply listen for any information, not go into the shop and check for ourselves." I explained carefully, not wanting to say anything that might set Dabi off.

However, it appears that I didn't have to. He already had a plan of his own.

"You have fun with that. Lemme know how it works out for you-actually, don't. I really don't give a shit." He shrugged, giving his arms a lazy stretch over his head before rolling onto his side.

My eyes widened in panic when I saw him trying to stand up, causing me to immediately grab onto his wrist and yank him back down into our hiding spot.

Not expecting my strength, he stumbled back down slightly, practically crashing his chest into my own before we simultaneously scrambled away from each other.

"Do that again, and I'll-"

"What do you think you're doing?!" I interrupted him with a harsh whisper, keeping an iron grip on his wrist to make sure he didn't try to stand up again.

"Going inside." He said bluntly, looking at me like the question was a stupidly obvious one.

"You can't! That's not part of the assignment-"

"Yeah, well in case you haven't figured it out by now, sweetheart, I'm not really one to follow stupid rules-"

"And just what do you plan to do when you get inside?! You don't know how many people are in there. Not to mention, what if they escape and simply move locations of their hideout? Then we'll have to find them all over again." I groaned out, gripping Dabi's wrist harder when he started wiggling it out of my grasp.

"Then I'll make sure they don't get away." He chuckled lowly, barely heating up his wrist to get my hand sizzling.

My jaw dropped in a silent scream as a searing sound began to form under my grip

"Ow!!" I exclaimed, releasing his arm as my skin began to sting from his quirk.

Taking my caught off guard moment, Dabi took his other non-heated hand, shoving it over my entire face before barely pushing me backwards to give himself a head start.

I'm sure he normally would have pushed me much harder in a different situation. But, he knew we were situated on an inclined hill, and that a gentle tap was all I'd need to lose my balance and tumble back all the way down to the ground.

"Fuc-dge! Dabi!!!" I growled out as I flew backwards from his push, unfortunately starting to bounce off the hill we'd been sitting upon like a damn soccer ball.

"Aw. Leaving so soon? That's a damn shame. No worries though, things will go faster, now that we're doing them my way." Dabi departed mockingly as he stood up from the hill and began casually walking down towards the front door of the convenience shop.

He's going to ruin everything and then we'll get in trouble.

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Next Chapter Title: Nailed it