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Toga knows she’s cute. She has known for years. She has a symmetrical face, naturally blushed cheeks, long eyelashes, the whole shabang. She knows she’s cute. But she can’t help it, when she catches her reflection, to stare at the fangs. She can’t help it, when she sees another cute girl smiling, to stare at the normal teeth for a few beats longer than necessary. She’ll see a cute girl with normal hobbies and envy will bubble up in her like boiling water. She understands that she isn’t normal.
She also understands that she will never live like those girls. Will never have a sibling to fight or laugh with, will never have a normal hobby, will never have a normal smile, will never be normal-
She feels Dabi poke at one of her space buns. “Whatcha thinkin’ about there, Fangs?” She blinks softly. The nickname always made her feel just that little bit better about her teeth, about her fangs. Dabi never said it as an insult, just…spoke it like it was fact. Which it is, obviously, Toga knows that, but the fact that he has never once made fun of her fangs always made her feel some semblance of normality.
She smiles, all bright and fanged. “Nothin much, what about you, Fireball?” The nickname rolls effortlessly off her tongue. She can’t help but giggle as she remembers why he got the nickname. It fits nonetheless, due to his quirk, but it was funny anyhow.
Dabi scowls and rolls his eyes. “Nosy brat, come on, it’s time to go back to base.” He speaks roughly, but something about it makes her feel strangely safe. She smiles and skips next to him as he takes his long strides with his stupid long legs back to the portal. She smirks and falls into the portal, giggling as she comes out the otherside onto the couch.
Dabi looks at her for a long while, not that she really notices, before turning off to the side and heading down the hall to his room. He looks back for a mere moment. “Fangs, I’m down for game night if you're not too pussy to play against me.” Toga immediately perks up. A few nights ago, she had mentioned wanting a game night for them to bond, so Dabi saying he’d join made her light up.
“You calling me a pussy cause I’m a girl or cause you're scared you’ll lose to me?” She smirks as she watches Dabi glare at her. “Oh, you’re on pipsqueak.” He shoots back a response effortlessly. Ever since she had met him, Toga had loved how sassy he was. He always mouthed back and never held back just because she's a girl.
(She would never mention this fact to him, but it always made her feel more..equal to him, in some way. Like he knew she was strong and treated her as such.)
She giggles when he flips her off as he continues walking to his room. She giggles and runs to Compress’s room, knocking on his door excitedly. When he opens the door, she is met by a rare sight. He doesn’t have any of his masks on and his hair is damp. He must have showered recently. Toga gives him a toothy smile, her mind screeching at her for it. The chants of fake fake fake, porcelain doll, ruined girl, do better, fake fake fakefakefake-
She shakes her head softly. “Do you have a deck of cards that I could use for game night?” Compress nods softly and opens the door wider. “I was actually working on a customized set of cards for you, Ms Himiko” Toga gasps and starts to rock on the balls of her feet. “Really!?” Her voice is high pitched and delighted as he pulls out what even looks like a personalized card deck box.
It’s a soft, pastel pink with red detailing, looking like dripping blood. She takes the box from him gently, sitting down on his bed as she slowly opens it. She pulls out the cards to find similar detailing. The cards still have the normal four suits, but they are all specifically detailed. The red ones are darker, a more blood red, and the normally black ones are a sharp white. She squeals delightedly as she continues looking through them. The aces all have blood detailing on the corners, the jokers have card deck designs, drawn to look covered in blood splatter. The jacks have solid red blood drops in the center, the kings have bloodied knives and the queens…
She feels her breath hitch as she looks at the queen cards. They all have…her teeth. There is a silhouette of a woman with her mouth open and she has fangs. For the black suits, it looks like the woman has pink lips and on the red suits…the teeth look coated in blood. Toga feels herself tearing up as she smiles up at Compress.
“Thank you…I love them..” Compress smiles and pats her head. “Of course, Ms Himiko. I wanted only the best for our best little girl!” The comment makes Toga giggle as she stands up and pockets the cards. She is gentle and careful with them.
“Thank you so much, Compress,” she speaks genuinely, smiling as she does so. She walks out of the magicians room and heads to her own. She changes out of her day slash technically work clothes and slips into her favorite black sweater that she stole. She had sewn blood designs into the cuffs of the sleeves to make it feel more her. She then slips on pastel pink shorts and matching thigh highs, also having blood designs sewn into them.
She sits on her bed and plays with the cards for a few hours, wanting to attempt some of the card tricks she had seen Compress do. When she finally looks back at the clock, it's around 7 pm. She sits up and heads to the living room and sets out the cards and asks Kurogiri to make Dabi a fireball. She makes herself a glass of strawberry milk with a bit of blood in it.
(This technique was given to her by Dabi, he heard that she feeds randomly because of bloodlust. He recommended that she should put small amounts of blood in her food and drinks so she can help prevent the bloodlust all together)
She grabs the fireball from Kurogiri and sets the two drinks on the coffee table, along with the cards. She taps her nails against her knees as she waits for Dabi to show up. A few moments later, the scarred man walks in, stretching slightly. He smirks down at Toga before spotting the glass of fireball on the coffee table.
“Damn, Fangs. You're going all out, huh?” He says with a smirk. He sits down and takes a sip of the fireball. He chuckles softly and looks at the card. “Oh, are those new cards?” Toga brightens and excitedly nods.
“Oh yeah, Compress made em for me!” Dabi nods as she shows the cards off. She continues rambling as she deals out the cards.
The next several hours are spent playing several different card games.
…
The faceless beings stare into her, sneering and spitting at her.
“Fanged beast”
“Demon”
“Vampire”
She flinched and looks around, horrified. Then, suddenly, everything is blinking and….and…
Blood seeps out of the mouths and necks of the faceless silhouettes, slowly filling the…room? She's in a room? What is happening here?
The blood pools at the floor and she can see it lapping at her feet. She looks up and…instead of them being completely faceless, she sees fangs. She sees open-mouthed, fanged silhouettes.
She can feel her breath quickening, her heart rate speeding and she gasps violently. She sees the pool of blood rising slightly, already at her ankles.
Fanged beast
Vampire
Demon
Demon
Demon
Demondemondemondemondemondemondem-
She sits up quickly in her bed, gasping and panting as she feels tears running down her face. She flips her blankets off of her and stumbles out of bed, tripping over her own feet as she makes her way to the bathroom.
She opens the door, closing it behind her quietly. She doesn't like that there isn't a lock on it, but its too late for anyone to be awake, so she can't even bother to care. She stares in the mirror for a moment, before beginning to rummage through the cabinets. She moves things as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake the others, and she finds what she is looking for. She stands up again and pauses, setting the item she found, the nail file, down.
Toga stares in the mirror, her mouth open as she looks at her fangs. She then looks down at the nail file on the counter of the cramped sink. She startles as Dabi barges in and unceremoniously sits on the edge of the small bathtub. He pulls out some black hair dye and fixes up his roots, which Toga had noticed were showing again. She pauses and sits down on the toilet lid in front of him. He looks at her calculatingly for a moment before deciding on something.
“Wanna dye your ends, kid?” Toga blinks at the question before looking at the dye box in his hand. “I’m only doing my roots, so there would be plenty left over.” She pauses. Is…is Dabi being nice to her? Toga looks at the dye and the angry (yet also fond) scowl on the scarred man's face. She nods, a smile gracing her face, the first real smile in years.
“Alright. Sit down in front of me. I’ll do yours first.” She immediately obeys what Dabi asks, sitting on the floor between his legs.
“There a reason for the file?” Toga flinched slightly as Dabi mentions it, her eyes darting to the nail file before she looks down.
“Nightmare.” Her voice is…small. Quiet. She feels Dabi’s hands still in her hair before continuing to apply the dye. They are both quiet for a moment before Dabi speaks up. “Nightmares are pretty shitty, kid. Wanna….talk about it?” Toga immediately shakes her head. No, she does not want to talk about it, she never wants to talk about it, ever.
They stay like this for a while, quiet and together while Dabi dyes her hair. At some point, Dabi stands up. “You'll need to let that sit for a bit and then kneel over the bathtub to rinse it.” He moves to the mirror, applying dye to his roots. “I'll help, since this is your first time doing this shit.” Toga nods softly and sits on the toilet lid again, watching Dabi dye his roots.
It's quiet and nice. A little while later, Dabi instructs her to kneel over the tub and begins to rinse out her hair. The water is warm and comfortable and she can feel her eyes drooping closed. Dabi washes her hair as well, to help make sure the dye stays and she feels her breathing slow slightly. The water stops and she feels Dabi dry her hair gently.
She sighs contentedly as Dabi dries her hair and she relaxes infinitely. She blinks softly when she feels Dabi pick her up bridal style. “Dabs?” Her voice is slightly slurred, exhaustion finally seeping into her bones. Dabi looks down at her. “Just…rest your head, Fangs.” She blinks softly before leaning her head against his chest and letting herself fall into the warmth of his hold.
She passes out.
…
When Toga wakes up the next morning, it's slow. She can't remember any possible dreams she may have had and the pillow under her cheek is warm and firm. She groans and curls into it and then it rumbles beneath her as a familiar voice speaks. “Sorry Compress, I think Fangs is waking up, I gotta go.”
Toga confusedly blinks awake to see Dabi looking down at her.
“Morning Fangs.”
She stares up at him for a moment before curling into him once again. She feels at home here, feels safe for once in her life. She feels Dabi chuckle and ruffle her hair.
"Alright Fangs, get some more rest."
She passes out again quickly before she can hear what Dabi says.
"Gods knows you need it kiddo."