We Could Have Been Heroes

All eyes were on him in this moment, he couldn’t show fear, they would know and latch onto it, even his teacher would know that he was afraid, and worst of all he would know too, and he would know first before anyone else.

Taking a deep breath he held up the piece of paper, there was no writing on it, there was nothing wrong with the paper, but everyone noticed how he was holding it between three fingers and his thumb. He let his fourth finger touch the paper, in doing so his quirk made quick work of the pristine piece of paper, pieces of it fell to the ground, some small, other’s large, but all of it was nothing more that dust of different sizes and that happened within seconds of all five of his fingers touching it. He had explained his quirk to his class, and to his teacher, but explaining was one thing, showing   was something else. Showing his quirk in action meant that they all knew what they were dealing with, and they would be aware of how deadly he could be, if he wanted to be. Worse for him, they could see him as a villain, someone to fear and put down, to push him to the outer rings of the class, for him to fail and never reach the heights of a Pro Hero. Not that that would stop him, he was particularly stubborn after all, but that would just make his way to his goal so much harder.

He looked at his classmates, gauging their reactions, he saw emotions that he knew all too well and some that were fairly new to him, as well as one that he shouldn’t have been surprised by in the slightest.

Fear – that was a common one, in fact from his stand point it was a sensible one, they didn’t know him that well, how could they trust him not to use his quirk on them? He was certain he could gain their trust though, so long as they were willing to let him earn their trust.

Amazement – this normally was in combination with fear, some people were scared and yet at the same time, they were fascinated with how his quirk worked, could he speed it up himself? Was it always that fast? Had he ever used his quirk by accident on people? The last question always made him flinch and clam up, he didn’t want to talk about that, but he knew how fast his quirk worked on different objects, he could calculate how fast it would take the kill someone with his quirk, but he liked to push that to the side, lock it up and simply ignore it for the time being.

Amusement.

His red eyes locked on to those piercing blue one’s, the only person in the whole class who wasn’t afraid or amazed by his showing of his deadly quirk. Those eyes just looked over at him, a smirk appearing on his lips, his dark hair falling into his eyes and once more Tenko wondered how on earth were they even friends?

The teen in question was the eldest son of Endeavour's, the 2 nd Hero, after All Might, something the flame hero hated with a passion. It was something of a badly kept secret from what Tenko learned, that the Pro Hero had been trying hard to have the perfect quirk child, having forced his wife to marry him, bribing her family who agreed and the poor woman had no choice but to go along with it. He had learned about quirk marriages, but they were supposed to be illegal, however Endevour managed to get a pass, since there was no real evidence aside from gossip, and the words of those in his family.

The teen preferred to be known as Dabi rather than his given name, he made it clear to everyone on his first day in class, and he was more than happy to get physical with anyone who dared to utter his birth name. Tenko had been on the receiving end on his physical abuse when he was younger, nothing to give him lasting scars, but reminders that he should leave that birth name out of his mouth if he wanted to keep this unusual friendship. At the time Tenko wasn’t sure if Dabi even wanted to be his friend, or if he was being his friend because it pissed his father off, after all Tenko was the nephew of All Might, not in blood, but that didn’t really matter as far as those closest to them were concerned. They were family, that was all there was to it.

So while he expected the amused look on his face, what he didn’t expect was for Dabi to walk up to him, throw his arm around his neck and pull him into a one armed hug in front of everyone in their class.

“Not much to fear here folks,” Dabi said with a grin to the rest of the class, while his friend struggled to get free. “You are so dramatic Shimura.” He whispered and let him got, they both returned to their seats as the teacher called out another student.

In that moment, the whole moment of Tenko showing the rest of his peers what his quirk could do, and with Dabi’s interference, the class accepted him. They were impressed with his ability to adapt his hold, his grip so that his quirk didn’t automatically destroy what he was touching or holding, he didn’t need to wear any special gear to stop his quirk from destroying things, he managed that all on his own. It impressed them, and for Tenko, he felt that all that time training on his grip adaption was worth it, he was glad he didn’t give in and let Toshinori buy him a pair of special gloves, if he worked on something like this, then getting through the next few years of UA should be no trouble at all. He was actually part of his class, working with and alongside his peers, who actually respected him rather than feared him, who appreciated how his mind worked in regards to battle situations that the teachers put them in, even more so, they respected how he could actually fight without relying so heavily on his quirk, no many in his class could do that, in fact most had a hard time not destroying things during those training sessions.

When he got home every day to talk to Gran Torino, and possibly Toshinori about his day, he was always excited, and a bit nervous, particularly when he was aware he did something wrong in class in regards to his fighting style. While Toshinori was more forgiving, Gran Torino was more than likely to give him grief about it, and suggest more training after he did his homework. It wasn’t fun, but he knew the old man was trying his best to help him in the only way he knew how, and it was all for his own benefit, which would result in helping his classmates later on.





A year and a half later was when he gained a rather impressive scar, one that he could keep covered for the most part, but the disappointing part about this scar was that it wasn’t given to him in a dramatic fight against a deadly villain, he wasn’t almost killed while attempting to protect his classmates, or protecting civilians from danger. No, he got this large scar when he was in school, sparring against Dabi.

It was nothing serious, the teacher had told them not to go too hard on each other, and really the pair knew how well the other fought, they sparred outside of class as well, having extra training with Gran Torino at the weekends. So they took it easy on each other, in doing so they also got the chat to each other, something they barely did during class. Or at least Tenko tried to avoid doing, Dabi however was always up for a chat, regardless of teachers lecturing him to pay attention . This time during their spar, it was clear that something wasn’t right. Dabi just wasn’t being himself , he was grouchy, moody and really Tenko wondered if that was what he was like most days when he didn’t have his coffee to waken him up properly. Worse still was that at times it seemed like Dabi was letting his quirk get the better of him, he had already set fire to his homework that he tried to hand in – it wasn’t a complete write off, just the corners were cremated – then there was someone’s hair that caught on fire, all because they dared to praise Endeavour in front of Dabi.

Tenko knew that his friend had more self control than that, so he decided to find out what was bugging his friend. Although Tenko was smart, and normally he had more awareness of people’s emotions, he was going to find himself in trouble.

“So what’s Endeavour been up to these days?” It was such an innocent question to those around them, none realising that this question was full of layers and only Tenko and Dabi knew what kind of layers.

Had Endeavour been treating Dabi and his siblings, like his actual children for one? Was the Pro Hero letting Dabi simply focus on his school work instead of pushing him to train on the brink of exhaustion? Was his mother alright?

All those questions were wrapped up into one neat and innocent question, and on any other day Dabi would have replied with a witty remark about how his father would never change and how he hoped he would fall off the high ranks of Pro Heroes.

But not today.

Today that question was like waving a large flag in front of an already stressed out and emotionally unhinged bull. And this bull snapped.

By the time that Shimura realised his mistake, realised the look in those bright blue eyes were duller than they normally were, that throughout the day Dabi had been a lot quieter than usual, a sign that he was stressed out, that he needed to sleep, that he needed to mentally process all of that had been going on around him outside of school, it was to late.

A bright blue flame with a pale hand behind it was on him, slamming him on to the gym map with a loud thud. He grunted in pain, part due to the fall and the other due to the deadly flame that was burning through his gym shirt and was now starting to burn his skin on his chest.

He cried out in pain, but his mind was whirling with plans and ideas and action. He had to snap Dabi out of this, if he didn’t, he would be dead, and that wouldn’t look too good on Dabi, or the school, he only had a few minutes, and that was being generous.

“Dabi…. Shit….” He was panicking, he knew he was panicking, and yet what else could he do? As much as he wanted to emulate the popular hero of the day, All Might, he was currently just Tenko Shimura, student of UA and apparently about to be killed by his best friend due to him being unable to read between the lines. “Dabi, calm down, think…. Think of Fuyumi, what will she think of her big brother doing this?” It wasn’t a low blow, Tenko knew full well that Fuyumi was a sensitive soul, he appreciated that about her really, and Dabi was incredibly protective of her, more so than his brother actually.

The burning on his chest stopped, the blue flames had died out, Dabi was pulled off him like a lifeless doll, those blue eyes looking at him and yet they looked empty, something that Tenko hadn’t seen in those eyes in a long time.

He tried to move, but cried out in pain as he realised just how extensive the damage was, that although he was alive, he was still hurt, and he wasn’t going to bounce back from this as easily as he did from his last few injuries.

“Shimura I...”

He never heard what else Dabi had to say, he was taken away to the medical ward of the school. He was certain Dabi would have been taken to the Principle, but before he could think too much about it, about how to help his friend not to be expelled from the school, he passed out.





He wouldn’t learn until later that Dabi was threatened with expulsion, but it would be reduced to a week of suspension if he would get therapy, the school felt this had been building up and having the Number 2 ranked hero as your father must be a lot of pressure. Dabi of course being who he was, refused and expelled himself from the school, deciding that he wasn’t actually wanting to be a hero, it wasn’t who he was as a person, and he would forever be in his father’s shadow regardless, so why did he think he should have even attempted such a thing?

Tenko had been angry at first, at Dabi, at himself, at Endeavor, at the situation as a whole. His best friend had left him alone in a class that, although he was friends with them, he didn’t have the same bond as he had with Dabi. There was something missing during the rest of his time at UA, that bit of banter that couldn’t be easily replaced by a classmate who didn’t know him that well. He spent the rest of his time in UA, training hard to be the hero he wanted to be, and although he looked up to All Might, he knew he would never be him . So he had to settle for the next best thing, to be the hero he deserved.

When he finally graduated, Dabi was there, along with Gran Torino and Toshinori. He was nervous, scared, overwhelmed by the emotions that he was feeling. Proud, weary, and wondering if perhaps there had been a mistake, surely they weren’t going to let him go out and be a hero? Did he deserve all this?

He looked at himself in the mirror of the bathroom as he let those thoughts wander around his mind, making him question himself far more viciously than he ever had before, when he saw those blue eyes looking at him over his shoulder and he began to turn around, only to feel a hand grasp his chin and turn him back to face his reflection once more.

“Don’t keep questioning yourself Shimura.”

“I’m not.”

“Tch, you’re shit at lying. Regardless of what anyone says, you could never have been a villain… at least not a decent one.” There was teasing in his voice, and a smile on his lips.

“Where did you go? I kept getting postcards...”

“You think he would have taken kindly to me leaving UA? Think he could live with the shame of having his son embarrass him in such a way, almost killing a fellow student?”

“Dabi, he wouldn’t have...”

The other man swallowed and stepped away from him, letting Tenko move to actually face him. The voices in his head had stop berating him, had stopped telling him that he was unworthy to be given the honour of being a hero. His thoughts were now on Dabi and how he could help him.

“You didn’t see him when he saw me come home, you never saw the anger in his eyes, how those flames of his started to...” He trailed off, instead showing his closest friend the scars that he had under his shirt sleeve, Tenko’s eyes widened as he saw them and then looked at him.

“Where do you live now?” He began to ask and then his train of thought reminded him that there was still Dabi’s family, excluding Endeavour. “What about...”

“My mother is pregnant, and I get to see her when he isn’t around, which to no one’s surprise is often, but security around the house is tight and I don’t want to risk her getting hurt, so we meet at a cafe instead.” He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again to look over at Tenko, a small smile appearing on his lips. “I knew you could make it though, you are too stubborn to do anything else but this.”

“You could have...” he began to argue, because he believed in him, he thought they would get through UA together as they had gotten through the exam to get into UA together.

“I have a shadow over me Shimura, you don’t. Regardless of you being the nephew of All Might, that shadow never really covered you, because you accepted that you would never be him and he never wanted you to be. I never had that.” He looked away from him.

“You know, if you aren’t leaving again, and the whole ceremony is pretty much over now, why not come over to Toshinori’s place? We have catching up to do, a lot of it.”

Dabi grinned. “Hell yea we do, I want to know all the gossip that your class has been up to while I’ve been gone.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Always in it for the gossip.” He saw how close Dabi was to him, just inches apart and yet he didn’t mind, they had been this close before, yet it was for different reasons, fighting mainly, but this felt different. When Dabi tentatively placed his lips on Tenko’s own, he moved to kiss him, knowing this was what Dabi wanted, but more so, it was what he wanted too.

Keeping his pinky finger out on both hands, he reach over to grab Dabi’s shirt and pull him close, letting him take over the kissing, and just feeling so much love for him and the joy that he was back in his life once more.