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Dabi is used to people staring at her. Usually, with pity or confusion or outright horror. She’s a dead girl walking, after all.
She’s not used to the way you look at her.
Most of the time, when she catches you staring, it’s the same love struck tenderness you eye Tomura with. But sometimes . Sometimes you look at her, all sharp and calculating and curious , and she remembers “oh, yeah, I’m dating a medical student.”
A fucking feral medical student.
You smile when she meets your gaze, and. She knows you’re on the edge of your seat, waiting for her to ask. Waiting to tell her whatever weird little fun fact you’ve got.
She elbows Tomura, ignoring her displeased huff. “Look.”
“Look at wh—“ Tomura cuts herself off, apparently noticing you. She doesn’t laugh out loud (she rarely does), but Dabi can feel her trembling. “ Aw .” She mocks.
You very briefly break eye contact with Dabi to make a face at Tomura, who just laughs even harder.
“Teasing our girlfriend?” Tomura says. The music coming from her phone game shuts off, and Dabi wants to tease her, too, because what kind of gamer pauses to make doe-eyes at their girlfriend, but.
You shift forward, elbows coming to rest on the table between you and your girlfriends. “Hey.”
You want her to ask. It’s written all over your face. Dabi presses her lips together, trying not to smile. She’s tempted to continue playing dumb, but Tomura intervenes with, “What are you researching this time?”
Your smile could power the whole bar. Maybe even all of Kamino. “cfDNA.”
“Which is?” She doesn’t really care, most of the things you get excited about are wildly out of her dropped-out-of-middle-school scope, but she does care about how much joy it brings you.
“Okay, okay, so.” You start, opening a new page in your notebook. “cfDNA is free circulating DNA, right? So the stuff that’s just. In your blood.” You draw (and label) a double sided DNA fragment for them. “I started researching this because I’m in a tumor phase–“ wild sentence “–but as it turns out! Burn victims also have abnormally high amounts of cfDNA!”
Dabi wonders if it’s weird how cute she thinks that is. Even while doing research, you’re thinking of her.
“How much is abnormally high?” Tomura asks, her head lolling onto Dabi’s shoulder. It’s a purposeful movement, her weird way of silently asking if Dabi needs comfort. She doesn’t, but she also won’t turn down cuddling.
“Ten times the amount of the typical person. Most of which are presumably from NETs released by neutrophils, which is a whole can of worms,“ you wave your hand in a dismissive way. “Anyways, Dabi, my love.”
“Yeah, doll?” She genuinely has no idea where you’re going with this.
“Not to sound like Himiko, but next time you burn yourself I want your blood.”
…well.
She narrows her eyes. “Are you asking to stab me?”
“I mean. Kinda.” You seem distracted by that, eyes scanning the empty hideout. After confirming the relative privacy, you add, "That'd be an interesting change of pace, huh?"
Dabi… has no idea what that's supposed to mean.
Thankfully, you are unable to stop yourself from explaining the joke: "Get it? Cuz I usually get the strap. I'm the one gettin’ stabbed."
Tomura makes the most inelegant snort-laugh noise, and you beam at her. "She gets it!"
"We all get it." Dabi sighs, wondering how she managed to snag two absolutely insane girlfriends.
She can't help but smile, especially when Tomura lays her head down on the table, her shoulders still trembling with laughter, while you preen like a peacock. Making Tomura laugh is one of your favorite things to do, after all.
(You told her that weeks ago, while the two of you lazed around in bed. She deserves laughter, you had said, whispery and warm, like the two of you were just girls at a slumber party. Dabi had made some dumb joke, asking if she should be jealous, and you just asked, do you think she'd like us?)