Cora woke the next morning feeling like her body was on fire and finding that she was having trouble focusing her quirk on any one thing and it was making her feel sick. She hurriedly shut her eyes. She felt someone shift beside her and realized there was someone laying next to her. Her heart started to race until she heard a familiar comforting voice.

"How do you feel?" Dabi asked, concerned as he stirred awake due to her rustling. He sat up and looked over at her. Her cheeks were flushed with fever.

Cora relaxed as she felt his hand against her forehead, it felt surprisingly cool to the touch, which seemed odd to her given the nature of his quirk. "...it's hot and hard to focus..." She murmured.

Dabi frowned as he felt her forehead, she was burning up. "It might have been a bad idea to spend the day running around outside yesterday when you should have been resting..."

"...but it was fun." Cora piped up softly.

Dabi smiled and tenderly smoothed back her hair, "it was." He agreed. Reluctantly, he got up off the bed. He hadn't intended to sleep here through the night, but after a long day of playing in the sun he was exhausted by the time he'd carried Cora to bed and the bed had looked so inviting. To his relief, Cora didn't seem to mind, though she was in a fevered state so it was hard to judge. "Stay put, I'll get something to help."

"Dabi?" Cora called out as she felt him get up off the bed.

He paused and turned to her, "hm?"

"Thanks for taking care of me." She murmured feebly.

"I'm not doing a very good job of it." He remarked with a small self-deprecating laugh.

Cora shook her head, though regretted it instantly as she suddenly felt like she was riding a very awful merry-go-round of nauseating death. "You're doing the best job." she reassured him with the brightest smile she could muster.

Dabi smiled, "if you say so." He exited the room and headed to the kitchen in search of a bottle of water and Cora's medication. Giran was sitting at the kitchen counter reading the newspaper.

He glanced up as he heard Dabi approach, "how's she doing?"

"Fever." Dabi replied in a monotone.

Giran sighed, he shouldn't have expected much conversation from the young man. He had known the youth for a bit of time and had never seen him act this way or care for another individual. He'd always been a loner, for a while Giran had started to wonder if the boy was capable of such emotions.

"Why are you taking care of the girl?" Giran asked curiously.

"Where are the antibiotics and painkillers?" Dabi asked, ignoring his inquiries.

Giran sighed, "in that cupboard." He motioned with the newspaper in the direction of the cupboard he'd stored them in when he'd cleaned the small safe house.

Dabi nodded and went to retrieve them.

"I have to go back into the city-." Giran began.

"Great, see ya." Dabi grumbled under his breath as he retrieved the bottles of pills and headed to the refrigerator for a bottle of water.

Giran frowned, he hadn't expected him to be pleasant but he was hoping for him to be a little nicer after all he'd done to help them. Though he was annoying him with questions and wasn't on fire, so that was probably Dabi being nicer. "Don't forget, you still owe me a favor. I'll call to collect soon."

Dabi threw a terrifying look in Giran's direction. It was intense enough it made Giran's breath hitch in his throat as he suddenly felt as if his life were in danger. "Fine."

Giran slowly got up from the counter and took his leave. Once outside he was able to breathe a little easier. He knew the League of Villains was looking for recruits and since they'd recently allied with Stain, he thought Dabi may be a good fit. Though thinking of the somewhat unstable leader of the League of Villains and the very irritable Dabi, he wasn't so sure the two would be able to work together without killing each other. He sighed, took a long drag off his cigarette and headed for his car.

Dabi shook off his feelings of rage and annoyance as he returned to the bedroom. Cora was lying motionless on the bed, a shiny film of sweat glistened across her skin. Her vibrant teal hair splayed across the pillow and the two large strips of white hair fell in her face. The steady rise and fall of her chest indicated she'd fallen back asleep.

Dabi set the medication and the water on the bedside table and sat beside her. He tenderly swept the hair from her face, frowning at the heat radiating off her pale skin. He went to the attached bathroom and found a washcloth before wetting it with cool water. When he returned to her side, she was no longer resting easily. It seemed something was plaguing her sleep.

He pressed the cool damp cloth to her searing forehead, half expecting it to sizzle upon contact. Cora murmured something incoherent in her sleep and tossed and turned.

"No." Cora sounded distressed.

"Where's Daddy?" Her voice sounded so small and broken.

"No!" She cried desperately in her sleep.

Dabi grimaced and lifted her into his arms, cradling her against him. She'd done so much for him, had been the greatest of friends over the years, always looking in on him when he felt so alone. She had given him his freedom while she remained a slave to the system. He held her tight, rocking her in his arms hoping to soothe her.

Her cloudy white eyes fluttered open. Tears clung to her cheeks. She let out a muffled sob and threw her arms around him. Dabi held her tight. He had a feeling he knew what she'd been dreaming about, the day her father had died. After meeting Cora, he'd looked into her father, done some research at public libraries. According to the police reports, he'd been gunned down at a park in front of her.

"I'm here." He whispered softly as he held her trembling form against him.

Dabi spent the rest of the day looking after Cora until her fever broke and she was able to rest easily. Once she was finally resting soundly, he looked into the information he'd taken from the caller the day before who knew the truth about her father. After some digging online, he was able to find an address, he ran a blog from his home. He put the address into his phone so he could take Cora once she was feeling better.

....

As Giran was meeting with one of his underground drinking buddies, his phone beeped, alerting him to activity at the safe house. Either someone was leaving or approaching. He pulled out his phone and swore loudly as he spotted Dabi and Cora walking away from the house heading in the direction of the city.

"Kids these days." He groaned.

He dialed Dabi on one of his burner phones. He watched Dabi on the video as he glanced down at his phone before turning, spotting the camera and flipping him a rude gesture.

"That kid really needs to work on his manners." Giran lit another cigarette as he took a long drag on his current one to finish it off.

"You alright?" His drinking buddy asked in concern.

"Just some damn kids." Giran sighed, "sorry, I'm going to need to call it a night." He got up from the bar, left some cash and headed for the door. Those morons were going to get themselves caught.

As Dabi and Cora reached civilization, Dabi noticed she was starting to slow down. Her fever had broken, but she was still healing. He stopped in front of her and crouched down a little. "Get on."

"Huh?" Cora's cheeks reddened as she realized he was offering to give her a piggyback ride. "I-I'm okay."

"We'll get there by morning at your pace." Dabi chuckled, "get on, it'll be quicker."

"Sorry." Cora bowed her head apologetically before scrambling onto his back.

"It's fine." Dabi smiled faintly as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Cora used her quirk to look ahead and make sure the coast was clear and direct him away from any possible witnesses or dangers. They had to take a few small detours but after about thirty minutes, they found themselves outside of an industrial looking apartment that once looked like it was an office building converted into an apartment complex.

"Apartment number 424" Dabi said softly, "anybody home?"

Cora scoured the apartment building scanning the entry points, the main lobby and the stairwell up to the fourth floor. The coast was clear. It was hard for her to see the door numbers from her vantage point. "I'm not sure, I can't see the numbers on the doors." She frowned.

"It's alright." Dabi reassured her as he realized she felt bad that she couldn't see. "Anybody on the way up?"

Cora did another sweep, "all clear."

Dabi nodded and they slipped through the main entrance and made their way to the stairwell. Once on the fourth floor, Dabi paused outside of apartment 424. Cora looked ahead, into the apartment. It was a cluttered mess. There were paper boxes filled with scribbled notes, what looked like copies of police files and tons of research. There were two desks in one corner, one with a gaming laptop and police scanner and the other with an ancient looking desktop. Both screens were emitting a bright light. There were books, true crime novels and various books about heroes and criminals laying in large stacks all around the otherwise open room and burying what she assumed was a sofa. It was as if all the research he used for his blog were stashed in this one room.

Cora spotted a man in the cluttered kitchen brewing a pot of coffee. She couldn't get a good look at him due to the lack of light and her angle. "There's someone inside, he's alone."

Dabi nodded and lightly knocked on the door.

Cora noticed the man in the cluttered kitchen visibly start at the sound. He inched over to the door, picking up a baseball bat on his way.

"Wh-who is it?!" He called through the door.

Cora tensed.

Dabi spoke up, "we heard what you said about Masaru Konishi, on TV, we wanted to hear more."

Cora felt her breath hitch in her throat; it had been awhile since she'd heard someone say her father's real name and not the awful moniker the world had given him The Blind Butcher. The door opened slowly.

Dabi found himself face to face with a man in his mid thirties, he looked a little unkempt as if it had been a few days since he'd last showered and had definitely been several weeks since he'd left his apartment. The man's dark grey eyes looked past Dabi to the blind girl on his back. Recognition flooded his dark grey eyes as he looked at Cora.

"I-it's you. You're Masaru-san's little girl, Cora-chan." The man gasped.

"Might we come in, not exactly friends of the law." Dabi interrupted the man's moment.

"Ah, of course, come on in." He bowed his head and stepped aside so they could come in.

Dabi watched the man scramble to make room on the buried sofa. He wasn't sure it was safe to set Cora down in her fragile condition. She'd definitely catch some kind of infection from how dirty the place was.

"You sound like you know me, Sir, but I don't remember you." Cora said softly, she'd been surprised by his reaction to her. She'd been scared he would be afraid of her, especially since she'd been on the news quite a bit recently.

"Oh, you were just a tiny little thing when I met you, it was fifteen years ago. Masaru-san saved me from the elusive highway killer. He was a rich bloke that preyed on hitchhikers. I was young, naive and desperate for a ride to a college party but he attacked me, nearly slit my throat. Masaru-san showed up without a moment to spare. Naturally, I was freaked out, I'd just about died and then saw someone stab my would be killer in the jugular, it was a crazy night. He took me back to his car, and there you were in the backseat, you took one look at me and offered me your plush bear with the biggest smile on your little face and it was at that moment I knew I was safe and I was able to break down. Masaru-san was wonderful. He gave me a ride, and even some money so I could take public transportation back home. I was under the influence of some things that I didn't really want to go to the police with and since he'd just offed a guy we both agreed we wouldn't go to the police." He paused as he realized he'd been rambling on, "sorry, I always get carried away when it comes to your Old Man, he was my hero. Please have a seat, can I get you two anything?" He looked to Dabi before realizing he hadn't made introductions, "ah, how rude of me, so sorry, I'm Daijiro." He extended a hand to Dabi.

"Dabi." He reluctantly set Cora down on the now clear sofa before accepting the hand that was offered to him.

"So, you actually knew my father?" Cora asked in awe, everyone she'd ever met who had ever encountered her father spoke of him like he was trash, Daijiro spoke about him how she remembered him, as a kind warm soul.

"Oh yeah, we kept in touch after that, he actually gave me the startup cash I needed to start my company and write my first book." Daijiro smiled fondly, "he really was a wonderful man, I'm so sorry he was taken from you."

"Seems you also lost a great friend." Cora said solemnly, "I'm sorry too."

Daijiro smiled, "I tried to help you, I promise I did. I cleaned myself up. I went through the process of filing to be able to adopt but when I said I was interested in adopting you specifically, they told me you were dead, I didn't believe them at first and went to other agencies, but every single one told me you were dead. I didn't find out the truth until I saw you on the news."

Dabi clenched his fists, she'd had an offer to escape and those bastards kept her locked up as a prisoner rather than give her to a good home.

"I appreciate it, Daijiro-san. It means a lot to me." Cora offered him a smile.

"Did you know about him before he'd been caught?" Dabi pondered curiously.

"About the murders, you mean?" Daijiro asked.

Dabi nodded.

"I did. He didn't open up about it until about two years after I'd met him. I only think he told me because he wanted me to look after Cora if something happened. He wasn't expecting it to go like it did, he thought he'd get a trial if he didn't resist..." Daijiro trailed off.

"It's okay, Daijiro-san, I'm sure he's happy that you tried." Cora reassured him. "You've done right by him, so please don't feel guilty."

Daijiro wiped at his eyes, "thanks, Cora-chan."

Dabi started to relax as he realized Cora was happy to listen to Daijiro's stories about her father. He sat beside her and listened in. Her father sounded like a loving man who put her above all else in the world. He couldn't imagine having such a father.

They spent the majority of the evening with Daijiro listening to his stories about Cora's father. He offered them a place to stay for as long as they needed it but Cora didn't want to put him at risk and declined. They exchanged numbers, so they could keep in contact.

As they left his building, Cora scanned the path ahead, she spotted a familiar man with greasy pale hair smoking just outside the building. From the plethora of cigarette butts on the ground it looked as if he'd been here awhile.

"Giran?" Cora asked as they stepped out the door.

Dabi tensed and turned to look over where Giran was hiding in the shadows. "What do you want?" He grumbled.

"For you two idiots to not get caught!" Giran hissed. "Get back to the safe house."

"Sorry for worrying you, Giran." Cora apologized.

Giran felt his anger starting to dwindle at the kind girl's tone, "it's fine." he sighed, "you two just need to lay low, please."

"It's my fault." Cora murmured as Giran shot a look at Dabi.

Dabi smirked, "he doesn't believe that for a second."

"Should I?" Giran retorted.

"Nah, she's just trying to be nice." Dabi chuckled as he swept Cora off her feet causing her to let out a soft squeal surprised by his actions. Her face burned, he wasn't carrying her on his back like before. It felt much closer and more intimate with him carrying her in his arms.

"Don't forget you still owe me a favor." Giran called after them. "I'm collecting it tomorrow night!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Dabi grumbled as he walked away.