Work Text:
Dabi contemplates just squatting in an abandoned apartment building for what is probably the sixth time this week.
Having housing security was nice, sure, but was it worth this?
“Fuck off, Toga! Go find another TV!”
“What the fuck do you mean! There’s only one here!”
“So go steal one! Damn!”
Or maybe he could just invest in some soundproof headphones? Except, Spinner would probably steal those. The man acts more like a ferret than a lizard, in Dabi’s opinion. Dabi is torn from his thoughts as his arm is violently shook, enough to make his staples ache. He takes a deep breath and slowly turns to look at Toga who’s staring at him with huge, pleading eyes.
He raises an eyebrow at her, despite already knowing exactly what she wants.
“Please.” She pulls the last syllable into a whine and he stares her down, still unspeaking.
Compress speaks up from where he’s playing solitaire on the table. “Toga, dear, why do you need the TV so badly? You know this is the time they come out here to use it.”
Toga perks up at the acknowledgement and takes a couple steps towards the magician. “Hawks!”
Dabi turns where he’s seated to watch her. So he’s interested now. What of it? “What about him?” Compress prompts her to continue.
“Here!” Toga pulls out her phone and shoves it in the man’s masked face. “He’s on TV! But I can’t stream it! It’s a crazy chase, Hawks can’t get to the guy and I don’t want to miss it!”
Shigaraki scoffs from the couch. “Can’t get him? No one comes close to Hawks’ speed stats.”
Toga bounces back towards the TV. “I know! That’s why everyone’s going crazy. Just put it on, please!” It says something about their new recruit that Shigaraki actually pauses their game and switches the TV set back to cable. Toga snatches the remote and goes to correct channel immediately.
“The villain’s speed level has clearly put this battle on Hawks’ shoulders. Assisting pro heroes and even his own sidekicks have dispersed to block in the area.” It’s unclear what the villain’s quirk is, but the man in his ridiculous outfit is disappearing and reappearing every few seconds further along. It must be some kind of time skip.
“I can’t tell if Hawks knows where he’s going to go, or if he’s just reacting that fast.” Dabi hums in agreement to Spinner’s statement but keeps his eyes on the screen. The man appears high in the air, dropping a civilian, and then appearing back on the ground. Suddenly, Dabi understands why this villain is able to keep out of Winged Hero’s grasp as Hawks has to twist himself out of the way of the civilian’s descent while feathers bring her safely to the ground.
The villain isn’t faster than Hawks, and he knows that. So, he’s using people as obstacles to slow down the hero. To split his attention and change his trajectory.
A camera just barely catches Hawks’ face as he flies past the screen. He looks calm to the untrained eye, but Dabi can see the tension around his eyes. The hero is frustrated. Dabi begrudgingly has to applaud the villain for that. Hawks is a good, certified League-approved hero, if there could ever be one, but if he has one flaw it’s his pride in his fighting skills. His speed. The inevitable discussion of Hawks’ abilities after this is going to put the hero in a mood for weeks. Dabi should go get Hawks' favorite chips. Just to spare himself from the inevitable pouting.
The next time the villain appears in the air, Hawks reacts almost instantaneously, leaving his viewers scrambling to take in the scene. The feathers are already there, moving the civilian to the side as Hawks moves through like a missile. His form is blurred on the screen.
The villain, realizing his downfall with horror, looks around frantically and locks onto an infant in a father’s arms. Dabi watches his eyes widen as everything slows down. The villain appears by the father and suddenly the baby is gone, reappearing in the middle of the road.
Distantly, Dabi wonders if this is how Hawks views the world.
Hawks’ feathers could get there in time no doubt, but the villain had thrown the baby directly in front of a delivery truck. His feathers could get there, but there’d be no way to move the infant in time without breaking its fragile body with the force.
Dabi’s hands tingle and the world is silent as Hawks appears right before the truck, pulling the infant to his chest and twisting in the air to turn his back to the oncoming vehicle. The dark glint of hardened feathers only begins to flow through his wings as the two objects collide.
Dabi had no idea Hawks could harden feathers still attached to him.
All cameras are off the villain and on the Winged Hero as screeching tires fill the air and the hero’s body slams into the pavement and bounces a sickening number of times onto the concrete sidewalk. The hero rolls to a stop just barely on his right shoulder, nearly laying facedown.
“Why… were cars still going through an active scene?” Spinner’s incredulous voice is quiet, like the question wasn't even meant to be heard.
Not a sound comes through the TV. No one moves. The cars have pulled over.
An infant’s wail fills the air and as if it was a signal, people start simultaneously screaming, crying, and calling out to Hawks.
The wings sprawled against the ground don’t even twitch. They seem to get bigger with every second. The red expanding, expanding, expanding.
Suddenly paramedics are upon Hawks, Dabi hadn’t even heard the sirens.
“Why- where are the other heroes? His sidekicks? They always get there before emergency services. Where the hell are they?!” Shigaraki spits out. An odd question for a villain to ever ask
The baby is gently taken out of the hero’s unresisting arms and handed off and rushed to the truck. Hands are running down Hawks’ neck and spine, feeling the bones. His neck is locked into a brace and they slowly move him to his back, maneuvering his limp wings out of the way. They flop without a sliver of resistance. Hawks’ eyes are closed.
The red from his wings has spread everywhere.
Dabi wants to look away as a paramedic forms a fist over Hawks’ chest. They begin pushing down harshly in a rhythm. The hero doesn’t twitch. Dabi can't do anything but stare, breath catching in his throat like it's waiting for Hawks' lead.
“Why aren’t they taking him?” Toga whispers, tears falling from her wide eyes. The reporter quietly informs the camera that the infant is in perfect health, only a few bruises from the hold. She’ll make a full recovery without a problem.
Soon enough, it becomes clear why Hawks isn’t being moved to the truck as wind begins to pick up. The white helicopter with red stripes gets as low as it can in the area. A line with a platform is lowered, a woman in uniform holding onto the line as it descends.
Dabi still can’t find his voice as Hawks is lifted onto the stretcher and strapped in. As he’s raised, his wings fall limply over the sides and hang down. His feathers ruffle in the breeze.
Dabi feels like he’s burning to death all over again as the camera captures the child’s mother holding the infant to her chest with one arm, the other raised in the air after Hawks, fingers outstretched. The woman is crying out his name over the rushing wind.
The camera lingers on the scene entirely too long, in his opinion.
On the fifth day with no word, Dabi legitimately has to go speak to the doctor about temporary quirk inhibitors. Lately, he finds himself burning every surface he touches. It's kind of humiliating.
No news articles, no calls, no texts, no voicemails, no coded messages in drop areas, no sightings, no updates.
None of them have any idea if the hero is even alive, let alone on awake or walking around.
“I swear to God I’ve checked every hospital and clinic in the entirety of fucking Japan!” Spinner’s tail thrashes against the wood flooring.
“I threatened that rabbit hero the other day about where their little injured hero was. She said she didn't know, before trying to kick my head off. But I think she was telling the truth.” Shigaraki sounds calm but his hand is frantically going at his neck. Kurogiri gently pries it away.
Dabi squeezes the inhibitor around his wrist. “It has to be the fucking Commission,” he spits, “They took him to hide his recovery and do God knows what else to him in the process.”
Toga speaks up for the first time in a while, “So we kill them, and get him out.”
Compress sighs and Dabi snarls at him like some kind of feral dog before the man can even speak. “We can’t go blasting in there without a plan, or we risk everything including Hawks. Even if we do find him, there’s a possibility they are just treating him out of the public’s eye and nothing else. If that’s the case, we have no right to take him away from high quality treatment we could never hope to provide.”
Dabi honestly wants to slam his head into the bar as Kurogiri speaks up as well. “Mr. Compress is right. Our first priority remains finding Hawks as discreetly as possible.”
Shigaraki stands up suddenly, launching the closest glass available from the bar country at the TV. The news channel they’ve had running nonstop, just in case, is showing yet another spray painting of Hawks. Murals and various forms of street art have sprung up all over the hero’s district, as well as scattered across the rest of Japan. Even a temporary statue has been put up in America. People leave flowers, candles, and various offerings at the sites if they live too far away from the original scene. As if it means anything, as if they all deeply care for their little mascot.
They all follow a certain theme; Hawks depicted as a guardian angel as the people below him reach for his blessing, his love, his protection.
They all make Dabi sick. Hawks isn’t their guardian angel. He's not some divine entity burdened to serve them. He's a man.
A man who has spent his life giving his blood and tears to fulfill this role that's expected of him, that's always been expected of him by those pretending to care. They're all the same in Dabi's eyes. From the oppressive Commission agents to the obsessive fans who bombard him on patrol as if he's simply doing a pap walk.
To die like this wouldn't be some angel's sacrifice, it would be a manmade tragedy. And if he lives, they'll just bleed him dry another day. Erect another memorial while his memory fades and another hero takes his place.
But Hawks isn't their's. Not anymore, and Dabi will never be willing to let him go.
Dabi is throwing himself over the back of the couch and towards his jacket before his brain even fully processes the notification sound. The room goes completely silent and the TV is put on mute.
He had forgotten about the old burner phone, ditched it when Hawks had joined them for real. But no other person in the world should have their hands on it.
H – ‘Hi. Stay low and away. Don't respond. Soon.’
Dabi reads the text out loud to everyone else in the room.
“He’s clearly under close observation right now, but he’s okay. That’s what matters here.” Compress is, once again, trying to corral everyone before ill-thought out plans can come to life.
“He said soon, the fuck does that mean? When?” Dabi can’t even think of a response to Spinner’s questions through the relief making his head spin. It doesn’t matter. He’s alive. Hawks is alive and awake. Everything after that they can take care of.
Spinner’s question is answered not 24 hours later when there’s a knock on the door. Toga races to it and throws it open before bothering to check who it was. They don’t get very many knockers here, and if it’s not who she wants it to be then Dabi hopes they have good reflexes.
As it turns out, the person does have very good reflexes. Hawks sends a feather with a panicked look to keep the young girl from jumping on him. She struggles against it, reaching for him while the hero just stands there blinking at her. “Himiko, I really want to greet you, but if you hug me I absolutely will pass out.” Toga stops suddenly and Hawks lets her go. She lunges forward immediately, and he lets out a little yelp of alarm but all she does is grab his arm and cling to it like a koala as gently as possible.
Dabi feels a random sense of pride in her at the action. Respecting other’s limits above her own desires has always been an issue of hers. Hawks took it upon himself to help her with it, immediately picking up on her desire to form close connections with others but struggling to. He's always just been kind of... like that.
Hawks was, disgustingly, always drawn to looking for ways to help the people around him. Dabi couldn't say if that was natural or drilled into his psyche. Toga begrudgingly backs off as Dabi approaches the hero. Dabi looks him up and down several times before meeting Hawks’ bashful grin with an unimpressed scowl. “Bed.”
“Huh?” Hawks responds dumbly.
“Go lay down. I don’t give a fuck what kind of healing they put you through, you shouldn’t be up. Go lay down. Do you need heat? Or ice? Someone make him that tea he likes.”
“You’re out of that stuff, I-“ Spinner starts.
“Just bought some. Heat or ice?” Dabi cuts him off impatiently, corralling him towards the rooms.
Hawks goes willingly. “Heat. My body is an entire bruise but my muscles are tight as hell.” His compliance only shows how exhausted the hero really is.
He lays down on the bed slowly and groans the entire way. Dabi’s eyebrow twitches at the sight but he stays silent. “Why the hell are you even here?”
Hawks looks up at him with a pout and a fake hurt look. “You don’t want me here, Hot Stuff?”
Even recognizing the taunt, Dabi can’t stop himself from planting his hands on either side of Hawks head and hovering over him threateningly, lips inches from the hero’s face. “You know that’s not what I meant, Dove.” He hisses through clenched teeth, just a touch manic. Hawks grins up at him, unphased as usual and entirely too smug.
“Please don’t strain our poor patient any more than he already is.” Kurogiri walks into the room holding a large travel mug Hawks eagerly takes from him. Dabi pulls back and helps lean the hero up so he can drink from it.
“No promises, but we’ll be careful of course.” Hawks grins up at the Kurogiri before 'subtly' winking at Dabi.
Dabi scowls and flicks him in the forehead. “Yeah, we will. By not doing anything at all.” Hawks pouts at him for real, but then only proves their worrying is justified when a spasm rips through his arm, causing him to drop the mug. Kurogiri catches it before it can make a mess and places it on the nightstand. Hawks whines lowly, a very unusual sound from the hero.
“We have icepacks, but we don’t have any heating pads.” Kurogiri informs him before stepping away.
Dabi doesn’t respond, only rips off the inhibitor still on his wrist and tosses it to him as he leaves. The dark-haired man maneuvers into bed beside Hawks and immediately slips his hands under the hero's shirt and starts running his heated hands up and down Hawks’ spine.
Hawks’ eyes slide shut immediately, and he lets out quiet cooing sounds at the sensation; a clear tell of his comfort level of the situation.
No heating pads, my ass
The League of Villains had more heating pads than a goddamn hospital at this point. Between Toga’s cramps and Spinner’s cold blood paired with his hoarding, you couldn’t go anywhere in this building without running into at least one.
Hawks knew that just as well as Kurogiri did.
No one called his bluff.