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Snow flurries began to fall and they swirled around people's legs like house cats. It was magical, this snow globe world.
- Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen
Of all the things to see when Dabi pries his eyes open, Hawks’ eyes right in front of him, comically wide, the both of them nose-to-nose and a hair’s breadth away from kissing each other is not what he expects. Dabi throws himself off the hero immediately, rolling onto the snow and getting the fluffy white bits into his black hair, and some into his mouth too. Everything hurts from where the harsh ground had dug bits of rock into him, but he jerks up much faster than Hawks does, back on his feet, and when he sees the expanse of what looks like the North Pole before him he curses. “What the fuck?!”
For someone who’s supposed to be the fastest man alive, Hawks is reacting a lot more slowly than Dabi himself. He pushes himself up on his arms after a moment, and like Dabi, does a scan of their surroundings. Hawks’ nose, cheeks and the tips of his ears are red. His flapping wings are abnormally loud in the silence of the snow-and-frost dusted landscape before them. As Dabi looks desperately around for any other sign of life, or even more mercifully, a way out, Hawks stands up, brushing the snow off his hero outfit and wings. “Did we… were we teleported somewhere, by that kid?”
If they were really at the fucking North Pole, Dabi was going to cook and eat Hawks before he starves to death himself. “This is the last time I stick my nose into a damned children’s fight when I have a million other things I could be doing because of you.”
“Hey, they were kids, and it was getting ugly.”
The fight was getting ugly, which was why Dabi had willingly followed Hawks into breaking up the fight in the first place. The sad thing was, they’re most likely stranded by the very kid they had been trying to help. The children had all frozen in place when they saw Hawks walking up to them, but their faces had gone pasty when they saw Dabi slinking along right behind him with all his staples and scars, glowering at them with his special ‘I-am-an-eldest-sibling-and-I-will-murder-you-for-the-dumbass-shit-you’re-doing’ look in his eyes. Asshole kids one, two and three had their quirks out – spikes-on-arms, four-legs and extra sharp-teeth; which left bullied kid, whose face had been damp with snot and tears, with nothing to defend himself against the assholes other than a torn up picture book he had been hugging to his chest.
He doesn’t remember what either of them had said, but then there was a flash of blinding light before him, Hawks grabbing onto his arm presumably to shove him out of the way, and then the feeling of weightlessness until he tumbles down, rolling over and over with Hawks in the snow ending in their almost-kiss position when their momentum finally died.
“Is your phone working?”
They both check their respective devices, and after confirming that their lines are dead Dabi shuts his off. Hawks debates the merits of leaving his on, but the cold will do nothing for its battery life and with a grudging sigh he shuts it down as well. The mini cameras Hawks has on him are a lost cause too, broken bits of miniature wires and circuitry that’s all been destroyed in their rough fall. Hawks picks out the slivers caught in his wings, then he crosses his arms. “Any chance that you have some super awesome communication quirk or item that you can use to contact the League or the PLF?”
“It’s called a ‘phone’ and we just established that neither of us have lines.”
“Worth a try.” Hawks looks around again. “We don’t need to worry about water since we can just drink snowmelt. We better start seeing if we can find anyone. A village, maybe. Hell, I’d settle for a hut, as long as there’s someone around.”
Dabi privately agreed with it. “Start walking, then, hero.”
“I could fly up and see if there’s anything,” Hawks says hopefully. Dabi squints at him.
“You’re not going to abandon me, are you?”
“What?! Of course I won’t.”
“You can fly at a speed of two hundred miles per hour. An average person can only walk at three miles per hour.” Hawks rolls his eyes at him.
“I swear I won’t, okay? I’m a –” he can literally see Hawks swallow down the word hero, “- nice, trustworthy person, unlike some other people I could name.”
“You’re half-bird, do you still count as a whole person?”
“Does Spinner let you get away with calling him lizard?” Hawks retorts.
No, he doesn’t. Spinner hates it, and Dabi’s been careful to avoid calling him that since Spinner had snapped at him in that high-speed car chase to intercept Overhaul’s transport van. Not that he calls the League members by their names much, in the rare instances he gets his say in. They all talked like they were never going to get the chance to do so again. Hawks, ironically, was exactly like them in that respect, except he knew how to let his quiet and his silence speak for him instead better than the rest of them did. “Go up as high as you can but stay here where I can keep an eye on you.”
Hawks snorts. With a few flaps of his wings, he’s off, and Dabi stands uneasily on the ground, watching the soles of his boots shrink from the distance. Hawks hasn’t flown high, about two stories up, before he crashes into something in the sky and yelps, adjusting his wings to save him from yet another fall. He lands before Dabi again, staring incredulously upwards, looking thoroughly betrayed and horrified.
It doesn’t sit well with Dabi either, and the feeling of being trapped closes in on him like an iron grip. “What was that? A barrier?”
“Feels like it. Did you see anything when I smashed into that – whatever it was?”
“No.”
Hawks swallows. “Okay. Retry. Keep an eye out?”
“Wait, are you – “
Hawks scoops up snow and pebbles and takes off again. Dabi clicks his tongue in exasperation but keeps an eye out like Hawks had asked him to. He climbs up, then tosses the pebbles up. There’s no visible ripple or anything, but the pebbles do hit something and fall back down to earth some distance away.
“Nothing,” he tells Hawks when he drops back down. “I couldn’t see ripples, a barrier, or anything of the sort. The pebbles bounced off something back to the ground, but I can’t tell what it is.”
“Feels like we’re at some kind of alternate space, but there’s not enough evidence to tell.” Hawks looks thoughtfully over the landscape, hugging himself, drumming gloved fingers over his arms. “We should start walking and find some shelter, at least.”
Dabi acquiesces. He lived rough on the streets, not in a winter wasteland like this place. He only has the barest ideas of what to do for survival in a place like this. “Where should we go?”
“Anywhere covered that looks like we could sleep in it will do.”
“Did you see anything when you were flying?”
Hawks sighs, wings rustling. “No. Nothing but snow and frosted over rocks. Nothing even large enough to qualify as boulders. With whatever it is blocking me from flying up higher, I can’t do much scouting.”
“Didn’t you fly all the way from Fukuoka to Tokyo on your wings?”
“With regular pit stops, yeah. I’m not a swift, I can’t fly all day without rest. And the limited altitude’s hard on my flying since I can’t catch updrafts.” He frowns. “We’re stuck with walking.”
“Figures you’d be a useless bird.” Dabi shook his head. “Let’s move. The sooner we start mapping out this place the faster we can find a way out of here.”
Ice and snow crunch beneath their shoes as they start walking. It’s a good thing they’re both dressed for braving the winter, Hawks in his full hero gear and Dabi in sturdy boots and a long coat. There are flashes of movement in the distance, mainly animals like foxes and rabbits. They’ll need to catch them, but it’s reassuring to know that they have food sources to get by on. Dabi’s feeling surprisingly refreshed by the limitless stretch of white, grey and black before them. He scratches at his chest. Other than the blue sky, it was like living in black-and-white photography come to life.
Or close enough to it, Dabi amends to himself, and side-eyes Hawks. “What’s with you?”
“Nothing.” Dabi squints, because Hawks’ wings have been moving nonstop for a good while now, all puffed up. He wasn’t making a racket, but it was very distracting, especially since his red wings was the most striking thing in a mile and stirring up small gusts of air at Dabi. “It’s just – it’s cold.”
With that reluctant admission, Dabi whirls around to look at Hawks. Hawks has wrapped his arms around himself. It’s hard to tell with his hero outfit covering him from head to toe, hood pulled over his hair, so he peers closer at Hawks face, before placing his palm against his cheeks in a panic to confirm what he’s noticed. Warm brown eyes blink slowly at him, and the slow, shallow puffs of air against the back of his hand tells Dabi all he needs to know.
“You’re freezing.”
“’m not.”
Dabi hisses. He’s already starting to slur, and his accent is slipping out. “We need to find a shelter soon. A cave. Something. Birdbrain, keep your damned eyes peeled and keep those wings of yours drawn around yourself. If you die from hypothermia and leave me stuck in this hellhole alone, I’m never going to fucking forgive you.”
“Okay.” His breath comes out like a whisper, an echo of the biting wind around them. “Okay.”
Shit. Shit.
He starts snapping off branches from bushes and random trees as they walk. Hawks stares at him, confused, until Dabi tells him that his flames need fuel to burn. Despite Dabi’s previous orders that Hawks keeps his wings pulled tight around himself, he still detaches a couple of primary feathers to split a grey-barked tree in half at the trunk and have his feathers lift the whole thing. Dabi watches the display with awe, then in a stroke of brilliant good luck spots an outcrop of rock that looks like it could be a cave in the distance. He grabs onto Hawks’ gloved hand and tugs him towards that direction immediately.
“Dabi?”
“I think I found a cave.”
Sight is deceptive. What Dabi had assumed was a fifteen, twenty-minute walk to the outcrop turns out to be three times that, the stretch of distance so much further than he anticipated, hoodwinked by the vast emptiness of the land before them. Halfway towards rocky outcrop he’s so worried that Hawks will keel over on his own two feet that he lights up the tip of one of the branches and makes Hawks hold it. The hero detaches more feathers to carry it and hovers his gloved hands above it. His lips aren’t blue, but they are very, very pale.
When they arrive at the cave – it is a cave, thank their good luck stars or whatever - Dabi wrinkles his nose from the stench, pinching his lips tightly together as he goes in to check it out, Hawks half a step behind him. If there’s a hibernating bear in here… well. That’s dinner dealt with. It’s a surprisingly deep cavern, but low-ceilinged, with little of the frigid wind making its way inside. Still chilly, though.
“Looks like we’re good. No bears or anything.”
Hawks nods, dropping the tree on the floor. Between them, they manage to stack a campfire and with a burst of blue fire from Dabi’s hands, get it going. Hawks huddles close to the flames with a relieved sigh, wrapping his wings tightly around him. Dabi glances at him and wonders how cold it was outside, thumbing the line between scars and healthy skin along his cheek. Dabi himself was never bothered by temperatures below twenty degrees, and he only checks the weather during summer. The hero hadn’t said a word of complaint until Dabi had gotten irritated from the constant movement of his wings and brought it up himself.
Dabi knows that Hawks is feeling better the moment he starts perking up, wings no longer so puffed up around him. His lips aren’t as pale as they had been, either.
“Aren’t you cold?”
Hawks is the one freezing with every chance of dying with his face blue, not even mentioning it out there in the frigid wind, but the moment his brain starts functioning again he starts asking after Dabi, all concerned about his well-being instead. Did he need anything else besides a flashing neon sign hung around his neck saying: hero to advertise it? Whoever it was that put him up to this spy and double agent gig made the right fucking choice, because the idiot birdbrain might as well be a poster boy for the tagline ‘save everyone before you save yourself’.
“No, I’m not.”
“I used to think all villains were unfriendly jackasses,” Hawks says wryly, “turns out that’s a very subjective case of you being you, since Twice and the other League members have been pretty decent to me. Kooky, but decent.”
“Don’t lump me in with those headcases. If any of them had even an ounce of common sense they wouldn’t trust you either.”
“Trusting someone and being nice isn’t mutually exclusive.”
“Oh yeah? How’s that double life working for you?”
“Exhausting, but I’m a man of many talents.” He waves his hand like, eh, what can you do.
“If you’re feeling better, we should scout the area more.”
“Uh… Let me warm up a little more before we go.” He shifts uneasily. “It’s not exactly easy on me.”
“Why’s your hero gear so shitty? Shouldn’t it accommodate for the cold in your high-altitude flights?”
Hawks looks oddly at him. “You really don’t feel the cold at all, do you? It’s worse than freezing out there. My suit's already designed to withstand freezing temperatures for the heights I go to, plus the wind is making it a lot colder than it should be.”
“Get a new design company.”
“Yeah, this will need to be altered.” Hawks sighs.
After a long lull of silence where they both stare at the fire, Hawks stretches out his wings. “Reckon I’m good now. Let’s go. Should we kill the fire?”
“Leave it.” Dabi didn’t want to say it aloud for fear of it becoming true, but he has a sinking suspicion that this cave might be the only shelter they’ll have for miles. “It’s not going to spread. We’ve got plenty of fuel sources out there, and it can keep the cave warmer.”
Their plan for reconnaissance dies a screeching death however, once they’re in sight of the cave entrance.
“What…” Hawks trails off. “How… That’s not possible. We were at the streets with those kids before noon. We’ve been here an hour and a half. It can’t be night already.”
“We probably took longer to get here than we thought.” Disappointing, but not unexpected. They can’t venture out like this into the dark. Shitty vision asides, just because they didn’t see bears didn’t mean that there weren’t bears, or wolves, or even worse predators around. Dabi’s not keen on Hawks slowly freezing to death like he had earlier either.
“No.” Hawks shook his head furiously. “I’ve got the biological clock of a bird. I know my time of the day. There is absolutely, no fucking way it’s nighttime already.” He makes a weird, cut-off gesture filled with frustration. “Do you have a watch?”
“I use my phone.”
“Damn it. Me too.”
“Even with the fancy ad you did?”
“… You keep up with my advertisements?”
Dabi clicks his tongue. “More like your stupid face is plastered all over Japan and I can’t avoid it even if I want to. Maybe your biological clock got fucked up when we were transported here.”
“No. That’s definitely not it. It’s this place that’s fucked up. First, the weird ass invisible barrier thing in the sky. Now the day-night issue. Whatever kind of quirk we got hit with, we’re stuck in some place that’s not the real world.” He looks about ready to start charging out there. Dabi grabs onto his arm.
“Say you’re right. Can you even see ten feet past yourself?”
Hawks deflates so visibly Dabi resists the urge to pat him on the head patronizingly. “No.”
“We’ve got no choice but to wait it out. Let’s go back in and stay warm.”
Hawks’ mouth pinches together. He turns on his heel and follows Dabi back inside the cave. He plops down before the fire with a surprising lack of grace, pushing his visor up onto the top of his head. Dabi starts up his phone to check the time and shows Hawks the screen. Hawks was right; it’s barely one in the afternoon. It shouldn’t be dark out already.
“We’re not in the North Pole because there’s polar darkness at this time of the year. We’re not at the South Pole either because it’s nonstop sun for that place right now.”
“We could be at one of the countries further north. The Nordic nations, maybe.”
“It doesn’t make sense with the time zone differences. We’re at least six hours ahead of them, and in the darkest days of winter you get sunlight in the middle of the day, not like this.”
“Someone’s pissed.”
“Aren’t you?” Hawks snaps. “We’re stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no signals on our phones, I almost froze myself to death out there and now the fucking time is messed up and I can’t fly anywhere above twenty feet! This whole place doesn’t make sense!”
“Someone needs a nap.”
The glare Hawks levels at him only makes it more apparent that he needs it. Without his visor in place, and even with his distracting black markings, it’s easy to see the bags beneath his eyes. “Chill,” Dabi drawls. “I’m pissed off too, but we can’t do fucking anything until it’s daylight. What happened to keeping a cool head under pressure, number two?”
“This isn’t pressure. This is a fucking puzzle that needs to be answered.”
“Someone’s eager to go home.”
“You’re not?”
“Don’t have a home.” Dabi says idly.
“Then what do you call your place with the PLF?”
“A temporary abode.”
Hawks snorts. His wings furl around himself as he stares into the flames. He gets up and picks up the pile of sticks Dabi has gathered, snapping a handful of them into tinier pieces and stoking the fire. He starts fidgeting, and Dabi is unsurprised when Hawks breaks the silence again.
“I’m bored.”
“Not my problem.”
“It’s going to be when I keep saying that every minute.”
Dabi side-eyes him. “Are you a kid?”
“I had a deprived childhood, as you very well know. Besides, this is the perfect chance to get to know each other better.”
Any other day, any other time, any other person who asked, Dabi would have given a flat refusal. Yet the circumstances are damning. He’s stuck with Hawks in a cave kept warm only by his own flames and a lot of wood. There’s a land of ice and snow beyond the cave’s entrance that is now blanketed in darkness, and they have no clues on how to get back. They have time on their hands, and Dabi isn’t feeling remotely sleepy. It’s the perfect chance for Dabi to prod at the hero, expose more of his true motivations behind wanting to join the League. Hawks was obviously aiming for the same with him. “What are you suggesting? Twenty questions?”
“Sure, why not.”
“I’m not answering any questions I don’t want to answer.” Hawks rolls his eyes.
“Like I ever expected that much out of you. I don’t want to talk about heavy stuff either. I’ll go first. Hit me with a question. Go on. Make it interesting.”
“Do I have to?”
“Fine. Be boring. Ask about my favourite colour or something then.”
“… Favourite place to be?”
“Home. Otherwise, I like flying around the city high up above where no one can see me. You?”
“Nowhere.”
“Is that supposed to be an existentialist philosophical answer or is that your attempt at blowing me off?”
“Neither. It’s the truth.”
“You asked me a question that you knew you didn’t have an actual answer to?!”
“Yep.”
“Nope, nope, nope. I’m not counting that as an answer. I refuse to. This is in complete mockery to the spirit of the game!”
“Take it or leave it.”
“I’m going to annoy you into giving me an answer.”
“Good fucking luck with that.” He deals with the whackjobs in the League. Hawks really thinks that he could prove himself more annoying than Toga and Twice on a bad day?
Unfortunately, Dabi, in his subdued glee over one-upping the hero, has forgotten that with the League, he has the option of getting up and leaving any time he wants, which he currently does not have with the hero, what with being stuck in a cave in the middle of a barren wasteland while it was so dark out he wouldn’t even be able to make out the shape of his own fingers in it.
Hawks is on his fifth horrible rendition of the 80s All Might cartoon theme song when Dabi throws in the metaphorical towel.
“STOP.”
Hawks could not look any smugger. “You yield?”
“If it makes you stop screeching that damned theme song, I’ll give a proper answer,” Dabi promises through gritted teeth.
“Proper answers for every question for the rest of the game.”
“I’m still not answering questions I don’t want to answer.”
“Fair. Shake on it?”
Dabi grips Hawks outstretched hand with a scowl. “So. Your favourite place?”
“The sea. Now fuck off.”
“The sea?” Hawks blinks at him, thoroughly taken aback. Dabi glares at him.
“… I just didn’t peg you for a romantic.”
“Nothing romantic about the sea.”
“Sure there is. Sunrises, sunsets, beach walks down the piers –”
“Seagulls stealing food, litter everywhere, corpses washed up on the beach –”
“Yet it’s your favourite place?”
“Easy to dump a corpse there.”
“One day,” Hawks says, with a prolonged stare at Dabi, who’s folded his arms together and raised an eyebrow at Hawks in challenge following his spiel, “I will make you admit that the sea is romantic.”
“Uh huh.”
“Okay. My turn.” Hawks gaze flits upwards, nose screwed up in concentration. “Uh… Favourite city?”
“All cities are the same. There’s barely any difference.”
“No! Fukuoka is completely different from Tokyo, or Osaka.” Hawks huffs.
“Your hometown pride’s showing.”
“Sue me, I like the city I grew up in.”
“Fine. Tokyo. Easy to shoplift in.”
“Food?”
Dabi shrugs. “Everything.”
Hawk’ gaze is measured. What? Was he pitying him?
“You know… the most expensive thing I ever shoplifted was a pair of headphones.”
“You stole stuff?”
Hawks shrugs. “I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. What’s the most expensive thing you ever stole?”
“This counts as a second question.”
“Nitpicker.” Hawks sits back on his haunches, cradling his jaw in his palm. “Fine. You get to ask two questions after answering mine.”
“Most expensive thing I stole was a phone.”
“You used it?”
“Just once. Then I pawned it off and took the cash.”
“You could have kept a phone.”
“It was just released on the market. Might as well get the cash and a cheaper burner phone instead of keeping it.”
Hawks makes a noise of agreement at the back of his throat. “Your turn. Two questions.”
Dabi thinks hard. “Do you actually like people touching your wings?”
Hawks’ wings droop, mirroring the surprise on his face. “My wings?”
“Yeah. It’s sensitive, right? It never bothers you when your fans just come up and touch them?”
“Uh… it’s normally the kids that do that. It’s not like they yank the feathers out or anything. They just pet it most of the times, though some of them ruffle the vanes. It’s kinda irritating when they get tangled up. Takes me forever to brush them back in place and feel normal about it again.” Hawks smirks. “Wanna touch it?”
“No.”
“They’re soft.”
“They stink.”
“Excuse me? I bathe every day! And I use scentless products. How often do you bathe?”
“I shower, like most people who aren’t filthy rich and without wings do.”
“People who aren’t filthy rich bathe too.”
“Not when they’re dirt poor, they don’t. Too much water and electricity are used in baths, especially those bathtubs with temperature regulators.”
“You’re thinking of city people. In the countryside, you stick with baths because you waste less water that way. Families use the same huge tub, then the water is recycled to water the fields.” Hawks points out. “They don’t always take hot baths either.”
“What? You take cold baths?”
“That counts as your second question,” Hawks sing-songs. Dabi rolls his eyes.
“Fine, whatever.” It wasn’t like they were pushing boundaries with the game so far. “Hot or cold baths?”
“Depends on the season. I like warm baths – it’s heavenly after a rough day – but in the summer, cold baths are the best.”
“You’re the type to stay in there for as long as possible and prune, aren’t you?”
“Birds like baths.”
“And making a mess of the bathroom floor, obviously.”
“Bathroom floor won’t be a mess if the bathtub’s big enough.” Hawks says smugly. “My turn again. Favourite bakery food.”
“Black coffee.”
“Food.”
“Coffee bun, then.”
“Mine’s fish roe baguette.”
“…Can you be any more of a Fukuoka stereotype?”
“Says the walking, breathing goth edgelord. My second question is… who’s your favourite in the League? Not the PLF, just the League.”
Dabi presses his lips together. “That goes under questions I don’t want to answer.”
Hawks huffs. “Spoilsport.”
“You’re the one with a new girlfriend hanging off your arm every month.”
“What, were you keeping up with all my relationship scandals in the gossip magazines?” Dabi carefully avoids mentioning that he had, in fact, combed through every possible piece of information he could get on the hero before Skeptic had made Hawks put on those mini-cameras (creepy much), even if it meant going to the trashiest possible websites like Heroes’ Confidential and Superstar Secrets, or following that one insanely stalkerish fan who called himself hawksgreatestnumberonefanforever!!! and made videos with annoying voiceover commentary of all the latest news regarding Hawks.
“They’re all lies,” Hawks continues grumpily. Dabi’s heart does not do a somersault. It’s more of a double hop, a quick da-dump before it goes back to normal. “I exchange exactly one greeting with someone in the public eye while not on duty, and in the next three hours there are pictures and the same damned headlines about us hiding a secret relationship plastered over every tabloid that’s ever existed. It’s getting in the way of me getting into an actual relationship, if you ask me.”
“No secret relationships at all, huh? Pity. Would have been good leverage to use against you.”
“I have had exactly one secret relationship my whole life,” Hawks says dryly, “and he’s stranded with me right now in this place full of nothing but ice and snow.” He curls his wings around himself, staring sulkily at the fire, and in doing so does not see Dabi’s expression at all. While Dabi’s certain that his ruined skin has since given him a perpetually bored mien, he’s not so sure that Hawks wouldn’t pick up on any changes in his face. The bird’s proven himself too perceptive for Dabi to relax his guard around him entirely even after all Hawks has done.
“So what? You’re being all upset because you can’t get some?”
“More like there is someone I like but they’re dumb as fuck, and it’s a fucking terrible idea and I shouldn’t go after them.”
Dabi straightens up. “You sure you should be sharing this with a villain?”
Hawks shrugged. “Like I said, they’re dumb as fuck. Also, they’re as safe as they could be from villains, as far as I can tell.” He cocks his head to the side, gaze turning thoughtful as they land on Dabi. No, not on. It feels far more like Hawks is seeing through him to the mystery person he likes. “Not sure if they’re safe from themselves though.”
“Someone not on the heroes’ side.”
“Nope.” Hawks sighs, gazing wistfully back at the fire. “Would be a hell lot easier for me if they were. We could be dating right now. Or maybe not. They’re kind of a prick even in the best of times.”
That was a hell of a landmine dysfunctional relationship if he’s ever heard one. Dabi snorts. “I know I call you a birdbrain, but are you seriously that much of a birdbrain that you’re pining after an asshole?”
“… Yeah, guess I am.”
Dabi’s fingers twitch. “Enlighten me. Why the hell are you pining after a jerk like that?”
Hawks shrugs. Dabi shoots him a glare. “You don’t know?”
“Well, on the surface, they’re hot. Not the type many people would go after, but there’s something appealing there, you know? They’re pretty sharp too, I think. Dumb as fuck in some areas for sure, but in others… they scare me a little. Like they know a little too much about me and can see through me, even though I don’t share anything much with them.”
Hawks was just easy to read once you figured him out, but Dabi wasn’t going to tell him that. “So looks and a good eye?”
“I guess so, among other things,” Hawks agrees. “What really got me hooked was something else.”
“Mmh?”
“I was flying around the other day. We weren’t meeting up or anything like that, and I freaked a little when I saw him at first.” First slip of the tongue he’s made. A guy. “But when I realized they didn’t notice me, I kinda followed them a little.”
“You stalked them.”
Hawks laughs sheepishly, not even attempting to deny it.
“What happened?”
“Found them feeding stray cats.”
… What. His incredulity must show, because Hawks laughs again, a helpless kind of laugh that makes his shoulders sag and his wings flare and flex. “Stupid, huh? But it did get me hooked, then I noticed that they – they’ve got their own weird set of rules they follow, despite all the terrible stuff they do. Very young kids and animals are off-limits for them. Sometimes they could be really kind, though it’s definitely hidden deep, deep, deep down beneath their asshole attitude.”
“So your type is asshole with the barest shimmer of a gold heart that’s hidden so deep down you have to stalk them to know they have it.” Isn’t he supposed to be a precocious hero? Why would he be such a huge idiot to fall for someone who spelt TROUBLE in big, fat capitals on a neon billboard?
“If there’s a prize for rotten judgment,” Hawks murmurs self-mockingly, a silly, besotted smile still on his face. “I’ve talked a lot. Enough about me. What’s your type?”
“What makes you think I even have a type?”
“Typical,” Hawks says dryly. “It wouldn’t kill you to share stuff like that.”
“We’ve just played a game of twenty questions, and we’ve established that I don’t trust you as far as I could throw you.” He didn’t even share stuff with the League, and he trusted them marginally further than he could throw them, possibly an inch more than he did Hawks. Which, sadly, was not very far at all. It’s not his fault burnt skin and a whole host of health issues isn’t conducive to putting on muscles.
“It’s not like you’re in a relationship. Right?” Hawks asks, curious, then his expression morphs into horrified amusement. “Wait, don’t tell me your type is Shigaraki.”
Dabi cracks his eyes open after a moment of silent struggle with himself. “I’m going to kill you,” Dabi monotones, “very slowly, with a lot of pain and fire and bleach to shrivel up that tongue of yours for saying something as fucking stupid as my type being Shigaraki and make sure you never speak again.”
“You won’t tell me what your type is, of course I’m going to make a guess. And from where I’m looking at, there’s plenty of evidence for it.” Hawks holds up his hand and starts counting them off. “One, you know him. Two, you call him leader. Three, you worked really hard to keep me from meeting him. Four, you’re the only other League member that seems to use the noumus besides Shigaraki himself. Sounds a lot like you’re overprotective and he’s showing you favouritism. Five, you just refused to answer me that question about who’s your favourite member of the League earlier.”
“One, two and five have absolutely nothing to do with having a fucking type. Three is because I don’t trust you. And four – you’ve met the rest of the League. You think any of them have their head screwed on right enough to use the noumus? Conclusion: you are out of your mind.”
“You’re so defensive. Seems like you have a secret crush on Shigaraki.” When Dabi lets loose a streak of fire at Hawks, the hero merely ducks as it sails harmlessly over his head and laughs in his face.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret.” He grins, and Dabi’s torn with urge to punch him in the face to shut him up. Mercifully, Hawks drops the subject. He glances at the cave mouth. “We should get some sleep. It’s pretty late.”
Dabi grunts. He kept no real schedule, his days varying depending on what he feels like doing. He’s just barely getting back into a semi-regular sleep cycle now that they’re with the PLF. He’ll trust Hawks’ perception of the time. He fumbles around for a more comfortable stretch of cold stone to lie on, close to the fire, and curls up.
“It can’t be comfortable to sleep like that.”
It’s not like they have much choice, do they? “Then what? You want me to sleep on top of you?”
Hawks shrugs. “My feathers are comfier and warmer.” He flexes his wings in emphasis.
“You want me to sleep on top of your wings?”
“No. I mean like, I can lay it over you like a blanket.”
“I’m not the one afraid of the cold here. Shouldn’t you be tucking your wings in around yourself instead, birdbrain?”
“I can’t sleep on my stomach like I usually do, so I’m going to have to sleep on my side, and my wings are more than large enough to cover all of me like that. So, what do you say?”
Dabi will do a lot of things out of spite and aesthetics, but in the face of wasting away in wintry wilderness he reluctantly gives up on his need for personal space and lies down next to Hawks. Hawks scoots closer and wraps a wing around Dabi. His feathery musk engulfs him immediately. He wrinkles his nose. It’s not a bad stench that makes him want to get away, it’s just a much thicker scent that flattens his sense of smell, coupled with a surprisingly heavy weight against his body.
They’re so close that Dabi can see the ring of Hawks’ pupils in his iris. He’s never noticed the flecks of gold in them before, nor the splash of freckles across Hawks’ nose. Hawks blinks at him, and he hears the echoing ba-dump, ba-dump of his heartbeat against his ribs.
It's... warm.
Hawks grins at him. “Congratulations, you’re sleeping cocooned in the wings of the Winged Hero. You have any idea how many of my fans would kill for that chance?”
“But do they know how annoying you really are?”
“It’s called being irresistibly charming.” Hawks closes his eyes. “Good night.”
He had expected Hawks to stay up longer, but he falls asleep quickly, the deep, rhythmic cadence of his breathing coming far faster than he expected, and Dabi lies still, struggling very hard to sync his breaths with Hawks instead of hyperventilating. The proximity was not helping, especially since with every breath Dabi takes he also inhales Hawks’ scent. Other than the feathers, he could pick up whiffs of Hawks’ cologne.
Letting Hawks convince him into using his wing as a makeshift blanket is a bad idea. He can’t even calm himself down enough to actually sleep, not when Hawks is exhaling little puffs of warm air right by him, looking so peaceful that Dabi’s loathe to even move just in case he wakes him up.
Think of other things. How are they going to get help. How are they going to get back to the PLF, or anywhere near civilization. The weird barrier above their heads. Hawks almost dying from hypothermia.
Dabi shook his head. Hawks isn’t dead, and they’re safe in this cave, for now. Getting back safely is a problem for later them.
They probably should have talked about that instead of playing that dumb game. Dabi hadn’t learnt much about Hawks either, other than a handful of personal likes and dislikes. Although, it had been surprising to learn that Hawks didn’t like the media much, given how good he was with reporters and a fan favourite on camera. It could be just one of the straws to break the bird’s back, especially if he’s interested in pursuing a relationship with that… douche that he likes.
Dabi snorts quietly to himself. Trust Hawks to have awful taste in people. Who on earth likes someone just because they found them feeding stray cats, of all things?
It occurs to Dabi, suddenly, that he fed stray cats, and along with the stupid urge to wake up and inform Hawks about that personal tidbit of information comes the urge to bash himself in the head because what the fuck, brain.
He needs to sleep.
Dabi wakes up from the sound of high-pitched screaming from the cave entrance. He jerks up and starts, realizing that Hawks is nowhere to be seen, fire almost dying before him and is on his feet in record time. He sprints towards the entrance, just in time to see red feathers slit the throat of a rabbit in the distance. Hawks glances up. “Oh, morning.”
Dabi swallows down his complicated mess of immediate reactions. The screaming, then not seeing Hawks with him in the cave… He runs a hand through his messy hair and asks grumpily, “You went out to catch rabbits?”
“Mmh, didn’t leave the cave entrance. I sent out a couple of feathers to do it when I spotted them in the distance. Didn’t expect them to struggle so hard against my feathers, though.” His wings flex to emphasize how many he had to use. Some of his secondaries and covert feathers are gone. “I’m rusty. Guess it’s time to go through a wilderness survival refresher course again after we get out of here.”
He really has the perfect quirk. Dabi’s seen it in action, but the versatility of Hawks’ feathers was truly astounding. “How many rabbits did you get?”
“Three. Should last us the whole day.” His glance out at the horizon is a measured one. His feathers are carrying the rabbits back to them slowly. “It was already bright when I woke up, but I don’t know how long it’ll last. I also have some ideas on what the kid’s quirk might be now.”
“What is it?”
“Number one: plain old teleportation, with a very huge range. However, some stuff doesn’t add up.”
“The thirty feet height limit.”
Hawks nods. “And the day-night problem we’re facing. Which brings me to theory number two: a dimensional split of the world. Someway, somehow, the kid’s quirk flung us into a split space that theoretically shouldn’t exist, but does, and all the normal rules of the world apply but there’s other weird laws of the world like the thirty feet height limit and the day-night dichotomy.”
“Not possible.” Dabi dismisses it immediately. It was too far-fetched to be a quirk.
“Hence, idea number three. We’re stuck in a reality marble. You’ve heard of those?”
He has. “They’re the materialization of spaces within the quirk holder’s mind. How the reality marble is constructed depends on the individual, so there are variations across people with similar quirks. One could have nothing but a field of flowers, another a jumbled-up mismatch of fragmented environments, or… like this place we’re stuck in. A winter wasteland.”
“Right. Because it’s mental, that means we’re not physically here either. Our physical bodies are in the real world, but our conscious is stuck here. We’re basically vegetables back at the PLF. If this is a reality marble and all the usual rules for this type of quirk applies, then to get out, we need to convince the quirk holder to let us out. However, since the reality marble and the manifestation of it is tied to the quirk holder’s mind, it means they’re in control of the environment, and they’re in control of how they appear in this place. Their central consciousness, their central identity, can manifest as pretty much anything within the world.”
“… If any of the rabbits you just murdered was his central consciousness…”
Hawks freezes. “No. No way. No fucking way a kid would have a rabbit as his central consciousness.”
“What if he likes rabbits and sees himself as one?”
Hawks shoots him a filthy glare. “No, no way, no how, that’s not in any possibility at all.”
Dabi doesn’t want to go down that thought either, so he shrugs and changes topic. “What’s idea number four?”
“We’re both dead, and this is our punishment. Stuck together forever.”
Hawks’ response startles a laugh out of Dabi. The hero looks taken aback by his reaction, wings flaring backwards in surprise, but his answering smile is equally wry.
“Could be worse,” Dabi says. “I could be stuck with Toga.”
“At least I won’t drain your blood, right?”
“With you, I can still have roasted chicken for my last supper.”
“Ass.” He whaps Dabi on the shoulder with his wing. It doesn’t hurt.
“Do we have to actually eat and do normal bodily stuff while we’re here?”
Hawks drums his fingers against his cheek. “I think we’d better do it just in case, even if it’s to trick our physical bodies into thinking that we’ve got the sustenance we need. We can start walking and mapping the place out more after breakfast. I really, really hope we can find our way out.” He detaches a secondary feather and it sharpens, filaments turning shiny. “It won’t take me long to skin and gut the rabbits, and with your flames –”
“Hawks?”
“- we can cook them up in no time. What?”
“Since when did rabbits have antlers?”
“What do you mean, rabbits don’t have antlers –”
“These ones do,” Dabi says unnecessarily, after Hawks has shrieked and leapt backwards away from the rabbits he’s just bled out. Dabi inches away from the not-rabbits himself, never mind the fact that they were very, very dead.
“This place,” Hawks says numbly, “is out to mess with my mind. And my breakfast.”
“You can say that again.”
Hawks’ stomach rumbles. Dabi’s stomach rumbles.
“It’s either this or go hungry,” Hawks grimaces.
Dabi swallows down his sigh. “Slice ‘em up.”
Hawks makes quick work of washing the game with snowmelt. Dabi questions the cleanliness of it, but they’re out of options, with no body of water in sight. He even passes Dabi a feather blade out of one of his secondary feathers and lets Dabi handle one while guiding him through it.
“The cut should be a little higher.”
“I know,” Dabi says through gritted teeth. It’s not his fault it was hard to grip Hawks’ feather. The quill end was shorter than he liked.
“You’re putting a little too much strength behind it. Here, let me show you.”
Hawks’ gloved hands cover his own, and with a dexterous flick of his wrist the skin splits cleanly from the meat.
“Easy, right?” Hawks grins, sunlight turning his blonde hair gold. “You need to be more flexible in how you do stuff. Raw power won’t get you everywhere.”
“Did the Hero Commission tell you that?”
“No. I figured it out a long time ago.”
They fashion a spit from the wood, sharpening the ends and poking the not-rabbits through them. While Dabi cooks all three of them, Hawks carefully washes out his feathers with snowmelt. Despite his misgivings, they smell good, though the strength of the wild game stench makes him wrinkle his nose.
“They’re done.” Looking delicious too, nicely browned and oily. “You first.”
“Why don’t you eat it first?”
“I have a delicate constitution.” Dabi says swiftly.
Hawks pulls a face at him, and with a slow, measured gulp he gingerly tears off a leg. He sniffs it like he’s sniffing for poison, then bites into it.
“How does it taste?”
“Like chicken, but smellier.” He chews with his mouth open like the heathen he is. “You know, this is my first time eating rabbit. I think I like it.”
“Where would you even get rabbit in Japan?” Dabi helps himself to another leg. Hawks hasn’t keeled over yet and is starting to dig in enthusiastically. He sniffs it, then nibbles at the meat.
Hawks is right, it does taste like chicken, but smellier and tougher.
He finishes off two legs, while Hawks devours the rest of the not-rabbit, licking his lips and eyeing the remaining kills. Not for the first time Dabi is uncomfortably reminded that hawks were predatory birds who hunted for food. The look in his eye was one that Dabi had seen directed at himself in the past.
… It might, he reluctantly admits to himself, be a good idea to toe the line between pissing off the hero and irritating him more.
“If you want to have more just eat it. We don’t really have a way of keeping them for later.”
“You’re not gonna have more? You had less than I did.”
“No.”
“… Do you not like the taste or do you always eat this little?”
“The latter. Hurry up, we don’t know how long the sunlight will last.”
“I can eat as we go, no trouble.”
Since neither of them knew how to treat leather, they leave the pelt behind on the ground. After a final glimpse of the cave they set off once again on foot. Dabi can’t tell the difference, but Hawks remarks that it’s not as cold today as it was yesterday. So long as the hero wasn’t in danger of hypothermia again Dabi couldn’t care less about the weather.
As they wander forth blindly, relying on the barely visible trail of wild not-rabbits to guide them (and it’s mostly Hawks who spots them), the winds start picking up, blowing up the ends of his cloak at first, before slapping at their faces in earnest.
Hawks’ wings flare as he digs his feet in against a hard gust. “This is beginning to feel like the wrong way!”
“I say we’re going the right way! Think about it: the kid was getting bullied. He’d want to protect himself. What better way to do so in a snowy climate like this besides shielding himself off from the rest of the world with winds like that?”
“You have a point,” Hawks says grudgingly. “But we’re fighting through a snowstorm. I’ve got bird bones, and you’re a twig. How are we going to get through it?”
“With spite.”
“… The more I know you, the more I’m starting to appreciate Shigaraki Tomura being the leader.”
“Say that after you’ve actually spent time with him.”
“I would have if someone didn’t keep cockblocking me before you joined up with the PLF.”
“Shut up and walk.” Dabi returns, digging his own feet in. Hawks hunches over, and Dabi pretends not to care that Hawks is positioning himself behind Dabi to cut the wind resistance. At one point, Hawks almost falls backwards, saved only by Dabi’s timely grip on his wrist, dragging him back upright. His breath fans warmly against Dabi’s cheek as his free hand clamps down hard onto Dabi’s other wrist.
“We’re going to get ourselves frozen before we even reach the center of this storm!”
“If you’ve got any better ideas on where the kid’s central consciousness is, I’m all ears,” Dabi says through gritted teeth. “If you can’t handle the cold just back off and I’ll go ahead myself. It’s not going to hurt me.”
“I’m not abandoning you!”
“I’m not telling you to, dumbass. What part of backing off and making sure you don’t keel over from hypothermia a second time do you not get?”
“What about yourself?” Hawks yells. “You think I haven’t noticed you trying to scratch at your wounds? The air’s dry, and it’s making your skin itch around the staples. And that’s not including how you were tossing and turning all night!”
“You –”
Hawks tenses, as does Dabi. The winds have slowed, no longer buffeting them from all sides, gathering at their feet and swirling around them like a ring instead. A quick, silent lock of their gazes then they turn away from each other to face forwards. Instinct and reflex has Dabi bringing his left palm forwards, but it’s hard to do when Hawks was latching onto his wrist with an iron grip.
“Why are you still clinging to me?!”
“It’s my quirk!” Hawks yelps, and impossibly, his grip tightens, grinding his bones together. “I grip stuff when I’m stressed and I can’t let go until I’m unstressed!”
“For fuck’s sake –”
“Who,” a frosty voice that makes all the hairs at the back of Dabi’s neck stand on end rings out, “dares trespass into my domain?”
Yuki-onna. It’s the first conclusion Dabi comes to, after throwing off the shock of seeing midnight-black hair, face as pale as the snow around them and tellingly, beneath the dot of blood red at the center, frozen blue lips. The ends of her kimono are obscured by a swirl of snowdrift. Dabi was willing to bet that if he melted those away with his fire, the spirit wouldn’t have feet. Next to him, Hawks’ wings are half-raised in warning.
“We’re lost and we need a way out,” Dabi says bluntly, trying to ignore the hundred-fifty pounds of bird crushing his wrist. Her eyes, the colour of washed out slurry, large and dirty grey makes him clench his jaw. She says nothing, staring at them as if though deciding if they were worth the effort to kill with the wind whistling around all three of them.
“She can’t be the central conscious,” Hawks whispers. “The quirk user’s a kid.”
“She’s the only person we’ve seen so far. Who else can it be?”
“… The rabbits?”
“I thought we agreed not to visit the horrifying idea that you might have killed the kid when you killed those not-rabbit creatures.”
“I have decided,” the yuki-onna says imperiously, making Hawks snap his mouth shut, “that death would be a fitting punishment for you for trespassing into my home.”
“But we’re here only because we got lost!”
“I do not care.” A blast of frigid air right to their faces accompanies those words. Even Dabi could feel the dryness of it against his staples.
“Have I mentioned yet that you are the most ethereal being I’ve ever come across?” Hawks says with his most winning smile. It might have been convincing if he wasn’t still clinging to Dabi’s wrist, and the edges of his bushy eyebrows weren’t frosted over.
“I am a yuki-onna,” she drawls with all the boredom of one who’s heard it from all the fuckboys before. “And you are about to be frozen.”
“I’m a fire quirk user,” Dabi returns, “and ice melts.”
“This is not the time to be picking a fight with a snow-and-ice spirit while we’re stuck in the middle of a blizzard!” Hawks hisses, while Dabi locks gazes with the yuki-onna and they stare each other down. “Dabi!”
“You would fight me?” she scoffs, “here, in my domain?”
Dabi calls forth his flames in answer. They flicker dangerously in the wind on his palm, and he feels Hawks’ eyes on him, but he keeps his own wide open locked with the yuki-onna’s never mind that they were beginning to water. Her lips curl.
He lets loose a torrent of flames at her right as she slashes her own palm downwards. Hawks lets go of his wrist – finally – and takes flight. The steam blinds him. Hawks’ powerful wings beat the newly warmed air at the yuki-onna, and Dabi sees red flashes of feathers as he attempts to pin her down by her kimono. The sudden dip in temperature behind him makes him whirl and blast another powerful stream of flames. She screams, and before he can do anything else she shifts into snow and wind once again.
“I’ve got an idea!” Hawks yells at him. “Keep melting the snow!”
He really hopes Hawks does, because he has no way of restraining her on his own short of hopefully melting her whole body off. She can get hurt from his flames, but she was a spirit, albeit within a reality marble (if Hawks’ theory was right). Was she immortal? Could she keep reforming herself with the snow around them –
He has to bring up another wall of flame to defend himself when a vicious volley of ice shards come flying his way. They sizzle harmlessly into steam, and when he lets the flame die she’s disappeared yet again.
He can hear Hawks circling above him. There are puddles at his feet, water sloshing against his boots. Was this enough for Hawks?
It is. Hawks is a blur of red and gold as he dives in and slams into the yuki-onna feet-first, to the ground. As he fights to keep her pinned, Dabi summons up walls of flames around them. Sweat beads down Hawks’ forehead and a grimace crosses his face, but it’s nothing compared to the yuki-onna’s agonized expression as she is trapped in the middle of the overbearing heat.
“We’ve got you,” Hawks says grimly. “Now answer our questions.”
She looks like she’s going to try to freeze Hawks’ feathers. Dabi steps forward and holds out a lit palm threateningly. She glares at him.
“Hmph. What do you two want, then?”
“The kid who got us stuck here,” Hawks says quickly, before Dabi can open his mouth. “We just want to find him and get back to our world.”
“I can’t tell you where the child is.”
“Try harder,” Dabi snarls.
“I can’t, because I don’t know,” she snaps back at him. Her grey eyes churn like a snowstorm.
“Then what the fuck kind of use are you? Why are you even here?”
“I’m a manifestation of the child’s imagination.”
“… So you’re self-aware enough to know you’re a manifestation?”
“What the child knows, I know.”
“Then how come you don’t know where he is?”
She shrugs. Dabi’s about to melt her when she drawls, “I can give you a hint. The child shapeshifts.”
“Shapeshifts?”
“Yes. And that is all you need to know.”
“Hey –”
It’s too late. The yuki-onna turns into snowdrift, and with a great burst of frigid air flings them off the ground and away from her. Dabi’s ribs are saved by Hawks’ bone-crushing grip and his feathers. Instead of breaking a bone or two, his boots skim the ground and he wobbles as he regains his footing. Hawks on the other hand makes a graceful about-turn in the air and lands neatly before him, tucking his wings away behind his back. “Hell of a get out to get from her.”
Dabi looks back in the general direction of where they had been. He can’t see the towering flames he had made, and there’s only a swirl of snowdrift and the ice crystals winking at them in the distance. The winds also seem stronger than when they had first stomped their way up there, the most blatant KEEP OUT sign the yuki-onna could have made, short of spelling it out with ice crystals in the storm. “I should have melted her when I had the chance.”
“We’ve got a clue! A shapeshifter. And there’s only one creature we’ve seen so far in this place that shapeshifts.”
Dabi mulls it over. “The foxes.”
“Ding ding ding! Give the man a prize!”
“That doesn’t help. Haven’t you seen enough of this place yet? There’s nothing but those rabbits with antlers and foxes all over the place. This is worse than finding a needle in the haystack.”
“But we’ve got something most people finding needle in the haystacks don’t,” Hawks grins, even more blinding than a silver needle in the sunlight. “We both have sharp eyes. And I’ve got a hawk’s eye,” he waggles his brows. “Hawks hunt foxes.”
“Wasn’t that eagles?”
“Hawks too. And I’m bigger than an eagle anyway.”
“You’re still tiny.”
“I’m only two inches shorter than you.”
“Yeah, you’re a midget.”
“I can go higher in the air than you.”
“How else are you going to see things at my level?”
“I can see things above your level too, you long-limbed giant.” Hawks whaps his shoulder lightly with his wing. “Oh giant, my giant, has your squinty eyes spied anything resembling a fox near us?”
Dabi catches himself squinting at Hawks and shifts his gaze away. “Fuck you.”
“Always knew you wanted to tap this ass.” He has the gall to wink at him. “But seriously, she threw us off course. We’re lost, again. There’s no wind now, but I don’t want to take any chances of not having a reliable shelter to get back to.”
“Can’t you just burrow yourself into the ground?”
“That’s what dogs and bears do. I’m a bird! These beautiful wings of mine can’t be tainted by questionable snow!”
“The more time I spend with you, the more I’m convinced your Narcissus reborn.”
“Not true. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection and didn’t notice Echo in love with him. I feel more like Echo in the myth. Except my Narcissus isn’t in love with their reflection, they’re hung up on something else that I haven’t figured out yet.”
Dabi bites down hard on his bottom lip. “Every time you blab about them, the more it sounds like you’re setting yourself up for hell.”
Hawks shrugs, wings rising and falling as well. “Ya only live once and all that. What’s life without a little risk taking?”
“I’d prefer my risk taking to wind up landing me a jackpot.”
Hawks smirks. “I didn’t say I wasn’t in it not to win it.”
“With the chance of getting yourself killed or worse?”
“Sometimes, there’s the choice to stay safe. Other times, you have to throw yourself into it, heart and soul, because the chance of that good outcome is worth it, even if you lose everything else in return.”
“And this douchebag is worth it?”
“Still figuring that part out,” Hawks says blithely. Dabi could only shake his head in exasperation at the hero as they keep walking.
He swears he hasn’t worked out as much in a solid decade as he has these past two days. No longer in danger of death by freezing, Hawks is practically chirping, hopping on both feet like a sparrow and kicking up snow everywhere instead of walking like a human. Dabi’s dragging his feet almost two paces behind, and when Hawks turns around to taunt him about his snail’s pace he’s tempted to throw a snowball in the hero’s stupidly smug handsome face.
“What happened to keeping your bird’s eye out for the foxes?”
“I’m multitasking. Also, since we talked to the yuki-onna they’ve kinda disappeared.”
Dabi narrows his eyes. “You think the kid is hiding from us?”
Hawks grimaces. “Yeah, can we put that down in the ideas we don’t want to go down in our heads list?”
“Not going to make a contingency plan?”
“Hmm, nah, like I said, worst case scenario is I’m stuck here forever with you. I can live with that.”
“You can, I can’t.”
The way Hawks’ wings droop immediately is almost comical. “You said you were okay with it just this morning!”
“I said it was better than being stuck with Toga, and because I can still have roast chicken as a last meal if I’m stuck with you. I never said I was okay with this.”
“… Hey, who would you want to be stuck with the least amongst the League?”
“I’m done with twenty questions since last night.”
“Stop killing my mood and my vibes –”
Dabi slaps a hand over Hawks mouth, arm around his shoulder. “Foxes,” he hisses in Hawks ear, and maneuvers his jaw and neck so the hero is looking in the same direction that he is. The switchover is instantaneous. Hawks’ wings puff up, and when Dabi removes his hand he fans them open silently. He jabs a finger upwards and soars. Dabi inches himself closer as silently as possible. The foxes were frolicking in the snow, though, oddly, the foxes here weren’t all white in colour like the ones they’ve passed by to their cave shelter yesterday. There were snow-white ones, auburn ones, patchwork white and black ones, yellow-furred ones and weirdly, one that’s black with blue ears. They were caught up in their play-fighting, making strange chittering-like noises at each other.
… If the kid wasn’t somewhere close, or at least actively involved with this skulk of foxes, Dabi would eat his coat.
He still jumps when a sudden barrage of red feathers rain down at the skulk. The weird panicked screams they make sound like people getting murdered in the dead of the night, and the skulk breaks apart into ones and twos, tails flashing as they hightail it away from the unexpected attack. Dabi kills his flames before he even lets it loose – this was their one chance back home, he’s not going to kill the kid by accident -
“That one!” Hawks yells. “NO – the one with the black tail tip! You can see the other tails when the light hits it just right! None of the other foxes have that!”
Dabi dives. He gets a face full of snow while said kitsune nimbly leaping through his open arms. Hawks’ feathers shoot out and stab at more ground, kicking up a flurry of white while the kitsune ducks and dodges. It doesn’t seem to realize that Hawks has been backing it into a corner, and when Dabi spots his opening he goes for it and manages to grab hold of the kitsune around the stomach. Its other tails that Dabi had only caught glimpses off earlier appear out of nowhere, thrashing hard against Dabi. It writhes and struggles, trying to slide its way out of Dabi’s grip, claws flashing silver. At this rate, it was going to tear Dabi’s skin and staples along with it. Dabi tries to pin its flailing limbs with his arm without letting the sharp claws anywhere near his chest.
“Stop struggling,” he snarls at the kitsune. Smoke is coming out of his mouth. “Stop before I barbecue you!”
The kitsune stops. Its ears fold backwards, flat against its head, going limp in Dabi’s grip. All three of its tails droop, and the gaze it fixes Dabi with beady black eyes is so piteous Dabi instantly feels like the bad guy. Which, okay, fine, he technically is, he’s a villain after all, but he’s the victim in this situation here! Hawks has reached them both, and his feathers were all reattached to his wings once again. He looks the kitsune in the eye.
“I’m going to let you go,” Dabi says, in the calmest voice he can muster, “then we’ll talk. If you try to run, this guy here,” he jabs a thumb at Hawks, “can just grab you with his feathers. You’ve seen how he uses them. You can run, but you won’t be able to outrun him at his top speed.”
The kitsune nods glumly. Dabi carefully places him on the ground, and crouches down, so that they’re closer to eye-level.
“I think you know what’s going on here, right, kid?”
It flummoxes Dabi to hear a child’s voice coming out from the kitsune’s open mouth. Its’ tails twitch in all directions. “No…”
“You’re the kid who was getting beaten up by the other kids on the street, right?” Hawks says kindly. “We jumped in to stop them. Do you remember that?”
“… A little,” the kitsune says timidly.
“Okay, then what do you remember?”
“I – I was just going to the park to read! Then I ran into Hari-kun, Micchan and Yu-kun. Hari-kun kept saying I was a boy, and that I wasn’t a girl. Then he started hit-hitting me.” The kitsune’s fur puffs up. “I’m not! I’m a – I’m not always a boy! Sometimes I’m a girl too!”
The kitsune looks frightened by their own indignant outburst, because they curl their tails around themselves again, making them into an even smaller ball before them. Dabi knows how easy it is to shrink yourself down to almost nothing.
“What’s your name, kid?”
“… Rin.” they say timidly.
“Rin-chan, is it?” Hawks says. “Then do you remember what happened after they started bullying you?”
“You called out to us first.” They fix their gaze at Dabi. “Then you followed behind him. And then… and then… I woke up here.”
Quirk evolution or quirk overuse? “Does waking up here happen to you often?”
Rin-chan nods. “Only when I sleep…”
“Then how do you get out of here?”
“I don’t know how to get you out of here.” Rin mumbles.
Hawks shares a speaking glance with Dabi. “It’s your quirk.”
“But I’ve always been here alone. You’re the first two people that have come in here with me. And this is the longest I’ve ever been in here.”
“Really, Rin-chan? How long have all three of us been in here?”
“A day?”
“A whole day?”
“I think so. I can’t tell the time when I’m here.”
“Okay, Rin-chan. Don’t think about getting the both of us out of here. How do you normally get out of here?”
“I wake up when my mom wakes me up. Or when the alarm rings.”
This was not good. Hawks must be just as worried as he is, but the hero still speaks kindly to Rin. “So you’ve never… you’ve never used your quirk while you were awake?”
“I tried. It’s hard. That’s why Hari-kun and the rest… that’s why they always say I’m quirkless. I’m not. I just – they’d believe me if they were here instead of you.” Rin’s ears flattened again. “The best I could do was get a baby jackalope out in the real world for a few minutes, but it disappeared before I could show them.”
“A baby – what, sorry?”
“Jackalope. Haven’t you seen them? You should have seen them. They’re everywhere.”
Dabi mulls it over. “Are they the rabbits? The ones with the antlers?”
Rin’s ears perk up. “Yeah! They’re actually rabbit mutations. Their bones grow funny, like deer, and that’s why they have antlers. So you’ve seen them? You’ve seen them, right? What do you think about them?”
They were creepy as fuck. “We, uh, caught a couple of them and cooked them.”
“Dabi!”
Rin-chan blinks at Dabi. “Oh. You… you ate them?”
“Sorry, kid. We weren’t sure where we were, and we didn’t want to risk starving to death.”
“Oh, oh! Oh no, that’s okay. I can make more of them. But I don’t think eating them here helps with your hunger. You’re not really eating anything while you’re here.”
“Is that so?”
“Mmhmm! I’m always hungry when mom wakes me up for breakfast!”
Fuck. Then what the hell was happening to their real bodies while they’ve been stuck here?
“Say, kid, aren’t you affected by the temperature here?”
“Huh?”
“This place looks like the North Pole.”
RIin shook their head. “Are you cold?”
Dabi jabs a thumb at Hawks. “He was, yesterday. Or whatever the time was here. Almost turned into a frozen chicken before we found a cave and thawed him out.”
“I’m sorry!”
“Not your fault, Rin-chan,” Hawks says, shooting a glare at Dabi. He spreads his wings out. “Look! I’m perfectly fine! So don’t worry about it, alright?”
Rin nods slowly.
“Are you always a fox, Rin-chan?”
“Not always. Sometimes I’m a boy. Sometimes I’m a girl. Sometimes I’m a dragon.”
“Good taste, kid.”
“Have you ever been a bird?”
“Dragons are cooler than birds.”
Hawks squawks indignantly. Dabi rolls his eyes and sits down as he gets into a passionate debate with the kid (who the fuck squabbled with a kid over whether birds are cooler than dragons, sheesh), but it works on Rin, who starts untucking themselves out of the ball they’ve rolled themselves into, tails waving about as passionately as Hawks was flaring his wings in emphasis.
“- what do you think, Dabi? Dragons or birds?”
“Dragons, duh.” Hawks gives him an exaggerated look of utter betrayal, but Rin grins and bounds over to him, fluffy tails waving in triumph. “They’re obviously cooler. They can fly like birds, have claws, and they can breathe fire. Birds can’t do that.”
“See! Even Dabi-nii agrees with me!”
Dabi-nii? Hawks shrugs helplessly. “Fine, fine. It’s my loss this round.” While Rin’s not looking, he winks at Dabi. “Say, Rin-chan, what can you do with this world of yours? I’m more of a beach guy, but this place is pretty cool too.”
“Oh. It, um, changes all the time.”
“It changes all the time?”
“Mmhmm. It… it’s the North Pole now. But it was a forest all week last week.”
They could have been trekking in a forest instead of suffering through this snowy hellscape just last week? Dabi’s not one to curse his bad luck, but it seems like the universe is out to prove to him just how terrible his luck can be. “So why’s it the North Pole now?”
Rin’s tails twitch anxiously. “I was reading a book about winter spirits…”
“We ran into a yuki-onna.”
Rin lights up immediately. “You did? You did?! You ran into Rinko?”
“Her name’s Rinko?”
“Uhuh! I was trying to make her into the Queen of this place, and she knows everything about everyone. I got tired halfway making her and wanted to play with the foxes instead. What do you think? Was she cool? Was she pretty?”
She tried to kill them an hour ago. Hawks once again butts in before the words leave his mouth. “Oh, she was very cool. Very beautiful, but scary too, you know, like how queens can be.”
Rin looks so happy about it that Dabi has no choice but to swallow his words down. Their tails wag like a dog’s, and Dabi pets their head before he even realizes what he’s doing. He flinches when Rin freezes beneath his touch as well, but then Rin is rubbing their head into his palm and he… gives in and rubs Rin’s head all over. There’s low rumbly sound, and it takes Dabi a while to place that it’s Rin purring from his touch.
Oh, what the hell. He’s missed petting the stray cats he’s fed whenever he had the free time, and Rin’s fur was thick and soft to the touch. He scratches the bottom of Rin’s ears. Rin even whines when he gets tired of it and retracts his hand, clambering into his lap with a pouty look on their face.
“So you’re sometimes a boy and sometimes a girl, huh, kid?”
Rin’s tails swish. “I look like a boy but I’m not always one.”
“I had a friend a little like you too.”
“You did?”
“Mmhm. She looks like a boy, but she’s a girl at heart.”
“Can I meet her? I’ve never met anyone like me before!”
Dabi’s fingers still. “Sorry, kid, she’s gone.”
“Will she come back? Can I meet her when she does?”
“No, she won’t.” His abrupt words makes Rin pull away from him, and he tries to soften his tone. “She’s not coming back, so I can’t introduce you to her. I don’t know too many people like you either, but they’re out there, okay? And I know someone who’d love to teach you how to dress up and look cute.” Crazy girl was crazy, but he doesn’t think Toga’s gone after kids. Yet. That Midoriya boy and Uraraka girl didn’t count, they were around her age.
Rin considers him. “I think you’d look cute with cat ears.”
Hawks, who’s stayed so quiet that he might as well have been a statue, slaps his gloved hand over his mouth and starts laughing so hard his wings puff up, fluttering up and down as he tries – and fails – to stifle his amusement. Eerily, he makes no noise at all even with all that movement. While Dabi’s busy trying to kill Hawks with the heat of his glare, Rin shifts on his lap, moving to sit back on their haunches. A paw bats at Dabi’s hair, and –
The eeriest sensation sweeps over him. He feels like he’s been submerged underwater, his ears stuffed and every sound he can hear comes through distorted and from a distance. Then the sensation fades away, and everything returns to normal. He can hear his heartbeat beneath Rin’s paw resting against his chest, thankfully not pressing down on any of the staples or piercings, and it’s abnormally loud. That’s strange. His ears prick up, swiveling forwards –
Dabi freezes. Tentatively, he pricks up his flattened ears again.
He has cat ears. He has cat ears. He has cat ears.
Hawks has pulled his hand away from his mouth, but his face is still stretched into a wide grin. He steps forward, and Dabi resists snapping his teeth forward and hissing at him.
“Hey, Rin-chan, do pictures we take here stay with us when we wake up?”
“Pictures?”
“We both have our phones with us.”
“Huh?”
Hawks digs his phone out of his pocket and waves it at Rin. “We both have our phones with us.”
Rin blinks. “I… that’s never happened before.”
“Really? Well, Rin-chan, looks like your quirk’s evolved a little when you pulled us both in here.” Hawks hums and turns on his phone. “Smile, Dabi.”
Dabi bares his teeth at him, but it doesn’t deter the hero. He shows it to Rin who stares at it with a sound of wonder, and stuffs it back quickly in his pocket before Dabi can dislodge Rin off his lap and swipe it. “I’ve never thought of having a phone with me here before.” The kid’s gaze goes distant, like they’re thinking about a million and one things they could make in this dream-world of theirs from the real world.
“Something fun to think about when we get back home, yeah?” Hawks says. He sounds nonchalant, but Dabi knows he’s easing Rin into the idea of wanting to go back home. Except Rin’s whole posture slumps again, and Dabi can’t resist running his fingers through their fur and petting them all over.
“You don’t want to go home, kid?” When Rin doesn’t answer, Dabi rubs the top of their head hard. “Hey, kid, I asked you a question.”
“I want to see mom.” Tears fill up those beady black eyes. “I don’t want to see Hari-kun or Micchan. They’re always yelling at me.”
“Hari-kun and Micchan, huh?” He could scare kids, no problem. Many of them shit their pants the moment they saw him. Or he could have Twice send a clone of him to do it. Twice’s been so happy with his quirk recently, might as well give him the chance and kick back and relax for himself.
“You want to see your mom right? I betcha she wants to see you too. Right now, we’re in your quirk, that means you’re asleep, right, Rin-chan?”
Rin nods.
“So you can see her once you wake up, right?”
“But… I still don’t know how to get the both of you out of here.”
“Easy peasy lemon squeezy.” Dabi withholds a snort. “Your quirk activates when you’re asleep. So once you wake up, we’ll be right back in the real world too.”
Or, they could both be braindead. Dabi banishes his own pessimistic thoughts with an extra long rub along Rin’s back.
“Is it that easy?”
“Sure it is!”
Rin doesn’t look too convinced. Dabi runs his hands down Rin’s jaw, scratching at it until Rin starts purring. It must feel good; Rin’s right hind paw is thumping at Dabi’s leg.
“Don’t think too much about it, kid. Once you wake up, I’m sure we’ll be fine too. We don’t have to go back right this instance.”
“Yeah, I’m not looking forward to go back to work,” Hawks says dryly.
“So… you’ll stay here and play with me? Until I want to go back?”
“Not that long kid, but for now, sure.”
That cheers Rin up considerably. Dabi’s just glad they’ve found their way out of this mess, and he half-heartedly joins Hawks and Rin in the game of tag Hawks goads Rin into. The foxes come back eventually too, and Dabi takes it as a sign that Rin’s growing comfortable with them. Hawks winds up plopping down next to him while Rin chases down a fake fox, all three tails flashing in the sunlight.
“Some fried chicken and beer, and this would be the perfect lazy day out.”
Dabi privately agrees. He’s feeling the lazy drowsiness of a nice day with nothing to do, lying in the shade. Hawks detaches a couple of his feathers and teases Rin and the foxes with it. They make weird, scary screeching noises and barks as they chase them down, leaping high into the air to snag one down. Rin crowd triumphantly when they manage to catch one in their mouth, trotting back to Hawks with the red feather held carefully between their teeth. Hawks rubs their head, fondling the ears. Rin drops the feather with a tired, drawn-out yawn.
“Nice job, Rin-chan.”
“Can I keep it?”
“Dunno if ya can keep it in this dream world of yours, Rin-chan. But when ya wake up and we’re all back in the real world, sure. I’ll give one to ya.”
“Oh.” Rin looks torn, but their ears perk up hopefully. “So… you’ll both come and look for me?”
“’course we will!”
“You go to sleep, think about waking up, then you’ll wake up back in the real world. And we’ll be there to see you when you do. Then Hawks can give you the feather he’s promised you.” And Dabi will get Twice to go ‘talk’ to Hari-kun and whoever else that’s been bothering Rin.
“Promise?”
“Bird’s honour. Also, a hero doesn’t break their promises.” Hawks says, one wing raised in salute.
Surprisingly, Rin turns to Dabi. “Promise?”
It makes Dabi feel weirdly warm, and he nods solemnly. “Promise, kid.”
Rin smiles shyly and nudges up against Dabi’s side. “You give better pets,” they tell Dabi, while Hawks splutters indignantly next to him. Dabi smirks and scratches Rin’s jaw.
“Hey kid, before you wake up and we leave this world, can you do me a favour?” When Rin looks questioningly at him, he jabs a thumb at Hawks. “Make him bald. Lose his hair.”
“Hey!”
“Uhm…”
“It’s not permanent, right? Like the cat ears you gave me, or this fox form you’ve given yourself. We’re both different from our usual selves. This guy should be too.”
Rin grins, the quick-flash grin of a child about to indulge in some mischief. They don’t touch Hawks like they had Dabi, but Dabi watches the surprise across Hawks face, watches his hair disappear, like they’ve been erased from hair tip to hair root. Dabi’s smirking so widely his staples are pulling at his skin, and when Hawks tentatively, with a mix of horror and awe in his eyes, reach up to touch his newly bald head Rin giggles and snorts, rolling onto the ground and kicking up snow all over the place, their tails fluffing up and swishing about.
“You two can laugh all you want about it now, but this cannot get out.” When Rin doesn’t stop laughing, Hawks playfully reaches across Dabi’s lap to tickle Rin’s ribs, making Rin kick and scream. “I mean it, Rin-chan. I’m under contract for some hair product brands. It’s a secret between the three of us, got it?”
“Okay, okay.” Rin yawns again, fangs running out. They blink. “I’m sleepy.”
“’m sure you are. So go to sleep, okay, Rin-chan? Then we’ll see you on the other side.”
Rin nods. Rin circles a spot in front of them, then curls up into a snug-looking ball, all three tails wrapped tightly around themselves. Hawks smile is surprisingly soft and tender. “What a day we’ve had, huh?”
Dabi grunts. He’ll be glad to wake up in the real world again, that’s for sure. Hawks watches him intensely, not bothering to hide his staring, and Dabi raises his brows in question. Quick as a hawk in a dive-catch, Hawks’ hand shoots out to scratch at the base of his ear. Dabi makes a surprised purr of contentment, before he catches himself and slaps Hawks’ hand away. Before them, Rin-chan’s body rises and falls in even, measured movements.
“Payback for turning me bald and depriving me of my good looks,” Hawks grins. He’s already growing fuzzy around the edges. “See you on the other side.”
He hears the steady beating of the monitors before he manages to pry his eyes open. He regrets the latter when he finds himself staring right into a pair of golden eyes. It’s the wrong colour and shape, his mind supplies unhelpfully, before it does the mental connection of that familiar, pitched shriek with Toga. “He’s up! He’s up!”
“Shut up, crazy girl,” he hisses. His voice is even more hoarse than he expects.
“Hawks is up too.” Mr. Compress says. Dabi strains to get up.
“You need to lie down! You should sit up and work those lazy bones! You haven’t moved in two days!”
He cannot believe that Twice is calling him lazy not two fucking seconds after he wakes up from a quirk-induced coma.
“Dabi, you okay?” At least Spinner’s halfway normal about it.
He grunts.
“He’s okay, guys.” Spinner says.
“Hawks, what about you?”
“’m good.” He’s at the next bed over, and Twice is leaning over him, helping to prop him up. He looks bemused. Spinner presses a button that raises the bed up. Dabi wriggles. There’s a distasteful tube attached to his arm, and when he eyes it Spinner’s quick to stop him. “It’s an IV drip, don’t take it out until the doctors give you the okay.”
“I know my own body, thanks.”
“You were unconscious for two days!” Twice says, looking besides himself with worry, before snapping his head forward and snarling at them. “Two whole days you fuckers! Not that I missed ya at all!”
“We didn’t ask to get telepathically sucked into some kid’s quirk,” Dabi rolls his eyes.
“Hawks had some messed-up health readings too; the doctors were afraid he was gonna get a heart attack for a while there.” Spinner’s gaze darts between them both. “It took us a while to realize what happened to you two and haul you here for medical attention.”
Toga claps her hands together gleefully. “Tomura-kun didn’t even believe us when we told him that we found you two unconscious on the streets at first! Then we did a little digging and figured out what happened to you! Was it fun in the kid’s mind? Was it scary? Did you fight something? Was there blood?”
“Will you quit it and leave us the fuck alone, crazy?”
Compress pats Twice on the shoulder, gently pulling Toga back as well. “Now, now, let’s not let our emotions get the best of us. The both of you look alright. Perhaps you should go do a second check-up with the medical staff? It would put us all at ease.”
“I told you we’re fine.”
“He’s right,” Hawks says, shrugging his shoulders. “We weren’t in any immediate danger. We’re peachy.”
“Since Hawks says so –”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean –”
“- it’s fine. We’ll go tell Shigaraki you’re both back, and completely unharmed. Twice, Toga, Spinner, let’s go. They need to rest up.”
“Boo… I wanted to hear about their adventure…”
“You sure you’re okay Dabi?”
“Yeah, we don’t want you to have some disease! You fucking better get yourselves checked out –”
“For the last fucking time, we’re fine.”
“We’ll leave you to rest, then.”
“Wait a minute. Where’s the kid?”
“The kid?”
“The one whose quirk caused all this.” Dabi elaborates.
Spinner pipes up. “He’s in the children’s ward. Room 1218.”
“Spinner, how come you know that?”
“We went there to find the kid!” He says, looking disbelievingly at Toga. Their bickering gets muted by the closed hospital door. Hawks blinks at Dabi.
“Right now?”
“I’m not staying here another minute longer than I have to.” He avoids staring at Hawks’ reluctant grin. “You coming?”
“’course I am.”
At Hawks’ insistence, they bell for a doctor to come by and give them the all-clear. Hawks then sweet talks their way into the children’s ward, and after changing back into their clothes – it’s been washed and laundered while they were unconscious - they head to room 1218. The receptionist has neglected to tell them that the room was a shared room, and Dabi notices the flinch-freeze Hawks does before half-a-dozen tiny round faces turn to stare at him in the entrance in awe. While he’s accosted on all sides by pint-sized gremlins, Dabi slinks his way over to the one bed that has curtains drawn around it. He slips in around it, and sits down at the one chair next to the bed.
“Hey kid.”
Rin doesn’t have their ears anymore, but Dabi could almost imagine them swiveling back and perking up. He gives in to the temptation and rests his hand on Rin’s head for a beat before pulling back.
“You really came,” Rin says. They look at the curtains like they could see through it. “And that’s really… that’s really Hawks outside.”
“He promised to give you his feather, didn’t he?”
Rin nods. Dabi leans back in his chair, and they both wait in peaceful quiet, listening to the other children clamor over Hawks until he manages to get out that he’s here to see Rin-chan. Dabi catches a glimpse of eager faces before Hawks whips the curtain close behind him with his feathers. The curtain does nothing to stifle the other kids’ hushed whispers. “Hi, Rin-chan!”
“Hawks…”
“In real life,” Hawks says, with a wink. “How’re ya feeling?”
“I’m okay.”
“That’s good. Have your parents come by yet?”
“Mom’s at work. I can go home tomorrow.”
“Mm. That’s great. And here,” Hawks detaches one of his larger covert feathers. “The feather I promised you.”
“Oh.” Rin picks it up reverently, brushing the end filaments with their fingertips. “Oh. It’s even softer than I thought it’d be.”
It makes Dabi think of Hawks covering him with his wing in the cave. He had thought that too, in the reality marble. He’s suddenly tempted to ask Rin to get the chance to feel it for himself. Hawks preens openly at the praise. “I do take good care of my feathers, after all.”
They don’t stay too long, because Rin still looks sleepy. While Dabi is shutting the room’s door behind him, he glimpses the other children starting to crowd around Rin’s curtains.
They get drinks – coffee for Hawks, black tea for Dabi and go up to the roof where they’ll be alone. “I can’t believe we spent two whole days stuck in a reality marble.” Hawks sighs, flaring his wings before he tucks them in tightly again to avoid banging into others in the narrow hospital corridors. “Still, some good stuff came out of it.”
“Like?”
“We helped a kid,” he says brightly. “That’s a good thing.”
Dabi grunts as they climb the stairs. Hawks pops open his canned coffee with ease, and after watching Dabi struggle with the tight cap detaches a feather to help him pry it open. Dabi skulks in the shade while Hawks spreads his wings wide beneath the sun, leaning against the railing.
“I kinda liked Rin-chan’s world.” Hawks says wistfully.
“It was creepy.”
“Learnt new stuff, though! I mean, I’ve never even heard of jackalopes before this. Won’t need to freak out over finding rabbits with antlers from now on.” Hawks smiles wryly. “I also learned that the guy I like is surprisingly good with kids.”
“Huh?” Dabi furrowed his brows. “We were stuck together the whole time with Rin. How on earth could you have learnt that?”
“… Remember when I said that they were dumb?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m amending that statement to them being really, really, fucking dumb.”
Dabi’s curls his lips down even more. “Why the sudden revision?”
Hawks makes an exasperated noise from his throat. In two quick strides he’s standing in front of Dabi, then gloved hands are on his face, and Dabi’s fire is flickering from the center of his palms, ready to burst forth -
Then Hawks eyelids are sliding down, and he can’t see those gold flecks in brown anymore, and warm, chapped lips are pressing against his -
His fire dies as he stands frozen in place, still and unmoving. Brown eyes flutter open after a moment, then Hawks is backing away, smiling mechanically, but it does nothing to hide the frightened, hunted look in his eyes. “Um…”
Safe from villains. Took care of stray cats. Offering to cover him with his wings as they slept in the cave. Noticing Dabi scratching himself.
Shoving him out of the way of Rin’s quirk, right at the very beginning.
“… Dabi?” Hawks asks tentatively, then in a more panicked voice, “Dabi?”
Dabi shook his head. “You kissed me.”
“Uh. Yeah. About that. It never happened. Okay? Great. Bye!” Before Hawks can swan dive off the roof, Dabi snags his jacket. Hawks’ own hand tightens around his wrist in that bone-crushing grip – the very same one when they were facing down the yuki-onna in Rin’s reality marble. Dabi winces. Hawks’ wings flutter restlessly as he sways, trying to pry his hand off Dabi’s wrist and throw him off.
“Fuck, birdbrain, stop. You’re going to tear off my hand!”
“Sorry,” Hawks says weakly. His wings droop. “I can’t – stop –”
“Because you’re stressed. I heard you the first time.”
“Ahahaha. Yeah.”
“Were you lying?”
“Huh?”
“In the cave. When you started talking about that guy you liked. The one you said you could be dating right now if they were on the heroes’ side.”
Hawks swallows. “I wasn’t.”
“Does it matter if they’re on the heroes’ side to you?”
“It’d be easier.”
“I didn’t ask about easier. I asked if it matters.”
“Don’t think it does,” Hawks says softly. “I’m already in too deep.”
The tight grip on his wrist has loosened up. Dabi still doesn’t wrench it away, nor does he relax his own hold on Hawks’ jacket.
“You know the best thing about being on your own side?”
Hawks’ sharp gaze lands questioningly on his face.
“You don’t have to give a fuck about what either side thinks.”
Dabi closes his eyes and leans in. Hawks’ lips tremble against his own, stubble scratching against his jaw, but he kisses him back. He kisses Dabi back, warm and eager, and his hand is no longer an iron grip around Dabi’s wrist but holding on to his waist instead. When they pull apart, Hawks’ wings are splayed low, primary feathers trailing the ground. Their faces are still so close that the tips of their nose bump against each other.
“Hey.” Dabi says, when he notices flecks of white in his vision’s periphery.
“Snowflakes,” Hawks grins, and Dabi knows he’s thinking of the little snow globe world they had been in. When Hawks starts to laugh, Dabi leans in and kisses him again, pulling Hawks down with him onto the concrete floor of the roof as snow flurries whirled around them.