Chapter Text
In the end, Dabi does not try to set the comfy blue scarf on fire. Instead he tries to set Hawks on fire while he was wearing it before non-so-gently yanking it off his slowly roasting form. (Judging by it’s still pristine --if worn-- condition compared to his poor clothes and feathers, it seemed it really was fireproof.)
“Jeez, you could’ve just asked nicely.” Hawks grumbled, patting off the blue flames licking up his flight jacket and ripping off a some of his still burning feathers.Dabi does not deign him with a reply, instead wrapping said scarf over his mangled jaw and, bringing Hawks’ attention to the long black hoodie he was wearing, as opposed to his usual badass long coat. He blinked. “You goin’ somewhere hotstu--” he cut himself off before he finished that nickname, feeling his cheeks heat.
That obviously didn’t miss Dabi’s pretty eyes as the villain raised an delicate eyebrow at him.
Hawks refused to speak.
Which was reasonable, really, cause it was one thing to learn that the villain you’d been trying to butter up in order to infiltrate his villainous organization was actually the possibly-abused-son of your favourite hero growing up, and another thing entirely to realize said hero was trying to set you up with his said-villain-son.
“Are you gay?” the question echoed in his brain, completely out of the blue considering they’d been on villain-talk (Dabi-talk, actually), so unexpected from that gruff no-nonsense voice that Hawks had blanked out for a moment. And what was it he said after that? “If you don’t understand then you need to work harder.”
Haha. Well, he still doesn’t understand thank you very much Endeavor-san!!! What am I even supposed to do with this information.
“Whatever.” a light and smooth voice grumbled in his ear, making Hawks jump all over again as a fully-sleeved arm wrapped around his shoulders and I think I really do need to retire after this. Twenty two’s a good age right? I mean, being snuck-up on all the time by smoking villains and heroes twice my size really doesn’t spell good for my survival rate in the future. “Get rid of your feathers.”
Hawks stalled. “Uhm, excuse me?” he asked, side-eyeing the flame villain currently guiding him forward, wondering if he should bring up how the villain had technically been avoiding him the past couple of days and didn’t even bother saying ‘hello’.
“Your damn surveillance feathers. Off.” Dabi clarified, far too close for comfort and looking him straight in the eye.
Hawks tried to pull away, to no avail. “Uh yeah, I would love to, but Skeptic’s kinda got me on a leash here, I can’t really take em off whenever I want.” he explained with an awkward shrug.
Dabi’s head lolled backwards in exaggerated exasperation, his pretty blue eyes rolling. “Skeptic can go fuck himself. He has no damn need to pry into my business and today I’ve decided that you--” he intoned, patting Hawks on the shoulder. “are coming with me. He has a problem with that, he can take it up with the big boss.”
And with that, Dabi proceeded to just… set the rest of Hawks’ feathers on fire, to the hero’s consternation, and Hawks can’t even cry in shame at all the surprised bird noises that escaped him as he watched his futilely-flapping wings turn to ash within minutes. He whezed at Dabi. “Did you have to burn all of them?!”
Dabi flashed him one of his trademark slasher-grins. “Yep.” was all he said before placing too-warm palm directly on Hawks’ spine, still sensitive from the sudden loss of his extra appendages. "Anyway, they"ll grow back won"t they?"
“Tch. If you wanted to ask me out, you could’ve done it nicely.” Hawks grumbled, doing his best not to shiver against the other’s touch as he was easily pushed along.
“Aww but birdy, that wouldn’t be any fun.” Dabi grinned, a little less maniacally but still a little threatening and Hawks had to scowl, fighting the heat from his cheeks as his heart skipped a beat.
So. He may have accepted that he’d had a crush weeks ago (it was hard not to when the flame-villain seemed to have made it his life’s goal to invade Hawks’ personal space as often as possible since the freaking ice cream incident, as if his privacy wasn’t already thoroughly compromised by Skeptic’s 24/7 surveillance cams. And like, now they’re raising a bird together, it can’t be helped!! …okay wow that sounded better in my head) but now knowing he was actually being set up with said crush by crush’s actual parent made everything… just a liiiittle bit more awkward and embarrassing that it really had any right to be and his oversensitivity can absolutely be excused thank you very much.
But as for this outing, well, Hawks at least knew it was only a matter of time.
It had taken a bit longer than expected, but as Hawks had dreaded, the repercussions of his little look into Endeavor’s personal life had made itself known, and soon enough the name Todoroki Touya could be heard in hushed whispers all along the halls of the PLF’s underground HQ.
It was severely awkward for him and Hawks was little more than a bystander. He couldn’t even imagine what it must be like for the man in question, hearing his discarded name and speculations of his past around every corner.
Unsurprisingly, Dabi had requested (read: threatened) to take over surveillance duty for the Todoroki Family dinner and received it easily enough (hence Hawks’ destroyed room). But like that could keep Skeptic from his own gear, and the man had taken it upon himself to gathered everything he could about Endeavor’s family anyway, most especially the mysterious dead oldest child.
The results were, predictably enough, not pretty.
Cause of death was listed as a quirk accident. The boy had been fourteen at the time --small for his age-- with a delicate constitution completely incompatible with his destructive quirk. He had been rushed to a private hospital still burning from his own fire and had gone missing soon afterward, nowhere near fully healed. He was declared dead not a week later due to the very slim probability of survival. Endeavor had made no dispute, and neither did anyone else in his family.
Hawks had resisted the urge to glance at Dabi’s scorched form throughout the entire briefing, but he didn’t bother to keep the horror from his face as his confidence in the number 1 hero broke just a little bit more. After all, this event obviously happened under Endeavor’s watchful eye, and afterwards he didn’t even seem to care enough to mourn. The implications alone--
What made it worse was that this happened only months after Endeavor’s own wife was admitted to a psychiatric ward. No wonder his sons hate him so much. Hawks thought.
“Curious would’ve had a field day with this information if she were still alive.” Skeptic had declared during the meeting just that morning. “We could just air out all the new number one’s dirty laundry with a few well-written articles, paint him as the bastard he appears to be and break the public’s trust in hero society. With all the chaos that’d ensue afterwards, the heroes would never see us coming.”
And boy if that wasn’t a chilling thought at this point in time because even Hawks could see the appeal. But the heroes needs to be united if they want to have a chance at winning this war and Endeavor’s current position is indispensable, bastard or not.
“He’s trying.” he remembered Fuyumi’s words, and Hawks knew them to be true at least. But still he’d thought with a sigh.
To his surprise though, it was Dabi who’d shut down that idea fairly quickly; and with backing from the rest of the original League of Villains plus the current butt-licking Re-Destro himself (though they all seemed either confused or uncaring as to why), Skeptic had no choice but to back off. No one else seemed to have made the connection between Endeavor’s eldest and their very own flame-weilder as of yet, but judging by how Skeptic had eyed Dabi a little too closely afterwards, Hawks had a feeling he’d likely get it soon enough.
But anyways, now Dabi was here dragging his featherless self outside for a private rendezvous --or as private as it can be in a city composed completely of PLF members anyway-- and if the scarf-stealing was anything to go by, he definitely had a few suspicions that could compromise Hawks’ entire mission, personal dignity, or both.
He should find some relief in the fact that it was, like, one in the afternoon, but honestly the daylight would only be advantageous to hide Dabi’s bright blue flames. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t actually plan on roasting me behind the nearest public dumpster. Hawks gulped and subtly clapped his hands in prayer.
To his surprise, however, Dabi simply lead him towards a nearby open-planned, brightly lit family restaurant. “Had lunch yet birdie?”
“...” Hawks forced his jaw shut, then broke out into a bright grin as his brain blared out code red signals. “Nope! Actually I’m starving! Guess you are too huh? Felt like eating out for a change of scenery is it?”
“Pretty much yeah.”
Omg is this a date hell no this is Dabi we’re talking about why the heck would this be a date this is not a date but it would be nice if it’s a date but no that’d actually be terrible and holy crap you actually got the go ahead from his DAD but that means shit he’s a villain you’re about to betray omg why is he TOUCHING ME--
“In you go little bird.” Dabi instructed, opening the doors and pushing him in with a hand on his lower back and it took literally all Hawks had to not squeak when the villain didn’t let go till they were seated in a semi-private booth by the glass windows, and Hawks would’ve been able to calm down at this point had it not been for the fact that Dabi’s long legs proceeded to press against his under the table.
Okay honestly!! Is this guy doing this on purpose???
Thankfully the waitress took that moment to deliver their menus with a huge smile on her face. Hawks, it’s an honor to meet you!! I’m actually a big fan!” she gushed, the familiar territory pulling Hawks away from his spiraling thoughts as he flashed her his own big smile.
“Thanks pretty Miss! The honor’s all mine. You got great taste.” he flashed her a wink and some finger guns for effect, making her giggle in reply.
“Can I ask what happened to your wings though? It’s rare to see you without them.”
Hawks gave an exaggerated pout. “Oh pretty Miss would you believe this? This guy--” he intoned, pointing a thumb at Dabi across the table, ignoring the way his legs started heating up under the table. “burned them all off! Not even my precious baby feathers made it out alive!” he fake-cried.
The waitress cooed at him. “Aaw, I’m sorry to hear that.” she turned to Dabi, lips parted perhaps to ask him a question as well, but whatever she saw made her mouth clamp shut.
Hawks raised a brow, turning to his table-mate (it’s not a date) with questioning eyes. Dabi only shrugged at him.
“S-So! What can I get you guys to drink?” the waitress finally asked, her grin a little stiff as she finally put her pen to paper, eyes darting between the two of them warily.
Albeit curious, Hawks decided to let it go. After all, Dabi really wouldn’t be someone you’d normally see in a place like this so with a shrug of his own, he went and ordered a chocolate milkshake.
Dabi flashed him a betrayed sort of look that made him blink, until his villain companion specifically ordered a strawberry one himself and Hawks’ mouth opened in realization. He shrugged, eyes darting away as blue eyes turned accusing. “W-What? It’s milkshake, that’s different.” he cleared his throat.
One thin eyebrow rose in the most condescending look Hawks had seen on him, but thankfully, Dabi let it go with an eyeroll.
Minutes passed by in a sort-of-awkward silence as they perused the menu, Hawks’ mind running through a list of possible conversation topics he could use to break the ice. Although apparently he didn’t need to, because after their waitress returned with the drinks and took their lunch orders, it was Dabi who spoke first.
“So. You and Endeavor huh?” the villain stated, casual as you may, leaning languidly against the booth, his freaking legs still stretched out underneath caging Hawks’ in between them.
Hawks regarded him for a moment, feeling a little off with the conversation starter considering the many possibly destructive implications. “…me and Endeavor…?” he prompted carefully, taking a slow sip of his milkshake.
Dabi merely blinked. “You fucking?”
Hawks choked, spitting chocolate ice-cream across the table as he coughed out the contents of his lungs. “W-WHAT??” he wheezed.
“I mean, I guess you seem the type, but I didn’t really think the number two hero’d have the tim--”
“HELL NO!!” he cried. “Oh my God were you like, reviewing the tape from last week or something?? I told Shouto and Natsuo and now I’m telling you that I am NOT. A SU-gar baby.” He broke off into a hiss, recalling how they were technically in public and he really did not want to garner attention, especially about this.”
Dabi hummed. “Maybe not the sugar part, sure.” he smirked. “But you do like Endeavor, right? S’why you keep a plushy of him by your pillow.”
Hawks jaw dropped, his lips flapping in shock at the information. “Why do you-- I never brought that to the base how-- did you break into my apartment??”
…but outrage aside, Hawks was reminded about his precious little dolls existence and meaning to him and wondered what he should do with it now that… well.
The same now obviously dyed eyebrow rose again, lips tugging against his stapled skin as Dabi smirked. “What, you didn’t think I’d let you into the League without a background check did you?”
Hawks pouted. “I knew the ice cream wouldn’t be enough.”
Dabi chuckled at him, laying his head on a hand. “But no seriously. Are you and Endeavor together or something?”
“I repeat. HELL No. The man’s like, fifty--”
“Fourty-six actually.”
“TOO OLD FOR ME and married with kids!! Kids my age!! And like, what even made you think this subject is remotely okay??”
Dabi flashed him a lazy grin. “Twitter, actually.”
Hawks blinked. WTF??!
With his trademark speed, he whipped his phone out of his pocket, thumbed open his social media app and found one of the trending tags was disturbingly called #EndHawks. And it doesn’t even seem like that just means people want to end me.
Sure enough, the top story for the tag was a day-old innocuous enough post from an @IcyHot with individual pictures of him and Endeavor from the board listings. At least, if the caption hadn’t been Celebrity Couple.
The reactions were pretty polarized, predictably enough, but the ringer was the dozens and dozens of varied quality photos flooding the reply thread of him and Endeavor down in Fukuoka before and after the Noumu battle --even some pretty good ones of the fight itself that Hawks kinda wants to save cause, dang he looked pretty good in ‘em-- most of them photoshopped with flirty pink frames and little hearts and even some disturbing --if misguiding-- captions.
And if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the tag itself wasn’t limited to regular photos. There were fanart coming in, fanfic links, not to even mention the memes!!
(Huh, gotta admit they seem pretty good.)
“This. Is so wrong.” he wheezed. Dabi’s grin turned annoyingly smug, and Hawks could only flash him a half-hearted glare, slowly dying of mortification on the inside even as hysteria bubbled up his throat. The commission was gonna kill him, if Endeavor or the PLF doesn’t get to him first. His image was ruined. He was only twenty-three and never had a girl/boyfriend and the world already thinks he’s having an affair with the number one hero.
Who, okay, he maaaaay have had a celebrity crush on, but never in that freaking way okay!!!
And as if the universe hasn’t had it’s fun yet, his phone pinged indicating a message, which turned out to be a twitter tag from @IcyHot himself, with the words Is this real? at the top.
Thinking things cant get any creepier, he ended up opening the link and found it was a retweet… he choked again.
The caption said “TRUE STORY” and displayed a very well-drawn shoujo-manga-esque comic that had Endeavor in that traditional sparkly handsome guy theme asking “Will you be gay with me?”, followed by an equally sparkly Hawks shyly blushing despite the tragic expression on his face as he replied “B-But Endeavor-san, I’m still young! And you have a wife and children!! They’d never be able to accept us!!”
“...”
Yep. Hawks is definitely retiring after this. He can not believe he never noticed someone eavesdropping on a sort-of-confidential conversation between the freaking top two heroes!!
There was even an extra page beneath the post that had, of all people, Dabi featured --implying it really wasn’t just that last bit they’d overheard. And if that wasn’t concerning enough, it had the villain cornering Hawks in a random back-alley, leaning far too close for comfort --which honestly at this point is just creepily accurate-- with black speech bubbles saying “Come on pretty bird, you know that old man’ll never be able to satisfy you. His fire aint no match for mine.”
“...”
“...”
“PFFT--”
And just like that, Hawks broke out in stitches, his lung protesting and his sides cramping up as he doubled over the table, his raucous laughter probably loud enough to be heard a whole block over.
Dabi stared at him confusedly for a moment, the look only adding to Hawks’ humour, before the villain went and snatched his phone to see what the heck had him gasping for breath.
Thin black brows furrowed as he thumbed through the screen, before azure eyes widened, his own lips curving unnaturally at the edges as blue orbs lightened in unmistakeable glee.
And yet, in a completely cool manner, he returned the phone with a casual shrug before letting out a smirk. “S’true though. You can’t deny I’m hotter.”
As if Hawks wasn’t suffocating to death already. Still he managed to find the lung capacity to heave a “Yeah. Yeah you definitely are.” he grinned.
And if Hawks hadn’t been too far gone, he would’ve noticed the way all humor disappeared from that scarred face, slim fingers trailing across the weave of the lovely blue scarf covering necrotic flesh, blue eyes dulling in ominous melancholy. “So, not Fuyumi. Not Natsuo. Unlikely Shouto, and not Endeavor himself huh…”
That low, solemn voice invited a chilly silence into the previously warm atmosphere, making Hawks stiffen. He glanced up confusedly, meeting Dabi’s unreadable gaze.
“That just leaves Touya then.” Dabi mumbled, unblinking.
If Hawks had his wings, the would be fluttering in anxiety right about now. As it stands though, he doesn’t know if not having them at the moment was a good thing as he returned that chilling stare.
“What does he want?” Dabi finally asked. As direct a question can be.
Hawks gulped, his stomach fluttering instead even as he plastered on an equally serious expression. The day started well enough… but looks like there was no way it was gonna end well. He sighed. “I don’t really know.”
“Bullshit.” Dabi stated, and it would’ve caused whiplash if Hawks hadn’t expected it.
His mouth curved in a sardonic smile. “I really don’t. He’d been leaving really random hints since the noumu. Case-in-point the ‘gay’ question and the misplaced ‘birds are nice’ comment--”
“Wait, did you get Kakumei just because of that?”
“Heck no, didn’t you watch the video? That little girl followed me all on her own. Besides, why would I need to get a bird? I’m a bird!!” he crowed. Dabi snorted, earning him a pout from Hawks. “But back to topic, just like everyone else, I didn’t know a single thing about his son till the dinner.” Dabi still looked unconvinced, but Hawks knew there was nothing he could do about that. He sighed. “Listen Dabi, I know you hate him--”
“Gee, wonder why?”
“I know. I was there at dinner with his kids, and I was there this morning. I get it. I was actually almost okay with Skeptic’s plan to expose him--”
“Reeeally…”
This time, a groan escaped Hawks lips, closing his eyes to pray for patience after being cut off twice in a row. Yep. Dabi-- Todoroki Touya-- really was a psychological cliche. He wonders if things go well Endeavor’d be willing to invest in an in-house therapist. God knows it’d only benefit his entire family.
Taking a deep breath in, he opened his eyes again and tried to talk as clearly as possible. “I get that he was probably terrible to you and your siblings--” he raised a hand just as Dabi opened his mouth again, his eyes sharpening into a decidedly raptor-like configuration. “But I’ve also met the guy a few times and I think… this is just me but I think he wants to make it up to--”
“Bullshit!” it was a hiss this time, blue flames sparking to life beneath the table in a way that made Hawks flinch from the heat.
Still he pushed on. “No no, I’m serious. He asked if you were eating and if you had proper clothes and a roof above your head. Honestly I was going crazy wondering why he’d be asking after a villain’s well-being, and I still have no idea how he found out that we were even meeting…” he coughed, cheeks heating as he now realized what the man could’ve possibly thought before Hawks unknowingly confirmed the commission’s involvement. He cleared his throat. “But he’d been nothing but genuine at the time.”
“He’s planning something.” Dabi growled, his eyes narrowed into twin slits of icy blue. “I know he is.”
“...maybe.” Hawks acquiesced. “He definitely wants to privately meet with you.”
Dabi’s lips split into a bitter smile. “Sounds like an attempt to off me as quietly as possible.”
Which was a reasonable theory, if Hawks didn’t know about the massive raid about to happen in two months, and how if that was the case, then Hawks would be in the perfect spot to do that. “Would he go through all this trouble just for that though?” he voiced, gesturing to the scarf wrapped around Dabi’s neck. “You probably already noticed, but he definitely knew something was up when he invited me to your house and risked it anyway.”
“Not my house.” Dabi corrected. Then his eyes narrowed. “And what do you mean by that?”
Hawks stiffened, realizing his slip up, and he whipped his head around to see if anyone could be listening in, unconsciously instructing currently non-existent feathers to scout. It was futile effort, of course, and Hawks felt his anxiety spike, but at the same time he couldn’t help but be relieved by the assurance that at least his words hadn’t been recorded.
“Hawks--” Dabi leaned forward, a snarl on his lips, but was thankfully cut off when their waitress once again made herself known with their food.
Hawks had never felt so happy to see chicken in his life.
~_~_~
It was only two months till the raid the hero commission was planning against the PLF would commence, and with no news from Hawks or the League of Villains, Endeavor couldn’t do much other than focus on his own parts.
Shouto and his friends have been steadily improving under his watch during their internships and showed far more promise than he’d initially expected (the other two anyway. As expected, his Shouto is doing marvelously!!) and he hadn’t been slacking off on his own training either.
He still hadn’t had a chance to visit Rei properly, but the children seemed to have warmed up to him enough to let him know how she was doing, and the doctors always relay how happy she was to receive the flowers.
What made things so complicated, however, is how Natsuo won’t stop talking about divorce.
“...” he hadn’t wanted to think about it, but the looming possibility that his wife might actually want to divorce him makes something squeeze inside his chest, instilling an irrational sort of fear into his bones.
He had long since resigned himself to never seeing her face to face again when the doctor refused to let him see her, even years later, and had accepted the fact that his family doesn’t want to live with him anymore when he’d bought that house.
Still, divorce meant a lawful split.
Even now, completely out of contact, he still had the confidence in calling himself a husband and father, that his wife was his wife as his children were his children. Divorcing with Rei meant that would no longer be true, and although his children had warmed up to him, they still disliked him enough to want to ignore familial ties.
It was… painful. To think about, but again, another very real possibility, and a very real consequence of his own past actions. Something else he cannot run from, though he desired to ignore it for as long as law would allow.
And yet at the same time… a divorce would indeed be beneficial. For them, if not for Enji himself, so he just cannot look away.
Atonement is an arduous path, and in the end it is the one Endeavor --as the number one hero-- chose to walk.
On a slightly better note however, he was able to find more information on the man his eldest son had become and thankfully, it’s not all as dark and dreary as it had initially seemed.
It wouldn’t be compiled on his case-files of course, but it wasn’t just crimes that had witness reports of a heavily burnt young man, and Enji had spent many a sleepless nights compiling, validating, and cross-referencing those as well. He was quite sure he had a big enough evidence file that even an inexperienced defense lawyer could make a suitable stand, let alone the very well-paid Todoroki family lawyer.
It seems the stage has been set on all accounts, and from this point on was nothing but a waiting game.
And as if sensing the still atmosphere, Endeavor’s phone pinged with a text notification, and upon opening it, Enji’s eyes widened, his flames flickering wildly, the phone creaking in it’s fireproof case in his hand.
[From: Hawks. 01/22 3:45pm ]
Heya, Endeavor-san!
Long time no talk huh?
So uh,
Yeah.
About the scarf,
which is reeeeeally comfy by the way.
I think I can get it back to you on Wednesday.
Are you free?
The hawk didn’t even need to ask.
[From: Endeavor-san. 01/22 3:46pm ]
It’s late, but Happy Birthday.