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Before I Fall

Chapter 3: Roast Chicken.

Summary:

He looked as if he"d been torn apart and stitched back together. Or stapled, evidently. His hair is dark and messy, the locks of hair fall down his forehead and brush just above his eyes. He"s in desperate need of a haircut, that"s for sure.

His eyes are blue.

Notes:

Hellloooo!! Hope you enjoy this chapter, I"m not really sure how i feel about it!!
Id really love some feedback on how your liking it! Comments are super appreciated!!
Enjoy!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

It was a winter"s evening when he found him.

The wind was fierce, the cold air bit at his uncovered skin as he flew through the skies of Japan. He was flying home after another unsuccessful search for the League recruiter when he caught the smell of smoke looming below. He swooped down, perching himself on the edge of a rooftop. He tucked his wings  behind his back as much as he could to reduce his chances of being spotted. He"s learned that massive bright red wings usually caught attention for some reason.

He peered down the darkened alley below. The moon was his only source of light and if he"s being honest, it wasn"t helping much. But the smell was undeniable. It smelled like a roasted corpse. And in his mind, that could only mean one thing. Dabi.

Barely visible in the overwhelming darkness that flooded the alleyway was the villain he"d been tracking for over two months, standing over a charred corpse. Charming.

The villain scoffed to himself. Failing to spare a second glance at his latest victim as he pulled out his phone, typing out a message.  He doesn"t seem to have an ounce of remorse. So the Villain doesn"t have much respect for human life. Not surprising at all. He knows you only get one, right? 

He took the villains" focus on texting as an opportunity to strike. Now was his chance. He was most definitely not going to waste it. He sent five primary feathers ahead to hide amongst the darkness in case this turned bloody. He leaned forward, swiftly falling down into the alleyway noiselessly behind the villain.

He definitely wasn"t as swift as he thought he was (Or the villain had eyes in the back of his head) because it only took a second for the villain to slowly lift his head in awareness. He took his time turning around. Which  Hawks took as a sigh of overconfidence. Or perhaps the arsonist has neck problems.

Blue eyes met gold. And that was all it took.

The villain"s eyes widened ever so slightly, it was barely noticeable, but Hawks noticed. He was probably a little stunned that the number two pro hero just appeared a few meters away from him. After the initial shock, the villain returned to his usual (Almost) unbreakable cool and collected demeanor.

“Well, well well…what do we have here?” The villain taunted. His head tilted to the side, the staples lining his cheek glinted under the moonlight. Huh. That was unfairly distracting. 

What was he supposed to do now? He couldn"t just go right out and say, ‘Hey there big bad villain, let me join your cult!’ or maybe he could? Maybe being as direct as possible was his best shot?

Well hey. For the first time in Hawks life, he didn"t know what to say. He was actually speechless. Now that they were face to face, the villain wasn"t as terrifying as he once thought he would be. The smell of burning corpse was definitely unsettling him to an extent but he found himself more interested in the serial arsonist standing in front of him. His skin was painted in faded purple scars. He looked as if he"d been torn apart and stitched back together. Or stapled, evidently. His hair is dark and messy, the locks of hair fall down his forehead and brush just above his eyes. He"s in desperate need of a haircut, that"s for sure. 

His eyes are blue. 

When Hawks was researching the League, there was nothing whatsoever about this villain"s past. It was as if he had never existed before the League, like he appeared from thin air one day. He knew the villain possessed a powerful quirk. There"s a reason his quirk had been named cremation. And Hawks doesn"t want to find out. The range of his powers are unknown. Which makes him all the more terrifying  but also adds to the intriguing unsolved mystery that is the pyromaniac villain known as Dabi. There has been a lot of media discussion on what the highest temperature the villain could reach. Some have even speculated that his flames could burn hotter than Endeavors. The number one fricken hero. 

Although, the hero knows there must be some sort of limitations to his power if the burn scars that cover his body are any indication. As Well as the fact that Japan was yet to be burned to nothing. If the villain really was that powerful and had nothing stopping him, Hawks was sure that he would just burn everything in sight to the ground.

Whatever. This is his time to shine.  impressions are everything, especially in these situations, although he"s never actually been in this situation before. If he fucks it up it would most likely lead to his death. So he had to be smooth, use his outstanding charms and do what he does best. (Apart from hero work and annoying the shit out of people, of course.) 

“ Come to kill me, hero?” His voice was deep and hoarse. Maybe he could bribe the villain into letting him join the League with some cough syrup. Or a nice cup of tea. 

“Of course not.” He said. (Not tonight anyways.)  “Lucky for you, I have other reasons for approaching you.”

The villain"s eyes narrowed  and he eyed the hero up and down. “What do you want, bird?” he demanded. 

“Extremely unoriginal. Seriously man, people these days have such a lack of creativity that they can"t come up with something better than ‘Bird’?” he complained, playfulness lacing his tone.

Blue flames lick up his arm, bright and intense. The temperature around them increased significantly. It was marvelous. He hated himself for becoming fixated as the flames danced along his forearm and twirled around his fingers. He found himself mesmerized, wanting to reach out and touch. He probably would have if he didn"t have any sense and his hand would most definitely completely melt away. Thankfully he still had some sense. And his hand would live to see another day. 

“Don"t test me, Bird.” He drawled.  “What do you want."

He dragged his gaze away from the burning light. “Your Dabi, right? A little birdie told me that you"re recruiting new members to the League of Villains.” He started, leaning against the cool alley wall. “Well look no further matchstick.” He opens his arms gesturing to himself. He got his point across.

 The villain squinted at him.

“What.” Or not apparently.

“I"d like to join the League.” He shrugged, pushing off the wall to take a step closer to the human inferno. The temperature was definitely increasing between them. And not in a good way. He was going to get roasted alive. 

But then the flames died down and the crisp winter cold returned to the alley. Well that was a good sign. Maybe.

“You expect me to believe that the number two hero in Japan, suddenly wants to join the League of Villains?” He scoffed. “Why.”

It seemed like more of a demand than a question. Dabi definitely didn"t believe him, that"s fine, he didn"t expect him to. But the lack of fire indicated that he had definitely caught his interest. And that, he could work with.

“Let"s just say I"m getting sick of being the commission"s lap dog. Or bird” he chuckled to himself. “But the rot within the commission is just one thing. Hero society is corrupt and frankly, I don"t want to be a part of it. There are no good heroes anymore, it"s more about money and fame than it is about actually helping people. Things need to change.” He leans forward slightly, his hands behind his back. “You see, a lot of our ideas align so perhaps we could be of use to each other.” Hawks winked at him. 

The villain wasn"t impressed. Hawks could tell from the disgusted look on his face. Jeez, was he having a bad hair day or something? Yes, he was a hero, but he was hot, he knew that for sure. 

He"s standing closer than he ever has to a villain without engaging in combat. It"s unsettling to say the least. But from this close he can further appreciate the colour of his eyes. 

As he had previously observed, his eyes are blue.

But they"re not just blue. No. They"re too spectacular to be, just blue. There"s something deeper to them. It"s as if you could get lost within them. As if you could find yourself drowning in the iris if you stared for too long. That may or may not be happening to him right now. They"re the same shade of electric blue as his flames but his eyes somehow shine brighter. They seem inhuman, like it"s impossible for anyone to have eyes like these, but they also remind Hawks that the man before him is in fact human. Just like himself. His eyes are unusual and they are utterly captivating. They"re beautiful. 

Hes beautiful-

Yea that"s too far. He cuts the thought off just as quickly it appears in his mind.

His eyes are blue.

His blue eyes have witnessed the deaths of countless at the hand of their owner.  Have watched as body"s turned to ash in seconds and buildings have been brought down to nothing by powerful blue flames. These eyes have watched as people"s lives have been ripped away. Hawks decided then and there, his eyes were vile. Monstrous. Hideous. Blue. Just Blue.

Oh god what"s happening to him. This mission was throwing him off so much. After countless sleepless nights searching for this villain was definitely putting a strain on his mind. He was getting too lost in his mind. He was tired. He needed a cup of coffee asap before he spiraled into insanity.

“Did you practice that speech on your way here Pigeon?” The villain asked, thankfully pulling him away from his mind. 

Hawks knew it was his fault for criticizing the villains creativity when it came to nicknames but pigeon was just offensive. Hes not even a pigeon. He"s a hawk. It"s literally in his name. 

“Maybe once or twice." Throwing on an effortless smile “But that doesn"t make it any less true.”

“ What you said is true. Yet I"m not too sure if you"re just telling me what I want to hear or if you actually believe what"s coming out of your mouth, Pigeon .”

Great so he"s sticking with pigeon.

“How can I convince you it"s the latter?”

Hawks could see the calculating look plastered on the villain"s face and he suddenly became nervous. For all Hawks knew, he could be running through the different ways to cook a bird in his brain. Several moments of silence passed before Dabi spoke.

“I want a hero.”

“A hero?”

“Yes, a hero, A dead one.” He emphasized calmly, as if he didn"t just ask him to commit murder and then bring him the body. Dabi pulled out his phone, typing out a message “Any hero, I don"t care. Meet me here at this exact time next week. Then maybe we can talk,”

No longer than a few seconds later a hazy purple portal opened up out of thin air behind the villain.

Kurogiri. He read about him in his research. He"s a vital asset to the League. They use his quirk a lot, whether it"s the break into warehouses without detection or attack a bunch of teenagers on a camping trip. Although, It must be so nice not having to walk anywhere or even fly anywhere. As much as he loved being up in the sky, it could be tiring sometimes.

“I"m warning you, hero. If you try to pull anything on me. I won"t hesitate to turn you into roast chicken.” He  threatened as he walked backwards towards the portal. Oh, so he was thinking about the different ways he could cook him alive. 

“I wouldn"t dream of it.” Hawks called, turning to stride in the opposite direction "See you next week, Staples.” 

The villain"s figure disappeared into the portal before it closed, leaving him alone.

 He was definitely not seeing Dabi next week. Where was he supposed to get a dead hero from?! He wasn"t going to kill anyone that"s for sure, no matter what, he"s a hero first and foremost and the commission knows that too The commission would pull him from the mission or at least help him figure out another plan. As important as the mission is, surely they wouldn"t allow any collateral damage especially not in hero form. Right?

 

Notes:

And so they meet...yay!! I"m so excited.
Please let me know if you like it so far!!