Chapter Text
He was surprised when he got the call. Not because he wasn’t used to them, but because it had been a while since the last time Dabi even bothered on checking with him.
As he looked at his phone, Hawks wondered if he was even planning to show up. He had been waiting for almost an hour, now, but he was in no position to protest, was he? He was being tested, after all and, to be honest? He’d rather they tested his patience than his willingness to kill innocents.
“Hey,”
“Fuck!” Keigo gasped, turning around to find Dabi. “Wow… you look like shit,” he said, without even thinking.
“Shut up. It’s been a long week,” he said.
Dabi was wearing his usual clothes the thing is… well. They are dirty in a way he couldn’t think possible. There were white spots all over him, but they were too clear to be ashes.
“What happened to you?” Keigo asked, frowning.
“None of your business,” Dabi said. “You are fast, aren’t you?” he asked.
“I… you know I am,” Hawks said. This meeting was getting weirder.
“Well, you are going to need to be extra fast if you want to get in the boss’ good numbers, get it?” he said, throwing him a piece of paper folded enough times to become heavy.
Hawks opened it and frowned. “This is… a shopping list?”
“Twice can’t keep going out and you are fast. It’s an emergency, so here we are. Now stop wasting time and go already. I’ll wait for you for fifteen minutes, so you better make it in ten.”
“You have to be kidding me…”
“Fourteen minutes.”
“Damn it!”
To be honest, when he accepted to work as a double agent and try to infiltrate the League, the last thing he had expected was to become an errand boy. At least they weren’t asking him to kill anyone but being an unpaid intern for a bunch of villains was humiliating.
Still, he wasn’t in a place to refuse, was he? It was the little things that mattered. The small details, like cursing hero society now and then or wearing your underwear on both sides before changing it. People would argue that was just an act of laziness, rather than evil, but Hawks begged to differ: that was the most evil thing he had ever witnessed.
So, he flew as fast as he could, list on hand, but the longer he stared at it, the weirder the list got.
At first, there were normal things, like snacks, energy drinks, raw meat… but then things got bizarre. Diapers, milk powder, a… birb? brid? Hawks assumed they meant a bib, considering the context. Dabi’s handwriting was awful. But the list didn’t stop there, no. The further he read, the less he knew about what was going on inside the League. They asked for pillow filler, and a large bag of seeds and berries.
Now, the first things were weird, but it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. The League was dealing with a baby, that was obvious. The context, however, was more and more disturbing the longer he thought about it because, the first thing that occurred to him was that they had abducted a kid but, if they had, people would know about it by now, right? There were no news reports on any missing kid and the commission hadn’t mentioned it, either.
The next thing that he thought was… wasn’t one of the members of the League a girl? He had read the files: the shape shifter, Toga Himiko, sixteen years old… Could it be possible that she…
She was surrounded by men, after all, and they were a bunch of villains, they were not above…
Hawks paled, the bags of diapers falling on the floor.
No.
It couldn’t be… right? They were all in their twenties and thirties… allegedly. Toga was a kid herself! A crazy kid, but still! Could it be possible that she had the illegitimate child of one of them? Just thinking about it made him want to throw up. The picture of Dabi holding Toga by her belly made him physically gag. Picturing that with Shigaraki was too grotesque to even imagine.
“Please, please, let it be an abducted kid…” Hawks mumbled, like a prayer, as he put the baby powder on his basket. It wasn’t on the list, but they were going to need it. It was the little things, after all, and maybe if he was helpful enough, they would let him in on time to save the poor kid in their care.
“Took you long enough, it’s fucking freezing, you know?”
“There was a long line!” Hawks said, as he handed Dabi the bag. There were more things than what they asked for, but he’d rather look like a fool than letting a kid suffering. He had spent two extra minutes picking the softest blanket he could find, along with some clothes and a pacifier. Hopefully, no one took pictures of him, or the press would be all over him in the morning.
“Is that uh… everything for tonight?”
“Yeah, yeah, you can fuck off, now. I’ll be in touch,” Dabi said, as he turned around.
“Wait! Uhm… I couldn’t help to notice. Is there… Fuck. There’s no easy way of asking this. Listen, I’m all in for the evil shit. Murder? Sure, but please. Please, I’m literally begging you, tell me it’s not Toga’s.”
“What- who?” Dabi asked, frowning.
“The baby! Please, tell me none of you… There must be a line, somewhere. You don’t do evil for the sake of evil, right?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The baby!” Keigo repeated. He had tried to keep his cool, but wasn’t she his intern’s age?
“What baby? There’s no baby” Dabi said and, as soon as he said that, there were hands holding onto Keigo’s shirt. “I’m being very patient with you, here, so you should be grateful. There’s no baby, understood?”
“But Toga…”
“Oh my god. She’s fine! She’s not… pregnant or anything,” Dabi spatted, finally letting him go. “Jeez, you are so disgusting. We are all crazy, but not that crazy.”
“Oh, thank god…” Keigo sighed, relieved.
“You are weird,” Dabi mumbled, frowning. “Now that I think about it, were you born like that?”
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah, with the… feathers and all. Or did they grow up when you turned four?”
“Uh? I… was born with them, I suppose. Why?”
“And did you… eat raw meat or something? You are supposed to be a bird of prey, right? What the hell did you even eat?”
“I… eat regular food? I mean, I like chicken nuggets?” Keigo said, confused.
“So that’s it?”
“I mean… I needed to have my feathers groomed, now and then, I suppose? Why are you even asking this?”
“None of your damn business. Now, get the fuck out of here.”
Hawks blinked, even more confused than before, and decided it’d be for the best to leave before Dabi lost his patience. He was losing his temper, that was obvious enough. As soon as he got back, he’d look for any missing babies.