Chapter Text
Q: How did you come up with such a nice idea to write this book? I mean what motivated you to write this book? Is it just the love of MHA or something else?
Denki: I came up with the idea in the first place. I thought it would be fun to do a collab as I haven’t done one in a long time, and I knew we both loved Dabi Hawks. The idea for Hawks to be Trans, though, came from watching one of my favorite cosplayers, beeruslordofsnacc, on TikTok cosplay Hawks. Knowing that he is a trans man gave me the inspiration to make my Hawks trans. As a whole, I don’t actually headcanon Hawks as Trans, but I thought it would be fun for this.
Ali: It was totally Denki's idea. I was up for a new challenge and the way the book was to be written was very close to RP, which I had some experience with. I knew Denki for a while after reading one of his books and the moment he asked me to do it, it piqued my interest (DabiHawks caught my attention). Now we have a completed book together and probably have many others planned. Hehe.
Q: I also want to know about the authors @TheWriterShikari787 @thecosplayingwriter something about you guys that where are you from and what you do + anything that you want to include in the answer of this question.
Denki: Well, as my username suggests, I cosplay as well as write fan fictions. As for what I do, it’s pretty boring. I just work in a distribution center for Home Depot. I’m from the US, and I am a trans male and a mother. I know both of those sound contradicting, but I don’t want to take away from my son’s father’s place as his dad, and for whatever reason, I feel perfectly comfortable with the title mom despite hating all other feminine terms. My chosen name is Akio Denki, but I mostly just go by my chosen middle name of Denki. Yes, I named myself after Kaminari. He is my top kin. Akio actually comes from my OC in my “My Heroic Trauma” series that starts with the first story being titled “Dadzawa”.
Ali: Oooo my name is pretty much my surname and then my full name in numericals. I figured out I could write my name as numbers by just counting the number of letters in each name. My given name is Alifiya, and most days I also go by Ali (Uh-Lee, not Alley. I'm not an alleyway!). I currently hail from India. I recently discovered I was fluid and my nickname was always masculine so I stuck with it! I also got employed recently, but as we were writing this book, I was still job hunting. I was inspired to start writing on Wattpad mainly because of Denki and my first book is "Unsighted" on Wattpad.
Q: Ahem!! my most favourite question... who's your favourite character in the book and why.
Denki: It’s so hard to choose a favorite. I love them all for different reasons.
Kaito is my baby, my brain child. I love him with everything I have. He’s just so sweet and innocent and loving, and I feel like he must be protected with our lives.
Miran was literally only created for the illusion of Touya still being Dabi, yet somehow, he became something of an important character, and I love it. I love that we were able to just take a small, unimportant OC and make him something of importance. He has a very special place in my heart.
Daisuke was an amazing quick add from Ali’s part. We had to discuss him from the standpoint of what he’d look like for Hawks to meet him instead of having a nameless and faceless man, but his ability to help Keigo with finishing his transition makes him amazing, and I wish people had quirks in real life to help with stuff like that.
Akane and Miyuki are just as special as Kaito. I just can’t pick a favorite sibling. That’s like any parent picking a favorite child. It’s just not something done.
Ali: I shall agree with Denki. I CAN'T CHOOSE!
Kaito was always gonna be our baby because of how much we keep adding to him in each chapter. Denki made him a literal Seer, whereas I made him be mischievous around his parents and siblings.
As for Miran, I just randomly selected a name from Google while writing the chapter he first appeared in (we had already decided there would be a character who would help Touya camouflage himself) and we didn't realize how much of a huge part he would play in the rest of the story. Daisuke was probably my favorite last moment addition for the fact that I kept teasing Denki that I wanted to add a surprise (which was the proposal) and he kept suggesting different things. I thought "Why not?" And hence he was born.
And as for Akane and Miyuki. They are literally us. (Denki at that time used to identify as Enby, so we had thought of adding a piece of ourselves to the book).
Q: Which character did you enjoy writing the most?
Denki: Kaito. He’s just sassy and sweet and just all around adorable. I loved every scene where I wrote him in because it was just a blast adding him to his parents’ dynamic.
Ali: I would be lying if I didn't say Dabi. There's always something about writing an angsty character that really gives you a thrill. Also, the challenge of showing him going from broken to healed was something I really enjoyed. Kaito comes in second for me. I just loved adding to his personality.
Q: How's the whole process for you? Did you enjoyed writing the story?
Denki: I enjoyed every second of writing this. We kept each other motivated, and my favorite part of a collab is never knowing what’s going to happen next. Like, yes, we had an outline, so I knew what the main part of the chapters was going to be, but I never knew what Ali was going to add extra. It made things thrilling.
Ali: To be honest, I struggled for a while getting into the present tense first perspective, even though I earlier mentioned it felt like RP to me. I feel, I grew with this book. Denki is an awesome writer and he's had experience putting some really great books out there. Everyday I was learning a new trick and tip, and I feel like compared to the first chapter I wrote as Dabi, my last epilogue is so much better. Like Denki mentioned, I also played around with many impromtu ideas, adding to the story even though there was an outline we followed and it kept us both on our tippy toes. Even I would be surprised at what I'd come up with. It's all because I was inspired by such a great friend during the whole process. I can go on and on, praising Denki. It's how much I'm in awe of this person.
Q: What motivated you to pursue this book?
Denki: I love writing stories in general. Every idea I come up with is eventual story fodder. The time it’s been since I last wrote a collab honestly made me sad because my best friend in High School and I used to write collabs all the time, and I desperately wanted to see what it would be like to write a story with Ali, especially seeing how our cultural differences would come together to make the story the amazing piece of literature it is now.
Ali: It was the challenge of the different mindsets! Like Denks mentioned, we are both from different cultural upbringings. Even the use of the English language for us is different. There would be times where the phrases I would use would be so much of British English (India does follow British English mostly) that it would crack both of us up. It also showed how differently two people can think, which is exactly what we wanted to show with Hawks and Dabi and with their conflicting mindsets.
Q: A question I have is why the book was so short like I thought it was gonna be a little longer than this. Was the story short because you didn’t know how to continue it?
Denki: We wrote out an outline for the story, and this was basically an experiment for us. Based on our outline, that was it. That was the whole story wrapped up, and this was Ali’s first collab and my first collab with someone outside the US. We do plan to make one-shots for random stuff for them, especially Dabi dealing with the twins by himself at one point. The story is far from over, and we’ve even tossed around the idea of merging it into my series “My Heroic Trauma.” We haven’t fully decided on that, though since I had MHT planned to be a no-war, but I might still add the war. I’m not entirely certain yet, and we’ll definitely have to discuss it further because the characters aren’t just mine.
Ali: To add to what Denki said, I wanna say that when we planned it out, the 28 chapters for our main story seemed perfect. It is our first collaboration together, and I very jokingly called it the experiment before the main show, because the book we have planned next is double this one. And yeah we will be putting out one-shots here and there. I am excited to show Dabi with the twins alone when I can! Also I love Denki's MHT series loads and he knows that I would be entirely up for adding and making it a part of the MHT universe if needed.
Q: Also is Akane identical to Hawks because you only mentioned the hair and wings so does Akane have blue eyes like Dabi or Gold like Keigo and when mentioned of Miyuki does she have blonde hair and blue eyes or gold so like would she be identical to Akane with eyes and hair and they just have different wing colours.
Denki: Akane and Miyuki are identical twins. The literal only difference between them is their wings, so every feature Akane has, so does Miyuki. The other difference between them is that their quirks are different. Akane has a fire quirk in addition to her fierce wings, and Miyuki has an ice based quirk like Kaito, but not ice breath. The twins look identical to Hawks, but they have Touya’s eyes. Like someone will tell them in a one-shot that they look just like their mom, except for the eyes, that they have their father’s eyes. We're Harry Potter fans, so of course I have to make the reference.
Ali: Well duh. One kid is like Dad while the second and third are like Mom. Also we are huge Potterheads. Deal with it. We are influenced by a lot and I think we’ve put so much of ourselves within the story.