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“You’re going to be a father.”
That was one sentence Dabi never expected to hear in this lifetime. Hawks’s tone was far from celebratory, weighted with a solemnity unheard of him before, so Dabi did what anyone else would in his situation. He burst into laughter.
“What the—” It was the kind of laugh that wracked through his whole body, bone-deep and rasping in his lungs, and he was breathless. He couldn’t remember the last time he laughed like this, wild and reckless in the quiet of Hawks’s apartment. “What the hell?”
His reaction drew a soft laugh from Hawks, too shaky to be anything but amused. His mouth curved into a wry smile. “Yeah, I know. It’s hard to believe.”
Cradled in his arms was a large turquoise orb swaddled by a thick cloth. The shell was flecked with a sun-lightened gold, glinting by the light of the windows. When Hawks called him over to his apartment for an urgent matter, he would have never expected to be greeted by something so eccentric.
“Hawks,” Dabi began to say, on the verge of laughter. It took all of his self-control to prevent even a single breath from escaping him. “I hate to break it to you, but that’s an egg.”
“I know it’s an egg,” Hawks answered, not quite hiding the exasperation in his tone. His wings fluttered behind him. “But it’s our responsibility now, and I need you to take me seriously.”
Dabi grinned at the sight before him. “Where did you even get that?”
“You see, when a villain and hero love each other very much—”
Dabi wheezed again. “They don’t go around laying eggs! What’s wrong with you?”
In the span of a heartbeat, something like hurt flashed across Hawks’s face, only to be immediately buried by a mask of calm. Hawks lapsed into silence, shoulders stiff and back straight, as his grasp tightened around the egg as if to protect whatever life was inside of it. For him, this was clearly less of a joke and something that concerned him deeply.
Dabi reached out to him with both hands, pressing them against his cheeks. “Are you sick or something?” Warmth flooded from his palms. “Hawks, look at me.”
Hawks leaned into his touch. Raising his head, he evenly met Dabi’s eyes, holding his gaze with all the seriousness that this situation didn’t deserve. “Touya.”
Dabi paused. Hawks only called him by his given name in the most intimate of circumstances, preferably in the comfort of his massive bed, but they were standing in the middle of the living room.
“This is very much real.” The calm, steady look in Hawks’s golden eyes took all of the humor away from the situation. “I’d like for you to keep him with you while I’m away at the hero conference.”
With careful hands, he presented the swaddled bundle out to him, and Dabi had a moment of unease before accepting it. The egg was heavy in both of his hands, and he held it close to his chest. Heat radiated from its surface despite the cloth swathing the shell.
“Alright, let me go along with your story.” All Dabi could think of was how this could even be possible. He could mock and taunt Hawks all he wanted to and affectionately call him birdman, but that didn’t really mean Hawks was really a bird. Dabi couldn’t fathom the manner of conception. He never did finish biology class before dropping out of U.A., but Hawks was most definitely human, while whatever that was inside the egg couldn’t possibly be. “You’re saying that this is your child?”
“Ours.” Hawks bit his lip, and Dabi decided that he didn’t like the vulnerability that flickered over his face. “Unless you never imagined a future together with me, because I—want you to be there with me.”
The way Hawks gazed at him possibly made feel the slightest bit guilty. Dabi was ready to flee through those windows, even though they were on the uppermost floor of the building.
“Can you, Touya?” Hawks pressed his hands against Dabi’s scarred ones. “Can you look after him while I’m away?”
“I’m not the best when it comes to caring for things,” Dabi insisted. He couldn’t care less if it was a human being or a house plant. “Living things.”
“It’s not like I can take Suzaku with me. I’m not ready to expose him to the world just yet and—”
“Suzaku?” Dabi frowned deeply. “You gave the egg a name?”
“I’ll be damned if our child isn’t a phoenix. Blazing wings and all.” Hawks grinned at him, and that was more like the Hawks he knew. Leaning down, he cooed at the bundle in Dabi’s hands. “You’ll be good for Daddy, won’t you, Suzaku?”
“God,” was all Dabi could say. He would be lying if he said that he didn't feel a twinge in his chest at the endearment. The situation he found himself in was dubious and curious, all at once, and he couldn’t believe he was being swept along with Hawks’s pace. “Fine. I’ll look after it when you’re gone. Don’t blame me if everything goes wrong and you come home to a fried egg.”
Hawks leaned in to press a quick kiss to his cheek. “You love me, so you’re obviously going to do your best.”
Perhaps if this were a time before he and Hawks became this invested in each other, back when their relationship was nothing more than an antagonistic friendship, he wouldn’t find himself caring for anything. But the time now was no longer the time then, and he had a promise to fulfill.
Caring for an egg couldn’t be that difficult. All Dabi needed to do was make sure that he didn’t break the egg and that it received the warmth it needed. He didn’t know if there was an incubator out there large enough to house it, but where could he even steal one? A farm?
It didn’t matter much, when Dabi could regulate heat on his own. Hawks was as new to this as he was but that didn’t mean they could make an appointment at the physician’s office for an examination. If he was honest with himself, a veterinarian would be more suitable, because he was more convinced that the shell housed a villainous bird creature rather than a child.
Dabi desperately wished to sleep this off and wake up knowing that his situation was some kind of fantasy—maybe he was hit on the head a little too hard and his mind was compensating by conjuring newfound expectations of an unconventional family—but sleep evaded him the first night that Hawks left.
The space on Hawks’s bed was bare with the exception of his round companion, sheltered in a nest of blankets and Hawks’s jackets. It was something right out of a fantasy novel, with specks of gold shining in the darkness. Any child of theirs was bound to be attractive, but it was nice to know that their genetics defied the laws of nature too.
Dabi reached out, sliding a hand over the curve of the shell.
Still warm.
In the deafening silence of the room, as he splayed out over the bed, the notion of having a future with Hawks lingered at the forefront of his mind.
Hawks was a hero; Dabi was a villain.
Hawks had an affinity for children and they loved him just as much in return; Dabi never had a childhood and the fear that history would repeat itself was deeply buried in his heart.
But Dabi was tired of being afraid of himself. Despite their reality, despite it all, he was going to do everything in his power to ensure that whatever living within the shell was going to remain alive. He was going to become a better parent than Endeavor, a hundred fold.
“My classmate Tokoyami hatched from an egg. It’s not too farfetched.”
Dabi thought about the name for a moment, running faces through his head, then remembered the student that they nearly captured with Bakugou. “The one with the bird head?” Shouto nodded. “You sure his head isn’t fake? Maybe it’s part of his costume.”
“You can ask Hawks since Tokoyami was his intern for a while.” Shouto looked toward the sky, his expression mercifully blank. “There are just some things that we can’t explain in this world.”
Kids these days, acting as if they knew the secrets of the universe. Dabi relaxed beside him on the park bench, keeping one arm propped over the back rest. “You don’t seem very surprised that I’ve fathered—you know.” He gestured at the backpack on his lap, zipped open to expose the top of the egg. A knit beanie slouched over the top of the shell. “An egg.”
Dabi had gone off the deep end the moment he decided to dress up the egg. It was one of Hawks’s beanies from his closet, and he had this vague notion that the egg would appreciate having something that belonged to Hawks close to it. Staying in Hawks’s apartment for the entire week was unreasonable, so he gave it a hat and placed it inside his backpack when he decided to go outside.
“I’m going to have a nephew. That’s kind of cool.” Shouto sipped at his carton of strawberry milk with nonchalance. “Maybe you should tell Mom to expect her first grandchild soon.”
“No thanks. She’d probably think I’m crazier than I already am if I showed up with this.”
“What about after it hatches? She’d be really happy to see you and you can introduce Hawks to her too.” Shouto made an obnoxious slurping sound as he reached the last of his drink. The sound of air passed through his straw. “Should I call him brother-in-law now?”
“Don’t,” Dabi warned. “He’ll be too happy to become part of the Todoroki family.”
“That wouldn’t be too bad.”
“What?”
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing,” Shouto repeated. The milk box crumpled in his hands, and he tossed it into the trash bin.
Dabi couldn’t find the words to respond. The surgical mask raised over his face concealed his stunned expression. Silence stretched over them as he pressed a hand over the side of the shell, considering the fragility of the life developing inside it.
Shouto’s hand found the space right next to Dabi’s own, curving over the surface and feeling the texture. “It won’t hatch faster if you do that.”
“What am I supposed to do then? Tuck it in bed at night? Sing a lullaby?”
“No?” Shouto deadpanned, all sarcasm going over his head. “It’s a goddamn egg.”
“I think I’m losing it.” Dabi ran a hand through his hair, breathing out a sigh. He added as an afterthought, “Don’t tell anyone about this.”
“I can’t promise you anything.” With the careless shrug of Shouto’s shoulders, Dabi swore that he would never confide in his younger brother again. “Send me pictures when he’s born.”
While Hawks was absent, Dabi learned many things.
Over the past few days, he learned that he needed to maintain a certain temperature and humidity around the egg, needed to have heat uniformly distributed around it, and that microwaving it to accelerate the growth process would only end in unfavorable results. Granted, this information came from the internet, and he had no idea what would come next after the egg hatched.
Would he have to pick up some parenting books? Would all of this become normal for him one day? Would his child grow up to be a hero or a villain or neither? Would his child have to live without one of his parents someday, if Dabi were to die at the hands of a hero?
Harsh, his imagination was.
Above all, the last thing he wanted was for the League of Villains to find out. If the egg left his sight for even one moment, he would return to Spinner cracking it over a fire. Those lizards were the ones he needed to watch out for.
But Dabi thought wrong.
When a voice rang throughout the space of their hideout, it didn’t belong to Spinner. From where his backpack slouched on the stool, Toga was already peeking inside. “Why do you have an egg?”
“Don’t fucking touch—” Dabi’s heart was pounding in his throat when he snatched the bundle away from her hands. His voice fell into a hush at the realization that Shigaraki was in his room. “Keep quiet, would you?”
“A phoenix pheasant’s egg,” Kurogiri noted behind the counter, polishing glassware with practiced ease. “Why do you have one?”
The noise Dabi made sounded strangled even to his own ears. “A what?”
Kurogiri continued shining a wine glass with his large cloth. “They make pleasant pets but they’re a scarcity, so their eggs fetch a high price on the black market. Do you plan on selling it?”
For a long moment, Dabi stared at the weight in his arms. “You mean this is a bird’s egg?”
Kurogiri nodded. “It couldn’t be anything but.”
The dumbfounded expression on his face must have been very pronounced, because Toga couldn’t stop laughing at him.
Dabi closed up his backpack, roughly swinging it over his shoulder as he left the bar. “That son of a bitch.”
When Dabi arrived at Hawks’s apartment, he was greeted by bright laughter, a flutter of crimson beating wings, and a flash of gold hair disheveled and windblown from the thrill of flight. Hawks spread out his arms, welcoming an embrace. “Honey, I’m home!”
Dabi glared. Perhaps if he glared hard enough, Hawks would set on fire.
Hawks still had his arms outstretched. “You did a good job caring for our son!”
Dabi pushed his backpack against Hawks’s chest. “It’s a fucking bird.”
“I never said he was a human son.” Hawks pulled out the bundle from Dabi’s bag, holding the egg with both of his hands and inspecting all aspects of it. “Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t think I can actually bear you one.”
“I can’t believe you.” Heat flooded Dabi’s cheeks. “I can’t believe myself. I actually—I actually thought that—”
“You’re so serious-minded sometimes.” Hawks beamed at him. “But I like that about you. I meant it when I said that Suzaku was important to me, and you’ve been looking after him as if he were your own child. So—”
The sound of a crack brought them pause.
Dabi’s heart raced. “Don’t tell me I broke the egg.”
Hawks quickly set the egg down on the blanket on the floor. Cracks suddenly spread across the shell, until a part broke off. As the egg was pulsating, they fell silent. There was another crack and another and another, until the hatchling’s beak emerged from the shell.
Hawks gasped. “Suzaku!”
The hatchling was as bright as wildfire, a mass of scarlet feathers and a golden crest, and he looked up at Dabi first. The chirps came next.
Hawks tenderly swept the bird—Suzaku, Dabi made a note—into his gloved hands. “Hey there. I’m your Dad, and this is your other Dad. Welcome to the family!”
They received another chirp in response.
“See? You did a good job,” Hawks said softly. “I knew you could do it.”
“Well, I’m glad I didn’t crack the egg,” Dabi answered, secretly relieved. Hawks didn’t seem satisfied with that, so he muttered, “He’s kind of cute. I guess.”
It turned out that Hawks had a brooder set up for Suzaku, so Dabi didn’t need to worry about housing him. They would keep him in there until he was a few weeks older.
“I’d like to have a big family someday,” Hawks suddenly revealed, intent on having Dabi in his future. “And an actual son with real blazing wings this time.”
Dabi couldn’t help but laugh. “We’ll see.”
For now, what they had was more than enough.