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Hawks had always wanted to travel on his own. Ever since he was small and the White Lotus has taken him in as an investment he hadn’t really had the opportunity to do tourism. Sure, he had been to a couple Air temples and he currently lived in Republic City, which some would say was the heart of all four nations, but having heard tales of distant lands and cultures had him yearning to explore himself.
At least that’s what he told the White lotus when he decided he was going to take a week long vacation to the earth kingdom.
“My people are nomads, you know? We travel around and explore the land, meet the people and get to know the spirits. Are you going to forbid me from performing such an ancient airbender tradition, President?”
Of course, the president really didn’t have much of a choice and neither did Hawks, he was scheduled for his meeting three days from when he was set to depart.
He said goodbye to Miruko before she made sure he knew his way through the Earth Kingdom and into Omashu, where he was supposed to be travelling, even gave him a map, which was kind of her, but kind of useless considering he already had one marked with his actual destination somewhere in the mountains.
He made his way out of Republic City and after five hours walking by foot hawks started regretting not asking to borrow a bison. He could have probably even gotten Umu but he was in too much of a hurry after spending too much time getting everything ready into his bag to stop by Air Temple Island. In his travels, Hawks stopped by numerous small towns, some that had never even seen an airbender before, which made them greet him into their homes and invite him for dinner just at the sight of his arrow. Some folks even thought of confusing them with the Avatar, to which he politely just replied
“Ma’am the current avatar is a child, he can’t be older than sixteen”
But he did indulge them in some tales he had learned about avatar Aang or avatar Yangchen.
In the end, he left almost every town with a full stomach and some food for the road as well as some encouraging words of good luck in his way.
He knew he was approaching his destination when towns began to be less and less and there were no more roads or train tracks to follow, instead having to walk by the forest, sometimes guided by the local spirits who were kind enough to help an air nomad into the right direction, as well as spending some time going back on his own footsteps thanks to a mischievous spirit that just wanted to fuck with him.
The day before the one he’s supposed to meet his contact with the Red Lotus is spent near a little lake, washing himself and spending as little time as he can on actually meditating like he was supposed to during his journey. Instead, he takes out his bags contents to scan them all over again.
Hawks rereads the note he was sent that specifies to be at a tunnels entrance not far from where he was the next day at high noon. His contact and him are supposed to get to the outskirts of Omashu, deliver a package and then get back and go each on their merry way. Hawks sighed, he had already meet the brooding firebender more than once before but that didn’t stop him from also grabbing the wanted poster he had discreetly gotten from one of the towns to look at him closer.
Dabi was...well, he sure was something, and as confused as it made Hawks he would admit the dude was attractive, even with all those weird scars that made his face and arms look like they would peel off at any second. He also had blue fire, which was extremely rare on firebenders but not unheard of. He had multiple face and ear piercings which, hot, and an attitude that Hawks admitted was entertaining to be around for the very least, if only to see how fast they could get on each other’s nerves.
Along with those, he had also grabbed two more posters. One of a teenager with chubby cheeks full of freckles and wild hair that was Supposed to be the Avatar and one of the Fire Nations prince that had disappeared a week ago, presumably having been kidnapped by the Avatar.
Now, Hawks knew that was bullshit. He had never personally met the kid but if his father was anything to go by there was no way someone could have taken him if he hadn’t gone willingly. Teenage rebellion, perhaps? He just hoped the boy would get back soon or else his dad would kill the airbender from a continuous headache.
———-————————————
When the day finally came, Hawks said goodbye to the lake, packed everything and headed to the meeting point. He knew it was a caves entrance of sorts, if the map was anything to go by, but he really hoped Dabi knew another way to get through to Omashu because he didn’t handle closed spaces very well and getting trapped underground with the moody firebender was the last thing he wanted.
He only had to walk for another hour to reach the location so it was fair to assume he would be early, from the position of the sun guessing it was only about eleven am. The surroundings had some old ruins, overgrown with plants over time. The tunnel entrance was massive and Hawks knew for certain that even a flying bison would look minuscule under it. He also spotted a carving at the side of the entrance, seemingly some green stone with huge letters that read
“Cave of the two lovers”.
Fantastic.
Hawks was so enthralled by the scenery that he almost missed the skinny figure that was leaning against one of the walls of the tunnel, barely visible due to the shadows that rested against the wall, but he would know that messy black hair and terribly worn off coat anywhere. Before he got to open his mouth Dabi raised his head and waved him over
-“You’re early”
Hawks scoffed and signaled to the other man
-“so are you. Were you that eager to see me?”-
The firebender rolled his eyes and Hawks chuckled, finally walking closer
-“So? Do you have the package? Where are we supposed to go though? I haven’t seen any roads on my way here”
Dabi rised a bag he had been carrying at his back and looked at Hawks like he was seriously considering if bringing him along was a good idea
-“ I have the package, yes. And this is our road, this part of the Earth Kingdom is basically completely rural or deserted so unless you want to carry us both flying over the mountain with that weird stick of yours we have to go through the tunnel”
Hawks groaned. Of course there was no other way and of course they had to take the tunnel. Something about the place set him on edge, like a constant warning on the back of his head but it could have been just Dabis presence that made him not want to relax for even a second. He sighed and frowned at the man before starting to walk into the darkness
-“it’s a staff, you dumb potato crisp”-
Hawks thought it was the first time he’d actually heard Dabi laugh
——————————————————————
It had been about an hour and Hawks was most certainly sure they were lost. Turned out, Dabi had failed to mention the tunnel was no tunnel at all but a fucking labyrinth. He wanted to slap himself, he Had heard the song about the place before but when he had connected the dots to his current location it was already too late. Just the thought of being underground for spirits know how long made his skin crawl, but despite his best efforts he wasnt able to stop himself from humming the damn song to try and calm himself.
Dabi looked at him with a raised eyebrow
- “I know I call you birdie but I wouldn’t have guessed you chirped like them too. Do you also have some wings to flutter around?”-
Hawks ignored the remark and smiled at the thought
-“I don’t, but some of our suits have something similar. It would be great to have actual wings, though”-
The firebender nodded, keeping the blue fire on his palm steady
-“go hang around the spirit portal, then. If you’re lucky you’ll piss off a spirit so much they’ll curse you with wings”
He gasped dramatically and brought a hand to his chest, just the thought of purposefully harming a spirit stinging his mind.
-“spirits love me, thank you very much. Besides, I wouldn’t want risking getting a weird mutation like that friend of yours that looks like a fart.”-
Dabi laughed loudly, the sound vibrating through the dark tunnels. He realised that the man didn’t sound as strained, as forced as before. Seeing him laugh like that almost made him look the age he probably was instead of some burned up dude. Hawks couldn’t help the thought of how his eyes had gleamed or that one corner of his mouth had risen higher than the other.
-“Poor Kurogiri, I’ll be sure to deliver your opinions on him the next time I see him.”-
He pauses for a moment and looked at Hawks with a smirk
-“if you dislike them so much why do you want to meet them so bad? Are you only sticking around for my dashing looks?”-
Hawks snorted and gave Dabi a once over, using all of his self control to not flirt back. Instead, he settled for smiling innocently at him
-“why do you, if you don’t really share their values?”-
Dabi looked shocked and Hawks counted that as a win. He was perfectly aware of how most people saw him, as a dumb kid that had only got where he was out of sheer luck and talent, that his head was filled with the same air he bended. He knew all of the airbender traditions, myths and history by heart and, sure, he had been slacking on his meditation and spirituality but airbenders weren’t really needed to mediate with the spirits in a world where them and humans lived together. He was an amazing liar and he could only think of two people in the entirety of the four nations that knew how he actually was underneath all the layers and layers of fake personalities he built around himself. He tried to act nonchalant around Dabi, perhaps letting the other undervalue him for his own advantage, but Hawks had done his research. He had looked though every single archive on the villain the White Lotus could get their hands on, which was to say a lot. He knew Dabi had never been seen in a crime scene like the other Red Lotus members had, that he was suspected of murdering members of the triads of Republic City that were causing too much trouble and Hawks knew that despite not having any official charges against him he was still one of the most wanted men across the nations.
Hawks had also made sure to watch his reactions and expressions, how he spoke about his teammates. If he hadn’t he would have surely missed how Dabi didn’t seem to fully agree with some of their plans or their motives, which made the airbender more and more curious about the guys goal.
When the firebender snapped out of it he chuckled and Hawks could have sworn he saw an understatement on those sharp blue eyes, a glint that made him believe that perhaps he wasn’t the only one playing a character.
-“Looks like you’re not just pretty looks, huh?”
Hawks huffed but knew he wouldn’t get much out of him so he dropped the subject and smirked at him.
-“I’m the whole package, honey”
Dabi hummed and kept on walking
-“who else knows that you’re not just the Air Nations golden boy? That earthbender friend of yours?”-
Hawks skin crawled at the mention of Miruko and the notion that the Red Lotus knew about her but he simply put a smile on his face and shook his face
-“Miruko? She’s seen me drunk on my ass trying to get into the Pro Bending arena to fight the Toucan tarantulas so yeah, she knows”-
Dabi snorted and looked at him with a smirk
-“ The Toucan tarantulas, really? If I had to fight any of them it would be the Elephant wales, they piss me off, bribing the judges at every chance they get”-
Hawks nodded, agreeing with the man for once
-“ I’ll make sure to remember for the next time I get some Fire nation imported liquor”-
The firebender rolled his eyes but a small smile tugged at his lips and he couldn’t help the thought that maybe being trapped in the damn tunnel together wasn’t so bad after all.
—————————————————————
Hawks was absolutely done.
He wanted to blast Dabis ass with a swift of wind and into the spirit world because they were most definitely completely lost and it was his fucking fault for not knowing how to read a map.
Not like the firebender was looking any happier, he looked just about ready to fry Hawks at any more commentary about their situation, his blue fire having grown considerably on pair to his bad mood.
It had been five hours since they entered the cave and two since they had started running into dead ends at every turn.
-“Well? You’re the one that’s supposed to be guiding us, hot stuff, and if I didn’t know you were a firebender I would have guessed you were earthbending walls on our way just to spend more time with me”-
Dabi didn’t seem to fully listen to the comment and instead kept pacing, looking at the map on his hand.
-“It doesn’t make any fucking sense, we should have crossed a crossroads by now!”-
He turned to look a Hawks
-“you!”-
The airbender rised an eyebrow
-“me?”-
Dabi frowned
-“Yeah, you. Aren’t you supposed to be incredibly wise or some shit? Do you know anything about this place? Maybe spirits are haunting us”
Hawks frowned and shook his head
- “there are no spirits in here, they would have found us by now or I would have sensed them. And no, creepy old tunnels aren’t in the repertory to becoming an airbender. The only thing I know about this place is that old song and I don’t even remember all of it.”-
The firebender signaled at him
-“ try and sing it, then. Maybe there’s a clue in it that we’re missing.”
That made Hawks scoff.
-“I’m not singing for you, thank you very much, I’m in no mood right now, being trapped under a whole ass mountain with your crusty ass.”-
Dabi frowned and sighed but kept walking in silence, with only the crackle of his fire between them.
A couple of minutes later Hawks nearly jumped out of his own skin when he heard a low whistle, followed by a soft tune. He almost broke his neck as he turned his head to look at the firebender, who was looking up at the ceiling as he continued walking, his lips parting into a soft song.
Dabis voice was low and raspy, not quite melodic and not necessarily pretty.
-“Two lovers, forbidden from one another
A war divides their people
And a mountain divides them apart
Built a path to be together-“
The airbender stared at him with wide eyes and an open mouth. Dabi singed in a melancholic tone, making the song slow and sad. His words vibrated through the cavern and the acoustics made his voice multiplicate. He looked almost sad as he sung, shoulders down and relaxed and a funebre expression on his face that made Hawks snap out of the haze he was in.
-“what the hell is That?”-
The other man stopped and Hawks swore that for a moment he saw a blush on his face before it was replaced by an annoyed scowl.
-“what do you mean what’s that? It’s the fucking song, have you never heard it before?”-
Hawks frowned and pouted
-“ I’ve heard it before, that’s why I know that’s definitely not it. The lovers cave song is supposed to be a fun tune to sing along not a funeral march, dude”-
The man rolled his eyes
-“well that’s how it was sung at my house”-
He raised an eyebrow
-“no offense but that sounds horrible.”-
Dabi barked a bitter laugh that sounded nothing but horrible to hawks ears, the man with a sarcastic grin as he walked faster
-“Oh, you have no idea”
—————————————————————-
After a couple more hours they decide to stop and rest as well eat something of the food they carried with them before they would fall over due to exhaustion.
They decided to lay down on a small nook of the wall on one of the corridors. Dabi had brought some provisions with himself so they set up and ate in silence together, their breaths echoing down the cave.
As a surprise to Hawks, it was Dabi who broke the eerie silence, his gaze still looking down at his food.
-“That friend of yours, the earth bender. Is she good?”
Hawks blood froze over at the thought of what exactly why the Red Lotus or Dabi had any kind of interest on her at all. He frowned and looked at the firebender in a way that he hoped would transmit how much he could not fuck around and hurt her.
-“She is. She’s helping get the Earth kingdom villages food and make sure the citizens are treated right.”- He squinted his eyes and looked at dabi. -“She's no governor or politician so leave her out of the plans, she’s trying to do as much good as she can.”-
Dabi looked at him with wide eyes and a surprised expression before it turned into a smirk and a little chuckle
-“Don't worry about her, birdie. We have little to no interest in her. You know all about my friends, can’t I be curious about yours?”-
Now that made Hawks frown. He didn’t necessarily know about Dabis so called “friends”, he only knew what the reports said about them.
Shigaraki Tomura, bloodbender, always wore a mask that covered most of his face for some reason. Toga Himiko, another bloodbender that couldn’t be older than eighteen. Kurogiri, a man that had been cursed by a spirit and looked like a cloud of fog being held together by some collar. He had also heard about a man named Twice but neither the police nor the White Lotus had much on the man or if he was even a bender. That made the airbender chuckle.
-“Your friends? You don’t seem too close. You must have other friends over at home, tell me about those”-
Dabis entire aura changed then. He went from teasing asshole to a completely serious and stiff face.
-“well, I don’t have a home so I don’t have friends there.”
That… that had been unexpected. Hawks knew Dabi wasn’t the man's real name and he knew there was no way he could have just sprouted out from the vine forest he lived in. He had had to be someone with a family at some point of his life. He couldn’t help but look at the mans face and down to his chest and his arms. Almost half of him was covered in burnt scars so severe they had made the skin underneath die and turn an ugly mixture between red and purple. Hawks could only think of one thing.
What happened to you?
But of course he played it off, he had a mission and it definitely did not involved sympathising with the enemy.
-“well, that sounds depressing. At least now you found the Lotus, at the very least, huh?”
The other man simply rolled his eyes
-“don’t try and pity me so I tell you my sob story, it won’t work. And please, don’t tell me about those guys. Sure, we want the same thing but we are not friends, merely collages”-
Hawks leaned back, looking at Dabi with questioning eyes.
-“I mean, you know I’m all up to getting rid of the people in power currently but, how do you want to go over that? I’d ask the boss but you still won’t take me to him”- the other man stayed silent so Hawks continued, his frown growing. -“ I share your beliefs but haven’t they been tested before? Sure, you want to get rid of the world leaders but the previous Red Lotus actually did it. They brought down the walls of Ba Sing Se, established no new form of government, which lead to the regime of the Earth Empire and after that back to the same royalty. What are your plans like that you think you won’t follow the same path?”-
Hawks was looking at Dabi with fire in his eyes but it didn’t rival the firebenders own when he answered, voice strong and his conviction soaking every word with such passion the airbender thought he would have been able to tear down the Ba Sing Se walls brick by brick if he set his mind to it.
-“That plan didn’t work because they didn’t do anything. Sure, you kill the Queen. But her family prevails and so does her legacy and her palace and her privilege. All nations are the same. The Fire nation has killed millions of innocents. Did they not kill YOUR people? Brought them to the brink of extinction? And for what, his honor, his legacy? The equalists have a point, every know war has involved bending but only because their leaders found a petty reason to wage a war in the first place. Fire Lord Ozai sent his people to die without any remorse just because he wanted to be remembered. Benders are not at fault but the people that lead them.”- he chuckled grimly. -“ but no one will even try to stop it because they trust the Avatar will, like he could have ever”-
Hawks blinked slowly, trying to take everything in. -“You speak of him like you know him but he’s just a kid. There’s no way you could-“
-“Not this avatar. All Might.”- Now THAT left Hawks with his mouth hanging open. -“He was supposed to be THE Avatar, the one that helped everyone and fixed everything and yet the problems he faced still come around because he fixed the problem but didn’t change the system that caused it. He removed the corrupt governors but not the ones that put them in charge. All Might was blind to the real problems of the four nations and the ones that understand them do nothing because they hope the Avatar will. But the Avatar isn’t a god or above everyone else like everyone thinks they are or how the word leaders act themselves.”-
Hawks was left with no words as his question changed.
Who did this to you?
—————————————————————-
After nearly ten hours of being trapped in the tunnels Hawks believed he most definitely was losing his mind. He was thankful for being accompanied by Dabi, who would provide a never ending source of light or otherwise they would have been lost to the darkness a long time ago.
However, having light wasn’t helping him with keeping his mind clear on the perpetual silence that had set between them since they had set to continue their path. He couldn’t help but think about the possibility of being trapped in there for so long the next time someone saw him would be a hundred years from then, when another couple of fools dared to enter the labyrinth. He also had time to think about his mission and how much his vision of the whole situation had changed after the trip. He hated to admit that Dabis reasoning held truth in it, truth he had been perhaps too blind to see before. Hawks knew the government system was flawed but he liked to think his job was helping on fixing something at the very least, but he came to the conclusion that a lot of people probably thought the same way the firebender did.
Even if those thoughts concerned him he preferred to dwell on them instead of the constant need of looking to his right to see Dabi or his incessant thoughts about the mans long fingers or deep blue eyes. He Definitely didn’t want to be thinking about those.
To try and distract himself he starts humming a random song one of the villagers had sung him on his brief stay just a couple of days earlier. He didn’t care much for the rhythm or the lyrics so to speak, but it did lift his mood from the impending doom that had started to settle in between the two men.
His companion didn’t seem to think the same when he saidS:
-“One would think someone who spends so much time singing would have a better voice, birdie.”-
Ouch. Hawks was an excellent singer, thank you very much. At least the flying bison at the temple seemed to appreciate his tunes.
He smirked and faked a gasp, getting a hand to rest on top of his heart.
-You hurt me, Dabi. Guess the songs were right”- to the mans weird look he smirks and clears his throat before starting another song.
“-~Don’t fall in love with a travelling girl-~”-
He wasn’t able to continue due to Dabis hand pushing his face away with an incredulous chuckle.
-“Of course you know all of the silly travelling tunes. Are you gonna make me a flower crown next?”-
Hawks considered it for a moment before nodding with a small smile of his own.
-“That depends, will you let me braid your hair, hot stuff?”-
Dabi turned to look at him better with an amused smile when Hawks saw it. His fire was reflecting on all the walls through their journey, making them shine with a faint blue. That’s why when he caught on the corner of his eyes a complete dark circle on the wall he shoved a hand into Dabis mouth as he was in the middle of throwing back a comment on how he wouldn’t trust Hawks with his hair seeing how his was not even brushed.
-“shut up about my hair I think I found something”-
That caught the firebenders attention as he immediately shut up, looking at Hawks with a small frown.
-“Light isn’t reflecting over there, I think it might be an opening, come on”
And without giving him another second to think, Hawks was already heading into the darkness, relieved to have had at least found something other than old stone hallways.
As soon as Dabi stepped inside and his fire illuminated the cave, it was set clear to both of them that that place wasn’t the exit.
It was a gigantic cave with walls covered in ancient murals. Right on front of them was an enormous statue, at least five times their size, of a man and a woman sharing a kiss. They made their way down the stairs and stood in front of what couldn’t be other thing than two tombstones.
Hawks frowned
-“This… these must be the two lovers, huh? Guess love didn’t get them very far”-
At his side, Dabi chuckled
-“it never does”-
He got closer and laid a finger over the inscriptions carved on both resting places.
-“I’m guessing these tell their actual story, not the one from the travelling song”-
The other man nodded.
-“thank the spirits, at least I won’t have to heard that song again”-
They both leaned in close to read them, bodies pressed against each other, being able to share the heat from Dabis flame and if anyone would have asked him, Hawks would have blamed his red ears on that too.
The story was simple. The lovers were divided by a war so they earth bended the labyrinth to meet in secret until the man died in battle. The woman, filled with sadness, expressed her power and used it to create the new city of Omashu.
It wasn’t the first time Hawks had heard the story but it was the first time he felt their pain and shared at least a bit of the desperation the two must have felt ages ago.
Dabi stared at the story for long moments before pulling away with a frown and a small pout.
-“Two lovers from different rival sides, huh? Sounds a bit cliché.”
The airbender couldn’t help but laugh. Yes, definitely impossible to happen in real life.
As he tried to not look at the other man on the face, Hawks caught sights of another inscription on the wall.
-“Love is the brightest in the dark”-
Both of them spent the next ten minutes looking around for any kind of switch or way to show them to an exit without any results.
They kept looking at each other, the same idea dancing around their heads when they made their way back to stand in front of the statue.
Dabi sighed.
-“A cave, great. We found a grave, now what?”-
Hawks knew he had to, and he told himself it was just because he was desperate to get out of that underground labyrinth and not because he had been thinking about the firebenders lips on his own for the last two hours.
-“Maybe it’s a clue?”
Dabi turned his head to look at him with a glint on his eyes and a sly smirk, tilting his head slightly to the side.
-“What?”-
He sighed and looked at dabi with a shrug, faking indifference that he definitely wasn’t feeling.
-“We’re both thinking the same thing, come on. We’ve already tried everything else.”-
Dabi sighed, even though Hawks could see the small smile that rugged at his lips as he got closer.
-“fine, then”-
They both got closer but the blue flame wasn’t extinguished, illuminating both of their faces softly. He was able to feel the heat of the flame and on top of that, the heat of Dabis body.
-“You’re going to have to put the fire out, hot stuff”-
The firebender smiled cheekily as he took one step closer.
-“you seem eager, birdie.”-
Hawks smiled despite his nerves.
-“You wish”-
One more step and their noses touched and Dabis breath tickled Hawks cheek. The other man's voice went down to merely a whisper.
-“Spirits, do you ever shut up?”-
He got closer and their lips nearly touched.
-“Only one way to find out.”
If anyone asked, Hawks wouldn’t have been able to say who kissed who first, but he did know that once they started they didn’t seem to be able to stop. Dabis flame was out but Hawks felt it all through his body and his hands as he buried them on the other man's hair and Dabi held his waist and brought them closer. He felt it as they deepened the kiss and as he had a passing thought on how the man’s lips were softer than he expected and had imagined. He felt it as they fell against a wall and Dabis hands cupped his face and as his leg got between his own, making him moan softly into the kiss.
They let go of each other when they had no more air to go around and they were both panting heavily. It was after a moment of looking into each other’s eyes that they noticed the light.
Small blue stones that shone through the ceiling made a visible luminescent path out of the cave and into the tunnels and it was then that Hawks remembered the inscription.
Love is the brightest in the dark.
-“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”-