Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

So normally, Hawks likes training Shouto. All the elemental quirk stuff goes to Touya, of course, and general hand to hand sparring they split between the two of them, but sword fighting is all Hawks, and Shouto is not a bad student. He listens quietly, tries to copy Hawks best he can, and is slowly absorbing all the sword techniques Hawks picked up from Mahou over the years. It’s a little annoying that it looks like Shouto is going to be taller than him once he finishes his growth spurt (although he’s going to laugh if Shouto grows taller than Touya), but for the most part despite being a teenager now, Shouto has remained focused and drama-free during training sessions.

Today is not one of those sessions.

Today, Shouto has sliced through like five training dummies, and Touya is going to be annoyed if he comes home and sees that they have already gone through all the training dummies that was supposed to last at least a month.

“Good job Shouto, but let’s dial it down a bit, huh?” he says, patting Shouto on the back, “You’re not going to be trying to slice people in half at the sports festival, are you?”

“No, but—” Shouto frowns, swinging his sword and then holding it at his side as he seems to be gathering his thoughts, “…have you ever met Izuku’s dad, Hawks?”

“If you haven’t met him, when would I have?” Hawks asks bemusedly, “You’re the one that’s always over at his apartment.”

“Not recently,” Shouto mutters under his breath.

Hawks sighs, “Are you and Izuku-kun still fighting?”

(Ever since this summer after Izuku ran to save Bakugou from a slime villain, Izuku’s been—well, secretive he supposes is the right word.

He hadn’t been coming to training as much, citing the need to train on his own for a bit. And while that’s fine, if a bit unusual, on the day of the U.A. entrance exam, he had suddenly activated his quirk, which seemed to be some kind of super strength quirk that had a hideous backlash?

Which was really strange considering that his mom had a levitation quirk and his father apparently had a fire breathing quirk, but maybe he had an uncle or something with a super strength quirk?

Apparently Shouto had tried talking to Izuku over the summer, but the green-haired boy had brushed him off and seemed to have essentially ghosted him the entire break, which had led to the worst mood Hawks had ever seen in the youngest Todoroki sibling although it did apparently result in him getting first place in the recommendation entrance exam.)

“He won’t—he won’t tell me anything!” Shouto bursts out, tossing his sword aside, “He chooses Deku of all things as his hero name—and now he’s always hanging out with Iida and Uraraka—and he’s always whispering with All Might—”

“Okay, the other two are weird, but the All Might thing I mean—that’s probably just a fanboy thing right?” Hawks asks, “You two couldn’t even sleep the night it was announced All Might was going to be teaching at U.A.”

“Yeah, but—do you think it’s possible that All Might is actually Izuku’s dad?” Shouto rushes out.

Hawks’ eyebrows climb, “What?”

“I mean—have you seen him use his quirk?” Shouto asks, “Well, no, he hasn’t—been over much, has he….”

“It’s a strength quirk, isn’t it?” Hawks says, trying to derail the conversation before Shouto can brood (every day he’s becoming more like Touya), “There’s lots of people with strength quirks! Your brother’s team has one, Jinnai’s team has one, Team Idaten has five—seven if you count their Support staff.”

“But—you haven’t seen the way he fights—his moves are basically like All Might’s—”

“Because he’s a giant fanboy and neither Touya nor I could make a dent in that,” Hawks points out, “Besides—do you really think Midoriya-san is the type of woman to have an illicit affair and on top of that pass off her baby as someone else’s?”

“I must have missed something,” Touya says, sliding through the door, “Is Midoriya-san—in a play or something?”

“Touya!” Hawks beams, walking forward and looking his boyfriend over (he looks kind of pale and haggard—chasing down that wannabe League of Villains has to be rough. Hero commission even has his own agency on standby for that), “You’re home!”

“I’m home,” Touya agrees with a smile, reaching out and letting Hawks curl up at his side and leaning down to bury his nose in his hair, “So—this play, is mother in it too?”

“It’s not a play, and—I mean, All Might is a really great guy, and Midoriya-san is really nice, so it’s not that weird that they would fall in love!” Shouto insists.

Touya stares at Shouto, “…what.”

“Shouto thinks All Might is Izuku-kun’s actual dad,” Hawks supplies.

“What?” Touya repeats, “Shouto—did you get hit by some weird quirk during that attack on USJ? Let me take you to Rogue—Recovery Girl was obviously not enough—”

“No, look—you haven’t seen the way Izuku fights now,” Shouto argues, “I have, and it’s—it’s weird. It’s like—someone else trained him. And—All Might pays a lot of attention to him.”

“That might be the case—you never did figure out who told him to go train on that beach, did you? But that doesn’t mean he’s his dad,” Touya insists.

“Okay, but—there has to be some kind of connection there,” Shouto says, “Some kind of secret—or else, why won’t Izuku talk to me anymore?”

(And that is really the crux of the matter isn’t it?

Hawks doesn’t know what he would do if Touya just started avoiding him—it sounds like something out of his worst nightmares. He’s—more or less grown comfortable with the idea that even if Touya gets annoyed at him, he’s not about to walk away, but he can’t help but worry sometimes that this is it, this is the last straw that makes Touya realize that taking care of him is way too much work, and he should just cut his losses and leave.

Touya usually sees the worries in his eyes and folds him into his arms, whispering reassurances that he loves him and that he likes taking care of Hawks, and then usually demonstrates exactly how much he likes taking care of him.

Hawks is ridiculously lucky, he knows this, but at the same time, he had always thought that Izuku held Shouto in almost as much awe as Hawks does Touya. He had even been planning on pulling the green-haired boy aside and advising him on how to deal with the Todoroki blindspot to romance that had somehow only afflicted both the eldest and youngest Todoroki siblings.

He had been going to advise lots of patience and affection, not disappearing on him for an entire summer and then only having apparently weirdly stilted conversation with him in class.)

“Do you think—do you think he just doesn’t like me anymore?” Shouto asks quietly, staring at the ground.

Touya moves forward and places a hand on Shouto’s shoulder, “I’m sure that’s not it—you already tried talking to him, right? Do you want me to go talk to him?”

“Or if you think Touya would be too scary, I could do it,” Hawks offers (Izuku isn’t scared of Touya usually since he’s known him so long, but Hawks can imagine the glare Touya might sport given how upset Shouto is about the whole thing.

Not that honestly, his look will be that much better.

He’s fond of Izuku, but Shouto is family.)

“No—that’s not—that’s not necessary,” Shouto says immediately, shaking his head, “I can—I can try to get him to talk to me—again.”

“Okay. If you’re sure,” Touya says worriedly, “Just—” he gives out a slightly frustrated noise and glances at Hawks.

“Just remember, Izuku-kun’s always really admired you,” Hawks jumps in, “I’m sure that whatever he’s going through—you’re still his best friend. Remember that time Bakugou broke your nose? I thought he was going to drown you in his tears.”

“I don’t think I had ever seen Izuku-kun yell at anyone before that,” Touya muses, hand coming up to idly pet the wing Hawks has thrown over his shoulder.

Shouto’s shoulders relax slightly, “Yeah—that’s true,” he says softly.

“Also—didn’t you say one of the first things he tried to do when he got away from the villains in USJ was find you?” Touya prompts.

Shouto nods before his face darkens again, “Yes, but—when I went to go see him in the infirmary—I don’t know, he was talking to All Might, he didn’t—really seem to want me to be there.”

Touya’s eyes narrow, “Maybe I should have a talk with him, regardless,” he says, “See what’s going on. Mahou can get me access inside U.A,—we’re already investigating anyway.”

“Don’t be mad at him, Touya,” Shouto says, looking up.

“I’m not mad at him, I just—want to make sure everything’s okay,” Touya says carefully.

“It’ll be fine Shouto,” Hawks reassures the teenager, “It’s not like we’re bringing Natsu in. Now, he’d be mad.”

(They’d actually already restrained Natsu from just marching over to the Midoriya residence and demanding answers after seeing Shouto moping listlessly around the house.

Both he and Touya had thought that would have upset Izuku’s mom and also possibly make the situation worse, although at this point, maybe they should have just let him.)

Shouto winces, “Yeah, please don’t tell Natsu—he’d blow it up into such a big deal—and it’s really not, it’s just—I miss my best friend.”

Hawks exchanges a worried look with Touya before moving and wrapping an arm around Shouto, “Hey—we’ll get to the bottom of this, don’t worry. Besides—you’re our favorite teenager, don’t forget that.”

“And if Izuku-kun has somehow forgotten everything you two have shared, I will remind him,” Touya says simply, his eyes with the calculating look he gets when he is planning.

Shouto nods, and they manage to cheer him up over dinner at least, with Touya throwing together some quick pickled vegetables, and Hawks setting out the cold soba they had specifically bought for Shouto and the rice and instant curry he had managed to make (it’s probably the grand extent of his culinary skills, but he loves the surprised grin Touya makes whenever he manages to cook for him).

Later, after Shouto has left, Touya goes to take a shower (sadly not with Hawks because wet feathers are neither fun nor sexy, but he still gets to leer at Touya through the glass), and Hawks barely lets him dry off before he’s on him (between their two schedules, it’s been at least two weeks since they’ve gotten a night to themselves).

“I’m going to need another shower,” Touya says dryly, sprawled on their bed and lazily kissing Hawks’ shoulder.

“Draw a bath, then I can join you,” Hawks says happily, burying his face in the crook of Touya’s neck.

Touya snorts, drawing his hand up his back to play with Hawks’ hair, “You just want someone to scrub your back and help clean your wings.”

“You got me, Touya,” Hawks grins up at him, “That’s definitely why I keep you around: food, sex, cuddles, and wing grooming.”

“Don’t forget long suffering music influencer,” Touya jokes, smiling back at him and moving his head down so he can lightly kiss Hawks on the nose.

(The truth of the matter is, back when Hawks was younger and had less fine control over his feathers, Touya offering to help him groom his wings had been a godsend.

However, as his control over his feathers grew sharper and more precise, he could have just groomed his wings himself, but he still let Touya pull him in and carefully run his fingers through Hawks’ feathers. It was as good an excuse as any to have Touya’s hands all over him, and the best way to have Touya all to himself for a good twenty to thirty minutes.

Sometimes, he had even purposefully messed up his feathers into an even sorrier state just to have all of Touya’s attention pinned on him a little longer.

He doesn’t need the excuse anymore, but he still likes the homey ritual of it all.)

“You say that, but who’s the one who got us backstage passes to the K/DA concert?” Hawks asks with a smirk.

Touya groans, “Okay, that was just an incidental bonus after some of the people we were taking down were also hackers that had stolen some of their private photos, and we just returned those to them. I didn’t go out of my way to get us those passes; that was them being really grateful and just rewarding the whole team.”

“Sure, and you making sure to get passes for me and Fuyumi and then going with us was just—convenient I’m sure,” Hawks says, using his wing to brush against Touya’s cheek.

“Would be a waste of a pass if I didn’t go,” Touya says, pushing Hawks’ wing so that it drapes over the two of them, “Besides—someone had to make sure you didn’t hyperventilate while meeting Evelynn, and Honda, Fuyumi, and Mahou were way too distracted for the job.”

“Evelynn was so cool,” Hawks sighs, lightly fanning both of them with his wing, “She said she’s also a fan of mine and that we should all go karaoke sometime!”

Touya makes a face and flicks one of Hawks’ earrings, “You should remember that they’ve never found some of the guys she’s went on dates with,” he says darkly.

“Okay, first off, I’m pretty sure she’s going out with either Akali or Ahri now,” Hawks says, cuddling closer to Touya so that he’s practically lying on top of him and looking him in the eye, “Secondly—you know I only go for blue-eyed, red-haired edgelords, right baby?”

Touya’s eyes grow fond as his mouth curves up into a lazy smile, “Sure, pretty bird,” he says, brushing Hawks’ bangs out of his face, “Although—if Evelynn is actually going out with Ahri, I’m not sure if Fuyumi is going to cry or throw a party.”

“Throw a party,” Hawks says decisively, “She’ll be happy her fave has found someone worthy of her.”

Touya laughs, sitting up and drawing Hawks up with him, “That’s your opinion; not sure about hers.”

Hawks lets Touya lead him by the hand to the bathroom and turn on the taps of the Jacuzzi tub, “Do you think we should let Fuyumi talk to Izuku-kun?” he asks, sitting on the edge of the tub.

Touya frowns as he tests the temperature of the water with his hand, “I feel like she wouldn’t push hard enough. Izuku-kun is one of her favorites after all.”

“So is Shouto though,” Hawks points out, dipping a toe into the water.

“True, but—I’d like to be the one to talk to him,” Touya says, sitting next to Hawks on the edge of the tub and drawing Hawks’ wings back, “I don’t really like the sound of training that results in him continually breaking his bones.”

Hawks looks at him, “You don’t think—you don’t think All Might is—”

“No,” Touya shakes his head, stepping into the tub and sinking in, “We’ve dug up all sorts of shit on all the top pro-heroes, but we’ve never found anything shady about All Might. Never really wants to get into the details of his quirk, but that’s all we’ve got. Still—I don’t like how secretive Izuku-kun is being about all of it.”

Hawks arranges himself in Touya’s lap, hand lingering at the burn scars on Touya’s arms, “I think—Shouto probably has a point about All Might being involved, but knowing Izuku-kun—he would be the type to just try to go all in when his quirk finally activated.”

“That’s true,” Touya agrees, burying his nose in Hawks’ hair, “That kid just goes charging in if he thinks someone needs help. Like you, really.”

Hawks laughs, flapping his wings a bit to splash water at Touya, “I think he would argue like All Might. Well—I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom of it, after you solve the whole League of Villains mess.”

Touya splashes Hawks back, sighing, “We’re far from that, although Fuji has coached Twice through what to say to Giran to try and get a meet. They’ve been evasive.”

“You’ll track them down,” Hawks reassures him, drawing a hand down Touya’s chest, “And if you need any help from me, just say the word.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Touya says, grabbing the soap and starting to lather up, “But—we’ll see. May need your help with Shouto and Izuku-kun though—it’s pretty rough for him.”

“Yeah,” Hawks says, shaking his head, “I was looking forward to telling him how to properly woo a Todoroki boy too!”

Touya smirks, “And what were you going to advise?” he asks, tipping Hawks’ face up to his with a finger beneath his chin, “Shameless flirting and grand gestures?”

“It got me you, didn’t it?” Hawks asks breathlessly, leaning forward and bracing his hands on Touya’s arms.

“You had me from the time we met, even if it took me awhile to realize it,” Touya says softly, kissing him before drawing away, “Come on, let’s wash up before the water gets cold.”

“We could always just add more,” Hawks argues, stealing another kiss from Touya and pressing him against the side of the tub.

“We’re going to overheat and get wrinkled,” Touya complains, tearing his mouth away from Hawks’ but not bothering to move away, “Come on, the whole point was to get clean, and if we fuck here, you know your wings are going to be a bedraggled mess, and you have that ad for that charity tomorrow.”

Hawks groans and slumps his head on Touya’s shoulder, “Fine, Fuyumi’s going to kill me if I mess that up. There’s kids from her preschool at the shoot, and—I do hope it gets kids to read.”

“I am very sure you’ll inspire a bunch of brats to frantically storm their local libraries asking if there are any books about fantasy bird-men,” Touya says dryly, “Bring back the costume if you can.”

“Ooh, kinky,” Hawks smirks at Touya, “Do you want to tie me up too?”

“Only if you like,” Touya says off-handedly, but Hawks’ doesn’t miss the tell-tale twitch near his leg at the thought of it.

Hawks laughs, curling up against Touya, “Well—that’ll be fun. You see how well my tactics work?”

Touya kisses his shoulder, “You’ve had me in the palm of your hand since you pointed those giant eyes at me,” he murmurs, “And—in that regard, Izuku-kun knows that strategy very well, and Shouto is already weak against that.”

Hawks sighs, “Poor kid. Really hope Izuku-kun tells him what’s going on sooner or later, it’s obviously messing with his head. How else would he think that Midoriya-san and All Might had an affair?”

Touya rolls his eyes, “This is all because you and Fuyumi leave too much shoujo manga lying around.”

“I’ll have you know that The Name of the Rose is super classy,” Hawks argues before twisting around, “Scrub my back for me?”

“Such a brat,” Touya says fondly as he grabs the soap and starts to wash Hawks’ back.

--

Hawks is looking at himself in the mirror at the black coat they gave him for the shoot (really, it looks like something Touya would like, and they are going to have a lot of fun when he gets home) when Miruko comes barging in, dressed in silvery robes.

“Hey, you’re going to the U.A. sports festival, right?”

He turns around to look at her, “Yeah?”

“And you’re probably going with your whole family?” she prompts with what she may think is nonchalance, but come on, she already charged into his dressing room to just ask him this and her ears are twitching nervously.

Hawks smirks and leans back, “Yeah, Fuyumi will be there, happily cheering both Shouto and Izuku-kun on, unless they get pitted against each other, and then she’ll probably be yelling at them to stop fighting.”

Miruko sighs dreamily, “She’s so cute. Er—maybe I’ll hop by!”

“You know you could just ask her out,” Hawks points out, “It’s not like she doesn’t like you.”

“She talks about me to you?” Miruko breathes out, her eyes shining and ears perking up.

“I mean, she thinks you’re a cool hero, and she thinks you should totally be ranked higher than you are,” Hawks says.

Miruko nods, bouncing on her heels, “That’s promising! And—you think the kids today might talk about me to her?”

“Sure,” Hawks says (the kids seemed to have fun clambering over both of them either ways, and he’s sure they will have lots to say to Fuyumi once they get back to her classroom), “They looked like they had fun.”

“Good. I want to make—a good impression.”

“What are you so worried about?” Hawks asks, turning and starting to scrub the stage makeup off his face, “You’ll be fine. You’re Rabbit Hero Miruko, and Fuyumi isn’t scary.”

(Provided of course, that none of her students or her family are touched.

Also, Hawks has to say, she can hold her own in any flame war about The Name of the Rose or K/DA.)

“Of course you would think that, she’s basically your sister-in-law!” Miruko huffs, “Me on the other hand—she’s a classy girl, and I need to impress her.”

(He has to admit that all the Todoroki siblings are unfairly attractive—although of course, he still thinks Touya is hands-down the hottest of them all.

Still, there’s something about them that inspires all those confession letters over the years, so it’s not really that surprising that even brash Miruko is a little in awe of Fuyumi.

After all, he grew up with Touya, and even he still thought he had to do something to impress him.)

“As long as you treat her students well, she’ll like you just fine,” Hawks advises, “Also maybe stan Ahri, that should help.”

“From K/DA? She’s a fan? That’s great! I’m supposed to do an ad with them in a month,” Miruko says, “Maybe I could ask her if she wants stuff signed by her? Or questions to ask her?”

“She’ll be so happy she might even hug you,” Hawks comments with a grin.

(After all the fuck boys hitting on her, and the straight girls that she’s pined over, it’s nice to see someone want to woo Fuyumi with all the enthusiasm she deserves.)

Miruko’s eyes glaze over, “…that sounds amazing.”

“I guess I’ll see you at the sports festival then,” Hawks says, making a shooing motion with his hands and wings, “Now, out, I have to change.”

--

Touya shakes his head as he listens to Hawks recounts the story, “They really should call you the matchmaking hero instead,” he teases, brushing Hawks’ hair out of his face.

“Hey, I’m like five for five already, and Mahou is getting married to Iida-san,” Hawks points out, taking his gloves off.

“Does Yukina really count though?” Touya asks, walking to the kitchen, “Natsu was already going to ask her out before you stuck your nose into it.”

“Okay, but he was going about it the completely wrong way!” Hawks argues, setting his visor and headphones on the kitchen table before following Touya into the kitchen, “He was just going to ask her out after a training session when she’s probably tired and sweaty! Without me, there would have been no flowers, and he definitely wouldn’t have made such a great impression.”

“She was already pretty impressed with him,” Touya says, raising an eyebrow while chopping up some eggplant, “The flowers helped, but I’m fairly sure she would have said yes even without them.”

“And plus, you have to admit that he had no idea where to take her for their first date,” Hawks points out, washing the tomatoes Touya had set out.

“You mean he couldn’t decide where to take her, and you just chose for him,” Touya corrects, setting aside the chopped eggplant.

“Hey come on, you know that ice-skating rink date was genius,” Hawks says, handing Touya the tomatoes.

“They both got to show off like some kind of ice bower-bird, yeah I know,” Touya says, slicing up the tomatoes, “I think they’re both banned for life from that ice-rink though.”

“People should be happy to try and skate through ice castles!” Hawks complains, “That ice-rink’s management just doesn’t understand fun.”

“Natsu went a bit overboard, but yeah, they could have kept it for like an advertisement or something,” Touya agrees, pouring oil into a wok, “You didn’t tell Miruko to do some kind of grand gesture, did you?”

“Please, she went for that all on her own,” Hawks says, waving a hand dismissively, “She knows how Fuyumi should be treated.”

“Damn right,” Touya says, pouring in the chopped eggplant and tomatoes and then some soy sauce and quickly stir-frying it all, “I suppose she’s acceptable.”

Hawks grins, using his feathers to tickle Touya under the chin, “Maybe I should have advised Miruko that the people she should be really worried about impressing are Fuyumi’s brothers.”

“You definitely should have warned her that if she somehow gets in the way of Fuyumi cheering for Shouto and Izuku at the sports festival, she’ll probably take her head off,” Touya says dryly, “Still, at least Miruko sounds better than that literary club president anyway, just jerking Fuyumi around.”

Hawks’ face darkens (that girl had waffled back and forth between Fuyumi and some other guy that was the son of a famous director, and while Hawks is fine with that in a shoujo manga plotline, he’s much less fine with it when it has Fuyumi crying in front of him and him trying to figure out if he should make her tea and get her blankets or go track down the girl and yell at her), “That girl was a menace, and Miruko would be much better for Fuyumi,” Hawks says firmly.

“Well, Natsu will assuredly defer to your judgment, but Fuyumi will have to see for herself,” Touya says, turning the stove off and pouring the eggplant and tomato into a dish.

“Don’t tell Fuyumi; she’ll definitely attempt to freeze me if she finds out I’ve been matchmaking her,” Hawks says, wrapping his arms around Touya’s waist and hugging him from behind, “You remember what happened at Natsu’s birthday party?”

“Natsu was being an idiot,” Touya says, leaning back into Hawks’ embrace, “Of course Fuyumi was going to get mad at him being like ‘so my sister’s single, do any of you want to try dating her’?”

“His heart was in the right place,” Hawks says, kissing Touya’s cheek before letting go to start digging rice out of the rice cooker for them, “He only said that to his best friends on his team.”

“I don’t think that made a difference to Fuyumi,” Touya says, bringing over the dish to the kitchen table, “So for your sake, I’ll let Miruko be a surprise.”

“Aw, you love me so much, hot stuff,” Hawks says with a happy grin as he hands a bowl of rice to Touya.

“That could never be in question, could it?” Touya asks, cupping the back of Hawks’ head and leaning down to kiss him before going back into the kitchen for utensils.

(He has to admit that even during the time when he had wondered if Touya was deliberately ignoring his flirting, just completely oblivious, had some weird hang-up about how he somehow couldn’t be good for Hawks, or just saw Hawks as a kid, he has always known that Touya loves him dearly.

The most he has ever worried about that was around the time they had first met.

He still remembers the first time he saw Touya, herding his siblings out the door, blue eyes like the sea and hair as red as his own wings, and he had been—fascinated.

Honestly the chance of getting to see that boy again had been as much of a draw for him as the music blaring outside to open the door and step onto the balcony that fateful night despite his parents hating for him to go outside.

He had already heard the Todorokis through the wall a little bit; cheerful, bickering voices, indistinct through the wall, and he had imagined what it would be like to be surrounded with people like that, with that red-haired boy’s blue eyes pinned on him.

Actually meeting Touya had been even better than what he had imagined since Touya had been patient and kind, offering him CD’s and indulgently listening to him ramble on about Endeavor, calling Hawks his friend, admiring his quirk, and demonstrating his own awesome quirk when asked.

He cringes now at what he had said almost as much as he did back then when he had found out that his new friend Touya was actually Todoroki Touya, eldest son of Endeavor. Although back then had been worse of course because he had wondered—

He had wondered if Touya had lied about that, what else had he lied about? Did he actually like hanging out with Hawks? Did he actually not mind Hawks chattering away? Were they really friends?

Of course now he knows that Touya had just wanted to escape the shadow of his father, and he will do everything in his power to ensure that dream.)

“I wonder how many internship requests Shouto is going to get once he takes first place,” Hawks muses as he pulls out the chair for Touya to sit, “Like obviously there’s me, Jinnai’s going to want a shot at him for sure, I bet you Edgeshot also wants him—probably most of the top 10, you think?”

“You’re going to have a lot of competition,” Touya agrees, sitting down, “I’d love for him to go with Gang Orca, but his quirk is just as incompatible with him as mine was I think. Still, Ryukyu could take him.”

Hawks pouts, “You don’t want me to take him?”

“He’s been training with you most of his life; might be nice for him to stretch out some more,” Touya points out, picking out some bok choy hearts to drop into Hawks’ bowl, “Besides, weren’t you complaining about moody teenagers?”

“Spoiled teenagers are the worst; Shouto would be great,” Hawks says with a wave of his hand, “I guess since we’re there, I might as well see who else could be good.”

“Mahou told me to keep an eye out too,” Touya nods, “Although—Shouto said that against Izuku-kun he doesn’t want to use fire.”

Hawks raises his eyebrows, chewing on the eggplant, “Izuku-kun’s definitely not going to like that. Is he trying to provoke a reaction or something?”

“I think he’s just used to holding back with Izuku-kun,” Touya shrugs, “I already told him it’s a bad idea, but you know Shouto.”

“As stubborn as the rest of his family,” Hawks says with a grin, stretching out his wings to tousle Touya’s hair.

“His next argument was that then he’ll only use ice on everyone, as if that makes it better somehow. It’ll certainly be an interesting couple of matches,” Touya sighs, swatting Hawks’ wing out of the way, “Whether or not they’re reconciled by then.”

“How’d the talk go?” Hawks asks.

Touya pulls a face, “Izuku-kun was very—squirrely. I asked him about All Might, and he just mumbled a lot of All Might facts at me and how honored he was that All Might would deign to teach them anything. Then I said that Shouto missed him, and he was this close to drowning me in tears.”

Hawks gives out a mock-gasp, “Making high-school boys cry; what kind of brute are you, Dabi?”

Touya kicks at him half-heartedly under the table, “Don’t even start; Shouto popped up from nowhere and looked like he was thinking about trying to fireball me.”

“You know he’s got like an Izuku-sensor or something,” Hawks points out, digging into his meal, “It comes from all the times he’s had to pull him out of fights with Bakugou.”

“Now that’s an opponent he should mostly use ice on,” Touya says, grabbing some more tomato and eggplant for himself, “If he slams him with a glacial blast at the start, that kid might be screwed.”

(Shouto has only grown in his powers over the years, and currently he’s trying to figure out how to summon up a storm of ice shards the way Hawks can blast people with a storm of feathers, and the day Shouto does is probably the day he’ll be fighting him in the rankings.)

Hawks hums his assent, “Yeah, hard to dodge. He may be able to explode his way out, but it would be difficult. You—you’re fine with going though, right?”

(While Shouto and Natsu have religiously watched the U.A. sports festival over the years, Hawks could hardly miss how Touya rarely bothered to watch it.

Part of it could just be Shiketsu school pride, but Hawks knows that Touya has no good memories of watching it in the past.

Since they’re going this time, he really wants to change that for Touya.)

“It’s—it’s what it is,” Touya says carefully, setting down his chopsticks, “After all—it’s about supporting Shouto and Izuku-kun after all.”

(In other words, if Shouto wasn’t in it, Touya probably would have been happy never going again.)

“That’s true, and also—I’m there with you,” Hawks says clumsily, reaching out and grabbing Touya’s hand, “And—even with all the lame Plus Ultra cheer, we’re going to have a good time, I promise. I’m going to wear my Shiketsu hat.”

“You mean my hat?” Touya asks, raising and eyebrow and twining their fingers together.

“Hey, I stole it fair and square, so it’s mine,” Hawks says, sticking his tongue out.

“Sure, sure. You’re going to get so much hate,” Touya muses, dragging up Hawks’ hand to kiss his knuckles.

“Anything to see you smile, baby,” Hawks says half-jokingly (but seriously, he begged Honda for makeup lessons when he was fourteen, enduring some glares at a festival is a piece of cake compared to the mess he made of his face and all the times he poked himself in the eyeball before he got the hang of eyeliner).

Touya’s hand tightens in his, and he draws Hawks’ face forward and up to capture Hawks’ mouth with his own. Hawks happily moans into the kiss, placing his own hands on the sides of Touya’s face as he licks into Touya’s mouth.

Eventually, they have to come up for air, Touya drawing back and running his thumb over Hawks’ lips, “That’s some mouth you have there, pretty bird.”

“You too, hot stuff,” Hawks manages to pant out (you would think that after four years together, he’d be less giddy whenever Touya flirts with him, but god—the man is so hot. Hawks is just going to count it as a win that he can now at least somewhat coherently flirt back at him).

Touya smirks sinking to his knees and starting to undo Hawks’ belt, “Then allow me to demonstrate.”

Chapter Text

The U.A. sports festival is crowded, with spectators, students, and pro-heroes all milling about. It’s kind of like Shiketsu’s cultural festival, except much more rowdy, with a lot more reporters and just general yelling about who are the favorites for the tournament.

“The lines for food and bathrooms is going to be insane,” Hawks complains, swinging Touya’s hand in his as he uses his feathers to prod some people out of the way in the crowd.

Fuyumi holds up a binder right before a photographer manages to take a picture, “Seriously, you guys are not being subtle at all right now.”

Touya shrugs, “We’re kind of an open secret at this point. I can just dye my hair for undercover work; it’ll be fine.”

(At this point, if anyone asks about rumors of his living together with the eldest Todoroki son, he simply smiles and says, “Touya and I are very close of course, but shall we get back to my heroics?”

“Still, there’s talk that you two have been close since high school?” some reporters have asked, some even pulling up photos of the two of them at Shiketsu, with Hawks guiding Touya through his class’ café, the two of them just talking and laughing, and of course, that shining moment that Hawks managed to nab Touya’s hat during Touya’s graduation ceremony.

“What can I say; I have really good taste,” Hawks usually says with a laugh and a wink.

The reporters tend to laugh and some even ask about his well-known taste in music, which he is happy to expound on, fanboying about K/DA and Trapnest.

“We have heard however that you have been spotted at Black Stone concerts though?” some of the more prying reporters ask, generally flashing up a picture of him and Touya at said concert.

Hawks usually grins, “Well, after all if Ren-san is going out with Nana-san, I feel like it’s not a betrayal for me to go to a Blast concert. Trapnest for life though!”

“Is that an ongoing argument with your—friend?” one reporter asked.

Hawks shrugged as his wings draped to dip across his face, “We have fun arguing about it,” he says truthfully before turning the topic back to his agency.)

Hawks pouts at him, “But then you won’t match me!”

Touya rolls his eyes, “Won’t it match the new look you’ve got going for that fantasy shoot?”

“No one can match you for sheer edgelord-ness,” Hawks replies.

“I don’t know; Shouto says there’s a kid in his class who has a quirk called Dark Shadow. May give you a run for your money there, Touya,” Fuyumi teases.

 “Huh. Will have to keep an eye out for him then,” Touya says, pushing his way through the crowd, “Mahou could be interested.”

“His secondary quirk has something to do with him being a bird though,” Fuyumi notes, reading through the program.

Hawks gasps and looks at Touya, “Dibs! I’m calling dibs!”

“Oh my god, you haven’t even seen the kid yet,” Touya mock-complains, swatting away the wing Hawks is using to poke at his shoulder.

“Birds have to flock together, Touya,” Hawks says half-seriously.

(Really, similar to Touya he thinks, he’d like a 1-A U.A. student to intern so he can ask a few more questions about the League of Villains.

There’s Shouto of course, who has given all the information he can, but a different perspective could be useful.

And yeah, of course he knows that technically, the League of Villains case is not part of his agency’s agenda, but he’d still like to help out Touya as much as he can. Plus—how scummy can you be, targeting high school students? The sooner people like that were locked up, the better.)

“There you guys are!” Natsuo greets them as they walk up the stairs to where Hawks has managed to get them VIP seats (sometimes being a top-ranked pro-hero does come with some perks), “Did you bring us any food?”

“If you’re that hungry, why didn’t you buy your own?” Touya scolds as he takes out one of the bars he has stashed away in his coat and hands it to Natsuo, “When it’s intermission, you can go stand in line for stuff.”

Natsuo takes the bar and unwraps it, “Those crowds are insane though; Hawks-bro, can’t you do it? You’re really good at crowd control.”

Fuyumi swats Natsuo’s arm, “If he goes, he’s going to get mobbed by fans, and none of us will ever get our food, you know that.”

Hawks laughs, “Yeah, might be a little bit of an issue. Plus, if I go, you guys are going to end up with way more fried chicken than you want.”

“One day you’re going to eat enough to turn into one,” Fuyumi says, glancing around, “Did you not bring Yukina-chan, Natsu?”

“She has team practice today,” Natsuo says, taking out his phone and scrolling to a picture of Yukina grinning and throwing up a victory sign, “She wishes the best of luck to Shouto though!”

“That’s very sweet of her,” Touya’s mother says with a smile, “Make sure you treat her well, Natsu.”

“Will do!” he says with a salute, chomping down on the bar.

Touya scans the seats, “Is Honda still off trying to sneak into the U.A. support department?”

“Nah, I’ve given that up,” Honda says, walking up with Rin and Inoue in tow, “They recognize my face. I’ve tried using my hologram disguise device, but still working out the glitches on that.”

“You’ll just have to see what they pull out during the sports festival,” Touya says.

“But they don’t even bring out the costumes for the festival!” Honda complains, sitting down, “What is even the point?”

Rin nods next to Honda, “It does make things much less exciting. And it’s not just costumes—even Support equipment for anyone outside of Support!”

Inoue frowns, sitting next to Rin, “Really? Doesn’t that give an unfair advantage to raw power quirks?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying for years!” Honda says, waving her hands around, “In general, combat related quirks already have an advantage in events like this—that’s why the Shiketsu cultural festival is so much better—but to just stack the deck even further with zero support equipment! And very few team events—this is why our Hawks here has just been tearing through the rankings.”

Hawks gives a slight bow, “Thanks, Honda!”

“Hawks has been working his feathers off, and All Might should watch his back,” Touya says, bumping their shoulders together.

Hawks laughs, throwing at arm around Touya’s shoulders, “Nah, #1 sounds way too stressful. #2 is as high as I will aspire.”

(As long as he can knock Endeavor down, it’s fine.

Really, even as long as he can harry Endeavor and keep him distracted from on all the dirt Touya is gathering on all his government contacts and network of support, that’s fine too.

One day, Endeavor will be exposed for the monster he is just as he should have been before it ever got to the point where Touya’s mom had to cut a deal just to get her and all her children away from him.

He still feels sick at the thought that he could ever have looked up to the man who had caused all the scars on Touya’s arms.)

“This guy,” Touya says fondly, adjusting Hawks’ hat, “You—are the best of them.”

(Hawks can’t even describe how warm the regard Touya holds him in makes him.

He always wants to live up to that standard Touya holds him to and make sure Touya always looks at him like this—like he’s some rare, precious treasure that he had the luck to find.

Like the way he looks at Touya.)

“Oh! It’s starting!” Izuku’s mother exclaims as the giant screens in the stadium come to life and Present Mic’s voice starts blaring over the speakers.

The first contest seems pretty straight-forward with an obstacle course race, but of course U.A. brings in their custom robots that has Honda yelling at them to properly zoom in so she can see better and Izuku’s mother clutches a tissue tearily.

Shouto shows his chops right out of the gate, blasting the giant robot with a massive fireball and then creating a ramp with ice for himself to quickly run up and jump down ahead of the crowd.

“I thought you said he said he wasn’t going to be using fire today?” Hawks asks Touya.

“Against fellow students I guess,” Touya comments, watching as Bakugou goes blasting after Shouto, screaming insults and curses the whole time, “Robots are fair game.”

“Go back to the robots—oh hey, that girl’s equipment looks pretty cool—no, go back to her, who cares about explodey boy!” Honda yells from the stands.

“Go Shouto! Make an ice bridge!” Natsuo cheers.

“Crush the competition!” Fuyumi adds, pumping her fist in the air.

“Hey Hawks, saw you guys come by, thought I’d hop by to say hello—do you mind if I sit here?” Miruko asks, walking up and pointing at the seat next to Fuyumi.

Fuyumi blinks up at Miruko, “Oh—sure.”

Natsuo’s eyes narrow, looking up at Miruko, “Don’t you have your own VIP box?”

“Yeah, but—I left the reservation too long, so—it went to someone else,” Miruko says as she sits down next to Fuyumi, “Hawks said it’d be fine if I came by his though. Plus, your group is so lively!”

“Did he now?” Fuyumi asks, shooting suspicious glance at Hawks.

“You’re welcome as long as you cheer for either Shouto or Izuku-kun,” Touya says, managing to bring up the one topic that would definitely derail Fuyumi (Hawks leans against Touya in thanks).

“Oh yeah, your baby brother is in the lead still, right?” Miruko says, glancing at the screen where the students are now attempting to pick their way through a minefield, “And Izuku-kun—which one is that?”

A giant purple explosion goes off on the screen, and Izuku hurtles forward on a sheet of metal propelled by said explosion past both a wide-eyed Bakugou and Shouto.

“That’s Izuku-kun,” Touya’s mother says after a brief pause while all of them goggled at the screen.

“Izuku!” Izuku’s mother sobs as Izuku manages to nab first place and Bakugou looks about three seconds from attempting to murder him.

Miruko’s ears twitch, “…well, wow! That kid’s impressive!”

“Huh, didn’t expect that, but yeah,” Hawks recovers, “Izuku-kun’s a smart kid; of course he’d turn it around.”

“Shouto’s got his work cut out for him,” Touya smirks.

“Both of them did so well! It’s really—oh wow, a million points, really?” Fuyumi says as the leaderboard flashes with what points every student gets.

Izuku’s mother looks like she’s about to faint, “Oh no—everyone is going to be after him!”

“Shouto will probably take care of him, and I’m sure Izuku-kun has some more ideas up his sleeve,” Touya’s mother comforts her.

“Shouto is such a good boy—but what is he doing?” Izuku’s mom asks as on the screen they see Shouto say something to Izuku and then walk off to talk to a tall boy who on closer inspection, looks like Iida Tenya.

(Geez, even Tenya has grown this big, Hawks is starting to feel old.)

“He did say that Izuku wants to try standing on his own,” Touya comments with a furrowed brow.

“But this is a team event; Shouto should go help Izuku-kun!” Fuyumi complains.

“If Izuku-kun wants to try standing on his own, let him,” Natsuo says, sitting back, “They have to fight against each other eventually anyway.”

“But not right now,” Fuyumi argues, throwing her hands out in frustration as Shouto continues to gather a dark-haired girl (was that the Yaoyorozu heiress?) and a blonde boy.

“I’m sure they’ll both do well since they had your teachings their whole life,” Miruko says, glancing back at Hawks who gives her a thumbs-up.

Touya shoves Hawks’ hand down before Fuyumi turns around, “Well, either ways, it looks like Izuku-kun has managed to pick out a good team,” he gestures to the screen at the brown-haired girl, pink-haired Support girl that Honda is excited about, and a boy with the head of a black-bird.

“Oh my god, I’m filling out the internship request form right now,” Hawks says, pulling out his phone to text Takahiro to immediately find the forms and starting filling them out.

“You haven’t even seen what that kid can do,” Touya points out.

“Doesn’t matter. He’s a bird; he’s sure to be awesome,” Hawks says, getting a confirmation text from Takahiro and sticking his phone back into his jacket.

“Yes, more bird merch!” Natsuo cheers.

Fuyumi groans, “Between Hawks and Fukuroudanai, I don’t know if Yukina-chan understands what she’s getting into.”

“She’s fine with it; she thinks Hawks is pretty cool too!” Natsuo replies with a grin.

“Hawks grows more popular by the day,” Touya’s mother comments, smiling at Hawks before turning to Miruko, “Of course, Miruko-san, you are extremely popular as well! Just the other day, Fuyumi was telling me about how many of her students look up to you.”

Miruko’s chest puffs up with pride, “It’s hard to compete with the ‘man who moves too fast’ over there, but I think I’ve given him a good battle for the rankings.”

“Oh please, if the judges didn’t have weird ideas about what a female hero should be, I’m sure you’d be ranked higher than Hawks,” Fuyumi says, waving a hand.

“Hawks deserves everything he’s worked for,” Touya immediately interjects, eyes narrowed.

“No, no, that’s a fair assessment Touya, come on,” Hawks says, tugging on Touya’s sleeve, “You know the pervs on the hero commission have a thing for fanservice.”

(He knows it’s harder for female heroes in the rankings than male heroes, and besides that—

Yes, he works hard, but he had the help of the hero commission in the first place, who on top of all the training, poured in the money for publicity and the agency.

Without all that—

What is his rank really worth?)

“That’s true, but—you work harder than anyone for your agency—to help people just in general. If they were actually fair, both you and Miruko would be higher,” Touya says seriously, looking Hawks in the eye.

(And shouldn’t he believe him? Doesn’t Touya know him best of anyone after all?)

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Fuyumi huffs, “Hawks has definitely put in all the work for his rank—but really, so has Miruko-san.”

“Aw, thanks, you’re so nice—you can call me Rumi,” Miruko says hastily, beaming.

Fuyumi looks in surprise at Miruko, “…alright, Miruko—Rumi-san.”

Miruko looks in danger of swooning, but thankfully this is when the cavalry battle starts. A lot of people are obviously gunning for Izuku’s team with its million points, Bakugou being the snarling vanguard of the pack, but the Support girl on Izuku’s team has outfitted them with hoverboots that has Honda screeching at the camera-people to focus on while attempting to frantically text Mahou that they need to recruit this girl (“Dabi, help me out here. Mahou’s probably more focused on her future brother-in-law, but look at what that Hatsume is capable of right now! Imagine all she can do in the future!”), the brown-haired girl has them floating effectively, and the bird-boy’s Dark Shadow quirk is pretty impressive.

“The shadow is a bird too!” Hawks says wonderingly as Tokoyami’s Dark Shadow slaps away another kid trying to lunge for their headbands.

“It’s the kid’s shadow; since he’s a bird, it’s a bird,” Touya points out, “Izuku-kun made a pretty good team—ah, Shouto’s trying to ice up Bakugou, guess he is sticking to the no fire against any students. This should be interesting.”

Shouto’s team does seem to be focused on Bakugou, with Tenya providing the momentum for the team to keep charging at the angry boy’s team while Shouto ices the ground all around them. The Yaoyorozu girl has produced ice snow grips for the rest of the team members to strap onto their shoes, and so Shouto’s ploy does seem to be doing a good job of distracting Bakugou’s team from going after Izuku, with that team only managing to keep their balance through a combination of the pink girl producing acid to try and melt the ice around them and the tape boy managing to stick them to various chunks of ice. Another team also comes charging in, with a boy who seems to be able to copy quirks and is also specifically targeting Bakugou, but is also happy to try and take a few swipes at Shouto’s team.

In the end, both Izuku’s and Shouto’s teams, along with Bakugou’s team and a dark horse team headed by someone from General Studies (the copy quirk guy had unfortunately got Bakugou pissed enough to try targeting him instead), manage to hold onto enough points to advance to the next round, and Izuku’s mother is in danger of dehydrating from the sheer number of tears she is shedding.

Thankfully, it’s time for a break, so Natsuo heads off with Honda and her girlfriends to get food and water for everyone while Hawks and Touya decide to head over to the student center to see if they can talk to Shouto before he has to potentially face-off against Izuku.

“Shouto’s definitely going to win against that tape guy, although not sure what that GenStudies guy can do,” Hawks chatters away as he walks by Touya’s side, “Still, Izuku-kun can probably figure out some kind of plan to counter.”

“Some kind of control quirk, I think,” Touya muses, flashing a pass at the U.A. faculty member, “All his teammates for the cavalry battle seemed really out of it.”

“Oh wow, that would be really useful. Mahou’s probably going to pay almost the same amount of attention to that as Tenya-kun’s match,” Hawks comments, looping his arm through Touya’s.

“Yeah, we could use someone like that—Mahou did ask Honda and I to watch out for new recruits since she’s filling in for Iida-san. Although Honda’s probably going to be much more focused on Tenya-kun’s match too since he’s going up against Hatsume,” Touya grumbles.

Hawks sighs, “It’s too bad Iida-san couldn’t make it.”

“Yeah, that business in Hosu is rough,” Touya says, “Still—he has Mahou to give him all the updates. I’m sure she’s texting him that Tenya-kun made it to the finals as we speak.”

“You need to tell them to hurry up and send out their wedding invitations!” Hawks says, poking Touya’s shoulder with his wing, “I already have the perfect gift planned—but every time I bother Mahou about it, she says that they’re still planning.”

“That’s because they literally got engaged just two months ago,” Touya points out.

Hawks sighs dreamily, “It’s so romantic that Iida-san proposed to her on White Day. What’d he say? Something like, ‘I know you don’t really like jewelry, but I was hoping you’d make an exception for this’?”

“You and Jinnai pumped Iida-san for way too much information,” Touya complains, “You knew even before I did that they were engaged!”

“That’s because I’m the matchmaker, and even if Rogue helped Iida-san with figuring out Mahou’s ring size, you know she was never going to breathe a word to you guys,” Hawks says smugly.

(Really though, Hawks probably wouldn’t have known as quickly if he and Jinnai hadn’t gone by Team Idaten headquarters the day after White Day to discuss some speed-based villains they were having issues with, and Iida had shown up, beaming and more than happy to let both of them know what had put him in such a good mood.

After that there was a lot of frantic texting to both Touya and Honda until apparently Fuji finally persuaded Mahou to pull out the heirloom blue diamond ring that Iida had gotten resized and put on a silver chain for Mahou to wear around her neck and tuck into her shirt.

He knows that Touya thinks he’s way too invested in Mahou and Iida’s relationship but—

But when he had been a teenager madly in love with Touya and all of his flirtation ignored, he had taken some solace in watching Iida quietly pursue Mahou and the way she seemed to soften around him.

“Why don’t you just ask her out?” he had asked one time during his internship at Team Idaten after Iida had asked about how Mahou was doing after a training session, “You obviously like her a lot.”

Iida chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, “That obvious huh? Actually—well, back at U.A. I wanted to, but she was busy with school and her part-time job so—and then I was going to at graduation, but—well, she had some family issues, and she took on the black-ops job to provide for them, so—once again far too busy, and then we lost touch for a while. And now—now I guess I’m waiting.”

“For what?”

Iida had smiled ruefully, “Some indication I guess that she wants to get into a relationship at all.”

“And—if she’s never ready? If you’re always waiting?” Hawks had asked because—he had already been sick with longing for Touya for years now, with no end in sight, and he knows that Touya’s mother told him to be patient, and he wants to be and has been, but—but he’d like to know how other people have endured it.

Iida’s smile had softened, “Friendships are not second to relationships, you know. There’s trust and affection there as well. Besides—some people are worth waiting for,” he said firmly.

There really is no one smoother than Iida Tensei.

And if Iida could wait so long and so patiently for Mahou—did Touya deserve any less from him?)

Touya hums, “Well, Rogue did promise some good stories when she gives her maid of honor speech.”

“Ooh, can’t wait,” Hawks grins, “You think that—”

“You disgrace me, Shouto,” a low voice growls out from the hallway.

Hawks feels Touya’s arm heat up, and his hands clench at his side as he barrels down the rest of the hallway, with Hawks in hot pursuit, a handful of feathers already sharpened by instinct.

(There is only one person who would dare say anything like that.)

“You could have crushed the competition into dust if you had used your fire side—grow up,” Endeavor snaps, looming over Shouto, “Stop clinging to your brother’s training like some kind of petulant child. Your duty is to surpass All Might as my greatest creation—”

“I told you to never fucking talk about him that way,” Touya snarls, striding forward and pushing Shouto behind him, “I said next time that you tried, I was going to bury you.”

“And look at what has come of letting you have free reign over Shouto’s training,” Endeavor sneers, looking down at Touya, “A subpar performance overshadowed by All Might’s protégée.”

“Without Touya’s and Hawks’ training, I couldn’t even be in the running for the lead,” Shouto retorts, shoving himself forward, “And—how do you know that Izuku is All Might’s protégée?”

Endeavor’s eyes narrow, “So, you are trying to take after your failure of a brother even in this regard? Chasing after some other pro-hero for dregs of glory and affection—”

“Don’t you dare talk about either of them that way,” Hawks flares, his wings now fully extended and his longest feather in his hand and passing a frost grenade over to Touya (it’s a good thing he always keeps one in his coat), “Everything they have, they have earned.”

(Touya may say that no one works harder than Hawks, but Hawks has seen Touya slave over cases and stakeouts, all to shut away people who have let power get to their heads and prevent more people from becoming victims, and he thinks that Touya could give him a run for his money.

How could he not love a man like that?)

Endeavor turns his head to look at Hawks, “Always hiding behind a witch or a bird, I see,” he says.

“Who’s hiding?” Touya says, gripping the frost grenade so hard that Hawks can see his knuckles turn white.

“Do you seriously expect me to believe that you’re about to fight me here?” Endeavor asks, a sinister smile breaking across his face, “Well—I suppose a demonstration is in order, after all. Shouto, let me show you how it is properly done.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Hawks snaps, tightening his grip on his feather-sword, “The only reason you’re still #2 is because Touya doesn’t want to do popularity contests.”

“Failures are failures,” Endeavor says, his flames burning hotter as he strides forward.

“Says the man who wants my baby brother to accomplish what he couldn’t,” Touya taunts before blasting the frost grenade forward with a burst of blue fire, his sleeve burned away and a sheet of ice encasing Endeavor.

Shouto at the same moment also sends off a blast of ice to further encase Endeavor, and Hawks has sent forth his feathers to make sure to pin Endeavor to the ice surrounding him. Endeavor grimaces and then roars, his flames burning even hotter and enabling himself to wrench himself out of the ice and feathers, only to be confronted with Touya’s blue fire, flickering strong in his hand.

“Back off,” Touya warns.

Endeavor sneers, “I am not like you, fearful of a little fire.”

Touya lets out a short laugh, “That’s because you’re immune. Sadly for you though—not to this,” he says as he lets the blue flames flare up, singing Endeavor’s beard and leaving blisters on his chin.

“Controlled bursts,” Touya explains as Endeavor hisses, “Something I learned on my own.”

“And what do you think to accomplish with these little tricks?” Endeavor asks, his jaw clenching as he tries not to wince, “You can’t even keep it going without immolating.”

“See the beauty of it, is I don’t have to,” Touya says, twitching his fingers threateningly near Endeavor’s face, “Another ‘little trick’ I learned from my partner is which pressure points to hit to turn someone into an unconscious drooling mess. And thanks to mother and ‘the witch,’ I know who to dump your body in front of for maximum exposure and scandal.”

Endeavor glares at Touya, “…what do you want?”

“What I and the rest of my family have always wanted. For you as always to fuck off and let Shouto make his own choices,” Touya says, jabbing his fingers near Endeavor’s neck.

Endeavor flinches back and slowly takes a step back, “You will regret this,” he says, looking at Shouto, “You’ll never reach your full potential without me.”

“I’m willing to take my chances. You heard Touya,” Shouto says coolly, ice frosting up his right hand, “Fuck off.”

Endeavor slowly drags himself away, with one last hateful glance behind him, but Hawks steps in front of Touya and calls out, “By the way, you won’t have to endure the #2 spot for much longer since I’ll be taking it from you soon!”

Endeavor’s mouth twists, “You will never have it—especially with the dead weight clinging to you,” he says, looking contemptuously at Touya.

“Without Touya I would have never gotten this far,” Hawks says honestly.

(Without Touya—

He doesn’t even want to think what he would have had to endure without him.)

“Maybe if you had actually cared for your family the way they deserved, you wouldn’t still be perpetually stuck at #2,” Hawks continues, “Who knows—you would have maybe not become a trashfire shithead.”

Endeavor’s face fills with rage as he takes a step forward, but Hawks has several feathers floating like daggers in the air, Touya is still burning with his blue flames and looks about as sinister as he is deadly (and really, kind of hot—look, whenever he spars with Touya at home, there’s a fifty-fifty chance it’ll eventually end up in a different kind of strenuous activity, so it’s not that weird that he has a few wires crossed there), and ice grows at Shouto’s feet as a warning. Endeavor’s eyes flick between the three of them before he whirls back around and strides away.

When he is finally gone, Touya douses his flames, shirt hanging off him in burned tatters and turns to Shouto, looking him over carefully, “Are you okay?”

Shouto nods, “Yes—sorry about that, Touya-nii.”

“What are you sorry about?” Touya asks, patting him on the shoulder, “If he ever tries that again—ice him and then get me or Hawks, okay?”

“I can handle him,” Shouto insists, looking up at Touya.

Touya shakes his head, “As much as I hate to say it—he is a ranked pro hero for a reason. Get me or Hawks, are we clear?”

“Fine,” Shouto sighs, “But—what does he know about All Might and Izuku?”

“Less than us,” Hawks assures him, taking off his coat and draping it over Touya’s shoulders (as much as he likes ogling Touya, he doubts Touya really wants to put on a show in public. Besides, Touya generally prefers keeping his arms covered, and even if Hawks’ jackets sleeves are a little short on him, it’s better than what he has now), “He’s just guessing, don’t worry about it Shouto. Focus on your next match!”

Shouto takes a deep breath and nods, “…yeah. Yeah, okay, it’s just—how am I going to fight Izuku?”

“Remember that time he convinced the two of you to blow all your allowance money on trying to get that special All Might gachapon, and you guys had to walk all the way back home instead of taking the train?” Touya asks, quirking up an eyebrow and giving a nod of thanks to Hawks as he hands him a tube of the upgraded emergency cooling gel Honda had created, “Just remember that and fight him.”

Hawks pouts at Touya as he gently rubs Touya’s arm, “Do you just remember annoying stuff about me when we spar?”

Touya grins down at Hawks, “I think about lots of things when we spar,” he says smoothly through half-lidded eyes.

(Oh, if only they were alone and somewhere without reporters crawling all over the place, the things they could do—)

Shouto rolls his eyes, “It wasn’t that bad—we got home eventually! You’re not helping, Touya.”

“He wants you to not hold back, right?” Hawks intervenes, “Then don’t.”

“But—I don’t want to hurt him!”

“If you hold back, you are hurting him in a way,” Touya points out, “He’s going to think that you don’t see him as an equal.”

Shouto looks if possible even more horrified at that prospect, “But that’s—I do!”

“Then show it,” Touya says, looking at his brother seriously, “If he gets hurt—that’s what Recovery Girl is for. And if she isn’t enough, Rogue is here too, and I will drag her here as fast as I can.”

“Plus—you can vent a little right?” Hawks supplies, “Maybe let him know how you feel about being ignored all summer and now?”

Shouto scrunches up his face, “During the match?”

“Well, he certainly can’t avoid you there,” Touya says dryly, “In the end—it’s your choice Shouto. However you want to do this, you know we’ll all be cheering for you.”

“Although Fuyumi might scold you, but she’ll still be secretly proud when you win,” Hawks says cheekily, patting Shouto on the head.

Shouto pulls back, scowling and trying to fix his two-toned hair, “I—I’ll think about it.”

“Well, either ways—you’re doing good, Shouto,” Touya says, patting him on the back.

“Making us all proud,” Hawks chimes in, using his wing to muss up Shouto’s hair.

Shouto swats Hawks’ wing away, shuffling in place, “…thanks.”

“It’s almost time for you guys to start again, isn’t it?” Touya asks, checking his watch, “We’ll leave you to it then.”

Shouto nods, looking at both of them, “…I’ll win. I won’t—disgrace either of you.”

“You never could,” Touya says firmly with one last pat on Shouto’s back.

“You’ve always been super OP, and let’s be real, in another decade or so, you’ll probably outpace us,” Hawks adds with a grin, “But I’m definitely going to give you a run for your money until then!”

Shouto sports a small smile, “You’ll have to fight off both me and Izuku then.”

“Bring it on, brats,” Hawks jokes, bringing his palm up and gesturing in.

They all laugh, and Shouto heads off to the competitor arena while Hawks and Touya head back. While walking through the hallways, Hawks looks at Touya carefully, “You alright?”

Touya looks up from where he’s fiddling with the sleeves of Hawks’ jacket, “...yeah? I mean, your coat is too small, but it’s not like I have that many options right now—”

“Not that,” Hawks interrupts, placing a hand on Touya’s arm and rubbing his thumb against the inside of Touya’s wrist, “As good as you look in it—you know what I mean.”

Touya stays silent for a while before sighing and placing a hand against the back of Hawks’ neck and drawing him close, “…I wondered if he would come here. I even talked to mother about it—still didn’t expect him to go and find Shouto though.”

“I think Shouto will be okay—he’s never cared what Endeavor thinks. The thing with Izuku-kun might have knocked him a bit off-balance, but in the end—he’s always had you guys. I just—I know you’re tough Touya, but—” Hawks flaps his wing anxiously at Touya’s side, brushing against Touya’s hair, “But—you don’t have to pretend around me.”

(Touya has always gotten back up after he’s been hit down, and under Mahou’s training and influence he’s also learned to return what was given to him ten times harder, but Hawks can never forget how Endeavor’s letter had once made him shake and the way Endeavor’s words just seem to physically beat Touya down and make him carelessly light himself up.

Touya—has supported him through so many things, how can he not return the favor?)

Touya buries his nose in Hawks’ hair, “…I’m—I’m angry that he would dare—but I don’t want that to ruin Shouto’s day.”

“How would that ruin his day?” Hawks asks, letting his wing curl up at Touya’s side, enfolding them in a more private space.

Touya pauses, breathing in and out before quietly confessing, “...he wants to put Shouto through everything I went through and—and I know we’re just coming up with things, but it has to be better than him—I don’t know. I want to force him to see everything he put us through, to make him feel like we did—I want to rip him to pieces.”

“I get it,” Hawks says, moving his hands up so he can cup Touya’s cheek and turn his face to look him directly in the eye, “And god knows he deserves it—and honestly, I’d like a shot at kicking him off a roof too—but that doesn’t make either of us horrible people, does it? I feel like it’s normal.”

Touya lets out a resigned chuckle while also moving his hand up to tangle in Hawks’ hair, “You—are one of the few who deserve the title of hero. Me on the other hand—”

“You deserve it even more,” Hawks says fiercely, looking up at him, “Who has been shutting down the rise of the yakuza this whole time? Who has cared about all those shady connections some pro-heroes have? Who has made sure that his mother and all his siblings are both well provided and well cared for this entire time? Who rescued a boy no one cared about?”

(Anytime anyone asks, he says that his favorite hero is Present Mic, but really—

Really it’s been Touya since that day he let him stay over at his own crowded apartment and gave him a home.)

Touya’s eyes soften, and he quickly glances around the empty hallway before softly kissing Hawks, “What would I do without you?” he asks, pressing their foreheads together, his question a quiet breath against Hawks’ lips.

“You’ll never have to find out,” Hawks echoes back to him, pressing their mouths back together.

(He wishes that there was some way for him to completely convey to Touya how much he means to him, but everything he says seems to pale in comparison to everything Touya is, and so all he can do is hold him close and yell down anyone who somehow thinks that Touya isn’t the best thing that has ever happened to him.

Touya chose him when he could have had pretty much anyone else.)

Touya pulls back eventually, although not before sucking a mark onto Hawks’ neck (in a previous life, Hawks is pretty sure Touya was a vampire or something, which would explain why he’s such an edgelord), “We better head back,” he says, running his fingers over the Hawks’ neck, “We’re going to get noticed.”

“If you were that worried about that, why even bother sucking on my neck,” Hawks mock complains as he pulls up the collar of his turtleneck, his feathers fluttering around them.

Touya smirks at him, running his hands down Hawks’ bare arms, “With you looking like that, maybe I want to remind everyone you’re taken.”

“Baby, you’re wearing my coat,” Hawks reminds him, licking his lips, “I’m very taken.”

Touya fiddles with the fluffy collar of Hawks’ coat, flashing a tantalizing hint of pale collarbone before Hawks’ eyes, “Your boyfriend is a very lucky man,” he says with a smile from lowered lids.

“I’m the lucky one,” Hawks insists, looping his arm through Touya’s, “Although—I think I am soon to be scolded by my in-laws for waylaying you for so long.”

Touya laughs, leading them back to their seats, “It’ll be fine, no one will blame you.”

“You guys took so long we barely managed to hold back Natsu from eating your share!” Fuyumi complains looking up and holding out small cardboard boats of chicken katsudon and yakisoba, “And really—what happened to your shirt, Touya?”

“Did you get in a duel with a really gung-ho Hawks stan?” Honda asks, getting up eagerly and poking and the cooling gel on Touya’s arms, “How’d the cooling gel hold up?”

“Pretty well, and—something like that,” Touya says, batting Honda’s fingers away and attempting to pull the too short sleeves down.

Touya’s mother looks over at him, “…everything alright?” she asks with a furrowed brow, gray eyes darting from the reddened skin at Touya’s wrists and the burned bits of his shirt still caught on Hawks’ jacket.

“All trash taken care of,” Touya says easily, sitting down, “We’re good.”

Touya’s mother looks from Touya to Hawks’ wings and then nods slowly, “…alright. If you’re sure.”

Hawks smiles reassuringly at Touya’s mother as he sits down next to Touya, “Do you think I would allow anything bad to happen on my watch?”

Touya’s mother smiles back, patting Hawks on the head, “I know that I can trust you, Hawks.”

(He is still amazed sometimes, at the faith and care Touya’s mother has for him.

After all, he knows that even with the stipend that the hero commission provided, it was a lot of work to take on yet another kid, and this one not even related to her in any way, unwanted even by his own parents.

And yet—Touya’s mother has always made him feel welcome from the start, from leaving aside an extra portion of breakfast when she had first learned that Touya was having him over and money had still been tight, fighting with the hero commission about his training, and always willing to patiently listen to anything he wanted to talk about.

All she had ever asked for from him was to not wind up Fuyumi too much, to restrain Natsu from throwing around his volleyball inside, to maybe teach Shouto that sword training should never be done inside the house, and patience for her eldest son.

“I’ve already gotten the shovel speech from Fuyumi,” he had said one time after he and Touya had finally gotten together, “Do you want to give one too?”

“Hawks, there is no one I would trust more with Touya,” Touyas mother had said warmly, clasping his hands in hers, “I am delighted for the two of you.”

“I will try to do my best to make Touya very happy and to keep him safe,” Hawks had promised.

“I know you will,” Touya’s mother had said, kissing the top of his head, “You already have after all.”

It’s probably still going to be some years before his plan to buy a ryokan for Touya’s mother pans out, but Touya has set up a whole savings plan and everything, and they’re getting there.)

“Oh, it’s starting again!” Izuku’s mother exclaims as the students start walking onto the field again and Present Mic starts yelling his commentary.

Izuku goes first, against the dark horse from GenEd, and neither he or Touya or anyone else in their group can figure out how Izuku managed to shrug off the purple-haired boys’ mind-control quirk.

“Didn’t you say he had a strength-based quirk?” Miruko asks, tilting her head in puzzlement as Izuku shoves Shinsou Hitoshi out of the ring.

“Yeah, I thought it was?” Hawks replies, glancing at Izuku’s mother seems just as confused as all of them, “Maybe that Shinsou kid’s quirk has edge cases we don’t know about?”

“There has to be more to it than that,” Touya says, hand on his chin and looking intently at Izuku, “If there were weird edge cases, that kid seems like the kind to have covered for it. No—I think Izuku-kun lucked out.”

“You think he’s suddenly unlocked another quirk?” Hawks stares at Touya (Shouto was already unusual enough with two quirks, and that had been after Touya’s mother had already borne three other children).

“If anyone could do it, it’s certainly Izuku-kun,” Fuyumi comments proudly.

“If he has weird telepathy powers now too, do you think I could ask him to read my biology prof’s mind and tell me how to best get her to write me a rec letter?” Natsuo asks.

“Just go to her office hours and ask good questions,” Fuyumi says, flicking Natsuo in the head.

Whatever Izuku’s quirk is, Hawks is betting that that display also unnerved Shouto (either that or he’s still angry from their confrontation with Endeavor) because the boy unleashes a fucking glacier against his opponent as his first move.

“Overkill,” grumbles Touya as he helps his brother melt the ice, “Should save some effort for your next few matches.”

“You better not try this on Izuku-kun, Shouto,” Fuyumi scolds, gesturing at Izuku’s mother who is goggling at the glacier, “You’ll give Midoriya-san a heart attack!”

“…it is a tournament,” Shouto points out, “I’ll try my best but—”

“Fuyumi, stop guilt-tripping Shouto,” Natsuo interrupts, patting Shouto on the shoulder, “They have someone with a healing quirk, and besides—Izuku-kun’s going to be mad if Shouto pulls his punches.”

Fuyumi mutters something under her breath that sounds suspiciously like, “Boys and their dick measuring contests” and makes Miruko laugh.

“Well anyway, maybe don’t ice up the ring this much next time, Shouto,” Hawks says with a grin, “I’m not sure their stadium can take much more. And plus—Touya will for sure make you do laps.”

“Laps? He’s going to be doing push-ups and then trying to do that ice and glide thing until the stadium is fixed if he tries it again,” Touya warns as the last of the ice finally melts away.

“I’m not about to throw a glacier at Izuku,” Shouto says seriously.

Fuyumi nods approvingly, “Good—”

“He’d probably break all of his limbs clawing his way out of it,” Shouto continues, “I’ll try something else.”

 Izuku’s mother takes a shuddering breath and another tissue, blows her nose, and says slowly, “…Izuku—always tries his very hardest on everything. He would be disappointed if his best friend did not do the same, Shouto-kun.”

Shouto nods, his hands tightening on the rail in front of him, “I know. I’m just not sure if—do we still count as friends?”

Izuku’s mother’s eyes widen, “Of course you two are! The first thing he asked me when he finally got home from the U.A. entrance exam was if you had gotten first on yours. And he always so appreciates the chocolates you give him on his birthday—he keeps the boxes and cards you gave him in the same box as his autograph from All Might.”

(Izuku had been so happy that one time Shouto had given him handmade All Might chocolates for his birthday that ever since then, Shouto has made them every year.

Slight correction, Touya has helped Shouto make them every year, because Shouto is somehow even more of a disaster in the kitchen than Hawks is.

And it is true that this year, even despite Izuku ghosting them all summer long, on his birthday he had still blushed and stammered as Shouto had handed him his usual present.

“I—Shouchan, aren’t we a little too old for this now?” Izuku had asked, taking the box and peeking up at Shouto.

Shouto frowned, “You—do you not want them anymore?”

“No, no, I want them!” Izuku hastily reassured Shouto, clutching the box to his chest, “It’s just—it’s just—you should only give chocolates if you want to, Shouchan.”

“I want to,” Shouto pointed out, still frowning and biting his lip, “Do you—doubt that?”

Natsuo had unfortunately barged in at that point and interrupted the entire situation, and Hawks agrees with Touya that really, the two of them need to talk it out.

After all, he doesn’t want his record of pining over a Todoroki boy for eight years to be broken.)

Shouto’s eyes widen, and his cheeks flush, “I—I need to get back downstairs.”

Touya pats Shouto on the back, “Go get him, Shouto,” he says dryly.

The next few matches are interesting, with the Support girl basically turning her match against Iida’s little brother into a fifteen minute advertisement (Honda is frantically texting Mahou the whole time while salivating over the girl’s inventions while Touya points out that someone like that definitely wants to work for a high profile firm), Tokoyami wins his match against the Yaoyorozu heiress with ease (and Takahiro finally texts Hawks back to say that the internship offer letter is now just awaiting his signature), and Bakugou’s match against Izuku’s new friend sadly results in a win for Bakugou, although Miruko seemed more interested in that match than any of the others.

“That girl’s got grit,” she declares as Uraraka is carted out, “Just needs some more training—then I think she could be a menace.”

“You’re actually thinking about taking on an intern without your manager arranging it?” Hawks asks, nudging her shoulder with a feather, “Never thought I’d see the day.”

“If that girl had a few more moves under her belt, she could have destroyed that explodey kid,” Miruko argues, leaning back, “Besides—I bet with her around I could jump even higher.”

“That would be pretty impressive,” Fuyumi muses out loud, looking at Miruko.

Miruko is lucky that her skin is dark because Hawks is pretty sure that otherwise she would be as red as a tomato. As it is, she simply looks a little flushed, “I—I’m glad you think so!” she squeaks (squeaks, when has Hawks ever seen Miruko squeak) out.

Hawks sees Touya’s mother give Miruko an amused look before Present Mic’s voice blares out again, and Shouto and Izuku walk back into the ring.

Izuku looks somewhere between miserable and determined while Shouto has that blank face on that Hawks knows means he’s upset.

Touya leans forward, watching them intently, “He’s still going to start with ice,” he says as Shouto steps forward and ices the entire field, following that up with an ice wall to attempt to push Izuku out of the ring.

Izuku however seems to have been anticipating this and jumps back and flicks out one of his fingers and—

Shouto’s ice wall explodes into shards around him, and at the same time it’s pretty obvious that Izuku’s finger is now broken. However, Izuku still just rushes forward, gritting his teeth, and Shouto actually has to fling up another ice wall before Izuku can push him out of the ring.

“That really is some backlash,” Hawks comments as Izuku breaks yet another finger to break that ice wall, “Is that…normal?”

“Maybe if his body hasn’t been trained fully for his quirk yet,” Inoue suggests, “It’s why I have to lift weights daily.”

“Didn’t he clean up that entire beach by himself over the summer?” Natsuo asks with a frown as Shouto changes tactics and tries to just ice up the ground to get Izuku to trip and fall, except Izuku seems to be able to anticipate where Shouto is sending the ice and dodges away.

Inoue shrugs, “Maybe that’s still not enough yet.”

“But how—how powerful is his quirk then?” Fuyumi asks, wincing as Izuku breaks another finger demolishing another wave of ice Shouto tries sending his way.

“I’m not sure?” Inoue says, turning to Honda and Rin, “Can you two see anything?”

Honda purses her lips, “Well—I mean the fact that he’s just smashing up Shouto-kun’s icebergs with only his fingers says a lot. He’s really strong—not sure what would happen if he had better control and went all out.”

“They really should have let him use some Support equipment,” Rin says, putting her hand over her mouth as now all the fingers on Izuku’s right hand are broken, “This is just—inhumane.”

“That’s Plus Ultra for you,” Touya says with a sneer.

(Hawks has never been so happy to have gone to Shiketsu instead.)

“How have they been training them?” Hawks demands as Izuku starts breaking the fingers on his left hand, “This is really—Rin-chan is right; didn’t that kid with the stomach laser earlier have some kind of Support equipment?”

Fuyumi stands up as Izuku runs out of fingers and starts using his broken fingers again (does the kid have some kind of secondary pain resistance quirk?), “Where’s the ref—it’s Midnight, right? I’m going to go put a stop to this; this is really just unacceptable.”

(Given the storm of a woman Fuyumi is when provoked, Hawks is pretty sure she’ll get it done, and honestly, Hawks hopes she does soon, because this match is just getting gruesome.

No wonder Touya never wanted to watch this festival.)

“I’ll go with you!” Miruko says, standing up as well.

As Fuyumi and Miruko are hurrying down, Izuku is yelling at Shouto.

“Stop holding back!”

Shouto grimaces and blocks another wind attack from Izuku once again using one of his broken fingers with a wall of ice, “I’m not.”

“You are!” Izuku yells, clenching his fists somehow, “I’m not—I’m not someone you have to protect or pity anymore, Shouchan, so fight me!”

Shouto’s eyes narrow, “When have I ever pitied you?”

Izuku seems to falter, “You—you don’t have to take care of me anymore, Shouchan—I know that it has been hard over the years being my friend—but I can stand on my own now!”

“Is that why you haven’t been talking to me?” Shouto demands, not bothering to attack and just standing there as his voice gets steadily louder, “You think—you think what, that the only reason I’ve been friends with you is because I feel sorry for you?”

“No, I—but why are you holding back?”

“Because you’re my best friend,” Shouto bursts out, “And—and I’m mad that you haven’t talked to me for months, and if I go all out—I don’t want to take that out on you!”

Izuku gapes at Shouto, arms hanging limply at his side, “You—”

“Talk about your feelings somewhere else you fucking nerds!” Bakugou yells at them from the stands, “Fucking fight!”

“Language, Katsuki-kun!” they can hear Fuyumi yelling from the referee box.

Izuku takes a deep breath and looks back at Shouto, “We—I will definitely talk to you after this match Shouchan, I promise. But—can you please respect me enough to face me as an equal?”

Shouto stops glaring at Bakugou to look at Izuku and slowly nods, “…alright,” he says as his flames ignite his left side, “Let’s finish this then.”

Izuku grins (how he is doing that despite his arms looking completely busted, Hawks isn’t sure. Izuku had always been good at endurance training, he guesses, but this—

Touya would have murdered anyone that would have dared to push Izuku this hard during training.

Hell, Hawks would have been tempted to punt someone out a window for that).

Before Fuyumi can yell at them more, the two teenagers are already charging at each other, Shouto a blaze of red flame and Izuku a gale of wind. Shouto launches a wave of ice more massive than he has before (he’s got to be running on fumes at this point), while Izuku jumps impossibly high in the air to dodge it and fracture another finger again to launch a giant gust of wind at Shouto. Cementoss throws up a wall between the boys (looks like Fuyumi has finally persuaded them, or it’s gone too far even for them), but Shouto sends out a spark of fire (oh no) at the same time Izuku just jumps over the wall to launch another attack, and the resulting explosion rattles the entire stadium.

Hawks flies up into the air to get a better view and to try and use his feathers to clear up the smoke (Touya has a point that Izuku’s influence on Shouto is a little—Shouto always goes overkill when Izuku is involved), and after a few minutes, he sees Shouto standing at the edge of the ring, sports uniform a mess, panting and squinting through the smoke, and Izuku sprawled outside of the ring unconscious.

Midnight is announcing Shouto’s victory, but both Shouto and Fuyumi are ignoring her and frantically scrambling over to Izuku’s side, and Hawks swoops down to also take a closer look.

Both Shouto and Fuyumi are arguing with Midnight by the time he gets down there while Izuku is being loaded onto a stretcher.

“It shouldn’t count as my win!” Shouto is saying, hands clutched at his side, “Izuku was the one who was actually fighting, while I—”

“You should have never have let the match even get this far!” Fuyumi is scolding, finger pointed at Midnight, “What happens if there’s any permanent damage to Izuku-kun?

Midnight held her hands up, “We were monitoring the match very closely, and we intervened exactly when we thought it was necessary—”

“But that didn’t even work!” Fuyumi barrels over Midnight, “I have half a mind to report this competition to—”

“Deku clearly wanted to keep going, and we are following U.A. regulations—”

“You can take your U.A. regulations and—” Fuyumi clicks her jaw shut and crosses her arms, glaring at Midnight and Cementoss, “Someone needs to teach Izuku-kun to use his powers properly.”

Midnight nods, looking up into the teacher stands, “We can agree on that at least.”

Hawks lands as the stretcher with Izuku in it is being carted away, “Hey, come on Shouto; you could probably use some healing too.”

“Izuku deserved that win!” Shouto insists, turning to Hawks.

“Last one standing, remember?” Hawks says, pushing him towards the medical ward, “Besides—haven’t we already learned that Izuku isn’t going to like it if you just try to give things to him?”

“But for sheer effort—”

“Results in the end do matter, Shouto,” Hawks says before patting him on his back, “Look—he had an impressive showing. Someone will definitely give him an internship offer.”

(Although—

Pretty freaky determination right there.)

Touya has by this time also made his way down and has also caught up to them, “Hey Shouto—how are you feeling?”

“Better than Izuku,” Shouto mumbles, hunching over a bit.

“I bet,” Touya says dryly, “I don’t know how he was standing by the end—still—you’re not overheated? Or any frostbite—”

“I’m fine,” Shouto insists, walking faster towards the medical area, “Just—I want to see Izuku.”

“Yeah you do,” Touya sighs, patting him on the head, “We’ll just be outside.”

Shouto nods as he enters the room while Hawks plucks at Touya’s sleeve, “Are we seriously just going to wait outside?”

Touya raises an eyebrow, “You want to eavesdrop on them?”

“How else are we going to know what they’re saying?” Hawks whines.

“We could just give them some privacy and let Shouto tell us later,” Touya says, allowing Hawks to pull him forward.

“Shouto won’t tell us everything, and besides, where’s the fun in that?” Hawks asks, carefully inching open the hospital door.

“This is like Mahou and Iida-san all over again,” Touya grumbles, but helps Hawks carefully position them so that they are unseen but can still see and hear clearly.

(Hawks definitely doesn’t want to miss what has to be an epic confession between Shouto and Izuku.)

Recovery Girl has already left, and Shouto waits patiently at Izuku’s bedside (at some point, if Izuku still hasn’t woken up yet, they’re going to have to hurry Shouto out for his next match—in fact, they’re probably missing Tenya’s and Tokoyami’s matches right now, but this is more important).

Gradually, Izuku stirs and opens his eyes, “Shouchan?”

“Hey—how are you feeling?”

Izuku gives a trembling grin, “Like—like I went a round with you all out and lost.”

Shouto looks at him carefully, “You—wanted me to go all out.”

“Yeah,” Izuku nods, looking down, “Thank you for that.”

“You know that—I’ve never looked down on you, right?” Shouto asks, words tumbling out of his mouth, “I have always—I’m sorry if I have stifled you in any way, but I—I truly did not do it because I pity you or anything like that.”

“I know,” Izuku says, looking back up at Shouto, “I just—I finally got a quirk Shouchan, but—I couldn’t share it with you, and you—you looked so unhappy.”

“Because you were avoiding me!” Shouto says, “I didn’t—I was so happy that you got a quirk, but then you just basically disappeared!”

“I—I had to—” Izuku took a deep breath, “I—there’s some things I can’t tell you Shouchan, because it’s not my place to tell—and I made a promise. But—I didn’t want to avoid you—I really missed you—but I thought that—you would look at me and figure it out.”

Shouto frowns, “Figure out what?”

Izuku starts fiddling with the blanket across his legs, “Figure out that—my quirk—”

“Is—is All Might actually your dad?” Shouto asks wide-eyed as Touya puts his head in his hands and Hawks tries to stifle a snort (oh man, Shouto).

Izuku’s eyes grow wide as he sputters and waves his hands around, “What? No, of course not! I mean—that’s not—you’ve seen pictures of my dad!”

Shouto crosses his arms, “All Might has been paying a lot of attention to you though. You were even apologizing to him in your sleep.”

Izuku pales, “What—what did I say?”

“You said you were sorry that you couldn’t meet his expectations and you were asking his forgiveness,” Shouto says.

“I—could you not tell anyone about that, Shouchan,” Izuku says earnestly.

“That you’re All Might’s love child?”

“No! I’m not, seriously!” Izuku yelps, “Just—look, there’s things I can’t say, but—but Shouchan, let’s just say that—this quirk was a gift, and I am still trying to make it my own. I—I want to save people and be the best.”

“I know,” Shouto says, “You have always—wanted to save people. And I—I have always admired that about you.”

“Come on, Shouto,” Hawks mutters, “Confess already!”

“Shhh,” Touya hushes him, elbowing him in the side, “He’s not going to say anything if he knows we’re here.”

“I—” Izuku takes a deep breath before looking at Shouto, “You—always?”

“Of course,” Shouto says, tilting his head, “Did you—did you doubt that?”

Izuku plucks at his blanket, “You have always—people really like you, Shouchan. They really, really like you. As they should obviously—you’re awesome. But—you had to protect me for so long, Shouchan.”

“So what?” Shouto demands, “You also defended me, and led us when helping others and all our other adventures, and—why in the world would I not admire you?”

Izuku flushes, “You—Shouchan, you’re—I really—it’s good talking to you again.”

Shouto smiles, “Yes, it really is. I’m glad—I’ve really missed you.”

Izuku smiles back at Shouto, “So have I. But—but you like our new classmates, right?”

“They’re fine although I could have done without our old one,” Shouto says seriously.

Izuku chuckles fondly, “Kachan is—Kachan. Shouchan is as popular as ever.”

“You’re pretty popular too,” Shouto points out, “Iida and Uraraka both like you a lot, and most of the class likes you too.”

“Not the way they like you,” Izuku says wryly.

Shouto’s brow furrows, “How do they like me?”

“You—people have been confessing to you since we were ten, Shouchan,” Izuku says.

Shouto shrugs, “So what? They don’t even know me, and—it’s weird.”

“So you have—never liked anyone, Shouchan?” Izuku asks.

Shouto shuffles in place, “I—I didn’t say that.”

“Oh,” Izuku looks down, “I’m sure—they’re very nice if you like them.”

“Come on, come on, come on,” Hawks breathes as Touya rolls his eyes and slaps a hand over his mouth.

(So close—they can’t let this bullshit misunderstanding get in their way!)

“…he is very nice,” Shouto says steadily although Hawks can see the sudden stiffness in the way Shouto is holding himself, “He’s also—so kind. And so brave—the bravest person I know. Even—even without a quirk—he was brilliant. And with one—no matter exactly what the situation is, I have no doubt that he will make it his own.”

Izuku stares at Shouto with wide eyes, “You—what? It’s—are you talking about—me?”

“Who else would I be talking about?” Shouto asks, his face as red as his hair.

“You have so many fans!” Izuku practically wails.

“I didn’t ask for them, and I told you before, it’s just weird!” Shouto says, “The only one I have ever had feelings like that for is you!”

(Hawks kind of wants to cheer, but that would tip them off that both him and Touya are glued to the door and watching them at this point. Plus, Izuku hasn’t really said anything yet.)

Shouto bites his lip, looking down, “If—if that makes you uncomfortable—”

“No! I—I—” Izuku is about as equally red as Shouto now, “I—I also—Ialsoreallylikeyou!”

Shouto’s head snaps up, “You—you do?”

“How is that a surprise?” Izuku demands, covering his blushing face with his hands, “You’re—you’re so amazing, Shouchan—you’re so cool, and you’re—you’re really attractive!”

“I—I’m really not—well—you avoiding me for all of summer and most of this semester didn’t give me much to go on,” Shouto says, and Touya has to stifle a snort.

Izuku hangs his head, “I—yeah, I’m sorry, Shouchan. I’ll keep apologizing until—how do you want me to make it up to you?”

“Go on a date with me,” Shouto rushes out, “Like—like to a café or—or an arcade or a convention or something.”

“Yes! Of course!” Izuku nods frantically, trying to get out of the bed but wincing.

Shouto rushes forward, placing a hand on Izuku’s shoulder, “Don’t strain yourself,” he scolds.

“Yes, I’m just—I’m just really happy right now,” Izuku says, beaming up at Shouto.

Shouto smiles back at Izuku, and Touya tugs Hawks away.

“Let’s give them some privacy now, and knock on the door in like five minutes,” Touya says, his mouth twitching with a smile he can’t quite hide.

“Sooo, I vote we give them a gift basket of condoms,” Hawks suggests with a grin.

Touya makes a face, “They’re fifteen.”

“For when they’re older! And anyway Touya—when I was fifteen, I would have been more than happy for you to have shown up with a bunch of condoms,” Hawks says.

Touya snorts, running a hand through Hawks’ hair, “Would you have even known what to do with one?”

(And that is a sadly accurate question, given how even on the day Touya finally kissed him and let Hawks take him to bed, Hawks couldn’t even get the condom wrapper open because of how badly his hands had been shaking.

He had just—

He had been imagining this for so long, and for it to be finally happening—

It was kind of overwhelming.

Touya had wrapped his shaking hands with his own, drawing him into another heated kiss, and while Touya’s hands were also lightly trembling, they still managed to help him get the wrapper open.)

“Hey, Midnight gave a very thorough lesson with bananas,” Hawks says, “Wait—Midnight’s teaching at U.A. now, right? Do you think we should ask her to give that class to Izuku and Shouto—”

“She’s probably already planning on giving it, and we’ll find out when Shouto comes home and starts asking questions, and somehow it’ll still be me traumatized,” Touya shudders.

“Hey, hey, we managed to put good use to those lessons eventually,” Hawks says, grinning up at Touya while rubbing the inside of Touya’s wrist peeking out of Hawks’ jacket.

Touya’s eyes go a bit dark, “Oh, I remember,” he says, his voice now low and sultry, moving closer to Hawks before checking his watch, “But we better get Shouto back on the field; the next match is soon.”

“He’s going to grind his opponents to dust with the power of love,” Hawks laughs, “Poor Tenya-kun—Bakugou is going to deserve it though.”

Touya shrugs, walking towards the door, “If he talks that big he better be able to back it up. Shouto! Hate to interrupt, but you’re nearly up!”

There’s some muffled scrambling sounds before Shouto opens the door, his hair a mess and pretty flushed, “Yeah, I—I’ll be right out!”

“Good,” Touya says before craning his head to look at Izuku from beyond Shouto’s shoulder, “And you—we’ve known you for a long time, Izuku-kun, but you make Shouto this upset again, we’re going to have words, understand?”

“Y—yes, Touya-niisan!” Izuku stutters out.

Shouto glares at Touya, “Stop scaring Izuku.”

Touya snorts, crossing his arms, “Who had to deal with your bad mood when he ghosted you? Definitely wasn’t him.”

“Your brother just wants the best for you, Shouto,” Hawks says, coming up and placing a hand on Touya’s shoulder while leaning against his side, “But seriously, Izuku-kun—you have a disagreement with Shouto, you guys talk it out okay? You pull a stunt like this again—Touya’s not the only one who’s going to be mad.”

(It’s not cool to do that to Todoroki boys that already have a hard enough time figuring out emotions and feelings.)

Izuku nods frantically, “Understood, Hawks-niisan!”

“You guys are the worst,” Shouto mutters, pushing past both of them to walk down the hallway.

“Um—good luck, Shouchan!” Izuku calls out, red-cheeked, “I’ll be out as soon as I can to watch!”

Shouto turns back to give Izuku a soft smile, “Thanks,” he says simply.

Hawks doesn’t bother to restrain his coo (they are adorable), “Young love,” he sighs.

Touya rolls his eyes, “As if we’re old. If you don’t hurry up Shouto, Tenya-kun is going to win by default.”

Shouto rolls his eyes back at Touya (Shouto really is the one who resembles Touya the most) before heading off with one last smile and wave to Izuku.

Touya and Hawks follow more slowly behind, Hawks curling his arm through Touya’s.

“So I think this means I’m six for six,” Hawks says smugly.

Touya gives him a fond look, “You didn’t even do anything—how is this supposed to count?”

“What, all my counseling doesn’t count?” Hawks demands, jabbing his wing at Touya’s back.

“If that was the case, then I should be included,” Touya points out.

“You definitely can be,” Hawks says with a shrug, “We can be a matchmaking duo!”

“Pass,” Touya says flatly, “Hard pass. I’m leaving it all to you.”

Hawks laughs, “Guess I’ll just have to fangirl with Fuyumi. You don’t have any interest in romance stories, Touya!”

“Well—being part of our romance is enough for me,” Touya says, curling a hand through the feathers of Hawks’ right wing, “Who could compare to us?”

(This guy, really.

But—he isn’t wrong.)

Hawks buries his head into the crook of Touya’s neck, “You don’t even watch or read romances, how did you get so smooth?” he mock-complains.

“What can I say? You inspire me, pretty bird,” Touya smirks at him before cupping Hawks’ face in his hands and kissing him.

(He loves this man so, so much.)

Eventually they break apart as they hear Present Mic announcing the start of the rest of the matches, and when they make their way back up to the stands, Fuyumi pumps Hawks for details on what happened between Shouto and Izuku.

“He seems—much more focused,” Fuyumi says, gesturing as Shouto makes quick work of freezing Tenya’s engines and then blasting him out of the ring with a controlled burst of fire (oh man—still, Tenya-kun is still in the final four, so Mahou and Iida are probably still pleased).

“And Izuku-kun up there looks moony,” Natsuo comments, pointing at the screen that had panned over the reactions of class 1-A.

“Let’s just say that Natsu is not the one who most recently got into a relationship anymore,” Hawks says with a big grin.

Fuyumi gasps while Natsuo whoops and both their mother and Izuku’s mother turn around to look at them.

“Oh my god! That’s so cute!” Fuyumi squeals.

“Shouto is definitely going to get first now,” Natsuo comments.

“I—Izuku finally confessed to Shouto-kun?” Izuku’s mother squeaks out before promptly bursting into tears, “Oh—I’m so happy for him!”

“We are very happy as well,” Touya’s mother says serenely as she pats Izuku’s mother on the back and hands her some more tissues, “I’m glad they worked everything out.”

“I’m glad he got it together faster than Dabi and Hawks,” Honda laughs.

“Okay, hey, they had my help!” Hawks squawks.

“Sure, sure,” Honda says with a grin, “I’m sure it also helped having you two oblivious love birds as an example.”

Hawks mock-gasps, lifting a hand to cover his mouth, “Like you were much better! You didn’t even notice Rin-chan having a crush on you! Touya said you basically stalked Inoue for months like a creeper!”

“Okay, so maybe I didn’t pick up some hints, and maybe I hung around the training room a lot, but at least I didn’t live with either of them for nearly a decade before confessing,” Honda replies.

Fuyumi nods, “You’ve got to face it, Hawks. No one can beat you or Touya in sheer dumb obliviousness.”

“You say that, but neither Hawks nor I tried passing off homemade chocolate to each other as normal friendly birthday gifts,” Touya interjects.

“Wait, when did you two get together again?” Miruko asks, looking between Hawks and Touya, “I thought you were childhood sweethearts.”

“Honestly, me and Shouto just assumed they were together since like middle school,” Natsuo says wryly.

“I mean, they basically were,” Honda says.

“Except for Hawks always complaining to me about how none of his flirting with Touya was working,” Fuyumi complains.

(To be fair, Hawks acknowledges that probably the person happiest after him and Touya getting together was Fuyumi just because she no longer had to listen to his litany of complaints about how Touya was either amazingly oblivious or just was never going to see him as a viable love interest.

He had had to buy her so much Ahri merch over the years to make up for her long suffering sighs.)

Touya tucks Hawks into his side, “Well—everything worked out fine for us, and everything’s going to work out fine for Shouto and Izuku-kun, so let’s just enjoy Shouto beating Bakugou and taking first.”

And they do, with Shouto blasting Bakugou out of the ring with a combination of an ice wall and then throwing a pillar of flame into him before he could scramble out of the glacier. Shouto takes first, Bakugou second and looking as though he’s five seconds away from throwing the silver medal at Shouto’s face, and Tokoyami at third (Tenya is oddly missing).

Izuku walks up slowly to Shouto, and Shouto wastes no time hurrying off the podium to smile at Izuku. Izuku beams at him adoringly, and he barely has a chance to congratulate Shouto before Fuyumi and Natsuo descend upon Shouto to tease him.

Touya also strides over to his baby brother with a grin, so Hawks takes the chance to corner the other boy involved with a Todoroki guy.

“Well, looks like in the end you didn’t need my advice about landing a Todoroki boy,” Hawks says, throwing an arm around Izuku, “Although my first piece was going to be that growing up with one helps.”

Izuku blushes, “I—I’m really—I can’t believe that Shouchan likes me,” he confesses quietly.

Hawks laughs, “He’s always liked you, Izuku-kun. You’ve always been his favorite.”

(As Touya has been Hawks’.)

“So don’t mess it up, okay?” Hawks says, poking Izuku’s side lightly with one of his wings.

Izuku looks up at Hawks seriously and nods, “I won’t. I promise.”

“That’s all we could ask for,” Touya says, walking over and adjusting the hat on Hawks’ head, “Now come on, we have to go celebrate properly.”

Hawks grins as he takes Touya’s hand.

(Six for six, Shouto winning first, and his most important person and his family at his side.

What more could he ask for?)

Chapter Text

Fuyumi slams the door shut, slings her bag to the floor, and collapses on her bed, dragging a pillow over to hug against her chest. It had been an absolutely miserable day, what with flu season going around the elementary school she was interning at, Sonomi having to bail on a manga-ka signing they had planned to attend because her library job forced her to take over someone else’s shift, and the massive fight she had had with Touya about whether or not to release all the information he had on their father’s crimes now that after the Kamino Ward incident, by default the #1 hero position has gone to Endeavor.  

“This is the perfect time,” Touya had hissed out, “All the media attention is on him, so anything we reveal now will be all over the airwaves in no time, and that bastard will have a long way to fall—”

“And then what?” Fuyumi had demanded, “Is Hawks now supposed to be our new Symbol of Hope—”

“He sure as hell would be a lot better than our dear father,” Touya spat out, “Hawks could definitely do it—”

“I’m sure he could, but having two Symbols of Hope toppled in less than a month? The public morale will plummet—”

“They’ll get over it,” Touya said dismissively.

 “—and do you really want that shadowing Hawks everywhere he goes?” Fuyumi had continued.

Touya paused (Touya may sneer at the reputation and rankings of pro-heroes, but when it’s Hawks’ on the line, that’s always been a completely different story for her eldest brother), “…if not now, then when will it ever be a good time?” he asked, changing tack, “What—are we supposed to suffer his sham heroism and lies forever?”

“No, just—just hold back for now—just until things are more stable—”

Touya snorted, “There will never be a time where everything is stable. This will always cause problems—that’s the whole point.”

Fuyumi had sighed, crossing her arms, “I know that you—dad hurt you—”

“He hurt all of us,” Touya corrected, “Don’t think I don’t remember how he treated you and Natsu like you were strangers in our own house. He treated us all like trash; I’m just the one who has the scars to prove it.”

(She still remembers of course.

Shouto is probably the luckiest—he was so small when they left that even though their father had terrorized him, it seemed more like a faded nightmare to him now than anything.

For her—she still remembers the stillness of the house, the taut and tense silence that just seemed to drag on with bated breath, and the dread that accompanied her father’s presence that was only interrupted by fire and screams.

It was a relief in many ways to move out, but she always wonders if—

Has he changed?

Does he regret it now?

Now that he has the #1 position he always wanted—does he think it was worth all of it?)

“Who did you run this plan by, besides Hawks? Did you tell your boss? Or mom?” Fuyumi asked, “It’s going to make trouble for them as well—”

“Mahou said to bring it on, and I’m pretty sure she’ll curbstomp anyone that takes her away from Iida-san’s physical therapy, and mother—mother said that if this was something I needed to do, then I have her full support,” Touya retorted, his eyes blazing.

(Even mother was on Touya’s side?

That makes sense of course, but still—there has to be a better solution than this.)

“That’s—fine, but—but—now that he has everything—I really feel like he might regret things now,” Fuyumi rushed out, “He—called. And he—really did sound remorseful.”

Touya went still, “He called you?”

“He wanted to know if it would be possible for us to attend the Hero Billboard ranking ceremony and—let him talk,” she said.

Touya’s eyes narrowed, “Natsu and I will be there for Hawks, but like hell I’m going to listen to him—”

“Why not?” she asked, “He said—he said he wants to be a hero now that we can all be proud of—”

“Now that he has everything he ever wanted?” Touya demanded, his fists clenched at his sides, “Convenient.”

“People can change, and people—do things they later regret, so—shouldn’t we give him a chance?”

“You can if you want Fuyumi, but I’ll only believe he regrets anything when he turns himself in for everything he did to us,” Touya said coldly, “Until then—I’m going to figure out which news outlets to best release all the information to.”

And no matter what she said after that, he wouldn’t budge, simply saying that once he pins down the exact format of what to give the news outlets, it’s going out, and she’s just—

It’s just so frustrating.

(While that house was a nightmare, there were a few shining times when Endeavor was in a good mood and would take them all out to eat or to the park, and she still remembers the way he would just throw back his head and laugh, and even her beaten-down mother had seemed happier in those moments.

Natsu and Shouto were too young to remember those times—especially since they got fewer and fewer as the years went by, and their father’s obsession with producing a perfect successor just grew deeper and deeper, and she completely understands that for Touya, those horrifying torture sessions in the training room have negated any happy memories he could have of their father—

But she still remembers.

And she wonders if—if buried in that morass of obsession and rage, the man who had picked flowers for her and her mother still exists somewhere.

And yes, she’s read a lot over the years, and she knows that horrible people can have moments of kindness, and that’s what makes it so hard to walk away, but still—

She loves and fears and hates him in equal measure, and she just wants to talk to him to try and sort out all those feelings with time, and she’s not going to get that if Touya throws him in jail.

Shouldn’t everyone at least get a chance to work things through?)

Her phone buzzes, and when she glances down at it, she sees a text from Miruko.

        Miruko: hey, how was your class?

            Miruko: slow day for me

            Miruko: but i rescued a cat!

            Miruko: <rumiSavesCat.img>

She can’t quite help the smile that tugs at her mouth when she sees the picture of Miruko flexing and holding up a fluffy white cat. Ever since the U.A. sports festival where they exchanged numbers, Miruko has diligently texted her every day, sending her cute pictures she thought she might like, or just asking about her day.

It’s—it’s really nice actually but—

She doesn’t really know what to think about all this attention.

There’s been times before, like with Natsuki where—well, she had gotten a lot of attention from Natsuki then too, she had even gotten gifts and made gifts in exchange, and they had talked so much and had so many inside jokes, and she had thought—

But she had been wrong, and she had been stupid to think that she would like her that way (no one ever chooses her after all, not for that), and so—she’s become kind of resigned to the fact.

It’s happened—a lot after all (Natsuki, Haru, Kanna). Where she thinks there might be something there, and really—

It’s just wishful thinking.

So she doesn’t want to read too much into Miruko’s texts now, but—but also she had a shitty day, so she would like to rant to someone (Natsu and Hawks would both take Touya’s side, no question, Sonomi can’t respond until tonight probably, Shouto probably wants to stay out of it, and her mother—she doesn’t want to get her mother involved with this).

             Fuyumi: awwww so cute!

            Fuyumi: :DDD

            Fuyumi: definitely makes my terrible day better

            Miruko: y? what happened?

            Fuyumi: kids are in flu season

            Fuyumi: bestie had to bail on the Yumeno Sakiko signing

            Fuyumi: and just family issues

            Miruko: DDD:

            Miruko: really sorry about that

            Miruko: well i cant do much about flu season

            Miruko: although i was in a vaccination ad last week

            Fuyumi: thank you

            Miruko: and cant do much about family issues

            Miruko: unless u want me to yell at hawks?

            Fuyumi: not really hawks’ fault

            Fuyumi: its fine

            Miruko: but if u want company for the signing

            Miruko: im free tonight?

Fuyumi’s fingers hover over her phone.

(It would be—really nice for someone to go with her; she doesn’t really like braving the crowds at these kinds of things by herself.

Hawks had also been supposed to go with her, but with the mess at Kamino Ward, and his soon to be status as the #2 hero, he barely has time for sleep, much less manga-ka signings.

Speaking of which, shouldn’t Miruko also be really busy?)

         Fuyumi: you dont have patrol?

            Miruko: ryukyu owes me

            Fuyumi: i dont want to get you in trouble for an event you’re not a fan of

            Miruko: totally a fan

            Miruko: she wrote let’s fall in love, right?

            Fuyumi: he wrote it yeah

            Miruko: he?????

            Miruko: thats such a girly signature though!

            Fuyumi: i know and ive heard hes just a high school boy

            Miruko: seriously????

            Miruko: wow

            Miruko: i would have never guessed

            Fuyumi: hes pretty good for a newcomer

            Miruko: yeah its been fun

            Miruko: is let’s fall in love your favorite?

            Fuyumi: no, it’s my bestie’s really

            Fuyumi: so i have to get a signature for her

            Miruko: oh got u

            Miruko: whats your favorite then?

            Fuyumi: oh thats hard

            Fuyumi: probably still whispering love

            Fuyumi: its old but i grew up reading it

            Miruko: ill have to read it then

     Fuyumi: its really good!

            Miruko: ill put in the order right now

            Miruko: so what time is the signing?

Fuyumi bites her lip as she thinks of what to say.

(This is what always gets her into trouble—she’ll rec a book or a series that she likes, her new friend will take her suggestion, and she’ll feel warm inside, and eventually if they talk more and more and seem to share her interest—

She’ll start wondering what it would be like to be something more to them, but that has always ended badly for her.)

                    Fuyumi: you really want to go?

            Miruko: yeah!

            Miruko: what do u not want me there?

            Fuyumi: no no i definitely do

            Fuyumi: its just

            Fuyumi: are you sure you wont get in trouble?

            Miruko: definitely no worries!

            Miruko: like i said ryukyu owes me

            Miruko: and she can definitely handle anything that comes her way

            Fuyumi: okay, its at 7

            Fuyumi: thank u for coming with me!

            Miruko: no prob

            Miruko: excited to see u!

Fuyumi flushes as she sets her cellphone down (remember, she’s just being nice).

Still—it’ll be nice to go to a fluffy event that has nothing to do with her family issues, so she settles on her favorite dark red cardigan to wear before heading out the door.

--

The bookstore is already pretty full already when she arrives, really fuller than she expected. Let’s Fall In Love was a fun series, but she was pretty sure the majority of its fans were teenage girls who might not have time midweek to stop by for a bookstore signing, but instead it’s crowded with girls squealing and trying to take pictures—and some guys too?

“Fuyumi-san!”

She turns and sees Miruko wave from the center of the crowd of people.

(She really should have thought about what inviting a top 10 ranked pro-hero would entail—it’s usually not as much of an issue with Hawks because Hawks can use his feathers for crowd control.)

“Fuyumi-san!” Miruko calls out again, managing to push her way towards her, and—

Fuyumi can tell the pro-hero tried to go somewhat incognito, with sunglasses, a hat, and a nice T-shirt and jeans on, but the ears are pretty much impossible to hide.

(Also really, her arms aren’t that easy to hide away either—

Look, everyone knows Miruko is jacked—her costume is basically a leotard after all, and she should be able to show off her gains.)

“Fuyumi-san,” Miruko greets her with a smile, “Sorry about the crowd—should have folded my ears up or something—”

“I can see that you tried already,” Fuyumi says, reaching out a hand to smooth down her ears before holding back (Miruko’s not Hawks; she’s not going to appreciate someone fussing over her), “I’m really sorry about asking you to come here—I didn’t think—”

“No, no, I’m really excited!” Miruko hastens to say, holding up a shiny copy of the first volume of Let’s Fall In Love, “I’m really glad to be here with you—the manga-ka hasn’t come out yet—they’re still setting up his table.”

“Oh—do you know how many books he’s allowed to sign?” Fuyumi frets, pulling out her worn copy and Sonomi’s, “I have Sonomi’s too since she can’t make it…”

“If he’s only signing one, I’ll get him to sign her copy instead of mine then,” Miruko says.

Fuyumi looks up at her, “Really? But—you came all this way—and to not get a signed copy of your own...”

“I mean—I’m sure he’ll have more events? He’s getting an anime right? He’s bound to have more signings sooner or later. And plus—like I said, I’m just happy to be here with you, Fuyumi-san,” Miruko says with a wink.

(That’s—

So Fuyumi has grown up with Hawks, and she’s seen her fair share of pro-hero ads—even ads with Miruko, but it’s—different somehow when she’s standing right in front of her and actually directed at her.

That wink is really deadly.)

“Oh—we should line up now,” Fuyumi says hastily, noticing a tall dark-haired teenage boy sit down at a table piled with pink volumes of Let’s Fall In Love.

“Okay,” Miruko nods, following her lead, “You have questions to ask him, or are you just going to get his signature?”

Fuyumi nods, shifting the volumes in her arms, “I want to ask about Oze and Waka—they’re a lot of fun, and I kind of want to know what inspired some of their antics.”

“Oze and—sorry, were they introduced later?” Miruko asks, flipping through the volume she has.

“Oh yeah, they weren’t introduced until later in the series,” Fuyumi replies, flipping her own volume to the scene where Oze draws on Waka’s forehead, “Here—this is a pretty cute scene.”

“Huh—aw yeah, that’s cute,” Miruko says, leaning over Fuyumi’s shoulder to read, “So—is it mostly him pranking her?”

“Pretty much,” Fuyumi says, flipping a few pages, “Basically—he teases her a lot, she says she hates him, but he’s actually the mysterious person leaving her anonymous encouraging voicemails all the time.”

“Why’s he anonymous?” Miruko asks, furrowing her brow.

“Not sure yet,” Fuyumi shrugs, “You could ask the manga-ka?”

“I might, although—I guess I never really got pranking the person you’re interested in. I would much rather shower them with affection,” Miruko says, smiling down at her.

(Really, Fuyumi prefers those kinds of relationships too—it’s why she likes Mamiko and Suzuki and the manga after all.

It’s nice that Miruko has the same taste as her—not that of course she’s reading what Miruko is saying as some kind of hint or anything.

She said that she would stop trying to read meaning into these things.)

They’ve managed to get to the front of the line, and Yumeno Saikiko (surely that was just his penname though—it didn’t suit his plain, monkish appearance at all) looks up at them and blinks.

“Oh—you’re Miruko,” he says, getting his phone out, “Do you mind if I get a photo with you?”

“Happy to as long as you sign our stuff,” Miruko says with a grin, setting down her volume and motioning Fuyumi forward.

“I’m honored that you’re a fan!” he says, quickly signing Miruko’s copy with the girly signature of Yumeno Saikiko and adding a chibi bunny sketch to it

“Fuyumi here is the one who got me into your work,” Miruko says, patting Fuyumi’s shoulder.

The boy dips his head, taking Fuyumi’s volumes, “Thank you so much for recommending my work to others!”

“Oh—it’s a good series; I very much appreciate Suzuki just being a kind-hearted soul,” Fuyumi says honestly (it’s hard to find a non-creepy shoujo manga lead love interest these days), bowing slightly.

The boy smiles, “I am very happy to hear that! So is Suzuki your favorite character?”

“Actually, Waka probably is,” Fuyumi admits, smiling back.

“Ah—she’s fun. Although Oze picks on her so much…” the boy shakes his head, doodling a chibi bickering Waka and Oze in her volume.

“They’re fun,” Fuyumi says, gratefully taking her volume back, “Speaking of which—was any of their story inspired by something you saw or read about?”

The boy coughs, signing Sonomi’s volume and doodling a picture of a chibi Suzuki in it,  “Er—well—kind of by one of my assistants? And his—friend. Please don’t tell anyone though.”

“Of course,” Fuyumi nods (Sonomi will be excited to hear this!), “Thank you so much!”

“Thank you,” the boy says, standing up as Miruko takes his phone and puts it in selfie mode.

“Okay, say ‘Miruko for #1’!” Miruko says, slinging an arm around the boy’s shoulder and holding up a finger.

“Miruko for #1!” the boy says happily as Miruko snaps a picture and hands his phone back, “Thank you so much!”

“No problem, thank you,” Miruko says happily, “Keep up the good work!”

“You too!” the boy calls out as they leave.

“Well that was fun,” Miruko says cheerfully as they make their way out of the store, “He seemed like a pretty down to earth guy.”

“Yes, very nice,” Fuyumi agrees, “Very appropriate for the creator of Suzuki-kun and Mamiko. Although—I’m sorry for hogging most of the time, Rumi-san—were there any questions you wanted to ask him?”

“Nah—I got what I wanted,” Miruko says smiling down at her.

Fuyumi smiles back, “I’m glad. Thank you so much for coming with me, Rumi-san!”

“Of course!” Miruko beams before shifting in place, “So—you’re not busy right?”

“No?” Fuyumi answers, tilting her head.

Miruko coughs and begins hesitantly, “Would you like—want to go get coffee or something—”

“Hey Miruko!” a reporter calls out, as a crowd of them appear from around the corner.

“Have a new girlfriend, Miruko?”

“What’s your relationship with Miruko?”

“What’s your name?”

“What’s your quirk?”

“Hey, hey, guys,” Miruko says, stepping in front of Fuyumi and flashing a smile, “We’re just friends, and we’re just here because we’re fans of Yumeno Sakiko’s work, that’s all.”

(Right, that’s all, and—

And it was stupid of her to feel that leap in her chest at the invitation of coffee—friends get coffee too after all.

And she should just remember that and not get her hopes up again.)

Miruko manages to push them past the crowd of reporters, carefully keeping herself in front of Fuyumi and all the cameras, but they keep following, still taking pictures.

Miruko leans down and whispers in her ear, “Hey, do you trust me?”

Fuyumi turns to look at her, trying not to flush (they’re so close—), “Ah—yes?”

“Then hang on,” Miruko says, grabbing her around the waist and bounding up into the air as Fuyumi clutches her shoulders.

(So—she’s been flying with Hawks a few times, and that’s pretty fun, but this is different, not just because they’re bouncing along the street and buildings instead of soaring through the sky.

It’s—maybe it’s the way Touya feels when Hawks princess-carries him despite all his protests and complaints.

Not that she should be comparing herself and Miruko to Touya and Hawks since like Miruko just said—they’re just friends.)

“Okay—and here we go,” Miruko says when they finally land in a quiet residential street, “Sorry about that—you okay?”

“Yeah—yeah,” Fuyumi says, trying not to sound breathless (she’s pathetic), “I’m—fine.”

“Damn paparazzi,” Miruko sighs, “They’re the worst.”

“Yeah,” Fuyumi agrees (she’s probably not up to par with Miruko’s usual girls), “Well—it was really nice seeing you today, Rumi-san. Thank you again for coming with me, and—I’ll see you soon!”

“You don’t want to—go get some coffee?” Miruko asks, her ears slightly drooping.

(Not if it’s done out of some sort of pity, and not if all it will do is provide Fuyumi more intimate moments that she will interpret the wrong way and make her budding crush even worse.)

“Sorry Rumi-san—I have work tomorrow, and I should be heading back,” Fuyumi says, shaking her head.

“Oh—well yeah, that’s right, um—do you want me to walk you back?” Miruko asks.

“No, it’s okay—it’s a pretty safe neighborhood, and I don’t want to waste your time, Rumi-san—”

“How could spending time with you ever be a waste of time?” Miruko asks, bewildered.

(See? Stuff like that.)

“I—I’m truly honored Rumi-san really—but it’s no problem for me to go home on my own. It’s just three blocks from here,” Fuyumi says, standing firm.

Miruko nods, her ears seeming to droop even lower, “Well—okay. Still—it was really nice going with you, and—if you ever need someone to accompany you around, don’t hesitate to ask!”

Fuyumi politely nods (she doubts she can do that without more feelings getting involved), and she hurries away before she can do something stupid like cave and beg Miruko to take her to some cute coffee shop full of couples so she can pretend that—

(It’s not going to happen, and as far as she knows, it’s never going to happen because she has terrible luck in love unlike all of her siblings, and—and the sooner she gets used to that, the better really.

She just needs to listen to BlackPink’s “Kill This Love” on repeat until she remembers that.)

Her phone buzzes, and she takes it out (she hates the leap in her chest at the thought that maybe Miruko has already texted her), but it’s just Hawks.

              Birdbrain: hey can we meet up at the zoo ice cream shop?

             Fuyumi: why?

             Fuyumi: since when do u have time?

              Birdbrain: locked up a whole gang of villains today

             Birdbrain: i cant just want to meet up with my favorite sister?

             Fuyumi: okay, you definitely want something.

             Birdbrain: rude

             Birdbrain: okay so i heard u went on a date with miruko???

             Birdbrain: (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

             Fuyumi: wasn’t a date

              Birdbrain: sure whatever u say

             Birdbrain: still miruko is really nice

Fuyumi squints at the text.

(What’s that supposed to mean?

Did Hawks put Miruko up to this?)

                    Fuyumi: did u tell her about the manga signing?

                    Hawks: no

                    Hawks: u did remember?

                    Hawks: maaaaaaybe i mentioned it

                    Hawks: but u were the one who told her u were going alone

                    Hawks: well anyway miruko was so nice to go with u

             Fuyumi: are you sure you’re not saying that just because she can benchpress you

             Birdbrain: hey!

             Birdbrain: she can but im faster

             Fuyumi: like she cares

             Birdbrain: ANYWAY zoo ice cream shop tomorrow?

              Birdbrain: my treat

Hawks is definitely up to something, but—Zoo ice cream shop’s ice creams are so cute, and they’re pretty expensive, so she doesn’t go that often on her own, but Hawks can definitely afford it.

Besides, she hasn’t seen Hawks in almost two weeks now, and texting about The Name of the Rose is fine, but talking about it in person is usually better.

             Fuyumi: fine

             Hawks: yaaaaaay!

             Hawks: (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

She snorts and starts putting away the volumes and putting on comfy clothes when her phone buzzes, and she takes a look.

             Miruko: get home okay?

Fuyumi considers not clicking on the message so it won’t show as read, but that’s dumb, and really—friends do those texts, like she and Sonomi exchange texts checking up on each other’s safety all the time.

(Although generally not about something as simple as going home, but—

Miruko is a hero, maybe she just takes it further?)

            Fuyumi: yes, thank you

            Miruko: oh good, im glad!

            Miruko: still, feel bad about the reporters crashing that meetup

            Miruko: u want to get coffee tomorrow?

Her fingers clench around her phone as she fights off an urge to text Hawks to reschedule their ice cream for later.

(Maybe later, when she’s managed to get all her feelings sorted out, but not now when even Miruko smiling at her can give her butterflies in her stomach.)

            Fuyumi: sorry cant

            Fuyumi: hawks and i are meeting up tomorrow

            Miruko: booooooo

            Miruko: well have fun and rain check?

            Fuyumi: yeah definitely

Fuyumi sighs as she sticks her phone on its charger (she probably shouldn’t have said ‘definitely,’ that may come off as too needy), and cues up BlackPink’s ‘Kill This Love.’

--

“I’m feeling like the panda one today,” Hawks says, sliding into the booth and folding up his wings, “What are you getting?”

“I don’t know. It’s between the elephant and the koala, they’re both really cute,” Fuyumi says, poring over the menu.

“Get the koala so we have a matching bear theme going,” Hawks says, poking at Fuyumi’s arm.

“…so the elephant then,” Fuyumi jokes, setting the menu down.

Hawks rolls his eyes, “If you want to be contrary, fine. So—heard you turned down a date with Miruko to meet up with me?”

“Where’d you hear that from?” Fuyumi asks.

(It had to have been Miruko, which means—

Which means what?

She probably didn’t word it that way, it’s just Hawks up to his matchmaking as per usual.)

“Miruko texted me to complain. I apologized, but said that it’s important,” Hawks replies, punching his order into the tablet on the table.

“Oh,” Fuyumi says (squashing down the leap in her chest that Miruko actually complained about not getting to hang out with her), punching in her order as well, “Well—anyway, what is it?”

Hawks leans forward, his wings curling around him, “So—Touya wants to release all the information in the middle of the Hero Billboard event.”

“What? But that’s—the damage that will do to heroes in general—why are you telling me?” Fuyumi demands, hands on the table.

“I know—you and Touya had a fight about releasing the information. I thought you’d want a head’s up, and Touya thought so too,” Hawks replies steadily.

“So you already decided it? And you don’t—you don’t care what that’s going to do for public morale at all?” Fuyumi asks.

“I think that people should know the truth, and that honestly? If the truth came out later after Endeavor was already built up as the new #1 hero, the backlash and drop in morale would be even worse,” Hawks says, his eyes narrowed.

(That’s—

Maybe Hawks has a point but—

But she hasn’t even been able to talk to her father in person yet.)

“Can you—can you convince Touya to wait a little bit? Or at least—consider waiting a little bit?” Fuyumi asks, her hands clenched at her side.

“Maybe,” Hawks says, making a see-saw motion with his hand, “But why? What difference would it make?”

“I want—Touya told you that I’ve—been in contact with our father, right?”

Hawks grimaces, “He might have ranted about it, yeah.”

“I want to let him know—what you guys are planning. Give him a chance to—make things right on his own,” Fuyumi says carefully.

(It’s—maybe it’s a long shot, she doesn’t know—the father she remembers would definitely not react well to knowledge of Touya’s plan, but—

She wants to try.)

“I feel like that chance is long past, but—sure. I’ll talk to Touya about it,” Hawks says, looking at Fuyumi, “But—you want backup when you talk to him?”

“I—that can’t be necessary, can it?”

“I don’t know, but I know me and Touya—and Natsu and Shouto I think would feel safer if you didn’t go alone,” Hawks says, his feathers moving restlessly.

(He—he wouldn’t right?

Like of course he’d probably be angry, but he wouldn’t—actually attack her, right?

She remembers her mother’s bruises and Touya’s scars, but—that was a long time ago, wasn’t it? More than ten years now.

Surely after being away from them for so long and now having regrets, he’s a changed man?

Yes, he’s said horrible things about both Touya and Shouto, but he apologized for that on the phone, so doesn’t that prove—that he’s different now?

Still—it’s probably better safe than sorry, and if she refuses, she’s pretty sure Touya will drag his entire team there.)

“…maybe if you want to hang around outside, I guess,” she says carefully.

Hawks nods, his face serious, “I’ll be as quiet as a mouse. He won’t know I’m there unless you need me,” he promises, “And—I’ll tell Touya to hold back for now.”

“Thanks Hawks,” Fuyumi says with a grateful nod as their ice cream arrives.

“Just be careful,” Hawks says, digging into his cookies-and-cream panda shaped ice cream with a spoon, “Who else can I talk about BlackPink and The Name of the Rose with?”

“I’m sure you’d find someone,” Fuyumi says dryly, picking at her own koala-shaped ice cream, “Or at worst, you’d drag Touya with you into it.”

Hawks grins, “Did I tell you he agreed to accompany me to a Trapnest meet and greet?”

“I’m surprised he managed to hold back from telling them that Black Stones is better,” Fuyumi says.

“He did to Ren-san, who you know, actually agreed with him—that traitor, but that’s fine,” Hawks says easily.

(She wants that so badly—that easy back and forth that all her brothers have managed to find and yet still eludes her.

It doesn’t seem—to be in the cards for her, so the least she can do is maybe mend this one broken relationship.)

“Do you think it’s dumb that I’m even talking to him?” Fuyumi asks.

“I think—that it’s something that you have to do, the same way that Touya has to reveal the truth,” Hawks says carefully, “I don’t think—anyone can really judge you for it.”

“…thanks,” Fuyumi says quietly, looking down at her ice cream.

“What’s family for?” Hawks asks, kicking out and nudging her foot with his own, “Anyway—you eating that or not? It’s melting.”

“You can afford this whole shop, don’t mooch off of me,” Fuyumi says, knocking away his spoon with her own and digging in.

Chapter Text

“She goes with you to the signing and then invited you to coffee after?” Sonomi asks, sipping her winter-melon tea, “I don’t know, it sure sounds like a date to me.”

“We go to signings and coffee after,” Fuyumi points out, gesturing around at the teahouse they are sitting in.

“Yeah, but we don’t make googly eyes at each other,” Sonomi points out, “Also—texting you good morning and good night and constantly sending you pictures and remembering all the little things that you told her? Not really platonic.”

Fuyumi looks down at her drink, “Natsuki—did that too.”

“I still think Natsuki was leading you on,” Sonomi says with a frown, “She kept that up even after she got a boyfriend—the whole constantly being like, ‘Oh you’re so important to me, Fuyumi-chan, you mean so much to me,’ and stuff like that—serious mixed signals there. Even her boyfriend thought so, or why else would he make her give up contact with you?”

Fuyumi shifts in her seat, “It’s understandable that Natsuki’s boyfriend would feel uncomfortable given how close—I thought we were—”

“You guys were weirdly ambiguous, and yeah, maybe it’s understandable, but it’s still shitty of her to put both of you in that situation in the first place,” Sonomi says firmly, “And then even after she broke off contact with you, she was still following you on Instagram, and liking your posts, and—anyway—enough about her. Miruko seems like a much more straight-forward person.”

“She is, but she’s not interested in me that way,” Fuyumi says, her fingers tightening around her hot chocolate.

Sonomi levels a look at her, “…sure, I mean, if you really don’t like her, you could just tell her?”

“I—I kind of—do like her,” Fuyumi says, not looking up and biting her lip.

(How couldn’t she?

Rumi-san is nice, super strong, so thoughtful, and unbelievably hot.

There’s tons of girls with helpless crushes on Rumi-san.)

Sonomi smiles, “Well, that’s good then! So you both like each other, and this should be pretty clear cut—”

“You’re not listening to me,” Fuyumi cuts in, “She doesn’t like me that way!”

“I’m pretty sure she does,” Sonomi argues back, “You should just go for it.”

“And get rejected again? No thanks,” Fuyumi says, sitting back in her seat.

“You already technically went on a date,” Sonomi points out.

“I still don’t think it was a date,” Fuyumi mutters.

Sonomi shrugs, “Well—I’m not really the person to ask anyway. In my experience, dates are awkward stilted affairs that are the absolute worst.”

Fuyumi laughs, “Sometimes—I think you have to right idea to just devote yourself to books.”

“Well you know, my quirk does help with that,” Sonomi says with a wiggle of her fingers as a falcon flew out of the pages of the paperback book by her hand.

“Must be nice,” Fuyumi muses, “Also makes your library story-times a treat.”

“Except now I’m always on the roster,” Sonomi groans, slumping over in her seat, “Do you know how hard it is to make sure a kid doesn’t pull on the tail of a dragon or a hippogriff?”

“Aw, I’m sure they love it though,” Fuyumi says with a smile, “It’s a story time they’ll never forget.”

“I’ll never forget it if Buckbeak mauls some kid accidentally,” Sonomi mutters, finishing off her winter melon tea.

Fuyumi laughs, “You’ll be fine. We never got mauled by any of the stuff you summoned back in middle school after all.”

“Yeah, but these are like toddlers,” Sonomi says, making a face.

“Shouto and Izuku-kun are also fine despite you summoning up pokemon for them to play with,” Fuyumi points out.

“I guess,” Sonomi admits, “Really, the person I was most worried about when we were kids was Natsu—never knew when to quit poking at something. How is he, anyway?”

“Pretty good. Pre-med is treating him well, even if OChem is causing him to tear out his hair,” Fuyumi says with a fond smile.

“And—that talk with your dad—is that this week?” Sonomi asks delicately.

Fuyumi wiggles the straw of her drink, “That’s—yeah, that’s this week.”

“Have you—figured out what you’re going to say yet?” Sonomi asks.

Fuyumi bites her lip, “…still working on it.”

“Maybe—you should run it past your mom,” Sonomi suggests.

Fuyumi shakes her head, “That’s not a good idea. She’s—mother should not have to deal with any of that.”

“But you should?” Sonomi asks.

Fuyumi shrugs, “I’m the one who wanted this conversation, right?”

“No, it was Endeavor who reached out first, and—I’m still not sure for the right reasons,” Sonomi says, her fingers tapping against the wood of the table, “But—if you need to do it—I guess you need to do it.”

Fuyumi dips her head in acknowledgement (she—it just feels like something that needs to be done) as her phone buzzes.

She eagerly picks it up (it’s probably around lunchtime for Miruko), but it’s just Natsuo.

            Natsu: hey can i take one of your copies of the latest kda album?

            Fuyumi: what?

            Fuyumi: why?

            Natsu: yukina wants a copy

            Fuyumi: itd be more romantic for u to buy one for her

            Natsu: but u have the exclusive limited-run Ahri editions!

            Natsu: and u have like 100 of them

            Fuyumi: it contributed to Oricon rankings!

            Fuyumi: cant u take one of hawks’ instead?

            Natsu: yukina’s more of an Ahri fan than an Evelynn fan

            Fuyumi: at least she has good taste

            Fuyumi: fine u can take one

            Natsu: yesssss

            Natsu: youre my favorite sister

            Fuyumi: im literally your only sister

            Natsu: stillllllllll

Another message pings, and she can’t help the smile that slides onto her face when she sees it’s from Miruko.

            Miruko: if they team me up with wash one more time im going to make him do my laundry

            Fuyumi: oh no!

            Fuyumi: what happened?

            Miruko: he got stains on my costume!

            Miruko: look at this!

            Miruko: <mirukoCostumeStain.img>

Fuyumi swallows. Miruko obviously wanted her to see the large blue stain across the front of her leotard, but the photo also emphasizes her rather—impressive assets. Her sizable bust is nicely contrasted by her absolutely muscular, ripped arms—

“Oh, nice,” Sonomi says, craning her head over to glance at Fuyumi’s phone, “Thirst pics, and you still think she’s not into you?”

“That’s not—she’s just showing me a stain!” Fuyumi stutters, jerking her phone away.

Sonomi wrinkles her nose, “Waaaaay too much information.”

“Not like that! You’re disgusting,” Fuyumi complains, texting Miruko that the stain wasn’t too bad but that Wash certainly deserved a talking-to at least.

“I’m not the one drooling over her rack,” Sonomi retorts, sitting back, “But anyway—you should get on that. Wouldn’t it be great to have a female pro-hero on speed-dial to be a role-model to all your students?”

“I’m not drooling over anything!” Fuyumi lies (if she saves the photo, does that make her a terrible person?), “And—I shouldn’t have to date her to get her to come give talks to students!”

“Couldn’t hurt though,” Sonomi points out, “Are you going out again with her soon?”

As if on cue, her phone cheerily vibrates with a text from Miruko asking if she’s up for that rain-check on the coffee anytime soon.

Sonomi smirks and elbows her, and Fuyumi elbows back as she bites her lip and tries to think of what to type back.

(Yes?

Yes with an exclamation point?

No that’s way too pathetic—really she shouldn’t even be accepting Miruko’s invitation; she’ll just give herself the wrong idea—but if she puts her off too long, Miruko might start thinking that she doesn’t want to be friends with her, and she really does want that at least—

But where should they go?

They’re definitely not going to that list of top romantic coffee houses that Hawks had forwarded her, that wouldn’t help at all.

Maybe here, it’s pretty platonic after all; Sonomi and her come here all the time—)

Her phone starts playing the Spyair sports anime song that serves as Natsuo’s ring tone (that’s weird—Natsu almost never calls when he could text instead).

She frowns as she holds up a finger at Sonomi and picks up the call, “Natsu? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know; you want to tell me why you penciled in ‘Meet with Dad’ on your calendar, Fuyumi?” Natsuo asks, his voice tight.

(Crap—she’d forgotten about that when she told him he could go into her room.)

“I—don’t snoop through my stuff, Natsu!” she tries to distract him.

“It’s not snooping when it’s just hanging on your wall!” Natsuo snaps, “And don’t change the subject—why are you meeting with Endeavor?”

“That’s—you know what Touya is planning, don’t you?” Fuyumi asks, her voice quiet.

Natsuo snorts, “Yeah, and I can’t wait.”

(Of course he can’t.

There are some subjects that Natsu and Touya disagree on—whether or not you can be both a fan of Trapnest and Black Stones, whether sashimi is superior to soba, how clean a room should be, how often laundry should be done—but regarding their father, Fuyumi thinks that Natsu would only happily bring out a shovel and offer to help bury the ashes if Touya incinerated him.

Their father never raised a hand against her or Natsu, but neither of them can forget what he did to the rest of their family, and Natsu—Natsu has always been the most expressive of them.

But still—after so long, one chance to prove that he really had changed, was that too much to ask?)

“Our father says he wants to be the kind of hero we can be proud of now, so—shouldn’t we at least give him that chance?” she asks.

“Wow, it only took him what—ten years to figure that out?” Natsuo demands, “He’s had all the time in the world to try and make amends and fix himself—I say he’s getting what’s coming to him. No need for you to talk to him before that.”

“He should get a warning at least—to come clean on his own if he wants,” Fuyumi says.

“He’s not going to do that,” Natsuo says instantly, “He’d never do that. Come on Fuyumi—you think he’s willing to go to jail over this voluntarily? Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen whether it’s Touya that makes the reveal or him.”

“He—he’d get a more lenient sentence maybe if he went himself,” Fuyumi argues.

“When has Endeavor ever done things the easy way?”

(And that’s true.

Touya would probably hate her for saying this, but it’s the one thing they’ve all inherited from their father—his stubbornness and refusal to ever give up.)

“Still—he should have the chance,” Fuyumi repeats, gripping her phone tighter.

“Why? He never gave us any,” Natsuo shoots back.

“And we can’t be better than him?”

Natsuo pauses for a while before sighing, “…I guess, but—he doesn’t deserve it.”

“It’s not about what he deserves, it’s about how we should act,” Fuyumi says steadily.

She can sense Natsuo shaking his head, “That’s why you’re the best of us, I guess. I’ll join Hawks outside when you talk to him then.”

“What?” Fuyumi frowns, “No—Hawks isn’t going to be there—”

“Really? I guess his patrol schedule is packed… Well, I guess I’ll join Touya and try to make sure he doesn’t just try to incinerate him on the spot—”

“No one is going to be there,” Fuyumi interrupts, “I’m going to see him by myself.”

“What? No way, you’re at least taking me,” Natsuo insists, “It’s not safe—”

“He won’t hurt me.”

“Why? Because you’re family? Look at Touya and Shouto. Because you’re a girl? He used to hit mother for trying to interfere.”        

(He’s not wrong, and she can still hear the sickening smack echoing in her memory, but—

That’s all in the past, isn’t it?)

“I’ll be fine,” she insists, “Don’t worry about it—don’t you have exams coming up?”

“I’m serious, Fuyumi,” Natsuo continues, “If not me—why not Miruko? She’s good in a pinch, isn’t she?”

(Miruko?

She hasn’t breathed a word about this to her.

Like, she had mentioned that there was family trouble, but she hadn’t gone into any real detail about it since—

Well, it’s pretty personal, and even if Hawks has made it pretty clear over the years that Endeavor is not even close to a hero in the eyes of his estranged family, most of the past has been kept unsaid, and she’s not even sure where to start in explaining all of it to an outsider.

Besides—it’s a lot to dump on someone who is just being friendly.)

“I don’t think—I think Rumi-san has better things to do,” Fuyumi says finally.

“What, then help a damsel in distress? Doubt it,” Natsuo says casually.

“Still—Rumi-san is a busy top-ranked pro-hero, so really I shouldn’t bother her with this matter—”

“Fuyumi, if you don’t call her, I’m going to take all the Ahri merch in your room and hide it under Hawks’ Evelynn merch at his place,” Natsuo threatens, “It’ll all be contaminated.”

Fuyumi gasps, “You little brat, you wouldn’t dare!”

“Definitely would. Tick tock, Fuyumi, I better see proof someone is going with you in like an hour,” Natsuo says before hanging up.

Fuyumi glares at her phone as she curses under her breath.

(Out of all her brothers, Natsu has definitely plummeted to her least favorite as of this moment.)

“Trouble?” Sonomi asks, finishing off her drink.

“Natsu wants me to bring Rumi-san as backup or something to the meeting with my father,” Fuyumi mutters, bringing up Miruko’s text again and mulling over what to type.

Sonomi nods, “Not a bad idea really.”

“He’s threatening to befoul my Ahri merch by hiding it in Hawks’ merch otherwise,” Fuyumi grouses as she types out ‘tomorrow?’ before deleting it (Rumi-san should know what she’s getting into).

Sonomi winces, “Ouch, rough. So you’re asking her?”

“Well, I have no choice, do I?” Fuyumi says as she types out, ‘hey do you have time to talk?’ and hits send before she can dither anymore about it (she knows that there’s almost nothing as stressful as watching those three dots flicker and stop over and over as the other person keeps rewriting their response).

“I’m sure she’ll be pleased,” Sonomi says dryly, tossing her empty cup.

As if on cue, Miruko immediately texts back.

            Miruko: for u? Always.

“That one’s a keeper,” Sonomi says, pointing at the text, “Introduce us after you guys go public. I want to invite her to story-time.”

Fuyumi rolls her eyes, texting Miruko back with a time and place (and carefully stamping down the flutter of her stupid, stubborn heart), “We’re not going out, but I’ll introduce her to you soon.”

(When she’s more sure that she’s over falling hard for a woman who is so far out of her league it would be almost funny if she saw it from the outside maybe.)

--

“Hey! Sorry I’m a little late,” Miruko says breathlessly, sliding into the seat of the café, “Oh this is a cute place—thanks for inviting me here!”

Fuyumi flushes at Miruko’s wide smile, “Oh, I—Sonomi found this place—the chiffon sandwiches are really good—you should try some.”

“Oh, I definitely will,” Miruko assures her, craning her neck to look at the table behind them and picking up a menu with her calloused but nimble hands.

Fuyumi clears her throat, jerking her gaze away (come on Fuyumi, hands, really?), “Besides, you shouldn’t thank me. I would like to ask you for a favor.”

Miruko’s smile just widens, “I’m honored. What do you need me to do?”

Fuyumi fiddles with the menu in front of her, “…what do you know of my family situation?” she asks carefully.

Miruko leans back with a contemplative look on her face, “Well, I know you have one older brother, two younger brothers, and that Hawks is basically your brother-in-law,” she offers, “Your oldest brother is in covert ops, your second youngest brother is in college—premed, right? And your youngest brother is at U.A. Your mom is a reporter, and your dad—is Endeavor.”

“Yes,” Fuyumi shifts in her seat, “And—I’m not sure if Hawks has ever—or if you have ever heard Touya—you know that we are—estranged from our father?”

“I had some inkling of that, yeah,” Miruko says carefully.

“Well—he’s been reaching out a bit since he got the #1 position, and—I’m going to go talk to him, but my brothers want someone to go with me and keep watch, so—would you?” Fuyumi rushes out.

Miruko frowns and sets her menu down (oh no—that’s far too needy isn’t it? She should have never called her here—).

“…sure, I’m happy to go with you, but—can I ask you something?” Miruko says, her ears twitching a bit.

Fuyumi nods (inwardly letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding), “Please, ask away.”

“Your brothers—you said they wanted someone with you to keep watch. Does that mean that—they’re worried that—what exactly are they worried might happen?”

“They’re—overreacting. Kind of,” Fuyumi says, quickly nodding at the waitress and quickly giving her order, “It’s—been a long time. He—says he’s different now.”

Miruko’s eyes narrow, “I don’t know Endeavor very well—not the most sociable pro-hero, and he’s so much older than most of the rest of us—but I have heard rumors—not that of course, I trust everything I hear, especially not gossip—but Hawks has also never made his dislike of Endeavor a secret so—I don’t want to pry, but I do want to be prepared. Do they think Endeavor will be violent towards you?”

“It’s—maybe,” Fuyumi admits (oh god, she’s going to want to have nothing to do with her now), “I really don’t think so, of course, but they—worry.”

Miruko gives her a long look before quickly giving their waitress her order, then turning back to Fuyumi, “Well—good to know. I’ll ask Support for some ice tech then.”

“You—don’t want any more details?” Fuyumi asks, stilling her hands in her lap.

“Not unless you’re comfortable telling me more,” Miruko replies, looking Fuyumi in the eye, “I’m really glad to help, and it’s enough to know that you trust me enough to bring me into any of this.”

(Now Fuyumi feels guilty because if Natsu hadn’t pushed her, she would have preferred to keep Miruko entirely out of this.

After all, its—kind of a mess, isn’t it?

Who wants to really deal with all that?)

“I know—that this is a lot of trouble for you,” Fuyumi rushes out, looking down at her lap, “After all, you work with my father sometimes—”

“Hey, you said you needed help right? How can I say no to that?” Miruko asks with a gentle smile.

Fuyumi can feel her face burning, “You really—shouldn’t say things like that, Rumi-san,” she says, busying herself with the strawberry chiffon cake sandwich the waitress brought over, “A girl could get the wrong idea.”

“Oh, I don’t think she’s getting the wrong idea,” Miruko replies, her smile growing a little wider as she leans back, with her muscular arms propped behind her head.

(Is she—is she flirting with her?

Maybe, but—she can’t mean it, right?

Everyone knows that Miruko is very popular with the ladies so—she probably flirts like she breathes, right?)

Fuyumi coughs and looks back at her chiffon cake sandwich (and away from the all too distracting display of Miruko’s bare arms), “I—how do you like your sandwich, Rumi-san?”

“It’s pretty good!” Miruko says enthusiastically, picking up her sandwich and biting into it, “You really pick the best places, Fuyumi-san.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ve been to much more glamorous places,” Fuyumi says with a wave of her hand, enjoying her own sandwich (it’s been awhile since she’s gotten to indulge in this store’s light and cloud-like chiffon cake).

Miruko shrugs, “Maybe, but definitely nothing as fun as being with you.”

Fuyumi scoffs (now she knows she’s lying), “From what I hear, Rumi-san, you like going to MMA fights and Monster Jam Osaka; are you saying that you didn’t have fun there?”

“I wouldn’t believe everything you hear, but yeah, I had fun at those. It was missing something though,” Miruko says, looking at Fuyumi.

“And what’s that?”

“Someone special to share it all with,” Miruko says easily.

(Surely she doesn’t mean her?

It’s probably just—

Okay, she’s not dumb, Miruko is definitely flirting with her, but—how seriously should she take it?

After all, Miruko’s had a lot of different girlfriends, and Fuyumi—Fuyumi knows in her heart that she’s not really the casual kind of person. Like her oldest and youngest brothers, she’s all or nothing, and she can’t really help that.

Really, it’d be easier for her if she could be more like Natsu, but it’s never worked for her.)

“I—see,” Fuyumi clears her throat, “Well—I hope you—I’m sure you can find someone quite easily, Rumi-san.”

“It’s harder than you think,” Miruko says ruefully, her ears drooping slightly before perking up again, “Still—it’s fine. So when is your meeting with your father?”

“In three days,” Fuyumi says, wiping her hands with a napkin.

“And—you want me to hang around outside? Without him seeing me?” Miruko suggests.

“I think that would be best, yes,” Fuyumi nods, “I’m not sure—how he’s going to react.”

“…I know it’s not really my business, but are you sure you want to do this?” Miruko asks, peering at Fuyumi closely.

“Yes,” Fuyumi says as firmly as she can manage (possibly more firmly than she really feels), “I think—he deserves a chance.”

Miruko nods, leaning back again, “That’s good enough for me. You’ll text me the address?”

“Yes, and—really, Rumi-san, I can’t thank you enough,” Fuyumi says, leaning forward.

Miruko waves a hand, “Don’t thank me, I haven’t even done anything yet!”

“Still, I really appreciate it,” Fuyumi says earnestly, “If there’s anything I can do for you, please, just let me know.”

(As she says that, she inwardly berates herself.

What would a top-ranked pro-hero need from her?

At most, Rumi-san might need her help to nag at Hawks about something.)

“It’s enough for you to just keep inviting me out to things,” Miruko says with a smile, her ears relaxing back a bit.

“Hopefully next time I can invite you somewhere nicer than a family meeting,” Fuyumi says dryly.

Miruko chuckles a bit, “I’ll hold you to that.”

It’s a nice easy conversation after that, going over the latest K/DA M/V that came out and the T.V. drama Miruko is in talks with (she’d have a cameo role, and while she’s not sure about it, Fuyumi points out that it would be great for everyone to see a female pro-hero in an action drama) until Miruko needs to go on patrol. Fuyumi tries to grab the bill, only for Miruko to easily snatch it away with a wink.

“Let this pro-hero indulge you a little,” she says, sticking her card in the booklet and handing it to the waitress.

(The problem is how much Fuyumi would love that.

Still—leaving out Fuyumi’s unfortunate growing affections for Rumi-san, the meeting seems to have gone pretty well.

She can get Natsu and Hawks off her back, and she has to say that having Rumi-san at her back for this meeting—does make her feel more reassured as well.

Just that someone is there, not judging her or anything, to see everything through with her, it makes her feel—less nervous about the whole thing.

Now to figure out what to actually say to her father.)

--

She has never been back to the Todoroki compound since her mother had hurried all four of them out of there that fateful day—she’s pretty sure none of them have.

Things from childhood memories should be smaller when seen again as an adult, but the Todoroki compound still looms before her as large as in all her memories of it.

Fuyumi adjusts the collar of her cardigan, breathing in and out to steady her nerves.

(It’s fine, it’s just a house right?

There’s nothing scary about it.

There’s nothing scary about who is inside either.)

“You alright?” Miruko asks, looking at her worriedly.

“Fine,” Fuyumi manages to get out, rubbing her arm.

Miruko reaches out and tentatively touches her shoulder, her hand a warm weight on Fuyumi’s body, “I’ll be right outside. You need anything, just call me, and I’ll be there.”

Fuyumi takes a deep breath (she has to admit that Miruko’s words act as a bit of a balm on her nerves) and nods, “Thank you, Rumi-san.”

“No problem! Right outside, just a call away,” Miruko reminds her, drawing back and making a silly phone gesture with her hand.

Fuyumi nods and reaches out and presses the buzzer on the gate before she can hesitate any longer.

(She’s going to have to get it over with sooner or later.)

The gate swings open, and Fuyumi walks in with one last look over her shoulder at Miruko. Miruko gives her a supportive smile and a thumbs-up before the gates close again, and she’s standing there with a servant coming out of the house to guide her inside.

“This way, Todoroki-san,” the servant bows and gestures through a door.

She follows him down the hallway and past a few turns until they reach a room with sliding doors and tatami floor mats (it’s a little strange actually since for many years, they have just had hardwood floors and carpet. Their mother seems to prefer it that way), and her father sitting there at the table, tea prepared in front of him.

“Fuyumi,” he acknowledges, looking at her.

“Father,” she says, sitting down across from him.

He nods and pushes a cup of tea towards her, “Thank you for meeting with me.”

“Thank you for inviting me here,” Fuyumi says, nodding and taking the cup of tea.

“You said you had something you wanted to discuss with me?” he asks, getting straight to the point.

“Yes—I do,” Fuyumi says, straightening up, “It’s—have you talked to Touya or Hawks recently?”

Her father’s expression darkens, “I would think you know the answer to that.”

Fuyumi shifts in place (dumb question, of course she knows), “I see. Well—Touya has—some information he wants to release to the public. Regarding—everything that happened with you, mother, and all of us.”

Her father’s body goes tense, “…of course he does.”

Fuyumi waits for him to continue, but he stays silent, drinking his tea and clenching his jaw.

“…are you going to do anything?” Fuyumi finally asks.

Her father finishes his tea and sets the cup back onto the table, “Thank you for the information, I will get it under control.”

“And—what does that mean exactly?” Fuyumi asks, unease roiling in her gut.

“Touya shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with. His witch of a boss is still busy with her crippled fiancé as far as I’ve heard, so he’s on his own. He will most likely make mistakes; he relies too much on others, and by himself he always was a disgrace—”

“Don’t talk about him that way,” Fuyumi immediately snaps.

(Touya is an edgelord whose sheer romantic obliviousness caused Hawks to whine her ear off for most of their adolescence, but he’s also the brother who had cooked for them while growing up, the one who has always listened to her pathetic, teary recollections of her latest romantic disaster and asked her where she wants the bodies buried, and the one who would burn himself up for his family.

 She will tolerate no disrespect of him.)

Their father looks at her, “…regardless, obviously I will make sure the news doesn’t get out.”

(What did she really expect him to say?)

“You said you wanted to make amends,” she reminds him.

“And I do, but you can’t possibly expect me to air out all our dirty laundry in public?” her father asks incredulously, “That would be a disaster.”

“But it’s the truth.”

“The version Touya would put out? Far from it, it would be a hit piece—”

“It’s the truth,” Fuyumi repeats, “Nothing needs to be exaggerated to—you said that you regretted everything that happened!”

“I do, and—Fuyumi, you realize that if everything is revealed, I will most likely be arrested?”

“That’s why you should get ahead of it,” Fuyumi says eagerly, “Confess first, and then they’ll be more lenient.”

Her father just stares at her, blue eyes like ice narrowing, “You can’t be serious.”

(It’s the same hard, incredulous tone that he had used when she had once tentatively asked if they could have a birthday party for Natsu.

It makes her stomach churn and her breath go unsteady now the same way it did then.

But—she’s not a little girl anymore, and her father has long forfeited his position as head of the household.)

She takes a deep breath, “Why should I not be serious? You’re right—you’ll most likely be arrested once everything is revealed, but if you get ahead of the reveal—”

“I will get ahead of the reveal by making sure it never enters the public eye,” her father cuts in, “That is obviously the best solution.”

“So everything you said about wanting to make amends—”

“Our private family life should stay private,” her father says, “There is simply no point in bringing up such old news to the public—”

“The divorce was splashed all over the papers. Mother had a real hard time finding a job—I remember that.”

“That was her choice.”

“No, you told her that if she wanted us, she couldn’t press charges against you,” Fuyumi insists.

Her father lets out a breath, “Yes—that was unfortunate. I didn’t expect that from her. Still—that is all in the past, and that cannot be changed. I do not see the purpose of unearthing all of this again; it would be better for us to focus on the future and how I can make it up to all of you.”

“But—without confronting what happened in the past—do you really think you can make it up to us?” Fuyumi asks.

Her father crosses his arms, “What purpose would punishing me now serve?”

(And she had argued something similar to that with Touya, but to hear that coming out of his mouth—

She’s starting to get a bit angry herself.)

“Is that all your claims of wanting to atone amount to? Empty words and fancy gestures?” she spits out.

The flames around her father’s face flare, “I don’t like your tone, Fuyumi.”

“And I don’t like having to mediate between the rest of the family and you, but here we are,” she snaps.

The flames around her father’s face flare brighter, “...are you standing against me, Fuyumi?”

(Is she?)

“Why is that the only option?” she demands.

“Your brother wants to send me to prison; there isn’t a middle-ground for you to waffle around here,” her father snarls.

“There would be one if you weren’t bull-headed and were willing to compromise,” Fuyumi stands her ground, “Touya is willing to settle for a confession—”

“Convenient since it still results in me going to prison.”

“What do you think you deserve? Did you really think you could atone with no personal consequences?” Fuyumi demands.

Her father pinches the bridge of his nose, “I have already apologized to you, and I have put up with everyone’s disrespect, but that does not mean that I should—”

“Be held accountable?” Fuyumi interrupts (probably not a good idea, but—the idea that something like their past can be swept under the rug with no consequences—

She knows exactly what Touya would say to that, and frankly, she agrees.)

“It seems you’ve already chosen a side,” her father says darkly, “Pity. I had thought you would have had the sense to not side with your brother. He’s always been trouble, from his quirk to his unnatural selection of a partner—”

“I thought I told you not to talk about him that way,” Fuyumi says, her fingers digging into the fabric of her pants.

Her father sneers, “Touya has somehow managed to get all of you on his side I see. Surprising for someone with so little ability—”

“You may think that Touya can be easily dealt with, but as long as I have known him, Touya has achieved his goals whereas you only got the #1 spot because All Might collapsed.”

Flames shoot up around her father’s hands, and Fuyumi’s hands immediately ice over (she hasn’t done that in years).

“Careful Fuyumi, you’re on thin ice,” her father growls, the flames around him making everything seem terrifyingly familiar.

“What, have you suddenly become allergic to the truth?” Fuyumi asks with more bravado than she really feels (she may be able to temporarily restrain him with her ice, but her father isn’t a veteran top-ranked pro-hero for nothing; he’ll probably melt her ice in seconds), “All these years with only sycophants around to lick your boots has really done nothing for you, has it?”

“I am warning you, Fuyumi,” her father says, standing up and looming over her, and she scrambles up, ice sparking and crawling up over her arms, but if he really makes a move, she’s not going to be fast enough—

A red feather suddenly zips out to push her back, and Touya comes crashing out of the rafters of the roof, dressed in full covert-ops Dabi gear, edgelord black coat billowing out behind him.

“Hello father,” he grits out as sarcastically as humanely possible, standing up in front of Fuyumi.

“Touya,” her father says darkly, the flames around him burning even more intensely, “I should have known.”

“What are you doing here?” Fuyumi hisses at her brother.

Touya glances at her over his shoulder, “You didn’t think I’d let you just walk in here by yourself?”

“So, this was your plan all along,” their father says, not taking his eyes off of Touya, “Distract me with your sister—”

“Fuyumi thought you still deserved a chance, and even though I know you’re a piece of shit, I went along with it,” Touya snaps, “I snuck in because I was still pretty sure you would fuck everything up, and unfortunately, I was right.”

(Just add it to the ever-growing list of times she’s made herself believe people could be kinder than they really are.

When is she ever going to learn?)

“Are you here to try and kill me?” their father scoffs.

“You aren’t worth killing. Besides—I think rotting in jail for a few long years will suit you better, don’t you?” Touya smirks.

“You overestimate yourself as per usual. Do you really think you can beat me on your own?”

“Who says I came here on my own?” Touya asks as red feathers slam the door sliding doors open and both Hawks and Miruko come barreling in.

Miruko immediately pulls Fuyumi out the door, ice gauntlets on her hands whirring, while Hawks flies forward to stand at Touya’s side, giving her a quick once-over and a reassuring grin, “We’ll be fine, go on and get out—”

“You get out,” Fuyumi snaps, placing a hand on the floor (all this time her father has been ignoring her, she’s had time to get her bearings and figure out something she can do—he could melt any ice she threw at him in seconds, but not necessarily anything sturdy elsewhere) and an ice wall with sparks springs up between them and her father.

“Oh wow!” Miruko enthuses, poking at the ice wall as sparks come off of it, “Your quirk is so cool—”

“Let’s go before he melts it,” Fuyumi says hurriedly, tugging on her arm.

“…see, I told you she’d be fine!” Hawks says as he wrestles Touya into a princess-carry and takes off.

“Liar, you were the one sending feathers after her first,” Touya accuses him.

“I didn’t know you could do that!” Miruko says, grabbing Fuyumi in a similar princess-carry fashion and bounding down the halls.

“Ah, well—corralling kids with quirks is no joke,” Fuyumi explains, trying not to enjoy the sensation of Miruko carrying her again (it’s definitely not helping with just the onslaught of conflicting feelings she has going on—but the priority right now is to just get out.)

Still as she hears sparks and explosions go off behind them (ah, the more force he uses, the more firepower the sparks in her ice gain when they go off), she still can’t quite wrap her mind around everything.

Is this really all her father’s talk of atonement and reconciliation amounted to? A desire to see them again and apologize, but the minute real consequences come into play, he starts throwing his weight around again?

(How could she have been so stupid to believe him?)

“Hey, are you alright, Fuyumi?” Touya asks, as they clear the compound, and he steps out of Hawks’ arms.

“I’m fine,” she says, quickly distangling herself from Miruko, “You can—you were right so—do whatever you want now. I was—I was obviously being dumb, so just—run it past mother first.”

(She really should have talked to her mother in the first place—maybe she would have been able to prevent this stupid disaster from happening.)

“Hey,” Touya says, placing a hand on her back, “You weren’t being dumb. And I—I wanted to believe you too.”

“Well, it looks like you were right not to,” she laughs bitterly, digging the heel of her hand into the side of her cheek.

“No, you did what you needed to do. And—it was good of you to try and give him a chance. I certainly couldn’t,” Touya says, taking a tissue packet out of his jacket and discreetly handing it to her.

She rips the packet open to dab at her eyes (so embarrassing—she hates it that when she gets mad, she cries), “And you were the smart one.”

Touya shrugs, “Not necessarily. You were definitely the good one though.”

Fuyumi sniffs, and Touya carefully pulls her into a hug. She buries her face in her brother’s shoulder (god, and Rumi-san is still here too—what does she think about this whole mess?).

“You want to go home?” Touya murmurs.

Fuyumi nods, and Touya gestures to Hawks hovering at the side, and he quickly moves forward to gently prop Fuyumi up onto his back, “Hold on tight,” Hawks says quietly.

Fuyumi looks back at Miruko, “Rumi-san—sorry for all this.”

“Hey, it’s no problem,” Miruko quickly reassures her, “I definitely won’t be working with Endeavor anytime soon. Besides—looks like you didn’t even need my help! You ever thought about going into the pro-hero business yourself?”

Fuyumi weakly chuckles at the thought (don’t they have enough pro-heroes in the family? Besides—her quirk had never really been thought of as anything—they shouldn’t have even been in a situation where it was needed—) before she’s sobbing again, and Miruko looks stricken.

“Oh my god, I didn’t mean—I’m sorry, that was really tasteless, wasn’t it? I’m so sorry, Fuyumi-san, please don’t cry, I’ll never mention it again—do you want me to grovel, I will totally grovel—”

“It’s okay,” Fuyumi says, choking down her sobs and placing a hand on Touya’s shoulder (she can feel his icy glare at Rumi-san without even looking up, and god knows Rumi-san doesn’t deserve any of that), “It’s not your fault, I’m just—I don’t know what’s wrong with me—”

“You’re fine, you’re good, let’s go home,” Hawks suggests, “Touya can make you some congee, and I can nip out and get you some ice cream, how’s that?”

“Or you guys could stay with her, and I can go buy some ice cream?” Miruko asks, her ears standing at attention, “Just text me the address, and I’ll get there as fast as I can.”

“Fuyumi,” Touya says, looking down at her, “What do you think?”

She manages to nod, “I’d—I’d like to go home with you guys—and if it’s not too much trouble for Rumi-san —after troubling her so much already—”

“It’s no trouble at all, seriously!” Miruko interrupts quickly, bouncing on the balls of her feet, “It’s the least I can do for upsetting you so much…”

“Alright, then, hold on tight?” Hawks says, hiking Fuyumi up on his back, “Touya, you want me to fly back for you?”

Touya glances at Fuyumi then shakes his head, “No, I’ll take the train; you just get her home safe and keep her company. Besides—Miruko and I here need to have a talk.”

Hawks shakes his head fondly, “Be nice,” he calls out before taking off.

Fuyumi lets the breeze fill her mind for a few minutes before she rewinds what Touya said and frowns, “You don’t think Touya will be too mean to Rumi-san, will you?”

“Miruko’s tough, she’ll be fine. Besides, you know how Touya is,” Hawks calls out, wings steadily flapping, “He nearly made Izuku-kun cry right after Shouto and him got together.”

“Izuku-kun doesn’t deserve that! And—both of you have the entirely wrong idea about Rumi-san,” Fuyumi says indignantly.

“I really don’t think we do,” Hawks says as they land at her mother’s house, and the two of them walk in.

Her mother looks up from the table where she has a number of different reports spread out, “Hawks, Fuyumi—what’s wrong?”

Fuyumi scrubs at her face and tries to smile, “Nothing’s wrong, mother, I just—made a mistake, that’s all.”

Her mother stands up and quickly crosses the room to rub her arms, “Fuyumi—if you don’t want to say, that’s fine, but whoever upset you this much—Hawks, you will go deal with them, appropriately?”

“Oh, we’re on it,” Hawks says darkly, going into the bathroom to wet a facecloth and bring it out for her.

“It’s not—Touya and Hawks have it all handled,” Fuyumi says dully, wiping her face with the wet cloth, “I’m—I’ll get over it.”

(Like I always do.)

Her mother’s eyes narrow, “…is this about your father?”

Fuyumi’s head jerks up, “You knew?”

“Touya consulted me on what exactly to release, and—Natsu mentioned some things about you talking to him,” her mother’s hands clench, her eyes moving between her and Hawks, “You aren’t hurt are you?”

“It didn’t come to that.”

She can feel the frost form on her mother’s hands, “But it could have?”

“Touya was watching the whole time, and Fuyumi threw up an ice wall so none of us really had to get involved in the end,” Hawks supplies.

“It shouldn’t have been necessary for any of you to get involved that way,” her mother says, her voice shaded with rare anger.

“I’m—I’m really okay, mother,” Fuyumi tries to reassure her, patting her mother’s hand.

(She is, right?)

Her mother looks worriedly at her before drawing her into a deep hug, “Oh my darling girl, I know you always say you are,” she sighs, tucking Fuyumi’s head into the crook of her neck, “My brave girl.”

Fuyumi feels her eyes prick with tears again as she clutches her mother’s back (so pathetic, she just keeps on crying), “I’m—I’m not. Brave.”

“What do you call walking in there on your own?” Hawks asks.

“Stupid,” Fuyumi replies.

“Gutsy,” Hawks insists, coming forward and placing a hand on her shoulder, “And anyone who wants to say otherwise can go through me.”

“They’ll have to go through me first,” Touya says, coming in through the door and closing it behind him, taking off his coat.

“Thanks, but—where’s Rumi-san?” Fuyumi asks.

Touya snorts, coming over to pat her on the head, “She’s fine; even I can’t take on the #5 hero by myself.”

“What did you say to her?”

(She doesn’t need Rumi-san to think that she’s even weirder than she is—although after today, Rumi-san probably won’t want to deal with her mess anymore.)

“Nothing bad, just letting her know that besides me and Hawks, you also have Natsu and Shouto—who is increasingly OP—and Sonomi-chan could probably read out something awful if she was motivated enough too,” Touya says with a shrug.

Fuyumi groans, covering her face with her hands, “You are going to give her the entirely wrong impression—”

“That you have people who care about you who know how to deal with pro-heroes?”

“Rumi-san is nothing like—” Fuyumi’s mouth clicks shut.

“Endeavor?” Touya asks softly, “No—she’s not. Still—I wanted her to know.”

“Well—it’s not like she’s going to want to deal with all this now anyway,” Fuyumi says, gesturing at herself.

“If she doesn’t, she’s not the woman I thought she was,” her mother says firmly.

Fuyumi shakes her head, “It’s not that, it’s—I told her how much I believed he should get a chance, and now—”

(And now she would see her for what she always is: someone who never learns and digs herself in far too deep.)

“Just because he blew his chance doesn’t mean you were wrong to give him one,” her mother says, taking her hands in her own.

“You don’t—blame me?” Fuyumi asks, looking up at her mother.

Her mother frowns, “Blame you? For what?”

“For not coming to talk to you about it before going there,” she says quietly, looking down, “I should have—I should have asked you what you thought about all of it. Whether or not you thought I should.”

(After all, who more than their mother had suffered at the hands of their father?)

“Fuyumi—while I would have perhaps preferred that you had come to talk to me about it, if it was something that you felt was necessary, that you had to do—if you hadn’t done so, you would always be asking what if, wouldn’t you? I think—it was a necessary course of action,” her mother says softly, looking her in the eye.

Fuyumi shakes her head, “I still don’t think—it was right.”

“We rarely ever know what is right until things are done, but it was brave,” her mother repeats, holding her hand tightly, “It was brave, and you are not stupid to try and see the best in people.”

(She wants so badly to believe that, but—

Today’s events piled on top of everything else have been a lot.)

Fuyumi buries her head in her mother’s shoulder as her mother makes soothing sounds and cards her hand through her hair, “It’ll be alright, Fuyumi. Touya’s making congee right now, I still have some agadashi tofu in the fridge—oh, and here’s Miruko with ice cream!”

Fuyumi jerks up to see Miruko striding through the door with a large plastic bag in her hands, “Sorry, it took a while—wanted to make sure I got the right flavors,” she says cheerfully as she places the bag on the kitchen table and takes out pints of red bean, cookies and cream, and avocado flavored ice cream.

“Oh—you got all my favorites,” Fuyumi says, trying to straighten out her hair (oh god her face must be super red and puffy from all the crying right now) and walking over to take a look.

 “Yeah!” Miruko beams at her, “You’ve mentioned them before, and I thought—well, that you definitely deserve them right now.”

Fuyumi flushes (she had mentioned it in her texts with Rumi-san before, but for her to still remember—), “Oh, you really—you really shouldn’t have, Rumi-san.”

“How nice, Miruko,” her mother says, smiling as she also comes over to look, “You treat my daughter so well.”

“I try,” Miruko says, rubbing the back of her neck, “Really, Fuyumi-san, I’m sorry about earlier—”

“You have nothing to apologize for more, I was just—overwrought,” Fuyumi hastens to tell her, “You’ve already helped so much. Really, I have caused you too much trouble.”

“What’s the trouble in helping someone as cool as you?” Miruko asks easily, leaning forward, “If you need anything else—anything at all—even if it involves Endeavor, just let me know. And—don’t feel bad about what happened. It’s not your fault your dad’s a total asshole.”

Fuyumi helplessly smiles back (get a grip, Fuyumi, you can’t get used to this. One day, she’ll leave, and then you’ll just have to figure out how to rely on yourself again and talk yourself through all those yawning dark too-long nights where you’re this close to falling to pieces and no one is there to catch you), “Oh, you’re really—far too kind, Rumi-san.”

Miruko smiles back, “I’m really not, but—well, here, let me scoop out the ice cream.”

“And the congee will be done in like another thirty minutes—just have to wait for everything to pressurize,” Touya calls out from the kitchen.

“It’s going to be a weird combination, ice cream and congee,” Natsuo says, walking in through the door and wrinkling his nose.

“Natsu? Don’t you have class?” Fuyumi asks, looking at him.

“Touya texted me, and it’s fine, I can decipher Kuroo-senpai’s notes later. You okay?” he asks, looking her directly in the eye.

“I’m fine, you should worry more about your biochemistry class,” Fuyumi insists, handing him a bowl of ice cream.

“Biochemistry may murder me, but my sister should only have to confront our shitstain father once,” Natsuo declares, taking the bowl and sitting down, “Well none of you look that worse for the wear—did he actually manage to restrain himself?”

“Your awesome sister threw up an ice wall before he could do any damage,” Miruko says, her tone nearly—proud?

(To have Rumi-san, top female pro-hero actually impressed with her—

It’s a good feeling.)

“Wow,” Natsuo whistles, setting the bowl down, “Please tell me he got frostburn. Or that the sparks caught his clothes on fire or something.”

“Natsu!” Fuyumi chides, “You really think I could hurt a pro-hero?”

“I’ve seen Hawks cowering in front of you before,” Natsuo says, tapping his spoon against his mouth thoughtfully.

“She’s truly terrifying when she wants K/DA tickets,” Hawks confirms from the kitchen.

“That was just because you were claiming that you wanted to take your interns instead of me!” Fuyumi protests.

“Don’t you want the children of tomorrow to have good music taste, Fuyumi?” Hawks wheedles, coming out of the kitchen.

“Yes, but if you took them, they’d all become Evelynn stans!” Fuyumi wrinkles her nose, “As if we need any more of those.”

“That only proves that Evelynn is better since you have to block me for them to become Ahri stans,” Hawks says smugly, his feathers helping Touya carry bowls of congee out of the kitchen.

“If you guys start fighting about this again, I’m confiscating the ice cream,” Touya says, coming out of the kitchen and shucking his apron off.

“So the plan is on then?” Natsuo asks, spinning in his seat to look at Touya.

“Ready to go. Probably will release everything next week, right when they’re planning to air that special on him,” Touya says with a dark sneer before turning to look at Fuyumi and their mother, “…if that’s alright with you.”

“I am ready,” their mother says calmly, glancing at Fuyumi, “But do you need more time, Fuyumi?”

(Does she?

What is there left to really contemplate?

She gave him a chance, and he—did not want it.

So let Touya and her mother and all the rest of them finally have the justice they have been waiting for.)

“…no. Go ahead,” Fuyumi says steadily, looking up at Touya, “Tear him down.”

Touya’s mouth curves into a sinister smile, “Gladly.”

--

The reveal of all of Endeavor’s brutal treatment of their mother, Touya, and Shouto comes out and completely drowns out the special that had been premiering at the same time. Arrest warrants were delivered within the next few days, and within a week their father is jail, awaiting trial.

(Fuyumi thinks that Touya’s boss probably has something to do with how fast the justice system was suddenly working for them, but at least it actually is working for them for once.)

The media attention is—

There had been a lot of it right after the divorce when they were younger, but back then they were tiny, and that had more or less shielded them. Now, she has reporters leaping out of bushes, trying to interview her, and the rest of her family is not much better off, besides Touya who is putting all his covert ops skills into good use.

Natsuo and Fuyumi are currently holed up in the guest room of Touya and Hawks’ penthouse (it’s kind of like being a kid and sharing a room with him all over again, except with more volleyballs and a cooler gaming system), and their mother has taken a sabbatical to Kinosaki, where hopefully no one will follow.

Shouto thankfully is in the new U.A. dorms whose security rivals that of Hawks’ penthouse and some military fortresses, so there’s not much to worry about there, although she does specifically take the time to make a trip down to his dorm to see how he’s holding up about it.

“It’s fine, it’s what he deserved,” Shouto says with a shrug.

“And—you’re not bothered about it?” Fuyumi asks carefully, “Your classmates aren’t bothering you about it?”

“Not really. I think Izuku told them something,” Shouto says with a pensive look, “Bakugou made some shitty comment, but that’s per usual.”

“Shouto,” she chides.

Shouto rolls his eyes, “…a bad comment, happy now?”

“You were so much cuter when you were tiny. Touya’s such a bad influence on you,” she sighs.

“Touya’s the best influence on me,” Shouto argues back seriously, “If it wasn’t for his training, I don’t think we could have caught Stain.”

“Okay, I still haven’t forgiven Jinnai-chan for that,” Fuyumi says with a shudder (god, that call on the heels of watching the fires from Nomu attack on Hosu on T.V. had been enough to give her nightmares for months), “She should have kept an eye on you.”

“She was busy with rescue efforts,” Shouto points out.

“What’s the point of super speed if you can’t multi-task and watch over your intern?” Fuyumi grumbles.

“It turned out okay in the end, didn’t it?” Shouto says peacefully, “One villain grabbed and stuck in jail. Just like this will.”

(She wishes she had his confidence or his lack of nervousness about the whole matter.)

“You’re sure you’re okay with all of it?” she repeats, “It’s—a lot of attention on all of us, I know.”

“It’s necessary for him to go to jail, isn’t it? I’m sorry your idea didn’t work, but—I’m glad he won’t be popping up anymore,” Shouto says slowly, “He would always say the worst things about Touya and Hawks. And he hated Izuku.”

“Izuku-kun?” Fuyumi furrows her eyebrows (the part about Touya and Hawks didn’t surprise her, as much as it left a bad taste in her mouth, but besides Bakugou, who is a little heathen, she could never understand why anyone would ever hate adorable little Izuku-kun), “Why on earth would he hate him?”

“He’s All Might’s protégée. He was really mad about that, said I was fraternizing with the enemy,” Shouto says with another shrug and a quirk of his mouth.

“Well, that’s just ridiculous. Izuku-kun is the sweetest boy, and it’s the best thing All Might ever did, taking him under his wing,” Fuyumi declares.

“Yeah,” Shouto agrees, a soft smile playing on his lips before he quirks his eyebrows, “I heard Miruko helped you out?”

“Yes, she has,” Fuyumi nods.

(Really, that’s the understatement of the year.

Besides everything Miruko did to help her with her disastrous conversation with her father, since the big reveal, Miruko has constantly been escorting her to and from work, keeping most of the press at bay, although now there’s rampant speculation about their relationship.

Miruko has been really good at just giving a smile and firm denials, and Fuyumi—should really not feel upset about that at all.

They aren’t together, even if they’re texting each other all the time, and Hawks is asking if he can count them on his matchmaking tally, Touya is telling her tricks that he and Hawks use to go incognito on dates together, Natsuo is adamantly declaring that even if she goes out with Rumi-san, Hawks is still his favorite in-law, and now Shouto implying things.

Even her mother called and asked if she should invite Miruko over for dinner after everything died down a bit, and when Fuyumi had said that she was misunderstanding what was happening, her mother had simply said in an innocent tone that Miruko had helped so much, of course she deserved a dinner—although if she wanted anything else, her mother would hope that Miruko would be clear about the matter.

It was all—

She’s in a really emotional state right now, and she doesn’t need more confusion on top of everything.)

“The gossip about you two the past few days has overshadowed some of Endeavor’s stuff,” Shouto continues, glancing at her.

“The press is easily distracted; they’ll go back to proper news when they realize there’s nothing there,” Fuyumi says tightly.

“Touya already put the fear of god into her, and Natsu also gave her a call, but I still need to have a conversation with her,” Shouto muses.

Fuyumi shakes her head, “All of you are being ridiculous. Didn’t you already hear her clear up everything with the press? Multiple times?”

“Probably because she knows you don’t want the publicity,” Shouto points out calmly.

“I’m done trying to read into things that aren’t there,” Fuyumi says firmly

And that is easy to say, but so hard to actually do though, since after work one day, Miruko surprises her with a brand new collector’s edition of the brand new anime of Whispering Love.

“Oh my god, where did you get this from? I thought they were all sold out!” Fuyumi says, carefully smoothing a hand down the colorful, shiny box featuring Sayuri, Ryuuzaki, and Yukito.

“Ryuko-chan got multiple from a fan, and she gave me one, but I thought you would appreciate it more,” Miruko says with a big grin.

Fuyumi hugs the box to herself and beams back, “Thank you so much Rumi-san! Have you watched any of it yet?”

Miruko’s smile widens, “Not yet. I was hoping—would you mind watching it with me? I read through some of it, but I feel like it’d be more fun watching with a die-hard fan—”

“Of course I’d love to!” Fuyumi says, quickly ushering her into the penthouse apartment, “Your first Whispering Love experience should definitely be on the projector—let me just make sure that Natsu isn’t slacking off and playing video games on it again.”

However it seemed like Natsuo was off properly studying somewhere, so Fuyumi could carefully open up the box, slide the DVD in, and turn the projector on.

(If it feels dangerously close to a date, well—

Look, Whispering Love deserves the best possible presentation, and Rumi-san deserved to watch a masterpiece.)

Miruko cheerfully plops herself down on the couch, and they are soon happily watching all the drama Sayuri, Ryuuzaki, and Yukito get into.

About three episodes in, her phone buzzes, and she pulls it out, glances at it, and her heart stutters a bit.

            natsuki: hey, heard about your dad, and just wanted to check and see if you’re okay.

(That’s—the first time Natsuki has ever texted her since she had tearfully told her that her boyfriend had given her an ultimatum and that she was sorry, but she wasn’t going to be meeting up with or texting her anymore.

Fuyumi’s first reaction is to just ignore it—what, after this long, suddenly she cares?

Is she a dog to just roll over at any sign of kindness?

But on the other hand—on the other hand, Natsuki seems to be reaching out, and it would be polite to just respond right?)

>        fuyumi: im okay, thanks for asking

            natsuki: oh good, i’m glad

            natsuki: if you want to talk about it though, just let me know, and we can get bubble tea sometime?

(What—what is that?

She—wasn’t all of this, all those tears, all that stress, wasn’t it because she had a boyfriend she loved so much?)

            fuyumi: …wont your bf get mad?

            natsuki: oh we broke up

“Something wrong, Fuyumi-san?” Miruko asks, looking worriedly at her.

Fuyumi glances up at her from her phone, “I—it’s just a—a friend. Of sorts.”

“Of sorts?” Miruko parrots back, raising her eyebrows, “Like a friend of friend? Or a family acquaintance? Or is it one of those annoying friends you can’t really spend more than thirty minutes with before you want to leave?”

“That’s—oddly specific,” Fuyumi says, setting her phone down on her lap.

“Well, you know—Wash is really an acquired taste,” Miruko says with a wave of her hand, “Edgeshot can be a bit much too. And Best Jeanist—geez, I always have to make sure either Hawks or Ryukyu are there for him to focus on, or else he’ll try to stuff a jean leotard on me.”

Fuyumi chuckles, “Don’t you believe that heroes should stand on their own and that teammates are for pussies?” she teases.

“In a fight, yeah, but in a fashion disaster setting, I’ll take all the help I can get,” Miruko laughs, “So, what kind of friend has you actually distracted from Whispering Love?”

“Ah—it’s—honestly, it’s kind of—embarrassing to say,” Fuyumi says, tucking a strand of her hair back.

(It—really wouldn’t paint her in a good light, would it?

But—Rumi-san has already seen her at her most humiliated, so really this—wouldn’t be that much more would it?

And Fuyumi really would like to talk to her about it.)

“I—had an upperclassman that I met in college. She was really nice—she was an editor of the literary journal. We got along really well—maybe too well? Her boyfriend got—I guess, jealous, and so—she stopped hanging out with me. Or talking to me. Until now,” Fuyumi says, fiddling with the phone in her lap, “They—broke up apparently, so now it’s okay for her to talk to me.”

Miruko stills, her ears flattening, “Oh. That’s—do you want to talk to her?”

(Does she?

If this had happened a year ago, when she had still been smarting with the hurt and pain, she probably would have leapt at this chance.

Now though—now she’s wondering if they had ever really counted as friends?

Like Natsuki had listened to her and comforted her through things, but when the chips came down, she had left, and she had only come back when it was convenient for her.

And even when they had been friends—Fuyumi still isn’t sure if it was her own wishful thinking or if Sonomi was right that Natsuki had always been giving mixed signals before and after she had gotten a boyfriend, so—

No, she doesn’t want to really.

Not when she’s with someone who she really likes and has actually been there for her this entire time.)

“No, I—I don’t know if I was just being dumb or if Sonomi was right and she was always giving mixed signals, but I—really don’t want to go through all that again,” Fuyumi confesses, looking up at Miruko.

Miruko relaxes, her ears lifting again, “Oh—yeah, of course, I get that.”

“I feel like—I’m passing too much of the blame onto her though,” Fuyumi says, “Really—even when she had a boyfriend, I also took up so much of her time.”

“That was her choice too, wasn’t it?” Miruko says, crossing her arms, “Really—first off, she should have broken up with him in the first place! That’s such a scummy move, just straight up banning someone—and now she wants to talk to you again? I don’t know her, but it does sound like she’s jerking you around a little.”

Fuyumi bites her lip, “We were—a little ambiguous—”

“Then she should have made it clear,” Miruko says firmly, “She should have set better boundaries, but instead she just wanted to have her cake and eat it too. And besides—I’m sorry, but she has shit taste if she chose him over you.”

(And wasn’t that what she had always wanted?

Someone who actually saw her, understood her, and still chose to stay?

And—hasn’t Rumi-san been doing that this entire time?

She has already seen her at her worst, and—she’s still here, watching Fuyumi’s favorite show with her despite not knowing anything about it.)

“…I really like you, Rumi-san,” slips out of her mouth before she can help it, and she slaps a hand over her mouth in horror.

(She didn’t—she didn’t just say that out loud, did she?

Oh god, she did, and now—now she’s ruined everything again.)

The happy music of the anime is blaring in the background in complete contrast to the utter nausea rolling around in her stomach, and she doesn’t even want to look up to see what Miruko’s expression must be right now.

(Any minute now, she’s just going to laugh or leave, and Fuyumi can’t decide which option is worse.)

However, Miruko’s voice just shakily asks, “Can—can you repeat that? Just to make sure I’m not—imagining things.”

“I’m—I’m sorry, Rumi-san, that was inappropriate, I really shouldn’t have—presumed or said anything—can you just forget I said it?” Fuyumi babbles through her hands on her face.

Miruko’s hand gently grasps one of hers and tugs it down so that she can look her in the eye, and Miruko is—smiling?

“Sorry, but no can do. I make it a point to try and remember everything you say,” Miruko says, her eyes soft, and her hand seems to be—trembling?

“You aren’t—you’re not mad?” Fuyumi asks, her hands slowly sliding off of her face.

“Mad? Why would I be mad that the girl I like also likes me?” Miruko asks, her smile wider than Fuyumi has ever seen it.

(She has to be dreaming.)

“You—like me?” she manages to squeak out.

Miruko nods, a flush growing on her dark cheeks, “Yeah, I really, really do.”

“But you—you could have anyone you want! Why would you pick—me?”

Miruko’s brow scrunches up, “Who wouldn’t want you?”

“Lots of people,” Fuyumi admits, her hands wringing together.

“Then they were all idiots,” Miruko says stoutly, “Although—I guess I’m lucky they were because otherwise—I wouldn’t get a chance with you now.”

“But—you told the press that—that we were just good friends!”

Miruko scratches the back of her neck, “Oh—I didn’t realize—I mean, I hadn’t asked you out yet, so—I had no idea you wanted me to tell them anything. Do you—I can get my manager to come up with a press release tonight, or do you want me to buy up some airtime and ask you out there—”

“No, no, nothing like that! I just—I can’t quite believe this is actually happening,” Fuyumi softly confesses.

(Hasn’t she dreamed something like this before?

And for Rumi-san, so strong and hot and completely out of her league to actually return her feelings—

She’s feeling a bit faint.)

Miruko’s smile grows wider as she reaches forward to tuck a strand of Fuyumi’s hair behind her ear, “Fuyumi-san, would you like to go out with me? I have tickets to a special Ahri meet-and-greet next week.”

“I—I would love to,” Fuyumi manages to get out, tentatively curling her hand around so that Miruko’s fingers are intertwined with her own.

Miruko tightens her grasp on Fuyumi’s hand and leans in and murmurs, “Am I going too fast if I say I really want to kiss you right now?”

(There’s really only one answer Fuyumi can give to that question.)

Fuyumi surges forward and presses her lips against Miruko’s, and Miruko lets out a small surprised noise before winding her arms around Fuyumi’s waist and kissing her back hard. Soon, Fuyumi is pressed back into the couch, arms hooked around Miruko’s neck, and everything is absolutely wonderful.

“I didn’t realize I also had to tell you about the ‘no making-out on our couch’ rule, Fuyumi,” Touya’s voice suddenly dryly sounds from behind them.

Fuyumi and Miruko break apart to see Hawks gently thwacking Touya’s shoulder with his wing, “Touya, let them have their moment! It’s definitely earned.”

“I’m happy for both of you, but you can definitely have your moment somewhere that is not a shared space,” Touya says, pushing Hawks’ wing out of his face.

“Uh—really sorry about that, Dabi—um, we’ll just—” Miruko stutters, glancing at Fuyumi for help.

Fuyumi draws herself up and tries to neaten up her mussed hair as best she can, “Please, neither of you can lecture us. I don’t even want to know all the places you guys have made out in. And plus—we’re still watching Whispering Love!”

“Wow, okay, if I had known that all it would take to get you guys together was a little Whispering Love, I would have hosted a marathon of it like immediately after the sports festival,” Hawks says, walking over and propping his elbows on the back of the couch to look at the T.V.

Touya snorts, “Funny, I’m pretty sure you were paying more attention to other things. Well—either ways, the press is still massing outside, you two can’t leave yet, so I guess Miruko can stay for dinner.”

“Really?” Miruko asks eagerly, glancing from Touya back to Fuyumi.

“Yep, we’re having curry fried rice,” Hawks says, “And—come on Touya, you have to stick in some kind of carrot-themed dish now.”

Touya rolls his eyes, walking towards the kitchen, “I’ll chop some carrots into the curry, happy?”

“Exceedingly,” Hawks chirps, following after Touya before turning to give a shit-eating grin at Fuyumi, “Wait until I text Natsu and Shouto about this—this is going to be fun.”

“Hawks, I swear, you know I still haven’t told Touya about how you used to steal his hoodies from the laundry—”

“Mm, too late, already texted them,” Hawks says, holding up his phone, “And I still do that, so I don’t think he’d care now?”

“He claims he needs them to make a nest when I’m not here,” Touya calls out from the kitchen, “Tell Natsu that if he’s coming over, he better not also be hauling over all of his laundry after not washing it for weeks.”

Fuyumi sighs and looks up and Miruko, still holding her hand, “Sorry Rumi-san, but you’re going to have to go through a family dinner now.”

“I would like nothing better,” Miruko declares, looking down at Fuyumi with a smile, “Any trials would be worth it. And—if you want to call me just Rumi now—I’m fine with that.”

Fuyumi leans closer to whisper in her ear, “I’m so happy, Rumi.”

And even Hawks’ cooing, Touya’s pointed looks only softened by the heaping of carrots he puts in Miruko’s plate, Natsuo’s interrogation, and Shouto’s smug look can’t ruin any of that as Miruko handles it all with aplomb and constantly keeps looking back at her and shyly smiling.

Her mother congratulates her over the phone later, and that night Miruko kisses her goodnight before heading off to leave.

“I promise I’ll make a press release tonight,” she says, giving her hand another squeeze.

“You don’t have to do anything like that!” Fuyumi protests.

“I mean—if you don’t want it, and you want to try to avoid the press and keep things under wraps, I’m fine with it. Or if you want to go public, I can just keep escorting you to and from work, it’s not an issue,” Miruko says, swinging their hands together.

(It’s dizzying how happy Miruko makes her.)

“I—next time, if you—want to answer their questions—you can,” Fuyumi says, her face hot.

Miruko beams at her and gives her another peck, “I’ll tell them that I’m so lucky to be dating you now.”

Fuyumi leans into her kiss before stepping back and giving her a light push, “Go, before Hawks starts his spiel about how he’s a matchmaking god.”

“Way too late,” Miruko groans, rolling her eyes, “Well—see you tomorrow?”

“Yes. And—I really like you, Rumi,” Fuyumi says (it just keeps spilling out of her mouth).

Miruko smiles back, “I really like you too, Fuyumi.”

(And even if she has been unlucky in love before—she thinks it has all been worth it to meet this wonderful, brave, sweet, strong woman.)

Chapter Text

“So,” Touya says, looking at the mass of his coats Hawks has piled onto their bed, “Did your nesting instinct activate or something? I wasn’t gone that long this time.”

(This after all, isn’t the first time he’s come home to Hawks having created a nest of his clothes on their bed, but usually it’s only after a long mission.

Also, usually it’s just a shirt or hoodie or sweatshirt, but this time, it’s like all of his coolest trenchcoats.)

Hawks pouts at him, “It’s not like that this time! There’s this costume contest Takahiro wants the whole agency to do—and this year the theme is goth, and I thought, wow, I’m so lucky that my boyfriend is the edgiest of edgelords, but you have way too many coats, and I can’t choose.”

Touya chuckles, sorting out the coats so that they aren’t in one wild mess, “Well—I do have a boyfriend who keeps buying new ones for me.”

Hawks sighs, staring at all the coats, his feathers dragging a few of the coats up so he can better look at them, “Because you look so hot in them,” he says wistfully, “But I’m not sure which one I would look good in.”

Touya grins, drawing out a black coat with slashes of red through it and holding it up against Hawks, “What about this one? It’ll match your wings.”

Hawks’ wings flutter around him as he examines it, “Oh, this is the one that you bought for that Blast fanmeet, right?”

“Yes,” Touya says (although—really he had bought it because the color had reminded him of Hawks’ wings), “You want to try it on?”

“It’ll rip up the back,” Hawks warns.

Touya shrugs, “I can just staple it up again—might add some character to the jacket.”

“You are such an edgelord,” Hawks laughs, taking one of his feathers and carefully slicing through the back of the jacket.

“You love it,” Touya points out, kissing Hawks’ forehead before helping him into the jacket.

“That I do,” Hawks says, moving his wings so that they neatly fan across his face as he blows him a kiss before spinning around, “How do I look?”

“Edgy,” Touya says deadpan.

Hawks swats him with his wing, “Very descriptive, Touya. No, I mean, seriously.”

Touya considers his boyfriend. The coat is a bit long on him, and the shoulders are a bit tight, but it’s nothing Honda couldn’t adjust, and the red at the collar and the sleeves did make Hawks’ wings pop out even more.

Besides, since when did Hawks ever not look unfairly attractive?

“You’ll need more eyeliner,” Touya comments, popping the collar of the jacket a bit more.

Hawks nods, considering himself in the mirror, “You think I should dye my hair black—”

“No,” Touya says immediately (he loves Hawks’ golden hair that matches his honey-colored eyes).

Hawks raises his eyebrows at him, and Touya quickly backtracks (that’s kind of an asshole thing to say right? Controlling even), “I mean—if you want to, you obviously can. It’s your hair, after all. You can do whatever you want with it.”

“But you have a thing for blondes, so you’d prefer me not to change it?” Hawks drawls, moving forward and hooking his hands around the back of Touya’s neck.

“I have a thing for one blonde,” Touya corrects him, wrapping his own arms around Hawks’ waist, “And—I’ve never seen you with any other hair color, so it could be interesting.”

Hawks grins at him, “I’ll think about it. It’s really a pity the contest is only open for pro-heroes—otherwise, we could just enter you and take home the prize.”

“What’s the prize?” Touya asks, brushing Hawks’ hair out of his eyes.

“Team trip to Hawaii with first class flights,” Hawks says blandly.

Touya immediately releases Hawks to pull out his phone, “We’ll get Honda over here stat to fix you up,” he says, texting her.

“You want to go on a tropical vacation that badly, baby?” Hawks asks, fluttering up to lean against his back and look over his shoulder at his phone. “You could have told me—I would have booked the tickets immediately.”

“With your schedule? No way,” Touya says, setting his phone down as Honda sends over a series of exclamation points and a scrolling series of texts of ideas. “The #1 hero can’t get away much—but you definitely deserve a break, and if it’s your entire team and your manager on board, then you’ll actually get a vacation instead of getting constant calls.”

“Yeah,” Hawks sighs, drawing a hand through his hair, “I can’t wait for Izuku-kun or Shouto to take the spot from me.”

“You say that, and yet I don’t see you going easy on them,” Touya comments.

“Are you kidding me? The two of them would know, and then Izuku-kun would cry, and then Shouto would go after me,” Hawks shudders.

“You can take him,” Touya says, patting him on his back.

“While he’s enraged that I made Izuku-kun cry? You’ll have to defend me, Touya,” Hawks insists, tugging on his sleeves with a grin. “You’ll have to fight against your youngest brother for me.”

“Haven’t I already done that?” Touya points out, smiling down at him. “Every time you said All Might was over-hyped—”

“The ultimate All Might fanboys,” Hawks says, shaking his head, before picking up his own vibrating phone. “Oh—wow, Honda has lots of ideas.”

“As long as you have Honda, you’ll win,” Touya says confidently.

“I just can’t be shown up by my intern,” Hawks sighs, scrolling through Honda’s texts, “He’s very edgy.”

“You were the one who called dibs on him,” Touya points out, amused.

“And I don’t regret it, but I can’t let an intern beat me. I hear he wants to impress a boy,” Hawks says, taking off the coat.

“Oh? Well—I suppose edgy coats are the way to go then. You always seemed to like them,” Touya says, taking the coat from Hawks and hanging it up.

“Mmm, that time Honda made you a villain costume and had you go shirtless under that coat? My god,” Hawks says, fanning himself, “I can’t believe you didn’t figure out how I felt then.”

“How was I supposed to know that it was me and not the coat?” Touya asks, pulling Hawks into him.

Hawks rubs his head into Touya’s chest, “It was a nice coat, but I like the guy wearing it the best,” he says, looking up at him, “Especially when he’s shirtless and mine.”

Touya chuckles, reaching back and stripping off his shirt in one clean sweep, “Well—a repeat performance can be arranged for a certain pretty bird,” he says with a low voice, his eyes pinned on Hawks.

Hawks takes his shirt and tosses it into the hamper before wrapping his arms around Dabi’s neck and pushing him back onto the bed, clambering on top of him and licking his lips, “I can’t wait, hot stuff.”

--

“Your boy is going to win,” Honda says happily, frantically going through the settings on her camera, “I got that Abyss Kai’sa costume and modified it for him, added your coat in, made some modifications, and then I stuck some streaks in his hair, so he’s going to look so good.”

“You just want him to win so you can go to Hawaii with Rin,” Touya says languidly.

“I mean yeah? What’s not to like about lounging around in a resort while your girlfriends frolick about in the sea and maybe you get to test out some underwater tech?” Honda asks as Edgeshot takes the stage to cheers. “Even you probably would like to swim with the sea-turtles or something.”

“…I guess I could teach Hawks how to swim,” Touya says, consideringly.

“He doesn’t know how to?”

“He’s got wings. Have you ever seen a rain-drenched pigeon? He kind of looks like that in a pool,” Touya points out.

“He’s still going to have wings in Hawaii,” Honda points out.

“But it’s in a safe enough space that if he wants to, he can shed all his feathers,” Touya says, his mouth quirking up. “It’ll be—fun.”

(He thinks that Hawks will love swimming with sea turtles, and of course, he looks forward to just seeing Hawks relaxed and sprawled out in the sun.

He on the other hand, will probably find some shady area where he can just sip fresh coconut juice or something.

None of his family deals especially well with tropical weather, but for a relaxed, safe place for Hawks to unwind, Touya will just lather on the sunscreen while making sure that Hawks also has put on enough sunscreen.

And if he spots any reporters, he’ll throw them straight into the pool.)

“I can’t imagine you in a tropical environment,” Honda comments, tilting her head and looking at him. “Do you need me to build you a portable cooling device?”

“You mean like a fan?” Touya says with a roll of his eyes. “I’ll be fine, it’s not like I’m a vampire or something.”

“Could have fooled me,” Mahou says, walking up and pointedly gesturing at his pants that have staples slashed across them.

Touya arches an eyebrow at her, “You’re calling me out on my clothes?” he asks, eyeing her leather jacket and boots.

“She’s just happy you’re not competing so that Shinsou-kun will have a chance at ranking,” Iida says cheerfully, rolling up.

“Oh, is he competing in this?” Touya asks, looking around. “Where’s Tenya-kun then?”

“Helping him with his costume,” Iida says.

“He doesn’t really need any help, but you know what Tenya is like,” Mahou says with a shrug.

“Looks like he did well,” Touya notes as Shinsou drops from the ceiling of the stage with his capture scarf now dyed black, black half-mask on, eyeliner on point, and a costume that had enough black and clockwork on it for him to probably have asked Monoma for help at some point.

They all cheer for him, Iida hollering and waving a banner, Mahou clapping loudly, Honda whistling, and Touya clapping as well.

(They have to support their intern after all.)

“It’s definitely going to be a toss-up between him and Tokoyami,” Touya comments.

“Shinsou-kun’s going to win, I helped him with putting together that costume,” Honda says confidently.

“If only we could have also recruited Tokoyami onto our team,” Mahou says wistfully.

“Hawks would have thrown a fit,” Touya comments. “He really wanted to make one whole bird.”

“He’s a bird, that would never fly,” Honda points out with a grin.

Touya winces, “You’ve spent far too much time with Hawks.”

“And speaking of the man, he’s finally here!” Honda cheers.

Hawks lands on the stage, wings hiding his form. When he unfurls his wings, Touya’s breath catches as the audience screams its approval.

Hawks has on Touya’s black coat that fits him like a glove, full of belts and buckles that emphasize his lean, muscled form, new red embroidery in metal thread across the slashes of red on the coat in a feather pattern, and it peeks open to reveal his bare chest. His eyes are rimmed with khol and a hint of red eyeshadow. He’s got on fingerless gloves that he runs through his hair that now has red streaks dyed in it, and then he tugs at the earrings in his ear before throwing out a wink and a smoldering glance that Touya knows is meant for him.

(He—

Hawks is always hot, but right now, it’s like he walked out of one of Touya’s more interesting dreams.)

“By the way, took the metal for the embroidery from some of your old armor. Thought it’d be a nice touch,” Honda adds, quickly snapping pictures.

“I love it,” he manages to gasp out.

“Knew you would,” Honda says smugly.

“Well, if everyone is reacting like you, we may need to get Rogue here to snap people out of it,” Mahou says dryly.

Honda finishes taking pictures and looks over at him, “Well—I wanted to go backstage after the show to see how well the coat held up with all his flying, but looks like I’ll have to check tomorrow. Don’t want to be interrupting anything between you two after all.”

Touya manages to click his mouth shut and carefully adjusts his pants (his choice of pants today left a bit to be desired). “He looks—he looks real good,” he manages to say in what he hopes isn’t too breathless of a voice. “If he doesn’t win—it’ll be a crime.”

“Now who’s making terrible puns?” Honda jokes, lightly shoving his shoulder. “Oh look, he’s doing your murder stalk.”

Touya shakes his head as Hawks strides across the stage, hands hooked in his belt and golden eyes flicking across the audience before flying off again (god he wants to touch him), “That’s not—”

“No, it definitely is,” Mahou says thoughtfully, “Also—that really is a nice coat.”

“I can make a nice one for you too,” Honda offers.

Mahou arches an eyebrow, “That would be a misuse of commission funds and power.”

Iida takes her hand and looks up at her, “Shall I commission one for you?” he half-jokes.

“Ooooh, if Iida-san is paying me, I can make something real nice for you,” Honda says, already taking out her tablet.

“I—think we’d better wait a few months until after—my size stabilizes again, don’t you?” Mahou says, smiling at Iida, a rare trace of shyness in her mouth.

(Size?

Was she going on a diet or something?

That didn’t seem right

Wait—a few months?)

“Are you—pregnant?” Touya hisses out the last word, mindful of the reporters milling about.

Mahou’s smile grows a bit wider as she nods.

Iida beams and gently touches Mahou’s abdomen, “He’ll be born in March.”

“Oh my god!” Honda squeals. “Do you have a name picked out? I can’t believe you didn’t tell us until now!”

“We’re thinking about Kei—”

“You’re naming him after Hawks?” Touya asks in surprise.

“Different Kei: Kei as in miracle, not Kei as in enlightenment,” Mahou explains.

“Didn’t know you were so mushy,” Touya comments. “You know Hawks is going to be insufferable either ways.”

“I’m sure we can manage,” Mahou says dryly.

“As long as you two can be dragged in as baby-sitters,” Iida adds.

“And—for awhile I thought I just had a bad stomach bug,” Mahou says in a somewhat apologetic tone, “And then—well, we wanted to be sure.”

“…that’s why you kept having weird cravings for mango juice,” Touya breathes.

Iida laughs, “He’s already inherited the Iida family quirk it seems. My mother says she drank grapefruit juice nonstop when she was pregnant with me, and she kept drinking orange juice when she was pregnant with Tenya.”

“He’ll be running around, and we’ll be scrambling behind in no time,” Mahou says fondly.

“…you were out on mission just yesterday!” Touya suddenly remembers, “I saw you stab a guy!”

“I was wearing armor, it was fine,” Mahou shrugs. “In another month or two though, I’ll probably consign myself to deskwork, and you can lead the team.”

Touya doesn’t think his eyes could get wider, “You—really? Me?”

(He—has known that Mahou has been giving him a lot of responsibilities and letting him lead missions, but he didn’t think—

Him leading the whole team?)

“Yes, of course,” Mahou says steadily. “Who better?”

“But—you’re not going anywhere, right?”

“I’ll be right there if you want to ask for any advice,” Mahou promises. “And after all—I’m still in charge of all of you.”

“Especially when the promotion goes through,” Honda adds.

“At last, someone to trust as the head of covert ops,” Touya says sincerely.

(All the blackmail they have gathered over the years has finally come into play, and they’ve cleaned house quite well he has to say.)

“Not quite finalized yet, and it’ll be a bit of a fight to stabilize it all after I come back from maternity leave,” Mahou says with a sigh. “And then—my god, we’ll have a child—”

“You go fight them, Megumi. I’ll be sure to take care of everything else,” Iida says, rubbing her arm. “It’s going to be fine. I’ve had practice with Tenya, and you’ve had practice with your team.”

“Looking out for a covert-ops team is—not exactly the same thing as a child,” Mahou says with a weak chuckle.

“Some would say it’s harder,” Iida points out

“We’re also here to fight them, and—congratulations,” Touya says awkwardly, belatedly remembering his manners.

Mahou nods in acknowledgement, “That’s the only reason I know I can rest easy while I’m out, and thank you.”

(He—lacks some of her confidence that all will be well with him helming the team, but—

But he does have confidence in the team, and Hawks will probably be excited to hear about all this.

He might actually squawk when he heard about Mahou being pregnant.)

“We won’t let you down,” Touya finally says.

Honda also nods and then claps her hands together, “Ooh, the judges look like they’re done!”

The judges are gathering on the stage, and the contestants are also emerging behind them. Touya catches a glimpse of Hawks’ red wings as he chats with his fellow contestants and waves at his cheering fans in the crowd.

(Hawks’ fanbase is intense, but the diehard fans seem to also know that their favorite hero is also very much taken.

It doesn’t stop them from swooning over Hawks of course, but Touya can hardly blame them.

After all, some mornings Hawks takes his breath away even with sleep-rumpled, pillow creases indented into his cheek, his hair a golden mess, and feathers everywhere, let alone when Hawks is strutting his stuff.)

The judges clear their throats, and start with the intern category. Shinsou and Tokoyami actually end up tying (to be fair, he claps for both of them), and then there’s a drumroll as they start announcing the pro-hero category.

“And what you have all been waiting for, the pro-hero with the best goth costume—it was a hard decision, but we are going to have to go with Winged Hero Hawks!”

Touya claps as hard as he can as Honda whoops at his side, and Mahou and Iida both cheer as well.

Hawks strides onto the stage to accept the award, and as he does, he flies up into the air, spreading out his wings to their full wingspan, and grinning out into the screaming crowd.

“Thank you guys so much! I really couldn’t have done this without you fans or a few of my friends—and one very special, very hot edgelord,” he says, catching Touya’s eye and giving him a simply sinful smirk.

Touya smirks back at him and mouths, Love you Keigo, at him.

Hawks clutches at his heart, his smile like sunshine, and then waves again to the crowd before flying off.

Touya also starts to make his way through the crowd, and Honda slaps him on the back.

“Tell Hawks that he better give Rin the next week off!” she calls out. “See you guys in Hawaii!”

Touya lifts a hand in acknowledgement, and then proceeds to make his way over backstage. A few guards try to stop him, but he quickly slips past them, congratulates Shinsou and Tokoyami, and then makes his way over to Hawks’ dressing room, the feather in his pocket fidgeting the entire time.

Hawks pounces on him as soon as he walks in, sliding his arms around his neck and grinning up at him, “How did you like it, baby?”

“Pretty bird, were you trying to kill me?” Touya replies, leaning down to nuzzle into his neck and then slipping a hand down his bare chest. “I loved it, as you knew I would.”

Hawks leans against him, practically purring as Touya’s hand drifts lower, “What do I get as a reward?”

“You won a trip to Hawaii,” Touya reminds him, kissing his neck.

“From the sponsors, not from you,” Hawks pouts and threads his fingers into Touya’s hair, “Didn’t I work hard?”

“Very. What were you thinking I reward you with?” Touya asks, backing Hawks up against the dressing room mirror, unbuttoning the rest of the jacket.

Hawks whines then flips them around, pushing Touya against the mirror instead and unbuckling his belt, “Well, I’ve got some ideas,” he smirks.

--

Hawaii is very nice and relaxing, the perfect vacation spot.

The resort they are put up in is luxurious and massive and private, the food is mouthwateringly delicious, and best of all, the tropical scenery and weather seems to have both relaxed Hawks and lets him lounge around in nothing but shorts and sometimes a tank top, but more often completely shirtless.

“You good, Touya?” he asks, placing a cold drink against Touya’s forehead. “You need any more sunscreen?”

Touya looks muzzily up at him, taking the drink, “If you slather any more on me, you won’t be able to grab ahold of me, I’ll be so slippery.”

“But I like oiling you up,” Hawks whines, a smile playing around his mouth.

Touya rolls his eyes, sitting up, “You’re the one who should put on more sunscreen,” he sighs, motioning for Hawks to hand him the sunscreen bottle, “You keep forgetting to reapply.”

“It’s just too pretty around here!” Hawks chirps, sitting still and happily letting Touya apply sunscreen to his back. “I’ve taken so many photos—even Fuyumi wants to take a trip here now!”

“She should get Miruko to take her,” Touya says languidly, letting his hands linger over Hawks’ back, rubbing a bit at where his wings join with his skin.

Hawks shivers, his wings fluttering a bit, “Yeah, pity Miruko couldn’t compete, she had a school field trip to oversee.”

“Fuyumi is going to get teacher of the year at this rate with Miruko always dropping by and wowing the kids,” Touya comments, wiping his hand off before caressing Hawks’ wings.

“She’ll deserve it,” Hawks says, curling his wings so that Touya is also wrapped within them. “Want to go light the bonfire on the beach as the sun sets?”

“The sunsets here are ridiculously pretty,” Touya sighs, dropping a kiss on Hawks’ forehead before standing up. “Let’s get going.”

Hawks grins and grabs his hand, “They really are! You think we can persuade Honda to take a few photos of us?”

“If we can drag her away from setting up her stealth drone to take pictures of her and Rin and Inoue,” Touya comments.

“Why does it feel like most of your team is on vacation with us too?” Hawks muses.

“Because your agency and my team are weirdly intertwined,” Touya reminds him, walking forward.

“It’s more fun that way,” Hawks says lightly. “And if Shouto was interning with me, he’d have been able to come on this trip too.”

“I think he’s perfectly happy still in Japan being sappy with Izuku-kun,” Touya says dryly.

Hawks hums, “They are so sickeningly sweet they should use them for candy commercials or something, it’s really something people should look into.”

“I’m not sure I’m ready to see my baby brother and his boyfriend acting lovey-dovey on the big-screen,” Touya comments as they walk onto the beach.

Hawks laughs, “It can’t be worse than the time we caught them making out on our couch.”

“Why does everyone end up making out on our couch,” Touya grumbles, “We should stop letting people crash at our place.”

“Like you would ever ban our family,” Hawks teases, swatting him on the back with one wing.

Touya sighs and concedes, sitting down next to the bonfire site. Hawks happily snuggles into his side, using one of his wings to curl around and cloak the two of them.

“Thanks for coming with me,” he says softly, looking up into Touya’s eyes.

“Why wouldn’t I come? Free trip to Hawaii with my boyfriend,” Touya says, grabbing Hawks’ hand. “Got to teach him swimming and see him swim with sea turtles and everything.”

(Hawks had been wide-eyed with wonder at the sea-turtles, and Touya will admit he wasn’t much different, the two of them staying in the enclosure pretty much until it was closing time.)

“I know the weather’s rough on you,” Hawks says, resting his head on Touya’s shoulder. “But—yeah, I’m just happy you’re here.”

“Always happy to be at your side, pretty bird,” Touya says softly into his hair, kissing the top of his head.

(He can’t imagine being happier than this.)

“Oh my god, you actually decided to endure the sand and finally come out here?” Honda demands, trailed by Rin and Inoue.

“What, you don’t like it because it’s coarse and irritating?” Touya asks, arching an eyebrow and looking up at her.

“Should have never let him watch the prequels, Hawks,” Honda mutters, sitting down next to them, “Giant mistake.”

“Hey, the light-saber battles are awesome,” Touya protests.

Hawks shrugs, his feathers lightly ruffling through Touya’s hair, “He’s got a point.”

“You sword freaks,” Honda sighs, “Do you know how many cool gun designs I have that none of you use?”

“Sorry Yuu,” Inoue says contritely, sitting down next to her.

Honda gives her a quick squeeze on her biceps, “That’s okay babe, you’ve got muscles instead. Instead, certain long-range flame quirk people should maybe try out the flamethrower I built specifically for him…”

Touya groans, glaring at her, “You’re asking me to change my entire fighting style, it’s not that easy!”

“Well, you’re temporarily in charge now, so you might as well learn a bit while sending other people off to do the grunt work now,” Honda says blithely, waving at Rin who was picking up seashells by the water. “Hatsume has some ideas too.”

Touya blinks, “You finally manage to persuade Hatsume Mei to join us?”

Honda makes a see-saw motion with her hand, “Kind of? She’s agreed to at least collaborate—she has so many companies after her, they’re all willing to pay out for the kind of insurance her lab is going to need, but she was very impressed by my special water gun.”

Honda touches a bead on the bracelet she’s wearing, and it suddenly enlarges into a giant water gun, with what looks like six nozzles and a worrying number of buttons.

Touya frowns at her, “If you spray us with that…”

“I’ll protect you, never fear Touya,” Hawks laughs, throwing his arms around Touya’s shoulders.

Honda sniffs, “You guys are no fun—Rin-chan, you manage to get anything good?”

Rin walks up beaming, holding a basket full of shells, “Look at these! They’re so pretty!”

“They really are,” Inoue murmurs, leaning forward and touching a few of the shells. “You’re so good at finding them.”

Rin pinks, looking down shyly, “Ah—well it’s fun! And I think it’ll look really pretty in our apartment!’

“Make sure to invite us to your housewarming party, Rin,” Hawks says, propping his chin in his hands. “Can’t wait to see how cute it is.”

Rin nods enthusiastically, “It’s really nice! Chiyo helped me the decorations, and Yuu has set up so many cool things too—wait until you see our media room.”

“Oh my god, did you set up the holograms? Can you stream K/DA the entire time?” Hawks asks eagerly, leaning forward.

“As if you even have to ask,” Honda laughs.

Touya groans, putting a hand over his face, “Well, now I really need this vacation to prepare for that,” he jokes.

Hawks puts a hand on his shoulder, “Baby I hate to tell you this,” he says mock-seriously, “But you’ve been to so many K/DA concerts and VIP events that you count as a fan.”

“Under duress!” Touya protests, poking Hawks’ forehead with his finger, “See if I go with you to any fanmeets after this.”

“Noooo, Touya, how am I supposed to get Evelynn to talk more with me then? She always spots your edgy getup first,” Hawks whines.

“You just won an edgy coat contest, just wear that,” Touya points out.

“But what’s the point of wearing it without you to stare at me all night long?” Hawks asks, leaning in and tracing a finger down Touya’s chest.

(They’d gotten a bit of use out of that coat since the contest.

All he can say is, thank god for dry-cleaning.)

“Just so you know, the interns are heading over, so no sex on the beach guys,” Honda says loudly.

“It scrapes something awful anyway,” Inoue quietly adds.

Touya shoots a vaguely horrified look at Inoue (never expected that from her), “Wait, so did you guys—”

“Tokoyami, hey! Get over here!” Honda quickly yells out loudly, waving at him. “We’ll be having a bonfire soon!”

Hawks shakes his head and glances at Touya, “It’s always the quiet ones,” he whispers to him with a grin.

“…I don’t want to know,” Touya finally decides as the interns make their way over.

“You said there’s going to be a bonfire?” Shinsou asks, looking around.

“Yep, as soon as Dabi over here stops lazing about and actually lights one,” Honda says, nodding at Touya.

“Or you could use that flamethrower you’re always bragging about,” Touya points out, not moving from his position at Hawks’ side.

“I would if I brought it…” Honda says sadly, scuffing at the sand there.

Rin shakes her head, “Can’t take flammable objects on a plane, Yuu,” she reminds her.

Tokoyami drifts over, nodding solemnly, “A bonfire will illuminate the dark night of my soul.”

Hawks stifles a laugh and nudges Touya a bit, “Well, can’t let down a fellow bird. Touya, will you do the honors?”

Touya stretches a bit, and then obliges, flicking a hand out and sending a few tiny blue sparks into the wood that ignite the pile and roar up into the darkening sky, the flames turning red.

“Show-off,” Honda sighs, then turns to Inoue, “Chiyo-chan, did you bring marshmallows and stuff for s’mores?”

The tall woman nods and takes out a big bag of marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate chips as the rest of the interns gather around, chattering away. Hawks uses his feathers to grab some marshmallows for them, and toasts them without leaving his side.

“We really should do this at home too,” Hawks says, licking melted chocolate off of his fingers.

“Not many places we can actually light a bonfire at home,” Touya replies, eating his own s’more neatly.

“I’m sure if we asked Honda to make modifications to our apartment, she would,” Hawks muses, getting more marshmallows.

“You want Honda underfoot in our penthouse for an extended period of time?” Touya asks skeptically. “By the time she’s done, she’ll have created a lab and cosplay closet all for herself there too.”

Hawks laughs, “True, and then Rin and Inoue would move in, and then we’d have to get a completely new nest.”

“Give up the place you got for us? Perish the thought,” Touya says, reaching out to wipe at Hawks’ mouth. “Why are you always like a toddler with melted chocolate.”

“S’mores require mess,” Hawks insists, his tongue snaking out a little to lick at Touya’s fingers. “Really—we should travel more. Together, like on vacation.”

Touya traces Hawks’ mouth with his fingers, “With what time?” he asks quietly. “You’re the #1 hero now—and I know how seriously you take that, and—I love you for that.”

Hawks smiles a little then frowns again, reaching up and moving Touya’s hand so that it’s now cupping Hawks’ cheek, “But—you don’t get sick of that sometimes?”

Touya shrugs, “Do I want to spend more time with you? Sure—I don’t like weeks of you not coming home either. But—you’re out saving lives, and you love helping people. I’m not standing in the way of that. Plus—I have more stuff now too, with Mahou out on maternity leave.”

Hawks hums, reaching over to link Touya’s other hand in his, “Seems—not so great though, that I can’t give you the luxury you deserve. We didn’t even go on an international trip until now.”

Touya gives him a disbelieving look, “Are you joking? Keigo, pretty bird—you have already given me so much. And in the end—I don’t want some kind of luxurious lifestyle, I just want to spend time with you. That’s already so much for me.”

The smile Hawks gives him is blinding even in the shadows of the bonfire, and he leans forward to nibble Touya’s ear.

“Hey—want to sneak back up?” he whispers, scooting even closer so that their legs are tangled together.

“I thought you’d never ask,” Touya replies, smirking at him and standing up. “Shall we go?”

And even if Hawks insists on princess-carrying him there (how that counts as “sneaking away” he has no idea), he thinks that this was one of the best vacations they’ve ever had.

(Next time though, they should probably just do a romantic get-away for just the two of them.

He loves them, but less nosy coworkers and interns all around would be appreciated.)