Work Text:
so how could this be done
With such a smiling sweetheart?
You're so naive
It's such an ugly thing
For something so beautiful
I die every time I look inside
Keigo always told himself he was not naive, no matter how many people said he was. He knew the way the world worked, he was experienced, and despite some childish innocence inside him that never got to grow up, he was not naive.
He didn't always know why he did what he did. He didn't always remember who he was or what his goals were. He would forget at times. Then he would have to remind himself of these things.
There was always a reason to everything. Hawks knew who he was. He knew there was a reason he became a hero. He knew the way the world worked. He had to remind himself why.
He was the number two hero, Hawks. A man who was fast both in body and mind. He was looked up to by society. He was a hero, a protector, a soldier…
A number. A paycheck. A contract.
He was naive.
He was icarus, and everyone told him that. They warned him of the world and of his wax wings, of flying too close to the sun. They mocked him when he did drift too high, and shook their heads when he fell.
"Naive little bird."
"Who really are you, then, if not a hero?" Dabi asked him that question often, but everytime it would always catch Hawks off guard.
It was mind games. Hawks was sure of it. Dabi's way of testing loyalty was like a feral animal setting a trap for his prey, and seeing if they would fall in. Hawks knew he'd be devoured either he fell into the trap or not. Dabi was a predator, and Hawks wasn't too naive to see it.
Even now, dressed in an orange jumpsuit too big for his weakened, frail frame with cuffs chained around his wrists, Dabi was still threatening. Even without his quirk and knowing Dabi couldn't really do much damage without the fire, he still gave off an aura that was feral and unpredictable, like a trapped animal ready to tear it's prey apart with its hands bare hands.
He had only been arrested a few weeks prior, perhaps a month. Brought in after Hawks' Intel lead to a raid of one of the PLFs hideouts. Dabi was arrested there, along with Spinner, Geten, and about twenty low ranking grunts.
Dabi would not give any information no matter the methods of interrogation. He would not cooperate. He refused to give the locations of other bases, refused to give information of where the other villains could be, refused to give Intel on any of their plans. Even when offered a lighter sentence, Dabi simply would not comply.
He also refused to give any information on himself, his history, where he came from, and his motives were all withheld. He refused DNA testing and was forcibly restrained to get it. His DNA had been run through database after database and came up with no matches. It was as if Dabi didn't exist in the first place, as if he was born from chaos and summoned from the depths of hell.
"No, Dabi. I'm asking you. Who are you?"
Dabis tone was playful, as if daring Hawks to join in his games, "and maybe ill tell you who I am if you tell me who you are."
The truth was… Hawks did not know who he was if he wasn't a hero.
"You know who I am." Hawks said, and Dabi scoffed, "I'm Hawks." He went on as if he was reading off a script, "I'm a hero who's devoted his life and death to ensuring the safety of the public, which you and the rest of the paranormal liberation front are endangering. I'll give my life to prevent it."
"We're all martyrs, Keigo . It just depends on who has the cause." Dabi said, "also, you forgot traitor. "
"Look, I… I would rather die for a different cause than destruction and chaos. I was a spy, yes, but I understood your motives and vision, I didn't approve of how you went about it. But I understood your point of view." Hawks said, or was it Keigo? Was it dishonesty and manipulation woven by the spy using his words to get more information, or truth seeping out from the child within that wasn't allowed a choice in being a hero, that understood because a part of him didn't want to be a hero.
He wondered if Dabi had a choice in being a villain, if he wanted to be one.
"Don't be so naive. Everything is chaos. Heroes, villains, we all live and die under chaos. So pick a side."
Hawks huffed, "Enough of your games. You wanted to know about me, well what about you? You're the one awaiting trial right now."
"Im aware, and thank you for your part in that, hero. " The villain spat the title with venom and hatred, rage boiling in his eyes despite his monotone voice.
Keigo felt bad then. Dabi was young, likely his age, and would spend most if not all of his life locked away because Hawks gained his trust and betrayed it. Keigo believed Dabi had a right to be angry.
"You don't get to blame that on me. It's not my fault you ended up here." not my fault you'll be locked away forever or put to death, not my fault I couldn't save you…
I wanted to save you. I did.
"I'm not saying it was your fault," Dabi said, as if reading his mind, "although… you know you could have done more."
"Who are you?" Hawks repeated, more firm now, "there's no record of you, no history, nothing. The DNA comes up with no matches. Its like you don't even exist. Who the hell are you?"
"Who, me?" Dabi asked in a mocking tone, that menacing grin stretched across his features, "No one. I'm nothing now."
"Well, that's dramatic…" Hawks shifted a little, then added, "and kinda grim. Like… don't you have family out there somewhere? Someone who would want to know where you are?"
"Family…" Dabi looked off into the distance, the cruel grin turned to a ghost of a soft smile on his lips, "I've got no family that would want me back now. I've done too much, strayed too far for them to bring back... I've killed a lot of people…" those eyes slid over to him, something unreadable in them, "even tried to kill my own Father, some time ago… My family doesn't want a monster."
Hawks swallowed, there was an energy of malice and chaos within those eyes looking back at him, how they widened and burned bright with all those things he couldn't understand. It was there for a reason, he realized. The things Dabi did, all of them were for a reason , none of it senseless violence, but calculated and intended for some reason. Even if they wasn't the right reasons, they were there.
There's always some order within chaos, after all.
"I don't believe that's true. You aren't a monster. A terrible person, but not a monster. Your family probably misses you." Keigo said, the thoughts forming words too easily, guard lowering too quick, and he couldn't help but wonder why exactly it was such a bad thing?
Dabi was human after all, wasn't he? Villains are still humans.
Hawks saw the human side of him. On rooftops at midnight as they talked over a cigarette. Between linen sheets at Keigo's flat. Over a bottle of booze in an abandoned warehouse. He knew Dabi was human. Lost, cruel, and misguided, but human.
Or maybe Dabi manipulated him like he manipulated Dabi. Maybe Hawks had been naive in his reading of Dabi and understanding of who he was, how much humanity was even there.
"To be honest," Dabi said, right when Hawks was turning to leave, figuring Dabi was done talking after the long silence. the villain's eyes still bore into his soul, lured him back in, he could feel it in the tingling in the back of his neck, "They probably don't even miss me. I don't think they even notice I'm gone."
He turned back around, meeting the other's gaze. Blood seeped from the scars under Dabi's eyes, trickled down his face like crimson tears.
"My parents…" Hawks said, pausing to take a deep breath, "they never wanted me. They didn't love me. They never outright told me these things, but I could see it in how they looked at me, how they drank away their paychecks and left me to starve, how they gave me bruises, not love, curses, not affection… my Father was arrested by Endeavor. I was saved from him by a real, true hero, so I wanted to become a hero after that... My mother still saw me as a bother. She didn't care when i needed her, or missed my Father even though he was cruel to me. She didn't care when the hero commission took me away. I have no family. I'm not Takami Keigo anymore… only Hawks now. That's who I am."
"Endeavor saved you, huh? A real, true hero?" Dabi snickered, shaking his head. "Saviors are just villains in disguise. My Father saved many people… but you know the first thing he'd do when he would come home?"
He was looking at Hawks still, grinning maniacally again as the bloody tears dried on his face. He waited minutes, as if he expected Hawks to answer.
Hawks sighed, "No, Dabi, I don't know. Enlighten me."
"He'd beat me to a bloody pulp." The villain answered in a whisper but with a tone that was harsh and sharp and made Hawks flinched.
The psychotic, broken gleam in Dabi's eyes glowing even brighter, "For hours, he'd beat me, and beat me, and beat me. Mother would try to stop him, 'you need to stop, you'll kill him' she'd say, and he'd beat her too. Then when i was too broken to break anymore, he moved his attention to my youngest brother. A perfect creation that wouldn't break under his fists. Then when Mother broke, he sent her away and when I finally broke completely, he discarded me, like I was nothing. He left me to burn and become this. "
"That's a real tragic villain backstory and all, but where are you going with this? Can you tell me who you really are?" Hawks asked, wanting to move on because he wanted to leave, get away from that chaos, wanted to not care about what turned this man into what he was…
Because he didn't want to hear it… Keigo didn't want to think about how bad he suffered.
Dabi ignored his request for a name, "Where's this going? You're so naive. My Father saved people, even people like you. He was a hero who saved people, but no one saved his family from him. That's how heroes are, how humans are." Dabi said, "so… naive, little bird, even your saviors may be monsters behind closed doors."
"You said you've left them, you're gone, so how do you know your family hasn't missed you? How do you know they haven't looked for you?" Hawks asked, needing to change the topic.
Dabi never broke eye contact, even when Hawks looked away, "People don't look for the dead."
The dead.
Hawks left the room quickly. That was what he needed, Dabi gave him only a small clue, but could be the a big piece to the puzzle of finding out who he is.
The Database. he'd check Dabi's DNA with people who are deceased. It would make sense if Dabi was legally dead his name would not show up in the database. He told himself, breathless from running through the halls.
The screen scanned through profiles, flying through the images quickly for a few moments before it stopped on one.
The image was of a young boy, with dull blue eyes and pale white hair, a vacant look on his face… he looked different, but there wasn't any mistaking it was Dabi.
Then Hawks looked at the name, Todoroki Touya , the family name standing out, stabbing the child Keigo inside Hawks in the chest. Suddenly he knew what Dabi was taunting him about, knew what all those cryptic words meant… He knew his savior was not a hero…
As he looked through the autopsy report, detailing injuries in the body that occurred long before Touya's death, broken bones, busted lips, and scabbed over burns, and countless wounds Keigo himself suffered at the hands of his own Father, Keigo realized there was no such thing as a hero. No such thing as a savior or a saint… and it all made sense.
Later after everyone was gone, like a man possessed, he sent out all the files to everyone, then to the newspapers and journalists, released it upon the world like a plague he knew would spread.
He then took the keys and unlocked the cell, greeted by Dabi's wide grin and the mayhem in his eyes, and he let that chaos free onto the earth.
"Little bird, you are so naive."