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Thousands of feathers spiralled through the air like tiny aggressive helicopters that had all simultaneously exploded. The upbeat chorus of Mr. Brightside by The Killers was blasting through the building as they kept passing each other by at a speed that more than once almost led to a collision. There was yelling coming from every corner, pictures being knocked off the wall, things falling down on the ground, balloons exploding like gunshots. This had only been supposed to be a stupid mockery, so where exactly had this all gone so wrong?
December was, for most people, the most magical time of year - filled with fairy lights, warm drinks and surrounded by their family to come together for the holidays. Dabi wasn’t most people. Instead of purchasing presents to bring joy to the people that shared the same family name as him, he was on a much more important mission. There was barely any time left to gather everything required to accomplish said plan and neither the fact that he had to keep a low profile nor people’s mad Christmas shopping personas were helping.
“You know we have better things to do, right?” Shigaraki had said back then, arms crossed in front of his chest and red eyes practically glowing at Dabi. Any effort had been in vain, though, as there hadn’t been a point in time where Dabi had let Shigaraki intimidate him.
Without batting an eye, Dabi had insisted. “Calm down, man. I’ll take care of everything. Besides, it’s just one night. Which will be a fantastic opportunity to give him the feeling that he’s part of the group.”
“It’s a waste of time. He should be thankful that we let him play spy instead of killing him for it. We’ve got other things to focus on.”
“Really? Like what?” Dabi had crossed his arms and raised a brow. Obviously they had both known what their goals were, but had also both known that it wasn’t enough of an argument to not go through with this one small request.
“ Fine .” The words had come out as sharp as Spinner’s eerie DIY sword that had been just as overblown and unfit to be around children as Dabi’s father. Then again, it was a rather unfair comparison on the sword.
Dabi wasn’t sure why he had come up with the idea, nor did he have a clue why he was looking forward to this occasion as no part of this would appeal to him under normal circumstances whatsoever. At least he had been smart enough to involve the others, who were far too excited despite knowing that this was all done as a joke.
Though the darkness of the night helped keep him out of sight, he didn’t dare to move even an inch in the abandoned alleyway. His senses had to stay focused to not miss the one chance he got with this. He could hear footsteps approach and as much as he wanted to take a peek, he remained patient. Without taking his phone out of his pocket, he pressed the call button. Just a few seconds later, a phone started ringing from around the corner. Perfect . Dabi hung up without giving the other a chance to answer the phone. He was close enough.
As soon as his target came into view, Dabi reached out to him with a quick forceful motion, left arm swung around the other’s waist, right arm covering his mouth as he pulled him into the alleyway, his own body pressing against the man he had grabbed to prevent much protest.
“Calm down, birdie, it’s me,” Dabi greeted him in a low voice without releasing the grip just yet.
The information seemed to register rather quick and once he was certain it was safe enough, he let go of him.
Hawks turned around without bringing more distance between them. “What are you-”
“Spontaneous meeting.” Dabi shrugged in a carefree manner, as though the words justified his sneaky move.
“You could have just called, you know?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Dabi grinned to loosen up the tension and sure enough it worked.
Hawks sighed, nonetheless.
“What’s wrong, birdie? I’m not ruining any plans, am I?”
“Oh, no, I… I was just gonna go home and order food and watch a movie or something… nothing special.” Although it was faint, Dabi could swear he heard Hawks’ voice slightly crack. A little voice inside of him told him that maybe his plan was a little harsh, after all. Hawks was already in an odd mood, so maybe today wasn’t the right day to mess with him. But then again…
Dabi swung his arm around Hawks’ neck. “Don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t take long. Anything from half an hour to the next morning.”
The teasing didn’t seem to have much effect, which Dabi decided to ignore. No point in going back now. Instead, he walked him over to the car that was parked on the side of the road and opened the door before removing his arm from Hawks.
“Get in,” Dabi ordered.
“Hello Hawks, quite a surprising way Dabi greeted you there, huh?” Twice cheerfully greeted Hawks from the driver’s seat.
“Yeah, would probably be better not to pull stunts like that out in public,” Hawks suggested, a small smile gracing his lips.
Dabi got into the seat next to Hawks and closed the door. While Hawks and Twice were exchanging words, Dabi proceeded to pull a blindfold out of his jacket pocket, which he then pulled over Hawks eyes.
“Hey! What are you-”
“Quit whining, Shigaraki wanted us to test out these new blindfolds,” Dabi lied as he tied the blindfold at the back of Hawks’ head.
“Are you gonna wear one, too?”
Twice burst out laughing at this, then got serious again. “Oh no, we don’t want him throwing up in the car or upset him for no reason.”
“Shut up,” Dabi protested with an annoyed tone.
“Why throw up?”
Dabi hesitated for a second, looking at Hawks who was facing him despite not being able to see. “Because I get car sick easily.”
“Then why did you come along at all?”
“I’m a bad boy,” he replied with a deadpan expression that immediately made Hawks laugh out loud. Dabi smiled at this, glad to see that familiar happiness again. He did have to glance at Twice though, who was giving him a mischievous look through the rearview mirror.
The car ride didn’t take too long, with most of it being spent with Dabi keeping his eyes on Hawks. It was certain to him that the hero had been hired to join their organization rather than doing so on his own accord, wherefore there was a chance of him currently being wired or otherwise having some way of immediately reporting any kind of suspicious behavior such as being pulled into a car and blindfolded without warning. Fortunately, Hawks hadn’t done anything so far.
Twice parked the car in front of the main entrance. Dabi told Hawks to leave the blindfold on before he exited the car and made his way to Hawks’ side to help him out.
“Just so you know, you guys really shouldn’t start some kind of taxi business,” Hawks noted as Dabi’s hands grabbed his to guide him out of the vehicle.
“Are you saying you wouldn’t give us a five star rating?” Twice asked in shock. “I should be offended, my driving skills are fantastic.”
“The service is a little… questionable, though.” Hawks seemed to try hard to not upset anyone, the sight of which amused Dabi.
“Come on, now,” Dabi said, once again throwing his arm around Hawks’ shoulder. “We don’t wanna be late.”
Without protest, the three made their way inside the building, stopping in the middle of the spacious lobby. Everything was in place, as it should be. The time to unveil the truth had finally come.
“You don’t need that thing anymore,” Dabi noted as he removed the blindfold from Hawks.
The blond blinked a few times to get used to the change in brightness, the details of the room becoming more clear with each blink.
“Happy Birthday!” They all yelled out in unison.
The sound of party poppers and party horns filled the room right before the music set in. It was some children’s birthday song, with the off-tune voices of the children singing making the song sound a little worse than it already did. There were yellow and red balloons and garlands hanging every place imaginable. Not to forget the specially created chicken party hats everyone was wearing. They were yellow cones with a red feather on top as well as one on each side, googly eyes and a red beak on the upper half of the cone and red legs made of threat dangling down on the side.
Toga jumped up to the three of them, throwing her arms around Hawks while wishing him a Happy Birthday again. Once she removed herself from him, she put one of the party hats on his head before handing the other two she was carrying to Twice and Dabi.
Everyone’s eyes were glued to Hawks, who still stood there frozen. Not that anyone could blame him, considering the circumstances. If anything, he was probably searching for nice words, because he was just the kind of person to always prevent any chances of upsetting others.
He watched Hawks' shoulders relax, a soft smile now stretched across his face and Dabi could swear he even saw actual sparkles in those eyes.
"You… you did all this… for me?" For some reason he made it sound like they had built him an entire castle or whatever else would make people genuinely happy. It sure sounded convincing.
"Duh, it's your birthday, right?" Twice confirmed with a thumbs up.
“Yes, but… this is so nice! And the hats are so cool!” Actual sparkles .
Mr. Compress rolled the birthday cake on a serving cart into the lobby, his proud expression made it clear that there had been many failed attempts, plenty of breakdowns and a lot of hard work for the final creation in front of him to exist. “Ta-da! Your very specialized birthday cake.”
Despite the fact that it looked less like an edible chocolate cake and more like a chicken that had been hit by a car, the result was impressive nonetheless and had taken a lot of time and pai - Mr. Compress had made sure to let Dabi know this every time he saw him to the point where Dabi carefully looked around every corner in an attempt to avoid him. The shape was that of a chicken lying on the ground. Because Dabi had insisted on the cake requiring candles as well, Mr. Compress had had to add a green fondant circle around the chicken to stick the candles in as he insisted that it would send the wrong signal, if they stuck the candles directly into the chicken. Now it looked like the chicken was performing some kind of ritual, but Dabi wasn’t going to say anything.
“Did you make this?” Hawks stared at Mr. Compress with wide, impressed eyes. Dabi couldn’t remember ever having seen anyone looking at anyone with such excitement.
“Yes,” Mr. Compress confirmed with a proud nod. “Now, please, it is time for your birthday wish.”
Hawks smiled widely at the words, then looked at the candles like his stare alone would blow them out. After a few seconds of preparation, he leaned over and successfully blew out all twenty-three candles in one blow. Toga, Twice, Spinner and Mr. Compress cheered.
Next, Spinner stepped forward to hand Hawks an envelope. “And this is a gift from all of us.”
“You guys got me a gift, too?” Hawks asked in a soft tone. He opened the envelope, which revealed a very colorful birthday card with a chicken on the cover that had elastic spirals for legs and the text on it reading Happy Birthday You Spring Chicken . Inside they had placed a KFC gift card. “This is so awesome!”
The group then moved into the dining area to consume the cake. The table was covered in a red tablecloth, yellow napkins and chicken-themed cups. At this point, Dabi got the feeling that Hawks was genuinely happy about the situation he was in. He was also glad that the playlist consisted of actually good songs rather than just the awful birthday one. The others seemed to have a good time, too, partially due to the fact they’ve never had cake together before now and partially due to them never having thrown a party together before now. The atmosphere was undoubtedly nice to the point where one could almost believe them to just be a bunch of friends with a really odd obsession with chicken instead of being the criminal organization that they actually were.
About an hour had passed when the cake was almost completely gone and the group was just chatting. Then he locked eyes with someone.
“Um… Toga?” Dabi asked, not taking his eyes off what had caught his attention.
“Yeah?”
“What is that?” He asked, keeping his voice calm.
Toga slightly turned around to see what his question referred to. “What? You told me to get chicken-themed decoration, which I did.”
“So you’ve brought a living chicken here?”
“ No ,” Toga replied like it was the most obvious thing. “I’ve brought a flock.”
Dabi looked at her, blinking in disbelief. “ Why ?”
“Well what’s more chicken-themed than a bunch of chicken?”
He took a deep breath in. Technically, she wasn’t wrong but there was no way he would admit that. “How many?”
No response.
“How many chicken?” He slowly repeated.
“Twenty… three.”
“And you let them walk around freely?”
“Yes, they’re like moving decoration and additional party guests all at once.”
“What a great idea!” Twice agreed, then turned more serious. “But we should probably catch them before they can do any damage.”
Mr. Compress nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a fun party game!”
“Shouldn’t you take this more serious?” Dabi asked him.
“ I can be serious and fun. Maybe one day I’ll teach you,” Mr. Compress proposed with a teasing grin.
“This is why we need Kurogiri,” Shigaraki muttered under his breath.
After quickly forming a plan, they all rose up from their seats.
They would have to split up to find the chicken and then either catch them or shoo them into one of the unused rooms on the bottom floor to gather them there. The plan sounded simple in theory. But theory wasn’t everything.
How chicken could be so quick, no one could tell. Maybe they were the key to beating the heroes. They definitely did a good job going up against the villains.
Soon enough, the aforementioned scene took place. They had maybe caught about six of the hellish beasts, which had already been exhausting enough. Unlike the others, Dabi hadn’t run around like a maniac and instead kept to his normal pace, but he needed a little break, anyway. Not because he was exhausted; he was simply certain that watching the others run around just as wildly as the chicken began to seem like nothing but a fever dream. While no one was watching, Dabi slipped into his room unnoticed and took out the secret present he was still undecided on whether or not to give to Hawks. Because somewhere down the line of the very excessive planning, he started to question why he was doing this, too. Wondered whether this was a little too much. This was supposed to just be the cherry on top, but it was also the only part of the party that only he had taken care of, which now seemed way less harmless than originally intended.
“Need any help?” Hawks asked from behind.
Dabi hadn’t even heard him approach, so he immediately turned around in surprise without being able to hide the present first. “Oh, uh- no there aren’t any of them in here.”
“Better close the door then.”
“Yeah, I was just…” Clearly, he was already seeing what Dabi held in his hands. It would be stupid to pretend that it wasn’t for him. Keeping it might even turn out to be worse. So he stretched his hand out to hold the neatly wrapped box in front of Hawks’ face. “This is for you.”
The two looked at each other silently for a brief moment, neither knowing how to act next.
“You got me a present?” Again, he sounded happier than he should.
Dabi just nodded to confirm, then nodded again after receiving the kind of look from Hawks that asked can-I-open-it-? Hawks opened the bow and then carefully unwrapped the box. His face lit up with a warm smile, his hand gently taking out the small rubber duck that had the same design as Hawks’ hero outfit, including the accessories and red wings.
“It’s me!” He exclaimed, holding the little toy up and turning it to face Dabi to give him the side by side comparison before looking at it again himself. “I had no idea that existed, where did you get that?”
Dabi looked to the side when Hawks looked at him with those curious eyes. “Oh, I… I made that myself.”
“Seriously? It looks so professional! How did you do that?”
“I… put effort into it.”
Hawks looked at him funny, although Dabi wasn’t quite sure why. Was it too much, after all? Yes, that was definitely it. Had someone done something like that for him he would have probably burned them to the ground or set himself on fire.
“This is amazing, thank you,” the warmth in his voice allowed Dabi to look back at him again. For some reason, he didn’t look like it was too much for him. “But… can I ask you something, Dabi?”
“Sure, I guess?”
Hawks was fidgeting with the rubber duck; apparently the question hadn’t been put into words yet. “Why did you do all this… for me ?”
The words made him sound so vulnerable all of a sudden and Dabi wasn’t sure whether it was because his originally desired effect of the party had set in or whether there was something else. Something inside of him felt a little vulnerable now, too. It was similar to how he had felt upon their first meeting, when Hawks gave his fake reasons as to why he wanted to join their side now. When Dabi had gotten this familiar feeling that told him that maybe not all of it was fake, even if Hawks himself didn’t necessarily know it. “Well, I… at first meant to poke fun at the fact that you like anything bird and especially chicken-related, but that was kind of an excuse for wanting to have a proper birthday party for someone.”
Hawks looked at him with empathy, thousands of thoughts clearly racing through his head. “I’ve never had a proper birthday party before, either. So this has meant a lot.”
There was no logical explanation as to why Dabi did what he did next. In fact, it almost happened without his permission or even thinking about it first. But there he was, arms wrapped around Hawks’ shoulders, pulling him into a gentle hug. He wouldn’t be surprised had the other just pulled away, but was also not surprised when the other wrapped his arms around Dabi’s waist instead. They didn’t say anything, because they didn’t have to. They understood, even if only roughly, what the other was feeling. It became clear to Dabi that Hawks must have also not had the best upbringing. But he wasn’t gonna ask now.
Neither of them knew how much time had passed when they slowly pulled away; they only knew that it was something they had both needed. They also didn’t let go of another. Then it happened - in the blink of an eye. Their lips met, slow and gentle, like they were the most fragile things and time didn’t exist.
“Um, birdie,” Dabi said in between kisses, his voice low and almost inaudible. “We… shouldn’t-”
“I know,” Hawks replied in a similar tone. He turned his face as little as possible, just enough to look into Dabi’s eyes. “But maybe… just tonight? If it’s alright with you.”
Dabi leaned his forehead against Hawks’, lightly nodding in response. “Yeah.”
Hawks smiled as he brought their lips back together. Their kisses were all over the place, from messy to deep to gentle - but they had found a pace and were lost in their own little world.
Buc buc - the sudden noise that came from the ground next to them startled them both, which for a second only resulted in them holding even closer onto each other. Realizing the source of the sound made them break their kiss; both turning their heads to look at the chicken that started right back at them.
“Told you to close the door,” Hawks stated.
“Make fun of me all you want, but you’re gonna have to help me catch it, because the sooner all these things are caught, the faster you can enjoy the midnight fingerfood buffet.”
Hawks nodded. “I have never been more determined in my life.”
Dabi laughed at the serious tone. “You’re really weird.”
“And yet they say opposites attract,” Hawks winked at him. He could tell Dabi was going to say something in return, but continued first. “Now come on, they’re not gonna catch themselves!”
It wasn’t exactly how he had envisioned the night to play out, and a part of him was certain that sooner or later he would come to regret all of this. At the same time, he didn’t want to refuse that little voice inside his head that kept telling him they had something in common. That they could understand each other; better yet, could be there for another once they would find a way to open up to another. It seemed like a far reach and a big risk to take, but he could feel that it would be worth it.
“Dabi! Help!” Hawks called out, the chicken now right in his face.
What an idiot. There was no doubt - it would definitely be worth it.