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Dabi grips the cold metal rail and pulls himself up, kicking at the ground at the same time until he can step onto the emergency staircase. His boots rattle black metal and he stills for a moment, not wanting to be heard.
It’s six floors up, because of course it is, and if it wasn’t the dead of night Dabi wouldn’t risk it. The emergency stairs may be on the side of the building that doesn’t face the main streets in front of it, but it’s still too exposed for his liking. The burning in his legs and lungs grows as he climbs up and so does his annoyance. He shouldn’t even be here.
He’s four flights away, almost two floors to go when he starts to hear it. Sharp, earsplitting screams. He pauses, momentarily forgetting his horrible physical condition as he takes the steps two at a time. The crying out getting louder.
The emergency stairs are not made for comfortable access from the outside. Dabi has to bend over and squeeze himself tight through the window, grimacing as the staples in his back catch on the edges. He stumbles into the apartment gracelessly. And loudly.
Still, no one seems to hear him, it’s no surprise since the howling is the loudest inside, and now Dabi is past caring. Morbid curiosity leading him further into the apartment, trying to track down the source of it. His first guesses seem too impossible to be true, but when he walks into the living room he stops dead in his tracks. Trying to process the scene before him.
“What the fuck?” Dabi mutters, mostly to himself.
Hawks head snaps to the side and Dabi takes a step back at the look on his face.
“Take her,” Hawks says, his tone matching his expression. Desperate and on the verge of tears.
Dabi doesn’t get a chance to reply as Hawks hands him a living, breathing, wailing baby. Shoving her into Dabi’s arms before he can protest or ask anything else.
He holds the kid away from his body, his hands under the baby’s arms as the child continues crying. He watches Hawks stumble down his hallway and shortly after he hears a door slam shut.
Dabi stands completely frozen in place. He can’t remember the last time something caught him so off guard. He would’ve probably reacted better if he had found Hawks dead in his apartment. That he knows how to deal with, hell he was half expecting it, given how long he has been missing.
Dabi takes a look at the baby that’s still weeping in his arms.
“So you’re the reason I’m here,” he tells her. The baby cries out in response.
Dabi sighs, fucking hell. He walks around the apartment, heading to one of Hawks closets. He holds her with one arm, her back to his chest as he takes a hoodie out of it’s hanger. He places her down gently on Hawks couch. To this, the child screams in what sounds like indignation.
“Hold on.” Dabi rolls his eyes. He shrugs off his coat quickly, it lands on the floor with the clanking of the staples and replaces it with Hawks much softer sweatshirt. He picks the baby up again, this time letting her head rest on his shoulder with an arm below her.
“Well done.” He says to the baby, who is now starting to calm down as Dabi paces her down the hallway. “You took down the number two hero.”
-
Hawks is having a shitty day.
He got the wrong coffee order this morning, forgot his goggles back at his office, one of his sidekicks called in sick and left him buried underneath a mountain of paperwork and there’s a housing building collapsing on his head.
The responsible villain is knocked out on the other side of the street, a guy with a fucking contact quirk. Hawks thinks that all he touches turns into small little dice, not very impressive or troublesome, but he wasn’t alone (and now his gang lies knocked out on top of each other).
He’s not sure what they were after but he’s sure that most of the first floor that held up the entire fourteen story building is now tumbling down. All the walls turned into concrete dice that currently flood the street.
He’s good at rescue (he’s good at everything), but the structure is coming down too fast, and he’s completely alone. So yeah, Hawks is having a very shitty day.
At least the residents on the lower floors are brave enough to try to leave for themselves, using their quirks to jump or float down the lower windows then sprinting away, yelling for help. Hawks sends off feathers and carries out residents before calling them back again. The concrete groans and shakes as he wills himself to be faster.
He doesn’t know how many more people are inside, so he joins his feathers in the search, carefully flying through the top floors.
That’s how he finds the child.
A small thing, weeping in her crib almost as loud as the crumbling of the building. Hawks breath catches as he dives down to pull her out, feathers securing her to his suit as he maneuvers them out.
He can’t go back in with the baby sobbing in his arms so he lands them on the street as far from the chaos as he can get before losing sight of it and focuses on the rest of his feathers as they take out more residents. He can only hope that he pulled them all out as the building finally gives in.
Firefighters, police and ambulances suddenly flood the street. One of his sidekicks catches up to him shortly after.
“You got them all out,” Hada reassures him, pointing to a group of people that are gathered in relieved groups, the families all making sure no one’s missing.
Hawks nods curtly. “Someone’s probably looking for this.” He hands the baby off to Hada.
She quickly makes her way over to the group and Hawks is pulled away by the officers as they ask about the villains and what happened.
They’ll need to call the reconstruction crew and that’s a whole fucking thing so Hawks has to stay put for at least two hours longer than necessessary. And just when he thinks he’s off the hook Hada comes back looking very anxious. And still carrying a now sleeping baby on her arms.
Hawks stomach sinks.
She must notice the look on his face cause she holds up a reassuring hand. “No one died.”
“Then?” Hawks presses. “Where are her parents?”
“We’ve confirmed that no one was still in the building but in the panic people got hurt, the ones in bad shape were immediately taken by the ambulances.” Hada looks down at the baby and frowns. “The neighbors know little about the kid’s parents, we would have to check with the hospitals.”
Hawks sighs. “Alright, well.” He gestures at her and Hada carefully transfers the baby to him. “Let me know as soon as you find them.”
“What are you gonna do…?” Hada asks slowly.
“What?” Hawks asks back. “Someone has to watch her.”
“And that someone is you?”
“It’s just a few hours until we locate the parents,” Hawks replies. “I’ll take her back to the agency and have Kasai take a look at her in the time you find them.”
Hada gives him an unsure look.
Hawks nudges her away with the edge of his wing. “I want you to know that your distrust hurts me.”
“I trust you, Hawks.” Hada says as she goes. “I just don’t trust you with a child.”
“Ouch,” Hawks mutters, although Hada is too far away to hear.
He looks down at the sleeping baby on his shoulder. “We’ll show her, huh? We’ll have fun until we find your parents.”
That was almost a week ago.
Hawks drags a wing up, covering his face from the light that hits his eyes. He groans and turns away, burying his face on his pillow, grateful for the quiet that lulls him back to sleep.
The quiet.
It shouldn’t be quiet. Hawks sits up so fast his head spins. He takes a look at the crib next to his bed. It’s empty. The memories from that night (early morning?) flooding back. No fucking way he gave him the baby.
He literally flies out of his bed, slamming his weight against his bedroom door, almost bringing it down as he fumbles with the handle. He spills into the hallway and stops.
Dabi glares coldy at him from the couch. The baby staring at him from his lap.
Hawks send two long feathers to retrieve the baby, too tense to say anything. Dabi raises an eyebrow, Hawks can’t tell if he does so threateningly. He lets go of the child's small arms, letting Hawks’ feathers replace them.
With newfound paternal instincts he clutches the baby against his chest, discreetly exhaling with relief now that she’s out of Dabi’s grasp.
“You could say ‘thank you’,” Dabi says, getting up. He’s wearing Hawks clothes.
The baby moves at the sound of his voice. Babbling in response.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Hawks asks.
“I was hoping to raid your place,” Dabi replies, as he picks up some empty bottles of formula from the coffee table. “You’ve been missing for a week. I thought you had died.”
Hawks returns his earlier glare. “Worried, Dabi?”
“Disappointed.” Dabi takes the bottles into the kitchen. “Cause here you are.”
The baby kicks in Hawks grip and he forces himself to relax his arms. He thinks apologies at her. Not sleeping for four days is no excuse to leave an infant with him. Fuck, this alone should get him his license revoked.
“So who’s the father?” Dabi asks.
“Get out of my apartment,” Hawks orders.
“That’s not what you said last night,” Dabi retorts, mocking.
Whatever insult Hawks was gonna throw at him dies on his lips as he watches Dabi take the bottles and… begins to wash them at the kitchen sink.
“The hell are you doing?” Hawks hisses.
“What you haven’t,” Dabi snaps.
Hawks can just stare at him. The picture in front of him is too fucking surreal. Even after sleeping for the first time in days, his mind is not rested enough to process Dabi wearing his faded red hoodie and bright yellow rubber gloves, scrubbing away at one of the baby’s bottles. There is not enough sleep in the world to process that.
The baby kicks in his arms and Hawks is brought back to reality by her tiny fists clutching the ends of his hair. He winces slightly, knowing her enough by now to realize she’s bored.
He pushes Dabi’s fucking bizarre attitude out of his mind and goes searching for one of the toys in her crib. She seems slightly less angry when presented with her favorite stuffed animal, immediately sticking its tail on her mouth.
“She slept for about four hours.” Hawks startles, turning to face Dabi, who is suddenly in the doorway.
Hawks unconsciously lets out a laugh. Dabi tilts his head in question.
“This kid doesn’t know what sleep is,” he replies. He bounces her a bit, gently pulling at her hand. “Right?”
If Hawks didn’t know better he would say that Dabi looked amused. “The winged hero can’t put down a one year old?”
Hawks frowns. “She’s like six months old.”
Dabi gives him an incredulous look. “No, she’s not.” He shakes his head in disbelief. “The fuck are you doing with a kid, Hawks?”
“Nothing that concerns you,” Hawks replies. “What are you still doing in my apartment? I'm not dead so you’re not getting my tv, get out, Dabi.”
Dabi puts up his hands in mock surrender. Until he met him, Hawks didn’t think it was possible for gestures to be sarcastic. “Not yet.”
Hawks waits until he can hear his boots descending the steps of the metal staircase. He should really have that window sealed, it’s not like he needs the emergency exit. When he finally can’t, he sighs softly.
“I’m sorry about him,” Hawks tells the child. Trying to get that one strand of hair out of her face. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
The baby looks at him accusingly.
-
Dabi gets a phone call not even two days later.
He gets up from the couch quickly, earning a complaint from Toga as he shoves her feet off his lap, answering before bringing the phone to his ear. Waiting until he’s a few meters away from the rest.
“Wh-” He winces slightly at the interruption. Twice turns to glance at him. Dabi frowns and tries again. The crying in the background is still deafening, but he’s prepared for it this time.
“Fucking hell, what are you doing to her?” Dabi mutters into the speaker.
“Dabi,” Hawks replies in a pained whine. “It’s been almost three days, I can’t- She won’t stop crying- Everything I do, oh fuck- pleas-”
“What?” Dabi asks again.
“You said you got her to sleep?” Hawks replies. “How?!”
Dabi stares at the phone, shit, he was actually joking before but it really looks like this kid is tearing Hawks apart.
“Dabi?” Hawks insists, it sounds like begging. The baby screams louder.
“Hawks, you can’t be this incompetent.”
“Well, I am! Okay? This shit isn’t exactly part of my training.” The speaker crackles, it sounds like clothing shifting.
Poor bastard. “Yeah, okay, fuck’s sake.”
“Okay what?”
“I’m on my way,” Dabi says.
“Oh.” He sounds relieved. “Bring diapers!”
The line goes dead.
Dabi wonders if Hawks knows that he doesn’t have any money, or a way of acquiring diapers. It’s not as he can casually go get groceries. He also wonders if Hawks will last long enough for him to get to his apartment.
“On your way where?” Spinner asks, leaning against the other side of the wall as Dabi heads to the exit.
Dabi rolls his eyes, so fucking nosy. He lets his silence answer for him as the door slams behind him.
-
“What?” Dabi asks. “You told me to bring diapers.”
“Not all of them,” Hawks sighs.
“You didn’t fucking specifiy which ones. I’ve only seen the kid once, I couldn’t just guess what size.”
Hawks drags a palm across his eyes. “You are the one who said she was one.”
“You are aware that not every baby is the same damn size at one, right?”
So fucking ungrateful. He shouldn’t even have come again.
The baby extends her small arms towards him. Dabi lets the bags of diapers drop to the floor and takes her from Hawks’ arms. He readily gives her over, then collapses on his couch with a pained exhale. Heroes are so damn dramatic. The baby grips the finger Dabi offers her.
“Seriously,” Dabi starts, raising an eyebrow in his direction. “Didn’t take you for someone who just has kids around.”
The glare he gets is down right murderous. “She’s not mine.”
Dabi hums suspiciously. It’s so easy to rile him up.
The glare turns into an insulting gesture. “Last week her building collapsed, her parents haven’t been found, a lot of injured and unidentified residents.”
“So you just… took her.”
“I don’t- I don’t know where she would be okay.” Hawks wings drop. They tend to show his state of mind when he’s not careful.
“Apparently not here,” Dabi helpfully points out. “The fuck do you know about kids?”
“The fuck do you?” Hawks retorts.
Dabi doesn’t bother replying. The kid is now trying to get at the staples on his hand. She did that last time, too. The gold shining and moving enough to get and keep her attention. He shifts his hand and her eyes light up.
He gives Hawks a pointed look. He scoffs back at him, getting up from the couch and starting to pick up toys and blankets.
“What time are you feeding her?” Dabi asks, it’s almost nine already.
“Don’t know, whenever she cries.”
Hawks must understand the message behind Dabi’s eyes because he takes a step back. “...What?”
He lets the glare speak for him and turns his attention to the child again. “How are you not dead already?”
“Fuck off, Dabi.” Hawks storms past him and into the kitchen.
He goes to follow, his leg bumping against the edge of a side table, with a huff he realizes the edges are covered with those particular wrappers. With a quick look he confirms that the whole apartment is baby proofed. Dabi just caught a glance at those while he was stealing all the diapers. Hawks salary must have taken a hit.
Overprotective and still incompetent, Hawks is his favorite kind of dumbass.
He sits the baby in Hawks' breakfast bar. The kid stays put, watching Dabi’s face piercings with the attention exclusive to infants. She keeps trying to grab them and he keeps intercepting her hands.
“I didn’t even remember what silence was,” Hawks mutters, mostly to himself.
“So overdramatic,” Dabi tells the child.
-
This week has been so fucking weird that asking Dabi to babysit the child he found in a disaster is just another thing that might as well happen. Whatever, at least he can sleep now.
He comes around after noon and leaves very late, he’s the only one that can put the child to bed and he needs it to be dark to leave without being seen.
He’s good at it. That is the truly abnormal part. Hawks had to bend over backwards to try and guess what the child wanted and Dabi, just… knows shit.
“Not that one,” Dabi says as Hawks struggles and tries to coax the kid into drinking her milk.
“What?” The baby almost swats away Hawks hand.
“That’s not the bottle she likes,” Dabi explains.
“What?” Hawks asks again, emphasizing. “It’s literally the same milk.”
Dabi shrugs. “She likes the blue one best.”
Hawks waves him off, but after ten other minutes the kid won’t take the damn bottle. As soon as he switches it the baby grabs it and tries to stick it into her mouth.
‘What?!’ Hawks thinks.
He narrows his eyes in Dabi’s direction. Blue eyes meet his gaze, questioning.
“Do… Do you…” Hawks starts, “...have kids?”
“I hope not.” Dabi shrugs. “But you never know.”
Hawks groans in annoyance. The baby clings to the blue bottle like a lifeline.
The apartment seems to be in a permanent state of complete mess, no matter how much Hawks’ feathers pick up the toys, bottles, blankets and little socks that are always lying around his living room and bedroom. Whenever one of them is carrying the kid the other seems to be picking up or cleaning stuff.
Dabi piles some of the toys in his arms. Hawks watches over the baby as she finishes the bottle. Shit, everything is so much more manageable with someone else here.
“Why does all her shit have that uglyass bird on it?” Dabi asks, gesturing to all that he’s carrying.
Hawks does not get defensive. “The blanket in which i found her had a Big Bird print.” He shrugs. “She likes him.”
Dabi blinks at him. “Right.”
Hawks places the bottle back in the sink and begins patting the baby’s back. She babbles in complaint.
“Bounce h-” Dabi starts from the other room.
“Bounce her, yeah , yeah.” Hawks interrupts, he doesn’t need the reminder.
The baby exhales happily as soon as he does.
-
“Okay,” Dabi starts. “We can’t keep calling her ‘kid’.”
“Yeah,” Hawks admits, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “But none of my sidekicks ever found out her name.”
“Any ideas?” Hawks asks after Dabi doesn’t reply.
He’s got a strange look on his face, and he seems not to hear him. The baby grabs the edges of his coat, Dabi carefully removes her hands from the metal. Her attention turns to him now, trying to pull at the staples on his cheeks, instead. The kid is obsessed with Dabi’s staples.
“Rei?” He suggests softly.
Hawks looks at him in question but Dabi won’t meet his gaze.
“Sure,” he agrees.
The look is gone from Dabi’s expression.
-
“Get her to stop,” Hawks pleads, dragging a blanket over his face. “I’m begging you.”
Dabi winces as Rei lets out a particularly shrill scream. “There’s no stopping this. I think she’s teething.”
Hawks joins the child in her weeping.
Dabi tilts his head. “We could brush her gums with some whisky, that actua-”
“No.”
-
“What the hell, man?” Hawks voice cuts through the other end of the line.
“What?” Dabi asks. He rests the phone on his elbow so his hands are free, still brushing out the baby powder from the inside of his coat. It’s Compress’ clothing brush.
“Where are you?”
“I got held up in a job,” Dabi replies before realizing what he’s doing. “I’m busy.”
“Busy? Don’t talk to me about being busy, asshole. I have three arrests that need filing, the kid needs a bath and she somehow lost her rattle-'' oh, that's actually inside Dabi’s back pocket. “-So she won’t stop throw-”
“If you’re gonna take my things, Dabi, the least you could do is ask.” Compress walks in from behind him and Dabi tries not to hang up on Hawks mid rant, that would only make it worse.
“I was gonna put it back,” Dabi replies, muting his microphone.
“What did you even get on your coat?” Compress’ mask peeks over his shoulder.
“Are you even listening to me?!” The speaker demands.
Dabi shakes his head. Fuck this. “It’s… cocaine, mind your business.”
Compress gives a look at his phone since Hawks’ squawking only increases. “You’re also doing coke now?”
“Yeah?” Dabi is pretty sure that if his body allowed it he would be sweating.
“I’ve never seen you have an ounce of energy, Dabi.”
“Shit, Compress,” Dabi hisses. “What do you think the coke is for?”
He shoves the brush into Compress’ gloved hands. “Here, take your shit. Get out of my room.”
He pushes him out, slamming the door immediately afterwards. He leans his body against it, still ignoring Hawks’ voice through the speakers.
-
Hawks has to press a hand over his mouth, but that can't hide the way his wings and shoulders shake with strained laughter.
A small line of fire makes him leap, and sends him crashing into the ceiling painfully. Yet he keeps laughing, suspended in the air by his feathers.
The fire goes out but Dabi’s scowling only flares.
“My arms are so fucking sore,” he mutters, shifting his weight as he stands, preparing more bottles in the kitchen.
Hawks drops down to support himself against the wall. Soundlessly shaking with laughter.
Rei babbles, pressed against Dabi’s chest by the blanket wrapped around them both.
-
A very not babylike wail comes from somewhere in the apartment. Despair made sound. Both Dabi and Rei pause their movements.
The baby gives him a questioning look, Dabi shrugs at her. He picks her up and they both head to the source of the yell.
“What?” Dabi asks, aggressively. “You’re gonna startle her.”
Rei frowns at Hawks, not like that’s anything new. If the kid isn’t frowning it’s because she’s sleeping.
A feather drops Hawk’s tablet into Dabi’s hands. The screen displaying what looks like a news site, and at the very top…
Dabi has to hand Hawks the child as he bends over, hands on his knees, gasping for air through silent and painful laughter.
“Oh, fuck you,” Hawks says, gripping Rei against his chest.
Dabi ignores him and starts reading, “Hatching Day! Number Two Hero Readies the Nest.” Below is, damn that’s bad lightning, and angle, and outfit, a picture of Hawks. Tiredly carrying a grocery bag from which part of a diaper box can be seen.
Hawks has several feathers wrapped around Rei, carrying her up, since he’s decided to collapse on the bed. His phone starts ringing and he groans loudly. Dabi snatches it out of his back pocket before he can answer it.
“What are you doing?” Hawks asks, wings spread wide as he tries to get at Dabi.
“Focus on the kid.” Hawks freezes and quickly goes over to fret over Rei. Dabi turns off Hawks phone.
“Fuck you,” Hawks repeats. “The hell was that for?”
“I want this to last.” Dabi shrugs.
He comes to regret that not even a full day later.
“Dabi.” Hawks voice sounds strained.
Dabi hums a questioning sound from the kitchen. Rei throws her rattle at his feet for the seventh time. He sighs and picks it up, placing it next to her on the counter. And eight.
“Dabi,” Hawks calls again, urgence on his voice.
Dabi frowns, he picks up Rei and walks over to the sound of his voice.
Hawks stands facing the open door into the building, at least a dozen feathers detached, sharp and pointing at whatever he’s looking at.
Rei babbles and Dabi has to make a conscious effort to not warm up.
“Spit it out,” Dabi orders. “What is it?”
Hawks glances back to glare at him. “Look for yourself.”
“I can’t dickhead, I’m holding the kid,” Dabi snaps. Hawks seems to realize that. The feathers stay in place but he goes to replace Dabi’s arms around her.
He walks over to the front door, finally looking at a beat up cardboard box lying just outside. It looks like the rest of Hawks mail, until he notices the message written in the corner. ‘Kind Regards from the League.’ In Compress’ (actually impressive) calligraphy.
Dabi kicks the box, as it flips on its side something shakes inside. He gives in and picks it up, burning through the lid before prying it open. Oh. Oh no.
He carelessly drops the box back in the hallway and shuts the door.
“What the fuck is it?” Hawks hisses, he’s clutching Rei again and the baby struggles against his embrace.
“Nothing,” Dabi lies. “Give me the baby.”
Hawks does so without arguing, and he’s through the door before Dabi can react, that fucking speed.
“Oh.”
He picks up the card that was on top of everything else. Dabi closes his eyes and presses a hand over his face. It’s a pink and white card with a hen looking at a just hatched egg, a little yellow head peeking from it. ‘Congrats!,’ it reads. ‘It’s a girl!’ Except ‘girl’ is crossed out and in what he identifies as Twice’s messy handwriting ‘chick’ is spelled over it.
The box inside is filled with presents that still have anti theft pins on them. There’s a corgi plushie, a pair of pink and red mittens, a nightlight shaped like a gecko, an elaborate golden hair bow and a pacifier that would make it look like the baby is smoking.
“Give me the box,” Dabi instructs.
“Why?” Hawks asks suspiciously.
“To burn it,” Dabi explains like it’s obvious.
Hawks holds the pacifier and raises an eyebrow. Dabi will kill them.
He walks over and before any of them can react, Rei’s tiny hand is inside the box, pulling out the corgi and giggling. Hawks and Dabi exchange pained and resigned looks.
“How do they know where I live?!” Hawks yells, an hour later, from inside the shower.
Dabi sticks the pacifier in Rei’s mouth. “Don’t worry about it.”
-
“I think you could quit villainy,” Hawks suggests. “And become a babysitter.”
Dabi gives him a blank stare in return but Hawks actually kind of stands by it.
He’s... different with the baby. Careful and quiet in a way that looks like he’s someone else entirely, but he also looks content, almost. And if Hawks looked more into things he would say Dabi looked nostalgic.
He wonders, and for once, he doesn’t ask.
-
Hawks gets a call five days later.
“Still alive, boss?” Kasai asks as a greeting.
“Barely,” Hawks admits.
“Well hang in there,” his sidekick suggests uselessly. “Look, we’ve got good news and bad news.”
“Fuck,” Hawks replies. “The good news first, so I have time to build up my disappointment.”
“Sure thing,” Kasai huffs. “We found the baby’s parents.”
“Oh, no,” Hawks mutters.
“Don’t worry! It’s not that kind of bad news, but-”
“But?” Hawks presses.
“Her mother was severely injured during the accident, which is the reason why she hasn’t looked for the baby, she’s internalized and in an induced coma given that her major injury was a very bad blow to the head.”
Hawks sighs into the speaker. Dragging a hand over his face, his wings tense and pulled close behind him.
“But!” Kasai continues urgently. “She’s stable and recovering quickly, the doctors say she should be waking up in a few days and after that she can be discharged in less than a week.”
“Okay,” Hawks sighs. “That’s not so bad.”
“Well… That’s not all.” Kasai hesitates.
“What is it?” Hawks replies tiredly.
“The press keeps selling that you had a child.”
“Oh.” That’s not so bad, either. “I already knew that.”
“And the baby’s Miruko’s.”
“What the fuck?”
“We talked to her agency to get them to debunk it. We can’t do it on our end without explaining the situation and we don’t think the mother deserves that kind of attention when she fully recovers.”
Hawks exhales. “Yeah…”
“But they won’t do it.”
“Why?” Hawks whines loudly, earning a ‘shut the fuck up’ from Dabi in the other room, who just put the kid down for a nap.
“Yui battled it out for an hour, I think. But Miruko’s agent wouldn’t budge, he said it’s ‘good publicity’, although we could hear very heavy swearing in the background.”
“How- Wh- Fuck, I’m too tired for this, just let me know when her mother is awake,” Hawks orders, defeatdly.
“We’ll keep you updated, good luck.”
Hawks groans into his hands, he needs more than luck for all this.
-
Going into the whole infiltration job Hawks knew there was a high chance he would end up dead at Dabi’s hand. He just didn’t think it would be by giving him a fucking heart attack.
When he walks in from the front door, he’s sitting in the living room, Rei in his lap as he normally has her, a long finger waving a small blue flame in front of her. The baby looks almost hypnotized.
“The fuck are you doing?!” He screeches, not even caring at how embarrassing his voice sounds.
Dabi startles and the small flame flares, Hawks feels his stomach take a dive as he rushes over to get Rei from his lap.
“Shit,” Dabi mutters, glaring at him. “Calm down.”
The baby complains, babbling in annoyance, her tiny arms stretched out in Dabi’s direction. He gets up and lets her hold his fingers.
“What?” Dabi asks, not looking up as he straightens Rei’s new bow.
“I’m trying to figure out if you’re insane or just stupid,” Hawks replies.
Dabi gives him a look.
“Babies like the light,” he excuses. Hawks could cry, the man in front of him will kill him.
“Babies aren’t fireproof,” Hawks points out, seriously, Dabi isn’t even fireproof either.
He seems to realize that and looks away. “Well, some of them are.”
Hawks sighs, the reply too cryptic to make sense. He just asks for one easy day.
Not that Dabi will ever give him any, it’s like he makes a thing out of giving the baby things to play with that no kid should have. Like cutlery, when Hawks forgets and leaves it within her reach in the counter, one of the kitchen’s lighters (“She doesn’t even know how to use it, stop the damn fretting.”), Hawk’s earphones (“She could choke on them!”) and more that he can’t even remember. But he’s made the decision to leave Dabi alone with the baby as much.
Which means he gets to observe him with the kid more. And, okay, Dabi is good with the baby, (definitely better than Hawks is, not that he will ever recognize that), but he’s still very much Dabi about it.
Rei is not exactly one of those giggling, smiling, chubby cheeked babies (well, she's got the chubby part down), but rather a very… assertive baby. Hawks kind of perceives her as a very judgy, constantly annoyed and condescending little adult.
He didn’t even know babies could look condescending. She kind of reminds Hawks of Dabi, not that he’ll ever say it. Fuck, he despertatly hopes the baby hasn’t somehow internilized these few weeks, but they really are a lot alike.
Over the days Hawks has learned to accept the tantrums, and does everything he can to get her to calm down. Dabi just rolls his eyes at him when he sees his pointless efforts.
“You spoil her too much,” he says, judgingly. Then presses the button Hawk’s headphones that unpauses whatever he’s listening to.
Hawks stabs him (lightly) with a feather. Glaring at him and his hypocrisy, as if he’s not the one that plays with her way past midnight because she “doesn’t feel like sleeping.” Or carries her whenever the baby makes the slightest gesture towards him.
Dabi swats the feather away, and pushes the button once more, irritated. “What?”
“You’re just gonna sit here while she screams her lungs out?” Hawks argues from where he’s kneeling in front of the baby chair, trying not to sound like he’s begging. But he’s tried everything, she’s not hungry, she’s not tired, he’s handed her every toy and blanket.
“You want her to stop crying?” Dabi asks, getting up suddenly and decidedly. He storms to the other end of the living room and plugs in his phone into Hawks speakers. “I’ll get her to stop crying.”
The music blares loudly enough to drown out the rest of Rei’s tantrum. Hawks freezes in place as he looks from the baby to Dabi and back. Rei pauses her screaming for a second, before stubbornly continuing. Dabi looks at her from in front of the speakers, arms crossed over his chest and Hawks thinks Rei might be the first baby to ever glare at someone.
Yet they both hold each other’s stares, the music continuing over it all. Dabi shrugs as Rei keeps shrieking. He offers Hawks a hand and he can only take it.
Dabi pulls him up and toward him. Hawks stumbles a bit.
“She doesn’t need anything right now, okay?” Dabi reassures him. “I think she just likes to see you struggle.”
Hawks sighs, he wishes he could doubt that.
“Can’t say I blame her.” Dabi smiles, he’s still got Hawks’ hand on his own. The skin that’s not scar is almost as rough and it’s cold, yet Hawks doesn’t try to pull away. “It’s very entertaining.”
Hawks shoves him off, and he can feel himself smiling.
Rei never throws another tantrum again.
-
“This was our worst idea yet,” Hawk’s hisses underneath his mask.
“Kids need to fucking go outside,” Dabi argues, although his voice sounds tense.
No fucking wonder. Hawks tries to stop looking so stiff and waves at a passing woman who just side eyes him and continues her walk on the gravel path.
But Dabi seems to be right, Rei is actually smiling, for once. More than that, she’s beaming. At passersby, at the trees, the other kids in the park. Hawks thinks she’s laughing at the sky. He feels a pang of guilt on his chest, he really kept her locked inside all these days.
Dabi tugs anxiously at the collar of his ridiculous jacket, hood up and that weird neck up to his cheekbones, he turns his sunglasses at him and Hawks wonders how he’s not dying of a heatstroke. The winter air is cold but he’s wearing all black under the white sun.
“You could’ve just let me take her,” Hawks points out uselessly.
Dabi shakes his head, and bends down to put one of Rei’s socks back on.
“Oh, hello!” A voice above them greets.
Both him and Dabi tense up.
“Who’s this?” The old woman asks sweetly.
“This is Rei,” Hawks replies politely, trying no to sound like he’s sweating nervous bullets under his beanie.
“Hi, Rei!” The woman smiles. Rei giggles back.
“She’s so big! How old are you, darling?” The woman bends down to look inside the newly stolen stroller (Hawks salary couldn’t take anymore ridiculously expensive baby appliances, and the walk was Dabi’s idea).
“One,” Dabi replies sharply. He adjusts his sunglasses but Hawks can see it’s an attempt to cover up more of his face.
The woman either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care, too busy waving her bracelets for Rei to look at. “She’s so cute! And so charming as well.”
Hawks actually laughs at that.
“You three make a wonderful family,” The lady says as she straightens up, giving both of them a kind smile.
“U-Uhhh.”
“Hmm.” Dabi coughs.
“Take care,” The woman says as she leaves.
“Thanks, you too,” Hawks calls after her, trying to ignore the heat in his cheeks that is not the facemask's fault.
Rei breaks the leftover silence, laughing at a dog that runs by.
-
Dabi collapses next to him on his bed and Hawks is too tired to complain about his sheets smelling like smoke.
“Fuck,” he exhales, softly and long suffering.
Hawks groans in agreement.
“I think her quirk will be not needing to sleep,” Hawks mutters, too tired to make sense.
“Maybe.” Dabi shifts. “She might be quirkless.”
Hawks hums and then blurts out. “I hope she is.”
After a beat, Dabi replies, “Shit, me too.”
Hawks buries his arms under his pillow. Turning more on his stomach to look at him.
“Did you ever…” he sighs softly. “Want kids?”
Dabi blinks, and the frowns, scoffing as if the question amuses him. He interlocks his hands and puts him behind his neck.
“Don’t know, I never- considered? I never thought about shit like that. I don’t think that’s ever been a possibility for me,” he whispers back, low enough to not reawaken the baby.
Hawks looks down. “Never?” he echoes. “I don’t believe you crawled out of a morgue and into the world, not even as a kid?”
“You are talking nonsense,” Dabi points out the obvious. “And that’s actually kinda what happened.”
Hawks is definitely too tired to address that.
“I was never a kid,” Dabi shrugs, factually and detached. “And you weren’t either.”
It’s not a question, Hawks mirrors his shrug.
“Well, I’m asking now,” Hawks insists after a beat.
“I think I would need to be someone else to even consider it,” Dabi replies.
“Now who isn’t making sense?” But Hawks understands.
He finally gets to sleep after some more slow minutes, lulled by Dabi and Rei’s breathing.
-
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Dabi mutters from the hallway, his voice approaching.
Hawks curses as he practically barrels into him, almost dropping his phone into the boiling pot of soup. His kitchen isn’t nearly big enough for him to barge in like that.
He’s holding Rei at eye level so Hawks can’t see his face but he can hear him breathing raggedly.
“What’s wrong with you?” Hawks asks, glaring.
“Get her off,” Dabi says through a pained exhale.
“What?” Hawks still can’t see him and two people do fit in the kitchen, but not if one has wings and the other is holding a child.
“Get her hands off,” Dabi repeats.
Hawks struggles, angling himself so he can glance at Dabi’s profile. Rei is giggling as she tugs at the staples in Dabi’s cheekbones. Hawks winces as Dabi hisses.
“Oh, shit.” He tries to catch and stop her tiny hands but his feathers are already too close to the stove and Dabi can’t move without Rei pulling harder. After a few minutes of quiet struggle and swearing Dabi sighs and Hawks takes Rei into his arms.
He exhales and brings his hands up to his face, but doesn’t touch it. “Fucking- Shit, wash her hands.” Hawks brings her to the sink as Dabi walks down the hallway once more, when he returns his face is also wet, and a bit bloody.
Hawks gives him a sympathetic look. Dabi was the one that untangled her fingers from the base of Hawks wings that one time he fell asleep on her play mat. There was significantly more swearing that occasion.
“How did she even get you?” Hawks teases.
“I got distracted,” Dabi huffs. “I can’t believe I gotta keep my guard up with a kid.”
Hawks laughs suddenly. Even he’s a little startled by it. Both Dabi and Rei look surprised at the sound. Dabi takes her back after a bit, and when he looks back at him, his eyes are less cold than usual.
-
He gets the second call a little more than a week and a half later.
This time he finally does tell him.
“Oh,” Dabi mutters. “When?”
“They’re discharging her in three days,” Hawks replies.
Dabi nods. And doesn’t mention it again.
-
“Dabi!” Hawks calls. He blinks at that, he never calls his name with any excitement? It’s always annoyance or outright anger so Dabi has a hard time placing the unusual tone. “Come here!”
“I’m in the fucking bath!” Dabi yells back even though Hawks knows that. Dabi had to fight his way into the master bathroom.
“Come here!” Hawks repeats. Dabi sighs and takes his towel out of spite.
He makes a point to drip all over the hallway and doesn’t even realize that the towel is only covering him from the waist down until he stands by the living room's doorway. Thankfully, Hawks is not looking at him.
He’s holding his phone waving at him to get closer, wings fluttering in excitement.
“She’s trying to walk,” he explains.
Dabi looks towards Rei in alarm, who is indeed standing up by using the couch edge as support, red feathers all around her to catch her at any moment.
“No,” Dabi says.
“What?” Hawks frowns.
“Don’t let her,” Dabi urges, walking towards him. “If she starts walking she won’t stop.”
“But-”
“No, Hawks.” Dabi isn’t pleading him. “You can barely keep up with her crawling. Bring. Her. Down”.”
Realization and sense seem to come into him and the feathers wrap around her gently, sitting her back down on the play mat.
Rei looks at them, questioning. Dabi sighs in relief.
“...Is that my towel?”
-
“...The fuck are you doing?”
Hawks draws his wings back. “Nothing.”
“Look,” He admits. He covers himself and Dabi with each wing, when he draws them back Rei laughs.
“Oh,” Dabi says, exasperated.
“I guess she’s cute when she’s not crying,” Hawks points out.
“She only cries at you,” Dabi replies, shoving his wing away. Rei keeps laughing as he reappears.
-
“How the hell is a one year old supposed to pronounce your dumbass name,” Dabi laughs, the one time he catches Hawks trying to get Rei to talk.
“It’s not even your real one,” he adds.
Hawks gives him a look. “No one here has a real name, we even made one up for her.”
“Half the public can’t pronounce your name.” Hawks winces, he’s got a point there.
“Well, you can’t get her to say yours either.” Hawks wave a finger at him triumphantly as Dabi stops smiling. “Yeah! I heard you, this apartment isn’t very big.”
“Fuck off.” Dabi pushes him weakly as he walks behind Hawks kneeling in front of the baby.
“Shit,” Hawks mutters as he struggles to keep his balance.
“Shit,” An unfamiliar voice echoes.
Both he and Dabi freeze.
“Did she…?” Hawks asks him, looking for a denial.
Dabi laughs suddenly. “Yeah.”
Hawks drops his head into his arms, curling up even further. “Her mother is gonna sue me.”
Dabi picks her up and holds her high, looking too pleased and kinda proud. “Say it again.”
-
The winter hasn’t been that bad this year, but in the last week Hawks gets the impression it’s trying to make up for all the days it wasn’t fucking freezing.
“I know you took my hoodie again, where the h-” He stills as he spots them in the couch.
It’s warmer here, and he’s sure it’s not because of the radiator. (It’s been turned off all this time, Hawks was scared Rei would crawl too close to it).
The baby is on top of his chest, and Dabi has his boots up on the couch. Hawks rolls his eyes. He presses the back of his hand on his arm, making sure he’s not overheating. Dabi shifts in his sleep but doesn’t wake, his fingers wrapping tighter across Rei’s back.
Hawks maybe takes a picture. For blackmail material.
-
“Why did you even buy her a cake if she can’t eat it?” Dabi asks.
The real answer is that Hawks didn’t realize that until he said it. “It’s symbolic.”
The look Dabi gives him is far too knowing.
“It’s been, I wish I could say it was fun, Rei,” Hawks starts. “But even if I had the chance to have kids, I wouldn’t, because of you.”
Dabi rolls his eyes at him.
“Aren’t you gonna say anything?” Hawks asks him.
All the baby stuff is packed, ready to be handed over to Rei’s mother (who is currently gonna stay at a friend’s house). Stolen stuff and villain gifts included. Rei is in her carrier, looking like she wants Hawks to get this over with.
“I hope you never remember anything from these past weeks, kid.” Dabi shuffles her hair, knowing that Hawks just brushed it.
“Touching,” Hawks says dryly. And that’s it.
-
“Dabi’s sulking,” Toga whispers, although it’s not much of a whisper. He’s back in the hideout, five days after the press finally set Hawks lovechild story straight.
“When isn’t he?” Spinner snorts.
“I can fucking hear you,” Dabi interrupts, sending heat off him in a wave that makes the rest of the league recoil.
“Sorry,” Twice replies. “It must suck.”
“There’s no ‘it’.” He gets up and stalks off.
“Oh, man, we need to help him,” Twice says worriedly.
“I need a clone, any of your fake id’s and a box,” Toga orders.
When nobody moves, she yells, “You heard me!”
The league scrambles out of the room.
-
There’s a box in Hawks doorstep. And it’s moving.
He almost hopes it’s some kind of explosive robot as he opens the lid with the broom’s handle.
“I’m tired of walking in on you doing weird shit,” Dabi , who still comes by his apartment for some reason, sighs from behind him.
“Oh fuck,” Hawks says as he peers inside.
“Wh-” Dabi is interrupted by the ‘meow’ that comes out of the box.
He shoves him out of the way, and picks up the box. A black and white munchkin cat looks back at them. It’s wearing a purple collar with a tag that reads ‘Hello, my name is: Cherry Sauce.’
“What the fuck,” They mutter in unison.
Taped to the outside of the box is a bag containing adoption papers and a note written in hot pink glitter gel pen. ‘Love from aunt Toga!!”
“I need to move,” Hawks mutters. Dabi already has the cat in his arms.