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Midoriya sat up straight in his seat, an excited smile plastered to his face as he waited for classes to begin. Earlier in the week, Aizawa-sensei had told the class that a guest speaker was coming to talk to the hero course students, and despite how frequent it was for pro heroes to help out with lessons, the excitement had yet to fade for the green-haired boy. Every time was just as thrilling as the first, no matter how common they were. Their teacher hadn’t mentioned who was coming this time, and the mystery only made him more anxious to get through the day’s classes leading up until then.
Thankfully, the first half of the day seemed to practically fly by, and soon it was nearing the end of the block before the speaker was supposed to come. Midoriya dutifully paid attention to the lecture, only stealing the occasional glance at the clock in anticipation.
As Aizawa-sensei was wrapping up the lesson, a knock came from the door, prompting the teacher to put down the chalk he’d been writing with to answer it. Izuku looked up from his notes to watch him, his curiosity peaked. Aizawa-sensei usually shouted for whoever was at the door to come in; he didn’t stop what he was doing to let someone in. The teen wondered who it could be that the man had made an exemption. Maybe it was the guest speaker?
The raven-haired man pushed the door open, then stepped to the side to let them in. The person that came in was none other than the number-two pro hero, Hawks, dressed in his costume’s aviator jacket, though his iconic visor and headphones were missing. Izuku noticed after a closer look that he was wearing regular clothes beneath the jacket- a pair of khakis and a black shirt with a rainbow zebra on the front- and, more importantly, that he was strangely half a meter shorter than he should be. Confused, the student leaned forward in his seat, peering over the rows of desks blocking his view, until he was able to see the colorful wheelchair the hero was sitting in.
Midoriya’s jaw dropped in a mix of surprise and shock at the sight. So many questions flashed through his mind in an instant. It took nearly all of his willpower to not mutter them out loud for everyone to hear. Even without him saying anything, he could see most of his classmates were in a similar state of shock, several with their mouths hanging open as well.
“Hey, Eraser!” Hawks greeted with a smile as he wheeled himself further into the room, moving out of the way so the other man could close the door. “Sorry if I’m early, it’s been a while since I went out with this. I didn’t want to be late.” He said, motioning to the chair.
“It’s alright. Class is almost over.” Aizawa-sensei replied. “It’ll be a few minutes.”
“Sounds good! Just let me know when.” Hawks chirped before turning his chair towards the back of the room and giving the wheels a push. He looked over at the class as he glided, searching for a face, then grinned wider and waved. “Hey, Tokoyami!”
“Hello sir,” Tokoyami said with a polite nod. He turned his attention back to the board afterward, noticeably much less surprised than the rest of the class about the situation. It made sense- Tokoyami had interned with the winged hero, after all. If anyone would have known the man owned a wheelchair, it would be him.
Still, the idea was so shocking that Izuku’s confused stare moved to his classmate as he wracked his brain, trying to think of when the other teen could have possibly seen the wheelchair before. Izuku had never seen a picture or heard a mention of it before, not even on the news, which was...kind of unbelievable. The press found out about everything, so it was hard to believe that the public had no idea that the number-two hero was disabled and a part-time chair user. He would expect that sort of information to spread like wildfire over the internet, for it to be sparking all kinds of discourse. That wasn’t the case, though, and he couldn’t even begin to imagine the implications of that.
Izuku shook his head to break his train of thought and looked back to the new notes on the board. He should start paying attention to the lesson before Aizawa-sensei yelled at him...
He had no hope of focusing for more than a few seconds at a time, though. Not when one of the top ten pros was sitting at the back of his classroom. He knew Hawks was back there so he wasn’t distracting, but it wasn’t doing much to keep Izuku from glancing back multiple times as his curious thoughts continued. Sero nudged his shoulder after he looked one too many times, and he made himself sit forward for the last few minutes of class.
The time until the bell rang felt like it was an eternity. When it finally did, Hawks took it as a cue to wheel himself up to the front of the room.
Midoriya took the opportunity to look more closely at his wheelchair. Its frame was a metallic neon green, while the seat and wheels were black. The chair lacked armrests and push bars. It had a small pouch velcroed onto the frame on either side as well as a larger bag strapped to the backrest. The backrest stopped midway up his back, leaving enough room for his wings to comfortably fold over it. A padded strap sat securely over the man’s chest, keeping him sitting upright in the chair. The seat was also angled upward slightly at the front, likely for the same reason.
Aizawa-sensei wiped the chalkboard clean before he turned to the students again. “For the next lesson, Hawks has agreed to join us. We’ll be discussing the intersection between disabilities and hero work. This week, we’ve already gone over disability laws and awareness training on how to interact with disabled civilians. Now that we’ll be moving on to laws specifically regarding heroes with disabilities, it’s best to have someone with personal experience speak on the subject.
“Like the police force and military, hero work is a field where disabilities are somewhat common, though it’s not talked about much. It is important that you understand your rights if you’re disabled or you acquire a disability in the future and that you know how to work safely and respectfully with disabled heroes.
“Contrary to popular belief,” Aizawa-sensei continued, “a disability or injury does not always mean the end of your career as a hero. The current number-two pro is a testament to that.” He said, motioning to the man beside him, who smiled proudly.
“I’ll be going over the laws in detail later, but for today, Hawks is going to talk with you all about his personal experience.”
As the teacher spoke, Midoriya glanced between several of his classmates, specifically Iida, Bakugou, and Kaminari. He knew this lesson would be more personal for them; Iida because of his brother’s career-ending injury, Bakugou because of his quirk-induced hearing loss, and Kaminari because of his seizures. He supposed it was for himself as well, with the permanent damage in his right hand, but he didn’t feel particularly limited due to it. Still, he was excited to hear what Hawks was going to say.
He turned back to the front of the room as Aizawa-sensei sat down at his desk. “Let me know if you need anything.” He said to the other man before he started grading assignments.
Midoriya’s, as well as the rest of the class’s attention immediately snapped over to Hawks, who chuckled at their collective awe. He situated himself next to the podium and locked his wheels before he introduced himself. “Hello everyone! I’m Hawks, though you all already knew that.” The energetic blond said, grinning. “Like Eraser said, I’m here to talk with you about being a disabled hero. Before I start, though, there’s something you all have to promise me, okay?
“You can’t tell anyone about my disability, or anything else we talk about today. You’ll be learning soon that it’s important to keep this kind of information from the public; it would be bad if villains found out, among a lot of other things.” He explained. “So what’s said here stays here. Deal?”
The class unanimously nodded their heads in agreement. Hawks clapped his hands together and smiled. “Great! Now, a little bit about me. I’m sure you’re all confused about why I’m in a wheelchair when you’ve seen me walking around on TV.”
Midoriya leaned forward expectantly, resting his chin on his hands as he waited for the hero to explain. He was so curious to hear what the man had to say, even if he sadly couldn’t record the new information in his hero notebook. It was a small price to pay, he decided, in exchange for the opportunity to learn about a part of the number-two hero that very few people were trusted with.
“I have a condition that causes the collagen in my body to be defective. Collagen is the stuff that your tendons, ligaments, and parts of your skin and organs are made of. It keeps your body together but also makes you flexible.” Hawks explained. “But when it doesn’t work correctly, it causes a lot of problems, one of which is mobility issues.
“As you can see, I also have a bird mutation quirk.” He added, extending his wings in demonstration before folding them neatly again. “And birds don’t exactly move in the same way humans do. So my quirk doesn’t play well with my condition. Both of them together make my joints so flexible that I can’t do a lot of basic things, like walk without support.”
Mina’s hand shot up as he talked. He paused in his explanation and nodded his head towards her. “Yes?” He asked.
She nodded and put her hand down. “How can you walk, then? Or fight villains?” She wondered curiously.
“Good question!” The blond chirped. “I have braces that allow me to move around normally. I’ll show you some of them later. They’re uncomfortable to wear all the time, though, so I use my chair when I’m not on patrol.”
Kirishima’s hand went up next. “Why can’t the braces be seen on your hero costume? Braces are kinda bulky, so shouldn’t they show through?”
Hawks hummed in response to his question. “What do you think? If you wanted to hide something like that under your clothes, what would you do?”
No one seemed to have an answer to that. After a minute, Tokoyami said, “His aviator jacket and pants are made from thick fabric and they’re slightly oversized, leaving plenty of room for the braces underneath. His gloves and boots hide them as well.”
“That’s right! Good job, Tokoyami.” Hawks cheered with a nod of his head. “My costume was designed with them in mind. Of course, that’s not the only reason why my costume looks the way it does, but it was a big consideration.”
The raven’s feathers puffed up proudly at the praise.
Hawks chuckled again as more students raised their hands to ask questions. “I know you all have a lot of questions you want to ask, but let’s move on for now. Don’t worry, I’ll hang around for a bit after class, so you can ask then.” He promised.
For the next half hour, he told them about how he rose to the spot of number-two hero, about the behind-the-scenes stuff that happened to protect his privacy from the press, about how accommodations worked, and how his condition was carefully disclosed to the other heroes he worked with to keep him safe as he worked.
After he was done talking, he took off his jacket and gloves to show the class the braces he wore underneath them. Midoriya was amazed by the sheer number of them that he had on. He wore matching wrist, elbow, and shoulder braces on both sides of his body, as well as compression gloves on his hands. Most of the knuckles on his fingers and thumbs were supported by different styles of silver splint jewelry. All of it together looked restrictive, and while Hawks agreed that he didn’t like wearing them because of it, they were helpful. They let him do his job, so he put up with them.
It was too soon when the bell rang again, signifying the end of class. The students made no effort to hide their disappointment that their time with the winged hero was almost up.
Aizawa-sensei stood up from his desk chair and moved to stand next to Hawks. Ignoring the students’ complaints, he said, “Alright class, we’re going to be working on a bit of field practice next. Everybody stand up and push the desks to the walls.”
“Wait, I thought we were gonna get to talk more with Hawks before he had to leave!” Mina whined as she reluctantly stood to help move the desks.
Several of her classmates groaned in agreement as everyone got up to do the same.
Hawks held his hands up placatingly. “Who said I was leaving?” He asked.
“Huh?”
“Hawks is also helping out with today’s field practice,” Aizawa said. “You’ll all be learning how to help someone who’s fallen out of their wheelchair back into it.”
“That’s not hard.” Bakugou scoffed.
The winged hero smiled and unlocked his wheels. “You think so?” He asked as he pushed himself to the center of the now open room. He locked the wheels again, then undid his seatbelt and chest strap. Once they were off, the man beat his wings to push himself out of the chair, then carefully floated down to sit on the floor. He undid the brake afterward and gently pushed the chair away before dramatically flopping onto his back.
“Oh no, I’ve fallen and can’t get up.” The hero said in a deadpan tone. He turned his head to look at Bakugou. “Wanna help me back into my wheelchair?”
Bakugou rolled his eyes and stepped closer. He crouched down next to the man, slipped his hands under his arms, and tried to sit him up. Only, Hawks didn’t attempt to move at all, just laid limply as the explosive teen failed to move him more than a few inches on his own.
Katsuki huffed, frustrated. “You gonna help me or what?”
Hawks hummed and shook his head. “You’re supposed to be helping me, remember?”
“How the hell am I supposed to move you if you just lay there like a limp noodle?” Bakugou growled.
The man shrugged unhelpfully. “You said this wasn’t hard.” He pointed out. “Besides, what if I was a quadriplegic? Then I really wouldn’t be able to help you.”
Bakugou frowned at that but said nothing as he carefully tightened his grip and stood up, opting to drag the man closer to the chair first. Before he could pull, Hawks gently tapped his hands. “Okay, I’m gonna stop you there.” He said as he sat up. “You generally shouldn’t drag someone unless you can’t bring the chair to them for some reason. And while it’s good for you to learn how to safely drag someone just in case, my body’s not made for that.”
“Can you bring my chair back over here?”
Bakugou grabbed the wheelchair by the backrest and brought it to him, then went to stand beside Kirishima.
“Thanks!” Hawks chirped. He pulled the chair next to his hips with the front facing toward him. “Okay, so when you’re helping someone into a wheelchair, you want to put it next to the person like this, or you can put it behind them. Both are fine, but I prefer the side, so I’m gonna show you this way.
“First thing you do is put on the brakes so it doesn’t roll away.” The hero explained, demonstrating how to do so as he talked. “Some wheelchair users can get back up on their own, but if they can’t, you bend their knees and get their feet on the floor, then pull them into the seat.”
Hawks pushed himself up onto the chair. “Put both their feet on the footrest and make sure their hips are all the way back in the seat. Then you need to fasten any belts the person has on their wheelchair. I have two.” He showed the class how to put on and tighten both straps, then sat up straight and smiled. “And there you go!”
“Now you guys get to practice.”
The man sat down on the floor again, then let all of the students take turns helping him back into the chair. For most of them, it wasn’t too difficult after the quick demonstration, but for the shorter students, and Izuku in particular, it was harder. Thanks to the hollow bird bones, Hawks wasn’t very heavy, but he was taller and broader than them, which made the movements awkward. His wings got in the way a lot too, even after the hero shed most of his feathers to make them as small as possible.
Tokoyami was the only one that got him into the chair on the first try, with almost no difficulty. He had an unfair advantage, though, having interned with the winged hero before. He was so experienced compared to the rest of the class that Hawks forbade him from giving his peers tips, much to the teen’s chagrin.
Eventually, everyone else was able to figure it out on their own. After the last person was done, there were still twenty minutes left of class, so they got to spend the rest of the block talking amongst themselves or with their guest speaker before he had to leave.
Midoriya wasn’t surprised when Kaminari was the first to ask to touch Hawks’ wings, or when Mina asked if she could sit in his lap while he wheeled around for a bit. The blond man smiled fondly at their excitement and said yes to both, the latter of which led to him showing off a few wheelies and fun tricks. Even Bakugou asked a few questions despite himself.
When most of his classmates had turned their attention to other conversations, Izuku decided to finally go up to the man and talk to him himself.
“Thank you for coming, sir,” Midoriya said with a polite bow. “It was an honor to get to meet you in person.”
Hawks smiled at him. “No need to thank me, kid. It was nice getting out of patrolling for a day to do this.” He said. “Having to keep my disability a secret all the time can kinda suck, so it’s fun to get to be myself for a few hours around other people, ya know? I enjoyed being here too.”
“Sir?” Todoroki, who had been completely quiet up until now, spoke up. “I know we’re not supposed to tell anyone about this, but do you think we could talk to you about this sort of stuff in the future?”
“I don’t see why not.” Hawks said. “Just let your teacher know if you want to talk to me again, he knows where to contact me. I’ll drop by the school whenever I have time.”
Shouto nodded, content with that answer.
Hawks checked his phone for the time and sighed. “Sadly, I have to go now.” He said, earning a collective disappointed groan from the students. “Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll see you all again. Maybe we’ll work together when you become pros!” He chirped. “And from now on, when you see me you can be proud that you know a secret about the number-two hero.” He added with a wink.