Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dabi was woken up by the feeling of the bed moving and a sudden cold.
Dabi groaned “Come back to bed.”
Hawks’ lovely laugh filled the room.
“I would love to but I got work.”
“Can’t you wait five more minutes? It’s not like there aren’t more heroes to save people. Plus, don’t you have, like, interns or some shit?”
Dabi opened his eyes to find Hawks pulling a shirt over his head.
“Well, yeah, but that would be very un-hero-like of me and you know how I feel about that.”
Dabi groaned, rolling off the bed and wrapping his arms around Hawks. Stuffing his face in between Hawks’ wings he grumbled “you and your stupid hero bullshit. Come to the dark side. We have cookies.”
“Hmm. Tempting but no.” Hawks slowly turned around and wrapped his arms around Dabi’s shoulders.
Hawks gently brought Dabi’s head down for a kiss. A goodbye kiss.
“Don’t die on me birdie.”
Hawks winked at him, “you got it hot stuff.”

“Toga turn that shit off!” Dabi groaned, not in the mood for watching heroes or the news. He had a headache and wanted nothing more than to cuddle with his bird.
“Dabi they’re talking about Hawks.” She sounded worried.
“Of course they are. He probably saved another victim or something.” But Dabi headed towards her, leaving against the couch.
“No, it’s not that…”
“-hero Hawks was last seen trying to stop a robbery. The footage is just now being released of the incident.”
Dabi watched the camera footage of three masked people enter a jewelry store and start screaming at the customers.
The tell tale red feathers flashed in front of the camera and the three were pinned down.
Hawks flew in seconds after, shaking his head at the robbers. He brushed a hand through his hair before tensing.
Dabi smiled.
A shot rang out.
Dabi frowned.
Hawks stumbled forward.
He looked down at the growing red on his chest.
Dabi never knew Toga could scream so loud.
His knees shook, sending him crashing to the ground.
Hawks mouthed one word and was gone in a blink.
The news reporter was back.
“What happened?” Compress poked his head in.
Neither of the two could answer.
Toga was sobbing.
There was a knock on the door.
Compress went to get it.
“Hawks? What are you? Oh no..”
Dabi was on his feet in seconds, running towards the sound of heavy, pained gasps.
“Hawks!” Dabi screamed, stopping in front of Hawks. He had pressed his hand to his stomach, blood leaking between his gloved fingers. He was pale and shaky, leaning against the wall heavily.
“D-dabs…” he coughed out.
“Hawks you idiot! Why didn’t you go to the hospital?” Dabi’s eyes burned as Hawks stumbled into him.
“D-Dabi…” Hawks wrapped an arm around Dabi.
“No. No Hawks you aren’t allowed to do this!” Dabi felt the burn of tears on his cheeks.
“Listen, Hot Stuff…” Hawks forced out. “My name is… is Keigo. Someone… should know.”
“Alright. Alright Keigo you need to stay alive for me okay?” Dabi begged, sinking to the ground. Keigo’s blood stained his shirt with too much red.
“You’re so pretty Dabs,” Keigo smiled, blood on his teeth.
“It’s Touya baby. You stay alive and you can call me Touya.” Dabi looked back at Compress. “DAMMIT GET HIM A DOCTOR!”
Compress disappeared.
“Dammit Keigo. Why didn’t you go to a doctor?” Dabi hated this feeling in his chest. Of desperation and pain that mixed into an unmanageable void of sadness.
“Wanted.. to see… you.” Keigo winked. “You’re so pretty… Touya. So… pretty…”
His eyes started to glaze, breaths slowing.
“DAMMIT KEIGO STAY AWAKE! DON’T YOU DARE FUCKING DIE!” Dabi screamed desperately, shaking him.
Keigo’s wings dropped.
There were footsteps behind him.
Keigo raised a shaky hand and brought Dabi down for a kiss. A goodbye kiss.

Sirens.
A hand falling.
“Dammit, pretty bird. Stay with me. Please.” Dabi sobbed, hunched over the still form of his better half.

There were blue and red lights.
Compress was pulling Dabi away.
Toga was sobbing.
The league was running through the escape tunnels.
Away from the authorities.
Away from Keigo

Chapter Text

The League was a wreck. They had lost one of their own, again, and this time they couldn’t get revenge like they did for Big Sis. 

They had run to an abandoned building. Immediately they had stolen a tv and it hasn’t been turned off the news since. 

Compress had tried to get Dabi away from the tv, but no matter how much pro hero propaganda he had to listen to, this was the only place to find news on Haw- Keigo. He needed news. He hoped they weren’t too late. 

Toga had gone to bed an hour ago, Twice and Spinner were in the corner trying to distract themselves with a card game, Compress was sitting by Dabi and practicing his tricks with his new arm, and Shigaraki was nowhere to be seen. 

The news lady was talking about some sort of hero festival coming up when she paused and frowned, reaching for her earpiece. 

“Pro Hero Hawks, who had disappeared from the public eye earlier today after getting shot through the chest, has been found and taken to a hospital for treatment.” 

Dabi slapped Compress, distantly hearing his distressed noises and the sound of marbles spilling all over. Compress turned up the tv. 

Spinner and Twice made their way over as the camera showed video footage of Hawks’ red wings slipping out from under a bloody white blanket. The bed was rolled through the hospital doors and disappeared. 

Dabi’s anxiety eased slightly. If they were putting this much effort into saving him then he was still alive and could actually make it. 

Dabi needed him to be alive. There was no other option that he would allow. He has put up with too many shitty bird puns and horrible pick up lines to lose now. 

“So far we have no information on why Hawks didn’t go to a hospital or the anonymous caller that alerted the emergency services of his location.” 

“He didn’t go to a hospital cause he’s a fucking idiot.” Dabi breathed. 

Compress went to put his hand on Dabi, but hesitated when he felt the heat coming off him. 

“He thought he was dying. If anything, he’s a romantic idiot.” Compress tried. 

“He wouldn’t have been anywhere near death if he went to the damn hospital! And he came here to what? Just tell me his name!” Dabi shouted, flinging himself off the musty couch. 

Compress’ voice had a sharp edge to it when he spoke again, “you of all people should know how important names are, Dabi .” 

With that, Compress murmured something about informing Shigaraki. 

Dabi let out a scream of rage, his blue flames flaring, and Twice stumbled back. 

Twice and Spinner looked at each other, then at Dabi. 

“We’re gonna check on Toga.” Spinner said, quickly leaving the room. 

Then Dabi was alone. 

“Fuck!” Dabi shouted to the empty room, anger rising. 

The shitty thing was, he didn’t actually know what he was mad about. Usually, he had a face behind the rage (Endeavor). But now he was just feeling the fury and without a direction it was burning him alive, not unlike his own flames did. 

“Fuck!” Dabi shouted again, kicking a chair. 

His flames followed and the familiar smell of smoke filled his nose. 

Hawks woke to white, sterile walls and a steady beeping. 

“Fuck,” he groaned, his midsection spiking in pain. He searched through his memory, wondering how much trouble he would be in with the Commission. 

He didn’t have to wonder for long. When he took a look around the room, his eyes met the cold stare of his handler. 

“Would you like to explain to me what you did wrong?” her tone was clipped, a hint of anger catching the edge. He was in so much trouble. 

“I caused a scene?” Hawks still hadn’t quite figured out what had happened. The shot, then the pain, and then he remembered being in the air. 

His handler turned her tablet around and showed the footage of Hawks being shot, then reappearing at the League base. 

Oh shit. 

That’s what happened. 

“Why did you go to a supposedly abandoned area when you were on death’s edge?” 

How could he tell her? How could he explain to her that he wanted the person he trusted most to know something the rest of the world didn’t? To know his name. A name that hadn’t been used since he was seven. A name that proved he wasn’t just Hawks. 

How could he have been so stupid?

“There was a League doctor that had been holed up there for a while that wouldn’t ask questions,” Hawks said instead, surprised by the lie and how easy it came. “When I got there it was empty.”

“And why didn’t we know about this?” 

“Because it wasn’t important to the main objective.”

“And I thought you were smart Hawks,” his handler shook his head in disappointment and Hawks hated the way it made his heart ache, how it longed for her appreciation again. “If they don’t have a doctor to turn to, their wounds will eventually kill them. Isn’t that the main objective?”

“You’re right ma’am. I should have thought about that.”

The two sat in tense silence while she fiddled with her tablet. 

“‘We will send you your new schedule as soon as you are discharged, you have to make up the hours you spent fooling around in the hospital and chasing imaginary doctors.”

And with that, she stood up and left. 

Dabi was finally relaxing. Well, in a way. Compress had explained it as “putting  him down for a nap” and the others threatened him with restraints if he didn’t try to get some rest. He spent about a minute with his eyes closed, decided that counted as trying, and was now scrolling through twitter on his phone. If anyone was going to have news on Hawks, it’d be twitter. 

Dabi’s phone buzzed, the notification dropping down from the top. 

Dabi stared at it, rereading it over and over again to make sure his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him. 

KFC: I’m out of the hospital. Where tf you at???

Dabi let out a strangled noise of joy that was not meant for his throat and launched off the bed. 

“I’m not going crazy!” Dabi yelled, shoving the phone in Toga’s face. She gave him an annoyed look before reading the text. 

Toga screamed with excitement. 

“What is going on? I thought you had a mandatory nap time!” Shigaraki shouted at them, pausing his game on the switch. 

“The bird still lives!” 

After receiving the address and convincing the nurse to wait two hours before officially discharging him, Hawks flew towards the League's new hideout. He was a bit nervous about how it would go down. The last thing he had done was say his name was Keigo and then bleed out on their floor. 

He found the building just fine, but hesitated at the door. What was he going to say? Hey, sorry for making you flee the base over a stupid name? 

“Fuck it,” Hawks whispered, channeling his inner Dabi. He would just go in there, see how they were acting, and go off that. 

He opened the door loud enough that everyone would know someone had entered. 

Spinner was the one to find him first. 

“Hey loser!” He shouted, tilting his head back towards the end of the hall. “Your bird is here!” 

“Hey Spinner,” Hawks waved. 

“Man you gotta lotta explaining to do,” Spinner warned. “You’ll need to apologise five times and then buy everyone something shiny for the scare.” 

“And Dabi?” 

Spinner hesitated, “He’ll work through his shit. He’s through the roof that you’re still alive. Ended up popping a few staples, he was smiling so wide. Keep that in mind when he freaks the fuck out on you.”

Hawks nodded and started walking towards the room at the end of the hall. As soon as he stepped in he was tackled by one Twice and one Toga. 

“You’re alive!” Toga squealed. 

“Glad you’re back! Fuck off! ” Twice shouted. 

Shigaraki looked him over and nodded. Wow. A whole nod. Shiggy was getting emotional these days. 

He carefully peeled Twice and Toga off him. 

“Look, I’m sorry for the whole ‘not going to an actual hospital’ thing, and I will buy you both something pretty, but right now can you tell me where Dabi is?” 

Toga nodded, “he’s in his room. He’s going to pretend like he didn’t give a fuck but we had to put him down for a nap to get him to stop worrying, and even then he only tried to sleep for about a minute.”

“Thanks.” Hawks started toward the door Toga pointed at. 

“Hey Hawks?” Toga called, pulling Hawks’ attention back to her. “Be careful with him. He thought he lost you. He can’t lose anymore.”

In another time, Hawks would’ve found it funny that the League was warning Hawks that Dabi was feeling emotions . But that time was not right now. This was going to be rough and he needed all the reminders that he could that Dabi didn’t do emotions very well. 

When Hawks entered the room, Dabi was lying on the bed pretending to scroll through his phone. Only the phone was off so it kind of ruined the illusion that he wasn’t bothered by anything. 

“Hey,” Hawks said, closing the door behind him. He knew Toga and Twice would probably hide behind it later but right now he wanted as many illusions of privacy that he could get. 

“Hey,” Dabi said back, voice tight. 

“I’m sorry.”

Dabi paused. His breathing hitched and he looked like he was going to set fire to something. 

Then Dabi was on his feet, standing toe to toe with Hawks, those azure eyes examining every detail of his face. 

Dabi leaned forward, pressing his lips against Hawks’. His warm breath buzzed over Hawks’ face and golden eyes fluttered closed. 

Then, just as quickly as it happened, Dabi stepped back, leaving Hawks to miss his warmth. 

“What the fuck Hawks?” Dabi shouted. “First you get shot on tv where we can’t help, you come and bleed out in front of me, then you disappear for ages and the best you can do is sorry ?” 

“Well what do you want me to say Dabs?” Hawks shot back, never good at this sort of thing. Emotions never sat right with him, so putting two emotionally constipated people in a room after a very emotional experience was bound to end up in very loud chaos. 

“Fuck if I know! Just don’t say sorry!” Dabs brushed a hand through his hair. “Why the fuck did you come here anyway? You could’ve died .”

“Exactly! I didn’t want to die and have no one know!” 

“But you could’ve lived and told me another day when I would get the chance to call you that!” Dabi’s eyes glistened. “This isn’t the 21st century anymore, there are cures for everything as long as there’s a body!” 

“Well I’m sorry I wanted to see my boyfriend after I got shot!” 

“Dammit Keigo, that's not the point!” 

The two stopped shouting, their faces flushed and their breathing uneven. 

“You were dying, and I couldn’t save you,” Dabi started, sounding broken. “I couldn’t protect you.” 

Hawks didn’t know what to say, just held out his arms. Dabi walked into them and buried his face in the floof of his jacket. 

“Do you know what it feels like, watching your boyfriend leave and risk his life every day for some pathetic nobodies that did nothing but exist, yet somehow deserve protection? To sit on the couch and watch the tv and know there is nothing you can do if something goes wrong?” Dabi asked, his voice thick with emotions that neither of them would ever speak of again. 

“Do you know what it feels like to know your boyfriend is the boogeyman in every hero's nightmares? To wake up in the morning and know that you should turn him in, but you don’t because somehow you love him? To know that one day, his luck is going to run out, and you’ll never see him again?” Hawks whispered back with the same ignored emotions as the trembling man in his arms. 

“The two of us are pretty fucked up huh?” Dabi chuckled. 

“Yeah no kidding.”

“Just… just promise me one thing, yeah?” Dabi looked down at him and not for the first time Hawks was taken away by the sheer beauty of the sight. 

“What?” 

“Be careful birdbrain. Don’t fucking die on me. I will chase your ass down all the way to hell if you think dying will get you out of this.”

“Only if you promise to do the same Hot Topic,” Hawks answered. 

Neither of them promised anything, just leaned in for another kiss. They were already existing on borrowed time, no need to taint it with useless lies. 

There were the sounds of shuffling outside the door followed by quiet curses and a heavy thud. 

Dabi sighed and Hawks laughed. Hawks opened the door and was surprised to find Shigaraki of all people standing there with Twice and Toga. Spinner was on the ground and Compress was trying to act like he was just walking by. 

“You guys fucking suck,” Dabi grumbled, snaking his hand into Hawks’. 

Hawks had missed the League. The Commission may have put a roof over his head, but these people. This group of outcasts and nutcases, they were his home. 

That night they had all cuddled up for a movie night. Toga was leaning against Twice’s legs while Shiggy and Compress took the chairs. Spinner, who couldn’t survive without heat, was leaning against Dabi’s legs next to Toga while Keigo curled up next to him on the couch. 

If anyone asked, Dabi would deny the feelings he felt toward this little group. He would swear until he was six feet deep that his older brother's instincts didn’t kick in when Toga was having a bad day, or when Shigaraki needed a break. He would sear upon pain of death that they didn’t matter to them, but he wouldn’t let anyone else hurt them. No, these assholes were the family he never got to have. And it was all thanks to Endeavor. Funny how the man that ruined him was also the man that ended up giving him everything he’ll ever need in life. 

“Hey Kei,” Dabi whispered, low enough that only his bird could hear. “When do you have to go back?”

“Aw, want me gone already hot stuff?” Keigo teased, a cocky smile on his face. 

Dabi rolled his eyes, “I don’t want them busting down the door looking for you birdbrain.”

Keigo reached into his pocket and took out a shattered phone, “looks like I accidentally dropped it on my way here. Oops.” 

“You’re gonna get in so much trouble.”

For a brief moment, he tensed, as if regretting his choice. But then Toga yawned and Twice carefully scooped her up to take her to her room, and Keigo smiled. 

“It’ll be worth it.” 

The next morning Dabi woke to the bed moving and a cold rush. He instinctively groaned and reached out, latching onto his bird’s wrist. 

“Come back to bed,” Dabi pleaded, brain still fuzzy. 

“I would love to but I have to work.” Hawks laughed. 

“Can’t you wait five more minutes? It’s not like there aren’t more heroes to save people. Plus, don’t you have, like, interns or some shit?” Dabi whined, using his free hand to rub his eyes. He wasn’t letting go of his bird just yet. 

“Well, yeah, but that would be very un-hero-like of me and you know how I feel about that.” Both Hawks and Dabi froze at the sudden familiarity of their conversation. 

“Stay. Come down to the dark side, we have KFC,” Dabi whispered, begging Hawks not to go in his own twisted way. 

Hawks hesitated, but Keigo smiled, “okay.” Keigo crawled back into bed and wrapped those strong arms and warm wings around them. “I’ll stay.”