Work Text:
“You know,” Hawks says conversationally, crouching down in the back of a dirty alley to get a better look at his favorite villain, sitting on the ground with four kittens across his lap.
“I never pictured you as a cat guy, Dabi.”
If it wasn’t for the poor lighting, Keigo could have sworn he saw the arsonist blush.
Maybe it’s why he adds playful, just to push Dabi’s buttons. “For a villain, you sure have a soft side.”
That’s enough to spark the villain’s ire.
“Fuck off and die in a ditch,” Touya is quick to reply, through narrowed eyes. He hasn’t stopped petting the kittens, the hero realizes with glee. “Leave me alone.”
Oh, Dabi knows Hawks is silently gloating. It’s rare to catch him off guard and even less when it involves showing some act of humanity.
Inwardly Touya knows he should have seen this one coming. Ever since Hawks finally gained some of Tomura’s trust, the dumb bird had been all over his ass lately, itching for the opportunity to tease him.
Chances are Hawks won’t ever let this encounter go or even worse, tell the rest of the LOV members about this, fucking up the immaculate heartless persona Touya had been crafting up for months.
For fuck’s sake, is what comes to his head as he mulls over on how to proceed next.
As much as he’d like to incinerate this guy, he has to be smart. Hold his tongue and bargain. Be cordial, and whatever his mom used to say to him when he was a child and blah blah blah.
“Hawks,” Touya calls him out, the name rolling off his tongue with ease. One of the kittens starts climbing up his lap. “Why are you here?”
“Oh, me?” the hero says, pointing at himself in some mock attempt to seem clueless. It makes Touya flip him off. “I was just doing my good ‘ol 9 to 5 patrol when I saw a certain citizen in need of help.”
The sentence ends up in one blind winning grin, making Touya silently fume because he knows for a fact that’s a lie.
This whole sector isn’t even close to Hawks’ Agency.
“Okay, you saw me. Do you want me to give you a medal or something?” Touya grunts out, with a quick roll of his eyes. “Now go off to whatever you heroes do...”
“And pass the chance of seeing the big bad Dabi be a softie? With kittens?” The blond says overdramatically. He holds a finger close to Touya’s face and shakes it vigorously, “nuh-uh. This is like, a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“Hawks,” Touya says, voice clipped. “Leave. Now.”
“Actually, I think this deserves a picture for later, don’t ya think? It’s not every day you get to see a villain be soft. I think the media would love to see it… ” Hawks continues rambling on, paying no attention whatsoever to Touya, whose patience is beginning to thin out.
His eyes give an involuntary twitch when he sees the hero take out his phone from his pockets.
“Don’t,” he says warningly.
“Oh c’mon! Don’t be boring, Dabiiiii!” Hawks replies, stretching the ‘i’ long enough to make his nickname sound like ‘da-bee’. “Surely one picture can’t kill you! If you want, I can edit them later. It’ll probably need a good dose of photoshop, since you’re smile-phobic and all that, but trust me I know a guy in the PR department—”
That is enough to make the thin bared patience snap.
“Don't you fucking dare,” he says except that all attempts of seriousness kind of fall short when an orange tabby starts chewing on his sleeve, his little fangs piercing the fabric with easy and pulling in the process, some of his staples.
It makes him wince. He grabs the kitten carefully by the neck and places it on the ground. When he goes back to face the hero, he realizes (much to his distaste) the hero’s eyes are practically gleaming, inching the phone forward.
He clears his throat and says, “you take one picture of me and I will burn you.”
“You’re such a spoilsport,” the hero says with a whine, tucking the phone back in his pockets. “It’s only a picture of you with what? Four kittens.”
“Six,” he says before he can get a hold of his hold.
It makes the hero tilt his head to the side and lets out a confused coo, to which Touya clarifies. “The other three are sleeping in a cardboard box.”
“Six?” Hawks mumbles to himself, letting his red feather float through the alley to check. The black cat draped across his laps starts purring.
“They used to be nine.”
At least Hawks has the decency to not ask him for more. His eyes wander to the kittens and he asks, “where’s the mom?”
He clears his throat and very much says, “I don’t know.”
He doesn’t know if a dog got to her, if maybe she found a forever home, or if got taken somewhere but either way when Touya found the kittens a week ago they were all alone.
"Do you have a favorite?" Hawks asks. Before Touya can open his mouth and clarify that he doesn’t have any favorite, the bird boy perks up, back straightening in an instant. "Oh, wait! Let me guess!"
He puts a finger on his chin.
"My first choice would be the orange tabby, from the way you're letting it shred your jacket or maybe the calico, but I see you haven't stopped petting the black one since we started talking."
The sharp breath makes Hawks grin.
“Did I guess right?” he says, wiggling his stupid bushy brows. “Is it the black cat?”
“No,” he replies weakly and gently grabs the cat. “This one is ugly as fuck.”
“It looks like you.”
“Fuck off,” Touya replies off-handly, the words holding no real bite. He turns him around to get a closer look. It’s small, probably the runt of the litter. It has a few scars on his face and has blue looking eyes.
He scratches the cat behind the ears and she purrs loudly before she settles into his lap. “It doesn’t look like me.”
“It does—ow!” He yelps when Touya almost swats him with his hand. He ignores the grumble of protest that falls from Hawk’s mouth and continues petting the black cat.
Eventually, the hero shuts up, either because a cat started walking towards him or he got bored and a small pause of silence falls between them. Probably because a white cat walked up to the hero and demanded to be petted.
Spoiled little shit, he thinks to himself, giving a quick belly rub.
“Are you going to take them to a shelter?”
“I don’t know,” Touya replies, kind of distracted by the sharp tiny claws from the orange tabby digging deep. He clearly can’t take care of them. Shigaraki would never allow it. Not to mention there's Toga and Spinner, who pose all kinds of dangers by themselves.
So far he's been dropping food every now and then, but clearly it’s not enough. Otherwise there would still be nine kittens instead of six.
With a sigh, Touya makes up his mind. It’ll probably be a pain in the ass to get them to a shelter —considering he’s a wanted villain and all that jazz— but it’s for the best.
Right?
Right?
“I can do it for you,” Hawks offers softly, as he picks one of the kittens (the black one, much to his distaste). A small smile graces the blond face when the cat starts purring loudly as soon as he rests in his arms.
“Do what?”
“Find them a home,” the hero says. “I know some people who’d take good care of them.”
“Sure, knock yourself out,” Touya replies after a while, a loop side smile appearing on his face when he sees the black one bites the hero’s finger.
(If he happens to stay the rest of the night chatting with Hawks, well, it’s only because he’s too comfortable to move.)
***
One week later, Touya strolls down the LOV’s hideout looking for some food. It's late, probably close to midday, so seeing Spinner and Toga hanging out in the common rooms isn't at all strange.
They're both perched on one of the sofas, fixated on the small television screen and doing small talk.
He listens to them distractingly as he fishes out a bowl and a box of cereal.
“Nee! I didn’t know Kei-chan was into pets!” Toga’s gleeful voice fills up the room. “So cute! Do you think cats taste good?”
“No idea,” Spinner says with a grunt. That earns Touya’s attention who takes a quick glance at the TV. Under bright white letters is the headline ‘JAPAN’S NUMBER TWO HERO ADOPTS A CAT’.
Huh.
So he kept one of the cats then.
“Good for him,” Touya mutters under his breath, except he sees a photo. It’s there where Touya realizes two things: 1) the black cat Hawks is holding looks very familiar and 2) the name. The freaking name.
“Dabi-chan!” Toga says cheerfully, pointing at the screen. “Keigo named the cat after you!”
Motherfucked picked up his favorite cat and decided to name him Dabi.
The bowl almost slips from his grasps.
“I’m going to kill him,” he mutters, leaves the bowl on the counter and he takes out his phone, his fingers quickly type a passive aggressive text.
Next time he self-invites himself at Hawk's apartment, Touya’s going to kick his ass.
(And if he happens to stay the night there, well that’s no one’s business.)