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“Touya!”
Keigo watched as his best friend ran toward him, huffing and puffing.
“Keigo,” Touya responded, slumping against the tree Keigo was sitting against.
It was the last week of school at Shiketsu, which meant that this was the last week Keigo would see Touya as a first-year. And Keigo wanted to spend as much time as he could with him before their two-week break.
“Why are you so out of breath?” Keigo asked, poking Touya’s nose.
Touya swatted Keigo’s hand away. “Yearbook signings. My dumbass classmates want to sign the yearbook of ‘Endeavor’s son’,” Touya scoffed. “What a joke.”
Keigo nodded in sympathy as Touya sat next to him, yearbook in lap.
“Here,” Touya said, offering Keigo his yearbook and fishing a pen out of his pocket.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Keigo said, as he took Touya’s yearbook and pen out of his hand.
“Sign it, birdbrain,” Touya responded, whacking Keigo lightly on the head. “You’re the only one I’d let sign it anyway.”
“Really?” Keigo said brightly. He flipped to the back of the yearbook where the signature page was. It was true—there were no signatures there.
“Yep. Sign it however you want.”
Keigo tapped the pen against his chin in thought, brainstorming what to write in Touya’s yearbook. And then he got an idea.
In the corner of the last signature page, he wrote, “I love you! -Keigo”. Perfect.
He closed the yearbook and innocently handed it to Touya.
“What’d you write?” Touya asked, opening the yearbook back to the signatures page. His eyes scoured each page before landing on the corner of the last one.
“Keigo! You sappy bird,” Touya said, covering his reddening face with his hands.
“What? Not even going to say it back?” Keigo teased.
“Yeah, yeah. I love you too, Keigo,” Touya said, kissing Keigo’s cheek.
Touya laughed as Keigo’s face turned a matching shade of red as his wings.
A pure feeling of utter happiness blossomed in Keigo’s chest. He wanted this moment to last forever, with Touya in his arms and a smile on his face.
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Hawks groaned as his alarm blared in his ear.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
He hit the off button, looking at the time through bleary eyes. 5:31 AM .
Realizing the time, he forced himself out of bed to get ready for hero work. He needed to be at his station for patrol at no later than 6 AM, or the Hero Commission would not be pleased.
While getting ready, he remembered that he had a dream that night. He almost never had dreams, so it was strange and different from routine. He tried to recall more of it, but he only remembered that it made him feel good in some sort of way. And that was nothing to go by, as any dream would probably be better than his current reality. In the end, he deemed it would be fruitless to try to remember a dream when he had a busy schedule in front of him.
And so he got on with his repetitive daily life. He would patrol from 6 AM to 12 AM, go to the League’s base to check in, go home to do paperwork, and get as much sleep as he could get. It was a never-ending cycle of a hero’s duty.
The hours of his patrol went by quickly. It was the same old routine of apprehending villains and pleasing the media. Before he knew it, it was 12 AM and time to check on the League of Villains.
He flew over to the League’s base and entered the main room. There, he found Toga and Shigaraki crouched over a book.
“What are you doing?” Hawks said, craning his head to look at the book they were holding.
His eyebrows shot up when he recognized the pictures inside the book. It wasn’t just any book. It was a yearbook. Shiketsu’s yearbook from 20XX, when he was a first-year.
How did Shigaraki and Toga get their hands on a hero school’s old yearbook? And, more importantly, why?
“Oh, Hawksie! There you are! Come help us,” Toga said, beckoning him over.
“What do you need help on?”
“Does this look like Dabi to you?” Toga said and held up the yearbook for him to see, pointing at a picture.
The picture displayed a teen with black hair and sea-green eyes. The teen was clearly not happy to be there if their glare and downturned mouth were anything to go by.
“No way. Their eyes are the wrong shade of blue,” Hawks answered.
“Of course you know that,” Shigaraki muttered.
“What was that?” Hawks said, fully well knowing what Shigaraki said and ignoring the implications.
“Nothing,” Shigaraki said, rolling his eyes.
“Why are you asking me if some random teenager from a yearbook looks like Dabi anyway?” Hawks asked, suspicion bubbling in his mind.
“If I tell you, you have to promise to tell no one else, okay?” Toga said.
Hawks narrowed his eyes, suspicion rising by the second. He glanced at Shigaraki, who only shrugged in return in an uncaring manner. He set his gaze back on Toga and nodded slowly.
“Well,” she said, drawing the word out, “we found Dabi putting this under a loose floor tile. Since Dabi has Shiketsu’s yearbook, we think that he went to high school at Shiketsu, which would mean that his picture is in the yearbook.”
“Interesting,” Hawks said in a bored manner. However, on the inside, his mind was beeping with alerts for potentially useful information. Truthfully, he didn’t know how it would be possible that Dabi went to Shiketsu. If that was the case, Hawks would’ve probably known him at some point. Yet Hawks couldn’t think of anyone like Dabi at the school.
Therefore, in order to find more information, he said, “Can I see the yearbook?”
Toga gave it to him with no apprehension. Hawks took it and flipped through the pages. There were no marks on the pages, nothing that could give him a hint of who he could be. Hawks considered stealing the yearbook to test for DNA samples but decided against it. After all, knowing Dabi, he probably found a way to erase his fingerprints off the pages.
As he flipped through the yearbook, his mind filled with memories. He was not in any of the pictures himself—the Hero Commission made sure of that—but he saw many of his old classmates and teachers in the photos.
Soon enough, he reached the back of the book, the signature section. Strangely enough, there were no signatures. Hawks was about to give the book back to Toga and consider it useless information when his eyes landed on the corner of the last page.
Written in blue ink were familiar words. He blinked twice to make sure he was seeing right. Yet, even after many blinks, the words remained.
I love you! -Keigo
The world seemed to stop as the memory of that day crashed into him.
How Touya ran to him. How Touya sat next to him. How Touya kissed him.
How Touya died the week after due to a quirk “incident”.
A happy memory, overshadowed by the inevitable tragedy that struck.
Stuck in his mind and memories, Hawks forgot where he was and what he was doing. Yet he snapped back to reality when he heard Toga’s voice.
“...sie, are you okay?” Toga said.
Hawks could register that she was close in proximity, but her voice sounded distant, drowned out by the sound of his own thoughts.
“I’m-” Hawks started, and then stopped immediately. He was about to say that he was okay, but then remembered what he was doing before he’d been sent down memory lane.
He was supposed to be figuring out who Dabi was since he had the yearbook.
Why did he have the yearbook?
Why did he have a yearbook that was Touya’s?
Did his hatred of Endeavor go so far that he would steal his dead son’s possessions? While Hawks wouldn’t put Dabi past that, it didn’t seem to be the case.
So what would-
And then it dawned on him.
The flames. The hatred for Endeavor. The cerulean eyes. The way he seemed to know everything about Hawks.
It all added up.
It wasn’t that he stole Touya’s yearbook. It was that he was taking back what was already his.
Touya never died. He just became someone by a different name.
Tears were flowing down his cheeks and dripping onto the precious yearbook. He could faintly hear Toga trying to reassure him, but he only had one thing in mind.
“I… I’ve got to go,” Hawks said, barely registering the words that came out of his mouth before fleeing the League base.
He had to see Dabi. He had to see him now.
However, he didn’t know where Dabi was. But he did have a guess.
He flew as fast as he could to his home, landing on the balcony and opening the doors. He headed to the living room where Dabi was lounging on the couch.
Hawks faintly remembered that he had asked Dabi why he spent so much time at his home, and Dabi deflected the question. Now, it became abundantly clear why he spent so much time near Hawks.
“Hawks?” Dabi said, standing up as Hawks crashed into him and hugged him.
Hawks said nothing in response, only gripping Dabi harder, afraid to let him go like he would fade away.
“Hawks?” Dabi repeated. “Talk to me,” he said, concern leaking into his voice.
Hawks took a shaky breath, blinking the tears out of his eyes before uttering one life-changing word.
“Touya.”
Against him, Dabi’s entire body stiffened up. In their close proximity, Hawks heard Dabi’s heartbeat speed up.
Silence stretched between them for a moment before Dabi spoke up. “Who’s-”
“If you ask me who Touya is, I will stab you with a feather,” Hawks interrupted.
Another beat of silence passed before Dabi let out a soft laugh and said, “How’d you find out?”
Hawks melted against Dabi in relief. Hearing him confirm it aloud eased Hawks’ tension. He felt more tears leak out of his eyes but didn’t have it in him to hold them back.
Once Hawks found his voice again, he answered, “Toga and Shigaraki found your old yearbook.”
“Shit,” Dabi cursed.
“Yeah,” Hawks agreed, “shit.”
Hawks took that moment to look up at Dabi, who in return looked back at him. Hawks had so many questions he wanted to ask him, like what happened to him and why he didn’t tell Hawks his identity. But he was so exhausted from the events of today.
“I’m going to sleep,” Hawks announced. And then… “Come with me.”
Though Dabi appeared surprised, he simply agreed.
Hawks dragged him over to his bed and they both lay in it. Hawks continued to clutch Dabi like he was going to lose him again. He didn’t want to take the chance of letting go of someone who left him long ago. He needed to be reminded that Touya was here and alive and not leaving.
“Goodnight,” Hawks murmured, drifting off to a much-needed sleep.
Hawks heard a faint “goodnight, Keigo” in return before succumbing to slumber.
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Hawks woke up, sitting up and rubbing his raw eyes. He looked around at his surroundings. He found that most things were normal… and then he looked down and found Dabi sleeping beside him.
He was startled at the unfamiliar sight. Then suddenly, memories flooded his mind as he recalled the events of yesterday. He remembered everything—from the shocking revelation that Dabi was Touya to how he fell asleep in his arms.
The man in question was still sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of Hawks’ inner turmoil. And honestly? Hawks was just glad he was still here. The fact that he didn’t leave during the night meant so much to him, more than Dabi would ever know.
Hawks glanced at his alarm clock, shocked to see what the time was: 7:37 AM.
His handlers were probably pissed at him, but Hawks couldn’t find it in himself to care.
As he looked down at Dabi sleeping next to him, his heart bubbled with a feeling he hadn’t felt in so long—a feeling that he would cherish as long as it lasted.
Happiness.