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“You really thought you could save me?”
That should’ve been Dabi’s line.
Back when Hawks had said those words, their positions had felt so backwards all of a sudden.
A hero? Needing saving?
Dabi knew there could be people on the hero side aiming to ‘save’ Dabi, sure.
But for Hawks to recognize his own cage? For Hawks to hear the rattling of his own unseen shackles?
For him to somehow know why Dabi, after they grew closer, insisted Hawks join the villains?
It wasn’t because Dabi didn’t recognize some deep, buried voice of his own that pleaded to go back to the 'good' side.
That pleaded to run up to his parents or siblings and forfeit himself, to beg forgiveness and suddenly everything would be ok.
Would never work anyway.
Didn’t mean some part of him, some minuscule bit that somehow survived the last seven years, didn’t still hope.
But Dabi felt certain he couldn't be saved.
So he aimed to have Hawks turn sides, so they could be together.
Hawks needed saving from the 'good' side, after all.
But for a hero to see the villains’ side as salvation? As a villain trying to recruit him also as them attempting to save him?
It felt so backwards. So absolutely fucked up.
But if Hawks chose the villains, if Hawks dropped the alias, accepted Keigo, and quit being the Hero Public Safety Commission’s puppet, it really could be his salvation from the cage and heavy shackles he somehow still flew with.
Hawks had so little say for himself.
Dabi once teased him about the bit of scarring on his fingertips when he first saw Hawks gloveless, and immediately regretted it when Keigo shyly admitted the commission had him ‘declawed’.
Dabi held his tongue about the similar scarring on Keigo’s toes he saw later, and was gentle about asking about the little crimson feather starts at his lower back.
By this point, they had grown intimate.
Too close.
“They say a tail would be too difficult to work with, so it’s plucked at least once every other week.”
Dabi wanted to reduce the commission to ash.
A tail could be gorgeous on him! So many people have one, too!
Dabi could only imagine if it would be a cute little tail or a long, elegant one, perhaps with a slight curl at the edges?
Maybe with some fluff on the underside?
When they were alone, Keigo told him how much he loved him, but also how distracting him and all his reflective piercings and staples were during meetings.
“I’d have a whole room of shiny stuff if I could!” His little chuckle was bittersweet, and it hurt Dabi to hear. “Bottle caps, rocks. Maybe your old staples, if you’d let me?”
God, he would. Dabi would give him every old staple and shiny thing he laid eyes on if he could. “Why can’t you?”
Keigo went silent.
“If someone from the commission came by my place,” he finally replied after a short moment that felt like an eternity to Dabi, “and they saw it? Would probably scold me about all the trash and dispose of it. They want me in full control of my bird side, which is why even my costume isn’t too reflective or flashy.”
It really wasn’t. It even seemed kind of dull to Dabi, especially compared to some heroes.
Dabi had seen some costumes so reflective, it was almost difficult to look at, yet here Hawks was in some baggy khakis and oversized coat, as if he was simply dressed like some old-fashioned solo plane driver.
“You really thought you could save me?”
Dabi’s lips pursed painfully as he threw his head back in agony now, his body fully restrained as he simply existed in this cell they had locked him in after his loss.
Yes.
Some part of him really did think he could save Keigo from losing himself to Hawks, to this cruel ‘hero’ society.
It was all backwards.
Why did Dabi get to survive, after all, but the hero didn’t?
Why was the villain the one now clenching teeth painfully as repaired tear ducts overflowed from scrunched eyes while the news, apparently over a month late, of course, of Hawks’ death now stabbed his mind and clenched his heart painfully tight.
He didn’t get the luxury of being kept up to date on things here, after all.
“You really thought you could save me?”
Those words, and the day they were spoken, with tired gold eyes looking at him with such a bitter, yet gentle, smile as he spoke them, were going to truly haunt Dabi for the rest of his days.