Chapter Text
The plan was supposed to be a relatively simple one.
The threat that had been leveled to the agency was blunt, upfront and clear; Endeavor’s two civilian children were going to be targeted. Given the severity of the threat, the Hero Public Safety Commission stepped in as quickly as it could, much to Father’s chagrin. Not that she could necessarily blame him for his frustration. Father had never been particularly keen about making their family life a public spectacle. That was an even bigger sticking point regarding she and Natsu, given that neither of them were in the Pro Heroics limelight.
And, of course, he didn’t seem too fond of the plan the Commission presented, either.
“We can confirm,” trailed the Commission President, settled behind her desk with a scowl on her face, “that the target is not a member of the League of Villains, but seems to be a villain we’ve been targeting for a while. As such, we’ll be stepping in to help you orchestrate a solution.”
“I don’t need your help. I have enough Sidekicks to handle keeping them safe,” Father retorted, arms crossed over his chest and lip curled up in a snarl.
“Aw, come on, Endie,” drawled an amused voice, “nothing wrong with a little extra security. We’re all working towards the same goal; protecting two innocent individuals from harm and taking down a threat to society.”
Fuyumi shifted uneasily in her seat across the desk from the President, eyes sweeping from the President to the two standing behind her, one of which being the person who had spoken. Pro Hero Hawks was well-known for having a Devil-may-care attitude, coming off as much more relaxed and aloof as a lot of other Pros. There was an appeal in that amongst a lot of people she’d talked to; an attractive guy who was strong and capable and successful but played it off like no big deal? She understood the appeal in that.
She had, after all, held conversation with him when attending minor functions with Father before.
“They are my family, so protecting them should be my responsibility. I don’t need the assistance of you,” Father snapped back, tone firm.
Natsu huffed beside her. “I’d rather be watched by someone other than one of your little goons,” he groused.
Father paused to look at him, seeming ready to argue, when the other attendant behind the President suddenly slapped their hand against their chest. “Which is why we’re here! Look, Endeavor, it’ll be less obvious if we handle things in regards to looking after them! Me and Bird Brain can handle it!”
“Says someone who only broke from the title of Sidekick to Pro Hero proper less than a full month ago,” he scoffed.
They responded by slamming their hands down on the desk and outright snarling at Father, the fluffy, tufted ears atop their head twitching. “At least I got that position through my own hard work instead of sitting at the same spot until All Might choked in the final stretch of his career!”
The fire along Father’s face flared brighter as he took a step forward, the blaze making his eyes near invisible. “What did you just say, you overgrown housecat?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, is your hearing going in your old age, old man?”
“How dare you-!”
“Hey, now, you two,” Hawks cut in, a few feathers disappearing to carefully tug the other two Pros back carefully, “why don’t we back it up a little, yeah? Talk this all out like the grown professionals we are.”
“Hawks is correct. Endeavor, Nightstalker,” the President agreed, pausing to level her scalding look at both of them. Father took a step back and released a low breath, puffing it out as a gust of steam through his nostrils. Nightstalker, meanwhile, dragged their elongated claws along the wood of the desk as they pushed off it, chipping the surface as they went. Once they were settled, she nodded at Hawks and he recalled his feathers to himself. “The fact is that it will be obvious that you are taking this threat seriously if you send some of your own Sidekicks to look after them. However, we want to build up time and make it seem we aren’t taking this threat seriously. Give it a week of time to sort out and then have them attend that Charity Auction with you as your guests.”
“Isn’t that incredibly risky, though?” Fuyumi fretted.
“Exactly. We have no guarantee that he won’t strike when he sees no reaction,” Father agreed.
Nightstalker’s ear twitched and she lifted one hand. “Actually, it makes a lot of sense when you actually review his file. Guy ain’t exactly a rookie to this but he also isn’t as well known as he’d like to be. Probably thinks targeting the family of our new Number One will get him some kind of clout, but regardless, this whole “calling card” schtick is the norm for him. He likes a build-up to his crimes to create suspense for himself. A real showboating little shit, kinda like this guy,” they explained, jabbing a thumb in Hawks’ direction.
“Rude,” Hawks tutted but was still wearing a little grin.
“I appreciate that you have some additional input to offer, Nightstalker. At least one of the pair of you is taking this somewhat seriously,” Father said.
The Winged Hero hummed in amusement. “No offense to Hirabayashi, but she’s mostly parroting the case file that all three of us were sent about this villain. Which means you see the guy as a threat but didn’t bother to read the file, Endeavor? What, did they not have the file in senior citizen sized fonts?”
The President glared at both he and Nightstlaker - who snorted - for the comment before turning her attention back to Fuyumi and Natsuo. “As Nightstalker mentioned, this particular villain likes to make a scene but also hates being disregarded. So, we’ve created a situation that should play up to both sides of his ego,” she explained. She then indicated Nightstalker. “As such, Todoroki Natsuo, we selected Nightstalker to serve as your bodyguard in the week leading up to and at the event. Due to the combination of her lynx Quirk granting her heightened senses as well as a predatory instinct, her being the same age as yourself, and being a relative unknown will mean she can attend classes with you. We’ve already taken the time to explain the situation to your professors and have accommodations made as such.”
“Wait, what?” Natsu asked in surprise, turning his attention to the young woman in question.
She flashed him a toothy grin, revealing her pointed teeth. “Don’t worry, kid; I’ve got your back,”
“Why are you calling me a kid if we’re the same age?” he mumbled quietly.
“Todoroki Fuyumi,” The President said, her gaze shifting over, “you will be watched by Hawks. In the case of Hawks, his feathers allow for him to keep tabs on your movements without needing to be present. He will leave a feather or two with you so he can continue his Pro Hero work while you teach your classes, but you can get him nearby in the case of an emergency.”
She glanced over at him and he cocked his head slightly. She quickly bowed at him. “Thank you, and I trust you to take good care of me,” she said quietly.
He made a noise of interest. “But of course, Todoroki-Sensei,”
“We’ve prepared things this way so that there is no note-worthy change in your schedules that could lead our target into thinking we are taking him as seriously as we are. Meanwhile, we’ll also be having Hawks and Nightstalker stay in the family home with the lot of you up until he is taken into custody,”
“What? I never agreed to that!” Father snapped angrily.
The President blinked slowly and tilted her head. “You agreed that your main concern is keeping your children safe, yes? This is only something you’ll need to tolerate for a week, anyway, and from what I understand you have ample room. I don’t understand why it would bother you,”
Father opened his mouth then snapped it shut with a firm click. “... Very well. I’ll go ahead and send the pair of you the gate code for the estate grounds so you can get in,”
“Oh, and you’ll be giving us rooms close to the one we’re assigned to guard, right? Just, ya know, we can jump into action a lot faster if we’re close at hand,” Nightstalker mused, seeming rather pleased with herself.
Father grumbled under his breath as he pulled out his phone to get started on things. “Think of it like a big ole’ bonding experience, Endie! It’ll be a real blast!” Hawks encouraged, gaze shifting from Father to her. As he watched her, his smile twitched a bit wider, a strange glint in his eyes causing a spark to flitter up her spine.
She felt a bit of heat creep up her cheeks and averted her gaze. My, this was going to be quite the week, wouldn’t it?
-------
As far as being a bodyguard went, Hawks was a surprisingly agreeable sort. There was a part of her that had worried he might try to take things too far in the hopes of making a good impression on Father, but he’d offered to help her with the post-dinner clean-up and broached the subject himself.”So, I hope you don’t mind if I’m not exactly the omnipresent-type,” he drawled as he handed her a bowl.
She made a noise of intrigue and glanced up at him. “Pardon?”
“About this whole bodyguard thing,” he said. “ I kind of have a finger in a lot of pies right now, as it were, which is part of why I won’t be on you like a bee to honey all day long. Hence why I’ll be leaving you with two of my feathers; a smaller one to alert me that there’s trouble, and a larger one I can harden from a distance for you to use for protection. You shouldn’t need to actually use it but I’d rather you have it and not need it than not have it at all.” She nodded along with his explanation and rationale as they worked though the dishes. She wasn’t keen on the idea of getting involved in a fight but Hawks had a valid point, and it was considerate of him to grant her a feather. Perhaps even just seeing she had one of his feathers would be enough to run the villain off? Hawks handed her the last dish before letting out a small sigh. “I’ll be at your call if you need me and I plan to escort you to and from work, but… I hope you don’t take me not being there around the clock as a sign that I’m not taking your safety serious or anything, because I am.”
“I understand, Hawks-Sama. I mean, I spend most of my day at the school anyway, so having you there would be distracting for both of us,” She giggled at the thought of Pro Hero Hawks hovering at the back of ehr classroom all day. “I mean, I already have issues keeping some of my students on task as it is. Having a top ranking Pro there would just be inviting them to ignore my lessons.”
He tilted his head at her. “Ah, that’s right, you’re a teacher,” he mused.
“Ah, that’s right, the President mentioned that during the meeting,”
“Actually,” he said, “you told me that before, at Tornadus’ retirement party.”
She blinked and looked at him with a furrowed brow. “You remembered that from all the way back then?”
“Of course. You spent the whole night telling me stories about your students going a little hard with showing off their Quirks,”
Fuyumi squeaked and immediately turned bright pink, humiliation churning inside of her. “Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry! It was so impolite of me to just bogart the conversation like that!”
For a moment, Hawks looked mortified, golden eyes going wide. He then held his hands up hastily in an almost defensive manner. “No, no! I don’t mean that as a jab or anything! It was actually really cute how excited you were about it!” he insisted. Then, seeming to realize what he’d said, exactly, he cleared his throat, covering his mouth with a clenched fist, and averted his gaze. “Or, I mean, the stories about the kids were cute. Listening to you talk about your work, it’s clear you care a lot, that you’re passionate about it.”
Fuyumi tilted her head at him curiously. He seemed hesitant to meet her gaze now, what with his comment and how he’d tried to backpedal. And… Perhaps she was imagining, but there seemed to be a hint of pink creeping up along his cheeks and the tips of his ears. Was he… flustered? But why would that be?
She opened her mouth to ask him but was cut off by Father calling her name. “Yes?” she called back.
“Where are the spare futons? They were supposed to be in the closets of the spare rooms but there haven’t been any in the three rooms I’ve checked,”
She let her shoulders sag slightly. “I’ll be there in just a moment, Father,” she called back, turning off the tap. She let out a small sigh and shook her head as she tried her hands off on a small hand towel. “I told him I placed them all in the spare room in the far back after I cleaned them. Sometimes I wonder if he’s as brilliant as his villain capture success rate implies.”
She felt a small smile twitch at the corner of her lip at how that snarky comment got a sharp bark of laughter from her bodyguard.
-------
As a show of her gratitude to Hawks and Nightstalker for looking out for her and Natsuo, Fuyumi had decided to make them lunches to take for the day.
It had been a bit difficult to figure out how to work with the rabbit meat that Nightstalker had expressed liking when she was asked. Rabbit wasn’t a type of meat that Fuyumi could say she’d worked with particularly consistently so it had taken a night of trial and error to get it right. By the time she was done, though, she got it to a science that left the female Pro singing her praises, so that had been rewarding.
For Hawks, it was a bit easier. She recalled he’d once mentioned having an affinity for chicken, so she’d opted to make him some of her fried chicken. Shoto’s friends had seemed to enjoy it well enough when they’d come by and, while not his favorite of yakitori, she hoped it would be something he liked. She had presented the bento to him as they parted ways that morning, with her making her way to work while he would follow from far and above her. He had seemed a bit sheepish about her preparing him a lunch but had still taken it with gratitude.
And then he appeared in her classroom during her lunch break, much to her surprise.
“How’s your day so far, Todoroki-Sensei?” he teased as he popped in through the window. She nearly toppled out of her seat, distracted as she’d been reading an email from one of her parents. Her saving grace was that one of the feathers he left with her made an appearance to catch her and right her posture. “Woah, sorry there! Should have rung a bell before just zipping in here like that, huh?”
She breathed a sigh and shook her head as she readjusted herself back into her seat proper. “No, it’s quite okay, Hawks-Sama,” she said. “I apologize. I tend to get a little focused when responding to parent messages.”
He hummed as he walked over and set his bento down on a clear spot at her desk across from her, a feather whisking a chair from the other side of the room over. He settled in as he started to open his up, making small happy noises as he did so. Before he started eating, though, he glanced at her own untouched one. “Though… I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be on your lunch break right now, aren’t you? So the emails can wait,”
She giggled and shook her head at the almost chiding tone he used on her. “I don’t intend to answer until after I eat, I just wanted to see what they had to say,”
“Was it a good email or a bad email?” he prompted as he picked up his chopsticks. The feather that had saved her just a moment before discretely nudged her bento closer to her nearest hand, which made her give him a pointed look. He inclined his head towards her food before plopping the first bite of chicken into his mouth.
She shook her head with an amused grin as she finally started to unpack her meal. “It wasn’t really either, really. One of my students has been out for a few days and her mother just reached out to explain,” She paused to watch how he closed his eyes, making a small sound of contentment as he chewed, his wings even giving a little pleased flap. “I take it that the chicken turned out well?”
“I can’t go back to the store-bought stuff now. This is so juicy but still so crunchy,” he mumbled, peeking his eyes at her. After finishing his bite he gestured around them. “Whatever they’re paying you here, I’ll triple it to hire you as my personal chef.”
“It’s not that good!” she giggled as she picked up her own chopsticks.
“Oh, yes, it is! You’ll make a lovely wife someday, you know,” he sighed in quite bliss.
Fuyumi responded by choking on her own first bite to stare at him with large eyes. “W-What?” she squeaked out, knowing her face was probably redder than the flecks in her hair.
Hawks himself seemed to realize what he’d said, as his own face turned to a hue just a smidge lighter than his wings. “Erh-Ah-That’s not what I meant! I mean, I did mean that, but not, like, in the way it may have sounded! I wasn’t saying you would be my wife! I mean, as if! You and me, married, husband and wife? That could never happen, right?” he laughed frantically, before his eyes widened even more at what he’d said. Fuyumi felt a small twinge at the comment, briefly looking away to stuff another helping of her food into her mouth. “Ah, that’s not what I meant either! I mean, it’s not something that could never happen! It’s- I don’t- I… I think anyone would be lucky to have you as their wife, you know.”
She plastered on a smile and nodded. “It’s okay, Hawks-Sama. I get it,” she said, her tone unintentionally more dismissive than she’d wanted it to be.
He looked like he had wanted to say more but opted against it. The rest of their meal was had in an awkward mostly-silence. Any time either of them tried to start a new conversation, it would petter off in the second or third sentence, both of them seeming apprehensive about saying the wrong thing. For Fuyumi, though, it was more just confusion. Why did the idea of Hawks not wanting her as a wife bother her so much?
She wondered about it the rest of the day but was unable to figure it out.
-------
The auction event was slated for later that Saturday evening.
Fuyumi had already dismissed her students for the day but was sticking around to wait on Hawks. While they hadn’t heard or seen anything from this villain tracking them since that initial letter, they were still going to be on high alert until he was captured. Hawks’ patrol was only a half shift to accommodate for his work as her bodyguard, but he was running a little late. He’d sent her a text to let her know to stay in her classroom until he arrived, and that he’d send a message as soon as he was en route.
Which, if she was honest, she rather appreciated as it gave her time to think.
Conversation between the two of them had been incredibly strange, as they milled about the Todoroki estate and their trips to and from her work together. If there wasn’t a wide array of people present, Hawks would actually touch down and walk along with her to have a conversation or two. Every one they’d tried to have, though, ended up shifting over to becoming incredibly awkward.
It wasn’t just Hawks, but her too. One night in particular she’d made the comment of how he would father adorable children, leading to him going beat red and his feathers ruffling up to twice their normal size while she stammered out a frantic apology for overstepping bounds. He’d even seemed a little bothered when, during her attempted backstep, she had pointed out she shouldn’t assume a family was something he’d want, given how much time he already spent on his work as a Pro and a model respectively.
She didn’t take the statement back, though, since it was the truth. Assuming he wanted kids, that was, but it wasn't any of her business.
“Ugh, I’m being ridiculous,” she mumbled under her breath as she finished double-checking she had all her things. She shook her head at herself. “He’s a Pro Hero, Fuyumi. He could have anything or anyone he wants. He wouldn’t be interested in some frumpy school teacher. I mean, he even said so himself the other day.” She perked up when she heard a quiet hissing sound by her door, glancing over.
Her heart stopped. Beneath the crack of the door, a faint yellow mist was beginning to trickle in. Hawks had warned her about this; the villain, known as The Illusionist, could create a hallucinogenic mist. If inhaled, it would cause the victim to have violent hallucinations that often led to them seriously injuring themselves.
She yanked her shirt up over her nose, grabbed her bag, and tore off towards the other door out of her classroom. With one hand, she fumbled for the smaller feather in her pocket while she gripped the larger in the other. She bent the spine of the feather as Hawks had instructed her to do, that being the code to harden up the other.
She rounded the corner out of the classroom and took off towards the school entrance, the feather glinting in her hand. She couldn’t exactly call Hawks so she’d simply have to trust he’d be there to meet her at the front.
There was a small chuckle before something caught her right ankle and tugged hard, sending her toppling as she reached a staircase. She rolled down the first small flight and skid to a stop on the small platform between the two sets of stairs. Her bag tumbled on top of the hand clutching the feather. She refrained from getting up right away, hearing quiet footsteps approaching. “Oh, there you are, sweetheart,” A smooth voice drawled, followed by a leathery crack. A whip, if she were to wager a guess based on the sound and feel of the thing that had tripped her up before.
She glanced up nervously and slowly pulled her bag closer to herself to keep the feather hidden so she could strike if needed, uneasiness at the wide red eyes and sneering mouth staring down at her. With the suit he was sporting he looked less like a typical villain and more like some haughty accountant or attorney type. She noticed a dull throb in her ankle from where he’d got her before but decided to keep it to herself. Especially when she noticed a few splatters of blood on the steps she’d just tumbled down. “What… What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to get you, of course,” he hummed. “I mean, I was kind enough to send a little notice to your Father about what I was planning. Or do you mean why I’m here right now? Because… Well, routine gets dull. And predictable. I mean… You all built a strategy around my typical habits, didn’t you?” He laughed at the quiet gasp she answered him with. “Ah, it’s just as I thought! You’re all so easy to figure out!”
She swallowed hard but decided to see if she could press further. There wasn’t any more of that mist coming off of him, anyway, so she should have a bit more time before he used that gas again. “So why target Natsu and I?”
“Why?” he asked, tilting his head in an almost innocent manner. He lifted one hand to tap his chin thoughtfully with the handle of a whip, as she had expected. She was a bit surprised to see a small, curved blade on the end of the item, though. That explained the blood on the steps and the slowly growing pain in her ankle, though. “My, what a loaded question. Well, the obvious is your family heritage.”
“But why target us? We aren’t Pro Heros. Harming us only proves that you’re going after targets that can’t fight back,” she pressed, scooting back with the help of her left foot. Perhaps if she could get up, even with the pain on the right, she could get away? Just a little more distance, to give Hawks an open battlefield to go at him with.
He chuckled. “On a surface level, perhaps. But this is me showing how useless these Pros are. I mean, if they can’t even protect two little civilians from just one villain, how will they stop any larger forces? Like, say, the League of VIllains?”
She opened her mouth to ask something else but then flinched as he finally reached her, squatting down beside her.
He reached out to tilt her head up by the chin with the handle of his whip. “A shame, though, I must say. You’re a pretty little thing. Always brings me a level of sadness to have to kill pretty little things,” he lamented, speaking as if he was talking about something as trivial as a ruined portrait and not a human life.
He began to reach out towards her with his other hand and she noticed vent-like gashes in the palm. That must be where the toxin he emitted came from. Seeing the chance, she slashed out at him with the feather blade, clipping his nearby hand. He yanked back with a snarled “Detestable cow!”
She lifted her left foot to push him backwards by his gut, scrambled to her feet shakily and took off down the stairs. She nearly stumbled due to her right foot protesting but forced herself to keep going. She heard him get up a second later and charge after her, gaining fast. She tried to push herself to run faster but only ended up collapsing, the weight shift too much and too fast for her right. She scrambled to sit upright and hold the feather blade out in the hopes it would be some kind of deterrent to him.
But then there was a blur of movement in front of her followed by the feather blade floating from her hand to an extended gloved hand. “I’m glad this was able to help you some, Todoroki-Sensei,”
There stood Hawks, wings spread out wide in a protective stance, right between her and the villain. “Hawks,” she breathed shakily.
He looked at her over his shoulder and offered a small, reassuring smile. “I can take care of this guy. Just step aside, okay?” he prompted.
She swallowed and shook her head. “I-I cant,”
His brow furrowed for a moment before his stare landed at her right ankle, where the material of her work pants was starting to darken a bit. He turned to face her proper while flinging an arm out, a small flurry of his feathers rushing straight for the villain. For a second she wondered if he’d just gone so far as to seriously injure him, but they zipped and spun around him like large bugs, causing the villain to swat at them blindly. Hawks knelt down and carefully reached for her right leg. “I’m just going to get a look at this real quick, okay?”
She nodded, not trusting her voice to come out as anything other than a small squeak. She whimpered a bit when he peeled the slacks away from the cut, earning her a small apology from him, before he carefully prodded above the area. He kept from touching too close to the moderately sized cut itself, and even avoided touching the tender pinkened skin around the cut itself. “It doesn’t look like he tainted the blade with any of his toxin,” he trailed, “but it is a bit on the deep side.”
“H-He has a whip with a blade on the end. He got me with that,” she said.
Hawks nodded before reaching out and scooping her up. She let out a small squeak and quickly wrapped her arms around his neck. “Medical professionals are already on their way,” he explained, lifting one of his wings to block her view of the villain. Now that she was thinking, he had started to hollar out various profanities, sounding like he’d been taken to the ground and was still struggling. After another moment, a bundle of red feathers moved past carting him along ahead of them. “Nightstalker and your brother will be coming along with the authorities as well.”
“Is Natsuo okay? Did he go after him first?” she fretted as Hawks started to walk.
“He’s fine; Nightstalker caught whiff of the guy before he could attack and ran him off, hence why he came to you,” he explained. “I’m sorry. I was in the middle of a conference and then immediately caught some bank robber so I didn’t see her alert until after I’d already told you to stay in your classroom. If I had seen it sooner, I would have been here before any of this happened.”
She blinked in surprise. “It’s okay, Hawks,” she said gently, hoping to put his mind at ease. “I know you would have been here sooner and I’m okay.”
“But you got hurt because I wasn’t doing my job as your bodyguard,” he argued.
“Because you were doing your main job of protecting everyone. One person’s safety isn’t worth more than that,” she answered.
He scowled and looked down at her. “That meeting could have waited! I should have been here to protect you from getting hurt, Todoroki-Chan! I promised that I would protect you and I failed!”
“But you didn’t! This injury is a minor one and I’m still alive!” she argued back. She reached up and cupped either side of his face to force him to meet her eye. “You didn’t fail, Hawks. You still saved my life. You’re still a Hero… And in this instance you’re my Hero.”
He opened his mouth to answer before sighing. “I don’t want to just be a Hero… Not with you,” he mumbled softly.
“Hawks? What do you mean?”
“Todoroki-Chan, I’ve been trying this whole week to say… To ask if-!” he started to elaborate, watching her with what almost seemed to be pleading, struggling to get out what he wanted so clearly to say.
“Hawks!”
“Fuyumi!”
They both jolted to attention at the fast approach of Natsuo and Nightstalker, noticing an ambulance and police car in the front area of the school with them. When the pair were so close, Fuyumi was struck with just how deceptively petite the female Pro was, specifically realizing that she was shorter than Fuyumi herself. To think a woman as small and seemingly frail had the ability to run a villain off as quickly as she had was impressive. Though, the idea she was so small may be helped along by her still being dressed in civilian clothes instead of her Hero costume.
“Glad to see you two are in one piece,” Nightstalker chimed as they reached them, nose twitching almost immediately. Her gaze then moved over to Fuyumi’s ankle. “Well, mostly one piece.”
“It’s just a minor scratch,” Fuyumi said.
Natsu looked mortified. “That bastard got you? Did he use his Quick on you?”
“Relax, dude,” Nightstalker scoffed, tapping her nose, “she hasn’t gotten any poison in her. If whatever he’d used to cause that injury had been laced with his toxins, I’d catch the scent. You should still go to the hospital to be checked over, just in case. Ankle injuries can be serious business, even if they seem minor.”
“Agreed. It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Hawks agreed, carefully adjusting her in his hold before heading towards the ambulance. A part of Fuyumi wanted to ask him what he’d been about to say, but she decided to hold her tongue. She had a feeling that the moment had been ruined, which meant he’d just dismiss it or maybe make a small joke about disregarding it.
Before she was driven away, one of the police officers came over to take her statement, as well as Natuso, Hawks and Nightstalker’s. She tried to flag Hawks down as she was loaded up, thinking maybe she could ask him to join her for the ride to discuss things in private. He was on his phone, though, with his back to her, and Natsuo scrambled up with her. Nightstalker agreed that she and Hawks would join them in the hospital once they finished giving reports and updates, figuring they should at least finish out taking care of them for the rest of the night.
Hawks approached his colleague just as the doors shut. “What did Endeavor have to say?” she asked as she glanced up at him.
“Well, he wasn’t exactly happy that the villain got as close as he did, but was grateful we kept them both safe,” he sighed, wings drooping slightly. “Offered to buy us drinks some time as a show of his thanks.”
“How kind of him,” she scoffed with a roll of her eyes. She waited a beat, expecting some equally mocking comment from her associate, but was answered by silence. She lifted her head to look at him and see what was up with him. Nightstalker’s ear twitched as she watched, her orange eyes dilating so her pupils were near-invisible with her focus, as various emotions flickered in Hawks’ eyes as he stared after the ambulance. “Hey, Hawks?”
“What?” Even though he was answering her, his gaze still didn’t leave the ambulance as it zipped away. She could see how his feathers were trembling too, vibrating with the desperate need to take to the air. Most likely to pursue the emergency vehicle.
“I heard something kinda interesting I meant to check with you about earlier,” she drawled as she leaned a bit closer to him, watching his face for the slightest hint of a change. Despite her teetering on the edge of getting into his personal space his attention didn’t waver to look at her directly, though. “See, I heard from Powerhouse that he was originally supposed to be put on the Todoroki case. Said he was going to be assigned to watch Todoroki Natsuo and I was to be assigned to Todoroki Fuyumi. Last minute, though… He says you caught wind of what was going on and bullied him out.”
It was subtle, how his eyebrows twitched and his gaze finally shifted to her. He held her eye for a moment with a completely unreadable expression before giving a simple, “Is that so?”
“Yeah, it is. Anything you wanna share about whether it’s the truth or not?”
He blinked owlishly before he looked back at where the ambulance had been just a short while ago. “Who can say, really?”
Her ear twitched again, though in irritation this time, and she rolled her eyes. “Ugh, so annoying,” she mumbled under her breath. Well, silver lining, her time as a bodyguard should be put to bed now, she told herself. And while Todoroki Natsuo had certainly been better company than most, she couldn’t say she’d miss watching a colleague try to haplessly flirt with an oblivious woman. There had been some level of entertainment at the beginning but now it was just a bit pathetic.
Who would expect Mr. Perfect Bird would actually be terrible at flirting with a woman he genuinely liked.