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Dabi was pissed off, for whatever reason he was sure to soon make known to Hawks.
But that’s okay, because Hawks was pissed off too. His day was already shitty enough before having to get out of bed and get dressed again at three in the morning just because Dabi whistled for him. Wasn’t this just great? Hawks wasn’t getting enough sleep even before being tasked with this infiltration mission. At this point, his sleep schedule would give any doctor a heart attack. Or actually, anyone with a brain in general.
So, sue him if he was a little grouchy when he finally got to the warehouse.
Because where else would a pro hero meet a villain in the middle of the night? Somewhere nice and cozy?
“You better have a good reason for calling me here." Hawks starts, narrowing his eyes at Dabi as he slinks out of the shadows like some common mugger.
“I have a good reason. I hope you do.” Dabi’s voice was flat, devoid of any of his usual teasing.
Yeah. He was mad.
Instead of asking the obvious question, Hawks raised an eyebrow and inclines his head slightly to show he has no idea what they’re talking about. In answer, Dabi reaches into his jacket’s pocket and pulls out a folded bunch of papers. He stalks up to Hawks before pushing them into his chest, swaying Hawks with the force of it.
“Mind telling me what that’s about?”
Hawks keeps his eyes on Dabi for entirely too long before slowly lowering his gaze to the papers. At a snail’s pace he turns it so the words are the right side up. Running his tongue along his teeth mindlessly, Hawks stares down at the letters as they start to blur together.
Fuck.
“Did you really print these out?” He goes for instead. Honestly, he was a little curious if they had a printer laying around the base.
Dabi lets out a very agitated snarl. “This isn’t a fucking joke, hero,” He spits out the word hero like it was foul tasting in his mouth.
Hawks sighs. “I don’t know what you want me to say.” He really didn’t, actually.
Dabi stares at him, grinding his teeth in a very clear sign of his little patience disappearing. “Obviously,” He pauses, “an explanation.”
Right, an explanation. Of what, he of course couldn’t ask: the answer was in his hands. He just has to read it.
Hawks darts his eyes between the papers and Dabi before settling back down on the letters in front of him.
He knows what this says. He does. He’s just… tired. And it’s dark in here. And Dabi’s expectant glare is making sweat bead down the back of his neck. It was an uncharacteristic show of nervousness, one his handlers would hit him upside the head for if they saw. But that doesn’t matter right now. The papers matter.
The first word is ‘The’, which is entirely unhelpful to the words that follow it. And the paragraph that follows that. And the multiple pages after that. He flips to look at the next page, but there was nothing helpful there either. Hawks scans through the first paragraph multiple times, waiting to recognize something. Dabi lets out a long exhale and Hawks glances up at the sound, only to snap his eyes back to the paper immediately, lost all over again. God, he just needed to focus.
This is ridiculous. He can read. He reads literally every day. Just, not standing in a dark warehouse at three in the morning with a murderous and angry villain trying to smite him with his eyes.
Hawks’ eyes flash a paragraph down, pinning at the first word. He goes through each letter multiple times before it finally springs to the front of his mind. ‘Raid’. Okay. A raid. The heroes must have raided something and Dabi is pissed Hawks didn’t warn them? He couldn’t remember any raid this could be referencing.
“Hawks.” Dabi growls like he’s one twitch away from incinerating them both.
“Fuck, just give me a minute!” Hawks snaps out, before blinking in surprise at his own outburst. Quieter this time, he tries again. “Just give me,” he inhales and exhales deeply to calm himself, “a damn minute.”
He carefully does not look up at Dabi, but the way his grip is starting to crinkle the paper is becoming painfully clear.
Hawks swallows and frantically scans the words for names or locations. Those were easy and they had to be here so why couldn’t he find any .
Horrifyingly, Hawks realizes the pressure building in his throat is the urge to cry.
"I'm sorry, do you need a moment to remember how to read?" Obviously it was a jab. Obviously Dabi thinks he's wasting time to come up with a lie. Obviously Dabi doesn't know why his eyes are watering in frustration or why he went stock-still at the clearly sarcastic comment.
“Hawks.” Dabi says, significantly calmer with an incredulous tilt to his voice. “Do you not know how to read?”
Hawks doesn't twitch, but there's not much he can do to stop the shiver that goes through his feathers like a wave. He still doesn't lift his gaze from the paper even though he wasn’t even trying to look at the words anymore.
No one knows this. No one who shouldn’t know, which is practically everyone. No one should include Dabi yet here he is in the middle of the night getting outed when he should be fast asleep before his patrol in a couple hours.
“You know, I actually think I should go.” Nice save. Hawks turns to leave but Dabi immediately lunges forward to grab his sleeve and pull him back forward.
“You don’t.” Dabi concludes, airy like he wants to laugh. Hawks flushes red and yanks his sleeve out of Dabi’s grip.
“Obviously I can fucking read,” Hawks spits, his defensiveness giving him away all on its own. “I just can’t see well in the dark.” Untrue, he actually sees better in this kind of lighting- but it was plausible and significantly less embarrassing.
Except, Dabi immediately lights up his hand with a flame and holds it over the papers without a single word. Hawks uses every bit of self-control to not shove them into the fire.
Humiliation shakes him to his core, and Hawks desperately takes a deep breath to fight the rising tears. He is not fucking crying over this. Not here, not with Dabi, not over some papers. It wasn’t even his fault.
He knows his hands are shaking.
The flame goes out and Dabi is silent for a moment, clearly looking him over. “Hawks it’s not like… a big deal.”
Despite himself, Hawks lets out a scoff. It was a ridiculously huge deal and Dabi was damn well aware of that. “Trying to spare my ego? How unlike you.” He can’t keep the bitterness out of his voice.
Again, Dabi takes a moment to respond. “Fine, yeah. It’s a big deal and I really want to fucking know how this ended up happening. Did you get a concussion and lose the ability? How do you do paperwork? Did you not go to school? How are you a hero without school?”
Hawks shoves the papers back at Dabi to shut him up. “I know how to read!” He repeats. “I’m just,” he pauses to recenter himself, “really bad it and I can’t focus here, and you were stressing me out.”
Once again, Dabi is slow to respond like he's turning every word over in his head. “How bad? Why are you bad at it?”
Hawks gives him a tired look and Dabi just grins in response. “I know you got patrol soon; bet you’d want to get some sleep before that. Better answer.”
Hawks pulls out his phone to glance at the time and deflates when he sees it. God, he was tired. And the knowledge that Dabi was well aware he was making him miserable hurt more than he would ever admit it did.
Why was everything in his life exhausting?
“I didn’t have any early development when it’s essential for a child, so now I am perpetually bad at fucking reading because that’s how the brain works. Google it, because that’s all I’m telling you.”
Dabi's neutral demeanor drops remarkably fast, and he narrows his eyes dangerously. “Watch your attitude, hero.”
Hawks glares right back at him. “Sorry I’m not being pleasant enough for you while you pry into my life for no reason.”
Stalking right up in front of him, just inches away, Dabi glares down at Hawks with the little height he has over him. “Remember your place within our little dynamic, Hawks. I can’t always stop what might just slip out to the public.”
Hawks is careful to meet Dabi’s gaze evenly, but internally he feels his resolve breaking down. God, this wasn’t fair. It’s not his fault his parents neglected him. He spent an insane amount of time in a Commission classroom to make up for it but at a certain age these things just don’t stick. He couldn't fix it.
Keigo didn’t have magnet letters, he didn’t have workbooks or computer games, he didn’t have short stories his mom read along with him or kid’s shows to watch together. He didn’t and there was nothing he could do about that, because it wasn’t his fault. No effort was ever made to teach him written language until it was too late.
All he had was his father’s yelling and the constant TV playing to teach him spoken language.
Hawks, to avoid escalating the situation, drops his gaze to glare off to the side instead. He does his best to pretend he isn't rapidly losing this fight against his tears. After a moment, Dabi steps back to give him space. The warehouse is quiet.
Hawks clears his throat quietly. “So, what did you want an explanation for?”
Dabi snorts. “Ironically, you’ve cleared yourself. You couldn’t have known without reading something.”
Nothing is said for a moment, so Hawks belatedly responds with “oh”.
I can read.
His sigh is loud. “Hawks, I’m not going to run off to tell the world. I just needed to see your reaction and know you were being serious.”
For some mysterious reason, the words don’t do anything to reassure him.
Hawks gives him a jerky nod to show he heard. “I can go then?” It wasn’t like him, to ask for Dabi’s permission. And certainly not with such a lifeless voice.
It was hard, at this point, to pretend to care.
Dabi takes entirely too long to answer, clearly put-off in his own right by the way Hawks was acting. “I’ll get Kurogiri to portal you home-”
“No thanks.” Hawks cuts him off before the villain can move to grab his phone. “Don’t worry, the road signs are pretty easy to read.”
It was a dig; they both knew it was, and it was stupid. Obviously, Hawks didn’t use road signs in general, not to mention he’s flown home from here countless of times. And of course Dabi wasn’t worrying in the first place. It was weak, more of an attack on himself than anything Dabi has done, but it was all he could find the energy for.
Before Dabi can respond, Hawks spreads his wings and takes flight.