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The League meeting ended early, and Hawks thought everyone would stay, so he stayed. Unfortunately, they all left in a hurry and he had no one to get more information from. Since he was still untrusted by most of The League members, he was only present for a part of the meeting. They intentionally started earlier to exchange information about confidential not-available-to-Hawks issues, which is exactly what Hawks needed. When he reports back tomorrow morning The Commission will be disappointed if he can only talk about some simple recruitment schemes they’re working on.
The room he was left in was fairly empty, aside from a dusty couch and a broken coffee table. everything else was piled around the walls and into the mini-fridge next to the door. There were no windows but it was still cold in the room. Thankfully, Hawks came straight from a patrol and still had his thick flying coat, otherwise he’d be freezing.
He wondered about what to do, he could go home and sleep and report back with nothing useful. Or he could wait a bit and see if someone comes back, to try and dig around some more. He decided on the latter, he plopped down on the couch and took out his phone. No signal, as expected, so he checked his schedule. Hawks was exceptionally busy the past few days, with The Commission being more demanding, as well as keeping up with The League, he had no time to catch up on sleep or put in work for his appearance. The modeling gigs didn’t disappear but he’s gotten a few concerning remarks about the state of his wings.
Usually, he takes any chance to fly and saves himself more time than by using public transport. But lately, he’s been flying too much even for his liking. His feathers are all messed up and he hasn’t cleaned them properly in a while. He dropped his phone on the couch next to him after making sure he didn’t have anything else to do that night. As he stood up he shook his wings around him to try and set most of the feathers in place. His quirk made it a bit easier as he can control individual feathers with ease. He could feel a bit of resistance in some of them, acknowledging that they hadn’t finished growing.
Ah, that’s right, he remembered, the new feathers have started to come in because of the molt. He completely forgot about it since he dismissed all of the feathers that had been falling out. He wrote it off to stress, forgetting that it’s spring, meaning the process has started all over again. He sighed and sat down, suddenly realizing there was much more to do than he thought.
Getting right to it, he brought forward one of his wings to start with the primaries, the easiest ones to reach. Since he, luckily, has no beak, he has to run through them with his fingers. To keep the wing in place as he messed with it he bit down gently on the alula, successfully keeping the wing still instead of constantly moving with each touch. The technique is quite sloppy but with years of experience, he got better. As he was setting the feathers in place and picking out the dirt and grime that managed to stick to the barbules, the door opened.
He didn’t notice, since all of his attention and feathers were focused on the preening process. All he heard was a “What the fuck?” coming from the doorway. Hawks panicked for a second, then realized he wasn't doing anything wrong. He let go of his wing and looked up, head tilted with a questioning look.
Dabi walked towards the couch as Hawks made space by closing in his wings, the villain sat down on the other end. Silence filled the room until Hawks remembered Dabi asked a question. “Oh, I'm just taking care of my wings, nothing special.” When the other didn't respond to that, he added “These two big things actually require care, they don't look like this on their own.” Still silent. “Hello? Say something, you're making it awkward.”
“It's not awkward, I'm asking why you're doing it like that, not what you're doing,” Dabi finally said, still looking perplexed. “Isn't it easier with your quirk?”
Hawks looked a bit offended, “I don't have to explain how my body works to you.” He put back the wing he was preening in front of him, intentionally smacking Dabi’s back gently on the way to be petty. He held the wing back in place and started again.
Dabi didn't say anything for a second until Hawks bit his wing again. “Doesn't that mess them up even more? When you bite it,” He said it quietly, lost in thought.
Hawks sighed with frustration as he stopped once again so he could talk, “I’m not here for suggestions. Never mind this, I'll just go home and finish this there.” He wasn’t going to let someone correct his technique and knowledge of his own quirk. He placed his wings behind his back as if he was gonna stand up.
Dabi rolled his eyes, a scowl back on his face, “Jeez birdbrain are you always this easy to rile up?” He positioned himself more comfortably on the couch, leaning on the armrest, his hand reached for a remote before he remembered there was no TV there. Silence was filling the room again but Hawks wasn't standing up to leave. He raised an eyebrow and looked at the other man on the couch.
Hawks was back to preening, a hateful look in his eyes. He bit down on his alula much more than needed accidentally, and for a second Dabi could see his nose scrunch in discomfort. He didn't say anything, figuring it's easier to just ignore him. But then he realized there was nothing else to do except burn some junk in the room.
“I canth fleugh lawhk wus,” Hawks mumbled after a couple seconds, feeling the need to explain, mouth full of feathers. Dabi snorted, the snort threatening to turn into a laugh. Hawks furrowed his eyebrows and let go of his wing to hit Dabi on the side with the primaries again. “Jerk. I can’t fly with my wings like this, I already started messing with them.”
Dabi nodded along to his words, “Right, and how long will it take you to be done?” He wanted to sleep on the couch tonight, to escape the other rowdy members in their usual sleeping place.
“Couple of hours, usually around two. An hour per wing and all that, you know what I mean, now leave me be.”
Dabi’s color faded from his face, looking more pale than ever. “Hours?! You have to be kidding me, just go away so I can sleep.” He sank down lower into the sofa, heating up as he got more annoyed, his staples started to itch.
Hawks’ feathers puffed up at the extra heat next to them. It made the cleaning a bit easier. Hawks intended to apologize but quickly bit his tongue, why would he? Dabi has his own room elsewhere anyway. He decided the primaries were done and moved on to the secondaries, twisting a bit to get them at an angle he could work with. Before he bit down again he shared his opinion with Dabi. “You can go sleep elsewhere, where are the rest of your friends anyway, will they come back?”
“They’re not my friends and no, they have other shit to take care of,” He crossed his arms and stared at the ceiling for a while, lost in thought suddenly.
Hawks hummed into his alula feathers as he continued to put the feathers in place. The smaller the feathers are the harder they are to set in place and clean. He was lost in thought when he suddenly felt something scorching hot on the end of the wing. He quickly pulled it back in, pulling out a couple of feathers with his mouth accidentally as he let go of it. Hawks gave Dabi a death stare as he realized he put a hand up to one of them. “What made you do that? I can still feel through them, your hands are awfully h- warm.” He stumbled over his words in frustration.
Dabi looked at his palm, “Didn’t realize I made it that hot, your feathers reacted to the heat. Thought it would help.” He said dismissively, putting his hand back. “Does it?”
Hawks raised an eyebrow, deciding the matter was not worth arguing over, it seemed like Dabi wanted to help, for whatever reason. “Well it is quite cold in this room right now, and the coat is getting in the way. But it’s manageable, usually, I like the temperature to be a bit hotter though.” He explained, then added, as an afterthought, “Bird bones and all that.”
“Oh,” Dabi was surprised at the genuine answer.
“Yeah,” Hawks moved over to his other wing, deciding the secondaries on the last one were done. This one shouldn’t take as long without Dabi’s interruption.
“Didn’t you say it takes an hour, why’d you already move on?”
Hawks didn’t even get to start with the new one before he took a deep breath to explain. “I’m just trying to even them out so I can fly back home. I’ll do the rest there, the coverts are harder to reach.” He then started with the preening again. Adding to the pile of small feathers, that he’s managed to find and pull out due to the molt, on the table.
“Oh,” Dabi felt like a dick, which was odd. “And you don’t need these?” He grabbed one of the ones from the table, turning it in his hand. It looked a lot more dull, and less shiny than the other feathers which were now nicely made on the hero’s wings.
Hawks didn’t answer verbally, just nodded his head as he kept going. Quickly getting into it after already working on the other wing. Dabi looked at the time on his phone, thinking of something. “It’s already pretty late, what if I do the coverts for you?”
Hawks choked on the small feathers he was biting on. He coughed a couple of times as he pulled out the barbs that got stuck on his tongue and chin stubble. “No, I got this. I’ve been doing it like this for years already.”
“So no one else has helped you with it over the years?”
Hawks went over the feathers he just messed up with his hands, “I mean before I was taught how to do it, I had help from my teachers and stuff. But it takes much longer for another person to find and pick out what I can on my own anyway.” Dabi hummed, but brought his hand over to the wing Hawks was first working on, touching the coverts closest to him. To his surprise the wing didn’t fold in like last time, but rather opened more to welcome the heat. Hawks glared at him again, “Your hand is messing up my work.”
The hand disappeared and Hawks hated that he missed it. It was only getting colder as the night went on. Dabi looked concerned as he looked at his palm again, “Why is the red rubbing off on my hand?”
“Are you-? Oh, that’s the blood from the pin feather I accidentally pulled out when you- yeah. I’ll clean it later, it’s a small issue anyway.” He responded as he looked over the wing again to confirm it wasn’t a lot of blood. He laughed at Dabi’s shocked expression, “It was a growing feather, I can't control the small ones that much anyway.”
“You pulled this out?! What the hell that’s-” He stopped, not knowing where he was going with that.
“Jeez, now who’s the riled-up one. Chill, it’s one feather.” He didn’t get a response back and then continued. “Here, you can set the coverts on this one in place, but do not pluck any out, and don’t do it with your nails.” Dabi was surprised at that, and then Hawks slowly added, “Keep your hands warm, but none of that from earlier.”
This will shorten the amount of time he needs to do them. He had to twist in unimaginable ways to reach his coverts usually anyway. So this was nice. He covered up a breath of surprise as Dabi’s hand started exploring the row of primary coverts. It felt so much better than when he did it alone. The warm fingers were basically a massage. He sighed in relief as he continued on to the secondaries of his other wing.
They sat like that for a while until Hawks’ wing felt cold again, he turned and saw Dabi was done. He tried to resist the frown at the cold but failed. He quickly felt around and took out the old feathers within the coverts and then turned around on the couch. Dabi shot him a quizzed look. “Now do this side.”
“Oh? Getting comfortable already?” Dabi teased but continued to work regardless.
They were both sitting sideways on the couch, facing each other as Dabi worked on the inside of the wing and Hawks on the other. Dabi noticed Hawks’ eyelids start to droop but said nothing. Hawks was done with the easier-to-reach feathers quickly and it left him to follow Dabi’s hand as it cleaned the coverts. The heat stayed in the cocoon that the wings accidentally formed around the two of them. It felt like Hawks was wrapped up in ten blankets.
“Wake up.”
Hawks quickly jerked awake, already taking out one of the freshly cleaned primaries in his hand. He looked around, noticing he was still sitting on the couch with Dabi. “What?” He mumbled.
“I’m done, you fell asleep. Your cleaning or whatever is done now,” He tried not to sound proud as he looked over both of the wings. Though some of the ones on the second wing were dull and needed to be plucked, he didn’t want to risk waking up Hawks. Or making him bleed, he told himself.
“Wait! One more thing,” Hawks quickly stood up and started to take off the heavy coat.
Dabi laughed loudly and with his full chest, making him cough out his words “Birdy what are you-”
Hawks slapped him gently with a wing as he dropped the coat and then took off his shirt. “Shut up, here.” He sat down on the couch again, this time with his back to Dabi. “Can you get the scapulars, they’re impossible for me to reach. You’ll have to pluck out the old ones so just wiggle one if you think you should and I’ll tell you.”
Dabi was awestruck. He lied to himself saying it’s because Hawks is proudly using him as a brush. But really those back muscles were no joke. He tried to control the heat that was now rising in his hands, also making the staples around his neck itchy. He needed a moment, “Just a second.” He managed to whisper. He shook his hands around in the air, waiting for his quirk to calm down.
“What-” Hawks wanted to turn around to see the problem but was stopped when the heat returned to his upper back. He relaxed again and finished the second wing by plucking out the extra feathers to make room for new ones. The room was filled with silence again but it was a lot more warm. Hawks hummed every time Dabi found a dull feather and the routine was over within an hour.
“Looks like it still took two hours,” Dabi commented as he pulled back his hands.
“What?” Hawks turned around, confused.
Dabi looked at him, confused, “The process? It still took two hours. Would probably be faster if you didn’t fall asleep four times."
“It’s called preening. And when did I fall asleep?” Hawks huffed, offended by the sleeping accusation.
Dabi snorted, “Birdy you just woke up again.”
Suddenly Hawks was very aware of the state and position the two of them were in at the moment. Heat rushed to his face and he turned away from him. Dabi had a grin plastered on his face when he realized. The hero mumbled, “It’s late, I need to be somewhere in the morning.” He got up to put on his costume again, feeling awfully naked at the moment.
“Not even a thank you,” Dabi rolled his eyes, shifting his position to sit on the couch normally.
Hawks sighed, faking being annoyed, and thought for a second. He took one of Dabi’s hands in his and placed a kiss on the palm. “There, and now I’m off.” He quickly added and then disappeared behind the door.
Hawks shook his head as he started flying again, feeling much more awake and better with his wings cleaned. But he felt something else he couldn't quite explain to himself yet. But Dabi knew. Dabi knew he was absolutely fucked.