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They say never become your parents, but at the same time, one begins to notice that in some way, a small part of you ends up inheriting at least one, ugly little thing from them. That one, maggot of a thing that you always told yourself you would never do or be stuck with when you have kids of your own.
In Hawks' case, it was leaving his behind.
It was supposed to be an easy bank robbery – just a couple of dumb kids with quirks thinking themselves to be big and bad villains trying to hit up one of the biggest banks in Fukuoka. He would be in and out in five minutes.
He doesn't expect to see her there, holding a bag of cash in one hand and a shard of heated but hard glass to the neck of an unconscious receptionist in the other. He doesn't expect her to listen when that boy tells her to take the cash she has and book it out the side of the building.
He doesn't expect his body to fail him a few seconds too long and get a shard of her glass stuck in his shoulder.
He apprehends the rest of the teens – he gets away thanks to her distraction – and sends a feather after her. Once the other heroes and the police show up, he books it out of the bank.
Admittedly – and he really hates to admit it – he is slower than he usually is. On purpose.
A part of him wants her to get away. Away from that boy, away from this life, away from him. She doesn't want to see him, he can't bear to face her. It makes sense.
But, he's still a hero, and whether she likes it or not, he's still her dad.
He has to try.
He corners her down some tight alleyways. She's got a white knuckle grip on the bags of cash and doesn't look back at him, but she knows he's there. The glass digging further into his shoulder, burning into his muscle is proof of that.
"Suzume!" he shouts, picking up speed, "I know you can hear me! Stop!"
"Fuck off!" she spits back. Her palms start to glow orange.
Hawks narrows his eyes, "Stop or I'll make you stop!"
He hears her scoff. He lands on his feet and detaches his feathers. He sends half of them in front of her to form a sharp red wall while the other half does the same behind him. Her boots screech to a halt, her body mere centimeters from colliding with the wall. She whips her head back at him and his breath gets caught in his throat.
She looks too...old for sixteen. It doesn’t help that she has her daddy’s height, and it’s even less ideal that those blood covered, steel toed boots add an inch or two more. Maybe that’s what all Fathers think of their daughters at some point, but seeing her with scars on her upper left arm and exposed abdomen, the long, clawed raven gloves that match the thick black mask over her equally scared mouth, the dark brown hair where her blonde is supposed to be -
She can’t be sixteen anymore. It’s not possible.
Sixteen doesn’t run down alleyways with bags full of stolen bags of cash. Sixteen doesn’t have this many scars on them. Sixteen doesn’t have that look of murder in her sunset eyes.
She holds up her fists, calling the shard back to her. It painfully rips out of Hawks’ shoulder and it flies into her hand. She holds it out to him.
“One more step and I’ll cut you!” she threatens.
Hawks hides a hard swallow. He crosses his arms over his chest and stares her dead in the eyes. Their eyes…
“I think you’re shit outta luck there, Baby Bird-”
“Shut up!” she shouts, “The fuck are you even doing? You caught me, asshole. What are you trying to do here?”
“I just wanna talk.”
She scoffs again, rolling her eyes, “Yeah, right. Like I’m supposed to believe that either of you are starting to care about me now?”
Hawks’ eyes widen, “You talked to your dad?”
“You can say that,” she replies with a half hearted shrug, “And I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told him. Stay the fuck outta my life. You didn’t want any part of it when I was around, so don’t even try to start now.”
“Suzi, I-”
“No! No. You don’t get to call me that, Hawks, ” her voice drips venom as she tightens her grip around the shard of glass, “I’m not your Baby Bird, or your Chickadee, or your Suzi Q, or - or whatever! I’m not your Suzume anymore. I’m not yours anymore. You made that pretty clear when I left the first time.”
Hawks bites the inside of his cheek. He closes his eyes as the memory of that night burns its way into the front of his brain. His voice echoes in his ears alongside the sound of a slamming door and fast footsteps dashing through tall grass in a dark night full of cicadas. He opens his eyes. She’s still there, still holding the glass toward him.
Her hand’s shaking.
Sirens wail behind them. He hears Suzume swear under her breath. Her head whips around in all directions for an exit that she can’t find - not with him around.
He clenches his fist.
‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it. You’ll lose her again if you do it. This is your only way to get her out and away from him. Don’t fucking do it-’
He lifts the feathered wall behind her. She stares at the opening in surprise, turning her head back to him.
“Go,” he says, nodding down the alleyway, “We’ll see each other again soon.”
She glowers, “Don’t count on it.”
She takes the cash and bolts down into the darkness. He listens as the click of her heels slowly disappears alongside her shape. He doesn’t leave until he can’t hear her anymore.
But he always hears her.
He hears her laughs, her cries, her pleas for forgiveness and affection, her worry - he hears it all, like a record on repeat.
And from the sounds of it, Dabi’s been hearing them too.
If only he had listened better.