Archive of Our Own

"And that's how I got here," Shouto said around a mouth full of pancakes. They're cold, just how he likes them. Shouto had just explained to the tall man with black hair and weird scars how he found their hideout. Shouto wonders how he knew to make the pancakes cold.

The blue haired man with hands all over him made a face at the scar-man and pointedly looked at Shouto. "So, uh, why exactly are you here?"

Shouto swallowed his food. "I need help."

"With what? I don't care!" Shouto gave the deranged man a weird look.

"I'm going to murder my father," He replied, matter of factly.

The blonde girl about his age started squealing and held up a knife. "Can I help? Please, please, please Shiggy!? I want to see what he's like covered in blood."

"No," 'Shiggy' said, smacking her on top of the head. "Why do you want to kill your old man?"

Shouto's glared at the crusty man. "Because he won't let me buy my limited edition All Might merch."

They all looked at each other, several of them sighed. Shouto frowned and stuffed more pancakes in his mouth. "I'm sure that's not all," The misty guy assured the group. "What else is bothering you, young one?"

He chewed on his lip for a bit. Should he tell them? What if they don't believe him?

"I know what it is," The scarred man said.

"How would you know anything, old man," Shouto huffed, poking his pancakes.

The man rolled his eyes. "Because I know what you're going through. I've been through it too."

"...Really?"

Scar-man nodded. "I ran away when I was a bit younger than you, actually. I wanted to murder my father back then. Still do, really."

Shouto decided he liked scar-man. He said as much out loud and latched himself onto the man. "I'm never leaving your side."

Crusty dusty cackled at scar face. "You're just mad that no one likes your crusty dusty ass," Shouto snarled, flipping him the bird. He learned that one from a movie he watched with Natsuo when he sneaked into his brother's room. His father 'trained' him harder than ever that next day.

Scar face laughed and ruffled Shouto's hair. "I like this kid."

Shouto smiled up at him. He went back to eating with one hand, the other never leaving his new favorite person's arm. "What are we going to do with him," the magician guy asked.

"I only know one thing, I won't let him go back there," Scar man replied. "I don't care if you guys agree or not. He's not going back to that dumpster fire."

Shouto cocked his head. "How did you know that?"

"Huh?"

Shouto scrunched his nose. "That my old man's a dumpster fire. I never told you guys."

Scar face's eyes widened. "I didn't say that. When did I say that?"

"I head it," The crazy guy said. "No I didn't."

Scar man glared at him and lit up his arm with blue fire. "My dead brother has a fire quirk," Shouto blurted out without thinking. He saw the league staring blankly at him and he blushed a little. "Sorry, that was rude. You just remind me of him."

The scarred guy turned a little pink and ruffled Shouto's hair. "It's alright, kid. We've all got baggage."

"But I don't have any bags," Shouto said, his eyebrows furrowed.

"...It's an expression."

Shouto looked excited at that. "Can you show me more!? I like watching movies but my dad doesn't let me. I learn all my favorite expressions from movies I watch with Natsuo. Dad doesn't like it. He trains me extra hard when he finds out I watched movies with my brother."

"Don't worry, kid," Scar man smiles sadly. "He won't find out. I'll go put on some Disknee movies. What do you want to watch?"

"Disknee? What's that?"

Everyone in the room gasped in horror. "You don't know Disknee," The blonde girl screamed. Shouto covered his ears at the frequency only dogs should be able to hear. She giggled, "Sorry. I'm just appalled that your dad didn't let you watch Disknee."

"You have to watch Untangled! It's really good! It fucking sucks!"

Crusty dusty said "My favorite is the Frog Prince."

"Bravery is so much better," Ninja turtle argued.

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Oh my gods, shut up," Scar face yelled. "Aren't you supposed to be the boss? Stop being so childish!"

Shouto flinched and covered his ears. Scar man winced and pat his head. "Sorry, kid. I didn't mean to scare you." Shouto simply nodded. "Let's go pick a movie."

Shouto let himself be led over to the couch. He sank into it when he sat down. Scar face sat next to him and Shouto immediately latched onto his arm. He turned on Disknee and asked Shouto to point at whatever movie caught his interest.

"That one," Shouto shouted when he saw the ice princess.

"Good choice," Scar face said. "Froze is my favorite. It reminds me of my mother."

Shouto smiled into scar faces shoulder. "My mom is an ice princess too. I miss her."

"Me too," Scar face whispered. Shouto didn't hear him.

***

Half way into the movie Shouto had drifted off. Dabi slowly pealed his brother off of him and joined the rest of the league at the bar.

"Finally got him to pass out?"

Dabi nodded at his boss, glancing back at his brother. He worries about what must have happened for Shouto to run away. He just hopes the others are okay.

"The kid seems to like you, Dabi," Kurogiri noted. "Why do you think that is?"

The scarred villain sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "If I tell you, you have to promise not to freak out."

"Like anything you say could freak us out worse than the boss," Toga teased. "Spit it out!"

"Tell us already! Shut up, dude!"

Dabi took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm the dead brother he was talking about. I faked my death because I couldn't put up with Endeavor, our father, anymore."

Everyone looked surprised, except for Kurogiri. "I figured that might be the case. If everything you told us about your father was true, I can only imagine what poor Shouto is going through at home."

Dabi scoffed. "That place is not home. Not for him, and it never was for me."

Toga gave Dabi a tight hug. "I'm so sorry you went through that."

"It's whatever," He shrugged. "What matters now is what we do about it. I'm thinking we publicly execute him. Burn him to a crisp like he did to me." Dabi had his signature creepy grin on as he made his skin on his hands smoke.

Shigaraki smiled just as creepily. "I like your style."

"We could do so much worse than that," Compress argued. "Where is your showmanship? Your mystic? Have you no sense of whimsy?"

"What the fuck is he even saying," Dabi whispered to Shigaraki.

"I have no clue," The crusty man whispered back.

Compress cleared his throat loudly. "What I mean is, instead of just killing him we could ruin his reputation. He wants to be the number one hero, yes? More than anything else?"

"Yeah," Dabi frowned. "Where are you going with this?"

"I think Mr. Compress is suggesting that we expose him to the public," Kurogiri explained calmly. "We show the people that he is an abuser who does not deserve popularity or support. He'd never be allowed to become the number one hero if that happened."

"We crush his dreams and ruin his life," Toga cheered. "You're so smart, Compress!"

He blushed at the praise. "Thank you, Himiko."

Dabi smirked. "It's not as fun as murder but I think it would be worse for him. I'm in."

"The only question is, how do we convince the public," Shigaraki asked. "They won't believe information from villains."

"I know just the guy," Dabi assured his crusty boss.

***

"Heyyy!"

"What the fuck are you doing here," Shigaraki screeched at the bird hero.

He cocked his head like a confused bird. "What do you mean? Dabi called me over to help with something. He never did explain what it was though."

"Dabi!!"

Dabi poked his head around the corner. "Yeah, boss?" Shigaraki gave him a pointed look and gestured at the bird. "Oh, hey babe," Dabi smirked, kissing said bird hero. "Glad you could make it on such short notice."

"I had to juke my handlers. They were getting on my nerves, anyway."

"What did they do this time," Dabi asked. If he didn't like the answer he'd have a second murder to plan.

Hawks' feathers ruffled behind him. "They wanted to declaw me."

Dabi snarled. "I'm gonna fucking burn them to a crisp."

"I'm fine," Hawks assured. "They can't make me do it. They have nothing left to use against me."

He calmed down a little. "Fine, I'll leave them alone for now."

"Thank you. Now, what did you need my help with?"

"Oh right," Dabi remembered. "I need your help to take someone to court for child abuse. I'd do it, but I'm kind of a wanted criminal."

Hawks smiled. "Now that is something I can do. Who's the bastard I'll be facing in court?"

"My father... Endeavor."

Hawks' smile fell. "What...?"

"Endeavor is the abuser. He abused me, my brothers, my sister, and my mother. I'm done with him being able to walk freely so we need to take him to court."

"I'm sorry," Hawks held up his hands. "I'm still getting around the whole Endeavor being your dad thing. Not to mention that the hero that saved me from my own father is an abuser."

Dabi smiled gently at his boyfriend.

"I'm gonna go," Shigaraki murmered, feeling awkward and out of place. The other two didn't even hear him so he just walked out to find Spinner and play some Plumber Cart with him.

"I know it's difficult to find out that your hero is a bad person," Dabi reassured Hawks. "I was fine with him hurting me all my childhood, but he hurt Shouto and I can't let him get away with hurting my baby brother. Please... I need you, Keigo. If not for me, do it for my brother."

Hawks' eyes fluttered over to the couch in which Shouto was still napping. "I'll do it. For you, for Shouto, and for the rest of your family. Tell me what I need to do."

"Fuck, I love you so much. Thank you, Keigo."

"I love you too."

***

Hawks took his intel gathering very seriously. He put all of his less important missions on hold and focused on gathering information. He met with Natsuo and Fuyumi to get testimonies. Hawks reassured them that their brother was safe and sound with a close friend of his. They told Hawks to visit their mom in the mental hospital.

She was very kind to Hawks and was happy to hear that he was taking Endeavor to court for domestic abuse. She told him everything about her time with Endeavor. How he bought her from her parents and forced her to have four children with him. He wouldn't stop until he had Shouto, the perfect mixture of hot and cold. His 'masterpiece'. Hawks was crying by the end of her story and gave Rei a hug when she was done.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Hawks whispered as they hugged.

She shrugged and wiped away his tears. "I was okay as long as I could protect my children. I just wish I could have protected Touya more."

Hawks bit his lip, hard. He could tell her, but shouldn't Dabi get that choice? Hawks will ask him later.

Hawks collects photo evidence of wounds caused by Endeavor, both directly and indirectly, from Fuyumi and Natsuo. He puts together files of pictures for each kid and one for Rei, organizing them by the date that they occurred. They even send a few videos of him 'training' Shouto and Touya as well as verbal fights with Rei that often got violent. Natsuo sends Hawks a photo of all the scars Dabi had back when he was Touya. To paint a picture, he barely has more now than he did back then. And he was seven. Hawks almost throws up because of some of the injuries, if this doesn't ruin Endeavor's entire life than nothing can.

That night Hawks meets up with Dabi at the league of villains' base. He sees Shouto cuddling up to him on the couch while they watch a movie. It looks like they're watching The Tiny Mermaid. Toga and Twice are singing at the top of their lungs and Dabi is gently covering Shouto's ears.

"Hey," Hawks says when he walks in. "Can I talk to you, Dabi?"

Shouto gapes at the villain in question. "You have a name? I've been calling you scar face this whole time..."

Hawks chuckles at the kid's antics. Dabi groaned. "Yeah, let's go talk in my room."

"Nooo!!" Shouto clutches onto Dabi's arm and squeezes him tighter every time he tries to pull away.

"You have a strong grip for a twelve year old."

Shouto pouts. "I am thirteen!"

"Sure," Dabi teases the kid, "Whatever you say. I need to get up now."

"Please don't go," Shouto whines.

"Shouto."

Shouto squeezes his eyes and shakes his head rapidly. "You can't make me."

Dabi sighs and sends Hawks an apologetic look. "Shouto, kid. Look at me." Dabi waits until his little brother slowly looks up. "I will be right back." Shouto tenses again. "Shouto, I won't leave the building, I promise. As soon as we finish talking I will be right here. By your side."

"Promise?"

"I promise," Dabi assures, ruffling the kid's hair. "Can I go talk to my boyfriend now?"

Shouto scrunches his nose. "Yeah. Be back quickly. I don't want you to miss the rest of the movie."

Dabi chuckles and ruffles his brother's hair. "I'll be fast."

Hawks follows Dabi to his room and waits until the door is closed behind him to start talking. "I met your mother today."

Dabi tenses, his hands clenching tight enough to draw blood. Although, with the way his skin is being held on by staples that doesn't mean much. "How is she?"

"She's doing... better. From what your other siblings told me," Hawks assures, gently taking Dabi's hand in his. "She told me about her biggest regret in life."

The scarred villain laughs and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, that she agreed to marry my dumpster fire of a father."

Hawks squeezed his boyfriend's hand gently. "Actually, that wasn't even on the list. She's glad she married him because it meant that she got to meet you and your wonderful siblings."

"Are you saying I'm not wonderful," Dabi teased, although Hawks could hear the strain in his voice. Like he would cry if he could.

The hero rolled his eyes this time and gently pushed Dabi with his shoulder. "That's not what I meant." Hawks took a calming breath. "She said that her biggest regret was not being able to save Touya. It's all she thinks about, day and night. It haunts her when she's awake and when she's asleep. No matter what, you're on her mind."

"Oh..."

Hawks swallowed. "I wanted to tell her you were still alive," Dabi's eyes widened, "But I didn't. It would be up to you to decide if she should know. And you should be given the choice to be the one to tell her."

"I can't," Dabi choked out. His other hand was still clenched so Hawks grabbed that one too.

"Why not?"

Dabi scoffed. "You're not that stupid, bird brains. If I went into that hospital for even a second I'd be arrested. I'd never make it to her room."

"Well," Hawks started, "If this all goes well and Endeavor gets arrested or even just has a restraining order on him for his family, than your mother would be released from the hospital."

Hawks' boyfriend looked up at that with hope buried deep in his eyes. "That'd be possible?"

"Very likely, actually. I found out from Fuyumi that she's been given the okay for release from the hospital. She'd just need an appointed guardian to take care of her. Endeavor refused to allow it, but Fuyumi is old enough to be that guardian. She begged Endeavor to let her do it but he beat that idea out of her. Once we get Endeavor out of the situation Rei can move back in with your sister. You'd be able to meet with her."

Dabi stopped moving all together, even stopping his hands from fidgeting, and stared at the floor. Hawks could feel his hands quivering and his shoulders shaking slightly. "I'd be able to see her," Dabi murmured so quietly that Hawks wouldn't have been able to hear it if it weren't for his quirk.

Hawks spends the rest of the day cuddling with Dabi and Shouto. He never let the Todoroki brothers out of his sight.

***

Hawks had finally gathered all of his evidence and organized it perfectly. Now he just needs to drop the bomb. At exactly twelve p.m. the news will go live all over the country. He's anonymously sent the info to every news station in Japan and a request to air it at noon. Hawks flew over to the hideout shortly before twelve.

"Heyo!"

"Bird brains," Dabi affectionately insulted the hero. "You're almost late."

Toga rolled her eyes and hugged Shouto's arm. "He's five minutes early."

"Hurry up and sit down! Get out of here!"

Hawks laughed at the league's antics and quickly squeezed his way in between Dabi and Shigarki on the couch. "Sorry I was almost late, it took longer than expected to fly over from the Todoroki house. I wanted to tell the Todoroki's in person."

"It's fine, Dabi's just being extra," Shigaraki said, scratching his neck.

Hawks doesn't understand how these people could have been treated so poorly to turn into villains. He looks around the room at the damaged souls and can't help but feel bad for them all. They deserved a chance at a normal, happy childhood and they didn't get that. It's crazy how much a childhood can affect someone. Hawks wonders if maybe Shouto would have become a villain if it weren't for them stopping Endeavor now.

"It's starting," Toga screeched, effectively shutting everyone up.

The news reporter welcomed everyone who hopped on and told them a little bit about the weather and recent news. "Now, on to the bigger events. An anonymous tipper has dropped a huge bomb of info on our number two pro hero. Everyone either loves him or hates him and I'm sure that after this, everyone's going lean towards the latter. Now, before we get into this, I have to warn you. Some of these pictures are hard to view. We won't have time to get into everything so I'll give you guys some of the worst. As you all probably know, the Todoroki family has, or should I say had, four children. The oldest, Touya Todoroki, passed away at the young age of ten years old. We now know that this tragic event was not an accident. Endeavor trained Touya and pushed him past his limit. Touya had a quirk that was not compatible with his body, he had strong fire quirk with a weakness to heat due to his mother's quirk, ice. Yet Endeavor did not let that stop him," As the reporter said this part, a picture of Touya's burns from his training showed up. "From making him 'train' with his quirk. Touya's quirk took over him during a particularly tough session and Touya burned so badly that no body was found."

There was a moment of silence for the dead child. "There were a multitude of audio transcripts from Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Rei Todoroki. I'll play a clip from Natsuo now."

"I remember one time Touya came to me after a training session. That's what dad called them. Touya was covered in burn marks and could hardly move. He wouldn't cry though, he refused to show weakness to our father. He's the reason I wanted to become a doctor, that way if I couldn't protect my family from Endeavor I could at least heal them afterwards. But when Touya died, I wasn't there. I couldn't help." Natsuo breaks down into tears, his sobs echoing through the room.

"If you think this is the worst the family gets, let me prove you wrong."

***

The news station went on for about an hour until they closed it out. Dabi and Shouto were a little wrecked after watching all of that but they had each other and that's what mattered. Right after the coverage ended, Hawks' phone started blowing up. He showed the caller ID to everyone and stood up, walking a few feet away so that the rest of the league could still hear but still far enough for them to not be heard.

"Heyy Endeavor, what's up?"

Endeavor was fuming on the other side of the phone. He all but screamed into the phone, "Did you see the news!? Who would spread such lies!?"

"Lies," Hawks repeated, anger evident in his voice.

"Yes," Endeavor raged, "You can't possibly believe those foolish lies! I would never hurt my family!"

Hawks couldn't hold his anger back and lashed out. "You're a sick fucking bastard. I hope you know that you'll die alone one day and no one will regret it. How could you so adamantly claim that you never hurt your family when there's so much evidence against you. Your own fucking kids and wife claimed to have been abused by your for years and you just say that they're lying!? Fuck you Endeavor!"

Before Endeavor could respond Hawks hung up the phone. "I'm going to fucking fly over there and kill that asshat!!"

"Hey, pretty bird," Dabi soothes, walking over to his boyfriend who is currently crying. "It's going to be okay. Even if he doesn't get in legal trouble for this he'll still take a serious hit to his reputation. He'll never live this down, and it's all thanks to you."

Dabi wipes Hawks' tears away gently and rests his forehead on his boyfriend's. "I can't believe he could do that to you guys and then deny it to the bitter end."

"People like that are the worst kind of people. And the worst part is, they never change." Everyone stared at Shigaraki like he grew three heads. "What?"

"That was surprisingly wise."

Shigaraki rolled his eyes. "I know from personal experience. My father was like that and until the very moment I killed him he still believed he did no wrong."

Hawks sobbed harder. "I'm so sorry you had to deal with that, Shigaraki. I'm so sorry all of you had to go through things like this, it isn't fair."

"You did too, Keigo. I think you like to overlook that but your childhood was taken from you too," Dabi said gently, looking Hawks in the eyes. "You deserved a childhood too, and I'm sorry you lost out on that. It was fucked."

"Thank you." Hawks shook with tears but these ones were happy because no one had ever said that to him.

***

Hawks took Endeavor to court with the Todoroki family. They testified against him, even little Shouto was willing to leave Dabi's side long enough to show up. Rei is allowed to leave the hospital to participate. Endeavor fought until the very end, refusing to let his whole life be destroyed. The session was very heated as everyone was yelling and on edge. The people were appalled that the number two hero could do such a horrible thing. At some point in the case it had been revealed that several commission higher ups had known about Endeavor's horrible treatment but let it slide and even helped sweep it under the rug.

The Todoroki family easily won the case. The jury had unanimously voted Endeavor as guilty, not once having been persuaded. He was sentenced to seven years in prison with no probation. After the Endeavor case was closed Fuyumi became Shouto's and Rei's guardian.

Soon after that the higher ups of the commission were investigated. The truth behind Hawks' childhood is brought to light and his handlers were all punished with three years in prison and no probation. The higher ups who initiated Hawks' poor treatment got five years and no probation. A whole new inner circle is voted and Hawks is happy with the results. Everyone on the list is trustworthy.

The commission finally votes in the new villain rehabilitation system they'd been talking about for years. The previous leaders had pushed it off over and over because of their own corruption and need for power. Another vote passed in the many new programs to help prevent people from turning to villainy in order to survive. All in all, the commission is much more just and helpful.

Dabi visits his family. Hawks went with him to make sure nothing bad would happen. Fuyumi and Natsuo were immediately on the offense but Rei recognized him. She reached out and held his face in her hands and looked into his eyes. "Touya," she said, touching her son for the first time in years. The whole family, and Hawks, got emotional.

The whole league joined as the commission's first villains to try out the rehab program. The kinks are still being tested out but every villain needs to have a sponsor hero that supports them in their time in rehab. Hawks volunteered to be Twice's sponsor and Mirko sponsors Dabi. Eraserhead volunteered for Shigaraki since no one else would given how dangerous his quirk is. Spinner was sponsored by Gang Orcha who understood the prejudiced towards those with mutation quirks. Ryukyu sponsors Toga and Best Jeanest sponsors Mr. Compress. Kurogiri is sponsored by Present Mic who apparently went to school with him.

Shigaraki and Eraserhead quickly become close. Like really close. They start dating kind of close. Dabi is happy for them.

Shouto gets in to UA high school. The whole family goes out to eat to celebrate the baby of the family.

Midoriya and Shouto start dating and Dabi makes sure to give Midoriya the 'I may not be a villain any longer but I have murdered someone before and I'm not afraid to do it again' talk. Midoriya is always on his best behavior when Dabi's around.

Endeavor never gets visits from his family in prison. The second he is released they file a restraining order against him. He's not allowed anywhere near any of them ever again. Endeavor gets so much hate that he's threatened every time he leaves the house, and when he doesn't leave the house. Needless to say, he lives a miserable life all alone.