Work Text:
Himiko Toga had always been curious. It wasn’t just a habit, it was survival. Curiosity meant knowing where your teammates were, what they were doing, what their patterns were. So when Dabi started acting off, she noticed. Not all at once, not anything major. But little things. He wasn’t around as much. He disappeared at odd times, and came back with a weird look on his face, like he’d just come out of some strange dream.
At first, she thought he was just being more antisocial than usual. Dabi had moods like weather patterns, and you couldn’t always predict the storm. But then it started happening regularly. He’d vanish around the same time every few days. It was always around late afternoon, or twilight. Always looking like he had somewhere to be, which was weird, since Dabi never had somewhere to be. He just was, like a feral cat lingering in burnt-out buildings.
So Toga followed him.
She didn’t tell anyone. Not Spinner, not Compress, and obviously not Shigaraki. She wasn’t stupid. Dabi didn’t like being followed, and if he caught her, he’d be pissed. But she was good at staying hidden. Slipping through shadows and rooftops, blending in when needed. Years of stalking victims had given her a special talent for it.
She trailed him across the city, half-expecting him to notice. He didn’t. Which was strange in itself, since Dabi was sharp, always on edge. But tonight, he looked distracted. Focused on something.
Eventually, he ducked into an alleyway off one of the side streets in the more desolate part of town. Not the worst place, but definitely not tourist-friendly. Graffiti stained the walls, and garbage bins lined the brickwork like sentinels of rot.
Toga crouched just outside the alley, pressed against the wall, waiting.
At first, nothing happened. She thought maybe he was meeting a contact, maybe doing something sketchy even by League standards. Drug deal? Arms trade? Nah. That wasn’t his style.
Then she heard the voice. Faint, muffled, but close enough that she could just make it out.
“…I told you, I’m trying. They’re watching everything I do. I can’t just disappear whenever I want.”
Toga’s brows furrowed. That voice. That voice was… familiar.
Dabi answered, low and rough. “I’m not asking you to disappear, angel. I just need to see you. That too much to ask?”
Angel? Toga blinked. Dabi didn’t call anyone by pet names. He barely remembered people’s names half the time, let alone softened his voice like that.
The other person responded, soft, weary. “You know how dangerous this is.”
It clicked where she knew the voice from, and Toga’s heart thudded. No. No way. No. Fucking. Way.
That voice. She knew it now. Knew it down to the marrow in her bones because she’d heard it over the news a thousand times, seen it paired with the smirk and wings and stupid perfect hair. She’d fought him before.
Hawks.
The Number Two hero.
Why the hell was Dabi meeting with a hero, let alone one of the most famous ones?
She pressed her hand over her mouth, breath catching. They weren’t just meeting to discuss anything in particular, they were actually talking. Personally. Softly. Emotionally. Toga didn’t know what she’d expected when she realised it was Hawks, maybe a betrayal, maybe Dabi turning him into ash, but not this. Not Dabi… being soft with him, or at least as soft as Dabi could be.
“…You look like shit,” Dabi said.
There was a shuffling sound, the scuff of boots on pavement. “Didn’t sleep.”
“Because of them?”
Silence.
Then Hawks’ voice again, choked. “They keep pushing. I don’t know how much longer I can— I’m trying, Touya.”
Touya. He’d called him Touya. Toga’s eyes widened even more, as if the night itself were trying to pull the secret out from the cracks in the alley.
“I know,” Dabi said, quieter now. “I know you are. Come here.”
There was movement, fabric shifting, and clothes rustling. Maybe an embrace.
Toga didn’t know what to do with this. Her brain was spinning in three directions, shock, disbelief, and a kind of fascinated horror. Dabi. And Hawks. Not enemies. Not threats to each other.
The realisation hit her like a bullet.
Lovers.
“I hate seeing you like this,” Dabi murmured. “All clipped wings and fake smiles.”
“I hate this too,” Hawks whispered. “But it’s the only way I can stay close. If they knew… if anyone knew—”
“Then we’d burn the world down. Together.” Dabi’s voice wasn’t angry like usual. It was quiet, and steady, like the crackle of a flame under control, for once.
Toga felt like she was intruding on something sacred. Something big. She’d expected drama, maybe blood, maybe something to use against Dabi later in a teasing way. But this?
This was something else entirely.
Hawks let out a shaky breath. “You always make it sound so easy.”
“Not easy,” Dabi said. “Just simple. You and me against everyone else. Hasn’t it always been that way?”
“You’re a villain,” Hawks said. “And I’m a hero.”
“Yeah. So what?”
“So everything,” Hawks said bitterly. “I’m risking everything every time I come here.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Dabi’s voice dropped to a growl. “You think I don’t see how tired you are? How scared?”
“I’m scared of them, not scared of you.”
“Of course, you’re not scared of me,” Dabi said, and there was that sharp edge again, but it was wrapped in something softer. Something protective. “You’re the only thing I wouldn’t burn. The only thing I can’t.”
Silence. Then the sound of Hawks laughing, quiet and exhausted. “God, you’re a bastard.”
“Mm,” Dabi said, and Toga could hear the smirk in his voice. “But I’m your bastard.”
Toga’s mouth dropped open. Her heart thudded so loudly she was afraid it might echo down the alley and give her away.
Dabi loved him. A hero.
It was there in every word, in every quiet murmur. In how he spoke to Hawks like he was breakable, precious. The world’s most dangerous man had a soft spot, and it had feathers.
She leaned back against the wall, head spinning.
Of all the things she’d thought Dabi was hiding, this hadn’t even been on the list. A secret romance with a hero? One of the top ones? His enemy? His lover?
No wonder he disappeared all the time.
And the way Hawks looked at Dabi—she didn’t even need to see it to feel it in the way he spoke. The desperation. The tenderness. Like Dabi was his only tether to something real.
And Dabi, for all his snarling, scarred cruelty, he held Hawks together. Not with glue, but with fire, with grit, and with loyalty. Brutal, terrible loyalty.
Toga should’ve been angry, or disgusted, or at the very least, mocking.
But weirdly, she wasn’t. She felt… warm? No, that wasn’t it. It was like watching a knife you’d known all your life suddenly reflect sunlight instead of blood.
She still wasn’t sure what she’d do with this information. Keep it secret? Tease Dabi later? Tell Shigaraki?
But something inside her knew: if anyone found out, it wouldn’t be Dabi who burned. It’d be Hawks. And for some reason… that made her feel protective.
“Don’t go back yet,” Dabi said quietly.
“I have to.”
“Not yet. Five more minutes. Just… be here.”
Toga bit her lip.
This wasn’t what she expected at all. But for some reason, seeing Dabi like this, gentle, raw, made her understand him a little more. Not just the villain, and not just the flames. But the man. The boy under the scars. The one who’d loved and lost and somehow still had the guts to love again.
Even if it was dangerous.
Even if it could never be public.
Even if it was doomed.
And Hawks? Hawks had chosen him anyway.
When Toga finally slipped away from the alley, she didn’t make a sound. Didn’t breathe too loud. Didn’t look back.
She just kept walking, heart buzzing in her chest like a secret she wasn’t sure was hers to keep.
Maybe she’d confront Dabi later. Maybe she’d keep it to herself. Or maybe, just maybe, she’d protect this strange, impossible thing they had.
Because if Dabi could find someone to call angel, maybe the world wasn’t so cold after all.