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Hawks’ half-closed eyes widened in a surprised flinch when his wings suddenly skipped a flap. Groaning tiredly, he relaxed and made up for the meter he had dropped in the air. Fuck, he needed to get home. This wasn’t his best day and the fact that he was only a few blocks away from his bed was the only thing keeping him flying.
Actually, it wasn’t his best week. Something was off since a couple of days and right now he knew, he couldn’t ignore it any longer. He didn’t want to admit it, but couldn’t help it. It wasn’t possible to just continue to push through it, there was too much pain to fully concentrate. Pain in his throat, his head, his bones, just everything hurt.
Needless to say, it was disturbing as fuck. Exhaustion was something he knew well, but this feeling was a whole new level. It felt like he hadn’t slept in days although he got more than enough sleep. The air of this summer night didn’t feel fresh and cooling like usual. Instead, it felt like sharp wind of thousand little blades, cold as ice. His wings felt like iron and caused him to lose height with every meter forward.
When his eyes fell close a second time, he made a halt on top of a lower building, crouching down and slowly shaking his head to get rid of the dizziness. Unfortunately, that didn’t help. In fact, it only made this shit of a feeling worse. Fuck...
For a moment he just looked down without focus, arms on his thighs. His wings sank down slowly and curled around him. Sighing, he took out his phone to leave the commission and his agency a message, about his absence for the next days. No way he could continue working in this condition.
A shiver running through his body caused him to cross his arms and close his eyes for moment. He was no help to the city in this state anyway.
Right as the phone slid back into his jacket, a call reached the other phone. The phone only one person on this planet had the number of. He rolled his eyes. If that wasn’t the best timing ever.
The sharp wind brushed trough his feathers again as he made his way through the dark of the night. Lights flashed by below him and for the first time in ages he couldn’t enjoy the view. The sensation in all those feathers was overwhelming today, too much for his troubled brain to handle. He tried his best to stay focused and to look as normal as possible. Last thing he needed was a villain taking advantage over him. But like before, the flight got more and more tiring with every second.
Maybe he could just walk? No, that would take ages. He didn’t have ages. Maybe he could take the tram, like normal people did? No, he was the number two hero of Japan and had a reputation to uphold. Dealing with fans was a bad idea in this condition. So, flying it was.
As he got closer to his destination, he let himself lose height and noticed how he didn’t get the curves around buildings nearly as smoothly as usual. Despite that, just for a second, he allowed himself to close his eyes.
Was it a good idea to close his eyes while flying between close buildings?
No.
No, it was not.
That was a lecture Hawks learned the hard way.
Next thing he knew was a horrible string of pain thrown into his face. It took away his breath and instantly pulsed through his entire head.
The fuck happened?
A wall happened, he realized, sliding down said wall. The ground followed shortly after and it wasn’t less painful. How the fuck could he of all people hit the ground so ungraceful?
"Number Two Hero, overwhelmed by a wall!"
"Wing Hero Hawks – drunk on duty?"
The headlines already flashed through his mind and he could only hope no one got this on camera. Or saw it at all. Good thing it was in the middle of the night and this was a poor lighted alley.
At this point he wasn’t sure whether the throbbing head or nose was worst and this happening said a lot about his current condition. A warm feeling ran down his nose while he sat there, leaning against the wall, closing his eyes for a moment and crossing his arms against the chill of the night. This day had to end right now. Slowly taking his breath, he wiped away the blood, only for more to come. Well, seemed like someone would have to wait a little longer than usual. Hawks took his time, closed his eyes again and waited for the bleeding to stop.
“If that wasn’t a show of an entrance!”, came a voice out of nowhere.
Despite knowing the voice’s owner, Hawks winced. The golden eyes flew open to see a pack of tissues thrown at him. Way too slow he looked at the pack that fell onto his lap.
“Thanks”, he mumbled and held a tissue up to his nose. It didn’t take long for its color to change from white to a deep red. Damn. This was bad. To be that far away from any kind of awareness to miss a villain’s presence… His condition had to be worse than he thought.
“And I thought birds were supposed to land a little more elegant.” A mocking grin broke across the villain’s face, stretching his scars.
Hawks just glared at him, thoughts too slow to give a proper answer.
“What? Not in a chatting mood today?” Dabi rested his hands in his pockets, looking down at the hero with that grin that couldn’t have been more arrogant.
Hawks gave a little snort. “Obviously not.” He threw a few red tissues away, held a new one to his nose and stood up to face those blue eyes, that were glowing through the dark. Only one flickering street lamp gave some light to the small allay and it was enough for him to see the frowning look, that scanned his unusual stiff movements. “Since I’m here now, what can I do for you?” He sniffled when the bleeding finally stopped. How rough his own voice suddenly sounded surprised him. It hadn’t been like that before.
“Depends on what the fuck is wrong with you today.” The grin had vanished from Dabi’s face and was replaced with scepsis.
Hawks hold his gaze trying desperately to look as focused as always. “Nothing.”, he said only to turn away for a cough. Damn that was also new. “I can perform whatever task you have for me.”
Raising an eyebrow Dabi took a few steps back. “Never mind, you’re no use to me like that.”
“I’m as useful as always.” He had to be, he needed his way into the rows of the villains. He just had to ignore the dizziness, that started to cause flashes of black in his vision.
“You just flew into a wall.”
A moment of silence followed the sentence and heavily hung in the air. Hawks blinked slowly and did his best to play down the shivering, that crawled through his body.
“…I did. But only becau-“
“No thanks. Don’t need whatever you caught there. See you next week.”
Dabi shook his head and turned around to leave the hero where he was without another word. As if a sick bird was of any use to him, seriously. Didn’t matter how much the bird tried to play it down, or what excuses he tried to make up, it was quite obvious. In contrast to the stupid bird, Dabi was no idiot. Didn’t matter if it was just a little cold or the fucking flu or whatever. He didn’t want to catch it and didn’t need a bird that flew into walls.
A dull noise behind him let him stop to take a look back. Dabi rolled his eyes. Fucking birdbrain.
That idiot, seriously, had the courage to collapse. Collapse within a villain’s presence. Yeah, very useful.
For a long moment he just stood there and looked at the unconscious bird. What was he supposed to do now? Call an ambulance? Just leave him there for someone else to find? Yeah, that sounded like a very good option. Let it be the problem of someone else, sure someone would find him soon. That was the number two hero after all. Why should a villain bother?
But something inside him did. For the sake of the mission. That stupid bird had great potential for the league. And helping him now could open up new possibilities in the future. He rolled his eyes once again and walked towards the motionless body on the ground. Unbelievable he really did this. This had not been part of the plan. The plan had been to use the birdbrain, to make things easier. Not to waste his time while playing paramedic.
Slowly he kneeled down to Hawks and folded a giant wing to the side, so he could see his face. It was the first time he touched those wings and it would be a lie to say he had never been curios about them. The feathers were softer than he had assumed. It would be so easy to burn them down right now. His fingers glided through the soft crimson red and imagined it to turn bright blue and then crumble to nothing but ashes. As he let go of the wing, he pushed that temptation away. It was too early for that.
Instead of creating fried chicken, he shook the hero’s shoulder. “Hey, birdie. Come on, wake up.”
But birdie didn’t wake up.
“Fucking shit, do I look like a veterinary nurse to you?”
And again, he got no answer. At least birdie was breathing steadily. Steady breathing was good. He poked the bird head a little and frowned. His brows raised in surprise when he touched birdie’s forehead with the back of his hand. It felt way too warm, even to him. And he was used to heat. Well, if the chicken was fried already, that might explain a few things.
At the same time, he could only wonder how one could be so damn stupid to run around with a fever like that. Not to mention all the work of a high ranked hero. With an annoyed groan, he picked the chicken up from the ground and somehow managed to carry him on his back. Of course, a bird wasn’t very heavy but nevertheless, Dabi was reminded quite quickly that his living corpse of a body wasn’t built to carry anything heavier than a pizza through dark alleys for over a mile.
Arriving at the elevator to Hawks’ fancy penthouse was relieving. A ping signalized they reached the penthouse level and Dabi broke into birdie’s apartment like he had done a few times before. He usually came here either to annoy the bird or to crash. Sometimes both. Often, Hawks wasn’t even here and Dabi just stayed over for the fancy couch. Or the tv that could compete against a cinema screen. So, it came he knew where birdie’s bedroom was. Because of course he never came in there to wake the hero to ungodly hours, for nothing more than a fun little banter or giving instructions he could have given via call. No. Never.
Normal people would call it terrorizing. Dabi called it ‘testing his ambitions to join the dark side’. What can he say, visiting was just more fun than calling. Plus, it gave him a valid reason to not stay at the leagues hideous places. Win-win situation.
Since he had finally arrived at the place, he could finally drop Hawks right into the oversized bed. And what now? He stood there, looked at the bird for a minute and came to the conclusion that he didn’t look very comfortable. Laying in a weird position, still in his hero costume. But that wasn’t Dabi’s problem, so he didn’t care. Wasn’t his job to make the dumb chicken feel comfortable. He was just here to make sure his double agent wouldn’t die before giving some more intel. And providing a fancy penthouse, where Dabi could get some rest and a decent shower every now and then. He could die after the war, but not yet.
Maybe Dabi could be kind enough to put the blanket over him. But he wasn’t sure if that would make the fever worse so he decided against it. Not sure what to do, he left the room, flopped down on the couch in the living room and grabbed his phone. He figured the internet was always good to help for any kind of problem. But turns out WebMD wasn’t that much of help after all. It had a strong opinion on the guessed symptoms being a clear sign for brain cancer or some shit. He was no medical expert, but even he knew the bird probably didn’t have cancer.
Sighing, he put away his phone. Screw that. Probably just a bad cold or the flu and an overworked hero. Nothing too bad for a young healthy guy, right? Even after fainting, he should be fine with some rest and the common sense to stay home. That meant he could just leave and let birdie deal with this on his own. Sounded great.
As he made his way to the door, a tiny bit of scepsis crawled up his spine. He tried to ignore it. He really wanted to ignore it. But the little thought made its way into his head and kept interfering with any other thought. What if – No, no way any person is that stupid. But- No, not even the chicken is. You sure- Yeah. Of course. He flew into a wall. Potential coincident. He still wanted to- Oh fuck it. The little thought of concern could be right. Fuck.
A look of uncertainty made its way over his shoulder. What if the dumb chicken really was dumb enough to try ignore his illness again? If he passed out while trying to fly, he was as good as dead. No matter how unlikely the scenario was, since the possibility stayed present in his head, he couldn’t risk leaving birdie alone. Grimacing, he put his hands to his hips. He could use a bird cage right now.
Sighing again, he closed the door in front of him and made his way back to birdie’s bedroom. Like a stalker he leaned in the doorframe, watching birdie’s chest go up and down slowly. After about two minutes standing there like a creep, he opened the huge closet and searched for some comfortable clothes. When he found a long sleeve shirt and matching sweatpants, he threw them next to Hawks on the other side of the bed before leaving the room again. He returned with a glass of water and some painkillers he found after looking in every little drawer of birdie’s bathroom cabinets. Then he looked at his doing, crossed arms, tilting the head a little. Yeah, looked good. He didn’t even do much, but felt like a damn angel. This was the nicest he did to someone in years. Felt strange. He didn’t like it.
Despite that he stayed, making himself comfortable in the living room while letting birdie sleep.
Hawks slept for hours, in which Dabi pilfered some food out of the fridge and used Hawks’ Netflix account. After removing most things from the watchlist, starting and rating the weirdest shows he could find, just to mess with birdie's algorithm, he even had the audacity to create a new profile for himself.
Hours later, he checked on said bird again, thinking he should be getting better or at least wake up soon, now that his body was resting. But apparently that wasn’t the case yet, because the fever only got worse in the meantime. While his hand brushed some hair out of birdie’s pale face, his gaze wandered over the sleeping body. Remembering some rusted old care taking skills from a life time ago, he got a wet washcloth to put on birdie’s forehead, but had to realize that didn’t work on people laying on the side. One wouldn’t imagine how difficult it was to turn a person around that had two giant wings on their back. Struggling to get the second wing not somehow crushed under Hawks’ back, without pulling all of the feathers out, he finally got it after a couple of tries. Just to get another realization. Maybe the flight jacket was too warm?
As it appears, pulling that thing off of an unconscious bird was worse than rolling birdie on his back. Two hands definitely were not enough for holding him upright and pulling birdie’s arms and those fucking wings out of the jacket at the same time. Seriously, how did that chicken even got dressed every morning? It took minutes until the jacket finally landed on the floor. Then, he placed birdie’s head back on the pillows surprisingly gentle and set the cloth on its right place.
***
Slowly Hawks’ eyes opened, being greeted by sunlight that was too bright for his head to handle.
What the fuck was going on, where was he, why was the sun so damn bright? Millions of questions flew through his head when he tried to adjust his eyes to the sudden light. As he woke up more and more, he began to feel everything aching. The headache was clearly the worst. He could manage a sore throat and stiff limbs, but the headache was killing him. That and this feeling of complete exhaustion. Not to mention the flash of freezing cold flowing through his body. With a slight shiver he sat up, taking a confused look around.
Somehow, he was surprised by the fact he was at home, laying in his own bed as usual. Or maybe not quite as usual. Looking down on himself he saw his hero costume still on, even his boots. And he noticed the washcloth, that had fallen into his lap. What the fuck? Where did it come from? Or the clothes lying next to him, or the glass of water? Damn this kinda felt like a bad hangover. Only when the coughing started, he was reminded there had been no party. Just work. Groaning, he got up and changed into the clothes magically lying next to him.
It took a while to remember the short meeting with Dabi and the fatal flight before that. Probably wasn’t a good sign that he couldn’t remember anything after that, no matter how hard he tried. Well, a concussion would explain this nightmare of a headache.
Tired in a way he couldn’t remember feeling ever before, he stumbled out of the room, hearing voices and wondering if he somehow helped himself or got help from someone else. Maybe Rumi showed up? She was the only one coming to mind, because she was the only friend having a key to this apartment. Well, there was someone else, but he still had the image in his mind of the villain walking away after quickly ending the meeting.
And yet there he was, chilling at Hawks’ couch, looking unfamiliar relaxed while watching tv. That- that wasn’t possible. It wasn’t the first time seeing Dabi here, but as if he would ever do anything remotely nice. Not without ulterior motives. Tired eyes full of scepsis Hawks got closer to the couch, movements stiff and uncoordinated.
“You… are here.”
“Obviously.” Dabi didn’t even bother to look away from the screen.
“And… I'm still alive.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
Dabi knew about the implied question, asking for why the hell he acted like he did. But the unspoken question remained unanswered.
“How long have I…?”
Dabi shrugged. “Few days.”
“What!?” A stunned look out of golden eyes met the windows. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“But…” No way. Unbelievingly, Hawks checked his phone and snorted in annoyance. “You jackass” Of course, it had been hours that passed, not days.
The villain shook his head in laughter.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, birdie.” For the first time he turned to face Hawks with a mocking grin. “You look like shit, hero.”
Hawks groaned. “Thanks…”
“You’re welcome.”, the villain said in the most charming tone he could give.
Hawks rolled his eyes, only to groan again and crash onto the other end of the couch. “Feel like shit, too…”, he mumbled quietly into the cushions.
“Painkillers could help a little.”
“Don’t know if I have some, don’t wanna search.” That would take too much energy and he felt like he used all his remaining energy for moving from his bed to the couch. His current existence must have looked pathetic to the bone. He lay there, stomach first, arm hanging loose to the ground, face creased on a pillow and couldn’t decide between closing his eyes or watching tv.
Dabi sat on the other side of the couch, leaving enough space between them, legs crossed on the coffee table. “Are you stupid or just blind? I already found some for you. Put it next to the water.”
Hawks blinked slowly. “...you did?”
“No, I tell you I did, so you believe I did, just to see your dumb face when you find out I lied.” The sarcasm hung in the air but Hawks wasn’t sure what to believe now.
“You… did not?”
“Who knows.”
Hawks was confused. His brain didn’t work like it used to. “Uhm...”
After that he could practically hear the villain role his eyes. “Yeah, I did. Just look for yourself. Or don’t. Your body, not my problem.”
It took a Moment for birdie to answer.
“Ouch. Since you know I feel like crap right now, and you obviously don’t, you may have a tiny bit of kindness left in your black hole of a soul and could get me the stuff?”
Dabi pulled his eyes off of the screen and gazed Hawks in a way that couldn’t be more careless. “Let me think about it – no. You see, lazy bastards like me don’t do such things.” Then he added: “Just use your feathers, idiot.”
Hawks squinted his eyes and Dabi showed a slight grin.
“Asshole.”
With that said, Hawks tried to get his bearings together and pull himself up again. “Don’t have enough concentration for feathers...” Or at least that was what he told himself. Pain was too strong in his head and he didn’t have the confidence in his feathers to fly as accurately as usual. It would be more than embarrassing to have them fly uncontrollable in wrong directions.
The fact that Dabi really put some painkillers on the nightstand next to his bed was almost surprising. He still was an asshole, but seeing the pills was relieving. Hawks set all his hopes in the little thingies to make him feel better. One disappeared in his mouth, followed by water, the rest came with him back to the couch. There he crashed exactly like he did the first time.
Dabi observed the scene with some kind of satisfaction in his eyes. Maybe staying here wasn’t that much of an imposition after all.
Or maybe it was though.
Shortly after having his little fun, the fried birdbrain turned the tables and started to get on his nerves.
“This is all crap. I want it to stop. Like right now. Humanity invented so many things in the last couple of hundred years. How do we still have things like germs, we can’t get rid of? They’re so tiny, we should just smash them. And then no one has to get sick anymore. No one should get sick. If you think about it, that would be great. All the people working in medical fields, they should get more free time.” He curled his wings around him. “Ugh, why is it so cold. I want it to be warmer. People shouldn’t complain about global warming that much. Warm is good. And I want-“
But they never got to know what he wanted next, because at this point a pillow hit his face.
“Please, stop talking.” How the fuck was that stupid bird complaining about walking a few meters and then talking like a damn waterfall? A rather stupid waterfall. Didn’t that take energy as well?
“Hey. Why should I? I like talking.”
Dabi snorted loudly. “Yeah, we all know that. But I’m pretty sure your brain stopped working.”
Hawks gave him a confused look. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Why would it do that?”
Dabi’s voice became calm, in an almost threatening way. “I do not know. Ask your fever or whatever.”
That silenced the bird for a moment, probably because he didn’t know how to ask his fucking fever questions. Unfortunately, it didn’t take the chicken long to find a new topic. “Ugh, this is so boring. I’m tired. And still cold. It should-“
This time the villain’s sharp voice cut him off.
“Oh bloody hell, what do you want to stop complaining?” He knew it, he should’ve killed the bird earlier.
Said bird pondered a while in silence. Coughing destroyed the silence and it sounded awful. When it was over, the bird’s face was grimaced and his mood seemed way lower. Suddenly, the rough voice was unexpected quiet. “I… something warm. Tea or something.”
“You promise to stop, if you get tea?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Deal. If you break it, you die.”
His annoyance still hovered in the air, when he got up and made his way over to the kitchen.
Hawks wasn’t sure how long it took for the villain, but it felt too long for making tea. He tried to watch whatever show Dabi had on, but it was difficult to focus. Eventually, the walking lighter came back and gave Hawks a steaming mug, as soon as he sat up.
As promised, he stayed silent, warming his hands on the mug and realized, that was no tea. In fact, it was much better. It was one of best hot chocolates he ever tried. It smelled like cinnamon and tasted deliciously creamy.
His tired gaze wandered to Dabi, who had returned to ignore him. “This is amazing. How did you learn this?”
A heavy sigh filled the room. “My mother showed it to me, when I was young. Used to do it for my siblings sometimes.” Had not been often, but at least a few times, he had behaved like a good older brother. Of course, he had no interest in giving any Information about his past away. But he figured that the chicken’s brain wasn’t very reliable at the moment, so the bird would probably forget about it later.
Hawks wondered about the information he just got, because it was the first information he ever got about Dabi. Despite his position it was incredibly difficult to decipher the mysterious villain. His confused and feverish concussion-brain sunk into a bunch of twisted thoughts and eventually came to the brightest conclusion ever.
“So, you had a family?”
“No. Actually I’m the son of the devil, set out here to cause a little chaos in Japan.”
Hawks blinked in a serious realization. “Oh… so that’s why- the blue flames and stuff.”
“Obviously.” Dabi just sat there, continued to watch tv, acting like this information was the most normal thing in the world and totally true.
It took a long moment for Hawks to realize. A very long moment.
“Wait“
Dabi burst into laughter and needed a few minutes to keep a straight face again.
“You should see the look on your face.”, he said eventually, grinning more amused than Hawks had ever seen him.
Hawks pouted and Dabi laughed again, petting the bird head. “Don’t worry, I’m as human as you are.” Probably even more human, considering the bird thing.
More and more, the bird began to look like a toddler, holding the warm mug in both hands, resting them on his knees and wings curled around him, like they could protect him from the evil outside world. Or the wicked demon next to him. “You’re so mean.” Stubborn, he looked at the dream of hot chocolate, eager not to look said demon in the eyes.
“Duh. Villain codex says so. Couldn’t be nice, even if I wanted to.”
“There’s a codex for villains?”
“Of course. How do you think we don’t end up murdering each other.”
Now birdie looked at him in a hilarious mix of surprise and confusion. “Cause allies don’t hurt allies?”
A dry laugh escaped the villain. “Speak for yourself, hero.”
“What? You stabbed someone in the back?”
“No. That’s Toga's thing.”
“She stabbed someone in the back?”
“In the front, to be specific. Yes. Multiple times.”
“Why even have allies, if you constantly have to look out for betrayal?”
“We don’t betray each other. Unrelated idiots are for stabbing.”
“You said-“
“I said we have a codex.”
Again, Hawks looked completely confused in this tired, feverish way. “But… uh…”
Dabi laughed quietly. “You should be like this more often, you’re a lot funnier like this.”
Hawks’ expression of confusion didn’t change a bit. “Like what?”
Dabi shrugged. “Like, delirious.”
The blond eyebrows nearly became a monobrow from frowning. “I’m not delirious. I’m perfectly rational.” He paused. “You’re the delirious one.”
“Yeah, sure.”, he said very much amused and the bird nodded heavily.
Dabi had never imagined to be able to tell the stupid chicken every absurd thing he could think of and the chicken just believed everything. Like there would be a codex amongst villains of all people, seriously. What were they, pirates?
The bird soon became concerningly silent, but Dabi didn’t bother to give him one look. Birds didn’t just die sitting on a couch, right? Considering the obviously fried brain of the bird, resting was probably the best he could do. And hope, that the painkillers would bring the fever down. It had to be through the roof right now, to lead to such a delirious state.
But he was sure some water, pills and rest would do the trick. So, he continued to stare at the huge screen, until he heard a mug getting placed on the coffee table. The chicken mumbled something he didn’t understand and he turned his head just in time to watch birdie getting up, tripping over his own feet and fall to the ground face first.
No need to say, Dabi found the scene to be incredibly entertaining. A second time this day, he laughed his ass off and didn’t stop when Hawks got up slowly and began to cough. It didn’t sound anything near good. With a painful grimaced face Hawks held his chest with one hand, trying to catch his breath.
Dabi eventually calmed down, just to grin at him in unconcealed spite. “This gets better by the minute.”
A glare paired with a questioning look met his gaze.
“I thought it would be completely annoying to stay here, like babysitting a child or something. But it’s quite fun, watching you suffer.”
Hawks still glared at him, then turned his face away. “I hate you.”
“Oh no. What a tragedy. Will I ever recover from that rate of emotional damage?”
“Shut up.”
***
After that Hawks decided to return to his bed. It was more comfortable than the couch and much less annoying without the presence of a certain fiery moron. He finally figured to be too tired to deal with him right now. And maybe his brain was fried.
A long time he lay in his bed, unable to sleep but not able to do anything else either. He switched between tiredly looking at the ceiling, weird dreams, abruptly waking up and dozing off again. At least the villain didn’t bother him anymore. Dabi stayed on his place in the living room for hours, probably without moving a fingertip.
Not until Hawks stumbled out of his bed, woken up too fast for his circulatory system to handle, feeling the need to drink a whole lake of water. When he nearly reached the kitchen counter, his vision went black and this time he knew what was coming. He got down on his knees, hoping to prevent another collapse. A second before his knees touched the floor, two warm hands appeared out of nowhere and held his shoulders upright, keeping him from falling forward.
“What the fuck, birdie?”
This was the moment Dabi was sure he made the right decision to stay here to keep an eye on that stupid chicken. That idiot could’ve managed to fall out of a window or something for sure.
“What do you think you’re doing? Don’t know where you were heading, but I can assure you, you won’t make it very far.”
Unexpected calm, he didn’t move much, didn’t rush, just held the stupid chicken and waited for him to regain some energy. Said chicken breathed heavily and groaned. His head slowly dropped forward, until it rested against Dabi’s shoulder. He avoided those piercing blue eyes and kept his own eyes half closed on the floor. Surprisingly, Dabi didn’t flinch away. In fact, he didn’t move at all. Only thing he did was making a face. A face, the hero didn’t see.
"You're warm… that’s nice…"
Dabi’s grimace deepened, as he adjusted his hold and put a palm to Hawks’ forehead. "That’s you idiot, not me."
"No, it's you… You're warmer than others."
"…I have a fire quirk, what did you expect? Icy cold?"
"Would fit your asshole personality."
An amused huff escaped the villain. If he knew. "You think it's clever to insult the guy that’s keeping you from crashing to the floor?"
His amusement faded away as the hero kept silent. Carefully, he brushed some hair out of birdie’s face, processing the still concerningly high fever. It seemed a little less bad than before though, and even if the chicken was clearly drained of any energy, his mind seemed clearer.
"Okay chicken, mind to tell me why you thought running from your bed is a good idea?"
“I… ugh.” The pile of misery of a bird sniffled and tried his best to hold himself upright, but failed miserably, instead melting further into the hold of a villain. “Need water…”, he mumbled into Dabi’s coat.
“Next time just say so.” Dabi’s voice missed his usual mocking tone for the first time as he held the limp chicken close. Annoyance was still there, but quite subtle.
“Wasn’t it you, who told me, that lazy assholes don’t do such things?”
Sighing, Dabi rolled his eyes. “Lazy, not stupid. Picking you off the ground is far more work than getting some water, as you may realize.” While saying that, he tightened his grip on the hero and gently pulled him to his feet.
Hawks didn’t protest. He felt the vibrations of Dabi’s voice through the fabric of his shirt and let it sooth the headache, the painkillers couldn’t completely kill. Dabi ignored the following groan and adjusted his grip, pulling birdie’s arm around his shoulders. He dragged him forward without asking for permission and dropped him on the couch quite inelegantly.
“Next time take your time before getting up, understood?”
A slight nod.
Without another word, he got Hawks a new glass of water and took it back when it was empty faster than expected. He filled it again and placed it on the coffee table. A maybe slightly concerned look wandered towards the shivering hero. He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing, but didn’t want to hear another complain, so he also got birdie’s blanket from the bedroom and threw it over him. Then he got a new cool cloth and gently draped it over birdie’s forehead, before placing himself on the couch again.
As he watched the bird curl into the fabric, he frowned. “Shouldn’t the number two hero be surrounded by doctors at this state?”
Hawks looked away and shrugged. It took a moment for him to admit a quite little “Probably…”
“Then tell me why am I the idiot playing nurse?”
A weirdly deep silence filled the air, while Hawks still refused to look at the villain.
“Well, in that case. I have better things to do.”, sighed said villain and got up. When he got to the hallway and began to put on his boots, a scratchy voice finally destroyed the silence.
“Like what?”
"Don’t know. Kill some idiots, annoy Shiggy, beat Spinner at anything that requires logical thinking. The possibilities are endless."
Both of them looked after the other one, without knowing it. The blue eyes where faster in turning around and where about to leave the building.
“Don’t die.”
The door was about to close behind him, when a tiny little word stopped him. It was so soft it could have been overheard very easily. But it wasn’t.
“Wait.”
Slowly, Dabi turned back to the origin of the voice, closing the door. With crossed arms, he got back to the living room and casually leaned one shoulder against a wall. “I’m listening.”
“I…” Hawks sighed and closed his eyes. “I just wanted to be on my own. Don’t like being surrounded by strangers playing gods in white, who don’t ever stop telling me what to do and what not to. Had that once before and figured it to be far too annoying. They never leave you alone, never be quiet. So, I didn’t tell anyone. Explanation enough?”
Dabi lowered his gaze and fell back on his former spot on the couch. “Yeah… kinda get that.”
For a moment everyone followed their own thoughts, before curiosity sparkled in blue eyes.
“What did you tell them instead?”
“Is that relevant?”
Staring.
Hawks rolled his eyes. Bad Idea, hurt in his head. “Told them I’ll be with a good friend for a few days, helping with some family emergency. She faked a few messages.”
“…family emergency? That’s ridiculous.”
“I know. Wasn’t sure about it either, but it works every time since we tried for the first time, about two years ago.”
Dabi’s expression was incredulous. He wasn’t sure what to believe, but that sounded too abstruse to be true. Like that would be enough of an excuse to leave work for several days, without questions.
“Whatever.”
This was not interesting enough to question it any further.
As they sat there, the room fell silent again and no one wanted to do anything about it. Dabi, again, glued his eyes to the tv and Hawks seemed to silently fall asleep. Time flew over them while they both didn’t move much and as it grew darker and darker outside, Dabi’s eyes became heavier by the minute. Slowly, he rested his head and began to doze off.
When blue eyes snapped open hours later, the full moon shined through the windows and there was something revoltingly warm clutching him. The moonlight revealed a feverish, sleeping dumbass of a chicken cuddled around him. The feathery cocoon almost incorporated him and trapped too much warmth inside. With a tired grimace, he pushed the wings aside as much as possible and rose his arms, as if Hawks was the most disgusting thing in the world.
“What the hell, chicken? What do you think you’re doing?”
“Using you as my personal human space heater...”, mumbled the bird, half asleep.
“You’re warm enough, don’t ya think?”
“Nope...”
Of course not, why did he even ask.
“Bloody hell…” His disgusted look switched between Hawks and the moon outside. “Stop it chicken, that’s not-“
“Shhh – don’t wake the moon... Need to sleep…” Hawks sleepy head rose for a second, before resting back down on the villain’s chest, immediately falling back to sleep. Dabi gritted his teeth.
“If you get me sick, I’ll burn you alive.”
***
As the night went on, Hawks was trapped in deep sleep and Dabi cursed himself more than once for staying here. Fancy penthouse or not, he couldn’t relax like this. His torso was trapped in the hero’s arms, the bird head on his chest and whenever he pushed those annoying wings aside, they slowly curled back around them. It was too fucking warm to sleep, he didn’t like the close contact and especially not close contact to people infected with the fucking plague.
He knew it was risky to fuck around with heroes, he had known before accepting the bird’s request. But he was curios and confident enough to go along with it anyway. But this shit? This would be his fucking downfall. And still, since it was too late already to change his fate, he stayed despite all the negative aspects.
For the mission…
He tried to somehow make himself comfortable and relax a little, go back to sleep himself, after slowly adjusting to the cuddling situation he wasn’t used to. But even though his body was tired, his mind couldn't find the peace for sleep. At least the chicken was less annoying when asleep, aside from the cuddling. So he lay still and distracted himself as much as possible with some movies. And maybe, very slowly, eventually something deep inside the last remains of his soul got used to the slight movement of birdie’s chest against his side. And maybe, very slowly, he got used to the unfamiliar warmth and didn’t mind the feeling as much anymore.
At like four in the morning, the chicken began to flinch violently in his sleep, wings half flapping around, breathing starting to get heavier than it should. Dabi blinked when a hardened wingtip nearly hit his face. Sceptical, he looked down at the hero, who looked like a dog, chasing something in his dreams.
Only that birdie’s face revealed, the dream was anything but funny. Well, not his dream, not his problem. Unfortunately, it became his problem, when his face was actually hit a second time by the same wingtip. Slowly, his palm reached out for birdie’s forehead, ignoring the tiny cut on his own temple. Still very feverish, getting worse again. Rolling his eyes, he finally pushed the hero away and got up. "That's enough, chicken shit."
A moment later, he stood in front of the fridge, searching through the freezer. There were some veggies, ice cream and a lot of ice packs. Finally, something useful in this fuck of a night! He grabbed an ice pack and some ice cream and got back to the couch. The ice pack, covered in a thin dishtowel, was tightly held against Hawks’ forehead, until all the movement calmed down. After a few minutes, the bird blinked and grimaced. "Ouch… too cold."
An uncoordinated hand slapped against the ice pack. Dabi huffed, let go and let birdie take it. Tiredly, Hawks inspected the icy thing and frowned. "…the fuck 're you doing with this?", he mumbled and let the icy thing fall to the floor.
Dabi shrugged. "Cooling your head down."
Hawks shivered and adjusted his blanket. "The fuck is wrong with you? You can't cure fevers with ice packs. Not good."
"Believe it or not – I'm aware." Back to his careless attitude, he flopped down on the couch, opening his ice cream. "I know it won't help your fever, but it certainly helped my nerves. Goal achieved.", he stated with a slight grin.
Hawks gave him a look and rubbed his weirdly freezing forehead, before closing his eyes. Even though he didn’t know for sure what he did to be so annoying while asleep, he remembered unpleasant dreams and could take a guess. "You selfish bastard…" was the last he said, before the darkness of sleep lulled him back.
As soon as Dabi had sat back down, the sleeping bird was surprisingly fast crawling back to his human space heater. That crushed Dabi’s hopes of getting some sleep himself, but he let him. At least he had ice cream now. Sweet stuff was not his favorite food, but it was nice cold and that was important for now.
When wild dreams appeared in the chicken’s brain again, Dabi received a cut on his wrist. Once again, he rolled his eyes, incinerated the loose feather and was about to use the ice pack like before.
What he didn’t expect, was the bird jerking awake as soon as the feather burned away.
Before he could react, a long, sharp feather pressed against his neck, cutting into the scarred skin a little and the bird suddenly pressing him down with a knee on his chest. "You… piece of shit!", growled the bird between fast heavy breaths.
Dabi raised his eyebrow, slowly grabbed the feathery blade and pushed it away from his skin.
"…I guess that’s the point of being a villain.", he squeezed out under the weight.
Hawks' eyes just stared at him, but seemed to be somewhere far away from reality.
"And now get off of me, I need oxygen." A blue flame danced around his hand, that flicked in front of the golden eyes. "It's me feathers, not whoever you're seeing."
Hawks squeezed his eyes shut, slowing his breathing and Dabi could feel the feather blade soften between his fingers. As the pressure on his chest loosened, the villain pushed Hawks off of him and watched him fall over to the other side of the couch, finally waking up with a bout of coughing.
Looking bored as ever, Dabi continued to eat his ice cream and observed the bird with a tiny little spark of curiosity shining behind his eyes. "So, who’s the big bad piece of shit in your life? Thought you heroes are all living the dream."
"Think I saw my father…", said the bird, empty eyes staring at the air in front of him. "Bastard's not relevant anymore, don’t know why he's invading my fucking dreams now."
Another coughing fit overcame him and when it subsided, he saw a new dose of painkillers and a glass of water wordlessly handed to him. He took both without further complain. The empty glass was put back on the coffee table by the villain and Hawks’ eyes didn’t take long to fall shut again. He let himself sink down to the side, landing on Dabi’s chest, a relieved shiver running through him from the warmth of Dabi’s body. By the time he had pulled the blanket up to his chin, his mind was already disappearing into the veils of sleep.
Dabi looked down at the sleeping hero for a moment and then, very slowly, hesitantly put his arms around him. And for the first time ever, just a second, there was something in the villain’s eyes, that looked like deep and honest understanding.
"Because fathers are a pain in the ass.", he whispered.