Archive of Our Own

Golden eyes ran over the darkening sky, wings tensed behind his back. Hawks stood on a rooftop, waiting in silence. Only the sound of the wind reached his ears so high above the ground, while it brushed through his feathers.

It had been almost two weeks since he was back to business, fully recovered from his meeting with the flu. He was back at working all day and he thought Dabi would be back at coming to his apartment on every ungodly hour. Whenever he wanted a decent meal or a comfy couch. But in all those almost two weeks, Dabi didn’t show up once.

There! A sudden movement on his left caught his attention and in the same second, he was racing through the mild evening flair above the city.

He knew he cared far too less about the villain invading his private space, but it was odd for Dabi not to show up for so long. Of course, Dabi had no real reason to come, they needed each other for their own goals, that was all. Too much trust could be the downfall of either of them and they both knew that. Still, something felt so odd about it.

Shaking his head, he continued to chase a nameless villain through the air. Concentrating on work was more important now, than thinking about some may or may not existing strange and dangerous hero-villain-relationship or whatever it was.

When he got home and the distraction of work was missing, the odd feeling in his head got louder. Like something was off. It didn’t make sense for Dabi to bring him home, staying here the whole time, actually being nice by his standards and even kind of caring for him while he was ill and then just disappear. Not even a single message, nothing.

Well, he probably just had better things to do, than chill at a hero’s place. Or something bad had happened. Hawks tried not to think about it too much, settled in the kitchen and made dinner. But how could he ignore a matter that began to compromise his mission? If his only villain contact decided to cut him off, that was a bad sign for the whole country. On the other hand, Dabi was an unpredictable asshole and could just be minding his own business for a while.

Hawks tried. He really tried. But that one alarming sound in his head just wouldn’t shut up. So, there he was about an hour later, flying above all the lights of the city by night. A beautiful view, with warm air of a summer night brushing his skin. The golden eyes scanned the ground in a systematic way, while his mind thought of fifty different excuses he could give that fiery moron, for why he searched the entire city for him. Just in case he would find him perfectly fine. Not that he expected anything else. Fiery villains probably turned any trouble into ashes within seconds.

Feathers flew around on their own, searching areas around places they had used as meeting spots so far and other shady places, while Hawks stayed high in the air looking over rooftops and into windows of wrecked buildings.
It took him three tiring hours and a lot of desperation to land in front of a building that was so wrecked, it was a miracle it was still standing. At this point he gave up all hopes of finding the idiot this night. After a long day of work he needed some sleep and told himself this was the last place he would check. Seemed like the villain didn’t want to be found and maybe it was for the best.

His muscles tensed when a crooked hanging neon sign flickered blue. There was only one half of the sign left, that had a cross on it and said something with ‘-clinic’. Carefully looking around, he entered what was left of the doorframe. Everything was dark, but his eyes adjusted. Here and there were some weak flickering lights from old fluorescent tubes. They gave an unsteady shining of cold light, creating moving shadows in every corner. Sometimes little clicking noises accompanied the flickering, when wind blew through windows, broken long ago, and created howling sounds. What was left of the furniture looked like 200 years old hospital beds and strange looking equipment. Medical equipment? More like torture equipment. Some of the beds had torn leather straps and dark stains he chose not to think of. Even in his job, he didn’t know places like this still existed. Seemed like straight out of a horror movie.

On the first floor he found nothing but creepy furniture and invaded the personal space of some bats. With a little smile he watched them escape through the broken windows. A sigh left his mouth when he found stairs going downwards, into more silent darkness. While Feathers had flooded the buildings for his search to this point, that didn’t work down there.

But why even bother looking there? This place was empty for sure and he had already wasted enough time. He was about to leave - until his eyes spotted weak footsteps in the layer of dust, that covered everything here. His senses sharpened immediately.

Again, he sent a feather downstairs and tried to sense anything, but again it was difficult. The only sensations he got were steady vibrations like some kind of electric device or machinery. Strange enough that electricity still worked in such a place. Step by step he quietly got down the stairs, ending by a heavy metal door.

The door creaked when he had to use a lot of his strength to open it. Freezing cold greeted him as he entered the room, around him nothing but darkness and thick air that smelled like… death. It was subtle, but noticeable for anyone with a nose. Grimacing he got further into the dark, step by step. Feathers guided him the way around any objects. Cold tables or something. And instead of normal walls there was something that felt like drawers.

Big cold metal drawers.

And suddenly the picture came together in his mind. He had experienced many not pleasant things in his life, but this? This was gross. Considering the freezing temperatures, despite the warm summer outside, there could still be… Feathers floated hesitantly in front of one of the drawers, not sure if opening it was a good idea. He had seen such things before, but it was never a pleasant experience. He almost forgot the reason for his visit here, hadn’t there been a sudden groaning sound. Frowning, Hawks looked around, took out his phone and turned on the flashlight.

He blinked against the sudden light and then flatly looked at his finding.

“What the fuck are you doing down here?”

“Could ask you the same.”, came the sleepy answer.

The villain he had searched for turned his closed eyes away from the source of light, clearly not amused. He was laying on something that looked kind of similar to an old version of an operating table. And apparently that weirdo had been sleeping. Sleeping in an old abandoned creepy morgue, that was freezing cold.

“I was looking for you.”

Dabi didn’t even bother to open his eyes. “And to what circumstances do I owe the honor?”

Well, that was a good question. No way he could tell the truth about this. For a moment, he just looked at the villain and forgot all the fifty stupid excuses he had made up during the past hours.

“Are you alright?”, he asked instead. Dabi wasn’t easy to read sometimes, but his expression was different from the usual unbothered look. It seemed kinda tense and tired at the same time. Something he never noticed on Dabi before.

“Why wouldn’t I.”, came the annoyed response.

“You don’t look so good.”

“Did I ever?”

That silenced Hawks for a moment, before he decided to avoid answering that and change the topic instead.

“What are you even doing down here? This place is gross.”

“It’s an old psychiatric clinic. Fits the league, don’t you think?”

“…can’t deny that. But still, not very comfortable. Why sleep in a damn morgue?”

“Don’t know, kinda like it.”

Hawks sighed. Was that a villain thing, he just could not understand?

“You’re weird, you know. Never mind, you can stay at my place if this is the best you can get otherwise.”

“I’m fine. I chose to be here for a reason, just leave.”

“You don’t look fine.”

Now, the villain gave him a tired glare. “Yeah, that happens if you wake someone in the middle of the night.”

“Because this is a five-star hotel to casually stay at night?”

Dabi said nothing and turned his head away. Answer enough. But Hawks couldn’t leave him in a place that already smelled like death, could he? Villain or not, he still needed that idiot, that definitely was not fine. As much as he would love to have his peace in his quiet apartment, he had to do what he could to help the mission. Slowly, he reached out for Dabi’s wrist, trying to convince the moron, to come with him. “Hey, I-“

Frowning, he looked down at said wrist. “What the fuck…” He expected it to be cold, but it felt… normal. Exactly how human skin should feel like. “How can you be in here and not be cold?”

Dabi rolled his eyes. “That comes with fire quirks, Sherlock.” Not to mention a cold resistance, that didn’t fit his quirk. But the hero didn’t have to know that part.

“But-“

“Overused it. Surpriiise, my body doesn’t like that.”

When Hawks looked closer, the scar tissue on the wrist he was still holding really looked a bit worse than before. Well, that explained the environment. “So, you need to rest.”, Hawks figured.

“Bright conclusion, Sherlock.”

“Then you should come with me.” Dabi hissed and shook off the hero’s hand.

“Do lazy bastards look like they will get up and walk over to your place? No thanks, I’ll stay here. Just leave.”

Hawks ignored the warning sound in Dabi’s voice and grinned. “I didn’t mention walking.”

***

Of course, that damn chicken didn’t leave. Fucking Moron. Someday, when time would come, he would kill that stupid chicken very, very slowly and enjoy every second of it.

When they arrived on Hawks balcony, Dabi was two shades paler than before. The second his feet touched the ground he pushed away from Hawks, clasped the railing and looked down to the streets, breathing heavily. “If. You. Ever. Do that. Again. I’ll rip your head off, after burning all your fucking skin away, very slowly and very painfully.”, he spat out of gritted teeth.

Hawks only raised a brow and shrugged. “Most people like flying.”

Dabi closed his eyes, trying to get rid of the dizziness and the feeling of a twisted stomach. “I don’t.”

Hawks sighed. “Afraid of heights? Sorry. Wouldn’t have gone that high, if I knew that.”

“No. That’s not it.”

Hawks waited for more to come, but Dabi remained silent. After a while of just watching him, Hawks carefully tried again. “I could try to help you, if you tell me what it is then.”

“None of your business.”, he hissed, refusing to look at the hero. That idiot didn’t have to know more weaknesses than necessary. Especially not the damn motion sickness.

Hawks gave him a few Minutes of silence, before opening the balcony door. “You good to come in?”

The blue eyes opened slowly. “Sure.”

After another few seconds just standing by the railing, he followed the hero inside.

The chicken's head turned around when Dabi headed towards the couch as usual. “A bed might be more comfortable, if you really need to rest. And you definitely look like you do.”

Dabi blinked. Of course, he would never admit how exhausted he truly was and how desperate his body needed sleep and time to heal. But didn’t matter how exhausted he was, he would never take the offer of that dumb chicken’s bed. Not in this life.

As it turns out, his concerns were unfounded. When he didn’t respond, Hawks tilted his head towards a door. It had been closed every time he had been here before and he hadn’t been curios enough to take a look. “The guest room is over here.”

Dabi blinked again and nodded once. An own room for himself sounded perfect. Some calm and quiet privacy. Without another word he followed the chicken once again, until he silently stood in the door frame next to him. Hawks turned on the light, so the furniture came to see. There was a comfy looking double sized bed, a night stand, a big window and a wardrobe. Probably empty. The room was not very big, nothing special, but perfect for a tired villain, who had no sense for most luxury anyway.

“Well, make yourself comfortable. You can stay as long as you want.”

Hawks left, just to come back a few moments later. Dabi still stood in the door frame as if sleeping already when Hawks threw some clothes on the bed. “In case you need something more comfortable. Oh, and there’s food in the fridge, take it if you want.”

Dabi remained silent and Hawks didn’t bother anymore. Probably because the villain looked so damn tired. Said villain possibly couldn’t handle so many niceties and just closed the door behind him, as soon as he was left alone. He kicked off his boots and took a closer look on birdie’s clothes. A dark blue long sleeve shirt and black sweatpants really were more comfortable, than his typical street clothes. But would his pride allow him to take the offer?

After a minute of staring at the comfy clothes, he figured that he was too tired to care about his pride and changed into them. Then, he immediately crashed on the bed and fell asleep faster than his head touched the pillow.

***

When sunlight greeted Hawks in the early morning, first thing he did was checking on his guest. Slowly he opened the guest room’s door, careful to be as quiet as possible, and put his head through the gap. The villain was still sleeping and looked nearly peaceful. An unfamiliar look on the scarred face. It made Hawks smile a little, before he closed the door and decided to let him sleep. As hero duties called, he left for work half an hour later, leaving the apartment in complete silence.

Many hours passed until he got back in the evening. He brought take out not only for him but also for his grumpy guest. Just in case Dabi wasn’t long gone by now.

Movements only controlled by muscle-memory placed the take out on the kitchen counter, while he looked around. No villain to be found in the living room and no noise to be heard. Curios, he made his way to the guest room and silently opened the door. His head tilted to the side slightly when he found the bed actually not empty and realized, that it couldn’t be a good sign, that the guy was still sleeping. The curtains were still closed, cutting of any bright sunlight. It seemed like Dabi hadn’t moved an inch since morning.

Frowning, he observed Dabi’s chest going up and down slowly. “Hey, you awake?”

The only answer was a tired groan.

“How do you feel?”

The blue eyes opened up a little and at that point Hawks was sure, that something was way off. Even more than last night. Those normally so piercing blue eyes seemed not able to focus anything.

“Never better. Leave me alone.” Dabi’s voice was unexpected quiet, barely more than a whisper.

Despite the poor light Hawks could figure the villain wasn’t well. “You look terrible.”

“Not your problem.”

Hawks sighed. “It’s been almost 24 hours. Shouldn’t you be back to normal by now?”

“Didn’t get the best constitution from the start. My body isn’t that of a well-trained hero, it takes time.”

“This long? Not so sure about that.” Well, he didn’t know much about Dabi and his quirk, but still, this would be too long for anyone. “At least eat something.”, he continued after a moment.

“No.”

“I got soba from that little shop around the corner.” His voice softened as he added: “I know you love that stuff.”

Nothing but silence followed, but after a while a rasping voice said: “Not hungry. Just leave me alone.”

Hawks may have been a little concerned before, but hearing that sentence, he began to worry. It was not only the tone, sounding so exhausted quiet and rasping. Also, Dabi never declined food from that little shop. To get a better picture, he ignored Dabi’s wish, turned on the lights and came closer.

The villain squinted his eyes, turned his face away and groaned uncomfortably when the light reached him. The image Hawks got now was even worse than expected. Dabi was always pale, but describing him as just unusual pale was the understatement of the year. The not scarred part of the villain’s face had little difference left to the white sheets. And only now he noticed how Dabi was curled up in the blanket and shivering slightly. In better lighting, the word terrible fitted alarmingly well to this image.

Frowning, he eyed the villain, whose overheating problem apparently got turned around.

Confused, he kneeled down next to the bed, observing the villain’s expression. “Can you explain why you look like you’re freezing know?”

Dabi only gave him a groan of discomfort, that did nothing to help Hawks. Maybe his body was out of energy or something? Finally reacting to the freezing morgue? Vague theories, that didn’t seem to make any sense and proved that he had no clue what was going on. “I’ve never seen you freezing. Just trying to help here.”

This time he was met with complete silence. Not sure if the villain was still awake, he streaked back the black hair, away from the closed eyes. “Hey, you with me? You want a cup of tea or something? Another blanket?” It was a featherlight touch, but enough for Dabi to wince in surprise and discomfort.

Hawks frowned, ignored the hissing and reached out to his forehead again. The skin wasn’t cold, it felt like he was literally burning from the inside. “Fuck... You sure this is just your quirk?”, the hero whispered.

An answer never came as the villain seemed to have all his remaining energy suddenly drained out of him. Instead, he was met with a weak, too familiar sounding bout of coughing.

That was the moment realization hit him like a truck.

“You've got to be kidding me…”

He must be a complete jerk not to think about that earlier. Of course it wasn’t the quirk, it was a damn fever and it had been all along. That bloody liar. Not the body of a well-trained hero, flashed through his mind as his gaze wandered over the villain’s body. His head rolled to the side and the shivering faded slowly, until all movement was gone. What would the flu do to someone with much weaker constitution than his? He remembered his meeting with those germs very well – most parts of it - and it had been absolutely awful.

That was the cue he needed to finally get into action. Thoughts racing, some feathers searched his bathroom drawers for any meds and more feathers searched the freezer for cooling pads. With some painkillers he also found an old thermometer and got all the feathers back to his patient. Fast as he always was, he tucked the thermometer into the unconscious mouth and abruptly tore Dabi’s blanket away. As it landed on the floor, his feathers dropped cooling pads all over the feverish body. When he saw the actual numbers on the little display moments later, he looked back and forth between Dabi and the display a few times. “How are you still alive…?”

The soft question remained unanswered once again. The villain’s body had managed to boil up to 42.2°C [108°F] and the one thing Hawks knew, was that was dangerous as hell. As far as he knew, normal people would die from fevers that high. Maybe that didn’t apply to fire users, but this particular fire user looked not that far away from dying.

Great. His only villain contact was about to melt his brain, in his own apartment, from a fever Hawks himself had given him.

Without hesitation, he softly shook the shoulders of the unresponsive villain, who didn’t react to anything that happened around him anymore. “Hey, come on man, wake up.”

But nothing. Running a hand down his face, he stood up and decided to go a step further. Carefully, he put the cooling pads aside for a moment and tugged on the long-sleeve shirt he had given him earlier. It landed on the floor, right on top of the blanket and revealed more severe scars on Dabi’s upper body. The sight made him wonder what on earth could have happened to this guy in the past.

For now he ignored the newly revealed scars, quickly put the cooling pads back and observed the movement of Dabi's ribcage underneath. After changing the AC settings to a less comfortable room temperature, he didn’t know what else he could do. Not much, except for getting help of a professional.

Nervously running a hand through his hair, Hawks left the room. Quickly, he took out his phone and scrolled through the contacts.

His fingers tapped impatiently on the kitchen counter, until she finally picked up.

“Hawks, what can I do for you?”

“Heyyy! I need your help. And I need you to promise not to ask questions. It’s complicated…”

Minutes later, he was fast as ever to fly off towards the agency of Frosting Remedy – healing type hero, currently ranked No. 24 Hero in Japan. Of course, not without letting some feathers stay back with Dabi, just in case.

“Hawks!” A waving hand welcomed him to a large window, a few levels above the ground. Without any noise, he landed kneeling on the windowsill and gave a little wave himself. “Rika, hi.”

A 32 years old woman with friendly eyes from a very light ice blue smiled at him. Her long white hair with blue dyed ends softly waved across her face, when she gestured him to follow her. Closing the window behind him, he got into the office, that was held in friendly shades of white and ice blue, like her beautiful hero costume.

“Sorry for the late request.”, he smiled sheepishly, while they left her personal office and walked through the abandoned open office area of the agency.

“No problem, I was still here anyway.”, she said in a tone that couldn't have been more kind. A little grin showed on her face as she looked over her shoulder. “But you’re lucky, I just wanted to leave.”

“Lucky me.”, he chuckled weakly, looking around the desks in dim light. Her agency was always quiet in his memory and now even quieter, as everything had settled for the nightshift. Nightshifts were normally short-staffed compared to the dayshifts and the few souls still working had retracted to their personal offices or staff rooms.

The way worry flashed over Rika’s face as she stopped and looked at his expression remained unnoticed to him.

She unlocked a door with her keycard and let her guest step in, before gently closing it behind them. Quietly, she walked along many, many massive shelves that filled out the gigantic room, all filled with what looked like all kinds of medications and medical equipment.

“We can speak freely in here.”, she stated with a sudden hardening of her kind features. “As I said, I don’t do remote diagnostics, so as long as you won’t let me see the patient, I cannot assure you to be very helpful. I don’t support stupidly irresponsible actions like this. And I don’t like secrets.” She stopped, turned to Hawks and looked him straight in the eyes, very serious now. But with a sigh, her look softened a little. “Still, I will try my best, because I trust you. So, you better have your reasons. But since I believe you do – come here.”

He kept quiet, not wanting to say anything wrong and followed her around a few corners, carefully looking around the many shelves. All of a sudden, she had a little paper bag in her hands and started to fill it with various tablet packages.

“From what you told me, the most likely problem would be a severe case of infection, mainly located in the respiratory tract, like the flu or maybe even pneumonia. Just a speculation, but you’ll have to go with it. Fevers that high are very dangerous, but most fire quirk users have a higher resistance to heat, depending on their training. That means, if he is still alive and stable now, there is hope for your patient to overcome his condition without further problems. Still, we don’t know for sure, so we’ll try to help him as much as we can. First of all, you have to cool him down, so you've done everything right. Now you need to make sure he stays hydrated. Ideally, we would do that via IV, but I suppose you're not trained to put an IV?"

He blinked. "Uh, no."

"Thought so.", she said with a nod and continued. "Second”, she showed him one of the tablet packages, “you force those into him. But read the description for dosing carefully or text me later. These fever reducers are only for severe cases and there is a reason they are not freely accessible for everyone. Third, you keep track of his temperature over the next hours, try to get it down, but not too low. The human body rises its temperature for a reason, keep that in mind. Fourth, you can give him those if he is in a lot of pain.”

Another package flopped into the bag and a few steps later another two. “Fifth, those are two different types of cough medications. They work completely different and are only to use when necessary. Most importantly – never use them together. Call me before you use any of it.”

She stopped next to the opposite shelve and more meds found their way into the bag. “Sixth, just in case. If you notice he is very nervous, tensed or delirious and worsening his condition or even hurting you or himself – try this. But again, be careful and text or call me before using it. It’ll knock him out for a while. I hope it’s not necessary, but delirious patients can be tricky. They do the weirdest and even dangerous things. If he subconsciously activates his quirk, well… ”

Hawks’ eyes widened. “He could fry his brain all by himself, no matter what we do.”

Rika looked as if ripped out of a long-gone memory, frowning at Hawks. “Oh. Yeah. That. Or turn your whole apartment complex into a raging inferno.”

Hawks was about to laugh dryly, when he saw her expression. “…seriously?”

She sighed, deeply and bitterly. “Yes…”, she whispered, trying to hide the sorrow building up in her eyes.

Before his speechless mind could give a reply, she closed the bag and gave it to him. “That’s all we can do for now in terms of medication. Since I don’t know the exact cause, we can only treat the symptoms and hope for the best. Also...” Trailing off, she rummaged through another shelf.

”Here. Pulse oximetry, just put it on his finger and it’ll show you heart rate and oxygen saturation. Heart rate and breathing rate will probably be elevated somewhat, that’s fine. Saturation is measured in percent and should be above 90. Anything lower is critical, if that happens you call me.” The little plastic device was put in the bag, along with a small note she quickly wrote down. “The note gives you an overview about normal values and when it gets critical.”

Hawks nodded, expression neutrally watching the bag in his hands. “Thank you, Rika. That's very helpful. And... sorry for all the secrets, I wish I could just tell you. But…”

He was well trained in hiding his emotions, but Rika noticed the worry, that hid behind his eyes ever so slightly.

A sad smile appeared on her softened face and she carefully put a hand on his back, right between his wings. “…it’s complicated? I understand, don’t mention it.”

They made their way back to her office and as he opened the window, she gave him a reassuring smile. “Just call me, if you need anything else. And when his condition gets worse, definitely call me. We’ll figure something out to help your ominous friend.”

“Thanks.”, he smiled back, before taking off into the night again. He had no time to lose.

Thankfully his apartment was not on fire when he came back. Placing all the meds on the guest room’s nightstand he observed his patient. Said patient was still alive, nearly the same picture as before, only some cooling pads had melted in the meantime.

Quickly, he shook the limp shoulders, until he got an annoyed little groan. Well, that was progress! The blue eyes hardly opened, but Hawks didn’t have the patience to argue with a half-conscious guy. He pulled Dabi’s shoulders up, leaned him against the headboard without asking and forced a glass of water in his hands.

“Drink this. You need fluids.”

The villain was slow, but took it, staring unfocused at it as if it was the devil himself, before finally taking a sip.

Hawks unfolded the note from one of the tablet packages and read through it as fast as he could. Then he watched Dabi's drinking process, that was as fast as a snail and pressed two little pills in his free hand.

The villain didn’t even look at the thingies, just took them and proceeded to empty the glass. It took what felt like ages.

As he watched Dabi closely, Hawks tried to convince himself, that he only did this because he still needed that villain. For intel. For the sake of this country. For all the civilian lives. For society.

Feathers took the glass from Dabi, when it was finally empty and didn't hesitate to put the pulse oxy thingy on one of his fingers.

But deep inside his mind, he knew there was no meaning in lying to himself. Even though he knew exactly why he could not allow himself to get sentimental.

Gently, he helped the motionless body lay down again, looked at the little display of the new device and compared the values with Rika's note. 102 bpm, 94%. Not perfect, but in range according to the situation.

Villain or not, life was life, wasn’t it? Well, not in the Commission’s sense. Of course, the many weighed more than the few, there was some truth to that statement. Who knew how many lives could be saved, if there was one arsonist less in the word from now on? He could get rid of a high classified murderer here and now, just hand him over to the police. It would be so easy.

But the plan didn’t allow it. Quite an unpleasant thought, helping someone to survive, just to probably kill him later. Hawks doubted he could convince someone this stubborn to either surrender peacefully or get him neutralized without killing him. Most of the other league members he could manage to arrest, if he got to fight them. But Dabi? Bad quirk match-up meant acting fast. Very, very fast to get the first and final strike.

For fucks sake, this mission sucked. Why the hell had everything to be so complicated? Fuck it, he had no time for some deep ethical discussions with himself.

…actually, he had the time. Totally not worried as he was he stood next to Dabi, watching him, after making sure to do everything he could right now. After a couple of minutes, he sat down on the floor.

When the floor became uncomfortable, he got a chair. The sun was long gone when the chair became uncomfortable too and he sat down on the free half of the double-sized bed. Every once in a while he checked on said villain, afraid of the fever getting worse.

To his relief, it didn’t. Though it didn’t get much better either. It was only just tolerable after some time, always somewhere between 40 and 41°C [104-105.8°F]. Every now and then Hawks woke him up to force more water into him and changed the cooling pads.

As the night moved on, his eyes got heavier and heavier, but he refused to go to sleep. He didn’t dare to leave his new pet of a villain alone, so he spent the night sitting next to him. Eventually he took the abandoned blanket from the floor for himself, when the AC proceeded to cool down the room. In contrast to the fire user, Hawks didn’t like the cold.

And as the morning crawled closer, he dozed off himself without realizing.

***

Dabi felt like he was in hell. It wasn’t bad enough he had already felt like shit the moment the bird had found him. No, that bastard had just made it a hundred times worse. He had been doing fine in a big freezer, among some silent dead bodies in the dark. Where no one had ever managed to find him during the past years.

But now, he had to deal with an environment not cold enough for this fuck of a situation and with that dumb hero, huddling around him. Fuck, he just wanted to be alone. But that stupid chicken even stayed the entire night, leaving way too less space between them. It was awful. Everything was just awful.

But he was too tired, body too aching, to do anything against the chicken shit. His mind was blurry as fuck, trapped in clouds of dizziness and one hell of a headache. Still, he noticed Hawks’ annoying presence. How could he not, after being woken up all the fucking time for that stupid fussing. After all, some of the meds must have led to a coma like sleep eventually, so at least at some point of the night he didn’t have to deal with the damn chicken anymore.

To an hour he couldn’t define, his mind slowly awoke from the darkness of sleep. There was dimmed light around him, like sun shining through closed curtains. He could feel his shirtless body, no longer covered in those uncomfortable cooling pads but soft wet towels instead and-

And a fucking hand on his forehead. Despite feeling the worst since years, he managed a death bringing glare at the stupid chicken. But the chicken’s eyes weren’t bothered, they had nothing but concern in them.

“Hey firefly…”, Hawks said quietly, being way too close as he retreated is hand. “You okay?”

Now, Dabi’s glare was a different kind of annoyed. The kind of i-hate-talking-to-little-kids-cause-their-questions-are-so-stupid.

“Would you believe me if I said yes?” It should have sounded annoyed, but it was just quiet and raspy and was followed by painful coughing.

“No.”, Hawks sighed.

A few feathers got some pills and water and floated above Dabi’s face. He stared at it, not moving at all.

“You need to take this stuff.”

Still, no movement. Because his slow thoughts had to evaluate the chances of being poisoned or something. The chicken of a hero couldn’t get a better chance of killing him. Fucking Commission’s pet. Yeah, he knew that. He never intended on truly trusting Hawks. But since the last couple of weeks, things seemed to be different. Which was weird.

“Or just let me watch you die, if that’s what you prefer…”, mumbled Hawks.

Watch him die? Right, he could die from this anyway. If birdie had wanted that, he could have done it already. Slowly, he moved to get up a little, taking the stuff the feathers still carried in front of him.

At his slightest attempt to move, the hero’s cold hands where at his shoulders immediately, gently helping him. And when another heavy cough trembled in his chest, that bird brain dared to lay a hand on his back, carefully rubbing up and down. The temptation to burst into flames and burn this whole place down was strong. Very, very strong.

But that could have been his own death sentence, so he fought that thought down. For now.

Instead, he glared viciously at the bird and used all of his poor concentration to intensely heat up only that part of his back, until a bit of smoke emerged through his skin. Hawks pulled his hand back immediately. He grimaced, but knew better than to say anything. Dabi tried to let go of the extra heat and relaxed slightly. He took the pills and the water without a word, actually being kind of glad about the cool liquid.

And he totally didn’t notice the amused little smile on Hawks’ face. Of course not.

“Now ready to eat something? I think you could need it.”

“Then have fun thinking about it. Leave me alone.”

A sigh filled the air once again.

“Come on, at least a little bit. Your body will need it.”

“And I think, I know my body better than you do.” With that he heavily fell back onto the pillow, groaning and closing his eyes.

“Oh, we could change that.”, Hawks offered with a shit eating grin.

After a moment of silence, the blue eyes opened just enough to stare at Hawks. “What did you just say?”

"You heard me."

"You-" His chest trembled in a heavy cough and it felt like the most exhausting thing ever. Fuck, sleeping had been much better than this. 

 Watching the struggle for air, Hawks' grin faded away. 

As his lungs took their time to calm down, there was something in Dabi's eyes Hawks couldn't decipher. It was hard to tell with all that tiredness covering any visible emotion. If he hadn't known better, he almost could've file it as something close to horrified. 

Only when the fit subsided, the villain attempted to speak again. "You could basically have every human being in this country and prefer to choose a psychopathic half-dead villain? What exactly is wrong with you, to still think I'm the weirdo?" Since he knew he wasn't supposed to live long, he never had had the time to think about any kind of deeper relationship. Or the fact that any normal person, let alone a pretty and flashy fucking hero, could be interested in the scarred living corpse of a villain. Therefore, the only explanaition for birdie's joke his currently melting brain had to offer was the following: How fucking much had the Comission brain-washed the bird to go that far for a spying mission? That was beyond anything Dabi could have ever imagined. 

Hawks took his time, not sure what to make of that look. Eventually, he raised an eyebrow and slowly let the grin creep back to his face. "Every human being? You find me that handsome?"

"I'm ill, not blind. It's common knowledge and you know that."

"Yeah, I do." How could he not, he had eyes himself and his ridiculously huge fanbase made sure he never forgot. With a deepening grin he casually leaned his elbow against the headboard, in a way that was a little too confident.

Through closing his eyes Dabi broke eye contact and snorted. "Save your modelling for the cameras, you psycho."

The chicken shit had the audacity to chuckle, but decided to let it go for once.

***

As much as he tried, Dabi didn’t fall back to sleep. It took him hours to fully drift away again. Many annoying hours, full of a fucking mother hen. The bastard never left him alone, constantly trying to convince him to eat or drink or fussing over his temperature, while constantly talking about things, Dabi didn’t pay attention to. The stupid bird couldn’t shut his damn mouth for three seconds. And all he could do in his misery was to endure this torture of feeling like absolute shit and a bird getting the rest of his already wrecked nerves. Finally falling asleep again after all those hours was a blessing.

When his eyes slowly opened the next time Hawks was gone. Unfortunately, the damn flu wasn’t gone. Fucking shit would take a while, he knew that. Fuck, this mend trouble. Since he woke from his three-year-coma, years ago, he hadn’t felt much pain from any injuries or his own burns. A lot of his nerve endings were completely destroyed. But now, his body was full of this bloody aching. He didn’t know why infections like this still had the ability to cause pain in his body, but he hated it.

His breathing was heavy when he slowly got up. Damn. The stupid chicken wasn’t here for the first time in… too long ago. What an amazing silence. So, was he really gone or just next door? Dabi didn’t know. But he knew this could be his only chance of getting away. He definitely needed to get away as soon as possible.

Dizziness accompanied him as he stood up and walked over to the window, doing his best to ignore the black dancing across his vision. The shaky movement to open curtains and window was interrupted by unpleasant coughing. Fuck. He squinted his eyes when sudden moonlight greeted him. Even the fucking moon was too bright.

After a while, he steadied his breathing and send a tired glare into the night. This was fucking high above the ground. But taking the door was no option, the bird could be there. He was in no position to fight that chicken, not like this. And he couldn’t stay here either. No way. His gaze wandered between the very comfortable bed behind him and the fire escape, all the way down to the ground.

It was a bad idea.

A very, very bad idea.

***

After not leaving the villain’s side for too long, Hawks needed a break. How could one single person be so damn stubborn? Better question, how could he have forgotten how annoying that moron could be? He had no idea why it was so difficult for him to accept some much-needed help.

It was in the late evening when he left the guest room. His sick little firefly was still alive and seemingly stable under the med's influence, so he could leave him alone for a while. Probably. He was sleeping anyway and Hawks needed some sleep himself. So, he left Dabi alone, only flying off for ten minutes to get some food. When he returned he got into his bedroom, left the door open and placed some feathers outside the room. That way he would notice if his guest would get up and maybe needed something.

Well, so he thought.

As it turned out, fireflies shouldn’t be underestimated.

The sun hadn’t risen yet when he woke up for no reason and intended to go back to sleep for another little while. Some feathers flew into the guest room, just to shortly check on his guest. But the room was empty. So was the bathroom. The living room. The kitchen.

Damn, that idiot was gone. Fuck, now he had to get up. Faster than a blink he was out the window, dressed in hoodie and sweatpants.

Fresh air drove away the sleepiness in his eyes and helped focusing. While his eyes automatically scanned the ground and feathers swarmed out like usual, his thoughts were racing. Not that it would be a bad thing, but it would ruin the mission if Dabi was spotted and captured. Every little toddler could overpower the moron in that state and he doubted the moron was able to think straight enough for hiding properly. Depending on how long he was gone by now and how far he got. It was still dark and quiet around the city, but not for long anymore. Sunrise was near, so this time he couldn’t afford three hours of searching.

The moron’s condition was another thing to worry about, so he tried the old morgue first. The hopes of finding him there again were low, since a known hiding place wasn’t the best hiding place anymore, was it? But since he couldn’t expect a feverish brain to think perfectly rational and because Dabi somehow liked that disgusting place… it might be worth a try.

This time he rushed down the dusty stairs, almost tripping over his own feet. Pushing any thought about the smell and the bad feeling this place gave him away, he pulled on the heavy metal door. Feathers flooded the freezing dark, faster than he could turn on his phone’s flashlight. There. A body, warmer than the rest of this place.

“Hey! You alright?”

Silence.

“Please, don’t be dead…”

But as he looked over the motionless villain, he seemed dead already. Almost. Hadn’t tiny feathers, gently laying on Dabi’s still shirtless chest, sensed some movement. It was calm and steady, chest going up and down, like it used to be. And underneath, a heartbeat, weak but there.

A relieved sigh left Hawks’ lips when he picked up his firefly without a word. Dabi didn’t seem to be conscious but it didn’t matter anyway. They had no time to lose. First strikes of sunlight reached the sky and Hawks couldn’t risk to be spotted like this.

However, he tried to go less high and slower than last time, since he still didn’t know what exactly Dabi’s problem with flying was. During the flight, he felt Dabi shift uncomfortably in his arms and grimaced when the coughing started. Sounded awful. So he was conscious, good to know. Hawks managed a soft landing, trying not to make the villain more uncomfortable than necessary.

As soon as their feet touched the ground, said villain swayed and escaped his grip far less energetic than last time. Hawks let him, but held his arms out, just in case the idiot couldn’t stand on his own.

Dabi could stand, hunched over a little, coughing again and breathing heavy when it stopped. Hawks expected some death wishes, but Dabi remained silent.

Concerned, Hawks took a step towards him, only for Dabi to hiss and take two steps back. And then, a weird silence settled in.

He should say something. But he didn’t know what to say. It was awkward.

“Well… guess we should go inside.”

He opened the door window, but Dabi didn’t move an inch. The blue eyes avoided birdie, going here and there, seeming extremely stressed about the situation and not sure how to deal with it. Hawks carefully laid a hand on his shoulder in attempt to convince him to come inside. But Dabi rather took another step back, away from the hand.

“Leave… me.”, Dabi mumbled quietly between his heavy breathing, undeniably passive aggressive. The blue eyes managed to look dangerous and completely stressed out at the same time. Like a wild injured animal.

Hawks sighed. “Hey, I… uhm...” He looked over to the rising sunlight, only to snap back when there was a sudden movement in the corner of his eyes. “Dabi? You-“

The blue eyes rolled backwards before falling shut, releasing any tension Dabi had had left in his body. Of course, the fastest hero in Japan caught him immediately. For a moment, he just stood there and looked down at the unconscious guy in his arms. He was behind Dabi, his arms tightly around the limp torso, limp head resting against his shoulder.

What was he even doing? Trying to take care of a damn villain, who rather ran away than take the offer. At least the villain’s body didn’t feel overly feverish anymore, even though he strongly doubted a giant freezer was a good place for ill people. Again, he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. For the mission. Right? Right. Just the mission…

Lifting Dabi up wasn’t a big deal, he was pretty light for his height. Gently, he set him down on the mattress, back in the guest room and was not sure what to do now. Lock the doors and windows, or watch over him 24/7? Fuck no, his home wasn’t a prison. Why the hell had this guy to be that difficult to handle.

Said guy shifted slowly, slightly opened his eyes only to squint them shut again and rolling to his side, away from the fucking hawk watching him. The one second Hawks had met his gaze was enough to know how pissed Dabi was. It had been a second full of pure piercing blue hatred.

Well, at least he was back to consciousness. Despite the look he got, Hawks tried to talk again. “You don’t really think that disgusting old place is a better pick than this, do you?”

Silence again.

“I know you’re not that stupid. Why did you leave then? Why taking so many risks just to get away? I won’t kill you or something.”

“Why would you…” Finally, Dabi spoke, sounding weak as ever.

Hawks gut twisted at the sound. So hoarse, so tired.

“Exactly. So, why did you leave?”

Dabi coughed, shivered, reached down to the floor and slowly grabbed the shirt he had been given earlier. Putting it on was a struggle with his shaking hands, but he managed after a while. Then he got the blanket off the floor, buried himself under it and turned away from Hawks.

“I will stay here until I get an answer. I can only help you, if you talk to me.” Damn, that idiot was stubborn like a toddler. But Hawks could be stubborn too.

“I don’t need your fucking help...”, Dabi groaned. He didn’t need anyone’s fucking help.

“That doesn’t answer the question. You could be dead now without my help.”

“Bloody hell… Okay birdbrain, I. Don’t. Like. Fucking. Mother hens.”

Impressive how much hatred could be in one look out of eyes that looked so damn exhausted.

“Got it?”, Dabi growled.

Hawks did not get it. “Mother… hen?” Slowly, he tilted his head. “You… you wanna tell me, you ran away in that condition just to be alone?”

“No, to go shopping... Yes Sherlock, some people don’t like people. Or fucking chickens…”

“And why the hell didn’t you just tell me so? That would have been much easier.”

“I did. Like five times... Not my fault if you and your hero complex can’t fucking listen...”, he rasped.

“I- “ Frowning, Hawks trailed off, slumped his schoulders. “Okay, yes, I didn’t listen. Because I don’t have any idea how wrecked your body actually is or how fast you could die if you’re left alone. If you would’ve explained your aversion against people caring, maybe I could have reacted accordingly.” What the fuck was wrong with this guy? Not being able to accept help was one thing, but was it really so difficult to talk?

Apparently, it was. Again, he didn’t get an answer. Great. “Fine, I’ll leave you alone, if you promise to talk next time something is wrong.”

“…I may consider it.”, the villain said after a while.

Well, that was the best Hawks could get today. Better than nothing. A feather dropped a new bottle of water on Dabi’s chest, provoking more coughing, before the blue eyes looked down at it, making a face. Hawks accepted the approach of a yes, but did not quite trust the villain to act reasonable on his own.

"Don't forget your fluids.", he said emotionless over his shoulder and turned away. Before he left, he let a tiny feather fly over to the nightstand, where it dropped. “I’ll leave it there, tap on it if you need anything.”

***

Of course, there was no tapping on the feather for hours. Hawks watched the sun rising higher with every hour, until it reached its peak. It was difficult to just sit on the couch and do nothing. He felt like he should do something. Heroes were supposed to act, to help, to… do something. At least as long as the world was like it was. Sure, he would love to have tons of free time in general, but this was just wasted time. The only thing he did was send the Commission and his agency a message about his absence for a few days. Again. Well, telling the Commission the league requested his presence wasn’t a full lie, was it? Technically he did spend time with the league. A part of it, at least.

Apart from that he did nothing, not sure how to kill his time. The lack of action felt strange. Wrong somehow. It was around midday when he quietly peaked his head through the door, because he couldn’t help himself.

Fortunately, Dabi was sleeping and didn’t notice him. Without the tiniest bit of noise, he sneaked closer and looked him over. He didn’t seem to look any different than before. Still pale and unusual fragile in some way. Or was there a difference? The scars made it hard to tell, but there seemed to be a red tinge to his cheeks, that hadn’t been there a couple of hours ago. Frowning, Hawks put a palm to the pale forehead in front of him and sighed when he slowly pulled his hand back.

Of course, the fever had to rise again. That’s what one gets from running away. He kneeled next to the bed and did his best to be as quiet as possible, pulling the blanket a little way back and sending his feathers to get new cooling pads to put on the upper body. Lastly, he placed a wet cloth on the forehead especially careful and then even dared to get the thermometer for an actual confirmation. To his relieve Dabi didn’t wake up, when the display showed how severe this has gotten. The fever was back to 41.3°C [106.3°F] and for a second, he thought about waking him up, so he could drink some probably much needed water and take some much-needed meds. But no. Dabi would kill him for that.

Instead, Hawks waited until the cooling got the fever down to 40.1°C [104.2°F] and was satisfied for the moment. He turned around, about to make his way back to the living room to leave Dabi alone like he wanted to. As his hand reached for the door handle though, a quiet voice let him freeze. Shit. The idiot was awake. And probably ready to kill him.

He didn’t understand what exactly the villain was mumbling, but it did not sound friendly. Slowly, he turned around to face some new death threats. But no death threats came. Curiously, he tilted his head, as he realized Dabi wasn’t talking to him. He was talking in his dreams. Well, that was interesting.

He should leave. But he just couldn’t miss this once in a lifetime chance of maybe getting any information about this guy. Silently his back slid down the wall next to the door, using his wings as pillow against the wall. In the beginning nothing was very clear or understandable. He sat there a long time and just as he began to lose his hope-

“…Todoroki”

That was the first clear word he got and it wasn’t quite what he expected. Well, actually he had had no idea what to expect at all. Strangely, it appeared two more times and amongst other mumbling it was the only thing he could understand. That was until “Shoto…” appeared. Not much, but better than nothing. He had no fucking clue what Dabi’s business with that Todoroki kid was, though. Seemed to be important.

Eventually he got tired of sitting on the ground, as no new words left the villain’s mouth and nothing more happened. Searching his fridge for something to eat seemed to be the better option for now.

***

Groaning, Dabi stretched his arms and legs, laying on the bed face first, like a starfish. Golden sunshine peaked through the curtains and lit up the tired blue eyes, as he rose his head a little. “Ugh…” Too bright, too early.

Where was he? What time was it? What day was it? Which year was it?

Completely confused he moved very slowly to turn around, sit up and lean against the headboard. Blinking, his eyes tried to adjust to the little light, peaking into the guest room. Guest room… right, birdie’s apartment. A relieved sigh left him, when he looked around and found no chicken around. Finally, he was alone. Well, nearly alone. A tiny read feather peeped out of one of the long sleeves of birdie’s shirt.

“Seriously...” When he pulled said sleeve up, there was the little feather, taped on his wrist with a fucking plaster. It was exactly where you could feel someone’s pulse. What was wrong with that chicken. A rough pull removed it and for a second, he stared at the red thingy between his fingers. Then, his fingers burst into bright blue, leaving nothing but ashes behind.

Hawks winced heavily when a burning hot sensation abruptly tore him out of a light slumber on the couch. Fast as he was, he got up to his feet, getting sense of his surroundings. A few seconds later he sat back down, realizing that everything was okay. No fire nearby. Must have been Dabi.

Of course it had, since he didn’t sense anything anymore from where his feather had been. It had been the easiest way of knowing the moron was still alive and not running away again. And if he did run away, Hawks could follow him quite easy. Win-win, right?

Well, seemed like Dabi didn’t agree. Hawks turned his head to the guest room’s door when it opened quietly. His expression was neutral despite the uncomfortable feeling in his gut. Losing a single feather was no big deal, but the sensation of it burning away so easily…

A reminder that the guy, who lazily stepped over to the couch with a blanket over his shoulders, was still an enemy.

“Stop that.”

“What?”

“Staring at me, like I’m a fucking art exhibit.” With a tired moan, the villain let himself fall down on the couch, leaving enough space between him and the stupid bird.

“Sorry. Just wondering how you feel? You better know?”

Dabi snorted and leaned back, closing his eyes. “Why don’t you ask the little tracking device you gave me?”

Hawks sighed. “It was not meant as a tracking device. I just wanted to notice, if you’re… you know, still alive.”

Dabi slowly opened his eyes, looking at him in curiosity.

“You wanted to be left alone, what should I do? Needed to know if you’re getting worse, so I could intervene if necessary.”

“Would you really care? I mean, shouldn’t you heroes be glad to see one villain less in this world? And don’t tell me about the league. I mean honestly.”

“Of course I would. We’re allies, remember?”

“So what. Alliance can lead to betrayal. That means nothing.”

“It does mean something to me.”

The words were quiet and by the way Hawks avoided his gaze, Dabi knew there was a realistic chance they were true. Interesting. His fever troubled brain better remembered this piece of information later. Unfortunately, he wasn’t so sure about that, because he could feel how slow and clouded his mind was. Even while able to walk a few steps around again, he was dizzy and achy all over. He even lacked the motivation to search his brain for a cocky answer he could give the chicken and decided to go with silence.

Too bad for him that Hawks’ mind was sharp as ever. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“What question?”

“How do you feel?”

Clearly not in the mood to be fussed over again, the villain kept silent.

Hawks crossed his arms. “You know, I can find out one way or another, but I'm pretty sure talking is the more comfortable option for you, if you don't like to be put under a microscope.” His words were underlined with feathers, that had brought the thermometer, the pulse oxemetry and all the diffrent meds and now floated in front of Dabi's face.

This time, the villain wasn’t just silent, he was speechless. Who knew the hero would start playing dirty. He would even be impressed, if he wasn’t so damn miserable.

“You wouldn’t risk your life like that.”

“Try me.” More feathers found their way to Dabi, threatening to pin him down. They both knew this wasn’t about his health anymore. The fact he was awake and walking around was enough to know for Hawks. And still – the bird's eyes were deadly serious.

“Not bad for a wannabe-villain…” Closing his eyes in defeat, he sunk deeper into the cushions. “Ugh, fine. What do you want to hear? Headache, chills, dizzy, achy-“ His lungs used the opportunity to show off their problem as well and left their owner panting behind, when the coughing subsided. “…that.”, he rasped. “What do you expect, you gave me the shit...”

Hawks' amused expression faded away as he heard the tired mumbling and his own voice became soft. “I know. But I can see that it affects you a lot worse, so I want to know the full extend. And what I can do to help. Running away and pushing your only help aside certainly won’t help you, buddy.”

Dabi huffed.

“How long has this been going on until I found you?”

The villain had closed his eyes again and took his time before quietly admitting: “Not sure… bit more than a week maybe.”

“Damn…” More than a week, and he still got deadly high fevers. Definitely time for this shit to get better, Hawks thought and remembered the meds Rika had given him. While his feathers shuffled around to get the right stuff, Hawks didn’t like the awkward silence that began to settle in.

“…Oh, as we were speaking of allies, mind to share your plans about that Todoroki kid? Something special about him?”

Hawks couldn’t define the glare he got, but it seemed a little surprised and somewhat confused.

Hawks shrugged. “Seems like he appeared in your dreams. So, what’s about him? The league wants to kidnap him next?”

Instead of an answer, he just got a lot of coughing. A sympathetic look crossed his face, while some feathers were quick to bring a glass of water along with the meds. Dabi took it without a word, leaning forward and taking a few sips, before tossing every pill the feathers gave him. His expression relaxed slowly. “No.”

“What is it then? You know, I could be a great help with that. Getting to the UA kids will be harder for you now.”

Dabi looked down to the ground, nothing but tired and rested his elbows on his legs. He held the glass in front of him, like it was the most expensive whisky in the hands of a mafia boss. “It’s not about the league.”, he said with raspy voice. “It’s a personal interest.”

“Personal? What would you want out of some kid in training?”

Dabi looked straight through the air in front of him. Slowly like a cat he blinked and remained silent.

Softer than before, Hawks tried again. “The league or not, I can help you anyway.” A careful look fell on the villain. “Not only that I can, I mean… I will help you.”

This was his chance to get more information. Even if his questions were blunt and way to straight forward for a villain like Dabi on a normal day. This was not a normal day and Hawks knew that all too well. A melting brain could reveal a lot.

But whatever he said, Dabi refused to answer his question. Hawks watched him for what felt like a very long time, trying to get an explanation. But Dabi looked another way, trapped deep down in his own thoughts, not noticing the hawk’s watch this time.

"Well, whatever it is, I don't know if it's a good idea to lay a finger on that kid all by yourself.”

Dabi snorted. “Oh, but other kids are okay?”

"What? No! I-"

Sighing, he buried his face in one of his hands. “I mean don’t underestimate messing with Endeavor’s kids.” He shoved the hand down his face. “He is number one for a reason and I don’t doubt he would instantly kill you for laying a hand on his son. As far as I know Shoto means a lot to him. Well, I guess all his kids do. I’m pretty sure he would protect them at all costs.”

An odd silence followed and suddenly, Dabi burst into laughter. Since it ended up in coughing Hawks wasn’t entirely sure, but for a second it seemed like displaced maniac laughter.

“Really? Would he? I doubt that.” Dabi’s mouth was stretched to a wide grin, but his eyes didn’t grin at all. It made a shiver run down Hawks' spine. “You think you know him well, bird?”

Hawks tried his best not to show his uncertainty and shrugged. “I worked with him a few times.”

Dabi’s head snapped sidewards and made the piercing and strangely glowing blue eyes stare directly into his soul. “You know nothing.” The words came silent, not more than a whisper, but so intensely threatening, Hawks froze for a moment.

Interesting. He'd never seen Dabi react so intense to anything. He usually seemed so careless. This was completely different and Hawks didn’t know how to deal with it. Frowning, he slowly opened his mouth but closed it without uttering a word.

Dabi snorted again, closed his eyes and leaned a hand against his temple for a moment. Quietly sighing he pulled the blanket around him and lay down slowly. Hawks’ gaze wandered towards the movement, observing how Dabi curled under the blanket. He got the message. This conversation was over.

***

After that, Dabi was either sleeping or just ignoring Hawks for some hours and the hero just sat there, eventually turning on the TV. But when something was wrong with his Netflix watchlist and he wasn’t sure where the new ‘#1 parasite’ profile came from, he frowned and had to switch to another streaming service. He picked anything without much thinking, but didn’t really focus on the show.

Every now and then, his eyes wandered over to Dabi. The villain slept, sometimes seemingly peaceful, sometimes turning around in twisted dreams, eventually landing the blanket on the floor as sweat glistened on the scarred face.

At some point his feathers got the blanket and gently placed it back over the sleepy head when slight shivering returned. And that was the most interesting thing that happened for hours.

Hawks wasn’t far from dozing off himself, when slight movement next to him caught his attention. As he looked over pure annoyance stared back at him. The villain sat up and reached for his glass, still staring at Hawks. “You don’t have work to do?”

“No, not today.” Hawks’ neutral expression faded into a little grin. “This is the closest to family emergency it ever got.”

“…seriously? You’re pathetic, you know that?”

Hawks' grin vanished as fast as it had appeared. Frowning and silence filled the room. No. No, he was not pathetic.

…was he? No, he was the youngest, high ranked hero of Japan, the people loved him. The number two hero. With… absolutely no family left. Well, that had him thinking a while. But he had Rumi! She could be considered as some sort of family. Because she was his only close friend. Okay, maybe he was a little pathetic. But still way better than some shady villain.

Dabi watched him closely. “Told you.” Now it was Dabi who slightly grinned. “Look at you, high ranked hero, not even able to choose normal friends. Even prefer taking in a murderer and trying desperately to keep him alive. That’s the definition of pathetic.”

He couldn’t decipher the look on Hawks’ face, but took it as a win when he got no answer.

“Speaking of keeping me alive, I'd be up for some food now.”

The bird seemed to be in a different dimension.

“Or I could just turn you into fried chicken and eat you.”, he tried again.

It took a moment for birdie to come out of his thoughts and give a single nod. “Yeah, sure. I love chicken.”, came the absent answer, that led to some feathers race into the kitchen. “Got take out for us earlier. But no chicken today, sorry”, he mumbled.

Two prepared portions of light ramen were placed in the microwave and then brought to the couch. Dabi had never seen anything else in this kitchen, than take out or instant noodles.

“Wow, you don’t even know how to use a kitchen, do you?”

Finally, birdie gave him his full attention. “And why do you care?”

“Just gathering evidence of your high level wretchedness.”

Hawks rolled his eyes and when Dabi suddenly sneezed and sniffled after it, he grabbed a box of tissues and smashed it into the villain’s direction. It may have accidentally landed right in his face. A quiet little not very serious “I hate you” accompanied the tissue box.

Said box wiped the grin out of Dabi’s face for a surprised second, but when it fell into his lap, the amused look returned quickly. “No, you don’t.”, he simply said before grabbing some tissues.

And the answer was so quiet, you could barely understand it. “No, I don’t…”

***

“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Rika, help!”

The voice shouted from Rika’s headset, as soon as she had answered to the sound of an incoming call. She looked up from her paper work.

“Hawks? What happened? Do you need the fire brigade?”

“No! I need your knock out medication, right now. You have to tell me how to dose it. And how to get it into a hallucinating lunatic, that’s trying to burn down your-“

Shuffling on the other end of the line had Rika frowning.

“-you moron!”

“Did you just call me…?”

“No, not you! Ugh, wait, I-“

Crackling and shuffling again. Rika waited, closing her eyes when unpleasant memories from a time long before her hero career flashed her mind, until she heard his heavy breathing return to the speaker. “Sorry… having a bit… of a situation here.”

“Are you sure, I shouldn’t come over?”

“Trust me… you shouldn’t. Just tell me about the magic potion… and do it quick, please!” Sounds of a lot of effort interrupted his speaking once again.

Hawks could not hear her little sigh over the sound of another flame, burning more holes in what shreds were left of Dabi’s blanket. The shreds flew through the air around them like a hurricane, trapping them in a dense cloud of shreds feathers half-burned feathers and particles of ashes. A disgusting smell of different burned materials filled the air, as Hawks was wrestling with that maniac of a villain on the couch.

He tried to get a hold of Dabi’s wrists in an attempt to stop that delirious moron from burning down the apartment. From one second to another, the villain had rose from his sleep, started to slur unrecognizable words and then broke into maniac laughter. The blue eyes were glassy and dead looking, and before Hawks knew it, the whole blanket had been on fire. Talking had helped nothing, the villain seemed to be completely out of it.

And despite being the number two hero, Hawks had little to set against such strong uncontrolled fire, without hurting Dabi. Rika was his only chance. He could hardly open his eyes in the middle of the little storm around them and tried his best to guide some feathers to prepare the medication in the kitchen as Rika explained.

When his hand got hold of a tiny cup, filled with the magic liquid, he was fast to get behind the burning lunatic, grab around his neck and brutally forcing the liquid down his throat. He pushed the scarred chin upwards and grit his teeth as he held that position, ignoring the burning heat, that the blue flames brought to his arms and chest. After what felt like an eternity, Rika’s words became true. About twenty seconds after the stuff had touched mucous membrane, it took effect.

Hawks let himself fall down into the cushions and took a deep breath when the flames finally stopped and the villain’s body went limp in his arms. The limp body followed the downward motion, landing half on top of Hawks, torso still in Hawks’ arms, head resting against his shoulder. Somehow, they gave the perfect impression of a couple, cuddling in front of the TV in the late evening before going to bed.

“Wow. This stuff is amazing.”, he breathed out after a moment.

Rika chuckled lightly. “It can be quite useful, yes.”

“How does it work so quickly?”

“Chemistry, basically. You ever heard of the old chloroform? It was one of the first, early used sedatives in history. This stuff has some similarities in terms of effect. But it is way safer and more effective.”

“Interesting.”, he said. Did he know anything about the history of chemistry? No. Did he want to know about it? No. Would he admit that to his friend? Absolutely not.

“How is our patient doing? That didn’t sound too good.”

Unsure, Hawks looked around. There was quite a mess all around them and this disgusting smell, but the not burned feathers were already cleaning everything up and opening windows.

“Getting better, I think. I gave him the meds, like you instructed and the fever went down to around 40 [104°F]. He's sleeping a lot but was awake and fully conscious for some time. And now he suddenly got up from his sleep and was completely out of it, guess you heard that much. Maybe a nightmare?”

“Okay, that’s progress. Yes, fever dreams can do that to people, but keep track of it, everything above 40 is still risky for none-fire users. It could spike again, so be careful.”

“I will, thanks.”

“Sure. How’s his breathing? Any signs of trouble?”

“I don’t think so. A little short ranged maybe and sometimes a little wheezy, but it seems fine. Well, fine for his overall condition. Oxygen was never lower than 93%.”

“That’s good. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Hawks looked down at his red, burning wrists and the burned holes in his shirt. “I might come around for a visit tomorrow.”

“I’ll be here.”

He could practically see the friendly smile on Rika’s face, before the connection was ended and the screen of his phone went dark, still laying on the coffee table.

The healing quirk would do good. But not today. Fire wasn’t his thing and he didn’t feel like leaving Dabi alone any time soon after this delirious outbreak. He just wanted to stay here on this spot on his couch for the rest of the day.

Strangely, he didn’t mind the unconscious villain leaning against him. With all the fiery heat it was hard to tell if the fever spiked or just triggered wild dreams, so he let some feathers bring a wet cloth and loosely held it to Dabi’s definitely fried forehead.

He closed his eyes and slowly allowed himself to relax, eventually focusing back at the tv. After a while that resulted in dozing off, the feeling of the sleeping villain in his arms being weirdly comforting.

It took more than two hours for Dabi to regain a bit of consciousness. Hawks had woken up and changed the cloth in the meantime, but hadn’t moved himself or his pet villain at all.

Dabi blinked slowly, even slower processing where he was and what exactly it was, he was leaned on. “…the fuck happened?”, he slurred, eyes half closed and unfocused. His fried brain had not a single explanation to how he could have ended up in this bizarre situation. Too fucking close to the enemy, with a hand casually resting on his stomach. A hand that did not belong to him.

“Don’t worry, nothing important.”

Dabi groaned and felt not only like shit as he had before, but also unfamiliar numb. He got the vague idea of something circling through his system, but maybe it was just the damn fever draining all his energy. He could feel another foreign hand, turning around a soft something on his forehead, so the cooler side was on his skin. And he was surprised by himself, he didn’t flinch away from the movement.

“I’ll kill you for this…” It should have sounded like a threat, not as the weak whisper it turned out to be.

“Looking forward to watch you try. But you do remember, you’re the one who came crawling to me, right?”

Even if he could not see it, he could clearly hear the grin in Hawks’ voice. His answer was as quiet as the last one. “We both know that’s a lie…” Not having the energy for doing anything else, he tiredly adjusted his head a little before resting back at the hero’s chest and falling back to sleep.

When he stirred again about three hours later, he couldn’t see how Hawks looked down at him, a soft smile on his face. This time, the chicken was smart enough not to say anything and just changed the cold thingy on his forehead.

As he was a little more awake by now, Dabi weakly tried to slap at the soft thing, that was wetting his temples. “…put that away.”, he mumbled against birdie’s shirt.

“Not comfortable?”

Finally, the thing was removed.

“No… idiot.” Tiredly, he rubbed at his temple.

“Oh. Sorry. Many people on the internet seem to like it.”

The scratching became more irritated. “Psychos… feels disgusting…”

Hawks snorted. “You sure, you’re not the psycho?”

“I- … the hell…”, he trailed off, trying to move his wrist, that suddenly felt kinda stuck. But he couldn’t see enough out of the corner of his eye to see why. He only knew that something was tugging on the skin of his cheek.

“Dude, stop moving!”

Before he could tear the skin of his wrist away any longer, Hawks caught it in his own hand. “How the fuck did you manage to get your staples caught like that?”

“…eh?”, was the very eloquent reply. Tired as he was, Dabi kept laying mostly motionless, still leaned on birdie’s chest and waited surprisingly patient for Hawks to untangle the staples. The ones on his wrist had caught on the ones on his cheek in the most impractical way and Hawks sighed heavily, as he tried to free his wrist, without pulling anything out.

At first, he was surprised how calm Dabi was, assuming it must at least hurt a little how he pulled on staples and skin. But then that fucking moron ruined all his efforts by just randomly pulling his wrist away so harshly, he pulled two staples out of his wrist. With the sharp motion, the different shades of skin teared apart someway, leaving little bloodstreams running down the burned arm. Not even acknowledging what just happened, Dabi lazily scratched his nose.

“The fuck is wrong with you? I nearly had it and- …shit.”

“What?”

“You’re bleeding, you moron.”

“Huh?” Frowning, Dabi looked at his wrist, rested his head back down on Hawks’ chest and closed his eyes without a care in the world. “It’s fine, it’ll stop at some point…”

Speechless, Hawks looked down, watching how the blood dripped down Dabi’s arm. It did not look like it would stop soon. “It’s not fine. If you don’t do it, I will take care of it.”

“Yeah, whatever…”

“You don’t mind?”

“Too tired for this shit…”, was the last slurred answer he got. Blinking in disbelief, Hawks let his feathers bring supplies from his unusual big medical stocks. Well, unusual for normal people, not for specialized heroes like him.

Assuming Dabi fell asleep, he felt like he couldn’t just move now, much like when a cat falls asleep on your lap. You don’t move until the animal moves. So, he did his best to work in their impractical position. He began to disinfect the area, cautiously stitched the part up with an online tutorial on wound stitching and bandaged everything. All that happened without the slightest reaction from Dabi. While his feathers put everything away, he observed Dabi’s relaxed expression and laid the wrist down as gentle as possible.

“I’m done, all patched up.”, he whispered, just in case the villain could hear it. He strongly doubted it and nearly flinched, when he heard a little “Thanks…” mumbled into his chest.

He definitively needed to ask Rika about those meds. Not flinching one millimeter when tearing skin apart and during wound stitching without any form of pain relieve was impressive on its own. But even cuddling and thanking? Dabi? That was crazy.

Carefully, he began to stroke the black hair in soft motions.

“Anytime.”

***

The next few days went by without much happening. Dabi slept most of the time and Hawks returned to work when the villain got better. The subtle feeling of worry didn’t fully leave the back of his mind, but there was no need anymore, to be at home all the time. Dabi clearly wasn’t fine, but better, slowly improving with time. Hawks made sure to provide him with meds fluids and decent meals every day while still giving him plenty of space.

When he returned home late after a long and exhausting shift one evening, he finally trusted Dabi to survive on his own, lacking the motivation to check on him and figured the villain would be more than happy not to be bothered.

Small drops of water still dripped down from his wings and left dark spots on the floor as he as he inhaled a cup of instant ramen after a shower. Not even bothering to sit down he stood at the kitchen counter in a loose t-shirt and shorts. Only a few minutes later the empty cup landed in the trash and Hawks fell into his bed.

Tired as he was, his mind full with the events of the day and with Dabi staying quietly behind closed doors, it was easy to fall asleep quickly and almost forget about his new roommate.

Accordingly, he silently flinched awake at the sound of his bedroom door opening.  In the doorway stood said roommate, only illuminated by a small blue flame in his palm.

Slowly he stepped in, dragging his blanket after himself with his other hand. Hawks stared at him, too confused to say anything. Dabi blinked slowly, blue eyes looking back at the bird. When his eyes narrowed ever so slightly Hawks pulled his gaze away, not sure how to react. So he kept silent and didn’t dare to move.

The flickering light vanished and left only darkness behind. In that unmoving darkness, Hawks felt how the free half of the matres was lowered by a new weight.

Dabi shifted carefully, adjusted birdie’s spare pillow but couldn’t quite find a comfortable position. Again and again, he turned around while Hawks kept still and decided sometimes it was best not to question certain things. As he found the heaviness of needed sleep crawling back, he allowed himself to relax and let his eyes fall shut. The turning next to him stopped shortly after, instead one of his wings was pushed aside. Apparently, his shoulder was deemed the best pillow available as Dabi settled for laying on his side, facing Hawks and resting his head on birdie’s shoulder.

Unseen, the faintest of smiles made its way to Hawk’s expression as he curled his wing around Dabi like a protective shield. And when a warm hand briefly brushed through the softness of his feathers no one thought it necessary to say a word, before the darkness of sleep overcame them.