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Dabi can not believe he managed to get stuck inside the building he was paid to light up. He's been doing these jobs for close to four years now, and has never made this mistake before. This time however he didn't check the building as thoroughly as he usually did before lighting it up.
God he's so fucking stupid
So there he was minding his own business, smoking his post arson cigarette in the alleyway across the street, when he heard someone call for help. He doesn't know if he just felt bad, because he was feeling too lazy to check the building before starting the fire. Or, ugh, some of the heroics he'd been taught as a child deciding to pop up at an inconvenient time.
Doesn't fucking matter now, he ran in without thinking. Ran up the stairs till he was out of breath and grabbed the girl just in time for a beam to crash down right where she was. It didn't crush either of them, but it did separate them leaving Dabi exactly where she was. Stuck on the top floor of a burning building. He doesn't even know if she got out of the building by herself, or if he just doomed himself for both of them to die.
This is some kind of karma he just knows.
Looks like he's just going to watch his plans to kill Endeavor go up in flames (and not the way he wanted them too), and lose any chance at showing the world what a terrible father and hero he is. Because apparently the only thing Dabi can do is burn.
After his quick dramatic breakdown reflection on his life choices, Dabi takes a moment to assess what his options are. More of the ceiling has collapsed into the front of the room, blocking the exit to the hallway even more. He's doubtful he can make it back the way he came, without causing the building to collapse even faster around him. So he looks at the exterior wall. There are several windows leading out to the street, half of them the glass is broken and still hanging onto the frame.
He takes some tentative steps over to one of the unbroken windows to try and judge the distance from here to the ground. He manages to pry the old window open. Looking down he decides he could maybe try to use his quirk to soften the fall, but it would likely put him out of commission for at least a week with new burns added onto his old ones. Fingers crossed he doesn't end up with something broken.
But before he can even finish his pro and cons list of jumping, feathers are tugging at his coat till he's falling out the window. He's in free fall for one, two, three seconds before he's suddenly cradled in someone's arms.
Too many years on the street causes his first instinct to try to fight out of the grasp—despite the likely lethal fall that would await him—and yelling at his assailant (rescuer) to stop touching him.
"Whoa, whoa there friend just breathe. Just took the chance to get you out of that building while I could. A real hot fire in there. Don't think I could have found you if you didn't stick your head out," the man tries to reassure him.
The words shake him out of his fight or flight, letting his brain catches up on the situation, and he stops fighting back and closes his eyes tightly, mostly due to the thought of 'if he drops me I'll die' or its the motion sickness hitting him, so Dabi tries his best not to struggle or throw up on both of them.
The second he's placed on the ground he drops to his knees and tries his best to breathe through the nausea.
"Uh, you alright there?" The hero (he assumes) reaches out to rub his back, in what is supposed to be comforting but is inadvertently rocking him a little making the nausea worse.
"Motion sickness," he chokes out quickly, hoping the man will get the hint to leave him alone.
He's not so lucky as the man keeps rubbing his back, and he doesn't have the will to push him off just yet.
"Hawks! You spot anyone else in the building?" He hears some yell from a distance.
Hold on. Hawks?
.
.
.
As in the number six hero. Dabi risks throwing up to turn back to face the hero that rescued him. Shit. He needs to get out of here and fast. Dabi doesn't think he has any warrants out for him, especially in Kyushu, but it's never good to be around any heroes, and especially a top ten one at that.
He quickly stands up, almost toppling back over as the world is spinning around him—plus the need to vomit hasn't gone away. The same hands that were rubbing his back, quickly reach out to grab at him to steady him. Dabi instinctively grabs at Hawks' wrist, whether to push him off or help himself he doesn't know.
"I'm fine, go do your hero work," he quickly chokes out. "There still might be someone in there. I know a few homeless people like to camp out in the area." Dabi hopes he takes the bait of helpless civilians, so he can make his escape out of there.
"Okay, but you need to wait till the paramedics get here, smoke inhalation and all that." Hawks grabs a water bottle and what looks like a protein bar from some of his feathers, and hands it over to Dabi. "Hydration is important after smoke inhalation, and try to eat something once the nausea goes down, okay?"
Dabi doesn't need to be told what to do after breathing in so much smoke, it honestly wasn't even the worst he's experienced, but nods nonetheless to get the hero out of his face.
Once he's out of eyeshot, Dabi slowly makes his way to the alley on the other side of the street; running will make him look suspicious, and if anyone stops him he can just say he was staying out of the way. Once he's far enough into the alleyway (and certain he won't puke) he books it out of the area. Only stopping once he's gotten to a train station. Better to just get as far as he can, since the hero got a good look at him.
He goes to sends a quick text to Giran to check the news for confirmation of completing his job. But stops in his tracks staring at the hand that he grabbed Hawks with.
Fuck! Shit! Damn it all! Why him? Why Hawks? One more thing the world has fucked him over on.
Never mind. He takes a deep breath, calming himself back down. Nothing he can do about this stupid soulmate business, he just needs to avoid the hero and continue with his plans. Not like a hero would want anything to do with him anyway. No use getting his hopes up now.
He shoves the offending appendage back into his coat pocket. He's just going to ignore the fact that the palm of his hand looks like he stuck it in red paint.
Quickly sending a text to Giran with his left hand, does a quick google search and finds out where Hawks usual patrols from some hero form—kinda creepy and unsafe if you asked Dabi. Hops on the next train going in the opposite direction. Once he gets the confirmation from Giran about where to get his money he'll be out of town.
Hawks is finally home after a double shift, and getting an in-person scolding from his handler for recusing that guy from a burning building.
Like the guy was practically hanging out the window; looking like he was 5 seconds from jumping and hoping for the best. Hawks didn't even singe his feathers with the rescue. He gets it, they don't want to broadcast his biggest weakness. Though he doubted it would be hard for anyone to figure it out, feathers are generally pretty flammable.
He lets his feathers take his take-out—he was able to stop at one of his favorite street vendors before coming home—to the table while he goes to his bedroom to change.
Most of his clothing are things he got after modeling gigs, which luckily for him includes a decent amount of athleisure stuff he can just lounge around the house in. All of it customized for the photo shoot so it already fits his wings. He's quickly stripping off his clothing, eager to be in anything other than his hero uniform when he sees It while taking his jacket off
It, being a vibrant blue hand print, right where the guy he rescued from the fire grabbed him. Where the man managed to actually touch Hawks' skin. Something the commission has been training him to avoid for a very long time. It's part of the reason his hero uniform covers him so much, can't find his soulmate if no one can touch him.
But it's also the middle of summer so it's been so hot, so he's been, maybe, wearing a shorter, thinner pair of gloves than he should be. A pair definitely not approved by his handlers.
At least it's not on his face, the only area he was not allowed to cover completely.
The commission has tried to tell Hawks that he has no time for a soulmate, and it'll do him no good. Hawks is a high profile hero so he'll just put her (his assumed straightness is a common misconception among his handlers, one he is in no hurry to correct) in danger. And dozens of other reasons he's been told about why he doesn't need a soulmate.
But in his defense he didn't look for them. He saved them from a burning building.
Laughter bubbles out of him unexpectedly. The absurdity of finding his soulmate by accident, even with all the precautions the HPSC put into place.
Hawks is giddy at the thought of maybe, finally having a person in his corner. He doesn't think his handlers can really stop him now that the mark is there, it would almost be too easy to slip up and show it off to the public.
Soulmates have always been a thing of myth to him. He knows his parents weren't soulmates, nor did they ever talk about the concept of soulmates around him. He's sure if one of his handlers didn't slip up he wouldn't have known for a much longer time.
He had just turned eight when he noticed four finger shaped orange marks on her upper arm showing through her white button-up—something her uniform usually hid but training had gotten a little messy, so she took her jacket off. She had to calm him down after he demanded to know who hurt her (he knew from experience how hard someone had to grab you to leave a mark), so she hastily made the decision to explain what soulmates were to him. Apparently that was the wrong call.
The next day she was reassigned and he had a new handler.
Hawks shakes the memory off, no use thinking about things he can't change.
Now he just has to find the guy, and luckily his sidekicks should have taken statements from both him and the other girl found on scene. He quickly changes his outfit, his feathers already getting his laptop setup next to his dinner, while he's in the other room.
He tries not to get distracted for too long, cooing over his soulmark, turning his arm in different directions to get a better look at it. Comparing the size of the hand print to his own, fingers longer and slimmer than his own. The blue is a perfect match to the other man's eyes. Hawks didn't get much time to look at him, short black hair, a couple piercings in his nose and ears, and scars. None of them looked fresh enough to be from the fire he was in, they looked like they'd been there for a while. They were almost a pinkish-purple color, they looked painful. Hawks wonders how he got them, hopes desperately he'll be given a chance to get to know the man that's soul matches his own.
With more determination than he's ever had to look through paperwork he rushes back to the dining room. Sitting at the table, grabbing one of the yakitori out of the box with one hand and typing in his password with the other. Swiftly pulling up today's reports—making a mental note to finish his own at some point—sorting by date and time he finds it easily enough. He sees the statement from his sidekick, the statement they took from the women and that's it.
That's it?
He refreshes the page in hopes his sidekick just hasn't updated their report. When that doesn't work he sends them a message. Hawks quickly inhales the rest of his food while he waits, having not eaten since noon and it's well past 8.
To his amazing luck his sidekick doesn't leave him waiting too long, even if the text he receives is extremely disappointing. He slumps down in his chair, wings drooping to the floor as he reads it. The man (his soulmate) left the scene while everyone was distracted, before he could even get medical care. So no name to work with—not that Hawks thinks he would have given his real one—just Hawks' memory of what he looks like to go off of.
Then he wonders if his HPSC credentials give him access to some of the public cameras. He's used it during investigations before, but he's always asked for permission before doing so. With renewed energy he follows the same steps he's taken before, and is pleasantly surprised when it lets him in. He visibly perks up at the hope of finding his soulmate.
Locating the camera and the time he was there is easy, all of that is documented in the report. The camera quality isn't the best but can easily make out them landing and even the exact moment they touched (if he takes a screenshot of it, it's no one else's business but his own). Sees the man slowly walk into the alley, before Hawks needs to switch cameras to keep following him. He's barely able to spot him as he starts sprinting through the city needing to switch between cameras dozens of times, before the man stops at a train station.
Hawks spots when the man sees his soulmark for the first time, he freezes staring at it for a long time before shaking his head and shoving his hand back in his coat pocket. He buys a ticket and hops on a train so Hawks lose him again. Even though he knows what train the man got on checking on each stop is going to take ages.
His wings droop to the floor once more, and he lets out a sad little warbling sound before getting back to work. He spends more time than he probably should, searching through all the cameras around train stations around the city. So it's not till almost 3am that he finally catches a glimpse of him running out of a train station on the other side of the city, but Hawks lose him in the rush hour crowd taking over the station.
But at least Hawks knows where he'll be patrolling the next couple days. He'll also send an email to the heroes that usually patrol that side of the city to keep an eye out for him. With his plan in place he quickly gets ready for bed, trying to get some rest before he heads out again.
Dabi is just minding his own business, sitting on some random park bench still waiting on Giran to get back to him on the pickup spot for his money, when it happens.
A giant gust of wind almost blows him completely over and off the bench, and before he can even question what is going on a man is standing in front of him. A man with golden hair and eyes, and large red wings.
Dabi knew he should have just left town. Fuck Giran for taking so long to get back to him.
He stares at Hawks, choosing for once in his life to just stay quiet. Dabi's hands were luckily already in his pockets, so maybe he can convince the guy that Dabi's not his soulmate.
The guy just stands in front of Dabi not saying a word. Seemingly challenging Dabi to the worlds most awkward staring contest, after far too long Dabi raises his eyebrow at him in question, hoping it'll make the hero do something.
Hawks must find something amusing in his facial expression because he just lets out a loud laugh and plops himself on the bench next to Dabi. Of course he sits on the side Dabi's soulmark is on.
"Nice to officially meet you, you can call me Hawks for now." Hawks holds out his left hand for a handshake, definitely to trick him into revealing his soulmark.
Dabi again chooses silence, keeping his hands in his pockets and looks at the hand like it's offended him.
"I'm sorry if this is a lot, I never really thought I'd get to do this whole," He looks around to make sure no one is close enough to hear, "soulmate thing. So I just really wanted to try to find you." Hawks scratches at the back of his neck, looking almost embarrassed or even nervous about talking to Dabi. "I understand if the whole being soulmates with a hero isn't really your thing. Nothing against you—I don't even know you— but I'm just speculating based on the fact you ran away from the scene yesterday," Hawks ramble on.
Honestly Dabi isn't sure how he feels about soulmates in general. His parents undeniably weren't soulmates (thank god), so he's not even sure he's ever really known a person with a soulmate. How could the universe know who would be perfect for him? Like of course he heard stories about them at school and especially from Fuyumi, but those all felt so far out of reach more like fairytales than anything he would experience.
But his experience with Hawks has ended up a lot more like those fairytales than Dabi ever thought his meeting with his soulmate would. Rescued by prince charming from a burning building (in a building Dabi was burning down) and then prince charming scoured the lands after his damsel fled (lightly stalked Dabi through the city to find him again).
Maybe he can make this work for him. If Hawks is his soulmate then he has to believe Dabi about Endeavor, right? If this guys so sold on the idea of soulmates then he'd believe whatever Dabi told him.
Hawks hasn't stopped talking since he sat down, and hasn't even noticed that Dabi stopped listening to him a good while ago.
He holds a hand up to silence him before asking, "So what exactly are you wanting from me?"
The hero blushes at his bluntness. "Um, I was thinking that maybe we could go on a date, ya'know if that's okay with ya, I would pay obviously, well ya'know not because of anything to do with ya but ya'know I just make a decent amount of money as a hero and—"
"Sure," he says, again cutting off his rambling. Dabi stands up, hand finally leaving his pocket and dusting his pants off. Giving Hawks a good look at his soulmark for the first time.
"Now?" Hawks quickly stands too, like he's afraid Dabi will just change his mind.
"If that works for you, birdie?" Dabi sees Hawk's feathers fluffy up and get bigger at the nickname. He'll have to remember that for later, Dabi's sure those wings can tell him a lot about what the hero is thinking.
"Yeah, of course. Do you care where we go?"
"You invited me on this date. I'm not making any of the decisions," he starts walking but then pauses, "Expect no fish. I don't do fish. Plus I've never been to Fukuoka so I don't really know what to do around here."
Hawks is almost fluttering as he walks beside Dabi. "Oh, I know some of the best places to eat around here. Oh, but real quick. What's your name?"
Dabi could almost slap himself. Which name to give? He mulls it over for likely too long, but Hawks is surprisingly giving him time to answer (he guesses the guy that introduces himself as Hawks to his soulmate might also have some of his own issues).
"Touya."
Hawks tested the name out a few times before turning his head to look at Touya with a smile that could rival the sun. He quickly leans into his space before whispering, "It's Keigo, just not while we're out here."
Touya hums in acknowledgement. Not saying the name out loud but just in his mind. He thinks it suits the other man. Maybe this soulmate thing won't be the worst.