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Hawks smiled as he watched Dabi blink a couple of times, blearily trying to erase the last remainders of sleep.
“Wakey wakey hotstuff,” he coos at the dark-haired flame user. His grin widens when Dabi just lets out a cut off groan, stretching outwards like a cat.
Or it did widen, until Dabi tossed a pillow at Hawk’s head.
Hawks pressed a hand to his chest, palm hovering just above the loose shirt he wore as five fingers held the fabric against his body.
“Dabi,” he started, mock offense dripping from his every word,”How could you do this? I try to wake you up like a good, upstanding citizen, and you hurl a large projectile at me? I can’t believe you.”
“Shut up and let me sleep Hawks,” Dabi groaned, muffled voice only barely understandable due to Hawk’s hearing. The man buried himself further under the pillows and blankets that made up his makeshift bed.
“But Dabiiiii, without you I’m booreeed,” Hawks whined.
“Get over it.”
Hawks pouted and turned to leave, before an idea popped into his mind. He smiled a bit. He knew this would work.
Slowly but surely, with a quiet, ‘hold still for a moment’ Hawks inched towards the tap. A conveniently placed bucket lay next to it and Hawks picked it up with a grin.
He was in the process of filling it up when his phone buzzed, notifying him of a message from the HPSC.
He sighed. Waking up Dabi would have to wait.
Like the good hero he was, he tipped out the water back into the sink, and was off like the wind.
The phone, sat in his pocket, lit up. If it was a fluke or an act of revelation to the audience, we will never know.
A single message, sent by the HPSC and read by the hero we’re following.
‘Hawks, you are needed at the compound, come at once with no delay. There have been reports of insubordination, we are sorry that this has been confirmed. Retraining is needed.’
Hawks glanced down at the phone, a flicker of disbelief and resignation seen plainly on his face. He wished he could say he was surprised, but as was everything good connected to him, it would have to come to an end eventually.
He didn’t want to know what ‘retraining’ meant, but he already did.
He wished he could say he was strong enough to flee into the arms of the villains who had already accepted him as family, but he already knew he wasn’t.
He wished this could’ve lasted longer, but it was already over.
__________
Dabi woke up to Hawks still missing, and usually he wouldn’t be too concerned about it, especially given the fact that he thus had more time to sleep.
But Hawks hadn’t come back in over a week.
That birdbrain would always come back after at most three days, possibly four on especially bad ones, where the commission overworked them until their limbs drooped and their smile tightened.
Look, Dabi knew that Hawks was going to betray them, could see it as easily as he could see the buildings rising over the top of their small bar.
But he still cared for Hawks, still got attached against his will, still hoped against everything that Hawks would wake up at find that those at the league appreciated him more than the commission ever would.
But Dabi was getting off topic, though this was something that always ran through his head.
Hawks was gone for longer than usual, and the last anybody had seen him was when he had left at the commission's beckon.
Dabi was the last person who had seen him.
Dabi looked out at the sky, the domain that Hawks essentially ruled. He had always told Dabi that he enjoyed being near the clouds more than near the Earth.
Out of all the fake in Hawk’s personality, those were the words that rang true.
Because Hawks had a good reason to feel free soaring over the air, to thirst after that freedom like a man lost in a desert.
He wasn’t one to be poetic, but Hawks was the metaphorical bird in the not so metaphorical cage. He existed inside the invisible bars the HPSC set him and his wings were too clipped to fly further than the boundaries they had set.
Hawks may have a mutation that made him look like a bird, but he was a person and deserved to be treated as such.
The HPSC had no sense of that, however, they took and took until they had bled the person dry, before leaving them to rot.
So he knew that Hawks was gone, and that it was the HPSC’s doing, frankly that was all he needed to know.
The LOV could wait, or they could come with, but one way or another he was burning that fucking despicable, clinical, mistake of a HPSC building to the ground.
“You know where Hawksie is?” Toga asked, her golden eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
She obviously cared about Hawks, Dabi knew that, the rest of the league knew that. All of the league cared about Hawks.
Dabi knew that that was destined to end, that it would eventually have to crumble and the empire of lies would be crushed by the rolling stone. But he would pretend it would last forever all the same.
Maybe after this Hawks would finally be free, even if it was without them.
“Yes, I do, and we’re going to get him.”
“Our best buddy will always have our help. He should go rot wherever he is.” Twice agreed and disagreed.
Shigaraki just scratched at his skin and grunted, which Dabi knew was Shiggy speak for. ‘Ohmygosh, I care so much about Hawks, he is just amazing.’ (Read that in the most stereotypical ‘annoying’ girl voice possible.)
“Great, let’s plan.”
___________
In the end, the plan was basically ‘storm the building and kill on sight.’
So it was the greatest plan ever made and Dabi would not be taking any criticism. Thank you very much.
He wasn’t even taking that much part in the killing, all he wanted was to find the bird. The bird that needed to be let loose.
He made his way down a corridor and almost passed a room before he read the plaque.
‘Training room.’
It was something that he knew shouldn’t be too suspicious, after all, there were probably dozens of training rooms, but the fact that it had been mentioned in the fanfiction at all made him slightly suspicious.
(Nooooooo. My precious fourth wall, it’s in tatters.)
He shook off the thought he just had and frowned, what was he thinking again?
Oh yeah, the training room.
He didn’t know what was off about it, just that everything about it seemed odd. Like looking into a puddle of still, slightly murky water. It reflected you, but everything around you was slightly desaturated.
That was kind of what it felt like.
So Dabi tried the door, found it locked, and burned the doorknob off so he could enter.
Hawks was lying, bloody on the floor. His wings were torn, almost shredded and there were deep gashes on his back.
Whip marks, Dabi thought, bile rising in his throat.
Carefully he entered the room, picking up the bird that lay inside.
We need to go, Dabi thought as he quickly ran out of the room. He wasn’t known for being the most physically fit one in the league, but even he was able to pick up Hawks.
Logically he knew that Hawks was fairly light, being the mutant he was. But Dabi was quickly shocked by exactly how light.
Was Hawks even supposed to be this light? Dabi was easily lifting him, and the only thing he struggled with was arranging Hawks in a good enough position to carry more conveniently.
What have the HPSC been doing?
Spinner clicked a little, a sound Dabi knew was made in anger, when he saw Hawk’s state. Dabi knew that Spinner was a little more sensitive to injuries made on mutations because he himself was a mutant.
He saw Spinner take out more swords and smirked. “Give ‘em hell.”
Spinner nodded and was off again, tearing through HPSC goons with a precision only those who had avidly trained in combat would have.
He needed to get to Toga and Mr Compress.
Toga, against all beliefs, was actually a pretty good medic. She had plenty of different types of blood stored in blood bags for emergencies.
She rarely carried the blood bags out herself, however, and instead relied on Mr Compress to use his marbles to carry them.
That was why Mr Compress also had plenty of skill medically. Spinner would’ve been the best choice, of course, but Dabi was certain that they would be too caught up in his instincts to think clearly enough to stitch Hawk’s wounds.
Mr Compress was clear headed no matter the situation, and Hawks needed somebody stable right now. As much as he wanted Hawks to get the best medical attention, he was not willing to bet their life.
So Mr Compress and Toga it was.
Toga sucked in a breath at the sight of Hawks, and Dabi couldn’t blame her. He was almost hyperventilating when he had found Hawks, and he could barely get his feet to move.
They stopped what they were doing and administered immediate first aid. Not enough to completely heal him, but enough to stabilise him, enough to keep him alive.
“Hold still for a moment,” he muttered under his breath, trying to calm his shaky hands.
Hawks was going to be fine.
And maybe, Dabi thought, carrying Hawks in his arms because he absolutely refused to let him go now, that would have to be enough.
The HPSC burned behind them.