Hawks unlocks his apartment door and tiredly trudges to his bed, barely remembering to take off his boots. It was a long night with lots of procedures to remember, he feels like his brain has turned to mush. He flops down on his bed with a heaving sigh and stares up at the ceiling. His light is still on and he groans, of course he would forget to turn it off.

"Fuck it." Hawks mutters, too exhausted and sore from so much walking to even try to get back out of bed. It doesn't matter if he turns the light off anyway; soon the sun will be rising through his thin curtains and the morning light will be making its presence known. He makes a note to get black out curtains tomorrow morning after his shift. For the time being, he rolls over and puts a pillow over his head and closes his eyes.

Sleep doesn't come easy though, his listless dreams shift to nightmares of the demon he met. No matter how many times he's startled awake and falls back to sleep- he can't get the accusing glower of Dabi's eyes out of his mind.

When his alarm rings out through the now darkened apartment, he's been awake for the last three hours. He makes his way to the bathroom and gets ready for another night at his new job. Hawks pauses at the mirror and pokes at the light dark rings hanging close to his eyes.

"Man, I'm going to end up looking like Aizawa." He complains and turns on the shower.


Stopping by to pick up a coffee at the convenience store next to his apartment, Hawks breathes in the warm aroma and smiles. He may look like he hadn't slept a wink at all but at least the hot cup of coffee will help stave off the cold bite of the spring night. Stepping out of the store, soft hoots of owls fill the air and Hawks appreciates a sense of normality. Last night had been quite the eye opener for him. He used to think that he was pretty well versed in the more darker underbelly of Musutafu but to think that monsters and demons actually exist? That was one curve ball that Hawks hadn't expected at all.

Making his way to his job, he counts on his fingers how many creatures he's in charge of guarding. Only six, he's still yet to see the remaining three but assumes that he'll probably have that opportunity tonight. Who were the other three? He racks his brain and tries to remember. There's the vampire girl, a body of mist, And a lizard? All he can think of is that somehow his employer captured Godzilla. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised.

"Wait- that wouldn't make sense though." Hawks shakes his head, the last one's containment cell was too small for Godzilla, maybe only big enough to fit its foot.

"Damn." Hawks was actually kind of looking forward to being in charge of guarding Godzilla. He's always been an avid fan of those cheesy monster movies. Now that he's actually living the life of being around them nightly, he's not sure what to think. His childhood self would be bursting with excitement at the very thought. Hawks decides to indulge his inner child and allows himself to be excited too.

After all, it beats working for a temp agency.


He scans his key card at the front door and it unlocks, he shivers against the cold air of the lobby and draws his jacket closer to himself. All the lights in the lobby are off and he pulls out his phone for his flashlight, making his way to the elevator.

When he steps out, Hawks is thankful that the basement level is warmer. Two voices float down a hallway where the time clock is at. He follows the voices and is met with Sajin and a female security officer. She stands a good foot shorter than Hawks but there's a strong air of authority that hangs around her. She tilts her head back and lets out a hearty laugh, it booms down the empty hallway.

"Hawks, this is your supervisor Usagiyama." Sajin greets him with a large smile, Usagiyama turns around and puffs out her chest.

"Good to meet 'cha. Call me Rumi though, I don't have time for all those pleasantries." Rumi waves a dismissive hand and Hawks smiles. Her red eyes are alight with friendliness, her long and shockingly white hair is pulled back into a tight bun with the guard cap resting on top of her head snugly.

"It's nice to meet you, Rumi. I'm Hawks" She rolls her eyes and jabs a thumb at him, looking pointedly over at Sajin.

"This one is so polite! Hopefully, he'll last." Hawks decides to not dwell on her comment and punches in. Rumi turns left and heads down a different corridor and shouts over her shoulder.

"Radio me if you two need anything."

"Yeah, yeah." Sajin waves to her and motions Hawks to follow him down their own corridor, "Let's get this show on the road, kid. This is the last shift I got with ya."

"What are you going to do after this?" Hawks looks up to Sajin and he smiles back at Hawks.

"I got offered a promotion to be the day supervising security officer. Won't be as easy at working nights, but, the graveyard shift sucks. Makes it hard to be with my family at times."

"Oh, you got kids?"

"I sure do!" Sajin swells up with pride- pulling out his wallet, "Got two little rugrats at home." He passes a folded up photo to Hawks. Hawks carefully presses the well worn creases out and sees two little kids beaming up at the camera. They're pretty young, if Hawks has to guess the oldest is only about six years old and the other one is around three. There's a large gap in the older girl's smile, poor kid must've lost both of her front teeth at the same time. Both girls look remarkably like Sajin, who's holding up the youngest and the lady who must be his wife is holding the hand of the six year old. It looks like the photo was taken when she was laughing. Hawks can't help but to smile down at the cheery family and hands it back to Sajin.

"You got a beautiful family." Hawks can't think of what else to say but Sajin folds the photo back up with a smile and gently puts it back in his wallet.

"Thanks! Poor kids look like my little mini me's though." Hawks chuckles and nods, "You got a family Hawks?"

"Mm? Oh, no, I don't."

"I see! Living the life of the bachelor! Can't say that I miss those days, my girls are the best things to ever happen to me. You live with your parents?"

"Nah, they live out of town. It's just me." Hawks doesn't really want to delve into his personal life, telling Sajin that they live far away is better than telling him that Hawks was orphaned at a young age. Fortunately, he has an old photo of his parents. He doesn't remember them at all but it helps to know what they looked like at least.

"Nothing wrong with that either, just make sure to keep in contact with them." Hawks smiles down at the concrete flooring and nods.

"I talk to them everyday."

"Good, good." Sajin nods.


They first pass Shigaraki's containment cell, this time it's silent and Hawks is able to peer into the window.

"Yeah," Sajin speaks up- just about making Hawks jump out of his skin, "From the day time reports, he was pretty wily earlier. Just 'bout damn near broke out. His handler had to give him a pretty big dose of tranquilizer. He must still be knocked out." Sajin tuts disapprovingly. Through the small window, rests a dangerously skinny man on his cot. At first glance, he appears to be dead. There's a shallow rising of his chest, confirming that Shigaraki is still alive. Hawks next notices that instead of two hands like a normal human, Shigaraki appears to have twelve. Spindly arms branch out from his back and they lay loosely around him. Some of his hands seem to be wrapped up in a cloth like material.

Shigaraki turns over and his pale face is gaunt, his closed eyes are slightly sunk into their sockets- giving the appearance that Shigaraki doesn't sleep very often. There are two scars on his face. A long one that spiders over his right eye and a smaller one that stretches over the left side of his mouth- pulling his thin lips into a scowling grimace. A small mole dots the left side of his jaw- starkly standing out against his sallow skin.

"Told ya, he's not pretty to look at." Sajin has his arms crossed and studies Shigaraki with a scowl.

"You... said that he disintegrated his mother?" Sajin sighs and readjusts his cap.

"Yeah, he's originally from a small village near an abandoned nuclear plant. Maybe all those chemicals fucked him up when the mom was pregnant, but I dunno. Some mumbo jumbo village elder called us in when they ventured out to Shigaraki's house, him and his mom lived on the outskirts. Nobody wanted to see some creepy kid with twelve arms running around. But after not seeing the mom for a good few weeks, they decided to go and investigate. Found this little shit sitting in her ashes, just wailing his lungs out. Surprised they didn't try to kill him, maybe they were just scared shitless. I'd sure as hell be."

"How long has he been here?" Hawks turns back to Shigaraki, who'd turn his back to the window again.

"Well, he's been here longer than I have, that's for sure. I'd have to go over his files again but I wanna say about fifteen years?"

"Jesus," Hawks shakes his head, "How old is he?"

"About twenty- give or take. Not like the village kept birth certificates around." Hawks can't help but to feel bad for Shigaraki. Only twenty years old, three years younger than himself. A small part of his mind tells him that it easily could've been him in the containment cell instead of Shigaraki. He suppresses the shudder down and rolls back his shoulders.

"Come on, we still gotta patrol. This ain't a zoo."


Jin's cell is empty, Sajin explains that he's being kept overnight in a different cell for some research.

"What are they going to do?" Sajin thrusts his hands into his pockets and shrugs.

"We're just guards, all of the research is strictly confidential so we don't get told what goes on down there. I can only guess that it's probably going to be some sort of stress test," Sajin pauses, "It's probably best to not ask too many questions. I know that you're new but don't go around asking anyone and everyone questions. A lotta people disappear that way."

"Disappear?" Hawks swallows down a lump in his throat. Sajin claps his hand on Hawks' shoulder.

"Maybe that's a little dramatic. You just get fired." The way Sajin trails off though makes Hawks suspicious that there's something darker that his trainer is hiding but doesn't press the issue further.


"Hey!" A muffled voice shouts through a window and both Hawks and Sajin turn to see a pretty young woman with blonde hair pulled into two sloppy buns and a wide smile, beckoning at Hawks to come closer. Her top and bottom canines are absurdly sharp and pointed.

"Ah, yup. There's Himiko."

"That's her? She looks like a kid." Maybe not a kid, but certainly high school aged- she can't be any older than seventeen. When he read about having a vampire here, he was expecting something more ominous like someone who looked more like Morticia Addams, not a little bubbly blonde girl. Her amber eyes narrow and she stomps down a foot.

"I can hear you, you know! I'm not a kid!" Hawks doesn't reply nor does Sajin.

"I always like to have new friends!" Himiko continues, "What's your name?" She smiles serenely at Hawks, he chances a look at Sajin who shrugs.

"She's nosy. She'll find out your name sooner or later, might as well tell her."

"I'm Hawks." He introduces himself rather unceremoniously. Himiko nods thoughtfully, tapping a finger against her chin.

"Hawks? I think I can remember that," She smiles again, her canines bite into her lip and her eyes seem to glow, "Because I like birds." Hawks raises an eyebrow and nods slowly.

"Okay." Sajin jerks his head down the corridor and motions him to continue.

"Time for friends, later. Come on."

"It was nice meeting you, Hawks!" She wildly waves and he gives a small awkward wave back- much to her delight.

"Don't get too chummy with her, she's in here for a reason." Sajin reminds him and Hawks nods.


"What in the hell is this?" Hawks stares into a pitch black room, some gold and violet swirls around the center of the black mass and Sajin clicks his tongue.

"This is Kurogiri." Hawks watches as the dark mist swirls inwardly and a humanoid being takes form. Smokey gold eyes center themselves on the otherwise blank face and they blink slowly at Hawks. Kurogiri politely nods at the duo before he begins to distort again.

"He's not much of a talker but he's more pleasant to be around than some of the others down here. Before he escaped, he'd sometimes play poker with me- that was back when protocol here was more relaxed, way before Director Todoroki took over. But," Sajin trails off for a second- rubbing the back of his neck, "After his second escape, they amped up his dosage and half the time I don't even know if he knows where he's at anymore. Guy can't even keep a solid form anymore." Hawks frowns at this. It seems the more he learns about this place, the less he likes it. It's only his second night here but the treatment of all of these beings doesn't settle right with Hawks.

"Huh." He doesn't trust himself to say anymore, lest he begins to spout how unfair everything is. Sajin only nods sadly and hums.

"It's for everyone's safety though." He seems to have read Hawks' mind.

"You gotta remember that everything in these cells are a danger to society and have been known to kill both workers in here and civilians out there. There's a reason why our company even exists and it's to keep these guys from causing anymore innocent deaths. It's best to remember that."

"I will."

"Good. Now the only one left for you to meet is our newest addition."


"I was expecting a little more," Hawks pauses and disappointingly stares into the cell, "I dunno, impressive?" Sajin laughs.

"What? Were you thinking that we were gonna have Godzilla or something?"

"No." There's no way that he's going to admit to his trainer that he had indeed been hoping for Godzilla, "I didn't know that Argonians really existed though."

"A what?" Sajin looks down at Hawks with a confused expression and Hawks shakes his head, hiding an embarrassed smile.

"Oh, it's from a video game where you can play as a race of reptiles. He looks like one of them." True enough, Hawks is met with an inquisitive pink gaze of the creature in the containment cell. Well, he looks close enough to an Argonian if he didn't have a head full of obnoxiously pink hair. His green scales glint off of the lights in his cell and the lizard tilts his head.

"You play?" When he speaks, he startles both Hawks and Sajin.

"Look at that, I didn't know that this guy could even speak." The lizard's eyes dart from Hawks and over to Sajin with distaste.

"Of course I can talk," He turns his attention back to Hawks, "What do you play as?" Never in a thousand years had Hawks thought that he would be talking to a bipedal lizard about The Elder Scrolls series. Nonetheless, he can't help but to feel a small smile to have the chance to talk about one of his favorite game series.

"Wood elf." The lizard shakes his head and sits down on the cot with disappointment.

"Lame."

"I married an Argonian though." The lizard barks out a laugh, his voice is raspy and he slaps a hand against his knee.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, then he died in a fire though." The lizard shrugs at this.

"Eh, shit happens I guess. Anyway, instead of calling me an Argonian or Godzilla or some other rude shit- just call me Spinner." Sajin pulls out a notepad and jots a few sentences down. He keeps it facing away from Hawks so he has no idea what Sajin is even writing but he tells himself not to worry about that.

"Sounds good, you can call me Hawks."

"Guess I can do that." Spinner smiles, his teeth are narrow and pointed, almost reminding Hawks of a gharial, "See ya around, Hawks." Hawks starts walking down to the last containment cell but finds that he's alone; turning around he sees Sajin studying him with an unreadable expression.

"Very interesting." He hears Sajin mutter under his breath before quickly putting on a smile.

"Sorry about that, just had to write down that, uh, Spinner does indeed have the ability to talk. His handler will be excited to hear that." Sajin's smile doesn't reach his eyes and Hawks nods, turning to continue down the corridor- letting Sajin catch up with him.


Dabi's cell is void of all hissing and shrieking, a contrasting difference from last night. There's no smoke wafting up the glass cylinders either. Instead, there's a low hum that thrums around the cell and Hawks shifts nervously.

"Something up?" Sajin watches Hawks with a close eye and Hawks doesn't ask if Sajin can hear the humming. He's beginning to feel like he's being watched just as closely as the creatures behind their bullet proof glasses and solid metal doors.

"Just hungry, forgot to eat before my shift." Some of the tense atmosphere lets up and Sajin nods sagely.

"Eating is important."

"Yeah," Hawks chuckles, "I know, I was little behind schedule tonight and it totally slipped my mind." That seems to satisfy his trainer and Hawks exhales with relief.

"Well, it looks like Dabi here is behaving for once. Let's take a quick lunch and then off to the view the cameras." Sajin turns around and marches back down from where they came from. As Hawks turns to follow, he can swear that he has the distinct feeling of eyes studying him. The deep humming swells louder and then falls silent.


Hawks makes a beeline towards the vending machine and snags an energy bar. An arm slings over Hawks shoulder, startling him.

"Forgot your lunch too?" Rumi grins up at him and Hawks nods.

"Yeah, was in a rush tonight."

"Shit, me too. Just couldn't get up tonight, my bed was too warm. I'm telling you, Hawks, the struggle is real." Rumi complains. Hawks ducks out from under her arm and she hops in front of the vending machine- debating over what to buy. Hawks takes a seat next to Sajin who happily eating out of a homemade bento box.

"This is what I'm talking about Hawks, my wife and daughters made this for me." Rumi flops down next to Hawks and sticks her tongue out at Sajin.

"Brag about it, why dontcha? Not all us are lucky to be married, ain't that right, Hawks?" Hawks agrees and tears open the energy bar, eating it in three huge bites.

"Damn dude, don't forget to breathe." Rumi laughs before taking a giant bite of her own lunch. She chokes on her lunch, slapping a tanned hand against her chest she inhales sharply, "Guess I should take my own advice. I swear, my life just flashed before my eyes." Sajin snickers and shakes his head.

"Man, I'm gonna miss having lunch with you, Rumi. It just won't be the same without you." Rumi shoves a hand across Hawks' face and points accusingly at Sajin.

"And whose fault is that, mister?" They continue to bicker and Hawks joins in with their laughter. Forgetting about the nearly suspicious gaze from Sajin earlier.


Sajin sits down at the lone seat in the camera room and Hawks stands behind him, he gives a low whistle when he sees just how clear the quality is. Much to his surprise, there's even a camera in Dabi's containment cell.

"How does he not fry that thing?" Hawks motions towards the sixth screen and Sajin whirls around in the chair with a large grin.

"Our Prime Minister privately funds everything here so we get top of the notch technology. Apparently that includes fire proof cameras." Sajin explains, Hawks hums softly and studies each of the monitors.

Shigaraki seems to finally be stirring awake, albeit slowly and rather sluggishly- Hawks bites down laughter that bubbles up when he sees Shigaraki roll off of the cot and onto the floor. Jin's is still empty, only the dancing particles of dust move around in his cell. Himiko is sitting on her cot, slowly swaying her head back and forth and seems to be singing to herself. Kurogiri's screen just shows the black mist that swirls with color- reminding him of the dust motes in Jin's cell. Spinner has an arm thrown over his face and is still, save for the steady rising and falling of his chest. Meanwhile, on screen six, Dabi is still shackled by the silver chains extending down from the ceiling. He doesn't have any fire summoned and is instead staring straight up into the camera, Hawks feels like Dabi's gaze is boring straight into his skull.

"Everything seems to be in order. Quiet shift, I like it." Sajin cheerfully speaks and takes out a book, "So, we got a bit of down time. You're going to have a lot of that on this shift. I recommend bringing a book to keep yourself occupied, if you start to feel tired, there's a coffee machine over there." He points to a small table with a coffee maker in the corner.

They fall silent and Hawks watches the screens with curiosity. Nobody is doing much but it beats staring at the ground for the next hour. Earlier, he tried to count the silver sutures in Dabi's skin but gave up after he reached one hundred. He'll definitely have to bring something tomorrow night, he feels like he's about to go stir crazy.

Sajin finally breaks the silence, turning around to face Hawks.

"Alright, wanna do this patrol by yourself?" Hawks doesn't need to be asked twice and is already heading out towards the door, excited to be able to do something else.


He takes his time walking down the brightly lit corridor, there's no need to rush. Hawks would really rather be out here than cooped up in a small room that's over heating from all of the monitors.

Hawks pauses at Shigaraki's door and looks into the window, the man is finally standing and peers over his shoulder to glower at Hawks. Thick greasy blue hair hangs in strands- shrouding most of Shigaraki's face but he can still see the scar on his mouth. Hawks smiles at him and holds up his hands.

"Just checking up on you. Glad to see you're up and moving again." Shigaraki starts towards the window and Hawks takes a step back.

"Hey now, I'm not here to cause trouble. Calm down there." Shigaraki stands as close to the window as he can get and ruby red eyes scowl from behind his hair. They say nothing and Shigaraki lets out a huff.

"There you go, see? We can all be friends." Shigaraki merely growls and doesn't move from the window.

"Cool, cool. I gotta get moving now. See you later." Shigaraki stays quiet but narrows his eyes as Hawks presses further into the corridor.


He strolls past Jin's cell and pauses only when he reaches the front of Himiko's. She looks up from her hands and cheerfully waves at him. Shigaraki may not be interested in chatting but he supposes that Himiko will always be up to talk the night away. She's already going on about something and when he was spacing off- she moved closer to the window. Politely, he nods along to what ever she's going on about. After a few minutes he lets her know that he has to continue on his route and she visibly pouts at this.

"They always leave." Hawks hears her grumble as she climbs back up to her cot, making her annoyance known to him by turning her back to Hawks. He chuckles and continues on.


Trying to talk to Kurogiri is like trying to talk to a body of fog. He gives up after he begins to feel stupid just talking to himself. As he turns, he does catch Kurogiri try to form again but quickly dissipates back to being formless.


Spinner is still sleeping, much to Hawks disappointment. He actually enjoyed their short conversation earlier with him and was hoping to find out what other games he had played before getting caught. Regardless, he steps onward. Not wanting to appear too suspicious to Sajin who's most likely studying the screens.


Finally, he arrives at Dabi's cell. As he steps closer to examine the paper talismans that hang above the door, he hears the humming again. Hawks pauses mid step and tilts his head to the side, it feels like words are trying to form from the deep humming but it's hard to decipher what's being said. It's like being submerged in a body of water and trying to listen to people speak from outside of the water. He knows that Sajin hadn't heard the humming from earlier, otherwise he would've said something.

"Just what are you?" He can't keep himself from asking the silver door. Suddenly the humming stops and for a moment, the only noise is Hawks' own heart that thunders against his chest. He grits his teeth, his head feels like it's about to explode and the humming increases tenfold before slowly forming into words that tether themselves into his mind.

"I am the keeper. I am the secret. I am the answer. I am... the end." The demon's rumbling voice is low and shakes Hawks to his very core. He takes a step backwards and another. Dabi doesn't speak anymore and his droning hums fall quiet.


Before going back to the camera room, Hawks enters the bathroom. He halts when he catches his reflection. His face is pale and eyes are wide with shock. What concerns him the most though is the dried blood that had crusted below a nostril. He touches the blood and shakes his head.

"What the fuck?" Hawks quickly washes up and prays that his nose won't start bleeding again.

Sajin is quiet and turns a page of his book when Hawks walks in, he barely looks up from the book.

"Everything go okay?"

"Yep." Is all Hawks can manage, he reaches for a coffee mug and flicks on the coffee machine.

"Good."


"What a night." Hawks talks to himself as he sits down on his sofa, resting his forehead against the palms of his hands. The rest of his shift passed by rather slowly and Sajin let Hawks do most of the patrolling by himself. Whatever Dabi had done on his first patrol by himself was extremely unnerving and thankfully, the demon had stayed quiet for the rest of the night. Every time he went back to the camera room though, he could feel the steady and unblinking gaze from the demon.

He slowly peels himself away from the sofa and heads towards his shower, a steaming hot shower always helped him sort out his thoughts and he feels like he's going to be taking a lot of boiling hot showers in the future from this job.

Hawks doesn't bother with properly drying his hair and dives into his bed. Only then, when he's curled up in a warm blanket burrito- he remembers that he forgot to buy black out curtains.


Author's Note

I like how I tell myself that I'm going to take my time writing this and I end up publishing a new chapter in less than 48 hours. I'm just so excited to write this fic and can't stop to save my life. Poor Hawks is already starting to get chummy with the LOV, hopefully nothing bad will happen in the foreseeable future.

The chapter title is from Dark Matter by Les Friction and Dabi also quotes this as well. I'll probably be quoting more from that song because it seems to fit pretty well with Dabi in this fic.

Until then, reviews are always welcome!