Snowbirds

by Ya Boy Guzma

Hawks may not have considered himself the best teacher, but Fumikage Tokoyami as an intern was too good to pass up. Now, with his intern at a crossroads, Hawks tries to give his most important lesson of all... Cover by the inimitable Kadeart.

A/N: Well, here we are. Another surprise one-shot from yours truly.

This has been something I've been working on for a little while. I could tell you it's partly because I love Hawks as a character, and honestly I do- there is so much to unpack in his past and the layers of personality that he has (seemingly crafted, I feel, in part as survival mechanisms) that I think he's a real hidden gem of the series. I could tell you it's because I love Tokoyami, and having written him as a bad influence on Eri in Rev-Eri in the Dark (go check out that one-shot if you haven't yet), I wanted to try writing him more seriously. I could tell you it's partly due to writing both in my main story Incident Zero, and wanting to explore them outside of my AU- Hawks definitely gets a hard time there, and if you haven't checked it out please do.

In truth, this story is meant as a gift. Leviachanz, I'm looking at you. For those who aren't aware, Leviachanz is somebody I know irl, and somebody who has consistently been a bright light to me throughout some of the harder times during Covid and beyond. She is a self-confessed simp to a number of characters, not least Hawks, and I wanted to write something as a thank you to her. L, thank you for tolerating my insane ramblings at stupid times in the morning about writing, for being a rock whenever I needed it most, for not judging me when I needed to up my Hawks game, and for making me laugh like a moron at the worst times. This one's dedicated to you.

Anyway, to all readers, hope you enjoy!

(***)

"Hawks? What... is the meaning of this?"

Content and at peace lying on the floor, the cold of the snow beneath his wings and making his clothes damp, Hawks opened his eyes and grinned over to his student at the sound of his voice. "Hey, Fumi! Took your time getting up here. It's a lot quicker to fly up than take that cranky old elevator, y'know?"

The raven-headed teenager was instantly recognisable to Hawks; his beak and feathers had been the first thing that drew his attention to the kid when he made his debut at the UA Sports Festival, although that hadn't been what kept him interested. Fumikage Tokoyami was a powerhouse, a future gem of a Pro Hero with so much more potential than he was currently using. And that wasn't to say he was without power right now; Hawks had never seen a Quirk like Dark Shadow, sentient and so full of fight and fire. But the fact he could go so much further was what had inspired Hawks to send him an invite to intern with him during the Work Studies.

The kid had a few things he needed to work on before he made it as a Pro Hero, and Hawks was here to help with that.

Fumikage coughed, self-consciously, and glanced around the roof top. UA had insisted on carrying on the Work Studies even despite recent events; despite it being so soon after the awful Yakuza raid his classmates had been involved with, despite being so soon after Endeavor had been pushed to his limits against a High-End Nomu, they still wanted to press on. That was how Fumikage found himself up on the roof of Hawks' Hero Agency, treading carefully across a patch of ice, staring down at Hawks as he lay among the snow that had fallen the previous night. "Why... why are we up here?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" Hawks made no attempt to get up, instead waving lazily at the kid; he didn't need to get up for today's lesson, after all. "Any guesses?"

"Is this... training?" Fumikage's eyes narrowed. "You're not going to tell me to be more 'like a bird' again, are you?"

"Hey," Hawks defended himself, "it worked, right? You couldn't fly, I told you to be more like a bird, you can now fly. Black Fallen Angel is a super cool new move for your arsenal, so... I'd say that's some helpful advice you received, right?"

"That's one way of looking at it," the boy muttered, and Hawks rolled his eyes as his clearly-displeased apprentice looked away over the rooftop for a second as if brooding. For a moment the boy looked like the caped crusaders in the old comics the Hero Commission handlers had given him while they raised him up. "So this is training."

"Of a sort," Hawks said, nonchalantly jumping around the subject and patting some of the snow beside him. "You won't need Dark Shadow for this though. This is just for your benefit. Something I noticed might be a little weakness in you, and wanted to work on."

"... I see." Fumikage folded his arms across his chest, and Hawks was briefly impressed to see how well he nearly hid his shivering under the black cloak he wore. Hawks had been trained to be perceptive, and even he could have missed that if he blinked. "What are we doing?"

Hawks grinned, and figured that showing would be better than telling. Carefully, dramatically, he laid his head back and spread out his arms and wings, the feeling of the biting cold against his feathers making him feel awake and alive rather than annoyed to be out in the cold. "This."

He enjoyed watching the way Fumikage blinked once, then twice, trying to piece together what he was doing in the snow. "... You're making a snow angel?"

"No, we both are!" Hawks stopped moving his arms and wings for a second to point with one wing, red feather dripping with a little slush from where he had been lying in one spot for just a little too long. "There's plenty over there to get down in. Arms nice and wide, and no closing your eyes, alright? Looking up at the sky on a clear day like this is one of the best bits."

"Oh for..." Fumikage's eyes narrowed. "You can't be serious."

"What's wrong? What's not to like about the snow?"

"It's not the snow." The way Fumikage's tone went so blunt and so angry made Hawks pause, and he stopped fanning himself out to prop himself up and stare at the kid. "Hawks, this isn't fair."

"Isn't fair?" Hawks asked, keeping the smile still on his face. "Fumi, you look a little cross-"

"Perhaps that's because I thought I was going to learn something from the Number Two Hero when I came back for an internship!"

"You don't think you're learning?" Hawks scratched the back of his head, and gave Fumikage a look. "What gives?"

"You're asking me to come and make snow angels with you on a roof? And you think I'm learning something?" Fumikage's voice was trembling; clearly speaking like this to his mentor was upsetting the kid. "When I came here before, I couldn't keep up with you, solving every crime before I could even get there. This time, I've finally learned a new move to try to keep up with you-"

"One I helped you learn," Hawks pointed out, evenly, to make sure he got some credit for his work.

"But all you did was make some flippant comment about how I should be 'like a bird', and otherwise... you've left me completely in the dark." Fumikage's head sagged. "We've spent more time with you making jokes, and asking me about the League, and otherwise trying to mess around, than we have training. When all I want to do is learn from you-"

"Believe it or not, I am trying to teach you, Fumi. This is a lesson too."

"How?" Fumikage's head had jerked upwards, not expecting the way he had been spoken to; Hawks hadn't meant to drop all the levity out of his voice, but it seemed to have got through to Tsukuyomi. "What am I missing-"

"The ability to switch off, that's what." Hawks sat up properly now, shaking snow off the bottom of his wings and out of his blonde hair, and fixed the kid with his best disapproving look; he imagined Edgeshot's face after he upstaged Endeavor at the Billboard Charts, and channeled that disappointment. "Sit down, kid. And trust me when I say this... I want you to listen."

Frowning, Fumikage took a seat, after much shuffling to find himself a clear patch of the roof that wasn't deep with snow. "You're... telling me I need to relax?"

"Basically, yeah. And believe it or not, that is a big lesson, because you know the last thing you want to do as a Pro Hero?" Hawks put his hands together, before pushing them apart with a hissing noise, mimicking an explosion. "Burn out. You wanna know why I try to crack a few jokes, make the day as much fun as it can be?"

"Go on." To his credit, Fumikage was now listening. "Why?"

Hawks took a second to chuckle. "Because otherwise, the day would be ten times harder than it is to deal with." He paused. "Do you know when I made the Top Ten for the first time?"

"You were 19." Fumikage nodded, stoically. "Barely a year after you started your Agency."

"Right. Do you have any idea how many missions I've done in order to get there? How many villains I've had to face, raids I've had to stop?" Hawks pulled a face. "Let me tell you, you say you can't keep up with me now. I worked twice as hard as I do now, in the beginning, because of all the people who told me I needed to. It... gets a lot, after a while."

He briefly paused, thinking back to some of the early missions from the first days of his Hero Agency; some of the names of those he hadn't saved, the villains who had got away and made him swear to work twice as hard and fly twice as fast to catch them next time. Worse still, the faces of villains he had buried in the name of the Commission snuffing out a threat to society before it arose, the faces of people he had left behind in the crossfire to pursue a bigger target. It was enough for one lifetime. "It doesn't stop. If you want to be at the top of the ranks, if you want to be the best Hero possible... it never gets easy. You're gonna face some of your worst days when a mission doesn't go how you want it to. And someone like you, Fumi... I don't want that to eat you up. Like it currently is."

The boy started at that last line. "H-Hawks? What do you-"

"You're so serious all the time, y'know?" Hawks scratched the back of his head, feeling sheepish as the boy looked up at him. "And that's not a bad thing on its own, right? I'm not trying to offend you by saying it, I think it's awesome that you wanna work so hard and learn everything you can. But... you don't have an off switch when you're out being a Hero."

"An off switch?" Fumikage asked aloud, appearing to chew the words over as he said them.

"One of the most important things you can have." Hawks waved a hand at him. "Look, I like the Gothic shtick, okay-"

"It's not Gothic, it's dark," the boy moaned, head slumping.

Hawks didn't listen; he was on a roll. "But that can't mean that every second of your Hero life is spent being totally serious about everything, with no chance to get your head out of it. You need to be able to relax, let your guard down." He dislodged a feather from the tip of his wings and floated it over, using the red tip to nudge at Fumikage's ribs and chuckling gently to himself when he hit a ticklish spot. "Believe me, it helps. Without it you'll carry home your darkest days, and won't be able to leave them behind, and in a world like this? There's a lot of bad days coming."

He was wary of sounding too serious, and therefore hypocritical given the point he was trying to make, so he tried to strike the balance. Gentle with the kid, so not to have a go at him, but not trying to crack a joke so it didn't devalue his message. "If you're not able to put the worst things that happen out of your head and do something different to look after yourself, go crack a smile or have some fun, then I'm worried what the job will do to you. I'm not trying to clip your wings, or tell you that I expect you to be the class clown from now on... just try having a laugh about something every once in a while. See if it makes you feel more relaxed, I guess?"

"So... that's why you want me to relax." Fumikage didn't ask that, it was more of a statement as he wrapped his head around what Hawks had just said. For a second, the stoic young man remained completely rigid and unmoving, and Hawks wondered if he was best leaving the teaching to Eraserhead and All Might, before the rigid way the birdman had been holding himself shifted ever so slightly. "You're sure it's alright?"

Bingo. At least some of what he had just said had gotten through to Fumi. Hawks tried not to let his smile show, and tried to play off his happiness at the reaction coolly. "The fact you're even asking me that shows me I was right to bring this up! No one's gonna think bad of you if you take a little time every now and then to let your feathers down and cut loose, trust me. No one worth your time, anyway."

"R-Right," the young man man stuttered, before looking around at his surroundings. "Still... snow angels? I didn't picture that you would enjoy something like this, Hawks."

"Heh. I'm full of surprises." Hawks looked out across the city, to the block of flats above the fried-chicken shop he loved to visit whenever he was in the mood for a treat, and smiled, seeing the piles of snow which had gathered on the roof of the tall building. "You wanna know a secret?"

Fumikage had been around him long enough on internships to be willing to indulge tangents. "Sure."

"You know the Commission kinda trained me up from a very young age? I was sorta their poster boy in the training halls, for a little while." Hawks floated the feather he had detached earlier back to his wing and re-attached it, looking out still at the building opposite; for a moment he was his younger self, running around with the crunch of snow underfoot and laughing as he felt the cold air through his wings. "They didn't give me many breaks, but whenever it snowed... they used to let me run around outside with a couple of the other stray kids they'd taken in. Have a few snowball fights, build snowmen, make a snow angel. Days like that were the most fun I got, the whole time I was growing up there."

He turned to his apprentice again, and inside he was pleased to see the look on the young man's face. "I haven't told any of the sidekicks that story, y'know. Trade secret."

Fumikage snorted through his beak suddenly, and now Hawks did grin; the kid had laughed. "They probably wouldn't be happy to hear you say that."

"Nah. But they'd be happy to hear you cracking a joke. Look at you!" Hawks lay back, relishing the feeling of the cold between his feathers again. "I feel like a proud parent. Sheesh. That's not good when I'm 20."

"Your secret is safe with me." Fumikage looked down at the snow and seemed to wrinkle his beak in trepidation. "You're sure it's relaxing? It looks cold-"

"OH KNOCK IT OFF, FUMI! WE BOTH KNOW YOU WANNA TRY IT, SO DON'T GO ACTING ANY DIFFERENT!"

Hawks laughed from his position on the ground as Tokoyami's rebellious and outspoken Quirk Dark Shadow finally emerged to get involved in the discussion. Ever since Tokoyami's first day at the Hawks Agency, Hawks had marvelled at the fact a Quirk could be sentient and have a mind of its own, and had made it his mission to make good friends with the shadow creature. "Took you long enough to show up, Shadow-kun! Didn't wanna give me an assist?"

"HELL NO! YOU'RE THE PRO HERO TEACHER, I'M NOT DOING YOUR JOB FOR YOU!" The loudmouth avian shadow yelled, making Hawks chuckle and Fumikage groan, before nudging his host with a black fist. "BESIDES, IF IT CAME FROM ME MY PARTNER WOULD JUST SAY IT'S A BAD IDEA-"

"That's because your ideas are usually bad ideas," Fumikage muttered, subtly yanking on the tether between himself and Dark Shadow to bring his Quirk down to eye level. "Thank you for not interrupting though, Dark Shadow. I think it was best that way- Hawks speaks with the wisdom of the shadows, it seems."

"BURIED THAT WISDOM PRETTY DEEP DIDN'T YOU, FLY BOY!" Dark Shadow squawked. "STILL, GOOD SHIT GETTING THROUGH TO HIM. MY FUMI'S A GOOD KID, BUT SOMETHING NEEDED TO SHIFT THAT STICK FROM UP HIS ASS SO WE CAN BOTH RELAX-"

"Dark Shadow, behave!" Fumikage shouted briefly, yanking the tether a little harder and smacking his wayward Quirk on the nose before turning to Hawks. "I believe what he's trying to say, and what I need to say, is thank you. I... will try to relax more, and find some more joy in the simple things."

"Heh. Glad to hear it, chick." Hawks lifted one arm up into the air, waving it lazily, before pointing at a fresh patch of undisturbed snow right next to him. "You wanna give making snow angels a try?"

"... Sure." Hawks didn't see, but he heard the crunch of snow under his apprentice's boots, and the shiver from Fumikage as he lay down on his back. "S-So cold-"

"YOU JUST STUCK YOUR CREST FEATHERS INTO A SNOWDRIFT, OF COURSE IT'S COLD!" Dark Shadow seemed to facepalm (Hawks briefly questioned whether it was better described as a beakpalm) before drifting over to loom over Hawks and look at the pattern beneath him. "DAMN. IMPRESSIVE ANGEL. STILL THINK IT'S CHEATING IF YOU HAVE ACTUAL WINGS, BUT-"

"Dark Shadow, it's not a competition," Fumikage groaned, and Hawks tried not to grin as he heard the telltale sound of the kid tentatively moving his arms in the snow. "... Huh. This... is relaxing."

"It may surprise you, kiddo, but sometimes I know what I'm talking about," Hawks said with a grin, as he lifted his arms to put them both behind his head, his wings still continuing to smooth out an angel pattern. "There's more snow over there if you wanna try it too, Dark Shadow."

"SCORE!" The Quirk disappeared from his eyesight, and Hawks heard the crunch of a hard landing in the nearby snow as the excitable shadow threw itself into making its own... snow angel? Snow demon? Who knew. "HEY, THIS SHIT AIN'T BAD! FEELS KINDA NICE!"

"I'm glad you like it," Hawks chuckled, as the noises of Dark Shadow settling itself into the snow died down. "Hey, Fumi? How are you finding it?"

"..."

"... Fumi?"

"... Hmm." There was a surprisingly mellow quality to the voice of his student. "It feels... comfortable. Like the darkness just before dawn."

"I forgot I hired a poet as an intern." Hawks settled back, and tried not to feel too pleased at the outcome. "You going to try to do stuff like this more often?"

"Whenever it snows, yes, I might." There was a pause, as Hawks digested that answer and decided he was happy to settle for that level of response so soon after their talk. "...Hawks?"

"Fumi?"

"The sky, after snow... it's surprisingly pleasant. Is it always like this?"

Hawks smiled to himself, closed his eyes, and stayed quiet. He basked in the moment and the peaceful feeling of the snow on his wings, the only sound around being the sound of the city traffic below.

Maybe the kid understood, after all.

(***)

The automatic doors at the front of Hawks' Agency slid open, and the cold blast from outside only lasted a second before a wave of heat signalled the arrival of Enji Todoroki, fierce flaming eyebrows creased and the red scar over his left eye blazing as he barked his question. "Hawks. Is he in?"

One of the sidekicks had ended up with front desk duty today, Mokuzuki Daichou, the young black-haired woman with the Leaf Manipulation Quirk. Not everyone at Hawks' Agency had a high opinion of the new Number One Hero, or would have taken such a blunt question from him, but the always-talkative Mokuzuki had a soft spot for the brute with Hellflame. "Heh. Good morning to you too. I think he's on the roof with the kid?"

"The roof?" Endeavor's frown grew even more pronounced, as he stomped snow off of his boots. "Should I ask why he's up there-"

"Probably not!" Mokuzuki gave off a little smile that was part nervous energy, and part acceptance that trying to understand Hawks' behaviour at times was a waste of anyone's time. "The left elevator won't get you up there, but top button on the right will."

Endeavor's response was to nod curtly in her direction, ignoring the way her face seemed to flush slightly, and stomped towards the elevator, leaving a trail of dragged-in snow across the lobby to the elevator. He didn't have time to waste with pleasantries, after all, given the new mission he needed to talk to Hawks about regarding the facility where the League appeared to be making more of their foul Nomu. He just hoped Hawks was in a receptive mood today; sometimes trying to talk to the Number Two when he was having one of those obnoxiously cheerful days was like trying to get blood from a stone. Hopefully being around the Tokoyami boy, the UA student he was taking on Work Studies, would help with that.

The elevator door pinged open, and Endeavor stepped out. "Hawks! We need to talk about... the League..."

Whatever he had been expecting to see, this wasn't it.

"THERE'S NO WAY YOU WON THIS, BIRDBRAIN!" Tokoyami's demonic Dark Shadow Quirk loomed above his host and gestured wildly in the direction of their mentor. "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE-"

"Can't you see the likeness?" Hawks replied, waving a fist at the creature. "Come on, it's two versus one here! At least I tried to do something different-"

"If you can't handle the heat," Tokoyami said, patting the exact snowman replica of Dark Shadow that he and his soul-monster had apparently built with perfect attention to detail, "then don't light a fire."

Hawks seemed to grin at that. "Fighting words, little chick? Your giant snow crow is good-"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A CROW?!"

"-But it's no match for my Endeavor!" Hawks gesticulated triumphantly at his own creation, and Endeavor finally realised with horror what the Number Two had built. Tall, wide, and with an angry frown, the snowman could have been anyone, but the effects Hawks had somehow created from the snow around the beard and eyebrows to look like flames... it was him. "Ladies and gentleman, I give you, Enji Todo-snowki!"

"Seriously?" Tokoyami began to chuckle, as Dark Shadow tipped its head back to the sky and howled. "You're the worst-"

"What the hell is going on here?"

Both hero and apprentice seemed to leap at Endeavor's words, Hawks fixing him with a cheeky smile. "Oh hey, old man. You wanna have a go as well? There's enough snow round here for you to have a go as well-"

"I'm not building snowmen with you."

"Geez, you're no fun-"

"No fun? Hawks, you're in the middle of a Work Studies programme for your student!" Endeavor seethed, pointing at Tokoyami and not paying attention as Dark Shadow slunk towards the ground. "He's here to train, and learn from you, and you've got him on the roof behaving like a child-"

"Have you tried it with Shoto? He might like it, y'know." Hawks seemed to blink as he looked in Dark Shadow's direction, but the smile never left his face. "Nothing wrong with taking a little time out-"

"You're supposed to be teaching him, Hawks. Are you incapable of being an adult for once in your life?" Endeavor growled. "How did you ever make it to the Top Ten if all you want to do is-"

"INCOMING!"

Endeavor heard the shout but wasn't quick enough to dodge Dark Shadow as it decided to take matters into its own hands, scooping up a pile of snow in one shadowy clawed hand and throwing it at him without even bothering to make a snowball. If he hadn't have been recovering from the disaster that was the fight with the Nomu, he might have dodged, but as it was he caught a blast of cold snow straight to the cheek, splattering across his chin and his chest. "... Excuse me?"

For a moment Tokoyami's mouth hung wide open, stunned at what his errant Quirk had done, before hearing a snort from Hawks who tipped his head back and howled with laughter. As Dark Shadow crowed triumphantly and joined the Wing Hero in laughing, Tokoyami couldn't help but break too, dissolving into chuckles which shook his whole body under the black cloak he wore. "D-Dark Shadow!"

"What a hit!" Hawks cried, clutching his sides as Endeavor's eyebrows flared to melt a lump of slush from his forehead. "Oh man, he got you good Endeavor-"

"I'm not dealing with this," Endeavor muttered, and as the laughter intensified from master and apprentice, the Flame Hero turned tail and strode towards the elevator door again. "I'll be downstairs when you want to talk seriously."

"Got it!" As the lift doors closed, Hawks turned to the boy and wheezed in laughter. "His face! Did you see his face Fumi-"

Endeavor growled as the doors pinged shut, and the lift began to close. Very few things seemed to be a constant at the moment, what with the League of Villains on the rise, the Meta Liberation Army rearing their head now of all times, and a great big void in the Hero world left by All Might that he somehow had to fill. If there was one thing that had survived despite all of that, however...

It was the fact that Hawks was a giant pain in the ass to deal with.

(***)

A/N: I can't quite tell you how much I love the canon Hawks/Endeavor dynamic. Brilliant. And given that Leviachanz (to whom this is dedicated) loves some Endeavor too, he just had to come up here.

Anyway, that's another slightly different one-shot from me. Incident Zero is updating fortnightly at the moment, and anyone who hasn't yet checked it out, please do- it's my baby and I love it. I posted a chapter on Saturday, actually; to anyone who has reviewed it already and is reading this, I'll be replying to you with a PM in due course, promise.

I have more one-shots planned in My Hero, including a possible Jiro one-shot, something new for Uraraka, and a pilot chapter for a new MLA fic with a concept I LOVE; on top of this I want to post a new chapter for Decay/Harlequin in due time (I've not forgotten them, promise), ideally within two months. And finally, I also want to try to post a Konosuba story by the end of the month; I became addicted over the second UK lockdown, and in the third lockdown I've now developed an itch to scratch.

If you enjoyed, please feel free to give this a favourite, and anyone who wants to review with their thoughts I always welcome it- just no flames, yo. And if you liked this, feel free to check more of my work out!

Until next time, ya boy out.