AN: So uh, it's been a Hot Minute. I'm still alive, somehow. Um, hope you enjoy!

Today was the annual UA sports festival, and Dabi wanted to be anywhere else but where he was presently.

Despite however many cases they were working, Hawks managed to rope him into watching the kiddy olympics with him. In person. If it was on tv that'd be one thing but actually being at the stadium with so many people… it set Dabi's teeth on edge.

So many variables. Exists, entrances, hallways, people, danger lurking behind any corner. Yeah so they'd hired extra security; but Dabi's job was to be a paranoid bastard, and that didn't stop when he was off the clock.

Besides, crowds had never been something he was comfortable with.

"Tell me again why you dragged me here, again," the PI grumbled under his breath. Next to him he saw a sly grin creep up Hawks' face.

"What, don't like having a day off?"

Dabi scowled. "If this were a day off I'd be at home with my cat."

Hawks shrugged. "You gotta break up the monotony of life once and awhile, dontcha think?"

As far as excuses went it was pretty lame, Dabi mused. The real reason they were there was scouting. UA was one of the top hero schools in the country, the number one himself having graduated from the establishment. Every hero worth their salt wanted a piece of UA as interns or sidekicks or what have you. The number three hero was no exception.

Dabi had just been dragged along for his "judgement". Aka his inside knowledge on the students via whatever Aizawa told him. Which to be honest wasn't much, but it was more than the pro hero had. Also because if Hawks had to work with a kid, Dabi had to work with a kid. And Dabi wasn't gonna have some snot nose entitled brat running around the office while he was still there. No sir.

Although, Dabi also suspected ulterior motives for why they were here in person. The reason itself sitting in the commentators booth covered in bandages.

Okay, so maybe he was a little relieved to be here. It had only been a week or so since the USJ, and his dad was still recovering. Being close to him settled his nerves at least somewhat.

If it were up to him the man would still be in the hospital. Unfortunately for both of them though Shouta Aizawa was a stubborn asshole. So no such luck.

"Still can't believe they're holding this thing," he grumbled under his breath. Next to him, Hawks gave a non committal hum.

"Can't say I disagree," he offered. "But I get their angle. They want to show people something like a villain attack won't keep them down."

"Kinda hubristic of them," Dabi noted dryly. "Even they're infallible. People just need to accept that already."

A laugh escaped Hawks. "Man, you're really a downer today, huh."

Dabi just rolled his eyes. "I got pulled away from a serial killer investigation to watch kids beat each other up all day. How the fuck do you think I'd feel?"

Hawks' eyes narrowed a fraction, studying the detective. His demeanor shifted to a serious one, mirth wiped from his face. "What's this really about?" He asked. "Talk to me, man."

Dabi sighed. "My dad almost died like a week ago and people are pretending like nothing's wrong. Like heroes can just bounce back from this shit." A pause. "I don't know man, this whole 'heroes are indomitable' stance is just toxic bullshit. And the fact that UA is peddling it hard just. It just irks me."

"Are you saying people shouldn't put their trust in heroes?" Hawks countered levelly. He watched Dabi's face carefully for his reaction.

It was a bit cold, but not angry. Not at him at least. "I just think people need to lower their expectations, is all."

And with that, he seemed to be done with the conversation. Thankfully Hawks seemed to see that and let it lie, leaning back into his seat to watch the festival. A small sigh of relief escaped Dabi at that.

Today was already gonna be long enough. No need to pile a socioethical conversation on top of it.

Instead, Dabi went back to watching the event. The first years were finally started to file out onto the field class by class. 1-A of course being the first. From the distance he was at it was hard to make out specifics, but he could pick out Vogue details here and there. One kid had a tail, another was straight up pink, and there was a tiny purple thing as well. Dabi faintly recalled his dad complaining about some "little purple pervert" in his class. Bets were it was that guy.

"Heads up," Dabi said, leaning over to his boss. "Purple shorty is bad news."

"Hm. Good to know." Then. "Hey, what about the bird headed kid."

Dabi's eyes flitted around till he spotted who Hawks was talking about. "What, you wanna hire him cuz he's a bird, too?"

"No, I wanna hire him cuz he's emo like you!"

The cursed smile on Hawks' face could be so easily wiped off with a blast of his quirk. So. Easy.

"Fuck you."

"If you're offering," the bird smirked back.

This time he did hit him. Dabi ignored the cries from the hero and went back to watching the first years.

When his eyes skimmed over a peppermint colored kid, a strong sense of deja vu crashed over him like a wave.

"Who's that?" He asked, pointing to the kid in question. Maybe he'd met him before at some hero con or something he was forced to attend. He'd definitely seen him somewhere.

"Oh, him?" Hawks asked. "Yeah, that's Endeavor's son; Shouto Todoroki."

Something cold and heavy settled in Dabi's gut.

"Have we met him before?"

Hawks shrugged. "Maybe. Endeavor's not really a public person though but who knows."

Dabi had met him before; he was sure of it. But despite wracking his brain for answers nothing came up. But he knew the bisected hair and heterochromatic eyes. Like he'd seen them in a dream.

His head started buzzing.

Distantly the sound of screaming filled his ears.

"Dabi?"

The voice snapped him back to reality. Blinking, he turned to see Hawks giving him a concerned frown.

"What?"

"You kinda spaced out there for a minute," Hawks noted.

Had he? Huh.

"Sorry. Got distracted by something," he waved off. If he'd been looking at Hawks he would have seen the barely concealed disbelief in his golden eyes. But he wasn't, so he didn't.

Instead he went back to watching the festival.

The opening speeches were… interesting to say the least. The race following it was certainly entertaining. Three individuals sticking out above the rest.

"Please tell me you're not gonna hire that explodey brat," Dabi groaned.

Hawks, to his credit, snorted. "God, could you imagine. I'm pretty sure he'd blow up all my feathers before lunch."

"Not to mention he's just a straight up bitch."

"That too."

And the festival went on.

The cavalry battle ended, Todoroki's team being the one who ended up with the one million points. Bakugou' sin second, and that Midoriya kid's in third and so on.

Then it was time for the real show.

The field was cleared and Cementoss came out and started to build a platform. The brackets were announced. The kids went off to prepare. And finally it was game time.

Honestly, Dabi couldn't have cared less.

First round the greenbean exploded his fingers and pushed his opponent out of the ring. Not exactly an impressive display of his quirk. The second round was over before anyone could even blink. Although Dabi wasn't entirely sure if the cold seeping into his chest was from the newly formed glacier or not.

Third round was a little more interesting. A girl with vines for hair decimated the walking Tesla coil. To be fair it was a bad quirk matchup to begin with. The fourth round was just blatant advertising. Disgusting really.

It wasn't till the last match of the first round where things got interesting.

A girl who could turn anything she touched weightless and a kid who shot explosions out of his hands. Dabi would be lying if he said he thought she stood a chance. The girl however seemed determined to prove him wrong.

It was the longest match of the round (last round not included). She managed to hold her own. She even managed to make him go on the defensive. All in all it was incredible to watch. And painful to see the end.

"Damn, that's gotta hurt," Hawks hissed, watching the girl get wheeled off the platform.

"No kidding," Dabi mumbled.

He had half a mind to make Hawks sign her on right then and there.

But the festival wasn't over yet.

After, this time a longer break between matches (for Cementoss to remake the entire arena), the round robin was back on.

Then the Midoriya vs Todoroki match started. And everything went downhill from there.

For one, Dabi kept getting a dizzying feeling of deja vu just looking at the kid, but he couldn't for the life of him place where he'd seen him before. Then the buzzing returned. Tenfold. It felt like bees were inside his head, making noise and filling his mind with static. Thinking coherent thoughts was nigh impossible and certainly not pleasant.

He could hear Endeavor screaming from the sidelines, making his stomach clench horribly.

There was an ache in his chest. An urge to cry. The smell of smoke and the taste of ash in his mouth.

White hair. Grey eyes. Sad eyes. Scared eyes.

Burning blue eyes.

Then that greenbean had to open his mouth.

"IT'S YOUR POWER, NOT HIS!"

And Dabi puked.

And the stadium exploded.

Ringing. There was a ringing sound.

His head felt full. Heavy.

Fuck. What the hell had happened?

"-bi? Dabi, are you with me? Hey come on you're freaking me out."

He knew that voice. That voice was annoying and snarky and smart and had a really good ass-

Hawks.

Blearily, Dabi blinked back into awareness. He was stood up against a wall, leaning heavily against the concrete like it was the only thing keeping him up. He was trembling, too. Like when he'd had panic attacks as a kid. He could even feel the adrenaline lingering in his body. In front of him Hawks had his hands on the detective's shoulders, most likely to keep him steady, with an incredibly worried look on his face. Huh. It took a lot for the number three hero to show that kind of emotion.

"… the fuck?" Dabi groaned.

Immediately Hawks dropped his head in relief. "Oh thank god," he breathed. "You scared the shit out of me." He looked back up at him, golden eyes blazing with concern.

As lame as it was, all Dabi could say was, "What?"

Hawks frowned. "You threw up then went like, total space case back there. Then your quirk started acting up so I had to drag you outta there! What the hell man!"

His quirk had acted up? That hadn't happened since he was 16. And now that Hawks had mentioned it, the residual sting of his flames was making itself known along his arms and neck. Great. Now he and his dad would both look like mummies.

Hawks apparently was not happy with the silence he received in response. "Dude?"

Dabi snapped. "Fuck, I don't know man!" He cried, throwing his hands into the air. The sudden breeze against them caused the stinging to worsen. "It's like, the whole match my head felt like someone shoved fire ants in it or something. I don't know what happened!"

Hawks frowned. "Does that happen often?"

"Does it look like this happens often?" He shot back rhetorically. Perhaps the slight panic in his voice would rip him off.

"Fuck, sorry," he sighed, Falling back against the wall. He dragged his hands down his face, breathing out a deep sigh as he did. "No, that's never happened before." Not like that anyway.

Whether or not Hawks seemed to sense the unspoken part, he didn't acknowledge it, to Fabi's relief. He really didn't feel like explaining ten plus years of trauma to a guy he's known for six months. And also just happened to be his boss. Yeah that didn't exactly sound like a good time.

If he were drunk, maybe. Maybe.

"Hey, we can leave, man," Hawks offered. "We don't gotta stay if you're feeling like shit."

Dabi blanked. "What, no. You gotta like, scout recruits or something," he found himself arguing.

Hawks just scoffed at that. "If I really gave that much of a shit I could just watch the clips later." His snarky smile was infectious, and Dabi found himself starting to crack a grin as well.

"What, and miss out on the sensory overload of being in a stadium?"

A genial laugh escaped the hero this time. Then it was followed by a softer look of concern.

"But seriously Dabi," he said. "We can just leave. We don't need to stay if you don't want to."

We. Not I. We.

Huh.

Just then his phone buzzed in his pocket. Absently he took it out and glanced down to read whatever had been texted to him.

His blood ran cold at the words on the screen.

Tsuragamae 3:27

Stain got Ingenium. He's in Hosu.

"Fuck."

AN: Please leave a comment and/or kudo if you liked it. Finals are coming up and I need all the energy I can get.