Winds of Destiny: Rising
Chapter Twenty-Five: Moving On
Misaki stood in her kitchen, washing off her plate from lunch before setting it in the drying rack on the counter and pouring herself a steaming mug of coffee. Walking back into the living room, she set the mug down on the table and flopped herself down on the couch, taking a moment to enjoy the satisfying sense of accomplishment she was feeling at the moment. She had finally finished writing the new programming for ROAM, and she had to admit that she was actually pretty impressed with the results. She could only run a simulation with a small amount of test data on her home computer, but once it was up and running on a processor that could handle the real-time dataflow, she fully expected it to be able to do exactly what it was designed to: forecast potential villain activity.
She'd managed to get her confidence percentage up to around seventy-five percent using the test data she'd requisitioned from the police force. The police commissioner hadn't been too keen on just letting her into their server now that she was a civilian contractor, and no longer an employee with the Hero Public Safety Commission. She had given him a brief rundown of the kind of information she was looking for and he had grudgingly agreed to allow her access to the data of five different convicts with varying types of criminal backgrounds who had recently escaped from prison, ones who had a particularly long list of past crimes for her to factor variables from. The man had always been a bit of a curmudgeon, but not nearly as bad as Shadou-san was. Not to speak ill of the deceased, but she wasn't exactly crying about being out from under the hostile scrutiny of that naysaying watchdog – not to mention the spiteful board of commissioners.
Misaki opened her eyes after a minute and stared up at the ceiling. She hadn't really allowed herself any time or energy to think about what had happened after Jaku; about all of the ways that her life had suddenly changed pretty much overnight, or the lives of the people she'd known and had been close to that had been lost. She felt like such a hypocrite, encouraging others to face their feelings while hiding from her own. She'd thrown herself into recoding ROAM as a distraction from having to deal with all of the loss she'd experienced in such a short amount of time. The sudden passing of her mentor, seeing the grave condition Hawks had been in at the hospital, losing her job and only source of income, not to mention the potential adoption of Eri. Maybe one day she'd find the resolve within herself to take her own advice.
With how crazy everything was in the country at the moment, and given the fact that Overhaul had broken out of Tartarus with the rest of the villains, she and the principal had decided that the safest place for Eri to be was at UA for the time being. Even though he wasn't able to use his quirk now that he'd lost both of his hands, there was still a possibility of Overhaul coming after Eri, in order to attempt to use her quirk to restore his. Misaki would still be able to visit and help with her training, but as far as the adoption went, they had both felt that it was better to wait until things were more stable and the potential threat against her was eliminated.
That was one of the main reasons she'd initially agreed to take on the commission from Shira. The first time she'd tried to use ROAM to track Overhaul's movements, he'd been surrounded by the protection of the Shie Hassaikai and his loyal Eight Bullets. ROAM had been in its infancy as far as monitoring potential villain activity, and she'd been more focused on tracking the movements of the League than the Shie Hassaikai. This time was different; it was personal. Overhaul was on his own now, without his family or his quirk to protect him. He was vulnerable – and she would not fail to track him down a second time.
The sound of her phone ringing from atop the bar counter across the room broke her out of her musings. Lifting herself up off of the couch, she headed over and picked it up, noticing the number on the screen was blocked. She hesitantly pressed the answer button before bringing the device up to her ear and tentatively asking, "Hello?"
All of a sudden, she heard a sharp ringing begin to echo in her ears and her vision began to swim. A wave of nausea slammed into her and she pitched forward, dropping to her knees, and clutching at the bar stool. She vaguely registered someone walking up to her and removing the phone from her hand just before an unfamiliar voice sounded out. "There, there, you just take it easy. Can't have you using that nasty quirk of yours on us now."
Struggling to keep her lunch down, Misaki lifted her spotty gaze up to the man standing in front of her and groaned out, "Who the hell are you?"
He crouched down to look her in the eye and smirked. "Remember me?"
Her eyes slowly widened in recognition. She remembered him alright. It was the villain who had led the second bank robbery attempt at Tythan Savings and Loan while she'd been working as a loan officer there.
He waved her phone in front of her face as he mockingly chided her, "You really should be more careful about answering the phone for blocked numbers. These are dangerous times, you know?"
"What do you want?" She asked behind gritted teeth.
He shrugged, cocking a sideways grin as he said, "Your money and your valuables for starters."
"I don't have anything valuable," she ground out, holding her reeling stomach with one hand.
He reached out to pat her on the head. "We'll see about that."
After the villain had tied her wrists and ankles, the overwhelming feeling of vertigo mercifully subsided and she watched the two other men ransack her apartment, looking for anything worth stealing. There were really only two things she owned that were of any significant value; the dress that Madame LeBlanc had designed for her and some rare, first edition classic novels—not that she expected these villains to recognize the value of any of those.
Turning her attention to the villain leering at her from his seat on her comfy chair, she caustically asked, "How did you find me?"
"After we all got sent up to Shian thanks to you, I had plenty of time to work out what I was gonna do to you if I ever saw you again. Low and behold, there you were! Right there on the television screen accepting a promotion with the Hero Public Safety Commission! Wasn't all too hard to track you down from there." He leaned forward and grabbed her chin, tilting her face up toward his as he sneered at her. "That pretty face of yours is very memorable after all."
She jerked her face out of his hand and recoiled, clicking her tongue in disgust. Whatever he thought he had planned for her, he was in for a big surprise if he thought she was just going to roll over and let him have his way with her. After all the training she'd been doing with Eraser over the past month, she doubted she'd even need to use her quirk to take these villains down.
"There's nothin' here, boss!" One of the other villains called out from her bedroom.
"I told you," she bit back at the leader darkly.
The villain lifted his hands in an exaggerated shrug. "Eh, it was a long shot anyway. Figured with you being a big shot now you mighta had some kinda stash hidden away for a rainy day. Oh well, guess it's just this then, huh?"
He reached out for the necklace hanging around her neck and she called out in a panic, "No, don't—!"
The back of his other hand connected with her left cheek and sent her sprawling across the hardwood floor. She felt the snap of the chain breaking as she fell, almost as clearly as if he'd ripped out her heart with the action. There was nothing he could have done to hurt her more than he just did when he'd robbed that memento from her, and oh how she was going to make him pay for that.
He reached for his belt buckle as he stalked toward her and chuckled darkly under his breath. "Why don't we get down to the real fun now?"
She swiftly kicked her foot out to connect with his genitals before quickly swiping her bound hands beneath her legs to bring them in front of her. When he doubled over, she grabbed his head in her hands and headbutted him, hearing the telltale crack of his nose breaking just before a stream of blood began gushing out of it. As he reached up to cover his face with his hands, she rolled and swept his legs out from under him, sending him crashing down onto his back.
The other two villains quickly ran into the living room in response to the sounds of the struggle. She had just enough time to untie her legs before being assaulted by their quirks. She'd expected the vertigo, but the blindness from the other villain's illusory quirk caught her off guard and she almost took a heavy blow to the face.
Misaki had always been blessed with good instincts, but her senses had been honed to a veritable razor's edge during her sparring sessions with Eraser over the past month. Sensing the imminent danger, she sidestepped and grabbed the villain's wrist, swiftly dislocating his elbow and causing him to cry out, just before she flipped over with him and slammed him into the ground. Her vision abruptly came back when the guy passed out and she quickly went after the villain with the vertigo quirk. He attempted to run from her, but she quickly kicked his feet out from under him, sending him crashing face-first onto the tile floor of the entryway, thankfully knocking him out as well.
She'd just managed to shake off the effects of the disorientation when two thick, muscular arms wrapped around her from behind and squeezed. All of the air left her lungs at once and she wheezed, frantically struggling to loosen the hold so she could draw a breath.
"Keep still you little hellcat!" The villain growled in her ear and tightened his hold even more.
Misaki hastily reached her hands down between his legs and grabbed him by the balls, squeezing his testes as hard as he was squeezing her chest at the moment and his grip on her abruptly loosened. She drew in a gasping breath as he groaned in pain before quickly throwing her elbow back into his broken nose. He recoiled with a sputtering grunt and she turned, grabbing him by the back of the head and jamming his face down into her knee, successfully knocking him out. He hit the ground next to his partners with a heavy thud and she immediately reached down to retrieve her necklace from his pocket.
After taking a short moment to catch her breath, she trudged into the kitchen and cut the ropes binding her wrists with a serrated bread knife. Grabbing a roll of packing tape from the utility drawer, she quickly went to work on securing their wrists and ankles, taping them all together with their backs facing each other. Walking back toward the kitchen, she set the nearly empty tape roll on the bar counter before picking up her phone and initiating a call to the only police officer whose number she had saved in it.
"Detective Tsukauchi here," a familiar voice answered after the first ring.
"Hi detective," she practically wheezed in response.
"Torimodo-san? Are you okay? You sound out of breath," the detective's concerned voice asked in her ear.
"Yeah, about that…" She trailed off with a sigh. "Do you think you could send over a prisoner transport to pick up some villains?"
"From where?" He asked, his tone lightly concerned.
"My apartment," she answered succinctly.
"There are villains in your apartment?!" He abruptly exclaimed. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. I'm fine," she assured him, finally feeling like her breathing was getting back to normal.
"I'll be right over," the detective told her with a serious lilt to his voice.
"You don't have to come yourself, detective. I'm not in any danger at the moment." She glanced over at the sound of a low groan coming from one of the villains. Walking into the kitchen, she knelt down and opened the cabinet doors underneath her kitchen sink. After grabbing a heavy-looking skillet from the rack inside, she calmly walked over and whacked the stirring villain on the back of the head with it as she told the detective, "But I would appreciate it if you could send over some officers to pick them up as soon as possible."
"I'll call it in right away," he immediately assured her.
"Thanks detective," she gratefully replied, giving him her address before hanging up the call.
She tossed the skillet onto the coffee table and walked around the bar counter into the kitchen, setting her phone down next to the sink before turning on the faucet. After washing her hands, she wet the edge of a hand towel and used it to clean off her face before adjusting her disheveled hair. It took some considerable effort for her not to move on to cleaning up the mess around her apartment after she'd satisfactorily cleaned herself up. She knew enough about crime scene processing to know that she shouldn't disturb anything. In an effort to distract herself, she went to work on repairing the damage to the clasp on her necklace instead. She had just finished clasping it back around her neck when she heard a knock at the door, followed by the detective's voice calling out to announce himself.
Quickly making her way into the entryway, she reached out to open the door and invited the man inside. "I told you that you didn't have to come."
Shutting the door behind him, he turned and smiled down at her in mild exasperation. "When my friend is attacked by villains, of course I'm going to handle the case myself."
She returned his smile with a contrite grin of her own and said, "Thanks."
The detective looked around at the mess of strewn items littering the entryway with a stern look on his face before asking, "Where are they?"
"This way," Misaki said, jerking her head toward the open doors leading into the living room.
She led him toward the gaggle of bound villains in the middle of the living space and he turned to look at her in shock when he saw the state they were in.
"You did this?" He asked in a clearly incredulous tone.
She reached up to scratch her cheek and sheepishly replied, "Uh, yeah. I'm actually trained in jiujitsu. I've been sparring with Aizawa-san a few times a week for the past month too, so..."
He shot her an appraising look and huffed out a short chuckle. "Sounds like they picked the wrong woman to try and rob. How did they get in?"
Crossing her arms across her midsection, Misaki averted her eyes and told him, "I answered a phone call from a blocked number. I heard a high-pitched ringing sound and the next thing I knew I was on the ground and they were in my apartment. If I hadn't answered that call—"
The detective placed a hand on her shoulder and told her in a comforting voice, "It's not your fault, Torimodo-san. Criminals like them plan for things like that. Don't blame yourself."
She glanced up at him solemnly and nodded. He was right, she knew that, but that didn't stop her from overanalyzing all of the ways she could have been more careful. That villain had been right. These were dangerous times. And she had almost ended up paying for her lack of conscientiousness with her life.
He offered her a tight smile and removed his hand from her shoulder to reach into his coat and pull out a notepad and a pen. "I can go ahead and take down your statement now, so you don't have to come down to the precinct later."
Rubbing her hands over her arms, she took a deep breath and nodded, returning his tight smile as she said, "Yeah, sure."
She offered to make some tea for him, but he politely declined, and they settled down at the dining room table to talk.
"Do you know why they may have targeted your apartment?" The detective prompted, "Did you know any of them prior to today?"
Misaki bowed her head and admitted, "I was actually responsible for one of them being sent to prison."
The detective's expression remained professional as he asked, "How so?"
She sighed "Before I worked for the Safety Commission, I was a loan officer at a bank in Fukuoka. He and his crew tried, unsuccessfully, to steal a priceless necklace which a foreign villain had hidden in our safe deposit storage."
"The Russian Diamond Fund heist?" The detective asked in astonishment.
Misaki nodded. "You know of it?"
He stared back at her with wide eyes and raised a hand to rub the back of his head as he replied, "Yeah, it was pretty big news when it happened. I thought Hawks was the one who handled that case though?"
She ducked her head again and told him, "He took all of the credit for apprehending the villains so that I wouldn't be implicated. I wasn't comfortable revealing my involvement to anyone at the time."
The detective sobered before he nodded in understanding. "I see. So they came after you for revenge."
Misaki nodded solemnly.
He offered her a small smile and told her. "I'm glad you weren't hurt."
A knock suddenly sounded from the front door and a voice rang out, "This is the police."
"I'll go let them in," the detective offered before making his way over to the front door.
While the officers processed the villains and collected evidence, Misaki finished giving her statement to Detective Tsukauchi. She filled him in on watching them tear her place apart looking for valuables all the way through the attack. By the time she was done, the officers and the forensics team looked to be finishing up as well.
The detective turned to her as the officers began clearing out and offered her a gracious smile. "I think we've gotten everything we need for now. All things considered, it looks like this is going to be a pretty open and shut case."
"Thank you for taking care of everything so quickly, detective," Misaki told him sincerely.
"I wish I could take the credit, but you actually took care of most of the work here without me," he replied, reaching up to sheepishly rub the back of his head. "I'm glad you're alright. Please feel free to call me if you ever need any police assistance in the future. We may not be working together anymore, but I'm always happy to help a friend."
She smiled back at him gratefully. "Thank you. I really appreciate that."
After the forensics team had finished, Misaki and Detective Tsukauchi said their goodbyes. She watched as he walked off down the hall for a moment before stepping back inside and shutting the door. Turning around, she leaned back against it and grimly surveyed the mess surrounding her. Picking up one of the ripped throw pillows at her feet, she found herself regretting that her quirk only worked on living things. It appeared that there would be a trip to the home goods store in her immediate future. Heaving a heavy sigh, she pushed herself away from the door and grudgingly made her way down the hall to start working on cleaning up the place.
Best Jeanist pulled up in front of a tall apartment building in the heart of downtown Shinjuku and brought the sleek, dark vehicle he was driving to an abrupt halt.
"Thanks for running me around today," Hawks typed into his phone from the passenger seat.
After Jeanist had brought him up to speed on everything that had happened as a result of their failed attempt to simultaneously apprehend the Paranormal Liberation Front and the Nomu doctor, Hawks had immediately asked the doctors to release him from the hospital so he could get back to work. Even though his wings were in a pretty sorry state at the moment, he still had some leads he needed to run down, mostly from an investigative standpoint. Thankfully, Jeanist had agreed to help him, and together they'd managed to convince the doctors to discharge him into Jeanist's care.
They had barely agreed, and only under the condition that he remain under Jeanist's direct supervision for the next twenty-four hours. They were worried about him overdoing it and winding up in even worse shape than he was already in. The treatment they'd given him pretty much numbed the pain receptors to his burnt areas so that he could move around without being in excruciating pain. However, he was still seriously injured, and they'd warned him that pushing himself while his body was trying to heal would only end up extending his recovery time. Unfortunately, he didn't really have the luxury of being able to take it easy, given what was going on in society at the moment.
Hawks had spent his first night out of the hospital crashing at Jeanist's place. They'd been working on investigating Dabi's claims and his possible origins while they waited for Endeavor to wake up and tell his side of the story. Part of that investigation had led them to Hawks's mother's house, where they'd discovered that Dabi had likely sent people to intimidate her into telling them about their family's history. After receiving a message from Endeavor's doctor that he was out of surgery and would be waking up soon, they'd hightailed it back to the hospital, arriving just in time to eavesdrop on the Todoroki family's discussion about their son Toya.
Hearing about All Might's quirk and his history with All For One had been the biggest shock out of everything he'd learned that day. Once all of the pieces were in place, it had become pretty clear that protecting the secret of the One For All quirk was going to be vital in their quest to find Shigaraki and the League, and to restore a semblance of peace and order to their society once more. What they were focusing on first was addressing the rumors, taking responsibility for their errors, and assuring the people that they would do everything in their power to keep them safe. After they had established a tentative plan for that, he had asked Jeanist to take him by Misaki's place.
Considering how easy it had been for Dabi to find his mother, Misaki was likely to be an even bigger target, given her apparent level of closeness to him. His sidekicks could take care of themselves, and Tokoyami was safe at UA for the moment. The last thing he wanted to do was get anyone else involved in whatever plans the League might have to get back at him for killing Twice. This was probably the worst place for him to be at the moment. However, with the way that everything in the country was likely to be changing soon, he wanted to make sure he set the record straight with her, face to face, while he still had the chance.
The sound of clothing rustling drew Hawks's attention back over to Jeanist and he turned his head to see the man holding out a key to him. "She asked me to give this to you."
He reached out and took the small door key from Jeanist's outstretched hand before shifting his eyes upward and inquiring, "Misaki did?"
He nodded. "We ran into each other at the hospital the night of the raids."
Hawks blinked in shock. Jeanist hadn't mentioned anything about that while he'd been telling him about what had happened before he'd woken up in the hospital. Misaki had subtly informed him the night before the operation that she would be in Jaku and not at the Safety Commission headquarters during the raids, though both places had ended up becoming volatile battlegrounds. The only thing Jeanist had told him about her was that she was safe and unharmed, though he supposed it was probably his own fault for not inquiring any further into how the man had come by that information.
"I mistakenly assumed that she was there to see you, so I brought her to your room. I apologize if I overstepped," Jeanist replied a bit penitently.
He blinked in confusion at the man's contrition as he asked, "What do you mean?"
"She wasn't aware of the extent of your injuries, or that you had been hospitalized at Central. She was actually there to visit the President of the Hero Public Safety Commission at the time. When she handed me the key, she mentioned that you may not have wanted her to be there," Jeanist explained.
He almost laughed. Classic Misaki. Always thinking about other people's feelings over her own. It couldn't have been easy for her to see him like that, especially if she hadn't been prepared for it. In spite of everything she had to have been feeling in that moment, she'd prioritized his potential concern for her over her primary instinct to nurture and protect.
Smiling softly to himself as he stared down at the key in his hand, he glanced back up at Jeanist after a moment assured the man, "Don't worry about it. It's all good."
Jeanist nodded to him before telling him, "I'll be by to pick you up before the press conference tomorrow."
Hawks widened his eyes in shock. "Tomorrow?"
"I doubt either one of you will want to leave the other's side tonight," Jeanist replied with somewhat forthright delicacy.
He glanced down and to the side anxiously. "I don't know about that…"
"Are you nervous?" There was a lilt of surprise to Jeanist's voice as he posed the question.
Turning his gaze up to stare out the window at Misaki's apartment building, he typed, "Like a teenager before his first date."
Jeanist's tone was almost amused as he told him, "Having been there to witness her reaction upon seeing you injured, I'm quite certain you have nothing to worry about."
Heaving a soft sigh, Hawks reached out to pull the handle on the door, stepping out of the car onto the sidewalk and turning back to Jeanist as he typed into his phone, "Thanks, Jeanist-san. For everything."
Staring back at him with a shrewd look in his visible eye, Jeanist frankly iterated, "I'll see you tomorrow, Hawks."
Returning the man's knowing look with a slightly piteous glance, Hawks reached out and pushed the door shut before raising his hand to give a small wave as Jeanist pulled away from the curb and sped off down the busy street. He nervously dropped his eyes down to stare at the small key in his hand. The last conversation he'd had with Misaki the night before the raids had given him the impression that he might finally be welcome back in her home. The fact that she'd given Jeanist a key to her apartment, along with instructions for him to pass it on to him when he woke up, only served to confirm that for him. Now that he was finally here though, he came upon a startling revelation: he'd been so distracted by the notion of finally being able to have a real conversation with her that he'd completely forgotten to let her know he was coming over to her apartment. He suspected that paying her a surprise visit was probably not the best way for him to ingratiate himself to her at the moment, especially since he probably looked like he'd just walked out of a crypt or something.
Letting out a haggard sigh, Hawks pulled his phone back out of his pocket and called up Misaki's contact information. He sent her a quick message as he headed through the front doors of the tall apartment building, letting her know that he was on his way up. She was usually quick to answer him, but she'd had yet to reply by the time he'd made it to the elevator bay. Given everything that was going on in society at the moment, it wouldn't surprise him if she was still holed up at work. Slipping his phone into his pocket, he stepped into one of the waiting elevator cars before reaching out to press the button for the twentieth floor.
By some stroke of luck, he managed to make it all the way to the twentieth floor without any interruptions. He wasn't exactly in the best condition to deal with anyone recognizing him at the moment. When he stepped off the elevator, he turned to the right and headed down the long hallway toward Misaki's apartment. He wasn't really used to using the front door, since he typically entered from one of the balcony doors when he'd stopped by in the past. He carefully let himself inside once he reached her unit, pulling his phone out of his pocket and using his text to speech app to announce himself. No one answered. He was starting to get the feeling that Misaki really wasn't home. If that did end up being the case, at least he would be able to wait in her apartment for her to return instead of in the lounge area downstairs. He just hoped he wouldn't end up falling asleep before then.
He kicked off his shoes and neatly situated them on the floor next to a pair of her sneakers before making his way toward the door leading into the living area. He carefully pushed it open and let himself into the brightly lit space, blinking a few times to help his eyes adjust to the bright light when his ears suddenly picked up the sound of movement to his right. He glanced over at the row of bookshelves lining the wall between the living room and the dining area—and that was when he saw her. She had her head turned down, sifting through a stack of books that was sitting atop one of her tall bar stools, lifting each one up to inspect the spine before stacking them one on top of the other in the cradle of her arm. Most of her long, dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, giving him a clear view of the earbuds sitting in her ears. That explained why she hadn't heard him announce himself.
He stood there silently, just drinking in the sight of her, feeling all of his previous doubts and anxieties fly away as he patiently waited for her to notice him. After a few seconds, she stopped moving and slowly lifted her head, turning her beautiful cherry blossom colored eyes in his direction. Shock flashed across her expression and her eyes began to widen in recognition. The stack of books she'd been collecting abruptly tumbled out of her arms onto the floor as she lifted her hands up to cover her mouth and gasped.
Reaching up to pull the mask off of his face, he said, "Hey," tilting his head a bit and lifting the edge of his mouth in a small grin.
"Keigo…" Her breathy, shocked voice sighed just before she quickly reached up to remove her earbuds and said, "What are you—? You should be in the hospital!"
He let out a soft, scratchy chuckle and replied, "Yeah, probably."
Her eyes drifted over the bandages covering his head and she asked with clear concern, "Are you okay?"
"Not really," he replied honestly. "But I'll get there."
She shifted nervously and wrapped an arm around her midsection, averting her eyes as she asked, "Um, are you hungry? I have some chicken liver. I can make you something—"
"Misaki," he gently cut off her anxious chatter.
She drew up short, casting him an apologetic look and saying, "I'm so sorry. You look exhausted. You probably just want to rest, don't you? I'll go turn down the bed."
"Misa-chan, stop," he wearily entreated as she moved to walk toward the sliding doors leading into the entryway.
She stopped in her tracks and let out a shocked gasp, lifting a hand to cover her mouth and sliding her gaze back over to him as her eyes suddenly began to tear up.
He stared back at her and said, "The only thing I want right now is you."
He held his arms open and she immediately walked forward into them. His eyes slid closed and he let out a deeply relieved sigh. "That's better."
A genuine smile curved up the edges of his lips and he gently leaned his cheek to rest against the top of her head. All of the painkillers they'd put him on before he'd left the hospital didn't hold a candle to the wave of contentment that washed over him the moment he had her wrapped up in his arms again. With no more pretenses, no more cameras watching their every move, just the two of them finally alone together for the first time in over six months. And this time, he would do whatever it took to make sure he never had to let her go again.
Her hands clutched at the back of his shirt as her dulcet voice drifted up from his chest to say, "I can help."
He knew what she was offering. She wanted to use her quirk to Restore his mind and body to a point before Dabi had burned his wings off. After the conversation he'd had with his doctor about the likelihood of him regaining full use of his quirk, he was sorely tempted to take her up on the offer. But the cost would be more than he was willing to pay at the moment.
"You don't have to worry about that," he sighed, softly shaking his head.
She lifted a hand to rest against his cheek and gently chided him, "You can't ask me not to care about you, Keigo."
Admittedly, he probably should have known better than that. In the hierarchy of his own concern for things, Misaki's wellbeing was definitely up toward the top of that list. He raised his hand to rest over the back of hers, staring down into her eyes tenderly as he told her, "Thank you, but there's no need for you to worry. I'll be fine, Misaki. I promise."
"How are you feeling?" She asked, her quiet voice laced with concern.
He thought for a moment about how to answer her before settling on the honest truth. "For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm finally free."
A warm smile spread across her face and she gazed up at him appreciatively, lightly resting her hands atop his shoulders as she softly said, "Congratulations."
He leaned his forehead against hers and smiled. "I really wanna kiss you right now." His eyelids drooped as his vision quickly began to darken and swim, and he suddenly started to slur, "But I think I'm actually about to pass out—"
"Oh my—! Keigo!" Misaki exclaimed as Hawks suddenly collapsed against her.
She managed to wrangle him over to the couch to her right and flopped him down onto his back atop the cushions. He wasn't exactly too heavy for her to handle, but he was still bigger than her, and she was built more for dexterity than strength.
"I knew it…" She grumbled and heaved a heavy sigh as she dropped to her knees next to the couch.
The moment she'd seen him standing there in her living room, looking like a mummy that had just wandered out of a tomb or something, she'd immediately thought he was about to pass out right then and there. He looked so incredibly exhausted. She honestly hadn't expected him to stop by so soon, especially without calling first, and definitely not in this kind of condition. Reaching into his coat pocket, she fished out his phone and unlocked the screen before navigating to his contact list. Not knowing who else to call, she navigated to Best Jeanist's contact card and pressed the call button next to his name, holding the phone up to her ear before rising to her feet and walking across the room.
"Hello?" The hero's familiar voice answered after the third ring.
"Hi, Best Jeanist-san. This is Torimodo Misaki." She shot a concerned glance toward the snoozing man on her couch.
"Hello Torimodo-san. Why, may I ask, are you calling me from Hawks's phone?" The man asked, his tone somewhat wary.
"Well…" She trailed off, unsure of how to explain the situation. "Hawks is currently passed out on my couch and I'm wondering if I should be concerned?"
She heard the hero let out a heavy sigh before his exasperated voice said, "I told him he shouldn't have left the hospital. Does he appear to be having any difficulty breathing?"
Misaki cocked her head to the side and assessed Hawks's breathing for a moment before replying, "No. He seems to be sleeping comfortably, I guess."
Jeanist sighed again and said, "Alright, here's what you should do…"
~ Author's Note ~
FINALLY! THE REUNION! I hope it was worth the wait 😅 Although, Hawks passing out as soon as he's back in Misaki's arms is both exasperating and adorable T.T I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
As always, thank you so much for reading ❤️
L0LSAT