A message to my regular readers: My story "A Strange New Little Brother" has been possibly stolen. This person who took it messaged me on ao3, saying they liked the beginning of that story and is now going to steal it and put it in their own story. It's possible it will be translated into Vietnamese. Pease keep your eyes open. Thanks. Enjoy~

Dabi was looking around to try and find out where their spy had gone. It was like he disappeared off the face of the planet. Even the heroes and public were worried, sending out public notices for searching for the winged hero. Dabi didn't particularly care about his well being, but messing with him and pressing his buttons had been enjoyable.

Things with the Paranormal Liberation Front were proceeding smoothly despite the hero traitor being gone. None of the villains knew of what happened to him either. Dabi admitted he was hung up on it. More curious than anything else. He was pretty sure the Commission must have at least chipped him. Yet, where was he then?

But now he was taking his free time off to try and track down the fake hero. He could be anywhere, not needing any conventional ways of traveling. He could up and fly to some random, far off island for a vacation, permanent or not. So he wasn't expecting to find him. Dabi was just looking for bread crumbs.

With the smart member in the PLF, which was no longer just a group of outcast villains wanting change and/or destruction, he had tracked the last time Hawks was seen. Which brought him to a random alleyway. The CCTV footage had shown him there. The alleyway had been searched extensively already, but he felt like giving himself a shot of figuring it out.

But there was nothing there. No sign of him. No feathers, boot scuffs, blonde hair. Though if there had been, of course they were confiscated already. He was very late to the party. He had his long coat on, a face mask and sunglasses on that hid his neck and face burns. Like this, he wasn't showing any burns. Nobody suspected him.

A bit frustrated with having nowhere else to look, he burnt the trash in the alley with his quirk, getting ready to leave before he was suddenly in the dark. It was afternoon, but now it was pitch black. The air was damp and sticky, and there was no airflow. Like he was in a prison. And then he suddenly got a horrible wave of nausea, and promptly vomited all over the stone floor beneath him.

The ground swayed beneath him, not enough to throw him from side to side or off balance, but enough to fuck with him and make him sick. Sea sick. He walked as straight as he could, hands on fire to light his way. It stunk down there, like mold. Where the hell was he? How'd he get there?

He found a door, and did think this was some underground prison. Rusty cells and damp ceilings were there, and the door was heavy duty metal. It screamed as he turned the handle. It was one of those on submarines, where it was a circle that you turned to the side. Rusty and noisy, it finally opened and a wave of normal air came at him. It was warmer and less humid, thank god.

While he couldn't get hot, the humidity on his face and hands had been awful. He threw up again, closing his eyes tightly, only that made it worse. Taking deep breaths, putting his hand over his mouth to try and not throw up anymore, he slowly walked up the steep steps. He grabbed onto the railing with one hand while the other was pressed to his mouth.

He had to get off of this. Why was he on a boat? Was there a teleportation quirk? What kind of boat in 2175 was made of wood and creaked accordingly? As he climbed slowly and nauseatingly, he heard people shouting. A lot of people. Opening the door to the first story above the prison, he only opened it a crack.

Some people walked by with weapons. A big guy with huge battle axe on his back, some guys with swords, one guy even had a bow and arrow. He had no idea where he was, but he had to be out at sea. Which meant burning this ship down was a no-no. Fuck. He was about to brave it and try to escape without incident, for once needing to be careful and calculating, when he heard a familiar voice.

"Give me my fuckin' wings back!" the recognizable voice shouted. Dabi watched through the crack as a wingless Hawks ran past him. He couldn't help but shout the missing hero's name in shock. "D-Dabi?!" the wingless winged hero exclaimed. He looked a bit horrified before Dabi stepped into the hallway, and promptly threw up again. It was mostly water. He spat, and grabbed his head.

Hawks stuttered, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Same to y-you, blegh." It was humiliating, vomiting in front of this man. Why didn't he have his wings? And he looked healthy, just fine. There was even a look on his face and his body. Like he was relaxed. He had no fake smile on, no tight jaw or anything showing he was serious or stressed. His shoulders were relaxed. Though he was a bit tense at seeing Dabi, of course. "Wh-where the fuck is this?"

"Ah, welcome to a parallel world." Dabi gave him a nasty look. "Seriously. We're not on Earth anymore." Then a short guy with brown hair and strange shirt ran over with a large sack. "You jackass, why would you steal my wings!" Hawks shouted in annoyance. Dabi didn't recognize this guy.

The sack opened and all of Hawks' feathers were attracted to his back like magnets, forming his wings. It was interesting to see. The tank top made him seem a bit less toned than in those stupid photo shoot pictures he used to take. Like he wasn't exercising as much anymore. "Ah, Haruta, this is Dabi," Hawks said awkwardly.

Haruta asked if he was from Hawks' world. "Yeah. How the hell did you get here? Please don't tell me more are coming," Hawks said. Dabi looked at Haruta, who didn't give him a single look, as if he didn't see his horrific burns. The villain explained he went looking for him and ended up lighting an alleyway on fire, and popping up in the prison below the ship.

"Whoa, you have fire, too?" Haruta asked, sounding excited. "Like Ace?"

"Yeah, but Ace's is more versatile. And Dabi's flames are hotter than Ace's." When Dabi started to look sick again, Haruta rushed forward and put the sack in front of him to retch into. This was humiliating and he must look incredibly weak. He finally asked why they were on a boat. "Ah, you're on a pirate ship."

"...What?"

"Yeah, I'm a pirate now, there are no heroes in this world, nobody to tell me what to do. Besides the captain," Hawks said brightly. Haruta asked Hawks if he was his friend. "Uh, Dabi was a coworker." Well, it was true in a sense. Haruta smiled and reached out his hand to shake his. Dabi reached his out and shook it.

"Come, get some fresh air. It'll help." Dabi said he'd thrown up on the stairs, and didn't plan on cleaning it. "We'll have tonight's cleaning group do it. People throw up all the time after drinking too much. Come, come," Haruta said brightly. He lead the way, and Dabi slowly walked, his face green. The normal skin of his face was green.

Hawks was clearly uncomfortable. But Dabi didn't plan on burning down a boat he was on. Though he was confused and worried. If he couldn't go back to earth, how would he enact revenge on Endeavor? He didn't particularly care about the PLF too much, but he didn't want to be in some other world he didn't know.

"You seem happy as a pirate," Dabi said in suspicion. Hawks didn't answer for a moment, and Dabi waited. They passed people in the hall, and very few stared at him. It was a first in ten years. It was almost alarming that they looked at him like he wasn't a freak. Haruta told the confused pirates that Hawks' friend showed up.

But the winged former hero said, "I am. The people here are good. It's fun, and I don't need to do what the Commission tells me to anymore. Dabi, you can't be a villain on this ship. If you get off, then do what you want. If you try anything here, you will die." Dabi narrowed his eyes. "It's not a threat, it's a fact," Hawks added.

"Are you going to tell them?" Dabi asked under his breath.

Hawks turned and gave him a disarming smile. The villain - former villain - was surprised, as he'd never seen a smile that truly touched his eyes. "I won't. You can start over, here. A new world, a new life," Hawks said, and slapped him on the back. Dabi was a bit stunned. Hawks had been spying on them, tense and fake the whole time he'd known him personally.

Yet now he had his back turned to Dabi as they made their way through the maze of halls. He threw up some more, but was out of anything to come out, so it was just dry heaves. When they made it out on the deck, he saw it was quite big, and on all three sides he could see was endless ocean. The ship was completely wooden with many flag sails and masts.

There were a ton of people around, most having weapons. Then his eyes looked to the massive man on a chair. He was bigger than anybody that Dabi had ever seen besides Mount Lady's quirk in use. He was old, with a wrinkled face. A upturned mustache, buff as fuck, and his chest covered in scars.

He had to be at least twenty feet tall. It was insane. Was it a quirk. "Hey, Pops!" Haruta called. Attention was finally on Dabi, who felt uncomfortable and irate under all the stares. But for some reason, he did not want to cross the obviously powerful man. He wasn't an idiot. Crazy sometimes, yes, but not an idiot. He didn't plan on burning this place down, or anyone on it. When he got ill again, Hawks walked him to the railing, where he bent his head over. The smell of the sea cleared his mind a bit and chased the sickness away.

"A new brat from your world, son?" Dabi froze, confused as to why Hawks was called "son". There was no way this guy was his dad.

"Yup. This is Dabi. He can control fire, too. Dabi, this is Whitebeard, captain of the Whitebeard fleet," he said, confusing Dabi by rubbing his hand in circles on his back. He couldn't lie and say it didn't feel nice. Nobody had touched him in this way in a very long time. Whitebeard welcomed Dabi, said nothing of his burns.

Were these people blind? He was so confused and alarmed. Once he was sure his hacking was passed, he turned his head, still leaning over the railing to inhale the sea spray. He wasn't going to lie. It smelled pretty good. The air was so clear, no smog in sight. He could hear the sounds of the waves sloshing against the big ship and the wind in the sails.

"It's nice to meet you, Dabi. Were you a hero, too?"

"No. I was a villain," Dabi said bluntly, honestly. Those on the ship turned quiet. But Whitebeard looked unconcerned. He glared, confused. They should be alarmed! He was a bad guy! Hawks seemed unphased, too, and Dabi finally snapped, demanding to know why everyone was so chill with him.

"No matter your past, we are all children of the sea," the large captain said with a smile. Hawks smiled, too. "We can drop you off on an island not under our protection. And all of us are criminals and have done bad things. We just don't call ourselves villains like the marines and government do."

Dabi looked at Hawks in disbelief. He went from a pro hero to a criminal pirate against this world's government?! What the fuck?! "I have no desire to be a hero again. I don't want to go back," Hawks explained with a shrug. "If you stay, you can start over. There are therapists here to work with you."

"I don't need one," Dabi said firmly.

"I do. I'm taking advantage of that shit," Hawks said with a laugh. Dabi was surprised again. Hawks didn't seem like the kind of guy that would gladly accept counseling. Then some young guy with freckles and no shirt came over. "Hey, Ace! I got someone else who can control fire to meet you," Hawks called.

Ace came over, and looked Dabi up and down. "Damn that looks pretty sick. Are those all burns?" he asked, walking around him, judging his appearance. Dabi glared. "Cool. Must hurt, though," he added.

"It doesn't hurt," Dabi snapped.

"Hah! Lies! My burn hurts daily, but I don't really care anymore." Ace turned around, and showed him his back. Beneath a skull cross bones tattoo was damaged, bubbled skin. The wound was huge, taking up most of his back. It wasn't purple but a shiny pink. But very noticeable, even with the tattoo. "A magma fist was rammed through my chest. I was able to get the front healed, at least."

Dabi couldn't help the surprise. A magma fist going through his chest? Wow. "So, you control fire?" Ace asked. Instead of answering, Dabi said he was hungry. Hawks pulled him along inside, and the villain - perhaps former villain - allowed himself to be. But then he remembered he'd be sick if he ate.

Though they didn't head to a kitchen of any sorts, but what looked like a hospital room. It was big but had old fashioned machines. A woman in a pink nurse's outfit came over, and rose her brows at seeing Dabi and his burns. Though they could only see his face and neck burns. "Who's this?"

"Dabi. A guy from my world," Hawks said.

"He here to get his burns treated? Marco's napping." Ace shook his head, and said they needed nausea meds for him so he could eat. Almost quicker than he could process, Dabi had a shot in his neck. He was about to blow up at her, but seeing Hawks' relaxed expression, he stemmed his anger. It wasn't like he had felt it through the burnt skin with no feeling. "Get out, now. I'm busy." And she turned her back on them.

Ace grabbed his clothed arm to pull him out. Dabi was not used to people touching him freely like this. Everyone was always afraid of him. He just didn't have the mental energy to get mad, get violent. Not that he was dumb enough to plan on that. If that huge guy thought of everyone as his kids, he'd not hesitate to hurt Dabi if he did anything stupid to them.

Hawks walked beside Dabi, and quietly asked him how he was doing. "Shut up," Dabi said quietly, tersely.

"We'll teach you about this world once you're more comfortable," Hawks said simply, unoffended. "And you and Ace will have to exchange fire." Dabi wasn't too happy someone else on this ship could control fire. And he hadn't seen any people with obvious quirks, so did they not exist here? Then how would Ace have fire powers?

When they entered a huge room, it had ten tables that each could fit probably a hundred or more people. Then there was the massive kitchen. "Hey, Thatch! Got another visitor!" Hawks called, hurrying over and sitting at the counter. He was acting like an excited kid. Did he really consider these pirates as his family?

Dabi couldn't understand it. It had only been a few weeks, yet he was acting this way. The villain had always thought Hawks was hard to get to know, hard to make friends with others. But he was clearly friends with these people. If Dabi wasn't a villain who enjoyed killing people, he would have been happy for him in a way.

Sitting at the counter, Thatch looked over with a grin and walked to them. "Whoa, is that purple skin his quirk?" Thatch asked lightly, and then started to cook without needing to be asked. He quickly whipped together a chicken and rice plate. The chicken was glazed with some sort of orange sauce, and the burnt man couldn't help but have his mouth water.

The injection he was given was like a miracle cure, and he didn't feel sick anymore. Hawks watched with a smile as Dabi took the first bite, and then scarfed the rest of the plate down. He hadn't had a real, good meal like that in a very, very long time. At least, not one from a restaurant. "Thatch's food is the best," Hawks bragged. "And Dabi's quirk is fire. I don't know where the burns came from, but those aren't his quirk." He hated being talked about like he wasn't in the room.

"Damn that sucks. Do they hurt?" Dabi glared at him. "Well, Marco might be able to help with the pain," the cook said, and got to work putting together what seemed to be a chocolate lava cake. When it was set in front of the three young men, they were each given a spoon, and the winged and freckled men got to digging in. "Hey! Share with him!"

Dabi took his spoon, and hesitantly put it into the soft, moist cake, some of the liquid on the spoon, too. He brought it to his mouth, and had never tasted a better dessert. Not even his mother's food when she was sane and he was thought to be alive. It was like he couldn't control himself as he tried to get some while Ace and Hawks rapidly scarfed it down.

In annoyance, he shoved Ace off and started scarfing it down. Ace grabbed him and shoved him next, laughing. How would someone be happy about being pushed to the ground. But Hawks got the last bites, and took the plate and licked it clean. "Prick," Ace said, pouting. "Thatch, more."

"No, you can wait for dinner," Thatch said, and got to washing the dish and spoons. Hawks offered to show Dabi around.

"But… why? I was your enemy.

"And I was a hero. Yet now I'm a pirate. I already got in a fight against the marines. I'm not working for the government," Hawks said lightly. Then Ace passed out and hit the floor with a thud. Hawks sighed and got off the stool and carried Ace to the nearest table and laid him down. The freckled pirate was snoring. When Dabi looked a bit confused, the winged man explained Ace had narcolepsy.

It was only a few minutes before Ace woke up, and nobody acted like he'd just passed out. "Come, tour time," Ace said. "Even if you get off at the next island, you're stuck here for at least two weeks. You would want to get around, won't you?" Two weeks? Could he handle that? He wanted to get back to their world. It looked like no technology was here. No phones, no music, TVs, nothing.

He huffed, and followed. "Hawks, show him my intangible body," Ace said. Dabi grew interested, though his face did not give that away. Hawks took out one of his longest feathers he used as a sword. He hardened the edges so it really was a sword, and moved to chop Ace in half. But it just went through his body, like cutting through water. "Cool, huh?" Ace bragged.

Dabi suddenly felt very jealous. "Is that a quirk?" he asked sourly.

"Nope! A devil fruit. There are fruits here that you eat and get powers," Hawks said, making Dabi look disbelieving. "Whitebeard can create earthquakes. He could destroy the world if he wanted to." Dabi swallowed. No wonder the guy looked too strong. "Then there's haki here, too. Don't know if I could ever use it." He explained the three types. Coating your body in a hard, metallic substance that could be used against any devil fruit user, armament haki. Observation haki allowed people to gauge power levels and have super senses. Be able to feel presences around them. Then conqueror's haki where you could knock people unconscious.

"I'll show you some observation haki," Ace bragged. He closed his eyes and covered his ears. "Three men coming down that hall. One is walking like he's drunk already," he stated, and that was indeed what there was in the adjacent hallway. Dabi was getting overwhelmed, something that he wasn't used to.

But he was glad when they stopped talking about this weird world, and went back to the tour. When they came to a bedroom in the hallway full of rooms with bunk beds, he was told which room he'd stay in while there. Hawks slept on one bottom bunk, and Dabi would stay on the one across from him.

"I can't have my own room?"

"Only commanders have their own rooms and private bathrooms. Heh, jealous~?"

"Fuck off. I'm not," Dabi snapped, and Ace laughed. It was getting annoying how none of them were afraid of him one bit. There was a work out room, a training room, a library with more books than he'd ever seen before. The brig was where he'd arrived. There were a handful of bathhouses around with huge tubs big enough to swim in. He'd already been to the infirmary. The commander's hall was where all the leaders were. Sixteen of them. He would be assigned his own division.

Hawks was part of Marco's division, who Dabi hadn't met yet. It was a fighting division. Ace was navigation for the ship, including knowing about weather, the ocean and mapping and charting. The navigation room was actually the most interesting to Hawks. He saw many maps of this world, seeing it was mostly ocean with islands.

When he was told about the weather, he thought they were joking until there was a storm with huge pillars of water shooting straight up into the sky, throwing the Moby Dick around, the name of the ship. He got violently sick at it, and was vomiting into the toilet, losing all his food, very disappointed.

When it was over, Hawks came to find him. Dabi didn't know how he did it, since there were many bathrooms he could have gone to. He sat on the edge of the massive bath tub. "How you doing?"

"Don't pity me, bitch," Dabi snapped.

"It's not pity if I know how it feels," Hawks replied. "It's pretty overwhelming, huh?" he continued. Dabi asked why he seemed so at ease and close to them all after a few weeks. It made no sense to him. Hawks answered immediately. "I've never been in a healthier environment. They accepted me almost instantly. The people here are genuinely happy. Whitebeard is a good man. I have no problem being his underling. Way better than the Commission."

"Why? You lived in this comfortable place, you only had to follow directions."

"You don't know what it was like. I have scars everywhere from the beatings when I did something wrong or not good enough." He lifted his shirt, which had sleeves down to his elbow, and wearing loose pants. Dabi was surprised to see the criss crossing of small and large wounds. Burns, what looked like cigarette burns. "But here, nobody is beaten or demoralized. If you want to leave, that's your choice. But I don't know how to go back," Hawks said, lowering his shirt.

Dabi would have never expected him to be so open, but it seemed a lot had changed. He moved and sat next to Dabi. "This is a second chance, Dabi. There's nothing here for you to hate with all your heart. You can choose to stay or go. That's up to you and nobody will force you here. You have two weeks to decide."

Reaching out before he could help it, Dabi touched Hawks' wing. The former hero and current criminal rose an eyebrow. "What is this Marco going to do to help me?" he asked.

"Come with me," Hawks said. Dabi got a bucket from under one of the many, many sinks to carry around in case he got sick again. They walked out to deck, which looked like no terrible "storm" had happened. They made a beeline to a blonde man, taller than Hawks by far, and many inches taller than Dabi. He noticed many of the people here were very large or very tall.

He realized, looking between Hawks and Marco, that the guy was actually pretty short. His wings usually made him look taller, but he was pretty short. "Marco, this is Dabi, our new visitor." Dabi was on guard, able to tell somehow that this guy was also powerful. "Dabi, this is Marco, the first mate and second in command. Also the first division commander. Marco, will you help with his burns?"

Marco looked him up and down, and Dabi narrowed his eyes. "What's the extent of your burns?" And he started walking. Hawks and Dabi followed, heading to the infirmary. The villain didn't like talking about his burns, but said it covered his arms, legs, jaw, neck, chest and half of his torso.

Neither Hawks nor Marco made any sign of pity. It was still shocking. They'd change that once they saw. In the infirmary, Marco had his own office with an examination bed that Dabi was moved to. He had never gotten his burns treated. They healed out of sheer, ridiculous luck. Maybe it was to make his unluckiness with his quirk balanced with something good.

"I'll wait outside-"

"Stay," Dabi commanded. Hawks rose his brows, but didn't leave. The temptation of his burns being treated or healed in some way was too tempting to refuse. He took his jacket and shirt off to expose the upper body's burns.

"Wow, these are quite the burns," Marco said, sounding sad and not pitying. But it annoyed Dabi. Suddenly, Marco's hands were covered in blue and yellow fire. A strange looking one, like feathers, but downy, not firm and stiff like Hawks' feathers. The former hero stayed silent and watched.

Dabi glared at Marco challengingly before Marco touched his shoulders, and blue and yellow flames covered his upper body. It didn't burn him. Instead, it felt like cool water was dripping down his body. His eyes widened when the chronic pain faded away. "Did the pain go away?" Marco asked, his hands still on his shoulders firmly, spreading the healing fire still.

All the villain could do was nod. Marco took his hands away, and got some pills out of a jar on the counter, bolted down like most of the infirmary equipment. No doubt to keep it from going crashing around the room during storms. The library had glass cases in front of the books to keep them from falling out, too.

"Take one of these nightly." Dabi asked what it was. "Powdered blood. It'll keep the pain from coming back. Come see me every week and I'll refresh it. Just because the pain is gone doesn't mean you should be rough with them. The staples are still fragile. The flames only relieve pain to others," he explained.

Hawks was smiling, and Dabi got up to leave. He paused at the door, and managed to force out a thank you. He hadn't said that word in a decade. But the pain was gone. He touched the burn on his jaw, and felt no pain. The skin even felt moist and not so rough and dry. Hawks read his mood, it seemed, and let him walk off on his own.

"Dinner will be ready when some bells ring," he said. Dabi nodded, not looking at him, and walked away in a daze.

Yeah, the Whitebeards don't care about Dabi's scars. They've already seen a lot of the world, after all. The quirk that sent Dabi to the OP world will come up later. I'll just say it left residue that Dabi activated on accident. Hawks is welcoming him because he thinks everyone should have a second chance. What a cinnamon roll. Who can be annoying lol. See you next week!