Denki did a little spin as he walked, arms outstretched and face lifted to the sun, much to the amusement of passersby on the sidewalk around them.
"It feels good to be out on patrol again," Denki said, looking down at his hero costume.
Hatsume Mei had been the one to volunteer (quite enthusiastically) to make some adjustments to make his hero costume be able to withstand the full force of lightning. It wouldn't last forever, only a few full-force blasts, but Denki already had back-ups in his closet back at his dorm. It was better than something that would fall apart after only one or two, and Mei was hard at work to make it even better for the upcoming revisions.
"It seems like the citizens missed having you around, too," Hawks said, nodding toward a gaggle of kids across the street who were jumping up and down and waving excitedly.
Denki spared a quick glance at Hawks who nodded him ahead, opting to lean back against the building with his hands in his pockets as he watched Denki soak in the much-deserved attention. He signed autographs and made big, surprised faces when the kids told him about their own quirks.
"Will you take a picture?" one girl asked, trying to be confident through her natural shyness. She blushed hard but stood her ground and maintained eye contact with the soon-to-be Pro Hero. Admirable, really.
"Sure," Denki said, laughter clear in his voice as he took the proffered camera and took a photo of the girl.
The girl pouted. "I meant with me, Chargebolt."
"Oh, yeah!" Denki said, laughing as he repositioned himself to be crouched next to her and handing the camera off to one of the adults of the group. "That makes more sense!" Denki said with a secretive wink toward the adults, like they were all part of the team to make this girl feel so super special that an up-and-coming hero would take a picture of her alone and not realize that she wanted a photo with him.
When the kids gathered around for a group photo, Denki pretended not to notice that the boy behind him was giving him bunny ears, and when the kids switched around to take turns being next to the hero, Denki sneakily returned the favor with a wink in the camera's direction as the flash went off.
The kid was a riot. A bright ray of fucking sunshine. Shining so bright that he ended up on the League's radar of all things.
The kid was unfortunate, more so when you realize that Hawks was the only one standing between Denki and the League of Villains. Because Hawks was a damn coward who didn't know what to do. But he better figure it out. Fast.
When his phone vibrated against his palm in his pocket, Hawks tore his eyes away from his intern across the street who had picked a boy up onto his shoulders and was teetering around like he might fall over, causing the boy to squeal, laugh, and hold on tightly to Denki's hands.
Number One Boyfriend.
"Hey, can't be long. I'm on patrol right now," Hawks said in greeting, glancing quickly around to make sure no one was in earshot, not that he would give anything away from his side of the conversation alone.
"Intern-assisted patrol?" Shigaraki asked. "With Kaminari?"
Hawks hesitated for only a second, but in the end, he couldn't even lie to Shigaraki to protect this innocent kid.
"Yeah."
"Great. Bring him over to the warehouse where you first started meeting with us. We have some things to go over."
Hawks's heart jumpstarted in his chest, and he tried to object, "Shig—" He stopped, looking around again and sighing in relief when no one was there to witness his near slip-up.
"It's urgent. You can convince the Commission that you're helping him scope out high profile areas or something, can't you?"
Goddamn it. Say no. Say. No.
"Yes," Hawks said, pushing his fist into the area between his eyes to try to stave off the rapidly growing pressure of an oncoming headache.
Goddamn it.
"Great. We'll see you both soon."
Hawks sighed. "Yeah."
"Thanks," Shigaraki said, putting a lot of meaning behind the single word. "This really is important, or I wouldn't ask."
After hanging up, Hawks hesitated for about two seconds before pulling out his Commission-issued phone and calling his handler.
"We have a situation."
"You killed a League member?"
"No, I—"
"There's chaos among the ranks?"
"No, they—"
"You—"
"Shut the fuck up and listen to me. I'll tell you. God fucking damn it."
Silence, then, "okay, Hawks. I'm listening."
"I just got a call that they want me to take my intern to them. What the fuck do I do?"
"Your intern, Kaminari Denki?"
"Yes."
"Follow protocol: Do what they tell you to do. Update us how it all turns out when you get the chance."
"What? You can't be ser—"
That bitch hung up on him.
Okay. Moment of truth. Do or die. Die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. I got this. I got this.
"Sorry that took so long!" Denki said as he jogged back over. "They were a rowdy bunch! What's next?"
"We're going to go scope out an area with some recent suspicious activity, see if we can get an accurate read on the operations there in the daylight before the villains become active in the area at night."
Fucking hell.
"Okay! Sounds great! Lead the way!"
Lightning started to overtake his body as he looked up into the sky, aiming for where he wanted to end up.
"Put the lightning away, kid. We're walking this time."
Maybe that would buy him enough time to get a grip and warn Denki to run the hell away as fast and as far as he could.
As Hawks argued with himself in his head, mentally frozen with indecision, Denki watched him from the corner of his eye as they walked, keeping one eye on Hawks and one on the civilians that waved as they passed by so he would be sure to keep up citizen-hero engagement. After Hawks had made sure Denki understood the importance of that specific part of heroics, he didn't seem so intent to make sure Denki was doing a good job.
"You know," Denki started, kicking a stray pebble as he walked, "villains have been acting kind of strange around me and the rest of my classmates."
"Yeah?" Hawks asked, though it was clear he was still lost in thought.
"Yeah. Ever since I was kidnapped by the League of Villains," Denki said, watching closely out of the corner of his eye for Hawks's reaction.
It was very anticlimactic because Hawks didn't give a reaction. Here Denki was, talking to him about something he shouldn't have been able to talk about because of a compulsion quirk, and Hawks had no response. If he hadn't already confirmed it with Dabi and Shigaraki, he would have second-guessed his theory that Hawks was the one who was sent by the Commission to infiltrate.
"Listen—" Hawks started, very intense and quiet, like he was about to share a conspiracy theory. "Whatever happens, you're not a Pro Hero, yet. You keep yourself safe above all else, even if that means leaving me behind."
"What—? Hawks! Are we walking into some crazy Yakuza shit or something?"
"Or something…" Hawks muttered under his breath. "Just keep that in mind, okay? You don't owe me anything. I'm a Pro Hero who can take care of myself, so if something were to get too intense and you don't feel safe, you just book it, and I'll catch up with you later."
"I'm a month away from graduation, Hawks," Denki said, confused at where all this concern was coming from when he had literally risked Denki turning into lightning at the beginning of the school year. "I'm this close to being Pro," Denki said, showing his fingers pinched close together to Hawks. "If I get in the habit of running away now, I'll look pretty ridiculous later."
"Sometimes, kid, it's not about how you look. Sometimes it's about knowing when to slink away so you can live to fight another day. Not every hero's story needs to end as a martyr's legend." Denki opened his mouth to respond, but Hawks swore under his breath and nodded down the street. "This is it."
Denki turned to look at the giant warehouse with boards fastened up behind shattered glass windows at the corner intersection of two streets.
"Let's split up. I'll take the front lower level, you start at the back upper level," Hawks commanded. "We'll both work our way to the middle."
Denki smiled at the change up, knowing that Hawks must be used to starting at the top and working his way down because of his quirk.
"You got it, boss," Denki whispered with a toothy salute as he made his way to the other side of the alleyway to line himself up with the correct side of the building.
As soon as the electric blonde was out of sight, Hawks flew. He didn't have much time. He didn't stop to look around or peer through the windows to see what dangers might await; no, he was already fully aware.
He burst in through the door, Shigaraki, Dabi, and Twice startled and spun around to the door, sighing and rolling their eyes at their own reactions when they saw that it was just Hawks.
"Where's Denki?" Twice asked.
"Here," Hawks said, breathing heavy from his quick sprint through the air to the front door of the warehouse, stalking forward to slam his Commission-issued cell phone on the table that the three villains were gathered around. "No more contact with the Commission. I'll give you whatever you want, and I'll never ask for anything again. Just give the orders, and I'll storm into headquarters and take as many of them down with me as I can. If that's what you want, I'll do it. I don't care. I—Just please, not Chargebolt."
Shigaraki and Dabi shared concerned glances. "What? Hawks—"
There was a snapping sound from the staircase, and everyone's head whipped over in that direction as the soon-to-be-hero in question stumbled out.
"Okay!" Denki declared breathily, looking back up at the deathtrap that he almost fell through. "Those stairs are not up to safety code!"
He turned around to see Hawks standing there among a bunch of notorious villains, all huddled around the table like they were all just scheming together. Hawks hoped that that was warning enough for him to get the hell out of there, even if it meant that his cover was ruined. Even if it meant that he lost Denki's trust. Whatever it took to keep Denki safe.
Denki's eyes sparked to life, and there was barely any warning before he was barreling straight for the table full of villains. Hawks felt the cold grip of anxiety smother his heart when Denki ran straight for Shigaraki. Of fucking course.
It happened in slow motion in Hawks's mind. Denki had taken a few running steps before launching himself at Shigaraki. Shigaraki, the leader of the League of Villains. Shigaraki, the one with the five-finger activation quirk that instantly decays anything he touches. Shigaraki held out his arms, which Hawks couldn't even blame him for with a cackling teenager with an apparent death wish barreling toward him. Anyone in his situation would do the same.
Denki's arms wrapped around Shigaraki's waist, and Shigaraki wrapped his arms around Denki, one going around his shoulders and one bringing a deadly hand up to grasp the top of his head.
And then Denki turned to dust and all of his hard work went out the window because Hawks wouldn't be able to live with himself after something like this.
"I've missed you so much!"
Hawks could still imagine the sound of Denki's voice.
"Okay, ouch," Dabi said, feigning hurt. "Why is Shigaraki always first?"
"A few reasons," Denki said, pulling away from Shigaraki to list them on his fingers. "First, Shigs, here, is the me of your little group. Second, Shigs, here, brought Eri to me, thereby giving Hitoshi a little sister. Major brownie points! Third, we accidentally broke Shigaraki's ribs that one time, so I have to test to make sure they're still holding up."
"Okay," Dabi said, the argument to come already clear in his tone. "Your first point is valid. I'll give you that. But Eri would have ended up with Aizawa anyway! His quirk is the best for her while she's learning hers, and you know that. And I'm the one who broke his ribs, thank you very much! It's not like they rebreak out of nowhere! If they did, I would know! So where do you get off by using that as an excuse? Who's the one who set up your training regimen when you were 12? Huh, Denks? Who did that? I did! I knew you first! So, I don't know why Shigaraki is your favorite—"
"He's the best gaming teammate I've ever had," Denki said cheekily with narrowed eyes.
"Those are fighting words," Dabi growled, reaching out for Denki.
Denki didn't flinch away. Just offered a wink before a crack of lightning flashed bright and he was standing on the other side of Shigaraki.
"You can control it enough to use it indoors outside?!" Twice screeched. "That's so cool ordinary."
"Of course! Hawks probably the best trainer I've ever had," Denki said, voice full of snark as he glared right at Dabi as he said it, really digging the knife deep. "And Twice is the best TikTok teammate I've ever had," Denki said from behind Shigaraki, sticking his tongue out at Dabi. "Please don't tell Toga I said that, though."
Dabi ignored the jab about Hawks being the best trainer, because Hawks literally taught Denki how to turn into lightning.
"Well of course he is because I can't turn into other fucking people, Denki. You saying you want this face," Dabi yelled, pointing at his very distinguishable features that completely outs him as a very infamous villain, "to be on your little hero TikTok channel?"
Denki ignored the fact that Dabi ignored the jab about Hawks being the best trainer he had ever had.
"Little?!" Denki repeated, distraught. "I'll have you know that I have over a million followers, Dabi!"
"You think I don't keep track?! You only got that many after you forced Uraraka and Bakugou to do that dance with you!" Dabi retorted, basically snarling.
"Well, they did it together first without inviting me! So, yeah! I wanted my turn, too!" Denki yelled, waving his arms around for effect. "What's wrong with that?!"
"You've been spending too much time with Neito!" Dabi barked. "His argumentativeness has rubbed off on you!"
Denki's eyes flashed as he moved forward, not using his lightning, just his quick reflexes, to tackle Dabi onto the floor and pin him down.
"You're only saying that because you're losing the argument, Dabi!" Denki said, smiling manically in his face. "But you always were a sore loser!"
"When did you get so damn heavy?!" Dabi grunted as he tried to flip Denki over to get the high ground. He huffed, giving up his physical pursuit in favor of continuing the verbal blows. "Better than being a sore winner like your sorry ass!"
"A winner? Yes. But we'll have to keep going if you want me to be anything close to sore!"
A pause, then the two on the floor broke out into laughter. Denki stood up and offered a hand to Dabi. Dabi took it, only to pull Denki down instead of accepting the help up.
"That was a dirty trick!" Denki heaved from the floor where Dabi sat on top of him.
"Uh, yeah. Villain, remember?"
"Totally," Denki wheezed. "I was there for your villain origin story when you lost against a bunch of 12-year-olds."
Dabi barked out a laugh and got up, pulling Denki up from the floor and brushing him off.
"Yeah… what's going on here?" Hawks asked, watching the interaction unfold, thinking he must be hallucinating. Or maybe he died, and this is what his brain conjured to be his last moments so that he could go in peace.
"He doesn't know about me?!" Denki asked, whirling on the villains. "I've been dropping hints that I can talk about this with him, and he didn't know because he didn't know!"
"No one is making any sense," Hawks said, shaking his head.
Twice nodded at him in agreement. That was not helpful.
"These guys are some of my best friends!" Denki said, watching Hawks carefully. "When I said that villains have been acting weird around me and my classmates, I meant that these guys have been terrorizing other villains so much that they'll just give in as soon as they learn what school we're interning from."
"You have no proof we had anything to do with that," Dabi said.
Denki leveled him with a glare.
"You might have strong suspicion, but no proof," Dabi insisted.
"Twice," Denki said, turning toward the villain in question. "You know how these villains have been turning themselves in for me and my friends?"
"Yes no."
"And how every time these villains are locked up, they suddenly disappear out of their cells? Usually by a cloudy, black, swirling fog?"
"Absolutely no."
"Is that the League's doing?"
"You mean, like when Kurogiri helps the villains heroes who followed our orders to leave you alone by breaking them out of their confinement and giving them a fresh start?" Twice turned to look at Dabi, who was glaring fiercely at him. "No. I have no every idea what you're talking about."
"Ha!" Dabi barked. "See? No proof!"
"Oh, maybe it's Overhaul I'll have to thank for watching out for me, then," Denki quipped with a smug smile.
"Must be," Dabi agreed. "You could try to shake his hand or give him a high five for his effort if you wanted. I'm sure he'd really appreciate the gesture."
Twice burst out into loud guffaws, and Shigaraki held his hand tightly against him mouth to avoid letting the laughter come out, but his eyes were wide with unabashed amusement.
Denki rolled his eyes, and then rolled them even harder when he turned to see Hawks also trying to smother his laughter. "You, too, Hawks? Seriously?" But Denki was just relieved to see Hawks relaxing a little bit.
"I don't understand," Hawks admitted, looking between Denki and the villains. "What about Force Majeure? If you're all friendly, why subject the kid to that?"
"That was my idea!" Denki said, raising his hand with a shrug. "I knew if I was questioned, then I would mess up."
"And how are you talking to me right now about this?" Hawks asked, realization coming over him. "Oh, you—"
"It's not what you think," Shigaraki said, knowing that Hawks was horrified at the idea of Denki not only experiencing Force Majeure's quirk once, but multiple times.
"Oh, yeah," Denki said, his frown causing a line between his eyebrows. "I keep forgetting that her quirk is supposed to hurt. It didn't hurt at all for me. Ever."
Dabi explained. "She wasn't even going to do it until she realized that Denki wanted her to; she never used it on a kid before and she wasn't going to start. She told him that it's going to hurt, he said okay, and then after it was over, he said he was ready, and she was like 'what do you mean you're ready? I did it already!' Turns out she's never had a willing participant before."
"We can talk about that later," Shigaraki said, eyes glancing over everyone in the room. "I wasn't lying when I said it was important that you both come here. Twice got intel from one of our connections from the Hero Public Safety Commission, and they have set their sights on Kaminari."
Denki and Hawks looked at each other, stricken.
"Wait," Hawks hedged, hesitant, unsure. "I should have known about this. He was kidnapped by you guys, and he's my intern. They should have told me first. Is your source reliable?"
"Yes no," Twice chimed in quick succession. "They didn't tell you?"
"Hell no!" Hawks said. His shoulders sagged with dread. "I swear, they didn't say anything about—"
"We believe you," Dabi said. "You don't have to grasp for straws to explain why you might not have been aware of something."
"I swear I was trying to keep you off their radar," Hawks said, turning toward Denki.
"I know," Denki said with a reassuring smile in Hawks's direction. "That's why we practiced in abandoned areas, and why you insisted on flying me places during patrol instead of letting me zap across the city. It was a huge surprise when I got the 'invitation' to meet with a Commission recruiter."
All four men stared at Denki, their shoulders sinking lower, slumping over as they held the weight of stress that this teenager had brought to their lives.
"You didn't think that was important information to tell us?" Dabi asked, voice thin with agitation.
"It's not a big deal," Denki said, shrugging all the while he shrunk under the men's glares. "I told them where to shove their offer, stole their donuts, and left. It's common knowledge that they aren't allowed to poach UA students, or else they'd be all over Bakugou, Midoriya, and Shouto. I don't know why they risked pissing Nezu off to go after me of all students."
Hawks paled. "Before bringing you here, I called them to ask what I should do after Shigaraki told me to bring you to them—"
"Hawks!" Shigaraki and Dabi voiced.
Hawks winced. "I know, I know. Well, now I know, okay? How was I supposed to guess that this aspiring hero was mixed in with you lot willingly?"
"This is why I stressed the importance of open communication—"
"Not now, Denki," Shigaraki grumbled.
Hawks sighed, rubbing at his temples. "Jesus fucking Christ on a bike. It's like pulling teeth trying to have a conversation with all of these personalities in one room. As I was saying, when I asked my handler what to do, she said to bring Denki to you and update her on what happens afterward."
"Oh." Denki narrowed his eyes and mused, "I'm being targeted for turning them down."
"You could sound a little more alarmed about that!"
"What are they going to do? What's going to happen?" Denki yelled out, a manic smile growing on his face. "Throw me in Tartarus for hurting their feelings? I doubt it! They'd have to catch me first; I'm like a whippet!"
Twice nodded solemnly in agreement. "It's too bleeding late."
Denki nodded back. "I've done it now."
Hawks opened his mouth to respond, brow furrowed in confusion.
"They're speaking in the language of TikTok. It's best to just ignore it until it passes," Dabi said, but he didn't quite manage to wipe the amused smile off of his face.
"So, what are you going to do, Hawks?" Shigaraki asked. "What are you going to tell the Commission?"
"I don't know," Hawks said, contemplating. "Can I just ignore them and pretend I forgot? Maybe I'll tell them that it's none of their business. No, I'm not allowed. I know I'm not allowed."
"Oh, Hawks! Please record a TikTok with me!" Denki begged. "I'll have a billion followers, and then I'll be the top of the class in terms of TikTok."
"Why not spend time trying to be the top of the class in terms of grades instead?" Dabi asked, rolling his eyes.
"You've met Bakugou."
"Oh. You have a point, there."
"I always do."
"Why didn't they tell you?" Shigaraki asked, looping back to the earlier topic of conversation.
Hawks understood the question immediately and winced. "I swear to you, Shigaraki, I didn't—"
"No, I know you didn't know, Hawks. But why didn't you? Why didn't they tell you?"
After a second of contemplation, Hawks paled. Dabi and Shigaraki understood shortly after.
Dabi swore under his breath. "They aren't counting on you anymore."
Hawks shook his head. "They don't see me as reliable anymore. I've become disposable."
"You can't go back there," Shigaraki said, shaking his head as the thoughts came to him. "They'd use you against us."
"And it would work," Dabi added, looking up to make meaningful eye contact with Hawks.
Later, after making sure Denki got back to UA safely and returning to the base, Hawks asked, "even now?"
"What?"
"You said that the Commission would use me against you, and it would work. Even now, after everything I've done, everything I've admitted to?"
"Yeah, of course," Dabi said.
Shigaraki hummed in agreement. "We knew from the beginning that you were a plant."
"What?!"
Dabi laughed. "Yeah, we thought you knew that we knew, actually. We didn't know how freaked out you were this whole time. We just thought it was a not-saying-the-quiet-part-out-loud type of understanding."
"Well, it was endless stress on my end, thank you very much! I've been fearing for my life! I was a dead man walking in my mind!"
Dabi smiled and cooed, stepping closer and cupping Hawks's face. "Did you think you were being sneaky, Kei?"
Hawks blushed, swallowed, nodded.
"We're sorry for the unintentional deception," Dabi said, leaning in to plant a light kiss on Hawks's forehead before scattering kisses around the rest of his face.
"Let us make it up to you," Shigaraki said, coming up behind him, fingers gliding across Hawks's wings, sending shivers wracking through his body.
Not all five fingers, though. Never all five.