They raid the hideout on a Wednesday. Seven pro-heroes, slinking through the shadows on an inconspicuous night, the distant rumble of thunder masking any errant sound. Seven heroes, seven villains, and a simple but far from easy objective to capture them dead or alive.
"Hawks," Eraserhead says when they come to a standstill. "On your command."
Hawks looks upon the worn-out building. It looks peaceful, familiar even. He doesn't let his thoughts get further than that, stretching out his wings, bright red against the black of the night. Lightning flashes above them.
"On my command." He raises his hand and motions. "Go."
Seven villains in total. Two escapees, one dead, four arrested. Shigaraki and Kurogiri, the main targets, manage to slip away, moving too quickly for Eraserhead to block the latter's warp quirk. They lost Sako Atsuhiro too, albeit more permanently, a single red feather embedded into an artery. The other four—
Toga Himiko, Bubaigawara Jin, Iguchi Shouichi and—
—Todoroki Touya.
In police custody.
"None of them are cooperating," Hawks hears Tsukauchi say when he walks into the makeshift office in the prison the villains are being held at. Their meeting is already well underway by the time he gets there, and they're too busy hunched around the table and documents to notice him hesitating in the doorway.
"I'm not surprised," he interjects before Tsukauchi can go on. All eyes on the room land on him as he passes through the doorway and takes a seat. Around him, Tsukauchi, Eraserhead, and two other detectives he can't recall the names of huddle around a stack of papers. Profiles on the captured villains, most likely.
"You got any ideas on how to get them to talk?" Eraserhead asks in lieu of greeting. "You'd know better than any of us, wouldn't you?"
Hawks grimaces. "I don't know. I don't think they'll talk. Their loyalty runs deeper than you're assuming."
"We could bring Todoroki Shouto in," one of the detectives, a tall woman with a stern face, suggests quietly. "It might—"
"Absolutely not," Eraserhead interrupts.
Hawks would grin if the situation were less dire. Eraserhead might act tough, but he had a soft spot like anybody else did. Besides—
"He's right. Bringing Todoroki Shouto into this won't help right now. We'll need him eventually—you know we will, don't deny it—" he interrupts as Eraserhead begins to argue. "But not now."
"Then what?" The other detective asks, setting down the papers clutched in her hands. "We just sit around, twiddling our thumbs? We need information, we need intel. We need something . We need one of them to talk."
Hawks takes a breath to steady himself. "Let me talk to them."
Tsukauchi glances at him, eyebrows raised. "You think they'll talk to you? Right after you revealed yourself as a double agent, got one of them killed, and arrested them?"
Hawks puts on a smile, but it feels fake even by his own standards. "Now, now, when you put it like that, it does sound bad. But," he stands up. "It's been a week and we haven't gotten anywhere. Would it hurt?"
"It might," Tsukauchi sighs. "But at this point, we're running desperate. Which one do you—"
"Dabi." The name feels uncomfortable in his throat, hot and blazing, not unlike Dabi's flames. He avoids Eraserhead's unnerving gaze. "Let me talk to Dabi."
He expected a lot of things. Anger, yelling, insults. He didn't expect the silence, stretching between them for miles, a chasm even Hawks couldn't swoop in and close. He didn't expect the fire in Dabi's eyes, burning through the glass between them, through him, through his soul, through his heart. God, he thinks, disgusted. Like some lovesick teenager.
"Dabi," he says instead. "How are you holding up?"
Dabi, predictably doesn't respond.
"I know you probably feel betrayed—"
"Oh, do you now," Dabi scathes, venom dripping in every syllable. "Did you know how betrayed I would feel when your dick was in my mouth ?"
Hawks presses his eyes shut. This was bound to come out at some point. He just assumed he had a little longer. "Dabi," he starts again. "You can only benefit by cooperating."
Dabi doesn't answer.
"What was the nature of your relationship?" Eraserhead corners him after he rushes out, getting straight to the point. Following behind him are Tsukauchi and the two detectives. The shorter of them opens her mouth to say something, only to shrink back when Tsukauchi holds an arm out and blocks them from following Eraserhead any further.
Hawks takes a gulp of water, swishes it around in his mouth. It does nothing to abate the dryness. "Nothing that'll stop me from doing my job as a hero," he says, after a drawn-out pause.
Eraserhead takes a moment and looks at him. Then nods, nigh imperceptible. "Okay," is all he says.
Hawks lets out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Let me go in one more time."
Eraserhead eyes him. "Okay," he says again, stepping aside. "I'm going to choose to trust your judgement."
"Didn't expect you to be back again so soon, hero ," Dabi says.
Hawks doesn't sit down in front of Dabi this time. He maintains a distance, avoids eye-contact, choosing to stare into a random corner instead. "You're in a unique situation here, Touya," he says, ignoring Dabi's subtle flinch. "Your position, your identity , it gives you the potential to be seen in a sympathetic light. If you help us, we can help you. If you tell us what En—what your father did. We might be able to…" he trails off.
"Are you trying to redeem me, hero? Want me to beg you for forgiveness? Apologize for my wrongdoings?" Dabi grins, wide and cruel, the edges of his mouth stretching against his piercings.
"I don't think I'm who you should be apologizing to, Dabi. And I'm not offering you redemption. I don't know if you deserve that." Hawks pauses. "I'm offering you justice."
Dabi scoffs. "You think I deserve justice?"
"Doesn't everyone?"
Dabi remains quiet, eyes hardened over in an expression Hawks can't quiet place. It jars him—not knowing what Dabi is thinking. He was getting so good at it too.
"Think about it," is all Hawks says, before turning and closing the door behind him with a soft thud.
The chasm stretches.