It's all very perplexing, Hawks thinks to himself. His fingers tap lightly against the keyboard, lost in thought. He's never seen what had happened the other day, well, happen before. Watching his favorite stoic villain hurl up flowers was certainly a first in his book. Hawks tried to tell himself that he saw incorrectly but his vision is razor sharp and he knows what he saw.

'Hawks, what did your elf eyes see?' A sleepy voice in his head asks, earning himself a chuckle.

After he patched up Dabi's wound and the man was sleeping, he spent the better part of his night googling 'is puking flowers normal?' and 'what to do when a person coughs flowers?'. It led him down a rabbit hole of endless links. He skimmed over most of them until one word caught his attention.

Hanahaki.

After that, he decided to call it a night. His eyes were dry after staring at the bright screen of his phone and was exhausted from carrying a fully grown adult from that dingy alleyway all the way back to his apartment.

Now, however, he's bright eyed and bushy tailed. Work has been slow so far today which is a godsend because that single word keeps nagging at the back of Hawks' mind. He snaps out of his stupor and finally types it into Google and clicks the first link.

The Hanahaki Disease is an illness born from one-sided love, where the patient throws up and coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. The infection can be removed through surgery, but the feelings disappear along with the petals.

Hawks pushes back in his chair and arches an eyebrow, letting out a low whistle. Absently, he picks at the sleeve of his jacket and rereads over the paragraph. He just can't quite seem to wrap his head around the fact that Dabi of all people is in love. After all the rants he's spouted about how it's all just fake love and people who fall in love are weak. Ironic that Dabi ended up with a disease for, well, for love.

Leaning forward again, Hawks steeples his fingers together and hums gently to himself. He supposes that anyone can fall in love, even assholes. His question is exactly iwho/i Dabi has fallen in love with.

Outside of reading the first link about Hanahaki, Hawks really has no idea how it even works. After all, he grew up in a government facility and that wasn't exactly the hot spot for falling in love. Quite the opposite now that he thinks about it. It was a cold, unloving and all too professional atmosphere. He was nothing but a governmental side project and they were just guardians that hovered over him to make sure he never put a toe or feather out of line.

Does he, himself, even know the feeling of love? Another unanswered question to add to his list. Does he have the capacity to love? Hawks draws his eyebrows together and fiddles with a pen, that will be added to the list as well.

"C'mon, get your head in the game." Hawks mutters to himself as he takes out a legal pad. He begins to write down the names from the League and studies them intently. He only knows the names of the League's little elite group but figures that Dabi wouldn't waste his time on anyone that's below him so he's pretty content that he's safe with the small list of names scrawled on the paper. He's never met anyone besides Dabi but Hawks knows enough from their files to be confident in figuring this out.

"Okay, well, let's see here." He stares at the first name that he jotted down and frowns, shaking his head, he moves on to the next name- he'll go back to the first name later.

Toga Himiko. Hawks immediately crosses her name off, from the snippets of what Dabi has mentioned of her- he sees her more of a little sister and nothing more. Besides, he seems the type to like someone a little more... subtle? Hawks isn't sure if that's the word he would use, perhaps more grounded is a better word. With that thought in mind, he also crosses out Twice.

Kurogiri. As far as Hawks knows, that one is still in Tartarus and has been locked up for a while now. He doubts it's him. If there's any love between him, it's probably the love of alcohol and nothing romantic.

"I wonder." He trails off, not really wanting to imagine how it would be like to sleep with a sentient body of mist. Shaking his head again, he crosses Kurogiri off as well.

Hawks taps his fingers against the pen in his hand and bounces his leg idly. With three names crossed off, that just leaves three more names.

"Ah, Mr. Compress." Twirling the pen, he stares down at the name. Between Mr. Compress and Spinner, they're the least talked about villains- preferring to stick more to the back and working their magic from there. Smart move really, let the others take the brunt of the notoriety and that grants them a little more freedom to move around without being recognized straight away. Well, maybe that can't be said fully for Spinner but nobody even iknows/i anything about Mr. Compress. He's the only one that even goes through the trouble of masking his identity, who knows who he truly is.

Nonetheless, he crosses the name off before scribbling over that and rewriting the name with a question mark behind it. Hawks pauses and crosses it off again, Mr. Compress would be too theatrical for Dabi. Confident, he nods his head and moves on.

Spinner. Hawks pauses and gives out a small sigh. Could Dabi be a secret furry? Could that word even be applied to a lizard? Hawks has no idea. Maybe he should ask Miruko about that, she seems more well versed in love than he is; surely she would know the answer to his endless queries.

"I don't even-" He cuts himself off, really not wanting to think about how even kissing Spinner would be like, let alone doing anything else with him. Hawks crosses his name off anyway, figuring from all times that Dabi has vented about Spinner that he's probably not interested in Spinner.

"That only leaves... Shigaraki." Now that would be a deadly combination if Hawks was none the wiser. It would also make sense now that Hawks really thinks about it. Dabi is definitely a 'veni vidi vici' type of guy and wouldn't be worried about some nonsense one sided love unless it was with his boss. Anyone would be a little nervous to confess their feelings to Shigaraki.

He knows that the villain is pretty well grounded; he would have to be, to be able to keep his League afloat this long. He's quick on his feet and the flare of the danger around him would be pretty enticing for thrill seekers. Is Dabi a thrill seeker? Hawks realizes at this point that he doesn't even realize what Dabi likes.

"It has to be him." Hawks confirms to himself. He circles Shigaraki's name several times before setting down his pen.

"I've connected the dots," He leans back into his chair and rubs his temples, "I didn't connect shit." Hawks concludes. Really, it could be anyone but he's willing to bet his money on Shigaraki. He reaches forward and tosses the piece of paper into the shredder and closes out his browser. Ignoring the numbness that settles over him.

"So," Hawks picks at his bowl of ramen, "hypothetical question." Miruko stops shoveling the noodles in her mouth and looks up at him with a grin.

"Oh, this is going to be good. Shoot away."

"If you were a villain," At this she scrunches her face, "Who in the League would you bang?" He watches as Miruko sets down her bowl and stares at him incredulously.

"The fuck?" Hawks bats his eyes at her and smiles.

"Aww, come on."

"Can I kill myself instead?" He clacks his chopsticks together and shakes his head, "Well, none of them! They all look like they never take showers." She scrunches her nose at this and narrows her eyes at him.

"What about you, bird man?"

"You didn't answer my question!"

"I did! No one! Ew. I have standards, yo." Hawks can't help but to laugh, pointing his chopsticks at her accusingly.

"Do I have to pull up your list of exes to prove you wrong?" Miruko rolls her eyes.

"Of course you'd have a list. Anyway, what about you?"

"You have to pick one before I tell you." He picks up some noodles and begins to eat while waiting for her answer. She chews on her bottom lip and sighs.

"If I would have to choose, probably Shigaraki."

"Why?" He can't help but to laugh.

"So I could ask him to kill me afterwards. Now, answer."

"Hmm, I'd go with Dabi." Miruko pulls another face.

"Ew. That cheap Walmart discount rack Freddy Krueger? You're an absolute mad man, an animal."

"Says the rabbit." Hawks ducks in time to avoid a noodle being thrown at him.

Hawks closes his front door and flops down on the sofa exhausted. After lunch there was a onslaught of criminals and he ended up having to pull a double shift. He stretches out his wings and flaps them to work out the tired muscles. A glimmer of white catches his eyes and he watches as a small petal floats up from the breeze he created. Reaching out with a gloved hand, he gently plucks it from the air and studies it.

He finds himself wondering how it feels to be in love. Hawks concludes that Dabi is lucky to even have the capability to fall in love. A small frown forms and he sighs.

To his horror, he finds himself even jealous of Shigaraki. There's no reason to be, yet, here he is- glaring at the petal in his hand. Hawks crumples the petal in his hand and sends it to the trash with a feather.

Oh to be in love.

Author's Note

I know it's another short chapter, I promise I'll make it up with the next and final chapter.

Last chapter will probably be up by the end of the week but besides that, nothing really to update about.
Until, then!
Reviews are always welcome!