"I trust that you are making progress on your mission?" Hawks sits across from his boss, who leans across his mahogany desk and his arms crossed loosely across his chest. Hawks scratches the back of his neck and yawns lazily as he props his feet up on the desk.

"I'd appreciate if you'd take your feet off of my desk. This is mahogany." Hawks doesn't move for a moment and then begrudgingly moves his feet back to the floor, "Now, please," His boss spreads his hands and offers him a slight smile. Not a smile that Hawks likes seeing, he's always detested those fake managerial smiles. "Do you have your progress report with you?" Hawks picks absently at the edge of his gloves before taking out a thin file.

"I was expecting something a little more worth my time, Hawks." The fake smile falls and a wrinkle appears between his boss's eyebrows as they knit together in disappointment.

Hawks resists the urge to lean across the desk and poke it. It's a deep wrinkle, a wrinkle that he's all too familiar looking at.

"Well, ya know. Not like I can just waltz up in there like 'what up my dudes?' and be part of the pack from day one."

"It's been a month." Hawks tosses the file to his boss and stands up.

"And? The League of Villains aren't stupid. They're not just going to blindingly trust the number two hero, renegade or not, in just a month. This mission is gonna to take time." His boss says nothing as he picks up the file and skims over it with an unreadable expression. That damn wrinkle deepens though and Hawks can't take his eyes away from that. Fascinating, he thinks to himself, it's so ugly.

"I expect that next week you will have made more progress than just this. I'm disappointed in you, Hawks. I expected a lot more out of you."

"Look, I'm not a miracle worker here. They're a lot more diligent than you give them credit for. If I try to rush this- this whole operation will be blown over," Hawks pauses, "And you'd probably be on the lookout for a new number two hero too. Because I'm sure they wouldn't hesitate to make sure I disappeared." Just thinking back to Shigaraki terrifying quirk makes him feel sick to his stomach. Hawks stares down into his boss's eyes as neither speak for a long moment. His boss sighs and rubs a hand over his face, hiding his unsightly wrinkle from Hawks' view; much to his relief.

"Just do your job, you're not there to make friends." Hawks can't help but to bark out a laugh.

"If you want me to do my damn job, I gotta be chummy with 'em. Trust me. I got this." He turns away from his boss and walks out the door. Not entirely sure if he got this or not.

From the moment he strolled out of the building, the back of his neck prickles. Ah, there's that familiar sense of being followed. Hawks knew that something felt off back up in the agency building. It was the missing presence of his still unwelcome, delinquent room mate.

Hawks pushes forward and ignores the feeling. He won't lie to himself though, he's slightly impressed that the villain pushed this far into Hawks' own territory. The thought of what chaos could ensue if Dabi was caught this close makes him shudder. Knowing Dabi, he definitely wouldn't go down without a bang.

Their footsteps fall into sync as Hawks turns down an empty alley, he knows that Dabi will want an update and there's no use in making the man wait. As much as he likes driving Dabi to the brink of insanity, he has better things to do right now. Like take his lunch break.

Preferably alone.

"What did you tell him?" The deep baritone voice all but whispers from behind him. Hawks turns around and clicks his tongue.

"Exactly what I told you what I would say." Dabi narrows his eyes and Hawks lets out an exasperated sigh, "Jesus, dude. If I had said anything, don't you think that there would be a a whole shit load of heroes and police swarming around here right about now? I ain't the snitch." Dabi takes a step closer and bares his teeth.

"And what does that mean?" Hawks drums his fingers together and lets out a chuckle.

"Y'know. Snitches get stitches," Dabi remains quiet- turquoise eyes glaring holes into Hawks' head, "...and between the two of us... I'm not the one with the stitches." Dabi shakes his head and a bright blue light flares up between the two men. He holds a hand up to Hawks, the blue flames lick up and down his slender fingers and Hawks swallows down his sly grin.

A bead of sweat runs down his face, he's never been this close to Dabi's fire and never really thought about how hot his fire can get. After working with Endeavor for the better part of the year, he thought he would be used to fire. It seems that Endeavor's fire has nothing on the sweltering heat of Dabi's flames.

"Be careful where you fly little bird." Dabi leans in closer- bringing his flaming hand with him, "It would be such a shame to see those wings of yours burn." Hawks pushes Dabi's hand away and scoffs.

"Please, I have valuable information. You couldn't burn me without getting burnt yourself."

"I was the one that got you in and I can take you right back the fuck out and no one would even bat an eye. So by all means, take one step outta line," Dabi's eyes seem to glow in the dim light of the alley, "Because I won't hesitate." Dabi takes a step away from Hawks and starts to walk out of the alley.

"Oh and one more thing," He shouts over his shoulder, "Don't disappoint me." Dabi melts into the shadows, leaving Hawks alone in the quiet alley. He sighs and makes his way back to the street, not feeling very hungry anymore.

"Seems that I'll be disappointing a shit ton of people in the foreseeable future, huh?"

"Oh my god." Hawks stifles a nervous giggle, "Today is going to be the day I actually die. Holy shit." He stares down at the laundry in front of him. Between the meeting with his boss and Dabi's threat, he hadn't paid attention to the laundry and it seems that some of Dabi's white shirts wormed their way into the washer with Hawks' red ones.

"Welp, it's been a good one."

"What has?" There's that voice again. Hawks curses himself, he hadn't even heard the front door open. He takes in a deep breath and turns around, startled at how close the villain is to him.

Too close for comfort.

"Uh, well you see-" He holds up one of Dabi's soaking and newly stained pink shirt, "Seems that there happened to be a mix up in the laundry!" Dabi says nothing as his eyes shift from his shirt to Hawks and then back to the shirt.

"Really? I doubt it was an accident." Despite keeping his tone flat, Hawks can still pick up a twinge of irritability.

"Yes, Dabi, it was an accident I'm-" Hawks stops mid-sentence, suddenly remembering back to when Dabi started extinguish his cigarettes on his walls. A frown tugs at his mouth for a brief second before he smirks back at the taller man, "Actually, you know what, my man? Maybe this will build character for you." Dabi says nothing as Hawks shoves the wet shirt at him, quirking an eyebrow. "It's called fashion, Dabi, look it up." He pushes past Dabi and in the corner of his eye, he swears he sees a ghost of a smile playing upon Dabi's lips.

As the week passes, Dabi and Hawks find themselves squabbling over petty issues. Both men seem to still be ill at ease in each other's presence, there's just not enough room for two people to be living in Hawks' cozy studio apartment.

Every morning starts the same with Dabi complaining about how shitty his sofa is and in return Hawks complains about how shitty Dabi is for throwing off his groove. They'll eat breakfast in silence, occasionally making jabs at each other. Then both leave for work. Dabi heads out to do whatever evil villains do on a typical weekday and Hawks out to his agency to put a stop to villains.

Ironic that he's now living with one Japan's most wanted villains.

The day will end with one of them stumbling home before the other to attempt to make something that resembles a dinner. Neither men are good cooks and oftentimes they settle for take out instead. Hawks always tries to make it home first, he still doesn't trust Dabi in the kitchen. Not after he tried to cook rice.

With his own quirk.

After dinner, they'll fight over who gets control over Netflix. In Hawks' opinion, since he pays for it, he should have full control. Dabi counters that argument that he's technically a guest and should be treated as such.

Even though Hawks never invited him to live in his too small apartment. Not a guest in Hawks' books.

Eventually it'll be time to head to bed. Hawks always tries to make it to the shower first because Dabi had a nasty habit of not only taking super long showers but also using up all of his hot water.

One time during one of Dabi's infamous hour long boiling hot showers, Hawks got so tired of waiting that he just sneaked into the bathroom and flushed the toilet. Who knew that Dabi could be a falsetto? Since then, both always double checked to ensure that the bathroom is securely locked.

Today's luck was just not on Hawks' side. At all. With an earthquake early in the morning, he was called out to assist in evacuations and rescues before the sun even rose. Working hard all day under the blistering cold winds is not something that Hawks enjoys at all.

When the day finally ends, all that's left of his wings are baby down feathers. Not being able to fly back to his apartment, he opts out to take the train instead. He tunes out the world as he plugs in his headphones and closes his eyes. Trying to ignore the aching of his muscles.

Of course he ends up falling asleep and misses his stop. Because that's just how it is in this bitch of an earth. Having to wait for the train to make its rounds all over again to his stop, he checks his phone and lets out a groan.

"This is just not my day today."

He knows that Dabi will be home by now.

Hopefully his apartment building won't be up in azure flames. But knowing his luck today, he wouldn't be surprised.

What does surprise him isn't the fact that his apartment is intact for another day. Hawks stops at his doorway, the smell of a familiar food hits him like a ton of bricks.

Could it be?

He opens the door and peeks into his apartment. Waiting at the table is Dabi and in front of him sits a large bag of his confirmed suspicious.

KFC.

Dabi says nothing as Hawks shuffles into the apartment, shrugging off his aviator jacket. Dabi still says nothing as Hawks slowly shuffles to the table, he does smile though. A smile that, Hawks notes, is genuine.

"What's up Chicken Little? Here I thought you abandoned your shitty apartment."

"I'm not Chicken Little. He's dumb and a coward," Hawks snaps as he stares down at the bag of KFC. "What is this?" Dabi rests his hands behind his head and his smile grows wider when his eyes flicker to the small wings poking from behind Hawks. He ignores Dabi's smile and wandering gaze as the tantalizing smell of fried chicken makes Hawks' mouth water and stomach grumble. He was so busy with evacuations, that he hadn't had the chance to eat all day.

"I figured with the earthquake, I should be nice enough and get you some dinner."

"Since when did you care about whether or not I had a rough day? Don't you usually go out of your way to make my life miserable?" Hawks sits down on the chair and slowly grabs the bag between them. Dabi pretends to look hurt.

"Is that any way for a hero to talk to his room mate?" Hawks mumbles out a thanks as he grabs the bucket out from the bag and opens it. The smell gets stronger and Hawks resists the urge to break down into tears of joy. All he wants is to curl up in bed and eat the whole bucket of chicken and fall into a food coma. Grabbing a chicken wing from the bucket, he studies it for a second. Remembering who got him the food in the first place.

It looks like chicken and it sure as hell smells like chicken. Who knew that Dabi could be nice when he wanted to?

He takes a bite of the heavenly smelling chicken wing and something immediately feels wrong. Chicken isn't supposed to be this soft. He spits out the chicken into a napkin.

"Tofu?! Really?" He splutters and glares up at the man opposite of him. Dabi starts to chuckle.

"Yeah. Aren't you half chicken or something? Pretty sure cannibalism is frowned upon in the hero world."

"I'm not half chicken! For fuck's sake! I can't believe you!" Dabi pushes up from his chair, still smiling.
"You're right. It's too fun to make your life miserable." He flops down on the sofa and turns on Hawks' PlayStation. Hawks doesn't know whether to scream or cry. So instead, he opts out to throw the bucket of Kentucky Fried Tofu at Dabi. The tofu explodes at the touch of Dabi's quirk and they watch in unbelieving silence as tofu rains down on the sofa.

Dabi turns towards Hawks and threads his fingers through his black hair, shaking tofu bits from his hair.

"I'm not cleaning this up." Hawks marches up to him and points a finger at him.

"Yes you are."

"You're the one that decided to act like a little kid and throw food around the apartment like some sorta fucking monkey. You can clean this up while I take a shower."

Like Hawks said, it's not his day. He starts to pick up the pieces of incinerated tofu from the sofa as the bathroom door clicks shut. The sound of the lock turning in place fills the quiet apartment before the shower starts up.

Author's Note

Okay, I know that Dabi doesn't have stitches and they're more like staples but shhh, let me have this one thing in life. I'm excited for the next chapter though, The League of Villains will be making an appearance and it's going to be fun writing them! Until then, fairwinds.

Comments are always welcome!