"Ha!" Hawks graciously does not fall on his ass this time as he stepped through the warp gate. He holds his hands up towards the ceiling like an Olympic champion that just won the gold medal. Dabi shoulders past Hawks without saying a word and takes a seat at the bar- ordering a whiskey on the rocks. Twice claps enthusiastically from his table and Toga cheers.
"Bravo!" He bows to his personal cheerleaders and laughs.
"Well look at you Hawks! That's the first time that you didn't fall from the warp gate. They grow up so quickly! I'm so proud!" Twice chokes out a sob and Toga sympathetically pats his shoulder.
"Aww, Twice, already getting empty nest syndrome?" He nods and stands up, pulling Hawks into a rib crushing hug.
"Just don't forget to call us!"
"Twice, buddy, I'm not going anywhere." He tries to pry away Twice's arms but remains stuck, he shoots a look over at Toga with his best puppy dog eye impression.
"Little help here?" She gives him a wide smile and twirls her hair around her finger, lost in thought.
"Hmm, to help or not to help?" Her voice is light and airy as she studies the two men, she lets out another giggle before bounding over to them. Gently peeling Twice away from Hawks, Toga's yellow eyes widen and her smile grows- her fangs pressing up against her bottom lip.
"Oh? What's this?" Hawks tilts his head to the side and Twice looks from Toga to Hawks so quickly it would be comical if Hawks didn't find himself in the middle of yet another awkward situation.
"What is it Toga?!" Twice is nearly bursting from energy as he watches Toga sidle up next to Hawks. She blinks up at him and she pokes his cheek, a light blush dusting her cheeks.
"Hawks!" He tries to take a step back, but she grabs a hold of his hands and jumps up and down in excitement, "Hawks, you love someone!" Hawks' heart lurches forward and he's at a loss for words. In the corner of his eye, Dabi visibly stiffens and quickly demands another shot of whiskey.
"What are they like?" Toga brings his attention back to her and she swings her hands at her side, "I like the ones that aren't afraid of getting dirty and ohhh when they get covered in blood, I just can't help myself from falling in love. So what's your type? Wait! Lemme guess!" Twice hangs from her shoulder as both of them look Hawks up and down, Twice whispers something in her ear and she giggles.
"I bet you like a cutesy innocent type huh? You seem pretty vanilla." Hawks wants nothing more than to die. He starts to inch towards the bar, knowing that if he's going to be forced to have this conversation, he's going to have to be a lot less sober.
"Oh yeah! Toga, look at him blushing!"
"Tell us, Hawks, have you even had your first kiss yet?" He feels his face heat up and he starts to fidget with his wings.
"I am not having this conversation with you. The fuck, you're like twelve." Toga pouts and stomps her foot against the floor.
"I'm not twelve!" Hawks pushes his hand against her face and nods.
"Yeah, yeah, sorry. Thirteen." He takes a seat next to Dabi and asks for a sangria. Twice sits on the other side of Hawks and Toga leans against Hawks, still smiling.
"Y'know, now that I think about it, Toga-" Twice trails, scratching his head, "I read somewhere that Hawks and that cute little bunny girl hero were a thing." Toga gasps and starts poking Hawks' cheeks again.
"Ohmigod! You two would totally be cute together!" She starts to sing out, "She's not my type, but I can see you liking her. I told you Twice, cutesy innocent is totally his type!"
"Hawks and Miruko sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Twice starts to belt out at the top of his lungs. Dabi slams down his drink against the marble of the bar's counter and glowers at them.
"I come here for the exact reason of not having to deal with fucking idiots. Shut the fuck up."
"You know what, Dabi? I came out here for a good time."
"Yeah Dabi! Stop being such a buzzkill!" Dabi's eyes shift angrily from Toga to Twice, skipping over Hawks.
"I don't need this shit," Dabi growls as he stands up and sulks out the front door of the hide out, "Later losers." He flips them off and slams the door behind him.
"What crawled up his ass and died?" Twice asks aloud, Toga shrugs before trying to reach for Dabi's unfinished glass. Kurogiri grabs it first and holds it out of her reach, shaking his head in disappointment.
"You know," Hawks turns his attention to Twice, "He's been like that for the past two days." Twice spins slightly in his chair and nods thoughtfully.
"He gets edgy from time to time like 'oh, woe is me!' and 'my life is nothing but darkness!' yadda yadda yadda. I swear Hawks, he's like the perfect poster boy for Hot Topic." Twice's rant is interrupted by Toga's laughter. She hides her smile behind a hand and blinks at them.
"You two are so funny. I know why he's like that!"
"Why?" Hawks and Twice ask at the same time. Toga starts humming to herself as she takes out a knife and spins it against the marble, ignoring Kurogiri's disapproving mutters.
"It's obvious!"
"Toga, please, we're stupid! We wouldn't know obvious if it hit us in the face." Twice begs Toga, pressing his hands together. Her eyes light up as her smile grows and she sighs happily.
"Mr. Hot Topic poster boy is in love." Hawks feels his stomach drop like it was made out of lead, he feels like as if Shigaraki sneaked up behind him and touched him- he feels as if he's crumbling to pieces.
Of course Dabi would have a life outside of his job of keeping an eye on Hawks. He should've known. Dabi is a good looking man, no doubt he has a line of admirers just hoping to score a date with him. How could Hawks be so naïve in the fact that Dabi wouldn't have feelings and needs himself?
He curses himself for thinking that there might've been a chance between the two of them.
He doesn't see Dabi in his apartment when he arrives home, he thinks that's probably for the best and he sighs, sitting down on his sofa that still smells of stale grease. As he turns on his TV, there's a knock at the door. Hawks decides to ignore it. His own mood ruined after the whole Dabi situation earlier in the bar. He figures if it was important- someone would've sent him a text before hand. As he's browsing his games for something to play, the person knocks again.
He curses to himself, looking around the apartment. There's no incriminating evidence that he's housing a villain so he slowly stands up.
"I know you're in there, asshole, let me in!" Of course, who else, none other than Miruko, would decide to pay a house visit?
She bursts through the door as Hawks opens it, he watches her with amusement as she stumbles into the apartment. She turns around and punches him on the shoulder.
"Answer the door faster next time! Dick." She takes a look at his apartment and slowly faces towards him again, sniffing at the air.
"Did you pick up smoking again, Hawks?" He internally face palms. He's grown so used to the smell of smoke, he totally forgot that to someone else- his apartment would smell like a run down bowling alley from all of Dabi's smoking and their shared drinking habits.
"Yeah, I mean- you know how stressful it can get on the job." Her eyes narrow.
"You know that smoking will make your job harder right? It smells like a damn cigarette factory in here. How are you not keeling over dying?" She waves her hand in front of her face and starts opening all of the windows and balcony. A cold breeze whistles through the room and Hawks grumbles to himself as he throws on a hoodie.
"Jesus Hawks- you've really embraced the bachelor life, huh?" She gestures to the old takeout boxes that litter the kitchen counter top and the trash can that's overflowing with beer cans, "When was the last time you've even had a home cooked meal?"
"That word isn't even in my vocabulary. If it ain't dripping in grease, no bueno." Miruko shakes her head.
"Men are disgusting." Hawks raises his hands.
"Whoa, hey there. You're the one that decided to burst into my crib."
"That doesn't make me disgusting though. I mean look!" She waves her hand over the series of cigarette burns marking the wall next to her, "You couldn't even walk five feet to your balcony?" Hawks groans and plops down on the sofa next to her.
"Hey, when my shows are on- I can't miss a thing." She eyes him suspiciously before looking down at the sofa, nose wrinkling in disgust.
"Dude, what are all these stains on here... do I even want to know?"
"Oh, yeah, funny story actually." Hawks chuckles, "So you know in those infomercials where they have like a huge bowl of Cheetos and reach over to hang up the phone and totally knock the Cheetos everywhere?" She nods.
"That totally happened to me. I was just so into my game, I didn't notice when I knocked my tub of KFC onto myself. I smelled like chicken for days afterwards." Miruko just stares at him blankly before sighing and rubbing her temples in defeat.
"You're an absolute mad man. You live like a god damned animal."
"Says the rabbit." He shoots her a finger gun and she punches him again.
Hawks has long since finished his dinner and laying in bed, looking up at the darkened ceiling. Dabi still hasn't come back yet but after learning what Toga told Hawks, he guesses that Dabi is probably with whoever... doing whatever. The thought of that tugs at his heart and he clenches his jaw. He can't stop thinking about it though, no matter how many times he screams at his mind to shut up; he can't stop himself from thinking up of different scenarios.
He's so tired and wants to sleep so badly but he can't. Hawks has grown so used to the warm body next to him- now that his bed is empty and cold, sleep refuses to come.
He's still lying in bed awake when the door creaks open. He turns his head and sees Dabi strolling in with his hands shoved into his pockets. Dabi glances at Hawks and slouches off to the sofa where he plops down.
The silence is insufferable.
"Uh- have a good night?" The clock at Hawks' bedside tells him that it's nearly six in the morning.
"No." Dabi's answer is terse, "It was cold as fuck last night." Hawks sits up and swings his feet over the side of the bed.
"Wait- why were you outside all night?" Dabi slumps further into the sofa and glares over his shoulder at Hawks.
"Because I wasn't about to walk on in here while you had... company over for the night." Hawks tries to process what Dabi is saying and comes up blank.
"I didn't have company over though?" Dabi waves Hawks away and turns around, hiding his face.
"Bullshit. I saw Miruko here." He hisses out and Hawks is taken aback. He's grown so used to Dabi's laid back personality that he's momentarily at a loss of words. Hawks stands up and glares at the back of Dabi's head.
"I don't know what's gotten into you lately but fucking stop dude. It's driving me crazy."
"Fucking stop what? I'm not doing anything." Hawks storms over to the sofa and stands in front of Dabi, both men glower at each other. The tension in the air is thick enough to cut with a knife.
"You're acting all weird!" Dabi massages his temple and closes his eyes with a sigh.
"I should've stayed outside. Jesus, this is so fucking stupid." Hawks wonders if this is a Todoroki specialty, getting someone so frustrated that they want to launch themselves out of the closest window. The still open balcony door does look pretty tempting to Hawks but he knows if he does, Dabi would win the fight.
Hawks refuses to let him win a fight.
"Why would you even stay outside?"
"You really must have a bird brain huh? You had her over here! In case you forgot because apparently your brain is the size of a damn pea, she's a hero. I'm a villain it would either end with her trying to arrest me, or me trying to kill her. Most likely both. Besides," Dabi's eyes dart up to Hawks' for a second before turning downcast. In that brief second, Hawks saw pain in his eyes. "Besides, I... didn't want to see you with her."
"What do you mean see her with m-"
Oh. Hawks finally understands the reason for Dabi's foul mood the past two days. Dabi clicks his tongue and shakes his head, standing up.
"I gotta go. I have a lot of work that Shigaraki wants me to do." Hawks heart starts to pound in his ears and he reaches for the retreating form of Dabi. He pauses, looks over his shoulder and narrows his eyes at Hawks.
"Hawks-" He stares up at the scarred man, engulfed in the beauty of his eyes. Hawks tentatively reaches down and takes a hold of Dabi's hand- reveling in the warmth of his fingers. Dabi doesn't move away and instead looks down at their interlocked hands. Hawks adjusts his own fingers so that his fingers laced between his. He's pleasantly surprised on how soft the unscarred portion of his skin is. They stare down at their joined hands before looking at each other. Dabi's eyes are wide and full of surprise. Hawks can't help but to laugh.
"Oh my god, we're such idiots." Dabi still stands paralyzed- mute with disbelief. Hawks feels his heart beat even fast as he leans closer to Dabi, his breath whispers gently against Hawks' skin, his own breath hitching up. They don't break eye contact as they slowly inch closer. Hawks pauses and drinks in the dangerous beauty of Dabi.
A second ticks by and Hawks closes the distance, their lips meet. He's mesmerized by the softness of Dabi's upper lip and the contrast of his dry and raspy bottom lip. It isn't a bad feeling. Dabi's arms wrap tightly around Hawks torso and Hawks melts into the kiss.
Their kiss grows more ravenous and panicked. The need to be closer to the other, hands wandering and grabbing.
"It's always been you." Dabi murmurs into the crook of Hawks' neck before gently biting him, slowly making his way back up to Hawks' mouth. Dabi slowly backs Hawks up to the bed and pushes him gently down into the mattress.
Author's Note
Aaaaaaaaa!
That's all I have to say for this chapter.
I wanted to wait longer but I knew that this chapter had to be the one when I was writing it.
Also, a word for future chapters in this story, I won't ever write smut because I suck at it and also there's already like a lot of smut of dabihawks. Things will be implicated but never going into full detail.
That's it for now, until then. Fairwinds.
Reviews are always welcome!