A/N: I know I'm late with the update, but I was on vacation, but I'm back now! (But, FYI, most of this chapter was written while I was ON vacation, because even on vacation, my mind is still always on writing and storylines and such. The life of a fanfiction writer, huh? I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!)
The last few chapters in a nutshell:
The Fork Brigade: *creates a distraction for the media and plays UNO*
Denki: *plays keep-away with Shigaraki's body* If I were a fish…
Shouto and Dynamight: *fights Dabi and Hawks to keep them away from Denki and Shigaraki*
Hitoshi: *provides entertaining and informative commentary to keep everyone updated about what's going on with Team Shigaraki*
Neito, Aizawa, and Toga: *take turns having a staring contest at AFO*
"Why isn't he waking up?" Dabi demanded.
Hawks had just asked, and Dabi didn't give time Denki to answer—not that Denki had an answer to give, and maybe Dabi sensed that. Dabi doesn't ask, though. Dabi demands like Denki can pull the answer out of a magic hat.
"How should I know?!" Denki responds, high-key panicking. "I honestly didn't know if I would make it this far, dude. I thought I'd be a flaming pile of greasy bones by now!"
To his credit, Dabi winced. "You weren't too far away from that point."
"I can't even blame you for that," Denki said, glancing over in Hitoshi's direction as the group on the incline started making their way to join the rest of them once it was clear the fighting was over.
Dabi snorted in self-depreciation. "You're the one who just said that it's different because he's not our soulmate."
"Didn't I just explain that I was lying my fucking ass off?"
"And what an ass it is!" Hitoshi chimed, a little out of breath from sprinting ahead of the rest of the group. "What's going on?"
"Tomura isn't waking up," Hawks said from where he knelt by Shigaraki's head, eyes not leaving Shigaraki's face just in case in that moment Shigaraki's eyes would open once again.
"Did Deku say anything about the chances of something like this happening?" Hitoshi asked, directing his question between Denki and Shouto.
"This was Deku's idea?" Dabi asked.
"Hey, now!" Denki defended automatically before Dabi could start planning anyone's untimely demise. "It was my idea, and we only went with it because it was better than Shigaraki's first idea. Deku just knows All For One better than any of us. Plus, he's the best at determining weaknesses and plans of action, so he helped me work out the details. This is all on me, so don't go setting him on fire or anything."
"Let's see what he has to say about this, yeah?" Bakugou said, reaching for his communication device.
Shouto beat him to it. "Broke boys don't deserve no pussy!"
"What the actual fuck, Icyhot?!" Bakugou spat, whirling on him.
If Denki didn't know better, he might have thought that All For One was using a quirk on Shouto or something. He wondered if Bakugou considered that strange possibility or figured that Shouto was just plain out of his mind. Luckily, Denki knew that Shouto and Momo had, for some strange reason, picked up on their own little trio's soulmate call-and-response and made a communication device of their own.
"Sorry, Bakugou," Shouto said, not sounding sorry at all. "I am unfortunately only updated on the hypothetical fuck."
Bakugou's lip lifted in an ugly display of astonishment at how anyone could possibly be as dense as Shouto fucking Todoroki, and he was about to voice those exact thoughts, too, when a new voice came through the communication device, interrupting what was sure to be a devastating insult to end all insults.
"Deku here. What's the situation exactly?"
And didn't Shouto look smug when Bakugou snapped his jaw shut, grinding his teeth in endless frustration, cutting off the insult that was surely no longer relevant to Shouto's situation.
"Shigaraki isn't waking up," Hitoshi supplied. "Was this in any of the scenarios you predicted?"
An unsure hum came through the coms, making the group shift unsteadily and Dabi's and Hawks's heartrate spike, sensing that the group didn't have a definitive plan on where to go from here. "Group Tartarus, how is our target?" Deku asked instead of responding.
"Struggling," Aizawa answered, short and direct and to the point, as always. "He is awake and tossing about demands from staff which is reported to be odd behavior from him. There are some short moments of what seem to be disassociation. He knows we're here but doesn't seem all that phased by our presence or our eyes on him."
Deku hummed through the coms, again.
"Uh, Deku, not that we don't appreciate your input, but that particular input isn't very helpful," Hitoshi supplied.
"He's thinking!" Bakugou snapped the same time Shouto said the same words, though in a more deadpan, informative way.
Hitoshi raised his hands in mock surrender the same moment that those in Shigaraki's immediate vicinity seemed to freeze, recoil, and then blindly start reaching toward their faces and out around them all at once. Before Shouto could make a condescending statement about him and Bakugou finally getting along or agreeing, Dabi unintentionally interrupted the moment.
"Oh, fuck," Dabi said, oh so eloquently. "Who turned the lights out?"
"Uh, guys?!" Denki squeaked. "I don't know about all of you, but I seem to have misplaced my sight."
"Oh! So, it's not just me, then?" Hawks said, reaching out toward the two voices, toward the two who knew exactly the kind of panic that he was currently going through, simmering under the surface at losing such a vital and heavily relied upon sense. "Is it everyone?"
"Not everyone," Hitoshi answered Hawks as he rushed forward to put grounding hands on Denki and to wordlessly reassure that he'd act as his eyes until further notice, already wondering if this was something that his quirk could fix, but hesitant to try it right off the bat when he didn't know the cause of the sudden onset blindness in the first place.
Like Denki was expecting it, he didn't even flinch at the hands coming to rest firmly on his shoulders, turning his face to instead rub his cheek over the top of one of Hitoshi's hands in silent thanks, eyes still blinking and open, but not focusing on anything.
Hitoshi squatted down next to Denki and took his chin gently in his hand to get him to look in his general direction, and Denki complied easily, almost too easily, like he could sense which direction Hitoshi was going to direct him to turn before he actually did it. They always had seemed to be on the same wavelength, but it still sent Hitoshi's heart racing when fate showed in these small ways that they were definitely meant to be together and that this wasn't some cosmic mistake.
"Nothing looks different about your eyes," Hitoshi said. "There's no cloudiness. They're both moving the same. Same for both of you," he directed toward Dabi and Hawks. "Anyone else losing any senses?"
Dabi and Hawks both sent a nod of thanks in his direction as everyone else answered negatively. It seemed that only Dabi, Hawks, and Denki were affected.
Dabi and Hawks didn't have each other to look out for, and Hitoshi didn't mind stepping in, especially not after all they just put them through—he definitely owed them a few (million). So, of course he'd do this for them, even if Dabi wasn't the one who got him started on his path to becoming a hero and even if Hawks wasn't the one who helped his soulmate learn how to turn into lightning. Those were just bonuses that made him feel extra warm and fuzzy toward the mismatched pair.
Unaware of the new situation unfolding on the field, Deku continued, "it just seems strange to me that he hasn't tried to blackout Eraserhead's, Phantom Thief's, and Toga's sight. Maybe he truly doesn't have access to any of his quirks while under Erasure, but that's not exactly how I thought it would go. If it was that easy—"
"What?!" Hitoshi asked through his communication device, sounding breathless with panic, his desperation transmitted clearly, even across the airwaves, the few steps it took to take to Denki taking more out of him than it normally would. "What about this sight blackout quirk, Deku?!"
"What's going on?" Neito asked, concern lacing his voice, his ulterior motive known to everyone without it being spoken aloud.
Sure, it was beneficial and common courtesy for everyone to be updated on new happenings in the field, but Neito couldn't care less about common courtesy or manners. He just needed to know if his soulmates were okay.
"Denki, Dabi, and Hawks all suddenly lost their vision," Hitoshi managed to inform, sticking to the bare minimum facts, though the anxiety lacing his voice couldn't be helped. "No one else seems to be affected, at this point."
To be fair, this was a big deal and an unforeseen happenstance in a huge case.
"Is AFO after us?" Dabi rasped, fists clenching and whirling around as if to defend Shigaraki against an indestructible monster, even without his sight to rely on.
And that was the question of the hour, wasn't it? It sure seemed like something that he could and would do.
Deku's voice seemed downright delightful as it transmitted through the coms. "Were the ones who lost their sight closest to Shigaraki?" Once he received his affirmative answer, Deku laughed, giddy with the idea of incoming success. "I think this is connected—their sudden onset blindness, only the ones closest to Shigaraki being affected, and Shigaraki's delayed return to consciousness."
"Deku thinks he has an explanation, and he doesn't seem worried about it," Hitoshi quickly passed on to those who did not have communication devices, specifically those who were quite literally left in the dark.
"When AFO switched to Shigaraki's body, he didn't transfer with all of his quirks—it had to be a process, one at a time being pulled over," Deku explained. "When our trick worked and he was scared into switching back in hopes of trying again later with someone else instead of dying with Shigaraki, I don't think he has the ability to stop or reverse the transfer of the quirks. I think that's why he's acting different, and it would also explain why he's acting indifferent to his current observers."
"Because he can't do anything about us," Neito said aloud as he realized.
"Exactly," Deku said. "And Shigaraki didn't know that he wouldn't be dying, so he doesn't know that he can wake up. Plus, with the power overload of being the new holder of All For One… well, that would be a lot for anyone."
"You expect me to tell them all of this?!" Hitoshi barked into his coms.
He only relaxed when Denki laughed, unaware until that moment how tense each of his muscles were.
Even while being blinded by an unknown power (for all he knew, All For One could still be coming after them as they sat there), even as they conspired against and said and thought terrible things to stay in the right frame of mind to trick All For One into vacating Shigaraki's body, even as they very well could have died at the hands of their very close friends (and who could have blamed them because Hitoshi would have moved mountains if put in the same position), Denki still laughed when Hitoshi complained about having to do his job. An unforeseen facet of his job, but still his job, nonetheless. A job that he very much signed up for.
He sighed, running a hand through staticky, blond hair, and realized that he was smiling.
"Oh, that's all?" Hawks had asked after Hitoshi's butchered attempt at a retelling with Bakugou's loud interjections to correct him when he got something not-quite-right.
"What do you mean, that's all?" Present Mic asked. "That feels like a lot."
Hawks shrugged, not bothering to turn his head in Present Mic's direction when he knew he wouldn't be able to see him—Hitoshi admired how quickly Hawks could adapt to many situations, even this one. "We've been through worse, honestly."
"Speak for yourself," Dabi said primly, but even those who haven't known him for years could hear the rage below the surface. "What do you mean that Tomura didn't know that he wasn't going to die today?!"
Denki laughed loudly and nervously. It was his let's-cause-a-distraction laugh. It looked even more ridiculous when he was looking around wildly without anyone to actually make eye contact with to initiate an unspoken plan or agreement, being as blind as he currently was.
Oh, Hitoshi was winning soulmate brownie points for this.
"It was Shigaraki's idea!" Hitoshi said, throwing the unconscious Shigaraki under the bus. "So how about you two do your soulmate miracle thing and wake him up, and then you can yell at him instead of putting us all through the wringer, yeah?"
"He's going to have all of AFO's quirks?" Hawks asked for clarification.
"That's what Deku predicts, yeah," Hitoshi offered.
And damn, Hitoshi was going to have to share some of those soulmate brownie points with Hawks, wasn't he? Because that was professional level diversion tactics.
Hawks sucked in a sharp breath, reaching out blindly for Shigaraki's shoulder. It said something that Dabi did the same thing on his other side, blind and unable to intentionally mirror his soulmate, but still somehow doing it all the same.
"He's going to hate that," Hawks said.
"Yeah, but he can handle it," Dabi said. "Just like how he's handled everything else the world has thrown at him."
It probably also said something that they knew their newfound blindness came from Shigaraki, and yet they moved closer instead of moving away, unafraid of their lover's newfound power, knowing for sure that it's just a matter of time before everything is as it should be. The trust they had in him was immeasurable, and if anyone had doubted it before, then seeing that moment in the field, surrounded by melting ice after a battle between friends, between prior mentors and mentees, between heroes, villains, and those who fall somewhere in between—well, it wouldn't be a doubt in anyone's mind that those three belonged together. Their love had been forged through rough terrain and endless trials, and they had only ever come out stronger on the other side for it.
But Shigaraki had more than just Dabi and Hawks, didn't he? Present Mic and Tsukauchi shared a look as they watched.
When it was revealed that those physically closest to Shigaraki were the ones who were blinded because the quirk was now actually Shigaraki's, a few of the bystanders shuffled a few extra inches away, probably not even realizing they were doing it. Present Mic himself had taken a half-step back before he realized what he was doing. (To be fair when he caught himself, he took a good three, large steps back. It wouldn't help anyone if the blindness perimeter widened, and everyone ended up blind.)
Denki, Hawks, and Dabi stayed at Shigaraki's side. Maybe it was because they were already blind and figured it couldn't get worse. Maybe it was because they were blind and didn't feel as though they could move away safely without their sight. Maybe it was because they didn't even consider leaving Shigaraki's side when he was in such great need. That was the one that Present Mic bet on.
The odd thing was that Hitoshi had joined the group, still had his sight, and had yet to move away, even after realizing that the source of the blindness was Shigaraki himself. He hadn't even tried to get Denki moved away to what would be perceived as relative safety. Would Denki go if Hitoshi asked? Maybe that's a silly question because Present Mic doesn't think Hitoshi would ever ask. Hitoshi and Neito had grown just about as close to the League of Villains as Denki had.
Shigaraki, and the League of Villains in general, had quite the support system, whether they knew it or not, and whether they set out to grow that intentionally or not. And it seemed that they were stuck with them now, whether they wanted them or not.
Present Mic dared a glance over at the incapacitated Kurogiri and wondered if the trio's efforts would be enough to overcome what everyone thought would be impossible. They had already completed a few things off the list: Overcoming Full Throttle's quirk, breaking out of Tartarus, befriending the League of Villains and changing the trajectory of how villains and heroes interacted on a societal level, tricking All For One and apparently getting him to transfer the quirk All For One to Shigaraki without him there to continue to possess Shigaraki (and wasn't that a hell of a mistake on All For One's part). What was a few more things to cross off in the grand scheme of things?
"C'mon, Tomura," Dabi said, blindly reaching for Shigaraki's head and smashing his own forehead against the unconscious Shigaraki's.
Hitoshi winced. If Shigaraki was conscious, that surely wouldn't have felt very good.
"You have to wake up," Dabi continued in a low, rough voice. "Keigo and I can't do this without you."
Soulmate thing, Hawks thought. Everywhere around them, people were using their soulmate connections. Even Shouto and Creati who had chosen different romantic partners for themselves still utilized their soulmate connection when it so suited them and their situation. And maybe fate didn't see to it to officially connect Shigaraki to Dabi and Hawks, but Hawks would be damned if Shigaraki wasn't just as enmeshed as the other two were. No, they were not a duo plus an extra. They were a true trio, so why not try to use a tried and true soulmate thing to bring Shigaraki around, or at least show him some support and comfort while he's under to let him know he's not alone and they aren't going to let anything happen to him?
"Hands put your empty hands in mine," Hawks started to sing, causing Dabi to blindly look in his direction on instinct alone, despite the fact that his vision was still entirely quirk-blackened. "And scars show me all the scars you hide. And hey, if your wings are broken, Please take mine 'til yours can open too, 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you. Oh, tears make kaleidoscopes in your eyes. And hurt, I know you're hurting but so am I. And love, if your wings are broken, Borrow mine so yours can open too, 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you."
After a few deep breaths to gather himself, and maybe to just enjoy hearing his soulmate singing, the voice echoing in his head milliseconds after hearing it in real time, Dabi even joined in. "Even if we're breaking down, We can find a way to break through. Even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through hell with you. Love, you're not alone, 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you."
It was a cheesy fucking song, but Dabi knew that Hawks loved it, and not just because of the mention of wings, but also because of the mention of scars. It included himself and the two people he loves most. To him, it reiterated the story that when he exhausted his options with the Hero Public Safety Commission and he went to the League of Villains for help, he expected to leave heaven and find hell as a forcibly "defected hero" once the Commission finally found out he was alive. Shigaraki and Dabi didn't let that happen; they never let his nightmares come to fruition and they were with him every step of the way, never letting him take the fall like the Commission had warned him would happen.
They were everything Keigo feared that he would never deserve.
"Even if we can't find heaven, I'm gonna stand by you. Even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through hell with you. Love, you're not alone, 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you."
Dabi will grudgingly admit that the song's not terrible. Will he ever admit to singing it of his own regard? No. But, that's what Hawks and the soulmate connection is for.
Maybe Dabi didn't even realize he was doing it, not when it first started at least. It was probably just a random song stuck in his head that made its way to his lips before he realized, startled by the sudden thought that his soulmate would definitely also be able to hear exactly what song he was singing under his breath as he scanned over blueprints or kept tempo during a light jog or needed something to entertain himself during his nightly shower.
Eventually, when he realized both Shigaraki and Hawks loved the song, he stopped caring and would just sing it whenever he felt the urge. It disappointed Spinner that it no longer bothered him, and that was one less thing to be used as ammunition against him during their rivalry when they would fight over the best missions.
"Yeah, you're all I never knew I needed. And the heart, sometimes it's unclear why it's beating. And love, if your wings are broken, We can brave through those emotions too, 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you."
Shigaraki grew to love the song after it had gotten stuck in his head from Hawks's occasional humming of it under his breath. Even if not connected by fate, Shigaraki could still pick up the tell-tale tune of Hawks's common earworm before they were even established as lovers, soon after he was introduced to the base. It was hard from the beginning for Shigaraki to act annoyed about it once he looked up the lyrics, wondering if being around such scarred individuals around the League's base reminded Hawks of the song more often.
And if it was going to make Hawks feel more included and get him to eventually turn to the League's side for real, then Shigaraki would let him have his silly little songs.
Shigaraki never noticed when he would start humming the song under his breath in the morning, combing partially gloved fingers through feathery blond and dusty black hair as he waited for his unofficial soulmates to wake up. They noticed, though. And if they pretended to stay asleep for a few extra minutes, well, that was their own prerogative.
"And oh, truth I guess truth is what you believe in. And faith, I think faith is having a reason. And I know, know love, if your wings are broken, Borrow mine so yours can open too, 'Cause I'm gonna stand by you."
"Can't even escape this fucking song in death, can I?" Shigaraki muttered, turning his head to nestle his face in feathery blond hair.
Hawks inhaled sharply, grabbing onto Shigaraki tightly and pulling himself even closer.
Dabi laughed, not even able to insert the typical sarcastic lilt to it in his relief, just a full-bodied, joyful thing. "Fuck you," he managed, his voice still light with happiness. "You'd be so lucky as to be serenaded by the voice of two angels, and the first words out of your mouth would be a complaint. After you went ahead and made us blind, too, you ungrateful bastard."
A/N: Okay, we're getting closer to the end now. I'm thinking there might be one more chapter after this, and then the epilogue, but don't hold me to it! It just depends on how the chips fall, I guess!
Song used in this chapter:
Stand By You – Rachel Platten