A/N: I don't really have an excuse for what took me so long with this chapter. I hate to say it, but I feel like I am getting fatigued with MHA. I am not as invested and in love as I used to be. It's really hard to feel something dwindle that used to hold such a special place in my heart. I really want to end this story for you all, and I will. But I hope that I can do it justice like I have in the past. I feel like this is becoming a chore to read, and I hope that you are all still enjoying some of it.

I will be powering through the timeline in later chapters, so I hope it doesn't become jarring, but it's something that I am going to have to do to get through this for you all. Sorry for the long and sad a/n. But I just wanted to be transparent with all of you.

Thank you for all that are still here and find joy in this story. You really inspire me, even if it takes me a while to show it. :)

Chapter 61

Present Day – Day 184

Standing in front of a mirror in the bathroom of an expensive and abandoned high rise, Dabi examines the skin of his cheeks that reach up to his burned under eyes. The skin that was once fair and untainted, is now blotching with burns that slowly fester into the dark purple patches that consume most of his body.

Dabi has abandoned all attempts to staple the flesh of his body together to keep it from burning off him, and his lack of care is beginning to show. His body is becoming nightmarish looking, and most of his staples have melted off of his face from overuse of his Quirk.

He's been feeling lightheaded, and his body is in a high fever as the burns begin to become infected. A mixture of puss and blood drips from the incisions in his flesh, sizzling against his heated staples and left to evaporate.

His calloused thumb rubs against the skin of his lower lip that he can no longer feel. His memories weaponize against him as the image of Asami's smiling face invades his senses. Back then, he cursed his body for not being able to feel her softest touch. Now, he's grateful for it, because the less he can feel, the easier this is for him.

He steps out of the bathroom, no longer able to stomach the sight of his burned reflection any longer. He enters the opulent living room, that shows off various displays of the inhabitant's wealth. Marble floors, authentic leathered furniture, a wall of wine bottle from all over the world decorate a wall behind glass.

A refrigerator the size of a bank vault opens up to food that was once carefully curated to someone's lush eating habits, now all rotting as it's left abandoned. The kitchen formed from stone and steel dominate the suite in size and functionality, but he knows that the home's previous owner probably never made a single meal from himself and undoubtedly had the help do so.

The home is different from the one that Dabi grew up in. He was raised in a traditional Japanese home. Though the grounds were vast and his home was not small, it was more quaint and humble in its construction. This home uses every building material known to man to flaunt the wealth of the inhabitor.

Everything in this place is modern and meticulously crafted to boast wealth and fortune. And it makes Dabi sick to his core.

He once toyed with the image of taking siege over a place like this for Asami when they won the war. After the heroes of Japan surrendered to Shigaraki, as his second in command, Dabi would demand to be rewarded with the most lavished home the group could find. He would share the ridiculous home with his lover and they would revel in the spoils of war together.

Dabi imagines for a moment Asami in this home, her nose cutely wrinkling in distaste at the choice in sterile decorum.

"Dude must've really liked marble and sharp edges," she'd say as she critiqued the modern western take.

He bites down the fowl image of her walking this place as if she didn't turn the entire League over to the heroes. It was because of her work with Hawks that they were able to get the upper hand on the villains. It was her actions alone that don't have her standing in this room with him.

"Don't leave me, Butterfly. I need you,"

He hates her. He needs to remind himself that he hates her. That she kissed the hero, that she jumped in front of him. Not that he begged her—cried and pleaded like a fucking child for her to come back to him.

Dabi feels his body temperature rising and his vision blurs and blackens at the sides. He shakes his head and tries to regain himself.

He turns and looks to the large windows of the high rise to be greeted by the image of Toga standing in front of the glass that gives them a view of the entire burning city below them.

"The heroes are out there," her voice perks up as she watches them in the distance. "It's probably not safe to go out right now."

Dabi steps next to the blonde as her golden eyes are fixated on the heroes in the horizon. His turquoise eyes turn from hers and onto the city below.

Something is happening between the Top Three Heroes that has them scrambling all over the city. Dabi observes them as Best Jeanist drives his car with Hawks in the passenger seat on his phone. Endeavor propels himself above the car with his flames as he battles the torrential downpour.

"It looks like they're looking for someone," Toga says thoughtfully.

"Your little boyfriend?" Dabi questions with an uninterested grunt.

She shakes her head, "No, Izuku is over there," she points and Dabi follows her gesture to the green-haired boy that propels himself from building to building, seemingly searching the area as well.

"They might be looking for us, should we give 'em a show?" Dabi nudges her with a malicious grin.

Toga returns with a shake of her head. "All For One told us we're not allowed to get caught," she reminds him. "He's probably not happy that we got out like this."

"That nut sack can suck my dick," Dabi snaps with a crass tone. "You wanted to get out, it's fucking boring in that damned cave," he grumbles in an almost childlike tone.

"We should probably make our way back though," Toga says in a manner that shows Dabi she wants anything but. "The others are waiting for us."

Dabi scoffs at this, lacing his arms around his chest and he turns away from the window and leans against the glass. "What is even left of them," he shakes his head with disappointment. "The Boss is gone," he tells her with a harsh tone. "That testicle head took over his body to do his damned dirty work. And because the damned lizard was such good friends with him, he trusted that cocksucker and let him give him a Quirk that does god knows what. Now he's a drooling fucking idiot who can't think for himself just as much as Shigaraki."

Toga turns to him and though his voice is harsh and judgmental, she can hear the sorrow in it. "Twice is dead, Compress and Kurogiri are arrested, Shigaraki and Spinner are shells of themselves," Dabi shakes his head as he closes his bright eyes. "This isn't the League that we joined."

"I guess it's just something that happens to the villains in the story," Toga says sadly, and Dabi opens his eyes to her. "We don't get the happy endings, that's what Ochaco told me."

"Fuck that," he snaps at her. "You write the ending to your own story. Don't let that floating bitch make you think you deserve anything else."

Tears begin to bead at the corner of her eyes as she thinks about her mortality. "Twice died for us that day," she begins with a shaking voice. "And Mr. Compress was willing to die as well," she frowns deeply. "And you wanted to die with Asami when you thought she was gone." Her voice cracks as she turns from him and looks off into the city night.

The blue flames from the Ferris Wheel lights up in her golden gaze as she looks onto the inferno he created. She swallows against the anxiety that's asphyxiating her to no avail. "Ochaco is right," she begins with a cracking in her tone. "In all the stories we read, the villains do something bad and then they die. They never get to love or find their happy ever after," she lifts her hands up to the window and that is when Dabi notices that she is not looking at the city below them, but her reflection in the glass. "I don't want to die because I'm bad," she begins to cry as tears fall down her cheeks. "I never wanted to be bad in the first place. I… I just wanted to be like everyone else."

She begins to frantically wipe at her tears as soft sobs lift her chest while she tries to take in some air. "I just wanted to find someone who loved me as well, and when I found Jin I…" she shakes her head, knowing that it's futile now. "And now he is dead, and Mr. Compress is gone and Shigaraki and Spinner are too, and now you," she turns to Dabi as her voice hiccups from her crying. "You don't think you deserve a happy ending either. So why were we allowed to feel happiness if we aren't allowed to keep it?"

The question hits Dabi in the chest like a ton of bricks stacking against his heart and his vision blurs for a moment. Why was he allowed to feel the elated feeling that Asami gave him when it was just going to be ripped out of his hands when they plummeted apart from one another. Why was he given a glimpse into a life that he could have had with her after he had already forgotten her and accepted his cruel fate. Why, after years of coaching himself to hate and burn and be angry about everything, was he allowed to feel happiness only for it to just… dissipate.

"I don't want to die like the rest," Toga frowns as tears fall waywardly down her cheeks. "I don't want to become some cautionary tale to teach everyone a lesson, or a martyr that opens people's eyes to hero society. I just want to live and I want to be happy!"

Dabi turns from her, unlacing his arms and looking back out the windows onto the city. His eyes fixate on the burning Ferris Wheel in the horizon. He burned it as a means of getting her to notice, and then he would find her and kill her. It was how he wanted his story to end. She would be dead, and he'd finally be free from the nauseating hold she has on his heart so that he could turn that hate towards his father and brother. But the more and more that he thinks about turning his flames on her, the sicker he feels.

His body begins getting hotter than before, and he feels more lightheaded as his vision starts to tunnel and blur.

"Live the life that you want to live, Toga," Dabi tells her as his eyes take in the sight of their burning childhood. "But this is my happy ending," he tells her with a sour taste in his mouth.

"Even after everything?"

That voice brings Dabi turning his head towards her, and he can see her purple hair and lilac eyes right in front of him. Dabi's throat collapses on itself when he looks at her.

"You have more of her blood?" he asks Toga, but seeing Asami in her place.

"What are you talking about?" Asami asks him with a tilt of her head.

Dabi reaches his burning hand out to her, grazing her cheek to feel soft flesh against the pads of his fingers. He blinks a few times to try to clear his vision, with bits of Toga's blonde hair peeking through the vision, but he's still hallucinating Asami.

"Fuck, I think I'm—" Dabi teeters back and forth as he tries to balance himself. How long has it been since he cauterized or cleaned his wounds? How long has there been puss coming from his incisions? How long have these wounds been festering under his burning rage?

Dabi can't finish his thought because before he can say another word, his vision blackens and his knees buckle as he falls into himself.

Toga is quick to catch him, only to wince as his burning hot flesh sizzles at her skin. She yelps and drops Dabi, watching as his limp body crashes heavily onto the ground.

"Dabi!" she cries out to him as she falls to her knees. She places her hands on his chest, shaking his core to try to wake him. "Dabi, can you hear me?"

She can feel how hot is body is and figures that he must be extremely sick from his wounds being left untreated for so long. "I don't know what to do," she cries as whatever healthy skin is left on his face pales. "Please, Dabi! Wake up!"

Present Day – Day 185

Through the early hours of the night, the sky is lit in a bright orange glow behind the clouds of smoke and debris that loom over the city. The Top Three, along with the help of All Might, Deku, and a handful of other heroes cased the city all night trying to find where Asami had gone.

Hawks clutches onto the note that she left him on her bed during the entire search as he silently cursed her.

Keigo,

I'm sorry for everything. I hope you understand.

-Asami

The heroes all gather in a conference room of Central Hospital as they share their reports of the scouting. She was not at her old apartment, or his, or the Todoroki family home that has been burned to the ground.

They combed the city high and low for her, unsure how someone like her could evade the heroes. The worry that Dabi intercepted her at some point and burned her to a crisp has Hawks feeling sick, and he buries the idea into the deepest depths of his head.

Hawks turns his hard eyes on the president of the Commission as she listens lazily to someone's report. He can't listen to people talking about how they've searched the city and have yet to turn her up. He just stands at the edge of the room, arms crossed over his chest awaiting everyone to be dismissed so he can have the conversation that he has been waiting to have since she cried to him about her Quirk and its effects on him.

When everyone is dismissed and the last hero has left the room, Hawks doesn't waste a beat to speak up to the president. "What did you tell her about her Quirk?" he asks her in a leveled tone. He isn't going to allow his pooling emotions boil over as he speaks to her, because he wants to remain cool around her.

The president sighs as she sinks deeply into her chair. "Stupid girl," she scoffs as she tosses her head to the ceiling and lays her forearm against her eyes. She's clearly exhausted and sleep deprived like the rest of the heroes since the war.

She shakes her head after a moment, "Her Quirk was enamoring people she was healing—"

"That may have been how it was affecting you, but it wasn't—"

"Pull your head out of your ass, Keigo," she snaps at him with a fatigued tone that holds little bite in it. She sighs when she sees the betrayed look in his eyes. He's not willing to admit that the feelings that he had for Asami—the three years of loving her—was all some side effect of her Quirk usage gone wrong.

The president coaches her features to be a bit more sympathetic. "I'm sorry she left," she says genuinely, which causes Hawks to look away from her and focus his stare out the window. "I had a plan," she continues with a building frustration in her tone. "She could have used her allure towards Dabi to get him on our side, or at least get him away from Shigaraki where we could apprehend him."

"Dabi tried to kill her," he presses to her, eyes still on the city as if he'd see her in the streets from here. "She was burned worse than what he initially did."

"You aren't that dense, Keigo. We've taught you better than that."

He turns to her now, brows tangling in confusion.

She sighs that he is too blind to see it. She turns her gaze away from him, focusing on a small lift in the wallpaper of the room that's been driving her crazy since they entered. "He tried killing himself," she plainly lets out as if she's talking about the weather. "Probably so distraught with what he'd done, that he figured it was the only thing that he could do; hold onto her and burn themselves into the next life."

Hawks feels sick when she says this, wondering if Dabi is that insane to do something like that to her. He thinks about how she barely survived the injuries, and how if Dabi was successful, he wouldn't have killed just her, but their child as well.

"You think that's because her Quirk makes his heart beat fast?" he asks her skeptically. "You really think that he would go that far for her because she releases endorphins when she touches him? He hated her when she jumped out to save me."

"I think some deranged part of Dabi—or rather Touya Todoroki—thinks that he was doing the right thing in that moment. I think that he teeters so closely on the line of love and hate, that he doesn't know the difference between the two."

Hawks watches her as she takes out a cigarette and lights it in front of him to take a heavy drag. "I am not saying that your relationship with Ms. Hatsuse wasn't real either," she asserts firmly. She looks at him with harsh bloodshot eyes so she knows that he gets what she is trying to say. "I know you were with her for three years, and I know that she didn't use her Quirk on you for the majority of it. What I am saying, is that her use of her Quirk now has muddied your mind in seeing your situation clearly. She's pregnant with another man's baby," she says harshly. "Throwing herself in his flames or not, she chose Dabi over you."

Hawks puts his head down, gripping the note in his hands tighter and tighter as she chooses him once more.

"Maybe it was your unresolved feelings for Kaina that had you rushing into Hatsuse's arms, or maybe it was something else," she shrugs and Hawks stiffens at her comment. "It doesn't matter how it started or how it felt," she teaches him. "It's what's happened now. Be there for her all you want," she inhales another drag. "But be realistic about where you think this will go."

The president lifts herself from her seat, crushing the cigarette in the glass tray on the table. "That still doesn't change the fact that we need to find her, and return her here," Hawks asserts strongly.

"I didn't say it did," she tells him. "I just hope Dabi hasn't reached her first." The president leaves Hawks with this as she turns from him and exits the conference room.

Hawks releases a built-up sigh that he didn't realize that he was holding in. He looks out the window once more, scanning the streets for the hundredth time trying to find her amongst the rubble and destruction. He gives up after a fruitless moment and leaves the conference room.

He thinks about his next plan of action, debating going back out and scouring the streets for her. He doesn't know how to drive since he never needed to learn with his wings, but he cannot fly—nor can he rely on Best Jeanist to drive him around since they called the search for the day, but he can't stomach going to bed after a long night of searching for her without knowing where she is.

He meanders through the halls of the hospital as he thinks about what his next move will be. What happens if they do find her? What is he going to tell her? Will she come back willingly, or has she made her decision?

Hawks lifts his head when he notices where his wayward legs have taken him. His brows press together and he wonders if some subconscious part of him brought him here. He turns to the window that looks into the room. He approaches the glass to see her laying in her bed, head turned away from the hallway window and at the curtained wall to her right.

He contemplates going into the room to speak to her. He contemplates leaving and pretending he never saw her. But all of his thoughts are silenced when Lady Nagant's head turns to him and her lavender eyes open to catch his lingering gaze.

Shit, he thinks to himself but it's too late for him to pretend that he was never here. So, he waves at her. Fucking waves at her like an idiot.

Lady Nagant returns his awkward wave with narrowing eyes as confusion strikes her. She wonders if she's hallucinating him, but remembers that the heroes don't have enough pain medication to waste on a villain like her.

Hawks sighs, figuring this encounter is awkward enough, so he might as well enter the room and make it less so.

"Hey," his voice cuts through the silence between them. "How're you doing?"

"How're you doing?" What kind of question is that? She's bandaged from head to toe!

Hawks immediately regrets walking into the room.

"Umm," Nagant thinks for a moment, eyes darting from him to every other corner of the room. "Fine, I suppose. Bed sores are a bitch," she grumbles as she attempts to shift in her bed, but gives up when pain surges through her body. "Gotta say," she begins with a strain in her tease. "Didn't expect you to show your face around here."

Shame fills Hawks' cheeks as he steps into the room and makes himself more comfortable in her presence. He isn't sure why he's here or what he will get out of meeting with her, but he can't seem to ignore her like he had planned.

The blonde scratches at the back of his head as he leans to the side to fain a cool demeanor even when his racing heart says otherwise. "Yeah," he chuckles awkwardly. "I'm not really sure why…" he lets the words die down when he sees her lavender eyes narrowing on him as she tries to deconstruct his being here. "I should have checked on you earlier," he states with a firm nod and lips curled into a frown.

Hawks looks at Lady Nagant as she's covered in bandages, attached to tubes and wires that monitor her, and shackled to her bed by Quirk-Erasing cuffs. He hates seeing her in such a terrible state. He thinks about their time under the HPSC and how he always looked up to her for her fortitude that she lacks now.

His eyes linger on the sorry state her body has been left in. Because of the lack of healers at Central Hospital, a villain is the least of their worries in healing. Had she been given proper treatment, she would've been in better shape than she is now, and he hates to think about how the hero society has failed her in that way.

"You have something you'd like to say to me?" Nagant challenges him, "Or are mummies a kink of yours?"

Hawks huffs out a chuckle at her attempt at a joke and realizes that he's blatantly staring at her. He licks his lips as he stares at the ground of the hospital floor. "Sorry," he mumbles almost incoherently.

Nagant lies in her bed, waiting for Hawks to say something and stop staring at whatever the floor has done to capture his attention so vehemently. She debates making another snarky comment, wanting him to make a move or get out and leave her in peace. His presence is weirding her out and she'd rather be left alone if he has nothing to say to her.

"Why did you agree to the deal?" he finally speaks up and she rolls her eyes at his predictable request.

"I already told everything that I needed to with that old hag," she sneers speaking of the Commission president. "Even though she didn't hold up her end of the bargain," she grumbles to herself.

That comment gains Hawks' attention, and he blinks up his golden eyes to her. "What bargain?"

"She didn't tell you?" Nagant sneers. "I figured she'd keep her pet dog in the loop." She shrugs her shoulders, "Guess not."

"I'm shocked you'd even agree to a bargain with her," he says ignoring her comment about him.

Nagant scoffs and slides her eyes away from his. "Yeah, well chalk it up to being delirious from Quirk warfare."

Hawks narrows his eyes at this, "So you're where she got that idea about Asami's Quirk?" he questions, schooling his voice to show no inflection of how he feels towards this.

"The one with the Blood Quirk?" Nagant asks. "Yeah, I was promised she'd work on healing me if I talked." Nagant holds her arms outright. "Haven't seen her since."

Hawks coaches himself to remain indifferent as he says, "She left." He rolls his chin with frustration, "The president's delivery was tactless and made her react rashly."

Lady Nagant observes Hawks as he says this, clearly seeing the defeat lacing his tone. Her strong eyes linger on him for a while, removing each layer of defense he's built to make himself appear less bothered by this move than he is. She can see right through his mask because he wore the same one when he captured her.

She decides to poke the bear to see if she can rile him up enough to get some information out of him. "Why aren't you out there looking for her? You two break up or something?"

"Don't," Hawks says with a flat tone. It's not a warning or a threat, but it's not a plea either. It's dead and emotionless.

Lady Nagant's smile drops from her face. Teasing him is only fun if she gets a rise from him. If he's not willing to play along, then what is the point. She sighs and turns her head away from him to look at the curtains that have remained closed and blocking any natural light from entering her room since she was admitted here.

"It's not her Quirk," she mutters out the information begrudgingly. "It's the way that she uses it. If she doesn't move the blood from the heart, I'm sure it wouldn't make you feel—"

"You had to have known All For One was going to booby-trap the Quirk, so why accept it?" Hawks speaks over her because he doesn't want to talk about Asami and her Quirk with her of all people.

Nagant watches him, seeing the bloodshot in his eyes, the dark circles under his lashes, the sunken shoulders. "How about we play a game then," she begins with a tilt of her head. "I give an answer, I get an answer."

Hawks thinks for a second, not wanting to play twenty questions with her, but he has nothing better to do. If he's out searching for Asami all night, he's going to go in a dark place in his mind that he doesn't want to go to. He doesn't want to be plagued with images of what horrors Dabi is going to do to her when he finds her, so he entertains this game.

His silent agreement is all she needs and she smiles to herself as she asks, "She ever use her Quirk on you like that?"

"Yes," he returns tensely. "Why did you agree to the Quirk?" he goes straight to business.

"I was bored," she shrugs with a fickle tone. "Did it make you feel hooked on her?"

"No," he keeps the same indifferent tone. "Did you know your target was a child?" he asks with disgust in his tone to get her to feel something.

"Yeah, didn't care," she casually responds. "How long were you two together?"

"Why do you care?" he presses.

"You didn't answer my question," she teases.

He grits his teeth. "Three years."

Nagant waits and Hawks watches her for some reaction. "Is that your question?" she finally asks him.

"Huh?" he blinks at her.

"Why I care. Is that your next question?"

Hawks' throat bobs as he watches her intense glare that strips him down. He doesn't know why she would care, but would she even give him an answer if he asked her?

"Umm," he stumbles on his words, completely tripped up by her harsh demeanor as she speaks to him. He doesn't understand how she's not reminiscent of their past—she shares the same memories of their relationship that he has. So how can she be so cold? Had the years in Tartarus been that cruel to her? Hawks figures that she probably didn't sit in her windowless cell kicking her feet with glee thinking about the dumbass kid that fumbled through his first time with her behind the Commission's back during her five year sentence that he locked her into.

"Why did you do it?" he questions her quietly instead. She remains still as he elaborates. "Why kill the president when we had a plan for our futures?"

The words fall heavy in the air, and suddenly Nagant doesn't want to play this game as much as Hawks doesn't. It's no longer fun teasing him when the tables have turned against her. She contemplates ignoring it all together and telling him to get out of her room. He would probably oblige considering he's just as uncomfortable with this as she is.

But something has her lips moving of their own fruition and she says, "There was no future." Her words cut Hawks in a way that she doesn't mean, and when she sees the pain in them, she stumbles over herself to explain. "They wanted you to be their poster boy. You were on all the billboards, flaunting shoes and watches and signing autographs for thirsty teens. I was killing people. I was staining my hands with blood that I wasn't even sure was villainous."

This strikes Hawks and his eyes fall to the ground with so much shame in them. He hears his voice banging against the walls of his skull over and over again, echoing louder and louder.

"Outta my way!" Jin's voice yells.

Dabi's visceral cry as he yells out his full name, "KEIGO TAKAMI!"

And her horrible, horrible screams that he can never get out of his head, no matter how much he tries.

"No! Jin!"

Jin! Can you hear me? Jin?"

"Jin! Stay with me!"

Hawks finally finds the strength to look up at the woman in front of him. Her thick purple brows are pressed together with concern, and he figures that she must have been calling out to him, but he didn't hear her over the deafening cries carrying around his skull.

"Because I feel emasculated by her," his voice is so quiet that Nagant has to strain her ears to hear him correctly. She blinks a few times, completely confused at his response when he looks up at her, eyes now bloodshot with tears that threaten to break through his lashes. "You had asked why I'm not out there looking for her right now," he says bringing her back to her first question. He gulps down his shame as he looks away from her. "Because she saw me kill a man. I was supposed to be a hero—her hero—and I killed a man right in front of her. Every time I look at her, I can hear her voice shrieking in my ears as she cries out his name, begging him to stay alive because of what I did to him. I can't fucking look at her without thinking of the life that I took because I was too prideful to let her go."

He was an idiot for kissing her after she told him that she chose Dabi over him. If he accepted her decision, Twice wouldn't have walked in on them kissing; they could have effectively deescalated the situation, and by the time that Dabi would have walked into the room, Twice would have been on their side and vouched for Hawks and his sincerity in getting them out of the war together.

She would have run off with Dabi—the father of her child—and he would have kept his wings, kept his career, and wouldn't have this life stained on his hands. Dabi's fire wouldn't be raging the city, Asami wouldn't be in the city god only knows where, and Twice… He would still be here, in their custody and reforming into the good man that he knows he was.

"You took a life, Keigo," Nagant's voice breaks through the silence that befalls them. Hawks gasps as he hears her harsh and unforgiving tone. "That is something that you are going to have to live with for the rest of your life. Whether or not it was for the greater good, or if he was a villain or not, you killed a man."

Her tone is harsh, "Sorry if that's not what you want to hear. If you want someone to feed you some bullshit about how you did what was necessary and you shouldn't beat yourself up about it, then go find someone else," she explains flatly. "You could have fallen on your sword, you could have allowed that ugly asshole to burn you to a crisp, you could have allowed the villains to ravage the heroes fighting below."

He expects her next words to uplift him, something about how he made the choice to save thousands at the cost of one, but her sentiment does not go in that light. "You should have also checked the situation better. You should have talked him out of it, and gave up your feelings on the girl."

Hawks puts his head down in shame at all the hateful whispers that swirled around in his head being voiced by Nagant's harsh delivery.

"Repent by punishing yourself by not getting your wings back, and try to regain what little scraps remain of your relationship with a girl that's doomed her own damn life by falling for a mass murderer. Wake up and eat your breakfast like a good boy, keep doing those scouting missions to bring in the stragglers, and father that child that's clearly not yours." Her voice makes his throat tighten up as she tears him down with every maliciously planted word.

"No matter how you atone, or how you plan on reforming and mending your bond with the one person who saw you at your absolute worst, nothing will change the fact that you killed a man that day. Could've, should've, would've," she tells him with a shake of her head. "Dwell on it, let it fester until it destroys you; it doesn't change the fact that your innate reaction was to take his life." He gulps as her harsh eyes eat away at any strength he holds left in his resolve.

Lady Nagant looks away from Hawks and onto the curtain that blocks her view of the city behind it. Just behind that thin veil of fabric is a view of freedom and something worth fighting for. Like her windowless cell in Tartarus, she's been conformed to another prison for her actions. The only difference between Lady Nagant and Hawks, is that he got to see the outside after he killed a man.

"The president was talking to his daughter when I shot him," she continues, her degrading tone now dropping to a somber one. "He told her that he was packing his things to leave and see her dance recital. His last words to her were, 'I'll see you soon, Sweetie,'."

Her lavender eyes turn to his, "I can still hear his gurgled breathing after I shot him." Her eyes slide back to the curtain and Hawks notices what she's looking at and the significance of it. "It doesn't get better, you won't forget his face, and it will follow you for the rest of your life." She sighs as she turns her head, watching to see him finally move from his spot next to the door, and towards her. She follows his movements wearily as she continues, "You're an optimist at heart," she scoffs, "but it's all a sad act now."

Hawks flicks his wrist, looking at the time to see that it's approaching sunrise as he continues to walk around her bed.

"I'm not really sure what I expected when I came to talk to you," he says, his voice lighter now as a hint of a humored scoff plays at his throat. "Maybe a therapy sesh wasn't really in the cards."

"You came here for some advice?" she snorts. "How about you actually grow a pair and talk to the girl. Tell her the truth and stop trying to salvage something that's shattered," she tells him harshly. "You're not her hero. You killed a man in front of her and she only jumped to save you because she didn't want the same to happen to you."

Hawks bites down at his cheek at the comment. He situates himself in front of her now on the opposite side of the bed, placing himself in front of the curtain and blocking her view of it. She watches him wearily as he moves robotically around her room.

"You're right," he shrugs casually and she's taken aback by his apathetic move. He's not yelling at her for her harsh reality check, nor is he trying to deny any of it. "I'm not her hero, and she chose to be with Dabi only minutes before I drove that knife into his comrade," he informs her and she keeps her facial expressions neutral.

"But," he continues, "After watching me kill a man, my disciple scooped me into his arms and flew me to safety. And after I ran my voice ragged from screaming and yelling at him to let me down to save Asami instead, I passed out," Hawks tells her as he's lost in thought at that day. "The last thing I heard him say was that I was still a hero to him." He shakes his head incredulously. "Even after everything, he still saw something worth saving in me."

Lady Nagant looks at him through tired eyes as Hawks turns away from her, reaching for the curtain and drawing the fabric back. Bright orange light fills the room as the two of them squint their eyes to adjust to the change. Nagant urgently opens her eyes, fervently trying to open her eyes to take in the sight of the sun, rising in the sky for the first time in five years.

"I know we fucked up," he tells her as he peers out the window that overlooks the ocean. Dabi's flames haven't ravaged this side of the hospital, and the two of them have a perfect and untainted view of the sun rising against the ocean horizon. "I know that I am not the hero that I once was," he says as he admires the view. "But I'm still a hero in his eyes. And I keep fighting for Tokoyami, and these kids so they don't have to bloody their hands."

He glances back at her, seeing the sun reflecting against her lilac eyes as it paints her in a radiant light. "I'm sorry, Kaina," he tells her honestly. "We're killers, but that doesn't mean we have to be villains." He looks back at the beautiful sunrise. "I hope this helps you see that."