Chapter 52

Present Day – Day 85

Hawks groans when he tries to open his eyes, but he feels as though they are cemented shut. Every inch of his body is aching and he feels like he is dying… or maybe dying would be better since he wouldn't feel anything anymore? He isn't sure what's better, but all he wants to know is where he is.

After a few moments of battling with his body to open his eyes, he finally manages to open his sealed lids. He takes in the room immediately, noticing that he is in a sterile hospital room. He groans as he attempts to lift himself into a seated position, but figures the effort to be far too ambitious seeing as how he barely managed to open his eyes.

He's wearing a breathing apparatus on his face, an I.V. drip attached to the back of his hand, and various sensors cling to his chest while a steady beeping noise fills the room.

Hawks attempts to grab for his aching head when a whirring sound cuts over the heartrate monitor. Hawks stiffens when he feels his bed slowly lift into a seated position, turning his head slowly to see Best Jeanist standing next to him, controlling the remote to his bed.

"Welcome back," he greets him with a flat hoarse tone.

Hawks looks at the blonde fashion hero. He's never seen him never at his best; even when he was momentarily retired, his hair and clothing were still pristine as ever. However, now Best Jeanist looks as though he's been through the wringer. His normally groomed hair is disheveled from what appears to be a restless sleep, his clothing fits loosely on him as a clear indicator that he's been sleeping in it, and his eyes are bloodshot with busted red vessels to further illustrate the lack of rest he's been getting.

"You've been absent for a while, though not as long as I was, I suppose," his tone is rough and Hawks can tell that his throat is in terrible shape as well. "Sorry about the pain, there is a very limited amount of painkillers available, so they are being distributed sparsely."

"Jean—" Hawks groans when he realizes how tender it is to speak.

"Don't strain yourself," Best Jeanist speaks over him. "Your esophagus is completely torn from smoke inhalation and screaming, no doubt."

It's then that Hawks remembers the final moments that he was conscious before he fell into a three-day sleep, and he's desperate to know it wasn't a hopeful dream. "Asa—"

"She's alive," the blonde tells him before he can strain his voice any more. "She's in a separate section of the hospital reserved for wounded civilians. You've been placed in the section reserved for the heroes. You're in an undisclosed location that we've kept quite hidden from the villains for fear of retaliation."

Jeanist looks down at Hawks, seeing the desperation in his eyes as he begs to know more about her and he sighs. "She was in pretty rough shape," he admits because Hawks deserves to know the truth and not a sugar-coated version. "Had that young student not found her when he did…" he stops, realizing there's no point to go there since she's alive now. "She's getting the treatment that she needs, but she is still unconscious. The doctors imagine she will be for some time considering the extent of her wounds."

Hawks leans his head back against the bed exhaling the built-up breath in his lungs as he looks up to the ceiling in relief.

She's alive.

"The staff here have been doing there best treating everyone's wounds," Jeanist continues. "Recovery Girl and other healers are making their rounds amongst the heroes, but it's clearly been a strain on their Quirks," he informs him with a grim tone. "However, there is a semblance of good news," he perks up, "I spoke with Recovery Girl and she informed me that with her continuous treatments that she has scheduled for you, she expects your wings to make a complete recovery, and you'll be back into action in no time."

Hawks doesn't respond to this, and Jeanist can tell that the information is not received with as much positivity as he had expected. He moves to continue to catch the young hero up to speed. "Endeavor and his interns are all worse for the wear, and will also be out for some time," Jeanist continues to inform him. "Though all of them are expected to make a full recovery. Your intern is well. He's been walking around and visiting you periodically."

Hawks nods once, smiling softly at the idea that Tokoyami is well and safe. He saw the fear in the young boy's eyes when he was yelling at him to save Asami, and he couldn't be prouder of the kid for how he handled the tough situation.

"I have this," Best Jeanist says, holding out a phone. "It has an app installed that allows for text to speak while you rest your voice," he says handing him the phone.

Hawks takes the small screen into his burned hand. His fingers are shaking as they open the app and glide over the touchpad keyboard. Shortly after he types, the robotic voice reads without inflection, "I want to see her." Hawks makes no point to camouflage his relationship with Asami as he has with Best Jeanist in the past. He doesn't have time to dance around the truth that he cares too deeply for her, and if that means that everyone will know of their relationship, then so be it.

Best Jeanist sighs, looking at the hopeful golden eyes of the young man. "I don't think that's wise—" he begins.

Hawks looks down at the phone, pressing the button to repeat, "I want to see her."

Best Jeanist scratches the back of his neck, "You haven't walked in sometime," Hawks moves back to his phone to repeat the phrase as Jeanist continues simultaneously "the walk may be too much."

He looks at Hawks with pressed eyes, trying to communicate just how important it is for him to understand, "She's not in good shape," he warns him, now telling him the truth of why he doesn't want him to see her.

The look on Hawks' face is a desperate one. He doesn't care what state she is in. He needs to know that she's alive and she's okay, and he needs to see if for himself. Hawks is relentless and Jeanist knows that he won't stop until he's able to see her again. "Alright," he releases, "I'll take you to her."

It takes a while for Jeanist to get Hawks' I.V. on a stand with wheels as well as a portable breathing apparatus. Once everything is set up for him to move, Jeanist helps Hawks slowly lift out of his hospital bed and put some weight on his feet. The hero snakes his arm under the pits of the younger man and allows him to lean on him for support. Hawks grunts as he lifts himself from the bed and feels the pressure of Jeanist's arm around his burned and bandaged back, but he persists through the pain at the promise of seeing her again.

Hawks tries to summon his wings to extend and give him some balance, but when he realizes there is nothing left of his back, he grimaces and is reminded of the manic look on Dabi's face when he burned away his flames. Hawks shuts his eyes tightly and wills the image away.

For a while Hawks is fully dependent on Jeanist to hold up his weight as he limps down the halls of the hospital. He's greeted by the sight of so many limping and beaten heroes moaning and groaning in the hallways as they clutch onto themselves to hold back the pain.

So many people have been hurt as a result to the war and so many have been killed. He looks around the room at the heroes around them, so many of them he recognizes as his colleagues, and all of them losing the spark in their eyes; that ray of hope that had them getting out of bed each day to patrol the streets and make the world a better place.

There is no better place here

There is no ray of hope.

There is only pain and death.

Hawks clings onto the metal frame of the I.V. stand as he tries to gain the strength to hold up his own weight and not rely on Best Jeanist to walk around. He is the Number Two Hero, and something about him being so fucked up that he needs to clutch onto the Number Three to even stand makes him feel anything but heroic.

The hospital is large, and Hawks feels like they have been walking for hours. He notices that the farther they get away from the section of the hospital that houses the heroes, the more despairing the condition of the patients is.

In this wing, the hallways are more crowded with makeshift beds for bodies laying on the floor, civilians in worse shape than the heroes being neglected proper treatment, and medical professionals rushing from one hopeless case to the next.

Hawks pulls his eyes away from the horrific sights as he focuses his bruised eyes in front of him, his vision blurring away the bodies below him and he no longer feels like a hero as he ignores the crying civilians below him.

Best Jeanist pauses in a hallway as he looks around at the bodies laying on the floor. Hawks' heart skips at the idea that she's just been dumped on the floor here with the rest of the moaning bodies of abandoned lives. When he can't find what he is looking for, the hero stops a nurse rushing down the hall.

"Best Jeanist?" the woman questions with widened eyes, only to turn her gaze to see Hawks as well. "Hawks? What are you two doing here? This isn't the hero's sector," she informs them as she struggles to juggle various medical supplies in her arms.

"We're looking for a civilian that was admitted here. Last I visited her, she was placed somewhere around here. Name is Asami Hatsuse," Best Jeanist informs the woman as Hawks looks up at the man with shocked eyes, not realizing that he would care to visit her while Hawks was out.

The woman informs the hero that dire cases have been transferred from the hallways to separate rooms to prevent them from catching anything that can cause them to crash. She gives them a room number and Jeanist thanks her.

He escorts Hawks to a small room—one half the size of his—to find a few medical beds wheeled in with little to no room to navigate between them. He looks down at the beds in the room, seeing three civilians in rougher shape than those in the halls.

In the first bed is an unconscious man who has lost his left arm, in the second bed is a woman whose shoulder and collar bone are completely crushed, and in the final bed is her.

Hawks feels his throat tighten as the familiar feeling of a sob threatens to break through his lips, but he swallows it down. He needs to be strong for her, even though she's not awake to see him.

He steps towards her with slow strides, almost feeling as though if he takes his time, it will give her time to heal and wake up and greet him with her warm smile that he loves so much. But when he reaches her bed, he is not greeted by her dimpled smile, but instead he's returned with a dreadful sight.

He must have been foolishly optimistic when Tokoyami told him that she was alive. Part of him fantasized that she was found unscathed, and she was left as perfect as she was, but that was far from the truth that's staring back at him.

He clutches onto the railing of the hospital bed for support so his knees don't give in. His golden eyes scan every inch of her with knitted pained brows. Her face is burned around her cheeks and neck with clear finger imprints where Dabi's scalding hands grabbed for her, bluish purple bruises litter her face as superficial cuts and scraps accompany them, she has two black eyes and a busted lip, a large scar rips from her scalp down her left eye, and her arms are covered in brutal looking burns seen through gauze bandages as puss and blood seep through the coverings.

He feels himself getting nauseas at that sight of her and he finally understands why Jeanist didn't want him to come see her. He takes a staggered step away from her, feeling the blood rush from his head as waves of sickness crash into him. It's all too much for him to handle and he turns away from her, bending over towards the trashcan, tearing his breathing mask off of his face, and painfully dry heaving as there are no contents in his stomach to upchuck.

Best Jeanist places his hand on the young man's shoulder as he clings onto the I.V. stand for dear life while tears bead at his lashes from his raw heaving.

He spits into the trashcan and after a moment of gathering his wits, his shaking hand pulls out the phone to type, "She's in worse shape." Best Jeanist nods and Hawks continues. "She wasn't like this when I left."

It's clear to Hawks from the burns on her face and arms that weren't there when he was pulled away from her that Dabi moved to finish the job. He must have seen that she was still alive and wouldn't let her live after throwing herself to save Hawks.

A powerful wave of hatred rolls through his limbs when he thinks about that monster trying to finish her off as a punishment for saving him. He doesn't have much strength in him, but if Dabi were in this room, he'd enjoy watching the life leave his eyes at his fingertips. And he hates that Dabi has done this to him. He was supposed to be a hero, he wasn't supposed to get satisfaction with the idea of taking someone's life.

"Hello," a woman walks in with a white coat and her hands in her pockets. "My name is Dr. Tanaka," she informs the two heroes who respectfully turn and bow to the practitioner.

"Hello Dr. Tanaka," Jeanist begins, "Would you be able to give us information on this patient?"

She sighs, eyes heavy with dark circles forming under them; it's clear that she hasn't slept in days. "She's in rough shape; third degree burns covering roughly 60% of her body, concussed, with three broken ribs. It's a miracle that she survived."

Hawks releases an uneasy breath as fog fills his breathing mask.

"Do we have any idea how she was able to survive the fall and burns?" Best Jeanist asks.

The doctor shrugs, "We haven't had time to examine her much, as you saw in the hallways, there isn't much downtime here to examine each patient as thoroughly as we'd like."

Hawks' brows furrow as he looks back down at Asami, noticing the wounds again, seeing superficial scrapes that should have been healed by now with Recovery Girl's Quirk. He holds up the phone as his fingers type, "How often does Recovery Girl come by for her?"

"Recovery Girl?" the doctor turns to Hawks now with a confused look. "She and the other healers don't come down here."

Hawks blinks at the woman, confused and questioning if he heard her correctly. "What?" the robotic voice speaks.

Best Jeanist tightens next to Hawks as the doctor informs him what the hero was hoping she wouldn't. "The healers are reserved for the heroes," she motions at the people around her. "All we can do for them is give them fluids and medications then hope for the best," she says with a defeated tone.

Hawks cocks his head up to Best Jeanist who refuses to look at the man's golden deadly stare. He knew she was not getting the proper treatment that she needed for her critical condition, but there was nothing that he could do for her.

Hawks looks around the room once more, taking in the dismal dimly lit room that she was rolled into with the rest of the people stacked on top of her. He feels his blood boiling as he thinks of how she's been discarded as if she was not the reason that they were able to have the intel that they did to gain the upper hand on the villains and succeed in the war in the first place.

His hand shakes as he holds up the phone. "I'm taking her with me," the robotic voice announces to them.

The doctor stiffens at his declaration and looks to Best Jeanist. The hero turns to Hawks with a sorrowful expression. "Hawks, we cannot, she needs to stay—"

"She comes with me," Hawks quickly types out before Jeanist can give him some bullshit about rules or regulations. "She'll stay in my room," the robotic voice speaks. It isn't fair that Hawks has an entire room to himself while she's set to rot in hell like she's some trash.

The doctor tightens her shoulders and looks at the Number Three Hero for guidance. The blonde turns to the young man, "Recovery Girl's Quirk is meant for the heroes. There is only so much healing that her Quirk can provide, and it needs to be reserved for the heroes for when the villains—"

"I don't care," the robotic voice returns with an infuriatingly monotoned voice that doesn't convey the hatred that's spilling over in Hawks' chest. He clutches onto the hand railing of her bed as he tosses the phone onto the bed. His shaking hand reaches for his mask, grabbing at the plastic dome and tearing it off of his face. "She's…" his voice is tearing at his chords, but he needs to say it with his own voice. He won't let some app speak for him, and he won't let them think this means nothing to him. He clears his throat and makes another painful attempt. "Coming… with… me," the words spill from his lips with as much venom as he can manage with the state that he is in.

Best Jeanist sighs, knowing the hero will not relent with this and turns to the doctor, giving her a nod and communicating with her to prepare the transfer. Hawks exhales as he looks down at the soft look on her scarred face, promising without words that he will protect her, whatever the cost.

Recovery Girl's lips purse to the side as she's lost in thought. She looks down at the purple-haired girl who lays in the bed before her. Best Jeanist and Hawks stand across the bed from her as she formulates her response to them.

"She is welcome to stay here," the old woman begins, "But the healers and myself will be unable to work on her," she says and Hawks stiffens, preparing to argue. "There are far too many heroes that are in critical condition like her. We have been asked by the Commission to focus on them over any civilian."

"She's in worse condition than half the heroes out in this ward," Hawks types on the phone as the robotic voice speaks with no inflection.

"I've gone over the rotation schedule," the old woman begins as she looks down at the clipboard in her hands. "There is no free moment for anyone to take her on, especially with the condition that she is in."

"Hawks—" Jeanist begins but the blonde types out his response.

"Then have her take my spot in the rotations," the robotic voice states.

Recovery Girl and Best Jeanist stare at the young man with wide eyes. Recovery Girl looks down at her clipboard a few times before finally saying, "If she takes over your slot, you won't get further treatment."

"I know," he returns.

"We will be unable to assist with any further healings," she continues.

"I understand."

"I don't think you do," the woman scolds him with that signature granny tone. "If we halt your healings now, your wings…" she shakes her head and looks down at the clipboard because seeing the stubborn look on the young man's face is too much for her.

"Hawks," Best Jeanist beseeches him. "Your wings will be lost," he finishes for Recovery Girl. "You won't be able to do anymore hero work again. You'll never be able to fly again," he stresses.

Hawks closes his eyes, breath shaking behind his mask as he understands perfectly what the implication of him relinquishing his sessions in favor for her. His hands quiver against the keypad as he types up his response, wishing that his voice was strong enough to speak up for this. "She saved my life."

"She wouldn't want this," Best Jeanist continues to implore him and Hawks knows all too well that she will hate him for doing this as he's brought back to their conversations about damsels. But she jumped into the flames of hell to save his life. Without her, he would be dead and there would be no having this discussion. If losing his wings brings her back to some semblance of what she used to be, then he would gladly pluck them himself.

"It's what it means to be a hero," he tells them, and he hates how monotoned the robotic voice returns the sentence to them.

Best Jeanist presses his lips into a flat line, knowing that he cannot fight with the young hero on this since the decision has already been made. He nods to Recovery Girl and the old woman shakes her head with disapproval, not seeing things in the same way that the young hero does but complies as she crosses out Hawks' name from the rotation and writes in Asami's.

Present Day – Day 87

Two days have passed and Asami has been regularly visited by Recovery Girl and other healers. The scars on her face have almost fully disappeared, her bruising is gone, and the burns on her arms and neck are healing well.

Hawks was informed that the burn marks will never be able to be fully healed, and the marks on her back are still vicious looking, however, they are not actively bleeding or secreting puss, so her chances of getting an infection are minimal and she's on the upswing of being fully healed.

The blonde hero has not left her side once since she was transferred to his room. And despite Best Jeanist's attempts to get the young hero out of her room for a break, he refuses to leave her side and wants to make sure that he is in the room at all times should she wake up. Most of his day is spent holding her hand, having lighthearted one-sided conversations, and sleeping next to her.

"Do you remember the lookout I took you to when you finally got over your fear of flying?" the speakers of his phone voices as he types out what he is thinking. "It had an amazing view of Mustafu. And the way the city light gleamed like stars in the sky," he muses as a soft smile touches his lips when he's reminded of the night that he held her in his arms looking out on the night's city scape. "I'll have to take you there when you wake up," he promises her, but the smile twitches against his lips as the reality that he won't be able to fly her there scratches at the back of his head.

He reaches out for her hand as he does each day. He rubs her knuckles underneath the I.V. insert on the back of her hand and stares onto her beautifully peaceful face. The burns of Dabi's fingerprints are almost faded, just like the memory of him doing this to her. Only like that memory, the scars will never be forever removed.

He lifts himself from the stool that he sits on next to her bed and pulls down the breathing mask to give her a soft kiss on her forehead. He hears someone enter the room and he pulls away from her to see two white-haired people walk in.

Hawks quickly backs away from Asami when he recognizes the two to be Fuyumi and Natsuo. "Oh, sorry," Fuyumi awkwardly takes a reactionary step back into Natsuo who holds a vase of flowers in front of him, almost dropping them.

"Hey watch out!" her brother snaps when he peers around the flowers to notice what has her frozen and wide eyed. His shoulders loosen when his fossil-colored eyes reach the golden gaze of the hero. "Hawks?"

Hawks quickly reaches for the phone, fumbling as he types, "Sorry for the scare. I was just visiting Ms. Hatsuse," he addresses her formally as he apologetically bows to them.

Before Hawks can make up some weak excuse for why he was visiting Asami, Fuyumi smiles at him with a warm grin, "It's alright, Hawks, she told us about you."

Hawks blinks back at her, his lips parting slightly at her cheerful tone.

"She told you about him, not me," Natsuo says as he steps from his sister to place the vase on the table next to her bed. "I'm still not over that, mind you," he grumbles. "I would've kept the secret much better than you did."

Fuyumi giggles at her brother's irritation and turns back to the hero in the room. "How's she been? We've been meaning to visit earlier, but they wouldn't let us in without an extensive background check. They are really worried about Liberationists slipping through the cracks."

Hawks grabs for his phone and begins typing, "She's doing much better. Doctors say she should be awake anytime."

Fuyumi smiles at him before stepping towards the girl laying in the bed. The white-haired woman quickly loses her smile when she looks down on her friend to see the state that she is in. Hawks watches her carefully as she reaches for her hand and grasps it into her own. She sniffs as she moves to brush her cheek from the tears with her other hand.

Natsuo quickly steps to his sister and rubs her shoulders comfortingly as he glances down at Asami from over her shoulder. He's tempted to ask how this state could be considered 'better' but asking would give way to the realization that she was found in a much worse state than she is now, and he can't bring himself or his sister to picture that.

He glances away from her and onto the hero who watches them from across the bed. Natsuo can see the longing in his eyes as he looks onto Asami, and it's obvious just how much he cherishes her. "Thanks for taking care of her," Natsuo says.

Natsuo always fantasized that when Asami was ready to bring Hawks by and introduce him to the family, he would act as the tough protective older brother who was impossible to impress—despite being younger than Asami. He imagined that he would size up the hero, since no one was good enough for her. He imagined she would get annoyed with him, and tell him to lighten up, but he would be persistent to ensure that Hawks was good to her. But eventually he would lighten up and accept the man as a suitable match for her because he would see how happy he made her. He would see that she was finally smiling again ever since…

Natsuo clears his throat at the memory of him, and the recent video that brought his name reeling back in his mind and tainting the memory of his brother. Ever since that day… Fuyumi refuses to acknowledge it, and his mother has seemed to regress as she refuses to speak to them until she's able to speak with their father. With his father and Shouto unconscious, Natsuo feels like his family is falling apart all over again.

"You know," Natsuo begins as he sees the yearning in Hawks' eyes. "We didn't believe a word he said on that video about you."

"Natsuo!" his sister turns to him with a snap while Hawks looks up at him.

"He deserves to know!" he snaps back at his sister. "I just thought you should know that," he says looking back at Hawks who is more confused than anything.

"We should go," Fuyumi turns from Natsuo to Hawks. "We still need to visit Shouto and Dad," she smiles at Hawks and bows her head to him. "Thank you again for taking care of her."

When they leave the room, Hawks is left with the last comment bouncing around in his head. He doesn't know what Natsuo means by 'video', but he can't help but feel a sense of dread crush his chest. He swallows hard when he pulls out his phone and opens up the internet browser.

He types in 'Hawks' and the first suggestions read 'hawks girlfriend', 'Hawks Best Jeanist', 'Is Hawks bad' 'Hawks murderer', 'Hawks villain', 'Hawks video'.

His brows knit together as his heart pounds against his chest when he sees headlines that question his past, clickbait articles that call him a monster, and clips with Dabi sitting shirtless on a couch.

His shaking thumb presses on a video and it begins to play. He holds onto his phone with white knuckles as he's forced to sit down with weakening knees. He exhales from pursed lips as he hears Dabi recount his life with Endeavor and the abuse he endured as a child. It isn't hard for Hawks to wrap his mind around the idea. Though Endeavor has always been his idol, he knows what it looks like to grow up with an abuser, and he can see it clearly painting Dabi's eyes. Beyond the frenzied look in his stare, there is pain clearly lacing his expressions.

He finds himself feeling sorry for the man until…

"Take Hawks, the Number Two Hero," the screen changes from Dabi on the couch to Hawks stabbing Twice in the back.

Hawks instantly closes his eyes, not wanting to relive another moment of that day. He can hear Twice crying out on the video, and his voice pounds in his head like a never-ending haunting.

"Stop it! You're killing him!" Hawks' eyes flash open when he watches the video to see Asami crying on the screen. Those were not her words to Hawks, rather a begging plea to Dabi to stop his assault on him.

"… He still killed him," Dabi's voices and Asami's visceral cry is heard once more as she cries out to Twice and the video shows her running to him and pulling her into her arms.

"That crying villain who's trying to run away to save his friends? I did my best to protect him but Hawks skewered that guy without the slightest hesitation."

The video repeats Hawks driving his sword into Twice and he turns away from the camera and shuts his eyes tightly. He can't watch this again. He can't hear her cry again.

"And the girl?" Dabi's voice quietly continues over the speaker that Hawks covers with his clenching fist. "Sworn to protect those in need and Hawks used her as a shield when I retaliated against him."

Hawks' eyes fling open as he turns to the phone and watches the video to see that Dabi has doctored the angle to appear as though he were holding Asami down against his chest, rather than shielding her head from the flames when he realized she'd thrown her body onto his. Dabi also cuts the video before Hawks turns to move her from the line of fire.

Shivers roll down his entire form after hearing her scream like that again. It's a reminder of that horrific day, and when he looks up to see her lying in the bed, unmoving because of it, he feels himself shaking with rage.

"I tried to stop my flames when I realized, but it was too late…" Dabi's voice says with remorse and Hawks shakes at how he doesn't deserve to feel remorse; he was the one who did this to her and the fact that he's trying to twist the narrative to be the fault of Hawks makes him hot with hate.

The video continues to explain how Hawks is the son of a villain and murderer, and how it's not a surprise that he ended up just like his father. He's unsure how Dabi managed to get any information on his background with everything tucked away by the Commission, but that is on the back of his mind when he's faced with the reality that everyone out there thinks that he grabbed Asami and used her as a shield against Dabi's flames.

He shoves the phone off to the side, flexing his shoulder blades when he realizes that there are no wings to extend and make himself bigger; and in being reminded of that, he buries his face in the palms of his hands. He hates that Asami is in this state, he hates that his wings will never grow back, and it's because of that guilt that he's foregoing his treatments for her. He's already being punished by seeing her like this, but having his name dragged through the mud for something he never did is just the shit that he needs right now, and he begins to sob.

He pulls his mask off of his face and throws it to the ground. His eyes burn as hot tears stain his cheeks and he falls to his knees at the edge of her bed. He grasps onto her burned hand and hugs it close to his face as he brushes her against his wet cheek. Everything begins to pile on top of his chest, and he's finally broken.

"I'm sor—" his voice fails him and he instead buries his lips against the back of her hand and holds her tightly.

Hawks continues to hold onto her, periodically allowing tears to fall down his cheek for the rest of the night as he feels totally and utterly useless.

Present Day – Day 88

The early morning sun creeps into the sterile room through a slit in the blinds and directly against her eyelids. The brightness of the light is the first thing she registers, the pain is the second.

Unbearable, debilitating, and gnawing pain hits her in every corner of her body. She feels heavy and uncomfortable and wants nothing more than to open her eyes and see what is causing her so much pain.

Her eyes are heavy to open and she questions if she is drunk, but she doesn't remember getting drunk. She doesn't even remember what she last remembers.

She's finally able to pry open her eyes after battling her body for what seems like hours. When her lids lift to her surroundings and she fights to adjust to the difference in light, she looks around to see that she is in a hospital bed.

Her eyes scan the room when they quickly land on a mess of tussled blonde hair resting on the edge of the bed. She notices how awkward he looks leaning his head against her bed and she reaches out to him, seeing that he's sleeping.

She reaches for him, noting the bandages on her outreached hand, and it all comes crashing back into her head like she's been slapped with a horrid reality.

"Touya! No!"

Asami's hand drops onto the hospital bed as she grunts at the memory penetrating her skull once more. The heavy drop of her hand hitting the bed startles Hawks awake and he quickly lifts his head up, darting eyes back and forth until they reach hers.

It seems for a moment time were to stand still when their eyes reach each other's. His golden orbs glisten with relief as hers soften at the sight of him. His rough voice tries to call out her name, but it's still too damaged so he relies instead on lifting himself to his feet and entrapping her into a hug as he buries her face in his chest.

She lifts her arms—ignoring the pain—and wraps them around his back. She smashes her face against his hard chest and takes in a deep breath, taking in his signature fresh scent. Her heart bursts with a warm feeling of knowing that he's alive.

Hawks reaches around her, entangling his fingers in her short hair as he cradles her head in his hand and pulls her into him. He's holding her so closely to his body that he's practically smushing them into one being. He buries his lips into the top of her head, pressing his nose to her scalp and taking in her scent. He closes his eyes and revels in this moment, wishing that he could live in her arms forever.

She can feel his heart racing in his chest, and his erratic breathing that he desperately tries to gain control of, but she can tell that he's having difficulty stabilizing his breaths. She pulls her face away from his chest and lifts her head up to look into his bloodshot eyes. She brushes his scarred cheek with her thumb. "It's okay," she whispers to him, her voice weak from not being used in days. "I'm still here," she says, seeing how much he needs the reassurance that this isn't some fucked up dream. "I'm still here."

Asami turns from his face and wraps her arms to reach around his toned back when for the first time ever, she's able to touch her fingers together. Asami quickly retracts her arms from her hold on him to see what she hoped she hadn't felt.

"Your wings," her voice sounds terrible, but she's not in as rough of shape as Hawks. She doesn't focus on how shitty she sounds and instead looks onto the man with furrowing brows as she examines his face for an explanation as to what has happened to him.

Hawks reverts his eyes now from her gaze as she carefully lifts herself into a seated position. She looks onto him to see his back is completely burned and even his baby feathers are all gone—there is nothing left of his back.

She feels a whine reach her vocal cords as she says, "Are they… gone?"

Hawks grabs for the phone and types onto it before a robotic voice returns with, "I'm so happy you're back," and his refusal to answer her question is all the answer that she needs.

Her eyes drop away from his and onto her hands lain atop the sheets of her bed. Her hands are scuffed, an I. to the back of her right hand, and her arms are bandaged to cover how bad her scars must be.

Hawks shifts in her peripheral, but she keeps her hands on her scraped hands. He types on his phone and a robotic voice speaks up, "do you remember anything?"

"Touya! No!"

She tightens her eyes shut, feeling the pain in her eyes, reaching to the back of her head like she's being stabbed in the head with an icepick. She wants to ask him about Touya and Jin, but she knows the answer will not be something she will want to hear.

She didn't make a conscious decision to choose Hawks' life over Twice's, but rather panicked when she saw the intent in Dabi's eyes. She knew he wanted to kill Hawks and all she could think about doing was to run to him. Her hands leaving Twice was his death sentence and she knows that. But she can't help but wonder what happened of Dabi. She doesn't remember anything after she crashed into Hawks and as much as she would like to ask if he's alive and if he's okay, she keeps her lips sealed.

Hawks reaches for her chin and lifts her face up to look at him. He smiles at her warmly and pulls her close to him. He presses his forehead to hers and holds her against him like this for a moment. It doesn't matter anymore, because she can't take it back.

He can't tell what she is thinking, and he is wondering if any part of her is regretting what she did back there. A morbid part of Hawks' curiosity wonders if she misses Dabi since she chose him over Hawks, but after seeing how vile he could become, he doesn't understand how she could want to see him again. In the end, she ran into his arms to save him. She could have let him burn in Dabi's flames and had a clean break of him, but she chose to run to him.

They stay there for a moment, Hawks' forehead presses against hers as he holds the back of her head to his. He wants to kiss her so badly and tell her that he loves her, but before he can say a word to her, the door to their room clicks open to a doctor and a nurse walking in. The doctor smiles warmly when his eyes reach hers. "You're awake, I see," he greets her with a soft smile as the nurse hangs behind him.

Hawks takes a step away from Asami, giving the doctor room to examine her. "We've managed to do some tests while you were unconscious," he continues. "With the help of Recovery Girl and other healers, it looks as though you're making a great recovery," he says hopefully as he gestures to her arms. "May I?" he asks and she nods to him.

He unwraps her bandages and Asami sees just how terrible of shape her arms are in. There are wicked looking burns wrapping around her arms that crawl up her skin in a taut reddish mark. They aren't as terrible as Dabi's scars—thanks to the efforts of Recovery Girl, but the doctor explains to her that her Quirk can only go so far and the scarring will be permanent.

Asami frowns at this news, looking away from the doctor when Hawks takes her hand into his with a tight squeeze. She smiles down at their hands intertwined with one another, but she doesn't look up at him.

The doctor asks her to sit up and he examines her back, which makes Asami flinch every now and then with how painful it still is. He informs the couple that a few more sessions with Recovery Girl are needed, but she is healing better than he expected.

"These wounds were pretty extensive when you first arrived here," the doctor informs her as he reapplies the bandages on her back. "I don't imagine you'd be with us if it weren't for your Quirk. I'm quite honestly shocked you aren't a part of the medical industry with a Quirk like yours," he muses as he tends to her.

Asami looks over her shoulder at the man, "My Quirk?" she questions when he looks up at her.

"Fluid Manipulation, no?" he questions her and she nods once at him. "Internal blood movement is fairly rare for the blood Quirks; most are only able to manipulate the blood of others or once it's been removed from the body."

Asami shakes her head in confusion, "I can't move my own blood," she informs him. "I'm only able to manipulate the blood of others internally, and barely at that."

The doctor looks at her pensively, "Well the panic of the situation must have elicited some type of Quirk awakening. That happens in dire situations so we've seen from time to time." Asami looks at him with a confused look on her face and he reiterates. "After the fall, your Quirk began moving the needed blood cells to damaged parts of your body faster than they would naturally. This continuous flow of blood kept your heart beating and your body healing on its own. Though not as powerful of a healing Quirk like Recovery Girl's, if honed in, you can restore and heal the scar tissue of your cells and others through the use of blood manipulation to the area in question."

His words repeat in her head as she thinks about having been able to heal herself and others with her Quirk. It's then that she's brought back to a memory.

"You haven't used your Quirk in a while, and… You've been healing…"

Her breath is trapped in her throat when she thinks about that moment that she laid in bed with Dabi, her hands brushing his chest as she noticed the horrid purple scarring was becoming pink and soft. She had thought his lack of using his Quirk was allowing for his body to heal, but it was her all along. It was her hands unconsciously moving his blood to remedy his wounds that was allowing his scars to heal. How long had she had her Quirk and not realized? How long has she been touching his chest and healing his body without their notice? Could she heal his scars indefinitely?

Suddenly Asami has an aching feeling in the pit of her chest wanting so badly to try. Maybe if she can help him heal, Touya can have a semblance of his old life once more. He won't be in crippling pain anymore and his skin…

"—broken ribs are healing." Asami is brought back to the doctor's voice, not realizing that she had stopped listening to him when he told her that she had the potential to heal Dabi of his wounds. She pulls her head from the fantasy and focuses on the now. There is no use thinking about what she can do for Dabi when she has no idea where he is or what happened to him. She knows that asking Hawks would be insensitive, so she will have to find another way to get that information.

Asami notices that the doctor's eyes continue to dart back to Asami and Hawks holding hands, and she wonders if it is strange to see the hero committed in an act of affection when he made it clear in all his interviews that he was single. In fact, the displays of affection are strange for her since she's not used to him being publicly affectionate towards her, though she also doesn't want to push him away.

The doctor rolls his shoulders and looks down at his clipboard to see if there is anything that he is missing. "It's also good you weren't too far along," he says and Asami finds herself continuing to think about the return of her Quirk and what this could mean for her; maybe she could help the regrowth of Hawks' wings?

"It doesn't seem like there was any damage to the fetus from the fall, though we will continue to monitor from here."

Asami's body freezes, her eyes widening wondering if she heard him correctly, but when she feels Hawks' hand tightening around hers, she lifts her head to look onto the blonde and the realization that she did sinks in. His eyes are almost as wide as hers as they look onto one another with a crippling shock.

She cranes her head back to the doctor who doesn't seem to notice the panic in her eyes as her dry mouth manages, "I'm sorry?"

"Oh," he awkwardly releases when he realizes the look on her face. "You weren't aware?" he questions her and when he sees her lack of response he continues. "We gave you an ultrasound upon arrival to look for any internal damage," he begins with a bland doctorlike tone. "Based on the size, we'd estimate that you're roughly seven weeks pregnant."

Asami can see Hawks stiffen next to her when it's finally voiced that she's with child. And it isn't his.

"That's not possible," Asami tells him with a stern tone reaching her throat. "I was on the pill," she informs him.

"We're you taking it regularly at the same time of the day?" he questions her.

Asami thinks back at her routine; under the League she was not as structured to a timeline as she was when she was working with Endeavor. Rather than waking up at the same time each day and taking the pill, she would take it whenever she managed to wake up, which ranged from five in the morning to two in the afternoon depending on how late Dabi would keep her up at night. She realizes that's a nine hour difference and groans as she wonders what the hell was going on in her head.

"But I had a period," she remembers bleeding in Re-Destro's office which was less than seven weeks ago.

"Was it a normal flow, or spotting? Because bleeding can occur during pregnancy for a variety of different reasons, such as a stressful environment or after intercourse that could be rough."

Hawks lets go of her hand as he's completely lost in his mind to what's being divulged before him, while Asami can't think back and remember if she had a full period or if it was just in that moment that Dabi had her… bent over Re-Destro's desk and—ah fuck, Keigo!

Asami looks up at the blonde who looks completely gone from the conversation. His eyes are glazed over and he's in shock. Suddenly she feels like shit. It was one thing for him to find out that she was fucking Dabi, that she was in love with him, that she chose Dabi over him, but now she was pregnant with the villain's child. It was a knife to the chest, continuously being twisted over and over again.

She puts her head down, looking at her hands on her lap above the sheets of her bed. The doctor mentions something about bringing in an OBGYN that can answer anymore questions that she might have and leaves the two of them in the room alone together. By the way he was looking at the two of them, he probably thought that Hawks was the father and they weren't ready for this, but the reality was much worse.

"Keigo—" her voice cracks over the deafening silence that crushes them, but Hawks lifts himself to his feet before she can say another word to him. He doesn't look at her when he grabs for his phone and walks out of the hospital room with stiff shoulders.

For the first time since they were reunited, Hawks leaves Asami alone in the room.

A/N: Wellll the cat is out of the bag, Asami is prego! I don't know why I like to torture Hawks so much in this story, because I love him outside of it!

What does this mean for her relationship with Hawks? With the Todoroki's? And Dabi?!

I hope you guys like the direction this is going, please let me know in the comments as you do! Thank you again for the support and love!