A/N: A part of me thought I was going to have this story finished by chapter 60, but here we are...
I hope you are all still enjoying this story! The second war arc will be on the horizon, and I am excited to show you all how Asami fits into the narrative! Thank you all again for all the support and sticking it out until now. You are all the real MVPs up in here!
Chapter 60
Present Day – Day 184 – 20 Weeks Pregnant
Hawks is exhausted from patrolling the streets with Endeavor and the others. He finds himself yawning heavily and eyes barely managing to stay open. What he would do for a damn can of Max Coffee in this moment. He yawns, forcing his jaw to open wide and his eyes to squint shut.
"Would you like me to bring you back to UA?" Best Jeanist asks Hawks as he leans against the car next to him.
"I'll be alright," Hawks informs him when his eyes land on the tense shoulders of Endeavor standing a few feet from them. His back is to them as he stares off into the horizon, lit up in the sapphire glow from Dabi's flames ravaging the town below.
Hawks frowns when he sees Endeavor like this. He always looked up to the hero from a mystified lens of the man that he was. To Hawks, he was a pillar of good and righteousness; there was nothing the man could do wrong. But as he soon found out, Endeavor was a multifaceted man with a past stained in shameful acts.
It was a complicated feeling that Hawks felt when Dabi's video was released to the world. Part of it was lies, but the layers of truth sprinkled in were too hard to ignore.
Endeavor turned out to not be the hero that he grew up idolizing—or at least, there was a side of him that went home and stopped being the hero Endeavor, and became a villain to his own family. Now with that all out in the air, the public has been far less willing to accept him as their Bringer of Peace.
With each mission, they are faced with hecklers and angry civilians looking for answers to what Endeavor will do about his son and taking accountability for his actions that led to this inferno they are left facing.
Hawks can't blame them either; he was a direct victim of Dabi's rage towards his father, but he can still see the hero that was burning radiantly on that screen all those years ago. He can still feel the warmth in his heart when his mother took him to the store and bought him the colorful plushy that shined brightly in his drab home. Every day he looked onto that stuffed Endeavor and saw a future worth flying towards, and every day that he sees Endeavor standing at the edge of the city with sunken shoulders and downcast eyes, he can't help but want to keep fighting for that happy future.
Hawks steps from the car and towards the red-haired man that towers over him. He reaches his gloved hand up, placing his palm on the man's shoulder blades. The man looks down at the blonde, staring at him with those same bright turquoise eyes that looked back at him with that manic look in them. He can't help but think of Dabi and the way he looked down at him when he revealed his name to the hero with such sick satisfaction dripping from his tongue like he was waiting for that moment for decades.
"We'll fix this," Hawks promises Endeavor with a firm nod.
The Number One Hero sighs as he looks down at the carnage his eldest son left behind in the name of vengeance. "Part of me wishes that I could speak with him," he begins with a tone lost in memories of the past. "And another wants to run away shamefully from what I've done."
Hawks doesn't know what the right response is for Endeavor to hear in this moment. He can be supportive of him, but seeing Dabi's pain devastate through Japan makes him reminiscent of his own father's abuse towards him. Where his father was taken away by heroes and freeing him from that hell, it was that same decorated hero that went home and made Touya's life hell. Despite everything Dabi has put Hawks through, a sick sense of pity coils around his heart for him.
"We should probably head back," he advises him instead.
"Will I see you tonight?" he cocks his head down at the blonde. "Fuyumi is having a dinner for everyone."
"Yeah," he brushes the back of his head. "Asami invited me."
Endeavor responds with a nod and they head back into the car and he tries his hardest not to look back at the crowds of people throwing things at their car, crying out to him and demanding him to step down from being a hero. He can't help but hate himself for what he's done. He can never forgive himself, so how can he expect Touya to even look at him for an apology.
Asami paces the room with shaking hands and labored breaths. She's trying to get a hold of herself and what has been disclosed to her. How could she have let this happen? How is this happening? Why didn't her father tell her about their Quirk? He had to have known since he consistently warned her against using her Quirk on so many people. Why didn't she listen to him? Does he know the extent of their Quirk? Why didn't he properly register it as a love-Quirk if he knew of its side effects?
She feels like her head is exploding and she doesn't know what to do with herself. How the hell is she going to face Hawks with this information? She has been forcing the use of her Quirk on him for months! She's been using her Quirk on him to sway his opinion on her and…
"Oh fuck," she cries as her chest constricts against the panic of all that's being unraveled before her. "Was any of it real?" she questions herself with a groan.
"This isn't a game, so if we are going to go through with this, it's real."
Asami stiffens as if her blood solidifies in her veins and she cracks her head to her bed as that hidden promise screams out to her. She steps towards the bed with hard robotic movements before she's finally standing at the edge of the bed, reaching between the mattresses and pulling out the large ring and looking onto the glinting diamond.
"Marry me, Butterfly."
"No," she whines as she thinks about that night.
It was beautiful, and it was perfect, and it was everything she's ever wanted since she was a child and it… wasn't… real.
"…You've been healing…"
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" she cries out as she presses her palms to her eyes to stop the endless stream of tears flowing through her eyes. She was healing Dabi when they were in bed together. Overhaul's drug must have been slowly waning somehow and she was using her Quirk without even knowing it.
He didn't love her. He was addicted to her. He was enamored by her like some fucked up drug that he wasn't even aware he was taking!
She looks back at the ring that she always saw as a testament to their love. It was a vow that he made to her to always be hers. But what kind of vow is it if he doesn't even have a clear mind to make it?
The door to her bedroom clicks open and she swears that she locked it, but when her eyes land on the person at the doorway, she does her best to hide that she was crying, but she knows that her reflexes are no match for his.
Asami quickly grips onto the ring in hopes to hide it from his eyes that slide down to her shaking hands and she panics wondering if his quick eyes caught what was in her hands.
"What's wrong?" Hawks asks her with softening eyes when he sees she's been crying.
She considers all her options here and wonders if she should tell him what is going on, because he has a right to know, doesn't he? But how the hell is she going to have the strength to tell him?
"What do you feel," she begins with a sniffle that causes Hawks to step towards her. She presses her gripped fist to her chest and cradles it with her other hand. "When I'm using my Quirk on you?"
Hawks stares at her for a moment, not really understanding what she means by that, and wonders why it's causing her such a state of distress.
"Hey," he begins with extended hands to her. "Why don't you sit down for a sec and—"
"Please, Keigo," she begs him with a whine in her voice. "What do you feel?" she presses him.
He stops his advancements on her and stiffens her body at the harsh reaction she's having to him approaching her. "I… I don't know," he tries to find the words as he thinks of the times that she's used her Quirk.
"When I'm healing you," she reiterates. "What does it feel like?"
He shrugs his shoulders, not really understanding why this is causing her to be so distressed. "It feels weird," he admits. "Like I'm running while being really out of shape," he laughs because he doesn't really know what else to do. Asami looks like she's seen a ghost and she's scared of him, so he's trying to defuse her.
"But your heart's racing. Like it would if you were in love?"
"I guess," he releases skeptically.
Asami groans at this, pressing her fists to her head as she begins pacing the room. Hawks exhales, not understanding what is going on with her and just wanting her to be forthcoming with him.
"Just tell me what's going on."
"My Quirk, Keigo!" she snaps at him now. "It's forcing you to love me!" she yells with a rising voice that causes him to take a step back as he's taken aback. He doesn't respond so she continues. "I was healing Nagant and she must have said something to the President because she came to me to use my Quirk. When I used it on her she said that it made her feel elated and enamored like she was in love with me or something. She said she would do anything for me if I asked! Like, fuck, I've been using my Quirk on half of Central Hospital! And everyone comes up to me like they are fucking fiending for me! And my dad told me to stop using my Quirk and I don't know why he wouldn't tell me this is a side effect of my Quirk! And now the president wants me to use my Quirk on Dabi to get him to stop burning down Japan, but he's only doing it because he's addicted to me and none of this was real and none of it with you was real because it was all just my fucking Quirk!"
She begins desperately wiping the tears from her cheeks while Hawks is left completely frozen at her almost incomprehensible dump of information. From Nagant, to the president to Dabi, the information is swirling in his head and he doesn't even know where to start. He doesn't know how to process this or what to say to her, but he knows he has to say something to her because she's practically falling apart at the seams in front of him.
He steps toward her, grabbing her face and forcing her to look at him through teary eyes. His eyes on the other hand are rough and serious as they look at her with a strong conviction. "Baby," he calls her for the first time since they were reunited, and since she chose Dabi over him. "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, but I don't love you because of your Quirk."
Her eyes are watering over as her head trembles in his grip on her head. "You don't know that," she shakes her head against his grip.
"Yes, I do," his voice is harsh and there is a slight sneer building in the base of his nose. "I don't give a shit what the president is telling you," he says, already thinking of how to respond to her. "I love you, Asami, what the hell do I have to do to show you that?"
"It's just the side effect of my Quirk," she argues him.
He lets her go, throwing his hands up in the air. "You've used your Quirk on me like twice before you started healing me," he tells her and she continues to shake her head at him. "Asami, I've loved you for years. I know I loved you when I threw up all over you and you took care of me. Because you're a good person, not because of your Quirk."
She shakes her head and he thinks about what else he can say to her to make her think clearly about this. "Why don't you use your Quirk now and I can—"
"NO!" she shrieks as she looks at him with betrayal in her eyes, like he's asking her to take another hit—just one more hit to really make sure.
"Alright," he throws his hands up to stop her from panicking. "I'm sorry. Dumb idea."
"Keigo," she says looking at him with sad eyes. "You don't want this," she tells him. "This is your way out. You have a way out."
He parts his lips, preparing to rebuttal but the door opens, and that's when Asami stands corrected, and the last person that she wanted to enter the room enters the room.
"Are you two ready?" Asami's father asks the two of them.
And Asami sinks into herself, wanting to be anywhere but here.
The three of them enter the lobby where Fuyumi has set up a small gathering with the family. Kenji is quick to move to Endeavor and talk his ear of about something that Asami is unable to pay attention to. She is still reeling from her argument with Hawks and she doesn't know how the hell they're expected to smile through this party as if nothing is going on.
She begins to question what the limitations of her Quirk are. Does she have to use the Quirk for the user to feel the side effects, or does just being around her make them fiend for her? Has she used it on Fuyumi without knowing? Is that why she's put up with Asami being a shitty friend to her?
Has she used it on Natsuo? He always had a little school boy crush on her, was it because she inadvertently used her Quirk on him?
There were moments that Mr. Compress laughed at her jokes that weren't even funny, was he just enamored by her?
She noticed Spinner's eyes lingering on her once, was that because he needed another hit from her? And Dabi…
Fuck! The ring!
Her heart races in her chest as she holds the ring still in her enclosed fist. She was in such a panic that she didn't even think to put it back under the bed. She's wearing a loose-fitted dress that doesn't have pockets to store the ring away, so she'll just have to hold onto it for now. Her stomach is barely hiding behind the fabric of the tunic-style dress and she's trying to muster up the courage to tell Fuyumi what is going on with her.
Upon entering the area, Hawks notices the panic Asami is in. He can practically feel the heat emanating off of her as her brow is laced in a layer of sweat while her eyes remain slightly widened to take in her surroundings. He wants to put her at ease as much as he can. He places his hand on her lower back and she stiffens at his touch as a shudder wrecks through her spine. He frowns, rubbing her back reassuringly before moving his hand off of her.
Fuyumi is quick to run over to Asami, happily cheering that she is here and snaking her arm into hers. Asami tightens her grip on the ring, trying desperately to keep it from falling out of her hands, feeling the large diamond digging into the skin of her palm.
"I'm so happy to have you all here!" she sings with excitement. "Come on! I have the ingredients for the Katsu all lined out!"
Asami looks back at Hawks and he nods at her with an encouraging smile to let herself have fun. Asami swallows down the lump in her throat and tries to allow herself to relax with everything that is going on. She hasn't used her Quirk on Fuyumi, and she needs to remind herself that somethings in her life are real, and her relationship with her is one of them.
Asami enters the cafeteria where a mousy looking girl is cutting ingredients for a stew. She looks up at Asami with her black eyes and smiles warmly at her. She quickly steps away from prepping food and moves to introduce herself to Asami. "Hello, my name is Mio," she says warmly with a bow of her head.
Asami returns the bow when Fuyumi adds, "This is Natsuo's girlfriend," with a teasing tone.
"Oh," Asami lifts her head from the bow. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Asami," she returns with a kind smile.
"Natsuo has told me a lot about you," she smiles warmly. "He's told me you're practically his sister."
In any other instance, that would make Asami smile, but considering she's trying to hide the fact that she's married into the family with her tightened grip at her side makes the comment feel uncomfortable on her chest.
"You're my wife now, they all need to know."
She shuts her eyes as the low baritones of his voice reverberate off of her skull to force her to think of him. She swallows against her drying throat as she croaks out, "Where is Natsuo?"
"He's with the other boys," Rei says as she walks into the room to join the women.
Asami turns to the white-haired woman, noticing that she seems to be looking a lot better these days. She doesn't have the bags of stress under her eyes like she used to, but Asami can still see a heaviness in them weighing them down. Even if she looks happier, she's still holding that guilt that she's seemed to always carry since Touya's death. Now it's shifted from the guilt of having a son dead because of her actions, to having a son murder because of them.
Again, Asami clutches onto the ring for dear life, trying to think of a way to get out of this room and stash it somewhere until she can safely take it back to her bedroom. She looks around the table when she finds a washcloth on another table away from their cooking. She quickly sets the ring under the cloth and pats it down before turning to the main table where all the food is staged. With the ring out of her hands, she feels like she can finally breathe again.
Fuyumi places a bowl of raw washed chicken in front of Asami before she directs Natsuo's girlfriend to cut some carrots. Asami washes her hands and puts an apron on before she begins to strip the chicken of fat.
"Thanks for giving me something simple!" the mousy girl laughs lightheartedly at Fuyumi. "I'm a terrible cook, so you'll have to be patient with me!"
"Oh stop that!" Fuyumi waves at her with crescent eyes. "Asami and I learned at a young age, so we love cooking! We'll catch you up to speed in no time!"
Asami finds herself smiling at the white-haired girl as a warmth wraps around her heart. "Fuyumi is the queen of food," Asami boasts with a smile on her lips.
"Well, you know what they say, 'a way into a man's heart is through his stomach', and I damn sure need to get better at that!" she laughs awkwardly as the ears atop her head droop down insecurely.
Asami and Fuyumi look up at the girl with the same look in their eyes. "That's nonsense!" Fuyumi starts with a snap. "Natsuo is totally smitten!"
"Really?" she asks with upturned brows.
"He's been staring at you from across the way this whole time," Asami mentions as she watches the muscular Todoroki glancing at her from across the way.
When their eyes catch one another, they both promptly look away, quickly reddening in a blush that consumes their cheeks. The exchange makes Asami and Fuyumi giggle under their breath in response.
Asami moves to begin breading the chicken while Fuyumi works on helping Mio with something to work on. Rei is working on something in the far corner of the kitchen while the men encircle themselves in the lobby. Her lilac eyes watch the men as they are all standing and talking to one another.
She notices that her father is at ease while he speaks with Endeavor and talks his ear off about some business that he wants Endeavor to invest in.
She wonders if her father is even aware of the side effect of their shared Quirk since he failed to register it as a love-type Quirk. He holds a heavy disdain for the power since he believed it to always be villainous—meaning that he never tried to use it for healing and only for puppeteering. She just wished that he had been more willing to explore the thresholds of their Quirk in his time so that she would have known earlier on what it was capable of. Because she didn't. She can't help but question if every interaction she's ever had with people is genuine or not.
Her eyes move from her father placing his hand on Endeavor's shoulder and onto Natsuo and Shouto as they speak amongst themselves. Shouto's wounds have healed almost completely and she's grateful that she's not constantly reminded of Dabi's rampage through his skin like she is with Hawks' and her own.
She turns from Shouto and to Hawks as his eyes turn from Endeavor and her father to her. He sends her a soft smile and she sends him one back. She's not really sure what else to do beyond that because her words are still echoing in her head that this is his way out.
Does he want a way out?
She glances at the washcloth on the table across from her.
Do I?
"Careful! You're going to burn down the building!" Fuyumi's voice brings Asami back into reality as she reaches past Asami to pull the pan of burning oil from the stove.
"Ah, shit," Asami releases under her breath, not realizing that she started cooking the Katsu. She discards the burnt oil and starts a new batch. "Sorry," she says remorsefully.
"It's alright," Fuyumi tries to press out a chuckle at Asami's melancholy tone.
"Sorry, that was my bad," Hawks comes striding over with a bashful scratch to the back of his head. "I was distracting her."
Kenji watches the exchange from across the room while Endeavor speaks to him about something he's no longer paying attention to. He can't hear what is being said between them, but watches as the blonde hero pulls his daughter into a hug with one arm draped around her shoulder.
A strange sense of territorial detestation fills his chest as he watches the smug hero take hold of his daughter. Kenji has never been the fatherly type towards Asami, and has more often seen her as a pawn to his games, rather than his own child. She looks so much like her mother and he's always detested that about her, so he hasn't been able to hold much sentiment for her.
The relationship dynamic is only complicated with the addition of Hawks. Kenji is just supposed to stand here with the man who deflowered his daughter and effectively devalued her in his eyes with a smile on his face? Hawks fucks his daughter each night—ruining and defiling her only to look at him with the lopsided smile on his face like he doesn't just stain her face with his cum every night. It makes Kenji sick to think about and he hates that his daughter was foolish enough to fall for his playboy game and ruin her worth in the market by tainting herself with him.
Kenji's only saving grace in this whole scenario is Hawks' rank as a hero. Even with his tarnished wings and the shambles that Japan is left in, there is still hope that things will return to what they once were. Hawks was the Number Two Hero, and if the money was anything close to Endeavor's when he was Number Two, Asami will at least be well off there.
Kenji turns his attention back on his daughter and her lover. His daughter disassociates from whatever conversation happens as her eyes fixate on something other than the people around her. It's clear there's tension swirling between them, but it's all stemming from Asami and not the hero. He sneers faintly, hoping that is daughter is not stupid enough to ruin a good thing for her. She's managed to ensnare Hawks, now she just needs to seal his fate with this marriage.
He notices Hawks' hand slip down her back as they are all locked in a conversation that he cannot hear from his location. Before he turns his attention from there and back to Endeavor, he catches something so subtle that he questions if he even saw it. He blinks and tries to clear his vision in an attempt to brush away what could have been a vision. But he knows what he saw; the subtle brushing of her stomach.
And now suddenly, Kenji's eyes are open to everything they were closed to. The loose dress, the hunched posture, her arms crossed over her stomach. It's perfect—absolutely perfect. She's pregnant with his child, so there's no getting out of this arrangement for him.
Kenji smiles to himself, turning from their exchange to return to his conversation with Endeavor. Now, all he has to do is wait.
After the dinner preparations are complete, Asami helps Rei and Fuyumi set the table while the rest of the group head towards their seats.
Shouto approaches Asami while she sets the table. "Is there anything I can do to help?" he questions her as she places down the plates for dinner.
"No, I think we have everything," she says with a soft smile.
"I was wondering…" he pauses for a moment as he considers his words. "Would you be able to speak with me sometime tonight?"
Asami turns to him, seeing the weight of his words and the importance of them. Her curiosity wants to ask what the conversation would be about, but she just smiles at him instead, "Sure, Sho!" she says happily to him. "After dinner, I'm all yours!" she returns cheerily and he smiles back at her, thanking her under his breath and steps away to allow her to finish setting the table. They soon after dig into their food, all making comments about how delicious the meal is.
Everyone begins having conversations amongst themselves, with the occasional ones coming together to build a bigger audience. Asami focuses most of her time to be a silent observer to everyone's conversation while Hawks sits next to her, noticing the soft smile building on her face.
It's been a while since he's seen a smile stick to her lips and it's a beautiful change from what they've been through. She's so pretty when she's smiling, and he feels as though he can finally see the stain that Dabi left behind finally being washed away by the Todoroki's infectious personalities.
He knows that this recent shit with her Quirk is eating away at the back of her head, and he makes a plan to himself to take her from here tonight and show her that what they have is true and not some side effect. When the dinner is finished, he'll find a way to take her out of UA and onto the lookout outside of Mustafa that he took her to when they first started dating. He promises himself that he will do whatever it takes to get her back to what she used to be.
"Geez, Hun, you're staring at Hawks like you've got X-ray vision or something!" Natsuo says from across the table with a pushed-out laugh.
"What?!" she shrieks as she turns to her boyfriend. "No! It's not like that!" her voice cracks as Hawks and Asami watch the exchange from across the table. She turns to see their eyes on her and she begins to panic with wide eyes. "Sorry, I've just not been this close to a celebrity like you," she tries to explain.
"I wouldn't call myself a celebrity," Hawks awkwardly laughs in his cool demeanor that Asami knows to be a carefully constructed façade.
"Your face is on like every billboard across Japan," Natsuo deadpans. "And don't let her fool you," he continues to tease, "She was president of the Hawks Fanclub back at University and has a ton of shirts and figurines of you."
Hawks awkwardly laughs and Mio blanches at the comment. "He's totally lying!" she begins to panic as she waves her hands wildly in the air. "I just meant, I've seen you a bunch on TV and I never thought that I would be this close to someone like you and… ugh this is not sounding any better, is it?" she says with ears tucking into her light hair.
"Natsuo, stop torturing her," Asami scolds him with a fake glare.
Natsuo's head flings back with a childish laugh as he clutches his chest. "Don't worry, he secretly likes seeing girls wearing his merch."
Asami's eyes widen at this comment and her eyes immediately turn to Fuyumi who looks guilty as hell when she tries to hide her face from Asami's death glare. Asami told her once in confidence that Hawks made a comment about liking it when she wore his shirts when they were intimate. It was supposed to be a secret between them—one that she shouldn't have even divulged to her in the first place, and now it was being aired out.
Asami turns her gaze to Natsuo, giving him the same death glare before saying under her breath, "My father is right there," she begins between clenched teeth. "I'm going to kill you." Her tone is harsh but there is still an air of playfulness there. She isn't totally mad at him, but she's embarrassed, not only for telling Fuyumi something that should have remained between Hawks and her, but also having Fuyumi's big mouth spill the beans to Natsuo as well.
Natsuo looks at her with a childish guilt that she can't help but roll her eyes at, to show him that she isn't actually mad at him. She turns towards Hawks, seeing the awkwardness building in his shoulders as a kink of his being shared with the table.
"I'm sorry," Asami whispers to him. "I should have never said anything to her," she says regretfully.
"I don't think there's coming back from this," Hawks returns. "I think we have no other choice but to change our names and run away from here."
Asami blinks at his joke, not because it isn't funny, but because it brings his face into the forefront of her mind, and she can't help but think how all of this would have been different if she was enough for him to just leave.
The clinking of glass brings Asami's attention away from that when she looks to the end of the table to see Endeavor directing the attention of the table to him. Everyone turns to the red-haired man as he speaks up.
"I just wanted to say, thank you all for being here today," he begins. "I know things have been difficult of late, and we are all so consumed with understanding our new roles here, but I just wanted to say that I am grateful…" he lingers, looking down the table at the faces that look back at him. He's reminded of his reoccurring vision of his family at the dinner table together. He is still seated among them, despite what the vision said, and now his wife has joined the table by his side. There is now, only one face missing.
"I feel guilty for smiling and standing here before you all," he tells them candidly, and Asami frowns at that because she can't help but feel the same. He clears his throat and looks onto the hardened glare of Natsuo who has yet to forgive him totally, or the blank face of Shouto who continues to watch him better himself. He looks to Fuyumi who smiles up at him with hopeful eyes towards his atonement, and Rei who smiles reassuringly at him when she has every right to hate him. He looks at Hawks who sees him as the hero that he should have been for Touya. And he looks at Asami—tired and a bit rounder in the face from the child that she's been carrying. There is a part of his son growing inside of her, and he can't help but feel the early mistakes he made with his own wife replaying in his head as he looks at her, forced to do this alone.
"I just wanted to say thank you," his voice cracks against his emotions as he repeats himself quietly.
"Stirring words, Todoroki," Kenji says as the red-haired man takes his seat. "But I too would love to make a toast," he says as he turns to the group. He lifts his glass as he nods at each person, "Thank you for extending the invite to this dinner, and this delicious food—American food has much to be desired, so I thank you for reminding me what I've been missing out on," he jests as Fuyumi smiles at him and nodding with acknowledgement. "And to my beautiful daughter," he plays up for the crowd. "I believe you too have something to tell everyone?"
Asami's eyes widen slightly as her body grows rigid in her seat. She slightly shakes her head, trying to signal her father not to do this now and to just give her a peaceful dinner.
"Don't be bashful now," Kenji presses her while all eyes turn to her.
"There's still dessert we haven't eaten," Asami mumbles under her breath as she lifts herself from the table, preparing to flee.
"Well, I've been waiting all night for the question to be asked, but it's not much of a question without this," Kenji says as he pulls something out of his pocket. Asami's eyes are on Hawks' and she wishes they weren't, because the look on his face strikes through her chest like a knife being stabbed twisted around.
Her eyes move from Hawks' to the washcloth that's no longer on the table. She was so focused on setting dinner and the conversations they were having, that she didn't notice her father had taken the ring.
Fuyumi's gasp breaks the silence when Asami finally finds the strength to turn and look at the rest of the table. Fuyumi and Mio's hands are to their lips, while Endeavor and Natsuo sit there with the same tensed jaw at the situation. They know the situation between Asami and Hawks, though neither are aware that the ring he holds was given to her by Dabi. The only other person at the table who knows that… is Hawks.
"Oh my gosh," Fuyumi calls out happily. "You guys are getting married?" she questions as she looks at the two left frozen in shock. "When?" she asks quickly.
"As soon as possible," Kenji answers for them with his eyes fixated on his daughter. "Considering how far along you are."
And that is when everyone at the table goes rigid. Asami is practically struck by a wall as her knees buckle under her and she does everything in her power not to fall to her feet. She doesn't know how her father could have known about her pregnancy, but this was worse than anything she could have ever planned. She didn't want it to be like this. Not like this.
Asami's eyes are fixated on her father because she refuses to see Fuyumi's excitement, and she sure as hell doesn't want to look at Hawks right now. "Can we discuss this later?" she whines under her breath at her father because she doesn't have the strength to sound any stronger than what she's managed.
"Oh my god, Asami," Fuyumi lifts herself from her chair and rushes around the table. She encloses Asami's stiff body into her arms and presses her against her body into a tight hug. "I'm so happy for you guys," she rocks her back and forth as tears begin to bud at the edges of her eyes. "Oh wow, you're so big!" she notices when she finally hugs her head on, reaching down to her stomach and pulling the fabric taut against her belly. "How far along are you? How long have you known? Why didn't you tell me?" she showers her with a slew of questions that go right over Asami as her eyes remain on her father's. Fuyumi turns to Natsuo, "Did you know?" she asks him, reading the absolute horror in his eyes.
"I can't wait to start planning things!" Fuyumi begins excitedly as she turns back to Asami and Hawks. "I'm so happy for you guys! Really! This is so amazing for the two of you!"
Asami watches her father as some sick sort of satisfaction crosses over his features, and she wonders if he knows the truth and this is some game to him—waiting to see how long she can last in living this lie of hers.
This was exactly what Asami was trying to avoid, because Fuyumi has a way of getting into her own head and not reading the room effectively. She cannot see the stiff bodies around her as she continues to happily plan out some beautiful event in her head that Asami wishes she was good enough for. But she knows that this is just something she can never have.
"Well then?" Asami's father questions as he steps towards Asami, placing the large ring in the palm of her hand.
Hawks is still seated at the table, now given a perfect view of the colossal ring that is not his. He's reminded of the manic cry from Dabi in the burning room where he boasted of Asami being his. He remembers the cackle in his throat as he declared the woman that he loved as his wife. Hawks didn't want to believe it in that moment, and wanted to write it off as some delusions of an unstable psychopath, but the proof is lying there… glinting in the palm of her shaking hand before him.
Why the hell did she bring it here with her?
He finally has the strength to look at Asami and she's crying now, makeup smearing from her tears and he isn't sure what about this all is bringing her to tears. But he knows he has to do something. Because he's a hero, and it's all he knows how to do.
"I must've misplaced the damned thing," he smiles and his tone is light like he's been coached.
Asami turns to him as dread paints her features. He tries to give her a look that tells her this will be okay, and they will somehow figure out this shitstorm her father has forced them into.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me you two were having a baby!" Fuyumi shakes her head.
"Fuyumi, shut up," Natsuo speaks up with clenched teeth.
"How are you not freaking out? Did you know?" she accuses him with arms crossed over her hips.
"Just stop talking," he presses unceremoniously.
"Why can't I be happy for my best friend being pregnant with the man that she loves?" she presses right back at him. "Do you know what you're having? Have you picked out a name? I wonder if it will have wings like—"
Asami can't hear anything that she is saying because all she can hear is a deafening ringing in her ears. Natsuo is saying something to his sister while she continues to fawn over her many questions. Endeavor is left in just as much shock as Asami. She manages to gain the strength to look at Hawks again and she can see the hurt painting his golden eyes beyond the smile he's forced onto his lips. He reaches for her hand—the one that doesn't hold the promise given to her by Dabi, and he squeezes it reassuringly three times.
She shakes her head at him because she can't stomach this and let him fake this for her sake.
And Hawks looks away because he can't stomach to look at her when she finally says, "It's Touya's."
Her voice is so meek and quiet that no one can hear and the table continues with their conversation. Asami sighs, closing her eyes as tears fall down her cheek before saying with a loud enough voice, "It's Touya's."
Fuyumi and Natsuo stop arguing and look over at Asami with widened eyes. Asami tenses her jaw before speaking again. "The baby… it's Touya's," she says.
Fuyumi is left stiff and frozen at her words and had Asami not been in front of her, she would have questioned if she was watching a movie and someone paused her in real life. It takes her a moment to move, and at first, it's her eyes darting back and forth between her father and her brother and to Hawks. When she sees the sadness in their eyes, she sees that she did in fact hear Asami correctly.
She shakes her head, trying to make sense of what is being divulged to her. "Why?" she finally lets out with the most repulsed tone she can muster. "What the hell were you thinking?" she follows up with a harsher tone. "He's a villain, Asami!" Rei attempts to speak up, trying to rein in Fuyumi but she continues, "He's killed people. And he's proud of it!" she shakes her head. "How are you okay with that?"
Asami shakes her head at her best friend, eyes blurring with tears because this is exactly what she's been trying to avoid this entire pregnancy. She doesn't notice her father approach her, and she doesn't notice him on her until his hand grips her chin and forces her to look at him.
Before Asami can say a word to her father, he slaps her across the face, forcing her head to whip to the side from the shear force. The sound is deafening, and the entire room grows quiet.
It takes a moment, but everyone finally reacts to the hit, with Hawks lifting himself to his feet, his shoulders instinctually tensing to flurry out wings that are no longer there.
"Keigo don't!" Asami's voice is quick to call out, begging him not to make a move against her father. And thank god that it is Hawks and not Dabi, because he respects her wishes and stands down, whereas the pyro would have cremated the man where he stands for putting his hands on her, before she could even speak up to have him stand down.
Asami cradles her cheek as she looks at her father's seething face. He can't even look at her anymore as he turns away from her. "Dad," she calls out to him but he doesn't move towards her. "Dad, please!" she begs him to return.
He turns on his heal and is on her in less than three strides. He points his finger in her face as Asami cradles her cheek. "You whore!" he spits out to her with so much venom that she feels the sting in her chest. "You useless gash! You've ruined everything that I have built for you!" his voice lifts against his throat as it overpowers the room.
"Hatsuse!" Endeavor lifts himself from his seat with a growl in his deep voice. "That's enough!"
"Oh that's rich coming from you, Endeavor—considering your beaten bastard is the reason she's tainted and in this damned mess!"
"You will not speak to her like that," Endeavor looms over the man that he towers over in stature. "Now get out," he warns him, allowing his sheer size to ward off the man.
Kenji looks around Endeavor and onto Asami who hides behind the flame hero. "You were always such a disappointment to me," he tells her with a flat tone of voice that holds no love and no sentiment towards his daughter.
He turns from the group as he heads out of the room, but there is still one last thing that she can't leave unsaid. "Dad," she calls out to him as he continues to leave. "You were never going to give us the money for Keigo's wings were you," Asami states and that gets Kenji to halt his departure. "Because there never was any money, was there?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" he spits back at her with disdain spilling from his lips.
"You're out of money," she tells him. "Because your investors found out that you've been using your Quirk to enamor them into doing business deals with you." Kenji stops and looks at his daughter with shock lacing his face. "You didn't come back here because you were worried about me. You came back to sell me off to settle some debts. But let me guess, the idea of being tied to Keigo's money was too tempting for you to pass. So, you lied about sponsoring his wings to get him trapped in a marriage with me. You were never planning on paying for his wings, were you?" she ends with a frown because she's faced with the reality of Hawks never flying once again.
Her father doesn't answer her, and he doesn't have to validate her suspicions, because the look on his face is enough.
She knows he's not going to answer her with his words so she continues to speak. "You didn't want me using my Quirk because you didn't want me to discover the side effects it has. Because if I did, then people would see it for what it was, and you'd be arrested for misregistering it. You lied and told me our Quirk was villainous so that you could continue to use it on people like Endeavor to steal their money. And that's also why you were mad I spent my money on support gear. You wanted my money as well, because you were never here to see me, were you?"
Kenji looks at everyone in the room as they are all struck by the narrative that Asami has discovered. He considers convincing them otherwise and telling his daughter off, but none of it really matters now. "You're just like your mother," he returns with instead, as the memory of her stains his voice with contempt.
He leaves Asami with that and turns away from her. He decides he needs to leave before Endeavor or anyone else tries to have him arrested for his crimes. There is no use staying here any longer and he will need to make arrangements to leave Japan and his daughter—never to return again.
Asami is shaking from the altercation; her body is still in shock from the slap and standing up to her father. Endeavor turns from the doorway to face the small purple-haired girl before him. He leans his head down, taking her biceps into his large hands and squeezing them with reassurance. His turquoise eyes are on her as he speaks under his breath for only her to hear. "It's alright," he comforts her with a brush of his hand. "Don't listen to anything he's said."
But she can't think of anything else, all she can think about is her father calling her useless over and over again. She feels just that; pathetic and useless and sullied and broken. She doesn't deserve the people around the table that look at her with worry in their eyes. She's just a woman tainted by a villain that was drunk off her Quirk, and nothing more.
I deserve nothing.
"I'm sorry," Asami's weak voice lets out before she steps around Endeavor and excuses herself from the room, not looking at Fuyumi or Hawks before she's out of sight from them all.
Her mind is muddled with what to do next. The guilt of Hawks never flying again is in the forefront of her mind, as well as Dabi's retaliation for having his fix taken away from him. She needs to remedy everything around her that she has destroyed before leaving and allowing everyone to continue on with their lives without the burden of her around.
She walks past the Support Class where she sees Hatsume is still working on something this late. She takes a step inside, wiping her face of smeared makeup and clearing her throat for appearances.
"Hatsume," she calls out to the pink-haired girl. The goggled girl turns to her with a smile on her face, stopping what she was working on to greet Asami. "I have a question about the prosthetics for Hawks," she begins. "Is there anyway that we can get the product in advance of payment?" she questions. "We have the funds, but they may be delayed," she lies, but she's sure she'd be able to scrounger the money somehow.
Hatsume thinks for a moment before saying, "Before the war, maybe. But since the war, businesses are more reluctant to work with us without payment upfront. I'm afraid that we won't be able to get the product without the money.
Asami sighs, looking off to the side and thinking about what she can do. This is all her fault, and had she known about his wings, she would have buried all of her money into getting Keigo back his wings.
She feels something digging into the palm of her hand and she unclenches her fingers to reveal the large diamond resting in her palm. She looks down at the diamond as it glints against the harsh florescent lights that sizzle above them. A constriction builds in her throat as she looks down at the ring that weighs down her hand. Every memory that it holds presses its weight down on her as she looks onto the shimmering rainbows that reflect off of it.
It is not a vow of love.
He is enamored by you.
None of it was real.
Her hand shakes as she lifts her open palm up at the pink-haired girl. "What about this?" she questions as her voice betrays her and cracks.
They young girl's eyes widen as she sees the colossal diamond glittering against Asami's palm. She pinches the ring between her fingertips and examines it with her yellow-scoped eyes. "A round brilliant cut, 10 carat, flawless clarity, D-color grade," she narrates as she inspects the ring. "Something like this probably retails for around 60 million Yen."
"You mentioned we need 90 million to get Hawks airborne?" Asami asks her.
She nods, "Well, 90 million will have him looking like his old self, but 50 million is a rough estimate to getting him airborne."
Asami's mouth dries as she says, "get it done then."
Hatsume looks at her with a confused glance as she turns her head to the side quizzically. Asami looks down at the ring, feeling an aching in her chest as she says, "Sell it, and get it done."
She looks down at the ring, then back at Asami, seeing the pain in her eyes as she says this with cold detachment in her tone.
"The ring will probably only sell for half of that on the black market," Hatsume informs her.
"I don't care," Asami says turning to Hatsume because she can no longer look at the ring and the promise that it held. "Do whatever you have to do, just get rid of it and get him flying again."
Asami doesn't give Hatsume another moment to question her because she leaves the room with tears spilling out her eyes as she tries to cope with whatever this feeling is building in her chest at the loss of the ring.
She looks out the large windows that cast out to the city below them. From here, she can see the entire city burning in the distance, despite the heavens raining down on them. Her eyes fixate on the round structure on the horizon that is lit up by his flames. Her heart is aching at the sight as the memories of their childhood seem to burn with the Ferris Wheel that Dabi has set on fire.
Out of everything he could have burned and destroyed, the best way for him to get her attention was to set this ablaze. The Ferris Wheel was a sacred ground that represented their past and the love they held for one another. It was the last beautiful memory that she held with Touya as a child and now it's being reduced to a hellish wasteland that Dabi has created.
There is nothing left for her here, and she can't stand here and watch while Dabi destroys the city because he's addicted to her. She needs to find him, and she needs to see him again. If she can tell him that he's reacting like this because of her Quirk, then maybe she can talk him down a bit. It's a stretch, but one she's willing to take.
Asami doesn't know where to find Dabi, but as she looks onto the burning Ferris Wheel in the horizon, she has an idea of where to start.