It came when she least expected it, which she supposed was the point; few people would have expected a rescue at such an early hour. She'd been sleeping, curled up in a nest of pillows for comfort. She'd gained weight in a very short amount of time, and she could see the pregnancy in her stomach already. It was tremendously uncomfortable for your body to change so quickly, but apparently carrying twins did that to a person.
The first sign something was off was a deep tremble as though a minor earthquake hit. It was followed by the cacophonic chaos of an explosion that sounded as though it was right there. She leapt from the bed and tossed open the bedroom door to find detritus littered over the living area, dust swirling in the air, and Hawks walking toward her.
"You're here." Her voice was hushed, but he still heard.
"You ready to go, dove?"
Ayumu ducked back into the room to scoop up her bag before heading back to him. When he wrapped his arms around her, she didn't hesitate to do the same. He squeezed her gently, then took flight.
Where was he taking her, she wondered. Where would even be safe from the villains?
They lit upon the top of a skyscraper, one even higher up than Hawks' penthouse. He guided her inside and to yet another apartment, this one just a little smaller than the hero's, though still well-appointed.
"Where are we?"
Hawks had pushed up his visor, watching her with those sharp, avian eyes as she stepped up to explore little trinkets on a shelf. "This is the place the HPSC keeps for me. It's about as safe as can be; there are no records of it, and only myself and my handler know the location." His wings furled tightly to his back as he fell into the plush black chair facing the wall of tinted windows she currently stood at. "I gotta go soon, but I'll probably be staying here myself soon. There's a guest room you're free to take over if you'd rather."
Hawks couldn't make the offer flat out, but hoped she would pick up on it, take it. He'd only slept with others a few times, but he remembered how nice it was to hold someone and be held. Ayumu fit particularly well against his chest in his opinion. And now she might be pregnant with my…
He shook off the thought; that way lay distraction. He couldn't stay. There was a mission on the horizon, the counterpart to what Dabi was doing, actually.
The woman nodded absently and disappeared down the small hallway where he knew the rooms were. There was a bathroom and the guest room on the right side, the left continuing the view of the city, and at the end was his room. He'd had a place here much longer than his penthouse, and no one other than his handler had been here before. She hardly counted as anyone, so Hawks was oddly nervous having Ayumu now wandering the space. He wondered what she would think of it, especially considering the over-abundance of pillows and blankets strewn across his bed.
"There's plenty of food," he called out, walking to look down the hall. "And if you need anything else, you can message me."
Her head popped out of the guest room doorway. "Message."
Oh, yeah. He fished out the little phone and shimmied it to catch her eye. "It only has one contact right now, and I highly advise not reaching out to anyone else unless it's an extreme emergency, but you're not a prisoner here."
Hawks tossed it to her when she exited the room, her bag no longer hanging from her shoulder. She looked down at the tech as though it was foreign to her. "But I can call you or text you?"
"Yep! I'll try to respond whenever I can, but sometimes…" he shrugged.
"Hero work, espionage. I got it." She crossed her arms as though to hug herself and Hawks wondered if it would be weird for him to hug her. Probably, maybe. They'd been closer, but there was no Dabi forcing intimacy, but he felt a certain closeness to her beyond that.
He recalled the heartfelt plea she'd made in the hopes that he'd been listening. Of course, he had. How could he not, when she had sounded so desperate?
And she'd said his name, confirming that she had dreamed of him again. Surely they were more than strangers by this point.
Hawks still didn't approach her, though his hands itched to pull her to his chest. "Is there anything you need right away?"
Ayumu opened her mouth as though to say something, then her face morphed into a frown and she laid a hand against her stomach, considering. "Too late now," she muttered more to herself than to him. "I'm fine, Hawks. Thanks."
"Keigo." He didn't even think before the words were out. At her questioning look, he added, "You already know, so you might as well call me by my name."
She nodded. "Keigo, got it."
It was nice to hear it from someone other than the president of the HPSC.
His comm beeped and he sighed. "I gotta go. Are you sure—"
"I'll be fine."
He turned with great hesitance.
"Keigo?" She looked smaller somehow, standing in his living room all alone, and he realized it was because, for once, Dabi wasn't hanging onto her. "Thank you."
He nodded, mouth dry, and forced himself to go.