Akane sat on the bar of a city light, swinging her legs, watching the moon rise over Fukuoka. A few weeks had passed since her, er, agreement with Hawks. She helped out when she could and he didn't turn her over to the authorities. It had taken her several encounters to actually trust that at the end of them, he wasn't going to grab her by the wrists and toss her into the back of a cop car but nothing like that had happened so far. He was certainly faster than her and actually had combat skills. If he wanted to snatch her at any time, he could have.

But he hadn't.

Instead, Hawks had simply left her alone and let her work. The only time he truly acknowledged her was with a soft two-toned whistle, high then low, in her direction. Right after that, he would take off, and his sidekicks would show up with the police in tow. She had learned to clear out of the area quickly after that whistle. Did that mean he had trained her? Hmph.

She watched people wandering below as they enjoyed their Saturday night. Quirks were allowed to be used in this particular area, so she wasn't the only one in an odd place. Nearby, a boy was perched horizontal on the side of a wall and a girl breathing fire into animal shapes for a group of her friends. A couple was dancing in midair to music drifting out of a café.

This place didn't see much crime except for the occasional purse-snatching attempt. Still, she wasn't entirely surprised when company landed beside her.

"Off duty, Hirano?" Hawks asked with a small smile for her before he aimed a larger, celebrity-style one at a few people who had noticed his arrival.

"Never on it," she said, "What are you doing here?"

Hawks stretched his massive wings, the feathers rustling. A few drifted off and curled away on a phantom wind, moving down to street level. "I'm taking a break. Can I sit with you?"

"I thought we weren't supposed to look like we're working together," she said, glancing up at him, her eyebrows lifted.

"Sitting together isn't working together," Hawks said, "It's just being friendly."

"And no one's going to think it's odd that you occasionally hang out with a girl who has white wings, which the vigilante also has?"

It was Hawks' turn to lift his eyebrows. "So we're acknowledging that you stand out." He waved a hand at her and sat down anyways without her permission, drawing his own wings in. "But anyways, there are other people in the city with wings like yours. A few. And you usually wear some kind of mask and hide your hair. Plus, we've already had dinner."

True. "That was more like a meeting with food."

He grinned. "What a weird way to describe what was definitely dinner."

Akane rolled her eyes. "We can agree to disagree."

"Whatever you'd like."

Something felt off. It was something in the air, a vibe she was getting from him. As they sat there together, silence drifting down between them, Akane shifted from watching the people below to watching him. She had seen him in action enough times to recognize that there was something different about him at the moment. He had a smile plastered on his face, and he lifted a hand to wave at some people taking pictures, but the glow from the streetlight would do a lot to ruin the pictures.

That smile seemed so fake right now.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Hawks' wings fluttered back, some of the red feathers falling. He always seemed to be losing feathers, but she knew he could detach and reattach them with his Quirk. Hers didn't work like that. If one came out, she couldn't reattach it. He pulled his wings in tighter and offered her that same fake smile. "About dinner? Or our general lack of agreement on dinner?"

Akane turned her head away from him. Who said he wanted her to pry into his life? This was Hawks, Mister Number Three, hero extraordinaire, Fukuoka's favorite person. Surely if he had a problem, he had people to talk to, friends to confide in.

She shook her head. "Never mind."

"No, we can talk, what do you want to talk about?" He grinned again, but something in his eyes told her his heart wasn't in it, that this was the public side of him. "We can talk about anything. Want to talk about the prices in the fish market, I heard they're crazy high right now."

Akane wrapped her hands around the light pole and slowly swung her legs back and forth. She didn't give him a topic.

Hawks was quiet for a few moments, his tense expectancy for an answer fading very slowly. "You don't want to talk?" He sounded almost unsure of himself.

She shrugged. "I think you know what I meant by the question. So you can decide."

"Can we just…sit here together?"

Now she turned back toward him. That smile of his had slipped and become something softer. His gaze focused on the middle distance. "I'm fine with quiet. But hold on, can you wait here for a second? I'll be right back."

He nodded once.

Akane slipped off the pole and let her wings catch her. Tilting them, she glided the short distance to the ground, taking her landing at a run. She dodged past a few people as she caught her balance. When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw Hawks watching. She lifted a hand and he waved back.

A nearby girl around her own age stared at her. "You are so lucky."

Akane lifted her eyebrows, confused, but the girl sighed and wandered away. Wondering what that was about, Akane made her way down the street to a food stand. An array of fake crepes was displayed in the glass around the stand, each more colorful and delicious than the last. While she was in line, she considered the options. For herself, she chose strawberry, whipped cream, and chocolate. For the second one, she picked kiwi, oranges, strawberries, cheesecake, and of course, more whipped cream.

With a thank you to the stand's owner, she took a few respectful steps back, checked that she had the appropriate space, and took off again. When she reached the light pole, she held out the second crepe to Hawks.

"So you did want to talk about food," Hawks said, eyeing the crepe.

Akane put it directly into his line of sight, level with his nose, hovering with steady wing beats. "The cream is starting to melt. Do you want it or not?"

Hawks took it. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said, darting over and sitting down again.

They ate in silence. Or mostly silence. Occasionally Hawks made little satisfied humming noises. Akane had guessed based on his willingness to get dinner with a stranger the other day that he liked food. Also, if he was taking a break from hero work, he might be hungry. It seemed that she was right, at least on some level.

"Hirano?"

"Mm?"

"Why won't you get your pro license?"

Sighing, she crumpled the paper cone her crepe had come in. "Are you going to keep asking every time we meet?"

"In my defense, we haven't really talked in the last few weeks," he said. "I show up, then you show up, then we both leave."

"And isn't that working well? I like it."

"I don't want you to get in trouble," Hawks said. He took a bite of his crepe. When she didn't talk again, he dropped a few feathers and let them soar around them in figure eight patterns. "I could help you, but I feel like you're not worried about passing. I could find you an agency."

He didn't want her to work for him?

"I have a healing Quirk," Akane said, toying with the curved rim of the cone. "As far as I know, if I went to the HPSC, they would just give it to me."

"Yes," he said, his tone darkening. She glanced at him and found his eyes slightly narrowed as he stared at nothing. "But you don't need to go directly to them. You should go to a licensing agency. Or better, visit U.A. U.A. could help you."

Akane almost smiled. He seemed genuinely concerned. "I can't. I want to help people, and I will in the medical field. But I don't want that kind of fame that pros get."

"There are some heroes who don't do commercial deals or merch or anything," Hawks said. "Some people fly under the radar."

"Nice pun," she said. She ripped a tiny piece of the cone but left it attached.

"Thanks, I work hard on those," he said, the corner of his mouth lifting.

"Most heroes do have a public presence though," she said, "Even the underground ones are well-known. I can't…I just can't." The idea of being so visible, her entire self picked apart on social media or having to do photoshoots and interviews… People staring at her, judging her. Her pictures all over billboards and TV and online. Plushies, pins, stickers, people constantly asking for autographs or trying to touch her— "I don't want to be on display." Her face felt flushed. At least as a vigilante, people might take pictures of her and speculate, but they didn't really know who she was. Also, that lifestyle, always going, rarely ever resting… She wanted a family one day, and she didn't think that pro hero would be the best profession for that.

Beside her, Hawks shifted a little closer. "I'm sorry, I think I upset you."

Akane shook her head. "It's okay. It must seem weird to you." He embraced the fame, after all. Fukuoka's Golden Angel Boy.

"No. I get it." He tilted his head to the side. "But you still show up. So part of you feels like doing hero work."

Akane sighed. "It's hard to ignore people who need me."

Hawks crumpled up the paper cone, having finished off the crepe. "I need you to at least consider the license."

"No."

"Hirano, if you get arrested…" He stuffed the cone into his uniform pocket and rubbed his face. "People could make your life difficult."

"Which people?"

"Powerful people," he said, "I don't want to scare you. But vigilantism is illegal, and if you're arrested for Quirk use in a crime scene, you might not get a fine. You could get a prison sentence. Or a plea deal that you wouldn't like." His golden eyes were sad and worried. "You need to be careful."

Akane wrapped her arms around her stomach, one hand holding onto the remains of the paper cone. "I'll try to stop. But no promises."

Hawks let out a breath. "Okay. Okay, good." He offered her a half-smile. "For what it's worth, I think you're going to be a really good if a little weird doctor. You have a good heart."

Akane blinked. "You have got to work on your compliments. Was that supposed to be one?"

Hawks' wings puffed up. His mouth jerked to the side in plain displeasure. "Yes."

Akane sighed. Maybe he was right, being a vigilante was dangerous and she knew it. She didn't want to be arrested but she also didn't want to be a pro. Perhaps she could learn to ignore the voice inside her that demanded she use her Quirk when she saw someone was hurt.

As Hawks stood up on the pole, his wings extending, he was haloed by the moon. "Thanks again for the crepe, it hit the spot." He sketched a bow to her. "I'll see you around? But not at crime scenes?"

"I'll see you," she said noncommittally.

Hawks narrowed his eyes again then smiled. "I guess I'll have to take that for now." With a flurry of feathers, he took off, silvery in the moonlight.

Yeah, she was definitely going to disappoint him, probably in the near future. Who knew, maybe every time he wanted to lecture her about it, they could share a meal. Hopefully he paid most of the time.