Work Text:
Dabi trudged back up to Sekoto Peak, cigarettes in hand to chainsmoke by the mountain river that ran by the old training lodge. It wasn't much of a lodge anymore, not much of anything. A bit like him. It had been built close to the river in case of overheating, and it had worked when he'd gone supernova alone as a kid - if he hadn't had the icy water to douse himself in, he wouldn't have survived. If he hadn't been immune to the cold, frigid water, he also wouldn't have survived. Not that Enji cared. He'd probably have preferred it if Dabi had finished the job for him. Dead sons can't rebel. He'd shattered all the windows. Not on purpose, but he'd reached a temperature that had the windows blown out by the sudden pressure. Not to mention parts of the walls. The roof. The debris had been strewn about all around the clearing, and no one had bothered to clear it up. Why would they? Enji trained his perfect little protégé in the house dojo because Shouto's fire wasn't nearly so unweildy and destructive.
Dabi sat down at the river's edge, putting his pack down next to him so he could chainsmoke without having to reach into his pocket constantly. He hated it here, but he hated it marginally less than home. There was a large flat rock that he often sat on when he was here, letting him stick his feet in the water if he wanted. The river was wide, deep in the middle, but slow-moving. The water was very clear as well, so close to the mountain spring that it glimmered like cut-crystal when the sun was bright. It only got murky after storms. It meant that Dabi could look into the water and see all the individual stones and pebbles at the bottom. The pieces of glass from the night he nearly immolated. A lot of them had probably washed away by now, but there were still some, and he'd see them every now and then in the riverbed. Almost ten years later, and they were still there. The wood that had come from the walls and roof had started to rot away by now - well, the bits of it that could rot. The pieces that had been turned to charcoal had just disintegrated over time.
Between two cigarettes, his curiosity got the better of him, and he rolled his sleeve up to his shoulder and dunked his hand in to pick a piece up. It was closer than they usually drifted, well within reach. Unlike so many things these days. It was hard to grab because he didn't particularly want to get his face wet, and it was deep enough that he had to turn his head to the side to avoid the water while reaching for the riverbed. After a few tries, he finally got what he'd been after, instead of stones, and lifted the small shard up to the light to take a closer look at it, outside of the rippling, distorting water. It was a large piece - hence why he'd been able to spot it. About the length of his pinkie finger, and shaped a bit like an animal tooth. He pressed a finger to the tip, pushing down and watching as blood beaded underneath before running down the edge of the glass, tinting it red. Yeah, Dabi hadn't gotten any less sharp since that night either.
He dropped it back into the water and lit his next cigarette.
A knock at the door, and Enji was too busy to answer it, as usual. With a huff, Dabi got up and headed over to open it.
"What?" He spat.
"Uh," The man on the other side said, hand still raised to knock again. Dabi had never met him before in his life, but he recognised him. Hard not to. "Is this the Todoroki residence?" He asked, trying a PR-polished smile on Dabi.
"Yeah, and? Fuck's it to you?" He asked.
"Uh, well, um, I'm Hawks? The No. 2 Hero?" He stuttered.
"No shit, sherlock, did you get hit in the head on the way here?"
"No! Um, ah," he said, floudering as Dabi wrinkled his nose in distaste at him, "I'm here to see Endeavour-sama?"
Dabi made sure to intensify his scowl by a minimum of 40% and let the hero squirm for a few moments longer, "That sounds like a you problem," he said eventually, before shutting the door in his face.
He stomped down the corridor to Enji's office, pissed at have to play pretend-secretary for a man he'd love to see six-feet under, and pounded on the door, "there's a dickhead hero on the doorstep for you," he said, before grabbing his coat and smokes and heading out the backdoor to head up the mountain before his disrespect could earn him some more bruises.
Piece of glass hadn't moved. He scowled down at it, working through his fifth cigarette and trying to get his head on straight. He fucking hated it when Enji brought his work home. Fucking hated it when Enji brought himself home. Much preferred the days when he stayed overnight in his office rather than darkening their door. A sound behind him had him turning to see a pair of red wings.
"Fuck are you doing here?" He hissed. "Fucking trespassing."
Hawks landed a feet away, "thought I'd come check on you," he said, "you seemed upset."
"And? Like that's any of your fucking business."
"It could be," Hawks said, walking over and sitting next to him, "if you want."
"I don't," Dabi spat.
"Can I bum a cigarette?" Hawks asked.
"Get your fucking own," Dabi said.
Hawks didn't move, just leant back, looking around the clearing. The nicotine wasn't doing enough to calm Dabi, not with the fucking No. 2 hero sitting next to him like they were on a damn picnic. When he finished one, and he reached for the other, his hands were shaking, and he struggled to get the lighter to catch. Right when he was about to give up and use his quirk, a hand reached forward, taking the lighter and flicking it alight on the first try, holding it up to the cigarette hanging from his lips. Dabi didn't thank him, just turned back to stare out over the river.
"What happened here?" Hawks asked.
"My business," Dabi hissed.
"Ah," Hawks said, "not mine."
"Too right."
He heard his lighter again, and he turned to see Hawks lighting up a cigarette of his own.
"The fuck did you get that?" He asked.
"Stole it," Hawks said, nonplussed.
"You stole one of my cigs? You fucker," Dabi hissed.
Hawks shrugged, drawing deeply before holding it and letting out a long puff of smoke.
"Didn't know they let you smoke," he couldn't help saying.
"They don't," Hawks replied. "S'why I had to steal one."
Dabi grunted, turning back to stare at the water.
They smoked in silence until Hawks had finished his cigarette, and then he stood up, giving Dabi a two-fingered salute that went ignored and took off, leaving him alone with the solitude of the river, finally.
Hawks started coming by regularly after that. Dabi didn't know if he was working on a case with his father or something, and he didn't want to know. He wanted to be left alone. Tough fucking titties to that, though, as far as birdbrain was concerned. Dabi went up the mountain to escape the house, and within an hour, he'd hear wingbeats behind him and a cigarette would go missing from his pack.
He ignored him for the most part, but it seemed like the bird was happy to be ignored. So he kept coming. They sat in silence and stared at the river most of the time. Hawks tried to talk to him a few times, and Dabi alternated between ignoring him and spitting unsociable vitriol at him. It didn't frighten him off. Not that Dabi was particularly frightening, considering a badly-timed infection could hospitalise him, but he was unpleasant, which was usually enough to keep people at bay. They were sitting together when Hawks rolled up the sleeve of his compression suit, all the way to the shoulder, and reached a hand into the cold water. He pulled out the glass first time, holding it up to the light.
"S'from the windows," Dabi said, nodding towards the burnt-out foundations behind them. He wasn't sure why. He hadn't asked, and Dabi didn't particularly want to explain.
Hawks looked over to the husk of a lodge and back at the shard, "How long's it been here?"
Dabi shrugged, even though he knew, "about a decade."
Hawks looked back at the foundations and then over at Dabi, eyeing him up and down, "You consider that a kid's business, then?"
Dabi sneered instead of answering, looking back out over the water and ignoring him until he left. Hawks left the shard on the stone they were sitting on, and when he'd finished the pack, Dabi carefully put it back into the riverbed.
When they were next smoking, Hawks tried to start a conversation again.
"Lot of glass in this river."
"Fuck do you mean?" Dabi asked, "You check or something?"
"Something like that," Hawks said, taking a drag.
"You've got too much time on your hands, birdie," Dabi said.
"Not really," Hawks replied. "You must have gotten all of them. The windows I mean," he clarified.
"I did."
"Ten years ago?"
"Yeah."
"That's quite the blast."
Dabi didn't answer.
"Who saved you?" Hawks asked. Of course, he'd ask that fucking question. Fucking heroes.
"The river."
"No one was with you?" Hawks pressed.
Dabi let out a long puff of smoke and briefly considered setting the bird on fire, just to stop the questions.
"Were you scared of something?" Hawks asked.
Dabi snorted, scared of being forgotten again, perhaps. But he wasn't going to tell the hero that, "I was...upset."
Hawks hummed, like he'd said something more interesting, and Dabi turned to shoot him a questioning look.
"You've been coming up here when you're upset for a while, then."
Dabi clenched his jaw and turned back to the river.
"Hey!"
Dabi cracked open an eye to look at the hero, blocking the sun where he wheeled above him. His back ached from lying on the stone all night, the thin layer of frost that had gathered over his body in the night and then dissipated as the sun rose, leaving his clothing damp and sticking to him.
The hero landed next to him, jogging over, eyes roving his body critically, "Your sister's worried about you."
Dabi snorted, sitting up with a grimace before reaching his arms above himself to stretch, staples pulling unpleasantly, but the heat under his skin wonderfully tempered by a night out in the cold.
"She said you hadn't come home last night."
"I never left estate grounds," Dabi replied.
"You slept out here?" Hawks asked.
Dabi gave him a scathing look that he hoped conveyed 'no duh'.
"Not worried about hypothermia?"
"Not even a little bit," Dabi replied.
A hand fell on top of his forehead, feeling like a brand; it was so warm in comparison to the sweet frost, and he slapped it away with a scowl. Hawks huffed out a laugh before sitting down next to him and looking out over the river. Dabi stared out over the water, breathing deeply. Birdbrain arriving meant he had to get up properly now instead of dozing in the cold winter sunlight. He reached for his battered pack, pulling out the final one. He'd saved it so that he'd be able to spend a little longer out here this morning, instead of being dragged down the mountain by his itchy lungs and back into that house.
The catching of his lighter sounded loud after the quiet of the morning, making him blink in surprise as the company started to drag him out of the strange, detached state he'd been in. Shame. He'd been enjoying it. He drew a long breath in, holding it for a moment before breathing it out again, watching it disappear out over the water. Hawks sat down next to him. No ciggies left for him to steal, Dabi almost mocked him, but he was still clinging to remaining quiet in his head. He passed the cigarette over to him. He didn't look away from the water, so he didn't know if the hero looked surprised or not.
They smoked the cigarette in silence for a while, passing it back at forth, looking out over the river.
"Happy birthday," Hawks said, and threw something down onto the rock between them. Dabi looked down to see a fresh pack of cigarettes, a little red bow stuck to it. He picked it up, turning it over. It was his favourite brand and everything.
"So you can buy your own," he said.
"Only if they're for someone else."
"How'd you know I'd be out?" Dabi asked.
"I didn't," Hawks said, "it was in case you didn't like the cake."
A small box was pushed towards him. Dabi opened it up with a furrowed brow, not sure how to react to the cupcake inside with a candle in it. He didn't eat it, just put it to the side and took the cigarette back from him and continued smoking in silence until it was finished. Then he opened the fresh pack and took out a new one to light. Then he took out another and passed it over to Hawks.
"Your sister invited me to stay for dinner," was the greeting he got.
Dabi rolled his eyes, "So?"
"Are you going to be there?"
"Is Enji going to be there?" Dabi asked. The answer was usually 'no', but if he knew there was an outsider to play house for, then he might very well turn up.
"I think he's still at his Agency," Hawks replied. "Fuyumi-san mentioned he'd worked late every day this week. He needs to close a certain number of cases by next Thursday to beat some record or other."
Dabi's eyes snapped up to him in confusion, "You- what? Are you not here to see him?"
Hawks looked down at him, seemingly perplexed, "No?"
Dabi stared at him some more. But Hawks had been here twice this week already. If Enji had been at the agency all week, then... He cocked his head and stared at Hawks as if that would somehow answer the strange riddle put before him.
After a pause, Hawks leant forward a little, "I come here to see you," he clarified.
Oh.
Dabi looked down at his cigarette, brow furrowing, "Why?" He asked, looking back up at him.
"Because I enjoy it," Hawks said, as if Dabi were particularly slow. He didn't appreciate that.
"You fly over here to sit next to a stranger and smoke his cigarettes?" He asked, "Seems like a long journey for something you could manage in the city."
"I fly over here to sit next to my friend and smoke his cigarettes," Hawks corrected.
"We're not friends," Dabi said automatically, wrinkling his nose.
"Well," Hawks said, sitting down next to him, stolen cigarette brought to his hand by a red feather, "I consider you my friend, even if you don't consider me yours."
Dabi opened his mouth to argue the point more, then realised that would make it look like he cared and closed it again, bringing his cigarette back up to his lips and turning to look out over the water again. They weren't friends. Dabi didn't have friends. Wasn't granted the opportunities to make any. And if he were, he certainly wouldn't be friends with any heroes.
Hawks didn't leave when he finished his stolen cigarette, instead sitting next to Dabi in silence as he made his way through the pack, until the sun started to get low. He'd have to go soon or he'd be stuck trying to navigate the mountain paths in the dark. He'd have missed dinner, though. Perfect. Dabi stood up, and Hawks copied, but didn't fly off, instead falling into step with him as he made his way back down the mountain, which was confusing, but it's not like Dabi could shoo him away like a street pigeon. Well, he could try, but Hawks would probably take it to mean Dabi was being playful and...friendly. So he left it.
When he got to the house, he went in through the back, avoiding the living room since the light was on and moved into the kitchen. There was a note on the side;
Touya-nii, we were sorry not to see you at dinner, but don't worry! There are leftovers in the oven. -Yumi <3
He opened the oven and held a hand out over the dish. Still warm. He'd timed himself well. He pulled it out and turned around to find some chopsticks and eat it straight out of the dish, only to collide with a chest. He lost his grip on the dish, but another hand grabbed it, the other one shooting out to grip his elbow and steady him. He looked up to see Hawks had followed him in.
He scowled at him, "What are you? A stray? Wandering into the house for food?"
Hawks grinned back, "Something like that."
Dabi huffed and snatched the dish back out of his hands, putting it on the island counter and grabbing some chopsticks from the drawers before pulling up a chair and stabbing at the food, planning on just ignoring him the way he did up on Sekoto Peak. But of course that wouldn't work. It didn't work there, and it didn't work here. Hawks pulled up a chair, a pair of chopsticks dropped into his hand from a feather and leant over to help himself. Dabi huffed, but didn't stop him.
"Why do you stay here?" Hawks asked one day, lying back on the stone, smoke drifting up from the cigarette held loosely in his hand.
"Don't want to be in the house," Dabi replied, thinking he'd made that clear.
"That's what I mean," Hawks said, leaning forward to prop himself up on his elbows and look at him, "why do you stay in the house at all? Why not move out?"
Dabi stared at him like he'd just grown two heads, "because I can't."
Hawks cocked his head, fuzzy eyebrows furrowing.
Dabi mirrored the gesture, "He'd never let me."
"You're an adult."
Dabi narrowed his eyes at him. Made sense, it wasn't common knowledge, but not even the hero knew? He'd have thought he'd have access - it's not like it was confidential.
"I'm one of his conservatees," Dabi corrected, "I can't do shit without his write-off. That includes moving out."
"'one of'?" Hawks echoed.
Dabi took a drag of his cigarette. He'd thought the hero would catch that little titbit.
"Me and Mama," Dabi replied.
Hawks looked him up and down, "You've been perfectly lucid the entire time I've known you."
Dabi raised his eyebrows at him. Exactly, he wanted to say, but didn't.
"Did that happen about ten years ago?" He asked, eyes drifting down to the water. To where the glass could still be seen in the riverbed.
"Yeah."
"That's a long time to be a conservatee," Hawks said.
"Yeah," Dabi agreed, "it is."
"They haven't had you re-evaluated?"
"Every time I bring it up, he brings up the NDA I still haven't signed."
"You know NDAs can't stop someone from reporting illegal activity, right?"
"I've been labelled unstable enough to be untrustworthy of taking care of myself for almost a decade, Hawks," Dabi said, breathing out a plume of smoke, "who are they going to believe?"
The question hung in the air between them until Hawks finished his cigarette and flew away again. Dabi reached into the river and pulled out another shard of glass, pressing his fingertip into the side until a small drop of blood ran down the side, gathering on the bottom edge before there was enough to drip down into the water below, almost immediately disappearing as the river diluted it into near nothing.
"Do you always chainsmoke?" Hawks asked one day, watching as Dabi lit his...sixth? Seventh?
"Don't you start," He said, "I get enough of that from Yumi."
Hawks shrugged, "Just asking."
Dabi huffed, "I only chainsmoke when I'm up here. At the house, I smoke'em one at a time. Yumi bitches at me otherwise."
"Well, smoking's a bad habit," Hawks said, taking a deep drag.
"She thinks it's unhealthy."
"It is unhealthy," Hawks said, blowing a poor attempt at a smoke ring.
Dabi tapped his scars, "These'll kill me long before teh cigarettes will."
Hawks cocked his head, looking pensive, "They aren't healed?"
Dabi shrugged, "healed as best the doctors could manage. But complications will get me before anything else does."
Hawks looked at his cigarette, turning it slowly in his hand. "Did they give you a time frame?" He asked.
"Unlikely to make it to thirty," Dabi said, "Forty's probably a pipe dream."
Hawks nodded after a moment, "bit like me then."
Dabi turned to look at him, up-and-down all of his peak-physical-fitness glory.
"Mortality rate's high in this line of work," Hawks said, "especially when you've made a name for yourself. People love tearing down symbols."
Dabi sneered, "You can retire. You could survive if you really wanted to."
There was a long pause, heavy between them.
"Yeah," Hawks said, "yeah, I guess I could."
"Are you going to testify?" Dabi asked as soon as Hawks sat down.
"I've put myself down as a character witness," Hawks said, stealing a cigarette. Dabi nearly lit the entire thing on fire.
"For Endeavour?" Dabi asked with a sneer.
"I don't know Enji Todoroki," Hawks said, lighting his cigarette.
Dabi turned to look at him properly, "For who then?"
Hawks looked at him like he was stupid.
"Me?" Dabi asked, needing verbal confirmation.
"Who else?" Hawks asked, taking a drag, "I don't know Shouto."
They sat in silence for a while as Dabi digested that.
"What will you say?" He asked.
"That you're a perfectly lucid and intelligent adult, and that if you weren't, then Enji would be negligent as a conservator since you spend half your time two-hours walk up a mountain unsupervised."
Dabi took a moment to take that in too, nodding.
"Not unsupervised," he said, after a moment. "Technically."
"I'm only up here a few times a week," Hawks said, "I reckon you're up here most days, if not all of them. And you were coming up here long before I started joining you."
"Yeah," Dabi confirmed, "I was."
Though he really didn't mind the company so much these days.
Wings behind him almost had Dabi smiling, "I gather you're in some hot water, birdie?"
"Something like that," Hawks said, flopping down next to him. Dabi passed him a cigarette and held out the lighter for him. "What have you heard?"
"Not much," Dabi said, "It seems to be some kind of taboo topic in the house, and I can't watch the news."
Hawks hummed, "Would you believe me if I said it was all a big fuss over nothing, and smoke with me in silence?"
"I wouldn't believe you," Dabi said, "but we can smoke in silence if you want."
Hawks laughed around his cigarette quietly, "You're sweet, underneath it all, aren't you?"
Dabi choked on his smoke, hacking up acrid air before he could get a good, clean breath in, "the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"Means exactly what I said," Hawks said, still grinning, "That I think you're sweet."
Dabi floundered for a moment, not sure how to reply, before settling on, "fuck off."
Hawks laughed, eyes glimmering with delight.
They did smoke in silence, looking out over the water until Hawks finished his cigarette. But he didn't leave immediately; instead, he sighed, leaning back.
"The HPSC is making things difficult for me because I'm making things difficult for Endeavour."
Dabi hummed, "How difficult?"
"Might just retire," Hawks said, then reached out to grab another cigarette from Dabi's pack, "I've got this friend, you see," he continued, taking his lighter next and looking at him as he lit his new one, drawing in a breath, eyes still locked with Dabi's as he let out a smoke-filled breath, "I was going to challenge him to a game; see if we can both live long enough for the cigarettes to catch up with us."
Dabi blinked at him, before realising he could feel his eyes start prickling with tears and turned to look at his own cigarette, watching as the smoke curled up and away. He swallowed before putting it back to his lips and taking a long drag.
"You'll have to start buying your own," he said, pretending that his voice came out thick because of the smoke, and not the tears he was fighting back.
Hawks laughed, "Only if you promise to steal them from me."
Shouto's stint in court was enough for him to be emancipated from his father's care, with Aizawa Shouta becoming his guardian and that was enough to get the conservatorship over Rei and Touya Todoroki reviewed, both being deemed fit to care for themselves, but the courts opted for a probationary period where Rei was under the limited conservatorship of Fuyumi and Touya was under the limited conervatorship of Natsuo to help them re-adjust to independence, and they both had to attend court-mandated therapy to make sure they were adjusting properly. Dabi had griped about it and demanded proof that the shrink was completely independent from Enji and the HPSC, but after that, had taken it with arguable grace.
He didn't quit smoking, but he didn't chainsmoke anymore. Natsuo didn't like him smoking in the flat, so he and Keigo usually went to the roof for it. He'd have invited him over to his own flat to smoke, but he'd had to sell it: he couldn't afford the mortgage now he wasn't working, and he'd never liked the place much anyway. Too catalogue-ready. Plus, the HPSC had backed him for so many of the big purchases he was expected to have made that he had to get rid of pretty much all of them. Keigo Takami did not have money; after the HPSC took their cut, he really didn't earn much. But it was enough to get a small studio, and he'd started working towards a teaching qualification. Sure, he was technically retired, but that didn't mean he wanted to just sit around and do nothing. He'd liked having the interns. Besides, it would be best not to be affiliated with the HPSC right now - they were falling under a lot of scrutiny after the Endeavour scandal, and Keigo Takami was one of their worst offences. He'd left them a nice little present upon his retirement, assuring them that he'd compiled evidence regarding his hiring and onboarding and should anything happen to him, that information would suddenly find its way to the doorsteps of multiple reporters, judges, lawyers and heroes.
But his new flat, though he loved it, didn't have a balcony. Nowhere to smoke. Which didn't bother him, since he only smoked with Dabi. But it meant they were limited to Natsuo's roof and...well, sometimes Keigo flew them both back to Sekoto. Not the Todoroki estate; neither of them had any interest in visiting. But their rock. Their river. The shards of glass they'd pull out of the riverbed every now and then to check the edges of. They liked visiting there.
He'd looked it up. Sea glass took about ten years to develop, minimum. And that was in the sea, filled with salt and tides that would throw it up against the rough grains of sand and drag it through day-in-day out to wear down the edges. A mountain river? That would take much longer to wear down an edge. Keigo wasn't sure how long; maybe twenty years? Thirty? Fifty? He was hoping that he could convince Dabi to change their game - he'd already reduced his smoking so much after moving in with Natsuo. Maybe he could convince him to see if they could both live long enough to see the glass in their river turn smooth.