Work Text:
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Dabi wasn't supposed to see this.
No one was supposed to see this. But definitely not his contact with the league/fuck buddy.
But here he is staring into his closet looking at Dabi. Mouth hung open knelling in front of the small shrine dedicated to his first, and probably only, real friend. Neither of them have moved in what feels like hours but is likely to only been a minute at most.
"Hey Dabs," Hawks tries to get his attention so he doesn't startle him, "how about we come out of the closet and we just forget you ever saw this?"
He would really like to get the living flamethrower of a man away from the very flammable shrine. While it only has two pictures, one he got from the news outlet in an article about his death and the other is a strip of photos. It was the one time they managed to lose their handles on a day trip out and Touya convinced him to go to an arcade with him. That one is irreplaceable, even with a picture of it on his phone, he really likes the original and doesn't want to lose it.
On the right side of the photo is Touya's ID necklace, minus the GPS tracker. A simple flat piece of tungsten, the only thing that could maybe hold up to his flames, though many times it did not, it has his hero name "Comet", his birthday and ID number inscribed onto it. On the left are 5 rocks of different shapes and sizes. The only similarity between them all is they all have a small sparkle to them and Touya gave him all of them.
Hawks isn't even sure Dabi has blinked since he found the other man.
Slowly he approaches him, not wanting to spook him or get himself roasted.
"Hey hot stuff, let's get up," he starts as he reached towards Dabi. "I know it looks really weird having a shrine of some kid in my closet, but I promise I can explain." He doesn't really want to but if that'll get the pyro out of his closet he'll do it.
Just before Hawks is able to touch him, Dabi grabs his arm faster than he'd ever seen the man move. Dabi slowly stands still holding on to Hawks's arm. He grabs his other arm as he back him back into the wall of drawers opposite them, pinning both hands above his head. Hawks to stunned by the sudden movement to react.
Dabi leans in close and whispers against his ear, "Didn't think you cared that much about him birdie. Figured they would make you get rid of everything to do with him even if you did." Dabi lets out a harsh laugh that sounds like it's being punched out of him.
"What do you mean, Dabs?" he's pleading for this to not mean what he's starting to think it means.
"I mean it's good to know at least someone gave a shit about that kid. It's not like dear old dad or the commission cared if he lived or not." Dabi pulls back and just smirks at him. Not his usual glasgow smile that pulls on his staples too much. No, it's a kinda charming boyish smirk that Hawks hasn't seen in almost 10 years. One that he would look for every time he beat his record in a simulation or did a cool trick in the air. Once he only got to see for three years before everything came crashing down.
Hawks tries to push Dabi away or get his arms free, but the asshole is digging his heels in and tightening his grip. "No. You can't be him. They told me he died. They wouldn't lie about that. They lie about a lot of things, but there's no way they could lie about that." Hawks knows he's breathing to fast and his words are running together and one realization away from a full-blow panic attack.
"Aw good, birdie figured it out. Don't worry too much about it. I'm just as surprised as you that I lived through that. Most likely shouldn't have." He lets out another mirthless laugh.
Hawks has no excuse for what happens next. It shouldn't have happened. He's been trained to handle a lot more stress than his best friend/first crush, seemingly coming back from the dead and being an A-rank villain (that he's now been sleeping with for weeks). That would for sure know that he has been lying this whole time and it in fact a spy sent by the commission. So Hawks does what any logical person would do in his situation and faints.
Keigo Hawks had just turned 10 when they introduced him to Comet. A new student that would be training with him for the time being. He's met a few other kids, but they usually only last for a month or two. Keigo Hawks really hopes Comet sticks around. It would be nice to maybe make a friend.
They sadly don't get a chance to talk till after dinner back in their dorm room. Comet came in the middle of him eating lunch, and then they kept the two separate the whole afternoon so they could do the quirk portion of testing. Hawks knows this because it's how it always goes when they bring someone new in.
The dorm rooms are small, having two twin beds on opposite walls with two desks in between them. Each side had a small built-in closet with drawers at the bottom, not like they needed much space with only maybe two dozen outfits a piece.
"So Comet, why do you want to be a hero?" Hawks asks. He's sitting backwards on his desk chair while Comet is sitting with his back against the wall on his bed.
"Hold on, first, do you really only call people by their hero names here?" quirking his eyebrow up in question, "Secondly, I want to be a hero strong enough to surpass All Might." Comet held his head up high like he didn't just say the craziest thing Hawks has ever heard.
"Hold on, you think you're going to surpass All Might?" Hawks stifles a small laugh at that spinning in his chair to make sure the other boy doesn't catch it. Endeavor has been number two for over a decade and this kid thinks he's going to do what the best hero can't. "And, of course, we use our hero names, did they not tell you? We're not supposed to tell anyone our real name, it's against the rules."
"Of course, I'm going to surpass All Might. It's the whole reason I was born. It's why my dad sent me here so I could still get hero training." Comets voice starts out loud and fierce but slowly losing his previous enthusiasm when mentioning his dad. "My name is Touya, by the way, I don't care about their rules. I think it's stupid not to know someone's name." Comet says speaking softly.
Hawks's eyes go wide at hearing the other boys real name, "Shush you can't let them hear you saying it and defiantly not telling me." the fear of punishment overshadowing the first part of his statement.
That seems to shift something in Comet, "I don't think they could do anything worse to me than I already do to myself." he stops spinning in his chair and finally just looks at the other boy but he seems to be avoiding looking at Hawks.
Hawks eyebrows raise in confusion, "What do you me-" but before he can finish asking the question Comet lights his hand up in flames startling Hawks so bad he almost fall out of his chair. Comet finally looking up at him.
"According to the doctors my body isn't built to handle my flames. I have a little bit of fire resistance so if I only hold them for a few seconds I'm okay," he shakes his hand the fire disappearing with the motion, "but any longer and I'll burn myself. It's why dad stopped training me and started training Shouto. I kept begging him to let me keep training but he wouldn't change his mind. I kept training on my own sneaking up the mountain, but mom caught me tending to my burns last week. Which started another argument between mom and dad about me." Comet looks down in what is probably shame tugging on his hair, "But then dad talked to some people he knew at the HPSC and pulled some strings and here we are. I'd still rather be training with dad but at least now I have a chance to prove myself to him." The hopefully smile Comet give him is what finally makes him act.
Hawks crosses the room to sit right next to Touya and in the quietest whisper of a voice, "My names Keigo but we really can't let them know we know, okay?"
"Sure Keigo just between us." Touya sticks out his hand and they shake on it.
Hawks wakes up after an unknown time surprisingly in his bed. The sun is almost completely set so it's been at least an hour. He has just gotten back from his patrol around 5 when he found Dabi in his— fuck!
Hawks shot into a sitting position in bed racking his hands through his hair. Dabi found his shrine he kept for Touya. Dabi then kinda confessed to being Touya. Then Hawks fainted. Hands shift from his hair to his face to somewhat muffle the loud scream he just needed to let out.
"Damn Kei, if you scream any louder you're gonna get complaints from the downstairs neighbors," he hears Dabi say in his lazy drawl from the doorway. "Again."
Hawks doesn't actually think before he acts and has Dabi pined to the door with about three dozen feathers and he himself with a primary not far behind them. "You don't get to use that name." He hisses out. The sharpened feather not quite cutting but getting very close to it against Dabi's neck.
"Whoa whoa whoa birdie. Didn't think this would get your feathers in a twist that bad." Dabi held up his arm in surrender, those not being pinned to the door due to the arsonist's missing jacket and Hawks not wanting to put anymore hole in him. Yet. "How about we just settle down and talk about it. I made karaage," Dabi says somewhat, pleading with the birdman.
"And it's your recipe?"
"Yes, birdie." Hawks knows by the tone of his voice he is being played like a fiddle, but he is only human and doesn't remember if he ate today and Dabi's karaage is the best he's ever had.
"Okay, you have till I finish eating to explain yourself." He walks past the other man and takes his feathers with him, causing Dabi to stumble before catching himself.
"Good think I made enough for an army because this is going to take a while." He hears Dabi whisper under his breath.
So they sit at Hawks table and Dabi tell him the tale of going home for the weekend in hope of showing Endeavor what he can do now with the commission training. He tell the man to meet him at their old training ground at Sekoto Peak and of him not showing up. Of Touya's flame turning blue and crying tears and not being able to stop burning. Trying his hardest to get to the river he knows is close and being so close yet so far. His last thoughts not of his father but of what will happen to Keigo without him there.
Then the true horror begins. Waking up 3 years later with a different body, voice and scars so many scars. In a strange place with kids and weird guy with a sunflower face. Of a man on the monitor calling him a failure but suggesting he stays with them so he could help him recover his fire. Says he'll likely die soon without his help.
"Also don't tell Shiggy this but I'm pretty sure it was All for One."
Lastly of running away from that place determined to take his second chance and apologize to everyone. To show dad that he was still worth something. Then of nothing really changing since his "death".
"He was still beating the shit out of Shou and calling it training. Not even me dying could show him that putting that kind of pressure on a kid wasn't right. So I had to leave. It was easier to just let everyone think I was dead until I could show Endeavor how strong I've gotten and take him down for good."
Hawks had barely touched the food during Dabi talk, if he was being honest with himself the smell of his usual favorite food was making him nauseous.
"Tou," he cooed reaching out for the others hand a crossed the table. "I'm so—"
"No need to start apologizing for shit that's not your fault little bird." Dabi said cutting him off but still reaching out to take his hand. " Nothing can be done about it all now."
"Why didn't you tell me? You've known who I am this whole time." He was trying to hold it together, but he knew his voice sounded wet even to him.
"Oh birdie," Dabi's voice gentle in a way he so rarely hears. He starts scooting his chair closer and, using his unoccupied hand, to cup Hawks's face, "It wasn't anything you did. I figured it was just easier to mourn me once instead of me coming back to life. I figured I wasn't important enough for the number 2 hero to remember, especially how long it's been." The idea of Touya being forgettable is absurd to Hawks and if he wasn't about to start crying he might laugh.
"And then you saw the shrine?" he asks, ducking his head in embarrassment, kind of strange having a shrine for someone he now knows is living.
"And then I saw the shrine," Dabi agrees with a nod. "I wasn't planning on telling you anything. You would have found out with everyone else, but that changed things. You know they had one set up in my old room. Has that same school photo and a couple of toys that were probably more Natsu's than mine by that point." Dabi pauses and gently guides Hawks's head back up so they can look at each other, "But you managed to keep those dumb little rocks and the photo strip and make a small quiet shrine for me. I really thought they would have destroyed those the second they found them." the longing in his voice evident. "Why? What made me so special that you kept all that?"
Now this is probably the easiest question Dabi could have asked him.
"I loved you." That is when the damn breaks and all feeling he's had to put away and lock in a box for this man for the last 10 years come rushing out of him. He just barely hear the sharp intake of breath from Dabi over the ringing in his ears, "For those three years you became my world. Honestly I really didn't think until I met you that I would find anyone else that interested me," a small rueful laugh escapes him while the irony of the situation does not, "It was probably the summer after I turned 12 that I realized I had a crush on you. I think it was the day we snuck away to the arcade, that was the first time I ever did something just for fun, maybe even the last time," he's holding onto the hand on his check like a lifeline, "But it was taking me a while to work up the courage to tell you. I was finally set on telling you on Christmas, ya know cause it's a couples holiday, I had a whole big plan and was going to try to sneak us out again. Then you went home the beginning of December for your sister's birthday." He's been crying through his whole confession and wouldn't be surprised if Dabi hasn't understood half of it.
"And I never came back." Dabi's trying his best to wipe away the tears as they come. Hawks just nods his head in Dabi's hand and lets out a sad little chirp in affirmation. A beat passes before, "Okay little bird drop the feathers." Dabi commands not leaving room for argument and started shifting moving one arm under his arm and around his back just under his wings and the other going under his thighs.
"What?" Hawks squawks out but complies dropping his feathers to the ground and instinctively wrapping his arms around the others neck as Dabi picks him up out of the chair and into his arms. Dabi as he is known to do does not give an actually answer he just slow carries Hawks over to the couch and sits with him perched on his lap.
"Again. What?"
"One, I don't think I can carry you with the wings on and wasn't going to make an even bigger fool of myself. Two you're chairs are uncomfortable and dig into the staples on my legs if I sit on them for to long. Three I just really needed to hold you birdie." at that, he lowered his head on Hawks's shoulder, hiding his face in the crook of his neck. This draws out a soft coo from Hawks as he starts to preen through the other's hair.
Before Hawks can say a word, he feels more than hears Dabi say something into his skin. "What was that hot stuff?" letting out a small laugh as the other breath tickles his neck.
It's only just slightly louder and only because he's listening for it does he hear the small, "I love you too Kei." followed by a light kiss being pressed to his neck against his pulse point. Triggering more tears to fall from Keigo. They roll off his face on to Dabi's. "Don't cry again, birdie." Dabi croons at him. He leans back again to be face to face with his birdie.
Before Dabi can say another word, Hawks is kissing him. It takes the other a second to catch on to the fact he's being kissed before returning the gesture enthusiastically. It has none of the usual bite or heat their kisses usually have but something more gentle and slow like they have all the time in the world. God did Hawks hope they'd have all the time in the world.
Hawks pulls away before the kiss can go much further, needing clarification: "You meant it, right? You actually love me?" A strange mix of hope and apprehension tinges his voice.
"Of course, I do birdie. I think I'm getting tired of all the lying." At this though, Dabi's smile turns from something affectionate and small to something much more mischievous, and he takes his hand and squeezes Hawks face between it and gives him a little shake every few words. "What the fuck was the commission thinking sending you in to the League to be a double agent? You're not built for long-term undercover jobs. You're too much of a hero to really pull it off." He lets out an exasperated sigh, dropping his hands to rest on Hawks's hips. "You got lucky, I was you're contact. You know that, right? Anyone else would have never let you in."
"Yeaaa but I got lucky because the recruiter has a crush on me." He knows he's sporting the dopiest love-struck smile, and he can't find it in himself to care.
"No. He loves you."
All he can do is smile even wider at that. Because, for the first time in his life, Keigo is loved.