Chapter Text
“Um. What the hell is going on -“
Dabi would like to know as well. One minute, he was pacing around the apartment he was in with Yume lying peacefully on the bed. The next minute, she was glaring at him and screaming bloody fucking murder.
The scream was so angry, Dabi actually thought something was wrong. Besides just having a baby who was in the midst of developing extreme amounts of fucking sass, of course.
And, in a panic, Dabi didn’t hang up the phone. Yume - the baby he was supposed to be keeping a secret from the heroes, was wailing and he hadn’t hung up . Hawks could fucking hear her.
His heart leapt up to his throat as he scrambled to where his phone lay surprisingly undamaged on the ground, letting out a string of curses as he finally ended the call. He grimaced as he stood up though - that was a particularly embarrassing moment for him. At least it was just him and Yume, and Yume was still too young to be able to grow up and remember what he just did.
Speaking of Yume, she was upset. Inconsolable, even. She hadn’t been this bad since she had been a newborn. Hell, Dabi hadn’t felt this out of depth since she was a newborn.
So he did what he always did best: he cradled and rocked her in his arms and just… hoped for the best. Her cries didn’t sound like the hungry or ‘shitty’ ones, so there was that.
Eventually, she calmed down. Until Dabi tried to put her down for a moment. Then she started back up again. Dabi shushed her, the realization of what she wanted was hitting him.
She just wanted attention.
“The princess gets what she wants,” Dabi drawled sarcastically, picking her up and holding her up in front of him. She had her stupid pink rabbit plushy clasped tightly in her hand. “Did you hear that, asshole? Are you a princess?”
“Gah-bah!” Yume said, eloquently as always, and sticking out her tongue. Her hair was starting to get longer - it was easy to tell that she had inherited Ronin’s curls now. Besides that and the darker hue of her eyes, she still looked a hell of a lot like him.
Dabi did not take pride in that. Nope. Absolutely fucking not.
That was a lie.
“Yeah?” Dabi pretended to hum thoughtfully. “Does that make me a king then?”
Yume smacked him in the face with the rabbit.
“You could’ve just said no,” Dabi told her seriously. Finally, Yume let out a giggle.
No more grumpy baby.
As for Hawks… well, Dabi didn’t fucking know what to do about that. If it were up to him, he’d never speak to the bird again, but unfortunately, that was getting less and less possible as the days went on. Pulling out his phone, Dabi decided to finally stop ignoring the League’s group chat.
~
Himiko’s cute friends!! (Shiggy stop changing it back this is less boring ❤️❤️❤️)
Dabi: Oi.
Toga: oh my god he’s alive!!!
how’s little baby Yume? you didn’t send any pictures of her!! how am I supposed to know if she’s grown?? <:(
Twice: Dabi!! We haven’t spoke to you in SO LONG
Compress: It’s good to hear from you, Dabi. Please send more recent photos of Yume to us when you get the chance.
Spinner: Okay but is anyone else worried about the fact that he texted us randomly out of the blue? Do you need help or some shit?
Dabi: Spinner’s my favourite now.
Toga: WHAT NOOOOO BIG BRO DABI WHAT ABOUT ME???? :(((
Dabi: Don’t call me that. I’m not a big brother.
Toga: i am totally calling u that!! ur everyone’s big bro except for twice, compress, and kurogiri because they’re like actually adults
Spinner: Does anyone even know how old Kurogiri is?
Dabi: Wtf I’m an actual adult too, Toga. I’m 24. I have a whole ass child.
Shigaraki: hell no. im not a little sibling.
Twice: really?
Compress: I admit that I find that a little surprising too.
Shigaraki: what the fuck is that supposed to mean
Dabi: It means you act like the average younger sibling does. You’re whiny.
Shigaraki: no tf im not
Shigaraki: and how do YOU know anything about younger siblings if you aren’t an OLDER BROTHER
Twice: oooh busted!!! you’re both lying i can feel it in my bones
Dabi: Fuck off. Dusty, I want your opinion on something.
Shigaraki: u have no right to call me that when your skin is one sunburn away from disintegrating
Shigaraki: but what is it that you want
Dabi: If you were me and you had to see if Hawks was worth recruiting, and Hawks randomly called you to ask how to hide something big from the HPSC, would you think he’s telling the truth or lying?
Toga: omg hawksie!!!!!!!!! i wanna stab him so bad dabi pls let me meet him!!!!
Shigaraki: what does he have to gain from lying about that?
Dabi: I don’t know. Not a lot. It’s not like I’ll ever trust him.
Shigaraki: exactly. nothing. if he’s got nothing to gain from lying to you about something then chances are he isn’t lying to you.
Compress: I agree. I’m not saying you should completely trust him, but I do think your hatred of him sometimes gets in the way of being able to properly judge a situation. Hawks is a hero. If he needs to lie to the HPSC to help someone, he probably will. So analyze the situation, Dabi.
Dabi: K. Here’s a picture of Yume btw.
[Picture of Yume lying on her stomach, sticking her tongue out at the camera.]
~
Dabi stared at the contact in his phone simply named ’the fucking bird’ for a good few minutes before taking a deep breath and deciding to call him back now that Yume was suitably content in his arms and starting to drift off to sleep.
“ Dabi, are you like, okay?” Was the first thing that Hawks said when he picked up. “Is it- were you attacked by- oh fuck, this is my fault -“
“Hawks, what the fuck are you going on about? Nobody attacked me.”
Hawks audibly sighed in relief, which left Dabi reeling. Why did Hawks suddenly care so much about his well-being? When he voiced this question, Hawks paused for a moment.
“I think that you might want to hear the full story.”
Dabi’s blood, once again, started to boil. No fucking shit.
————
Dabi stared blankly at the wall as Hawks finally finished relaying his interaction with the woman in the alleyway.
“But I don’t understand, what are they doing with the trigger if their motives aren’t just sending it out onto the streets of Japan?” Hawks groaned. “I’ve been thinking about her for ages now, but I don’t see any patterns between her and the other victims you killed.”
Oh, there was a pattern. Dabi could see it clear as day - but only for one reason.
He had more information than Hawks did now.
Those men weren’t in the same category as the woman was. They had been distractions, Dabi was sure of it.
But if he told Hawks that - if he said that Ronin and the woman he met indicated a potential pattern, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out why.
It also meant that there was a possibility that Ronin hadn’t been killed just because they pissed off a gang, rather that they had gotten themselves entangled in some fucked up shit. Maybe even got Yume entangled in it, too.
Yeah, fuck that.
“Maybe because there isn’t a pattern, Birdie,” Dabi lied smoothly, briefly glancing down at Yume. “That woman had just been through something traumatic, she’s probably just paranoid. She pissed off the Serpents, and she doesn’t want to pay the price for it.”
That was utter bullshit. It was Hawks’ turn to pause. “I disagree. I think there is a pattern here, I just don’t have proof.”
“Between what?” Dabi rubbed his eyes. “You have had one woman come up to you and tell you that the Serpents aren’t just selling trigger and suddenly you want to solve a mystery that doesn’t fucking exist. Don’t be a dumbass. ”
“Careful,” Hawks snapped. Dabi blinked in shock. “I’m beginning to think that you’re actually working with Whisper.”
Dabi burst out laughing. “Wha -“
“ Or,” Hawks said. “Maybe it’s you that’s got something to hide, after all.”
Dabi froze, déjà vu setting in. “I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about -“
“No, Hot Stuff,” Hawks interrupted in a purr. “I think you do. See, just because you like to claim that I am a horrible spy and that you’re going to have to do everything yourself doesn’t mean that I haven’t had formal training, unlike you . I can read body language. I can detect when someone is avoiding the truth by listening to the lilts and intonations of their voice . I can tell that the turn our conversation has taken is unnerving you, even though I can’t see your face. You know there’s a pattern here just as much as I do, but there’s a difference between you and I.”
Dabi’s eyes widened.
“You’re afraid of someone putting the pieces together. And as for me? I’m eager to be the one to do it.”
Dabi was starting to prefer the Hawks that acted like he was dumb and completely incompetent. Because what the fuck .
“Is that so?” Dabi said blankly. “I think you’re overestimating the skills you were taught by the Commission. I’m not hiding anything, and I’m definitely not afraid.”
Hawks laughed. It grated on his nerves. “You can’t hide forever, Dabi. Eventually, everything you have ever tried to bury will resurface, even if you don’t want it to. Especially if it’s connected to the Serpents. I refuse to give up on uncovering what Whisper is up to.”
Dabi’s hackles rose. Hawks was being uncharacteristically mean. “Was that a fucking threat?”
“No,” Hawks replied coolly. “It was a promise.”
And then he hung up.
————
Hawks didn’t know why Dabi had managed to royally piss him off like that - just that it had happened, and he had gone absolutely ballistic.
The fact that he and Dabi both had similar goals and yet he still refused to help him out probably played a major part, but Hawks’ slip in controlling his temper was still shocking to him nonetheless.
Somehow, Dabi always managed to bring the worst out of him. It wasn’t like Hawks would ever normally go around and insult, covertly threaten or pin people to walls with a sharpened feather to their throats - with Dabi, his emotions seemed to go from one to one-hundred in less than a second. His impulse control did the complete opposite, it seemed.
In his defence, Dabi had also tried to murder him once, so. Hawks was completely within his rights to have a hard time getting along with the villain. Except now, the fact that they both heavily disliked each other with a passion was getting in the way of his work.
Hawks needed to fix that. Question was - how? It wasn’t like he could just cozy up to Dabi and be nice to him all of a sudden. Not only would that make Dabi suspicious, but Hawks would undoubtedly eventually slip up. The only way that Hawks could see Dabi agreeing to some sort of truce would be-
Oh.
Hawks stiffened in his seat.
Complete honesty. If he told Dabi his original mission - infiltrating the League, and then claimed to have defected from the Commission, he’d be able to make his story a hell of a lot more believable. Only issue with that plan would be the fact that he’d have to go under deep cover - everyone but a few higher ups in his agency and the Commission would have to believe that he became a villain. And he’d have to lose any and all contacts within hero society for the duration of his mission - that could be anywhere from months to years.
Usually, the only heroes who went undercover like that were underground heroes. Hawks had never heard of a limelight hero trying to do the same - their fame and, well… sometimes, notoriety made it impossible most of the time.
If he did it - if he fooled the world into thinking he became a villain, he’d be the first limelight hero to do so.
It was a gamble, and one with huge detriments if it didn’t work. But if it did… if he survived, the benefits would be immense.
The woman’s words about not trusting the HPSC kept flashing in his mind. It made his gut twist. If he did decide to go through with going under deep cover, it would fix the issue of him having to report back to them nearly every day.
Still - this was one decision that he wouldn’t make without consulting someone else first, though.
And he had a good idea about who he should go to.
It looked like Hawks would be flying over to Musutafu sometime soon.