Chapter Text
Fuyumi was still struggling to get in contact with Dabi. Unfortunately, working at a school meant that she had to be awake in the morning, so she couldn’t go out late more than once or twice during the workweek without turning into an incomprehensible zombie. But she also wasn’t sure what Dabi’s schedule was like at his security gig. Would he go there at the same time each time? Same day of the week? Although Fuyumi had visited the warehouse twice since she first saw Dabi, she wasn’t able to find him again.
As she made her way home from work, she thought a nap sounded nice. She had stayed up way too late the night before trying to see if Dabi would take another shift at the warehouse. The stake-out was fruitless, and all she got for her trouble was a nasty case of sleep deprivation. At least the kids today were cooperative, reducing her possible stresses.
She yawned as she opened the front door. Yeah, a nap would be perfect. She might even sleep long enough that she could go out again tonight, stake out the warehouse… Maybe she’d pass by Rumi, or would have a chance to beat up some criminals…
Those plans were crushed as soon as she opened the door.
Hawks was in her house.
He sat on the couch, arm extended over the back of a seat all too casually. At least he had the sense to look mortified and froze when Fuyumi opened the door.
Fuyumi instinctively summoned a bit of sharp ice to her hand. If Hawks was here to try and catch her, she was going to put up a hell of a fight at least.
He hadn’t moved yet though. Or at least, not his body. Fuyumi’s eyes darted around while being careful not to face her body away from Hawks. Although he had his large billowing wings on his back, who knew what stray feathers were lurking around ready to ambush Fuyumi?
…Was he here to ambush Fuyumi? It seemed premature to invade someone’s house based on a single text , and just sitting on their couch wasn’t exactly a great ambush procedure. Hawks ought to know better. “…Why are you here?”
Hawks laughed, high and awkward. “Sorry! I just ended up on a patrol with Endeavor, and he had to swing by here to grab something, so I asked if I could use your bathroom, so-”
Fuyumi raised a hand to shut him up, and he did so. “Okay.”
She could hear shuffling upstairs, the heavy steps of her father she had sensitized herself to long ago in order to keep track of him. The sound came from his room, unhurried. She could believe the story.
Surreptitiously, she palmed the ice she had summoned to keep it away from Hawks view and made her way to the kitchen. She ran the hot water of the sink, letting go of the ice to melt in the basin and heating up her hand.
Unfortunately, the sound of the sink covered up the sound of footsteps behind her, so she wasn’t aware Hawks had joined her in the kitchen until he spoke. “So, uh-”
Fuyumi jumped, alarmed. She held back from summoning more ice. He wasn’t attacking her. There wasn’t even a guarantee he had figured out her identity. Maybe from Hawks point of view she really was a completely innocent civilian who he was trying to be nice to.
Hawks continued speaking as Fuyumi turned off the sink, “I know you don’t like talking to me, but I have something sort of important to talk about.”
That didn’t sound good. Divert, divert, divert. “If this is about Rumi, I assure you I’m treating her well and-”
“No,” Hawks looked into Fuyumi’s eyes, “This is about Leia.”
Oh no.
He knew.
Dabi was going to be pissed.
Could Fuyumi play dumb? Unlike the situation with Rumi, Hawks didn’t have proof. The best he had was maybe having seen that text from Toga. “Who’s Leia?”
He sighed. “Look, I’m about 90% that you-”
“I don’t think you should accuse someone of things when there’s a 10% chance you’re wrong,” Fuyumi butted in.
He blinked at her. Oof, maybe that was too defensive. “Ooookay, but you definitely know Dabi.”
“You have no proof,” Fuyumi argued.
His eyes narrowed. “As a pro-hero, if I suspect someone is in contact with the League, I could have their cell phone seized and searched. Unless you want to show me your phone right now-”
“And as the daughter of the number-one hero, who is in this house right now,” Fuyumi argued, “I could scream right now and tell my dad that you’re working with the League.”
That threw him off kilter. He backed up, wings unfurling defensively. “As if he would believe such a lie-”
“I know,” Fuyumi clarified, “It’s no lie, you’re working for the League.”
That triggered something, and Fuyumi felt a sharp feather at her throat. “How do you know that?”
I stalked Dabi and accidentally saw you two make out and then talk about it. Yeah Fuyumi was not going to tell the truth here. “You going to hurt Endeavor’s daughter? In his house? You’ll never get away with it.”
He backed the feather up a smidge, so it wasn’t pressing at her throat. “You cannot know that information.”
“And I wish you didn’t know my secrets either, but here we are.”
“Look I-” Hawks groaned and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not trying to, like, attack you.”
Fuyumi pointedly glared down at the feather by her throat.
He pulled it back. Hawks was more frazzled than Fuyumi had ever seen him. “I’m just- If you know, why haven’t you told anyone?”
She felt a complicated web of emotions and justifications regarding that, but she decided to go for the quickest and simplest response for now, “For Dabi’s sake.”
“Look, can you promise to keep it a secret?”
“Depends on if you can promise to keep my secrets,” She countered.
“Well good news, I wasn’t planning to tell your dad about your friends.”
That threw Fuyumi off-kilter. Wasn’t Hawks supposed to be accusing her of being a vigilante? “…My friends?”
“I’m certain you know Dabi,” Hawks told her with pinched brows, “And I’m banking on you knowing Leia as well.”
Fuyumi blinked. That… was not the worst cover. She turned away, feeling a little more in control now that she knew she still had some security. So long as she played her cards right, she might be able to get out of this without revealing anyone’s identity. “So what if I do?”
Hawks’s voice almost cracked, “You do?”
Fuyumi turned back to him to glare. He was getting a little too energetic after confronting her so rudely.
He backed up. “Look, I just need to give Leia a message. I tried asking Dabi, but he refused to contact her.”
Fuyumi crossed her arms. “What’s the message?”
“Do you promise you’ll tell her?”
Fuyumi was curious, but wanted to maintain a little distance. “If it’s important enough to share with her.”
“I assure you, it is.”
She couldn’t help but question what could be so important. “Alright then, what’s so important that you would ignore my request to avoid talking to me?”
He leaned in, as though afraid Endeavor might appear and overhear it. Fuyumi knew he wouldn’t, as she hadn’t heard the creaks of the stairs that always sounded when he went down them. She would have plenty of warning to shut down the conversation before he heard anything. “There’s someone from the Fukuron group trying to take revenge on her and Dabi. Big dude, with pink hair-”
“Ghad?” Fuyumi asked.
Hawks stared at her. “…You know his name?”
Cover, cover, cover. “Leia’s mentioned him before.”
“…How do you and Leia know each other?”
“She… rescued me,” Fuyumi then thought to add, “She and Dabi both.”
Hawks seemed surprised to hear Dabi and ‘rescue’ in the same sentence, based on his wide eyes.
Fuyumi refocused. “Hey, this isn’t an interrogation, I’m not going to get into the whole story. What’s your message?”
“Right,” Hawks took a deep breath before continuing, “The message. Well, at least it sounds like Leia knows who he is. But can you tell her that he’s trying to restart the Fukuron by dealing trigger? He might have the resources to actually take revenge if his plans work out, so she needs to keep an eye out-”
Wait a second… “Are you just telling me about the stuff Ghad was talking about when we were at that bar?”
Hawks gaped at her. “…You eavesdropped on them too?”
“Yeah, they said both Dabi and Leia’s name. You think I’d ignore someone talking about how much they want to take revenge on my friends?”
“…Did you really have a headache?”
Fuyumi leaned back on a counter. What did she have to lose at this point? Hawks seemed to be legitimately buying her cover. “Nope.”
He mumbled something to himself before taking a deep breath. “So have you already told Leia?”
“Unless you dug up something other than what you overheard.”
“I tried, but it was hard without a name. Ghad…” Hawks looked thoughtful for a moment, as though thinking through all the things he could search up with a name.
A thought occurred to Fuyumi. “You told Dabi, right?”
“He was literally the first person I called that night, though he was pretty dismissive about it.”
She sighed, relieved. “Good, good.”
“If I learn anything else… can I contact you to tell Leia?”
“So long as that’s the only reason you contact me.”
He nodded. “Deal.”
“And I want to know one more thing.”
He waited, patient.
“Why are you working with the League?”
He drew a sharp breath. “It’s… complicated.”
Fuyumi’s voice grew sharp. “They hurt children, Hawks.”
“They’re not perfect… but…” Hawks had his brows furrowed, and his voice was hesitant, “They- they have potential. If I’m part of it, I could alter their tactics to be more effective with less collateral damage.”
“For what purpose, though?”
Hawks grimaced. “The… the system of pro-heroes isn’t sustainable. It needs a change.”
“How could you have gotten so far in heroics, if secretly you want to tear the whole system down? It just doesn’t make sense-”
Hawks opened his mouth to respond, but there were footsteps on the stairs.
“Dad’s coming,” Fuyumi whispered, “I’m telling you about my day.”
Hawks startled at the abrupt conversation change, but quickly caught on. He played along as Fuyumi recounted some details of what she taught her students today. The conversation was completely civil by the time Endeavor passed the kitchen.
“Hawks, I see you’ve met my daughter, Fuyumi.”
Hawks smiled wide. Fuyumi found it hard to believe they were in such a tense conversation less than a minute ago; the way he leaned back with his hands in his pockets made her believe he had spent the whole time just lazing on the couch. “Yes!”
“I found the documents. Let’s go.”
Dad walked away, not looking behind, assuming Hawks would follow. And Hawks did, of course, follow obediently.
But not without a glance backwards and a wave to Fuyumi. Fuyumi returned the wave without a smile.
When the front door shut, Fuyumi collapsed on a kitchen chair. She did not have the energy to process all of that. Somehow Hawks believed that Fuyumi was just a friend of both Leia and Dabi. Honestly that was the best cover she could hope for considering the slip-ups she’d had.
She couldn’t decide if Hawks was an ally or not. He was looking out for Leia, apparently, trying to warn her of danger. He was definitely looking out for Dabi. But he was working for the League.
Apparently he had some notion that their overall goal was appealing, even if he didn’t agree with all their methods. It was at least a relief to hear he didn’t agree with them attacking children… but he was still cooperating with people who did those horrible things.
….Fuyumi was also cooperating with people who did those horrible things.
She walked with heavy legs to her bedroom. She was not going out tonight. She was going to take a nice, long nap. Then she was going to wake up for dinner, have some relaxing tea, maybe a long, hot bath, and go back to bed. After that confrontation, she deserved to sleep for a dozen years.
At least she didn’t need to find Dabi as urgently. She should probably tell him what her new cover is when she gets the chance, but for now she didn’t think his identity was in immediate danger.
She practically fell asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow.