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Hawks landed down outside of the league's base late one night, almost midnight after finishing off his patrol that consisted of arresting drunks that couldn't take no for an answer, or lowly criminals snatching purses from people out partying. He'd gotten a text from Dabi the moment it had ended, as if he knew his schedule, just a simple 'come over.'
He could hear the sound of laughter inside, accompanied by voices and something playing on the tv - probably a game that Shigaraki and Spinner had dragged everyone into.
"Hey guys!" He greeted after walking inside, all eyes turning towards him.
Suddenly, it made him wonder if Dabi had even asked them if he could come at all, at least until the tension dispersed and Mr Compress smiled towards him. "You made it. Here- come sit down and have a drink."
Dabi's eyes followed him as he sat down in the small space between him and Twice, smiling and thanking Mr Compress as he passed him some kind of alcoholic drink - something cheap but far from the worst thing that Hawks had ever drank.
The arsonist gazed at him, and Hawks properly looked at him. "Hi."
It wasn't until up close that he noticed the pink flush adorning the healthy skin of his cheeks, or the slightly far away look in his eyes.
"Hey."
"Thanks for inviting me over."
"Knew you didn't have anything better to do." He concealed it well, but Hawks could still pick up on the slight slur in his voice.
He had been about to go home and sleep, but the commission president would kill him if he turned down such an opportunity.
(Maybe Hawks had wanted to join in through his own free will - maybe that had been more alluring than the promise of information.)
"Dabi- stop talking and pick your character to race!" Shigaraki grouched over at him, and Dabi just handed Hawks the remote.
"Pass, Hawks can do it."
"I don't know how to play-"
"It's easy." Spinner spoke up, but a little more patient than Shigaraki as he leant over to explain the buttons. "These control your directions..you press this one to go, this one to drift..and here's the one for using items-"
"Alright- thank you!"
He got the hang of the game pretty quickly, of course nowhere near as good as Shigaraki or Spinner, but at least managing to almost keep up as they all laughed and shouted at each other, Shigaraki screeching when somebody hit him with an item.
He was actually catching up, at least until Dabi dropped his head down onto Hawks' shoulder with an indistinguishable sound, sending him right off the track.
Nobody said anything - not Hawks, not Dabi or the rest of the league, but they looked with a widening of their eyes followed by whispering and grins, all while Hawks stayed stock still.
It felt like if he moved, somebody would comment or Dabi would move away with a huff.
He didn't win, that was impossible with Dabi's face smushed into his shoulder, even worse when he shifted and shoved it into his neck, hot breath fanning against his sensitive skin.
Still, he smiled as Shigaraki cheered at his win, quickly noticing the gaze of awe that Spinner was watching him with, his pupils dilated.
He immediately missed the loss as Dabi dragged his face away to lean forward and grab his drink again, downing more than he probably should with how flushed he already was.
"Your turn."
Dabi took the remote back a little begrudgingly, and Hawks shook with suppressed giggles as he drove off the same part of the road three times in a row.
"Stop laughing."
"I can't help it-" He snorted into his hand while Dabi's fist tightened around the remote at another failed attempt.
"Do not burn the remote." The warning from Shigaraki was quickly directed towards the arsonist. "I can literally feel the room warming up!"
"Let me help-" Hawks wasn't much better, swerving the car with each giggle as he held onto the remote over Dabi's hands, at least trying to bring them back from last place.
The race ended a few moments later, a '9th' flashing up on their side of the screen.
"Well, it's better than last."
"The cpu characters literally beat you."
"You tried your best- so trash!"
Hawks only smiled and sipped some more of his drink. "Where have you sent Toga off to for the night?"
"Ah she seems to have made a friend." Mister Conpress explained. "A girl her age- She's staying the night with her."
Hawks didn't know how safe that was for either party, but he nodded along - glad that the teenager at least had a friend her own age, somebody who would happily let her paint their nails or talk about their crushes.
"She left all of her knives and syringes here - hopefully." Spinner added.
"Right..." Hawks swallowed, silently hoping for the safety of whoever Toga had befriended.
Thinking about it had momentarily distracted him from the tipsy villain sitting next to him, almost in his lap at this point with how closely they were pressed together, thighs touching as Dabi leant against Hawks' side, natural and with a far too cute chuckle at Hawks' expression.
"Dabi?"
"Mmh?"
"You feeling okay?" It came out as a low murmur while the rest of the league continued gaming without them.
"Yep." He popped the 'p' and smiled up at Hawks in a way that made his traitorous heart flutter. Dabi was truly evil for looking at him like that, his eyes half lidded and more of a real smile on his face, so different to his usual scowl.
"You're warm." Hawks pushed some of his hair away from his forehead, pleasantly surprised to find that he didn't shove him away.
"'M always warm."
"Wanna get some fresh air outside?"
After grumbling and thinking about it for a minute, Dabi pulled himself up off the sofa with a disguised wobble, then followed Hawks up the stairs and to the league's rooftop.
Hawks almost choked trying not to laugh as Dabi nearly fell up the stairs, equally amusing and endearing.
"You need help-?"
"No." Dabi said, stern.
"Uh huh."
They sat down on the hard floor at the edge of the roof, Hawks looking across the city and then raising his head to match Dabi, gazing at the night sky.
"Can't even see the stars."
Hawks hummed, then pointed up and over to the side. "..There's one- and two! Think that's it though."
Dabi followed his gaze and squinted up with a matching hum. "I loved all things space as a kid."
"Yeah?"
"Mmh." He paused, and Hawks stayed silent hoping that he would tell him more, a need unrelated to his mission to know the arsonist bubbling up inside of him. "Had a few books..and used to go watch the night sky when I snuck out to train."
"You should teach me about it, sometime."
"I don't remember all of it."
"That's okay." As terrible of an idea as it was, Hawks wrapped an arm around Dabi and brought him closer to his side. "You can tell me whatever you do remember."
"Sure..maybe tommorow."
Dabi's quiet intelligence was one of Hawks' favourite things about him.
(Hawks should have been more than worried that he'd managed to pick out favourite things about a villain he was supposed to betray in a few months time.)
"I think all that'll happen tommorow is you sleeping in with a headache."
"Shut up." He half whined and half growled before his head thunked back down onto Hawks' shoulder. Hawks didn't think Dabi knew what he was doing, maybe he did, but his warm breath ghosting over his neck made him shudder again.
Shit.
Hawks was doomed.
He was cold, too, and Dabi must have noticed - a warm heat suddenly spreading through Hawks' body from where they were pressed close, the sheer control that the villain had over his quirk impressing him.
(It should have worried him, worry for what he could do, was going to do one day, but Hawks was more in awe.)
He wondered if he was self trained - if he ever had a teacher or attended some kind of hero programme.
It forced him into a rabbit hole - thinking about if he'd been through the same shit Hawks had, if he'd never had a childhood, just how he'd gotten the extensive scars running across his body.
They were questions that Hawks would surely never get the answer to.
It was quiet as they both watched over the city, late enough that it was quiet, but not entirely silent as the odd car beeped or the sound of shouting carried across in the wind - not a surprise with the rough neighbourhood that the league had set up base in.
"Hawks.." He didn't know when Dabi had gone from looking at the city to looking at him, but he pushed the thought down and met his gorgeous gaze.
"Hey."
From his classes on body language, Hawks already knew that Dabi wanted to lean up and kiss him, something that Hawks himself had imagined far too often for it to be a simple trust tactic.
He would have kissed him any other time, just not while he was drunk.
Hawks broke their gaze even as it felt like something was pulling him back, an invisible force that kept pushing him towards the villain he was supposed to hate.
Something new flashed across Dabi's expression, a look in those deep blue eyes that Hawks hadn't noticed before, followed by a stiffness in his body as his grin dropped.
Their little bubble had popped, and after that, silence followed.
Hawks tried not to feel awkward, he didn't really do awkward, but the atmosphere had completely switched, suddenly suffocating as their actions hung heavy in the cold air.
"Come on, let's head back inside."
"..Right."
Dabi didn't accept Hawks' hand that he held out, just pulled himself off the hard floor with a slight sway and followed him back down the stairs, each step giving Hawks rising anxiety.
"Were you guys making out?" Twice immediately yelled over to which Dabi scowled.
"Fuck off."
He picked his glass back up - maybe a bad idea, but Hawks wasn't about to lecture him, instead settling back down next to him and sipping at his own drink.
At least another glass of whiskey seemed to liven him up, enough that he turned back to Hawks and started talking about this and that over the loud music playing from the tv screen, exchanging more words than Hawks had heard in the whole time that he'd known him.
He spoke about the stars, ranted about the heroes in the middle of it, suddenly told Hawks about the stray cats outside of the league's base - all to which Hawks nodded and listened carefully.
Non of it was useful in the eyes of the commission, they wouldn't want to know that Dabi had a interest in astrology or was a softie that fed stray cats in his spare time, but to Hawks, it was more valuable than gold.
"You should name them."
"That's a step too far."
"And feeding them isn't?" Hawks snorted. "Might aswell bring them in here while you're at it..just not while I'm here."
"Think they're gonna eat ya?"
"They try!" His wings bristled at the memory, rescuing cats out of trees or high buildings only for them to try to eat his feathers in return.
"Good. I'll set 'em on you next time."
"You wouldn't." Dabi raised an eyebrow, and yeah, Hawks knew that he fucking would. "Asshole-"
"Hawks join back in with the game!"
After Dabi nodded and waved his hand towards him, Hawks took the controller back to please the rest of the villains in the room - and maybe because he sort of enjoyed playing with them too.
It felt..natural.
Dabi almost curling up next to him felt even more so, his eyes heavy before the end of the race had finished.
They played for a while longer before people started to filter out, the eldest of the group, Mr Compress, retiring to his room followed by Twice twenty minutes later. Shigaraki and Spinner expectedly stayed put, planning on staying awake for the whole night while Dabi half dozed next to Hawks.
"I'm gonna take him to bed." Hawks said to them, to which Shigaraki hummed.
"His room is the furthest down the corridor."
"'Kay, thanks."
Their gazes told Hawks that they hadn't been expecting him to lift Dabi off the sofa quite like he did, princess carrying him with ease out of the main room and down the hallway.
His head tilted to the side and Hawks quickly used a feather to direct him against his chest, a smile pulling at his lips at the grumble he let out.
"..Hawks..."
"Just taking you to bed."
It didn't seem to bother him, his eyes slipping closed again while Hawks pushed his bedroom door open with a feather.
The room was small, mostly what he'd expected with a single rickety looking bed, some drawers with information on Endeavour pinned up on the wall above it, and on the other wall some hooks with a spare coat hung up.
It didn't have too much personality sans the star patterned blanket that Hawks pulled back to lie Dabi under, another smile making its way onto his face at the small detail.
He wondered if he'd brought it with him, or if it was a gift from the league.
Did the league celebrate Christmas and birthdays?
Once Dabi was laying down, Hawks pulled the blanket over him and took just a few minutes to watch, to quietly admire the softness of his cheeks, his long eyelashes, sharp nose and the glint of piercings and staples.
"G'night..Dabi."
"You goin'..?" He slurred, apparently still at least half awake.
"Yeah, it's getting late." Hawks bent down and tucked his wings close to his back while Dabi squinted at him in the dark. "Thanks for inviting me."
"'S fine..come again next time."
"Sure, I had fun."
A reply never came, and Hawks chuckled at the sight of Dabi dozing again, his mouth slightly open as deep, raspy breaths came from deep in his lungs.
He shouldn't have, really shouldn't have for his own sanity, but Hawks slowly and quietly leaned forward to press a gentle kiss against Dabi's forehead. "Sleep well.."
He stayed longer than he needed to, just a few minutes watching the steady rise and fall of Dabi's chest before he pulled away and stood back up, walking out of his room and slowly shutting the door behind him.
Against all of his training, Hawks was falling.
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