"It's You"; DabiHawks

Chapter 10; A Real Person

*Hawks POV*

I looked back to Dabi to see him rummaging through a small box on the ground. The box was different then the others. Instead of the stereotypical moving/storage box, it was a dark blue and cylinder shaped box. I had seen a box like that before,  in my closet as I had been moving in. When I tried to give it back to the family of the man who had owned my apartment, they let me keep it.

With a happy sounding sigh, Dabi closed the container and turned back to me. I was just sitting criss-cross on the floor. It was cold.

"What happened to the guy who lived in the apartment?" He asked, not looking directly at me. He knew him, that would explain why he had a box. Was he the man's son? No, his family had said that he never had any children. But they had also said that he only made those boxes for his family, so he had to be related to him in some way.

"Did you know him?"

"That wasn't the question I asked, now was it Bird-Brain?" He actually sounded curious, maybe worried? If he was a part of his family, he would know that he has been dead for two years.

"He died a few years back." I whispered, but in the cramped room it sounded like an echo. For a few seconds, it was silent. I didn't want to say anything in fear of how Dabi would react. From what I had heard, he was very incalculable.

"Oh." He said, his voice dropping in tone, as if all emotion that might have been in that single word had been sucked out. "Yeah, I knew him."

"Personally?" Another silence, but this one was heavier than before.

"I guess." There was this tiny window at the top of a wall, and with how it was positioned, it was as if a soft spotlight was shining on him. I could see every detail in his face, but I couldn't read it. I had no clue what he was thinking. Miruko had said the same about me once, and I knew many who hid their thoughts behind a mask. Never before had I wanted so badly to rip into someone's mask so I could see them clearly before now.

"How did you know him?"

"You want really badly to have a look into my personal life, don't you smartass?" His voice raised in volume, but his face didn't change much. Normally, that would make me think that their words were just that, words. However, with Dabi, I refuse to let my guard down.

"He was the only one who knew I lived up here. I would take the same way each day and he would give me something to eat or some peice if clothing. He was the only person who I saw as a real hero, as someone who would go out of his way to make sure a random kid that he never knew was cared for." He was being careful of his words, trying to not let anything slip. I have seen many do it before, saying the bare minimum to get someone to stop asking questions. I have not seen someone do it so easily though.

However, I'm not sure if the information he gave me was exactly what he wanted me to know. I have reason to believe that he gave me more, but as I had said before, Dabi is a loose cannon. He is one of the few villains I have heard of that I can't easily plan against. I can't read him. I can't tell what he's thinking or what his next move is.

In that moment, I don't think I was thinking of him as a villain. No, I had been given a glimpse of what he thinks, a true look into his mind. If I wanted, I could have used it to get into his mind and make him give me info I could use to take down the league. But I didn't want to. I didn't see him as someone who has been wanted for many accounts of murder and arson, I saw him as a true person, not as someone I had been trained to hate.

When Dabi had asked about the man, he seemed extremely concerned for him. I didn't want to dig into why he cared, but I wanted so badly to know. Looking back up at him, he was looking at a picture.

There was a smile on his face, as if I wasn't there. I felt like I was intruding, like I shouldn't have been there. I didn't want to do anything. If I did anything, there was a good chance that I could end up clearing the smile from his face and never seeing it again. It looked not psychotic, but genuine and happy.

I wanted to see it again.

I didn't say a thing to him while he studied the picture. Every word that I wanted to say died as soon as it reached my mouth leaving some uneven breaths to take their place. He had to have forgotten that I was there, for as soon as he looked up, his eyes filled with hatred and he put the picture away.

I didn't understand. Just an hour ago, this had been the man who had me against the wall. This was the man who had my first kiss. Yet, he looked at me with hate in his eyes.

"Well, I told you a bit about me, so now it's your turn." He said, putting the box back away in its little corner. As soon as he had finished, he glared back up at me. All signs of hatred were gone, just genuine curiosity was visible. But this could all just be an act.

"Well, I grew up surrounded by people who always expected everything I did to be done perfectly, so I always did everything up to everyone else's standards. I just want to live in a world where I can just relax and do whatever, ya know?" There. His mask had fallen again. For just a split second, I could see some emotion on his face. It was too fast for me to catch on, but if I kept talking maybe he would fall again.

"I was raised to be a hero, so that's what I became. There are a lot of times where I just, don't want to. I don't want to be the center of attention whenever I go anywhere, I just want to do something right for the sake of myself. That was a huge reason of why I looked up to Endeavor all my life." Shit.

I heard roaring laughter, the mocking kind. He was laughing at me. It was mocking, but it felt more like a pitying laugh. In result, I started nervously laughing along with him.

"I'm sorry, but you looked up to Endeavor?" He asked, still laughing at me.

But I'm laughing too, so he's laughing with me, right?

Right?

"Uh, yeah?" I more or less asked. "I mean, he was number two for the longest time." That seemed to calm down his laughter to small chuckles. "Why is that such a surprise to you?" He didn't really say anything for a minute before pulling the cylinder box back out again.

"Because, I know what he has done."

***
Man, so I was writing the last chapter and had to stop or else I would I written too much for my ideal length. So a good bit of what I had written there got moved here, but I had to do it again and so now I have like, 300 words already done for the next chapter. It'll probably be done by tommorow since I don't really have much more to do.
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