[A/N: I feel it's important to note that in the middle of typing one of these sentences a cat bit me and I had to stop writing because of the bleeding :/ Y'all better enjoy the chapter because it literally took my blood, sweat, and tears. ]
The air is stale. It's the thing Dabi always notices about these places - what he notices now as he walks down the hall tailing the guard. Every breath is near painful with how unnatural the scent tastes on his tongue. However, it's nothing compared to the eye burning white surrounding him. He'd heard this place was supposed to be fancy, but he hadn't expected the sterile cleanliness of it.
It's silent too. He'd thought to hear the slamming of doors and rowdy rustling from through the walls like in movies, but all he could pick up was his own footsteps and the jingling of keys from the guard guiding him - the rhythmic clink that came with every second step.
Dabi hates every bit of it.
Nearly everyone had predicted so, and yet here he was: ignoring their advice and barreling ahead as usual. Hawks had fallen from the couch when he'd told him, a surprised squeak leaving his lips. Akito had expressed her uncertainties with Sutorimu remaining silent at his side. Natsuo had thrown a fit and Fuyumi had started crying before she could put in her two cents. Izuku though. . . Izuku had only let a small smile quirk up his lips and told him something that might as well have thrown him through a wall.
In the end, his words weighed more than everyone else's doubts. They always would, he thinks.
So he was here, heart hammering in his chest and fingers aching from how stiff they were in his pockets. He kept his shoulders slumped and chin raised, even when the metal detectors blared at his staples, when the guards sent him odd looks, when he finally reached the door with the blocky letters Visitors across it. He pushed on, though his whole being wanted to turn around.
The guard's hand rests on the door knob hesitantly. She looks back at Dabi with uncertainty, the shadows of her face hardly there under the hallways bright lights. She informs him, "He's just waiting in here," but it sound less like a statement and more like a concern.
He's grown used to the look on her face these past few months. He's seen it on so many others. The unsure lilt, the caution, the occasional pity. It had angered him at first. How dare these people treat him like glass. Hit me! he wanted to shout, See if I shatter! But that was not why they looked at him like that.
For all that he thought they hurt for him, for his story that was posted for millions to see, he knew that they too hurt for themselves. They gained five victims of a broken home, but they also lost a hero.
"I know," he responds.
"If you don't want you don't hav-"
"I want to," he says, promptly cutting her off. He knew what he wanted, if only everyone would stop trying to tell him otherwise.
Though clearly still apprehensive, she nods and opens the door.
Stepping into that room is nothing like Dabi had imagined. The night before, he'd stayed up late envisioning it. He tossed and turned, kicking at his sheets while his hands came alight with blue flames and his voice cracked and he shouted frustratingly. He'd imagined anger - enough to burn cities and still have the energy to ruin hundreds more. He'd thought of pain like the kind he gets when he sees his siblings. The sharp, lung-puncturing kind.
But, when he sees his father, he feels nothing.
Enji sits behind the clear pane glass looking like he always has. His hair is no grayer, his eyes no more tired. He is a perfect image of himself as he sits in the the plastic chair too small for him; broad shoulders, scowls, and all. The only difference between who Dabi remembers and this man is the lack of a flaming beard bordering his chin. Dabi near laughs at the irony of it. While he may look the same, his fire is gone and without it he may very well be nothing.
"Endeavor," he says.
"Touya."
There's the spike of feeling that was missing. He can't name it, couldn't if a dictionary was laid before him. He only knows it felt cold like hands that don't quite reach or skies that match grey. It grasps at the loose ends of Dabi's thoughts, gripping till a dozen memories are squeezed from them.
The door slams shut behind him. He moves to the chair set out, sinking in to it while holding his father's gaze. It's startling how much his eyes look like the ones he saw in the mirror that morning.
"I'm surprised they let you in here," Enji tells him. Dabi almost dared to think he looked uncomfortable. He could tell by the way he rested his hands neatly on the table like he was trying hard not to clench them into fists.
Dabi shrugged. "Knowing the new heads has it's perks."
Enji's jaw clenches.
Good.
"Only a few months ago people were screaming for you to be in one of these cells," he grumbles.
"And now they're cheering over the fact that you are instead," Dabi retorts. He can't bring himself to grin sarcastically like he normally would. It's for the same reason that his legs are trembling. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, plastic digging into his spine.
There was a time when this reunion would have gone very differently. If he'd saw Endeavor a year ago, he wouldn't have made it out alive. Neither of them would have. He'd have done anything to put this man into the ground. If it had meant Dabi sinking to hell with him, so be it.
Now, instead of roaring flames and screaming littered with cries and curses, there is silence. It pounds into Dabi's ears, traveling through them down into his chest where the lack of sound echos. He had not been angry when he sat down, but he could feel it festering.
"Is that all you have to say to me?" he says through grit teeth.
Enji's brows furrow. "What is that you want me to say?"
He wants to yell that he tell him how much he despises he him. He wants to hear him tell him he feels his pardon is unjust. That he is a failure. That he hates him for succeeding in crumbling his empire. He wants him to admit Dabi was stronger than him in the end. No matter how much he'd hissed at little Touya about how weak he was, Dabi still remains the one sitting on the free side of this glass and with armies of allies backing him.
"Whatever it is you're thinking," he says instead.
Enji's eyes narrow, his shoulders tensing and raising. He sees a flash in his eyes and doesn't recognize Enji, but rather Endeavor. He looks as the hero does when he's in battle, defeating those he believes to be villains.
"You and your siblings are foolish," he tells him. He glares. "You think putting me away will help people, that you are right to drag our private life into the open. I was a hero - I saved lives and now I cannot anymore."
"There will be more heroes," Dabi says.
He has already started to see the new generation of heroes emerge. He knows they will outshine Endeavor. They will not burn brightly like he had - leaving ashes behind them - but instead glow with a light people will reach for. Shouto's class will. The children who now see what it means to be a real hero will. All those that they are going to help with the new commission will.
It's odd hearing Enji's words and knowing they are wrong. He used to hang off every syllable, taking them to heart and turning them over in him mind till they seeped into the cracks of his thoughts permanently. He wonders then if anything he ever told him was true, or if they were weak attempts at salvaging some power like his words now are.
"How did it feel," he asks, tilting his head, "when you found out who I was? What did you think?"
Silence stretches between them. It suffocating how close they are. He hasn't held eyes with his father for this long since he was young. Then again, back then he didn't look him in the eyes much either. It feels like eons before he answers.
"When you revealed yourself, I only saw a child," Enji spat. Dabi's insides twist. "You still don't understand what it means to be a Todoroki. You're still weak - needing others to save yourself and only confronting me from behind a computer screen."
Dabi clenches his jaw. If he ever had doubts that this man was wrong, they were resolved then.
"I'm confronting you now," he says firmly.
In all those years of suffering, he had always thought Endeavor to be wrong but never weak. He had thought himself to be weak, but never his father. In his eyes, Endeavor was powerful, more than anyone. He was the towering figure that cast it's shadow over Touya, trapping him in the dark. He was the hero where Touya was only ever the muck on his shoe.
But perhaps, it was the other way around; roles reversed. Maybe in that house, facing all that he did, Touya was strong.
Before him, Enji visibly bristled. His brows drew together to form a frown. "Why did you come here if you only are going to argue?"
Dabi is once again reminded of what his friends had said upon him announcing his decision. He recalls their hesitance, and he recalls Izuku's confidence in him; what he'd told him.
I'm happy for you, Dabi. You're not the man you were when I first met you.
What does that have to do with Endeavor? Dabi had asked.
Because when I met you, your plan for him was very different. You gave up that goal for my dreams and while it has made you a better person, I think it caused you to still have some cavities that only Endeavor can fill. So, if you want to talk with him, I think no one else has the right to stop you.
He remembers the way Izuku's face had broken into a massive smile.
Just remember that in the end, it doesn't matter what he thinks or says. It only matter who you really are - and there's nothing to worry about there.
Dabi stares at the man that once went by his father but never lived up to the title. He stares and he thinks, this isn't for you, it's for me.
"If you were the number one hero when we were young, do you think you would have treated us any different?" he asks. He doesn't stutter on any word, but his mind reels as he voices one of the many questions that had purged his childhood.
Enji meets his eyes. Blue to blue like the Pacific fading into the Atlantic; on different sides of the world yet still meeting in between the cracks of spaces between continents. It could be called a phenomenon. Funny, how even with ocean eyes, the two of them have always burned.
"If I had been the number one hero, you wouldn't be here."
And Endeavor will always just burn.
Dabi stands, the sound of his chair scratching against the floor drawing a flinch out of Endeavor. He brushed down his clothes and turned towards the door. He thinks he heard Endeavor say his name - the one that he refuses to go by - but he draws no attention to it. He keeps moving to the door. The guard pulls it open for him and only when he's standing on the threshold does he stop.
He should say something. He can feel Endeavors eyes on his back, knows he wants him to say one last thing. Goodbye, a defiance, an apology. Anything would be good enough then. Endeavor would get a last word from his firstborn.
Dabi lets the door close behind him.
The walk out of the prison is just as bland as the walk in, only his head rings less. To some, his interaction may not have been worth it but to him, he was satisfied knowing that his father was just as wrong and childish as he had thought.
The guards escort him through the final set of doors, fumbling with the metal detectors as they blare at his staples. He glares at the blasted things, muttering, "Every damn time."
"Maybe you should change your look then."
Pleased, Dabi didn't even try to hide the smile that broke out across his face. He looked to the left, grinning at the new arrival. They stood just past the gates, leaning against the hood of their car. The vibrant colour of their wings stood out against the worn out black of the Honda. Their clothes are baggy as ever but a sight for sore eyes nonetheless. Dabi thinks that no matter whether his hair is windblown from flights or tamed like now, if he's wearing his suit or these loose shirts and pants, he will love the sight of Hawks. Especially after the talk he just had.
"Yeah, sure. I'll just let my skin fall off, Bird Brain," Dabi retorted with a half-hearted roll of his eyes. The guards release him and let him pass through the last of the gates. He steps up Hawks, leaning towards him. His gets just close enough to be more than friendly. "I hope the wait out here wasn't too boring."
Hawks scuffed and pushed at his shoulder. As he opened the passenger door for Dabi, he said, "I survived. You were barely in there for twenty minutes."
"Really?" he inquired, seating himself in the car. "I lasted longer than I thought."
"Izuku's patience is rubbing off on you."
"Or I've grown tolerance after so much time around you."
Hawks slams the door, the whole car shaking with the force of it. The combination of the act and Hawks' deadpan expression pulls a bout of laughter from Dabi. Hawks walks around to the drivers side and buckles in.
"Shut it," he hisses in Dabi's direction. He listens, of course, but still grins. He knows Hawks enjoyed his mad cackling, even at his expense.
They pull onto the main road, putting the prison behind them. Dabi watches it grow smaller in the side-mirror, knowing it would be the last he saw of it for a long time. Izuku could probably tell him something poetic about that.
"How was it?"
Dabi turns his head to Hawks, eyes landing on where his open and grown out claws drum on the steering wheel in a steady rhythm. He questions, "Seeing him?"
Hawks nods and says, "You're quiet. Like how you were with Rei-san."
Nearly a month ago, Dabi's siblings had forced him to visit their mother. They'd told him she was asking of him. He'd gone, only because Hawks had tricked him by pulling up to hospital one evening.
His mother was not like how he'd remembered. She still had silky white hair, but her skin was aged and her hands frail. Eyes that used to look so full of terror were now calm and kind. For the first half-hour of their visit, he didn't say a single word. He only listened as she apologized to him and then let her hug him till all the things he couldn't say were felt in his trembling shoulders and grasping hands. He came back with all his siblings the next week and the week after that.
He'd been quiet on that first days drive home. Back then, he was quiet because he was shocked. Now, it was for a different reason.
"I'm just thinking," he tells Hawks.
Hawks glances at him through the corner of his eyes. "About? Do you need anything?"
"No." He stares out at the road ahead of them. "I'm thinking that he's finally gone."
Hawks' fingers seize their drumming. Slowly, a smile breaks out across his face like the rising sun. Dabi can't help the slight uptick his own lips take on by just looking at him. A silent understanding passes between them.
Dabi sighs, leaning back in his seat and flicking on the radio. The volume is obnoxiously loud, the way Hawks likes it. Dabi doesn't mind as he closes his eyes and lets the music filter through his ears, filling his mind. As one song shifts to the next and they drive back home, Dabi starts to wonder when Hawks will jump in. Usually by now he's belting out lyrics, or at least humming. Dabi had asked him one time when they were running errands around the city why he likes to make so much noise. Hawks told him he wasn't allowed to sing with the commission.
Singing feels a lot like flying, actually, he'd said. It's freeing.
"What's on your mind, feathers?" he grumbles, peeking at the man with one eye.
Hawks' lips purse as he shakes his head. "Nothing."
Raising his head so he can properly look at him, Dabi squints and remarks, "Sure, and I'm a zombie."
"Technically you came back from the dead."
"Keigo."
"Alright, alright," Hawks huffs and pulls over to the side of the road. He parks the car and turns to fully face Dabi with his hands raking through his hair. Recognizing his nerves, Dabi smoothed his features out into a more open expression than his resting bitch face.
"The Head Office opening is tonight," Hawks says. His hands move from his hair to his lap where they fidget.
Dabi tilted his head. "Is that what this is about? Kei, you don't--"
"Have to worry about that, I know," Hawks finishes. "I know. Just hear me out, okay? Please?"
It's serious. That worries Dabi as he watches Hawks take a deep breath with his brows drawn together. While he's getting better with it, Hawks still rarely lets his emotions show so obviously. Not unless it was late at night, the two of them facing each other on Inko's spare bed and exchanging whispered secrets about pasts and dreams from years before. He doesn't know Hawks to be nervous like this.
Hawks continues when Dabi nods. He'd listen.
"The Head Office opens tomorrow but there's still a few unfilled positions. . . " Pausing, Hawks chews on his lip. "There's particularly one that's a big position. A head one. We're still looking for someone to run the quirk harm department. They'd manage all the people coming in who have trouble with their quirk. And, there's an open spot in the licensed villains program. It's for workers who would help do hero check ups and weed out the bad ones."
Hawks eyes met his.
"Maybe you could. . . apply?"
His stomach dropped.
Hawks frowned suddenly. "I mean - you don't have to, of course. I think you'd be good at it. Not that it means you have to do it just because I think you'd like it or anything. No pressure. I get it if you want to steer entirely clear of heroics after everything. Which, as apart of Head Office, that means staying away from me which is-- fine. I'll be - It'll be all good. A-Okay."
Dabi has always been dramatic, but not poetic. Hawks makes him want to be. He watches him - the way his ears tinge with red, how his eyes won't meet his and his brows furrow like they always do when he's unsettled - and he wishes he had the words to properly express how he makes him feel. Here the man was acting as though Dabi has any choice as to walk away from him; like there isn't a force actively keeping him at his side.
Months ago, if someone had told Dabi he would be living this - with the world rebuilding itself to be better, family to a boy who saved him, back with his siblings, and in a car with a hero he just might love - he would have laughed. Now, he cherishes it.
He can see them, years down the line, working out of Head office and helping heroes reassert themselves as what they were originally meant to be. Before he would have turned down Hawks' offer without a second thought. But, like Izuku said, perhaps he's changed just enough to accept.
"Will I be paid?" Dabi asks, reveling in the way Hawks' eyes snap up to his with surprise.
Hawks stares, eyes running across Dabi's features like he can't be certain of what he's saying. The hand he extends without ever actually moving.
"It is one of the paid positions. . . " he says slowly. Hesitant.
Dabi hummed and nodded. "I'll have to see the papers tomorrow."
It was as good as a yes.
Hawks beamed, his smile stretching out to the far sides of his face. He dived towards him, close enough that their noses almost touched. Eyes shimmering like gold, he exclaimed, "Really? You'll apply?"
Dabi huffed. "As if Izuku would let me not."
"Even though it's heroics?"
There was a tone to his voice that nipped at Dabi. A downwards lilt like he nearly didn't say anything. It was doubtful in the worse of ways. If Dabi didn't know Hawks better, he might have called it insecure.
Dabi let his head fall forward so it rests against Hawks. He smelled like the Midoriya's dry cleaner, sweet lemon oak or another of those odd scents big companies like to make up. Dabi didn't mind, not with how he could feel his breath and be comforted by the warmth of his forehead on his.
"You act like I hate all heroes," he murmurs.
Hawks feels tense as he whispers into the space between them, "Do you not?"
"Some of them, I like a lot," he answers and closes the space between them.
Kissing Hawks is like swimming in the ocean. Waves crash into him, sending him reeling and flipping his world upside down. Sometimes, its calm and he simply floats peaceful. Other days, he drowns in him, soaking up every taste he can get. In this moment, it's like dipping his toes in the water, feeling the cool of it and not needing anything more.
He leans into Hawks, winding a hand around his neck with his fingers curling into his hair. There is no fever or frenzy, no hard press as they try to take in all each other. Just a kiss. Something that says more than Dabi ever could on his own. When they break away, Dabi can hardly call it a part with how their heads still rest together.
"I'm ready for more," Dabi whispers. His fingers curl in the hair at the nape of his neck.
Hawks' eyes hold his. "More?"
"More. Dating, all of that," he explains. His lips brush against his again. "We said no distractions, but there's nothing to distract from anymore. We're both working on ourselves, we're doing better. I'm ready for anything you want. Fuck all distractions."
For a cruel second, he thought of what would happen if Hawks jerked away then. That thought quickly falls away as Hawks smiles. He nudges him with his nose and responds, "That sounds nice."
Dabi's chest tightened. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Something pulls at his insides, seeping into them with a gooey warmth. He stares at Hawks' golden flecked eyes and the happy curve to his lips with his mind tipping close to a word he has yet to say out loud. He feels calm. He feels happy. He feels a little bit in love.
So this is what it's like.
He pushes Hawks away and kicks his feet up, grin taking over his features. He barks, "Enough sappy shit. Let's go."
Hawks laughed, throwing his head back but starting up the engine nonetheless. "What? Don't want to be late for your little bro?"
"Shut up and drive, feathers."
-:-
It was safe to say Izuku was panicking.
It was for good reason. He tried comforting himself with that. Anyone in his position would be panicked, surely. Not just his anxiety ridden, overthinking self. No, it was completely reasonable to panic over the fact that the presentation is set to start in five minutes and the main guest has yet to arrive. He was half a second away from calling Dabi and screaming at him through the phone to hurry Hawks and his ass' down to the event.
It was fine. They could run a little late. He needs to be calm and take deep breaths. This was fine. Only the grand opening for Head Office, the big announcement for the final plans of the system the whole country will now be depending on. No pressure.
The last week he'd spent in a fit of worry, running from school and several offices with his phone tucked against his ear as he clarified that every plan was set sternly in place. This night had to go well. They had a standard to uphold. If he'd torn down the system from before, he better do a good job at keeping the new one afloat.
Akito tackled him to the ground when he'd told her that excuse once as she caught him on the phone. She'd sat on his chest, refusing to get off him, and informed him that it wasn't his job to put together a whole organization. They said he had to focus on his school, his upcoming internship, his life as a teenager. It seemed no one would stop pointing out the fact that he was fifteen (almost sixteen! That has to be a little better) and therefore should step aside and let the adults handle the rest.
He'd resisted at first, but in the end a stern warning from his mother forced him into surrendering. He'd do anything these days to keep on her good side. His mother flinched every time he mentioned anything related to his identity as Revite so he tried his best to keep those conversations to the confines of the spare room Hawks and Dabi were staying in till Head Office is up and running. She was accepting of him, but even he knew some things had it's limits and that it was best he give her space.
The door to the drawing room he currently resided in opened with a creak, alerting Izuku and immediately launching him into a rant.
"Where were you!?" Izuku yelped as Dabi stepped into the room, his face morphed into a half- sheepish smile. "Hawks is due up front in a few minutes!"
"I could have taken longer," Dabi commented with a shrug.
"If you had then Hawks wouldn't have gone up and his speech wouldn't have been made, and then no one would properly establish the Head Office. Then what? We reschedule? We set an example for the public that we're loose with our promises? Would anyone want to work with us then?"
Dabi hands settled on Izuku's shoulder suddenly and - oh. He hadn't realized how tight his chest felt till then, nor how his heart was racing at mach two. He stopped his train of thought, allowing breath to enter his lungs. Searching, he pin pointed every feeling inside him, letting himself assess it and then let go of it. Carefully, slowly, and most importantly, calmly. Just as Dr. Tanaka had been teaching him. When he finished after a moment, he looked Dabi in the eye and winced.
"Sorry," he said, cringing at his previous words.
"Not necessary," Dabi replied. He squeezed his shoulders lightly. "I'm just glad you halted your spiral."
"Shouldn't be spiraling in the first place," he grumbled. People were counting on this program. He could at least not freak out for an hour or two.
Dabi cocked his head to the side. "No? The fuck about this situation isn't stressful enough to send anyone into a spiral? I literally just watched Hawks trip up the stairs he was so nervous."
Izuku snapped his head up. "Is he okay? Can he still give his speech?"
"Yes, fuck. Izuku, relax for a second. Everything is ready and perfect."
Numbly, he nodded. He had to trust Dabi's word, even if his heart's still beating with the speed of a jackknife.
Dabi's hands fell from his shoulders, ruffling his hair instead. He bumped his hip into his and jerked his head towards the door. "Lets head out, kid. Hawks will want to see your face out there."
Izuku felt his lips quirk up and nodded again. He spread his arms wide and asked, "Do I look presentable?"
Pausing, Dabi hummed before latching onto Izuku's tie and undoing it. He re-did it then motioned for him to leave the room. He quipped, "I never understand how you always fuck up ties."
"Don't tell Sutorimu," Izuku said, walking through the door and out into the main banquet room.
The room was large, bigger than most places Izuku has been. It was the sort of space he can imagine being rented out for weddings with the tall white walls and small stage at the front. The staff had set it up much like a wedding too with all the dozens of tables scattered across the floor, each draped with black table cloths and lined with people all in fancy suits and dresses fit for the formal occasion. It all made Izuku's stomach turn.
He'd never been to an event like this before and yet here he was, at one where when he stepped in the room half the heads turned to him. In the last handful of weeks, Izuku has gotten used to the looks. Everyone apart of the commission video can't get away from them. At school, his friends and him were bombarded by curious classmates. At home, the news blares with people trying to tie them all to Revite - how they might have come to be in the video. At the grocery store, Izuku can't grab a box of cereal without half a dozen people recognizing him, asking him about Revite and expressing their sorry's for his quirklessness; what he went through because of it.
It's odd that among so many heroes and people who've been around Revite, that he still gets the awed, slightly pitiful gazes.
Before he has the chance to be fully mortified by the attention, Dabi pushes him forward in the direction of their seats. Quickly shuffling to them, he sits down at one of the front tables, between Dabi and Shinsou. The latter greets him with a bored look - a roll of the eyes that Izuku knows is an act. A call from Shinsou the day before showed how excited the boy really was for today; what will come of it.
"Look who finally showed up," Komori drawled, looking pointedly at Dabi. Next to her, Hatsume snickered and Charlie gave her a a disapproving frown.
Dabi only huffed and flicked halfheartedly towards her. "Yeah, yeah. Believe it or not, Keigo is the one who held us up."
Izuku remembers with a start why Dabi was out. The tension in the air became ten times more palpable as their table all came to the same realization. In times like these, Izuku almost wishes Sutorimu were there to break the silence as she always does. He glances at her table with Akito and the other new department heads, only to find the two of them already looking their way, eyes trained on Dabi from across the room.
Kaseki cleared his throat, and courageously asked, "So... all is good? With, uh, y know?"
Unexpectedly, Dabi grinned. Though the curve of his lips may have seemed vicious, his eyes held a distinct softness to them that had Izuku erupt into a smile of his own.
"Yeah," Dabi said. "All is good."
That was all they needed to know.
Their group settled into idle chatter, distracting each other from the people pointing their way. Izuku let their voices carry in and out of his ears as he watched Dabi settle. His body showed no signs of distress. His voice no hints at any negativity. In fact, he looked almost brighter than any other time Endeavor was brought up in conversation.
Izuku leaned towards him, whispering, "What really happened when you were out?"
Dabi's mouth opened, words nearly spilling from them when his eyes seemed to catch on something up front. An array of applause rung out from the room, forcing Izuku to look to the stage, watching as Hawks steps out on to it.
"I'll tell you later," Dabi whispered to him, then turned his full attention to Hawks.
The man was front and center of the stage, microphone clutched awkwardly in his ungloved hands. Hawks was a sight, his red wings preened perfectly despite how much he'd worried earlier about them being messy, and his suit crisp. Izuku admired his ability to appear near flawless in front of crowds. His only tell of nerves was the slight disarray to his hair that showed he'd ran his hands through it several times.
After the last several weeks of keeping to the background, Hawks finally stands in the spot light again. Izuku will admit, attention looks good on him - in the same way grins look nice on Dabi. Like confidence coursed through their blood. Izuku warms at the sound of the applause swelling around them.
"Hello everyone," Hawks said into the microphone, charismatic smile stretching across his features. A loud whistle rung out from the back of the room and Hawks shoulders seemed to relax slightly. "Thank you so much for showing up and supporting my teams project. This has been a long few months for us all and we understand that this can be a scary. Personally if I was in your position, I'd be mistrusting to anyone who dared to step up to what the commission was. But I assure you - we are not the commission."
Hawks gestured to the slides displayed behind him. "We've came up with an organization called Head Office which will be in charge of all of societies quirk related issues. This includes management of heroics, villains, quirk struggle, laws regarding quirks, licensing, support items, analysts, civilian assistance, and much more. Each issue will have it's own departments which are headed by well-rounded employees. At least until the organization is fully settled and integrated into normalcy where then the department heads will be elected by the public.
"The goals of every department is to aid all people seeking help from them as best they can. Currently we have a variety of services lined up to support people such as quirk counseling, rehabilitation programs, law reform discussion groups and so on. All the details are further put in the handbooks given to everyone."
Hawks raises his chin, his wings curling into himself strongly. "We want to make something better for people. A system that truly helps everyone. We are here not just for heroes, but for civilians too, and we will try our hardest to make sure we don't have a repeat of the last system. All of our spending's and decisions will publicized weekly. Every cent exchanged, every minor change down to switching the coffee filters used in our building. All of our funding will come from the public, using the taxes they already paid to the commission before, and if there is an issue with how we run things then people can choose to cut off our income completely."
Pausing, Hawks takes a deep breath. His knuckles grip the microphone in his hands, revealing the nerves that couldn't be found in his heavily masked features. When Izuku surveys the room, he saw nearly everyone leaning towards the stage, ready to listen. Izuku couldn't help but smile.
"I needed something like Head Office when I was younger. I think I would have been a lot better off if it was around back then. I'm hoping this will help a lot of people like me; scared, alone and with quirks or lack thereof that make them targets.
"And so with that, we get to the part all of you really came here for. I, Keig--" Hawks falters. Izuku watches as his stance shifts while he clears his throat and more confidently says, "I, pro-hero Hawks, announce the official opening of Head Office! My team and I look forward to working with you all from now on!"
The room erupted with applause for the second time. Izuku clapped from his table while beside him Dabi let out an obnoxiously loud holler. Between him and Hatsume whistling, they were one of the loudest tables.
It felt hard to believe - that after all this work Head Office was a reality. When Izuku started out as Revite, he'd never imagined this. He'd thought he'd expose a few bad heroes and continue on with his life. Part of him wishes he could go back in time and tell his younger self all that they would achieve. He wishes he could go back and tell a million different people, hold out, a better life is coming. Here he stands, applauding that great life hurdling towards them.
Hawks made his way off the stage and over to them with a final call to the crowd to enjoy the party. He pulls up to their table, asking, "How was that?"
"You did good," Izuku answered while Dabi said, "Horrible."
Hawks shot Dabi a glare before sitting down in an open seat. Their group settled into easy conversation, pointing out faces they recognized in the mingling crowd and debating whether Kaseki's orange soda or Komori's ice tea was better. Izuku opened his mouth to weigh in his opinion when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, startled to find none other than Aizawa staring down at him.
"May we talk for a moment?" he asks, voice gravelly as ever.
Izuku feels a swell of nerves wind in his stomach but excuses himself regardless. He follows Aizawa as he leads him to one of the isolated balconies. They face each other, both leaning against the railing as Izuku waits for Aizawa to speak.
Shouto has told him much about Aizawa, and Izuku has even got to know the man better himself as he is Shouto's current legal guardian. When Izuku visits his friend at U.A. Aizawa is often there, roaming the halls or watching over the two of them. To him, Aizawa has been nothing but accepting but now, his worry overrides all logic and brings him to conclusions he knows can't be true.
Aizawa sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "You are a problem child."
Izuku tilts his head. "Sorry?"
"You're a problem child. You cause problems and give me a headache."
"And this means. . . ?" Izuku asked, not following what Aizawa was trying to say.
"It's odd that you of all people were selected to advocate for quirkless people in Revite's video," Aizawa finally explains.
He'd had a lot of people say that to him lately. Classmates, teachers, co-workers, strangers on the street - they all asked why him? Every person in that video was pestered about it at least once a day. He's gotten used to deflecting, or answering in half truths.
"I'm close with Shouto, so he recommended me to Revite. Same with Hatsume, Shinsou, Komori and Kaseki. It helped that Komori already had a tie to Revite through Charlie," Izuku lies. "Who better to advocate for a new system then the next generation to be affected by it, right?"
Aizawa hummed. "Yes, using children to prove points is effective but that feels still too risky. Revite using hero students without actually knowing them? What if they turned out to oppose his views as aspiring heroes themselves. And you - you worked for Endeavor meaning you very well could have opposed him because he caused your loss of a job."
"I can't explain every thought that goes through Revite's head, sir," he offered up instead of trying to make up an excuse.
"I think you can," Aizawa replied. "I thought it was just that you and Shouto were close too. And after the USJ there were suspicions among the staff that you had connections to someone within Revite's operation; I thought possibly Dabi. Then I started paying attention this last month. You'd show up to Shouto's room at U.A. with stacks of papers containing plans for Head Office, like you were in charge of the whole thing yet didn't have any official position. Your group always seemed to look up to you. They'd wrap you hugs randomly, they'd glance at you when the TV played news about the commissions defeat or Revite's victories. Even now, Hawks placed himself beside you and Dabi, as he always does like you're a trio."
Aizawa folded his arms over his chest and settles him with a frown. "So, what am I to make from that?"
There were two options of how he could approach this. One, deny it all and bolt praying Aizawa has the decency to let him keep his secrets without further prying. Or two, trust him.
"Whatever you think is logical," Izuku answers. A smile pulls at the corners of his lips.
Aizawa nods, acknowledging his admission. He says, "You're a child. It wasn't your job to do any of this. You put yourself carelessly in danger."
"Now you sound like Dabi."
"Midoriya."
Izuku pushes away his urge to make light of the situation and says, "I know it's not my job, but no one was doing anything. I saw an issue no one was talking about and made sure the world knew about it. Really, I took my problem and made it everyone else's."
"I still don't approve," Aizawa grumbles.
"I know."
Izuku has an odd kind of respect for Aizawa. He hardly knows the man but he can see how much he cares about the safety of others and can't help be proud to see a true hero in him. He thinks Aizawa holds an odd kind of respect for him too.
"I have one more question," he adds suddenly. "In the video, you didn't share everything. I saw most of the files you sent into the police, the footage from your kidnapping being in one of them. It's certainty incriminating for the commission yet you didn't share it. Why not?"
He'd asked himself the same thing. When they were putting together the video, Ayumu had asked if they were going to talk about their time in the commission cells, Hawks asked if he needed to share about the commission threatening to have him kill Revite, Dabi asked if he should talk about Endeavor nearly sending him and Shouto to become Nomu's. Still, none of it made the final cut.
"It's one thing," Izuku says slowly, "to share your story about something many people relate to. It's another to talk about a specific cruelty done to yourself. We were trying to reach the public as a whole and make them see that issues within our society were rooted within systems like the commission. Our individual struggles along the way would add to the commissions downfall, and we kept them as back up, but were they worth sharing when the commission fall was a guarantee with the information we did share? Maybe. I don't know. I don't have all the answers.
"But what I do know is that I would not have wanted people focusing on my personal struggle over the greater impacts on the whole world. And, some things are too personal to us to share. That's okay. It all worked out in the end."
It really did.
"Good," Aizawa says. "Good."
And that was all that needed to be said.
"Everything all right here?"
Izuku looked over his shoulder to see Dabi hovering beside him. To the untrained eye, he looked relaxed with his hands in his pockets and shoulders slouched, but Izuku picked up on the subtle clench of his jaw and slight narrowing of his eyes.
"We're all right," Izuku confirmed. "We were just chatting."
"If you say so," he grumbles, not taking his eyes off Aizawa.
Shouto's teacher, thankfully, takes the hint and steps back. He says, "I best be going. Mic wanted me to talk with some of his other students to give them tips. I appreciate our talk, Midoriya."
Dabi sneers at his retreating form, hissing, "What did he want?"
He swatted lightly at his arm, wordlessly telling him to lay off. "Just to talk about Revite. There's nothing to worry about. He figured out who I was is all."
"Not the first teacher to do so. I'm surprised All Might figured it out before him."
"Give him some credit. All Might spends a lot more time around me." He paused, debating his next words. He's been wondering how he'd bring up his next point for the last day or so. "Uh, speaking of All Might. He's invited me to work as an analyst at his agency."
Dabi faltered. Almost hesitantly, he asked, "Why?"
"He said something about his quirk being complicated and needing someone he trusts to understand it's weaknesses. And, uh, maybe help him find someone to take over his agency when he's gone."
Izuku waits for any indicating reaction but none comes. Eventually, Dabi just scoffs and says, "I get he knows your secret so you trust him, but I really don't understand why he trusts you specifically. How did you two even meet?"
Shrugging, he replied, "I wouldn't be very trustworthy if I told you. Its his secret to keep and mine to not share. . . I think working with him is a great opportunity."
He doesn't mention that All Might isn't just offering him the title of analyst, he's also offering him the ability to aid him in choosing his successor and then help train them. He'd been shocked to have All Might tell him so the other day. He'd cried and thanked All Might. Now he had the chance to work alongside a true pro hero paving the way for more positions later in life. Now he had the chance to help someone fill in All Might's shoes knowing what the man had done wrong. All Might said that was part of why he asked him - because he knew Izuku could see his flaws and help his successor avoid them.
"Do you want the job?" Dabi asks, looking him in the eyes.
Izuku held his his chin high. "I do. I really do."
Slowly, the faintest of smile inched across Dabi's features. "Your patrols better not interfere with the hours you promised to work at Head Office."
Izuku beams.
"It won't! I promise!"
"I got a job too y'know."
He did a double take. "Wait, really?! How? Where?"
"Wow. That 'how' was unnecessary." Dabi rolled his eyes. "It's at Head Office. I'll be the head of the quirk harm department, and part time member of the licensed villains investigation program."
Clearly he could see Dabi in those roles. He was hoping Dabi would find a job at Head Office, but actually hearing him achieve so fills Izuku with overwhelming joy.
"That sounds really nice," Izuku tells him. "Is that why you and Hawks were late?"
"That and other things."
Izuku silently watches as his eyes trail across the room to where Hawks is laughing alongside their friends. His feathers are fanned out happily and his hand coming up to muffle the amused snorts leaving his lips as he cackles away. He wonders how two people so strong in their personalities can be pulled towards each other like magnets.
Dabi says, "We decided we liked what we have."
Izuku has no chance at not melting as a rush of warmth enters his chest. He says, "I'm happy for you."
And he means it. How could he not be happy for Dabi? Dabi who once lived in the shadow of his fathers name, hurting and ruining himself for a cruel mans approval. Who when Izuku met him had been consumed by rage hotter than his flames - filled with a desire to burn the world. He has changed his life around, became a man with pride for what he's done for the world. Is supported by people who care for him. Has the adoration and love of another who holds him in the highest regard. Now, with a job he takes to continue helping people.
Izuku has to be proud after all that Dabi has done. And maybe, he saves a little of that pride for himself. After all, he is not the same timid kid he was when this all started.
As if reading his thoughts, Dabi relied, "I'm happy for you too. I mean, look at how great this event turned out."
"Is that a compliment?" Izuku teased.
Dabi ruffled Izuku's hair, a light shove accompanying it. "Shut your smug mouth."
Izuku laughed as delight pooled within him. There were questions he still had to ask Dabi, like how his visit with Endeavor went, but they could wait for another time.
The night carried on with a constant bliss. Izuku talked with everyone he could, many of the older attendants discussing with him about his part in Head Office, how he'll be helping out on weekends. Some people had pulled him aside to ask what Dabi meant by how they were brothers and how that worked without him being a Todoroki. He had a feeling Kaseki and Komori were funneling those people towards him.
Dabi left his side to dance with Hawks, Izuku himself eventually getting dragged into a group dance with Akito and Sutorimu who later handed him off to Ayumu as they disappeared into their own world. Izuku thinks he danced with half their group by the time he was free to wander back to the balcony.
The air was warm that night. The mid-summer air sunk into his skin, heating his already flushed face. It was calming in the same way drinking tea was - the way that caused ones muscles to ease and breaths to even. He tilted his head to the stars that could be seen this far out from the city and welcomed the smell of since-passed rain.
"Are you all right?"
Izuku felt his lips quirk up at the sound of Shouto's voice. He didn't bother to look back at him as he said, "Why do you always find me when I'm alone and looking for stars?"
Shouto appeared next to him. He rests his hands on the balcony railing, looking at him with a tilted head. "You didn't answer my question."
"I'm all right," he says and smiles with warmth equivalent to the summer air. "Better than all right, actually. Everything's turning out better than I'd imagined."
Shouto hummed. "It is quite nice."
Energy hums in the air, spilling out from inside where people laugh and cheer and make toasts to new beginnings. Shouto and him sit and soak it in together. Part of him can't help but feel that all this wonder will vanish in a moment. Call it paranoia, call it disbelief, whatever it was didn't matter as he wrestled with it. He left it the back of his mind, shoving it there with the knowledge that all this was real and he along with so many others would fight their hardest to keep it that way. It cannot be ruined so easily.
"Have many people talked to you about Revite?" Shouto questioned suddenly.
Izuku shook his head. Only two people he'd spoken with had mentioned his alternate identity, and they'd just been offhand comments about whether he was helping organize Head Office or not.
"People are thanking you," Shouto said. "They keep saying how they wrongly judged Revite at first, had assumed he would be a one hit wonder with his article on Shudder. They didn't expect you to accomplish this much, but they're glad you did. A few told me to thank you on their behalf if I could."
An embarrassed flush stretched across his cheeks as he ducked his head and mumbled, "That's. . . Your welcome? What do I even say to that?"
Shouto shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I think people just want you to know you've done a lot for them."
For once, Izuku didn't disagree. Thinking about Head Office and majority of commission workers imprisonment, he knows he's done more than enough. Maybe not all on his own but Charlie was right in telling him that he was different from so many others - he was the center of this change and that was something he was allowed to admit. He can be proud of himself.
"You did a lot for me," Shouto adds.
Izuku turns to face him fully. His heart pounds steadily as he replies, "You did a lot for me too."
Almost hesitantly, Shouto places his hand over his. Izuku stares at it, embracing it's coolness and comfort. There's a promise pressed between their fingers, one of something sweet to come. The assurance of it feels like breathing for the first time and he dares to thank the universe for where he's landed.
His world is healing and his family is safe. There is a boy with his hand over his and there is a job and part to play waiting for him tomorrow. Maybe it's not all perfect yet, his dreams still sometimes tainted by images of mutilated quirks and exposed brains, but he's farther along than he ever hoped. He has everything here with these people, with these justices, with the freedom and joy they've created.
When he looks over his shoulder back to the main event, he sees Hawks hovering just off the ground and grinning as Dabi leans towards them amid their dancing. He sees Ayumu's hands gesturing wildly as she happily speaks with Sutorimu and Akito. He sees all his friends from Yuuei demonstrating their quirks for a small crowd. He sees Fuyumi and Natsuo kicking each other under the table where they eat. He feels Shouto at his side and he sees a room full of people ready for all they fought achieve - ready for the next part of their lives.
Smiling and heart brimming with hope, Izuku knows he's ready too.
[A/N: We start a new year with an end to this fic. This has been a long journey writing this (a year and eight months!!), way longer than I expected but here we are. Thank you so much to everyone who has been here since the beginning and put up with my late updates and random disappearances. Your support throughout this all has been amazing. And thank you to everyone else who has commented, left kudos, or silently followed along. I appreciate it beyond what words can express.
This story started out as something completely different and has changed and grown with my writing to become what it is now. I'm so happy to close it off.
Please, if anyone has any questions let me know. ALSO! If anyone has any requests also let me know. I have received several throughout the course of writing this and decided I loved so many of them that I wrote them and will be putting them in the series this fic belongs to. This includes so far many of the POV requests, an amusing quirk mishap, identity reveals, and further info on Akito and Sutorimu's time at U.A.
Again, thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! :D ]