Kaminari coughed quietly into his hand, pausing to see if anyone had noticed. It was the middle of the night, and he was playing video games in the pitch black. He groaned as he lost yet another life, sighing quietly at the fact he still wasn't tired yet. Earlier that day- or maybe yesterday, he's been up a while- right after training he had passed out, and hadn't gotten up until Bakugo screamed that dinner was ready. Somehow, he had slept almost a full night's rest in just a nap.
At first, he tossed and turned, trying to fool his body into thinking he was tired and hopefully not wake up until morning. Then, he tried the patented melatonin route. When that didn't work, he gave up and came down here. He would probably just play video games until three in the morning and then go to sleep. Maybe.
Most of the time he had a harder time getting to sleep anyway. His brain was always moving too fast for him to calm down, so he would just lie there for a while. It was strangely peaceful, except when someone from his class was walking outside his door. Seriously, some of his classmates were committed night owls.
"Kaminari?" He bolted up and fumbled with the controller in his hands, heart beating fast from the shock he had just gotten. Shinso was standing there, watching him with an imperceptible look on his face. Kaminari cleared his throat.
"Uh... hey? What are you doing up at," he checked his phone. "12:30 at night?"
"Insomnia." Oh. He really should have guessed, with those deep eyebags always present, but he was a lot more focused on Shinso's eyes. His gorgeous, deep purple eyes that made him want to look at him forever and-
Seriously, brain? You can't betray me like this!
"But that's not the real question. The real question is what are you doing up this late? I've never seen you down here before." So this was a recurring thing, then.
Kaminari shrugged. "Just not very tired. I was going to go to sleep and then I couldn't, so I'm just going to hang out down here for a while."
Shinso nodded. "Just don't let Iida know you did. For some reason, he really doesn't like it when you stay up past curfew. I'm pretty sure he would blow a gasket if he knew that a quarter of us have come down here at one point or another."
"Yeah," Kaminari snorts. "Wait, how do you know how many people have been down here? No one talks about it."
"In fear of Iida, yes. But," Hitoshi rubs the back of his head in that anxious way he did almost every day. "I'm also down here almost every night." Kaminari coughs a bit. "Yeah, insomnia's a bitch."
"I... how much sleep do you get?"
"Enough." At Kaminari's raised eyebrow, Shinso rolls his eyes. "Ugh, fine. It's like, around four hours most nights. Sometimes I sleep through the night without a hitch, and others I'm down here four times."
"That's... that's why you take so many naps in class! Todoroki said it was because you and Aizawa were related, and he took lots of naps in class too."
"Wha- I can't... we're not even related by blood!" Shinso sputters. Kaminari can't help but giggle a little at the helpless expression on his friend's face. "I give up. Not even gonna try anymore."
He drops down on the sofa next to Kaminari and throws his face into his hands. The blonde stiffens for a moment. Their shoulders were almost touching, just mere inches apart. Gahhh.... No shorting out, no shorting out.
"Well," Kaminari chuckles nervously, "At least you're not being tailed by him anymore."
"He was trying to tail me?!"
"Badly. Very badly." They both stared at each other a moment longer before breaking down into smothered laughter. Then they both froze when they heard a floorboard crack. Kaminari held his breath as he carefully peeked over the top of the couch, relieved to see that no one was there. It was probably just one of the stairs creaking after barely surviving Sato's tumble down them earlier.
Kaminari didn't want to know what their school paid in damages for accidents alone each year.
"What are you playing?"
"Huh? Oh, it's this game called Hades." He shrugged. "It's just a game I can play while waiting for my brain to calm down."
Shinso fell silent, content to watch Kaminari play through the rooms. When Kaminari offered the controller to the other boy, he declined. It was very peaceful, the flashing of the lights traveling through the dark room as the two boys sat side by side. At some point, they had shifted closer together and now their shoulders were touching.
And maybe Kaminari would have broken out in a nervous sweat before, but now it just felt natural. It felt... comfortable, like they could do this all of the time, perfectly coexisting. He honestly preferred this to gaming by himself.
Every now and then Shinso would offer a comment or ask a question, and Kaminari would enthusiastically reply. But the silences started to grow larger and larger, and he could hear the purple-haired boy stifle several yawns.
And then it happened. Shinso's head dropped down, settling right against Kaminari's neck. He froze. Soft little puffs of air were coming out of Shinso's slightly ajar mouth and Kaminari didn't want to do anything that would wake the guy. After all, he had insomnia! It was important for him to get sleep where he could, so Kaminari would let him get his shut-eye. It was a purely platonic thing. It wasn't like he was enjoying having Shinso sleep on his shoulder. No siree. Even if he didn't really ever want to move from that spot...
Aw, dang it.
Gently, he turned off the TV and set the controller and remote to the side, careful not to jostle the sleeping boy next to him. He stifled a yawn of his own, and cautiously leaned back his head so that Shinso's hair was brushing his cheek. He closed his eyes and let his mind drift off into darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aizawa wearily walks into the class 1-a dorms, an hour before any of them should be up. He had learned to do a check before any of them somehow managed to destroy something. Sometimes it wasn't their fault, but others it could have been avoided had they been the slightest bit more careful.
He sighs. Well, what can you expect? They're overpowered teenagers that have little to no self control or self preservation.
...Why did I sign up for this again?
Aizawa paused as he caught something in the corner of his eye. Just over the back of the couch, he could see a small tuft of purple hair. So Hitoshi decided that he would just sleep down here, huh... Well, can't say I blame him. Nezu knew what he was doing when he bought these couches.
He crept closer to the sitting area, rounding the corner of the couch. And then he saw it. His son wasn't alone on the couch. Instead, there was a familiar blonde leaning against the other sleeping boy. Kaminari was drooling slightly out of the corner of his mouth, and Aizawa watched the two for just a few moments before sighing and rolling his eyes.
He walked around the dorms and made sure that nothing major had been damaged over the course of the night, and then strided right back out of there without so much as a second glance. Any more sleep time he could get, he was going to take.
But there was one phone call he would have to make first...
"Zashi? Yeah, I'm fine. Yes, Hitoshi is fine. Yes, class 1-a is fine, the little gremlins. No, I haven't been kidnapped. What's with all of the-. Okay, so I got up early for once; my class is full of trouble magnets and I have to make sure they didn't somehow explode the dorms in one night. You know they could and would do that." He shuddered. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. I give up. You win the bet. Which bet? The one we made on the second week of school this year. Yeah, that one. I gave up because- You know what? No comment. Bye."
Shutting off his phone, Aizawa shakes his head in exasperation. Maybe his life was a bit more... hectic ever since his husband came into it, but he wouldn't change anything for the world.
He's just sorry he somehow passed along the loud blonde attraction gene to his son. Even though they weren't related.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dabi walked right into the warehouse section of the Hero Commission building where the supply trucks were resting, not bothering to take out any cameras or the security on the way in. Even if Hawks had somehow messed up taking them out, he wasn't all too concerned with another crime added onto his rap sheet. The Commission and heroes all knew that the League was still active; they didn't give a shit if they found out about their little warehouse being raided.
"Hey, bird brain," He called out. "You planning on showing your face anytime soon?"
"Would you quiet down?" A familiar voice hissed from right behind him. "Just because you don't care if they know who you are doesn't mean that I don't. I have an identity to protect here!"
Dabi startles, for just a moment. It's not often that someone gets the drop on him, and it just figures it would be Hawks. The hero was annoying, had one of those 'moral compasses' everyone was always talking about, and was surprisingly stealthy to boot. Just what he needd in this miserable experience other people call a life.
"What, you afraid your bosses will find out you've been talking to the big, bad villains behind their backs?" Dabi smiled with his teeth bared. He under no circumstances trusted the hero, and was going to catch him in a lie sooner or later.
"Uh, yes? How do you think we found out where to go for this? If I get found out, that means we lose a whole lot of information, and that would get me hunted down. I'm fine with double-crossing the HPSC, but I'd like to actually accomplish what I want to do first." Hawks was looking at him like he was an idiot.
"Whatever," Dabi grumbles. "This place is like a maze. I swear to whatever messed up deity is out there I've passed the same room five times by now. They really enjoy wasting money on building layouts of useless facilities, don't they?"
"Well, to be fair, we are trying to raid it right now, so maybe it's not that useless." Hawks raises an eyebrow at him, ignoring Dabi's scathing glare. All right, that's it. Usually, he would wait to rile up Hawks until after the mission was done, but not today. The hero was annoyingly fake with his practiced smiles and rehearsed answers. Peeling back the layers of his mask and making him slip up was the best way to find out why he was really here.
Because while believing the system is corrupt and wanting to change it might be believable on the surface level, there are all sorts of little holes if you look deep enough. Why choose to approach them then, after the whole Kamino thing went down? Dabi was pretty sure Hawks didn't condone hurting children, and the event with the blonde kid had been televised nationally. Maybe his entire story wasn't a lie, but it certainly wasn't all truthful.
"Are you coming or what? I don't know when the trucks going to leave, so it's going to be a whole lot harder to get to the things inside if everyone can see us and call for backup." Dabi grumbled under his breath, but followed Hawks along the winding hallways. It was unsettling how little personality there was. There were no pictures, no color, and none of those decorative plants that office buildings have. Even the League headquarters had personal stuff in there. This was just weird.
"It should be in here," Hawks gestured to a door that looked like all of the others.
"How do you know? This place is just like the Hero Commission. It seems like it has a giant stick up its ass."
"All of their buildings look like this, actually. They say it's because if someone broke in then they could use whatever personal information they found about their employees against them, but eh. Who really knows why the Commission does anything." Hawks wasn't looking at him by the time he finished speaking. "But, whatever. You ready or not?"
"Let's burn some shit." Dabi grinned as maniacally as he could, throwing open the heavy metal doors. "Don't get in my way, bird brain."
"You do realize we're supposed to be working together, right?" Hawks hurried after him. "I don't really think this is what Kurogiri and Shigaraki had in mind."
"Like I care what that obnoxious man-child wants," He scoffed. "Now back off, unless you want your wings burned to a crisp."
Hawks rolled his eyes, throwing his arms open wide theatrically. "Well then, be my guest. Navigate your way through here without any help whatsoever. And I'm sure there won't be any codes that only a hero would know, so don't even worry about that." Dabi growled under his breath, annoyed that this was when Hawks chose to be sarcastic.
"Fine, fine. Just don't talk."
"Oh, so I get to come now?" Hawks faked surprise.
"Shut up."
Hawks mimed zipping his mouth shut, opening his wings and taking off from the floor with a powerful blast. The ceiling was high enough that the hero apparently didn't think he would bash his head open, not that Dabi would have any complaints if he did. He sighed as he trailed along behind the glorified bird, weaving around empty cardboard boxes and stationary trucks.
It disgusted him how much money the Commission chose to waste on little things while choosing to ignore bigger problems just so they could keep control. They never once questioned Endeavor just because he was the number two hero and could never do anything wrong in their eyes. They chose to raise select few up in the ranks while leaving everyone below to fend for themselves, left to the dregs of society. They had no one to blame for the League but themselves.
"Are you going to hurry up, slowpoke?!"
"Shut up! Annoying chicken." Dabi finally made it to where Hawks was reclining on the top of a truck, looking perfectly at peace and smug. "Don't do that with your face."
"What? Smile?"
"Call it whatever you want. Just stop doing it." The blonde snorted and dropped down, walking over to the back of the truck.
"This one was supposed to go across the city to one of their support facilities for heroes that have contracts for them, as well as for support heroes to use to make more gear. But," he grinned at him, "It looks like it'll never get there."
Dabi couldn't help but offer a smirk right back at him, as much as he tried to suppress it. The hero was annoying in more ways than one.
"Yeah, yeah. Now that we know what the exact coordinates are, I'll contact Kurogiri to transport the entire truck out of here.
"That wasn't hard at all, was it? I don't know why you complain so much about me; things go so much faster when I'm here."
"Every second spent with you is hard. And for the fastest hero, you sure do waste a lot of time talking." Dabi whipped out his phone, tracing the exact coordinates of the edges of the truck and sending it to Kurogiri.
It was annoying that they couldn't just send a warp portal over without going themselves, but since Kurogiri's quirk worked by exact coordinates they couldn't exactly just send something over and hope for the best. And he had to go with Hawks, that annoying bastard, because none of them trusted the hero to take care of this himself.
A swirling darkness enveloped the truck, and its contents as well. Hawks barely managed to swing himself off of the top before it disappeared, flailing unceremoniously onto some boxes. They topped over, clanging and banging on their way down. The noise echoed around the large room, and Dabi froze.
He turned around to glare at the blonde venemously, giving him a look that said, really? "For the supposed number two hero, you can be so freaking clumsy. How on earth are you not dead yet?"
"Hey! You could have given me a bit of warning before making the truck disappear! Dick," Dabi heard him mumble.
He was just about to respond with an insult when another voice appeared.
"Hey, did you hear that?" Oh, come on!
"We should probably check that out, right? Like, that's our job?"
"The Commission would kill us if we didn't. They don't really want people breaking into this place for some reason."
"The Commission doesn't want anyone to break into anywhere."
"Well, duh, but I mean they have the least amount of employees here, and they told us to make sure no one got in or out of here."
Dabi met Hawks' wide eyes with his own, silently cursing and running away from the two Commission employees with Hawks right behind him. What do they mean, the Commission doesn't want anyone to get into this place? What's so special about it?
"I'm not seeing anything. Maybe it was just like, the wind or something?
"Wait... you're right. We're not seeing anything. Where the hell is truck 2.145ty?"
He threw open on of the metal doors, resisting the urge to slam it shut in Hawks' face. The blonde was going to get them out of this forsaken place if it was the last thing he did. Because Dabi would probably kill him after this.
"You are such a bird brain!"
"Can we not do this right now? I think that it's maybe not the time for arguing!"
Dabi barely, just barely, managed to not slap the hero right across his frustrating face. He wasn't even entirely sure that the hero didn't do it on purpose, trying to get him caught. The only reason he wasn't going after him right now was if Hawks tried to take him out right then, then he would be wasting the chance to take out the rest of the League. And the number two hero may pretend to be a complete dunce, but he was no idiot. There was too much intelligence gleaming in his eyes for that.
"Hey Sato. How's the wife?"
"Doing good, doing good. And yours?"
"Oh, you know- same thing as always. Loves to nag. Did you hear about..."
Dabi stopped dead in his tracks when he heard voices right in front of them. Frantically looking from side to side, he could see only one door in sight. Though it did have a giant 'STAY OUT' sign on it. Meh. He yanked on the door handle, almost ripping it away from the wood and threw Hawks inside. The hero let out an undignified squawk and scrambles for purchase amongst the shelves.
"Dabi! What the- mmmpphhh!"
"Would you shut up," Dabi hissed with his hand over the hero's mouth. "Who are they?"
Hawks ripped Dabi's hand away from him. "You think I know everyone who works for the Commission? That's a bit presumptuous." Dabi squinted at him through the dark of the room, trying to find out where Hawks wings were so he could rip some feathers loose.
Dabi groped around looking for some kind of light switch, ignoring Hawks for the time being. The walls all felt unnaturally smooth, and there wasn't very much furniture near the door. The room was too large to be a storage closet, so at least Dabi didn't have to be too close to Hawks.
He finally found the light switch, and the room flooded with light. He blinked away the pain in his head and spun around to face his... annoying companion, letting the raggedy tassels of his robe swirl around him. The hero was still slumped down on the ground, pretending to be asleep.
So, Dabi kicks him awake.
"GAH! Why do you insist on being so mean?" Great. Now he was pouting like a little kid.
"Whine all you want. Looks like we're going to have to find another way out of here." They had originally planned to go out the way they came in, since Kurogiri couldn't make another portal while he was dealing with the supplies they had gathered. It was very frustrating. "Guh. Can- can you not do that?"
"What? This?" Hawks brushed his wing over Dabi's face again, making it dart away before Dabi could grab at the red nuisance. "What, is it bothering you?"
"Whatever. What is this room? And how close is the nearest exit?" Dabi impatiently tapped his foot before sighing and going around the room. There were two file cabinets in the room, both locked, but that didn't stop him.
He made a small flame appear on his pointer finger and pressed it to the lock of the cabinet on the right, melting all of the little mechanisms inside. A sizzling sound filled the air as the metal boiled, turning into liquid and pouring out the front. It would be clear that they broke in, but again, Dabi didn't really care. All he wanted was to give the Hero Commission as big of an F-you as he could.
"I don't know; I suppose I could go out to check and just pretend I was sent here on purpose, though I'd have to be careful to make sure nobody that would know if I was supposed to be here sees me..." He trails off. "What are you doing?"
Dabi ignored him, rifling through the files and throwing away the boring ones. Which was most of them. The text was full of dates and numbers and names that didn't mean anything to him. He wasn't even really sure what he was looking for, but if this place was supposed to be secret there had to be something good here. The Commission was so screwed up there was bound to be corruption somewhere.
"Dabi, what are you doing? Do you want to leave here or not?" The hero's voice was exasperated, but also a little strained.
"Shut up," He muttered. "I'm busy here." He didn't have the power to deal with Hawks right now.
"You know what- fine. You want to waste time, that's great. I'm going to be sitting down over here while you look through a file cabinet with a crazy look in your eyes."
"Stop whining."
"I'm not- whatever." The hero sulked.
Dabi pulled open another drawer to the cabinet, discarding files to the floor that didn't interest him. That was, until he came across a large file marked with 'CONFIDENTIAL'.
...The Commission really needed to get better with how they labeled their secrets. Their system wasn't working.
He sat against the wall, opening the file in his lap. His eyes widened when he saw the contents. "What the hell..."
"What? Did you say something, Scar?"
Dabi didn't answer, scanning the papers one after another, as quickly as he could. Sometimes he would glance up at Hawks, making sure the hero wasn't watching him. No wonder these files read confidential... I wouldn't want anyone finding out about this shit they did either...
The file was full of medical reports and training details, all relating to someone named Keigo Takami. There wasn't a quirk or any identifying features mentioned. They even had a purchase lined out from when they bought him from his parents. That is messed up. Then, one day the reports just stopped, saying that the 'subject' had completed his training and would now be doing the purpose he was made to do. It was honestly disgusting. And he didn't even have time to read more than a small amount of the entries.
"Dude, seriously, are you okay? You look really pissed." Hawks was staring at him curiously, concern crinkling around the corners of his eyes.
Dabi impulsively shoves the file covertly into his robe, ignoring Hawks' searching gaze. He didn't have anything to say to the hero. The file weighed heavily in his pockets.
"Nothing. Let's just go, bird boy."
Hawks didn't look convinced, but he played along anyways, looking relieved for some reason. "Ooh! Bird boy; that's a new one. Here I thought your insulting nicknames were just going to be limited to bird brain and birdie. Good for you for branching out!"
"Why don't you ever stop talking? What is wrong with you?"
"It's a serious medical condition, actually. Makes it very hard to watch movies in theaters."
"...Shut up and get us out of here."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that night, Dabi would open the file and comb through every entry made, trying to figure out who the hell this 'Keigo Takami' was. All of the medical reports showed he had practically been tortured by them, all in the name of training. It sounded like he was supposed to be someone important by now, but Dabi hadn't heard a thing about him. He had tried to casually throw in the name with conversation with Kurogiri, but the purple mist-man hadn't so much as recognized it. The internet didn't either. It was like Keigo Takami didn't even exist.
Which meant that something seriously messed up had gone on, and the Hero Commission was at the center of all of it. Honestly, Dabi doesn't even know why he's surprised anymore.
It's not like they've ever done anything for him either.