There is always a beginning, a reason for every action we make. All of us make mistakes and we have to learn to live with them, whether we want to or not.
And it's not always easy, what is done is done and you couldn't make it better anymore, so you just roll with it.
There is always an ending too, but most of us would rather not think about it.
Ending comes after everything is done, and you weren't even close to finishing yet.
There you were, standing on the rooftop of a five story building, looking down at the people walking on the streets. It was still busy even though it was past midnight. Most of the people down on the streets were walking from bar to bar or back home with their friends, or alone.
You were there, watching, hoping nothing would happen. That everyone would be fine and people wouldn't get hurt. But most of the time things don't go the way you want them to.
You weren't a hero, but there was no way you could stand by and watch people getting hurt because the real heroes were late, or didn't hear the cries of help.
That's why you made it your hobby to go out during the night and save as many people as you could.
Heroes had to follow a code, but you didn't have any, you could hurt the bad guys as much as you wanted, as long as the heroes didn't catch you.
There was already talk about you in the media, which made it harder to work from the shadows, but you managed it. There was no way anyone was going to catch you.
"Help!" You heard screaming from an alleyway not too far away, totally interrupting your inner monologue.
Without even thinking about it you leaped over the edge of the building, your fire wings emerging from your back and carrying you through the air towards the screams.
Your quirk; Phoenix.
It was a fire quirk, allowing you to cover any part of your body with flames, or create new ones. In this case it was wings, mostly because you loved the idea of having them, and they worked like normal wings which made traveling so much easier.
You flew to the alleyway staying high until you saw the person in need of help. It was a woman running to a dead end, away from a guy with knifes as fingers.
'Weird ass quirk', you thought to yourself as you glided down landing between the villain and the terrified woman.
You spread your fire wings long enough so the guy couldn't go past you without burning his flesh off.
Spreading your wings that far meant you couldn't use the fire on other parts of your body, because of course there had to be limits to your power.
The villain looked shocked at first since you appeared so suddenly out of the sky, he stood still for a moment before charging at you.
While he was busy only thinking about slashing your face with his knife fingers you kicked him right in the stomach sending him backwards. He didn't lose his balance but his ego must have taken a hit from that at least.
This time you charged at him sending in a punch and after that a kick, making sure the man had no way of getting past you to the woman who was now at the end of the alleyway. She was trying to find a way to escape, but there wasn't any.
She would most likely call the police soon if she still had her phone with her, so you had to get this over quickly.
You sent in punch after punch and kick after kick all while dodging the sharp blades, luckily he had the knives only on his left arm so it was easier to dodge.
After a few more punches you finally managed to kick him to a wall. The man hit his head against it and fell to the ground, most likely passed out now.
You let your firewings go back into your body and took some zip ties from your costumes pocket, quickly tying the mans hands behind his back, making sure there was no way he could cut himself free.
Your costume wasn't anything fancy, it was made from a fire proof black material you bought from a weird online store. You made the costume yourself so it had pockets for items you might need. The costume itself was almost skin tight but also flexible.
And of course you had a mask that covered most of your face around your eyes, it was the most basic superhero mask to hide your identity.
As you stood up from the ground you finally had a change to turn to the woman, seeing her terrified face at the end of the alleyway not too far from you. She looked like she wasn't injured, meaning you got there fast enough.
"It's okay, miss! He is knocked down! You can safely leave!" You said to the woman, loud enough for her to hear.
She took a few careful steps forward before walking a little bit faster. Once she was next to you she quickly thanked you and ran towards the street where she would be safe.
You could hear police cars in the distance, no heroes were there yet meaning you managed to wrap things up just in time.
You spread your fire wings once more and jumped to the air, flying straight towards the sky fleeing the scene.
That night ended up having a few more similar cases, you even saved a drunken man from drowning into the canal near the city.
These were small things that heroes might be too busy to notice, so this world needed you. It needed more vigilantes to help those that needed saving when heroes were not around.
You flew to your balcony, it was much quicker than walking up the stairs to the 4th floor of the building. Only downside was that your wings weren't exactly hidden, you could only hope that none of the neighbors saw it when you got to your apartment at 3.30am.
You slid the balcony door open, you usually left it unlocked when going outside to do vigilante work since there was no way someone would climb all the way up to your balcony just to steal something.
There wasn't even anything worth stealing in your apartment.
You had lived there for a while now, after dropping out (or more like getting kicked out) of UA you had to find a place to stay, so you moved here. The area was pretty expensive but you managed to find the cheapest place, and it was cheap for a reason.
It was an old brick building that had been planned to tear down a long time ago, but the owner wouldn't sell to the big corporations that wanted to buy it.
Your apartment was small, it had a joint living room and kitchen, a bathroom next to the front door, and a bedroom on the opposite side. The balcony you got in from was placed more on the living room.
Now that you were done with vigilante work you had to go to sleep and wake up early for your real job at a small restaurant. You worked there as a waitress, definitely not what you had planned for your life but it was better than doing nothing.
You didn't have much choice since you needed your own apartment, and having that meant you needed an actual job that paid you.
Maybe if you had been able to become a hero your life would be easier. No trying to do the right thing from the shadows, no trying to hide yourself from the world. And the money was always a plus. But this life was fine, until you had to wake up in three hours.
- - -
You woke up to the awful noise of your alarm clock, it was 7am and you had one hour to get yourself ready and go to work.
First thing you did after getting out of bed was make yourself a cup of black coffee, you didn't like it that much, but got used to the bitter taste in exchange of feeling a bit more awake.
After that you did your normal morning routine. You usually took a shower at night after doing the vigilante work so that saved you some time now.
As you were dressing up for the day you noticed a few fresh cuts on your arm, most likely from the guy that had knives as fingers.
You didn't even notice yesterday but this meant that your costume had a few holes now. Great, you'd have to fix that after work. Luckily your work costume included a long sleeved shirt so you wouldn't have to explain the scars to anyone.
You grabbed a small snack from the kitchen before heading out the door to go to work.
Your shift starts at 8am but you had to be there early to change into your waitress uniform and get everything ready before the restaurant opens.
After changing to your work clothes you headed to the main area of the restaurant, starting to clean the place a bit before customers were allowed in.
"Y/n you wouldn't believe this!" you heard your co worker yell excitedly behind you. You turned around from the tables to see the other waitress, Yui Akasaki, walking towards you with a wide smile on her face.
She was your closest friend at work, and outside of work. She was really the only friend that you tolerated.
"Yui! What is it?" You asked her, a bit confused about the way she was acting.
"My moms friend was saved from a villain last night!" She blurted out, Yui was one of the biggest hero fans there was. She idolized them, so of course she would be excited about something like that.
"Is she okay? What happened?" You asked, curious and worried that someone close to your friend would be affected by a villain.
"She is fine because of the Phoenix! You know, the vigilante that goes around saving everyone!" Right... You hadn't told her about your secret life outside of work. The less she knew the better, you wanted to keep her safe.
"I don't really agree with her methods but she is so cool! My moms friend told all about how heroic she acted!" Yui was such a fangirl, you really wish she knew about you but this was better.
"Yeah that's cool. The media seems to be split tho, some say she is a hero and some say that she should turn herself in", you said, trying to answer something when Yui stopped talking.
"I hope she doesn't! Who knows what would have happened if Phoenix wasn't there yesterday!" Your friend said, she sounded a bit terrified of the idea of the what if.
The media had nicknamed you Phoenix after you had mentioned that name to one of the people you saved. The person wanted to know who to thank and you came up with that code name on the spot.
You didn't have an actual hero name but that one would have been it.
Both of you went back to work and the restaurant opened soon after.
Everything was normal for the first half of your shift. You had a few rude customers that didn't seem to understand why it wasn't your fault that their order took long to make.
After your lunch break ended something unexpected happened. The current #2 pro hero Hawks walked in through the doors of the restaurant.
You could hear Yui's internal screams escaping her head as she saw the man with wings.
Unfortunately for you, you were the only waitress available at that time so after the hostess had escorted the hero to his table, you had to go serve him.
It wasn't really that big of a deal, there was no way anyone would know about you being a vigilante, aka there was no reason for you to be nervous.
You weren't that fond of heroes so you could definitely manage this better than Yui could, she would most likely faint from being too close.
After you saw him look at the menu for a while you put aside your nervousness and walked over.
"Hey! I'm L/n, I'll be your waitress for today! Have you decided what you'd like?" You asked with happy attitude and the biggest smile on your face. If everything went okay then maybe he would at least tip you good.
"Yeah, I'd like some chicken strips!" The hero says returning the smile after putting down the booklet that had kids menu section open.
"Isn't that bordeline cannibalism?" You asked quietly from yourself, but loud enough for the hero to hear your comment.
"Oh, do I look like a chicken to you?" Hawks asked with a small smirk on his face as he leaned on his hand. Your face felt a bit warmer suddendly but you gathered yourself quickly.
"I bet my manager wouldn't like me commenting on customers appearences! Would you like anything to drink?" You changed the subject back to ordering while writing down chicken strips on the small note pad you had.
"Just water", the hero stated plainly, as you wrote down the full order.
"If there is anything else you need just let me know!" You said before walking back towards the kitchen where you had originally come from. You could hear Yui speed walking after you so she could fangirl about Hawks.
"OhMyGod!!" Was all she managed to say behind the kitchen doors, before screaming quietly while holding your hands and jumping up and down. Honestly the way she was acting was adorable.
"I know.. But you can't start fangirling in front of him! Our boss would hate that!" You reminded Yui about how previously she asked for an autograph from a hero that was eating there. Your boss was not happy about Yui bothering a customer like that.
"I'll behave!" Yui said while walking out of the kitchen and back to the main area. You rolled your eyes as you finally delivered the note to it's correct place before taking a glass of water to heroes table.
While the food was being prepared you served other customers. You would at times glance at Hawks direction to make sure everything was fine and he didn't need anything, but you always saw him looking at you.
At first you thought he needed something but when he didn't try to get your attention you just looked away and continued to serve others.
After a while his food was ready and you went to deliver it to his table.
"Some bird for the bird!" You said with a smile on your face, Hawks let out a soft laugh.
"I hope you enjoy your meal! Let me know if you need anything!" You continued the smile and repeated the all too familiar sentence before walking away again to get other peoples meals.
Again you would see him staring at your direction whenever you looked at him, the nervousness started coming back to you.
Did he know something or was there something wrong with your appearance, why was he staring?
After he was done eating you went to collect his plate and came back with the bill.
"Your total is 2000 yen! Did you enjoy your meal?" You asked with the smile on your face.
"Excellent! And the service was even better!" He answered to you with an actual smile that was way better than the one you used for customer service.
"Well I'm glad to hear that!" you answered a bit shyly, feeling your face getting warm but still holding the smile.
Hawks kept the smile on his face too while he wrote something down on the receipt and then placed it inside the server book with the money. He handed the booklet back to you while standing up.
"Thank you!" He said and gave you an even bigger smile before heading out the door. You stood there staring through the glass as he disappeared behind the corner and out of your sight.
You did it, you didn't lose your shit in front of a hero. It was stupid for you to even be nervous but you couldn't help it.
You walked to the cash register to put away the money and mark down how much was tipped.
"What the fuck..?" You said out loud as you looked at the receipt and what was written down.
"What is it Y/n?" Yui asked, she had just walked past you when you cursed out loud.
"It says 10000 yen tip on this.. And there is a random big number on the bottom", you said to Yui as you showed the receipt to her, she gasped.
"He left you his phone number!?" Yui said with a clear fangirling sound.
"No fucking way.. Wanna split the tip tho? I can't accept that much", you said to Yui, the tip was way over the price of the actual food. You were hoping for a big tip but this was too much.
"It was meant for you! I can't take any of it!" Yui said to you with a smile.
"I could take the phone number tho" she continued jokingly.
- - -
A clock came to 5pm after a long day at work, you felt exhausted and wanted to go home quickly so you could take a nap before the night came.
While walking home you were trying to decide whether you should send a text to the number you got or ignore it complitely. You had saved it on your phone because what else are you supposed to do if a pro hero gives you their phone number?
You finally decided against it, putting your phone back in your pocket and made your way home.
The lack of elevators in your apartment building made you wish you could use your quirk during the day. It was so much easier to just fly up there, but alas you had to use your tired legs to get up to your apartment.
Before you let yourself fall asleep on the couch you managed to fix up the few holes on your costume. Knife and bullet proof outfit would be so much easier but even the fire proof material was hard to find, you couldn't begin to imagine finding one that had all three qualities.
The alarm clock sound filled your apartment at 11pm, it was finally time to do what you actually loved to do, saving people.
Your nap that was longer than the time you actually slept during the night gave you enough energy to get out of the couch and dress up in your costume.
The suit was just like new with the yarn you used to fix it, that was also fire proof.
You looked at yourself from the mirror before heading out, making sure the mask was on correctly.
You looked at the windows and balconies around your building to make sure nobody saw you.
You quickly jumped over the ledge and spread out your fire wings, flying high so you wouldn't be spotted so easily.
You really wished you had normal wings that wouldn't shine bright on the night sky. The wings Hawks had were amazing, they looked even better in person! You wanted something like that but the kinds that you can still pull back inside your body.
But your fire quirk was still pretty cool, the wings weren't the point of it anyways, it was the fire.
The wings were just an amazing addition to them, and you had to remind yourself of that at times.
That night you stopped a few robberies and saved some people again, though it seemed more quiet tonight. Maybe people heard that Hawks was around and got more careful.
You flew a bit further away from your area but still managed to only stop a few crimes.
And as the clock got around 3.30am you flew home so you could rest a bit before work in the morning.
You slid the balcony door open and stepped into your living room. You were about to take of your mask like you did every night when you got home, but you noticed something was different this time.
You looked around and saw a shadow in the darkness of your room that looked awfully familiar.
"Hey there, Phoenix", Hawks said as he stepped from the shadows.