Chapter Text
He smells cigarette smoke and burning bamboo, it is making his nose itch. Landing with a harsh grunt, Hawks tucks and rolls onto the rooftop next to the building where his #1 pain in his tail feathers has just blown a fiery hole in the wall to allow the smoke to escape. Hawks had been a block away when the smoke detectors blaring had tickled his feathers. While fire is his usual kryptonite, he can still help with evacuations and directing others from the sky, which is what he was doing before the Icy Blaze Hero: Frost Burn had burned some of his feathers and the pain distracted him enough to not see Touya preparing to blast open the wall. He knows his features show nothing but the nonchalant, focused look of Hawks the HPSC Hero, but inside he is fuming, the frustration only growing as he turns in time to see Touya throw him a two finger salute before disappearing back into the building.
Hawks and Touya have known of each other for a few years now, Endeavor having debuted his son as his sidekick when Touya was 19 and Hawks was nearing his final stages of training at 17, but it wasn’t until Hawks established his own agency at 18 and arrived to his building at opening time to find Touya Todoroki leaning against his doors with a wicked grin on his scarred face they officially met. Hawks has… feelings about the eldest Todoroki son with his bright eyes, his artificial red hair that he lets the white roots come in sometimes giving him a frost effect; Touya’s sharp grins and how the burns crawling up his neck and jaw make him look dangerous in a way that makes Hawks heart race. Because he looks like a villain and Hawk’s is trained to hunt villains. No other reason. Ever since that day, the Icy Blaze Hero seems to orbit Hawk’s world, popping in every chance he gets. It is as confusing as the fellow young adult is infuriating.
The fire is dealt with quickly once Manual arrives on scene, Hawk’s having evacuated all the civilians his feathers could reach and Frost Burn reaching those Hawks couldn’t. Hawk frowns at that thought, the reality that there are people he can’t help and, of all people, Touya is the one who can. The EMTs and police have sectioned the sidewalks off and Hawks catches snippets of conversation about a faulty breakroom stove finally lighting the drywall it was sat against. Preventable. A dumb oversight by the owners. Only the person operating the stove was severely injured, the man long gone on the way to the hospital by now. Hawks is comforting a woman who is definitely completely fine, she wasn’t even on the level with the fire and is looking at him with that greedy gleam most people look at him with. Most. Right as Hawk’s smile is feeling too tight, he feels a frigid arm loop over his shoulders and cigarette smoke fills his nose again.
“For psychological assistance, please refer to the EMTs on scene, I gotta steal the bird. Bye.”
He refuses to be grateful to the other man, but allowing himself to be pulled away from the noise and flashing lights of the scene to a quiet alley around the corner proves to be very nice, as usual. He accepts the cigarette and follows Touya up the fire escape to the roof before he even has all of feathers back into his wings. This little routine has been building since their first team up, Touya slowly but surely inching into his life and forcing Hawks to take a rest in between scenes and accidents. It is soothing, Hawks will admit to only himself as he takes a seat on the edge of the building, legs dangling with his cigarette in his mouth waiting to be lit by the fire user. He shouldn’t sit on the edge to smoke, the HPSC being up his ass about image lately, but after being on the clock for the past 30 hours, Hawks is too tired to care about the reprimanding he is sure to get if paparazzi snaps a picture of him up here. Touya makes himself comfortable next to Hawks, his shoulder pressed firmly against his own, their thighs touching. It makes him feel hot under Touya’s cool touch, the custom Frost Burn hero suit still temperature correcting Touya’s body.
“Sorry for knocking you outta the sky, birdie, I didn’t think I would get the drop on you like that,” Touya says with condescension laced through the words. It is a bait, a tease, a jab. That is all. But it makes Hawks chest light bright and hot like the pointer finger lighting his cigarette. He takes some long drags to prevent himself from snapping at the number 2 hero’s son and sidekick, but it does little to quell the burn of shame of letting himself get distracted enough he took a hit.
“Don’t sweat it, Hot Stuff, you caught some of my surveillance feathers in your fire and it distracted me. It won’t happen again.” Hawks takes another long drag and blows the smoke to the blue sky above. He should be able to go home once the scene is cleaned up, from here he can see all the ambulances gone and people scattering. There are only 2 police cars left and he is willing them to leave faster, his bones aching with exhaustion and his nose burning from the smoke inhalation.
He can feel Touya watching him as he watches the scene. Touya does that a lot, watch Hawks. To be fair, he also watches Touya a lot, but he at least has the decency to make it not so noticeable.
“Doesn’t it hurt when your feathers are damaged?”
Hawks turns to look at Touya, the fire user's face pinched tightly.
“Yes? You know that.”
Touya seems to be contemplating something, the idea wrestling in his mind before a dark blush spreads across his cheeks and he looks away from Hawks.
“Yeah. Sorry. For real. I didn’t see them when I cremated a fallen support beam. I thought you just hadn’t realized I was on scene yet and that I was opening the wall for ventilation.”
That was unexpected.
“I always know when you’re near.”
Okay, that came out much sappier than he meant, but oh well. Hawks takes another drag before smothering the cigarette against the rooftops edge and pocketing the stub to toss later. Standing up, still on the edge, Hawks raises his arms and stretches with a satisfying pop in his spine, a low throaty groan escaping him. Looking back down at Touya to say good bye, he is met with Touya’s eye already on him, the blush remaining and his blue eyes half lidded, taking in Hawks with a shine of…something in his eyes that Hawks isn’t used to. There is no gleam of greed or disgusted disappointment that he is used to from those around him. If Hawks was kidding himself, he would say Touya was looking at him with unabashed admiration. It stresses him out.
“I’m going the fuck home, I have been on shift way too fucking long. Bye, Touya, thanks for the cig.” He throws his signature grin to the other man, taking a few steps back as he lets his wings open up behind him, preparing to take flight.
“Bye, birdy, til next time.”
Next time. Touya always promises next time. Hawks used to think nothing of it, another empty promise from someone interested in him for sex, or his status, or his money, or any other thing they have convinced themselves Hawks can give them. Now, though, his grin morphs into a smile softer than Hawks is supposed to give and he takes off into the open sky.
When Hawks lands on his balcony and stumbles into his apartment, all he can think of is a mercifully hot shower and his bed. The apartment is small, a simple one bedroom he had bought outright at 19 when he had finally made enough money of his own to leave the HPSC dormitory. The apartment isn’t anything glamorous or gaudy like most people think he is, it is simply furnished with a mid sized TV and a soft tan couch Rumi gifted him when she moved into her current house, her girlfriend having a bit newer couch they both liked more than Rumi’s. Hawks liked it plenty, it was soft and big enough for him to sleep on without his wings dragging on the ground when he was too exhausted to make it to bed. Stripping his worn uniform off as he made his way to the bedroom off his kitchen, Hawks is naked and stripped to his small wings by the time he gets into his attached bathroom. Showering quickly, he doesn’t even bother with clothes before crashing into his mattress, his fluffy, navy comforter, the first home purchase he made after buying the apartment, wrapped around himself.
He is so focused on his mission for clean sleep, he doesn’t bother checking his emails like he is supposed to post-shift. Which means he doesn’t see the email from Endeavor’s agency requesting his help in training a large batch of interns until morning.