Chapter Text
Hawks was in Musutafu today. The cool late-evening wind fluttered in-between his feathers as he scanned the ground below – there! The flickering of flames caught his eye and he dived down. He could hear the wind rush through his fall even with his muffins on. As the ground approached rapidly, he felt the first flutters of excitement in his stomach and he couldn’t help but grin. He zeroed down to a lamppost next to his target and a moment just before it would have been too late he spread his wings wide, letting the air catch on them and rapidly slow his descent from an eagle dive. His soles touched the lamppost he was aiming for and he grabbed into it as he finally landed. The sound of people exclaiming and aweing reached his sensitive hearing and he smirked – he just couldn’t help showing off to Endeavor and he knew that landing was cool, he had practised it.
Endeavor walked past his landing pole without a single glance. Ouch… Hawks didn’t let himself take it to heart and fluttered his wings to catch up to the Number One hero, hopping to his side and walking backwards to face him. He joined his fingers behind his head and grinned at Endeavor – cool, Hawks, be cool.
Endeavor glared at him and didn’t slow his pace.
“Hey, big guy!” Hawks greeted him and he glimpsed a few people taking their photo on their phones, “What a coincidence, am I right?”
“Hawks.” Endeavor’s deep rumble reached him, utterly unimpressed.
“Do you practise that glare, Endeavor?” He asked, “Real intimidating, 10/10, gives a whole new meaning to serious and hot. And I don’t mean that just literally, hot stuff.” He fanned himself.
Hawks could have sworn he saw Endeavor’s flame beard flare just a bit brighter for a moment and awarded himself a point.
“Is there a reason you’re bothering me?” Endeavor asked, his face the same serious glower as before.
“Oh, you know, public relations, fostering a sense of community, safety and hero collaboration, giving the people what they want… Plenty of reason!” He grinned again and dodged a bus stop sign without looking. “So! Any particular villains you’re looking for today?”
Endeavor gave him an unimpressed look but did slow down just a bit. “Nothing particular, just regular patrol.”
Hawks didn’t need to look around himself to know they were in the poorer district of Musutafu right now. It wasn’t a totally poverty stricken district, but it did show its signs of lack of funding: the buildings were just a bit more worn down, just a bit more dirty and rain stained than the ones in the city centre, the shops catering more to fast and cheap than quality, and the walls sporting one or two graffiti courtesy of rebellious teens. He might have just seen a non-official, fake Hawks figurine displayed in the front window of the shop they passed by a few steps ago.
“One of your regular routes?”
Endeavor hummed in agreement. “We increased the frequency of this route this week.”
“Ah, yes, the Acid Incident.” There might have been a Twitter post about it today.
“Not only that. There was a general increase in assault, battery, theft, drug trafficking and other, more minor crimes.”
“There’s been a general increase in crime in general.” Crime rates of all types had a marked increase after All Might’s official retirement and while they dropped somewhat in the months following Endeavor and other heroes’ efforts it still wasn’t where it was before society had their Symbol of Peace. So much for invincible. But if anyone knew that, it would definitely be Endeavor.
“Hmm, relative increase in crime.” Endeavor grumbled, displeased. “The past few weeks saw multiple cases of – hey, you!” Endeavor’s flames flashed brighter and he lunged forwards the alleyway on their right. Hawks twisted to look at what Endeavor had noticed, just a step behind the hero.
The alley was narrow and shrouded in shadow of the two apartment buildings bracketing it. Broken glass and empty cans littered its edges. At the far end stood a group of three darkly dressed people, with just the wrong kind of edge to their postures and a glint to their eyes.
Time seemed to stop before their eyes. Hawks registered the slowed time in snapshots: their eyes meeting, Endeavor’s flame flickering in the dark, one of the guys reaching inside his dark jacket, and the other reaching to grab onto the remaining two, the feeling of starting to stretch his wings out. Then, the middle villain grabbed onto his buddies and, like a popped bubble, time sped up. The group disappeared without a sound, reappearing ten meters away before vanishing again further down the alley.
“Stop!” Endeavor shouted as charged forward. Hawks stretched his wings and took to the air, dodging Endeavor’s flames. His wings brushed against the walls of the narrow path, unable to reach their full width and give him a fast boost to the air. Forced to make small flaps, Hawks was slow but soon they were free of the alleyway and emerged onto a deserted street.
“Fuck off!” Came the voice of one of the villain’s before they vanished and reappeared again.
With more space to manoeuvre, he was able to extend his wings to their full width. The villains’ escape was fast as they seemed to be able to teleport small distances in hops, but Hawks was faster on his wings, and their path predictable. In a moment, he was directly above where they reappeared, and a few of his feathers were fast enough to trip the villains in opposite directions.
The middle guy, probably the one with the teleportation quirk, lost contact with the other two, and they all stumbled to a stop, choosing to face them instead. He sent additional hard and pointed feathers down to secure them by their clothes to the ground, but the guy on the left, with black hair and red scales, took a deep breath and exhaled a huge flame in his direction, briefly illuminating their surroundings in a brilliant orange and casting hard shadows on the villains below. His feathers burnt up in an instant and Hawks was forced to dive to the side before his wings met the same fate.
In the breath of the flames dissipating, Endeavor emerged, seemingly not even noticing the flame. He threw a fast punch to the teleportation guy when vines twisted around his arm and redirected the action harmlessly to the side. The vines were instantly burnt up but not before the three villains were once again reaching for each other. Sharp feathers cut into their hands, most burning up again from the flame guy but a few still managing to dig into the teleportation villain’s jacket and drag him further away from his buddies.
Hawks left Endeavor to deal with the remaining two while he dived after the teleportation guy, sending a dozen feathers to further secure him to the ground. Could he still teleport if he was pinned in place? Hawks couldn’t take that chance. He had to knock the guy out before he could escape away but teleportation quirks were always troublesome.
Just as he suspected, the villain bellow popped away, leaving his pinned jacket in place, and appeared just a few meters away. Hawks extended a wing, making a sharp turn to follow after him. Just before a feather could reach him, he disappeared and appeared again.
The little shit… Hawks sent a dozen more feathers after him, most from the right side and adjusted his trajectory slightly to the left. With another pop the villain appeared slightly to the left of where he had previously been and Hawks dropped directly on him. It was difficult not to instantly react in a flight situation – the threat Hawks sent from the villain’s right prompted him to instinctively dodge to the left, where Hawks was already in place.
The drop knocked the guy unconscious.
He was turning to help the big guy when a vine appeared right in front of him. Hawks was already leaping back and raising his hands to defend his face, but the vine had just a moment to touch and nick his face before it burnt up from a bright flame – Endeavor’s flame. The flame villain took that moment to breathe fire into Endeavor’s direction, but the other hero just harmlessly swatted his hand through the flame, his own stronger fire redirecting the course.
While Endeavor’s hero costume was totally fire-proof, the villain’s wasn’t and his jacket’s arm caught on fire. Vines erupted from the ground, wrapping around Endeavor’s tights, but Hawks sent a few feathers into the other villain’s direction, forcing him down. He secured him by his clothes to the ground.
When he looked back, the flame villain was already lying on the ground, quiet groans of pain and a distinct smell of smoking leather reaching Hawks.
He grinned at Endeavor and hopped to his side. Would he burn Hawks down if he dared to friendly pat him on the shoulder? Endeavor frowned at him. Better not just in case – Hawks quite liked his status as strictly not fried chicken.
“We make a great team, don’t you say so, big guy?”
“You certainly make a great annoyance.”
“Well, if annoyance is your type, I can make a great brat when we’re alone.” He sent a wink to the other hero and cackled when Endeavor’s flames significantly grew in size and heat before returning to their regular size.
Endeavor took out his hero phone. “I’m going to contact the police, stay with them, boy.”
“Ay-yay, hot stuff.”
Hawks leaned against a wall while Endeavor moved a few steps away, raising his phone to his ear. He didn’t even pretend he wasn’t listening onto the other hero’s call, but Endeavor was direct and concise and with a few sentences he had the police informed.
“So, what did the villains do to deserve the literally hot Endeavor treatment?” Hawks asked, haven’t actually seen why Endeavor suddenly chased after them, except for the obvious, very suspicious and sudden flight from the villains.
“I thought I saw them trading. Adding in the fact that they ran the moment they saw us, I’m sure you’ll find the drugs in their pockets.”
Hawks sent a few of his feathers to search through their pockets, and what did you know? The feathers emerged from their jackets, quite a few carrying small clear plastic baggies of a pale violet powder.
“Well, what do you –“
“Get down!”
A blob of pale green liquid – acid, whispered a voice in the back of his mind – was moments away from his face. Hawks wanted to fly back, but before he even twitched, he knew there was no escaping the liquid anymore – the wall was against his back.
It exploded in front of his face. Stinging drops landed on his face. With a hiss, he wiped them away with a jacket-covered arm. The smears left those spots on his jacket crumbly and harsh-looking, but did not eat away to the inside layer.
His heart beat painfully against his ribcage and the breath he exhaled was decidedly shaky. Endeavor had lit the acid on fire with his flames, which was certainly better than having it splashed against him. He couldn’t believe he didn’t sense the vines villain moving with his feathers, but when he looked, the guy was still lying on the ground where he left him, staring daggers at him.
Endeavor crouched on the ground just a few steps away. Of course… Some sort of flowers with bulging fat heads were growing from the cracks in the pavement, where the acid probably came from. In moments, they were on fire and then crumbling to ash.
“Do that again,” Endeavor growled, prowling to stand over the vines villain, “and I’ll make sure you’ll burn better than those vines of yours.”
The vines villain shrank onto himself, cowed by a growling and flaming Endeavor above him.
“Ah, I think I might have just fallen for my own personal hero. Do catch me if I swoon?” Hawks pretended to swoon. His hand subtly trembled where he had it resting against his forehead.
“Swoon away,” Endeavor grumbled, flames dancing on his face.
“Does that mean you want to catch me?”
Endeavor growled and the distinct lights of a police vehicle lit up the street. The car stopped a few steps away from them and two officers, an older woman with harsh frown lines and a strict posture, and a younger, more cheerful looking man, exited the vehicle.
“Three villains. A growth or greenery manipulation quirk, a short teleportation quirk and a weak flame quirk.” Endeavor pointed out the villains in order. “Drug possession with intent to distribute.”
The policewoman nodded and the two quickly secured the villains, herding them to the back of the vehicle.
“Good work, Endeavor, Hawks.” The female police offer seemed to be as brief as the flame hero but her younger partner was more informal. A certain shine of awe sparkled in his eyes.
“It was great working with you, Endeavor-san, Hawks-san!” The young man bowed, his voice loud and cheerful. “I hope we can detain even more villains in the future!” He drew out his notebook from his pocket, pen in hand. “Ah, could I also get your autographs, Endeavor-san, Hawks-san?!”
The female police officer grabbed the back of the man’s head and dragged him into a bow again. “Officer Saito!” She scolded.
“Nah, nah, all’s okay, officers.” Hawks laughed, waving his hand back and forth – he could admire the kid’s shamelessness. “I’ll gladly sign your notebook, officer.” He took the outstretched notebook and pen, and signed it. “Don’t know about this guy, though.” He jabbed to the side, indicating Endeavor.
The other hero just sighed but reached out to take the notebook.
A sharp pain.
Like a bolt through his brain.
The notebook fell out of his grasp.
Hawks folded in half, hugging his head. His knees gave out, he could see Endeavor stumbling to the ground next to him.
Pain. Darkness.
Pain.
…
…
“…-san! Hawks-san!” Hands shook his body. “Are you okay, Hawks-san?!”
He grumbled, clutching at his head. When he blinked his eyes open, he was crumbled on the cold pavement. The young officer was leaning over him, concerned. The flames from Endeavor were stinging his eyes – the other hero was sitting on the ground next to him, also clutching his head, while the female police officer stood next to him.
“What happened..?” Hawks groaned. Strong hands helped him sit up and he took a moment to lean against the male officer. A cry pierced the air.
A baby was lying on the pavement next to them, naked as the day it was born. It had blonde curls and waved small fists in the air, crying. It wasn’t next to them just a few moments ago.
…
“What?” He felt like a broken record, but… “What?”
Endeavor stood up and reached for the baby.
“Endeavor-san!” the female police officer exclaimed, “It might be unsafe. We don’t know what that baby might –“
“It’s fine.” Endeavor scooped the baby up into his arms. “Do you have a blanket or a jacket?”
Hawks shrugged out of his jacket and the young officer handed it to Endeavor. The flame hero quickly wrapped the crying baby in the warm jacket, holding it next to his chest.
“What…” Hawks stood up with the help of the officer. His head was killing him. “What happened?”
“Quirks,” Endeavor said. “Some sort of quirk accident. Maybe there’s a villain that kidnapped the baby and made a mistake delivering it here. Or maybe they’re a temporary construct.”
“A trap,” Hawks said.
“A trap or maybe a quirk mishap. If this is an actual feeling human being, even a temporary creation, we should ensure they get treatment for as long as they exist,” Endeavor said.
“How long do you think it will exist for?” Hawks asked.
“I don’t know. Could be a few minutes, could be a few weeks. We should get the child to a hospital and question the three villains we just caught. It could just be coincidence, but it’s suspicious that we fought them just before the child appeared.”
An uncomfortable silence stretched and the officer next to Hawks shifted on his feet. The female officer looked like she tasted something sour. Hawks looked between the two officers and then beyond them to the street around them, the police vehicle next to them – the back of the car was totally open, acid still eating at the metal.
“What happened?” Endeavor growled, displeased.
The female officer cleared her throat. “In the chaos of you two collapsing, the villains managed to overwhelm us and escape. I made the decision to check on you two rather than pursue them.”
And that was the cue for Endeavor to reprimand the poor policewoman, but to Hawks’ surprise… nothing happened. Sure, Endeavor did not look happy, but he just rocked the baby higher against his chest. Its cries were still ringing in the air, piercing and painful. Its face was blotched red and its cries were starting to sound hoarse.
Ah, Hawks couldn’t wait until they were far away from the scream generator…
“We’ll need to go to the hospital.” Endeavor said.
“Ah, Endeavor-san, we’ll still need to get your statements…” The policewoman said.
Hawks had to give it to her – despite the less than ideal situation, she was still not afraid to do her job in the face of Endeavor’s clear annoyance. Hawks would rather she wasn’t so diligent right now… Sitting in some hospital, giving statements, dealing with the screaming baby… This was not how he saw his meeting with Endeavor going.
“Then we can meet there, but the child needs to be examined,” Endeavor said.
“Of course.” Both officers bowed and Hawks nodded his head to them. What a day…
Antiseptic, chemicals and the stink of illness – Hawks favourite eau de cologne. When they entered the hospital, they were quickly ushered to a private examination room – perks of being a hero, eh – and now were waiting for the doctor to show up.
A headache was firmly lodged behind his temples – he tried to smile in Endeavor’s direction.
“At least it’s silent now…” He commented, trying to lift up the mood.
The baby did indeed fall silent at the end of their ride to the hospital and Hawks wasn’t sure if it was because it calmed down or if it just screamed its voice away. At this point, Hawks didn’t even care anymore – he was just glad for the peace and quiet.
Before Endeavor could answer, the door opened and two men walked in. The first one was a man in his late 50s, with pepper hair and a lanky build, while the man behind him looked much younger, similar to Hawks’ own age, and stockier. Both of them were in white lab coats and had a stethoscope around their necks.
“Good afternoon, Endeavor-san, Hawks-san.” The older doctor greeted them as he and the younger man took a seat next to their desk. “I’m Tanaka and this is Aoki-san, a third-year medical student who is working with me today. They will be observing our consultation today, if that is okay with you?”
This time, Hawks looked at the younger man more carefully. He seemed to be a respectful young man, dressed professionally and clean-shaved, with big kind eyes and short black hair. Was it a good idea having him here? He glanced at Endeavor but the other hero didn’t seem concerned. Well, it would be good practise for the student for dealing with pro heroes – no one got into weirder situations than them.
“And who do we have here?” The older doctor smiled at the bundle wrapped in Endeavor’s arms.
They explained the situation to the doctor.
With a slightly wide-eyed look, he examined the now sleeping baby in the doctor’s arms, Hawks’ jacket discarded on his desk. “Of course, we’ll need to do additional tests, but the baby for now looks healthy and stable. Aoki-san, could you please send these samples to the lab? Urgent priority.”
With a rushed bow, the young student exited the examination room.
“This might be a case of quirk entanglement,” the doctor started to explain, “as you know, quirks still aren’t fully understood, neither how they work and nor how they can interact with one another. There have been other cases of weird results when multiple quirks interacted with each other, like excessive plant growth, dual age progression and regression, even of people gaining new personalities or emphatic links between each other, but I haven’t heard of a case which could, for the lack of a better word, birth a new human life.”
“Could it be a random child, somehow teleported from somewhere, or perhaps a person that was at the scene de-aged?” Endeavor questioned.
“But all the people were accounted for,” Hawks intervened, “I would have sensed if there was an additional person nearby.”
“We were collapsed at some point – could you have felt an additional presence then?” Endeavor asked, “Additionally, the three villains escaped. It might be one of them in Tanaka-sensei’s hands right now.”
Hawks tried to cast his mind back, but Endeavor was right. When he collapsed from the pain, he didn’t know what was happening or how much time had passed before he regained his senses – in that time anything could have happened and Hawks wouldn’t know. The thought left an unpleasant twist in his stomach.
Just that moment the young student returned, a bunch of papers clutched in his hands. He handed them to the doctor and he took a moment to scan through them. “Well, the baby seems to be fully human and in the acceptable range of healthy, if a bit on the smaller side and a few of these tests might be a bit concerning…”
“Could this be a temporary construct?” Hawks asked.
The older doctor hemmed under his breath, still leafing through the papers. “I wonder…”
After a few minutes, the doctor lifted his head to look at them, his gaze too intense for Hawks’ liking. “Would you be okay with having us check yours and the baby’s DNA?”
“You mean a paternity test?” Endeavor asked.
“Yes.” The doctor nodded.
A paternity test? What… What did the doctor think was happening here…? He glanced at Endeavor, but the other hero just looked serious, with a deep frown on his face. It couldn’t be… Surely, no way was…
The doctor was just reaching for straws, Hawks nodded to himself. Once they did the DNA test, they would see that it was just a random baby, either a temporary construct or a poor kid kidnapped from some loving parents’ arms.
Both Endeavor and Hawks agreed, and the young student rushed out of the room again with their samples.
“Tanaka-sensei, do you think this could be a new-born child?” Endeavor asked.
“Ha!” Hawks scoffed, “There has never been a case of a quirk creating another human without some kind of body, either alive or dead, to act as the base foundation.”
“You’re absolutely right, Hawks-san,” the doctor agreed, “However, I would just like to check all the boxes off.”
Hawks scoffed again and Endeavor threw him a harsh glare. “Of course, Tanaka-sensei.” Endeavor nodded his head to the doctor.
“Tanaka-sensei!” The door banged open and the young student jogged into the room, firmly shutting the door behind him, “Tanaka-sensei, please, the results! They… Tanaka-sensei!” The student looked frazzled, his speech seemingly betraying him. He handed the new papers to the older doctor.
Doctor Tanaka looked at the new results. An uncomfortable silence blanketed the room, everyone waiting for the doctor’s next words. Hawks could hear the quiet ticking of a clock on the wall, almost in beat with his heart.
“This is…” The doctor wiped at his forehead before facing them straight on. “As far as our labs can tell, this child is 100% both yours and Hawks-san.”
What? No… This couldn’t… What?!
The doctor went on, ignorant of Hawks’ world stuttering to stop. “As best as we can tell, she is a child born to you both, 100% human and stable. She’s not a fake construct, not an illusion, not even temporary. If you would look at these markings here,” the doctor handed a paper to Endeavor, pointing to various numbers, “Her cells are absolutely stable – no anomalies. In every sense of the word, she is a healthy human girl.”
“We’re both dudes,” Hawks blurted out, his brain still blue-screening.
“She?” Endeavor asked, his wider eyes the only indication of his shock.
The doctor smiled at them, wrapped the baby in Hawks’ jacket again and thrust her into Hawks’ arms. His hands held onto her automatically, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he congratulated his arms on their ability to hold the baby and not drop her, like his brain was doing for Hawks.
“Congratulations, Endeavor-san, Hawks-san, it’s a baby girl.”
Hawks looked down at her little, round and still red face. What?
He… Hawks couldn’t be a parent.