Chapter 8

Hello!! Mimmy here with a new chapter of The Runaway Sky! I hope you enjoy!!

Word count

1024

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“Come on, show me!” Hawks' smile was brighter than the sun as he hopped to sit on the kitchen counter and waited for Dabi to do his thing. “I want to see how good you've gotten at controling your fire again!” He looked so excited Dabi almost ed something.

Dabi rolled his eyes and casually leaned against the wall, a blue flame bursting into life on his hand as he mindlessly looked at it. Then, it grew, slowly taking over his wrist and his arm, but he didn't flinch. And Hawks' smile brightened even more.

Dabi looked away from him almost immediately before the fire quickly extinguished. “Hawks...” he started as something that was hiding in his mind tried to come back to the surface.

Hawks tilted his head and hummed questioningly, genuinely curious about what could be in Dabi's mind. He could tell by the look in his eyes that it was something important.

“Why did we have that fallout?”

The question hung in the air for a few moments as Hawks tried not to react. Silence seemed to stretch for an eternity and Hawks wondered if Dabi had ed something. Just one detail of their fallout could lead to him knowing everything.

“We...” Dabi raised an eyebrow and Hawks felt like he was talking to the real Dabi, the one he was trying to keep among the dead. “Uh... well, we had a disagreement,” he answered after a few seconds. “That's all.” He shrugged, getting off the counter as he started to feel uncomfortable by that conversation that had just barely started, fearing it would continue and lead places of no return.

“A disagreement?” Dabi asked, a hint of dibelief in his tone. Hawks nodded, stepping out of the kitchen to try to put some distance between them. “I'm not an expert here but... people don't usually fall out over just a disagreement...”

Hawks nearly snapped, but he stayed quiet. “Way to ruin the vibe, man...” he muttered under his breath, but Dabi heard.

“Call me Touya; After all, that's the name you and Mom gave me.”

Dabi's flames flickered to life, their intensity growing as his mind filled with what felt like thousands of memories. Hawks froze at the sound of the crackling fire behind him, also stirring a vivid recollection for the hero that he'd been trying to repress since he'd saved Dabi from certain death.

Hawks hesitated, his wings twitching slightly as he considered his options. He couldn't act hostile right away, but he couldn't let his guard down. He turned to face Dabi, seeing a look in his eyes he was sure he'd never noticed before, not from villain Dabi, and certainly not from the new one he was hoping to create.

The heat from Dabi's flames began to rise the house's temperature, and Hawks could feel the cool sensation that comes just before the skin get the first beads of sweat all over his body.

Dabi's gaze was distant, vacant almost, and he didn't seem to be looking at him. Hawks took a step closer, forcing his wings to stay in the most non-threatening stance he could manage.

“Dabi?”

His voice was barely above a whisper as he watched the other. He could see Dabi's hands shaking and the fire stuttering, as if he were struggling against something Hawks couldn't quite figure out.

Hawks let out a shaky breath. “Touya...?” The name slipped out so easily it was almost scary, but it seemed to make Dabi react, not much, no more than a flinch. But it was enough. “Are you okay?”

Dabi stepped away from Hawks and he knew. Hawks knew something would go terribly wrong from that very moment.

“You're a liar.” Those three words were said with so much venom Hawks physically recoiled as he heard them. He opened his mouth to speak, but Dabi spoke again. “And a coward. You thought I wouldn't ?”

Hawks blinked, that had been the point, after all. He shifted a bit, measuring his words and movements carefully. “What, exactly, are we talking about here?” he asked, ten as his wings slowly came out to open fully. Dabi's gaze told Hawks everything he wished wouldn't come. “Look,” he tried. “It's not what it looks like, okay? I was trying to protect you!”

Dabi scoffed, the flames growing steady as he pulled himself together. “Protect me? Really? That's the best your sorry ass can do?” Alright... it seemed he knew more than Hawks had hoped. “You thought you could keep me trapped in here and that I would not ?”

“What are you ing?!” Hawks snapped. “I can't even defend myself if I don't know what you think I did!” His wings knocked a vase off the cupboard. As it shattered onto the floor, he almost flinched, but he forced himself to stay focused on the current situation, not on one that happened over a decade and a half back.

“I am not a hero. I never was, and I never will be. And, if you dare try to tell me how great Endeavor was as a father or how our fallout was a disageement, I will burn you, birdbrain—and I will finish the job this time.”

Shit.

Hawks heart started to pound fast and hard, and he tried his best to keep it together, to push away the vivid memories of that day, of the unbearable pain from Dabi's flames coursing through his entire body, how his every nerve screamed, begging for it to stop.

He swallowed, taking a deep breath to steady himself. “I-” He fell silent again, trying to thread a coherent story as to why he'd done it... but he couldn't think of any. None of them really made any sense to him, they'd make much less to Dabi, especially if he was that angry about it.

“Just... just listen, okay? I will explain everything, but you need to listen.” Dabi stayed quiet, waiting for Hawks to say more, to explain and try to talk his way out of the mess he'd put himself into.