a/n: there are manga spoilers in this chapter. it's nothing big tho so no worries. it's just mainly spoilers about hawks' background. i'll add an emoji indicator before the spoilers, just in case u wanna skip the section. that's all ✌︎︎
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It's been two weeks since our agreement, and like I promised Fat Gum, me and Hawks have been spending basically everyday together. And it was starting to wear me down. The problem wasn't so much Hawks, but his popularity. Wherever we went, a group of fans would always show up, and if it wasn't the fans it would be the media. They would interview Hawks after every job, and when they started to notice that I was around Hawks, they would try to interview me too. Thankfully, Hawks realised that I hated the attention and would keep them busy while I tried to leave. But that didn't stop them.

Last week, a magazine published multiple photos of us and were hinting at us being in a secret relationship. When I took the magazine and showed it to Hawks, he wasn't bothered by it and kept teasing me about it throughout the day, which resulted in me 'accidentally' hitting him with my quirk. That night, when I was finally getting myself comfortable in my apartment, I finally checked my phone and saw all the missed calls and texts that I had. All of them were asking me if the rumours were true, which I quickly denied and had to explain the situation to them.

Unbeknownst to me, Hawks went to talk to the magazine publishers and asked him to create a new issue, stating that the secret relationship that they talked about was fake. They did just that. When I asked him about it, and how he convinced them to change their mind, Hawks just winked at me and said that I was better off not knowing. I thanked him and treated him to lunch that day, which he greatly took advantage of.

It was now our first, real day off. And because of the stupid agreement, I had to spend the day with Hawks, which I didn't want to do. I just wanted to spend the day in my apartment, with Mochi, and catch up on my tv shows. Hawks texted me, saying to meet him at this little unknown café, and before I could even ask where it was, he sent me the directions to it. By now, Hawks has realised that I am terrible at directions.

"Would you like anything else, miss?"

I looked up at the waiter and nodded. "Could I get a refill, please? And a [insert your favourite pastry]?"

The waiter nodded his head and went back to the counter. I sipped the last of my drink and started to scroll through Instagram, liking the posts that my friends uploaded. And then I saw the post that Hawks uploaded not even a minute ago. It was a picture of us, during one of our night watches a few days ago, and it had a cheeky caption. What made it so much fucking worse is that the bird brain tagged me in it. My Instagram notifications started to get filled up with follow requests since I had my profile on private.

I'm going to kill him. I'm going to be in the news for killing one of Japan's top heroes. And I am perfectly okay with that.

"Heyo~" Hawks chimed as he entered the café, surprising the one other customers and the waiter. When he saw me, his smile quickly dropped. "Y/N, baby bird, are you okay? Did something bad happened? Are you hurt?"

I held up my phone and showed him my notifications and said in a low voice, "what the fuck, Hawks?"

He leaned forward and looked at my phone screen and when he realised what he was looking at, he laughed. "Is that why you're upset, chickadee?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. Just don't really like the chilling weather," the sarcasm was strong.

"In that case," Hawks sat next to me and wrapped is arm around my waist, pulling me closer to his side, "I'll keep you warm, baby bird."

I looked around the café and saw that no one was paying attention to me. After realising that Hawks will back down once I start teasing him back, I started to do it more often. And every time, his cheeks will heat up and he will lose the confident persona that he portrayed. I looked around the café, making sure the other customer and waiter weren't paying attention, then I looked up at Hawks. He must have realised that I was looking at him since he turned his head and gave me a smile. Without giving it another thought, I leaned forward, tilting my head up, and gently placed a kiss on his cheek.

In an instant, Hawks' grip on my waist loosened and his cheeks started to turn red in colour. He wanted to say something, but the waiter came back with my drink and pastry, and asked Hawks if he wanted anything. He didn't reply to him, so I ordered a glass of water for him. A minute later, the waiter returned with the water and Hawks kept looking at me in disbelief.

"So," I took a bite of the pastry and covered my mouth with my hand, "what are we doing today?"

"Huh?"

I stirred the straw around the cup. "Yeah. Your text said to meet you here because you had to do something."

Hawks' usual cheeky smile reIt seemed like Hawks returned back to normal and I looked at the wall clock, noting that it took him about seven minutes to go back to his usual self. That was a lot shorter than I expected. Damn it.

"We have a modelling shoot today," he said it in a nonchalant way as he got up, taking my hand and pulling me up with him.

"We?!" I quickly grabbed my bag and the half eaten pastry before he could pull me out of the café. "Wait! I haven't paid yet!"

"I got you covered, baby bird," was all Hawks said as we left the café, starting to walk down the street.

I looked back and saw one of his feathers placing money on the table before making eye contact with the waiter. He just looked at me with a shocked expression, and I desperately tried to inaudibly apologise for Hawks and me.

As we kept walking down the street, I looked down at our hands, realising that he still hasn't let go. Should I tell him? I really hated to admit it, but I really liked the warmth from Hawks' hand. It was comforting, to say the least, and part of me hoped that he wouldn't let go. Luckily, the streets weren't busy since it was a weekday morning, but that didn't stop people from coming up to Hawks. When I saw them approaching him, I quickly let go of his hand. This made him look at me with a sadden expression before being quickly replaced with his normal carefree one. There was something I really liked about how Hawks could easily interact with anyone he meets, something that I can never do. As soon as some of them started asking me who I was, Hawks would quickly interject and say that we were running late to a meeting. Then he would grab my hand again and lead me away from the crowd.

"Thank you," I said for like the eighth time in the past half hour.

Hawks laughed and shook his head. "For being a Pro Hero, you really don't like being surrounded by people. Don't even get me started how you act in front of the media."

I punched his arm, making him laugh harder. "You're such an ass, bird brain," I huffed out and letting go his hand, "I don't like the attention."

"I know," he placed his arm on my head as we kept walking, "I just like teasing you."

"Nooo," I dragged out, "I would have never guessed."

"We should play a game!"

My eyebrows furrowed together. "Is it that kind of game?"

Hawks pouted his lips. "Do you honestly think I would-?"

"Yes," I quickly said, not letting him finish the question.

"I...okay. Touché." Hawks used his wings to fly in front of me. Once he was ahead of me, he landed, turned around to look at me, and started to walk backwards. "About the game."

I looked at his giant wings and shook my head. "You're going to fall. Or worse, you're going to make someone else fall."

"Don't worry, baby bird, I'll be fine." He ran his hand through his hair, making it messier, yet it somehow worked for him. "We'll each ask each other ten questions, but we both have to answer them."

"You could have just said we would be playing twenty questions."

Someone walked around Hawks and turned to give him an annoyed look. When they realised that the person who was busy walking backwards in the middle of the sidewalk was Hawks, their expression quickly changed to a shocked one. I gestured to the person and Hawks just shrugged, but he did apologise to them.

"So," his attention was back on me, "are you okay with playing?" When Hawks saw my questioning expression, he gave me a genuine smile, different from his usual smirk. "We've spent a lot of time together, baby bird, and will probably spend even more time together, so I'll like to know who I'm spending my time with."

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help myself from smiling. "Fine. Do you want-"

"When's your birthday?" Hawks didn't let me finish my question. "Mine is on the 28th of December."

"General first question, but alright. It's [insert ur bday here]." He nodded his head and made a comment under his breath, but I couldn't catch what he said. Now, what can I ask him that I don't already know? Oh! "What's your name? You already know mine, since, oh I don't know, you fucking scared me into telling you."

Hawks gasped and held his chest in a dramatic manner. "I did no such thing! You hurt my feelings, chickadee."

"Look who's avoiding the question now," I deadpanned.

He stopped walking, but I didn't realise until I bumped into his chest. I was about to walk around him, or under his wings, but Hawks wrapped his arms around me and leaned his head towards the side of my head. His mouth was so close to my ear, making my face heat up from the close interaction.

"What are you doing?" I doubt Hawks could he could hear me since my voice muffled.

"Keigo," he whispered into my ear, making the hair at the back of my neck stand up, "Keigo Takami."

I pushed myself away from him. "Ke..."

Hawks put his index finger against his lips and shushed me. "Sorry, chickadee, but you can't call me that out in public. Only in private, when we're alone, on my sofa, or in my bed."

"Are you going to ask me the next question or no?" I asked as I walked around him, choosing to ignore his comments, but making a mental note of it for later.

"Oh, right!" Hawks followed behind me and was quiet for a minute before asking, "why did you want to be a hero?"

Fuck. Why that question? It's the same question everyone in the U.A. hero courses get asked. Why do you want to be a hero? To be honest, I didn't have a straight answer, and my answer has changed over the years. When I was little, I wanted to be a hero because I wanted to be like my mom. When I was in middle school, I wanted to be a hero because I wanted to better the world. When I was at U.A., I didn't want to be hero. And now...

"I guess," I stopped talking, making Hawks look down at me a confused expression. "I don't really have an answer to that question. I just, I don't know, don't want anyone to abruptly experience the loss of a loved one like how I have."

There was more to what I said, but I didn't want to talk about it now. And Hawks understood my silence and didn't push it any further, which I was really thankful for.

⚠︎︎ manga spoilers ahead / tw: abuse ⚠︎

"I always had a fondness for heroes," Hawks started,
looking up at the sky as he talked, "I remember watching them all the time on tv, but to me, they weren't real. They were just...imaginary. My parents weren't the best, that's to say the least. My father would degrade my mother and I, constantly telling me that I was useless. Telling me that he wished I would have never been born just so he could be a free bird.

My mother was no better. She never tried to leave my father, or stop him when he was kicking me, because she was too blinded by her deep love for him. She would constantly ask me why I was even born in the first place. And asking what good are my wings for if I couldn't do anything useful with them.

I was being reckless at home one day, constantly asking my mother to take me out of the house. She finally did and she bought me an Endeavor plushie, telling me that I could be as strong as he was. You know," Hawks looked down at his feet and had a sad smile on his face, "that was probably the only time my mother was nice to me. A couple of days passed and I saw my mother crying. I didn't ask why, nor did I embrace her to comfort her. All she said was that my father was caught by Endeavor. And that day, Y/N, I realised that heroes really did exist and that I wanted to become a hero too."

⚠︎︎ end of the manga spoilers ⚠︎

I felt my cheeks getting wet, not realising that I started crying as I heard Hawks' story. The palms of my hands quickly met my eyes, trying to wipe my tears away.

"Y/N..." His voice was soft, making more tears fall, "I don't want you to cry for me."

Hawks placed his hand atop of mine, gently pulling them away from my face. He stared at me, studying every feature of my face while whipping away my tears with his thumb.

"You're such an ugly crier, Y/N," there was playfulness in his voice and I knew that he wasn't being serious.

"And," I swallowed the lump in my throat, "you're such an asshole."