Chapter Text
The blinding white of the laptop stung his eyes as he frantically clicked the screen. The room was dimly lit and almost barren, save for the documents, files, and metal case that surrounded him. Opening file after file, his disgust with what he was witnessing grew. Labeled test tubes with bubbling liquid and variations of his quirk printed on them jumped out in one tab. What looked like a mugshot line-up of 4 children in the folder in his hand. The final nail in the coffin was a clip of security footage. Footage of a small, blindfolded child with red wings. He had seen enough.
Slamming the laptop shut and plunging the room into complete darkness, the man ran his hands up his face and back into his hair. He wondered how he had gone this long without even suspecting something like this. He figured he was so caught up with pretending to be their little puppet that he didn’t think to look more closely at what non-league-related business they were getting up to. Well, tonight was a night of big decisions, and you know what they say, go big or go home.
“So let me get this straight. You want us to storm a secret hero commission facility to kidnap a child they have down there so you can cut ties with them and save the kid from the same shit you went through at the same time?” Dabi had thought Hawks’ proposal incredibly suspicious. Maybe this was all a ploy to continue to gain the League’s trust. The others seemed to actually consider helping him and that made him all the more hesitant.
“That’s right. I already have everything in place. All I need is you guys’ help.”
“So, you came to us and not any of your hero friends because...?”
“Ugh. I’ve explained this like a million times already. You guys are the only ones I can trust with something like this,” Hawks paused to sigh. He knew Dabi of all people would be the hardest to win over with this plan. Especially since the others openly trusted him now. It was just so frustrating arguing in circles for an hour now and he was getting sick of it. “The heroes would try to go the legal route and knowing the commission’s lawyers, there’s no way even they would win.”
“But what’s one more charge for some wanted criminals, right? How do we know you’re not leading us into some trap huh?” Clenching his fists and striding forward, Dabi was throwing his weight around to ruffle a few feathers. If he could shake the hero even a little, it would surely show any cracks in his little facade.
“You're asking us to waltz right into a heavily guarded base owned by one of the most powerful groups in the country. That’s some favor” Before he could get within two or three feet of Hawks, Shigaraki’s raspy voice rang out from a dimly lit corner of the room.
“We’ll do it.”
Dabi almost got whiplash from how hard he snapped his head in his boss’ direction. Tomura of course ignored the daggers he was receiving from a certain fire user.
“You can’t be serious.”
“It could be an opportunity to deal damage to something important, one of the pillars of hero society. There might be information about their future plans and weapons we could either steal or destroy. Even if it is a trap, the League of Villains daring to break in could still threaten their power. I say we do it. Any objections?”
“None here.” Mr. Compress said, adjusting his gloves. “It’s an opportunity to test out my new arm.”
“I’ll get to cut down those high and mighty pricks. It’ll be so much fun.” Toga giggled as she twirled her knife between her fingers.
“So what’s the plan bro? I BET IT’S SOMETHING STUPID!” Twice and his double chimed in.
“Alright so here’s the plan…”
Literally, nothing went as planned.
Compress' arm fell off mid-punch because of a calibration error. That left him completely open, so he got clocked square in the face by said drone. Toga got caught almost immediately because the guard she was posted with was having an affair with the guard she was posing as. The guard started coming on to Toga, only to be met with apparently the wrong response, so they started fighting in the open hallway. It was a miracle she managed to overpower her opponent without alerting anyone else. Twice got stuck in an air duct and missed a guard switch, setting the whole plan back thirty minutes. That left Hawks to keep up stalling the surveillance team on their lunch break. He wasn’t surprised at their willingness to entertain him. Who would pass up spending lunch with the number 2 hero?
Dabi and Shigaraki were left on standby on a nearby cliff face just outside the base. Hawks couldn’t see it, but he just knew Dabi had the biggest, dopiest, shit-eating grin on his face at the mess that had become of this “foolproof” plan. He was right. Dabi was smiling so hard it even started to freak out Shigaraki. He had seen his fair share of smug looks from the burnt bastard, but this was nothing compared to those times.
He figured watching Hawk’s plan barely hold together after he had been so against it was amusing to him. Still, it was a tad unsettling hearing him stifling his maniacal laughter. The sooner they got what they came for, the sooner he could put some distance between himself and this idiot.
The team breathed a sigh of relief when they finally reached a small steel door.
“Here we are.” Hawks stated plainly. As if they hadn’t somehow managed to mess up every part of the plan without making themselves known. Well whatever, they were here now. That was what mattered.
With a flick of his wrist, Twice turned the knob of the unlocked door leading into what looked like a cell. Two tables with miscellaneous papers and folders stacked on them stood on the right of the cramped space. As each person made their way inside, they quickly noticed the large pane of what looked to be glass towards the end of the room. It stretched from the ceiling to the floor with another steel door attached to the left corner.
The most surprising thing, however, was what stood staring back behind the glass.
Four pairs of eyes were met with one small pair of gold and brown ones.
“Awww!! They look like a mini you!!” Toga squealed. She was the first to rush and press her face up to the glass. The others followed suit whispering between themselves about the child’s appearance, but Hawks just stood there dumbfounded. He had seen the pictures of the other experiments, none of them had looked so...uncanny. It was actually a little jarring. Seeing what was essentially himself back in the commission’s clutches. They even looked to be around the same age he was at that time. A not-so-fun blast from the past if you will.
The little tyke did have some differences though. Both their wings and hair were a few shades darker than the original. Their hair had more of a rosy tint to it. Freckles were sprinkled lightly across the middle of their face as well as framed it. From what Hawks could tell from this distance and that ill-fitting shirt they wore; they also had some freckles on the tops of their shoulders. Their skin was slightly more sun-kissed than his despite probably seeing less sun than he did.
Besides that, they looked identical. There was no doubt in his or the others’ minds that this child was his. Hawks hadn’t even noticed that he had slowly made his way to the glass until his foot bumped into the glass divider.
“Do you think they cloned him? They look just different enough that they could simply be his kid, but they just look so eerily similar. Creepy, that’s what this is.” Mr. Compress shuddered and shook his head.
“They look like one of those palette swap thingies on those games boss and I play sometimes. Y'know, like when we pick the same character but it changes colors? Like that! NOT LIKE ANY OF YOU WOULD KNOW THAT!!!” Twice’s little outburst snapped Hawks’ thoughts back in order. Great. They were here. Now to free the kid and get the hell outta dodge. There was a keycard mechanism by the handle of the door. Twice and Toga broke out some tools and started having at it until the child spoke.
“You’re...Hawks, aren't you?” They stood there wide-eyed behind the glass. As soon as the wonder and amazement illuminated their features, it vanished into nothing. It sounded more like a half sure statement. Like they knew who he was, but were unsure if the man before them, the one accompanied by such notorious villains, was really the hero they had been told so much about. The others were stunned by the few words. With so little, they could hear a child’s voice devoid of their light. Like the small candle flame of childlike wonder had been squashed, leaving only the shaped and hardened wax of what those commission monsters had always wanted him to be.
“Yeah kid, it's me. And I’m- we are here to get you out of here.” He answered the little one’s question with a weary smile. Confusion clouded the child’s features. Hawks chuckled to himself at that. He figured having a well-known pro hero and some villains breaking anyone out of anywhere would be a sight to behold. The others had gone back to trying to pick the lock when a drawn-out, high-pitched squeak came from behind them all. Frantically, Toga, Twice, and even Mr. Compress scrambled to ready themselves for a fight.
Hawks didn’t need to turn around; he knew who was standing there. Shoulders back, chin level with the ground, eyes sharp and pointed forward towards whatever goal she desired. The root, in his humble opinion, of all authority-related evil in his teen to adult life, the standing head of the Hero Public Safety Commission.
“You really thought you could get in without me noticing? Pathetic. I thought we trained you better.” Hawks took to ignoring her instead of responding. Walking up to the door he motioned for the rest to give him and the door some distance. When they did move, a flash of red swiped across the door cutting the lock and handle clean off the door. He casually strode closer through the now open door to the child.
“Ignore her. Let’s get you out of here, okay?” He said with an outstretched hand. His mini-me looked at it for a few seconds before finally taking it. “You know, I did the math to try to figure out the kid’s age. It just so happens that all your little experiments started around the year you let me leave.” He chuckled darkly. “Makes me wonder if you had so little faith in your perfect little soldier that you were already making backup plans.” Hawks began to lead the kid out of the space and towards Twice, who was standing the closest.
“Don’t be dramatic. You of all people should know how dangerous hero work can be. You could have died at the drop of a hat and so many of your missions would have to be shelved. I admit a spare was not my first choice, but they prove to be quite the successor at times. They remind me of when we first found you.”
“When did you get the base samples?”
“Oh? Your math didn’t give you a time frame?”
“When did you do it?”
She sighed. Stubbornness had been one of his many defective traits. It was a wonder how that wasn’t stamped out of him all these years.
“Your last physical. The one on your 18th birthday. We needed a valid reason to get you to give DNA without raising suspicion.” She shrugged. As if stealing someone’s DNA to potentially clone them under the guise of a routine physical when you finally release them from your custody is something people admit to all the time.
Gently, Hawks pushed the child behind him and into Twice. Simultaneously, Toga and Compress came up next to him to form a barrier around the kid.
“Aww, are you and your little friends going to fight your way out? By all means, go right ahead. Not that you’ll get very far anyway.” She sidestepped and gestured towards the door behind her. There was no smirk, no indicator of malice on her features. She stood there and simply waited for them to make a move. A thick silence quickly filled the air. Hawks scoffed, cutting through it. The chairwoman’s porcelain mask twitched for a moment. That was definitely not what she was expecting.
Relaxing his posture, Hawks gingerly walked towards the chairwoman only stopping a few feet from her. Looking at her now, from this distance, Hawks wondered why he ever let such a person control every aspect of his life like she had. He mused over the thought for a bit before getting back to the conversation at hand.
“I didn’t know you told jokes. You know how much I love those. And here I thought I knew you so well. No, no, we are getting out of here. Both with the kid and completely unharmed. Wanna know why?”
“Do enlighten me.”
He closed the distance between them and leaned in, lowering his voice so only she could hear.
“You’re going to let us go because I highly doubt the commission could bounce back from the League of villains outing it on all the bullshit going on here. I mean think about it. What would all of hero and civilian society have to say about you all if the country’s number 2 had to get wanted criminals to help him, hmm? Especially if that help was to rescue a child soldier in training of all things. You people would be ruined.”
“Hmph! Even if you did, there is nothing stopping us from labeling you a deviant and using that past of yours as probable cause. The people will be more likely to turn on you for that than to believe you at all.” She smiled triumphantly thinking she had won this argument. Little did she know, This had always been the plan, and she fell right into Hawks’ trap.
“They may turn on me, I won’t deny it. But how long do you think that attention will stay on me and off of you?”
The chairwoman’s gears started to turn after that statement. She froze. Things were starting to line up in an order she neither liked nor wanted and it was starting to spill to the surface. Frown lines sprouted on her forehead as Hawks continued with a smirk.
“People are going to start questioning why one of the highest-ranked heroes in our country suddenly spoke out against you and was promptly labeled a villain. Why would I need to turn to the L.O.V. to help instead of the commission? Why would you shut me down before you even tried to absolve yourselves of guilt?” As he pushed, her frown lines only got deeper and deeper. She was finally catching up to what he was laying down. “It won’t be long until the people demand an investigation and trust me, you won’t be able to hide everything even if you tried.”
The kid had seen the chairwoman only a handful of times in their life, but this was a first. She had always been calm and composed. Never showing too much emotion, rarely showing anything past general annoyance. Watching her go from cocky, to livid, to fearful and pissed all in the span of a couple of seconds was disorienting.
“So, what’ll it be? Us, or you?” Hawks leaned back to fully take in her expression. From the looks of it, she had made her decision, she was just having a hard time using her words. It was exhilarating in a way. To watch the person who obviously had an upper hand a majority of your life switch positions with you that is. Hesitating, she took one last glance at the villains protecting the child and swallowed thickly.
“Fine. You win. Now get out before I change my mind.” She sighed in defeat, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Hawks turned to face his little entourage with a soft smile. Toga returned the look with a smile that rivaled the sun. Twice returned it with a thumbs up and a wink. There was no telling what face Compress was making because of the mask, but the shrug he gave didn’t seem negative. Little tyke didn’t really do anything. They were still so confused as to what was going on so that was fair.
One by one, they shuffled past the chairwoman and out of the room, each making some kind of rude gesture at her as they did. As they strolled down the barren hallway, they heard her call from the holding room.
“You’ll be back soon enough! Whether it be for financial help or the fact that someone as emotionally stunted as you couldn’t possibly raise a child!! You still need us!” The chairwoman yelled at them.
Hawks came to a halt. Which stopped his posse as well. He mulled over her words for a bit, seeming to seriously consider them. Pursing his lips and rubbing his chin. When he was done he turned back and nonchalantly answered.
“No. I highly doubt we will.”
Hawks closed his penthouse door softly behind him letting out a breathy sigh of relief. The day had been long but so worth it. When he and the others eventually made it to the getaway car, Dabi started with the insults and gloating but stopped when he caught sight of the child. Apparently, that was shocking enough to keep him quiet the whole ride to Hawks’ drop-off.
As he and the kid walked away from the car, they heard bumping and shoving coming from the vehicle they had just left. Hawks turned around first, stunned at what he was witnessing. League members were sticking out like clowns in a circus act. A little weird-looking, but he knew they were probably fine.
“Don’t be a stranger!! Bring the kid over so we can play with them!!” Toga shouted pushing herself through the window, crushing Mr. Compress as she did.
“Yeah! Maybe we can teach them how to play Mario Kart or something! We can even use the boss's Tv. LIKE HELL HE WOULD LET US USE IT, SO WE MIGHT HAVE TO STEAL IT!!” Twice yelled through the sunroof, waving his hardest at Hawks and his new kid. He smiled softly and waved at his comrades as they sped off into the distance.
Slipping off his boots in favor of his house slippers, the man reached to pull a smaller identical pair of shoes and placed them in front of the child. They stood there glancing from the shoes to their new guardian without any idea of what to do. Hawks sympathized with that. Being thrust into such an unfamiliar situation with a stranger tends to do that to you.
Kneeling and nudging one slipper towards their foot, Hawks didn’t miss the little flinch of feathers as it hit their toes. He placed a little hand on his shoulder to keep them steady, silently reaching for the right slipper. Getting the message a little too late, the kid suddenly stuck their foot in the shoe. While it was still in the hero’s hand. A frazzled noise escaped their mouth as they jolted off his shoulder, stumbling back a bit and rushing to slip on the other shoe in embarrassment.
“Alright kiddo, first thing’s first, what should I call you?” Hawks rubbed the back of his neck as he made eye contact. The kid stared at him for a bit too long, unblinking. Hawks had half the mind to tell them to blink for god’s sake, but they spoke before he could form the words.
“I don’t know.” He furrowed his brow at that. The commission had always called him Hawks. It was his hero name, the one they had chosen, but it was still a name. Was this child not important enough to be named in their eyes? No need to name a backup until necessary?
“Well then, what did the commission call you? They had to have called you something.”
“They called me “subject” or “hey you” but I’m not sure if those are names or not.” They weren’t.
“They’re not.” The bigger bird sighed sadly while rubbing his face.” Okay then, what would you like to be called? Do you have a name in mind?” Keigo said, still kneeling. They thought about it for a second. Not completely sure what to answer.
“Anything you would like to call me I guess.” They mused. Perfect. A child treated so inhumanely, so stripped of every right as a living being, that they didn't even have a name. Not to talk of the fact that they didn’t seem to care what Hawks called them.
“Alright then. If you don’t have a name, and you don’t have anything you want me to call you, would it be okay if I picked out a name for you? Y’know, until you find one you like. Think of it as a placeholder.” The child nodded.
“Oookay then. How about Izumi? I think it sounds nice, don’t you?”
“Is it supposed to?”
“Supposed to what?”
“Sound nice. Is a name supposed to sound nice?”
“I mean, not all of them do, but most parents pick out names for kids because they sound nice so that’s why I picked yours.” The older bird shrugged.
“So, are you my parent then? Because you picked out my name.” It had finally started to settle in for him. That this living, breathing, tiny person was his kid. Sure, he was merely a sperm donor and hadn’t been an active part of this kid’s life until this afternoon, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to take responsibility when the need arose.
As he stared deeply into eyes that bore into his soul, Keigo saw a bit of himself beneath the surface. He saw a little boy taken from his parents and put in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. Trained to be the ultimate soldier of justice and a puppet for his higher-ups. Denied the love of another human being for the majority of his life.
His heart ached at the nearly overwhelming loneliness from simply remembering his time in what could barely be considered a bedroom. He remembered trembling on his cot at night, unable to sleep properly because his blanket was too thin, or his bed was too stiff, or the pain meds had worn off too early after a day of intense training, or that he just wanted someone to hug him with the love he had seen so many mothers do after a hero saved their child. Staring at this little one in front of him now, Keigo saw a glimmer of hope. A chance to give this kid at least some semblance of a childhood he didn’t, couldn’t, have. The corners of the hero’s mouth twitched up. Crow’s feet deepening as warmth spread across the planes of his face.
“Yes. Yes I am.”