Of Wings and Flames - Dabi x OC x Hawks

Douse the Flame [11]

~~ Just before the call ~~

"HAWKS!" The president of HSPC screeched as she marched into his agency. He groaned and set his papers down. The last thing he needed was the prez shouting at him, but if he didn't listen, well...

He knew that bad shit would go down.

He was lounging in his office chair when she stormed through his office. He swerved side to side, only stopping when she saw how red her face was, and how white her knuckles were as they gripped sheets of paper. "Yo," he said casually, waving his hand. This only served to trigger her more, and she stomped towards him and slammed the papers on his desk. He took one look and his façade dropped; of course she found out.

"What is this?" The banshee hissed, skimming through different photos of Hawks and Sun Keeper together. When he took her out for lunch, when he was going to dinner to introduce her to Dabi, when he rescued her. And all of those times he flew in the sky with her in his arms. It was insanely incriminating, but maybe he could salvage this. "What the hell are you doing with a nobody hero, Hawks? Do you have any explanation?"

"I know it's cliché, but it actually isn't what it looks like," he said in defense. It didn't help.

"I don't care what it looks like, but you need to put an end to it right now!" She shouted, slamming her hand on the table. "We can't have you lowering to the likes of her; is this what's been causing your numbers to go down?" Keigo blinked at that and sat up straight.

They... have?

"I'm not leaving this room until you call her and cut off all contact," she ordered and crossed her arms. Two of her agents stood by the entrance to my office, and more were surely waiting outside. A tiny smirk crawled over the witch's face, knowing she had ascertained victory over the poor bird boy. "Come on, pick up the pace and be a man!" He gritted his teeth at that, his eyes burning with unshed tears.

Be a man?

He picked up the phone and unlocked it, his heart shattering.

How was this being a man?

He opened his contacts and saw her name, and a picture he had taken from the internet. His hand shook as he pushed her icon.

This was the opposite of being a man. If he were a man, wouldn't that mean he would fight to keep her?

He sucked in a breath pushed the call button. Slowly, ever so slowly, he raised the phone to his ear. His tears fell unbidden to the floor, his eyes refusing to make contact with the president. The line rang a couple of times before she picked up. Her voice chimed through the phone, and he shook in place.

"Hey Keigo! So nice to hear you!" He realised that this was the last time he could hear her talk like this. He savoured her every honey-coated word, gritting his teeth. After a few seconds, her soft voice said, "...Keigo?" He sucked in a breath and closed his eyes, rueing the inevitable. He had to say it, any more waiting would just be cruel.

He wasn't a man.

"Josephine, we need to talk."

He was a coward.

"O-Oh, okay. Is everything alright Keigo?" I asked, chewing my nail. I had never heard him sound so... Hopeless. What had happened?

"... I can't be around you anymore." The world seemed like it had frozen in time, stopped spinning. My heart didn't beat, I didn't dare breathe.

"What?" I stammered. Maybe, just maybe I was hearing him wrong, I had to be.

"This is good bye, Josephine," he reaffirmed, his voice dead and monotone. Tears had started coming down now, and hard. I didn't believe it. This whirlwind had come into my life and had been a light where there was none, and now that's it? He was leaving me?

"W-wait, Keigo I-"

"Please refrain from contacting me in the future," was all he said before the line went dead. My heart constricted and my throat became blocked. I felt like I was drowning, like I had just gone blind. I was blindly flailing in the dark. Perhaps this was all some big, bad, poorly timed joke. I called him once. Twice. Three times. Each time they rang through, until the fourth time it notified me that the recipient had blocked me.

That was it, then? He was gone, just like that?

I let out a strangled cry and dropped my phone and collapsed to the floor. I gripped my shirt tightly like it was a life-line as I tried to catch my breath, but nothing stopped the torrent of tears streaming down my face. I cried on the spot silently, not wishing anyone to hear me in my worst place. I hugged myself and gently rocked on the floor until I was certain I could maintain a stony face. When I had calmed down, I got up and left the room.

"I'm going home," I said dully, and my sidekicks and agents all looked at me skeptically, but chose not to pry. "Good night, guys." They waved good bye and I threw myself in the air, not caring to hide myself from view as I fled home.

I fell to my knees as soon as I got inside my house, my knees too weak and unable to carry the burden that my heart held. The sky rumbled and cracked with lightning, and the lights began to flicker.

Keigo had left me.

Betrayed by who I was supposed to trust.

He had enmeshed himself in my life and then cut the rope.

Locked in a cage for those to admire.

He left me stranded with no explanation.

Bright lights shined down on me.

I clutched my arms, my nails digging in so hard they drew blood.

A blazing inferno with a chorus of screams overtook me.

My body exploded into fire as I screamed, my wails broken and hollow as I raged and grieved. Every one of my pores was on fire, expelling the flames to the best of their abilities. I cried and cried over my loss, the betrayal, the missing place of warmth in my heart. I cried until I could feel no more pain, until the fire had purged the last of the tears that trickled down my face. And I burned until I didn't have an ember remain in my heart, before I fell over on the ground, unconscious.

"Alright kids, it's time to say bye! Josephine is going to her new foster family!" The matron exclaimed, and the kids all ran up to me with tears in their eyes. Even though I was ecstatic to finally be leaving, it hurt to leave the little ones behind. One of the kids jumped up and wrapped his legs around me, wailing. I hugged him tightly, gently combing his hair.

"W-Write to us, J-Josie!" He cried, his words almost incoherent through the tears and sniffles. I found my own lips wobbling, but pushed onwards.

"I will, of course I will," I promised him, and with that he let me go, his teeth tightly gritted as he watched me go. Even the boy who bullied me was grim-faced, watching me intently. His eyes seemed to look into the future, and beseeched me to do the same. My brows furrowed, but the matron gently placed her hand on my back, ushering me out the door.

"Come now, child. They're waiting for you." I nodded and bit my lip, waving goodbye one last time before I walked out the door. I followed her down the twisting path and out on to the road, where the car with my future awaited me. I reached out and grabbed her dress, and she looked down at me, ire flashing briefly in her eyes before being replaced with the warmth of a mother. "What is it darling?"

I sniffled, looking at the black car. Something seemed off. "I'm sad I'm leaving," I confessed, and she cooed before gently stroking my hair.

"It'll be alright, Josephine. After a month, it'll be like you were never there," she promised, her smile turning serpentine. My child eyes had missed such an expression, and so I nodded obediently and walked on. She opened the back seat door, and I didn't see either of my foster parents in the car. I looked back to the matron and her eyes were crinkled softly. "Don't worry sweetheart, I'll drive with you all the way, and then you'll see your family!" I smiled a bit at that, the warmth in my chest returning. It was going to be fine!

We drove for a long while, and after maybe an hour, we arrived in the city. The skyscrapers twinkled in the evening sky, like manmade stars. I sucked in a breath as I took in the sights, completely flabbergasted by the structures of modernization. The world was just absolutely huge. It made me giddy to think I would grow up in a place like this, with all of these new sights and sounds.

The car pulled up to a stop and the matron grabbed my arm and pulled me out a little roughly. I winced slightly and looked up to find two men with pasty white faces and strange features facing our direction. When we walked closer, the matron's hand still tightly wrapped around my arm, I realised that they were actually masks, not faces. Fear swarmed my body, and I shook in place while I shook my head. The matron tsked and threw me into their arms, which they immediately grabbed hold of me and held me tightly, completely restrained.

"You'll take care of things from here like always, correct," the matron snapped, her kind demeanor gone and replaced with a cold, twisted scowl. The men in the masks nodded and began to drag me away.

I didn't even try to struggle, some part of my body and mind knew that it was useless. I would never win, and It would just hurt more in the long run. However, it didn't stop me from speaking. "Mother...?" My voice shook as I spoke, and she turned to face me, her eyes blank and devoid of emotion. Just as the darkness of the building overtook me, I saw her face twist into cruelty incarnate.

It was then that I had taught myself how to lock my heart with a key.

But it wasn't enough to save me from Keigo.