Feathers and Flame // Dabi x Reader x Hawks

35: Traitor

It broke you.

All of it.

Every shred of information you'd compiled against the Paranormal Liberation Front — against the League — sat in a black leather-bound dossier. Names, quirks, associations, rank. You'd picked them apart. Splayed them on pages. And you did a fucking good job with it.

Yet, every stroke of your pen felt like a blade carving those traitorous words into your skin. How, after everything, could you betray those who had become such joy in your life?

Easily, that's how.

After all, you were far worse of a monster than they ever could be. You befriended, you laughed, you... No, I guess that doesn't matter anymore, does it? And every smile was real — more real than any others you'd given in your life. Still, you tore them apart and turned them into nothing but swirls of black ink. Cold, unfeeling words.

The only page you'd hesitated on was his. Most of Dabi's fields were blank. Despite the months you'd spent with him, you knew absolutely nothing about him. In that way, maybe you had failed. Yet, somehow, it felt like the opposite. His was the only entry you allowed yourself to be selfish with. All those moments. All those memories. Every doomed, beautiful thing you'd ever felt. It was yours, and only yours.

One week after Hawks discovered Shigaraki's location, you handed over that dossier. What remained of your tortured heart went right along with it. The lines had been drawn. The heroes gathered. There was only one day left. One single day to keep living your lie. Tomorrow, the truth would come out, whether you were ready for it or not. Hawks had his target, and you had yours.

"Twice, huh?" you'd said to Hawks during the recess in your meeting with the HPSC's higher-ups. "What will you do if he won't come quietly?"

Sad Man's Parade was far too powerful an ability to leave unchecked. You knew this, deep in your bones. Just like you knew what Hawks had to do. Still, you needed to hear him say it.

"I'll kill him."

You didn't flinch. If you let yourself feel a single thing, it would shatter you irreparably. There was no place in this world for a monster who cared.

It was late in the afternoon when you were finally released from the prison of a meeting room they'd kept you in for the past four hours, drilling in over and over again what the plan was for tomorrow's attack. Hawks would take care of Twice. You would keep Dabi busy.

You couldn't dwell on what would happen once Dabi knew the truth. It terrified you more than you cared to admit. In your nightmares, you watched those fiery blue eyes turn icy cold before the light left them completely, your blade speared through his beautiful, broken heart.

Part of you wanted to run far, far away. To escape the burdens of this twisted life you led. But you never would. It was finally time to face what you were.

The breeze blew through you as you stood on the edge of a rooftop, one step between oblivion and Hell. It was an easy guess which one life was.

"Dove."

You froze, limbs locking. You hadn't heard him approach, too swept up in your spiral of thoughts. "Hawks."

The footsteps he took towards you echoed through that cavity in your chest. You half-turned, meeting his gaze.

"You have no shadows to disappear with this time."

Hawks stopped a dozen feet from you, his feathered wings ruffling in the same breeze that sliced through you. The way he looked at you now reminded you of how he did that night. Your phantom heart skipped a beat.