Healium 5

6: The Truth

His back sat against the cold wall as Hikari stared up.
Hawks was on his way.
There was a feeling of comfort, and one of defeat.
Hikari had failed. He had gotten careless and now everything was ruined. Even if Hawks came to help him, who knows when that stupid 'orange' will kill him?

With a sigh Hikari sat up, his face scrunching up a bit at the pain, but he needed to know.
He rummaged through his bag, finding a few things still there. Maybe he could hand in just that...? No, he couldn't, it would be game over.

The sound of wings alerted Hikari and he looked up.

"Holy fuck!" Hawks rushed over to Hikari and picked him up, immediately rushing back out, flying into the evening air. "Why didn't you tell me you were injured!" Hawks sounded over the sound of wind. "I could have been sooner!"

Hikari closed his eyes. "It's fine..." he muttered even if the wind made his wounds burn, "I'll live."

In the hospital Hikari realised he had lost his lighter. Without anything to fidget with, he avoid Hawks questioning and decided not to involve him. He could solve this himself. No need to ask for help. No need to stress, he could do this. He could fix all of this.

"Hey, you listening?" Hiko asked when she visited.

Hikari gave a single shrug.

"What is up with you?" Hiko suddenly burst out, "First you distance yourself. Then you get stabbed twice then you won't explain why?"

Of course Hikari didn't say anything.

Hiko continued to glare. "How can I help?"

Many words raced past his brain, but Hikari shook his head. "I'll be fine."

"You'll be fine?" Hiko raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms, "And I'll be Santa!"

"Sure," Hikari smiled vaguely, "I'll be sure to take pictures if you dress up as Santa."

"Oh fuck off." Hiko rolled her eyes, though she smiled at the bit of humour.

—

Hawks could never be mad for long when it came to his kids, it seemed.
Sure, the shock at seeing his kid stabbed, lying surrounded in blood, was new to Hawks, but still Hawks only felt angry for about half an hour after Hikari was in the hospital.
The anger wasn't aimed at Hikari though, it was aimed at the people who did all of this.

While Hikari and Hiko argued about random things in the hospital, Hawks stood in his office, feeling guilty of not having been able to help one of his children. He knew his agency could afford it if Hawks ran out to murder whoever caused Hikari this. Though, Hawks didn't know who the hell did this. He didn't know anything.

With a sigh he sat back and wondered what Endeavour would do. Right, he'd stay calm. Then he'd... he'd... blow up at his kids?
What would Aizawa do? Hawks knew that when it came to parenting, Aizawa was a cool guy, just like Hawks was. (Though Aizawa didn't actually have kids, but this didn't cross Hawks his mind)
He got up flapped his wings in frustration. How should Hawks know Aizawa's secrets?

His phone now in his hand, Hawks called up the number one underground hero. Hawks wasn't desperate for answers, but his concern was bigger than his ego.

"Hey Aizawa," Hawks used the hero's real name to alert him this wasn't pro hero business, "how do you er..." Hawks rolled his eyes, "Get answers out of a child?"

The other side of the line was silent.
Hawks looked at his phone, wondering if Aizawa had hung up or something.

Then Aizawa spoke. "What the actual...?" Hawks raised his eyebrows at the words that came next.

When the phone call ended Hawks sat down once more.
He looked at the picture of his family on his desk and decided he was still angry a bit.
Whatever caused Hikari pain would get hell, Hawks decided.
Fortunately, Hawks now had a plan. He'd figure out who did this.

—

Once Hikari was discarded he was eager to be back on his feet.
That's why he walked home instead of taking a taxi or asking Hawks to fly him. The pro hero though, didn't want Hikari to walk alone and insisted on coming along.

The morning sun seemed to walk with them, warming Hikari's face as he looked around. He almost had forgotten how near death experiences left you with a strange look onto the world.

"I already knew you were smoking," Hawks suddenly shocked Hikari out of his thoughts. He looked up in alarm, expected to get an ear off in the middle of a crowd, but Hawks smiled a bit, "It's fine though, I'm not mad. Still I discourage it, but it's okay not to be perfect."

Hikari looked away. He definitely wasn't perfect. Far from it. Too far for it to be okay, Hikari decided.

"I'm telling you," Hawks said with a smile, "Whatever it is, you can tell me and we'll figure it out together, even if you're the top criminal."

Knowing that not concidering such an offer was foolish, Hikari concidrered it. He did so for two exact seconds and then shock his head.

"Come on," Hawks said, "Well get... I dunno, that drink you like? Boba? That weird stuff?"
Hikari wondered how Hawks thought it weird, but figured Hawks was getting old.
The pro hero sighed as he crossed his arms. "All I'm saying is that I don't want you getting hurt. I care about you, and will continue to do so, even if you're hiding something that I wouldn't like."

There was a silence as the truth burned above Hikari's head. He just wondered if he should really trust Hawks like that.
Sure Hikari would trust him but... why didn't Hikari trust hawks completely? It was irrational, Hikari decided. He shouldn't think like a kid, he should think like an adult.

"I'm prepared to trust you...Hawks. But there's a thing," Hikari folded his hands as he thought of his words. His brain was thinking as though he spoke to a business associate, "Just don't tell Hiko, and I expect your full... trust. I'm not the bad guy here... I'm just trying my best."

Hawks looked at Hikari in a bit of surprise. He smiled gently though, "Thanks, feathers."
For some reason instead of thinking it weird, Hikari had to hide his smile at the nickname.

When they found a place to talk, Hikari started at the beginning.
From the moment he got threatened to do a job to stealing a phone. His background as a burglar following him, having to get help, the reason he got stabbed.

Finally Hikari sipped his boba and concidered stabbing his eye with the straw. In his opinion, he'd rather die than look at Hawks reaction to this all.

Really, Hawks looked thoughtful.
As a parent, Hakws didn't want to harm his kid. He knew he had broken the law, and that Hawks himself was a pro hero. Instead of arresting Hikari, Hawks knew he had to help him here. There was still the matter of having to hand whoever the whatever that was stolen.

Hawks sighed and drummed his fingers against the table they sat at.
"Fine," he said harshly, knowing he was going to fuck shit up, "I won't tell Hiko, like I said, but we'll need help if we're going to do this shit."

"Huh?" Hikari quickly looked up, "What are we going to do?"

Hawks had a plan.
He was going to break the law himself.
Mirko smiled when she heard the plan. Hikari face palmed and it was settled.

This story would get a happy ending!