Dazy Nights - A Bartender!Hawks Series

Part 3: Marimba Nights

It's not like she was actively avoiding the bar after that goddamn fiasco Keigo had pulled. It was just that Dabi was taking her to different spots all over town on dates that made her insides melt and her heart hammer in her chest every time he grabbed her hand, ran his thumb over her knuckles, or leaned down to her mouth for a kiss.

Keigo knew where she lived. He had dropped her home more than once to know, and she had even told him her room number once when she was too drunk to make it up the stairs so he had to carry her there. It would've taken him no time to leave a message with someone, or have them tell her he was there - it wasn't like he was a stranger on campus either. If he wanted to come and look for her, he would have. But then again, why would he even come to look for her in the first place? He was just the local hot bartender, and she was one of the regular dozen university students that visited Dazy Nights in a week. So she studied, laughed, partied, napped, and spent most of her time with Dabi.

The end of the term was coming and Dabi had pulled her to a cafe with all of her books to study. If there was anything he knew better than what snacks she liked to munch on when she was reading, it was the best places to study off campus. She liked that he was so balanced. He could have a good time drinking and partying with her in a frat house, but he always managed to make time for hitting the books when he needed to. Dabi was so sturdy, especially for her. It was so hard to believe that Kegio could even create some dark, evil persona for him when the person she spent her time with was the exact opposite.

"How well do you know the options for the classical Greece final paper?"

"I know that the easiest one has to do with mythology. Talking about the political system isn't that bad either if you're going to talk about the origins of modern day democracy."

She leaned back and picked up her warm mug of coffee as he handed her the pen he was using so she could point at her scribbles on her page. He pushed his glasses up on his nose as he turned her notebook slightly to peer at her words. The ink was stark black as she circled around a few jumbled bullet points.

"The democracy idea sounds pretty good but I feel like so many people in class would go with that. My head went right to the mythology argument. I took the literature approach and started a thesis about how we've altered ancient Greek mythology to make is more consumable to the modern day, but by doing that, we've totally dumbed down the entire-"

Dabi's eyes behind his glasses flitted from her to just above her head and he straightened in his seat. "Hey, when was the last time that you saw Keigo?"

She frowned, clicking the pen a few times. "When he fucked up our first kiss a couple months ago. Why?"

"Well he's walking in right now doll face so you better brace yourself."

Her heart stammered in her chest. In all of her years, she had never pulled a hoodie over her head so fast. It was Dabi's, the one that almost every student infamously bought for their specific program but it was several sizes too big on her frame. Perfect to hide in if necessary, and boy was it necessary if Keigo really was walking into the cafe at that very moment.

"Please tell me he's not going to start walking this way," she muttered, resting her forehead onto the table. The surface was cool as she slowly heated with anxiety.

"Don't hold your breath," Dabi whispered back, but his hand laced through hers gently, squeezing a more comforting warmth into her. It settled her shoulders slightly, but there was still her heart, anxiously pacing in her chest. She could hear the heavy footfalls of Keigo marching towards them and closed her eyes. He wouldn't actually make a whole scene in public...would he?

"Listen you burnt out wanna be, I don't know who you think you are but I know that you haven't even changed. How can you sit here and be out with other people -" Keigo snapped loudly over her head. Embarrassment flooded over her fast enough for her to bring her head up from the table, absolutely appalled at what was going on.