The Two Types of Wingmen [Bakawks] - Part 8

[Click for Ch7] 


As much as Katsuki hated to admit when other people were right, this time it was his parents who had hit the nail on the head. Almost nothing had changed since their date; they still teased each other through texts, Katsuki still used the gym every afternoon, and Hawks still hurried back to the agency after his patrols to say hello before Katsuki had to go back to the dorms. They still talked the same amount, about the same things, in the same ways, like nothing was any different.

Well, except for the way Hawks had held his hand as they walked back to the school. And the way he’d done it again every day since, giving him a little squeeze as he said hello and goodbye. They’d been careful to keep it a little private, to not stand in the middle of the city in broad daylight with paparazzi snapping photos of them together, but those little moments in the Hawks agency basement were more than enough.

Even when Saturday rolled around, everything was just so normal. He sat down at Katsuki’s side, just like every other week, gave his hand a squeeze under the table – okay, that one was new – and at the end of the night, he took Katsuki’s hand as they walked to the train station, smiling easily despite Katsuki’s faint blush.

“So are we… A thing now?” he asked awkwardly, when they stopped at the station doors.

“Are you that eager to call me your boyfriend?” Hawks teased, squeezing his hand a little tighter when Katsuki blushed. “You’re cute.”

“Forget I said anything.”

“We are. You can.”

“I can?”

“Of course. Were you worried?”

Katsuki shrugged, and Hawks’s smile stretched a little wider.

“I told you I like you, Katsuki, I wasn’t just leading you on or teasing you. Have you been waiting for me to ask properly? I thought the words might freak you out.”

“I just… Like to know where I stand.”

“Okay,” Hawks nodded, surprisingly serious compared to his usual teasing. “I promise I’ll never tease about that kind of thing, I’ll always be straight with you about our relationship, okay?”

“Thank you.”

“Now, are you sure I can’t take you home?”

“I’m fine,” Katsuki huffed, shoving him lightly. “I can take a train on my own, I’m a big boy.”

“Okay,” Hawks laughed, so bright that it made Katsuki smile too – he always liked seeing his jokes land. “I’ll say goodnight here, then. Be safe, text me when you get home.”

“Whatever.”

He leaned in, planting a tiny kiss on the top of Katsuki’s head and watching him turn bright red, infinitely amused by Katsuki’s ineptitude when it came to affection.

“Okay?” he asked, while Katsuki stuttered and stumbled over half-baked words. “Acceptable?”

“Yes,” Katsuki mumbled, eyes darting away. “Acceptable.”

“Good. You’re adorable, and it was good to see you. Gym on Monday?”

“Definitely.”

“Cool,” Hawks grinned, wings beginning to spread out to take flight. “Goodnight, Katsuki.”

“Goodnight, Hawks.”

He shot off into the air, half the street turning to look and point up at him excitedly, and with a last little wave, Hawks disappeared into the clouds.

Katsuki felt weirdly numb the whole way back to the dorm, managing to make it all the way to his bedroom before his eyes began to water. He collapsed face-first into his pillow, whining quietly, one hand threading through his hair as he remembered the gentle touch of Hawks’s lips.

Fuck, he was so far gone.

─────

For a moment, Katsuki was infuriated when the ground began to shake. They’d been in the middle of a pleasant walk together, hand in hand, and the world had the audacity to interrupt them with an earthquake? It could have at least given him something cool, like a volcano or tornado, but no, it was a stupid, boring earthquake.

Hell, he’d even have taken a-

“Villain.”

Katsuki whipped his head around to look, as Hawks’s wings began to spread wide, his face hardening into an expression Katsuki had seen thousands of times on TV and in the news. Almost like an afterthought, Hawks wrapped an arm around Katsuki’s waist, and for once Katsuki didn’t protest. He held on tight as Hawks swooped into the air, lifting them away from the shaking ground, air rushing around them as they sped toward the center of the commotion.

People screamed and ran below them, abandoning cracking, crumbling buildings, and Katsuki leaned in closer, bringing his lips right to Hawks’s ear.

“These people need help, let me help you.”

“Gladly.”

He set Katsuki down when they came across a falling building, blocking the road where civilians were trying to flee. A few people were trying to climb over the rubble, only succeeding in making the problem worse, and Katsuki’s feet touched the ground before he’d even said a word.

“Stand back!” he called, as Hawks shot off down the street. “I’m gonna make you a path! Stand clear!”

Forcing out every bit of sweat he could muster, Katsuki blasted a hole straight through the shattered concrete and wood, giving himself a line of sight through to the panicking citizens.

“I’m doing one more!” he yelled, when people started to move. “Stay clear!”

Thankfully, people seemed to listen. With one more massive blast, much less pinpoint than the first, he cleared a tunnel through the mess, before wiping his hands off on his jeans.

“Okay, come on!” he yelled, blasting himself up onto the mess with much more controlled explosions, giving himself a view of the people on the other side. “Go, go, go. Get out of here, find shelter. Now!”

People funneled through his pathway, and Katsuki made sure to watch every single one of them get through safely, before he moved on down the street. Hawks had become barely a speck in the distance, hovering above the ground with a hundred scarlet feathers holding up more bodies around him. Katsuki sprinted after him, keeping half an eye on the people around him to make sure no one else needed help, but the closer he got, the more intense the shaking grew. He stumbled over cracking streets, forced to switch to propelling himself with explosions rather than run, and finally Hawks grew bigger.

“Hawks!” he yelled, as soon as he got within earshot. “What can I do?!”

With a deafening roar, the shaking grew unbearably strong, every building around them quickly beginning to fall. Katsuki and Hawks both looked up immediately, following the sound to find a massive man in dark clothing leering at them in a way that didn’t seem healthy, before Hawks’s gaze turned to the hundred people suspended from his feathers as their office building fell into dust.

“Kick his ass, ‘Tsuki.”

He didn’t need to hear the words twice. Honestly, the instruction delighted him. He would think back on that fact later, would wonder if he should be concerned about that reaction, but in the moment? In the moment he was more than ready to kick villain ass.

He launched himself at the villain, weaving through massive fragments of concrete that broke off around him in an attempt to stop him, but compared to his recent training regimen, the slow-ass concrete was nothing. Katsuki was used to dodging lightning-fast feathers, ready to shred him to pieces in a whirlwind of psychically-controlled, barely-visible shards. Huge, slow chunks of stone barely even caused him an inconvenience.

And even if he couldn’t handle the guy, for some reason, he knew Hawks had his back. All he needed to do was buy some time, let his boyfriend evacuate the rest of the area, and then the fight would be over in an instant – because even if the villain was somehow enough to handle Katsuki, there was no one who could handle Hawks when he was angry. Even stupid pre-teen Katsuki wasn’t dumb enough to fall for a hero based on his looks alone. Hawks was hot, yeah, but he was also super fucking talented and Katsuki had always respected that.

The ground shook harder beneath him, but Katsuki had given up caring. He had been comfortable in the air for a long time, throwing himself around with his explosions, and having a boyfriend with wings had only reinforced that comfort. The sky was his domain now – the sky was his bitch. If all this asshole could do was make the ground move, it was going to be a piece of fucking cake to take him down.

And if Hawks got to see him make a heroic villain capture in the process, well, that was just the icing on the top.

─────

“Do we need to remind you what provisional means?” Nedzu asked sternly, paws folded atop his desk. “I understand that you want to help, when these things happen, but your job is to help in emergency situations, not to just take on any random villain who crosses your path. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you are not a qualified hero yet. Do you understand that, Bakugou?”

“Of course I do,” Katsuki snorted. He knew he should’ve tried to be respectful to the Principal, of all people, but he just couldn’t seem to manage it. “I figured if the number two hero was telling me to do it, I should probably do it.”

Nedzu fell silent, shooting a glance at an equally confused Aizawa, who sighed faintly as he pinched at the bridge of his nose. He seemed to have a permanent headache, at least when Katsuki was around.

“What are you talking about, Bakugou?” he asked, surprisingly calm.

“I was with Hawks,” he clarified. “You didn’t see him on the footage?”

“We did. He asked you to help?”

Katsuki couldn’t help but laugh at that, trying his best to clamp down on it in a hurry.

“He told me to, I quote, ‘kick his ass’.”

“Hawks told you to fight a villain for him.”

“I’ve been using his gym, while the school one is out of order,” he clarified, growing a little awkward finally as he chose his words carefully. “He offered to buy me dinner after, so we could chat and stuff. He does stuff like that a lot, before you ask. He was in the middle of rescuing like a thousand civilians when the villain showed up, so he told me to – I repeat – kick his ass.”

As an afterthought, he reached for his cellphone, pulling it from his pocket to hold it up pointedly.

“Do you want me to call him?” he offered. “Hawks would be happy to confirm, I’m sure.”

“That’s okay,” Aizawa answered with a sigh. “I trust you, Bakugou, I know you’re not stupid enough to make something like that up.”

“Thank you, I appreciate that.”

“You’ve been training with Hawks?”

“Mostly just using his gym, but he spars with me on occasion. It’s pretty cool. Thank you for bringing him in as a guest that day, it never would’ve happened otherwise.”

“Go back to the dorms,” Aizawa sighed once more. “We’ll handle this from here.”

“Much appreciated. Oh and hey, do I get paid for that capture? I did take him down, after all, it only seems fair.”

“Go, Bakugou.”

“Okay, okay.”

He left the office, letting the confused mutters resume in his wake, and it was all he could do to keep from whistling as he walked the empty hall. The entire class went crazy the moment he appeared, his jeans shredded beyond any real decency, his shirt only hanging on by sheer willpower. He really should have changed before the meeting with the Principal, but Aizawa had said immediately.

“You looked so cool!” Deku gushed, eyes shining. “Tell me all about the earthquakes!”

“Tell us all about Hawks!” Denki objected, cutting in in a hurry. “You got to fight with him!? Dude I’m so jealous!”

Katsuki just shook his head faintly, glancing down as his phone buzzed in his hand, a little chicken emoji popping up with one new message underneath. He opened it, letting people gush and fawn around him, his lips twitching a little when he found the single sentence waiting for him within.

Great work today Katsuki, I’ll buy you TWO dinners tomorrow!


[Click for Ch9]