Birdie (Hawks x reader)

What's going on?

Hawks woke up in a hospital room with (Y/N) slumped over on the hospital bed, quietly snoring. As he sat up, he winced and noticed that under his hospital gown, his shoulder was thoroughly bandaged up. He blinked and tried to remember what had happened. The memory of being stabbed was fresh, as well as the memory of being stupid and pulling out the knife. To be fair, shock is a heck of a drug.

(Y/N) stirred and lifted her head, blinking her eyes blearily and waking up slowly. She seemed to completely register where she was, looked over at Hawks, and tackled him with a hug. "Ow! Mind the shoulder!"

"Oh- Sorry!" (Y/N) backed up and sat back in her chair, crossing her ankles and tucking them under the chair. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think," he sighed.

"Well thank goodness you are, most people aren't stupid enough to go back into a fight when a knife is lodged in their shoulder."

"It's a little hard to leave the battlefield in that situation," he joked with a half smile.

"Never do that again."

"Oh?"

"You scared me back there," (Y/N) said sternly. "Promise me you'll try to stay safe in the rest of your fights." She paused. "Or I'll... I don't know, kiss you or something."

"I'm sorry what?"

"I'll make the rest of your life feel awkward. It'll be painful," (Y/N) laughed. "Okay, I can't take that seriously, I'll just steal your chicken nuggets."

"Almost scared me for a second," Hawks laughed nervously.

"What, scared you'd like me?" (Y/N) raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Well, I do like you, but not like that." Hawks rubbed the back of his neck.

"I know," (Y/N) replied. The conversation slowed, and they ended up just staring for a minute or two, just existing in each others' presence, taking comfort in the company of their best friend. Hawks, before completely recognizing his thought process,

She's so pretty, he thought fondly to himself, hardly registering what he had thought for another thirty seconds. A part of (Y/N) wanted to give him a kiss on the forehead and cuddle for the rest of the day. She shooed away the thought and combed through his hair with her fingers.

"Look at you, your hair's a mess," she chuckled.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you liked me," Hawks teased as she got a few tangles out of his hair.

"Nonsense."

"How did the rest of the raid go?"

(Y/N) pursed her lips, her smile vanishing. "Death got away. We arrested a bunch of Reapers, but we weren't able to catch her." She shifted in her chair.

"We should have anticipated this," Hawks muttered. "I should have done more. We should have brought more heroes.

"Listen, it's okay," (Y/N) said, trying to reassure him. She took his hands gently. "Ryukyu set up a plan. We'll gather more heroes and get more intel. We already got a lot from that previous raid, but it's quite possible they moved after that. What we need to do is be ready this time. She'll explain the rest in the next meeting. But you're good, you can do this."

"Yeah," Hawks agreed quietly. However, he was only half paying attention. He was still half distracted from (Y/N) taking his hands.

"Hey, don't get all mopey on me," (Y/N) grinned, gently cupping his face. Hawks was pretty sure he was blushing, but hoped fervently he wasn't. "Listen, how about we go down to that cafe when you get out of the hospital?"