phoenix ✦ k.takami (hawks)

Four

Spread your wings darling, you have better places to fly. Not everyone can handle you and that's a blessing in disguise.
~cwpoet

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦ ✧

"Those stupid idiots." Aizawa growled under his breath. He subconsciously slammed the empty glass of sake he had just finished on the bar counter. You gave him a sideways glance as you handed another patron a drink, knowing that he required your listening skills so he could rant.

You stepped to the side until you were in front of him, taking his empty glass to refill it. "Spill it." You demanded, knowing he would've anyway without your cue to begin.

"What am I supposed to do with three students who run off during their internships and take down Stain of all villains?" As he rambled on you hummed and nodded here and there to urge him on. Your mind wandered to the viral video that was shared worldwide. That man was one of a kind—that video shook you to your core every time you watched it.

You were very thankful he hadn't ever stepped foot in the Musutafu prefecture—at least as far as you knew. You hadn't seen much crime around these parts besides petty thievery by minor villains. Heros didn't even need to get involved during those altercations thanks to the threat of All Might looming over everybody's heads.

"You could put them on probation." You shrugged. "Extra training, suicide laps, and so on." You wiped out a clean shot glass, putting it away on its designated shelf as your customers slowly departed from your tavern.

"I could make them sprint laps in their underwear, but their punishment was Endeavour getting the glory. The heros that took them on had their teaching licenses suspended, as well." He replied to your suggestion, knocking back the last of his sake before sliding the glass across the counter to you. "I'm hitting the road. Put it on my tab?"

"Sure thing. Have a goodnight, Aizawa." You waved him out the door, knowing that he was one of the few who truly paid their tab. You always gave him a few free drinks or meals here and there since he was working so damn much—teaching at U.A. then prowling the streets for criminals at night. You told him that he deserved a vacation but he dismissed it, saying something about there not being enough time for one.

While your hours were random and certainly took a toll on you, you never got as close to burning out like pro heros did. The unfortunate part of them protecting the country was that there were never enough heros. Something was always going awry; hence why so many students mowed over their competitors to get into the hero courses. You admired their determination, wishing that you still had that same fire in your belly.

You were roughly halfway through spring, the top season for tourists to visit Japan thanks to the weather not being as terrible as it is during the summer. Many foreigners would seek out buildings that had AC during the sweltering days and this had been one of them. Thankfully the evening was much cooler than the afternoon thanks to overcast shielding the public from it's harsh rays, so most of the customers that had taken shelter in your bar had left to have a night out on the town. It was a Friday, after all.

The last time you saw Hawks was exactly a week ago. You understood he was working his ass off and didn't have much free time, but you found yourself still looking out the windows, eagerly waiting to see him again. Perhaps it was your slight infatuation with the similar quirk attributes you shared or maybe because you had to rescue him from hypothermia a few weeks ago. Nevertheless he was obviously busy since his name and face were flashing up on newspapers and articles at least every other day.

Needless to say you forced yourself to choose only two articles to put up. One of them was an article of his where he saved a cat that looked a lot like Yoshio from a tree; the other one he had caught a drug smuggler and located the stash.