Little Owl

2

Dabi made his way slowly up the rarely used staircase leading up to the loft with a bowl of goldfish in hand.

He knew the kid had to be hungry, who knows when the last he ate was. Unfortunately, the majority of the food Hawks had in his kitchen were meats of various kinds (though it was mainly chicken). Since he didn't know what the kid would eat, he thought the crackers he had found at the back of one of the cupboards were good.

Stopping at the top stairs, Dabi smiled at the sight of Hawks taking care of the sleeping little bird.

He knocked the wall, both announcing his presence and asking permission to enter the nest.

It took a sec, but eventually Hawks answered positively and Dabi entered the indoor loft balcony.

Coming to sit next to the pro hero, Dabi watched as Hawks gently pulled each broken or overgrown feather into a pile outside the mass of blankets.

"Kei?" Dabi asked, seeing the contemplative look in his golden eyes.

"Where did you find him?" Hawks questioned, gently plucking a feather and putting it off to the side.

"A little ways passed the business district in the alley maze. I don't know how long he'd been there but I would guess a good amount of time" Dabi told the hero.

Keigo hummed in response, eyes serious as he thought about things.

"I don't think he has a family to take care of him," Hawks said, taking a moment to brush his hand through knotted curls.

"Obviously" Dabi remarked, reaching for a handful of goldfish.

"I want to be his family"

Dabi didn't even have time to get the crackers in his mouth before he accidentally dropped half of it on the blanket below.

"You better pick all of that up," Keigo demanded, eyeing the dusty crackers now covering one of his pillows. Dabi just stared at the bird in shock. Never in a million years had he ever expected that Keigo would want a kid to take care of.

"Are you sure?" Dabi asked, "Neither one of us had real parents, why be his?"

"For that exact reason. We didn't have a family that cared for us, they barely tolerated us. I don't want him to go through that any longer than he has to, definitely not as long as we had to" Keigo spoke softly, gently stretching the boy's wings. He couldn't help but be a bit surprised at the wingspan the boy had, given that when he first saw the kid, he had his wings tucked as close as possible against his back.

When the boy's wings were fully spread and set in a comfortable position, Keigo lightly ran his fingers down the dark feathers. When he pulled his hand away, his fingertips came back with a light coating of powder down.

Hawks frowned a little at the visual information. It was good the boy's wings were still producing the powder, but there should be more than that, or at least that was understanding (his wings work a bit differently that way).

Hawks didn't really want to move, but he needed to properly wash the boys wings, he wasn't quite expecting them to have as much damage as they did.

Gently tucking the boy's wings back in, he heaved himself up with the kid cuddled in his arms.

"Come on" Keigo gestured with head towards the stairs as he glided down from the loft with the boy.

—-

When the boy's wings were finally done being taken care of, nearly two hours after Hawks started, the boy was being tucked into bed.

Summing up a feather, Keigo placed it by the boy's pillow just within arms reach in case anything happened while he was in the other room.

Quietly the hero made his way out of the room, making sure a night light was on as well leaving the door cracked open.

Breathing a sigh, Keigo went to look for Dabi. He's probably in the kitchen again.

Strangely enough he wasn't there when Keigo entered. Huffing he turned around and kept looking. Walking down through the living room and down the hall again, Keigo checked all the rooms until he came to the bathroom. Sure enough the burnt nugget was there tending to his hand.

"I thought you already wrapped it?" The hero asked, pushed through the door and into the room.

"I did but it was messing with the graphs, gotta re-do it" Dabi muttered, concentrating on his task.

"Do you need help?" Keigo chuckled, watching as the villain struggled.

"Yes" Dabi sighed, immediately shoving his hand and the rest of the wrapping into Hawks.

"You're useless, you know that?" Hawks teased as he began to rewrap the scarred palm.

"Aww, you don't mean that" Dabi smirked. Keigo stuck his tongue out at the villian in defiance before finishing his task.

As soon as Hawks was done, Dabi was dragging him out of the bathroom.

"Should I be worried about where you're taking me?" Keigo asked, stumbling after a particularly sudden tug.

Dabi didn't answer him and soon the two of them found their way back into the kitchen.

"I should've known" Keigo sighed, ruffling his feathers out before hoisting himself on top of the counter. "So, what are we having?"

Dabi rooted around the cupboards for a minute before looking in the fridge.

"Soba and .... Chicken nuggets" Dabi said, grabbing everything he needed. He didn't need to look at the hero to know he had stars in his eyes.

"Come on, help me make it"

Soon it was nearing 7:30, Dabi and Keigo sat on the balcony watching the sun take its place in the sky as they munched away at their early morning snack.

"How did you find him, anyway? I'm honestly surprised you got a kid to follow you" Keigo questioned, leaning against Dabi's side.

"Well, maybe I'm better with kids than you think"

Keigo leveled Dabi with a look.

"Sure you are" the bird said, poking the villain lightly in the side.

"Alright, fine" Dabi grumbled, batting at Hawks hand. "He saw your feather"

"The one I gave you for your birthday?" Dabi nodded.

"Yeah, I took one look at it and immediately made grabby hands. I practically used the feather as a leash and guided him back to your place, then the elevator freaked him out" Dabi huffed.

Hawks nodded, appreciating the info.

"You're seriously going to take the boy in?" Dabi asked after a minute, still a little confused on why Hawks would take on such a big responsibility as well as his budding hero career and having to deal with the Commission.

Keigo nodded, opening his mouth to answer, but before he could vocalize an answer, he was interrupted.

A short, high pitched squeak sounded from inside the apartment.

Immediately Keigo was on his feet and rushing back inside the apartment, Dabi following after.

Another small squeak sounded as Keigo quietly turned the door handle to the boys room. Peeking inside, the hero's heart melted.

The boy had managed to kick all the blankets off of the bed and was cuddling closely to the second pillow on the bed. His still roughed up wings curled around himself protectively, leaving only his head and the corner of the pillow visible.

Keigo was ecstatic to find out what type of bird the boy's features are from. Based on the claws that dug into Dabi's hand, Keigo deduced that the kid was a bird of prey, and now, Keigo could narrow it down even further.

The boy was some type of owl.

Keigo can't wait until the little fledgling wakes up so he can discover more about who this little boy in his guest room is.