Blurred Lines | shouto.

[57]: Delinquency

"Hawks? What, a nickname? What are you doing here?"

"A nickname? No. It's a hero name. Not to toot my own horn, but-" he grins at you, and then proceeds to toot his own horn. "You're lying if you say you haven't heard of me. I'm the number-two hero: Hawks."

Your face peels back in confusion, but your guard lowered slightly at the mention of him being a hero.

At least he wasn't one of Shigaraki's henchmen.

But you certainly hadn't seen him before.

However, to be fair, you hadn't ever paid close attention or any mind at all to the hero ranks.

"Daring introduction, Hawks. But I don't care one bit about the hero hierarchy."

"Well, that's kinda emo." Hawks looks back down to the scene below, "But i'll try not to take it personally. Mind explaining why?"

You sigh, "Cus all it takes is one bad person with enough incentive to beat whoever's at the top, and our whole society will crumble into nothing."

"Are you depressed or something? So cynical."

You scoff, "No. I just get it. All this shit is so fickle. It would be so easy to bring it all down, and the public is naive for thinking otherwise."

Hawks was clearly taken aback by your tenacity and rage.

But, to him, the look in your eyes was more lifeless, than angry.

"Well...you got sense, kid. I'll give you that." he says, "But to be honest, I thought you looked kind of sketchy up here. That's why I followed you. Not to poke fun at your outfit or anything, but your whole look kind of screams 'villain'. So, what are you?"

You weren't even shocked after hearing that word.

Villain. 

Everyone thinks you're a villain. The league, the government, your teachers.

The old man in the dream.

Fuck, even the lady who's life you just saved thought you were a villain.

There was no amount of goodness that had managed to convince anyone that you were not a bad person.

Nothing was good enough.

"Well, i'm quite the contrary. You didn't need to follow me. I'm no threat."

"Yeah, I saw what ya did to that fella down there. You know you probably saved that lady's life, right?"

"Nah, that villain wasn't gonna hurt her. He's just a lowlife who needed some money."

Hawks is silent for a moment.

You wonder why.

"...You're that chick from U-A right? The runaway?" he asks, instantly grabbing your attention. "Got a whole lotta people out lookin' for ya, you know? A lot of people seem to care about you a whole bunch."

You turn away and squat back down on the beam, resting your arms on your knees again.

"I'm not running away, it's just safer for them if I keep my distance. Danger seems to follow me." you start to think aloud, coming alive at the first real human interaction you'd had in a while. "Misfortune is in every cookie I crack."

Hawks squatted beside you. "You're starting to speak in monologues and it's creeping me out. You can relax, y'know. I'm not gonna tell 'em where you are."

You raise one eyebrow, "Why?"

"Cus what good would it do me? If I got the impression that you were in serious danger out here, it would be a different story. But i've heard a lot about you. Apparently there isn't much you can't handle."