The Shape of Fire

A Deal with the Devil

A week passes by and Hawks is still cooped up in the small room, Shouto never fails to pop by in the early morning before the sun's rays stretch across the grey sky. Sometimes, he gives magazines or books to Hawks to keep him from losing his mind but most of the time- he's just dropping off food.

Since that night, Hawks has refused to sleep. Dark circles cling close to his eyes and even the simple act of blinking makes him doze off for a moment before he jolts back awake. In the corners of his confinement, he'll spy moving shadows and the dimensions of his room begins to warp and twist due to lack of sleep. Blinking it away only seems to make his hallucinations worse and his mood plummets, it doesn't help that he's been forced to quit smoking on the drop of a dime either.

Hawks begins to lose track of time and every waking hour- his bed sings out to him, trying to lull him back into sleep. He does his best to ignore it, wanting to avoid being stranded in Chisaki's realm again. What if next time, no help comes to his aid? What if last time was just a fluke? At this point though, he has to ask himself if it's better staying alive like this or dying. The line is beginning to blur and he isn't sure anymore. He spends his time pacing and talking to himself, always holding a feather close to him. Reminding him that there's an outside world; he wishes more than anything that he had at least a window to look out of.

"When was the last time you slept? You look terrible." Shouto observes, dropping a plastic bag on the floor and eyeing him. Hawks waves a hand in the air and chuckles.

"Sleep is for the weak." Shouto only raises an eyebrow and slowly nods.

"I see." He replies flatly and walks towards him, Hawks dances away moving around the room in a dream like daze- his grip on sanity slipped away somewhere on day three without sleep. Shouto stops and sighs, raising a hand- palm facing towards Hawks and ice crawls up from the floor, entrapping Hawks' feet.

"What the fuck?" Hawks mumbles, looking down at his frozen feet and back up at Shouto in confusion. He only shrugs and offers Hawks a smirk.

"I've been doing some training. Looks like I can do more than just manipulate fire, pretty cool- huh?" Hawks refuses to answer and narrows his eyes at Shouto.

"Yeah? Well, you're not the only one with a surprise up your sleeve." He closes his eyes and focuses on a feather underneath his pillow, he can feel it quiver and it shoots out from its hiding place and slices into the ice, quickly shattering it. Shouto quickly recovers from his initial shock and his smile grows, nodding in approval.

"Looks like you're not a complete lost cause like I previously thought." Hawks doesn't answer, the simple act of just summoning the feather pushed his mind from exhausted to shut down mode. His chin droops against his chest and begins to buckle to the floor, Shouto sighs and catches him before he hits the floor and tries his best to drag Hawks over to the bed. He gives up halfway and just throws a blanket over Hawks' sleeping form and quietly leaves the room.

"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to visit." A soft voice chuckles and Hawks turns to see Dabi sitting on a chair- a slender leg is thrown over one arm of the chair while his elbow is resting on the other arm. His chin is resting against his palm and a sly smile curves upwards as Dabi's pale turquoise eyes look Hawks up and down.

"I was busy."

"Too busy to sleep?" Dabi's smile grows more and Hawks looks away.

"Why do you care?" Dabi's constant shift of moods is beginning to grate on Hawks' nerves. How this demon can go from zero to one hundred in just a short realm visit leaves him confused and seeing Dabi teasing him when before he told Hawks to never visit again is complete bullshit in his book.