One-shot

The Alliance of Heroes was a well known group of pros who resided in Tokyo. There were five official members, a Shiketsu High student who was just waiting for graduation to join them legally and a pro-hero who was already part of a hero group, but was basically part of the Alliance as well.

 The Alliance of Heroes was also a major pain in the ass for Hawks.

 Particularly Todoroki Touya, a.k.a. the Cremation Hero: Star. His name contrasted nicely with his appearance, which got him first spot for "Most villainous-looking Heroes" ever since his debut. He had been after the vigilante for some time, not giving up despite said vigilante's continuous escapes.

 Recently though, Hawks seemed to constantly run into the group.

#1 - Toga

This villain wasn't particularly dangerous, or lethal, he was more of an annoyance. He could create thin cages from nothing, they quite literally popped out of thin air. Thankfully Hawks was very fast and he had managed to avoid capture for now.

 He took a sharp turn to the right, getting into an alleyway and wincing as a cage trapped a plant on a nearby balcony. Poor plant.

 There was an excited shout somewhere under him, and he spared a quick glance towards the ground before he was suddenly forced to fly vertically as he felt the telltale heaviness in the air that preannounced a cage forming. 

 Surprisingly Hawks had many fans, despite being a vigilante, so he was used to the excitement and positive response whenever a civilian spotted him. He didn't pay much mind to the sound, at least it wasn't pained.

 With a snarl the villain created a small cage and let it drop in his palm, throwing it at the vigilante. Hawks easily avoided it, smirking to himself. The guy was getting frustrated and desperate, the fight wouldn't drag on for much longer. 

 A glint of metal came towards his left side and for a second he thought that it was another tiny cage, only to then correct himself. Too sharp, a grappling hook.

 He swerved, eyeing the girl who threw it. She was small and had some clorful clothes on, probably a student interning under a pro. Hawks rarely ever paid attention to hero-curse students, but Toga Himiko was often on the news for collaborating with the Alliance of Heroes and for having been announced by Magic and Star as a future member of their group.

 With a grumble, Hawks briefly hoped that it wasn't the fire-quirked hero who was supervising her today, before turning back his attention in avoiding cages and various sharp objects –courtesy of Blood Hero: Vampy.

 He let out a quiet thrill of distress when a knife nicked his left wing. That girl was good.

 He sent some feathers to dance around the girl. They were still soft, as their purpose was to distract and not to attack. He may be a vigilante with questionable morality, but that didn't mean he wanted to hurt kids, no matter how determined to capture him they were. And Vampy was pretty determined, must have taken after Star.

 The feathers around her picked up a familiar pop above the teenager, right as the villain, with a too wide smile said, "Let's see how good the famous 'Hero Vigilante' is, will you fight me? Or save a future hero? Huh?"

 Hawks stopped, turning so that he could face the guy. "As if I need to choose, I can easily do both", he had a lazy sneer on his face, his expression screaming scorn.

 Multiple red blurs picked Vampy up and placed her on a rooftop six buildings away from where the fight was taking place.

 Hawks threw himself at the villain, finally ending their little game, he had grown tired of it.

 He winced internally as he felt three of his feathers getting sliced somewhere to the east.

 Vampy really was good.

#2 - Twice

Hawks blocked a punch with his forearm, jumping up high with a boost from the few feathers he had left. Most of them had gotten incinerated. by way blue, unforgiving flames. He danced out of the way of a small knife, ignoring the almost maniacal giggle that followed and threw a kick at himself.

No, not himself.

His clone.

 "Come on Hawks! I know you heard about me, about how I was a villain until boss found me! You could be a hero too! I mean, you already saved Toga-chan, soooo…"

 Hawks sprinted to the Double Hero: Twice, locking his wrists with one hand and kneeling him in the stomach. The ex-criminal grunted, and, as the vigilante expected, bowed forward trying to protect himself. The winged man took his opportunity to deliver a strong uppercut, sending the other against a wall. He let out a choked scream as flames burned his back, singing any feathers he had left.

Shouldn't have forgotten about the clones. 

He fell to his knees as he tried to not curl up in pain on the ground, barely registering it when Twice put a hand on the good skin of his shoulder. 

"Being a hero is better than being a vigilante. The heroes are after you constantly and I know for a fact that villains consider vigilantes either coward villains or weak wannabe heroes."

Hawks gritted his teeth, of course he had heard of Twice, and his biggest crime had been unauthorized use of his quirk. He had no idea what Hawks had done or who he was. If there was anything that Hawks hated were people pretending that they could understand how he felt, what he had gone through to end up like this. "This society is fucked. Rotten by the very hearth of the heroes.", he shakily got on his feet, noticing how Twice was now holding a pair of quirk-nullifying handcuffs. He heard footsteps behind himself and a glance helped confirm what he already knew. Clones of Star, Vampy, Magic and himself were cornering him.

"I used to think so too, but now? Heroes are actually good guys! They helped me. Before I was almost like two different people, but now I'm whole again. The Alliance made me whole. They're family." 

Hawks scoffed, despite the way it burned and scratched his throat. He honestly didn't care about this guy's life experience. Sure, it had gone nicely for him, that didn't mean it was like that for everyone.

Twice extended a hand, carefully keeping the handcuffs by his side, looking almost non-threatening. You can reform yourself too, become a hero, help us make this a better society. I assure you, being a hero grants you freedom that being a vigilante denies you."

Sharp, deadly golden eyes glared into foggy blues ones and Hawks subconsciously flexed his hands, bringing attention to his long talons. Even without feathers, he was still dangerous.

"'Freedom'?", he spat. "Oh please, if being a hero brought 'freedom', I wouldn't have escaped from the Commission after they fucking bought me!" Twice stumbled back a step, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Commission? The HPSC?" 

"Who else?"

Taking advantage of the hero's confusion, Hawks ran forward, shoulder-checking the guy hard, and sending him sprawling on his ass.

With one last heated glare, the mercenary disappeared in the night.

#3 - Spinner

When he had heard from Toga that a vigilante had saved her, he had been pretty surprised, only for that surprise to turn into understanding the moment she had mentioned that it had been Hawks. 

Hawks was one of the most well known vigilantes, right alongside Stain and the Cruller –or was it Crawler? Whatever– and while Stain had been defined by most as the 'Villain Vigilante', the winged man had been defined as the 'Hero Vigilante, because of the constant saving he did. He was present in many big catastrophes and villain attacks, helping the rescue heroes out. The boss himself had mentioned seeing red feathers dart around more than once.

So no, Spinner wasn't surprised when he heard that Hawks had saved Toga.

He was, however, surprised by what was going on in front of him right now.

During his usual night patrol he stumbled upon a fight on the othe side of the street, nothing unusual, probably two drunk assholes deciding to ruin his quiet shift. Except when the guy holding the other one up the wall by his collar reared back to prepare a solid punch, which would surely break this the other's nose –if it wasn't already– Spinner caught sight of unruly blonde hair and glinting gold eyes that sent a shiver down his spine.

Predator. Run. Hide. Survive. Predator!

It was Hawks, recognizable even without his full wings. 

Berating up a civilian.

With a shouted 'Get away from him' Spinner rushed to the pair, cursing himself for actually feeling disappointed in seeing Hawks doing something like this. He really shouldn't have considered the winged vigilante to be any different from the others. Shouldn't have thought of him in the same light he thought of his fellow heroes. Vigilantes were just villains with a different name, he really shouldn't have forgotten that Hawks wasn't any better then them.

But he did, and now he was disappointed. He cursed under his breath, finally reaching the two and grabbing Hawks' arm. Or trying to, at least. The vigilante smoothly avoided his reaching hands, turning to look at the hero. The civilian, now released, spat at them both and stumbled to his feet, muttering something along the lines of 'half-beasts', 'freaks of nature' and 'wild animals'.

Nothing new, those people should really come up with better insults.

As he attempted to escape, the civilian was stopped by a feather, which pinned him to the wall much like a butterfly. Spinner raised an unimpressed eyebrow, staring at Hawks. The vigilante still had his trademark easy-going smile on his face, but his blank eyes betrayed just how angry he really was.

Spinner sighed, at least Hawks hadn't just randomly decided to beat up an innocent civilian, he had had his reasons. Still though… "I know those comments aren't nice, but you really shouldn't break someone's nose just because he talked trash about you."

Said someone grunted, glaring at them from six foot in the air. And would you look at that, he was still raising.

Hawks' feathers –the few that had regrown– ruffled, his eyes narrowed and the smile became even more forced, "That's not the problem and you know it. I know you heard him, you made a weird face."

Weird face? He'll have to ask Sako about It later. "I know." 

"And yet you still wouldn't do anything? Not even a little pinch?"

"A pin- nevermind. No."

Hawks stared at him in silence, before his smile widened. It looked less... refined, somewhat rough around the edges, but it slipped on easily and felt genuine for once.

"I guess that's why you're a hero and I'm a vigilante."

And then he dropped the guy. From thirteen feet above ground. 

The guy screamed his head off and Spinner quickly scaled the building to grab him before he could hit the hard, unforgiving asphalt.

As soon as they touched the ground, the civilian scrambled off him, spitting more unoriginal insults. He just shook his head.

When he turned back around, there was no trace of Hawks ever having been there.

#4 - Kurogirl & Compress

Honestly, Hawks was starting to get tired of the Alliance of Heroes. Sure, ever since he saved Vampy, Star had laid off him, but quite literally every other member had come after him. After right now, the only one he'll never have met would be their elusive boss, although, Hawks suspected that no such person existed. The boss was most likely Magic, or hell, maybe even Star. Keeping the fact that they're the leader was a smart move, it didn't paint a giant red mark on them nominating them the target should anyone want to take down the Alliance. Hawks was almost impressed

He huffed when his way was once more blocked by a cloud, he really wasn't used to getting stopped in the sky. Loud Cloud cackled from somewhere near, and the vigilante threw a middle finger and some sharp feathers at him. Hawks stopped flying once one too many cars nearly fell on top of him, clearly taking the sky wasn't the best option with those two. He sensed Loud Cloud go behind him and rolled to the left, causing the hero to hit his partner instead.

Hawks barely avoided a pole materializing over him. He was too distracted, but he was just really happy to meet the Shirakumo Oboro in person. Loud Cloud wasn't a well-known hero and neither was his hero group, 'The Rooftop Squad', still he was one of Hawks' personal favorites, along with the whole Squad.

Now if only he wasn't trying to capture him.

"Come on, dove. Come with us quietly, please." The smooth voice brought his attention back to the other hero, the Compress Hero: Magic, aka. Atsuhiro Sako, the n.9.

Despite being part of two different hero groups it wasn't unusual to see a team-up between the two, at this point Loud Cloud was basically a member of the Alliance as well.

The vigilante cursed and slipped in an alleyway, taking off as soon as he wasn't in their sight anymore. He ended up right in a cloud. And not a natural one. 

"Fucking-" 

The asshole -forget favorite hero, he was a little demon- laughed, leaning over his cloud to look at the trapped bird. "Are you sure you're even old enough to swear?"

Hawks glared at him, baring his teeth when it only made him laugh harder.

"Jokes aside, he's right. You are awfully young to run on the streets like this." Magic said as he reached them on the rooftop Loud Cloud had settled on.

The vigilante trashed half-heartedly, he knew he wasn't getting free from that alone, but that minimal movement allowed a few of his smaller feathers to slip from the soft cage. Thankfully neither of the two noticed. 

"You know nothing. Now could we please get back to the part where you arrest me?", he smirked, shrugging at best of his abilities –and there went some more feathers– "While I usually love small talk, I don't think I'll enjoy it with you two."

Loud Cloud gasped in mock offense, but then his face turned serious. "Do you even have a house to live in? Food to eat?"

Hawks eyes flitted between the two heroes hovering over him, taking in their concern with confusion. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Why should I tell you?" 

"We're worried. Living in the streets is hard, I know something about it." The vigilante bit the air as Magic reached a hand out to ruffle his hair. The hand wisely retracted.

"Worried? Oh, please.", his tone was mocking and his mouth curved in a condescending smile. "There's no need to lie, now is there?"

Above him Loud Cloud frowned, and patted his head despite the warning chitter. "We really are. When was the last time you ate? At all?" 

He refused to answer. He didn't know where they were trying to go with all of this, but it couldn't be good for him. It never was.

The heroes hissed as small feathers danced and twirled around them, cutting them more than once. As expected Loud Cloud lost concentration and Hawks was able to wiggle free. Two strong flaps and he was so far away that they wouldn't be able to capture him. However, his sharp hearing picked up a shout, "Don't worry kid! I-We'll leave some warm food in front of Giacomo's Diner every night for you!"

The vigilante huffed. As if he was going to believe them. The only thing that would await him was a squadron of policemen, maybe some pro-hero. But he guessed that checking from a distance wouldn't hurt too much. 

The day after a bundle of feathers brought a fuming bowl of ramen to his perch on a lamp post.

#5 - Dabi

Running into Star wasn't anything new. He often had short fights with him. It would go something like this: Star spotted Hawks and called out to him with a bird nickname; Hawks answered in kind with a burnt comment, Star went after him; Hawks danced around his flames for a while; a short hand-to-hand fight took place; Hawks flew off.

So when the vigilante heard a shouted 'Looks like chicken's on the menu tonight', he shouted back, "I don't know, I read something about bacon, they must have burned it to be serving chicken instead."

Over the years Hawks had come to enjoy the easy banter between them, despite Star being a hero, consequently he didn't even really try to escape before their little fight anymore. Blue fire heated the air in front of him and Hawks turned sharply, ready to dive towards the hero, only to see him waving his hand around in a 'come here' gesture, posture relaxed. 

The vigilante faltered, stopping mid-air, and cocked his head much like a bird would.

"Come on birdy! I just wanna talk tonight, how about you come down. I promise I won't ruffle your pretty feathers this time!"

Hawks slowly came to touch the ground, deciding to ignore how said feathers had puffed out in pride to the praise. He could only hope the other hadn't noticed, though it was unlikely. The hero always seemed to pay a special kind of attention to his wings.

"What do you want? Finally taking me on a date?" 

Star smirked. "You would like that, wouldn't you?"

He chose not to answer, raising an eyebrow to reaffirm. his previous question.

The hero walked forward until he was right up the vigilante's face. Hawks' wings twitched at the proximity, but he didn't take a step back, he refused to back down. "Ever heard of the Reformation Program the Alliance of Heroes is hosting?"

"Huh?"

"I'll take that as a no, We decided to organize a rehabilitation course for villains and or vigilantes. Since the person will have to live with us and be monitored by us, we're free from the Commission's surveillance. Heard you have a problem with them"

Hawks wanted to ask why it would matter to the Alliance whether he had a problem with the HPSC or not, but Star kept going before he could.

"However, as a term we're allowed to take only one person at a time. The plus side is that we get to choose who that person is." 

The vigilante crossed his arms, forcing Star to step back and create some distance between them. He tried not to miss the warmth and failed."Doesn't seem that much different from what happened with Twice."

Star nodded, placing a finger over Hawks' lips, "That's because I'm not done yet. You're right though, it would be like what happened to Twice, only differences are: it won't be hosted by UA, the person will come live with us and at the end of the program will automatically join the Alliance of Heroes, unless the person or the boss choose that it won't happen."

There was a moment of silence and when Star didn't say anything else Hawks swatted at the finger still on his lips and stared at the hero, bemused, "And you're telling me this because...?"

Star looked at him as if he was stupid, which, rude! If he had been stupid he wouldn't have survived all this time. "The Alliance has chosen you as our first candidate."

"As-", he squinted at the man in front of him. "Me- I-". Star laughed under his unblinking stare, it was the first time he had ever seen the bird this shocked. 

The vigilante let out a confused chirp, quickly followed by an overwhelmed thrill. He could feel his hands starting to stiffen and he made the conscious effort to not grab anything. He took a deep breath, trying to push back the memories of the previous 'recalibration' he had gone through. 

"No Commission?" 

"Not a single trace"

Hawks opened his eyes –when had he closed them?– surprised by the hopeful look on the hero's face. Hesitantly he stepped back, resisting the urge to stumble right into Star's arms as his face fell.

"Yeah, okay, sure."

He flapped his wings, taking off and putting more and more distance between him and that heartbreakingly disappointed scarred face. "See you around."

He didn't look back once as he flew higher and higher.

#+1 - Shigaraki

Two weeks and three days passed since Star's… request? Announcement? Hawks had passed those days on his bed, sending feathers to borrow some food from nearby discounts. He didn't even get out to retrieve the warm meal that was surely waiting for him in front of Giacomo's Diner.

The morning of the fourth day, with a mantra in his head reassuring him that the Commision wouldn't be involved, he got out of bed and slipped on an oversized black hoodie, the only one he had without slits for his wings. He only ever used it when he didn't want to be recognized. He squeezed into a pair of gray jeans and floated his detached feathers in a backpack. He grabbed an energy bar from the counter and put on some dark shades. Flipping up the hood and shouldering the backpack, he was out of the door for the first time in forever.

He lived in Kyushu, so while not exactly near Tokyo, it could also be farther away. A train raid later and he found himself standing in front of the Alliance of Heroes Agency. With a deep breath he stepped inside, stopping by the secretary and asking to speak to the 'boss' as he heard some of their members call him.

"What for?"

"The Reformation Program."

Her attitude immediately changed, she went from relaxed and uninterested to wary and analyzing, trying to figure out who he was.

Jokes on her, he once asked Endeavor to sign his backpack in this disguise and the hero hadn't even blinked.

He was sent to the top floor, the second room on the left. Hawks looked at the door, it was made out of wood, painted black with a white doorknob. There wasn't any small window. All in all, a completely ordinary door, nothing special or intimidating about it.

He turned around and prepared to leave.

"Huh? You another candidate? We're having a break from interviews in five, so if you think you can convince us to take you in during that time, you can come in. Otherwise you can come back in twenty" Spinner said from behind him, opening the door to get in. Hawks could hear other voices from the room. 

He grunted, not wanting to turn back in case he was recognized. It already happened once when it was dark, Spinner would undoubtedly know it was him now that he was under the bright artificial light. 

"Rude."

The door shut as he entered and Hawks took bigger steps, not caring about how suspicious he looked as he basically ran out to the elevator. He frantically pushed the button, all the while thinking about how much of a bad idea this whole stunt had been. When the doors slid open he rushed in, nearly stumbling into some boor guy.

"Oh! Sorry." 

Well now he couldn't just leave him there and go away, the fault was his, not the black head's. Hanks turned back, meeting sheepish dark red eyes and an apologetic smile. "No, it was my fault, sorry.", he bowed, not minding too much the unusual feeling of bowing to someone younger than him.

"It's alright, there's no need for that.", a hand raised to his neck and he started scratching. "Were you here for the interview? Strange, they should've waited for me before sending you away."

Hawks observed the young man in front of him, there was something about him that didn't let him write him off as a kind, kinda timid boy. Maybe it was the way he carried himself, the fact that despite the curled shoulders his aurea demanded respect and oozed authority.

"They? Are you part of the Alliance? I never saw you before,

The boy's face went blank as he studied Hawks. The vigilante nearly couldn't recognize him, he was so expressive before, unashamed to show what he was feeling.

"So you didn't do the interview, where they introduced the whole League?"

Hawks could feel his little wings twitching under his clothes, he was really getting fed up with being confused. "League?"

"That's what I call the AoH."

He stared deadpan at the boy, his stare turning into an unimpressed look as soon as he made the connection. "You couldn't just say Alliance?"

The boy shrugged and a smile danced on the corners of his mouth. "Who are you?". His black hair bobbed when he tilted his head, light blue tips brushing against his cheeks.

"Why do you care?"

"You clearly at least thought about joining the Reformation Program, otherwise you wouldn't be here. I haven't found anyone who caught my interest yet, but you have good chances of doing so, you have already started."

Hawks had severely underestimated the guy, he was smarter than expected. 

"Hawks"

The guy's eyes widened in obvious surprise, searching his face again, he still didn't recognize him. "Star was sure you wouldn't come."

"Yeah well", he broke eye contact, looking around the hallway. "What about you? What's your name?" 

"Shimura Tenko, I'm a rescue hero."

There was a moment of an awkward silence, before Shimura gestured to the door Hawks had been trying to flee from. "You still up for it? Today we've had like, two people, so we don't really need a break. And they won't mind if it's you."

His chest warmed at that last part and he forced himself not to arch his wings to show off his power. Not that it would have done much, what with how few feathers were actually attached to him at the moment.

He eyed the door warily, but for some reason when Shimura started walking towards it, he followed.

"I'm back!"

Star grunted, not lifting his eyes from the magazine he was reading, "'Bout time, did you get lost or something?"

"Or something"

A huff and a roll of eyes was all that Shimura got. 

Twice got up from the couch and started walking towards them. "Boss! Come on, half the break is gone already!"

Boss?

"And that's all you'll have, look who I found", he sounded like a proud child showing off a cool rock to his friends. Hawks tried not to laugh.

Shimura stepped to the side, revealing the vigilante behind him, who raised a hand in greeting.

Spinner was squinting at him from where he was lazing near the window, directly under the sun. Magic hummed, "Another candidate? Have they finally caught your interest? For you to lead them in during the break..." 

Hawks sighed, taking off the sunglasses and shrugging down the hood. Star's eyes immediately sparkled, quickly followed by the rest of those in the room and excited voices started overlapping one another. He caught various friendly greetings among the jumble of words.

It was mid-winter, why was he feeling so warm?