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The story of Icarus tells of a boy who was soaring on wax and wood wings. He flew higher and higher, closer and closer to the great god Apollo, a boy who shone far brighter than anything Icarus had known before. Icarus flew closer and closer to the shine of the Sun God’s smile, ignoring the warnings he had been given and the way his wings were failing. Just as Icarus believed he was getting close, the wax that held his wings together melted, and Apollo watched Icarus fall to his death.
People compared Dabi to Apollo sometimes, luring people close with his flames and his mystery, and then laughing when they fell to their deaths in the sea. Dabi didn’t know if he appreciated that analogy very much. Yet, when he met Hawks, he couldn’t help but see the ecstatic boy soaring on fragile wings reflected in his character. The bright, ambitious blond was way out of his depth, whether he knew it or not.
Dabi almost wanted to warn him to stay away.
They got closer, Dabi would call Hawks in for favours that Hawks had to complete, and they both knew that. They weren’t friends, Dabi would never let the little bird get that close, he would simply request something, and Hawks would either do it or lose his chance at joining the league. Hawks wanted to meet Shigaraki, but Dabi knew for a fact that his... aquaintances... would try to kill Hawks on sight. Not that any of them would succeed, but it wasn’t something that Dabi wanted to subject Hawks to.
He made his favours harder and harder, he tried to get Hawks to turn away, but at the same time he was grateful each time the shiny, teasing boy succeeded. Dabi got closer and closer to Hawks as time went on, until he gave the blond his final trial: Kidnap the number three Hero, Best Jeanist. Hawks succeeded at that too, and Dabi fell a little too hard.
He wouldn’t let Hawks meet Shigaraki, not yet. The little bird was his and his alone for a little longer. But now when he called Hawks for a favour, the favour was to sit and talk through the night, and he knew he was getting closer than their business partner relationship should allow.
Dabi and Hawks were an anigma, two people that shouldn’t be close because Dabi just knew that Hawks had alterior motives. He was far too ambitious to really just agree with their convictions, the bird looked up to Endeavor for god’s sake. Dabi ignored that feeling, the warning bells sounding off in his mind even as his heart fluttered, because Hawks would never hurt someone. Hawks was interested in the League and what they had to offer.
And Hawks had Dabi’s interest too. He wasn’t just a dumb hero that could be manipulated, or a source of information, he was the single force of good on the earth, and Dabi probably would’ve dedicated himself to the boy if he asked. Looking at him made his heart soar far higher than Hawks could go on his wings, and speaking to him quelled the pain and sorrow in his heart and replaced it with bright, shining adoration.
Then, one dark and peaceful night, Dabi called Hawks to meet him, and he broke. He told Hawks everything. His family, his past, everything to know about each and every one of his mental and physical scars, and he waited for little Icarus to give up. Instead, Hawks swept him off of the ground and kissed him hard on that rooftop, and Dabi decided that maybe he didn’t mind getting close.
Maybe it didn’t matter, because Hawks’ wings weren’t made of wax, and Dabi would never let him fall. Maybe, Hawks was interested in more than just the League. Maybe he was interested in Dabi too.
But Hawks was dangerous, and that was something Dabi often forgot. Hawks could disarm and kill him any second, Hawks was bright and powerful and far more worthy of the title of the sun than Dabi himself. Hawks watched and layed in wait for the day that Dabi would say too much and let him in, and Dabi gave him that moment far too quickly.
They shared their lives with eachother, but that meant Hawks knew his weaknesses. Hawks let him spend the night in his apartment, but that just meant that the blond knew where he’d be at his most vulnerable. Hawks let him closer than anyone had ever been, swept him up in clean sheets and dirty words because he knew it would make Dabi want more. He knew it would make Dabi keep persuing him, keep getting closer to this boy that shone brighter than anyone Dabi had met before. Hawks gave him hope, above all else in the world.
And finally, Hawks met Shigaraki, and the praise Dabi got made him forget just how firey the man beside him really was. They accepted Hawks into their group, they let him in on their plans and their people and their locations, and Dabi had barely any time to realise just how weak his wings had gotten before he began to fall for real.
When they went to make a move against the man Dabi despised more than anything, they were met with Heroes far stronger than them. They were overpowered as other heroes found and took their contacts, their leaders, their assets. Heroes blew up their hideouts and flushed them into the open, and Dabi felt himself falling and falling and wondering where it had gone wrong for them.
He looked to his side, and his Icarus was gone.
But he kept hoping, because that’s what Hawks did, because Hawks would come back for him. Hawks loved him, he had said so just the day before. And Dabi had said it back.
He was running, and he was tired and sore and he had nothing to his name, but he kept hoping and he kept trying, because he hadn’t found Hawks yet. He hadn’t held his Icarus in his arms and apologised for getting him caught up in all of this mess. He hadn’t warned the boy to stop flying before the heat of the sun killed him. He hadn’t had the chance to tell Hawks to run and take everything with him.
He needed to find Hawks, needed to get close enough to him, so the day that he did he almost cried. Scrap that, he did cry. A lot. Dabi held his little bird and he cried and he apologised, and Hawks was warm and bright and he seemed so safe that Dabi didn’t notice when his own wings were cut off.
The day finally came when Dabi’s hands were wrangled behind his back, when cold metal cuffs pinched at his wrists when they were slid to the tightest possible setting. They clamped something over his hands so that he couldn’t use his quirk, and tried him against a jury that would never let him go short of the death penalty, so that was what he got.
When he was walked to the cold, dark room where his life would end, he made eye contact with a winged man as he stood blankly on the other side of the glass. When Dabi was strapped down and the lethal injection was prepared, he stared into the eyes of the man who had put him there, beautiful and shining yet so, so cold.
When Dabi felt his heart stop beating and his eyelids begin drooping, tears escaped his eyes as he looked on at the man he loved, and that man only saw a criminal. The last thought in his head was a realisation, one he should’ve made and acted on before it costed him his life.
The whole time, everyone had seen Hawks as Icarus. He had been the stupid, ambitious boy who had no clue how dangerous the sun would be. A boy who had been in far too deep, but the sun had taken pity on him, the fire had burned duller so that it wouldnt harm Icarus and the boy and the god had been happy together. At least, that’s what everyone had believed.
How wrong they had all been. Because there Dabi was, falling through the earth as his death rushed up to meet him, and Hawks watched. He looked on with cold eyes and a sternly set jaw at the man he had claimed to love for months. The person who he had let into his home and his life in the name of infiltration, who he had tricked with false promises of love and freedom and innocence. The man he had given everything to in order to draw him closer and closer to his death.
Dabi’s fingers reached out from where his hands were strapped to the chair, tears fell from drooping eyes and rolled over sickly scars. Scars that Hawks had said meant nothing to him. Scars that Dabi thought made him unloveable. Dabi was right.
Dabi fell and he died, and Hawks watched on in cold silence, even as he radiated warmth and peace and safety. A sickly-green swinging light framed his sillouette like an angel, and the corner of Dabi’s mouth tugged upward as his eyes fluttered softly closed.
Icarus was brought to his end because he was foolish enough to let himself fall for the god of the sun.