Vriddy writes

Hawks burns. More specifically, his face.

Sunburns suck.

Life is hard and Hawks burns, and nobody cares or has any sympathy to offer him.

"It hurts, Tsukuyomi," he tells his intern with the silliest, most pathetic eyes he can muster but his intern started getting sick of Hawks' shenanigans long before this, so it probably feels like well-deserved comeuppance.

"I understand," Tsukuyomi says anyway, attempting to be sympathetic even though Hawks' never done a thing to earn it from him. Bless his kind, goth feathery soul. "But I've never experienced this and find it hard to believe that it can hurt that much, considering the injuries you've experienced in the line of duty."

Hawks widens his eyes. "It hurts," he whispers, "so much worse."

Dark Shadow comes out then to agree with Hawks on the terribleness of the sun while Tsukuyomi closes his eyes and sighs, massaging his cute feathery forehead.

Whatever Hawks had expected from Miruko, he was a fool. He knows that. He doesn't even get a chance to whine at her before she points at his face and laughs so hard she has to lean against the wall, for a truly unjustified length of time.

Like, she shows a lot of skin a lot of the time. Shouldn't she have advice for him?

When she finally regains her breath after what feels like fourteen years, she approaches him. Hawks perks up foolishly except that she only means to get close enough to flick him over the sunburn on his nose and ow, ow, ow! This is way more painful than it has any right to be!

She hops away before he can retaliate. He still considers sending a feather to flick her over her nose (that'll show her!) but he has other problems to deal with. Namely his crispy sunburnt face. This is absolutely unfair. Also this is all Ryuukyuu's fault. If Hawks hadn't gone on that team-up mission to help, all the way down to sunny Okinawa... Well. He hadn't fully thought it through, and a lot of the mission had happened high up in the sky, where the UV probably shone stronger, or whatever. Hawks hadn't really considered it at the time.

His next appointment is with Endeavor. Maybe Hawks can whine a little bit at him too, as a treat.

Endeavor says nothing, but that's kinda why Hawks told him. If he flicked Hawks' nose, he would basically launch Hawks into the other side of the room.

Later, when he's back in his hotel room, he gets a call from Burnin' – "Boss said to get you some cream" – and Hawks eagerly flies back to Endeavor's office at speed despite the wind painfully slapping his sunburnt face. At the office, Burnin' takes one look at his face and her eye twitches but she says nothing. Not a word as she hands him sunscreen, which is what he should have used before but didn't. This is useless to him now. And probably ever since he'll never fight on a dragon's back again.

If Hawks just flies back into the wind like this, his face is going to peel off and float away. He knows it. Then he'll be known as Winged Skull Hero: Skeletawks forever more. In despair, he borrows bandages from Kidou and wraps up his entire head, only leaving a small slit for his eyes under the visor. With as much dignity as he can muster, he leaves the office, cancels his room at the hotel, and flies all the way back to Fukuoka so he can lick his wounds at peace, at least. Or more like not touch them at all while they peel and he finds a way to speed up the process through sheer willpower or something.

His apartment isn't empty when he gets there. Dabi is lounging on the couch with a can of beer open, though he deigns to unslouch and get up to meet Hawks upon his balcony landing. Once inside, Dabi slowly unrolls some of the bandages for access to Hawks' sunburnt nose in order to leave a kiss on it – which is actually painful even when only the unscarred lip is sort of wet. Hawks' heart softens anyway.

"Are you fucking stupid?" Dabi says lovingly as he drags him toward the couch.

"Hey!"

"Are you dumb?" Dabi makes him sit down. "Is it an actual chicken brain sloshing around in your wooden skull?"

"I resent all of these allegations," Hawks protests haughtily, but doesn't resist as Dabi unwraps the rest of his poorly applied bandages and starts applying cream that will actually help.

It feels heavenly. The relief is unspeakable.

"Is your intelligence stat your lowest?"

"Are you saying you think my prettiness stat should clearly be the highest?"

"Shut up while I'm working," Dabi growls. "Mummies don't get to talk."

"Because they're dead?"

"Because they're stupid. How did you even think that would help, birdbrain?"

Really, Dabi's insults are a love language in their own right. It's never been more obvious than right now, giving Hawks a tongue-lashing while infinitely gentle fingers cover in cream the extensive sunburns on Hawks' face (everywhere except under his visor, really) (yes, he knows he looks ridiculous, and he believes that gives him the right to whine but clearly no one else got on with the program).

Pouting, Hawks relaxes under Dabi's touch, until Dabi's done and nods at his work, satisfied. He goes to wash his hands then returns to sit next to Hawks, and they cuddle on the couch for a while.

This is nice.

Eventually, Hawks turns his head to leave a gentle kiss on Dabi's cheek. Without even looking at him, Dabi presses a hand on his chest and roughly pushes him back.

"Don't get that close. You're sticky, burnt chicken."

Hawks returns to pouting. Everyone's just being really unfair, and they all suck.

These sunburns better heal fast though. He's got some kissing to catch up on.