Anything That Comes To Mind

dabi/hawks recs this time! ah, this is a long one. someone should save me from all of this hotwings brainrot. mha/bnha fic recs part 1 personal favorites are starred, by the way. everything is complete unless stated otherwise.

dabi / hawks (takami keigo / todoroki touya)

*little brother, we are all grieving by jurassicqueer (gaybirdkid) (~30k)

When a teenager is dragged into a police station by someone with a self-proclaimed de-aging quirk, it seems too improbable that one of the most notorious villains in Japan could actually be reverted to a scrawny sixteen year old.

But then the blood tests come back, and the quirk labs hand in their results, and it seems that Dabi really is a teenager again- and claiming to be the dead Todoroki Touya, of all things.

OR: Touya never expected to wake up a wanted fugitive, but with his luck, he’s hardly surprised.

Through the dark side of the morning by StrikerEureka (~8k)

Hawks manages to keep his baby a secret from Dabi for a grand total of two months. Once Dabi finds out about him, he starts coming around a lot more often, usually at night. These are snippets of their time together.

-

“Hawks smiles as he helps him to stand on wobbly feet, both thumbs lost in a tight-fisted grip. Toma coos at him and Hawks coos back. To his surprise—and Dabi’s, judging by the look on his face—Toma then turns and makes the same sound at him.

Dabi huffs a breath and reaches out a hand to stroke over Toma’s fuzzy head.

“I don’t know how to make that sound, kid.”

i don’t usually read mpreg, but i actually really liked this one. i’d recommend giving it a shot.

Who let Touya Teach!? (Spoiler: No One) by QuoiGhost (~2k)

Touya (Mainly to spite his dad) has been come an underground hero know as Pyre. As an underground hero, he knows Aizawa, who is currently covered in bandages after the USJ attack. Yet he still wants to go teach his class?!

“Just take a day off,” Touya pleaded.

“No.”

Aizawa tried to get get and shove past him. Touya, who was having none of that, knocks him out instead. It’s fine, he’ll teach the class instead. How hard can it be?

-or-

Underground hero Touya subs for Class 1-A.

this one is really short, but it made me snort my water out.

darling, thank god it’s this universe we’re in (and you can annoy me as much as you please) by juurensha (~83k)

Todoroki Rei divorces Endeavor and moves all four of her children into a small apartment next to a boy with wings as red as the hair of her eldest son.

todoroki rei adopts hawks. really slowburn, lots of slice of life with touya and hawks being idiots about each other. it’s the longest fic i’ve read in a while (@ my commitment issues) but it was really good. very slowburn tho. oh, and dabi never becomes a villian.

what am I supposed to do with that mental image by bluebelle (~14k)

“Her decision to make,” Dabi’s mouth says without his permission. Wait, what the fuck? This is definitely encouraging this awful relationship, now. Hawks looks at him like he’s never seen him before. “All you can do is offer people what you have, and they decide to take it or leave it. If it’s too much for them, fuck ‘em.” Hawks stares at him for a long moment with something that looks like awe before Twice breaks the silence.

“Wow, relationship advice from Dabi! How rare!” Dabi flips him off and turns back to the soup he’s been working on. “And it’s awful! Nice going, onii-chan!” Dabi stifles a flinch at that, carefully keeping his eyes trained on the pot. No one’s called him 'onii-chan’ in a decade.

“I’m younger than you, idiot,” he says with no real bite.

“Yeah, but you ooze 'big brother,’” Twice says sagely. Dabi doesn’t trust himself to turn around. He has no idea what his face is doing, but he’s sure it’s revealing. _____

Dabi disapproves of Hawks wanting to date Fuyumi, so obviously the answer is to seduce him. (He is not jealous, he’s just horny. The timing is a complete coincidence.)

enemies to lovers and there’s a bit of explicit smut.

Feels like home by Anonymous (~4k)

Red-tailed hawks mate for life, and Keigo, with his bird quirk, is no different. Choosing a partner would have probably been a complicated matter; that is if his instincts hadn’t already decided for him when he jokingly agreed to marry Touya back when they were children. Back when he had no idea what he was engaging himself into, and when Touya was still alive.

Now a hero, Hawks has resigned himself to never experience love, but things get a thousand times more complicated when he has to infiltrate the League of Villains and his instincts suddenly go crazy for Dabi of all people.

Or the fic where Hawks is oblivious to Dabi’s real identity, but his bird instincts are not.

if we could always be so new by jihnari (~12k)

Hawks panics. “Okay, alright, jeez, you caught me, I…” Hawks hesitates, gulps; tumbles forward, “Have no idea who you are.” The eyebrow is still raised. “…Sorry?”

Crispy Cream doesn’t say anything for a long moment. The mental pressure it creates makes Hawks want to babble, but he manages to hold his tongue this time.

“I can’t tell if you’re screwing with me or what,” Crispy Cream drawls.

“It’s the 'or what’,” Hawks offers.

Hawks gets hit with an amnesia quirk. Dabi gets begrudgingly involved.

*Grass Is Green (Except For When It’s Not) by Numanum (~17k)

When someone else walks through the door, the staring contest dissolved with his Handler as the winner after Hawks whirled around to assess the new threat in the room. Juice drips from where his grip had crushed the juice box, further staining his clothes and making a mess on the bar top. Hawks continues to blink owlishly at the newcomer. The person, who seems to be made of shadow, rather than it clinging to him, looks at him with mild interest, a towel and a bar glass in his hands. His eyes move to address Hawks’ Handler.

“He’s very,” the man pauses, as if choosing his next words carefully, “small.”

His Handler grunts in irritation, and Hawks almost chimes in that he’s sorry, he knows he supposed to be bigger.

A hesitant pause.

“Was it-?”

“Fuckin’ drop it,” his Handler spits out.

“Ah, I see,” the other hums tactfully, and wisely drops the topic. Hawks thinks that his eyes are pretty, the color of a flower that grows in the part where he meets Touya sometimes, but he doesn’t tell him. He’s not supposed to meet anyone, and he’s not supposed to speak without permission.

Or: Hawks get’s de-aged and the league takes care of him

commission is trash, league finds out about hawks past with the commission.

Winter Flower by umathe (~16k)

It all transpires in a heartbeat with a flurry of flashing lights, entrapping Hawks before he could introduce himself - before he could sing the Hero Commission’s sales pitch - before he could even gasp. As his senses shut down one by one, there’s a passing thought that thank goodness he landed prior to being pulled into this vision; except, the next thought is fuck - of all people?

At least his assigned contact into the League seems just as surprised, beautiful turquoise eyes framed by horrendous scars bulging out wide.

Or: when you meet your soulmate, you’re forced to relive either the best or worst day of their lives; be it their past or future, fate knows best.

*Dabi’s Contact List by caiussw (12.5k)

Dabi’s system for naming his contacts was convenient for many reasons. Unfortunately, it also had many downsides. Such as now, when the League was scrambling to pack up everything and switch bases because their entire building had been compromised.

(or, 5 times dabi changed hawks’ contact name and one time hawks did the same)

crack and humor

*Tickets to the Todoroki Trauma Drama Are Buy 1 Get 1 Free by miniongrin (~24k)

“Fuyumi would be charmed, if she weren’t suddenly so sad. The day doesn’t seem as bright, suddenly, at the unexpected reminder of Touya. “I… don’t think I can help you practice,” Fuyumi says quietly. “I lost my twin a long time ago.”

Natsuo shifts uncomfortably next to her. Satomi gasps. “Oh—oh, I’m so sorry—“

Masako must misunderstand, because she lights up, excited. “Oh, I know! I can help you find them again!”

Her hands close over Fuyumi’s before she can protest, and the world flips upside-down until she’s suddenly somewhere else.”

When Fuyumi gets hit by a quirk that body-swaps twins, she wakes up somewhere else—despite the fact that her twin died a decade ago. That’s confusing enough on its own, but why is she surrounded by villains?

Dabi, meanwhile, keeps accidentally freezing things, but he thinks that’s a fair response to being called a name he hasn’t heard in a decade.

To Drink A Thousand Needles by Ihavecoldhands (~32k)

“My reason for helping the League of Villains? Well, a long time ago, I had a friend.” Hawks says, smiling widely at Kurogiri. “It’s a common story. Bullied kid meets another bullied kid, they become each other’s first and best friend, bullied kid #1 finds out bullied kid #2’s abuser is actually a hero, and so bullied kid #1 decides that hero society needs to be destroyed.”

Hawks first meets Todoroki Touya when he is eleven years old, on a humid afternoon by a concrete staircase.

He meets the villain Dabi eleven years later, on a chilly evening by a decaying building.

for i am sick of love by Markovia (~1.5k)

Keigo wakes at midnight to a familiar sensation. It feels like pressure on the back of his brain, an increasingly noticeable itch that he’s unable to scratch.

Touya is kissing his feather again.

warning: heartbreaking :’(

*Time™ to Go Feral by Anubis_2701 (~8k)

Sir Nighteye’s quirk was a deeply useful one, with a rich history of helping solve cases, assist investigations and offer support to friends and acquaintances. It was, absolutely, not intended to be misused and abused for something like this.

"Can you explain why you’ve seen fit to consort with villains?”

“Consorting? I’m not-”

“Okay, fine.” Mirai huffed, impatient. “Why are you fucking villains-”

Hawks made a noise like a car trying to restart. This was going well.

(In which Nighteye survives, inadvertently discovers a conspiracy, emotionally adopts a small child and an utter dipshit, and fights the Hero Commission in hand to hand combat…completely by accident)

crack and humor

Reddit, AITA? by nocturnalgf (~9k)

I (23M) faked my own death when I was 13. WIBTA if I didn’t tell my boyfriend?

Ownership meant a physical copy. Now you own nothing and can't find what you want across multiple streaming platforms.

The request is so urgent my boss needs it by the end of the work week. Which, y'know, is 5 PM on a Friday. So I have four hours to do it.

It's a forwarded request. Somebody contacted a member of the donation team asking for help, "I need a map from the Vietnam War to use for a presentation." It's somebody she's trying to coax into giving a five figure donation to the museum.

The request was asked to the donation team member, who then emailed my boss, who then emailed and called me urgently.

This map required:

North and South Vietnam in it

All four areas that South Vietnam was divided into for military purposes ('Corps') clearly delineated

Four cities, all of them horrifically misspelled, and only identifiable because I know what battle the requester is asking about (it’s in III Corps on the border with Cambodia) (the requester danced around the battle but I’m knowledgeable enough to identify it)

Has Laos and Cambodia in it

Has the Ho Chi Minh Trail in it

So. I was mad about the 'you have literally four hours to find a map with a lot of requirements.'

I was then mad at myself about finding a copyright free map from Texas Tech University within half an hour, proving her right for asking me to do it.

Then, after I found a map that perfectly met the requirements, I was equally amazed, baffled, and horrified when I read further into the forwarded email chain.

The donation team team member they were speaking to used AI to generate a map.

The above put half of North Vietnam in South Vietnam, made the Ho Chi Minh Trail a country, made 60% of Cambodia part of South Vietnam, put the DMZ extremely high up in North Vietnam, completely disconnected the southern tip of Vietnam, misplaced all of the Corps zones, etc etc

At the very last second the donation team member had a moment of divine clarity, remembering there's three historians on payroll to ask for this kind of thing from. So she contacted my boss while saying, "I had fun with this, but I decided I should check for accuracy before I send it to the donor! I need a fact check by the end of the day, then I send it"

My boss, while not the most knowledgeable on the Vietnam War, does know her geography. She took one look, and knew it was so off she called me to tell me how urgent it is that I look at the email and respond

Because they do go together. Once someone has adopted the attitude of "it's Mostly Fine", especially if they're doing this for time-saving purposes, then they stop reading it to check if it actually matches the assignment.

Me? I just got Dark Mage. Honestly, it's pretty rare, but the job opportunities are also limited. You either get into covert assassination or dungeon raiding.

God, just because we're the only two kids in The Village, Emmerich Holyblade automatically assumes this makes us friends. He doesn't even realize I hate him and his stupid smug swordsman ass.

The tank Ferron Shieldson gives me bro fists hard enough to bruise. Sister Savantha Healier has tripped over her habit ten times in the past hour.

Outside of combat, I've done a lot of very invisible low-tier work nobody really needs, such as managing all of our finances and inventory, yet they keep fucking including me and praising my efforts when they're having a drink at the tavern.

Our reputation really soared when we stopped one of the Four Demonic Kings of the East North South and West from destroying Capital City of the Holy Church Kingdom Nation.

Emmerich Holyblade insists my 70% Paralysis Debuff clutched the entire encounter despite dealing the Super Cool Omega Finisher, so everyone's asking me for autographs.

Shouldn't he know I hate social interaction if he claims to be my "childhood friend"?? LEAVE ME ALONE.

He said I'm invaluable to this party both as part of our battle plans, our day-to-day tasks, and as his "dearest companion". GROSS!!!

Doesn't he realize this was the PERFECT chance for me to disappear to another country???

Except Elfsdame Woodsworth might be the Holy Nature Origin Princess, or something. I wasn't really paying attention to her dramatic backstory.

After we killed the Holy Nature Origin King (who was really one of the Four Demonic Kings of the East North South and West in disguise), Elfsdame Woodsworth the beautiful elf archer huntress just kinda gave us the sword.

It's sunset right now, and I climbed a tree to just overlook the forest in peace, ALONE, except Emmerich Holyblade "knew I'd do something like this", so now he's HERE. HE ALWAYS DOES THIS!!!!

Blergh. Now we're watching the sun set over the whole Holy Kingdom Church Nation. It's pretty, but that dumbass Emmerich Holyblade isn't even looking at it. Idiot.

We've reached the Demon Lord of Darkness's Dark Demonic Castle Keep now, and we're striking tomorrow.

It's my last chance to quit if I don't want to beef it tomorrow (I do not trust Ferron Shieldson to shield me), but Emmerich Holyblade said he can't do it without me. HE, singular?? So everybody else can do it without me??

And to make matters worse, he said he'd tell me something after we beat the Demon Lord of Darkness. Why the hell tell me you're gonna tell me something??? Just tell me in the first place so I can ditch.

And besides, as if anyone could actually kill the goddamn Chosen Hero Sword Saint. At the very least, he's gonna survive tomorrow. Doesn't he realize how stupidly contrived his powerset is?? Dude, as IF.

I told him that, and he ran off. I'm never going to understand him.

But mainly I was just standing in the back. Debuffing is a crazy magic drain, so I did get super tired, but the most exciting thing I was involved with was when Sister Savantha Healier's Evil Twin threw her weapon at me in a last ditch attempt to take at least one of us down, but Emmerich Holyblade intercepted it. With his body.

Sister Savantha Healier just healed him after, though, so it's fine. I might've been mincemeat had that hit my squishy self. I'm a proud backliner, okay. But it was still pretty stupid and unnecessary, considering we have Phoenix Blessing Revival Potion Stones.

Everybody weakened the Demon Lord of Darkness with their own strikes, so Emmerich Holyblade could finish him off properly with the holy sword Swordexcaliburn.

Before he did, he looked at me with these fucking... star-filled eyes and bright smile, which made everybody else also look at me, which made the Demon Lord of Darkness laugh, so I just nodded at Emmerich Holyblade to go kill the fucking Demon Lord of Darkness already.

God, that took so long. I'm taking a vacation. I'm disappearing into a forest without any elves in it and never talking to another person ever again.

E-Emmerich Holyblade, well, he.