Gravity's Burn
by seabhactine is a My Hero Academia Dabi x Hawks fanfic.
The fic tells the realistic believable story of Hawks have fallen in love with Dabi during the course of his undercover operation.
This Fanfic Contains the Tropes of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Dabi and Hawks give each other this as a walk-around of the three words they desperately want to say to each other. Which makes it heartbreaking when Dabi didn’t use the nicknames just before the betrayal. At their reunion, Touya used the nicknames but as a venomous, with just a teeny tiny bit of care, he still has for him tinge.
- From Dabi to Hawks: Pretty Bird, little bird, angel, sweetbird, dove, Kei
- From Hawks to Dabi: Dabs.
- Am I Just a Toy to You?: A variation. Touya has been overlooked so many times that being chosen first was something he wanted. Touya even said that Hawks used him and Keigo said that Dabi used him too to fuel his anti-hero establishment video. Keigo will always maintain what Dabi and Hawks have been and are real but Touya and Keigo can make it last just as Dabi and Hawks wanted to. The author confirms Touya sometimes entertains the idea that the romance was real but squashed it down.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Keigo finally confessed his love for Touya at the reunion. Touya was desperate at the time to not and to actually believe him. Keigo stated it many times after the first one, starting Touya. He and Touya knows that the latter returns the feelings so it’s inevitable Touya will finally say it back.
- Big Fancy House: Hawks’ Fukuoka penthouse. It was a place the Commission gave him and until Dabi, he saw it less as a home but as a place to sleep in and eat the prepared dietary meals by the Commission with art, furniture, and books he never picked out; even if he bought several books on his own, he never read it. Everything in that house was picked out for what looks like a fabulous house instead of what Keigo would’ve chosen or even liked which he doesn’t even know. The occasional maids are spies from the Commission too. After meeting Dabi and Dabi breaking into his apartment in January, the place transformed into a domestic life Keigo and Touya can call their own temporarily before they run away. Touya has a bedside, open books still on tables, the fact they had sex nearly everywhere, a drawer that is still filled with his clothes that had cut into them for Keigo’s wings… After the betrayal, all Keigo can see is Touya and Touya’s place in his heart at the apartment.
- Broken Pedestal: Due to being in love with Dabi, he saw Endeavor was cut from the exact same cloth as his father and it broke the illusion that Endeavor wanted to save people when Endeavor cared less and wanted the glory.
- Callback:
- To their first meeting and their reunion, Keigo smacks Touya in the face in response to what Touya said provocatively.
- The titular gravity's burn. It was first brought up in a conversation after one of their first sexual encounters and brought up again at the betrayal.
- “You won’t hurt me” Even though Keigo knows Touya can and will hurt him at their reunion, he hoped to bring back memories of the first time he set an ice bath for Dabi and the ensuing conversation.
- Child Soldier: Hawks and Dabi hate this. Hawks would be the Atlas if he can prevent other children, particularly his replacement, from never doing what he has to do. He only took in Tokoyami to learn about the USJ incident and didn't mean to get attached. He was horrified to see Tokoyami interrupt and save him from Dabi and blamed himself immensely for that. Keigo soon sees Touya in this light too as neither expected to live long for their missions.
- Destroy the Abusive Home: Keigo requested Touya to burn the Takami house down for Keigo’s rebirth. Hawks haven’t visited the house in a long time and this is the first time he stepped in it. Keigo actually fantasized the house going up in flames and was delighted to see it as catharsis.
- Dirty Business: Like his predecessor Lady Nagant, Hawks was a black op and assassin for the Commission. The Commission convinced him that it was all for the greater good. After his first kill, he cannot stop seeing the blood. It was practiced repression to the point he was initially able to justify Jin’s murder prior to committing it.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The author confirmed that they wanted to write a believable reconciliation between two ex-lovers who are genuinely in love with each other. The author made it clear writing the ending is for her so she can discuss the runaway/post-war headcanons freely.
- Elopement: The author confirmed that Touya and Keigo will elope as part of their endgame.
- First Love: Both Keigo and Touya are each other’s first loves. Keigo and Touya thinks they are made for each other as soulmates, given how they just fit.
- His Quirk Lives On: After the betrayal, to feel and keep the phantom of Dabi close to him, particularly his kisses, Keigo smoked Touya’s favorite brand of cigarettes and drank his favorite expensive hard liquor.
- Honey Trap: What the PLF certainly thought so after the betrayal. Because Dabi was one of theirs and they won’t ruin Dabi’s image for falling for such a scheme, the PLF officers and civilians never said a word. The Commission, while knowing about the affair, never said a word other than the ashtrays and cigarettes at the penthouse they admonished him for. After the betrayal, Dabi believed the entire romance was a lie. While Hawks did lie to Dabi and Keigo admits it, Keigo made it clear to Touya several times that their entire thing was his choice.
- Humble Goal: Both Keigo and Touya shared a dream of a seaside cottage of their own where the sky meets the sea. Before meeting each other, that dream never came to mind.
- Killed Off for Real: Twice/Jin. The author confirmed the entire story was so to write what if Dabi and Hawks have fallen in love yet Hawks still chose to kill Twice.
- Lost Love Montage: Well flashbacks. After the betrayal, Keigo looks back on his romance with Touya, knowing in his heart and soul that every romantic domestic thing they done together are genuine.
- Must Make Amends: After seeing Touya's broadcast, Keigo realized what a mistake he made in choosing Japan over Dabi was that he should've chosen Dabi. He knows that he won't be forgiven by the League nor expect forgiveness from them. He was honestly surprised that Touya was willing to hear him out and didn't kill him immediately as his friends particularly Toga will be more forward to trying to kill him immediately. Seeing the kids wanting to save the League, he sees them as real heroes than he and the old generation ever was as he has processed Jin's murder and what he should've done to understand.
- Mythical Motifs: Aside from the Icarus Allusion for both Hawks and Dabi, Dabi and Hawks later called the latter to be Atlas. In fact, Dabi didn't want Hawks to be Atlas and to shoulder the burdens of the world when he doesn't have to. That he's not Atlas.
- "Not So Different" Remark: In his narration. Not only did Keigo realize he was really similar to Dabi, he began to see that he was no different from Endeavor and his own father. He was a killer like his dad and he beat down what could’ve been his own Found Family with the said family unwilling or never forgiving him for his crime. That he let Touya down just as Endeavor and the old generation had let him down before. He can now see that he can’t run from the monsters that made him but that doesn’t mean that he can’t take back what was ripped from him.
- It was the similarity to Dabi that he sees that he can understand him in ways that even Shouto could.
- Official Couple: Dabi x Hawks/Touya x Keigo.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Hawks have one-night stands prior to Dabi and the sex didn’t fill the void that it was supposed to. That is until he met Dabi. Likewise, Dabi tried sex out for similar reasons and found it didn’t fill either until he met Hawks. When the two met, there was an instant spark that remained Unresolved Sexual Tension until the last three months at the Gunga Villa and Hawks’ penthouse where they fell in love hard and fast. The author confirms they are demiromantic Demi/homosexual.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Hawks and Dabi. A hero and a villain split apart by the law and the ideologies they adhered for the goals they spent over a decade for. Keigo knows that the only thing stopping them now after their reconciliation was the entire world. He knows he’ll be declared a traitor no matter how much he wanted to set rights to the wrongs just by choosing Touya. He doesn’t regret it one bit.
