By 11 PM, the city had turned quiet.

In this silence, Meiko thrived. Usually, she would be walking around the city, for night patrols, but tonight she stayed in the office at her agency. Ryu, Ichika and Kagura had long left for their homes and only she had stayed behind.

Well, it wasn't like she was going to go anywhere else since she lived just a block away from her agency, in an apartment building that was a little isolated. It would barely take her a minute to get back home if she used her star form. 

Meiko got up from her chair and stretched her arms. Wandering over to the sole window in her office, she stared out, eyes scanning the familiar sights. Almost all buildings were shrouded in darkness, with only the light coming from the lamp posts giving a little amount of visibility on the street. It was dark and it just looked utterly lonely. 

'Lonely like me, huh?' She thought with a sad smile. 

Shaking her head, Meiko turned back to stare at her office, which was lit up quite brightly. It was such a strangely decorated place, with random stuff scattered across all the walls. One entire wall was dedicated to news articles and posters made about her. It was rather pretentious to have something like that on display, but Meiko was damn proud of everything she had done so far and the wall also served as a great mood booster. 

The pale blue walls of this office and the rest of the agency were like home to her.

Meiko sighed. She really needed to get some rest, but first paperwork had to be done. She walked back to her desk, and stared at the open files that were scattered all over it. A few of them were old reports she was catching up on, but the one at the top was the current case she was working on. 

It was a simple drug smuggling case and tomorrow would be the day Meiko, along with Ichika and Ryu, put in a raid on the warehouse of the people behind this. But that was all meant for tomorrow. She turned off the desk lamp and walked to the other side of the desk, grabbing a small bag that hung from opposing chairs. It was time to go home.

"You can never be subtle, can you?"

Meiko looked at the half-destroyed warehouse gate, then looked at the gang behind the drug ring (all of them with heavy bruises) being led away by the police into armored trucks, looked back at the destroyed gate and then looked at Ichika. 

"Not really," She answered with a shrug. "Subtlety is overrated in the world of heroes. If you wanna..."

"Make your mark, you need to elaborate and extra," Ryu interrupted, finishing her sentence with a grin. "Yeah, we know. You've said this many times."

"Too many times, in fact," Ichika also added.

"Have I now?" Meiko thought with a contemplative look as the trio walked to the detective in charge. Lucky for them, the raid had gone off without a hitch and the gang hadn't even seen them coming. Plus and maybe she was going a little harsh here, their quirks were terrible matchups for her and her sidekicks. Ichika took particular pleasure in using her chains to bind them. 

"Ahh, Astra," The detective, a tall, brown-haired man, turned away from his conversation with some other officers. "Thank you so much for your help today. We couldn't have caught these guys without you."

Meiko bowed her head in acknowledgement, offering him a kind smile. "You don't have to thank me for this. It's my duty. Besides, these guys weren't much of a challenge anyway."

"Even so," The detective spoke, polite and formal. "Please take my thanks. And same to you two as well." He added, looking at Ryu and Ichika. They bowed, almost in sync.

"Before I forget detective, let them know," Meiko motioned towards her two sidekicks, who gave her curious looks. "If there's any paperwork we have to fill out."

"I'll leave everything to you both," She added, speaking to Ryu and Ichika. "I'm off to do some solo patrol." She had already started to pull her bright, golden starlight around her. 

"Hey wait!" Ichika called out, as the starlight took form around Meiko's body. The detective had stepped backwards, away from the brightness and it looked like the other officers' attention was also on her. "Astra, you're supposed to finish the paperwork from last week."

"Isn't that why I have you both?" Meiko answered with a wink. "That was a joke, by the way. I'll do it when I get back to the agency." 

The starlight now surrounded her completely, covering her body till she was just a mere speck in the light. This was her star form and though she couldn't maintain it for more than ten minutes at a time, it was still convenient for travelling to places. With a wave of her hand, she became starlight itself. And soon, she was soaring into the sky, getting further away from the scene of the raid. 

Even in the blue sky with the sun shining bright, her starlight was also quite bright. Travelling in star form always gave her a fantastic view and no one ever would suspect that the speck of light travelling through the sky was her. Not unless she reformed in front of them. That was one of the best parts about her quirk.

Meiko sighed in contentment. Seeing the hustle-bustle of the city like this was oddly relaxing. The odd ambience of loud honking cars, mixed with sounds of screeching birds along with all the sounds that came with living in such a big city, was something she loved feeling as she flew above it all. 

She looked ahead. Fukuoka Tower was coming right up. It would be a good place to take a pause, she thought. With a determined look, she put a little force behind her starlight and propelled herself to the top of the tower. There was no place to land; only a metallic, net-like structure was present, covering up antennas and satellite dishes. 

In a single breath, Meiko pulled back all the starlight, letting herself take a step on the metal structure. From here, the view was beautiful. But it would be even more so, during the night. Though no stars were visible in the night sky, the inky darkness, as lonely as it was, was sometimes very comforting. Many-a-times, she had found herself completely lost in thought as she stared at the moon. 

The starlight surrounding her was completely gone as she got settled on the structure, staring out at the city. 

Meiko wondered if her parents ever thought about this, about the sheer beauty that you got see sometimes, being a hero. But then again, they had never understood why she had wanted to be in this field, rather than their silly corporate jobs. She was overworked, sure. But at least, she didn't have to slave for hours behind a desk like her lawyer parents had. At least, Meiko was glad she wasn't speaking to them anymore. 

Though, there was nothing more she wanted than for them to recognize her as a hero. But that was...irrelevant. Her parents were irrelevant in the life she was living. 

"Ah, Astra! This is not the place I expected to find you." 

Meiko didn't wanna look. The second she had heard the voice, she had known who it was. And in hindsight, she should have suspected that the winged idiot could easily spot her, given that this was one of the tallest spots in the city and he could easily reach it. 

'I could ignore him. I should ignore him, but that idiot won't leave me alone then,' Meiko thought, mentally groaning at the prospect of having a conversation with Hawks.  

"And why is that?" Meiko asked, in answer to Hawks' question. "Don't tell me you forget that I can fly too."

"You just seem more like the type to like their feet to be on solid ground."

Meiko smirked playfully. "That's where you're wrong about me, bird boy. My quirk involves the stars. Why would I not want to be in the sky?"

"Don't call me that," Hawks sent her an annoyed look, and somehow even the way his wings were acting like they were annoyed.

"And what do you want me to call you?" She asked, lightly teasing. "Because I have a lot of nicknames that I could use."

"Why don't you just call me Hawks? That's my hero name."

"Yeah, no. Nicknames are more fun."

"Then I'm gonna call you a nickname too!"

"Go on, I'd like to her what your tiny bird brain can come up with."

"Hey!" Hawks lightly shoved her with his dazzling red wings. She shoved him in return. This was quite unlike their early meetings, when both of them had gotten along quite well. Now, whenever they faced each other, there was always an underlying sense of animosity between the two. Though, if you had to ask, most of it stemmed from Meiko.

"You're mean," Hawks said with a mildly annoyed look, pushing up his visor. "You weren't like this before."

"I've always been like this," Meiko said, twirling one of her stray hairs between her fingers. "Maybe you don't know me that well."

"I'd like to get to know you well, sweetheart," Hawks looked at her with a smirk, the same one he used to charm the hell out of his fans. 

Meiko rolled her eyes. That smirk would never have any effect on her. "If that's your attempt at a nickname, then you've already failed. And you're terrible at flirting, no wonder you don't have a relationship."

"There's a lot more where that came from."

"Oh please," Meiko threw her head back and laughed. "I bet I could do better."

Before she could say anything, the quiet comms in her ears spluttered to life. Kagura's voice was full of urgency. 'Bank robbery near...hostages...'

That was all she needed to hear. Meiko looked at Hawks. His expression had also changed, getting slightly serious. 

"You get the same news?" She asked, as she stretched her arms, preparing to use her star form once more. 

"Yeah," Hawks answered, as he pulled down his visor to cover his eyes. "Bank robbery and there's hostages involved."

Starlight was beginning to surround her. "Let's go then. Time to do our jobs."

In all other situations, Meiko would not have asked Hawks to come with her. But this was a hostage situation and her quirk was a little on the destructive side. Hawks, with his Fierce Wings, was a lot more suitable for rescuing those hostages and she was more suited to attacking the villains.

"Right you are."

Being heroes could definitely make even the biggest rivals work together. 

*

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HAWKS AND ASTRA TEAM UP AND SAVE THE DAY AS THEY STOP A BANK ROBBERY

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I'm so sorry for the lack of updates for this story! I've not really written a lot in the past month because of a lot of reasons, but especially because I've been really burnt out because of college and other stuff. But I rewatched BNHA recently and I thought I'd quickly whip up this chapter because I had this outline. And hopefully, in the next few days, I'll have an update for my Todoroki fic ready to be posted.

Also, can we talk about Hawks and his earrings?? Like hello sir 😳😳

Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter! Please let me know your thoughts in the comments!!