my roman empire is Hawkins living his life in fear till the end and making "bad" decisions that would eventually keep him "safe" Because his fear has somewhere completely overtaken his life to the point that no amount of power he has or chases will free him from it and in fact puts him in a deeper spiral of fear. My roman empire is that Hawkins never had internal homophobia because he was never ashamed of who he is but instead it was the fear of the time that he lived in. His fear helped him cope with his childhood trauma but eventually engulfed him despite him being one of the ONLY characters who said that he wants 'complete personal freedom' and him being the ONLY character who never got it throughout the series because of his fear. His fear trapped him, he ended up caging himself while others chose to set themselves free. And yes, it took him Tim's death to finally let go of that fear but what matters is, in the end, he freed himself. That's my roman empire.
Hawk leaving all of his things at the hospital when Skippy was sick because he stayed there with him full time. The same Hawk who after Lucy had Jackson, went home to shower and was not present like that for her. If he wanted to he would, but he never had that love for Lucy even when she gave him a child, so he never did.