Winds of Destiny: Falling ~ {Hawks x OC}

Chapter Eighteen: Opportunities

Misaki stormed out of her bedroom in a huff, throwing her arms up over her head as she called out in irritation, "This is ridiculous! I feel fine! I haven't had a fever in twelve hours!"

She spun around, blowing her nose as she glared at her boyfriend who had followed her out of the bedroom. He'd caught her calling the office to tell them that she would be coming into work today and he'd snatched the phone away from her before promptly ending the call.

She hadn't even known that he was in the apartment. Not that she was trying to sneak around him or anything, but she knew that he'd been going out somewhere periodically while she'd been sleeping over the past two days. She figured he was probably doing some work around the Tokyo area while he was in town watching over her. He'd already been on his way out the door when she'd woken up a little over an hour ago. After taking her temperature, she'd determined that she felt well enough to head back into work and had headed into the bathroom to take a shower before calling the office. Apparently, Hawks had returned at some point while she'd been getting ready to leave and had taken issue with her undermining his nursing to decide her own level of wellness.

"I'm not signing off on you until you've been fever free for over twenty-four. No buts." He cut her off when she started to protest.

She threw her head back against her shoulders dramatically and groaned, "I'm so bored!"

He walked right past her into the kitchen. "Watch TV, read a book, knit a sweater. I don't really care. But you're not going back to work today. Get over it."

"Ugh! Fine," she snapped, sniffing before collapsing heavily onto the couch.

She'd been out sick for almost three days and she didn't even want to think about how much work she'd have to catch up on when she got back. Pursing her lips, she grumpily reached out for the remote and turned on the television.

"—welcomes you to the live annual broadcast of the UA Sports Festival!" A cheerful voice erupted from the television a moment later.

"Was that today?" Hawks asked as he walked into the living room, tossing an apple up and down in his hand as he looked over at the screen.

Still pouting, Misaki shrugged and folded her knees up into her chest before crossing her arms over them and resting her chin on top. "I just turned on the news channel and that's what came up. You didn't know about it? I thought a lot of pro heroes used the UA Sports Festival to recruit interns for their agencies?"

"I never bothered with that," he replied in a dry tone as he flopped down onto the couch next to her and propped his feet up on the coffee table. "I'm not really one for training the next generation."

Reached back, he flipped one of his shorter feathers between his fingers and sliced off a piece of the apple before holding it out to her.

She reached out to take it while casting him a sidelong glance. "It's not just about training them. You'd be offering them real world experience observing a professional in the career field they've chosen to pursue, while you get to evaluate firsthand if they would be a future asset to your agency when they graduate."

He stared at her wryly from the corner of his eye, slowly taking a bite of the piece of apple he'd cut off for himself as he drawled, "You're really starting to sound like a Safety Commission employee."

She returned his wry glance with one of her own as she reached out to the side table for a tissue. "Well, sorry for taking my job seriously."

"You're supposed to be relaxing, Misa-chan, not working," he told her in a lightly reproving tone as he leaned his head back and tossed the rest of the piece of apple into his mouth.