𝗙 𝗔 𝗟 𝗟 𝗜 𝗡 𝗚 （ｔｏｇｅｔｈｅｒ）

05. 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠

"Ya know... you never told me what your quirk was." Hawks observed.

I had to go back to work painfully early today. My requested sick days were up, and I really couldn't risk being fired, so when the supervisor 'asked' me to come in extra early, I knew that meant I had to be there. Which sucked extra bad considering me and Keigo stayed up till 3am playing board games, most of which I won. He's a sore loser. On the plus side, Hawks also had to head out to patrol early, so I'd made both of us some breakfast with the very few groceries that Jeanist had kindly sent over.

"You never asked," I retorted. "Don't you think you should at least know what a strangers capable of before you let them into your home?"

A confused face resembling that of a cartoon spread across his sharp face, softening it a bit. His eyebrow shot up, as one of his vermillion feathers went to steal a piece of bacon from my plate.

"Quit it! But besides, I don't have one. A quirk, that is." I said, poking at my food with my fork.

It was a touchy subject for me, but I did say I'd talk to him about my problems. I was the only one in my family that didn't have one. My other siblings went on to become doctors, surgeons, pilots. Hell, even my brother Itakei was successful, being assistant to a corporate heir. All because they had quirks that fit those areas perfectly. But while they were busy being successful and making money, I was stuck living paycheck to paycheck in a job that really could not care less about my well being.

"Stop being all pouty," he told me once he had finally reached a pause in his conquest to devour every last bite of food on his plate, and mine, apparently. With a mouth half full, he questioned, "Quend yew fwind oght yew dibdet hab a wirk?"

A sigh left my lips, finally giving in to his questions. "Well, when I was seven, my mom got pissed that I still hadn't manifested one, so she took me to the doctor." I collected his empty dish off the table, taking mine as well as I headed towards the sink. "They said I only had one joint in my pinky toe, so I was probably just a late bloomer." I could feel Keigos eyes on me, hanging on to my every word.

"Soooo, you do have a quirk then." The blond assumed.

I began to wash and dry the dishes, hearing Hawks creep up behind me afterwards. "Eh, well my mom made me go through tons of professional tests to try to activate it or figure out what it was, but nothing happened. It never showed up."

"Hm," he began, looking out of the window, as if to search for an answer. "Say, do you want me to fly you to work?" He propped himself on the counter, as though it was a casual question with an obvious answer.

"No way in hell."

Is what I thought he'd take as an answer. But seeing as how we were now mid-air, I was mistaken. He kept on insisting, saying I'd be late if I walked, and how he gets cold during flight, despite his heavy jacket, and needed someone to keep him warm. Nonsense like that.

Hawks dropped me off on the office rooftop, the same one I'd taken a dive off of two days ago, which was almost as painfully ironic as the day was long. I think being back here proved that taking a break and meeting Keigo was good for me, since it had almost made me forget how awfully boring my job was. It was just paperwork after paperwork, a bit of revising and writing reports here and there, but that was as much diversity as I got.

At one point during the day I'd gone on lunch, deciding to get some (F/F) from the place across the street. It was busy as always, teens and lovebirds crowding the sidewalk, traffic hectic as ever. It seemed like a normal day, but in the distance small explosions could be heard. People became frantic and started running, a natural response, but I just sat there, comfortable in my seat, content as could be. A full belly was all I seemed to need.

Everything calmed down in a couple minutes, as it always does, and the rustling and bustling settled down to a comfortable pace again. I decided to return back to work, though tempted to quit just to get away from the tediousness of it all. From the floor which my desk was stationed, I could see the smoke clearing in the distance. I had heard from a coworker that also did publicity for a hero talk about mysterious creatures randomly attacking certain places was being covered up by the heroes. Wonder if it's one of those. I couldn't help but wonder if Hawks was the one who'd saved the day over at the site of the crime. I mean, he always seemed to be on top of things, and he was always there when someone needed help. I'm a prime example of that.

Hours passed, the six o'clock sun shining atop my desk that signaled for me to go home finally appearing. It was then that I realized I have zero idea where Hawks lives. The time he first flew me in, I was too busy thrashing around and telling to 'hurry up and drop me' to remember the route we took.

I didn't know what room or floor he was on, hell the closest thing I knew to what building he was in is the view of the complexes surrounding it. I trudged my way up to the office rooftop, hoping to pass some time that I would otherwise spend overthinking. 'Maybe Hawks will come get me' I thought, but brushed it off quickly, reminding myself of how busy he was with his hero work.

Just as I began to lose all hope of clearing my mind of this unforeseen problem, a little red feather popped out from my bag beside me. That bastard, I told him to not spy on me at work, but despite my wishes he must've slipped Franklin into my bag when I wasn't looking. I turned to the side to face it squarely. "What do you want, Hawks?"

It gave me a quick poke on the cheek in response, before backing up to the distance it was before. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, and again it poked my cheek. And again, and again. Alternating between its cheek of choice, the little bundle of vermillion had its fun.

"Look, can you just, lead me back to the apartment? Please?" I pleaded, knowing he'd be sassy if I didn't ask nicely. But alas, the feather still shook its nonexistent head at me. I let out an exasperated 'ugh.' "Why not?"

It straightened its self, pointing directly behind me. As I turned to see what it was motioning at, there he was, wings sprawled out in all their glory as he landed gracefully among the cement, mischievous smile spread across his face. "Missed me?" He teased.