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As he’s always been taught to when not being addressed, Keigo stands to the back corner of the room and simply listens as Nagant gives her report, the officer taking it staring her down with an all-too-familiar look.
“Hawks handled the patrol perfectly,” she says, voice sure and confident, “especially when it came to getting nearby citizens to safety during the attack. I told him to stay out of the fight itself, and he followed that instruction perfectly. The fact that the villain caught him in his Quirk is my own failing, and won’t happen again.”
The officer’s glare hardens for a moment. “Was Hawks failing to keep an eye on the villain while he was actively fighting back?”
“No. He only glanced away for a moment to aid a nearby citizen. I was the one to get distracted and fail to ensure that that moment was safe.”
After a moment of fierce eye contact, the officer gives a sigh, nodding as he notes the last few sentences down on his clipboard. “Very well. The villain’s Quirk is registered as lasting twenty-four hours. Until it wears off, you, Nagant, are relieved of any hero duties you may have, and Hawks is relieved from formal training.”
“Thank you.” With a small bow, the report formally ends, and the officer opens the door.
Nagant meets Keigo’s eyes, nodding her head towards the door as the officer gestures a hand outside.
He follows, steps a bit awkward no matter how hard he tries to make it seem natural. Really, adjusting to a new body is harder than it looks.
Once they’re a ways down the hall, far enough away that the officer won’t be able to hear them, Nagant laughs.
It’s a sound Keigo isn’t used to hearing in his own voice, especially not in his own voice used by another person. He startles for a moment, before registering what it was and moving on. He has a more important question, anyways.
“Why’d you lie in the report?” he asks, voice too high but his for the time being nonetheless. “I wasn’t helping a citizen, and you got distracted trying to get me to stand down.”
“Pff, you know, not everything has to be by-the-book, Keigo,” Nagant responds, Keigo’s voice floatier than he’s used to it being. “Sometimes you bend a story a little. You don’t want to sit through the punishment you get for disobeying your senior’s orders, I can tell you that.”
Keigo blinks. “But I did. Disobey my senior’s orders, I mean.”
“Yeah, I know, but you learned your lesson, right? I mean, look at us.” Nagant gestures between the two of them, wings fluttering a bit awkwardly as she adjusts them.
Keigo runs his hand along his arm, the not-quite-metallic skin at his elbow new and not really comfortable.
“Keigo?”
“Yeah,” he answers, “I did.”
Nagant smiles at him, before turning back to the hall in front of them, turning a corner a few doors before they hit a dead-end. “Hey, if we head back to my place, I found a new chicken dish I think you’ll like.”
Hawks lights up at that, almost-metallic arm not feeling quite so stiff. “Really? Are we allowed to do that?”
“With me, yeah. We’re not working or training, and you deserve to have something nice when you have the time.”
She says that a lot , Keigo thinks, absently, before nodding. “Okay.”
Nagant grins, and Keigo decides that he thinks it might be worth smiling more when he’s back in his own body.
“Let’s go, then!”