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The sky is clear, the grass is wet with dew, and Keigo is just, like, absolutely done with today.
Oh, don’t get him wrong—it all started pretty well. Early morning Quidditch practice against Gryffindor always has him riding high. Even if only because Gryffindor Beater Rumi Usagiyama’s friendly attempts to bludgeon his head in make for a really cinematic impression on the few first-years who gather to watch infamous Slytherin Seeker Keigo “Hawks” Takami in action. She even knocked him into the dirt once today, and the ensuing scuffle left them both benched for the rest of practice for foul play. They’d sat on the bleachers and shared a muffin gifted by one of Keigo’s fans.
No, the day overall has been pretty good. Keigo’s consternation on this particularly fine afternoon is only to do with his extracurricular assignment.
It’s not every day that your Ministry-appointed guardian sends you an encrypted letter via owl essentially telling you to join the school gang. Apparently, they might be connected to the terrorist organization known as the League of Villains, run by the dark wizard All For One. Keigo had spent all of breakfast decoding the letter, and the sense of accomplishment upon doing so had pretty much vanished when he got to his orders, followed by a thinly veiled, “—if you still want to work as an auror upon graduation, that is.”
The rest of the day felt like a blur of dread after that, and it’s just Keigo’s luck that he shakes off the haze in time for his least favorite class.
“Today,” growls Professor Ryo, patting the flank of the scariest horse-bird creature that Keigo’s ever seen, “we will be learning about Hippogryphs, and you’ll be meetin’ Breezebill.”
Like every other time winged creatures are brought up, all eyes in the class unanimously turn to Keigo. He keeps staring forward, smiling placidly, and politely resists asking if the class is ever going to go over Clabberts or other ape-like animals.
“Now, y’should’ve already done your readin’ ‘bout these ahead of time, and I hope for yer sake that you did,” Professor Ryo goes on, heedless of his class’s attention as usual. “Because if you didn’t, well—you might be leavin’ class today with one or two fewer fingers.”
That effectively pulls his classmates’ attention back towards their professor, and Keigo finally lets his smile wilt a little.
Truth be told, he’s pretty interested in learning about Hippogryphs. He’d read in their homework assignment that some people can ride them and fly together. Apparently it’s harder to maneuver one than a broom, but they’re also a lot safer and more powerful at high altitudes. Trouble is, that interest is exactly what everyone expects of Keigo.
“Psst,” someone hisses at him, before a bony elbow prods into Keigo’s side. Oh, great. It’s tall, dark, and congenitally-a-jerk. “Veela kid. Think you can get me on that thing’s good side so it doesn’t eat my arm?”
Normally, Keigo would laugh, run a hand through his hair, and wave the whole situation off like one big joke. He’s good at that sort of thing: playing the jester and yanking the rug out from people who think they have one over him. He’s not one of the most popular guys in school for nothing, and it’s not because of any veela-related charm.
Honestly, he kind of wishes that the insinuations some people make about the effect of his mother’s heritage were true. Veela charm seems like it would make his life a whole lot easier, especially now that he’s been ordered to ingratiate himself with the likes of Tomura Shigaraki. Instead, all he got was a deadbeat run-away traitor of a father, a Ministry guardianship, and the extremely inconvenient tendency to turn part-bird when he’s keyed up.
Unfortunately for him, this is Touya Todoroki, and Todoroki gets under his skin like nobody else can. Maybe it’s the lack of shits the guy clearly gives. Nobody even likes him, except maybe the gang of misfits (and apparently potential terrorists) he hangs out with, because he’s an asshole. He keeps to himself except to make pointed remarks about anybody he deems to be too full of themselves, and anybody trying to reach out to him is liable to get their head bitten off. At first Keigo thought it was because he was afraid of getting bullied for his scars, but the guy’s so edgy that Keigo’s surprised he hasn’t cut himself on it yet. Keigo is not overly shocked that the Ministry pinned him as “connected to All For One”.
The dislike is clearly mutual, as Keigo has been a regular target of Todoroki’s stupid quips ever since he made Slytherin Seeker in second year. Keigo never even realized that he was on Todoroki’s shitlist until he reached out a hand in friendship and...
Well. Nearly got it bitten off.
“C’mon,” Todoroki goads under his breath as Professor Ryo explains how to approach the Hippogryph, grinning so widely that the scars stretch around his lips in a way that looks deeply uncomfortable. “Just give it a squawk or something, ‘Hawks’. Flap your wings and see if it works as a mating dance.”
“Didn’t think you were that interested in seeing me mating, mate.” Keigo mutters, shifting away.
Todoroki’s smirk widens, as it does every time Keigo takes the bait. He leans in, swiping a finger along the back of Keigo’s neck, where baby feathers are starting to bristle up under his skin. “Well, it’s how your people do it, isn’t it, bird?”
Keigo’s spine stiffens, eye widening as his face flushes in surprise. “Bird” is hardly the most offensive thing he’s been called, but the double meaning in how Todoroki says it combined with the cool finger trailing down his neck—surely the guy running around in leather pants isn’t actually about to get on Keigo’s case for his orientation—
“Ah, Mr. Takami, Mr. Todoroki,” says Professor Ryo loudly. Keigo freezes, the surprise sending a frisson of feathers prickling down his back that bodes ill for his plans to not do freaky bird things in the middle of a class about freaky bird creatures. “How nice of you to volunteer to go first. Up you go, then. Since you’re so familiar with the material that you don’t need the review.”
Todoroki pales a smidgeon, and Keigo grins weakly at Professor Ryo. For once, Keigo’s in luck: As the crowd of their classmates parts for the two unlucky Slytherins, Keigo manages to fall behind and Professor Ryo waves Todoroki through first.
Actually, Todoroki is looking really pale. Rightfully so, as Breezebill the Hippogryph eyes him warily and scuffs a hoof against the ground in warning as Todoroki approaches...
And approaches...
And keeps approaching the Hippogryph, hands wound tight at his sides like he’s planning on fistfighting the thing as he marches forward without so much as a perfunctory bow of respect.
Breezebill click-clacks its beak, scraping large furrows into the ground with its front claws as its feathers puff up, nearly doubling the creature’s size.
“Todoroki!” Keigo cries out at the same time as Professor Ryo, but both of them have underestimated Todoroki’s stubbornness. He takes one more step, and the Hippogryph, fed up with his heedless procession, lunges. So does Professor Ryo, whipping out his wand as he tries to dive for his student, but Todoroki has moved too far: he’s out of Professor Ryo’s reach, not even a meter short of the animal he’s aggravated. Breezebill rears back, and its deadly talons are sure to rend Todoroki’s flesh long before Professor Ryo can save him.
Keigo gets there first.
He slams bodily into Todoroki’s side, shoving him out of the way as the Hippogryph’s claws scour a deep wound into the turf where Todoroki had just been standing, and sending the both of them tumbling. Todoroki lands on his back with a curse and a loud whumph of fluttering robes, and Keigo is perched above him on all fours, rattling a sharp, clattering hawk’s cry right into Breezebill’s lowered face.
The Hippogryph stills, silent and glaring over the two of them. Keigo flexes his wings, pulling them into slow, wide arches that tower over even the Hippogryph.
Breezebill takes a step back, watching Keigo. Then it snorts, huffs, and turns to the side, pointedly ignoring the two students with an offended reshuffling of its wings. Professor Ryo finally swoops in, corralling the animal deeper into the forest and away from the rest of the class.
“What the fuuuuuck,” Todoroki whispers from under Keigo as he settles.
His talons shorten, retracting through the holes they’ve poked into his shoes and leaving his hands with nothing but slowly-fading black scaling to explain the claw-marks in the earth around Todoroki’s head. His jaw cracks back into place, throat shifting uncomfortably until regular human speech is more than a distant dream. His wings tuck low, pressing into his back even as they shrink and shed razor-sharp red feathers.
Keigo shoves himself back onto two legs.
“You’ll swallow a fly gaping like that,” he informs Todoroki, wrestling his ruined robes over his head. His shirt didn’t fare much better underneath it, but at least it’s less torn fabric to be toting around. He drops it onto Todoroki’s face.
Everyone is staring, safe behind the Hippogryph pen fence and too afraid to approach. Even Keigo’s housemates are looking at him like he’s a wild beast. He scrubs at the side of his face, scratching out a keratinous scale that is too slow in fading and flicking it to the ground with a spot of blood.
“Fuck that,” comes a muffled complaint, as Todoroki flails his way out from under Keigo’s discarded robes and struggles to his feet. “And fuck you,” Todoroki adds, jabbing a finger at Keigo. Keigo ignores it, focused on arranging his cloak so that it best covers the gaping nothing that the back of his shirt has become. “Why didn’t I know you had something like that tucked up your prissy prefect arse? And what are you lot staring at?”
Todoroki whirls on the rest of his classmates, and it’s a testament to the effect Keigo has had on them that they all flinch back as one.
Todoroki snorts, and quiets down so that only Keigo can hear them.
“Fuck ‘em,” he mutters to Keigo, slinging an arm around his shoulders. Keigo jolts, staring up at Todoroki in surprise. “You don’t need scum like that.”
“Weren’t you the one just calling me ‘veela kid’, Todoroki?” Keigo asks, low and sullen with the sting of his classmates’ stares boring into his back.
Todoroki shrugs, jostling Keigo in the process. “So what? Aren’t you? You can call me scarface if it’ll make ya feel better. Or Dabi. C’mon, bird, don’t tell me you’d rather hang with a bunch of losers that see you as a monster and don’t even think it's cool.”
Keigo bites the inside of his cheek, peering at his class milling about in his periphery. Professor Ryo has returned Breezebill to its temporary enclosure, and is storming back with what is practically a snarl on his face. Their classmates have started to whisper, and Keigo isn’t so far from bird right now that he can’t make out what they’re saying.
“—fuck was that—”
“—even allowed in the school?”
“But he’s normally so handsome—”
Keigo wants to shrug so-called “Dabi”’s arm off and stalk away into the forest. He wants his turn at the Hippogryph, a chance to fly away from all of this shit. He wants... he wants…
Keigo sighs explosively and elbows Dabi in the side.
“Fine,” he says. “But you owe me a new pair of shoes.”
“Oh, screw off.”
That’s one way to win over a key member of the school’s very own League of Villains. Impending status as a social pariah or not, Keigo is first and foremost a professional. He has work to do.