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Keigo opens his eyes. The ceiling looks unfamiliar. After a moment, he remembers that he lives in the Hero Public Safety Commission dorm now, then tenses again: it's not that ceiling either. The bed is much larger, too.
After pushing the blankets down, Keigo sits up on the bed. The curtains are slightly opened in the middle, gently letting the light of the rising sun into the room. Just the way he misses at the Commission dorm, with the narrow window that opens right into another office building.
A flash of red on the white sheets catches Keigo's eyes, a feather. He stares. This is clearly a secondary yet it's longer than even the longest primary at his back. His father's feathers never grew that long, and he doesn't know anyone else on that side of the family.
The room is pretty bare. Lots of space for someone with big wings to move around comfortably, though. No photos or anything, just a phone on the bedside that Keigo doesn't know how to unlock. He's not good with technology, not yet. The Commission will teach him soon. He has a lot to catch up on in addition to starting hero training, but he'll do his best.
He moves the blanket away. He's wearing a huge t-shirt and a pair of shorts too big for him. Carefully, he jumps off the bed with only the t-shirt on – it's big enough to cover him anyway – and softens his landing with a flutter of his wings.
His feathers aren't picking up on any sign of anyone else around. He peeks between the curtains quickly – he's up high, surrounded by apartment buildings, nothing he recognises – then safely retreats into the quiet darkness of the room. A wardrobe covers one of the walls and he opens it curiously. Adult-sized clothes of all sorts, some with interesting or shiny textures he runs his fingers against. Behind another door, lots of tan jackets and pants, all the same. It's clearly a hero costume. Large wing holes poke out at the back of all the jackets.
Keigo stares.
While he's sneaking around, his wings are expanded to catch any noise so he doesn't get caught, in case someone returns. So when the phone vibrates and rings on the bedside table, he nearly jumps out of his skin at the loudness. Then, embarrassed by his own reaction, he flies to the device, wondering if he should take the call.
The caller's name is Miruko. There's a picture under it, of a woman with rabbit ears and a hero costume grinning and holding a man with a nest of golden hair and large red wings in a chokehold. The man is laughing. The man is Keigo. It has to be.
Holding the phone between his palms like an offering, Keigo studies the face of the man. He can't remember a time when he looked so relaxed, when he laughed so fully that his eyes closed.
Is this real? Is this him in the future? Is it a big brother who ran away and left him behind? No. His father would have mentioned it, if there had been someone else to hate as much as he hated Keigo.
The phone stops ringing and the picture disappears.
"Ah!"
Keigo looks around again. The room is set up just how he would enjoy it, with a comfortable bed hit by the sun just the right way. This could be an illusion. This could be a body swap with his future self, or him having been thrown into the future, but that seems unlikely. A quirk that worked with time like that would be too powerful, though he's heard quirks will continue to get dangerously stronger and stronger over the generations.
The large t-shirt he's wearing also has wing holes, sized for large wings. Not for his own. What seems more likely is that he's in the future. His future self is a hero – Keigo made it. The Commission didn't have to give up on him. And perhaps he got hit with a quirk that aged him back down to his childhood self, causing him to lose any memory of what comes afterwards. This would likely be temporary, again most quirks aren't that powerful to affect other people with permanent changes. If he's a hero though, this makes him vulnerable, an easy target. He has to keep his adult self safe until the quirk runs its course. Keigo sits on the bed to think.
The phone rings again, showing Miruko's name and that picture again. Could this be a trap? If it was though, whoever placed him in this room already had their chance to hurt him. Why go through the extra trouble?
Keigo hesitates then presses the icon to accept the call. That much he knows.
"Oi, Hawks!" a woman's voice greets. "You can't avoid me that easily!"
Hawks. That is the name the Commission gave him. Keigo isn't fully used to it yet, but that hasn't been a problem because he doesn't get to introduce himself all that often, and never outside of the Commission's facilities so far.
"Miruko-san," Keigo greets awkwardly.
"A kid?" Miruko pauses. "Who are you? How did you get this phone? Where's Hawks?"
Her voice turns suspicious, dangerous, and Keigo should be afraid, careful not to say the wrong thing but... he's happy. Hawks – him, in the future but still, him – has a friend, someone who seems to care when something unusual happens to him.
If he has friends now, maybe he's allowed to ask for help. Right? He looks around. This isn't his life, not his current life. He can take the risk.
"I'm in trouble, Miruko-san."
"Okay," her voice becomes gentler, steady and reassuring. "Where are you? Is there a giant chicken, I mean, Wing Hero: Hawks, near you?"
Wing Hero: Hawks, Keigo mouths silently, feathers ruffling in excitement.
"No," he replies. "I think... I think I'm Hawks. I think I'm in his apartment."
"That fu... that brawl yesterday," Miruko says with a long sigh. "I knew that ended too easily. All right. Don't move, kid. I'll come over to you."
"Do you have a key?"
"Nah. Just open one of the windows."
"You can fly?" Keigo asks, surprised. "I thought you had a rabbit quirk, on the picture."
Miruko cackles. "We rabbitfolk have our ways. Just open the balcony window, would you? I'll be there in a few. I'm staying in a hotel nearby."
Shyly, Keigo explores the rest of the apartment. The bed was comfortable but otherwise there's a sense of emptiness hanging over the barely furnished rooms, like only ghosts ever get to haunt this place. It doesn't feel lived in. Maybe he – Hawks – has a secret spot elsewhere, just like Keigo is trying to find in the Commission. A nest, somewhere high and hidden.
Still, this is where he woke up. Maybe this is how he lives, now.
The balcony door is easy to unlock from the inside and to slide open, and a blink later a rabbit woman bounces onto it seemingly out of nowhere. It's definitely the woman from the picture, Miruko, though she's wearing normal clothes. They're elegant and well-fitting even if they do nothing to hide the muscles rippling in her thighs.
Keigo feels self-conscious in his too-wide t-shirt.
"Cold?" Miruko says gently. "Let's go back inside. How much do you remember?"
She leaves her shoes on the balcony and strides in, knowing exactly where she's going as she grabs a red blanket folded on the side of the sofa and throws it at Keigo, then heads into the kitchen. Wings fluttering, Keigo wraps the blanket around himself and follows her. He's not cold, but it's so clear she's come here often enough to feel at home. He doesn't just have friends, he has good friends. Close friends. A friend who is making him hot chocolate, from the smell of it!
It isn't long before Miruko brings the two steaming cups back to the living room. From a drawer in the table, she pulls out coasters with cartoon chickens to place under the cup, and another blanket for herself. Keigo takes a coaster between his hands to study the scratchy drawing. Did he buy himself something this ugly?
"Birthday present I got you," Miruko says.
"Thanks. They're, hm, really nice," he lies awkwardly.
She cackles and tries to drink, but it's still too hot. "I would be mortally offended if you ever threw them away."
When he frowns at her, she winks, and Keigo relaxes a little. She's a bit intimidating, but she's also straightforward and unapologetic. He doesn't sense any maliciousness even when she teases. Just like that, the apartment feels warm and lived in. All it takes is a couple of steaming mugs, colourful blankets, and a friend.
Soon enough, the real adult Hawks will return, right? And Miruko is being friendly. Keigo decides he feels comfortable enough to ask her questions about Hawks' life, though from the gleam in her eyes he's not as subtle as he thinks. It's not like she would tell him anything his counterpart wouldn't already know or have told her anyway, though.
At first, he can barely contain his joy and excitement at what his life is going to be like. He made it. He's going to really, really make it.
Once their cups are empty and Keigo can think more about it though, a darker mood he can't quite name envelops him.
"What's wrong?" Miruko asks, immediately perceiving the change. "Are you feeling okay?"
"It feels like I'm going to die," Keigo says. Miruko straightens up, ears twitching wildly, and he quickly amends. "This. Me. Me like this, it's because of a quirk, right? I'm actually the old me, and I'm going to become him again. Right?"
Miruko nods. Keigo wraps his hands around his empty cup, trying to call back some of the warmth he drew from it and from his time with Miruko, just moments earlier.
"I wish this was a time-travelling quirk and I could remember everything, when I go back to my time. For the tougher days of training."
His feathers pick up on Miruko's intent stillness before he really notices it himself.
"Training?" she asks carefully. "Hawks, how old are you?"
Keigo stares at her. Then carefully, he says. "If he never told you, then I probably shouldn't talk about it either."
From her expression, Miruko isn't happy with that answer, but she doesn't push any further.
"I'm just sad for you that the stick up your ass has been there for so long."
"There isn't anything there!" he protests, offended.
"No," Miruko says and laughs. "There isn't."
She ruffles his hair, and his wings flutter happily in just the way the Commission is training out of him. Maybe it's okay this once. When no one else is there to see it. When he'll forget everything.
Keigo breathes in, and with a gasp, disappears.
Hawks is the one to exhale. And the blanket on his shoulders is ill-placed to hide the fact that he's only wearing a t-shirt right now.
"Cover this thing, would you!" Miruko yells, bursting into laughter as she takes a cushion and hits him in the nuts with it.
"Rumi," Hawks huffs and wheezes then gets up, grumbling as he wraps the blanket around his waist.
As he shuffles toward the bedroom, the memories from the quirk incident press against his forehead, struggling to slot in with the rush of everything coming back to him. He reaches for a fresh pair of boxers and the sweatpants he uses both for training and relaxing at home.
"You know good friends bare it all!" he eventually yells back at her as he puts them on.
The blanket stays on his shoulders and between his wings; it's soft and comfortable and he keeps it at home for a reason.
"Liar!" she replies just as loudly, still slouched on the couch with both her arms on the backrest.
A lie, indeed, in more ways than one. And yet. He walks back and leans over the back of the couch, stretching into his adult body and extending his wings fully, trying to fill it all in.
"Do you remember anything?" Miruko asks.
"Nope," he lies easily. Maybe she sees through this one, maybe she doesn't. "Conked out after that nasty fight yesterday. Paramedics had me cleared but I guess some kind of quirk hit me anyway?"
Miruko hums. "De-aging quirk. Seems like it happened in your sleep, and I got here as soon as I got a hold of you. You should get checked for side-effects."
"I should," Hawks agrees and he sits beside her and stretches again, then points at the cups. "You should make me hot chocolate more often."
With one powerful kick, she pushes him off the couch.
"Ow!"
"Well, it's your turn now, and I want coffee."
Hawks snickers and heads into the kitchen. When he folds the blanket at the back of a chair, a flash of red catches his eye as it falls to the floor. It's a primary feather. It's so small, compared to his current ones. Hawks picks it up and smiles, a bit sadly. Like little Keigo had guessed, his childhood self wouldn't have this memory to keep. Instead, Hawks will have to carry it for him.