"No."

"I wasn't asking, Hawks," an older woman in a suit stood behind a small child. She gave the young man across from them a stern look, and the two stayed locked like that for a while. The child looked blankly forward, her empty eyes unnerving for the man. After a moment, he caved in to the woman's will.

"Fine. But this ain't right," he gave an answer, and a complaint. He had been tasked with training the child, in flight specifically. He'd seen her a few times, in meetings like this one and observing her other training. She learned quickly, and even though her japanese was rough, she didn't need much information to perform well. All that was impressive, as well as her versatile quirk. What bothered him was how she showed no emotion under the heavy pressure and hard physical exertion. That, and how this organization had even come across such a child and dragged them in.

"Senji, go," the woman ordered, and the child walked over to her designated trainer. She looked up at him, and glanced at his red wings.

"Uh, let's go then," he turned and walked outside with her following on his heels.

The next few weeks were spent doing some intensive training. He understood that her quirk involved her manipulating something like scales, and he saw the deep scars on her back like wings had been ripped off. The first thing was getting her to form wings consistently that held together. The training on that end was going poorly, to say the least. On one afternoon, ready to give up, he stopped to reconsider his approach. The girl was clearly frustrated with her failed attempts, but she always hid that away when he looked too closely. He sighed, then walked over and knelt down in front of her to see her face at eye level.

"Hey, your name," he started. The girl looked confused, then answered with the name he'd been given by the old lady.

"No, not that one. You were called something before that, right?," he spoke softly, and offered a warm smile. The girl glanced away, and her lips tightened while she thought it over. Language barrier?

"Kumori," she answered finally, looking deep into his eyes for a moment.

"Oh? What an interesting name. Do you know mine?," he pointed at himself, moving like he did with other kids he'd see on the streets. The girl furrowed her brow slightly, thinking.

"Hawks?"

"Ah, that's right, but not exactly. Keigo. Takami Keigo," he held a finger up over his lips, then continued, "It's a secret, though, 'kay? Just like your name. Now we both know each other's secret, so let's work hard and get to know each other."

The girl looked away, her face slightly flushed. She understood what he said, mostly, and didn't feel any bad intent from him. She didn't like how he treated her like some random child, though. Even if she was only ten, or assumed to be around that age, it felt weird. She shook her head, and thought about what she needed to do for her training right now. After thinking for a moment, an idea dawned on her.

"Wings," she spoke, but Hawks didn't follow and expressed his confusion. She pointed toward his large red wings and tried again. "I…um. To study. The shape, so I can do it."

"Hm? Oh, do you want to see them up close?"

He stretched them out for her to see better. The girl moved forward, the first time she'd actively approached him. She looked at the wings with a strange look on her face. She stretched her hand outward, then quickly pulled back and glanced at him. Hawks watched her with some level of amusement.

"It's okay, go ahead."

The girl's cheeks flushed a little, and she turned back to his wings. She reached out and traced one of the longer feathers. The sensation was a little weird for Hawks, but he tried his best to ignore that. The girl whispered something in English as she ran her hands gently through the crimson feathers. Her usually dead eyes lit up while she examined Hawks' wings, making him start to feel flustered. After a few more minutes, the girl walked away and closed her eyes to concentrate.

"Back to work then?," Hawks asked, but she didn't respond. There were small, glittering objects gathering around her. Slowly, she formed several feathers around her. Hawks offered some praise, but the girl didn't respond to that either. She kept trying again and again, breathing heavily between takes. Each time she was able to make more feathers, and by the end of the day she could form a small set of wings.

Over the next day, she studied the movements of Hawks's wings, and practiced moving hers the same way. Next was flight, and she was able to figure that out pretty quickly. In a couple weeks, she had pretty well mastered the concepts and application. Hawks noticed that she stayed low to the ground each time, and she refused to talk about it. He tried flying with her and egging her on, but she never tried to match him when he went too high.

He was willing to let it go, but the old lady kept nagging him to push her harder. On one of the flight exercises, he picked her up and flew up high. He had intended to drop her and let her take off with her own wings, but her reaction was far more extreme than anything he'd seen yet. She whimpered a bit, and clung tightly to his shirt.

"Hey," he tried to talk to her, but she just clung tighter and started shaking. Taken aback, he landed and slowly put her down. She stayed glued to him for a while, slowly realizing that her feet were back on the ground. Then she jumped back, apologizing and staring down at the ground. She shuffled awkwardly, trying to stop herself from shaking.

"Hey, it's okay," he spoke softly. He hadn't intended to scare her so much, nor had he expected such a reaction. Fear of heights? He reached forward, the girl flinching but not backing away, and ruffled her messy reddish hair. She eventually stopped shaking, and took a few deep breaths to steady herself.

"[Sorry]," she spoke quietly. Her voice was strained, another big change from her usual cold tone. "I-"

"Hey, I have an idea. Here, climb on," he didn't enjoy pushing a child like this. But he knew that she wouldn't be allowed to retain that fear under their boss. The girl looked puzzled, but then did as she was told. She wrapped her arms around his neck, from behind, and he lifted her up onto his back.

"Hold on," he said while taking off. He flew up high, and coasted along for a while. It was night now, and there was a city nearby. It wasn't technically allowed, but he headed that direction anyway. Once over the city lights, he urged her to look down. Slowly, she peeked over his shoulder.

"Pretty.."

She hadn't ever seen a view like this, and despite her situation she found herself enamored. The man carrying her asked her to bring out her wings, and she did. They flew for a while longer like this, with her moving her wings in time with his. Her grip loosened and he made a quick decision.

"Let go," he urged gently again. The girl was hesitant, but did as she was asked and separated herself from him. They glided down and landed back where they had started, from way up high. They were met with brief applause from the old lady before she scolded Hawks for being reckless.