Taxonomy (Platonic Hawks and Tokoyami)

Order

It was a slow day at the agency. Not because there was a lack of things to do, no, there were no such things as idle hands under Hawks' tutelage; it was slow because Hawks himself was nowhere to be found. Tokoyami had arrived early in the morning as he usually did and was met with the sight of his mentor hurrying out of the building. The man had urgent business with the commission, although Hawks looked none too happy when he mentioned it. As such, Tokoyami had been left under the watchful eye of one of the many sidekicks under Hawks' employ. Hawks usually hated to leave Tokoyami alone with the sidekicks, but the commission work exceeded all, it seemed. And so, Tokoyami found himself at the side of one aptly named Quail.

Said hero was no great speedster, and as such, Tokoyami was confined to the ground. Quail, who looked very much like their namesake in shape of body and wobbling crested plumage, had been grinning like a madman for the entire duration of their patrol. It was no adrenaline-filled, high-speed chase like Tokoyami was accustomed to when he was with Hawks, but it had been a fruitful one, nonetheless. Fumikage couldn't say he knew Quail well, the sidekick was one of Hawks' newer additions, but they seemed nice enough. Still, though, their ever-present grin was nothing short of unnerving, especially in the wake of the previous night's events.

Still, they made it back to the agency without trouble or incident, and Quail ushered Tokoyami to the one part of hero work he had yet to deal with: paperwork. Hawks never made him do paperwork, even though Fumikage had offered many times, the hero always claimed that his favourite intern should have to deal with no such thing. Quail, apparently, had no such qualms and cheerily pushed a stack of forms in Tokoyami's direction.

Tokoyami would have much rather been out and still patrolling, but he sat down at an unclaimed desk nonetheless and got to work like the diligent hero he was. The paperwork itself was tedious and mind-numbingly dull but not particularly difficult. Quail, too, seemed in need of a secondary task to occupy their mind. Still smiling, Fumikage assumed that the expression must have been the default for their face, the rotund sidekick struck up idle chatter.

It was mostly one-sided, Quail tittered on and happily shimmied back and forth in their seat, but Tokoyami enjoyed it nonetheless. Occasionally the sidekick would ask Tokoyami about UA or other such pleasantries, and he found himself happy to answer. Mostly, Fumikage felt no need to speak; Quail rambled on and on about anything and everything, a species of bird endemic to some Caribbean island, the stock exchange, what they liked to do in their spare time, any topic that came to mind, it seemed. Before he knew it, it was time for their lunch break, and Quail practically skipped the whole way to the communal area with Tokoyami in tow.

There, in the small kitchen, were several others of Hawks' sidekicks. Tokoyami realized he hadn't spoken with many of them at all. Of course, there was Night Owl, the bespectacled fellow who had offered words of encouragement to Fumikage during the first work-study, but the rest of them were virtually unknown to him. There was a wiry and tall woman with spiraling patterns of faux snakeskin on her suit, a muscular and dog-eared man with a large belt of support equipment, and a man with opalescent and crystalline skin. Viperia, St. Bernese, and Refractal were their names; capture and rescue heroes, the lot of them. Their expressions brightened at the sight of an incoming Tokoyami and Quail, and Viperia hastily made room for the two and patted the open spots.

The four sidekicks graciously shared their lunches with Fumikage, who hadn't thought to bring one for himself. Usually, he and Hawks would still be on patrol by lunch, wherein they would simply pick up food from a street vendor, courtesy of Hawks' paycheck.

Tokoyami had to admit, the mindless chatter was nice. He wasn't usually one for socialization, but lunch break and conversation was a comfortable change of pace from his usual action-oriented workdays. It was almost like a vacation. Of course, the group of sidekicks had to go and ruin it with their gossip.