False Reality

Helicopter Parenting

Keigo sure as hell was a hoverer.
Even as you ate, he was always near to you, his wing bumping into your shoulder every so often, him occassionally testing the waters with touching you, like playfully tapping your arm with his fist like you two were dude-bros.
The most annoying habit of his was his need to look over your shoulder to see what you were doing on your phone.

You felt like you couldn't talk to Ama and Genji about everything that was going on, because his eyes would unmistakably land on your phone screen the second you pulled it out.
He wasn't even subtle with it, because whenever he did it, he'd just... stop talking. Even if he was mid-sentence.

"Quit it." You manage to croak out eventually, after the fifth or sixth time of catching him doing it.

His eyes widen, his wings fluffing a little behind him. The look of shock only lasts a second though before that lopsided grin is back on his face, the intricate markings around his eyes crinkling as he smiles.

"So that's five words now?" He asks, and the way he says it makes it sound like it wasn't intentionally offensive, but you definitely didn't take too kindly to it. "Are you ever gonna talk to me properly, kid? Kinda hard to get to know ya with just nods and shrugs."

Your lips press together, and you lay one of your wings over your lap to pet the feathers anxiously.
No-one had really questioned your silence outside of your therapist, just letting you crack on doing what you wanted to do.

As though he has some kind of sixth sense, his hands fly up, now ungloved, in a gesture of surrender.

"You don't hafta!" He assures. "It's just... we gotta share a space, and I'd like to know who you are, Y/N."

His eyes are transfixed on your hands as you pick at the feathers anxiously, but he manages to tear them away, his eye twitching slightly, to cock his head at you.

"How come you don't talk?"

No-one had outright asked you that before. And you'd never answered it, even when your therapist had danced around the topic, you'd seen that she just decided it was due to trauma. Which, granted, wasn't too far off the truth, but it wasn't spot on, either.
You take a deep breath, pulling your phone out to write in the notes app again. You suppose the least you could do is give him something more personal about yourself, he was right about living together now, and it wouldn't hurt for either of you to try to stop being completely new to each other.

'Because if I talk, it's like nothing ever happened.' You type out, showing him.

He frowns, his mouth moving to open, but you snatch your phone away, aggressively typing more and thrusting it towards him.

'I can't pretend things are normal.'

His mouth closes, and his head and eyes roll to the side thoughtfully, as though he needed to think about what to say next.
You slowly slide your phone back into your pocket, watching him carefully.

"Your parents, huh?" He asks, golden eyes moving quickly to capture your own gaze again. "I'm sorry kid. That really was... horrible."

His wings sag a little behind him, and for some reason, he looks ashamed.

"I let ya down there. We all did. I'm sorry. You-" His shoulders are sagging too, his eyes avoiding yours completely now. "That shouldn't have happened."

A lump begins to form in your throat at his words.
For some reason, this whole time you hadn't even considered the fact that the heroes had let you down, or let your parents down. They'd downplayed it so much by blaming it on the villain's quirk entirely that you'd actually forgotten that the heroes had a duty to apprehend him before he could hurt any civilians.
Anger bubbles inside you too, but you try to tell yourself it was part of the grieving process. You had looked up the stages of grief when you had managed to free yourself of your disassociated state after the accident had happened, and anger was one of them.