False Reality

Reprimanded

Keigo walks anxiously through the hallways of the main HPSC building, sunglasses on instead of his usual yellow-tinted visors to hide the scratches on his face.
He knows he's in trouble with Rai, just not how much trouble he's in.
He was already being ignored by Hakuchō still, which, you know, fair. He should have kept more of an eye on the time and apologised and sent Tsume home when it was obvious he couldn't do what Rai had demanded of him.

But the pressure to perform and appease was there, something Keigo had been dealing with since he was a child and he didn't like to let people down.

This time he did though. He let Hakuchō down and set their relationship back to square one. He let Tsume down and likely made her insecure when there was nothing wrong with her and everything wrong with himself.
And then he let Rai and the Commission down by not being able to do what they wanted, getting injured by both Hakuchō and Tsume, breaking his diet and not moving out of the way of Tsume in time and getting claw marks on his face that would no doubt not impress the clothing company he was meant to shoot with soon.

All of it made his stomach ache and his wings itch incessantly, his mouth dropping open to pant.
He wasn't supposed to indulge in his more bird-like traits in public, but it was this or continuing to over-preen his wings and making himself even more unsightly for the cameras.

As he turns the corner, he spots Rai standing outside her office smoking, waiting for him no doubt.
His heart drops when he sees who she's talking to, guilt immediately settling in his stomach when he sees the tips of orange ears only just visible over the top of Rais head.
As though she has some kind of Hawks radar, Rai turns her head to look at Keigo, shooing Tsume off and motioning for Keigo to follow her inside her office.

Keigo follows, and tries to ignore the glare he gets from Tsume.

"Sit." Rai says without turning to look at him.

Keigo sits immediately, suddenly a young child again being ordered around by bigger, scarier people.

"Explain." She says, sitting down opposite him, stubbing her cigarette out roughly.

"Explain what?" He asks, trying to play dumb, to buy himself some time to think of an explanation that didn't make him sound like a total drip.

She looks at him coldly before darting forward and snatching the sunglasses from his face, throwing them behind her with a loud clatter as she sits back down.
Keigo's wings sharpen in defense, but he does nothing but sit there panting like a big, dumb bird.

"That." She points at the scratches on one side of his face. "And for the love of God, have some class and close your mouth."

Keigos lips pull into a thin line and he shrugs. "You know how women get."

"No, I don't." Rai smiles a sickly sweet smile at him in a way he knows means she's going to say something that will probably crush him in the next sentence. "But I know what people with cat quirks are like when their heat goes unsatisfied."

'Kill me now.' Keigo thinks to himself as he slumps in his seat.

"Sit up. You're not a child anymore, Hawks. I refuse to treat you like one." Rai spits.

Keigo sits up with a sigh.

"What is your problem?" She asks angrily, dropping the cool and calm mask. "It was a simple task! Especially for a man."

Keigo clams up, his eyes sliding to the sides. If he just sat there and let her scream at him for the meantime, the yelling would eventually stop and he'd be able to leave and go home and sit in his room for a while and decompress before Hakuchō needed to be picked up.