False Reality

Forced Friendship

You're surprised when you wake up and find that Keigo hasn't woken you up with a jab to your face with one of his feathers by eleven a.m.
You sit up sluggishly, rubbing your eyes and stretching your wings out, having crushed one of them by lying on it awkwardly last night.
You wonder if maybe he had tried waking you up but you'd slept through it. But you can't help but feel like Keigo would not let that fly, especially considering as you were meant to be at UA today.

When you sit up, a red feather courses over your cheek softly before zipping under the door again. You don't even know where it came from.
But it meant he was home, at the very least.
You take your time getting up, wondering why you weren't being rushed into it today. Maybe Keigo was so tired he'd forgotten about the fact it was a school day.
You walk down the stairs heavy footed, unsurprised to see Keigo drinking a can of coffee at the kitchen island, scrolling through his phone in his hero get up, your phone laying on the countertop beside him.

"Morning, kiddo." He greets, peering at you from the corners of his eyes. "Figured you could use the sleep, so thought you could come with me to the liberation fronts base later."

You probably should have expected a catch like that. And although you weren't thrilled about having to see Dabi again, you just nod curtly in response to keep the peace between you and Keigo.
You drag your phone towards yourself, briefly glancing at the notifications. Ama and Genji asking how you're doing because it had been a while since you'd checked in, Uraraka and Midoriya asking where you were and if you were okay, Tokoyami asking for you to get Hawks to text him back and...

Your heart sinks to your stomach as you see a message from Akio.

Horns: You avoiding me?
Horns: Let's go out this weekend.

You immediately begin thinking about ways to injure yourself at school without going to Recovery Girl so you'll be forced to heal naturally and have a valid reason not to see him at the weekend because you really doubted a simple 'I'm sick' would suffice.

"You should eat something, Y/N. You're looking a little unwell." Keigo says absentmindedly, pulling you out of your head for a moment.

You shrug, not really in the mood to eat now. In fact you wanted to sit in your room and sulk for the rest of the day, or at least until Keigo dragged you out to go to the Paranormal Liberation Front's base.
In a poor attempt to placate him, you pass him, reaching to grab one of the cereal bars in the cupboard, only for a red feather to grab one for you and pass it to you when you struggle to reach high enough.
When you glance over at Keigo, his back is still turned to you. And instead of verbally thanking him, you just run your finger over the spine of his feather, making a surprised chirp leave him.

You return back to your room to stew over your options, but not really getting any further with plans to get away with not seeing Akio at the weekend. Anything you did to get hurt at UA would definitely lead to you having to see Recovery Girl, no matter how much you tried to worm out of it.
Maybe you could try to convince Keigo that you're sick enough for him to stay home from work, but you doubt that Rai would allow it.
You end up dozing on and off until 2pm when Keigo wakes you up by crouching and leaning his weight on his elbows, dipping the side of your bed down, gently trying to put the miniscule recorders and tracking devices in your wings.

You give a sleepy grumble, only to get a soft pat on your shoulder.

"Sorry to wake ya, kid, but we need to get going." Keigo says softly. "You not feeling good today?"

You shake your head. Maybe if you started the 'sick' story now, he'd be more convinced by the weekend.

A feather presses into your wrist and another curls around your forehead, an unforeseen issue in your lie. Keigo was definitely trained in first aid, and would probably see through any fake illnesses within seconds.
You feel kind of like an idiot for not thinking of that sooner.
Keigo hums to himself, still digging through your feathers to hide the gadgets in non-visible places.