Wicked Wings (HawksxReader)

Ch. 12 So Close, Yet So Far

Keigo stood in the middle of the ballroom, scanning the crowd with barely veiled disinterest. His date—someone he'd been set up with last-minute by his PR team a long time ago and he'd happened to still have her number—chattered on beside him, her hand loosely looped around his arm, but he hadn't caught a single word she'd said in the last five minutes.

"So how much money did you make last year?" she asked, reapplying her lipstick for what seemed like the hundredth time since they got out of the car. Keigo and his date had only been at the gala for an hour, but already he was regretting texting this girl. He should have just come to the gala alone, he realized.

"I don't know," he said.

Every time she spoke, her attention flicked to the people around them, her gaze trailing over the expensive suits and jewelry, her smile flashing for the photographers nearby. Her laughter was a little too loud, a little too practiced, as if she knew exactly how to perform for the eyes that were always on them.

It didn't matter. None of it mattered. She didn't matter.

Keigo glanced down at her once, then back out at the crowd, his mind drifting to thoughts he didn't want to entertain tonight. Thoughts about someone else.

"I couldn't believe it when I got that text from you. It had been what, a couple months, since that night?"

"Something like that," he said.

"I honestly thought that was a one-time thing. Not that I would have minded another time. I just thought you didn't do that."

"I don't."

She grabbed his arm, looping hers through his. "Let's go find the photographer and have them take more pictures. I think I saw the lady with Heroes Weekly somewhere, too," she said as she pulled him toward the crowd of heroes and journalists.

For just a moment he thought he caught sight of a bright red dress, brighter than his wings, but then it vanished into the crowd.

As his date giggled at something some random guest said, Keigo's gaze wandered again, searching the crowd almost unconsciously. He hadn't seen Y/N tonight. Not that he expected to—he knew she had her own life, her own work. But still, a part of him wondered. What was she doing tonight? Where was she?

He almost pulled out his phone, the thought crossing his mind that he could just call her. See what she was up to. Maybe she'd—

But no. He stopped himself before the thought could fully form. He knew better.. She had her own world, one that didn't overlap with his, not really. He wasn't anything more to her than another client, another job. Even if their banter had felt like something more, it wasn't. He had to remind himself of that.

She's busy, he told himself, his grip tightening around the champagne glass in his hand. It's not my place to wonder what she's doing.

He forced a smile as his date looked up at him expectantly, clearly waiting for some sort of response to whatever she'd been prattling on about. Keigo nodded, playing the part, though his heart wasn't in it.

His date excused herself to the bathroom, and his attention flicked briefly to the paparazzi swarming near the entrance, cameras flashing as more high-profile guests arrived.

He had to think about that. His own reputation. The way the city looked at him as a hero. There was no room for distractions like Y/N—not here, not in this world of wealth and power where every move he made was watched and judged.

Yet, despite all the noise, all the eyes on him, his mind kept wandering back to her. The way she'd laughed at him, the way she'd deflected his attempts to flirt with that sharp wit of hers. How she'd held Miss Pretty Paws like she belonged there, in his space, and for a moment, he'd let himself believe it.