Court of Feathers

Two

Word Count: 3,844

Yep- about five minutes into it, Shiro wished he had given Keith the a-okay to run off to the break room, Shiro would've joined him in a heartbeat if he had known Iverson would be the one giving the opening speech, even though he was supposed to be the main attraction for the ceremony.

But, unfortunately, that wasn't the case and they were both forced to sit and stare off as the Garrison's top general gave the longest speech in known history. Shiro was actually beginning to nod off when the loud unenthusiastic clapping that signaled the end of it had jarred him back awake, and Shiro drowsily joined in with slapping his hands together, catching Keith's snickering beside him.

After that, the usual stuff went in business and Shiro now found himself sitting in the break room surrounded by gobs of people who all wanted the same cup of coffee and to simultaneously shake his hand at the same time.

So nothing new there.

Shiro looked down at the new addition to his medals, this one was a wide, bigger-looking one compared to the previous times he had been given an award, this one was for refusing to walk away from a poor family trying to escape from a bombed building. It seemed so long ago Shiro actually had to think about that time before it actually came back to him and he remembered why he was there in the first place. The rest of the civilians had already fled to avoid the fumes, but Shiro had ran into the flames head-on to make sure everyone got out in time, safe and sound.

He had to admit, the Garrison had done a pretty good job on this one. Etched onto the metal was a picture of a soaring hawk, it's wings outstretched, and claws ready to grab for whatever he imagined could be within the bird's reach. The ribbon connecting the metal to the pin was an incredibly deep shade of black, a single white stripe ran from the top of the fabric all the way down to where the metal plate hung from the pin.

He had to admit, it was immediately one of his favorites.

"It's a pleasure meeting you, sir."

A hand was suddenly thrust into his field of vision, and Shiro looked up, surprised to see an older teen standing in front of him. He wore a pair of jeans, a baggy t-shirt covered his lanky frame, a picture of two older Nintendo video game controllers was printed on the shirt, Let's End This My Way was printed along the bottom in big block letters

He had somehow managed to push his way through the crowd that had gathered around him and now held his hand out expectantly for a shake.

Shiro smiled and reached out to grasp the young man's hand, clutching it firmly in his own and giving his hand a firm shake, anyone would deserve at least that much for being able to squeeze through the crowd that clogged around his table, Shiro himself wasn't able to leave until a good solid hour after everyone had finally filtered out to head home, he knew that much from experience.

It had only been ten minutes after the crowd had been dismissed and Shiro immediately had respect for the kid who looked to be just a little older than Keith. "I'm glad I can be of some surprise to you," Shiro said, jokingly, giving him a soft smile and the boy's eyes lit up in return.

"I- Uh- Th-thank you, sir." He flushed pushing up his pretty large circular glasses that had begun to slowly fall down his nose his dirty blond hair bouncing off the light in the room when he lightly scratched the back of his head.

"Please, call me Shiro," Shiro said, kind smile still in place, he leaned back in his chair, gesturing to the chair situated beside Keith, who had somehow managed to find a phone charger, and was now tapping happily away on the screen again. "Would you like to take a seat?" It probably wasn't the best to remain standing in the crowd that plagued around them, luckily they all seemed to have averted their attention away from Shiro for the time being. Which was a pretty good thing in his book, it meant he didn't have to deal with smiling, and talking, and shaking a seemingly continuous flow of hands that happened to find his without him knowing.