Hal laughed in response.

"Yep." he replied.

"You do." he told her with a matching smirk.

"We're tricky beings, we are." he added.

"And you're very welcome." he then said.

"Angela, take some time off after this." he continued.

"I'm serious. Take your daughter home, and stay with her for a week or so." he said further. "You deserve it. You need to wind down from all this stress, and you need to just be with her at home."

"Let me know when she's ready to go home." he said.

"You'll be on leave for a bit when that happens." he told her.

"For now, you go and do your thing." he said further.

He then paused for a moment.

"And remember." he said.

"This is our little secret."

"Oh, no." Zeke replied.

"It's nothing serious. Well... okay, it'd be serious for someone that ISN'T me, but it's just sliiiiiiightly more than what I can naturally deal with." he clarified.

"In short, nothing you can't easily handle." he said.

"And I didn't want to reveal it until I saw you because you deserve a late morning." he then told her with a smirk.

"Start your day here with some unofficial time off."

Zeke just sighed quietly when she said that.

"One of my wings." he said.

He then turned around and for the first time, Angela saw his brilliant white wings extend out from his back, as though appearing out of thin air.

She also noticed that one area in specific on his right wing was stained red, and looked a bit wonky.

"Think you can do anything?" he asked her.

"I can make them come and go as I please." Zeke responded. "It's one of the... perks... of being a nephilim." he explained further.

"And sure." he then said, sitting down.

He then took a small breath when he felt the mana coursing over him.

".....eh?" he mumbled.

"......hm?" he murmured further.

"That feels... odd." he told her.

"What... mana is that?" he asked.

"Uhhhhhhh... all riiiiight...." Zeke muttered.

"Huh." he mumbled.

"And yeah, it does." he said.

"It's starting to feel a lot better." he told her, as some of the bloodied feathers started to moult off of him, as well as some of the pure white ones as well.

"Don't mind those." he commented. "That always happens when they're recovering from an injury."

"All right, thank you." Zeke replied.

"If you want, feel free to collect and keep the feathers." he told her.

"...the... white ones. Not the bloody ones." he then said.

"They're apparently super soft and therapeutic or whatever." he went on.

"I don't feel it." he admitted. "...but they're part of me, so I suppose that makes sense." he then added with a light laugh.

Zeke nodded in response.

"Give them to her, then." he said.

"And thanks." he told her.

"Also, when do you want to reschedule dinner." he then said.

"I mean, my wing really isn't a massive injury." he reasoned.

"And I can get along just fine with it the way it is." he insisted.

"Would you prefer it to be sooner or later?"

Zeke nodded in response.

"Sure thing." he replied.

"Works for me." he told her.

-Some time later-

Zeke looked around the cafeteria, and didn't see Angela there.

"Huh." he muttered.

"She said she was gonna meet me for lunch here." he commented, before leaving the cafeteria and making his way towards the medical wing.

"Angela?" he asked,

"Eh?" Zeke muttered.

"Angela, it's been lunchtime for... 35 minutes or so." he told her.

"Is something up?" he then asked.

"Normally you lose track of time by, like, 5 minutes or so. Not like THIS." he commented.

"...and are you all right?" he asked her. "You seem like you're a bit... under the weather."