Higgs couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her when Alicia said that she had tried to get him reassigned. He presumed that maybe it was good that that didn't actually hurt as much as he imagined it should have. It wasn't even that surprising that she wanted him reassigned, but it was mostly the bit when she said that it was without telling people why. Higgs was pretty sure that if she had told them she was married to him, they would have had to reassign her because it was a conflict of interest. At least on paper, because he wasn't too sure there actually was an conflict of interest. Not until she said that she could just write up his report without actually testing him, at least.
The temptation to tell her that that was literally inappropriate was really strong, but Higgs also wasn't too sure that would achieve anything. Besides, he had kind of been looking forward to this. It would allow him to see what was actually expected in terms of physical strength from a hitwizard. Higgs knew that whatever the requirements were, he'd match them, but it would still be good to know. So instead he shook his head in response to her. "I'd still rather have it," he finally settled on. She was right, of course, he didn't actually need this, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't be unfair on all of the other recruits. Probably would have been more unfair if they had had to fight him, but that was why he had been assigned a... hitwitch. Oh, fuck.
He was going to have to work with her. That kind of hit Higgs like a freight train, more than just seeing her had. She wasn't here just to check his abilities, he knew this, because he had been told as much on his tour 'tested by actual hitwitches and hitwizards'. Fan-fucking-tastic.
"Best start then, eh," he muttered before taking a position on the mat, opening his arms in invitation. He was not going to be the one to start this, no matter how much perhaps it would have been easier on both of them if he had been.