This Time

Chapter 46

"Bull shit!" Present Mic screeched at a decibel almost loud enough to make my ears bleed.

"Good lord, Mic!" Snipe complained. Likewise Nemuri made a noise of protest. Toshinori and Aizawa both groaned.

I remained unflinching and smirked with one eyebrow raised in question as I stared down the blonde man. "You sure you want to make that accusation?" I purred, trying not to laugh.

"There's no fucking way!" he asserted passionately - and still loudly - but mercifully not quite as loud as before.

I grinned openly now and reached across the table to flip the cards over revealing four queens. "Read 'em and weep," I cackled. Midnight had to pin the other hero's arms to keep him from flipping the table as everyone else roared with laughter.

When the voice hero had first brought up to everyone the idea of doing a game night in the teacher dorms, I'd immediately been on board. A few of the other teachers (namely Aizawa) had been a little harder to convince, though. Then once there was a good sized group of us assembled, the real challenge proved to be figuring out what to play.

Nemuri pushed hard for Cards Against Humanity. Toshinori voted for Monopoly. Cementoss suggested Buta no Shippo. Snipe wanted poker. Aizawa said he didn't care so long as he didn't have to learn any new rules. So we'd started off with a simple game of BS - a simple game that quickly became heated as it became apparent just how competitive a group of pro heroes (plus one retired and one aspiring) could be.

Unsurprisingly I was kicking ass, and I was just a couple cards away from winning. Deception had literally been my thing for a good part of my life - my poker face was killer when I wanted it to be, and I'd been just as happy with Snipe's idea as I had been with the game we ended up playing now. But to be fair, the others were nothing to scoff at either. Aizawa looked just as dead inside as ever, but I had a feeling he was lying through his teeth on just about every turn. Still, no one seemed ready to try and call his bluff, so he was only a couple cards behind me. Toshinori was good at keeping a straight face as well, but I'd learned his tells by now. The poor man disliked lying, despite how often he'd had to as a hero, and just because I loved him didn't mean I wouldn't call him out every time I saw the slight tensing in his shoulders or the tiniest twitch at the corner of his eye.

Snipe tapped a finger to his chin as if considering his move as his turn was next, and the concentration in his yellow eyes didn't fool me any. If he was openly acting like he had to think about the few cards he held, then it was probably a front... or was it? I was betting on a double bluff.

His cards had barely hit the table before I laughed. "Bull shit," I called him out.

"Dammit, Hara," the scruffy man complained, and didn't even bother to flip his card over before taking the deck. "Why did we choose to play a lying game with a spy?" he asked gruffly.

Aizawa snorted. "Don't be a sore loser."

"Says the guy who's just as close to winning," he replied as he re-organized his hand.

"I told you we should have played Cards Against Humanity," Midnight said in a sing-song voice.

"I'm not sure I really want to get to know all of you that well," Aizawa replied unenthusiastically, making the rated-R hero cackle.

"I'm already an open book, Shota," she grinned.

"I know. That makes it worse," he shuddered and she laughed harder.

I also giggled and nudged Toshinori with my elbow. "I don't think you'd be able to make it through that game without bleeding out, Boy Scout," I teased.