And are you sexually active?
I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?
*
To say Ren was nervous was an understatement. She was nauseatingly, leg-shakingly, head-spinning, absolutely shitting herself. Her date the day before with Bakugo had gone swimmingly until they'd run into his weird pervy friend, after that Bakugo had gone quiet aside from demanding it was time to go home. His quiet attitude had continued all the way until they got back to the dorms, and by then Ren just wanted to curl up on the couch and hang out with her friends. They'd had the chance to talk and learn so much about each other that day but his flighty mood had annoyed her intensely. She didn't even bother saying goodnight to him before she went to bed she was so annoyed.
So her irritation at her not-really-but-kinda-boyfriend mixed with her immense anxiety was practically hammering her into her train seat as she journeyed to the wealthy business sector of Tokyo. The Endeavour Agency took up an entire skyscraper. The ultramodern exterior contrasted to its luxury and traditional interior, both flashing his wealth and success. She was greeted in the magnificently marbled foyer by one of the agencies many, many administrative officers, who took Ren to elevator and zoomed up about halfway up the skyscraper.
The dark panelled elevator doors slid open to a very stark, highly modern and bright white reception area to what looked like was the medical unit of the agency. As per her letter, Ren was requested to be seen by one of their on-call doctors to examine her general health, as well as any of the lasting effects that may have been popping up from her father's experiments. She didn't really mind, the doctors here had treated her when she'd returned to Japan, they were all kind and brilliant at what they did.
Her wordless escort hastened to the left of the reception, directing Ren towards what she remembered being the consultation rooms. She flicked a security pass over a blue screened touch pad and as if by magic, a panel of the wall pushed out and slid to the side, revealing a large and minimal doctor's room. The floors were a light polished concreted with perfectly clean and painted white walls. An examining table sat on the far end of the room with a glass desk in the centre, a chair on either side.
The wordless girl said the first thing to Ren since she briefly greeted her upon her arrival. "Our records show that you worked with Dr Yuuko, correct?" Ren nodded with a little 'Hn'. "Please take a seat, she will be with you shortly." She gracefully gestured into the room and Ren stepped in cautiously.
The wall panel slid back into place as soon as Ren's butt hit the chair. She placed her small bag on the ground next to her and rocked her knees up and down while she waited. The last time she'd seen this room, Dr Yuuko had cleared her to go to UA just days before the school term began. She'd recovered from broken ribs, internal bleeding, concussion, a dislocated shoulder and a fractured ankle, not to mention the numerous cuts and bruises that speckled her skin.
Ren stared at her hand as memories of months ago came flooding back into her mind. Occasionally, when she dreamt, she'd get flashes of her treatment here at the clinic but most of the early days were either a blur or a complete blackout. After a few moments had passed, the panel popped out of the wall again and in stepped two women, one Ren knew as Doctor Yuuko, and the other was a new face. Ren bolted up from her seat, greeting Yuuko with a soft bow as she set her tablet down on the glass table.
"Good to see you again, Chinami. Please, sit." Yuuko gestured her delicate hand over to Ren's seat while she got comfortable in her own.
"And you, Dr Yuuko." Ren nodded as she seated herself again, fixing up her pants just so her hands had something to do. She glanced up at the other woman who had entered the room, the look on her face asking questions for her.
"This is Shizune." Dr Yuuko nodded her head at the other woman. "She's my intern, and will be taking your blood for some tests." Ren immediately stiffened, her arms instinctively drawing closely into her chest and her shoulders arching forwards. "Just keep your eyes on me, I promise you won't feel a thing."
Ren nibbled on her bottom lip. The last times she'd had blood drawn she'd been unconscious, and if she'd awoken in Okinawa while someone else was conscious with her, they could have warned her about the needle. In case she hadn't made it clear by the way she reacted in Okinawa, she fucking hated needles. With hesitation, she hung her arm out to the side and as Yuuko instructed, kept her focus on the doctor.
"I'll begin by asking you a few questions in relation to your diet, exercise, sleep and your general well-being." Yuuko explained to Ren as Shizune got to work. Ren felt her draw a gentle circle on the inside of her arm with her delicate finger. It tickled a little and she wondered what the hell the woman was doing. "I'm aware UA has excellent dieticians, take me through what you'll eat on a day-to-day basis."
"Uhm." Ren felt tempted to see what the hell Shizune was doing but she knew if she caught sight of the needle in her skin she'd probably freak out. "I'm the morning I'll have one of a few things, sometimes I'll have rice porridge, sometimes I'll have toast and eggs, if it's available I'll have like, fruit as well."
"Mhm." Yuuko nodded as she began scribbling down some notes on her tablet. She noticed Ren glancing to the side, trying to see what was going on with her blood tests. "Eyes on me, Chinami. Go on." She nodded with a soft smile.
Ren's eyes snapped back to Yuuko. "Yeah, of course. Um, lunch, I'll have chicken curry with rice or fish with vegetables and rice and then usually something similar for dinner. Every now and then we'll have snacks like popcorn, chips, sweets or we'll order in pizza but that's about the gist of it."
"Okay." Yuuko nodded again and continued writing down her notes. "Thanks, Shizune." She said without looking up from her tablet. Ren's head immediately snapped to the side where Shizune was working on her arm. There's no way she was done already, Ren didn't feel a damn thing, but sure enough, there was a little round cotton ball with some medical tape over it on the inside of Ren's arm.
"Uhh, what? But- HOW?" Her eyes darted between Dr Yuuko and the cotton ball on her arm like she was watching the world's most intense tennis match. Shizune exited through the hidden panel door with her tray filled with different coloured vials holding Ren's blood.
"You felt the little circle she drew on your arm?" Yuuko asked with a little smile. "The numbness will wear off in a few minutes but by then you won't even know that little puncture is there. Just make sure you don't lift anything heavy with that arm for 24 hours." She pointed at Ren's arm as she explained. "If you could please continue to talk me through your daily routine, what is your activity like?"
Does sex count-
Ren gulped as she absorbed Yuuko's casual demeanour. Her doctor had obviously made the effort to ensure her utmost comfort with drawing blood, obviously remembering how uncomfortable the tests made Ren. "Um, yes, of course. We have physical combat and quirk training everyday. I usually alternate between strength and cardio training on weekdays, leaving weekends as rest days."
Dr Yuuko nodded as she jotted down her notes. "How have you been sleeping? I hope it's improved since the last time we met."
"It definitely got better for a while. I think maybe the best night of sleep I had was my birthday..." Ren smiled to herself. "But then when I found out about the trial, and during the days leading up to the trial, it was bad. Really, really bad. Now, it's okay, fairly consistent I guess. I wake up a fair amount and sometimes I have nightmares but it helps when I can cuddle up to Kats- Ka-huh- Kat- Katsumi, my whale shark! It helps when it's there." She played with her fingers and inwardly slapped herself at her poor cover up.
Dr Yuuko tried not to chuckle to herself as she wrote down what Ren said. "Your whale shark?" She asked Ren as the panel slid open once more and the almost wordless administrator from earlier came in holding a sleek chrome tray with two glasses and a jug of water. "Thank you." Yuuko nodded to her when she placed the tray on her desk.
Ren nodded a thank you as the girl left before she began. "I got it in Okinawa. Apart from, you know, it was a really relaxing time for me."
"Yes, we were able to get your medical data off of the team that treated you when you were there. Seems to have been an overuse of your quirks that caused exhaustion and dehydration." She swapped to a different page of notes on her tablet and skimmed through them briefly. "Myself, along with our nutritionists, physicians and of course, Endeavour, will put together a program to ensure something like that doesn't happen to you again. Or at least we'll be able to tell the signs so you can stop before it happens."
Ren leant towards the table to grab one of the tall glasses of water, nodding along as Dr Yuuko explained the procedure. Even the water here looked expensive. She took a deep drink, engorging in how good something as simple as a glass of water could taste when in clearly came from the purest of freshwater springs.
"How is your menstrual cycle?" Yuuko asked as she flicked back to her notes.
"Pretty normal, I think. It's regular, I don't really get any extreme symptoms or anything." Ren went to take another sip of the cool water.
Yuuko hummed. "And are you sexually active?"
At this, the relaxing and refreshing liquid decided to pour down Ren's windpipe, immediately causing her to double over and splutter all over the clear glass table. For someone who could gracefully control H2O, Ren certainly did not feel graceful right now. "I'm sorry," She croaked. "Could you repeat that?"
Dr Yuuko chuckled. "Chinami, while your nutrition, activity and sleep will be shared amongst my team, everything else is strictly confidential between the two of us. Do I need to ask again?"
Ren shrunk into her seat. Why was this relevant?
"No... You don't need to ask again." She mumbled awkwardly and slightly irritably. She couldn't look Yuuko in the face, maybe not now, maybe not ever. Adults were so damn judgemental about this stuff, not mention medical professionals.
"How many sexual partners have you had?" Yuuko continued as is their conversation were as casual as discussing the weather.
"J-just the one guy." Ren must've been the colour of Kirishima's hair at this point.
"Are you two using protection?" Yuuko's casual demeanour turned serious at this question.
"Yes." Ren nodded, followed by a very dry and uncomfortable swallow. "He's very careful about that. We both are." She stared at the edge of the glass table, not wanting to look at her doctor.
"Good. Keep it that way." Yuuko pulled up another screen and began writing down some notes on a different program. "I'm going to put you on the contraceptive pill, even if you're using protection it will just further reduce your risk of conception. It will be ready for you to pick up just before you leave." Dr Yuuko sent off some of her notes via email before she put the tablet on sleep mode. Ren didn't sway her stare from the edge of the table. "Like I said, Chinami, this is confidential. Endeavour won't find out if that's what you're worried about."
"Hm. Was it that obvious?" Ren mumbled awkwardly.
Yuuko smiled as she got up from the table. "Don't worry about it, Chinami." She gestured for Ren to walk ahead of her through the wall panel door. She stood up tentatively and stepped through back into the stark white hallways of the medical unit.
The administrator who'd escorted Ren and brought them water popped out of one of the many identical hallways ready to take Ren to her meeting with Endeavour. She gave Dr Yuuko a curt bow before she held her hand out at Ren. It was only then that she realised she was still holding onto her glass of water.
"Oh." She handed it back to the administrator, some of the water sloshing out of the cup a little from Ren's bombastic thrust of the glass. "Sorry." She mumbled.
The administrator simply smiled dryly. "Follow me, please." She turned on her heel, shoes clacking rhythmically along the marble floor as Ren scurried after her.
"Good luck, Chinami!" Dr Yuuko called out to Ren as the duo disappeared back down the hall that lead to the lift.
His office was on the top floor and once more it contrasted the modern design of the outside and the stark medical wing. The room was huge, bloody huge. Sand coloured marble tiles covered the floor and dark wooden panels with intricate carvings spanned the walls. There were large windows to the right as soon as one entered the office, a magnificent crystal chandelier hung above the very formal seating area in the centre of the room, and Endeavour sat as his large dark wooden desk just behind the seating area.
"Arakawa." He boomed from behind his desk, making Ren cringe a little at the sound of her father's name being used to refer to her. "Please, have a seat." He gestured to the couches in front of his desk before continuing to write on a pristine white notepad with a very expensive looking fountain pen. The administrator had to nudge Ren out of the elevator to get her moving towards her seat. She tutted quietly to herself before the sleek silver elevator doors slid closed and Ren was left to Endeavour.
She stepped over to him tentatively, annoyed that her boots made a noise on the marble floors and feared that it would be annoying him. She'd had dealings with Endeavour several times until now but this time he was her boss, this time he was doing her a favour. She slowly sat down on the edge of one of the couches, not wanting to wrinkle the magnificent leather as he finished up whatever it was he was writing.
The Number One Hero replaced the cap onto his fountain pen and stretched his arms out. "Approving agency collaborations, you know how it is." He said to her awkwardly. Ren simply smiled dryly. 'No, I literally, literally, have no idea how it is.' She thought to herself. Endeavour stepped out from behind his large desk and marched to the couch opposite Ren's. "Let's begin, shall we?" He sighed before he picked a faded yellow file from the coffee table that Ren hadn't noticed until his fingers touched it. "Your provisional hero license has been approved, I saw to that personally." He explained.
"Y-yes, thank you. I appreciate that I didn't have to go through the tests." Ren said quietly. She felt so very small in his oversized office.
"Being number one always has its perks." The corners of his mouth twitched up into what he clearly was attempting to be a smile but it really just looked like he moved his lips a little. "Your work here will be simple for a while, I wont be sending you on any tasks until we have your flame quirk under control, do you understand?" Ren nodded. "Good. I believe Dr Yuuko has explained that we will be devising a new nutrition and exercise plan for you?" Ren nodded again. "It's important that you stick to the regime my team formulates for you exactly. Otherwise all of the work and training I do with you will be worthless."
"Of course." Ren nodded once more.
"I won't go easy on you. I'm a tough teacher to begin with-" Todoroki's scar flashed into Ren's mind and his disdain for his father gnawed at her neck. "- and I haven't forgotten that you beat my Shoto in the Sports Festival." He quirked an enflamed brow at her and Ren tried not to smirk triumphantly. He huffed before flicking through some pages of her file.
"Whatever you throw at me, I can handle it." Ren muttered, her eyes darkened for a moment as flashes of the training she undertook growing up spiralled through her mind.
Endeavour managed a real smirk. "Of course." There was a long pause between the two of them, only the sound of the papers in the file rattling together as Endeavour flicked through them echoed in the large room. "Have you thought of a name yet?"
Ren chewed on her bottom lip. She genuinely hadn't ever thought about a hero name because she hadn't been raised to be a hero. She thought back to all of the names her classmates had chosen and once again she thought about Todoroki and how his hero name was just his name. She thought of Midoriya and how he took Bakugo's shitty nickname and made it his own. Bakugo's ridiculous reaction on her first night in the dorms to her making fun of his name made her want to chuckle a little.
Then it hit her.
It was something her father used to talk about all the time, it was infuriating how often he'd bring it up, and if she used it in the context of being a hero, well, he'd hate it. Pissing her father off sounded great.
"Kaizen." Ren mumbled after a moment.
"Kaizen?" Endeavour repeated.
Ren simply nodded. "Change for the better."
"I see... hmm!" He leant back, he even looked a little impressed. "Interesting. Kaizen it is then."
"Kaizen it is." She said quietly.
"When you return downstairs, there will be several plans ready for you to pick up, as well as a form to fill in if you'd like our hero costume partner business to create a new piece for you." Endeavour explained as he pushed himself up from the couch. "You two start on Wednesday."
Ren stood up too and froze. "Us... Two?"
"Shoto, of course." He boomed proudly. As if by magic the elevator dinged and the sleek doors slid open once more to reveal Todoroki and the administrator. He didn't look as shocked to see her there as she was to see him and she realised he must've worked it out when Aizawa handed her the perfect envelope.
Ren's brow furrowed slightly. "Of course. Yes, that makes sense."
Todoroki exited the elevator and walked over to the seating area far more confidently than Ren had down earlier. He was obviously more comfortable being in his father's agency. "Chinami." He said simply. "I didn't know you were coming in today."
"Ditto." She mumbled back to him.
"From now on you will refer to one another using your hero names." Endeavour said with his large muscular arms folding over his equally muscular chest. "Train hard together and watch each other's backs. Your hero journeys officially start now."
*
As Dr Yuuko and Endeavour had said there was a novel worth of papers for her to pick up when they left. Hard copies of nutrition plans she had to give to the cooks at school, her personalised exercise plan, meditation routines to keep her mind centred, a costume design plan and the secret box of contraceptive medication Yuuko had organised for her. She and Todoroki had heaved their packages onto the train, puffing in their seats from the weight of the papers.
"Y-you'd think a place that advanced would do everything electronically." Ren wiped her forehead and kicked the package onto the ground in front of her.
"My father likes to maintain some modicum of tradition, and he believes our very important data needs to be safe from hackers." Todoroki explained while he rolled his two-toned eyes, to which Ren giggled. "So, Kaizen?"
Ren stared at her heavy ass collection of papers. "Yeah... I thought it'd annoy my dad if he saw me on the news with that as my name. I feel like you could relate to that sentiment."
Todoroki's lips curled into a small smile. "I thought Avatar would suit you."
Ren furrowed her brow and turned to Todoroki. "Avatar?"
"Yep." He nodded and turned to her too. "Midoriya told me about this show where these blue people called the avatar could control the natural elements and then- Wait, I think I'm mixing this up." He pressed his hand to his chin as he tried to remember the extreme detail Midoriya had given him.
Ren snorted before she burst into a fit of laughter. "Oh my dear Shoto." She leant a hand on his shoulder while her other was trying to keep her ribs from splitting. "Those are two very different things." She continued to laugh at his sweet innocence, not noticing the little blush that spread across his cheeks when she used his first name.
She took a deep breath before wiping little laughter tears from the corners of her eyes. "Sorry, I really didn't mean to laugh at you like that." Ren snapped her hand away from his shoulder and readjusted herself in her seat.
He smiled small again. "I like hearing you laugh, even if it's at my own naivety."
Their train journey flew by, the time taken by Ren explaining the difference in plot of the two forms of media Todoroki had mixed up. By the end of it he was only a little less confused than he had been at the beginning of the conversation but he enjoyed just having some time to speak with Ren without Bakugo looming nearby and glaring daggers at him. Discussing the blue people film had gotten Ren onto a tangent, ranting about the irony of a film about the environment being created by a high-pollutant industry, she was still heavily barking about the environment when they arrived at the dorms.
Todoroki opened the door to Heights Alliance and the two of them lugged their ridiculous packs into the house. Those who were there and in the living room that Sunday mid-afternoon turned at Ren's rage-fuelled entrance.
"-and another thing!"
"Chinami!" Iida commanded from his spot on one of the armchairs. "I don't know what has you so fired up but I am trying to read!"
She shrunk into her shoulders, the weight of her papers causing her to lean back a little more than she'd intended. "Sorry, Iida." Ren focused on regaining her inside voice and smiled at him awkwardly.
'Hmph.' He readjusted his glasses and returned his attention to the Sunday newspaper. 'God, he's such a dad.' Ren thought to herself.
Kirishima and Bakugo popped out of the hall that lead to the gym, the redhead talking his friend's ear off as per usual as Bakugo kept his eyes forward and brows arched angrily. His expression softened for a second when he saw that Ren was home. It snapped straight back when he saw Todoroki was with her, and that made him remember his bad attitude from the day before, just making him more annoyed.
"Hey Ren! How was your interview?!" Kirishima bounced over to her and awaited her response like an eager puppy. Would it be inappropriate to ruffle his hair?
"I think it was okay... I dunno... Do you think it was okay?" She asked Todoroki.
He shrugged. "I'm pretty sure my dad likes you. He didn't give out an offer to just anyone this year." Todoroki glanced at Bakugo, knowing how he wanted to work for only the best and now not only was he not with the best, he didn't get to be with Ren either.
Bakugo clenched his teeth so tightly he thought they'd crack. 'I'll incinerate you, bastard.' He thought to himself.
"Anyway," Ren obliviously cut the tension before anything escalated. "As you can see, we've got like a million tons of paperwork and stuff. I better get mine upstairs."
"Here!" Kirishima reached his hands out. "I'll get that for ya!"
"No. Let me." Todoroki placed a hand on Ren's pile of papers.
"Ac-tu-ally." Bakugo muttered between his clenched teeth. "I'll take that." He slapped Kirishima's hands out of the way and stepped between Todoroki and Ren.
Ren sighed. "Yeah cause the last 20 meters is really where it gets tricky." She muttered sarcastically and quirked an equally sarcastic brow.
Todoroki shifted so he could pull Ren's papers away from her slightly. "I really insist." He said it to Bakugo more than he did to her.
Ren and Kirishima exchanged a glance before she rolled her eyes. "I'm perfectly capable, thanks for the offer you guys..." She grumbled to Bakugo and Todoroki but clearly neither of them were listening b
"Well, Icy-Hot." Bakugo grabbed the packages from Ren's arms, officially claiming the duty as his own. "Ren's got my draft for the English assignment in her room for feedback so I'll just use this as an opportunity to get it back." He smiled triumphantly at Todoroki before he took off for the elevators.
Ren looked at Kirishima again, both of them understand each others expressions as 'What the fuck? Okay?'
"Guess I better go up then." Ren shook out her tired arms and followed Bakugo to the lifts.
Todoroki and Kirishima stared at their backs for a few moments before one of them spoke. "Kirishima." Todoroki said plainly.
"Yeah?"
"Are they together?" Todoroki's question made Kirishima freeze. He knew the answer, the answer the three of them had rehearsed and even told Uraraka to repeat if anyone had ever asked. Of course that answer was a blatant lie but Kirishima didn't really know the true answer himself.
"No." He mumbled uneasily. "Ren tutors Bakugo and I but I guess they're kinda friends too... I think he was the first person she told about her father. You know how possessive he is about everything."
"No. She told me first." Todoroki smirked and turned to Kirishima. "I better get this upstairs too."
Bakugo slammed Ren's big ass pile of papers down on her desk, causing the furniture to rattle slightly. Ren eyed his clenched jaw, his defensively hunched shoulders, the way he gripped onto her desk and stared at the wall.
"What?" Ren asked after a couple moments of nothingness.
"What?" He asked back, not looking at her.
"What was that about?" She dropped her bag in its spot next to her desk and flopped onto her bed. "And hello, by the way."
"I wanted to give you a hand." Bakugo grumbled without moving from his spot looming over Ren's desk.
"It felt more like you were competing for me but whatever." She muttered back as she leant back on her bed. "Maybe I would've been more inclined to let you help me if it wasn't the first thing you'd said to me since yesterday." It was quiet for a few gruelling moments as Ren stared at the back of Bakugo's head. She knew she was probably pushing him a little too far but his behaviour had really ticked her off.
"I'm really new to this stuff, okay." He said after a couple of minutes. His angered tone had softened and his shoulders had even relaxed a little.
"What stuff?"
Bakugo sighed and turned to face her. He leant on her desk but dared not look her in the eyes. "Ya know," He gestured between the two of them. "This stuff."
"I'm not exactly experienced in this stuff either." Ren said with a shrug. "But I think this is the part where you're supposed to apologise."
Bakugo looked at her face for the first time when she said that. Goddammit. How was he meant to choose between his pride and those eyes? He half grumbled half sighed as he stepped over to flop onto her bed too, landing on his stomach and groaning into the mattress. "I don't want to." He muffled out against the bedding.
Ren chuckled at his childish reaction. "Come on, Katsuki, don't make me drag it outta ya." She climbed onto his back and bounced up and down on the mattress a few times.
"Fuck off." He grumbled. "I don't think I did anything wrong." Ren bounced on him again. "I'm not gonna apologise for brushing off Icy-Thot." She bounced on him again, more aggressively this time. "Fuck-sake!" He pushed himself up and turned enough so he could shove Ren off of him. He tackled her against the mattress, Ren giggling manically the whole time. "Will you stop annoying me if I do?!"
"Literally, yes." Ren said between trying to hold back laughs.
Bakugo gripped onto the bedding and leant closer to Ren. Her breath caught in her throat as his glowing red eyes and slightly parted lips came closer to her face. His nose brushed against hers, lips barely grazing her top lip. "I'm sorry." His low toned words vibrated against her mouth.
"What are you sorry about?" She whispered back, soft fanning words tickling his lips back.
"I'm sorry for assuming you were too weak to carry a few pieces of paper." His lips brushed even closer, if it was even possible to get closer without actually kissing her.
Ren's eyes narrowed. "Now you're the one being annoying."
"What're you gonna do about it, Freckles?"
She quirked a brow at his shit eating grin. In a flash, their positions had swapped and Ren had pinned Bakugo on his back while straddling his waist. She pinned his wrists next to his head and pushed down against his crotch to keep him in place. He knew he could top her again in an instant but he liked seeing her from this angle. "Listen up, Baka." She whispered as she leant closely to him in the same way he'd just done to her. "You know I'm not weak..." She rolled her hips and he groaned from the sudden friction. "And I think I have stronger willpower than you..." His cheeks reddened when she rolled her hips again. "I won't fuck you until you apologise to me."
He groaned, a long, dramatic groan. She rolled her hips again and brushed her soft lips over his again. "T-try me, Freckles." He mumbled, trying to keep his voice steady. Ren leaned back and rolled her hips again, this time she picked up a steady and continuous rhythm. Bakugo's hands ran up her legs and his fingers instinctively dug into her thighs, his head rolled back and a groan that almost sounded like a whimpered dropped past his lips. He tried slide his hands up to her waist and force her to grind harder against him but she just slapped his hands away and continued at the frustrating pace she chose to keep.
"...'m...s...ry..." He muttered when the tightness in his pants was getting unbearable.
"What was that?" Ren asked as she slowed her hip movements to long and circular rolls.
"I said; I'm sorry!" He snapped his head up towards her, cheeks and ears almost as red as his eyes.
Ren leant forward and planted a soft kiss on his bottom lip. "Thank you, was that really that hard" His face fell to a deadpan expression, eyes darting to where their bodies connected. "Oh, I guess it is that hard."
*