Fluff - r

 "R is rhythm."

Hizashi went several shades darker red than Elly thought was humanly possible as he spat out a mouthful of beer. "Whaaaa?!"

"What song reminds you of her?" The dark-haired woman said innocently, batting her eyelashes at the Voice Hero. "What did you <i>think</i> I meant?"

"Oh. Uh." He wiped his mouth and coughed a few times. "Uh..."

"You weren't thinking ab -"

"<i>Songs</i>! Right!" He shouted so loudly that the glasses rattled. Aizawa swore at him, and he coughed again in apology. "I can do songs." Hizashi took out his phone and scrolled through something, looking somewhat embarrassed.

Elly craned her neck up over his side. "Is that Spotify?"

Aizawa set his glass of beer aside with a snort. "Shouldn't a DJ know music well enough?"

"I do, okay?" Hizashi snapped at his dark-haired friend. "There's too many in my..." He trailed off, then cleared his throat. "In my, uh. Playlist."

"Did you make a Playlist for me?!" Her tail arched in a sinuous curl as she craned her neck to try and get a glimpse. "I want to see!"

"No, c'mon -"

"Awwwww." She gave him her biggest, shiniest begging eyes. "<i>Please</i>, Zashi?" He softened noticeably at the shortened version of his name and she pressed further. "I love music, and I want to see what my personal DJ picked for me." Her hand lightly brushed his knee as she leaned in.

Hizashi shivered and thrust the phone at her in defeat.

Her eyebrows shot up as she scrolled through. "Yamada <i>Hizashi</i>," she gasped.

"What?" Kayama was nearly crawling across the table in her eagerness. "What'd he pick?!"

Hizashi plucked the phone from her nerveless fingers and placed it in his pocket. "A lot of good songs," was all he said.

Elly slipped her right arm across his chest, initiating a far more intimate embrace than before. "Good songs," she echoed faintly.

Fluff - q

 True to their word, the rest of the table left them on their own for a little while. They talked about what coffee shop they should go to afterwards and Hizashi was trying to figure out what sly way he could invite her over to his place when her stomach growled.

"Still hungry?" He teased her with a grin as she eyed the last meat bun. "Aw, here... lemme help." He picked it up and set it to her lips.

She stared at him.

"Open up," he cooed in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Elly opened her mouth, half expecting him to shove it at her, but he waited patiently for her to take a bite. Although they were painfully aware they were being watched, the others were trying not to be too obvious about it this time. He fed her the rest of the bun, but she got back at him by licking his fingers afterward.

"Are you two quite finished?" Kayama asked them arched. "Flirting is one thing, but we need to finish up these questions so you can get a room!"

"I've <i>got</i> a room," Hizashi announced. "Several spacious ones, in fact!"

"Ha!" Aizawa coughed dry laughter at his friend's exasperation.

"<i>Yamada</i>!" Blood flew as Yagi struggled to compose himself. Elly worried how much he had left, considering the losses he'd been taking tonight.

"Real slick, Casanova," Kayama drawled, unimpressed. "Now, how would you spend quality time with her?"

"Quality time?" He absently twisted one mustache point while he thought. "Lunch breaks together," he began, a goofy smile spreading across his face. "An' before that, coffee in the morning. We're both busy, but I'm allowed visitors in my booth while I work at the station. We could cuddle in between sets..."

Elly looked like she was going to melt. "You've really given this a lot of thought."

"Maybe."

"Definitely." She tweaked the other point of hair on his upper lip and he blinked, surprised. "You know, I thought about it, too."

"Daydreamed is probably the better word," Kayama murmured.

"Oh? About what, babe?" Hizashi's eyes were filled with curiosity.

"Okay, this is stupid, so don't laugh -" He shook his head wildly about and she giggled. "It's your hair. Didn't I say that already? Have I told you about that?"

"Uh, don't remember." He scratched at the back of his neck. "Wait, my hair. Ohhh. Ladies do seem to like messing with it - oh, shit, sorry."

Elly made a face before she could stop herself. "Ugh, I didn't mean to hiss."

"Nah, it's cute." He rubbed her shoulder in a comforting manner. "Look, I didn't say they got to mess with it. Only that they <i>wanted</i> to." He paused thoughtfully, then added, "you wanna see?"

"See?"

Hizashi fidgeted in the booth until he could unfastened the double bun his hair was pulled up in. He grimaced as some pulled out, but then ran his fingers through the blond avalanche as the hair came tumbling down.

Elly's brain stopped working.

The Voice Hero with his hair waxed up as Mic was wackily hot. When he wore it pulled into that double bun he was adorable. As it flowed freely down his shoulders and back, however, she was suddenly confronted by Seriously Hot Hizashi...

...and she couldn't move. Her purple eyes slowly changed, blown wide and dreamy with passion. She laid her ears on either side of her head, purring in confusion but happy.

"Hey." He reached out to cup her cheek in one hand, concern written all over his face. "Y'alright, Princess?"

Yagi smiled, lifted in spirit by the look of pure love in the cat woman's eyes.

Kayama hid a smile behind one hand, unable to completely stifle a squeal of glee. "Imagine, all that for <i>Yamada</i>."

"Oh, no," Hizashi exclaimed softly as he realized what happened. "You overloaded." He stroked her face lightly with his fingertips. "It's okay, Ches. Here." He took her hand and brought it to touch the wealth of gold spilling over his shoulder.

Elly swallowed very loudly. "It's so <i>soft</i>. I could do this all night," she said slowly, as if in a trance.

"Mmmnnn." He closed his eyes as she let his hair run through her fingers. "Feels really good, but! We couldn't possibly you do this <i>all</i> night, baby."

She wondered what the record was for blushing in a single night.

Fluff - p

 Elly sipped her margarita, toying with the stem of the glass and licking the salted rim before drinking again. Hizashi watched these actions as she repeated them and tried to stifle a small bloody nose.

She didn't notice him sniffling. "Let me guess... 'P is for pet names'."

Kayama beamed at her. "Yep!"

"Oooh, tricky."

"You already call me stuff!" She exclaimed. "Like Aizawa said, you've been doing it for months."

"Babygirl," Aizawa snickered.

"Yeah, <i>babe</i>, but not like, for really real." He passed a hand over his hair and frowned. "Those're just placeholders. Ya gotta have a special one."

Yagi nodded. "I think I know what he means. Special names show love and affection, like the ones your family call you."

"Oh, like 'princess'." The other woman nodded.

"That wasn't me." Elly shook her head. "I was never called anything good. Even the pet names I had from my family were, like, 'shithead'. The nicest one was 'booger'."

Aizawa chuckled softly.

"Oh." Hizashi sounded almost as sad as she was, and his arm curled around her in a different way, a more protective fashion.

"I was never 'daddy's little princess' like all the other girls were. He - he didn't love me. My biological father didn't, either. He didn't care." She spoke in a carefully unemotional voice.

Hizashi literally choked on that information. "N - yer <i>dad</i> didn't..? An' ya had two?!"

Elly smiled bitterly and shook her head. "That 'nice' name of 'booger', by the way, was from my grandpa. He was the best of a bad lot, though he still did some terrible things."

"Hrrggk." He swallowed his outrage and changed direction, speaking in a sweet tone instead of the angry snarl that had been building. There was time enough to talk about her upbringing, later. Now was a time of healing. "Well... how about if you're <i>my</i> princess?"

Kayama tucked her tongue in a corner of her mouth. "Woohoo!"

Elly's ears laid back.

But Hizashi shook his head. "It doesn't hafta be a creepy, uh, daddy thing! Honest! I just meant, well... you were ripped off." He pouted, his jaw thrust out as his leg jittered nervously under the table. He held back for a few seconds, then blurted out all at once, "It's not fair, an' <i>I'm gonna fix it</i>!"

"Oh, Hizashi," she said quietly. "It's okay, I -"

"Yeah, princess?" He turned those spiraling eyes on her, absolutely filled with adoration, and everything she was about to say died on her lips. She took a shuddering, shaky breath and wrapped both arms around him, holding on tight. The blond-haired man looked startled - though happily so --  and he bent in to the embrace, murmuring to her in a comforting way.

"I think they need a little break," Yagi murmured with a catch in his voice.

"Yeah, looks like it."

Fluff - o

 "What's next?"

"An eccentricity she has... an oddity. I think they're pushing it to find matches for letters."

"Well," Hizashi drawled comically, "she's the only person I've ever known that drinks heavy cream and eats Slim Jims."

"Some people like different things, it's not really strange, is it?" Kayama shrugged.

"Yeah, but." Hizashi turned that cockeyed stare of his at Yagi. "<i>At the same time</i>, I meant."

Yagi turned a little green at the thought and nodded. "Oh."

Elly sniffed and flicked her tail out once, curling it up at the tips. "I don't eat them for the combined taste, you know." A hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"It's not as bad as it sounds, anyway."

"Oh? You haven't kissed her when she's been eating them. How would you know?"

He spluttered and waved his hands in the air. "I'm not gonna care about that if I'm <i>kissing</i> her!"

"Aww." Kayama grinned. "That's... kind of sweet. In a weird way."

"I think that describes the taste pretty well, too," Elly giggled.

"Ya little weirdo," Hizashi chuckled, ruffling her ears.

Do it for him

 Elly exited the coffee shop that morning with a smile, her favorite brew in hand. It was a good day so far and everything was going to be -

She blinked, her ears flicking as her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hi, Cheshire, sorry to be calling so early. I know you have school starting soon, but just wanted to check in on you and discuss something."

<i>It's Hizashi's PR agent..</i>?

"Oh?" She sipped her drink as she headed back to campus.

"You and Mic were seen this weekend at the beach. I think you need to go somewhere different on dates. Not so, ahhhh... public places."

She froze in her tracks, her tail stiffening as her heart dropped. "Wh - what?"

"All I'm saying is I think it's best if you two don't flaunt your relationship."

She hung up immediately, confused and hurt.

<i>Why can't we be seen together</i>? Her mind roiled, digging up doubts and bad feelings to throw them up for her to get tortured by. <i>Did Hizashi want this</i>? <i>Was he ashamed to be with her</i>? <i>Did his PR agent want him to appear single so others would see him in a better light</i>?

She groaned, shaking her head to try and clear it.

Worse yet, there was now a media crowd blocking U.A's gates. Inwardly she cursed her decision to go to the local coffee shop instead of grabbing a can in the teacher's lounge, but what was done was done. Elly flickered into invisibility and slipped between the reporters as silently and quickly as possible. She then rushed down the pathways and halls past her startled colleagues to hide in her office for the first part of the day.

At lunch there was a rhythmic knocking at her door, a pattern she recognized. Hizashi stood there, his neck speaker in one hand and leather jacket unzipped. He set the clunky gear down when he saw her expression.

"Whoa, babe - you all right?"

"My brain is on fire," she whispered in a hoarse voice. "...help?"

"Was it the bad news media?" He closed the door behind him and walked quickly over to her, holding out his arms. "What did they do to my baby?"

"Meh." Elly whimpered and collapsed in his embrace, resting her head on his chest as he stooped to pick her up. "You don't wanna know what it was."

"Oof."

"M'not heavy," she protested faintly.

"Nah. But yer neck gear is digging into my - oh, thanks." He took the sharp-toothed speaker and set it on her desk. "Better," he sighed, sinking into a chair. "Now, what happened?"

She laid her ears back briefly. "Your publicist called to discuss our relationship."

He groaned. "Oh <i>nooooo</i>."

"Apparently we shouldn't flaunt it? In public? Whatever that means..."

"Bullshit," he scoffed loudly. "He needs to talk to me if he wants anything, and I'm not hiding my love for you."

"Maybe it's for safety reasons." She took a long, shaky breath and buried her face in the soft cotton of his shirt.

He hummed thoughtfully, stroking her short purple hair. "That's not how you feel though, right?"

"I - I'm not good enough to be seen like that with you."

"Now <i>that's</i> wrong." He shook his head, scoffing at the very idea. "I'm proud yer my girl... ohhhh, wait, uh oh." Hizashi tightened his hold on her as he felt her start to shake. "You know that, right? I love you."

"I know," she sniffled.

"You can cry if you need to. Let it out, Ches." He cradled her in his arms, rocking gently. The smell of leather this close up was comforting and familiar, but she remained distraught.

"It's okay."

"Nuh uh, it isn't!" He was adamant about it, feeling the stress in her body. "It's okay to cry, baby," he urged. "This has happened a few times now. Why can't ya cry for me, huh?"

"I'm <i>scared</i> to let go," she told him in a very low voice. "My family punished me for showing emotions, and above all, I wasn't allowed to cry."

He whined with sympathy. "My poor baby. That's not right, it's not fair."

"I know it's okay to cry, but I have to fight the voice in my head that says it's wrong. That you'll scream at me, or hit me or - or leave me if I do."

"Oh, shit," he choked. "No... <i>no no no no no</i>. <i>Shitfuck</i>, baby, yer family..?"

She nodded, eyes streaming tears.

"I'll never do any of that!" Hizashi pulled her up further, swinging his legs across the desk. "Please," he whispered. "If you won't do it for yourself, baby, do it <i>for me</i>. Do whatever you can. I'll be so proud of you, always, I promise." He gripped her hands in his gloved ones and clutched them to his heart. "I love you no matter what. I'll always love you. Say it with me, please."

She fidgeted on his lap, eyes filled with tears that she was still fighting hard to hold back. "I - it's silly..."

"Hizashi will always love me," he said in a firm voice with more than just a hint of his quirk. The air between them vibrated with intensity.

Elly swallowed hard, choking on a wave of embarrassment. "Zashi, I -"

He repeated himself, his sunglasses  sliding down his long nose so she could see the concentric circles in his eyes. They seemed to thicken with his force of will. "<i>Hizashi will always love me</i>."

She took a large, trembling breath. "Hizashi will always love me."

He cocked his head, his hazel eyes wide. "What was that? I didn't hear you."

"<i>Zashi</i>..."

"Louder."

"H - Hih - Hizashi," she husked.

"Almost there. Give me the whole sentence, baby."

"...will always love me."

"Again," he whispered, kissing her on the forehead.

"I can't, I feel stupid!"

"You're not," he told her firmly. "You're amazing. And Hizashi..."

"...will always love me?"

"Aw," he sighed, covering the back of her head in one hand and drawing her to his chest. "It's not a question. You're halfway there. I know it's hard. I know you don't feel good about yourself. But I <i>will</i> always love you." Hizashi paused, a steely note creeping into his expressive voice as he yanked his cell phone out of a tight pocket. "Also, I'm <i>firing</i> my PR guy <i>right now</i>. Fuckin' punk hurting my girl. He'll be lucky if I don't yell at his ass."

For some reason that was what broke her and she clung to him, half sobbing, half laughing, for the rest of lunch break.

True to his word, Hizashi didn't mind at all.

Fluff - n

 "N... nightmare. In other words, what she's afraid of."

"Oh. Ohhhhh, that one I don't know." Hizashi cocked his head to the side and thought for a minute.

"I know you don't like bugs, but that's not your biggest fear," Elly suggested gently. "You know my little one, too."

"Little?" Aizawa snorted. "Few bugs run up his leg and he lets students run right by him -"

Yagi waved his hands around. "Now, now, Aizawa. We were <i>supposed</i> to let them win if they figured out how to circumvent their circumstances."

"Yeah, how'd that go?" Kayama chuckled, remembering. "You hit boom boom brat so hard he barfed."

"I was just -!"

"Being All Might?"

During this heated conversation, the two were having a much quieter one of their own. Hizashi was upset to find out he knew so little about Elly's innermost thoughts. "Geez, I thought I knew ya better than that," he confessed, frowning slightly.

"Well, we have fun when we're together." She shrugged. "Fear is definitely not something I would offer to chat about."

"Yeah." He rubbed her shoulder gently in a soothing manner while they sat in thought for awhile. Eventually he blurted out a question he'd been wondering. "Hey, d'ya have a lot of bad dreams?"

Elly sighed, though she was smiling. "Yeah. You?"

"Uh huh. Although, honestly, not on these nights."

The others had stopped arguing long enough for Kayama to listen in again and, of course, she had something to add. "That's not surprising, the way you drink!"

Hizashi picked up his new mug of beer and took a long swallow.

"If that's how he deals with his bad memories, we should all be so lucky," Elly said softly. He raised one eyebrow at this and she rushed on, "no, I mean it. It's not healthy, sure. But you set rigid limits on your drinking and only do it once a week."

"I'd much rather find another source of comfort," he mumbled into the glass.

Her ears twitched, and she placed her hand on his.

Fluff - m

 "We're ordering more drinks," Hizashi announced as Aizawa picked up the phone beside the table. "Get yer shit together, folks! I'm thirsty."

"Zashi," Elly reprimanded him gently.

"What? I wanna drink if I gotta answer all these questions. I'm talkin' a lot."

"Yeah, one milk, another regular beer -"

"Extra large beer!" Hizashi called out cheerfully.

Aizawa gave him a look that spoke volumes. "...an extra large beer, a margarita..."

"What's next?"

Kayama shrugged. "Favorite memory together?"

"We haven't made that many together yet -"

"Yeah, what about when we first met?" Hizashi chuckled but Elly groaned, hiding her face in his dark outer shirt.

"Oh goddddd, so embarrassing." She raised her head to glare at Aizawa, who stared calmly back as he dropped the phone back in its cradle. "You just <i>had</i> to tell him my jacket was his merch."

"He would have noticed eventually."

"Maybe," she hedged, "maybe not."

"Why'd you wear it anyway?"

"I didn't realize I was going to be meeting Present Mic right away!"

"So..." Hizashi giggled an evil giggle and ruffled her hair with his fingertips. "Are you still a fangirl?"

"Hizashi!"

"Bzzzzt! Please frame yer response in the form of an answer. Try again!"

She laid her ears back. "<i>Hizashi</i>!"

"<i>That's not an answer</i>," he sang out. "So! Lemme see, does it get you all hot 'n bothered when I wear leather?"

Elly blushed anew and refused to answer him.

"Neat," he said, grinning from ear to ear.

Moy mell 59

 They napped for around a half hour before Aizawa was awakened by her licking his neck and whining. The urgency had struck harder than before and she was so desperate he could feel her elevated temperature right away.

"Shit," he muttered groggily, wiping at his bleary eyes. "Did you try to hold back?"

Elly shuddered and shook her head. Truth was, she had only just woken from the discomfort. Her hands twitched along his chest as she struggled not to grab him too roughly. "I can't... please, I need you."

"Shh, it's okay. I didn't mean you had to try. Here, mnnfff - uurgh." He rolled over on top of her and kissed her on the corner of her mouth. "Gimme a second. M'not hard yet."

She kissed him back more passionately, her hands caressing his worn, sleepy face. "So cute."

"Mwha?" Aizawa blinked, focusing on her in the dim light. The word distracted him long enough for her hands to tickle lower on his belly, down the trail of dark hair to his thighs. He inhaled sharply at his body's quick response to her touch. "Whatever I was given earlier does work fast, doesn't it?"

"Yes." Elly threw her legs up around his waist, panting eagerly as he fumbled around in the darkness.

He grunted approval when he managed to guide himself in with his hand. "There."

"Yes..." She clutched him hungrily, kneading his back and trying to buck up into his movements right away.

Aizawa snorted, hair flying about his face as he thrust. "Not yet," he warned.

She whined.

"Not. Yet," he huffed in a commanding tone. His bloodshot gray eyes fixed her with a stern look that caused her to mew softly. He didn't stop but he slowed a little, sliding a hand over to cup her cheek as his mouth claimed hers in a soulful kiss.

"Listen." He spoke in a low growl. When she opened her eyes, she saw his were burning red as they stared into her own. Mesmerized, she panted hotly into his mouth when he kissed her again, unable to look away. "I'm your mate, your master when you need me to take control - <i>and you need that now</i>. Give yourself to me."

"Sh - Sho..."

"No." He nipped her neck harder and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, tears slipping from the corners. "Call me by my mating name, Ches."

"Kind of embarrassing -"

"It's okay." This time he pulled completely out, fixing her with his sternest gaze. His eyes still burned red and his hair floated upright in that strange, unseen wind. Eyes and hair combined gave the human a rakish, demonic look that did things to Elly's heart and mind. She cried out, needing and wanting him somehow more than ever. Aizawa sensed this and pressed further, kissing her softly on the mouth while never breaking his gaze.

"Shota - baby ..."

"Give it to me. <i>Give in to me</i>," he murmured, adding her real name to his low plea. The very air around them seemed to grow warmer and she shivered all over.

"<i>Milord</i>," She whispered, her throat working and ears laid all the way back. Her body grew limp and she lay there, the symbolic name relaxing her need for control.

Aizawa smiled and responded by biting the sensitive mark on her neck. "That's good, my queen. You're doing very, very good." He pressed a kiss to the bruise and set himself, placing his hands firmly on either side of her. "You deserve a reward before dinner, hmm?"

He gave her everything he had yet again, pushing his limits to satisfy her raging need. He pistoned forward ceaselessly with his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth bared, sweat and hair flying, and he didn't stop until he heard her screams taper off into a low, pleased hum.

"Guess I'm not going to orgasm every time, hmm? Unlike you, dear." He laughed dryly and stroked her damp cheek. "Let's get cleaned up again. It's almost time for dinner."

She was ravenous.

Though Aizawa had been warned he was fascinated by her appetite. She consumed everything on the platters served them, going so far as to crack the bones in the meat chunks to get at the marrow within. He ate more slowly, trying to time it so they could finish together.

Seimei was the one that brought the food that night, though he assured them Sanji had traveled to cook it. "I came to see if you required anything else - and to check, of course, if everything is going according to schedule."

Aizawa grunted. "That meal had our 'medicine' in it, correct?"

"Yes." The white-haired sage paused to pull the cart behind him, glancing briefly at the empty plates. "It's good that you finished it all."

"Shotaaa..."

He pulled her into his lap, making low, soothing sounds in the back of his throat. "Shh, Ches. I'm here. It's okay."

"The dose she receives is fairly strong. She'll be asleep soon." He paused, his expression amused as he watched Aizawa rub her ears.

"You're getting sleepy already, huh?"

"Mine." Elly curled up, nudging close and clutching him around the waist. "<i>My</i> baby," she mumbled softly.

"How amusing "

The scruffy man's ears started to burn. "Ah, yes. Thank you. Is there anything else I need to know?"

"You should be aware that the hormones involved in her heat sometimes cause her to be slightly irrational."

"Irrational?"

Seimei nodded, his expression the gravest Aizawa had seen since he met him. He folded his hands inside the long sleeves of his robe and sighed, suddenly melancholy. "Do not forget that she is <i>ancient</i>, man. She has nightmares you can't possibly imagine that plague her, and during this time - at night -- she relives quite a few nasty experiences she's had over the years. Please be patient with her."

As if on cue she dug her fingers into Aizawa's arm, shivering with reaction. "Don't leave me!"

Seimei glided silently away with the cart. Aizawa closed the door behind them and scooped her up in both arms.

"No, no... shh." He rocked her, moving gently back and forth as he spoke in a soothing voice. "Nothing is going to take me away. I'm here, and it's all right to go to sleep." He made his way back to the bedroom and laid her down, crawling close by her side. She grasped him tight, curling intricately around his body and tangling her tail and legs in his.

"Everyone leaves me," she said so simply that his throat closed up with grief. He was unable to answer her, so instead he kissed the top of her head and held her a little tighter.

"I'm not gonna leave you."

"Zoro promised too," Elly whimpered. "I thought he was the one..." She shook her head, distraught. "He lied."

<i>Ah, so this is what it's about</i>. Aizawa breathed deeply for a few moments, considering his options. When he spoke, he made sure they were eye to eye. "You were with him for many years."

She nodded.

"He had - has -- problems of his own. He held his feelings for you inside, and they festered, warping his judgment and eventually coming out to hurt you."

Elly winced, looking away, but he cupped her cheek in both hands and gently corrected her head to align with his again.

"I lost someone once, a long time ago. I never really told them how I felt, and I grew up pretty fucked after that." He laughed bitterly, remembering a lot of the bad choices he'd made. "I didn't open up to anyone after because I was afraid, and I almost lost another friend because of that. You don't need to worry. I made that mistake already, and I won't make it again."

He would have went on, but he realized her body was limp in his arms. When he checked, her breathing was steady and her eyes closed.

"Tommorow I'll show you again. And the next day, and the next..." Aizawa sighed and laid back, resting his head on the soft pillows, and soon followed her.

Fluff - L

 Hizashi was in the process of asking Elly about her favorite dessert when the next question was broached.

"L is for <i>love</i>," Kayama crooned.

"Of course," Elly murmured.

Yagi looked uncomfortable and yet also curious. He steepled his long fingers together and coughed when Kayama pushed further.

"So, Yamada, have you declared your love for our most excellent counselor yet?"

Hizashi gave her a very steady look and curled his arm a little more around the woman in question. "That's not the question, is it?"

"Technically, no. It's '<i>how would you show your love for her</i>?'" She paused thoughtfully, tapping her nails on the edge of the phone. "You know, like cuddling, flirting and buying her excessive amounts of gifts... <i>that</i> sort of thing."

The burn on his ears spread to his face and down his neck.

"We don't have to ask, do we." Yagi's eyes were kind as he watched the younger man squirm. "He's been doing it for so long he doesn't realize it."

"Yamada? <i>Speechless</i>? I never thought I'd see the day." Kayama glanced over at Aizawa to see if he was muting him, but he was drinking, his eyes closed.

"Uh..."

"Well?"

He laughed, though it was much weaker than anything anyone had heard come from him in a long while. "I'm not gonna confess in front of you 'cause yer desperate for a show, Kayama."

Elly agreed very softly. "There shouldn't feel like there's pressure to do it or it won't seem sincere. I honestly don't, um, expect <i>anything</i>."

He stared at her incredulously - the top of her head, anyway, seeing as she was sitting so close to him. "Ya don't  - <i>whaaat</i>? You don't expect nothin' after all this?" His voice dropped low, meant for her ears only. "I'm gonna do it later, when we're alone, ya dig?"

She sucked in a quick lungful of air, her striped tail fluffing out as her heart began to pound. Hizashi huffed once, in amusement, as she hid her face in his shirt.