It had been one month. Mayu grew aware of that as she sent the short story under the collective theme Jewel a couple of days before the deadline. In a week the printed version of their monthly efforts would arrive, the one written the month before. The new theme should be chosen as soon as everyone had sent their stories.

Satisfied she reached for the toffee caramels.

A smile popped on her lips when the act reminded her of Genos' trick. He had lied about the caramels to use that slight as an excuse to express gratitude and appreciation without suspicion or Mayu pointing out that they were the ones doing her a favour.

Fans of the "Cyborg Prince" had crowded him on the requested dessert bar, leaving the cakes wide open. He had been exceedingly calm and polite, shaking hands and giving autographs before making his way to the table Mayu had claimed with several plates of scavenged treats. All that seemed to stem from and add to the reputation his photograph and heroic actions had built.

It took a bit of time to convince him to relax and have something, forget about the training or growing stronger. Macarons and a bit of poking until he shared. Amusingly enough he was feeling like any other 19 year old boy in the girly environment with the idea of a date having dawned on him through the chatter of the other girls. It was as adorable as his insistence on taking a few desserts for Sensei.

Saitama had indeed taken the peanut brittle. Not that she minded after he surrendered the coupons for candy bars and helped her triple the amount she could carry.

Mayu closed the laptop and stood, stretching. Maybe she could go out and get a fancy pastry...

A loud whirring sound made her turn abruptly, sparking in recognition, facing an armed drone at her open window. The thing looked a bit more armoured than the others.

Lightning hissed releasing a quick bolt to throw its aim off, charging a blast.

It had started happening shortly after moving to Z-city. At first she had thought nothing of the machines that sometimes appeared, following her about. Could be from the Hero Association. Could be from Doctor Kuseno for all she knew, especially after Genos had told her he had spoken with the scientist on her behalf on several occasions.

Then they started to grow insistent, invasive and aggressive.

So Mayu had chosen to take them down on sight.

Lightning slashed through the air, charring its outer shell, cracking and melting the machine. Unable to fly it fell to the ground, crashing on the street. She peeked over the balcony, making sure. Scrap metal on the pavement. The next strike was direct, hammering it down, concrete cracking beneath.

Positive lightning was especially effective against them and their interference had taught her how to trigger it by imploding negative lightning. It was something about the radio interferences it generated as well. But that time it was both unnecessary and not something to do inside the house.

A couple of Association mail drones had suffered the same fate by accident. She had explained through the phone why and started shipping the wreckage of all the things that beeped annoyingly around her head, trying to fight and "gather data". The Association drones were now painted a bright gold to make sure they were recognizable at a glance.

"It's open." Mayu answered the distinctively metallic knock on her door, closing the phone after sending the message about the drone, hiding the toffee so Genos wouldn't know she knew. At least until she had time to go shop and dramatically snatch another bag of the candy while staring him down on the sweets aisle. It had been sold out in the Saitama coupon raid.

"It arrived." Genos said, sounding a bit excited, stepping into the apartment, closing the door behind him, stopping, noticing the smell of ozone and the still sparking woman. He crossed the room purposely, peeking over the balcony wall, eyes narrowing, analysing. Mayu shrugged, peeking at the parcel he carried.

After a bit of reassurance that it was nothing of concern they sat down and opened the device they had been waiting for to further the agreement.

In that month Mayu had managed to gain the control she needed over her constant charge production. As with learning anything new she had to be very aware of each step of the process to be able to do it and keep up. Developing control had been composed of long hours seating hand in hand and lowering her amperage and keeping it down. It could get dull and yet a slip in focus was enough for her levels to climb up once more to the first reading Genos had taken.

Doctor Kuseno's gadget looked like an earring, a plain hoop of silvery metal small enough to be worn as a ring as well. It came with several crystal-looking marquise cut pendants tucked the padded box. There was also a printed booklet with the instructions.

Genos immediately started to read out loud, committing the information to memory while sharing.

The earring's inner mechanisms measured and gave the electrical and biological readings at any given time. The loop itself warned Mayu immediately if the values fell into deadly range in a situation where her body registered none of the stress levels or higher currents congruent with combat situations.

The crystals were made to gather and store the overflowing lightning for Genos to use both to boost his weaponry and as emergency recharge but most of all to make sure she didn't need to control, diverting the flow, freeing her from the need of constant vigilance. It was a simple matter of attaching them to the earring and changing when full.

Mayu took off the white rose earring from her left ear placing it on the table, picking up the loop, examining it and the way it would be secured, closing it in place after pushing her hair out of the way, tying it so it was visible.

A synchronization request pinged to life almost immediately in both their phones. They acquiesced.

Genos trusted the Doctor and Mayu trusted the cyborg.

It took only a few seconds for the readings to start aligning and scrolling.

"Your numbers are high. Matching." Genos nodded, satisfied. She had just blasted some sort of mechanical thing so it was to be expected. She was also not doing a thing to lower them. Training from whatever state of mind and voltage she was in was the best way to work. "How does it feel?" he looked away from the data, staring at her, waiting.

"Rather normal." Mayu admitted, pulling her purse from under the table, scavenging through its contents, ignoring the rustling of wrappers and caramels, pulling the compact mirror, tilting her head to see. Not too heavy either. "There is a little alarm." She mentioned, powder-blue nails tapping the metal, making the hoop hobble. "Where do you want to start?"

"Take the idle generating to bearable levels." Genos asked, reading the manual, making sure they were setting it up right. He had given the numbers to Doctor Kuseno but double checking would do no harm.

Mayu was smiling warmly, making him pause, stare, fidget. The levels were going down. The cyborg focused on that, avoiding the growing distraction.

Images, bubbling up fleetingly.

Sweaty palms, building heat and fluttering heart and insides…

Forgotten for his own good.

Genos used the linked phone to set that gentle low under 5 milliamps as «daily». The device would know that was where Mayu should be and warned if it went over it without reaching the «combat» baselines. He stared at the screen with narrowed eyes, clicking a few icons in quick succession.

The soft beeping stopped.

"Genos?" She called, clipping the storage cell on the earring, noticing his distraction, the fixed downwards stare, approaching, peeking into the screen and booklet. No answer. Absently she ran her fingers through his hair, testing, the soft fibres barely reacting to the static. The readings were still low. The secondary bars of the reservoir were steadily filling. There was little else to do other than go on living as she pleased. "Thank you..." She murmured, hugging him.

Startled Genos looked up, at her, dropping the phone on the table.

It felt warm.

Metal did not have that much sensitivity.

No matter how much of a normal life the Doctor tried to make him able to experience there were simply things that technology could not accurately replicate. And frankly it should not seeing that his goal, his purpose, was to fight and destroy the rogue cyborg that had ravaged his life. Mayu's power made him feel, recall sensations. She smelled light and sweet, the perfume in the glittering bottle kept on the shelf, mingling with her scent and with the bite of ozone.

"We can go on a monster patrol. Saitama may want..." Mayu suggested, moving away, standing, oblivious, heading towards the door.

The tug brought her back down, unbalanced. Genos' hand was grabbing her wrist, pulling her close, catching her against his solid form, kissing her, tasting toffee on the soft lips. Mayu's breathing stopped, lightning building sharply and swiftly, the device's alarm chirping and disabling as it went above and beyond combat levels, scorching the floorboards, shattering the crystalline reservoir, the small shards scrapping her neck and jaw, the lights and appliances in the apartment clicking and whirring to life, SPD's going into overdrive in their duty to protect appliances before everything shut down.

Warmth and prickle turned into heat and want in the small storm.

Alarms beeped in the silence shrilly growing silent for a long moment before repeating the warning.

Genos cupped her face slowly in the quiet room, opening his eyes, drawing away, freeing her wrist, unsure of what to say, unable to look away.

Mayu stared back, lips parting, unable to speak either, remembering to breathe, the intake trembling, erratic, unmoving, wisp-shrouded hands on his shoulders. Scorch marks traced all she touched. The floor. His shirt. The metal of his shoulders. His mouth.

"Mayu?" Saitama entered without knocking. "The power is out. What are you two doing for..." His tone was playful but the words dropped into silence, expression growing even blanker than his usual relaxed visage.