Serizawa wasn't a big drinker.

Miss Reigen was, though, and that was why they were a bar. This was her favorite little watering hole, she had said, before she sat him down at a comfortable leather chair with a low table in front of it and went off to get them drinks. He had no idea what he would have liked but she said that she knew what was good.

He was not a fan of old fashioneds.

Or whiskey sours.

Or highballs.

But she was. Every time he turned his nose up at a drink she downed it for him. That was nice of her, not letting it go to waste, at least it seemed like it had been nice of her at the time. At the time. Because now he strongly suspected that she was drunk.

"Ok…ok…ok…do you like sake? Everyone likes sake! I'm going….sake. We just had a big job and we are going to CELEBRATE!" she shouted that last part. Some people cheered with her. She knew everyone here, it seemed like, and they knew her….and that was a good thing. Even though a lot of the men who had said hello to her had been sort of…put out…when she introduced him as her boyfriend.

Of course other men wanted to be with her, she was Reigen Arataki.

"Wait…um….I don't really like sake either…"said Serizawa. She would come back with sake and drink more and then get even drunker and she could do whatever she wanted, she was a grown woman, but he wasn't sure what to do if she ended up drinking too much and making herself sick or something. Well he'd take her to the hospital but that wasn't something that he wanted to do if it could be avoided.

"Seriously? You sure you're Japanese?" she asked. She laughed when she asked him and then reached across the tiny table and poked him in the chest. Her finger lingered, there, as she laughed some more. His face must have been turning as red as her nails. He could feel the warmth of her through his shirt…she felt nice…she was nice….this whole thing was nice…

"A-At least half. I never knew my father." Said Serizawa. She pulled her hand back and shook her head.

"Said the wrong thing to you…shouldn't have said that….I know how hard it is to be half….society sucks…" she said. She reached over and took of drink of something that must have just been ice water at that point. He slid her a glass of water, his glass of water, with her powers. That was good when you drank too much, right?

"You didn't. It really doesn't bother man anymore, not having known my father. It used to when I was a kid but now…well…it doesn't really matter to me. I have my mother anyway and she's been really good to me over the years." Said Serizawa. He wondered what mom would think of Miss Reigen. She would probably be happy that he had found someone. Mom had asked him, before, back when he had been stuck in his room if he ever thought about leaving his room to go meet women or anything like that. Of course he said no. He had nothing to offer a woman back then and even now he felt like he had nothing to offer Miss Reigen. She was still with him, though, even though he had no idea why.

She was talking about her own family now, about how her parents weren't that great, and about how she didn't care either. He listened to her. She had spoken before about her family but never so…freely. She had always seemed so free before. She was free with her joy when she was happy and free with her affection towards the kids and free with pretty much everything but her laughter, which she hid behind her hand, but now she was truly free. She didn't even hide her laughter behind her hand anymore….

"…and dad was so pissed! Like, I don't know how mom swung it but me and her got to keep the house! God…served him right. He was not taking my house from me. I was not moving to America, hell no, not that I have a-anything against them…I just didn't want to move to a whole 'nother country…." He nodded as she told him about her childhood. He listened but had trouble ever imagining her as someone who would just go along with all of that. Her parents being so awful to her and such. She had stood up to the President when he had been about to kill her. He couldn't ever imagine her giving in to anyone. She was so strong, strong in the real way, stronger than him even though he could lift her…and had lifted her…

She was talking about that now. He had zoned out for a moment and she had jumped to a new topic of conversation. Something else he liked about her, she always had something to say. She was nothing like the President, who mostly spoke AT him rather than WITH him…and who he was over anyway.

"….like how are you that strong? You just lifted me up like it was nothing…and I am not light let me tell you…" she said. She downed his water and then frowned at the glass. She looked like she was about to get up and he just…he wanted her to be near. Not just because he was worried about the way she teetered on her heels as she got up but also because this was a new place and he was still nervous in new places. He had a routine that he liked to follow, and the only times he ever went to new places were with other people. Sho was always dragging him places. Parks, abandoned buildings, ice cream shops and candy shops and places where for five hundred yen you could sit for an hour and pet cats. Sometimes he went other places with other people but he was largely a creature of habit.

Not like her. She was always trying new things and going to new places and just living life. Maybe some of that would rub off on him if he spent more time with her.

But he couldn't if she got up again.

"Y-You aren't heavy….and also I kind of cheated…I used my powers that time." said Serizawa. She threw her head back and laughed. It was a loud sound, one that he knew he was supposed to have found embarrassing but didn't in the slightest, and he wanted to hear her laugh like that every moment of every day….

"Seriously? Why not just use your powers to get that box down for me? Or anything else? Not that I'm complaining, not at all, you can pick me up whenever you want to." She said. Her eyes met his when she sat that and his heart started beating so hard and so fast. God her eyes were beautiful. She was beautiful. Her eyes were so blue and her lips were so red and her hair was so yellow. She was so many colors, she was like a rainbow, and like the skittles commercial said he wanted to-

He could have gotten up and-

But that would have been way too much too soon.

She needed time, probably. She was in this because she liked him as a person, not for…all of that. He had gone almost thirty years without ever having had kissed a woman, he could go for a few more weeks or months or years or however long it took. Women were different like that. They needed a lot of time to get used to the idea of those sorts of things. Besides, if he pushed her too fast then she would think that he was only after one thing and leave him for someone who didn't push her boundaries.

"I-I would never pick you up again…without asking. I just sort of…it was the first thing that came to mind, I guess, and I just hadn't been thinking….I'm sorry." Said Serizawa. She reached across the table and took his hand in hers. This was ok, she had initiated it, and hand holding was the first thing that couples did together when they got together so it was a good sign. There had to be at least four to six weeks of handholding before the subject of kissing could even be brought up. He had overheard the girls talking once, not that he had been eavesdropping, and not that he was taking all of his romantic advice from middle schoolers.

He also got advice from books and websites.

And all of the books and websites agreed that it was best to respect her boundaries and wait for her to make the first move. That way he knew that he wasn't putting pressure on her. Also he needed to give and make sure that he received enthusiastic consent. The internet had been clear that it had to be enthusiastic and not just a begrudging ok. Not that he would ever pester her or begrudge her.

"You know what I think? I think that….that you just wanted to…to….be ro-romantic. I think that you just wanted to sweep me off my feet and you know-know what? It worked. God Serizawa, you're so...I would have let you…no. Bad Arataki. Gotta be….gotta be respectful…" she said. She hiccupped when she said that. It was cute. She was so cute then. Her hair was coming out of her bun and she had some lipstick on her tooth and she was resting her head on her hand and just looking at him…

She was so cute.

She was so beautiful.

And he would have kissed her right then and there if he could.

"You-you are respectful and…and you're right. I think that I just wanted to show you how strong I was because I heard that girls…women! Women liked that. You're a woman, not a girl, and women don't like to be called girls." Said Serizawa. He had written that one down ages ago when he first started working with her. He had never worked with a woman before so he had to do a lot of research and took some notes. It was a habit of his, one that he had been trying to break, and one that he had not broken. Up his sleeve he had some useful notes for dating.

Respect her boundaries.

Do not stare at her breasts, legs, butt, or really anywhere that wasn't her eyes.

Always split the bill.

Carry gum just in case

Carry condoms just in case

And those were just the notes that he could see peeking out of his sleeve. He knew that he wasn't going to get to any situation, yet, where he would need number four and he knew that number five was out of the question for the foreseeable future but at the time those had seemed like very important notes. Dating had a lot of rules and pitfalls and he did not want to make a mistake and end up ending this thing before it even began. Not that it hadn't begun but he wanted….he wanted a lot of things with her. Not just sexual things, and not that he would ever admit to himself that he wanted sexual things with her, but he also wanted to cuddle and wake up with her and cook dinner with her and go for walks in the park and dates and all of the other stuff that couples did.

He loved having a girlfriend.

And he would hate to lose her.

"No we do not…God you're thoughtful. I don't know how the hell I ever ended up with a guy like you. I like you a lot you know. God…if we were ten, no, fifteen years younger I would have snuck you in through the garden door months ago…." She said with a wistful look on her face.

"Garden door?" asked Serizawa

"Yeah. Growing up my house had a garden and the backdoor opened up right to it. Mom always thought that she was punishing me by making me work in the garden but I enjoyed it. Gave me an outlet for all of my teenage angst and aggression. I used to work out there all day long sometimes and then at night I'd 'forget' to lock the door and then after my mom went to bed I'd sneak guys up to my room and…and I should not be telling you about this. Nope. This is not something that you want to know about. Not something that you want to know about at all." She said. She took another mostly empty glass, this one still had some liquid besides water at the bottom, and downed it.

He watched her.

He was not so insecure that things that she did fifteen years ago bothered him. No, he knew that she had most likely been in other relationships before. She was a beautiful and intelligent woman, he was surprised that she wasn't beating prospective suitors off with a stick, and it didn't bother him. No. He may have been bothered, though, by the same thig that bothered him back when the rest of the Ultimate Five would share stories of their childhood foibles.

He just could not relate.

He had zero stories to trade. He spent his adolescence in his room playing videogames or watching TV or wasting box after box of tissues. He had nothing to share and had wasted fifteen, no, eighteen years of his life…but now he was making up for lost time. He had a job and friends and a girlfriend and he was doing what adults did with their girlfriends and he was going to make the most of his adult years.

But he couldn't if his girlfriend was beating herself up.

"I say the stupidest shit sometimes…I don't know what the hell is wrong with me. That's what I do best, I run my goddamned mother fucking mouth and ruin everything…" she was sad, now, and he did the only thing he could do. He reached over, he took her hand, and he assured her that everything was going to be alright. That was all that he had ever needed when he got like that. Human contact. Someone there to make him feel like he was going to be alright. That everything was going to be alright. That was what everyone needed, someone. Everyone needed a person and he was her person and she was his and they were each other's people and how were her hands this soft? And her eyes that soft? And how had he gone almost thirty years without ever having had a woman look at him like that? And how was he supposed to just carry on with life after she finished looking at him like that?

"Serizawa….I like you a lot…" she said. Her voice was so melodious even though she wasn't singing. She was just…how could any human being have been as perfect as she was?

"I-I like you a lot too….Miss Reigen…" said Serizawa. She laughed again, but not at him, never at him. She laughed and then giggled. Her giggled was like little bells, the kind they had at Christmas time, and he wished that he would have some way of hearing that sound every moment of every day for the rest of his life…or until it drove him mad because, realistically, it would…and now he was poking holes in his own romantic fantasies. His therapist said that he brought himself down too much. Maybe she had a point….

"But I think that I should go home now because I have had way too much to drink and I've been saying the stupidest shit all night…and I should go…." She said. She tried to get up but she fell back down into her chair. Her shoes were too high, maybe. Serizawa had always been amazed that she could balance on shoes that high. She had shoes for life and shoes for work but Serizawa didn't understand what the difference was, they were all super high and it looked like a balancing act just to be able to move around in them.

"Wait! I mean…let me help you." Said Serizawa. He got up, walked over to her, and offered her his hand.

"You-you don't have to-" she said shaking her head.

"But I want to. I want to help you. That's what you're supposed to do for you…girlfriend…right?" asked Serizawa. The word girlfriend still had some novelty to it. He had a girlfriend, a real live girlfriend, and she wanted to be with him and had feelings for him and just thinking about it made his heart feel like that doki doki chat sticker and now her hand was in his again and he could feel his powers starting to act up and he needed to calm down and-

"Oh God…how are you this sweet? You're giving me diabetes here…or maybe it's the fact that I eat like crap…that might be it. Gotta stop eating so much garbage….gonna get sick….gonna get fat…not that there's anything wrong with being fat…fuck you mom and your messed up body image issues that you kept trying to project onto me…not fat…gonna eat some shrimp chips…." She muttered as she grabbed his hand and pulled herself to her feet. He steadied her with his powers…and also put an arm around her just to be safe. Better to be safe than sorry.

"….shrimp chips and mayo…that real mayo…gotta get home though…do you even know where I live?" she asked. It took him a moment to realize that was addressing him and not just muttering. He made a mental note, though, to pick her up some shrimp chips…both the ones made from shrimp and the ones that tasted like shrimp…and also the ones that looked like shrimp…just to cover his bases…

Right. He had been asked a question. Now was not the time to think about grocery shopping.

"No…not really. I was planning on you leading me there…" said Serizawa. She leaned into him and rested her head on the crook of his neck. He could feel her breathing. He could feel her breath across his neck and the rise and fall of her chest and-and she was so close…

"Take me home, Serizawa." she said. He nodded and helped her walk home. She didn't mean anything by it and even if she did she was drunk and one did not take advantage of drunk women. Ever. That was not ok and he would not do that to her. He was just going to walk her home and he did walk her home and it was the nicest walk of his life.

And not just because he got to hold her the whole way there.

Purely to keep her steady, of course, and not because he liked how warm and soft and perfect she was.