Sometimes Reigen Arataki could be really hypocritical.

But that was her right as an adult. She was the adult here and this was her office and if she wanted to use her office for reasons other than work related ones then that was her business. She could close the blinds, lock the door, and do something in her office that had nothing at all to do with work. She was the boss here and that was the beauty of being the boss. She could do whatever she wanted!

Though maybe this was not the best place for such…intimate….after work activities.

"God, Serizawa, how does your hair grow this fast?" asked Reigen as she ran a comb through the bird's best that had become Serizawa's hair. This was best done every two weeks but they hadn't had the chance. It had been an unusually busy couple of weeks. Spirits, curses, massages, all of it. She hadn't had the time to sit Serizawa down and do something about the bird's nest that was his hair.

Also the kids were around a lot and…well when they were around it always turned into a game of mad stylist.

"Sorry….Reigen. I don't-" said Serizawa as he felt Reigen running the comb through his hair. She was so close. He could smell her perfume and feel the weight of her against his back…he felt like he shouldn't have been feeling this way…but it was ok to feel this way. She was his girlfriend and it was ok to feel this way about your girlfriend. That was just…an ok way to feel about someone you….loved.

Loved.

He loved her…when she was this close! He loved her when she was this close to him, close enough that he could smell her perfume…and the cigarettes she smoked….and the incense smell that always clung to her. She smelled so good…and she felt so good too. Warm, even though the air conditioner was going full blast. It wasn't that hot out but she didn't want to turn it off just yet in case another hot snap came. He was glad that she had it on. He felt warm from his head to his toes when she was this close…and when she leaned in closer. Her hair was resting against him, now, he could see it coming down over his eyes…she was leaning over him. She had cut some of his hair and it had fallen and…and now she was leaning over him and….

Seriously. Get it together, Katsuya.

"Don't say sorry, I'm jealous, actually, I wish my hair grew this fast. Then maybe I could cut it." Said Reigen. She regretted saying that the moment it came out of her mouth. God, she was such an idiot when he was near. What she had meant to say was something along the lines of 'if her hair grew as fast as his then she could have tried out different cuts' but of course she had to go and put her foot in her mouth. What was wrong with her? She had been his….girlfriend….for months now but she still turned into a teenager when he was near.

Seriously. Get it together Arataki.

"I-I…I-…" said Serizawa trying to find sounds that had the hope of becoming leaned over and brushed the hair that had fallen away from him. Her hand lingered…and he had no idea what to say. He had to say something. He had to make words. He knew words, he knew how they worked, and he had used thousands of them over the course of his lifetime….but he had no words right now. He wanted to…well he wanted to pull her down and kiss her but that…would not have been ok. Well it would have been ok…because they had kissed before…and she had told him that she was always up for kissing…and he liked it but….well he just…he didn't know if it was ok…even though she had said that it was ok….

He didn't want to risk it not being ok.

He didn't want to risk her getting upset with him. Slapping him like in an anime and…well he had been watching too much anime…and playing too many games…because she would never have slapped him…but she would have been upset with him….and maybe she wouldn't have but…well he didn't know if he could take that risk…the risk of pulling her down onto his lap and kissing her…or even the risk of asking her…but he had to say something….

Anything.

"Your hair is very nice and…and if you wanted to cut it then I wouldn't mind…I mean it's your hair and I have no say in it and…and I love you even if your hair is long or short or-" Serizawa. He didn't realize what he had said until he said it…and then at that point it was too late. He wished that he could have taken it back, if he could have jumped off a cliff or down a hole in the world and gone back to the last save point and redone that whole sentence….the whole relationship….his whole life up to that point. He wanted to just go back to a checkpoint or a save file…

But this was his only save file…and there were no checkpoints….

So now all he had to do, all he could do, was deal with what he had just said. She had stopped cutting, now, and she had barely started…and she was still leaning over him….and he would have jumped up and ran away if he hadn't been so close to her…because then he would have hurt her. He could feel his powers just under his skin, right there, just there and just….he needed to calm down. Even though he had messed up and now…now he had moved too fast and…and this was not something that they just….that was just said like it was nothing…this was…this was something that he felt and…and he just…this was the biggest and most intense thing that he had ever felt and….

And she was moving now.

"I love you too, Serizawa…now how short do you want it? Short like last time?" asked Reigen quickly. She had said it back. She could count the number of people she had ever said that back to on one hand and she still would have had fingers to spare and…and she was fine. Her heart was racing because….because she felt the same way. That was the only reason that her heart was racing. That was the first and only time that he had ever….well he was getting braver…more outgoing….takin control of his own life…and she was proud of him…and she was happy…

She was so, incredibly, deliriously, happy.

She was! She just…she loved him and…and the word had been there, on the tip of her tongue, for so long…and now it was out there and…and that was fine. This was fine. They were two adults in their late twenties and…this was what adults in their late twenties did. Fell in love and…and she could do this. She knew how to do this. This would not end in…badly. This would not end in badly…and that didn't even make grammatical sense but…but this made sense and…and the two of them made sense! The two of them made sense….together. A sweet, sensitive, kind man like him and…and someone like her. Someone who had spent years lying to a little girl who idolized her….someone who had just…she wasn't going to sit there and drag up every single thing she was ashamed of in her past. He knew her past, he knew her, and he loved her and….

And she loved him too…so that was that.

"Um…as short as before and…and about what I said-" said Serizawa. He wanted to tell her that she wasn't obligated to say it back to him. He wanted to tell her that he had been…well not that he hadn't been thinking because that would have been mean and…and that would have been the worst thing that he could have done and…and he wanted to say SOMETHING.

But he couldn't.

"Sorry, I can't here you. Electric clippers. Sorry." said Reigen. She preferred to do this with salon scissors, better fine control, and it took longer. It took longer and that meant more time near him…which was stupid. She wasn't a teenager, she was a grown woman, and if she wanted to be near her boyfriend then she could just tell him and…and she did want to be near him…but also she needed some space…space to think…even though she had no idea what it was that she even had to think about….what she even could think about….

Or what he wanted to talk about.

So she got out the electric clippers faster than she had ever thought possible. She just….needed a moment. To think. To collect herself. To calm down and stay calm and…and she just…breathe. Maybe breathing would have been easier if she hadn't been smoking a pack a day since she had been in high school. She needed to just try her best and breathe and then…and then she would finish his haircut…and then they could get ramen and then….well and then things could go back to normal…not that they weren't normal….not that she wasn't normal….

She was normal god damn it!

"Reigen…Reigen can we just….I'll wait." Said Serizawa. He wanted to talk about this. She had been talking really fast…and he knew that she did that when she was nervous. She had to see that he hadn't said that to put any pressure on her. That was just the way that he felt. He loved her and he wanted…well he wanted to take it back…but he also didn't. There was something just so…freeing…about it all being out in the open. Like something heavy had been on his shoulders and now it was gone and…and now she knew. He loved her. He was Serizawa Katsuya, former hikikomori and Claw member, current assistant to the greatest psychic of the twenty first century, and he was in love with Reigen Arataki…..

And she loved him back.

The feel of it, the weight of it, was gone….and so was the feel of his powers…the coming explosion. She…she didn't…she didn't need to see him like that….and she wouldn't. She wouldn't see him like that and…and he didn't even feel like that anymore. He just…he loved her. He loved her and she loved him and….and she was nervous but…but maybe it was the good kind of nervous. Maybe she was the good kind of nervous and so was he and….

And they could talk about this when she was done.

It didn't take her long to finish cutting his hair, and he had thought that she was done, but then she had started combing it….and combing it…and combing it even though he knew that it must have been too short to comb. She was just scraping it against his scalp at this point. He didn't know why she was like this. She was nervous but….but maybe it wasn't the good kind of nervous. Maybe she was…maybe he had pushed her too hard…gone too far…maybe….maybe they needed to talk about this now and….and maybe he had to be the one to start the conversation.

"Reigen-" said Serizawa. She didn't stop combing. If anything that made her comb faster. He didn't know if he could take any more combing…and he didn't know if he could take any more of this…it had been silence but now she had started talking and…and he knew what it meant when she started talking like this.

"You know you look good with your hair short or long. Short is easier to deal with but long leaves you more options to style it…well comb it. Though combing is kind of difficult with your hair type. I just can't get it to calm down. You know this could take all day, really, if I don't do it right. Like, did I ever tell you about when I was in beauty school? It was after the dog grooming but before the water cooler sales job. Anyway I had this client come in, it was still my student practicals, and she had hair just like yours. Now normally when women with your hair type come in they want it straightened but this woman came in asking for a perm, an honest to God perm. Like it was the eighties. Well perms was a two part class and I had only made it to part one so-" said Reigen. She knew that she was going on and on and on, she knew that she went on and on and on when she was nervous, and she knew that he probably didn't want to hear about something that had happened to hear all the way back in beauty school…but she had to say something.

She had to talk.

Because there had been silence and she did not do well at all in silence. She had been thinking but thinking was maybe leading to overthinking. She loved him, he loved her, they were two adults in love. That was normal. They were normal. People fell in love every single day. That was normal. This was normal. This was…she could do this. She had done this before….

And it had gone terribly wrong.

It had ended in heartbreak and pain and her stealing an entire garden and replanting it in her mother's backyard…and mom still went on and on and on about that. About how she had messed up the best thing that would ever happen to her. About how she had been an idiot to let a man like that go, apparently he had 'good prospects' or whatever. About how Reigen was her own worst enemy and how it was hard enough to meet a man when you were half Japanese….and now she could hear her mother's voice in her head clear as day….and she wanted it out…and she wanted the memory of that relationship out…and maybe if she spoke enough, if she used enough words, then the memories and thoughts would all get drowned out…

That had been the plan, anyway.

She had been talking, telling her about the time she had turned a woman into a poodle and then put her dog grooming skills to the test, when she felt the comb being pulled from her hand. It was gentle, though, he rarely used his powers like this but when he did it was so gentle…he was always so gentle with her. He even got up gently, when he was done taking the comb from her hand, and he even turned around gently….and her heart was pounding but it was not pounding gently…and she had no idea why it was pounding like this…it had just….maybe it was the love confession…or maybe how close he was…or maybe how she wanted to be closer to him…or maybe it was how she wanted to run far away from him….far away before she ruined this just like she ruined everything….

"Reigen…can we talk?" asked Serizawa as he turned to face her. She was so red…and he had no idea if it was good or bad…but good or bad they would deal with it together.

"We are talking." Said Reigen. Her voice went up above twenty octaves at the end of that. She had no idea what he was going to say…but whatever it was she was going to accept it. If he took it back she was going to accept it. If he said it again then she was going to accept it. If he asked her if they could go to a different ramen place then she was going to accept it. If he told her that he hated ramen and never wanted to look at another bowl of it again in his life then she was going to accept it.

That was what you did when you loved someone….and she loved him.

"I mean…about what I said before. I mean…I meant what I said but I didn't say it to make you say it back. I know you and I know how you are when you're nervous…and you're very nervous right now…and I don't want to push you too fast and-" said Serizawa. He would have said more, he wanted to say more, in fact he had exactly what he had been planning to say all lined up in his head. He would have told her that whatever she felt was fine by him and then he would have asked if they could go to her favorite ramen spot and then that would have been the end of it. He could have said that and he would have said that but he didn't get a chance to say that.

Because she was kissing him.

He could feel her lips pressed against his and, acting on a two second delay, he kissed her back. This was…it had started out like their usual kisses…and now it was moving into being….well this had become usual and…well usual when they were alone and…and they were alone now and….and he had probably really misread the entire thing. Maybe she hadn't been nervous because he had just blurted out the three most important words that one person could say to another. Or maybe she had just been nervous because she wanted to kiss him like…this….

That door was locked, right?

"Serizawa…Seri-Katsuya….'Suya…" said Reige between kisses. She loved him and he loved her and…and they didn't need to talk about it. It had been said, it couldn't be unsaid, and there was no reason for it to be re-said. This was…a healthy adult relationship…and this was what happened in healthy adult relationships…so it was what it was and what it was…well it was them making out in the locked office…and she had locked that door, right?

No time to find out.

There wasn't any time to find out. There wasn't any time to stop. If she stopped…if they stopped….then they would have to talk about it and…and Reigen considered herself to be very good at talking…but there were some things that just didn't need talking about. I love yous were exchanged. That was all. They loved each other and now…well why not just…get to the things that people did when they were in love? Even though she was running from…she wasn't running from anything. She loved him, he loved her, so why not do the things that people did when they wanted to show love?

So that was what they did….and no, Reigen was not avoiding anything…