Ren looked at her for a second, reconsidering those words. Much better when I'm the one who decides. It wasn't an empty phrase.
"So," he said, without moving, "what do you decide?"
Nejire held his gaze firmly.
"I decide I wanna keep going." She put a hand on his chest and pushed him back gently until Ren was leaning against the headboard. "And today you're gonna stay still."
"Still?"
"Still." Nejire settled on top of him, knees on either side of his hips, and started finishing what she'd begun with the buttons of his shirt, sliding it off his shoulders carefully. "Last time you were in control, right? Your powers, your rules. Not today. Today I wanna figure things out for myself... at my own pace."
"And what if I get bored of staying still?" Ren joked.
Nejire tilted her head and gave him a sweet smile.
"You're just gonna have to deal with it, Ren-kun. Think of it as... patience training." She ran her hands over his bare chest softly. "Ooh, here's another mark. Is this one from training too?"
"That one I got cooking."
"Cooking?" Nejire stopped, clearly intrigued. "How do you get a scar from cooking?"
"Hot oil, a badly placed pan, and really slow reflexes. The same pan that's on the floor right now, actually."
"Ren-kun, you're a domestic disaster!" She laughed against his skin, and the warmth of her breath sent a shiver through him. "I'm gonna have to teach you how to cook too. I can make curry, and rice with egg. Well, sometimes I burn the rice, but the curry always turns out good."
"Then we're both disasters."
"But compatible disasters!" she continued, and kissed him on the mark with the same tenderness as before, leaving her lips there a moment longer, savoring the instant.
Ren closed his eyes. There was something disorienting about letting someone else take the lead. Nejire wasn't following any script; she stopped wherever curiosity struck, asked whatever she wanted to know, and moved forward whenever she felt like it.
"Hey," she said, sitting up a little, "can I take my shirt off? I'm getting hot."
"It's your experiment, you decide, miss."
"Okay!" She grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head in one quick motion, tossing it in the direction of the pan on the floor. Her blue hair fell over her shoulders in a messy cascade, and she puffed it out of her face with a breath. "Did it land in the pan? Tell me it landed in the pan."
Ren looked over her shoulder.
"It landed in the pan."
"Point for me!" She raised a fist in victory, completely oblivious to what the image of her in a bra, sitting on top of him and celebrating a perfect shot into a dirty pan, was doing to his sanity.
She looks so damn sexy even like that.
Nejire lowered her fist and looked at him again, and this time her expression softened.
"Ren-kun, can I ask you a silly question?"
"All your questions are kinda silly."
"Hey!" She tapped him on the shoulder, but laughed. "I'm serious. Do you think I'm... pretty? Not as a hero, I mean as a normal person, in a normal bed, without a suit or a Quirk or anything. Do you like me like this?"
The question caught him off guard. Nejire Hado, the girl who asked everything without shame, had an insecurity hidden underneath all that constant curiosity.
Ren took her face in his hands, being careful not to make her uncomfortable.
"Nejire. I like you exactly like this. With the messy hair, and the shirt in the pan, and the questions that never stop." He ran his thumb over her cheek. "You're the most honest person I know, and that's way more attractive than any hero costume."
She blinked, a damp shine gathering in her eyes that immediately reminded him of tears.
"Aw," she whispered. "I didn't expect you to say something so sweet."
"You asked."
"But I didn't expect the answer to make me feel like this!" She buried her face in his neck, and Ren could feel how hot her cheeks were. "Now I'm embarrassed and nothing ever embarrasses me."
"Welcome to the club. I've been embarrassed ever since you found the Mt. Lady poster."
Nejire laughed against his neck, and the vibration ran through his whole body. When she lifted her face, the embarrassment had transformed into determination. She leaned in and kissed him slowly, taking her time, exploring with the same methodical dedication she'd used inspecting every corner of the apartment.
"Mmm," she murmured against his lips. "You kiss different when you're not using your powers."
"Different how?"
"I dunno... you." She kissed him again, a little deeper, and pulled away breathing hard. "I like it more."
Without telekinesis amplifying every sensation, everything was slower. He could feel every point where Nejire's skin touched his, every tiny movement of her hips. There were no shortcuts or amplifications; just the two of them on a bed that creaked a little in an apartment with a pan on the floor.
I don't know why it's better, but it is.
Nejire pulled back enough to look him in the eyes, and her hand went down to the edge of her own bra. She took it off and let it drop to the side of the bed, never taking her eyes off Ren for a second.
"I haven't given you permission to stop looking at me," she said.
"I wasn't planning to," Ren replied.
She smiled, satisfied with the answer, and took Ren's hand to guide it to her body.
"Here," she said, placing his hand over her breast. "I wanna feel what it's like when you touch me. Can you...?"
She didn't finish the sentence: Ren had already sat up to kiss her neck, and the word she was going to say turned into a long sigh.
"Ahh..." Nejire tipped her head back, exposing the line of her throat, and her hands grabbed at Ren's shoulders on instinct. "That's... ngh... that feels good. Why does it feel so good? Last time it felt good too but in a different way, and now..."
"Nejire."
"Yeah?"
"Stop analyzing and feel."
"But I want both things!" she protested. "I wanna feel and I wanna understand why it feels like this, and I wanna know if you like the same things I do, and I wanna..."
Ren bit her earlobe gently, and Nejire swallowed the rest of the sentence.
"Mmph... that was cheating."
"I didn't use any powers. Totally legal."
"Emotional cheating!" She pinched his side in retaliation. "Now it's my turn."
Before Ren could ask what that meant, Nejire slid down, leaving a trail of short kisses across his chest and abdomen. She stopped at every mark, and commented quietly on what she was finding.
"Here's a mole I hadn't seen... and here the skin is softer than on your arms, why is that?... and your abdomen tenses up when I kiss you down here, is that ticklish or something else?"
"Something else," Ren admitted, jaw tight.
She looked up from below, chin resting against his abdomen and a mischievous smile on her face.
"Can I keep going down?" She winked at him.
"Are you gonna make me sign a written consent form for every centimeter?"
"Not a bad idea! I could make a form. With checkboxes. 'Do you, the undersigned, authorize Nejire Hado to explore the area of...?'"
"Nejire."
"Yeah?"
"Keep going down."
Her smile turned radiant, and she got rid of her skirt and underwear with a couple of quick movements that left her body completely bare on the sheets. Ren used the momentum to switch positions, climbing back over her while he focused on the whiteness of her exposed chest, fascinated by the way her areolas blended almost perfectly with the soft, pale skin. Her nipples were a pale pink, and instead of sticking out, they were inverted and shyly hidden.
"Hey, why are you looking at them so closely?" she asked, tilting her head while she stretched her arms.
"Because they're playing hide and seek," Ren replied, leaning down to catch one of those mounds directly with his lips, applying firm suction before using his teeth to gently coax out the hidden nipple.
"Ahh!" Nejire let out a sharp cry of pleasure that echoed loudly in the room, arching her back completely while her fingers dug into Ren's shoulders. "That... ngh... that hurt a little but it felt incredible! Do it with the other one, Ren-kun, quick!"
She reacts instantly to the right stimulus. This is an erotic goldmine.
Ren obeyed immediately, repeating the action on the other breast to draw a second identical moan from her, before sliding his hands down to her belly and continuing lower. His gaze stopped at her pelvis, where a light patch of blue hair covered the area just above. He passed his open palm over it, enjoying how incredibly soft the texture seemed, and started caressing and rubbing the patch with circular movements that raised the temperature of the encounter.
"Wait... ah... that tickles!" she complained between gasps and nervous laughter, though she ended up pushing her hips upward to seek more pressure against his hand. "Why does your touch feel so direct there? Is it because of the texture of the hair or your hands?"
"Because of how you move," he admitted, using his free fingers to part her intimate lips. The outer contours were soft and delicate, a pale pink that gradually darkened toward the center. The inner folds were barely visible from that angle, just a line of a darker pink that suggested depth and that was already shining from natural moisture.
"Mmmh... Ren-kun... it feels too... ngh..." Nejire covered her mouth with her forearm, trying to contain the wet sounds while Ren's finger stroked that inner line, discovering how sensitive she was to the slightest friction.
"Do you like this?" he asked, speeding up the friction a little.
"Yeah... ah..."
"And if I press a little here?"
"That too... but you're gonna run me out of ideas!"
"Nejire, if you keep talking I'm gonna have to distract you for real."
"Oh yeah? How? Tell me, tell me!"
Ren didn't tell her. He took her firmly by the waist, flipped her on the bed in one clean motion to leave her on her hands and knees, and for the first time all night completely stole the initiative, taking in the perfect view of her exposed backside.
"Ah... Ren-kun..." Nejire's hands tangled in the sheets at the headboard, pulling hard. "What are you doing back there? I can't see what you're planning... ngh..."
"Exploring the rear flank," Ren commented with a smug smile, running both hands over the firm curves of her cheeks before sliding his thumb downward, pressing gently right at the entrance of her pink hole, which contracted instantly at the direct contact.
"Ahh... nooo...!" Her voice broke in an exclamation of delight, and Nejire buried her face in the pillow while her bottom trembled out of control under Ren's touch. "It feels... ngh... so different! You told me to stop analyzing and now you're leaving me without air... ahhhh..."
"You asked me to stay still and that didn't last long either."
"That's because you're... ngh... a cheater! A bald cheater who... who... ow!"
Ren smiled against the skin of her back, feeling the spasms of her body beneath his. The sounds she made were delicious; small smothered moans mixed with nervous laughter and half-finished comments that died into deep sighs every time he explored her most sensitive areas.
"Hey," she gasped, turning her face back a little to look at him with eyes clouded by stimulation, "come here. I wanna see your face."
Ren returned to the initial position, settling in front of her, and Nejire wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close forcefully.
"I'm gonna ask you one last question," she whispered, her forehead against his.
"Tell me."
"Are you sure you're not using your powers? 'Cause this feels too good to be normal."
Ren laughed.
"I swear. I'm not using anything."
Nejire considered the answer for half a second, and her expression changed from curious to overwhelmed. She kissed him with an intensity that had nothing to do with scientific curiosity; it was a kiss that said I want you here, like this, now, with nothing else.
And Ren, for the first time in a long while, stopped thinking about the next move and just let himself go.
*******
Author's Note: So yeah, I know, I know, Nejire asking a million questions every five seconds can get a little exhausting and breaks the immersion a bit. But come on, it's Nejire. I can't just erase her personality and turn her into some quiet, agreeable character. Plus those random questions are kind of her whole charm, right?
Anyway, I pulled an all-nighter to finish this, so if something feels a little off or doesn't quite add up, blame the sleep deprivation.
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