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[sealeted]

We were bantering. I literally had no numbers before today.

[These are all rough, off-the-cuff estimates. Why is he taking it so personally...]

[guerrilla]

[Why, indeed?]

So you adjusted numbers that didn't exist before today to account for my eye.

[That could be why. It's not, but it's the only thing he's giving her to go on.]

[sealeted]

Look. There were. Nebulous rankings about your attractiveness, maybe.

[How dare he make her say this with her own mouth.]

But I don't have some graph somewhere dedicated to it, or anything.

[guerrilla]

[This is it, he decides to himself. Robin: 1, Hakuno: however many rounds of banter they've been in, except for this one.]

That's fine. As long as you've got one in your head somewhere I win this time.

[The real question now becomes: Are you just gonna sit there and take that, Hakuno?]

[sealeted]

You know what? Fine. Tease me for it if you want. It's fine.

[Is it really, though?]

But, in return, you have to tell me my rankings, even if you only think them up right now.

[guerrilla]

I don't see why I have to bother making them up in the first place, especially since you're just going to find some way to turn them against me later.

[Or immediately, depending on how wrathful she's feeling at the moment.]

[sealeted]

No, it will be tit for tat. I won't get mad since you didn't.

this isn't a joketag

[guerrilla]

[After a few moments of consideration, Robin responds with two words, and two words only.]

Your legs.

[That's all he says.]

[sealeted]

[She looks down.]

One hundred percent?

[guerrilla]

Close to it, anyway. If I were the kind of person to break it into percentages, I guess.

[Getting the rest out of him will be akin to pulling teeth.]

[sealeted]

...oh.

[That's all she says, falling into an indiscernible silence. Her hands start massaging again, but it's slower now.]

[guerrilla]

[Robin somehow feels like he's messed up. Her silence is indiscernible, but if she's not teasing him even a little bit about it, there's something wrong here.]

...What's the matter? Did I not notice a new haircut, or something?

[sealeted]

No, nothing's wrong. ...I guess you're pretty lucky that I tend to wear skirts, huh?

[The words are suitably teasing, but it's obvious her heart isn't in it. That sort of forced levity is just... kind of sad.]

[guerrilla]

[As much as he's enjoying the massage, it's only becoming more apparent that it isn't actually nothing that's wrong. So he leans forward, away from her hands, to turn and look at her.]

...I'm not sure what kind of answer you were fishing for, but you did ask me what I thought was most attractive about you.

[So he answered honestly. She'd given off a pretty short list consisting entirely of body parts herself, so it seems a little strange for her to react like this, but maybe she's disappointed it didn't seem like he'd put any thought into his answer?]

So let's see...if we don't include your legs, next is your eyes. And then your hands.

[Because her eyes are always, always looking toward her future, and her hands are always building it for themselves.]

...I don't really think there's a point to assigning values or anything to them. It doesn't really feel right trying to break anything about you down into numbers...I think you've probably done enough to warrant a nice, long break from that sort of thing. Right?

[sealeted]

[When he turns, he gets to see her expression. It's a little uncertain, a bit troubled, but first and foremost her cheeks are red again. It isn't that he's done anything wrong, honestly, so much as she's dealing with her own issues regarding her worth. It's frustrating because she knows she's reasonably attractive, but...]

I don't... really know if there was a particular answer I wanted to hear myself. The points don't really matter either.

[Though that mystery 25% is probably going to bug him for a good long while.]

I've just... recently been thinking about the future. Not marriage and kids or anything but... no, never mind. It's silly. Anyways, lots of people like legs, right? I'm lucky.

[And she gives a little fistpump to prove it.]

[guerrilla]

[The right thing to do here is probably to tell her that she's not being silly at all. But given the context, "the future" can really only mean one thing, and if he's told her once he's told her a thousand times that he's not interested in her love life.

So the unpleasant feeling settling in his stomach when he gets another glimpse of the Command Seals tattooed onto her hand must be because of that.]

...Yeah, you're pretty lucky.

[sealeted]

Both guys and girls like them, so it gives me a bigger chance.

[Hakuno isn't fully in control of her mouth right now, for some reason. She doesn't understand why this nervous rambling is spilling out now, of all times, but she can't stop it either.]

...ah, but just a physical relationship is...

[Exactly what she has with Kojirou right now, more or less. Flirting and kissing aplenty when their paths cross, but beyond that...]

I guess I still have my work cut out for me. Um, wh... what about you? There were a few more girls eying you up after I changed back from a child. Did you turn up the charm?

[guerrilla]

Oh. I guess it's something like that. I had to get notes from them while you were too small to take them.

[He may have implied promises he didn't intend to keep, and stringing them along just enough to keep them complacent seems like better than the alternative, because Robin is a terrible human being.]

None of them are really my type, though. They'll get over it eventually.

[He's not even sure he has a type, as far as romance. He's never really thought about it before.]

[sealeted]

Wow, I'm feeling a bit ripped off now. I always just gave you them for free.

[He's so terrible it makes her stomach clench, thinking of him flirting with random students just because she wasn't there. But she cracks a joke to cover it up, because hasn't she always teased him about being a heartbreaker?]

[guerrilla]

And here I thought agreeing to let you touch forty percent of my charm points was enough.

[Jokes aside, she's already gotten a lot more than they ever will from him in the first place.]

But if you feel left out, next time I need notes I'll be sure to put a little more effort into sweet-talking you into handing them over.

[sealeted]

Big talk from a man getting a free massage.

[Just because this isn't exactly a chore for her doesn't mean that he isn't benefitting too!]

You know what? I'll hold you to that. I want to see this for myself now.

[guerrilla]

You're too smart for my usual strategies, but I'll come up with something. I'll even catch you if you swoon.

[He's decided there's only a few essential notes to hit for Hakuno, anyway, so it's a matter of coming up with how to present it.]

[sealeted]

I don't think I've ever swooned in my life. Have you?

[You know, without it being a dead faint due to near-death.]

Well, good luck I suppose.

[guerrilla]

No. The closest I think I ever got to anything like swooning was when I was -

[Madly in love with Hakuno as the result of a love charm.

Damn it.]

Bleeding out, one time.

[Nailed it?]

[sealeted]

[Oh, same.]

Well, if you manage it for me, I'll see if I can return the favor sometime. You know, without pain or mortal danger.