[center]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/QKIjW21.png[/img]
[h3][color=b16edd]Reina Mori[/color][/h3]
[/center]

The girl felt her blood slowly going cold, brought on by the intense gaze reflected back at her in the mirror. Her eyes… they gave her the impression of—

Reina glanced behind her, seeing Takeshi. Somehow, his sudden appearance hadn’t startled her in the slightest, despite how deep in thought she had been. Instead, it took a second for her to start getting flustered—though thankfully, Takeshi continued to speak while she gathered herself. She turned to face him better with her own timid smile.

[color=b16edd]“Well… you aren't wrong,”[/color] she said with a soundless giggle, glancing to the ceiling and placing her index finger to her lips in thought. [color=b16edd]“I’ve opened up some of my wounds a few times… hurts a lot less than when I first got them though, so it's no biggie.”[/color] She looked back to the boy out of the corner of her eyes, waving her hand at the air. [color=b16edd]“I can’t help it though, I start to lose it after just an hour of laying in bed. Wasting time like that when I’m trying to be a pro hero is no good either…”[/color]

The girl trailed off, eyes shifting to the bag Takeshi held. Had he?… 

[color=bc8dbf]“I brought you some home cooked food…”[/color]

Reina felt her stomach grumble at the mere mention, but more than that she was stopped by the thought behind it. Takeshi and Michiko had thought of [i]her[/i], and had gone out of their way to give her something they knew she’d likely desperately want. 

She could only stare for another long second. A week ago, she would have timidly but adamantly refused the food. She would have convinced herself she didn’t deserve it, and she wouldn’t want the person to have to spend any more time with her than necessary. Her eyes widened, realizing that wasn’t at all how she felt now. With Takeshi, she could be at least sociable—even just now, she had talked to him with no effort, which was not a common occurrence in the past few years of her life. That meant she felt she [i]probably[/i] wasn’t a complete nuisance for Takeshi to be around—in fact, if she let herself hope and dwelt on their interactions enough, she could find herself thinking that he might [i]like[/i] like being around her, which was a concept so foreign to her that it almost made the girl uncomfortable. [i]Almost[/i]. Once again, only a couple weeks ago it would have. Now though… 

Reina brought herself out of her thoughts, and gave a smile far happier than was normal from her. She stepped forward to peek into the bag, getting even more excited seeing it was sushi. Evidently, the Yashiro siblings had noticed a thing or two about her, the thought of which made her cheeks warm up a bit. 

[color=b16edd]“So…”[/color] she began, glancing for a moment up at Takeshi, her voice taking on a subtle teasing tone not often heard from her. [color=b16edd]“All I’ve got to do to get free food is help keep Michiko safe from a murderous villain or two?”[/color] Through her faintly cheeky grin she felt her blush deepening seeing Takeshi's face barely a foot away from hers, so the girl turned to make her way to her hospital bed, pulling on the arm that had a small table fixed to it to allow her to eat while in the bed. She positioned it so it was over her lap as she sat on the side of the mattress—and as she did so, realized something that made the redness in her cheeks deepen and even start to spread to her ears. She glanced between the table, the edge of the bed, and Takeshi… and decided to not let herself think over what she was about to suggest too much, for her own sanity.

Looking away conspicuously, she motioned Takeshi over with her hand, re-positioning the arm on the hospital bed so that the table was only partially hanging above one of her thighs rather than centered over her lap—giving the boy room to sit at the ‘table’ next to her as well. 

[color=b16edd]“I-I’d be able to eat all of that probably, to be honest… but that’d be rude, so you have to have some of it too.”[/color] She paused, [i]now[/i] starting to think on what she was saying. It was possible he had just meant to drop off this gift for her and be on his way. That would be embarrassing considering what she had just said, and lead to her face getting even hotter. [color=b16edd]“U-Unless you have somewhere to be or something!”[/color] she quickly added, voice a pitch higher than normal. [color=b16edd]“Then I-I’ll excuse you, I guess…”[/color]

[i]Under[/i]thinking things evidently had its own set of problems for her, just as overthinking did.  

[sub][@Aerandir][/sub]