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"I believe you two should spend your pent up energy in something productive."
Chloe's always been too smart to argue about food within Nana's earshot.
Ken isn't, though, what results in both of them sitting in chairs — like children, facing a particularly nasty kindergarten teacher — as if it's Chloe's fault that Ken overreacted after being told he ate like a starved animal.
If Nana had looked at him back then, wolfing down the slimy vegetables and buttery fish, she might've started to thinking her cooking was palatable. It wasn't, and Chloe felt it was his duty to point out Ken's lack of table manners - in case he gave away any false hopes. There was no reason why he should hold cutlery like weaponry when slicing salmon, to which Ken replied "Well, I better put those to proper use, then" and tried to stab his eye with a fork.
It had been entirely his fault, what makes him crossing his arms and pouting (pouting!) unacceptable.
"He started it," Ken mumbles under scrutiny. Even Nana, who hardly ever falls for Chloe's flirting, has to smile at him. The fact that Ken had been enthusiastically munching on her food might've helped in gaining her sympathy, but it's the tilting of his head and furrowed brow that earn him pity.
Chloe isn't the type to fall for such tricks, but he is the type to notice them. Charm doesn't come to him effortlessly as he pretends, so he watches and learns. Ken… Well, Ken is pretty much like a tiger in that department: all strength, teeth and claws, but just a big cat, endearing to look at from a distance, when not tearing things to pieces. He'd been murdering the poor fish, true, though as a mission planner and terrible cook, Nana must've learnt how to appreciate that.
Ken plays the part of a starved stray very well, just not well enough to stop a lecture. The power of pursed lips and crossed arms can only go so far, and women make it work better, anyway - not that there isn't a certain amusing quality when a grown man does it. Aya, of all people, is forced to stifle a laugh.
"I've been working with Chloe far too long. The way he acts can be," she paused. "Upsetting. But is it too much to ask you both for a truce?"
"He lacks manners." Chloe says. It's an overly nice way to put that Ken tried to gouge his eye out. Can't anybody remember who is the victim? Yet his measured words have no effect. Ken still jumps at them, pointing an indignant finger.
"Well, you lack- you lack… everything!"
"What, can't come up with another word? Are they all too big for you?"
Chloe swears he can hear Ken hissing.
A clap of hands claims their attention before anything serious happen, after all, Nana has a good grasp on what the two of them can do with a set of table knives and should be able to stop them before they try. Also, her dominatrix boots are a threat big enough to his groin area when Chloe tries to get up and leave.
"We're going to have a talk." Nana smiles brightly, one foot pressed snugly against his thigh as she forces him back into his chair.
Chloe sweats.
Tuning out as soon as he hear the babbling about the importance of teamwork and bonding experiences, he wishes, for once, that Ken had been successful at swaying Nana's heart. Meanwhile, Ken makes an honest effort at listening, if only because Nana is talking in english and could be saying just about anything.
She points that out, too, disapproval in her gaze.
"Honestly. What do I do with the two of you?"
With the help of Michael and Aya, the little traitors, Nana decides they could both benefit from mandatory training. Chloe doesn't know why he should be punished by a crime that isn't his own, since Ken is the one who usually sticks to Aya when fighting, cursing loudly in japanese and expecting everyone to understand. He swears there's some forlorn, one sided relationship going on there, but saying that out loud doesn't get Aya on his side, and he gets kicked out to the training grounds with a rather red and furious looking Ken.
"I'm going to fucking kill you," Ken promises in flawless english.
"I'm not surprised these are the only words you can enunciate properly."
He reddens even more, and the next thing he blurts out is in japanese, proving his point. Chloe shrugs, smugly as ever, even after Nana looks back sternly and shakes her head.
"Men," she sighs to herself, setting up the room.
It's the same one where they first tested their abilities against one another, but this time, there are painted targets and blinking red dots. It doesn't take long for Chloe to realize they're bombs; Ken, on the other hand, looks about to ask how crazy KriptonBrand is. Which is plenty, if Chloe gets a say on it, but not the way Ken is thinking.
"These are only homemade explosives," Chloe chides him. "I feel more threatened by your lack of competence."
"I'm about to show you a real reason to feel threatened, you-"
Hands in her hips and clicking her tongue to call for attention, Nana intervenes.
"Your objective, if either of you is interested, is rescuing as many targets as you're capable of from the explosions without getting hurt, obviously. The majority is accessible if you combine your strengths. You won't be able to use sheer brute force - your mission is to protect, not to destroy. But rely too much on tricks and distance, and you'll find out this won't be easy. "
"We don't do much rescuing, Nana." Chloe argues, what earns him a glare. He doesn't know a woman as intimidating, but then, he doesn't know many women capable of looking down on men taller than themselves.
Nana stares at him as if she's stepped on horse crap with her favorite pair of heels.
"You've been compromising your team's safety with those childish quarrels. It's about time you learn how to back up each other and practice some responsibility."
"And what if we don't succeed?"
"If you don't," she rolls her eyes, knowing Chloe doesn't even want to try. "You'll be up for training everyday until you do."
There could hardly be a more convincing argument.
Nana crosses the door and the latches close behind her. A timer, instead of a lock and a doorknob, warns them there's one hour until it opens back again, allowing their handler in to account for failure - or success.
One hour.
Unimpressed, Chloe walks around, making a vague plan about counting the total of explosives placed, targets, their locations, and making an estimative of how much time they have for each. Ken, being Ken, just stares at him dumbly, giving a startled jump as the first bomb goes off nearby.
It's a small explosion, meant to scare them off and leave their eyebrows charred at most, but Ken tackles him to the ground all the same. Chloe's cheeks are red from anger and humiliation before he realizes Ken is actually taking the whole training thing seriously.
"What did you do that for, idiot?" It's hard to preen his clothes with a ruffled assassin on top of him, so Chloe pushes Ken to the side. He rolls to his feet and looks away, pretending to pay attention to the detonators, but Chloe can tell he's feeling dejected. It doesn't take long until they hear another explosion — not too far away, either — and this time Ken's waiting for it. He tenses in expectation, but is unable to move; he just waits, hears. Ken's ready to pounce as soon as something shifts in the air, and Chloe can't help but laugh at that.
"What?" Ken hisses, refusing to turn back to him.
"I just thought- well, you look like a big cat."
"What?!"
"It's a compliment, deal with it."
Ken's face darkens as the gears shift in his mind — just in what kind of language being compared to an animal is a compliment?! Unabashed, Chloe gives him a little pat to his head as he walks by.
Ken's a strange man. Chloe thought every japanese to be like Aya, who doesn't like anyone standing on his personal space. Twice Chloe had startled him by approaching too quietly, and found himself tackled to the ground when Aya's assassin training kicked in.
On the other hand, Ken's too physical. If it's from his past as an athlete or from his fighting style, Chloe doesn't know, but he enjoys the proximity. Even after swatting his hand away, Ken flushes and smiles (albeit managing to look annoyed at the same time). He's probably irritated at himself for betraying his on intent of being angry at Chloe, but then, if Chloe thought Ken had the capacity of staying angry for too long, he wouldn't provoke him to begin with. Ken looks cute when he gets pissed off, but there's only so much cute somebody can be when they live under the same roof and can kill you in sixty different ways in your sleep.
The ground trembles when Chloe steps away and he senses Ken moving. He snatches the other assassin by his arm before he can go and get himself a new haircut - a third target is destroyed by the explosion, but at least both of them aren't tossed to the floor anymore.
"A motion sensor!" Ken beams with delight when Chloe nods back. He's so proud to have figured that one out Chloe almost misses the opportunity to a comeback.
"Why are you looking at me like you want a treat?" he tuts, knowing Ken can't flail wildly without risking them another failure. Not that he doesn't try to, but Chloe holds him – Ken can pushes him off if he wants to, being second in strength only to Free – and he calms down enough to see how stupid that would be.
"Why must you be so…?"
"You like it." Chloe laughs. Of course Ken likes it. If he didn't, Chloe would already be maimed.
"You remind me of someone I knew. He wasn't such an ass, though."
"From Weiss?"
"Yeah."
He stops at that, which is fine by Chloe. Each one of them has sore wounds that won't heal. What surprises him is that Ken starts talking again.
"He behaved a lot like you. He'd always be hitting on girls, even during the missions."
"Somehow, I can't see you being friends with that kind of person."
"Friends, uh?"
A bitter expression crosses his face, but Ken shakes it away. Was that the wrong thing to say?
"He was a flirt and he always called me by stupid nicknames!"
"Wait, he flirted with you?"
"Of course not, you idiot!" Ken fumes. He hits a closed fist against Chloe's chest and, damn, that hurts!
"Don't worry, here in Britain everyone is much more accepting of such things."
Aya isn't there to pry Ken away from his throat this time, and it's not his fault Ken's limited english makes him think he's talking seriously. But Chloe can't stop. When it comes to Ken, there isn't a filter between his sarcasm and his mouth.
"Oh, Ken," he pants, chest constricting as Ken tightens the grasp on the collar of his shirt. Their noses are inches apart. "Is all of that your love for me?"
It must be, because Ken growls in frustration and mashes their lips together.
Well, then, that's an unexpected turn of events.
It isn't exactly kissing. Ken's certainly not doing it because he likes him. That, or nobody told him before that keeping his eyes open is creepy. No matter how Chloe looks at it, Ken's only intent seems to be killing him by lack of oxygen, so Chloe does the only sensible thing and kisses back, tongue and all. Their teeth clack together when Ken tries to shut his mouth and Chloe doesn't think he's ever met someone so awkward at the simplest things. There's power — even grace — in the way Ken offs his enemies, but apparently the proper use of his tongue eludes him just as much as the use of forks and knives.
A fist catches him in the jaw and sends Chloe stumbling backwards. His unbalanced steps trigger another bomb, but they're far beyond caring about winning now.
Ken huffs.
"What did you do that for?"
"You're the one who kissed me first." He's also the one who tried to stab him first, and the one who made Nana force them into training, but Chloe isn't a kid anymore. He's above claiming "But you started it!".
"Oh." Ken's eyes widen, as if he's just realized what he's done. There's this thing about him — the reason why his domino mask covers most of his face. His expression is so easily readable. Chloe sees how his mind goes, a mix of disbelief and stubbornness. Did I really do that? and That should teach him to stop mocking me. Chloe wishes some of the kissing was because Ken thinks him to be attractive as well. Just a little bit. "Oh."
Can someone actually be that slow?
"Well, you wouldn't shut up otherwise." Ken frowns. Chloe should've been the one scrambling away. He'd keep quiet, then, and stop being such a bother.
But Ken isn't very good at planning, just at jumping straightforward into things before he thinks them through.
"You do seem to rely on your instinct a lot." Chloe says.
Ken's torn between confusion, and the need to smack something. That seems to be a permanent state to him, anyway, so Chloe brushes it aside with ease and closes the distance between them.
It'd be a lie to say he isn't interested. It isn't about men or women, or the thrill of the hunt, or anything like it is when he charms the girls who sell them flowers. Chloe doesn't do dull. He doesn't do dumb either, and Ken might be plain, not the type Chloe usually goes for, but he isn't as stupid as Chloe pretends him to be. He's hardly someone to discuss the next play in town over a fancy dinner, but poking fun at him is a different sort of amusement.
And he's got pride, after all. You don't simply go kissing someone because you feel like extracting petty revenge, specially not someone so handsome.
Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm.
"You kissed me. Did you like it?"
The noise that comes out of Ken's mouth is incomprehensible. Ken makes the teasing so, so easy. It's not even challenging anymore.
"I'm aware that you can't speak english." He punctuates the sentence with a chuckle. "But you could show me instead."
Hopefully not with a punch.
"Fuck you," Ken spits, but his eyes dart back and forth, uncertain.
Maybe with proper incentive, then.
Chloe doesn't know a whole lot about Ken. He's japanese, he' an assassin. He used to be an athlete, once. The information disclosed to team members includes favorite weapon and fighting style and evaluation scores, but it doesn't reveal anything remotely useful. Chloe has to guess by the way Ken gravitates towards Aya, or displays open gestures of affection.
He kisses Ken again. He can tell Ken isn't happy about it, he's too… wary, as if it's just another way Chloe invented to pick on him when the banter ceased to be amusing.
"I'm not making fun of you," he says. Nothing changes, so Chloe adds: "Well, not this time."
Ken finally relaxes. They don't kiss again, but Ken keeps him close, his hands grasping the sleeves of Chloe's shirt. The heat is bearable, even though Chloe wishes to pull him closer. It's still a victory.
"Shouldn't we get this over with?" Ken asks, nodding towards the door. The counter blinks red before the number changes.
"We probably should. Wouldn't like another go at this, right?"
Ken laughs this time, stretching and making sure, with that improbable eyesight of him, that there are no emitters or receptors nearby that could trigger an explosion, should they cross the invisible line between them. He tenses before walking further, but nothing happens.
That wouldn't be precise. Chloe happens.
He can't stop himself from giving Ken's ass a sound slap as he walks away.
"Hey," Chloe puts his hands up in the air, confessing his guilt with a grin. What a stupid move; there's no need to give the handicap to someone stronger than him. By the look in Ken's face, he might needing both his arms for defense real soon. "Didn't Kritiker tell you to never let your guard down?"
When Nana opens the door, twenty minutes later, she's met with an impressive sight. The bombs were designed not to cause more harm than KR can afford covering, but the training room is in shambles. Without the sprinklers on, the trees burnt to an ugly brown, their branches twisting with the heat. The walls need a second coat of paint. There're two assassins tangled in the floor, but not in the way Chloe would've liked it.
There's a mouthful of blood that he spits before pressing his tongue against his gums to check for any loss of teeth. A swell is growing right beneath his eye — it's the kind of wound that will leave him wearing sunglasses for weeks until it disappears, least someone see his ruined face. Ken is faring much better, compared: his sole injuries were caused by a bomb going off near his side. There's a nasty gash on his leg and he'll have to buy new clothes, but he'll survive. It isn't as if he's the one permanently disfigured.
Nana coughs, but Ken doesn't let Chloe go. That might've something to do with the fact that there's a hard on pressed to Chloe's hip.
So Ken gets off on violence. It figures.
"I'm so disappointed in you." Nana shakes her head.
But that's okay, too. The next training session looks very promising.