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Kusuo is an all-powerful being, and his girlfriend is well aware of that.
Somehow, that fact seems to amuse Teruhashi more than it scares her. Instead of being embarrassed that he hears her every thought, she revels in it — on more than one occasion she has replayed the same song in her head purely to irritate him (which it does).
And this has led to an… unprecedented discovery.
After his powers returned, his pyrokinesis malfunctions more than any of his other abilities. He forced himself to ask Kusuke, but that trip proved fruitless. “I assure you with a hundred percent certainty, it’s not your psychic powers doing it. I infer it’s your body doing it. Anyway, would you help me test something—“
Yeah, Kusuo hadn’t stuck around long enough to even want to find out what it was. It doesn’t take a psychic to know it’s probably another scheme to add to his collection of losses.
When he teleported home, he ruminated on the idea his brother presented. His body doing something so pointless seems unlikely — he doesn’t pay much attention to his classes (he doesn’t have to, of course), but Kusuo is pretty sure every part of his body has its purpose. If that’s true, what purpose does it serve for his ears to flush red every time his girlfriend does so much as speak?
He would love to say he’s exaggerating to make a point, but he is not. The first time she’d pointed it out, she was equally as confused as he was. She was over at his house, waiting for his mother to return. Cooking lessons, she said, but he was almost certain it was to see him. All she had been doing was talking about her day – something about how she was meant to go out with her friends but Chiyo invited Aiura who she was still a little uncomfortable with given her past crush on him, but wanted to give her another chance. He’s not entirely sure since he definitely wasn’t listening to every word she said because he likes her voice or anything.
Anyway, the more that she spoke, the more that he nodded his head, until eventually she stopped (much to his dismay). Then her head tilted. His ears are red. “Your ears are red,” she said. “Are you okay?”
He reached for his ears instinctively, though he’d already felt the warmth creep up his neck. “My pyrokinesis must be acting up.”
She leaned in closer, pressing the back of her hand to his forehead. He’s getting warmer. Could he be sick?
“I’m psychic. I don’t get sick,” he replies to her thoughts, grabbing her wrist and placing it on her lap.
Why is he looking away from me? Could he be… “Saiki, are you blushing?”
“Of course not.”
The most annoying part is that not only is she now aware of this effect, but she has far too much fun causing it. Like right now.
Teruhashi chokes back a giggle from her desk, blue eyes still trained on the chalkboard. Your ears are red, Saiki. What are you thinking about?
“What are you thinking about?” he asks, pretending to write something in his notebook. “You know we’re in class, right?”
Don’t make it sound so gross! What’s wrong with wanting to kiss my own boyfriend? She answers, then thinks to herself. Boyfriend… I really like the sound of that.
(He does too, but does not say it.)
“Nothing, other than the fact that you know I can hear you,” he replies. It’s a lot more tolerable than her playing a pop song in her head over and over, but it’s not exactly the most appropriate thing to be thinking while he’s trying to finish a simultaneous equation. “You’re not thinking about it organically. You’re thinking about it because you want my ears to get red. Which, by the way–”
–Is just your pyro-whatever malfunctioning, I got that the first dozen times. Do you want me to think about it organically?
It’s not like he wants her to but he certainly wouldn’t mind if she were.
(He does, but he will not say it.)
They’re getting redder, she teases.
Damn his powers. “Stop looking at me and pay attention to the class.”
Then stop being so cute!
“I’m not cute.” Cute, for regular people, is a word to describe cats and babies (and for him, Teruhashi Kokomi). Not an all-powerful psychic that can destroy the moon with a single thought if he really wanted to. “I seriously don’t understand you.”
You like me all the same.
(He does, and he will not deny it.)
Kusuo appreciates his girlfriend’s understanding about his aversion to physical affection. He knows she wants to – of course he does, he can hear all of it – but he’s still far from used to liking her, never mind all this relationship nonsense. She wouldn’t be as perfect as she thinks (knows?) she is if she wasn’t incredibly considerate of his feelings. They’d kissed once to see if he was okay with it (which he was. Oddly enough, everything he found so undesirable before wasn’t so bad when it was with her), but after that, she was too worried she went too far to initiate anything.
“So then, Chiyo told me what her ex-boyfriend was like, and then I thought–”
Again, they’ve found themselves on his living room sofa. Listening to her talk has become one of his favourite things to do together. There’s just something about seeing her drop her perfect pretty girl act in front of him and being a normal teenage girl, animated in her hand gestures and her expressions that makes him unusually happy.
“Saiki, your ears are going red.” Teruhashi giggles. Despite it being at the expense of his dignity, the sound of her laughter causes his pyrokinesis to further warm his ears. On instinct, he reaches for them, though it doesn’t do much to hide his embarrassment. She jokes, “You must like me a lot.”
He does, and he can’t deny it.
He’s so cute, I could kiss him right now, she thinks. But I won’t, of course. I don’t want him, err, you, to feel–
Good grief. She thinks too much. He leans closer and plants a chaste kiss on her cheek. He swears he can see Teruhashi melt into a puddle, face flushing a bright crimson. Her thoughts flatlined as soon as he closed the distance, and seemed to be floating far away from her still. Eventually, they drift back to her and she blinks. He just...
“I’m not cute,” he mutters. It's the first thing he could think of to maybe salvage what's left of his pride, but by the way her eyes light up, he knows it only wrecked it further (He doesn't think he cares).
She laughs again and he’d almost be upset if not for the fact that unfortunately, he is not exempt to the dark magic that dwells within that beautiful sound. After all, he is still human. She kisses his cheek, lingering a moment longer than he had. (Quietly, he wishes it were longer.)
“If your pyrokinesis acted up any more than it is right now, you’d burn the whole house down.”
“Shut up.”
“You like me all the same,” she teases again.
He does. He really, really does.