Noel produced a hand and poked at his knee that was closest to her. Her finger was cold. He resisted the urge to pull his knee away in response. It wouldn’t do to jump at a cold poke to the knee.

“Didn’t expect to see you today.”

That was a little amusing, she was the one who showed up at his door after all. How drunk had she gotten? ”I’m glad y’ stopped b-AYE that’s cold!.” Noel had put her entire icy mitt onto his knee. To his credit he didn’t move but he did tense up a little.

The Ranger wasn’t sure he liked the look on Noel’s face. ”What’s with that look...?” Noel with that look could mean nothing but trouble. The kind of trouble that resulted in a sprained ankle and a pants off stand off or a drunken chase through the hall.

She’d better not go after him with that icy hand. He had a suspicion that was exactly what she was going to do. Wait. Both hands had disappeared with the ice. Noel has arms and was now extremely danger-ice.

His reaction was exactly as she'd hoped. She touched him and his voice jumped an octave. The power went straight to Noel's head.

> ”What’s with that look...?”

"I think you know what's with that look." She couldn't even imagine what her face must look like, but her chilly fingers skated from his knee down to his thigh and jumped across to just barely touch his ribs and there she hesitated with a hefty case of self-doubt creeping in as she noticed the writing on her wrist.

NO. This wasn't worth the heartache. She needed to stop this before there was no turning back.

Ah, but his temperature and her hands had mostly evened out. She couldn't get a good reaction from him like this. Her weapons were short lived.

Noel shifted in order to face him more fully and bring out the big guns: the hand that'd actually been holding the ice. She purposefully took her time reaching out and settling the ice onto the coffee table. After all, she didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.

She brandished her hand with a single raised eyebrow and then went straight for the stomach. Noel took no prisoners.

She was right. The Ranger knew exactly what that look meant. Icey trouble.”Don’t you dare.” He said with a laugh. Her hand moved to his thigh and then to his ribs. He jerked his hand off her back to grab at her wrist, but it was not needed. Her hand had warmed up enough that by that point it was just a slight chill at worst. It was there that she paused so he let his arm fall to his side.

There was a break from the icey attack. One of her weapons had run down, but there was still another tucked away. And as she turned he say the ice in her hand charging the attack.

Noel slowly moved to set the ice on the coffee table. Was she disarming herself? The Ranger awkwardly scooted to turn himself to better face her. It was not as easy for him, he was cramped up in that position.

Not disarming! Noel had her hand up ready to strike and a raised eyebrow. ”No. No, no, no no no!” He said as she dove at his abdomen.

Her hand was cold. She might as well have still had the ice in her hand when she made contact. His core rippled as his muscles involuntarily contracted. He needed to fight back. Something to defend himself with. The ice!

A tactical leap backward onto the coffee table. Retrieve the ice and reengage. An incredibly simple plan. What could go wrong.

As it turned out, everything. The leap was more of a flop with all the grace of a fish on the deck of a boat. He hit the coffee table and slid across it knocking the ice off on his way. He fished around on the ground and retrieved the ice before springing back up wielding it triumphantly and announcing, ”Two can play at that game!”

He stumbled over his feet that, as it turned out, were asleep. He made it back to the couch, face first, swinging his ice hand at Noel.

As long as he was laughing, she dared.

Noel got him smack dab in the stomach and his face was absolutely priceless. The laugh burst out of her like a xenomorph. She belly laughed so completely that he was able to roll her off to the side so that he could escape onto the coffee table. Noel covered her mouth to keep the mirth contained, but she shouldn't have even bothered.

From there it was a comedy of errors until he was fast approaching her couch with full intent on retaliation. Because somehow it had become her couch and she needed to defend it.

He was falling? Well, Noel welcomed his face with open arms. She stretched up over his incoming head and wrapped her arm around his neck, wrist to throat. Her far arm grabbed around the arm attached to the dreaded ice hand and met her first hand in order to complete the guillotine choke. As his momentum continued to carry him forward, Noel turned her shoulder and tried to wrench in a direction where there was no room. Her foot toed against his hip to redirect and him as best as she was able.

It never would have worked if he hadn't been falling face first. And there wasn't quite room to pull it off... until the furniture moved.

Her poor couch rocked off its feet as the Ranger impacted the backrest and both Noel and Michael went toppling with it, Noel losing her guillotine in the scramble, but still managing to end up on top.

Oops.

"Noel don't play, son." She'd somewhere along the line lost track of where the ice went.

The fun and misfortune and inability to follow the plan did not end. Not only was he going face fist into his couch, but Noel had wrapped him up in a guillotine choke. And she was trying to redirect his momentum. The Ranger was actually quite impressed.

Until the couch had enough and fell over in protest.

The pair of them went ass over teakettle, as the ice went flying, and they landed on the floor on the other side. So much having gone wrong so fast the Ranger found himself laying on the floor trying to understand what happened. A sting of failures, Noel going MMA on him, and the couch not standing for it. And now Noel was on top of him.As soon as they landed he instinctively went into full guard. He crossed his feet to lock his legs together behind Noel.


"Noel don't play, son."

"So it seems." He said laughing. He couldn't help it, it just rolled out. Finally he added,"Y' like bein' the one on top?"

The Ranger reached up and grabbed her. Wrapping her into a bear hug he broke guard and kicked off the ground to roll them over. Now he that he was on top he slid his arms out from behind her so he could move his head back enough to talk to her face. "It's normally my position." He said as he straddled her.

The problem with Ranger going full guard was that he locked his feet behind her. These were not her pants. They were crummy pants, anyway, with a loose elastic band and probable years of use. Those pants wouldn't even have stayed on him if their pants and positions had been reversed.

Noel rolled her lips together as she both tried to gloat and to reach back and keep those traitorous pants from escaping. "Yeah. I think I'll live here now, buy some throw pillows. It's certainly better than your floor."

Apparently that was the wrong answer. There was nothing for her to do but keep hoisting up those pants and pray that she hadn't triggered the macho gene and made men get too serious at times.

>"It's normally my position."

She laughed, but it was too full of nerves to be casual. A minute ago, they'd been playing. There was no way in hell she could hold him down unless she had a nasty arm bar or something. Even then she would have had to break something. Now. Here. Like this? She was realizing what kind of position they were in. Now she couldn't unknow how close they were or how strong he was or how trapped she felt.

Noel believed he was a gentleman, but this was straining the limits of her trust.

She shouldn't have started this game.

"Yeah, you seem pretty experienced at that." Oh god. There had to be almost anywhere else in the world to look other than his face.

There was a moment, with the Ranger there on top of Noel, that his thoughts went places. The exact places one would expect with them in that position. The least of which was a desire to kiss her but he knew that wouldn't go over well.

Noel laughed, but it didn't sound like the laugh of someone enjoying themselves. It was more a nervous laughter. "Yeah, you seem pretty experienced at that."

"I've rolled a few times before." He shifted away from intentional innuendo, this was to him just a statement of him having practiced jiu-jitsu.

He didn't want to move. Just stay there laying on the floor with her. On her on the floor. Feel her breath, her heartbeat. He didn't want to, but he did. He pushed himself up onto his hands and then sat upright. As he did that he slid back so he was sitting on the floor. His knees were still flanking her hips but she would no longer be pinned.

"Round one you, round two me?" He asked. She had asked to fight after all. Though, maybe he won round one. Sure he was locked out of his apartment, but he'd taken a trophy. Her pants, which he'd almost accomplished again in round two.

For a moment, she'd been absolutely terrified. Helplessness was something she tried her damnedest to avoid. Being trapped was only one circle of hell up from being helpless. Once he'd let go of the bear hug, Noel's panic settled into embarrassment and an impulse to put her fingers in the hair at the back of his head.

Instead, Noel slid the back of her hand over her eyes. There. Now she didn't have to look at anything. She didn't have to keep tight control of her power. She didn't have to try to understand what was happening behind Michael's expression. The inside of her wrist told the Ranger what she wasn't willing to say. NO.

"Yeah, but have you managed to roll a couch?" She pointed back the way they'd come without moving anything more than a few fingers to direct the Ranger's attention back to where the seating had been upset. It was good that the residences were above meeting rooms. Someone smart had thought that one through.

They shared a moment of silence and mutual decision.

Neither of them admitted to or acted on their attraction. Neither of them could.

The Ranger sat back on top of Noel's legs which left her a little more and a little less free.

> "Round one you, round two me?"

"I could get out of this," Noel countered with her eyes still covered, "but these pants wouldn't." She really hated to use the same trick twice.

Why was Noel covering her eyes? Though it was an odd way t cover her eyes. Perhaps it was to show him her wrist which clearly said, 'NO'. Why did her wrist say 'NO'? Maybe reminder to not do something?

Had he managed to roll a couch? "I've flipped a few in my day, never rolled with one 'til today." Jiu-jitsu wasn't a sport for couches, Too stationary."

Noel's eyes remained covered during their brief moment of silence, through the Ranger's sitting up, and into her next comment. She said she could get out of her current position. Only that her pants wouldn't. That sounded like a reason to have her free herself!

"Y' get one win with losing pants. Anytime after that I think I jus' win even if I lose."

Not forcing her to have to pull her pants off, the Ranger shifted himself off to Noel's side and moved his knees away from her hips. Reset the field, ready for round three. He then lay down next to Noel. Level playing field.

The Ranger looked at the couch and then back to Noel. There was an office below his room. The Ranger knew the room number, but he knew all the room numbers in Haven, he'd made a point to learn them all. It should have been unoccupied at this hour. If it hadn't he might have to explain the loud solid thud that was heard.

He wanted to take her hand that wasn't covering her eyes. His hand brushed it but he refrained.

"Tie breaker?"

"You make it sound like me losing my pants is a win-win situation." It wasn't until after she'd said it that the implications dawned on her. It certainly would be a win-win if they had that kind of relationship.

The Ranger saved the day by moving away. She was going to start rewriting all her rules if this didn't stop. No wonder so many people humiliated themselves like this.

Noel was trying to figure out the best way to make her complete exit from this non-relationship. She'd need to change her door code. She could wash her wrist now. It wouldn't matter if she forgot. In fact, it was silly to be entertaining the idea of not forgetting. She wasn't useful without using her power. She could ask Hadden for some strict rules and then go back to operating like the shell of a person… it could work.

The backs of his fingers touched her hand. A quiet question that derailed her entire rational train of thought.

Noel opened her fingers and slotted them between Michael's.

”Do we need a tiebreaker?” What they needed was to get off the floor. But getting off the floor meant making decisions. ”I don't mind how things ended up.”

Yes. All rational thought had left her. Her pulse jumped at the side of her neck.

He made it sound like a win-win situation? Well it certainly would be. She would win and he would see her running around in just her black underwear again. He felt he might be getting the better end of that deal.

"Yup." He said as he had moved off her.

Laying beside Noel, the Ranger's brush against her hand was met by Noel lacing her fingers between his. His heart about jumped out of his chest in excitement. He'd hoped for some response to his hand bushing against hers. This was the best of all options.

And her hand was no longer cold, though at that time he wouldn't have cared if it was still icy.

Did they need a tiebreaker? No. Not now they didn't. She didn't mind how things ended up, and he certainly didn't mind how they ended up.

"No tiebreaker necessary." He said, and then giving her hand a slight squeeze added, "I'm good with this, too."

The floor was nice enough, he didn't mind staying on it a while. He had no reason to move so why not just lay there awhile holding Noel's hand. He lifted their hands to where he could see them. Seeing is believing.

Bringing the hands down near their faces, he kissed the back of Noel’s hand. He couldn’t kiss her on the lips, but he could still kiss her.

As much as she wanted to analyze and guess and reanalyze what "this" might end up meaning, for now she was too focused on the feeling of his calluses, the shape of his hand, the way he squeezed her fingers with his. Most importantly, she was focused on how it made her a little giddy. Like she was getting away with something.

What? Was the middle school?

Noel'd abandoned her hiding spot behind her own hand in favor of watching Michael's expression. It was... blinding. 50 gigawatts of happy and she hardly knew what to do with it. She wasn't sure what she'd expected, but it hadn't been this. Was it possible that he had nerves as bad as hers about all this?

No. Probably not. He pressed his lips to the back of her hand and she hadn't a clue what to do about it. Her belly felt like she'd started a fast climb for a roller coaster.

"So unfair." She wasn't sure why she was so embarrassed. It wasn't like anyone was watching them. Even if they were, it was just her hand. Maybe that was the problem. She already gotten a kiss and already she was greedy for another.

"I thought you didn't like psychics."

When her hand moved away from her face and Noel looked over at the Ranger he smiled. He tried to be cool about it, but found himself grinning like an idiot as he looked at her face. Running toward gunfire was aterrifying experience, but it was something that the Ranger had had the courage to do drilled into him. The early stages of a romantic relationship though? That could still get him worried. The worry compounded of course when with someone that a botched beginning could ruin what was already there.

Even after getting the closest to kissing her he'd likely get, there was still that spark of worry. Though had he not been as intersted in her as he was it likely wouldn't have been there. Attraction was a hell of a thing.

What was unfair? She had said it unprompted. In response to her own thoughts? He moved the hands back from between there faces and brought it down onto his abdomen. "What's unfair?"

"I thought you didn't like psychics." Noel asked.

With Noel honesty was the only policy. She would know. And besides there was no sense lying to her even if she couldn't taste lies. Nothing to be gained from it and more importantly he didn't want to lie to her. "Terrified." He said. It was only slightly an overstatement. He did have a fear of them, but it was like people feared flights or hights. It was a lack of ability to do anything about it. He looked away to gather his thoughts before saying.,"I just feel like I can do nothin' t' protect myself. There is so much that can be done that it is just too much trust."

He looked back at Noel and met her eyes. "You, I feel i can trust. Y've had all this time t' monkey around in my head but so far as I can tell y' haven't. Though I guess that's where the trust comes in." He slid himself closer to her, so their sides were touching. "I'm willin' t' trust y'." He kissed her on the forehead.

He really wished he could just kiss her on the mouth, but there was more to a relationship than just kissing.

> "What's unfair?"

That she was a blubbering mess of insecurity and naivety, duh. Noel had enough of other people's memories to know what this was. She hadn't ever actually expected it to happen to her. In fact, she'd actively avoided it because of the problems her power added to what was already complicated and emotional. She hated complicated an emotional. Now, here she was trying to explain it through a squeezing anxiety in her throat.

"I feel paralyzed in what I can do. I don't want to hurt you or your memories. This is new to me, but not new for the people's memories that make up who I am. I know what it's normally like and this can't ever be... that." There. Honesty. It nearly choked her, but she'd managed it by going slowly.

But what if she lost something integral that he liked? Or what if she changed something? Or picked up something? Would he mind her tasting strangers on the street? Would he get tired of introducing himself?

Terrified was about as bad as it got for how people felt about her powers. Clearly he wasn't running and screaming, but he did have to look away. His trust was a heavy thing, considering.

"There are some things you can do." She murmured, disheartened despite her the thrill of a second kiss. Noel brought their hands up and rested her cheek against the connection. "But if I erased something... neither of us would know it, Michael. That's how this works for me. I pay just as much as anybody else." Hell, they could have had this conversation already for all she knew.

It was clear that Noel’s answer was difficult. She had spoken slowly and sounded a little choked. This was new to her? She’d never taken the early steps to being involved with someone? It was weird to think, but given how her power worked it had likely been for the best. Erase a memory here and there and you forget you’re with someone. Sure you could borrow some memories to know that you were supposed to be with them but you’d have it from their perspective not your own.

It was certainly a blow to hear that what they had could never become something something more. Everything had gotten so heavy so fast.

The Ranger wasn’t sure of what to say to that. Clearly the logical thing to do was for them to cut off what they had now, go their separate ways, and see if they can remain friends. That was the logical thing to do. But like bird law, at that moment he was not governed by reason.

There were some things he could do? That got him excited. If there were steps to take to mitigate potential memory issues then maybe there was a chance. She brought their hands to her cheek. It was nice to feel the warmth of her face on his hand.

If she erased something neither of them would know.

She could have erased something and just not remember that she had. He liked to think that she hadn’t but it was possible she had. That would be a sobering thought if this entire conversation so far hadn’t been sobering.

He rolled himself onto his side facing Noel. ”Some things I can do?” He asked. Hoping that they were in some way that could make what they had and where it could go possible. ”Like I said. I trust y’. An’ I’m willin’ t’ ride this as far as y’ are.” He rested his free hand on Noel. ”If y’ want us to jus’ stay like this; dancin’, fightin’ until y’re pantsless in the hall, an’ the occasional kiss on y’re forehead. I can do that. If y’ want t’ roll back an’ see if we can just be friends an’ neighbors…” A break in his speech indicating he would rather that not be the case, ”I can do that. An’ if y’ decided y’ want t’ try an see where this goes, I can do that too. I’m willin’ t’ risk my memories on my trust of y’ an’ y’ one day forgettin’ me for the chance.”