Jane's words had barely left her mouth before she swung at him again, dislodging her hand and making Seth lose his balance, just to clash at him once more, with the upper hand this time.

"I-I won't lose..!" Seth groaned, now seeing Jane's blades from a much closer distance. He gritted his teeth, baring his short fangs as the baton pressed more and more towards his own neck. For a training, Jane sure wasn't going easy against him, but he knew that was partly his fault for asking her to go all out on him.

Without much room to think, Seth let his instinct decide for him. He clenched both his hands around his weapon, trying to double his push's strength. Jane only smirked down at him. "So naive…"

What did she mean by that? What was wrong this time? Seth couldn't figure it out at first, but it took him a mere second to realize and repent his recent decisions.

"J-Jahane!" He gasped in surprise, flinching as he felt her tail poking at his side once, twice, thrice… "W-wahait, this is cheheating!"

"And what sort of villain plays by the rules, kitty?" She smirked, seeing his nose scrunch up as she traced a path up to his armpit, poking the soft spot between the muscles. With a loud, giggly squeal, Seth's arms faltered — just the opening she was looking for.

"A-aha— agh!"

Thud.

'Damn it', he thought, feeling the cool ground against his back. He slowly opened his eyes, faced with Jane's amused grin and the sharp, razor-like edge of the tip of her tail inches from his face. He let out a small whimper as he tried to move, feeling her grip around one of his hands and the weight of her knee pinning down the other.

"If I was a real villain, kitty," she purred, reaching out for his neck with her free hand, "you'd have a big problem right now…"

"I-I know," Seth muttered in a rush, tilting his chin up as he felt her grip hovering over his throat, her thumb brushing slightly against his Adam's apple. "But that was—"

"Nah-ah," she interrupted, pressing a finger down against his lips, "it's your fault for leaving yourself open like that. I thought you'd have understand it by now," her eyes moved, scanning his body, "maybe I should make it clearer?"

"H-huh?" He blinked, confused. What did she— oh. Oh. "W-wait, ms. Jahane, you dohon— ahAHA! NAHAhahat thahAHAt! It tihihickles!"

"My, and you're giving in just like that?" She clicked her tongue, feigning a serious tone to make her scolding more convincing while she tickled under his stretched out arm, letting her nails gently, but quickly, glide over his sensitive skin. "Now you just told me exactly how to torture you, kitty."

"B-Buhut- AHAha, t-thihis wahahasn't p-part ohof the trahahaining!" He laughed brightly, kicking his feet behind her and squirming as much as her grip allowed him to. He felt his strength flowing out of him with the laughter, his muscles growing useless the more she tickled him.

"But it should've been," she retorted, scratching a little harder and making his giggles raise a pitch. "If some bad guy wanted, I bet he could get all of our reports out of you just with this. We need to put you under some intensitve resistance training, kitty…"

“Can you stop?!” Seth groaned, dropping his head into the mess of blankets, pillows and sheets in the bed. His hand, however, was still clasped tightly around that slim, delicate arm. His fingers trembled and his ears and tail dropped in defeat. “Asaba-senpai, please!”

“I’m starting to feel like fifte-”

“Okay!” Seth gasped, looking up to the cruel, sadic man he dared to call a partner. “T-ten, alright, but you’ll take it all, ok?! No more weird requests after this one,” he pouted tiredly, almost as if he was on the verge of crying.

The only answer that came back his way was Harumasa’s cheeky smile. “It’s a deal, then,” Harumasa nodded.

Sigh.

Seth slowly pushed his body up, getting on his knees and looking at Harumasa with a frustrated frown. “Where are the rest of the pills?” He mumbled, sliding off the bed and walking around his senior’s room.

“In the bathroom, inside the mirror’s storage ~” Harumasa sang, laying back down on his bed and crossing his arms behind his head, “it’s the one with the white label!” He instructed, but barely bothered himself to check if Seth was picking the right one.

If only Seth hadn’t asked about it earlier, he wouldn’t be in this situation right now…

The thiren slowly made his way to the mentioned spot, looking at his own reflection while his brain recollected the earlier events of that morning with bittersweet regret. He knew Harumasa’s health wasn’t one to be praised or taken lightly - and that was exactly why Seth couldn’t help but be weirded out when his senior seemed to be skipping his morning medicine.

‘I’m tired of them. If I die, I die,’ was the nonchalant answer Seth got when he asked about it. Of course, he wouldn’t let it be like that. He would be overlooking his duties as an officer if he did not care for a citizen’s well-being and, even worse, as a person if he let Harumasa, of all people, do such harm to himself.

And just like that, an endless sequence of requests begin, one after the other. The deal was simple: if Harumasa agreed to take his pills, Seth would do him a little favor.

Feed his cat. Brew that morning’s coffee. Tidy up the bedroom (postponed, as they had yet to leave the bed). Take him out for dinner later that day. And so on. Seth couldn’t help but be a little surprised at the amount of different kinds of medicine his senior was on, but, at the same time, this whole thing wasn’t too much of a hassle anyway.

That, at least, until that one request dropped. ‘Let me tickle you’. Seth sighed, shivering and cringing just at the memory of those words. He picked up the flask with the white label, slowly making his way back to Harumasa’s bed.

“Here, Asaba-senpai,” he mumbled, handing Harumasa a single pill that rested on top of his palm. “Do you need some water to help you swallow it?” 

Harumasa shook his head.

Just after placing it inside his mouth, Harumasa tilted his head back, letting the medicine go down his throat effortlessly - probably a trick after taking those for so long. “It’s a small one, it barely bothers me at this point.”

“I see, then I- woAH!” Seth gasped, caught by surprise as Harumasa held him by his wrist and pulled him back into the mattress. Before he noticed, he was laying flat on his back and a devious, evil pair of eyes stared at him. “W-wahait, Asaba-sehehenpai!”

“Stop laughing, I’m not even touching you yet,” Harumasa mumbled, pinning one of Seth’s hands under his leg as he straddled the thiren’s body and the other held up above his head. “How long was it? Twenty minutes, right?”

“I-It was ten! You said tehehen minuhu-ahAHah, w-wait, plehehease!” Seth giggled in panic, feeling ticklish just by seeing Harumasa’s hand hovering above his unprotected armpit. He kicked his legs behind his senior, his tail curling up with the anticipation that seemed to race through his whole body. “I’m nohot reahahady!!”

“Huh?” Harumasa scoffed, his hand resting on top of Seth’s chest, “you're an officer, shouldn’t you always be prepared for anything?”

“P-prepahared for my duhuties! Not to be tihihi- aAH, sehehenpai, dohohon’t!” Seth squeaked like a dog’s toy when Harumasa poked him under his arm. He felt the heat gathering around his face, spreading down his neck. His heart was beating so fast that he worried it would explode.

Harumasa, however, seemed to be enjoying each and every one of these reactions. “You know, we don’t have all day,” he giggled, lying with a straight face as if he wouldn’t want to spend the whole day with Seth instead of being in that boring office. “I will count to three and we will start.”

“W-wahait, senpai, thahat’s too-”

“One.” Harumasa started, even pulling Seth’s hand a little higher to stretch out his body.

“NOhoho, plehehease, j-juhust a momen-”

“Two.” He continued, curling his fingers into a claw and grabbing Seth’s side, feeling the other guy jumping at the mere feeling of his touch. Oh this was going to be good, he thought.

“SEHenpai! D-dohont! Please!”

“Three.”

As soon as that word left Harumasa’s lip, Seth went silent, as if it shattered his hopes of escaping that nasty deal that got himself in this situation. Then, the brief silence was replaced by a stream of loud, surprised laughter when Harumasa’s fingers wiggled and tweaked at Seth’s sides.

It tickled - and it tickled a lot. Seth arched his back off the mattress, slightly lifting Harumasa along as he squirmed under his senior’s weight. “W-wAHAHAhait!! I-I nehEHeheded mohohore tihiHIme! SehehEHEnpai, plehehease!”

“We don’t have more time, Seth,” Harumasa hummed pleased, repeatedly squeezing Seth’s side and tickling the edges of his stomach, his fingers working wonders on that sensitive, defined body. “Can’t have you being late for work, right? We need to get down to business!”

“T-THIHihis is nohot busihihiness!” Seth whined, his hand clenching into a tight fist above his head while he dug his heels into the soft blanket that surrounded them.

He pulled at both his arms, only to find them both still firmly trapped, held out of Harumasa’s way and unable to stop the ticklish onslaught. All he could do was thrash his head and kick his feet, all in vain and for nought.

Despite the squirming, Harumasa could still tickle his stomach, side, ribs and armpit - the latter giving him even louder laughter from Seth. “AHAHASAHa- Ahahasaba-senpahAHai, nohoho! Sto-stohohop it, plehehease!”

“We had a deal, officer,” Harumasa giggled, gently scratching the outstretched, soft skin under Seth’s arm, making him cackle like a dork. “And I intend to take my part of it~”

Harumasa went on with his teasing, saying something about Seth’s honor and if he wouldn’t hold up to his reputation as part of the PubSec’s team, but the thiren couldn’t really mind it - not when it felt like he was about to die from laughing.

“But I have to say,” Harumasa muttered, unable to keep his mouth shut for more than twenty seconds, “you are doing really well! We’re already past the three minutes mark, just some mo-”

“T-Three?!” Seth gasped, his eyes wide open, as if ready to jump out of their sockets.

“Mhm, it really flies when we are having fun, doesn’t it?” Harumasa nodded, wiggling his fingers around Seth’s neck, scratching his chin and then teasing above his collarbone, “you are blushing, isn’t that cute? ~”

“S-Sehehenpai, plehEHEhease!! AHAHah, I cahAhan’t- noho mohohore!” He whined, a soft cry that barely made it past the endless laughter. 

Time flying? That sounded even more absurd to Seth than Harumasa’s request. It already felt like he was laughing for hours. He felt the corner of his cheeks hurting, just like his throat going dry and, still, all of this after just three minutes? Seth couldn’t believe it.

Just when he was about to plea for some mercy again, hoping that maybe a different excuse could make it up to Harumasa’s mind… the tickling stopped.

Seth slowly opened his eyes, his vision blurred while small tears of mirth clung to his lashes. His dazed mind took a moment to process, but a familiar sound made his ear twitch: his phone’s ringing.

“S-senpai..?” Seth asked, watching as Harumasa moved his hand away from Seth’s neck to reach for his phone. Harumasa held his finger before his lips, probably to tell Seth to keep his presence a secret, and took the call, holding the phone next to Seth’s face. “A-ah, ahem, hello, Seth spea-”

“Hi Seth, good morning,” a female voice on the other side of the line answered, “are you on your way to work?”

“My way to wor-” Seth stopped, feeling the words stuck on the back of his mouth as Harumasa gave him a threatening look, “y-yes, captain! I- ahm, had an issue at the dorm, but I’m on my way!”

“Don’t worry, I just wanted to ask you a favor. Could you grab me and Qingyi a coffee when you pass by the shop? You can buy something for yourself too, my treat.”

“A coffee?” He sighed, relieved. Maybe there was still some time, “s-sure, I will be there in a couple min-”

Beep.

“S-senpai! I wasn’t done talking, the captain will thin-”