The next few weeks were the best of my life.
I fell into a routine. Wake up early. Train for three hours. Go to school. Come home. Train for another two hours. And twice a week, when our schedules aligned, I'd take the train to Nemuri's apartment and we'd spend the night together.
The essence absorption was working even better than I'd hoped.
Each session with her gave me a noticeable boost. My strength increased. My speed improved. My reflexes sharpened. After a month of regular meetings, I was stronger than I'd ever been. After two months, I was approaching levels that would have taken years of normal training.
But it wasn't just about the power.
I was falling for her.
Not the hero. Not Midnight with her whips and her costume and her public persona. Nemuri. The woman who laughed at bad jokes and burned toast every morning and fell asleep during boring movies. The woman who texted me random thoughts at 3 AM and sent me photos of her cat and complained about grading papers.
She was real with me in a way I suspected she wasn't with anyone else.
And tonight was special.
Few months until the entrance exam. I'd been training harder than ever, pushing my enhanced body to its limits. Nemuri had been helping where she could, giving me tips about the exam format, what to expect, how to impress the judges.
But tonight wasn't about training.
Tonight was about us.
I knocked on her door at 8 PM, a bottle of wine in my hand. She'd mentioned once that she liked red. I'd spent an hour at the store trying to pick something decent.
The door opened, and my breath caught.
She was wearing a dress. An actual dress. Dark purple, hugging her curves, ending mid-thigh. Her hair was done up nicely. She was wearing makeup, subtle but effective.
She'd dressed up for me.
"You look amazing," I said.
"You clean up okay yourself." She eyed my button-up shirt and nice pants. "Is that wine?"
"You said you liked red."
"I do." She took the bottle and examined the label. Her eyebrows rose. "This is actually good. Where'd you learn about wine?"
"Internet."
She laughed and stepped aside to let me in. "Of course. Come in, come in."
Her apartment smelled like food. Good food. I looked toward the kitchen and saw the table set for two, candles lit, something simmering on the stove.
"Did you cook?"
"Don't sound so surprised." She walked to the kitchen, her hips swaying in that dress. "I can cook. I just usually don't bother for myself."
"What's the occasion?"
She turned to face me, leaning against the counter. For a moment, she just looked at me. Really looked. Like she was memorizing my face.
"Two months," she said. "We've been doing this for two months. I wanted to... I don't know. Make it special."
Something warm bloomed in my chest. "Nemuri..."
"Don't." She held up a hand. "Don't make it weird. It's just dinner. Now open that wine while I finish the pasta."
I did as she asked, finding glasses in her cabinet, pouring for both of us. She moved around the kitchen with surprising grace, plating food that actually looked and smelled incredible.
We sat down to eat. The pasta was delicious. Rich tomato sauce, fresh basil, perfectly cooked noodles. We talked while we ate. About everything and nothing. Her week. My training. Stupid things that had happened at her school. A movie she wanted to see.
Normal couple stuff.
Except we weren't a normal couple. We couldn't be. She was a pro hero and a teacher. I was her underage student-to-be. If anyone found out, her life would be ruined.
But in moments like this, I could pretend. We could both pretend.
After dinner, we moved to the couch. She curled up against me, her head on my shoulder, wine glass in hand. We watched some terrible action movie that she'd picked. Made fun of the bad dialogue. Laughed at the obvious plot holes.
Halfway through, she set her wine down and looked up at me.
"Kai?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad you texted me that night. After the convention."
"Me too."
"I know this is... complicated. And risky. And probably stupid." She reached up to touch my face. "But I don't regret it. Any of it."
"Neither do I."
She kissed me.
It started soft. Gentle. Different from our usual hungry, desperate kisses. This was something else. Something deeper.
I kissed her back, my hand coming up to cup her face. She shifted, climbing into my lap, straddling me without breaking the kiss. Her dress rode up her thighs.
"Bedroom?" I murmured against her lips.
"No." She pulled back just enough to look at me. Her eyes were dark with want, but there was something else there too. Tenderness. "Right here. I want you right here."
She reached down and unzipped her dress. It fell from her shoulders, pooling at her waist. She wasn't wearing a bra. Her breasts were bare, nipples already hard.
"Beautiful," I breathed.
"You always say that."
"Because it's always true."
I leaned forward and kissed her neck, trailing down to her collarbone, down to the swell of her breasts. She sighed, her head falling back, her fingers threading through my hair.
"Kai..."
I took one nipple into my mouth, sucking gently. She gasped, her hips grinding against my lap. I could feel her heat through my pants, could feel how wet she already was.
I switched to her other breast, my hand kneading the one I'd left. She moaned, soft and sweet, so different from the screams I usually drew from her.
This wasn't about power. Wasn't about intensity. This was about connection.
I lifted her dress over her head, leaving her in just a pair of lacy black panties. She reached for my shirt, unbuttoning it slowly, kissing each inch of skin she revealed. Her lips traced across my chest, my abs, following the lines of muscle.
"You've gotten even stronger," she murmured against my skin.
"Thanks to you."
"Flatterer."
She pushed my shirt off my shoulders and went for my pants. I lifted my hips to help her, and soon we were both in just our underwear. Her on my lap. Me rock hard beneath her.
She rolled her hips, grinding against me through the thin fabric separating us. We both groaned at the friction.
"I want you inside me," she whispered.
"Then take what you want."
Midnight's POV
I wanted this to be different.
Every other time we'd been together, it had been intense. Rough. Passionate in a way that left me screaming and shaking and barely able to walk the next day.
Tonight, I wanted something else.
I wanted to make love to him.
God, when had I become so sentimental?
I reached down and pulled my panties aside, not bothering to take them off. Reached into his boxers and freed his cock, hard and thick and already leaking precum.
I positioned myself over him and sank down slowly.
"Oh..." The sound escaped me as he filled me inch by inch. "God, yes..."
He gripped my hips, not controlling, just holding. Grounding us both. His eyes never left mine as I took him completely.
When I was fully seated, I paused. Just feeling him inside me. Stretching me. Completing me.
"You feel incredible," he said.
"So do you."
I started to move. Slow rolls of my hips. Rising and falling at a gentle pace. None of our usual frantic energy. Just... us.
Plap... plap... plap...
The wet sounds were softer this time. Intimate rather than obscene. He thrust up to meet me, matching my rhythm, our bodies moving in perfect sync.
"Nemuri..." He said my name like a prayer.
"I know." I kissed him. "I know."
We moved together for what felt like hours. Building slowly. The pleasure growing like a tide coming in, wave after wave, each one a little higher than the last.
His hands roamed my body. Cupping my breasts. Stroking my back. Gripping my ass. Not demanding. Just appreciating.
I ran my fingers through his hair. Kissed his forehead. His cheeks. His jaw. Every part of him I could reach.
"I'm getting close," I whispered.
"Me too."
"Together?"
"Together."
He started thrusting a little faster. A little deeper. His thumb found my clit, rubbing gentle circles. The pleasure spiked, and I gasped against his neck.
"Right there... don't stop..."
"Never."
The orgasm built slowly. Not the explosive, screaming climaxes he usually gave me. Something deeper. Something that started in my core and radiated outward, filling every part of me with warmth.
"Cumming," I breathed. "I'm cumming..."
"Me too. Cum with me, Nemuri."
We fell over the edge together.
Kai's POV
The orgasm was different from any I'd had before.
Not more intense, but deeper. More meaningful. Like we weren't just connecting physically but something else too.
I came inside her, and the essence transfer happened, but it felt different this time. Not like I was taking something from her. Like we were sharing something. Giving and receiving in equal measure.
She trembled in my arms, her pussy milking me, soft moans escaping her lips. I held her through it, kissing her hair, her forehead, her cheeks.
When it faded, she collapsed against my chest.
"Wow," she murmured.
"Yeah."
"That was..."
"Different."
"Good different." She lifted her head to look at me. Her eyes were shining. Not tears, but close. "Really good different."
I brushed a strand of hair from her face. "I think I'm falling for you, Nemuri."
The words came out before I could stop them. I tensed, waiting for her to pull away, to remind me that this was just physical, just convenient, just about my quirk.
Instead, she smiled.
"I think I'm falling for you too." She kissed me softly. "Against my better judgment. Against every logical part of my brain telling me this is insane."
"Is it insane?"
"Completely." She laughed, the sound watery but genuine. "I'm a thirty-one-year-old pro hero falling for a fifteen-year-old kid with a sex quirk. It's the most insane thing I've ever done."
"Do you regret it?"
"No." She shook her head firmly. "Not for a second."
We stayed like that for a while. Connected. Tangled together on her couch. Her head on my chest. My arms around her.
Eventually, she stirred.
"We should move to the bedroom."
"Round two?"
"Maybe." She smirked. "But first I want to lie in an actual bed. My couch is comfortable but not that comfortable."
I carried her to the bedroom. She laughed and called me ridiculous but didn't ask me to put her down. I laid her on the bed and climbed in beside her.
We kissed. Slow and lazy. Hands wandering without urgency.
"Few months until the exam," she said between kisses.
"I know."
"Are you ready?"
"I think so. Thanks to you."
"The training helped?"
"All of it helped." I pulled back to look at her. "Not just the essence. The tips about the exam. The encouragement. Having someone believe in me."
"I do believe in you." She traced a finger down my chest. "You're going to get in. I know it."
"And then?"
"And then we'll have to be even more careful." She sighed. "No more texting during school hours. No lingering looks in the hallway. Complete professionalism."
"And in private?"
"In private..." Her hand slipped lower, wrapping around my cock. "In private, you can fuck your teacher as much as you want."
I groaned as she stroked me. Already hard again. Her touch was electric.
"That's so wrong," I said.
"I know." She grinned wickedly. "That's what makes it hot."
She pushed me onto my back and climbed on top of me. Positioned herself over my cock. Sank down in one smooth motion.
"OH!" She gasped. "Still so big..."
"Still so tight," I countered.
She started to move. Faster than before. The tender mood shifting into something more urgent.
"I want you to fuck me hard," she said. "Like you usually do. Make me scream. Make me cum so hard I can't think."
"Wasn't tonight supposed to be different?"
"It was different." She leaned down, her breasts pressing against my chest, her lips at my ear. "But now I need you to remind me why I can't stay away from you. Why I risk everything for this."
She wanted both. The tenderness and the intensity. The love and the lust.
I could give her both.
I grabbed her hips and flipped us over, pinning her beneath me. She squealed in surprise, then moaned as I started to thrust.
Hard. Deep. Relentless.
PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP PLAP.
"YES!" She screamed. "Yes, like that! Fuck me like that!"
I gave her everything she wanted. Pounded into her with all the strength my enhanced body could muster. Made her scream. Made her cum. Made her forget everything except the feeling of my cock inside her.
She came three times in rapid succession. Squirted on the second one, soaking the sheets beneath us. By the third, she was babbling incoherently, her eyes rolled back, her body shaking uncontrollably.
I finished inside her with a groan, pumping her full of cum while the essence transfer made us both see stars.
We collapsed together, gasping for breath.
"I love you," she whispered.
The words hung in the air between us. She tensed, like she hadn't meant to say them.
"I love you too," I said.
She relaxed. Smiled. Buried her face in my neck.
"We're so fucked," she murmured.
"Probably."
"Worth it though."
"Definitely worth it."
We fell asleep tangled together, her head on my chest, my arms around her.