Surrounded by research papers and empty packets of snacks, Kokonoe sat at her desk scrawling notes and her thoughts onto further papers. The discovery of Hakumen in the Boundary had captured her interest to the point where she hardly focused on any other experiments. If she could salvage him from that void, he would be very useful to her.

Coming up with a way to extract him was difficult but it would be worth it in the end. Getting him to fall in line should prove easier than the salvage itself and everything from then on should fall into place. Kokonoe hated saying that her ideas 'should' work. It showed that there was a margin of error and for everything to run smoothly she needed guarantees.

It wasn't as if there was no progress being made though. Slowly but surely, Kokonoe moved closer to the ultimate solution. Therein lay the problem however; it was slow progress and at the rate she was going, everything would be complete after the turn of the century. The sooner she got everything prepared, the better but she couldn't see how to make it all happen sooner.

She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. Again she had reached a possible way forward but needed to run some tests before deciding it was a usable point. Kokonoe thought that delegation would be the easiest way to proceed, deciding to carry on with trying to find a breakthrough herself and have someone else run tests and report back later. Tager was busy doing fieldwork and convincing Lotte to leave his research for even a moment was a fool's errand. Through the simple process of elimination, Litchi was left as her only reliable source.

She pressed and held the button on the intercom. "Litchi, get in here will ya?" She let go of the button the moment she finished and began gathering the papers she intended to hand to Litchi when she arrived.

After a short wait, Litchi arrived and furrowed her brow at the sight of Kokonoe's work area. It was starting to remind her of Lotte's workplace. Still sitting, Kokonoe leaned back and held out the papers. "Here, I need you to look into all the things listed. Thanks." Upon Litchi taking the papers to skim over them, Kokonoe returned to the exact way she had been sitting before.

Litchi adjusted her glasses and read the main points of what was written. "Professor, is there any particular reason why you need me to do this?"

"You're the only person available and it makes my life easier." The response came soon after Litchi had finished. Her eyes never left her work.

Concerned, Litchi continued with her questions rather than do what was requested of her. "I haven't seen you leave this room for three days now. Have you spent all that time in here researching?"

Kokonoe rolled her eyes. "Yes, I've been here this whole time and I've gone for longer stints than this in the past. You can stop filling in for my mom now."

Litchi approached the desk and moved some of the empty packets aside to see how many there were. Kokonoe sat up and groaned, as Litchi didn't seem to get the hint. "These are all you've eaten?"

"Yes" she replied more forcefully. "Litchi, I'm older than you so you can stop treating me like a six year old. Okay? Now please, just go and do what I asked."

Litchi stayed put and folded her arms. "I wouldn't treat you this way if you weren't acting so childish."

"Oh this oughta be good" Kokonoe finally turned her chair around to face her apprentice. "Go on, explain how childish I'm being."

"Very" Litchi held up a hand to count the actions on her fingers. "You haven't left this room, you're living on snacks, you're only contacting anyone else because you feel that you have to and you're trying to get me to leave as soon as possible to continue staying in here and eat nothing but snacks."

"There's a perfectly reasonable answer to all of those things: I'm working" Kokonoe stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"There is such a thing as working too hard professor" Litchi set the list down on Kokonoe's desk once a cunning plan took shape in her mind. Kokonoe watched as she did so, assuming Litchi was disobeying her and she'd have to do it all herself. "I'll help with your experiments but first, stand up."

Kokonoe cocked her head to the side. "What?"

Litchi gave an innocent smile. "You heard me, stand up. Do I have to help you with that too?"

"Shut up." Annoyed as she was, playing along with her apprentice's little game would probably get her to leave. Kokonoe hoisted herself out of her chair, preparing herself for whatever Litchi had planned. "Alright, I'm up. What now?"

"Stand here." Litchi pointed to the floor just in front of her. Her voice was soft, yet promised consequences if what she said wasn't followed.

"Okay…" Following Litchi's orders, Kokonoe stood in the place she requested, muttering to herself on the way. "I hope you know this is really stupid and I'm only doing this because you won't leave otherwise."

"I thought you'd say that." Her smile never left her face despite the remarks from her superior. "Now close your eyes."

"Really?" Kokonoe looked up at Litchi in disbelief. "Really? This was dumb enough already and now I have to close my eyes so you can do whatever you want to me. If I knew it was gonna be this long winded to get you to do something for me, I wouldn't have bothered."

"Kokonoe" Litchi looked over her glasses to show her disapproval. Kokonoe groaned before she complied. Litchi rarely called her superior by name alone.

"Just get it over with" Kokonoe sighed in defeat and closed her eyes. Litchi said nothing in response, leaving her to almost fear what she was planning. The scientist attempted to brace herself for what would happen. She thought she could sense something reaching around her but brushed it off as paranoia. Deciding against confirming it by opening her eyes, she continued to wait. If she opened her eyes, Litchi would probably enforce some sort of rule against it that she made up on the spot to make everything last longer than it had to.

"You can open your eyes now" Litchi spoke in a singsong voice. Kokonoe still couldn't shake the feeling around her but was thankful she could see what it was.

The moment she opened her eyes, she knew there was something there. Litchi had held her arms around her and pulled Kokonoe into a hug when she opened her eyes.

"Li-Litchi! What the hell are you doing?!" The feeling was almost alien to her. She tried to push herself out of her grip but Litchi moved an arm up behind her head and brought Kokonoe in closer resting her head above her chest. "Let go of me, you idiot!"

"Shh" Litchi silenced her mentor with a soft but forceful tone and stroked the back of her hair. "Just relax and you'll feel better."

"I'd rather you let me go. My face is inches above your breasts and I feel awkward about it." Kokonoe's continued to push against Litchi's shoulders in another attempt to escape though she didn't have the strength to do so.

Litchi pursed her lips. "What's wrong with that?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe it's because your breasts are friggin' huge. Now let go already!" She remained tenacious, not accepting the fact that she couldn't push Litchi off of her.

"Alright." Kokonoe sighed in relief as Litchi gave a look of slight disappointment. "As long as you do one last thing, I'll let you go."

"You've gotta be kidding me! I've been doing stuff for you for the past few minutes and now I have to do more just to get you off?!" Kokonoe felt her anger rise in spite of Litchi's motherly gesture.

"Now now, you want me to let you go, right? So you should be happy to hear me say that" Litchi kept her voice in a kindly tone, ignoring the comments made.

"…Fine. What do you want?" Kokonoe relaxed her body, giving in.

"If you want me to let go, you have to hug me back." Litchi tilted Kokonoe's head up to look directly at her. Kokonoe scowled at Litchi's warm smile. She could hear from her apprentice's voice that she was enjoying every moment of her torment and now she could see it too.

Kokonoe growled, knowing she had no choice but to comply. As much as she didn't want to, she slowly moved her arms away from her sides and around Litchi's waist. Shutting her eyes to make the experience less embarrassing, Kokonoe clasped her hands around Litchi. After feeling the arms around her waist, Litchi returned her arm from behind Kokonoe's head to her back. The two shared a quiet moment in the office wrapped in each other's arms.

"Okay, that's enough" Content with what she had accomplished, Litchi released her hold around her mentor with Kokonoe following suit seconds after. "Don't you feel a lot better now?"

"…A little." Kokonoe kept her voice quiet and turned away to hide a faint blush on her face. Human contact wasn't something she was particularly used to.

Litchi smiled at her and then reached over to Kokonoe's desk and retrieved the list she had been given earlier. "I'll get started with these tests then. Sorry to have taken this long to do so." She bowed and turned to exit.

"Litchi" Kokonoe called before she could leave. Litchi turned back to face her. "Leave it." She smiled and set the paper down on the closest table. "Now you promise not to tell anyone what just happened."

"I promise." With a chuckle, Litchi left the room.

This was just a little something I felt compelled to write!

Hope you enjoyed ^^