[attr="class","ZenkaiExposition"]Zenkai waved a hand in the air as if to wave off Freja's apology. "No need to apologize Frey-bae. You were out there being a hero, it looked so natural compared to last time" which was true, she did look like a badass charging in to meet the villain head on. A dumbass but a badass. "If it was anyone else you'd probably have beaten them right there so I ain't mad, just glad that you didn't get hurt. Unlike me, you're not exactly lightning resistant" the golden boy let out a chuckle before groaning, man did it suck to laugh. "I'm just built different, don't know why, maybe it's because I'm meant to take the hits" Damn, of course he'd be born as the tank.

As the sounds of sirens grew closer Zen's excitement rose as Freja began planning out their drinking night. It was true that Japan's drinking rules sucked but if one person was legal then that was enough for a dorm party, or a get together...Hang out? whatever you called two people drinking together in a dorm. Honestly, it would be Zen's first time in a girl's room that wasn't his family. He hadn't even seen Marlene's room let alone visit her house. It was an interesting prospect behind able to hang out like that and certainly nothing wrong could absolutely come of it.

"Eighteen, two years away from being able to properly drink." Zen let out a yawn and nudged the bat with a grin on his lips "Secret for a secret...Or maybe I'll lie, who knows? You won't since you'll never see my quirk but at least I'll get to see what you're like when you're drunk. Hell I'll even hold your hair back if you get sick"

[attr="class","ZenkaiExposition"]Zenkai blinked a few times as he was chided by Marlene. Her tone didn't make it seem like she was upset but if her words were any indication, he'd fucked up by not calling her and inviting her to go with him. It had never occurred to the golden boi that he should do such a thing...was that something that people in relationships did? Shit, he really should have read the book that Marlene gave him, it probably had something like that in it which was why she was expecting it from him. Damn, now he felt really bad. "I'm Sorry, I should have called to see if you wanted to come together. I'll remember to do that next time. I promise...Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" It probably wasn't going to help anything but Maybe Marlene would forgive him if she got something out of it.

The conversation seemed to only get worse as Marlene declared that she couldn't get drunk or even taste. Not only was his plan to make her forget by both getting drunk but now he was sad that he wouldn't be able to share all his delicious food with her. The getting drunk bit was secondary but he was slightly disappointed he wouldn't be getting into some drunken shenanigans with the android, it was an integral part of college apparently and Marlene would be missing out on it. "I don't know what a Mai Tai is but I can tell you Tequila is NOT fun to drink"

The two of them were soon joined by the host of the party having overheard Marlene's predicament, offering to help rebuild her taste buds, which would have been nice if she had taste buds in the first place, which she didn't. "Rooooobboooootttttt" Zen exclaimed, which wasn't exactly what Zen wanted to say. He wanted to say that she was a robot and didn't have taste buds but that didn't come out right.

In fact, nothing seemed to be quite right, everything looked slightly more vibrant, the boat seemed to be moving a little more causing him to sway and he had the overwhelming desire to tell everyone how truly special and amazing they were. It was an unusual feeling but a pleasant one and he felt the intense desire to share it with the world.

"I mean" The titan cleared his throat "This beautiful, amazing, fantastic, hard working young lady right here is a robot and could never taste shit before" Zen bent down to plant another kiss on Marlene's cheek "which, is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions but that doesn't mean she is less of a person because of it." That last bit wasn't directed at Salt but at Marlene. "Got that 'Lenie? You're special as shit but not because you're an android but because you're thoughtful, and silly and kind and we DESPERATELY need to get you better clothes! Sammy, can you believe that she only has like this dress, or several of these dresses? She needs a more diverse wardrobe. You've got something on this yacht yeah? I'm sure if we get her into something cute she'll be fucking unstoppable...Maybe something Yellow or blue"

It was at that point that the golden boi noticed Freja hanging around and eavesdropping on the group like the wonderful, adorable creeper she was. "Aye-yo, cutie with the bootie, get your but over here, we're doing tequila shots" Zenkai pointed the tequila bottle at Freja "Then you can wow everyone with the tales of how you saved my ass not once, but twice!" Turning back to the other two girls, Zen added on "It's true, Freja's fucking amazing, she's going to be top ten in no time! You can't be that adorable and that good with a baseball bat without becoming a crowd favorite"

[attr="class","ZenkaiExposition"]Zenkai let out a loud groan at the offer of tutoring. It would be so much easier for the both of them if Thea just opted to use her quirk. Still he'd probably need it at some point to make sure that he didn't fail out of college. The titan let out a loud yawn as he gave Thea a thumbs up "Alright, fine, you win, I'll pay ya or whatever for tutoring. Though you know it would just be faster to download the information into my head." He would never give up on the easy way out, at some point Thea would give in and he'll get his way.

The titan was going to call bullshit on the part of his friend's denials. Regardless of what she said he was pretty sure the two of them were dating, even if they weren't going to acknowledge it. Though it was rather heart breaking to hear that she couldn't hold hands with anyone. He didn't realize her quirk was always active, man that must be a pain in the ass. "That's rough buddy...Even though I wasn't talking about hands." The golden boi grinned slightly "It's so cute when you act all innocent." Yeah...at this rate he was going to get the shit kicked out of him.

Zenkai immediately regretted his words as Thea seemingly was possessed by a MUCH more cheerful and cutesie demeanor which sent a chill down his spin and a cringe on his face. If he never saw that look again it would be far too soon. He understood the necessity of the disguise so that they could sneak in and NOT end up with bullet wounds like they did last time. Zen didn't mind being relegated to a secondary role. They were pretty content to sit back and relax while Thea did all the heavy lifting.

[attr="class","ZenkaiExposition"] Zenkai grinned at Freja's acknowledgement before tousling her hair some more "You're too cute NOT to fuck with besides, I'm making your hair better" The titan's eyed flicked over to the girl next to Freja as she introduced herself. So she was the one who organized the extravagant party, honestly they were expecting someone a bit more…over the top? Cartoonishly so, but that might have just been from all the Manga, people in real life rarely imitated the characters found on those pages.

"Nice to meet you Sumo-chan~ Just call me Zen" Zen's hand left Freja's head as he clapped his arms onto Sumo's shoulders. "Let's get drunk! I've been told college parties are where that happens and I've always wanted to try it" The grin on their lips widened as he removed on hand to grab onto Freja and bring her closer "Got to catch up to Batgirl or she's going to make an ass out of herself all alone!"

All thoughts of drinking were abandoned as soon as Marlene appeared in his line of sight. Her attendance certain made the party better already even if she was wearing the same dress she always wore. She even brought a present! Man, she certainly was the best…Well best Andriod, Freja or Thea probably took the title for best human at the moment.

"MARLENE!" The golden boi shouted as the ran over the their romantic partner before lifting her up in a big hug and spinning her around before giving her a kiss on the cheek. "So glad you came! I was wondering if you'd show up!" Zen gave Marlene a slight nuzzle to her cheek with his nose before setting her down and looking back to Freja "Congratulations, you two have both met a very cool person!" Damn, he hadn't even began to drink and he was already having a pretty decent time.

That was until Jamie decided to ruin the party by being a fucking Narc. In response to her complaints Zenkai walked over to the bar before grabbing two bottles of Tequila. Ignoring the bartenders protests, The golden boi walked back over to the group assembled and proceeded to down one of the bottles I'm it's entirety while making direct eye contact at Jasmine. Once he was finished with the first bottle he wiped the excess from his lips with his forearm before finally speaking "Shuddup and Enjoy the party. If you don't like it, leave." God, Zen couldn't stand people who tried to get in the way of other's happiness…even if it was really stupid happiness.

The crash on the deck went completely ignored by the Titan as he turned back to Marlene with a big goofy grin "So, when they get back I'd really like to try "Tequila shots" with you and everyone else…Have you ever drank before?"

[attr="class","ZenkaiExposition"]The monk was certainly had a strong quirk and was pretty skilled in battle but it was pretty clear to Zen as the fight went on that his body was not as durable as theirs. If Zenkai could keep this battle going, the monk would eventually lose to the two of them. All they would need to do was keep Freja out of harms way and continue fighting and taking the hits. The enlightened one didn't care for fights most of the time, they were boring and a pain in their ass. But this fight, this fight was getting exciting. This fight had actual stakes, he had someone he needed to protect and an opponent interfering with other's happiness. If most of his fights could be like this, maybe being a hero wasn't so bad after all.

After the narrow escape with the second lightning attack the titan ran towards their opponent to close the distance. The monk couldn't be allowed to get off another bolt of lightning. It was too dangerous to let him get any distance, Zen could take all the punches in the world, they weren't sure they could say the same for the quirk. Even though there was a decent chance that both of them could be taken out with one lucky lightning strike Zen had no doubt in his mind that they would win. They had Freja with them and that girl was one hell of a hero.

Using her bat like a whip his heroic partner was able to catch the villain's other arm with her grappling hook at least subduing him for the moment. Her shout though was something that didn't sit right with them. The demand to use their quirk, their quirk could never be used, it only brought disaster. Freja would just eat a dick and be content with what he had in store next.

The titan quickly charged at the monk before leaping through the air as their arms wrapped around the villan's neck as he slammed the man into the ground with the villain's throat connecting with their shoulder cutting off their breathing momentarily. "Hit them in the head and knock his ass out" The titan shouted at Freja, fully aware of the hypocrisy of not listening to her while demanding her to do something.

[attr="class","ZenkaiExposition"]
A wave of relief and disappointment overcame Zenkai as Marlene clarified her worries. Of course she wouldn't feel anything about actually losing him, it was about the data she could collect. At least if things went wrong he didn't have to worry about hurting her feelings, she didn't really have those after all. Still it would have been have been nice if she had lied and said she actually would have missed him personally but that would probably never happen. That was why they were dating in the first place wasn't it? Neither of them would get hurt if they wanted to call it off.

The temperature change entering the Ice Palace was barely noticeable to the golden boi. He was a walking space heater after all and ran at an internal temperature that most considered a severe fever. What was noticeable to Zenkai was the sheer amount of couples at the skating rink. Old or young people were snuggling up and holding hands, keeping warm together. It made Zen feel…inadequate. They didn't understand why but their relationship felt different from the other couples at the ice rink and for the first time, it didn't feel like a good thing. Perhaps that was just how relationships were in the beginning, perhaps they weren't there just yet. He hoped it was because they weren't at that point just yet.

"You know, you can decide your own purpose too" The sapphire eyed titan stated plainly as he led Marlene to the back to rent a pair of ice skates. "You might be an android or a robot or whatever but you're still in control of your own life, you can do whatever the hell you want as well." Zen didn't know how else to respond to Marlene, he didn't exactly know what he wanted out of his life either. Right now he was just happy viking, was that such a bad thing.

"As for me, I've decided to do whatever makes me happy, helping people makes me happy so that's what I'm doing, when something else makes me happy I'll do that too!" He turned to Marlene and gave her a wink "Like dating you"