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[IamanElfCollaborator]

Minato takes a moment to process what she just said.
"Oh. So Tuesday."

[Powder Miner]

Faith’s expression shifted a couple of times — from confusion, to recognition, and them to an immense, smiling relief — although clouded at the edges once more with confusion. ”Oh, so— so you mean this is normal, right? So I don’t have to worry too much about getting in over my head, then?” Faith grabbed Minato’s shoulders, staring into his eyes. ”Do— do you have any opinion you think I should listen to...? I would really appreciate whatever you have to say, this thing is all scary, but it feels like a real crossroads and...” Faith trailed off, just looking into his eyes.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Minato rubs the back of his head awkwardly as Faith looks into his eyes. He wasn't used to cute girls being up this close, at least, cute girls he wasn't currently in the heat of battle with.
"I.....uh....yeah. Go for it! I mean......you know, my belt is a similar thing....."

[Powder Miner]

Faith seemed to notice only then that she’d been that close to Minato, and that intensity in that closeness, and she withdrew a bit, blushing and looking down (not quite ashamedly, though, just embarrassedly). Then she actually registered what Minato said. ”Your belt is a similar thing...?” Faith didn’t feel like she’d talked enough to ask the other thing she wanted to ask yet, and besides she could actually benefit from hearing about his experiences, ”Hum, could you tell me how?”

[Twinwolf]

Behind Noriko, Yuki didn't really seem to have a problem, going from what she said. "Hey, hey Elly? Can you help me get into it? I can do it alone but it's easier with someone to help."

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Minato also avoids looking directly at her, rubbing the back of his head some more.
"Hey, uh....well, you see, my Requiem isn't all that strong without this belt. I can barely summon Regalia I'm familiar with without it; what the belt does is amplify my ability to use my Requiem, and let me pull out all sorts of weapons and stuff without having to concentrate a lot, or know it in depth. Tsukasa, um, gave it to me for testing; I can't really talk about what she's working on, but part of the reason she and I talk a lot is that she takes the combat data from our fights from my belt and uses it to make the belt better at doing what it does. So a little similar, but not quite the same.

[Empiricist]

Noriko and Yuki
"Of course! Don't worry, I'll be gentle~☆ Just relax and I'll take good care of you ^ _ ^"
Elly begins to hum as she helps Yuki back into her outfit.

[Powder Miner]

”Oh, um, I see, the adaptive thing. Well, you have been pretty strong recently, so, uh... that would be a good sign. I guess I maybe should do this.” Faith fell silent, and at the moment where the silence got awkward, she let out a breath. Fuck it. She brought a hand back onto Minato’s shoulder, and stared at him, a gaze full of intense nervousness but also something much softer. ”Hey, u-um, Minato, there was something else that, uh, I actually wanted to ask you about, other than the whole... magical girl thing.”

[IamanElfCollaborator]

"Oh? Go for it."

[Powder Miner]

Faith took in a deep breath. ”Well, um, this isn’t necessarily the circumstances I would have liked to be asking this in, but,” Faith took another deep breath, her grip on his shoulder tightening a little bit, ”I know we’ve already been on a date and all but that was just a date and...” Faith trailed off. ”Eheh, I’m sorry, this just makes me really nervous.” She took another breath and then put her other hand on Minato’s other shoulder, once again close to him.

”I was thinking, you know... you’ve always been there for me, this entire time, right?” Faith glanced away from him for a moment, looking rather daunted, but then she looked back, visibly steeling herself. ”Supporting me, soothing me, protecting me, helping me in so many ways... and then, that day, at— at the mansion, you were there for me to, walking me home, letting me cry on your shoulder, holding me... holding me tight in your arms...” Faith closed her eyes for a moment and smiled, and then looked back down at Minato, smile still on her face.

She leaned forward, her face getting close to his, now separated from his by a mere foot and a hald. ”And, so, you know, I was thinking, even though we’ve only been on one date... it’s kind of hard to— to pace the way two people...” Faith got flustered, trailed off, and pulled away a little for a couple of seconds, before moving back in, her face a foot from his now. ”The way we live, it’s hard to pace the way two people feel about each other with dates, with everything being so insane, and with how close you’ve been to me in and around all the fighting...”

Faith’s arms abruptly wrapped around Minato’s chest, drawing him into an embrace. ”And, I’m— I’m going on and on, I know I am. But I was thinking about you, and how much you mean to me, how much you’ve been my— my wonderful knight in shining armor. And then everything that happened today happened, and it was kind of... kind of a kick in the ass. It made me realize that things aren’t ever going to slow down for me, so I have to act, at least while I’ve got this burst of energy. And that’s why I wanted to get you alone. I wanted to act on all these things, and, um, this sounds cheesy, but I wanted to act on all these feelings I have for you. I wanted to ask you:”

She leaned in, her face separated from his by only a scant few inches now, her eyes gazing into his with a mixture of nervousness, adoration, and warm affection, as she embraced him harder, pressing against him as she now held him tightly in her arms.

”Minato... I want to be with you, really, officially be with you. Will you be my boyfriend?”

[Chevaleresse]

Noriko's brow furrowed in anger, and she turned on her heel to glare at Elly. . . only to continue the rotation as soon as she remembered why she'd turned away in the first place. "Do you have to make yourself sound like a pervert?" she asked angrily.

[Empiricist]

Noriko and Yuki
"But I'm saying perfectly normal things! > _ <"

"Hmm, I've got an idea~♡  If you're not comfortable with me doing this to her, how about you finish her off then? You two are a lot closer anyway right? ^ _ ^"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

As Faith spoke and poured her feelings out, Minato thought back to everything around this moment. To the last few days, to all the girls he'd tried to date, to all the things he'd done.

Faith wasn't the most exciting, the most sensual, the most unique girl in the world. But she was, by, far, the nicest person Minato had ever met. She wasn't after his money, she didn't judge him for being a pervert; she liked Minato for who he was. She'd had his back in every fight so far. They were a team, even among their small ragtag group of superpowered misfits. For Minato, that was all that mattered.

Minato was used to people being scumbags to each other; after all, that was why he'd become Masked Knight Gaia, to stop the Aramitama from picking on the little guy. As long as he could remember, he'd been the knight coming to people's rescue, whether it was punching the big bully in the face to stop them from harassing the bookworm girl in the library, or smashing Aramitama heads to protect an Awakened middle school student. People had approached him and become his friend purely for the riches that Minato's family had; he'd bluntly rejected them. In Minato's world, if you were only going to use him because of his money or to get a leg up in the world, you had no place in it.

Minato, for the longest time, had modelled himself after the part of a chivalrous knight, driven by a code of honor, simple though it was. Fight for the little guy, protect your friends, stand between the innocent and the evil.

Everything with Noriko, however, had made him question that role he had assumed for himself. If he couldn't even help his friends with their lives, especially one of his closest and only friends, what good was he? After all, he was a pervert, incapable of protecting even his own friends, and hardly the invincible knight that he wanted so much to be. He wasn't anything like the knight that Faith had just described him as.

But Faith had just told him the opposite. Even if it was only her life he was changing, even if it was only ONE life he was protecting, he was doing right by someone. If he could do it for Faith, then he could do it for everyone else.

He wasn't a failure of a hero, just a hero who needed to find his footing.

Even if it was only Faith, Minato was helping someone.

He gives Faith an awkward smile, that was somehow more genuine than all the confident and suave smiles he'd flashed at her.
"I....uh....well....I never really usually get this far with a girl, you know? They.....all think I'm weird, for being the way I am. Or they just want the money. Even if we made all our money in Awakened stuff, the Kumons aren't exactly obscure. That's the reason I'm not with anyone right now; I haven't found the right girl, someone who I could live with being with. And honestly, if you're surprised, I'm surprised you are.

Let's be honest, Faith. I'm a shameless pervert. I'm not great at backing my friends up; just ask Noriko. I'm hardly the smartest guy in the world. I can be oblivious, hot-tempered and a little short-sighted.

What I'm good at is fighting the bad guy, and I can't chase away all the bad guys in the world. I can't undo what I screwed up. I can't make your past go away, and I can't make your troubles disappear with a snap of my fingers. I wish I could fight them all, just whip out a sword and a shield and fight them like a knight of the old times, but I can't. Those are your battles, and all I can do is help you fight them.

But I'll try my best.

And if you're willing to give me a shot, if you're willing to put up with me, Faith, then I can't say no. Of course I'll be your boyfriend."

[Powder Miner]

To be honest, Faith really didn’t like the way that Minato had prefaced his acceptance. The self-deprecation, she supposed, was a little bit unnerving but not a particular problem; he was trying to be honest with her, right? She didn’t really know what was going on with Noriko, but Faith was sure that Minato was trying his best. And whatever he said, Minato would still have been her knight in shining armor time and time again.

It was the next bit that got Faith uncomfortable, and enough so that it became visible on her face. Faith didn’t want to think of her troubles right now. She didn’t want to think about how Minato couldn’t deal with the ones not involving fighting for her. And she really, really didn’t want to think about her past, especially not right now. Faith ended up squeezing Minato a bit harder for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm down... and the time to register his last words.

He would help her, because he would be by her side... because he’d accepted her. He’d accepted her. He would be her boyfriend. She would be his girlfriend... they would be together. She closed her eyes for a moment and let the bliss wash back over her. ”Minato~~ You’re... you’re my boyfriend! I’m your girlfriend! Minato... this makes me so happy, I don’t really know what to say, so I’ll just...”

Faith opted for a nonverbal response instead, nestling herself deeper into Minato’s arms and leaning her face closer, closer, and closer to his, an eager expression on her blushing face.

[Twinwolf]

Well, Noriko would probably have caught a glimpse of Yuki down to her underwear with Elly (also down to underwear) helping her dress. So that's a sight she's seen now. "...I'm confused."

It is at this point, there's a couple knocks on the door, and then it opens... thankfully, the corner in which Noriko had decided to place herself was hidden by the way the door opened. "Hey, is everyone o...ok... in here..." the voice says, clearly the owner, who then closes the door very rapidly. "I, uh, I don't... sister's shouldn't touch each other that way!"