Rudy fiddled nervously with his gemstones. Today was the day he would tell Mini how he felt.

Needless to say he had prepared himself. He'd brushed his hair 5 times more than the usual 3, wore a dark purple shirt instead of the normal bright one, and even spent 1 hour writing a speech. And he was going to read it to her. Eventually.

On his first attempt, he'd just been unable to speak. Which was unheard of!

On his second attempt, Brynne and Aru had shoved him out because it was time for a "Pandava Talk". Not that he had any idea what that meant. But he was getting a little desperate here.

Then, finally, the perfect moment arose. Rudy had wanted to go for a walk, and Mini had decided to come too! Just the two of them! It was perfect.

"Hey, so, um... Mini?" He started, just about managing to stutter his way through the sentence. Real smooth, Rudra.

"Yeah?" She replied smiling at him.

"Um there's something I need to tell you..."

"Er, Rudy?"

"And I'm not sure how to say this -"

"Rudy?"

"So I wrote something..."

"RUDY, DROP!"

He ducked quickly, if not disoriented, as Dee-Dee flew over his head. Straight into...

A demon.

Great.

Why was the universe trying to ruin his chances of asking Mini out!?

He muttered a word Aru taught him a few weeks ago.

"I'm hoping you said fork," Mini remarked, going into a battle stance.

"Sure I did!"

Mini snorted, before going pale. "There are a few more than I thought."

Rudy turned. "A few more" didn't seem to cut it. "An army" or "a small country's worth" would have worked better. The demons circled them, like a murderous spinning top. And then...
they attacked.

Rudy went straight to throwing his rocks, deafening and confusing a dozen in one hit.

"Nice moves, DJ Snekky Snek," Mini smirked as she roundhouse kicked a demon, before skewering it with her Death Danda. He would have said pretty violent for a healer, but he was worried about receiving a similar fate. Instead, he decided to go down a different route.

"So, there something I've been meaning to tell you..." Rudy began, crouching as he aimed a bunch of crystals at the asuras to the right of Mini. She shielded him as he did, and 3 demons slammed into it.

"And?" She expanded the shield, making about 15 more demons smush into the side, before sliding down.

"And," Rudy cleared his throat, standing straight again and knocking out the nearest demon with a particularly strong crystal, "Yamini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez, Daughter of Death, Pandava sister, reincarnation of Yudhistira,

"Oh gods, he's full naming me," Mini muttered, swiping out the feet of a couple of rakshakas.

"In the few years," Rudy paused for dramatic effect, "that I have known you," he paused again, "the world has changed," another pause, "and so have I -"

"Could you speed this up? We are kinda in a life-and-death situation." Mini asked, spinning Dee-Dee to his left.

"But what about the dramatic effect!?"

"You know what?" She ducked as he threw a large rock over her head, "you have 5 words only."

"But -" he whined.

"4 words now!"

He took a deep breath, considering his options.

"I like you, Mini," he sighed, turning to face her.

The force field Mini created tripled in size, knocking out the rest of the demons.

"We're getting the full explanation when we get back to Aru's." She told him looking almost dazed.

~~~

"So... It worked?" Nikita asked Sheela.

"Yes, but no." She replied.

"What went wrong?" Brynne questioned.

"Demons."

"Ugh, hate those things," Aru said jumping into the conversation, "But it still worked, right Sheels?"

"Yup! Bonded mid-fight!"

"Well, that works with me." Nikita chimed.

"Yeah, and now there are a couple!"

"Good work Sheela," Brynne said approvingly.

"Yeah," Aiden added, "You got someone to like Rudy, which is almost an impossible task -"

The doorbell rang.

"They're back," Nikki hissed, "Act natural."

Aiden grabbed his camera and pointed it at Brynne, who picked up a cook book, across from Nikita, who started sketching, while Aru and Sheela copied superhero moves on the TV.

"Hi, we're back!" Mini said holding hands with Rudy, completely oblivious

Different variations of "hey" went around the room until they left.

"Did you see that?" Aru whispered.

"Mindy done!" Sheela added.

"So what do we do now?" Nikki asked.

"Wait for them to announce it, act shocked, and repeat the cycle." Aiden said.

"So.. whose next?" Everyone looked at Brynne.

"I, um," Brynne searched for an excuse, "Do you smell burning? I better check that?"

After she had left the remaining potatoes gathered.

"How do we get her and Hira together?" Aiden whispered.

Nikita smirked. "Alright everyone, here's the game plan...."

A/N loved writing this chap, and it's my first time writing Mindy! Anyways, lots of fun, hope you liked it.

-Bea