N watched as the woman Kris had referred to as Choi Haruhi sent both Suho and Kris to the ground. From behind him, Hyoyeon and Hyuna were fighting off fits of laugher, especially when Haruhi skipped over the Kris and sat on his . N might have laughed if he wasn’t about to fight her. Well, try to.

Haruhi had promised to go easy on him, but she’d said the same thing to Leo. The nightmare sure didn’t look like she’d gone easy on him. To add to the humiliation of being beaten so easily, she’s also grabbed his at one point. Actually, that was why Leo had lost. He’d been so distracted that Haruhi had been given the chance to knock him down.

And now it was N’s turn.

“Next!” Haruhi called, smacking Kris’ before getting up.

“Really?” the dragon sighed, “is that really necessary?”

“Nope,” Haruhi laughed, “but it’s fun. And doesn’t it make you feel good to have your appreciated?”

“By a woman twice my age?” Kris scoffed, “no, not really.”

“Wait,” Hongbin frowned, “how old is Haruhi?”

“She’s,” Hyoyeon paused, trying to recall herself, “I think she’s in her late thirties.”

“What?” Hyuk’s jaw dropped in shock.

“She doesn’t look it,” Sehun added, “is she a nymph?”

“Are there any other supernaturals that stay young like that?” Hyuna giggled.

“Well, there are vampires,” Ravi spoke up, silently pleased with himself for remembering that.

“But they stop aging around eighteen or nineteen,” Hongbin reminded him, “and she looks to be in her mid-twenties. Tao said it takes, like, thirty years for vampires to look that old, so that would make her more than twice Kris’ age.”

“I said next,” Haruhi pouted, “so should I just pick someone?”

“He’s coming,” Hyoyeon laughed, pushing Ravi forewords, “tell her what you are, Ravi.”

“Shifter,” Ravi said, sounding just as uncomfortable as he looked, “shape shifter.”

“This will be fun,” Haruhi giggled, “Sori told me she’d been working with you. I expect you to be good, kid.”

“Sori talked about me?” Ravi looked up, clearly surprised and pleased. N scowled slightly from his place between Hyuk and Leo.

“She said to take pity on you,” Haruhi replied, “something about not killing you.”

“Oh,” Ravi wasn’t sure if that made him happy or not.

“She either expects a lot from you,” Haruhi smirked slightly, “or doesn’t think you can handle yourself.”

Ravi scowled, not liking the second reason. He wanted Sori to expect him to be able to handle himself. He didn’t want her to think he was weak. If she thought he wasn’t a good fighter, then she might just wash her hands of him and he didn’t want that to happen. He wanted her to keep her around.

“I’m not weak,” Ravi growled, “I can handle myself.”

“Then let me see it,” Haruhi said, “come at me.”

Ravi wasted no time changing into a massive bear, charging Haruhi. The agent looked a little surprised that he had managed to change into such a large creature, but dodged to the side with time to spare. Ravi swung around, blocking the small knife that Haruhi had sent at him. He pulled the knife out of his arm with his teeth, less than pleased with the pain the injury caused him. He decided that a bear wouldn’t work against Haruhi – too big and slow – so he changed back into his human form.

Lay, Hyoyeon, Jessica, and Sori could all shift between animal forms without ever returning to their human forms, but Ravi wasn’t that good yet. In order to change into a cheetah, he had to return to him human form and that was dangerous. Before he could complete the transformation, Haruhi was charging him. The only thing he could do was dodge, so he did, rolling to the side and praying that she hadn’t prepared for that moment. The sharp pain in his shoulder said that she had, but he didn’t – couldn’t – stop his transformation.

Once in cheetah form, Ravi took off for the other side of the room. He needed space and time to think of a strategy for dealing with Haruhi, but there was no way she would give that to him. She was already rushing over to him, meaning Ravi and to move master and think even quicker. He wished he could be like Sori or Kris. They always seemed to be able to think on their feet, coming up with battle winning ideas under the most serious conditions. At least, that’s what he’d seen from them so far.

Ravi turned and charged right at Haruhi. The agent paused, clearly not expecting that. Ravi didn’t stop, running right at her and crashing into her. Haruhi went down hard, legs knocked out from under her, but she’d fallen on Ravi, pinning him to the ground as well.

“Ravi!” Hyuk called, “are you alright?”

“Fine,” Ravi nodded once he returned to his human form, “I’ll be fine.”

“Not sure if that was smart or stupid,” Haruhi groaned, getting up, “sometimes on the battle field you have to sacrifice yourself in order to take down the enemy and achieve victory, so there was strategy in what you just did. I’m just not sure if that was why you did it.”

“I just wanted to take you down,” Ravi explained, slowly getting up as he rubbed his head. When Haruhi fell, her head had knocked into his and it hurt. A lot.

“Sori was right to tell me to watch you,” Haruhi smirked slightly, “she said you were a wild card, unpredictable.”

“What?” Ravi tried not to blush.

“She’s got high hopes for you,” Haruhi’s smirk turned into a smile, “I can see what she’s talking about. She said you and N are supernaturals to watch. Now I’m looking forewords to what he can offer.”

Ravi’s smile dropped slightly, but to know that Sori thought so highly of him still left butterflies in his stomach. N grinned on the sidelines, proud that Sori thought he was someone to watch, that he was special.

“Who’s next?” Hyoyeon asked, “Do you want to see what N can do?”

“Can’t,” Haruhi frowned slightly, “Jihu orders. He’s in charge of N while he’s here and, well, the boss says not to do anything with him.”

N’s smile dropped, but he knew why Jihu had ordered such a thing. He wasn’t great at controlling his aura yet. If he was in a fight like the one Ravi had just been in, he might give away what he was. If that happened……..nothing good could come of that. They didn’t know who they could trust in the ISBIP.

“It’s almost lunch,” Suho said, pulling Haruhi’s attention away from the whole ‘can’t train N’ thing, “maybe we should head to the food court now before everyone else starts to show up.”

“Right,” Haruhi giggled, “Kris, you owe me lunch. I expect you to pay up.”

“What?” the dragon growled, “since when do I owe you lunch?”

“Since you lost,” Haruhi laughed, “don’t you remember our deal? When you manage to win against me, I’ll buy you a massive dinner. Until then, you buy me a lunch for every loss.”

“That’s bull!” Kris cried, chasing after the older agent as she exited the room.

“A deal is a deal,” she replied, “you aren’t going back on your word now, are you?”

“Whatever,” Kris growled, following her with a scowl on his face.

“Let’s go,” Suho laughed, waving for everyone else to follow him.

Ravi looked around the room once more before following the dragon. He was very proud of what he’d managed to do. He’d lived up to Sori’s expectations and the only thing that could make it any better was if she had been there to see it. But that didn’t matter because he could just tell her about it that night when he visited her dreams again.

N looked around the room with a scowl. He felt like a failure. He wanted to be strong enough that he could train with everyone else. Instead, Jihu had to secure special places and times for him to train so that if he messed up it wouldn’t cost them everything. It made him feel weak, like he couldn’t do anything to help the others. They were all getting stronger, and he wasn’t getting anywhere.

A/N: good on Ravi!! And poor N *sad face*