Why was she letting a dumb nickname get to her so much? The media and the fans certainly called her worst things throughout her career and she had no problem brushing them off before. What was so different about this?
Her irritation must have been written all over her face because she caught Zarc staring at her, instead of the television. He pressed the mute button, cutting off that annoying announcer mid-sentence.
“You okay?” he asked.
Ray debated whenever she should tell him the truth or not. Another pro duelist would be more likely to sympathize with what she was feeling. But, on the other hand, she wasn’t so sure she wasn’t overreacting.
“Oh, it’s stupid. Just…” Ray leaned her head back. It gave her an excellent view of the busted up ceiling fan. “Am I really an Ice Queen?”
“What?” Ray felt the couch move as Zarc shifted position. “What makes you think that?”
Ray waved her hand in the general direction of the television. “Everybody seems to think so. I know, like, 99% of the time, it’s all sexist bullshit. I’m too aggressive, too ambitious, not smiling enough but…I don’t know…in this case…”
Ray thought back to all the classmates who had been too intimidated to approach her, the exes that had accused her of keeping them at arm’s length, how her co-workers joked that she was always looking ticked off at something or other.
“…do you think there might be some truth to it?”
“And what if there is?”
Ray whipped her head around so fast her pigtails slapped her face. That…hadn’t been the answer she expected.
“Yes, you can be cold, standoffish, scary…” Ray glared at him. “See, like that! But you’re also this total badass who doesn’t take shit from anyone and it isn’t in spite of those other things I just said. If anything, it’s because of them. So, um, yeah, I don’t think it’s bad to be an “Ice Queen.””
Ray could only sit there and stare, wide-eyed, at Zarc. He was the one who looked away.
“But then again, what do I know? I’m just a-?!”
Ray pounced before he could finish that thought, planting kisses all over his face. She was going to give Zarc a night he was never going to forget, so decreed the Ice Queen herself.
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