At this time, Ethan was in his private study at the guild. He was going through a few reports Aliyah had put together concerning their guild activities in the past few days he hadn’t been around.

There was a downpour of water from the shower, and yeah, this was Hayley using Ethan’s shower. She was refreshing herself after having her body stained with dust and monster blood.

And of all the free showers in the guild, she always chose to do it here, and it didn’t matter the amount of times Ethan had reminded her that there were plenty more out there.

Eventually, he just gave up and let her do her thing.

The sound of running water filled the background as Ethan flipped through another page, his eyes scanning the numbers and noting a few areas that might need his attention later.

The guild was growing, slowly but steadily, and that meant more responsibilities piling onto his already full plate.

Then the water stopped, and after what felt like fifteen minutes or so, she walked out slowly. Her body was dried up mostly, with the towel still tied over her frame.

Ethan couldn’t help but turn up from his reading, then he gestured towards the same shower area and said, "You know just by the corner there, there’s a dressing room."

But she kept walking towards him with a mischievous smirk.

"Hayley..." Ethan muttered, unsure what she was doing.

But as she moved, she slowly began to pull the towel away.

"Wait, wait..." Ethan’s eyes widened in unexpected shock and suddenly the towel flung towards him in a wide spread.

Ethan’s body leaned back in his chair as he immediately averted his gaze while instinctively moving his hands up as if trying to block something.

"Tadaaa!" Hayley said in an excited sing-song tone with her arms spread apart.

"Hayley, come on, go get dressed," Ethan said, gaze still averted and now even closed.

"So you wouldn’t even look at me... wow, now I’m hurt," she said in a tone that sounded dramatically so.

"No, it’s not... ugh! Just get dressed..." Ethan wasn’t even sure what to say, but he was sure in a rather tough spot.

"Turn..." Hayley’s voice said, almost sounding commanding, yet alluring.

"Hayley, for the love of God, dress up," he said.

"Look, pretty boy..." she replied, now in a teasing tone, ignoring his request.

"Dear God..." he whispered. "If I take a peek, do you promise to get dressed immediately?"

"Just look, Ethan!" Now it was somewhere between intense and still playful.

Slowly, he turned the left side of his head, sweat almost rolling down his forehead as he only opened his left eye into what looked like a strained peek. "Huh?"

His eyes widened even more as he now turned fully. "What the fuck?"

Hayley began laughing. "I was already dressed, dumb dumb," she said in between laughs.

Turns out she was in a white camisole whose tiny shoulder sleeves had been adjusted to hang by her arms, and a pair of shorts underneath.

But due to the towel’s size, it masked it all perfectly, giving the idea that she was naked behind the towel.

"Woah... that was genuinely not fair..." Ethan said, heaving a sigh of relief.

His heart had raced so fast that Hayley could hear it beat like a drum on steroids. "Don’t you love when I get your heart pumping like that?" she said in a teasing tone.

Ethan pointed at her dramatically, moving his index finger back and forth to emphasize a point.

"I."

"Hate."

"You."

He said it slowly and deliberately.

"No you don’t..." Hayley said, grinning as she adjusted the sleeves back into place at her shoulders in such a way that her plump chest jiggled just a bit while adjusting to the comfort of the clothing.

Then she turned away and walked back into the dressing room as Ethan shook his head with a smile now returning to his face.

When she walked back out, she had her leather jacket back on and was now completely set. She had a thing for wearing leather-like clothing.

"Have you checked the cabinet?" she asked, gesturing towards it as she slowly walked back towards him.

"No... what’s in there?" he asked, now looking suspicious and downright wary, trying to wonder what it was she was on about.

She smiled, then walked over herself and opened it. She picked out the items there and laid them on the table before Ethan. One was a paper within an enclosed file.

But the other one made Ethan entirely dumbfounded.

It was a miniature replica of The Vanguard, crafted in stunning detail. The sleek dark metallic body gleamed under the study’s light, with blue accent lines running along the wings and sides exactly as they did on the full-scale aircraft.

The model was mounted on an elegant black display stand with classy patterns etched into the base. The Stark Industries "S" logo glowed faintly in blue on the stand’s front, and beneath it, a polished metal nameplate read: "THE VANGUARD."

Every curve, every angle, every detail had been replicated with such precision that it looked like a perfect miniature of the real thing.

"This is a gift, to say congratulations on coming up with the Vanguard," Hayley said.

Ethan looked at her almost in awe, then turned back to it and slowly ran his hand around the miniature structure. "It looks..."

"Just like it, I know," Hayley said, pulling the words out of his mouth. He turned back towards her and she smiled again at him.

"How? When did you even get the time to do this? I mean, we just finished the event two days ago," Ethan said in a rush.

Hayley smiled, then said, " so you know me and Eduardo did that flight training like maybe two days before. I took pictures of the plane then and went looking for the best craftsman in the city..."

She paused, then continued, "At first he said there wouldn’t be enough time to get it done with the right details, and on top of all that, he had standing orders. So I offered to pay him ten times the original amount if he could ditch the others and give day and night to just this craft only."

"And what do you know?" Hayley said, widening her arms pridefully. "It worked. I really wanted to give you this on the day you did the event, but it was ready the next morning instead."

"I brought it here, left it on your table, hoping you’d come to meet the surprise whenever you showed up the next day, but you never did. Instead, you disappeared to whatever place and wasn’t even telling me where..."

At this point she made a quick face before adding, "By the way, you’re still going to tell me what happened..."

Ethan broke into a short smile, and Hayley continued, putting back her own smile. "You know, people always assume the wealthiest don’t care for gifts. They think they already have everything, so no one ever considers getting them anything."

Then she walked closer. ""But I know you, Ethan. You don’t say it much, maybe you even forget sometimes, but you love gifts. You really do, and you know how to cherish them. Remember the first gift I gave you?"

"The bow tie," they both said at the same time with chuckles in between.

"Yeah, that..." Hayley continued. "You wore that bow tie every day from the time you were five. Even after I left, Percy told me on our calls that you kept wearing it until you were... thirteen? I think."

"Fourteen," Ethan corrected with a smile. "I still have the bow tie kept somewhere in my room."

"No way," Hayley said with a giggle.

"And the pen," Ethan added. "And the hat, and the journal..."

"Oh my," Hayley said with smiles on her face.

"I kept every single one," Ethan said.

"And now you have this." Hayley pointed towards the plaque. "I want you to be able to look back at your first creation, even several years later after it’s gone. And unlike the others, you’d never outgrow this."