The Icarean barricade dissolved, and the Collective army advanced forward. Lucy joined with Matt by her side. Defected Icari helped transport non-flying soldiers down the cliff-face into the next level of the caldera’s valley.

Lucy crushed another Icarus’ skull as she prodded Matt. “Can’t we, please? It would be so much fun.” Her boots squelched with blue blood soaked through her pants and socks. She appreciated how well the black concealed the blood. But if her face looked anything like Matt’s, they could top Cinder’s Most Wanted list.

Matt grappled an Icarus to the ground and clenched his freckled jaw in the way she liked as he broke its neck. “I have every confidence you can repel down a fifty-foot cliff, but I wouldn’t want one of them to snag you.” He pointed to the Icarean warriors in the sky. They darted and stabbed at groups scaling down the rocks. With their hands full of people, many Icari lost aerial battles against their own kind.

She opened her mouth to negotiate further when Tumu’s deep voice called out to them, “Hey, Gingersnaps!”

Oh, that made her snicker. “Gingersnaps?”

Matt acknowledged the Tritan with a nod.

The blue man glanced between the redhead and the blond before he cracked a faint smirk, “Remember what I said about paperwork?”

Lucy frowned at the interchange they shared. Paperwork? She raised her hand. “I can help. I’m great with paperwork.”

Matt smiled down at her.

The Tritan did, too, then broke the moment with a cry, “For fuck’s sake!” He adjusted the orb on his suit, and Lucy understood why they were in charge. As tall and broad as a dinosaur, the blue alien cupped his hands to catch someone falling from high in the sky.

Abresson screeched from the cliff’s edge, “That’s a Level Five offense, Tumu. I’ll report you to the Tribunal!”

They argued as Tumu set an unconscious Andrew down beside a concerned Lucas. The sixty-five foot alien shouted, “Fine! If you’re reporting me, I might as well stay decompressed for the rest of the fight. And you know what? I’ll fix the crawler while I’m at it. You Eminent pain in my ass.” He stormed off to the vehicle, crushing opposing Icari and stomping out fires beneath his feet.

Abresson cursed, “Do you want to be demoted? AGAIN?!”

Lucy watched him go with a bright laugh so heavy she held her stomach. Maybe she should ask for a ride sometime. Shaking her head, she suppressed the urge to see the Tritan’s insides. Save that thought for another day.

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It occurred to her that Matt remained silent during the entire ordeal. She spun around to catch him staring at her. It was a strange look in his almost expressionless eyes. A mix between evaluation and appreciation. Like he calculated how much she impressed him. Lucy smiled. “Like what you see?”

“I see me.”

Without him describing it, she understood the feeling. A familiar consumption. A drive she never knew how to address. A want too obscure to fulfill. She blinked at him, uncertain how to respond.

Unsheathing a knife, Matt fell to his knees and punctured the chest of the Icarus he fell. She stepped over to watch. It reminded her of an autopsy at the veterinary hospital. He shoved his hand in and fished around. The blood congealed into a deeper, navy blue. It welled up from the cavity as he extracted an object from inside.

Matt held out the shiny amber pearl. “You trust me, right?”

“Completely”

“Swallow this.”

Lucy didn’t hesitate. It went a little rough down the hatch. She took a drink from her canteen. The water rushed over her tongue, fresh and cold. So much more refreshing than earlier. She opened her eyes and peered out beyond the cliffs. Across the valley, she made out the deep green needles on the pines. The gray-brown roughness of the bark. The rising steam from the caldera. The distant cliffs and their stratified sediment stacked across eons of compression. She flexed one fist and almost punctured her palm with her nails. Was she a superhero now?

Turning back to Matt, he stood and stared into her eyes. His were so warm and brown. But now she made out the faint flecks that added to the depth. Black. Like her insides.

Softly, he spoke, and still the timbre of his voice startled her. “All this time, I convinced myself your eyes looked bluer at the compound cause I thought more of you after Fair.” He cupped her face, smearing blood everywhere. “So blue. Like daisies.”

This close, she fell into those black flecks surrounded by gorgeous freckles. Lucy pulled him in for a kiss and not just any kiss. Hard pressed. Inviting tongues. The warm smell of him and the soft feel of his auburn hair threading through her fingers.

He pulled her closer to him, allowing transport troops to rush around them like water parting for a rock. Matt lifted her leg by the bend of her knee, and Lucy knew what he wanted from her. That was okay because she wanted it first. The idea crossed her mind early in the fight when Matt tore an Icarus apart. She wanted him. Reveled in it. Looked forward to his hands on her. What was sex like as a superhero?

“Oh, come on,” Six groaned as she yanked them apart.

A little dizzy from the sudden detachment, Lucy peered at where the woman pointed. Below, the Collective army attacked a colossal machine simultaneously to little effect.

Matt nodded in confirmation. “Right. War.”

He plastered a sheepish grin on his face for Six’s sake. Lucy recognized the lie behind it from their time in the compound. When he looked at her, she saw the truth. The tightness around his eyes and the flex of his jaw said he disliked the interruption almost as much as the well-meaning woman touching him.

“Break time’s over, soldiers.” Six reached up and let an Icarus carry her over the cliff.

Lucy slipped her hand into Matt’s. With his shoulders and back visibly relaxing, he peered at her with his empty gaze. She smiled with a gentle squeeze. “I like what I see, too.”