One would think that not going out to fight villains would turn into a pretty relaxing day. But no, first there had been the talk with Flare’s dad, then my confession, and then… another talk with her parents.

As I’d already suspected, when I’d made that confession, they’d been outside the door, listening to us. What had they been doing, listening in on their teen daughter’s private conversation? Well, at least their reaction wasn’t negative. I still couldn’t forget the grin on that man’s face. I felt very lucky that Flare’s parents were so accepting. They minded neither me being transgender nor a girl dating their girl. Although Flare’s dad jokingly said the typical dad line, where he threatened me if I ever made her cry.

But, to be honest, despite becoming girlfriends, not much had changed. Sure, we promised to go on another date tomorrow after school, but other than that, Flare’s presence didn’t get awkward or anything. Being near her felt as reassuring as ever, maybe just a little bit more.

So what was the first thing to do with your new girlfriend? Play online games, of course.

“Hey, Sally!” I smiled.

“Hey there... well, aren’t you just beaming today? Something good happened?”

Flare and I shared a glance and giggled.

“You could say that.”

“Suspicious! Out with it! What happened?”

“That’s a secret.” I winked at her mischievously.

“S’up, girls.” Brock emerged from the background and took a seat. “What’s up, sis?” He looked at his frowning sister.

“They are acting all giddy and they won’t tell me why!” she whined.

“Meh, I bet they are dating now, or something.”

That made both of us freeze… and blush.

“Is that the first thing you come up with? You…!” Sally’s eyes caught her screen. “Wait... you two… no way! Seriously?!”

“Uh… maybe?” Flare said, as her eyes floated around the room.

“Huh… but I was just joking…”

“Since when?!” Sally’s face came closer to her camera.

“Since--” Flare looked at the clock on her monitor. “--twenty-two minutes ago.”

“And the first thing you do is go online and brag to us?” She threw her arms up. “Screw you! I’ll get a boyfriend one day! Just you wait!”

“Hey, you were the one to ask… we weren’t trying to brag.”

“Whatever… so much shit happening and now you have to remind me that I’m still single on top of everything...” She sighed as she crossed her arms and looked away from the camera.

Her brother put an arm around her shoulder and pursed his lips.

“Hey… are you alright? What happened?” I asked.

Sally frowned and opened and closed her mouth a few times before speaking. “I… joined the heroes.” She let out a long sigh. “And I already went out and helped arrest someone. There was barely any training period.”

“That’s… um, good?”

“No it’s not!” she snapped at me. Then took a deep breath. “Sorry...”

“It’s okay...”

“You know who it was? A thief. He was stealing… because he fell into poverty after the last starstorm. He lived near the southern wall when it fell… and he was stealing because there was no other way for him to survive.”

I set my jaw.

“And I feel like the wall falling is the heroes’ fault. They were responsible for his situation. And yet… the heroes then arrested him for trying to keep living… fuck! I hate this already!”

I understood her feelings all too well. Being a hero wasn’t easy. The world wasn’t black and white. Sometimes, the right choice wasn’t obvious, and sometimes, there was never a right choice to begin with. We experienced it all too well these past two days.

“We… actually had a bit of a run-in with an infamous villain here… and I don’t even think she’s a bad person anymore.” I shrugged. “She just has to appear as the bad guy to do the right thing.”

We exchanged a glance with Flare and I shrugged.

“Well, shit… I was a dumbass for thinking being a hero would be straight-forward.” She slumped on her chair.

“Hey, if it’s too much for you… you don’t need to force yourself.” I tried to cheer her up.

“I can’t, Chris… I’m scared… I’m scared this city will self-destruct soon. And don’t want to regret not trying to help when that happens.”

“Sally...” I said, my face falling.

“Come on, sis… it’s gonna be fine.” Brock put an arm around her shoulder.

“Yeah, I hope so...” She looked at her brother, sorrow evident in her eyes, before letting out another deep sigh again. “Alright! Enough moping around for now! We have dungeons to conquer!”

“That’s the spirit!” Her brother grinned.

And just like that, Sally was back to her usual self. But even as we raided the dungeons and took down monsters, her outburst worried me. For her cheery self to show this much frustration, she must have had it hard lately. I was worried about their city as well.

----------------------------------------

Having fun, such as playing games with friends, has the mysterious effect of making time go faster. By the time we’d realized it, it had gotten very late, and we couldn’t sleep in since it was school day tomorrow.

With all that said, I certainly didn’t expect Flare’s dad to suggest I spend the night here. What was he trying to do? Not that we were going to do anything but… well, If I was a guy, I bet he would never allow me to sleep in the same room as Flare.

Of course, we wouldn’t be sharing the bed. When her dad threw that idea at us, we both blushed furiously and called him crazy. Luckily, Flare’s mom wasn’t as insane, and in the meantime prepared a mattress for me in Flare’s room. I said the couch would be enough, but she insisted.

But even though we wouldn’t be sleeping in the same bed, it was still a bit embarrassing. Especially since I was wearing Flare’s old pajamas. I briefly imagined it as Flare hugging my entire body, but quickly culled that thought since I was about to combust into flames with how hot my face had gotten.

“So… tomorrow, right?” Flare whispered from underneath her bedsheets.

“Yeah… tomorrow… I’m looking forward to it.” I couldn’t help but smile.

“Me too… ”

I thought back on our previous date -- yes, after long deliberation, I had decided to call it a date in the end -- and it warmed my chest. I remembered it as one of the happiest days of my life.

“Good night, Chris.”

“Good night...”

----------------------------------------

In the morning, I woke up a bit earlier. When I recalled yesterday, I worried my face would split in half with how wide my smile got. I got up making sure to not make too much noise and headed to the bathroom.

On my way back, I bumped into Flare’s mom.

“Oh, you’re up already?”

“Uh, yeah...”

“Did you sleep well, sweetie?” She gave me a motherly smile.

I nodded and smiled back.

“I’m going to go make some breakfast now. Make yourself at home.” She turned to go to the kitchen.

“Can… can I help?” I found the courage to ask.

“Hm?” She turned around and then smiled again. “Of course, you can! Let’s make it together, then.”

I followed her into the kitchen and we began preparing breakfast.

I missed this whole family dynamic. It had been so long since I felt like this. They weren’t really my parents… but, maybe they would be my parents-in-law one day. Yeah, it was alright to think of them like that.

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Eggs and sausages. A slight variation on the standard breakfast of the old me. But it didn’t matter. Not when I got to be in the company of such welcoming people. Sure, I was used to quiet mornings, eating breakfast on my own. I didn’t mind this at all, though. Quite the opposite, watching my new girlfriend happily eat food I’d helped to prepare warmed my heart.

With breakfast done, Flare and I headed to the bus station… together… while holding hands. Oh my god. How presumptuous of me to ever consider myself happy before this moment. I had no idea what happiness was until now. Sure, being a girl was great. But being a girl, holding hands with my girlfriend, and huddling under the same umbrella? I was pretty sure I’d broken some kind of universal law about the upper limit of happiness.

The other passengers on the bus could stare all they wanted. Nothing would stop me from cuddling close to Flare.

“Oh hey… we got another message from the Robin Hoot Brothers,” Flare said, showing me her phone. “They really wanna meet...”

I frowned at the rude interruption of my bliss and read the message. It wasn’t from their shared account but from Goosebomb, the older of the brothers. The message was once again insisting that we meet, this time saying that there was something urgent he needed to discuss with us.

Extremely suspicious.

We’d never met, what did he need to urgently discuss with us? I couldn’t help but feel like the meeting would be a trap of some kind. Had Dragon Maw gotten their claws on the brothers? Were they using them to bait us out now?

Anyway, no. It was Thursday; Lightshow had said it would still be bad to go out today. Not to mention it was still raining. Even ignoring potential problems for Flare, if Tsunami were to ambush us, she would literally have an omnipresent weapon. I was not going to risk this.

“So what do you think?”

“Nope. Super suspicious… and more importantly, we’re going on a date today, so no meeting with them today.” I had my priorities straight.

“Right! Yup, just gonna tell him we’re still too busy.” Flare tapped out a reply and then put her phone away.

We arrived at our stop way too soon. Not enough time immersing myself in the cuddles with my eyes closed. Ugh, now I had to open my eyes to see where I was going while cuddling her.

“Um, Chris...”

“Yeah?”

“Everyone’s gonna see us...”

“... Let them...”

It didn’t matter, did it? I already drew attention because I was trans and it wasn’t like we needed to keep our relationship secret.

“O-okay...”

Uh, wait. I didn’t mind the attention, but was Flare alright with it?

“Does it make you uncomfortable?” I separated from her.

“What? No...! Um, maybe a little bit? It’s okay, though!” She wrapped her arm around me and dragged me closer.

I smiled and we kept walking.

Honestly, it was quite cute seeing Flare get so flustered. She was usually super cheerful and confident. She was the one who was supposed to make me flustered. It was cute seeing this side of her.

But there were still the stares. And since Flare wasn’t totally comfortable with them, I made sure to glare back at anyone who stared too much. My girl, ogle someone else.

Unfortunately, not even my death glare could defeat the strongest opponent, the school bell. The villain ambushed us when we were having the most fun and took away my girl, forcing me to go through several trials, also called classes, to get her back.

It was a complete reversal of yesterday. The classes seemed to be dragging on forever.

First, Starstorm Studies. Ms. Folly kept asking dumb questions like ‘Which of the six hybrid types are the most common?’ Fae and Tara were the most common, what a dumb question! Everyone knew that!

Okay… maybe I needed to calm down. I was being impatient. Separated from Flare for a few minutes and I already wanted to be with her again. Oh jeez, that’s what it meant to be in love, huh? Yup, I loved her, and I didn’t feel ashamed whatsoever.

After one and a half forevers, the class ended and it was time for Biology class, which I shared with Flare. This one, for some reason, went by infinitely quicker. I barely even remembered what had happened during it.

Following that, Physics. Just like Starstorm Studies, it dragged on forever. What the heck? Was someone messing up with my perception of time? A malicious hybrid? Had Dragon Maw found me? No, it was Flare herself. I just wanted to be with her. But this stupid school thing insisted on separating us.

After physics finally ended, it was time for lunch. I did my best to make up for all the Flareless time in class and cuddled close to her. I did not care about the other girls’ reactions.

“Sooo...” Michelle’s eyes flicked from the awkwardly smiling Flare to my figure tightly hugging her even as we sat down to eat. “Care to explain?”

“We’re… dating now?”

The two girls seated opposite of us looked at my content face, then back at Flare. “I never thought I would live to see the day when a silly school rumor was actually true...” Michelle had a blank expression on her face.

“Uh, rumors?”

“Yeah, everyone was talking about you two being a thing.”

“I guess we weren’t exactly trying to hide it, huh?” Flare looked at me with a wry smile.

“Nope...” I hugged her tighter.

“So how did this even happen? I thought you were just friends?”

“Yeah, we were… and then Chris confessed to me yesterday.”

Being reminded of that horribly embarrassing event made me blush and hide my face in Flare’s side.

“What the heck? Just like that? That works?”

“Apparently...” I mumbled.

“Damn, Chris… you’ve been getting bolder and bolder every day. Soon, you’ll be the harem protagonist everyone deserves.” Michelle smirked at me.

I stuck my tongue out at her. No harem; Flare is enough.

“Sooo, what does a superhero couple do after school? Are you gonna kick villain butts while kissing?”

Imagining that made me grin.

“Uh, not really. We just wanted to go on a date today. No heroing.”

“How boring! You’re supposed to be like... super busy fawning over each other while kicking villain butt as an afterthought! And then be like, oh, we didn’t even notice you there! Sorry!”

“Well, we won’t! We’re gonna go on a date like normal people!”

“What a waste of potential...”

The conversation continued as we ate our lunch. Elsie hadn’t said a word the whole time, but had kept glancing our way for some reason. She’d seemed bothered by something. Was she still comparing herself to me? I hoped not; maybe I should talk to her about it. Lately, I’d found that simply talking it out could do wonders.

After lunch, it was time for math. Once again, time seemed to slow down to a crawl in the accursed Flareless space. It took a lot of patience and determination to survive the purgatory.

The final class of the day was PE. Incidentally, I’d been moved to a special class for physically enhanced hybrids, even though I wasn’t one officially. I wondered what such class would be like.

When I entered the changing room, things got a little weird. Nobody looked at me straight. Everyone just whispered to one another and only snuck glances at me. I wasn’t thrown out by these girls, unlike the ones in the regular class, but I still didn’t feel very comfortable there.

I quickly finished changing and escaped into the gym. I wasn’t sure whether that was better.

The only hybrids who always get stronger no matter what their power is are Wul and Tara hybrids. And since Tara hybrids are often too aggressive to be allowed to roam free, this classroom was pretty much filled with just Wul hybrids with a few exceptions.

I was like a cat thrown into a pit full of dogs, great.

The teacher eventually blew on his whistle to gather everyone’s attention and looked us over as we approached him.

“Alright, class. We have a new addition to our roster.” He nodded in my direction. “Christina Dash, apparently not a hybrid, but got enhanced by one on accident, or so the records say.” He narrowed his eyes.

“Uh, yeah.” I looked around nervously.

“Well, that’s that. Do a few laps and some stretches, today we’re playing dodgeball.”

A choir of affirmation resounded in the gym. I didn’t argue either, and did some stretches before I began running along with everyone else. I soon found out that running had a different meaning in this class.

“Out of my way, freak!” said some guy with gray wolf ears and tail as he pushed me out of the way.

I managed to avoid falling and kept running, glaring at the guy. Why was he calling me a freak now? Everyone was a hybrid here; it must have been because I was trans.

For an instant, I wanted to drop to all fours and run as I always did as Ink, but stopped myself. I wasn’t supposed to actually be a hybrid, I had to keep running like a normal person. Luckily, I was still pretty quick even when running upright.

He never had a chance. I passed by him without giving him an opportunity to push me again. It felt great.

But he wasn’t the only one who apparently didn’t like me. As I attempted to run past some girl with stony-looking wings, she stretched them out and hit me with them. I was prepared this time, though. I grabbed onto them and swung myself around and across the girl. I briefly turned around and poked my tongue at her before continuing to run. She wasn’t happy about it.

I noticed several other skirmishes among the students. The teacher said nothing. What the heck? Was this a common occurrence? Were we supposed to shove and hit each other as we ran?

The whistle resounded once again. “Alright class, time for some dodgeball,” the teacher said, before tossing a basketball into the air.

Before the ball even hit the ground, something yellow and fluffy jumped at it, and grabbed it out of the air with a somersault, swinging its fox-like tail around. Upon landing, the girl with fox features looked straight at me and grinned.

The basketball turned into a cannonball as it flew right at me, but I managed to dodge just in time. If I wasn’t a Felice hybrid, I would have probably been knocked out cold. That wasn’t the end of it, though. When I turned around, I saw the girl with silver hair and stony wings already winding up with the ball in her hands.

I dodged that one too, and I was immediately glad I did. The ball hit the ground and made a loud cracking sound. As it bounced off, it revealed circular cracks in the floor surrounding the ball’s landing spot.

The teacher whistled again. “Kate! No use of powers!”

“Sorry! It just kind of happened!” The winged girl didn’t look sorry at all.

The teacher shook his head. “You’re disqualified for the round. Come sit down.”

She looked annoyed but complied anyway. As she sat down, another student finished repairing the floor with their powers and the teacher blew on his whistle again to restart the game.

The assault continued. It seemed like everyone was determined to knock out the new girl first. I, on the other hand, was determined to perfectly dodge everything they threw at me. And hey, it sort of served as training for my hero activities. Better to get hit by a basketball than, let’s say, Plasmoid’s energy discs.

But simply dodging wouldn’t get me anywhere. Since everyone seemed to be focusing on me, I needed to go on the offensive as well. Since I was only dodging up till now, that guy with floppy ears on his head didn’t see it coming. I caught the ball, spun around, and nailed his leg with it.

The game continued. Other than me, there were no other Felice hybrids, so I was by far the quickest player. And in a game of dodgeball, speed and reflexes were everything. Dang, was I a filthy cheater even here?

Another one down. Only me, the yellow fox girl, the gray wolf guy who’d pushed me, and two more people left.

“Hey, teach! He’s cheating! I can smell it!” said the gray wolf guy.

Being called ‘he’ made me cringe. I glared at him but didn’t say anything.

“If she is, then it’s impossible to tell. No hybrid form, no obvious powers.” The teacher shrugged.

The guy growled in response. The game continued, although it didn’t last very long from then on. I made sure to pay the rude guy back by hitting him in a vulnerable area. It was totally by accident, though, I swear, teach. I wasn’t angry with him for misgendering me or just grumpy in general because I couldn’t be with Flare. Nope, not at all.

So in the end, I won. Since I stayed in my human form and didn’t use my powers, I would say that I didn’t even cheat. Or rather, everyone else cheated! Why had it turned into me versus everyone else? Was it because I was new?

A whistle pulled me out of my thoughts again. “Alright then. Congratz, new girl, didn’t expect that.” He grinned at me. “It’s almost as if you were a Felice hybrid or something. But hey, you’re not, so it’s all fine.”

Damn it, he knew. I was an idiot. I should have let myself lose at some point. A puny human beating several hybrids in dodgeball stood out too much.

“Alright, next round! You know the drill. Hybrid forms are now allowed, powers are still banned,” he explained and blew on his whistle.

Well, dang. I wasn’t about to use my hybrid form, which meant that I would be disadvantaged for this round. That was fine; at least there would be more of a challenge. Or actually… should I lose on purpose this time? I already stood out by winning the first round. Yup, let’s get hit on purpose at some point.

The game started… and I soon realized that getting hit on purpose would be a very bad idea. I had no idea what the teacher was thinking, letting them loose like this. In game one, getting hit would hurt, and maybe leave some bruising, but now, it genuinely seemed dangerous, even with my reinforced body. Sure, I could heal myself with my power, but I wasn’t going to show it off. And I didn’t want to spend my afternoon in the infirmary; I had a date to attend to!

They left me no choice but to win.