“Tonight was fun, Drew. Thanks for taking me out.”
Drew gave her a sidelong glance, and his lips turned up in a rare, genuine smile. “It’s nothing. Even heroes like you need to go out sometimes, right?”
“I go out!” May pouted. “It’s just that it’s a little more … dangerous to that now, you know? Creepers and all.”
He snorted. “You could just crush them with that superhuman strength of yours, couldn't you?”
“No, that would make me a criminal!” she said, slapping him lightly on the arm. (And even that was enough to make the boy wince.) “If I did that, then there’s no way I’d be able to join the gods.”
May turned her eyes to the sky, sighing lightly. “Honestly though, I wish that tonight would never end.”
“You like me that much, huh? I’m kind of flattered, Wonder Girl.”
Oh Zeus, she had said that out loud? “I–er, uh, well you see–”
“But you know, those friends of yours have been training really hard,” Drew commented, suddenly changing the topic. “They must be trying use that brute strength of yours to make up for your weaknesses.”
Weaknesses? May tilted her head. “What do you mean?” And where did that come from?
Drew shrugged. “Everyone has them, right? It’s not like you’re invincible.”
“I’m not,” May affirmed. “Not yet, at least.” That was kind of the whole point of the ‘god’ thing. But was being immortal the same as being invincible? It totally makes sense, right? When she became a god, she wouldn’t die–
“So what is it?”
May’s field of vision was filled with green. She jumped back with a surprised yelp. “S-sorry, Drew! What was that?”
“What makes you weak, Wonder Girl?”
She was tempted to say his name, but decided against her better judgment.
“I don’t know,” she answered, shaking her head. “I’ve won all my battles. And I’ve never been too badly injured by an opponent.”
“Oh?” Drew’s eyes narrowed, and in the moonlight they seemed to glow with an intense aura that kept May rooted in her seat. Something had changed, she knew. He was different. More … calculative.
“There’s really nothing?” he asked, staring straight into her eyes, leaning in so that their foreheads were touching. May’s breath hitched as she felt his warmed her lips, and she swallowed nervously. “No–” she bristled as their knees touched, “–weak ankles?”
“N-no,” she murmured, swallowing thickly. “Drew, what the heck are you doing? You’re never this cool–”
“–no trick knee?” His voice was low and alluring, and the way his fingers traced along the bare skin of her thigh sent shivers down her spine. She shook her head, finding it hard to speak.
Drew hummed, looking a little displeased. His fingers left her legs, dancing up her side and skirting around her back. He gripped and tugged, pulling her body closer to his. “No ruptured disks,” he continued, “no jacked up ribs?”
“N-no.” She shook her head and gently pushed him away, breaking free from her trance. “No! Drew, really, what’s wrong with you? Did you eat something bad at the restaurant?”
“You don’t even have crooked teeth,” he murmured, pulling back. With a sigh, he turned to her again, this time looking like the Drew she was familiar with. “Wonder Girl, you might just be perfect. Annoyingly perfect.”
She sighed. “Drew, I’m not perfect! I have my flaws, too.”
“I can’t see them.”
“That’s because you don’t know me well!” she pointed out, blushing at the indirect compliment. “If you got to know me some more, I’m sure you’d find some sort of weakness.”
Her exclamation was met with a laugh. “I don’t think so, Wonder Girl. Getting to know people involves trusting other people. I don’t trust anyone.”
“Why–”
“Because it’s much easier to push people away than to rely on them,” he stated simply. “They can’t hurt you that way.”
May bit her lip, choosing what she wanted to say. “You know, when I was a little girl, no one liked me.”
A single eyebrow arched. “I don’t recall asking for story time.”
“Shut up and listen to me,” she commanded, placing her hands on her hips. “I have a purpose to this. Anyways, no one liked me, and more often than not I brought my adoptive parents more trouble than good. And I hated that. There was nothing more I wanted than to be like everyone else.”
“So you wanted to be mean and dishonest.”
“Normal.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’re not like those things, Drew.”
His eyebrow arched even higher.
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, you can be kind of mean sometimes, but that’s beside the point. What I’m getting to is that, when I’m with you–”
Drew’s eyes widened. He rose quickly, placing his hand over her mouth. “May, don’t.”
She pried it off her face. “Why? Drew, you’re one of the meanest, most amazing people I’ve ever met. And when I’m with you, this whole hero thing doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t hate my strength; I don’t hate me. With you, I’m okay with being different.”
The boy shook his head, and his eyes narrowed as a painful emotion crossed his face. “I don’t deserve these words, May.”
“Drew.” May took a deep breath. Finally, she was going to tell him. “I really, really–”
He covered her mouth again. “May, please, don’t. We need to stop this. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“But you’d never hurt me.” Drew would have laughed at her muffled voice had the situation been different. He had never meant to fall for her–this loud, naive, and pure heroine; he wasn’t supposed to. She didn’t know it, but he was the enemy.
And yet …
“Drew, I know you better than you think.” Her voice brought him out of his reverie. “You may be a jerk sometimes, but I know you’d never hurt me.”
“And I don’t want to,” he responded honestly, cupping her face in the palm of his hand. “So please, just–”
“I refuse.” She stood on the tips of her toes, closing the distance between them. “I’m not giving you the choice to run away from me.”
Drew blinked, wide-eyed; then, with a sigh, gave her a resigned smile. “I guess I have no choice, then. You’d clobber me with that fist of yours if I didn’t.”
She fake-gasped. “Don’t be mean.”
“I thought you liked that about me,” he responded smoothly, coming in close. His lips turned up in a smirk. “What else do you like about me, Wonder Girl?”
“I, uh … uh …” May felt her entire face flush a deep crimson as his face hovered above hers. In her book “Drew”, “smooth,” and “suave” were things that didn’t quite go together, and she wasn’t quite sure how to react–so she just stared up at him with wide eyes.
His face came closer and she responded in kind, letting her eyes flutter shut and her arms wrap around his neck. Her heart rammed against her ribcage. Just as his lips grazed against hers–
“May, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
May pulled back to see her black-haired friend rushing towards them, waving frantically and excitedly.
“Oh, hey, Drew’s here too!”
Damn it, Ash.
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