#smokesignals

“Nah, good way. Mostly reporting on the people you protected from those drones downtown. Got an interview with a kid.” She looked down at her tray of school lunch. “Eugh, carrots today.”

Bella silently handed her a sprig of grapes from her bag. She nodded. “Press loves kids.”

Quinn hummed in acknowledgment.

“Hey, listen, that’s good news, better than most of the press we’ve been getting,” offered Bella.

Quinn frowned, pulling his sandwich out of the plastic bag. “Screw what the press says. We’re helping people, that’s what matters.”

“Yeah, we know that, but certain dicks in high positions in the paper don’t agree.” said Kira, stabbing her spoon in the air.

Quinn swallowed his bite. “I know you know, it’s just... frustrating.”

Kira straightened up suddenly. “Yo, Lou incoming, let’s ix-nay on the uperhero-say.”

“You are so unsubtle it’s not even funny.”

“Yeah, but you love me anyway.”

"Guys," Lou announced, slamming his tray onto the table. "I think I'm in love."

Everyone paused. Quinn took a particularly aggressive bite of his sandwich.

"Is that right?" Kira said, placing her chin on her hand. "Do tell." She popped a grape in her mouth.

"With who?" Bella asked, unwrapping the tinfoil from her muffin.

"Signal."

Quinn choked on his bite.

"Signal? Like, local superhero Signal? Like green rollerblade bitch Signal?" said Kira inrcedulously, ignoring Quinn's coughing fit.

"Woah, you alright, Quinn?" asked Lou, patting him on the back a couple times.

"Fine," Quinn croaked. "Just swallowed wrong," he continued, pointedly avoiding Kira's delighted expression as he took a sip from his beat-up red water bottle.

"And, uh, yeah, what other Signals do you know?" continued Lou. "He's not a bitch, though."

"What exactly brought this on?" asked Bella tentatively, scrunching the tinfoil between her fingers.

"And what makes it different from your regular superhero fanboying?" added Kira.

"Okay, A: rude, but you got me there, and B: I just—"

"Why are we talking about this again?" said Quinn, rubbing his face, his shoulders tense.

"Don't be a killjoy, Q, let the man talk about his crush," cooed Kira, with the same caught-canary smirk on her face.

Quinn glared at her and tore off another bite with his teeth.

"As I was saying: you know the recent robot attacks? I got caught in one of those, on Breckenridge street near the 7-11. They were just swarming everywhere, divebombing like crazy. It was scary, honestly. But then—"

Quinn let his head drop to the table. Lou paid him no mind, continuing his story with wild gesticulation.

"Signal comes crashing in, with all his swords swirling around, and slices one that was diving towards me! He's just— so cool. He's agile, too, and fast on those skates— he could just weave right through em, and soon they just gave up and lifted off. And— listen. I swear. I swear he made eye contact as he was kicking those robots to shit. It was magical."

"Fancy sword tricks don't make someone a good crush," said Quinn, slightly muffled.

"He's not too bad to look at, either," said Kira. "If you like the whole Christmas color scheme thing and the mask."

"Please stop talking."

"Okay, no, yes, he is hot and the sword tricks are very cool, but he's— he's kind, too. After the wave subsided I saw him go and talk to everyone who was out on the street, help them up, offer to walk them home. He made this cat to dance around to make a little kid laugh."

Bella and Kira looked at Quinn, who had since unstuck his face from the table and was looking intently at the scratches on his water bottle, red-faced.

"Okay, snarky comment rescinded, he does seem pretty cool," said Kira.

"Glad you're seeing the light," Lou said, happily spearing pasta off of his tray.

"I just don't think it's a good idea to put this guy on a pedestal. You don't know him, what if he, like... hates chocolate or something?" said Quinn.

"I can give up brownies," Lou said. "For true love,"

"You're just setting yourself up for disappointment.”

"Whoah, don't get jealous there, Q," said Kira.

"I am not jealous of—" Quinn started, whacking his sandwich onto the table. "of— anyone. I am not jealous."

"I'm just saying, just because Signal saved Lou and not you doesn't mean you have to get snippy."

"Kira—"

"I am not snippy," Quinn said. "Okay, actually, I just remembered I need to go study for my math quiz," he said, piling his stuff onto into his lunchbox and slinging on his backpack. "I'm gonna go to the library. This has been great, see you later."

The three watched him go.

"Must be weird," Kira muttered to Bella. "Being jealous of yourself." Bella fixed her with a ‘not so loud’ look.

"I thought he was studying yesterday?" said Lou.

Bella and Kira exchanged a look. ‘Studying’ was Quinn’s go-to excuse for hero activities.

“He left his orange, too,” Lou said, picking up the offending fruit.

“Eh, he’ll survive. He’s not so close to scurvy yet,” Kira said with a shrug.

“He usually gives ‘em to you, anyways,” Bella pointed out. “You can probably have it.”

“Right,” Lou said, frowning. “He seems kinda stressed out about this test.”

“Maybe we could do a study group for the next test? I usually understand stuff better when I can talk it out with people,” Bella said.

"We can ask him about it after school," Kira said, a light in her eyes that said 'I am going to tease the hell out Quinn about this for the foreseeable future'.