1.36 – Coming clean

Nathan couldn’t believe his eyes. Only a few days after he added several students from a few classes alongside a few heroes, his app was actually being downloaded by people across the city.

Not many had downloaded so far, only the few businesses he managed to approach alongside Aiko, Alicia, and Minato. Among the few that did, there were two cases where the heroes were called on already. Neither of the tasks were anything too difficult. It was mostly menial tasks that needed someone with more strength than a normal human would have, but still, for the first time, Nathan’s bank account, or well, money maker account, ticked up.

It wasn’t from a quest this time around. If he could get this ball rolling, he already saw how potent it could be for his power.

Now he stood in front of Ako Academy, his Monday duel over, and he wondered what exactly he should do today. He could approach more of the business owners in the town. It would quite possibly increase his income, after all. He was getting pennies from each commission, but if there were a lot of them, then eventually he would be generating really passive income each and every single day.

But then again, he hadn’t rested that well for several weeks already. Unless he counted recovering in the hospital, which honestly wasn’t as bad as hospitals sounded. The private hospital of SHRA agency was way nicer than any other he ever visited, but still he didn’t just relax for a while.

“What are you standing around for, Nathan? Are you coming to the car or not?” Alicia suddenly appeared behind him, tapping his bag as she walked around, heading straight towards her car.

“I was actually just thinking that I didn’t relax for a while.”

“Relax? What, are you an old man?” She stopped, sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “Though I kind of get it, you’ve been through a lot.”

“So have you. Don’t you feel like you need some time off?”

“Hey man, I wasn’t the one that had half of his rib cage broken and his skull cracked. It seriously wasn’t as bad for me.”

Nathan nodded, thinking. He still didn’t ask about the kiss, and he was actually starting to grow frustrated at himself for being such a wimp. Why was he so afraid? If Alicia didn’t mean anything much by it, then she didn’t mean anything much by it, and if she did, then he needed to know. What could he possibly lose by asking?

But not here in front of the school. They really needed to talk, and despite living together back at home, it felt a bit too strange to do it there.

No, he knew what he had to do. Despite his lack of having a girlfriend experience, he did know how to talk to girls his age and knew how to create the atmosphere that he wanted

“That’s true, I guess. Anyway, wanna go somewhere? “

“Somewhere?” She cocked her eyebrows. “And where is this somewhere, exactly?”

“I don’t know. Karaoke? I have never done that in my life and you keep mentioning it.”

“Hm, it’s fun actually. We could do that, sure. Do I call Minato and Aiko? I think they mentioned that they wanted to go as well.”

“No, I just want the two of us to go, Alicia.” He gave her a genuine smile.

She stopped for a moment, lips parted, as his words processed behind her eyes, and then she blushed slightly, her voice lacking the confident energy it carried most of the time. “Okay, we can do that.”

“Good. Know any good places?”

“Sure, hop on in; I’ll drive us to a good one,” she said, turning sharply, and then she headed back towards her car, not stopping to glance whether Nathan was following.

How cute.

Back when he appeared here in Tokyo, he promised himself to make the best out of this life, make friends, and do better than in his last life. Now Alicia was more than a friend, and although he wasn’t sure whether he wanted her to be more exactly, he knew one thing: this abashness of hers, while cute, was a product of other things in her head.

He didn’t know the full picture still.

Back in My Superhero Life, she turned evil, but she was anything but that here.

By his estimations, it was because of how she made friends with Nathan at her side, but her background, unlike Vermillion Strike’s, didn’t seem to change much.

While he didn’t understand this background completely, he had enough clues to put the puzzle pieces together: a dad with several children with different mothers, trying to impress him but failing against her siblings.

It was clear enough for him she needed confidence, and he would do whatever it took to help her with that. But to be confident, she needed her mind to be clear, at least if she was anything like him.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it’s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

——————–

Despite his former proclamation, now that he sat in the small karaoke booth waiting for the waitress to bring him his French fries and the burger he ordered, he felt like the words simply weren’t coming. Alicia sat opposite of him, looking at her hands as if she felt exactly the same cocktail of emotions that he did.

What was she so afraid of? Honestly, Nathan didn’t understand it.

From his perspective, she was a beautiful woman that had a bright future ahead of her. Yes, she came from a rich family that didn’t seem to appreciate her for what she was, but despite that, she had enough qualities that Nathan was sure she would be able to make her place in the world, superhero or not. But Nathan was a bum living at her place, and although he wasn’t ugly, he didn’t think of himself as the most attractive person around. And as far as Alicia knew, his powers were mediocre at best.

He hid this fact about the true source of his power from her this whole time. He wanted to surprise her, wanted to see the shock on her face when he used a new power she had never seen before, but now he needed an icebreaker and he didn’t feel like holding this secret to his chest any longer.

“Alicia, I have a confession to make first.”

She jerked, her hands stopping, and she raised her eyes. “Yes?”