Chương 82: R&R2 Ch. 21 — Quick Conversations

Nicholas opened the door to their rooms, glad to see that Rend was nowhere to be seen. After several consecutive days on the job, he wasn't in the mood to deal with their mentor, and he wanted nothing more but to sleep. But first they had to go over everything, and more than that, Jasmine certainly wanted them to go over what Twister had told them a few days ago.

None of the information she had shared had been a surprise to Nicholas, but it had sent Jasmine reeling, and it had led to them hanging out with Twister more. He wasn't against it, but it was weird adding another person to their team, and as competent as Twister was, it was clear she was used to working in a larger group and had then started making the transition to be a solo hero. Though from what he knew about her, he couldn't blame her for making the transition to solo, he would have done the same.

Nicholas went to his room and left the door open for Jasmine to follow him. Once she shut the door behind herself, he turned to face her." Conceal" He had come a long way from how that word used to work, last time he used it, he had passed out right then and there. Now? Barely a blip on his radar, it was an easy enough word to use, and the foundation had been solid. He had no qualms completing how it was instead of working on it with his visualization.

"I can't believe you just went out and said Twister was your friend. Do you know how long that took me?" Jasmine complained, flopping onto his bed. That hadn't been what Nicholas had been expecting. He knew she'd been surprised when he said it, but to have it hang over her for days?

"That's what you wanted to talk about?" Nicholas asked just to make sure he understood what was going on.

"No, I just wanted to lodge a complaint with our HR department about this," Jasmine said, sitting up and cuddling his pillow to her chest as she thought.

"I will let him know about your complaint and how to make it up to you," Nicholas allowed. He couldn't see what the problem was, but if it was something that had hung over Jasmine like this for a while, it was worth thinking through when he had time. And he would make time for it.

"Good, but no, I wanted to talk about her losing her friends. That's messed up." Nicholas could agree with that.

"It's not surprising given what we know, but yeah, it sucks."

"I didn't say it was surprising; according to my family, it happens often enough. Someone either goes to the local academy with their friends or went there because they weren't so sure about this whole hero thing. Fall in love with power or want to go hero, so that means they need to travel, push harder, and work more often, and the team doesn't want to coast in the safe lane and retire early."

According to Twister, nearly everyone on the team had decided that they would stay here in this city and take a different train going back instead of even riding the one they had arrived in for a full loop. They wanted to stay in the safe lane, and it definitely was safer to just wait for someone on a different loop. Nicholas didn't believe in them so much that he thought they would succeed, but it wasn't faulty logic.

Twister and the few remaining members had dissolved the team for a reason Twister hadn't wanted to get into. Though Nicholas wasn't shocked Constellation was part of the group staying on the train, he couldn't prove anything, but something about the spatial manipulator was pissing off his bullshit detector.

"Could we ask Rend to let her join us?" Jasmine asked. Nicholas really didn't want to share his space with anymore people. Jasmine was actually a great roommate, all things considered, but Rend was not. And the idea of adding a fourth to their space made his skin crawl.

"Not like we need to ask Rend for permission, we're full members and could just bring her in on our own with a majority, he could kick her out anyway but if he did we could just leave, it's not that complicated and he would see through it." Nicholas said instead. He wasn't going to get what he wanted anyway, especially from Jasmine's mood, from what he could tell, so time to just compromise, and if it ended up pissing off their mentor, all the better.

"You really spend every moment you can find a way to piss off Rend, don't you?" Jasmine laughed.

"I try my best for sure," Nicholas agreed.

"But why do you say that when your first thought about the idea was revulsion?" Nicholas hated how good Jasmine was at reading his moods. Worse than that, he was tired of forgetting she could do that. Yeah, he could do the same thing with their soul bond, but it wasn't like he did it nearly as often. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"I'm just not good with people, that's all, and I don't want to add someone to our space that I barely know, which aren't good reasons to stop us from helping, so I kept them quiet." Nicholas said, looking down at the floor. Pretending to be intensely curious about what the pattern of the carpet was. Jasmine nodded, not saying anything for a long moment.

"Well, we probably couldn't move cars on the train till the next stop anyway, and the base is big enough we don't need to worry about our space, right?" Nicholas jerked his head up to see Jasmine offering him a shy smile.

"Yeah, that works," Nicholas nodded. If she was trying to meet him halfway, he could do the same. Another week or two to learn more about Twister and get used to her before she was going to join their living quarters. He could take it. And there really was no reason for him to refuse her joining the overall team. There were several levels to teams; there were small-scale teams like his and Jasmine's.

They were a duo, and for most missions, they were treated as one individual for deployment and being called to do stuff. Then there was the step above that. Rend's Renegades counted at that level even if they only had three people. A group of supers under one banner and would often do big jobs together, and individual weaker jobs however they saw fit. And then there was the step above that, which was more or less superhero unions led by the Pinnacles.

Those were the people who handled dealing with waves and everything else. And was part of the problem supers had such a hard time traveling. The stronger you got, the more valuable you were to the Pinnacle you were under. That wasn't something they needed to worry about for a while still, but once they hit B or A rank, it was going to be a problem.

"I'll text Twister, and then Rend," Jasmine said, nodding.

"Thanks," Nicholas said, fighting off a yawn. He was exhausted, but he certainly wasn't going to be able to sleep soon. The most important reason for that being that they were supposed to hang out tonight for another at-home date. The schedule they had agreed on was to do two dates in every city, and with the demon thing taking up so much time and the cleanup taking up even more, they had run out of time to go places and do things. Jasmine patted the side of his bed as she pulled out her book.

"We can do this in the front room," Nicholas pointed out, grabbing his laptop and setting it up anyway. He didn't want to leave his room; it was his sanctuary, but he was compelled to make the argument.

"Yeah, we could, but we're here now and we're both exhausted, so why move? You hide snacks and drinks in your room anyway." Jasmine said as the show they'd been half-watching started playing. Nicholas had begun getting invested in it and had switched from the puzzle games he was usually playing to something he could ignore while watching. Nicholas's bed was wide enough for the two of them to sit side by side without them worrying about falling off, but only just.

It wasn't uncomfortable; he had sat next to Jasmine multiple times before, but it was still something distracting him. There was also the motion coming from their bond; he truly didn't understand. It wasn't a negative emotion; he could tell that much, but it wasn't the same as the normal concern that spilled across the bond like ink when they were done for the day.

"You good?"

"Just realized that despite being bound to your soul and dating you, there's a ton I don't know about you. I know your powers, I know your dream, but beyond that? I don't know." Jasmine shrugged, not turning away from her book. She also hadn't turned a page in several minutes. Which was fair; it wasn't like Nicholas had made any progress on the level he was working on either.

"Yeah, there's a lot we don't know, but I don't mind." Nicholas shrugged. If he had wanted to, he could have asked Jasmine questions and tried to assuage her worries, but she would likely know he was doing it solely for her benefit, not his own.

"Why?"

"Your soul is linked to mine, and even before that, I trusted you with the only thing I was focused on for years. What's details about how I lived compared to that? And if we go all the way, we'll be alive for a long time, so what's the harm in taking it slow? You'll be there always. I trust that."

"You know that's surprisingly romantic for someone like you," Jasmine teased, elbowing him lightly.

"What are you falling in love with me?" Nicholas asked with the same tone. Nicholas didn't try to process the wave of emotions that rolled through the bond. His emotions and hers would blend into something neither could comprehend. But something would be obvious.

"Unfortunate," Nicholas said before turning his attention back to his game. He knew what her response was going to be, but it had still sucked.

"What? Why is that unfortunate?" Jasmine asked, poking him. Nicholas glanced back up, looking at her, studying her features as he picked the right words for this moment. There was really only one appropriate answer here.

"It's unfortunate, because while I can't be certain having not done this whole thing before, I'm pretty sure I'm falling for you."

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed." Nicholas agreed.

"I'm sorry," Jasmine whispered. Nicholas forcibly poured his emotions down the bond.

"Why? I don't care if you fall for me or not; I went into this eyes wide open. I'm just happy with us being friends and hanging out like this, okay?" Jasmine nodded before matching his own emotions with hers. Broadly Nicholas would say they're feeling more or less the same emotions right now. Embarrassment, confusion, comfort, joy, exhaustion, contentment. But the flavors were different. Their emotions were just as different as they were.

"You really don't mind."

"Flip it around for a second. You're the one catching feelings, and I say I haven't yet. What is your thought?"

"Oh god, I'm going to romance this guy so hard so he can't live without me?"

"Jasmine?"

"Yes, sometimes I'm really concerned about what's going on in that head of yours." Nicholas finally says. Jasmine laughed at him.

"But really don't have a problem with it. This is all new for me, so I'm taking it slow, and if nothing happens, nothing happens."

"So, are you going to try and seduce me?"

"No, I'm just going to continue the way we've always had because that's what I enjoy," Nicholas said, settling back down. The hard conversation was done, so he didn't have to worry about it anymore. Jasmine settled back down, leaning against Nicholas, both of them watching the show instead of trying to read or play games, respectively.

"I know you didn't have to, so I wanted to say thank you for telling me," Jasmine said, resting her head against Nicholas.

"I thought you were going to say omnomnom," Nicholas said, fighting off a yawn.