Out of a Clear Blue Sky

by cynicallypink

Raging hormones are bad enough news when there aren't any superpowers involved.

It was so annoying she could hardly stand it. Tiger retired, and she found herself watching Sky High all the time instead. It wasn't like she just forgot about Tiger, that was the worst part. She still missed him all the time, and she still kept asking if any of the others had heard from him, and they still tried, thought clearly not very hard, not to laugh openly at her about it.

But apparently she couldn't stop herself from watching Sky High's arms while he was on the weight machines, or staring at his ass while he was running, or the way his shirt kind of stuck to his back and chest when he got all sweaty, and to make matters worse he was so annoying. Worse than Tiger had ever been! He repeated himself, and he talked like a PSA all the time, and he was such a boy scout. Tiger believed all that stuff about justice and niceness and helping people, too - not that Karina didn't, but she didn't talk about it all the time - but it was all balanced out by him being such a slob, and a klutz, and a dork, while Sky High was just annoyingly good-looking and perfect at everything, and his hair was always perfect even when he'd been working out for hours, and he practically had dimples.

"Would it kill you to take things seriously?"

"Stop humming, I hate that song!"

"Did you take my water?"

Ms. Rose had become much, much crankier over the past few months. At least, that was how it seemed to Keith. No one else seemed to have noticed anything wrong.

"Ugh, stop doing that! You don't need to repeat everything twice!"

"Sorry," Keith said, "I apologize. I didn't realize I was doing it."

"Argh!"

She stomped past him, her ponytail bouncing, and Keith guiltily looked away. He didn't know what he'd done to annoy her, but nothing he did seemed to make up for it. Fire Emblem had just said she was "at a difficult age," whatever that meant. Then he'd asked why Keith was asking, and Keith had tried to change the subject, because he didn't want to seem to badmouth her.

He tried not to watch her in the gym, but somehow she always seemed to end up near him, and then he'd find it hard not to watch her, which was very distracting. "Why are you always here?" she demanded one time, after she'd picked the treadmill close to his.

"I was... here," he said. "Already. Before you got here." This seemed very unfair, to him, not that he would accuse her of anything.

"That's what I mean. You're always in the training center!"

"Intensive training is vital to success as a hero!" he said brightly. Physical strength helped him control his powers, and he needed it to maintain control while flying, even if he rarely struck an opponent physically. She just snorted derisively, so maybe he should have tried the more detailed version, he thought. But sometimes his explanations got a little scattered and he had a hard time explaining things.

Especially when he was talking to her, for some reason. He'd find himself staring at her lips, or... well, he had a hard time concentrating when he talked to her, anyway. Especially when she wore a tank top for some reason. He'd never been very good at talking to pretty girls, and she was extremely pretty. Prettier when she smiled, which she never seemed to do around him anymore, but even when she was mad at him.

They might be rivals, but they sometimes needed to work together, so tensions between the heroes could be detrimental to saving lives and stopping criminals. Therefore, he had to find some way to apologize for whatever had offended her in the first place. He hoped that would solve the problem.

Karina had for once managed to finish an entire workout without Sky High around. It was kind of nice, if also boring, because, okay, she did enjoy the watching-him part of things, even if it was also incredibly irritating that she couldn't seem to stop. She was walking towards the locker room to shower when he burst through the door, holding... a giant bouquet of pink roses? What? His ridiculously handsome face brightened at the sight of her, and he beamed. "Ms. Rose!" he greeted her happily.

Of course this would happen when she was all sweaty and gross. There was only so much ice powers could do. "Hi," she said, without enthusiasm.

"Ms. Rose, these are for you!"

Oh God. "Is this a joke?" she asked suspiciously.

"What? No, of course not! But I couldn't find blue roses."

It could still be a stupid joke even if he wasn't making fun of her, she thought, but she sighed and accepted them. "Thank you, Sky High."

"I hope you will accept them as a gesture of apology!"

"Um, what for?"

"I don't know! I thought you might!" She blinked at him, confused. The flowers smelled nice, anyway. "You seem to have been upset lately, and I thought I might have offended you somehow. So it seemed best to apologize, just in case, and apologize again."

"You could have just asked..." she said, but, yeah, she probably would have snapped at him and also said nothing was wrong. Jeez, this was the whole problem, he was so nice, and so completely clueless. "I'm not mad at you."

"Are you sure?"

"No, I'm just... grouchy. In general. It's not your fault." She could feel her face heating up. "I'm sorry I've been taking it out on you. Um, and thank you for the flowers." She smiled at him, then ducked her head and hurried to the locker room, embarrassed. At least no one had seen how awkward that was. A gust of air hit her as she went. The AC must have finally kicked on, she thought.

A week or two later, Keith was out walking John when he saw her. She hadn't been at the training center that morning, and he didn't usually see her in civilian clothes, so it took him a moment to be sure. She was wearing a school uniform, walking with two other girls in the same uniform, which meant they must be her classmates. He couldn't cross the street without jaywalking, which would be a very bad idea as well as wrong, because it was a very busy street, so he'd cross paths with them, and that could be bad. He shouldn't call her Blue Rose, or anything like that, because her friends were civilians, but he wasn't sure what else to call her, because personal names sounded so informal. And what would she call him?

As they drew closer, he saw the moment she spotted and recognized him, as well. Her eyes widened, her cheeks got slightly pink, and she started looking around like she wanted to find a chance to escape. He understood the feeling. But before she got a chance, one of her friends called out, "Oh, what a cute dog!" and approached, hand held out flat, palm out. John sniffed it, gave it an approving lick, and the dark-haired girl knelt down to rub his ears.

"What's his name?" the girl with glasses asked, and before he could answer, Blue Rose greeted him with a surprised-sounding, "Oh, hi, Keith!"

He tried not to look surprised. Did this mean it was all right to use her real name? If not, he could always buy her more flowers! That seemed to work the last time. "Good to see you, Karina!" he said, feeling very bold. A cool breeze stirred the girls' hair and pushed his own into his face.

"You two know each other?" the girl with the glasses asked.

"Yes!" Blue Rose said. "From my part-time job! Singing at that club I told you about!"

"Yes, I know about that," her friend said, sounding a little confused, but Keith understood. She was giving him hints!

"She has a wonderful singing voice!" he agreed enthusiastically. "I look forward to hearing you sing again!"

"I didn't know you were still doing that," the dark-haired girl said, standing up and dusting off her knees. Blue Rose and her other friend both reached out to rub John's ears in turn.

"Yeah, I am, um... see you around, Keith!" He smiled and waved at them as they left; when they were nearly out of earshot he heard a burst of giggling. He wondered what that was about, but he was pleased that he'd picked up her hints.

Still, he was a bit worried, so he tried to make sure to meet up with her at the training center the next day. "I hope I didn't offend you by using your civilian name!" he said. She was wearing a tank top this time. He hoped he didn't need to talk about anything complicated, and that she wouldn't be bending over much, at least not until he was done needing to talk. "When we met each other by chance yesterday," he added, in case she'd forgotten.

"I know what you meant," she said. "It's fine, it's not like you could call me Blue Rose or anything, right?"

"That was what I thought!" he said. "And you really do have a wonderful voice!"

"Um. Thank you." She was very, very pretty when her face got all pink like that, somehow. He felt a breeze ruffle his hair and blushed, himself, knowing where that had come from. "And thanks for playing along with the part-time-job story."

"It actually describes our work fairly well!" he said. "Although being a hero is a full-time job."

"No, I have a real part-time job that my friends know about... Never mind. I, um, don't mind if you call me Karina if you want. I mean, either way. I don't care."

"Thank you," he said happily, too pleased to worry much about the light gust he felt at his back, "and again, thank you! You can call me Keith as well!" She nodded, and he turned to flee. He should definitely be on the weights right now. Paying close attention to the heart monitor. And not watching her do her stretches at all.

Running into Keith while she was out with Jane and Emily had nearly been a disaster. At least she'd sort of managed to cover, if really awkwardly, and Keith had tried to play along. It wasn't actually that he was a bad actor; he'd sounded about like he always did. But her friends didn't know that. They'd just seen that she and Keith were being very awkward.

"So that's the guy you like?" Emily had asked.

"What? No! What are you even talking about? Of course not!"

They'd both burst out laughing, and Karina had clutched her bookbag, face flaming. What she would have given for a nice, relaxing crime right then. "Let's see," Jane said, "You've already told us he's a klutz, a slob..."

"I'm telling you no!" Karina had insisted, but she'd known it was already too late.

So now she and Keith, of all people, were on a first-name basis, and he hadn't stopped being stupidly good-looking and also making his jeans look extremely good, and also her friends were trying to plot their already limited hanging-out-after-school time to allow Karina to cross paths with her alleged crush.

And his dog was even cute! It was crazy. No one was that perfect. Okay, yeah, he was pretty dorky too, in his own way, different from Tiger's. And he did repeat himself all the time. But he was so nice. It was kind of good to be around somebody who was never, ever sarcastic; like, she knew he meant it about her voice and wasn't just being polite. Though maybe he didn't really know what he was talking about, since most of her commercial releases were pretty over-produced.

Was it totally crazy to invite him to hear her sing? Yes. Yes, it was.

But then a few days later he brought it up. "Karina! You said you have a part-time job?"

"Yes?" She stepped off her treadmill. "Why?"

"Are you not also attending high school?"

"Yes..." His brow was furrowed with apparent concern.

"You should focus on your studies! A good education is your stepping stone to a brighter tomorrow!"

It almost physically hurt not to smack herself in the forehead. She really, really wanted to, but then she'd have to explain why, and that would hurt his feelings... "My studies are fine."

"But you must be so busy. When do you have time to sleep?"

"I take naps and things... it's none of your business! I'm fine!"

"What kind of job do you have?"

"I sing! In a... club." She'd nearly said bar, but he was way too much of a boy scout for that. "I enjoy it! It's not like it's hard work."

"A club?" His brow re-furrowed. "An all-ages club?"

"It's a nice place," she said. You couldn't lie to Keith. "You could come see for yourself." Oh God she hadn't meant to say that at all. She blamed that worried look on his face. His eyes were really, really blue.

"I will! It would be nice to hear you sing live," he said. "Something other than the theme song, that is."

"Yeah, um..." She was kicking herself already. Maybe he wouldn't actually notice the bar was a bar.

This was definitely a bar, Keith thought. Unlike that nice cafe Mr. Fire owned, there were signs advertising different types of alcohol. Maybe Ms. Rose - Karina - hadn't realized. Well, drinking in moderation was fine for adults. But was it legal for Karina to work here? He surveyed the room worriedly. It was a quiet place, at least. Not like the cafe, which was certainly enjoyable, but very rowdy. You'd have a hard time hearing a live singer there.

When she stepped out on the stage, he made a point of clapping very loudly and enthusiastically. He was almost sure she looked right at him, but then she closed her eyes for a long time, so maybe the lights were in her face or something.

And then she sat down and started to play. He didn't recognize the music, but he liked it. She did have a beautiful singing voice. A... very beautiful voice, really. And a very short dress. A cocktail napkin fluttered past him, and he clutched his soda uncomfortably. Maybe he shouldn't have clapped so loudly, because she might notice if he left suddenly.

When she took a break, she actually joined him at the bar. He watched, concerned, as she ordered a mineral water. "They have the fans up pretty high tonight," she said.

"Ha ha, yes, I noticed that!" he agreed. "Is it all right for you to work in a place like this?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "It's fine. I'm not drinking, I'm not doing anything wrong..."

He wasn't sure minors should even be in bars, but he also wasn't totally sure they shouldn't. "Your music is beautiful," he said, seriously. "It was very beautiful."

She blushed. "Um, thank you. Most of what I played tonight was music I wrote myself, so I, uh... thank you. Again."

He beamed at the echo of his own catchphrase. "I will be sorry to miss the rest of your act, but I have to go now."

"Oh, right, you have your... thing you do in the evening."

"You knew about that?" Keith was touched. He didn't think he'd mentioned that to her.

"Yeah, Fire Emblem told me... or he explained, after I saw you one time. It's, um, it's good that you do that. I mean, it's... admirable? It's not like you get points for it or anything, and no one's acknowledging you or thanking you for it. I don't think I could do that."

"But you are very busy as it is!" he reassured her, but he felt the wind in his hair and he decided he really, really needed to leave. He only thanked her once before he left the bar, almost pushed out the door by the gust that followed him.

The weirdest part was that she actually meant the things she said to him, about fighting crime and everything. She wasn't sure how much crime he actually stopped, though she might ask, but it really was pretty admirable that he did something like that with no thanks or compensation of any kind. And it was pretty flattering that he liked the music she'd written so much.

Not that it made it any less annoying that he was around so much, looking insanely good and being hopelessly clueless. "You shouldn't be so mean to him," Dragon Kid chided her one day. "He's really nice, and he likes you."

"What do you mean he likes me?" she yelped, dropping the weights with a crash.

"He likes everybody!"

"Well, yeah, I..."

"It's like how you used to be so grumpy with Tiger," Dragon Kid said. "He's so nice too, but you were always complaining about him and picking on him."

"I know, I know." Speaking of clueless. Was Keith that clueless? There'd been that girl he liked. So he might not be completely oblivious to the fact she liked him, which would be a nice change from Tiger. "A lot of that was when I had to teach him how to dance. Trust me, if you could see how he danced when we started..."

"I just think you should be nicer to Sky High," Dragon Kid insisted, and Karina had to agree to get her to let it drop. But yes, she probably should be nicer to him. It wasn't his fault he was so attractive.

Well, maybe a little bit. He didn't have to spend so much time training.

Really, she decided, watching him on the weights later, this was stupid. He was there, and probably single since they'd never heard another word about that girl, and not that much older than her. There was no reason why she shouldn't do something about it. It wasn't like it'd be cheating on Tiger, who hadn't even given her his cell phone number when he retired.

So she got cleaned up a little early, and waited around outside the men's locker room - that wasn't creepy at all! - for him to finish his shower after his workout. She and Origami nearly gave each other mutual heart attacks, but fortunately no one else was around to watch her lurking until Keith himself emerged, and she pounced.

"Keith!" she greeted him happily, and she felt guilty when she saw how happy he looked to see her. Dragon Kid was right, she needed to be nicer to him. He hurried over to her, beaming. His hair was really shiny, though the ends on the back of his neck looked a bit damp still, and he had his jacket slung over his arm.

"Karina! You seem happy," he said, maybe a little cautiously. She smiled and drew closer to him, and she thought she felt a bit of a breeze. Was that him?

"I just wanted to tell you something," she said, and then she stopped. This wasn't going to be any easier than the first time, and... oh, to hell with it. She got up on tiptoes, took his face between her hands, and kissed him. There was a definite blast of air then, flinging her hair into her face as she drew back. He was smiling at her dazedly, but he also looked a bit sheepish.

"Are you doing that?" she asked.

"You have a very beautiful smile," he said, as if that was some kind of answer, and then "I have to go!"

He practically ran from the room. She watched him go, not at all sure this had worked any better than it had when she tried to tell Tiger how she felt.

In his company transport, Keith smiled happily at the helmet he held in his lap. Karina had kissed him. That was definitely a good sign! A very good sign! Unless she changed her mind and was angry at him again the next time he saw her. But she'd given him advice on women before. Maybe her advice would work on her? But she'd been the one to recommend casually touching... he blushed at the thought. It was one thing to put an arm around a fan for a photo, and another to just go touching... a girl.

But she'd kissed him. Maybe he could even risk asking her out on a date.

By that evening, he'd made up his mind, and the next day, he brought a bouquet of roses to the training center. "Wow," Fire Emblem greeted him, eyes on the bouquet. Karina was watching him approach. "You really don't need to apologize to me for anything," she said hastily, once he was close enough to hear.

"I wanted to, er, ask you out on a date," he said. "The two of us. Together."

She looked around the training center. So did he. Everyone seemed to have stopped their workouts to watch them. He smiled hopefully at her. "Okay," she said, "that'd, um, could we maybe go somewhere else to talk about this?"

The lounge area was apparently good enough. "What..." She took a deep breath, and sounded much more calm when she spoke next. "What kind of date do you have in mind?"

"I don't know! We could meet in the park and just spend time together?"

"Really?"

"Yes?"

"And just sort of decide what to do from there?"

He brightened. This didn't sound like a rejection. "Yes! Do you like dogs?"

Despite her best efforts at suggesting other ideas, the date involved John. John was at least very cute, and it was a really nice day, so having to stay outdoors wasn't a problem at all. Keith must take him for long walks regularly, because they both seemed to know every food stand and truck in the area, and Keith smiled and greeted the people working at each one by name. And two of the homeless people, each of whom he bought lunch for. She hung back uncertainly while he did so, but Keith acted like it was nothing out of the ordinary, and they both seemed to know and like him. "Your girlfriend's very pretty," the second man told him, and she and Keith both blushed.

Karina finally picked out a sandwich from a truck; Keith got a hot dog for himself and a plain one for John from a nearby stand, and they sat on a bench to eat. John sat politely and caught chunks of hot dog out of the air when Keith tossed them; eventually she set her sandwich on her lap and tried tossing a few herself.

"It's not really hand-eye coordination," she said.

"Eye-nose," Keith suggested.

"Eye-jaws?"

"Eye-snout. No, that sounds like a pig."

She giggled. "Let's go look at some of the shops."

It was a nice day, really. They window-shopped for a while, then took John to a park, where Keith helped her figure out how to play with him. Playing with dogs seemed to involve a lot of running around acting silly, and throwing things. Keith lamented forgetting the frisbee, but John seemed perfectly happy to chase sticks and later a filthy tennis ball they found near a fence. It was like being a kid again, which was kind of nice. She'd been dreading this part, but she was honestly surprised to notice it was starting to get fairly late in the afternoon.

"Would you like to get something else to eat?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm... actually pretty hungry. I guess I did more running around than I realized with John," she said. Keith clipped his leash back on, and they headed out of the park. Keith had to stop to retrieve a young kid's lost helium balloon, which was sweet - her powers would probably have popped it, or at least been a lot more noticeable than his were - and John apparently wanted to pee on every tree they passed, now, but they reached the taco stand eventually, and the anti-bacterial hand stuff pump by the cash register, and found another bench where they could sit and eat.

It was growing dark, and they hadn't even been interrupted by a hero call. "I should probably head back," she said, regretfully. "I have to meet with my choreographer tonight."

"Will a transport be picking you up?" he asked, scratching John behind the ears.

"I was just going to take the train to the studio," she said. "I keep a wig and my lipstick in my bag, so I can walk in with my ID and not give anything away. I just power up to hide my eye color until I put in the contacts."

"It must be nice," Keith said wistfully.

"Riskier than your way, though."

"True," he agreed. "Very true. We will walk you to the station!"

"Okay," she said, finding it hard to be annoyed with him after today. Maybe it hadn't been all that romantic - really no different from spending time with him as a friend - but the point of a date was getting to know someone, right? They stopped at a crosswalk, and John licked her hand. "Why'd you bring John?" she asked. "Not that I mind, it was a lot of fun..."

"If John didn't like you, I couldn't date you," he said, simply. "I am very glad he does!"

"Yeah, me too," she admitted, but the light changed just then and she didn't think he heard. Just as well.

As they neared the station, he seemed to be getting steadily more nervous. They came to a stop just outside of it, out of the way of the foot traffic, and she caught herself playing with a lock of hair when she looked up at him. He looked like he was on the way to an execution, or at least the dentist's office. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I, ah, I had a wonderful time today!" he blurted out.

"So did I," she said, smiling. "Thank you." Some papers rattled as they blew past. She realized he wasn't going to do anything, so she put her hand on his shoulder, leaned up, and... he seemed to be trying to dodge? She put her other hand against his face to hold him still and kissed him lightly. It felt a bit like kissing her hand - he didn't react at all - but when she pulled back he opened his eyes slowly like they'd just shared some romantic movie kiss.

He put his hand on her shoulder, closed his eyes with his lips visibly puckered, and leaned in towards her. Wow, he was bad at kissing. Maybe she could teach him, she thought, and closed her eyes rather than dodging. She put her arms around his neck, kissed him until his lips softened against hers, and was not really that surprised to feel the breeze pick up. If she was right, that meant it was working. She felt his hand move from her shoulder down her arm. She kept kissing him, her lips slightly parted, until he followed her lead. Their tongues met and tangled, at about the limits of her expertise. His arm went around her, and a sudden gust of wind pushed her directly into him.

His eyes were glowing blue, which confirmed her suspicion, and the evidence pressed against her hip indicated that the other part of her guess was correct, too. Then he let go of her and jumped back like she'd burned him. "I am very sorry!" he blurted out. "I have no idea what caused that! Normally I have much better control of my powers!"

"Um," she said, not at all sure she felt up to discussing her theory about this if Keith hadn't figured it out himself. "It just happens, you know?" she said. "I mean, for months after the whole fight with Maverick and Rotwang, I'd wake up to find I'd frozen the water in the glass by my bed, or iced over the windows. My parents were dreading the day I'd get the pipes instead."

He nodded, still looking a little confused and upset. "I really did have a wonderful time today," she said. "I need to get going, though. I'll, um, I'll see you at the training center?" He nodded, and she reached down to rub John's ears before she took off.

On her way to the right platform, though, she smirked to herself. That last gust had been pretty powerful. She'd done that. Awesome.

And the kissing had been getting way better before he freaked out. Maybe they could find a padded room somewhere and really get some practice in.

The date with Karina had been wonderful, absolutely wonderful, although his problems with his powers were getting very embarrassing. But it was very good news that she and John liked each other, and she'd been very understanding about the power mishap. So it had been a very successful day.

And she was extremely good at kissing, or so he assumed, given how much he'd enjoyed kissing her. He looked forward to kissing her again, hopefully without the unfortunate reactions he was having lately. He hoped she was also looking forward to that. He should try bringing her more flowers! Or maybe he should come up with something else, since he'd brought roses more than once.

He decided to consult Fire Emblem.

"I don't think any gifts are necessary," Fire Emblem told him, grinning very widely. "Call it a hunch."

"Then what should I do?"

"Oh, just be yourself, sweetie," Fire Emblem said. "You've already had one date, right? It sounds to me like you two are doing just fine." Keith watched Fire Emblem take a drink of water, and sighed. He might need some advice on the other part, too. "Is there something else?" Fire Emblem asked him.

"I, ah... I've been having a slight problem," Keith began.

Fire Emblem listened to the explanation, looking the whole time like he was trying not to laugh. Keith was a little hurt by that. It was embarrassing enough as it was! "Feels like you're fourteen again, doesn't it?" Fire Emblem finally said, when Keith was done, and yes, he was definitely on the verge of laughing.

"My powers manifested when I was eighteen," Keith said stiffly, not even worried if it showed that he was offended.

"Honey, that's not what I meant," Nathan said, a giggle escaping. "Come on, you have to have made the connection, right?"

The next time felt the brush of a breeze over his face at the sight of Karina, he flushed to the roots of his hair and fled for the locker room. He heard her saying "Um, Keith?" behind him, but he couldn't possibly explain to her.

Karina could see two possibilities. One was that he was just far more embarrassed about the ending of their date than she'd realized. The other was that he'd somehow put the pieces together since then, and that seemed a lot more likely. She wanted to check with Nathan - he and Keith were friends, he might know, or he might have planted the idea in Keith's head - but he was nowhere to be found. In fact, it kind of looked like they might have the training center to themselves.

Well, that suggested something else they could do. She lurked around in the lounge area, waiting for Keith, and when he appeared, she pounced. "Karina!" he gasped, as she threw her arms around him. "I, ah, that is..."

"You figured it out, huh?" she said. "Is that why you got so embarrassed?"

His neck actually felt warmer to the touch. She didn't know people could blush that hard. "Fire Emblem helped," he admitted.

It figured. "Well, how did any of us learn to control our powers?" she said. "Practice makes perfect, right?"

"Yes, but..."

She grabbed his face and kissed him. He didn't put up any kind of fight immediately, but she threaded her fingers through his hair just to be sure. She also started tugging him along with her toward the couch, which didn't work as well as she'd hoped. Their teeth bumped, he covered his mouth with his hand, and she finally gave up and just pulled him over by the other hand. "You knew?" he asked, through his hand.

"Huh? Oh, um... I figured it out," she said. "Eventually." She sat down on the couch, and he joined her.

"This is really embarrassing," he said. "Extremely embarrassing."

"I bet it happens to lots of heroes," she said, then kissed him again in hopes of distracting him from that completely groundless statement. It seemed to work. His arms went around her, he kissed her back, and dammit she'd forgotten to peel his jacket off while she had the chance. She was glad she'd thought to just wear shorts and a top, rather than a dress - easier to take off part of it without getting completely naked - but he was very thoroughly dressed for summer. She ran her hands down his chest, tugging his shirt free of the waistband of his pants. She actually felt a hand against skin at the small of her back, under her shirt. Definitely not going to take off the jacket right now, she decided. She didn't want to spook him.

As she kept kissing him, she felt his hands moving higher - until they encountered her bra, at which point he retreated in a hurry. She couldn't help giggling, which broke the kiss, so she leaned back, pulling him with her, and took that opportunity to peel his jacket off. He was smiling at her as he shrugged out of it in a way that made her insides twist a bit, and this time he kissed her. She hooked one leg around him and heard him make some kind of whimper into her mouth. He had one hand free, and she felt it brush against her leg, jerk away like she'd burned him, and then apparently he decided clothed breasts were safer than bare legs. She caught her breath at the sensation even through her clothes when his hand brushed her nipple, and he used the opportunity to kiss her jaw, her throat, while she worked her hands up his back, under his tee-shirt. His hair smelled wonderful, kind of spicy and citrusy, and then he found her earlobe and her head went back involuntarily.

When she opened her eyes, though, that let her see more of the room. "Holy crap," she gasped.

Keith lifted his head, and then sat up in a hurry. "I don't think I was practicing correctly," he said.

The minor whirlwind he'd apparently created seemed to be subsiding, maybe because he was now paying attention to his powers and not her boobs. Unfortunately. Hero prints, sponsor plaques, and ceiling tiles were settling to the ground. She stood up to take a look at the damage. "It looks like we had a whole herd of telekinetic babies in here," she said. "We should get out before anyone else turns up and we have to explain." Or worse yet, before Nathan turned up and they didn't have to explain.

"No, we need to clean up!" he said. "Or at least, I do. Since this is my fault."

"It's kind of my fault too, right?"

"No, it..."

"Unless this happens all time. Like, when you-" Saying the word masturbate to Keith was suddenly completely unthinkable, even if she wanted to have sex with him on the couch right this minute. "When you're alone," she finished, feeling herself blush.

But not as much as he was blushing. Maybe she should take that as an answer? "I guess it doesn't?"

He managed to shake his head.

That made sense, actually. Like the difference between singing in the shower and performing. "Well, then it's my fault too. So I'll help." She bent to pick up her own framed headshot. "Do you have a lot of things hanging on the walls at your place?" she asked.

"Not really..."

"Well then I know where we're headed after this."

"But we've only been on one date!"

She closed her eyes for a moment. "Would two dates be enough?"

"I will need to make reservations at an extremely nice restaurant!" he said, giving her a broad, gleaming smile.

"And buy condoms," she prompted.

"Of course! Practicing safer sex is-"

"Yeah I know," she cut him off, hastily. Why was she planning to sleep with someone who communicated in PSAs?

"I will write a to-do list," he announced. "After we are done here." And then he smiled at her again, a lot more like he had on the couch. Oh, right. That was why.

Keith's to-do list had fizzled out when he got too embarrassed to write down "condoms." He was very, very grateful that there was a self-service checkout lane at the grocery store near his apartment.

He made a reservation at a restaurant Fire Emblem recommended. He spent a lot of time considering what clothes to wear. He removed all the pictures from the walls, and put away everything from the top of his dresser and nightstand in a drawer or in his closet. He didn't think he could do any damage to the furniture. Or should he rent a nice motel room? That seemed a little presumptuous, but then again, Karina had been pretty clear about what she wanted to do.

He really, really liked Karina, and he was very, very nervous. He knew she liked him back, which was more than he could say for any of the girls he'd ever liked before, but that didn't mean she couldn't change her mind if he did something wrong. He had to make sure this date was perfect. Maybe he should get the hotel room after all. He could afford to pay for the damages, though maybe he'd be too nervous to destroy things very much? He did feel bad about the people who'd have to clean up. He spent a lot of time debating that. Finally he decided his apartment was probably better, so as not to make a mess.

When he picked her up at the training center - or rather, when they left from the training center, since they'd both been there at the same time, though he brought his car to the curb to pick her up - she was wearing a blue dress and heels, which made him feel much better about the fact he was wearing a suit.

The restaurant itself didn't really intimidate him - he'd eaten in places like this before, during meetings with sponsors and licensing deals - but he was worried about what Karina would think of it. After they'd ordered their drinks, she said, "Last time I was here was for a major meeting with Pepsi and Suntory."

"Suntory?"

"Yeah, apparently the Japanese rebroadcasts are pretty popular - that's part of the reason for my name. Origami knows more about it, but he kind of digressed into action figures and I started tuning him out."

"I will have to ask him!" He still wasn't quite sure what Suntory did, but apparently it was a Japanese company. Ivan was very knowledgable, though when he was nervous he did tend to babble and go off on tangents. He must not be comfortable with Karina. Maybe Keith could fix that. He considered Ivan a friend, though he was friends with all the heroes, and he wanted his friends to get along. "Fire Emblem recommended this restaurant, and I remembered it from other meetings."

"Yeah, it's... I guess it's pretty romantic if you're not talking to a bunch of the suits." They'd been seated by a window, and their table was lit mostly by the candle between them. Karina looked beautiful, smiling uncertainly at him across the table, her hair pulled back slightly at the temples with hair clips.

"Are those blue roses?" he asked after a moment.

She blushed. "Pao- Dragon Kid helped me with my hair. She found those for me."

He just smiled, relieved that she'd been worrying a bit about this too, that it hadn't just been him. He was happy to be here with her, and she looked very beautiful, and he didn't see any need to say anything. After a minute, though, her cheeks turned pink and she looked down at her hands, though she seemed to be smiling. "I'm getting kind of self-conscious with you just..."

"I am sorry," he said. "I just like being here with you. And I enjoy looking at you. I like you very much, and I... like you."

She glanced up at him and then immediately back down. "I don't see why, I mean, it's not like I was being so nice to you..."

"I am sure I was annoying you somehow," he said. The waiter approached their table, and they broke off to place their orders and accept their drinks, but he was still thinking about her implicit question. She was very pretty, but that wasn't the only reason. She was so serious about her music she kept a second job just so she could her own songs, even with everything else she did. She was a very talented hero, who'd rivaled both him and Barnaby on points, even if she rarely got credit for that.

"Back when we were imprisoned by Rotwang," he said, "you were the one who figured out how to reach all of us and reassure us."

Karina's eyes widened, and she was looking at him now. "That's... that was a long time ago. I mean, a couple of months, but it feels like... they've already finished the repairs to the statue."

"But it was very important. I think you gave all of us the courage to hold on. Especially since he had been watching all of us for signs of doubt." He would always feel guilty about his own thoughts along those lines.

She shook her head. "It was just... wait, you've liked me since then?"

Keith spent a moment in thought. "I am not entirely sure when I had to start making an effort not to look when you were wearing tank tops." She giggled, and he was smiling again. "I just like to see you smile," he added.

"You're so sweet," she said. "I mean, you're really really nice, but you're also just... good."

"Thank you!" he said. "Thank you. I don't always feel that way, but that is what I should be."

"I don't think you need to worry about that," she said, reaching across the table to hold his hand.

They stayed that way, holding hands, until their food arrived.

After the meal, he waited until they were outdoors, away from anyone who might overhear, before he said "I was hoping I could take you flying, if you don't mind."

"To your apartment?"

He blushed. "Sorry," she added. "I have a one-track mind."

"I meant, um, afterwards." She grinned and grabbed his arm, which meant his arm was right up against her breasts, which meant he babbled through his explanation about needing the rocket packs to actually fly, and having a spare uniform at his apartment, and hoping she'd be willing to borrow a sweater or something because it could be cold when flying.

It was a good thing the restaurant wasn't far from his apartment, because they started kissing just outside his car. He was starting to think he had a one-track mind as well.

At the parking garage for Keith's apartment, Karina realized she was incredibly nervous as well as horny. That was okay, Keith seemed to be nervous too, but that didn't help the fact that she was. They took the elevator up to his apartment - of course he'd live up high - in awkward silence. The building was on the Gold Stage, but it wasn't as fancy as some she'd seen, and it was more out toward the edge, though not so far it'd have an unobstructed view over the other stages. "This is a nice apartment," she finally said, just for something to say. Then she felt stupid. She hadn't even seen the apartment yet.

"I wanted to find a place where I could easily reach most of our emergencies," he said. "I can fly down to the other stages, and many of our crimes occur on Gold Stage..."

"Because that's where the money is," she said. "And because some of them were staged?"

He nodded. "Not that I knew. And I have access to the roof."

"They don't have any rooftop gardens or anything?"

"I had to ask a lot of questions about roofs when I was looking for an apartment," Keith said seriously. "And then try to explain why. I was very bad at that part. I can never move."

That made her start giggling, maybe just to let off some tension, and while he looked puzzled for a second, it must have been contagious, because when the elevator stopped, they were both laughing helplessly. "God I hope this mascara was waterproof," she said, and that set him off again as he dug his keys out of his pocket. They were both still laughing as they walked in, but as John bounded up to sniff them both, wagging his tail and then licking Keith's hand very thoroughly, they calmed down to the point of just smiling at each other. "I should show you around," he said, and she and John followed him through the small apartment, looking at the living room, the tiny kitchen, and... he couldn't seem to actually say "bedroom," with her there, but it was obvious enough.

"Come on, John, we need some privacy," she said, steering the dog outside. He licked her knee but consented to be steered, and she shut the door behind him. She heard a sort of sliding noise afterwards, followed by a soft thud.

"He's leaning against it," Keith explained. "Are you, um, at all nervous?"

"Very," she admitted, but they were standing just a few steps apart, and she made herself take one. He must have, as well, because they were standing close enough she could reach out and touch the front of his suit jacket, and he could put his hands on her bare shoulders. He'd done that when they were kissing before they got in the car, but with a bed in the room it felt very different, somehow, like her nerves had all had the volume turned up. She tugged on his tie to get him into kissing range, and that was even more so. It wasn't so much the way his lips felt, his tongue against hers, as the fact that she felt like she'd been waiting forever for something that was getting closer all the time. The fact that she'd worn the lacy black strapless-bra-and-matching-panties set on purpose, and made sure she was freshly waxed and shaved and moisturized and everything, and he'd actually be seeing all that. His hands slid down her back and she tried to pull his tie loose without taking a break from kissing him. That didn't work - he pulled back to pull the tie over his head and shrug out of the suit jacket - so she reached up to try to get her dress partway unzipped.

"Help me with this," she said, and he obediently unzipped her the rest of the way. His curtains snapped in the wind like a pair of flags as she stepped out of it, and she grinned at him as she started unbuttoning his shirt. Her hands weren't shaking at all.

"I, um, I had plans to be much more romantic than this. I should have written them down," he said.

"Romantic how?"

"I don't remember!" he said helplessly. "I think I was going to tell you you were beautiful."

"Well, there you go," she said. He seemed to be kind of afraid to touch her now, so she tried putting his hands on her waist. He got the picture and started running his hands over her sides, lightly. She'd had no idea those were erogenous zones. He also seemed to be staring at her breasts.

"And how much I..." He sort of trailed off. He was still touching her when she got his shirt undone, and when she'd finished getting it off of him he went back to touching her - her back, her waist, he even got brave and touched her ass, and then he seemed to decide he liked that and kept his hands there. She, meanwhile, had realized he was wearing an undershirt, and a belt, and he still had his pants and shoes on. They were going to get a hero call any minute, she was sure of it, and then she'd die of sexual frustration.

"We should, um... pick up the pace?" she said.

"I don't want to hurry," he said, though he did pull off his undershirt and undo his belt. "This is the only first time I will have."

"It's mine too," she said. "I mean, obviously."

"Exactly," he said. "So I want to remember everything about this." He sat down on the bed to take off his shoes and socks. "I want to remember exactly how you looked and... felt, and... keep touching you."

She moved in until she was standing between his legs, and heard the curtains rustling again. "I just don't think we should, you know, lose sight of our goal, that's all." The goal of deflowering each other. She didn't really have high hopes for this very first time, but maybe once they'd gotten over that hurdle they could start figuring out what worked and what didn't.

Like him running his hands over the backs of her thighs. That worked really well. His face was right by her breasts, so he kind of buried his face in them. It wasn't necessarily the sexiest thing for her, but from the sound of the curtains, he was happy. She reached up behind herself and unhooked her bra. He pulled back to let her get it out of the way, and he just kind of froze that way. After a moment, to break the ice, she took one of his hands and put it on her breast. One of the curtains brushed her back as it flapped. "You're allowed to touch," she said.

He didn't seem to need more encouragement than that. He circled a nipple with the tips of his fingers, moved his mouth to the other; she caught her breath when he flicked his tongue against it and moaned when he suckled it for a moment. He looked up at her with some concern. "That was a good noise," she assured him, and he smiled and returned to what he'd been doing. Maybe she'd been a little pessimistic, she thought. He was doing great at this part. And he was getting bolder, letting his free hand slide beneath the waistband of her underwear. It was getting really breezy in here.

"Can I..." He trailed off, but he was tugging her underwear down, and she nodded dazedly, then after a moment, helped him get them off.

"You are so beautiful," he repeated, and kissed the spot just below her navel so she didn't have to think of anything to say to that. His hands were on her inner thighs, and she kind of whimpered. Did he know what he was doing here? Maybe, because he said "Maybe we could change places?"

"Okay," she said, a little mystified, until he took his place between her knees. He looked up at her, opened his mouth like he was going to say something, then changed his mind and buried his face in her crotch. She was suppressing giggles at the sight until his tongue touched her, and then she was just breathing hard and grabbing at his shoulders and wait why was he stopping?

"Am I doing this right?" he asked.

"Yesdon'tstop," she blurted, and he resumed his efforts. If their call bracelets went off now she'd actually have to go murder Agnes. It felt like something was building up inside her, a balloon inflating or something, until it burst, leaving her tingling all over. She was barely even aware of the crash except that Keith paused to look up.

"Are you... okay?" he asked.

"I'm great," she said happily, laying down on the bed. "Let's have sex." He didn't say anything, so she managed to raise her head. "Sorry, was that not romantic enough?"

"No, I'm, uh... concentrating," he said. "That was very... very..." She sat up. Apparently the nightstand had gotten knocked over, and the curtain rod was kind of hanging askew. At least it wasn't bolted right into the wall.

"Wow," she said.

"Excuse me," he said politely, removed his pants - she got all shy and looked away from his penis after a second - then went over to the nightstand and pushed it over onto its side so he could pull its drawer open. And take out the box of condoms. Oh yeah, that had been the original plan. "Is this all right?" he asked, indicating the box.

"Keith! Of course it is!"

The box was already open, she noticed, as he tore a condom off the strip. "I read the directions," he explained.

"Um... are they that complicated?"

"No," he said, as he rolled it onto himself. "But it is best to be prepared!"

She giggled. "Right." He smiled, and it occurred to her that maybe he was this silly on purpose. "Are they all pink?"

"I have no idea," he said. "We should investigate for the rest of the night."

"Agreed," she said, scootching back onto the bed. After a bit of shifting and rearranging, he was supporting himself over her, and she was guiding him inside, and it didn't hurt at all. It felt a little strange, having something where she normally didn't, but she didn't tell him that when he asked if she was okay. She did tell him when it started to feel good - "really good" - and then she noticed she could feel his hands on her back, and she couldn't feel the covers under her. "Are we flying?" She'd had her legs wrapped around him, but now she tightened them in case he lost his grip.

"I think so," he gasped. Keith was breathing really hard, she noticed, and the way he moved was changing, and then he gradually stopped. They hit the mattress with a light thud, and he immediately pushed himself up.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Did you..."

"I am sorry," he said.

"No, no, I have no complaints," she said. Though it was true, it hadn't lasted very long, not that she had any basis for comparison. He smiled and kissed her lightly before he got up. She refrained from commenting on how silly the condom looked hanging off of him as he retreated to the bathroom. She got up, too, frowned at the damp spot she'd apparently left on his bedspread, and pulled the covers back. When he returned, he crawled in next to her and pulled her close.

"I want to make love to you again," he said, very seriously, "but I also feel extremely sleepy. Will you stay here with me?"

"Of course," she said, and kissed his shoulder.

At least now she knew how to recognize it when she was falling in love with someone, she thought. It was weird how calm she felt right now, like everything had been sorted out and she had nothing to worry about at all.

Keith got to nap for about ten minutes before his call bracelet went off, right by his ear. Karina shrieked, also pretty close to his ear, and climbed over him to steal his dress shirt and wrap it around herself, before either of them had even answered the call. Then she ran and locked herself in the bathroom. It took him a moment to get his bearings, and then he didn't get them fully, because he was still naked when he answered. Agnes could only see him from the shoulders up, of course, but she was smirking noticeably - or maybe leering, he couldn't tell - and to judge by Karina's face when she emerged from the bathroom, her call hadn't been any less embarrassing.

They both managed to pull themselves together to deal with the crime - Dragon Kid got the arrest, but the two of them working together managed to save a group of half-a-dozen hostages - and then Karina pulled him out of his transport afterwards, in his undersuit, to have her way with him in her trasnport. She must have stuffed some condoms in her purse before they left his apartment. Although they did not get airborne this time, it was even better than the first time, despite the storm of cosmetics around him and the fact that he got hit in the head with a bottle of nail polish, though he knew he'd find her hero costume even more distracting than ever after this.

In all the chaos, he'd completely forgotten about his plan to take her on a romantic moonlit flight.

Over the weeks that followed, it was difficult sometimes to get Karina to slow down enough for the kind of tender, romantic lovemaking he'd always had in mind, but when she did, it was worth all the effort. And he didn't really mind the times she pounced on him, either, even if he had to put the curtains back up every time.

And he was smug for days after the time that pleasuring her resulted in scratches and light frostbite on his shoulders, though Karina was mortified.

Karina had sort of hoped that getting her rampaging hormones calmed down would also make her less grouchy, but as it turned out, she was the same person she'd always been. She wasn't snapping at Keith because she was mad at herself for wanting him, anymore, she was snapping at him because it he really had absent-mindedly taken her water bottle. She still got kind of embarrassed about expressing her feelings, even if she'd gotten over what little remaining bashfulness she had about her body. Not that there'd been much, after nearly three years as Blue Rose. And she still enjoyed making him lose track of his powers, though he was getting better at control now.

Having a boyfriend was really kind of a strange experience. She liked it, but it was new to her, and because it was new to Keith, too, they were probably completely sickening - holding hands while they walked John, calling each other every night - but she was too happy about it to care. Keith came to her performances, and they spent a lot of time together just doing nothing much. He liked to read, she found out - "I may not be good with words, but I can enjoy other people who are," he explained - and that got her reading for fun again, after she'd sworn high school had ruined her ability to enjoy a book.

The summer before her senior year was basically perfect, as far as she was concerned, and the fall wasn't half bad either. And then winter came around, and Tiger announced he was coming back from retirement.

He dropped by the training center the day before the formal announcement, to let them all know, and while Keith enthusiastically welcomed "Mr. Wild" back, she could tell he was bothered by something. She chased him down in the lounge once Tiger was gone.

"You know I'm over him, right?"

"Really?" He brightened noticeably, and she smiled. Uncomplicated was a good thing sometimes.

"Really," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "I'm glad he's back because he's a friend, and because, you know, he's been a hero ever since I can remember..."

"Exactly!" Keith said. "Even before I got my powers!"

"But it's not... he doesn't ice over my water bottle anymore, you know?"

"Good," he said, and she kissed him. Long enough to actually feel their feet leave the ground. She had to stop kissing him because the urge to grin was too strong.

"You did that on purpose this time, didn't you?"

He looked a little devious, at least as devious as he was capable of - so a bit guilty, more than anything. "Maybe?"

"Good," she said. "I want to try mid-air sex again sometime."

"I can't control it that well yet," he admitted.

"Then we need to practice more," Karina said. "Obviously."