Chapter Sixteen: Pizza Time
Barry Allen woke up several minutes ago on a medical table in the damp, dark confines of the Bat Cave. Of course, Mineko was by his side because without him, she was quite frankly lost in this strange world.
Dressed in his Flash uniform with its mask pulled off, Barry shifted up into a sitting position as he asked Mineko "So...what exactly happened?"
"You had been ensnared by Yan's magic."
"Man...really?" He groaned.
Mineko replied "Do not feel inadequate; from my experiences, it is impossible to resist that form of mysticism."
He sighed and crossed his arms. "Is...everyone okay? Did I hurt you?"
"Bruce and I are fine; Wally arrived to assist us. It seems that although Yan can control you, she does not understand how to use your speed in an effective manner. She is, after all, not a scientist."
"Wally...? How did he find us?"
"I do not know." Mineko murmured.
Barry furrowed his brow as he picked up on a rare lack of composure that appeared in her behaviour. "Hey...is everything okay?"
Mineko paused without answer. It took several seconds for her to force herself to say something. "I hesitated. I could have rendered you unconscious but I froze."
Barry was dumbstruck. All this time he figured that Mineko didn't care about him...that he was a means to an end. "You're worried that you might actually...care about me?"
"I am worried because I know that I do care about you."
As a man who was never really made speechless, Barry was shocked to find that he had not a single possible reply in his brain. At first it was confusion that racked his mind, then shock.
Before he could say anything, Batman entered the room.
"They were waiting for us. They knew." He said, strolling down the stairs and seating himself at the Batcomputer.
"No kidding. Any idea--...ow." Barry cut himself off, rubbing his temple. "Ow...! Man... Hey, did you give me a concussion?" He asked, looking at Bruce who did nothing but continue typing away. "You gave me a concussion! Why would you do that? Don't you carry knock out gas in that stupid belt of yours all the time? Why didn't you just use that? Have you just been wanting to punch me that badly?"
Bruce stifled a smirk which became visible on his face regardless. "You said it, not me."
"Still... you could've been a bit more gentle."
"No one else was going to do it." Bruce said with a quick but purposeful glance in Mineko's direction. "If you hadn't allowed yourself to become compromised then there would have been no need for it."
Mineko's head lowered in shame. It was obvious that she was taking this a lot harder than she should've. Barry instantly sensed her sorrow, but he was still so conflicted about her previous confession that he didn't know how to possibly comfort her without sounding awkward.
He did, however, shoot a rather sharp look of disapproval towards Bruce after Mineko slumped out of the batcave. "You know, you really are the biggest jerk I've ever had the displeasure of meeting."
This didn't bother Bruce at all. It wasn't the first time he'd heard those words, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. His general lack of reaction was what annoyed Barry the most.
Before he had the chance to berate him again about his general attitude towards everyone Wally had appeared. "I'm gonna take Mineko back to Central City. Want a lift?"
At the mention of Mineko, Barry shook his head. He didn't have any desire to make things even more tense between them... and he still wasn't exactly sure how to react towards her anymore. "I might just lay down for a bit. I'm sure I'll feel well enough to run back later... before you leave though, how did you find us?"
"I followed you." Wally said rather nonchalantly. "You always find the best fights... and I'm always stuck with villains like 'Abra Kadabra', the worst magician in the galaxy. I thought if I followed you I could finally get involved in a fight worth my time. Turns out there was a damsel that needed saving instead."
Barry narrowed his eyes. "Did you just call me a damsel?"
"Well I certainly wasn't referring to Bruce or Mineko."
"... You can leave now."
Wally grinned. "Whatever you say."
Once they had left Barry was stuck alone with Bruce. It was a short lifetime of weird silences and uncomfortable exchanges. Finally, Barry decided to leave as well. Not because he was feeling any better, but because he didn't want to hang around with the angsty rich boy anymore.
Still, he didn't want to return home. If he did he knew he'd have to talk to Mineko about this whole... crush thing. Barry's brow furrowed. Thinking of it as a 'crush' was so childish. It didn't suit Mineko at all. She was much too intelligent to announce her feelings unless they were stronger than some teenage fantasy. That's what frightened him most. If she was bothered enough to admit it then it was already stronger than anything he had felt in a long while.
Instead of returning to his apartment he decided to wander around the mall for a while. He didn't have any money to spend, but he enjoyed going into the nearby toy shops and looking at the new action figures they got in. He had only just decided on where to start window shopping before he heard someone call out to him.
"Barry?!"
He turned, dread filling his face when he saw Wally sitting at the food court with Mineko and Jesse Chambers, otherwise known as Jesse Quick. They were sitting around a large, thick pan pizza and Mineko was, to Barry's absolute shock, stuffing her face with it.
"What are you doing out of bed? Aren't you like...injured?" Wally said once Barry had walked towards them.
Jessie arched an eyebrow. "Injured? What the hell happened?"
"Batman punched him in the face and gave him a concussion." Wally blurted.
"Wow. It doesn't count. I was being mind-controlled by an evil samurai wizard. And I'm out of bed because Batman is a douchebag." Barry sighed.
Jessie seriously replied "Wait...then how is Batman not minced meat right now?"
Barry stifled a cocky smirk and answered her with "The person controlling me obviously didn't know anything about physics."
He took a split second to observe Mineko, who besides being covered in barbecue sauce, looked unfathomably troubled. He wasn't sure if this was his fault for ignoring her affections, or if it was the simple knowledge that she had those feelings that was bothering her. In his experience, it was likely nothing to do with his reaction.
Wally caught Barry's momentary lapse, perhaps because of their shared super speed. "Hey, you told me she didn't like pizza."
"She doesn't." Barry said, avoiding eye contact with Mineko.
"Yeah, right. She had like five by herself. Not bad for someone without a super-charged metabolism." Jessie laughed.
Tension grew the longer Barry stood there. He was constantly fighting the urge to look at Mineko, and the woman in question wouldn't stop picking at the pizza in front of her. Their lack of conversation didn't go unnoticed by either Wally or Jesse.
"Uhhh... did we miss something?" Wally asked curiously. "Is there a reason you guys haven't acknowledged each other's presence?"
"... It's nothing." Barry muttered.
This was more of an answer than they got from Mineko, who was so lost in her own thoughts that she had barely heard the conversation at hand.
"It certainly doesn't seem like nothing..." Jesse exclaimed.
Wally's gaze shifted between the two awkward people, never once looking at Jesse even as she spoke. He just couldn't figure out what could possibly be wrong. The samurai had destroyed some of his most prized action figures, but he still spoke to her after that. He simply couldn't think of any reason for them to be acting this way.
In an awkward and desperate attempt to break the defeaning tension, Wally's gaze flicked around the mall. There he saw it. The perfect distraction.
"Barry, wanna take a picture with Santa?" He said with an extremely forced laugh, pointing towards a fake Santa Claus that was currently taking pictures with excitable kids.
"Very funny, Kid Flash." Barry muttered. "Emphasis on the 'kid'. I'm sure you'd fit in there better than I would."
Wally huffed. "I'm seriously gonna talk to Picture News about getting my name changed..."
"That's not how it works." Barry said, slight amusement returning to his voice. "You're stuck with 'Kid Flash', no matter how old you get."
Jesse snorted with laughter, and this apparently was enough to snatch Mineko back out of her own thoughts. She pulled her hand away from the single slice of pizza left over, now sporting very little toppings due to her constant picking.
The first thing she saw, of course, were the crowds of people passing her. Then she spotted the large man in bright red, surrounded by fake Reindeer and elves.
"Is that...the Deer God?" Mineko gasped in disbelief. "I thought he was only a myth."
Wally was taken back a little by this sudden question, and Jesse's reaction was similar. They both blinked blankly and cluelessly at her, confusion never leaving their expressions.
"Sorry... what's she talking about?" Jesse asked in absolute ignorance.
Wally's forehead became indented with deep lines that did well to hide most of his youth. He then made an 'o' shape with his mouth and nodded towards the black haired woman. "I can actually see why you would think that."
"Perhaps I should go up and apologise for my disbelief... should I offer a sacrifice in his name?"
Both Jesse and Wally now looked like they were struggling to determine whether they were horrified or entertained by Mineko's suggestion. Nevertheless they both shook their heads vigorously and mumbled a series of 'no' and 'absolutely not'.
Barry, on the other hand, felt a smile begin to crack at his lips. He may have been in an unimaginable situation with the woman, but he still couldn't help but find her blatant disconnect from the modern world weirdly reassuring at a time like this. It was then that he knew his relationship with her had changed. He now saw her lack of knowledge of his world as charming instead of confusing. That was something that he wasn't completely willing to admit to himself yet though...