Mako's Message: So... with the child out of school and two holidays causing Daycare to be closed... this was a rough 12 days. And since my Holiday Bonus fic is rather time specific I had to prioritize that. So, sorry for taking so long to get this chapter up.

It's roughly two thousand words, so I hope that makes up for the delay, and I also crammed a bunch of stuff in here that probably deserved it's own chapter... but I'm trying to speed things up after I blue screened at the realization that I've covered less than a year in story time... in a year. So! Gonna try and move things along as best I can.

And I've really missed Marty. He made writing this chapter so much fun.


So, a lot happened today. Some more important than others, but the best part of it was that today I got to do something I haven't done in months. Hang out at Atomic Comics with Dave, Todd, and Marty.

Marty was just allowed home yesterday, and his mom pitched a fit about him leaving, but as Marty said, "I just spent three and a half months laying in bed. If she thought I wasn't going out now that I could she was out of her fucking mind."

Dave and I took the day off completely to celebrate the occasion.

We started by taking him and Todd out to lunch. Marty didn't eat much, which was kind of surprising. I'd thought he'd have a mighty hunger and want to stuff himself after all that time, but he said he didn't really have much of an appetite and that the little bit he ate filled him up plenty, and that, "I'd like to not put the weight back on, honestly."

And I guess I hadn't really noticed it since it'd happened gradually, but Marty has really thinned down. I guess being fed through an IV tube for a few months with will do that to you.

Then we went to Atomic Comics and talked about everything Marty had missed in the world of comics.

I was kind of surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I mean, I'd always had fun when we hung out before, but I guess with everything I'd been too busy to really notice how much I missed it. I mean, Angela and Jessi are cool, but Marty, Todd and Dave? Those are my people. They are who I belong with. Dave was loving it too. It was the first time I'd seen him smile since Katie broke up with him. (Which is a whole other thing and I really don't feel like going into it. I'll just say that he hasn't told me the real reason they broke up and his heavy bag isn't the only thing he's been working over.)

And Todd was just... I kept thinking he was going to burst into tears and drag us all into a group hug. He didn't of course. What he did do was talk a lot. He burned through everything that'd happened in the comics they read in the first hour. After he was finished Marty just leaned back and said, "Thanks Todd. I might have liked to read them for myself though."

So then Todd started talking about all the games he'd been playing. I don't remember much of the details, since I kind of zoned out. I remember him talking about how he caught a peakachoo(whatever that is) that could shock ground types, but that was only because Dave and Marty simultaneously called bullshit on him. He insisted he was telling the complete truth and said they could come over later and see. They both said they were going to have to, but Marty muttered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear, "Bet 'his sister' starts the game over before we see it." And he spent at least a half hour talking about his adventures in "Oblivion"

That actually manage to hold my attention for a bit, when he was talking about sneaking into the Mage's guild to try and steal some artifact, or when he got turned into a vampire, or how he raised his strength so much he punched a bear and it flew clear off the mountain.

Then he went off about how some girl on Facebook ("with the most striking eyes") had had the most ridiculous run of luck in "farkel", or something, and I zoned out again.

Eventually the conversation turned to the costumed hero crowd.

Marty was interested in hearing about what he'd missed out on, but he didn't seem very enthusiastic, but he did seem interested in hearing about how Hit Girl had made her dynamic entry and fucked up all the cunts back on Easter. And hearing that Hit Girl had teamed up with Kick-Ass seemed to really catch his attention(for obvious reasons). Todd was really enjoying getting to talk about all this, Dave and I only spoke up about something every now and then, and was talking about how after the massacre the active hero population had been reduced to about six, but slowly some new ones had appeared and hospitalized heroes had come back to the streets which was a big help during the Independence Day Riots. Not long after that, Marty interrupted him and said, "Hey, could you go get me another coffee?"

Todd said, "Oh yeah, sure," and jumped up to get in line.

That's when Marty leaned in and said, "Holy shit man, I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner. It's like fucking Clark Kent or something, does Todd know?"

I knew exactly what he was talking about, but Dave still went ahead and asked, "Know what?"

"That she's Hi-" and then the table jumped and Marty's eye bulged out as he keeled over onto the table with a sharp cry of pain, He looked up at Dave and croaked out, "traitor."

Dave shrugged apologetically then said, "No, he doesn't. He doesn't know about me either."

Marty pulled himself together a bit and said, "I guess everyone knows about me?"

Dave just went, "Ah, well..." so I jumped in.

"Everybody at school pretty much assumes you were one of the heroes in the fight. They've no idea which one you were though. Ten or twelve people disappeared from school that day. You'd only be the second person to come back though."

Marty looked kind of stunned and said, "Shit."

Dave and I shrugged.

Then he asked, "Does anyone else know who she is?"

I was pretty much resigned to Marty figuring it out. I was probably going to tell him if he didn't anyway. Assuming he wanted to suit up again. So I said, "Marcus does." I wasn't sure if I should say that Katie knew, since that would tell Dave that I'd heard them fighting about me and he wasn't telling me about it so I'm guessing he doesn't want me to know. But then he said, "And Katie figured it out."

So then I had to act all surprised because... well, he's obviously not holding it against me but if he knew I knew Katie already thought we were fucking then he might tell me to cut it out, and having Dave shut me down already, with Riley after him now too, was just un-fucking-acceptable.

Marty said, "No shit? Did that have anything to do with the break up?"

Dave said, "Not really. She was mostly mad about how much time I was spending on my- ah- 'hobby'. And she said I didn't need to be hanging out with Mindy during the day since I was already spending time with her at night." He really is a great liar. I knew the truth and I still couldn't tell.

Marty kinda laughed and asked, sarcastically, "What, did she think there was something going on with you two? That you were pedo bear's second cousin or something?"

Dave's expression was great, it perfectly matched his"you really had to go there" tone when he said, "No, Marty, she didn't."

Then Marty looked like he just got the best joke ever. He looked around for Todd who was just now getting around to ordering and said, "You know Todd has a crush on you." he said as he looked at me, "Well, on Hit Girl".

Dave and I said "What" in perfect harmony.

"When she, you, shot out the camera that night and the feed ended, the first thing he said was 'I think I'm in love with her' and then he said he was going to save himself for...you" then he laughed and said, "Man this is such a trip. It's like I'm sitting with fucking royalty or something."

I said, "Are you serious? About the crush thing?"

He shrugged and said, "Well, last time I checked he did. He could have gotten over it but by the way he was talking about Hit Girl a minute ago I doubt it."

I knew there were people out there who fantasized about me, if the user names like "HitGirlIsHot" on the registry are any clue, but I didn't think i'd actually run into one. And Todd? Really? I had no idea. At all. I guess that's because he's into Hit Girl, not Mindy... Maybe I could use that to my advantage with Dave.

If I focus on trying to seduce him as Hit Girl, then maybe it'll be easier to forget about the age gap... that might just work...

Anyway, that's when Todd came back so I decided to change the subject to my big news.

"I'm skipping a grade."

Utter silence.

Dave was the first to speak, "Seriously?"

"Yup. Apparently I scored high enough in all my tests while sleeping through half my classes that they figured I'd be challenged more in high school."

I have to accept of course. But I will. I mean, I'll be three years behind Dave, but I'll actually be in the same school as him so that's a big plus. And I'll be in the same grade as Angela and Jessi which will be nice. Them I'm not going to tell though. I'm hoping that I'll be put in the same homeroom as at least one of them. I can't wait to see the look on their face.

Marty said, "Well congrats. I knew you were sharp but I didn't think you were that sharp."

Todd said, "Wow. That's so cool. Maybe you should help me with my homework."

Marty said, "Just because she's smart doesn't mean she can help you with a class three years ahead of her dipshit."

It was funny, but I felt kinda bad for laughing when I saw how embarrassed he was. Then a second later it looked like he didn't care and said, "Hey, we'll all be in the same yearbook!"

Dave kind of smiled and nodded and said, "Yeah, that will be nice."

I 'd never thought of yearbooks or anything, but now I'm wondering what he'd sign mine with.

After we decided we'd had enough of Atomic Comics, we were just going to go home, but then Marty stopped and said, "Hey, is Captain America still showing in theaters?"

So we went out and found a theater that was showing it. He was really happy he didn't miss it. Judging by his Battle Guy costume I'm guessing her really likes Captain America, and it wasn't just him wanting to see the next big superhero movie. It gave me an idea I'll have to talk to Dave about.

He got a nasty shock when went into the theater though. He looked up at the sign with screening times and yelled, "They made a GLEE movie?"

I gave an exaggerated shudder and said, "I've been trying to forget that night ever happened."

I'll admit only here that the movie wasn't bad. But I'm still trying to pretend Angela didn't drag me to see it. I've got a reputation after all.

We went out to dinner after and spent the entire time talking about the movie. The big thing we all agreed on was that Hugo Weaving was scarier as himself than as The Red Skull.

After that it was pretty late by normal standards, but even though Dave and I were usually up for a few more hours we both just went home. I would have liked to spend more time with Dave, but he's been spending a lot of time by himself now, and it'd feel wrong to not end the day when we split from Marty and Todd anyway.

And so that was it. Our first day back together a group. Probably the best day of the summer.