Chapter 5 'The Fourth Visit'
He was sound asleep when he heard a light rapping against his window.
It was a cold, rainy Thanksgiving night and he had been put through the ringer of passive-aggressive familial interactions, mostly between his dad and his Gramps on his mom's side. Thank goodness for Stephanie's cooking otherwise the night would have been a total bust. Well, he couldn't say that, he had a pretty good time catching up with his grandparents and playing a bit of football in the yard with his younger cousins.
But he was beat.
He had passed out around 10, as soon as the last of his extended family headed out in the drizzling rain for home. It was close to midnight when he heard the noise by the window. He first dismissed it as the rain, but then the tapping came again. Zach sighed and rolled over in his sheets when he noticed a shadow casted by a figure outside his window.
He knew who it was. How could it be anyone else? It would be ironic if one day the figure standing forebodingly on his roof was an actual criminal like he had originally thought all those months ago when these visits began.
Since the last time she came by, and since they both barely passed their math midterm, he was happy to report that things between him and Magenta had never been better. They were interacting a little bit more at school, even during their class.
He would often find himself texting her at random moments, usually cracking jokes and recommending songs he thought she would like. He was pretty sure he had built up this kind of repertoire with her now that he was sure how to navigate her dark humor.
Magenta was even able to hang with the group on more occasions than usual. It had started off with the party at Larry's but they all ditched it not too long into the night and actually ended up at the Tubthump (where Teeny had been a gracious host and treated the group to some free shakes).
And then, there was his birthday, Magenta and all of their friends showed up at his place for a little get-together. They had lemon cake- his favorite-and had opened presents. He nearly choked on his own spit when he opened Magenta's gift: a new basket for his bike. Good thing he had recovered and just burst in a fit of laughter, only him and Magenta, leaving everyone else confused. I'll tell you later, he remembered saying to Ethan but he never did. He figured that it had been such a special night for the two of them, that it seemed so wrong to share that with someone else.
He also couldn't help but notice that Magenta had also been trying to reach out to Layla more too. He hadn't been sure if it was his talk last time that got her to be more inclined on being a bit sociable. He had figured that they would talk outside of school given that Magenta was comfortable enough to include Layla on their bedroom window visits.
Once, he had round the corner and ran into them huddled near Layla's locker, giggling away at something. He had heard her giggle before but this was one of those high-pitched, girlish ones.
He couldn't believe it.
Gradually getting his wits about him, he turned on his lamp and pattered towards the window. He slid it open to find Magenta staring at him with red eyes, only her purple hoodie protecting her from the battering rain. He shivered, both from the cold and, seeing the traces of tears on her already soaking face.
She eyed him up and down. He had forgone a shirt before heading to bed and his hair must have been some disheveled mess from having just gotten out of bed, "Were you asleep?"
"Yeah, but-"
Somehow, Magenta was even more dejected. "Shit. I should go." She crawled for the tree branches hanging over his roof.
"Wait, hey!" He whispered-shouted at her. He rubbed his eyes and slapped his face a few times to rouse himself, "It's fine. Not even tired. See?" He leaned out the window, extending his arm to her, getting slightly showered by the rain, "Get in here. It's pouring outside."
Magenta's eyes flitted to the trees for a second. Zach sighed, "You're gonna catch a cold. Get in here." She was still uneasy but took his hand and let him guide her inside.
She landed on the floor and nearly slipped but was caught by Zach last second. He helped her towards his bed since it was the closest to the window so she could slip her boots off. He didn't care about getting his bed wet, Magenta was shivering. He couldn't imagine what would make her walk all the way over here in a storm like this.
"You good?"
"I'm fine," she sniffled.
He crouched in front of her now getting a better look at her in this lighting, "You look upset."
"I'm not," She had taken an interest on the floor once she sat on his bed, "I'm not gonna be here for long, I swear. Get some sleep."
"No. I need to make you sure you don't steal anything," he joked. He wouldn't want to try to sleep, knowing that Magenta was going through something rough right now. It'd be best to keep her company at least until the worst of the storm was over and he wasn't sure when that would happen.
"Seriously sleep,"
"While you sit there looking like someone pissed in your soup?" That got her to raise her head and glare at him, "Fine. But what do you plan on doing here?"
"Yeah, didn't really do much planning tonight," she remarked sullenly.
"I bet I have some old comic books lying around... somewhere," Zach walked off to his closet, rummaging around his unkempt piles of clothes in there,"
"I'm not really up for reading,"
"Oh shit. It must be serious," He threw a look back at her, and she still didn't look too amused. He resumed his search,"Okay, okay. We don't need to talk about it. But you do look like crap," He grabbed an old T-shirt and some plaid pajama pants- that were clean, he made sure. "Here." He tossed articles of clothing at her.
"Umm… thanks,"
Zach immediately whirled around at the sight of her shedding her large hoodie. It hadn't really set in yet when he was picking out clothes for her to wear, mainly because he was being a good host and not letting her catch pneumonia from wearing cold, damp clothes. But he was now realizing that there was a girl in his room, practically stripping- not practically, she was- just to put on his clothes. He tried to bide his time by plucking a shirt off the ground and putting it on himself.
When it was time for him to turn around, nothing prepared him for the warm feelings growing in his chest at the sight of Magenta wearing his long-sleeved shirt and wearing his pants. They were all oversized on her but she still looked amazing. He knew what it meant for a girl to wear a guy's clothes, whether it was a jacket or something- it was this sort of claim. He knew he sounded like a creep and that Magenta was her own person but he never realized how much he wanted to see Magenta wear his clothes until just now.
It dawned on him that Magenta was well aware of that concept. That probably made her hesitant to take his clothes and he cursed himself for putting her in such an awkward position. But she needed to be dry and warm.
He continued to be a good host and tried to offer some Thanksgiving leftovers but she politely declined. He sat with her for a couple minutes on his bed, just gauging the vibe.
Magenta was clearly not in a mood to talk but he didn't want to leave her to her own devices. He had an idea. He returned to his closet and reached for the small TV he had with the VHS built into it, the one with Mickey Mouse ears on top. He used to watch movies on this thing like crazy when he was a kid; the box full of Disney movies in his closet could attest to that.
He carried it over with such ease and placed it on the floor and tugged on the cable to plug it into an outlet near his desk. Magenta threw a wary look his way, "I'm wide awake," He attested for hopefully the last time that night. Zach craned his neck to peer into the slot and found a tape already in there, "Austin Powers is in here, is that cool?"
Luckily, it left off close to the beginning the last time he had watched it so it didn't take too long to wait for it to rewind. Turned out Magenta had never seen any of the other Austin Powers movies before but he could tell that she wasn't getting into it. She had this despondent demeanor even when watching the more outrageous comedic bits of the movie.
He stopped the movie and went to go look for School of Rock instead. Maybe that would be better.
He went to go search in his box of VHS tapes in his closet to find the movie. In the meantime, he heard Magenta shuffle over to his desk, "Why are your CDs and tapes all over like that?"
"Been trying to make a playlist. For my stream,"
He had to put all of his streaming stuff on hold due to what happened with Dwayne and then the stress of passing his midterms was too much. During the Thanksgiving break, he had been focusing more on including more of the records he got from Layla while putting the hunt for the Santo and Johnny record on hold. Then along with his birthday he came into some cash, but when he went to the record shop he found out they had sold the record to some other dude.
It had bummed him out, came pretty close to getting into another panic attack several times but he was slowly coming to terms with the fact that he might not be able to get that particular record in his possession again. It had been such a special record for him and his mom, but it wasn't the only thing to remember her by.
He fished through the tapes and was able to find the movie, he knelt down before the TV to replace it, "You're not chickening out?" he could hear her from her spot in the room.
"I'm done with that," he glanced up and gave a small smile, "I'm gonna go live tomorrow. I'll tell you how to find it."
"That'd be cool," She returned the warm expression, "That's… that's great, Zach." He couldn't help but full on beam at her, seeing her be proud of him. She knew that it had taken so much for him to get to this point.
"Uh, how's the writing coming along?"
Magenta seemed thrown off by the question. They don't talk about her scribblings, as she phrased it, in her purple book that often. It was the same purple composition book that she had left in his room all those months ago, the very thing that sparked these visits. It would normally come up with Zach would text her what she was doing. She never showed him what she was working on but she seemed to appreciate that he remembered.
"It's good. Going good. Been getting more inspiration lately,"
"That's great. Maybe you can show me sometime,"
"Yeah. One day,"
Then, all of the sudden a crack of lightning lit up the room before it went dark.
"Shit," Zach stumbled back on to the bed in the newfound darkness. No warm lamp light. No blue screen on the tiny TV set either, "The powers out."
"Ooh, really?" Zach opened his mouth to retort but all of the sudden he heard a crash and Magenta hiss in pain, "Woah. You ok?"
"I think I kicked over the TV,"
"Shit. Hold on," He closed his eyes and concentrated. He was a little bit rusty but he was sure he still got it. Slowly a greenish glow emanated from his person and he was able to see Magenta, who had been hopping on one foot and clutching the other one. She gained her composure, once she saw Zach use his powers, she slowly hobbled over his way and was able to plop on to the bed next to him.
"Your own personal flashlight,"
She muttered a 'thanks', staring at him in his glowing glory, "I don't think I've seen you use your powers since…" she let the sentence hang, not wanting to inadvertently cause Zach distress by mentioning that night.
"Yeah," he caught on, "Never really had an opportunity to use it unless I'm stuck in a dark ventilation shaft. It's useless otherwise,"
"Come on. It's a good power,"
"Yeah," He let himself recline on the bed, hands tucked underneath his head, still glowing,"Have you ever wondered what it'd be like if you had another power,"
"At times," She crawled over to him and laid on her back as he did, "But I'm all good. I prefer to be inconspicuous anyway,"
He raised his eyebrows,, "A guinea pig with purple highlights?"
"I'm still small, Zachary," she gave him a playful punch, "People think the heroes worth looking up to are heavy hitters. Those who use their might for combative measures,"
"Like the Commander? I mean he's got that super strength. Good for knocking down bad guys, even buildings,"
"Why the fuck would you want to knock down a building?" she scoffed, "But like, sorry not sorry to Will, the Commander's got a big ego. He underestimates his competition, and that's why Gwen, or whatever her real name was, was able to pull a fast one over him,"
Zach tensed at the mention of the girl who nearly killed them. He tried to will away that discomfort to pay attention to Magenta who was sighing along to the sounds of the rain hitting his window.
"While people walk in the room already thinking they're the shit, they're unprepared for when I get to pull a fast one on them. You'd be surprised what a rodent like me would be capable of." she stated.
"Not really surprised. You saved the freakin school from pancaking Maxville. And you didn't get any mad respect for it or anything,"
"Seeing how everyone was having this hero-hardon for Will after fighting with Warren in the cafeteria even though they shat on him for not having powers. Fuckin' posers," She turned to him and said as genuine as possible, "That's why you shouldn't care what anyone else thinks, Glowworrm."
"What did I even do on Homecoming anyway? You could have replaced me with a flashlight and it would have been the same."
"But we didn't have a flashlight. We had you," Magenta turned so that her whole self was facing towards him as if reassuring him was a full body effort. It probably was, Zach thought.
"Remember, it was pitch black in there. We could have easily gotten lost in that maze,"
He thought back to the vents they were crawling through to escape the events unfolding at the gym. He remembered as soon as he crawled ahead the rays of his glowing revealed more than one path. They kept going straight but they have definitely crossed a couple intersections before meeting Will in the hallway. Reminiscing more about that night had Zach breathing a little hard.
"I guess, "was his weak response.
"And who helped me through that maze to get to the library and grab the school's blueprints? Or told me how to get to Royal Pain's device? Or helped carry the babies into the lab to be de-pacificed?"
Zach nodded along and gave a weak smile, "A flashlight couldn't carry a baby."
"That's for damn sure! That's more than Dwayne ever did that night. Shitting in his diaper, I bet," The mental image made them both erupt in a hushed laughter. Then Magenta got quiet before studying his glowing green face, "Was someone at Thanksgiving giving you trouble?"
Like him, Magenta knew him long enough to read his tells too. He blew out a breath, "Stuff that my Gramps said, after the dinner, before the scrimmage with the cousins. He thought he was tryin' to cheer me up, tryin' to reassure me that one day my powers would manifest and be more like my dad's."
"What is your dad's power anyway?"
"He, uh, could shoot lasers out of his eyes..." He let the sentence set in for a couple minutes until Magenta gasped in realization.
"Red-Eye. Your dad's Red-Eye?" she spluttered.
Yup. He figured she would have known who his dad was in the Super community. He wasn't as big as the Commander and Jetstream, but big enough for them to know his dad.
Once, his dad had single-handedly brought down some big name bad guys as well as weaponized his laser vision to cut down giant pieces of space debris that was projected to puncture the moon. Needless to say, it was a lot to live up to.
She shook her head, "Wait. I don't get it though. He's got that going on and you glow- what's the connection there?"
"Neon. He shoots out neon gas laser blasts out of his eyes. I just light up like the signs at the Tubthump,"
"It's just," her eyebrows knitted together, trying to piece it together. "I wondered how powers work and all that. Never really been around a lot of Supers or kids who are Supers before Sky High, apart from Ethan. And his mom was that giant glob like-thingy,"
"And Layla's mom can talk to animals and genetically, it somehow landed her with the ability to control plants. Will and Warren got exactly what their parents had." Zach continued, "Yup. Genetics is a crapshoot when it comes to powers."
He understood her confusion. And much like Will, Zach had also almost come to the conclusion that he may never get his powers until one morning, he had been in the basement and just… glowed.
"My mom…," she glanced down, pursing her lips, "she could shapeshift into woodland creatures."
"Woah, cool. Like what?"
"Squirrels, deer, an owl once, I think," Magenta threw a wistful glance up at the ceiling, laughing softly at the memory, "Good thing, genetics is a crapshoot, right? Birds aren't my thing."
"Have I heard of her?"
"She wasn't in the big leagues. Mostly local," Magenta sighed, "She's been… out of commission actually. She, uh, got into a really bad accident years ago. On duty,"
Zach frowned, "Shit. I'm sorry, Maj."
"It's fine," She tried to assure, her voice quivering slightly, "She's ok, physically, but she's not really there all the time" she gestured at her head, "Like there there. She can't do a lot of stuff by herself. Can't really be left alone so…someone's gotta keep an eye on her,"
"Is that why… why you haven't been hanging out with us a lot?" Zach realized. It made sense. It all made sense. How Amber reacted when seeing Magenta out of the house. Magenta not wanting to upset her father...and-
"-And why I cut class," she finished his train of thought, "The commute from school to home- it fucked up the schedule. I was supposed to switch off with Amber when she went to go to her 'evening classes' on Mondays through Wednesdays. Turned out, she had another waitressing gig to get to."
She blew out another breath before admitting: "I lied to my dad and said school ended earlier than it did. And when no one was looking, I shapeshifted and escaped into the mouse hole near the bookshelf during class. Our tin can of a teacher is too ancient for him to notice anything smaller than a kid leaving the classroom."
"Shit," Zach remarked. He had always wondered why Magenta never got caught for it. She was right though, their teacher Mr. Calc was of an older model of mathematician robots and he did seem to, no pun intended, to get his wires crossed. One time, he had mixed up the students and handed back the wrong quizzes.
"Wait. Hold up. How do you get back from school?" She stayed quiet. "Maj." He tried again.
"I sneak onto the garbage truck. When the morning guy leaves,"
He sat up instantly, "Magenta, that's not safe!"
She followed suit, inching towards the edge of the bed,"I've been doing it every week this semester. It's fine!" she justified, as if that was going to mitigate the danger.
"You could fall off? Or get crushed?"
"That's rich. Haven't seen you get all worked up seeing me climb on your roof,"
"It's a second story window, not thousands of feet above the ground,"
"Fair enough," Her palms flew to her temples, stretching her skin while emitting a low frustrated growl, "We got into a fight tonight. Me and my dad."
"Did he find out-?"
"No. It was the grades. Tin Can sent home a progress report and it didn't look too good,"
"You did okay on the midterm though,"
"But failed every other test and pop quiz," she gave a cruel laugh, "Pissed my dad off. But he can never know. He can never know the shit I've been doing, the shit I had to do so I could take care of mom and Sky. I couldn't explain myself. I got frustrated. Words were said..."
"Why can't you tell him?"
"He'd freak out like you just did! Just now about the garbage truck thing. Listen, he used to be this big hot shot reporter in the city. Once mom got hurt on duty, he moved us all to the suburbs. It's been tough and he'd been working to support us. I can't just give him more shit to worry about,"
Zach was getting the full picture, then something else clicked, "You never told him what happened about Homecoming then,"
He couldn't imagine, having gone through what they all went through, to never bring it up with anyone. Especially your parents. There was so much she didn't tell them, probably to put her family's mind at ease. Her mom was incapacitated because of Hero work, the rest of her family were civilians- no one would have understood...
"He would have pulled me out of school if he knew. He thought Sky High was going to keep me safe,"
Not the other way around.
It got quiet again, and it took the beat of silence to finally realize that Magenta had been slowly moving off the bed, trying to put some distance between them.
"Maj. There's something else, isn't there?"He watched her carefully, her grim expression illuminated by the green of his glow.
"My dad...He talked about getting me a tutor. He doesn't want me going out anymore until I get my grades in check,"
Oh.
"But… but, um… he doesn't even know you come here though. He can't stop you from coming here, right?"
Zach winced at how desperate he sounded. And he knew he sounded so selfish, worrying if Magenta wouldn't be able to see him anymore when her time with the rest of the group was in jeopardy.
No more mall hangs or group studies. If her and Layla made plans, those were probably out the window, and he knew how a huge deal it was for Magenta to befriend other girls, given what she had confessed about her difficulty getting close to people and seeing as the only female presence is Amber- who was such a delight-
"I'm gonna need the time to get my grades together though..." Magenta tried to put it as delicately as possible, "I'm pretty sure he might pull me out of Sky High if all he thought I was doing was fucking around. He's dead set on me having good grades so I can get into a good college, get a nice, safe but boring desk job hopefully out of the way of Hero work."
Zach was trying his hardest not to show signs of complete and utter disappointment. He couldn't imagine going through the next 3 years without Magenta. The thought literally made him queasy, like she was the one person besides Stephanie who he would share everything with.
Her dark, sometimes insulting, humor was something he had grown to appreciate and play off of, her insightful remarks and the way she would rattle off passages from American Gods or whatever book she was reading at the time- all of this he had learned from their time together.
He scooted over closer to her, "Maj, that's not fair of him to not let you hang out with anyone though. I mean, lately you've been just so… so," Lighter? Happier? He wasn't sure how to phrase it without offending her, but it was true, "Did you try to reason with him? Before you left?-"
"I have been trying, Zach!" She leapt from the bed and stormed over to the window, pacing, her hands woven through her hair as if to scratch at her scalp in aggravation, "That's all I've been fuckin' doing! School and my fucked up family, and now- all this! Everyone seems to want a part of me, don't they? I just… I just can't-t. I'm trying my b-best but-something's gotta give- I c-can't-"
Once her voice had begun to shake, Zach raced over to her to try and quell her, "Woah, woah, hey- Maj," He tentatively reached to place a gentle grip on her shoulder and stooped down so she could see him better. She looked up at him, tears clearly trailing down her face. She had been swaying back and forth, getting caught up in the wave of emotions she was experiencing.
He wasn't sure what happened when all of the sudden she barrelled into him, basically leaning into his chest, he instinctively wrapped his arms around her as if to catch her from falling again.
It fucking broke him to hear Magenta in so much pain. He couldn't help but tears welling up in his own eyes just feeling his chest taking the brunt of her sobs. All he could only do right now was hold on until the worst of it subsided, rubbing her back and making those shushing noises he hoped that was more comforting than patronizing.
He should have known. He should have known that Magenta was cracking from all this pressure. He should have caught it the morning after the all-nighter. They both had been incredibly weary but he saw Magenta able to pull herself together to seem like her usual, regularly functioning self- like it was nothing. Like she had been doing it for a long time now.
He had seen her, literally in the face of danger, completely composed, never hesitating to crawl into that pipe and save the school. Never hesitating to hop onto a flying, metal death trap just so she could be home in time to take care of her mom. Probably putting on a calm face at home, pretending to be ok for the sake of her dad. It just seemed she never had the luxury of just processing it all.
He could feel her head shift around so she could breathe better. He eased his hold on her in time to hear her say:
"I'm so tired, Zach,"
He sighed, "I know." He pulled away and saw that besides her sniffling, the crying had generally stopped.
She began furiously wiping her face and nose with her hands, "I'm so fucking stupid."
He frowned at the sudden self-bashing, "No, no you're not."
"I knew that if I spent time out of the house, if I got involved- I'm not gonna be there when my family needs me the most," She wiped her runny nose with the sleeve of her (his) shirt.
"I wasn't thinking when I left tonight. Look, I'm in some guy's room in the middle of the night because I couldn't get over myself and just stayed home like I'm supposed to. It's fucking Thanksgiving. And I interrupted your sleep," She shrugged off the hand that was still on her shoulder, not meeting his eyes, "Amber's right, I don't care and my actions just- just make it worse for everyone." She went for the window, trying to slide it open.
Zach surged forward and grabbed her hand, "Maj, wait."
"I have to go back," she tried to tug away from his grip.
"It's still pouring outside!"
"Whatever. It's what I fucking deserve,"
That got him to use a bit more force than he normally would to pull her back towards him, "No, it's not."
"Look, I'm sorry about your mom. I'm sorry that you never really got to have the time to act like a stupid teenager because here you are, making the most grown up decisions that I can't even…." he stopped, hearing himself growing marginally louder. He brought it back down to a whisper, "I can't believe Amber would say that to you. To you of all people. You care. You care more than you could ever admit to anyone, and you usually don't."
Magenta was unresponsive so then Zach asked "Why were you there that day? The day I had my panic attack,"
"To get my wallet,"
"Bullshit. You and I know that,"
"Dwayne. He did a number on you," she uttered out finally, confirming his suspicions that she came to check on him.
"Listen to me. This is gonna be a hard pill to swallow but," he paused, picking out his words because he could not, he absolutely could not fuck this up.
"You're, like, this amazingly thoughtful person. And I only get to hang out with you a fraction of the time. Time, that you honestly have no business of wasting on me by the way," that earned a scoff from her, "I bet you'd want to move the fuckin' stars and the moon for your family, and I'm sure you have. But, you know they're gonna love you even when you can't."
"You don't get it. I have to be that kind of person. I have to act like I have it together when I don't. If I show cracks, then it all falls apart,"
"We're like 14. You think someone's gonna look at us and expect us to have it together? You're allowed to do other things. To hang out with your friends, to live your own life,"
"I can't have it all, Zach. The good grades, the happy family, the social life- I can't do it-"
"-By yourself," he interjected, "You act like you're all alone in this and you're not able to get everything off your chest."
"For good reason," She crossed her arms, her voice getting quieter, "You don't wanna see me like this all the time. Because I can assure you I feel like this, like a mess, on the inside, all the fucking time,"
"I don't mind,"
"Zach, I'm serious,"
"Me too," he affirmed. He stepped closer to her, nearly replicating the stance they were in not only minutes ago where he was bending down to look at her directly. He needed her to see that he absolutely meant it.
"Like I said last time. I'm always gonna care about you. I understand what it's like. To try and live up to expectation. That your worth is tied to this idea of what you're supposed to be. But, guess what? You know when I feel the most fulfilled? When I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be? When I'm just chillin with my friends, putting together mixes, this- right here. Because I get to be me. And I get to be around people who are okay with me being me," He shuffled his feet, "Even when being me involves panic attacks and all-nighters."
"You haven't had any more since then?" Magenta inquired. They hadn't talked about it too much but he knew that ever since then Magenta, in her own way, had been keeping an eye on him whenever anybody mentioned Dwayne or said something related to the incident.
"Nope. Came close a couple times but I was able to manage them," he reassured as he stood up straight, "Luckily, I had someone there that first time when I really needed it," He gave a stiff laugh, "I remembered the way my dad looked when I had my first panic attack. One of the few times, I saw him afraid. I thought you would be too. I thought I'd scare you away."
"I don't think you could," she then asked, "I'm not scaring you away?"
Months ago, he wouldn't have been sure to answer the question. But now, after all they had been through, he could resolutely say: "No."
That seemed to dislodge something in Magenta and she let out a sigh- of relief? He hoped. He didn't realize that he could see the details of her face more clearly now. He wasn't sure when the distance between them had gotten smaller.
"Maj?"
"Yeah?" she repeated in the same hushed tone.
"You're pretty fucking incredible,"
She inadvertently winced. A habit. But he could tell that the comment was reaching her, given how she was shyly looking away from him, biting her lip, "You too, Glowworm."
"I just think you deserve someone moving the stars and the moon for you. For a change," He blurted out before he could stop himself.
She turned her head and locked eyes with him, "It's a lot of work though." her tone was teasing but he could see a flash hope reflected in her brown eyes.
"I think it'd be worth it,"
"You know…," she arched an eyebrow, straining to poke his chest lightly in their close proximity,"that was pretty fucking cheesey. The stars and the moon shit."
"Hey," he put a hand on his heart, pretending to take offense, "But, it seems pretty well-received to me."
"Shut up, Glowworm,"
"Make me,"
The two had been grinning during their usual back and forth, but Zach's response wiped the smile off Magenta's face. But before Zach could ask, she was already leaning towards him, propped up on her toes, hooking her hand around his neck and pulling his face down to meet hers in a kiss.
His surprise only lasted only for a moment before he slowly brought his hands to her hips to steady the both of them. He closed his eyes, letting himself get lost in the thrill of the kiss. He had had his fair share of kisses in the past, a few short, sloppy pecks from middle school girlfriends that barely lasted a week, but nothing that had left him feeling breathless and his heart beating on overdrive.
Nothing too salacious happened in the way their lips were meeting. Not at all. But he couldn't help but experience all those electric feelings, all those crappy cliches about sparks or whatever. It wasn't until he felt Magenta pull away and hear her gasp that he quickly noticed that 1) he had been glowing the whole time and 2) he wasn't sure how but he was glowing even brighter now, brighter than he had ever been in his months of having his powers.
Embarrassed, he immediately de-glowed. The power was still out, but it was fortunate that he had Magenta close and they were holding on to each other. Good to know that they weren't totally lost in the dark. They stayed there, the sound of their labored breathing and the rain outside filling their ears.
"Shit," he said once he managed to get his breathing in order, "I didn't know what happened."
"It's fine. You just got… a little excited,"
"Huh?" He was confused until he was able to make the connection. His heightened emotions must have… made him brighter? Now, he was even more embarrassed, it was weird having a clear sign that he very much enjoyed the kiss. Well… he could think of one other thing- but somehow the glowing was worse.
"I mean, I practically pounced on you though..." she said in an attempt to make him feel better. And it did. His mind was still slow on the uptake since the kiss, but it was coming back to him: Magenta did initiate it. The girl he had been crushing on for months kissed him.
He wanted to talk. He wanted to know what this meant, for them. Like holy shit. But then Magenta let out a small yawn and he decided that that was enough… um, excitement, for one night.
"Um… can you please stay? You shouldn't be out there right now," They were both getting real tired and obviously he wasn't going to let Magenta walk home in the rain. She hummed in agreement.
He took her by the hand and led her towards his bed. He had her scoot over to the side of the bed bordered by the wall. She must have been tired because she followed his lead without making a sarcastic comment about making sure he had noble intentions or something along the lines of.
He went to set an alarm on his clock before remembering that there was no electricity. Luckily, his watch was on his nightstand, "I'll set my watch alarm for a couple hours from now. Hopefully it'll lighten up out there and the power will come back on soon. And I'll take you home," He went and set it up for 5: 30 in the morning, "You need to catch some Z's."
He heard Magenta let out another exhausted yawn before making herself comfortable in his blanket. Zach rolled over and even though it was pitch black at this point, he wanted to make sure she was settled in before he let sleep overtake him.
Zach woke to a soft knocking on his door. Stephanie's voice filtered through from the hallway, saying something about breakfast. He hummed and lifted his head that had been pressed into his bed to feel sunlight hit his face.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw that the rain had stopped. The chill of last night must have gone with it because his blankets were pooled around his feet and he must have shed his shirt in the middle of the night. His arms were draped over something and he had figured it was his pillow but it turned out to be Magenta, who had hogged a lot of the blanket to her side now that Zach wasn't using it.
She must have felt him stirring awake because she slowly came to, rolling over from where she was facing the wall to catch him rubbing his eyes, "Mornin'," he croaked out, admiring how Magenta looked with her hair all messed up from being enveloped in the blanket. She greeted him warmly, sitting up and stretching.
He sluggishly got out of bed and was in front of his nightstand. He picked up the watch and noted the time- "Holy shit!" He made a double take between the watch and the window, "It's morning."
That got Magenta jumping out of his sheets, "Oh my god," she went to his side and read the time, "8:45?"
They must have slept through the alarm. Zach immediately ran for his door, locking it not wanting his folks to barge in and bust them. Meanwhile, Magenta raced around the room trying to find her clothes that she came in, muttering a series of curses. Zach found them on a pile near his desk and he tossed them her way, it was still wet.
Feeling her clothes in her hands, she panicked. There was no way she could change out of Zach's clothes, "My dad's gonna fuckin' kill me,"
Zach hurried to find a plastic bag for her to carry her stuff in. "Here. Head out first and I could grab my bike-"
She was already sitting on the windowsill zipping her boots up, "No, your folks are up. They're gonna ask questions."
"I should be taking you home,"
"My dad seeing you pull up to my house- he'll kill you too,"
He nodded. He understood. She was already in hot water with her dad already before she showed up at his window. He didn't want to make it worse than he already had, "You gonna be alright? The roof might be slippery."
"I think I can manage," She swung her leg over and hopped onto the roof, grabbing onto the windowsill to make sure she didn't slide down. She looked back up at him, "Um… I'm not sure what's gonna happen, but… thanks. For talking me down last night."
"No problem,"
"I'll see you when I see you," She tried moving alongside his window by gripping the sill.
"Wait," Zach stopped her, "I think you forgot something."
"What?" Then Zach learned over the window to give her a quick peck on the cheek. Like he had said last night, he was done chickening out. She flushed instantly.
"You know what this looks like right? Like a knight climbing up a tower to the fair princess?" He noted from the way they were oriented.
She quirked an eyebrow, "That would make you the princess?"
"Then I'll be the happiest princess in the goddamn castle,"
Magenta's shoulders were shaking from how hard she was laughing, "Bye, Zach."
There was no 'Glowworm' or weird salute. Then she was off, carefully navigating the twigs and the slippery surface to jump on the tree branch like she had in the first visit. It was just as incredible watching it the second time, albeit it worried him since it was a bright morning and his folks or, worse, his neighbors would catch Magenta make her transformation.
He observed dutifully from the window, making sure she didn't take a nasty fall from the tree or anything. It was all he could do at this point since he wasn't able to take her home. She maintained her guinea pig state as she scurried down his driveway. She hid behind another tree near his mailbox, out of his view. She was about to break out into a run but she froze.
Zach stuck his head out the window to get a better look. He saw Magenta flipping someone off before taking off, and his first thought was she encountered her sister or something. But no. Once, Magenta was gone he could see, as clear as day now, that there was a kid walking his dog- wait, not just any kid- it was Larry. He could see now that Larry was giving him a thumbs up, probably wearing some shit-eating look that made his stomach churn.
Fuck. He must have seen everything: Magenta sneaking out of his window, sporting his clothes- it didn't help that he was currently without a shirt. Larry made a shushing motion over at him, winking. Zach knew exactly what he thought they did.
He closed the window immediately and face-palmed himself. Stupid. Stupid. He should have hurried her out of the house and not keep her on the roof long enough for people to see. And now the smallest kid with the biggest mouth in Sky High saw something that he shouldn't have-
He was definitely going to hear about this on Monday.
A/N: Uh-oh. Larry knows. You think he'll keep quiet?
And sorry no songs for this chap. Hope you enjoyed reading this one. Please leave reviews :)