Chapter 8

The kid watched on with great fascination as Hunter and Suiryu sparred. They two went all out on each other, striking and landing stiff blows and sending one another flying! The kid was in awe of them, Snek could tell as he barely blinked and tried to keep up with following the action. He came by and watched on with the kid, he took a seat but said nothing.

"Drax."

Snek paused. "Drax?" he asked.

The kid nodded. "My name… it's Drax."

Snek leaned over and extended his hand. "Pleasure to meet you Drax, that name is a hell of a lot better than Slim."

Drax shuttered. "Please don't say that, it's brings back bad memories." He said. But shook Snek's hand.

He nodded. "I'm sorry for what you went though. Your mom and I… we use to be close. Until… until I got obsessed with being an A Class hero. I don't even have that anymore."

Drax nodded. "So, how did you turn back into a person?"

Snek smiled. "When you got friends that can do some crazy shit, anything is possible. But as I said, this isn't going to last forever for me. Four months is all I got, so I am going to make the best of it, but I also missing being that. Believe it or not, I was starting to enjoy it"

"Really? What's there to enjoy about it?"

"Well, I got to eat a shit ton and not really put on weight. I did but it didn't make me look fat or anything."

The kid snickered. "I guess that's a bonus."

"I didn't have to buy clothing, I didn't need to do laundry. I got to sleep off what I ate, I save a ton of money! I still got paid by the association for my heroics, but without having to spend money on various items, I got paid to eat!" but he paused. "Then, there are days where I want to be human, for the rest of my life and not look back. It's a love hate relationship I got with this thing."

The kid nodded. "Snek, thank you."

"For what?"

"For helping mom and I, for the food, the clothing, a place to stay…"

"Think nothing of it kid,"

"DINNER!" came the voice of Melee.

Everyone stopped their sparring. Snek stood up and helped Drax to his feet. "Let's get some grub!"

#

Snek brought Drax into the house, the table was set and everyone was coming in to eat. Yet before they could sit down, Amai slinked in. Drax and Angela froze at the sight of him. "Who is that?!" questioned Drax.

"NOT A WORD!" Roared Amai as he was quick to dash into his room. He slammed the doors shut, startling Angela and Drax.

"He's in a mood. We do ask you not speak of this to anyone, but that was Amai Mask." Melee explained. "Please, have a seat and help yourselves!"

It was a nice spread of food, Snek helped himself as he listened to the stories the kids had going on that day. Hunter has been working with Genos and Alley on something important. Claiming it will change and revolutionize A Class for the better. Suiryu then began talking to Alley about their next date. Pac spoke of his day with Zenko and how well her training is coming along.

Melee explained there would be another meeting coming up soon, but she and Garou were the ones who called for it. Garou was grinning from ear to ear.

"A meeting?" Snek asked. "Do I need to be there?"

"Not unless you want to. But it's just a little something about our current house guest…" Garou said as he nudged his head towards Amai's room. "We have a little… stipulation being added."

Snek smirked, he would go, but also remembered he promised to help Angela and Drax settle in first.

"So Angela, how do you know Snek?" asked Pac.

Angela blushed a little and explained they use to be a couple back in the day. They did everything together even when he was working his way up the ranks through the heroes association. Yet, she paused. "Everything changed when he went into A Class."

Snek began to remember. They went out for dinner to celebrate his promotion. "To think, I could climb my way up and get into the S Class!" he announced.

Angela nodded and blushed. "Would you consider perhaps starting a family too while working your way up?"

Snek paused to the question but laughed it off. "Have a family? NOW? Are you kidding me? This is where they separate the boys from the men! I won't have time for a family. I got a whole city to protect, and the people are going to look up to me as a hero!"

"Won't have time?" she said. "You just got promoted, you think they are going to work you like a dog?"

"No, I'll be working myself like a dog! Angela, you know how it is. Being a hero, I have to be there at any time or place. If I get the call, I go. If I am tied down, how do you think that's going to affect my career? Besides, kids aren't for me anyway. I can't just drop everything for one kid when I could be saving hundreds of people or the city."

Angela couldn't believe her ears. "Are you going to have time for me?" she asked.

"Of course I will…."

"It's him! Snek! The A Class Hero!" four young woman came rushing to him, wanting autographs and photos. One even slipped him their number in which he took.

Angela turned red in the face with rage. The women left as Snek smiled a coy grin. "You took her number!"

"Just to be polite."

She had it. Angela threw her napkin on the table before storming away. It was the last time Snek ever saw her until just a day ago.

"Snek?"

He shook his head out of the moment. "Sorry." He said. "What were we talking about?"

"Angela was telling us how you two met, and sadly how you broke up." Said Pac. "It's amazing though that you found each other again."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Snek said and smiled to her. "I was an idiot," he confessed. "Took me what? Nearly 10 years to figure that out!"

"Give or take," said Angela.

"I became so obsessed with my rank, I didn't consider the people around me, or those who truly cared about me. I lost her because of it, at the time, I didn't see that it was that big of a loss until recently. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed being alone throughout the years. Ever since I started to live here, I became accustomed to the sounds and noise of other people. I missed that when I got home before running into Angela and Drax."

The twins smirk. "I knew it." Said Goliath.

"Me too, he misses us!" said Draven.

"How did you two meet this time?" asked Garou.

Angela's smile vanished, Drax looked away as Snek told them what happened. They were living on the streets trying to outrun her ex husband who abused them both. Snek only learned recently that he was turned into a monster, but they kept running to be certain he wasn't going after them.

"Do you have his monster name? I am pretty good at remembering who I've taken out recently." Asked Hunter.

"He called himself the Pig Butcher," said Angela.

Garou began to choke.

He cleared the food from his windpipe before he stared at Snek oddly. "The… Pig Butcher…" he said slowly.

Snek nodded.

"Oh…" Garou feel eerily quiet.

"If you did him in, I don't care." Angela said. "If he's dead, he's dead. He can't harm Drax or myself anymore."

Snek however sighed. "He didn't do him in… I did."

Drax turned and stared at Snek. "You?"

"Yeah, was really pissed off one night, some people tried to threaten Draven and Goliath when they were younger. Garou took me out hunting, we ran into this demon level threat monster. I broke his bones, dislocated his shoulder then ate him… alive." Snek confessed. "Not my proudest moment."

Angela couldn't believe it, but it appeared the weight of the world was lifted off her shoulders. Drax got out of his chair and hugged him! "Thank you!" he whispered.

Snek gave him a half hug back, Drax went back to his seat and continued to eat. "Well, that's my dark little secret out, sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I didn't want to make it awkward."

Angela shook it off. "I understand, don't worry about it Snek, I don't think any less of you."

The rest of dinner was rather quiet. When the meal finished, Snek helped with the dishes as Garou stood and stretched himself. With a smirk, he turned to down the hall. He roared aloud for Amai to get out of the room, it was time to hunt.

"Wait… Amai? As in Amai Mask?" whispered Angela. Snek nodded but hushed her on speaking it aloud.

"No one knows yet that it's him. We're keeping it hush hush for now."

"NOT HUNGRY!" Amai shouted back.

Garou smirked. "He hasn't eaten since he got here. I can hear his gut roaring each day and it's only getting louder." Garou went to Amai's room, forced his way in and demanded he get out of it. "We're going tonight, you are going to eat something or God help me, I shove a monster down your throat!"

"I said I am not hungry! Leave me alone!"

Snek decided to go in and see for himself. Garou stood at the door about ready to yank Amai out by force, yet Snek decided to see if he could convince him otherwise. With a nod, Garou left him to try. Snek closed the door behind him and stared down at Sweet Mask.

He gave Amai Mask the pep talk, similar to what Garou told him when he first became the serpent monster. Eat something now or do something stupid later. Sweet Mask didn't take it seriously, he even dared to say he would try and eat Snek again! Yet there was an ace in the hole, if Amai did such a thing, he would be trapped forever as a serpent monster with no escape. It was the first time Snek really saw fear on the face of the A Class hero, well, ever since the meeting where his fate were to be judged by Garou. But the message was clear. "I know you're not hungry, you're starving. Go get a monster."

He growled lowly as he pushed his way past Snek and out of the room. He was going to go begrudgingly. "Get this over with." He demanded.

Snek came out shortly after, with a smirk, Garou called Amai outside. The boys soon followed and then Snek. Yet, before he could leave, Drax grabbed hold of his arm. "Ca…Can I come?"

Snek turned to Angela who was nervous to the whole thing. "He's well protected, I'll look out for him, not to mention you got all of the M Class going!"

"I'll be staying behind with Angela." Said Melee. "But I want this recorded!"

"Got you covered mom" said Hunter.

Angela was reluctant, but nodded. Drax smiled from ear to ear as Snek led him out. Hunter took Amai, floating him off the ground and then taking him into the sky. Pac got everyone else who couldn't fly on their own as they trailed behind them.