This was bad. This was extremely bad. Heart racing, Hiro scrambled for a way to write this off. He came up completely empty, of course, because there was no way to explain away his ability. Now that part of the truth was out, he'd have to give away the whole truth—and that would take a lot of explaining.
"I cannot believe you lied about this!" Anzu exclaimed, running her fingers through her short, coarse black hair. Hiro hadn't noticed before, but a few streaks of it were died dark red-orange. "I mean, how could you not have told me that you are literally a comic book character —and one of my all-time favourite characters, no less!"
Hiro blinked in surprise. "You mean that's what you're honing in on?" he asked. "Not the fact that I have superpowers?" He was glad that she wasn't say, dialing up the government to report him, but he honestly felt a little offended that she wasn't more in awe of his powers.
"N-no, I… that's incredible! It's unbelievable! It's just…" Anzu stammered at a mile a minute, wringing her hands. "But if you're actually Hiro Nakamura—the one from the Ninth Wonders series—that all the other characters are real, too! A-and they, and you, and everyone all really has these abilities?! I mean, what the hell, I mean, that's amazing! …Oh, God, but why didn't Kim tell me about any of this?!"
Anzu's cheeks were burning bright red, and her breathing grew increasingly rapid and shallow. Hiro laid and hand on her cheek to feel how hot it was, prompting a startled shriek from her. "You're overheating," he said, frowning. "And if you don't stop and catch your breath, you're going to hyperventilate."
At his words, Anzu sucked in a huge breath and held it for a moment before letting it spill out in an exhilarated rush. Then she broke into a coughing fit, bending over the table and sending the Funko Pop display clattering to the floor. "Oh, no," she moaned, life-changing revelation apparently forgotten. "Now I'll have to tidy the stupid thing up all over again…"
"Ah! Don't worry about that," said Hiro, stooping down to gather the brightly coloured packages into his arms. "I'll help you."
"Th-thanks." Having now caught her breath, Anzu blinked gratefully at him, undoing the top two buttons on her uniform. "I really hate those stupid things," she added after a moment, picking one up and squinting at it distastefully before setting it back down on the table so that the figure was facing away from her. "I mean, just look at those weird dead eyes. I feel like it's staring into my soul."
Hiro nodded, chuckling. "I hate those things, too," he said. "But I've bought a couple in the past when they're the only merch available for a character I like."
"Mmm. Now, when you say you've bought them in the past—"
"—I mean I've bought them previously in my life," Hiro clarified. "I have never travelled back in time to buy a Funko Pop."
Anzu laughed, and for a moment it was like everything was ordinary. But then the laughter drained from her face and she groaned, rubbing her temples, like she'd just remembered how very unordinary this situation was. Her knees partially buckled and she leaned across the display table, supporting herself with one arm—Hiro noted that she had well-defined muscles; she must have worked out a lot. Anzu muttered "Oh my God" to herself over and over while Hiro restacked the Funko Pop display.
He realized how strange this must have been for her on multiple levels. When it came to finding out that someone you knew had some extraordinary ability, this wasn't really how it tended to go in TV shows or movies. This wasn't like at the start of a new season of Doctor Who¸ when the Doctor's newest companion would discover the TARDIS for the first time. In this case, Hiro didn't have to launch into some long-winded explanation of who he was, what his powers were, and how he used them. Anzu already knew all of that. She just hadn't known that it was real.
After the display was back to approximately how it had looked when Hiro had walked in, he took a step back, laid a reassuring hand on Anzu's back, and unfroze time. When the faint sounds of scuffling feet, rustling pages, and faint murmurs resumed, Anzu let out a huge sigh of relief. Her manager rounded the corner without even sparing her a glance, and Hiro wondered if he would have noticed she'd been slacking off had he not intervened.
Finally, after standing in stunned silence for several long moments, Anzu gathered herself and spoke. "Hiro, I'm not going to go on about how insane this all is, because I happen to know you've already heard it all before. Just… we need to talk more about this, and I've gotta get back to work, so… can you drop by here again at closing time and take me to your apartment?"
It was a bit of an odd request, but Hiro could see no reason why not. He nodded, smiling, and gave Anzu a polite bow before he left. On his way out, he made sure to check when closing time was so he would know when to come back. Then, with a beleaguered sigh, he pulled out his phone and typed in a text message to Ando saying that Anzu knew the truth now. His finger hovered over the "send" button, but then he thought again and deleted the message. He'd tell Ando about this when he got home. This kind of thing was better suited for a face-to-face conversation anyway.
At their apartment, Hiro was a bit surprised to find Ando standing in the bedroom in front of a full-length mirror, apparently talking to himself. He jumped when Hiro rapped apprehensively on the door, but he quickly smoothed himself out and Hiro decided not to ask. He already had more than enough bouncing round in his mind what with Anzu discovering the truth and all.
"Hey, babe," Ando greeted him, putting his arms around Hiro casually and giving him a playful kiss on the nose. "You took a while getting home. Is everything okay?"
"Oh, everything's…" Hiro began, quickly trailing off when he remembered that everything was, in fact, not fine. Coaxing Ando onto the bed so he'd be sitting down, Hiro said as calmly as possible, "Anzu found out about my powers."
"What?!" Springing to his feet, Ando clutched at Hiro's hands, wide-eyed. "You told her? Why?!"
"I didn't tell her," Hiro explained, staring down at the pattern of the comforter. He traced his finger along a long, snaking seam as he spoke. "She just… found out."
Cringing, Ando massaged his temples. "You mean you used your powers?"
"Well, yeah…"
"Hiro, why aren't you freaking out right now? This is bad!" Ando fretted. "I know you think you've got some sort of connection with Anzu because she read your comics, but she's basically a stranger! We can't entrust her with this kind of information!"
"I didn't mean to have her find out," said Hiro. He was getting the feeling that his boyfriend definitely wouldn't be keen on Anzu coming over to their apartment, but he'd agreed, so he may as well introduce the idea anyway. "Speaking of which, Anzu asked if she could come over here when she's done work—she says she wants to talk to us."
"And you agreed?"
Hiro nodded, drawing his knees up to his chest and rocking back and forth on the bed. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I really didn't mean to let the truth out… but don't you think she deserves to know?"
Sighing, Ando pulled Hiro into a hug. "It's okay, sweetie," he said. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just…"
"Exasperated?"
"Yeah, you could say that." Ando sat back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. It was painted a rosy pink that neither of them liked the colour of much, but painting it would be too much work, and they probably weren't even allowed. Maybe they'd be able to afford a house one day, but it wasn't something in their foreseeable future. "So, what time does Anzu's shift end?" Ando asked after a few moments.
Hiro rolled over to check the time on his phone—5:58. "About ten minutes from now," he told Ando. "How do you think I should get over there?"
"Well, she knows about your powers now, so you might as well teleport to save money," said Ando. "Your bus pass is almost used up, right?"
That was indeed true. Hiro sometimes considered buying a bike so he wouldn't have to rely on public transportation, but he didn't feel like it would be a wise investment. His bike riding skills weren't exactly top-notch, so he was probably better off just taking the bus or train most places for now. It wasn't a glamorous life by any means, but Hiro was certain that someday soon, he and Ando would get their big break that would put them in a financial position to buy a house and a car, and maybe even have enough of a salary to support a family. Before Hiro's daydreams got too far ahead of himself, though, he reminded himself that he was happy with things just the way they were. They'd never be as well of as, say, the Petrellis, but they didn't need to be. All Hiro really needed in life was Ando.
A few minutes later, Hiro went to get Anzu and brought her back to the apartment complex. When they reappeared in the hall outside the apartment, Anzu narrowed her eyes in bewilderment. "Hiro, what's this all about?" she asked, waving her hand around at the off-white walls of the hallway, the paint of which was cracked and peeling. The doors were fairly close together since the apartments were small; a couple of the mailboxes had come completely off the walls and were simply propped up on the floor (which had an extremely threadbare brown carpet) or balancing precariously on the doorknob.
Not entirely understanding the question, Hiro answered, "It's the apartment complex. This one's our apartment," he added, gesturing to the door, which was unlocked. "Come on inside."
He opened the door and stepped inside; though Anzu followed, she kept glancing warily from side to side as if she expected something to jump out at her. Hiro could only assume she had been expecting him to have a better living arrangement. A few years back, he'd have expected that much of his current self as well, but things had kind of fallen apart when his previous apartment had burned down while he'd been out of the country.
"Guess who's here," Hiro called cheerfully to Ando, who was pacing the apartment with heavy footfalls. "It's our biggest fan!"
Anzu's cheeks coloured and she elbowed Hiro in the side. "Don't be like that," she muttered. "As far as I was concerned up until a little while ago, I was the biggest fan of a couple of fictional characters!"
"H-hey, Anzu," Ando greeted her, clearly rather agitated. "Can I speak to you alone for a bit?"
Hiro really hoped his boyfriend wouldn't take out his annoyance with him for letting their secret out on Anzu. She definitely didn't deserve it. To Hiro's relief, though, Ando didn't seem upset with Anzu at all. Rather, he guided her off toward the kitchen and raised a hand for Hiro not to follow. He didn't, but he couldn't help wondering if this had something to do with that mystery item Ando had purchased the other day.
A few moments later, Hiro heard Anzu let out a high-pitched squeal. She and Ando emerged from the kitchen at that point; Ando was blushing and not meeting Hiro's eyes, while Anzu was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, grinning.
"So, uh… I guess we should go over some things now" Anzu said, lapsing into a more serious expression. However, it didn't last long; the corners of her mouth curled up into a smile as soon as her eyes landed on Hiro, who was thoroughly confused.
Clearing his throat, Hiro tried to push aside his questions about what Ando was up to—and what he'd told Anzu to get her so excited. "Yes, there are some things that we must discuss," he said in as businesslike a tone as he could. "What would you like to go over first?"
"Oh, I don't even know where to start!" With a giddy smile, Anzu threw herself onto the sofa, although she winced upon squeezing the ratty cushion. "You guys deserve better than this," she muttered, throwing the pillow onto the floor. "…Anyways, why not begin by telling me when it was that you fell in love?"
Hiro and Ando exchanged a grin. That was one of their favourite stories to tell—and this would be the first time in years that they'd be able to tell it the way it had really happened.
"Well, it all started at a carnival," Hiro began. "A lot of people were in danger, and I had to get them out of there. Well, something you probably don't know about Ando is that he has a power, too…"
"Whoa! Seriously?" Anzu interjected, gawking at Ando. "Never mind how you guys fell in love—I wanna hear about this first!"
The rest of the evening was filled up with Hiro and Ando explaining various events that had transpired after the events of the last Ninth Wonders comic. Anzu listened with rapt attention, occasionally stopping to throw in a comment or two about how awesome everything was—or sometimes, how little sense things made.
At around 6:30, Ando got up partway through Hiro's explanation of how his brain tumour had been healed and pulled out a couple of frozen pizzas from the freezer. Hiro was grateful for this, since they did need to eat but he did tease his boyfriend for leaving the room during that particular recollection. "Hey, Ando," he said, poking his boyfriend's cheek. "Want to tell Anzu how much you cried when you thought I was going to die~?"
"Shut up," Ando muttered, face growing red. "I didn't cry."
"Sure you didn't," Hiro singsonged. Then he put his arm around Ando and gave him a reassuring kiss. "It's okay, baby. It wasn't the first time and wasn't the last, right?"
It was creeping up on 9:00 when Anzu received a concerned call from Kimiko asking where she was. After explaining the situation, Anzu promised to be home soon. Upon ending the call, she dipped her head apologetically—although Hiro assured her there was no reason to apologize; she needed to get home to her girlfriend—and asked if he could teleport her home.
Once Anzu was back at her and Kimiko's house, the revelation of Hiro's secret didn't seem so disastrous anymore. In fact, Hiro was kind of glad that he could be totally honest with Anzu now. Now, if only Ando would be totally honest with him…
