"Hell...o?" Roxanne asked, opening the door to find confusion waiting there on the stoop. She had expected Bernard, but instead she saw a rather short, orange-haired girl, whom she didn't recognize. "Who are you?" she asked rather bluntly.

"I'm Mindy. I came to see Damion," the girl replied, and Roxanne nodded slowly.

"He's...in his room..."

***Break***

Metrocity jumped carefully from one rock to the other, trying to cross the river without so much as a bootlace getting wet. "Dernit!" she exclaimed as one boot slipped into the water. It was waterproof of course, baby seal leather needed to be, but it meant she'd lost the game. Bernard had made it an entire seven rocks across before he fell in.

"Darnit," Bernard corrected, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. It was a quiet day in the forest, with nothing out of the ordinary. Metrocity sighed and trudged over the stream, no longer minding if she got wet. Then she threw herself down beside the soaking Bernard and peered over his shoulder at something he was drawing. He took it away and stashed it somewhere before she could glimpse more than a flash of blue and brown.

"What's up?" she asked, leaning back against the tree.

"Nothing," he answered quickly. She nodded and they lapsed into silence. It had been like that since lunchtime. They hadn't really spoken much since then, it was too...awkward. After a while, Metrocity cleared her throat and stood up.

"I'll race you to the top," she said, gesturing up the tree they'd been sitting against.

"You know I'll win," Bernard told her, smiling.

"Oh really?" she asked, grabbing the nearest branch. "Because I'm already—"

"Halfway there!" Bernard finished for her, taking off from the ground as Metrocity began swinging up the tree. Laughing the whole way up, they went, Metrocity climbing for all she was worth, and Bernard flying up, sweeping back down to make sure she was coming every few seconds. As always, Bernard made it to the top first, landing only a minute before Metrocity touched the very top spire of the pine tree. "Race you back down?" he asked, and Metrocity shook her head, breathless.

"I need a...I need a...a break," she said, leaning against the tree, perched precariously on a branch. It made Bernard a little nervous. The tree was much larger than most of the trees around, and he hated thinking of her falling down if the wind picked up.

"Why don't I fly you down?" he asked, and Metrocity shrugged.

"Sure," she replied, and let him pick her up. He flew up and away from the tree before diving down towards the ground, and Metrocity couldn't help but squeal in delight as the wind pushed against them and air whistled past. She was filled with a new surge of excitement, more so than she had ever felt on her hoverboard or her motorbike. When they reached the ground, they were both laughing again, and they collapsed on the ground, rolling in the grass like little kids.

When they recovered, Metrocity and Bernard were lying head-to-head by the river, spouting short bursts of laughter as they settled down. When their laughter had completely stopped, they lay, smiling up at the sky and thinking their own private thoughts in complete tranquility. Then the tranquility ceased when a figure flying through the sky caught Metrocity's eye. There was a flash of silver, followed by a flash of red, and her blood froze in her veins.

Could he be back?

Author Comments:

Wait, what's going on here...?