Warren sat in the back of the classroom, his eyes on the book he was holding open in front of them, but every bit of his focus was on the group of girls to his left who were quietly gossiping while Medulla kept talking

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Warren sat in the back of the classroom, his eyes on the book he was holding open in front of them, but every bit of his focus was on the group of girls to his left who were quietly gossiping while Medulla kept talking.

"Frankly, I'm shocked that he had the gall to come to the dance at all," a short brunette said, and stole a quick glance over her shoulder at Warren, her face full of disdain as she eyed the subject of their conversation.

"Absolutely, and who would ever knowingly go out with a villain? Did you see the girl he was with? Does she even go here?" another girl asked, looking to their leader.

Lisette thawed the ice she was idly coating her fingernails with and smirked, "I heard she some sort of homeschooler. Probably has some ridiculously embarrassing power."

A darker blond to her left cut in, "Really? I heard she was some new foreign exchange student. That her parents were French." The girl saw the icy glare from Lisette and cowered. "Probably just rumors though."

"They are," Lisette pronounced with finality. "She's just some loser Warren felt the need to make out with. I bet she's a villain too. They were probably scoping out the school so they'd know the best ways to blow it up." The girls around her drank in every word, thriving on the drama they created.

Warren's hands tensed up into fists and he felt a small fire smoldering just underneath the surface of his skin. He tried to let their words roll off his back; they were just a bunch of catty girls trying to assure themselves of their own superiority.

"He shouldn't even be allowed here." One girl said cruelly. "We all know he's working with the Villains; the teachers are just fooled because he follows Will Stronghold around. Please, we all know it's an act."

"I know," the short brunette agreed. "When my parents heard that he went here, they were furious. They said that after the disappearance of AquaAvenger, you know, Brian Anderson's dad, that the school would have cracked down on security. My mom's already called Principal Powers a ton." The girls around her voiced their accordance and glared at Warren. Warren however, was immune to the looks directed at him; his mind was reeling.

He'd heard about the mysterious disappearance of AquaAvenger on Halloween night, everyone had. Every hero anyway, the story had been front page news on The Signal for the past two days. Warren hadn't known that the Hero had a kid here. That made the situation seem all the more dire. Warren filed the information away to discuss with the rest of the group later, but his first course of action when Medulla would finally stop droning on was to call to check on his mom, even though she wasn't technically a Hero anymore.

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During the middle of a school day two weeks later Principal Powers came on the P.A. with news of the Villains' most recent siege. Warren called Emilie the second he heard the news.

Damn it, pick up your phone. He mentally yelled into the phone, pacing the hallway between classes. He started speaking right when she picked up.

"Emilie! The elementary school's been attacked. The one Eric goes to. Have you heard anything?" He heard a deep shuddering breath on the other end.

"I know, our principal just announced it. We're all watching the news in class trying to find out what's going on. Do you not know either? We just heard there was an attack, that's it. No one seems to be able to figure out what's going on!"

He heard the worry in her frantic sentences. The depth of her possible sorrow, knowing what he did about her mother in the same situation, caused him to shut down. What could he do for her now? He couldn't go rescue her brother. He couldn't even hold her hand.

"I don't know." He said solemnly. He could just talk to her, but how could words be enough in this moment. "I'll call you if I hear anything. Call me if…when you find out he's okay. I'll pick you up from school." He disconnected and walked to class.

Halfway through his next class he got a message, and as soon as he could slip out of the room unnoticed he replayed it.

"Warren, it's Em. Eric is fine. Apparently all they did was cut off the power to the school and surround it with a force-field so that no one could get near it. No one was hurt, so…" Warren heard her voice crack. "So Eric is fine. Dad picked him up. They're making us stay at school for the rest of the day so we can all pretend like life is still normal. See you later. Thanks for calling."

Warren leaned his head against the wall. He ran his hand roughly through his hair in frustration, and looked back at the classroom. He should go back into the room. He should go back in there and not listen to the rumors slandering him. He should finish out the day like it was any other. Instead he walked out of the building.

Emilie walked down the steps from school and saw Warren waiting for her. She smiled and gave him a quick peck. Warren wrapped her in a bone crushing hug, as though he was determined to fuse their two beings into one.

"Can't…breathe," Emilie gasped and laughed when she could look back up at him. "What was that for?"

He answered her question with a question. "Are you okay?" His eyes searched hers cautiously.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Emilie waved his concern off nonchalantly. "Wanna walk me home? Well, actually, you don't have a choice. You're escorting me is the only reason dad's not up here with all of the other parents to pick me up." She motioned at the long line of cars in the school's lot, then turned and started down the sidewalk.

"Wait," Warren said haltingly, and turned her around to face him. "You're sure you're okay? It's okay if you need to…freak out or whatever… you know, about the thing with Eric today." He noted how her eyebrows arched defensively.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I not enough of a sobbing mess for you?" She eyed him challengingly.

"Ugh, Emilie," Warren ran a hand over his face in exasperation. "It wasn't a judgment, okay? I just didn't want you to think that you had to, you know, be strong or something in front of me. I know today had to be hard for you. I'm just trying to say that I'm here if you need me." He looked past her, eyes directed towards the street, but out of his peripheral he saw the sadness that flashed across her face. It was there only for a second; not a moment later, she pushed it aside.

Emilie linked hands with him and started the walk home.

"I can't stay sad, you know," she said eyes on the path unfolding in front of her. "It doesn't do any good to stay worried or get so scared that I become like half of Maxville and just hide from the world. Eric is fine." She ended the last sentence forcefully.

"No one would think any less of you if you were scared. It's a reasonable reaction." He corrected her.

"No." Emilie looked at him. "That's how they win. Don't you get it? That's what the Villains want. They want us all to be so scared that we turn on you all. So let them come and do whatever the hell they want, they can't scare me." Warren shook his head at her irrational stubbornness.

Emilie must have caught his reaction because her next statement was purposefully confronting a touchy subject.

"You still haven't let me meet your mom."

"I know." Warren answered flatly. This wasn't the answer she wanted, and he knew that. But, frankly, it wasn't her decision to make. There was too much happening right now, and the last thing he needed was something else to think about.

"I've never even been to your house." Emilie huffed.

"I know." He heard Emilie sigh and guessed that that meant she was letting it go. He let go of her hand so he could wrap his arm around her shoulder.

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Emilie picked up the latest edition of the Maxville Star off the counter and headed to the reading area. Normally, she would have gone directly to the carts behind the circulation desk and shelved, but times had changed.

Emilie set her cup of hot chocolate down on the coffee table, shrugged off her winter coat, and nestled into her usual chair. She glanced up, taking in the desolate silence of the library. Maxville Public Library had never been a hubbub of human activity, but it was usually at least busy enough to provide a common soundtrack of whispers, crackling pages, and the clacking of people on the computers. That wasn't the case anymore. As November drew to a close, the town of Maxville had become relative to a ghost town. The Villains had become relentless in their attacks; they wrought floods, staged robberies, and a myriad of other heartless, pointless acts of violence, every time reiterating their message for the citizens to turn out the Heroes. And, unfortunately, it looked like people had begun to do so.

Emilie opened the paper to The List. The List was an impromptu addition to the Star; it listed missing persons (unknown whether they were Heroes or citizens) and casualties. Her eyes flew down the list, and she could only let out her held breath when she realized she didn't recognize any of the names. Emilie closed her eyes and leaned into the chair, seeking security and coming short.

She picked up her cocoa to sip and tried to read about the latest attack on the front page but her eyes wouldn't focus. Life just seemed a little too heavy. Maxville was empty. Empty and dreary and scared. People left their homes only out of necessity, and never alone. And the whole damn situation would just be a lot easier to deal with if she could do something. But what could anyone do? The Villains ruined lives randomly and disappeared; she couldn't combat the fear she hated herself for sometimes feeling except to ignore it.

Everyday should have some good in it, even if you have to make it yourself. Emilie repeated her mother's favorite proverb to herself. Emilie smiled, remembering her good: she had Warren. At least there's something happy to count on, she reasoned. Even if he does keep putting off my meeting his mom.

Emilie looked up when she heard the sound of footfalls, uncommonly loud in such a quiet room. Warren looked down at her and gave a small smile before motioning her to move over. She did so they could both fit snugly in the seat, and leaned back into his warm chest. She felt Warren combing his fingers through her hair and basked in the rare moment of serenity in the otherwise anarchic world.

"You're here early," Emilie commented.

"No one at the Lantern, so Mrs. Cho let me go early." Warren answered, eyes closing as he felt the tension he'd been carrying around slowly seep out of his body. He concentrated on the strands of her hair.

Over the course of a month his life had gone from stressful to damn near intolerable. He'd spent the first period of school washing off the spray painted slanders on his locker; the majority of the student body was now convinced he was abetting the Villains, despite what Will and the others told them. And with every disappearance and attack the atmosphere in the school only got worse. Then on top of that was his mother. Warren was fairly confident that she was safe from the Villains since she'd given up Hero work when his dad left, but he'd never let her know about how bad things were getting at school, or the threats he found everyday in the mailbox, telling them to get the hell out of Maxville.

"Still nothing new about the Villains?" Emilie asked out of habit. She kept her eyes closed as she leaned against his chest.

"Nothing." Warren answered in defeat. He hated the answer, and hated himself for having to give it.

Emilie just nodded into his chest; she still hoped for a change in the response but never really expected it. After a moment of stillness, Emilie's only concentration was the feeling of the rise and fall of his chest. She tried to match her own breathing to his.

Warren felt Emilie's hand settle on his chest, right over his heart. When he felt her fidgeting and her breath catch, he questioned her.

"What's the matter?" he asked quietly, unwilling to disrupt the quiet that cocooned them, buffering the two from the outside world.

"Nothing," Emilie answered looking up at him and blushing. Her need to be that intimately tied to him would sound silly and childish if she confessed it out loud.

Warren saw the melancholy in her eyes, something he'd never seen in them before and it unnerved him.

"Hey," he whispered to her, trying to draw her into his confidence so she would talk. When she just kept staring at him, Warren smoothed out the wrinkled between her eyebrows with his thumb and broached the subject himself. "You look sad."

Emilie just shrugged. She wasn't sad, at least she didn't think so. She just felt removed from life. This wasn't her life, was it? This dark gloomy realm where people didn't let their kids play outside anymore couldn't be her home.

"Would Thanksgiving dinner with me and my mom make you feel better?" He saw her eyes brighten for a second before the furrow was back between her brows.

"I can't. We're going to my grandparent's. We always do."

Warren knew that; she'd told him a week ago, but he'd hoped the possibility of the dinner, his extension of that particular olive branch would make her happy. That hadn't worked.

"A rain check then." He amended. He felt her settle back into her stupor.

"Hey," Warren tried again; this time she didn't look up. "Don't be sad. I can't take it when you're sad." He was unable to utter the phrase any louder than a murmur.

Emilie felt Warren's warmth pervade further into her, thawing her. She smiled into his chest; Warren may not be a romantic of many words, but when then he said things like that, not really poetic but heart-achingly honest, she melted.

Emerging slowly from her state of despair, Emilie sat up, now almost entirely in Warren's lap, and grinned a fraction of the smile she saved only for him. Warren looked surprised and relieved at the return of some of her general optimism.

Emilie leaned toward him until her face was but an inch from his. "What then," she started, but paused to give him a lingering kiss on the warm crook of his neck. "Are we," she brushed her lips against his jaw. "Going to do to make it all better?" Her lips caught his in a deep kiss, her hands wandering up his shirt and tracing mindless patterns on the bare skin of his stomach.

Warren pulled back to answer her, varying between words and kisses. "We…could…throw…a…party." He got one more drawn out taste of her before he felt her spring away. Warren looked up to see her beaming, possibility positively crackling off of her like electricity.

"You are a genius! We'll throw our occasionally annual Christmas Party! I can completely get my dad to agree; it used to be his favorite thing during the holidays. Layla would love to help, and Magenta and the whole group. And we can invite everyone; coax all of them out of their little foxholes with the allure of a sparkling, boisterous, traditional Christmas Party!" She squealed in excitement. Warren smiled knowingly to himself; Emilie may not be able to physically beat off the Villains, but she sure as hell wasn't going to get beat down by them.

He watched as her mind and mouth flew through a list of things they needed to do, people they needed to invite and plans for decoration. Warren felt his face give way to a genuine smile; this party would probably turn out to be a long damn night for him but if it made her this happy, he'd let her drag him to a party every day of the week.

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So there is the chapter, a quick moment to react before life gets chaotic again. Sorry this took me so long to get out, but it was the first two weeks of school. And that means back to school parties, old friends, and since I live in Texas, the start of the football season! The next chapter should be up in the first part of this week. I'm excited about what's going to happen next! Thanks to EVERYONE who reviewed. They were amazing! I felt so bad that I couldn't get the chapter up faster for you all after every review. They did make me work harder though, which I am grateful for.

This is the first story of this length I have ever written, so every review helps me know if I'm getting things write, or if I forget something. So please review.