Jonathan knocked on the door, ["Tarrant County Sheriff's office, can we speak to you?"] On the other side, there was a shuffling noise as someone approached the door. The door cracked open a little, and he could just make out a woman's face in the gloomy light.

["Y-yes? How can I help you?"] The woman looked nervous, although if he had been in her situation, Jonathan would also have been borderline shitting himself.

He held his badge up so she could see it and asked, ["is Jason Butler currently available? We just need to ask him a couple questions. We do have a warrant if you would like to see it."]

The woman looked from the badge to his face, then snapped, ["Yes, give me your warrant."] Jonathan fished a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to the woman. She quickly read it over and shoved it back to him, ["Why do you need to talk with him? He ain't done nothing wrong."]

["You're probably right, ma'am, we're just following up on some leads, is all."] Jonathan tried to sound like he was on her side. Hopefully, she'd cooperate with them, and things won't have to get messy.

"So he's not being arrested?" asked the woman.

Jonathan shook his head, ["No, ma'am, we just need him to come down to the station with us for a bit. It shouldn't take more than a couple hours."]

The woman narrowed her eyes again, then closed the door. Jonathan was worried that she didn't trust them and that they'd have to get another warrant. But a moment later, she returned with a young man, presumably Jason. "Hi, I'm um, I'm Jason."

["Hello Jason, I'm Officer Tyson, and this is my partner Officer Peck; we're with the Tarrant County Sheriff's office, and we're conducting an investigation. We believe that you may be connected to a murder that occurred approximately three weeks ago."] Jason's face went pale, and Jonathan saw a flicker of fear in his eyes.

["I didn't kill anyone, I swear,"] stammered Jason quickly.

Nebula shook her head, ["Never said you did, kid, we think you were in the area when it happened, though, so we have to do a formal interview, nothing too serious."]

["How long will this take, I have to, umm, I have to go to work here in about an hour,"] Jason wasn't doing a very good job at hiding his fear, but if the roles were reversed and he was being asked to do an interview about a murder, he'd have been shitting himself.

Jonathan casually replied, ["Shouldn't take more than a couple hours, but we'll call your boss and explain why you were late to work."]

Jason nodded, ["Okay, okay, okay. I'll go. But I'm not in trouble, right?"]

["Nope, not in trouble, we're just gonna ask a couple questions."] said Nebula while leading him back to their squad car. She opened the back and let him climb in. During the drive to the Sheriff's office, Jason didn't say a word, and he continued staying quiet even when Jonathan sat across from him at the table in one of the interrogation rooms.

As he sipped his coffee Jonathan pulled out a little device approximately the size of a thumb drive; he set the little device down on the table between himself and Jason. When he did, Jason glanced at the device with wide eyes, and Jonathan said, ["This is a recording device; it'll record our entire session today so we can potentially use it as evidence to convict the killer. Inside this device"] he reached over and popped a hatch open and pulled out a small circular device ["is a memory recall chip, all it does is help you remember what happened."] He offered the device to Jason.

Jason didn't reach for it ["it doesn't hurt, I promise, and it'll make answering questions easier."] This time Jason did reach for the device, but he hesitated before grabbing it, ["Just place it here on your temple, flat side down, yup, just like that."]

Once Jason had stuck the device onto his temple Jonathan opened up a folder he'd brought with him and pressed a button on the recording device, ["The date is June 28th, 2185. The interviewer is Specialist Pro-Hero Jonathan Tyson, codename Riot Ranger, Badge number K014897. Please state your full name for the record."]

Jason hesitated before saying, ["Jason Caleb Butler."]

["How old are you, Jason?"] asked Jonathan.

["I'm 17,"] answered Jason.

Jonathan continued asking him basic questions like his birth date, power, job, and where he lived. Then once Jason had confirmed all the information, Jonathan asked, ["Now, can you recall where you were on June 7th?"]

Jason thought about it for a moment before answering, ["I was at the arcade, umm, I think it was called Disco Square."]

["Do you remember approximately what time you arrived and what time you left?"] asked Jonathan.

Jason shook his head, ["Not off the top of my head, but I was there for a few hours."]

["Do you know roughly how many hours you were there?"] asked Jonathan.

["I think it was four or five,"] answered Jason.

["When you left, did you head straight home,"] Jason shook his head but didn't say anything ["please verbalize your answers."]

["Ummm, no, I went to the park a couple of blocks away from the arcade."] Jason hunched forward, his eyes darting to the left.

Something happened either during his walk or when he got to the park ["Okay, how long did you stay at the park?"]

[Just a half hour, then I went home."] This time Jason looked down at the table, purposely avoiding eye contact. Something definitely happened at the park.

["Okay, I think that's all the questions I have for you. You can remove the memory recall chip. Stay here for a bit; as long as my supervisor is satisfied, we'll get you out of here in a few minutes. He stood up, took the memory recall chip from Jason, and slipped it back inside the recorder. Once he left the room, he made a right and entered the next room.

["Anything?"] asked Jonathan.

The tech manning the monitoring station nodded, ["Yup, we had a spike in the creativity center of his brain when he was talking about going to the park. And a significant spike from the memory center of his brain."] The "memory recall chip" didn't actually help with recalling memories. Instead, it scanned the brain and noted when there were increased levels of activity from one section of the brain; the first few answers were designed so that the part of the brain that accesses memory could be isolated. If any other sections of the brain, such as the Prefrontal cortex, start to light up with activity, then it's a clear indication that the person is lying about something.

["So he told a partial truth?"] asked Jonathan.

The tech nodded, and Nebula said, ["Just goes to show he was hiding something."]

Jonathan didn't think he was the murderer, but he was hiding something. ["See if you can't get footage from the arcade, then find out what park is nearby. I'm gonna continue my chat with Jason, see if I can't get him to tell us what he's not saying."]

["On it,"] replied Nebula.

Jonathan went back into the room with Jason and sat down; he pulled out the recording device and turned it back on. Jason looked from the recording device to Jonathan, ["I thought we were finished with the interview."]

Jonathan nodded, ["We were, but my superior has some follow-up questions that I need to ask."]

Jason turned his head towards the door then back to Jonathan, ["Okay, okay, what are they?"]

Jonathan nodded then asked, ["When you went to the park, what did you do?"]

["I just hung out with a friend of mine,"] this time, Jason looked to his right.

["Can you tell me their name?"] asked Jonathan.

["Ummm, Tiffany."] Ah, so he hung out with his girlfriend at the park? He could see why a teenager wouldn't want to talk about that during an interview with a cop.

["And what did you and Tiffany do afterwards?"] he had a suspicion of what Jason and Tiffany did.

["I'd…..rather not say."] Yup, called it.

["Because it's embarrassing?"] asked Jonathan.

Jason nodded his head, a blush spreading across his face, ["Yeah."]

["And where did the two of you go after you left the park, we just need to check to make sure you were there."] Jonathan could tell the kid was dying of embarrassment.

["We…we went to the La Quinta near the park."] Jason crossed his arms and looked like he was trying to disappear.

Jonnathan chuckled, ["Okay, I think that'll do. Come one, I'll take you home."]

Rumi slouched on her bed; she couldn't believe that a robot of all things, kicked her ass. It was utterly embarrassing. She couldn't, no, she wouldn't let anyone back home hear about this. Then, she realized she had done it again; she called Japan home.

It wasn't her home anymore.

She was home right now; well, the academy was as much of a home as she had right now.

Rumi felt a sharp and deep pain in her chest. All of her friends were back in Japan, and some people she tolerated. Sure, a few people here in America were okay; Claire was alright, Travis was super rule-oriented but, for the most part, was easy to get along with, then there was Ranger. Ranger was tolerable. But she reminded herself that there was one person that she actually enjoyed spending time with, Jacky.

She grabbed her phone from the nightstand next to her bed and checked her messages, a part of her was disappointed when there weren't any. Rumi debated whether or not to text Hawks; what would she say?

Hey! How've you been? Everything going alright since I skipped town without even saying goodbye first?

God, she was a pretty shit friend, wasn't she?

With a heavy sigh, she laid back and stared at the ceiling, Rumi didn't know how long she stayed like that, but the growling of her stomach drove her to her feet and out the door. The mess hall was adjacent to the dorms and, luckily, was open from five to nine, plenty of time for her to get a bite to eat before curfew.

When she got there, the mess hall was almost entirely empty, although with it being eight, it wasn't that surprising. It also meant there wasn't a line for food, so while it usually took half an hour to even get a tray, she was sitting down with and munching on a steamed carrot within five minutes.

As she ate, Rumi scrolled through QuirkCentral; the notifications icon was lit up with a ridiculous amount of alerts; when she clicked the icon, she saw that most were about how many people had unfollowed and unfriended her.

Which was, well, most of them. A few months ago, she had the fourteenth largest following with about four hundred million followers.

Now only about fifty thousand of them remain.

She went back to her feed and saw several posts about honoring or missing All Might, a few posts from Mt. Lady in provocative poses, and several posts of protests all around Japan. One photo was a person holding a sign that had "NO MORE HEROES!" printed in large red lettering.

There was another post of a news video, and she regretted starting the video almost immediately.

"Apartment raid gone wrong, heroes showed up to the complex on Wednesday to arrest several individuals accused of robbing a convenience store four hours prior. During the raid, a quirk destroyed the wall to the nearby apartment and killed a young man, no information on who's quirk was responsible was disclosed. In response, a crowd protested outside in front of the Agency belonging to the Pro-Hero Super Crain."

Rumi knew mistakes happened, and sometimes nothing could have been done to prevent those accidents from happening. But what worried her most was the protest. Protests about or involving Pro-Heroes happened very rarely. The last protest she remembered was several years ago when a pro-hero had killed a witness.

But now it seemed as if everyone in Japan suddenly hated Pro-Heroes. Which probably wasn't the case, more like the media sensationalizing every time someone even said they were upset with some Pro-Hero.

She scrolled past more photos of people protesting and decided that she'd had enough of QuirkCentral. She finished her food, then headed back to her dorm room to get some rest. As she was about to turn in for the night, there was a knock on her door.

Briefly wondering who the hell wanted to see her at this time of night, she opened the door. To her surprise, it was Jacky.

["Hey girl! You wanna come hang with us?"] Rumi checked her phone; they had about twenty minutes until lights out. Behind Jacky were the rest of the women in their class, some looking at her expectantly.

["What about curfew?"] not that she wasn't against breaking the rules, she was all for breaking the rules, but she was curious about how they'd get around it.

Jacky rolled her eyes, ["Fuck the curfew."]

Rumi put a hand on her hip, ["I got that, but how are we getting around it?"]

Jacky answered ["Easy, we hang out in one of our rooms and just not make too much noise. As long as we don't leave the room, we're all good."] Sounded simple, ["So you in or not?"]

Rumi grinned, ["Course I'm in, who's room are we going to?"]

["Oh, mine! I got some good stuff stashed away in my room."] declared Chelsy, a blond-haired woman. Her quirk was interesting, it allowed her to change her appearance into anyone or anything, but she had to know everything about them.

Chelsy skipped down the hall, everyone else following after. As they sat down in a large circle in Chelsy's room, she fished out a large bottle from under her bed, ["Tada! I have no idea what the fuck this is, by the way."]

Rumi narrowed her eyes at the bottle; at a glance, she couldn't figure out what it was either; it was, ["it's…green"] said one of the other women.

["And?"] asked Chelsy.

Nobody said anything, and they waited for someone to volunteer to try it first, ["Well, if everyone else is gonna be chicken shit about this, hand it here."] Rumi took the bottle from Chelsy, popped it open, and gave it a whiff.

"Que me jodan ["you sure this is drinkable?"] Chelsy nodded her head, prompting Rumi to take a sip. ["Okay,"] she brought the bottle to her lips, tilted it back, and swallowed a small bit. The second it made it down her throat, she felt a burning sensation, ["Holy fucking shit."] wheezed Rumi. ["God damn, that's rough."]

The rest of the women laughed, ["Oh come on, it can't be that bad"] teased Jacky. Rumi handed her the bottle, and she took a sip; Jacky made a pained face and said in a wheeze ["Okay, it's super strong."]

The girls took turns drinking from the bottle, and after a few sips, they were all tipsy and telling stupid stories. Most were about high school hijinx they were part of, others were about siblings, then they started venting about classes and classmates. Eventually, one asked Rumi a question that she'd rather avoid ["So, like, why did you leave Japan? Weren't you already a pro-hero there?"]

If she were sober, she'd have waved off the question; unfortunately for her, she was drunk, ["Well, it's kinda a weirdly comple- complexaded story. So there I am mindins my own business doin hero stuff. Then, I get roped into this stupid ass plot to overthrow the government."]

["Oh yeah! I heard about that on the news a few months ago!"] said Jacky.

["Yeah yeah yeah, that was me. Well, I wasn overthrowing the governing people buuuuut, I, like, stopped it from happening. But like, they were out to kill a kid, don't know why, so we had to keep em safe, right? Well, we had to kidnap him to do it."] Rumi could tell the other girls were super confused.

["Wait, so you kidnaped a kid? Why?"] asked Chelsy.

Rumi belched, ["Cause they were gonna like, kill him or something, so we had to keep him safe."]

A few girls nodded in understanding, ["Anywaysss, so like, we stop the government overthrowing plan thingy, and like, the public hates me now. Like I had to leave. It's like, I tried to keep them safe, but like, they don appre appreci umm, you know what I mean, they didn't like it."]

The girls nodded, ["Don worry, Rum Rum*, you did a good job."] Jacky patted her shoulder.

Rumi smiled at her, ["Thanks Jacky."]

It was a touching moment; they understood why she did all that stuff.

But the moment was ruined by Jacky unleashing the biggest belch shed heard in a long time. A few seconds later, everyone was cackling in laughter and rolling on the floor.

Izuku flopped back onto his bed; today had been a long day. Training was tough; Mr. Aizawa had them run fifteen kilometers, then had them do a full workout with all of their gear on. He felt bad for some of the others whose costumes weighed a ton. Like Aoyama, his armor really slowed him down, and he was a good half hour slower than the rest of the group. He was proud that even though he didn't use his quirk, he came in sixth.

His phone dinged from where it sat on his desk, and Izuku slowly got up, his muscles aching from the workout earlier. He grabbed his phone and opened it. It was a text from Uraraka.

His heart fluttered as he quickly opened the message,

Hey

Hi

What's up?

Just trying to recuperate from training

Lol same

Have you started working on that one paper yet?

I'm too tired to think

Same

There was a long pause; Izuku tried to think of something, anything, to keep the conversation going.

I've got a question

He felt his heart go into overdrive, and his imagination started to run wild with ideas about what her question was. No, he had to calm down. He took a deep breath and then responded,

Sure, what is it?

Uraraka didn't reply right away; the little indication that she was typing appeared, disappeared, then appeared again. His heartbeat was beginning to slowly slightly his nervousness from earlier was dissipating.

Then she replied.

I was just wondering if you wanna hang out sometime?

Like only if you want to

I don't know where'd we go or what we'd do

We can't really leave the school or anything

But maybe we can like walk around the school some?

Oh my god! Oh my god! OH MY GOD! She wanted to hang out with him!? Would she invite other people too? Or did she just wanna hang out with him alone?

Just the two of them.

Alone.

Together…

He shouldn't sound too excited about this; it would be a little creepy, right?

Umm, yeah, that sounds fun

When do you want to do this?

He'd expected her to say sometime, like next week, that made sense.

What about now?

I mean

Unless your doing something

Then we can do it some other time

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!

Tonight?!

That soon!?

He thought about it for a second.

We probably shouldn't.

They'd get in trouble for being out this late.

But then again…

It's not like this kind of offer was commonplace.

But the rules, he'd risk being kicked out of UA.

But Urarakas was willing to take that risk to see him.

Was it fair to her to rebuke her desire to hang out with him?

She'd made an effort to ask him to hang out; that takes a lot of bravery.

His older relatives always told him that he had to take chances to get anywhere in life.

Might as well take this chance.

Sure, I'll meet you in the common area in a few minutes.

He couldn't believe what he was doing.

He just couldn't believe it.

Izuku quickly went through his wardrobe to find something nicer to wear instead of his loungewear. Eventually, he picked out a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Nice and simple, but not too flashy. Then he quickly left his room and headed for the elevator.

He tried to tidy up his hair in the elevator, but as much as he tried, it never stayed down. All too soon, the elevator came to a stop with a *ding.* The doors swished open, and he stepped into the common area.

He looked around for Uraraka, but she hadn't made it there yet. A few minutes passed, and he was starting to reconsider this impromptu meeting. But the rebellious thoughts were shoved from his mind from the *ding* of the elevator. The doors opened, and Uraraka stepped out.

She raised a hand in greeting and smiled. "Hey, Deku, sorry for keeping you waiting."

"N-no problem. I wasn't waiting long." Izuku rubbed the back of his head.

"Awesome, so, do you wanna hang out here, or umm," Uraraka petered off, looking off to the side.

Izuku thought they were going for a walk around the school grounds, "Umm, how bout a walk?"

"Okay," replied Uraraka.

The two walked outside and had made it a few meters from the dorms before either of them spoke.

"It's getting hotter," commented Uraraka.

Izuku nodded, "yeah, it is; summers starting to ramp up."

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Uraraka asked, "So, are you, umm, doing anything during summer break?"

Izuku nodded, "Oh, yeah, I'm going to the I-Island Expo."

Uraraka stopped walking and excitedly said, "That's so cool! I wish I could go!"

"Me too, it'd be a blast if you came," Izuku turned to face her, "apparently, this year, Mr. Shield invited some other companies to come display their hero equipment too!"

"Aww, man! That sounds like it's going to be packed, and a lot of cool stuff will be there!" Uraraka pouted, "I really wish I could go now."

Izuku had to admit. Her pout was about the cutest thing he'd ever seen. No, it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen.

"Well, maybe I can get my mom to get another ticket, and, maybe, you can, only if you want to, that is, possibly come with us." Izuku rambled quickly, his face turning a light shade of pink.

Uraraka seemed stunned for a moment, then said as she brushed a bit of hair behind her ear, "No, I couldn't possibly intrude, no, umm, not that I don't want to, ummm, cause, I definitely do, it's just that, umm, I know tickets are expensive, so I don't want to put undue stress on your mom."

"Right, sorry for asking," said Izuku; he'd have loved for Uraraka to come with him.

"Plus, you guys would have to book another hotel room for me, and that would also be super expensive, and well, I just don't want to make things difficult," Uraraka continued trying to explain.

"No, no, it's okay, I understand," said Izuku.

Uraraka sighed, "Sorry, Deku, maybe I can make it up to another time?"

Izuku's mood brightened a little, "Yeah, definitely."

Uraraka smiled, "Great, well, just need to figure out when."

Izuku nodded, "Yup."

Uraraka started walking again, and Izuku fell in step next to her; they walked silently, occasionally their hands would brush, and they'd both blush.

Izuku wondered if she'd let him hold her hand. Only for a little bit. After a bit of debating, he finally mustered up the courage to ask, "Ummm, can I, ummm, ask you a question?" asked Izuku.

Uraraka nodded and replied, "Y-yeah, what's up?"

"Can I umm, can I" Izuku gulped, and it felt as if his heart was going to burst out of his chest. "Can I, umm, hold, can I hold your hand?" His face felt hot, and the last part came out as almost a whisper. He was afraid he might have to ask again, but he was also scared that he might not be able to ask her another time.

Uraraka's face was almost entirely red now, but she managed to muster up a response. She nodded her head slightly and reached out her hand to him.

He couldn't believe it; he tentatively reached out, then as his hand grasped hers, he felt his nervousness melt away.

They continued walking hand in hand, neither talking, just enjoying the simple act of holding the other's hand.

When they returned to the dorms, they stopped, unable to go inside because the second they walked through the doors, they'd have to let go of each other's hands. Not because they were trying to hide anything.

Well, technically, they were. But mostly because they knew that their classmates would relentlessly tease and prod them until they got every little detail about their relationship.

Neither of them knew exactly where they stood.

So until they had had time to figure out what they were, nobody else needed to know.

"Tonight was…nice," said Uraraka.

After a moment, Izuku responded, "Yeah, it was."

"Do you, ummm, want to do this again sometime?" asked Uraraka hesitantly.

Izuku nodded, "That would, that would be great."

Then, slowly, they let go of each other's hands and made their way inside; thankfully, it seemed like nobody was inside the commons area, so it didn't seem like anyone was gonna be asking any weird questions.

They went into the elevator, selected their floors, and when they went their separate ways, they both said goodnight to each other.

Izuku flopped onto his bed and just stared at his hand for several minutes. Was this all a dream? Would he wake up tomorrow and find out everything he did was nothing more than a figment of his imagination?

Before he drifted off to sleep, one thought flitted across his mind, 'Her hand was really small.'

Unbeknownst to either of them, one figure witnessed the two holding hands in front of the dorms. His scowl softened as he saw them, and after he took a sip of tea, he muttered to himself, "It's about time, Midoriya."

Claire lounged on the sofa, waiting for Jonathan to get home from work; she flipped through a couple channels but didn't find anything watch-worthy. A sense of deja vu hit her, but she shrugged and ignored it.

She hoped that Jonathan would have been home earlier so they could've spent more time together; she was leaving tomorrow morning to head back to Colorado. But Jonathan was busy with some case he got roped into.

It was frustrating, but she wasn't frustrated at him so much as frustrated at the job. She knew from experience that hero work had the nasty tendency to creep into every little bit of someone's life and suck up almost all of their time. Claire also knew that Jonathan wasn't the kind of person who'd let some mass murderer walk free if he could do anything about it, he'd move heaven and earth to personally chase down every lead. He wouldn't be satisfied until the bastard was behind bars. She was the same way.

There was a click at the door as the lock turned, and Jonathan stumbled into the apartment. ["Hey babe, how'd work go?"]

["Our lead turned into a dead end, he's got an airtight alibi, but we're pulling footage from a couple of places just to be sure,"] she could tell that he was utterly exhausted and just a bit frustrated.

["Uggggh, I hate it when that happens."] More than once, she'd had a lead dead end, the worst was when they knew the person was guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, but they had some sort of alibi.

Jonathan put his gear on a stand next to the door, then trudged to the bathroom to get changed, Claire flicked through more TV channels, and as Jonathan came back out wearing a loose-fitting T-shirt and some basketball shorts, Claire asked, ["You eat yet?"] Jonathan shook his head, ["Come sit down, I'll get you something."]

Usually, Jonathan insisted on cooking or making meals, but today he was dead tired and gratefully sat down while Claire rummaged around in the fridge for something. There wasn't much in the way of food, but she was able to whip up a quick meal of macaroni and cheese. She handed Jonathan a bowl with a spoon, ["Ooooooo, extra cheesy,"] mumbled Jonathan as he dug into the meal.

["Is there any other way to make this?"] asked Claire.

Jonathan replied, ["Touche."]

They watched tv while they ate; the game show was at least interesting. The players would have to answer a question right, and if they did answer right, they got to move forward a square. If they got it wrong, they started over again. To win, they had to move ten squares.

The host walked over to the contestant who'd managed to get ten questions right in a row, ["Congratulations, Charlie, you've advanced to the final question, remember, if you get this right, you win five million dollars!"] The crowd cheered. ["Okay, Charlie, in 2066, which astronaut was the first to live on mars for more than a year?"]

Carlie screwed up his face in concentration, ["Ummmmmm."]

["Oh, oh, I know this one! It's Vanessa, umm Vanessa Hendrix!"] Claire knew all about space exploration. When she was a little girl, she'd beg the staff at the orphanage to let them watch any rocket launches.

["Vin- umm, Vinny Smith?"] asked Charlie skeptically.

The host sighed, ["I'm sorry, Charlie, the correct answer was Vanessa Hendrix."]

["Ha! I totally knew that!"] said Claire excitedly.

Jonathan pointed his fork at her, ["Only a massive NASA nerd would have gotten that right."]

Claire grinned at him, ["Oh, so I'm a massive NASA nerd?"]

Jonathan nodded, ["Ummm, yeah. Your the only person I know that knows more about the Ares missions than NASA does."]

["And is that a bad thing?"] asked Claire.

["Nah, it's actually kinda hot,"] said Jonathan as he ate another bite of food.

Claire couldn't stop her smile from widening, ["Oh, so you get turned on when I talk about space travel?"]

["Not turned on per se, just like, generally more attractive,"] answered Jonathan.

She knew the feeling; when they visited a US Army museum in Oklahoma, Jonathan was practically vibrating when they got to the tanks section. He spent what seemed like hours gushing over the M67 Bulldog*. Claire found his nerdy side a little attractive.

["So what you're saying is, I should talk about space stuff more."] Claire grinned.

Jonathan shrugged, ["By all means, talk about the rockets and NASA to your heart's content."]

Claire set her bowl on the coffee table and leaned her head on Jonathan's shoulder. When Jonathan was finished, he set his bowl next to hers and sank into the sofa; he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to him.

They watched more TV, and Claire felt her eyes growing heavy; Jonathan had already started to drift off to sleep.

Then they were both startled awake by the phone ringing. ["Woah, what"] Jonathan yawned, ["What time is it?"]

Claire groaned, ["No idea."]

Jonathan got to his feet, found the phone, then answered it, ["Hello? Yes."] She watched Jonathan's face turn pale, and he said in a worried tone ["I'm on my way now."]

He dropped the phone and rushed towards the bedroom ["What's going on?"] asked Claire.

["It's…my mom."] Dread filled her.

It was just past three when they got to the nursing home, and after finding a parking lot, he and Claire rushed inside; a nurse at the welcome station looked up and asked ["Hello, can I help you?"]

Jonathan stammered ["My mom, I need to see her. I'm Jonathan Tyson."] he fished his driver's license out, and the nurse glanced at it before escorting them to his mom's room. In the room were a Doctor, two nurses, and his mom.

One look at his mom, and he knew this was it; this is the end. The Doctor gave him an apologetic look, ["I'm sorry, we've taken her off life support, and we've given her a powerful pain medication. She only has a few hours left. I'll give you some time with her."]

Jonathan felt as if the world had gone cold; he walked over, sat in a chair next to her bed, and grasped his mom's hand. She stirred and looked at him, ["J-Jonathan?"] Her voice was weak, and her hand was cold to the touch.

He nodded and replied, ["Hey, mom."]

["Good, I, I needed to, to tell you something."] She tried to sit up but couldn't.

["Yeah, I, I need to tell you something too."] Jonathan tried to hold back his tears.

His mom looked around the room and then focused on Claire, ["Who's this? Is, is this your girlfriend?"]

Claire nodded, ["Yes, ma'am, we met a couple times before."] Claire had come with him to the nursing home a couple of weeks ago so he could properly introduce his mom to her.

["Oh, yes, I remember you,"] she focused back on Jonathan, ["She is a cute little thing, isn't she?"]

Jonathan nodded, ["Yeah, mom, she is."]

["Well, when do you think you'll marry her? I know it's been a while, but maybe it's time to try again?"] Jonathan chuckled; his mom had been asking him that question for the last month. Every time he'd visit, she'd ask him.

He replied, ["We haven't talked about that mom, we've only been together for a few months now; usually, you'd wait longer."]

["Well, you should move fast, or else you'll miss your chance. It's not every day that you find someone as beautiful as she is."] His mom's laugh turned into a deep cough. Jonathan reached over to her bedside, grabbed her cup of water, and offered it to her; his mom took the cup, took a sip, then gave it back to him. ["Thank you, oh, Jonathan, you're here, I've got something to tell you."]

He tried desperately not to break down, ["Y-yeah? I've, I've got something I w-want to tell you too."]

His mom smiled and said, ["Well, I just wanted to say, you've been a good son, I know that looking after me has been difficult, but you've done your absolute best. Remember that I'll always love you."]

Tears were flowing down his face, ["Yeah, mom, I, I love you too,"] his voice cracked a little, and he felt Claire put a hand on his back reassuringly.

["I'm a little tired, so I think I'll rest my eyes a bit."] His mom shifted in bed and tried to draw the covers over herself. Jonathan reached forward and helped her. As she shut her eyes, Jonathan started to hum the tune to the lullaby she'd sung to him when he was a child.

A few moments later, his mom's breathing slowed, then stopped altogether. The heart monitor stopped reading a heartbeat, and she passed away.

As the Doctor came in to note the time of death, Jonathan's shoulders heaved from his heavy sobbing. Claire stayed by his side, even into the early morning when his body and mind gave up and fell asleep.

Okay, that's a wrap. So you probably noticed the little asterisks (* these things) next to a couple words. I'll sprinkle these in from time to time to clarify a couple things.

*Rum Rum is pronounced Room Room

*While the M67 was a real tank, it was not called the Bulldog. For those of you who are interested the M67 was a flamethrower tank used by the Americans during the vietnam war. It was also the last flamethrower tank America ever used. In the little universe I created (sort of) the M67 was a Main Battle Tank that replaced the Abrams.

Anyways, so, fun things are happening, I'm moving out of my parents house (finally) and no, I'm not some basement dwelling goblin man child who just plays games, watches anime, reads manga, and writes weird fan fiction. I do also have a job and I just earned my associates in science. (I'm adding this part in post. Currently just finished moving in. Everythings unpacked, everythings ready to go.)

And yes, I do all those other things, save for the basement dwelling goblin man child stuff, we don't have a basement, so I'm actually a ground floor dwelling goblin man child. Hopefully by the time the first chapter is posted I'll have moved in and be well on my way to earning my masters in forestry. Also, I'll be on my own, wish me luck y'all, cause I'm moving to hillbilly country.

Onto the boring usual trite, This story is also loosely based off of other fanfictions that I have read. Any persons or events that mirror reality or another story are completely coincidental. I promise that I've put in effort to make this story original. If anyone wants to see any specific quirks or have any ideas about quirks, they would like to see in the story, let me know and I'll see about adding them. If anyone would like to beta read this story just shoot me a message, I'm always happy to receive constructive criticism.

As always, stay safe, be kind, and quick question,

What does a house wear to a party?

Address!