Page 89 of The Not So Super Hero

EPILOGUE

“D amn it!” A surprised shout rang through the air.

Zane turned his head to glimpse Bailey had slipped and fell in the kitchen. Snickering, he removed his headphones and investigated the kitchen for any broken items. Other than Bailey. He was a klutz, but always fine. Their kitchenware? Not so much.

“You alive?” Zane peered down at the boy that laid sprawled on the ground like a starfish. His lips pursed in their typically adorable fashion.

“Yeah.” Bailey smiled when Zane held out his hand to help him up. He didn’t know what he tripped on, but he had long since stopped trying to decipher his ways.

“You’re up early,” he added, moving towards the fridge to get himself a quick breakfast before classes started.

He had missed school, and especially his friends.

The moment he saw Amery and Ryan, all of them broke into tears.

They spent a weekend together to catch up.

Amery and Ryan had a bajillion questions.

Bailey couldn’t share everything but told him what he could.

In the end, it was simply nice to be back.

Zane captured Bailey in his arms. He swayed them from side to side.

“Gotta head into work soon,” Zane said.

“You get your super suit yet?”

Zane rolled his eyes and released the snickering Bailey. He got himself a bowl of cereal while Zane leaned against the counter.

“I’m not wearing tights anymore,” Zane said with a scowl.

“Why not? I find they look rather good on you.” Bailey walked into the living room with Zane right behind. They sat on the couch. Bailey crossed his legs while he faced Zane with a far too teasing smile.

“How about we get you a pair and force you to wear it to school all day? See how you like wearing them.”

“You’re the one that said he wanted to be a hero. Heroes wear tights.”

“Why? Says who? It’s not practical.”

“People love it.” Bailey giggled, finishing his cereal and setting it aside.

Zane didn’t care if others loved it. He hated it.

Bailey got up to return his bowl to the kitchen. However, he pressed a swift kiss to Zane’s forehead first. That shifted Zane’s frown into a joyous expression he wore more and more lately. Bailey, too, if that were possible.

Everything changed in the best of ways. Bailey returned to school and had become more confident than ever.

Zane got himself a job as a hero, which he never thought to be possible.

Chris returned to work with a pretty nice promotion.

Nate and Natalia were being as heroic as ever, except Natalia had herself a new fiery redhead in her life.

Amery finally got her wish, thanks to Bailey introducing them.

Nate had become the sad single, which Zane rubbed in more times than anyone could count.

After Zane passed all the hero tests—some of which were secret and he told Bailey anyway—Zane received a hero license.

He had yet to be sent anywhere, though. Zane mostly patrolled around town, which he always claimed to be exhausting.

He returned in the evenings grumbling about chasing thieves, helping a cat out of a tree, and saving balloons that escaped a child’s hands.

Too much work, he always said, yet kept doing it anyway.

Bailey found every complaint hilarious. As much as Zane griped, he always woke up before his alarm.

He was never late and came home to share every little detail about his day with Bailey.

He trained and studied hard, finally taking something seriously, which had Chris in tears once or twice.

Zane never said it, but Chris being proud of him made him happy.

Nate took about a week to realize that Zane was serious about the hero work.

He asked Bailey if Zane was a doppelg?nger.

Sometimes Bailey asked himself that too, although Nate took it more seriously.

He tried testing it like he thought somehow throwing soap or putting mustard on Zane’s sandwiches would prove whether he was an imposter.

Since all he did was get pissed and nearly beat Nate to death, it was obvious Zane was the real deal.

Natalia didn’t find Zane’s decision shocking.

She gave a thumbs up and kept it at that.

The people, though, their reaction was something neither of them could ever dream of.

Though Fear became a common name to speak about, the news blew up when the announcement came that Fear would stick around. Some people were ecstatic with the idea. Others argued there wasn’t enough known about the newcomer.

Only a few days after the news, Bailey and Zane saw it, something that made Zane freeze in place.

They were on their way to the store after picking up groceries when a group of kids ran past them.

Neither of them thought anything of it until a young girl clipped Zane’s side.

He reached out, grabbing her before the girl fell.

That’s when he got a glimpse of her face.

Her dark hair had been pulled into a ponytail. A black mask hid her eyes. Zane’s gaze shook when taking in the black suit she wore. A suit similar to the one he wore, something her parents had made up with what they had. She gave Zane a toothy grin, followed by a shy wave.

“You guys, what did I say about running off?” A woman called, which had the girl pursing her lips. Her two friends, or siblings judging by their similar appearances, joined her. “I’m so sorry about them! Come on, get back over here.”

“It’s all right,” Bailey said, waving at the woman that gestured for the three kids to come on over.

“Sorry for running into you,” the young girl said. She skipped to her mom, with her siblings right behind. It was what one boy said after that made Zane’s heart stop.

“Hey, it’s my turn to be the hero! I wanna play Fear!”

“No, Fear’s too cool for you!” The little girl argued. “Pick someone else!”

“Hey, hey, neither of you are going to be Fear if you don’t help mommy with the groceries,” their mother warned, causing the three kids to squeal in fake terror.

The girl bounced around the car. Her pouting siblings followed.

Light gray smoke rose from her hands. Bailey couldn’t determine the girl’s mutation, but she mimicked the moves Zane had done on the news.

He would have laughed if he hadn’t glimpsed Zane’s expression.

Bailey couldn’t explain it. Shock. Surprise.

Excitement. Sorrow. Somehow a mixture of all.

Zane kept still, eyes incapable of leaving the girl.

Bailey took his hand. Zane finally broke free of the trance. A storm of emotions filtered through his wide eyes.

“Come on, Hero, we need to at least get something for dinner,” Bailey said.

Zane nodded, saying nothing while he followed.

Yeah, things had changed. Bit by bit, the life that Zane and Bailey once knew had been replaced with something similar, and yet drastically different. Not that either of them was complaining. The changes were welcomed, even if Zane didn’t always know how to react to those changes.

“Well, I gotta get to class,” Bailey chirped after sitting his dirty bowl in the sink. When he spun around, he found Zane leaning against the wall, watching him. “Try to stay out of trouble.”

“We both know you are the trouble,” Zane argued.

Bailey rolled his eyes. Zane approached him to tug him in for a soft kiss.

Followed by another, another, and maybe a more heated one that stopped only because Zane’s phone rang.

The two of them separated. Bailey’s cheeks flushed when he realized he was more than ready to skip class just because of a kiss.

Shit, he had it bad. However, Zane’s phone continued to ring.

He checked on it. His boss had called. Seemed he was needed.

“So, how does it feel being a hero?” Bailey asked in a teasing tone, only to be surprised by Zane’s response.

“I don’t know. How does it feel?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Zane pressed his lips to Bailey’s once more, like he could only go so long without their touch. It was soft and sweet, just like the tender touch of his hand against Bailey’s cheek, yet it paled compared to his words.

“Don’t tell me you still don’t see yourself as a hero,” Zane whispered, his forehead resting against Bailey’s. His deep blue eyes kept Bailey in a trance. “You’ll always be a hero to me. My not so super hero.”

He had to tease, but Bailey’s heart soared.

“I love you,” Zane spoke quietly.

“I love you too.”

Zane kissed Bailey twice more, then went out the door. Bailey couldn’t lie and say he hated watching Zane go. Sometimes it scared him, but when he saw the almost excited hop in Zane’s step, it made everything worth it.

Zane no longer lived a mediocre life, doing mediocre work for mediocre people at a mediocre wage, and he was happy with that. Once he would have said content but happy sounded much more fitting now.

Why wake up, go to work that required little to no physical or mental effort, sleep ten hours a day and play video games or binge watch TV when he had the power, the strength, the courage, the love, the family, and support to do so much more than that?

Exactly. There was no point in arguing, no point in doing nothing when he was no longer content with the simplicity of a mediocre life. He didn’t want the “easy way out”.

With Bailey by his side, Zane’s life was anything but mediocre.

Troublesome. Difficult. Extraordinary.

That was Zane’s life, and that was the way he wanted to keep it.

Sometimes, we got exactly what we wanted.