"Hey-uh, Clark, did you hear this new ice cream place just opened?"
Clark turned to Amelia, they'd sat next to each other in a dozen different classes over his time in high school. He'd seen her less since he'd joined The Guardians. Major emergencies and school attendance were a bad match.
He remembered his parents mentioning that a new ice cream shop was opening. They'd laughed and said that the name of the shop was a pun.
"Yeah, my parents told me at dinner the other night." He replied casually.
Amelia nodded, her mannerisms were unusually awkward, "Yeah! So I was wondering, did you want to go, this saturday?"
Clark blinked, "Is...is it a date?"
Amelia fidgeted nervously with her pen, "Yeah, I mean-I mean we could go as friends if you-"
Clark interrupted her, shaking his head quickly, "No-no, a date sounds great. I'll text you?"
Amelia nodded sharply, "Yeah!"
Most of the class had already left. The few people that were still present were too caught up in their conversations to hear anything that Amelia and Clark had been saying.
Clark packed up his books and pens. He slung his backpack over his shoulder. He smiled at Olivia, "See you saturday!"
Olivia smiled back happily. She was already thinking about how to tell her friends that he'd said yes, "See you saturday!"
Clark walked out of the classroom half in a daze.
'I'm going on a date?' He thought to himself.
It had been a couple of weeks since he'd fought with Battle Beast. Cecil hadn't mentioned anything about Omni-Man to him since they'd last spoken about it.
Clark had taken a week off school after Battle Beast. He'd spent most of that time staring blankly out of the window, trying to come to terms with fighting for his life and being spared. He'd recovered considerably, he no longer stared out the window for hours, but he still had frequent dreams where he fell back into Battle Beast's endless thirst for violence.
Clark's parents were enormously relieved to see him gradually recovering back to his normal self. They both took time off work and stayed with him during his week off school. Sometimes he'd trail off mid-sentence, or forget to do ordinary things like brush his teeth or close the fridge, but he was there with them, and that was enough.
Clark sat through the rest of his lessons, even more distracted than usual. Instead of thinking about supervillains or crime syndicates, he was thinking about his upcoming date on saturday.
He'd had a crush on Amelia for most of high school. There'd been a long time where he wanted to ask her out, but he'd always been too shy. Eventually he'd given up and told himself that she probably would've said no anyways.
After school, Clark flew over to The Guardian Headquarters. For the last few days, there hadn't been any major incidents that required a Guardians response. He enjoyed having a break from saving the world.
He arrived home later that evening. He could smell lasagna before he opened the door.
"I'm home!" Clark called out. He took off his shoes and shoved them into the hallway with his foot.
"Hey kiddo, sit down, dinner's ready." David poked his head out of the kitchen. He was holding a bowl of green beans.
Clark heard the toilet flush upstairs. Olivia came down and hugged him, "Hi honey, nice to see you, your dad's been going crazy over how long it takes to steam green beans."
David walked into the dining room, "7 minutes and 30 seconds! Medium heat!"
The family of three sat down for dinner. David dished out portions of still steaming lasagna. It was the meal he cooked best.
Olivia raised a forkful of lasagna to her lips, she blew on it to cool it down, "Anything exciting happen today honey?"
Clark choked slightly on his food. He coughed and hurriedly took a sip of water, "Uh-yeah."
Olivia rolled her eyes, "So, what is it? You fought a half-man half-fish supervillain? Or you saved the queen of England?"
Clark shook his head slowly, "Uh-no, I-uh, got asked out on a date?"
David and Olivia froze. They stared at their son with wide, bulging eyes.
David reacted first with a booming laugh, "Hahaha! Atta boy! Who's the lucky girl?"
Olivia leaned forwards and stared at her son with a burning intensity. She spoke rapidly, "Who is it? Is it Amelia?"
Clark nodded.
Olivia clapped her hands joyfully, "My handsome boy is going on a date! This is so exciting! Whenever you talk about her your eyes practically turn into love hearts! Where are you two going?"
Clark swallowed a mouthful of lasagna. He resisted the urge to disagree with his mom's comment about love-heart eyes, "She asked if I wanted to get ice cream on saturday."
Olivia and David spent the rest of dinner firing off questions and strictly telling Clark what he should and shouldn't say. He kept trying to tell them that he didn't need their advice on how to talk to a girl, but they ignored his protests completely.
The next few days went by no differently to normal. The Guardians had two calls, one to neutralise a terrorist who wanted to blow up Hawaii, and another to deal with an alien who'd woke up underground after several hundred years asleep.
Saturday came around quickly.
Clark stood outside of the ice cream shop. He'd refused his parents suggestions to wear a collared shirt and smart trousers. Instead he was wearing his normal clothes, a t-shirt and jeans. He looked down at his phone and checked the time.
"Hey, Clark!"
Clark looked up. Amelia was standing on the other side of the street waving at him. He smiled and waved back.
They ordered together at the counter, Clark didn't use the twenty dollar bill that his parents insisted he take. He paid for both their orders on his card instead.
Amelia pointed at a table by the window, "Over there looks good."
Clark nodded, "Yeah, perfect."
They sat down, Clark asked an easy question about their homework for biology class. Amelia replied enthusiastically. Both of them were happy to be together, on a date, the conversation flowed without any effort.
Amelia lifted a piece of bubblegum ice cream from her bowl. She tried to make her question sound casual and light-hearted, "You weren't in biology last week, or the week before. Are you skipping to avoid me or something?"
Clark knew that Amelia would ask about his frequent abscences from school. Even if she'd chosen to avoid it on the first date, it would've inevitably come up.
He'd spent hours lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, thinking about how to explain it to her. Maybe he could say that he was dealing with an illness, or some kind of extracurricular programme. He'd tried to come up with anything and everything that could sound reasonable.
But he didn't want to lie.
Before he'd changed into Battle Beast, and lost himself to violence, he'd thought that he was going to die. He was alive because he'd been lucky. Fate had rolled the dice and the number had been just high enough to let him live.
Cecil had revealed that it was Omni-Man who had murdered the previous Guardians. If he changed into Battle Beast, Omni-Man would never be able to kill him. But there were more dangers than just Omni-Man.
What was to stop an army of viltrumites flying to earth and razing the entire planet to the ground? Maybe he would survive, and perhaps even slaughter them with Battle Beast's strength. But what point was there to surviving if they'd already destroyed everyone, and everything, that he loved?
'I could die at any time. I don't want to live a lie.' Clark thought to himself.
"I'm a superhero."
Amelia stared at the boy sat across from her. She couldn't make any sense of what he'd just said.
She laughed awkardly, "If you don't want to tell me that's fine. If it's personal or-"
Clark shook his head, "No, I'm not lying. I promise."
Amelia scanned his eyes and expression for any hint of deception. The rational bit of her brain told her that there was no way he could be telling the truth. What kind of superhero was secretly a teenager who was still in high school?
She carefully chose her next words, "Say it's true, and that you are a superhero. Why would you be sat here with me? Shouldn't you be out there, stopping a supervillain or a monster or something?"
Clark didn't try to organise his thoughts. He just allowed the feelings in his heart to come out naturally, "Because I like you. I've liked you since we sat next to each other in physics."
Amelia blinked. Her face suddenly felt hot. The last time they'd had physics together was nearly two years ago.
A surge of emotions, and feelings muted the side of her brain that wanted the world to be rational and follow rules. She nodded, "Okay. We'll have a normal ice cream date. Then you show me."
Clark had told the truth. He felt a kind of lightness in his chest. All the doubt, and uncertainity silently melted away.
He smiled, "Deal."
Amelia looked down at her ice cream. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the shop window. Her cheeks were almost bright red.
"What colour milk do you drink?"
Laughter burst out from her lips. She looked up at Clark with an expression of disbelief, "What colour of milk do I drink?"
Clark smiled and nodded, he scraped off some ice cream with his spoon, "Yeah, what colour milk do you drink? Blue, green, red?"
Amelia laughed, "Green. Why, what colour milk do you drink?"
Clark grinned. He brought a spoonful of ice cream to his lips and swallowed it before replying, "Green."
Two people who liked each other, and ice cream, was a very compatible combination. For most of an hour, Amelia completely forgot about Clark's admission to being a superhero. She was caught up in chatting and two-sided clumsy flirting.
But when the shop bell rang as they opened the door to leave, she remembered what Clark had said. The happiness she felt from their date sank. If he was lying to make her think then he was interesting then he was an idiot, she already thought that he was interesting.
Clark felt the moment that Amelia's mood changed. Neither of them said anything as they walked aimlessly down the street.
Clark spotted the gates to a park. He remembered going there when he was younger with his parents.
"Come on."
Amelia's eyes widened. She felt Clark slip his hand into hers. He pulled her forwards gently. A confusing mixture of giddiness and confusion swept through her.
Clark had held her hand impulsively. The rush of telling her who he was without any lies hadn't faded yet. He led her towards the park, walking quickly.
After a few steps, Clark gained back some clarity. He'd taken Olivia's hand without asking, they were only on the first date. He could've made her uncomfortable.
"Sorry, I didn't ask, if you want me to let go-"
Amelia shook her head. She squeezed Clark's hand tighter without realising, "No, it's fine."
Clark smiled, "Okay, good."
He led Amelia into a small forest on the outskirts of the park. The path was wide and lined with trees. He looked ahead and behind of them. The dry leaves crunched under his feet as he diverted away from the path.
Clark didn't go any further into the forest than a couple of metres. He didn't want to weird out Amelia any more than he already had. He let go of her hand gently.
The branches and leaves above her head created a sun-dappled effect on Amelia's face. Her eyes reflected a mixture of confusion and concealed concern, "Clark what are we doing here?"
Clark smiled, he turned his head to check for anyone else nearby for a final time, "Sorry, I know this is all crazily suspicious. What I said earlier, I wasn't trying to trick you-"
Suddenly, his voice changed, increasing to a slightly higher pitch, "-I really am a superhero."
Amelia felt faint. The cute boy she'd gone on a first date with, was floating several inches off the ground in front of her. He also looked nothing like the person she knew.
"You-you're Invincible?" Amelia asked stutteringly.
Clark smiled and looked down at his body. He was still wearing his own clothes, but Amelia could easily recognise the superhero he'd changed into.
"No, I'm not him. I'm the Silver Giant. I can change into different people." He explained. He changed into the body of Atom-Eve, then Monster Girl, to illustrate his point.
Amelia's eyes were opened as wide as they could go. Her mouth formed a stunned o shape. She was dumbstruck for nearly a full minute, "You-you-you-"
"But I only have their powers when I turn into them. When I'm like this, I'm just me." Clark switched back into his real body as he spoke.
Amelia felt like somebody was trying to cram a school bus into her brain. She tried several times to will herself awake from whatever dream she was trapped in.
"Are you real?" She asked, her tone was interrogatory.
Clark couldn't stop himself from giggling, "Yeah, I'm real."
Amelia forced herself to take a deep breath. She tried to untangle her messy thoughts. She gasped, "But I saw you on TV! Fighting that alien, the white lion! He nearly killed you! Shit, Clark, are you okay?"
Clark's playfulness faltered briefly. The memories from the brutal battle bubbled up inside of him. He clenched and then relaxed his fists. After he'd done so, his emotions returned to a calmer state, "Yeah, I'm okay. It was tough, but I'm okay."
Amelia had watched the footage from the fight. She'd seen the way the two lion-headed warriors levelled buildings as they clashed. She'd also seen how badly the Silver Giant, who'd copied the body of the lion warrior, was injured. The footage had captured wounds that went all the way down to bone.
Without thinking, she moved towards Clark and wrapped her arms around him. She squeezed him tightly, "I'm so glad you're alright. You must've been so scared!"
Clark could feel the warmth of her skin. She smelled like lavender.
"Yeah, I was." He replied. His voice was muffled slightly by her shoulder.
'But I'd do it all again.' Clark thought to himself.
To keep earth safe, he was willing to do anything. If he had to die for his home, then he was willing to do so.