Just text him, don't overthink things. He knows you owe him food anyway.
But he could be extremely busy. The guy's got three jobs. He said he'd text you when he wanted to collect on it. You're probably bothering him.
But it's been 4 days.
With her thoughts ping-ponging back and forth in her head, Jane wrote and deleted her text several times, trying to figure out how to best to say what she wanted without coming across as...oh, she didn't fucking know...clingy? Too eager? Was she eager about this? Her chest was tight with a confused smattering of feelings the brunette didn't want to bother identifying. That wasn't a self-reflection she'd be having today, no thank you.
This was not celebrity worship. No. She didn't give a shit about his money or fame, in fact it made her slightly uncomfortable. Jane did not subscribe to the adoration of famous people. Present Mic included.
But that didn't change the fact that she wanted to see him again. He was...fun to be around. If a bit of a dick at times.
The store was empty, but Jane gave a cursory glance around just in case someone had snuck in. It had been uncharacteristically slow. The morning rush had been half the traffic the store normally received, Jane had barely needed to stock afterwards. Boredom drove her to listen to her music from the little speaker behind the register, which ultimately led to thinking about her blonde...friend? Romantic interest? Another label she wasn't going to think about at the moment.
Fuck, why did she care so much about this? This was way too much too fast, and she was not about it. Berating herself for her teenager attitude, she just texted the first thing that came to mind and sent it before she could second guess herself. Mulling over it was just causing further anxiety in her chest.
I owe you food. Meet for lunch?
There. Good enough.
The brunette left her phone on the counter and stepped around to look through what items she may have missed restocking, but a loud buzz drew her attention back. A reply already? Jeez. That was quick.
Gladly! Do I get to pick?
No, because I can't afford Chardonnay and escargot.
What makes you think that's what I was going to choose?
Have you seen yourself? Your shoes alone are probably worth more than what I'll make on my double shift today.
Touche, but for the record, I don't exclusively eat 5 star. ;)
Well, good. Does 12:30 work for you?
Perfectly! Just let me know where to go.
"Isn't that thing annoying to wear?" Jane pointed at the metal speaker around his neck once they'd been seated in the little cafe's outside patio area. A different cafe, of course. The brunette didn't think she could ever eat at the other one again after the debacle from last time. This place was still relatively cheap, and wouldn't break the bank, no matter what he might have ordered on the menu.
"Not really? Half the time I forget it's there." He said with a grin, noticing the way her eyes traveled up to his gravity-defying style. "Same with the hair, too."
"How much hairspray does it take to get it that way?" The sheer length of it was astounding.
"More than I'm willing to publicly admit." He shot back. This man never missed a beat. Amusement danced in his eyes. "Is this an interrogation or a lunch?"
Jane shrugged. "Both."
"Ah, I've always appreciated a good multitasker." He quipped with a laugh, accepting the drinks that the waitress brought around to them. She quickly took their orders before leaving them once more to converse privately.
"I have something I wanna try." He said, reaching down to dig in his pocket for something. "Just hear me out, even if you don't like it. Since you aren't gonna tell me outright why you like those terrible songs, I figured this was the next best thing."
Jane's brow raised, sipping through the straw of her drink. "Ok?"
The hero produced a pair of earbuds and held them up between them. In his other hand was his phone. "You're gonna listen to a song I really like, then you're gonna tell me what you think of it."
She paused, waiting to hear more, but he was silent. "That's it?"
"That's it."
"You made it sound like I was gonna be doing somersaults through hoops or something." She added, accepting the earbuds from him and untangling the bundle of wires. "I'll do it on one condition. You listen to one of my songs and do the same."
"You already know what I'll think of it." He quirked a grin, glasses catching the light of the sun as he tipped his head to the side. "But alright. That's fair."
He took off the bulky headphones that covered his ears and set them on the table. The hero looked strange without them on. They were so signature to his persona, seeing the hero without them just looked...wrong. Her eyes narrowed.
"Actually, another condition." She added as an afterthought, grabbing for her own phone to pull up the right playlist. "Take those glasses off."
"Why?"
Because I like your eyes.
No! Shut up, brain!
"How am I supposed to know if you're telling me the truth or not? They say eyes are the window to the soul." The brunette gave a noncommittal shrug, trying to throw him off in case he could somehow read her thoughts. Oh, dear god, please don't let him also be able to do that.
His confusion was clear. "I'm not going to lie to you, Jane."
"Just do it."
"Alright, alright." He concluded with a shake of his head, reaching up to take off his glasses and laying them beside the headphones. Without these two pieces of equipment, he was looking much more normal. And more attractive. "Better?"
"Yes."
"Any other requirements?"
Jane thought about it, but eventually shook her head. "No."
"I've never had to strip down just to listen to a song. If I didn't know better, I'd say you have some ulterior motives here." He remarked with a chuckle, putting the earphone in his ear and propping his chin on his hand to wait.
Jane finally put the earbud in her own ear and looked back up at him. "I'm ready."
"Good." He said.
They both pressed play on their chosen song, and her ears picked up the few strong, solo picks of an electric guitar. Jane didn't otherwise react, never having heard the song before, but Mic's twisted into a tiny grimace. She smiled back in amusement. Obviously, he'd heard this one before.
The brunette took the few second she had to really study his face. His eyes were a striking hazel-green, a feature that the arcade's flashing colored lights had masked from her several days ago. They were narrowed at her in thought, half his attention focusing on the music coming from the earbud.
The longer she looked, the more she agreed with Chidori. He had a pretty face, one that Jane didn't mind staring at. And maybe he was used to constantly having it. This man was a celebrity, after all.
Of course, whoever he was under the uniform was definitely much more to her taste than Present Mic, the voice hero. The swooped hair and ridiculously spiked biker jacket was a bit much by any standard. She didn't even know his real name, but that man, the few times he'd met him, seemed like a decent fellow.
The brunette had a moment of doubt. Was she getting ahead of herself? Was she digging this hole too fast, too deep? What were they working towards? Jane could see them becoming good friends. Somehow, in spite of their vastly different music tastes and personalities. Well, actually, they seemed more alike than she'd originally thought.
Still. Jane didn't like how quickly her feelings about him had flipped. A decent fellow he may be, but a celebrity he still was. And she wasn't sure how different befriending or...dating someone that famous could be.
Mic impatiently tapped the table with his finger, squinting in what she assumed to be some sort of pain.
"Do I have to-?"
"Shh." She shushed him, and he grumbled quietly. Regardless, he was still smiling too.
Jane took a sip from her drink, eyes looking away from him so that she wouldn't feel terribly awkward, focusing on the music and the lyrics instead. She could feel him watching her, looking for any little flick of an eyebrow or quirk of her mouth. Some sign of what she was thinking.
Within another minute, the song ended, and she took the earbud out of her ear. He did the same, pinning her with a calculated stare. "So? What did you think?"
"It was...alright?" She shrugged, not really sure what else to say. "Nothing special."
"But why? Why did it not hit you where you really feel it?" He asked, touching at his own chest in demonstration. "Was it the lyrics? Or the beat?"
"Mmm..." She pondered to herself, deciding to take his questions seriously. "Neither were bad. I just...wasn't impressed by them. I didn't feel anything particular to what they were singing about or how the song sounded."
"But...why?" He asked again, almost desperately.
Jane shrugged, wincing. "I don't know, Mic. It just didn't do it for me. It didn't make me feel anything super special."
He sighed, obviously not happy with her lack of detail. His little plan hadn't worked.
"What about you? What did you think of my song?" She ventured, genuinely curious. He'd given her music taste a broad label of terrible, but perhaps certain songs were better than others in his opinion.
Mic let out a huffed laugh, shaking his head. "Fergie isn't known for her fantastic lyrics, and Big Girls Don't Cry is probably the worst offender." He managed.
"Ok, so lyrics aside, what did you feel while listening to it?"
"Pain? Impatience? I was practically waiting for it to be over the moment it started." Was his brutally honest answer. Jane's lips pursed, a little put off by how much he'd hated it. Well, you couldn't please everyone.
"Is there another reason why it's so bad besides the lyrics?"
"It's just an objectively terrible song, Jane. She's not a particularly talented singer, the range of notes is all over the place, and the actual music portion of the song is forgettable. Perhaps not the worst song you've ever requested from me, but definitely still bad."
"I don't care about any of those things." She admitted with a shrug, taking another sip of her drink. It was nearly empty now. "I'm not a musically-inclined person like you, so the technical stuff that's involved is way over my head. Besides, what fun is a song or a movie or book if you overanalyze and scrutinize it? Putting it under the microscope doesn't help any."
"You don't have to be an expert to know when something sounds good or bad." He countered with a smile. She could tell he was having fun with their verbal sparring, and she shrugged.
"When you listen to the song you showed me, what does it make you feel?"
He leaned forward. "The instruments blend well together and-"
"No, no. Don't talk about the instruments or the lyrics or any of the other jargon you used before." She dismissed his words with her hand. "Just what it makes you feel."
Mic frowned, not really understanding what she wanted, but knowing that if he listened carefully he might learn something about her. "Good. Happy. Energized."
"Why?"
"Well...you won't let me use any of the words to explain it." He told her pointedly. "I don't know how else to describe it."
"Are those the only reasons you like it?"
"...what else is there to like?" He questioned in confusion, not really getting the point. She gave a deep sigh and shook her head, as if conceding her argument. She was getting frustrated with him. "Same question to you. How does Big Girls Don't Cry make you feel?"
"Sad."
That hadn't been the answer he'd expected. "Why?"
Her eyes flicked away. A tiny sign of discomfort. "Because it brings back sad memories."
She saw the moment he felt like he'd gotten somewhere. Those green eyes lit up a little, and he straightened in his seat. The curiosity made him look so keen and cute. Damn her for thinking it. "Then why do you listen to it if it makes you sad?"
"I've always thought that those memories are just as important to remember as the good ones." She said quietly, sipping the last of her drink and looking out past him to the street beyond. "Sometimes anything is better than nothing at all."
He didn't have a response to that, and just searched her face for some sort of clue as to what that meant, but she didn't let anything slip. Jane was feeling really uncomfortable, especially considering how eagerly he wanted to know the full reason. Still, this wasn't a conversation she wanted to complete with him. Not yet. Not today.
The waitress chose that moment to come by with their food, and they both thanked her for her service before she turned around and walked away again, promising to come back with a refill for her drink. Truthfully, Jane wasn't really that hungry anymore, mind too preoccupied with memories now. She hadn't meant to even bring it up, but they'd somehow gotten to this point. It felt wrong to lie, and so she'd told the barest amount of truth she could at the moment.
"Can I show you one more song?" He asked suddenly. Jane's eyes snapped back to his, and she recognized the way he intentionally steered the topic away from whatever she didn't like and back to a safe zone. That push to find out more about her had disappeared, and in it's place was a gentle understanding that he'd stepped just past where her boundary line lay.
"Sure." She found herself saying, putting the earbud back in her ear and waiting for him to scroll through the list of songs he had. It would provide an adequate distraction.
"I've been listening to this one a lot recently." He said as an introduction, before the singer's voice began singing the lyrics into her ear. She went silent, focusing on the music as she picked up her sandwich and took a bite.
The lyrics spoke of nostalgia, and days gone by. Jane looked up at Mic, who was staring off to the side with a frown. "You know, I kind of li-"
A piercing scream across the street cut her off, and she whipped her head to where it had originated. At first glance, she didn't see anything other than a woman running down the sidewalk.
Then the store-front across the street exploded outwards in a loud and deafening boom.
"Get down!" Mic said, not a moment afterward simultaneously flipping the table they were seated at onto it's side and hastily pulling her forward by her uniform's collar so that the underside shielded her from where the blast had occurred. Her body was pushed down onto the ground unapologetically, and he crouched beside her mere moments after.
Jane wasn't thinking clearly, everything had slowed way down. She physically felt the shockwave of whatever had caused the blast. Time seemed to slow, she was dazed and confused, shellshocked. Even as the delicate rain of tiny glass fragments rained down from over top their cover, it didn't quite click in her head what had just occurred.
The shattering of their glass plates and cups after he'd overturned the table was tinny and barely distinguishable thanks to the explosion that had popped her eardrums moments earlier. Somewhere, people were screaming, but they sounded far away and-
"Jane!" Mic placed a hand on her shoulder and held it there, making her look at up him. The cute light-heartedness in his expression was gone, replaced by a steely determination. The hero snatched his headphones from the ground and pointed down between them. "Stay here!"
Eyes unfocused, the brunette nodded dumbly, his words not quite connecting properly. He leapt over the table and disappeared off in the direction of the-
Explosion. The store across the street had exploded. As in...a bomb. Jane's brain snapped itself back into the present and suddenly there was a painful ringing in her ears as sound and time realigned. Her breaths quickened and became shallow as the terror began rising and gripping her chest.
Her hands clenched tight onto his phone. How had she ended up with it? The headphone had miraculously remained in her ear and was still playing the song he'd put on for her before the storefront had been destroyed. It was barely audible above the intense ringing. Jane stayed huddled behind the table, holding it to her chest like a lifeline.
People were still screaming somewhere. Sirens had started up in the streets several blocks away, getting louder as they came closer. Her eyes glanced around but didn't see any of the other patrons who'd been eating at the cafe. She blinked fast, several times. They'd all run away, at least she assumed. Jane knew that she should probably get as far away from the blast as possible, but honestly her legs were jelly and wouldn't move an inch. She doubted they'd support her weight if she even tried to stand.
Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. A bomb had gone off not 100 meters away from her. She'd survived, miraculously. Her life had never been eventful like this before, to a degree where a wrong decision could have cost her her life. Until now...Jane wasn't religious, but she thanked anything and everything that might be up there watching that she hadn't somehow been in that store when the explosion had gone off. It wasn't an understatement to call this a life-changing experience. Once her heart stopped racing and things calmed down, she might even reflect back and make some major changes in her life, as one does after nearly facing their immediate death.
From the ear-piercing volume of the police sirens, law enforcement had arrived on the scene. The brunette still couldn't move, fear and relief too strong and dizzying. But there was one clarity in it all that she could focus on. Mic had acted without a split second of hesitation, shielding her as best he could given the circumstances. He'd pushed her into safety before considering his own, then instantly jumped into action as the hero that he was.
He'd possibly saved her life. And that was too big of a revelation to think about properly right then and there.
Her sense of time still must have been skewed. What felt like only a few seconds later, she was startled to see someone hop back over the metal railing beside their table and land in front of her. The outlandish blonde hairstyle was pretty unmistakable, but a kitten could have spooked her in the state she was in.
"Are you alright?" Mic asked, concern marking his expression. The ringing had died down enough that she could at least understand the words coming out of his mouth. His hero costumer was a little mussed, soot on his hands and face. His eyes skimmed over her quickly, checking for injuries. "Hey, can you hear me?"
Jane must not have responded. Was her mouth even moving? Nodding her head, she tried snatching and holding onto some semblance of sense. "I'm...ok. I think." Her mouth felt slow and gummy.
"Does anything hurt?"
Quick mental check. All limbs attached. "No..."
"Come on, let's get you out of here." He finally said, reaching over to help her up.
"O...Ok..." Jane managed to stand on her wobbly legs, allowing the blonde man to support her weight when she wasn't confident standing by herself. Despite her shock, she had enough sense to grab the purse that was forgotten on the ground beside her. She realized she was still holding his phone, and held it out to him.
"Thanks." He checked the screen, then tucked it into his pants pocket. Then, he reached into his jacket pocket and produced her own. "I managed to grab onto this before things sort of...well, exploded."
"Thank you..." Her own phone had sustained no damage, other than perhaps a new scuff along the metal edge, but nothing major. She slid the device into her purse and following where his gentle hand on her elbow led her. They were getting closer to the police cars.
"Do you want me to call a cab to take you home after the medics check you out?"
Jane stumbled a little, brain short-circuiting before jumpstarting into a sudden clarity. Only briefly, though. "I...have to go back to work. I can't leave the store-"
"Woah there, you're shell-shocked right now. Probably have a concussion from the blast." Mic pressed insistently, brow furrowed with worry. "You need to go rest. Let your coworker handle it."
"I-I can't leave her alone." She muttered back, holding her head. Standing was becoming dizzying. Why was it so hot out here? "The afternoon rush will...pick up soon. It'll get really busy-"
"Jane." Her name sounded so stern coming from his mouth, and she looked at him again. It was a little hard to focus. He still sounded a little far away too. Her hearing must still be out of whack. His hands settled on her cheeks, forcing her to look at him. The expression he wore was the most serious she'd ever seen him be. "Get medical attention. Then go home. Please."
Those green eyes dared her to keep arguing, kindly insisting that she follow his request. Powerless against them, she gave a silent nod. He appeared relieved, then stepped back and brought her over to the waiting medics. Once satisfied that she'd be taken care of and physically ok, he ran off to fulfill his duty.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
