Slow and Speedy Win the Fight

48. Land

Sheldon

What does it take for a guy to get a decent place to live around here?

I haven't been able to find a decent place with the limited time I was given and I found myself floating from class to class with a fuzzy mind.

I could still feel the light bruise on my chest from Haresa's launch move from yesterday but continued to walk through the hallways as if nothing happened. This is one of the few times I actually remember I have accelerated healing aside from just a shield.

My arm was tugged backwards and I spun around to see Rudra with a frown.

"Sheldon? Where have you been?" He asked.

I felt the awkwardness seep in and my vocabulary suddenly disappeared. "Uhhh... Villain stuff... lately."

"Ah, wasn't your debut yesterday?"

I pulled him to the side and kept my voice low. "I don't want that much attention on it."

"I'm pretty sure nobody cares if you're a villain or not. Haresa doesn't get bombarded by people constantly." Rudra readjusted the textbooks in his arm.

"There's no such thing as being too careful."

He looked unconvinced. "You use the same name for your stage name."

"Names are hard," I said while avoiding his eyes. "Not sure why you're so invested."

"Look, every cliché in the old comic books doesn't happen anymore, you don't have to worry about it. Public identity being hotter than the secret one, protecting the ones you love or even the one where the love interest is actually your nemesis. I know them all." Rudra listed all that so casually, you would think we were talking about something mundane like... I don't know, bread? What did normal people talk about?

"Those are all hero tropes. I'm a villain." I jutted my chin out in an attempt to look more intimidating.

"I'm just saying, you don't have to hide and avoid me while you do your villain stuff." He waved his hands around. "You can talk about it with me without any worries."

"Hide? Who's hiding? I'm not hiding." I felt heat creep up my neck but I ignored it.

"Good, then you would be cool to hang out at my place after school for video games?"

As friends? Or as more?

I stared at him in silent panic as I wasn't sure what move to make next. Haresa said he liked me but we were just friends, right? Wait, are we even friends? What makes people friends?

What the hell was a friend?

What are friendship feelings and what are relationship feelings?

I thought it was weird he was being nice but I honestly thought it was because he was just an idiot. But he liked me? Like-liked me? What if this was just a front for some other hidden motivation?

I seemed to have been quiet for too long since Rudra put a hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of my panic.

"I'll check back with you after school then," he said with a smile. "Class is about to start so I have to get going."

"Uh, yeah. Have a good class," I said.

He waved at me before leaving and I was alone to figure out what the hell was going on.

I thought I could've avoided him longer but I didn't count on him actually going out of his way to find me. I was sure his class was on the other side of the building too.

Wait? We were going to play video games?

I ran a hand through my hair. I never expected to socialize so much when I joined high school. I thought I would be sidelined and Haresa would steal all the attention like they usually did. The fact that I got one person to be so interested in me that they would want to actually date me just was difficult to process.

Reynard was different. He was an anti-hero with a constant villain-leaning streak. He didn't care about the fame of heroes.

Though, I never expected him to care about a villain's fame as well.

My heart ached and I pinched the bridge of my nose. This wasn't the time to be thinking about him.

I still had to find a decent place to live after school. I would even take an empty parking lot if I was allowed to modify the land for a lair