Hopelessly Heroic (Rewritten)

fourteen

Being a full-time hero didn't leave much time for friends, family, or dating. 

There was a time when June had wanted a dog, but the hero in her wouldn't allow her to take in a pet when she knew she wouldn't have enough time to give it the attention it needed. Then she almost got a fish, but ended up buying a cactus instead. She thought they provided the same entertainment. 

Since she broke up with her high school boyfriend when she graduated early, she hadn't been on a date. If she was being honest, she hadn't even flirted since then. No fluttering eyelashes, or goodnight kisses, or late night hook-ups. Being a hero could be very isolating. 

But now there was Willow. 

Willow, who openly checked her out, and blew kisses, and was constantly making her blush. June didn't know if she was serious or not. The insecure teenager that still lived in her head told her there was no way it was genuine. Willow was probably just a flirty person. 

But that didn't change the fact that June got butterflies in her stomach every time Willow winked at her, or gave her that stupid smirk. Whether she knew it or not, Willow was solidifying herself a place in June's heart. 

Being in her early twenties, she felt silly calling it a crush, but she didn't know any other word. Saying she was infatuated sounded too pretentious, and 'smitten' was out-dated. It's not like she was planning on telling anybody, so she didn't really need a word for it, but she had always been the type of person to want everything to be figured out. She didn't like open ends or unfinished puzzles. If she started a book, she finished it before the sunrise. She couldn't bear having to wait to see how it ends. 

It's not like she could march up to Willow and ask if she liked her. 

Well...

No. It wasn't very heroic to put someone under that sort of pressure on the spot, was it? And Willow was going through her own stuff figuring out what to do about the whole city thinking she was trying to kill her parents. She certainly didn't need to deal with June's stupid crush on top of that. 

She was brought out of her thoughts by her phone ringing. She almost ignored it, but eventually she flew to the address given and landed next to Lily, who was yelling into her phone at some poor soul on the other end. About twenty feet behind them, Mind Mania stood, staring at June, which immediately made her nervous.

Every thought she knew she shouldn't think raced to the front of her mind. She thought of Willow's lips, and scarred hands, and soft laugh, and by the time she figured it was all too late to try to stop thinking about her, she realised she had already thought about her name. Panicked, she looked to Mind Mania, who was smiling now.

June turned back to Lily when she huffed and angrily hung up her phone.

"That was the cops," She said through gritted teeth, "I told them about the threat and they aren't even going to send any units. Said we can handle it, which we can, but we shouldn't have to do it alone."

"What threat?"

Lily dug in her pocket and then thrust a crumpled piece of paper into June's chest before turning and walking to Mind Mania, no doubt to complain some more. June unfolded the paper, careful not to rip it, and read the messily scrawled note. 

It was hardly a threat, as Lily had put it. The whole message was just a time (3:30 P.M.), a location (Silver Crescent beach), and a smiley face at the bottom. She pulled out her phone to check the time. They were half an hour early.

The wind was cold, but June enjoyed being by the water. She liked the smell, and the way the air instantly calmed her down. The only thing she didn't love was sand. It was itchy and hard to walk on. As a kid, she would only go swimming in pools or lakes with rocks, not sand.

Zephyr arrived and joined Lily and Mind Mania. It wasn't lost on June how alone she was. Even her own allies were huddled together, backs to her, whispering. For a moment, she felt sad, but the more she watched them the more they reminded her of catty high-school girls, and then she thought she wouldn't want to join their little group anyway.

"What are they whispering about?"

Out of nowhere, Willow was next to her, grinning. There were three other villains a bit behind her, far enough that they couldn't hear them, but not so far that they couldn't see what was happening. None of them seemed to care that Willow was stood chatting to a hero, so June tried to pretend she didn't notice them noticing. 

"Thanks for the warning," June said bitterly, pushing the note into Willow's chest like Lily had just done to her.

"It was very impromptu." Willow explained easily, leaning her head on June's shoulder. June pushed her off, glancing at her group to see if they were watching. It wasn't missed by Willow, who raised her eyebrows, offended.

One of the other villains, their healer, walked toward them and June tensed, ready for an attack. The girl just smiled at her as she approached, and lightly touched Willow's arm to get her attention. When she had it, she said, "So, you guys are going to fight each other, right? We were just saying it'd be easier to deal with the aftermath of this whole thing if I know at least you won't need healing."

Willow shrugged, looking to June for confirmation, but she was too confused to answer. Did the villains all know about their friendship? Were they okay with it? The healer certainly seemed to be. 

"Hey!" Lily yelled, and in a moment of panic at being caught and trying desperately to cover it up, June jumped at Willow, tackling her to the ground and landing on her ribs knee-first. She made sure she kept herself mostly weightless, but she wanted it to look real, so she used just enough pressure to force a groan out of Willow.

The other heroes were suddenly running toward them, all darting in the direction of their pre-chosen villain. Everyone was screaming, and Willow was pushing June off of her and then rolling on top of her, throwing her own fake-hard punch. 

She made a big show of throwing fire around and lighting the grass around them, pretending she was aiming for June, and June was screaming like it was hitting her. There was water raining down on them, and the smell of smoke stuck in their noses, and they were hitting each other and swearing loudly, both trying hard not to laugh. As the water put out the fire, smoke rose, and in a delirious moment, June was worried it was coming from her cheeks, since they sure felt like they were burning.

Then they were standing again, and Willow was creating a circle of flames around them, effectively blocking out everyone's view of them. They were probably all too preoccupied to notice, anyway, but it was a nice sentiment. 

"Feelin' hot, yet?" Willow asked, grinning.

"I could think of better ways you could make me sweat."

Willow took a step toward her, closing the fire in even more, "Oh, yeah?" She said, biting her lip, "Like what?

June couldn't think of anything to say. Willow was standing close, letting her eyes soak June in, knowing nobody but them could see it. There were fingers trailing down her arm, still hot. Willow wasn't wearing gloves, but June knew she had them with her, ready to put on as soon as they were done. 

Maybe the fire got closer. Either that or the edges of June's vision were going dark. It didn't matter. She was only looking at Willow, anyway. She had only recently admitted to herself that she had a crush on her, and now she was thinking about how nice it would be to lean in a few inches and kiss her. She licked her lips. Willow watched it.

"Junie?" She whispered, and June's face got as hot as the fire that surrounded them.

"Yeah?" She said back, eyes trained on Willow's mouth.

"I really want to kiss you, right now."