Cape Crossed

Chapter Twenty-Five

"I get that your in love with her, Star, but she's just a walking pain in my ass at every turn," Hannah whined. Her fists were shoved deep into her jacket pockets. If they hadn't been, she'd have had a death grip on his arm. It almost didn't matter to her that Solar Flare and Black Star weren't actually a couple, she just wanted Solar to hurt the way she did.

"She's just trying to do what she thinks is right," Star explained. "Even if she's going about it badly."

"Is it some sort of inflamed need for justice because of your... conditions?" Hannah asked. "Although you don't seem to have that problem."

"Well, my consciousness was split with a princess so all I got was an inflated need for etiquette," he joked. A minute later his face turned serious, or at least what Hannah could see of it beneath his mask. "I don't know if being inhabited by the knight would do that to her. Solar's will has always been stronger than mine so the two of them have more distinct and separate personalities."

"Sounds to me like it's just Magda then," she scoffed.

"Just keep your distance from her for a bit and this whole thing will blow over." Star gave her arm a quick pat.

"I hear she's training more newbies."

"Yup, I hear a vacation in our futures," Star said wistfully. They both tensed when the ground shook. A chorus of screams started up from behind them, trailing through the buildings towards downtown. "Or not."

Hannah craned her neck to get a better look at where it was coming from. A blue zipped by overhead. Windows shattered from the force and the screaming grew louder.

"Rift," Black Star sighed. "Solar should be here any second, you should get out of here." He nodded at Hannah and nudged her away as he took to the sky. The flecks of silver on the underside of his caps caught the light as he rushed to catch up with Rift.

Hannah rubbed the back of her neck to ease some of the tension. There was time for her to change into her suit and catch up. She was no match for Rift compared to Star and Solar but she could help with damage control at least. She snapped the hair tie on her wrist and turned to run and change.

Her heart nearly stopped when she saw saw Jake walking towards her. The tight line his lips had made was worse than anything he could have said. For all of her practice in coming up with lies on the spot, Hannah felt useless in that moment.

"This isn't the hospital," he said. When she didn't answer, he held his hand out. She took it without hesitation and let him lead her back towards the car. "You wanna clue me in on what's going on here?"

"Not really." Her hand shook in his despite his frim hold on it. "Why are you here?"

"I was worried about you, so I came to pick you up," he answered. The walk back to the car took an eternity. Not even the sounds of fighting in the background could urge their feet to move any faster.

"Oh, that was nice of you."

"I worry about you," he whispered. A falling building shook the ground and he pulled her closer to his side. "I worry more seeing you hanging around with capes. They're dangerous Hannah."

"I'm fine, nothing was going to happen to me."

"Because they'll always protect you? Because they have a personal connection to you?" He stopped, forcing her to stop with him. "If you know who they are, why can't you just tell me?"

"Please, don't ask me that," she begged.

Jake spun on his heel, twisting himself to face her properly. "Wait, you actually know who they are?" He shook her hand trying to get her to look at him. "Tell me."

Hannah kept her mouth closed tightly, shaking her head. Even when he ducked down to be eye level with her, she looked away and squeezed her eyes closed.

"If you love me, you'll tell me."

Her eyes snapped open and she ripped her hand out of his. "If I love you," she repeated the words back at him. As he stepped back she followed to keep them toe to toe. "How can you say something like that? I won't tell you someone else's secret so you blackmail me?"

"That's not-"

She interrupted him with a quick wave of her hand. "Not what you meant to say? Bullshit, you knew exactly what you were saying Jacob Erwin. If you want to keep badgering me about this then you can enjoy having the apartment to yourself tonight because I'm not putting up with it."

Jake reached for her hand again and rolled his eyes when she moved further away. "I overreacted alright? I'm sorry, but that's just not a secret you keep from the people who are important to you."

"A sorry that's followed by a but isn't an apology!" They were both quiet, trying to catch their breath even while they stared at each other. "Jake, I do love you, but this isn't something I can just tell you. This is bigger than just us, it's not like I'm telling you my grandmother's secret brownie recipe or something."

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards before he could stop it. "I know, I know," he sighed.

"I should go, I'll crash with Claudia tonight or something," Hannah muttered and pulled out her phone.

"No, I'll just sleep on the couch. I swear, I won't bring it up tonight," he promised.

"But you will bring it up eventually, won't you?" Hannah's shoulder slumped. "I'm not going to just suddenly change my mind on this, Jake. It's bad enough that I know any of this, if we both knew, it would just out a bigger target on our back. You never know who's listening and waiting to take advantage of this kind of thing."

He reached for her hand again and this time she let him take it. "Alright, I understand, I won't bring it up again."