For samstrident! And Again (We Can Be Heroes) (miss A, Fei/Min, PG-13)
Title: and again (we can be heroes)
Recipient: samstrident
Group(s)/Artist(s): Miss A
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Fei/Min
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s):
Summary: Fei tries to live her life, things stop her from doing that, and Min is just there.
Note(s): happy new year!
---
Fei's life is irreversibly changed the day that some super-mutated drunk with anger management issues blasts a ray of heat right through the middle of the cafe she works at. It burns right through the glass and the tables and the walls, through everything and it leaves a giant hole in the building. People are scattered all over the ground; some are conscious, some are unconscious and some are probably worse.
She's too shocked to scream or even fully comprehend what's happening but something on the edges of her mind registers the sound of fighting, of more heat rays and she moves without thinking about it.
She picks up Suzy, who had thrown herself under the counter, and rushes further in to the wreckage of the cafe. She thinks it's a good idea, what are the chances of the same place being blasted twice, and she finds that she's right when she looks behind her and sees everywhere but there being burned into oblivion.
She glimpses a masked figure in black block one of the beams with nothing but their body and some odd acrobatics and she momentarily thinks that everything is going to be fine. She can't really dwell on the thought though, and she's brought back to reality, to here and now by the sound of sobbing.
Suzy is crying, gulping in air as her body shakes with terror and shock and all the things that Fei hoped she'd never have to feel. Between breaths she's mumbling about all the people who have gotten hurt, the people who could have gotten hurt and Fei feels her heart break because Suzy is so young, she's so sweet and she should have been more forceful in insisting that Suzy just take her break without her.
She pulls Suzy in and holds her as tightly as she can, pressing kisses to her hair and stroking younger girl's back. She squeezes her eyes shut as tightly as she can and holds back tears of her own because she's no use to Suzy if she breaks down now, and she lets Suzy bury her head in the crook of her neck and tells her that the heroes are here now and everything will be okay.
She sinks to the floor and tries her very best to believe in her own words.
---
She's not sure how long she's huddled on the ground with Suzy but she only looks up because she feels warm hands on her shoulders and voice that definitely doesn't belong to the girl in her arms asking if she's okay.
She stops whispering into Suzy's hair and tilts her head up. She's startled when there's a masked face only inches away from hers and it must show because it moves away as fast as she can blink. The other person doesn't stop staring though, and Fei realizes that they're waiting for an answer. She spends a moment trying to calm herself, to makes sure that her voice is even and that she seems collected, even though she knows that no one would blame her if she was an emotional wreck.
"I'm fine" is what she manages to get out. She gestures to Suzy who is still clinging to her and sobbing. "She's not though."
The masked person - a woman, she notices after a quick once over - nods and steps back. She moves to help Fei up, to take Suzy out of her arms but Fei shakes her head quickly and moves to get up herself. It's difficult; Suzy is an absolute mess and can barely stand but she makes it eventually. She strokes Suzy's hair and tells her that it's okay, tells to her look around and see that someone is here for them.
Suzy tightens her grip on Fei and looks around like she was told. Her face is streaked with tears and she's dribbling slightly but Fei just kisses her temple and doesn't let go when Suzy lays eyes on the masked woman and starts crying with what she hopes is relief.
The other woman clears her throat awkwardly and gestures towards the burnt street; Fei nods and begins to lead Suzy outside. The woman walks beside her through the remains of the cafe and Fei takes a moment to wonder why anyone would want to fight crime in high heels something a tutu. The woman notices her gaze and Fei gets her answer.
"We're, um, still in the experimental stage with the costumes."
---
The first thing Fei hears when she steps out onto the charred sidewalk is sirens, the voices of news reporters and the chatter of the crowd that had gathered. The second thing she hears is Jia arguing with a police officer and telling him to just let her through, damn it, because she needs to find out if her roommate is alive.
Despite the officer's warning, Jia vaults over the barricades they've set up as soon as she sees Fei dragging Suzy out of what used to be their workplace. She doesn't say anything as she wraps her arms around the both of them and Fei can't help but be thankful because she doesn't know what she'd say back. She briefly sees the masked woman block the irritated cop's path to Jia before someone ushers her off to the nearest ambulance.
People surround her and fire off questions faster than she can answer and she almost yells when someone pries Suzy out of her arms but Jia flashes her a smile and wanders off to wherever they took the younger girl. She does her best to answer all the questions she's asked as calmly and as accurately as she can and she tries not to squirm when people poke and prod at her to check for injuries.
Her patience is beginning to wear thin when the crowd around her suddenly disappears and she's a little confused because she was halfway through her sixth retelling of her day. She realizes why everyone left when she sees the masked woman walk up to her. She moves to the side to make room for the other woman to sit but she shakes her head and stays standing. They stay in silence for a few moments before the other woman speaks.
"I wasn't interrupting anything with the interviews, was I?" She shifts from one foot to the other and fiddles with her sleeves and for a second Fei thinks she looks nervous. She quickly brushes off the thought though, because the woman just fought off someone who could shoot heat rays so there was no way she'd be nervous just standing in front of Fei of all people.
"No, nothing important. It was all the same." The other woman nods and they fall into silence again. Fei takes the opportunity to examine her. She notices small holes all over her clothes and she can't tell if they're deliberate or if they're from her earlier fight. She notices that the woman is small and that if she stood up she'd be a good inch or two taller. She notices that her legs are toned and bare and that she wants to run her hands up the length of them and that she's wearing shorts underneath her tutu. Fei exhales quietly and tries to get her thoughts back on track.
Fei looks at the woman's face and frowns because even though her mask is small and hardly covers the area around her eyes, she can barely get an idea of what she looks like without it. She decides that it doesn't matter because she's sure that her lips would look just as amazing without the mask as they do with and she knows that a mask wouldn't change the fact that she can see the woman's collarbones and the rise and fall of her chest when she breathes. She clears her throat quickly and tries to think of something to say.
"Thank you, by the way. For before. I'd hate to think of how many more people would have gotten hurt if you hadn't stepped in." The woman lets out a surprised squeak and waves her arms around like she's not sure what to do with them.
"Don't thank me. It's the least I can do." Fei feels a smile beginning to form and she opens her mouth to say thank you again but before she can the woman sticks out her hand. Fei looks at it, not knowing what to do. The woman laughs awkwardly and moves her hand up and down.
"It's, um, nice to meet you?" A bulb flicks on in Fei's head and suddenly she feels stupid so she grabs the outstretched hand and shakes it with a little more force than necessary. The hand is warm in her grasp and Fei feels the warmth begin to move throughout her body.
"I'm Fei." She sees the woman mouth the name to herself likes she's testing how it feels on her lips and Fei holds her breath, suddenly struck by a burning need to hear the woman actually say it. She doesn't get to hear it though, and the woman lets go of her hand and nods. She feels the warmth leave her body and she almost reaches out to grab the woman's hand again but she stops herself at the last second.
"That's a nice name." The woman moves like she's going to leave and Fei realizes she still doesn't know who she is.
"And you are?"
"I'm Mi- no, no, no." The woman freezes, her eyes go wide and her mouth falls open like she doesn't know what to do now. "I'm new."
"You're new?"
"I'm new. I just moved here and I'm still sorting this" she gestures to herself and all around her, "whole thing out."
"I see." Fei can't help but feel slightly disappointed that she didn't get a name, not even a fake one, but she smiles anyway.
"If I've sorted it out by the next time we meet, I'll tell you, okay?" The woman smiles and Fei thinks she looks perfect. Before she can say anything more, before she can even open her mouth, the woman pushes off the ground and launches herself into the city above.
It's the first time Fei has actually seen someone fly with her own eyes and it's so different from when she sees it on TV; she's awestruck and it takes her breath away a little bit. She wonders what it feels like, if it's as amazing as she thinks it is to just leap off the ground and rise higher and higher and watch everything shrink until you can't tell one thing from the next, or if it's lonely to be up there by yourself in a place no one else can get to.
Someone accidentally kicks her shoe and she's brought crashing back to earth. The crowd is back and this time cameras are flashing and their questions are coming faster and in greater numbers than before and she just wants to leave. She stands up and cranes her neck to see over the swarm of people around her and she spots Jia standing in front of an ambulance some distance away.
She takes a deep breath and puts on the most polite smile she can and starts to push her way through the crowd, offering small bows whenever she bumps against someone harder than she intended.
Jia snaps her head around and glares at everyone following Fei when she hears the noise. To Fei's surprise, they actually quiet down and back off a little.
Suzy is wrapped in a blanket and Fei can see how much she's shaking despite the fact that the younger girl is trying to hide it. She sits down next to her and puts an arm around her waist. Fei looks at Jia who shrugs helplessly and mouths an I don't know before running her hands through her hair, a frustrated sigh making its way past her lips.
"Who was she?" It's the first thing Suzy has said in probably an hour and she's shaking like a leaf but Fei marvels at the way she's able to keep her voice so even and she thinks that maybe she's been underestimating Suzy this whole time.
"Who was who?" Jia sounds confused and Fei can't help but share the feeling. She's sure Suzy was left mostly alone since they were separated so she waits for Jia to run through her mental list of people Suzy has talked to and come up with an answer.
"The woman in black. With the tutu? She was in there." Suzy explains herself and she nods her head in the direction of the cafe. Fei's hold on her tightens when she hears her voice waver on there. "She had a mask."
Jia shrugs and Suzy looks at Fei with wide, red-rimmed eyes. She knows the girl is waiting for an answer but she doesn't have one so she tells Suzy the exact same thing that the woman told her before she took flight.
"She's new."
---
Fei and Jia both agree that Suzy is better off staying with them for the night instead of going back to her school dorm and the girl ends up sandwiched between them and clutching both their hands for the short walk to their apartment.
As soon as they've unlocked the door Suzy kicks off her shoes, excuses herself and shuffles off in the direction of Fei's room. The other two stay silent as they watch her leave and Fei breathes out a sigh when she hears the bedroom door click shut. She moves on autopilot to the kitchen where she starts clattering around just to give herself something to do.
She thinks about everyone in the cafe who, because of one person's anger, have lost whatever illusion of safety they once had; she thinks about how her boss will have to rebuild her cafe and her house above it entirely from scratch and she wonders whether anyone except Suzy and herself made it out unscathed. She thinks about how she'll have to find a new job, Suzy too, and she wonders what she'll do about rent if she doesn't find one fast enough.
She thinks about the mess the street was in and the thousands of dollars it will cost to repair it. She thinks about the masses of people behind police tape and barricades and how little most of them will be affected by it all.
She thinks about how she can't just go back outside tomorrow and look at the world like nothing has changed because things have changed and for once something happened to her, to Suzy, to that entire street and she can't go out and look at anything with the same dull gaze anymore. She thinks about how she doesn't know what she'll do tomorrow, she doesn't know what she's doing now and she thinks about how that scares her because if there's one thing she's good at, it's knowing what to do.
She exhales slowly and then she thinks about masks and experimental costumes and legs and the warmth radiating from a hand clasped in hers. She thinks about nervous shifting and the way her name might have sounded falling from lips that looked like they would have fit perfectly with hers.
She's so engrossed in her thoughts that she doesn't notice Jia move closer and she almost drops the plate she's holding when she feels a hand on her arm.
"Let's just sit down and watch TV or something, yeah?" Jia's voice is soft and Fei gets the feeling that Jia wouldn't mind if Fei didn't say anything and went to bed instead. She doesn't feel like sleeping just yet though, so she nods and lets Jia pull her over to the couch and doesn't complain when Jia starts flicking through channels without giving her a chance to see what's on.
Fei is exhausted and she's not really paying attention; she's too busy wondering what happens next, but when Jia leans over every now and then and mumbles something in Chinese to her she smiles because that's one thing she definitely knows won't change and she thinks that maybe it doesn't really matter what comes next.
---
She wakes up the next morning with an ache in her neck and no clue how she got to her room. Suzy is waving a newspaper in her face and chattering too fast for Fei's brain to comprehend. Her hair is still wet from a shower and she looks a lot brighter than she did yesterday so Fei doesn't even mind that Suzy is holding the paper so close that she's going cross-eyed.
"Look!" Suzy is ridiculously excited and Fei can't come up with a single reason why. She sits up and takes the newspaper out of Suzy's hands and smiles when the girl stands there bouncing on her toes and flailing her arms around.
She looks down at the paper, sees the headline SEOUL'S NEW HERO and thinks that's what got Suzy so hyped up. She starts skimming through the article but she doesn't get very far before Suzy starts jabbing her finger onto the page.
"You're on the front page! Isn't that cool?" It would be a lie if she agreed so instead she gives Suzy an ambiguous hm in response and inspects the picture she's in more closely.
Someone had snapped a photo of her when she had reached out and shook the masked woman's hand and she flexes her hand while she looks at it, remembering the feel of the woman's hand and the heat it spread through her body. She realizes Suzy is still staring at her excitedly and she smiles at the girl.
"Have you had breakfast?" Suzy shakes her head and Fei moves to get out of bed. "I'll make you some then."
Suzy beams at her and trots out of the bedroom. Fei hears her bound across the living room and throw open Jia's door and she lets out a quiet chuckle. She's glad the girl seems okay and she knows Jia won't mind getting woken up if Suzy's angelic smile is the first thing she sees.
Before she leaves the room she looks at the newspaper, moves it her bedside table and decides that she'll keep it for a little while.
---
She's halfway through making breakfast when Suzy drags Jia out of her room. Her roommate is bleary-eyed and disoriented but she doesn't struggle against the grip Suzy has on her wrist.
She smiles when she sees Jia collapse into a chair and all but slam her head onto the table out of tiredness. Suzy pokes at the sleepy woman until Fei places a plate of food in front of her and then nothing else in the world seems to matter to the girl.
Jia doesn't touch her breakfast and Fei has a sneaking suspicion that she fell asleep again. She doesn't mind though because Suzy is making happy noises on her side of the table and smiling at Fei like they it's any other day. Everything is so normal Fei thinks that maybe she imagined the whole thing, but she's still in yesterday's clothes and there's still a little soot on her arm from when she brushed up against burnt walls so even though she doesn't want to admit it she knows it happened.
She shakes the thoughts out of her head and focuses on Suzy chewing happily on her breakfast and Jia slowly coming back into the world of the living.
By the time her roommate sits up properly and starts poking at her breakfast Fei is finished and Suzy is on halfway through her second helping.
"It's cold" Jia says, but she starts eating anyway. Fei thinks about offering to heat it up for her but decides against it because it's Jia's fault for falling asleep at the table.
"It's okay" Suzy mumbles around a mouthful of food and Fei nods because even though she's out of a job and Jia's food is cold, Suzy is right, it is okay.
---
Fei leaves the house for the first time in three weeks when Jia comes home and finds her polishing cutlery. She's already tidied everything else, their apartment is spotless, it's immaculate and it's not like she has anything else to do.
Jia doesn't listen to any of her excuses though, she just puts a sweater in her hands and shoves her towards the door. She barely has time to grab her wallet before Jia throws shoes in her direction and glares at her while she puts them on.
"You need to leave."
"You don't have to be so forceful." Fei mumbles and Jia rolls her eyes.
"Fei, I love you and everything but you crossed the line today. I worry about you, you know."
"What about Suzy? I don't see you shoving her around." Jia rolls her eyes again and pokes Fei in the shoulder.
"Suzy is fine. Suzy has school. What do you have? A drawer full of forks. I can't live with myself if I know you're at home shining spoons." She steps back and cocks an eyebrow, tapping her foot impatiently. Fei looks at the wallet in her hands.
"Do you want to come with me?"
"No." Jia's tone is flat and expressionless and it's the last thing Fei hears before Jia pushes her out the door and slams it.
She grumbles quietly under her breath all the way to the grocery store.
---
She can't help but be thankful that Jia forced her out of the house because she finally feels like she's accomplishing something for the first time in too long. She likes the way she actually has to think about what she's doing, what she's putting into her cart and where to find what she needs. As she holds a box of cereal in her hands she thinks that she's missed feeling like she really knows what she's doing.
Her phone vibrates in her pocket just as she decides to get a healthier type of cereal. She smiles to herself when she opens it and sees Jia's hastily typed shopping list and congratulates herself on correctly guessing everything they needed. Just as she's about to put her phone away Jia sends her another message that makes her furrow her brow as she reads it.
ice crem 2 bc ur spoon shining md me dpresd
She's not quite sure how it's possible to spell words that way when autocorrect exists but she figures that if anyone is going to manage to do it, it was going to be Jia.
They were dull. What if we had guests?
Jia's message makes her change her mind about healthy cereal and she picks up the box that she thinks looks the most sugary and sickly sweet, inspecting the nutritional information on the side to make sure she's right before putting it in her cart.
Jia sends her next message in five different parts - probably for emphasis, Fei thinks - and she notes dryly that they're probably have the best spelling out of anything Jia has ever sent her.
Fei, darling, I'm not sure if you know this but
no
one
cares
please don't come home until you're normal again
Fei huffs at her phone and shoves it back in her pocket, making a mental note to bring home Jia's least favourite flavour of ice cream.
---
She makes her way methodically through the aisles after that, comparing the contents of her cart with the items on Jia's list and trying to think of anything her roommate night have missed. It comforts her in a strange way; the grocery store, its drab and unchanging decor and the way she can count each visit as part of a routine.
She thinks about that, about the grocery store and how nothing has changed but at the same time everything is different, while she stands in front of the milk fridge. Thoughts of normality and her old job, of the ever-present smell of coffee and the sight of Suzy eyeing up customers' food invade her mind while her hand moves back and forth between whole and skim milk.
She doesn't think about it for much longer though, because suddenly there's a pain in her back and she's head butting the milk she was staring at.
"Are you okay?" The owner of the voice is grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her out of the fridge. Fei isn't sure what happened but the hands on her shoulders are warm and the voice in her ear makes her heart beat faster and she can't help but think that there's something oddly familiar about the whole situation.
She stands up and steadies herself before she turns around to thank whoever helped her up.
She comes face to face with a woman slightly shorter than herself that has eyes full of concern and lips that look softer than anything she'd ever seen. She breaks out of her daze when she notices that the woman is standing just a little too close for her to be completely calm and she splutters for a few seconds before the woman steps back quickly. They continue to stare at each other and Fei feels like this has definitely happened before.
"Fei?" The woman says her name quietly, carefully like she's practicing and scared that it will come out wrong if she says it any louder. Fei thinks that it's the nicest her name has ever sounded but she pushes the thought to the side because she's too busy trying to figure out who the woman it.
"Yes? Have we met before?" She says each word slowly, giving herself time to run the woman's image through her mind. She she's sure she's never seen the woman before but she can't quite shake the feeling that she should know her.
The woman's eyes widen while Fei thinks and she stutters and waves her arms around in some sort of all encompassing gesture.
"Um. You used to work in that cafe. The one that was destroyed by that drunk who could shoot heat rays." She's mumbling and Fei has to lean closer to hear but she eventually manages to make out what she said. She's still confused though, because all the customers that called her by name were regulars and she prides herself on recognising them straight away. She goes through the all their names but still can't give one to the woman in front of her.
"Did you go there often?" Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because the woman's eyes go even wider, her gestures get wilder and her mouth opens and closes like a fish.
"No. I mean yes! Well, no. Not really. I went there. Just once. One time, I was there. And you were also there. Because you worked there." Her voice trails off and her arms fall to her sides like she's given up and Fei can't help but laugh.
"Thank you for remembering me?"
"Yeah, of course. You're really- you were in the newspaper the other week. And on the news."
"Ah. That." Fei reaches up and brushes her hair out of her face and the woman starts blushing for reasons unknown. Fei opens her mouth to say more but the woman has already started backing away from her.
"I'm sorry I pushed my cart into you" is the last thing the woman says before she turns and pushes her cart - which only has three chocolate bars in it, Fei notes - in the opposite direction as fast as humanly possible.
Fei is confused to say the least but she doesn't give the woman's actions much thought because she's too busy trying to figure out why she's so familiar.
She still doesn't have an answer two aisles later when she sees the woman dancing to whatever song is playing through the store's speakers.
---
She can't help but be a little annoyed that Jia forced her out of the house when she gets to the checkouts and realizes that there's no way she can carry everything home by herself. She watches a teenage boy try and subtly check her out while he bags her groceries and she thinks about whether or not it would be okay if she borrowed one of the carts for the half an hour walk back to her apartment. She's about to abandon her dignity and do it when she feels a hand on her shoulder and someone asking if she needs help.
She turns around, sees that it's the woman from before and wonders if the rest of her life will be made up of strangers coming to her aid. She's about to politely refuse, to say she has everything under control but the woman is already picking up some of her bags and looking at her curiously.
"I knocked you into a fridge. It's the least I can do." She's a lot calmer than she was when she left Fei in front of rows of milk and Fei likes the way she smiles, so she nods and picks up the remaining bags.
They walk outside and the woman looks expectantly at her. They wait around for a while and Fei takes a lot longer than she should to figure out why.
"This way then." She inclines her head in the general direction of her apartment and fights the urge to bury herself in a hole. The woman follows after her quietly, chewing her lip all the while.
"Min." She says it so quietly that Fei almost misses it.
"Pardon?"
"I'm Min."
"Oh. It's nice to meet you." Fei smiles, "I'd introduce myself but you already know me." Min's face reddens and Fei thinks it's adorable.
"I'd shake your hand or something but," she nods towards the bags in her arms and Fei finally notices how much she's carrying.
"Isn't that heavy?" Min laughs; it's loud and open and kind of ridiculous but Fei likes it because it makes it sound like Min has nothing to hide.
"Nah. It's a piece of cake, really."
"Are you sure? They're mine, so I don't mind if-"
"It's fine, seriously. I've lifted heavier things than this." Min informs her and Fei cocks an eyebrow at the pride evident in her voice.
"Oh? Like what?" Min laughs again; Fei's heart skips a beat and she thinks that maybe she can get used to hearing that sound.
---
Min doesn't end up telling Fei about her heavy lifting, but she does tell Fei about the time she got hit in the head with a Tonka truck because she was playing catch and thought it was a good replacement for a ball. Fei gasps in horror but Min just laughs it off and tells her it's just one of those things. Fei isn't exactly sure what those things are but she doesn't ask because Min is so interesting and she's so focused on the things coming out of the other woman's mouth that she can barely remember to stop before she crosses roads.
She learns that Min is multi-talented, she can dance and sing and knows multiple languages, and that she only recently moved back to the city. She learns that Min has an Uncle Jinyoung who works in security and he wants Min to join the family business. She looks at Min curiously when the other woman tells her this because she can't imagine someone making a career out of that.
Min laughs and tells her that it's only a short term thing.
She finds out that Min is younger than her, not as young as Suzy but still considerably younger, that she likes pink and is oddly dedicated to hip hop. She finds out that Min is ridiculously outgoing and kind of crazy in a way that reminds her so much of Jia, and that she's comfortable to be around once they get past the initial awkwardness.
Min bumps in to her more than once on their way back to Fei's apartment and even though she apologizes, Fei notices that she doesn't move as far back and the gap between them gets smaller and smaller each time.
She doesn't mind because her skin tingles where Min as touched her and she's pretty sure Min smells like vanilla, and because Min laughs at her jokes and smiles when she talks and makes her heart beat faster than she should be okay with.
Min bumps into her one last time and blurts out that she likes Fei's face and Fei wonders if this is what falling in love feels like.
---
All too soon they're in the lobby of Fei's building and Fei is so taken by Min that she's seriously contemplating telling her that she got her address wrong and that she actually lives on the other side of the city. She doesn't end up saying anything though, because she figures Min isn't stupid and because she's too busy thinking about how cute Min looks when she's juggling at least six bags while trying to press the button for the elevator. She doesn't mention that Min could easily put the bags down and do it because she kind of enjoys seeing Min spin around in circles and mutter to herself.
She takes pity on her eventually and presses the button herself, receiving a thankful smile in return.
"This thing takes a while, it's quite old." She explains when she sees Min narrow her eyes at the numbers on top of the doors.
"Is it safe?"
"That's debatable. On the plus side, no one has died yet." The doors slide open as if on cue and Min gestures for Fei to go first.
Fei presses the button for the seventh floor and they stand in oddly comfortable silence as they wait for the elevator to spring to life.
"I hate it when people get stuck in these." Min mumbles and Fei tilts her head questioningly.
"Nothing." She says and Fei assumes it's just another one of those things Min keeps mentioning.
As elevator grinds to a stop on the seventh floor Min's phone starts to ring. Fei is taken aback by the hip hop song that blares from the tiny speakers because she had honestly thought that Jia was the only one strange enough to have ringtones like that.
"Are you going to get that?" She leads the way out of the elevator and she can hear Min shuffle along behind her.
"No hands, see?" The younger woman shakes the bags she's carrying and her phone falls silent, "if it's important then they'll call back."
Fei nods, leading the way to her apartment and trying to muster up the courage to ask Min for her number so that maybe she be the one calling her and then maybe, probably, definitely call back later. They reach Fei's door and she manoeuvres the bags she's holding so that she can unlock it.
Jia is watching TV when she walks in and gives her a blank stare when she sees the bags Fei has.
"That's it?"
"No, the rest is with Min." Jia takes that as her cue to roll off the couch and walk towards the door.
"Is Min what we're calling the door now?" She calls and Fei whirls around.
"Min isn't there?" She places the bags on the counter as quickly as she can and goes to join her roommate. Sure enough, Min is gone and all her groceries are placed neatly at the entrance of the apartment.
"You carried all this by yourself?" Jia sounds impressed and Fei is struggling to hide her disappointment at Min's sudden departure.
She tells Jia all about Min while they lug the bags inside and putting things away. She tells Jia about how Min curses at pigeons, how Min avoids cracks in the pavement and how she thinks Jia would like Min a lot because they're so similar that it's kind of scary.
She leaves out the part about how Min makes her heart beat like a drum, how she felt all sorts of things during their short time together and how she feels like she missed out on something important when Min left without saying goodbye.
Jia makes vague sounds of acknowledgement as she talks and leaves Fei to wonder why Min ran off like she did.
She gets her answer soon enough because Jia empties the last bag and throws a receipt in her direction.
"I think this is yours." She says and rips open a packet of chips.
"Just throw it aw-"
"It's yours, Fei." Jia doesn't say anything more, just rolls her eyes and walks back to the couch.
Fei examines he receipt carefully and sees why Jia insisted it was hers when she turns it over. Min's writing is loud and bubbly and so like her, Fei thinks and she bites her lip softly as she reads the note.
Sorry I didn't say bye. Turns out it was my uncle calling. Urgent family stuff, you know? I hope you're not mad. Call me sometime.
Min's number is written neatly underneath and Fei can't keep the smile off her face any longer. She pulls out her phone and is in the middle of saving Min's number when she hears Jia call out to her.
"Now you've got a reason to leave the house."
Fei doesn't stop smiling.
---
That night she steals the remote off Jia and flips to the late night news just in time to see that her masked saviour has teamed up with the city's leading hero, JYP, to stop a man who called himself Poseidon from flooding the entire downtown area. It happened just after she got home and she wonders if Min got caught in the chaos when she was on her way to her "urgent family thing".
The footage the station plays is terrible, it's grainy and mostly just screaming pedestrians and shots of helicopters, but Fei is enthralled every time that the masked woman is on camera. She every move she makes is sharp and purposeful, she looks like she's dancing and makes fighting midair look like the easiest thing in the world. Even when she's not what the camera is focusing on Fei can spot her flying around in the background dodging jets of water and she wants to slap herself because the only thing going through her mind is that's so cool.
She's broken out of her trance when she hears Jia snort beside her and she turns to see what's so funny.
"Fei, look! They're calling her Tiny Dancer." Fei furrows her brow. She thinks it's a pretty accurate name.
"She is a little on the small side." She defends lamely.
"That's not the point." Jia declares. "The point is that it's a stupid name."
Fei thinks for a moment, choosing her words carefully because she knows how passionate Jia can get about the strangest of things.
"What about JYP? It's not like that means anything special." Evidently she didn't choose her words carefully enough because mildly offended doesn't even begin o cover the look on Jia's face.
"Don't go there. Don't do it." She warns, "JYP is an awesome name and everyone, everyone knows it." There's an odd glint in Jia's eyes and her voice is filled with an admiration so intense that Fei is actually left speechless.
"Just watch the news, Jia." She says after getting her thoughts in order and she hears her roommate mutter something about denying the obvious, but Jia does what she's told and turns back towards the TV.
They're wrapping up the report by the time Fei starts paying attention again but she zones in just in time to see JYP toss Poseidon's unconscious body to Tiny Dancer and she's sure she hears Jia humming the song quietly beside her.
The masked woman lands on the ground with a practiced ease and hands the unconscious man to the police. Her expression is unperturbed, she looks collected and controlled and she barely seems to notice the hordes of people chanting her name.
Fei thinks about the newspaper in her top drawer that she pretends she's going to throw out and she thinks about the picture on the front page and the way the woman shifted nervously in front of her.
She thinks about Min's note on her bedside table and the way Min seemed so comfortable around her and she wonders how two people can be so different.
---
She calls Min the next day after Suzy texts her to say that she's proud that Fei finally ventured outside again.
As she dials Min's number, she's nervous for reasons she's not sure of and she hopes that she'll be able to get her words out right when the other woman answers.
The phones starts to ring as soon as she realizes that she has no idea what she's going to say and that she has no legitimate reason to call Min and that saying she just wanted to hear her voice is probably coming on a bit too strong.
Her worrying is in vain because Min never picks up and she's left to her overly cheerful voicemail telling her hey, you've reached Min. She forces her voice to stay even as she leaves a message saying that she's just calling so that Mi has her number if she wants it.
She gets up and walks around the apartment looking for something to do. A quick look in Jia's room tells her that her roommate is at work so she rules out one source of amusement.
She makes Jias bed to pass the time and has almost finished smoothing out the wrinkles on the cover when her phone starts ringing. It takes her a moment to register the sound but when she does she practically throws herself across Jia's bed to get it.
"Hello?"
"Fei? Hey, it's Min."
"Ahm." she clears her throat. "Hello there."
"You called?"
"That I did."
Silence falls between the two of them and Fei adjusts her sprawled out position on the newly messed up bed. The only thing she can hear on the other end of the line is Min's quiet breathing and she wonders where exactly the other woman is for it to be so silent. She's about to ask when Min speaks.
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"For calling." Min says simply and Fei feels like her chest about to burst.
"Oh." Her answer is lame and she can only hope that Min can sense the smile on her face.
"I just figured you'd be kind of pissed I ran out yesterday." Min explains.
"No, I understand. Family business. It's just one of those things, right?" She says and Min chuckles.
"Yeah, one of those things."
Conversation comes easily to them after that and Min tells her about how her Uncle Jinyoung needed her help to get a water leak under control. She tells her about how there could have been some serious flooding if they hadn't done anything and Fei gets the feeling that it was a lot more interesting than how Min describes it.
She listens attentively though, making noises of agreement where she thinks it's appropriate.
Min finishes her tale and barely gives Fei time to breathe before she launches into a story about how her cousin Jo Kwon broke three tables with his vigorous dancing when everyone went out drinking afterwards.
Fei is in stitches by the end of the story despite the fact that she has no idea who the people Min is talking about are and she almost misses Min's mumbled question at the end.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" She asks, struggling to get her laughter under control.
"I was wondering if you wanted to go out for coffee?" Min's voice is so quiet that Fei can barely her the nervousness in it.
"That sounds great."
"Okay. Yeah, cool." Fei has to fight back a very unladylike snort at the sound of Min's barely restrained giddiness. "Is four o'clock good?"
"Four's-"
"Or not. It doesn't have to be today. You're probably busy with your life so we can do it some other time if you want."
"No, four is fine." Fei laughs into the phone and she hears Min clear her throat.
"Oh. Okay. That's great."
"It is."
"I'll pick you up then, I guess."
"I guess you will."
"I'll see you later?"
"Of course."
Fei hangs up, rolls onto her stomach and lets out a squeal that's so girlish she'd die if anyone heard and she thanks every deity out there for making sure she has half-deaf elderly neighbours.
---
She comes home at eleven that night and wonders where all that time went. She almost jumps out of her skin when she walks into her bedroom and Jia is sitting on her bed staring at her.
"Leave a note next time" is all Jia says before she gets up to leave.
"I'm twenty-five" is the only thing Fei can think to say.
"Leave a note."
Jia goes back to her room and Fei starts getting ready for bed. She knows Jia isn't really angry with her and is probably just a little jarred by Fei's sudden adventure into the outside world.
She finally thinks of a way to pacify her roommate when she's lying in bed thinking about the way Min's hand kept brushing against hers the whole time they were out.
She gropes around in the dark for her phone, blinking wildly when she's blinded by its light. She sends Jia a short explanatory message and hopes it does the trick.
I had a date.
Jia responds so quickly that the only conclusion Fei is able to come to is that Jia was sitting in her room waiting for Fei to text her.
dnt need ntes i guess
Fei laughs loudly into the night and not even the sounds of the city outside can drown it out. Jia sends her another text and it just makes her laugh harder.
shut it
---
Min calls her the next morning and stumbles over her words as she asks Fei if she'd be okay with seeing Min again as soon as possible. Fei smiles to herself and tries to put as much sincerity into her voice as possible when she says that she'd love to.
They talk about nothing and everything while she putters around her apartment and she realizes that it's been a while since she's spoken to people other than Jia or Suzy. The thought sends a shock through her and she pauses mid-sentence while she processes it.
Min asks her what's wrong and it doesn't even cross her mind to lie, so she tells her. Min's laugh fills her chest with warmth and she decides that Min is a good start to getting her life together.
---
The first thing that goes through her mind when she wakes up is that she can't stay inside forever. She feels around for her phone and her heart skips a beat when she sees a new message from Min.
I hope your day goes well :)
She decides that something needs to change so she throws off her covers and moves with a determination that wasn't there yesterday.
Jia watches her silently as she marches around the apartment and readies herself for the day. She's not quite sure what she's going to do, but at least it's something.
"Something wrong?" Jia mumbles around a mouthful of toast.
Fei thinks for a minute before she answers, "not today."
---
She was wrong, it turns out, because as soon as she set foot outside her building it seemed like everything was wrong.
She didn't dress warm enough, she left her keys on her dresser, her phone was about fifteen minutes away from dying and her shoelace would not stay tied no matter how many times she knotted it.
She shakes her head and mumbles words of encouragement to herself under her breath as she walks along the street. She thinks about where she should go, about what she should do now that she finally left her apartment and is saddened when she comes up with nothing.
She walks aimlessly for a while, not paying attention to her surroundings until she's confronted with something she didn't know she wanted to see.
Her old work is boarded up but she can see the black burn marks around the boards. She looks at the front and thinks about what must be inside; she thinks about half-burned tables and knocked over chairs and the untouched counter. She wonders if it might have all been ripped out already.
She looks at the building and she feels a weight lifting from her shoulders, a weight she didn't even know was there. She starts to smile slowly and suddenly it doesn't matter that she'll probably have to ask the old lady across the hall for her spare key or that she might freeze to death on the streets.
It doesn't matter because she's here and she has the whole world waiting for her- or at least the whole of Seoul and she feels lighter than she has in weeks.
She hears tyres screeching and barely has time to turn her head in the direction of the sound before people start screaming. She vaguely registers the sight of a car speeding straight towards her, thinks that this street is really, really unlucky for her, and she closes her eyes and braces herself for the impact.
She hears the crash, feels a rush of air and the sensation of being swept of her feet and thinks that maybe getting hit by a car isn't as horrific as she first thought. She doesn't realize that she hasn't been hit until she feels the ground underneath her.
She eyes fly open and she looks around, shocked to find herself about a hundred meters away from where she should have been. She turns around and sees that hero- Tiny Dancer, she thinks and has to shake away the sound of Jia's chuckle- standing in front of her, head tilted curiously.
"Hello again." The woman says eventually and Fei focuses on straightening her top.
"Hi," she mumbles back, "and thank you again."
The woman smiles, "You should be more careful."
She doesn't give Fei a chance to respond before she dashes over to the car wreckage and starts rummaging through it.
Fei doesn't stick around and turns on her heel and walks back to her apartment as fast as she can, hoping to catch Jia before she leaves for work.
---
Min sees her the next day and Fei doesn't feel the need to tell her she almost died again. Min smiles like Fei is the most interesting person in the world while she listens to the older woman's talk about the plants she's raising, and Fei doesn't want her to worry.
Min takes her by the hand, unwittingly sending the breath rushing out of her body, and drags her all the way to a cafe that she's never heard of. She's herded to a table and Min goes to order.
The cafe is small and comfortable, there are books lining the walls and quiet music playing over the speakers. Fei lets herself relax into the chair and listens to Min order for her.
When Min comes back she sits across from Fei and looks over her shoulder.
"Hey, look." She says, gesturing behind Fei, "they're hiring. Weird, huh?"
It is weird, Fei thinks, but she doesn't resist when Min pushes her to ask about the job and comes back beaming when they basically hire her on the spot out of desperation.
"Told you it'd be fine." Min says and Fei believes her with all her heart.
---
Fei takes the evening shift at her new job and isn't bothered by the fact that she has to walk home by herself at midnight. The same can't be said about Jia and Suzy, however, and the two bother her about it until she agrees to call one of them as soon as her shift ends and stay on the phone until she gets home.
She realizes that their worrying might not have been so uncalled for when she forgets to call them one night and a hooded walks up to her and blocks her path. He has something in his hand that flashes in the light and looks suspiciously like a knife and Fei decides to resign herself to her fate.
She closes her eyes just like she did for the car and she hears a dull thud and the sound of metal clattering on the ground.
"You could at least try to run." A vaguely familiar voice says and she cracks open one of her eyes.
Tiny Dancer stands in front of her and Fei opens her eyes fully, thinking that if they keep meeting like this then they really should get a little more personal with the names.
"Shouldn't you call a friend or something if you're going to be out this late?" She asks and Fei slaps a palm into her forehead.
"I forgot." She says quietly, mostly to herself, but the other woman responds anyway.
"Mace spray might be a good investment." She nods and pushes off the ground before Fei can say thank you.
She calls Jia as soon as she's sure she's alone again.
"Did you finish late?" Jia asks. She sounds tired and Fei doesn't want to worry her.
"Something like that, yeah."
---
Min calls her the next day and starts rambling about crime statistics. Fei decides not to tell her about the previous night and asks when she's free.
"Half an hour." Min says and Fei tells her she's coming over.
Min greets her with a kiss that sends her mind reeling and leaves her unable to speak when it's over. She chokes out a hey when Min drags her into the living room and pulls her onto the couch.
"Hey yourself." She says and leans her head on Fei's shoulder while she flicks through channels.
Fei kisses the top of Min's head and they sit in silence for a while. Min startles Fei when she jumps up suddenly and dashes off into her bedroom. She throws something onto Fei's lap when she comes back into the room and sits down again.
Fei picks it up and looks at it curiously, her eyebrows shooting upwards when she sees that it's a can of mace.
"You work nights." Min states simply, pulling Fei forward for a kiss.
"You don't have to worry about me. I get on fine." She replies as she tangles her hands in Min's hair.
Min pulls back and flicks her nose. "Liar."
Fei doesn't say anymore, she just lets Min straddle her and plant kisses along her jaw.
---
Fei goes to the bank on the day that a group literally smashes through the wall and tells everyone to get down or die.
It's mayhem after that, with people shouting and scrambling everywhere, and Fei can only wish she spent an extra ten minutes putting away the dishes before she left the house.
She ignores everyone around her, drops to the ground and starts to crawl to the nearest wall as fast as she can. She hopes no one stops her and she's tense until she's able to press her back against something solid. Silently, she congratulates herself for making it this far.
People are still shouting but Fei doesn't listen, choosing to pull her knees to her chest and rest her head on them instead.
She keeps her head down and thinks about anything to stop her from crying. She's shaking slightly and not even thinking about the way Jia sometimes follows her around the apartment silently instead of asking to spend time with her or the way Suzy surprises her with bear hugs calms her down.
She hugs her knees tighter keeps trying. She thinks about Min, about the way her eyes curve up when she smiles and the way she clutches Fei's arm when she laughs too hard. She thinks about the way Min looks when she's half-asleep, her hair all mussed up and sticking out at all angles. She thinks about the way Min never fails to call her or text her every day even though she works ridiculously irregular hours for her uncle.
She thinks about the way Min sounds when she whispers "I love you" into her hair when she thinks Fei is asleep.
She thinks about Min and only Min and her breathing evens out and she stops shaking and she finds that it's actually extraordinarily easy to block out everything else.
She doesn't notice JYP and his new sidekick sneak in through the hole in the bank's wall and slowly usher people out into the street one by one, she doesn't notice them fighting the group that broke in, and she doesn't notice that she's one of the only people left in the bank afterwards.
What she does notice is a warm hand on her arm trying to pull her to her feet. She looks up and laughs.
"It's you again." She says and the masked woman looks at her seriously.
"I thought I told you to be careful." The woman whispers quietly, bringing her hand to Fei's face.
"It's not that easy." Fei defends, moving backwards before the woman can touch her. She thinks she sees a flash of hurt in the woman's eyes but she shakes the thought away.
The woman sighs. "Come this way if you don't want to end up on the front page again."
Fei nods and follows her. She leads her to back exit that's surprisingly empty and motions for Fei to step outside. She moves forward like she's going to hug Fei but stops at the last second and puts a hand on her shoulder instead.
"Seriously, be careful." She squeezes Fei's shoulder and begins to walk away.
"It's really not that easy, you know." Fei says to her back. The woman pauses.
"Just try."
---
Jia is wolfing down cereal when Fei walks in the door.
"Did you get your bank stuff done?" She asks. Fei flinches.
"No. There was some sort of break-in."
"Are you alright?" Jia puts her spoon down and waits for her answer.
"It happened before I got there." She lies and walks towards her room.
She lies on her bed unmoving for hours until she hears her phone ring. She finds it just as it stops ringing and she curses under her breath. She's about to put it down when it starts to ring again.
"Hello?"
"Hey." Fei smiles at Min's voice and wonders why she sounds so breathless. Min speaks before she gets to ask. "Are you free?"
"Right now?" She asks.
"Right now." Min repeats and Fei finally registers how serious she sounds.
"I'm free." She says slowly, trying to figure out why Min is lacking her usual carefree tone.
"I'll see you in twenty." Min hangs up and Fei stares at her phone.
She lies there, not bothering to do anything before she realizes that Min was coming over. She springs out of bed, staggers a but from the headrush she gets, and barges into the living room.
"Jia!" She calls and waits for her roommate to respond.
"What?" Jia sits up on the couch slowly and watches Fei scramble around the room tidying things up.
"Get out." Fei commands, standing straight and pointing to the door.
"What?" Jia says again and Fei starts to tug her off the couch and towards the door.
"I said get out." She says again.
"I don't get it." Jia says dumbly.
Fei sighs, clearly exasperated, and raises and eyebrow. Jia blinks at her for a moment and Fei sees a light bulb go off in her head.
"Are you gonna bang your girlfriend?" Jia eventually says, smile starting to form.
"Oh my god, get out now." Fei barely has enough patience to watch Jia laugh as she puts her shoes on, and she pushes her roommate out the door as soon as she's done.
"Fei Fei's getting laid!" Jia yells into the halls and Fei slams her forehead into the door she just closed.
She's still in the same position when Min knocks on the door. She feels the knock through the wood and it startles her so much that she jumps backwards. She straightens her clothes and makes sure she's presentable before she finally opens the door for Min.
"He-"
She barely manages one syllable before Min surges forward, wraps her arms around Fei and crashes their lips together. She hardly notices Min kicking the door shut and flipping her so that her back is pressed against it.
Min finally pulls away and rests their foreheads together, panting slightly.
"What was that about?" Fei breathes and Min kisses her again.
"I just wanted to see you, I guess." Min replies between kisses.
Fei fists her hands into the fabric of Min's shirt when the she starts planting kisses down her throat, and she bites her lip when Min drags her teeth along the column of Fei's throat.
Her mind goes blank when Min slides her fingers up her shirt and she supposes she'll have to wait until later to get a proper answer.
---
She never does get a proper answer because Min just smiles at her when she asks again and tells her the same thing as the first time she asked.
She doesn't mind though, because Min finally says "I love you" to her face and Fei is so happy that she doesn't stop smiling for an hour.
She doesn't stop smiling even when Min gets a call from her Uncle Jinyoung to come to work and not even Jia's triumphant I was right! wipes it off her face,
---
Fei jolts awake in the middle of the night and takes a second to realize that she's not actually flying miles above the city.
She deliberates for a moment before slipping out of bed, pulling some jeans and leaving a post-it note on her door in case she's gone longer than she expects.
She takes the stairs even though Min isn't there and it takes her longer than usual to get to the roof.
The night air is cold when she steps outside and curses the fact that she didn't have the foresight to grab a jacket. She rubs her arms but doesn't go back inside, not wanting to have to conquer those stairs again, and she moves towards the edge of the roof instead.
She's not sure how long she's lost in thought but she's so disconnected from everything that she doesn't notice her superpowered acquaintance land right beside her until she feels a warm hand on her arm.
"You're freezing." Fei almost tumbles off the roof in shock when she realizes she's not alone.
"Did I scare you?" Her voice is quiet and full of concern but Fei is calmed by the way she says everything like they've got all the time in the world.
"A little, yeah." She admits, smiling gently and brushing wayward strands of hair behind her ear.
"Sorry."
Fei looks back over the edge of the roof and surveys the people below.
"Why are you up here?" The woman blinks at Fei's sudden question and gestures upwards.
"Nothing to do up there. She says simply. Fei thinks back to her dream (or what she remembers of it) and can't keep her curiosity at bay.
"What's it like up there?" the woman thinks for a moment, fingers tapping on the ledge, nose scrunched up in thought.
"Lonely. There's nothing much up there except for me and the clouds. Nothing to do, no one to talk to except myself. Lonely, yeah."
Fei mulls the words over in her head for a bit.
"What about all the other heroes?"
"What about them?"
"Aren't they up there too?" Fei says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world and the woman cracks a small smile.
"We've all got our own things to do."
They lapse into silence and Fei thinks about what to say next. Apparently she takes a little too long because her companion is the one who speaks first.
"And you?"
"Me?" Fei lets her confusion be shown on her face and the woman smiles.
"Yes, you. Why are you up here?"
"This is my building." She says by way of explanation. She swallows when the other woman narrows her eyes but she doesn't make any move to continue.
"Can't sleep?"
"Something like that."
"Sorry."
"Say, do you ever get scared out there when you do your hero thing?" She asks after a brief silence.
She's not sure why but the woman laughs loudly like Fei just told her the funniest thing. When she calms down she looks Fei in the eyes and Fei sees a seriousness that wasn't there before.
"All the time."
"Oh."
She's not sure what kind of answer she was expecting but she know it wasn't that. She thinks that maybe she wanted to be lied to, maybe she wanted the woman to laugh in her face and tell her that it's a stupid question and that she's never scared.
She turns her head towards the street again and doesn't notice the masked woman moving closer until she feels lips on her cheek.
She whips her head around, ready to ask what was going on but the other woman doesn't even give her a chance to open her mouth before she pulls Fei in and presses her lips together.
Fei isn't sure what's going through the masked woman's mind, she's not even sure what's going through her mind so she does the first thing she thinks of when her body decides to respond and she slaps the woman as hard as she can.
"Ow, Fei, what the hell?"
"What do you mean 'ow'?"
"What do I- you slapped me!"
"You kissed me!"
They stare at each other in tense silence, the woman clutching her face and frowning while Fei stands there wide-eyed, wondering what just happened.
"You can't just kiss me, you know." She says when she finally gets her thoughts in order.
"Yes, I can." Fei narrows her eyes and the woman starts waving her arms around frantically. "No, I just meant that-"
"No." Fei says and she sees the woman swallow. "You can't. Besides, I'm in a relationship."
"I know that, damn it!" Fei stares in disbelief before she walks towards the rooftop door. She can still hear her name being called as she slams it shut behind her.
---
She takes the elevator down back to her floor because she thinks it would get tiring if she stormed down multiple flights of stairs.
She remembers that she has a roommate just in time to stop herself from slamming her front door and she tries her best to stay silent as she moves towards her room. She grabs the post-it off her door before she closes it and collapses face down on her bed.
She's absentmindedly kicking off her jeans when she hears a tap at her window. Cautiously, she moves towards it and opens the curtain a crack, momentarily forgetting about her lack of clothing on her lower half.
She opens the curtains fully when she sees that the masked woman was hovering just outside her seventh storey window. She glares before she opens her window.
"I'm not impressed with you right now." She says and the woman flinches.
"I know and I'm sorry but I really can explain if you'd just-"
"How do you know where I live?" Her question makes the woman falter for a second and she stutters for a bit before speaking..
"Can I come inside?"
"How do you know where I live?" She repeats.
"If you'd just let me in I'd-"
"How?"
The woman sighs and drifts closer to the window. Her fingers play along the edge of her mask for a second before she pried it off.
Fei gapes and doesn't move.
"Can I please come in now?" Min says and Fei takes at least a minute to will her body in to motion and move aside. "Thanks."
She snaps out of her daze when Min turns around and smirks.
"What?"
"Nice jeans."
She scrambles to find her discarded jeans and put them on while Min sits on her bed and chuckles.
"It's not like I haven't seen it all before."
"I'm putting them on," she says "because we're going to talk and I'm not going to be in my underwear for it."
Her words wipe the smile off Min's face and the younger woman bites her lip. She sits next to Min on her bed and neither of them say anything, both at a loss for what to say.
Fei grabs Min's hand and threads their fingers together. She presses a kiss to her cheek and figures she knows a good place to start.
"I'm sorry for slapping you."
---
She learns a lot that night like the fact that Min hadn't actually wanted to tell her about being a hero, not because she was worried about Fei's safety (she has that covered, she says) but because she didn't want Fei to worry and lose sleep about her. Min learns that Fei thinks she's a big girl who can worry about whatever she wants, thank you very much.
Min tells her that she's never once lied about what she does, but she has twisted the truth a little (a lot) to make her life seem duller; animals being released from the zoo turned into a rodent infestation, a bank heist turned into someone owing her uncle money, and someone freezing the city's industrial area turned into people getting stuck in a walk in freezer.
Fei can't argue with any of that and she has to agree when Min tells her she's a little slow on the uptake because despite the fact that she was told that the younger woman worked in security (which was probably the most truthful part of it all) she never questioned the fact that nothing Min ever told her was even vaguely security related.
Fei learns that Min sometimes pulls out her phone in the middle of a fight just to check whether Fei has texted her. She's touched but she tries not to let it show as she scolds the younger woman for being reckless. She learns that Min's Uncle Jinyoung, the JYP, has been wanting to meet her since her old workplace was destroyed but Min keeps putting it off because he can't seem to go five minutes without using his powers for something inane.
She listens and she learns a lot about Min that she didn't know and it only makes her love Min more because Min answers all her questions honestly and without hesitation and Fei thinks that's probably what's most important.
Fei learns a lot that night like the fact that only thing better than I'm sorry sex with a superhero is you're forgiven sex with Min and Min learns that Fei's stamina is nothing to joke about.
---
Jia walks in the next morning while Fei has her head between Min's legs and Min is arching off the bed and biting her lip to keep quiet.
"Okay, wow. This is new."
Min's eyes fly open, Fei's head snaps up and they both have no idea what to say. Jia looks back and forth between them takes a step backwards.
"I'm Jia. You must be Min and you," she turns to Fei, " probably don't need breakfast."
She leaves as quickly as she came and Fei stays frozen until she feels Min laughing beneath her.
"I like her." Min says and Fei wishes her life was a little more normal.
---
Recipient: samstrident
Group(s)/Artist(s): Miss A
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Fei/Min
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s):
Summary: Fei tries to live her life, things stop her from doing that, and Min is just there.
Note(s): happy new year!
---
Fei's life is irreversibly changed the day that some super-mutated drunk with anger management issues blasts a ray of heat right through the middle of the cafe she works at. It burns right through the glass and the tables and the walls, through everything and it leaves a giant hole in the building. People are scattered all over the ground; some are conscious, some are unconscious and some are probably worse.
She's too shocked to scream or even fully comprehend what's happening but something on the edges of her mind registers the sound of fighting, of more heat rays and she moves without thinking about it.
She picks up Suzy, who had thrown herself under the counter, and rushes further in to the wreckage of the cafe. She thinks it's a good idea, what are the chances of the same place being blasted twice, and she finds that she's right when she looks behind her and sees everywhere but there being burned into oblivion.
She glimpses a masked figure in black block one of the beams with nothing but their body and some odd acrobatics and she momentarily thinks that everything is going to be fine. She can't really dwell on the thought though, and she's brought back to reality, to here and now by the sound of sobbing.
Suzy is crying, gulping in air as her body shakes with terror and shock and all the things that Fei hoped she'd never have to feel. Between breaths she's mumbling about all the people who have gotten hurt, the people who could have gotten hurt and Fei feels her heart break because Suzy is so young, she's so sweet and she should have been more forceful in insisting that Suzy just take her break without her.
She pulls Suzy in and holds her as tightly as she can, pressing kisses to her hair and stroking younger girl's back. She squeezes her eyes shut as tightly as she can and holds back tears of her own because she's no use to Suzy if she breaks down now, and she lets Suzy bury her head in the crook of her neck and tells her that the heroes are here now and everything will be okay.
She sinks to the floor and tries her very best to believe in her own words.
---
She's not sure how long she's huddled on the ground with Suzy but she only looks up because she feels warm hands on her shoulders and voice that definitely doesn't belong to the girl in her arms asking if she's okay.
She stops whispering into Suzy's hair and tilts her head up. She's startled when there's a masked face only inches away from hers and it must show because it moves away as fast as she can blink. The other person doesn't stop staring though, and Fei realizes that they're waiting for an answer. She spends a moment trying to calm herself, to makes sure that her voice is even and that she seems collected, even though she knows that no one would blame her if she was an emotional wreck.
"I'm fine" is what she manages to get out. She gestures to Suzy who is still clinging to her and sobbing. "She's not though."
The masked person - a woman, she notices after a quick once over - nods and steps back. She moves to help Fei up, to take Suzy out of her arms but Fei shakes her head quickly and moves to get up herself. It's difficult; Suzy is an absolute mess and can barely stand but she makes it eventually. She strokes Suzy's hair and tells her that it's okay, tells to her look around and see that someone is here for them.
Suzy tightens her grip on Fei and looks around like she was told. Her face is streaked with tears and she's dribbling slightly but Fei just kisses her temple and doesn't let go when Suzy lays eyes on the masked woman and starts crying with what she hopes is relief.
The other woman clears her throat awkwardly and gestures towards the burnt street; Fei nods and begins to lead Suzy outside. The woman walks beside her through the remains of the cafe and Fei takes a moment to wonder why anyone would want to fight crime in high heels something a tutu. The woman notices her gaze and Fei gets her answer.
"We're, um, still in the experimental stage with the costumes."
---
The first thing Fei hears when she steps out onto the charred sidewalk is sirens, the voices of news reporters and the chatter of the crowd that had gathered. The second thing she hears is Jia arguing with a police officer and telling him to just let her through, damn it, because she needs to find out if her roommate is alive.
Despite the officer's warning, Jia vaults over the barricades they've set up as soon as she sees Fei dragging Suzy out of what used to be their workplace. She doesn't say anything as she wraps her arms around the both of them and Fei can't help but be thankful because she doesn't know what she'd say back. She briefly sees the masked woman block the irritated cop's path to Jia before someone ushers her off to the nearest ambulance.
People surround her and fire off questions faster than she can answer and she almost yells when someone pries Suzy out of her arms but Jia flashes her a smile and wanders off to wherever they took the younger girl. She does her best to answer all the questions she's asked as calmly and as accurately as she can and she tries not to squirm when people poke and prod at her to check for injuries.
Her patience is beginning to wear thin when the crowd around her suddenly disappears and she's a little confused because she was halfway through her sixth retelling of her day. She realizes why everyone left when she sees the masked woman walk up to her. She moves to the side to make room for the other woman to sit but she shakes her head and stays standing. They stay in silence for a few moments before the other woman speaks.
"I wasn't interrupting anything with the interviews, was I?" She shifts from one foot to the other and fiddles with her sleeves and for a second Fei thinks she looks nervous. She quickly brushes off the thought though, because the woman just fought off someone who could shoot heat rays so there was no way she'd be nervous just standing in front of Fei of all people.
"No, nothing important. It was all the same." The other woman nods and they fall into silence again. Fei takes the opportunity to examine her. She notices small holes all over her clothes and she can't tell if they're deliberate or if they're from her earlier fight. She notices that the woman is small and that if she stood up she'd be a good inch or two taller. She notices that her legs are toned and bare and that she wants to run her hands up the length of them and that she's wearing shorts underneath her tutu. Fei exhales quietly and tries to get her thoughts back on track.
Fei looks at the woman's face and frowns because even though her mask is small and hardly covers the area around her eyes, she can barely get an idea of what she looks like without it. She decides that it doesn't matter because she's sure that her lips would look just as amazing without the mask as they do with and she knows that a mask wouldn't change the fact that she can see the woman's collarbones and the rise and fall of her chest when she breathes. She clears her throat quickly and tries to think of something to say.
"Thank you, by the way. For before. I'd hate to think of how many more people would have gotten hurt if you hadn't stepped in." The woman lets out a surprised squeak and waves her arms around like she's not sure what to do with them.
"Don't thank me. It's the least I can do." Fei feels a smile beginning to form and she opens her mouth to say thank you again but before she can the woman sticks out her hand. Fei looks at it, not knowing what to do. The woman laughs awkwardly and moves her hand up and down.
"It's, um, nice to meet you?" A bulb flicks on in Fei's head and suddenly she feels stupid so she grabs the outstretched hand and shakes it with a little more force than necessary. The hand is warm in her grasp and Fei feels the warmth begin to move throughout her body.
"I'm Fei." She sees the woman mouth the name to herself likes she's testing how it feels on her lips and Fei holds her breath, suddenly struck by a burning need to hear the woman actually say it. She doesn't get to hear it though, and the woman lets go of her hand and nods. She feels the warmth leave her body and she almost reaches out to grab the woman's hand again but she stops herself at the last second.
"That's a nice name." The woman moves like she's going to leave and Fei realizes she still doesn't know who she is.
"And you are?"
"I'm Mi- no, no, no." The woman freezes, her eyes go wide and her mouth falls open like she doesn't know what to do now. "I'm new."
"You're new?"
"I'm new. I just moved here and I'm still sorting this" she gestures to herself and all around her, "whole thing out."
"I see." Fei can't help but feel slightly disappointed that she didn't get a name, not even a fake one, but she smiles anyway.
"If I've sorted it out by the next time we meet, I'll tell you, okay?" The woman smiles and Fei thinks she looks perfect. Before she can say anything more, before she can even open her mouth, the woman pushes off the ground and launches herself into the city above.
It's the first time Fei has actually seen someone fly with her own eyes and it's so different from when she sees it on TV; she's awestruck and it takes her breath away a little bit. She wonders what it feels like, if it's as amazing as she thinks it is to just leap off the ground and rise higher and higher and watch everything shrink until you can't tell one thing from the next, or if it's lonely to be up there by yourself in a place no one else can get to.
Someone accidentally kicks her shoe and she's brought crashing back to earth. The crowd is back and this time cameras are flashing and their questions are coming faster and in greater numbers than before and she just wants to leave. She stands up and cranes her neck to see over the swarm of people around her and she spots Jia standing in front of an ambulance some distance away.
She takes a deep breath and puts on the most polite smile she can and starts to push her way through the crowd, offering small bows whenever she bumps against someone harder than she intended.
Jia snaps her head around and glares at everyone following Fei when she hears the noise. To Fei's surprise, they actually quiet down and back off a little.
Suzy is wrapped in a blanket and Fei can see how much she's shaking despite the fact that the younger girl is trying to hide it. She sits down next to her and puts an arm around her waist. Fei looks at Jia who shrugs helplessly and mouths an I don't know before running her hands through her hair, a frustrated sigh making its way past her lips.
"Who was she?" It's the first thing Suzy has said in probably an hour and she's shaking like a leaf but Fei marvels at the way she's able to keep her voice so even and she thinks that maybe she's been underestimating Suzy this whole time.
"Who was who?" Jia sounds confused and Fei can't help but share the feeling. She's sure Suzy was left mostly alone since they were separated so she waits for Jia to run through her mental list of people Suzy has talked to and come up with an answer.
"The woman in black. With the tutu? She was in there." Suzy explains herself and she nods her head in the direction of the cafe. Fei's hold on her tightens when she hears her voice waver on there. "She had a mask."
Jia shrugs and Suzy looks at Fei with wide, red-rimmed eyes. She knows the girl is waiting for an answer but she doesn't have one so she tells Suzy the exact same thing that the woman told her before she took flight.
"She's new."
---
Fei and Jia both agree that Suzy is better off staying with them for the night instead of going back to her school dorm and the girl ends up sandwiched between them and clutching both their hands for the short walk to their apartment.
As soon as they've unlocked the door Suzy kicks off her shoes, excuses herself and shuffles off in the direction of Fei's room. The other two stay silent as they watch her leave and Fei breathes out a sigh when she hears the bedroom door click shut. She moves on autopilot to the kitchen where she starts clattering around just to give herself something to do.
She thinks about everyone in the cafe who, because of one person's anger, have lost whatever illusion of safety they once had; she thinks about how her boss will have to rebuild her cafe and her house above it entirely from scratch and she wonders whether anyone except Suzy and herself made it out unscathed. She thinks about how she'll have to find a new job, Suzy too, and she wonders what she'll do about rent if she doesn't find one fast enough.
She thinks about the mess the street was in and the thousands of dollars it will cost to repair it. She thinks about the masses of people behind police tape and barricades and how little most of them will be affected by it all.
She thinks about how she can't just go back outside tomorrow and look at the world like nothing has changed because things have changed and for once something happened to her, to Suzy, to that entire street and she can't go out and look at anything with the same dull gaze anymore. She thinks about how she doesn't know what she'll do tomorrow, she doesn't know what she's doing now and she thinks about how that scares her because if there's one thing she's good at, it's knowing what to do.
She exhales slowly and then she thinks about masks and experimental costumes and legs and the warmth radiating from a hand clasped in hers. She thinks about nervous shifting and the way her name might have sounded falling from lips that looked like they would have fit perfectly with hers.
She's so engrossed in her thoughts that she doesn't notice Jia move closer and she almost drops the plate she's holding when she feels a hand on her arm.
"Let's just sit down and watch TV or something, yeah?" Jia's voice is soft and Fei gets the feeling that Jia wouldn't mind if Fei didn't say anything and went to bed instead. She doesn't feel like sleeping just yet though, so she nods and lets Jia pull her over to the couch and doesn't complain when Jia starts flicking through channels without giving her a chance to see what's on.
Fei is exhausted and she's not really paying attention; she's too busy wondering what happens next, but when Jia leans over every now and then and mumbles something in Chinese to her she smiles because that's one thing she definitely knows won't change and she thinks that maybe it doesn't really matter what comes next.
---
She wakes up the next morning with an ache in her neck and no clue how she got to her room. Suzy is waving a newspaper in her face and chattering too fast for Fei's brain to comprehend. Her hair is still wet from a shower and she looks a lot brighter than she did yesterday so Fei doesn't even mind that Suzy is holding the paper so close that she's going cross-eyed.
"Look!" Suzy is ridiculously excited and Fei can't come up with a single reason why. She sits up and takes the newspaper out of Suzy's hands and smiles when the girl stands there bouncing on her toes and flailing her arms around.
She looks down at the paper, sees the headline SEOUL'S NEW HERO and thinks that's what got Suzy so hyped up. She starts skimming through the article but she doesn't get very far before Suzy starts jabbing her finger onto the page.
"You're on the front page! Isn't that cool?" It would be a lie if she agreed so instead she gives Suzy an ambiguous hm in response and inspects the picture she's in more closely.
Someone had snapped a photo of her when she had reached out and shook the masked woman's hand and she flexes her hand while she looks at it, remembering the feel of the woman's hand and the heat it spread through her body. She realizes Suzy is still staring at her excitedly and she smiles at the girl.
"Have you had breakfast?" Suzy shakes her head and Fei moves to get out of bed. "I'll make you some then."
Suzy beams at her and trots out of the bedroom. Fei hears her bound across the living room and throw open Jia's door and she lets out a quiet chuckle. She's glad the girl seems okay and she knows Jia won't mind getting woken up if Suzy's angelic smile is the first thing she sees.
Before she leaves the room she looks at the newspaper, moves it her bedside table and decides that she'll keep it for a little while.
---
She's halfway through making breakfast when Suzy drags Jia out of her room. Her roommate is bleary-eyed and disoriented but she doesn't struggle against the grip Suzy has on her wrist.
She smiles when she sees Jia collapse into a chair and all but slam her head onto the table out of tiredness. Suzy pokes at the sleepy woman until Fei places a plate of food in front of her and then nothing else in the world seems to matter to the girl.
Jia doesn't touch her breakfast and Fei has a sneaking suspicion that she fell asleep again. She doesn't mind though because Suzy is making happy noises on her side of the table and smiling at Fei like they it's any other day. Everything is so normal Fei thinks that maybe she imagined the whole thing, but she's still in yesterday's clothes and there's still a little soot on her arm from when she brushed up against burnt walls so even though she doesn't want to admit it she knows it happened.
She shakes the thoughts out of her head and focuses on Suzy chewing happily on her breakfast and Jia slowly coming back into the world of the living.
By the time her roommate sits up properly and starts poking at her breakfast Fei is finished and Suzy is on halfway through her second helping.
"It's cold" Jia says, but she starts eating anyway. Fei thinks about offering to heat it up for her but decides against it because it's Jia's fault for falling asleep at the table.
"It's okay" Suzy mumbles around a mouthful of food and Fei nods because even though she's out of a job and Jia's food is cold, Suzy is right, it is okay.
---
Fei leaves the house for the first time in three weeks when Jia comes home and finds her polishing cutlery. She's already tidied everything else, their apartment is spotless, it's immaculate and it's not like she has anything else to do.
Jia doesn't listen to any of her excuses though, she just puts a sweater in her hands and shoves her towards the door. She barely has time to grab her wallet before Jia throws shoes in her direction and glares at her while she puts them on.
"You need to leave."
"You don't have to be so forceful." Fei mumbles and Jia rolls her eyes.
"Fei, I love you and everything but you crossed the line today. I worry about you, you know."
"What about Suzy? I don't see you shoving her around." Jia rolls her eyes again and pokes Fei in the shoulder.
"Suzy is fine. Suzy has school. What do you have? A drawer full of forks. I can't live with myself if I know you're at home shining spoons." She steps back and cocks an eyebrow, tapping her foot impatiently. Fei looks at the wallet in her hands.
"Do you want to come with me?"
"No." Jia's tone is flat and expressionless and it's the last thing Fei hears before Jia pushes her out the door and slams it.
She grumbles quietly under her breath all the way to the grocery store.
---
She can't help but be thankful that Jia forced her out of the house because she finally feels like she's accomplishing something for the first time in too long. She likes the way she actually has to think about what she's doing, what she's putting into her cart and where to find what she needs. As she holds a box of cereal in her hands she thinks that she's missed feeling like she really knows what she's doing.
Her phone vibrates in her pocket just as she decides to get a healthier type of cereal. She smiles to herself when she opens it and sees Jia's hastily typed shopping list and congratulates herself on correctly guessing everything they needed. Just as she's about to put her phone away Jia sends her another message that makes her furrow her brow as she reads it.
ice crem 2 bc ur spoon shining md me dpresd
She's not quite sure how it's possible to spell words that way when autocorrect exists but she figures that if anyone is going to manage to do it, it was going to be Jia.
They were dull. What if we had guests?
Jia's message makes her change her mind about healthy cereal and she picks up the box that she thinks looks the most sugary and sickly sweet, inspecting the nutritional information on the side to make sure she's right before putting it in her cart.
Jia sends her next message in five different parts - probably for emphasis, Fei thinks - and she notes dryly that they're probably have the best spelling out of anything Jia has ever sent her.
Fei, darling, I'm not sure if you know this but
no
one
cares
please don't come home until you're normal again
Fei huffs at her phone and shoves it back in her pocket, making a mental note to bring home Jia's least favourite flavour of ice cream.
---
She makes her way methodically through the aisles after that, comparing the contents of her cart with the items on Jia's list and trying to think of anything her roommate night have missed. It comforts her in a strange way; the grocery store, its drab and unchanging decor and the way she can count each visit as part of a routine.
She thinks about that, about the grocery store and how nothing has changed but at the same time everything is different, while she stands in front of the milk fridge. Thoughts of normality and her old job, of the ever-present smell of coffee and the sight of Suzy eyeing up customers' food invade her mind while her hand moves back and forth between whole and skim milk.
She doesn't think about it for much longer though, because suddenly there's a pain in her back and she's head butting the milk she was staring at.
"Are you okay?" The owner of the voice is grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her out of the fridge. Fei isn't sure what happened but the hands on her shoulders are warm and the voice in her ear makes her heart beat faster and she can't help but think that there's something oddly familiar about the whole situation.
She stands up and steadies herself before she turns around to thank whoever helped her up.
She comes face to face with a woman slightly shorter than herself that has eyes full of concern and lips that look softer than anything she'd ever seen. She breaks out of her daze when she notices that the woman is standing just a little too close for her to be completely calm and she splutters for a few seconds before the woman steps back quickly. They continue to stare at each other and Fei feels like this has definitely happened before.
"Fei?" The woman says her name quietly, carefully like she's practicing and scared that it will come out wrong if she says it any louder. Fei thinks that it's the nicest her name has ever sounded but she pushes the thought to the side because she's too busy trying to figure out who the woman it.
"Yes? Have we met before?" She says each word slowly, giving herself time to run the woman's image through her mind. She she's sure she's never seen the woman before but she can't quite shake the feeling that she should know her.
The woman's eyes widen while Fei thinks and she stutters and waves her arms around in some sort of all encompassing gesture.
"Um. You used to work in that cafe. The one that was destroyed by that drunk who could shoot heat rays." She's mumbling and Fei has to lean closer to hear but she eventually manages to make out what she said. She's still confused though, because all the customers that called her by name were regulars and she prides herself on recognising them straight away. She goes through the all their names but still can't give one to the woman in front of her.
"Did you go there often?" Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because the woman's eyes go even wider, her gestures get wilder and her mouth opens and closes like a fish.
"No. I mean yes! Well, no. Not really. I went there. Just once. One time, I was there. And you were also there. Because you worked there." Her voice trails off and her arms fall to her sides like she's given up and Fei can't help but laugh.
"Thank you for remembering me?"
"Yeah, of course. You're really- you were in the newspaper the other week. And on the news."
"Ah. That." Fei reaches up and brushes her hair out of her face and the woman starts blushing for reasons unknown. Fei opens her mouth to say more but the woman has already started backing away from her.
"I'm sorry I pushed my cart into you" is the last thing the woman says before she turns and pushes her cart - which only has three chocolate bars in it, Fei notes - in the opposite direction as fast as humanly possible.
Fei is confused to say the least but she doesn't give the woman's actions much thought because she's too busy trying to figure out why she's so familiar.
She still doesn't have an answer two aisles later when she sees the woman dancing to whatever song is playing through the store's speakers.
---
She can't help but be a little annoyed that Jia forced her out of the house when she gets to the checkouts and realizes that there's no way she can carry everything home by herself. She watches a teenage boy try and subtly check her out while he bags her groceries and she thinks about whether or not it would be okay if she borrowed one of the carts for the half an hour walk back to her apartment. She's about to abandon her dignity and do it when she feels a hand on her shoulder and someone asking if she needs help.
She turns around, sees that it's the woman from before and wonders if the rest of her life will be made up of strangers coming to her aid. She's about to politely refuse, to say she has everything under control but the woman is already picking up some of her bags and looking at her curiously.
"I knocked you into a fridge. It's the least I can do." She's a lot calmer than she was when she left Fei in front of rows of milk and Fei likes the way she smiles, so she nods and picks up the remaining bags.
They walk outside and the woman looks expectantly at her. They wait around for a while and Fei takes a lot longer than she should to figure out why.
"This way then." She inclines her head in the general direction of her apartment and fights the urge to bury herself in a hole. The woman follows after her quietly, chewing her lip all the while.
"Min." She says it so quietly that Fei almost misses it.
"Pardon?"
"I'm Min."
"Oh. It's nice to meet you." Fei smiles, "I'd introduce myself but you already know me." Min's face reddens and Fei thinks it's adorable.
"I'd shake your hand or something but," she nods towards the bags in her arms and Fei finally notices how much she's carrying.
"Isn't that heavy?" Min laughs; it's loud and open and kind of ridiculous but Fei likes it because it makes it sound like Min has nothing to hide.
"Nah. It's a piece of cake, really."
"Are you sure? They're mine, so I don't mind if-"
"It's fine, seriously. I've lifted heavier things than this." Min informs her and Fei cocks an eyebrow at the pride evident in her voice.
"Oh? Like what?" Min laughs again; Fei's heart skips a beat and she thinks that maybe she can get used to hearing that sound.
---
Min doesn't end up telling Fei about her heavy lifting, but she does tell Fei about the time she got hit in the head with a Tonka truck because she was playing catch and thought it was a good replacement for a ball. Fei gasps in horror but Min just laughs it off and tells her it's just one of those things. Fei isn't exactly sure what those things are but she doesn't ask because Min is so interesting and she's so focused on the things coming out of the other woman's mouth that she can barely remember to stop before she crosses roads.
She learns that Min is multi-talented, she can dance and sing and knows multiple languages, and that she only recently moved back to the city. She learns that Min has an Uncle Jinyoung who works in security and he wants Min to join the family business. She looks at Min curiously when the other woman tells her this because she can't imagine someone making a career out of that.
Min laughs and tells her that it's only a short term thing.
She finds out that Min is younger than her, not as young as Suzy but still considerably younger, that she likes pink and is oddly dedicated to hip hop. She finds out that Min is ridiculously outgoing and kind of crazy in a way that reminds her so much of Jia, and that she's comfortable to be around once they get past the initial awkwardness.
Min bumps in to her more than once on their way back to Fei's apartment and even though she apologizes, Fei notices that she doesn't move as far back and the gap between them gets smaller and smaller each time.
She doesn't mind because her skin tingles where Min as touched her and she's pretty sure Min smells like vanilla, and because Min laughs at her jokes and smiles when she talks and makes her heart beat faster than she should be okay with.
Min bumps into her one last time and blurts out that she likes Fei's face and Fei wonders if this is what falling in love feels like.
---
All too soon they're in the lobby of Fei's building and Fei is so taken by Min that she's seriously contemplating telling her that she got her address wrong and that she actually lives on the other side of the city. She doesn't end up saying anything though, because she figures Min isn't stupid and because she's too busy thinking about how cute Min looks when she's juggling at least six bags while trying to press the button for the elevator. She doesn't mention that Min could easily put the bags down and do it because she kind of enjoys seeing Min spin around in circles and mutter to herself.
She takes pity on her eventually and presses the button herself, receiving a thankful smile in return.
"This thing takes a while, it's quite old." She explains when she sees Min narrow her eyes at the numbers on top of the doors.
"Is it safe?"
"That's debatable. On the plus side, no one has died yet." The doors slide open as if on cue and Min gestures for Fei to go first.
Fei presses the button for the seventh floor and they stand in oddly comfortable silence as they wait for the elevator to spring to life.
"I hate it when people get stuck in these." Min mumbles and Fei tilts her head questioningly.
"Nothing." She says and Fei assumes it's just another one of those things Min keeps mentioning.
As elevator grinds to a stop on the seventh floor Min's phone starts to ring. Fei is taken aback by the hip hop song that blares from the tiny speakers because she had honestly thought that Jia was the only one strange enough to have ringtones like that.
"Are you going to get that?" She leads the way out of the elevator and she can hear Min shuffle along behind her.
"No hands, see?" The younger woman shakes the bags she's carrying and her phone falls silent, "if it's important then they'll call back."
Fei nods, leading the way to her apartment and trying to muster up the courage to ask Min for her number so that maybe she be the one calling her and then maybe, probably, definitely call back later. They reach Fei's door and she manoeuvres the bags she's holding so that she can unlock it.
Jia is watching TV when she walks in and gives her a blank stare when she sees the bags Fei has.
"That's it?"
"No, the rest is with Min." Jia takes that as her cue to roll off the couch and walk towards the door.
"Is Min what we're calling the door now?" She calls and Fei whirls around.
"Min isn't there?" She places the bags on the counter as quickly as she can and goes to join her roommate. Sure enough, Min is gone and all her groceries are placed neatly at the entrance of the apartment.
"You carried all this by yourself?" Jia sounds impressed and Fei is struggling to hide her disappointment at Min's sudden departure.
She tells Jia all about Min while they lug the bags inside and putting things away. She tells Jia about how Min curses at pigeons, how Min avoids cracks in the pavement and how she thinks Jia would like Min a lot because they're so similar that it's kind of scary.
She leaves out the part about how Min makes her heart beat like a drum, how she felt all sorts of things during their short time together and how she feels like she missed out on something important when Min left without saying goodbye.
Jia makes vague sounds of acknowledgement as she talks and leaves Fei to wonder why Min ran off like she did.
She gets her answer soon enough because Jia empties the last bag and throws a receipt in her direction.
"I think this is yours." She says and rips open a packet of chips.
"Just throw it aw-"
"It's yours, Fei." Jia doesn't say anything more, just rolls her eyes and walks back to the couch.
Fei examines he receipt carefully and sees why Jia insisted it was hers when she turns it over. Min's writing is loud and bubbly and so like her, Fei thinks and she bites her lip softly as she reads the note.
Sorry I didn't say bye. Turns out it was my uncle calling. Urgent family stuff, you know? I hope you're not mad. Call me sometime.
Min's number is written neatly underneath and Fei can't keep the smile off her face any longer. She pulls out her phone and is in the middle of saving Min's number when she hears Jia call out to her.
"Now you've got a reason to leave the house."
Fei doesn't stop smiling.
---
That night she steals the remote off Jia and flips to the late night news just in time to see that her masked saviour has teamed up with the city's leading hero, JYP, to stop a man who called himself Poseidon from flooding the entire downtown area. It happened just after she got home and she wonders if Min got caught in the chaos when she was on her way to her "urgent family thing".
The footage the station plays is terrible, it's grainy and mostly just screaming pedestrians and shots of helicopters, but Fei is enthralled every time that the masked woman is on camera. She every move she makes is sharp and purposeful, she looks like she's dancing and makes fighting midair look like the easiest thing in the world. Even when she's not what the camera is focusing on Fei can spot her flying around in the background dodging jets of water and she wants to slap herself because the only thing going through her mind is that's so cool.
She's broken out of her trance when she hears Jia snort beside her and she turns to see what's so funny.
"Fei, look! They're calling her Tiny Dancer." Fei furrows her brow. She thinks it's a pretty accurate name.
"She is a little on the small side." She defends lamely.
"That's not the point." Jia declares. "The point is that it's a stupid name."
Fei thinks for a moment, choosing her words carefully because she knows how passionate Jia can get about the strangest of things.
"What about JYP? It's not like that means anything special." Evidently she didn't choose her words carefully enough because mildly offended doesn't even begin o cover the look on Jia's face.
"Don't go there. Don't do it." She warns, "JYP is an awesome name and everyone, everyone knows it." There's an odd glint in Jia's eyes and her voice is filled with an admiration so intense that Fei is actually left speechless.
"Just watch the news, Jia." She says after getting her thoughts in order and she hears her roommate mutter something about denying the obvious, but Jia does what she's told and turns back towards the TV.
They're wrapping up the report by the time Fei starts paying attention again but she zones in just in time to see JYP toss Poseidon's unconscious body to Tiny Dancer and she's sure she hears Jia humming the song quietly beside her.
The masked woman lands on the ground with a practiced ease and hands the unconscious man to the police. Her expression is unperturbed, she looks collected and controlled and she barely seems to notice the hordes of people chanting her name.
Fei thinks about the newspaper in her top drawer that she pretends she's going to throw out and she thinks about the picture on the front page and the way the woman shifted nervously in front of her.
She thinks about Min's note on her bedside table and the way Min seemed so comfortable around her and she wonders how two people can be so different.
---
She calls Min the next day after Suzy texts her to say that she's proud that Fei finally ventured outside again.
As she dials Min's number, she's nervous for reasons she's not sure of and she hopes that she'll be able to get her words out right when the other woman answers.
The phones starts to ring as soon as she realizes that she has no idea what she's going to say and that she has no legitimate reason to call Min and that saying she just wanted to hear her voice is probably coming on a bit too strong.
Her worrying is in vain because Min never picks up and she's left to her overly cheerful voicemail telling her hey, you've reached Min. She forces her voice to stay even as she leaves a message saying that she's just calling so that Mi has her number if she wants it.
She gets up and walks around the apartment looking for something to do. A quick look in Jia's room tells her that her roommate is at work so she rules out one source of amusement.
She makes Jias bed to pass the time and has almost finished smoothing out the wrinkles on the cover when her phone starts ringing. It takes her a moment to register the sound but when she does she practically throws herself across Jia's bed to get it.
"Hello?"
"Fei? Hey, it's Min."
"Ahm." she clears her throat. "Hello there."
"You called?"
"That I did."
Silence falls between the two of them and Fei adjusts her sprawled out position on the newly messed up bed. The only thing she can hear on the other end of the line is Min's quiet breathing and she wonders where exactly the other woman is for it to be so silent. She's about to ask when Min speaks.
"Thanks."
"For what?"
"For calling." Min says simply and Fei feels like her chest about to burst.
"Oh." Her answer is lame and she can only hope that Min can sense the smile on her face.
"I just figured you'd be kind of pissed I ran out yesterday." Min explains.
"No, I understand. Family business. It's just one of those things, right?" She says and Min chuckles.
"Yeah, one of those things."
Conversation comes easily to them after that and Min tells her about how her Uncle Jinyoung needed her help to get a water leak under control. She tells her about how there could have been some serious flooding if they hadn't done anything and Fei gets the feeling that it was a lot more interesting than how Min describes it.
She listens attentively though, making noises of agreement where she thinks it's appropriate.
Min finishes her tale and barely gives Fei time to breathe before she launches into a story about how her cousin Jo Kwon broke three tables with his vigorous dancing when everyone went out drinking afterwards.
Fei is in stitches by the end of the story despite the fact that she has no idea who the people Min is talking about are and she almost misses Min's mumbled question at the end.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" She asks, struggling to get her laughter under control.
"I was wondering if you wanted to go out for coffee?" Min's voice is so quiet that Fei can barely her the nervousness in it.
"That sounds great."
"Okay. Yeah, cool." Fei has to fight back a very unladylike snort at the sound of Min's barely restrained giddiness. "Is four o'clock good?"
"Four's-"
"Or not. It doesn't have to be today. You're probably busy with your life so we can do it some other time if you want."
"No, four is fine." Fei laughs into the phone and she hears Min clear her throat.
"Oh. Okay. That's great."
"It is."
"I'll pick you up then, I guess."
"I guess you will."
"I'll see you later?"
"Of course."
Fei hangs up, rolls onto her stomach and lets out a squeal that's so girlish she'd die if anyone heard and she thanks every deity out there for making sure she has half-deaf elderly neighbours.
---
She comes home at eleven that night and wonders where all that time went. She almost jumps out of her skin when she walks into her bedroom and Jia is sitting on her bed staring at her.
"Leave a note next time" is all Jia says before she gets up to leave.
"I'm twenty-five" is the only thing Fei can think to say.
"Leave a note."
Jia goes back to her room and Fei starts getting ready for bed. She knows Jia isn't really angry with her and is probably just a little jarred by Fei's sudden adventure into the outside world.
She finally thinks of a way to pacify her roommate when she's lying in bed thinking about the way Min's hand kept brushing against hers the whole time they were out.
She gropes around in the dark for her phone, blinking wildly when she's blinded by its light. She sends Jia a short explanatory message and hopes it does the trick.
I had a date.
Jia responds so quickly that the only conclusion Fei is able to come to is that Jia was sitting in her room waiting for Fei to text her.
dnt need ntes i guess
Fei laughs loudly into the night and not even the sounds of the city outside can drown it out. Jia sends her another text and it just makes her laugh harder.
shut it
---
Min calls her the next morning and stumbles over her words as she asks Fei if she'd be okay with seeing Min again as soon as possible. Fei smiles to herself and tries to put as much sincerity into her voice as possible when she says that she'd love to.
They talk about nothing and everything while she putters around her apartment and she realizes that it's been a while since she's spoken to people other than Jia or Suzy. The thought sends a shock through her and she pauses mid-sentence while she processes it.
Min asks her what's wrong and it doesn't even cross her mind to lie, so she tells her. Min's laugh fills her chest with warmth and she decides that Min is a good start to getting her life together.
---
The first thing that goes through her mind when she wakes up is that she can't stay inside forever. She feels around for her phone and her heart skips a beat when she sees a new message from Min.
I hope your day goes well :)
She decides that something needs to change so she throws off her covers and moves with a determination that wasn't there yesterday.
Jia watches her silently as she marches around the apartment and readies herself for the day. She's not quite sure what she's going to do, but at least it's something.
"Something wrong?" Jia mumbles around a mouthful of toast.
Fei thinks for a minute before she answers, "not today."
---
She was wrong, it turns out, because as soon as she set foot outside her building it seemed like everything was wrong.
She didn't dress warm enough, she left her keys on her dresser, her phone was about fifteen minutes away from dying and her shoelace would not stay tied no matter how many times she knotted it.
She shakes her head and mumbles words of encouragement to herself under her breath as she walks along the street. She thinks about where she should go, about what she should do now that she finally left her apartment and is saddened when she comes up with nothing.
She walks aimlessly for a while, not paying attention to her surroundings until she's confronted with something she didn't know she wanted to see.
Her old work is boarded up but she can see the black burn marks around the boards. She looks at the front and thinks about what must be inside; she thinks about half-burned tables and knocked over chairs and the untouched counter. She wonders if it might have all been ripped out already.
She looks at the building and she feels a weight lifting from her shoulders, a weight she didn't even know was there. She starts to smile slowly and suddenly it doesn't matter that she'll probably have to ask the old lady across the hall for her spare key or that she might freeze to death on the streets.
It doesn't matter because she's here and she has the whole world waiting for her- or at least the whole of Seoul and she feels lighter than she has in weeks.
She hears tyres screeching and barely has time to turn her head in the direction of the sound before people start screaming. She vaguely registers the sight of a car speeding straight towards her, thinks that this street is really, really unlucky for her, and she closes her eyes and braces herself for the impact.
She hears the crash, feels a rush of air and the sensation of being swept of her feet and thinks that maybe getting hit by a car isn't as horrific as she first thought. She doesn't realize that she hasn't been hit until she feels the ground underneath her.
She eyes fly open and she looks around, shocked to find herself about a hundred meters away from where she should have been. She turns around and sees that hero- Tiny Dancer, she thinks and has to shake away the sound of Jia's chuckle- standing in front of her, head tilted curiously.
"Hello again." The woman says eventually and Fei focuses on straightening her top.
"Hi," she mumbles back, "and thank you again."
The woman smiles, "You should be more careful."
She doesn't give Fei a chance to respond before she dashes over to the car wreckage and starts rummaging through it.
Fei doesn't stick around and turns on her heel and walks back to her apartment as fast as she can, hoping to catch Jia before she leaves for work.
---
Min sees her the next day and Fei doesn't feel the need to tell her she almost died again. Min smiles like Fei is the most interesting person in the world while she listens to the older woman's talk about the plants she's raising, and Fei doesn't want her to worry.
Min takes her by the hand, unwittingly sending the breath rushing out of her body, and drags her all the way to a cafe that she's never heard of. She's herded to a table and Min goes to order.
The cafe is small and comfortable, there are books lining the walls and quiet music playing over the speakers. Fei lets herself relax into the chair and listens to Min order for her.
When Min comes back she sits across from Fei and looks over her shoulder.
"Hey, look." She says, gesturing behind Fei, "they're hiring. Weird, huh?"
It is weird, Fei thinks, but she doesn't resist when Min pushes her to ask about the job and comes back beaming when they basically hire her on the spot out of desperation.
"Told you it'd be fine." Min says and Fei believes her with all her heart.
---
Fei takes the evening shift at her new job and isn't bothered by the fact that she has to walk home by herself at midnight. The same can't be said about Jia and Suzy, however, and the two bother her about it until she agrees to call one of them as soon as her shift ends and stay on the phone until she gets home.
She realizes that their worrying might not have been so uncalled for when she forgets to call them one night and a hooded walks up to her and blocks her path. He has something in his hand that flashes in the light and looks suspiciously like a knife and Fei decides to resign herself to her fate.
She closes her eyes just like she did for the car and she hears a dull thud and the sound of metal clattering on the ground.
"You could at least try to run." A vaguely familiar voice says and she cracks open one of her eyes.
Tiny Dancer stands in front of her and Fei opens her eyes fully, thinking that if they keep meeting like this then they really should get a little more personal with the names.
"Shouldn't you call a friend or something if you're going to be out this late?" She asks and Fei slaps a palm into her forehead.
"I forgot." She says quietly, mostly to herself, but the other woman responds anyway.
"Mace spray might be a good investment." She nods and pushes off the ground before Fei can say thank you.
She calls Jia as soon as she's sure she's alone again.
"Did you finish late?" Jia asks. She sounds tired and Fei doesn't want to worry her.
"Something like that, yeah."
---
Min calls her the next day and starts rambling about crime statistics. Fei decides not to tell her about the previous night and asks when she's free.
"Half an hour." Min says and Fei tells her she's coming over.
Min greets her with a kiss that sends her mind reeling and leaves her unable to speak when it's over. She chokes out a hey when Min drags her into the living room and pulls her onto the couch.
"Hey yourself." She says and leans her head on Fei's shoulder while she flicks through channels.
Fei kisses the top of Min's head and they sit in silence for a while. Min startles Fei when she jumps up suddenly and dashes off into her bedroom. She throws something onto Fei's lap when she comes back into the room and sits down again.
Fei picks it up and looks at it curiously, her eyebrows shooting upwards when she sees that it's a can of mace.
"You work nights." Min states simply, pulling Fei forward for a kiss.
"You don't have to worry about me. I get on fine." She replies as she tangles her hands in Min's hair.
Min pulls back and flicks her nose. "Liar."
Fei doesn't say anymore, she just lets Min straddle her and plant kisses along her jaw.
---
Fei goes to the bank on the day that a group literally smashes through the wall and tells everyone to get down or die.
It's mayhem after that, with people shouting and scrambling everywhere, and Fei can only wish she spent an extra ten minutes putting away the dishes before she left the house.
She ignores everyone around her, drops to the ground and starts to crawl to the nearest wall as fast as she can. She hopes no one stops her and she's tense until she's able to press her back against something solid. Silently, she congratulates herself for making it this far.
People are still shouting but Fei doesn't listen, choosing to pull her knees to her chest and rest her head on them instead.
She keeps her head down and thinks about anything to stop her from crying. She's shaking slightly and not even thinking about the way Jia sometimes follows her around the apartment silently instead of asking to spend time with her or the way Suzy surprises her with bear hugs calms her down.
She hugs her knees tighter keeps trying. She thinks about Min, about the way her eyes curve up when she smiles and the way she clutches Fei's arm when she laughs too hard. She thinks about the way Min looks when she's half-asleep, her hair all mussed up and sticking out at all angles. She thinks about the way Min never fails to call her or text her every day even though she works ridiculously irregular hours for her uncle.
She thinks about the way Min sounds when she whispers "I love you" into her hair when she thinks Fei is asleep.
She thinks about Min and only Min and her breathing evens out and she stops shaking and she finds that it's actually extraordinarily easy to block out everything else.
She doesn't notice JYP and his new sidekick sneak in through the hole in the bank's wall and slowly usher people out into the street one by one, she doesn't notice them fighting the group that broke in, and she doesn't notice that she's one of the only people left in the bank afterwards.
What she does notice is a warm hand on her arm trying to pull her to her feet. She looks up and laughs.
"It's you again." She says and the masked woman looks at her seriously.
"I thought I told you to be careful." The woman whispers quietly, bringing her hand to Fei's face.
"It's not that easy." Fei defends, moving backwards before the woman can touch her. She thinks she sees a flash of hurt in the woman's eyes but she shakes the thought away.
The woman sighs. "Come this way if you don't want to end up on the front page again."
Fei nods and follows her. She leads her to back exit that's surprisingly empty and motions for Fei to step outside. She moves forward like she's going to hug Fei but stops at the last second and puts a hand on her shoulder instead.
"Seriously, be careful." She squeezes Fei's shoulder and begins to walk away.
"It's really not that easy, you know." Fei says to her back. The woman pauses.
"Just try."
---
Jia is wolfing down cereal when Fei walks in the door.
"Did you get your bank stuff done?" She asks. Fei flinches.
"No. There was some sort of break-in."
"Are you alright?" Jia puts her spoon down and waits for her answer.
"It happened before I got there." She lies and walks towards her room.
She lies on her bed unmoving for hours until she hears her phone ring. She finds it just as it stops ringing and she curses under her breath. She's about to put it down when it starts to ring again.
"Hello?"
"Hey." Fei smiles at Min's voice and wonders why she sounds so breathless. Min speaks before she gets to ask. "Are you free?"
"Right now?" She asks.
"Right now." Min repeats and Fei finally registers how serious she sounds.
"I'm free." She says slowly, trying to figure out why Min is lacking her usual carefree tone.
"I'll see you in twenty." Min hangs up and Fei stares at her phone.
She lies there, not bothering to do anything before she realizes that Min was coming over. She springs out of bed, staggers a but from the headrush she gets, and barges into the living room.
"Jia!" She calls and waits for her roommate to respond.
"What?" Jia sits up on the couch slowly and watches Fei scramble around the room tidying things up.
"Get out." Fei commands, standing straight and pointing to the door.
"What?" Jia says again and Fei starts to tug her off the couch and towards the door.
"I said get out." She says again.
"I don't get it." Jia says dumbly.
Fei sighs, clearly exasperated, and raises and eyebrow. Jia blinks at her for a moment and Fei sees a light bulb go off in her head.
"Are you gonna bang your girlfriend?" Jia eventually says, smile starting to form.
"Oh my god, get out now." Fei barely has enough patience to watch Jia laugh as she puts her shoes on, and she pushes her roommate out the door as soon as she's done.
"Fei Fei's getting laid!" Jia yells into the halls and Fei slams her forehead into the door she just closed.
She's still in the same position when Min knocks on the door. She feels the knock through the wood and it startles her so much that she jumps backwards. She straightens her clothes and makes sure she's presentable before she finally opens the door for Min.
"He-"
She barely manages one syllable before Min surges forward, wraps her arms around Fei and crashes their lips together. She hardly notices Min kicking the door shut and flipping her so that her back is pressed against it.
Min finally pulls away and rests their foreheads together, panting slightly.
"What was that about?" Fei breathes and Min kisses her again.
"I just wanted to see you, I guess." Min replies between kisses.
Fei fists her hands into the fabric of Min's shirt when the she starts planting kisses down her throat, and she bites her lip when Min drags her teeth along the column of Fei's throat.
Her mind goes blank when Min slides her fingers up her shirt and she supposes she'll have to wait until later to get a proper answer.
---
She never does get a proper answer because Min just smiles at her when she asks again and tells her the same thing as the first time she asked.
She doesn't mind though, because Min finally says "I love you" to her face and Fei is so happy that she doesn't stop smiling for an hour.
She doesn't stop smiling even when Min gets a call from her Uncle Jinyoung to come to work and not even Jia's triumphant I was right! wipes it off her face,
---
Fei jolts awake in the middle of the night and takes a second to realize that she's not actually flying miles above the city.
She deliberates for a moment before slipping out of bed, pulling some jeans and leaving a post-it note on her door in case she's gone longer than she expects.
She takes the stairs even though Min isn't there and it takes her longer than usual to get to the roof.
The night air is cold when she steps outside and curses the fact that she didn't have the foresight to grab a jacket. She rubs her arms but doesn't go back inside, not wanting to have to conquer those stairs again, and she moves towards the edge of the roof instead.
She's not sure how long she's lost in thought but she's so disconnected from everything that she doesn't notice her superpowered acquaintance land right beside her until she feels a warm hand on her arm.
"You're freezing." Fei almost tumbles off the roof in shock when she realizes she's not alone.
"Did I scare you?" Her voice is quiet and full of concern but Fei is calmed by the way she says everything like they've got all the time in the world.
"A little, yeah." She admits, smiling gently and brushing wayward strands of hair behind her ear.
"Sorry."
Fei looks back over the edge of the roof and surveys the people below.
"Why are you up here?" The woman blinks at Fei's sudden question and gestures upwards.
"Nothing to do up there. She says simply. Fei thinks back to her dream (or what she remembers of it) and can't keep her curiosity at bay.
"What's it like up there?" the woman thinks for a moment, fingers tapping on the ledge, nose scrunched up in thought.
"Lonely. There's nothing much up there except for me and the clouds. Nothing to do, no one to talk to except myself. Lonely, yeah."
Fei mulls the words over in her head for a bit.
"What about all the other heroes?"
"What about them?"
"Aren't they up there too?" Fei says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world and the woman cracks a small smile.
"We've all got our own things to do."
They lapse into silence and Fei thinks about what to say next. Apparently she takes a little too long because her companion is the one who speaks first.
"And you?"
"Me?" Fei lets her confusion be shown on her face and the woman smiles.
"Yes, you. Why are you up here?"
"This is my building." She says by way of explanation. She swallows when the other woman narrows her eyes but she doesn't make any move to continue.
"Can't sleep?"
"Something like that."
"Sorry."
"Say, do you ever get scared out there when you do your hero thing?" She asks after a brief silence.
She's not sure why but the woman laughs loudly like Fei just told her the funniest thing. When she calms down she looks Fei in the eyes and Fei sees a seriousness that wasn't there before.
"All the time."
"Oh."
She's not sure what kind of answer she was expecting but she know it wasn't that. She thinks that maybe she wanted to be lied to, maybe she wanted the woman to laugh in her face and tell her that it's a stupid question and that she's never scared.
She turns her head towards the street again and doesn't notice the masked woman moving closer until she feels lips on her cheek.
She whips her head around, ready to ask what was going on but the other woman doesn't even give her a chance to open her mouth before she pulls Fei in and presses her lips together.
Fei isn't sure what's going through the masked woman's mind, she's not even sure what's going through her mind so she does the first thing she thinks of when her body decides to respond and she slaps the woman as hard as she can.
"Ow, Fei, what the hell?"
"What do you mean 'ow'?"
"What do I- you slapped me!"
"You kissed me!"
They stare at each other in tense silence, the woman clutching her face and frowning while Fei stands there wide-eyed, wondering what just happened.
"You can't just kiss me, you know." She says when she finally gets her thoughts in order.
"Yes, I can." Fei narrows her eyes and the woman starts waving her arms around frantically. "No, I just meant that-"
"No." Fei says and she sees the woman swallow. "You can't. Besides, I'm in a relationship."
"I know that, damn it!" Fei stares in disbelief before she walks towards the rooftop door. She can still hear her name being called as she slams it shut behind her.
---
She takes the elevator down back to her floor because she thinks it would get tiring if she stormed down multiple flights of stairs.
She remembers that she has a roommate just in time to stop herself from slamming her front door and she tries her best to stay silent as she moves towards her room. She grabs the post-it off her door before she closes it and collapses face down on her bed.
She's absentmindedly kicking off her jeans when she hears a tap at her window. Cautiously, she moves towards it and opens the curtain a crack, momentarily forgetting about her lack of clothing on her lower half.
She opens the curtains fully when she sees that the masked woman was hovering just outside her seventh storey window. She glares before she opens her window.
"I'm not impressed with you right now." She says and the woman flinches.
"I know and I'm sorry but I really can explain if you'd just-"
"How do you know where I live?" Her question makes the woman falter for a second and she stutters for a bit before speaking..
"Can I come inside?"
"How do you know where I live?" She repeats.
"If you'd just let me in I'd-"
"How?"
The woman sighs and drifts closer to the window. Her fingers play along the edge of her mask for a second before she pried it off.
Fei gapes and doesn't move.
"Can I please come in now?" Min says and Fei takes at least a minute to will her body in to motion and move aside. "Thanks."
She snaps out of her daze when Min turns around and smirks.
"What?"
"Nice jeans."
She scrambles to find her discarded jeans and put them on while Min sits on her bed and chuckles.
"It's not like I haven't seen it all before."
"I'm putting them on," she says "because we're going to talk and I'm not going to be in my underwear for it."
Her words wipe the smile off Min's face and the younger woman bites her lip. She sits next to Min on her bed and neither of them say anything, both at a loss for what to say.
Fei grabs Min's hand and threads their fingers together. She presses a kiss to her cheek and figures she knows a good place to start.
"I'm sorry for slapping you."
---
She learns a lot that night like the fact that Min hadn't actually wanted to tell her about being a hero, not because she was worried about Fei's safety (she has that covered, she says) but because she didn't want Fei to worry and lose sleep about her. Min learns that Fei thinks she's a big girl who can worry about whatever she wants, thank you very much.
Min tells her that she's never once lied about what she does, but she has twisted the truth a little (a lot) to make her life seem duller; animals being released from the zoo turned into a rodent infestation, a bank heist turned into someone owing her uncle money, and someone freezing the city's industrial area turned into people getting stuck in a walk in freezer.
Fei can't argue with any of that and she has to agree when Min tells her she's a little slow on the uptake because despite the fact that she was told that the younger woman worked in security (which was probably the most truthful part of it all) she never questioned the fact that nothing Min ever told her was even vaguely security related.
Fei learns that Min sometimes pulls out her phone in the middle of a fight just to check whether Fei has texted her. She's touched but she tries not to let it show as she scolds the younger woman for being reckless. She learns that Min's Uncle Jinyoung, the JYP, has been wanting to meet her since her old workplace was destroyed but Min keeps putting it off because he can't seem to go five minutes without using his powers for something inane.
She listens and she learns a lot about Min that she didn't know and it only makes her love Min more because Min answers all her questions honestly and without hesitation and Fei thinks that's probably what's most important.
Fei learns a lot that night like the fact that only thing better than I'm sorry sex with a superhero is you're forgiven sex with Min and Min learns that Fei's stamina is nothing to joke about.
---
Jia walks in the next morning while Fei has her head between Min's legs and Min is arching off the bed and biting her lip to keep quiet.
"Okay, wow. This is new."
Min's eyes fly open, Fei's head snaps up and they both have no idea what to say. Jia looks back and forth between them takes a step backwards.
"I'm Jia. You must be Min and you," she turns to Fei, " probably don't need breakfast."
She leaves as quickly as she came and Fei stays frozen until she feels Min laughing beneath her.
"I like her." Min says and Fei wishes her life was a little more normal.
---