The next day...

Aly's pov

Ugh, soo boring! I hate shop work, normally I would be doing search and destroy missions right now! I checked my atomic clock: 14:04:34 (2:04:34 P.M.). Gosh I just want some action!

"You do realize," I gasped and looked back at 1, "that you're 4 minutes and 34 seconds late? That's," he pretended to think, "like 274 seconds."

"How did you get back here?!" I barked in hushed tones.

He tossed Iroha's clearance card in his hand like a ball and said, "Eh, I told the girl up front that I was having some adverse side effects from the stuff you gave me yesterday so I needed to see you."

"Side effects like-?" I asked curiously. Well, I thought, I wanted action but I wasn't expecting this.

Then he put his arms around me from behind and I couldn't move. My breath caught and he spoke huskily into my ear saying,

"I had developed a strange impulse for hugging strangers, was the quickest thing I could think of for getting the card."

I didn't register what he was saying as I soaked in his breath on my skin and his arms around my shoulders. Wait-

"You were hugging up on my sister?"

Panic sparked for a moment but then he saved himself by saying,

"That was your sister? Besides the point, what matters right now is the girl that I'm supposed to be going out with four or five minutes ago."

Then he took me by the hand and half-dragged-half-guided me out of the shop.

***

A few minutes later...

"So," he said, smiling at me from the driver's seat, "I had a few ideas rolling around my head for our first date."

"Okay," I said nervously. I really hope Manslime is super busy today...

"We could go to the mall like the rest of the proletariat and buy more spandex. Go see a play and watch people run around in spandex... but we see that all the time nowadays don't we?"

I laughed nervously, "Heroes don't wear spandex like that anymore. Usually it's a form of combat armor."

"Like Iron Man?"

"Or the newer Batman."

He continued driving, a thought on his mind, then he pointed at me, "Iron man," then he pointed at himself, "Batman, hmph." Then he joked, "Is it weird that I wondered how many condoms had to be melted for Dark Hood's outfit?"

I rolled my eyes and he set a hand on my leg as he drove. I blushed and kept my gaze on the pedestrians walking about. He smiled and cleared his throat,

"Well uh, we'll think about it at a diner. Do you like diners?"

"I-I don't dislike them."

"Good."

***

"Are you... going to eat?"

I pulled my eyes from his face muttering, "Yeah, even though I forgot to tell you I don't need to eat like humans do."

"Ooh," he looked up at a billboard as awkward silence followed.

"What about a gun show?" He finally said pointing to the billboard that advertised it.

"I-I would really like that!"

Silence followed shortly until he asked,

"So uh, how was the last relationship you were in?"

I looked at him curiously, "Why do you ask?"

He shrugged.

"Conversation's sake?"

I should have started with, Um, the boyfriend I'm still technically with... but I started,

"I was with my boyfriend even before I had this... program added to my processor. He had a mother who was sick-" the man across from me listened attentively, "when I processed her chances of survival before a certain operation the reading was at 3%."

I was silent a moment before he asked, "Surely you mean that the chances of failure were 3%?"

I shook my head, my eyes looking into my food, "The chances of failure were 97%. I ignored the warnings and told him that the chances of success were high." I sighed, "He had spent his whole life trying to save his mother and he hasn't been the same since. He said things and-"

"Don't tell me he smacked you around."

I didn't correct him. The gravity of my silence settled in and he bristled,

"If I see him I'd like to shove my foot down his throat! It's different if you were sparring or being hacked into trying to kill him but-"

"Not when you're arguing?"

"Definitely not."

He reached over and took my hand.

"Don't worry, we can go to the gun show and you can think of all the guns that you'd kill him with okay?"

"Okay," I croaked although deep down I think I still have feelings for him.

"Now, where did that billboard say was the gun show?"