"Privacy- like eating and breathing- is one of life's basic requirements"
-Katherine Neville.
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"Mm...la..lala...la..." I hummed as I slipped into my regular sports bra and wrapped a white towel around my half naked body. I stepped out of my bathroom, massaging the nape of my neck and went straight to reach the door of my wardrobe. A soft sigh left my wet lips, as there was nothing much to select particularly from my collection. All I saw was a set of purple polos for my karate classes and a whole bunch of baggy T-shirts and jeans. I slid my finger along a stack of cotton tees and pulled out a comfy teal one and shut the door carelessly making a thud with my foot.

My fingers dropped the tee as I gasped sharply, leaning back to the wardrobe at the sight of him. His floating silhouette was standing just a few feet away from me. My heart a tight drum, my face -blood drained. And it was not even a second before an ear aching shriek made its way through my tired vocal cords.

Neon-blaze swiftly swooshed towards me and clasped his fingers on to my mouth. "Jeez! Stop it. You are gonna get me jailed or what?" He hushed closing his face on to mine.

"Mmm..mmkay!" My shaking voice came out as a muffled whimper, through his clasping fingers. He nodded and loosened his hand, letting out a sigh of relief.

"What do you want? Don't you know a f**king thing called 'Privacy'?" I scoffed impatiently, stepping away from him. I stuck my arms around my chest in an attempt to hold the towel in place, although, I was well aware that it was firmly fastened to my body. (Now listen : No, I was not paranoid. Yes, he had broken into my room before; but today, it was different. I was half-naked for God's sakes!)

"How did you do that?" He pointed his left index and suddenly flicked it under his nose. His face was in an utter confusion and his jawline seemed to be a bit swollen and bruised, due to his reckless fight with the other supers.

"Do what?" I asked, pressing my eyebrows together in an apparent frown. "What are you talking about?"

He walked dramatically closer to me than ever, he took support of the wall behind me with his left palm and leaned on to me until his face towered over mine, separated by a thin strip of steamy humid air from his breath. He opened his mouth to say something, but zipped it back in hesitantly. I widened my eyes expecting him to say that 'something'. My chest heaved, as the fluttering heartbeat deafened my ears, I gulped fighting my own thoughts, 'oh Lee! This is so wrong. No, this should not be happening...'

Click and thud!

The door to my room, opened ajar without any warning.

"Oh God! Ahem." Kiara turned around, showing her back to us as soon as she entered the room.

Then followed Barb's high pitched cry tailing her. "Lee? What are you guys doin' ?"

"Oh sweety, no!" Kiara closed Barb's eyes with her manicured fingers. Although, Barb didn't hesitate to giggle her heart out lifting her shoulders up and down with her every snort.

It took a moment for me to understand the gist of the situation.
"It's not what 'it' looks like, Kiara!" I flinched away from his face and grabbed my sports jacket from the hanger and swung it spreading over my shoulders. Neon cleared his throat and turned towards the window to take off.

"It certainly looks like one..." Kiara bawled at me, sheepishly scratching her hairline.

"Wait!" She stretched her hand towards Neon-blaze, to stop him from taking off.

He paused clenching his fists and turned around hesitantly, not ready to face her yet.
"Ma'm." he gave her a small but stern greeting nod.

"I can't thank you enough for saving Barb and...and Lee...I want you to know that." She cracked her knuckles nervously acknowledging him. Her worrisome face suddenly faltered into an angry one within no time,
"I am still angry at you for killing my sister though...I want you to know that too!" She uneasily crossed her arms across her chest.

He twisted and sagged his lips with a gentle sideways nod. "Guilty as charged!" said he, swaying his gaze back and forth towards me and Kiara.

"Yeah! That's that." She sighed sharply.
"Put something on...Gosh!" She shot her angry eyes at me and threw her hands up.

"Have a nice evening." He nodded as he climbed over the window sill. He raised his shoulders taking in a long breath and jumped down. His green silhouette disappeared, within a second it skyrocketed upwards leaving a neon trail along his path. My unblinking eyes beheld the beauty of it, until it twinkled and became one with the night sky.

Kiara snapped her fingers in front of my face, Shaking me back to my senses.
"Do you have anything left? You know, to explain or justify about 'you both', huh?...young lady?" She asked in a sarcastic tone. By then Barb's giggles had grown even louder making me blushed and embarrassed, all at the same time.

"Look. It's nothing like what you think, okay?" I pulled the t-shirt over my head and yanked it down to my waist.

"Heard that twice already. Anything else?" She clasped her waist, glaring me down.

"I...umm..I..Ugh!" I stomped my foot, unable to explain anything in precise or barely on point.

"Come down for dinner, after you sort these things out!" she snapped as she stormed away, smashing the door behind her.

I pulled my boxer shorts up along my thighs. My head wasn't out of conundrum yet.
'What on earth did I do? Heck with that, now, how do I even explain these things to Kiara? That he has been stalking me since days already? Or about the sticky-note? Gosh, where do I even start?'
I shook my head nervously as I spoke to myself. I pushed the door open and hopped down the stairs, as my stomach was already grumbling at the mention of 'dinner'.

Loud cue music for 'Pristin- central' channel was echoing the living room. I trudged and slumped into the couch. It was the first day in the whole of three years after the incident, that my aunt had taken a proper responsibility of cooking dinner for us.

"Look Lee! We are on T.V." Barb squealed, widening her toothless smile.

"Cool, isn't it?" I smiled and concentrated my eyes back to the news.

"Good evening. This is your Lexie Robs and Melvin Grant, from PC -News- 24/7. Today's Breaking news is being aired exclusively on Pristin-central channel. A white Skull faced super had taken over the town. All the heroes like Black-ninja and Hell-fire, who had mysteriously disappeared a few years back, have returned with a villainous rampage. They seem to have teamed up with a Skull-faced psychopath, a new super-villain who calls himself the 'Sonic-skull'.  Recently famed super angel white-hawk has again saved the day. But the most shocking thing of all this chaos is that, the long hated villain-  Neon-Blaze, has joined the league with white-hawk to save the town. Seems like a nightmarish scenario, isn't it Grant?"

The camera focussed on a well dressed news reader acquainted beside her.
"Yeah Lexie, it's definitely Pristin's worst night mare. What boggles my mind is even in the middle of all this chaos; comically enough, Neon-blaze seems to have found his 'Dream-girl'."

The screen suddenly shifted to a blurry video recorded from a distance of me in Neon's arms. The video kept replaying on loop, of a moment I rested my face on his shoulders.

The way he was looking at me in the video gave me heebie-jeebies. I started nervously chewing the crap out of my fingernails like a lunatic.
'Ugh! I had one moment People. One freaking moment.'

"Yeah. Who is that girl anyways? Ooh, Neon who walked the night, has emerged out into the day light to save this young girl..." Lexie arranged her papers, flashing a satirical smile.

"Some of our sources identify her as Leela Das, nicknamed 'Lee'. A sixteen year old school girl, from Pristin Academy. Interesting isn't it?" Chuckled Grant.

"To know more about this deadly Villainous conspiracy, we have a live report from the mall itself. As of now, twenty casualties have been recorded. But there seems to be no deaths yet. Who ever this 'Sonic-skull' is, certainly had no intention of killing people. Maybe, it was just a first inning to his grand upcoming plan. So Jason, do you copy?" Lexie said, thoughtfully gesturing her fingers which were holding a black pen.

I face palmed myself, now that the whole town knew about me and Neon-blaze.
The video shifted to the scene of charred mall, many rescue operations were still going on, "copy that Lexie, Jason here, reporting live from the crime scene. This is what the mall, or rather what's left of the mall looks like. White-hawk and other rescue personnel are still inside the charred building, searching for survivors. As of now no deaths have been recorded. But as you already know, there are twenty casualties. What astonishes me is that, People have seen Neon earlier during the chaos, nobody seems to know, whether he fought for the Villain's side or White-hawk's. There are some video recordings that show Neon-blaze, saving a silver headed girl. Some of our sources identify her as a high school student from the Pristin Academy. But nonetheless, White-hawk has proven himself to be the Ultimate guardian of our beloved Pristin town. Jason Coleman with camera-man Luna Chu, Over and out."

The screen focussed back on Lexie again. She smiled and added, "copy that Jason. But what are the intentions of the new 'Arch-Nemesis' or for that matter, Neon's, is apparently not clear yet. We have Pristin's Mayor Sir. Eugene Morello and Melanie Higgins, the owner of the City's mall, live for discussion in the PC studio today...." And the report went on.

By then I was mentally drained and physically tired. Kiara walked over and turned the T.V off. She stared at my pathetic face blankly for a whole minute and then opened her mouth,
"aren't you guys hungry? Come on. Chop chop!"