Awkward would feel like the incorrect word to use for how Taylor felt, after all, she knew Clint and they spent hours alone training together. But Taylor couldn't deny the reality of the situation, it felt awkward.

They were at Clint's family storage place, which they had converted into their abilities training center, and it was only the two of them. Dominic hadn't shown up yet. This could explain why the situation felt off, at this location, it was always the three of them. Only at the gym were Taylor and Clint ever alone in a room together.

But for some reason, Dominic wasn't showing up and there they sat on one of the mats, half angled towards each other and saying nothing.

Taylor twisted the cap of her bottle on and off, glancing at Clint. Their self-defense training session had been short, Clint still cautious about her head, but normal. That ease of trainer and trainee seemed to vanish when they found themselves alone in the storage place.

Taylor focused on the bottle, trying not to think about the last time they were alone there. But as thoughts had the habit of doing, that was exactly what she thought of. And the last time they'd been alone there had been the time Clint kissed her.

The only time Clint kissed her.

It had been so quick she hadn't gotten the chance to register what was happening. And since then...

Taylor met Clint's gaze. How did she say she wanted to change what she'd said to him about only being friends for a while? How did she make it clear that if he still had feelings for her, she would like him to act on them? This time would be better than last time.

Did she blurt it out? Was it even stupid to have these thoughts when they possibly had a dangerous situation to figure out with another super being in the city?

Dominic would tell her that her life needed to matter. That her secret life couldn't be the only life she focused on. She believed him, after all, he was the only other super she knew. But she still felt she failed miserably at knowing how to make that happen.

So far it was reading more, not staying out to extremely late hours of the night, and... She didn't know if there was a last part to the list which felt depressing to realize.

Not knowing whether having a boyfriend or even a single date would be the right way to go about getting more of a life, but knowing she needed to take some steps to having more of one, she decided to take a stride forward.

"What do you think about going to a-"

"Should we get started without-"

They spoke at the same time but instantly stopped and smiled at each other. Taylor motioned to Clint.

"What were you saying?" she asked, hoping her face wasn't blazing red.

As she was contemplating how to break out of the friend zone she'd created, Clint was thinking of training, not their last alone time in the storage area.

"I was going to say that maybe we should-" Clint cut himself off as Taylor's phone rang.

"It's Dominic," Taylor said. "Hey, where are you?"

"My house. Something came up. If you want to leave me out of training for today, you can. Or you can do it here."

Taylor looked at Clint for his response but realized one part of their training that day was working on talking to boys. Since she'd already failed beautifully with someone she already knew, she didn't think a session with only Clint coaching her would help.

"We'll come to you."

"Okay, see you in a literal minute."

The line went dead and Taylor looked to Clint. For a second, neither of them spoke.

"Should I take your bike with us?" Taylor asked.

A lot more capable with the size of items she could teleport with, she felt confident she could take herself, Clint, plus a bike to Dominic's house. But she realized the issue lay with where exactly to put them.

Without Dominic, she could be jumping to a location in real-time. She wouldn't know how many people would be watching and two people on a motorcycle showing up out of nowhere wasn't likely to go unnoticed.

As this realization came to her, Clint spoke, proving he'd been walking down the same mental path as her.

"We wouldn't know how many people would see us."

"Have Dominic send you a photo of the inside of his house. We'll just go there."

"I don't need one I've been to his room."

The instant the statement left her mouth, Taylor saw all the tangled implications it created.

"Uh." Clint looked surprised, like all the worst ones were coming to mind. "You have?"

"I helped him get to school. In exchange he started helping me during lunch, giving me time to do homework. It's nothing more than that."

Despite the weeks of working together, and talking, Taylor realized that the way she met Dominic and connected hadn't ever been shared. Maybe it came from their focus mainly being on abilities, training, and balancing life. It struck her then how even with the amount of time they were together there were still gaps in what they knew about each other.

"So yeah," Taylor said. "Not something weird."

"Okay. That... makes sense. We should... go."

Taylor placed her hand on Clint's arm, not sure why it would feel awkward to take his hand at that moment. The world flipped to Dominic's room, a space that felt completely familiar to Taylor. But Clint surveyed it with the eyes of someone absorbing a new aspect of a person he knew.

"He can read?" Clint said.

"Clint!"

But Clint was grinning at her in an easy manner. "I'm surprised by the amount of books he has honestly. I don't even have a fraction of this."

"You don't?"

"You've been in my room," Clint said, casually. "You know."

"I apologize, I was bleeding out. I was not fully aware of what your room looked like."

"You'll have to compare it sometime then."

Taylor raised her eyebrows at Clint and he flushed deeply.

"Oh no, I didn't mean it in a weird way. I just meant my room looks really different than Dominic's and it kinda shows you how different we are. I didn't mean it to sound the way that it came out sounding."

Taylor laughed, finding Clint being flustered and scrambling to be extremely cute.

"It's okay. I didn't think you were the kind of person to suggest something."

"Oh good." Clint scratched the back of his neck, looked around, and pointed to one of the doors. "We should get to work."

He quickly crossed to the door and opened it but stopped when he found the bathroom.

"It's the other door," Taylor said, bits of her laughter still in her stomach.

"Right."

Taylor reached the door as Clint did and smiled at him, trying to convey that she wouldn't hold his blunder against him. Clint smiled self-consciously and Taylor led them out into the hallway. When they reached the first floor, Dominic emerged from a side door, a toddler in his arms. Clint froze next to Taylor.

"You have a kid?" Clint said.

Dominic scowled and though Taylor knew the truth, she saw the confusion since the boy in Dominic's arms looked like him. Unruly dark brown hair and green eyes.

"I have a nephew, you poopy head," Dominic said.

"Poopy head?" Clint asked.

"Yeah, I'm not going to cuss in front of my neph-ew, you donkey," Dominic said.

Clint held out his hands in an apologetic gesture. "I'm sorry. He looks a lot like you."

"Yeah, he also looks like my sister. You know, his mother."

Even with the apology, Taylor saw the storm forming and decided to head it off before the tornado could land.

"I'm guessing Collin is why you couldn't come to training?" Taylor said.

Dominic focused on her and the thunderclouds over his head dissipated. "Yeah. Something came up."

"Can I hold him?" Taylor asked.

After she voiced the offer, she wondered if it was a good idea. It would mean Dominic's hands were free to strangle Clint if he felt like doing so. But since she'd already spoken, she decided she would just have to let them figure it out.

Collin eyed Taylor as Dominic handed him over but he didn't do more than stare at her when she tucked him close to her.

"Hi," she said to him.

His large eyes seemed like they were trying to swallow her. When she looked away from Collin, she found Dominic watching her with an expression she couldn't pin down. It felt like something caught between curiosity, amusement, and something else. But that something else wasn't nameable.

"I'm really sorry about assuming," Clint said.

Dominic blinked as if he'd forgotten Clint was there and nodded. "It's fine. He does look a lot like me. If we're going to train we have to do it in here."

Dominic led the way into a family room that held the carnage of a toddler who'd been happily playing with everything in reach. But as Taylor settled onto the floor, she expected Collin to want to go back to his reign of destruction but to her shock, he laid his head down on her shoulder. In reaction, Taylor looked to Dominic, who again wore a mixed expression.

"It looks like I'll be the one training for the time being," he said. "Unless you want to give him to me?"

"It's okay." Taylor scooted back, resting against the side of the couch.

"Okay, then Dominic let's get started," Clint said.

Dominic hesitated, his attention glued to his nephew in a way that Taylor took to mean he was debating taking Collin back simply to avoid having to endure Clint's coaching.

The fact that it took Dominic a full thirty seconds to sit down, didn't surprise Taylor. In the training sessions their dynamic wasn't much changed, except Clint could push Dominic and Dominic could counter with the fact that the ability was his and his alone.

But having seen herself what Clint's coaching could do to help stretch her beyond what she imagined, she knew it was better to help smooth things over.

"What are you working on today?" Taylor asked, infusing as much curiosity into her voice as she could while looking at Dominic.

It seemed to do the trick because Dominic eased back on his hands. "What are we doing today?"

In contrast to Dominic, Clint straightened, his whole posture expressing authority and focus. "You know how Taylor is able to channel her ability into a single object or person. I want to see if you can do the same thing. Though different, your abilities work similarly to each other. You don't have to be touching someone to bring them into the Time Stop, simply having your shoes touching works as well. That's why I think you'll be able to accomplish the same outcome. In theory."

"You want me to isolate something in the Time Stop," Dominic said.

"Yes."

"Alright."

Looking around him, Dominic located a child's toy that let out a bright tinny song while flashing colorful lights.

"I don't you think understand how long it's going to take you," Clint said. "That's going to get annoying fast."

"More motivation," Dominic said. "Besides, we need to have proof that what I'm doing is working. Otherwise, I could hold up anything and tell you it's in the Time Stop but you wouldn't know if I was telling the truth or not."

"Fair."

Clint broke down the principles he had with Taylor when they'd first tried it. As he spoke, she remembered the aggravating feeling she had as over and over again she struggled to put into work what he was describing.

But the invigorating feeling that had come when she succeeded was something she'd never imagined. Teleporting herself and others had been one thing, normal but sending that ability into an object... It had felt unreal.

The toy played its cheery repetitive song as Dominic stared at it, his mouth a tight line of concentration, his brow furrowed, and his eyes narrowed. Over and over the song sang it's melody until Taylor wondered if they were all in the Time Stop and the song would never end.

When she saw Dominic flex his jaw, she knew the toy was in danger of being abused. Similar to how she'd wanted to strangle the water bottle she'd been attempting to send somewhere else. Knowing what Clint had done for her and knowing fully well he wouldn't recreate that kind of support for Dominic, since it had involved close contact, Taylor stepped in.

"Here," she said, gently passing Collin to Clint. Who, despite what she'd expected, easily cradled Collin and picked up a stuffy nearby to wiggle in front of him while not taking his attention away from Dominic.

Taylor placed herself in front of Dominic, their knees nearly touching as they both sat cross-legged. He held her gaze and she saw the high level of frustration he was holding back. She understood it, it felt like a weakness to not be able to control something that felt so innate to who you were. It should have been like lifting a hand or breathing.

"It's okay," she said calmly. "You can do this. Close your eyes."

Dominic did what she said without question. A courtesy she wished he'd give to Clint sometimes.

"You're going to think about your ability," she said. "Feel how it's simply a part of you. It's a second skin. It's in your nerves. Your blood." Dominic gently nodded his head to her words. "Now simply focus on your arm. Then narrow that down to your wrist. Your hand. Now your palm. Imagine you're letting go of a butterfly you've had in your hand and send your ability into the toy."

Taylor waited, solely concentrating on Dominic, it's how she saw him jump from one position to another, like a screen glitching for a second.

"It's okay," she said, knowing he'd taken both the toy and himself into the Time Stop. "Try again."

Glitch after glitch, Taylor watched as Dominic popped in and out of the Time Stop but never just the toy. When she saw him about to give up, she took hold of his wrist.

"Okay, look at me," she said. "Feel where my hands are. Don't let the ability go further than that. Focus on isolating it to your hand alone. Don't overthink it. Don't look at the toy."

Though it was Taylor's own instructions, she felt a little self-conscious having the full force of his green eyes on her.

But that feeling vanished when the toy music shut off.

Taylor froze, needing to see if it was real or if the toy just dying.

But when she looked at the toy it's revolving lights were trapped between colors. She met Dominic's gaze, knowing her eyes were as wide as his.

"You did it! Holy s-," Clint said.

"Language! That's my-"

"You did it!"

Taylor screamed in excitement cutting Dominic off and tackling him with a hug, both of them falling to the floor.

Dominic laughed as he held Taylor. When they righted themselves, Clint was watching them. But he quickly wiped away his expression, making it impossible for Taylor to know what he'd been thinking.

"I'm not hugging you," Clint said. "But you did it and that's amazing. Now try it again."

"So demanding," Dominic said.

Dominic and Taylor settled back into their positions.

"Do you need me to hold your wrist?" Taylor said. "For my second attempt, I still needed Clint to hold my face."

A flush rushed to Taylor's cheeks as Dominic raised his eyebrows at her and Clint coughed as if choking on his breath.

"It's not weird," Clint said. "It wasn't... It was to help her focus."

"Sure," Dominic said. "And you can hold my wrist, or you can hold my face if you want."

At Dominic's teasing grin, Taylor wanted nothing to do with him. But she also knew that she wanted him to succeed on his second try.

"It wasn't weird," she said.

"I definitely believe that," Dominic said, still grinning.

Glaring at him, she took hold of his wrist.

"Are you going to be able to do it a second time, or was it a fluke?"

When Dominic's grin disappeared, it reappeared on Taylor's face and she found she liked it better there.

On the other side of the turned tables, Dominic activated the annoying toy and placed it in his palm. He focused on Taylor and she found she could no longer hold onto her stolen grin. The toy blared on until it suddenly stopped. Together they looked at the toy with it's frozen lights. They both shared a smile.

"Good," Clint said. "Now again without Taylor holding your wrist."

Dominic raised his eyebrows at Clint in a way that made Taylor want to roll her eyes at his dramatics.

"Jealous?" Dominic asked.

"Logical. You won't have her with you at all times. You need to be able to do it on your own. If you can."

An exchange of expressions occurred as Clint returned the raised eyebrows and Dominic took the position of rolling his eyes. Tugging his wrist free, Dominic took a breath and focused on Taylor again.

"You won't have her," Clint said.

"Yeah, one step at a time," Dominic said, never taking his eyes off Taylor.

Taylor clasped her hands together, unsure what to do with Dominic's stare and no means of offering support beyond not looking away.

But her uncertainty vanished when Dominic repeated the act of freezing the toy.

"Again. On your own completely," Clint said.

Without giving any dramatic reaction, Dominic recreated his trick, faster than before. Five more times he proved he could accomplish the task on his own. With the sixth, Dominic looked at Clint with boredom on his face and froze the toy.

"Are we done now?"

"Put me in the Time Stop," Clint said.

Dominic tensed and Taylor felt his fear. It was the unknown mixed with the life of someone and not knowing what would happen.

"No," Dominic said.

"Taylor had to-"

"I said no," Dominic said. "Not today."

Clint looked like he wanted to argue but stopped himself. Though outwardly Dominic appeared calm and unbothered, he radiated a defensiveness that Taylor knew shouldn't be pushed past. It seemed Clint sensed the same thing.

"Okay."

At Clint's acceptance, Dominic relaxed. "My dad will be home sometime soon so we should put off any training you had for Taylor. Instead, we can get to work on helping Taylor talk to guys."

"I talk to you fine," she said, annoyed with the implication that she was somehow mute around boys.

"Yes. But you are going to have to do more than talk, you have to be engaging, flirtatious." Dominic looked at Clint. "You want to flirt with Taylor?"

Nearly a year ago, Taylor would have said spontaneous combustion was impossible as was teleporting. But now she could teleport, so what she knew and didn't was fuzzy. Right then the way her face heated up so quickly she worried that spontaneous combustion could be a thing. And if she was in danger of it, so was Clint.

"Never mind," Dominic said. "You're holding my son, I'll do it."

Clint lost his embarrassment as he made an unamused face. "I said I was sorry. Can we move past this?"

"Maybe. You are doing really well with him. I'm impressed."

"My oldest sister has a kid," Clint said.

"You sure it's not your kid?"

"Dude."

Dominic only grinned and stood up, gesturing for Taylor to follow. She wasn't sure which would be worse: attempting to flirt with Clint while Dominic watched or attempting with Dominic while Clint watched. Both seemed equally humiliating but trying to flirt with someone she was attracted to seemed to be worse. Dominic was the better of the two choices.

"You need to work on being natural," Dominic said.

"I am natural."

"What do you call this morning?"

The scene with Grayson flashed in Taylor's mind and she realized that might have been her lowest point flirtation-wise.

"Fine. I'll be natural. But this isn't going to work. I know how to talk to you."

"I'm not going to just talk to you, I'm going to flirt with you as if I were Grayson. It's going to be different."

"I highly doubt that," Taylor said while Clint muttered, "This will be interesting."

"Remember you want to go with the flow, don't try to fight enjoying yourself. If I make you laugh then laugh, if I don't also go with that."

"Got it. Be natural."

Natural. She could touch an object and send it wherever she wanted. She could travel miles away with a single thought and within a millisecond. Did she even know what natural was? It looked like she was going to have to figure out or this wouldn't work.

"Hey," Dominic said, tucking his hands into his pockets and leaning slightly towards her.

It was a single, basic greeting, and yet Taylor felt how she no longer talked to the one other person who had an ability but Dominic Parker, star football player, who she, somehow, had forgotten was very attractive.

"Uh, hi," she said, wondering why her mouth felt dry.

"You came to the party," Dominic said, his mouth quirky up to the side in a way she'd never seen before.

"I did. I don't usually come to parties," Taylor said, trying to follow Dominic's instructions but the prolonged eye contact felt nothing like it had while helping him train.

"Then I'm happy you came to mine. Why don't you usually go to parties?"

He cocked his head ever so slightly, the corner smile still hovering on his lips.

"After getting in a car accident and having my heart restarted I developed an ability to teleport which made my social life take a nosedive."

"Developing an ability, I heard that is the leading cause of teenagers being anti-social these days."

Taylor laughed but covered her mouth, surprised by the suddenness of it.

Dominic smiled in his usual manner, reminding her that she knew who he was.

"Sorry," she said.

"You're doing great. Maybe avoid revealing the whole ability part though."

"Okay."

"Do you want a drink?" Dominic asked, falling back into the flirtatious role of Grayson.

"Water is fine."

"Playing it safe. Do you not like alcohol?"

Taylor crossed her arms. "Is it a problem that I don't drink?"

Dominic raised his hands in surrender. "Nope. Sorry to push. Water it is."

Dominic held out his hand as if holding a water bottle and Taylor pretended to take it. Little by little Taylor became accustomed to the flirty side of Dominic. She answered his questions directly but let her laugh come easily if she thought what he said was funny.

When Collin started to make noises and began squirming, Dominic reverted to simple Dominic to take his nephew away from Clint.

"You weren't completely terrible," Dominic said, bouncing Collin in his arms.

"I thought you did a good job," Clint said. "He's a guy who likes you, that means paying attention is usually enough to keep him engaged."

"Clint is right. And if you need help, we'll be there," Dominic said.

Despite how it was meant to be reassuring, Taylor felt it would be nothing but awkward trying to flirt with Grayson while knowing both Dominic and Clint were watching her. But she also didn't like the thought of not having them nearby.

Torn with the two options and the task of trying something she didn't feel she did particularly well, she leaned her head back on the cushions of the couch.

"You'll be fine," Dominic said.

"I definitely believe you," Taylor said echoing his mocking statement from earlier.

"You will," Clint said, gently. She raised her head. "I know you can do this."

She smiled at his encouragement, wishing her mission was to flirt with him rather than Grayson.

A buzz of her phone broke Taylor out of her futile wish. Picking it up, she glanced at the screen expecting a message from one of her parents but stilled when she read the message and double-checked the name.

"What?" both Dominic and Clint asked.

Taylor showed them her phone, still dazed. "My brother wants me to meet him tonight. At the police station."

**********************************************************************

"That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry."

💭💬🗯🌚

Reader Joy: Go ahead, I can see you look like you want to burst. Just say it.

Writer Joy: No. It's embarrassing.

Reader Joy: No one cares about your embarrassment and we all need something to laugh at so spill.

Writer Joy: Laughing at myself. I guess that is a good way to live. Fine. Here goes. While rereading this chapter to check for consistency I... I laughed.

Reader Joy: You laughed...?

Writer Joy: Yeah.

Reader Joy: And?

Writer Joy: You don't see how weird that is! I wrote it! I know what's said because I wrote it! Why would I laugh! That's like telling joke and laughing at it too. It's bad form.

Reader Joy: Well did anyone see you laugh at it?

Writer Joy: No. But I told you so therefore you now know.

Reader Joy: You're right that was embarrassing! *laughs*

Writer Joy: You're laughter at me hurts more than I thought it would.

Reader Joy: You're welcome. Are we going to discuss any part of the chapter?

Writer Joy: I see no point. I've already made this author's notes too long and you know everything.

Reader Joy: I will say one thing. I see what you're doing.

Writer Joy: Sure you do. Now vote, comment, follow!