2nd POV

The heat racing across his face made him grimace. Fire raged across every corner, merciless flames reached up along with clouds of smoke that made the hallways and rooms seem like he was currently within a hellish nightmare, but none of it wasn't nearly enough to keep him from running deeper into the building.

In the distance, on the floors below, he could hear the clamor of fighting. There were crashing noises, yells, and brief cries of pain, but he was relieved none of them came from his family. Then again, of course they didn't. He knew fully well that everyone could handle themselves.

He lifted a fallen piece of the ceiling away from a door, then kicked it open, squinting his eyes to see into the room. Two pairs of eyes, full of fright, met his gaze. A man and woman were on the floor against the wall, their suits dirtied with soot.

Score. These had to be the only workers who were unaccounted for.

"T-The Dash?" The woman asked in disbelief, and the teen nodded.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm gonna get you two out of here. Follow me."

They didn't need any further words. The two adults stood up, somewhat shakily, and made their way over to him. He led them out of the room and to where he came from, moving at a slow pace and keeping a close eye on them so he wouldn't lose them.

And, it was a good thing he did. The cracking of the ceiling above them turned into a roar as a large piece fell down. If he wasn't there, the man would've gotten crushed.

The Dash zipped over and caught it, just as the man fell to the ground. As his companion came back to help him up, the teen tossed the burning debris away, flinching when he felt something searing hot rub against his left cheek.

"Keep going! There's an emergency ladder you both can climb down just ahead!"

He called out. They heard him, and did as he requested, as the teen trailed after them. As soon as he saw they reached the window the ladder was hanging from, and began to descend down the side of the building with it, he went back to the spiraling stairwell he ran up, and jumped down the center of them to land at the very bottom.

The main floors not being shrouded in smoke like the upper ones allowed him to take in heavenly breathes of air. The teen soon realized he wasn't alone, as someone materialized next to him as he moved.

"Is everyone out?" His sister, Miss Disappear, asked. He turned to face her.

"Yeah, there's no one else up there. What's the progress with those Blueblood goons?"

"We got them, they're in police custody now. They want us to clear out of the building so the fire department can step in." She answered, but then her periwinkle eyes squinted.

"...And also? Your face is burned."

"...It is?" He recalled the stinging pain in his cheek, having blocked it out before.

"Yes. It...doesn't look that bad though."

"It must be healing already." The blond commented, referencing the minor superpower he had. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't check it the injury now though, it wasn't the time.

"Anyway, let's go. Everyone's waiting outside right?"

"Yeah."

The Dash followed Miss Disappear as she went down a corridor extending to the back of the building, and at the end of it, held an emergency exit. Stepping past it out into the fresh, late evening air was enlivening.

They both were met with police. Upon seeing the siblings, one officer activated his radio to confirm that the building was empty now.

The Dash walked past the officers going back, nodding and smiling at those who offered him and his sister thanks as they passed, heading for the family supercar parked in a nearby alleyway. He did glance back at the office building with his eyes narrowed, watching fire fighters begin to shoot torrents of water into the windows.

Why did the Bluebloods attack this place? And set it on fire no less. It seemed so...random. But he supposed he was just missing something. Now to get home and see how bad this burn was.

His healing ability was top-notch, but it wasn't instantaneous if the wound was severe enough. He might have to come up with a story for people at school tomorrow if the burn's still there...

~~~~~~

The Next Day:

Reader's POV

I stepped past the students lingering in the hallways, fiddling with my notebook, as I headed towards my locker. I honestly hated when people would just stand right in the middle of the hall, like there wasn't dozens of other people coming and going. It was tough, trying not to run into anyone.

I knew my luck ran out, when someone rammed right into my shoulder, making me flinch and drop my notebook. The sheets of paper in it flew out and scattered across the floor.

And, of course whoever bumped into me continued on their way. The people around me didn't stop, some of them even kept walking and stepped all over my papers.

My face set in a scowl, I just bent down and tried to gather my things, swallowing my ever growing irritation. Then, I noticed something.

Students started moving out of the way, parting like dual doors sliding open. Looking up, I realized why.

"Hey. Lemme help you."

Dash grinned, kneeling down in front of me and grabbing the rest of the sheets. Instantly, my mood shot up, and I smiled with little inhibition. I was aware we were being watched by about every single person in the hall, but I didn't care at all.

At least someone was nice enough to help me. And, that someone was the guy who always made my heart flutter. In no time I had everything stuffed safely back into my notebook, and Dash was even kind enough to help me up, grabbing my free hand to hold it firmly in his own.

I wanted to melt.

"There we go." He unfortunately let my hand go, but his smile still made me feel like I was encased in a cocoon of warmth. For a few seconds, I took in his appearance now that we were both standing. He wore his usual style of clothes, but I saw he wasn't wearing his letterman jacket...or any jacket really. It let me see his torso and arms in better detail, and...I suddenly remembered that Dash was a very athletic person.

...Wait, I was staring. Whoops.

"T-Thanks." Desperately hoping he didn't notice, my eyes flicked back up to his face, but alas....he was staring at me with a brow quirked, and an amused smile. Overwhelmed by the heat of embarrassment, I moved past him to walk to my locker, and he fell into place next to me.

"You're welcome. I hope your papers didn't get messed up too bad." He said, and I refused to look at him. Not out of indignation, but out of fear of me just eyeing him again.

"They're fine. I don't think my teachers will mind some footprint marks on them." I deadpanned, and the sound of Dash's chuckle made my lips twitch into a smile. I reached my locker, and spun in my combination to open it.

As I swapped my books in and out, I noticed Dash was quiet, and curiously glanced at him. He was just leaning against a closed locker next to me, arms crossed, that earlier amused look on his face still there.

"What...?" I quietly asked, feeling very shy.

Dash didn't answer at first, only shifting into a more comfortable position. His blue eyes were brimming with a mischievous shine, which just made me want to hide my face.

"Were you checking me out before?"

I sharply inhaled, though my throat closed up simultaneously, making me cough. I looked away, covering my mouth.

"N-No!"

I most definitely was, but there's no chance I was going to admit it.

"You suuure?" I couldn't see him at the moment, but I knew that little smirk of his grew infuriatingly wider. I huffed, going back to switch my books around.

"Yeeeah, I'm sure. What, I can't look at you?"

"Heheh." He sniggered, and I slid the straps of my backpack back onto my shoulders, closing my locker. I turned to him, about to ask what he was so amused about, but I was thrown off.

I don't know how I didn't see it before, maybe the lighting was just different over on this side of the hall. But...

"What happened to your cheek?" I asked, seeing a lot of the left side of Dash's face was reddened a noticeable amount, and it was only the left side. He looked confused for a second, but recognition washed over his features.

"Ah, right. I got burned."

"How?" My head tilted.

"...I had a little mishap with some hot water." He looked away, but only for a split second. "It's fine. Healing and whatnot."

"...Well, alright. Least you're ok." I smiled, and Dash just blinked. Seconds later, I saw more of his skin redden, but he looked away.

"Want me to walk you to your class?"

"Sure." Hmm, now it seems the tables have turned. Except, I don't know why Dash all of a sudden was seeming bashful, but oh well. We started walking, and it wasn't long before he spoke up again.

"Do you wanna...come over again today? Hang out?"

"Yeah. If none of your family would mind?"

"Nah. My mom and dad said you could visit whenever you wanted, remember?"

My smile grew, and I lowered my head to try and hide it.

~~~

I closed my science book with glee when I heard the final bell of the day ring, as like usual, everyone in class started to leave out of the two doors. I stood up, throwing one of my backpack straps onto my shoulder as Dash came up to me.

"Hey, ready to go?" His smile made my own broaden.

"Uh, almost. I have to go drop off an assignment to one of my teachers."

"That's cool. I can walk with you."

"Ok." My heart jumped for joy.

We both walked out, going into the hall. Dash followed my lead, staying a little behind me so I could guide us to where I needed to go. We didn't talk much, but the silence between us wasn't awkward. Save for the shouts and loud talking of the flood of students in the halls, it was...peaceful.

Two of Dash's friends came up to us as we passed and started a conversation with him, but I wasn't paying too much attention to what they were saying. I think I heard something about a party though...

"I'm glad it's on Saturday. Are you going? Just to hang out."

"Nah. I know she's going to try and pull some stunt..." Dash said, and my interest was piqued, but not even for me to listen more closely.

I found my teacher in the classroom thankfully, and walked inside while Dash stayed out by the door with his friends.

"Hi Mr. Robinson. Here's my assignment."

"Ah, thank you Y/N. I'll have this graded and handed back to you tomorrow."

"Thanks."

With that done, I went back to the doorway, seeing no one standing there now. Confused, I went out into the hallway and looked around. I soon found Dash a little further down the hall...in a situation.

He was still with his friends, but two people joined them. The sight of one of them made my lip curl in irritation.

"So, you're coming right?" She asked, and Dash responded, though in a way that made it painfully clear he didn't care about what she was talking about.

"No, for the tenth time Iris. I'm not interested."

"But, it's my birthday!" She whined, and I rolled my eyes. "You really aren't going to my birthday party?"

"Nope."

Dash's curt reply made his friends snicker, and I did too.

"C'moooon Dash! Please?"

"It's not happening."

Then, Dash turned his head, and noticed me standing there. Just based solely on how his frown was replaced by a smile, I knew he was delighted to see me.

"But, for what it's worth...Happy Birthday." He casually stated, before addressing his friends.

"I'll see you guys later."

"Yeah." "See you." They said, and Dash walked away from them all, towards me. When Iris noticed me...I didn't know the human face was capable of making such a nasty expression.

The hatred written on it was almost mind-boggling. It said far more to me, than any words she could use. I bet she was wishing for my demise or something, but honestly...it didn't bother me. If anything, it amused me. So much to the point where I started smirking, and Iris' eyes widened with an emotion I confidently believed was anger.

It looked like she was about to march right over. In fact, Iris must have inched forward, because her friend reached her arm out across Iris' waist to stop her.

Whatever. She can hate me all she wants to. I honestly don't even hate Iris that much, so at least I don't have those negative emotions weighing me down. Part of me wanted to tell her "Happy Birthday" now, since her party was apparently in two days on Saturday, but I'm fairly sure she'd take it the wrong way.

"Ready to go?" Dash asked, and I pushed my one-sided nemesis out of my mind, focusing on my most favorite guy in the world.

"Mhm." I hummed, and we began the trek to Dash's car. I shot a quick text message to Auntie to let her know I was going over to Dash's place, and followed him out of the door.

~~~

I dropped my backpack down in the empty space next to the TV, against the wall. Dash went upstairs, claiming he needed the bathroom, so it was just me downstairs. That was, until I looked around. I saw Mrs. Parr sitting at the table Dash helped Jack-Jack with his homework at, a wide book open in front of her. There were differently colored squares arranged neatly in the book, and a few of them were placed around her, and she was holding one, so I assume she was going through a photobook.

She was smiling, and it was soft...sentimental. Those must be pictures of the family.

"Hi, Mrs. Parr." I greeted her, not wanting to just walk into her home and not even say anything to her. That'd be rude, right?

"Hello Y/N. It's good to see you again." She faced me, lowering the hand that was gripping one of the pictures. I was curious and really wanted to look at them too, but...could I ask her? Would it be disrespectful? Maybe just outright asking would...so...

"It's good to be back." I paused.

"If...it's ok to ask, what're you looking at?"

'Let's bring up the book first before just blatantly asking to see it.'

"It's completely ok. I'm just going through our family album...I passed over it while dusting the living room earlier, and figured why not take a walk down memory lane?"

She explained sliding the pictures she had out back into their rightful places, before turning a page. Her brown eyes came back to me.

"Did you want to see?"

"U-Uh...yeah, sure." Well, that was easy.

I approached the table, coming up to stand by Mrs. Parr. She currently had the book open to what....wait, where these:

"These are from when Bob and I started dating, all those years ago." The woman's tone was drowning in nostalgia. I felt...strangely honored, that she apparently was comfortable with me enough already to not mind showing such personal photos.

I saw Mrs. Parr's hair was way longer back then, with was a little trippy. Mr. Parr kind of threw me for a loop too, with his slimmer frame. He actually looked similar to how Dash looks now. Genes were something else.

"Who's that?" I pointed to a man I've never seen before in one of the photos, who was seated with her and Mr. Parr in what I think is a diner, all of them positioned together in front of the camera. He had a leather jacket on over his shirt, coolly smiling.

"That's Lucius Best. He's a close friend to us. Has always been." Her voice was fond.

"He lives here in Metroville. Sometimes he comes over to visit, maybe you could meet him then."

"...That'd be nice." If he's a good family friend, I genuinely wanted to meet him.

Mrs. Parr turned some more pages, taking about various pictures. There was one of Mr. Parr in a pie-eating contest, another of she and him in one of those booths you find at carnivals...another of them at their wedding...and-

"The first picture we took of Violet." She held it to where I could see it better. There was a baby lying in a crib, pudgy face and bright eyes making me instinctively smile. Aww...

"Speaking of baby pictures..." Her lips spread into a wider smile, though this time, it was of nothing but mischievousness.

"Do you want to see Dash's?"

'Oh. Yes.'

I eagerly nodded, a bigger smile appearing on my face too, as Mrs. Parr turned more pages of the photobook to the gold mine awaiting.

Mrs. Parr showed me the first picture they took of newborn Dash in his crib, similar to Violet's. Then she moved on to photos of him playing with his toys, and he taking his first steps...though it seemed more like he was running! Next where of his kindergarten and elementary school age days.

He was so cute.

"Here's Dash with his trophy from his first track meet."

The 10 year old Dash Parr clothed in a plain shirt and shorts was on the shoulders of his dad, holding a trophy with a large '#2' engraved on it proudly. He was showing off a smug little grin too, one that made me giggle. Even back then, I guess he had a lot of self-confidence.

"...Oh! Here's Dash trying to get our then-neighbors cat out of our tree. We just had to take a picture of this since-"

Mrs. Parr stopped, and I jumped, at seeing the photobook suddenly disappear from the table. We didn't have to search for it though.

The very male whose pictures we were looking at stood some feet away from us, holding the photobook into his chest, tightly closed. And, I put a hand up to my face to stifle my laughter.

I've never seen Dash's face THAT red before. I hoped he wasn't going to have a stroke.

...But it was a little weird, how he just grabbed the book in the blink of an eye. Then again, I wasn't paying much attention. He probably just ran over and swiped it.

"Is something wrong, Dash?" Mrs. Parr asked, an eyebrow quirked. My snickers increased in volume.

"Mom...y-you can't just. SHOW her my pictures..." His voice was low, but the sheer amount of embarrassment it contained made it too loud to miss. I decided to cut in.

"Why not?" I asked, and his gaze shot to me.

"You were really cute back then." I pouted. "I wanna see more."

Dash didn't verbally respond. Instead, he gave me a look of utter bewilderment, like he couldn't fathom what I just said. Frankly, somewhere inside, I was shocked at myself for admitting that. I know normally, I never would've. Especially in front of his mom. What's gotten into me?

Dash shook his head, and then, chose to run back upstairs, skin blazing.

Silence fell over Mrs. Parr and I, though by peeking at her, I saw she looked very amused.

"Don't mind him Y/N." She chuckled, sliding out her chair so she could stand up. She then walked around the table and headed for the stairs, probably going to get the photobook back.

Seeing as I had nothing else to do, I just sat down on the couch, wondering if I've done something I shouldn't have...

~

2nd POV

Helen stopped in front of the doorway of her eldest son's room, seeing he was sitting on his bed, with the photobook off to the side of him. He had his head in his hands, covering his face.

She knocked against the open door.

"I'm guessing you didn't like me showing her your baby pictures?"

He didn't answer, right away. The blond stayed still, before dropping his hands, revealing his still red face and discontented expression.

"No...well, I didn't, but...it's not