Indigo (NaNoWriMo13)

Chapter 7 - Reunion of Light and Feather - Part II

"I didn't realise the Elites was just a cover for a bunch of stalkers."

Raph laughed at that. "Definitely seems like it," he said. 

Athira was about to go back to her milkshake when she noticed a group of girls whispering and giggling to each other, slowly but obviously making their way to where Raph and Athira sat. Raph noticed them too. He reached up and touched the document, banishing it back to his bracelet.

Athira tensed as the girls got closer, eyeing Raph and herself with some kind of hungry look in their eyes. 

Raph gave her a wink. "And now for one of the most... confusing yet important parts of being a hero," he whispered.

The blonde girl at the head of the group dropped into the chair in front of Raph, her eyes wide with excitement. "Are... are you Raph? Indigo's leader?" she asked, her voice barely more than a squeak. 

"I am," he said. "May I know the names of those who already know mine?" 

Athira swore two of the girls almost fell over in shock. 

The redhead bounced on her seat. "I'm Reese, the blonde behind me is Hayley, the one with the blue hair is Kiera, the brunette is Rachel and the one right at the back is Erin!"

"Well then, it's nice to meet you, Reese, Hayley, Kiera, Rachel and Erin," Raph said smoothly. 

"Can you do the colour thing?" asked the brunette, miming with her hand. "The whip thing?"

"Where's Zoe?” The blue-haired girl bounced. “And Talia! I'm a blue too!"

"Who's your friend? Is she a purple, like me?"

"Woah woah woah, one at a time," said Raph. "I can't really do the colour thing now, being at a cafe and all, Zoe's at HQ, Talia's on patrol and my friend here is Athira, and yes she's a purple colour just like you."

Athira held her tongue at the comment. They'd decided that was the easiest lie, and people seemed willing enough to believe it. Funny how simply wearing a colour makes people assume so much.

Five minutes and dozens of photos later, the girls left back down the aisle practically floating off the floor, clinging to each other and whispering excitedly. 

Raph shook his head. "Give it two minutes and those photos will be up on just about every networking site."

"You seemed to have the process worked out," said Athira, raising her eyebrow. 

Raph smirked. "Just be glad Shift isn't here or we'd have a small scale riot on our hands," he said. "They go crazy over him and just about anyone he's caught with. The day that we discovered 'Raphift' or my favourite, 'Shiftael' was a thing, it took me and him a good few days to figure out how to talk to each other after seeing the first... ah, fanart of us... um... together."

Athira snorted at the various unwanted images running through her head. "Why take public transport then? Like the monorail?" she asked in an attempt to change the subject. "Most of the heroes I followed as the Owl took private hover vehicles or something similar."

Raph shrugged. "They're expensive to run and if you ask me, it pays off mingling with the citizens you're protecting. We're not above them, and the goodwill we get from them pays for itself even if it means I have to pose for a few hundred photos. You should see the posts about me on the internet."

She gave him a second to amend his statement before she did it for him. "And you like the attention."

"I'm trying to sound righteous here, do you mind?" he said, poking her in the side.
She narrowed her eyes at him and covered her weak point, causing him to laugh out loud. “What!”