I Fell For My Nemesis

Whether he was Keith or not, Delta had hugged Jocelyn to cheer her up earlier. The least she could do was return the favor. 

She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "Goofballs are my favorite kind of people." 

His eyebrows nearly shot off his face. "No way! Really?!"

"Everyone needs warmth and laughter in their lives. Even someone as dull as me. In fact, I think people like me need it more than most. It helps keep me from drowning in everything else that goes on both as a hero and a civilian." 

Delta thought this over. "So that friend you mentioned before. The one that thinks you're funny. Are they like that?"

A soft smile appeared on Jocelyn's face. "Yeah. They are. So don't think badly of yourself for that, okay? You never know. You might be the light of someone's life by being your real self."

He looked at her as though he had never seen her before. With entirely new eyes. It seemed she had surprised him again. He did say she had been doing that a lot recently. 

"You…I don't know what to say." 

"You don't have to say anything. We have been sitting here for a while though. People probably need us. Shall we?" Jocelyn asked. 

Delta smiled warmly at her. "Yeah. Thanks, Frosty. I mean…thanks, Frostine."

"You can keep calling me Frosty if you want." 

"I thought you hated it."

"I don't mind so much anymore. Friends call each other nicknames, don't they?"

Delta's smile grew even wider. "Yeah. They do."

=== 

Keith had so much information to process he didn't even know where to begin with it by the time he made it home. He had work in the morning and knew he needed his rest but couldn't sleep so he lay in the dark stewing in his thoughts after he finally bid Frostine goodnight. 

He had asked for relationship advice and gotten so much more than he bargained for in a lot of ways. Finding out that Mercury had married a villain (even if she did end up being more of an antihero) was quite possibly the most shocking thing he had ever heard. And that was really saying something considering the life he had lived!

As if that wasn't crazy enough, Frostine knew him. Or at least knew someone who knew him and had managed to put the pieces together. 

She had to be some sort of genius. He didn't think he would have been able to figure something like that out based on such limited information. It was a good thing she didn't have a grudge against Mercury or the guy would be in serious trouble. 

That was crazy enough but then Frostine started crying out of nowhere when he was talking about Joss. She claimed to have allergies but he had never seen her get watery eyes before. 

Then later, when he gave her a sort of compliment, she blushed. He couldn't help but ask why she was acting so weird and her response surprised him even further. She said she was losing her mind. About what, exactly? That was about as vague a statement as could be!

Keith was legitimately worried about her, especially when she said she couldn't talk about it with him. Or anyone else because she didn't HAVE anyone else. 

The mighty ice statue Frostine admitted that she had never had anybody and always been on her own. That fit with what Red Dynamo said about being a loner in the early years of her hero career…but if she never had anyone in her secret identity either that was really sad. 

She might be more like him than he thought. He had wondered before because they both always seemed to be patrolling the city instead of having lives of their own but this essentially confirmed it. 

He felt sorry for her. He knew what that was like. And she had been crying, which was incredibly distressing to see because she was normally so emotionless. 

So he offered to give her a hug. She was kind of awkward about it, like she had never done it before, but ended up hugging him tightly after a minute. She must have really needed it. He did his best to reassure her but wasn't sure how effective he was. 

Frostine did laugh though. That had to count for something…but was possibly the saddest laugh he ever heard. It sounded like she was crying again but he was afraid to ask if she was. 

Keith kept hugging her until she nearly gave him a heart attack by asking if he liked her. No. No way. She couldn't possibly have been crying earlier because she was upset he liked someone else, could he? Red Dynamo did think she liked him but didn't specify in what way!

She couldn't though! Why would she? They hardly knew each other despite working together for four years. 

He felt like an idiot when she clarified as a friend and looked at him in confusion. A relieved idiot though. She seemed to be telling the truth, especially when she mentioned she had someone she couldn't afford to lose even though she had never thought about whether or not she liked them. 

They had been in the same boat until that colleague of Joss's had to go and ruin everything. He had been overthinking for days and ultimately came to the conclusion that he did like her. Which sucked because he didn't want to ruin the one good relationship he had. 

When Frostine asked him why his relationship with Joss couldn't ever go anywhere he got a lot more vulnerable than he meant to. There was something about the way she was looking at him that drew the words out.

"I'm not very good at the whole 'making people like me long term' thing. The closer I am to someone the more likely I am to screw it up." 

"You're more likable than you think. I've kept working with you this long, haven't I?" Frostine pointed out.

"Yeah, but you also don't know the real me. I'm a lot more annoying outside of the suit. Actually, I've tried to pattern my hero persona after Mercury's. Everybody likes him. Why am I even telling you this? You have a real knack for getting people to talk, you know that?"

"So I've been told. You said you're less serious outside of the suit. I don't think that makes you annoying at all. You don't need to act like Mercury to be likable. You're plenty likable on your own."

That wasn't true at all. He had to be what people wanted him to be in order to be liked. He was a chameleon. There was only one person he hadn't had to do that with and he was terrified of losing her. Too terrified to act on his newfound feelings.

Keith disagreed. "You don't get it. I'm a total goofball. Nobody takes a class clown seriously."

Frostine nearly gave him his second heart attack of the night by clapping a hand on his shoulder and looking him dead in the eye. "Goofballs are my favorite kind of people." 

She had to be kidding. Her expression was deadly serious but there was no way this overly serious woman's favorite type of person could be so different from her. He couldn't quite manage to rein in his shock. 

"No way! Really?!"

"Everyone needs warmth and laughter in their lives. Even someone as dull as me. In fact, I think people like me need it more than most. It helps keep me from drowning in everything else that goes on both as hero and civilian."

That…made sense. Why did that make sense? He didn't think she was nearly as dull as she claimed though. Not anymore with all of the surprises she had been tossing at him lately. 

Something occurred to him. Her friend. The one she brought up the first time she ever got flustered. The one who laughed at things she said or did. Were they like that? Was that why she liked them? 

"So that friend you mentioned before. The one that thinks you're funny. Are they like that?"

The softest expression he had ever seen from Frostine crossed her face. "Yeah. They are. So don't think badly of yourself for that, okay? You never know. You might be the light of someone's life by being your real self."

The light of someone's life? How could he ever be the light of someone's life when his own life had been so dark? Was she saying that because her friend was the light of hers? 

Keith couldn't think of something to say to that. His mind had gone completely blank. "You…I don't know what to say." 

"You don't have to say anything. We have been sitting here for a while though. People probably need us. Shall we?" Frostine asked simply. 

She had said what was possibly the nicest thing anyone ever had to him so he could be generous. He corrected himself when he called her Frosty because he knew she hated it but she said he didn't need to do that because they were friends. 

Maybe he didn't have only one positive relationship in his life after all. All this time he hadn't realized he had another one.. He had two friends and pretty soon he would be leaving one of them behind so he could move on with his life. How was he supposed to feel about that?