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The afternoon California sun, which bathed Mandy’s apartment in its warm golden rays, was definitely set lower on the horizon now than it had been when she first disappeared into her bedroom.
Mandy fidgeted with the seams of her dress for what felt like the hundredth time since Robert had helped her zip it up.
"Alright, how do I look now? Do I look okay?" Mandy asked as she flipped the brunette locks of her hair, staring apprehensively at the figure in the mirror.
SDN’s tailors had, as always, done an excellent job of fitting her in the stunning blue dress that she would be wearing at tonight’s gala. Everything had been painstakingly measured to the exact proportions of her body, which was now a good few inches shorter and less toned than the body she had been used to walking in as Blonde Blazer. There wasn’t a single detail missed on her outfit, and Mandy knew that.
This fact, however, had done nothing to assuage the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that something about her appearance just felt… off.
“Mandy,” she heard Robert call from the next room over, “You’ve been stuck in that room for at least 30 minutes now. I told you you looked fine the first time you asked.”
For all intents and purposes, Mandy shouldn’t have felt nervous about tonight. She had been to countless PR events and public appearances with varying degrees of formality, and handled them with the grace and charm everyone had come to expect from SDN’s poster girl.
Tonight’s gala was relatively small-scale compared to the stuff she was used to dealing with. It was just a special little dinner night and recognition ceremony for all of SDN Torrance’s employees – heroes and support staff alike – who had bravely defended the city from the Red Ring just a few months ago.
But there was one crucial detail that made tonight different from the rest. Mandy would be attending the gala not as the Blonde Blazer which everyone at SDN knew and loved, but as plain old Mandy herself.
Mandy heard the soft patter of Robert’s footsteps on her apartment floor draw closer. “Listen,” Robert sighed, leaning on the frame of the bedroom door. “I know you can’t get enough of hearing me compliment your looks. But we should really get going now if we want to make it on time. Otherwise Courtney’s gonna make some dumb joke about how we showed up late because we couldn’t keep it in our pants and I’d really prefer to not give her any more ammo to work with.”
Mandy tilted her head sideways as she looked herself over in the mirror again, seemingly not hearing a thing he said.
“Unless… that’s exactly what you plan to do, and you keeping yourself holed up in the bedroom was your way of telling me that. Which I’m totally down for as well…” Robert offered.
“I mean, did they really have to give me the exact same style of dress as the one I wore as Blazer?” Mandy adjusted her blue opera gloves, trying in vain to pull them further up her sleeves when they were already as far up as they would go. “I get that they would want everyone to see me as the same person, but people are bound to make comparisons.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Robert’s façade drop as his little quip went ignored.
Chase was still currently relying on her amulet as life support, which meant for the past few months she had been arriving to the office rocking her brunette hair and a smart looking blazer that had previously been collecting dust in her closet.
It had been quite a shock to all the employees to see their branch manager like this, but they had eventually gotten used to it. She’d even received a fair amount of flattering compliments regarding her new look. Everyone around her did a fine job of making her feel like she didn’t stick out, and she was truly grateful to have cultivated the team that she had now.
There really was nothing she should be worrying about. Everyone attending the gala tonight were close friends and coworkers who already knew about her true identity. And it was a closed-door event, meaning no outside press to shove cameras and microphones into her face and spin up the rumor mill. A rational mind would correctly assume there’d be no foul judgment regarding Mandy’s attendance in lieu of Blonde Blazer’s.
But still… That nagging voice in the back of her head pestered. What if everyone was just acting this way to be polite? What if they were just secretly waiting for the day the real Blonde Blazer would come back to lead them, and for Mandy to disappear again?
She played absentmindedly with her pearl earrings. “Sorry,” she replied in an anxious voice. “I know you’re probably tired of hearing that. But something about me just feels… off. Like my dress is missing a piece, or maybe it’s a little too baggy at the waist? I– ”
She briefly looked up from smoothing over the wrinkles of her dress, only to be greeted with intense honey-brown irises gazing directly back into her eyes.
"Mandy," Robert said, holding his deep gaze while moving closer to cup her cheek. "When I see your face... There's not a thing that I would change. 'Cause you're amaz-"
“Enough,” Mandy playfully pushed his stupid freckled face away, turning her back to him. She failed to suppress a giggle as Robert sputtered from being so rudely interrupted mid-sentence. "I get it, Bruno Mars. You don't have to say that every time I ask you about how I look."
Robert let out that short, breathy chuckle that she had come to love so much. “You only have yourself to blame for making me deal with that earworm all week. I swear I hear that song every time I’m in your car.”
He walked forward to put his hands on her bare shoulders and began massaging them. Mandy let herself be distracted by the soothing sensation of his warm, calloused hands rubbing out the tension in her muscles that she didn’t know she had.
“Has anyone ever told you that you have the most basic white girl playlist ever?”
“My playlist is not that basic.”
“Anything with Bruno Mars in it is grade-A certified basic. Prism would have an aneurysm if she found out about it.”
“You’re one to talk. Every time I walk into Royd’s lab you’re blasting AC/DC or Led Zeppelin while you’re working on your suit. I swear you’re making the poor guy go deaf.”
“Hey, it helps me focus. Besides, everyone knows you have to blast hard rock loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear whenever you’re working in the garage. It’s an unspoken rule among gearheads. Just ask my dad.”
Mandy turned to face him, making sure he caught her rolling her eyes at him. Robert smiled with that soft, genuine smile that was reserved only for her. The same twinkling smile that never failed to warm her heart and make her day.
"Either way, I’m not lying when I said there’s nothing I would want to change about you. You really are perfect just the way you are. That’s the truth.”
Robert’s honey-brown eyes caught hers again. “And my beautiful Mandy deserves the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
The way Robert said it with that signature gravel in his voice and the smoldering look in his eyes made it impossible for her not to swoon a little.
"Thanks," Mandy said bashfully, unable to hold his penetrating gaze any longer. She silently cursed him for being far more suave than he had any right to be.
She took the opportunity to take in Robert’s attire. He cleaned up handsomely for the occasion, and had been done and waiting on the living room couch for the past half hour.
Replacing his usual coffee-stained blue SDN work shirt was a clean eggshell-white dress shirt, sporting a tasteful dotted pattern that added just the right amount of texture. Accompanying it was a matching set of navy blue pants and dress jacket tailor-made to his slender frame, as well as a dark blue tie to bring it all together. Mandy had always thought Robert was a fine looking man, but today’s get-up really brought out the sharpness of his figure and accentuated his charm.
The clothing had been graciously gifted to him by Mandy, despite his many objections. She wanted to see her own personal hero look his very best and refused to take no for an answer. And given how his chest seemed to swell up after seeing her reaction to him wearing it for the first time, Mandy was sure that he didn’t mind at that point.
Robert noticed the way Mandy’s eyes were drinking in the sight of him and closed in once more. He took her hand in his own so he could raise it and plant a tender kiss upon her fingers.
“Mandy,” he cooed, “Do you remember when I told you that seeing your smile was in the top five moments of my day?”
“I seem to recall something like that, in between punching a couple of Red Ringers and dodging their gunfire,” she purred back.
“You wanna guess what makes up the rest of the top four?”
“I don’t know, but I’m thinking Beef tops the list?”
“No. Well, he’s, uh, number four," Robert clarified as Beef, hearing his name, barked from the other room. "But anyway…” he cleared his throat.
“The third best thing about my day is hearing you laugh at my stupid jokes, no matter how corny or dumb they may be. Number two is feeling how soft and warm your hands are whenever I hold them,” He continued, rubbing soothing circles into the back of her hand with his thumb.
“And number one is just being with you, Mandy. Existing in the same space together, whether it’s with you as Blonde Blazer or as plain old Mandy. Whether we’re taking our coffee breaks together while hiding away from the Z-team, or lying on the couch yelling at people on Master Chef while we eat takeout food. Doesn’t matter whether you’re in the superhero suit or rocking the blazer – which you totally pull off, by the way – or if you’re in this sexy little dress, or in one of my raggedy old t-shirts that you use as pajamas. I just enjoy spending time with you.”
His hand left hers so he could cup her cheek in the same way as before, turning her head so she could meet his gaze again.
“And when you smile, my whole world stops and stares for a while. ‘Cause you’re amazing… just the way you are.”
In any other universe that would have come out as embarrassingly cheesy. But something about the way Robert had declared it made it exceedingly difficult for Mandy to hold back the tears welling in her eyes.
“You’re out of control,” she managed to squeak out, clearly not upset at all.
“I know. You’re just gonna have to deal with it for the rest of the night.”
By the time she realized how close their faces had gotten, his lips had already found hers.
Mandy had planned to break away after a second, but inexplicably found her hands exploring the nape of his neck while her tongue clashed with his. She moved to grasp locks of his messy auburn hair as if she needed to hold on for dear life, and didn't even mind when she felt his own hands creeping down to rest on the curve of her bottom.
When they were melted together like this, Mandy completely forgot herself. It didn't matter whether her hair color was blonde or brunette. It didn’t matter whether she was taller than him, or him taller than her. It didn't matter if she had her mask on or off. She was just happy to exist in his embrace, satisfied and content to just be her. It didn’t matter one bit how the world perceived them in that moment.
Maybe Robert was lying about not having superpowers all this time, she thought. His ability to melt my troubles away whenever he wanted definitely isn’t normal.
Robert was the one to finally break away. She felt a soft whine escape her lips when they parted from his, and she couldn't tell whether it was because he robbed her of the opportunity to do it herself or because she wanted it to last longer.
Mandy gazed deeply into those warm honey-brown eyes of his and couldn’t contain the smile that broke out across her face. He chuckled gently over the effect he always seemed to have over her.
"Any objections?" he whispered in that sweet baritone voice of his.
She shifted her gaze away momentarily before coming back to meet his eyes. "None," she whispered back, leaning her head against his.
They stayed like this for a moment, perfectly happy to bask in each other's warmth as the setting sun filtered through the opened blinds of her windows and bathed their bodies in a golden glow.
"Also, a little bit of your areola is out. Just a slight hue shift."
"Oh." Mandy felt her cheeks flush.
“Yeah. Must have been from when you were messing with your dress.”