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"So?"
Rev Runner stared at the green coyote across from him, waiting for him to ask a question.
He pressed his fingers against the paper still stuck to his forehead. "Hmmmmm." He thought for a moment.
What kind of question should he start with in a game like this to get to the answer?
Unfortunately, this curiosity didn't survive Rev's intense, boiling impatience—and he attacked Tech with a mountain of questions.
"Am I a bird? A train? Oh oh oh, am I you? Am I a city? Am I alive?"
"Rev.."
"Am I a member of the Loonatics? Am I a member of my family? Am I one of the criminals we've arrested? Or one of the criminals we haven't arrested yet? Or one of the criminals we haven't even discovered yet?"
"What??"
"Oh wait—if we haven't discovered them, they don't count, so ignore my question."
Tech slowly rubbed his head. "Rev..."
"UFO? Monster? The Earth's mantle? The planet Neptune? A mosquito? A car? A—" All his words were cut off when Tech grabbed the tip of his beak.
"Maybe we should find another way to keep ourselves busy!"
The power was out across all of Acmetropolis, and Tech had no time to spend on his inventions and gadgets.
The Loonatics couldn't contact anyone either—and this sudden blackout, unfortunately or fortunately, had nothing to do with the emergence of some new mastermind criminal. It was just a problem with their metropolis's power company.
The rest of the team was either resting or talking to each other—but Rev had made a round, talked to everyone, entertained himself, spent time—but it still wasn't enough. And finally, Tech concluded he had to get this bird to sit down.
But how could he do that?
Talking made it worse.
Suggesting an activity would cause minor financial and psychological damage.
Even now, a simple game couldn't hold him back?
What exactly was he supposed to do?
Suddenly something came to mind...
"Truth or Dare?" He lifted his head and looked straight into the bird's green eyes. The orange lamp glowing between them reflected in the bird's eyes like a flame—and Tech swore deep down he felt a heavy, uncomfortable warmth too. The bird was looking at him in surprise.
"Huh? You wanna do something else?"
"Please!! I'll start with myself!"
"Okay, truth or dare!"
Tech said without hesitation. "Truth!"
" coward!"
"Shut up!"
"So what do you think of me?"
"Next question!"
"That's not how it works!!"
"Fine—you're a tolerable bird!"
"And???"
"And that's it. Go be happy I haven't eaten you!"
"I wouldn't have minded being eaten!!"
Tech, seeing Rev raise an eyebrow at him, quickly rubbed his face and let out a tired sigh. But he was mostly covering his reddened cheeks.
"Truth or dare??"
He was already worried this would give him another headache—worried Rev would treat "dare" in the dark as some big challenge to test his speed in other situations.
But to his surprise, Rev was finally quiet—and thinking.
Tech's eyes lit up. The city's coyote had finally found a way to calm this bird down.
"DARE!!"
Oh no... It was obvious he was going to use this game as another excuse for noise—and Tech wasn't ready to face a quick defeat right after his success. So without delay, he put his brain to work.
Think...
What kind of dare can you possibly give this hyperactive bird??
"I dare you to... tell me what you think about..."
"Wait!"
"What's wrong?"
"Doesn't this count as a truth?"
"No—it's obvious from my sentence that I'm saying I dare you! Use your brain a little."
"I used my brain, and you're just wrong, sir!"
The coyote grumbled. "Are you sure you want to say this?"
"Why?"
Tech's smirk stretched. "Because I might actually give you a dare you'll regret."
"How could a dare make me regret it? You're talking nonsense!"
Tech looked at him for a moment, sighed. "Okay."
Rev got excited. "Oh boy, this is even better! I'm all ears, man! Tell me whatever you want—I can go prank someone and come back, doesn't matter how far it is. I can even go to three cities and bring back whatever you want. I can go so fast I cause something in town that you'll only hear about when the power comes back. Hell, I can even go right now—"
"I dare you to kiss me!"
...
A very small silence fell at first—and then that silence slowly turned into a monster that was swallowing Rev from shock and slowly making Tech regret saying it.
"Oh..."
Oh.
That was the only thing that came out of the bird's mouth.
But what did it mean?
Was he disgusted by what he heard, or did he feel uncomfortable?
What if his question affected his relationship with Rev?
"Um... well, I—"
Tech let out a nervous laugh. It was the first time he wasn't calm.
Worse—he was flustered!
"Do you really mean it?" Rev asked him.
Ignoring Rev's energized eyes, Tech quickly reached behind his neck while rubbing his knee with his other hand—so the panic and regret that had attacked him wouldn't suddenly show in his body language.
"Well... no, I mean—I was just saying it—I... didn't mean to force you, but I just wanted to surprise you because it was obvious you were thinking way ahead of me and..."
The train of his words was cut off by a firm kiss landing on his face—happy Rev.
Tech, shocked by the move, stopped fidgeting with his knee and neck and froze like a statue.
Feeling the bird's soft hands wrapping around his waist, he felt a small—and maybe pleasant—shiver from inside.
He slowly closed his eyes.
Was this the right thing to do?
Of course, Tech had constantly imagined the fantasy of a first kiss with Rev in his mind.
Always... God!!
From his unstoppable talking to the times he was always beside him and never left him.
Especially when he talked.
He talked so fast that Tech imagined shutting him up with a firm, rough kiss—with the flavor of the hunter inside him—to tame him.
But it seemed this had happened to him instead. Tech was the one whose train of speech was cut off by a kiss.
Their first kiss.
But damn it—who cared about that right now?
Those weeks, months, years—until he'd stopped counting—he'd always had fantasies about Rev, and alongside those pleasant, delightful fantasies, there was a bitter, terrifying fear of unrequited feelings.
These two opposing feelings were constantly at war inside the coyote.
Tech was a pragmatic creature—and at the same time, he kept talking, thinking, and everything confined to his inside to the bare minimum, so it wouldn't leak out.
Tech was the one who'd suppressed his feelings and done nothing—because it was hard for him to ruin everything with that. And Tech was the only one on the team who fixed everything—but that meant advanced devices and gadgets, not fixing a relationship with someone he loved.
Rev always flirted with Tech, and Tech never thought those were really serious.
If Rev—the bird who's always talking and expressing his feelings while doing ten things at once—was the one who'd taken the first step to kiss him...
It could only mean one thing.
A meaning that was sweet..
So sweet that it had erased the bitterness of that fear.
Or in other words—something died inside Tech tonight, and something new was born.
A relationship!