There was a moment of silence as I slowly turned to find her standing with an expression of shock on her face.

"Um, hi," I managed. "This is unexpected."

"Is it?" She cocked an eyebrow. "I know I'm late, but I told you I'd be over soon."

Oh god. I completely forgot that I had texted Grace at the bottom of my pit of despair, hoping she'd be able to distract me from my agony.

I glanced back at Ewan to judge how he was feeling. He was obviously trying his best to look innocent but was failing on account of our rather compromising position, and also just how pleased with himself he looked.

There was no other path I could see here besides honesty.

"Okay. Well. Obviously, I forgot about that and got a little ... distracted ... by Ewan." I saw the beginnings of a smirk start to creep across her face and felt heartened. "And before you give me a hard time, this literally just happened and you are the first person to know about it."

In another instant, there was an explosion of sound and movement, and Grace was suddenly hugging us both tightly to her. I was reminded of that day at the museum as I got squished into Ewan's hard chest.

"Yes!" Grace squealed. "You guys, this is the best possible thing I could have walked in on." She drew back and took a long look at Ewan, before saying the last thing I expected from her. "You're Kenna's masked man, aren't you? Enigma? I still haven't recovered from walking through a door, you know."

Ewan looked amused, and didn't bother to deny it. "No refunds on Super rescues, ma'am."

Beside him, I was reeling. "How on Earth did you figure that out? I've barely figured it out."

She took one look at my incredulous face staring at her and snorted with laughter.

"Oh honey, because I'm not in the throes of it." She gave me a sympathetic pat, and then turned her attention to Ewan. "I started getting suspicious of you after both museum episodes. You managed to disappear and reappear conveniently, plus how better to guard a collection than to have a Super curator? But especially, after I thought about it a little, I realised that Enigma looked at Kenna exactly the way you do, Ewan, when you think nobody's watching."

My heart leapt and I felt my face flush a little as that sunk in. When I chanced a glance at Ewan, he looked flustered.

"It was that obvious, huh?"

"Well," she said with a mixture of sympathy and satisfaction, "it would be to me since I'm Kenna's self-appointed fairy godmother and matchmaker."

"Do you see what I've had to deal with?" I grumbled to him, though I was secretly so pleased with the confession she'd forced out of him. "She meets her soulmate, or whatever, and thinks she's got a talent for it or something."

Luckily, Grace was in tune with my sarcasm. "Love you too, sweet cheeks!" she exclaimed brightly, snuggling up to me. Then she gave us both a suspicious look. "Were you two planning on hiding from us all?"

I imagine that guilt probably flashed across our faces in unison.

"Well..."

"Uh, the thing is-"

"It's mostly because of Seb, and we're not sure how to break it to him," I finally managed. "There's a lot of moving parts at the moment."

"What do you mean by 'moving parts'?" Her tone was more curious than interrogating.

Ewan and I glanced at each other, and made a silent decision.

"In the interest of full disclosure, there's a few more things you should know," I began.

*

Sometime later, we'd found our way to sitting on the couches, and Grace stared at us in shock.

Unlike Lexa, she then burst out laughing.

"Wow, this could not be more poetic. You couldn't have written it better yourself, Ms Jacobs."

"Well this went better than expected," I said dryly.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, this Morgan sounds like a psycho and it's a little alarming how he's inching closer and closer to Sapphire City domination and all, but you have to admit there's a certain vein of kismet running through here, no?" She leaned back against the couch cushions, eyeing me with a half smile.

"Kismet has a warped sense of humour," I grumbled.

"Makes sense that she'd seek you out, then," Grace teased.

"Excellent point," Ewan piped up.

"Whose side are you on here?" I stared at him in exaggerated outrage.

"The side of whoever forced me to admit that I like your weird sense of humour," he said placatingly.

"What cynic said romance was dead?" I mocked affectionately.

"Most recently? Lexa, I think," he scrunched up his face, pretending to think about it.

"As I said, cynics," I shrugged.

"Yay!" Grace broke in, probably enjoying herself even more than we were. "So do I get to do anything fun now that I know all these Super secrets, or what?"

"No!" I admonished, suddenly feeling alarmed at the thought. "You, missy, will stay away from all things Villainous for your own good."

"Poop," she pouted for the first time since we'd unloading a ridiculous amount of truth onto her, "that sounds very boring now. How am I supposed to go back?"

"I promise we'll keep you updated, and you can give me advice about how to handle Gareth diplomatically, since you're the best agent I know. But you and your precious bundle will not be risking yourselves in any way, got it?" I looked pointedly at her barely rounding stomach.

She sighed. "Fine, you're right. I'll take the consolation prize."

"I feel like I'm missing something but also like I probably should mind my business," Ewan tilted his head at us like a puppy.

The charm worked. Grace glanced at me before confessing to Ewan with a big smile, "she's reminding me that it's not just about me anymore, because I'm pregnant!"

She got him with that one. Shock rippled over his handsome face before it split into a wide grin.

"Wow. That's really exciting for you guys, congrats, Grace! Can I interest you in another of your insane vice-like hugs?" He opened his arms and beckoned to her.

I laughed at his expression as she happily squeezed him around his middle.

"Oh please, don't pretend like this hurts you, Man of Steel," she scoffed.

"You're deceptively strong, human," he joked back.

"It's these pregnancy hormones," she turned back and winked at me. Then she moved over to the huge purse she often carried and rummaged around in it before pulling out a DVD that she brandished at me. "I brought reinforcements for our girls night. First episode of our favourite version of Pride and Prejudice, but I don't want to intrude on you two, so we can save it for another night."

"Hey, 2005 called to ask why you still carry DVDs around," Ewan quipped with a lazy grin.

I rolled my eyes at him, but was distracted from retorting when my phone buzzed. These days, I made sure to check it whenever Seb was out, just in case.

The message was perfectly innocuous, but I frowned at it nonetheless.

"Seb's on his way home now." I glanced between Ewan and Grace, the unspoken meaning hanging clearly between us.

"That's probably my cue to head home and let you two watch your stories. Kenna, I think the plan the guys made is to meet up here tomorrow morning and then get brunch out. So I'll see you then, hopefully?" He looked just a little vulnerable again, and I smiled reassuringly.

"See you then." He kissed me briefly, said goodnight to Grace, and then melted away entirely.

"Does he always do that?" Grace asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He's secretly a bit of a showoff." I couldn't quite bite back the grin that crept out.

"Wouldn't have thought it. Hey, are you sure you didn't want me to go and let you have more of a moment?" She picked at the edges of the DVD absently.

I shook my head. "You came all the way over and you brought our favourite, how could I turn you out now? I'll see him tomorrow." And everything will be different, I could have added, but didn't. "Let's get snuggled up and settled in!"

No longer having to worry about my secret, I let my mind do the work for us to pop in the DVD and get it playing, turn on the kettle, and bring us our tea.

"You're telling me that you could have always been this useful to me?" Grace asked, looking distinctly impressed as she cuddled under the blankets with her mug.

"It does come in handy," I laughed, leaning further back into the plush cushions beside her.

And with that we settled in with our eyes glued to the screen, both wanting to say more about what had happened, but too conscious of the front door that could open at any moment.

*

I opened my eyes the next morning to a whole new world.

Well, perhaps that's being melodramatic, but I was acutely aware of the shift that had occurred both within and around me and the sense of a new path being forged ahead of me into the unknown.

A frightening, weighty, beautiful unknown.

A wave of guilt washed over me as I accepted a mug of coffee from a blissfully unaware Seb, but I squashed it down.

Not here, not yet.

It was harder when the Stooges and Lexa came crowding through our front door in a noisy cacophony and I somehow managed to greet them like nothing at all was different, even when Ewan's hand lingered in the centre of my back just a hair longer than necessary for our friendly, one armed hug.

We all convened on the couches to discuss where we were going to eat, which was a decision that I knew would not be made lightly or briefly with this crowd. Perched on the arm of the couch as usual, my Super senses felt the weight of two very different gazes upon me.

I first glanced to my left just in time to spot Tristan before he stared guiltily down at the floor. I looked him over for a moment, finding that only mild annoyance came to me. I'd finally won my hard-fought freedom from the teenage ghosts.

When I let my eyes rove further along, Ewan didn't look away, and instead held my gaze, his face inscrutable. The little thrill that coursed through me didn't surprise me.

What did, was my next move.

Unfolding myself languidly from the couch arm, I stood and stretched, feigning unconcern.

"Well, I have a feeling that this is going to take awhile, so I'm going to go finish getting ready in my room and let you all sort this out." I rested my gaze on Ewan just a single extra beat, before turning to disappear down the hallway.

It took him several minutes to appear quietly beside me as I sat at my vanity.

"This is hard," he admitted, letting a finger trail so lightly down my arm that I might not have felt it. "You okay?"

I looked up at the tone of his voice. His face was shaded just slightly with concern, though he was trying to hide it.

Rising from my chair, I wrapped my arms around his neck. "It feels a little weird." Uncertainty flashed in his eyes, and I tightened my grip. "But I'm better than okay."

His palms found their way to rest against my lower back. "I had this horrible thought before we got here that you might have woken up and changed your mind. That it'd all been too good to be true."

My heart swelled painfully and my hands moved to tangle into his hair. I pressed him back against the wall until my face hovered only an inch from his. "That was very foolish, you know," I whispered affectionately.

He made a growling sound low in his throat and crushed any remaining distance between us before I could even blink.

"It was way too hard to resist this as soon as I saw you," I confessed a little later, grinning goofily as he gazed hazily down at me.

"You're telling me. I'm considering how cringey it would be to shout about this from the rooftops." He gave me a sly look.

"The most cringey," I grimaced, and he chuckled.

"Probably worth it though. But in the interest of actually keeping our secret, I guess we'd better get back to the others or they might start wondering what we're both doing.

I laughed, smacking his chest lightly at the wicked grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You're right. I'll go check if the coast is clear. It might be kind of suspicious if you just pop up suddenly."

Opening the door cautiously, I found the hallway empty. I turned to motion to Ewan, but froze when I heard my name.

"Hey, the discussion's finally wrapping up out there. You almost ready?" Lexa had appeared around the corner and was already halfway to my door. She paused across from the bathroom door, which was only a few feet offset across the hall from my own. "I've been waiting to get in there," she nodded her head towards the closed door, "but Ewan's been ages. It's weird, though, because it doesn't even look like the light's on in there," she added with a furrowed brow.

I startled her with a loud cough, and felt an answering movement of Ewan's quiet energy. She took the opportunity to look me up and down intently, and I found myself running a self-conscious hand through my hair and smoothing my shirt.

The bathroom door opening distracted her before she could make any comment.

"Oh hey, Lex," Ewan said casually, leaning against the doorframe. "Were you waiting? Sorry. Have they made a decision out there yet?"

I thanked my lucky stars for the powers of camouflage and walking through stuff, but Lexa seemed to instinctively smell a rat. Maybe they weren't so lucky.

"Were you just in the dark?" she asked, ignoring his own questions.

"Well, there is a window and it is the middle of the morning," he retorted, pushing himself off of the frame.

Her eyes flicked to his mussed up hair, and then between the two of us. "Were you always that disheveled, Ewan?"

"You can't just ask people that, Lexa," I protested sharply.

Ewan somehow kept his cool under her suspicious glare. "I prefer 'artfully disheveled,' actually." He sidestepped her, then started off back towards the living room before throwing over his shoulder mischievously, "but be careful in there."

Lexa whipped that suspicious look back on me, but I just shrugged.

"Don't you have to pee?" I asked innocently, before ducking back into my room and out of the spotlight.

Inside, I pinched the bridge of my nose, thinking hard. Neither of us had actually lied to her, but it looked like we'd be having another awkward conversation sooner rather than later.

At the brunch place, Lexa was already making it clear that it would be very soon.

We were sat in a curved booth with Seb and Ewan on each end, me next to Seb, Tristan next to Ewan, and Grant and Lexa on the very inside. I could once again feel two very different types of scrutiny on me as I looked over my menu.

Each of them burned separately: Lexa's with suspicion, and Ewan's with something else entirely.

Sometime after we'd ordered, I couldn't resist the lure of meeting Ewan's eyes. He stared back at me hungrily, and the thrill ran through me again.

It was a mistake, though.

"Ewan, what's wrong with you? Why are you staring like that?" Lexa asked loudly from her spot.

Goddamn, she was evil.

I resisted the urge to glare savagely at her, which I knew would only give her satisfaction. Instead I deflected, knowing exactly what would happen next.

"He's probably wondering if he could beat Grant's mile time."

"Okay, I've worked hard for that time, and I'd like to see any of you try to beat it," Grant protested in a wounded voice.

The discussion snowballed from there and I couldn't help but find Ewan's gaze again, this time giving him a smug smirk. He took the high road, keeping his face impassive except for the merriment dancing in his eyes.

At the end of the meal, I excused myself to the bathroom and wasn't surprised when Lexa said she'd join me.

We'd only been in the otherwise empty room a moment, me stewing in an odd mixture of annoyed anger and guilt, when she suddenly groaned.

"Okay, I'm sorry, that was lame of me earlier. I don't know why I tried to force it out of you there."

I spun to face her, crossing my arms. "I was going to tell you anyhow, but now I think I might let you languish."

She put up her hands in surrender. "All I can say is I think you might just forgive me when you see what I've made for you, Tempest."

I had to admit that she was probably right.

Welcome back, all you rainbow infused space unicorns. I'm so glad to have you here!!

So far they've been pretty terrible at keeping this secret, haven't they? Lexa's already all:

How long do you figure they'll hold out from Seb? Will he get suspicious too?

Kenna...the Super?

Ahh!

Comments, votes, adding Enigmatic to your library are all so very appreciated, and I'd be happy to chat if you drop me a line!