Just For One Day - Marcus Moreno (Discontinued For Now)

6. Nina Luna

Fifteen Years Earlier...

Nina had walked this way hundreds of times, there and back. Cross the path to catch the tram to the Headquarters building, then catch the tram back out to the edge of the HQ campus at the end of the day to catch the bus home.

Her walk to work was one of her favourite parts of her day, charging her up for the day ahead and giving her time with her thoughts before diving into work. And then, at the end of the day, the walk would help her decompress after the day. 

However, this day was different, or rather, something different happened. 

The laces on one of her sneakers  slipped open, so she paused to kneel down and retie it. She would change into a pair of boots once at work, but she liked travelling to and from in the support and comfort of her best running shoes. 

Up ahead, she noticed the tram was approaching its stop - perfect timing.

However, the tram, she realized, was travelling much faster than usual, and it blew right past the stop - headed right her way. 

She dove out of the way as the tram raced past, startled cries from inside and out filling her ears. 

Then, suddenly, the tram screeched to a shaky stop. Turning, she saw the source of the stop:

He was all suited up for duty, wearing his usual fingerless gloves and tactical vest, his katanas strapped across his back. 

Marcus Moreno, Heroic-in-training.

"Get this tram car over to Tech-No, now," he ordered to the agents who had followed him.  "It's programming is way off."

Nina  wasted no time in rushing into the now stopped tram car. "Is everyone okay?"

No one seemed injured, which was good, just shaken. 

"Everyone, please report to the medical wing for tests," Moreno ordered. Then he turned to her.  "Are you all right?"

"Me? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a little startled, that's all. Maybe a bit of a scraped knee, but that's all."

"Oh, I'm sorry, that's my bad. I should have stopped it sooner. My mom's gonna give me heck for that."

"No, no, it's fine, really. You stopped it and saved those people. That's  what matters."

"Thanks." He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up on end.  "Runaway tram car is not how I expected my morning to go."

"Honestly, me neither." They shared a chuckle over this.

"You might want to get your knee checked out too," he suggested. 

"Thanks, but I think it's fine. I have some Band-Aids in my desk if need be."

"Okay. Thanks for the help. You really jumped right into action there-"

"Nina," she prompted. "Nina Luna. I work in records."

"Nice to meet you, Nina. Marcus." They shook hands.

She thought it was adorable and sweet that he introduced himself to her despite it being very  obvious who he was. It showed that he wasn't so full of himself being a hero just to assume that everyone knew who he was. "Nice to meet you too, Marcus."

From that moment on, Marcus Moreno, leader-in-training of the Heroics, and Nina Luna, records keeper, kept running into each other, almost on the daily. In fact, it started to get to the point where if they didn't see each other in their day, even just in passing, they would be disappointed. 

It were as though their meeting had connected them via an invisible string, binding them together so that hey would always come back to each other, find each other again. 

It was the beginning of something wonderful.

--------------------------------------

It had been the total of four days, almost a full work week, where they had gone without running into each other, the longest they had gone without seeing each other in and around work. It was disappointing. 

So on her lunch break she marched down to the training facility where the Heroics most likely were, in hopes of seeing him.

And she did, though perhaps it wasn't great timing on her part - it appeared that his mother was ranting at him and in Spanish. Nina could tell what she was saying.

"You must be confident in order to be a leader! Otherwise your team will sense that you do not have confidence and they will not have confidence in you or themselves!" Anita Moreno poked the deflated looking Marcus in the chest. 

"I know, Mom," he sighed, also replying in their native language.  "But it's hard sometimes. It's hard to be confident all the time."

"Then work on it! Confidence is not just there, it must be built! And no one is asking you to be confident all the time, but you must have confidence first before anyone else has it in you!"

His expression brightened considerably when he saw Nina.  "Nina, hi! Mom has me on a strict training schedule," he explained. "Makes sense."

"And who is this?" Anita was back, seemingly summoned by the fact that her son was speaking with a woman.

Marcus rolled his eyes.  "Mom, this is Nina, she works in records. We met a couple of months ago when that tram sped off course."

"And you failed to catch it sooner!"

 "Yeah, Mom, I know."

Anita turned back to Nina wearing a large smile.  "So nice to meet you, dear."

"You too, Mrs. Moreno." They shook hands.

"Oh, please, call me 'Anita'."

"She likes you," Marcus told her. 

A few days later, Nina was running behind and trying to catch the elevator. "Wait!" She ran down the hall, making for the elevator.

Marcus was on the elevator. He saw her charging towards them - however, the doors had begun to close.

He held out his hand and kept the doors open, but jammed the elevator on its way up.

"Thanks for holding it," she panted, slipping between the crack in the doors.

"No problem - although I think I may have wrecked the elevator... Don't tell my mom."

She laughed.  "I won't if you won't.  My lips are sealed." She made a zipping up her lips gesture for emphasis.

The elevator did jam and an electrical crew had to be brought in to fix the problem - not before Marcus and Nina had exchanged phone numbers and arranged a date.

The beginning of something wonderful indeed...

(Thank you so much for the 1000+ reads! 

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))