Breaking the Barrier (Saitama x Tatsumaki)

Does it even count as a date?

J e s u s C h r i s t.

Big first thing: I practically just was saved by someone who read this story and instead of losing almost all of this chapter, I only lost like 50 words and by god I want to thank AS04 and CaptainJack04 (May be the same person due to the message content but I don't know) because their suggestion and help was so vital and crucial and helped me recover from the emotional pain from almost giving up on retaining the chapter.

I apologize for making such a big deal out of it because of how quickly it resolved itself, but I do hope you enjoy this!

Initial Release Date: June 3, 2020

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"Did you just burp, Baldy?" Tats asks, indignant, and I roll my eyes a bit.

"What, the food was good!" I indignantly retort, though playfully. The two of us are smiling goofily, and I don't know why this place feels so natural for us. Maybe it's the food, but Tetsuya really did a good job making this place great.

Anyways, I ask her, "Well, wasn't it?"

"Of course it was, but you don't have to burp louder than a megaphone!" She lectures me. Now that I think about it, our age disparity is a bit weird but not too weird for our age. She's three years older than me but I still feel like we're on equal footing, unless you were talking about height. She really doesn't like people bringing that up in public.

I laugh a bit more before standing up, "I'm gonna go toss this stuff in the trash. Wanna go somewhere else after this or just head to City Z to kill off some monsters?" Tats shrugs at this and I just know that she's gonna probably make her decision or say that she doesn't care about it.

Really, I don't know if I changed or if she changed me, but for some reason...

I feel like I found what I wanted. I know that for the past few years that I've just been looking for the best fight I could, something that could make my heart race and adrenaline pump.

But at the same time?

Maybe Tats is what'll do that.

Not the fight part.

But I still want that fight. I still wanna find someone who I can still fight at my strongest.

"Hey!" Huh? "Hey, Baldy!" Ope, she's probably annoyed. Well, can't help it.

"Yeah?"

"You've been standing here for the past forever! What, are you a scarecrow?" She has her hands on her hips again and her eyes are sharp like usual. I smile, and it only makes her more annoyed.

"Oh, I see," she crosses her arms, but fails to hide the small smile tugging at her lips. "Well, whatever you think, you better not say I'm cute or whatever, Egghead."

"Yeah, yeah, sure," I mumble to myself. Did I think of her as cute? I have no idea.

I mean, she may be short but that's not an immediate cute signal. She's more fierce than cute, but still really strong.

"Oh, by the way, Egghead, I wanted to tell you that I'm cool just going to hunt monsters if that's fine with you," Tats explains. I nod in response, honestly not sure what I feel about it.

I remember hearing those really annoying couples in school argue about where they wanted to go out for a date. It was always those couples who would get together because they were popular and then just break up ten minutes later. Those ones.

Personally, I don't really care where I'd go on a date; I'd never even been on one. But I don't really care where I'd be on a date. Isn't it supposed to be to enjoy the people you're on a date with? I thought it was like that, really.