Movie Date

Johnny waits outside Halcyonplex, fumbling with his wallet as he paces. He looks anxiously at the entrance to the parking lot. Within a couple minutes, Amber makes her way towards the parking lot, making sure not to get in the way of any cars. She walks over to the entrance and smiles when she sees Johnny waiting for her.

“Hey.” She says to him.

“Hey!” Johnny perks up at the sight of Amber. He leans in for a hug as Amber smiles and she hugs him back.

“I’m glad you could come to the cinema with me. We haven’t spent that much time together since….you know.” Amber says to him.

“Yeah it’s been a rough one… But I’m happy to just get some alone time with you. I’ve missed you, you know.”

“Of course. Me too.” Amber took out the two tickets from her pocket. “I guess we should go inside. I’ve been really wanting to watch this movie.” Amber seemed excited.

“Yeah lets go!” Johnny nods along, as he rushes in, pulling Amber in with him. He seemed eager to get out of the chilly air.

“Woah!” Amber willingly allowed herself to be dragged along by him. “You’re excited all of a sudden!” She laughed.

“Yeah I’m really glad to spend time with you. Away from the superheroics, away from the danger.” He mutters the last part barely audibly. “Where you don’t have to show how much better you are then me…”

Amber smiled a little. “Yeah. Let’s just hope no random villain tries to blow up the cinema or anything like that.” She giggled. It seemed like she didn’t hear what Johnny had muttered.

Johnny nods and grabs the tickets as they enter the cinema. After getting food and drinks, he grabs two seats and motions for Amber to join him. Amber sits down next to him. “I’m surprised this cinema isn’t packed for this movie. A lot of fans were looking forward to it. Maybe they’ve already seen it though.”

“Yeah I can’t imagine too many normies are interested in Demon Dan & the Zombisaurs 3.” Johnny suggested. Amber seemed a little shocked by that. “How can anyone not be?! It’s the third sequel in the Demon Dan series! Demon Dan is a very popular superhero franchise!”

"And yet we're one of only, like, 5 couples here." Johnny stated, as Amber looked around. “Oh.”

Johnny just laughs as he turns toward the screen as the movie starts, his hands absently fidgeting in his lap. Amber turns to glance at Johnny, noticing his fidgeting. “Hey. Um....can I ask you something?”

"Hm?" He responds without turning away.

Amber seemed a bit nervous but tried her best to remain calm. “I was just wondering......” She turns to face him. “When you’re Spectre, you identify as female. But when you’re Johnny, you say that you’re male. Why do you identify as a girl if you’re a boy outside of superheroics?”

Johnny pauses at that. "That's... a bit of an odd question. What do you mean why? It's a secret identity right? What better way to keep things secret than to not be the gender I present as?” Johnny looks at her. “"Does... does it bother you?"

“No! Of course not! I didn’t mean it like that!” Amber looked really worried by what Johnny said. “I know it’s a secret identity and all but.....identifying as another gender just to stop people from realising who you are? No one else does that. Out of all the superheroes I’ve seen and the other members of the team, they don’t pretend to be another gender.” Amber sighed. “I’m sorry. I just sound horrible don’t I?”

"Yeah! Exactly!" He gesticulates excitedly. “Nobody else thought to do it! That's why it's such a good way to stay secret about being a superhero!" He says this last part loudly enough to get a few annoyed shushes from other movie goers and sinks slightly downwards in shame.

Amber still looked very confused by this statement. “Johnny... I’m not trying to be mean. I love you and I’ll love you no matter what, but... People don’t just pretend to be another gender. People tend to identify as another gender if they don’t feel comfortable with being the gender they were born as. Johnny, are you sure everything is alright?”

"I don't know what to tell you Amber." He shrugs. "Spectre's the cool me who gets to do the fun superhero stuff. But at the end of the day I'm just boring old Johnny..."

“You really don’t know the reason why you pretend to be a girl?” Amber asked him, looking a bit confused. “And you’re not boring! You’ve never been boring.”

"Well I know WHY I do it. Like I said it's to keep my superhero life away from my regular old boring one. And thanks Amber, maybe I'm not boring, but in comparison to what the Big Team does, my life is anything but interesting. I mean I went missing for several weeks and my parents barely even noticed, you know?"

“Then clearly they’re not good parents. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh but if your child went missing for weeks, shouldn’t you be concerned about them?!” Amber immediately stopped after she said that. “Sorry... I just...” Amber paused for a moment. “How are...your parents?”

Johnny laughs. "I mean at least I have parents, right?...Sorry, I uh... I know it's not.. great." He stares unblinking at the screen for a few minutes. "My folks are fine you know, they care for me. Mom thinks I need to stop doing this hero stuff, she says I'll grow out of it. Dad doesn't know, and he'd probably flip if he found out. He always goes on about how great Cyclone was back in the day, and yet anytime I try to bring up how great he is now he just kinda.. shuts me down?"

He shrugs. “But hey, it's better than being alone I'd think. Well not alone, but you know..." He looks down. “Sorry…”

“I’m not offended, don’t worry. I mean, my mother could be out there somewhere...” She looks at Johnny. “I just feel like they should be better, you know? I mean I don’t want to be horrible but they don’t really consider you much do they?”

"They live their lives and I live mine. For all the talk about how I shouldn't be a hero, they've never actually stopped me from doing it so it's not like their opinions matter, y'know?" Johnny looks at Amber. "Amber... you're great... and I love you.. and I want to help you find your mom. I mean it's the least I could do right?"

“Yeah..” She blushed a little. “I would like that very much.” Amber looked towards the screen. She felt concerned about Johnny. After what happened with GREY, his concern with being ordinary and being more like Hollow, his parents and his identity. Amber just couldn’t help but feel worried for him.

As they watched the movie together in silence Johnny slowly leaned over and nuzzled his head on her shoulder. "I really do love you you know."

Amber smiled a bit. “I love you too.” She looked at him, with worry in her eyes. “But I just can’t help but be worried about you. Are you sure everything is okay?”

"Everything is fine. I promise." He flashes a smile before kissing her. "I promise." He repeats. "I promise" He trails off, as if he's trying to convince himself now. "I... Promise..."