“I am sorry Mirio…” Christina whispered after downing her second cup of champagne.

Mirio shrugged, also downing his second cup “What do you have to apologize for? You provide me with a place to stay, food to eat, and stylish clothes to wear… I can’t ask for a friend better than you…”

“That’s the thing…” Christina replied sadly “I haven’t been treating you as a friend… at least not with as much sincerity as you treat me… I never once asked about your views and thoughts of the world… your opinions never mattered to me since I think of your as someone I can keep around whenever I want…”

“I know…” Mirio replied, gesturing for Christina to remain quiet “All friendships worth keeping have rough patches somewhere between… just think about this as our rough patch and we can move on from it better than before…”

Christina shook her head in disagreement, refilling both their cups “That’s the thing… I don’t want to get through this rough patch… Your presence here makes me question my life… when I was a little girl, I use to see fairies that weren’t there and I believe they were real so much that I got lost in a forest for days while following them…

It made my mom worry so much she fell ill… and my dad died trying to find me… when I was finally found, my mom got better and I realized that fairies were not magical, I was magical to my mother… so I stopped chasing things I couldn’t prove and now, I am a successful surgeon.

You being here… with me… in my home, makes me feel like I am walking in that forest again, chasing those fairies while my father slips and rolls down a hill to his death… I always pay attention to one thing while something tragic is happening around me…

They say you can feel when someone you love dies but when my father died, I felt nothing but happiness, playing beneath a tree with fairy dust… that’s why I want you to leave before I go crazy… I don’t want to believe in more than the world knows ever again…”

Mirio took a sip from his cup as a slow gloom overtook his mind “I am getting paid in the next two weeks, so by then I’ll-”

“Next week…” Christina said sternly and without hesitation “You have one week and I want you gone… I will pay for the hotel or even buy you a new apartment… I treasure you as a friend so I’ll do that much… Jessica can visit you, I know you guys have grown close… it’s just you being here isn’t good for me right now…”

“I understand…” Mirio sighed “I know what it’s like to lose something you believe in so much… I once abandoned someone when they needed a hero the most, I don’t ever want to feel that way again… so I’ll be here when you need me…”

Mirio walked next to Christina and placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her… and it really did make her feel better. After all, Mirio was sincere in almost everything he did.

Christina turned around and looked Mirio in the eyes, thankful that he understood her difficult position and wasn’t disappointed in her cowardice to confront her past.

It was there in that moment… looking into each other’s eyes that Mirio unconsciously drifted forward, gifting Christina a soft, innocent kiss on the lips.

One small kiss turned into two…

Then three…

Then a full-on tongue swapping session…

Mirio hoisted Christina by her hips onto the kitchen counter and she spread her legs wider to allow Mirio closer contact with her body.

Her fingers roamed through his straight blonde hair as his hands caressed her hips like no one else had before.

Everything was as natural as it could be… without intention or planning just flowing like it was always meant to happen.

It was when Mirio moved to deliver soft, sweet kisses on her neck that Christina noticed that something like this shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“Stop…” She muttered between moans, trying to hold Mirio’s hands that were fervently exploring her breasts by stimulating her nipples.

“Stop Mirio…” Christina pleaded once more, though her hands were also reaching for his belt unconsciously, which made her mad at her own shameful display “Mirio… I said STOP!”

With a shout and a strong push, Christina managed to break free from whatever the hell they were doing… or about to do. Probably child molestation on her part since Mirio was still a minor.

Christina hopped off the kitchen counter, running to the sink while spitting whatever liquid she had swapped with Mirio out of her mouth.

After a brief mouth washing, she spun around, walked towards the equally shocked Mirio, and slapped him heavily across the face.

“Do you understand what we have done?” She asked angrily “You’re seventeen and I’m thirty-one… This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen… I know you’re mentally challenged but what would your parents think about this? What would Jessica think? What will you think when you’re not feeling horny?”

Mirio frowned and looked down at his hands that were, moments ago, touching places on Christina’s body that he wouldn’t dare dream of “I’m sorry… it’s just strange… this was the first time I touched a woman that way but I don’t feel flustered or anything like that… I need time to think… I would never disrespect a woman like this…”

“Time to think!” Christine said and then rose her voice in a yell “TIME TO THINK!? Are you saying that I am not sexy enough or I’m too old or something? What is there to think about?”

As serious as the issue was, Mirio had the urge to laugh since moments ago Christina was the one complaining about the age difference and immorality of their current situation.

“You know what…” Christine shouted in exasperation and grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter “Go to your room and we will discuss this some other time… and if you ever think of kissing me, touching me, or even imagine caressing any parts of my body with those amazing hands of yours… I will cut ‘it’ off with this knife…”

“Yes, mam!” Mirio nodded and darted to his room before Christina could change her mind concerning his ‘little brother’.

‘Women are difficult creatures…’ Mirio thought tiredly ‘Are the girls from UA the same? I never thought this way about girls before... could I be a late bloomer?’

With Mirio gone, Christina slumped to the ground like a puppet with her strings cut “What the hell were you thinking?” she asked herself, brushing her fingers against the sweet taste of Mirio that remained on her lips “And you enjoyed it… do you really like younger guys? OMG! You’re going to jail when he reports this!”

The Following Day --------

Breakfast was awkward with Mirio not talking to Christina like he normally would, and Christina equally trying to avoid Mirio as much as possible.

They fumbled around the table… once touching the salt at the same time and jumping out of their seats like electricity was coursing throughout their bodies.

When one person sat at the table, the other would wash the dishes and when the other came back, someone else would find something else to do.

Jessica stared daggers at them both with a sly smile on her face “Did you two fuck or something… are you pregnant Crissy? And here I thought, Mirio would jack me up first…”

Cough

Cough

Both Mirio and Jessica choked at the same time, packing their lunches in a hurry and exiting the door before Jessica’s investigative talents could determine anything else from their cringed-up faces.

It was no secret that Jessica had a very loose tongue but the majority of what she spouts would be nonsense but for the first time ever, she was infinitely close to the truth.

In The Car (On the way to work) -------

Driving down the busy freeway, Mirio was the first to initiate the awkward conversation “I am sorry about last night but this is something we need to talk about…”

“I know…” Christina replied, sighing in frustration before coming to a compromise with her heart and mind “Give me a week to come up with reasons this won’t work and you will come up with reasons it will work… whoever has the longer list, gets to determine what becomes of this situation…”

“I don’t think that’s fair since I don’t have a lot of experience when it comes to-”

The car suddenly skids to a stop in the middle of the freeway, Christina turned towards Mirio with a fierce glare that promised death should he answer wrong “What do you mean ‘experience’? Are you trying to say something about me as a woman? Huh? What exactly are you implying? That I have too much experience?”

Mirio felt a shiver run down his back that felt eerily similar to when he was fighting Overhaul. He wasn’t sure how to answer Christina’s question without committing friendship and prospective relationship suicide simultaneously.

[I am just afraid that I won’t be man enough for you… an amazing woman like you deserves someone who knows how to treat a woman, and I’ve never even had a girlfriend before…]

Mirio put on a sad expression and repeated word for word what appeared in the back of his mind “I am just afraid that I won’t be man enough for you… an amazing woman like you deserves someone who knows how to treat a woman, and I’ve never even had a girlfriend before…”

“Oh…” Christina whispered, restarting the car and continuing the rest of the journey in absolute silence and embarrassment.

After all, if she was being honest, then most of her earlier outburst was just projecting her own insecurities onto Mirio. She was treating him like a man instead of the boy he truly was…

‘You’re so confusing sometimes…’ She thought, glancing at Miro as they pulled up into the hospital’s parking lot ‘Sometimes you act so mature, and other times you’re just a shy kid…’