The Hudson River sparkled in the afternoon sun, the water's surface rippling gently as white swans glided by with elegant ease. It was peaceful here—far from the noise of the city—and the wrought iron table and chairs near the riverbank were occupied by a young man and woman enjoying the calm.
The girl looked about seventeen, with soft features, smooth skin of a pale olive tone, and an exotic beauty that hinted at a mixed heritage. She wore a modest yet stylish jacket over a casual dress, much more reserved than the fashionably bold women passing along the street nearby.
The young man sitting across from her was equally striking. Were he alone, he might have drawn a few curious onlookers. But with the girl beside him, the occasional glances turned into hushed whispers. Despite his appearance, his demeanor was oddly detached, as if the world around him mattered little.
"So... that's why you dropped out of school?" Jack Kadere asked as he casually sipped on a fruit smoothie, tossing occasional bread crumbs into the water to feed the curious swans.
"Don't look at me like I'm a delinquent," Skye replied, her fingers flying over the keyboard of the slim laptop on her lap. "I've already absorbed everything school had to offer. Staying there is just a waste of time."
Jack raised a brow, unconvinced but amused. "You really are a genius."
Passing the drink to her, Jack asked, "So what now?"
Skye took the smoothie without hesitation, hooking the straw with her lips and taking a sip. "I'm thinking of hanging around the Rising Tide for a few days. See what's happening in the underground networks. After that… maybe I'll go after something bigger. Something extraordinary. Or…"
She paused and looked at Jack with an almost mischievous gleam in her brown eyes.
"Or maybe I'll become someone's lover."
Jack didn't immediately answer. Instead, he slipped a hand into her jacket and rested it around her slim waist. "You know I—"
"Gwen and Jessica, right?" Skye cut in smoothly. She typed a few final commands, the screen now showing a progress bar. Ignoring it, she leaned in and pressed her soft figure against him. "Maybe I was born to stir trouble."
"You don't strike me as the type."
Jack brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, his voice low and gentle. "Is something bothering you?"
Skye might have joked a second ago, but her smile faltered. For a girl like her—clever, bold, always a step ahead—this vulnerable moment was rare.
"Jessica was right. You always know when to ask the right question…"
Truth be told, Jack hadn't meant to pry. He had simply accepted a task from the System. Nothing too complex—just to interact with Skye and see where it went. From all appearances, she was still a normal girl. So, what was the System really after?
Maybe completing the task would unlock a hacker template—intel-gathering capabilities, digital espionage—useful enough for sure. But now, Jack found himself thinking something different: This girl… I actually like her.
"I recently learned something from my mother," Skye said softly.
She gave Jack Kadere a brief rundown of what had happened to her lately. "Even though she clearly kept a lot of things from me, I could feel that something... different was going on with my body."
"It wasn't until I went to a specialized facility for testing that I found out..."
Is this where she tells me she's got powers? Jack mused, raising an eyebrow. I haven't sensed anything unusual yet.
But what Skye said next took him by surprise.
Tears welled in her eyes. She gently wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered with trembling lips, "I don't think I can have children. I… I want to break up with you. You won't hate me, will you?"
(when did they get together? I didn't get the memo)
Ah. So that's what's weighing on her mind… the kind of worry a young woman should have.
Jack was stunned. Infertile?
Oh. Cool. Just your average Tuesday revelation. He blinked, mentally flipping through everything he knew about Inhuman biology, which, let's be honest, was basically a Wikipedia binge and one awkward conversation with Medusa that he absolutely regretted.
Was it the Terrigenesis? Maybe it unlocked her powers and, as a bonus, yeeted her reproductive system into the Void.
Classic side effects. Mutate now, cry later.
Still, comparing her to a mule—a sterile offspring of two things that should've never shared a barn, much less DNA—was… not great. Even if it kinda checked out in the "science-is-cruel-and-so-is-life" department.
She saw herself as broken. Not metaphorically. Like, factory-reset-but-somehow-still-malfunctioning broken.
And Jack, bless his emotionally constipated heart, had no idea what to say.
Because how do you comfort someone who thinks they were engineered wrong?
You don't. You sit there, shut up, and hope your face doesn't say, "Yikes."
Now was the time to speak up.
"Of course not," Jack said without hesitation.
Then he offered with a small smile, "If you're not doing anything at the moment, how about working as my assistant? You know…"
Skye giggled, her voice playfully coy. "You into that kind of dynamic, boss~?"
Whether she did actual assistant work or not wasn't the point.
What mattered was that she was beautiful… and close.
As for that grumpy scientist Banner, he'd vanished a while ago. Jack figured the guy had run into something serious and slipped away quietly.
"Tempting offer, Jack," Skye said, leaning in close. The gap between them was barely the width of a breeze.
Her smile curled with mischief. "But your sister already beat you to it~"
Jack froze.
Wait… Jessica?
He remembered how Jessica and Skye had been spending more time together lately.
Oh no... don't tell me my sister's turned gay from being around too many fangirls?
"Skye," he said warily, "don't tell me you and Jessica are…"
"Pfft—!" Skye burst out laughing. "What are you even imagining? Jessica just offered me a job at her club. Said she'd even pay me a real salary."
Jack sighed with relief. "Oh. Good. For a second there, I thought I was being—well, betrayed by my sister. That would've been a whole new level of trauma."
He shivered dramatically.
Come to think of it, Jessica had been pestering him about money recently. Even insisted on taking several pairs of stockings from him—of all styles.
Jack shook his head. "That girl's getting weirder by the day."