Time passed very quickly once again and now it was Saturday.
The night before had been busy, way way too busy for their liking. One would've thought that with new heroes in town, crime would've slowed down, but if anything, the criminals seemed to get more brave.
There was so much crime that Tyrone and Tandy had found out about, all of which just lingered under the surface of National City, some even directly funded by influential figures, but now that they were heroes, they were able to see it all.
This past night alone, there was a weapons pipeline disrupted near the docks which required the attention of the duo, and various drug or human trafficking groups seemed to all be active, as if wanting to catch the duo out with their sheer numbers.
It would've worked against other Heroes who didn't have fast methods of transportation, but against Tyrone, they eventually managed to defeat all of whom crossed their paths.
The duo had spent all night, bouncing around in various directions solving crimes and saving civilians, and while that wasn't physically taxing, it became annoying dealing with all of these small fry.
They returned to the mansion just before dawn, finally having some time to relax themselves as it was the weekend. No school later that day or tomorrow.
Tandy let her suit retract into the ring, the soft Light fading until it was just her again, barefoot on polished stone, hair loose, shoulders finally dropping.
Tyrone looked across the monitors, making sure there wasn't anything that needed their immediate attention before he heard Tandy speak behind him, "Okay," she said, stretching her arms over her head, "I think if we don't do something normal today, I might lose my mind."
Tyrone looked at her from across the room, one brow lifting as his Cloak vanished, leaving him in just the basic tracksuit that quickly went into his own ring, and now he was just wearing a casual outfit.
"Normal like…?"
"Let's go shopping, I'm sponsoring, send me home with your Cloak and we'll meet at the mall at 10," Tandy said, not leaving any room for refusal.
Tyrone sighed and pulled Tandy into his Cloak, teleporting her to her bedroom to start her day in her own house while he returned to the mansion, deciding to get ready for their relaxation time upcoming.
***
National City during the day was a different creature, especially as it was the weekend. School was out, and the City was bright and loud, crowded completely.
Especially with the presence of two new up & coming heroes, the civilians seemed much safer walking around in public and going about their day, and there was constant chatter about them everywhere.
Even just walking around, Tyrone and Tandy could hear people, especially those around their age, talking about Cloak & Dagger, their feats, powers and more, but the duo did their best to ignore that and focus on relaxation.
As they arrived at the mall, music boomed from the storefronts and the air smelled like coffee and baked bread coming from a nearby breakfast shop.
Tyrone walked half a step behind Tandy out of habit, hands in the pockets of a jacket, eyes constantly scanning, threat assessment running quietly in the background no matter how much he tried to shut it off.
Tandy noticed this and slowed down her walking speed just enough to hook her arm through his, causing him to look at her as she spoke, "You're allowed to relax," she said softly, "I promise, if anyone pulls a gun in a clothing store, we'll handle it."
"…That's not comforting."
She laughed anyway and tugged him forward.
The first store they entered was upscale. It was just the way Tandy shopped, even after meeting Tyrone, these habits were basically ingrained in her, as she was a frequent visitor at stores like this, to the point certain staff would definitely recognize her.
The store she entered was a minimalist one, everything was white, black, or beige. A kind of quiet luxury clothing style that had taken over social media recently.
Tandy grabbed a hanger and thrust it at him, "Try this."
He held it up, raising an eyebrow, "This looks like something Bruce Wayne would wear to intimidate a boardroom."
"Exactly, sleek and handsome, now go," She hurried him off to the dressing room.
Five minutes later, Tyrone stepped out of the dressing room in a tailored black jacket, dark turtleneck underneath, clean lines that somehow made him look older, sharper.
Tandy stood still, her expression frozen as she analyzed how he looked.
"Oh," was all she ended up saying.
Tyrone shifted awkwardly,"Bad?"
"No," she said quickly, circling him once, "No, that's, wow. That's illegal. It makes you look a bit older than I expected, still good enough,"
He looked away, muttering something about bad lighting while she bought the outfit anyway, trying on her own pair of clothes and purchasing that as well.
They then moved to the next store which was much more casual and Tyrone's preferred style.
She made him try:
A soft hoodie and fitted jeans, which was the outfit she seemingly liked the most out of the bunch.
A long coat that swirled dramatically when he walked, similar to the one Sung Jinwoo would wear in Solo Leveling, and Tyrone definitely liked this once.
The final thing she bought was a simple T-shirt that showed off his build far more than he expected. With his new powers, his physique had definitely taken multiple steps up, and multiple women found themselves staring.
Tandy definitely didn't seem to keen to let them continue staring, ushering him to take it off quickly.
By the end, he was carrying bags with a resigned expression that screamed I have been defeated by capitalism.
Tandy, meanwhile, looked smug as they went shopping for various accessories afterwards, having them all delivered to the mansion, before heading for a bite to eat.
They ended up at a small diner near the waterfront, nothing fancy, just vinyl booths, laminated menus, and the comforting smell of fried food and sugar.
Tyrone stared at the menu like it was a foreign language, not recognizing any of the meals on it. They all had these special luxury names that Tyrone just thought was immensely pretentious.
Eventually, he just ordered whatever Tandy suggested him to, not knowing much about these products at this store.
Milkshakes arrived first, a special mix chocolate for him while she got a strawberry one, taking a sip and humming happily, "This is my favorite food spot, I usually came here to chill by myself when I didn't want to head back home,"
Tyrone heard that and tried his more cautiously, eventually nodded, "It definitely tastes good,"
She grinned as she heard that and the duo began quickly yapping about random stuff, not crime or their latest missions, just a boatload or random topics, and now they found themselves talking about their favorite movie triology.
"I still think the Prequels are peak Star Wars," Tandy said, stealing a fry from his plate as she took another sip at the same time.
Tyrone snorted, raising an eyebrow as he looked at her, "Wrong wrong all wrong. The initial trilogy is still miles better. Prequels relied too much on nonsense,"
"Huh? The initial trilogy is all nonsense," Tandy responded.
"Well I'm not immune to nostalgia, the Prequels will never be better cuz I saw them second, boo hoo," Tyrone said.
Both of them laughed at that and took some more bites of their food before Tandy spoke,
"Well let's scratch that, I don't wanna hear more about your trash Star Wars takes," she said, "Before everything, what else did you like?"
He thought for a second. "Old sci-fi & Anime were the two things I watched the most, maybe an action movie here or there, I loved John Wick,"
She smiled gently. "Of course you did."
They shared dessert. He realized, distantly as they ate and talked together that this was the closest he'd been with someone pretty much since the incident, and he enjoyed that.
Once their meals were finished up, the sun had already dipped low, painting the water gold and orange.
They walked side by side. Tandy had insisted on dragging Tyrone to buy some new shoes, and now they had some light shopping bags in their arms.
Obviously Tyrone could send them to his Dimension, but he didn't want to go through the hassle of finding a place without cameras, and the bags weren't such an inconvenience anyway, if anything it was pretty chill.
Tandy glanced at him. "Thank you for doing this."
He frowned slightly, "You're the one who paid."
"That's not what I meant," she said, "Taking a break is nice,"
She bumped his shoulder, "We're allowed to be happy and have our free-time Tyrone."
He looked out at the water, then back at her.
"With you," he said quietly, "it's easier."