I desperately needed to clean up.

My clothes were tattered and were partially burned from my hero duties. My mouth felt slightly dry and I rubbed my eyes. That was a long first day.

I dragged my feet to the kitchen and opened the fridge. I stared at it for a good ten minutes before realizing that I wasn’t sure what I needed.

“What are you looking for?”

“I forgot…”

“Turn off the fridge door then.”

I gave a small laugh before closing the door. “You mean close?”

My dad rubbed his face with a hand and sighed. “Mm. Looks like you have hard time today too.”

His accent was heavier than usual and exhaustion was plastered on his expression. I made my way to him and gave him a hug. He gently placed a hand on my head.

“Are the other scientists still giving you a hard time?”

He let out a low hum. “Hmmm, it was okay. Worked hard. Today there was uh… metal thing for the chemicals. It broken and had to fix.”

“Ah, I remember that.”

He nodded. “How school? Everyone okay?”

“Yeah, the building nearby was on fire so I helped put it out. School was perfectly fine though.” I scratched my cheek.

“Good, good. You okay too?”

“I guess. I didn’t see Mia…”

He rubbed his thumb against my scalp. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Want special tonight? We can buy take out.”

“Pizza?”

“You got it. Go clean up and we eat.”

I nodded as I pulled away from the hug before I kissed his cheek. “Thanks, Pa.”

“Okay, no forget to put clothes in special box. I try to find why clothes broken so fast still.”

“It’s okay. I don’t think there’s a way to make my clothes damage-proof.”

“Other hero find way. They have costume but it too expensive. Dad will find way.” His tone was annoyed but I couldn’t help but frown. It’s been literal years and he still couldn’t figure out how other heroes had damage proof clothing without it being a burden.

“Okayyy.”

I started to make my way to my room until I heard the television blare out its newest story.

“Hello, this is Newson Namely here reporting on the news that beloved hero Blanc has resigned. He will no longer be the CEO of Blanc enterprises and will be withdrawing from hero activities.”

“What?!”

I immediately ran to the television and stared at it with wide eyes. The news of the resignation made me fixate on the screen trying to understand every piece of information. How the hell did this happen?

“Haresa! I told you no running!”

“Ack! Sorry, Pa!”

“Floor just new too.”

“I have my duties as a hero and I have to re-evaluate my moral foundation. There are many things that I still don't understand and because of that, I have to resign for now. I may come back one day but there is no telling when if I ever choose to do so.”

The camera cut back to the news station and the man cleared his throat.

The camera cut to another person. The screen had the annotation that said the person speaking was the chief financial officer of Blanc Enterprises. She stood in front of the Blanc Enterprises building with her head leaning towards the myriad of mics in front of her.

“Well, it’s very sad to see an icon retire but we’ll never forget how he paved the path for other minority heroes.”

Ughhhh. He only signed a contract with me for merchandise. He was lucky that I was only a kid and dad didn’t like to stir up attention. If he had tried that today, he probably wouldn’t only have a concussion.

“Blanc Enterprises will continue as normal. We will continue selling merchandising of Blanc but we will expand our scope in promoting minority heroes. We hope to shift focus and have Haresa as the new spokesperson of Blanc Enterprises.”

I didn’t agree to that. I can’t believe they would say that without contacting me. I also should’ve just told people to use they/them pronouns instead of she/they. Nobody in the industry seemed to like using the other pronouns at all.

I ran my hands through my hair and sucked in air through my teeth. This really was big news. I probably had to prepare for tomorrow.

It was always warfare when it came to avoiding the paparazzi.