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Inadvertent Love

Summary:

K.O. finds himself in a strange position when he starts to get suspicious that perhaps Shannon might have feelings for him, what will happen when he tries to understand it more? How will his friends react? How will this go for the two?

Notes:

Hey all, I Just am making this authors note to introduce myself, this was my first story I had ever written and I still am fairly new to writing. So I hope it's okay to you. Please enjoy and let me know what you think, I like doing new interesting things to say the least.

Chapter 1: Talk

Chapter Text

"Man… today's been exhausting. Eight attacks by Boxmore in one day. Wonder what was up with them?" K.O. pondered aloud. He'd been a hero for most of his short life, though now ever since he started working at Lakewood Plaza Turbo, his strength had grown faster than ever. "I hope we'll be fine tomorrow while Enid's off…" he then murmured. One of his best friends and co-worker, Enid, sometimes had to take personal days off when her stress started to get pushed past its limit. Their boss found that option a lot better than having customers complain about having their souls stolen again.

The young hero now wanted to focus on getting home. Normally he rode back with his beloved mother, but being stuck on a later shift than usual due to Boxmore's decision to attack repeatedly today made him have to take the long way home, through the early night, while a gibbous moon hung in the sky.


"Moooom! I'm home!" K.O. entered through the front door, relieved to be home after the long day. He hoped it meant tomorrow would be a little easier.

"Hey there, peanut! Dinner's about ready. Just give it a few more minutes in the oven," his mother, Carol, called out. She taught karate at the fitness dojo in Lakewood Plaza Turbo next to where her son worked.

"Alright, mommy! I'm gonna go put my stuff up!" K.O. called out as he took his vest off. He rested it on the couch arm rest beside his strong mother before going down to his room to put his backpack away.

Carol was glad to see her beloved son alright, considering before she left to go home, he looked more exhausted than before.

The young woman heard the ding of the timer. She stood up to grab her son's vest planning to wash it for him. However her eye was caught by something on it. It was a thin single strand of light pink hair on the fabric of her son's. She picked it up, her eyebrow quirked. "It looks like a girl's…hair…?" she had a realization hit her that made her smile. He was about to become a teenager. It seemed just about the right time to talk to him about her realization. She went to get dinner set up.


Once K.O. finished putting his various items away, he took his seat at the kitchen table with a bright smile on his face, more than ready to fill up his stomach.

"So Boxmore attacked the plaza eight times today? Large scale assaults or just small stuff?" Carol questioned, taking her seat across from her son.

"Well, their first attack was just them trying to surprise us with disguises to get ahold of that new product Mister Gar put on sale," K.O. felt bad for not being able to see past those obvious disguises of the Boxmore bots. He was not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, Enid had wound up burning their disguises off too. "Then they stopped trying to be sneaky and just went all out. After that their attacks were just the same regular ones," K.O. mused. Each attack was more exhausting than the last. They just assumed Boxmore was trying to tire them out with an endless barrage of bot armies, but that plan made no sense, even for Boxman.

"Well you did pretty well today holding them off like you three did," his mother said with a proud smile on her face, happy to see him growing so strong. There was a bit of an awkward silence from there on for the dinner, until she decided now was the time to question him. "Hey, peanut… Can I ask you something?"

"Mmh…?" K.O. nodded with his mouth full of another bite of food.

"Do you have a special girl in your life?" she so asked, right then and there. Her son swallowed his food before he answered.

"Yeah! I've got you, Enid, Dendy, a lot of people in the plaza." K.O.'s answer made his mother chuckle. She reached over and rubbed his head, messing up his brush-like hair.

"No, not that kind of special… I mean someone you're really close with… in a more… romantic way… like a girlfriend?" Carol continued. K.O. quirked an eyebrow, not understanding what she meant. Half of his friends were female.

"I dunno," he blurted out, still confused. That was his usual self with some of the conversations he had, normally K.O. was more optimistic and cheery, but his energy was real low right now so keeping up was a bit hard. Especially when it came to a topic he barely understood.

"I'm asking because I found a hair on your vest. A pink one. But I don't think I know of any friends of yours that have pink hair," Carol claimed. The only way that hair could have gotten there was if someone was resting their head on his chest. That was what made her assume he had started a romantic relationship with someone new in his life.

"Pink hair? Oh! That's…" K.O. knew what that was from, but before he could talk, his mother interrupted.

"Hey hey, I'm just busting your chops, kiddo. If you ever need any advice though, don't hesitate to ask me or your friends," Carol assured. K.O. wondered what she meant by advice. The pink hair was from Shannon, a Boxmore bot, whose disguise consisted of a poorly fashioned pink wig and terrible looking clothing.

"Advice to help me with… girls?" K.O. didn't understand. Carol got up to put the dirty dishes into the sink.

"Yeah! I know romance is a really confusing thing at your age, but that's why I wanna help," Carol stated, hoping her son would at least consider asking his friends for advice, if he felt uncomfortable discussing it with her directly.

"Well… uh…" K.O. murmured rubbing his head wondering if his was something important he would need in the hero life he aspired for. He went over to her, hopping up onto a stool beside the sink to help her clean the dishes. "Is romance something you need to be a hero, mom?"

"Haha… yeah. It helps a lot in some areas, but it's kind of more personal with its use," Carol nodded, though she did not want to go into detail on how exactly romance could be helpful on missions. "How close are you and this girl?" she handed him another plate, the young hero wiped it down with a dish towel while trying to think.

"Uh… I don't know…" K.O. shrugged. He was not sure who his mother was referring to specifically. If she was still talking about the hair she found on his vest, then he really had no idea how to respond to inquiries like this about Shannon.

"How'd you meet them? Was it through school?" Carol tried to continue the talk. It was embarrassing for her son, and she got that, but she knew it was better for him to have some advice than be left on his own on this matter, she was oblivious to the fact that she was entirely misunderstanding a lot of this.

"She tried to cut me to pieces when we first met… and every time after that, she's the one that keeps messing up my hair." K.O. explained, now just assuming this was a talk about Shannon specifically for some reason that he had trouble grasping.

"That explains why you've gotten so much better at dodging at least," Carol patted his back, "Well don't worry. Usually when a girl's giving you a hard time, it means they have feelings for you," those words bounced around in K.O.'s head a minute before it seemed to fully register.

"It's… Really?" K.O. had to ask in disbelief. His mother nodded.

"Oh yeah. It's not a good way to do it, but everyone shows their feelings in their own ways," Carol reassured, glad her son was at least listening to her advice, instead of shying away like she expected.

"But mom, what should I do then?" the level 3 hero requested. Now his brain felt like it had lost part of its reasoning with this revelation.

"I can't tell ya that, honey. That's gonna be up to you. But if you really need more advice, try asking your friends. I'm sure they'll know," the owner of the fitness dojo wished she could help more, but it was up to her son to handle it from this point on. The brush haired boy hugged his mother's waist.

"Thanks, mommy! I'm sure this'll help me on my path to becoming a hero!" K.O. exclaimed warmly, though still trying to absorb the information with the revelations in it.

"It's nothing peanut. Why don't you run along now? I can handle the rest of the cleanup," Carol suggested. K.O. nodded, hopping off the stool and going to his room. It was only late into the afternoon, but to him the day felt like it had been going on forever.


K.O. took a seat on his bed, lost in his thoughts to a degree, but mainly wanting to rest. He laid down, resting his head on the pillow. His whole body felt relieved at just having the ability to recover its stamina for a change.

He heard his phone suddenly start ringing with a more upbeat ring tone. The level 3 hero opened his cellphone to answer it.

"Enid! Hey, is everything okay?" K.O. greeted one of his best friends, hoping she had at least took some stress off of her since he last saw her twisting off a robot's arm.

"Fine as it can be… I wanted to check up on you since you nearly fainted on us twice today," the level 4 ninja stated. She laid outside her home under a tree, trying to enjoy the night while bathing under the ever raising moonlight.

"I'm fine now that I got to eat… Just really sore from all the bruises," K.O. stated. He felt better already just from being able to lay down. "You change your mind about coming to work tomorrow?"

"Aaha…! You know how hard it is to get a day off? I'd be crazy to ignore one given to me for free," Enid exclaimed. She sounded happy and recovering after the stressful day. Her legs were killing her. The young boy understood that. Their boss could be scary at times.

"Enid, can I ask you something?" the level 3 aspiring hero hesitated, still somewhat dwelling on his conversation with his mother earlier. Initially he wanted to ignore it, but her advice was still weighting on his mind the more he thought on it.

"Sure. Sup?" Enid insisted. She had told him he could ask her anything several times when they became worried about him.

"Have you… Ever seen someone be mean to someone they like? A lot more than like I mean…" K.O. tried to be completely direct with his query. There was an awkward silence for a minute as his friend processed the question.

"Yeah. Some people do it because they don't know how to show their feelings to the other person…" the purple haired cashier answered, trying not to mention her childhood friend that came to mind like a bad emotional bruise.

"And… what would you do if someone was like that with you?"

Another short moment of silence took place before Enid answered. "K.O., the best I can tell you is to just do what you feel is right, because, well… you're you." she was just surprised to imagine he was in one of these situations, but she felt relieved knowing he was talking to her instead of their other friend about it. Like Rad would be able to give subtle advice.

"Thanks, Enid… I appreciate the help," K.O. thanked her, though he felt a little left out on advice there.

"No problem. I'll see you guys Wednesday," Enid wished him good luck before hanging up. The young hero put his cellphone aside before laying back in his bed, even more lost in his thoughts than before.

"A girl being mean like that means they might like me, so that means...? Shannon might like me?" He murmured to himself, unsure about a lot of it. Was it even possible? If so he was scared confused and very uncertain on what to do. That was when he decided, that he would ask his boss and other co-worker tomorrow for their advice.