Allies & Enemies, by Harper Kingsley. Chapter 5 [superhero, mm]

Title: Allies & Enemies
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Genre: mm superhero
Summary: Warrick comes home after a bad experience. They have to deal with the aftermath and revelations.

 CHAPTER FIVE

 Brushing Mr. Cuddy turned out to be one of those things he really enjoyed. He wouldn’t have imagined it could be so soothing, but there was just something about it. Running the soft bristles through his silky white fur and hearing the whispery “shush-shush” sound and his reverberating purr of satisfaction.

Mr. Cuddy opened one slit-pupiled green eye to give Vereint a rolling look. His front paws kneaded at the couch cushion and Vereint could feel him pushing back against the brush demandingly.

“Are you still playing with that cat?” Melissa asked disbelievingly. She was standing in the living room archway with an energy drink in her hands. “You’re going to get too attached and Miss Cuddy’s gonna be pissed you’ve stolen her husband.”

Vereint wagged the brush at her. “I’m not trying to steal her cat. She left me a whole list of things she expects me to do for him. Brushing him every night was on it.”

“And how exactly did she talk you into cat sitting?” Melissa stepped into the living room and leaned her elbow against a chair back.

“She didn’t want to put him in one of those animal hostels and was completely upset,” Vereint said. She’d been pitiful and he’d been desperate to get her away from his door. “How could I tell her no when she was so desperate? Besides, Mr. Cuddy is a great cat.”

Melissa held up her free hand. “Hey, I never said otherwise. It’s just kind of weird that I go away for a few hours and come back in to you still playing with the cat.”

“I’m not playing with him, I’m grooming him.” Vereint was playing with the cat. He would die before admitting it though. “And should you be drinking that? I thought we were cutting down on how many energy drinks you’re allowed in a week.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “Well within your draconian limits.”

Vereint focused back on Mr. Cuddy so Melissa couldn’t see him rolling his eyes. “There’s some salsa left from earlier.”

“Nice.” She turned toward the kitchen. “Are there any of those chips left?”

Vereint was about to say “Yes” when there was a loud thud and a curse from the patio followed by the crash of a deck chair being knocked over. He leapt off the couch and ran to the sliding door to see what was going on.

Blue Ice looked as though he’d gone forty rounds. His costume was torn in places and Vereint could see blood seeping at his right shoulder where what looked like a metal spike protruded. As Vereint watched, the mask was ripped away and Warrick took a gasping breath, his face streaked with sweat and blood.

Vereint opened the sliding door so fast he nearly broke the glass. He ran to Warrick’s side. “Are you all right? How bad is it?”

Warrick waved his hand and said, “I’m all right. It’s minor.” Vereint might have believed him if his glove wasn’t smeared with his own blood.

“Oh my God, Warrick?”

Vereint turned to see a shocked Melissa standing in the doorway. “Don’t just stand there,” he barked. “Go get some clean towels and find the first aid kit. It should be in the bathroom cupboard.”

Her mouth opened a few times, fish-like, but he pointed his hand at her and she ran. He didn’t have time to deal with her crisis, not when Warrick could be bleeding to death. He began to pull Warrick’s uniform off, careful of his wounds. He didn’t think there were any life threatening traumas, but he could already see the deep bruises sprouting up on Warrick’s skin. It was the kind of bruising that took weeks to heal and hurt all the way down to the bone.

“I’ve got you,” he murmured. Warrick was trying to hide how much it hurt, but Vereint could see the way he flinched and pressed his lips together to hold in the cries of pain. Vereint tried to be gentle, but there was some knocking around that he couldn’t help. He wished Warrick would curse or make some kind of sound so he could know how much he was hurting him. “I’ve got you.”

Melissa padded out with her bare feet and held out a handful of towels. The first aid kit dangled from her fingers. “Is he all right? How bad is it? What happened?”

Vereint took the first aid kit. “I don’t know. Why don’t you lay a couple of those towels on the floor for me to put him on?”

Her voice shook when she said “Okay,” but she was almost professional about following his instructions.

Warrick wasn’t hurt as badly as he’d feared. The shoulder wound was the worst, but when Vereint looked at it closely he saw that the spike hadn’t gotten very far into the skin and was caught in the flesh, not against the bone.

“Why didn’t you go to the doctor?” Vereint demanded as soon as Warrick was all bandaged up. His upper body was a mass of bruises and bandages, but he still wore his pants and boots. “What if you had died?”

Warrick shrugged ruefully. “I wasn’t thinking that clearly. I just knew that I wanted to be back with you.”

“It’s stupid that you can make me want to smile at a moment like this.” Vereint used a washcloth to wipe the smears of blood off Warrick’s skin. He gave him a swipe right down the middle of his face. “You asshole.”

Warrick winced and laughed, then seemed to catch sight of Melissa for the first time. “Uh oh.”

“‘Uh oh’ is right,” she said. Her arms were crossed and she was sticking out her chin aggressively. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were a superhero? That you’re the superhero?”

“We were going to wait and tell you when you’re older?” Vereint said, sounding more like he was asking a question.

“I was all big talk about how I’m going to be a superhero, and you’re Blue Ice?” She tapped her toe. “That’s unacceptable.”

Warrick pulled himself into a seated position. Vereint wanted to protest, but caught a look at the stubborn glint in Warrick’s eye and helped him instead. “You weren’t supposed to find out like this.”

“Duh,” she rolled her eyes, “I wasn’t supposed to find out at all, at least, not until you had some big speech or something prepared.” She drew in a deep breath. “You shouldn’t be out there alone.”

“I’m usually not,” Warrick said. “I partner up with Caspian.”

She blinked. “I’m really stupid, aren’t I?”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, your best friend is Caspian Dukes. Why didn’t I put together that you had to be Blue Ice?” She shook her head. “It makes me feel really dumb.”

“Relax. Most of the world hasn’t figured out that I’m Blue Ice,” Warrick said. “It doesn’t make you dumb, just really unobservant.”

She rolled her eyes. “I live with you. I should have figured it out.”

“Maybe, but you didn’t have to because now you know officially.”

“Because you got beat up.” She shook her head. “If this hadn’t happened, would you have told me soon?”

Vereint kept his expression carefully blank and focused on smoothing Warrick’s bandages. Some of the first ones he’d put on looked frantic somehow, reflecting how panicked he’d been that Warrick was about to die on him. “You’re still visiting the doctor,” he muttered.

Warrick looked at him, then sighed and focused on Melissa. “Probably after your next birthday,” he said. “We would have sat you down and had a great big grown up conversation about it.”

“Great,” she said. “So I would have had to wait another seven months. That’s awesome. What if you would have died in the meantime? I wouldn’t have known what had happened to you.” She glared at Vereint. “Would you have told me he was Blue Ice then, or would I have gotten the party line that he died in a plane crash or something?”

“Shut up!” Vereint snapped. He could feel his throat getting tight and he drew in a gasping breath. “Don’t talk like that. No one’s going to die.”

She must have seen something in his face, because her expression changed in an instant from anger to sympathy. She hurriedly wrapped her arms around his shoulders and rested her chin on top of his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I know you would have told me when you thought I was ready.”

Vereint pressed his palms flat against the floor next to his knees and just breathed for a long moment. “We were going to tell you so that if something happened you would hear the truth. We just wanted to give you more time to be a kid.”

“But now I know,” Melissa said. “There’s no way I could ever unknow.”

He shook his head. “No. So what are we going to do about this?” Vereint looked at her, trying to get her to believe that they would have told her soon, that they didn’t just see her as some kid.

“I think we should go inside,” Warrick suddenly said. “This hard floor is screwing up my back.”

“Oh, yeah.” Vereint stood up and started bending to pick him up, but Melissa was already there.

“I’ve got this,” she said. “I guess the ol’ superstrength comes in handy every once and awhile.”

Vereint had to fight down the impulse to wrestle Warrick back out of her arms. He followed her inside instead, carefully closing and locking the sliding door. That was the worst thing about people being able to fly–more criminals using skyscrapers as their favored hunting ground.

When he stepped into their bedroom, he found Melissa plumping Warrick’s pillows and fluttering around nervously. She really looked worried about Warrick.

“He’s going to be fine,” Vereint said. “He needs some sleep though. Do you think we could have our big discussion tomorrow?”

She pointed at him. “Early!”

He smiled and nodded. “Early,” he agreed. “Can you stick Mr. Cuddy into his cage for the night?”

“Sure,” she said, walking toward the door. She trailed her hand over the fine needlework on their handmade quilt. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Thank you,” he called out as she shut the door. Then he turned to Warrick. “Are you all right? Should I call the doctor now? Are you in a lot of pain?”

Warrick held up his hand with an amused look. His face was still pinched from pain, but he seemed a lot better. “I’ll be fine. There’s not a whole lot he can do for me and I really don’t want to go there. I’m fine.”

“Do you promise?”

Warrick’s eyes softened and he caught Vereint’s hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed the web between Vereint’s thumb and fingers. “I promise. I’ll be fine.”

“Good.” Vereint let his shoulders sag. He walked around to the other side of the bed and climbed up to nuzzle against Warrick’s side. His heart was only just beginning to settle down. Warrick was so rarely hurt that when it happened he never quite knew how to respond. So he just repeated, “Good.”

* * *

Vereint knew how to stay freaked out. It was one of those things that Warrick had only discovered years into their marriage, but it was a rare bit of information that he treasured. The fact that Vereint was a worrier and was maybe a bit hysterical at times made him seem more real as a person.

There were some days when Warrick woke up afraid that nothing in his life was real. That he had made up a fantasy with Vereint in it and really he was the same lonely rich boy he’d always been. There was no way that he could ever be this entirely happy. The fact that Vereint was almost frighteningly perfect kind of set his teeth on edge, so when he could note even the tiniest of flaws Warrick was able to relax into the knowledge that this was all real. He had the love of Vereint in his life.

Warrick was happy and there was nothing he wouldn’t give Vereint just to see him smile. It was kind of why he looked the other way whenever Vereint slipped a bit. He couldn’t handle all the angst and woe Vereint would go through if he thought Warrick knew he’d done something that could qualify as supervillainy. And usually it was something so minor that Warrick wouldn’t have cared about it anyway, but Vereint had some insanely rigid code of normality he followed.

When Melissa had first started living with them, Warrick had nearly driven himself insane with nerves. It was this grinding thing working its way through his stomach and chest and he’d wondered if he was actually giving himself an ulcer. He was just so afraid that the presence of Melissa would somehow throw Vereint’s whole world out of whack and there would be emotional trauma and scarring. He had never wanted to see Vereint unable to smile.

Thankfully, Melissa had turned out to be the wonderful kid she was and it had all worked itself out. He didn’t know what Vereint would have done if they’d had to send her to another family. Even if she’d been a completely awful child, Vereint wouldn’t have wanted to let her go. He would have taken on her burdens and spent his whole life trying to turn her attitude around.

Warrick sometimes wondered if Vereint took on the different headaches as some kind of penance for all the things he’d done during his life as a world renowned supervillain. The things that Warrick had never asked about and Vereint had never volunteered.

Vereint was strong enough that he wouldn’t be physically hurt, but Warrick had seen proof that Vereint was vulnerable on the inside. He tended to put people on pedestals, and when they invariably toppled off the fallout was always bitter.

Warrick had given up trying to figure out what he had done right in Vereint’s eyes, but he planned on holding onto the position he had in Vereint’s esteem.

“…Warrick?…”

The drifting, floating sensation Warrick was experiencing was dissipating from around him and he realized that somehow his eyes were closed. He wasn’t standing in the living room gazing out the nighttime window, he was lying down on the cloud mattress Vereint had picked out the last time they’d gone mattress shopping.

“Come on … time … wake up…”

There was a throbbing pain in his shoulder and Vereint’s voice was calling to him. He wanted to answer.

Waking up when he hadn’t even known he was asleep had him strangely out of sorts. He grimaced at the horrible taste in his mouth and tried to get his eyes open.

“Are you all right?”

Warrick blinked eyelids that seemed to weigh a thousand pounds each. “Wha?”

“Ah, I see that you’ve found your words again, that’s good. I was kind of worried for a while seeing as you wouldn’t wake up no matter what we did,” Vereint said. He drifted into Warrick’s field of view.

Vereint wore that cheerful “Oh my God, I’m panicking on the inside” smile that made Warrick want to cringe. That smile was usually followed by massive property damage and possibly a loss of life. It was such a bright expression that it had taken Warrick nearly a year to figure out what it meant and it had gone from adorable to terrifying just that quick.

That glassiness to Vereint’s eyes and that peek of dimple was proof that Vereint was right at the raggedy edge of having a meltdown. He was always so controlled that when he lost it, he lost it. Reason went right out the window and he found excuses to do whatever he wanted to do, no matter how terrible. Vereint became cold and focused, but the logic running his brain was anything but sane.

Warrick hadn’t seen that smile in years. It was one of those things Vereint had tried to leave behind with Darkstar. During the Kaplan Ryan thing was the last time Warrick had even seen that crazy shine jerking over Vereint’s eyeballs. He looked like he was on drugs, but Warrick knew it was pure need to destroy.

It was a sad fact, but Vereint was a good supervillain. Warrick had even told him that it kind of made him proud that Vereint had given up crime to be with him. Warrick joked that he might have saved the world. And serious faced Vereint had agreed.

“Are you passing out again?” Vereint’s hand was cool against Warrick’s forehead.

Warrick winced when he realized he’d zoned out again. “I’m awake. I’m here,” he blurted.

“You really scared me,” Vereint said. “I called Dr. Jorge when you wouldn’t wake up and he said you’d gotten some kind of poisoning or radiation or something. The minute you were done fighting Behemoth you should have gone to Medical. What were you thinking?”

Warrick closed his eyes, trying to focus. “I wanted to be with you,” he said. The need to find Vereint had been overwhelming and he hadn’t questioned the stupidity of the impulse. He’d broken League protocol and gone home without checking out. It was a complete rookie mistake.

“I fucked up,” he admitted.

Vereint leaned forward and pressed a kiss against Warrick’s forehead. “Yeah, you did. Don’t do it again, you dumb fuck,” he squeezed out.

“I love you too,” Warrick said. His eyelids started feeling heavy and his blinks lasted longer and came more frequently. “I think I’m falling asleep again.”

“Yeah.”

“Will you…” His mouth still moved as his words trailed off.

“I’ll be here when you wake up,” Vereint promised.

Warrick’s lips twitched into a smile as he fell asleep.

 

“So, I’m going to be your sidekick from now on,” Melissa announced as she came into the room.

Warrick was resting on a mound of pillows and extra blankets with his hair tousled around his head. He’d been working his way through a bowl of soup and contemplating a nap. He wasn’t feeling at his best. “What?”

She crossed her arms and stuck her chin out at him. “I’m going to be your new sidekick. I already asked Vereint and he said it’s okay.”

Warrick slowly put his spoon down and wiped his mouth with his napkin. He took a careful sip of his ice water. “Okay,” he said, once he was sure he was processing. “Explain that slowly and in small words, please.”

Melissa rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Seriously. You need to keep up, Warrick. I’m getting very concerned for you.” It was the teasing tone she usually reserved for Vereint alone.

“Yes,” Warrick said slowly, “very concerned.”

She leaned over the footboard of the bed. Her ponytail flipped over her shoulder as she set about trying to sell him on the idea of her becoming his new sidekick. “Because it’s dangerous for you to be alone,” she said. “Look what happened this time. If I’d been there, I would have made you go to Medical.”

“You probably would have died,” he said bluntly. “That was the kind of experience that’s definitely no kids allowed.”

“Fine, but what about other situations? You might need a lookout or a sniper or a set of small hands.” She cocked her head. “You need help. I want to help. It’s a win-win.”

“I feel like I’m being scammed.” Warrick narrowed his eyes at her.

Melissa flashed him her best smile and even went so far as to flutter her eyelashes in what she thought was a cute manner. “I told Vereint all my points and he agreed with me that this was something we should do.”

“Why are you taking my name in vain?” Vereint asked, pushing the door all the way open.

“I don’t know what that means,” Melissa said, sidling back against the wall. “I was just telling Warrick that I’m going to be his new sidekick.”

“I thought I told you to ask him if you could be his new sidekick.” Vereint sounded amused. “There is a difference.”

“Fine.” Melissa threw up her hands. “Warrick, can I be your new sidekick? Please?”

Warrick just looked at her for a long moment, then turned to Vereint. “Seriously?”

Vereint shrugged. “She made a lot of sense.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Warrick saw Melissa slide out the door, her hand catching the knob as she passed and closing it after her. She’d sowed her seed and now she expected Vereint to fight for her.

Which he did. Viciously.

/CHAPTER