EXCERPT: Allies & Enemies, by Harper Kingsley mm superhero

Title: Allies & Enemies
Author: Harper Kingsley
Genre: mm, superhero, action adventure, drama
A/N: Still trying to get a hold of a good cover 🙁 Paid good money for a load of nothing. Might end up with a generic quivering camera photo of flowers or fruit or something for a cover; still deciding.

Summary: Starts where “Heroes & Villains” left off. Vereint could be a terrifying and unstoppable force and it was just luck that he showed even the tiniest bit of concern for other people. If he had been completely amoral he would have been a monster so terrible he could almost be seen as a force of nature.

The sun was struggling to shine through the clouds, but it was just one of those days guaranteed to be miserable. Not just because of the weather, but because of the girl sobbing out her heartbreak on a sterile hospital bed, the sheets pulled up around her shoulders as she buried her face in the rather flat and lumpy pillow.

Vereint clenched his hands together on the handle of the shopping bag he held in front of himself. It took all of his will to keep from running into the room and scooping her up into his arms. Instead, he stood on the other side of the glass and watched her mourn the loss of both of her parents all alone. Behind and to the left of him, he could hear Warrick fast-talking the doctors and the police and anyone else he had to and Vereint was sure everything was going to work itself out.

They were going to take that little girl home and give her a family and make sure she grew up knowing that she was loved. He didn’t think they could ever wipe away the loss of her parents, but they would try their best to make her realize that she still had a whole life to live and that they would always be there for her.

There was the slight scuff of dress shoes on the linoleum floor, then Vereint had Warrick’s arm across his shoulders and he didn’t hesitate to hug Warrick’s wrist against his chest. He breathed in the scent that his brain uniquely identified as Warrick Reidenger Tobias and something screaming and tight released. “Do we get to take her?”

“I talked them around,” Warrick said. “There will be social service visits and we’ll have a social worker assigned and they’ll still be looking out for any family that she has, but she gets to go home with us tonight. They say she’s all right, just shaken up, so it’ll be better for her not having to spend another night in the hospital.”

“Good.” Vereint had never been fond of hospitals. Just the smell and the sounds were enough to make him uncomfortable; he didn’t want to know how miserable it would be for a grieving twelve year old girl that had just watched her parents die. “It’ll be fine for tonight and tomorrow I can go and get things to make the guest room more comfortable for her.”

He would get her a few things to make her feel welcome, then later after her grief had a chance to settle a bit, he would take her with him to pick out the things she wanted for herself. It would give them a chance to bond. He wondered what she looked like when she smiled.

“Here comes the social worker,” Warrick said.

There was the clack-clack of sensible pumps attached to a tall, thin woman with a pair of no-nonsense glasses perched on her nose. She looked like she might be kind, but she didn’t suffer fools gladly. The subdued floral print on her purple and black blouse showed that while she had a softer side, she was serious about her job.

“Mr. Georges, I’m Nancy Daniels and I’ve been assigned to Melissa’s case.” Her handshake was brusque and businesslike. She wasn’t ready to be friends, not until she was sure of them, but Vereint could tell she was the kind of ally they were really going to need.

He smiled at her, trying to pour on the charm without going too far over the top. “Thank you. I’m just glad you’re letting us take her home with us.”

She sighed. “It will be nice for her to be out of here. From what the nurses have said, last night was not a good night for her.” She walked toward the door. “Come along and I’ll introduce you.”

Warrick reached the door before her and held it open with easy grace. He gave Vereint a pat on the back as he walked passed and Vereint gave him a slight smile before his attention was caught and held by the girl on the bed.

With the opening of the door, she’d turned and sat up, scrubbing her eyes with the corner of the sheet and trying to pretend that she hadn’t been crying. Her fine black hair was a tangled mess and her face was blotchy and red. “What do you want?” she demanded, her teeth clenching tight around the words as she tried to maintain her control.

“Hello Melissa,” Nancy said, her voice gentle and soothing. “I know you said you want to leave the hospital, and that’s why I’ve brought these two gentlemen with me. This is Vereint Georges and his husband Warrick Tobias. They want you to stay with them until everything gets figured out.”

Melissa gave them a suspicious glare. “I don’t know them. I don’t want to go anywhere with them.”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Nancy said, “but you can’t leave the hospital unless you have somewhere to go, and Vereint and Warrick are offering you a safe place.”

Vereint stepped forward, keeping his hands in view at his sides, the bag hanging from his left wrist so she could see his palms. He gave Melissa a tentative smile. “Hi. I can tell why you’d want to get out of here, I don’t much like hospitals myself, and it must be pretty cold here at night, huh?”

Her black eyes were still very suspicious, but she gave a nod of grudging agreement. “The blankets are really thin and you can hear everything that goes on at night. I think the man in the next room died last night; there was a big ruckus going on and people running in and out.” Her chin was a hard nob that she refused to let tremble.

She was a cute Korean-American girl with long black hair and a triangular shaped face. She was short, her body so tiny in comparison that her head looked large. She could have been a doll and just looking at her made Vereint want to go “Ah!” at her complete adorableness.

The fact that she was so self-defensive and sarcastic actually made him like her more. The first time he’d spotted her after her parents’ death he had felt as though something had stabbed him hard in the chest. He’d never believed in fate, but it was completely obvious to him that he and Warrick were going to take her home and raise her as their daughter. There had been so much hurt in her eyes when they’d met his, and so much spirit beyond that, it was no effort at all to nudge Warrick into grudging action.

It wasn’t that Warrick was heartless or anything, but he’d long ago learned that there was no helping everyone. He already went out night after night to save his slice of the world; he couldn’t take every orphaned kid home with him. Vereint had completely agreed with that sentiment, but seeing Melissa Kim of the Flying Kims standing on the platform, her eyes wide and horrified as she’d watched her parents frozen to crystal and shattered into red stained pieces. There was no way he could turn away from that girl, not with the way his every instinct had been screaming at him.

The events had taken place three days ago and almost like fate there had been no family for anyone to call for her. There was no one stepping forward to take Melissa in and Vereint had felt his instincts vindicated. It was only a few moments thought for him to go to Warrick and suggest they take Melissa in.

“Come home with us,” Vereint urged. “There’s a bedroom waiting for you and we’ll make sure you’re well taken care of. It’s no committment, but we would like it if you were to become part of our family.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked. Her fingers were twisting and twisting together in her lap. Her fingernails were bitten down and the skin around them looked tender and red.

“Because you need us,” Vereint said. Part of him wanted to just snatch her up and force her to go home with him to where she belonged, but he knew he couldn’t be like that. He wasn’t the bad guy anymore. He was trying to just be a guy, and regular guys didn’t go around subjugating the wills of the people around them. Warrick had told him it was rude.

She bit her lip, her teeth tiny and white. Her right eyetooth was a bit crooked and she had a tooth pressing in on the left. Her eyes darted to Nancy as she asked, “What will happen to me if I don’t go with them?”

“You’ll have to remain here at the hospital until late afternoon when you’ll be transfered to a halfway house until we find you a foster family,” Nancy stated bluntly. Melissa’s eyes got wide and shiny. Nancy shook her head. “Look, sweetie, this is one of those times when you have to act a little grown up. We’ll try to help you as much as we can, but you have to help out too. There are some things that will be in your best interest, and fighting everything won’t help you at all. Do you understand?”

Melissa blinked hard a few times, but it was obvious she was processing the information she’d been given. Vereint was pleased to think she might be a smart kid as he didn’t know how well he would deal with a kid he had to repeat himself to dozens of times. He still remembered how awful his cousins had been and just the sound of velcro releasing set his teeth on edge.

“If you honestly don’t like it with us,” Vereint said, “you can always call Nancy. We won’t keep you if you don’t want to be there.”

She drew in a huffing breath, her cheeks puffing out thoughtfully. “Okay.” Melissa nodded to Nancy. “I’ll go with them. Just… can I have my stuff?” She glanced at Vereint, then Warrick. “I mean, well… I can understand if you won’t let me keep the whole trailer, but can I bring some of my family’s stuff?”

Vereint snorted. “Forget that,” he said. He looked at Warrick. “Can we have the trailer delivered somewhere? Like put into long-term storage or something?”

“Of course,” Warrick flipped out his phone, “give me a minute and I’ll arrange something.”

“See?” Vereint turned back to Melissa. “You can keep all of your things. It’s going to be all right.”

“Really?” She gave him a tremulous smile. “Thank you. I was… I was really worried they were just going to throw everything away. I mean, I’ve seen movies and TV, I know they don’t let kids in foster care keep most of their stuff. I’m only twelve, there’s no way they’d pay for our trailer to be stored somewhere for the next six years, and there’s no way I could pay for it. I just…” she closed her eyes briefly. “That trailer is my home. I’ve spent nearly my whole life living in it.”

“Well, your home won’t be getting sold anytime soon,” Vereint said. He leaned close and dropped his voice to a whisper, “Warrick will make sure it’s there for you when you want it. Is that a good deal?” He gave Melissa a smile filled with so much charm it should have been “Charm!” with glitter and diamonds and bright splashes of fireworks.

There was no way a preteen girl was going to be able to withstand his powers, so it was no surprise when she smiled back at him with shy charm and reached out to shake the hand he extended. “It’s a deal,” she chirped, after only one disturbed wrinkle of her brow before she was caught and her brain responded to his pheromones and flooded her body with the chemicals for trust, affection, and a taste of hero-worship.

Vereint blinked and quickly lowered his eyes, his chin dipping down in what might have seemed a clumsy move. That surge of livewire tension he always felt when he powered up settled back down. The sharp clarity returned to normal focus and he knew his eyes had changed back to their usual slate blue. He lifted his head up and gave Melissa a smile she was quick to reciprocate even without him pressing her.

Vereint glanced over real quick and Warrick was still talking on his phone a few feet away and hadn’t seen what he’d done. It made him feel quilty to hide anything from Warrick, but he really hated receiving a disapproving frown most of all.

He figured that what Warrick didn’t know wouldn’t cause any fights between the two of them. And all he’d really done was prime Melissa to be more receptive to the help she needed. It wasn’t like he’d made her love him or anything, which he easily could have done. All he’d done was ease her grief a little by introducing a set of more positive emotions.

Vereint knew he was trying to upsell himself, but he couldn’t help it. There was something about Melissa that called out to him and he had a feeling there was a lot of rather villainous things he would be happy to do on her behalf. He couldn’t explain what it was about her, but he wanted to help her out.

“Here, I brought this for you,” he said, holding out the large shopping bag. It was glossy black with a red heart on the front. “I thought you might need some clothes. I had to guess on the sizes but seeing you now I think I did a pretty good job.”

Melissa held the bag on her sheet wrapped lap for a moment, then looked into the bag. She reached in and pulled out a purple tee shirt with a glittery blue quilt design on the front, then she dropped it back in and held up the jeans and gray sweatshirt he’d picked out. “You didn’t have to buy me anything,” she said. “I have plenty of clothes.”

“Except you don’t have anything here,” he said. “Until we can get you some stuff from your trailer, you’re going to need something to wear.”

“Well,” she nibbled her lip and gave him a sideways glance through the curtain of her hair, “thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. “Why don’t you go change so we can get out of here? Like I told you, hospitals creep me out.” He gave a melodramatic shudder.

There was the hint of a smile around her lips as she pulled the clothes out of the bag and hurriedly climbed off the bed. She was wearing a loose pair of blue scrub pants and a matching shirt that hung off her slender frame as though that were the way they were supposed to look. She’d tucked the long hem of the shirt into the waistband of her pants and her socks were very white as she dashed toward the bathroom, closing the door with a loud click.

Vereint looked at Nancy. “Well, I guess that’s that.”

She gave him a long look, then a nod. “We’ll give her one more chance to back out on the deal, then she’ll be in your care until the situation changes.”

“Good.”

* * *

Standing off to one side, Warrick gave instructions to his assistant then called headquarters to let the rest of the League know he was going to have a civilian staying at his place. He hadn’t wanted to drop that bombshell on the team until after he was sure it was really going to happen.

It wasn’t like he hated kids or anything, he just hadn’t ever really wanted any. After the initial anguish of finding out he’d been rendered sterile in a bad fight when he’d taken one of the worst blows of his life, he’d come to the decision that he was actually rather relieved. He worried sometimes that he was too much like his father, and that was definitely not the way he wanted to be with a kid.

But Vereint had asked if they could take Melissa in and it was obviously something he really wanted. Warrick thought he’d handled things well when he agreed that they could offer themselves up as foster parents for Melissa, and it had only taken a single phone call for him to have things pushed through.

If Vereint wanted Melissa in their family, then that was what they were going to have. He just hoped Vereint wasn’t going to start taking in strays all over the place. He’d already gotten himself Hank as a new brother and now he was picking up a pseudo-daughter, or as he’d proclaimed her, a “ward” like they were suddenly in the 18th century or something. It made Warrick wonder if Vereint was going to insist on getting Melissa a governess or something.

Warrick felt his lips twitch as he thought about the rather humorous image of all the trouble Vereint could get himself into if he was that kind of person. It was something Warrick had realized with time, but he’d come to the conclusion that there was very little in the world that he wouldn’t let Vereint have if he really wanted something. Though if it really came down to it, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to stop Vereint if he went off the rails.

Vereint could be a terrifying and unstoppable force and it was just luck that he showed even the tiniest bit of concern for other people. If he had been completely amoral he would have been a monster so terrible he could almost be seen as a force of nature. Instead he had indulged in largely petty crime and his body count was amazingly low for someone with such a powerful reputation. People were frightened of what could happen if he got really mad at them personally, but as a whole he had never been that much of a threat to society as a whole.

Warrick finally made his last phone call, then slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket. He’d almost been notifying people by rote at the end, but it was one of those things that needed to be done. He was pretty high profile and if he didn’t make one hundred percent sure that his calls were rerouted, it would only be a matter of time before his secret identity was blown.

It was one of the biggest reasons why he didn’t think bringing a child into their home was a good idea. He had way too many secrets he was hiding, and having a kid around was too much risk. Though Vereint had told him he should try playing the Daddy Warbuck’s hard. Which basically entailed him locking himself in his office for “work time” and basically not telling Melissa a single thing about what he was doing. It was going to be a definite change in his routine, but it wasn’t like he had any other choice.

One look at how Vereint practically glowed as he gathered up Melissa’s small amount of possessions as she changed in the bathroom and Warrick knew that this was happening. It was just so good to see Vereint being seriously involved with something. He didn’t seem to notice how mechanically he went through his days, but Warrick certainly had.

Since retiring from crime, Vereint had tried to write a book and taken art lessons and driven go-karts and taken on so many failed hobbies that failure was getting to be his hobby. The fire that had always seemed to blaze around him had dimmed out and Warrick had really begun to worry that maybe Vereint was getting depressed, that he was going to decide enough was enough and just leave one day. The idea of Vereint leaving him had sent a jagged blade of uneasiness through Warrick and his mind had started spitting out ideas for how he was supposed to save his marriage.

The bathroom door opened and Melissa stepped out in the jeans and hoodie ensemble Vereint had picked out for her. She’d been brought to the hospital in her circus costume–a red and yellow leotard and flesh colored tights–so she’d spent the last couple of days in hospital pajamas. She looked relieved to be wearing real clothes again.

“Looking good,” Vereint said, giving her a bright grin. “Here, I got these for you too.” He pulled a tiny tennis shoe out of both pockets of his jacket and held them out toward her.

Her hands trembled slightly when she reached out and took them, her fingers ghosting over the flying bird design that had been hand painted on the outsides of each shoe. They were red and white tennis shoes and the yellow bird was outlined in a rich blue. “These… these are the shoes I wanted,” her voice cracked. “I didn’t tell anyone because they’re too expensive. How did you know?” She raised her head to look at Vereint.

“I saw them and I just thought of you,” Vereint said, giving her a warm smile. It was the type of unthinking kindness that made Warrick love him even more.

He knew that Vereint was a work in progress, but he didn’t mind that as much as Vereint seemed to. He had long since accepted the fact that neither one of them were perfect. Which made the times Vereint did something compassionate or sweet for someone other than Warrick more precious and important to him.

It was horribly sentimental, but he couldn’t help thinking that he wanted to see every face Vereint could make. He wanted to know every part of Vereint to the point that he could fold those memories into every part of himself.

Warrick liked that he had a reputation for chilly disinterest toward any kind of human weakness. It sent a surge of ego through him to know that he had never fucked up at his job and that he was known for always getting the job done the right way the first time. Yet he liked that he was able to give Vereint the softer side of his personality. He liked to see Vereint happy, with that little tilt to his lips that was only seconds away from a laughing smile. He would do just about anything to be able to see that expression.

Which was why they were taking home a twelve year old orphan girl that had been raised in a circus and had very little experience with normal people. There was something about her that had struck a cord with Vereint.

Warrick sent one last text to his assistant–a young man named Bertram of all things–then watched as Melissa sat on the edge of her hospital bed and pulled on her new shoes. He didn’t know how Vereint had done it, but they were the perfect size.

“Thank you,” she said, giving Vereint a shy glance.

He shrugged. “It’s no big deal. You need shoes if we’re blowing this Popsicle stand.” Warrick could see that he was pleased though, the tips of his ears turning red.

Warrick took it as his cue to step forward and herd everyone out of the room. Vereint held the shopping bag in one hand while he kept his other hand free in case Melissa happened to want to take it. She didn’t this time, but the offer was left open and Warrick couldn’t help a bit of melting in his heart.

Bertram was standing at the nurses station, wrapping up the last bit of the checkout process, and he turned with a nearly puppyish excitement when he saw Warrick. He came trotting over with a bright green folder clutched in his hand. “Sir, she’s all checked out and the car is ready downstairs to drive you home.”

“Thank you,” Warrick said, accepting the folder and not breaking stride as he led the way to the elevator. It was always somewhat funny to see the usually well-put together young man scramble to keep up with him, his loafers squeaking on the floor and his Ichabod Crane elbows and arms bending like Stretch Armstrong.

Bertram Cooke was one of those overly educated, under socialized men that had been training his entire life to be someone’s underling, though he probably hadn’t realized that was where his education was leading him at the time. Still, he was good at his job and Warrick had just about gotten him trained up enough where he didn’t have to offer any handholding; Bertram was able to take care of things with a minimum of dramatics, and that was an appreciable skill.

/EXCERPT