“Hero… I…”
“Hush, Villain. It’s okay. You didn’t know.” Hero offered a weak smile as they massaged their hand. “I… It’s alright though. I diffused your bomb. No harm done, yeah?”
Hero took a half step back as Villain came forward and took Hero’s hand in theirs. “I should’ve noticed… I should’ve seen that you… that you never…”
“That I never open my hands? Yeah… you’d think you’d notice, but… I hide it pretty well.” Hero kept their eyes fixed on Villain’s hands.
“I’m sorry… does it… is it painful?” Villain brushed their thumb over Hero’s fingers.
“Y-yeah… most days.”
“No, I meant right now.”
Hero reluctantly met Villains eyes. “D-don’t blame yourself, okay?”
“Why not; it’s my fault.”
“No. Your job is to take over the city or whatever Supervillain has you up to nowadays. My job is to stop you. Your job is to plant intricate bombs. My job is… is to diffuse them… except… except it’s not all that easy for me.” Hero but their lip and cast their eyes to the ground again.
Villain let go of their hands and caught Hero’s chin, making them meet Villain’s eye. “If I would have known… I swear I’ll never do anything like that again.”
“Why do you care? Why plant a bomb if you don’t want it to go off? Why not plant a bomb of you know I can’t diffuse it?” Hero pulled away from Villain.
“Supervillain is a jackass!” Villain called after Hero as Hero walked away. Hero paused. “I don’t want to hurt people! I… Supervillain is… Supervillain is my dad. How am I supposed to tell him I don’t side with him? I picked this… I picked a bomb because I thought it would be easy for you… I… all heroes know how to diffuse bombs, yeah? I just thought… I don’t know… but I’m sorry…”
Hero turned back to Villain, speechless as they walked back, closing the distance between them. “I… you don’t want to work with Supervillain?”
Villain hastily brushed a stray tear from their cheek. “Well… it’s complicated, see? It’s… he’s my dad and I don’t want to disappoint him, but I just… I don’t wanna hurt people… ya know? And I just… all I want is to make him proud, but it’s like whatever I do is just not enough and so-”
Hero interrupted Villain with a soft kiss. Villain, although startled at first, kissed back tentatively. Hero slid their arms around Villain’s waist and pulled them closer. “You don’t have to live up to your father’s expectations.” Hero murmured against Villain’s lips. “You don’t have to forsake morals to make him proud.”
Villain pulled away a little. “You don’t understand… he… if I’m not for him, I’m against him, Hero. I don’t want to fight my dad.”
“Come with me.”
“I don’t want to fight him…”
“You don’t have to, but don’t fight me either. Please. Come with me.”
“I…”
“You don’t have to fight anyone.”
“… okay.”