A picture of Cherik to the top because a) it's CANON, no force in the world can convince me otherwise, b) they're the MVP of heroxvillain ships!!!
Oof.
....
“I think that’s too much blue,” I informed.
“I think we have the right quantity of blue,” Aspen replied, as he dumped yet another can of blue paint in the cart.
“I think you’re wrong,” I deadpanned.
He pretended to think for a second. “No, I think I’m right.”
I rolled my eyes at him and, instead of replying, turned to pick up two cans of black paint.
Aspen took a few steps towards me and snatched them from my hands. “I’m sorry, but who’s the Fine Arts guy here?”
I put my hands on my hips and pretended to think. “From what it looks like, that guy probably cheated his way into –” I broke off as a sudden thought hit me like a bullet train. I dropped my act and stood up straight, facing my enemy. “You cheat in tennis!”
Aspen’s smile did not falter. The audacity! “What?” he asked.
I raised a finger at him accusingly. “You fucking cheat in tennis. Holy Satan!” I let out a laugh. “This city’s beloved,” I paused slightly to look around me. The shop was deserted except for a few people far away in the food aisles. Still, I dropped my voice to a whisper as I continued, “hero, the great, the mighty, the all-powerful Super Storm, the guy on children’s tiffin boxes and bags and cereal covers, cheats in tennis!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he grinned, then stepped closer and put his arms around me. “But if you did sense any foul play in any of our games,” he whispered in my ear, “you know you can always... punish me.”
I could not believe that guy! He was on children’s cereal boxes for fuck’s sake!
I stepped out of his hold. “Aspen,” I said seriously, “you need Jesus.” I patted his shoulder solemnly, took the two cans from his hands and walked over to the cart. I randomly threw in a few more cans of paint – ones that were not blue – then pushed the cart towards the cash register.
Aspen followed close behind, still chuckling to himself. I beautifully ignored him.
“Looks like someone’s redecorating,” the cashier commented as she scanned the scores of paint cans and the dozen paint brushes.
“Kind of,” Aspen replied cheerfully.
“So, who likes blue?” she added.
“See, I told you that’s too much blue,” I said off-handedly.
“Oh come on, darling,” he put an arm around my shoulder. “You don’t have to be embarrassed by how much you love Super Storm and thus want to paint our house in blue.”
I swear I would’ve punched him right then and there had it not been for the annoying fact that we had to stay low and off the radar. So I smiled at him instead and reached out to touch his arm, my fingers tingling with sparks.
Aspen hissed and stepped away from me, rubbing his burnt arm that would turn red in no time. “Dude,” he whisper-yelled at me.
“What?” I replied innocently.
“That’ll be 1520,” the cashier broke in.
Aspen paid (don’t look at me like that. Where will I get money from, whiling away my days in jail?) and we made our way out to the parking lot. We walked a few blocks, before turning into a deserted alley where I created a tunnel and we jumped in.
The moment I landed, I dropped the bags and pushed Aspen against the wall. “You do something like that again, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life,” I hissed in my best Gravel voice.
Aspen looked amused. “And here I thought you pushed me against the wall to kiss me.”
I had almost punched him when a better idea came to my mind.
“That too, I guess,” I whispered, before leaning in to kiss him.
I admit fighting Super Storm was really fun and all, but hearing him moan against my lips was another kind of pleasure altogether, one I could easily get addicted to. I knotted my fingers in his hair, those beautiful locks that were so incredibly soft I genuinely wanted to know what shampoo he used.
Okay, so maybe that was not the appropriate thing to think about while making out with your enemy in a dark, stinking tunnel. Lol, so much for Superhero romance being super romantic!
Anyway.
According to my evil plan, just as I felt Aspen give in completely and melt into my arms, I broke our kiss and promptly stepped away from him. The fact that he looked on expectantly was kind of cute, I admit. It was probably when I picked up the bags of paint I was carrying and started walking away that he realised I was not going to continue whatever we were doing.
Lol, this city needed a brighter hero, I swear.
“Ridge!” Aspen cried after me. “You can’t just – come back here and finish what you started!"
“Aww... desperate much, Mr. Superhero?” I cooed, turning to look at him. “How about no?”
“Ridge!”
Satan, him shouting my name like that was too fucking hot!
I smirked at him, turned around and skipped ahead making my way back to the state prison. It was only when I reached the end of the tunnel, right below the prison complex, and was changing into my Gravel outfit that Aspen joined me, looking like a grumpy old man.
“If you really wanted what you just wanted a while back,” I said grinning, “you shouldn’t have put me in jail.”
Aspen pretended to sulk. Wordlessly he put on his Super Storm costume, his back to me the entire time.
I was really really enjoying it!
Once the two of us were done, Aspen put my handcuffs back on, caught me by the elbow and we emerged out of the ground in front of the state prison. Walking in, we put the bags under the scanner, from where the prison guards took charge of them.
As for me, the infamous Gravel that had been stuck in the prison for almost a month now because Super Storm had vouched for him, I left Storm’s side, went through a metal detector, then some heavy frisking, and then finally walked into a small area that was partitioned off to change into the boring prison uniform. They at least let me keep my mask, so I guess I shouldn’t really be complaining.
Super Storm was waiting for me outside when I re-emerged.
“Aw, is someone still mad?” I teased as we made our way to the main holding area that was bustling with people. All the prisoners were out of their cells, with buckets of paint in hand as they drew whatever they wished on the previously grey walls of the prison. The guards stood by the perimeter and some of them were even smiling and mingling in with the inmates, helping them wipe paint off the brushes.
It was truly a remarkable change, one I never thought I’d be seeing.
One none other than Super Storm had brought about.
And I could see it in his eyes, how much this meant to him. He was smiling at the sight in front of him, greeting people – inmates and guards alike – as he left me to join them in colouring the prison cells.
I was grinning despite myself as I went towards Garnet who was painting a large fir tree on the entire height of the wall.
“Did you get blue?” she asked when she saw me approach. “I’m out of blue.”
I gaped at her. “Are you for real?”
“What?”
“Nothing,” I snorted.
“Oh-kaay,” Roux frowned slightly, then took a step closer to me and whispered, “Anything new?”
I looked around to ensure no one was eavesdropping. “Storm has probably found a lot of new leads but he’s keeping it all tight under the lid.”
“But why?” she nearly cried.
I shushed her. “He thinks we’ll escape and go Horwitz-hunting on our own.”
“You mean he doesn’t trust us?” She shook her head incredulously. “We can escape any time we want. We are literally still here just because you’ve given him your word.”
“Yeah, and since he’s being so secretive, I think we show him what we can do.”
“What do you mean?”
“We escape tonight,” I muttered, voice barely audible.
“But I thought you promised him we won’t use our powers –”
She broke off when she heard me chuckle. “We’re Super Villains, Garnet. We don’t need superpowers to break out of prison.”
Garnet broke into a grin, as wide as my own. “Alright Gravel, show me what you got.” She pointed her paintbrush at me dramatically and then turned back to her work, super casually as if we hadn’t just discussed felony.
Feeling confident and super glad at myself, I walked away from her and let my eyes admire the myriad artworks that were being created. There was this one guy drawing dolphins on his side of the wall. Another guy was painting the bars of his cell. Another one had decided to paint on the floor and was currently hissing at anyone who dared walk close to his masterpiece. Super Storm was amidst them, helping three prisoners paint the sun that those idiots had drawn ridiculously high and only Storm was able to reach it, and that too, by hovering in midair.
So yes, maybe I was busy with creepily staring at my enemy which kept me distracted enough to walk headfirst onto a fellow inmate who was carrying a newly opened bucket of blue paint, all of which now decorated my stupid shirt.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” the guy muttered, terrified out of his wits. Lol, it felt good to know Gravel still had that kind of power.
Without bothering to reply, I walked away from him and into the washroom. Previously, none of us would be allowed to roam about like this, unsupervised. Now, thanks to Super Storm, the cops were taking their jobs way less seriously.
Speaking of the devil, I was trying to wash the paint off my shirt when Storm walked in.
“What do you want?” I groaned.
“From you? Nothing. I’ve come to wash my hands.” He raised his colour-stained hands in front of my face. “The world doesn’t revolve around you, you know,” he chuckled.
I wasn’t sure why that hit a nerve but I gritted my teeth and made to walk away. I was stopped in midstep with Storm wrapping his fingers around my wrist and pulling me into his arms.
“Nope, not interested,” I muttered, trying to step away.
Aspen laughed at my efforts. Laughed!
“I told you we’re not doing this in pri –” I broke off with a gasp as his hands slid under my shirt, his rough gloved hands sending shivers through my spine. “Aspen,” I warned through parted lips.
“Whatever you say, darling,” he whispered, his lips brushing against my collarbone.
“Are you even –”
Suddenly his roaming hands were gone and he lifted his head to look at me, eyes full of mischief.
“Gotcha,” he said, raising his hand to show me the two paper clips I had hidden in the folds of my shirt.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said.
“Uh huh, okay. So you mean to say you hadn’t nicked them from the store, with the plan of escaping from prison?”
“Of course not.”
Aspen raised a brow, still smirking.
I groaned. I was finally going to get the hell out of that stupid place and get a nice shower and binge watch a show with Roux, eating pizza one could easily steal from the delivery guys. Ugh, why did that bitch have to ruin everything?!
I pursed my lips at him. “I hate you, Storm,” I muttered.
Aspen smiled that stupid but equally gorgeous smile of his. “I hate you too, Gravel.”
the end
- shjdjfjrjrjfjtj the amazing art by pixie-smear
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A/n
HOLY SHIT I just finished my second boyxboy novella oof.
There are a couple of bonus chapters after this, do check them out.
And more importantly, this book is being REWRITTEN with a better plot, new characters, more fluff and drama and will contain a sequel where we'll deep-dive into Storm's life.
Go check it out? It's up on my profile.