Six Months Later
"Hello everyone, and welcome to another Rooftop Ramble with your girl, Sasha!" the young girl spoke, voice bright and charismatic, waving into an expensive camera set up on a tripod that Felix was sitting behind, listening to the audio quality with a pair of large headphones.
While Felix's bogus title of 'Public Relations Manager' had been a spur of the moment, self-declared appointment, Felix had ended up growing into the role. Like his brother, he had excellent knowledge about technology, so he monitored all social media mentions about Black Dove and the Parliament. He obliterated anything potentially damaging or identity-revealing from the face of the planet, but also helped Sasha with boosting their public image.
Like every other episode of her most popular series, she had chosen another pretty rooftop with a wonderful backdrop, and was clad in fashionable wide-leg jeans and a distressed grey Black Dove T-shirt, the comic-style print faded to make the shirt look lived-in. She had knotted the T-shirt at her navel, revealing a black leather belt fitted with silver eyelets which matched her pointed-toe black boots, adding a slightly grungy element to her look. Her hair was impeccably curled, held back by a padded headband that kept the wind from whipping her long locks into her face.
Sasha Abeles had become a pretty famous Youtuber over the past six months, known for both her chatty nature and fashion sense, but even more for her videos featuring a certain winged superhero. Sasha's initial claim to fame had been a recorded Instagram live uploaded to her channel, which at that point had a whopping five subscribers (four of her closest friends, and her second account). That video, featuring the bona fide superhero Black Dove and a screeching cat, had racked up millions of views, but her channel subsequently forgotten.
At least, until she uploaded a second video many months later, which was an interview with Black Dove. It ended with the winged hero swooping down from her roof performing a wide variety of stunts, before getting chased across the lawn by the aforementioned cat (fondly nicknamed Black Dove's Kryptonite by her loyal subscribers).
Her third video hadn't featured the hero, but instead a masked Asian woman with bleached bangs, amazing eye-makeup and bejewelled nails. The girl was apparently an aspiring designer and Black Dove's personal stylist. They had made a video about superhero fashion, most notably touching on Black Dove's own suit, which the mystery girl had made. Alternative costume designs were shown, and the designer's talent was broadcast over the internet - she was now on track to starting her own online fashion empire.
After this third video, Sasha Abeles had amassed over 100,000 subscribers, and she made a video with Black Dove unboxing her silver play button. She made a show of Black Dove delivering the package onto a rooftop for her, much to the delight of her fans. This was the first video in the Rooftop Rambles series, and now with over 4 million subscribers, Sasha was in the midst of filming her 10th episode.
"Now, as always, here is a quick recap of Black Dove's deeds over the past fortnight," Sasha said again, gesturing into the air beside her, where she would edit in a montage of Black Dove's heroic activities. She always started off the episodes with a little news reel of Black Dove's greatest hits of the fortnight, the footage supplied by both eager fans that donated self-captured videos, plus some from the hero himself.
"It hasn't been a quiet week for our favourite hero - he's been busy, flying around and helping our dear city as he always does. He's stopped an attempted bank robbery while belting out Mariah Carey songs, and he helped minimise the damage of a near-fatal car crash by lifting one of the cars into the air and parallel parking it on the roadside. He was also very popular during his visit to the Royal Children's Hospital," Sasha explained, pausing emphatically to let out an 'aw' at the empty space beside her, as if seeing the video of Black Dove giving a group of eager children 1-metre high flights inside the hospital. "How adorable!"
Before she could continue onto the next segment of the episode, Sasha noticed Felix waving to her from behind the camera.
"Okay, hold on a second, Sash," Felix said, frowning at the blinking battery symbol on the camera. "Gotta change the battery out."
"Gotcha," Sasha said, skipping over to him as he changed the battery. "When will your brother and Black Dove get here? We've basically filmed all the segments that don't need them."
Felix squinted his phone, the text difficult to make out under the glare of the sun.
Before he could answer, there was a loud whoop as a bundle of black landed on the roof top with a flourish. Felix rolled his eyes at the dramatics, while Sasha just smiled, giving the newcomers a wave.
Milo was lowered onto the roof top, legs still shaky despite having been flown around so many times before, and could barely manage a wave back as he leaned heavily on his knees. Black Dove just laughed at the other boy's expense, patting him on the back, his hand lingering there longer than what Sasha thought was normal for friends.
Though Sasha considered the hero a friend too, considering they made videos together quite often, she knew she wasn't part of the inner circle - or the 'Parliament' as she had heard thrown around every now and then. Sasha wasn't upset that they hadn't really let her in, though she couldn't help but wish to get closer to the tight-knit group. She understood that Black Dove took care to not reveal any information that was too identifying, but she couldn't help feel the barrier of being an outsider whenever Black Dove was around these other people.
She had been approached by Felix first, the boy cornering her at school one day - she was surprised to see the older boy, who was somewhat popular but known to be quiet, smart and selective with the few close friends he had. He had walked up to her as she was leaving the school gates with a pinched expression on his face. She had thought that she had offended him somehow, until he had sneakily pressed a folded piece of paper into her palm, and walked away like nothing had happened.
It was extremely shady, but that paper had been an invitation and an opportunity, one that the girl's eyes shone brightly at - the chance to interview Black Dove, to clear up any misconceptions about him and the Frankenbird Fiasco.
She had asked Felix about how he knew the hero, but he was true to his reputation - quiet and revealing nothing, just rolling his eyes and telling her to make sure to charge her camera batteries. She had asked a few more times, phrasing her inquiries differently every time, but he never budged.
So, instead of asking, she observed. She saw the way Black Dove interacted with Felix - they bickered, and often slung insults at each other, and at first she had been scared that they would end up in a fist-fight when things got heated. But then, they would stare at each other, until suddenly backing off and going back to talking about things like "this camera angle would be better" or "shit, is that a scratch on the lens"? It was then that she realised they were friends, even if it seemed like they hated each other's guts.
Sasha thought that it made sense; Felix approached her about it, so he had to know who Black Dove was. It wasn't farfetched that they were friends.
It also made sense that Felix's brother knew Black Dove, too, but there was something different about their relationship. They didn't fight like cats and dogs (or cats and birds) like the younger sibling and the hero did. Instead, they operated in perfect symbiosis. They finished each other's sentences, and Milo was always giving his friend smiles that she could tell Black Dove was returning, even behind his mask. There were those touches, too, that seemed very intimate.
Best friends, Sasha thought. She would have said they were boyfriends, but it was common knowledge that Black Dove and Nightingale were a thing - like all superheroes, Black Dove had his counterpart, a hero and lover who fought beside him. When she said this on camera one time, Nightingale and Black Dove had burst out laughing, the two of them dropping down onto the ground and rolling around with their wings in hysterics. The Schultz brothers had looked on, unimpressed, but no one commented on it. When the two winged heroes gathered their wits again, they didn't mention anything about it, just looking at each other in amusement and telling Sasha to cut that bit from her video.
She did, but she kept her theory close to her chest.
Nightingale, as well as Red Crane, appeared in some of Sasha's videos, too. It was in these moments that Sasha really felt like she was watching things through a window, though the heroes did unlatch it, allowing her to hear inside. The three heroes, as well as the Schultz brothers, held a sense of camaraderie that felt unbreakable.
They were The Parliament, they had told her. They didn't elaborate, but Sasha had dropped that little tidbit into one of her videos, and now it was a common hashtag used when referencing any one of the crew's members. Justice League, The Avengers, and now, The Parliament.
Sasha snapped out of her reminiscence when Black Dove waltzed up to her, jerking his thumb to the camera Felix had finished re-setting up.
"Ready?" Black Dove asked, stretching out his hand. Sasha nodded eagerly, forgetting about the window that was left unlatched, taking Black Dove's hand which was like an open door.
'One day,' Sasha thought, before turning to the camera, a hopeful smile on her lips. 'One day, I want to find my own Parliament.'
***
Milo pulled off his shirt and tracksuit pants, throwing them onto the arm chair across the room. He wasted no time climbing into bed, tired from class, but also from Gia and Geoff's housewarming party. The two of them had finally moved out of their family home in a bid to escape Mother Go's nagging, and that in itself was a cause for celebration. After a good evening of drinking, smoking and dancing, we had left the GoGo's and gone for an evening flight to sober up before heading home. Our home, because it was as much Milo's as it was mine.
Well, technically it was my parent's, but details.
I laughed as Milo settled himself down in our bed (our, because he slept in it as much as I did these days and my parents laid no claim to a bed we have had sex on), leaning on the headboard as he watched me carefully. Despite his tiredness, his eyes seemed very alert while watching me slowly undress from my Black Dove flight outfit, his throat bobbing when I dropped one of my gloves onto the ground by the foot of the bed.
"Seems like you're not too tired for a striptease," I sang teasingly, eyeing my boyfriend, who smiled.
"Are you going to give me a striptease?" Milo asked, voice a low rumble.
"I will if you ask nicely."
"Alright," Milo said, pulling himself up a bit more to sit up properly, resting his large hands on his taut belly. He tried not to appear too eager, but the way he licked his lips in anticipation made me swell with affection and want. "Ducky, I would very much like a striptease, please."
"I suppose that'll do," I said, wiggling a brow, before running my fingers across my lips slowly. Milo's eyes didn't stray from me once as I bit on the tip of one of the glove's fingers, tugging it off my hand and letting it fall to the ground.
"You're lucky you already took your boots off," Milo said, keeping his voice light though he had absentmindedly started to rub his hand over his stomach, like he couldn't keep still. "Even you can't make getting those shoes off sexy."
"Is that a challenge?" I asked breathily, running my hand across my waist, unfastening my belt and throwing it away with finesse. Milo just raised a brow, and I huffed, thumbing the hem of my backless shirt, my wings flapping with a hint of offence. "Next time, I'll show you just how sexy I can make taking off my boots. I might get something else off while doing it as well."
Milo choked on his inhale, and I grinned, slowly pulling the hem of my shirt up, teasing Milo with a show of skin. I brought the tight top up and up, almost revealing a nipple that I intended to tease a little. I saw Milo swallow, the hand on his stomach twitching as it clearly wanted to venture lower.
But then, the alarm from the Nest suddenly blared, Milo and I jumping. The two of us locked eyes, bodies frozen, before groaning simultaneously.
"Noooooo, I don't wanna!" I whined, crawling onto our bed and dropping my head to Milo's bare shoulder, battering at my mattress like a toddler in a tantrum. "I don't wanna work! I wanna ride your dick!"
"We've got to though, C," Milo said, though he voice was disgruntled, reluctant to push my weight off him. "If Lark's mum is sounding the alarm, then there's actually something going on other than cats getting stuck up trees."
"But your dick! But my dick! You can't just leave Fleety Jr like this!" I cried out, making grabby hands at Milo's cock as he finally slid out from under me, pulling his shirt and pants back on, struggling to hide the semi-erection he was sporting. "Miloooo, I want your dick, now!"
"C, priorities!" Milo said, gesturing to the blaring lights and siren-like blaring.
"Fuck being a superhero! I just wanna fuck!"
"C!"
"Milo!"
"You're impossible!"
"No, I'm horny and hard," I said, gesturing to the bulge in my pants, Milo suddenly looking very tempted to ignore the blaring of the alarm and to jump right back into bed. Milo tore his eyes from the outline of my member, looking me in the eye, before reaching down to throw a pillow over my junk.
"Later," Milo gritted out, looking both relieved and regretful as I grumbled, reluctantly getting out of bed.
"You suck," I huffed, stepping out of Milo's attempt to grab my hand on our way to the Nest, crossing my arms over my chest.
"I will suck. Later," Milo muttered under his breath. "So you better save whoever needs saving as quickly as possible and come back in one piece." Milo glanced at me, and his eyes softened at the pleased expression I was no doubt sporting.
What can I say? I'm easy to please.
I was fighting the grin building on my mouth at my boyfriend's cheeky yet heartwarming words, reaching out to link my hand with his, before dropping onto Milo's lap after he sunk down on his chair in front of the Nest screens.
Milo clicked on the answer button, Olivia's image blinking on the screen surrounded by video feeds from the GoGos, Lark and Felix. The faces of all the people dearest to me looked back at Milo and I - Gia was rolling her eyes at the two of us, Felix mimed throwing up, Geoff was busy having a midnight snack and looked mildly high from the party still, and Lark had been in the middle of applying her nightly face mask.
"I've got a mission for all of you," the Deputy Police Commissioner said, leaning forward on her desk, hands clasped. "Are you up for it?"
Milo and I looked at each other, smiling, before I turned back to the screen. My Parliament looked back at me with mirrored expressions, my heart clenching tightly.
"Of course," I said, voice certain and sure. Getting up from Milo's lap, my boyfriend watching me with pride, I channeled my inner Captain America, sucking in a breath before delivering the cheesiest, lamest line I could come up with.
"Parliament?"
My family looked back at me, already exasperated but curious, indulging me for what felt like the millionth time.
"Let's wing it."
"That's the worst one yet," Lark sighed, though she peeled off her face mask, opening her wardrobe to reveal her white suit. "It doesn't even mean anything encouraging. It literally means that we have no plan."
"No way, it's still better than 'Parliament - Take flight'," Geoff said as Gia threw him pieces of his red suit, the girl looking thoroughly unimpressed by my catchphrases.
"They're all terrible," Felix said, tugging on some headphones, linking with Milo's system in the Nest from his bedroom to help with navigation.
"You're all mean," I said, though I couldn't stop smiling. Olivia sent through the details of the mission revealing the image of a robust bald man with a lengthy criminal record, giving us rendezvous details before dropping out of the call.
Before I went to get grab my discarded gloves and goggles from the bedroom, Milo tugged me into his arms for a long, drawn out kiss, before resting his forehead against mine.
"Come back to me in one piece," Milo whispered against my lips.
"Always," I responded, kissing my boyfriend long and slow again.
I may have been given my powers by a magpie, but at times like this, I felt more like an Atlantic Puffin.
Like them, I'd return to the same burrow every season, every day. I'd fly back from wherever the wind has taken me, back to my mate.
My mate for life.
A/N: And here we have it - the end of the main story! Thank you so much for reading this story until the very end, and I truly hope that you enjoyed the ride :) This story really helped me get through quarantine boredom (though I am a homebody normally anyway), and I had a super great time writing it - I'll definitely be missing the Parliament quite a bit! Hopefully I'll see you in another story some time~
Oh, but there are two bonus chapters coming up after this, so I guess we can't say goodbye to the boys just yet! I'll be posting both chapters in one hit soon, because I can't help but spoil you guys 😘 Hope you enjoy them!