Prompt Fifty Two:
Their reluctant partnership started when hero’s life was threatened and they’d had needed a ‘different’ set of eyes on the odd puzzles that the prospective murderer was sending them.
Villain had agreed for a price of course, plus they always loved puzzles, so it beat being bored.
At some point it became sharing a pot of terrible coffee with your worst enemy both of them crammed into a ratty booth at the 24 hour diner working over scraps of the clues trying to piece the identity of the guy together.
They had decided on the diner because it was neutral ground, a welcoming place in a bad neighborhood. They had to make an agreement not to fight, a few times both of them came close to breaking that agreement. Each of those times they’d left the diner sure that the partnership was over, but each time they inexplicably found themselves back again the next night, sometimes they even shared jokes about getting so bent out of shape.
Neither of them could remember who had offered their house first, but it was definitely due to the availability of better coffee, shortly thereafter hero had let their baking skills shine, offering cookies, coffee cakes and scones to go with the coffee.
Villain had been impressed.
There must have been a point when their automatic response to their enemy showing up on their porch stopped being to ready for battle, but neither of them marked it, but it was decidedly after grudging acceptance had given way to an odd shared fondness, a soft sort of friendship forming in all of those moments when hero shared a little about their life and Villain complaining about something ridiculous one of their henchpeople had done (Calling them henchpeople had been hero’s idea).
Sometimes they even got together after a battle, once or twice after a battle with each other, hero would be laid out on the couch, an ice pack held against their head as Villain read them the next set of messages, sometimes stopping to change the ice, or get hero a glass of water (can’t have you shirking your part of the deal, you said we’d solve them together remember?) or Villain would be camped out in bed, ribs bandaged carefully by hero while they’d protested and hero would bring them a milkshake (Can’t win em all right?).
They even stopped looking for weaknesses in each other’s bases, opting instead for movie nights, gripe sessions and attempting to solve each new problem as it came, (they’d narrowed it down to one of five people).
Then Hero disappeared, (Villain was the one who actually reported them missing, after hero had failed to show up at their base). Villain had torn across town to hero’s cramped apartment, finding it trashed, and a trail of hero’s blood starting in the kitchen and leading out the front door to the street.
Villain had stood there in the street, unsure of which way to go, fog slowly rising, until the police arrived, they asked the Villain several questions, all of them fairly offensive.
Villain answered them all, their cooperation flabbergasting the police, when they finished being questioned the Villain had put their team to work, going methodically through the five people that they and hero had narrowed the list down to.
On the third one they got lucky, one of Villain’s henchpeople had even seen hero inside, beaten, gagged, and tied to a radiator.
Villain arrived looking to deal with the deranged obsessive themselves, murder in their intentions as well as their eyes, but when they’d gotten to hero they’d passed their weapon to one of their people in favor of carrying hero outside. Hero had been confused, drugged and hurt, but the moment they recognized Villain they’d relaxed a little, they fell asleep in the car on the ride over to Villain’s base.
Hero was fine, they’d had much worse, just a broken wrist, some bruises, a broken nose and a couple of black eyes to match. Villain had them wrapped up and bandaged in no time, after all they’d had some practice.
When hero had woken up they’d thanked them, both for the rescuing and for helping them in the first place. Villain had told them it was nothing, and that they still expected hero to hold up their end of the deal (Wouldn’t dream of dropping out now).
Later hero had gone home, feeling a little off, after all they’d caught the guy who’d been threatening them! Villain had ended up being a good ally and they’d survived without too much damage, why did they feel sad? Like something was gone?
It took them a few days to realize that they missed Villain. (They realized this at breakfast, coffee cup in hand).
And when Villain showed up somewhat sheepishly later that night with an expressive bottle of champagne rationalizing their need to ‘celebrate’ the end of the case, their reluctant partnership really did come to an end. Their friendship, on the other hand (Neither reluctant nor begrudging) was only beginning.
