“I’m not looking,” Sunshine says, backing into the room.
“What are you not looking at?” Kevin asks mildly. He and Timo are doing nothing. Well, they’re cuddling and talking, but it’s practically nothing. Timo’s forefinger taps idly on Kevin’s hip.
Sunshine glances at them and then leans out the door to yell, “Ha, I told you!”
Kevin can feel Timo sigh, chest moving under his cheek. He runs his cheek against the strange smooth fabric, just for the sensation; it has the pleasant side effect of making Timo smile down at him.
“Something hot,” Kevin offers quietly. He could actually go for another nap today, since he’s being forced into lassitude and Timo can’t cure the ache of bruises from where he fell.
“There’s that German place,” Timo says, staring seriously at Sunshine. “With the beef stew.”
Sunshine makes a disbelieving noise at him. “Come on, seriously? The wait is so long.”
“Worth it,” Timo says firmly.
“If I get a vote,” Kevin says, interrupting them, “that sounds nice.”
Timo puffs up, all pleased with himself, when Sunshine rolls his eyes and walks back out.
Timo’s warm next to him and he doesn’t protest when Kevin closes his eyes for just a minute.
There’s a hand on his face, gentle and teasing, toying with his cheek. He scrunches his nose slightly and blinks a few times. The light in the room has shifted.
Timo’s hand on his face flattens against his cheek, tilting his head up. “Time for lunch,” he says, looking amused. “You might want to brush your hair first, though.”
Kevin rolls out of Timo’s arms slowly, less exhausted but more sore. “What happened to my hair?”
“Me,” he says with a grin. His eyes crinkle at the corners. “You were sleeping and I was bored.”
Kevin stretches slowly and makes his way to the bathroom. “I wasn’t asleep that long. How bad could—holy shit what did you do?” He leans over the edge of the sink to peer at himself in the mirror and he can’t stop laughing. It looks like he rubbed a balloon on his head, stuck a fork in a socket, and then set the whole thing with hairspray. It’s ridiculous.
Timo leans in the doorway, mouth quirked with satisfaction as he watches Kevin try and manage his hair. It requires the heavy application of water and a comb, but Kevin does eventually get it under control even with one hand. He shakes his damp head and Timo catches him in the doorway so he can wipe away a stray drop of water rolling down Kevin’s temple. Kevin pushes him back into the doorframe gently and kisses him.
“Come on,” Timo says finally, pulling back and blinking slowly at Kevin like some kind of large cat. “Lunch.”
“Lunch,” Kevin agrees, leading the way out of the bedroom.
“Hey,” Erik says pleasantly when he sees them. “Food should be here in a couple of minutes.”
Kevin pulls out a chair. Someone has set the table with Kevin’s assortment of plates and forks. Timo sits next to him, draping an arm across the back of Kevin’s chair. Kevin leans into him, feeling his warmth.
“Antti went to get the food,” Erik explains, still fiddling with the Super data. It looks like he’s zoomed in on the downtown area. “We had a discussion while you were asleep.”
“Oh?” Kevin wants to know, but with his luck lately, he’s also apprehensive. Maybe Erik is just going to try and lock him up until they solve this problem. He thinks they probably won’t kill him. At least, not in front of Ember, who is currently floating above the fridge.
“Yeah, we decided that it doesn’t make a lot of sense for you to only know a couple people’s names. We agreed to equal risk for all of us, as a team.”
“Also,” Sunshine says cheerfully, “Firestorm can’t remember whether to use code names or not and it’s hurting his tiny brain.”
Firestorm puts him in a headlock and Kevin watches as they both sail lightly across the room until they bounce off the wall.
“Enough,” Erik says gently. He doesn’t raise his voice, but the two of them separate. They’re both smiling, so Kevin assumes this happens often. “Now, you’ve met me. Blue Blaze?”
“Oh we handled that already,” Timo says, sounding smug. Kevin elbows him, but it does nothing to dent his smirk.
“Okay...Ember?”
“Hi,” Ember says with a wave, sinking down to the floor. “You can call me Tommy.”
“I’m Marcus,” Sunshine says, claiming the chair next to Kevin. “Whenever you get bored with Timo, let me know.” He laughs with delight when Timo flips him off behind Kevin’s head.
Firestorm takes a seat next to Erik as Tommy goes to answer the door. “I’m Melker.”
Erik looks expectantly at the apparently empty living room. “Ultraviolet?”
There’s a lavender shimmer and then Ultraviolet appears, stretched out along the length of the couch. He tiles his head to look at Kevin and there is just something unnerving about his eyes. “Simek,” he says curtly. “You can call me Simmer.”
“Hi,” Antti says, sweeping into the room with an armful of bags. “Food is here.”
There’s a flurry of movement and then the table is absolutely loaded with take out containers. Kevin recognizes half the food as at least adjacent to what his mother makes, so he parcels out a little of everything onto his plate. It only takes a bite to agree with Timo that is was worth the wait. He whispers as much to Timo and Timo looks perfectly delighted.
“You’re going to spoil him, Timo,” Melker says warningly.
“Oh definitely,” Timo agrees without thinking. Half the table erupts in laughter, but Kevin pecks a kiss on his cheek.
Tommy says something across the table, something about bread and Simmer rummages in a pile of little boxes to toss a roll the length of the table.
“Wait,” Kevin says, interrupting his own inhalation of the stew and the sausage. “Do all of you speak Czech?”
“No,” Marcus says. “Erik, Melker, and I speak Swedish. Antti speaks Finnish. Timo mostly grew up speaking German, but the asshole is also perfectly fluent in French.”
“Oui, je parle français,” Timo agrees, smiling beatifically even when Antti elbows him.
“We speak Czech,” Tommy says gesturing at Simmer and himself. “And you speak Slovak, yes?”
“Kind of,” Kevin amends. “Waaay better at listening than speaking. A lot of the Slovak I know is just what you say at home, you know? I listened to my parents speaking all the time, but I never had to do academics with it or use it for work.”
“You’ll have to join us,” Timo says, looking fond. “We play a game to pass the time, trying to get the others to translate ridiculous sentences in their language.”
Kevin smiles. It sounds perfectly mundane, which they could all really use when they’re done trying not to get murdered. “So,” he says, “how did you all become a color-coordinated, all-European Super team? There’s no way that was an accident, right?”
Simmer snickers off to Kevin’s left but doesn’t elaborate.
“It was sort of an accident,” Erik explains, passing a box of roasted vegetables down to Tomas and taking the gravy in turn. “We were a men’s league hockey team. You know, community event for new transplants to the area, a way to maybe meet other people in the same situation. Hockey doesn’t require a lot of English, especially at that level, so it’s a good way to make new friends for a lot of us.”
“Oh, so how long have you known each other?” Kevin lets Timo pile more food on his plate. He hooks his ankle around Timo’s companionably.
“About three years?” Antti guesses. The others shrug agreeably.
“So we used to practice at this small, rundown rink, on the outskirts of town. Kind of a shithole, but ice time was cheap and the rink was usually cleared by the Zamboni around the time we all got off work anyway.” Erik pauses to take a bite of his food.
“There was an accident,” Timo picks up solemnly. He keeps staring at his plate, even as Kevin turns to look at him. “We were the last ones in the building. It wasn’t unusual. Sometimes the front counter employees would tell us to just lock up before we left; most of them were just teenagers. We were on the ice and the light rigging broke. All the lights came down in an explosion of sparks. When we woke up, everything hurt like hell and we were glowing in the darkness.”
“Except Erik,” Marcus says. There’s something in his eyes that makes Kevin stay silent.
“Except me,” Erik confirms lightly. “The universe saw my ability to captain the hockey team and decided I needed to have a permanent team of idiots to boss around.”
Marcus laughs at that and says something in Swedish. Kevin can tell he and Erik are teasing each other about something, but it flies over his head.
Timo bumps his knee gently. “Erik blackmailed the owner into giving him the rink instead of getting sued. When this is all over, Erik will give us ice time if I ask nicely. I saw you had skates in your room.”
“I’m gonna wipe the ice with you,” Kevin promises with a grin. Timo looks appropriately delighted at the challenge.
It’s a quiet afternoon and Kevin would protest more if he wasn’t on dose two of pain meds. The thought of taking a day off fills him with anxiety, but he can admit that typing reports with one hand would be slow and futile. He does log in long enough to skim Jake’s latest work. It looks fine, just as he would expect. The Supers come in and out and Kevin beats whoever is in his living room at Mario Kart while mostly using one hand.
“Okay,” Erik says over dinner (reheated stew). Everyone else got a glass of wine, but Kevin has stuck with water. He’s going to be achy enough tomorrow without a headache. Erik passes the bread to his left and continues, “The attacks have been very localized and in proximity to you alone. I think we can assume that our safe house is, well, safe still. We’re going to be chaperoning you directly to and from work.”
“And anywhere else,” Melker says with a small nod.
“Until we get more information about the villainous Super,” Marcus says, “you’ll just have to be careful.”
“I’ll be careful,” Kevin agrees. Timo looks doubtful, but he can shove it. Kevin has looked out for himself in the city for years.
“We’ll take shifts,” Erik explains patiently. “I assume you want Timo here for the night shift? The rest of us will switch off during the day.”
“No,” Kevin says, shaking his head. He can feel Timo going still next to him, but he keeps talking. “I want Timo on the same sleep schedule. He should sleep at night and take one of the day shifts when I can see him.”
“That’s disgusting,” Marcus says with glee.
“That’s sweet,” Tommy counters, but Kevin can barely hear him because Timo has cupped his chin and pulled him into a kiss.
“I’ll take you to work in the morning,” Timo promises.
Kevin grins sharply, “And bring me breakfast? Antti brought me breakfast.”
Timo loops an arm around Kevin’s shoulders, gesturing expansively. “Obviously. You only have three stale pop tarts and I will not be having that for breakfast.”
Kevin can laugh at that, because it’s true. He hasn’t gone grocery shopping this week, so his food stores are down to the nonperishables; there’s three poptarts, two cans of beans, and a rather suspect packet of Tuna-to-Go.
“You’re going to spoil me with breakfast?” he asks, half teasing.
“Obviously,” Timo whispers lowly, pressing a kiss to the corner of Kevin’s mouth.
“Oh come on,” Melker protests. “Not during dinner.” Simmer elbows him, but Kevin can feel his cheeks going pink. He likes these Supers, quite a bit, but not enough to parade a nascent relationship in front of them without any shame.
Dinner is a loud and cheerful affair, but Kevin is glad to go to bed early for once. He’s still sore and tired and tomorrow he has to lie to Patty, which he hates doing.
It’s not like Kevin tries walking alone in alleyways by himself, but sometimes the trains stop and he’s the only one in his office who lives that far out so one way or another he does end up walking alone. He’s hypervigilant now, remembering Blue Blaze’s warning.
Gritty decides to take over one of the subway tunnels and Kevin has to take an unplanned detour for his evening commute. After 2 years, Kevin honestly still can’t tell if Gritty is a hero or a villain. Kevin’s leaning hard towards villain when it starts raining and he’s only halfway home. He wore decent loafers to work and kept a spare pair of sneakers in his bag and neither are a good option for navigating the rainy streets. He steps ankle deep into a cold puddle and curses vigorously.
“Rude,” an amused voice says from somewhere above him. There’s a warm glow, like butter, and then he’s dry.
When Kevin looks up, there’s a hovering blob of yellow light directly above him, somehow diverting the rain.
“Thanks?” Kevin says, squinting slightly.
“A friend suggested I check on you,” the glow says in a softly accented voice. “He also said you were rude, but it wasn’t personal.”
“You’re one of Blue Blaze’s teammates?”
“Ah,” the disembodied voice says, pleased, “he mentioned me.”
“Uh, sorry,” Kevin cringes, “not really. He just mentioned some of his team might come and check on me.”
The light ripples, pools of golden light shifting, and then Kevin can see a face peeking out from behind the yellow rays. It’s a very sharp, angular face, but a smile transforms it. “Sunshine,” the Super says, glittering at Kevin. “That’s my name. Sunshine.” There’s something about him, something that makes Kevin less cranky.
“Kevin,” he says offering his hand to shake. He assumes that’s polite and he nearly melts when the Super clasps his hand and warms him suddenly.
“So if you haven’t been talking about—Blue Blaze’s handsome friends, what have you been talking about?” The Super flips his long hair dramatically and Kevin laughs, feeling lighter.
“Mostly our days,” Kevin admits, continuing his slow walk home. The yellow glow over his shoulder dries the path in front of him somewhat and keeps him warm. “What infrastructure he’s been protecting from villains and how much I hate the trains.”
“I don’t think it’s the train’s fault that Gritty exists.”
“Well, it wasn’t the train’s fault when Blue Blaze peeled it either, but I still had to walk home.”
Kevin’s a little surprised when the Super laughs, face crinkling. “You’re blaming him for that?”
Kevin shrugs awkwardly. “I mean...I saw it.”
“Nah, that wasn’t his fault. He didn’t fix it, but it wasn’t his fault. Firestorm melted all of the solder holding the train together.”
“Do any of you know how to use your powers in a safe and sane way? Are you in a Self Control for Supers program?” Kevin asks, mostly teasing.
“If you’re not nice,” Sunshine says flatly, “I’ll sunburn you and you can see how well I control my powers.”
“Terrifying,” Kevin says dryly.
“Ah well, see if Blue thinks you’re cute when you’re all red and peeling.”
“He thinks I’m cute?” Kevin asks, stopping on the sidewalk.
“I said nothing,” Sunshine says, shaking his head. His hair does not seem to obey the laws of gravity, floating up around him like golden rays. “Come on, bedtime for little businessmen.” He swoops down and picks Kevin up bridal-style, ignoring Kevin’s surprised yelp. Without saying a word, he speeds off, carrying Kevin to his apartment building without a delay.
The wind is cold and sharp and Kevin ducks his face away when it makes his eyes water.
He’s completely disoriented when he’s plopped on the sidewalk and he almost falls over. Sunshine nods, apparently satisfied, and waves at Kevin as he flies off.
“What the fuck?” Kevin says dizzily, failing twice to punch in his building code. He’d almost have rather walked home.
