Thorns sting harder than Words
Chapter 1/?: Salt in the Wound.
Flambae/Chad x Male Reader
Warning for Violence and eventual Smut
Chad had been at SDN for a bit now, almost three months it seemed. Time went by fast when you were having fun, he supposed. Ugh, to even think that he was enjoying his time at SDN made bile come up the back of his throat. He hated that he enjoyed this. Being best friends with Prism, Talking to his co-workers? every day, helping clean up messes and solve crime. His life used to be so different. He used to be the villain. Starting fires, Hurting people, Causing messes. Now he's the one cleaning them up and keeping others from doing the same. It was weird, in a way. Redemption felt wrong for some reason. It felt like he was betraying his past self and all of his past values to be a completely new man.
Shaking those thoughts away, he focused back on the moment, sitting in his car, parked in front of the SDN building already dressed for work. He took a deep breath, clenching his fists tightly to let off some of the tension in his body. Today felt strange, somehow. Wrong. Like something bad would happen. Squeezing his eyes shut and forgetting those thoughts he got out of his car and made his way into the SDN building, gait confident and chest sticking out in pride, just like he always walked.
Standing in the elevator he crossed his arms, a frown on his face and his foot tapping the ground impatiently below him as he watched the numbers on the pad light up. Though it didn't take long for him to arrive on the second floor where the main action was happening. The doors slid open and he saw everything just how it always was; people at their bullpens, Sonar shoving another donut into his mouth from the Krispy Kreme box that was on the counter in the kitchen, holding a cup of coffee in the other hand, Invisigal laughing and taking a picture of him doing that with powdered sugar around his mouth, blonde blazer leaning over chase's bullpen to talk to him, Punch up and Malevola standing by the corner talking and golem sitting in the break room with a comically big mug in his hand weighing the whole sofa down.
Just as normal then. Why was Flambae feeling so on edge today? He walked further into the office, giving Waterboy a gentle shove. "Move, Wet wipe." He grumbled, making him stumble. Flambae leaned one arm on robert's bullpen, crossing one leg behind the other as he stood and looked down at him. "So Bob-Bob. Anything exciting going on today?" He questioned, raising a brow with a smirk. "Or will you just sit on your ass all day and look at porn on company time again?" Blonde blazer rolled her eyes as she overheard this and walked over, giving Chad a playful glare. "Don't make this an HR problem again, alright?"
Flambae rolled his eyes, scoffing lightly. "Yeah yeah blondie, get off my ass." She was always so annoying and acted high and mighty. It got on his nerves.
He made his way over to the briefing room, seeing prism already there and sitting next to her in his usual spot. "What's up, Girl?" He grinned, leaning onto her shoulder while he sat, his feet casually propped up on the table. "Bae! I'm so glad you're here. I'm so bored already. Today is slow as fuck." She sighed dramatically, throwing her head back over the backrest of her chair.
Chad snickered, nudging her shoulder "Let's hope something exciting happens then, huh? Like, a hostage situation. Or an explosion." He teased, and she giggled with a nudge back in return. Slowly everyone else started filling in, and they started their weekly briefing.
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Chad groaned as he laid on the sofa of the SDN breakroom, throwing a yoyo in the air and catching it over and over again. He had been here for hours and hadn't even gotten one good dispatch while everyone else had over two already. This definetly felt targeted. He'd have to chew Robert out over it later. Just then his headpiece beeped, signaling Robert tapping into his comms. "Flambae, we need you on the scene. Everyone else is busy. There's a villain terrorizing people on the street and seemingly involved in some kind of gang fight?" He muttered the last part in a confused manner. "Doesn't really matter. Stop him before there are any more casualities. I sent the location to your phone."
Finally something to do! Flambae threw his yoyo at Golem "Bye rock-face" he grinned, stretching and making his way outside. Once outside he used his flames to fly through the sky to where this supposed villain was. There wasn't really much information about him, otherwise Robert would have told him, but he was sure he wouldn't have that much trouble getting them taken care of.
The closer he got to the city the darker it became. Abandoned and flipped over cars, buildings fully pitch black with no light on, some cars burning or dented as if something huge had flung itself down on it. It went on like this for a bit, but he heard gunshots, though they sounded distant and somehow close at the same time. "Robert. This is weird." He muttered through his headset, and Robert sighed on the other end, most likely pinching the bridge of his nose like he did when he was frustrated. "You're close, Flambae, just take care of it fast." Chad rolled his eyes, scoffing and mocking him with a high pitched voice. Some people were crouching in alleyways, a mother was sitting there scared, cowering with her child in her arms. Flambae got a weird pit in his stomach. This was definetely not your everyday thug. This was someone who was strong.
Once he looked straight ahead he jumped slightly, realizing that he was stuck in some form of void that ended just where the lit up buildings in the distance used to be. The buildings around him were covered in some sort of purple hued spiked vines, which snaked all around them while they throbbed. Flambae narrowed his eyes at them, flinching as he heard the gunshots underneath him, way closer now. The villain was down there, in a skintight bodysuit, fully black with purple cracks and vines, almost like a tree bark pattern. The arms had thorned vines snaking up it and so did the mask. The person reached a hand out, one of the same vines on the buildings snaked underneath the concrete, breaking it in it's way and sprouting out to wrap around a car which he pulled toward himself to haul at the gang members shooting at him. Two of the five of them got crushed by said car while the remaining three ran behind another car and kept shooting, but missed most of their shots. The villain stood up, noticing Flambae in his dome. He was glowing bright orange so he was hard to miss. Cocking his head to the side, the figure reached a hand out under him, making a fist and thrusting it out toward Flambae. Confused, Chad narrowed his eyes and watched as another thorned vine sprouted from the ground right at him. He did a barrel roll just quick enough to escape it, but didn't see the second one coming at him from the other side. Both grabbed his ankles, wrapping around them with a tight grip and the figure whose hands are outstretched in the air moved to fling them toward the ground, which caused the vines do the same, flinging Flambae directly onto the concrete ground. "ow- what the fuck?!" He exclaimed, pushing himself up enough to see the other person again. He couldn't make eye contact, but staring into the eye sockets of their mask alone made him uneasy. "Aw, fuck-!" He yelled as he realized the vines were still wrapped around his ankles and were now hurling him at the side of a building, dragging him through the outside wall.
He set himself fully on fire again with his power, attempting to use it to lessen his blow against the concrete walls of a 10 story building. He tried to grip onto the side, but just ripped more of the wall out instead. "Okay, That's enough." He grumbled with clenched teeth, using his enflamed hands to make daggers of fire and slash through the vines. The villain flinched at this, and the vines fell limp to the ground, leaking a purple liquid onto the floor that slowly sizzled on the concrete below.
They looked agitated before summoning more vines, two of them wrapping around their legs to project them up toward Flambae, the other two he used to attack Flambae again. "I'm gonna make you into roast beef i swear." He muttered, using his power to fly away and avoid the villain, who was attempting to slash and grab at him with his vines. One tried to grab him from above, though he moved just barely enough for it to graze his shoulders and slice through his hairtie, making his hair spill out over his shoulders gracefully, another jabbed at him from below, making him fly up over the other one and cross them over each other. He snickered, flying down under them and through them, making the vines follow him but get tangled up into a knot and fall to the ground below him.
The person balled their fists, using their powers to disintegrate the existing vines that were tangled and create new ones that thrust straight at Flambae. This surprised him and finally, The concealed figure succeeded in wrapping the vines around Flambae's body, constricting them tighter around his burning figure. Though they completely forgot the thugs behind them, and didn't notice them pointing their guns at them and shooting them in the thigh.
Grunting in pain, they gripped their thigh and lost their balance and focus on the vines as well, they looked back and focused them on the gang members since Flambae escaped their grasp anyway. The three men got wrapped in the vines and he squeezed until there was a sickening crunch coming from them and blood dripping down into puddles below.
The other man attempted to block his punches and defend himself with his vines, but his power was quickly deteriorating as he's been doing this for a while. The dome around them began getting cracks and the purple glow lessened. "Why won't you just fucking give up!" Flambae yelled as he delivered kicks and punches to the other person's body. They tried to fight back, block a punch, retaliate with a kick, bite, tug on his hair, anything to get him off, but eventually their injuries overpowered the desperation and he was cornered, giving Flambae the perfect opportunity to deliver another hard punch to their mask, breaking a chunk of it off.
Flambae cringed, "Gross. Talk about juicing." But he took the opportunity to push some flames his way. The villain realized just in time, covering his face with his arms and crouching down slightly. Once the flames subsided the man seemed fine. His clothes were smoking, but they weren't ripped nor was he hurt. "What the fuck?!" He exclaimed, flying down toward him and punching his mask instead. If fire wasn't gonna work, he was just gonna use what works best. Punching. "Do you have fire resistant clothes you prick?!"
Now Flambae could see part of their face, just until their cheekbone and where his nose would have started. The gash on their forehead was slowly trailing blood, making their hair stick to their forehead as well as the sweat that had accumulated throughout the fight. Those eyes. He recognized them. He used to stare into them longingly. And that scar on their eyebrow, just like the one his..
No. It couldn't be.
"Rubus?"
"Guess the cat's out the bag, Chad." They finally spoke, their first sentence since they'd met. Rough and breathless, almost croaked out accompanied by a humorless, dry chuckle. He'd recognized that voice anywhere. His heart hammered a million miles a minute in his chest, his stomach twisting up in knots while he stared down at the other man. "Go on. Kill me." He muttered meekly, leaning his head back against the wall and looking up at Chad with dull eyes. The dome developed more cracks until it shattered over them, The black shards disappearing in the air. Now the night sky could be seen, the stars shimmering, the rest of the city in the background. They could hear the police and ambulance sirens in the distance. He was either dying or going to prison for a long time now, no way to avoid that. He'd accepted it.
"But.. i thought you died!" Chad exclaimed, tears welling up in his eyes that he blinked away aggressively as he looked at him in disbelief. "…Surprise?" Rubus shrugged meekly, and Flambae sighed in frustration. "I'm only doing this once." He whispered, voice quivering. "For you. For us." he pressed a kiss against the other's forehead, giving him a longing look before letting him go and flying off to where the sirens came from, stalling them until he knew Rubus was gone.
