𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐑 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐱 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑 ; 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐗𝐇𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐕
WC ; 3,643
TW ; vulgar language.
A/N ; my gratious purple man has nothing for himself. come get your man 💜
you'd like to think that you're more relaxing to have around than fink, sometimes.
your boss—professor venomous—was notorious for the sheer amount of bio-weapons he produced. he was like a machine. he made everything by hand, and had so much money that he could take breaks whenever he wanted. your literal job was to help him with anything he needed, but nowadays, he hasn't really been asking for your assistance. nor has he been asking fink, to be fair.
fink wasn't very happy when you came into the picture. you're too… normal. you're not evil enough. when was the last time someone like you did something evil or destructive? lame!
at the moment, your room was the only thing to keep you company, as you drummed your fingers on your desk. usually, around this time, you'd be doing venomous's paperwork for him—all of the boring shit. but the weird thing was that you haven't had to do a single paper all week. you've just been… playing video games with fink. scrolling on your phone. texting your friends. keeping up to date with "action news 52."
you don't think you've seen your lovely, evil boss come out of his lab for hours; maybe even a few days. the last time you saw him was when you made breakfast, and saw his slender purple fingers creep from out of the lab door to steal a plate of your famous waffles (one of the things fink actually liked about you).
worry churned inside of you.
uncharacteristically, you got out of your room, passing by fink. truth be told, she hasn't been able to sleep at all. usually, professor tucks her in every night.
"hey! what're you—"
"get in bed, fink," you say, blinking slowly as you gesture to the clock. 2:14 a.m. you can still hear professor venomous mumbling to himself in his lab. "do you want me to come and read you a bedtime story? i'm sure boss wants to, i'm sure he does. he just gets… busy, you know?"
fink pouts up at you, arms crossed. but her eyes are heavy—and the way her tiny body sways back and forth shows that she is, in fact, ready for bed. setting your differences aside, she wordlessly allows you to pick her up by the armpits and carry her to her bed. a small smile crawls on your face when she's already knocked out cold just from laying on the warmth of your skin. you lay her down on her small bed, brushing the hair lightly out of her face, before shutting her lights off and closing the door gently.
you're next course of action? getting your boss to go to bed.
you shut off all of the house lights, taking light footsteps to his door. you could see the faint rainbow glow of whatever he was doing in there under the door crack. taking a deep breath and holding it, you knock on his door, a part of you hoping he doesn't respond because he's too busy being passed out.
"c'min."
well shit.
letting go of your held breath, you let yourself in, smiling anxiously as you take a few steps. his lab is bright—bright as the fucking sun. you figured that's a method he uses to keep himself awake. his lab was also surprisingly… messy. it's usually in pristine condition (because you clean it every day), but it's probably fell to the dogs because he's been so cooped up in here.
"hey, boss," you start, shutting the door behind you. he doesn't look at you—his back is all you can see. but, you notice his hair is more disheveled than usual. it's grown a bit longer in the back, too. your feet slap against the cold tile of his lab, dodging a few puddles of… something. plants and odd liquids. "i, uh, i got fink into bed for you. poor thing conks out nowadays even without a bedtime story."
your quiet laughs catch his attention. professor venomous takes a breath and finally looks away from his station. "thank you. i appreciate it."
now that you have a better view of him, guilt churns in your stomach. his eyes were half-lidded and drooping, looking as if they were weighed down by 50 pounds. his stubble started to spread slightly, and parts of his hair fell onto his face.
my boss is so fucking hot, you internally struggle with yourself. i can't make this about me. he looks like he's on the brink of death.
with a raised fist to your lips, you clear your throat. "you're welcome, boss. it's no problem. you know, uh—you should rest, too. charge your battery for the next experiment, yeah?"
"thanks for the worry, truly. but i must get this figured out by tomorrow. you know how cosma is," professor venomous answers, a lackluster smile in his words as he shakes his head. he yawns, nearly dropping a test tube he had just picked up. you can see the panic that flashes on his face when he catches it just in time.
you frown deeper, taking more steps towards him. he slumps in his chair multiple consecutive times, before jolting back to life. you've never seen him so… frazzled before. was this your fault? should you have checked up on him more?
"professor," you continue, voice soft when you finally reach him. when he's in a spot unable of dropping anything, you put a hand on his back. "please. take a nap at least for an hour. then you can get back to work."
your gentle touch makes him jump, shooting up straight immediately. after a few seconds, he relaxes into your palm, leaning on his hand as he sets down all of his stuff.
venomous laughs for a moment. "that's not gonna work on me, sweetheart. you'll snatch up my alarm and turn it off. i know you."
red flushes onto your face. "will not!"
"yeah you will. look," his features soften, a genuine smile reaching his lips as he looks up at you from his chair. "i appreciate it all, really, i do, but i have to get this figured out."
you're frozen in place from the caring way he looks at you—it only makes you want to help more. he's ruined. he looks two minutes away from passing out. if he's not going to let you take care of him, you'll just have to worm your way through the cracks one by one.
"okay," his expression lights up from your sigh of defeat, "you win this one, boss. just… just let me clean up around here, okay? can i at least do that for you?"
his smile falters, but he nods. professor venomous feels the warmth of your hand leave his back, as he continues to focus on his glorb study. a part of him really wanted to just go to bed like you wanted him to do. a part of him wanted to feel your warmth again—
maybe all of this exhaustion was getting to his head.
you brought in a trash can, picking up all of the stray soda cans and pizza crust (extremely out of character for him). you mopped up spills and stacked all of his dirty dishes, as well. genuinely, you didn't think he'd ever let himself fall apart this bad. but you knew that you were always going to be here to help him, whether he likes it or not.
"boss," you spoke up, interrupting the long moment of silence. he hums. "when was the last time you ate?"
no answer. sweat goes down his temple. "this morning."
"really?"
"…no."
you shake your head, setting the trash can down and leaving the lab to go to the kitchen.
your exhausted boss tries to get a glimpse of what you're doing, but in doing so, leans over the counter and almost breaks his test tubes. he sighs in relief, letting his shoulders relax as he continues to work tirelessly. this was all for a good cause—bettering himself and getting the funds necessary to buy out lord boxmans entire recent stock.
in the kitchen, you open the fridge door and rummage through it for… whatever leftovers you possibly could have had. you do the majority of the cooking in the mansion, as your boss prefers to eat out and spend thousands of technos on expensive, fancy dinners. but you would hope that at least him and fink like your food.
you deadpan when you find some leftover spaghetti in the back of the fridge, untouched and labeled professor v. upon further inspection, you thought that this was the leftover spaghetti from a restaurant that he, you, and fink went to last week. it was clearly labeled fancy spaghetti. opening the container, you realized, in fact, this was not the fancy spaghetti.
it was yours. taste, appearance, and all. you made spaghetti last night—fink and professor venomous love spaghetti; that's the only reason you made it even after you already had some for the week. you would like to think that your spaghetti is good.
a smile crawls onto your lips, unable to stop spreading. as you heat it up in the microwave, you can't help but feel your smile turn into a smirk. you can not wait to tease him about this.
when you return to the lab with a fork stabbed into the spaghetti, one of the new things you notice is the way your boss's head lulls back and forth, jolting in place sometimes from going to sleep and then immediately waking up. your frown deepens.
"hey boss, i got you some of your fancy spaghetti from last week. i know it might not be what you want, but—"
…where the fuck did the container go.
you glance down at your empty hands and back up at professor venomous multiple times, only to find that he has it, and is inhaling the entire thing. letting out a loud laugh, you lean your head on your palm with an arm crossed over the other.
"boss, i, uh, i might've given you the wrong container," you say in between chuckles. you just wanted to see how this would play out. "that's the fancy spaghetti from last week."
"no it's not," he says through multiple bites. you can barely hear what the fuck he's saying.
"how'd you know?"
"yours is infinitely better, (name). c'mon," venomous laughs, a smile coming to his face once more after a big slurp of spaghetti. "i put it in the fancy container to keep fink away from it. she hated that spaghetti we had at that italian place."
you blink once, and then twice. "she… she did?"
"sweetheart, let me tell you, you do not know fink like me," he pushes his finished plate of spaghetti to the side, "she loves your spaghetti. she'll eat all the leftovers before i can get to them."
professor venomous yawns when you falter in your place, trying to compute the idea of fink actually liking something you made. she's just too good at hiding how joyful it makes her, apparently. while you stand there like a dumbstruck fool, your boss continues to work on his research, not minding the dirty plate next to him. finally, after a solid minute, you snap back into reality, and take the plate to clean.
there was something still itching at you.
how has your hot, smug boss avoided every single one of your attempts to get him to rest?
he's too charming for his own good.
you grit your teeth, storming back to the lab door just to realize it's been locked. "boss?"
no answer.
"boss. you're still in there. i'm no idiot. i just saw you," you say, half of yourself finding this hilarious, and the other half finding this ridiculous. "you… you can't stay in there forever. i know you want to get this glorb research done, i do, but you have to rest."
you can hear him take a breath, one with an unidentified emotion, but he doesn't verbally respond.
"you can be mad or disappointed or… whatever at me all you want. i just want you to be okay. the evil board of villains need you in top shape, too, by the way. also," you let out a sigh and sink against the lab door, "even you know that this isn't good for yourself."
silence reverberates through the room, not to mention your skull. your ears are ringing. when you hear no answer, you get off of the cold plywood floor. its only when you walk away in defeat that you hear the door behind you open. callused fingers reach around your wrist, tugging you back.
professor venomous makes eye contact with you, an uncharacteristically soft smile on his features. "you're right, i—" his head snaps down to look at what he's doing, nearly about to pull away, before he tugs you a bit closer. "you know me too well. i need to rest sometimes. i just get—"
"caught up in your own head? obsessed over little things? panicked over deadlines?"
he sighs, frowning deeply before allowing himself to laugh. "that's… one way to say it. look. you were right. are you happy?"
you roll your eyes and chuckle lightly with him. "i should be asking you that. are you happy that you're finally going to let yourself rest?"
"…i don't know, am i?"
the time now read 3:20 a.m. you really should've been sleeping—you know you should've, even after giving that whole spiel to your boss. but you didn't mean to wake up. it just happened. mostly because you heard footsteps. for a mansion more expensive than twenty yachts, these walls must've been paper thin in order for you to hear footsteps against the bedroom's carpets.
maybe it was fink trying to sneak more video games. your first move was to get out of bed, messy hair and all, and peak into her room. however, she was just how you left her—only more contorted from stretching so much, and snoring silently.
that only meant one thing.
you storm over to professor venomous's room, which was right next to yours, and took a large inhale of air before knocking gently.
"c'min."
figures.
you let yourself in, eyes heavy as they scan over your boss—more awake than he should be. he's pacing, arms holding each other so tightly they could break off at any second. "boss," your voice comes out raspy until you clear it. "go back to bed. i thought—"
"i know, sweetheart," venomous responds swiftly, voice also rougher from just waking up. he didn't even notice for the hundredth time today how your face burned from the nickname. "i don't know what's wrong with me. i think it's all that stupid pressure that the evil board of villains has been pushing on me." the man with the purple-hued skin rubs his eyes with his thumb and pointer individually, slumped over while standing up.
ideas run through your head. you hesitate, but give him a nervous, small smile. "do you need help?"
he pauses entirely and squints at you.
"i—i mean, like, doing corny shit. like… reading you a bedtime story or, uh, fuck, i don't know."
you lose your train of thought completely when he starts laughing at your suggestions. you couldn't help but mirror his actions. he's a grown ass man and you thought he'd want a bedtime story?
"i appreciate it, but i don't need a bedtime story or whatever else," professor venomous lets his laughs simmer down.
"sure. and your hair doesn't look like you just survived a tornado."
"what?"
you laugh so much that you end up putting your hands on your knees, leaning against yourself as your lovely boss crosses his arms and looks away in annoyance. "i'm only kidding, it looks fine."
"get my brush."
"i was only kidding—"
"get me the damn brush!"
you race to his bathroom and get his hairbrush, next to the slick-back brush you got him for his birthday. when you come back to him, he's looking at his reflection in his bedroom mirror, somehow making it tangle worse.
"boss, stop messing with it," you chide quietly, failing to hide your smile as you move his meddling hands. "here, sit down."
it was comparable to a slumber party how he sat on his bed, sitting up straight as you brushed through his hair mindlessly. you didn't even notice that you were brushing his hair. it just felt… right. surprisingly, he stayed quiet as can be while you raked the brush through his black locks, still greasy from leftover hair gel from the past few days. even with the leftover gel—his hair looked soft as it always did—
god fucking dammit. you are not going to inflate this guys ego.
you brush closer to his roots, brushing as lightly as you humanly can. "is this okay?" you inquire, finally breaking the silence. "i don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, boss."
what is it with this guy and ignoring you?
"boss…?"
you can feel him startle awake with a slight jump on the bed, sitting up straight again, even though you didn't even notice him beginning to slowly slouch in the first place. "y—yeah, (name)? i'm sorry. it, just, uh—forget i said anything."
your visage curls into one of smugness, as you lean closer to the back of his head. "no, please, what?"
"it just feels nice is all. that's it," he casually states, body slumping once more. his eyes were half-lidded and bored as ever. "you can also drop the whole "boss" thing."
a laugh huffs out of you as your expression melts. you melt. it was just a casual statement. all the smugness has left your body completely, simply taking in the moment and trying not to overthink it. he's not getting mad, he's not yelling (which, either way, he doesn't do); this is probably the calmest you've seen him in a while, when he isn't explaining the point of the death ray he recently built.
you feel like a bundle of nerves every time your hand accidentally brushes by his hair—you didn't even realize you've been holding your breath the majority of this time.
"you—" professor venomous cuts himself off with a loud yawn, "—you're tired too, sweetheart. you gotta rest the same amount as me, right?"
"it's my job to tend to you, boss—i mean, uh, professor," you answer, his yawn forcing you to yawn.
a smooth chuckle comes from the figure in front of you after your words. "stubborn as always. so, what's your plan, if you don't plan on staying up?"
wordlessly, you shift off of the bed and gesture for him to get in. venomous sighs and lets himself under the covers, making you laugh as you crawl next to him to sit criss-cross. in this moment, he understood what fink must feel like every time she gets tucked in.
"well, if it helps you sleep, i, uh…"
through the moonlight that kissed his facial features, professor venomous's head tilts to the side to slide you a cocky, expectant look.
"i'll brush your fucking hair. happy?"
"whatever rings your bell, sweetheart—OW!"
"whoops."
you left an oddly hairbrush-shaped red mark on his cheek, one that faded as your laughs simmered down, to which you leaned back on his headboard. "jokes aside, though, i'll leave when you fall asleep, and only when you fall asleep. sounds like a deal to me."
his droopy, dark purple eyelids came to a close, but his smirk remained. "yeah, i'll let you have this one."
the night soon becomes silent. your boss's expression falls into one of blissed relaxation, much faster than you would've expected. he was so peaceful it made you do a double-take just looking at him snoring so fucking loudly like a tractor. at least, that's what you thought would be funny—but unfortunately, he snores as quietly as a mouse, breath wavering every time the brush scrapes against his scalp.
he's asleep now. you're allowed to go back to your room, but something makes you want to stay. actually, you were allowed to leave five, wait, no, ten minutes ago. but the second you switched from using your hand to brush through his hair was the moment you were a goner.
in fact that's when you—
this bed is comfortable. too comfortable.
when you woke up, sunlight beamed on you with a gentle kiss, coating your body in light.
for starters, your room only had one window. one in front of your desk, not your bed. second, the mattress underneath you gives crazily unfamiliar squeaks, and radiates warmth around you from the side you leaned on. your bed could never be this comfortable. although, really, the more you feel the material around you, the more familiar it feels. the feeling in your gut worsens when you feel a figure shift, moving off of the top of your waist.
anxiously, you slowly sit up, covering your mouth as to not scream when you see your boss, professor venomous, lying next to you. to add, he was snoring the fucking day away.
you grit your teeth, mostly embarrassed at yourself for falling asleep like that—your hand in his hair, his arm somehow magically ending up at your waist. you wanted to be extinguished.
hurrying off of his bed and putting yourself together, you try to neaten up his stuff to look as if you were never there.
and then, before you leave, you catch yourself looking down at venomous's sleeping form. he looks so… everything. he looks like the world. he looks like your world—
"take a picture, it'll last longer."
"FUCK YOU!"
