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When Layla heard the discreet knock against her window, she didn’t know whether she should be annoyed or happy. If it was Will again , she decided, she would get a little angry at him — because of course, she could never get fully angry at her stupid childhood best friend. Even if it was for an umpteenth attempt of saving the plant she had given him for his birthday. At this point, she had kind of given up on seeing him save it. If it was Warren, though… Well then it would be a whole other story, wouldn’t it?
First of all, if it was Warren, he would actually have to work to get there. He didn’t live next door, though it wasn’t that long a walk for him until here, and he certainly couldn’t fly. She could have used her powers to lower a branch for him, but he had gotten used to climbing it himself and then jumping into her room. Not the easiest nor the safest thing, but try telling that to a guy in a Superhero school… Plus, Layla sort of liked it. She appreciated a guy who made an effort , you know.
Glancing through her window, she couldn’t help but smiling when she saw him on the ground, and for a second, he smiled back, granting her the rare sight she was slowly but surely falling in love with.
It was brief though. Too brief, maybe, even for him, before he glanced away and started climbing the tree. She couldn’t help but frowning as she opened the window widely, discreetly growing the grass underneath it to soften the fall, just in case.
One moment later though, he was landing safely inside her room, rolling on the ground and getting back up in one swift movement that Layla shamelessly admired. She had to admit, the fact that he was a year older than her and Will really showed in his training. She gave him a soft smile when their eyes met.
“Hey, is everything…”
Before she could finish her sentence, her back was pressed against the wall, his mouth against hers, warm, feverish, almost desperate. His hands were travelling on her body — her waist, her hips, gripping a thigh, climbing back up to her neck —, in a way that made it impossible to focus, so she simply gave up on that, kissing him back with just as much energy.
She would be lying if she said that she didn’t miss him during the day. Even when they did spend time together then, they weren’t open about it, and though keeping the relationship secret was the choice they had made, she hoped one day they would both be comfortable with making it public.
She ran her fingers on his cheeks, tracing his jaw before losing them in his hair, undoing the bun he was still wearing after his shift at the paper lantern. They fell back in place, brushing against her cheek, and this was when Warren pulled back, out of breath.
She gave him a hesitant but encouraging smile. This wasn’t like him, and she knew it. Not that they never got, erm, physical, but Warren, for all his reputation, was rather slow at that stuff. He was careful with her, always making sure she was comfortable with everything they did, and he seemed to enjoy the soft moments, the hugs, the secret dates, more than anything else.
Not that she minded having him like that some times. She had definitely been craving more recently — but she doubted this was really what was at stake here.
“What’s going on?” she asked softly.
With a groan, he wrapped his arms around her to bury his head in her neck, getting a chuckle from her. His girlfriend knew him just a little too well.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled anyway.
“Yeah, sure. You want to talk about it?”
“No.”
Layla sighed, running her fingers through his hair. She knew he had been planning on cutting them shorter — would be better for fighting — but she secretly hoped he would wait a little longer. She really loved it like that. She also hoped the gesture would be relaxing, maybe allow him talk to her. Though she could easily talk to Warren about her problems, and she knew Will did too every once in a while (and probably Magenta, Zach and Ethan as well, much to the young man’s dismay), he tended to be much more secretive. He let out a few informations every now and then, about his parents, about his childhood, but he was still very much of a mystery to her.
Not that it was a problem. She could absolutely understand his desire to keep some things private. She just wished he would share more with her, if not because she could help, then at least to relieve himself of some the weight. She wanted to be there for him. With him. They could do this together now, he didn’t have to deal with it all alone.
“Fine, fine, I’ll talk,” he mumbled then, moving away from her.
She grinned, though she found herself immediately missing his characteristic warmth. It never failed, did it?
He eyed her bed and motioned to it with a movement of the head.
“Want to…?”
“Sure.”
Soon they were both sitting on it, Warren, as often, with his head on her lap as she resumed to playing with his hair. He would never admit it out loud, but hell, he loved it when she did this.
“So, what happened?”
He didn’t know how she did it. How everything about her could be just exactly what he needed, how she seemed to soothe all of his pains, how she made all of the bad things go away just by being there. He didn’t know what he had done to deserve her either, but he intended to enjoy every minute of it.
Before she inevitably noticed what a mistake she was making.
“A friend of my dad’s contacted me.”
The hands stilled.
“You mean…”
“A supervillain.”
Layla swallowed with some difficulty, resuming to her movements, trying to hide her fear. She was one of the best students of Sky High, she was trained for that sort of situations, probably better than most people ever would be. Still, Barron Battle was not a laughing matter. Neither were the people he associated with.
“Are you okay?”
Warren grinned. This . This was why he loved her. Anyone else would have jumped to conclusion and asked “What did you say?”, worrying about them offering him to join the Supervillain League. But that hadn’t even crossed her mind.
“I’m okay,” he replied with a vague shrug. “Might have a limp for the next few days but…”
She mumbled something under her breath, almost a curse, which he would have thought was hilarious any other time, and pushed him off of her.
“Let me see.”
“Layla…”
“Warren, let me see. I can probably make a balm or—”
“ Layla ,” he interrupted her, grabbing her arms, stopping her from fretting over him. “I’m okay. It’s not like it’s the first time.”
Her eyes went wide with shock. “What?” Warren sighed, glancing away and pushing his hair behind his ear as he attempted not to meet her eyes.
“My mother wasn’t there a lot when I was a child. She was a super, so…” A shrug. “The villains, on the other hand, well, they’re all about recruitment, you know? Taking you to the dark side and all that stuff.”
No she did not . And she didn’t like the way he rolled his eyes like it was just an annoying part of his life.
“I don’t want to be a villain.”
She clenched her fists. She wasn’t one to get angry, but right now, she was furious . She knew that, of course, or rather she knew that there was no way Warren could be a villain. An ambiguous hero, maybe, with somewhat less of a reluctance to violence than others, but all in all, Warren was fundamentally about protecting others. And it drove her insane that people thought of him differently.
From the corner of her eye, she saw her plants starting to twitch dangerously, their leaves growing and their branches waving murderously. She forced herself to calm down, watching them shrink back to a normal size. If she ran into one of those Villains, they would have words , certainly, but until then, she had a boyfriend to comfort.
“I know,” she smiled, reaching out to gently touch his cheek. ”You’d make a terrible villain.”
He let out his deep, surprising laugh, grabbing her hand to press a short kiss against her palm, and Layla’s smile widened. That was better. He let his emotions surface so rarely that seeing him disheartened or hurt genuinely worried her. Happy emotions weren’t much more frequent, but she could deal with them better.
“I don’t know if I’d make a much better hero.”
There was a question in his voice. Layla didn’t miss it.
“I think you would make a great hero,” she replied with emphasis. It was true; she trusted Warren with everything she had. Maybe it wasn’t completely rational, and there were probably other people who would have voiced their concerns — Warren had made poor choices in the past, the side of the Villains was always so tempting, and there was this tendency to use violence to solve his problems —, but Layla simply didn’t care. Call it love, call it intuition, call it naivety.
She believed in him, and right now, that was exactly what he needed. So he moved his arms around her waist, holding her tighter against him, and he closed his eyes.
He wasn’t as confident as she was. He didn’t know where he would be in a couple of years, whose footsteps he would follow. He had no doubt that Layla would become a heroin, though. If anyone could save the planet at this point, it would be her.
But for now, she was his hero, and he intended to enjoy that for as long as he could.