Chapter Text
“Lys, how do you understand this? It’s so difficult.” Augustine groaned, his head hitting the wooden table, just barely missing the cup of coffee sitting next to him. The duo sat in the large library of the college they both went to, waiting on a friend while also attempting to work on their own papers. And Augustine wasn’t doing very well.
The redhead couldn’t help but look at his friend, taking note of the messy black hair and the slightly wrinkled blue hoodie and gray t-shirt of his. The man looked as though he hadn’t slept in days, which worried the other to no end.
Lysandre on the other hand was doing just fine. He readjusted his red sweater, and he paused for a few moments as he looked up from his computer, a curious expression crossing his face before he replied to Augustine’s earlier statement. “It’s quite easy.” The man said simply before going back to typing whatever his project was about, Augustine didn’t remember.
Augustine sighed and sat up straight, grabbing the coffee and taking a sip of it. He saw Lysandre pause once again and give him a slightly worried glance. The man only ignored the look for a few seconds before he set the cup down and sighed. “What is it this time?”
“Mon ami, I do believe you drink too much coffee.” The man sighed, fully looking away from his laptop and taking his hands off of the keyboard. “That cannot be normal. It’s your fifth cup today.” Augustine just shrugged, going back to the books and laptop in front of him. “I’m being serious, a normal person should not have nearly that much coffee in one day.” Lysandre shot him a worried glance, but Augustine shrugged once more.
“I’m fine, Lys, calm down. I’ve had more.” Lysandre gave him a look that had disappointment written all over it, to which Augstine just flashed him his signature grin and took another long sip of his coffee before he went back to work. The taller of the two sighed, but also chose to go back to his work over arguing.
Lysandre cared about Augustine more than most things in this world. Sure, he had ideas of how the world should be, and how it could be more beautiful if it wasn’t like it was now, and how he should be the leader of the new beautiful world - but that didn’t really matter much when he was around Augustine Sycamore. He would admit, he’d quite literally kill if his friend ever got hurt.
He looked at the time on the bottom right of his computer screen. 4:39, it read. Lysandre closed his computer and began packing up his things, while Augustine gave him a curious look. “I have somewhere to be, my apologies.” Augustine fake-pouted for a moment, but that was enough for Lysandre to re-think actually going to this meeting. But, he shook his head as he saw a much lighter look appear on the man’s face.
“That’s alright, have fun with whatever you’re doing!” He called out as Lysandre began walking away, a small smile on his face as he thought about Augustine for a few more moments. Then his face and demeanor changed as he thought about who he would be meeting with in about twenty minutes.
---
Lysandre’s villain outfit was extremely elaborate. He wasn’t sure why he made it so elaborate in the first place, it got annoying to take off and put back on sometimes. But that thought quickly disappeared from his mind as he arrived at the meeting place.
It was a back alley, unsurprisingly - he was kind of glad it was in a place that was known to be neutral to all villains. The redhead paused as he reached the end of the alley, and he sat down on a small bit that was jutting out from the nearest building. He didn’t notice anyone yet.. And he was a little early, after all.
But that didn’t seem to be a problem as he heard two sets of footsteps walking towards him after about five minutes. Lysandre stood up, putting his hands at his side just in case this was a trap instead and he had to defend himself.
The duo couldn’t have been stranger. One had blonde hair and half of a full face mask, as well as a large cape. The other had a decently tight-fitting mostly blue outfit, as well as a bandanna tied on his head, covering what he figured was black hair based on the black beard on the man’s face. They were both villains, he knew. And sighed once he realized exactly who they were and what their abilities were.
“Aqua. Plasma.” He nodded, and Plasma nodded back. Lysandre looked around a little more, a curious look on his face. “Rocket invites me to his villain league, and.. He doesn’t even come here himself?”
“Gio’s jus’ busy, don’ worry you’ll get ta meet ‘im soon enough!” Aqua grinned, coming to a stop a few feet in front of Lysandre - or, as they knew him, Flare. Plasma shot him a look that Lysandre couldn’t quite figure out; which was a little worrying for the redhead.
The man sighed before saying, “You two have the powers of water manipulation and mind control. Surely others could have met me here.. You’re most likely here in case I was uncooperative, correct?” Plasma just nodded once more, looking between him and Aqua. “Well, I won’t be. I’m curious, truthfully.”
“Just because Rocket invited you doesn’t mean that you’re automatically in Team Rainbow Rocket.” Plasma explained, shaking his head slightly. “That just means you get to meet.. The boss. ” The last two words he spoke with an annoyed tone, Lysandre realized. He nodded slowly, wondering just how loyal each of these people were to the man who used the code name Rocket.
“And, why are you two here then?” Lysandre crossed his arms. He didn’t like the idea that he was interrupted just to talk to two people who weren’t even the leader of Team Rainbow Rocket.
A voice from behind the man chuckled. “Protection.” Lysandre whirled around, a small flame appearing in his hand before he realized it was only another villain. The flame disappeared, and Lysandre stood up normally once more. However, he was still on edge. “Hello, Flare. My name is Rocket.”
Lysandre’s mind was trying to figure out where the man had come from. The back of the alley ended in what he figured was a locked door. “It most likely had to do with his ability. That is the most rational reasoning.” The man thought as he gave Rocket a curious look. “Hello.” He said simply.
“I’m glad you didn’t attack Plasma or Aqua. We would have had problems if you did.” The black haired man laughed a bit, and a smaller laugh was heard from Aqua himself. He glanced behind him, keeping an eye on both of the other men. He wasn’t sure if they were going to attack him or not.
He knew that they would most likely win if it evolved into a fight. He had no idea what Rocket’s ability was, nobody did. Plasma could control a person if they so much as heard his voice. And Aqua had the most memorable ability, at least to Lysandre. Water manipulation. It was a problem for the fire manipulator, for obvious reasons. Not only did they have the upper hand with abilities, also in numbers. At the very least, Lysandre would have a few seconds to flee if it did come to a fight.
But neither of the men behind him seemed to care much. Aqua was looking at his phone, while Plasma just watched them with an extremely bored expression. His attention turned back towards the man in the suit. A small smile was on the black haired man’s lips, and it was a look that Lysandre didn’t like whatsoever. It was one that screamed he was untrustworthy.
“Why do you want me to be part of your villain league?” Lysandre asked with an emotionless look on his face, and he crossed his arms. Rocket laughed a little.
The smile on the man’s face grew even more, and Lysandre couldn’t help but feel a little bit unsettled. “You could help with our goal.. And you’d be great help too.” He said simply.
“Your goal.” Both Plasma and Aqua said at the same time, which surprised Lysandre slightly. It wasn’t a secret that every member of Team Rainbow Rocket had their own goals - some of them more obvious, for example, how Rocket wanted to control the world. Others, such as Galactic, were entirely a mystery to the public.
“My goal, sure.” Rocket waved them off, before his attention turned to red-clad villain once more. “And, you’re probably wondering what you get out of this, right?” Lysandre nodded, but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure how being part of Team Rainbow Rocket would help him reach his goal of making the world more beautiful. “Well, you get the protection that comes with it. Not many people will be willing to go after you. You’ll have access to lots of things you didn’t have before. Gear and such to help better use your power. And you don’t even have to be entirely loyal to us either.. As long as you dont outright betray us, you can do mostly whatever you want.”
Lysandre had to admit, it wasn’t too terrible of a deal. It made sense to join them, especially as a small-time villain as he was currently. The man had only become a villain recently, and seemed to be promising as a villain. This was most likely a way of getting him on their side so he wouldn’t be a problem, and if he declined, at least they wouldn’t be on bad terms.
It was a good idea no matter the outcome for Rocket. And with Aqua and Plasma there as well, plus his secretive ability, he had covered almost everything. Lysandre began laughing softly as he realized this, and Rocket gave him a curious look. “You really know how to get someone to do what you want, don’t you.”
The other man laughed a bit. “Yeah, I do. So, what do you say?”
Lysandre thought about it for a few more moments. It didn’t seem like it was a bad idea, not at all. He’d have access to things he didn’t now, and maybe he’d be able to keep Augustine safe by doing this as well.
After a few more moments of debate, Lysandre sighed and held out his hand. “Alright, Rocket. You have a deal." Rocket grinned, shaking the extremely tall man’s hand. Lysandre felt another set of eyes on him, and turned around to see Aqua with a giant grin on his face.
“Good. And, by the way.. I hope you don’t mind tattoos.” Rocket laughed, and Lysandre turned around once more to see the man holding a key, inserting it into the lock of the door behind him. “Plasma, you can go now by the way. Aqua can handle him.” Lysandre paused at this for a moment, before turning back to see Plasma walking away and Aqua taking a few steps towards him.
Out of habit, Lysandre lit a fire in the palm in his hand. “Don’t get any closer.” He demanded, but the man seemed to pay no mind as he grabbed onto the man’s arm - a funny sight, considering their height difference - and dousing the flame in water.
Suddenly, Lysandre was being pulled to who knows where. For some reason, he didn’t feel like Aqua was going to hurt him. Rocket had mentioned something about a tattoo, and that’s why Lysandre was confused the most. He figured he’d just go with it, and hope it wasn’t anything terrible.
---
When Lysandre walked into his dorm room that evening, the first thing on his mind was how to explain that he got a fire tattoo. It wasn’t like the man was against them, in fact he knew that tattoos could look very good if done well. But he had also never mentioned, or really even thought about, getting one.
Of course he could hide it.. But that wasn’t exactly ideal. He didn’t like the idea of hiding anything from Augustine if he could help it. Things such as the fact that he was a villain were necessary to hide, but not that he had a tattoo. It was harmless, really. But he wasn’t sure how to bring it up.
So he decided to say nothing until he figured out how to do anything.
His mood brightened (although you couldn’t see that it did) as soon as he saw Augustine himself sitting on the couch, watching some kind of documentary. Lysandre moved to sit on the couch with him, thoughts now consumed with how happy Augustine looked when he saw him. “Hey!”
For the first time in 22 years, Lysandre swore he finally realized what people meant when they described feeling butterflies in their stomach.