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Robert spared workout time for after his shift that day, since he was helping Royd make his last repairs on the mecha suit. After roughly 1 month of Shroud’s ultimatum, he noticed that a new group of villains started getting together to take his place – not nearly as solid as Elliot’s team used to be, yet it was rising. But oh well, he could leave those thoughts for later. Now was time to focus on himself and relax. To his surprise though, he wasn't the only one who had left working out to the after shift. Malevola and Victor were there too, appearing to just have arrived as well. Both of them were chatting close to the entrance after dropping their bags by the wall.
"Hey" Robert said, glancing at both of them.
An "oho, look who's there" and a "hey babes" followed by a smile could be heard, no explanation needed on who said which. Robert quickly sensed both of them were amused by his arrival.
As for their clothes, Victor was wearing an oversized muscle tee with dark grey shorts and Malevola wore a set of white tight-fitting top and pants. Both of them seemed to invest in high-quality gym clothing, which were a given considering their trained physiques.
Robert hadn't had the same luck, however. After losing his mecha suit, working out was heavily pushed aside in order to focus on his next career. So today he was wearing just his good ol' dark blue hoodie and black shorts.
"Whatchu training today?" Malevola asked as Robert stepped closer to the two, picking up a water bottle from his bag.
"Haven't decided yet. What are you guys up to?"
"Conditioning" both of them said, shooting eyes at each other and brofisting at their perfect synchrony.
"Since you haven't decided yet, come train with us, Rob! I'll heal any broken back with my skills." she chuckled devilishly, her eyes squinting with the motion.
"Sigh, and I'm only in my thirties. I'll join you, but dying on a friday night would be pretty lame” – he followed up – “By the way, do you guys share training sets?"
"Yeah. Both of us train 4 days weekly, a day for each thing. Strength, power, endurance and conditioning. We think that's the ideal way to fully cover everything we need for our job" the demi-human bat added.
"Woah, you put a lotta thought into it. Plus, I didn't expect less considering how capable you two are in battle."
"I know. Just kidding, thanks mate" he gave Robert a small nod while his arms were crossed.
"Aw, thanks babes – Malevola added – “Now let’s get the party started!"
Their training went somewhat smoothly, only taking up a little longer to keep up with Robert's pace and demonstrate how some exercises went for him patiently. It was a friday night and they had no plans, so there was no reason to rush.
At the end, Robert's legs felt like jelly and he was out of air, hoodie drenched in sweat as he laid down like a sick victorian child on the gym mat. His water bottle, a void of absolute emptiness.
That is, until Malevola kneeled down and cast her powers on him. He felt his breath slowly catch up and his limbs were now feeling way lighter.
While that happened, Victor handed him his bottle, now fully refilled.
"Just in time" Robert thought, maneuvering to pick it up, as he never felt like he needed more water than he needed now. Drinking it with greedy gulps, he let out a sigh, recomposed himself and got up.
"Holy fuck, guys. How the hell do you do that every week? Also, thanks."
"I think you already asked that once while we were training, Rob." – Malevola giggled, moving a hand to her hips – "Don't mention it".
Victor’s expression looked proud.
The phrase "all heroes are high-performance athletes" couldn't leave his mind. Because what do you mean that's normally how their weeks go? And he only spent one day with them. The tamest day of their training, almost.
"To think you only had to stop 2 exercises before us though. It was really impressive, considering you're totally out of shape" the bat hybrid put his finger on his chin and gently shook his head up and down, nodding like a wealthy gentleman paying respect to a fellow folk.
"Oh thanks. That fires me up so much, pal. I already know who I'll be cutting out next." Robert uttered, giving Victor a scornful smirk and laughing it off, to which Victor replied with a tiny chuff.
"By the way d'you have any plans tonight, dude?"
"First you hurt his feelings and now you're proposing a date to make amends? Toxic behaviour, honestly." Malevola spoke, raising one eyebrow while taking a sip out of her water bottle, which was only touched a few times during this whole workout.
Crossing his arms, Victor looked at her, and shook his head – except dismissively this time.
He turned over to Robert, saying:
"I was only going to ask if Boberto here wanted to come to our house, y'know? We got a big sofa, Netflix & chill and edibles. Plus, today's friday so we have officially nothing to lose" – he paused briefly – "What do you say, man? Seems like a good deal?"
"I don't have any plans today and it seems you two also don't. If that's the case, then I'm in. I'll just pass on the edibles."
"Well, shucks. You're still a real one though, Robert." He walked over to the man and put an arm around him, turning to face Malevola.
Robert shot his head in the other direction, pinching his nose as a grimace covered his face, trying to escape the stench that filled the air from Victor's unwanted arm motion.
"Great lord, dude. Don't do that–" Robert's voice sounded muffled and nasalized, with sadly no avail of making the guy move away. He was chaotic like that.
Then, another sentence came out of his fanged mouth.
"So, who's feeling like some pizza tonight?"
The guy under the claws of the beast lifted a hand, signaling a "me". Malevola's answer also came in just as fast.
"Zero complaints if you're the one paying for it."
"Course I am, Mal. The cryptocurrency I mined last week is paying off like crazy, lemme tell ya."
Robert could see the financial confidence in Victor’s eyes as dollar signs appeared in them.
And with that, Malevola made her way to one of the gym's walls and, after picking up her stuff, opened a portal right to their home, pointing for the men to step in alongside her.
Robert was met with a small, a bit dusty but quite cozy studio apartment, whose walls were painted dark blue.
Glancing over the room, he saw a compact kitchen area, a triple seat sofa accompanied by TV, a door that leaded to the bathroom, a queen sized bed with a cushioned bedframe – window with white colored blinds positioned right beside it – and a triple monitor computer setup, which he assumed was shared by both of them.
There was also a wardrobe and an AC, the last one set in the middle of the apartment on top of the sofa.
There wasn't much room for decoration, except for a tall yet slim bookshelf that stood in the far-right corner of the room, where the bed was set, which contained some crime fiction, books written in a language he couldn't understand, a red lava lamp, mangas, tiny anime figures, and consoles like a PS4 and a 3ds alongside aligned physical copies of some games for each of them.
"Make yourself at home – she said warmly, adding another sentence – Also, give me your bag, I'll put it in the wardrobe."
Malevola's mention of the bag made him connect two dots in his head. Clothes. He had none on him, as his plans were simply to go back home and deal with it there.
"Wait. I don't have an extra pair of clothes with me, only my uniform."
"In that case you can borrow mine, Bob. You're lucky I bought a new pair of boxers just 2 days ago."
"That seems oddly fitting, but isn't grabbing a change at home an option?" His eyes met Malevola's.
"No, dude. Opening up portals and healing people all day takes energy. Can't just spam my powers too."
Walking away after accepting their invite didn't seem the best thing to do either. Besides, he was already there to begin with.
"Hmm, I see. Not much to do then, really." – Robert shrugged – "Victor, give me your best set."
"Which color tie d'you want, boss?" He snickered in a playful manner, stepping towards the wardrobe, Robert following behind.
In the meantime, Malevola took the opportunity to place everyone's bags on the wardrobe and to also balance her sword vertically on the side of the tall bookshelf, as she appeared to like sleeping beside her sword. She then walked over to the table in the kitchen area, setting it for three people.
Victor picked up a baggy t-shirt with the phrase "batshit insane" and some standard black shorts for Robert, who found his taste in clothing rather interesting. "That's so him" was written across the brown-haired man's face. The bat guy finished their dress-up time choosing another similar fashioned shirt, with the caption "hybrid by chance, alpha by choice”.
Now that things were more or less in place, Victor took care of ordering the pizza and Malevola set up the AC at a comfortable temperature. Lastly, she also asked the men to hand her their gym outfits, so she could put them to wash.
After taking a bath and changing into their fresh clothes, Victor preferring to use the word "drip" for it, the trio idly sat by the dinner table, indulging in conversations about their week and about themselves.
"Oh yeah. Lemme check if there's anything fun in the fridge" – Victor stood up from the chair, as if floating while he moved towards the electronic appliance, hands rubbing on each other – "Bobbert, good news! There's beer and whiskey today. Coke too if you're a party pooper."
Robert hadn't drank anything in about a month, so why not. Plus, whiskey was his favorite alcoholic beverage. Thus, he nodded to Victor, who gladly poured him a cup.
"Beer for us, Mal?"
"Aye." She opened a wide smile.
All of them knew it wouldn't take long for the booze to kick in.
A while later, 2 medium pizzas arrived. “3 slices for each and almost a whole pizza for tomorrow” he innocently thought.
He couldn't be more wrong.
Indeed, his max was 3 slices. But the other two absolutely demolished the remaining pizza, ending up with a silly fight over the last piece as Robert simply watched.
Logically, the only way to decide this was to play uno, and that's exactly what they did.
“Loser will miss on the last piece and also have to wash the dishes” is what they negotiated. And then a battle between titans erupted.
Past the typhoon of a game, the grand winner was Malevola, who purposefully rubbed it on the snout-faced man.
Teasing each other seemed to be something they were quite used to and honestly fond of doing, Robert deducted. There was no difference between work and private life, which indicated that their bond was genuine. It felt indeed refreshing to see.
In all honesty, Robert was having a lot of fun staying with them that night. But he didn’t know the most entertaining part of it was yet to come.
It was when Victor, after washing the dishes with a soulless expression, suggested watching a movie, that things got really interesting.
“Mal’s hometown makes some banging movies, duude.” his exemplary posture was starting to get a little crooked.
“A m-movie from m-my hometown? Hell- hi- hi-hee” – she exclaimed, laughing way too early at her own (un)funny joke – “hell yeah!!”
Both the men dramatically faced each other, eyes and mouth half-opened, seconds before exploding into laughter.
It wasn't even funny to begin with it, but it grew on them as much as it grew on her. Typical drunk behavior, Robert knew, he still loved it though. He couldn't remember the last time he laughed that much in a while.
Recomposing themselves from the sheer collective effervescence, the two hosts – not letting the drunkenness take advantage of them – went to make preparations for the film session. They picked up a big bowl of chips, three cups of coke and two large blankets.
After setting everything up, they sat down to watch the one and only: "Nightfall", a parody of the famous title "Twilight" from the demon realm. Malevola's recommendation.
In it, they follow Mirabel (human), Edgar (half demon half vampire) and Yakub (half demon half wolf), 3 high schoolers who end up in a love triangle after Mirabel moves to their realm to live with her mom, who's half demon. The two boys, once noticing that her family has money and influence, take interest in the girl with hopes to expand their family's power to the human realm as well.
The film, aside from the differences mentioned above, also had a red-ish filter on the lens, but the wackiness of the script and some trashy key elements remained mostly the same.
That said, the 3 of them had a great time.
They made jokes about Edgar having borderline, Victor was pretty sure that Yakub's family pissed everywhere to mark territory and the 3 of them screamed loud as fuck when Edgar’s cringy ass said he had to protect Mirabel.
Every phrase of the film felt like a knife being pushed in their guts. Truly the epitome of cinema.
The title was pretty inconsistent in terms of being interesting still, so they only had remarks to make here and there aside from the few moments where it was peak cinema.
Thus, it didn't take long for the trio to become drowsy by the teen romance’s first hour, especially considering the effects of the alcohol they had previously consumed.
Pairing that with the workout session, there was no doubt on who shut their eyes first.
To his surprise, Robert woke up laying down, with a pillow under his head, comfortably tucked in one of the blankets the hosts had provided, free from any possible neck or back pain.
The sight of his friends cuddling peacefully in bed also took a warm smile from him, making him even more determined on his next move. He was gonna unravel his best housewife skills and cook them breakfast as to show gratitude for yesterday, not letting the lack of knowledge about their food preferences or shyness to open their fridge get in the way.