Work Text:
It was one of the rare occasions where they weren’t commuting home together. It’s funny how the definition of home can change in time and from person to person. To some people home is literally the four walls they own, regardless of its merits, its warmth or what it offers. To others home is anywhere and everywhere, for they can find it wherever they need to. For Robert and Courtney, home currently meant whichever apartment they ended up in, which most nights tended to be Robert’s. It wasn’t that Courtney didn’t have a nice apartment herself, in fact they would both absolutely agree that hers was nicer in nearly every way. More spacious, nicer layout and building, better views, but Robert’s apartment won over Courtney’s for one big reason.
If you asked Robert, it was because they’d very much built the home it was together. They’d decorated and furnished it, laughed on the sofa, loved in the bedroom, and making memories in every nook and cranny in the small space. They’d comforted friends, held parties for the team, and fallen asleep in each other's arms. Their relationship had taken root here, from the dance at the housewarming, to recovering together, to fighting their own demons in each other's arms.
If you asked Courtney however, she would tell you it’s because it’s the place she truly feels like she belongs. A place she feels safe and comfortable, where she can be Courtney in every sense of herself, no mask, no deflection. No cash in hand deal with her landlord from her crime days, no neighbours that still judge her for coming home all hours head to toe in black, and no address that former criminal associations still know. If you caught her in a particularly soft or vulnerable moment, she would tell you that Robert’s apartment feels like home to her because he’s there.
If you asked them both together, they’d look at each other with a smile that conveys a thousand thoughts and say, “It’s just home,”
Despite all that, they had agreed that for tonight they were going home separately to their own apartments until they met at the pier for an evening date. The weather was warming up and it was the perfect excuse to get out and spend some time together. It had become a habit that on date nights they would go to their own place and meet up later, on the occasions a date night was actually spent outside one of their apartments. They spent such vast amounts of time together in the early days of their relationship when they were both recovering that they’d done it to have some semblance of early-relationship dating despite the circumstances. It had now morphed into a tradition, a way to maintain that heart-thumping excitement of waiting to see what your partner showed up in, what they had planned and where they were going. It was fun and allowed them to feel more normal than being superheroes usually allowed.
Even if Visi had started to appear on billboards in advertisements for SDN after her first dispatch alongside Mecha Man and was a little more recognisable. Their last trip to the farmers market had included a young girl running up and asking her if she was really Invisigal. It had melted Robert’s heart to watch Courtney interact with the girl. She waved off the kids parents as they rushed over to apologise and try and move the girl on, and then crouched down to the kids level, smiling and joking, answering any question within reason, somehow managing to keep the swearing and crass comments in check, and took a photo with the girl who was practically vibrating with excitement. The moment that had really made it was when the girl said with all the confidence and innocence that only youth can give,
“I’m gonna be a hero like you when I grow up!”
Courtney ruffled the kids hair and smiled, “Keep at it kid and I know you will,”
The girl's parents at this point managed to corral her away apologising and thanking Courtney in equal measure, she just laughed and said it was fine, waving one last time to the little girl as they walked off.
Robert came up beside her, wordlessly holding a tissue up as her eyes watered up,
“You were so good with her Court, how does it feel to be that girl's hero?”
A loud sniff punctuates the air, “Robert I love you but shut the fuck up before I start crying in the middle of this market,”
He’d laughed and pulled her into a hug, whispering in her ear all the while, before she broke off and pulled herself together.
Courtney was really looking forward to the evening as she headed back to the office from her last dispatch of the day. It’d been a piece of cake as jobs went and her new mask and gloves were really paying for themselves. Turns out it’s really easy to apprehend criminals when you can run for ten times the distance without your lungs turning into the equivalent of a crumpled paper bag. As she heads through the bullpen to clear out the remains of her lunch from the fridge she stops by the leaderboard to wait for it to update. The office is winding down for the evening, most staff heading home already, and the night shift team are settling into their little corner of the office for the long night ahead. She often wonders if the night shift is as peaceful as she imagines it could be. Probably not, knowing SDN. Especially not if she worked it.
She never used to care about the leaderboard. Actually that was a lie. She always cared about the leaderboard but it was only after Robert helped her take down Thundercuck that she realised exactly why she cared and how determined she was to climb it. What started as a permanent reminder of her ‘failure’ as a hero became a fuck you to those that didn’t believe and had now become a gritty determination to prove to those that did believe she was more than capable. That had now combined with her usual competitive nature and ever-improving field work to make her a juggernaut flying up the leaderboard. She’d been sat at 11 for the last few weeks, hovering just above Prism and Terrordactyl, and she was absolutely set on cracking the top ten at last. Of course, there’d been a bit of help in the re-jigging of SDN’s teams, with some of their higher performing heroes transferring out to other branches to help with reconstruction, but this was mostly down to the hard work that Z-Team had put in and the patience and belief of their dispatcher. That and she’s sure Z-Team got bonus points or something for taking down Shroud. Maybe she got bonus points for taking a bullet for her dispatcher too?
The board span through as it updated and there it was,
8. Terrordactyl
9. Invisigal
10. Malelova
A wide smile broke across her face and she pumped up fist before looking round in case anyone had seen. What she didn’t notice in her excitement was Waterboys number slip down from a pretty respectable 35 to 48, she was too busy pulling out her phone to take a photo. She snapped a quick pic and started typing a message to Robert as she walked towards the break room. Halfway through typing it out she received a message from him,
Hey Sour Patch, I’m really sorry to do this so last minute but I think I’m gonna have to rain-check tonight. Something pretty important has come up at work and I’m not sure how long it’s going to over-run. Maybe tomorrow instead? If you’ve not got anything in for dinner tonight you can head over to mine, we’ve got plenty of leftovers from that casserole.
Her immediate thought is one of annoyance. Who does this man think he is? Rain-checking? They’re meant to be going home to get ready for an evening on the boardwalk. She has a date tonight and not just with Robert! She has a date with that really good taco van that does some of the best birria she’s ever eaten and that pop-up bar that has a really fucking good IPA that she likes even though she doesn’t really like IPA. Fuck! The casserole last night was good but it wasn't birria.
The rest of her brain catches up very quickly though, starting with reassurance and acceptance, the fact that he’d literally said “tomorrow instead?”. She doesn’t want to wait until tomorrow but if she absolutely has to she will. He’s also done his usual nice behaviour and told her she can just go to his and eat him out of house and home while he stays at work. Regardless of the fact she’s absolutely going to do that, it still irks her, like she’d almost prefer him to be a dick about things? It’s like some twisted version of cuteness aggression, like courtesy aggression or kindness aggression.
Finally, the rest of the message sinks in, something important at work? But what could it be? She hadn’t really been paying attention to comms on her return to the office after her last job, she’d known her shift was over and that she’d be coming back to just clock out so she’d put her tunes in while she strolled through Torrance. One of the songs he’d put on during that date night a while back had been stuck in her head this week, so she’d got her phone out and put it on. Turns out she kinda liked Dr Dog. She’d even seen they were touring soon and was very tempted to get tickets for her and Robert. That’s a lie. She wasn’t just tempted, she was already on the waiting list for first release. She really needs to stop pretending that she doesn’t care about things, it’s not like Robert doesn’t see through it almost immediately every single time.
He hadn’t told her about any meetings today and while she hadn’t been paying attention to comms or the situation in Torrance outside of her final job, she does know if Robert was deploying in the suit he’d have told her. He always does nowadays. Ever since the third or fourth time he’d gone out in it when she was already on a job and then there’d been a comms blackout. A two bit wannabe villain called Audio Track who’d knocked out half the 4g and radio in L.A with sound waves or some stupid shit. It’d left her going through a pretty awful hour or two practically sobbing in Mandy’s office that he was dead or injured and there was no way to find him or check in without the comms. Until she saw him walk to his desk like nothing happened to grab his backpack. She’d run out and smacked her fists into his chest before breaking down into tears against him. He’d held her, whispered in her ears that it was all okay, that he was fine, let her get it all out, and when she finally explained how worried she’d felt he’d promised to always let her know one way or another he was deploying in the suit. He’d taken that promise to heart so much that once Flambae had jetted halfway across the city to tell her Mecha Man was deploying out, before jetting back to join the fray. She often wonders what threats or promises Rob used for that one.
As she thought about what else it could be, she hears the click of a door and hears Mandy calling out,
“Have a great night Visi! See you tomorrow!”
Which means Robert doesn’t have a meeting with Mandy.
So what the hell is keeping him busy?
Her curiosity has overridden everything else by this point and she just wants to work out what.
It’s not that doesn’t trust Robert. She trusts him with her life. More importantly, she trusts him with her heart. He’s the only person she’s ever let in that far.
She just still has her moments where her mind goes a hundred miles an hour and this is one of them,
So she goes to the break room and throws away her leftover lunch so that the janitors don’t need to deal with it and then heads out to the bullpen again in the direction of his desk. There’s no sign of her not-so chubby now friend Beef, she assumes Chase is once again looking after him. It would concern her how much Chase had Beef over but she knew he lived alone and the company was good for him, even if he definitely spoiled Beef rotten. He always returned from Chase’s place a little rounder than when he’d arrived.
The absence of the dog makes it easier to snoop though. She checks his computer but it’s in stand-by, showing the closed reports from the day but it’s not fully shut down with the map of Torrance still glowing in front of her. It’s odd because he’s normally pretty on it with shutting down his station, ever since the pop-up incident after he cut Coop. Can’t say she blames him but it does make her wonder. Whatever happened at work must’ve been pretty urgent if he didn’t even stop to shut his station down. She considers using the opportunity for some Grade A Invisigal mischief but her responsible side gets the better of her and she shuts the station down herself.
“Past you would be ashamed for not taking that opportunity…” She mutters to herself,
Past you didn’t love and care for the man who sits here, her mind reminds her.
A quick check of the drawers reveals little of any interest. Manila folders of paperwork, scrawled notes and reports. One holds some blueprint paper with sketches for what must’ve become her new mask. The bottom drawer has its usual blanket. There’s one drawer that's contents do actually melt her heart a little. There’s a small framed photo of them together at the beach, Beef rolling in the sand before them. The beach day, early in their relationship, she remembers being a little embarrassed when Rob asked a stranger to take the photo. She’d completely forgotten about it. Next to it are some mini bags of Sour Patch Kids, a spare inhaler, some twinkies, and some dog treats. Definitely the personal drawer.
Now she’s really stumped. Absolutely no indication as to what’s going on with Robert. She could get worried, overthink things and send herself silly wondering where he’s up to, but they’re long enough down the line that she doesn’t exactly feel the need to be his keeper. She’s indulged her mind enough with this so she gives up the search and replies to him with a quick message,
No worries. Hope you’re okay and it’s nothing serious, though I'm absolutely taking you up on tomorrow instead. Hope you don’t mind but I'm gonna head over to yours and eat all your food from the fridge as revenge.
It took a lot of control to not send the photo of the leaderboard but they can talk about that later. Maybe she’ll save it till tomorrow to really give them a reason to celebrate. Whatever he’s dealing with now probably doesn’t need him blowing up her phone,
With everything as sorted as it’s going to get she heads down to the locker rooms. She was going to shower at her place before tonight's date but now she may as well get it done now. If she goes the long way home she can stop at the store and grab some beers or a bottle of wine. They might not be having a proper date night tonight but if Rob’s got to work late she knows it’ll go down a treat when he finally gets home.
A noise catches her ear as she walks down the corridor. A sniffle. It’s almost… wet? At least, wetter than a sniffle should be. Not a sickness sniffle either but clearly a crying sniffle. It echoes down from the men's locker room.
She shrugs her shoulders and goes to enter the ladies locker room when she hears a very indistinct man's voice cutting across more sniffles. That tips the balance in her head and her curiosity gets the better of her. Quietly she heads down the corridor until she reaches the entrance way. The voices are still somewhat unclear to her, though she’d take a guess the sniffles were Waterboy. She hasn’t heard him this flustered or upset in a real long while. Unfortunately the other voice is too low and quiet for her to make out. So, in true Invisigal fashion, she slips her mask out her jacket and puts it on, going invisible and sneaking in.
What she sees takes her aback ever so slightly and she very nearly lets her breathe out, catching herself before she accidentally reveals herself to the room.
Waterboy is sat hunched over on a bench sobbing his eyes out with a very damp Beef on his lap. On the bench opposite is Robert speaking softly to the man in front of him. She moves a little bit over and then focuses in to listen,
“I know how it feels Herman. It’s awful and there’s not much I can say that’ll take that away right now.”
“I j-j-just want t-t-t.. To do.. G-good. Do good.. Sometimes..”
God the poor kid. She wants to give him a hug. He barely stutters nowadays, it’s still there in small ways but he usually speaks in full sentences. Gives back the jokes, holds his own, drinks with the team. He’s one of them now and it’s heartbreaking to see now he’s sat here looking broken, stuttering like when he just joined. She’s seen that look in his eyes. Knows what it is, what it means. She’s seen it in the mirror plenty enough.
“You do good Herman. Every single day.” Robert affirms, voice soft but with a sternness. A steel that says there’s no room for argument. He moves over to sit next to Herman and places a reassuring arm around him. From where Courtney watches she can see the moisture spreading through his SDN shirt.
“You know Herman. Sometimes I wish I was more like you.”
“W-w-w-w…. W-w.. w-what? That's.. That.. stupid.. That’s stupid… who w-wants to b-be like me? I just f-f-f-fuck up…”
Robert let out a dry laugh, “Yeah. You fuck up sometimes. But. So does literally every other person in this building, not to mention your fellow Z-Teamers. I fuck up. All the time.”
“N-not like m-me though…”
“I mean, do you not remember when I was absolutely out of it with illness and sent Flambae to a gas leak?”
“T-that was pretty funny…”
“Yeah, it was, it was also a major fuck up on my part, that could’ve seriously injured Flambae and innocent bystanders. I also fucked up when I snapped at you, that’s two fuck ups in less than ten minutes.”
“I d-don’t mind.. I fo-forgave you,”
“That’s it though Herm. You’re so quick to forgive others you forget to forgive yourself. What happened today wasn’t ideal but you’re gonna get bad calls, you’re gonna fail, you’re gonna fuck up, what matters isn’t that you fucked up. What matters is that you tried. What matters is if you get yourself back up off the ground.”
Courtney dips out of the room briefly so she can take a deep breath and then returns,
“That’s why I wish I was more like you sometimes, Herm. I don’t think I know anyone else who does what you do. Every day you show up with a smile, you don’t let anyone else get you down, you give it your all, and you do good. Every single day.”
A smile is breaking out on Herman's face as he continues to stroke Beef. The dog lets out a yip,
“See, even Beef agrees. You can’t argue with Beef either, he's an authority.”
Herman just laughs but it’s not forced, it’s a proper full laugh, it’s short but enough to show Robert’s actually got through..
“T-thanks Rob… and y-you t-too Beef,”
“Anytime Herman. We all believe in you. The whole team, even if they still rib you, we’re all here for you. You can always reach out. Beef’s always available if you need some extra comfort too,”
“I d-don’t think my grandma’s c-cats would like that b-but thank… thank you..”
“Well don’t be afraid to grab him at work for a little while in between calls for comfort. You can always speak to me as well, okay?”
“O-okay..”
“Alright. Get yourself home, rest up, please don’t overthink about today. Tomorrow’s a new day,”
Coutney’s snooped enough by now so she heads back to the locker room, taking the quickest post-work shower of her life and practically sprinting home. She’s got things to do now. Good deeds do not go unrewarded, especially when they nearly make her cry. As she leaves the building she places an order with the Indian place Rob really likes and just orders a few things she’s sure he likes. She even managed an absolute score at the store, finding some Indian beer in a fridge. Sure the bottles were a little dusty and she wasn’t actually too sure if it was Indian but it’s the thought that counts.
She gets back to the apartment barely two minutes before the delivery guy shows up at the door. As she sets it down she feels her phone vibrate with a message from Rob,
Be my guest, I recommend the slightly weird blue cheese I picked at Lucata’s to try and despise with every fibre of my being, followed by those enchiladas that we made that were way too spicy. I’ll be home in five, just on the bus now
Man the world was really on her side at the moment, five minutes gave her all the time she needed to set the food out on the kitchen island, with the beers and all.
Robert came through the door sniffing the air, a mirror image of Beef below, before noticing her sat with the feast before them. A smile spread across his face as his eyes met hers. He spoke as he unclipped Beef's lead,
“What’s the occasion? I thought you were demolishing the contents of the fridge,”
“Wanted to treat you, is that so bad?”
He walks over and pulls her into his side, leaning in for a beautifully familiar kiss.
“No no, I love it when you spoil me. Especially when it’s Indian,”
She waves one of the bottles at him,
“Even got Indian beer to go with it,” She looks at the label again, “I think.?”
“Either way, thank you, this is just what I needed after today,”
They ate in a quiet that was unusual for them on a day like this. Courtney kept glancing at him though with a dopey smile. Occasionally she caught him looking at her with those brown eyes, full of love. God she loved him. Her kind hearted doofus dispatcher. The man who never seemed to stop being good, who had also managed to drop a whole cube of paneer down his shirt leaving a bright yellow stain all the way down, in the process giving Beef a real treat.
“Ahh fuck. That’s gonna stain.”
“I’m sure SDN keeps a big stash of those just for you Rob, sure you’ll live if it needs replacing.”
“I’ll be able to get it out, I hope,” He stands up to go change before she grabs his shirt and pulls him back down onto the stool,
“You’re not going anywhere, the stains there, a few more minutes while we finish eating won’t make a difference,”
“I hope so,” and he settles back in to eat,
“You hope? Where’s all that Mecha Man confidence gone?”
“Hey Mecha Man handles crime, not cotton blends,”
“There is no way that shirt is anything other than manmade fibres. I should know, I've worn one of yours. Shit’s nasty, you’d think SDN would invest in better uniforms,”
“I think the budget mostly goes on Spandex,”
They laugh and they eat. They clear up and retire to the sofa, watching some comedy panel show, talking about nothing and everything while their dog snoozes between them.
“You were so good with Herman earlier, you know? I swear you’re that kid’s hero,”
“Snooping on me are you?”
“By accident, kinda, yeah,”
“He’s young and he’s got a heart that’s far too good for this world,”
“He has you to help though,”
“He has the whole team, I just happened to be around at the time,”
“Don’t put yourself down Rob, you make such a difference to everyone on the team, I should know,”
“You’re biased Court, your opinion doesn’t count,”
“Rude,”
“Just saying,”
“Stop being a deflecting ass, you’re worse for it than I am nowadays,”
“He just needed some support, a reminder he’s not alone. All I know is I know I really could’ve used that sorta help when I got in the suit and made stupid mistakes and things went wrong. When you’ve got no one to talk to it just eats you alive, that you fucked up, you hurt people, you failed. I don’t want any of the team to feel like that if I can help it,”
A quiet settles in the room as she just smiles at him,
“There it is…”
“There it is?”
“Another reason I love you,”
“Court…”
He scoots over, reshuffling Beef to the other side of him so he can cuddle into Courtney, she curls herself into him as best as she can.
“Did this stick with you so much cause it reminded you of times like when I talked you down off the swingset,”
She nods into him,
“Kinda yeah.”
“Seems like I'm making a habit of it with Z-Team. Wonder who’s next?”
“Probably gonna be Coop. She’s still chomping at the bit to prove she deserves being let back in,”
“Yeah actually, I should probably speak to her about all that.”
They sit there quietly in each others embrace for a little bit, until Rob asks,
“Wait, is that why you got us Indian? Cause you overheard me with Herman?”
“...maybe?”
He laughs, full and free, “Maybe you should snoop on me more often then if this is what I get out of it,”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time Rob,”
“I won’t,” He pulls her up closer and places a gentle kiss on her lips which she smiles into.
“More please Mecha Man, one isn’t gonna be enough right now,” she says with a grin, so he indulges her with a few more kisses. Mostly pecks to her face that leave her giggling and laughing, “I take it back, no more!”
“Thank you for dinner Court, it means a lot,”
It’s then Courtney remembers something,
“Oh oh! I need to show you something!” She grabs her phone, swipes to find the photo and holds it for him to see, “Look what happened today!”
“Hey good going Court, didn’t I tell you you could do it,”
“Sure, sure, take some credit, fine,”
“Well, I’m definitely covering tomorrow night now, in case there was any doubt after you bought dinner,”
“What if I want Carnitas and Birria,”
“You can have em,”
“What if I want two beers, three even,”
“Whatever you want, even the weird expensive ones in wine bottles,”
“What if I-” He interrupts her with a kiss, fierce and full of love and passion, silencing her question. He breaks them apart again,
“Whatever you want, from wherever you want, all night long Sour Patch,”
“Fuck Robert, I think you might be onto a winner with that nickname,”
“Glad you like it,”
“Mhmm, really gotta up my game for a proper pet name for you though…” She smirks at him, “for now though, all night long sounds pretty good tiger,”
They dived back into each other, tossing and turning until Beef was displaced from the sofa. Clothes flung aside, phones dropped, a beer bottle knocked at one point. All ignored as they focused on each other.
Robert was true to his word the next day. Every single thing was on him, to the point Courtney snuck off to buy them dessert herself, because she felt a little bad even with his insisting. They shared tacos, beers, ice cream from the same place they’d gone to on their beach day, even getting a little mini cup for Beef. Found an arcade on the pier and spent far too much money. They walked home hand in hand, Courtney walking Beef as she tended to do nowadays, bumping hips, smiling and joking and generally just being stupidly and madly in love.