Chapter Text
“Hey, is something up with like… Hax and Infume?”
Rowl turned to face Mongey.
“Wha’d’ you mean?”
“No like… what is going on with him and Infume? I swear I saw them talking after Hax’s competition tryouts and Infume was like… making heart eyes.” Mongey mimes a theatrical kiss. Rowl recoils with a scowl, the flickering lights accentuating the glare in his eyes.
“Ew. What the hell. Are you serious?”
“Why would I be lying? Anyway, I’m just curious.”
“How would I know? But I’m sure it isn’t anything.
“Like, a hundred percent? A billion, trillion, quadruple million–”
“There’s no way. You might just be stupid, bro.”
“Dude, Infume clings to Hax like he’s gonna suffocate without him. Legitimately, Infume just invited himself when me and Hax grabbed burgers on Tuesday, and he spent the whole time yapping to Hax about basketball. I don’t care whether your co-workers are more awful than Vince Carter while I’m chowing down on greasy burgers. Infume had important exams the next day too! Like, I’m not the stupid one.”
“You’re just jealous, Mongey.”
“No I’m not! I’m not crazy to think this is weird. Hax is so much more giggly when he’s around Infume. He toppled out of his chair once when Infume said a joke. Like I swear that joke wasn’t even that funny. It was something about triple T. Actually, maybe it was pretty funny.”
“It’s just how Hax is.” Rowl dropped the box he was holding to the ground, a mix of greyish-dust and gunpowder clouding around the base. Mongey reflexively covered his face with his elbow before hacking a cough. The odour of stale asphalt and destruction assaulted his senses, but the riffling of papers could still be heard, loud as day.
“I feel like if Hax really liked Infume, he would tell us, you know? It’s not just how much that guy likes to talk, but also that we’re his… friends. Surely he’d tell us about his boy crush or whatever.”
After the dust settled, and the rustling of documents stopped, Rowl reached up for the box on the top shelf. A lurid label of red with enormous text was plastered across its front, yet Mongey still had to squint to make out the text in the darkness. Rowl’s fingers could only graze the edge of the box before he got off his tip-toes and resigned to looking expectedly at Mongey.
Mongey grinned. He slid the box down to Rowl with ease.
“Hmm. I guess. But I feel like it’s so obvious, no way Hax doesn’t know, right?”
“Why do you care so much?”
“I don’t know man. I’m just curious. I feel like this has been going on for too long. That I’ve been suffering with the two doing weird things for too long. Whatever it takes to stop them from being strange.”
“Then you should tell them to stop. No point ranting to me.” Rowl’s eyes narrowed while sorting through the papers, swiping through them methodically. Mongey just pouts.
“C’mon man. I don’t know… I just feel like they won’t understand. Like they already know but–”
“Wow, so they’re completely stupid? Hax would tell us if he liked Infume. He doesn’t anyway, because he would’ve been honest to us. Okay? He trusts us.”
“Yeah, I know but he clearly likes Infume. You can’t say you don’t see it.”
“Hax would tell us. We’re his best friends. There is no way we would be left out of a confession because of fucking Infume. Now, are we done gossiping about our friend? Can we get back to finding the stupid hero file?”
The silence rang around the room. Humid, almost still air clung to their skin as a bead of sweat rolled down Rowl’s forehead. Swiping it away, Rowl reached for another box on the top of the shelf. His fingers hook onto the box but as he attempted to pull it off the shelf, he wobbled uncontrollably.
A thud reverberated around the small room. “Oh my god! Rowl!”
Rowl winced as he rubbed his elbow. The pain bloomed, while microscopic compared to his other injuries, was exacerbated by the duel he had with Nhb the other day. He shuddered just thinking about it.
Hunched over his fallen friend, Mongey wrapped a steady grip around Rowl’s arms to lift him up. Rowl winced again, the wilted flowers drooping from his hair releasing a saccharine pong of jasmine and mint. Mongey bats the pink smoke out of his face, but doesn’t say anything.
“I can sort the stuff for you if you want. You should take a rest after yesterday.”
“No– no it’s fine.”
The shuffling of papers reverberated around the room again. Another hand joined Rowl in the sorting. Gunpowder and ash still bitterly stung Mongey’s tongue as he sluggishly flicked through the papers, barely giving each a glance. Fatigue and the residue of adrenaline hung heavy on his back, a stern warning of the battles to come.
“Have you found it yet, Mongey? You’re flipping too fast, by the way.”
“No.”
“Okay. It might be the other box then.” Rowl drew a stray strand of emerald hair behind his ear.
After sorting through the entire box, Mongey sighed as nothing came out. It was all just boring contract after bureaucratic document. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
“I’m sorry man. I care for Hax too. But, the idea that he likes Infume, and they’d do all the couple stuff. I dunno. It’s just repulsive. Coupled with the fact that– y’know. Wait, I think I found the document!”
Scrambled text of strange codes littered the front page.
“Wait, Mongey, they have a map of the CCTV coverage. Are they actually stupid?”
The pair chuckle out a laugh as Mongey cracks the cipher. The text illustrates Chelsea’s assistant hero patrolling schedules to a tee– when they do their robotic marches or when they carry out spotchecks on non-white citizens. The usual.
“That’s fine then. So we can use this zone and this zone and this zone to plant the bombs right…Who even thought this was possibly a good idea?”
“Right?”
Both of them chuckled before settling into a warm silence. Rowl stacked the papers before stashing them into his other separate folder with “ONLY FOR TUITION STUDENTS” sprawled across it. Rowl had graduated last year.
“It’s okay Rowl. We both want what’s best for Hax. Lowkey some random civilian really isn’t, but I dunno man. I just hope they can do something about… whatever is going on.”
“Can I be honest?” Rowl sprawled across an arm chair, with that sticky tone of fake neutrality.. Mongey raised an eyebrow.
“Sure. I mean, you can just say I’m Hax’s favourite friend.”
“No- hah. Uhm, when I was at their place, we were just laying on the sofa. And like Infume came over to pass us drinks or whatever. And while this guy was sipping on his lukewarm water like champagne, he was staring at Infume typing his work at the dining table. With this like… awestruck expression. Like Infume was the rising sun. And when he caught me looking at him, he avoided my eye contact and went back to watching Youtube shorts.I asked him about it and he didn’t even reply. Is he trying to hide something from me? Are they already dating or something? Why won’t he just tell me?”
Rowl takes a deep breath, eyebrows crumpling the delicate complexion of bright skin.
“The other time he told me he was busy studying for an exam so he cancelled on me. Turns out he went with Infume last minute to go see a basketball game. Like, does he even know ball about basketball? He also spends so much time with Infume after meeting him, like what? Seven months ago? What about the one year, ten months and three days we spent together?”
“Hmm. Do you think he’s not trying to lie to you but maybe he’s…y’know.”
“What?”
“Like…”
“What!”
“Ashamed?”
“Ashamed? Of what?”
“About liking a y’know… a guy, much less a civilian.”
It felt like Rowl was hit by a truck a second time that day. And it wasn’t even about his beloved goldfish being cooked alive by his flatmate. The nights Hax never answered his phone came flooding back to him.
“I don’t think he’s homophobic.”
“I’m not saying he is! It’s just a guess. I just remember he told me about how he was called ‘zesty’ and ‘flitty’ in middle school or whatever when he refused to cut his hair. His parents forced him to cut it or they’d disown him. Said he looked like a uhm– yeah. That’s why he doesn’t wanna send his sister photos of him now or something. That she’d think something else of him. I guess it would make sense.”
“...It would, actually. Huh. That’s why he never told me he liked listening to god damn Lady Gaga.”
“Wait, that’s heat.”
“Probably wouldn’t even want Infume to be at risk as a civilian too. I mean… with our constant threat of arrest as wanted villains. I feel kinda bad now.”
“You wanna help him?”
“How? Unless we give up villainhood or destroy all the injustice in the world, we ain’t doing that.”
“Hmm. What about a secret third option?”
“Huh.”
Mongey winked with a glint in his eyes. Rowl furrowed his brows in confusion.
“What if we just get Infume to ask him out?”
“Dude, there’s just no way. That guy is an actual mess. Respectfully, even if he has beaten my ass during shooting, he would lose so much aura even uttering a word.”
“Can Hax even say no if he asks?”
“No, but like- look Mongey what if we’re just both wrong? What if Hax just doesn’t like Infume? And like it’s just gonna be messy bro.”
“We still have to try at least!!”
Mongey skipped away as Rowl sighed, clambering up from his chair with the documents to drag himself to follow Mongey. Suddenly, the lights in their dingy headquarters shone brighter.