Ask and you shall receive! And thank you very much, dearest <3

P11 Darling, I Did It For You

Part 10 here

@silverwhisperer1 @whump-me-all-night-long @whatwhumpcomments

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Villain's hand hovered in front of Hero's door, ready, but terrified, to knock. It'd been several days, almost a week, since the Garden Runaway. Hero had come out of her room a few times, but only to grab a quick drink, or a box of crackers. She rarely ate a full meal because that would mean cooking it herself- which meant a prolonged amount of time to run into villain. If Brother or Sister brought a meal to her then okay, but there was a stronger chance that Villain would bring a plate to her than the others.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." It was Brother, walking down the hall from his so called 'Lab'. Villain rolled his eyes at the thought.

With a falling arm, Villain said, "What would you know? You're twelve."

"Thirteen," Brother corrected. "And I don't have to know anything except what I've been told. She doesn't want to see you yet. Just give her time. She'll come to you when she's ready."

Villain knew his younger sibling was right. He agreed fully, so he couldn't say anything. Villain was impatient was all. It was something he was working on. "You missed the stairs." Did Brother only come this far down the hall to bother Villain?

"No." Brother held up two blue-gloved hands, which were holding another pair of gloves. Only the gloves he held were a silver, yet brownish colour. "I meant to come here. Hero said she's tired of having others pour her drinks. So I made her these."

"Gloves?"

"Stariculum gloves," he said. Seeing the blank expression on Villain, Brother continued. "It's a highly classified element due to its unique properties. You can do a lot of things with that stuff. One such thing being the ability to camouflage. Hero puts these on, the element implanted in the material- and there's a ton of it- will match the solid state- her hands- on which it lay."

Still, Villain gave no expression, but he asked, "Why would Hero want camouflage gloves?"

"Because, it distracts from the fact that she's wearing gloves at all."

"Why does that matter? If the gloves help her pour a can of soda then they do and she'll use them. What need is there to hide the gloves? And how does a pair of gloves help anyway? Why not just give her regular clear gloves?"

"Do you really want another science explanation?"

The villain shrugged. He looked at Hero's door then turned back to his sibling. "It'll occupy my brain from wanting to check on Hero, so why not?"

Brother smiled. "You asked for it."

After a lengthy explanation, Villain understood that Brother managed to create a new compound, crossing atoms of starcal- or whatever it was called- with various other elements. In the end, he made a pair of gloves that matched skin tones and was thick- but not heavy- enough that Hero could touch anything, metal or not, and it would be like touching it normally- no loss of control in her powers. The only downfall, Brother said, was that since they were thick enough to prevent direct contact, they also prevented any amount of feeling besides a tiny, or 'minuscule', bit of pressure, so Hero couldn't feel much. She would be able to touch cans and garden poles without bolts of electricity sparking out, but she wouldn't feel it.

"Chances are she'll always keep them on just for a state of normalcy. Imagine she gets used to wearing her gloves to open a car door, and then at night she takes them off, forgets to put them on the next morning. Next thing you know, she's on the news for accidentally destroying her entire apartment complex because she touched the heating-cooling system."

"You still never said why she needs to hide the fact that she's wearing gloves," Villain stated.

"Ask her yourself if it's so important you know." Brother added, "When she's ready, of course. She tells me you have some things to clarify before she'll ever let you ask her anything."

Villain's raised his brows. "And how often do you talk to Hero?"

"More often than you." Brother gave a small smirk that softened like butter in the next few moments. "She'll come around. Until then, stay patient. I know that's hard for you, but you've done good enough at it this week."

Villain was speechless. His brother must have been joking or something. He was never kind, encouraging, or anything similar with Villain. Maybe Hero meant something to Brother just as much as she did Villain.

Villain sat at the kitchen island, head in his hands. It'd been several more days since Brother gave Hero the special gloves. She'd come downstairs once herself to get a can of strawberry soda. Villain noticed she was drinking an unhealthy amount of it, but he didn't question her about it. He assumed she was just happy to be able to touch the can it was in.

She got into cabinets on her own when she did come downstairs. Hero seemed to thoroughly enjoy the snack cabinet, and the freezer. Villain caught her stealing whole tubs of ice scream just to bring them back later. Hero eventually did begin eating meals once Brother offered to take them to her room.

Blowing out a long breath, Villain debated what to do. He didn't want to bother Hero, but at the same time, it was time to get back to work, and he didn't just want to up and leave Hero. He had to tell her he'd be gone, right? Or would that just make her feel even more trapped than she already felt? Great! he imagined her thinking. Now I'm stuck here while he's not even around. How did she feel when he left to visit her apartment?

He nearly cursed himself at the last thought. He'd been so angry with Caretaker that he forgot to even give Hero what he went to the apartment for!

That's what I'll do, Villain thought. I'll take them to her and tell her that I'm going back to work.

Villain started away from the table by going to his room, to get Hero's...gifts? He didn't know what to consider them. They were simply decorations from her own home so it wasn't a gift. But it sounded inconsiderate to just call them decorations when they might- hopefully- mean so much for her to have. Whatever they were, they were in his room, in a drawer. He had to collect them before taking them to Hero, and so he did.

Then, he approached Hero's door. He knocked, lightly, hesitantly.

He coughed. "Uh, Hero? I...I brought you something from home. Will you take it or should I just leave it outside the door?"

To his surprise, she answered. Hero opened the door, immediately looking from his face to his hands to see what he brought.

Villain had to control the smile trying to steal away his other emotions.

"You did go to my apartment," she said softly. Hero must not have believed him before when he said he did, when he said he ran across Caretaker.

"Yeah, I-I did. I just thought you might, you know, appreciate having something from home."

Hero only nodded in return, holding out her hands to take the two ghost decorations. She laughed a little, thinking of her apartment, of the fact that she'd already had ghosts and pumpkins and whatnot set out. In truth, summer had just began to come to an end when she set her autumn and Halloween decorations out. She always decorated early for fall. It was her favourite season. "Thank you," she finally muttered.

"There's another reason I came to you. I- well I know you needed space and I didn't want to intrude, but I wanted to let you know that I'll be going back to work at the cafe."

"The Milk Bowl?" she asked, and Villain could see the way she perked up. She was almost on her tippy toes.

He nodded.

"Can I come?"

Villain sucked in a breath. "Hero, I don't- I don't know if that's a good idea..."

It wasn't that he wanted her to stay in his home for fear of her running off, though maybe that played into it a little bit. It was that Villain was unsure if Caretaker would be there. Tomorrow was Monday after all, and Caretaker went there every Monday. Truthfully, he was there everyday. The only days he didn't go was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. "Game night, party, recovery," Caretaker had said once. Villain would hate if he actually took Hero and that dirtbag was there.

Even worse, knowing Hero, she would want to reconnect with him. He was the only person she was familiar with besides Villain and she obviously wouldn't want to be at Villain's hip the whole time. She'd want to be far away from him.

"Please. Don't take the cafe away from-"

He sighed. "It's not- urgh!" He took a moment. "It's never been my intention to take things away from you, Hero. I'm willing to let you go to the cafe, just...just not during the week, okay?"

"Why not? Why does it matter which day I-" she cut herself off short. "I get it." A huff of air. "You don't want me to see him."

"It's for your own good. I promise. I know I seem awful. I know I have things to work on, but I promise, Hero, that everything I have done or haven't done has been to benefit you. You don't know Caretaker the way I do. He's not a good person. I swear it, Hero."

"You're jealous."

Villain's jaw dropped. "Jealous?" he repeated, completely struck by the word. "No. No, no, no. I'm not jealous of him. I just despise him. He's simply despicable." He wanted so badly to tell Hero what Caretaker did, what he and his friends bet on. Villain wanted to tell her how many hearts he'd seen Caretaker and his crew break. But he wouldn't do that. Hero would only think he was trying to trick her like she always thought. It was better that she see it for herself. Villain trusted her own senses wouldn't deceive her. "You know what?" he asked without the intention of waiting for an answer. "I'll take you."

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Part 12 here