Chapter Text
"Promise me we'll always be there for each other."
He looked up at the boy, finally starting to breathe again.
"Promise me, Sunny."
Sunny swallowed, dark energy flowing from his fingertips. "I promise."
That, of course, was a lie. Sunny was anything but honorable.
If the accident tonight didn't prove he was a natural-born villain, he didn't know what would.
"Sunnyyy~! Time to get up!"
Sunny groaned, pulling a pillow over his head. Too early. Screw mornings. Screw Mari.
Don't, actually.
"C'mon, sleepyhead! Aren't you excited for another day doing villainous stuff?" Her hands yanked on the pillow.
Sunny groaned again, smacking at her hand, but it ended fruitlessly. He glared at a triumphant Mari, who tossed the pillow onto Sunny's already-cluttered floor.
"I expect you to be down there in five!" Mari said, and she turned on her heel and left.
With her optimism and beauty, everyone expected Mari to either be a normal civilian or a hero, but, alas, she is a villain. One of the most famous villains in the United States, too—Miss Classic and her trusty and quiet henchman, Omori. The Painano Duo.
Of course, they dressed their part...mostly. Sunny was already so pale he was almost white, and he just wore a black tank top, white shorts with black stripes, and black socks. He always carried a knife around, too, and he even wore black contacts to complete his monochrome look. It was simple and comfortable, yet a little more stylish than Mari gave him credit for. He wasn't caught as a civilian because there were plenty who looked similar.
On the other hand, Mari went all out—a white dress with black notes among the bottom. There was a black band around her waist to give it a more poofy look, and she wore heels, which immediately gave Sunny the respect Mari deserved. Merely standing in heels was an accomplishment—Sunny couldn't even imagine having the grace and balance to do villain things in them. And, of course, she wore a masquerade mask covering the top half of her face to conceal her identity from the world.
"SUNNY HAMILTON SUZUKI!"
Crap. Mari used his full name. She probably found the half-eaten coffee cake.
Sunny scrambled out of bed, grabbing his black contacts and knife.
Kel scowled. "Why oh why do people not understand my hero name? It's Ossum Jack! Not Orange Juice!"
Hero chuckled from the kitchen. "That's what you get for trying to name yourself Orange Joe when you were younger."
"Can I please change my hero name?" Kel begged.
"No, Kel. This is what everyone knows us as. We can't change it now."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we should have been more like the Painano Duo when coming up with our names," Kel grumbled, taking a bite of his turkey bacon. "I mean, you're at risk of being exposed, and I'm at risk of never landing a girl."
"Yours is truly the worst between us," Hero sighed, finally sitting down with a plate of his own food.
"Exactly!" Kel shook his head. "I mean, it's bad enough that the media has deemed me a sidekick. Now they're calling me Orange Juice. This is positively, absolutely the worst."
Hero chuckled again. The two brothers sat in silence.
"Okay, so," Hero muttered, looking at the to-do list on the table, "we gotta get groceries. I heard rumors of the Painano Duo wanting to kidnap us la—"
CRASH!
"Ooor now," Hero sighed. Kel shot a glare at the duo, standing in the rubble.
"We're still eating!? Can't you guys wait!?" Kel snapped.
Miss Classic and Omori stood there, blinking.
"We...we scheduled this for now," Miss Classic stated.
"Wait, did we?" Hero pulled out his miniature calendar he always kept with him. He flipped to the current month and facepalmed. "Yep, you're right. Our bad. Can we just...finish our food first? Please?"
Miss Classic sighed. "No. Also, do you guys always wear your hero costumes or something?"
Kel nodded. "Yeah. Unless there's no scheduled stuff the next day, we wear these in case of stuff like this."
"I...uh...see. Whelp!" Miss Classic grinned. "It's time to kidnap you two! Omori?"
Omori was quick, placing a rag with chloroform over their mouths.
"Screw...you..." was the last thing Kel said before everything faded to black.
Basil sighed, smiling as his last customer of the morning left. He sat in his chair and glanced at Aubrey, who was reading her magazine in her vigilante uniform.
"So, when do you leave for work?" Basil asked, counting how much money he'd made.
"In an hour," Aubrey said.
"Mm."
The two of them sat in an easy silence. Basil was what the HVV (Hero Villain Vigilante) community called a civilian. His friend Aubrey was a vigilante, which meant that she essentially did what she thought was best. If that meant going against the government, then she would. If that meant saving innocent people's lives, she would do that, too. More often than not, though, she would stick to a hero's code.
"Want me to redye your hair?" Basil asked.
Aubrey nodded, and Basil brought Aubrey to the basement, also where Basil lived.
"So," Basil murmured, beginning the hair-dying process, "what will the Hooligans do today, fair leader?"
"Hm..." Aubrey hummed, seemingly deep in thought. "Maybe I'll protest against the animal shelter's policy for sick animals."
"Okay."
"I don't know, though," Aubrey admitted.
Suddenly, the door to the basement flew open. Miss Classic and Omori ran downstairs, carrying chairs with Hero and OJ tied to them back to back.
"Hey, mind if we use your basement as our secret lair?" Miss Classic asked.
Basil quivered under Miss Classic's gaze. He nodded, silently slapping himself for being a pushover.
"Thanks." Miss Classic motioned for Omori to put them down.
Basil swallowed. "I-I-I-I-I th-thought you were getting a-a new lair?"
"Yeahhh, sorry. Hero found the money stash a week ago and returned it to banks like any goody-two-shoes hero would," Miss Classic explained.
"My hair?" Aubrey mentioned.
"Right!" Basil went back to fixing Aubrey's hair, but he couldn't help but watch the scene play out.
Hero slowly lifted his head. Looking around and down, his eyes widened, and he struggled against the ropes.
"So, you're finally awake," Miss Classic grinned. "I knew you would be. It was only a matter of time."
"Wh-Where are we!?" Hero demanded. "Why are you doing this!?"
"You see..." Miss Classic twirled, conjuring an electric spear. "I want my money back."
"What?"
"I want my money back. The money you stole and gave back to these multi-billion-dollar corporations."
"You're the one who stole!" Hero exclaimed.
"Oh, hey, Omori!"
Miss Classic and Hero turned to see OJ grinning at Omori.
Omori waved, his expression bored.
Basil had seen the four of them in his flower shop often. The villains were never mean, per se, but they were intimidating enough that Basil didn't want to reject them.
The heroes, on the other hand, looked and acted silly. Hero wore a typical heroic outfit in the blue and white color scheme—a skin-tight blue bodysuit with white shorts that looked like Speedos on top; a white cape behind him; and a simple blue mask that covered the area around his eyes. The emblem that was on his chest was a lit-up white lightbulb.
On the other side, OJ wore an orange tank top with the emblem Hero adorned. He also wore black basketball shorts with what Basil thought was black pantyhose underneath. His hair was in a ponytail, and his mask was similar in shape but was orange.
In other words...where the Painano Duo looked amazing, the other two looked...well, odd.
"Ke—OJ! Stop interacting with the enemy!" Hero whisper-shouted. Then, to Miss Classic: "You can't take that money! It isn't yours!"
"So?" Miss Classic placed a hand on her hip.
"So...so...!"
Miss Classic watched with a smirk as Hero scrambled for a good heroic thing to say.
OJ turned his head, spouting, "You won't get away with this, you...you villains!"
"My, my. After so much work just to come up with something, that's the best you can come up with?" Miss Classic snickered. "Omori, why don't you shut them up already?"
Omori pulled out the duct tape, his expression completely calm.
"Um...g-guys?" Basil spoke up nervously. "Can you please take this somewhere else?"
Behind him, Aubrey nodded, looking slightly annoyed. She just wanted pink hair, for Pete's sake.
"You let us in here, though." Miss Classic looked back at Basil. "Look, it won't be too much longer. You can wait, right?"
Basil glanced at Aubrey, who stood slowly. Miss Classic stumbled back, summoning a barrier that covered the group.
"Get. The. FUCK. Out. Of. Here," Aubrey growled through gritted teeth. She reached for her bat with nails.
"Oh, geez!" Miss Classic groaned. She took down the barrier and grabbed Omori's hand. "Let's just go get that money!"
Miss Classic and Omori sprinted up the stairs, and Basil was left with the heroes and an angry Aubrey.
"I can't believe we actually got away with that," Mari giggled, laying in the bed of their new lair. "I seriously can't believe it! Can you?"
Mari turned to see Sunny already fast asleep in his new bed. Mari's expression softened, and she slid out of bed. She pulled the covers over Sunny's sleeping form and brushed his bangs out of his eyes. When was the last time Sunny actually slept on something other than an old mattress with a bunch of springs coming out?
Mari kissed his forehead and went to her own bed. Tomorrow, they would unpack everything. For tonight, though, they would only sleep—or, in Mari's case, try to think of something other than her forgotten past.
Mari remembered the day she and Sunny left an old friend's. Mari was so confused as to what was going on, but Sunny insisted that terrible things were happening there.
Mari believed him temporarily, but now she wanted answers. Who was she before? What happened to make her forget?
What if she didn't want to know?
Mari shook her head, and she drifted off to sleep with memories and Hero's attractiveness dancing in her head.