Noticed (Villain Academy AU Paperhat)

9 - Reasons for Jealousy

Flug was sitting at his already beloved table in his at times torturously bright lab, struggling not to zone out while planning yet another invention.

He was slightly sleep-deprived, though it was fully his and his passion's fault. To be fair, he was somewhat used to being in such a state, as he wasn't exactly the most reliable person when it came to sleep schedules.

The newest weapon he had to work on just so happened to be a commission, which made it a little more special than usual, since it would be the first one of its kind for him. It would be his fourth product released under the BHO, and he was sure it would be as profitable as his previous inventions, just like Black Hat no doubt expected by now.

Though, unluckily, this project being different from others couldn't seem to distract him from his disarray thoughts right now, at least not single-handedly.

Right after his third invention was included in the catalogue, his boss had insisted that he should take a break from his work in the lab. Black Hat had known he would have to meet a valued customer soon enough, and there had been a fair chance he would request something custom. And request he did, giving the eldritch quite an exaggerated description that Flug now had to... filter.

Beforehand, he had been very focused on his work. All these opportunities had blinded him, making him somewhat lost on what to do, simply because he could do so much. He would reluctantly go to sleep thinking of his progress and wake up with exclusively work on his mind, only to rush into the lab and continue from where he had to stop the day before to avoid dropping bag-first into his sometimes fragile weapon.

Any and all non-science-related worries he might've had just left his busy and almost childishly excited mind whenever his work got so satisfying and engrossing.

Science still enthralled him now, of course, but thanks to that admittedly quite short break, some realizationtions had finally dawned on him. He just couldn't go back to his usual state of mind and chaotic (though not all that healthy) schedule anymore, no doubt partially because he was currently lacking sleep and coffee.

First off, he had gone days without seeing Dementia while absorbed by his work. At the time, he would just shrug it off as her being busy with work, just like he always was, and maybe that was somewhat reasonable. But then he'd sometimes see her in the kitchen, looking either extremely bored or almost unnaturally dreamy, and they would routinely exchange an amount of words he could count on his fingers.

What happened? They were best friends, and just the fact that he had to remind himself made him sickly with self-hatred. They were supposed to distract each other from work simply because they wanted to talk to each other, not be randomly reminded of each other's existence like this.

Then he realized that she had never visited him in the lab, or in his room, or went out of her way to talk with him other than when they just so happened to see each other. He had grown so used to not having company in his short time at the BHO that he would flinch violently at any footsteps, since his brain had apparently decided he was vulnerable to his bullies in the manor, somehow.

He could only recall these instances with shame, quite similar to the shame that overwhelmed him whenever he thought of his feelings for Black Hat, but less intense. Thankfully...

With the mention of the demon, his mind immediately decided to confront him on the topic of avoiding his crush, since at times he had done so automatically. He had preferred not initiating meetings with the eldritch over reporting his finished inventions, however quick that always turned out to be, and even excused it to himself as not wanting to disrupt his "rhythm". Of course, his paranoid nature still forced him to avoid mentioning the fact that the product had already been done for some time whenever Black Hat checked up on him, since he didn't want to somehow anger the demon or prompt any questions, even if the former did seem to be a hard task so far.