Supervillain Soulmate

Chapter Four

Nora stumbled forwards, almost tripping over her own feet as she tried to stop herself from falling through the cloud. Instead of falling, she stumbled right through the cloud archway, taking wispy tendrils with her. As she turned around to say something to him about pushing, she realised that they weren't on a cloud in the sky outside her apartment building anymore.

Not unless the cloud was secretly some kind of TARDIS that was way bigger on the inside, anyway. Cataclysm stepped through the portal after her and closed it with another flick of his wrist.

"Where the hell are we?" Nora asked as she turned in a slow circle and looked around what looked like a large, white tiled bathroom.

"This is my, uh, place." Cataclysm told her, his boots squeaking against the floor as he headed towards the door.

"Like your evil villain lair?" She asked him, holding her duffel bag close to herself as she followed him.

"No." He scoffed. "Like my apartment." He opened the door and she followed him out into a very normal looking hallway. This definitely wasn't what she had been expecting when she said she would go with him to spare Radiant's life.

Oh god. Her apartment was completely ruined and she'd just left him there. Her landlord was going to pitch an absolute fit. And she hadn't thought to bring any of the documents she'd need to make a claim on the villainy related incidents fund the city had set up to help normal people make repairs to their properties after they were damaged during fights.

"Right," She looked around as she followed him, trying to memorise the layout. He'd called it an apartment but to her it seemed more like a penthouse. It was absolutely massive. Clearly being a villain paid off big time. "So have you got some kind of back room with a cell in it or something?" She asked him, "Preferably with a bed if I'm going to be here a while. This place has more than one bedroom, right? I've read way too many 'there was only one bed' fanfic tropes to fall for that kind of thing."

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk a lot?" Cataclysm grumbled as he led her through the open plan living and kitchen area to a set of doors across from each other in the corridor.

She'd been so busy looking around that she almost walked into him and only managed to stop at the last second. There wasn't much in the way of decoration in the apartment, it was very spartan. Lots of dark colours and exposed metal. It definitely fit Cataclysm's vibe though, she had to give him that much.

Pushing open the door on the left he stepped to the side and gestured for Nora to go in. "This will be your room while you're here." He told her. She looked at him for a long moment before creeping closer to the doorway and peering into the room. It was just as spartan as the rest of the place.

The room's only saving grace was that there was a nice big window that would let lots of sun into the room. All it needed was a houseplant to make use of the space. Something big like a monstera maybe. Or an army of tiny succulents.

"Why don't you put your things on the bed?" Cataclysm suggested, but Nora shook her head.

"The second I step in there, you're going to lock this door behind me aren't you?"

Cataclysm rolled his eyes at her. "And listen to you banging on the door all evening complaining to be let out? I don't think so."

Nora narrowed her eyes at him, but he just raised an eyebrow in challenge and eventually she decided what the heck. She was probably already locked inside this apartment, right? What was one more door being locked in her face. Thank god she'd thought to bring those books with her.

Dumping her duffel bag on the bed, she returned to the hallway to find Cataclysm waiting exactly where she'd left him, arms crossed and giving her a look as if to say 'happy now?'

"What's in there?" Nora asked, thumbing over her shoulder at the other door.

"You don't need to go in there."

"Ooh, is that the west wing?" She asked, "Is it forbidden?" Her curiosity grew as she fought the urge to open the door and poke her head in. She might have done it, too, if Cataclysm hadn't been standing right there.

"It's my bedroom." He told her, before pushing himself away from the wall and walking off back towards the living room. "So like I said, you don't need to go in there."

"I wouldn't wanna go in there anyway." She shot back, trailing after him like a puppy.

He dropped onto one of the two couches and started to undo his hefty combat boots while Nora stood there and watched, not sure what to do. She clasped her hands, awkwardly wringing them together the same way she did at work when she needed to ask a scary attending something.

Work! Nora's heart lurched as she realised that they were very likely going to freak out tomorrow when she didn't turn up for rounds. She had no idea how or what she would tell them, though.

'Hey by the way I've kind of been kidnapped by a supervillain and I'm at his fancy apartment and I can't come in for the forseeable future, sorry?'

Even if Cataclysm was inclined to give her back her phone so she could call in, she would sound like an absolute crazy person. Which, maybe she was since she was considering using her phone to call in sick to work instead of something sane like CALLING FOR HELP. A normal person probably would have thought of that.

"You can sit down, you know." His voice shocked her back to reality and Nora stared at him wide eyed.

"What?"

"Sit down?" He told her slowly, clearly work weren't the only ones that were going to think she had some kind of cognitive impairment. Had she been hit by some debris and not noticed? She honestly wasn't sure.

"Uhh, I think.. Bathroom!" She told him hastily, "I'm going to the bathroom."

Turning on her heel, she went back the way they had come and managed to find her way back to that magnificent bathroom they'd arrived in.

Locking the door behind her, she leant against the cool wood for a second, her forehead thunking against it with a dull thud. This was not at all what she had expected to happen on her day off. Not that anyone in their right mind would ever expect this of all things.

Pulling herself away from the door, she crossed the tiles to the basin, clasping it with both hands and looking at herself in the mirror just like she'd done back at her apartment. 'Okay, calm down.' She told herself before leaning close and inspecting her face for any cuts or bruises that she hadn't noticed before. There was nothing.

She moved to her hair next, pulling it back from her face and running her fingers through it. Other than a piece of plasterboard, she found nothing else out of the ordinary. No injuries, nothing. A quick check over the rest of her body found a few minor scratches on her knees - probably from where she'd knelt in the rubble that used to be her wall to help Arjun - but overall she'd gotten off lightly.

Okay, so that was reassuring.

Maybe she was just going into shock, then. That combined with the fact that she'd just come off a horrendously long shift and had barely slept and now this was happening and...

BANG BANG BANG

"What are you doing in there?" Cataclysm's gruff voice called through the bathroom door, and she heard the handle rattle. "I swear if you've passed out on the floor..."

"I'm coming!" She called back, running the faucet to make it seem like she hadn't been about to spiral into oblivion and was, in fact, just washing her hands.

Gathering up some of the cold water in her hands, Nora splashed her face, drying it off on the hand towel before taking a deep breath and going over to the door.

"You almost look concerned." She commented as she spotted Cataclysm's face.

"Concerned for the mess you might have been making in my bathroom, yes." He shot back at her. "Come and sit down, we need to talk."