Heroic Villains: Toxic Hero

Headline Twelve: The Problem with Leading Questions

Clover (Coy) Winters

Clover woke with Mave nowhere to be found. He hadn't expected to fall asleep and when he was roused by a sound, quiet but enough to get his attention. Clover got up, tugged on his shirt and boxers, and peeked out the window, fireworks were going off, ones Clover recognized unless someone else bought a large quantity of ground fireworks that whistled. Vast was up to something.

Clover turned his attention back to the room and found that Mave seemed to think he'd be back, leaving behind his boxers, button down and even a password protected phone. Mave must be cocky. He'd surely be knocked down a few pegs of pride if Clover left before he did get back. But then as Clover was inspecting Mave's shirt, he found a folded paper in the breast pocket. Curiosity didn't need to poke Clover at all before the paper was out of the pocket and being unfolded. The single paper was handwritten notes on things to ask and things to avoid. Each question had something to do with Vast, or rather Kieran.

Questions like, how long they've been in the city, if Vast eats only meat, what kind of company he keeps, if Vast had any powers, and inquiries about the incident with the wallet thief the day that they met. The longer Clover looked at the paper the more amused he was.

Mave was sniffing around to find evidence that Vast was Beast. But why would he think that? Beast was in the city, sure, but the mutt promised to keep his distance from the brothers. There shouldn't be anything that would link them back to Beast; not here in Riverbrae at least. If they'd been in Callastead, Clover would have been more worried; Beast knew their hiding places back there. Here they'd had no physical contact and so he couldn't give anything to the cops if caught.

Clover decided to stay and see if Mave really would be returning, for more reasons now then just curiosity.

Clover was sitting at the small table by the window, watching out in case he saw the heroes or heard more sirens, but things were quiet again by the time the hotel door beeped, unlocked, and swung open. Clover looked over as Mave walked in, letting the door swing shut behind him.

"Hey, I uh was hungry so..." He held up a brown bag and smiled lightly. Clover knew that he'd been gone long enough for more than just food he'd been out to get but didn't comment on it.

"There are food places open at this time?" Clover asked, glancing over to the bedside clock that display 12:12.

"If you know where to go." Mave smirked as he joined Clover at the small table and set the bag down between them.

"Hmm, are you some kind of urban scavenger?"

"The very best, I lived my whole life in this city, remember?" He asked as he reached into the bag and pulled out a freshly made hamburger wrapped in wax paper, handing it to Clover.

"I remember," Clover said and then changed the subject because honestly it was too funny not to and if he didn't the Labs might do some snooping in places Clover and Vast didn't want them.

"Kieran isn't Beast." Mave stopped moving with his arm elbow deep in the paper bag.

"Huh?" He asked looking over to Clover.

"Kieran isn't Beast," Clover repeated more slowly this time as he slid the paper that he'd found over to Mave who looked at it then nodded. "Were you just getting close to me for this?"

"No! No, I genuinely wanted to hang out with you, Clover." Mave almost knocked the bag over in his surprise.

"Isn't Beast like fifty years old?" Clover asked, he was pretty sure Beast wasn't that old, but he had to drive home the point.

"I uh... Kieran was the last one seen with a man who was found mutilated by Beast. We had to be sure."

Oh... That stupid tantrum throwing brat, Clover thought to himself.

"Weird..." He said instead.

"Do you know what happened between the victim and your brother?"

"Kieran said he roughed him up a bit to get his stuff back, but the guy was alive when he left and not eaten. Maybe a bruise or two but not one nibble."

"Right, I get it. I shouldn't play hero. Besides there was a commotion while I was getting food and apparently Beast is in custody now." As he said these words, he was clearly looking for a reaction, but Clover just smiled.

"I can call my brother to have a chat with you if you want solid proof that he's not in police custody."

"No, no, I've learned my lesson. I won't go chasing people I think are supervillains anymore." He sighed and went back to dishing out the food.

"Hmm, but I was just thinking how cool it was that you jumped right into the fray of things to protect civilians. You had a decent reason for it, evidence to support your theory, and you put yourself in danger, I could have been Beast."

"...Uh, no offense but you don't exactly have the height," Mave smirked when Clover narrowed his eyes at him.

"Thanks, but yeah, You played a good enough hero... Well, besides the false accusations. You could almost be one." Clover said as he flicked the paper off somewhere in the direction of the trash bin.

"Okay, I'm sorry for calling you short. You don't need to accuse me of being a superhero again."

"You got me a midnight snack, of course I'm calling you a hero." Clover smirked.

"Well, you're welcome and of the two of us, I'd say you're the superhero. You seriously saved my life today."

"I don't think the giant cat lady would have hurt you that bad," Clover argued.

"I don't know, it was pretty heavy wood, but I do wonder why everyone suddenly freaked out."

"It was really weird..." Clover said though was thankful he hadn't made eye contact with Mave when he lost control of his imagination. He would have seen birds coming out of nowhere to attack the crowd, though there would be no hiding the news talking about it. The witnesses would testify, and rumors were bound to spread. Clover only hoped he'd remain out of it.

"Weirder things happen every day," Mave shrugged it off.

"Now you've got to name at least one, not everyone works with superheroes, you know," Clover teased.

"How well do you know Sapphire Shadow?" Mave asked and Clover almost answered, but then his brain grinded to a halt. Some seconds ticked by while Clover wondered how long he and Vast would have to get out of town after he kills Mave.

"...What?"

"I was just curious since you seemed interested in Vast, surely you know that the labs are pretty sure his mom was Sapphire, the father Phantom, the mother Sapphire. Weird right?" Mave continued but Clover's stomach didn't settle. That question was too close for comfort.

"...Yeah...weird." What the fuck just happened? Where had he gone that caused him to bring this up again?

Clover's phone buzzed the quick chime he knew as Vast's ringtone. Clover turned away from Mave and checked the screen to find an urgent message from Vast, warning him away from home and the usual safe houses and to reply soon.

"I have to go," Clover lied as tugged his pants on.

"What's going on?" Mave asked as he stood and sort of followed Clover around the room while he searched for his boots.

"It's personal, but I had fun. We should do this again sometime," Clover said as he zipped up his jacket. Mave grabbed his arm to stop him from walking away then stepped in close, grasping Clover's jaw and pressing their lips together for a sweet kiss.

"Yeah, I'd like that," He agreed and then stepped away and let Clover slip out the door and down the hall. Clover headed straight home. If Vast had gotten a dead woman's attention he'd need to be there to help control her. But the apartment was quiet, not curtain out of place. Nothing tossed or obviously looked through. If anyone unwanted had been through their stuff they hadn't ransacked.

Vast had promised there hadn't been anything of import the last dip into his head, but if that were true what was he doing with the fireworks and what went wrong to compromise their hiding spots.

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There was going to be more to this chapter but I decided Vast ghosted his brother, so no conversation. This chapter has no planned drawings. All those before it does.