Let me level with you man, as someone guilty of the game

12. We are the experts of falling off buildings

Tommy sighed, leaning back against the counter of Niki’s cafe and checking his phone. Rain pounded down on the city, filling Tommy’s ears like distant white noise as it hit the roof. It was nearly midnight, he would have to close up soon. Which meant that Theseus could continue his search for the robber from the other day.

Tommy had a few motives for finding the guy who had shot up the local Target. One, that was just kinda a rude thing to do, and Tommy was hoping to get the guy at least a few months in prison for it. Two, Tommy had been thinking about what the man had said about heroes and his daughter. Something about it had struck Tommy as oddly familiar, and he wanted to know why. 

So ya, Tommy was gonna track down the dude. He just had to close up shop, then he could throw on his suit that was sitting innocently in his backpack, and he would be off.

Of course, right as the clock struck 12 and Tommy moved to lock the front door, a figure pushed through it, stumbling a little on the tiles of the cafe. Tommy blinked, watching the man as he swayed unsteadily on his feet. One of the guy’s hands was pressed into his side, and there was a steadily growing stain of red creeping through the cloth of his shirt, staining his fingers where they held on. Tommy realized, with a sinking in his gut, that the man standing in front of him, rain soaked and bleeding, was none other than Siren. 

“Holy shit,” Tommy breathed, rushing forwards just as Siren nearly fell on his face, carefully catching the man and holding him at arm's length by his shoulders. Siren gave him a lopsided grin, not able to mask the strain of the expression as he hissed out a laugh.

“Hey kid, is Niki here?”

Tommy muttered several curses under his breath, glancing quickly through the front windows of the shop, making sure no one had been around to see one of the most wanted supervillains stroll through the front doors.

“No, Niki’s out. It’s just me. What the fuck are you doing here?” Tommy made sure Siren was able to stand on his own before walking around him, quickly locking the front door and flipping the OPEN sign on the handle to CLOSED.

“Damn,” Siren said easily, stumbling forwards slightly as Tommy pushed him towards the back of the cafe, where he knew Puffy kept a small first aid kit. Siren should feel very lucky that Tommy knew how to stitch people’s skin back together. 

“Why are you looking for Niki anyways? Does she normally heal you? Do you pay her or something, or does she just do it for fun?” Tommy moved around Siren to grab the first aid kit, opening it and examining the equipment inside. Tommy from a few months ago would’ve been worried about Niki, working with villains, maybe even felt betrayed. But Tommy from the present knew better.

Siren laughed, the sound dying as he winced, pressing a hand tighter against his side. “No no, she works for us willingly. She won’t ever accept payment, but I find other ways to pay her, when she’s not looking.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow, moving Siren’s hand away from the wound and hesitating with his fingers mere centimeters away from the fabric of his shirt. 

“This might hurt a little.”

Siren snorted, waving Tommy to continue. With a deep breath, Tommy lifted the shirt, taking in the wound that lay underneath. He sucked in a breath, frowning up at Siren. 

“How did you manage to get yourself fucking stabbed? What a bitch move.”

Siren frowned, shrugging. “Some dude caught me by surprise. It’s not too bad, I swear.”

“You’re literally bleeding all over my recently cleaned floors. So please shut the fuck up.”

Siren huffed, but he fell silent, letting Tommy start working. The stitching was slow going, mostly because Tommy hadn’t had to stitch up a wound this big in a long time. His own still healing bones panged in sympathy. Nymph’s powers worked wonders, they might have been even stronger than Niki’s, but Dream had dragged Tommy away before she could completely finish.