Formula One - One Shots

𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐬 ~~ justice doesn't know love

Lewis groans. Another bruise was left on his ribs, adding to a purple and more faded collection.

"You need to manage yourself," Daniel says, a smirk on his face but a worried light in his eyes. You're not as young anymore, it's OK if you don't go out as much as the others."

"Bullshit."

That's all he can say, as he slowly gets out of his costume. Another night fighting crime, another night going after Nico. These last days, it seems like his ex-lover is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Every clue he leaves turns out to be either a false lead or a dead end. And Lewis is tired, so tired. Daniel can see it too well.

"Lew.." The Australian says, getting closer. "Just ta-"

"No, Daniel. You know I can't do that." Lewis faces him now, furious his friend ever dared doubt him. "You know I can't rest when he is out there, doing God knows what, to God knows who..."

His voice breaks at the end, and he has to look down, ashamed of his reaction. He got fooled by that man once, and he is not letting anyone be too.

He remembers the good times, when Nico and he were inseparable. Like two digits from the same hand, always there for each other. Yet, it didn't stop Nico from turning bad, from abandoning his studies and getting into more or less legal affairs. Lewis took the other path. Always the same two faces of the same coin.

Lewis closes his eyes, it's no good to bring back painful memories.

—————

It's almost as if Nico wanted to be caught. Lewis finds him at a dead end, cornered. He cannot run, not anymore.

"Nico," Lewis greets him, almost growling behind his mask.

"Sweetheart," the German-Finn replies, smirking. "I guess our game of cat and mouse ends now. You can cuff me, if you want, I'm done running away."

It's too easy, Lewis thinks. It shouldn't be this easy.

Yet, it is. Nico lets himself be taken away, as simple as that.

—————

When Lewis hears about Nico's extradition to the US, he spits out his coffee. He knows what the villain is accused of there. Terrorism, drugs, corruption of officials, abuse of federal money. That can earn him prison for life, even death.

At first, Lewis decides to do nothing, just to see how things play out. Nico's trial comes and goes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation requires the death penalty. The jury grants it.

It makes Lewis' heart die a little more. Nico? Dead? That can't happen. That man is bad to the bone, rotten in ways young thugs on the streets cannot even begin to imagine, but he is Lewis's . He is the only one who can bring him down. He is the only one who can decide his fate. That's how things have always been. That's how things will always be.

So Lewis prepares. He isn't proud of what he does, and he finds himself not even caring about that. He just goes over transportation plans, and blueprints of federal prisons, and even starts researching potential people who can be bribed. It's making him a mess, a bundle of nerves, un-acknowledged and repressed emotions.

It's making his relations with the rest of the super-heroes fragile, and fearful. He doesn't go to the meetings anymore. He doesn't run the streets after criminals at night, no. He must stay focused, for his and Nico's sake.

—————

A wall explodes. Nico awakes from his slumber. He had been on the death row for weeks now, awaiting his sentence. He doesn't know when he'll get it, as the queue is quite long, but he is sure it won't be today. He hears guards rushing toward the sound, shouting instructions. He tries to look at the other prisoners, but their cells are made in such a way it's impossible to do so.

Another explosion, closer this time. Nico hears some guns firing rounds, even a body falling on the ground, but it's hard to decipher the cacophony ruling in the block. Some prisoners are shouting, and others crying. Who knows what they had done to end up there, and for how long they have been waiting.

Then, in the absolute chaos that the federal prison is, Nico hears a sound. It's subtle enough to not be heard by the other inmates, but he is very accustomed to it. After all, it is the only thing he can hear in his dreams. Clack, clack, clack. Those are boots, a special kind with titanium-reinforced heels. Only one person wears them in the world: Lewis.

Nico feels hysterical, feels like laughing into tears of joy becoming tears of sadness, feels like throwing himself out of the window, to feel free again.

Lewis, the face of unwavering justice, the superhero, is here, saving one of the greatest villains the world has ever seen. It's surreal, fantasist, phantasmagorical. It's everything Nico ever dreamed of, everything he ever wanted.

The heels stop in front of his cell, as does a very familiar face, wearing an even more familiar obsidian mask. Nico smiles. The face doesn't. Instead, Lewis growls. They have been friends and lovers for too long to need words anymore. The villain steps back, as far as he can, shielding his eyes.

For the third time, something explodes. The door is unhinged, like their mind at this moment. Nico looks up, only to see the Dark Knight hoovering over him, covering their body with his cape. Nico can clearly see in Lewis's eyes from where he is. Against all odds, if those latter were even placed by ordinary people, the German-Finnish can see some gentleness and sweetness in them.

He hadn't been looked at like that in a long time, ever since he left Lewis's side.

Nico opens his mouth for a clever, witty, snappy remark, but he is swooped off his feet by the Justice . Lewis carries him in his arms, starting to run towards the exit. Nico is too busy laughing, tasting the feel of the air brushing against his face, making his semi§long hair flutter, to speak.

They pass several rooms he doesn't recognise, and Lewis jumps over several bodies tied down on the ground. They escape by a giant hole in the side of the prison, as if they were in a cartoon. There, a helicopter awaits them. Without much ceremony, Lewis yeets him in there, before climbing too.

They take please on strap-on seats, face to face. The pilot immediately takes off, gesturing toward some headphones. Nico doesn't waste anytime by putting them on. Lewis seems reluctant to do so.

"Scared to hear me? After all this time?" Nico shouts over the deafening sounds of the chopper.

The superhero glares at him, putting the headphones on.

"Now, that wasn't hard, was it?" Nico jabs at him again, grinning like the deadman he was not an hour ago.

Lewis says nothing. It looks like he's searching for his words, or rather, trying to understand what the everloving thousands of federal offences he just committed. Nico can just soften his smile, taking his saviour's - the villain doesn't have the brain cells to figure out their relationship status at the moment - hands into his.

"I..." Lewis croaks out, as if he had to pull his words out of his lungs with his bare fists.

"It's OK if you don't want to say anything, darling," the villain says back, gently pressing their hands just a little closer.

Lewis's face closes off again, before he gets up from his seat, choosing the one next to Nico instead. He wiggles his hands free, cupping the German-Finnish face instead. Nico can see a new light in his eyes. It's bright, hot, and dangerously close to him. Before he can do anything, lips are pressed against his, desperation pouring into him.

It's as if they parted yesterday. Nico's reflexes take over as he answers, pushing back, lips moving of their own will. It's heated, it's sad, it's like it used to be and yet, it's nothing alike. They have grown during those years spent away from each other, they have kissed other people. Lewis has more technic, Nico dares to take more than he can.

They part away as they land on the ground, states away from the prison.

Jumping on the ground has never been more thrilling. Disappearing into the dark too.

—————

i'm genuinely curious if y'all do read brocedes here