A Totally Fantastic Guide To Vigilantism {Sanscest Story}

Rule #12

Rule #12: Everyone keeps secrets, you might as well not waste your time fretting over them.

Cross had woken up for the second day in a row on the most uncomfortable couch known to man. As the aches and soreness of his bones began to set in, he wondered why he had even agreed to stay overnight. Twice.

Of course, the first night's decision was rather reasonable. The patrol had ended incredibly late, and he would've prolonged the time it would take for him to get some sleep if he had decided to go home, so it wasn't very hard for him to make that choice. He was sure he had secured a couple extra hours of sleep by doing that, and he was certainly thankful.

The second night, though? Staying at the hero tower definitely wasn't the choice he should have made. Even if he had been faced with convincing arguments from his teammates. He should have known better.

He highly doubted he should be getting this comfortable here. He had a job to do. A mission. He couldn't forget that. He couldn't let his growing familiarity and fondness for his current teammates get in the way. It would be incredibly foolish to let that happen. He would practically throw away everything he'd worked for.

Not to mention, he was prone to accidentally letting things slip when he began to trust. Unfortunately, it was a habit he had developed because he never got chances to open up to trustworthy people often. That was something about himself that consistently got on his nerves. He hated how easily his heart overruled his mind.

That was the most compelling reason for him to not stay. The more time he spent around his teammates the more he became attached to them. That attachment wouldn't be good, he knew that for certain. It would lead to a clouded judgment, and suddenly the job's objective would be lost to him. He couldn't afford to let that happen.

But, of course, he chose to stay. He had already enabled that situation to become true. He had tipped over the first dominos, and now he could only watch in defeat as the rest toppled over. He was ensnared in the trap of kindness that his teammates unknowingly set for him. There was no going back. No matter how many times he pleaded for a second chance.

Cross groaned with pain as he forced himself to sit up. He couldn't believe that on top of his poor choice of staying here, he also chose to sleep on a couch he'd already learned was insufferable. It was like he was willingly signing himself up for a future of pain and failure.

His bones throbbed as he attempted to maneuver himself into a more comfortable position. Every slight movement he made caused a jolting ache to course through him. His joints were stubbornly stiff, and refused to move even the most minute of distances.

He would've been better off sleeping on the floor. Or, of course as he's already acknowledged, simply not staying overnight at the hero tower at all.

A sigh escaped from him as he stretched out to grab his phone, which was sitting on an end table next to the couch. He noticed as he reached out that it was not plugged into the charging cord. Wonderful. It was probably dead, and he knew that meant he would be getting an absolute earful when he went home.

He managed to snag the phone off the table, and soon brought it closer to himself so he could fully assess how much trouble he was in. Surprisingly (thank god), his phone hadn't died. It was running on a terribly low battery percentage, but at least his predicament wasn't as horrible as he had thought.

He turned it on for a moment, to simply waste some time going through a plethora of notifications. Luckily there weren't very many, well, besides some texts from Killer but he's sure those could wait until later. He really didn't have the social energy to involve himself in a full length conversation just yet.