A Villain's Hero

Chapter 29 - Rowan

He didn't want to say he was hopeful, but he almost felt like a house dog as he sat on the couch, watching the door from time to time to see if the superhero would come back.

Only yesterday Rowan had been convinced that he wouldn't want anything to do with him once he found out his true identity, but he was obviously wrong. Not only had Matteo not given up on him, he had stayed to sleep in his bed.

It was embarrassing, but Rowan was disappointed when he woke up to find himself alone in bed.

He didn't want to think about his feelings and desperately needed a distraction. Fortunately, he still had two bad guys he had to catch.

It wasn't like him, but he decided to work from his bed today. He always needed peace and a designated area to work in, but today he decided to make an exception. He knew it was because his duvet still smelled of the blond hero, but he wasn't going to admit it out loud.

Unfortunately, the change of scenery didn't help his cause. His computer still found no matches in the camera footage, and there was no sign of either Mimic or Tigress. In Mimic's case, he understood, but where the brown-haired freak was hiding, he couldn't figure out.

They had disappeared without a trace, and although the entire Legion was searching for them, he doubted they were having any more luck than he was.

They'd been doing this for 16 years (and probably longer), so it was no wonder they knew what to do if someone discovered their secret plans.

He ended up spending the whole day in front of the computer, but nothing had changed. The cameras hadn't picked up anything, no new records of Amanda Smith had appeared, and although he hadn't hacked into the Legion's system, he assumed that if Matteo found anything new he'd let him know.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was getting anxious. Even more so when Matteo didn't return that evening and it was clear that he was going to spend the night alone. He tossed and turned on the bed for a few hours until he decided to sit up and work again. Eventually he got tired and his eyes closed.

In the morning he woke up in a sitting position with the computer next to him and a pain in his neck.

He was caught off guard, but his surprise lasted exactly one second before he realised what had happened. It was almost pathetic, and for a man who had been labelled a 'mysterious but powerful villain' on social media, it definitely made him feel less powerful and more like an idiot.

He ran a hand over his face and sighed as he got out of bed. The first thing on his agenda was a shower, followed by breakfast. Nothing gets a man up better than milk and cereal.

The short shower, however, quickly became a long one as he stood under the stream of water and let the thoughts wash out of his mind. So much had changed in a few days and he needed to get used to it.

As it turned out, though, fate hadn't given him much time to adjust.

He was eating his cereal when there was a knock on the door. He looked at his watch in confusion, then at his phone, then frowned. He wasn't expecting anyone and he hadn't heard from Matteo all day, so he wasn't sure who could be at the door. The only one who came to visit him was the blonde hero, so he had no reason to think it would be anyone else, though.

Oh, how wrong he was.

First he looked through the peephole and what he saw, or rather who he saw, confused him even more. Although he didn't have good neighbourly relations, he knew who lived in the same building as him, and he had no idea why Richard Matthews from the floor above him had decided to drop by.