Hopelessly Heroic (Rewritten)

nine

Having June in her house made Willow uncomfortable. The only people that she had ever invited over were other villains, and she was pretty sure they didn't care about the mess. She imagined all villains lived like her. 

June seemed like the type of person who spent all her free time cleaning. Like if she got bored she'd re-organize her books, or something. She probably cleaned her dishes as soon as she was done using them. 

Willow stood awkwardly as June walked around, examining the mess. She kicked clothes to the side as she moved, and habitually closed cupboards when she walked by. Her eyes scanned everything. She made a point not to touch any of the weapons.

"Um..." Willow said, clearing her throat. June looked at her. "Sorry about the mess."

"What'd you get mad about?" June asked, making her way back toward Willow and glancing at her hands.

"What?"

June bent down, and when she stood back up, she was holding Willow's bra by the strap, raising her eyebrows. She laughed before throwing it at Willow, who caught it and threw it somewhere else, not looking to see where it landed. 

"What were you so mad about that you set your couch on fire?"

"Oh," Willow paled, suddenly feeling tired.

The smoke was still in the air, and was getting to the point where Willow was lightheaded, so instead of answering, she nodded to the door and went back up the stairs, knowing without looking that June would follow her. 

She seemed to get the hint that Willow didn't want to talk about it, so she didn't ask again. Willow sat on the grass, closing her eyes. 

"You probably shouldn't go in there for a while," June said quietly, and Willow just nodded. "Do you have somewhere you can sleep tonight?"

Willow smiled, looking up at June standing above her. She had no doubt in her mind that if she said no, June would invite her to stay at her house. A large part of Willow wanted to say no just to see what June's place was like, but she knew it was a bad idea.

As much as she wanted to stay at June's and eat pizza on her couch, she knew they should have limits. A hero and a villain shouldn't be friends. They were already too close as it was, and while Willow didn't mind very much, she knew the guilt would eat away at June, so she didn't take the opportunity. 

"Yeah," Willow told her, nodding.

"Where?" June asked, clearly not believing it.

Willow raised her eyebrows, pretending to be offended, "I do have friends, you know."

"Like who?" June asked, clearly doubtful, "all the other villains?"

Willow felt her face heat up as she scoffed, crossing her arms. "Friends are friends, no matter the title."

June laughed. It was a beautiful sound. Something in Willow ached, knowing if she kept June around, her laughs would probably come to an end. Willow was a big ball of negativity, and it would surely tear June to pieces. 

*

After Juniper left, rushing off to wherever her phone told her to go, Willow was left to figure out if she actually had a place to stay. She knew the other villains quite well, and trusted them, but they weren't exactly friends, even if she told June otherwise. She briefly thought about her parents, but cast that thought away as soon as it came. 

She spent a few minutes staring at her contact list, trying to decide who was most likely to accept her into their home. After careful consideration, she messaged Crystal, who replied simply with an address and a smiley face. 

Willow went back into her own house, grabbing some clothes and her toothbrush and stuffing them into a bag. She had never stayed at someone's house before, so she didn't know what she was supposed to bring. She considered stopping for food on the way over in case Crystal didn't want her to eat her food, and then she wondered if she was supposed to give her money for letting her stay. If someone drives you somewhere, you give them gas money...Did the same logic apply to sleepovers? Should you pay for any electricity you use? For the space occupied?

She decided she would have heard about it beforehand if you were supposed to pay to stay, so she skipped the food and the money and went straight to Crystal's apartment. 

Crystal had been to Willow's house before to heal her or to listen to her rant about society, but she'd never stayed the night, and she'd never invited Willow to her place in return. Willow hadn't even thought about it before, but now she wondered if that had been on purpose. Maybe she considered them closer than Crystal did.

Knocking on the door, she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. She only had to wait a moment before Crystal was opening up and inviting her inside. She was out of costume, but villains usually wore their normal clothes when they got together. They didn't really care about being hidden the same way heroes did. 

Willow liked the idea of secrecy. She liked that she could walk the streets in normal clothes without anybody knowing she was the same person who just lit the park on fire. But she also wouldn't mind if everyone knew her name. The thought kind of excited her. Mostly, she wore her costume to hide her scars. She didn't like the looks people gave her when they saw her hands, and if they knew there were more burns scattered across most of her body, they'd look at her with overwhelming amounts of disgust or pity. Willow didn't know which one was worse. 

But villains didn't care about stuff like that. So as she walked into Crystal's apartment, Willow pulled her mask off, shoving it into her bag. It wasn't even dark out yet, but Crystal was in her pajamas already. Willow liked that she wasn't trying to impress her.

Begrudgingly, she also noticed how neat and tidy Crystal kept the place. Everything was perfectly organized. Willow chalked this up to the fact that Crystal wasn't really a villain, she just healed them. She went to all their meetings, but never offered any villainous ideas. She was mostly there to gauge the level of danger of their next attack and know whether or not she should be in attendance. For high-risk missions, she usually hid in the nearby woods or an alley or something so she could heal them as soon as they got hurt. For low-risk stuff, like Willow setting a fire and leaving, she stayed home. 

As far as they knew, the heroes didn't have a healer. Crystal was a good person, which made Willow wonder more than once why she wasn't working for the other side, but throughout the years, she had proven herself loyal. She had saved countless villains from death, and never once ratted them out. 

If anyone was going to let Willow stay the night, it would be Crystal. And Willow was thankful for it.