A Whole New World

[mostlyajerk]

Assorted Threads.

Comments

[viber]

Are you home?

[mostlyajerk]

Yes. Why?

[viber]

You idiot not-boyfriend botched our job tonight and now I need your help.

I'm coming over.

[mostlyajerk]

Is Axel okay?

[viber]

Fuck Axel, he's a moron.

[mostlyajerk]

So he's alive. Is he with you?

[viber]

No, I sent him home. There was just a complication and now I need you to help me fix it because you're the idiot who just has to keep this moron alive.

[mostlyajerk]

So you need to come over to my place?

[viber]

Yes.

[mostlyajerk]

Fair enough, but I didn't tidy up and all I have is instant coffee.

[viber]

I'm not coming to hang.

[mostlyajerk]

Obviously not. If you were coming to hang, I'd have said no.

[viber]

Rude.

[mostlyajerk]

Yes, I'm sure you're heartbroken. If it helps, I don't hang with anyone.

[viber]

I'm sure people are missing out on your wonderful personality and warm, sunny disposition. Shame.

[mostlyajerk]

Not everyone can be a people person like you.

[viber]

I love to love.

Open the window.

[mostlyajerk]

Hartley adjusted his hood and quickly scanned the room. He moved to his workshop and pulled down the picture Axel had sent him that he'd printed out, the one Jerrie had drawn of him. It wasn't as if it mattered one way or the other, but the idea of Reverb seeing it creeped him out. He had no time to waste though, so he really had nowhere to put it, ending up simply putting it upside down on the desk before moving to open the window, mask on and hood up.

Waiting for Reverb in his own home. Fun times.

[viber]

Reverb fell through the window in a way that lacked his usual grace but as soon as he started to stand up, it was probably more obvious why he did that. There was blood on his hands, on the front of his shirt and he took a while to get back to his feet, clearly injured. "Don't worry, it's not all my blood. Not that I think you'd be worried." Reverb smirked as he stood there, slightly bent double, looking at Hartley with great amusement.

"Do you hang around your house dressed like this? I like it. You're very invested. So few people are." No one ever took villainy seriously. He was glad someone finally was.

[mostlyajerk]

"No, I got dressed when you said you were coming over." It was actually the truth, but it was difficult to come up with a clever answer while faced with an injured Reverb. He should probably have asked whether he was hurt, not just Axel, but he couldn't change his priorities. Hartley's fingers had gone to his flute without thinking. If only there was value in killing Reverb.

"I have a first aid kit. You can bleed on my couch."

[viber]

"Don't even think of using that on me. I'm injured, not stupid. I'd still attack." Reverb sneered as he limped across the room and crouched awkwardly on the arm of the chair, not willing to make himself comfortable and not really able to. "You owe me for this, I'm only in this mess because of you. You and that idiot, he's never being on my team again."

Reverb was going to invent some easy job where Axel could look like he was doing stuff without ever having to do stuff. Or acting like he stopped existing and hopefully Zoom would follow suit.

[mostlyajerk]

"I told you. The only reason he made it through high school is that I had a crush on him, he's not qualified for anything other than what he's doing." Hartley moved into his bathroom and returned a minute later with the first aid kit and a washcloth. He crouched down by Reverb, lifting his shirt, careful not to hurt him more than necessary. "What happened? Just so I know what I'm looking at."

[viber]

"An alarm was triggered, the police came and while me and Rupture began to retreat to avoid a fight, your dumb idiot boyfriend froze. He just froze like a cat on a road with a car coming at him. And they opened fire. He was just damn lucky I was close enough to him to absorb the impact and get him to cover." Reverb huffed in frustration, he didn't want to cause a scene but it was too late by that point so he and Dante killed everyone in that room except Axel and fled. It hadn't been a great night.

Reverb slapped Hartley's hand down before he could get his shirt any higher, glaring darkly at him. "Ask permission before you touch." He held Hartley's wrist so he couldn't make another reach for it, eyes still on him. "We need to talk first."

[mostlyajerk]

Hartley rolled his eyes and tried to get his wrist free, lucky that his hood was effectively hiding his eyes. He had gotten the first aid kit, he had knelt down by him, but now suddenly he acted like it wasn't obvious that he was about to clean his wound? Whatever.

"I'm sorry. I should have asked permission. Tell me when t proceed." The empty voice came easy these days. "Let's talk."

[viber]

"It's less a talk and more a warning. If you say anything stupid in the next five minutes, I will kill you flat out. Just a fair warning. If you find it simply impossible to not say anything stupid or moronic after that time, don't think I will ever show you mercy." He let go of Hartley's wrist and gave him a final dark warning look, one that showed how much he meant business. Then he lifted his shirt up, pulling it over his head and dropping it onto the floor.

It wasn't what people typically expected and he got that but Reverb learned a long time ago to have no shame and no fears. He was what he was and he didn't care if Hartley knew, it wasn't so much a secret as more something he made sure people who knew never spoke about. Mostly he was just embarrassed that the binder he spent a good few months making bulletproof didn't cover enough surface area, hence the being shot bullshit. A few inches downwards and he'd have been fine. "It went in at the back so there's no point being in front of me. I think it's above my shoulder.