Work Text:
The moment the doors opened, all of Chad’s senses were overpowered. The noise and the flashing lights were almost enough for him to want to throw up.
A steady hand was on his back as he was led out, but it didn't calm the nausea or the feelings running through his body about how wrong everything felt right now, but he had no choice. He just hoped the mask would shield him somewhat and help him be the hero he was. The hero he didn't feel like he was.
His eyes met the reporters briefly as he was put in front of them. A bunch of microphones already in his face. He wanted to run, but he couldn't, not when his mother was right there.
"After months of preparation, we have finally caught Rex Roofer," Chad said. He felt like his voice was scratchy and dry, but no matter what, it was like he was forced to just go through it.
A female voice broke through the amount of questions. "But how did you catch the great villain Rex Roofer? It can't have been easy to nail him down?"
Rex was sitting crumpled over on the chair, his arms leaning on the table, so his head could rest on his hands, but there was no cockiness there. There was a tiredness in his body and an emptiness in his eyes as he looked up, as the door opened, and in came Chad, or Chadster as he was now. A hero dressed from top to toe.
"Ah, you're here," Rex said, but made no attempt to actually move from his spot, as his eyes just stayed on Chad.
Chad chewed his lower lip as he looked over the man, who used to hold so much energy and... spite. But now there was none of that left. "People will be here in a couple of minutes. You can still make it out," Chad said softly as he approached the table, which finally made Rex lean back in his chair, just to look up at the ceiling.
"I'm tired," Rex whispered.
Chad could feel the all-too-familiar feeling. The heart that was beating fast, the legs that were shaking, but still he couldn't stop himself. "You don't mean that," He whispered back, because Rex couldn't mean that. Chad needed him to not mean that
Rex finally looked back at Chad, a small, tired smile on his lips. "This time I do."
"No. No, you can't mean it," Chad said, not even caring how his voice got more pitchy. "You have to continue working against FA. That's part of this. I can help you out. They won't ever know, and then we can just. Continue this." Chad's throat felt like it was closing up, and he could feel the tears burning in his eyes.
Rex finally used his hands to push against the table to stand up. Him on one side and Chad on the other. Both of them leaning a bit towards each other, as their eyes were locked together.
"I just can't anymore. It won't get better, and there is nowhere I can run anymore to get my peace, even if I so wished for it," Rex said and let a soft sigh escape him.
"But... what am I gonna do?" Chad whispered, not even caring how the tears had started spilling.
"Do what you always do," Rex whispered. "Be brilliant. Enjoy that the last thing I can do for you is making sure that you will be known as an amazing hero, just like it was meant to."
Chad didn't want any of this.
"We had him surrounded with nowhere to go," Chad said. "We employed a great number of heroes, and I was the one catching him before he could attempt to flee." The words felt like sludge in his mouth.
"And what led to all this?" Another voice, Chad wasn't sure where it even came from. "His dealings have been very secretive for a while, and no one has any confirmation for the reasons why you could finally catch him with solid proof for his dealings."
"I'm sorry, I can't talk about him until his trial has been processed," Chad said, fighting back the urge to cry.
"But what about the rumors that he liked to experiment on animals?"
Another voice. "I even heard that he tortured them for fun."
The rain was steadily beating down around them, as both Chad and Rex were crouched down near a carton box that seemed to be about to break apart, due to the rain it had been in only moments before.
"Hey, I got you, love," Rex whispered, as he very carefully reached out to the small kitten in the box, who luckily had been able to avoid most of the rain due to the blankets she had been staying in.
She sniffed a bit to the hand, and when Rex seemed to be sure that he wouldn't be scratched, he gently took hold of her and cradled her against his chest.
"You really seem to have a way with cats," Chad said softly, who had been too stumped to do anything other than grab the box when the rain had started. His fingers flexed by his side like he wanted to reach over and touch her, but she seemed too fragile to touch for him, when he didn’t have the grace of a proper human hand.
Rex smiled down at the cat as he gently stroked her, while trying to keep her warm against his shirt. "I've always liked cats, and I hate the way people treat them. They think they are just disposable because they can't talk, and aren't known to be as loving as dogs."
Chad wrapped his arms around his legs as he studied the image. He had never seen Rex so soft before, and not for the first time, he wondered how much he just didn't know about his arch nemesis. "I've just never known what to do with them," Chad admitted out loud. "I've always wanted to try, but they always feel so... unapproachable." His eyes found Rex's, and for a little bit, the two of them just stared at each other. Chad could feel his heart beat fast and strong in his chest. Until it finally seemed to speed up a little bit too much, and he tore his eyes away from Rex and down to the kitten. "She is adorable, though."
"She is, isn't she?" Rex said, with fondness clear in his voice:
Chad tilted his head a little bit, taking in the scene. "Are you gonna keep her?"
Rex nodded a bit, his fingers slowly running over the soft fur. "I think I am, yes. It's hard to say no when a kitten is practically dumped into your lap," he mentioned, and even though he sounded nonchalant, it sounded to Chad like Rex finally had an excuse to actually get a cat.
Chad didn't even notice how soft his own smile had gotten. "What are you gonna call her?" Chad asked, as he squeezed around his legs more, even as he wanted to reach out and play with Rex's hair.
The fondness of Rex's smile seemed to melt into something more akin to a smirk, as his gaze caught Chad's. "I was thinking maybe the Catster."
Chad broke out in a laugh. "Poor cat," he couldn't help mentioning, but even then, a warm feeling spread across his body, that only really got warmer, as he strained his ears and heard the very gentle whisper from Rex, who had turned his attention back to the kitten.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you from now on."
Chad wanted to clench his jaw and his hands and everything, but he tried to keep himself relaxed. He couldn't show his feelings, especially not when his mother was right there behind him.
"To my knowledge, there is no base to these rumors, but I really cannot talk about the specifics,” Chad tried again, hoping to shut down the line of questioning. He wanted this to end so badly.
"But he was truly evil, wasn't he? There really is no one rated higher than him, except for the S Tier, and we all know how he is."
"For someone like you, the perfect hero in spirit and looks, it must feel amazing finally locking away the source of so many people's anguish."
A perfect hero?
Chad wasn't sure how he had ended up here. Everything was a blur after seeing the dead body, but somehow he had found his way to Rex's house, and now he was sitting in the living room in full hero outfit, and felt like he couldn't breathe.
"Chad, are you... Are you okay?" The voice felt so far away, like he couldn't hear it from being underwater.
His robotic fingers were trying to claw at the hero suit, to get it off, so he could breathe better, but it was no help. The fingers were not reacting how they were supposed to, and it just set another wave of panic through his body.
Something touched him, but he could barely register it, and a soothing voice "You're okay, you're here now. You'll be fine." And slowly, he felt a pair of arms circle around him, and something warm against him.
Some fingers, he was sure it wasn't his own, as they had seemed to grab onto whatever was holding him, managed to open the top of the hero outfit, so it loosened around his throat, and he felt less constricted.
Slowly, the panic started to ebb away, as he just listened to that voice that seemed to get closer and closer, while he was being gently swayed where they were sitting. Instead, tears finally started to just flow freely.
"I'm here, it's gonna be alright," the familiar voice still whispered, and finally Chad felt like he could properly recognize it, as he turned his head around to look at Rex, who had a pained look at his face, although he looked surprised when Chad finally looked at him.
"R-Rex..." His voice was raspy, and he had to hold back a sob.
Rex wiped away the tears. "It's okay," Rex whispered in return. "We can stay here as long as you need." His embrace tightened a bit as his free hand went back around Chad. "There is no rush."
That really just made the tears well back into Chad's eyes, but at least now he could breathe, and he buried his head in Rex's chest to let himself cry out the rest of the sorrow of not being good enough.
Chad felt like his mouth was drying out more and more. "Yeah... yeah. It feels great knowing I have helped the world." As he felt the little voice in the back of his mind calling him a liar. He had never felt worse in his life.
"I'm sure you have something planned to celebrate this, don't you?" a female voice. "Maybe even a special someone you can celebrate this great catch with? I'm sure any lady would feel lucky to be with you."
"Okay, and then you just put a dash of... this in?" Chad said with furrowed brows, before he was about to just start dumping it into the pot, if not for the warm, strong grip that had suddenly wrapped itself around his hand.
"No, that's not-" Rex said, half caught between laughter, as he tried to wrestle the spice out of Chad's hand.
"What? Come on! You told me I could help," Chad said, unwilling to let go of the spice bottle either.
"Yeah, if you do as I said, and I said a pinch, and you're already on your way to dump this entire thing into the pot.
Chad pouted, but was unwilling to let go of the bottle still. "No, I wasn't!"
"Oh, you absolutely were," Rex said. "And then the balance would be off, and it would not taste as good."
"Weren't you the one who said that mistakes help build up a person, so why can't I make this mistake?" Chad shot back, although he couldn't keep the laugh out of his voice.
Rex huffed. "Because I need to eat this as well. If you wanna ruin the food, then you just-" the bottle finally slipped between their hands as they had been wrestling about it, and opened up as it landed in the pot.
Both of them stared at it, as it was slowly sinking further into the pot, before Rex let out a string of curses, and he grabbed to spoon to scoop it up with, but it was clearly too late, and much more than a pinch had been added.
Chad stared at the food and then at Rex, before a slow, sheepish smile spread across his features."You think it's inedible now?"
Rex looked like a man completely stuck in what he wanted to do, as he stared at his presumably ruined food now, before he looked over at Chad, who was looking sorry for what he had done.
"There is only one way to find out," Rex finally said, and something akin to a smile spread across his lips as he dipped the spoon in the food and offered it up to Chad. "Taste it!"
Chad took a step back. "Why do I have to do it?"
"You were the one who spilled it, so you get to taste it, to see if there is any point in trying to salvage it," Rex said as a matter of fact and stepped forward a bit, and offered the spoon. "I'm sure it won't kill you."
Chad looked at the spoon and then at the expectant Rex, before he finally nodded. Rex was right. This was his fault, so he had to taste it.
Slowly, he leaned forward and then finally pulled the spoon into his mouth to taste it, and instantly his mouth just burned, but still he swallowed it, as the tears started forming in the corner of his eyes. "Water, water, water," he said, and looked around for his glass he had just a moment before, just as Rex seemingly pushed a glass into his hand, that Chad downed immediately, which did dampen it a bit, or at least got the more salty taste a bit more away. "That was... horrible!"
Rex looked sorry as he reached up and gently wiped away the tears that had been threatening to spill, more due to the spice than anything. "I'm sorry, I didn't expect it to be that bad," he said softly. "We'll order something in, I think it's safe to say it can't be salvaged."
Even though Chad's mouth was still feeling wrong and horrible, he still looked a bit disappointed at the food. "But you worked so hard for it."
"I did, but it's just food. We can try something again some other day."
Chad looked up into Rex's eyes, and while he could feel the shame and guilt of having messed up, the feeling of Rex not shaming him for it warmed his chest.
Chad shook his head. "I am just gonna spend it with my family," he said, although that was probably also a lie. He didn't want to even look at his parents right now, and he wasn't sure he could take Diego or Dave's pity. Mostly, he just wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out.
"So, where are you hoping to keep him detained?" This was a man that Chad got eye contact with, and he could feel a cold shiver run down his back. “Hopefully something with the highest degree of security, so he has no chance to escape?”
Rex threw a vase at the wall, which shattered into a million pieces. His hands were shaking but clenching, and while no tears were falling, Chad could see they were close.
"It's okay, it's not the end of the world," Chad said softly as he reached out to grab Rex's hand, who just pulled it away from him, and looked at him with so much anger, which dissipated slowly the longer he looked at Chad.
Chad's own heart was beating its way out of his chest, not because he thought that Rex would hurt him, but because he had never seen him like this. Never seen him this angry.
"We'll figure something out," Chad whispered, and slowly reached out to Rex, but before he could grab his hand, Rex pulled away to stumble the last few steps back towards the bed to fall down to sit on top of it. His breathing was ragged and shallow.
Chad walked the few steps to Rex and slowly fell down on his knees on the carpet, and grabbed Rex's hands, which finally got Rex to look at him.
"I promise we'll figure it out," Chad whispered. He placed a soft kiss on the palm of Rex's hand. "No matter how much it takes. This is not the end for you, for your work... and not for us. You must know that." He whispered and looked up at Rex with his blue eyes. He had hope in this.
Rex lifted one hand to run his fingers along Chad's jaw, his eyes still filled with unfalling tears. "You're too good for me," he whispered.
"No... I'm only as good as I need to be," Chad whispered back. "Anything to keep you here, with me, and safe."
"You can't promise to keep me safe always. Not with what I do," Rex pointed out, but didn't take back his hand, as he looked at Chad with so much love that it almost felt like Chad was the one about to cry from the overwhelming feelings.
"But what if you made another choice. We could... reform you in the eyes of the public, and we wouldn't have to be apart," Chad offered.
Rex shook his head. "I don't think you understand," he whispered back.
"What don't I understand?"
"That I will never be anything but a villain in their eyes. It's too late for me," he said. "But I'm happy for the time we have with each other."
It was like those words just spurred Chad on more. The one who didn't want to let go. "I'll stay with you, no matter what happens. Nothing bad will happen to you as long as I’m here." If only he knew how untrue those words would eventually be.
Luckily, his mother stepped up, a hand on Chad's back. "We are hoping for Minimum, but we will see what the judge has to say," she said, her voice way stronger than Chad's had ever been. "And now, if that is all, we do have to move on." There was no room for questions, and finally Chad could be led away.
Her voice was almost too sweet as they walked away. "You did good, sweetheart. I'm proud of you."
Chad wanted to throw up. Nothing about what he had just done felt right or just. He didn't feel like the hero they all said he was. And if he was? Then he didn’t want to be it either.