#cute dark

“Give us your fucking phones!”

Huxley nodded. “Sure, buddy.” He slowly pulled his phone from his pocket.

“Are you joking?” Damien asked. It was like he’d walked into a parallel dimensions. This could not be real!

“Dames…” Huxley said gently, not sounding worried really. It was the tone he used when he thought Damien should be nicer to people. But these were criminals! Human criminals aiming to mug them, two empowered humans.

Huxley started to hold his phone out and the second guy, the one without a gun, leaned out to snatch it.

"No!" Damien snapped, taking it first and shooting the human a reproachful glare.

Huxley turned sideways to look at Damien, one eyebrow raised pleadingly. “Dames…”

“Don’t Dames me! Why are you handing him your phone?”

“Hey meathead!” The one with the gun shouted, jabbing his gun in Huxley’s direction again. Oh, Damien was getting real fucking sick of that.

The temperature in the alley was rising. Damien knew it only because the humans were sweating.

“They probably need it more than we do. It’s okay,” Huxley said. “I’ll get a new one.”

“That’s not the point!”

The mugger took a step closer. “Give me your fucking shit or else—”

“Or else what?” Damien yelled back, really asking, outraged that this stranger was really threatening them—threatening Huxley.

Huxley put a hand on his side, seeming to have forgotten the muggers. “It’s okay,” he said again, trying to soothe him. “They don’t know better.”

“Fuck you!” the guy without the gun snapped over the shoulder of the one with the gun.

Damien glared at him. “You better watch that mouth…” he warned, watching heat bring out a bright red across the human’s skin.

“Dames… Let’s just let them go, okay?” Huxley smiled at him.

“Are you insane? I’m the one with the gun here,” the other human yelled, another step closer, that arm still out and his weapon pointed at Huxley.

“Covert, babe,” Huxley reminded gently.

Damien stared back at his boyfriend, trying really hard to let it go, to not let that absolute outrage of this stranger threatening his person…pulling a weapon on his person…ignite that inferno in his chest. When Huxley gently tugged his phone out of Damien’s hand, Damien let it go. He held Huxley’s gaze so as not to watch him toss it to the strangers. He held his gaze when he pulled out his wallet and tossed it too, all the while looking serene as ever.

“Now the rich boy’s shit too,” the guy with the gun said.

Huxley huffed a breath and broke eye contact to look at the stranger. “Buddy, you really have to walk away with the win before this goes to shit…”

The stranger shook his head and lunged forward, reaching out with his free hand to shove at Huxley’s chest.

He didn’t make contact though.

Damien was trying, he really was, but this was asking too much.

His magic rippled out when he pushed a shield around them, rebuffing that hand before it could touch Huxley. His Huxley. No. Abso-fucking-lutely not.

The guy stumbled back a step, face wrinkling in confusion.

Huxley exhaled a shallow laugh. “Just go, man.” When they didn’t, he added, “Do you feel your sneakers melting into the asphalt? It’s not the summer, dude. Time to run.”

Damien looked up at Huxley again. “You think I can handle giving them your stuff but not my own?”

Huxley’s expression softened. “That’s not what I meant…”

Damien’s heart squeezed. No, of course it wasn’t. “Oh.” He was okay handing his own stuff over, yes, but even Huxley had limits to his kindness.

The stranger reached for them again but not for Huxley this time. He aimed to grab at Damien’s shoulder, to pull him away or turn him maybe. He clearly didn’t like how casually they were taking this whole situation.

But Damien wasn’t looking at the situation anymore, he was looking at his partner and that soft expression of his when he’s trying to make Damien understand him when he’s not sure how to put it into words himself. And then that open, kind expression changed when the stranger reached for Damien.

He hadn’t seen Huxley look that serious, or that angry, since the inversion. The ground rolled, not exactly underfoot but outward from them, rolling the two guys off their feet, cracking the asphalt and toppling a garbage bin. Car alarms went off on the street and Huxley winced, turning to look at the humans he’d knocked over.

“Look at that, we broke covert,” Damien said, stepping over a deep crack in the ground to walk over to the muggers.

Huxley swore.

Damien rolled his hand at his side and heated the gun in the man’s hand until it glowed and he screamed, letting it go.

“Dames…”

He bent and picked up his boyfriend’s phone and wallet, pausing to shoot the confused and scared human one last warning glare. “Tell anyone about this, and I’ll find you.”

Huxley groaned. “Damien, really…”

He walked back to his partner and put his phone and wallet back into his pockets, where they belonged. “Okay, new rule.”

Huxley sighed, looking worried about the mess they’d made.

Weirdly, Damien couldn’t care less about covert. He took his hand and started walking again. This was a mess that could easily be fixed, but he doubted it needed to be. “New rule,” he said again when they turned a corner. “No letting things happen to you, that you wouldn’t let happen to me.”

Huxley squeezed his hand gently. “Damien…”

Damien shook his head. “It’s a rule, okay? I don’t care if they’re unempowered. I’ll memory wipe them myself if I have to.”

Huxley glanced back toward the mouth of that dark alley. “Do you think we need to?”

Damien scoffed. “No.” He curled an arm around his boyfriend’s waist, tugging him against his side as they walked and enjoying the weight of his arm settling over his shoulders. It was a step closer to forgetting the sight of that gun pointed at him.

“You’re still warm…” Huxley pointed out.

“Yeah.”

“Wanna go skinny dipping in the river?”

Damien almost tripped over his own steps. “What?”

Huxley smiled and shrugged innocently. “You know. To cool off.”