#defendermechau

Does it leak into their personal life? Maybe they’re meticulous with their health and training, taking perfect obsessive care of themselves so that they’ll never fail in their duty. Maybe they let it all go, keeping themselves at base functionality because what’s a little hunger, a little strain, a bruise or scrape, in the face of the pain that they have to bear every day.

They never ask for help. They know better, have learned from all the times they’ve broken and called out begging for it only to be met with blank stares. They should be able to handle it, who are they if they can’t handle this one thing?

Whumpee kneeling in front of caretaker on the spotless floor, wanting to know if they cleaned the house right while caretaker was gone.

whumpee in front of a mess of blood/tissues/broken plate/craft supplies/etc that they made and have successfully shown to caretaker without having a panic attack

whumpee silently begging whumper to say something about the perfect state of their tasks, posture, appearance, or whatever else they worked so hard on in the hopes that whumper wouldn't be able to find anything demeaning to say

whumpee covered in blood, barely conscious, wondering if whumper or their team or someone to say anything about how well they took the blows, how they stood in front of the others and bled for them, how they didn't cry out when the blades cut into their skin

whumpee covered in someone elses blood, shaking and unable to focus as someone (whumper? caretaker?) takes their hands and leads them away from the body that whumpee had violently dispatched, either on someones orders or because they had no other choice. possibly both.

Villain breaks into Hero's super secure base in the early morning with the intention of seeing what it is that they keep in their super secure basement bunker. But when they open the door, they're shocked to find... Hero?

Their nemesis is sitting in the center of the room, surrounded by a large metal cage. Stripped of their armor and sitting cross legged on a sad little cot. Their eyes lock immediately, and Hero's entire face lights up.

"Villain! What are you doing here?" They ask, beaming.

Villain stands frozen for an instant, waiting for an alarm to sound or for Hero to power up and throw them through a wall. When none of that happens, they carefully move into the room.

"Just looking around," they answer, trying not to let on to how baffled they are. They look around the room, taking in the tables and chalkboards lining the walls. Paper is scattered everywhere, from sheaves burdening the tabletops to posters blanketing swaths of the boards. "What, uh, what are you doing in here?"

Inching closer, they can see one poster displaying a humanoid shape, anatomy highlighted inside, annotated with thick lettering. A record of bruised organs, torn muscles, and broken bones. Hero's broken bones.

"Waiting." Hero says lightly.

"What for? Couldn't you get out of there easily?"

"Well yeah, but it isn't time yet."

'Time for what?' Villain thinks as they continue examining the room. More posters, recovery timelines, battle transcripts. Packets of paper reveal experiments on tolerance, intelligence, endurance. Drug trials, the same substance appearing in line after line. Hero's powers were unusual, that wasn't a secret, but this? This was another level.

"You seem oddly cheerful, for the circumstances." They remark, throat dry.

"Why wouldn't I be? You're my best friend!" Hero beamed at them. Villain's heart pounded in their ears.

"Really? It doesn't really- well what I mean is, uh, you don't usually act like it.... You act like you hate me, most of the time."

"The game's no fun if we don't follow our lines. Of course we're friends, aren't we?"

The game. The cage that seemed like it was designed for an animal. Wide, vulnerable eyes staring up at them from a cot that looked more like cardboard than padding.

"Yeah, obviously we're friends." They said, easing into a brighter tone. Hero perked back up, smile as blinding as the flash of a grenade. "Best friends."

Villain made a split-second decision then, hoping they wouldn't regret it later. "Hey, what do you say we get out of here?"

Hero's eyes lit up literally then, and their smile turned sharp right along with the roiling dread in Villain's stomach.

"To play?" They asked.

"No!" Villain exclaimed, then tried to school their tone back into something calm. Trustworthy. "I mean just to go, walk and such. I... have something I want to show you." They lied. Hero frowned, though to Villain's relief, their eyes went dim again.

"I don't know... I'm not supposed to leave if it isn't to play." Hero said glumly. Villain grit their teeth. They had to get Hero out of here.

"Come on, it'll only be for a little bit. Isn't it boring, just waiting in here all night?" Villain coaxed. Hero nodded softly and Villain continued, "It can be our little secret. Between friends. How about it?"

Villain held out one hand to the bars while the other slowly tucked a folder of papers into their coat. Hero was smiling again. Villain tried not to let their hand shake as the question rang out into the depressing room.

Finally, Hero nodded and stood.

"Okay, but only for a little bit. I have to be back before everyone else comes in." They said. In an instant, they shorted out the power-inhibitor collar that Villain hadn't even noticed and phased through the bars of the cage.

"Of course," Villain agreed, lying through their teeth and hoping Hero wouldn't notice their slight nervous tremor at the display of power that clearly even Hero's captors hadn't been prepared for. "we'll have you back by sunrise."

The two of them walked out of the base, skirting around security guards who Hero was quick to believe were 'just sleeping' and out into the cool night air.

That would be the last time Hero set foot in the base of their now shared enemy, Villain swore to themselves. Hero didn't even notice the way Villain hissed under their breath as they went.

Oh no, oh no I’m a horrible person, whumpee is so strong I have to help them and protect them 🥺

Bonus if whumpee has become convinced via these peoples behavior towards them that it really wasn’t that bad and has to be unconvinced by the people now trying to care for them