#fish asks

•They're opposites of each other in so many ways on purpose, but in less of an opposites attract and more of an extrovert adopts introvert manner.

Andre grew up isolated with a team of researchers in the Arctic circle, so he did not have a good amount of socialization growing up. He grew up sharing interests with everyone around him, so when he moved, the only person he still actively spoke to was his adoptive mother. So obviously, when he finally gets introduced to the social world for the first time, he turns in and essentially isolates himself.

On the other side of the spectrum, I believe Chad grew up surrounded by people. Family, friends, neighbors, everyone. His socialization started early and aggressively, letting him explore a degree of hobbies and interest from people with more differences than things in common. When he moves halfway across the world, it's considerably easier for him to integrate with the pre-established society, sans the fire power, and he gets on living easier.

When they meet, Andre is honestly apprehensive about the whole Z-Team, as are they after understanding his power. The only person who even approaches him after his introduction is Chad, who just grills him about his power and what he can do. All of Andre's answers are curt and short, because he knows the last time someone interrogated him like this, it didn't end well when they got their answers. Despite that, Chad continues to press, seeming almost genuinely interested in understanding his abilities despite the sarcastic lilt with his accent. Over time, time being weeks of this interrogation-style conversation, Andre slowly begins to let himself warm up to Chad, and their conversations steadily become less one-sided.

•Unintentionally, the two often display a disgusting amount of PDA, even as friends.

Andre's typical body temperature sits around a chilly -3°C (26.6°F), while his internal temperature without his suit is -18°C(0.4°F). Chad's typical temperature tends to hang around 45°C(113°F), and he can manipulate it to be higher with his pyrokinesis. In turn, they end up orbiting each other, Andre in search of warmth and Chad for a bit of cold. That turns into standing too close, hands grabbing shoulders or arms, legs thrown over one another's laps when seated, and pressing up against one another to steal their temperature if anything. Andre, who grew up touch-starved with being far too cold for any regular person to comfortably display physical affection, is immediately overjoyed to have, for once, found someone who doesn't mind his coldness. By extension, Chad's heat, when in relatively close proximity, helps raise Andre's body temperature, making him feel more human. And Chad, who runs too hot for more than brief little touches to people unaccustomed to his warmth finally has someone who doesn't hiss away shaking like they've been burned.

The team notices it before they do, how they tend to gravitate toward each other. Alice/Prism teases Chad, calling Andre his 'little icepack', which quickly earns glares and curses in his native tongue. Malevola will rib Andre about having found a hot piece of hell to warm him up wherever he goes, which is responded to with silence and a slight, curious headtilt. Robert would stare at Chad over the top of his mug, his eyes knowing, before he says something that makes Chad step back completely and reevaluate the situation from the start. "He's the only one who you can't melt. And you're the only one he's not terrified of accidentally hurting."

•"He asked for no pickles" happens rather frequently with the two.

Andre isn't a fan of speaking when he doesn't have to. Sure, he does speak fine and all, but the act of speaking hurts him. Because of his low internal temperature, his internal system is slowed in his body's attempts to conserve heat. His vocal chords are usually frozen, if not in a state between frozen and icing over, so speaking puts a strain on them. Because Chad's warmth raises Andre's temperature, it also relaxes the strain on his vocal cords, allowing him to speak. Since that ability to speak comfortably comes from the two being together, and because of Andre's introverted nature and anxiety, Andre tends to voice himself more easily with Chad. In turn, Chad begins to voice some of Andre's thoughts to others for him. Without Chad, Andre is often limited to hand gestures and, on occasion, the very minimal American Sign Language he knows, which tends to leave conversations ending on awkwardly silent notes due to the language barrier.

•Chad is hellbent on making Andre take better care of himself, whether he likes it or not.

As soon as Chad learns that Andre has survived off of microwaveable meals for the past five years of his life, he’s at his tiny apartment at least three times a week with a home cooked meal in hand. He has to bite his tongue at tearing into Andre for the state of his apartment initially, but the more times Chad visits, he begins to not-so-gently verbalize his distaste. It starts with smaller, ‘gentler’ comments; “you’re allowed to have a bed frame, you know,” or “folding chairs aren’t that good for your back,” or “why is your apartment mostly workbench? How do you have this much work space in this cube?” or “you have one apple in your fridge. One. Other food exists. For the love of everything, what the fuck are you eating?” all of the way until Chad is dragging Andre out on a shopping trip to actually furnish his apartment and fill his fridge with easy, healthier meals. Andre’s tendency to be curled up at his workbench instead of sleeping is something Chad learns he just has to stomach instead of bullying the bad habit out of Andre. Chad’ll still try to goad Andre to actually go to bed at a reasonable time, and over time it does work. After almost three months of knowing Chad, Andre’s eyes are a bit less sunken, he smiles a bit more openly and frequently, and he’s put on a bit of weight. And the moment anyone see that Andre’s begun to open up more, albeit slowly, Chad gets a warm look in his eyes and a knowing grin on his lips.

•Family is a very big thing for both of them.

Chad comes from a big family. Parents, uncles and aunts, siblings, everyone. His sister and his niece live in-state, but most of his family still live in Afghanistan. He gets to see his sister and niece relatively often, but only gets to see his full family once a year at most. Andre, on the other hand, only has Idina, one of the scientists from the research base he grew up on, who he thinks of as a mother. He never knew his birth mother, who passed shortly after his birth, nor does he care to find his father, thinking of Idina as the only real family he needs. He visits her where she lives in Washington every few months, just to stay for a week and help around the house or whatever she needs. Chad introduces Andre to his niece and sister first, his niece insisting upon joining her uncle to visit the friend he’s always cooking for. She stares at Andre the whole ten minute visit, a calculating glare on her eight-year-old face all of the way until her and Chad prepare to leave, to which she insists Andre attend her next dance recital. Andre obviously agrees, because how couldn’t he, and he gets to meet Chad’s sister with his attendance. Idina learns about Chad from one of the many phone calls she shares with Andre, and she’s insistent they both come up for dinner so she can meet and vet Chad to determine if he’s right for Andre. One seven-hour drive later, Andre and Chad end up spending three days up in Washington with Idina, who’s fascinated by Chad and more than happy for Andre to bring him along on his next visit. Chad’s parents eventually come to visit Chad and his sister in the states, and Andre’s invited along. Despite some cultural differences and views, Chad’s parents don’t hate Andre, which is only positive for both of them. Now, because both of their families like the other man to some degree, frequent visits are required, and eventually both Chad and Andre are integrated into each others families and practices.

•Chad is absolutely Andre's second biggest cheerleader.

Idina will always be Andre's biggest supporter, no matter how hard Chad tries to take over that role. And try he does. Andre tells Chad he's planning on going to the gym, Chad's already there wiping down a bench and grinning at Andre like he had no clue he was going to be there. Andre says he's going to try cooking something new, Chad's already typing out a message demanding the shitty quality flip phone photos to see and congratulate him on doing something new. Chad's not a fan of baby steps, but if it's what it takes to get Andre to branch out, he'll wait as long as he needs.

•They have various nicknames/pet names for each other depending on the situation.

Chad has more nicknames for Andre than he knows what to do with, but every one has a very specific instance to be used in. ‘Elsa’, referencing the Disney princess of a similar power, is the first, initially used to mock Andre about being so cold, emotionally and physically, but eventually becomes affectionate when Chad’s niece says she ‘likes Elsa’ and he has to rethink it. ‘Elsa’ is one of two nicknames Chad calls Andre in front of people. ‘Frosty’ is the second nickname he uses in front of people, both in reference to the fictional snowman and to a shortened version of Andre’s hero name, Frostbite. It’s more personal than ‘Elsa’, but it’s still meant to be teasing. The further they get to know each other, the softer his nicknames become. Chad’s nicknames begin to come from his native language, Dari Persian, and Andre loves asking what they all mean. ‘Azizam’(my dear) is the softest and the most frequently used, simply and casually in place of Andre’s name. ‘Delbar-am’(the one who has my heart) comes when he’s nervous about Andre’s safety. Chad’s sister teasingly calls Andre his ‘hamsar-am’(my equal head), which Chad cringes at but agrees about anyways in a more flustered manner. Andre has considerably less nicknames for Chad, just because he’s not experienced with interpersonal relationships, not nearly as much as Chad is. He tends to just use Chad’s name since he feels that using someone’s name makes him feel closer to them. Most of the nicknames he tries to use results in him himself cringing at them before never using them again. The nicknames he does like using typically come from Idina, who taught him some Hebrew, her second language, when he was growing up. He calls Chad ‘chaviv’ (dear) just because it sounds like his name, which he feels is more than enough to express everything he needs to. Occasionally and more rarely, he’ll let ‘motek’ (sweetheart) slip, before he pauses and continues on. Sometimes a soft nickname slips by Chad at work(though very rarely, he’s typically good about keeping that quieter) and he just gets a round of very knowing looks from the team, paired with plenty of dramatic little ‘oooh’s to further his embarrassment while Andre had already brushed past it to question why Chad called him.

The team's only heard Chad truly worried once, and it was almost scary. Andre had been paired with Sonar on a mission, and the man-bat couldn't get to Andre in time before a building collapsed around them. The way the team had heard Chad's confidence one second waver as he slipped 'delbar-am' into his call for response from Andre could've frozen the line itself. They all audibly relaxed when Andre responded with a bitten-out response assuring Chad he was fine and that he'd be able to get out and freeze Sonar's arms off himself.

•Chad is a part of Andre's first experience for a LOT of things.

Growing up isolated and without any other children to engage with, Andre missed out on a lot of pivotal youth moments. He grew up without access to movies and most children's books, only having the research and scientific books the researchers kept on the center for media entertainment. After meeting Chad, the other man seemed baffled to learn that Andre lived his life without engaging in most things he saw as relatively common. No television in his apartment, still carrying a flip-phone, very much confused at the pop culture references he made. That knowledge makes weekly movie nights at Chad's apartment a reality, each Saturday getting a different theme of movies to watch for some several hours to wind down the week. After the furniture store brings a bookshelf into Andre's apartment, books of all kinds are introduced to Andre's life, far past the biological and technical research books he'd been raised with. Chad was able to introduce Andre to his first mall, first non-research based books, first movie, and plenty of other firsts. Chad also happened to be Andre's first real relationship. He was the first person to give Andre the time to open himself up to be looked at as more than just what he was, to be loved in a manner different than how Idina had. That came with a first date, first kiss, first dance, and plenty of first intimate encounters. Every time Andre mentions he has no clue what Chad, or anyone else on their team for that matter, is talking about in most social or pop culture aspect, a night is set up for a minimum of one movie and a deepdive with explanations about the ideas behind the reference for the sake of Andre understanding next time. Chad likes to think he's a great teacher, and to his credit, he's relatively decent at it, but sometimes Andre honestly needs just a bit more than "and its just like that because it is."

•They’re both nerds, though Chad hides it significantly better than Andre does.

Andre is curious about everything, a fact of life that came from growing up surrounded by people whose jobs it was to ask questions to learn. Beyond asking the meanings of Chad's nicknames or asking him to explain his references, Andre enjoys creating. He, with the help of his mother, designed an entire suit that functions to regulate his body temperature that he also had a hand in physically crafting. Most of the clothing he wears, much like Chad's own self-designed outfit, was designed and created by himself, just to insure it was all up to his standards and that it would perform as designed. Because of Andre's natural inclination to be curious, he enjoys taking apart and dismantling most things he could get his hands on to understand how it worked before putting it back together. Model and remote control cars, watches, computers, anything he might have enough time to pull apart, study, then put back together. Once, when he still lived with Idina, he completely deconstructed the inner workings of her fridge to understand the way the cooling system worked, just to modify it and put it back together to heat instead of cool. Idina, of course, scolded him, but also admired the skill it took to reverse engineer the inner workings of the refrigerator to switch its operations, which was the main reason she let Andre design his own self-regulating body suit with just a bit of her own guidance.

While Andre's 'nerdiness' is associated with more science-based areas, Chad's lies in more 'normal' areas that wouldn't typically be seen as 'nerdy'. His car, that he knows front and back, inside and out, is at the top of his list. He's aware of every little tick in the vehicle and can practically sense when something's wrong before it happens. Chad treats the car, a very well taken-care-of red 1979 Pontiac Firebird, like it's his own child, with only one mechanic in a three-hour radius trusted to get their hands under the hood of his prized muscle car. His interests also extend to cooking, going over and through both cultural dishes and unfamiliar experimentation of the sheer enjoyment of just trying something new. Dishes he likes get written down in a notebook he keeps in a special place on his counter top. He also keeps note of which meals he makes and brings Andre, tallying the ones he seems to like more than others. And like Andre, Chad enjoys designing in his free time. Though his designing tends to stay more toward fashion, like in his designing of his own suit, he does keep a dog-eared sketchbook with pages with burnt edges tucked into his nightstand full of the process sketches that lead him up to the final look, alongside some outfit designs he'll insist are 'just for fun' when questioned about.

•Andre's a tinkerer, curious by nature. Chad is not safe from the reach of the tinkering.

Andre's fascination with the way things work spreads far past the inner mechanisms of technology. His frostbite may have triggered the desire to build functional prosthetics, but meeting Chad makes that want practically skyrocket. He designed and built his own ear prosthetics to be functional, who's to say he can't reinvent Chad's missing fingers? Andre knows very well that the missing fingers aren't a major hindrance to Chad in any way, but he's seen the other man fumble a water bottle or flip a pen to the missing ring and pinky finger, just to pause, glare, and sigh before moving on. He makes the prosthetic fingers, not because he's asked to nor does he think its needed, but he knows that if he can make them and make them work now, he'll be able to build prosthetics for his own hands in case his own fingers ever do rot off. He shows Chad the prosthetic fingers, fits them to the nubs left by an encounter with a lazer sword, and teaches him how to use the fingers, assisting him in relearning how to use those last two fingers. Andre tells Chad he doesn't need to use the fingers if the doesn't like them or if they make him uncomfortable, but Chad definitely sits at his own apartment with the prosthetic on, reteaching himself how to operate with all ten fingers.

•Both men are hydrophobic to a degree.

Beyond everyday things like washing their hands or showering, both men have some amount of fear or distrust with the water. Chad's comes from water being his power's natural opposite. Being covered in water means he can't set himself on fire, which means he's far more vulnerable than he's comfortable with. Chad feels the need to be in control of the situation he's in when it relates to water. He'll go to the pool, but under no circumstance will he be any closer than three feet from the edge in. Beach trips are okay, but he's staying, at minimum, fifty yards from from the ebb of the waves. The absolute most he's willing to get wet in either scenario is to just below his knees, which, even then, feels too far. Chad prefers to watch from the sidelines, where he's dry and in control of that.

Andre's comes from a fear of freezing. Since his body temperature oscillates almost solely in the range below freezing, any encounter with water that isn't already boiling is dangerous. He likes the idea of going to the pool or visiting the ocean for recreation, but when any chance encounter with water is enough to make frost bloom across his skin and drop his temperature further, he's obviously hesitant to go anywhere he could get wet. Inevitably, that does make Andre very wary of being around Herman/Waterboy just because of the man's seeming issue with controlling how much water he actively dispels. Andre is also cautious around Herman because he's genuinely terrified that if he touches the other man, he'll accidentally freeze him completely, a fear that has been substantiated by how fast water freezes when Andre comes in contact with it as well as how fast human blood can freeze in concurrency.

• Both have incredibly sensitive senses, as well as senses that are just destroyed.

Both Andre and Chad's senses are either fucked up beyond belief or hyper-sensitized to the point it makes them feel crazy.

Andre can detect the most minute change in temperature. If the warmth of a room fluctuates, even a degree, he can tell. He can almost always tell when someone's about to enter a room before they actually do, just because he can sense the change in temperature from their body heat compared to the room. His sense of taste is slightly skewed, which does allow him to eat hotter foods more easily, but his palate tends feel rather bland. He can't really taste subtle flavors, so he prefers heavily seasoned foods when he has the time or ability to indulge. Most of his senses are ruined, though. He has incredibly sensitive eyes, which makes it hard to do almost anything without sunglasses. The sensitivity doesn't make his eyesight any better, but he is a bit better at seeing in the dark compared to most people. His hearing is deceptively poor, almost contrary to how his ears appear. However, the external appearance of his ears is a prosthetic. When he was seven, the pinna/outer part of Andre's ears developed frostbite and had to be removed before the decay could spread. As a result, Andre has a harder time hearing certain sounds or determining the distance of some sounds. He's currently attempting to develop his own hearing aids to rid himself of the issue. Andre's fingers are also devastatingly frostbitten. Ironically, he did pull his name from the frostbite he essentially gave himself. On both hands, Andre's fingers are completely frostbitten to his metacarpals. All ten fingers are completely black with rot. He himself is a bit confused as to why the rot hasn't continued further along his hands, or why it hasn't completely destroyed the functionality of his hands, but Andre does maintain mobility and very slight sensitivity in his fingers. He's incredibly self-conscious about the appearance of his fingers, fearing them being seen as disgusting and potentially contagious, so he's always wearing gloves.

Chad has relatively shit hearing. High-speed flying, loud music, trauma, plenty of things have lead to the decline in his hearing. He's usually louder-spoken as a result, but he can tell when he's being too loud for certain situations. He learns later that, despite the burnt nerves in his hands, he's more sensitive to vibrations in his hands that other typical sensations. If he notices that me just might be talking too loud, he'll press his hand to his chest while he's speaking to feel how intense the vibrations from his voice are before he adjusts accordingly. His inclination to spicier foods has also affected Chad's sense of taste. Like Andre, he likes more spice-heavy foods, but because he enjoys cooking them and he especially likes being able to choose exactly what level of spice he's able to still sense. His vision isn't terrible, but the brightness of his flames has impacted the sensitivity of his eyes ever so much. He's careful about burning too bright because he knows he can't afford to go blind, but occasionally he'll get a bit too hot and the fire burns a blinding white that does make his retinas ache a bit. The constant heat that Chad pushes from his hands as frayed his touch-based nerves enough to make it a bit harder to differentiate between different materials. He can only feels subtle differences between certain fabrics, like leather and velvet feel the same to him if he's brushing his hand over fabrics of either make.

Both men, however, have incredibly sensitive sense of smell. Andre's nose is always aggressively clear in the way the cold forces, the clarity admittedly a bit painful. Chad's singed his nose hairs a few times, but he's still able to smell incredibly well. As a result, both Chad and Andre tend to smell very good or absolutely not at all, just because they're able to perceive even the slightest amount of body odor. Their own good-smelling nature is also a mask to distract their own noses from anything distinctively bad.

Bonus headcanons!!

•Love languages between the two

Andre is big on physical time and quality time. After he learned that he can actually touch Chad without the threat of the other man freezing completely, he's got his hands on him whenever he can. A cold hand pressed to his side, forehead pressed to his back and occasionally to his chest when they're settled, legs curled in Chad's lap when he gets comfortable enough to unwind with him. He especially enjoys brushing his fingers through Chad's hair when he lets it down, curling his locks around his fingers with Chad's arm around his back to keep him propped up. He loves how warm Chad is, and even more so how he's allowed to steal that heat whenever he really wants. More than that, he loves just having proximity with Chad. Spending the afternoon together, watching a movie, or watching Chad cook, or even while they're hanging out in the break room at work between dispatches. Any time he can spend with Chad is quality time to him, regardless of how brief or distracted they might be in their own worlds.

Chad's a fan of physical touch as well, but alternatively, acts of service. He enjoys how cold Andre's skin tends to be, and he enjoys warming him up even more. Back to his chest, strong arms wrapped just tightly enough around Andre's torso, holding him close until he's fairly warm and huffing at Chad to let him go. He's less subtle with how he touches Andre in public, always with an arm or a hand on his shoulder, maybe resting at the small of his back, or sometimes fully just sat on his thigh when Andre's just hanging out. His hands are always warm, something he very quickly detects that Andre likes, and his suspicions are confirmed when Andre tells him that being so cold all of the time tends to make his muscles stiff. Chad has absolutely no problem becoming Andre's personal heater, especially if it makes his quality of life just a bit better. Chad's love of cooking also plays into how he shows affection for Andre. He's always making sure Andre's well fed, and he satisfies Andre's want for quality time by inviting him to stay nearby when he cooks, creating a win-win situation.

• Z-Team's personal headcanons

Their team has an odd fascination with the Chad/Andre pairing. For the sake of a bet or for the sake of their friends, it's as if Andre and Chad always have eyes on them. Victor and Malevola have a running bet to figure out if the pair have gotten to the point of sleeping together. Victor's staunchly of the belief that is has happened, but Malevola knows Alice and Chad share everything, and the demon's already promised a portion of her winnings if Alice can keep her updated. Victor's convinced at least half of team to pool at most five bucks in on his side, but Malevola and Alice know better, sharing little grins and elbow jabs when the man-bat gets too confident. There's plenty of theorizing of who the big spoon or who's the little spoon(they take turns based on the temperature), who's apartment they spend more time at, or if they'll get caught doing something write-up worthy while in the office. It's gotten to a point when the the teammates closer to either man have been employed to try and figure out what they're looking for. Chad won't share anything with anyone but Alice, so he becomes a bit defensive of his private information when Victor tries to pry. Andre, for his part, is just harder to read. Janelle and Bruno have been goaded to try and see if they could get Andre to crack, since they have similar external attitudes. Janelle removed herself completely from the equation, indifferent to the bidding and honestly not caring to pry into someone who already seems to tolerate her enough to hear her out about whatever she feels like talking about when she does even speak to him. Bruno's the only one who's gotten anything out of Andre, but he keeps that information carefully guarded because he knows how important is is for that level of trust to be given from Andre. They all know Andre and Chad seem to be magnetized together, which has obviously lead to plenty of teasing about them being each other's emotional support person. Robert sees it all, and hears even more of it, and he hides his opinions behind a carefully crafted facade of indifference. But internally, he's glad that Chad and Andre have met each other. He's seen how they look at each other, has heard how they talk to each other when it seems like it's just the two of them, and something about that softer warmth that they share makes Robert proud to be their dispatcher. Because honestly? Maybe Robert did initially send them on missions together to piss of Chad, just to be surprised how well they work together, and as a result, send them out together more frequently. But let anyone accuse him of playing matchmaker and he's immediately diminishing the idea, calling anyone who sees something between the two 'blind' with his sarcastic tone.

Bonus Freezerburn doodles !