(Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial​‘s prompt: FFF60: Soft Bones. A little bit from Superheroverse featuring Siren’s backstory and one (1) adorable badass vigilante assassin who I honestly love writing. Enjoy!)

Their first kiss is part joke part experiment. Their noses bump and their foreheads knock until they figure out how to angle their faces just right. They giggle as their lips separate, constantly readjusting and trying to see how they can press their (dry, chapped) lips together to resemble a kiss.

 Their kisses get more dramatic. Nyx pulls Siren’s hand and bows exaggeratedly to flip their hand over and drop a kiss to the smooth underside of their wrist. Siren smirks and trips her, sliding Nyx forward to raise a kiss to her cheek when they’re both on their way to dinner.

 Once, when they spar and Nyx has won, she pins Siren to the ground with a palm to their shoulder and grins as she kissed their sweat-soaked forehead. Siren rolls their eyes and spins their body to push her off and Nyx goes, still laughing.

 Nothing much changes when they start dating. Nyx flutters a litany of kisses down the line of their neck and wraps her arms around their body when they curl up together on the sofa. Siren learns the lines of her spine and the edges of her ribs where they kiss an artwork onto their girlfriend’s body. Nyx runs cold fingers down the lines of their cheeks and tuck their head under her chin.

 (“Your bones are so soft.” Nyx says once, rolling over to run her fingers over Siren’s scalp. The blankets tangle around her legs.

 Siren laughs and asks, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 Nyx pulls her right hand out of Siren’s hair to caress their arm. She kisses their wrist where there’s a slight line where their body armour and gloves overlap on normal days. “It means that you’re my best friend, whatever else happens. Don’t ever let the world harden you.”)

 When Nyx gets injured while acting in her professional capacity, Siren tends to her injuries. Nocte does the actual medical part, of course, but Siren does the ‘carrying their very grumpy girlfriend around while her legs heal’ bits. And the ‘kiss her injuries better’ bits. And the ‘laugh at her when she complains that the broken bone part isn’t even a place she wanted strengthened now her bones are going to have unequal density’ bits.

 They mutually agree to stop dating because they don’t need to be dating in order to get comfort and love from each other. They know each other’s minds and movements; they don’t need to be dating in order to learn other parts of each other.

 When Siren leaves for the first time, Nyx pulls them into a tight hug and presses a firm kiss to the shell of their ear. “You will always be welcome here, no matter what.”

 Siren holds onto their best friend tightly, and they both pretend that they’re not crying. If Nocte notices that her younger sister’s smile is a bit more forced and that her strikes are a little more violent in the weeks that happen after Siren’s departure, she quietly cleans the blood from Nyx’s nails and from the floor and does not say anything.

 Nyx does not kiss Siren while they’re recovering in the month after Nyx dragged her body from the shallows. She grips Siren a little too tight and she doesn’t leave their side for the entire time they can, yes. She murmurs how she knew that trying to be a superhero was a bad idea and really, Siren is always welcome back, yes. She talks more than ever and pulls Siren close to her whenever she has any excuse, yes. They don’t need to kiss.

“You knew this was a possibility.” Siren says when they can finally speak again, voice still hoarse from the various attempts to strangle and choke them.

Nyx sniffs. “Superheroes.”

Siren’s laugh echoes through the marrow of Nyx’s bones. “They have their uses. You know like not needing to hide all the time.”

Nyx snorts. “I’ve seen the excuses for armour. Spare me. Being a demon is far better.”

She taps her fingernails against the head of the bed, holding on to Siren for as long as she can.

 When Siren leaves for the second time, they lean in and tilt their head to press their lips to Nyx’s. This kiss is gentle and quiet, perfect for two people who’s lives have never been gentle or quiet. Siren rests their hands on Nyx’s waist, pulling her close. Nyx keeps her eyes open, trying to memorise every last detail, every silvery edge of every scar, every last twitch of their eyelashes before she has to let go again.

 When they separate, Siren’s fingers twined loosely at Nyx’s back, they watch each other. Not as they would normally watch other people, not taking in their weaknesses and strengths and evaluating how to best kill them (Nyx) or how to get the information they seek (Siren). No, they watch each other with the fondness of two people who already know each other like an extension of their selves.

 “I have to go.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I know.”

“I love you.”

“I know.”

 Nyx gently pulls Siren to her and abruptly hugs them tightly. “Stay in contact this time, okay? I… dislike only finding out about you when you’re in severe danger or badly hurt.”

cw: major character death, broken bones, filmed torture "Either you publicly admit to blackmailing your sidekick, Shadow, into turning against me, or I will be forced to beat them to death in front of you."

Cascade holds up Jody to the camera. The hero is covered in blood and bruises. They hang limply from his hand. He shakes them and the eye that's not swollen shut blearily opens.

"Be quick, the darling probably doesn't have much time left."

Jody tries to loosen the villain's hands from their throat. It's a pathetic attempt and everyone involved knows it.

Cascade catches their hand and very deliberately breaks one of their fingers.

The noise they make is more of a whimper than a scream. Super Might gets the impression that they don't have the breath to properly scream.

Cascade throws Jody against the wall, then adjusts the camera to zoom in on them.

"You have until tonight to make your decision."

Cascade walks over and crushes Jody's hand under his foot. This time they do scream and then sob as he continues to grind their hand into the floor.

"Then I kill the poor dear."

—

When the appointed time comes and Cascade wakes Jody up with a kick.

"I'm disappointed, Super Might. I thought the truth mattered to you. Or even just the life of," he looks down at Jody, who's trying to crawl away, "a civilian. Not even. A traitor to both of us." Jody flickers in and out, like a sputtering candle, but even if they could disappear, it wouldn't do any good. To illustrate the point, Cascade grabs their leg and pulls them toward him.

Jody struggles weakly. "P-please! I'm- I'm sorry. I'm sorry imsorry..."

Needless to say, their pleading does nothing. Cascade is meticulous, taking them apart bone by bone. And then, eventually, he kicks them and they don't whimper, and their chest doesn't rise and fall.

Cascade leaves their body in a pool of blood.

They ran right into the smaller robot.

Eli didn't have time to stop - so he didn't. He slammed the machine to the ground, both of them landing in a tangle of metal limbs. Something wrapped around Eli's upper leg and dragged him off. This robot was far better constructed than the first one Kawai had blown all to pieces. Eli grunted as it shoved him into a car. He pushed himself to his two feet; the robot gained its five. Before they could go at each other again, though, Kawai shouted, "Grenade!"

Eli scrambled up and over the car's hood before the grenade hit the ground. "Stop throwing bombs in public streets!" he shouted at Kawai, once the blast stopped ringing in his ears (and he had pushed the car off of him).

"You didn't complain last time!" Kawai yelled back. She was already running. Eli took off after her. He risked a look over his shoulder, and groaned as he saw the littler robot, now some twenty feet further away, shake itself and clamber out of a shattered storefront. He didn't see the bigger robot, until light flashed from up above.

It was climbing up the side of a building. Eli pulled his pistol out, slowing a moment to take a few shots. Not a single one of them hit, and the robot whisked itself out of sight over the roof. He bit out a curse word. Something wrapped around his ankle, and a second later, Eli hit the ground facefirst.

The smaller robot skittered right over the top of Eli, screeching obscenities. It was missing one leg, and half of another, and clearly knew that Kawai was to blame. The stupid thing ignored Eli completely once it had hurdled him. He growled and scooped his pistol off the ground, and made it three steps before he heard the heavy THUD of Kawai's concussion gun.

The robot slammed into him. Eli, once again, found himself flat on his back, wrestling with the thing. It definitely looked ragged by now, and slithered out of Eli's grip, running away with Chromatic's voice shouting a vile string of curses.

Eli just lay where he was for a long moment, heaving for breath. Kawai, after a few seconds, leaned over him with slight concern in her dark eyes. "You good?"

"No," he whined, pathetically.

"Huh. Well, you better get good, that robot's heading straight for those kids."

(Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial‘s prompt: FFF45: Familiar Melody. Set in superheroverse again. Enjoy!)

“Begin.”

             White Violin tracked Siren with his eyes and lifted his violin to his shoulder and began to play. He wasn’t going all out yet, just starting with a simple piece to destabilise Siren and make them vulnerable. Siren wasn’t physically big, not like Kraken or Trajectory and he didn’t want to kill them by using too much force at one go. They were still his classmate, after all.

 Siren watched him without saying anything, dodging the force waves and letting them hit the walls around them. White Violin changed the piece to one he had come up with recently, because where else would be a good place to test something like this? Siren still hadn’t made their move yet but he was reasonably confident that he could win this fight.

             “Stop playing.” Siren’s voice was clear and eerily resonant. White Violin felt his fingers and bow stop moving on their own, to his shock and horror, and he couldn’t control the force over them. Siren approached, almost calmly and entirely unperturbed by the fact that they were in the middle of a fight and were supposed to be testing their skills against each other. Siren hadn’t made any moves to attack, even going so far as to flick out their wrists as if showing off their lack of weapons, but White Violin was wary.

             So this was their power.

             White Violin placed his violin down, trying to break the spell Siren had cast. Siren just smiled and continued approaching.

             “Sit down.” Siren said, in that eerie tone. White Violin tried to cover his ears but the words had gone through already, and he felt his body fall. “Don’t move.”

             Siren finally reached White Violin and just smiled. They plucked his bow from his fingers, spun it once and then placed it at his throat. Their smile turned into a smirk as they pressed his body downwards with his own bow.

             “I win.”

             White Violin didn’t think there was anything he hated more in the world at that moment than that smirk on Siren’s face. White Violin, if later asked, would also identify that singular fight as the turning point that sparked his rivalry in earnest with Siren.

 ----

           “The piece you played, that was the same one you played in our first fight.”

             White Violin didn’t need to turn around to see that Siren was speaking. Siren’s voice was still hoarse from being gagged when they were kidnapped and their voice was softer than normal, but he would recognise it anywhere.

             He turned around anyway to see Siren standing at the doorway. Siren looked smaller than usual and White Violin didn’t know why that was making him uncomfortable. Siren was direct and firm and terrifying at the best of times and if he was pressed, usually larger than life and one of the only people he truly respected. Not that he would ever admit the second part, but they were.

             It was disconcerting to see Siren with their hair dripping and exhaustion in their eyes and in a crumpled, oversized T-shirt he suspected Illustrator had lent them, and looking so tiny.

             White Violin put his bow down and looked at Siren. “What about it?”

             “No. It’s- no, it’s nothing. I just thought it sounded familiar, is all. I- I think I should go.”

             Siren took a step backwards and out of the doorway and White Violin put down his entire violin.

             “Wait.”

           “What.” Siren turned back and he saw some of the familiar spark and annoyance at him come out of the haze of their exhaustion, and he couldn’t help but feel a little relieved by that.

             He suddenly wanted to ask if they were okay, even though all the signals were pointing to the fact that not only were they not okay, but they would not be willing to admit that they weren’t okay.

             He’s suddenly reminded of something Illustrator said once about Siren when they had both been children. It had been in the context of Illustrator trying to convince him to stop being rivals with Siren and just be friends with them. Siren had apparently always been willful but-

             He wonders sometimes, if Siren and him would have been friends. In some other timeline, would they have ended up friends instead of rivals?

             “What do you want, Violin, or are you just going to sit there and stare?” Siren snapped, though their entire frame trembled and they had to hold onto the doorway to keep upright.

             “Do you want to listen to the full piece?” He responded, grasping for something.

             Siren raised an eyebrow at him skeptically. He just shrugged.

             “It’s 2am in the morning, Violin.”

           White Violin just raised an eyebrow back at them, challenging them in return.

             Siren stared at him for a moment then threw up their hands and went to sit on the sofa next to him.

             “Fine. Play your stupid piece.”

             White Violin lifted his violin to his shoulder and began to play, letting himself just fall into the rapture of the music. This particular piece had taken several rounds of perfecting but he had to say he had a soft spot for it. Unlike most of the pieces he played on the field, this piece wasn’t loud and didn’t involve a lot of sharp movements but was fast and reminded him of a running river. Or maybe a rainstorm. It was one of the first pieces he had composed and one of the only he had in the last year. He had been busy lately and composing hadn’t exactly been on the top of things he needed to do.

             Siren seemed to like the piece, despite themself, listening and smiling a little with their eyes. Siren also seemed tired and by the end of the piece, had drifted off on the sofa.

             White Violin watched his rival sleep and made the split-second decision to just put a blanket over them, before leaving for his own room.