Does This Make Me Your Nemesis?
Pairing: Diego Hargreeves x reader
Authorâs note: Suprise! Itâs a series! This is part one! Not gonna give it away, but be prepared for some kinda enemies to lovers, pining, and yearning type of bullshit. Also, this is my first Diego fic, and Iâm actually pretty proud of it! Sorry for this obnoxiously long authors note, but I wanted to say thank you to @vmbrellacademics for reading this and giving me the much needed confidence boost!
You told yourself you wouldn't fall in love with Diego Hargreeves. Your first meeting had been less than ideal. It left you covered in quite a bit of blood, and him with a multitude of bruises, both on his body and on his ego. You weren't even supposed to meet him, it was supposed to be a quick in and out job. Unfortunately, the Kraken just so happened to be passing by when he saw you and that man enter the building through an alley, and he saw you leave, with a little bit of blood on your hands. Obviously, he stopped you to ask what the hell happened, and you brushed him off, not wanting to deal with his bullshit. Even before meeting him, you had heard of Diego Hargreeves, ex-superhero turned vigilante, and you had been dreading the day your paths finally crossed. You knew it was only a matter of time, and tonight fate had brought you two together.
The man you had killed had been cheating on his wife, which she had unfortunately found out in a rather shocking manner, and she had payed for you to kill him. You weren't exactly sure what to call yourself, hating the terms "hit man" and "assassin". All you knew, was that if this was a comic book, you would be the "bad guy" and Diego was the "good guy". Though, you weren't a bad person. During the day, you worked at the police station, analyzing the DNA, and other evidence, from crime scenes. Ironic, isn't it, that you worked at a police station while you were practically a criminal. You hadn't gotten caught yet, and you could argue that what you did wasn't necessarily illegal, even if you knew that wouldn't hold up in court. You had learned of Diego from your good friend, Detective Eudora Patch. And while Diego was a frequent visitor to the station, you had yet to meet him. Until now.
After you had completed the job, you slipped out the back alley, and that's when you ran into Diego. Literally. Your head was down, and you ran right into his chest, when he grabbed your arms, your head shooting up to look at him. Your first thought was, "Shit, I'm busted". Your second thought was, "Why did he have to be cute?" But, not letting your second thought distract you, you tried to struggle your way out of his iron grip.
"What the hell were you doing?" He inquired, not loosening the grip on your upper arms. You let out a shaky laugh and gave him a half-smile, before replying, "Nothing", starting into his eyes, challenging him.
"What happened to that guy?"
"The guy you went in there with?"
"There was no guy." This response prompted him to shake you a little bit, and surprisingly, increase his grip.
"I don't have time for this shit. What the hell happened?"
"I don't see how this concerns you?"
You could clearly see how frustrated the vigilante was becoming with you, and you hoped he could just give up and let you go. You weren't that lucky.
"I just need to know if you killed that guy, ok!"
"I didn't. Now let me go." He very clearly didn't even remotely believe the lie you told, and he responded, "I'm not scared to go to the police."
"They wouldn't believe a word out of your mouth. From what I've heard, you tend to make their jobs quite difficult." This statement was, for whatever reason, the straw that broke the camels back, and he let go of your arms, before roughly pushing you back. Now, you hadn't planned on fighting Diego, but, technically, he started it, and you weren't one to back down from a fight. So, after stumbling back a few steps, you got into a fighting stance, raising your fists and bending your knees.
"C'mon now, I don't wanna fight you."
"Well, you started it, so..." you let your sentence trail off, and you heard Diego sigh. He looked like he was about to leave when you took a few quick steps forward, and landing a punch right to his jaw.
Now it was his turn to recoil and stumble backwards, before gingerly raising a hand to touch his face where your fist had collided with his jaw. Now, you weren't afraid to fight dirty, so you closed the gap between the two of you, and punched him again, this time landing a few hits to his torso, catching him off guard and using it to your advantage. You knew that once he got his wits, he would put up quite a fight, so you had to use this advantage while you could. You were solely focused on landing hits, and not blocking his, that you were extremely surprised when you felt his fist smash into your nose, and it started to bleed almost immediately. Your eyes widened, and so did his, which you would have noticed if you were paying attention to him under the mask, and you cursed, before taking your leg and whipping it into his side, the force of your kick pushing him backwards and into the wall. He smacked into the wall, and quickly stood up again, before you noticed him grabbing one of the small blades from his harness. With all the adrenaline, the thought of him killing you never once crossed your mind until you were limping away.
He threw the small knife towards you, causing it to graze your cheek, making it the second time he had made your face bleed, as there was still a steady flow of blood pouring from your nose and down your face. The knife provided the Kraken with the distraction he needed, as he began to hit you. Your arms and torso mainly, but he landed a few good ones to your face, and you wouldn't know it, but he never tried to aim for your face, despite the times his knuckles had split your lip and made contact with your skull, and he was scared that he had given you a concussion. Despite you appearing to be in much worse shape than he was, you were quite the fighter, and once you had gotten reoriented, you were landing many of the punches and kicks you threw his way. After much too long of this, you finally got him to the floor, and quickly rolled over top of him, sitting on his chest and using your knees to pin down his arms. He was still trying to stand up and throw you off of him, so you, ever the quick thinker, snatched one of the knives off his harness, and held it to his neck.
Now, you would have never in a million years killed Diego in that alley, but you needed him to stop moving. You were both breathing heavily, and you could feel the rise and fall of his chest from underneath yourself.
"Now, I'm gonna get up, and I'm gonna leave, ok?"
"I'm not gonna let you go" he replied, even though it seemed like he was working hard just to get the words out. You flashed him a bloody smile, before saying, "Yes you are."
"This isn't the end of this. I'm gonna find you again."
"I'm sure you will." And with that, you stood up, and with all the energy you had left, you ran away, back down alleyways and small streets to your apartment.
Diego could have easily thrown you off. It also would have been very easy to just send a knife flying and into your back, killing you, or at the very least, pining you to a wall so he could take you in. Instead, he let you get away. He wanted to do this again, he wanted to start this little game of cat and mouse, to see who would come out on top.