Combustion
Written in response to hc_bingo prompt: undeserved reputations and cottoncandy_bingo prompt: silent/unspoken affection. First Sky High fic. Takes some liberties with back-story (mostly Warren's) and with superpowers. Characters not mine, please enjoy! Comments are awesome.
The first time Will brings Warren over to his house, it's to work on homework together. It's a Thursday night and his parents aren't there when the Sky High school bus drops them off down the street, and since they're growing teenage boys Will decides to order them a pizza to tide them over for a while. They crash out on the couch, working through a couple of really perplexing problems concerning alien invasions on Warren's part and giant sea monsters on Will's.
A few moments have passed in relative silence when Will finally blurts out a frustrated, "What if you don't have a sidekick?" in response to an oddly phrased question involving hero support and dodging attacks from airborne sharks.
"You planning on not having one?"
Will frowns, drums his fingers against his book. "Well, yeah. I mean, my parents don't follow that dynamic. My Mom isn't hero support for my Dad. I'd like to think I'll have a partner or a team or something. Someday."
"Aiming high as always, Stronghold." Warren quips back at him through a mouthful of green pepper and onion pizza. "What do you think about this one, number eleven? The one about volcanic eruptions."
After a while, their study session devolves into watching the latest action movie, all sprawled out on the living room couches. It's getting late, and the movie is almost over when Will's parents finally get home from whatever it was they'd been doing - obviously superhero related given that they're dressed as the Commander and Jetstream as opposed to Steve and Josie Stronghold.
"Son!" His father calls out, voice booming through the house. "Your mother and I picked up dinner in Tokyo!" He appears in the living room doorway to find that his son is not alone. "Oh, you... have friends over?"
"Just Warren, no one else, Dad." He's not sure why that would be a problem, but given the tone his Dad had, he seems put off. "And we already ate. Is it okay if we finish the movie?"
A pause, just a bit of hesitation in an answer that should have come immediately. "Ugh, Will. We'd rather you spend some time with us. We've been pretty busy lately and I know your mother would really appreciate it if you'd join us for dinner."
The answer confuses Will. Yeah, his parents have been gone a lot lately - there's been a pretty impressive uptick in dastardly supervillain plots as of late and only a little over a month has passed since the disaster that was Homecoming. "Ugh, sure. I guess." He shrugs, glancing at Warren to gauge his reaction. The older boy looks a little more tense than usual, now that he's in the Commander's presence, but he swings to his feet and mumbles something about having to get to work anyway. He grabs up his bag and bolts before Will can do anything more than stand himself.
"Great," The Commander says turning off the television and leading his son out to the kitchen. "Come on, Will."
"The movie was almost over, Dad. I could've still had dinner with you guys without having to kick Warren out."
"Does that boy come over here often?" His father asks him, opting to ignore the logical reasoning his son is presently employing.
Will frowns, again, confused. "No? Tonight was the first time he's been here. Why?"
His parents exchange glances, like they're having a conversation that doesn't require words. Then his mother sighs and cuts in. "Honey, we'd just prefer it if you didn't have him over when we're not here. That's all."
Something's off about this. Layla's always had a free pass to come over whenever she wanted to. He has no doubt that the same rights would be afforded to any of his friends in hero support. But why not Warren? "Why?"
"Will, really. We don't need a repeat of what happened with Gwen, do we? Baron Battle's weapons are in the sanctum, too. Inviting his son here is only asking for trouble."
The realization that they don't trust Warren simply because of who his father is hits him hard and makes him instantly angry and defensive on his friend's behalf. "Warren's not like that. I know everyone thinks he'll go bad, but he's my best friend. He wouldn't." He turns away from them, retreating to his room. He has to really reign in his powers on the way, because stomping up the stairs can cause serious damage if he's not careful about it. Even still, the door comes off the hinges when he slams it, but he pops it back into place quickly before he collapses face-down on his bed and tries to figure out how he can be the only one to see how awesome Warren is.
"Warren," he calls out the second he spots his friend on the Sky High campus the next morning. He jogs to catch up, falling into step with him. "Can you come over after school again? We can finish the movie, if you want? Maybe start another? I'm really sorry my parents were so touchy last night. I don't know why they..."
"Don't you?" Warren grumbles.
"I..."
"Not really that hard to figure out, is it?" He frowns, storming down the halls of the school now, trying to break away from Will. "Can't have Baron Battle's son hanging out with you, can they?" Warren comes to a stop and struggles with the lock on his locker, so much so that he loses control and melts it off (luckily, he keeps spares), which is a pretty good indicator of how much Will's parents have messed him up.
Will hates that he did figure it out but it doesn't really matter. Warren might enjoy calling him a do-gooder with how he's always trying to please his parents, but not on this. "They won't stop me from being your friend, nothing will," he says, a hand landing on Warren's arm to keep him from bolting away again. They're about to be late for class, but Will adds on a hopeful, "Come over?"
"I have to work," he says. "But if you're there when I get off, you can come over to my place?"
Will has never been to Warren's, but he knows that the older boy lives on his own, given that his father's in jail and his mother died when he was little. He knows that's why Warren works as much as he can, but sometimes it still seems weird that he's living by himself. "Okay, yeah. I'll be there. I'll even fly you home."
"See you then, Stronghold."
"If my parents call you tonight, can you cover for me?" He blurts the question out in the middle of an unrelated conversation with Layla concerning plans for a Christmas party in the hallway after lunch. He's glad they're talking to each other again. There had been a rough few days where she'd refused to, in the wake of their break-up. They just hadn't... fit together. And eventually she'd agreed with him on that. She'd said that they worked better as friends.
"That depends on where you're actually going to be, I think."
"Warren's," he answers, relaying the tale of his paranoid parents to her. "I can't believe they think he'd go dark-side. Even after he helped us stop Royal Pain?"
Layla agrees with him wholeheartedly. "Well," she sighs, "if you're going to start lying to your parents, at least you picked a good thing to lie about. They won't find out from me," she promises. "Are you... Is something going on? With you and Warren?"
Will snaps his head up, "What? No!"
"Really? Because your plans for tonight sound suspiciously like a date, if I am not mistaken."
Will's face flushes with color, and he's blurting out that "It's not a date. I'm not... and Warren? It's not a date." She looks like she wants to continue pestering him about this, about how maybe that's why their relationship failed so quickly (something that Will's thought of, too) despite the promise it had when it started, but he's saved from having to defend himself further when Zach and Ethan and Magenta appear behind them.
"Who's got a date?" Zach inquires, grinning like an idiot as he asks the questions.
Layla shrugs as they approach the hero support classroom. "Apparently, no one," she says, as the rest of them all duck into class, leaving Will to head on to his own.
"It's not a date," he mumbles to himself, but now that Layla's planted the idea in his head (and oh, ho, isn't she good at planting things?) he can't seem to let it go.
Lying to his parent's really is a new concept for him. He grabs up his backpack, tucks in a few movies and jogs downstairs.
"I'm going to get dinner with Layla and then we're doing homework at her place. I might be back late, we've got a big project to work on for History of Heroes." He blurts out, a little too fast, but his Mom and Dad are focused on planning the details of a new open house for one of their real estate jobs and so they send him off without issue. They don't even notice that he's talking about doing homework on a Friday night. Or that he's wearing nicer clothes than he would usually bother with just to hang out with Layla.
The walk to the Paper Lantern seems to take forever, but he shows up a few minutes before Warren's set to finish his shift. He's already outside though, leaning against the wall. He pushes off and walks to meet Will as he approaches. "I got off early and got dinner," he says, holding up a white take-out bag. "And don't worry, it's not Chinese." The logo on the bag suggests the Italian place a few buildings down the street.
Will laughs, relieved because he really, really doesn't like Chinese. "Still wanna fly?"
"Sure," Warren nods.
It takes a minute to figure out the logistics of flying with another person. How his Mom flies around with his Dad all the time seems even more impressive, because it's not an easy task even with the help of super-strength. He mimics her usual carry and hooks his arms under Warren's and lifts off, hovering for a second to get used to it. They've found a dark alley to start this experiment, so at least no one can see them. "Ugh, try not to move too much?" He asks of Warren as he gains altitude. "And I promise not to drop you."
"Drop me and I'll roast you alive," Warren growls. "You might've mentioned that you'd never done this before."
"I've never done this before," Will parrots back at him. "See? I mentioned it."
Warren laughs, shakes his head and laughs some more. "Just get going, airhead."
They have to stay a good ways up to stay out of sight, and that involves cold, chilly, high-altitude air, not helped by the fact that it's December. "Sorry it's so cold," Will blurts out without thinking.
"Should've said you were," Warren answers, and the next thing Will knows, he's deliciously warm. He looks down long enough to see Warren's arms glowing faintly, putting off enough heat to transfer to him.
"Thanks," he says. "Now where am I going?"
Warren rattles off directions and within moments they're landing in an alley near his apartment. Will follows behind him as Warren leads him into the building, up a few flights of stairs and toward a door at the end of the hall. He's surprised by what he finds inside. He's expecting dark colors, or fiery red and orange and yellow colors, the things that he associates with the Warren he gets to see, like the flame tattoos in orange and red on his wrists and his black leather and fiery clothing choices. He finds blue walls, grey carpet, and bright furniture, calming colors. A single sofa facing a television, a sparse kitchen, a hallway with two closed doors. "Nice place," he says, stepping aside so Warren can close the door behind them.
"Yeah, it's okay," he answers. "Put a movie on, I'll go grab some plates and stuff."
"Yeah," Will agrees, "okay."
Warren disappears into the kitchen and Will fiddles with the DVD player and television inputs until the menu screen appears and he's flipping through the scene selection to find where they left off yesterday when Warren returns. He sets two plates piled high with food down on the table beside the sofa and doubles back to grab a couple of sodas.
Within minutes, they're digging into their meals - Warren did a good job of picking something that Will likes, an impressive task given that Layla often calls him absurdly picky (what he doesn't know is that Warren called her to make sure he'd picked something Will would actually like) - and enjoying the rest of the action movie. The movie ends and Will pops another one in. The food disappears and Warren makes some popcorn (he doesn't even have to use a microwave). Time flies by and Will knows he'll have to leave soon, but this, just hanging out with Warren is awesome and he doesn't want to go. Especially since he's beginning to suspect that maybe this was a date, like Layla said, and that maybe he's just really, really dense.
He doesn't think he's imagining how close Warren sits to him, at least. Between the flight, the dinner, and the movie, it certainly sounds like date, even with Warren's violent quips and sort of fond insults thrown into the mix. He stops focusing on the end of the second film and starts wondering and eventually, he's so worked up with the question that he doesn't even realize that the screen has gone back to the menu and that Warren is staring at him.
"-not even listening," Warren sighs a long-suffering sigh and shakes his head. But he can't really be all that annoyed because he's smirking at Will. "Do you have to go?" He asks, and Will suspects he's repeating this question.
"Yeah," he answers, sadly. "Yeah, I should. My parents..."
"I know," Warren answers, but Will isn't sure that he knows that they don't know where he is tonight. "How against me are they?"
Will doesn't want to answer that question, doesn't want to get Warren all fired up about it all over again when tonight is going so nicely. But Warren looks determined to get an answer out of him so he reluctantly replies. "They... they said you can't come over when they're not there. But I don't care. They'll get over it eventually and..."
"Will," he says, and now he just sounds tired. Tired of people comparing him to his father, tired of the lack of trust, tired of everyone expecting him to be evil. "They won't. If you had been anyone else, we would still be fighting at school. We wouldn't be friends. And your Dad would be right to worry." He laughs, a pathetic, kind of broken sound. "But you, you idiotic, stubborn, do-gooder. You had to keep pushing your way into my life and none of this was supposed to happen. Sometimes I think..."
Whatever Warren thinks, he's cut off by the sound of a rocking explosion out on the street. Hero instincts kick in, even though they don't have fancy names or costumes yet and they're both standing and headed toward the window within seconds.
"If I fly us, we can stay out of sight and still fight," Will suggests when they spot the abnormally large robot (which seems to be a common problem in Maxville) thundering its way down the street.
They're technically not supposed to fight real supervillains, not until they've trained, graduated and been given their superhero identities. But they've already taken on Royal Pain and as long as they aren't spotted, they should be fine here, too.
"Alright," Warren agrees, disappears into his room long enough to grab a dark hooded sweatshirt that can at least kind of conceal Will; his own clothing is already dark so he doesn't worry there. "Put that on and let's go."
Will complies, tugging the too big sweatshirt on over his head as Warren drags him out onto the fire-escape. He hooks his arms under Warren's again, making sure he's got a good grip and then he pushes off, hovering for a second before he gains altitude. When they're high enough that they won't be seen by any citizens, he stops and pushes in on the robot. "Can you shoot from here?"
"Yeah," Warren says, "but you might get a little crispy, too."
"I'll live."
The heat coming off of Warren is intense. They're high enough up for the cold to cancel out some of it, but it builds and builds as Warren prepares to flame out at the robot. It's weird, though, because for some reason Warren's clothes don't burn but Will can feel the sweat-shirt sort of smoldering and how is that fair? The longer he holds off his shot, the hotter it gets but since Will's choices are drop him or hold on, he braces his way through the pain and makes sure to stay still so Warren can aim.
Finally, finally, he shoots. The robot is unaware of the airborne threat and the fireball hits it hard around the neck. Sparks shoot off of it as the metal melts and then Warren shoots a series of smaller fire-blasts at it.
"Move!" Warren shouts, when the thing swings out, shooting off a blast of its own. Will dodges aside and circles around, letting Warren get another hit in, melting away the bits on its hand that had enabled it to fire back.
He's pretty sure his arms are thoroughly scorched, but the robot's still up and fighting. Another swing nearly brings them out of the air but he gets out of the way just in time. Warren's heating up for another strike when they appear, the Commander and Jetstream to the rescue.
"Uh oh," he hears Warren mumble, but he blasts the fireball off all the same, melting off a good portion of the hunks of metal making up the thing's face.
Then the Commander is punching out the robot with his super strength, the same way Will would have if he could have risked getting closer.
"Should we go down and meet them or...?" Warren starts to ask, but the question is answered for them when Will's parents fly up to them, looking like they're not entirely sure if the fight's over yet.
"On the ground. Now." His father monotones at him, a stone cold look on his face that covers barely concealed disappointment and anger.
Will swallows audibly and slowly descends. By the time his feet touch the ground, he's convinced they just might kill him for this. "Escape while you can?" Will asks of Warren, as his parents do one last sweep of the area.
"Not going anywhere, Stronghold," he says. "Let me see your arms."
Warren had been right to warn him about the heat. Will's arms are quite burned, angry red from the crooks of his elbows down to his wrists, bits of sizzled sweatshirt still clinging to him. It's worse than Will had thought it was, and the pain is for sure hitting him now, but in all fairness his attention had been focused elsewhere.
"I'm sorry," Warren says, looking more than a little upset about the damage he'd caused. "If we go back inside, I'll fix them up for you - nothing I know better than burns."
He glances up at his parents, who are still hovering around the area and nods, mumbling a quiet, "yeah, let's go," to the other boy, letting Warren lead him back into the apartment building.
Warren leaves him on the couch with an order to stay put and not touch his arms and ducks into the bathroom to grab up the necessary supplies. He also locates a fresh sweatshirt on his way, too, possibly hoping to hide the wounds from the Commander and Jetstream because he imagines they won't take well to Will's injuries (not that he could blame them).
"Here," he says, sitting beside Will on the couch as he helps Will get his singed shirts off. He tosses it aside once it's off and sets to work on his arms. He's gentle about it all, which Will appreciates because the wounds are really starting to hurt now. Burn cream coats the wounds, offering blissful, cooling relief, and once that's in place, Warren wraps his arms with sterile gauze, taping the wrap in place to hold it steady. This he covers with flex wrap to protect the gauze and then it's done. "I'd take some pain medicine if I were you, too," Warren advises, offering the new shirt.
"Thanks," Will says, not at all blaming his friend for the injuries he'd obtained. It had been the only way to fight and stay safely away at the same time. They'd held the robot off long enough to keep it from doing any major damage - no one could deny them that.
"Least I could do," Warren responds.
Will has to disagree because Warren could've done a lot less - could've jumped ship and left Will to deal with his parents on his own, for sure, could've left the burns and the burned clothes, too. But he didn't.
"William Theodore Stronghold," his mother's angry voice grounds out. The full name is not a good sign.
He manages to tug Warren's sweatshirt on before they appear on the balcony, but it's a close call. He certainly doesn't want them seeing the burns, either. "Mom, Dad. Hey."
Glaring. They're glaring at him. And at Warren. Glaring and frowning and he's really glad their superpowers don't include eye-lasers or something else that could be projectiled out at he or Warren because he's pretty sure they would be doing that right now. "Explain."
"Well," Will starts, fumbling for words. "We saw the thing coming down the street and we were just trying to keep it from doing too much damage and we were holding it off pretty well, I thought. We stayed out of sight, Dad, really. We were too high up for any citizens to see us and..."
"And why are you here?"
Will is caught in his lie, but technically... "You said Warren couldn't come over. You didn't say I couldn't come here," he says, though he's pretty sure that it was implied.
"Home." His father demands. "Now."
And Will complies, grabbing up his bag and smiling sadly at Warren. "See you at school," he says over his shoulder as he follows his parents out. At least they hadn't blamed Warren for all of this.
"So, what happened?" Layla asks him on Monday morning, as they stand outside of the school. She hasn't seen him all weekend and now he has bandages all down his arms and one of Warren's sweatshirts in his bag. "Was it a date?"
"Maybe," Will answers, honestly not sure of the answer. "But I'm grounded for forever, so..."
"Grounded? Why?"
"The giant robot thing on the news?" Will asks, tugging his sleeves down to cover the bandages. He knows she'll have seen it, it was all over the television that night and all the next morning. "Warren and I got caught in that and then my parents showed up and..."
"And didn't take it well. Gotcha."
Will nods, looks around because Warren should be showing up soon and they kind of need to talk. "Yeah, kind of an understatement. You haven't seen him yet, have you?"
Layla shakes he head. "Nope, not since Friday."
Will waits, but there's still no sign of Warren when the bell rings. No sign of him at his locker and Will spends so long waiting that he's almost late for class. He's anxious all through his morning classes and by lunch he's even more wired. He swears he sees a trace of a black jacket at lunch, but when he follows it, he finds nothing.
"Has anyone seen Warren today?" He asks, starting to worry when he finally relents and sits down at the lunch table.
"We saw him in the hallway on our way in, looking all grumpy," Magenta says, pointing in the same direction he'd thought he'd seen Warren go.
"Yeah, he hasn't looked that angry since the day you got your powers," Zach agrees.
Will stands, not hungry at all, and excuses himself. He needs to find Warren.
He checks everywhere, the grounds, the halls, even detention, and finally happens upon him in an empty classroom, hunched over a desk eating lunch all alone. He knocks, gets a surprised jump in response, and ducks inside. "Hey, what're you doing here?"
"Wasn't hungry."
"That's... hard to believe, since you're eating."
"Look, I'm trying not to... I'm trouble," he grumbles. "I'd rather not get you in any more of it."
Will crosses the room so he can actually face Warren. "This is about this weekend," he realizes. "But, what? My arms are fine, they're healing. I'm not mad at you about that at all. It wasn't your fault."
Warren shakes his head and turns away again. "Not that."
"Then, what? My parents? Because I don't care what they think. Not about this, okay?"
A sigh, and then, "The Commander came back after they took you home. He told me to stay away from you. He didn't say 'or else' but it was pretty obviously implied." Warren huffs, rolls up the sleeve of his jacket to show Will the bruise on his forearm, just above his tattoo. It's clearly from a hand that had gripped too tightly, with something like super-strength. "He said that he and my Dad used to be friends, too, just like us, and that Baron Battle turned on him, betrayed him and that I won't be any different." He sounds furious that no one can believe he's not his father, but Will knows him well enough to pick up on the hurt under all the rage.
And really? Will has no idea what to do with all of this. He hadn't even considered that his Dad would go back. He'd thought that they were blaming him for the whole robot episode. And his Dad had actually used his powers to hurt Warren in the process of whatever warning he was giving?
"You won't. I know," Will is quick to say because he does know. Out of all of this, he does know that much. Without a doubt. "I trust you. And that..." he gestures to the handprint, "I don't even know what to say about that. Other than I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. It's not messing with your powers, is it?"
"No, they're fine. I'm fine. But maybe we should just..." Warren stands, looks like he's going to make for the door. "Stay away from each other for a little while."
But Will does not like that idea. Any more than he likes the idea of his Dad threatening Warren and he reaches out to catch his friend's arm, careful of his own super-strength because he certainly doesn't need any more bruises. "No," he says. "I mean, my Dad doesn't know what he's talking about and I don't want to stop being your friend just because your Dad did something bad when you were, what? Six? It wasn't your fault then and it's not your fault now so why should you have to pay for it? I told you - I don't care what-" and there were more words, words that Will was planning on saying to try to maybe sort of make this a little bit better, but they're lost because Warren surges forward and kisses him.
He pulls away just as fast, his skin warm and faintly glowy, but it doesn't burn Will this time. "Sorry."
Will has no idea what he thinks he has to be sorry about. It definitely shouldn't be the kiss because while Will hasn't had a lot of them, it certainly wasn't a bad one and he'd really like to do that again. "What for?"
Warren scowls and tries to leave again, but no. Not happening. Will still has hold of his arm so he pulls lightly and catches Warren's grumbled, "What?" with a kiss of his own. This one's longer, and he slides his hand down Warren's arm to catch his hand instead, pulling him in closer.
"So," Will grins, "Friday was totally a date."
"Shut up, Stronghold," Warren gripes back at him, but he's kind of sort of smiling with this ridiculously amazing grin, so Will doesn't take him very seriously.
Will's parents may have grounded him until the next Ice Age, but they're not home all the time to enforce it and the threats against Warren may or may not have incited something of a rebellious streak in their only son.
So, Will gets impressively good at sneaking people into (Layla helps, growing and ungrowing trees by his window) and sneaking himself out his room in the time it takes for his parents to begrudgingly unground him something like two weeks after the whole giant robot fiasco.
The first thing he does is ask if he can have friends over. Just to study, he assures them.
"Who's coming?" Is the response, and he rattles off a list of the usual suspects: Layla, Zach, Magenta, Ethan. Maybe Warren if he's off work in time. Will even stresses that he's hardly seen Warren at school, to make his Dad think his stupid plan is working.
"I suppose. Your Mom and I will be here, though."
"Fine," he grumbles, and goes to make the calls.
Within an hour, they're all crowded around the living room, flipping through textbooks and notes. They've got pizza and sodas and are all enjoying Will's newfound freedom, even if they'd never really stopped.
All but Warren.
He ducks into the kitchen under the guise of cleaning up the plates and cups from their dinner, but he's really going to call Warren. "Hey, aren't you coming?"
"Can't," Warren says, voice rough and weird. "Sick. Didn't even go to work tonight." He sneezes and sounds miserable and all that makes Will want to do is go see him.
"I can come over? Maybe?"
His Dad chooses that moment to come striding into the kitchen and the phone is turned up loud enough that he hears Warren's comment of "If you do, I'll roast you alive, Stronghold," which has long since lost its punch as a threat. At least for Will. The Commander, however, does not seem to take such blatant threats so lightly.
Will realizes this in time to stutter out a panicked, "I gotta go," and hang up before his Dad can grab the phone and threaten Warren right back. "Dad," he says, "It's not what you think."
"Baron Battle's son just threatened you. I think it's exactly what I think. I told you that boy was trouble but no one wanted to listen to me."
"Dad, Dad. Calm down. It's not what you think!" Will sighs in exasperation and maybe accidentally crushes the phone in his hands. "Why can't you just listen to me? Warren's not going to hurt me, I'm-"
But, he's already gone. No doubt to tell his Mom about Warren's latest threat and then probably to go break Warren's face or something. Will finds a spare phone and gives him the heads up, which a grumbling, sneezy Warren is not happy to hear about.
He wanders back to the others, frustrated and worried, and he's not surprised when they all leave not much later.
He goes to bed worried and when sleep just outright refuses to come, he climbs out of bed and then out of his window, takes off into the night sky because he's convinced he won't sleep until he knows his Dad hasn't done anything insane.
The trip to Warren's is familiar by now, a flight that usual makes him calm and excited all at the same time. Tonight, there's too much dread in his stomach to feel anything other than anxious.
The door is open when he gets there, which is a bad sign and the sound of the Commander's raised voice is hard to miss.
"-away from Will! Whatever you and your father are planning, if you drag him into it, I won't care that you're just a kid. You'll be just as rotten as your old man. I won't hold back."
He bursts into the apartment and finds his father has Warren pinned to a wall in the hallway, a hand curled around Warren's neck. He's slightly aflame, but not in a way that says he's attacking, it's more like an automatic response to being hurt, a defense mechanism, but his father doesn't even flinch.
"Dad!" He's shouting, using his own strength to pull at the arm around Warren's neck. "Stop it!"
"He threatened you. I heard him myself."
He gets the arm off and shoves himself in front of Warren, forcing his Dad to back off some. "He said he'd roast me alive if I came over here while he's sick. Which, you might have noticed, I did anyway, and yet I haven't been roasted."
Warren's coughing behind him, grabbing at his neck as he tries to regain his breath. "Wouldn't hurt Will," he forces out.
"If he really wanted to hurt me - you, us - wouldn't he have, I don't know, fought back when you were trying to kill him? Dad, you're all wrong about this and you can't see it, but..."
"You said yourself, Will," his Dad defends, backing toward the door. "He's sick. He doesn't have the strength to fight back, not now."
Will shakes his head and turns to Warren, helping him sits down on the sofa. "You'll be okay?" He asks, even though he wishes he could stay - he needs to go try to set his father straight on this.
Warren nods, mumbles something about trying not to get Will sick, and let's him go.
"He's sick and doesn't have the strength to fight back and he's a kid, Dad. He's like a year and half older than me and you were ready to kill him."
But his Dad sighs, like Will's the one not grasping something here, and says, "You weren't old enough to remember what Baron Battle was like, Will. We almost lost that one and I'd hate to imagine what he'd do if he had Warren with him next time."
"Warren barely knows his Dad! He's nothing like him, okay? Just like I'm apparently nothing like you."
"Will! We are the Stronghold Three and we have to stick together."
He's done, though, really. And he has the power to fly and his Dad doesn't, so he kicks off and hovers for a second. "Well, maybe you should go back to being the Stronghold Two," he snaps, before he flies away, suddenly disgusted with his red, white, and blue attire because everything in his life has been those colors and right now he wants nothing to do with them.
He flies to his room - though flying back to Warren's seems like an excellent idea - and locks himself in. He finds the hoodie he never actually returned to Warren and pulls that on instead of the stupid Stronghold colors and forces himself to try to sleep. It doesn't go well.
The rest of the week passes by, and then the weekend does, too and he doesn't say one word to his parents. Not even after they re-ground him and forbid him from going anywhere except to and from school. He doesn't care. He's done listening to them if they won't listen to him. Layla thinks he's being a little over dramatic, but he didn't tell her about what his father's done to Warren, so he's pretty sure he isn't.
And Warren. Warren's better by the end of the weekend, though the signs of bruising around his neck are still apparent and hard to write off at school. Luckily, he's Warren and no one really tries to push the matter (which is also awful) aside from a couple of snarky comments from Coach Boomer that don't do anything except make their opponents in the most recent round of Save The Citizen a little crispier than usual when all is said and done.
When school lets out, his father is there to pick him up, which is at least seven different kinds of humiliating and is totally not happening.
"How about dinner?" He asks Warren, in the hopes of getting to spend some time with the other boy as well as to avoid his father. "We could fly to China. Maybe I'll like real Chinese food."
Warren laughs at him, "you're not serious." A beat, and then, "you are serious. Okay. I'm down for dinner, but I'll pass on the jet lag - how about we fly to Cityville? I hear they have the best burgers in the state."
Cityville is more than far enough away for Will. He hooks his arms under Warren's and takes off, even if it breaks no less than four school rules.
He hopes his father sees him fly off.
They're in the middle of their date when the newscast hits. 'Baron Battle Escapes!' the banner reads, as a duo of reporters comment on the known details of the impossible prison-break. Several guards were killed, but have no fear citizens of Maxville, the superheroes have been called in! The Commander and Jetstream are on site, hovering in the background and already looking for leads so that the infamous supervillian can be recaptured as quickly as possible.
The newscaster starts to recap Baron Battle's past crimes, a lengthy list, to be sure, and that's when Warren stands and clicks the television over their booth off. "We don't need to see that."
Will pulls himself away from the blank screen, and turns back to look at Warren who looks more than a little despondent. "Are you okay?"
"I've only met him a few times. I saw him in prison once, when I was nine. When my Mom died. I barely know him. I hope they catch him."
Will wants to shove this version of Warren in his Dad's face and say 'I told you so' but he doubts that would help at this point. He's too far gone in his memories of what fighting with Baron Battle had been like and he'll probably be all the worse, now.
That doesn't mean he has to let Warren suffer.
"C'mon," he says, tossing some money on the table and pulling Warren out of the restaurant with him.
He ends up flying them back to Maxville, to the cemetery where Will knows Warren's Mom is buried. He doesn't know if this is a good idea or not, but it's the only thing he can think to do.
They lapse into a long silence once they find the grave marker, sitting in the grass.
"So," Will cuts in, "I was thinking. Maybe when we get our Superhero costumes - well, when I get mine, you'll already have yours - I can make mine fireproof, at least at the arms, so that I can carry you without any minor burns."
And Warren has to get what he's saying, what he's asking with that comment because he knows that Will's planning on having a partner, not a sidekick, once he's unleashed upon the world.
"You want to partner with me."
It's not a question, not really. Will's not sure what it is because Warren's just kind of staring at him like he doesn't really see him and, "yeah. Who else would I want to be with?"
And it must be the right thing to say because Warren's leaning over to kiss him soundly. Will's hands come up to tangle in Warren's hair, keeping him pulled in close, and Warren's glowing again, the kind of not-fire that Will's starting to like. "You should make the whole thing fire proof. Just in case."
"If that's what it takes to get you to agree, then, fine," Will says, grinning as he goes in for another kiss.
Something stops him, though, something off in the distance. He swears he sees a flash of black and red off a ways and he's about to point it out to Warren when suddenly chaos is descending from above.
"We've been looking everywhere for you, Will!" His mother shouts at him, anger and fear and desperation in her voice as she lands with the Commander. "Baron Battle is on the loose and you're running around like nothing is happening."
"And you're with him again," his father growls out.
On the plus side, Will's pretty sure they missed the kissing. "Yeah, we went to dinner."
"You're supposed to be grounded."
"And this is an odd spot for dinner."
"We went to dinner, we saw the news, and then we came here." Will amends, pointedly ignoring the grounded part because he's already given in and spoken to them.
"So that Baron Battle could attack you?" The Commander questions, suspicious gaze locked on Warren. "Thanks to you. You probably helped him escape."
Will groans. "Dad, he was with me. He was not helping! No one is attacking us. This is Warren's Mom's grave, not a big, red flag for Baron Battle."
"You're going home with your mother. Warren is coming with me. He's to be questioned about his father's escape."
"What?" Warren roars, but Will catches him before he can launch to his feet.
"Just go," he asks of Warren quietly. "You didn't do anything, so prove it to them." Warren gives him the smallest nod and then turns to his parents. "He goes with Mom. Not you."
"Okay," she agrees, before her husband can fire them all up even more. "C'mon, Warren."
Will and his father watch her fly away with him, headed off to City Hall where the Superheroes have set up base command for the escape.
"You. Home. Now." The Commander orders, and Will flies them back to the house in silence. Once they land, and he stops Will from escaping to his room, his father presses on. "I know you think I'm being paranoid, but you'll see. Like father, like son. He'll turn on you. And I don't want you to get hurt, Will, really. I'm trying to protect you."
Will shakes his head and dodges around him. "You keep telling yourself that."
Will's laying in bed staring at the ceiling. He's been expressly forbidden to leave the house or they'll pull him from Sky High and not let him earn his Superhero rights. This is an effective threat. Especially now that he has plans to partner with Warren.
His Dad is even doing rounds to check on him, which is ridiculous because it involves interrupting the hunt for Baron Battle every twenty minutes.
It's nearly midnight and he hasn't heard from Warren yet. If his Mom would stop by, just once, instead of his Dad, then he could ask her what's going on, but she hasn't been by.
It's just after one of the Commander's check-ins that he hears the knock on his window. Layla must have tree'd him up because it's not easy to get on the roof otherwise. Warren knocks again, and Will is quick to cross the room and let him in.
"So, took them long enough to let you go. Have they realized they're idiots for thinking you were involved yet?"
Warren slips in the window and a weird look flickers across his face. It's like he's lost, confused about where he is and how he got there, but it disappears as quickly as it appears. "Seems like," he says, reaching out for Will. "You trust me, right?"
"Of course," Will answers, without a seconds hesitation. "Is something wrong?"
Warren looks away, his eyes dart to the window and then back to Will. "I... I think my Dad's after you. And I want you to come with me. We need to get somewhere safe until they catch him."
Will kind of laughs because it's not like there's many places safer than his house right now, what with the ever-vigilant Commander circling around. "Where would we go?"
"I don't know. Somewhere he can't find you."
"If I leave and they catch me, they won't let me go back to Sky High."
"I think they'll forgive you if it means you didn't get kidnapped and killed," Warren argues. "Please."
Will is actually pretty sure he's never heard Warren say 'please' before. And so this must be serious. "Whatever you saw to make you think this, we should probably tell my parents. Did you tell them? My Mom? Whoever questioned you?"
"They won't listen to me. They just think I'll hurt you," Warren fights. "Please, if you do trust me, please, let's go."
Will caves. "Alright."
They leave through the window after his Dad's next round by the house (Warren hides in the closet) and then Will flies them where Warren tells him to go.
And, really, looking back, Will thinks he gets suspicious about the time they start flying over the warehouse district because safe is not something anyone ever associates with that area of the city, no matter how many superheroes there are.
"Just down there," Warren says, and because Will does trust him, he drops his altitude to land, only gravity kicks in when he gets a few yards off the ground and sends them both tumbling into the pavement.
Will doesn't know what happened there, why his powers randomly sputtered out on him. It's never happened before. But then he sees the markings on the ground, recognizes them vaguely from one of his classes, and realizes that they're Neutralizers. Special traps that negate superpowers (a more advanced, more portable version of what shields the detention room at Sky High) and this is so not good.
And then there's doubt. It hits him in the gut like he's just been sucker punched, a quiet voice in the back of his head that tells him his Dad just might've been right all along. But then none of this makes any sense because the Warren he knows, the Warren he's friends - more than friends - with? He's not like this. He wouldn't do this.
But, apparently, he has.
"Why?" Is all he asks, all he can ask, because Warren's eyes are suddenly hard and cold and distant.
"Because I told him to." The voice isn't Warren's, but sounds distantly like it. A red and black cloaked figure emerges from the shadows of a nearby warehouse along with a few equally shadowy minions and Will knows he's Baron Battle. "He's my son, after all. A son should do what his father asks. You should have done as yours asked."
Will frowns, paces the edges of the trap. "Yeah, well, sometimes sons have to ignore what their father's tell them."
"Should you have? Warren's allegiances obviously don't lie where you'd thought they did, or else you wouldn't be in my trap."
And he has a point, but Will's not... he can't believe that Warren would do this to him, not after everything. He turns his back on the threat of Baron Battle to face Warren instead. "You've had so many chances to turn on me and you've never done it. Why would you do it now?"
"It was our plan all along. I told him to get close to you - granted, he got closer than I thought - so that we could get you away from your parents when the time came for my escape. Nothing will hurt them more than losing you."
More doubt, powerful and building, hits him. Warren's been working with his Dad the whole time? Warren's been screwing with him this whole time? Their friendship, their relationship? No, no, no. But, he needs to hear it from Warren, which is something that hasn't been happening much in this conversation. "I didn't ask you," Will spits out, sounding far, far braver than he feels.
"It's true," Warren mumbles, voice sounding strained and quiet.
"I don't believe you."
"It doesn't matter if you believe us or not," that's Baron Battle again, circling around the trap. He stops in front of Warren and pulls him out of the lines of it with one hand. "You won't be around to fret over it for much longer."
And then there's panic. Maybe it is true, if Baron Battle trusts Warren on that side of the lines, trusts him with his power. And what is Baron Battle's power, anyway? Despite everything, he's not sure. He's pretty sure it's fire, because he knows Warren's Mom didn't have that (even though he doesn't know what she did have) and where else would he have gotten it from? But what if he has something else, too, that Warren didn't get?
Fire's looking like a pretty good bet, though, because the madman's starting to spark and crackle with the flames spreading up his arms, letting the blast build up like Warren has to. Except that blast is aimed at him and it's going to do so much more than scorch his arms a little.
"Wait." And that's Warren's voice, and maybe, finally, this nightmare is over, except no. "Let me. I'll roast him alive."
And those words sound like a threat again, Will thinks, only they kind of don't, because there's still Warren's sarcastic bite to them and okay, what?
Baron Battle looks pleased, though, as he powers back down. "Go ahead, son."
Warren's eyes lock with his and Will wants to hope that maybe something has changed, but he's pretty sure it hasn't because now Warren's aiming at him and that's just kind of... worse, really.
"Please, don't do this, okay?"
He closes his eyes when the blast comes, waits for the heat and pain, but it never comes. When he cracks his eyes open, he realizes that the edge of the trap is on fire, enough to break the lines and give him a chance to escape.
So he flies. Straight up, out of range of any attacks, but he can't leave because clearly Warren hasn't gone dark-side after all and that means that Will can't, won't leave him behind. As it stands, the gaggle of minions have descended on him with powers of their own - Will spots someone with stretching powers like Lash try to wrangle him, but he gets singed for the attempt. Someone else, this one with control over water that rivals Warren's over fire, steps up and blasts him out, leaving him dripping and knocked to the ground. Will knows he won't be able to light up again easily after that. And Baron Battle must know it, too, because he's looming over his son looking several kinds of murderous.
"Looks like I missed," Warren grins up at him. "Oops."
"You think you've saved him?" Baron Battle laughs. "When I catch him, it'll be so much worse than fire."
Warren shakes his head, "not happening." He tilts his head back, spots Will hovering above them and shouts out, "get out of here, already!"
And as much as he doesn't want to leave Warren at the mercy of his seriously pissed off father, Will goes. He tells the first superhero he finds (there are a lot of them around, luckily) to find the Commander and Jetstream and get them to the warehouses as soon as possible, but they catch up to him on his way back.
"Will!" His Mom is shouting at him, terrified and desperate. "Will, what happened, are you alright?"
"Warren needs help! We have to hurry!"
Only they're in less of a hurry then he is because they've been looking around for Will ever since Layla admitted to letting Warren into Will's room, and they are even more convinced of his guilt now than they'd ever been before.
"You're going home," his father shouts at him. "We'll deal with Baron Battle. And Warren."
"I would be dead right now if it weren't for him. I'm not going anywhere except back to help him," he argues, flying off as fast as he can. He doesn't know why Warren brought him to Baron Battle, but he knows why Warren saved him, at least.
What he didn't hear, when he flew off in a rush, was Baron Battle's threat. It had been meant to keep him around, keep him away from the superheroes, but he hadn't caught the words - the, "Leave and I'll kill him!" that the madman had shouted out, already nodding to one of his minions to prove that he's not bluffing about murdering his own son.
So, Will is sickeningly surprised when he comes back to find Warren lying motionless on the ground, covered in bits of ice and blood. And apparently no one else thinks he's much of a threat anymore as Baron Battle and his group of minions have moved off some, leaving Warren behind unguarded. It's enough for Will to convince himself to land, even though he knows it's a big risk.
"Warren," he's saying, fear making him choke when he gets close because Warren has to be okay, right? "Warren, say something," he asks, a hand landing on Warren's stomach. He smells like burned leather and like lightning, that electric-y smell that's in the air before a storm and that's not a good sign.
"Will?"
A sigh of relief, and "good, keep talking, okay? We'll stop him."
"Mind control."
"What?"
A cough, "He... has mind control powers. Caught me," he chokes out, "didn't want to, tried to fight," he explains, forcing the words out even though he looks like all he wants to do is go to sleep and maybe not wake up again and Will can't let that happen. And Warren keeps talking (even though everything hurts and it's so cold and he can't feel his fire and he can still feel little shock-waves on his skin even though they stopped electrocuting him some time ago. But he needs to make Will understand that leading him here had been the last thing he'd ever wanted to do, that he'd never, ever, ever turn on Will, but he didn't have a choice), wasting his strength and saying things like "Broke it when he crossed the lines. I swear, I wouldn't... not you. Never," when Will already knows that. He knew something was wrong but he didn't know what and this is an answer, but it doesn't matter anymore.
And Will's scrabbling for his hand, holding tight and squeezing some warmth into Warren's cold fingers. "You'll be fine," Will tells him, even though part of him thinks that it might not be true. "Stop talking like you're not, okay?"
"Will," Warren tries, but Will cuts him off with a kiss, doesn't even blink at the fact that he's covered in blood and mud and he doesn't even know what else, at this point.
Warren relaxes into the kiss, and Will sees his eyes close just a bit, like he's just going to let go and lose himself, but then Warren's eyes blow wide, the reflection of something red and orange and big in them, and suddenly, Warren's moving. He's up, off the ground and somehow he manages to flip them around so that Will's the one staring at the fireball and Warren's the one who takes the hit, his body curled around as much of Will as possible.
Will's shouting at him, trying to squirm away, but after a few seconds pass, he's pretty sure the fire didn't actually do any damage. If anything, it's made Warren warm again, probably gave him his own fire back. He still looks like death, but he can't let the attack go unreciprocated and Will gets that, so he's not surprised when Warren blasts as big a fireball back at his father (because who else would that have been, laying this sick trap for them?) as he can manage while he still has the strength and then suddenly everything is too loud and too bright and too hot, and then it's all quiet and dark and Will is blinking up into the fabric of Warren's t-shirt because the force of whatever just happened sent them both sprawling to the concrete and Warren's passed out on top of him.
It's not a glamorous way to be found.
It turns out that shooting fireballs at tanks filled with gasoline can cause explosions. Really, really big explosions that level entire buildings and probably incinerate anyone who happened to be near them at the time.
At least that's what Will understands when he finally regains the ability to hear properly (side note: said explosions are also very loud) because they've given up on finding any bodies in the rubble of what was once a warehouse that spanned three city blocks and no one is fussing about escaped criminals anymore.
That's not to say that there's no fussing going on because his parent's are doing an awesome job of covering that. They drag him away from Warren (still unconscious and in the process of being loaded into an ambulance, but alive) and for a few minutes they're screaming at him (which he can't hear yet, so...) but then it changes to hugging out of nowhere and his Mom is crying at him and if it weren't for the fact that they're about to leave with Warren, he'd feel kind of bad about everything for the first time in a while.
"I need to go with Warren," he says, though he's not sure if he whispers it or screams it at the top of his lungs. And they let him go.
His hearing comes back while he's waiting for news, stuck pacing the waiting room like he'd paced around the edges of the cage Baron Battle had trapped him in. It seems like forever before someone comes out to tell him anything, and then it ends up being that they won't know anything for a while yet, so he should probably go home.
He refuses, camps himself in a chair as close to the doors leading into the depths of the hospital as possible, and waits.
"Son," his father says, sometime later. Will doesn't know when he came in or how long he's been standing there, trying to get his attention. "Son, come on, there's nothing you can do here. Not right now."
"I have to stay," he manages, his voice rough and thick with smoke from the explosion. "I left before and he got hurt. I have to stay."
"The doctor's will take care of him. Just... come home, Will. For a little while."
Will frowns and pulls away from the hand his Dad lays on his arm. "You don't care about him."
A sigh, exasperation, maybe just exhaustion. "I was wrong, Will. About Warren. He's not like his father. And I'm sorry I thought he was. We would've lost you if he hadn't been there to stop the fireball."
Hearing the admission from his father is nice, but he's not really the one who needs to hear it. "You know, Baron Battle had him under mind control when he got me to go to the warehouse and he fought every single second of it? The second he let the hold slip, he made it so I could escape."
"You know about the mind control?"
"He... he thought he was dying and he was trying to tell me that he wouldn't... that he didn't turn on me. He needed me to know that, I think, even though I don't think I really stopped knowing it. Something felt off the whole time he was under his father's control and..." Will stops, thinks for a moment and then asks, "Is that why you didn't trust him? You thought his Dad already had him mind controlled?"
His father sinks down against the chair beside Will. "That was one theory. None of us knew if Warren had gotten that power, too, so I thought maybe he was doing it to you, too. When we were friends, Baron Battle did it to me, and it's not... it was the reason we almost didn't stop him, then. Your mother managed to snap me out of it, but it was a close call and that's not a feeling I ever wanted you to have to experience. Someone else in your head, it's awful."
And, okay, maybe Will can understands his Dad's extreme opposition to all things related to Warren a little bit better now. "I'm sorry," he says, because he is. He has firsthand experience with how terrible Baron Battle is now, and it's not something to be taken lightly. "But, Warren's not like him."
"I'm starting to get that."
"Can you tell him that?"
A nod, and after a Moment, "yeah. Yeah, I will."
Will spends the rest of the night and a good portion of the next morning in the hospital waiting room with his father. His Mom shows up after a while, with fresh clothes (Will's are a little singed and more than a little dirty) and some food and coffee and she doesn't even suggest leaving, which Will is happy about.
In the afternoon, a doctor comes out and updates them. Tells them that Warren's injuries are serious: he was frozen, electrocuted, choked, and took more than a few hits. It's a lot on his system and the fact that he's still alive is kind of astounding. The fact that he's kind of awake is even more of a shock.
"Can I see him?" Is all Will can think to ask and the next thing he knows the three of them are trailing after the doctor as he leads them through a maze of hallways, up one floor and by a lengthy series of numbered doors. Finally, they stop, and Will's parents are far enough back that by the time he's charged into the room and pulled Warren into a kiss, they're only just walking in.
It's clearly not a first kiss, it lacks the awkwardness and the unfamiliarity that comes with those. No, this is a kiss between two people who have already been together for some time, and his parents know this.
For once, they don't say anything. They duck back out of the room wordlessly and leave Will and Warren alone for now. They'll talk about it later - they'll be understanding, because they've all already done more than enough fighting and they'll be open because the Commander doesn't want to be like his cranky, old-fashioned father anymore than he wants Warren to be like Baron Battle. They'll talk and Steve (notably not the Commander) will apologize and Josie will thank Warren for saving her son.
Will doesn't notice any of this, too wrapped up in reveling in the fact that Warren's alive and things are finally starting to look up now. He looks better, despite what the doctor said about there still being risks in his recovery. Compared to what Will came back to last night, he looks stunningly healthy.
"You're okay," he says, grinning as they kiss again and again and the heatless flame takes over Warren once more.
"Better," Warren corrects, voice hoarse from torture and smoke and tubes. "Watch."
There's a cut on Will's arm. Just a small one. He doesn't know when he got it in the chaos of last night and he hasn't thought about it at all, but Warren presses his hand over it and something pulses and when he pulls it away, it's gone like it was never there.
Will blinks at him, confused, but then it dawns on him. "Your Mom's superpower was healing, then?"
A nod, "Apparently it kicked in last night. Pretty sure I wouldn't be here if it hadn't." It's not unheard of, for superhero kids to come into powers at Warren's age, and like Will's flying, sometimes they pop up in life or death situations. Will's just really glad it did.
"Does this mean I won't need to fireproof my costume when we're partners?"
Another kiss and then, "Shut up, Stronghold."