Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Summary: Gilbert is a small town superhero. Too bad the love of his life is the girlfriend of the man who wants to kill him, he's the single income for his four year old brother, and his date just wants to see him dead.
"Fuckin' H Christ." Gilbert cursed as his blind date turned into an ice monster, and threw him into a wall. He grunted at the impact, and threw himself out of the way as she tossed a chunk of ice at him. "First dates and me just never seem to go together.
The other diners were rushing out of the scene, screaming now as they left the typical cheesy Italian restaurant. He was putting on his mask in a heartbeat, rushing to his feet as the monster that had been a pretty girl known as Natalia Arlovskaya threw a chunk of ice meant for his head towards him again, and he was on his feet, jumping aside as he caught his breath.
"You look a lot uglier like this." He said, brow furrowing. "Damn." The monster shrieked, and charged him, and he was ready as he caught her hands in his own, using his super strength to catch her, though his feet tore up the bad tiling. He changed his grip on the floor, bent down a little, and threw her over his shoulder, into the wall he had been thrown against himself. That had hurt- a lot.
She grunted in pain, and he hopped back fast, avoiding the swing of her crystalized arm. He was caught by the feet though, and grunted as he hit the ground and had the wind knocked out of him. He rolled over as her fist came down on the spot where he lay. "I'm getting too old for this stuff." He complained as she charged him again, and this time he just tripped her, causing her to topple over and shatter, before she reformed into her human self, frosty blue eyes absolutely furious with him. "Sorry princess." He grinned, and snapped his fingers to get a spark, making a fireball to use against her, getting ready to go the offensive.
However, by this point, the police were there, and shots rang out, getting Gilbert in the shoulder. The monster shrieked, evidently shot as well. "This isn't my day man." He complained, looking to the monster. "Let's finish this later." He told her as they prepared to fire the flamethrowers to melt her. She jumped out the side of the building, and he took off after her, running as they shot at him.
"I'm the good guy!" He cried back at them, shaking his head as he felt woozy. God that hurt. He took out his utilities, and used his climbing equipment to jump over an alley wall, and once he cleared that, he was in the clear. "God." He had to stop and catch his breath. He had two bullet holes in him, one in his shoulder, the other in his abdomen. Fuckin A.
He collapsed just outside his favorite haunt- a haunt that had given him wounds similar to the ones he had now. But he found he could never stray too far from it. He grunted, and plopped down behind a tree, taking out tweezers and pulling the bullet out of his abdomen.
"Fuckin." He cursed, toes curling in his shoes as he struggled to stay quiet. He bit his lip, and threw the bullet to the side, and breathed hard as he started to bandage it. The one in his shoulder could wait until later. He drew blood from his lip them, and cursed again. His mask was a pain to wash. It might shrink! Which would suck dicks because it was already pretty tight. He bandaged it up, using some tape to ensure the bandages stay stuck to him. He got up, and started running back to his home, unaware someone close by was watching him.
Gilbert managed to stumble back to his home, groaning as he made it through the front door. Ludwig had been dropped off from aftercare, and was going over to him as he put his tiny hands around Gilbert's legs.
"Took you forever!" He cried, taking his tiny fists and pounding them against Gilbert's legs. "For-ev-er!" And Gilbert had to chuckle weakly.
"Sorry little man, my date went badly." He said, kissing Ludwig's forehead as he picked him up. "Sorry Lutz, that took much longer than it was supposed to." He apologized again, and cradled him. "Let's get you some dinner." He took the potato soup off the crock pot, and got out bowls. "You should have called Mrs. Marsh. She would have gotten you dinner."
"I didn't wanna." He whined from Gilbert's arms, hanging onto him. "You promised to be home by eight. Sorry about your date though."
"Don't worry. She was a real frosty bitch." He joked, and set him down at the table, putting a bowl in front of him. "Dinner, and then straight to bed, mister. It's already ten, and you're going to be so cranky in the morning." This caused Ludwig to make a general noise of unhappiness.
"What about desserttt…" He whined, and Gilbert laughed.
"I'll make you a pie in the morning, how about that?" And he quickly changed his tune.
"Okay!" He squeaked, messily taking his spoon to slurp down the creamy soup. His brother was quite the cutie. He laughed softly, and left to go to the bathroom.
"Be right back." He called to him, going to bandage his wounds properly. It looked like the one in his abdomen hadn't hit anything serious, and they would patrol the hospitals as they always did for him to show up. But he wasn't stupid, Roderich would never get the pleasure of seeing him in jail, or given the death penalty.
Now, Roderich had always assumed that he was the menace that was the "vigilante". He preferred to be called the white knight though, and his few followers online always thought of him as that.
Roderich was also his cousin, and the man who had stolen the love of his life.
Bonus was, he was never able to prove he was the White Knight, and looked like a fool in front of Elizaveta when he went on a rampage to try and "Prove" his guilt as an armed and unregistered Super. But to most, he was just a common idiot with a narcissism problem.
He wrapped himself in bandages, grumbling as he felt his skin start itching as it sewed itself together. There would be scars there. Just another couple to add to the dozens already littering his skin.
He put his shirt back on, and went out to his brother, who had finished eating, and now was sitting patiently, waiting for him. "Now we get you to bed, squirt."
"Don't call me that! One day I'm going to be big! Bigger than you!" He said, confidently.
"Really now? Well, I best enjoy being bigger while I still can." He noogied him, and Ludwig cried with laughter, squirming in his arms. "Silly goose." He said in German, and walked up the stairs with his brother in his arms.
"Night, big brother." He said, sleepily. Gilbert tucked him in once he was in Lutz's room, and then turned off the lights, going downstairs to get into full costume. He still had to deal with Natalia.
"So you came back." Natalia said, her blue eyes slits. "I didn't know my bad date was the White Knight. How interesting."
"It's not like my breath smelled like garlic. You had awful breath." Gilbert joked, watching her from behind his mask.
"I however, am not interested in fighting my own kind. Unregistered Supers I can respect." She bowed her head. "I mistook you for someone else. Someone registered and a blood traitor. I heard he was in this area. German sounding. Stuck up."
"Sorry, chick, but I can't just let you loose on the city. You nearly blew my cover. And you're definitely not good. I don't like the sound of this guy either, but I can't let you go."
"Very well then, Gilbert Beilschmidt." She said, with an air of finality. "Let us do battle." He took out his sword, and she readied herself by transforming into her icy self once more. Gilbert adjusted his grip a little, and swung at her, as she jumped back and did a back flip. Gripping onto the fire escape of the building they were hiding in the alley of, she threw icicles down at him, making him use his cloak to shield himself.
"You can do better than that." He jeered, and jumped up the sides of the building, grunting lowly as he did so. She shrieked at him, and tossed another icicle at him, and he had to dangle from someone's laundry. "Or maybe you're doing just fine."
She took advantage of his prone state, and out of ice fashioned a sword, to cut the line and make him drop down three stories. He could heal, but not from a fall like that. He jumped, and fell onto the fire escape just below hers. This put him at her mercy, and he tossed himself out of the way as a chunk of ice fell on top of where he had been laying two seconds before.
"Jesus." He cursed, rubbing his hair. "You fight dirty." He jumped again, this time up to the floor above his, to meet her, and sliced at her with his sword, which he had been heating up to chop through her ice. She shrieked in pain, and he smirked in triumph. "There we go." He jumped onto the escape with her, and pointed his sword at the bleeding woman. "It's over." He said, with an air of finality. She charged at him, and he sliced her in half. She then toppled over, breathing hard for a few seconds, before she died. Blood dripped down the fire escape, and Gilbert felt bad.
"I'm sorry." He told her corpse, and left in a rush, leaving the women who lived on that floor to find a dead unregistered Super, who also had a criminal record.
That night, he sat in the tree outside of her home. Where she lived with him.
He watched with envy, with spite, but most importantly, with love. Undoubtedly, her boyfriend had been woken up at the finding of the dead Natalia Arlovskaya, and she was alone, sitting at the kitchen table, staring at her coffee mug. He sighed in longing.
That was before the tree branch he was sitting on broke, and he fell on his ass.
She looked up suddenly, obviously frightened by the noise.
"Oh shit." He grumbled, frowning as he struggled to stand. She grabbed her rifle, and came outside, pointing it at him immediately.
"Stay where you are!" She called at him, painting a pretty threatening picture as he grimaced behind his mask.
"Look, Elizaveta," He began, accidentally using her name. "I don't want any trouble."
"How the holy fuck do you know my name?" She said, her voice getting higher pitched as the click-click of the gun was audible to Gilbert. Fuck.
"Fuck." He repeated his inner thoughts. "I should not have said that."
"How do you know my name?" She asked again, aiming directly for his heart as it beat hard against his chest. Fuck shit damn.
"Uh, I…" He coughed, feeling himself blush. "I make a point to know the names of the citizens I stand for."
"Holy shit." She was in disbelief. "You're the White Knight. You're here, in my petunias. Not with the girl they found. Holy shit."
"Yes, yes, I know, holy shit indeed." He grumbled. "Look, lady, I got a kid at home. I gotta run." He stood up in her petunia patch, and the gun was immediately retrained on him.
"You aren't going anywhere, punk." She growled, and got closer to him. "Roderich's been on your ass for years. And I've finally got you."
"Can't I catch a damn break?" He muttered to himself, shaking his head as he put his hands up. "Come on, I have a cute little kid, at home, in bed. Can't I just leave?"
"You are a dangerous, unregistered Super." She responded.
"Registering yourself is submitting yourself to mind control. Making you lose your powers that you were born with."
"It takes the threat out of you." She replied. "You are dangerous. A threat to society."
"God, do you even hear yourself? You sound like Roderich, always obsessing over registering Supers, when he is one himself. What a blood traitor. And I killed the woman who wanted him dead."
This surprised her. "Roderich is a super?"
"Yes, he's quite the virtuoso, haven't you noticed. His music used to be able to enchant people. In return for turning in Supers, he got to keep his powers." Otherwise she would remember.
"Y-You're lying." She said, though her hand shook a little. "Roderich isn't a freak."
"Is that what you really think of him, or is it drivel he spouts into your ears? Either way, he wouldn't have been able to sing his way out of this one, so you should be thanking me, not that his miserable life deserves it."
Gilbert saw that her hands fumbled on the gun, and he took the opportunity to jump into the tree, and ran out on her.
From the woman who used to be his partner in protecting the peace.
A/N: Not quite what you were expecting, I hope?
If you liked it, please tell me in a review uwu