Prompt: Superhero AU where James and Lily are dating but they're also enemies.
Rating: T
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Well, wasn't this just peachy? Why did the forces of evil always decide to attack on significant dates?
She was supposed to be cooking dinner. An anniversary dinner. And that was a big deal, not just because it was an anniversary but because it was dinner, and anyone who knew Lily could tell you that she was quite possibly the worst cook in the history of mankind. She had consulted at least fifteen different cookbooks and had selected a recipe for its reputed simplicity; she'd bought ingredients; made the table look all pretty. And now here she was, climbing a skyscraper when she ought to have been blanching asparagus.
Lily scaled the building easily, moving easily from one set of hand and footholds to the next. Of course, the elasticity helped – no pesky reaching. She could see the flames flickering out of the windows somewhere high above her, and hear the shattering glass from inside one of the upper floors.
Bloody idiot, in his stupid bloody costume and that idiotic paint smeared across his face. Who attacks a charity dinner at the top of a skyscraper?
'Someone please stop him.' She muttered in a sarcastic voice, remembering the pleading woman on the news report. 'Please, my husband's up there, someone do something. Sure lady, I'll bail on my anniversary dinner to scale a skyscraper and stop a rampaging lunatic from slaughtering your husband and numerous others.'
'Not that anyone will thank me. And my poor long-suffering boyfriend will forgive me for yet another screwed up evening, because that's just how James is.'
She reached the 45th floor, where the party was supposed to be being held, and smashed a window before rolling in through it and landing in a cat-like crouch. It wasn't like he'd be difficult to find. Just follow the screams.
Only it wasn't that simple was it? Because a red blur passed her as she made her way stealthily towards the sounds of trouble. A red blur that could only mean one thing.
That super speedy moron. He of the messy hair and stupid smirk, whose hazel eyes could be seen through his strip of a mask, who always seemed to turn up and get in her way.
She rushed after him, allowing her legs to stretch out to increase the length of her stride. She tackled him just before he could enter the function room, and they rolled across the floor together.
'How mental are you?' He demanded, once they'd rolled to a stop and he'd yanked her around a corner and out of sight of the door. 'Don't tackle me, I'm the hero here!'
'What you are, is unwanted!' Lily hissed. 'I can handle this, so do me a favour and bugger off!'
His jaw set in that annoyingly arrogant way he'd perfected. 'I'm here now, so there's no point in me buggering off and leaving you to it is there? We might as well both kick his arse. You aren't the only one he's been pissing off you know.'
Lily looked at him speculatively. She'd not come across this solemn, serious side of him all that often – he had a flair for theatrics and a tendency to showboat – and it unnerved her a little. But he was right; they were both here, there were lives at stake, and between them they could spot a stop to it in minutes most likely.
She swallowed down the instinctively barbed retort that wanted to leave her mouth and nodded her agreement.
'There are two entrances to the room. You take one, I take the other and we improvise the rest?'
He grinned. 'Sounds good to me.'
His smile was oddly infectious, and she found herself grinning back for a second before she caught herself.
'Right, let's get going then.'
His lips twitched. 'Sure thing boss.'
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James slipped through the door of his girlfriend's apartment, sniffing at his clothes one last time to make sure no lingering traces of fire or blood remained on his freshly-showered skin.
'Lily?' He called out, sincerely hoping that she wasn't too pissed at him for his lateness. It was an anniversary dinner after all.
No answer. Weird.
He made his way into the kitchen and found all the ingredients for tonight's meal laid out neatly on the sideboard. James smiled to himself. She was a lousy cook, that much was true, but she really, really tried.
A muffled thump came from Lily's bedroom, and James frowned as he headed in that direction.
He pushed the door open, and froze.
So did Lily. Only it was the worst thing she could have done, since she was half in, half out of her costume.
'James, I can explain…'
He lifted a hand to cut her off. 'Don't.'
'No James, really…'
'Lily.' He said slowly. 'I mean it, don't.'
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a scrap of red cloth. A mask. An extremely familiar mask.
Lily's breath caught. 'You.'
'So I guess we need to explain to each other.'
She nodded, and as she moved James caught sight of a nasty scrape down the side of her face. He crossed the room to her in a blur of speed and caught her chin in one hand.
'You got hurt.'
'It happens.' Lily murmured.
'Yeah, I know, it just…it never occurred to me that…you were the one it happened to. All those times…it was just some girl in a costume to me.'
Lily's hand came up to cover his. 'If it makes you feel any better…I never gave a second thought to what happened to you when you were in costume.'
He managed a very faint smile. 'I don't know that it does. But, as it happens, I do know what will…'
His lips brushed hers, very lightly and softly, and for a moment there was hesitation on both of their parts as they wondered how much things had changed because of this. But this felt exactly the same as it always had, so perhaps their alter-egos didn't really mean much at all. With this in mind James pulled her closer, lips moving more firmly, and he had to fight a smirk as his hands brushed the green spandex that she was still half-clothed in.
Whatever else she was, the most important thing was that she was Lily.
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