Author's Note: So, I've been slogging through some bad writer's block with my regular series. To try and break up the creative clog, and cheer up a friend of mine, a big Silent Knight fan who lost their grandmother recently, I decided to write a romance story. It was originally going to be a one-shot, but then things kind of got…out of hand, and now it's going to be a limited series of five chapters.
Said friend is also a fan of the series My Hero Academia, and while I don't know enough about that IP to do a crossover, I figured they'd appreciate it if I made this story a sort of generic Superhero AU. For flavor, you see.
Anyways, hope y'all enjoy.
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Like any major city, Vale attracted its fair share of shady elements. Every ecosystem had a need for the bottom feeders and opportunists who lurked in the dark places of the urban jungle, scrapping and bleeding one another for dominance, for territory, or just for the right to keep breathing another day.
Neo Politan wouldn't have it any other way.
The streets had their own spirit, a pulse, their own pulse that she could feel, beating in sync with her own. Born to a level of wealth and privilege that was unimaginable to her comrades in the criminal underworld, Neo did her best to break free from that life, with its lies, its damned, poisonous lies. For all that they pretended to be civilized and genteel, the elite and powerful movers and shakers in Vale were just as ruthless and cutthroat as any ten-lien street thug. Moreso, actually, as Neo was sure that dear old Daddy had done things that would make a hardened crimelord puke.
Sure, street criminals were backstabbing outlaws, but at least they were honest about their dishonesty.
That's why, whenever she could, Neo snuck out of her family estate in order to live the life of a criminal. Well, that and the sheer joy of wreaking havoc and mayhem. Brushing her two-toned pink and brown hair away from her face, her smile was broad and genuine as she saw the notification on her Scroll. With a dramatic flair, she pulled forth a detonator from her jacket pocket, and pressed the big red button. Honestly, pressing the big red button made it all worthwhile all on its own.
Two stories below her, the explosives that her partner, Roman Torchwick, had planted on the vault door of the First Bank of Vale. A few seconds later, a smaller charge broke away the section of the roof under her feet. Extending her parasol above her head, Neo leisurely floated down into the vault, as unconcerned as a leaf on the wind.
Roman gave her a tip of the hat as her boots touched the ground. "No one makes an entrance like you, Neo."
She shot him a look of supreme self-satisfaction as he set about cracking safes. Neo kept watch, making sure that no one got any funny ideas about shooting him in the back while he was busy. Roman gleefully went about stuffing precious jewels and heirlooms into a burlap sack. The loot was nice enough, she supposed, but with the fabulous wealth that her family commanded, it didn't matter to her at all. Neo Politan was in it for the thrill, for the excitement of knowing that she could go anywhere she wanted, any time she wanted, and take any thing she wanted.
She continued to smile beatifically as Roman finished grabbing the choicest loot. His sack of pilfered goods hefted over his shoulder, he drew a grapple gun, fired it through the hole in the roof, and then collected Neo for their ascension back to the rooftops.
Yes, they could have anything they wanted, and no one could stop them.
"Stop right there!"
Neo's smile grew even broader as she heard the familiar, baritone voice of the city's resident do-gooder, The Huntsman. Turning around, she saw a tall, young man, clad in white and gold spandex. His domino mask and cape were of gold, shimmering in the light of the streetlamps, just like his spikey blonde hair.
"Roman Torchwick," the young man growled. "Why am I not surprised to find you here?"
"Hello again, Huntsman." The gentleman thief bowed, then shrugged with an exaggerated lack of concern. "As for finding me here, well, where there's ill-gotten gains to be ill-gotten, a gentleman thief is never far behind, no?"
"Well, you've got the thief part down pat. Jury's still out on the gentleman bit."
Roman just grinned. "Speaking of gentleman bits, I'm sure you remember my associate, the lovely Neo Politan?"
The Huntsman shifted his stance, bringing his lead leg over to guard his crotch. Neo smiled prettily at him, giving him her most innocent look. The first time she and Roman had crossed paths with The Huntsman, the young hero had chivalrously tried to talk her down, stating that he "didn't want to resort to fisticuffs against one of the fairer sex." Neo had proceeded to kick him right in the balls, blowing him a kiss as she easily made her escape by skipping past his groaning form. Of course, Roman couldn't resist the temptation to remind the blonde of that incident at every opportunity.
"I won't make that same mistake twice," growled the Huntsman. Roman just barked with laughter.
"Yeah, I bet you won't," he snarked. "Neo, you want to play with your little friend, while I prepare our daring getaway?"
Neo strutted forward, putting an exaggerated swing to her hips before placing her parasol against the ground and leaning way over. When she saw how, despite his best efforts, a pink blush rose to his cheeks, she sent him a heterochromatic wink. Neo suddenly pushed off from the parasol, launching herself towards the Huntsman in a vicious, leaping kick.
The Huntsman pivoted away from her attack, striking out with his elbow. Neo touched down on the roof, as light as a feather, and twisted like a ballet dancer to effortlessly weave around his attempted counterattack. She skittered back as he launched a kickboxing combination, left-right-roundhouse kick, ducking under the kick. The young blonde man snapped back to face her with surprising speed and grace. Neo's mismatched eyes went wide, her attempted kidney strike fouled by The Huntsman's unexpected recovery to guard. She improvised, turning into the momentum of her punch and retracting her arm to tighten the spin, snapping out to throw a side thrust kick towards the man's abdomen. He caught the kick on his forearms, and Neo had to quickly pull her leg back. Her powerful thighs pushed her off the roof once more, and she sent a second flying kick towards The Huntsman's head.
Neo expected him to dodge, or duck, or something that would put him off balance, and open up new opportunities to win the scrap. Instead, the canny young hero took her by surprise once more, and pressed forward, moving into her kick. He checked the momentum of her kick before it even really got started, and bodily tackled her. Three great, staggering steps later, and The Huntsman slammed Neo against the raised wall of the bank's roof access hallway. She squirmed, trying to wriggle free of his iron grip, but he caught her wrists and trapped them over her head, pressed to the wall. As abruptly as the fight had begun, it had effectively ended, with The Huntsman's superior strength holding her pinned underneath him, nullifying her agility and speed. The pair took great, gasping breaths from their exertion, faces separated from each other by mere inches.
Neo probably should have bitten him, or attempted some manner of attack designed to allow her to escape the grasp of her foe. But for some reason, she kind of…didn't want to? For reasons? The Huntsman wasn't the same bumbling boy that she'd humbled the prior year. He'd learned from his error, and had proven to be quick with his wits and his fists alike, catching her off-guard more than once. At that close distance, the two trading breath with one another, she was struck by just how…blue his eyes were. They were deep and rich, like the noontime tides she could see when she looked out over Vale's coast. But they also bore a wary glint to them, the dangerous gaze of a warrior who knew better than to underestimate his opponent…to underestimate her.
Before she even really understood what she was doing, Neo had leaned forward and captured his lips with her own. She had never kissed someone before, and distantly, she wondered if she was doing it wrong. However, she must have done something right, because after a moment of shock, The Huntsman responded in kind. Neo probably should have taken advantage of his distraction to leverage herself to escape. Instead, she wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him in closer to her. She definitely should have taken the opportunity he granted her by letting go of her wrists to hold her up by her rear end to attack him. Instead, she let them roam across the taut musculature of his back and shoulders. Any self-respecting criminal would have headbutted him to break free, but that was made considerably more difficult when Neo leaned her head back, inviting him to explore the tender flesh of her neck and collarbone. She shivered in pleasure at the sharp sting of his nipping at her neck, goosebumps raising at his touch.
Neo Politan, criminal anarchist chaos gremlin, was completely, utterly caught, and she couldn't have been happier.
"What the actual fuck are you doing?!"
The young pair - couple? - froze at the sound of Roman's genuinely-affronted tone of voice. At the reminder of exactly who they were and what they were doing, Neo released her thighs' grip on his waist, while The Huntsman gingerly set her down on the roof. The Huntsman turned to face his nemesis, he and Neo looking sheepish, like misbehaving students caught by a Headmaster. For his part, Roman looked equal parts shocked and appalled, and he did not waste any time in making his outrage known.
"Is this what The Crow is teaching his sidekicks now?!" the thief all but bellowed. The Huntsman winced at the mention of his mentor and former partner, who had recently retired from active crimefighting. He would not be happy to learn of this particular incident. Roman pressed on. "I mean, sheesh, I know you're new to the biz, kid, but you can't go pawin' at the lady crims like some kinda animal! There are rules, damn it! Mackin' on a girl you captured, what's wrong with you?!"
"Hold on," The Huntsman started. "I know how it must look, but I assure you, I was not the one to take the encounter…there," he finished, lamely.
Roman snorted. "Oh what, you mean to tell me that you got Neo up against a wall and she just so happened to get so turned on by the roughhousing that she started macking on…you?" The thief's tirade trailed off, his jaw going slack as he saw something that he never, in a million years, would have imagined seeing. Neo Politan - thief, bomb-lobber, general walking disaster - blushed. She blushed, like some kind of fairytale maiden. Moreover, she somehow even looked guilty! Before that very instant, if one had pressed a gun to his head, Roman would have been forced to admit that he didn't think that Neo was even capable of feeling guilt, or even understanding what it was on an intellectual level.
All he could do was facepalm in stunned disbelief. "Bloody-handed hells," he muttered. "Just when I thought I'd seen everything…" He shook his head. With a look of genuine disgust, he tossed the burlap sack onto the roof between where he stood and the chastised couple. "Come on, Neo. We're leaving."
The Huntsman blinked, surprised. "Without the loot?"
"Yes, without the loot!" Roman immediately snapped. "This isn't how this works! This isn't how any of this works, and it's all gone to hell!" At Neo's questioning look, Roman glared. "This syndicate has standards, damn it! This just isn't how biz is conducted. Just…just get on the goddamned chopper, Neo."
Neo gave a shaky, shy smile up towards The Huntsman - gods, he was tall - and slunk towards the waiting Bullhead, with Roman seething next to her. As the transport lifted into the sky, she could see her mentor in the criminal underworld shake his head repeatedly as he tried to find where to even begin with her, mumbling abbreviated preambles in angrish before breaking off and trying again. Eventually, Neo turned away, gazing out the window, looking out over the skyline of Vale at night. Her fingertips absently found her own lips, and she couldn't help but smile dreamily at the memory of her rooftop encounter.
That was her first kiss. She silently giggled at the irony. Of course her first kiss was one she had stolen herself.
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