A/N: Thank you for reading and for the reviews! This is chapter two of what is now officially a four chapter series... because the story ended up being longer than I expected. So now, officially, there's two more to go (and this time, that will not change). Hope you'll enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Henry Danger.
Within four days (yes, four!) she was officially a member of villainsdatingvillains. When she finally gets the confirmation, she lets out a tiny squeal of delight. She follows the usual procedures that proceed from becoming a new member to most sites: Log in with user name and given password, change password, add more info to her profile, add a picture, et voila.
Next she checks her lists.
She knows most of the villains in the first two, having seen them at least once or twice at conferences and get togethers. She knows a few of the international ones too. But she can't imagine being able to get out of the country at the moment, what with her being a fugitive and all, so she disables that one for now.
There are also some newbies and a few notorious villains who never attend any villainy meetings. They all seemed pretty decent…you know, in terms of being a villain. What makes her burst out into a laughing fit however is The Toddler's picture within list one.
The Toddler looking for love.
Dr. Minyak would find this hilarious.
At the thought of her partner her smile drops. It was…weird and sad that she had to give up on him even though nothing had ever even started. If she had had the guts, she would have asked him if he liked her back. But she didn't have the guts. And all the signs pointed to a solid 'NO' anyways.
She of course, out of embarrassment, had not told him about the dating site. She was pretty sure he would laugh at her. And that was just about the most positive thing she could think of that he would do.
No, it was better if he didn't know.
Trying to pick her dampened mood back up again, she continues scrolling down. Maybe within one of these lists was the man meant for her, she thinks with a smile. She is going to choose one right no-
"Nurse, I require your assistance."
She looks up, seeing Dr. Minyak staring at her from his place in the living room. She sighs.
"Coming."
Love would have to wait.
And hours later when she finally logs in again, she is bombarded with about a dozen notifications.
Maybe love did not have to wait that long.
She starts replying immediately.
The first date that she has is…interesting. He was one of the first guys that had talked to her when she had become a member.
The guy, Cracken, is big, tall, bald and with a lot of muscles.
She's kind of intimidated.
He has a crazy smile and full maniacal laugh that she finds weirdly captivating. They have lunch at a luncheonette in his city. It's on the second floor of another eating establishment run by the same owner. They had to go to the backdoor, and Cracken had to knock in a certain way to grant them access. The place is really nice. The barstools are comfortable and the people are friendly. Or as friendly as any villain could be. The appetizers are really good too. The ogling is at a minimum. She bets it's because Cracken gives every guy who even looks at her funny a murderous glare. They make small talk while they wait for their order.
" Is Cracken your real name?" she asks him over a glass of fruit punch. She's been meaning to ask him that since the moment that they had introduced themselves officially.
He lets out a boisterous laugh, " No, I just always accidently used to crack things because of the weird amount of strength I have. That's why they call me that."
She chokes a little on her drink and thinks that she's lucky that they had not shook hands or anything.
He doesn't seem to notice though, getting this far-away look in his eyes while he recounts the first time he cracked his pet bunny's bones while hugging it (she was okay afterwards though, so don't worry your pretty little head Nurse!) and how a few people had ended up in the hospital after he hugged them or gave them a friendly slap on the shoulder or, in the case of some women, broke something during more…amorous activities. " Now I just use that power in the name of evil, you know? You kind of have to work with what you have. I mean, our city's heroes aren't indestructible like Captain Man, so it's a pretty useful power for a goon to have. I would like to try my hand at Captain Man though."
He looks up at her, notices her semi-frightened look and waves a hand in what he probably thinks is a comforting way. " Of course it's never the important bones, just a few ribs, sometimes an arm or a leg. An occasional concussion by a slap on the head. It's really not so bad for them. Except for maybe the pain but that always goes away. Mostly…Sometimes."
Needless to say, she decides to just leave it at one date.
They could be friends though. Without any hugging. Or any physical contact for that matter. Ever.
She loves having her bones intact, thank you very much.
The second date is plain out weird.
It's a guy, who loves fish.
A lot.
Daniel looked cute enough in his picture. He's two years older, has curly blond hair, brown eyes and dimples when he smiles. His profile said that he went to a good university, was a mastermind and an animal lover.
It just didn't say that it was an obsession with one particular animal. And that his masterplans always consisted of stealing different species of said animal from aquariums.
"I've stolen so many of them." He recounts while chewing on a French fry. A few patrons of the diner look at him and start chuckling. She absolutely understands why. Because fish? Really?
"There are so many different types of fish. Angelfish, Leleupi, Rainbow fish, Pacu, the different types of barbs! There are so many to steal!"
Okay, this is….this is weird.
"Why didn't you do anything in marine sciences or something similar?" she asks him curiously. By now she basically stayed out of politeness.
"Nah, I just wanted all the fish," he answers easily, "It's sad that so many of them die in my aquarium though. I don't get why."
"Do they get the right food in your aquarium?" she asks concerned.
"Nah, they have water. That's enough for them most of the time."
She hears one of the patrons actually sputter and snicker.
"Where'd you hear that?"
"The internet."
At the end of the date she comes to two conclusions.
One: Daniel was definitely his cities Jeff.
And two: There was a villain stupider than Jeff.
Unsurprisingly she never saw Daniel again.
Her third date is with The Toddler.
He was persistent so she had given him a chance. The date went exactly as she thought it would.
When they got to the nice Italian restaurant – with her dressed in this really cute black dress and him in his… black diaper-short-suspenders, striped shirt and a red, duck-themed bowtie and beanie - he had demanded they serve him his juice in a sippy cup (It was actually hilarious!).
He makes odd small talk. Tells her about the different types of baby foods and the joy of having a (normal, non-bottomless) ball pit in one's house. He's quite the good conversationalist if you ignore his toddler voice. So the date was nice. But The Toddler was too much of a, well, toddler for her. So she promises to stay in touch but makes it clear that she isn't interested.
He throws a mini tantrum.
He calms down however after she promises to buy him ice cream.
The fourth date isn't even a date.
She arrives at the place where she and Brain Matter have agreed to meet and is met with fake brain goo lying everywhere on the ground. The redness of (hopefully) fake blood combined with a sticky white and gooey substance slightly repulses her and everyone else in the area. She notices that some people have brains covering their faces. She hopes their fake. Using real brains is kind of against the villains code of ethics since the Professor Brain fiasco in 1997. No one wanted a repeat of that.
There's also shattered glass everywhere. So she knows that he's definitely here, but where-
"Oh Brain Matter, when will you learn?"
She turns to the side, and there, further away from where she and a multitude of spectators are standing, are the towns two female heroes, holding onto Brain Matter who's struggling to get away.
"You just had to ruin our dinner didn't you?" the brunette one says.
"The one time we can go out peacefully and you come in and wreck the place." The blond one yells. " It took us months to plan this date, you know! Statistically speaking, today would have been the one day that we would have had less to do and almost no villains to fight. And then you walk in and- augh " she groans then crosses her arms with a pout. And then they are hauling him away.
Well, that was eventful. Nurse Cohort thinks while taking her hat off so as to blend in more with the crowd. She cannot afford going to jail if they recognize her.
Her date however, no matter how much he struggles, doesn't get away that easily from being imprisoned.
After the fifth date also ends in disappointment, she comes back home ( she can call it home after months of living there) dejected. Her feet are killing her because she had walked all day in 5 inch heels that were the only ones that matched her red dress. The guy had taken her to a really nice restaurant. But he was just so awful. The whole way home she could only think about taking a warm shower and crawling into her bed to watch whatever sappy movie that she could find.
She walks to the back of the house, looking around before opening the door to the backyard. The fence here is tall so she has no issue of leisurely walking to the door. No one can see her anyways. She opens the door, walks through the kitchen and to the living room. She hears sounds coming from the TV and thinks that Dr. Minyak had probably turned it on just to have some noise in the house. She looks at the table at the right, ready to greet him and already expecting a halfhearted wave or even just a groan her way. Except, he's not there. She looks around the room, locating him on the sofa at the left where she (still) spends most of her days. He looks up and her breath hitches as she watches him take her in.
He usually does not see her when she leaves or gets back because he's too busy with whatever that he's working on (sometimes he doesn't stick to one plan) to even look up at her. Sometimes he's napping or on an errand. Today however he's very much present in every way.
She swears she can feel his gaze upon her as if it is an actual touch.
He takes her in: from her hair -which she left down for the occasion- to the dress, her legs -on which, she notices, his eyes linger just a while longer- then to the heels, before dragging his eyes lazily back up to her eyes.
She's almost breathless when he's finished with his once over of her.
She gulps. " Good evening, Doctor." Years later and they are still not on a first name basis.
He smiles lazily at her, an intent look in his eyes. " Good evening, Nurse."
She nods, looks down at her heel clad feet, scuffling in place. When she looks up, he's still watching her, an emotion that she can only call fondness in his eyes and a tiny smile on his face.
She gulps again before walking over, dropping down at the other end of the couch.
She looks at the TV, noting that he's catching up with one of their favorite shows. And although she had already watched it ( while he had been in the obsessive stage of his planning), she stays. She always likes being in his company. It reminds her of those days when they used to sit down and watch TV together, talk to eachother, laugh with eachother. She gets a lump in her throat.
She really misses those days.
"Great night?"
She jumps a little at his voice, quickly glancing over before looking back at the TV. " Hmmm." She hums. It was neither a yes or a no.
"You have been going out a lot lately," he says, a smirk on his face, "you haven't been seeing other villains behind my back have you?"
Her head whips around so fast, she swears she hears her neck crack. " What?" she half yells, totally bewildered.
If possible, his smirk got even smirkier.
"Have you been plotting with another villain behind my back?"
"Oh," she laughs nervously, " No, No. I haven't."
And just so she does not have to tell him what she had actually been up to (she really did not want to discuss her non-existent love life right now), she looks for a way to change the subject.
" When are you going to cut your hair?" she asks hurriedly.
He raises an eyebrow and she thinks that maybe he's going to call her out on the subject change. But instead he runs a hand through the hair, " It is getting rather shaggy isn't it?"
She shrugs, "Kind of."
"Yeah, it's the serum. The beard is growing too."
She didn't want to tell him that she actually loves the beard and had thought multiple times about running her fingernails through it, so she assents.
"It could use a trim."
He chuckles. "Yeah."
They were silent for a moment before she decides to speak again.
"Want me to do it?" She mumbles, quickly glancing at him and then back at the TV. She usually does trim his hair and beard for him, seeing as he sometimes misses patches of hair when he does it himself. However, because she hasn't been (and shouldn't want to be) in close proximity to him in a while, she's suddenly feeling shy.
He smiles though. " I thought you'd never ask."
Her heart stutters and then starts beating wildly as a consequence of that smile.
Because she's the one with a mirror, they drag the swivel chair from downstairs up to her room. She sits him infront of the mirror, orders the necessary things on a nearby table and puts a towel around his neck as a makeshift barbers cape.
" You want it the usual way?"
He catches her eye in the mirror and nods. "Yeah, don't shave the whole beard off. Just leave the part around the mouth and at the jaw. And the hair also as per usual please."
She nods before taking the electric clipper in her hand. "Ready?"
He nods, so she turns the device on, setting it on a medium setting and starting at the back of his head.
By the time she's done trimming his hair and is busy doing the same to his beard, she's so concentrated on the task ( and trying not to think about how close she is to him and how good he smells) that she sort of startles when he speaks up. Thank goodness she has a good grip and stable hands or else the device would have flown out of her hand and she would have probably scratched him with the hand that's holding the other side of his face for stability.
"Sorry?" she asks, glancing at him through the mirror.
"I asked you where you've been going in the past month." He repeats, staring at her through the mirror.
She visibly stiffens, before relaxing again, turning off the device and walking to his other side. She puts a hand on his other cheek to hold him still and starts again.
"Nowhere important, Doctor."
"I didn't ask you if it was important, Nurse, " he replies with a teasing lilt in his voice, " I asked where you've been going."
She sighs, but still decides to avoid actually answering. " Oh, here and there, you know how it is." She answers nonchalantly.
"Can't say I do." And even without looking at him, she knows that his eyes are twinkling in amusement. She however chooses not to answer. She's done trimming the beard and she tells him as much.
"Go wash and oil your face."
"Yes mother." He answers jokingly. He stands up and heads out of her room. And a moment later, she hears the water running in the bathroom.
When he comes back into the room and sits back down, she immediately walks towards him with a warm towel that she had just taken out of a bucket with warm water.
"Hold your head back please." She says and he does what he's told. She puts the towel on his face, pressing it gently, before taking it off and throwing it back in the bucket. Then she quickly applies the shaving cream to his face. Afterwards she picks up the manual razor and starts shaving the sides of his face, trying to do it in nice clean lines.
"So?" he asks when she stops to clean the razor.
She glances up." So, what?"
He lets out an impatient breath. " Where have you been going? What have you been up to?"
She almost groans in frustration. Did he not know when to drop something?
"I don't see why that is any of your business, Doctor." She answers a bit peevishly.
"Nurse."
Seriously? The ' tell me' voice?
"I was going on dates."
And for a moment, a long moment, it's so quiet in the room, that the only noise she hears is the one that the razor makes every time she makes a downward motion.
"Dates?" he asks, breaking the silence.
"Yeah dates."
"With, " he clears his throat, "with who?"
"Different people."
She can feel his eyes on her. The sides of his mouth (which she is really close to at the moment) were currently drawn down.
"Different peo-Are you sure they're not dangerous?!"
She snorts at the absurdity of the sentence. " Really? You're worried about them being dangerous? Aren't we dangerous?"
"That's different."
"How?" she shoots back.
"We're villains. We do stuff that are evil but not…you're a woman. Alone with some random man. And-and how do you know he's not from the secret services and is trying to get to me through you or something."
If anyone else would have said that, they would have sounded paranoid. In this case, it was absolutely justifiable to think that. It's also sweet that he's worried about her.
"Thanks for your concern Doctor, but you know I can take care of myself. Plus, I should mention that the men I've gone on dates with are all villains."
"Huh?"
She stops shaving him. " They're villains. They're from this website," she raises a hand to stop him when it seems like he's going to interrupt her, " it's safe and secure. I checked. And it was created by Temptress and The Whisker. So, yeah, no need to worry."
He stares at her for a moment then nods. She resumes shaving him, which is easier done when he isn't talking. She only stops when she needs to clean the razor again. He takes the moment to speak. Again.
"Why the sudden interest in dating?" he asks her curiously. His voice sounds odd to her but she waves the thought away.
She shrugs, "No particular reason. Just suddenly felt the need to have a romantic relationship I guess." Of course she wasn't going to tell him the real reason. Again, that would just be embarrassing.
He had stayed quiet after that. Even when she had been done with shaving him and had cleaned his face with the towel from the bucket. Now, she's leaning with one leg on the edge of the space between his legs. One of her hands is on the arm of the chair and the other is holding his face, turning it from side to side to inspect her handy work.
Suddenly, the chair moves a little, causing her to lose her balance. Her foot falls to the ground and the arm holding his face falls to his chest as she jolts forward. She closes her eyes when she feels a bout of vertigo. When she opens them again, getting a bearing of her surroundings, it is to find that she's very very close, too close to Dr. Minyak… and his lips. She looks up and meets his eyes.
They are smoldering.
Her breathing is harsh and she doesn't know if she's just imagining that his pupils are dilated. She feels something brushing the knuckles of the hand that is laying against his chest. Looking down, she sees that he's now holding her hand in his. Right near his heart. His thumb brushing back and forth over her knuckles. His other hand is holding the arm that's on the chair. Apparently he had tried to stabilize her when she had lost her balance.
She looks from his hand and back into his eyes.
He's still looking at her with that look. She wasn't sure if she could remain standing up if he kept looking at her tha- whoa- oh dear is h- is he inching forward?! She's pretty sure he is. And in a moment of courage and craziness, she decides that she should just close her eyes and cover the distance and she's about to when-
"I really should get going now. Thanks for the help."
And just like that, she's laser focused.
"Uh yeah, sure. Your welcome."
And definitely flustered.
She basically jumps away from him and walks towards the bag containing his shaving materials, her legs feeling shaky. She hands the bag over to him. He takes it from her but just keeps standing there. For a moment it looks like he's about to say something but he finally bids her goodnight and walks out of her room and into his own. She hears his door close. She slowly groans before walking to her bed, falling face down on it.
What the heck was that? She thinks. They almost kis- oh gosh, oh gosh oh gosh, they almost kissed she was sure of it.
But what man walks away before kissing a woman?
She groans again, the sound being muffled by her mattress.
Clearly one who is not interested in said woman and does not want to lead her on. She feels like a teenager that had just been rejected by a guy or girl that they like and is now having a mini freak-out. Except, she's not a teenager, she's a grown woman…who was rejected by the man she still pines for.
Love fudging sucks sometimes.
A/N: And that's the end of chapter 2! Two more to go. I will try to update as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!
