Chapter 41: The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

"So, Rocinante," Dr. León made herself comfortable as he sat down across from her. "What brings you here?"

"Ha, y-you don't already know?" She had to know, right? Seeing as he had to go through this, she probably knew exactly what happened. She'd probably been briefed by school officials, if not the cops themselves. Maybe that American guy gave her a brief rundown of what happened. Regardless, she had to have some idea of why he was here.

"Nope. I don't know anything about you besides what popped up on my appointment sheet."

"And what was that?"

"Your name, your birthday, your student I.D. number, and I believe your transcripts as well. Hang on," She reached into a folder by her side and flipped through it a bit. "Ah yes, you're quite the overachiever aren't you?"

"Uh, y-yeah, I guess so."

"It also says that you've been suspended from the Engineering Club," She flipped another paper. "And the Robotics Lab."

"Hnnnnnng, yeeeeeeah..." Oh Lord they were gonna get right to the point weren't they?

"Why don't we start with why? Would you tell me what happened that got you suspended from your club?"

Flug took a deep breath in as he prepared to go over last month's events yet again. "We-Well, uh, long story short, I used an invention I'd m-made for a club project to paralyze a guy because he outed me to a bunch of people and my b-bo-boyfriend's car was wrecked."

Dr. León, to her credit, kept a cool exterior. Her face barely changed as she adjusted her glasses. "Would you mind going over that day for me, please?" Flug did, even prefacing briefly with his previous encounters with Aurelio and his fainting spell at the cafe. Dr. León silently jotted down notes on her little notepad, letting him speak. She only really spoke up to keep him talking. He explained that he hadn't exactly been public with his relationship, or sexuality, and recited his usual points of his privacy being violated and Black Hat's car being vandalized. Flug did his best to act apologetic about the whole affair, he figured the sooner he expressed remorse the quicker they'd be done here.

"I-I don't know what came over me," He was whimpering slightly. A single tear rolled down his cheek. "I just saw his car, all those terrible things people wrote...I couldn't take it anymore." He buried his face in his hands. "I couldn't go through that again."

"Here," She passed him a few tissues, he accepted gratefully. "May I ask you a few things? Just so that I can fully understand what happened that day?"

"H-Huh? Um, ok." What more did she need to know?

"You said you hadn't told anyone, have you told your parents at least?"

"No, I, uh, I haven't told m-m-my parents yet. They're pretty religious, so I c-can't imagine them taking it very well."

"What about anyone else in your family? Aunts, uncles, maybe a cousin?" Flug shook his head and stared down at his shoes. "May I ask you how long you've known?"

"Hi-High school." he mumbled. Though it had really been even earlier. Middle school was really when he started noticing other boys, and how he was feeling absolutely nothing towards the opposite sex. That was his first inkling that something different was going on with him. He'd tried ignoring it, he figured he'd snap out of things soon enough and be like everybody else, but no. Once puberty really kicked in it only got worse.

"Alright." She wrote some more stuff on her notepad, pausing to mess with her hair a bit. "Why don't we go back a bit? Do you mind telling me how you met Black Hat?"

Flug rubbed the back of his neck. This too? This was exactly why he didn't like these therapist types, they wanted all the sensitive information right from the start. He was getting flashbacks of the constant drilling of the Air Force. He'd been too terrified to say more than a few words at a time. He'd been...very unprepared to deal with the consequences of his actions. His parents had tried taking him to a psychiatrist a few times as well, but by that point he'd been completely silenced. He had nothing to say. The truth was out of the question and it was easier to let other people give them the "official" story than try making something up on his own. Let it all be explained away by PTSD and a joyride gone wrong. He didn't open his mouth again until he was good and ready to put everything behind him.

At least, he tried to. Having to constantly revisit these events and feelings made it seem like there was no moving on from the past.

As for what to say in the present, he and Black Hat had cooked up a decent story, but Flug had never actually told it before. He froze up with Aurelio and no one in his "friend group" had even tried going there. He may have to ad-lib a bit of it.

Might as well get it over with.

"Well, he asked me out for coffee one night. That's how we met. It really didn't start out as a, um, 'relationship', heh heh. He actually approached me to help with his dream."

"His dream?"

"Yeah, he wants to start his own company. Have his own brand, y'know?" Start up his own Costco for Criminals.

"And what is it he wants to sell?"

"A little bit of everything. Like luxury items, home improvement stuff, security and entertainment systems," Weapons of mass destruction. "He wants to appeal to just about every demographic possible. Lately I've been working on this invention we call the 'Hat-Botler'. It's essentially a robotic personal assistant, roughly 0.5 meters high, compactable, responds to voice commands, the prototype is almost complete and I think our clientele will really like it. Er, well, our future clientele. He's really trying to start this business from the ground up so it's kind of slow going."

"Ok. So that's how you fit into things? He wants to sell your inventions?"

"Yeah, apparently he heard about all the stuff I had made in the club and how I got my scholarship and he thought I'd be perfect as his future 'head scientist.'" Flug sat up a bit straighter. He felt a lot more confident in that role now.

"You must've impressed him quite a bit. Could you tell me about the sort of things you've made in your club?"

"Well, last spring our projects were focused on defense and protection. I created a small force field, with my own twist."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know how typically force fields just repel whatever tries to penetrate them?" She nodded. "Mine worked a bit differently. The energy it was composed of wasn't fixed, it moved. At such high speeds that anything that tried getting through it was destroyed."

"Oh really?"

"Heh, yeah. They tried sticking a metal pole through it. It was just, like, shredded. Left pretty smooth cuts, too. I was proud of that."

"And how did you get your scholarship?"

"This little drone I made in high school." Flug smiled, filling up with pride. "Instead of blades like a helicopter, it flew more like a plane, using the propulsion of the engine to launch it into the sky and using the engines to keep it airborne. The design made hovering a little tricky, I ended up settling for having it glide along the wind to stay flying with minimal gas required. It was the same principles of aerodynamics that allow commercial planes to maintain altitude so long as the thrust produced by the engine is greater than the drag of the surrounding air. There are some models of planes that can hover with greater precision, but I was still a kid after all. I didn't have the latest aviation technology at my disposal, just what I could get with my allowance and what I could salvage from previous models."

"Sounds like you really know your stuff. You'd built your own drones before?"

"Ehhhh, yes and no. I've always loved planes, ever since I was a little kid. My mom and I used to fly those little remote controlled planes together. Though I wasn't very good at it. I crashed them into pieces, actually. What I was good at was fixing them. From there, I started creating my own devices."

"Wow." Dr. León adjusted her glasses. "Was this a personal invention or was it for a class?"

"Uhhh, personal, I guess. Since I had made simpler planes and drones before, it only took maybe three weeks on top of my regular schoolwork to build."

"You built it in...three weeks? On top of a full school workload?"

"And that's that I was in all advanced classes." Flug boasted. He had also skipped a grade and was stalking a fellow student, but she didn't have to know that. It had cut into his work time, but back in those days he just couldn't stop himself. He was also neglecting to mention the drones functionality as a means to spy on said stalkee, something that really made him stop and think about how far he was going with his little hobby.

"Well, I'm not surprised this won you a scholarship."

Flug smiled, wondering if he should mention that tiny little detail of not even submitting the drone for his scholarship until almost two years after graduating high school. Due to that little matter of initially going to the Air Force for his financial aid, as well as for some much needed space. It hadn't exactly been an easy decision, and his parents had protested, but he had stuck to his guns and committed to his choice.

"So how did that go from the two of you working together to being an item?"

"It just...kinda happened, I guess. I wasn't fully on board with his idea at first. He had a real basic idea of the free market and oversimplified the competitive aspect of business on the basis of having prospective, uhhhhh, investors, I guess you could say. He knows people, apparently, but that kind of made me hesitate with just jumping into it. I, ah, I honestly thought he was crazy at first. One guy, on his own, trying to make his dream come true, asking someone he's barely met to help him with his crazy scheme. Then he invited me out again over the weekend, I'm still not sure what made me agree to it. We had some drinks, kept talking about it, and...I still think it's a little crazy, but he's really serious about this. It's something he's been working towards for years now and he has every intention of going through with it no matter what. And when he really focuses, it does seem like he'll accomplish it. He talks about it with such..." Flug racked his brain for the words to describe it. "...passion. He's driven, and committed, and is genuinely going to give it his all to make his dream reality. That night...he really convinced me that it was worth working towards."

"Sounds like you like a man with ambition." Dr. León smirked. Flug immediately spazzed out and dissolved into laughter. Hey, she wasn't totally wrong. He did like a man with high aspirations. And besides, there was nothing wrong with him getting a little flustered when gushing about his boyfriend. This is exactly how people in relationships act, isn't it? Perfectly normal. "I'm sorry, I hope I'm not being too inappropriate here. I like a guy with the guts to dream big too. But, back to you. He convinced you to join his little empire-in-the-making, you two were drinking, and one thing just led to another?"

"You could say that," Flug felt himself full on blush like a teenager again. He mindlessly rubbed at his neck, going over the scabs and the remnant of that weird splotchy rash he kept getting. He still didn't know what it was or what it meant, but it didn't itch or burn so he wasn't all that concerned about it.

Also, "empire-in-the-making" had a nice ring to it. He may have to remember that and see what Black Hat thought of it.

"And you two were a couple from then on?"

"Ahhh, not quite. We were both drunk, and still barely knew each other. And we, uh, we didn't exactly talk about it afterwards. I mean, we hung out a lot, talked about the business and how best to really put it into practice. I m-maybe noticed him checking me out once or twice," Flug's smile faded as he continued, remembering what happened next in the story. "That was kind of it, until..."

"Until?"

Flug sighed. Back to the other little thing Aurelio had done. "I mentioned Aurelio invited us all to a party at his house after I demonstrated my Stun Gun and ElecTrap for my club, right?"

"Yes. That was when you came out to him, wasn't it?"

"That's right."

Dr. León glanced at the clock on the wall, adjusting her glasses again. "Would you mind going over that night as well?"

"Ok." Flug sighed. "I invited Black Hat and he brought Demetra, she's a waitress at this cafe we always go to. She's a, uh, a friend. She dragged him off for most of the night, I hung out with some, um, friends from the club."

"Did that bother you? That she took off with him?"

"I mean, a little. I came with both of them, so I guess I thought the three of us would stick together. Not that she'd pull him away and leave me alone."

"And your friends from the Engineering Club?"

"I was exploring and I happened to find them. I've never been especially close with them, but since I didn't know where Black Hat and Demetra were I hung around."

"Ok," She jotted a few words down in her notepad. "What else happened that night?"

Not wanting to mention the drug use his club members were partaking in, he skipped to when Aurelio entered the picture. "Well, I wasn't around for it but, Black Hat and Demetra apparently got into it with a f-friend of Aurelio's. He went to school with Demetra, or something? I guess they had some kind of history together. I think she hit him, and might've hurt him kind of badly. I know she ran off after that, because she barged in on me and everyone else. Aurelio was there too, I saw him go after her."

"Did you follow them?"

"Yeah."

"And then what happened?"

"H-He found her." Flug gulped. He might've been laying it on a little thick, but Aurelio's actions that night were despicable. Perhaps even more so to a woman. "I actually walked in on them. He and Dem almost g-g-got physical. S-S-S-She was ok, but, she came pretty close to no-not being ok."

"When you say things 'got physical', do you mean they were going to fight or are we talking about a...different sort of assault?"

"Th-The se-se-second one." Flug played with his fingers nervously, his eyes were fixed on them. "I told you how his Gift works, right?"

"He can control people like life-sized puppets if he makes skin contact?" Flug nodded. "So then, when you walked in on them, did it look like assault?"

"No-Not exactly, I guess? B-B-But I know he was the one m-moving her b-bo-body. I h-heard Demetra tell him to let her go."

"Did he just let her go?"

"Uh huh. I g-guess I made him lose his concentration? Or something? Demetra ran away right after I showed up, and I think she found Black Hat again. So, she was ok."

"And this was because she hurt a friend of his?"

"S-Something like that? Although, before they noticed me, I heard them t-talking about Black Hat. Aurelio, he um, h-he was asking why she and I hang out with him. I guess even b-b-before, he didn't like Black Hat."

"Did something happen between them before?"

"Not as far as I know."

"Ok then." Dr. León pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "After she left, this was when you came out to Aurelio?"

"Yes."

"May I ask why? Especially after what he tried to do to one of your friends?"

"I, um, I di-didn't know what to do. I didn't even really do anything to stop him. Demetra ran away, and I ju-just stood there." Flug's voice shook again. "Aurelio said he wa-wanted to explain what happened. He said it was c-c-complicated. I followed him down to the kitchen, I thought, the-there are people here. Lots of people. Anyth-thing happens, there are people. He and I started drinking, and talking, and he asked about...me, and B-B-Black Hat a-a-a-and... I-I mean, we weren't together, and it wasn't anyth-th-thing serious. So I told him that'd w-we'd been out and had some f-f-f-fun and that was it. And I was drunk, so, not thinking straight to start with, ha ha, and...after that, everything's f-fuzzy."

"Drank a little too much?"

Flug wrung his hands together in his lap. "Black Ha-Hat said he saw Aurelio put something in my d-d-drink when I wasn't looking."

It was hard to say exactly how Dr. León reacted to that, Flug was looking off at the corner behind her at some kind of fern or something in a fancy looking pot. It was the most colorful thing in his field of vision.

When she spoke her voice was calm. "Where did he see this from? Did he join you and Aurelio at some point?"

"He wasn't with us, and I-I'm not exactly sure when he got there." Flug bit his lip. This was going to be tricky. His own memories were questionable at best. "B-But, there was a moment when I wasn't looking. Demetra had a microphone, she was singing, everyone was singing and da-dancing and stuff. I was so drunk I was about to start, ha ha ha. I had my back to Aurelio, cuz I was wa-watching her." Flug played with his fingers in a quick, jittering motion. "He handed me another drink, and...I don't remember much after that until the next morning. I s-sort of remember Black Hat being there, maybe? I w-was coming in and out of consciousness. I'm s-sorry, I d-d-don't remember more. I wish I could."

"No, no, it's not your fault. What do you remember after waking up? Where did you wake up?"

Flug wiped away the small tears that were forming. Jeez, his lenses were getting so smudged. "I woke up, in my apartment, with Black Hat."

"Black Hat was in your apartment when you woke up?"

"Yeah, he he-helped himself to my Lucky Charms." He laughed without humor.

"And he told you what happened at the party?" Flug nodded quietly. "What did you think, hearing all that?"

"I was, uh, surprised? I had a hard time believing it, at first. Even with the gaps in my memory...I ne-never imagined something like th-that would ever happen to me, you know? I-I never imagined Aurelio would gi-give me his number or invite me to a p-p-party either, hee hee hee..." He still wasn't looking at Dr. León. He hugged himself tightly and felt his whole body quiver.

"Right, right. I don't think many men ever imagine it could happen to them. The important thing to remember is that what happened wasn't your fault. Aurelio is the one who slipped something into your drink, he made the choice to do that to you. You aren't responsible for his actions any more than you are for, say, Black Hat's. He's an adult who makes his own decisions and those decisions are a reflection of his character, not yours."

"Right. I-I know that. He-He's the one who did it, not like anyone made him do it."

"Exactly. He controls people, not the other way around right?"

"H-heh heh, yeah."

"Yeah. So then, what did you do after Black Hat told you about everything that happened the night before?"

"Well, h-he, uh... He asked me to d-dinner."

"What?"

Flug turned his gaze back to Dr. León. "He said that he c-cared about me, more than just pla-platonically, or professionally, and he asked me if I'd have dinner with him. So we could get to kn-know each other a little better."

"He really chose right then to ask?" Dr. León scratched around her ear.

"H-He, um, he said this thing about how s-s-sometimes predators give up if there's ano-another guy around, ha ha." Flug's face felt stretched in the most painfully forced grin he'd ever inflicted upon himself. Ay Dios mio that was bad. Flug should not try and think things up on the fly. "I don't, I don't think he was really serious about that, but he sounded serious about wanting to g-get to know me more, uhhh, p-personally."

"Ok then," She wrote some more stuff down. "You said yes?"

"I did, and the next night he picked me up and took me to his apartment. We had a nice li-little private dinner at his place. He made me, uh, some It-t-talian dish. I don't remember what it was called but it was really good. Very cheesy."

"Is he Italian?"

"No, but he did t-tell me he lived in Italy for a few years. He told me he even worked in a restaurant for a little while."

"Ahh, I see. Where is he from?"

"I'm, um, I'm not exactly sure. He has told me, but I really don't know the correct pronunciation, or spelling. He's also moved around a lot, so his accent doesn't really narrow it down."

"How many countries has he lived in?"

"Well, I know he's lived in Portugal, I've even heard him slip into Portuguese a few times. I believe he said he spent a few months in France and in Spain. He's been to Brasil, but I don't think he really lived there. At least not for very long. And I think he was in the United States for a few years before he moved here."

"That's pretty interesting. Has he ever said why he's moved around so often? Is he one of those dreamy drifters who blows into town and turns your whole life upside down?"

Flug laughed, because Black Hat did just show up and change his life almost immediately. If it wasn't for his almost Victorian sense of style Flug might say that was exactly him. "I mean, I don't know. I think it's like...he never really had anything to tie him d-down. He told me he grew up in an orphanage and he never had any family or anything. He took care of himself from a pretty young age. He's had a hard life and he..." Flug wondered if he should really be saying so much. Black Hat could be kind of sensitive about his scars. Then again, it wasn't so much a secret that he had scars, he had a bigger issue showing them. And Flug wasn't so much as describing them so... "He has a lot of scars. Like, everywhere. His arms, his legs, up and down his back, his front..." Oh Lord, now was not the time to be thinking of Black Hat's body. Or the feel of his skin under Flug's hands. Or that one time Flug was kissing and lightly sucking at his neck and-

Oh God man, snap out of it! Flug shook his head. "Sorry, um, what was I talking about? Black Hat, right?"

"Yes. What exactly are his scars from?"

"I d-don't actually know. He doesn't like to talk about them. He can be kind of self-conscious and there are just...so many..."

"May I ask what your scars are from?"

"P-Plane crash. I was right by the windows, and when the plane went down," Flug gestured to the right side of his face. "Glass. Everywhere."

"Has Black Hat asked about your scars?"

"Yes, and I did tell him, but it doesn't feel the same. This-" He motioned to his face again. "-was one big thing. With him i-it's scar on top of scar on top of scar. Some of them...some of them look like he was c-cl-clawed or something. I don't know what could've done that. He doesn't like talking about them, or bringing them up at all really. I try not to push it. I figure he'll tell me when he's ready."

Dr. León paused for a moment before nodding. "That's very mature. Good on you." She wrote something else down on her little notepad. "Back to that night, did he ask you to be his boyfriend?"

"Uh, yeah. I said I was open to being...partners, i-in more than one sense of the word. But I also asked him if it could just be between us though because, you know, I wasn't really ready to be ou-out in public."

"Did he have a problem with that?"

"Oh no, he was very understanding. We agreed we'd kind of, um, slow it down, too. W-We didn't want to r-rush into anything, heh heh heh."

"I see. May I ask what his reaction to you both being outed was?"

"He was pretty m-mad. He glared at everyone, and didn't really leave me alone unless I was in class or at home."

"Did he ever get physical?"

"No, no...not with me..."

"But with other people?"

"There was o-one guy." Flug admitted, playing with his hands again. "He was blocking me in the hall so I couldn't get away from him, and he wouldn't stop asking me questions about my p-private life."

"What did Black Hat do?"

He did something that's been pretty hard for me to justify, right before he got on my case about attacking people in public, damn hypocrite. "He, uhh...he came up behind him and s-sla-slammed his head against the wall. A c-couple of times."

Dr. León took note of this. "How badly was he hurt?"

"I th-think there was some blood? We didn't stay long after that."

"What happened after Black Hat did that?"

"He took me home."

"...That's it?"

"Ye-Yeah. No one else tried talking to us, so we got in his car and he took me home."

"And what was your reaction to Black Hat violently attacking someone like that? Did it scare you?"

It didn't seem to Flug like "Not really, I kinda wanted to do that myself." was the best response he could give to that. So instead he said "Uhhhh, a little. B-But, he's never done anything like that to me." If you didn't count the time he shot him, which...yeah he wasn't going to talk about. "He's always been very patient and gentlemanly towards me. We haven't ever fought or argued, even. We-We're big on talking things out."

"Alright." She jotted some more stuff down. "And how are you two doing right now, if I may ask?"

"We're...pretty good, I think. We see each other most days, we get coffee together all the time, sometimes he'll come over or I'll go over." Flug smiled again, he was actually pretty damn good at this once he relaxed. "I feel like we've gotten a lot closer in the past month or so. As a matter of fact, h-ha ha, just last week we had this big da-date night. We had been planning it for weeks and it really was amazing."

"May I ask what it was you two did?"

Flug's face felt warm, and he couldn't stop giggling if he tried. "I-I'm afraid I'm going to have to keep what I do with my b-b-boyfriend to myself, Doctor. That's p-p-private."

She laughed along with him. "Ok, ok fair enough." She adjusted her glasses. "I have one last question, and then we're going to be out of time."

"Sure, ok." You know, this hadn't been so bad after all. It was a little hard to talk about Aurelio, but lying was like second nature. It came so easily. And this woman didn't pause awkwardly or glance around like talking about his relationship with another man made her uncomfortable. It made talking about it much easier. It made him feel almost...normal.

"You said earlier that you couldn't go through that again. What did you mean by that?"

"What?"

"Earlier, you were talking about how you saw Black Hat's car had been vandalized and all those horrible things that had been written on it. You said you couldn't go through that again. What did you mean?"

Shit.

Flug's face fell and he stared down at his shoes. Mainly to stall for time. He hadn't mentioned Julio or the Air Force to hardly anyone. Hell, all he said to explain his own scars was "plane crash". He'd neglected to mention he'd been piloting the plane (although Julio had officially been the one who piloted and crashed it). Would it look bad to say so now? Would it look like he'd been hiding it? What did it even matter, that case was shut tight as far as everyone not hired by Black Hat to dig through his past was concerned. And it wasn't especially relevant to what had happened with Aurelio. Besides Flug making it relevant by revealing this wasn't the first time this had happened. God, why had he said that? It had been a stupid slip of the tongue! Even though it had been the last straw to see Black Hat being harrassed, in much the same way seeing Julio bruised and battered and still trying to console Flug drove him to take action.

He couldn't tell anyone about that. Not his parents, not his friends, maybe he could tell a priest as they were forbidden to report or reveal anything confessed. Hell, he technically could have confessed everything in church and by all Catholic rites no one could go to the police. They could try and persuade him to turn himself in, but they couldn't tell anyone else. It was dumb to think that would really stop anyone but it gave him a slight sense of security.

Wait, didn't therapists have a rule like that? That they couldn't talk about what their patients said?

Flug looked back up at her. "You can't tell anyone else about what we talk about, right?"

"That's right," She nodded. "Nothing you say leaves this room."

Well, it was something. Flug took another deep breath and spoke. "Ok. Well you see, Black Hat isn't my first boyfriend. I joined the Air Force after graduating high school because I love planes, and flying and...I wanted to be on my own. It wasn't so much about paying for school, even though that's what I told my parents. It was...it was hard to be myself when I couldn't fully be myself, you know?" Dr. León nodded silently. "I thought, maybe with some time, I could work up the courage to tell my parents. I thought maybe it'd be easier with some distance. I wanted a ch-change. So I left, joined the Air Force, and I met someone in my unit who had a sort of similar home life. We, uh, we sort of hi-hit it off, and..." Flug felt himself getting choked up again. "I just wanted to finally be myself with someone. Is th-that really so wrong? We wanted t-t-to learn to be ourselves. We wanted to b-be together and believe there was nothing wr-wrong with it. W-We tried to be ca-careful, but, someone found out, a-and-" He broke down, barely able to talk through his sobs.

After some more consoling and a fistfull of tissues, their time was up. They'd pick up from here next week. A whole week to brainstorm what happened next in his abridged life story. Flug left the room with tissues pressed to his nose. He slipped into the bathroom and locked himself in one of the stalls. He covered the seat in toilet paper and sat down still in his pants. He blew his nose again and again but the snot just would not stop. Combined with the tears Flug's face felt like one giant leaking faucet. He shut his eyes tight as he blew through each nostril again. Ahh, he managed to clear an airway. He took in a good long breath of air and held it. He let it out with a sigh. That should've done the trick, right? Dr. León and anyone who might've put her up to this would believe that Flug was nothing more than a pitiful victim of a bad situation. Both with Aurelio, and just plain with his life. Certainly not the kind of person who would do anything to hurt anyone. He couldn't so much as hurt a fly.

Hmm, maybe "couldn't" was a bit of a stretch after shooting a man and holding several other people at gunpoint. But that was a stressful emotional moment. He would never be capable of something like that under normal circumstances.

Flug's face felt uncomfortably sticky. Wiping with the tissue he blew his nose on just wasn't enough. And the toilet paper wasn't going to cut it either, he doubted this was even one ply. Maybe one-fourth of a ply. Flug closed his eyes and counted to ten. He promised himself that on ten he would get up, clean himself up, and leave. He did good today, keeping his and Black Hat's cover, and this would (hopefully) get easier as the semester continued. And who knew? Maybe talking about some of these feelings he'd locked away for years would do him some good.

Flug stood up and stepped out of the stall. After flushing everything down the toilet so that the empty bathroom would think he actually used it. He kept his head down as he crossed the white tile floor so as not to see his reflection. He could already guess how he looked; face flushed, eyes red and glassy. His head was already pounding like a marching band was going through it. He had no desire to see himself, it would only make facing the outside world harder. He pumped some soap on his hands and methodically scrubbed them, thinking about how some people can walk around after actually touching their junk without washing their hands. Some people were so disgusting.

He rinsed with cold water, setting his glasses aside with wet hands and splashing his face. Flug bowed his head down to the basin of the sink and thoroughly washed his face with the icy liquid. Much better, his tears were washed away and his burning face cooled. As he raised his head he accidentally caught sight of his reflection. Even without his glasses Flug could make out the sopping wet dog of a man that was him in the mirror. He turned the faucet off and walked blindly towards the paper towels. He got a handful after a few seconds of struggling and managed to dry his face. Going back for his glasses he noticed just how smudged they'd gotten from all his crying. He took his time wiping the lenses with his shirt. It wasn't working, he had to go back to the sink and wash his glasses in water. He hoped the cheap paper towels wouldn't scratch the lenses. He did NOT need anything else on his plate right now.

Flug forced himself out of the bathroom and out of the building, quickly finding Black Hat right by the door waiting for him.

"Hey."

"Hello darling. How did it go?" Black Hat put his phone away and linked their arms together as they walked.

Flug rolled his eyes a bit but didn't pull away. Black Hat really couldn't stop with the terms of endearment could he? Well they were certainly doing their job. Flug slid his hand down to meet Black Hat's. "It really wasn't too bad. Her name is Dr. León, she asked me about what happened, about us-"

"Us? She asked about us?"

"Y-Yeah. Like how we met, how we're doing after last semester, nothing I couldn't handle."

"You didn't start talking about our bedroom activities, did you?"

"No! Of course not!"

"No need to shout, I'm right here." Black Hat gave him the sassiest side-eye Flug had ever seen. "And I only ask because it wouldn't be the first time you've brought up our 'private affairs' trying to keep our cover." He did the little air quotes with his fingers.

"It was once, and I panicked."

"You do that a lot."

"What?"

"Panic."

"Yeah, well, I stuck to the script this time." For the most part. "I even cried. More than once, in fact. She doesn't suspect a thing."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. I'm sure I have her fully convinced I'm just a poor boy who can't catch a break in this cruel world."

"Good." They reached Black Hat's car and continued the conversation once inside. "That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you about something. Can you cry on command Flug?"

"Well I wouldn't say it's 'on command'. I can't just cry whenever. There's a whole build up to it. And I'd have to be talking or at least thinking about something that already makes me cry. I mean, you know how much I was crying that day I fainted at the cafe." Not to mention how long he spent crying at home. Flug looked out the window as Black Hat shot out of the parking lot, a little embarrassed to admit just how hard it had hit him. He accidentally saw himself again in the rearview mirror. The redness had gone down thankfully but he could still see the pain in his eyes. "It does still hurt sometimes, I'm not faking that."

"No no I know you're not lying about your pain. But I'm asking, can you use it to make yourself cry when necessary?"

"I guess? Under the right circumstances I can make myself cry." If it counted as being "necessary" when he used his tears to gain sympathy and feign innocence.

"Flug, that's what crying on command is."

"It is?"

"Yes!"

"Oh. I thought that was being able to cry without needing something sad to think back on."

"Flug..." Black Hat rubbed at his forehead, tipping back the brim of his hat. "How is it you're so competent and yet so mind-blowingly clueless at the same time?"

"I don't know. I mean, you're the one who said I have 'pure villainy' or whatever." Flug crossed his arms. Did Black Hat really have to say his cluelessness was mind blowing? "I still don't know what it is that makes you think that."

"No?"

"No. You never did say just what it was that told you I had the makings of a supervillain and not just some random murderer."

"I could've sworn I told you by now."

"Well remind me, because I've never understood what made you think I could do...any of this. You really got 'mad scientist who would be perfect to build my evil empire' from a guy who killed thirty people and got away with it?"

"No, I got mad scientist who would be...whatever you said, by checking out your work."

"And how did you do that, exactly?" Just how far did your little background check go?

"You know the school keeps a record of your club's members and every machine you build for it, right?"

"...Uhhhh..."

"Yeah, they do that. It's organized by semesters, goes back years, it was very in-depth as well with the descriptions of the different inventions and alumni. They just love boasting about how many graduates have gone on to be heroes." Black Hat rolled his eye. "It provides a lot of insight into our enemies and their machines but it annoys me to no end."

Well that was...much less creepy than Flug had been expecting. "So, um, you were scouting the Engineering Club for potential evil scientists?"

"Something like that, yes. I found your work to be most impressive and a little villainous already. I was curious as to whether or not you would be suitable for this line of work, so I had an associate look into your past. And from there I think you know exactly what convinced me you were worth approaching."

Yeah, Flug guessed that he did. "You know, I'm pretty sure everyone pushed me into joining that club so that I'd be scouted by some hero association."

"I wouldn't be surprised to learn that's how most sidekicks get recruited."

"What about my work was villainous though? What made me stand out? I was never really trying before now, so...?"

"I suppose it was exactly that, that you weren't trying. Like the Hat-Botler and its self-destruction, or that force field you made that destroyed everything that attempted to penetrate it. You go that extra mile that gives everything its own little villainous flair. And you do it without even thinking about it. It's obvious to me, but this isn't my first time looking for potential subordinates. I suppose I might be a bit more intuitive to these things."

"Yeah maybe." Flug wouldn't be surprised if a lifetime of villainy made him better at recognizing it. "You know, speaking of that, I've been meaning to revisit the ElecTrap. Give it the same treatment I did the Stun Gun."

"Ooooh like instantly killing people who step on it?" Black Hat smiled evilly.

"Yes, like that."

"Good, very good."

"Maybe after the Hat-Botler's complete, that's what I'll do. Go back and see if some of my previous work could make good products."

"Brilhante idea!" Black Hat clamped a hand on Flug's shoulder. "Should be quick work for you, no?"

"Even faster with the Hat-Botler, and it'll be a good way to test how it functions as a second pair of hands."

"Just let me know what you need and you shall have it. We'll have a presentable set of prototypes in no time at all! I love when things fall into place." Black Hat mused, giving Flug's shoulder a squeeze.

Flug smiled. He liked it when everything fell into place as well, like a perfectly executed plan. It really shouldn't take too long to give his old inventions suitable upgrades. With all that he'd learned, it would be a piece of cake. He wouldn't hold back. He'd make them better, stronger, more evil.

"You know, it's funny."

"What?"

"Everyone wanted me to go to university and study and eventually go on assisting heroes and making the world a better place or something. And once I finally give in and go down that route, I get recruited by a villain to sell weapons to other villains."

Black Hat chuckled. "When you say it like that, it is rather ironic."

"Yeah, funny how things work out."

They came to Flug's apartment building, exchanged the usual "goodbye and see you tomorrow" parting, and right when Flug opened the door to get out Black Hat said "Oh, and Flug?"

"Yeah?"

"I do hope you're not overdoing it on the tears. I know you like to play the victim to the fullest but it'll lose its effectiveness if you cry over everything."

"Oh, um, ok. Good point. I'll be sure not to overdo it."

"Please do. If not, someone might catch on to you and your crocodile tears. We wouldn't want that now, would we?"

Something about that look in Black Hat's eye made Flug nervous. He was still smiling but there was definitely something threatening there. He hadn't given Flug a look like that in a while. "No, we definitely don't."

"Quite right." Black Hat nodded. "Have a good rest of your day, my Pet."

"Yeah you too."

Flug exited the vehicle and Black Hat drove off within seconds of him shutting the door. What had been up with that? Didn't he trust Flug to maintain their cover? Black Hat said he was capable, as well as "mind-blowingly" clueless. Well damn Hat-Man, not everyone has been a career criminal since their teens. Excuse Flug for not having all his villainous skills on his resumé.

The resumé he never even submitted, because Black Hat got all his information illegally. Fucking criminal madman. Going through Flug's past and dragging the skeletons out of his closet. And him along with them!

With a shake of his head Flug headed into his apartment building. He entered his apartment and shut the door swiftly behind him. He stretched his arms out and glanced at the Hat-Botler prototype.

Oh yeah, it was all coming together.


Translations:

Brilhante = Brilliant (Italian)

Hello, I am still writing this story. I hope you're ready for semi-constant updates :) I'll be posting to one chapter a month so as not to burn myself out or run out of chapters I've spent the last few years writing. This fic has me in a vice I tell ya. We're still nowhere near the end, or even the main climax, so if you've stuck with me this long THANK YOU! I'm glad you've been enjoying yourself. I hope we both get to continue this journey into emotional destruction.

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