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Venomous felt horrible, and not in the way a villain should feel horrible. His eyes hurt from staring at bright monitors for what seemed like an eternity. His fingers ached from hours of writing down notes, only to scratch them away when the test design ultimately failed. He couldn’t tell if the pounding in his head derived from frustration, exhaustion, or the too loud ping of every raindrop that fell on the harsh metal roof of Boxmore.
He had begun the day knowing it would not be an easy one. The bio-chip was a complex device. Every prototype and test-design had to be carefully examined and recorded. Though less comfortable than his own base of operations, Boxman’s factory was much less monitored. It had seemed like a decent idea hours ago. The robots could watch Fink while he and Boxman worked on the prototype.
The later it grew, the more Venomous resented this decision. There was little Boxman could do to actually help in this phase of the project, but that didn’t stop the other villain from popping into the room every few minutes to ask if Venomous needed anything before rambling on about something or another. It didn’t help that the rain, more of a deluge really, was pounding on the roof and the windows. Thunder clapped and it made the pounding in his head even worse. With each experiment, he swore to himself that this would be the right one and he could take an already sleeping Fink back to their base.
Through either stubbornness or misplaced determination, Professor Venomous forged on.
He had just finished inputting a new set of data into the computer’s logarithms, hoping this would finally be the successful concept, when Lord Boxman strode into the room once more. Venomous kept his eyes on the monitor.
“Hey, PV- uh- I was thinking-”
Error messages flashed across the screen.
“-since it’s getting a bit late-”
“I know!” Venomous snapped harshly as he turned to face him. “So why don’t you leave-”
The rest of the sentence died in his throat. Boxman’s shoulders were slumped, and the collar of his lab coat was wrinkled. The green hair on his head was messed, as if a hand or claw had run through it roughly more than once. His organic eye seemed weary, and the corner of his mouth was twisted down in a quivering scowl, but his gaze was firm and defiant.
“It’s late.”
Now Venomous was paying attention. He considered an apology, but decided it against it. Villains didn’t apologize and by extension the gesture was rarely appreciated. Instead, he heaved a sigh and and ran a hand over his eyes. “Ok. I’ll get Fink and-”
“You can stay,” Boxman said quickly, his previous demeanor fading to a familiar nervousness. “I-if you want to, that is…”
Venomous gave a weary smile. “Yeah. That sounds good.” He spared one last glance at the papers scattered across the desk and the error message flashing on the screen before pulling himself out of the chair. “Lead the way, Boxman.”
He expected to be led to some sort of guest room, but that thought vanished as soon as Boxman opened the door to a room that was clearly not meant for passing visitors. In the first place, though the room shared the same red and purple color scheme as the rest of the building, it was more lived in. In one corner there appeared to be a small desk, littered with tools, and a bookshelf filled with both books and a few nick-nacks. The bed was unusually big, but that may have been the squared shape of the mattress as opposed to a rectangular design. There were two doors along one wall. One was closed, but the open doorway of the second revealed a walk-in closet filled with so many different styles that it was a headache to consider for very long.
“This is your room,” Venomous stated plainly.
“Well, yes,” Boxman said. “Is that, er, all right?”
“There’s no guest room?” he asked. At this, Boxman averted his eyes and muttered something about never needing one before. Venomous couldn’t say he was surprised. Before Boxman could bound into a tangent about something or another, Venomous looked down at him pointedly. “Where are you going to sleep?”
“Well, I’m sure I can find something, and I’ve fallen asleep at my desk before and- really- you are a guest so-”
“Get in the bed, Boxman.”
The villain turned as red as his robotic eye. “W-what?!”
He could say that it was late, that the bed was huge, that they both needed a good night’s sleep, but instead Venomous just began walking to bed. “I’m not going to debate with you, but I won’t force you either.” He sat on the edge of the bed and began pulling off his socks and shoes.
Boxman hovered in the doorway for a moment before finally closing the door behind him. He vanished into the closet without a word. Venomous shook his head as he folded his lab coat. His pants and turtleneck soon joined it in a neat pile on the floor at his feet, leaving him in only dark violet boxers. He heard a choked noise behind him and turned to see Boxman in striped blue pajamas that seemed so old-fashioned that Venomous half expected to see a night-cap.
“Do you want some, er, clothes?” Boxman croaked.
Venomous was not going within ten feet of the fashion apocalypse that was Boxman’s closet. He shook his head and settled beneath the covers of the bed. All at once, everything in his body reminded him of every aching and weary limb only to praise the incredibly plush bed. The rain that had seemed so bothersome before was now an almost relaxing hush in the distance. He gave a pleased sigh before sparing a glance towards Boxman, who seemed to be avoiding looking in Venomous’s direction entirely. The other villain turned off the lights in the room, leaving the space to be bathed in a dim red light from his robotic eye. There was still a strange tension in his figure as he settled into his own spot in the bed.
Venomous knew he should sleep. Most of his body was practically screaming for rest. Instead, he turned to face Boxman. “If you aren’t comfortable, you don’t have to stay.”
“N-no! It’s not that, I swear, it’s just that…” Boxman inched closer, thought still careful to leave a noticeable distance between them.. Venomous felt a cool, robotic claw wrap unevenly around his hand. “I never thought something like this could happen for me.”
A part of him understood. A part of him was a little slow on the uptake, but somehow spoke sooner. “Like what?” Venomous asked and immediately regretted it when Boxman flinched slightly.
“Nothing,” he said quietly. His metallic hand retreated and he turned to cast the red light of his against the wall.
Venomous could have slapped himself if he had the energy to. After a moment of internally berating himself, he crawled across the space between them. He sat up slightly and hovered over Boxman’s shoulder.
“Boxman.”
He turned his head, finally noticing how close the two were. Before Boxman could turn away or move, Venomous caught his cheek with one hand and held his gaze. He leaned down slightly and brushed his lips against Boxman’s forehead, right where flesh crossed over into robotics.
“Me too,” he said as he pulled away. “Now get some sleep.”
When he laid back against the plush bed and pillows, he wasn’t surprised when Boxman inched closer and wrapped his arms around his chest. Venomous absently ran a hand down the other’s back. He considered that maybe neither of them knew what their current standing truly was or even if a word could properly describe it, but- for better or worse- they were in it together. Amidst the uproar of his thoughts, pondering what this was and what it might be in the future, Venomous decided to simply accept the moment as it was, with the other villain by his side and the room bathed in a soft red glow as he closed his eyes and drifted into a dreamless sleep.