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That fucking loser
Who invited him here?
Who told him about this?
Piece of shit
Those familiar complaints from exhausted and drained villains fuelled Boxman’s mood.
His smug grin grew ever so wider with each grumble, with each attempt to insult him and make him feel guilty or upset at what he had done to this place and what he had done to ruin their night. Their attempts were futile.
Something about knowing he had caused all of them a terrible experience made him happy, because as much as they groan and bitch about it, Boxman really didn’t lose anything as he stood here victorious at what remains of the villain convention that was demolished to bits no thanks to him.
He won.
Every three years, the most powerful villains would get together and host a convention here. As a result, this was an imperishable facility made to withhold the deadly outbursts villains would have. Its infrastructure; well built and woven with security defences.
So you could say it was quite a feat knocking this place down and crushing it to ashes. Needless to say, Boxman was proud.
“Lord Boxman”
Shit fuck
Boxman jumped out of his skin.
He turned around and saw Professor Venomous standing behind him of all people.
Which bewildered him because he could’ve sworn he saw everyone left?
That feeling of pride and self appreciation instantly dwindled away as anxiety swallowed him. “Professor! I wasn’t- I didn’t see you there-” His mind scrambled, unsure of how the professor would react or why they were STILL here in the first place, “I thought everyone had left-”
“I must say, this was orchestrated perfectly, Boxy”, Venomous interrupted his nonsensical blubbering. The professor’s composed and monotone voice is a stark contrast to Boxman’s current state.
Boxman needed a moment for those words to properly fall onto his ears.
What? Was Venomous referring to all of this? This mess of rubble they stood in the middle of? Was Venomous complimenting the fact he demolished this place or was it just a sarcastic jab?
Boxman squinted skeptically at the other villain as he attempted to read Venomous’ behaviour.
“No no no”, Boxman defended as he waved his arms. “This was just an accident! I never intended-”
“Don’t humble yourself, Boxman”, Venomous interrupted once more.
This was a very difficult situation for him to read. Conflicted between whether Venomous was being genuine, which was highly unlikely because who in their right minds would’ve found this praise worthy, or Venomous was expressing his annoyance at him in the form of excessive praise with contradictory intent.
Don’t get him wrong, Boxman was absolutely joyous with how much carnage he had inflicted to the convention but for Venomous to share that same feeling would be… odd? What?
After all, Boxman destroyed this place for his own gain and entertainment, therefore it wouldn’t make sense if Venomous enjoyed this too.
Unless he had a vendetta against this convention too?
Why would that be? Venomous is someone who would benefit heavily from conventions like these. An opportune event to meet new possible clients and establish business relations.
“This place is a fortified stronghold with high-end security made to host villain conventions”, Venomous continued with a bit more emotion that he usually would have.
Boxman looked quizzically at Venomous who was now beaming. Grinning from ear to ear like this was the first time he had smiled in years.
Boxman was… still utterly and hopelessly confused. Did he do something? Was Venomous okay? Are these symptoms of a concussion? Mania? Hysteria?
Shit, does Boxman need to call an ambulance?
“And all of a sudden”, Venomous rambled on, “you ‘accidentally’ cause a power outage and different teams of heroes breach the defences of this place and snuck into the event by disguising themselves as villains, before hilariously attacking one another by accident because of being in disguise, and then shit fucking explodes in between dances and hypnotic karaoke sessions and all the machinery start fucking glitching out and-“
Venomous caught themself and froze up. He cleared his throat and recomposed himself, Boxman found the action akin to if he had rebooted one of his bots. Boxman chuckled to himself.
“I mean”, Venomous did a complete tone shift, reverting back to his normal calm and monotone façade.
“This is beyond impressive”, he gave Boxman a weak nudge on the shoulder as Venomous rubbed his own neck nervously, eyes drawn away from Boxman. Wait what?
Was Venomous… nervous?
Well Boxman would be extremely hypocritical to judge Venomous for that seeing as he himself was intensely averting his eyes elsewhere as he felt his face heat up at rapid pace and beads of sweat rolling down his face like rain had poured onto him and oh god Venomous really did say that about him holy shit fucking shit.
For cob’s sake, did… did Venomous really break out into a passionate appreciation ramble? That was his thing! It felt both wrong and right seeing the other so radiant.
Not that there was anything bad about Venomous being expressively positive, in fact it was actually very heartfelt seeing the professor happy like that, albeit very uncharacteristically, but that made Boxman feel even more happy.
Yet he still couldn’t bring himself to, for the lack of a better term, ‘fall’ for this. The possibility of this being a ruse was very much plausible.
Many other villains had done this before, they shower him with praises before pulling the rug from beneath him.
He didn’t have anything personal against Venomous, as a matter of fact they were on his good list, but you know how villains are, not really one for morals and decency.
Then again, if hypothetically Venomous were to reveal the falsehood of his words, Boxman wouldn’t hold it against him, maybe just a little grudge.
“Well I”, Boxman trailed off… unsure of how to handle this unexpected positive feedback, that he had intense suspicion of, and still unable to look the other in the eye. “Thank you?”
Even with the probability of this being fake, his heart was absolutely pounding as he clutched the fabric of his coat, very close to shredding it apart with his talons.
Deep down inside, he begged and hoped to hear that drawback statement from the other villain. Hoped to see the end of this little prank. Hoped to see the unveiling of this ruse and get this over with.
Like a statue, Boxman faced away and stood there frozen solid as he felt Venomous’ eyes on him.
His palms were sweaty and his hands were trembling. Cob, why can’t this be over already.
The long lasting silence would’ve convinced Boxman that the other had walked away and left, if not for Venomous’ voice as the other spoke out once more.
“Although I”, Venomous started, sounding solemn with an undertone of worry.
Boxman looked over and saw that the other had sat down on the ash covered floor. Hinting that Venomous wasn’t going anywhere soon.
“I don’t know why you antagonise other villains too, in the same passionate way you do to those plaza heroes”, Venomous said as he stared off into the distance.
Boxman sat down beside Venomous, making sure he didn’t sit too close.
As much as he wanted to convince himself that the words Venomous spoke came from a place of genuineness, he just couldn’t. He knew better than to give into this too early.
Yes, Venomous sounded genuine and troubled.
Yes, Venomous was not known to show such emotion and concern like this to anyone, especially not other villains, and yet he had done this to Boxman on more than one occasion now.
And yes, having a moment alone with the other villain like this made him feel over the moon.
But Boxman just couldn’t bring himself to believe it. Just not now, not yet.
“We both know the other villains aren’t fond of you already”, Venomous spared a glance at him, which caught Boxman very off guard, before turning away again and continued, “And you’ve told me this was to ‘even out the score’ because they treated you like shit, which I understand, but to this extent? You're bound to anger the wrong super villain any second now if you keep doing this”
Venomous looked at him again, this time leaning closer, brows furrowed as a frown tugged his the corner of his lips, “Why?”
The other looked expectant for a response but Boxman just stared bluntly at him instead. His mind went completely blank as he stared into the other's eyes.
Seeing the frown grow as Venomous pulled back made Boxman realise that maybe that wasn’t the best course of action.
“I”, Venomous sighed, “I’m just worried you’d get yourself hurt, Boxman”
Boxman observed Venomous and watched as the other man glanced down at both of their wrists.
Was he… really worrying the professor this much? That isn’t the case, right?
The mood of all this became cold and unpleasant, despite nearby fires crackling, sending embers to the night sky that spanned above them. Boxman would’ve found this peaceful if it weren’t for this odd feeling of guilt and uncertainty that hung above them. On instinct, he tried to lift the mood.
“Cob, I didn’t know I’d be on your mind so much” He laughed, carefully making sure his words could easily be interpreted and dusted off as a lighthearted joke.
It seemed to do the trick.
“I asked first, dumbass”, Venomous' head lifted up, failing to sound upset or mad as he punched Boxman’s shoulder again, this time with more effort.
Boxman found this amusing. He sat back properly, a little too late to comprehend the fact that he may have scooted an inch closer to the other villain. Venomous took no note of it so Boxman assumed he wasn’t pushing anything.
He eyed Venomous’ hand that punched him a few seconds ago, now resting on the ground between them. It was tempting, and he felt daring.
Might as well do it and watch the other villain drop the niceties and leave rather than watch whatever this was drag on.
But to his bafflement, Venomous did not mind when he placed his taloned hand on top of his.
Well fuck.
It felt like he was melting. Gravity was pulling him down and it took all the power he had to not crumble.
Great, now he made things worse. His mind was torn between focusing on the hand thatJhjHKLspIoJkakjjhshkshkiwkBsj- Venomous slipped his hand into Boxman's properly.
Okay, breathe, Boxy. You’re reading too into it.
It felt like he was going to have a cardiac arrest and die. Shit, maybe he's the one that needs the ambulance.
Right, focus. What did Venomous say? He asked something right? Yes, why he's being a dick to the other villains or something.
“I… I don’t really know what to say”, Boxman mustered up. “Guess that’s just how I am”
He’d love to get into detail about how much he finds pure enjoyment watching misfortune rain upon those other villains. The misfortune he had caused on purpose but executed in a way to have the illusion of it all just being an unlucky accident caused by his foolishness and clumsiness.
Of course Venomous would be a step ahead the rest after Boxman revealed to them his plan to annoy the fuck out of the villains in Billiam’s yacht party and ruin everything on purpose previously, thus Venomous would have caught on Boxman’s little ruse.
And now Venomous is back with more questions.
Questions that Boxman doesn’t feel comfortable answering with truth because it might be a little too compromising.
Yes, they’ve exchanged many conversations for these past few months, and on rare occasions, they’d just have casual chatter through text, but they weren’t that close. Boxman stared intensely at their hands that had indeed intertwined. Acquaintances at most, really.
He knows just tid bits of Venomous’ interest, but not the full story.
He knew how much Venomous cared for his minion like a daughter, but not how the two came across each other and whether or not that rat was purely a creation of his.
He knew Venomous was more sensitive to temperature since he was cold blooded, but he doesn’t know if this was the way the man was born or the unwanted result of a freak accident.
Venomous was a mysterious man. Known to be the up and coming supervillain who just sprouted into existence one day and quickly made his way up the food chain within no less than three years. Fairly new to the industry but behaving like he's been here for decades and knew every inch of it.
Who was he? Who did he used to be? How was it possible for someone to have such a cold intimidating exterior, extremely well versed in bioengineering and also so fucking hot?
Now that he thinks about it, who is Venomous?
Boxman felt the other man shift.
“Keep being you, Boxy”
Venomous got up, still having a hold on Boxman’s hand, to his surprise.
“Need a ride back?” Venomous offered with a tiny smile. A tiny smile that made Boxman's heart melt.
Well, Boxman would be an idiot to deny, especially since his hand was being held hostage, clearly trapped in the clutches of Venomous’. No choice now.
“Sure”, Boxman grinned, feeling a warm flutter in his chest as Venomous’ face subtly lit up even more.
He got up and allowed himself to be led by the other man as his thoughts inched back to the question of Venomous’ identity.
There was a mischievous curiosity that filled him now. He had been in the villain sphere for years and knew practically everyone here, leaving Venomous to be the only enigma. The only question unanswered.
And he isn’t oblivious. He knows how curious Venomous was about him.
The constant eyeing of Boxman’s wrist, the annoyed glint in their eyes whenever looking at Boxman’s metallic brace that hid his power level, the trick questions he’d ask to try and pry information about Boxman’s past.
It was flattering to know how interested Venomous was. Now the feeling is mutual.
“Vormulax just texted me saying she’s throwing an event soon”, Venomous informed as he looked down on his phone and typed out a response. “Below Neo Riot City’s town hall? Now that’s daring”
Boxman couldn’t help but smirk at the fact that Venomous was telling him information they both know was not meant for his ears. It was still off putting having someone like Venomous encouraging Boxman’s destructiveness like this, but he decided that was enough questioning Venomous’ true intentions for tonight.
“So I’m guessing you emailing this convention’s location to me wasn’t accidental?”
Boxman should’ve seen this coming. None of the villains invited him to this place because they all knew what that would result too. So it was quite the pleasant surprise to see someone leaking the location to him.
There was a follow up email that somewhat was pretty half-assed after he received the initial email of the convention's location.
Venomous had sent a gif of a man shrugging, accompanied by some a short text that read;
Dear Lord Boxman,
It appears I have sent the previous email to the wrong recipient, do excuse my mistakes and I advise heavily against looking into that email :)
Sincerely,
Professor Venomous.
“I certainly don’t know what you’re referring to, Boxy”, Venomous responded playfully, a shit-eating grin on his face as his eyes focused on the road.
“You're acting odd, professor”, Boxman poked back, “I think you inhaled some brain decaying compounds during the convention that’s making you like this”
Venomous spared a side glance at him. “Most probably. And maybe it manifested itself into the shape of a Boxman and followed me into my car”
“That sounds like a you problem, PV”
Venomous was a mysterious man.