Outcast Heroine X Her Rival
Outcast Heroine x her rival
The thought of inviting her,
it didn’t even cross their mind, did it?
Heroine stared at the rest of her team, who never seemed to notice her existence. By the loud laughs and noticeable drop of seriousness, they were heading to the bar. Leaving her to be the only to work on their shared case. Again.
Who cares.
She will be the one who laughs at the end.
She might be the outcast here, but it only proved her worth. She works harder, she is more serious, she will solve this case. I will get to see the shock of her so-called teammates as she stares with cold, satisfied eyes.
She just needs to wait patiently until that happens.
Yet it somehow still hurts. And unwillingly, she caught herself stealing glances at the noisy group. Especially at one she thought would act differently. Her rival.
He laughed with the others, seemingly forgetting her existence. He just never acted that way. He always argued with her, competed against her, sent her way his grin when he cracked a case and eye rolls when she beat him to it.
Called when she was sick, noted her insights, listened to her
But apparently there was a company he liked better.
Heroine’s tension calmed a bit when the noisy group finally left. She went over her suspect’s files again, looking for a loose thread. Loneliness was her curse, but mysteries her blessings.
The man she suspected was a history professor.
He is known to lock himself in his apartment and write books, rarely interacting with his colleagues and students.
The victim was a writer who’s newly published first book became the crowd’s favor immediately.
The two have barely known each other.
But Heroine knew how deep jealousy could go. There were days she planned in her mind how she would hide the bodies of her teammates.
He had sent to someone else, the victim’s advisor- several ‘erroneous’ emails. They were clearly separated by words, but each was complete gibberish.
Still, it seemed too weird, and she never saw an ‘error’ such as that.
She had earplugs, a workspace all of her own, and the calming feeling of unveiling another secrecy.
Nothing could invade the mind,
block any worries and make someone forget about their existence like a good mystery.
She didn’t know how long she was in peace, until someone coughed from the other side of the room.
Rival stood there, with a lopsided smile, holding two cups of coffee.
“Something interesting?”
He walked to her desk and placed one cup beside her, having some awkwardness in his movements.
It was a cold coffee, with little milk and ice cubes.
He remembers-
“Oh, umm, thanks.”
Heroine cleared her throat.
“I have a hunch,”
She said, then questioned his motives.
“but it’s just a theory.”
He nodded slightly, getting the hint. But didn’t go yet.
“Well, you, want some quiet or-”
“Aren’t you going with the others?”
He blinked. Then shrugged, still having some awkwardness.
“I can’t let you be the only one who stays over. It makes me look bad.”
“Don’t blame your ugliness on me.”
“Ouch.”
He gave her a half-laugh, and sat in his place. There was silence for a little while. Heroine continued to go over emails, silently listening to Rival unpacking his equipment and playing with his pen.
“So, wanna share some ideas?”
He said it trying to sound unintrested, she noted.
Is this why you stayed?
“What’s it to you?”
“My job, actually.”
He expected a reaction for a moment.
Rival cleared his throat.
“I won’t take your credit.”
Heroine crooked an eyebrow.
“Promise. I wanna catch this bastard as much as you.”
Another’s comments may be helpful, and Rival, as cocky as he is, always kept his word.
“Come take a look.”
He came over, a little too quickly. Then leaned into her desk, right next to her chair. close
“The emails. There are several supposedly emails with errors, they make no sense and only contain one line or so, but there are too many of them.”
Heroine completely immersed herself in the mystery, trying to ignore the warmth she sensed from Rival.
“I tried to check some simple ciphering methods. The thing is, some words make sense when decoding them using straightforward letter-shuffling. But in each email there’s at least one word that never makes sense after deciphering.”
She passed him her papers, and he tilted down to examine it. For a moment, she could see his face from so close. Her gaze immediately turned to the printed emails.
“I highlighted these words. They are the only ones with special characters. If we decipher them, we might have proof that the suspect purposely wrote these emails to hide messages.”
“hmmm…”
His hand was quite close to hers, she realized, some part of her wanted to touch it. Learn exactly how warm he is.
Heroine took her coffee and drank almost all of it in one slip.
“He is not a mathematician, isn’t he? or a puzzler?”
“An historian.”
“It’d be tough to convince he made up a cipher.”
“True.”
“What did he research?”
“He had a fondness for royal families. He’d write about grand schemes and falls and such.”
“Did he write anything about Mary, queen of the scots?”
She tilted her head, trying to remember if she read about such character.
“She’s been the queen of Scotland since she was six, but also wanted England. She got imprisoned and plotted to assassinate Elizabeth the first from a cell.”
“Well, you are knowledgeable, I’ll get you a paper star later,”
Rival rolled his eyes.
“but how does it help us?”
“She communicated her plot using a cipher.”
Heroine’s eyes widened.
“What kind?”
“Quite simple, but hard to decrypt- she used letter switching like you did, but she also made special symbols to refer to people.”
“So if we try to assign to each special character a possible name-”
“We’ll reveal the message.”
She was smiling. This mystery could be solved. Her hunch might be right. Oh, the looks on her teammates’ faces will be wonderful
“This is so much better than a drinking night.”
Rival chuckled, probably amused by my rapture as always.
Only now she noticed that he was smiling brightly, too. But it looked different. It looked softer.
She cleared her throat.
“We should get into it. I made a chart of how the letters shuffle, here, take, just think of things he’d want to hide and see if the texts make sense.”
She leaned over her desk, making a list of possibilities that jumped into her mind.
“Mind if I’ll work here?”
“Sure”
It only took an hour.
Heroine eagerly showed Rival her findings. A possible interpretation of the messages, in which the victim’s name and the place of the murder had code words.
Her hand rushed to her cup, only to see that it was empty long ago.
So this was it. She looked at Rival, and and he seemed a bit saddened, too.
“You can take some credit, you know.”
He waved his hand dismissively, packing his things.
“Nah. You’d figure it out anyway.”
“Oh, absolutely.”
Heroine started packing as well, already realizing she’ll immediately miss… whatever this is that they have now.
“Still, we… we did this together.”
Rival froze for a moment, staring at her with something akin to… awe.
“It’s yours,”
He smiled, incitement returning to his features.
“the fun is enough for me.”
They started walking together towards the door.
“More fun than drinking night?”
“Much more.”
Fortunately, their cars were in the same direction. There was still one more mystery.
“Why did you stay?” “Hm? I told you-”
“Seriously. You never stay overnight. You could actually be drunk right now, with, you know…”
The more amusing parts of our team
There was silence for a few moments, growing more noticeable every second. Rival was rarely out of words.
“It’s kinda nice when it’s just us”
Heroine stopped mid-walking and stared at him. It was her turn to be speechless. Is this…? Is he really…?
“It is”
She agreed, eventually. Both of them stood on the road, blushing.
“We can… um… be tog- ”
She took a big breath.
“We can hang out the office. If you want.”
A small smile came back to Rival’s face.
“Yes. Sure. Great.”
MUCH better than drinking night
More Posts from Bigbadivy and Others
Prompt #127
Hero winced as villain's hands moved to her face.
Villain's hands were calloused with years of heavy work yet they had the softest touch that hero had ever felt. Hero sucked in a sharp breath as she felt villain explore the bruises and cuts on her face, his eyebrows pinching together as he ran a finger down the jagged cut on her forehead.
There were no words spoken, just soft breaths and inhales and villain stood in front of hero with his gentle touches and touched every bit of the painful bruises that hero had tried to hide from him earlier.
"Who did this to you?" Villain whispered, his voice soft yet with a dangerous edge as he met hero's teary eyes.
Spill
“What’s one goal you would fulfill if we weren’t about to die?” Villain asked, fists clenching as cold water touched his fingertips. Soon, it wouldn’t matter that his fingers retreated. The water was rising, and it would only continue to do so.
Hero, in turn, didn’t clench her fists. She said- rather declared, “We’re not going to die.”
“We’re in a tight-sealed box- at the bottom of a lake- with a leak the size of a safety pin point. We’re dead. So tell me your goal.” As a series of silence followed, Villain continued the conversation. “Fine. I’ll go first. I would have liked to done enough damage to a particular someone that I gave them nightmares for the rest of their miserable life.”
“Is this supposed to be some weird introduction to your tragic backstory?”
If Villain could have glared at Hero, he would have. “Spill.”
“That’s not the most appropriate word to use in this scenario.”
“Thought you said we aren’t going to die.”
There was a sigh. Hero shifted, shoulder blades clashing with Villain’s. The water was up to her knuckles. “I don’t have any.”
A hum. “Not sure I believe that.”
Now, another sigh. Hero attempted to pull her hands apart from Villain’s. No use. They were stuck like this, not even able to stand together and investigate their little box. “I’m going to sleep.”
Villain pulled his shoulder forward before slamming it back. “Like hell you are. I’m not sleeping until I can feel water up my nostrils. I’m finding a way out of this.”
Groaning, Hero said, “Now who thinks we’re not going to die?”
“I think the chances of surviving are extremely low, but it’s going to be none if we don’t even try.”
Hero shook her head then leaned it against Villain’s head and closed her eyes with a soft huff. “Supervillain wouldn’t let us die. He just wants a reaction. Thanks to you, he’s getting one.”
“One, get your head off mine before I bust it. Two, he will kill us, and I’m not going down without a fight.”
“You and your dignity…” Her voice almost turned sour but she controlled it. “That’s what’s going to be the death of you.” Hero didn’t move her head.
“No. Water will be. It’s going to fill both of our lungs.”
Hero gave a false chuckle. “You were so bent on us dying just minutes ago. What happened?”
Villain shrugged. “Guess I’m more hell-bent on that goal of mine than I thought.”
Silence. Hero lifted her head.
Then, “That person you want to haunt so badly is Supervillain…” She turned her head, only barely able to see Villain’s cheek. “How long ago?”
“What?”
“How long ago did he traumatize you?”
Big breath. Villain stiffened before saying, “I never said it was Supervillain.”
“Who else would it be? Your parents are gone, you have no siblings, and you only care-” Hero blinked, a realization stunning nearly the same as the freezing water touching her wrists. “Do you care about me? Is that why you showed up to save me?”
When Villain didn’t respond, Hero demanded, “Alright, spill.”
******
Part 2 here
Prompt #16
Hero walked into the department store a few hours after it had closed for the day, looking around at the many shelves. “Villain? I know you’re here!” They adjusted their glasses, held together by duct tape after their last fight with Villain.
“Oh, Hero! Excellent timing! I’m so sorry about yesterday, so I decided to get you all the glasses money could buy- I mean steal. Money could steal? I mean-“
“Other people need the glasses too, Villain. And I’d need to get the right prescription.”
“Oh... should I put them back?”
“Why’re you asking me?! Ooh, those ones look pretty...” They grabbed a pair of fancy looking glasses, then forced a stern expression. “But this doesn’t mean I condone stealing.”
Villain smiled. “Of course not.”
May I offer you some Bellums.
Prompt #144
"Villain?" Civilian asked villain softly, twirling the ends of her hair in her fingers, her doe eyes casting up at villain.
Villain didn't respond, not turning to say anything to civilian or even casting her a simple glance. Civilian took his silence as an answer, knowing that villain never talked unless it was something important.
"Why did you become a villain?" Civilian questioned.
Once again, she received nothing but empty silence. She knew that villain and her weren't close, yet she longed to hear something from him. She couldn't hold back the raging feelings that churned restlessly inside of her as she stared at villain's unmoving back, waiting for a response.
Civilian let out a apologetic sigh. "Sorry–"
"I used to be a hero. " Villain cut in. Civilian instantly stopped herself from saying anything, her lips parting with anticipation as she waited for villain to continue.
"6 years ago I was a hero. " Villain continued, not turning around to look at civilian as if he was too embarrassed by the backstory. "But then I lost everything that I had: my family, my friends. . .my home. All because I had to save a group of people and everyone expected me to give up everything I have for other people. "
Civilian sucked in a sharp, painful breath.
"That day I realized something. " Villain spoke, his once rough voice now far and distant as if he was reliving memories that scarred him. "A hero sacrifices their loved ones for humanity. But a villain will sacrifice humanity for their loved ones. "
When villain finally stopped talking, civilian spoke in a gentle voice.
"Is that why you saved my life that day?"
But once again, her question was answered with nothing but painful silence.
#drawing #sellartonline #realistic_arts https://www.instagram.com/p/B267SNBhSNC/?igshid=10cgr3rcgwa5m
“You shouldn’t trust me. I’ll make sutures out of your heartstrings and I won’t apologise when I use them to stitch myself back together.”
prompt from @gingerly-writing, which inspired this snippet!
The hero, seated in the chair before the villain’s desk, blinked. Neither said anything for a few, long seconds, then the hero cleared their throat. “That was dramatic. How long did it take you to come up with that?”
The villain’s lips thinned. Trust the hero not to take them seriously.
“I am warning you,” they said tersely. “Stop asking me for help.”
“We’ve worked together before, and it’s turned out.”
“Not for the long-term. Not the way you’re describing.”
The hero leaned forward in their chair, their gaze too calm and steady and unafraid. “I never said I trusted you. I just need your assistance.”
“You never said you liked me either,” the villain said. “Yet I don’t see you denying that you do.”
This time, that got a reaction out of the hero. They leaned back, gaze flickering away from the villain. They cleared their throat again. “Yeah, so?”
“I have concluded that your mental processes are compromised. Very much so.”
A smile just barely tugged at the corner of the hero’s mouth as they glanced back at the villain, but the amusement was clear in their voice. “You have ‘concluded’? I would certainly be interested in seeing your research paper. How many pages is it? A hundred?”
The villain slammed their hands down on their desk and stood. Discomfort grew in their stomach as the hero didn’t flinch, just kept watching them as if they were no threat. As if they had never brought powerful men to their knees, as if they hadn’t overwhelmed the city’s police system for an entire month, as if they hadn’t fought the last menace who had resided here and won.
Two years ago, the hero would have had their weapons drawn in a blink of time. Today, the hero sat unarmed in their base.
“Let me make this clear to you,” the villain snapped. “This isn’t funny. Just because we don’t fight anymore, because I don’t send you home limping—”
“I think I sent you home limping—”
“Shut up.”
Slowly, the hero rose to their feet.
The villain continued, picking up momentum. “Lack of fights between us, this ‘peace’ you refer to, is all in your head. We are not allies. When you let down your guard you are giving me the opportunity to use you however I wish. I don’t know what you use to think, but it isn’t your brain. You’ve claimed I’m not as bad as the others, but do you think I won’t use the opportunity to claim more power?
“You give me your trust, your heart, and I’ll rip it to shreds. Do you know what I could do with you? What I could gain? Your body in my control could buy me a place within the Blood Stars. I could hand you off to a dozen different organizations and reap millions in benefit.”
“You could,” the hero said softly. They moved smoothly towards the villain, around the edge of their desk to stand before them. “But you won’t.”
The villain opened their mouth, and the hero pressed a finger to their lips.
Keep reading
Prompt 224
"What's your favourite animal?"
"Penguins." The hero responded automatically. They had stopped pulling against the ropes an hour ago. "Why are you asking me all these questions again?"
"Um..." The villain's eyes flicked to the description of the questionnaire promising a '90% chance of falling in love upon completion by both parties.' "... for evil purposes."
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