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Seth came willingly enough, only stopping when Nick did at the entryway to the living room. Nick looked back over his shoulder at his father, who watched him with a quiet smile. “Dad?”
“Yeah, kid?”
“I love you.
His smile widened. “Hey, I know. I love—”
“But you’ll rue the day you decided to make dental dams in Bob and Martha’s living room. Do you hear me?Rue.” And with that, he pulled his boyfriend toward the stairs that led down to the basement.
Last autumn, Nick had knocked on the door to the Gray household and politely demanded to be let into the secret lair of the Extraordinary known as Pyro Storm. Nick was still reeling from his father lying injured in the hospital, his sort-of ex-boyfriend revealing himself to be Shadow Star—the supposed savior of Nova City—who’d offered Nick the powers he’d always dreamed about for the low, low price of getting addicted to mysterious pills. And then there was his best friend/potential love of his life turning out to be Pyro Storm, the villain who wasn’tactuallya villain, but was portrayed as such by said ex-boyfriend, Owen Burke, with help from a reporter whose very name spoken aloud caused children and small animals to flee in terror.
Nicholas Bell’s life was extremely complicated.
In the intervening months since the Battle at McManus Bridge (something the news reports tended to capitalize to show the importance; Nick had no problem with this), not much had changed in the secret lair, much to Nick’s displeasure. There were only two real differences that Nick could see: first, the pocket door now had a small sign hanging from it that readTEAM PYRO STORMin red letters with smoke rising off the top of them. He’d ordered it online.
Second was a gift from Nick’s father: a police scanner, somethinghe’d apparently stolen from work—all while telling his son that stealing was illegal, to which Nick had replied that Dad needed to work on his messaging. It had only been turned on a couple of times since Gibby had figured out how to make an app that did the same thing on their phones. Not only could people download a simpler version of the app to report situations in progress, but the app also acted as a tracker to show the others on Team Pyro Storm where Seth was when acting as Pyro Storm, just to be safe. Instead of sitting in the basement listening to the scanner or flying around the city looking for problems to solve, an alert would pop up on his phone for serious wrongdoings that might need Pyro Storm. They’d all downloaded it: Martha, Bob, and Dad included, even though Nick had wanted to keep it on the down low. How embarrassing would it be if Dad looked at the app and saw Seth in Nick’s room when he wasn’t supposed to be? Seth had looked horrified when Nick voiced this worry aloud, and they’d agreed to turn it off unless Seth was in costume.
Speaking of.
As Seth went to the punching bag hanging from the ceiling, Nick glanced at the Pyro Storm costume hanging behind the computer and police scanner. The costume had been repaired by Seth’s aunt after the damage caused by Shadow Star. Pyro Storm’s helmet was red and black with red lenses that acted as a sort of augmented reality when Seth wore it, information sent wirelessly from the lair. Nick was of the mind that since Seth had fought his first big battle, his costume needed a slight redesign to keep it fresh and exciting, but still recognizable. It happened in every superhero sequel he’d ever seen. Martha had invited him to sew Seth’s new costume if he was so inclined. It took only two minutes before he’d stabbed himself with the sewing needle and decided the redesign could wait.
It was good.Theywere good. Sure, maybe he didn’t see Seth as much as he’d like, given his responsibilities to the people of Nova City, but that was the trade-off with dating an Extraordinary. Andmaybethere was a bit of residual jealousy that Seth could do what he did while Nick was left with his feet firmly planted on the ground, but it wasfine. That was the way things were.
Which was why Nick was careful about bringing up any of hisown petty complaints. Did he want more alone time with his boyfriend? Sure, but people trapped on the top floor of a burning building probably needed Pyro Storm more than Nick, and Seth had told him that his role as the leader of Team Pyro Storm was as important as his own. It was hard to be irritated with someone that selfless, so he kept his mouth shut. Besides, who else in the entire world could say they were the leader of Team Pyro Storm?
(There had been an election. Gibby voted for herself. Jazz voted for world peace because she hadn’t understood what they were doing. Nickalsovoted for himself, but that was because he knew Seth would vote for him too. Seth didn’t. He abstained. This led Nick on a twelve-minute rant that began with his qualifications and somehow ended up with him explaining the epistemological position of solipsism, the philosophical idea that one’s self is the only thing that can be proven to exist, something he’d inexplicably found himself reading about the night before on Wikipedia. Seth, knowing that Nick wouldn’t stop until he either died or someone stepped in, loudly proclaimed that Nick won the election. Democracy in action.)
It helped that Nova City had been somewhat quiet since the confrontation at McManus Bridge. So far, all the dire warnings from the pundits on the news that the contentious war between Pyro Storm and Shadow Star would lead to other Extraordinaries coming out of the woodwork in Nova City had proven false. With Owen Burke locked away in some facility (location unknown, much to Nick’s frustration), no villain had risen to take his place. Owen had once said that a hero was only as good as their villain, but he turned out to be pure evil, so Nick tried not to take anything he’d said seriously.
It was fine now, here, in this moment. They were together, and yes, it was after watching Nick’s dad make things to put on their buttholes, but still. Seth was laughing at Nick’s antics, and Nick wanted to hear that sound forever.
“Badass Power Kick!” Nick shouted as he clumsily lashed at the punching bag, almost knocking himself over as Seth chuckled.Seth had taken off his glasses and sweater and set them on top of the washing machine. He’d also loosened his bow tie and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt, something that caused Nick to be unable to form most words. Regardless of what had happened upstairs, Seth seemed softer, almost relaxed.
“You don’t need to name every fighting move you have,” Seth said, clutching the punching bag. “It’s a waste of time.”
“Says you,” Nick muttered as he wiped sweat from his brow. “Everyone knows the best fighting styles all have names that you shout when doing them.”
“Really,” Seth said dryly. “Everyone knows that.”
“Well, everyone except you.” Nick lifted his shirt to see if he had abs yet. He did not. He’d been at it for close to twenty minutes. What was the point of exercising if you didn’t see immediate results? He sighed as he dropped his shirt again. Maybe he was going about this all wrong. “Bear Hug of Destruction!” he bellowed and hurled himself at the punching bag, wrapping his arms and legs around it.
Seth grunted as he almost lost his footing but managed to stay upright. Nick grinned at him from his perch on the body bag. Seth rolled his eyes as he leaned forward, kissing him with a loud smack. Nick was still stunned that this was something they did now. They weren’t just two bros anymore. They were bros whokissed. The best kind of bros.
“Let’s try something a little different,” Seth said, stepping around the punching bag. Nick dropped back down to his feet and cocked his head curiously. “Turn around.”
“O … kay,” Nick said. He faced away from Seth. He startled when Seth pressed up against his back, a line of heat that immediately caused Nick’s heart to trip all over itself. He grunted when Seth wrapped an arm around his neck, though not hard enough to choke him. “I’m totally on board for this, whatever it is.”
Seth snorted in his ear. “Yeah, I bet you are. Focus, Nick. I’m a villain. I’ve got you in my grasp. How do you get free?”
“Well, maybe I don’twantto get free. I’m pretty good withthis, if I’m being honest. Oh no, the villain won. Whatever shall I do?”
Seth jostled him a little, his chest bumping against Nick’s back. “This is serious. You want to learn to fight, you’ve got to prepare for anything. Help won’t always come. How do you get free?”
“I don’t know,” Nick admitted, having a hard time paying attention. He was distracted by the hairs on Seth’s arms, tickling his chin.
Seth lowered his other hand to Nick’s right elbow, gripping it tightly. Carefully, he pulled it back, pressing it against his side. “Here, a weak point. Use enough force …” He pushed Nick’s elbow away before bringing it back against his side. “And you might be able to get them to loosen their grip on you.”
Excited, Nick said, “And then I can flip them over me and send them flying! Whoa, this is frickin’badass.”
