Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Heroes and villains. It’s as cliche as it comes, and it’s always the same, the hero and villain fall for each other, and the villain must learn to be better for the hero. It’s funny and heartwarming and people love it. What happens though when the villain doesn’t get better? What happens when the hero gets *worse?*

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Grian stretched his arms and wings as he got out of bed. He looked over at the mirror by his bed, looking at his awful bed head. He also noticed his wings were very messy, he would need to preen those soon. It always made getting away from whatever hero was trying (and failing) to stop him that much more difficult. He always got away, but it was annoying, and tiring.

As he yawned, he started walking out of his room, but immediately walking into the wall instead. He let out a loud squawk as his wings fluttered for a second. He grumbled as he walked out of his room, (successfully this time) holding his nose.

Suddenly, a head popped out of another room.

“Grian! Are you ok? I heard a loud noise!”

“Yeah I’m fine Pearl, just ran into the wall.”
He rolled his eyes as he saw the mischievous glint in her eyes, already knowing he was about to be teased.

“Pffff, guess my younger brother is aging faster than me! What with your sight worsening.”

“You better hope I’m not getting old, that would just make you ancient since you’re older than me.”

Pearl stuck her tongue out at Grian as he returned to gesture, giving her the bird as well, like the mature adults they were. After that she went back to her room, leaving Grian to his own devices. He continued his trek to the kitchen, making a quick bowl of cereal and scrolling through his phone.

He wasn’t really paying attention to what he was looking at until he noticed someone. Namely, Hotguy, the #1 Hero of Hermitcraft. The golden boy of the city, loved by all. However he’s most known for his good looks and relentless flirting.

Grian rolled his eyes at seeing his rival. Every time they crossed paths, they would go back and forth with jabs and insults. Just *seeing* him was exhausting.

“Seems like he’s got new merch coming out. …All of the pictures are of him shirtless showing off the product. I bet he doesn’t even care to save people and it’s all a publicity stunt.” Grian mumbled. “Whatever. It’s not like it’s my problem. I didn’t become a villain to save people after all”

Grian finished up his cereal and washed his bowl. Then he headed upstairs and changed into his Cuteguy outfit before heading out.

“Pearlllll I’m robbing the bank wanna come?”

“No thanks! I’ve got some work to catch up on!”

“Ok then, bye!” “Bye!”

He flew over to Hermit Bank and landed on the roof of the building. He was glad it was an easy job today, he was kind of tired. He stayed up way too late last night.

Once he spotted the hatch above the vault room, he climbed over to it and peeked through the glass window. He only saw two guards, fairly scrawny guys, so he hopped in without much thought and got to work.

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Meanwhile, Scar was on his way to the bank, in his Hotguy gear, absolutely exhausted. After pulling an all-nighter patrolling, he didn’t get a break as his boss immediately sent him to the bank like he was an errand boy. He was *not* an errand boy, he was the hottest hero in the city, thank you very much.

Unfortunately, that meant nothing as he was still forced to continue his walk to the bank. Seriously, they couldn’t even lend him one of the agency’s vehicles?

Once he got there he went through the normal procedure of getting money from the boss’s account. He knew he was getting shocked faces from everyone in the building, but he didn’t particularly care. He was looking through his phone when all of a sudden he heard someone screaming.

“HELP! WE’RE BEING ROBBED! SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE!”

Immediately, Scar hopped into action, sprinting to the screaming employee and asking where the robber was. He was directed to the vault room where he spotted him. Cuteguy.

Scar was frozen for a second, staring in awe at Cuteguy’s skills, taking out all of the incoming guards like it was nothing. He quickly snapped out of it, thankfully, and approached him rival.

“Funny seeing you here Cuteguy. What, is villainy not paying enough to get by? Or do you just enjoy seeing my gorgeous face?” He decided to strike a pose after the last comment, just for good measure.

He noticed Cuteguy’s eyes widening just a fraction, before being replaced with an eye roll and an annoyed expression.

“Ugh, Hotguy, why are you here? This is supposed to be an easy day for me, and now I have to deal with your dumb face.”

Scar slowly started advancing on Cuteguy, while trying to keep him distracted with their conversation. “Hah! Easy day? There can’t be anything easy about being a villain. Having to be on the run all the time? Always in constant danger? How is any of that easy?” In truth, he knows being a hero isn’t easy in the slightest either, but Cuteguy doesn’t need to know that.

He saw Cuteguy squint his eyes, scrutinizing Scar and making him feel kind of uncomfortable with his gaze on him. Distracted, he moved a little too suddenly towards Cuteguy, which he of course noticed and took it as a reason to leave. He flapped his wings and crashed through a window, immediately flying up onto one of the neighboring buildings. Scar immediately took after him, but he was definitely starting to feel the drowsiness by now, and all this extra exertion was not helping.

He found Cuteguy standing on a nearby building, facing the wall away from him. He didn’t seem to realize Scar was behind him yet, so he took this opportunity to catch him off guard and trap him. He slowly crept up behind him until he was close enough to trap Cuteguy between himself and the wall with his arms.

The second he did, Cuteguy jumped, his arms going up and wings flailing. Scar quickly grabbed his arms and pinned them to his side, and, his judgement messed up from the lack of sleep, decides to rub in his rivals face *just* a little bit.

“Hey Cuteguy, how does it feel to have been caught by the one and only Hotguy? Must be pretty great, huh? I know I would feel honored.” He closed his eyes for a few seconds, willing the tired feeling to go away for just a bit longer.

All he got in return was the silent treatment, and he really wanted some kind of reaction, so he decided to press on with what he knew best: flirting. “Y’know…you’re kinda cute pinned to the wall like this…all helpless and unable to do anything to stop me. I could do whatever I want to you and all you’d be able to do is watch.

Cuteguy’s eyes widened at that, face going a bit red. He stared at Scar for a second, looking like he was going to say something back, but then seemingly decided against it as he turned his head to the side and away from Scar. Again, Scar had to close his eyes in an attempt to not fall asleep, keeping them shut for longer this time.

*Hmm, that was actually kind of funny, I wonder what other reactions I can get out of him…* He knew it wasn’t normal for him to go this far with his flirting, and honestly he didn’t really understand why he *wanted* to so bad, but…he was tired dammit, and he just didn’t really care that it wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing. So, he decided to keep messing with Cuteguy by holding both of his arms over his head with one hand and turning his face to him with the other.

He leaned in next to his ear, when for the last time he closed his eyes for a few seconds and felt his consciousness slipping. Giving in to his tiredness, he instead rested his head against the wall in front of him and fell asleep.

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Grian extended his wings to slow his descent as he landed on top of the closest guard. He grabbed one of his many hidden knives and used it to stab the guard in the leg, rendering him useless. He then used the gun he had to do to same to the other guard. With both guards out of the way, he headed over to the money, shoving as much as he could into the backpack he brought with him.

He was caught off guard, however, when an employee walked in on him and screamed at the top of her lungs and ran away.

Shit. He thought. That lady just made this so much more annoying.

As he cursed out whatever caused his bad luck, trying to find some way to escape, someone ran into the room.

“Funny seeing you here Cuteguy. What, is villainy not paying enough to get by? Or do you just enjoy seeing my gorgeous face?”

He watched as Hotguy striked a pose, shocked that the hero was here. How did he know I would be here? Is this some new hero tech I didn’t know about?

“Ugh, Hotguy, why are you here? This is supposed to be an easy day for me, and now I have to deal with your dumb face.”
Honestly, he wasn’t mentally prepared to deal with the hero, so this unexpected meetup was really souring his mood.

“Hah! Easy day? There can’t be anything easy about being a villain. Having to be on the run all the time? Always in constant danger? How is any of that easy?”

Grian watched as the hero tried to discreetly inch towards him, but, unfortunately for Hotguy, his heightened senses immediately picked up on it. He didn’t want his rival to know he already realized what he was trying to do, so he just stared the hero down and stayed quiet, thinking hard about how to get out.

He had spotted the window before, but really didn’t want to go that way, as he would just suffer later. Unfortunately, Hotguy started to advance faster, and he made the decision to just suck it up. He flapped his wings and, without a second thought, crashed through the window and flew up to a nearby building.

He stopped for a second after going a few buildings away, just to make sure Hotguy wouldn’t follow him. Thinking back to what Hotguy said about the life of a villain, he started wondering if a hero’s life was much different. Besides fighting for good instead of evil, there really wasn’t much difference. Although, he felt like being a hero, you were more controlled, where a villain could choose what they want. But…they had to fend for themselves.

Since he was so deep in thought, he didn’t realize Hotguy was behind him until too late. Suddenly, there were arms on either side of him, and his wings tried to stretch out on reflex.

This didn’t get him very far, sadly, as Hotguy was definitely the stronger of the two when it came to physical strength. Both his arms were pinned to his sides as his wings were unable to reach him behind his back. The wall was also starting to dig into his skin and squish his wings, so he was in a bit of pain at the moment as well.

“Hey Cuteguy, how does it feel to have been caught by the one and only Hotguy? Must be pretty great, huh? I know I would feel honored.”

Grian decided to just ignore him, his mind currently more focused on the position he’s found himself in anyway. Personally he was a little pissed off at his mind right now for pointing it out.

“Y’know…you’re kinda cute pinned to the wall like this…all helpless and unable to do anything to stop me. I could do whatever I want to you and all you’d be able to do is watch.”

That definitely caught Grian off guard, he was used to the hero’s flirting but it was never this much. He could feel the blush starting to rise on his face and was going to respond with an insult when he looks at Hotguy. Something about the way he was looking at him, a look he couldn’t quite place, it made him think twice and look away.

He thought by now Hotguy would be done flirting and just take him in, honestly he would prefer that right now. Instead, he ended up with both him arms above his head and a Hotguy very close to his face. Then he leaned over to his ear and Grian shivered as he felt the hot breath of the hero on him.

He felt frozen in place despite the hero’s hold loosening, and instead of saying something, the hero slumped against his shoulder, resting his head on the wall.

For a few seconds, all Grian could do was stand there, shocked at what had just happened. Then he looked over at Hotguy and pushed him off of himself. He laid the hero on the building and stared down at him. Now that he was looking, the hero looked exhausted. He had some serious eye bags.

Unsure of what to do, he just sat down next to the hero, staring at him. He wasn’t sure what he would do if and when he woke up, but that was forgotten as he stared at Hotguy’s face. He knew the man was attractive, he was known for his looks after all, but now that he’s seeing him this up close in real life… Even the scars that were all over his (very fit) body just added to the look.

Without realizing, he started to trace the scars, suddenly wanting to know where each and every one came from. Maybe he would ask Hotguy when he woke up. Honestly, he didn’t seem that bad when they weren’t fighting or arguing with each other.

While tracing a scar over the bridge of his nose, Hotguy’s eyes slowly opened. Grian yanked his hand away like it had been burned, and Hotguy looked over at him with a confused look.

“Cuteguy? What’re you doing here?”

“Uhhhh I uh um I just was mmm uh LEAVING yes I was just leaving bye Hotguy!”

And with that Grian took off, flapping his wings haphazardly in his rush to get out of the awkward situation he put himself in, leaving the confused hero on the roof. Meanwhile he was a blushing mess. He flew to his house and through his bedroom window, landing on the bed and putting a hand up to his mouth.

All he could think about was how pretty the hero looked up close and how badly he wanted to trace and learn about all of his scars. He didn’t really know what to think about all of it. Surely it was one of the hero’s tricks causing all of this. Maybe he drugged him at some point during their fight which affected Grian’s thinking. Yes, that had to be it.

He layed flat on his bed, heaving a sigh and deciding to take a nap instead of thinking about his feelings. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

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Scar could not get Cuteguy out of his head. It was getting ridiculous at this point. Some of his friends have already called him out on it. They don’t know who is invading his mind, but they definitely know it’s a crush. Or at least that’s what they’ve decided.

Which, was wrong. He definitely did not have a crush on the winged villain, thank you very much.

But unfortunately for him, he couldn’t explain that to his friends, lest they tease him even more. So, that leads him to being bullied by his co-worker and friend, Cub. Aka, The Skulk. Technically he was a hero as well, but he wasn’t seen by the public a lot, as he worked more as Hotguy’s PR manager than out on the field “fighting the good fight” as Scar likes to say.

“Y’know Scar, as your unofficial PR, I should probably be the first to know about this lucky lady that’s gotten the attention of the one of and only Hotguy” Cub said with a smug grin.

Scar could only groan in response, letting his head fall to the table he was currently sitting at.

“Cubbbbbbb, not you too. I told you guys there’s no ‘lucky lady’ I don’t have a crush.” That was because “she” was actually a man. A man he doesn’t have a crush on. A man who was his main rival in battle and probably wouldn’t want him anyway. The thought of that actually excited Scar. He was used to having everyone love him, so it threw him off thinking about someone who didn’t. He wondered what he could do to change that. How exhilarating it would be to… let loose and break a few rules. Just for Cuteguy. Just for a man who probably hated every part of him. Just to make him so in love he would never be able to say no to him. Just so he could-

“Scar! Finally I got your attention. You looked like you were plotting the demise of the whole world. You okay buddy?”

Scar stared at Cub for a few moments with a blank stare. He honestly wasn’t really sure what that was. It was really weird. He decided not to think about it. He gave Cub his signature Hotguy smile and responded maybe a little to loudly, “I’m fine! Anyways I’m gonna head out for today, gotta get my beauty rest!”

Cub looked at him skeptically, Scar knew he didn’t believe him, but Cub let him go with a goodbye.

Scar started on his way home when he remembered he was going to meet up with his good friend Grian later. So instead, he changed course and started heading over to the little cat cafe him and Grian agreed to going to. It was owned by the very sweet couple Lizzie and Joel who he happened to be really good friends with. (They also happened to be the unstoppable hero duo Cat Queen and Strongman)

Since he got to the cafe a little earlier than the agreed upon time, he decided to just order some coffee and wait for Grian to arrive.

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Hi yall! I’m sorry I haven’t updated, I’m really bad with motivation, so I’ve decided I want to finish writing more of this before starting to post chapters. I also rewrote the first chapter and plan on doing the same for the second, I didn’t really like the pacing of the first one. Also, I was kinda winging it, so I was scared things wouldn’t make sense in future chapters or not line up. I’m still going to write this fic, I enjoy doing so I just don’t have much time :(( Sorry again, I hope to start posting chapters by the new year so, fingers crossed!