Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What is noteworthy about you?”

Does someone have to be noteworthy to matter? What does being unique or special add to a person, other than just another thing they have to maintain? Is someone not special, just because they were born?

“You’re just an average, mediocre person.”

What’s so bad about that, everyone is average and mediocre underneath the layer they try to build themselves up on. Is being average not the best place to be, after all, you’re not “too good” or “too bad,” you’re just you, a person.

‘I think people are forgetting that these days.’

“Lin Ling, pack your stuff and get the hell out.”

“Shit,” Lin Ling swore as he stuffed the few belongings he had into the small cardboard box one of his coworkers had been generous enough to give him. It wasn’t much, he spent most of his nights at the office, with his desk becoming the closest thing to a bed he had. He was not “homeless” per say, his income gave him enough money to keep the lights on and the water running, but that was about it.

His boss claimed that aside from Treeman, their company wasn’t getting many commissions from hero companies or other advertising labels, so there wasn’t much money to pay employees.

Most of Lin Ling’s paychecks that didn’t go to rent, the water bill, or the electric bill were spent on the resources he needed to put his advertising proposals together because his body didn’t have a “company card” that employees like him could use. In hindsight, he could’ve done a lot better when picking a job, but this was one of the only places that would accept his humble associates degree and low credit score.

Lin Ling’s brows furrowed, since when did jobs ask about your credit score before hiring you?

‘Whatever,’ Lin Ling huffed as he pulled his box up to his chest, ‘Not like I’ll be working here anymore.’ And for some reason, that was the thought that got him to pause, shoulders slumping as the day’s events caught up to him.

He got scolded for proposing a more mature concept for the hero Moon, berated for talking about X’s eyebrows, stared at when he commented on Nice’s “shiny lips,” and then got fired from his job.

A barely restrained whine slipped through his lips.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

As he walked through the halls of his office building, his steps made almost no sound against the shiny marble floor. People sat still in their cubicles as he passed, someone rushed by with coffee and continued rambling to the person on their phone even as they roughly slammed their shoulder into Lin Ling’s.

Was there really nothing that notable about him that people didn’t pause to greet him, or at least nod in passing? No one had noticed the cardboard box in his arms or the way he was clearly dragging his feet through the halls as if it were his first day navigating the building?

No, Lin Ling had thought that one or two people would notice his absence. But if no one noticed his presence in the first place, who would mourn him once he was gone? A little dramatic perhaps, but the thought made him chuckle, and he found that he really needed a laugh right now.

What would his parents say if they could see him now?

“I told you so.”

A grimace pulled at his lips, his father had told him repeatedly to get a real job, no matter how many times Lin Ling insisted that pursuing a marketing career was a very real job, and a very well-paying job. It was just like working in real estate, you have to build a reputation first, no one becomes a bomb ass real estate agent right out the gate. Lin Ling had to assume the same thing applied to marketing, so he just had to get in with a good company and make a name for himself.

Except, he had signed with a terrible company, and no one knew who he was.

“Aw man,” he muttered, shifting the box further up in his arms when it started sliding a bit low. He had about a month’s worth of rent left in his bank account, maybe he could stretch it to two when he got his last paycheck from the company, there was even a possibility of making it to three if he cut back on paying the water bill.

‘No,’ he thought as he chewed his inner cheek. Then he would have to go a month without showering, and without running tap water he would have to buy water bottles so he could cook, and of course to drink because he didn’t want to die of dehydration. But buying water bottles would essentially be the same as paying his water bill at that point, and he would be back down to two months of rent, and his original calculation hadn’t included the electric bill.

So, he had two months to find another job, hopefully one with better pay and a boss that actually cared about their employees.

“Did you guys watch last week’s True Love Recipe?”

No, Lin Ling was busy preparing the proposal he’d just gotten fired over.

“Oh! I did, did you see the way Nice and Moon looked at each other? They’re made for one another!”

Lin Ling wondered if he would ever find true love.

Not that Lin Ling thought companionship made someone more noteworthy, but he did recognize how having a partner in life seemed to make some people happier. His thoughts turned to Moon, and not for the first time he found himself envying the hero Nice. Perfect job, perfect appearance, and the perfect girlfriend; what Lin Ling would give to live even a moment of Nice’s life.

If Lin Ling could be any of the heroes, he’d probably want to be Nice. He had heard that Treeman was one of the easiest hero companies to get into, but actually debuting and becoming a hero was the hard part, as it was for any company you entered into. Nice was Treeman’s golden boy, the face of the company who had swooped in a little more than three years ago and captured the people’s hearts with his blinding smile and endless charisma.

Lin Ling didn’t even blame Wreck, the hero’s self-proclaimed nemesis who lost every single battle with the hero, but kept coming back with the declaration that he would take Nice down someday. Aside from petty nameless villains who could be taken down with one punch, Lin Ling couldn’t remember anyone else attempting to put up such a fight with Nice.

Perhaps even the villains found him that perfect; they didn’t even try to touch someone like him.

Lin Ling laments, he would never be Nice or anything like Nice. He could play pretend hero in his mind all he wanted, but there were real people out there doing real hero things, and he was sitting behind a desk putting together ads to make those hero’s look better.

Lin Ling’s teeth ground together; everything was about Nice. Everyone was talking about Nice, fanning over Nice, gushing over Nice and Moon’s relationship.

If he was going to feel sorry for himself, he would have to find somewhere quieter to do so.

The illuminated green “exit” sign caught his eye just as he was approaching the elevator. His company was one of many that occupied the building, and the floor they were on just so happened to be two floors down from the roof. Every so often, when the boss was out or stuck in his office, Lin Ling and his coworkers would go up to the roof for a drink and a chance to complain about their jobs.

‘I always sat on the edge of those groups, but at least they gave me a drink.’ Lin Ling sighed, turning on his heel and nudging the metal bar to open the door with his hip. ‘Guess they were just passing out drinks mindlessly and didn’t really notice it was me they handed it to.’

That was depressing.

But at least the breeze was nice.

The wind tussled his hair, cooling his flushed skin and making him sigh in relief as the door shut behind him. ‘Much better,’ he thought as he walked out onto the roof. There was no one taking a smoke break, no one sneaking in a quick sip of beer on the job, no one looking up and staring at the birds; it was just Lin Ling, his thoughts, and his box up on the roof.

As well as ten billboards of Nice, because the universe loved to shove the hero in his face.

“You know what,” Lin Ling mumbled, to no one other than himself and maybe the billboard of Nice, “winning someone’s trust as a regular person, really isn’t that easy.” He walked over to the lip of the roof, setting his box of belongings down on the ledge while he stood by and stared at the setting sun.

Heroes were technically like real estate agents too, weren’t they? They don’t gain trust right out of the gate, so they’re regular normal people until their trust value starts to rise and then they begin to build a name for themselves.

Except…companies like Treeman helped boost a hero’s trust before they were given an official public name, so they did have that above people like Lin Ling.

“Hey, cheer up!”

“Moon…”

Nice’s perfect girlfriend Moon, the goddess that had been at his side for the past three years, her face was plastered over a passing blimp as her encouraging words were projected almost directly to Lin Ling.

Sometimes, Lin Ling thought Moon got overlooked a lot, or that she was seen too much as “Nice’s girlfriend.” That’s why a few months ago he had tried to propose a more mature concept for Moon, having her dress in darker sharper colors and letting her hair go loose instead of being tied into her tight high ponytail all the time. His boss had said that it was inappropriate; for one because he assumed Lin Ling was lusting over Moon and had to lecture him about Moon being Nice’s girlfriend, and two because “mature” just wasn’t Moon’s concept.

Moon was slighter higher than Nice on the list of heroes Lin Ling would love to meet. In his opinion, Moon was more of an inspiration than the perfect hero. Yes, she was perfect in her own way, but she didn’t make Lin Ling feel like he had any expectations to meet like Nice did. Moon’s ability to teleport gave her ultimate freedom, and the ability to go anywhere she wanted. Yet she chose to stay by Nice’s side and choose to encourage the public beside her boyfriend.

It really was a love story worth gushing over, Lin Ling mused.

The projected picture of Moon smiled as a heart burst forth from her chest, the hero declaring, “watch true love recipe, and discover the secret of our perfect love!”

Shit… those were the lines Lin Ling had written last month in his ad proposal, when was he going to get a break today?

“Hey, have you got a house?”

No, not really.

“Treeman Corporation, fulfilling the dreams over everyone of you that worries!”

“—you that worries—”

“—you that worries—”

Lin Ling’s brows pinched together, seems like even the perfect hero Nice fell victim to shitty internet.

“—you that worries—”

Except this was really starting to get annoying, Nice’s perfect voice continued to mock him for his endless worries and inability to do anything other than worry. Lin Ling’s fist clenched at his side; no he would never be the perfect hero Nice, but damn it he was still a noteworthy person.

Lin Ling whipped around, raising his pinky toward the glitching billboard and shouted, “Enough Nice!” And then, because he was petty and no one could hear him anyway, he added, “No matter how perfect you are now, one day you too will become old and ugly, and be replaced by someone else!”

His chest heaved; that felt good to air out. No matter how much he did envy/like Nice, constantly having his superiority shoved in his face could not have been more aggravating. No matter though, it wasn’t like the perfect hero could hear him all the way from the hero tower.

Lin Ling’s eyes narrowed at the small white speck floating down in front of his raised finger just as the glitching billboard blacked out. “Wait…” his breath caught in his throat at the sight of Nice, Treeman’s golden boy and perfect hero, slowly descending onto the same roof as him.

‘Shit,’ he panicked, ‘did he hear everything I said? Does being perfect mean you don’t get angry, is he going to get angry at me? Oh shit, is Treeman going to force me to put out a public apology for defaming their star pupil!’

Lin Ling’s thoughts spiraled, his hands flying up into his hair as he scrambled for an apology to shove at the approaching hero. He had meant his words, so he couldn’t assure Nice that he didn’t mean anything, Nice would in fact grow old one day. But he probably wouldn’t be ugly, he would probably still have a perfect appearance even as an 80-year-old man, but that wasn’t the point!

“Uh…Nice! I didn’t—I didn’t mean—” Lin Ling floundered for the right words to say as the hero got closer, searching the hero’s gaze for any sign of anger so he could determine how to go about his apology, groveling or just a simple deep bow.

Nice didn’t meet his gaze, however, in fact, Nice was looking past him, toward the same setting sun Lin Ling had been looking at later. Except, Nice’s gaze was so…empty, it almost sent a chill down Lin Ling’s spine because what could Nice be thinking that had his eyes looking that blank. They say eyes are the window to the soul, but if that were true, Lin Ling would have the impression that Nice had no soul or at least there was nothing left where it used to be.

Nice didn’t look well…Nice.

He kind of looked scary in Lin Ling’s opinion.

Lin Ling’s thoughts finally caught up to him when Nice was stepping up on to the ledge next to him. ‘Going for a fly,’ he thought to say, but bit down the comment when those steel cold eyes finally shifted toward Lin Ling and locked with his own. Nice gave him a soft smile, eerie when not a hint of joy was seen in his eyes, and lifted his hands to give Lin Ling his signature finger guns.

Lin Ling had always wondered if that looked as goofy in person as it did in the ads; he concluded that it did.

He also concluded, as Nice took a step off the ledge while continuing to smile at him, that Nice had not been planning to go on a flight. In fact, it was quite the opposite, and suddenly the cool breeze that had once been pleasant turned ice cold around the two of them.

Lin Ling moved before the thought fully developed.

He reached out and grabbed Nice’s closest wrist, his full weight hadn’t left the ledge yet, so a slight tug was all it took for Nice to set his other foot back on the ledge and stare down at him as his carefully crafted smile started to slip.

A flight of doves flew past the two of them, pristine white feathers fluttering into the air. They served to interrupt the moment and Lin Ling fully turned to regard the perfect hero before he spoke.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

~

This was unfortunate.

All things considered, Nice should have seen this coming. He had picked this building because he figured most of the employees would be gone for the day, most of the companies occupying the building were advertising companies, and any work that wasn’t finished in office could totally get done the next day or quickly when they got home.

He also knew that the company working closest to the roof did most of his ads, and he heard from Miss J that the proposal had been sent in last night, so there was no reason for anyone to be getting their overtime at the moment.

Guess he’d been wrong, but it wasn’t too bad, maybe having a witness would make things more final. Miss J was good at covering up Treeman’s messes, but there wasn’t much she could do if this guy ran off and called the people; if he was a terrible person and took a picture of his body, the news would only spread faster, and he would likely take Treeman down with him. Ruining Treeman was not his intention at all, though he could admit that it wouldn’t be so bad for the other employees who wanted a way out as well.

But he hadn’t expected the young man to grab him, the contact against his skin sending tingles up his arm, fingers twitching and nearly falling out of the finger guns he’d mindlessly thrown at the boy.

He could still jump technically; he was strong enough to wretch his arm out of the mans grasp and step off the ledge. Nice didn’t know this man, and one “don’t do it, people love you” conversation wasn’t going to change his mind, but the grip on his wrist wasn’t loosening and against his better judgement, it was causing his heart rate to go down. Nice hadn’t even realized it was elevated in the first place, but it was probably adrenaline kicking in now that he’d been stopped from stepping off the ledge.

The hero let out a sigh, he wasn’t getting out of this situation any time soon, might as well humor the guy then continue his plan once the man left.

Nice brought his foot that had been dangling off the ledge back to the ground before stepping down from the ledge and standing face to face with the man. Now that he was really looking, the guy didn’t look much older or younger than him, they were probably the same age. He also had strikingly similar facial features to Nice himself, albeit having slightly softer cheeks and rounder eyes. Where Nice’s features were sharpened to perfect, this guy was a softer, more youthful looking young man.

For some reason, that made Nice smile, even though he didn’t know why.

But he was always smiling, so it couldn’t be that important.

“Apologies,” he started with a slight bow of his head, “I think we’ve run into a slight misunderstanding.” The man’s deep brown eyes were blown wide, likely in awe of the perfect hero standing in front of him. Nice gave the man a soft smile, the kind of smile he saved for fangirls that usually ran up to him and then stuttered when they didn’t know what to say.

The man still hadn’t let go of Nice’s wrist, so the hero used his free hand to gesture to the skyline where the sun was starting to fully slip beneath the horizon. “The hero tower has a great view, but sometimes I like to watch the sunset from a different angle. I came to this building but upon landing I realized I couldn’t see the sun as well as I thought, so I was going to find a new building when we ran into each other.”

“You were going to fall.”

“It’s best to gain momentum before taking flight, shooting off straight from the roof tends to hurt my head.”

That technically wasn’t a lie, Nice did prefer to get a running start before flying because going straight to flight from solid ground tended to give him whiplash. He had never tried flying coming out a free fall, and he would have thought about experimenting, if the thought of free falling didn’t make him yearn for the ground below.

The young man’s eyes narrowed, his grip on Nice’s wrist increasing until it started to sting.

“You’re doing a horrible job lying to me right now.”

“What makes you think I’m lying?”

The man puffed out a laugh, eyes going wide again in disbelief as he shook his head. “I work in advertising, or worked I guess…I know when people are acting versus being genuine. Hell, I’m the one directing the acting in the first place most of the time, or at least it’s my script they’re following.

“And you know what, I put together almost all of your ad campaigns, so I should know best what it looks like when you’re acting, because its MY script you’re acting!”

Nice had to take a step back, he had heard the boy yelling at his face when he’d first descended, and it had made him chuckle. It was nice hearing someone berate him rather than the constant praise he had grown numb too, and he almost wished he had arrived a little later to see if the young man had anything else to say about him.

“So,” the young man huffed, “I know that you weren’t simply going on a fly Nice. Your eyes wouldn’t look like that if you did.”

What did his eyes look like?

One of the things Nice prided himself on was having perfect control over his facial features. His smile was perfectly crafted into the soft curve the people loved, or the almost cocky grin the audience waited for when he beat a villain. Everything about him was crafted by Treeman or shaped by the people’s beliefs, if they wanted him to have shining crystal clear eyes, then he was going to have shining crystal clear eyes.

So what had this boy seen in his eyes that helped him deduce that Nice was going to attempt suicide rather than take a relaxing flight.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

The boy paused, using his free hand to awkwardly scratch the back of his neck. “Uh, Lin Ling. You wouldn’t recognize the name cause, my family doesn’t work in the city and I don’t really have a lot of social connections so… uh…yeah, it’s Lin Ling.”

Lin Ling was a very awkward young man, Nice concluded. But it was a breath of fresh air to meet someone that was genuinely awkward rather than someone who became a blubbering mess simply because they thought Nice was too pretty for them to speak to.

Nice looked down at his wrist that was still held between Lin Ling’s fingers before his eyes shifted over to the small cardboard box sitting just a couple of feet away from them. The hero’s eyes narrowed, Lin Ling had stopped him from jumping, but what had Lin Ling been doing on the roof? People don’t usually bring their belongings to a tall building unless they were planning to leave them behind, but in Nice’s experience, had hadn’t brought anything at all.

But Nice didn’t have much that was still his own these days, so he was an exception.

“Lin Ling,” Nice breathed and the boy looked up in shock, then his eyes crinkled as a small smile slipped across his face that had Nice’s heart stuttering painfully. “What were you doing up on the roof?”

For the first time since he’d met the young man, Lin Ling seemed unsure of himself, and he chewed on his bottom lip for a while without answering.

“I uh, I just got fired from my job and I didn’t really know what to do. So I came up here to try and clear my mind and figure out where to go from here.”

“And the box of stuff?” That was a very eloquent sentence, Nice mentally kicked himself.

“Oh!” Lin Ling twisted around to look at the cardboard box on the ground. “That’s all my stuff from the office, and most of my stuff in general. I spent a lot of late nights at my desk and so it got it the point where I just kept most of my stuff here.” Looking at the box a little longer, Lin Ling held a hand to his chin and mumbled, more to himself than Nice, “If I sold the action figures, I could probably make it to three months.”

“Three months?”

“Yeah,” Lin Ling gave a hollow laugh. “I have a few months left of rent before they evict me from my apartment, the land lady already doesn’t like me, so she’ll probably tell me to start packing once she learns I lost my job.”

‘That’s unfortunate,’ Nice thought, twisting his wrist in Ling Ling’s hold but the boy’s grip was firm. “Do you have anyone you could stay with for the time being?” Nice could over to let Lin Ling stay with him if he were a normal person and wasn’t constantly running from photoshoot to ad campaign and mixing a hero fight in between the mix. That, and he couldn’t very well ask Moon to share her space with some stranger Nice had felt bad for, Moon already didn’t like him, and he didn’t want to make her situation any worse.

Lin Ling unfortunately shook his head, then lifted his free hand to flap through the air distractingly as if that could ease Nice’s worries alone. “No, but it’s fine, I’ll figure something you. I always do; you can’t work in marketing if you aren’t creative after all.”

‘Marketing…’ Nice bit the side of his tongue, a bad habit the public hadn’t found out about and therefore couldn’t fix for him. ‘If Lin Ling did Moon and I’s ads, then he’s likely familiar with or has at least heard of Miss J. While I wouldn’t wish her management on him, she could at least help him get back on his feet while looking for a new job.’

“Lin Ling…would you like to—”

“There you are!”

Both men turned toward the building door that had slammed open when Miss J and several of her bodyguards ran toward Nice and Lin Ling. Through his brief conversation with Lin Ling, Nice had found his heart beating at a normal pace for once, but as soon as his eyes found Miss J the poor organ had started going haywire again.

Nice had planned to help Lin Ling, thanking him for the polite conversation, and then resuming his business on another building. Now that Miss J was here, he knew he wouldn’t be able to evade her a second time, knowing his luck Miss J would probably shoot him with a tranquilizer and force him back to the hero tower until he swore not to run off again.

‘Damn it,’ he swore as Miss J stomped over to them with nothing short of pure rage written across her face.

“Nice—wait, who is this?”

Lin Ling, likely in his panic, finally released Nice’s wrist to hold his hands up next to his head. “Miss J! Uh, you don’t know me, but I know you, I’m Lin Ling! I’ve done a bunch of ads for Treeman, I actually just sent you a proposal last night…you…talked with my boss about it just a little while ago actually…heh.”

Nice shook his head, he didn’t know Lin Ling could get any more awkward.

Miss J paused, taking in everything Lin Ling had said before waving him off and turning back to Nice. “You cannot just run off Nice, do you know how long we’ve been looking for you? We only came up this building for a vantage point since this one figured you’d be somewhere in the skies.”

‘I almost ended up on the ground,’ Nice mused, but didn’t voice his morbid comment.

“Miss J, I just needed a breather, I was going to come back tonight,” Nice tried to assure her, but Lin Ling’s heavy gaze on his back made that action slightly difficult. “I was taking a break on this building and happened to run into Lin Ling. As a matter of fact,” Nice put an arm around Lin Ling’s shoulders and vaguely gestured to him with the other, “Lin Ling’s actually in need of a job, and you’ve been talking about the “M and A” crew needing a new face, how about his?”

Nice mentally apologized when he felt more than saw Lin Ling gawk, before rapidly shaking his head.

Miss J hummed as the men at her side looked Lin Ling up and down. “Well, we certainly can’t just let him leave. If word get’s out that the “Perfect Hero Nice” was running from his boss, it would tarnish our reputation.”

Nice could think of a few other things that would ruin Treeman’s reputation, but Miss J was likely aware of that.

“Alright.” Miss J snapped as she wrapped up her thoughts, Lin Ling jumping as she did as if she had struck him. “We’d rather you come willingly than by force, so what do you say kid, would you like to work for Treeman?”

Nice knew from experience that the people who worked day to day with Miss J were treated a lot better than he and Moon were. They were essentially 9-5 workers that got paid every other Friday, and had all the benefits you would receive from any other job. Realistically, Lin Ling could work for as long as he wanted until he was able to stand on his own feet again, and then he could leave if working for Treeman proved to be too much for him.

The hero looked down at Lin Ling and gave him a soft smile, his fingers twitching with the urge to give the boy his signature finger guns. “It’s a well-paying job.”

“Will I get to see you again?”

Nice startled, that hadn’t been what he was expecting to hear. In part, he felt bad, Lin Ling would be entering a world he had only seen behind a screen and was nowhere near prepared for just how hard Miss J pushed everyone to work. But part of Nice’s job was keeping the public happy, and he had sworn to protect everyone’s smile.

“Sure! We are working together after all.”

Lin Ling would have to sign a contract; he would be working directly with the people that kept Nice’s image squeaky clean the most aside from the hero himself. He and Lin Ling would probably never cross paths again, because Nice really only spoke to Moon and Miss J these days, but he wouldn’t ruin Lin Ling’s mood like that.

Even if he did see Lin Ling again, the young man was just another face he had to play pretend for.

The plan didn’t change.

He would just have to try again.

Chapter Text

Lin Ling had a grand total of two minutes to process what was going on before he was being shoved in the back of a van and told to “sit tight.” At least Nice had been kind enough to grab his box of belongings when Lin Ling had been grabbed by both his arms and lugged down the stairs to the white van that was giving, albeit rich, kidnapper vibes. Lin Ling had been sandwiched between two big burly men and sat across from Miss J and Nice who was too busy looking out the window too pay attention to Lin Ling’s distress.

“Listen up,” Miss J suddenly stated, breaking the silence with her crisp voice and bringing a small yip from Lin Ling’s throat. He straight his back, setting his hands politely in his lap as Miss J crossed her legs across from him.

“You’re going to be working in the “M&A” department, which stands for marketing and advertising. I’ll review the work we’ve received from you in the past later and determine what exactly I want you to do.”

Lin Ling supposed that was fair, he wasn’t the only one from his old company that made ads commissioned by Treeman, it’s just that he was the one most often picked for said job. He tried not to let that inflate his ego, failed spectacularly, and decided to give him the win for once. Nice gave him a sideways glance at the proud smile that had suddenly appeared on his face, and Lin Ling rushed to school his features back into casual…awe.

Miss J arched an eyebrow at him before continuing, “let’s be clear, M&A workers are personally responsible for shaping and creating the image of Nice that we want the public to see. All photo shoot requests, sponsorship offers, and commercial appearances have to be reviewed and approved by the M&A team before we send Nice or Moon off to them.

“So we can’t have you accepting anything less than perfection. Nice is the perfect hero after all.”

Lin Ling despaired at the words and wondered how many times he was going to hear the word “perfect” on a daily basis from now on. He wasn’t exactly surprised at how much work went on behind the scenes of Treeman, a lot of a hero’s trust value was gained by the public, but it was also important to consider how much time, money, and effort came from the company to boost that hero.

‘I wonder if I’ll get to see him practice,’ Lin Ling pondered. ‘Like, if I give Nice a script, do I get to watch that awkward first phase where he has to get used to what he’s saying? Or does he always have a perfect first take, that would kind of suck.’

Despite how fast he had been thrust into this situation, Lin Ling found himself growing excited at the glittering opportunity before him. For so long he had wanted a more significant role to play in life, often spending many late nights sitting up and wondering if his life was going to go anywhere in the next fifty years. And though he would essentially be doing the same job behind the scenes, with a couple more responsibilities, his work would be recognized by the public through the hero Nice on a much greater scale.

If he jumped through enough mental hoops, he could say he would be gaining secondhand trust from the people who believed in Nice, and the image of Nice that Lin Ling helped create.

But then his mind replayed the moment where he watched Nice prepare to step off a building, and he bit down the sudden sour taste that had built in his mouth.

Casting a glance at the hero across from him, Lin Ling wondered if Nice knew what kind of face he was making right now. His posture was relaxed, a leg crossed over the other and an elbow sat on the windowsill keeping his head propped up on his hand. There was a soft smile on his face, but his eyes were just so dark, reflecting the night sky as he idly watched the buildings pass by.

While Lin Ling had claimed to be the person who understood Nice’s acting the most, he really couldn’t fathom what was going through the hero’s mind. And it didn’t sit well with him that he had learned nothing when it came to why Nice wanted to take a dive off the roof, his attempt to get an answer from Nice had just been twisted to Nice himself asking why Lin Ling had been on the roof.

His hands curled uncomfortably at his side, he may have talked the perfect hero out of suicide for the moment, but had Miss J not shown up moments later would Nice have simply taken the opportunity as soon as they split paths?

Lin Ling made a mental note to check in on the hero every now and then while he was working for Treeman, simply a “hey, how has your day been” could go a long way for someone, he should know.

‘But would that be overbearing?’ Lin Ling lamented, he didn’t have many acquaintances or friends that had struggled with depression, if that’s what the hero was experiencing, but he knew that constant comfort and checking in could actually frustrate the trouble subject rather than making them feel more seen. Lin Ling didn’t want Nice to feel pitied or think that he had only accepted this job out of sympathy for the hero.

Yes, it had played a part, but Lin Ling really had jumped for the chance to be worth something in life.

If he and Nice didn’t interact as much as he was expecting, then he would be okay with that and stay thankful to the hero for getting him a better job. But if they were to work together often, then Lin Ling wanted to take the chance to befriend the hero. After all, Lin Ling didn’t have any friends in his life anymore and Nice had always been someone he’d admired. They say don’t meet your idols, but it’s hard not to get to know someone if you work with them every day.

“We’re here,” Miss J’s voice cut through his thoughts, dragging Lin Ling’s attention to the window before he practically glued himself to the glass. The building before them was huge, he had seen the advertised Treeman Corporation on television, even rode the bus or subway on a route that passed the building. But he had never seen it in person, or beheld how tall it was when he was on the ground looking up at them.

Morbidly, Lin Ling wondered why Nice hadn’t chosen this building.

The two large men stood, subsequently causing Lin Ling to stand as well because he didn’t have much room to move, and when they left the van, he did too. Miss J rounded the van to stand in front of them, but Lin Ling noticed that Nice hadn’t followed and turned back to the still open door to see Nice giving him a friendly wave before the doors slid close.

“Nice will be returning to the hero tower for tonight,” Miss J explained, swiping away at the tablet that Lin Ling had yet to see her point down, “you’ll see him from time to time, Moon as well.”

Lin Ling tried to stifle the way his heart flipped at the mention of Moon, but by the looks the two men gave him, he was sure the reaction had been clear on his face.

Miss J sighed, walking forward and crooking a finger to instruct her men and Lin Ling to follow her. “This building has quite the convoluted layout, the first couple of floors are occupied by the lobby as well as several recreational centers.”

Lin Lings eyes widened as they passed through the automatic doors; the wide lobby was decorated with pale green chairs and couches set against the wall, a vending machine with several energy drink brands stood by the set of elevators that was guarded by one lone man with muscle so large Lin Ling was sure the man could strange him with one arm alone.

Past the desk where a couple of adults sat typing away on their computers, was what looked like a small convenience store with all the essentials like eggs, milk, and bread. Convenient if you were working late and needed to make a quick dinner, assuming there was a kitchen somewhere in this massive building, but Lin Ling didn’t doubt it. A young lady with light pink hair smiled and waved at him as they passed, and Lin Ling awkwardly wiggled his fingers back at her before shoving his hands in his pockets and vowing to keep them there forever.

They approached the elevator and Miss J gave the thick man a nod as he stepped aside to let them in. “The top few floors are where Treeman Corps main operations lie, the top floor is the main office where we all meet when necessary, but the M&A department in located five floors below that and above the residential floors.”

‘Residential floors?’ Lin Ling frowned at Miss J’s words, having his job right above the floor where he slept would make it extremely hard to call in when he could just walk up the stairs to his desk. ‘Whatever,’ he decided, he had already gotten used to sleeping at his job, this really wasn’t that different.

‘Wait a minute…’

“Miss J.” He scrambled forward as the woman pressed a button for the fifth from top floor. “I don’t mean to assume, but would I be living here? I do have an apartment and can commute if necessary.”

Miss J mindlessly waved her hand at the boy, tapping on her tablet before she turned to address Lin Ling. “Yes, I find it easier to reach my employees when needed this way.” That was kind of controlling, Lin Ling thought, but kept the comment to himself as the elevator dinged at the desired destination.

“I’ve been looking over your work from the past, barring the most recent proposal,” Miss J droned on as they walked out onto the floor. Lin Ling tuned her out for just a moment to look around; the space was empty due to the late-night hour, though there were still one or two people working at their computers that glanced up as they passed.

Lin Ling wouldn’t say it was cozy; it was still an office job after all, but it had a lighter atmosphere than his old job had. There weren’t blocky cubicles sectioning employees off from one another, instead, there were three to four computers clustered together in different corners of the room, with a big projector and screen with surrounding desk located in the center of the room.

A desk was absolutely covered in action figures, and another had various crocheted flowers littered behind the computer. Someone had left several coffee mug rings all over the right side of their desk, and someone else had meticulously organized their folders in a small desk container to their left and a pencil box to their right. There was so much personality in just the few desks he had seen, so different from the cold bland identical gray desks he had grown used to seeing.

“Did you hear me, Lin Ling?”

Said man jumped, shrinking under the scrutinizing gaze of Miss J before shamedly shaking his head. “Sorry, I got distracted.”

One of the men behind them laughed, “happens all the time kid, don’t worry.”

Miss J shook her head with a soft sigh. “Your past proposals have all been good, in fact, it looks like we’ve used almost every single one you’ve sent over.” The woman pushed her glasses up idly as she scrolled on her tablet before continuing, “I don’t want to waste that talent by putting you in any other team, so I’m putting you with our main “M” team. They’re the ones all proposals have to pass through before being given to me.”

Wasn’t that technically making him a manager from the jump? How were the other employees going to react to that, oh they were going to hate them weren’t they? He was going to have a terrible reputation and be known as the “hot shot” who came in and was instantly put in a big seat, they probably thought he was going to get a big head and be the most annoying individual on the planet.

Lin Ling moaned, his head dropping slightly as his bottom lip jutted out. Maybe this job wasn’t all he had hyped it up to be.

“Give me a moment,” Miss J muttered before she walked off, leaving Lin Ling with the two he was now putting together to be her bodyguards.

“She’s likely sending those two home, Miss J isn’t too fond of all-nighters,” the man closest to him explained. He’d been the only one of Miss J’s men to speak so far, the rest of them staying eerily silent. The man had broad shoulders and short black hair that had been jelled up into a sharp point, not personally Lin Ling’s style, but he wouldn’t judge.

The man looked down at Lin Ling and gave him a smile, small dimples appearing on both of cheeks and giving him a more youthful look. “You’ll like it here, the “M&A” team is fun, and I think they’re the closest department in this building. I’m Hu Cangqiong by the way, I work in the makeup department.”

A glance down, a glance back up, makeup is not the department Lin Ling would’ve placed this guy in. “Make up, like, for Miss J?”

Hu Cangqiong shook his head. “I typically do Nice’s makeup, should he need any, and occasionally I get to work with Moon too.”

‘What!’ This guy was the personal makeup artist for Nice and Moon? He had to be close to the two heroes then; Lin Ling wouldn’t be able to be that close to someone without trying to befriend them. Something warm bloomed in his chest as he looked at the happy smile on the big man, ‘seems like the Treeman people are a lot closer than I thought.’

“Hey,” he decided to ask, “what’s Nice like when he’s not doing hero stuff?”

Hu Cangqiong paused, eyes trailing up to the ceiling before he shrugged. “Perfect as always, it’s admirable really, Nice is both the perfect hero and the perfect person. Whenever I see him at the office, he’s always helping someone with their work or letting the people here practice their proposals in front of him, it’s no wonder he’s so successful.”

Lin Ling deflated, was there ever a point where Nice didn’t have to be perfect? Before his thoughts could continue to ponder this subject, Miss J had come back over, the two people who’d been working nodded as they made their way past on their way to leave the office. “Alright,” Miss J sighed as she waved her hand to direct them back to the elevator, “let’s get you to your new apartment, it’s getting late and I’m tired.”

Hu Cangqiong clapped him on the back as they went back down the elevator, Lin Ling feeling the clap vibrate his entire spine as a wheeze slipped out of him.

“Your belongings will be brought over tomorrow,” Miss J added, “if there’s anything at your previous abode you’re going to miss, let the doormen know and they’ll send someone to grab it.”

Lin Ling tried to think if there was anything back at his shabby apartment that he absolutely needed to bring with him. Aside from a framed picture of him and his parents when he graduated high school, a few trinkets from his childhood, and his favorite weighted blanket, there wasn’t much his land lady couldn’t just take for herself and sell. He nodded and made another mental note to ask one of the people downstairs for those things whenever he got the chance tomorrow.

‘Tomorrow.’ Lin Ling let out a shaky sigh, pressing a hand to his chest to try and calm his racing heart.

Tomorrow everything would be different. He wouldn’t be jarred awake an hour earlier by the fire alarm going off in his apartment, only to be a false alarm due to a bugged system. If there was a kitchen in this massive corporate building, he could properly brew his tea instead of microwaving a cup of water and then dropping a tea bag in it, then he would also avoid the feeling that his elders were looking down at him in shame.

He would make new friends, he hoped, and living in a community like this meant he would be surrounded by people with similar interests to him.

‘Please let them like me,’ he pleaded, dropping his hand back to his side as the elevator doors opened again and they walked out into what looked like a hotel hallway.

“This floor is two levels down from the “M&A” department floor, keep that in mind when you’re figuring out when you need to leave.” Miss J led them through the hall, keeping her voice low out of respect for the people sleeping, and pulled out a small silver key. Lin Ling squinted, finding the numbers ‘6-8A’ engraved just under where Miss J’s thumb and pointer finger held the key.

Approaching a large brown door with the same numbers written on a plaque next to the door, Miss J slid the key into the lock which clicked open with ease and pushed through to allow Lin Ling into the room.

His eyes watered against his will. There was a small kitchen off to the side as soon as he walked through the door, with just enough space for him to walk through and easy for someone to turn from the sink to the oven if they were cooking in a rush. A light green love seat occupied a portion of the living room, flanked by a tall lamp that illuminated the room in a warm pale orange glow. There was a large bed covered in gray sheets in a smaller room off to the side, and at the end of the room was a glass sliding door that opened onto a balcony with a small grill and one green lawn chair.

‘I don’t deserve this…this is too much.’ Lin Ling turned to tell Miss J that he had changed his mind, that his old apartment really was fine, and he could just commute to work every day. There was no need to reserve this space for him, sure maybe his work was good, but he couldn’t be compared to the people who had spent years trying to get here and had occupied these rooms for most of their lives.

Miss J held the key out to him, Lin Ling’s fingers betraying him and taking the key in his trembling hand. She had also passed him a small slip of paper with two numbers on them, “the top one is my number, use it sparingly. The second one is Hu Cangqiong’s, if you need to be driven anywhere, he’s the man to call,” Miss J stated before stepping back.

‘A driver and a makeup artist, what doesn’t this man do?’

“Tomorrow, I’ll give you your keycard to the office and show you to the hero tower,” Miss J mentioned, “I’ll need you in the lobby at eight so, make sure you get plenty of sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow.”

Not giving Lin Ling the moment to thank her or wish her a good night, Miss J and her two bodyguards saw their way out the door and it shut with a small click.

Lin Ling stood still, the soft buzz of the AC system kicking in and filling the silence with a quiet hum.

He set the keys and the slip of paper on the kitchen counter, trailing his finger across the marble surface on his way through the apartment. The city was quiet for once, bright lights still flashing through his window and casting shadows across the furniture, a glare catching his eye as Lin Ling walked over to the small bedroom. He would find a good place for his action figures, maybe putting them around the TV but keeping a couple next to his bed, the framed picture of his family could go in the kitchen, for the few fond memories he had of them cooking together.

Sitting down on the bed, Lin Ling leaned over and pressed his palms over his eyes.

‘Hey mom, I got a new apartment. It’s much cleaner than my old one, you should visit some time.’

‘Hey dad, my new job is pretty nice, I finally got a real job like you told me to.’

Lin Ling sniffles, tomorrow everything will change, tomorrow everything will be better. Lin Ling repeated those words to himself as he washed up for the night, clicked the lights off, and covered himself in his new bed.

‘Please let them like me, please let this be where I’m meant to be.’

~

Lin Ling smiled wide as a camera flashed in his face, blinking rapidly afterward to clear the haze from his vision. Miss J was going to give him an official Treeman ID and had offered to take the photo from his old ID and slip it into a new pocket with the official Treeman Corp logo on it. But he’d insisted on getting a new picture taken, this was a fresh start after all, might as well go all the way.

Miss J waved the camera crew away before beckoning Lin Ling to follow her. They were walking toward the high rise, technically in the sky, building that was the hero tower and Miss J had stopped them for a moment to take a picture of Lin Ling with what she claimed was a “good backdrop.”

Lin Ling was used to gray backdrops on all of his ID photos, but he supposed the hero tower was an appropriate background for his Treeman ID.

“Nice is currently the fifteenth rank hero and so he stays on the fifteenth floor,” Miss J explained as she held up a near holographic card to the elevator console, the number being reflected on the console before the elevator started to rise.

Lin Ling’s shoulders involuntarily rose, he wasn’t afraid of heights of anything, but an elevator moving through the open air with absolutely nothing keeping him from falling off the edge was kind of terrifying. Idly, he wondered why they had chosen to design the hero tower like that; Nice was the only hero who could fly—he thinks—so none of the other heroes would fare very well were they to fall. Lin Ling suppressed the small shudder that ran through his body lest Miss J think he was trying to back out.

Thankfully, the elevator was soon covered by a thick glass as they officially rose into the hero tower.

“Moon has been staying with Nice full time for the past year now, so she’ll probably be there when we get to the fifteenth floor, please act accordingly.”

“Will Nice be there?”

“No, Nice is off at a photo shoot with Hu Cangqiong today. Unless he gets back early, we probably won’t see him while we’re here.”

‘How does she know?’ Lin Ling frowned, trying not to let his worry show too much on his face. Although Miss J and her crew had clearly been looking for Nice yesterday, it would be much easier for Nice to go through with his suicide if he only had one person to evade rather than a whole team. Lin Ling could only hope that…that their conversation on the roof…had he really said anything to comfort the hero yesterday?

‘Please don’t die, please don’t die, please don’t die.’

Maybe if he believed hard enough, he could physically prevent the hero from doing something he might regret.

“This is your card,” Miss J said while passing the holographic card to Lin Ling, the screen disappeared, making into a compact white stick that would fit easily in his pocket. “Should you need to discuss a proposal with Nice or Moon at any time, you have access to their floor. Once your Treeman ID is finished in a few hours, it’ll have a digital card in it that can be used to get into the office building if you get locked out after hours.”

Lin Ling nodded, tucking the small “key card” into his pocket, maybe he would put it on a keychain—somehow—so that he was less likely to lose it.

“Also,” Miss J trilled, a small laugh bubbling from her lips, “you should know before we get there, the Moon you’ll see here is very different from the one on TV.”

He nodded, that was pretty obvious, everyone was different from the role they played on TV.

“She and Nice also aren’t in a real relationship, it’s just showbiz.”

Lin Ling’s jaw dropped as the elevator came to a stop. ‘Fake dating?’ He supposed it wasn’t that surprising, all superheroes in the old comics had a girlfriend because having someone to protect and dedicate their lives to was very marketable. Lin Ling could see the strategy Treeman was working with by giving Nice a girlfriend, but Moon had been a pretty popular “hero” prior to dating Nice anyway. Dating the perfect hero had definitely given her a popularity boost, but he thought she would’ve fared fine on her own.

Whatever, it didn’t matter if Nice and Moon were or weren’t dating. Lin Ling was still getting to work with both of them, and for that he was thankful for.

When the doors slid open, Miss J and Lin Ling walked into the large spacious living area. Off to the side was a huge couch, on the other side was a pristine white kitchen, and the middle of the room was a large statue of Nice boxed in by a thin square moat of water. Lin Ling’s lips curled at the gaudy statue, surely Nice hadn’t asked that to be put there, Lin Ling would have to have a chat with him if that was the case.

If Nice wanted a statue of himself in his room, that was fine, but pick a better pose and maybe make it less cold looking.

“Moon, come say hi to the new employee.”

“Ugh, another guy to boss us around, isn’t your team big enough.”

Lin Ling didn’t know what to say.

Moon was usually dressed in pretty white dresses with golden accents. Her hair tended to be pulled into a perfect high ponytail with not a hair out of place. She stood straight, polite, and was always good mannered with the people she spoke with.

The woman in front of him had long unruly blonde hair, simply kept out of her face by a green headband that looked to be on its last leg. She had a long baggy white shirt on and black pajama shorts, and her feet were covered by white slippers that Lin Ling was sure had bunny ears on them.

Moon stopped in front of them and set her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowed as she took in Lin Ling’s appearance before frowning. “Where did you pick this one up from?”

‘Ouch,’ Lin Ling felt the mental arrow to the heart and pleaded for the traitorous organ to stop beating so fast. He felt the heat rise to his cheeks, he knew that Moon was beautiful, but Moon in all her “not-perfectness” was even more beautiful than he could have imagined. Again, he found himself envying Nice, the hero got to see the real side of the blogger every day for free, how nice.

“Ahem,” Miss J cleared her throat, snapping Lin Ling from his thoughts.

“Oh!” He bent deep at the waist, clasping his hands together in front of him as he stood up right again. “Nice to meet you, my name is Lin Ling. I’m new to the M&A department so I’ll be– “

“Working to maintain my image, yeah yeah I get it.”

Lin Ling paused at the interruption, Moon clicking her tongue as she walked away from him and Miss J and toward the kitchen. ‘It’s okay,’ he reassured himself, ‘Moon just seems to be in a bad mood, I’m sure I can make a better impression later.’ He had meant to make himself feel better, but had just served to ruminate over how terrible that introduction is. He couldn’t have said anything else, but decided to jump straight into his job position, good job Lin Ling, good job.

Miss J gave him a pat on the back, whether that was out of sympathy, he wasn’t sure, but the next thing he knew they were turning around and heading back to the elevator.

He wasn’t going to survive a day in this company.

Chapter Text

“Lin Ling, will you take a look at this?”

“Oh sure.” Lin Ling took the printed-out sheet one of his coworkers had handed him, chewing on his lip as his eyes scanned the written proposal before him. Everything looked just fine, except for the part where his coworker wrote “FOMO” rather than Treeman, which was sketchy, but he’d keep quiet for now.

“I like it,” Lin Ling answered as he handed the paper back, “just make sure you spell the company name right.”

His coworker looked down at that paper before turning beet red when they caught their mistake. “So sorry! Thank you, Lin Ling, I’ll fix it right now.” The young man gave a deep bow before rushing off to his desk to change the name mix-up.

Lin Ling smiled, shaking his head fondly as he leaned back in his seat. ‘I’ve been here for what, a week?’ Having someone come up to him for help was a little jarring, he’d only been there a week and no one else had really seen his work. But so far, all of his coworkers had been super welcoming, and they were all incredibly helpful whenever Lin Ling ran into a problem.

Hu Cangqiong had brought over the belongings he’d asked for from his old home that morning, and after making his apartment look a little more lived in, he’d decided to bring one of his action figures and set it on his desk, giving it a little personality.

Xia Hua, one of the door attendants and the one with the light pink hair had commented on it when Lin Ling strolled into the building with the figure in hand that morning, having gone on a walk before work for some fresh air. He didn’t really have a bag, so he had just carried it around with him, which in hindsight, it probably looked weird seeing a grown adult walk around holding an action figure. Lin Ling rubbed his face, one day he would make a good first impression and not think about it for the rest of the day.

For now though, it was about time for him to clock out. Nice and Moon would be going to a talk show the following night, which meant the M&A team could take their weekend and worry about producing new ideas later.

It would be Lin Ling’s first weekend after starting his new job with Treeman; he rubbed the back of his head, what exactly was he going to do? He wasn’t close enough with any of his coworkers yet to ask if they wanted to hang out, and yes, making friends went both ways and he would have to initiate conversation as well if he wanted their friendship to grow. But it felt too early for him, he didn’t want to come on too strong and ruin things before they could even start.

‘I wonder what Nice is up to.’

Technically he wasn’t not allowed to visit the hero, he had a keycard to the hero tower and access to Nice’s floor, and Miss J had told him he could go straight to Nice if he had anything he wanted to talk about. She was likely referring to business related talks, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

The hero tower was just as mesmerizing as every other time Lin Ling had seen it. Looking up at the towering structure suspended in the air, Lin Ling once again wondered how exactly the tower had been built. When the hero commission had first been established, the hero tower had been built not long after, and the tournament to determine the number one hero had soon followed.

Lin Ling, just like every other kid, had dreamed of getting to see the inside of the hero tower. Or better yet, getting to live in the hero tower and maybe even occupying the top floor.

‘Wait wait wait,’ Lin Ling paused and frowned as he looked up at the tower. Nice lived on the fifteenth floor because he was currently ranked the fifteenth hero. But just like his office building, there had to be some kind of lobby or rec center where all of the heroes could either meet up or at least get a change of scenery from their rooms, especially if theirs was as tacky as Nice’s.

So, ‘does that mean I might run into some of the other heroes?’

Lin Ling’s heart pounded giddily, what if he met one of the top ten, like Lucky Cyan or Ahu? While realistically he knew that Ahu was just as coherent and intelligent as the other top ten heroes, Lin Ling feared he would accidentally coo at the number eight hero if he saw Ahu in person. While rock music wasn’t his part of his preference, it would still be awesome to meet Lucky Cyan and have a conversation with her. Like, he could ask about her music composition process, or why she chose the electric guitar of all things. It would also be interesting to learn how she incorporated her musical talent with her powers and skills as a superhero.

Lin Ling giggled at the prospect of interviewing one of the top ten heroes, blissfully unaware of the few passersby who whispered and pointed at him.

Snapping back to reality, Lin Ling pulled out his card to the tower and scanned it, curling in on himself as the horribly designed elevator began to rise. ‘You know,’ he thought to himself, ‘if I ever get high enough working for Treeman, I’m asking Miss J if we can make this elevator less sketchy.’

Not that his say was final…maybe he could ask Nice about it.

Maybe he could also gently suggest some new décor for Nice’s apartment should the hero rise in the rankings.

Since the elevator was still rising, Lin Ling had a few more moments to think to himself. ‘What do I even talk to him about? Hey Nice, I know the last time we spoke you were about to jump off a building, what’s your favorite color?’ He shook his head, rubbing his eyes with a sigh as the weight of the situation began to settle.

What did he know about Nice? Nothing aside from the brand Treeman pushed toward the public.

What about Moon? Well, from her travel blogs that he had read and watched before she got with Nice, he knew that she was a big animal person. More so toward exotic animals, in fact, there had been three days where all of her posts were about giraffes: fun facts about giraffes, an hour-long stream of giraffes just existing, a picture of Moon next to a newborn giraffe and its mother. The next week she had moved on to penguins, but everyone had noticed and commented on the giraffe keychain that proudly hung off of her teleportation gun.

Lin Ling frowned, ‘now that I think about it, how come she doesn’t blog anymore?’ Ever since she started dating Nice, Moon’s travel blogs started to die down, contributing to her falling off in terms of popularity among the rest of the heroes. Now all of her socials were full of pictures of her and Nice, her and Nice having a meal, her and Nice getting ready for a show. It would be one thing if there was a picture of Moon and Nice at the zoo, but her posts had lost all personality over the past three years until Moon wasn’t known as the “travel-blogger” but as “Nice’s girlfriend.”

Maybe he would ask Moon about it if he saw her, although now that he knew that Moon was a little testier than he originally thought, that might not be the best idea.

‘No more time to dwell on it though,’ Lin Ling thought to himself as the elevator terminal read the numbers ‘15’ and the doors slid open.

Again, Lin Ling scowled at the gaudy statue of Nice welcoming him into the residence, but ignored it as he walked further in. ‘Oh shit.’ He stopped in his tracks; how inconsiderate and rude it was to just let himself in without letting someone know he was coming in the first place. “Uh,” he helpfully announced, “hello?”

A blonde head of hair popped up from the couch, where in front of it the television was playing some nature documentary.

‘How appropriate,’ Lin Ling noted then jumped when Moon suddenly walked, very briskly, toward him.

Her lips pursed, eyes scanning him up and down and Lin Ling lamented having an extremely limited amount of clothes in his closet; he would have to ditch the white tee and black pants at some point.

“Hey,” Moon called, retching Lin Ling from his thoughts, “aren’t you the one Miss J brought over, the new guy?”

‘She remembers me,’ Lin Ling glowed. “Yes, I um…I just wanted to introduce myself better cause I feel like I did a horrible job last week.”

Moon hummed, then shrugged and brushed her hair away from her should. “Okay.”

Lin Ling waited, and so did Moon.

“Oh,” sputtered and mentally berated himself when Moon shook her head. “I’m Lin Ling, I didn’t mean to immediately jump into talking about my job last time, I’m actually really happy or honored actually to get to work with you.

“I’ve actually been a long-time fan,” oh where the hell was he going with this, “I watched your blogs back before you started working with Nice.” Was the phrase ‘working with Nice’ rude to say, it was common knowledge in Treeman that they weren’t really dating but did Moon wish they were? Things were going down the drain already and they were going down quickly.

Lin Ling pressed his lips into a thin line cutting his rambling short. “I’m really sorry.”

Moon just stared at him, vibrant purple eyes vibrating with an emotion Lin Ling couldn’t place before a smile broke out on her face. “That was an even worse introduction you know.”

Lin Ling suppressed the whine in his throat and nodded.

“Regardless, thanks for the laugh, if you’re looking for Nice, he’s in the bathroom probably taking a perfect shit. He’ll be out in a bit.”

While the crude language threw Lin Ling for a loop, he was glad Moon hadn’t kicked him out, and didn’t seem too offended by him stumbling over his words a moment ago.

“How’d you end up working with Miss J anyway?” Moon asked as she made her way back to the couch. Lin Ling followed after her slowly, slightly shocked that she was still talking to him, but he would take it. Moon continued, “Miss J hasn’t changed many people on her team in the three years I’ve been here, you must be pretty special.”

Moon plopped down on the couch, resuming her documentary but keeping the volume low and throwing her legs up next to her. Lin Ling floundered, did he continue to stand behind the couch like a weirdo or go sit on the couch with Moon? He couldn’t sit next to her, that would be odd because they were still strangers, but if he sat on the opposite of the exceedingly long couch, that would be even more awkward.

He would just stand off to the side, not behind the couch but not in front of it so that he didn’t block Moon’s view of the TV.

“I actually ran into Nice by accident,” Lin Ling started. ‘Just how close are Nice and Moon?’ He wondered; while their on-screen relationship was fake, there was no reason for him to assume they weren’t friends. Did Moon know about Nice’s struggle, had they spoken about Nice wanting to end his life before? That was a dangerous thing to assume, so Lin Ling would play it safe and not bring the topic up for now.

“I was getting some fresh air, and he was watching the sunset, we just happened to pick the same place to do so.”

“Watching the sunset, weird, he usually does that here.”

Lin Ling cursed under his breath. “Uh, he said he had wanted a change of scenery.” If Lin Ling had been able to pick up on that lie, there was no way Moon was going to believe it, but she hummed and didn’t interrupt him. “Apparently, he was running from Miss J so, when she eventually found us I got offered a job. Oh, I forgot to mention I lost my job prior to all this.”

Moon whipped her head up. “Wait, you lost your job, met Nice, and then got another job in the span of what 24 hours?”

“It was more like thirty minutes.”

Moon blinked and turned back to the TV with a huff, “what the hell is wrong with that woman?”

“Lin Ling?”

“Nice!”

The hero walked out of the bathroom in his pristine white hero uniform, but for once didn’t have his signature smile plastered on his face. The brief moment of shock, however, ended when Nice gave him a sweet smile as he approached. “I didn’t know you’d be visiting. Moon made chicken last night and it’s nearing dinner now, would you stay and eat?”

Something about the way Nice spoke gave Lin Ling the chills. On TV, it sounded perfectly normal. Boisterous, admirable, perfect; but in person, it was so obviously forced and that fake smile just made Nice seem uncanny almost.

“Ugh,” Moon groaned, kicking her feet up as she stood from the couch. “It’s so annoying when you talk like that, just ask him if he wants Chicken like a normal person.”

Even though that made Nice frown, Lin Ling couldn’t help but agree. “I mean, it’s not like we’re strangers,” he mumbled under his breath. Nice caught his eye, glancing at Moon for a moment before shaking his head. So Moon didn’t know about that part of Nice, ‘good to know,’ Lin Ling thought.

And though it was only for a moment, Nice’s ‘perfect’ persona had slipped off in front of him.

‘If that’s not progress, I don’t know what is,’ Lin Ling affirmed, his confident smile causing Nice to tilt his head to the side.

“Are you two coming or are you just going to continue starting at each other?” Moon’s voice rang out from the kitchen, pulling both Nice and Lin Ling out of their thoughts. Nice hummed to himself, meeting Lin Ling’s eyes once more before following after Moon. With nothing else to do, and the invitation still out in the air, Lin Ling had no choice but to follow the two heroes into the kitchen.

~

Lin Ling’s cheeks hurt from the tight smile pulling at his face. The chicken was absolutely divine, there was no doubt about it, his company however…

Moon was idly scrolling on her phone as she scooped chicken, mashed potatoes, and a bite of salad onto her fork before eating it all at once. Nice on the other hand, he had yet to take a bite of his food, too busy cutting his chicken into small squares, using his fork to shuffle the stray pieces back in place when they got too close to his potatoes.

Lin Ling didn’t particularly like his salad getting on his food, but he personally thought the chicken and mashed potatoes tasted well together.

Regardless, the silence stretching between the three of them was only amplified by their places at the table. Nice and Moon sat on completely opposite sides of the table, the comically long table he might add, and Lin Ling had pulled a chair up to sit in the middle of it and between the two heroes.

“So uh,” Lin Ling started, “Nice, where did you get the statue from?” He didn’t know why he was asking about the statue, and truly he didn’t care, he just wanted something to talk about instead of sitting in silence.

Nice paused his slicing and looked up at the statue with an inscrutable expression. “Miss J had it commissioned after I rose high enough in the ranks to live in the hero tower,” he explained before finally taking a bite of his food.

“I think she wanted it modeled after the one of firm man downtown,” Moon added, taking a swig of her drink as she did so. “Kind of conceited if you ask me.”

‘I still just think it’s ugly, and that’s saying something since it’s a statue of the perfect hero,’ Lin Ling thought. “Oh, speaking of Firm Man, have either of you met any of the other heroes in the tower? You know, like the top ten or even X himself?”

Moon laughed, looking at Lin Ling with what might have been pity in her eyes. “No, most of the heroes in the tower don’t interact. Or at least me and Nice don’t interact with them, Miss J is all work and no leisure time, so we don’t usually leave this room unless it’s on official Treeman business.”

“Isn’t that kind of stifling?”

“It’s just part of the job,” Nice answered.

Moon scoffed, “yeah but most jobs usually have a time when you get to clock out.” Glancing down at her phone, Moon let out a sigh before pushing her chair back and standing. “Speaking of, Miss J apparently needs to talk to me about the script for tomorrow night so I’m out.”

“Wait!”

But Moon was already trekking toward the door and leaving without so much as a goodbye.

“I’m sorry about her,” Nice said as he too stood from the table. “I promise she isn’t usually like this; she’s just been in a bit of a mood lately.”

Lin Ling hummed in acknowledgement, looking at the plate that had been left behind by Moon, scraped clean whereas he still had a few morsels of food on his plate. He grimaced, ‘she couldn’t have at least cleaned up?’ Lin Ling stood, intent on gathering his and Moon’s plates to help clean up. But before he could grab either plate, Nice swooped them both up, giving Lin Ling a small smile before carrying them to the kitchen.

Lin Ling scrambled after him. “I can help clean up Nice, it was kind enough that the two of you shared your food with me, I should return the favor.”

Nice shook his head, setting both plates down in the sink and turning the water on to warm. “I don’t mind cleaning; I prefer to be the one doing it anyway. Not that I don’t appreciate the offer Lin Ling.”

Once again, Lin Ling found himself just standing around, his fist clenching at his side. He hadn’t come to see Nice just to literally see him, Lin Ling had wanted to talk, maybe get to know the hero better. It was the weekend after all, this was a time for relaxing, not walking on eggshells around each other or standing in terrible awkward silence.

‘What to talk about though.’ The air was already awkward enough, Lin Ling wasn’t about to make it worse by asking how the hero was doing, but asking about Moon might also be insensitive considering how turbulent their relationship had been revealed to be.

Shockingly, it was Nice who broke the silence between them. “Moon and I actually were friends at first, and while she’s always been eccentric, she’s more irritable now rather than energetic,” Nice explained. Lin Ling watched as his fingers held the washcloth and diligently scrubbed at the place, though Lin Ling thought the plates were pretty clean, Nice seemed intent on making sure they sparkled.

He shrugged, everyone had their preferences, now as for what the hero had said,

“You saved her three years ago, right? That’s what everyone at work always said anyway.” Lin Ling paused, then softly chuckled as a memory came to the front of his mind. “Actually, one of my old coworkers had proposed making a movie about your love story. But my boss turned it down, more so because he couldn’t imagine anyone being able to play either of you accurately.”

Lin Ling found the story funny, but Nice had just hummed, causing the other boys’ shoulders to slump at his failed attempt to lighten the mood.

“Well then,” Lin Ling continued, if Nice wasn’t in the mood for jokes, then he would just run with whatever Nice had started with, “what was it that ruined the relationship between you two, the fake dating?”

“No,” Nice muttered, finishing with the first plate he was scrubbing and setting it on the drying rack before moving on to the next one, “we didn’t have a problem with that at first, and it was kind of fun. Moon had never done that kind of act before, so we had a lot to learn together. We used to go over scripts and practice late into the night, and then if we were sneaky enough, we could leave the hero tower for a late-night treat like ice cream or something.” Nice let out a wistful sigh, hands pausing from his scrubbing as he turned to Lin Ling.

“Trust is an immensely powerful thing Lin Ling, and its power over those with high trust can be…scary. I don’t wish to speak for Moon, but I think that partly contributed to her hatred for working here.”

‘Moon hates working here?’ Lin Ling frowned; he understood that being in a fake relationship and having your entire person boiled down to that relationship was shitty, but if Moon hated it that much then she could just quit. Wasn’t she just making herself more miserable by staying here?

“You know,” he started, holding his hand up to his chin, “I once mentioned giving Moon a different concept, something more mature, something that would make her more than just ‘Nice’s girlfriend,’ no offense,” he paused and Nice simply smiled at him. “Playing the same role for three years would get tiring for anyone, no matter the job you work. Maybe she just needs a change of pace, like a different outfit or a haircut. She could even benefit from simply taking a more active role in you guy’s fights.”

Nice’s eyes slightly widened. “Lin Ling…” After a moment of silence, a smaller, somewhat kinder than usual smile graced Nice’s features. “I think you should tell her that, she would appreciate it.”

What about Nice…Lin Ling continued thinking, momentarily ignoring Nice’s comment even though it made his heart soar. Like he had just mentioned, playing the perfect hero for over three years had to be tiring for Nice as well. Being perfect was part of his brand, but there was no reason Treeman couldn’t switch things up to give the hero a break, it could even help raise his trust; everyone liked seeing something new every once in a while.

Not that Nice had expressed any distaste toward his hero persona.

But he did try to walk off the roof.

Pushing the uncomfortable thought from his head, Lin Ling brought up another “funny” idea he had shown his boss that had also gotten turned down.

“Speaking of changing things up, I once imagined what rebranding would look like for you. I tried showing my boss kind of like a grunge aesthetic outfit for you,” just the words made Lin Ling chuckle, as did the appalled look on Nice’s face. “I get why he turned it down, ripped jeans and spiky cuffs would look strange on you now that I think about it.”

Nice blinked before a small high pitched wheezy laugh slipped through his lips. Lin Ling paused, letting the hero laugh as he stared on in awe. Nice’s laugh in all of his commercials was short, clipped, and always polite. He never really laughed aloud or wheezed like he was out of breath, this laugh though, it was genuine…it was real.

Lin Ling smiled and tucked that information against his heart.

~

When the sun had begun to slip below the horizon, painting the sky in a warm gold, Lin Ling found himself feeling lighter as he prepared to leave the hero tower. After cleaning up, Lin Ling and Nice had sat back down at the table and talked about trivial things like their food preferences, whether they were night owls or morning people, and discussed whether winter was better than summer.

Lin Ling’s heart felt fuller than it had in the past few years, he couldn’t remember the last time he had such a friendly conversation with someone. And though he couldn’t say he and Nice were genuine friends yet, the bridge was there, and they seemed to both be willing to cross it with just a little more time.

Nice had waved him off, telling Lin Ling to get home safely before the elevator doors shut behind him as he left for his apartment.

Lin Ling looked up at the darkening sky as the elevator made its way down. So many things had changed in such a short amount of time, but now, it wasn’t so terrifying anymore. He would grow closer with his coworkers, he was sure of it, working with Moon and Nice would help to grow his work portfolio and he could even get some great friends out of it.

‘I still wish I had someone to tell about all this.’

But that was okay, eventually he would have someone he could tell his whole life to.

Okay maybe not that far, he didn’t want to run them off.

“Oh, Moon!”

The girl looked up at Lin Ling as the elevator neared the ground, she didn’t look as annoyed as before, though she was still thumbing away on her phone before she had noticed Lin Ling. “Leaving for the night?” She asked as the elevator settled and walked up to Lin Ling. “Almost thought you were gonna have a sleep over with Nice.”

“Haha…no we’re not that close yet.”

“Maybe, but he looks at you a certain way, I can’t really describe it.”

Lin Ling didn’t know what that meant, and it kind of scared him.

“Anyway, see you around.”

Moon made to walk past him, pulling her own card to the tower out and swiping it before Lin Ling could even scramble off. Getting his footing back, Lin Ling turned and watched the elevator begin to rise once again.

What was he doing, he got to work with Moon and Nice, why was he still so nervous about everything?

“Moon!” He shouted up at the elevator, Moon peering over the edge with a curious expression.

Steeling his nerves, Lin Ling took a deep breath, now wasn’t the time to gush about how inspiring Moon was or tell her his plans to reshape her image.

“Have a good night!”

Moon arched a brow before she laughed and waved down at him.

Maybe he would never make a good impression on Moon, but maybe that was okay, maybe his awkward nature was a good break for her from the stiff people she was forced to work with every day, Nice included.

“Moon,” he muttered to himself. Slapping his face lightly, Lin Ling decided to spend the rest of his night working on that concept proposal for Moon again, once it was done, he would show it to Miss J and hopefully help Moon to enjoy her job again.

Almost giddy with excitement, Lin Ling scurried off to his apartment, he wouldn’t get a wink of sleep that night, but it was the weekend, and he was a grown adult.

Yes, this was definitely the life he was meant to have.

Chapter Text

A large corkboard filled with several pictures of Nice stood in front of him, different colored lines indicating what Nice had done the day the picture was taken, and small sticky notes underneath each photo told how Nice’s trust had risen from the event. Lin Ling chewed on his cheek, it was admirable he had to admit, someone had spent hours pouring over every minute of the hero’s life just to calculate where his trust value sat at the end of the month.

“Do they really tear this thing down and restart every month?”

At his side Hu Cangqiong nodded, the other bodyguard who had yet to introduce himself hummed as well. “The end number,” Hu Cangqiong paused and pointed at the largest sticky note stuck on the very edge of the corkboard, “is where we tally the total amount of trust Nice gained during the month and put it into our files.”

‘I suppose it’s organized at least,’ Lin Ling mused, he would hate having to put together all of those numbers if the board had been put together willy-nilly. He could tell which lines symbolized talk shows Nice and Moon had gone on together, public appearances and photo shoots done by Nice himself, and the occasional fight with his nemesis Wreck stuck in the mix.

Lin Ling frowned, when was the last time Wreck had been seen fighting Nice?

The entire reason he had been looking at the board was because Miss J had called a meeting to discuss Nice’s trust value and how to get it up by the end of the month.

“Nice has been sitting at rank 15 for a few months now,” Miss J spoke as she paced on the other side of the room, the monitors behind her showing Nice’s live trust value count, and Lin Ling watched as the digits slowly trickled up as the minutes passed.

Moon’s trust value was displayed on the adjacent monitor in green lettering, but Miss J didn’t seem too keen on discussing that.

“The public has been waiting to see Nice break into the top ten for a while, they’re anticipating it, but they don’t believe in it yet. There’s only so many couple’s shows Nice and Moon can appear on before the public demands something different, suggestions?” Miss J opened the floor to Lin Ling, Hu Cangqiong, and the few other members of the “M&A” team that occupied the room.

“There’s that one magazine branch that’s been contacting us lately,” one of his coworkers spoke up. Lin Ling grimaced, that particular magazine specialized in appreciating and worshipping the human body, otherwise known as making their models undress and capturing them in their “purest form.” Something told Lin Ling Nice wouldn’t want to do that, and frankly he didn’t want to bring the proposal to the hero anyway.

Miss J shook her head, speaking Lin Ling exact thoughts, “I’m not ready to push Nice to that point, but we’ll keep it as a back door.”

‘Alright, not my thoughts exactly but at least we’re in agreement,’ Lin Ling huffed.

The young man looked back at the corkboard as everyone gave their thoughts around him. Nice’s interactions with Moon were connected with a green tie, his individual schedules events had a white tie, and his fights with Wreck were connected by a black tie. Lin Ling had gotten a peek at some of the old corkboards when he first entered the room, stashed hastily away in some corner to be forgotten, but he had noticed that over time the black ties on the board began to die out with the current one having only one tied between two photos.

‘If the public is growing tired of seeing Moon, why not bring Wreck around again?’ When Lin Ling had been told that Wreck was also an employee under Treeman and not really Nice’s enemy, he had initially been shocked. But the more he thought about it, the situation made sense. It gave Nice a guaranteed enemy to fight because, believe it or not, the city was actually pretty safe sometimes and there weren’t many villains to stop somedays.

The only thing still tripping him up, however, was how Wreck’s powers worked, because he wasn’t really a villain, but he still had powers. People did fear him, but was their fear really that strong to make him a formidable opponent to Nice?

Regardless, villain comebacks were usually immensely popular in movies and comic books, there’s no reason it wouldn’t work in real life. “How about staging a fight between Nice and Wreck,” he suggested, “it’s been a while since he’s been seen, it would be effective in raising Nice’s trust and could even garner more fear for Wreck.” Even though he wasn’t exactly fond of manufacturing fear in the public, which is technically what they were doing.

But Miss J shook her head, stating, “the public probably believes he’s fallen of the face of the Earth. Right now, they want to see Nice looking pretty and in love. The city’s peaceful right now, we don’t need to change that.”

“Then that’s exactly why Lin Ling’s idea could work,” Hu Cangqiong agreed. “The public believes they are safe from Wreck at the moment because he’s been gone the past three months. We’ve unintentionally given them a false illusion of safety, but if we break that by bringing Wreck back, then their trust in Nice will rise because they expect him to come and save them.”

Lin Ling nodded, ‘he said that so much better than me.’

Miss J hummed, turning to look at the display of Nice’s trust value, the numbers around the same value as they were just a moment ago.

‘I don’t particularly think Wreck is that much of a threat,’ Lin Ling frowned as Miss J continued to think. Most of his attacks just involved destroying public property, which could be dangerous depending on the scale of attack and who was around, but he had never seen Wreck directly threaten the public. ‘I guess that comes with being a fake villain,’ he concluded.

“Hu Cangqiong.” The bodyguard turned, leaning his head closer to Lin Ling. “The places that Wreck destroys, does Treeman pay for that?”

“Sometimes; if Nice and Wreck make a big enough mess then our CEO pays for the damages, but if we manage to keep it smaller than public security can take care of it.”

“Huh…weird but, okay.”

“Alright,” Miss J spoke, and the room turned to her again, “we’ll bring Wreck back for a fight and see how the public reacts to it. If Nice’s trust rises, we’ll stage recurring fights between them, to keep Wreck relevant and give the public something to look forward to.”

‘And if not, they’ll probably terminate the poor guy’s contract.’

“Lin Ling.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Miss J fixed him with a stare, grabbing her tablet from the desk behind her and tapping away for a moment. “I’ll have your team work on a script. While they do that, I want you to go let Nice know what the plan is and tell him to go ahead and stretch, it’s been a while since he was in a fight. Hu Cangqiong, can you contact Wreck and tell him to be here in an hour?”

Lin Ling nodded idly, thoughts straying after Miss J’s last couple of words. ‘The last fight he was in,’ he pondered. The reason Nice hadn’t been in any fights recently was due to the Hero Smile Incident that had occurred not long ago. Lin Ling’s entire office had stopped taking commissions from Treeman for a whole month, his boss keeping his mouth sealed and forbidding any of the employees from searching the topic up on the internet.

It had been one of the only times he feared a hero, because from what Lin Ling had heard about the incident, it hadn’t been pretty.

Nice was indeed nice; from the few times they had spoken. But Lin Ling hadn’t forgotten the look in his eyes during their first meeting, that icy cold blank stare that had sent chills down his spine.

But then that small but real laugh echoed in his mind, and Lin Ling decided that the world and he just didn’t know the hero well enough yet.

“Lin Ling, did you hear me?”

“Oh, yes ma’am. Sorry, I’ll head there now.”

Lin Ling scrambled out of his chair, giving the rest of the room a friendly nod before rushing out of his office and toward the hero tower.

~

“Lin Ling!”

A broad smile breached his face at the call of his name upon his arrival. He had no more than stepped out of the elevator before Moon was in his face, a wide and somewhat mischievous grin pulling at her features as she skipped over to him. “Miss J said you were coming,” she explained, squealing in glee as she skittered around him and pushed the young man further into the room.

His face burned, a hot red flesh creeping up his neck as he was pushed down onto the couch and forced to sit next to Moon. “She also said that my schedule has been cleared for the day,” she cooed, kicking her feet excitedly as she slouched further down. “So, I was thinking I could talk you into playing this game with me.”

As she spoke, she clicked away on the remote to the TV, and though it warmed his heart that Moon wanted to spend time with him, Lin Ling felt somewhat bad that he had come with the intention of whisking Nice away. It would be fun if the three of them could just sit around and have fun like this, and with that thought, he wondered what Nice actually did do for fun.

“Nice sucks at this game,” Moon chuckled, the TV cursor had stopped on some dance game to Lin Ling’s surprise, “you see, ballet is too ingrained in his bones, so he doesn’t do well at the hip hop songs or free dance levels.”

A laugh sputtered from his lips at the thought of Nice trying, and failing, to do a hip hop move.

“Moon, can you maybe not defame my character in front of Lin Ling?”

“Oh, but it’s so much fun.”

Moon twisted around on the couch, smirking as Nice came over with an exasperated sigh. “And it’s not that I can’t do hip hop moves, the controller just doesn’t register my movements.”

Lin Ling snorted and Nice glared.

“Actually,” Lin Ling started, standing and trying to ignore the way Moon pouted. “I came to talk to you Nice; Miss J wants to schedule a fight with Wreck to raise your trust value. Um… how do you feel about that?”

Moon flopped back down on the couch, sighing loudly as she turned the TV back to whatever channel it had been on before. “So that’s why my schedule was cleared, whatever, it’s been a while since you two fought so I might as well tune in tonight. Make sure it looks good Nice.”

Nice frowned, Lin Ling’s eyes catching the way his hands twitched at his side for just a moment before they stilled. Did he not want to fight Wreck, or did he not want to fight at all? Just what happened in the Hero Smile Incident if that’s what was making Nice hesitate right now? As Nice’s eyes met his, Lin Ling felt that cold chill run down his spine again. The hero’s eyes were just so empty, how could a person live with eyes that held…nothing in them?

“Nice, can we talk, for a sec?”

It seemed that’s not what the hero had expected to hear, because his eyes had cleared for a moment while he silently nodded.

Giving Moon a friendly smile, Lin Ling rounded the couch until he stood at Nice’s side and grabbed his wrist; unnecessary, but grounding he hoped. Pulling Nice over to the kitchen, he figured they could have a talk out of Moon’s earshot and hopefully get some real answers from Nice.

“Miss J said Wreck would be here in an hour, so we have plenty of time to talk.”

“You’ll learn quickly that Miss J often says one thing and means another, he’ll be in in fifteen minutes likely.”

“Then let’s talk.”

Nice tried to twist his wrist out of Lin Ling’s grip, but he held strong just as he had back on the roof. Nice had the ability to fly, he had super strength, he had every way to pull himself away from Lin Ling if he really wanted to. ‘He was going to kill himself,’ Lin Ling told himself. Even if Nice never cried for help, the fact that he didn’t wretch his arm away from Lin Ling told him everything.

Nice sighed, letting his hand fall limp as he stared at the ground. “Lu Zhen, or Wreck I guess, we haven’t talked in…a long time.”

“Since the incident?”

“Even before that.”

Lin Ling frowned, ‘Lu Zhen,’ if Nice knew Wreck’s real name then they must be close, or were close he supposed. Wreck wasn’t a huge topic among the hero discussions floating through the internet, but prior to working for Treeman, he had noticed that Wreck only ever fought Nice. Maybe they had grown to be acquaintances by working together, but something about Nice’s downcast eyes was telling Lin Ling otherwise.

“Why haven’t you guys spoken? I mean, if he hasn’t been working then that gives you more time to talk outside of work, right?” Lin Ling asked, pausing as Nice used his free hand to point at a phone plugged in on the kitchen counter just a few feet away from them.

“I don’t use it much, not anymore,” Nice started, “Treeman monitors Moon and I’s social activity, most of our online accounts are run by them, so almost all of the posts the public sees probably never came from me or Moon at all. I can’t speak for Moon, but my text messages are screened at the beginning and end of the day, if I send something out of character for “Nice” to say, the message is deleted and replaced by something more appropriate.”

Nice gave a mirthless chuckle, “it makes my conversations look awkward when it happens.”

Lin Ling tried not to gape at the horror of it all. Treeman basically controlled Nice’s phone, he couldn’t talk to anyone, not even his closest friends without keeping up his hero persona? He knew Miss J could be controlling, but when that control infringes on someone’s privacy, you would think that Miss J would realize she had gone too far.

“I’m sure some of my messages to him could have gone through if I sent them, but,” Nice gazed longingly at the phone before shaking his head, “there just hasn’t been time.”

“Then talk today—”

The elevator doors opened before Lin Ling could finish his sentence, Miss J strolling in along with Hu Cangqiong and followed by a young man with black hair who he could only assume was Wreck. Deep purple eyes met his for just a moment before trailing down to where Lin Ling held Nice wrist and finally settled on Nice himself.

“I see you’ve been well.”

~

‘I see you’ve been well.’

‘I see you’ve been well.’

‘No, I haven’t, and you saw that—’

‘Please help me—’

‘Please don’t worry about me—’

‘Let me go—hold me.’

‘Let me go.’

“Nice are you listening?”

Truthfully no, he had tuned out every word that came out of Miss J’s mouth, only coming back to himself when Wreck opened his mouth to comment on a piece of their script. “Wreck” had been waiting for a chance to attack, “Wreck” had seen how close he and Moon were and hoped to destroy it, ”Wreck” was planning to make recurrent attacks until he beat Nice.

“Wreck” was supposed to get one good hit on Nice so that his counterattack would have a larger effect.

Nice hoped that the sword would stab him through the chest.

Lin Ling was staring at him, Nice hoped he would leave.

Moon had gone silent, good, her voice could be grating sometimes.

 “We’re hoping to keep property damage to a minimum,” Miss J was unfortunately still talking, “Wreck I’m aware you haven’t used your powers in a while but try to exercise restraint.”

Nice nearly broke his neck when he whipped his head over to see his friend’s response, but Wreck simply nodded, not sparing at glance at Nice who so desperately wanted those eyes to meet his. Wreck never just agreed with Miss J, he always tried to give some form of input; he wanted a flashier move for Nice or a cool moment where Wreck’s sword collided with his gauntlets. Fights were always more fun when Wreck persuaded Miss J to make some changes, or they had been at least. When had things changed between them, when had Nice become “Nice” and Lu Zhen became “Wreck?”

Nice stared down at his hands as the room spun. He knew that “Wreck” hated him, but he didn’t know if he could handle Lu Zhen hating him as well.

Lin Ling’s mouth moved, he didn’t hear the words but everyone around him began to move, so he stood as well, and smiled.

“Shall we practice?” He suggested, Wreck nodded, and Nice felt his smile crack, so he pulled it tighter.

It would be okay, he told himself, he would play his role and Lu Zhen would play his. “Wreck” would land a hard hit on him, and he would fake being knock unconscious, plummeted from the sky he used to command until he hit the ground hard enough to split his head. But that would paint his best friend as a murderer, and Lin Ling was staring at him again.

‘Lin Ling…’ What did Lin Ling see in him that was worth saving? Clearly his best friend thought he was beyond help, so what did a stranger think they could do to change things? As long as he was Nice, he would never be saved, he would always be the one doing the saving.

There was an adjacent dance room connected to Nice’s apartment, something he really only used when Miss J and Treeman wanted him to take an evaluation or practice some new moves. Before he had grown in trust, and before his face was plastered all over the city, he used to frequent a small run-down dance studio late at night and dance for hours. Sometimes Wreck would join him, sometimes he would be on his own, but it had been peaceful, and it had been one of the few real things he could hold on to.

‘It’s probably closed now,’ Nice despaired, and how sad that was for the struggling single mom who ran the building.

In that closed down building, Wreck and Nice would fight each other to their hearts content. They would throw punches and then laugh at their own bad form; they would trip and throw each other around and then apologize profusely for a sore tailbone. The owner of the building would bring them snacks, treats that her child had taken to school and come back with leftovers, always a little too sweet because they were made by a child.

Now, they were throwing punches with no real meaning behind them. Wreck, holding back because he had lost his passion for being a hero, or fake villain for that matter, and was likely two steps away from terminating his contract and leaving Nice to his own devices. Nice had no reason to actually try either, his attacks would almost always land because the public believed they would, and he would always land with a flash or flare that would have the fangirls weak in their knees.

Just once, Nice hoped that a real villain would come and knock him on his ass.

Or, and Nice mentally apologized for a particularly hard punch thrown at his friend, it would be nice to fight a real villain whom Nice didn’t have to hold back on. What would it be like, to fight someone who wasn’t redeemable, who the public hated and wanted to see put in the ground? Would they cheer for Nice to send them there, would they beg for Nice to protect them with everything he had?

Or would they cry out in fear again and beg for him to stop?

Lin Ling spoke, Miss J critiqued, and Wreck remained silent.

Nice spun, Nice posed, Nice smiled, and time blurred around him as he sank into the persona of “Nice.”

Someone tried and failed to speak to Lu Zhen, someone waved away Lin Ling’s concerns, someone nodded idly when Miss J drove him to the destination, but “Nice” smiled through it all.

Nice walked up on to his stage, the gravel crunching beneath him and a chorus of applause echoing around him. Stage left, something exploded, and he pivoted just in time to avoid a red beam slashing right past his face. Two bouncing steps back, Nice grins wide and bears his fists at the new character taking the stage.

“Is that Wreck?” An audience member cries as the evil knight approaches.

“Don’t worry, Nice is here, he’ll protect us!”

Nice smiles, turning to the crowd members and giving them his signature finger guns, teeth sparkling when the girls squealed and turned their heads away in giddiness. With the audience’s attention hooked, he fanned his cape out and refocused his attention on his enemy.

“Making a comeback,” his voice booms, trained to project so that everyone could hear him, “Wreck, when will you learn to accept defeat?”

The villain laughed, a little too quiet for every audience member to hear, but mistakes happen. Remaining silent, Wreck slashed his sword through the air again, several red beams flying toward the perfect hero who shot into the air to dodge. Weaving through the air, Nice dodged beams and flying pieces of rock before closing in on his enemy and pulling a fist back.

Wreck’s mask was crooked, unnoticeable by the audience, but glaringly obvious under the stage lights and in Nice’s eyes. The hero’s fist shot forward, hitting his enemy in the face with a loud crunch that sent him several feet backwards. His knuckles stung for just a moment, wrist tingling as the sensation traveled down his arm before it was pushed away by his perfect recovery skills.

His enemy was not one to go down easily though, reapproaching from stage right this time as the glaring stage lights reflected off his armor. Nice reared backward, back bending at an uncomfortable angle that hadn’t been a part of his script and sent pain curling up his spine. ‘No matter,’ he comforted himself, fixing his posture by sending himself into a full backbend to kick his legs up and knock Wreck’s sword off its course.

Unfortunately, this move knocked Wreck off balance, his fellow actor not expecting the move and falling forward with the sword. Their faces would have collided had Nice not taken for the skies once more, grasping Wreck’s cape and throwing him down to the ground.

His heart pounded, though he was plenty used to performing by now and shouldn’t be experiencing stage fright. His fingers twitched, longing to grasp the fabric just above his chest to squeeze and pull until maybe he pulls his heart out and yelled at it to calm down. ‘Unrealistic,’ he mused.

“So aggressive,” he trilled down at his enemy, floating casually through the air while Wreck recovered. “All that pent up anger needs to be let out somehow, why’d you stay away?”

Internally, he cringed. Oh how he wished Lin Ling had gotten to write the script, Lin Ling was smart and probably wouldn’t have given him such cringy lines. Nice understood that the banter between hero and villain was appealing, it was half the reason anyone watched any hero fights if he was honest about it.

Wreck huffed, pushing himself up to his feet at such a slow pace that anyone in the audience would be able to tell he was out of practice. The villain stood, taking hold of his sword once more and setting his feet into a battle position. He spoke, too quiet for the audience to hear, but directed only to Nice, “I thought you had grown tired of me.”

The illusion broke, the someone behind the hero “Nice” had frozen and taken a direct hit straight from Wreck’s sword.

Something warm pooled in his mouth, back screaming when it slammed through wall after wall and eventually rolled on the ground of an empty car garage.

A curse tumbled from his lips, arms shaking beneath him as Nice tried to push himself up. The world swam around him in an assortment of unnatural colors, red and blue vibrating off of his hand when he looked down at his palms, green peeling off of the scrapes in his skin. Nice swallowed, the saliva thick as it traveled down his throat and threatened to come back up.

‘…tired of me…’

If anyone had the right to be tired, it was Wreck, and he should be tired of Nice. Wreck wasn’t the one who had ghosted his friend, who had told Miss J to schedule the villain less so that they wouldn’t see each other, Wreck wasn’t the one who pushed Nice away because he was scared and thought things would be better this way.

His breathing came out ragged, vision blurring from the lack of oxygen combined with his spiraling thoughts. Once again, his fingers twitched, this time he clasped them together and pressed them against his stinging eyes.

‘I’m so tired…’

“Nice!”

Wretched out of his thoughts by the drone invading his space, Nice pulled his head up and tried to summon that perfect disposition for which he was known. “I’m just waiting a moment Miss J,” his voice was small, “we need to build anticipation for this fight after all.”

“Enough Nice, a minute or two is enough to keep the crowd on their toes. Any longer up here and they’ll start to believe that Wreck won.”

Idly, Nice thought that Wreck winning a fight every once in a while might make people look forward to their fights more. In his opinion, a formidable and difficult opponent was better than a one trick pony whose only role was to repeatedly lose a fight. But Miss J never took his advice, so it was better to keep his thoughts to himself rather than voice it.

“Get back out there and finish this fight. We’ll discuss out next steps later tonight.”

According to his contract, he had to do whatever Miss J asked the hero “Nice” to do.

So Nice stood, reproached his stage with his arms spread wide as the crowd welcomed him back.

He had a show to put on after all.

~

@HeroNice#2051

“Did y’all see the fight between Nice and Wreck today?

I knew our boy would pull through once again!”

@JessyKayla4

“Is it just me, or is anyone else growing tired of seeing Wreck? I mean, he always loses

against Nice, it’s getting boring.”

@WordontheStreet

“Word on the street is that Nice took a pretty hard hit during the fight today.

Let’s all wish for a swift recovery for our perfect hero tonight.”

That last post was unnecessary, Nice’s wounds had been healing over night for the past year, it’s why he was able to get away with a few things Miss J had yet to find out about.

Moon had gone to sleep hours ago, and though the perfect hero should have the perfect sleep schedule, Nice often would stare at the ceiling hours past midnight until his mind eventually forced him to sleep. Blue light was bad for his eyes, and he wasn’t usually a doomscroller, but Nice found himself swiping away on his phone at the recent post under Treeman’s official website. He tended to stay away from other forms of social media, but Miss J constantly referenced the website during their conversations, so he might as well stay up to date with what people were saying.

Of course, his fight from earlier was the hot topic of the day, along with a few posts commenting on the recent photoshoot Moon had done. For the most part, people were praising him as usual, talking about his stellar moves and how pretty he looked when he was fighting. There were a few comments about Wreck, how he should have stayed away or how fighting Nice was pointless.

Unfortunately, it seemed that people were anticipating more fights between the two since Wreck had gotten a good hit on him.

@bbgWreck

“My pooki Wreck seems to be getting stronger, good for him!

It’s nice to see Nice (lol) having to actually put effort into a fight.

I trust that we’ll see him more (lol, y’all see what I did there)??”

Nice grimaced, he had been trying to get Miss J to terminate the contract with Wreck for the past few months. Lu Zhen deserved to live a life he actually wanted, not one meant to place Nice on a pedestal and work to keep him there, they had wanted to be heroes together. Now Nice was constantly leaving him behind, much as he wanted to turn around and pull his friend along with him.

Hesitantly, he thumbed over to his messenger app, opening the text log with Wreck and staring at the unanswered messages. It had been part of his plan, the one Lin Ling ruined, so he really shouldn’t be sitting here feeling sorry for himself. He chose to ignore those messages, he chose to ruin their friendship because he thought it would make things easier.

It sure as hell was making it harder to keep his tears at bay.

‘But the perfect hero doesn’t cry,’ he reminded himself, and moved to set his phone down just as a text notification came up…he squinted at the name.

“I stole your phone lol”

Nice frowned, there weren’t many people who had access to his phone. Moon would never name herself something like that, and she had her own contact anyway. Miss J maintained all of his Treeman-related contacts, and the few contacts outside of the company consisted of only Wreck and his previous dance teacher.

Another text came through,

“This is Lin Ling by the way, look at this picture I took of you.”

Before he even had time to comprehend just how Lin Ling had gotten his number, Nice’s phone chimed again as a blurry photo came through the text thread.

And he looked absolutely terrible.

In horror, Nice stared at the hastily taken photo, obviously captured by rewinding and pressing onward frame by frame through the live footage that had been broadcasted by Treeman. Lin Ling had somehow found the worst angle of Nice, the photo taken midback bend when he was afraid Wreck’s sword was going to stab him through the face, and captured Nice’s face in a moment of shock when his mouth was wide open and eyes practically bulged through his skull.

It was quite possibly the ugliest photo of himself he had ever seen.

A snort bubbled up his throat.

The picture would be gone in the morning, Treeman would go through his phone and likely send a message to Lin Ling reprimanding him for damaging Nice’s image. But for now, he just stared at his phone and at the ugly picture of himself. What a crude but humorous reminder of his own imperfections, and leave it to Lin Ling to be the one to point it out.

Nice hastily typed a reply,

“That’s horrible, delete that please.”

“Lmao, no :3”

Chapter Text

“Miss J, if I don’t get a break soon, I’m going to kill myself!”

Lin Ling startled, whipping his head to who he’d thought made the statement, but Nice was still sitting idly on the couch watching the footage from his fight with Wreck for the third time. He had expected Nice to at least flinch at Moon’s words, any outward reaction would have made sense, but the hero sat still as if he hadn’t heard Moon’s words at all.

The more pressing issue though, was it now seemed that he had two suicidal heroes on his hands.

‘Are all heroes like this,’ Lin Ling despaired, ‘why would anyone become a hero then if that’s the case?’

Nice shifted, seeming to feel Lin Ling’s unease from across the couch. “She makes that threat all the time,” the hero explained, “she doesn’t actually mean it though, she just wants a reaction out of Miss J.”

Lin Ling glanced at Moon, standing on her toes in front of the statue of Nice and shouting into the air like Miss J could hear him. Though, technically she could, but Lin Ling had yet to hear any two-way conversation happen inside the room; it was mostly just Moon yelling or Nice informing Miss J that he was going to practice. Lin Ling looked back at Nice, ‘does that not bother him,’ he wondered.

Moon huffed, tossing her hair over his shoulder as she sulked back to the couch, taking a seat between Lin Ling and Nice with a pout. “One day she’ll take me seriously, I mean, why can’t I go anywhere on my own? I’m totally okay with taking pictures with fans, signing shirts and shit like that, but does Miss J think I’m going to ruin Nice’s image by just existing?”

Lin Ling nodded along as Moon rambled, Nice blissfully ignoring both of them as he fiddled with his uniform. Nice was Treeman’s most valuable brand, but Moon was still under contract with them, and they never worked to raise her trust value. Wouldn’t having both Nice and Moon in the top twenty ranked heroes look good for Treeman, it would likely bring more aspiring heroes to the company as well.

It still bothered Lin Ling how Nice and Moon seemed to be confined to the hero tower, and they weren’t even in the top ten. E-Soul for example was currently the number nine hero, and he made several public appearances, even had his own brand. Technically so did Nice, but his schedule was entirely dictated by Treeman, it wasn’t like he just woke up and decided to do a meet and greet.

If Miss J was worried about ruining Nice’s image, did she ever consider how disconnected from the public he might seem by never being seen outside of promotional material?

Moon throwing her arms up brought him out of his thoughts, the young woman continuing her tangent, though now including the fact that she was hungry.

“Is there no way we can go out and grab lunch?” Lin Ling suggested, “that’s a pretty harmless thing, everyone needs to eat so it wouldn’t really garner that much attention.”

Moon paused, chewing on her lip as her gaze trailed to the ceiling. “That’s true, Hu Cangqiong once accompanied me on a snack trip and no one batted an eye. You have a Treeman badge on so it’s not like a dating scandal could arise between the two of us.”

‘Oh,’ Lin Ling realized, if Moon was caught outside with someone other than Nice, then the public might assume she was seeing other people which could damage both of their reputations. Then they could just bring Nice with them, Lin Ling mused, then there wouldn’t be any chance of a scandal rising between him and Moon and it would give the other hero a breath of fresh air as well.

Running with that thought, Lin Ling suggested, “so all three of us can go get lunch. That way you both get a break, but no rumors pop up.” Even though the idea sounded perfect in his head, Nice instead sighed and Moon shook her head.

“Nice is too famous,” Moon muttered, “there’s a camera in his face any time he walks outside, that’s barely getting a break if you ask me. If we want to avoid attention, we’re better off leaving him here.”

Though Moon’s tone didn’t indicate any slight or malice toward Nice, Lin Ling wasn’t exactly on board with how easy she suggested leaving him behind. “Won’t they just leave us be if I flash my ID at them, taking pictures is fine as long as they don’t get in our space, right?”

Moon scoffed, “I don’t know, people will take pictures regardless of whether we ask them to or not.”

Disheartened, Lin Ling fell back against the couch, racking his brain for a way he could get both heroes out of the apartment without Nice becoming a fan magnet and ruining their afternoon. Said man stood, smoothing his cape out to rid it of any wrinkles before turning to Moon and Lin Ling with a soft smile. “I don’t have to come; Moon likely needs a break from me anyway as do you Lin Ling.”

“Ugh yes, that was my point exactly.”

Though Nice chuckled at Moon’s exclamation, Lin Ling frowned at the sudden shadow that passed over his features. The man had been down the past couple of days since his fight with Wreck, he’d been responsive whenever Lin Ling texted him, but especially quiet when he saw the hero in person. Over the past few weeks, Lin Ling had learned that Nice was naturally a quiet person. Whether that was a new development or the kind of person Nice had always been, he still wasn’t sure.

Sometimes they would sit on the couch, small mutters passing between them about the events of the day. Once, Lin Ling had watched Nice come back from a photo shoot and faceplant right into his bed. There was always a pleasant atmosphere between the two, but it still felt as though there was something Lin Ling was missing, something that was keeping them from being true friends.

“We could always disguise him.”

“Lin Ling—”

“There will be no need for that.”

Heads turned as the doors to their floor slid open and in walked Miss J. Ever present tablet held in her hands, but Lin Ling did notice that she had a different dress on today, perhaps she had somewhere important to be.

“Nice,” she addressed the standing hero, “we have a new brand interested in you and they’re offering quite a hefty sum to collaborate with us.” Nice nodded, giving Lin Ling one more smile before walking around to Miss J’s side where Hu Cangqiong was waiting with an outstretched hand.

“However,” Miss J continued, “I don’t mind if the two of you go out and grab something to eat. You’re welcome to bring Nice some food back too, we’ll likely be back before you two.”

“Awesome!” Moon shouted, hopping to her feet and running to her closet to find an outfit to wear while Lin Ling stood by. On the one hand, he was incredibly excited to be spending some time with Moon, but that insistent worry for Nice was still a plague in the back of his mind.

“How conflicting…”

~

Walking next to Moon, Lin Ling almost felt like a bum. He had expanded his closet a bit, and by that he just went and bought a couple more shirts and another pair of black pants. Moon on the other hand had found herself some cute blue jean shorts and a loose white shirt that had some character on it, Lin Ling just didn’t recognize where it might have been from.

She was absolutely glowing, her hair had been pulled up into its signature high pony, but the slight breeze tussled it just enough that she hadn’t seemed too fazed. They walked past little stores, shops that had been set up overnight on a street Lin Ling was unfamiliar with. People waved at Moon, smiled and offered her a piece of fruit or a fresh vegetable they had just planted, snapped off a piece of bread for the both of them and wished the two a good day.

The way they looked at her was with clear adoration, but it wasn’t the type of idolization that Lin Ling saw when others looked at Nice, it was the same way a mother looks at their child pursuing their dreams.

Lin Ling decided that this Moon was the one the public should see more often.

“Tell me about yourself Lin Ling.”

They had stopped on a bench at a park, out of sight from the general public and with a large sandwich split between the two of them. There was an extra white bag tied around Lin Ling’s leg that held a meal for Nice; a salad that Moon had picked out.

Lin Ling chewed on his sandwich before responding, “to be honest, not too much has happened in my life before getting this job. I grew up with my parents, went to school and graduated with a degree in marketing and then looking for jobs.” Lin Ling kicked at the grass, clearly it had been a long time since it was cut, since the blades were tickling his upper ankle. “My parents bought my old apartment for me, or started payments on it I guess, once I got a job, they left that up to me. We still talk it’s just; we’re in separate areas of life I guess.”

“That’s uneventful.”

Unfortunately, Lin Ling had to agree, that’s why he had emphasized so much that meeting Nice had literally changed his life. “Then what about you?” He asked, mostly to draw the attention away from his mundane teen years.

Moon hummed, kicking her feet lightly as she took a sip from her pink fruity drink. “I’m sure you already know most of my life, Miss J had my “origin story” broadcasted for everyone once I got with Nice.”

“Yeah I know but, what about before becoming a travel blogger, there’s nothing about that on the internet.”

The young woman paused, fingers drumming against her cup with a soft plastic tap. “Well… I almost went to school for marine biology,” Moon stopped, curling her lips as she waited for a response from Lin Ling. He just shrugged, giving her a smile and prompting Moon to continue. “I didn’t end up doing that; I went to school for a week or two before I came home and spent the next few months figuring out what I wanted to do.

“My parents were incredibly disappointed you can imagine. I mean, they pushed me to earn all these scholarships so that I could go to school basically for free and in their eyes I just “threw it away.’”

Lin Ling could empathize with that; he had also worked his butt off to get any scholarships applicable to him and his major and had only managed to snag a few of them. His parents would have disowned him had Lin Ling even mentioned wanting to drop out of school or at least take a gap year. “Is that when you decided to travel?”

Moon shook her head. “Well, both yes and no. I didn’t start traveling like that until a year after I had left school. My parents wanted me to get a job, but I wanted to go out and enjoy life. So, I packed a bag, took the car my parents bought for me, and picked a direction to drive.”

“Wasn’t that scary?”

“A little bit,” Moon admitted, “but there was a certain thrill to it that I loved. No bills, I only had to pay for gas and food, and I was free to go wherever I wanted, that’s when I started blogging.”

If Lin Ling remembered correctly, Moon did look a little—for a lack of better words—dirty and rough when she first appeared on the internet, and some comments under her videos pointed out how she seemed to “never shower” and “looks like she lives in a car.” While they were rude comments, Moon’s energy had never wavered as she grew in popularity and began to post more often once she gained a stable following. It was one of the most inspiring things about Moon in Lin Ling’s opinion, her self-confidence, and the way she cared and took care of herself had made Lin Ling actually want to get out of his bed in the morning.

It was a little sad, how bright Moon shone once she was out in the sun but shrank into herself when she was in the tower. ‘It’s like that childhood story from the west,’ Lin Ling mused, ‘that one of the girl stuck in the tower.’

Moon hated the princess image but, maybe cosplaying that character would make for a fun magazine cover some time.

“Anyway,” Moon muttered, shaking her loose hair from her face as she stuffed her finished sandwich wrapped into the bag they had kept at their feet. “None of that is shown to the public because it doesn’t really matter to the story once I met Nice.”

A story, which is essentially what Nice and Moon were living, they were simply characters following words on a page and hoping that the author was kind enough to give them a happy ending.

From a story writing point of view, Lin Ling could see the character sheets for Nice and Moon. The love and first sight trope, the technical hero x civilian romance story line, and a stereotypical dark coded enemy meant to tear the happy couple apart. Lin Ling could practically hear the wedding bells from the bench, the perfect conclusion for the romance between those two heroes.

It wouldn’t actually have been that bad had Nice and Moon been friends.

“Speaking of Nice,” Lin Ling started, and Moon groaned, “I’m sorry, I know you don’t really want to talk about him but there was something he brought up the other day that I was curious about.”

Moon thankfully stayed silent, pursing her lips as she waited for Lin Ling to continue.

“He said the two of you used to be friends?”

“Used to? Wow, I know we aren’t that close anymore, but he acts like I hate him.”

“Do you?”

Moon chewed at her lip, huffing a deep breath and pressing her elbows into her knees. “I don’t hate him, but…” she groaned, falling back against the bench to stare at the sky. “Okay yes, we were friends ish. It was always super awkward because we didn’t know each other very well and never had the time to do so. But in the beginning, Nice was super…well…nice. He brought food to our script practices, put in the extra time to help me with errors Miss J pointed out, and was just super friendly and pleasant to be around.”

Something dark passed over her eyes, not the same shadow that would cover Nice’s face, but something almost just as sad.

“As Nice’s trust grew,” Moon continued, “more and more people began to believe that Nice and I were in a real relationship. Tell me Lin Ling, do you know how trust works?”

Admittedly, he still wasn’t sure how trust worked in a general sense. He knew how it worked in relation to heroes and their powers, and he was aware that having a trust value of zero in society basically put you at the bottom of the totem pole.

Taking his silence as an answer, Moon sighed and continued on, “as public figures, the people put their trust in us for a number of things, though it might be better to use the word believe in this situation. For example, people believe that Nice is perfect and Treeman plays in to this brand. As a consequence, Nice has severe OCD and basically hates getting dirty in anyway. After about a year of being in a relationship, people began to believe that Nice and I were in a real relationship, do you see where I’m going?”

Trust had psychological effects on Nice, not only physical, Lin Ling realized. It wasn’t something he had considered before, trust changing the way one’s mind worked, and it was certainly a scary thought to entertain. “So, did you develop real feelings for Nice?”

Moon nodded, then shook her head with thinly veiled disgust. “I didn’t want to like him, he’s a good person don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t like him in that way and having the public force that mindset on me felt wrong and invasive. So I distanced myself from him as much as possible, and yeah, from his perspective it might seem like I hate him but in reality, I just wanted those feelings to go away.”

“Have they?”

Moon sighed, shifting restlessly before she decided to stand, simply stretching her legs. “They’re in the background of my mind, just little reminders of what the public wants. But because the relationship between Nice and I has gotten a little sour, it’s less intense, we’re just coworkers now.

“I don’t hate Nice, I just hate what the public has forced me to become, “Nice’s girlfriend.’”

‘Just once, I want to be Moon.’

Lin Ling’s mind began to run, returning to the failed proposal he had shown to his boss, the one that Nice said Moon would like. There was no better time to bring it up than now, Lin Ling thought, quickly standing which startled Moon to take a step back. “I have an idea for you, Miss J might not like it, but maybe if you go to her yourself, she’ll hear you out.”

“I’m listening.”

“Nice’s outfit is very bright; the gold accents catch on the sun and usually create a halo around him. In many ways, he’s the sun, and you of course are the moon.”

It was a common dynamic in romance stories, the sunshine coded character and the moon coded character, Lin Ling could recognize the appeal behind it from a marketing standpoint.

When he had drafted a more mature concept for Moon, he had wanted to incorporate more of those cool tones into her outfit and make her look more like an ethereal being. Now, after getting to know Moon, she likely wouldn’t want to go all the way with the moon imagery, like dying her hair white or anything like that. Lin Ling had originally imagined long flowy clothes, more of a silver color to emphasize the nighttime glow that the moon cast, and he had sketched out different hair styles Moon could try out like braids or a looser updo than her usual ponytail.

“Have you ever thought about cutting your hair,” Lin Ling asked, “the moon is often looked at like a divine being, but in reality, it’s a big rough piece of rock.”

Moon was not an ethereal being, she was rough around the edges, she had dark spots that she liked to hide, but she was still just as bright and deserved her time in the sky just like the sun.

Moon blinked, taken aback before a wide grin spread across her face. “Lin Ling! I knew Nice was right about you, you really are different. Say, do you have any of those ideas written down?” He had written quite a few of those ideas down, and he had been working on the details every night since Nice had suggested writing his ideas in a journal.

“I’d have to smooth out the details, but yes, I have a written version of all that.”

Lin Ling jumped back when Moon was suddenly in his face, her hands balled into excited fist as a squeal slipped from her lips. “Ugh it’s been so long since I actually liked the name Moon, and I always thought it was such a lame superhero name. I mean, it’s just my name but westernized.”

Lin Ling paused, “what is your real name?”

Moon smiled, just as bright as the moon shone every night. “Xiao Yueqing, Miss J came up with the idea not me.”

Lin Ling had to cover the snort that came out of his mouth.

~

“Miss priss, we brought you back a salad.”

‘Miss priss huh,’ Lin Ling shook his head with a fond sigh, ‘I’ll have to remember that.’

The “priss” in question popped up from where he was laying on the couch, rubbing his eyes tiredly as he eyed the white box in Lin Ling hands. “Thank you,” he mumbled, standing up slowly and lethargically brushing the wrinkles out of his outfit.

“Were you sleeping?” Lin Ling asked as he handed the box over to Nice, who mumbled a small ‘thanks’ and nodded. ‘Good,’ Lin Ling thought, Nice had been looking rough the past few days and like he desperately needed a nap.

His hand twitched, the random urge to ruffle Nice’s hair surging to the front of his mind before he thought better of it. Moon mentioned Nice having severe OCD, and though he knew it wasn’t triggered by every small thing every time, Lin Ling wasn’t sure if touching his hair would evoke a strong reaction. So he settled for patting Nice on the shoulder as he passed, thankfully the hero didn’t outwardly react, and just followed after Lin Ling into the kitchen.

“What kind of salad is it?” Nice asked as he set the box down, looking around for utensils before Moon set a plastic set down in front of him.

“Ceasar, it’s all they had,” she answered, “I got you pepper too, two packs, just how you like it you drama queen.”

“Why am I a drama queen and a priss today?”

“Dunno, just going off of vibes.”

“You get on my nerves. you know that.”

“I got you a damn salad instead of a greasy sandwich, say thank you.”

Lin Ling looked between the two heroes, and though they were bickering, the atmosphere felt lighter than the last time the three had shared a meal together. Maybe if this concept change for Moon was accepted, she would be happier, and maybe the company would let her be her own person again.

‘Xiao Yueqing, what a pretty name,’ Lin Ling thought blissfully before a pillow went flying and smacked him in the face.

Chapter Text

Lin Ling had to admit that Nice had a pretty face, it was clear from every magazine that his face was plastered on, his features were perfectly sculpted and shaped to be the ideal body type. Having been on the opposite side of the camera a few times, Lin Ling wasn’t sure how Nice held the poses for so long, let alone kept his face in that slight pleasant smile that the public went crazy for.

He had to sigh, setting the magazine down on the table in front of him as he rubbed at his temples. Miss J was once again asking the M&A department for a fresh marketing strategy to boost Nice’s trust value. ‘Really, she ought to be an expert at this point. Haven’t they been working with Nice for over three years?’ Lin Ling shook his head at his own thoughts, though it really was a surprise that they were still “struggling” to raise Nice’s trust value.

A part of him wondered if Nice just simply wasn’t meant to be that popular. Miss J had communicated early on that she intended on getting Nice into the top ten so that he could participate in the hero tournament in the upcoming months. Not that Lin Ling didn’t believe in Nice’s capability of getting into the top ten, but if the rest of the public didn’t think he could get there, then he just simply wasn’t going to.

‘Unless…’ Lin Ling looked down at his desk, chewing on the end of a pencil while he stared at the printed photo of Nice’s activity board. With the addition of the newest black line, Nice’s trust value had gone up by a solid five hundred points. The hero’s fight with Wreck had reinvigorated the public’s trust in his fighting capabilities, something which Miss J admitted had gone down since the company had been focused on brand deals recently.

Lin Ling laughed to himself,’ he has a pretty face, but it’s almost like the public wants to see it smashed in.’

Miss J had mentioned bringing Wreck back in for another fight, and while he agreed that the public clearly wanted to see Wreck again, Lin Ling almost wondered if letting Nice lose for once would do some good. In a reverse psychological kind of way, seeing Nice lose could make the public anticipate the next fight between him and Wreck, and their trust in the hero would rise because they so desperately wanted him to win.

‘It could work,’ Lin Ling concluded, and immediately rose to bring his idea to Miss J.

“No.”

Lin Ling had no more opened his mouth before Miss J was shutting him down. “I haven’t even said anything though.”

“It’s written on your face,” Miss J explained, waving her pencil in a circular motion to outline his features, “that’s your ‘bad idea’ face, the one where you get ready to propose some preposterous idea.”

“It could work though.”

“When you say it could work, that also means that whatever you’ve come up with could ruin Nice’s reputation.”

Wasn’t that a core part of building a brand though, risks had to be taken if progress was to be made. Lin Ling knew personally that if he saw his favorite hero lose a fight against their nemesis, he wouldn’t immediately lose hope but would start rooting more and more for that hero to come back stronger. “I just think that letting Nice lose for once would make the public wish for him to get stronger, and if he comes back and beats Wreck after a defeat like that, the people’s trust in him would grow.”

Miss J was still vehemently shaking her head though, but at least the look in her eyes had changed so maybe she was considering it.

“Tell you what,” she began, swiping on her table before handing it over to Lin Ling, Nice’s current trust value for the most displayed in bright blue numbers. “We can bring Wreck back in, I agree that the public is clearly anticipating more fights between the two and we would be stupid not to ride that momentum.”

Similar to the activity board Lin Ling had a picture of, Miss J’s tablet displayed the different actions Nice conducted and how they affected his trust in a bar graph below the numbers. Currently, Wreck affiliated actions had caused the highest increase in trust, and the bar was still climbing as they spoke. After letting Lin Ling look over it for a bit, Miss J politely took the tablet back, closing the screen and setting it off to the side.

The woman sighed, pushing the bridge of her glasses up as she continued, “I’ll have you contact Wreck; we can stage an “escape” scene where he gets away unscathed from Nice this time instead of being beaten like usual. That way, people will still anticipate another fight, but it shouldn’t decrease his trust as much if our plan were to backfire.”

‘Wait, I have to contact Wreck?’

Not that Lin Ling didn’t like Wreck, the man seemed nice enough from the brief interaction they had, but he was almost certain that Wreck did not like him. Whether it was from his close proximity to Nice, or just a bad first impression, whatever he had done had not sat well with the villain. Any time he wasn’t staring at Nice he was giving Lin Ling the meanest side eye he had ever received in his life, and considering where he used to work, that was an achievement.

Lin Ling almost thought that Nice contacting Wreck would be easier, but with the way the two had interacted at their last meetup, he seriously doubted that.

It still confused him, and Lin Ling pondered over the topic as he made his way to the lobby of the Treeman building so that he could call Wreck. Nice knew Wreck’s real name—he was sure it went the other way as well—so they had to have some sort of acquaintance; if they were just coworkers, there would be no reason to address one another as anything but their hero and villain names.

But Nice had just looked so sad, and honestly a little scared when Lin Ling brought the other man up. A part of him really just wanted a moment to sit down with Nice and let him air everything out, because yes, he had talked Nice down from the roof that day, but they had never really gotten to the root of the problem. If Wreck and Nice were friends that just happened to be a little estranged at the moment, then maybe Lin Ling could talk to Wreck and at least try to bridge the gap between him and Nice.

“Hello?”

Lin Ling startled at the voice suddenly in his ear; for a moment he had forgotten the whole point of pulling his phone out. He stuttered at first, then found his mental footing to respond, “Hello! This is Lin Ling, I uh work for Miss J with Treeman. We met a week or two ago…”

There was silence across the line before he heard a deep sigh. “Figures,” the man muttered, more to himself than Lin Ling, “I guess she wants me to come back in; fight with Nice again?”

Lin Ling nodded before realizing that Wreck couldn’t hear him do that over the phone. “Yes,” he rushed to answer, “Miss J said this time you would escape from Nice, so your fight would end with an unclear victor.”

“To get people to watch another fight. Makes sense…whatever, I’ll be over in ten.”

Wreck hung up before he had a chance to respond; Lin Ling had been planning to ask if he lived nearby, but he guessed the villain wasn’t big on small talk. ‘Sucks to be him,’ Lin Ling mentally laughed to himself, he was already planning to pester the older man whether he liked it or not.

There was a short awkward moment where Lin Ling just stood around in the lobby, Xia Hua gave him a soft smile the first time he paced past her and blissfully ignored him the following times. Thankfully, Hu Cangqiong walked through the lobby doors a few moments after Lin Ling’s fifth lap which gave him someone to talk to.

“I was off today,” the bodyguard started, “but Miss J asked if I could come over to do some special effects makeup for the fight today.”

“Word sure spread’s fast, hey, you do Moon’s makeup right?”

“That I do, why? Do you have an idea for a new look for her?”

Ten minutes passed quickly when Lin Ling was busy prattling off to Hu Cangqiong about the different makeup ideas he had for Moon, some that would make her look more elegant and others that would look sharper. The whole time, Hu Cangqiong had seemed to be in another world, and Lin Ling wondered if he enjoyed the makeup aspect of his job more than the bodyguard part.

“This is interesting, I’ll have to draw some ideas up and show them to Moon.”

“I think she would like that.”

“Like what?”

Wreck had arrived, carrying a large duffle bag that Lin Ling assumed had his villain costume in it. The last time he had shown up, he had looked a little worried to be there, but now he just seemed incredibly inconvenienced. ‘What a confusing person,’ Lin Ling concluded with a sigh before bidding Hu Cangqiong farewell and leaving with Wreck to go to the hero tower.

“So, Wreck,” Lin Ling started and didn’t miss the way Wreck deeply sighed. “You must live nearby, was that a personal decision or did Miss J pick it for you?”

“Coincidence.”

Lin Ling deflated, what an irritating person,’ he amended his conclusion from earlier. “Miss J didn’t have you live in the Treeman building with everyone else?” He tried again, hoping that by rephrasing his question he would get a better answer.”

“No, I’m a villain not an employee.”

Mentally screaming, Lin Ling resisted the urge to pull at his hair. So clearly, talking about Treeman wasn’t on the table, and he was hesitant to bring up Nice, so what could the two of them talk about? Surely Wreck didn’t expect them to walk in silence and then remain in said awkward silence on the long elevator ride to Nice’s floor.

It would be Lin Ling who took a dive off the roof next if that were the case.

That brought his thoughts to a grinding halt. Nice was preparing to walk off the roof, and from what Lin Ling was learning about trust, the system definitely had some sort of hand in his plan. Then how was Wreck affected by such a system? He wasn’t a real villain but there were definitely people out there who feared him, and no he wasn’t part of the spotlight society, but you can accumulate fear just as easily as trust.

“Hey Wreck?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you like being a villain?”

Those words finally got Wreck to stop and look at him, scrutinizing Lin Ling’s face for something he didn’t have the answer to. Another sigh slipped from the man’s lips, clearly having come to the conclusion that he would have to bear with the small talk for now. “I did at first, it was kind of fun. Plus, I signed up for the role, clearly I found something appealing about it,” Wreck answered.

“When did you stop liking it?”

“I was fine with it when I was still fighting my best friend, not whoever Nice is.”

‘Has Wreck fought someone before Nice?’ Lin Ling frowned, he couldn’t remember Wreck ever fighting with anyone but Nice, but maybe he had been under a different company at first, or maybe the former hero he was fighting had quit.

“I see the question in your eyes,” Wreck continued, “Nice and I were friends in high school, we signed on to Treeman together.” In Wreck’s eyes, there was that same sadness that Nice had when talking about Wreck, Lin Ling noticed. Whatever falling out the two had was weighing down on the both of them, and he firmly believed a good long conversation could mend that distance.

‘What drove them apart,’ he wondered, then asked aloud, “was it the difference in trust that ruined your friendship?”

Wreck scoffed, Lin Ling seemed to have chosen the wrong words, “our friendship isn’t ruined, but if anything, it would be Treeman’s fault. Miss J is so focused on creating a brand that she completely disregards her own humanity, and that of her employees.

Lin Ling wanted to disagree, as he swiped his company card to get the elevator to rise. Miss J could be hard on them, and she was always striving for perfect, but she had never seemed inhumane to him.

But then he thought about Nice’s phone restrictions, Moon being tied to the hero tower, and the mistreatment toward Wreck and his feelings.

Lin Ling shook his head, that was something for him to think about some other time.

“Nice has talked a little about the trust system,” Lin Ling began, “your obviously not a real villain, but does that same system affect you too?”

Wreck paused, watching the skyline descend beneath them for a moment. Lin Ling could see the turmoil swirl in his deep purple eyes, and idly, he thought it was a shame that Wreck’s mask covered his face. But he’d seen it happen before; people would probably root for the villain if it were revealed that he had a pretty face under all that armor.

Finally, Wreck hummed as he shook his head. “I’ve never thought of it before,” he admitted in a small voice, “I’ve seen how trust affects Nice, but I never thought about fear affecting me as well. To be honest, when me and Nice first joined Treeman, Nice gaining trust didn’t affect me at all.”

“How come?”

“Probably because I just saw Wreck as a role to play. In my mind I was still Lu Zhen, the actor who just happened to play Wreck who was the villain to Nice.” As he spoke, a shadow passed over his face, features turning grim as the man recounted the early days of their career. “Then as we grew more popular, I found myself getting increasingly irritated with him. Every time we practiced, I left frustrated, and I came to meetings in a sour mood because I had to sit next to him.

“Now that I think about it, I think it was at that point that I stopped seeing him as my friend and saw him as “Nice.’”

How terrifying that had to be, to have your whole psyche flipped on its head just because some people believed in a different version of you. Moon gained unwanted feelings for Nice; Wreck unintentionally began to despise his friend. Lin Ling had once dreamed of being a hero, but he wanted to be one on his own terms, and be the kind of person he thought the people needed. But if being a hero meant becoming someone else, who the people wanted you to be, then maybe he didn’t want to be that anymore.

Wreck continued speaking, “It used to be easier, because Nice would come over to my place after work. We would drink, play games and just be real with one another, and it was the one time when I still saw my friend underneath the hero he was playing. But now,” Wreck paused to shake his head, “I don’t recognize him anymore.”

Lin Ling chewed his lip, along silence to permeate between them for a moment. He hadn’t known Nice for long, but he could argue that the real person, the one Wreck was friends with, was still somewhere deep inside the hero. It hurt to think about, the two of them were standing on opposite sides of each other; one was too afraid to reach out and find something he hated, and the other was stuck so far within himself that he couldn’t find his way out.

They needed a bridge, something connecting those parts of their mind and allowing them to communicate without the people’s thoughts interfering.

For a sick moment, Lin Ling considers telling Wreck about Nice’s suicide attempt. After all, Wreck deserved to know that had Lin Ling not been there, he likely would have been attending his best friend’s funeral without ever getting to mend the rift between them. But for one, that would be a horrid betrayal of Nice’s trust, and two, it just wasn’t his story to tell. Wreck did deserve to know, but he needed to hear that from Nice’s lips, not Lin Ling’s.

“You know, sometimes I hate people.”

The silence was broken by Wreck’s tired admission, and Lin Ling’s heart ached at the absolutely lost expression on his face.

“But I don’t know if those are my real feelings, or what the publics assumes I should feel.”

His heart went out to these people, truly, he wanted to take all three of them far away where they would never hear the word ‘hero’ again.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, bringing their conversation to a depressing halt. Wreck huffed, pulling his shoulders back and giving Lin Ling a small wistful smile. “Thanks for letting me vent, it was nice.”

As Wreck made his way out of the elevator, Lin Ling realized that he was really beginning to hate the word ‘nice.’

~

Lin Ling had very weird ideas, Wreck decided, as he dodged another flying kick from Nice. Though he doubted the kid had written the script for this fight—the language sounded nothing like the way he talked—the idea must have come from Lin Ling. Technically, he got away at the end of every fight, it’s just that he had to get beaten into the ground by Nice and ‘run away’ rather than ‘get away.’

Nice was pulling his punches, as he usually did when fighting with Wreck, but there was none of their usual banter filling the air. In fact, he had heard some of the people watching comment on how tense the battle seemed to be. Lin Ling had said that was the point, that this fight had to feel different than others and would make Wreck’s “escape” seem more believable.

Nice was even frowning, something he was asked to avoid doing even when he was in a real fight. Wreck didn’t know what part of being perfect required perpetual smiling. When he and Nice were still practicing as professional dancers, they initially were trained to smile throughout the whole performance, which more often than not made his cheeks burn and his jaw ache.

There were more than a few ice cream trips made after those performances, they deserved it after all.

Wreck had always been the better dancer between the two of them, something he held over the other boy’s head back when they used to talk regularly. Nice had long lithe limbs, something which naturally made him look more elegant, but he never knew what to do with his arms. Even now as they were fighting, he could see it. Nice would rear back for a hard kick, legs and back perfectly arched to look at good as possible, but his arms hung awkwardly behind his back.

To the public, nothing would seem amiss, but anyone who knew how to dance would comment on Nice’s lack of arm control.

Their old dance teacher used to praise Wreck for his body control, and it was something he took immense pride in. Having been on the shorter and less noticeable end, he had wanted to utilize every part of his body to grab the audience’s attention.

Some part of him might resent Nice for stealing that from him, but that’s how the public always was, they prioritized looks over skill no matter how wide the skill gap was.

“You think you’re so much better than everyone else don’t you,” he spat, his words partly genuine.

Nice didn’t seem too bothered by the jab, despite being unscripted, he simply spun away from another one of Wreck’s floating beams before landing gracefully on his feet. The lack of response is worrying, but Wreck can’t recognize if it’s just Nice being too lazy to come up with a response or something more.

In the back of his mind, he knows something’s going on. No matter how much has changed between the two of them, his friend wouldn’t just ghost him like that. Not if everything were completely fine and Wreck had no need to worry, Nice would have told him if he was just busy.

Wreck grit his teeth, swinging his sword in a harsh line that cuts through the air as he sends another attack. “So, what was it,” he calls over the roaring win, “the fame, the new love story, you got so busy that you couldn’t remember me?”

‘Shit,’ he cursed internally, he was letting too much of his personal feelings bleed into his scripted ones, though the line between those was blurring too much these days. There’s a look in Nice’s eyes as they come close to one another, gold metal clashing against his black sword and he thinks that Nice looks tired.

“I’ve been busy,” Nice mutters, and it’s real and it makes Wreck’s heart genuinely pound for the first time that evening.

‘Why didn’t you say anything, why did you just ignore my text messages?’ Wreck wasn’t dumb, he could read the ‘read’ notification under every one of his unanswered texts, being busy was acceptable for about a day or two but going on for three months was a little ridiculous. ‘I could’ve helped with the fallout.’ If Nice was depressed over what happened during the Hero Smile Incident, he could’ve talked to his friend, Wreck wouldn’t have judged him for a second.

“You should have said something,” was all Wreck could bring himself to say.

Nice at least had the decency to look sheepish, his eyes diverting to the side as he continued to mumble under his breath. “I felt like I couldn’t.”

And it’s those words and the built-up frustration from the past few months that causes him to punch his best friend right in the face.

Later, Wreck had planned to apologize but instead had found himself texting Miss J in request for a keycard to the hero tower. If he and Nice were going to work things out between them, and people said communication is key, they would have to see each other more often.

Shockingly, she doesn’t put up too much of a fight and says he can pick up his card after two days.

His apartment is still just as dirty as when he left, but he feels a sudden compulsion telling him to tidy up, as if he might have guest over sometime soon again. His phone sits on the counter, the blue light glowing toward the ceiling and displaying his last text message,

“I think we should talk to each other soon.”

And for the first time in three months, he gets a response.

“Me too.”

Chapter Text

The first thing Lin Ling registered that morning was the pounding in his head. Though he had gotten plenty of sleep for once and still had time before needing to head to the office, his body felt heavy when he sat up from the bed and his eyes begged to slip shut once again. Lin Ling sighed deeply, pushing his slightly damp bangs away from his forehead. ‘There’s no way I’m sick.’

No one in the office had been sick recently and neither had the two heroes he frequently visited. As someone who strived to take care of his health, Lin Ling really only got super sick maybe once a year. Regardless, he had left over disposable thermometers that were just waiting to be used.

’98.7.’

Only a little higher than his regular so it was no cause for concern, but that didn’t explain the awful feelings Lin Ling woke up with.

Groaning, Lin Ling tossed the thermometer toward the trash can before his eyes caught on the calendar hanging on his fridge. ‘I’ve been working here for a little over a month,’ he recalled, then dropped his head against the counter.

What exactly had he accomplished over the course of a month? Miss J seemed to take most of his ideas and run with them, unless they compromised the trust value of Nice or Moon. Moon was pleasant company, and she seemed to brighten every time Lin Ling visited the tower, though that may have been selfish of him to assume. While Nice will still standoffish toward him, the hero was always willing to chat or simply listen to Lin Ling ramble.

But something nagged at his mind, the question of, ‘do I deserve to be here?’

Part of his employment had been to keep his silence on the matter of Nice’s suicide attempt, though Lin Ling still wasn’t sure if Miss J knew that’s what Nice had intended to do that evening. From the calls he had overheard from his previous boss, Miss J had never been the biggest fan of his work, often venting her frustrations over the phone while unaware of the third party listening.

So why exactly did he still have this job, why was he still in this office, in this room? Surely there were others who deserved the position more than him, surely there was someone in the M&A team who felt wrong by him being thrust into a top seat in the company.

Nice…it all seemed to circle around Nice; he hadn’t been chosen for his marketing abilities, but rather his close proximity to and possible dark knowledge of Nice.

‘What am I even doing here?’

Getting ready for work, he supposed, jumbled thoughts aside he still had a job to do.

Despite recentering his mind—so he’d thought—the walk to his office seat had been almost more overwhelming than pulling himself from the bed. People were chattering away, there must’ve been an event going on, and it was cutting through his thoughts in the most painful way. Lin Ling was not one for emotional outburst, but the need to yell ‘shut up’ was bubbling up his throat with every second.

“We got a new brand deal yesterday, did you hear?” A member of the team, Lin Ling had yet to learn their name, nudged his shoulder gently before continuing, “apparently, it’s from a group outside of the city, so our influence is growing! Miss J is running around trying to get ideas from everyone to impress this brand.”

‘I literally do not care.’ Lin Ling forced a stiff nod to his coworker, who scurried away to work on their own idea before ungracefully falling into his office chair. Miss J was always looking for new branding ideas, nothing new there, but the emphasis on the group being outside the city was sending everyone into a tizzy. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, Lin Ling scoffed as he brushed his hair out of his face once again, most of the brands they worked with simply had branches in the city but were sourced from somewhere else.

‘When you have a face as pretty as Nice’s, of course you would flock toward the city.’ It was similar to the way Lucky Cyan had gained popularity, if he remembered correctly, she was somewhat famous for her singing prior to becoming a hero and already had the ability to amass a crowd wherever she went.

Lin Ling wondered if Nice ever got tired of it, there was a viral video of Lucky Cyan running away from paparazzi once, Nice doing the same would likely cause Miss J to have an aneurism.

He was going to have an aneurism of Miss J’s barreling steps were directed at him next.

“Lin Ling.”

‘Kill me.’

“This is one of the most important deals we’ve managed to lock down during the past year, what do you have for me?”

Lin Ling frowned, was he supposed to have prior knowledge of the deal going through and already have a new concept idea drafted for Nice? He didn’t even know what company Treeman had managed to negotiate with; was it fashion, was it makeup, was it something actually pertaining to Nice being a hero and not just a model?

Miss J tapped her foot impatiently, the shoes must have been new, they were shiny, uncreased, and loudly clicked every time the ball of her foot hit the ground.

“Well?”

Lin Ling shook his head. “No, I don’t have anything at the moment, maybe I can talk with Nice about it later,” he suggested.

“No time,” Miss J huffed, “we locked this deal down late last night and they want something promising by the end of the day. Plus, Nice wasn’t exactly happy about the deal and was in a mood yesterday.”

‘Then don’t go through with it,’ mentally Lin Ling moaned, if your own hero didn’t want to go through with something then he probably wasn’t going to put his all into it. It must have had something to do with fashion; Lin Ling had noticed every time Miss J pushed Nice into a new fashion deal, he seemed incredibly bothered by it. The few times he accompanied them to a photo shoot, if he wasn’t taking a picture then Nice’s face was usually turned into a frown.

It would probably be perfect to get Nice’s opinion on the deal, then Lin Ling could draft something that both he and Miss J would be happy with and all would be well. “I can go talk to Nice now then, see if I can calm him down and get his opinion on the clothing,” Lin Ling broached, assuming it was a clothing brand was a brazen choice, but Miss J didn’t argue so he must have been right.

“I’m not putting up another fight with Nice,” she did argue about that though, “just come up with something that a company that specializes in sharp lines would be fond of but keep Nice’s perfect image in mind.”

What the hell kind of concept was that? Sharp lines, that was more of Wrecks’ thing, why didn’t they reach out to the villain instead.

“I’d really like to talk with Nice about this,” Lin Ling pushed, “he has more insight than me and can help.”

“For the last time Lin Ling, you’re not speaking with Nice, you’re on the clock you know. You’re smart Lin Ling; I want at least something produced by noon.”

“You’re asking for the impossible.”

“Excuse me?”

Miss J narrowed her eyes, the office falling silent as all eyes fell to the two of them. The click of her shoe was back, though more incessant and with a rougher beat. “Lin Ling, we have deadlines, and this is a tight one. I do not have time to be arguing with my employees over results.”

“Do you want shaky perfection or genuine results Miss J?”

He hadn’t known where the outburst came from, said in a soft and civil tone, but he had no more gotten the words about before he was being told to take a walk and pushed into the elevator.

‘What am I doing here?’

Lin Ling chewed at his bottom lip as his thumb pressed the up button on the elevator, headed toward the top floor, he needed some fresh air to clear his thoughts.

There were so many people in that office who would’ve handled that better than he had, he pressed his palms into his eyes at the thought of all those people watching him argue with their boss, of something as simple as a deadline. Truly, what right did he have to argue with Miss J when he had only been working there for a month? ‘That’s how you get fired.’ The stray thought made his heart pound as he practically jumped out of the elevator and pushed through one last door into the open air.

Everyone knew you weren’t supposed to argue with your boss, if she wanted results by noon then he could’ve at least given her mediocre scraps, at least then he would have something to show. But now he was stuck pacing on the roof for backtalking Miss J and making himself seem like a fool.

Lin Ling groaned, his phone had been left on his desk in his hurry, so he had no one to call to vent his frustrations. Though when he thought about it, who exactly was he supposed to call?

Mom? She was probably too busy, and his dad wouldn’t answer the phone after weeks of radio silence on Lin Ling’s end. It wasn’t like he could text anyone in the office; for one, he didn’t have any of their numbers and two, they were at work like he was supposed to be and were staying busy. Lin Ling’s heart stuttered as he paced backward until his back hit a wall and slowly slid down.

‘I like my new job, I really do,’ he tried to comfort himself, and instinctively he knew that real friendships sometimes took a while to develop. At the luncheon just a few days ago he had managed to sit at a table with his coworkers and have a pleasant conversation, way better than anything he would have achieved at his old job. His desk mates always told him bye if they left the office before him and welcomed him in the mornings when he came later.

It wasn’t like Lin Ling didn’t have acquaintances in the office, but he still felt just so lonely.

If he were closer to Nice, he might have reached out to the hero. ‘That feels wrong for so many reasons.’ Was it right to burden Nice with simple work troubles when he had his own demons to fight, and was it really that big of a deal that Lin Ling needed to vent about it?

‘People have bad days at work all the time, I am completely fine.’

Except his heart was racing, the skyline was beginning to blur in his vision, and it was only nine in the morning. He couldn’t go the entire day like this. His mind would explode before Miss J’s noon deadline. That deadline loomed over his head. Like it was a timer ticking away on his life.

What was he doing on the roof?

What had he been doing on the roof?

Lin Ling had talked Nice out of jumping on the roof, and he was sure that hadn’t been his intention, but what had he been planning to do if Nice hadn’t showed up? There was no future for him without Treeman stepping in, he would have struggled through rent, haggled his way into meals and groceries, it would have been a miserable experience. After a month or two of living like that, maybe he would’ve taken a dive as well.

Tears built up in his eyes, he was only in his twenties, thoughts like this shouldn’t be plaguing mind regardless of whether it was a good day or not. Because that meant that the thought was somewhere in his mind, and that was terrifying. He didn’t want to die. Not at his own hands, not at someone else’s.

Surely not.

Surely, he wouldn’t have done it.

But hopelessness was such a suffocating feeling.

Lin Ling pulled roughly had his hair, trying to find something to put his chaotic thoughts into some kind of order. So stuck in his mind, he hadn’t noticed the person on the roof quickly approaching him, until they were roughly pulling his hands out of his hair and throwing their arms around him. Frantically, Lin Ling clung to the other person, finally letting the flood gates open and sobbing into their chest.

Idly, Lin Ling knew he would be embarrassed by this later, but his hero was warm and soft, and he really needed a hug right now.

~

When his cries had died down to mere sniffles, Lin Ling found himself hesitant to pull away. For all his perfectly polished edges and near untouchable image, Nice was surprisingly comfortable to hold and he subconsciously snuggled closer to the hero. Above him Nice chuckled, the sound rumbling in his chest against Lin Ling’s ear, but he pulled the younger boy closer to him and began to card one of his hands through the soft brown hair.

Nice’s heartbeat was steady, serving to calm Lin Ling’s racing heart down and pull deep calmer breaths out of him.

“Do you ever feel…” Lin Ling started; he hadn’t been prompted to speak but had felt comfortable enough to. “Do you ever feel like you’re not meant to be here?”

His eyes widened once the words made it out of his mouth; damn he hoped Nice knew he was referring to his horrid imposter syndrome and not trying to delve into Nice’s suicidal ideation. Thankfully, Nice simply hummed into his hair before answering, “sometimes. Most of my identity is based on of public belief after all, it’s hard to tell if it’s really me they like.”

It might have been the realest sentence he had heard from the hero. It could’ve been out of sympathy for Lin Ling, maybe he thought that showing a little vulnerability in return would make him feel better. Whatever it was, Lin Ling was simply grateful that Nice was even there.

“I feel lost,” Lin Ling mumbled against Nice’s chest. “I feel like everything happened so fast, I’ve had no time to process, and it all just came crashing down today between waking up in a mood and then fighting with Miss J. I can’t tell if this is where I’m supposed to be.”

“What did you and Miss J talk about?” Nice inquired, playing with a stray stand of Lin Ling’s hair that happened to be sticking straight up. It made his scalp prickle, an almost ticklish sensation that made him smile.

Lin Ling nuzzled further into Nice’s chest, his fingers were no longer clinging to the hero’s clothes but simply resting on his back, though he wouldn’t admit they were situated in such a way that Nice wouldn’t easily be able to pull away. ‘I’ve decided, cuddles with Nice are probably the best form of therapy,’ Lin Ling concluded, before realizing he had yet to answer Nice’s question. “It was something about your new brand deal, it’s clothing, right?”

“How did you know?”

“Miss J mentioned you being in a bad mood and you usually hate clothing deals.”

Nice huffed, muttering something about being too transparent which only made Lin Ling giggle. ‘I’d beg to differ,’ but he kept his thoughts to himself. “She apparently wanted a business proposal done yesterday and then acted shocked when I had nothing to give her. I don’t think I blew up in her face, but she sent me on a walk anyway.”

“Miss J thinks she’s the only one who can have outburst.”

“That’s annoying.”

“I agree.”

Lin Ling sighed, the heavy atmosphere had begun to dissipate, leaving him tired and heavy. But he was loathe to leave this situation and return to work, so he racked his brain for something the two of them could talk about. Something happy, it was about time they had a conversation that wasn’t sad and depressing.

Nice had a practice room adjacent to his main room in the hero tower, and one of the more marketable parts of his hero personality was his identity as a ballerino. “Hey Nice, do you still like to dance?” He asked, pleased when the hero above him nodded.

“Miss J really only incorporated ballet into my hero portfolio at the beginning of my career,” Nice spoke in a soft tone, “Occasionally I still use it when fighting, but mainly people just watch for perfect or elegant landings. So, in the past year I’ve found out that I can still dance without feeling like I have to fit a specific guideline.”

While Lin Ling himself had never been that into dance, he always admired seeing professional dancers on screen. From idols like Lucky Cyan, to those who performed in The Ballet, Lin Ling respected those who put so much effort into expressing themselves through their body alone. Ballet especially he had heard was excruciating, ‘ballerinas retire young’ was a phrase he often heard circulating in the dance world; broken toenails that never grew back, sprained ankles that throbbed years later, it almost seemed too painful to be something people loved.

But ballet was such a beautiful piece of art, something he thought should never be restricted by public opinion, so the fact that Nice could still enjoy something he had clear talent and took joy in, was nothing short of inspiring. Lin Ling had to laugh, if he ever tried something like ballet he would most definitely fall flat on his face.

Despite the thought, Lin Ling still joked, “do you think you could teach me?” Because it made him laugh to picture Nice trying to keep his patience while Lin Ling did what could only be described as a ‘piro-what.’

Nice suddenly pulled back, his eyes sparkling with the most life Lin Ling had seen in the past month and something just a little short of mischief. “Do you really want to learn?” Nice asked, and Lin Ling couldn’t miss the hopeful tone in his voice. It almost felt cruel to admit he had been joking, and who knows, maybe Lin Ling would find a new hobby to enjoy.

So he nodded, smiling wide and answering, “why not?”

It seemed Lin Ling managed to open a hidden can of worms, because he watched as Nice began to prattle on and on about dance, the diverse types of dances, what kind of exercise he had to do to avoid any injuries. It was kind of cute, Lin Ling laughed to himself, watching as Nice’s hands flew all over the place, eyes wandering, but the smile on his face was infectious.

It was real, and that was better than anything.

“Hey Nice—”

“Bai Xiuying.”

Lin Ling paused, looking at Nice who had a light dusting of pink across his face. “I figured,” the hero floundered for a moment, “I figured you should know…since we’re friends and all.”

‘Friends.’ Lin Ling’s heart soared, it had taken a month, but Nice finally considered him a real friend; forget his previous assessment, this was better than anything.

“Sorry, you were saying something?”

Well now it felt wrong to bring it up, but Lin Ling was curious. “How did things go with Wreck the other day? You don’t seem…uh down after this most recent fight.”

Thankfully, Nice didn’t seem as bothered as Lin Ling thought he would be. The hero simply nodded and brushed a hand through his hair, they had backed away from each other and were sitting across from one another, but Lin Ling was still close enough to launch them into another hug should the need arise.

“We’re talking again,” Nice curtly responded, before shaking his head and starting again, “he texted me after our recent fight, said we should try and patch things up and I agreed with him. It was my fault we drifted apart anyway.”

“How come?” Was Nice just throwing the blame on himself even if it was a mutual break away, or had he actually orchestrated the rift in their relationship?

Nice sighed, looking down and picking at a fingernail before he seemed to snap back to himself and set his hands on his knees. “I thought it would be easier for him to forget me after I died, if we had already been estranged for a while before.”

‘What the hell,’ Lin Ling thought, ‘pushing your friend away so that they wouldn’t feel bad after you took your life?’

His next thought, ‘That’s cowardly.’

Second, ‘That’s sad.’

Sensing the tension in the air, Nice shook his head before placing another soft smile on his face. “My plan clearly didn’t work though, did it?”

“He said he was worried about you?”

“You two talked about me?”

“I think he only talks about you.”

Lin Ling smirked as the light pink on Nice’s face deepened, the hero turning and coughing into his elbow before shaking his head vehemently. He listened to Nice’s excuses, but there was no denying just how Wreck looked at the hero, it was cute if he was being honest.

“Stop making that face.”

“I’m sorry!”

“No you’re not!”

Nice let out a yelp when Lin Ling jumped over and tackled him to the ground, laughter floating into the air between the two boys as they tussled, pulling at hair and poking at each other’s ribs until one would relent and start again. Lin Ling cackled and Nice wheezed when he got the hero pinned down and scratched relentlessly at his sides until tears were building behind his eyes. Having the advantage in strength, Nice was able to easily push him off before scrambling away to collect himself.

Lin Ling had to apologize for making a mess of Nice’s clothes but simply waved him off and said he was due for an outfit change anyway. It had been a solid hour since Lin Ling went on his ‘walk,’ so he figured he should get back to work before Miss J found something else to yell at him about.

Nice waved him goodbye, watching Lin Ling make it back into the building before flying off for the hero tower.

Lin Ling’s chest felt much lighter, the name ‘Bai Xiuying’ sitting happily on his heart like it was a gift. Maybe someday he’d find out that Treeman wasn’t where he was meant to be, but he did know for certain that he was meant to be on the roof that day, and he and Nice were meant to be friends.

That made the imposter syndrome just a little easier to deal with.

~

“Do you know how easy it was to see the two of you from the hero tower?”

Since his back was turned to the woman, Nice didn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes. The only reason Miss J knew it had been him and Lin Ling on the roof was because she had been looking for them. If any regular person were looking at the Treeman building from the tower, they would have just seen two little dots rolling around on the roof.

Miss J marched around in front of the hero, her eyes narrowed and lips curled as if Nice had done something truly disgusting.

‘Is it a crime to help my friend?’ In Miss J’s eyes it was, which made Nice’s fingers twitch uncomfortably.

“What exactly do you think is going to happen if someone see’s me with Lin Ling? He’s a Treeman employee after all,” Nice implored, pushing past the woman to stand by his over-the-top large windows. There was a loose panel facing his kitchen, one that he had been slowly loosening for the past couple of months that might just accidentally shatter if someone bumped into it too hard. But there was a certain brunette that was keeping him from taking out that final screw, literally and figuratively.

Miss J huffed, tossing her ever-present tablet onto Nice’s bed and following after him. “He is a good worker I’ll give him that, but all of his ideas are pushing the limits of the concepts we’ve set in place for you and Moon.”

Yes, he was aware of that, and was honestly on board with the change Lin Ling was proposing. While he hadn’t heard what Lin Ling had planned for him, he had seen how Moon’s face lit up whenever the boy talked about his ideas with her. It was about time someone with new fresh ideas came to Treeman; the last young man who had tried to bring a change to Treeman had been fired after a week and left in tears.

But he didn’t have much of a backbone, not like Lin Ling did.

“Lin Ling needs to watch himself,” Miss J began, shaking her head as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t want to fire such young talent so soon again.”

Nice’s left eyelid twitched before he turned to Miss J, any humor on his face having completely slipped away. “Miss J, if anything happens to Lin Ling, I’ll quit.”

Though the woman laughed, her next words were completely serious.

“You’re under contract Nice, you can’t just throw a tantrum and quit.”

Bai Xiuying thought of the loose window panel, the rope sitting under his bed, that thing hidden in his bathroom and simply smiled at Miss J.

“I have my ways.”

Chapter Text

Nice blinked up at the ceiling, there was an incessant itch behind his eyes and his vision blurred every time he blinked. Just once, Nice wanted to wake up and not feel like shit. He wanted to go to sleep with wonder for the next day, not dread in his bones that the next day would be like every other; the day would either start with a high and leave him crashing down, or he would start and the bottom and expect to be better by the end of the day.

‘Like a tangent graph,’ he idly though, then sighed at his own comparison.

Might as well get up, he had been staring at the ceiling for a good hour after waking up early and being unable to fall back asleep. Though, his “sleep” had merely been the few minutes his eyes had managed to close through the night, jumbled time warps that left his mind hazy and unfocused. Nice had been running on maybe four total hours of sleep, the past two days had been full of busy schedules that ran from early in the morning until late at night, and only the copious amounts of coffee had managed to keep him away throughout the day.

Two all-nighters in a row were definitely starting to catch up to him, Nice knew that his thoughts always tended to go off the deep end whenever he was tired.

With a creak in his bones, Nice pushed off of the stiff couch and made his way to the kitchen for his nth cup of coffee. Miss J didn’t have anything specific on his schedule today, mostly just training to make sure that his move set was still nice, clean, and perfect. Coffee was probably a bad idea then, it made him jittery, made him focus on inconsequential things that didn’t really matter but stuck out in his eyes like a sore thumb.

It also made dancing hard, the shakes in his body made holding certain dance positions hard, and Miss J often wanted him to hold them for minutes at a time.

Nice sighed as the coffee machine began to brew, his fingers tapping along the counter in a steady rhythm.

Thumb, then pointer, middle, ring, pinky, and repeat.

It was merely a way to pass the time.

“Nice!” Xiao Yueqing shouted, startling from the doze he’d started slipping into. “I’m running out to grab lunch with Lin Ling, I’ll see you after rehearsal.”

Nice had heard the room doors shut but his mind was stuck on other matters. ‘Lunch?’ He frowned before tapping his phone that was still plugged in, the time reading ’11:15’ in bright bold letters. His throat bobbed, how long had he been looking at the ceiling, or had he actually fallen asleep and just not realized it? The hero cursed, Miss J was definitely going to be on his case for being late to rehearsal, so he’d have to forget the coffee.

He still had to clean up though, hastily turning the machine off early before dumping the mug contents into the sink. Nice winced at the brown liquid going down the drain, turning the water on high so that the stain would disappear while he scrubbed at the mug. His stomach rumbled, but Nice was used to running hours without food at this point, he would just eat something small after rehearsal with Miss J.

Nice shuffled his suit on, smoothing down the wrinkles as best as he could when in a rush, breathing harshly through his teeth when the collar rubbed against his neck. His fingers reached around, finding a loose thread of fabric protruding near the back of his neck, the exposed patch work threatening to rub his neck raw. ‘I’ll sew it later,’ he noted, looking for another suit to wear until he found them all in different states of disrepair.

Had Miss J not been sending his suits to the cleaners? She had promised that all of his suits used in public appearances would be collected and sent for cleaning and maintenance before he needed them again. It had been the one small kindness she afforded him, out of consideration for his worsening OCD and his lack of time to repair them himself. That had been early in his career yes, but Nice had assumed—hoped at least—that Miss J had continued the practice.

“Okay,” Nice breathed out, “It’s fine, I’ll fix it after practice.”

Despite the muttered reassurances, Nice heart was pounding, he swallowed the bile that threatened to rise thickly before forcing himself to move away from the closet. His steps were too loud, too heavy for a ballerino, and Nice pushed his hands into his eyes.

Just once, he wanted a day where his mind was quiet and not actively working against him.

“Have you ever considered medication?” Moon had asked him one day, during their more tender moments.

No, because he was perfect, and the perfect hero didn’t need medication to keep his thoughts under control.

That was how people died, he was aware, he was also getting to that point.

A scream bubbled up in his throat, but he pushed forward until he was at the door to his practice room and plastered a smile on his face. “Sorry I’m late,” he forced out, too cheery to fool his manager, he would have to work on that.

Miss J looked at him, then did a glance up and down his body before settling on a sigh. “It’s fine, Moon said you needed some sleep anyway.”

Nice tried to ignore the funny way that made his heart feel.

“Anyway,” Miss J moved on, “you saw the schedule, we just need to brush up your skills and then watch the monitor video. I assume you’ve already stretched since you were late?”

The ache in his lower back begged to differ, but Miss J didn’t need to know that. Nice nodded politely, rolling his wrist around as he made his way to the ‘x’ in the center of the practice room. The large camera lights clicked on and he involuntarily winced, his eyes had still been adjusting to the light and weren’t ready for the sudden change. Miss J clicked her tongue at him again; he was on a roll so far.

Soft humming filled the air; the standard practice music Miss J had set for him a year ago. Against his better wishes, he actually liked the song, there was a part near the end where the tempo picked up in a way that reminded him of summer as a kid. Nice’s arms arched above his head, feet assuming first position and transitioning into a plié, from there, the song took over and he simply moved his body however the music commanded.

It was a three almost four-minute song, but it ended in seconds for Nice. It could have been the coffee, the lack of sleep, or the growing disconnect between his mind and body that had blurred the time of his dance.

Nice huffed, sweat beading on the back of his neck and stinging the area where his skin had been rubbed raw. He grasped at his collar, tugging roughly at his outfit with an irritated grunt as he and Miss J watched the monitor video.

His arms weren’t straight there; it was his biggest flaw that Wreck had pointed out several times. When he squinted, Nice noticed how he stumbled out of a leap that made the maneuver look sloppy even to the untrained eye.

“I would like to go again,” Nice muttered.

Miss J glanced at him but started the music up once again.

The tempo change came much earlier than he expected and Nice stumbled. “Again,” he demanded, pulling at his collar until at small rip was heard. A glare caught his eye, Nice whipped out a handkerchief and wiped at the camera lens until it was shiny again and started to dance once more.

His arms weren’t straight enough.

‘Damn this collar.’ Nice scratched at his neck.

Nice coughed, a wet sound that ripped through his throat and left his head spinning. “One more time,” he whispered, holding up a shaky finger toward Miss J who pressed play on the record player.

His hair fell into his face, the collar was choking him, who the hell kept touching the camera lense, and why was the fan spinning in that direction?

“Enough Nice!”

The hero hit his knees at the climax of the song, his ears ringing and heart pounding as Miss J stomped over to him and grabbed a fistful of his hair, retching his neck back and an angle that stung. “I don’t know what’s going on with you today, but none of these video’s are acceptable. Go take a break, eat something, just do anything! But don’t come back in here today, I’m disappointed with you.”

Miss J let his hair go, his head dropping down to his chest as he listened to staff leave the room and silence enveloped him after.

What hurts the most about depression is that you can’t help just how low or how high it drops you. Like a tangent graph, sometimes Nice starts his day at the worst low he can ever imagine, where his mind drops to a dark place and imagines all the ways he could die. Maybe by the end of the day he’d climb to the top of the graph, standing in a spot so bright, but so fake. Because even if he ended the day on a high, he had no idea if the next day would knock him back down.

And truthfully, what was the point in fighting it anymore if life was just going to keep him on a tight leash, never letting him truly feel happy and only making the end more enticing.

Sweaty and tired, Nice stood once more with a slight sway. Maybe today would be his last day if he were lucky enough; the jitters might just make him fall into that loosened window panel, and he could blame his lack of rest on why he didn’t react in time, and then not so gracefully fall to his death and hopefully be free.

The door to his practice room clicked open once more on his way out, the window just within his sights before voices reached his ears. He frowned, he was sure Moon had said she was going out with Lin Ling, and his rehearsal had ended early so they definitely shouldn’t be back at the tower yet.

The hero rounded the corner, spotting Moon, Lin Ling, and Wreck sitting at their kitchen table chatting away. Nice tilted his head, neither Lin Ling nor Wreck had said anything about each other to him—aside from one comment Lin Ling had made—so it was a little shocking to see them sitting across from one another and talking as if they were old friends.

Moon laughed at something Lin Ling said before she glanced over and spotted Nice, her face lit up and his heart hurt again. “Hey princess, you’re done early. Wanna join us for lunch, its chicken,” Moon exclaimed, pointing helpfully at her own plate of food as if Nice hadn’t seen it.

Chicken was not his go to usually, his nose wrinkled involuntarily, it tended to be really greasy even if he ate it with a fork and knife, there was nearly no way to avoid getting the grease on his lips.

“You should join us.” Nice shook out of his thoughts when Wreck spoke, so soft and different from the way he practically growled on the battlefield. Wreck, Lu Zhen’s smile was soft, like there was no tension between them, like Nice hadn’t orchestrated the end of their friendship just so he wouldn’t feel bad about leaving Wreck behind.

Lin Ling’s head popped up, taking Nice’s image in with a wince and a low whistle. “Maybe you should clean up a bit though, we can wait.”

Nice idly nodded his agreement, his hands were itching anyway, and the room did hold one of his tools for getting rid of that itch. “I’ll be back,” he assured the group, before rushing away to the bathroom.

~

Clean and definitely less charged than before, Nice donned a new suit and rejoined the group in the kitchen only a few minutes after he left.

“Feeling better?” Moon smirks at him and he knows she’s teasing him for being a priss again. Nice turned his nose up at the girl, his own mirth stirring in his chest at the irritated huff heard from behind him.

“We just got grilled chicken and salad since it’s easy to eat,” Lin Ling stated from the table, “I was gonna get a sandwich, but Hu Cangqiong made a comment about my waist the other day and I didn’t know how to feel about it.”

Nice hummed idly as he pulled his gloves out from one of the drawers, Lin Ling was just as skinny as him, and he was sure Hu Cangqiong’s comment had been harmless so there was no reason for Lin Ling to worry about it.

Moon chuckled, and from the squawk that Lin Ling let out after her, Nice assumed that she had reached over and tussled his hair. That, or she had put him in a chokehold, either one was equally likely. Smiling lightly, Nice pulled his gloves on a prepared to walk back to the table when he stopped.

His plate and utensils had already been set out, the shine reflecting off the white ceramic indicating that it had been wiped off previously and was already clean. A fresh cup of water had been placed at the right of his place, bereft of any logos that might need to be turned in a specific way. Against his better wishes, Nice’s bottom lip began to tremble, and when he met Wreck’s softened eyes, he had to tear his gaze away.

Who had done it? Definitely not Moon, she enjoyed making a mess of things just to see him tick sometimes. Both Wreck and Lin Ling were valid options, though he was leaning more toward the former, solely because Wreck had been around longer to know Nice’s tendencies and have his routines memorized.

Lin Ling’s chair scraped against the floor as he stood in a tizzy. “We didn’t mean to upset you,” he hurried to explain, hands waving erratically in the air, “I just thought it would be easier for you and Wreck said he knew how to set it up so… I’m so sorry Nice!” The young man clasped his hands together above his head, bowing his face toward the ground in sincere apology to the hero he was sure he had offended.

Wreck chuckled, a warm sound that rattled his bones despite the distance between them. “It’s good to see you expressing some emotion for once.”

“Ugh I agree,” Moon droned, “he’s like a robot, sometimes I just want to grab him and shake some sense into his stupid brain, have emotions damn it!”

Lin Ling turned his head to Moon, his lips pressed into a flat line. “That’s concerning.”

Nice shook his head, pushing the sudden emotion to the back of his mind as he took the open seat next to Wreck, their knees bumping together under the table as Nice avoided his friend’s gaze. “Thank you for the food,” he sincerely muttered, thankful that no one paid his comment too much mind and went about digging into their own plates.

“This is so good,” Moon moaned, scooping up a couple leaves of salad to eat with her next bite of chicken. “I was a bit skeptical when Wreck said he knew a chicken place, I mean, who knows a chicken place specifically, but this is good.”

Beside him, Wreck sat up a bit straighter, a haughty grin taking over his features. “So you admit I have good taste?”

“I never said that, look at what you’re wearing.”

Nice thought the dark suit looked good on Wreck, though he could agree that his friend could use a wardrobe update, he’s been wearing the same type of clothes since they were in high school.

Lin Ling laughed, glancing between Wreck and Moon with something like awe in his eyes. “I didn’t know you two were close,” the boy commented.

Nice snorted at that, Moon and Wreck were far from close, they were more like reluctant acquaintances whose only mutual connection was through Nice.

“We are not close,” Wreck confirmed his thoughts with a huff, “every single interaction I have with her I’m getting berated and bullied for something. Like my clothes, or that one time she called me greasy for no reason.”

Moon laughed loudly, her hand slamming against the table as she leaned back, starting poor Lin Ling who looked around like they were getting attacked. Nice sent the boy a sympathetic smile once he realized the only danger was the tornado sitting next to him, the hero sure hoped that their antics wouldn’t give Lin Ling a heart attack one day.

Moon pointed at Wreck’s hair, which he had coincidentally gone to push back at the same time. “I called him greasy because of the way he slicks back his hair, he looks greasy, doesn’t he?”

Lin Ling squinted his eyes at the man across from him, and Nice saw the moment the image clicked in the young man’s mind, Lin Ling barely suppressing a smile before he had to cover his mouth. Wreck gawked, rearing back before whipping his head toward Nice with betrayal written in his eyes. “I am not greasy, am I?”

“You could benefit from using less gel, Lu Zhen.”

Moon and Lin Ling continued to laugh across from them, but Nice froze up. He hadn’t meant to say Wreck’s real name it just slipped out. His friend’s eyes widened, but soon after softened into something Nice didn’t want to think about before he mercifully turned away.

Nice turned away as well, wiping at the end of his knife where grease had begun to accumulate a little bit.

He tugs lightly at his collar.

Moon sighed loudly before pivoting her attention to Nice with a frown. “Speaking of things people could benefit from,” she started, and Nice groaned, he already knew where this was going. “Nice, why don’t you bring me treats after your missions anymore?”

“Are you a dog?” Wreck genuinely asked, receiving a hard side eye in return.

“No, but I appreciated getting a free pastry every now and then.”

Nice didn’t want to admit that the reason he stopped bringing them is because he had lost energy. That, and he and Moon had drifted apart so bringing her treats seemed a little inappropriate in his mind. But it was mostly due to how tired he felt after a full schedule with Treeman, all he wanted at the end of the day was to come back to his couch and wait to do it all over again.

‘I should get them to loosen this collar.’

Lin Ling catches his eye, the young man’s gaze traveling down to Nice’s hand that was steadily scratching away at his neck and the blossoming red mark above his collar. Lin Ling meets his eye again, holding his hands up in front of him as Wreck and Moon continue to chatter around them.

Nice frowns, not entirely sure what Lin Ling was doing, but following his movements anyway and holding his hands up as well. Lin Ling’s fingers lock together and so do Nice’s, the young man presses his lips together as he forces one of his fingers to come out of the grip and hang loosely under his hands.

The hero frowns deeper, following the movement with his own hands before staring at what he’d created.

Nice looks up at glares at Lin Ling, the asshole covering his mouth as he snickered evilly.

A penis, Lin Ling had pulled Nice’s hands away from his neck by getting him to make a penis.

Rolling his eyes, Nice set his hands back down before going back to his chicken, it was getting cold after all, and he hated cold food. Lin Ling’s laughter died down; he wiped at his eyes before turning to Moon who was rambling about all the different deserts she liked. “You must have a sweet tooth Moon,” and Nice shakes his head at the giggle still present in his voice.

“I think she just likes food,” Nice comments, and Moon absolutely loses it on him.

It’s a comfortable setting, Nice realizes, though something at the back of his mind keeps him from fully letting go and embracing the moment. He chalks it up to the suffocating collar around his throat, and vows to put those thoughts behind him as best as he can at the moment. Nothing killed the mood in a group quite like someone getting depressed all of a sudden and seemingly for no reason.

So Nice continues to smile, laughing at the jokes Lin Ling makes and engaging in stupid banter between Wreck and Moon. If his smile starts to crack at the edges, none of them call him out on it.

It’s comfortable, even if his chicken ends up cold and unfinished, and even when his neck stings from his incessant scratching.

~

“I can clean up,” Wreck offers when it’s clear that everyone had finished their food. It’s a kind gesture, one that Lin Ling and Moon seem grateful for, but it set off all kinds of alarms in Nice’s mind.

Nice didn’t mind being the one to wash the dishes, in fact, he often tried to get started before anyone else could get the idea just so they would be done a certain way. Maybe that made him a control freak, but it was one thing that set his mind at ease, as odd as that was. Hastily he stood to grab the plates before Wreck did, but the other man already had his and Nice’s own plates stacked in one arm and was reaching for the others.

Nice winced, he hated stacking plates because the leftover food and sauce got on the bottom of them. While he understood while people did it, being more efficient and easier to carry that way, it just felt so wrong in his brain. He had tried to explain that to Moon once on the one day she had done the dishes, but she just told him to ‘calm down’ and stacked the plates anyway.

That day, Nice had learned just how much of a control freak he was, when Moon had suggested they wash the dishes together and it was the most miserable experience of his life. Their arms kept bumping together and who knows how much water they got on the floor, plus, Nice had been in charge of rinsing while Moon did the scrubbing, and he swore that she hadn’t gotten even have of the grime off of the utensils.

Needless to say, Nice did all of the dish washing for them.

Trying to keep his elegant posture while scrambling after his friend, Nice reached a hand out to gently grab Wreck’s shoulder. “You really don’t have to do that; I can wash the dishes Wreck.” To his dismay, his friend shook the hand on his shoulder off, turning to give Nice a small smile as he made his way toward the sink.

Nice would have rushed forward to try again, had Lin Ling and Moon not grabbed him by the arms and started dragging him toward the living room. Moon chortled in his ear, “Let Wreck do the cleaning this time, let’s talk about the grunge aesthetic Lin Ling came up with.”

Lin Ling laughed, and while it was a funny concept to imagine for himself, Nice couldn’t take his eyes off of Wreck’s back as the other man began to turn the water on. ‘Just relax for once,’ he tried to persuade himself, ‘Wreck knows how to wash the dishes…stacking plates aside.’ Moon’s assessment of him being a priss was beginning to make more sense, a sobering realization that made his heart sink.

Again, he cursed his own mind for being his greatest enemy.

Just once, he wanted to have a normal brain like everyone else.

The grip on his arms loosened when the trio neared the couch, Lin Ling and Moon’s intent to throw him down written clear on their faces. Thankfully, that gave Nice the chance to pull himself out of their grasp and rush over to the kitchen just as Wreck was finishing with the first plate. If they wouldn’t let him wash the dishes, they could at least afford to let him watch.

Lazer focused on Wreck’s hands, Nice didn’t realize Wreck was speaking to him until said hands paused, and Nice instinctively looked up at his friend’s face. “I’m sorry,” he muttered, “what did you say?”

Wreck sighed, a sound that was too close to pity for Nice’s comfort. “You’ve been on edge since you walked in from practice, bad day?”

It was a little shocking to him, how Wreck seemed okay with picking up where they left off, as if months hadn’t gone by where his messages went unanswered. Nice had been a bad friend to him, that was for sure, but if Wreck held any resentment toward the hero, then he sure didn’t let it show. It couldn’t be that Wreck still viewed him as his best friend—even though he was still such in Nice’s eyes—Wreck shouldn’t let someone ghost him like that and still care as much as he did.

His heart hurt with, but no matter how much he hated to admit it, Nice had missed their friendship, even though he was the one who pushed Wreck away.

Nice nodded, apology on the tip of his tongue before Wreck continued.

“I know you can’t help it, and I loathe Treeman for what they did to us.”

Not Nice, but us. Wreck was included in that statement, probably Moon too, and if he lasted long enough then Lin Ling could fall under that bracket of ‘us’ as well. Did Nice loathe Treeman?

Some days.

Nice had OCD prior to joining Treeman, and sometimes he thought back on his middle school days and could see some of his tendencies pointed toward depression, though he had never been properly diagnosed. In short, he couldn’t blame all of his problems on Treeman, but they had definitely enhanced them.

Again, Nice finds himself wanting to apologize, but Wreck beats him to speak once again. The other man dries his hands diligently, even making sure to run the towel between his fingers until no moisture remains before he lightly sets his hand on Nice’s shoulder. “Just, try and take it easy for the rest of the day,” Wreck says, and he smiles like he didn’t just ask Nice to do the impossible.

It’s too much, the kindness, the comfort, it all comes crashing down and Nice feels like he doesn’t deserve any of it. Shaking his head, though he tried to put a soft smile of his own on, Nice backs away and ignores the way Wreck’s face falls at the action. “I have to get back to rehearsal, I was just taking a break.” Nice curtly nods, before tearing away from Wreck and rushing back to his practice room.

Moon and Lin Ling will be disappointed, but they’d get used to that from him.

His back hit the door as it closed, the hero slowly sliding to the floor and burying his face within his arms. Nice doesn’t turn the music on, nor does he flick the large camera lights on to start the video again. He just sits against the wall and begs his mind to be quiet just for once.

Chapter Text

“Your cuticles look like shit,” Moon drawled, ignoring the glare thrown her way by her not boyfriend. For someone so obsessed with perfection, almost to an unhealthy standard, the state of his nails was not only jarring but somewhat concerning. Not that Moon kept her own nails prim and proper all the time, more often than not she found herself chewing on them whenever she got lost in her thoughts. Although, the cuticle oil Hu Cangqiong bought for her did wonders in deterring that habit.

Mostly because it tasted horrible.

Nice sighed, scrutinizing his own nails for a second before his eyes trailed back to Moon. “Guess the public overlooked that specific part of their perfect hero,” he commented, depressingly morbid as always. Moon couldn’t help but sigh, flopping back on the couch and basking in the dismal atmosphere. She wished Lin Ling were there, he somehow managed to drag her fellow hero out of his depressive haze pretty consistently and made sitting in the same room as Nice somewhat tolerable.

She had to admit that Nice had more of a personality recently, ironic considering most of his recent activities had been fights with Wreck. But she was pretty sure he had eyes for his so-called nemesis anyway, so that checked out.

“I could do them for you,” she offered, picking at her own nails if only to avoid whatever face Nice had made in reaction to her words. “I’m bored. It would give me something to do, and you could stop obsessively staring at your hands.”

“I am not staring at my hands.”

“You are, I’m convinced you would bite your fingers off just to see if they grow back perfectly.”

That wasn’t quite true, though Moon was indeed sure that Nice might resort to extreme measures just to keep his perfect image. Sometimes, she didn’t know what was worse; forced feelings for someone you just met, or forced neurological compulsions you had to adhere to.

Nice pursed his lips, nose wrinkling in a way that almost made her giggle before he conceded with a sigh. Her fellow hero swept his ridiculously long cape to the side before shuffling over to her side of the couch, surprisingly, he already had a nail file in his hands. ‘We must have had the same idea,’ Moon mused, swiveling around and crossing her legs as she sat facing Nice.

“Do you ever use this file?” She asked, the small tool had nearly no scratches on it, while hers was nearly falling apart at the seams. Nice shrugged ever so helpfully, remaining silent and lifting one of his hands to set in Moon’s own.

Her heart raced, fingers trembling for reasons out of her control.

Moon bit hard at her tongue, and suddenly those feelings were at the back of her mind again.

“How cute, this situation will make your assignment this afternoon much easier.”

Moon groaned, dropping Nice’s inexplicably soft hand back into his lap as she fell to her back on the couch. Staring through the haze of her bangs, she watched Miss J and two of her bodyguards walk into the room, that stupid clipboard practically glued to their manager’s side like it was a piece of her body. ‘More importantly,’ Moon thought, what assignment was Miss J referring to?

The woman walked in front of the two heroes with a pleasant smile on her face, which could only mean she had just fired someone, or Nice’s trust value had gone up by at least a hundred.

That, or it was time to make them look like a couple again. Moon’s stomach flipped at the thought, she brushed it off as breakfast not sitting well with her.

The large TV behind her lit up, Nice and Moon’s respective trust values displayed along with a graph that relayed the reason for the numbers rise and fall. “So, Nice has seen a steady increase in trust value due to the recent fights with Wreck,” Miss J explained like they couldn’t read the graph behind her, “however, Moon, you’ve been pretty stagnant over the past month.”

‘Good,’ Moon thought, maybe if her trust value remained stagnant Treeman would consider her a lost cause and terminate their contract.

“The public wants to see you again,” Miss J continued to Moon’s dismay, “it would help both of you go up in trust value, Nice, we may even have the number ten spot in our sights.”

Moon couldn’t help but glance over at Nice, who had gone unnaturally still at the mention of hero rankings. Now that she thought about it, the two of them had never really talked about their motivations for being a hero, aside from clearing up that Moon hadn’t intended to be a hero and was drug into the whole ordeal. Did Nice even want to be in the top ten, wasn’t he an aspiring idol or ballerina prior to being a hero? She wasn’t quite sure, if they had discussed the topic then she must have forgotten about it.

They were probably going to attend another True Love Recipe show that night then, it was really the only thing they did as a couple, aside from photoshoots and the occasional date. “Moon,” the hero wasn’t well versed in fighting, despite Xiao Yueqing have some martial arts experience under her belt; her kick could be killer.

Before Moon could voice her thoughts on the live show, Miss J opened her mouth and uttered the most offensive statement Moon had heard in her three years of working in Treeman.

“The biggest suggestion we’ve heard was to have Moon play the damsel in distress and be held hostage by Wreck.”

“No.”

“Absolutely not.”

The words were spoken in unison, a rare moment where both heroes paid their managers with an amount of disrespect that most employers would fire someone over. Miss J blinked, taken aback by the mutual disagreement from Nice and Moon, who were so often on opposite sides that she could have sworn they hated each other.

“Okay,” Miss J surprisingly moved on, tapping away on her tablet as usual.

Moon was sure that Lin Ling hadn’t proposed the idea, he knew she hated being seen as a princess almost as much as Nice at this point. She was absolutely not going to play a damsel in distress, even less so one that was captured by Wreck of all people. Wreck’s appeal in the public eye was certainly understandably, he had a certain charm that most likable villains were required to have, but his costume was just so dorky.

Her pride would never recover if she had to pretend to be captured by a kid playing roleplay.

Mentally, she apologized to Wreck for the rude train of thought, he hadn’t been the one to suggest the matter.

“Can’t we just go on a date?” Nice suggested, glancing at Moon who was fuming just as he expected. “It’s been a while since the two of us were just seen in public together, sometimes a more casual setting is better than a professional set up.”

If Nice thought he was helping, then he was doing the exact opposite. Moon’s heart pounded at the word ‘date,’ her distaste and disdain written clearly across her scrunched up facial features. When was the make pretend going to end? Surely among thousands of people there were some that realized the relationship was fake. Hell, at this point she wouldn’t mind if a big scandal broke out over the whole ordeal if it meant she gained her freedom through it.

Idly, she knew that was unfair to Nice, but she still wasn’t sure what conditions he had signed up under. For all she knew, he still wanted to pursue this relationship.

She hoped that wasn’t true.

Miss J stared at her expectantly and Moon was nice enough to merely scoff at her stare. “When does this façade end? We can’t just be boyfriend and girlfriend forever, the public will figure it out at some point,” she pointed out.

“You’re exactly right,” Miss J agreed, and as she swiped right on her tablet the display screen behind her changed as well. To Moon’s utter horror, a recent picture she and Nice had taken for a talk show was projected on the screen, a white border and clipped on feathers framing their faces.

“The public wants to see you get married.”

“Married!” Moon screeched, jumping to her feet as her hands found purchase buried in her hair. She could not—would not get married to Nice! If that wasn’t the biggest shackle to this company she had ever seen, she didn’t know what. After all, boyfriends and girlfriends break up all the time over the smallest things, it wouldn’t be that much of a shock if Treeman said Moon and Nice just drifted apart over the years. The public might be disappointed, but they would understand, it would probably make Nice more desirable since he would be single again.

But if they got married, they couldn’t spin a simple street argument into a divorce. Marriage was a commitment, both parties were expected to find a healthy in between to all of their arguments and give the utmost effort to keeping their relationship together regardless of the hardships they faced. Moon was a hothead, she admitted, and Nice didn’t have the guts to point out when she was blatantly wrong. Their friendship hardly worked out most days, she could not imagine them with a wedding contract over their heads.

She looked over at Nice, hoping he would share her sentiment and turn the marriage offer down.

“I think that’s reasonable,” Nice mumbled, his eyes oddly downcast for someone agreeing to their marriage.

Moon felt heat rise to her face, her cheeks flaming hot as the words bubble up her throat. “You’re such a damn pushover! Do you have to do everything this woman suggest?” She really didn’t know Nice that well, what kind of person would willingly agree to arranged marriage and then sit stock still when his apparent betrothed screamed in his face?

Moon felt a hand on her shoulder, whipping around to find Miss J standing in front of her with a grim look on her face. “Need I remind you,” the woman started, “that the both of you are under contract with Treeman? I would have phrase it a different way, but yes, you do have to do everything I say.”

Didn’t that sound cruel when said out loud? Was there an HR department for heroes that she could complain of unfair treatment to?

“We don’t have to kiss or anything,” Nice pointed out, trying to defuse the situation. “we can think of it as an outing between friends rather than partners.”

Lin Ling had asked if those feelings still lingered, while they were diluted, they still existed in her mind. Nice was cruel if he didn’t know how her heart unwillingly stirred when they were mentioned as partners; real feelings or not, something in her ached when Nice suggested they fake being friends rather than being in a relationship.

“Yeah well, I’m tired of pretending to be that too.” Moon roughly jerked her shoulder out of Miss J’s grasp, stalking off to her assigned closet to find a fresh uniform to change into. Whatever, they might as well get the date over with early while they could, then she could spend the rest of the day ignoring him and wondering why he had smiled after her last statement.

~

At least the breeze felt good, that was something positive she could focus on. It was also a Tuesday afternoon, which meant most of the public were either at work or in school, making the streets of their city a little less crowded than usual. Of course, being a large city meant that was never not people on the street, but the camera clicks carried no flashes with them, and kind enough individuals simply smiled and left the two heroes alone.

Miss J had unfortunately chosen a pretty popular deli for her and Nice to eat at, so Moon would cherish the short moment of peace she had before having to pretend again. “I thought taking pictures of someone without their consent was an invasion of privacy,” she murmured under her breath. At her side, Nice glanced at her for a moment before directing his charming smile to a passing mother and her child.

“I think that law only applies to minors in most countries,” Nice answered in his own low voice, “and we’re public figures, privacy laws don’t exactly apply to us.”

Moon fought to keep her expression calm and neutral, she mimicked the actions of popping her fingers just so that she could let her hands curl into fist in a non-threatening manner. She gave a tight smile to the couple that passed them as they approached the deli, and just as planned, everyone outside turned to point and stare at the hero couple. As practice, her and Nice’s hands slipped together, both giving their sweetest and most loving smiles to the people that moved out of their way so that they could order.

“Aw they’re going out with each other again.”

“Moon must have hated Wreck having all of the attention lately.”

“They’ve always been the cutest couple in my eyes.”

Goodness gracious she hated how people talked about someone when the person was right in front of them. Nice soaked up the compliments with ease, though he did have a few years of experience over her, but Moon still found it jarring after three years how her heart still moved by the people’s words. Nice’s hand was warm in hers, and something inside her rejoiced at the closeness, but a deeper part of her fought to remind her that this was all fake, and Nice would never feel the same way toward her.

Not that she wanted him too…this was all so complicated.

“Nice! Are you happy to have a break from fighting Wreck?”

What was this, an interview? Moon thought they were getting food.

“It is pleasant to spend the afternoon with my girlfriend rather than my enemy.”

What a sap, and it was untrue, Nice would rather spend the afternoon with Wreck than her any day.

“When is the happy couple going to get married?”

They both stiffened, an unnatural quiet going through the deli as heads turned, waiting for an answer from the two heroes. Moon breathed hard through her nerves, hopefully the public would think it was nerves and not her barely restraining her anger. Why did someone have to bring it up again, were they truly that desperate to see Nice and Moon forever tied to one another?

The one who had asked the question was a young man, probably younger than Lin Ling and he sputtered to apologize for the sudden question.

“It’s alright,” came Nice’s infuriating voice, brushing the situation off just as he had in the hero tower. “We were just a little surprised that’s all.”

Nice placed a hand against his heart, casting his soft gaze out on to the crowd who practically melted under his stare. “It’s something we’ve been thinking about, we’re just waiting for the right time,” the hero announced, and Moon cringed at the cries of joy that echoed around them.

Just once, she wondered how the public would react if either of them decided to show their real selves. Would the public love her hotheaded brashness, her penchant for disorder, did any of them remember that she was an animal lover and once wanted to explore the world? Would the public love the anxious orderly mess that Nice really was, did they remember that he loved to dance, how would they feel if they knew he was actually friends with Wreck?

The public would never get to answer those questions, because Nice would never reveal his true self to the world.

‘You know what?’

Moon was feeling quite hungry.

“Can I order a medium pizza?”

While the deli owner had nodded, saying something about the meal being on the house for the two heroes, Moon knew without turning around that Nice was likely staring at her in thinly veiled shock. Moon was not the biggest fan of pizza; this was mainly her being petty and wanting to see Nice squirm for a bit. Maybe she could drag an honest conversation out of the situation, maybe she could convince Nice who would no doubt be irritated with her to turn down the marriage proposal.

Although she may have underestimated how big of a fan the deli owner was, because as soon as their pizza was ready the man he said them up on to the roof where a singular table was set up. He had said it was specifically for VIP guests, usually businesspeople who had something more confidential to discuss, but that he made an exception for the two of them.

“What kind of business meets on a deli rooftop?” Moon idly wondered while taking her seat, hogging the pizza box in front of her since she knew Nice wasn’t going to eat any of it. Said hero sat across from her, his arms crossed in a rare display of irritation now that they were somewhat out of the public eye.

“You know I hate pizza.”

“I had a craving.”

“What if I was hungry?”

“You better eat the pizza then.”

Nice huffed, and Moon watched him with a smug smile. Deli pizza was the best anyway, she would enjoy having the whole thing to herself, the sourdough crust and real “unwaxy” cheese was to die for. It was a more western style deli, that was probably why it had gotten so popular in their city, but she could admit that they definitely did something right with their pizza.

A part of her did feel bad, Nice was sitting across from her clearly unhappy with the situation while she blissfully ate her pizza. “Do you not hate this, you can’t even eat pizza because your trust value makes you a clean freak,” Moon implored. “The public practically owns you at this point, like, tell me something real about yourself that hasn’t been influenced by trust.”

Nice furrowed his brows, likely still mad at her for ordering pizza and then moving on like nothing happened, he would get over it, she was sure. “I still like dancing, that hasn’t changed.”

“Yeah, but everyone knows you dance.”

“That’s just a fact about me, not a trust-based skill.”

“Do you like being a hero?”

He fell silent at that, staring at Moon’s fingers that were no doubt coated in a thin layer of grease from the bottom of the pizza. She watched his lips curl from the act of chewing the inside of his cheek, she wasn’t sure if he knew of that habit, certainly he avoided doing it in front of the public otherwise they would probably freak out. ‘Poor Nice bites himself, let’s wish for him to feel like he doesn’t have to do that.’ Then the habit would be erased, and Nice would lose another piece of himself.

Maybe, Moon thought, it wasn’t that she didn’t know Nice after three years, but that Nice had changed so much from his original self that all she came to know what the manufactured version of him. ‘I do wonder if we would have been friends.’ What would it have been like if Moon the traveler blogger had met Nice before he became a hero? Maybe he wasn’t such a pushover, maybe he actually had a personality, maybe she would have fallen in love with him and the feelings would have been genuine.

But they would never know now, would they?

“Never mind.” Moon didn’t want to hear his answer after all, not when he was giving her that same broken smile she had got back in the tower.

The pizza didn’t taste as good anymore.

~

@WordontheStreet

“Word on the street is our favorite hero couple was seen

at the deli on 24^th street. And they were talking about marriage!”

@MoonxNice1379

“The royal wedding might actually happen!

@THATdude

“Y’all think the reason Wreck has been around more often is because

of the marriage? We all know he’s kind of obsessed with Nice. I would

be too though ngl, man’s a baddie.”

Moon sighed, deciding she had enough of scrolling social media for the night and rolled to her other side. Their apartment was shrouded in darkness, the only light illuminating the room being where the moon slipped through the blinds, and the thin shred of light leaking in from where Nice was in his practice room. ‘Insomniac,’ Moon noted, tossing around once more with a groan.

Those post had come after what could only be hundreds more talking about Moon and Nice’s prospective wedding, and now that the idea was in the air, it was only a matter of time before Miss J approached them with a date and time.

She truly was stuck here, wasn’t she?

Her eyes squinted against the darkness as she thought back to the most recent post she had read. Wreck, the villain anyway, was in fact obsessed with Nice, but what about the man behind the mask. Her and Lin Ling had discussed the topic the last time he was over, how the two men looked at each other; longing mixed with a hint of sadness that neither could name. How would Wreck feel about Moon and Nice getting married, would he really care at all?

‘I could always ask him.’ She did have his number after all.

Rolling back to her side that faced the bedside table, she grabbed her phone from the charger once more and opened her messenger app. She and Wreck had exchanged numbers early on in their career, a requirement from Miss J so that they could coordinate any collaboration between them. Scrolling through her messages, most of their text had been one or two word replies from both of them, just last-minute checks for any plans that they were both supposed to appear at.

Although, staring a text message with “hey do you like Nice,” probably wasn’t the kindest way to start a conversation.

Moon hummed, how could she better phrase that question and still learn his true feelings?

“Hey…do you like being Wreck?”

While it was technically a completely different question, it could open the door to talking about Nice and she would still get her answer about the marriage. Inwardly she sighed, everything was about Nice these days, wasn’t it?

Surprisingly, she received an answer in just a few minutes, Wreck must have been a night owl as well.

“Not really.”

“Then why haven’t you quit?”

Wreck was probably under contract too, and with the way Miss J was he probably couldn’t just quit. But his role was a bit more flexible than theirs, villains could be beaten or just give up, there were a number of excuses Treeman could put out that would allow Wreck to terminate his contract and leave the company. Perhaps they were paying him well, Moon couldn’t lie, her and Nice did receive a pretty good salary from their jobs as heroes.

“Because Bai Xiuying is my friend, and I don’t want to leave him in this screwed world alone.”

Moon blinked at her phone, so she was right about Nice and Wreck being friends prior to Treeman. Despite the tense air between the two, at least it was clear that Wreck still cared enough for Nice to stick around, it would be kind if the hero paid that same amount of care to his so-called friend.

‘Bai Xiuying,’ some part of her hurt at the thought. She had been working with Nice for three years, and not once had she asked for his real name, though he had learned hers within their first few months of getting to know each other.

“I never knew his real name,” she texted back.

“He doesn’t really like it, probably never brought it up.”

“What’s yours?”

“Lu Zhen.”

What an odd time to finally get to know her coworkers, but Moon could be considered a weird girl, so it wasn’t too strange to her.

Xiao Yueqing, Lu Zhen, and Bai Xiuying; they were just three people who got caught in the big corporate spiderweb that was Treeman.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to try and get along with them every once in a while, especially if she was going to spend the rest of her life tied to one of them.

Chapter Text

“I’m going to kill myself.”

The very first time he had that thought, Nice was freshly 23 years old and scared for his life. He was barely into his twenties, supposed to be living the best years of his life but had stared down a steep drop and thought about jumping. At the time Miss J was still a trusted confidant to him, and he had rushed to the woman with shaky hands and on the brink of tears.

He had been brushed away, told to drink some water and take a nap then he would feel better.

It had been two years since then and he still wasn’t feeling better.

Nice rolled on to his stomach, sleeping on the couch should have been doing horrible things to his back, but the perfect image the public forced on to him made an ache disappear overnight. Most of the time…if Nice had a particularly rough night and was basically up and down the whole time then his aches and pains seemed to last a little longer. Even after three years, the effect of trust on his body was something he couldn’t quite figure out.

His mind though, that was another story.

The hero pressed his palms into his eyes until stars began to blossom behind the lids. For once, he didn’t want to dwell and end up in another depressive fugue. ‘I’m so tired,’ his mind cried as he groaned, trying to remember if there was anything on his schedule for the day or if he could afford to rot for a bit longer.

Nice huffed out a pathetic laugh, when was his schedule ever free? There was always someone to please, pictures to take, oddly not a lot of villains to fight; he was more of a glorified supermodel than a superhero.

‘Just one day, I just want one day.’ One day to sit in comfy pajamas, sip his coffee under the warmth of a blanket, call his friends over and play a game, watch a movie, just sit and chat. Just for one day, he wanted to Bai Xiuying again, not Nice.

Maybe that’s why the idea of suicide seemed so appealing to Bai Xiuying, because it was the first real thought he’d had in a while that wasn’t influenced by trust in anyway.

Lurching forward, with a faint crack in his back, Nice realized he needed to get up and move before he did something stupid.

“Maybe you should consider medication,” Moon had suggested to him.

“There are therapists professionally trained to work with people in your position,’ Hu Cangqiong once offhandedly mentioned.

“I just wish you would talk to me more,’ Wreck had pleaded with him before Nice’s radio silence.

Would it even make a difference?

Just once…just once he wanted to try and reach out.

Scrambling off of the couch as the blanket fell to the ground, Nice rushed over to where his bed was to see if Moon was still scrolling away on her phone. They had a small argument a few days prior, Nice didn’t even blame her for being upset or for the explosion thrown his way. The two of them had countless similar arguments over the years, he doubted one more would make Moon completely throw the towel in when it came to their friendship.

Except, when Nice rounded the corner, he found the bed empty. His eyes narrowed at the sheets tossed haphazardly to the side, one of the pillows dangerously close to falling off the edge, almost like the person sleeping there had left in a hurry.  

‘Moon didn’t mention having anything to do today…maybe the kitchen?’

Vaguely, Nice registered how his heart rate was beginning to pick up.

It was going on noon, Nice noted as he passed by the large windows, his eyes briefly passing over the loose panel before he forced his gaze ahead again. His body must have finally given up on him and forced him to sleep for a little a bit, annoying, but he did have a bit more energy than before. Though it caused an uncomfortable buzz to hum beneath his skin, not unlike the feeling he got after downing three cups of coffee on a busy morning.

The kitchen was empty just like his bed had been, no stray plates left out, the counter was pristine; it was almost as if Moon had never been there at all.

Ignoring the messy bed she left behind.

But maybe that was for the best, he and Moon were on testy terms as of late and he knew that she didn’t like being around him too much. Nice wasn’t ignorant, he knew best the kind of effect trust could have on a person and he knew intimately how it affected Moon.

 She had unwanted feelings for a hero she technically never knew, they had to constantly pretend for the cameras and Nice knew that some part of her felt miserable at the total lie of it all. He wished he could just lie and say he had the same feelings for Moon, a part of him wished that they would both just give into those unwanted feelings and become a real couple. Would it be easier, would that make things harder, he didn’t know.

Nice’s chest heaved, the young man pressing his hand against his sternum while his other reached to steady himself against the counter. Was he having a heart attack over Moon being gone, no, he had been alone plenty of times there was no need to freak out now.

But he was alone, completely isolated in his home during the one time he wanted someone here.

So often he wanted a moment to himself, a moment away from the cameras and the constant acting, he hadn’t realized how much he craved companionship, not until the day Wreck and Lin Ling came over.

“Wreck,” he rasped, trying to ignore the way his breaths came out in wheezy pants as he began to search for his phone. The stupid device was monitored at all times, but surely, he could get away with just asking to have his friend over. After all, he and Wreck had been slowly mending their friendship, bridging the gap that had formed between them brick by brick.

That was all Wreck really wanted from him wasn’t it, for Nice to reach out and say something? Nice missed their friendship, he really did, despite being the one who almost destroyed it. If they could pretend that they weren’t hero and villain, then maybe things could go back to how they were.

‘Where the hell is my phone?’ Nice shook, vision blurring as his hands scattered everything away on the counter in search for the small black device. Of all times not to know where his phone was, maybe Moon took it with her, or maybe Miss J grabbed it for maintenance or to switch it out for a newer vision again. His hand knocked against something hard, and he held the phone up in victory that only he was celebrating.

Should he text, no, texting would mean he then had to wait for a response and Nice wasn’t sure that his brain wouldn’t explode between now and then.

Jamming his thumb on to the call button, Wreck’s illuminated picture filled his screen as the line searched for a connection. One ring, then two, then three and the dial droned, the call had gone to voicemail.

Nice blinked, was the internet out at Wreck’s house, had he set his phone down and just didn’t hear it ring. Surely, his friend would have picked up on the first ring had he seen Nice’s name show up, it probably wouldn’t even have to ring once.

Might as well try again, Nice tried to press the call button once more, his finger missed by half an inch at first due to the wetness beginning to build in his eyes. One ring, then two, then three and the dial drone on once again.

His heart pounded, a shrill ring cutting through his ears and making his head spin. Was Wreck ignoring him, in the same way that Nice had ignored all of Wreck’s attempts to reach out of the past year? Had Wreck become too busy just as Nice had pretended to be busy to avoid answering Wreck’s calls and texts?

Maybe Wreck had finally grown tired of him, tired of reaching out to Nice to receive nothing in return. In comparison to the dedication and loyalty Wreck constantly gave to him, Nice had been a pretty shit friend. What had he done to repay him for the years of friendship, ignored him, pushed him away, tried to orchestrate his own death without so much as saying goodbye?

Nice’s back hit the counter as something bubbled up in his throat. A scream, vomit, he wasn’t sure; but he was alone, scared, and running out of people to contact before he resorted to extreme measures.

Lin Ling?

No.

Lin Ling didn’t ask for any of this.

Didn’t ask to work for Treeman, didn’t ask for the pressure and responsibility, he had been thrown into it all.

Because Nice had been selfish, because Nice had been seen on that rooftop and wanted to hope for once.

That someone would save him.

The phone clattered to the ground, the distance sound of something cracking filling the air but flitting right through his ears as a mere hum. Nice vaguely registered the warmth sliding down his cheeks, the slight tremble of his lips, the way his breath hitched every so often with barely contained sobs.

Everyone in his life seemed to suffer, and it was all his fault. If he could name every problem in the lives of those he cared for, at the center would be his face. His face with knives thrown at it, his face taped to a punching bag, his face plastered on every billboard in the city where they could never escape him.

It would be so much easier if he were gone, they would all finally be free.

Did he have time?

To kill himself—no.

To do something to himself, to atone for the pain he had caused others?

Yes.

Pushing off the counter his legs shook beneath him, the ground blurring beneath him but all he could do was stare at his feet. If he didn’t watch where his steps were going, he feared he might collapse before he made it to the bathroom, precious time would be wasted trying to pull himself off of the floor before someone came into the apartment and interrupted him.

This was a familiar dance to him, one that he had been practicing since he was 23 and realized he wanted to die. The ballerina would enter from stage left, their steps light, airy as if they were in a haze. The music would be somber, set in a minor key that was meant to invoke the feeling of grief among the audience, a crescendo from the brass section would mark the dancer’s descent into madness.

It was a show only put on at most twice a month, the production cost was too heavy, and the venue could only hold a certain number of people. If the program gained too much attention, the show might be canceled for its dark and depressive atmosphere; after all, the song and dance of someone preparing to carve into their skin wasn’t exactly a positive message.

The ballerino was a talented individual, show-goers often praised him for as little as sewing his own costumes hours before a performance started.

Which meant he had access to nearly hundreds of sharp objects, in fact, no one from the production crew would notice if a few of the sharper ones were missing.

This venue was known for its bad lighting, almost sterile like a hospital, and bright walls that were near immersion breaking by how bright they made the stage. The dancer could see his reflection in the mirror, beautiful smile reflected out to the crowd despite the way his face hurt with the strain. His eyes were bloodshot, but the blinding stage lights made it hard for anyone to tell.

It was under the counter; Nice knew this part of the dance like the back of his hand.

Bai Xiuying would carve Nice out of his skin until his raw self was exposed, and then he would end it all and free everyone who ever had to put up with his retched performance.

It was something he discovered two years ago when he sustained a pretty bad injury to his abdomen. Miss J had made his hiatus announcement and everything, put him in the hospital and gave him the next two weeks off for recovery. Miraculously, his injury had been gone by the next morning, the muscle ached but the skin was clear.

The public knew there was no way to keep a hero from getting hurt, but they could wish for his rapid recovery.

Because the perfect hero doesn't get hurt, but if he does, his wounds will heal overnight. Then, no one would be able to tell he'd been injured in the morning.

Which meant Bai Xiuying could cut into his skin, carving away his imperfections and attempting to feel something that was real without anyone knowing. He would simply clean the blood off, cover the wounds and throw his hero uniform on and no one would suspect a thing.

Bai Xiuying chuckled as blood ran down his fingers on to the pristine white floor below, it was the only time he created a mess instead of fixing it.

He vaguely wondered what it would feel like to stab the blade through his neck.

But then to his utter horror, the door to the bathroom swung open.

And his stage was promptly destroyed.

 ~

Lin Ling was positively starving.

For most of the day he had been working on a new script for Nice and Moon, something that would showcase their friendship more than their romantic relationship than anything. Moon had suggested it a few days ago, talking about how she enjoyed the dramatic banter her and Nice sometimes engaged in throughout the hero tower.

So, he was drafting some new questions to give over to the staff at True Love Recipe, questions that would open up the floor for Nice and Moon to tease one another and have a good laugh.

He had been so excited to get started on the script that he’d skipped breakfast and rushed straight to his desk, and now his stomach was begging for some kind of relief. Idly, he wondered if Nice would be open to getting lunch, something that wasn’t grilled chicken and a salad. Maybe he could convince Nice to eat a sandwich, or maybe a burger if he managed to find a place that wasn’t covered in grease.

Lin Ling stretched, releasing the strain from his back pulling a satisfied groan from him before he shook out the chills that followed. He had promised to send Moon a snippet of his ideas, so he pulled his phone out and snapped a quick photo before sending it off to her. Most of the other people in the M&A department were at lunch or leaving for lunch, no one would mind him being on his phone for a moment.

The reply came about five minutes later; Moon must be busy for once.

“I love it, the questions are dorky but they’re not as stiff as what we usually get.”

“Do you want it less dorky?”

Moon laughed over the line, “No, dorky means I get to make fun of Nice and there’s nothing I enjoy more than that.”

Lin Ling rolled his eyes, she had definitely made it quite clear that she enjoyed getting on Nice’s nerves more than anything, that’s why he thought that having a friendship-based episode would be a nice change of pace.

“Speaking of Nice,” Moon started after a short scuffle was heard, “he doesn’t have anything on his schedule until this evening. There’s some leftover pasta I made last night in the fridge, feel free to go bother him and help yourself to some food if you haven’t eaten already.”

Score! Lin Ling hurriedly thanked Moon ahead of time for the food before hanging up when she said she had to get back to work. Not only did he get to spend time with Nice, but pasta was involved, and with the skills Moon had with cooking it was bound to be delicious.

“Going to lunch Lin Ling?”

“Yep, I’ll be back later.”

“Enjoy!”

Lin Ling waved at a few of his coworkers, grabbing his bag and happily scurrying over to the elevator. This actually worked out in his favor, he could ask Nice for his opinion on the script while they ate, and then they could spend the rest of Lin Ling’s lunch break just sitting around and chatting like they usually did. Or they could play that dance game that Moon had mentioned, or he could get a quick ballet lesson from Nice like they’d been talking about.

He was almost giddy, despite it being just another day of the week and there was nothing particular for him to look forward to. Perhaps it was just a good day, those were possible every once in a while.

The elevator doors opened with a ding, and Lin Ling all but ran for the door, waving to a happy Xia Hua who was munching away on a cookie behind the lobby desk. Lin Ling smiled, Hu Cangqiong had baked cookies that morning and was passing them to everyone he saw on the way to his office.

A baker, a makeup artist, and a bodyguard, he apparently also had an office.

What didn’t Hu Cangqiong do?

‘That reminds me,’ Lin Ling decided to carry his bag with a little more care, he had nabbed two cookies from Hu Cangqiong that morning and Nice would probably like one. Moon probably would too but, she was busy and Nice was free at the moment, it was first come first serve when it came to gaining Lin Ling’s favor. Laughing at his own thoughts, the run to the hero tower elevator felt as though it only took seconds.

He and Nice had talked about the elevator’s horrible design once, Lin Ling reminisced at the elevator began its ascent. Even Nice admitted that the design was horrible and that if he couldn’t fly it would scare him as well; apparently when Nice first learned to fly, he would purposely fly ahead of the elevator and wait inside the hero tower tunnel until the platform caught up with him.

Goofy but Lin Ling could understand.

Lin Ling tapped his foot idly as he waited for the elevator to reach the fifteenth floor. ‘I wonder what kind of pasta Moon made…’ If it was out of consideration for Nice’s OCD, it might just be butter noodles or made some sort of pesto sauce and maybe alfredo with it. But if she was leaning toward satisfying her taste buds then it could always be spaghetti, he would just ask Nice to give him the meatballs since he knew the hero wouldn’t eat them.

The doors slid open, the familiar statue of Nice greeting him in all its tacky glory. Lin Ling gave a vague salute to the piece of marble, something that confused the hell out of the real Nice, but it was just a silly thing Lin Ling had accidentally made a habit of doing.

“That’s weird,” Nice had commented.

“You’re weird.”

And the conversation ended at that.

Lin Ling frowned as he walked further into the hero’s apartment, oddly silent despite one of its inhabitants supposedly being there. Even stranger was the state of the apartment, usually if Moon was gone then Nice took the time to tidy up the mess she might have left behind. But Nice’s—Moon’s—bed was still disheveled, the blanket from the couch had been thrown to the ground, and upon walking into the kitchen, Lin Ling found cups and silverware spread all over the place.

“What the hell,” Lin Ling muttered as he set his bag down on the table. “Nice?” He called, maybe the hero was in the practice room sharpening his ballet skills.

When he opened the door, he found the room empty.

Moon said he had nothing to do and Nice wasn’t really allowed to leave without Miss J’s permission.

Then where had the hero gone?

Something dark churned in his stomach, erasing any appetite he might have entered the tower with. If Nice had been completely alone in the tower, then who was stopping him from leaving and attempting to kill himself again? When was the last time someone spoke to Nice today? Miss J was with Moon, Hu Cangqiong was at the Treeman office, Wreck was probably at his own apartment.

Absolutely no one had eyes on Nice.

Lin Ling’s heart raced as he scrambled around the apartment, looking in the most ridiculous areas that Nice may have been hiding. He didn’t want to assume that Nice was gone and alert Miss J, because if Nice hadn’t been planning his death, he would unintentionally reveal those hidden desires to the woman and only create more problems for the man.

“Nice!” Lin Ling tried again, running back to the kitchen to see if they simply passed each other. Though that wouldn’t answer why Nice ignored him, Lin Ling was trying to be hopeful.

No Nice, but Lin Ling did find Nice’s phone laying face down on the ground. “Sorry for the intrusion,” Lin Ling muttered as he picked the device up, thankfully still on and open to the last app Nice had used. A message thread between him and Wreck was open, and while Lin Ling felt bad for reading his text, the messages from Wreck had only worsened his panic.

“Sorry for missing your calls, a neighbor needed help repairing a pipe. Everything okay? You called twice.”

Twice Nice had tried to reach out, and maybe Lin Ling was extrapolating, but that sounded more like a cry for help than anything Nice had done prior to this.

“Shit!” Lin Ling cursed, pulling out his own phone and scrolling until he reached Miss J’s contact when he heard it.

A small rustle, something that sounded like a muted thump sounded from somewhere in the apartment. Lin Ling startled, whipping his head toward the direction of the sound as he hastily sat his phone down on the counter. Where had the noise come from, the only room that wasn’t open to everything else in the apartment was the bathroom.

Was that an intrusion of privacy, pushing into the bathroom because Lin Ling was afraid Nice was going to kill himself? Nice could drown, use a toaster as a bath toy, take pill and fall asleep in the water which was also cause drowning but now wasn’t the time to think about specifics because Nice could be dead and Lin Ling needed in the bathroom now!

Lin Ling flung the door open, and his heart stopped.

“Lin…Lin Ling.”

The look in Nice’s eyes was one of the scariest things he had ever seen in his life. It was just like the day he encountered the hero on the roof, his eyes were empty, as if the soul behind them had vanished long ago. For Nice, it was like the young Bai Xiuying didn’t exist in him anymore.

There was blood on the floor, staining his white paints into a dark brown. Blood running down his arms where the word ‘nice’ was carved into his skin over and over again. Blood staining his fingertips and the small knife he had in his hand.

The lines were so clean, not jagged in the way you would imagine ripping a knife through your skin would leave it. It was practiced, as if Nice had done this hundreds of times, and no one had noticed.

Lin Ling hadn’t noticed.

“I…” Nice sputtered, looking anywhere but at Lin Ling with manic eyes as his hands shook violently. “I can…I can explain—I…it isn’t what it looks like.”

“Nice…”

“Please Lin Ling,” Nice warbled, and Lin Ling noted with growing horror that he was clenching the knife harder in his hands and inching it closer toward his chest.

Lin Ling moved without thinking, his knees hitting the ground just in front of Nice’s. He ripped the knife from the hero’s hands, paying no mind to the blade nicking his own fingers before it clattered to the floor. Nice continued to avoid Lin Ling’s gaze, pressing his lips into a thin line as his gaze lingered on his bloody hands. Cradling the hero’s face in his palms, Lin Ling lifted Nice faced until their eyes were able to meet, uttering just one word.

“Why?”

Finally, like a dam had broken, Nice choked and then wailed.

His hands came up to grab Lin Ling’s wrist, grounding himself and staining Lin Ling’s hands with his blood. Apologies slipped from his lips, a mixture of ‘I’m sorry,’ ‘please forgive me,’ and ‘don’t leave’ slurring into one babbled word as snot and tears ran down Nice’s face. He was a mess, belatedly, Lin Ling realized that this broken mess of a person in front of him was the real Nice.

Or rather, the real Bai Xiuying, an anxious young man who simply wanted to protect the people around him.

He couldn’t help himself, Lin Ling lunged forward to pull the young man into a hug, his own chest heaving as he sniffled, tears blurring in his eyes that he soon buried against Nice’s shoulder.

‘I thought he was getting better.’ Nice had been smiling more, he had been talking to Wreck, he and Moon were getting along more than usual. Lin Ling thought that things were looking up for Nice, had the past months meant nothing, had his actions done nothing to ease the strain off of the hero?

But Lin Ling didn’t live in Nice’s mind; he didn’t know what set Nice off, what might send him into a spiral and erase months of progress.

Lin Ling might never understand Nice’s depression.

But Nice was his friend, he would try to help in whatever way he could.

~

The only sounds permeating the air around them were the quiet sniffles as Nice’s cries died down, and the weave of cloth as Lin Ling worked to cover the hero’s wounds. Nice had sputtered earlier that it was pointless, that a simple clean up was all that was needed and that the wounds would disappear overnight.

But to Lin Ling, it was the act of cleaning and covering Nice’s wounds that mattered to him.

He just hoped he could treat the psychological wounds with the same care.

“Why do this to yourself, doesn’t it hurt?” Lin Ling had to marvel at the way the thin lines in Nice’s skin had already turned puffy, the tissue working to rebuild itself at a rapid pace. Nice had gone pliant, leaning hardly on Lin Ling’s shoulder at resting his arm against the other boy’s thigh as he worked.

Nice sighed, wiping at his raw cheeks with the back of his hand. After calming him down, Lin Ling had pulled Nice over to the bathtub to run warm water over his arms and hands and wash away most of the blood. Thankfully the cuts weren’t too deep, so once blood stopped actively flowing it was easy to apply pleasure and wrap them in some soft bandages that wouldn’t rub Nice’s skin raw.

After what felt like an eternity of silence, Nice finally replied, “it does hurt, immensely. But it’s less that I want to feel the pain, like a sort of release. It feels more symbolic to me. Does that make any sense?”

Lin Ling wondered how to politely tell Nice that he might have a few issues, but he kept his mouth shut and simply shook his head.

Nice hummed idly. “I figured. I’ve always felt that Treeman carved “Nice” out of the person I used to be, so I thought that maybe I could chip away the pieces of Nice until I was me again. Symbolically of course.”

“But aren’t you also carving away at yourself?” Lin Ling asked, causing Nice to lift his head from Lin Ling’s shoulder and narrow his eyes in confusion. “If we’re following your symbolic analogy,” he continued, “Treeman didn’t plaster “Nice” on to you, they cut pieces away. Wouldn’t that mean that if you cut too much away then you’d also start destroying the real you?”

“Are you saying me and “Nice” are practically one now?”

Lin Ling shook his head, pressing gently to secure the last bandage into place, though he kept Nice’s hand held within his own. “When you create clay structures, artist usually carve the pieces they don’t want away right? But when they make a mistake, they simply cover it back up with more clay and try again.”

“Okay?”

“What I’m saying is, don’t let Treeman be the artist. You put the work in to become “Nice,” you’re the original artist after all.” Some part of Lin Ling knew he probably wasn’t making much sense, he was not a qualified therapist after all and was just spewing what he hoped would make Nice feel better. “If you don’t like what you’ve made, cover it up and start over.”

“But those original carvings aren’t gone, they’re just hidden now.”

“Maybe, but doesn’t art revolve around trial and error? No artist gets their best piece right on the first try.”

Nice stared unblinkingly at him for a long while, that cold empty gaze sending chills down his back. What if everything Lin Ling said only made things worse? After all, who was he to talk about depression and suicidal thoughts when he had never experienced them? While Nice had started the art metaphor in reference to his self-harm, did Lin Ling have the right to carry that analogy along, and then try to disprove Nice’s point with his own logic?

Lin Ling opened his mouth to apologize when a small laugh cut him off. Nice’s eyes were still as dull as the moment before, but at least he had a smile on his face, that was something.

“I’m sorry,” Lin Ling said anyway, “I’m not really the best when it comes to giving advice and stuff like that.”

“Yet you work in marketing?”

“Touche.”

Nice laughed again, a few stray and likely left behind tears running down his face that he slowly wiped away. “It’s okay Lin Ling, the fact that you’re listening and even trying to understand means more to me than any advice you might give, though I appreciate both.”

Thank goodness, Lin Ling mentally sighed in relief.

Though he knew there was so much more they needed to talk about. Lin Ling held Nice’s hand within his in a steady grip, a gesture he hoped was grounding to the hero but to himself as well. Vaguely, he registered the ache beginning to bloom in his lower back from sitting on the bathroom floor for too long, but that pain was hardly enough to compare to what Nice had been through for the past three years.

It was a terrible way to start the topic, but Lin Ling mumbled, “while we’re airing this out, why were you on the roof that day?”

The thinly veiled, ‘why do you want to die’ lingered sickeningly in the background.

“That, I do think would be freeing, not just for me but for the people around me.” From the look Nice gave him after that sentence, Lin Ling had an inkling that he was included in that statement as well.

“I’m sure you’ve talked to Moon,” Nice continued, turning his hand around until his palm was facing Lin Ling’s, allowing him to play with the other’s fingers and give himself something else to focus on. “She’s been forced to harbor unwanted feelings for me, and contract or not, she’s basically stuck to my side as long as the public sees us as boyfriend and girlfriend.”

The hero let out a mirthless laugh. “I’m pretty sure hates me and just tries to hide it some days.”

Lin Ling knew personally that Xiao Yueqing did not hate Bai Xiuying, now her hating “Nice,” that was a different story. “I don’t think she hates you,” he tried to state.

“You’ve only been here a few months Lin Ling.”

‘Ouch.’ But it was true, Lin Ling hadn’t seen the behind closed doors relationship the two hero’s held over the past three years, he only had his few months of experience working with them to draw back on. But still, “I can see how you’d think that, but every time she talks about you, she mentions wanting to know the real you.”

“She certainly doesn’t try.”

“Do you?”

Nice paused at that, chewing lightly on the side of his cheek before he looked at Lin Ling again. “No…I guess not, guess we both have to work on communicating more with each other huh?”

Something finally loosened in Lin Ling’s chest as a short laugh slipped through his lips. “You’re telling me, I don’t think anyone in Treeman knows how to communicate with one another.”

That got another smile out of Nice and Lin Ling gave himself another point for his ‘cheer up Nice’ goal. “So, what about Wreck?” And Lin Ling deducted a point from himself after Nice’s smile immediately fell.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re currently giving me the list of everyone you think hates you right?” A little brash, Lin Ling probably needed to tone it down and give Nice room to breathe. “Why do you think Wreck, or rather, Lu Zhen hates you?”

“Lu Zhen,” Nice muttered, clasping Lin Ling’s hand tight within his own, to which Lin Ling took the hint and reciprocated, he also brought his other had down on top of their clasped hands to make a little cocoon. “Lu Zhen has probably gotten the worst treatment out of everyone, I mean, we wanted to become heroes together and look where he ended up. I hardly even see him anymore and most of that is my fault.”

Nice did push Wreck away so Lin Ling couldn’t refute him there. Best to let Nice just keep talking and hop in whenever he could.

“All Lu Zhen’s ever done is support me, and all I did was constantly push him away. I don’t see how he couldn’t hate me after all this time.”

When it came to Moon, Lin Ling was able to give his two cents because he spent a good chunk of his time with her and had gotten to know her pretty quickly. However, Lin Ling could count on one hand the amount of one-on-one time he had gotten to spend with Wreck. Wreck and Nice had also been friends since high school, possibly even longer than that, so Lin Ling really had no right to speak about their friendship.

“Nice to be honest,” Lin Ling tentatively began, his voice a more whisper between the two of them. “I think he deserves to know what’s going on, he’s your best friend, he can’t understand you if you never talk to him.”

“Harsh.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re right though,” Nice quietly admitted, bringing his head down to rest once again on Lin Ling’s shoulder. “But I’m scared Lin Ling. I don’t want to lose him, but I don’t want him to be trapped with me anymore.”

“It’s always been his choice whether to stay or not, and he’s stayed this long. Don’t you think that means something?”

The only answer Lin Ling got was Nice burying his face into his shoulder and softly crying again. Turning them around once more, Lin Ling brought his friend into a crushing hug, careful to avoid his no doubt sore arms and brushing a steady hand through white locks of hair. “And just for the record, Bai Xiuying…”

Lin Ling politely ignored how Nice cried harder at the mention of his real name.

“I don’t hate you. I don’t hate this job I’ve been given; I don’t hate the friendships I’ve made with it; I don’t hate any of it. Sure, it’s stressful some days, but all jobs are and don’t forget, I had nothing waiting for me had we not met on the roof that day.

“If anything, you saved me too that day.”

Nice clutched the back of his shirt as he cried harder, Lin Ling letting him get it all out, grateful that these tears seemed to be relieving the tension Nice had been holding the whole time. Lin Ling knew that all was not said and done, with things like depression there are highs and lows. Nice may have hit a low today, and even if Lin Ling was able to bring him out of it, there was no telling when Nice might spiral again.

He could only hope that his words had helped, that maybe the next time things got bad, Nice would remember the things he said and not decide to hurt himself. One day, Lin Ling hoped Nice would consider talking to a real therapist to get the help he needs. For now though, he would try his best to make sure Nice wasn’t alone the next time something like this happened.

“I have some cookies that Hu Cangqiong made, do you want to eat something and then crash on the couch for a bit?”

Nice choked out a laugh, all wet and mixed with tears, but it was real, and it was healing.

So was the power of chocolate, so after cleaning up a bit more they rushed to find Lin Ling’s bag and secure their prize.

~

“He’s probably still at the hero tower with Nice, Miss J. Don’t worry, I’ll find him.” Moon sighed heavily and hung up the phone before her manager could get another word out. “So, the guy took a longer lunch break, big deal, people skip work all the time,” she mumbled to herself as her hero tower doors opened to her assigned room.

Setting her bag down to what she assumed was Lin Ling’s duffle bag, she began her search for the two men in the oddly quiet apartment. ‘Weird,’ she noted, Lin Ling was usually loud and chattering away whenever he got alone with Nice, maybe they had left.

But she could hear the quiet hum of the television, so she quietly made her way over to the living room with a snicker. If the two were watching a movie, she could jump out and scare them and see the best terrified faces of her life. Moon had to stifle her giggles as she approached the couch, some random animated show was playing that she couldn’t name, but that didn’t matter.

Only two more steps and she would be at the couch.

Moon jumped up, boosting herself off the back of the couch as the yell she prepared caught in her throat.

Covered in one big throw blanket, Nice and Lin Ling had their arms wrapped away each other as they both snoozed away. Moon had to chuckle, Lin Ling was quietly snoring and every one of his breaths tussled Nice’s usually tidy hair. She stepped down, leaning against the couch to continue staring with a fond look in her eyes. Usually, she would snap a picture and save it for blackmail, she did love teasing the two after all.

But she could see the lingering red lines beneath Nice’s eyes, indicative of a long hard cry and the way Lin Ling was nearly smothering Nice in his embrace.

Fine then, she would leave them alone for now.

But when they woke up, she would berate them for not sharing any of Hu Cangqiong’s delicious homemade cookies with her.