Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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"You want to know my suggestion?" Asked the level headed voice of Cub, manager of the well known hero duo, Hotguy and Cuteguy.

Said heroes stood in front of the manager in his spacious office, in one of the top floors of the hero headquarters in Hermitopia.

Cuteguy, known privately to his closer friends and coworkers as Grian, stood in a somewhat defensive stance as if he knew what was coming.

"Go outside and talk to people." Cub stated lightly with a shrug.

Grian's expression morphed briefly into disgust as he stared at Cub. While tame sounding on the surface, the suggestion sent a wave of exasperated dread through him. Grian had to fight himself to avoid rolling his eyes.

"Ooh!" Scar exclaimed beside him. The hero, dressed in his full Hotguy outfit minus the sunglasses, placed his palms on the desk that Cub sat at and leaned forwards in interest; clearly more enthusiastic about interactions with the public.

Grian took the moment to look over to Scar, slightly amused at their opposing reactions.

It was evident from the start that Scar enjoyed his interactions with the public of Hermitopia far more than Grian did.

Sure, there were always the occasional fun interviews and podcasts that they were invited to. And replying to people with their hero personas on social media always got funny reactions. But it was one thing to come out with planned, rehearsed, and edited publicity stunts, and quite another to simply present themselves live in front of hundreds, thousands of real eyes. All with real opinions, and real voices.

Scar on the other hand, seemed far more adjusted to the live lifestyle. When in public after battles with mob hordes or even villains of all types, he could easily don the Hotguy persona that every citizen seemed to know; and that most seemed to love.

Scar was, after all, a solo hero for quite a while before Grian became Cuteguy. Without Cub, Grian, or any of the other heroes or staff members at the headquarters, Scar had to learn how to develop and manage his Hotguy persona all on his own.

"I mean, we could just-" Scar began again enthusiastically, as he mimicked a booming noise, he made a motion with his hands. "We could land superhero style right on the street, and people will start snapping pictures left and right!"

Grian's annoyance at the prospect of speaking with strangers was slowly wearing off in favour of amusement as he smiled up at the taller hero beside him.

"And-and y'know," Scar continued, "we could offer fistbumps, do a bit of flexing, get some babies to laugh," the hero continued to list off happily.

Grian raised a finger at his last statement with a slightly bewildered expression, before it morphed back into a smile at his friend's antics. "Only babies?" He asked. "We'd just go out to make some random babies laugh and call it a day?"

"Well, okay-" Scar started to explain, before Cub chose to jump back into the conversation from behind his desk.

With his own amused smile, Cub nodded. "That all sounds great, Scar, make as many babies laugh as you can."

Grian snickered a little, as Scar gave his own mirthful eye roll, and Cub continued.

"The point is," Cub began, "I think a little bit of public interaction would be beneficial to both of your hero personas, as well as the entire hero headquarters."

The manager continued to explain. "Our goal here is to help the citizens feel more at ease in our presence, so that in times of emergency, public cooperation might make evacs and rescues easier."

Both of the heroes stood at the other side of Cub's desk nodded along.

"Right." Cub nodded as well, and he stood from his office chair to better meet the heroes' gazes.

As if beginning a mission briefing, Cub briefly met Scar's eyes, and then glanced over to Grian's. "The key here is to be unscheduled. Meet the public as they come naturally. We want our heroes to appear more human, more approachable." He explained.

Grian knew that the majority of the heroes seemed anything but human, often quite literally; which was the case with himself and his wings. And sure, he could understand wanting the public to feel more secure around such a powerful, seemingly untouchable crew.

Scar seemed to share this thought, as he looked quite excited. It was, of course, rare that they got an order to - essentially, go hang out and do nothing but pose and revel in the public's attention.

Cub nodded once again, seemingly satisfied with his briefing. "Go out there, have fun, but mind public safety." He summarized.

Scar confirmed this with his own nod, and he wagged a finger at Cub with his own thought. "It would be a good idea to keep moving, I think, so that we don't get swarmed." The taller hero pointed out.

"Mm, yes." Cub agreed enthusiastically, and Grian nodded as well. Being swarmed would definitely complicate the idea of seeming *less intimidating*.

With one final confirmation between the three of them, Grian and Scar moved to make their way to the door of Cub's office. Well, this was happening now, it seemed.

"Good luck, you two!" The manager called back to them. "I'll be in contact via your communicators, don't hesitate to give me a shout!"

"Thanks Cub!" Scar called back.

"Bye!" Grian waved.

The hero duo began to make their way to the elevators in preparation to head off into the eyes of the public for the day.

Right, so, they just needed to talk to people! Pose for some pictures, make some people laugh...? Probably get heckled a bit...

Grian would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a little bit nervous. Really, what was there to be nervous about? They had done much, much riskier and more dangerous tasks than this. Hell, they had even done press conferences and on-the-spot interviews with the public before!

In reality, there were always some nerves to be expected when interacting on-the-go with the public. It was just in the nature of the citizens to be curious about their famed heroes, and nobody could really blame them.

Grian and Scar had to expect the unexpected; and the thought of unknown future scenarios was enough to make even the strongest hero apprehensive.

Still, the duo shared a confident look as they stepped into the elevator.

Scar pressed the button that indicated the very top floor of the tower, and he snagged his teal and orange Hotguy sunglasses out of his pocket to place them securely on his face. He checked over his mech leg braces, adjusted his bow strapped to his back, and briefly checked his quiver attached to his leg armour.

In turn, Grian took the moment in the elevator to don his Cuteguy mask, as he adjusted his own bow, and checked his daggers.

"Ready for some fun?" Scar asked Grian with a wicked smile as the elevator reached the top.

Grian shook off his metaphorical nerves, and he let out a brief, maniacal giggle. "This is going to be so chaotic, dude!" He cheered back.

The elevator made a slight "ding!" As they reached their destination, and the doors opened smoothly to reveal the roof of the hero headquarters.

Where Scar and Grian first stepped into the elevator on Cub's floor of the building, now, out stepped Hotguy and Cuteguy.

It was midday in early summer. There was only a slight breeze, and no clouds to be seen in the sky. Many citizens would be out and about, coming to and from work, enjoying the weather. All in all, quite a pleasant day to be doing something that - Grian still held a small amount of dread for.

Although, no one could yet see them up so high - they had to get down to the crowded sidewalks somehow.

Grian closed his eyes and took one deep breath in, revelling in the quiet of the city above the rooftops. Scar moved to stand next to him at the edge of the building. For a moment, neither moved, and all was quiet.

Grian opened his eyes and squared his shoulders. Beside him, Scar readied the glider attachment of his suit.

What better way for two well known superheroes to make their entrance, than by landing from the sky?

A moment later, Grian's smirk returned.

"Last one down has to re-string all of the broken bows!" Grian called out, and he took off without so much as a warning; with a grand swoop of his wings.

Behind him, Grian heard a shout from Scar. He briefly glanced behind himself to see the other hero taking off as well, his competitive gaze set on the horizon.

The two heroes glided for a moment, before they spotted a familiar street across from the central park of Hermitopia. It was populated, but not overly dense. This would do for their first location; the heroes shared a glance in silent agreement.

Grian pulled his wings in close to go into a nosedive, and Scar moved to do the same with his glider.

At the last second, Grian flared out his wings to ensure a graceful landing. There were a few startled cries from the surrounding citizens as he softly met the ground.

Grian turned just in time to witness Scar land much harder a few feet behind him. Intentional or not, Scar settled in a classic *superhero landing* pose, before he straightened up with a winning smile at the shocked onlookers.

Grian knew, with amusement, that the landing was most likely intentional, but that it did also hurt to land so roughly. Ah well, the cost of flair, he supposed. Scar's armour and braces did their job, fortunately.

They'd probably end up re-stringing their pile of broken bows together at some point, anyways.

As both heroes met in the middle to face the growing crowd before them, there was a minute of shocked silence.

Many, many eyes were staring at Hotguy and Cuteguy, who looked around awkwardly at the sudden influx of attention. Slowly, silently, a few phone cameras went up to either record, or take pictures.

After a moment, Scar seemed to remember himself. He shook his head slightly with a warm smile. "Well hello there, Hermitopia citizens!" The hero opened warmly, with a showman's wave.

Nobody responded, besides a few more phone cameras emerging from the crowd.

"Hey there." Grian waved to their audience from beside Scar, with a slightly mischievous smile at the plethora of shocked faces.

After another awkward moment of silence, someone in the crowd finally spoke up. "Are we in danger?" They asked. Several heads turned to them, and a few of the shocked faces turned to muted alarm.

Another voice added on before either hero could respond. "Are there mobs coming? Should we run?" They asked nervously.

"Oh! No, no no!" Scar exclaimed before any other voices could rise. "We're just- um, patrolling! No need to worry!" The hero enunciated with a calming gesture with his hand.

Grian, amused, finally chose to jump in. "It's a nice day." He explained casually. "We just wanted to say our hello's, that's all!" He ended with a cheeky thumbs up towards the group of citizens.

Scar scratched the back of his neck with a light chuckle at the state of their mission so far. No press conference was ever quite this awkward, for one.

But slowly, upon realizing there was no danger, the crowd seemed to rile up in enthusiasm.

"Hotguy, over here!" One person called. The hero duo distantly wondered if a reporter had somehow already made their way over.

"Cuteguy! I love your wings!" Came another shout from the crowd.

Grian chuckled and did a little spin on his heel to flare out his wings at this, and Scar watched on fondly as the crowd's enthusiasm amped up.

What was once an awkward entrance quickly became a more familiar, chaotic hero meet and greet, of sorts. Grian and Scar stood together amongst the middle of the growing crowd and posed for pictures with several citizens, answered questions, and had brief conversations with many.

It was suddenly very busy, and even louder. The crowd clamoured, and held on to every word the heroes uttered as best as they could, amongst the mess of voices and city noises.

Some initial members of the crowd seemed to walk off, perhaps having business to attend to after ensuring that they weren't in immediate danger with the sudden presence of two extremely popular heroes. But this was nothing compared to how quickly the crowd was growing. Clearly, news spread fast of their presence.

Amongst all of the voices growing in volume, posing for countless pictures and answering questions where he could, Grian took note of the size of the crowd. He remembered their mission, and he realized that it was definitely time that they moved on.

He saw no immediate exit with the public surrounding the heroes, and Scar seemed to be wrapped up in a conversation with a teen and their mother.

Well, they didn't want to cause too big of a disruption, and the crowd was now nearly blocking traffic with the attention they were receiving. So, Grian thought fast, and pulled out his communicator. He turned on the screen, and gently elbowed Scar in the side to get his counterpart's attention.

Grian didn't actually intend to contact anyone on the communicator quite yet, lest they lose control of this crowd. But none of the citizens needed to know this.

Scar glanced down at Grian, and to the blank home screen of the communicator in his hand. Grian raised his eyebrows at his hero partner, and after a moment and a glance around, the taller hero got the hint and cleared his throat with a grand clap of his hands.

Grian stood a little taller with Scar as he addressed the now large crowd before them. Scar was always the best at public speaking; and he naturally had the required showmanship that came with hero business.

"Thank you, everyone!" Scar announced grandly, holding everyone's attention. "We truly appreciate all of the love and support."

"Unfortunately, Cutie and I will have to get a move on now. Hero duty always calls, my friends!" Scar finished with a dramatic pose.

Grian nodded exaggeratedly with his own pose, although he could not mask the slightly mocking smile his expression held.

Scar turned to Grian with an exaggerated wink, which Grian returned with an offered fistbump to the taller hero.

Almost inhumanly fast, the two heroes took off back into the sky. Grian with a powerful swoop of his wings, and Scar with a perfectly timed firework rocket explosion under his glider.

Grian briefly heard the crowd exclaim as they launched, and then they were back into the blissful quiet of the sky.

Both heroes took a moment to breathe after the chaos below, as they glided close together with the breeze over the city.

Grian heard Scar sigh off to the side. Grian looked over and gave him a light, questioning look.

Scar looked up from where he glided slightly below Grian, and he let out another sigh with a slight shake of his head, although he held a light smile.

"That was not how I thought that was going to go." Scar stated simply, sounding a bit tired.

Grian clicked his tongue. "Yep, that was *pretty* chaotic" The avian agreed.

"But I mean," Grian began again after a moment in thought, "we talked to people, posed for pictures, what more could we have done?" He asked.

Scar looked down to the city below in thought. "I don't know." He shrugged lightly with his head. "I guess I just thought we'd get to like, talk to people more one-on-one, get to know them a tiny bit, you know?"

"Mm, yeah. I get that." Grian nodded towards his friend.

The two continued to glide around the city a moment longer. They could go back to the tower and call it a day, Grian knew. They technically did accomplish what they set out to do. But it certainly didn't feel very satisfying.

If they were going to interact with the public, to seem more human, more approachable, a giant crowd in the middle of the street wasn't exactly the best way to go about it.

Gliding lower now, Grian re-focused in on where they were. As it turned out, they didn't actually go far; for the most part the two heroes stayed circling around the central part of the city.

Below them was one of the farther corners of central park. More of a wooded area with several ancient, tall trees shading the paths below.

A beloved walking path for a calm stroll, and definitely less populated than the main paths of the park.

"Down there?" Grian asked simply, regaining Scar's attention.

Scar looked down to where Grian was indicating. "Yeah!" The taller hero agreed lightly, now much calmer as he smiled warmly.

The two heroes once again made for a landing.

Grian landed smoothly near the centre of the wooded path. A moment later, a violent rustle of leaves sounded out from above him, followed by a somewhat high pitched Scar scream.

Grian glanced upwards to see Scar reopening his glider at the top of a tree. Scar dived down to try for a second, successful attempt at landing on the ground relatively smoothly.

And covered in leaves.

Grian let out a full fledged laugh at his best friend. He walked up to pluck a single leaf sticking out from the very top of his head, still chuckling all the while.

Scar, clearly amused himself, pretended to act defiantly as he crossed his arms with a thinly disguised smile. Still, he ducked down to allow the removal of said leaf from his hair.

Finally settled, the two heroes took in their surroundings.

Perhaps they shouldn't have been surprised to see a young adult on their bike, leaning with one foot on the ground to witness the heroes *graceful* landing with a perplexed expression. They held their phone camera up to record the entire scene.

"Oh, come on." Grian heard Scar mutter through clenched teeth under his breath.

This only served to send Grian into another laugh, allowing Scar to step forward as he recovered.

Scar let out a single chuckle. "Hello." He greeted simply, and he gestured politely, if not a little embarrassed towards the recording person on their bike.

The civilian seemed to snap out of their shock a little. "Hi...? Hotguy?" They greeted back, still perplexed.

Grian, now somewhat recovered as well, walked up to join Scar.

The civilian, apparently having seen enough, chose then to pocket their phone, and get back to riding their bike with one more polite, perplexed wave as they passed by.

"J-ah, oh, ok! Bye, have a good time!" Scar stumbled in his words as the person left, and he sent a hasty wave back to them.

"Wow, dude." Grian chuckled once more, looking up to Scar with mirth in his eyes.

"Stop it!" Scar joined in on the laughter, shaking his head in amused frustration. "It was just a tree."

"Mhm." Grian teased, before he refocused on a cart a little way down the thankfully otherwise empty path.

Grian perked up upon approaching closer, immediately gesturing over to the colourful cart off to the side of the path. "Ice cream?" He simply asked the taller Hero.

Scar gasped upon the suggestion, and without hesitation the two heroes dashed over to browse the flavours; publicity mission briefly forgotten.

But hey, after all, two heroes strolling in a park eating ice cream? How much more human could they get?

The worker at the ice cream stall shook off a brief shock upon seeing the two famous heroes as his latest customers, and Grian and Scar made their selections.

Now happily with their chosen ice creams, the two heroes continued walking the sparsely populated path of the park.

This was, for one, much calmer than their situation before. A few people would pass occasionally as they walked casually, so both heroes justified this time as still on topic for their current mission. Technicalities for the win.

This was also something that they'd do pretty regularly in their civilian personas. So to be Hotguy and Cuteguy, instead of Scar and Grian in this moment, felt both natural and strange at the same time.

As they enjoyed their summer treats, there was the occasional passer by. The heroes happily stopped for photos and a quick chat; many surprised and excited upon meeting the heroes so casually.

One of the civilians passing by paused as she took in the scene before her.

"Oi!" The woman exclaimed harshly from the other side of the path, gathering Grian's and Scar's attention. "You heroes just having a day off? Eating ice cream while people are getting mugged?"

Scar and Grian paused, and shared a look between each other.

This, of course, was expected. Being heroes for as long as they'd been, especially Scar, there were always the negative comments. Some held valid points with constructive criticism, and others were just uninformed and harsh.

There was no publicity after all, without negativity at some point.

Cub had reassured them many times. Any hero could take a break when needed or wanted; there were plenty of heroes in the headquarters who had the city covered. This was public knowledge, as Cub had ensured as well.

Cub had also told them to ignore any needlessly negative comments. Don't respond, and focus on the good.

So naturally, as they walked by, Grian uttered a barely audible "yup!" In response.

The woman who had heckled the hero duo just stared on as they walked past her, and Scar had to look down towards the ground in order to contain his snicker at Grian's quiet response.

A few more photos and some "hello's" here and there, and their ice creams were long finished. They were chatting happily, coming up on a more populated area of the park, when Scar seemed to notice something, and veered off to the far side of the path.

Grian's gaze followed his friend, and found him to be approaching an old lady sat alone on a bench by a small pond near the end of the wooded area of the park.

Intrigued, Grian walked over to join.

As he got closer, Scar had already begun to talk to the old lady.

"Hello there!" Grian heard his counterpart begin with. "I'm sorry, if you want to be alone I'll leave right away. But um," Scar paused, and took a breath. "Well, this is a very pretty view." The taller hero gestured out towards the pond.

The lady, thankfully, seemed delighted. "This is my favorite spot, dear. I'm glad someone else noticed it." She responded warmly, and patted the spots on the bench next to her, indicating for the heroes to sit.

Scar sat directly next to the lady in the middle of the bench, and Grian set himself down on the other side of him.

"I'm ah- Hotguy," Scar began to properly introduce his superhero persona with a polite hand to his chest. "And this is my sidekick Cuteguy." Scar gestured to Grian on his other side.

"I am a full fledged hero, I'll have you know." Grian commented at the *sidekick* detail.

Scar just gave him a smug smile, and the lady's expression only warmed further. "I'm Carolyn." She responded kindly.

"It's nice to meet you Carolyn." Scar responded happily, before he leaned over to Grian. "And, you're still my sidekick." He murmured teasingly.

Grian just huffed a laugh and shook his head, staring out into the pond with unfocused eyes.

Scar started up a casual conversation with Carolyn as they relaxed by the pond, and Grian took the moment to reflect on how the mission had gone so far.

Intentional interactions with the public was the name of the game today. Be friendly neighbourhood heroes, meet people, and show off some personality.

Well, they didn't really get to do much of that in the large crowd on their first attempt on the street earlier.

And now, in the park, they only had brief interactions with a few people passing by. Again, it was progress, but only a small amount at that.

Grian couldn't help his darkly amused smile. Maybe Carolyn was the only civilian they were going to make a real connection with today.

And truly, was there much of a point to this mission anyways? Make some connections with the public. In times of crisis, would any of this actually help?

Grian thought, as he stared out into the rippling pond, that the whole afternoon was wasted.

They could have been training, or actually patrolling, or working on one of their bigger cases.

Well, at least the stroll in the park with Scar and the ice cream was nice.

Grian breathed for a moment. He continued to watch the ripples in the pond reflect shimmering sparkles of sunlight.

The breeze was still present, lightly ruffling his feathers in a pleasant, cooling way. The trees moved along with it, and there was a constant, soft rustling as the leaves moved in the wind.

The sun on their faces was warm, but not hot. The tree directly above them provided windows of shade with its large branches, and Grian had the brief instinct to fly up and lazily perch on one of the larger branches near the trunk of the tree.

Okay, this was pretty nice too. On the bench next to Scar and Carolyn as the hero and the old lady chatted idly.

In a much more peaceful state of mind, Grian tuned back into Scar's and Carolyn's conversation. It seemed that at some point they had gotten onto talking about Carolyn's life.

Carolyn was describing the years of fun she had with her best friend. Grian didn't catch the name, but they were already far into the conversation, and he wasn't about to interrupt.

Instead, Grian listened intently as he focused on Scar's and Carolyn's faces beside him.

"We're lucky to have each other." Carolyn continued, and Scar smiled gently as he nodded along. "I'm actually waiting here because we're going to dinner in a while." "...And me, I'm always the early bird." She added, with a chuckle.

Scar let out a laugh as well at this, and turned to look at Grian with a mirthful smirk. "Sounds kind of like someone I know." He stated with a squint towards Grian.

Grian snickered along with the two, and gestured to one of his wings. "I mean, maybe in a literal sense." He shrugged with a smile.

"Hey, Grian," Scar began again, "Did you hear that Carolyn and her best friend once destroyed one of their college roommate's Redstone machines?" The taller hero giggled as he made the comparison clear to Grian.

Grian laughed in amazement. "Oh no way!" He exclaimed as he looked across Scar to Carolyn.

Neither hero seemed to notice Scar’s slip up of Grian’s civilian name. And if Carolyn had noticed, there was no indication.

The lady had thrown her head back in a hearty laugh at the memory, which only made Grian and Scar crack up more.

"Dude, Sc- Hotguy and I have so many friends that are Redstone wizards!" Grian began to explain happily, "and we've- uh, destroyed more than a few machines ourselves, that's for sure." The avian's voice raised in pitch as he admitted

Carolyn only laughed more at this. "Troublemakers, all of us!" She tutted.

After another moment of laughter, Carolyn signed with a smile. "I never expected to have any similarities with heroes like you two, of all people." She stated with wonder in her voice.

Scar gestured with a nonchalant shrug as he smiled towards Grian, and then to Carolyn. "We're just some dudes, at the end of the day." He states with a huff of laughter.

Carolyn met Scar's, and Grian's gazes through their respective superhero face wear. She sighed happily, and sat up slightly.

"Well," She started, "It was lovely to meet both of you, truly." She said genuinely as she moved to stand. "I better be off to meet my friend for dinner now, I think."

Grian and Scar stood with her, and Carolyn offered her hand to both of them to shake heartily.

"If you ever need help with anything," Scar began to speak in a lower, more serious tone, "please call us. We're never too busy."

Carolyn looked grateful. "I'll remember that, thank you dears." She responded.

"Have a good dinner!" Grian waved as they started to part ways.

Scar waved back as well, as Carolyn made her way out of the park, and the two heroes were once again alone in the late afternoon breeze.

They decided to walk a bit longer down towards the more central path of the park, talking idly about Scar's conversation with Carolyn all the while. As it turned out, the similarities between civilian best friends and hero best friends weren't that different after all.

"Hotguy! Cuteguy!" A younger voice yelled out from across a field off of the path they were on.

Their heads immediately snapped up at the prospect of someone in distress; but both heroes were relieved to see a group of friends playing frisbee waving to them instead.

Scar waved back happily, but Grian had a better idea brewing.

It seemed that the group had a similar idea, judging by the fact that they were persistently beckoning the two heroes over.

Now this was more Grian's speed of public interaction. He hastily grabbed Scar's arm, and made their way over to the group. Not that Scar fought for long; having quickly realized and become excited for the possibility of a game as well.

The group cheered as the heroes approached, and both Grian and Scar smiled at their excitement.

Noticeably, there were once again several phone cameras recording the interaction.

Once they were finally face to face with the group of frisbee players, there was a moment of clamour as more photos were taken, and several of the members greeted them excitedly.

Eventually, one of the frisbee players at the front stepped forward with a shy smile and spoke up above the noise of the group to gather attention. The rest quieted down after a moment, this player seemingly a team leader of some sort.

There was some nervous giggling before they spoke again. "Hotguy, Cuteguy. Hi." The giggling returned as they turned to their friends behind them.

"Hello there!" Came from Scar

"Hi!" Grian greeted.

"Um, we, uh-" The team leader stammered a little, "We were just wondering, i-if you have time," they trailed off, seemingly quite nervous to speak to the heroes.

Grian and Scar shared an amused look between them.

"Can we play frisbee?" Scar finally looked back over to request towards the group and the team leader.

"Yes!" The team leader laughed, with a few others responding behind them enthusiastically as well. "Please yes!"

Another, seemingly more confident player stepped forwards beside the team leader with a smirk. "All of us, against you two!" They challenged with a point.

Scar gasped excitedly beside Grian, and Grian looked over to him with a laugh as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"Oh, you're on!" Grian challenged back after a firm nod to Scar.

The group cheered, and some began to move back into practiced formation.

"Alright!" The team leader cheered as well. "End zones are marked on either side," they pointed. "How about first to fifteen wins?"

The heroes nodded. "Sounds good!" Scar responded back to them.

Grian and Scar weren't professional frisbee players by any means, but they were, of course, superheroes. It was fair to assume that they were at least somewhat evenly matched against the entire group, which apparently was a sentiment that was shared by the increased number of spectators on the side of the field. Some with cameras to document the impromptu sporting event.

As they prepared for the game to begin, there was plenty of cheering and chanting for both teams.

And when the frisbee flew, the game was on.

Right away, the group of young players seemed to have the clear advantage with numbers.

The frisbee flew almost seamlessly through multiple passes into the heroes' side of the field, and Grian and Scar had to quickly take up defence.

Scar jumped into the line of sight of the current frisbee holder as they looked for the best opening to pass to someone.

Being the tall hero, he was quite the distraction, and the frisbee holder had to pivot and lean around to try and find someone to pass to.

Finally making their shot, Grian took the opportunity to dive in with a little bit of propulsion from his wings. (It was two against ten, sue him.) Grian caught the frisbee out of the air and landed near the mid-field.

He quickly spotted Scar making a dash for the farther end of the opposing side's field, and he knew they needed to move fast.

"Hotguy!" Grian called out as he prepared to throw the frisbee.

Scar turned just as he reached the back of the field, and several opposing team members rushed over to try and block the pass.

They were too late though, as Grian set his target, and he sent the frisbee flying high into the air with all of his strength; straight into the hands of Scar.

Several spectators and frisbee team members let out amazed shouts and cheers at the perfect long pass.

Grian wasted no time, with a bit more help from his wings, he dashed over to the far end zone near Scar.

Without a moment of hesitation, Scar tossed the frisbee to Grian with inhuman accuracy without even looking. He met his match perfectly, and Grian caught the frisbee in the end zone to gain the hero team the first point of the game.

Wild cheers erupted from the spectators, and the two heroes ran together to celebrate with a strong high five.

As they met, Grian took note of how happy, even relaxed Scar looked - especially for being out in public in his hero persona for so long.

Grian wouldn't be surprised to hear that he himself looked very much the same.

The field was reset, and the game continued on.

The frisbee team ended up scoring several times over as well, and the heroes met up closely with them until the game was fourteen-fourteen even. The last point would determine the winner.

The spectators watched on, many recording and streaming the impromptu event live for the world to see.

Scar held the frisbee once again, close to their home end zone on the field. He pivoted around to search for Grian amongst the crowd, and he found his sidekick hastily making his way backwards, focused on Scar as he prepared to pass the frisbee.

Scar smirked as the opposing team members jumped and crowded around him in an attempt to block Scar's throw. Several were giggling, and there was constant cheering coming from the spectators on the sidelines.

With a spin to show off, Hotguy finally tossed the frisbee with a needless amount of strength, much higher above any of their heads and over to Grian's direction.

Grian focused on the disc spinning rapidly towards him. He took a few steps back as he observed the sheer velocity of it.

And he knocked right into a frisbee team member playing defensive behind him.

Grian nearly tripped, and he rapidly turned around to make sure the civilian behind him was alright.

In his distraction, the frisbee landed on the grass just a few meters before the end zone.

An opposing team member quickly snatched it up, and as Grian recovered from his stumble, he made eye contact with Scar from across the field.

He could see Scar's chuckling expression from the distance of the field; with a competitive determination that Grian knew he matched.

Back to defence, then.

As if they had communicated silently, Scar and Grian moved almost in sync to cover as much of the playing area as possible as the opposing team passed the frisbee along.

The team, however, was skilled in keeping the frisbee in their hands.

The yelling and cheering of the crowd increased as the frisbee team neared the heroes end zone.

The two heroes gave their best effort in blocking and trying to intercept the frisbee once again. Scar was dashing around the edge of the group trying to find an opening, and Grian set himself right in the middle to try and act as a cover for the frisbee holder as it moved along.

Despite their efforts, the crowd went wild as the frisbee team made one final short pass into the end zone, winning the game.

Scar and Grian couldn't be too upset at the loss. It was clear that both heroes had a genuinely fun time, as they glanced happily at each other for a moment. That, and the fact that the frisbee team was much more practiced in this specific sport, after all.

Besides, losing a recreational sporting game *did* align with their mission of the day; to appear more human - not that it was intentional.

The entire group made their way back to the middle of the field, and soon, Scar and Grian were once again in the middle of a crowd as more spectators made their way onto the field in celebration.

Yet, there was a general sense of cheer with this crowd. Many still had phones out recording and taking photos, but each crowd member could be singled out when they spoke, as they discussed excitedly about the game and their big win.

Both heroes dished out high fives to the winning team, and they were able to congratulate them properly for a game well played.

"Have either of you played frisbee before?" Came a friendly voice from the team.

Grian thought for a moment. "I can't say that I have." He confirmed with a shrug and a smile. He looked up to Scar in question too.

Scar seemed to think for a moment as well, before he responded. "I mean," he began with a mischievous smile, "I used to like to pretend I had a superhero's shield when I was a kid." He shrugged lightly.

This earned a few giggles from the crowd.

"You are both welcome to join our team any day, dudes." Another team member nodded towards the heroes.

"Hey," Scar pointed back to them kindly, "we would always be up to another round if we aren't busy, what'd you think, Cuteguy?" The taller hero smirked at his sidekick, who nodded enthusiastically.

"That was honestly more fun than I thought it would be." Grian agreed. "It's not often we get to use our full strength and speed outside of training."

A few members of the crowd seemed fascinated at this fact, and the overall presence of the heroes talking so casually.

They answered a few more questions, took some photos with spectators and team members alike, and offered plenty more high fives and fistbumps.

Somewhere along the clamour, one of the team members suggested a group photo with the heroes. And before they knew it, all of the frisbee team had lined up with Scar and Grian in the centre, with a bunch of spectators in front of them ready to take the photos.

Hotguy and Cuteguy posed, and there were many laughs amongst the crowd as plenty of photos were snapped.

Grian sighed happily as the group dispersed a little after the photo. While he was dreading it at first, this had somehow turned into a pretty fun day overall. Almost like a day off, but just in their hero personas, and with a lot more attention than they would get as civilians.

In a way, it was actually kind of freeing, Grian thought. There was no need for them to hide any of their strengthened abilities, and their identities were securely hidden behind their hero outfits and masks. They could enjoy the day as Cuteguy and Hotguy, but also as Grian and Scar underneath.

The avian looked over to his taller hero counterpart, and found him kneeled down a few feet away to gleefully shake hands with a young toddler as their parent stood behind, amused.

Only a second later, and Scar seemed to lose his balance in the kneel; and he plopped down rather ungracefully, fully onto the ground.

The toddler's face lit up with a high pitched giggle, and she mimicked Hotguy's action with a plop down onto the ground of her own.

Scar fully laughed, and he gently clapped his hands together a few times in a successful effort to get the baby to mimic him again.

Grian couldn't help his laugh as he approached closer.

The parent requested a quick photo with the baby and hero, and they were soon off. Scar stood up to full height hastily and met Grian's gaze with a goofy smile.

"Made a baby laugh." Scar stated proudly as he made a finger gun towards Grian. "Day officially successful."

Grian let out yet another snicker and gave Scar a few fond pats on the shoulder.

Around them, there were still countless civilians of all kinds. They did a few more photos and greetings here and there, when suddenly, a chirp sounded from both of the heroes’ communicators.

In sync, Grian and Scar pulled out their communicators, and they shared a wordless look.

A new mission briefing. They were to meet back up with Cub at the tower ASAP.

With one last look to Grian, Scar once again took charge and raised his voice to address the crowd.

"It's been fun, everyone! Thank you so much for hanging out with us today." He began with an enthusiastic wave.

"Unfortunately, hero duty calls." Grian added on, projecting his own voice.

"We must be off!" Scar gestured grandly, and Grian had to hold in a scoff at the dramatics of his friend.

Several more people came closer to wave the heroes off fondly, with many voices ringing out their farewells.

"Thanks, guys!" Grian waved to the onlooking group.

Scar sent out a salute to the crowd. "Farewell!" He smiled, and both heroes looked at each other with a firm nod.

Without another word, they launched up into the sky in sync, in an impossibly swift movement.

As they settled into a glide back to the tower, Scar sighed happily from beside Grian.

"That was so much fun, dude!" The taller hero exclaimed.

"Yep, I'd say that’s a successful mission!" Grian confirmed cheerfully.

__

As Hotguy and Cuteguy were briefed on their next mission, several news outlets and social media timelines were flooded with new photos and videos of the two famous heroes laughing and having fun with each other, and other civilians.

The entire frisbee game was recorded in full, and made its way onto trending tabs within minutes. Sporting channels and analysis crews studied the heroes' inexperienced, yet strong moves; and fitness junkies all over the world expressed their awe at witnessing the heroes’ full strength in such a casual setting.

Among the flood of content from the heroes’ day out, was a rather amusing video of the confident, charismatic superhero known as Hotguy, crash landing into a tree. Cuteguy could be seen removing a leaf from the hero’s hair, laughing all the while.

Some more dedicated fans of the heroes set new profile pictures of Hotguy and Cuteguy smiling gleefully together. Fan pages rejoiced as they were fed a plethora of new content.

A photo was printed and framed that night, of a joyful looking Hotguy sat on the grass with a happy toddler on his lap. If this toddler were to grow up idolizing the hero after this, well, who could say.

At a quiet restaurant near the centre of the city, an old lady named Carolyn sat with her best friend of many years. They gleefully recounted the stories of their lives, and how surprisingly similar they were to two certain heroes.

All in all, quite a successful publicity mission indeed.

________

Chapter Text

________

It started as a mission to investigate intel about a possible villain lab in the basement of an unsuspecting apartment building in Hermitopia.

Scar and Grian were fully dressed and donning their superhero personas, Hotguy and Cuteguy respectively. They stepped through the discreet back entrance of the building through an alleyway, as to not be recognized by a passer by on the street.

Grian, slightly more experienced with stealth, stepped forwards to peek around a corner to ensure that their coast was clear in the building's main lobby.

Upon the winged hero's confirmation, Scar stepped out from behind him, and he looked around for a moment to take in his surroundings.

The lobby looked clean enough, and there was a vacant security desk at the front and centre, with an elevator to the side, and stairs beyond that. The front doors stood opposite to the security desk, grand, and very much see through.

Anyone could walk in and spot them at any moment. And while Scar generally loved attention from the public, he knew this mission required a certain level of discretion.

So when Grian beckoned the taller hero to the opposite side of the lobby, Scar was quick to follow.

The two heroes came up on a steel maintenance door that had a small barred glass window, and a stairwell heading downwards beyond it. Bingo.

With a short look at his counterpart to communicate silently, Scar confidently strode over to grasp the door handle, and it opened without resistance.

"After you!" Scar muttered under his breath as he smiled proudly at Grian, and he held the door for him. The two heroes silently entered the stairwell, and their footsteps echoed slightly on the way down.

Scar had to smile to himself as he kept up with Grian's pace. This mission was easy so far! A few more unlocked doors and lucky breaks without any civilian witnesses, and they could go home scot free with the intel they set out for.

At the bottom of the stairwell, the two heroes came up on another steel door, but this one had no window.

There were a few standing yellow caution signs strewn about in storage on either side, as well as a ladder and some basic cleaning supplies. To an unsuspecting eye, this would look like any other maintenance storage area; if it weren't for the secure door in the middle.

This time, Grian went for the door handle first, as Scar stood behind and kept an ear out.

The avian jiggled the door handle for a moment. Locked.

Grian glanced back towards Scar with a confident smirk that the hero returned. He knew from experience that a locked door was hardly an obstacle for his winged friend.

Grian pulled a tool from one of the satchels on his belt, and he got to work on the lock without hesitation. Scar turned to cover his back; just in case a particularly quiet maintenance worker found their way down.

Only a moment later, a quiet *click* echoed through the stairwell, and Scar turned back around to see Grian holding the door open from the outside with a smile.

"After you." Grian muttered just as quietly, with an overly polite gesture with his arm.

Scar half suppressed a quiet giggle, and he returned the gesture with a small, mocking bow with his head as he stepped closer.

Beyond the door it was dark, but upon first glance, it simply resembled a continuation of the maintenance room. In the darkness, Scar could see the faint outline of a back wall lined with industrial shelves. He briefly lamented to himself that this investigation might be a bust, after all.

There was an almost inaudible redstone *click*. Such a familiar sound with so many high-tech doors and machines of their age, the sound went unnoticed among the heroes.

Grian stepped into the room right behind Scar, and he patted the wall to find and flip on a light switch.

The two heroes briefly squinted at the new, bright fluorescent lights of the basement, before their eyes adjusted; and both heroes froze with low gasps.

The entire back wall of the basement was indeed lined with shelves across the wall, and they even looped around onto the two adjacent side walls. On those shelves, sat endless stacks of rigged TNT.

"Scar, don't move." Grian's voice echoed quietly, but urgently.

Scar, already frozen where he stood, slowly moved his head to glance at Grian behind him.

The avian's gaze was locked onto the floor beneath Scar's feet. The taller hero followed his gaze, and he found his boot perfectly caught on a tripwire, pulled taught and held beneath his foot.

Beyond the tripwire was row upon row of pressure plates that matched the floor almost perfectly; seemingly as backup should the tripwire be noticed.

All of which was unnecessary now, seeing as the tripwire was already pulled and ready to begin the detonation countdown as soon as Scar stepped off of it.

Scar heard as Grian's breathing grew quicker, and neither hero moved, nor spoke for a moment.

"Okay, okay." Scar breathed and nodded his head forwards. He made sure to keep the rest of his body perfectly still. "We-we need to evac. Can you call Cub? They need to evac this whole area." The hero spoke at full volume, and as evenly as possible.

Scar turned his head to the side to try and make eye contact with Grian again.

"Ri-right." Grian breathed, seeming to come back to himself a bit. He took out his communicator, and hastily tapped on the screen. A chirp rang out a moment later, indicating that they were on live communication with their manager.

"Cub, do you read? We need an immediate evac of the area. Can you see our location?" Grian spoke quickly into the mic of his communicator.

"I see you, and I'm ordering the evac now." Cub's voice responded immediately. "Talk to me Cuteguy, what's going on?" The manager asked, concern evident in his voice.

Something in Scar calmed significantly upon hearing Cub's voice, and that the evacuation was starting. The taller hero once again turned his head, and he smiled slightly.

"Hi, Cub!" Scar called out cheerfully. Grian looked up from the ground to scowl at Scar's nonchalance, before he huffed out an exasperated laugh.

"Uh," Grian began, "our intel about this place wasn't wrong, but the whole basement is trapped." The avian explained. "Sc-Hotguy is stood on a tripwire right now."

There was a moment of silence from Cub on the other end. "Ah." Came his response at last.

Scar continued to look behind himself to make eye contact with Grian. There was another beat of silence, and then Cub's voice continued.

"So, I'm assuming you haven't moved off of the tripwire, since- ah, you were able to comm me." The manager assessed accurately.

Grian nodded, despite being on voice call. "Neither of us have moved." The winged hero confirmed.

"Good, that's good." Cub's voice took on a more reassuring tone. "Hotguy, are you alright? Are you able to keep still for a bit longer?" Cub asked, as Grian held his communicator up to Scar a little more.

"I'm good, Cub!" Scar's voice regained a bit of confidence as he responded with a smile.

Scar almost laughed as he thought to himself for a moment. Cub was, indeed, known to the public as the manager of Hotguy and Cuteguy. There was no harm in saying his name out loud in public. Yet, Cub had extensively complained in the past; that they should all strictly use hero names or code names in their communications. Despite this, their manager and friend gave no indication that he minded, or even noticed in this situation.

Above them, the heroes could vaguely hear some clamour. The evacuation of the building was well underway, it seemed.

"Great, that's perfect, you two." Cub affirmed. "Evacs are almost done now. I want you to stay on the line. When we get the all clear, I'll give you a set of instructions. You'll have to move fast." The manager explained calmly.

Grian and Scar stayed quiet for a moment. Scar breathed deeply as he mentally ran through their likely escape plan. Behind him, Grian's wings briefly flared out as he rolled his shoulders in an attempt to prepare for the same.

"At least we've learned *something* from this." Scar commented after another moment.

At Grian's questioning look behind him, Scar continued. "We know that our intel was at least partially accurate! This is clearly the work of a new villain." The taller hero pointed out.

Grian frowned in thought. "Hm, I guess." The avian shrugged. "We at least know that our information source is connected to this villain in some way."

Scar nodded delicately, careful to keep his foot on the tripwire firm.

The sounds upstairs gradually quieted down to nothing, and Cub's voice crackled back through the communicator a minute later.

"Hotguy, Cuteguy, we're all clear." Cub voiced evenly.

The two heroes took steadying breaths as their manager began to explain their exit strategy.

"When you're ready, Sc- uh- Hotguy," Cub stumbled over the name but recovered quickly; "You're going to lift your foot."

Scar glanced at Grian as best as he could as Cub continued. "You will have about five seconds to get out of the blast radius, and then another five-or-so to get out of the building before it becomes unstable."

Cub took a moment to breathe, and neither hero moved an inch. "There is a significant possibility of building collapse." The manager added with a more grim tone. "Emergency services and additional heroes are on scene, and all civilians are accounted for outside of the area of danger."

Scar closed his eyes and took another set of breaths.

"Whenever both of you are ready." Cub stated, his voice forcibly even. "Please stay on the line if at all possible, Grian."

"Okay." Grian muttered, almost inaudibly. He pocketed his communicator without hanging up, and waited for Scar's signal.

Scar swallowed. Risky moves like this were quite familiar. Five seconds was realistically enough time for both heroes to sprint up the stairs they came down. Another five seconds would probably be enough to get out; but it would be tight.

Grain stood unmoving behind Scar, his posture straight and tense.

"Grian," Scar began, looking forward. "You get a head start. There-" Scar huffed a slight chuckle. "There ain't no tripwire strings on- uh, you." The taller hero snickered at his badly worded Disney reference with a slight cringe.

"Wha-" Grian began, before he chose to ignore the reference. "No, Scar. We go together, buddy." The avian stated firmly.

Scar breathed out a sigh. "I knew you'd say that." He complained lightheartedly. "Fine."

Scar trusted Grian's abilities. He had no doubt in his mind that his best friend would escape. It would certainly give him more peace of mind though, knowing he could have had a head start. That dang loyal avian.

Scar took one more moment of peace, before he lifted his foot.

In the same instant, he yelled "GO!" At the top of his lungs. Before the echo could make its way to the top of the stairwell, the heroes were off.

The telltale sound of many, many lit fuses was their exit music. Grian and Scar made it to the top of the stairs and out of the maintenance hall before the ground shook, and deafening explosions rang out from below.

Scar had run fast before. Of course he had; he had been Hotguy for many years at this point. There was never anything quite like running desperately, at the top speed he could manage with his mechanical leg bracers. It was almost exhilarating, if not for the mad panic and adrenaline that had set in as soon as he had lifted his foot.

The silence that followed the explosions was deceiving, both heroes knew.

As if on cue, a mighty groan seemed to come from all around them. The building's rebar and metal had been severed and severely damaged at the bottom, and the structure was weakening by the second.

The great creaking and groaning from the building weren't quite as deafening as the explosions had been, but such a sound from a structure so large made it all the more haunting.

Scar and Grian barely had time to react as they reached the main lobby, before a scream rang through the large open room after a particularly loud creak.

Both heroes' heads snapped over to the cry, and Scar spotted a civilian straggler near the opposite stairwell leading to the apartments on the upper floors.

The straggler was clearly panicked, hyperventilating with their hands over their ears and tears streaming down their face. They cowered near the stairs, and they took stumbling steps as they tried to move quickly amongst their panic.

The building gave the largest groan yet, and both heroes knew they were out of time.

Scar changed his trajectory before he could even process properly.

In an instant, Scar was next to the screaming civilian, and debris began to fall all around them. He grabbed them roughly just in time to pull them out of the way of a large chunk of falling concrete.

In the next instant, Grian rushed up behind both Scar and the civilian, and he near-tackled them both as he grabbed both the hero and the straggler to desperately drag them to cover; using his wings to propel them just a little further.

Scar and Grian worked together to move as quickly as possible. Without even looking at each other, they dodged around falling debris and rushed over to the security desk in the centre of the lobby.

The civilian in Scar's arms was breathing very heavily, but there was no time for reassurance. Distantly, Scar also took note of alarmed yelling that sounded suspiciously like Cub, coming from somewhere near Grian's suit pocket.

The building was well and truly crumbling around them now. There were no sounds, no thoughts, other than deafening crashing, creaking, and groaning as the structure began to come down.

"GET DOWN!" Scar attempted to scream over the sounds of collapse, as they came to a stop underneath the security desk. He positioned himself above the panicking civilian in an attempt to protect their head. Grian huddled next to them, and moved directly beside Scar to shield them as well.

The last thing Scar noticed before the building fully collapsed, was Grian's wing moving to drape around his back.

And then there was nothing but thundering crashing all around them.

Scar felt large pieces of debris hit the group of three huddling under the desk. He felt when chunks of cinder and drywall hit their backs and piled up around them, and he felt Grian take his hand and squeeze as both heroes ducked their heads.

Next, the overwhelming smell of dust, smoke, and chemicals hit them.

And suddenly, as if there was never any sound at all, everything was quiet.

Scar swallowed and attempted to get a full breath in. The taller hero rapidly became aware of a faint stinging on his back and arms; and he thanked his luck that that's all it seemed to be. Some cuts and scrapes were the least of his worries.

Directly next to him, Scar felt Grian's hand leave his own. He heard his sidekick groan a little, and Scar's head snapped up to look over to his best friend.

He found Grian propping himself up with his hands braced on the dusty ground. The avian wiped his face with the back of a hand, and he too, took a steadying breath in as he looked over to Scar.

Scar quietly cleared his throat as the dust settled around them. "You alright?" The hero murmured, voice horse from both the yelling, and the debris.

Grian breathed for another moment before he flicked his wings and pinned them against his back in the small space. "M' alright." He finally replied. "Wings are scraped up, but s' fine." "You?" He asked back.

Scar deflated in relief for a second. "I'm good." He confirmed. Scar took a moment to relish in the fact of what they had just survived, which allowed his brain to catch up a tad.

Underneath both heroes, the civilian sat huddled, shaking and breathing still panicked.

Scar sat up as much as he could, and he pushed his back against a large sheet of panel ceiling tiles. Grian seemed to catch up at the same time, and he likewise sat back to allow the straggler some space.

The space that they were in was cramped; but they were lucky. The security desk counter stayed mostly intact with debris piled on top of it; and there was a stack of ceiling tiles, metal, cinder, and stucco that blocked them off from the side and above.

All in all, their little room was stable enough for now.

Scar and Grian seemed to observe this simultaneously. Once they decided that they were safe enough, both heroes turned their attention to the civilian, who had not moved.

"Hey, um," Grian began, and he lightly crawled forward to try and meet the person's face. "My name is Cuteguy, we just need to know if you're okay. Are you hurt at all?" Grian asked their huddled form gently.

Their shaking did not stop, and after a moment, no indication of a response came.

"It's okay now." Scar jumped in next, although he stayed seated against the ceiling tiles off to the side. "Things are stable for now, and the air doesn't seem too contaminated. Can you try and take a deep breath for us?" The hero asked, equally gentle.

Scar met Grian's eyes after no response came yet again. Grian moved back to sit across from the taller hero, and Scar frowned in thought for a moment.

"Oh, and my name is Hotguy, by the way." Scar spoke again after a minute. "Listen, Cuteguy and I are going to breathe deeply. If you can, could you try and follow us? It's okay if it takes a while." Scar sent a reassuring smile in the person's direction, although their head was still hidden in their huddled form.

With a nod to Grian, Scar moved his hand up and down methodically along to the motion of their breathing. Both heroes intentionally took deep, audible breaths through their noses, and out through their mouths.

After a few minutes, a shaky voice came from the huddled form of the civilian straggler.

"My-my name is- M-Maya." Came their hoarse voice, and they cautiously lifted their head to look at both heroes in the dim lighting.

"I'm-I'm sorry." Maya sighed shakily as she wiped her face. She began to loosen up her posture a little more to fully face the two heroes.

Scar's smile warmed exponentially upon seeing such progress. "No, no, Maya." He waved her off gently. "That was a perfectly reasonable reaction to having a building collapse around you."

Maya's face seemed to drop a little bit at that. "Oh my god." She breathed out as she fully lifted her head to take in her surroundings.

Grian sent Scar a silently cringing look, and Scar returned it with a sheepish look of his own.

Maya seemed to take no notice. A moment later, she looked to Grian, and then to Scar. "T-thank you for saving me." She muttered, suddenly looking sheepish herself.

Grian sent her a gentle smile from where he sat opposite to Scar. "We're incredibly lucky." He began factually. "Are you alright otherwise, Maya?" The avian asked.

"Yeah." May sighed. "I think so. Was just really loud, mainly." She stated with a shake of her head.

"Oh, yeah." Scar agreed. "I think that was the craziest building collapse I've ever been in." He added, almost casually.

Maya's eyes went wide. "You've been in other collapsed buildings before?" She asked with alarm.

Scar chuckled, and Grian crossed his arms and rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Yep!" Scar laughed. "That's the, uh, Hotguy life!" He mockingly flexed one of his arms as he chuckled.

Just then, Grian seemed to start as he remembered something. He swiftly moved to take his communicator out of his pocket, but he groaned as he came to see that it was smashed somewhere in the chaos. The screen was black, and the whole device was bent at an awkward angle.

"We should ping our location." Grian pointed out reasonably. "Is your comm working by any chance, Hotguy?" The avian asked.

Scar gasped. "Cub is probably worried sick!" He exclaimed. The hero quickly moved to fish his comm out of his pocket, and both heroes were relieved to find it mostly undamaged. Scar activated the screen without any issue.

One ping after Scar had called Cub, and their manager answered.

"Scar!!" Cub's panicked tone came through as soon as the call connected. "Grian!? Scar? Are you okay?!" He exclaimed.

Scar and Grian shared a shocked look between them. For one, they had never heard Cub quite this panicked. And two, Maya had just heard both of their names quite clearly.

Before they could cause any further panic from their manager, Scar responded with a fond smile. "We're here, Cub, we're all okay." He stated assuredly.

"Oh, thank god!" Cub could be heard sighing. His voice came though slightly muffled, as if he had his face in his hands.

"Where," Cub paused to breathe in once, "where are you? Did you make it out?" He asked.

Scar looked from Grian, to Maya, and back to Grian again. Grian returned his gaze with a fond smile for their manager, while Maya was clearly pretending that she hadn't heard this conversation.

"We're in the building, Cub." Grian chose to answer, projecting his voice a little so that Scar's comm would pick it up properly. "We're covered on all sides, but our surroundings are stable."

Cub could be heard breathing out another steadying sigh. "Okay." He paused to think, "Yeah, we can- okay." The manager stumbled over his words a little.

Scar's fond smile grew a little more. "Cub, we're okay." The hero repeated. "No major injuries, and we're with one civilian named Maya." Scar confirmed as he sent a nod her way.

Maya seemed a little bit shocked to be acknowledged, but she sent a quick, courteous nod back to Hotguy.

There was a brief silence from Cub's end. "Oh." Was what finally came over the phone, and Scar had to hold a fist to his mouth to avoid a laughing fit.

"Um, well, yes, okay." Cub stammered a little more, before he collected his thoughts. "We have emergency services and heroes on scene, like I said before. I-Boom is working on clearing the heavier debris, so I'll send him your location right away." Cub listed off professionally. "We'll come up with the best rescue strategy between us to get you all out safely."

"That's perfect, thank you, Cub!" Scar responded happily.

"Yeah, thanks!" Grian called as well. "And thank I-Boom for us too!"

Scar agreed wholeheartedly. I-Boom, better known as Impulse to Grian and Scar, was a well known hero with super strength, of all things. That, combined with Impulse's level headedness and ability for strategy, made him a perfect rescuer in this scenario.

"Alright." Cub stated, now much calmer sounding. "I have to make some calls." The manager sighed once more. "Will you guys be okay for now?" He asked.

Scar looked to Maya, and then to Grian. Maya just looked a little bit perplexed, but Grian smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"Don't worry, Cub. We're all good here." Scar stated confidently.

"Okay." Cub confirmed, a little reluctantly. "I'll see you soon." He ended, and the call dropped.

Scar sighed after he put his communicator away, and he looked around with a much calmer demeanour. He met Grian's eyes, which flicked silently towards Maya, and back towards him. Scar shrugged in silent communication.

"So, uhm, Maya, was it?" Scar began tentatively.

Maya's head snapped back up towards Scar when he spoke, and she nodded silently.

Scar gave her a warm smile in response. "I guess you probably heard," He continued reassuringly, "but help is on the way. We'll be out of here safe and sound very soon."

Maya sighed to herself in relief. "Thank-thank you again." She said quietly.

There was a moment of silence, before Grian spoke up. "Of course." He added gently. "We're both just glad you're okay." The avian replied as he nodded to Scar.

Scar nodded eagerly back, and Grian continued after a moment. "I suppose we could introduce ourselves properly, since you must have heard our names there." The winged hero chuckled a little as he looked down.

"Oh, no, you don't need-" Maya began quickly, and she put a hand out as she took a breath. "I'll um, I can forget I ever heard it." She stated firmly. "I promise I won't tell anybody."

Scar and Grian shared another look, and Scar put a hand to his chest as he snickered a little bit.

"We appreciate that, Maya." Scar added warmly. "And, it's okay. I'll start by saying my name is Scar, also known as Hotguy, at your service." The hero introduced himself with a playful salute.

Maya smiled sheepishly, but warmly towards Scar.

Grian waved to Maya next. "I'm Grian, also known as Cuteguy."

"Hi." Maya waved back shyly. "I'm, uh, Maya...?" She introduced herself again, knowing the two heroes already knew her name.

"It's nice to properly meet you, Maya." Grian responded kindly.

The civilian just nodded again, closed off and shy as ever.

Grian and Scar shared an empathetic look between them, from where they sat across from each other in their little pocket amongst the rubble.

Scar wondered to himself for a moment, how Maya could have missed the evacuations. He knew that Cub's team was thorough, and they wouldn't have missed someone easily.

He decided to subtly prod a little. There was a minute of silence as all three inhabitants were lost in thought, and Scar spoke up gently.

"So Maya," Scar began, "out of curiosity, what were you doing before, ah, all this?" Scar asked as he motioned to the rubble surrounding them.

This snapped Maya out of her thoughts, and she smiled shyly over to Scar. Grian looked on in interest.

"I was studying." Maya began simply. "I had noise cancelling headphones on, that's why I didn't hear them telling people to leave."

Fair enough, Scar thought with a nod. Instead, he decided to pivot the conversation to help keep Maya calm.

The civilian was understandably still quite unsettled by her surroundings; that much was clear to the two heroes.

"Ooh!" Scar responded after a moment, "what are you studying?" He asked kindly.

Maya's expression warmed significantly at the hero's question. "Animation." She responded, somewhat sheepishly.

Scar gasped excitedly at Maya's answer, and Grian watched on fondly.

"That's so fun!" Scar exclaimed happily with a clap. "So you're like, really good at drawing then, right?" The hero prompted Maya to elaborate.

Maya chuckled to herself. "I try to be, I guess." She muttered. "I have these characters that I like to stick with a lot. I’ve had their whole story planned out for years."

The two heroes smiled towards Maya in amazement.

"That's really awesome, actually!" Grian commented. "I'd love to see that story some time." The avian added genuinely, to which Scar nodded in agreement.

This made Maya chuckle bashfully. "Yeah!" She replied with a shrug.

After a beat of silence, Scar spoke up again. "I've always imagined Grian and I in a cartoon about Hotguy and Cuteguy, flying around and saving the city." The taller hero described with a playful flex.

The hero put on a smooth, over-the-top narrator voice, and he began to make flourishing motions with his hands. "The handsome Hotguy and the pesky Cuteguy embarked on yet another adventure in the city of Hermitopia."

Grian let out a scoff at his friend's antics, but the hero continued with a widening smile. "On today's episode," Scar kept on the narrator voice, "an investigation gone wrong! Will the two heroes make it out of a collapsed building, or will they-" Scar cut himself off with a thoughtful pause.

"Will they instead, meet a pretty cool animator who inspires this whole monologue?" The taller hero finished with a pointed finger and grand smile.

Maya looked at the ground in shy amusement as Scar finished his imaginary cartoon narration. Grian just shook his head with his own smile. "Nice save, bud." The avian teased.

"Thank you, thank you." Scar replied genuinely with a slight bow of his head.

The group of three fell into a momentary silence, and Scar's mood sobered up as he once again took in their surroundings.

"I'm sorry about all this, both of you." Scar began again in a more melancholy, lower tone, and he looked down as he propped a knee up to rest a hand on it. His mechanical leg brace made a light whirr as he did.

After a moment, Scar looked across to meet Grian's gaze. The avian was looking on with a curious expression. Beside them both, Maya's face resembled the same.

"You didn't rig the basement, Scar." Grian commented simply, his tone reassuring.

"Well no," Scar began to defend his apology with a dismissive wave, "but-but I triggered the tripwire!"

Grian shook his head defiantly. "I would have done the same thing, dude. I just happened to hold the door for you, so you were the first one in the room."

"Alright, alright." Scar finally accepted, if only to stop the lighthearted argument. "But I still should have been more careful."

Grian only shrugged. "*We* should have been more careful." The winged hero added after a moment.

Scar sighed with a quiet, fond snicker. "Your wings alright?" He asked his counterpart, after a brief silence.

Grian glanced at his wings sprawled lazily behind him for a moment, and he gave them a slight flick. "Mhm." He nodded simply. "Your bracers okay?" The hero asked back.

Scar flexed his legs out in front of him, and the bracers made a reliable whir. "Yup!" He nodded, with a happy thumbs up.

While the two heroes were talking, Maya watched on without much else to do. The civilian kept her gaze down at the ground sheepishly; feeling once again as though she was witnessing what should have been a private conversation between the heroes.

After both heroes had made sure that the other was okay, there was a minute of silence. Scar crossed his arms in front of him with a steadying sigh, and he closed his eyes and tilted his head upwards to rest for a moment.

Maya continued to watch the two heroes as they lapsed into comfortable silence. While both of their postures relaxed as much as possible within the rubble, Maya still fidgeted and bounced her leg. She was understandably still antsy from the earlier stress, along with their current predicament.

After another minute of silence, the civilian decided to speak up to turn the earlier question back onto the heroes.

"So, um," Maya began, and she caught the attention of both heroes. "What were you guys doing before... uh, all of the chaos?" She asked awkwardly.

Scar smiled kindly at the civilian's awkwardness. "Oh, you know," The taller hero began to reply with a teasing tone, "typical hero stuff, sneaking into basements, triggering explosions." Scar listed off playfully.

Maya just chuckled quietly. Both Scar's and Maya's gazes moved over to Grian next, who had crossed his arms and tilted his head back in thought.

"Let's see." Grian said as he looked up to their cinder and rebar ceiling. "I had some oats for breakfast, then I trained with Ho-Scar for a bit, totally beat him up, had lunch, then we got our mission briefing, kitted up, and headed over here!" Grian smiled mischievously as he finished with unnecessary detail.

A different approach than Scar's flippant description of their day, but it got more laughter out of Maya. Scar sat with his arms still crossed, and he raised an eyebrow at Grian with a mocking frown.

Grian responded by briefly sticking his tongue out at Scar, and the taller hero scoffed teasingly, as he huffed out his own bout of laughter.

"I liked the part about Cuteguy beating you up." Maya commented, in a moment of confidence.

This caused Grian to break out in full on laughter, and Scar scoffed again with a growing smile. "Oh, you never mind that." He waved Maya off playfully.

As Grian and Maya continued to snicker, Scar decided to shift the conversation abruptly for his own sanity. "Hey, actually Grian, didn't I-Boom and some of the others invite us to a game night?" Scar asked swiftly.

"Oh yeah, that's tonight." Grian seemed to remember as well, as he calmed down again.

"We're probably going to be late." Scar commented simply, as he looked around to make his point.

"They're all here, Scar. We're all going to be late." Grian added reasonably.

"Oh yeah!" Scar perked up. "I guess it's fine, then!" He nodded happily back at Grian.

Grian frowned with amusement at their rubble encased surroundings. "Sure, dude. This is fine." The avian commented.

"What games do you guys play, ...if you don't mind me asking?" Maya spoke up to ask gently.

"Message of the Mission." Scar replied without hesitation.

Grian nodded. "We play a few games, a bunch of us try and meet up at the tower whenever we can." The winged hero added.

Maya gasped excitedly. "No way!" She cried. "My friends and I play Message of Mission all the time!" She exclaimed.

Scar just chuckled heartily. "Love making some kids cry in game every now and then." He commented with a wink to no one in particular.

"Wow." Maya commented to herself with a giggle. "I wonder if we've played you guys before?"

"Ooh, ooh!" Scar cried out excitedly. "What rank are you?"

"Iridium." Maya admitted, with a healthy amount of sheepishness.

"Dude!" Scar exclaimed with his arms out towards Maya. "We've probably played together before!" The hero cheered.

Maya let out a full, amazed laugh at this.

"I can't believe I'm talking Message of Mission ranks with Hotguy and Cuteguy." She chuckled, after a moment to calm herself.

"Yep!" Grian confirmed with a pump of his fist. "Just a bunch of gamers, us." He drawled.

This caused Maya and Scar to snicker some more. "So you're all really just... regular people...?" She asked after a moment.

Both heroes exchanged an amused look between them. "I mean, yeah!" Grian nodded. "Maybe with some extra powers here and there." He shrugged nonchalantly.

There was a brief silence, before Scar spoke up again as he leaned forwards a little. "Okay, but what weapon skin is your favorite?" The hero asked excitedly towards Maya.

The civilian thought for a moment. "It's gotta be the Star Wars collection they released on May the 4th last year." She nodded assuredly. "Makes all of the guns look like real blasters!"

Scar gasped and leaned forwards farther in a sudden movement. His face broke out into a massive, excited grin.

"Here we go." Grian commented with an exasperated grin of his own.

"Oh- oh my." Scar rambled in his excitement. "Cu-Cuteguy! Grian! She likes Star Wars!!" Scar exclaimed with a wild motion over to Maya.

The civilian in question looked amused, but perplexed at the hero's reaction.

"I heard!" Grian just nodded with crossed arms and raised eyebrows.

Before Scar could go off on a proper Star Wars tangent, there was a sudden loud metallic groan from above them.

"Oh!" Was all Grian could call out before both heroes moved swiftly back under the desk to protect Maya as best as they could.

The three waited with baited breath, and slowly, the cinder, drywall, and stucco trapping them from the side and above was slowly lifted.

The heroes and civilian had to squint momentarily at the newfound light.

As his eyes adjusted, Scar shifted around to spot the concerned face of Impulse, donned in his full I-Boom gear.

The hero had a firm hold on a large chunk of cinder, and he easily flicked it off to the side once he spotted the trio below the desk.

"Hotguy, Cuteguy!" Impulse called out, relief clear in his voice. "Are you all alright?"

Scar and Grian slowly straightened up to stand with Maya in tow. "We're all good, I-Boom!" Scar called back to the hero with a tired, but relieved salute.

The heroes began to assist Maya over the rubble. Together with Impulse, Scar, Grian, and Maya made their way out of the destruction that used to be Maya's apartment building.

"The hero headquarters will assist you in the process of finding housing, and beginning to replace all of your possessions." Impulse began to explain professionally to Maya as they made their way to safer ground.

The group stopped at a parked ambulance, and despite her insistence that she was alright, Maya agreed to at least get checked out.

"They'll take it from here." Impulse finished in his explanation. Scar had tuned out most of it, having heard versions of civilian evacuation and relocations several times over by now.

Maya sat on the edge of the ambulance floor as the paramedic swabbed a scrape on Maya's arm. The civilian used her opposite hand to wave at the two lingering heroes by her side. She sighed, before she gave them a genuine, warm smile.

"Thank you guys, seriously." Maya spoke lowly. "You-you did more than I could have expected. You didn't just save my life, y-you helped me calm down, and- I just, I can't thank you enough." The civilian stammered through her emotions a little bit.

"Any time, Maya." Scar nodded firmly.

"It was the least we could do, for uh, having your building collapse around you." Grian commented in an attempt to lighten their moods a little.

He succeeded, and Maya let out a chuckle.

Scar sighed to steady himself, and he looked upwards at the remaining buildings surrounding the rubble. The sun was beginning to set, and the dust of the collapsed building was settling to reveal a few sunbeams shining through the gap where the structure once stood.

"We should head back." Scar said after a moment, as he looked back down towards Grian.

Grian simply nodded, both heroes understandably a bit physically and emotionally fatigued.

"Take care, Maya." Scar affirmed gently as he lightly grabbed her hand for a moment.

Scar stepped back, and began to prepare his gilder for launch. In turn, Grian stepped forwards.

"If you ever need anything at all, please call for us. We'll always answer." Grian spoke low and seriously.

"Thank you." Maya nodded appreciatively. Satisfied, Grian stepped back and glanced at Scar.

With a nod between the two heroes, they called out their goodbyes with fond waves.

In another instant, Scar and Grian launched gracefully into the air and towards the hero tower once again.

__

Later that night, Maya was sporting a few simple bandages on a few of her deeper scrapes.

As she sat down with a snack on the sofa in her friend's apartment, controller in hand, she had to marvel to herself for a moment. Those scrapes were somehow the most severe injuries she had gotten, for the kind of day she had.

She settled in and grabbed a few chips from her bowl, and she raised her controller as another game of Message of Mission cued up on the screen.

Immediately, Maya took note of the usernames presented on the opposing team.

Maya couldn't help her amused scoff. The heroes really couldn't have been more obvious with their in-game usernames.

*GoodTimesWithH0tGuy, CuteGry, Boom-I, Skizzler, and GemStone.*

Then again, she supposed, not many people were bound to know that the heroes enjoyed games like Message of Mission.

With a mirthful smile, Maya spoke into her headphone mic for a moment. "Good luck, have fun!" She greeted simply.

As she spoke, her in game username, simply *Maya711* lit up. Some of her online friends repeated the pre-game ritual as well.

It could have been mic chatter, but Maya could have sworn she heard a gasp from one of the opposing team's mics.

As if to confirm her suspicion, the obnoxiously long username of *GoodTimesWithH0tGuy* lit up. "Have a good time, Maya!" Scar called from his in-game mic.

Maya laughed fondly to herself. As the game began, she kitted up with her usual setup, ready to play.

In the end, the heroes' team crushed Maya and her friends in a 3-13 score. Clearly Hotguy and Cuteguy weren't lying about their ranks, for one.

At the end of the game, the two teams had a moment in the lobby before they queued up again.

Once again, Scar opened his mic. "Nice Star Wars skins, Maya!" He called out lightheartedly.

"Thanks, Hotguy!" Maya replied into her mic cheekily.

Giggling could be heard from Hotguy, Cuteguy, and a few other voices on the heroes' end.

Maya sighed happily as the game moved them back into the queue, and she decided with a smile, that she'd like to play this game more often, if only to see if she could play with the heroes again.

Something told her that it might become more of a regular occurrence.

________

Chapter Text

________

A sudden sinkhole had opened up in the centre of a busy road after a freak creeper attack earlier that day.

Hotguy and Cuteguy arrived on scene behind the wall of caution tape, and a few worried civilians and news crews stood beyond that, watching diligently.

Before any emergency responders could even begin their rescue plans, Scar and Grian were down in the surprisingly deep hole to help the few unfortunate civilians who found themselves trapped.

Scar made his way to the next car after he had handed another person off to Grian to fly them out of the hole, when he gasped in alarm.

This car had landed on its front hood, and it stood vertically, with its back wheels propped up on the upper wall of the sinkhole.

Inside the car, two children could be seen vaguely in the dark; huddled together and shaking.

From the other side of the hole, Scar could hear Grian softly land back down after he had dropped the latest rescue off. The avian glanced around for a moment, before he spotted Scar and jogged over.

Scar meanwhile, had already moved into action. "Two kids." Scar explained simply, but urgently to Grian as he approached closer.

This caused Grian to likewise jump into action. "Oh dang." He exclaimed seriously.

Grian examined the vertical car carefully, and he stepped around to the other side as Scar checked the windows on his side.

They needed to get the kids out, but they also needed to be careful enough to not tip the precariously balanced car that they were trapped in.

"Window on this side!" Grian called from over the car. Scar jogged around to examine their possible entrance.

The front passenger's side window had indeed smashed slightly at some point during the fall into the sinkhole. It wasn't a big opening, but it was the best they could get.

Scar ducked down to align his head with the cracked window. "Um, kids, Hello? My name is Hotguy." Scar spoke through the broken glass.

A tiny gasp rang out from the confines of the car, which prompted Scar to continue.

"Don't worry, we're going to save you, there's no need to be scared." The hero attempted to reassure the children. "I just need to open up the glass a little bit more. So if you can, I'd like you to cover your head and put your hands over your eyes, okay?" Scar projected his voice into the car.

There was no response, but both heroes could hear a couple of whimpers and some shuffling. It seemed that this was the best they were going to get.

Scar glanced at Grian for a moment, and the two heroes shared a nod.

"Okay, ready?" Scar spoke into the car again. "This might be loud for a second, don't worry!"

With that, Scar grabbed hold of the sharply cracked glass of the passenger side window with two gloved hands. He pulled outwards, and the glass was quick to splinter further, before it gave way with a crash.

Scar stepped back when the glass gave way. The broken shards crunched under Grian's boots as he quickly moved forwards to reach in and unlatch the car's doors.

With a click, the car doors were unlocked, and Grian side stepped to allow Scar to open the door where the children were huddled.

The taller hero reached up, and he carefully swung the car's back door open.

Two small heads fearfully looked up at the noise. In the dark of the sinkhole, both heroes could vaguely see a little girl, huddled with a little boy only slightly older looking. The two siblings had their arms wrapped around each other protectively.

Scar's mind briefly washed over with relief at seeing the children at least somewhat alright. They could properly assess them for injuries later, anyways.

Their priority now, was to get these children back onto stable ground.

"Hey," Scar began gently, "hello there." He greeted the children gently with a wave from the high up, vertical car door.

"My name is Hotguy," Scar continued, "and this is Cuteguy." He gestured politely to Grian, a step behind him. “We’re superheroes.”

The children didn't respond, but they were watching them curiously.

Scar took a step closer to the open door. "We're going to help you get out of here now, is that okay?" The hero offered gently.

The younger girl looked towards her brother for a moment.

"It's okay. You go first, Linnie." The older child whispered to his sibling, just barely audible to the two heroes below them.

The younger sibling, Linnie, slowly moved towards the edge of her seat. As she did, she got a glance of the dark ground below the car, and the height that she was at.

With a fearful whimper, the young girl shrank back into the car quickly, breathing heavily.

The motion caused the car to lean and shake slightly in its precarious position. The muddy ground below the car's back wheels crumbled a little bit, threatening to extend the sinkhole quite violently.

"No, no!" Scar exclaimed out in a half-whisper. He held his hands out as if to steady the movement around them.

The children in the car stilled, and nobody moved for a moment.

Scar took in a steadying breath. He again stepped towards the open door of the car with a quick glance to Grian behind him.

"Okay." Scar breathed. "I know it's scary. I promise, I won't let you fall. We'll be out of the dark real soon." The taller hero attempted to reassure the children.

Out of the corner of his eye, Scar spotted more of the wall of the sinkhole crumbling away. A few small pieces of concrete debris fell into the sinkhole surrounding them.

The younger child's eyes once again peeked out of her brother's hold. In the dim lighting, Scar's smile never wavered up towards her.

"Look." Scar spoke to the child gently.

He reached up towards his Hotguy glasses, and removed them.

"Your name is Linnie, right?" Scar asked, his eyes now exposed and smiling gently.

Linnie nodded fearfully with a steadying breath. Scar smiled as he reached forwards, and handed his Hotguy glasses to the girl.

"Put them on." Scar coaxed the child softly.

Slowly, Linnie put the opaque orange and teal glasses on her face. They were much too big and a bit lopsided as a result, but they stayed on decently.

"Now you get to be a superhero like me." Scar said with a wink.

This earned a small smile from Linnie, and she once again moved carefully towards the edge of the car seat.

Scar held his arms out to catch the girl.

"And it's okay to be scared." The taller hero continued quietly, reassuring the child. "But the secret is, all heroes get scared. That's where being brave comes from."

With one more fearful glance back towards her brother, Linnie jumped out of the car and safely into Scar's arms.

"Got you!" Scar exclaimed, and he moved himself and the girl away from the vertical car.

As she jumped, the car once again wobbled dangerously on its hood. The older brother, still somewhat huddled farther back in the car, let out a small scream. The ground beneath the back wheels once again crumbled, but the car settled after a moment.

Grian immediately stepped forward with his Cuteguy mask already off and in hand. He held it out to the boy with his own wink.

"Can't forget the sidekick." Grian commented lightly. This earned a small giggle from the little girl, still wearing the glasses in Scar's arms.

Wordlessly, the boy relaxed his posture a little, and he reached to grab Grian's mask. He put it on slowly, and then carefully shuffled towards the open door.

As he too saw the height that he was at combined with the darkness of the sinkhole, the little boy's breathing picked up.

Grian stepped forwards with an arm out, ready to catch the boy. "Hey, you're okay." The winged hero attempted to reassure the child. "What's your name?"

"Um-" The boy began with a huff, and his gaze slowly moved from the ground far below, to Grian's unmasked face smiling gently. "Ki-Kieran." He responded finally.

Grian nodded reassuringly. "My name's Grian. That's Scar, he's got your sister safe and sound." He pointed with a thumb behind himself to the taller hero, still carrying the girl.

Scar waved with an enthusiastic smile, and Linnie made a small wave from his arms as well.

Grian never took his eyes off of the boy above him, arm held up ready to catch the child.

"Kieran," Grian began again, "you've been so brave, and you're almost safe now. I'll catch you." The avian spoke as reassuringly as possible.

With one more breath, Kieran pushed off of the car seat, and Grian caught him with a few steps back from the new weight.

Both heroes hastily moved back with the children safely in their arms, as the car teetered dangerously, and finally fell to the side with a violent crash.

In Scar's arms, Linnie let out a small scream as she hid her face in the hero's shoulder.

Kieran held on tight to Grian as he looked on in horror, breathing quickly.

Scar and Grian shared a glance, and they smiled at each other for a breath. Another close call.

"You're okay, we've got you!" Scar looked down to the child in his arms with a gentle smile.

Grian let out a relieved sigh. "We've got some pretty brave superheroes here, don't we, Hotguy?" He stepped closer to Scar as he asked, teasingly.

Scar smiled fondly down at his sidekick. "Oh, we do, we do!" Scar nodded.

Kieran and Linnie had both slowly lifted their heads as Grian and Scar spoke, and the children began to smile playfully back at the heroes.

"Alright." Grian signed as he looked upwards towards the entrance of the sinkhole. "One short flight, and then we're free. How's that sound?" The hero asked the boy in his arms.

Kieran shrank back a little again, but he nodded quickly.

Grian responded by opening his wings with a light smile.

"Don't worry," Scar pretended to whisper over to Kieran, "Gri has flown with me several times. He's never dropped me yet."

Grian snickered. "I'd drop you on purpose if you keep calling me your sidekick in public." He commented teasingly.

Scar gasped mockingly. "You would not!"

Grian laughed a little more. "I wouldn't." He confirmed with a shake of his head.

Scar let out a laugh as well, and he was delighted to see Linnie giggling lightly in his arms too.

Grian looked down to Kieran. "You ready, buddy?" He asked the child lightly.

Kieran nodded stiffly, and Grian adjusted his grip on the boy to make sure he was secure.

With one more glance up, Grian took off gently, and began to fly up and out of the sinkhole with Kieran.

Scar and Linnie watched for a moment, before Scar began to take an arrow out of his quiver. He grabbed a grappling rope from his belt, and attached it to the arrow.

"We can't fly like them," Scar began to explain to the girl in his arms, "but we can still get out of here in style."

Linnie looked more interested than fearful, and Scar smiled confidently at her. With his free arm, he took his bow from its attachment on his back, and he nocked the arrow with the rope attached.

Scar expertly hung the front end of his bow on his shoulder, and he pulled the string back with his free hand.

He shot nearly straight up; at just enough of an angle for the arrow to land and imbed itself firmly in the cement above the sinkhole.

The rope flew down directly in front of him, and Scar stowed his bow on his back again before he tested the grappling rope with a firm tug.

"Perfect shot, as always." Scar smiled down at the little girl in his arms. Linnie smiled back up to him, opaque orange and teal glasses obscuring her eyes. Scar had to let out a fond snicker.

Scar firmly grasped the rope with his free hand, and with a hard tug, he activated the grappling function. The rope began to ascend, Scar and Linnie gently going up with it.

At the top of the sinkhole, Scar had to squint as his eyes adjusted to the light. He climbed over the top of the crumbling cement, careful to keep Linnie safe as he moved to stand.

Just in front of him, Grian landed gently with Kieran in his arms.

Both heroes swiftly turned around to look at the ground to hide their faces.

The crowd of concerned civilians and reporters remained present from beyond the caution tape.

"Mom!" Came Kieran's voice from Grian's arms. The child squirmed a bit, excitedly.

Without moving his head, the avian shifted his eyes to see two civilians and an emergency worker in his peripheral vision, on a sectioned off sidewalk a few meters away.

Wordlessly, Grian set Kieran down gently, and the child took off in the direction that he called towards.

"Mama!" Linnie likewise called out, and Scar set her down only a moment after to join her brother.

Scar tensed a little, when he realized the situation he and Grian were now in.

Both heroes stood frozen with their heads down and their backs to the public.

Only caution tape prevented the world from seeing their unmasked faces.

Scar knew their hero identities were a precarious thing. Both he and Grian only really obscured the top half of their faces most of the time while in costume.

And, Scar thought, if this was how their identities got revealed - by saving two kids, it would be worth it.

Still, the two heroes stood with their backs to the world.

The sun was beginning to set in front of them, and little beams of light reflected off the windows of the tall buildings surrounding them.

Scar shifted his eyes to glance at Grian without moving his head. Grian was glancing back at him, the avian's posture as tense as he was.

"Hotguy, Cuteguy." Came a sudden voice from off to the side.

The person moved to stand directly in front of the two heroes.

Scar immediately breathed out a sign of relief when he recognized the voice. "Cub!" The taller hero exclaimed, and he looked up from the ground to their manager with a smile.

Grian's posture relaxed next to him, and Scar glanced down to Cub's hands to see him calmly holding two replacements of their respective hero masks.

"Oh, thank goodness." Grian muttered as he reached to grab his new Cuteguy mask from Cub.

Cub handed Scar his Hotguy glasses, and both heroes took a moment to don their new masks.

Scar's posture regained much of his Hotguy charisma as he began to properly look around now that his face was partially concealed again.

"Good work, you two." Cub stated simply, and he saluted both heroes with a fond smile. The manager swiftly walked off to supposedly check over more details of the disaster area.

"Thanks, Cub!" Scar called back with a fond wave.

Grian and Scar shared a glance as they wound down from their near identity reveal, as well as the whole sinkhole rescue.

Off to the side of the street, Scar spotted Kieran and Linnie with two women, fondly hugging and talking amongst themselves.

Scar caught Grian's attention, and the two heroes approached from the other side of the caution tape.

One of the sibling's mothers noticed the heroes' approach, and she gasped and pointed to get Linnie's attention.

"Them!" Linnie exclaimed happily. "They saved us!"

Next to her, Kieran gasped. "Yeah! Mama, those are the superheroes!"

"Hi!" Scar called to the family as they approached. Grian waved politely, and he briefly leaned down to offer Linnie a high five.

One of the moms straightened up to address the heroes with a relieved smile. "I-we-I can't thank you both enough." She stammered a little.

Beside her, the other mom shook her head. "We went into the store for five minutes, the kids wanted to wait in the car. We-ah. We should have known it was a bad idea." The mother seemed to scold herself slightly.

"Not to worry at all." Scar deflected effortlessly with a wave of his hand.

"Besides," Grian continued next to Scar, "Kieran and Linnie were very brave. Practically little superheroes themselves!" He smiled down to the siblings.

"Are we all okay, nothing hurts at all?" Scar checked again, as he looked between the children, to the mothers.

"Just a few scrapes and bruises, but nothing more." One of the moms nodded.

"Thanks to you." The other mom added bashfully.

Just then, Kieran shook his head, and his expression fell. "I was s'possed to keep Linnie safe." He stated sadly, as if the sinkhole was his fault.

"Oh, sweetheart," One of his moms crouched down to reassure the boy, "none of this was your fault." She stated firmly. "You did nothing wrong."

Scar shook his head fondly. "You should have seen how much Kieran was protecting Linnie." He added on to the reassurance.

"We're so proud of you." The other mom stated down to her son. "Both of you." She nodded to Linnie happily as well.

There was a moment of silence as the family re-situated themselves, and both children stared up at the heroes in silent fascination for a minute.

"Now, we should probably be returning those cool glasses and the mask." One of the mothers spoke up again.

Linnie began to take off her Hotguy glasses, before Scar spoke.

"No, no." The taller hero waved charismatically again. "Please, Cuteguy, wouldn't you agree that these brave kids *more* than deserve our masks?"

"Oh, a hundred percent." Grian confirmed from beside Scar. "Please keep them!"

Linnie let out an excited cheer from where her mom held her hand at her side. "Thank you, thank you!" The little girl exclaimed.

"Thank you." Kieran repeated, much more subdued, but still smiling gleefully. He took off his Cuteguy mask for a moment to examine it with wonder.

"A-again." One of the sibling's mothers spoke up, "we can't say how much we appreciate this. Thank you so much, Hotguy, Cuteguy." She nodded to each hero.

"All in a day's work." Scar stated grandly.

The two heroes sent the family some fond salutes and waves as they began to walk off, and Grian and Scar smiled at each other.

It was always incredibly rewarding to save anyone. Saving children in such an adorable family like this?

Seeing them safe and sound, happy as can be, was the reason many heroes started in the first place.

After assessing the rest of the scene and deeming it safe for cleanup and re-construction, the two heroes set out for the evening; another mission well done.

__

Weeks after the sinkhole incident, Scar and Grian were out with a few other heroes and staff members from the hero tower on a much needed day off.

The group had chosen to go to a local theme park that had opened up seasonally. It was a beautiful summer day, and all of the heroes couldn't have been more excited.

Scar and Grian, amongst the rest of the heroes, were all fully dressed and blending in as civilians.

Grian had his wings tucked as comfortably as possible under his signature large red sweater, and Scar chose to go with his cane, opting to go without his mech bracers or wheelchair for the day.

The two heroes were currently crushing any previous high score of a carnival game where they had to aim some beanbags to knock down a set of pins.

In the neighbouring stall of the game, a group of teenagers watched on in awe at Scar's accuracy. Another teen stepped up to challenge him, but they only managed to make one pin wobble slightly with their throw.

Scar chuckled, and Grian held his stomach as he laughed behind him.

Another win against an unsuspecting group of teenagers.

Grian sighed mirthfully as the duo finally turned away from the game. They began to wander again in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the hero group.

As they walked together, they came up on a more densely crowded area. The two heroes maneuvered through the people, and Grian spotted the rest of their hero friends in the distance.

Because of this, neither Scar nor Grian noticed the wide, staring eyes of Linnie, the girl that they had saved from the sinkhole a few weeks back.

The girl had paused in her steps when she spotted the heroes in disguise. She realized with a shock of amazement, that she and Kieran were probably the only ones who knew who they were here.

The girl stared at the heroes for a moment as they passed by, before she regained her focus and ran to catch up with her brother and moms.

The kids had, of course, told their moms that they had learned *a few things* about the heroes. This had prompted a discussion about keeping secrets, when they were good and important ones like this.

Linnie knew that she couldn't just yell out to everyone at the carnival that the awesome, famous superheroes were here.

That didn't mean that she couldn't still get excited about it herself.

__

A few more games and rides later, and Scar, Grian, Gem, and Pearl had decided to get in line for the massive ferris wheel.

It just so happened that Kieran, Linnie, and their family were directly behind the heroes in that line.

This time, neither group noticed.

The group of heroes chattered happily amongst themselves in line, and Linnie and Kieran stood gawking at the sheer size of the ferris wheel as they moved ever closer to the front of the line.

Once the heroes finally reached the front, they were directed by a carnival worker onto a large, shared car of the ferris wheel.

Kieran, Linnie, and their two moms were directed onto the same car, and the family sat directly across from the heroes.

Still, neither child took notice of the heroes in front of them; recognizable only to the siblings.

Scar and Grian sat distracted by the window of the ferris wheel car as the ride began to move.

Gem and Pearl chatted and remarked at the height as their car moved higher, and Scar looked over as Grian teased them subtly.

"This is high for you?" Grian chuckled towards the two other heroes.

As the group laughed lightly together, Scar leaned forwards and glanced around the rest of their car.

That was when he finally spotted the familiar family sitting across from them.

Scar breathed in a quiet gasp, and he elbowed Grian to get his attention. Grian looked over to complain, but before he could, Scar motioned towards the family subtly.

Grian's eyes widened as well, and he rapidly turned his face back towards the window in an effort to not be noticed.

Scar likewise turned his face away, but a moment too late.

Feeling their stares, Linnie had turned back around from where she had been encapsulated by the views from the window.

Scar and Grian pretended to be extremely interested in the view themselves, but they knew that they had been spotted.

Linnie sat staring at the two heroes for a moment, and the girl began to smile lightly.

She got one of her mother's attention, and she leaned to whisper in her ear.

"That's the superheroes!" Scar thought he heard from the whispering pair. He, nor Grian, didn't dare to take their eyes away from the window; despite knowing that their cover was likely blown already.

The two heroes felt an additional pair of eyes studying them for a moment.

Meanwhile, Linnie had reached over to tap her brother on the shoulder. As subtly as a child could, she pointed over towards Grian and Scar across from them.

Kieran's eyes widened as he too, studied the heroes' partially turned away faces.

Gem and Pearl didn't seem to notice as Grian and Scar looked anywhere except for directly at the now staring family in front of them.

"We saw their faces, mama." Scar heard Kieran whisper to his other mom.

"Okay, okay." The mother whispered back. Both moms rapidly shushed their kids, and there was a moment of quieter whispering that Scar couldn't make out.

But after a moment, Kieran and Linnie turned back towards the window as if they hadn't just noticed the two superheroes in front of them.

Clearly, their moms had seen that the heroes seemed a bit uncomfortable at having their cover blown. Luckily, Kieran and Linnie were good kids. They could understand when to let a topic go.

For the next few minutes of the ride, things calmed significantly.

The car was quiet as both heroes and family took in the view of the carnival and the landscape beyond it.

It was still mid-summer, and everything was beautifully, vibrantly green.

That, along with the sun hitting the grass and the leaves to create several warming, lovely shades.

The crowds walking in the aisles of the carnival looked like they were ants moving on a tiny conveyor belt, and the vibrant colours of every attraction made the view look busy and exciting in the best way.

Amongst the quiet, Grian and Scar let themselves relax.

This truly was a nice day off. This carnival was a limited event every summer, and it had certainly been a while since any of them had gotten the chance to go.

That, along with the fun and mischief that came with absolutely crushing every carnival game. The perks of being a superhero.

In the last minute of the ride, one of the sibling's moms finally spoke.

"Thank you again." The mother stated simply.

Scar and Grian both turned to look fully at her this time, and they found that all other eyes in the ferris wheel car had also followed.

Beside her, the woman's wife seemed to lightheartedly scold her quietly.

Linnie smiled wider than ever, taking this as her cue. "Thank you, Grian and Scar!" She waved enthusiastically at the pair.

Gem and Pearl just looked between the girl and the hero duo with wide eyes.

The moms eyes had both widened as well, and they looked both embarrassed and horrified.

Before either parent could speak to Linnie, Scar chuckled.

"I hope you like your glasses, Linnie!" Scar addressed the girl with a cheeky wink.

Grian scoffed fondly from beside Scar, and he seemed to give in after a moment too. "And your mask, Kieran." He stated fondly.

"Hey, hey." One of the moms began to get her children's attention. "What did we say about keeping the superheroes a secret?"

The children seemed to mutter amongst themselves for a moment. Scar and Grian watched on with amusement, and Gem sent Grian a shocked, questioning look. Grian just responded with a shrug.

"Okay, yes." The other mom continued. "So we're not going to tell anybody about the heroes' names or faces, just like we talked about, right?" She asked firmly, and the kids nodded enthusiastically.

Scar snickered a little more under his breath. "We appreciate that." He confirmed with a thankful nod.

One of the moms signed in slight exasperation. "Now that's that," She began towards Scar and Grian, "seriously, thank you both."

"They have not stopped playing superheroes since they got those masks." Commented the other mom.

This got a laugh out of the entire group.

"Awww!" Scar exclaimed gleefully.

Just as their conversation winded down once again, the ride came to a stop on the ground. A carnival employee opened their door, and both groups filed out of the ferris wheel car happily.

They once again bid the family some fond farewells, and the group of heroes continued about their day at the carnival.

A few more games to end off the evening couldn't hurt, after all.

__

Far too many cheap carnival prizes later, Scar and Grian found themselves at yet another racing game.

Realistically, the entire group of heroes had won too many prizes on their day out to ever store or keep in a neat way.

It just so happened that after outings like this, many shelters across the city also received rather large donations of brand new carnival toys from the hero tower.

Just as Scar stationed his cane to sit at the game's booth next to Grian, two children ran up to the two remaining booths.

Scar and Grian both watched as the kids climbed up onto the stools to play, and the heroes shared a brief smirk.

The game's lights began to flash and countdown music played.

"Hi Kieran, hi Linnie!" Grian spoke excitedly.

Both children’s heads snapped over to the side to stare at the heroes. They gasped; starstruck at yet another encounter with the two heroes in disguise next to them.

Neither sibling had noticed their competition, apparently.

Linnie began to smile wildly, and Kieran giggled, still a bit shy.

Finally, a *ding* rang out from the game's speakers.

"You're on!" Scar challenged the siblings with a wink.

And the game began.

The two children focused intensely on the game, both with gleeful smiles; determined to beat the superheroes.

Grian and Scar however, glanced towards each other to share another smirk.

It was one thing to accurately hit the targets on rigged carnival games like these. It was quite another, to intentionally miss the targets completely.

Kieran's counter was indicating a clear lead, and Linnie was only a few points behind him.

Scar was acting like he was missing by accident, and he would let out a dramatic groan with every missed shot.

Grian, meanwhile, was calmly and quite obviously aiming his gun anywhere but the targets; all while sporting a mischievous smile.

During the game, the children's moms had caught up and were watching behind the competing group with amused, knowing smiles.

A final ring sounded out, and the game was over. Kieran had come in first, with Linnie in second.

Scar had come in third with only a few points, and somehow, Grian had scored a whopping zero. He turned to stand from his stool with a playful glint in his eye.

Scar grabbed his cane and moved to stand as well, and the two heroes watched as Kieran and Linnie chose their prizes.

The two children stepped back with their prizes in hand, and Scar and Grian walked up to join them with the moms.

"Good game, you two!" Scar cheered as they approached the family.

"I told you! Practically superheroes, the both of you. We never stood a chance." Grian added with an amused shake of his head.

"Look what I got!" Linnie held up her prize, a small dolphin plushie with iridescent fins.

Scar leaned down on his cane a little to take a look. "Wow!" He commented fondly. "Congratulations!"

Behind his sister, Kieran stood quietly, seemingly deep in thought.

Linnie stepped back to rejoin her family, and the heroes prepared to say goodbye once again.

But before anyone could speak, Kieran looked up to Grian with a determined expression. The boy stepped towards him.

Wordlessly, Kieran held out his prize to Grian. A small snail plushie with a curly shell and a cute smirk.

Grian leaned down to take a look as well. "Very cute, buddy!" The avian commented. "Good choice!"

Kieran nodded, and held the snail up closer to Grian. Confused, Grian held out his hand to support it.

Kieran placed the snail in Grian's hand. "For you." He mumbled, and the boy stepped back with a bashful smile.

Grian let out a small gasp and stared at the plushie in his hand with a gape.

Kieran moved back to join his moms before Grian could say anything. One mother patted the boy's head fondly, and the other had a hand over her mouth with a wistful expression.

Linnie stared at her brother for a moment, and then she glanced back down towards the dolphin plushie in her hands.

Only a moment after Kirean had returned, Linnie bounded towards Scar and held her dolphin out towards him.

Scar, who had been watching Grian and Kieran with a tender smile, finally snapped his gaze down to the girl in front of him with wide eyes.

Linnie smiled widely up to him. "Dolphin for you!" She exclaimed as she held the plushie out to him over the top of her head.

Tentatively, Scar held a hand out, and she gave him the small plushie. He furrowed his brows as his shocked expression mirrored Grian's.

"Th-thank you!" Grian finally exclaimed with a shocked smile as Linnie skipped back to her parents.

The avian held the snail plushie close, and he looked down at it with a chuckle.

Scar held his new dolphin plushie to chest with his elbow. He reached up to wipe his eyes while he used his other hand to lean on his cane.

The taller hero glanced down at the little toy held against him, and he chuckled silently. "Oh gosh." Scar sighed with misty eyes, although he smiled wider than ever. "Thank you so much, Linnie." He muttered sincerely.

Grian kneeled down a few steps away from both children, and Scar stepped closer after a moment as well.

Now on the sibling's level, Grian held his snail plushie close to himself. "Seriously, thank you both. That was very sweet." The winged hero said, as he glanced back down to the snail.

Scar nodded from above Grian. "We'll both take very good care of them." He added lowly, with his own soft smile.

Grian stood back up and glanced at the dolphin held in Scar's hand. "Every time we see these guys, we'll definitely think of how cool you two are."

Scar collected himself a bit more as he nodded in agreement.

"Yes!" Linnie cheered. "We think of how cool we are too, when we play superheroes with the masks." The girl commented, matter-of-factly.

This earned a full laugh from both mothers, as well as Scar and Grian.

"That's perfect, Linnie!" Scar responded, still chuckling. He offered the girl a quick high five.

One of the moms sighed happily. "We better start heading out soon." She spoke as she glanced at the darkening sky.

The kids voiced their disappointment for a moment, and Scar and Grian had to hold back another laugh.

"Hey," Scar began, "good superheroes need their rest, now, don't we?" He asked with a cheeky wink.

"Yeah..." Kieran responded quietly, with his head hung low.

"C'mon, you two. Let's say goodbye to our friends." The other mom beckoned her children.

Linnie began to wave first. "Bye Scar, bye Grian!" She exclaimed happily.

Kieran smiled slightly as well. "Bye." He waved simply.

Both moms waved as well as they took their children's hands and began to walk towards the exit of the carnival.

"Bye guys!" Grian waved back warmly.

"Thank you again!" Scar waved with his dolphin plushie in the air as well.

As the family moved out of vision, the two heroes turned to each other, both glancing at their new plushies.

"Dude, that was the sweetest thing ever." Scar commented with another amazed expression.

"I know!" Grian confirmed enthusiastically, with a hand to his face.

Scar hugged his dolphin plushie close as they once again met up with the rest of the hero group. Soon, they too, began to head home for the night.

__

Following the heroes' outing to the carnival, many shelters did indeed get large donations of carnival prizes from the hero tower, as well as some extra supplies and treats added on.

But two particular plushies remained in the rooms of Hotguy and Cuteguy, respectively.

On Grian's desk in his apartment in the hero tower, sat the snail plushie given to him by Kieran.

And on a shelf in Scar's apartment, sat the dolphin plushie from Linnie.

Each plushie provided a heartwarming reminder of a rescue gone well, and of two children who were as brave as heroes.

__

Meanwhile, in a suburban backyard across the city, two siblings ran around and played.

Linnie hung upside down from a slightly tattered swing set, with her Hotguy glasses sitting upside down on her face.

Kieran, with his Cuteguy mask on, giggled as he jumped up to try and reach her. The boy pretended to fly with his elbows, but he would free up a hand to try and bat at his sister whenever he jumped.

Although hidden behind her glasses, Linnie smirked with a mischievous glint.

The girl suddenly jumped down from her spot on the swing set, and she began to run away from her brother across the backyard.

Kieran exclaimed out gleefully as he moved to chase, and the two children continued to play into the afternoon.

As they grew older, perhaps those Hotguy and Cuteguy masks would become fond memorabilia, rather than toys.

But for now, there were two safe children who would continue to play and learn to be brave, because of their new favorite heroes.

________

Chapter Text

________

A horde of wither skeletons invaded the city late one night.

Scar, as Hotguy, was providing ground coverage. He shot at the endless waves precisely.

Grian, flying as Cuteguy in the skies above, was surveying the scope of the danger. He shot with his pistols as he did, to thin out the horde as much as possible.

Just as he finished off another cluster of skeletons, Grian spotted a newly spawned, much larger swarm of mobs.

"Scar," Grian spoke urgently into the comm attached to his ear. "New spawn in the alley to your left!"

From above the buildings, Grian saw Scar stood only a little distance away from said alley. The hero was directing a few fleeing civilians, and was momentarily distracted.

The mobs were beginning to filter out the alleyway.

As the last civilians moved away, Grian saw the taller hero make a beeline over to the new danger, out of sight from the avian hero in the sky.

Grian began to dive down to assist without hesitation.

"OH!" Grian heard Scar exclaim in alarm into his own comm only a moment later. "No, no!"

Grian moved into a full nosedive to desperately pick up his speed.

"No!" Came Scar's voice through the comm again. "Creepers, GRIAN!-"

And Hotguy's comm cut off.

There was an explosion from the ground below.

Right where Grian had seen Scar run towards moments ago.

__

Scar was providing a calm, protective presence against the sudden onslaught of dangerous mobs in the city. He shot with his custom Hotguy bow, keeping the monsters at bay.

A few evacuating civilians ran, panicked, and Scar directed them as they did.

Near an alleyway, he finished directing an old man off to some emergency workers down the street, when his comm picked up.

"Scar, new spawn in the alley to your left!" He heard Grian's alarmed voice in his comm's earpiece.

Without hesitation, Scar ran into the entrance of the alleyway.

The taller hero was met with a ludicrous amount of wither skeletons, with a few regular skeletons mixed in.

Okay, a bit of a curveball. Nothing Hotguy couldn't handle.

He nocked an arrow, and he took out a few skeletons as he moved back strategically in the alleyway.

Arrows whizzed past his head. What the decaying monsters lacked in any real accuracy, they made up for in numbers.

One lucky shot from a skeleton embedded itself in the brick wall behind Scar, much too close for comfort to his shoulder pad.

"OH!" Scar let out a momentary scream. He glanced at the arrow sticking straight out of the wall to his side, near the wire of his earpiece. It was enough of a pause for the mobs to advance towards him further.

"No, no!" Scar exclaimed in brief surprise. The hero moved quickly to recover.

He nocked arrow after arrow, and he took out the majority of the skeletons in the current horde in quick succession.

In just a couple of seconds, the group of mobs was no more. The hero breathed a momentary sigh of relief.

Out of the alleyway, Scar spotted one more mob horde that consisted mostly of creepers. They were scuttling aimlessly out of the alley and into the main street.

Scar took only one more quick moment to breathe, out of sight from the creepers. He glanced upwards, and opened his mouth to comm Grian to report back.

But the hero's face fell when Scar saw his sidekick nosediving out of the air, seemingly in an uncontrolled freefall.

Grian looked like he was headed right towards the last group of creepers in the street.

"No!" Scar yelled into his comm instead, and he began to run full force towards the creepers, and towards Grian's likely landing spot as he rapidly fell.

"Creepers, GRIAN!" Scar shouted as he neared the mobs, and one of the first creepers began to flash dangerously.

Without thinking, Scar punched the creeper in its face.

In the violent chaos, Scar's earpiece, which had been loosened by the stray arrow earlier, fell out of his ear.

And the creature stumbled back slightly before it exploded directly next to Scar.

Scar stumbled backwards and covered his face at the force of the explosion.

The hero was hit with a few small cement fragments. Although he was protected by the brunt of the explosion due to his armor, there were still a few painful moments of scrapes and burns from such close proximity to the explosion.

In the aftermath, there was a brief silence.

Before there was another familiar hiss of a creeper ignition. And then another, and then many more.

Scar lifted his head in alarm as all of the remaining creepers flashed in a chain reaction from the initial explosion.

Scar barely had a second to register Grian's rough landing right in the centre of the creepers, before a massive blast threw them away from each other.

Both heroes were thrown back in opposite directions when the remaining creepers exploded violently.

__

From his spot on the ground, Scar lifted his head hesitantly. He blinked a few times to register the new, large hole in the concrete just a few meters away from where he landed on the ground.

The hero quickly stood, and found himself scraped, burned, and sore, but otherwise uninjured.

Grian.

With his breathing quickening, Scar ran towards the crater without a second thought.

There was certainly a good amount of mangled destruction. Wither skeleton bones, gunpowder, and arrows littered the ground around and inside the new crater.

And while Scar had been a little further back, still reeling from the first explosion, Grian had landed right in the middle of the second one.

"Gri-" Scar breathed as he looked around, "Cuteguy?!" He called out urgently.

Scar glanced quickly towards the dark skies, and back to the destroyed street below.

There was no sign of Grian.

__

The explosion was earsplitting.

The silence afterwards was worse.

Before the explosion, Grian had landed hard and rather ungracefully on the pavement right in the centre of the group of mobs.

His plan was to drop in to distract the monsters. Get their attention off of Scar for a moment so that they could both fall back and defeat them from afar.

But the chain reaction had already begun, and now Grian was in the middle of it.

And the avian was thrown violently backwards.

His armour protected him from the majority of the blast, but it was up to him to regain control of his trajectory.

Grian flared his wings out instinctively, and he began to move them against the force of the explosion.

In a split second, Grian reached out to grab hold of a low fire escape on the side of a building. His shoulder pulled, and there was a flash of pain.

Still, he beat his wings to slow himself, and Grian finally came to a safe stop.

The avian hero just hung from the bottom of the fire escape by one arm for a moment.

He gently knocked his head on the base of the metal grate, rested, and breathed.

Finally, Grian let go of his hold on the fire escape bars. He flew himself the short distance back down to the ground.

On a far corner of the street, Grian bent to put his hands on his knees in exhaustion; mind reeling.

This could have gone much, much worse.

His ears were ringing, his body and wings were incredibly sore, and he was burned and bruised all over.

The silence was somehow, still worse.

Scar.

Grian had landed as roughly as he did to help Scar.

Grian had no idea if Scar was okay. If he had been injured from the first explosion? If he had been thrown as well?

Grian ran a hand over his head in worry, and he took to the skies.

__

Scar stared down into the crater with glazed over eyes for a moment, as if Grian would reappear.

With a hand on his head, Scar shook himself and began to glance around wildly again. He put a hand to his ear, and groaned in panicked frustration when he found his comm missing.

"Cuteguy?!?" Scar spun around urgently as he shouted.

"Gah- Screw it." He muttered, "Grian?!?" Scar's voice cracked as he called out desperately.

Scar took a few breaths as he continued to look around in the illuminated streets.

He, Hotguy, was alright. The civilians were alright. The city would be alright.

He just had to make sure Cuteguy, Grian was alright.

With new, desperate determination, Scar ran off towards a street corner to try and find the avian.

The last he saw him, Grian had been uncharacteristically nosediving straight out of the sky. Perhaps he had been hit by an arrow in the air, maybe there was a mob on a rooftop that got a lucky shot?

Regardless, the avian had quite clearly landed much too close to the creepers as they exploded.

Grian might have been injured. And Scar needed to be there to help him.

__

Grian moved into panicked, determined action as he flew.

The last he knew, Scar had called out about the creepers, and then his comm cut.

The avian had not seen or heard from his counterpart since.

Not since there was a massive explosion at his last known location.

With his mind racing, Grian moved in a dash back towards the crater.

He just had to find Scar. To make sure his friend was okay.

The crater from the explosion came into clearer view as Grian soared towards it.

Nowhere on the surrounding street, nor anywhere in view, was Scar.

Grian landed quickly, and he began to survey the area.

He put his hand to his ear as he moved along; "Scar. Scar? Please come in." He tried, but he was only met with static feedback on the other end.

No sign of his best friend anywhere. Grian fought to control his panic.

He instead once again launched himself to the night skies to get an aerial view.

__

In a full on sprint through the streets, Scar's head whipped around wildly as he called out for Grian.

His bracers whirred, and his body ached from the earlier fight and explosions. Scar paid them no mind.

Scar paused for only a moment to catch his breath.

"Grian?!" Scar called, his voice becoming increasingly distressed. "Gr-ah-C-Cub??" The hero stammered as he grasped for any form of contact; but he found no options without his communicator.

He spun around and ran a hand through his hair, and he looked up to the dark sky again, breathing heavily.

He knew he was panicking. But who was around to witness?

Scar knew that the sooner he could find Grian, the sooner they could both regain some sense of normalcy.

Any injuries, any emotions, could be dealt with after the fact.

And so Scar took off running again.

__

Grian was approaching the five minute mark of surveying the skies, still with no sign of Scar.

The avian hero had started high, and he had since moved to soar low between the buildings of the city to get a better view of the streets below.

Early on, Grian had also contacted Cub with his comm. Distressingly, their manager had reported back that he had no sign of the taller hero.

Cub's attempted reassurances had caused Grian to take a pause on the rooftop of a building to briefly collect himself.

Rather unfortunately, the resulting effect was quite the opposite.

Sat on the edge of a high-rise rooftop, Grian never stopped scanning the streets below for any sign of his superhero counterpart.

All the while, his panicked breathing only quickened. The avian's vision blurred momentarily, and he swiped a frustrated hand over his face.

There was no time for this, Grian thought as he furrowed his brows. He needed his full focus.

The initial crater was visible from here, and Grian knew roughly where Scar was before the explosion that displaced both heroes to begin with.

Scar couldn't have landed far if he was thrown from the explosion.

So then, where had he gone?

Grian had to put his head in his hands and breathe for a long minute.

The night was still, and the city was eerily quiet with the surrounding areas evacuated.

Once he found Scar, they could go home and calm down properly.

Grian stood from his seat on the edge of the building, and with a swoop of his wings, he made for the ground.

No more flying, Grian thought. Scar was down there somewhere, and Grian needed to find him.

__

Scar turned another street corner, and was met with a small group of zombies, creepers, with a few more skeletons mixed in.

With an annoyed groan, Scar took his bow off of his back.

Almost thoughtlessly, the hero nocked arrow after arrow to take out the monsters. He spun as the mobs attempted to flank his back, and every shot met its mark.

The creatures went down like nothing, and the street was clear once again after less than a minute.

Who knew fighting mobs was so easy when distracted by something so much more distressing?

Curiously, as Scar approached the end of the street that the mobs were on previously, a faint cheer rang out.

As the hero turned the corner onto a larger, main street of the city, he was momentarily blinded by a plethora of work lights and spotlights of all kinds.

Scar had to squint to adjust his vision through his Hotguy glasses for a moment.

A little further down one side of the street stood a line of caution tape; with emergency workers, cleanup crews, reporters, and civilians beyond that.

Under normal circumstances, Scar would be happy to go up and do a few on-the-spot interviews with the reporters, now clearly calling out his superhero persona's name.

But tonight, Scar stood frozen, silhouetted against the dark streets to his back.

These reporters, broadcasting to the world, had no idea how scared he felt in this moment.

And how could they? His face was well and truly hidden behind his Hotguy visor.

To them, Hotguy was nothing more than a smooth, public oriented figurehead who defeated the things they feared.

Superheroes don't panic, don't get scared, don't feel negative emotions; after all.

Not in public. Not for the world to see.

But his best friend, Grian, Cuteguy, was missing after a violent explosion, and Scar had no way of knowing if he was okay.

Scar took a few steps back, staring into the spotlights like a deer in the headlights.

Before he paused.

They were broadcasting to the world.

Scar, Hotguy, was worn from battle. He was sweaty, and panicking, and the hero was sure his face was a mess.

But Scar only needed to find Grian. Everything else could come later.

And if anyone could help him, it might just be a few thousand *eyes in the sky* so to speak.

Slowly unfreezing, Scar began to pace decidedly towards the clamouring civilians and reporters from beyond the barriers.

"Hotguy, Hotguy!" Several voices exclaimed. "Hotguy, are you okay?" Came another voice.

"Hotguy, have all the mobs been defeated, is the city safe?" A reporter's voice stood out from above the noise.

"What?" Came Scar's instinctive initial reply. This wasn't where his mind was focused on at all. Yes, of course the city was safe. No, that wasn't his priority at the moment.

"Uh, y-yes." Scar shook his head and cleared his throat in response a moment later. "Listen, has anyone seen Cuteguy?" Scar projected his voice above the crowd.

In response, the crowd quieted almost completely. Several civilians and reporters glanced around at each other for a moment, some sharing tentative shrugs.

Scar sighed, and put a hand to his face for a moment. He reached under his Hotguy glasses to swipe at his eyes.

This was clearly a waste of valuable searching time.

"Okay, alright." Scar projected his voice again a moment later. "I-if anyone sees Cuteguy, just, uhm, try to let me know, okay?" Scar spoke, and his voice faltered slightly at the end of his sentence.

Scar thought he was losing it, he was sure. Being so *unlike Hotguy* in front of reporters, of all things.

But it was now nearing fifteen minutes since he had last been in contact with Grian. In his exhausted, panicked state, who could blame him?

"A-are you okay, Hotguy?" The reporter's voice from earlier repeated. "Is Cuteguy okay?" They asked gently into their microphone.

"I-I don't-" Scar spoke shakily, losing a lot of his typical hero charm. He sighed, and began again. "There was an explosion, and I-I just can't find-"

Scar was cut off in his explanation.

Someone in the crowd suddenly pointed out into the street behind him. "There!" They exclaimed.

Several heads snapped over to the direction the civilian pointed at, and many more voices joined in.

In a split second reaction, Scar spun his entire body around.

At the end of the alley that Scar had come out of just minutes before, the distinct outline of an avian stood; wearing a mask, and a familiar superhero outfit.

"Oh- oh my god." Scar breathed out, and he wasted no time in rushing over to the avian.

Grian walked out to the middle of the street to meet the taller hero. "Scar!" He let out, slightly winded, but smiling in dumb relief.

"Grian!" Scar let out a hushed exclamation in return.

As the two heroes came face to face, neither hesitated as they met in the middle with a crushing hug.

Scar closed his eyes, and both heroes, both friends, breathed in relief for a long moment.

Along with them, the world breathed.

Despite the crowd of civilians and reporters beyond the barricade, the street was quiet.

The only lights came from the spotlights set up at the barricades. Great shadows stretched out from either side of the heroes in the centre.

The wind blew lightly, and the city watched on.

"Are you okay?!" Scar whispered lowly after a moment, from within the hug.

From where his head rested on Scar's shoulder, Grian huffed out a dark laugh. "Dude, I should be asking *you* that." He chuckled.

Neither hero spoke for a moment. Scar shook his head and breathed out a sad chuckle, before he spoke lowly again.

“I thought- I thought-“ Scar took in a hitched breath, and he sunk further into Grian’s hold. Instead of finishing his sentence, he simply breathed out and sniffled.

“I did too.” Grian responded simply, and he rested his head further into Scar’s shoulder in turn.

Scar shook and sniffled in Grian’s hug, and Grian breathed out the last of his panic in Scar’s.

The heroes' fearful fifteen minutes had paid off in a happy ending.

With one more minute to relax, the two friends separated.

Grian sighed and put his hands to his eyes for a second. "We need to talk to Cub about some backup communication plans." He shook his head with a dark smile.

"Oh, definitely." Scar responded by wiping his face under his visor with a roll of his eyes.

Grian and Scar took one more look back towards the crowd just out of earshot from beyond the barricade.

With a simple wave and salute, the two friends set off to assess their injuries, relax, and to wind down from another battle won.

__

A well dressed young person sat at a news desk bright and early the next morning, and they began to speak in a cheerful tone.

"Good morning, and welcome.” They began. “Another battle last night, between the well known superheroes Hotguy and Cuteguy, against a horde of dangerous mobs has led to a rather heartwarming conclusion."

"Around eleven PM last night, heroes Hotguy and Cuteguy set out to defeat a number of skeletons, creepers, and more." The newsperson spoke. "There was an explosion on Lazuli street, and reports say, that for about fifteen minutes following, the heroes could not find each other."

A clip overlay began as the newsperson finished their sentence.

A street reporter held a microphone up to a civilian. They both stood next to the crater where the initial creeper explosion occurred; now lit in the morning light.

"Can you tell us what you saw from the heroes last night?" The reporter, nametagged as Emma, asked in a friendly tone.

The civilian, an older man with a warm smile, began to speak. "Hotguy told me where to go." He nodded once as he continued. "Later, I saw him running around yelling for Cuteguy. It was quite worrying!" The man explained.

"Understandably so!" The reporter validated her interviewee. "Now, did you happen to witness the moment that Hotguy and Cuteguy reunited?" She asked back to the old man.

"Oh, yes." The man's gentle smile grew warmer as he recalled. "It was lovely to see, really. Those two superheroes clearly care about each other a great deal." The gentleman commented with a fond smile.

"It seems so!" The reporter nodded back with a gentle smile of her own. "Thank you for your time, sir."

"Well, there you have it folks." The reporter spoke into her microphone as the camera panned to a full view.

"A very heartwarming story for a warm Friday morning. Coming up we'll have traffic, and weather reports back in the studio. Take care, everyone." She signed off with a wave, and the news channel's overlay shifted once again.

The same newsperson sat at their desk back in the studio, and they smiled at the camera for a moment as their prompter caught up with the broadcast.

"A very heartwarming story indeed, Emma!" The newscaster responded. "Many fans and locals have expressed their thoughts and well-wishes to Hotguy and Cuteguy online after clips from last night surfaced."

On cue, a photo faded onto the top of the broadcast overlay. It was a still image of Hotguy and Cuteguy hugging in the centre of the dark, damaged street, illuminated only by the bright white spotlights that lined the barricade.

Over the top of the photo, a caption read, "Sometimes you just need to hug it out." A number of likes, reposts, and comments lined the bottom; indicating the photo's popularity.

The image faded back out to again reveal the newscaster, and their expression warmed.

"A message that we here at the studio agree with wholeheartedly." They continued happily. "Today, try to remember to hug the people you care about, folks."

"Because at the end of the day, sometimes it's nice to just, hug it out."

"More news, weather, and traffic, after this."

________