mondays, amiright?
Chongyun was having a Not Very Fun Time ™ and of course, it was all the Hero Committee's fault. Again.
Currently, the hero known as the ‘Doctor’ was fighting with the villain, Darknight (that was most likely not the villain’s name, but that was what the public called him).
Chongyun had just been trying to finish up the closing shift at Adeptal Peace, the café he worked at, but noooo, they just had to throw hands.
At least it wasn’t rush hour. That would’ve been bad.
The café had been closed twenty minutes ago, Chongyun had been cleaning up and had just locked up when those two came along.
Both the Doctor and Darknight were not very good people to be around when they were fighting due to how dangerous their powers could be. The Doctor could control machinery of different kinds, usually destructive ones, while Darknight could enlace any weapon he used with fire, along with controlling the element itself.
Chongyun had been thinking about the best way to get home without getting hurt by the two powers when all of a sudden, a hand grabbed him. He was brought flat against someone’s chest with a sword at his throat.
Well, fuck.
That wasn’t good.
The one responsible wasn’t Darknight nor the Doctor. It was another villain, Tartaglia. Dang it. This day just got better and better.
“HEY!” Tartaglia yelled, getting the attention of Darknight and the Doctor, “Lay off right now, or he dies.”
The sword then lightly grazed Chongyun’s neck, causing blood to come out. Damn.
Now he was going to have to explain that to his roommates. That wouldn’t be fun.
The Doctor looked irritated, but nevertheless, stopped, as did Darknight.
“Very well.” The Doctor said, anger evident in his voice. Darknight, despite the fact that the upper part of his face was covered, was very clearly glaring at Tartaglia, although he didn’t say anything.
“Good,” Tartaglia said, “Now, you will let us leave, or I’ll cut his throat.”
The Doctor remained where he was while Darknight walked over to Tartaglia and stood behind him. Chongyun then heard a whisper that sounded like Darknight saying, “Now let him go Tartaglia. We will be talking about this later.”
And with that, Chongyun was pushed away. Due to the sudden leverage, he ended up falling to the ground. Once he got up, Darknight and Tartaglia were gone. Now, it was just him and the Doctor. He couldn’t tell whether he was okay with that.
The Doctor scoffed and walked up to him.
“Try not to get in the way again, civilian.” And then he was gone.
The sheer audacity of that man. Acting like it was his fault that he was held hostage.
Chongyun was most certainly going to leave a bad review on Yelp, 0/10 stars, blamed me for being held hostage, do not recommend.
Eventually, he just sighed and resumed walking home.
-
It took him twenty more minutes to get home. Home being a crappy apartment that he and his roommates could barely afford because their Landlord had some vendetta against random teenagers.
He took out his keys and unlocked the door, opening it and walking inside.
He had four roommates. Aether, Barbara, Yoimiya, and Kazuha.
Aether was a waiter at a nearby restaurant (Wanmin Restaurant, he was pretty sure it was called), Yoimiya was a freelance artist, Kazuha was a writer, and Barbara helped out at the local church. All of this plus Chongyun’s salary from Adeptal Peace led up to them barely being able to pay their rent.
Aether’s pay from Wanmin Restaurant went completely to food, water, whatever, while everything else went to rent.
Despite how talented she was, Yoimiya couldn’t bring in as much money as they would’ve liked and it was the same with Kazuha. Barbara did work at the church, yes, but she was a minor, only being fifteen. They didn’t pay her very much at all, but it was the only job she could get.
Yoimiya and Kazuha were sixteen, so they could do more things for more pay, while Aether and Chongyun had both turned seventeen that year and had more stable jobs, so they were the main suppliers of money.
However, recently Yoimiya and Kazuha were searching for other, higher paying, jobs as they believed they were not contributing enough. Until then, they remained doing what they did.
Finances were a mess, money was a struggle, and being minors did not help but even then, they were together and as long as that remained, Chongyun was pretty okay with his life.
He walked into the apartment and saw all of his roommates waiting in the main room, sitting on the cheap couch they had found at a garage sale. All of them looked up when he entered.
“Chongyun! You’re back!” Yoimiya said, to which Kazuha said, “We heard about the sighting of Darknight and the Doctor being near Adept-” He froze.
Aether piped up, face creasing in concern, “Is that blood?” Barbara leaped up and ran over, “Blood?? Where did that come from?? What happened to your neck???” She said frantically, already beginning to heal it with her power.
Well, this was going to be fun to explain.
“Ha ha, funny story, really,” He said, “But that sighting of Darknight and the Doctor? Yeah, so that’s a bit incorrect because Tartaglia was there too and he may or may not have…” He paused before saying rapidly, “Hejustmight’vetakenmehostage.”
Aether’s eyes widened almost comically, Kazuha and Yoimiya stood there in shock, and Barbara stared.
“What.” She said.
And- yeah. Understandable.
-
Darknight and Tartaglia had just made it back to base when Darknight took off his mask and turned to Tartaglia.
“Ajax, what the hell was that??” He said, glaring. Ajax took his mask off and raised his hands in a placating manner, turning to his husband, “Don’t worry Diluc, I wasn’t going to hurt him, I promise. I was just making sure that the Doctor would leave us alone.”
Diluc scowled, “We don’t take teenagers hostage. An adult, okay, but a teenager?? Really??”
“I was in a bit of a rush…”
Diluc glared for a few moments longer before sighing, “Fine. I’m too tired to deal with this. Just, don’t do it again.”
“Don’t you worry, dear husband,” Ajax said, voice upbeat, “I swear on my honor as the villain Tartaglia, I will never take another teenager hostage for as long as I live!”
“I will be holding you to that.” Diluc said. Then, the door opened and out walked Lisa, or the Violet Rose.
“Now, now, dear Diluc,” She said, “Whatever did Ajax do to upset you in such a way?”
“He took a teenager hostage and threatened to kill him,” Diluc said without hesitation. Ajax put his hand on his chest in mock-offense. “Yeah, sure, just rat me out to the first person you see.” He said.
“Did he now?” Lisa said, “Well then, we might just have to bring this up with Jean.”
“Wha- I panicked okay??” Ajax said, “The Doctor was getting the upper hand and I was stressing out!”
“Don’t worry so much, Ajax.” Lisa said, clearly finding this funny, “Diluc and I will not say a word to Jean. Isn’t that right, Diluc?”
“Fine.” Diluc said, sounding reluctant despite the fact he was not intending on informing Jean whatsoever. He could understand panicking and acting rashly, he was just a bit annoyed about it being a teenager.
“Good.” She said, “Now speaking of Jean, we’re having an inopportune meeting in an hour. Be there or…”
That was enough of a threat for both Diluc and Ajax to nod instantly, the latter a bit more than the former.
Lisa smiled, “Well then, that’s all I needed to say. See you boys soon.”
And she left.
They were silent, and then,
“She still scares the shit out of me.” Ajax said.