Chapter Text
Chase would be lying if he said he understood what the fuck Robert saw in Flambae.
When the kid and the walking fire hazard had first started dating, Chase had begrudgingly accepted it as fact. He didn’t like Flambae a whole lot, he didn’t really like any of the somewhat-redeemed assholes that made up the Z-team, but the whole shit-show that went down with Visi during the Shroud fiasco had taught the speedster the importance of holding his tongue and picking his battles.
That, and he realized that part of the mutual animosity between them stemmed from himself not really bothering to get to know them, or treat them as people. He was man enough to recognize his own faults and to work on that –especially since it did seem like the budding relationship had a largely positive impact on Robert’s life.
The home cooked meals were a big point in Flambae’s favor.
Robert wasn’t exactly averse to self-care, he was just always moving forward, there was just always so much to do and he had to go at it alone for so long that he had probably simply forgotten what it was like, to have a support system that afforded him the time to eat properly.
Still, a basic adult skill and act of thoughtfulness wasn’t a personality, and Chad’s personality was… an acquired taste, at best.
How Robert could put up with the arrogant, insufferable, self-important attitude was a mystery to Chase –normally, he’d shut that shit up in two seconds flat, and yet…
«Careful today, Bob-Bob. Don’t wanna have to carry your ass. Again. »
«Yes, yes; I’d be lost without you. You gonna do your job, now? »
Granted, the sass was there in full force and Robert clearly didn’t take any of the firecracker’s shit, but that was a mild response at best. Possibly buoyant on the good humor of being one of Robert’s field days as Mecha Man.
“Alright chucklefucks, stop flirting over comms and lock the fuck in!” he called out, pinging them in on the incoming call. “Building collapse in the southern quadrant, flagged as high risk for electrical fires. Don’t make me regret putting the two of you together for this!”
The admonishment was mostly for show –aside from a couple embarrassing quips, the both of them had been professional enough on the field, save for the one very public kiss when they got Rapture and Flambae almost had to self-immolate to prevent civilians from burning. Even then, they navigated the media storm easily enough, especially with SDN at their back. Still, that didn’t mean Chase wanted to hear them be mushy at each other over comms.
Robert took point in evacuating people from the building and helping first responders shift debris safely to extract any injured, while Flambae zipped through the gutted remains of the structure to snuff out any potential fires into himself and check for survivors he’d be able to reach faster than a giant ass robot.
Since Shroud, Chase had seen genuine progress from what everyone thought was a team of fuck-ups, but sometimes it was still surreal to see –especially Flambae, who got his goofy ass kicked by Robert in two separate occasions, had a tendency to throw huge, fire-fueled temper tantrums and generally had a history of making an ass out of himself. Another reason why the relationship baffled Chase so much: Robert didn’t suffer fools gladly, and he sure as shit wouldn’t date one.
Then again… here they were, working in perfect synergy while Robert handled the big stuff on ground level while his fire-hazard boyfriend worked his way to checking smaller spaces for survivors top to bottom.
Swift, efficient, not one movement wasted.
«Check-in, Blue, I’m down to basement one. Something’s off. »
Chase smirked to himself –any iteration of ‘Mecha Man’ that didn’t include ‘bitch’ or ‘dick’ sounded just wrong on Flambae’s mouth, and he had eventually landed on Blue for something non-insulting and non-revealing to call Robert while they were deployed… naturally, Robert had loved it and started calling his boyfriend ‘Red’ in return.
«What kind of off, Red? Give me something. »
Chase had to admit, it was pretty cute.
«I think burglary gone wrong. It looks like a tunnel— »
The sudden crunch of concrete, followed by the sounds of a fight proved Flambae right pretty quickly.
“Fuck! I can’t get eyes in there, electrics are shot, what’s happening?”
«I think— fuck, get off me, you bitch! » talking while fighting was not the easiest, but the firecracker tried, «They tried to excavate a way in and it collapsed on them, this one fucker looks like he can move rocks with his mind— »
Chase was already browsing through a list of known villains with earth manipulation powers, suddenly glad he indulged the kid by sending him with his boyfriend instead of picking Golem, who could have been compromised by now.
«Hang tight, Red, civilians are all clear, I’m coming to you! »
Things were messy after that.
When Chase finally found a camera that wasn’t broken, down in the parking garage, the fight was well underway. It was a shit angle, but he could see two out of three perps still engaging Flambae, and the discount earth-bender clocking Robert as the bigger threat –he was sure Flambae was gonna be offended, once he wasn’t scared to shit watching his boyfriend get absolutely pelted with rubble until it buried the fucking suit.
Chase could relate to that fear.
After that, it was over quickly –with a choked off scream, Flambae seemingly took the kid gloves off and started snapping wrist bones and giving out second-degree burns. The two non-powered burglars lost the will to fight real quick after that, leaving the firecracker free to turn onto the remaining metahuman.
Cement projectiles clearly lost some of their effectiveness once Flambae heated up their environment enough that the debris reached breakdown temperature, and their perp was capture via a heated piece of rebar pretzeled around their body and a burning hand over their mouth muffling the ensuing scream.
«Be glad I’m contractually obligated not to do any worse to you, bitch. » The likely burn all over the perp’s face was already a smidge too far, but Chase would overlook it, this once. «Dispatch, send the cavalry down here to collect the douchebags, I’m getting Blue. »
It took an excruciating few minutes and a lot of cursing out from Flambae, but eventually enough rubble gave way that the Mecha’s hatch could be seen.
«Blue! Blue, respond! If you died in such a lame ass way I’ll fucking kill you! »
Chase could hear the scream of metal being forcefully slid open, but he could only be relieved when he saw Robert cough in a big lungful of air and grinning at his boyfriend:
«Aww, you say the sweetest things. »
«Fuck off. » Anger instantly evaporated, Flambae helped as Robert used the Mecha’s limbs to free the rest of it. «C’mon, you know I hate talking to the suits, you can’t leave me to deal with that. »
Even at a distance and from a terrible angle, Chad was fooling no one: there had been genuine anguish in the scream he’d let out when he saw Robert get buried, and he’d fought like a beast to get back to him: neutralized all hostiles in under two minutes, then instantly gone back to rescue.
Chase liked to give Robert shit by calling Flambae a shallow, arrogant dick who couldn’t be genuine if lives depended on it… clearly, he’d been wrong. From the fear, through the anger, to the way he placed himself between Robert and anyone coming within ten feet for the rest of the rescue efforts, there was something very real underneath the flamboyant bravado.
Even the way he subtly shied away from interacting with law-enforcement, letting Robert take point on communicating with the officers on site, said something about Flambae that Chase hadn’t noticed before: for all his talk about how amazing of a hero he was, he still acted like he might get arrested the minute he looked at someone wrong –almost as if he believed himself still a villain, and was overcorrecting hard.
And yet he turned up, day in and day out, taking everyone’s shit –including Chase’s– in good humor, or what the Flambae-equivalent version of good humor was, and proved the haters wrong each time.
Alright, fuck, maybe Robert had a point about his boyfriend being more complex and nuanced than he looked.
«Red… did you pry my hatch open bare-handed? »
The incredulous tone of the question sent even Chase into a fit of laughter.
Luckily, the rest of the shift went on without incident: calls were handled with minimal difficulties and team behavior was at a passing baseline of shenanigans, so all in all Chase called it a successful day.
He happened to be passing by the locker rooms when he heard the sounds of bickering.
“Of all the stupid, irresponsible things to do…”
“You lecturing me about being irresponsible, Robert?!” in fairness to the fire-cracker, that was a ‘pot, meet kettle’ statement from Robert’s mouth if there ever was one. “You were buried under a solid couple tons and I only had so much time before you ran out of air!”
“And tearing yourself apart was the solution? What happened to ‘good heroes don’t get hurt’, huh?”
“It’s just a scratch, not a big deal—”
Finally coming into view, he could see the two sat on a bench, Robert back in his civvies and Flambae half-out of the suit, both hands held out palms up while Robert applied antiseptic and bandages to what looked like horizontal gashes running across each palm.
Ah.
The firecracker didn’t mention getting hurt, and he had clearly finished his shift like that –which, in fairness, asshole move, but Chase also felt like a shitty dispatcher for not checking in better.
Neither had noticed him yet, and he opted to watch them in silence, just in case he needed to deescalate –or, that was what he’d say to anyone asking.
“It is a big deal.” Robert insisted, wind going out of his sails a bit. “You’ve already had enough damage to your hands because of me.”
Chad’s expression gentled instantly.
“Hey. Look at me.” Robert did, and the other brought a bandaged hand up to cradle his face. “There’s no universe in which I’m not willing to bleed for you.”
Damn. Macabre as fuck, but also kinda romantic, if one was into that.
Robert closed his eyes and leaned into the hand holding him.
“I know… I just wish you didn’t have to.”
“Welcome to every other day of my life, bitch.” There was something profoundly wrong with how affectionate Flambae managed to make the word ‘bitch’ sound. “How do you think I feel about the stupid stunts you pull trying to protect me? It was just my turn, today.”
Robert dove in for the kiss, and Chase drew the line at that –he made himself known by clearing his voice loudly.
“Alright, lovebirds, no sex on company property!” He scolded them without any real bite to it, but relished in the way they both jumped anyway. “Get yourselves decent. That means you, disco inferno, go get clothes on.”
Flambae retreated with only a passing quip:
“Perving on young couples, now? You’re a dirty old man, Chase.”
“We’re like four years apart in age, asshole!” he yelled at the firecracker’s retreating back, not missing how Robert openly followed his boyfriend’s silhouette with his eyes until it was out of view.
“What? Don’t fucking judge me, I’m allowed to stare.”
Chase chuckled at the kid’s defensiveness, raising his hands in a peace keeping gesture.
“No judgment here. The goo-goo eyes are better than the pissy arguments.”
He could still Robert bristling.
“Pissy?! It’s not pissy not to want my boyfriend hurting himself to—”
“Kid. You’d have done that and worse for him.” Chase was an expert at cutting through Robert’s bullshit, as well as his self-sacrificial, ‘no one should ever get hurt but I’m expendable’, crap. "Let him act like a partner, yeah?"
Deflating once more, Robert sighed.
“I know, it’s just… I have a hard time letting people in. Worse still letting people help me.” He looked wistfully in the direction Flambae had walked off towards, as if just talking about it would summon Chad back. “It’s like my brain still hasn’t processed that I can rely on others, and that they have the choice and the autonomy to be there for me, and that they’re fully grown adults that can handle getting hurt doing it. I hate it.”
“Bullshit, I bet you had heart-eyes when you saw him bust through the mech like it was a tuna can.” Chase knew he was right when he heard the bashful little laugh that bubbled out of Robert, as the kid looked down and away in a vain attempt to hide a blush.
“Shut up.”
Homemade meals were still not a personality, and Flambae was an ornery little shit with a short fuse and an attitude problem, but… Chase had never seen Robert so happy.
He’d hate to admit it out loud, but he’d been very wrong.
“Hey, kid…” he called, making Robert look up at him from his seat, “For what it’s worth… I think you’ve found yourself a keeper.”
It was worth it to eat crow if only for the smile that warmed Robert’s entire face.
“Thanks, Chase.”
“Alright, enough loitering in the changing rooms like creeps, let’s get the fuck out of here!”
Chad, now in his civvies too, made both of them nearly jump out of their skin. He walked up to Robert and pulled him upright by the hand, leaning in to whisper:
“If you still wanna play the concerned boyfriend, you can make it up to me when we get to yours, after Beef’s bedtime.”
Robert went scarlet, very aware that Chase could still hear them, but the mood had undeniably lifted despite their earlier downer talk. He chuckled as he watched the two lovers go –Robert briefly turned to shoot a mortified look in his direction, but Chase just shook his head, and silently mouthed back at him:
“A keeper.”