VELVETEEN vs. Temptation #3
“Of course they didn’t. You weren’t the one who was acting against orders.
But from that kiss, they knew they had me.
You and Yelena were the hostages against my good behavior.
Ask her. Ask her sometime, how often she saw me get pulled aside for a talking-to when she didn’t perform, or when we didn’t want to go looking for you.
Ask her how many threats she overheard. Or get a telepath in here, and they’ll tell you everything I’ve said has been the truth.
You got out in part because when they said ‘stay,’ I stayed.
Yelena got as far as she did because I did everything in my power to stop them from going after her.
I fought against you. I can’t take that back.
But we have always, always been on the same side. ”
Velveteen looked at him for a long moment, eyes wide and very large in her still hollow-cheeked face. Finally, in a low voice, she asked, “Why are you really here, Aaron? You knew I was never going to come back to the team. So why did you come?”
“Because I don’t give two shits about the team,” said Action Dude.
He walked cautiously toward her cot. When she didn’t immediately throw a pillow at him, he sat down on the very end, watching her all the while.
“I don’t want you to rejoin The Super Patriots.
Dotty and Dream do, but they’re as overwhelmed as I am, with a lot more left to lose.
Me, I’ve already lost everything. I don’t actually care anymore. ”
“So what do you want?”
He looked at her gravely. “I want you,” he said.
“I want you to smile at me. Not the way you used to, because we were kids, we didn’t know anything, I was keeping secrets and playing hero and you thought I was some sort of a superman, not just a superhero trying to get his shit together.
I want you to smile at me like a grownup.
I want to smile at you without worrying that you’re going to flinch away.
I guess I want to be friends more than almost anything. ”
“Almost.”
“What?”
“You said ‘almost.’ You want to be friends more than almost anything. So what’s the almost?”
Action Dude sighed heavily. “The almost is that I want you to remember why you loved me. I want you to realize you never actually fell out of love with me. I want you back, and I know that’s stupid and childish and not going to happen, but you asked, and so I’m telling you.
What do I want more than your friendship?
Your love. Your approval. Your forgiveness.
Not necessarily in that order. I want to be a part of your life again, whatever that looks like—and not as your nemesis.
I miss you. I miss us, in all the different flavors we had before the end. Don’t you?”
“I miss the days when people called before coming over, mostly so I could tell them not to come,” drawled a new voice.
They both turned to find the Princess standing in the doorway, arms crossed, scowling.
“What in the name of happily ever after are you doing here? I do not recall inviting you back this soon.”
“I needed to talk to Vel,” said Action Dude. “Night Shift let me in.”
“Night Shift and I are going to have words about that, believe you me. I don’t want you here, Aaron. I don’t want you in my home, and I certainly don’t want you bothering Vel. She needs her rest.”
“You told me before that as long as Vel wanted me here, you were okay,” said Aaron. He glanced back to Velveteen. “Vel?”
“I want you to go,” said Velveteen. His face fell. The Princess’s lit up with triumph. Velveteen continued, “Not forever. Just for a few days. I need to think. Please. Can you do that for me?”
“I could do anything for you.” Action Dude stood, pausing only to give the Princess a respectful bow before fleeing out of the room and down the hall.
An iteration of Night Shift was waiting by the door that would take him back to the theme park where it had opened. She looked him up and down before asking, “How did it go?”
“I have no idea,” said Action Dude. His face split in a wide grin. “Isn’t that amazing?”
Night Shift rolled her eyes. “If you say so. Tell Dreamy to pick me up at eight, and remind them that they promised me a really nice night. After dealing with that little girlfriend of yours, I deserve to be spoiled.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” said Action Dude, hand on the doorknob. Then he grinned. “Yet,” he added, and stepped outside, still grinning ear to ear. She wanted him to come back.
There was still a chance.
* * *
“What the hell were you thinking?” The Princess held her hands out toward Velveteen, voice and posture united in pleading for an answer. “That boy is nothing but trouble. He’s going to try to seduce you back to The Super Patriots, you see if he doesn’t, and when that happens—”
“It already did.”
The Princess stopped dead, staring at her. After several seconds of silence, she managed to demand, “What?”
“That’s why he came. Dotty Gale and the American Dream sent him to tell me if I’d agree, they’d hand the entire corporation over to me.
I could be the new CEO of The Super Patriots, Inc.
I could set policy, steer their course, everything.
The shareholders would accept it, since technically I’ve defeated their entire current board in combat.
” Velveteen shook her head. “I still don’t believe they codified the structure of superhero battles into their bylaws. That’s not just silly, it’s stupid.”
“But it fits the mythology they’ve been trying to build, and that’s what matters sometimes,” said the Princess. “What did you tell him?”
Velveteen snorted. “No. Fuck no, hell no, absolutely no, not going to happen. No. I’m done with that company, and I’m done with that team. They can figure their shit out without me.”
“Good girl,” said the Princess, not bothering to conceal her relief. Then she frowned. “What he was saying when I got here, now, that didn’t sound like the answer to a ‘no.’”
“I guess not.” Velveteen looked down at the silken blanket covering her legs. She began folding the edge between her fingers, swallowing hard. Finally, in a studiously casual tone, she asked, “Do you think he’s still in love with me?”
“Sweetheart, that boy is going to die still in love with you.”
Velveteen looked up, eyes wide. The Princess smiled, wry and wan and apologetic all at once.
“Sorry,” she said. “I wish I could lie to you, say it isn’t so, but I can’t tell lies where love’s concerned. He’s never been anything but in love with you. It’s a little sad, really. He couldn’t love you enough to tell his masters no, but he’s happy to love you so much he can’t leave you alone.”
“I think…” Velveteen took a deep breath.
“I think he loved me so much that he told them ‘yes.’ When they asked him to do things he didn’t want to do, and told him they wouldn’t come after me if he did them.
They lied. He didn’t know that. There are plenty of cases of the company going after people harder and faster than they did me, and the difference is that I had Aaron.
Being the good boy. Being the hostage I didn’t even know about. ”
“That doesn’t mean you owe him anything,” said the Princess.
“He didn’t ask if you wanted to be saved.
You didn’t say ‘stay there and make us both miserable instead of telling me what’s going on and giving me a chance to save you back.
’ You owe nothing for things done without your permission or consent. ”
“I hated him for so long,” said Vel, looking down again. “I couldn’t understand how he could throw me away like that.”
“And now you’re questioning everything, and I’m here to tell you it doesn’t matter, because this is not your fault. How dare he put this on you. He had no right.”
“Cara? Why haven’t I tried to wake Tag up yet?”
The Princess was silent.
“Because if…if it were true love, if you were sure I could wake him, I would have expected you to bring it up as a part of my healing process. To say ‘hey, you know what would make the fairy tale logic of this place put you back together even faster? If you woke someone up with true love’s kiss.’ It makes sense.
Only you haven’t said that. You haven’t mentioned him at all.
He’s still there, isn’t he? In the glass coffin, waiting for me? ”
Still, the Princess was silent. Velveteen nodded, mostly to herself.
“That’s what I thought,” she said. “You haven’t been mentioning him because you’re not sure I can wake him up. Because you think there’s a chance, maybe, that I’m still in love with Aaron.”
“Honey—”
“I guess I should be mad, because why put him to sleep if there’s no chance I’ll wake him up, but I can’t be. He’d be dead if not for you. He is dead. Until someone wakes him up.” Vel raised her head, tears shining in her eyes. “Do you think it’s going to be me?”
The Princess took a deep, unsteady breath.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Honey, I’m sorry, but I don’t.
Anyone with eyes knows you’ve been carrying a torch for Aaron for so long that we’re all sort of afraid you’re going to burn the house down.
You seemed genuinely happy with Tad. It seemed like you were maybe healing a little.
I think you would have loved him enough to wake him up, if you’d had the time.
Did you have the time? I don’t know. I honestly don’t. ”
“He wouldn’t have been there to get hurt if he hadn’t been with me,” said Vel.
“He was fighting with me. Because that’s what you do when you’re a superhuman and you love someone else who’s…
who’s like you. You fight by their side.
You make the world a safer place, together.
That was all I ever wanted, was someone who would fight by my side.
And Tag did, and he died because of me, and if I can’t bring him back because I’m still all fucked-up over Aaron, that’s just… that’s just unfair.”
“You call Tad ‘Tag,’ but you call Aaron by his name,” observed the Princess. “Why is that?”