#queuing for midnight on my birthday because i want to post asap

[gay-otlc]

Straight A Supervillain- 12

My birthday present to myself is watching you all go insane over this chapter.

Content warnings for cursing, trichotillomania, yelling/arguing, and the standard parental shitiness

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“So, how’d it go? With Blaze?” Naomi fought to keep eir face neutral as eir maybe-girlfriend walked in the room.

Lani made a face and flopped onto her bed. “Ugh. I took some good notes, but he’s such a bitch! Your dad is the worst, huh?”

“He is-” ey caught emself and panic exploded in eir chest, spreading further through eir veins with each heartbeat. “Shit. Shit. Shit shit fuck. Lani, I- how did you figure that out?” Ey sat down on the bed next to Lani and buried eir face in eir hands. Lani shuffled farther away from em.

“You’ve always acted really suspicious when it came to parents, but I was like, willing to let that slide since a lot of villains have some sort of parent issues and I didn’t want to pry, you know? And then you acted so weird about Blaze and I was pretty sure there was something other than ‘goes to my synagogue’ going on there. I showed up at the job and my first thought was, holy shit, he looks just like Naomi. That all but confirmed it, and then I saw a picture of you at your Bat Mitzvah on his desk, and Blaze and Thunderclap were standing right next to you.”

He had a picture of em on his desk?

Wait. That wasn’t the point.

“Okay, fine! Yes! My parents are fucking superheroes! Please don’t tell anyone, you know I’ll get expelled, and I cannot stand to lose everything I’ve built here.” Ey couldn’t stand to look Lani in the eyes, so ey focused on ripping hairs out, one by one. “I really don’t want to lose you.”

“That’s sweet, unfortunately, we’ve just established that you’re a really good liar. How do I know you’re not here trying to sabotage us on your parents’ orders?”

“If I was good, I wouldn’t have just gotten caught! I’m a terrible liar, it’s the truth that I want to be here. So please, Lani, please don’t tell anyone.”

The weight of the bed shifted around, and for a second Naomi thought Lani might be moving closer to em- but nope, the opposite. “So, it might be a little late for that-”

Well, that was the nail in the coffin. Naomi was fucked. Naomi would be expelled. Naomi would lose everything, lose the first time ey’d been happy in… well… “Who did you tell!?”

“Cameron and Noel. Who have probably been eavesdropping, since I told them I’d confront you. You two can come in now.” The door swung open and Naomi’s other two roommates walked in. Cameron looked pissed. Noel looked sad. It was unclear which was worse.

Ey guessed that was better than telling a teacher, or Dr. Plague. But still not good. Before even talking to em about it? This was eir future on the line! “Lani! Come on, seriously? I fucking trusted you!”

“Apparently you didn’t.” She said it quietly, as if that would make up for the way the three words sliced through the room and pierced through Naomi.

“Damn,” whispered Cameron.

“Listen, I-” How did ey argue that? It was true. Ey hadn’t trusted eir friends enough to tell them this. But it’s not like that wasn’t justified. “I trusted you with everything except this because I was scared you would react like this!”

“If you hadn’t worked so hard to make it some big secret you wouldn’t seem so suspicious.”

“What, do you suspect me of being a fucking hero? Come on, Lani, you know me.”

“Do I?” She stood up and walked away from Naomi. Ey concentrated on not lighting anything on fire- burning Lani’s stuff would definitely not help eir case. “You’ve been keeping this huge secret from all of us- from me- since day one. You’re related to heroes. Not just any heroes, Blaze. And Thunderclap. And they’re your parents. You’ve been lying to all of us and I don’t even know what to believe anymore. You’re a damn good actor.”

“L-Lani, I-” I’m sorry, ey wanted to say. Or maybe just not really, I suck at acting. Nothing came out.

“Did you expect me to just find out and decide you were still perfectly trustworthy, still on our side, still my- still my friend? Or my… whatever we were? No doubts? Seriously? Or did you plan on never telling me?”

Naomi didn’t plan things. Looking back, that was probably eir problem. So, ey didn’t really know how to answer that question, so ey changed course. “Lani, after everything, you seriously think I would just betray Villain High School for my shitbag parents? Betray the arson gang?”

“I never agreed to that name,” Cameron said quietly. Everyone ignored him.

“I don’t fucking know what to think!” screamed Lani, and whatever was left of Naomi’s heart broke at the sheer pain her voice carried. Something angry burned in the space the heart used to be.

“Then you could have asked me instead of trying to get me kicked out! I don’t have anywhere else to go, Lani, I don’t know what I would do if I got expelled from here. You would risk that without even talking to me without making sure you had all the facts?”

“How could I ask you about this!? You would just lie to me more!”

“If she was trying to get you expelled, you would be,” Noel offered, the first time he’d spoken. “She made us promise not to tell any of the teachers, just get Cameron and me to help her figure this all out.”

“Fine then, let’s actually figure this out instead of just accusing me of shit!”

“Fine! Interrogation time.” Noel grabbed a notebook, and removed a pencil from tucked behind his ear. “Is Naomi your real name?”

“Yes. At least until I have another gender crisis and decide to change it.” Ey thought at least that would make Cameron smile. It didn’t.

“Is Lebowski your real last name?”

“Um, no. It’s actually Rothstein. But if I don’t want to get kicked out of here, I can’t use that. Lebowski is my mother’s maiden name.”

“Middle name?”

Was this relevant? “Lior.” Noel scribbled something down in a notebook, organized and composed as ever. He kept his gaze firmly away from em.

“Why are you at Villain High School?”

“Because I want to be a villain?”

Lani turned invisible, then reappeared. “Is that a question or an answer?”

“It’s an answer, I just have anxiety.” Proving eir point, ey tore out an eyelash.

“Okay. Why do you want to be a villain?”

Ey rummaged around in eir pockets. “I wrote that monologue for this, do you want me to-”

“No.” Noel clenched his fists, and little icicles appeared around his knuckles. Unlike Naomi, who accidentally set things on fire all the time, this was the first time ey’d seen him use his power without meaning to. That was… probably bad. “Just be honest. For once. Villain origin story, go.”

“Fine. I was eleven, I think. Could have been twelve, but probably eleven. It’s kind of hazy, I was in sixth grade, and- yeah, it was before April, so that would be eleven. I was in my science class and we were doing some sort of experiment, it was flammable and apparently our teacher didn’t know the proper safety precautions. Whatever that experiment was, it had a lot of weight on our grade, I remember, so I was pretty anxious. And as one does when they have untreated anxiety and fire powers just waiting to pop up at the most inconvenient time, I maybe possibly set the science lab on fire.”

“As one does,” agreed Cameron, distantly. Naomi, lost in the memory, barely heard her.

“So I, well, fucking ran. I was pretty damn scared, you know? This was the first time I’d just… had fire appear out of my fingers, and I didn’t want to get hurt. I just panicked and ran. Again, I was eleven. I wasn’t a firefighter or a hero or my father. I was a kid.”

Maybe if ey said that enough, ey’d believe it. Would eir friends- roommates- be mad at em for not staying behind to save the other students? Would they be disappointed in em too? Why did ey even care, they were already mad about the whole hero thing. And here ey was, disappointed in emself still for not being heroic enough.

“I didn’t act like a hero and save anyone. I acted like a child. Because I was one. But nooo.” Ey rolled eir eyes. “Childhood is not a luxury provided to daughters of superheroes. So there was this article that came out in the Eyver City Times… can I have my computer? I’m just gonna google it for you.”

Noel handed it to em, still not making eye contact. “Here.”

Ey opened it up and went to google. daughter of blaze and thunderclap villian.

Did you mean: daughter of blaze and thunderclap villain

Ignoring the typo, Naomi clicked on the first result. Somewhere, ey was picking it up and staring at it for the first time. Angry at the reporters, angry at eir parents, mostly angry at emself.

Cameron leaned over eir shoulder to read. “Daughter- or, child- of Blaze and Thunderclap: Destined For Heroics? Or Villainry?”

“I was never a good enough hero for my parents,” ey mumbled, going back to burying eir face in eir hands. “I’d always been trying, but when they read that article- and when they agreed- I knew I would never be able to try hard enough. Because no matter how hard I tried, I’d never be brave enough, never be smart enough, never be heroic enough, never fucking enough for them. So I just… stopped trying. If I would never be a good enough hero, why not a villain?” Tears were being little bitches and threatening to spill from eir eyes. Ey wiped them away.

Someone put their hand on eir shoulder. Naomi shrugged it off. “I hate my parents. I hate them and I hate everything they stand for. If being a hero means making sixth graders hate themselves, I want no part in it. I would never help them, I promise. You guys- you guys are the first people who have ever treated me like I’m enough, I need you to know I would never betray you.”

Silence. Ey wasn’t totally sure what ey was expecting. For a while, the only sound was em sniffling and trying to stop the tears from being even bitchier. Wouldn’t someone just say something already? Still, ey had no idea what ey expected, but it was definitely not a hug.

“Lani?”

“Naomi, fuck, I’m so sorry. I am not a violent person but I want to punch your parents, they had no right to treat you like that, I am so sorry.”

Ey didn’t respond, just buried eir face in her shoulder. Lani was being nice to em? Ey had no idea what to do when people were being nice to em. Apparently it involved crying? This was weird. Feelings were weird.

Another person joined the hug. Probably Cameron, judging by the earrings brushing against the top of Naomi’s head. “We’re here for you, okay?”

Off to the side, Noel coughed. “I don’t really like hugs. But um. There, there?” He patted em awkwardly on the shoulder, and Naomi couldn’t help but laugh a bit through eir tears.

“I’m still a little pissed,” Lani said after a while, pulling back from the hug. Disappointing. “But I trust you. And I will now approach my job sabotaging Blaze with extra spite. Maybe I’ll accidentally put some salt in his coffee instead of sugar. And just, accidentally, lose some important paperwork. I know it wouldn’t really make up for how he treated you, but I do want to piss him off.”

“Oh, it’s so funny when he gets mad- his face gets all red and scrunched up. You can literally see steam rising from him. It’s like a bad cartoon, it’s hysterical.” Naomi pointedly ignored the part where Lani said she trusted em. It definitely filled em with some disgustingly gooey warm feelings, and those were to be avoided at all costs.

“We are going to be true villains, and fuck shit up for Blaze,” Cameron declared, rising about a foot in the air as he pumped her fist.

Noel’s fingers curled into an icy fist, but this time the anger wasn’t directed at Naomi. This time was way better. “We’re gonna win, Heatwave.”

#HAHAHAHA GOOD LUCK BITCHES #please ask me about this i would love to scream more about what was going on in my head #straight a supervillain #queuing for midnight on my birthday because i want to post asap #s writes things