Chapter Text
The sun is balanced on the horizon, just about to fall over into night. It’s been fucking annoying Flambae because his sunglasses broke during the fight against the Red Ring and the sun was low enough that if he looked toward the west sunbeams would blind him. He raised a hand to block the rays but his shorter fingers did little to stop the light. He turned to the rest of the Z-Team and went back into their huddle. Punch Up and Malevola were balancing a round of arm wrestling on the hood of a car. Golem and Waterboy had put two in two together—dirt and water make mud—they were trying to make Golem as massive as they fucking could. Sonar was trying very hard to smooth things over with Coop by hosting a competition with Coop and Phenomaman to see who could knock over more of the bottles they lined up on the curb. Flambae let out a bit too exaggerated sigh before returning to his place by Prism. She eyed him up and down behind her shades, scoffed, then looked a bit past him.
“Blazer’s still with him,” he stared blankly in response trying to act indifferent, “oh girl don’t you fuckin’ act shitty, I know that’s what your lookin’ at,” She lifted a hand to flick him between the brows.
“I don’t care-” he is stopped hallway through his dismissal because she gave him this look, the ‘you aren’t slick’ one, the one she’s been giving him ever since his cover of Meredith Brooks. “Fuck, fine, I do care but like the same amount I care about Z-team, an incredibly tinsy weensy meaningless amount,”
“Right,” Prism paused to take a sip of her drink, “y’know, you could talk to him now that invisagal…”
“Ain’t up his ass? Yeah, I know,” Flambae scoffed and looked down, he pushed the tip of his tongue through the gap where his tooth is supposed to be. “But he’s probably fuckin’ in love with that bitch blazer,” that earned him a sharp elbow to the side.
“He’s not a slut like you, Flambae,” Prism remarked, “and have some respect for Ms Blazer, bitch, she fuckin’ saved your ass,”
“Yours too, bitch,”
“Yeah, yeah, girl,” she rolled her eyes as a miniature version of Golem had shuffled over to the two of them, half melted by the time it paused and reached up for Prism. “Holy fucking shit! Get that mothafucker away from me!” Prism took a step back to raise her leg and punted the mini Golem across the concrete, it landed right on Sonar. Flambae recoiled in disgust.
“Fuck, there goes another Mini Me,” Golem huffed out in his deep voice, and now that Flambae looked his way he sees that are a handful of half melted mud creatures all over the parking lot that are squirming and reaching out for help. Waterboy and Golem decided that instead of making Golem bigger they should make an army of tiny Golems.
“That’s fuckin’ creepy mate,” says Punch Up who turned away for a second and immediately gots his fist slammed down into the hood of the car by Mal. When the alarm rings out Punch Up slammed his fist down again and the alarm stopped. “Huh, didn’t think that work,” he turned back to the two, “but yeah that’s fuckin’ messed up,”
“Yeah like Roger Rabbit messed up,” Malevola added on.
“The fuck?” Sonar finally managed to get out now that he got most of the mud out of his mouth, he’d been blindly swiping at the mud on him the whole time.
“Y’know, like in the movie? Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” she said and before Sonar can question her again Coop spoke.
“Yes, the scene where Judge Doom melts the crying cartoon shoe in the vat of green acid,” her voice was as blunt as ever about it.
“Oh my fucking god exactly!” Malevola called out, the rest of the Z-Team all have their overlapping reactions to the whole thing. Flambae considered jumping in, teasing and antagonising all of them but he looked over his shoulder again. He still can’t see. The conversation blends into one sound that sorta reminds him of white noise, he rubbed the gap between his teeth with his tongue again, it’s become a stupid habit. Whenever he’d catch himself doing it he can’t help but think that he looked like some stupid little nerdy boy with like overalls, a propeller hat, and an obnoxious lisp. Flambae sneered at the thought, biting onto his tongue to stop himself.
“Hey, Chad,” That caught him off guard and made him look at Prism who had turned to face him. “You should just go talk to him, what could go wrong?”
“Let me fuckin’ guess he’s still in love with Invisabitch, he’s in love with Blazer, he’s fuckin’ straight, he think’s he’s gay but isn’t and just fucks me to experiment, or all of the fucking above,” he snapped.
“Bitch, you’re just talking to him not offering to blow him,” Prism retorted, pinching the bridge of her nose, “the man’s been through a ton of shit today, it’d probably mean something to him if you actually expressed concern for him instead of acting like a whiny bitch boy,” Flambae rolled his eyes, “if you’re not gonna to then stop fuckin’ pouting,”
“Fuck fine!” He groaned like he was doing a chore then finished his drink and swapped it for two full bottles. He walks over to Robert, squinting obnoxiously and accidentally shoulder checking the now Brunette Blazer.
“Flambae, I don’t know which makes you look like more of a douche, that stupid sneer on your face or you shoving your own boss,” Robert said, he’s sat on the trunk of a car, held in his hand, elbow resting on his knee, with a drink in the other hand.
“I didn’t see her, Robert,” Flambae muttered, “and she saved everyone, especially you, fuckin’ carried your bitch ass,” he sorta half jumped up to sit next to Robert, causing the car to recoil. Robert lets out a laugh.
“You made the car fucking shake, god and I thought I was fat,”
“I’m gonna ignore that comment because I’m feelin’ nice today, bitch,” He tapped his own chest with his index finger, the two bottles gripped in the same hand between his middle and ring finger. “Also your not fuckin’ fat, you’re like a malnourished rat boy, you like fuckin’ dodge rain when you go outside,” Robert just laughs again. It sounds like he’s shoving out the noise and it’s doing him more pain than good. That laugh always made Flambae grin, mostly because it sounded fucking stupid but there was a small part of it that sounded like whatever Robert was laughing at was cheered him up enough to push through the pain.
After a moment Flambae let out a huff and just dropped a bottle into Robert’s lap to end the awkward pause. “Welcome,” he added like a bow on a present.
“Oh, thanks but I’ve already got one,” he lifted his bottle up and twirls it.
“Well you’ve got another, Bobert, god knows you could use it,”
“Alright, I guess,” the conversation stops short, normally Flambae would make a comment or walk off but he stayed waiting for Robert to do something while also refusing to make eye contact. He instead stared at the Z-team up ahead. He locked eyes with Prism who is moving her hand side to side by her mouth and stuck her tongue into her cheek to make it look like she’s blowing someone.
“Is she flirting with you? I thought you were gay,”
“What! No, ew, she’s…” Prism clearly caught on and raised a fist to flip him off, “...she’s just being an fucking bitch!”
“You’re a fuckin’ cunt!”
“Okay, I guess,” Robert laughs and lays back down onto the car. He winced and pulled his bruised and swelling arm up to adjust. Flambae lifted his bottle to it like an ice pack. Robert raised a brow at it and Flambae paused, looked at the bottle, looked at him, and pulled away quickly. “I thought you were a pyrokinetic, are you a thermokinetic?”
“No, just fire-”
“The fire, and the flame,”
“Go fuck yourself,”
“Does your skin burn?,” Robert grinned at him.
“Does yours, bitch?” Flambae lifted a hand and set it aflame. Robert rolled his eyes.
“So you’re not a thermokinetic but you acted like a lukewarm beer was an ice pack?”
“I run fucking warm bitch! I thought it would be colder for you, god fucking forbid I try to help you!” He snapped.
“Hey, hey, I appreciate the thought,” Robert patted Flambae’s bicep. He gripped it to use it as leverage to pull himself up. Flambae almost shivered. “I’m going to ask you something I want you to be blunt when you answer,” Flambae raised brow, “I was going to ask Blazer but she was going…”
“Spoon feed you like a fucking baby?”
“Yeah that,” Robert looked away and took a long drink, “do you think I did enough for Visi?”
“Oh,” Flambae looked right at the concrete, “I-” he looked back up at Robert who was staring off at nothing. Prism’s words echoed in the back of his head and Flambae sighed. “Well there were seven of us and we all fuckin’ hated your bitch ass and this fucking job and each other,” he said, “but now there is still seven but instead we have Waterbitch and—I’ll only fucking say this once—he’s capable. The Z-team actually fucking care for eachother, Sonar has been nice to Coop since he first saw her after the fight, it s not even fucking pity!” Flambae laughed and smiled, Robert didn’t look that happy. “You tried to help her, but some people don’t want to get better”
“She did want to get better, that’s the fucking thing, time and time again she told me and showed me she wanted to get better!”
“I wanted to get better and I’m still fucking here!” he argued, “brought you a beer and everything…” he sighed and held Robert’s glare, he watched it soften into confusion and then exhaustion. He watched his pupils bounce across Flambae’s face trying to figure out if he was being honest or just joking, that part hurt a bit more than he wanted to admit. Tears started to run down Robert’s face and Flambae’s eyes went wide, completely clueless on how to react. Robert lifted a hand to rub the tears away. “Fuck-”
“Sorry, fuck, I’m just tired,” he pauses, blinking the tears away, “thanks, uhm, for saying that, I mean it, I’m glad your here,”