Chapter Text
The next morning Alex rolled over and went back to sleep a few times before she committed to being conscious. Vivian had kissed her awake an hour or so before, saying she was headed to the gym for her morning workout and promising to bring back something from the mess for Alex. They’d been up very late. By the time Alex felt ready to look at her phone it was after 11. By then she knew Morgan would probably be out at the warehouse already, so there was no real rush to go home. So she slept in, lazed in bed, checked the news.
Her cruise ship had fallen from the top story this morning, but she was content in knowing it would be right back on top as soon as they figured out what she’d done to the engines. The anticipation was kind of fun. In the meantime she was enjoying the slight soreness from going two rounds back to back the night before. She stretched her wrists, satisfied. Today was going to be a good day.
When they’d gotten started the night before Vivian hadn’t had a chance to change her nails yet, so Alex had just done her. That arrangement was usually her preference anyway. The truth was that inflicting pleasure on someone else gave her just as much of a high as inflicting pain, maybe even better, but with her life the way it was Alex didn’t get the opportunity to do it nearly as often. Being the most powerful person in the known universe had its perks, but sex was something special. All the little gasps and sighs, the softness and pleading, coaxing her partner closer and closer to the edge until they lost control... now that was power. There was nothing else quite like it.
And Vivian had been an excellent lay. She was very vocal in just the way Alex liked, offering a lot of feedback and encouragement from start to finish. Harder Alex, please, she’d say. Right there- oh, you’re amazing. When she’d started to come down from their first round and Alex had paused, she’d grinned and breathlessly told Alex that she was game to go again if Alex was. As she had suspected, they made a great team.
And then… once they were done and Vivian had cleaned herself up, she’d insisted on helping Alex clean up too. She’d tugged her into the bathroom and pushed her to sit up on the counter. Alex was baffled by this treatment, had protested that she really didn't need the help, but the gentle shock of fingers tucking her hair behind her ears had quieted her.
Oh. She hadn't been touched like that in- well, a very long time.
Vivian had been slow and deliberate about it too. She'd pushed Alex's knees apart to come in closer to her and kept touching her face. The bathroom light flickered. She'd seemed to be everywhere- her searching eyes, her persistent hands, dabbing softly with a warm washcloth all around Alex’s mouth and chin until her face was clean. Taking care of her after what they’d done together. Alex hadn’t been able to meet her eyes while she did it.
It was hard to think about now. Someone else touching her felt different than her touching them, it always did. Without the high of arousal to mask it, the intimacy had been... a lot. Too much for her, really. But part of her wanted more.
Well, she’d gotten her face cleaned up the night before and had washed her hands, but she still had a bit of their mess dried on her thighs and stomach. She could clear it away with a thought of course, but scrubbing herself under hot water would feel really good right now. She wondered where Vivian bathed. She hadn’t seen a shower in the bathroom last night. If Vivian’s suite didn’t have one, that probably meant communal showers somewhere down the hall. In that case she could probably wait until she got home.
She heard a key turning in the lock and a door opening in the next room.
“Alex?”
“In here.”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d still be here,” Vivian poked her head into the bedroom smiling. “I brought muffins. Do you have time for breakfast?”
“I have plenty of time," she stood up and stretched. "Do you have a shower though?”
“Oh, yes, sorry, I usually shower at the gym but there’s a full bathroom right off the kitchen. Any of the towels in the closet there are clean.”
“Thanks! I’ll be quick.”
“Take your time! While you’re doing that I’ll make us some coffee and eggs to go with these.”
Alex emerged fifteen minutes later, having showered and teleported home just long enough to drop off her dirty clothes and grab a clean outfit.
“So, does the mess hall here not serve coffee?”
Vivian looked over her shoulder from the stove. “They serve coffee AND eggs, but neither are fit for human consumption. Their baked goods are actually pretty great though. Go figure.”
Alex sat down at the kitchen island. “What kind of muffins did you get?”
“I wasn’t sure what you’d want, so I got one of each. Blueberry, bran, corn. There should be some butter packets in there too.”
Alex dug through the bag and selected a corn muffin. “Do you have a knife for the butter?”
“In the drawer on my right.”
The kitchenette was tiny, so Alex had to duck close to her to get to the drawer. She laid a hand on the small of Vivian’s back as she passed. “Just squeezing past you.”
Vivian had finished plating the eggs and moved to set them down on the island, accidentally bumping into Alex on her way back. “Woops, sorry!”
“My bad. Did you want me to pour you a coffee while I’m over here?”
“That would be great, thanks. Hopefully I can avoid plowing into you again."
Vivian flicked off the stove light and fan and grabbed a pair of salt and pepper shakers while Alex poured the coffee. They danced around each other, grinning, on their way to their seats. Alex set their mugs down as they settled down to eat. It all felt weirdly domestic. Apparently mornings-after with heroes followed the same scripts as with anyone else.
“Good job with the eggs,” Alex said after they’d been eating for a while.
“I bet you say that to all the superheroines.”
“Nah, I trained as a chef. I tell it like it is.”
“Really? A chef? I don't think that's in your dossier.”
“I’ll have to cook something for you next time to prove it,” she chewed thoughtfully. “You know, they always told us that things like scrambled eggs are the best way to test how good a chef is. With something so simple there’s nowhere to hide your mistakes.”
“Well, scrambled eggs are about all I can do, but I’ll take the compliment.”
“You were right that these muffins are really good too.”
“I can’t take credit for those, but they are great! Probably my favorite thing they make down there," Vivian had chosen a bran muffin and was buttering it. "I wish you’d been able to try them when they were still warm. They’re even better that way.”
Without thinking, Alex snapped her fingers and their muffins started steaming again. Vivian’s eyes widened.
“Did you just-?”
“Mhm.”
“...If you can do that, how the fuck are you still single?”
”I uh-" She looked down to hide her smile. It always felt good to impress someone new like that. "I don’t think that’s the first thing people look for on the apps?”
“Oh no, believe me, you should definitely add that to your profile.”
“I’ll think about it.”
They lapsed into comfortable silence again for a while. Alex looked around the room and didn’t find much to look at. The apartment was spartan- grey and white walls, grey and white furniture. There were a few landscape photos on the walls but nothing personal. The coffee table and all the shelves were empty.
“So, do you live here most of the time?”
“Most of the time, but my secret identity still has her apartment in the city for when I have some time off. I don’t want to give it up.”
“Do you miss being her?”
“Pssh, not at all. Being Miss Galactic rocks. But it’s a place to keep my stuff and I really like my neighborhood.”
“Lot of good restaurants?” she guessed.
Vivian nodded. “Oh yeah. Restaurants, nightlife, everything you would ever need is right there. I’d never be able to give up living in the city, at least part time.”
“I get that. My parents don’t get why I left my hometown, but there’s this pizza place near where I live now that I could never live without. I plan my entire career around avoiding damaging it.”
“Well shoot, now I want to try that pizza place.“ Vivian’s phone buzzed and she looked down at it. “Ah. The Fairness Association is wondering if you’re still here. What should I tell them?”
“Ooh. Tell them yes.”
“Great, they’ll hate that,” she smiled beatifically and typed away for a few moments. “Do you have plans for the rest of the day? I’m in meetings all afternoon, but you’re more than welcome to hang out. You’re making everyone really uncomfortable.”
“Hmm, I don’t really have plans, but I should probably go home at some point.”
“Fair enough. Well, what does the rest of your week look like? Maybe we can meet up again on Thursday-“
She was interrupted again by her phone, which had suddenly started buzzing violently and flashing in the way it had the previous day. She frowned and read the screen.
“Oh hey, actually- if you don’t have much going on today, would you want to come watch me work?”
“Depends. Who are you guys going after?”
“Not sure yet. Somebody built a robot army and is threatening to destroy Vancouver if we don’t turn over the Left Hand of Darkness.”
“What’s the Left Hand of Darkness?”
“It’s an old sci-fi book. We think he’s a little confused,” Vivian stood up and started gathering their plates. “It's not an all-hands call so I don’t have to go, but I don’t want to go to my meetings, so... confused robot guy it is.”
Alex got up to help her. “Sure, I might as well come too. I haven’t watched a lot of fights without being involved before. Could be interesting.”
“I’ll try to make it good for you if I can,” Vivian winked. “Should be a nice chance for me to show off, you know?”
“Makes sense to me."
Vivian shut the dishwasher and looked around the kitchen. “I think that’s the best we can do for now. I’ll wash the pan when we get back.”
“No need, I can do that too." If Vivian was about to get to show off, why not her? She snapped the now-clean pan into her hands and showed Vivian. "Where does this go?"
“...On the rack up there. Jesus, Alex, you really need to start marketing yourself better. Please tell me that one's in your bio."
"I pretty much just list my hobbies, not gonna lie."
"I'm telling you, if word got out that you had a dishwashing superpower? You’d have more matches than you’d know what to do with.”
“All this dating advice! Are you saying you want competition?”
”Why not? Who doesn't love a challenge?"
Vivian walked around her apartment flicking off lights and grabbed her cape off the hook by the door. She stopped in the doorway and looked down at her phone, distracted.
“Uh, ok, so now they’re asking if you could avoid contacting any of your villain friends while you’re here. They’re worried about computer viruses.”
“I’m here and they’re worrying about some measly computer viruses? I’m offended.”
Vivian laughed. “I think it gives them a sense of control.”
“That’s ridiculous. Ok, sure. When we get back I’ll turn my phone off.”
Alex hadn’t necessarily expected to head straight back to the base together, but watching the battle had been even more fun than she'd hoped. As promised, Vivian had put on a great show for her. Watching someone really competent do what they’re good at was something that Alex found really satisfying. She liked to watch those videos of chefs preparing meals, workers in factories packing things quickly, skilled bricklayers- anything really. And when it came to destroying robot armies, Vivian was an artist.
The battle had taken about two hours. Apparently the Fairness Association leadership had not considered this a major threat, so Vivian was the highest-ranked hero there and took the lead among the assembled team of heroes accordingly. The group must have discussed strategy on the way over, because as soon as they arrived they took positions. The villain hadn't been one that Alex recognized- possibly one of those new upstart mad scientists? With venture capitalists pivoting to all kinds of new markets in recent years it seemed like there were a lot more of those around these days than there used to be. The guy's monologue had included some Silicon Valley buzzwords, so that would make sense.
Vivian had made a good show of trying to nobly talk him down, but it was soon clear to Alex from the way she was directing the conversation that she was actually trying to goad him to start fighting her. When Alex questioned her about it afterwards, she explained that the robot army's existence was a threat and that she'd wanted to make sure it was destroyed before taking him into custody. If she hadn't, when he went to prison and his assets were liquidated the investors who owned the robots would take possession. At that point they would have been able to sell them to whoever they wanted- most likely someone more dangerous than the man who'd built them. Destroying the army now would prevent bigger problems down the road. In addition, it was generally in the best interest of the Fairness Association to prevent people who'd invested in supervillainy from making a profit in order to encourage others to view it as a risky investment class. Alex had never given this much thought to hero strategy before and was duly impressed.
When the battle finally began Vivian gave a visible sigh of relief and quickly pivoted to enjoying herself. The robot army had lined up on the runways at the airport and in the harbor nearby, so she would have a lot of space to work. Her first step was to clear an area for the battle by mowing through a whole squadron of the robots in just a few seconds. She was a classic kick-and-punch brawler as far as fighting style, but she moved with the brutal precision of a very experienced hero. There was no wasted motion from having to regain her balance after landing a hit. Instead, each strike was calculated to propel her directly onto the next enemy and then the next. The sequence of motions reminded Alex of the floor exercises done by gymnasts at the Olympics. Maybe that was what Vivian had been doing at the gym that morning?
The news helicopter that had been filming her conversation with the villain earlier seemed to agree that Vivian was the hero to watch and soon began following her around the scene. When she'd landed at the end of her first batch she paused to grin cockily up at the cameras as destroyed robots fell to the ground behind her. It would make a great shot for the evening news.
She'd called out to her team for updates then. Several of them had been tasked with evacuating the air traffic control tower and other airport outbuildings, which had apparently gone well. Others were trying to keep the robots contained and out of the city, which was going less well. Several had gotten past the Park N Fly and were headed into the nearby neighborhood and a few others had succeeded in crossing the river. She'd directed her team to focus on retrieving the ones escaping the airport parking lots and told them that she would handle the river.
She'd flown across to her first target in a long curve, skimming her boot in the water to throw up a trail of spray as she went. Alex teleported over to watch from a little ways up the street. She took out the first few few robots quickly, dragging them off of buildings and crumpling them like paper with a few kicks. She hauled them into the river to make it more difficult for the next ones to cross. But after those first few she'd slowed down and lingered over a single enemy for a while, stretching out the fight with delicate pirouettes and savoring it before finishing the job. She then tore off part of its destroyed hull and used it to quickly dispatch the next two.
The rest of the battle went more or less like that, with her flitting back and forth to back up her team or to step in where she saw the need was greatest. At times she'd blast through a large number of robots in a short time and then in other instances she'd take her time with just one, keeping her audience guessing what she would do next. Alex would have to try to watch her in the future when she was on TV. It was clear that she knew how to work the scene to turn even an easy battle into first-rate entertainment.
Finally it had ended with Vivian and her team perched on top of a large pile of robots in the harbor, beaming and waving for the cameras as her cape fluttered in the afternoon breeze. Most of the rest of her team for this battle had been B tiers, so Vivian had to stay a while to do interviews before they could head back. After giving the news crews their perfect shot of her flying off into the distance she'd finally waved them all off and gone to find Alex.
She was giddy and breathless when she bounded into the side street where Alex was waiting. "Sorry it took so long to wrap that up, but I'm glad you got to see it. It was a really fun fight!"
“Hey, no worries, it only seems fair- you got to watch me work pretty recently after all.”
“And when might that have been?”
“When I put that cruise ship into the Suez Canal?”
“OH. I was expecting a dirty joke about last night," she covered her face with her hand, laughing. "Yes. I’d gone home by then so I only got to see it on the news, but yes. I saw that all right.”
“Gone home? You were on the removal team then?”
“Sure was.”
“No hard feelings I hope.”
“Pfft, are you kidding me? That was hilarious.”
“Ok, it objectively was, but I’m glad you think so too,” Alex was surprised by how much she meant it. Earlier she'd planned to use the event to try to start a fight, but now she was genuinely relieved Vivian wasn't mad at her.
“That was actually- I mean, I’d definitely been thinking about the reasons I told you about for why we should go out before that, but that was actually what made me decide to do it. I thought to myself, ‘gosh, it seems like we have the same sense of humor’ and decided to just go ahead and shoot my shot.”
“Well, I’m glad you did.”
"Are you coming home with me again then?"
"Sure, why not?"
Vivian wrinkled her nose. "Just don't touch me until I've showered, I'm covered in machine oil and the Fraser River."
"Don't worry, even I'm not that depraved."
"We could also go to your place if you'd prefer that."
"Nah, I have a roommate, so it could be a little awkward. Plus I was enjoying stressing out your coworkers."
"I was too. You can't imagine what I go through with those people. It's been nice getting some of my own back."
“So can you explain the phone thing again? My phone is seen as a security risk, but I'm not?”
“Ha! No, don't worry. You definitely are, but they are much too afraid to ask you to leave. They’re hoping you’ll get bored and go away on your own if they don’t make any sudden moves. Like a bear or something.”
“Ah I see,” the gears in her head started turning. “Say, how long do you think they’ll maintain that strategy?”
“Probably pretty much indefinitely, why?”
“I mean, we could keep this going. You know all those jokes about lesbians and U-Hauls?”
“…You know, Alex, I really like the way you think.”
And so after that evening Alex essentially refused to leave the base for weeks on end because it was making everyone so uncomfortable. She kept jump-scaring members of the Fairness Association by appearing unexpectedly, which never really got old. The reactions varied. Her favorite had been the first time she'd come around a corner and ran into Leader USA. He had gasped, taken a step backwards, and instinctively crossed himself. He hid it much better after that of course, but she made sure to always smile at him knowingly every time they crossed paths.
Over the next few weeks they got into a comfortable routine. Every day they’d get up and have breakfast together, sometimes in Vivian’s apartment and sometimes down in the mess hall. With Vivian as her eager and consistent audience, Alex had really gotten a chance to branch out into more interesting creations in the kitchen. She’d often experiment with elaborate multi-course dinners or complex desserts, trying to push the limits of what Vivian’s bare-bones, Fairness Association issued galley kitchen could accommodate. Other days they’d order a bunch of takeout or go out to eat.
Every Thursday they’d go to a public library to replenish their stash of books. It turned out that Vivian was a voracious reader, reading in between meetings and work calls as often she could. Her tastes leaned towards mystery thrillers rather than romance novels. She was always really interested in hearing about the books Alex was reading. Alex had been shy in telling her about the first one, but Vivian had been immediately fascinated and grilled her for details. Not all of the books were good, of course, but it was a lot of fun to rag on the bad ones together. And the good ones were really great when shared with another person. She found she’d finish a compelling scene and couldn’t wait to tell Vivian about it. After a while, swapping updates on what had happened in their books was a big part of their evening routine.
“You should try writing too, you know," Vivian had said to her one night.
“... I really don't think I could do that."
“You always have all these ideas for what would make the plot stronger! Or for a cool alternate version of the story."
“Huh. I mean I guess I do.”
"You should at least try writing down your ideas so you can look back on them later."
Since her phone was off-limits, Vivian had given her her tablet to use. It already had ClockApp and a bunch of games downloaded and the wifi speeds in the base were top-notch, so it was a while before she felt the need to do anything creative. But eventually she created a document with some of her story ideas in it. She'd add on to it as different ideas came to her, and occasionally she would even add snippets or whole scenes that she came up with. She surprised herself with how quickly the pages in the document stacked up. It turned out that having gotten some more experience with dating lately had given her a lot of ideas.
One day when she was playing Candy Crush she noticed that the small grey updates bar that occasionally appeared in the lower left of the screen seemed to be coming up more often than usual. Curious, she went and searched in the settings to find the name of the app that was doing all the updates. She didn't recognize the name. When she opened the app the interface required a login she didn't know, so she googled it.
The results came up as an app marketed for parents and school districts, but there were some Reddit threads further down complaining about the company for selling stalkerware. Why would Vivian have put a stalkerware app on her own tablet? Unless...
Well, unless she had put it on just to give to Alex. That idea stung more than she expected.
They hadn't used the L-word or anything, but the past few weeks had felt so good. They had a cozy routine. They were constantly pushing each other creatively and professionally. The fact that Vivian was apparently... monitoring Alex? Trying to limit what she could do online? It felt like a real betrayal.
Vivian would be home in half an hour. Her head was spinning. She sat facing the door and tried to remember who she was. She was a villain feared across galaxies, one who’d defeated countless other powerful beings in combat. Confronting her girlfriend about some creepy app should be nothing to her.
She’d had a whole plan to bring it up coldly and gradually, but as soon as the door opened she blurted it out right away.
“You don’t trust me, do you?”
Vivian stopped in the door, startled. “What?”
“You don’t trust me,” she repeated more slowly. “Do you?”
“Alex, what is this about?”
“Answer the question.”
“Ok fine,” she used her hip to shut the door and dropped her bag and cape on the ground beside it. “Yes, I don’t trust you.”
“Well that’s- just great.”
“Of course I don’t. What do you want me to say? You’re the most dangerous person in the world. We’ve known each other for six weeks. It would literally be stupid to trust you.”
Well, she had a point there, but it still hurt. “I found the stalkerware on the tablet you’ve been having me use.”
"Security measures, Alex. They monitor all the web traffic on the base,” Vivian's tone was patient, but she was pacing now. “All of the devices we have here have software installed for that purpose.”
“Well, why the fuck didn’t you warn me about that when you gave it to me?”
“I thought you knew!” she threw up her hands. “There’s security cameras in all the common areas of the base- I’ve never mentioned those to you either, because I thought you knew about them."
“I can see those!”
“You can see the software! Haven’t you noticed the little monitoring reminder pop-up that comes up sometimes? It’s down in the bottom corner.”
“Yes,” Alex took a deep breath. “That’s how I found out about it. Just now.”
“Listen, I’m sorry. I really thought you knew it was there.”
“I had no idea! I’ve just been using it for whatever. I didn’t think anyone was watching me.”
“It’s normal these days for corporate-issued tech equipment to come with those kinds of tracking tools installed. Pandemic-era, work-from-home paranoia,” she sighed. “But… I guess you probably haven’t had a normal job in a while, right? I didn’t think about that.”
“I’m not sure if I’ve ever really had a normal job?”
“I guess that makes sense. No alter ego and all. Your resume would be really weird.”
Alex had to crack a smile at that. “Yeah, what would I even put on it?”
“Would you list different atrocities you’ve perpetrated as separate jobs, or just put everything under the heading ‘Supervillain’?”
“Supervillain - Freelance.”
“I’m trying to picture how a career coach would have you spin the mass casualty events. ‘Organizing large events to bring people together - temporarily’.”
“I feel like I should get credit for public speaking skills for some of my monologues.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere!”
They laughed awkwardly. After a moment Vivian turned to face Alex again, looking uncertain. “I'm sorry. I really am. I live immersed in this world of security protocols. It didn’t even occur to me to warn you.”
Alex swallowed. “I guess you’re right that we still don’t know each other that well.”
“We really don't. That was our first fight, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess it was.”
“Would it be all right if I hugged you now?”
“Do you always have to ask?”
Vivian staggered into her arms and squeezed her tightly. Alex tried to let the pressure soothe the shaky feeling in her chest. Apparently sometimes fighting with a hero just felt horrible rather than exhilarating, who knew? After a moment she tilted her head down a little to kiss the top of Vivian’s hair.
Later that night, after being a little stiff and cautious with each other while eating dinner and after Vivian tugging her into bed early for makeup sex, Alex laid awake for awhile. She liked being someone who had makeup sex. It demonstrated they were both passionate people. In books those sorts of scenes were either extra-steamy or vulnerable and emotional, depending on the type of fight the characters had had. It was interesting to find out how it felt in real life.
The matter of the tablet surveillance hadn’t fully been resolved, but she knew she could have put her foot down. Technically she still could put her foot down whenever she wanted to. She just hadn’t wanted to bring the issue back up once they had starting getting along again. No one could stand against her, so it didn’t matter if she left it alone for now. It wasn’t like anyone could actually stop her from using her phone.
It had been a few weeks since she’d last checked her phone. They were at the base most of the time, and often when they left she was busy with whatever their plans were and didn’t bother to turn it back on to check her messages. It wouldn't be a problem though. She and her parents often went a while without speaking between her visits home. Sometimes she went to space and there were no nearby cell towers. They were busy with their friends and hobbies and preferred to catch up in person for the most part.
While Morgan might have started wondering why she hadn’t been home in a while, she doubted that would bother them much either. In the past Morgan had gone off-grid for months on end, so clearly they were ok with this sort of sudden break in communication even if Alex wasn’t. And anyway, unlike Alex, it’s not like Morgan would ever worry about her.
_________________________
One evening Alex was entertaining herself while waiting for Vivian to come back by lying on the couch eavesdropping on top-secret conversations all around the building. Her ears perked up when she heard Ratman’s voice talking to Vivian.
“Miss Galactic, would you mind staying behind for a quick word.”
“Of course.”
A meeting must have just been wrapping up. Alex could hear other people talking and chairs moving around as people filtered out. Eventually she heard a door shut and Ratman spoke again.
“The Crimson Cruiser’s retirement is going to be very difficult for the Association.”
“Yes, it’s a real loss. His skills and experience were invaluable.”
“I know he only stayed as long as he did because of you.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that his own moral principles weren’t sufficient for that, but I’m committed to Alex now.”
“I wasn’t suggesting…” Ratman paused and cleared his throat. “You know, we have never and would never ask anyone to be a- a-”
“A honeypot?” Vivian volunteered. “A whore?”
“Well we- we try to keep it PG here. But if those are your words-”
“Oh no, I really want to know what you were going to call me, Ratman.”
Alex was losing it. She could feel his discomfort from three floors away. Ever since their first date she’d found that listening to Vivian eviscerate people with her words was just as much fun as watching her tear her opponents apart on the battlefield.
He cleared his throat again. “My point is, we would never ask anyone to use… their bodies… to serve the good of the Association.”
“Please, you count on my strength every day.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do. Tell me, Ratman, have you ever been in love?”
“I- suppose I have. Have you?”
“A very long time ago. You understand what a trap it is. You know how it makes you weak. Helpless, even.”
“Yes. I do.”
“Like I said in our very first debriefing about this, I left Red because I spotted a bigger fish. A fish I wanted more. I felt I had no choice.”
“I hope you realize what you’re doing. You have to know that she’ll kill you if you break up.”
“She might. But we risk our lives all the time in this job.”
“I guess I can’t argue with that. Enjoy the rest of your evening, Miss Galactic.”
“You too, Ratman.”
A few minutes later Vivian swept into their apartment looking tired. She hung up her cape and laptop bag as usual, then flopped down on the couch next to Alex and shut her eyes.
Alex looked over at her, amused. “How was the meeting?”
“Which one? I went to way too many meetings today.”
“The last one, I guess.”
“Red announced he’s retiring next month. We went through a lot of committee reassignments,” she sighed. “The meeting itself was boring, but afterwards Ratman called me a whore.”
“Ouch! Want me to kill him for you?”
“I’m still deciding.”
“I overheard that conversation actually. Sounds like he’s pretty worried.”
“Ratman always sounds worried. He thinks he’s everybody’s dad.”
“Yeah but... jeez, what have you been telling these people?”
“Well, the sentimental ones I’ve been telling that I’m working on redeeming you with the power of love. The more cynical ones I’ve been telling that I’m working on turning you with the power of sex. I’m guessing that’s what he was referring to.”
“I guess it was… sweet that he’s worried about you? But I don’t like his implication.”
“Yeah, I mean of course I just tell people what they want to hear, but I hate that everyone finds it so impossible to believe that someone could actually care about you.”
“Oh I uh-“ Alex was suddenly choked up. “I actually just meant the implication that anyone could get away with insulting my girlfriend.”
“Right. I mean, that too. How dare they?”
They sat in silence for a while.
Eventually Alex spoke up. “So... speaking of the power of sex, are you done for the day?”
Vivian smiled without opening her eyes. “Yes I am, what did you have in mind?”
“Well, first I want you to let me cook you dinner. And then afterwards I have a few other evening activities planned for us.”
“Sounds like a perfect plan to me.”