"Mr Summers! Mr Summers!"

Virgil sighed inwardly but turned to the reporter, plastering his 'Fake Press' smile on his face. "Yes?"

"Rumours are that you've been seen with acclaimed hero Romeo!" The reporter cried into their mic. Virgil was on the verge of rolling his eyes. "Is there any truth behind these?"

He shrugged. "Who am I to confirm or deny rumours? Where's the fun in that?" He straightened his jacket and turned to leave. "Now, if you'll excuse me-"

"People say that the hero's lovestruck. Can you confirm?"

Virgil laughed. "Lovestruck? Well, I'm certainly honoured but-"

"What about you, Mr Summers?" The reporter interrupted again. "Romeo is rather different from the other guys and girls you've dated in the past," Virgil quickened his pace but the reporter kept up, "is there any difference in your feelings?"

"Me?" Virgil asked. He laughed again. "Why would I be? He's just a superhero. He can be - how do I put this? - moulded like any other person." Let the press chew on that for a while. Might actually give him a break.

"Our sources say that you plan to throw him aside like you have with your other partners." The reporter said. "Is there any truth in this accusation? Do you plan to break his heart?"

Virgil sighed. "Madame," he turned back to the reporter, "may I borrow your mic for a second? I assume it's live."

The reporter nodded, looking rather star-struck. Virgil took the mic from her. "If I weren't to throw Romeo aside, I wouldn't be Virgil Summers. However, for the good of the city, I'll keep him around. I worry there may be a dip in heroics if our only government superhero has a broken heart. Besides," he smirked, "he's rather fun to keep around." He handed the mic back.

"And Mr Summers, you are aware that Romeo could be listening to this right now?" The reporter asked. Jesus, they never give up, do they?

Virgil shrugged. "He knew what he was getting into when he agreed to a date with me. Now, please, I have a lot of work to get through." He disappeared down an alley before the reporter to ask him another question.

A small crash at the window drew Virgil out of his work. He took his glasses off and placed them on his desk. Was Romeo here early? It wasn't like him to be punctual...

Turning his lamp down, he stood up and glanced out the window.

No one there. Virgil rubbed his eyes and sighed. When was the last time he'd slept? Was it when he'd been at Romeo's?

He couldn't remember. Either way, he was tired. Really tired.

Something else hit the window and landed on the sill. Virgil blinked. What the actual-

With a small hiss, the top of the cylinder broke off and gas poured out. It made its way into Virgil's office.

Virgil pulled his sleeve over his mouth and nose. He stumbled away from the window, his legs going numb. He fell against his desk, cracking his spine on the corner. He crashed to the ground.

His legs wouldn't move. Trying to force them did no good. They simply wouldn't move.

His hand thudded away from his mouth and nose. Now he had no way to block the noxious gas.

His vision blurred slightly. He shook his head but that was slowly starting to go numb too. The door to his office opened and heavy footsteps crossed the floor.

"Good day, Mr Summers." A gravelly voice said. Virgil tried to lift his head to focus on whoever it was but he couldn't. "And good night."

Virgil's vision blurred and his head slumped forward.

"Ow." Virgil woke very suddenly feeling fuzzy and confused and not in the nice way. He rubbed his hands up through his hair and pushed himself onto his knees.

"They didn't even try tie me up?" He thought, looking around. "Wow, I'm almost offended."

"Hello?" Virgil tried. Crying out always seemed to work.

"There's no point in calling for help." A crackly voice (clearly over an intercom) boomed down. "No one will find you here."

"Yeah, uh huh, sure." Virgil muttered. "Then what's the point of kidnapping me?" He asked louder.

"It's not you we're kidnapping, Mr Summers."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "So I'm just bait for Romeo, huh?" He asked, trying not to sound too bored. So predictable. "Hey, can you see me in here?" He made his voice break. "I think I'm going to cry."

"Don't worry, you have your privacy." The voice sneered.

"Great." Virgil jumped to his feet before nearly toppling over. Someone had (very clumsily) tied handcuffs around his ankles.

At least they were innovitive.

Virgil sat down again and pulled off his tie pin. Having a genius inventor as a brother came in handy for things like files disguised as tie pins or cufflink lock-picks and rings that contained poison (that last one was a bit over-the-top on Logan's part). He gave the chain a quick pull and started filing away at the weakest link.

"What's your plan?" He asked after what seemed to be the appropriate time for someone to compose themself. "Kidnap me and hope Romeo just shows up?"

"Oh, you're not the only piece of bait we left." That sounded like a threat and the way the intercom clicked out afterwards added another level of worry.

Virgil rolled his eyes and ignored the anxiety piling on his chest. Romeo was fine. He was fine, fine, fine and he was always going to be fine. He was practically unstoppable - though Virgil did know a few tricks to make him malfunction.

The chain snapped with a small clink and Virgil replaced his tie pin. He jumped to his feet and did a quick once-over of the cell.

There was just... a door? With a very pickable lock? Did these people really underestimate Virgil Summers this much?

Sad.

Virgil blew a breath up through his fringe and carefully threaded his lock-pick out of his shirt cuff. He glanced down at himself and groaned.

He looked a mess! His shoes - new shoes! - were all scuffed up and one of the laces had been broken. His trousers were covered in dust and dirt and one of the buttons was missing from his shirt. His tie was loose and rumpled and he could only imagine what his hair was like.

He shook his head and knelt down at the lock. He leaned his ear against the door and waited for that satisfying click that meant he was free.

Click.

"Finally!" Virgil jumped up and opened the door.

The first thing to hit him was a waft of a sickly sweet gas. The next thing was a fist.

Virgil stumbled back, tears welling up in his eyes. He pressed the back of his hand to his nose and it came away wet and red. He shook his head and cracked his knuckles.

"Ooh, you absolute bastard." He muttered, glaring at the goon.

Before they could open their mouth to raise an alarm, Virgil pushed them back into a wall. One punch and they were down.

Virgil sighed and rolled his neck, feeling everything crack into place. He stretched his arms out in front of him and sent a flash of lightning down the corridor. It fizzled out before it left the room.

He blinked and tried again. The same thing happened.

Virgil stepped out into the corridor and felt something drain out of his body. Maybe power. Maybe something more vital.

Either way, the guard currently unconscious in his cell seemed to be the only one on the whole corridor.

Again, did they really expect so little of Virgil Summers? This really was just sad.

It was almost disappointing that Virgil didn't get to beat up any more guards. He was imprisoned on the ground floor, barely a corridor away from the entrance. They really weren't trying at all.

That's what worried him.

Surprisingly (and rather annoyingly), Romeo wasn't already there when Virgil left. So that meant he had no ride home. Great.

Virgil sat himself on a rock outside the fort and waited. He took a couple pictures of the fort and the layout around with a secret camera disguised as a button on his collar. They'd be useful for Storm later.

"C'mon, Princey." He muttered to himself, crossing his arms. "I'm waiting."

Almost like he'd been summoned (which he probably had been), Romeo flew down out of the sky. He took a breath and landed in front of Virgil.

"You took your time." Virgil muttered.

"Storm Cloud," Romeo started, "I'm sorry, I had no idea where you were and I had all these minor ta-" Virgil stood up, grabbed him by the cape and pulled him forward into a kiss. He could feel Romeo shock under his lips but by the way he responded, it wasn't exactly like he was complaining.

Virgil pulled back but didn't let go of his cape. "I have had the longest day of my life and I am tired beyond belief. Now is not the time for apologies."

Romeo blinked, still trying to wrap his head around what just happened. "You're bleeding." He said numbly. Virgil brushed down his cape.

"Yeah, I got punched." Virgil said casually. He stepped away from Romeo. "Now- Where are you going?" He grabbed Romeo's cape as he passed him.

"I'm going to give whoever did that to you a taste of their own medicine." Romeo said, somehow sounding more confused than threatening.

"I handled it." Virgil said. "Besides, there's some kind of gas in there. It's like it's draining something. I stepped out there and," he shook his head, "I felt completely spent."

"More than usually?" Romeo asked, raising an eyebrow above his mask. Virgil rolled his eyes.

"Yes, now can we please go home?"

"Say no more." Romeo scooped him up princess-style and flew off, despite Virgil's half-mumbled argument.

Virgil had fallen asleep on the flight back to his house so Romeo let them both in through the window and left him asleep on his bed.

The intercom in his ear fizzled into life. "Okay, so I got through to the photos Storm took," Remus said, "and the building's owned by... R. Apparition Corps. That mean anything to you?"

"No. Why?"

"From what I could find, they've been behind a lot of the recent kidnappings. At least, their buildings have been used as holding houses." Remus let out a little 'hmph' of confusion. "I'll try getting to one of their computers, see what I can find."

"Thanks, Re."

"No problem." Remus' voice had that half-faded quality of distraction. When he said he was going to hack R. Apparition's computers, he literally meant right away. "Hey, how's Storm?"

"Asleep. No lasting damage, as far as I can tell. His nose's stopped bleeding." Romeo turned a corner down to Logan's lab. "Hey, can you find out if R. Apparition Corps has been producing anything along the lines of some kind of gas?"

"Gas?! I mean, sure, but... why?"

"Nothing, just something Storm said."

Remus sighed. "Okay. Be careful out there, Ro. Radio 1 earlier said that Storm was gonna break your heart."

"I live in fear." Romeo said dryly. "See you, Re."

"Byeee." And the intercom fizzed out. Romeo knocked on Logan's lab door and nearly got a spanner thrown at his head.

"Oh, Romeo, it's you." Logan turned around in his chair, wiping grease off his hands. There was a big smudge of oil on his cheek. Romeo decided not to point it out. "What d'you want?"

"Just to tell you he's safe." Romeo said.

"Obviously." Logan said, turning back around in his chair. "S'that all?"

Romeo sighed. "Yup, that's all."

"Good. Bugger off." Somehow, Logan managed to keep his polite tone up.

Romeo walked into Virgil's room and nearly turned back on his heel and walked right out again.

Virgil was stood in front of his mirror, shirtless and inspecting the bruises along his arms and back. He'd obviously been awake a while because his face was clean of any dry blood from his nose and the ends of his fringe were slightly wet.

"Ow, how'd that happen?" He muttered to himself, prodding a bruise on his arm. He glanced up and met Romeo's gaze in the mirror. "You can take your mask off now, Princey. You're in my house, I'm pretty sure you're safe."

Romeo sighed and undid the ribbon behind his head, letting his mask fall away. He sighed again and sat on Virgil's bed, shucking off his cape too.

"How are you exhausted?" Virgil asked. "I'm the one who did all the fighting."

"But I did all the worrying." Roman said, lying down across the bed. "I get to your office a little later than normal and you're gone! Your glasses are still on the desk and your blazer's hanging on the back of your chair. I knew something had happened. Plus, I was already worked up over being late. I knew you were gonna chew my ear off for that."

Virgil laughed a little, a small smile breaking across his face. He pulled a new shirt out of his wardrobe and pulled it over himself. He didn't bother doing it up, though, because of course not! That's just not something Virgil Summers would do and it was really starting to have an impact on Roman's psyche.

Virgil crawled onto the bed and lay next to Roman. "You free tonight?" He asked. "Or does Romeo have to be out on patrol?"

Roman shrugged and rolled onto his side. "Pretty sure Re can handle it. Why?"

Virgil pushed Roman gently onto his back and hovered over him. He tilted his head to the side - calculating - before leaning down and starting to press kisses along Roman's neck. To say that it stole Roman's breath from his body would be an understatement.

"I don't know." Virgil mumbled against Roman's skin. "I just thought it would be fun to," he pressed a teasing kiss to Roman's lips, "break your heart a little more."

Roman swallowed. "That doesn't sound too bad."

This was not meant to be this long-
Nor was the end meant to be this horny! Jesus, I need some kind of cleansing.
Bye,
Blaize