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“My brother is coming over in a bit, be on your best behaviour,” Nice blinks from his position settled on the recessed couch of the living room, page half turned on a novel he’d picked up out of curiosity and boredom. He raises an elegant eyebrow at his roommate who scowls at him, hands firmly on his hips.
“Seriously, Nice,” Yin Ying, fellow Treeman Hero and Nice’s Hero Partner (purely platonic even if the younger man was pretty cute and Nice’s type), pauses, avoiding the clear pun before he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, “He’d been badgering me for months to visit now that I’m actually in the Tower, I don’t want him anywhere near this hero business.”
Nice regards his junior with curiosity, it wasn’t often the Commoner asked him for favors and he could understand the younger man’s desire to keep his family safe. Being a hero was inherently dangerous after all, for both the hero and their loved ones. Nice personally never had to worry about his own circle, his best friend being his hero colleague and not a single lover to speak of.
We don’t talk about his lack of a family thank you very much, his sperm donor and birth giver were better off striking his name from the family registry. If they hadn’t done it already.
Nice taps idly on his book, considering before smiling charmingly. Yin Ying leans away warily, he knew that sly smile, it meant Nice had conditions in return for his compliance. He pulls a face before ultimately sighing, regarding Nice with annoyance and resignation, much to his Senior’s delight.
“Speak, what do you want?” Nice simply continues smiling, but before he could list his conditions, the elevator chimes to signal someone had arrived on their shared tenth floor apartment. Yin Ying flinches, whirling around as the doors slide open to reveal… a carbon copy of himself.
Nice regards Yin Ying’s brother with interest, his younger junior never spoke of his family, aside from his younger brother whom he loved dearly. A little too dearly if Nice was honest, wincing slightly at the memory of that hour long tirade when Yin Ying's younger brother had gotten fired a few months ago and subjected Nice, along with Moon and Wreck, to a heated rant about the uselessness of his brother’s ex-boss.
“Lin Ling! What are you doing here, you’re not supposed to be here until noon!” Lin Ling, as he was named, holds up a couple of brown paper bags and grins. Carefree and unburdened, it suited him well, amber brown eyes alight with mischief. Nice couldn’t help but immediately be endeared.
Unlike Yin Ying, Lin Ling was warm and polite, noticing Nice immediately and bowing a little in respect, a shy smile upon his face as he greets the older hero.
“Hello, thank you for taking care of my brother, I’m glad he has you looking out for him,” The smile on Lin Ling’s face could outshine the sun. Nice had to fight the urge to squint, lips already twitching as he mirrored the younger twin.
Nice graces Lin Ling with one of his signature perfect smiles. Though, the effect it had was the opposite of the usual; Lin Ling’s smile freezes and he averts his eyes once it’s deemed socially acceptable to do so. Nice lets his smile drop immediately, regarding the younger twin with growing curiosity.
… Until Yin Ying cuts in front of his younger brother, shielding Lin Ling from view as he glares at Nice, arms protectively wrapped around his sibling.
“Lin Ling brought food for you so I’ll leave it on the dining table. We’re gonna be eating on my side of the apartment.” He herds his brother away, Lin Ling sneaking in a shy wave of his hand with an awkward smile as he is bodily pushed towards the other wing of the tenth floor suite.
With a gentle click of the door to Yin Ying’s side closing shut, Nice is left alone to eye the brown paper bag left on the dining table. He gets up from his comfortable position on the couch, placing the novel on the table absently and the blanket pooled on the cushions as he steps towards the dining table.
It doesn’t register until he’s rifling through the bag to reveal tupperware containers of delicious looking home cooking that his obsession with perfection had significantly lessened. Nice pauses to confirm, realizing that his head, usually buzzing with noise and that inner voice constantly screaming at him to fix, fix, fix- It’s silent, quiet.
Like someone had pressed stop on a very annoying low buzzing video that he didn’t realize was in the background this whole time.
He glances towards the novel that he’d placed on the coffee table, realizing he hadn’t obsessively matched the length and width of the book to align with the table, nor had he tidied up the mess of blankets on the couch cushions. Nice hums as he taps a finger idly against the plastic cover of the tupperware containers, tracing the edge as a contemplative look falls over his face.
He checks his Trust Values, the holographic blue materializing to wrap around his wrist. It looks the same, hm… The only big change was the presence of Yin Ying’s brother… he might need to test the hypothesis if he could get a moment’s time with him at all.
-
As expected, no dice. Yin Ying was insanely protective over his brother, to the point that Nice considered calling a welfare check on the younger hero’s wellbeing. But that would be a waste of resources considering it was nothing but a severe case of Brother Complex.
The younger hero had even resorted to sneaking Lin Ling to the elevator when the younger twin had to leave. Acting like Nice was the intruder in their own damn home.
Weaving through skyscrapers, the older hero sighed. Currently, he was tracking an old nemesis, Khaos, who like his namesake had the tendency to cause chaos wherever he went. He was quite annoying. Mainly because he also could not shut up and insisted on yapping nonsense while causing as much collateral damage as he could, all the while remaining competent enough to always remain JUST out of Nice’s reach.
What a pain.
Hidden in the crook of his ear, his earpiece crackles with static that makes Nice wince a little as Yin Ying’s panicked voice comes through.
“Senior! My brother’s new workplace is near Khaos’ last known location! Please make sure he’s okay!” Nice raises an eyebrow, his Junior sure had a lot of nerve to demand that of him after the lengths he went through to keep Lin Ling away from him. But fine, since the kid was pleading so urgently, as his Senior, it wouldn’t do for Nice to ignore such a fervent request.
“Alright, send me the coordinates, am on my way,” Nice answers evenly, a small smirk tugging at his lips. He’ll deal with Khaos and then talk to Lin Ling about his latent ability to neutralize the nagging voice in his head before Yin Ying catches up. It was a win-win situation.
It shouldn’t be too much for the Perfect Hero of Treeman to handle.
-
Whatever scene Nice was expecting, it did not compare to whatever he found. The coordinates led him to a shopping arcade, the streets lined with collateral damage, loose brick and debris scattered across the pavement and craters where Khaos had no doubt a heavy hand in potmarking the floors and walls.
That was the extent of the damage though, civilian shopkeepers already coming out and cleaning away what they could. They greet Nice with warm smiles and somewhat enthusiastic cheers but are otherwise content to be clearing up the mess from the mild scuffle.
Khaos himself is found in the town square, seated on a bench underneath a large gingko tree and nursing a cup of hot chocolate. As if to complete the already bizarre picture, Lin Ling is seated next to him, nursing his own mug of tea.
Nice stares for a bit at the scene, mentally noting again that his head had quietened significantly. As if Lin Ling’s mere presence acted as a warm blanket against the harsh critique, enveloping and protecting him. Khaos moves to swipe roughly at his eyes, which Nice notes with a start was visible, his helmet that he guarded jealously in all of his and Nice’s fights now discarded somewhere carelessly.
Nice observes from afar, shielded by another gingko tree. He watches as Khaos breaks down crying, watches Lin Ling comfort the other like he wasn’t a super villain that could kill him, watches as the villain discards all his armour and seems to decide to turn over a new leaf.
It was… an interesting ability. Nice wasn’t sure if manipulation was at play here. Not when Lin Ling looks so endearingly earnest in his encouragement, smiling as if he understood the burdens Khaos carried, as if he actually cared for the other. The villain trudges back somewhere, probably back to the shop or back home, Nice couldn’t be bothered to find out, eyes trained intently on his Junior’s younger twin.
Envy and possession bubble up in his chest, Nice is surprised to find he had no trouble identifying the emotions, he wants that. Just one person, one person to see him for him, not for the hero persona he’d painstakingly built since childhood. Not for the Perfect hero Nice but for him, just Nice. And he thinks Lin Ling could be that person.
“Stare any longer and I’ll have a hole in the side of my head, Yin Ying will kill you,” Nice blinked, realizing he’d moved before he could properly process it and is now standing over Lin Ling. Who smiles up at him, equally earnest but tinged with apprehension.
Why was that? Nice wanted to ask, what was it about me that makes you so weary? He smiles instead, biting on his tongue and opting for a better mannered approach.
“Wouldn’t be the first time, he threatened to throw me off the roof one time for even looking your way,” The wince coming from Lin Ling feels too hurt, too raw to be from his imagination but the younger twin simply hides his discomfort and scrunches his nose in distaste. Nice decides not to address it either.
“I’ll talk to him, he’s just… protective of me, that’s all,” the sheepish grin stirs something inside Nice, something that he had been refusing to put a name to for fear of making it real. So he ignores it, tilting his head slightly as he regards the man seated before him, winter snow hair falling into his face. Lin Ling takes a furtive sip of his tea, averting his eyes in an emotion Nice finds familiar but can’t place why it appeared on Lin Ling’s face.
Guilt.
“Hm,” Nice hums thoughtfully, he considers his next move for a moment before plopping himself down in a flurry of billowing white and gold next to Lin Ling. The younger twin yelps in surprise, almost fumbling with his now lukewarm tea, the liquid thankfully contained within the mug. Nice huffs an amused chuckle and simply leans against the younger twin, tucking himself close shamelessly.
Lin Ling freezes, but doesn’t push Nice away immediately which the older hero counts as a win. Lin Ling adjusts his posture a little to better accommodate the weight on his shoulder. In a careful move, the younger man hesitates before gently flicking the strands of hair in Nice’s face away and tucking it delicately behind his ear.
Nice doesn’t offer any comment, doesn’t mention how it was usually preferred that his hair fell into his eyes to give off that mysterious aura, how it actually irked him and irritated his eye to have his hair in his face all the time. He does however hum in gratitude, which he is surprised Lin Ling understands if the soft smile is any indication.
They sit like that for a while, the only sounds coming from the cleaning taking place around them as shopkeepers and civilians united to clean up their shopping arcade. The noise barely bothered Nice, not when he’d lived his whole life surrounded with worse.
But Lin Ling is here, a warm presence with steady shoulders, finishing off his mug of lukewarm tea. Nice notes with some degree of satisfaction that the mug had his hero insignia on it, cheap ceramic merchandise that could be picked up in any local store. But it was his design that Lin Ling picked, it was him that Lin Ling picked.
And for now, that knowledge was enough. They sit like that quietly, completely uncaring of the goings on of the shopping arcade and the slightly amused and teasing stares they’re receiving from the shopkeepers who are no doubt familiar with Lin Ling.
Or at least they did, until Yin Ying bursts into the scene, ripping Nice away from his younger twin with a furious snarl, cradling Lin Ling close to him as he barks insults towards his Hero senior.
Nice and Lin Ling share an exasperated look, the former now placating his agitated Junior as his younger twin offers no help and simply sips from his still full cup.
Cheeky little thing, Nice would be mad if he wasn’t so cute.
-
He learns later just why Yin Ying was so protective of his younger twin. Lin Ling had a firmly expressed desire to want no part of being in the hero industry himself, but had the abilities of a Support type Hero. Able to amplify or reduce the power of any hero.
With powers like that, Lin Ling would be torn apart by power hungry Agencies vying for the title of X and Yin Ying would sooner die than let that happen. Shang De was aware of the younger twin’s powers but had come to an agreement with Yin Ying to better protect his brother.
Nice privately throws his own hat in the ring for Lin Ling’s protection, if his motivations were a bit more selfish and more out of desire to keep the younger twin to himself then… Well, what Yin Ying doesn’t know won’t hurt him.