#sunshine and fresh air
“If you make me fight you now,” the hero said without raising their head from where it rested on their backpack, “I will throw you off this mountain.”
“Oh my god, [hero]!” singsonged the villain with their biggest, most shit-eating grin, kicking a brand new hiking boot up on a rock near the hero’s head. “Fancy running into you up here!”
The hero groaned and flung an arm over their face. “It’s daytime, asshole. What do you want?”
The villain tsked their tongue and swiped a granola bar from the hero’s unprotected lunch, open on their lap. “All this suspicion. Can’t a person enjoy a little fresh air and sunshine?”
They were mostly saying it to be obnoxious, but it was, in fact, quite lovely if you went in for this sort thing; wind rippling across grassy slopes, the sunshine sparkling off the city towers below, the sky studded with clouds fluffy enough to choke on. There was a steady trickle of day trippers and health nuts marching up and down the trail. One trio of bro-ish dudes had stopped higher up the slope and were blatantly checking the hero out, sniggering amongst themselves. The villain gave them a look over the top of their sunglasses. The bros quickly pretended to be looking elsewhere.
“Fine. Great. Whatever.” The hero flapped their hand, as if at insect. “Go get your nature on. Don’t let me stop you.”
“God, this view!” The villain chomped down on the hero’s granola bar. It was good. Hiking was hungry work. Next time they’d bring snacks. Not that there’d be a next time. “Look at that. There’s City Hall, and there’s the opera house, and… well, golly. Looks like you can just see over the walls and into [Supervillain]’s compound from this angle! What a bizarre coincidence.”
The hero sat up, no longer playing at laziness “[Villain]…” they started.
“Hey!” A shadow fell. Both hero and villain snapped their heads up… to find the three hiker bros standing over them. “Hey,” the biggest said again to the hero, chest puffed and thumb jabbed at villain. “This guy bothering you?”
The villain bared their teeth and opened their mouth - but the hero was faster. In a half second they were on their feet, their dealing-with-the-public smile on full blast. The lead dude-bro took a half step back.
“Oh you guys are so sweet to check on me,” the hero gushed, even as they curled a hand over the villain’s forearm possessively. “But we’re actually, ah, work colleagues. Just giving each other a bit of friendly shit.”
The dude’s brow creased. “It seemed like-”
“I do appreciate y'all making sure everything’s okay!” the hero sang. “Thank you!”
There was nothing for the bros to do with that but retreat with as much grace as the hero left them and some muttered “glad it’s all okay then"s and "have a good one"s.
"Brutal takedown,” the villain observed as the trio scurried out of sight. “Work colleagues?”
“Yeah, well.” The hero took off their own sunglasses to look villain in the face. The wind whipped strands of hair across their freckled nose, across those brown eyes lit up gold. God, how had it never occurred to the villain before to wonder what hero looked like in the sun, standing on thebside of the mountain? “What are you here to do?” they asked quietly, hand still warm on the villain’s forearm.
The villain pushed their face into a smirk, pulled their arm away from hero’s touch to shove their fists into their pockets. “To warn you. I figured out what you’re up to and I’m a big dummy compared to [Supervillain]. She probably already knows. She’s probably watching us right now.”
“Hm.” The hero gave villain a pointed up and down look. The villain tried not to gulp. “Did you buy an entire outfit, just to hike up a mountain to give me a warning?”
“Don’t blame me for having style,” the villain said, smoothing an imaginary wrinkle out of their TENCEL blend shirt before turning their feet back towards the trail down. “Anyway, you’re welcome. Try not to get murdered, eh?”
“Hey, [Villain]!” the hero called. The villain stopped but did not turn. They didn’t need to. The could feel hero’s eyes on their back, could hear the smile in their voice. “I’ll see you round, right? Can’t let the new outfit go to waste.”
“Never doing this again, thanks!” the villain called back, just as jaunty, and left quickly before they, like the dude-bros, flew too close to the sun and got burned for their trouble.
