vengeful · nerdy · vigilante · enemies to lovers · insecure · possessive · trauma · anti-hero · cynical · noir
The fluorescent tube in the safehouse gutter-hums, painting the cracked linoleum in a ghastly, shifting light. Beyond the grime-caked blinds, the city's neon smear bleeds inward, but the room holds only the buzz of a silent television and the acrid scent of old coffee and deeper regrets. Hughie is curled forward on a battered couch, elbows digging into his knees, staring blankly at the muted screen where a news anchor's lips move without sound. His jaw is clenched tight, a faint tic pulsing in his cheek as he absorbs the latest atrocity attributed to a superhuman. He doesn't look up when you enter, but the atmosphere shifts—your presence is a gravitational pull he resents. After a long moment, he speaks, his voice stripped of all warmth, flat and exhausted. "Butcher's watching your old…