Villains wear Masks *sequel to Heroes Wear Capes

Chapter 7 - The Villain Code

"You can't kill me without becoming like me! I can't kill you without losing the only human being who can keep up with me!"

~ The Joker

Celeste laughed out loud in the middle of history class.

"You are such an idiot."

Ross sheepishly smiled and tapped his pen on his desk, "I mean, it's not my fault I'm accident prone. I'm blaming genetics."

Celeste lifted her eyebrows and stifled more laughter. "So, genetics punched you in the face, is that it?"

As it seemed, Ross came to school that morning sporting a very obvious black eye. It wasn't pretty to say the least. Despite many years of villainy and fighting Wild Fire, Celeste had yet to give herself a black eye. And then Ross doesn't even put himself in situations like those and he still ended up with a black eye.

Ross frowned. "Okay, so maybe it does seem kind of stupid that I tripped over my phone cable, slipped on my carpet, and then slammed my face into the edge of my dresser, but that phone cable came out of nowhere."

Celeste would never have imagined in her wildest dreams that she'd be smiling and laughing in the middle of history class (literally the closest thing to hell on earth), but with Ross she found she did a lot of things she thought she would never do. Make friends, actually enjoy another human being's company, feel feelings that she had never felt before . . .

But that was beside the point.

"Really? Out of nowhere, Ross?"

"Don't make me feel like even more of an idiot," he pleaded, "it's not like I can convince anyone that I got this thing in a fight."

Celeste shrugged. "I would believe that you got in a fight."

Ross's expression visibly brightened. "Really?"

"I didn't say I thought you won."

On the topic of bruises, Celeste did notice a fresh new bruise on Clark Rogers, her number one Wild Fire suspect, the other day. He lifted up his arms and she got a view of his toned abs, where a big purple bruise had formed. Celeste remembered vaguely hitting Wild Fire in around the same area in their last fight, but couldn't be sure. The more she thought about it though, the more certain she was it was the exact same spot. If Clark Rogers had sported a black eye like Ross's, that would only affirm her suspicions. SNN reported that Wild Fire fought off a couple of thugs last night and they got in a shot or two. Now, he was someone she would actually see getting into a fight. Ross was a bit too . . . innocent.

"You're confidence in me is astounding." Ross rolled his eyes and grinned at her.

Celeste was hit was a sudden wave of emotion. Ross's smile was intoxicating. The way he grinned at her like she was the only one in the room, like she was the only one he ever wanted to see, gave her a rush.

She was only able to convince herself that he didn't mean that much to her when she hadn't seen him for a while. But, when she was in his presence, it was all she could do to contain her happiness. She didn't know what it was about him, and she couldn't quite place the feeling he made her feel when she was around him. She felt more like herself than she ever had before, which was strange. How could one person make you feel like this?

Celeste mainly just tried to write it off. It was just so damn hard when he was sitting there smiling at her like they were the only two people in the world.

"I try really hard to keep it, trust me." Celeste winked.

The bell rang and everyone got up to leave. Ross stopped her before she could get out the door, "You want to come hang out at my house after school?"