#Annabelle Evergreen | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bippot · 4 months

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Ooo can I please request an Adrian Chase/Vigilante x fem!innocent!reader where she is Peacemaker’s younger sister who’s in her early twenties. She hasn’t seen her brother since she was around 5 years old because her Mom took her far away from the horribleness that is Peacemaker’s Father, not wanting her to grow up around that awful environment that Peacemaker was forced to grow up in. Peacemaker wanted to find his baby sister after he was released, but he got wrapped up in Project Butterfly. The butterflies find out about Peacemaker’s sister and threaten to go after her, but Amanda Waller won’t let him leave to go make sure she’s safe, so he sends Vigilante to go get her before the butterflies can get to her and bring her back to the team so that she’ll be protected from the Butterflies. Vig showing up at her apartment, not even explaining who he is or why he’s there before just picking her up in his arms and throwing her in his car lmao (leave it to Vig not to explain why he’s basically abducting her), she’d be crying and hitting him, trying to get away and he’s just like, “Hey hey hey, I’m just saving your life!!”and attempting to calm her down, she eventually calms down and he (finally lmao) explains that her big brother sent him to keep her safe, because bad people are after her. They have to hide out for a while, so it takes them a few months to even get back to the 11th Street Kids HQ. In that time, the two of them get really close and start a romantic relationship (starting to fall in love), him protecting her along the way any time danger happens. When they get back to where the team is, Peacemaker and Y/n have a sweet reunion, and also he’s pretty angry at Vig when he catches the two of them kissing lol

Summary ~ Peacemaker's mother fled with her unborn child when Chris was a teenager. He'd always wanted to find his family again, but he was too slow. After annoying Waller, he must send his friends out to help save his family, and Adrian finds out that he is more than willing to throw himself into danger to ensure that Peace's sister is unharmed.

Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Post-Canon, Rescue Missions, On the Run, Enemies to Lovers, Fights, Car Chases, Car Accidents, Unexpected Visitors, Mild Sexual Content, Alien Invasion, Bad Parenting, Happy Ending, One Big Happy Family, Idiots in Love

Peacemaker, Adrian Chase Masterlist - here

August Smith had pretended to be a nice guy for the first couple of years that Annabelle had been married to him. He'd seemed like a gentleman when they first met. Yes, he held some old fashioned views but so did her father and he was a nice enough man, so Annabelle didn't have any worries about their relationship in the beginning.

It was when Keith was born when his rhetoric began to amp up. Back then Annabelle had chalked her husband's actions up to feeling misplaced because he'd been fired from his job and replaced by someone who was far better suited in that position - who happened to be born with black skin - and needed time to sort out his feelings. But, Chris was born a few years later and he was still spewing vitriol so she came to the realisation that this was who Auggie truly was.

The White Dragon appeared in Evergreen and anyone with a functioning brain cell knew who was behind the mask. There was one guy in town who was gathering a white evangelical cult and going to every protest or social issues discussion to act as abhorrent as they could. And Annabelle was married to that guy. At that point, she had her boys to think about. She wanted to leave her god awful husband in the dust, but didn't want her boys to take up his views and had to go along with what Auggie said or she'd be punished for it.

Keith and Chris were homeschooled for as long as Annabelle could convince Auggie to let her, which didn't take much arguing when she pretended that she was concerned with their boys coming into contact with 'unsavoury folk'. In all honesty, she knew that they deserved to be taught about right and wrong from their parents - Auggie taught them about wrong, so she would teach them about right - but eventually the cult got big enough that there were enough children to create a classroom.

Then, the curriculum was set by Auggie and Annabelle was replaced as the sole teacher by a racist radical. She still tried to guide her sons when they were at home - Keith, maybe due to his age, seemed more receptive to her preaching of kindness than Chris was - and had to make it very clear to her sons they should never repeat her lessons in front of their dad.

As the cult grew, so did the number of Auggie's wives. Annabelle no longer had to deal with whatever he wanted because he'd moved into a separate trailer where he'd be free to do whatever debauchery he pleased without being interrupted by his annoying sons.

When the boys were old enough, both of them preteens, Annabelle had decided to pack all their stuff and drive away with her children. Auggie must've caught wind of this or maybe it was just chance, but the date she'd set for their departure was the day Keith died. After that, all of her hope disappeared and she allowed herself to be trapped in the hellhole her husband had created.

Years passed. Chris became more violent. Auggie was building an army. Annabelle had given up on anything resembling a happy life outside their trailer. It was then that a glimmer of something appeared in her life - saying it was hope that appeared seemed too hopeful at the time - so Annabelle just referred to it as 'something'.

To give her one last shot at making him his heir, Auggie paid attention to Annabelle after ignoring her for so long - he'd been preoccupied with the other women of the cult who were younger and more radical for some time - but now, he was pretending to be the nice gentleman he'd been when they first met. She knew it wasn't true. He was manipulating her to get her pregnant. Yet, Annabelle was so tired and it was nice to live in that fantasy for a few months more, so there was a brief but blissful part of the late 90's in which August Smith didn't abuse his son or wife.

Obviously, once the White Dragon found out that the baby was a girl, he went back to being a piece of shit. Annabelle knew she was on thin ice. And she also knew that Auggie had killed people - so many people - before. She never would've guessed that he'd demand that their baby girl was to be 'discarded' as soon as she was born because he didn't want his followers to think his seed was weak enough to produce a girl and abortions were a sin (any good evangelical can tell you that). The second that came out of his mouth, she knew that this fire under her ass would cause her to flee.

And despite all of her pleading, Chris decided to stay with his father. He was almost 18 at that point, almost a man, and she knew there was no way he was going to be swayed at this point in time. Maybe when he grew up a bit would he finally realise that his father was an abusive, controlling bastard who needed to go to jail for the rest of his days.

14 weeks pregnant and completely alone, Annabelle took what little belongings she had, stole a bag of cash that she knew Auggie left under his bed, and hit the road, never to come back to Evergreen ever again. She changed her name, made her situation known to the police and witness protection services, kept off the Internet, stayed as low profile as possible and tried to give her daughter the life her son's deserved to get too.

Y/N knew all of that. Her mother had been very honest and up front about what the horror she'd escaped when Y/N was old enough, and the entire time, Y/N couldn't help but feel for her brother. He had to deal with that monster all alone and was turned into a weapon because of it. She had vowed that one day she'd meet him and offer a helping hand if he wanted one.

During the whole Butterfly thing, Peacemaker demanded that Economos needed to do him one small, tinsy winsy favour to get back in his good books. Because John had framed Auggie, John now had to discover where Annabelle Smith was as payment. Economos didn't find any paper trail on Annabelle's location, but he did find Y/N. She had school reports, college admission, job applications that all had been saved in a witness protection file that John certainly should not have had access to - obviously witness protection needed to up their security system - under the umbrella name of 'Dragon'.

The file had led him to another that had lots of information about Auggie and Chris that accompanied the two women. It was a simple deduction, but one that John felt really proud about. And just like Economos, the butterflies had people who were collecting data about Peacemaker. Since he'd become their downfall, they'd purposefully taken over a hacker that could get into witness protection just as quickly as John did. They had the same information to make deductions on.

There was a few Glan Tai like institution's around and as The 11th Street Kids made their way through another, Adebayo locked herself in a control room to escape from a horde and - later down the line - a bomb that Vigilante had stole from Peacemaker's belt because he wanted to see the huge jar the aliens kept their nectar in go boom. Whilst killing time, Leota had searched the room and found a file cabinet just under the computer desk that contained information about every member of their team and secrets the Butterflies had found out about them.

Weirdly - or not so weirdly because he rarely takes off his mask - Adrian's file was the shortest. It was a list of his crimes and, though it was a fairly long list, there wasn't a through line that could point to his identity.

Leota's was useless. The big secret they'd attributed to her was who her mother was and, yeah, she'd admitted that on national TV.

Economos had two restraining orders against him. He wasn't allowed to come 100 yards from both Joan Jett and Dolly Parton until they were lifted in 2012 and 2015 respectively.

Inside Harcourts were pictures of a very pretty, dainty young ballet dancer. It took Leota a few minutes to realise that the girl was Harcourt. These weren't damning on their own, but when they were paired with the paper clipping that said, 'The Sun. Ballet Bash - Young Immigrant Taken In For Questioning Over A String of 'Accidental' Deaths' and an article about many suspicious murders that had happened when Emila had been a student at The Royal Ballet School in Covent Gardens, London.

Peacemaker's file was a hefty one. There was so much documentation. About his prison time. About Corto Maltese. About the White Dragon. And the situation around the White Dragon's death. About the cult. About Keith. About what little they could find about Annabelle. About Y/N.

In the depths of her search, Adebayo didn't hear when the remaining butterflies were shot and Vigilante yelled on the other side of the door for her to come out. She had noticed that whoever had been on the computer last hadn't logged out and was getting video updates about where the girl from Peacemaker's file was. As clear as day, whoever this girl was, she was walking around a grocery store without a single clue that she was being watched by a bunch of aliens.

Another one of Peacemaker's bombs was detonated to blast through the control room door. Peace and Vigilante entered, guns drawn, and were prepared to save Adebayo from an alien weirdo. "Dude! You're not dying?" Vigilante called out after taking in the scene in front of him.

She ignored him and chose to ask, "Chris, who is this?" as she gestured to grocery shop girl. Both heroes rushed to catch a glimpse of what the hell Adebayo was pointing to.

"That's my sister." Chris held his finger up to his ear and clicked on the comms to declare, "Harcourt, tell Waller that I need a team to put my remaining family back in witness protection."

Waller wasn't one to be ordered around so was it any surprise that she declined the request for Y/N and Annabelle L/N to be found and placed in a safe house until further notice? And she forbade Peacemaker from making contact with his family to warn them in any way. The 11th Street Kids were ordered to do another sweep of the facility and head back to HQ as quickly as they could.

"Why are you freaking out?" Adrian questioned, bewildered that Peacemaker hadn't come to the same conclusion he had.

"I swear your head is filled with dogshit rather than actual functioning brain goo sometimes, asshole," Chris sighed, slumping against the van seats.

He'd always intended to make contact with his mother again. Chris had no idea whether she'd want that but it was worth a shot, right? Once Economos dug up the fact that he had a sister, Chris had promised himself that as soon as the butterflies were dealt with, he'd reintroduce himself to them. It seems that life has a way of messing with your plans.

"That's rude but I know you're going through some mental shit right now so I'm going pretend that you said something really complimentary to me, and for that, I thank you."

"Can you shut up for five fucking minutes? I need to think and your annoying bitchass voice is interrupting that!" Peacemaker stressed and let his head fall to his hands, his thumbs rubbing far too aggressive circles on his temples.

"Woah, all I was going to say was that Waller said you weren't allowed to go."

"Yeah, no shit, dumbass."

Adrian pulled off his visor and nudged his elbow into the meat of Chris' bicep, suggesting that, "She didn't say I couldn't go. Or Harcourt couldn't. Adebayo will probably get loads of shit from her mom if she did so she's out too. Economos is a pussy."

For once, the idiot had a good idea. "I get your sister. Harcourt gets your mummy. Badda bing, badda boom. You get what you want without disobeying Waller," he explained as if it should've been the first thing on everyone's minds. He looked at Chris expectantly with a smug expression plastered across his face.

Everyone was astonished. They were speechless until Harcourt confirmed from the passenger's seat, "That actually works."

"I'm a genius, yeah," Adrian preened, leaning back against the cool metal side of the van, only to jump away and complain, "Wow, that's really cold against the back of your head! It's not comfy at all!"

It was settled. Vigilante had come up with a plan and they were going to execute it. They'd get to HQ. Adebayo and Peacemaker would stay back and feed other Vigilante and Harcourt updates on the L/N's position so they could have plausible deniability if Waller looked into it as Economos set up the safe houses.

Darkness had arrived by the time everything was ready to go. Harcourt was very polite when she knocked on Peacemaker's mother's door at an ungodly hour and she explained the situation to Annabelle so swiftly that left her house without much fuss. Vigilante went down another route.

In the dead of night, he decided that the best course of action was to smash one of her windows in and climb through there. He stalked through her house in silence but took a misstep and caused the floorboard under his foot to squeak and reveal his position.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

A baseball bat came swinging around a corner and, if he didn't have such good reflexes, would've hit him in the head. He dodged it expertly and dropped his shoulder closer to the ground so he could rugby tackle her into the next room, which happened to be a bedroom. His shoulder connected with her collarbone, the momentum of the push sending them both plummeting onto her mattress with a bouncy thump.

"Sh...Shh...Don't yell at me!" He whined quietly as he tried to calm her down. It didn't work. She tried to wiggle her arm free from under him and take another swing, but he caught her by the wrist and disarmed her. "You're being so no cool right now."

"Get off me, you rapey motherfucker!"

He eased off her because, duh, he was a random man in a mask who'd broken into her house and tackled her onto a bed. He didn't think of the implications of that when he'd done it. "Oh shit, my bad."

"What are you doing in my house?" she demanded, pushing him off her and sitting herself up. Obviously, she didn't trust him one bit and had clocked where he'd thrown her bat and four other things in her room that could be used as impromptu weapons if need be.

"Hi, my name is Vigilante - no, that's not my real name."

"Yeah, no shit."

"Sorry about the, y'know, breaking and entering thing. I know a guy who can fix that window for you in no time. I'll give you his number when we're done with this whole thingamajig," he said so casually it made her even more suspicious.

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a look that screamed, 'what the fuck are you talking about?' so he felt the need to do more explaining. "You're being watched, by the way. Just so you know. I saw on the cameras that you bought a bunch of pads and tampons at the store today so I know what's going on down there, don't you worry. I'll be gentle," he admitted and even winked at her in an attempt to assure her that everything would be okay. It didn't. Y/N was fully convinced that he was a creep about to kidnap her for nefarious purposes.

Just as she lunged for her alarm clock to smash over his head, he caught her by the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder. No matter how much she punched and kicked him, he continued to march straight out the door and towards the Vigilante-mobile parked outside the house. None of her neighbours made any indication that they were aware something was going on, despite the fact a woman in pj's and fluffy socks was possibly being abducted right outside their windows.

"Put me down! Put me the fuck down!"

"Please stop making a scene! I'm trying to save your life and you're making that super difficult right now!"

Completely unfazed, he walked past the vehicle like nothing was happening, opened the back seat door and tossed Y/N inside before getting in the driver's seat. He turned to face her to warn, "You really should put your seatbelt on," and drove off to the coordinates John sent.

"Who is Economos?" she asked when John's caller ID popped up on Vigilante's phone in the car stand thingamabob. Vigilante pressed to answer the call and soon found out that it was a video call, the faces of Chris and Leota appearing on the screen.

"Is Y/N secure?" Chris greeted, his voice racked with worry.

"Yeah, she almost bludgeoned me with a baseball and kicked the shit out of me, but yeah. She's safe, I guess," Vigilante said, trying to sound nonchalant but failing. In the moment, he'd done a great job at pretending that her attacks hadn't hurt. They had. He'd definitely be littered in bruises tomorrow.

"Chris?" Y/N leant forward and got in between the gap in the front seats, her head emerging into view. "Hi, um, why did this masked guy just kidnap me?"

There was a brief moment where Chris just stared at the video call, his brain unable to process the fact his sister had just spoken to him for the first time in his entire life. Leota nudged him with her elbow, mouthing at him with wide eyes, obviously asking him if he was okay. "Hi?" Y/N repeated, waving at him and looking confused. "Can you guys hear me? Hello?"

"Hi sis," he managed to reply after a moment.

The smile tugging at the corners of his mouth made it apparent that despite everything, her brother must trust Vigilante enough that he knew she wasn't in any danger. Then, he realised that she was under the impression that she was being kidnapped and that smile faltered. Vig did say she tried to get away from him.

"Adrian, what the fuck did you do?"

"Dude, you know not to use my real name!"

"How did you approach Y/N's retrieval?" Adebayo cut in, preparing herself to calm Peacemaker down when he heard what Vigilante had done. She didn't know exactly - well, she had a guess - but she knew they hadn't had a quiet and peaceful introduction.

Y/N answered for Vigilante. "He smashed one of my windows in and I thought he was an intruder ready to assault me."

"Vij! I'm going to punch you in the dick when I see you next!"

"Hey, hey," Adrian interjected, "What did I do wrong?!"

"Speaking as a woman, that sounds really scary. I'm sorry he put you through that, Y/N," Leota apologised. "He means well but tends to not think things through. I doubt he intended it to happen in the way that it did. Still, Vig, you should really apologise."

Sheepishly, Vigilante rubbed the back of his neck. "Erm, yeah, sure, sorry. Sorry about that. I didn't mean to... That was an accident. Not intentional, I swear to God. I thought you'd be asleep and I'd carry you to my car without any fuss and, yeah, saying it loud makes me realise how fucked up it sounds," he thought out loud, his focus flitting between the road and what her reaction was.

When all she did was stare at him, unimpressed, he felt the need to continue speaking. He began to ramble, "I imagined it like falling asleep on the couch when you were a kid and then waking up in your bed because your dad carried you there, and like, you're not mad because there's this brief window of time where you thought you had teleportation powers. Who doesn't want superpowers? I know I do, man, but..."

His rant trailed off and a small silence fell between them as he struggled to find the words to express himself adequately. The only thing he could think of doing was repeating, "I really am sorry" again. This seemed to ease some of her worries. She crawled into the passenger's seat and crossed her legs underneath her in an attempt to get somewhat comfortable.

"Why is this happening?" she wondered aloud, grabbing the phone so she was in frame. Vigilante looked across at her as she reached across the console, his gaze lingering slightly longer than strictly necessary on the expanse of bare thighs that were visible thanks to her sleep shorts riding up. He coughed and averted his eyes, focusing instead on the street signs as the city lights flashed in front of them.

"Some alien assholes are trying to get revenge on me but they can't get to me, so the next best thing is to get to you and mom," Peacemaker responded bluntly, yet as the subject of Annabelle came up, his voice got quieter and a little smaller as he added, "How is mom? Well, I got Harcourt to bring her to a safe house so I know she's physically okay, but how is she, like, doing doing? Generally? I haven't had the chance to speak to her yet."

Not having the chance wasn't exactly right. He did have a window of opportunity to video call with Harcourt and his mother but had been nervously freaking out at the time. It had been years since he'd talked to his mom, and he was scared she'd be disappointed with who he'd become. Y/N had never known him when he was a nice, naive kid so she had no idea how unsatisfactory he'd grown to be.

"Mama's doing great actually. She got her doctorate in child psychology last month and she's been working on some new programs for the kids she helps out at the community centre and stuff. Our mommy is a doctor," Y/N told him, pride evident in her voice as she spoke about her mother.

Times had changed, it seemed, and Chris felt a pang in his chest that he hadn't witnessed Annabelle in all her doctoral glory. He didn't know her while she was the best version of herself, but he would eventually.

"Yeah, that's cool."

Their signal got all wobbly as they got further away from the city, the trees thickening as their surroundings grew increasingly wilder and more remote. "We're breaking up, Peace. I'll message you when we get to the house," Vigilante announced before hanging up abruptly, not bothering to ask for permission. He glanced at Y/N. "Me and Peacemaker are BFF's, by the way. I mean, yeah, sure if you ask him he'd definitely say that Eagly is his ultimate best friend - twin flame kinda shit - but I'm his human BFF who saved his ass a bunch of times."

Letting out a sigh, Y/N let out a hum as a response - because, honestly, that's all she had to give - and shifted in her seat to try and get comfortable. She tested out a few positions and found that taking off her cardigan to roll up as a pillow, demanding that Vigilante turn up the heating so she'd be toasty (he was absolutely sweating in his suit and mask but thought he better get on her good side), and resting against the door window with her legs bent at the knee resting on the cushion was the best option. Her foot occasionally dangled near enough the gearstick that Adrian had to swat at them every once in a while so he could change gear.

"Stop touching my feet, creep."

"Stop getting in the way then, weirdo."

A smile crept onto Adrian's face as she stretched to kick him in the thigh. He caught her ankle in his hand and held it there, unconsciously caressing her skin in slow back and forth motions with his thumb, causing her lips to quirk up ever so slightly. When he was sure she was comfortable with him touching her, he pulled her foot into his lap then reached to the same with the other.

"We've still an hour and a half to drive, get some shut eye. I promise I won't shatter any windows and wake you if you promise that you wont try to batter me with the headrest as I drive. Deal?"

Y/N nodded her agreement and settled down to sleep. In her head, Y/N thought over exactly what had happened to her in the past few hours as she drifted off. It was a lot to make sense of and even if she somehow figured out how to wrap her brain around the fact she'd been kidnapped by her brother's BFF on his orders because aliens that look like little beautiful bugs were trying to hunt her down, she would've been more vigilant, but strangely, she felt comfortable enough in her kidnapper's presence to kick her feet up and turn her consciousness off.

There might be a lot more to understand in the future but for now she was too tired to care.

Looking at her, you wouldn't be able to figure out that Y/N and Peacemaker were siblings just by their faces. They didn't look anything alike. Adrian thought that his buddy was a good looking dude, but he wasn't on Y/N's level of beauty. As she slept, Adrian had to refrain from staring at her so he'd focus on driving to, y'know, not make them into roadkill but it was like tearing your eyes away from a Van Gogh painting or a Greek statue made out of the most perfect marble ever created.

Although, she snored so loudly that he had to turn the radio up just a smidge so he would actually be able to hear the songs that were playing in the background.

They were almost at the safe house when whoever was behind them drove straight into the back of the Vigilante-mobile, which perked Y/N up in an instant and made Adrian yell so many profanities. "What the fuck is going on?!" Y/N snapped awake, any grogginess that she might have felt directly after waking was pushed aside by her sheer panic.

"They found us!" Vigilante said, his voice tight and tense as he fought to hold the car steady, "There's a gun in the glove compartment, do you know how to shoot?"

The car sped up to come up right beside the side of the Vigilante-mobile and veered to smash right into it, breaking the window in one bang. "My mother escaped a redneck cult headed by a super villain, so yeah, I know how to shoot," she quipped, opening the glove box to retrieve the gun. She clicked the safety off, aimed the gun towards the vehicle's tyres when squeezed the trigger with no trouble.

"Shoot the people! Shoot the fucking people, not the car! Shoot the fucking people!" screamed Vigilante frantically, his voice growing louder and higher with each word.

"I don't want to kill anyone!" she yelled, shooting another bullet into the back tyre. "Oh my god! Oh my god, I'm gonna die. We're gonna die. Holy sh-"

"Give me the gun, Y/N!"

Vigilante snatched the gun out of her hands roughly and fired at the driver without hesitation or mercy. The driver was killed instantly, causing its head to slump against the wheel and press his forehead against the horn. The butterfly in the passenger's seat made a move to grab the steering wheel, but Vigilante took another shot and put them down quickly.

With the car now unmanned, it continued on its path to collide with the Vigilante-mobile, swerved it off the road entirely and pushed it onto its side. The moment it came to a halt, Adrian was urging her out of the broken windscreen - yeah, he accidentally put his whole palm on her ass to push her in the right direction - and scrambled after her to escape the crash zone.

"Oh shit, my car!" Vigilante whined as he saw his precious Sebring destroyed beyond recognition in a matter of seconds, his heart racing and feeling extremely uneasy. "Fuck! RIP the Vigilante-mobile, you were the fucking best. I fingered Tracey from the Starbucks opposite the cinema twice in there!"

"Do cars blow up? Or is that just a movie thing?"

"Fuck, I don't know. We better run just in case. Shit shit shit!"

He picked Y/N up like he'd done previously that night, but unlike last time, she went willingly and didn't kick him at all this time. He started running as fast as they possibly could away from the scene of the ambush. Once he was a distance he believed was adequate away, he gently set Y/N down.

"You okay?" Vigilante asked worriedly.

She sighed and glanced down at herself. Some of the broken glass had cut parts of her skin that was showing, so anything under the sleeve of her t-shirt and below the hem of her shorts was littered with nicks of varying severities and sizes.

"I think this looks worse than it actually is," she suggested, holding her arms up to show the cuts on her forearms and making Adrian wince sympathetically. He tenderly placed his fingers on her elbow and turned her arm so he could examine them further.

"They hurt."

"Yeah."

"Okay, shit... lemme think for a minute."

Adrian rubbed his temple as he pondered over his options. He knew there was a first aid kit in the safe house, but where was it? He'd never been great with orienteering and getting places without Google maps, and he'd left his phone in the Vigilante-mobile. So, he could either lead Y/N through a forest even though he had literally no idea what direction to go in, or risk climbing back into the possible exploding car to have a guide.

"I'll be right back," he warned Y/N before he started heading back in the direction from which they came.

"What the fuck are you doing?" She followed after him, her gaze shifting nervously around the area as if she expected to be ambushed again any second.

"Gonna find my phone. It shouldn't take more than two minutes."

Like an idiot, he climbed back into the car to retrieve his phone, the gun, and the packet of Jolly Ranchers he usually kept in the cup holder but had flown to the dash when the car turned onto its side. He also wrestled with the boot in an effort to get it open because there was extra clothes and snacks stashed inside a gym bag in there, and eventually yanked it open out of pure brute force.

Once he got the goods, he was hurrying back to Y/N. "Do you want a Jolly Rancher?" he offered casually, brandishing the packet in front of him. The packet was squished in between them as she trapped him in a hug.

"What's going on here?" Adrian wondered as he peered down at her curiously. "Are you at the cryie, emotional stage of your period?"

"I'm not on my period. Women tend to buy sanitary products before their periods start. That is, unless they've still got some or forgot and left it too late so that's the instance when they buy them during."

"Ah," Adrian said, nodding in understanding although he didn't really understand. She hadn't explained why she was hugging him, but it still was nice of her to do so and gave him some kind of comfort after he'd risked his life for a mobile phone.

Oh! She thought the car was going to explode and that he was going to die in a big fiery bang while she stood helplessly by as her mind raced in circles, wondering if she was going to have to fend for herself.

"I'm okay," he reassured, patting her hair softly and a little awkwardly. This kind of concern was new to him, giving and receiving. His hand lingered near the back of her head as he stroked her locks in what he hoped was a soothing manner since he certainly noticed that she leaned forward until her head laid against his chest piece and was taking deep breaths to calm her nerves and relax herself in his embrace.

He didn't know whether to feel happy or scared that someone cared enough about him to worry about his well-being, so he settled for a mixture of both. "We should start walking to the cabin," he suggested quietly and cleared his throat as he pulled away to get enough space to rifle through the bag to pull out some warmer clothes for her to wear.

"It's getting cold and your clothes have shards of glass and blood on them and your shirt is a little ripped, so yeah, you should put these on. I'll, uh, I'll give you some space to do that." He walked backwards, putting a few steps between them as he turned away shyly. "Just tell me when you're all done."

If somebody had told her that she would be changing out of her bloodstained pj's and practically getting naked on the side of a remote road in the early hours of the morning, she would've laughed at them and gone on her merry way to buy tampons in preparation for next week when Aunty Flow arrived with an achy fury.

"Does that bag have any shoes in there?" she questioned once she was dressed and tapped him on the shoulder, signalling him to turn around.

"Uh, no. I guess not." They both diverted their gaze to her dirty fluffy socks and realised they'd be less than adequate when trekking through a patch of thorny forest and mud. "I could give you a piggyback?"

"You really jump at any opportunity you're given to carry me, huh?" she teased playfully. "I'll take it, thank you."

So, with Y/N on his back like Yoda on Luke, the pair delved deeper into the forest and followed the inconsistent Google maps directions until they finally reached the safe house. They made it to the front door to find it open and a police officer already standing outside, inspecting the scene.

"Is everything alright?" the man inquired, looking up at Adrian from underneath his brows.

Vigilante let Y/N's feet drop to the floor and pointed his gun at the officer. Why was he here? Why was he the only one here? This was supposed to be a top secret location, so why somebody here? Economos was the only other person who knew. Was this officer at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or had they been compromised? Shit, they'd been compromised. How else would the butterflies have known on what road their car was on?

The cop was dead before he reached for his gun. Adrian pulled the trigger, and he heard the satisfying click as it hit its mark, killing the butterfly instantly. The sound seemed to echo in the forest for a brief moment before stopping, leaving nothing behind but the dead body of the officer - which wasn't a great look, but hey, the pig had an alien in his head - lying lifeless on the ground.

Kicking the body out the way, he pulled her through the threshold. "We don't have much time. There should be a landline in here, I'll call. You find the first aid kit," he ordered. Y/N nodded and ran off towards the bathroom as she assumed that was where it would be while Adrian found the landline to make the call.

"Economos? Hello... hello! Are you there? Hello?!" Adrian squawked into the receiver, panicking when the call wasn't picked up. "Come on, dye beard! Come on, man, pick up the fucking phone!"

"I thought I told you guys to stop calling me that," John complained on the other line. "What's taken you guys so long?"

"We were hit off the road and our cabin had a butterfly waiting outside it."

John swore under his breath and could be heard calling for Harcourt to figure out what to do next but she wasn't there. She was at Annabelle's safe house - which actually was safe and there hadn't been any problems on their end at all - and would have to be called to get her opinion.

Peacemaker, who'd been asleep because he fully believed his family had been safe when he lay down on the couch, was startled awake at the sudden yelling and rushed to his feet to investigate the commotion. "What's going on?" he asked, rubbing at his eye with the back of his hand.

"Dude, Economos's safe house wasn't fucking safe at all!" Vigilante whined to his best buddy.

"Is my sister okay?"

"She's got some minor cuts and scrapes, but she's fine," Vigilante assured him before glancing over to see that Y/N had come out of the bathroom with a bright red suitcase that had a cross stitched in the corner in her hand. "We've got a bandages and stuff but our main problem right now is that the butterflies know where we are, so we need to get the fuck out of here. Any ideas, gang?"

Adebayo spoke up, "What about your car?"

"Totalled."

Some rustling outside caught their attention and Adrian was handing the receiver over to Y/N so he could go to check that out, taking his sword from his sheath as he walked. "Hi, Vigilante has gone to - I don't know - do something incredibly reckless, so hi, it's me talking to you now," Y/N greeted the others on the other line, nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot whilst keeping one eye on the window as she listened carefully.

"Yeah, he does that often," a male voice said. She knew it wasn't her brother's cause she knew what he and Adebayo sounded like thanks to their previous call, so this must be the one Vigilante named Economos. "You two have limited options, okay? We can't ask for backup or any additional means of transportation, but there should be a wad of cash in the jewellery box in the bedroom."

Y/N went to find that immediately and opened the top drawer of the jewellery box, finding the money neatly tucked inside it. It was only at that point she noticed that this safe house only had one bedroom - which kinda made sense as it's supposed to be small and inconspicuous - but she was a little conflicted about the fact she wouldn't get a 'there's only one bed, we'll have to share' romance cliche was the masked idiot.

"Okay, got it. What now?"

"There's a gas station about four miles down the road. Gather what you need. Pay in cash. Steal a car if it's possible. If it's not, there's a junkyard another two miles east of there that will probably have a working rust bucket or -"

Two shots rang out and thudded into the front door, interrupting Economos and causing Y/N to flinch involuntarily. Five seconds after that the phone line cut off and Vigilante was running in, yelling, "We've got to go now!" He grabbed her hand and began yanking her away from the cabin.

One more body was sprawled by the door - though this one had obviously been decapitated rather than shot that time - and another would hit the deck as the pair went to go around the side of the cabin and come across another butterfly. Once again, Vigilante was quick to draw his gun and shot at it, shooting the damn thing dead and sending it tumbling into the bushes nearby while Y/N watched, dumbfounded.

"You're really good at this!" she exclaimed when the last of the visible bugs were killed. He shrugged (his brain was going fucking wild and he was trying not to show it) and held his free hand out to help her step over part of a fallen tree.

It took them the rest of the morning to find the petrol station and, despite the fact he kept offering, Y/N declined when he offered to carry her. They had a lot of walking to do. It would slow him down, and therefore them down, if she was lazy and continued to be carried around like some damsel in distress - which, yeah, she technically was. She would have to deal with soggy socks that had so many rips and holes in them that she may as well have taken them off to venture into the forest barefoot.

As soon as they reached the gas station, they were both beelining for the bathroom, but since he hadn't surveyed the place yet, when Y/N went to close the door behind her, Adrian was barging his way in. "Hey!" she said far too loudly, so Vigilante pushed her further into the loo with his hand over her mouth.

"Quiet!" he whispered harshly. "There are other people here that can hear you."

"I'm not the one being suspicious! You just shoved a woman into a bathroom dressed in hockey pads and a ski mask, dumbass!" she hissed, yanking his wrist away from her face so she could speak properly.

His eyes widened comically for a second. "Yeah, it would probably make it harder for the butterflies to spot us if I wasn't in uniform," he mumbled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck as he looked up at the ceiling. There was another set of clothes in the bag that he could use. "I'll clean your wounds and then I'll get changed, sound good?"

She made a face. What he said did sound good, but Y/N had some other things to take care of first. "I came in here because I need to pee."

"Okay, then pee." He turned away as he started to unzip the bag to pretend he was really thinking through his clothes choice - there was only one set of joggers and a black shirt, exactly the same as she'd gotten - and not watch her as she peed. He laughed to himself, "Go piss, girl."

Sat on the loo, Y/N reached out to swipe her hand under the automatic drier so the room wouldn't be filled with the sound of her pissing. Hey, everyone's gotta do it, but it's still awkward if that's the only sound bouncing off a gas station bathroom when you're stuck in there with a guy you met earlier that night. It wasn't her fault that his male anatomy meant that he was more than happy to take a break whilst they were in the woods to piss against a tree.

If she knew that hiking was on her agenda that night, she may have invested in a She-Wee.

"I'm, uh, I'm done," she squeaked once her bladder was dealt with. Her face scrunched slightly, but the embarrassment faded when she looked up to see the back of his head. The actual back of his head, showing off the hair that he'd been meaning to get cut because it was getting long enough that it was starting to curl again, and then he turned around slowly and she felt her heart rate spike.

They were staring straight into each other's eyes without any red pane in the way, neither backing down nor looking away, and Y/N couldn't help the smile that spread onto her lips as his lips parted and let out an involuntary breathy laugh.

"Um, hey."

"Hi." His voice seemed to crack, just a bit, and he cleared his throat before he tried again. "Hello."

"Hi," Y/N repeated quietly.

She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and for a second she wondered if maybe she was dreaming - a really weird and violent dream - because this guy was so fucking cute. And hot. Like, super hot. Not just hot, but dorky hot too, with his adorable messy hair, and big, green eyes, the kind of jawline that could cut glass, and those lips.

"What's your name?"

"Adrian."

"Nice to finally meet you, Adrian."

In an instant, his face lit up as he heard his name come out of her mouth and he grinned from ear to ear, looking so relieved that his shoulders dropped down a bit, and the tenseness he'd been feeling about her seeing his face had been building up dissipated.

"I should, uh, y'know, start on your..." He trailed off but gestured to her wounds so she knew what he was trying to say.

"I think the ones on my arms are okay. There's a few on - on my - on my thighs that are, yeah, they're painful," she started, biting her lip before smiling softly, almost shyly.

"Can I see them?" She nodded but stayed perfectly still. "You'll have to... and I don't want you to get the wrong idea here; you're really pretty and, yes, if we were in a totally normal situation and I told you to take your sweatpants off, it would definitely be because I want to eat your pussy, but we're not in a sexy situation so it's for a complete different reason... and that reason is that you'll have to pull your sweatpants down so I can give you medical aid."

Without his mask on, Adrian lost whatever filter he may have had as he stared at her, his eyes wide, his breathing shallow, and it was obvious he couldn't believe that he was saying the words that were coming out of his mouth. He didn't want to offend her - god knows he doesn't want to offend anyone really - but the way she was looking at him like he was some kind of prince that had saved her from distress really made him nervous. He wasn't a prince, he knew that. He was a trigger happy imbecile with no immediate family and no prospects in life.

"Is... is that... is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's okay."

Y/N pulled down her sweatpants slowly, her face growing warmer with every inch of exposed skin exposed to the light, and as she sat herself down on the toilet lid, she braced herself for the moment the hot superhero dude put his hands all over her. He knelt between her knees and ran his fingers gently across the worst injuries first, his face screwing up in concentration. He paused momentarily to look at her thighs before moving on, making sure that her cuts hadn't got infected during their journey out here. Luckily, they hadn't.

Adrian was so gentle with her. It took her all her will not to cry because, fuck, it hurt like hell when he pressed a little too hard or moved a certain way, but she couldn't help it as tears pricked at her eyes, blurring her vision as he worked. When it became apparent to him that she was crying silently, he stopped altogether.

"Hey... hey, I know it feels so bad but you're fucking killing it. You're doing so good." He brushed the back of his hand along her cheek to wipe away some stray tears, leaning towards her and brushing a strand of hair out of her face that had fallen forward to cover one eye. "Just a few more for me, yeah? It'll be over so soon now."

Sniffing, Y/N nodded, hastily wiped at her eye and dealt with it. It was difficult not to squirm underneath his touch, but she managed it. When he was satisfied and gave her a thumbs up that everything was bandaged and cared for, Y/N thanked Adrian by giving him a sweet kiss on the cheek, which earned her an even bigger grin.

Then, it was her turn to look away as he got changed and she resisted the temptation to take a quick glance. That would be rude. He didn't take a peek when she got changed... Did he? She spent her time transferring the first aid kit into the gym bag so they wouldn't have to 1) have two bags, and 2) answer unnecessary questions about why they were carrying a bulletproof suitcase filled with bandages.

Obviously, it's not immediately suspicious to carry around a first aid kit, but it comes with the assumption that they had medical knowledge - neither of them had did - and that ensured that people could ask them questions that they'd have no idea how to answer.

They managed to leave the bathroom at the exact right time to see a drunk driver barrel into the gas station, park up and leave the ignition on as he went inside to buy a four pack of beer, slamming the door shut and giving them a perfect opportunity to steal his pick up.

"We're actually doing a good thing," Adrian reasoned as he drove away. "That asshole was drunk as a fucking skunk and it's, what, 8 am. He could've got in a serious accident and killed an innocent family of Mexicans on their school run."

"Is the fact that they're Mexican relevant in any way?"

"No, I don't know why I added that detail," he shrugged.

He kept checking the rear view mirror every now and again to make sure they weren't being followed as they got back on the road and headed towards the nearest populated area, where they could hopefully find a cheap motel to rent a night or two.

"Do you wanna switch? You've been awake all night. I can drive if you want a rest," Y/N offered, knowing full well how tired he must be after a long, strenuous night of car crashes, gun fights, fireman carrying her, and hiking through nature. Y/N had only done two of those and was feeling the exhaustion.

"Nah. I'm good." He flashed her another bright smile and patted her leg in reassurance. "Thank you, though."

Eventually, they came across a grimy and Bates Motel looking place and, although Y/N wanted nothing more than to sleep, she decided it was best that they check if there's a peephole in the shower. They'd find out that there wasn't one, thankfully.

It was just as dingy inside as it had been outside with its faded yellow paintwork, stained carpet and cheap looking furniture that were probably older than their entire lives combined. The whole motel had a creepy vibe but it was cheap and the receptionist didn't bat an eye when they didn't sign the motel ledger when they checked in. It seemed that they had to swap out comfort for their anonymity.

"One bed," he pointed out as they opened the door and stepped inside.

Ah, her 'there's only one bed, we'll have to share' romance cliche was back in full swing! Y/N smiled, shook her head, and placed a do not disturb sign on the handle before heading in behind him and setting the bag down next to the mini fridge. They stood idly at the foot of the bed for a while, not exactly sure where to go from there. They'd managed to survive long enough to earn a rest and, now it had arrived, neither of them knew what to do with themselves.

"Do you want to use the shower first?" Y/N suggested after about three minutes of silence.

"Sure."

"Shall I order takeout? I saw some menus downstairs that I could grab to see if they do lunch deliveries. Or something."

"On your own?"

It wasn't supposed to sound so patronising but it did, which made him cringe. He meant it as a 'remember aliens that look like ordinary people are after you so going out in public probably isn't the best' but his tone was far too condescending. He looked away, ashamed, and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Shit, he didn't mean to sound that shitty.

"Fine! I'll sit down and - I dunno - read the fucking bible while you show off how competent you are! Wow, Adrian, do you want me to put in a good word for you with my brother? Maybe then he'll actually like you over his weird ass bird!" She stormed towards him and grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking him towards her until they were eye to eye, staring each other straight in the eye. "Don't treat me like I'm a fucking child."

The look in her eyes was terrifying - he could tell exactly who her father was at that moment - and he couldn't help but feel intimidated. Adrian had a gun in the back of his trousers and she was completely unarmed, why did he feel so threatened? She was smaller, weaker, more defenceless than he was, and yet there she stood, staring him dead in the eye without blinking, with a look in her eyes that told him he better apologise.

But, he didn't. Words wouldn't form. His brain was running wild and somehow devoid of any coherent thoughts, his tongue felt heavy in his mouth, then his focus flitted down to her lips, just for a moment, and then back up again.

"Look, do whatever you want. Shower/don't shower, I don't give a shit. I'm hungry so I'm going to find some way to acquire food and if I get murdered by a bunch of bugs, well, at least you don't have to play babysitter anymore," she said before turning on her heel and attempting to storm out. She didn't get far however; Adrian reached out and grabbed her arm to pull her against him roughly, grabbing hold of her waist, holding her firmly against his body.

For a split second, she froze up, surprised by his sudden display of strength, then attacked him with a kiss that sent both of them tumbling backwards onto the wall. Adrian's back hit an awful picture of Elvis onto the floor as he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, lifted her, and pinned her to the exact spot where Mr Presley had been hanging.

"You're so annoying," she snarled as his mouth moved along her neck and sucked on a particularly sensitive part of skin, causing her to gasp sharply and arch her back. Her hand automatically curled up against the back of his head, gripping onto his hair.

"You're a spoiled brat," he countered with a growl as he threw his glasses off and dragged his nose down her collarbone until it was firmly in her cleavage, inhaling deeply as he let a soft sigh escape him. It was intoxicating; she had gotten under his skin, taken control of his heart and made it pound erratically in his chest. If she asked, he would do anything she asked of him without hesitation. Anything.

It took a lot out of him to fight the desire, to keep his emotions in check because he knew it wasn't going to go down well with his BFF, but Adrian couldn't help himself. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to lose himself in the warmth of her body. All he wanted was for the both of them to forget everything else, for them to live in this moment forever, with her clinging on to him desperately like her life depended on it and his hands travelling everywhere they wanted to.

There was no time for restraint anymore. There was only lust. A primal urge to taste and touch her, taste her and touch her in ways that left her breathless, touched her like it was forbidden, like it would destroy his sanity if it wasn't allowed to.

In 3 big steps, he carried her to the bed and laid her down. Their lips reconnected, their tongues tangling together hungrily, desperate sounds escaping as Y/N yanked Adrian down on top of her and pulled at his clothes to get rid of them as fast as possible. She mumbled, "Take everything off," into his mouth and he did just that.

Adrian stripped down to his boxers as quickly as he could, then did the same for her - although his touch was a lot less frantic and heavy-handed so he didn't press down into her injuries - and just stared at her chest, drinking in the sight of her naked body underneath him.

His attention was so consuming that it caught her off guard. The intensity of his stare was overwhelming and she had no idea how to react to such intense scrutiny. "Stop acting like such a virgin," she complained (half-heartedly) as she propped herself up on her elbows. Despite her words, he could tell she was enjoying his gaze immensely.

"Geez, you really need me that bad, huh? We only met yesterday and you're already so impatient," Adrian teased against the shell of her ear. He nibbled on her ear lobe gently before moving his lips behind her ear directly on her mastoid bone and perching his butt down on her thighs. She rolled her eyes, her cheeks burning, and she averted her gaze bashfully.

And when he added a cocky, "Either you really like me or you're desperate. Maybe it's both," she was tempted to smack the grin off his face, but she refrained from doing so because it was hot. So damn hot. Y/N bit down on her lip to stop herself from insulting him further.

Any and all of her sharp tonguedness vanished as the tips of fingers mapped the contours of her chest, caressing and teasing and leaving goosebumps wherever they went. "What's got you all quiet? Don't tell me you've turned shy, Y/N."

"You're so hot, oh my god," she breathed, saying exactly what was on her mind.

All of his life, Adrian never considered himself to be hot. He'd been a butt baby for most of his existence and had only noticed an increase of romantic interest in him in the past couple of years. Thanks to Vigilante, he knew he was more muscular and well built than he had been but he was still the same big ol' nerd who'd spent his formative years getting picked on and berated for being weak and small and lacking confidence.

One of the hottest people he'd ever seen considered him to be hot? Well, that surely meant that he was hot. It was a fact. And did he need an ego boost l? To those who didn't really know him, absolutely not. To anyone that made the decision to see past the bumbling asshole facade, they knew he needed it desperately.

"Why don't you show me how much you like me? Huh, babe?"

Peacemaker wouldn't be happy that Vigilante banged his sister but, hey, Peacemaker wasn't there. And he certainly didn't need to know that halfway through, the hotel cleaner clearly missed the do not disturb sign and walked right in to find a guy she didn't know with a girl she didn't know on his lap. Judging by her face and the monotone way she said, "I'll come back later," she'd definitely been through that situation so many times before.

They let out a bunch of giggles as the door shut behind the maid, both laughing away the awkward tension of the unexpected voyeuristic incident. Y/N let her sweaty forehead fall to his temple and let out a snort that sent them tumbling into another batch of giggles. It took a few minutes of catching their breaths until Adrian spoke up, his voice laced with amusement.

"I like your laugh. It's very cute."

"Shut up," she retorted a little shyly and hid her coy smile by kissing him. It wasn't an effective concealment, though, because Adrian could feel the way her mouth was upturned against his.

"You wanna start moving again, baby, or do you want me to take over? Cause I think you should cum again," Adrian taunted, gripping onto hips to begin rocking them both back and forth gently.

There wasn't any other interruption this time. They enjoyed each other slowly, unhurriedly, languidly, and it was wonderful to let themselves be held and worshipped and savoured like that, without any expectations or restrictions. And once they were done and satisfied, they simply lay there together.

Y/N glanced to the side, her breath starting to calm, and asked, "Are you a hugger?"

"Not usually." He mimicked her and turned his head to make eye contact. "Are you?"

"Sometimes."

He gripped onto her biceps and tugged her into a hug. She responded instantly, wrapping her arms tightly around him as her cheek pressed itself flush against his shoulder.

"Sorry that I was mean earlier. The stress finally got to me, I guess," Y/N apologised, her words coming out a little muffled because her face was squished against his skin.

"Don't worry about it," Adrian said. "It was super hot."

Another batch of giggles ensued and then, at some point, they just stopped and fell into a daze. It wasn't quite a nap but they weren't fully aware either. They were just quietly existing in the space that they'd created for themselves, content and comfortable.

Sure, actually getting some sleep would've been better. Or showering. Or finding something to eat. But they'd been moving and thinking and planning every single single moment for the past 15 hours and needed a moment to just be.

That was until Adrian's phone buzzed. It was at 7% and they were surprised it was still going strong. "Can you read this for me? I don't know where my glasses are," Adrian requested, handing Y/N his phone which had been resting on the nightstand beside him. He scooted slightly closer and watched as she took over reading it, a frown settling deep between her brows as she read the words aloud.

Unknown: HQ compromised. Stay on the road until further notice. JE will contact you with updates when we have them.

- LA

It took Adrian a while to remember who the initials related to - to make it easy, couldn't Leota have just said her and Economos' names? - and he could see Y/N working out what her life was going to be like for the next however long. She had a job, friends, and obligations she'd made time for that were being pushed to the side because of her brother that she'd never met before. She had no idea what was waiting ahead of her.

Hell, Y/N had no clue if Chris was still alive. What about her mother? How long would it be until they were reunited? Adrian could see the gears turning in her head as she tried to figure out all of the possible outcomes and he wished he could give her something to ease her pain. Even briefly.

"Hey, looks like you'll have to find a way to deal with me for a bit longer," he announced, looking at her mischievously as he started stroking his hand along her bare hip in slow circles.

"Oh no, how will I ever do that?" she replied sarcastically and gave him a fake frown.

"Looks like I'm just gonna have to find a way to keep you entertained," he continued, leaning down and brushing his lips against hers tenderly. Her eyes fluttered closed and she leaned into his touch, allowing him to deepen the kiss and deepen it even further until it became feverish and passionate yet sweet and caring all at once.

From that point, they were inseparable - partly for survival, partly for their need to constantly be touching each other - and spent the next couple of months bouncing from state to state, city to city, gas station to gas station.

Their first move was to get as much possible of their bank account in physical cash so they took the maximum allowed from ATM's whenever they could. Obviously they were leaving a trail of where they'd been but the wad Economos had left in the safe house wasn't enough to sustain them.

They'd used half of it to buy a banged up minivan that someone had turned into a camper, but they still needed food and clothes and fuel and a charging cable for Adrian's phone.

Neither of them had been particularly well off before this - Y/N was still living with her mother, who at the time of her kidnap had been away on a job interview in the neighbouring state, and Adrian was a busboy that spent a lot of money on weapons - so that money was running out too.

Life in the camper wasn't so bad. It was cramped and tiny, sure, but it was warm and comfy, and it was far easier to flee from suspected butterflies in a house on wheels than have to decide whether to leave all their stuff in some random hotel or take the risk to attempt to retrieve it.

Still, when another update came in, they were more than ready to read it and get back to 'normal' life.

"Darling, your phone just went off," Y/N called out from inside their van, heating up their food from the night before on a tabletop skillet. Adrian was by the creek they'd parked next to, washing blood and dirt from their clothes after their most recent run in with the butterflies, and the moment he heard her, he let a pair of his underwear accidentally drift downstream as he walked away.

On his way to read it, he mumbled, "Smells good, babe. I'm so hungry," and pressed a kiss to her forehead as he passed Y/N, who smiled up at him in a way that made him feel like the most loved man in the world, and was a little confused at first before he realised Economos had sent him coordinates.

He was pushing his hand in her field of vision as soon as he googled where the location was, interrupting her as she was about to give their noodles a mix. Y/N made a surprised face and grabbed the phone to make sure she was reading the screen correctly. "Evergreen? Do you think that means that this is all over?" she asked, a hint of excitement and nervousness in her voice.

Adrian smiled and wrapped his arms around her from behind, his nose poking into her cheek as he confirmed, "I think it means we should start the long drive home."

Y/N smiled and leaned her head back against his chest as she took a deep breath. "Let's eat then get moving," she concluded, laughing when he attacked her cheek with so many excited kisses.

They ate, they got ready, and then they drove. It took them a few days to get back to Washington and Economos' coordinates led them straight to Adrian's house. It seemed that Chris, Leota and Keeya, John, and Emilia had been using his home - without permission but he honestly didn't care - as a base for the past month or so because they'd run out of weapons and thought, 'Where would there be a bunch of unattended weapons that they could use without repercussions for stealing' and Chris remembered the time his buddy showed him his gun collection.

Harcourt and Annabelle had a relatively easy time. Their safe house hadn't been discovered at all in the mess and they only found out something was wrong when John called Emilia for advice about what to do. With the assurance that Annabelle would be fine on her own, Emilia joined her squad to come up with a plan that would wipe out the rest of the butterflies.

And then they managed to find out about a meeting of all of the remaining butterflies and planted a bomb. Completely wiping out an entire race didn't feel great, but they'd been a thorn in the 11th Street Kids side for long enough that that feeling was replaced by a sigh of relief. A 'thank fuck that's over' kind of deal.

Before Y/N had even gotten out of the car, her mother was running out of the Chase home. Annabelle pulled open the passenger's side door and yanked Y/N into a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay, sweetpea! You are okay, aren't you?" she gushed, tears in her eyes as she examined Y/N's face.

"I'm okay, mama," Y/N said, laughing a little. "I've been so worried about you."

"I know, and I've been worried about you too. I whooped your brother and his friend's asses for taking so long to deal with those bug things!"

Peacemaker emerged from the house and Vigilante yelled out a very excited, "Peace! How are you, man?"

"Surprised that a dumbass like you survived!" Peacemaker responded, grinning from ear to ear as he looked at Vigilante. It was obviously still Adrian, but he'd grown his hair out a bit, had a five o'clock shadow, and looked the exact amount of tired you'd assume someone would be if they'd spent months sleeping in their car. "You look like shit, dude."

"Chris!" Both women complained. Annabelle reprimanded, "That is not a very nice thing to say to someone!" while Y/N chose to go with, "I think you look very handsome, babe!"

Then, both mother and son turned to face Y/N and exclaimed, "Babe?!" in shock. Chris was horrified. Annabelle, the opposite - she didn't know the guy but he was her good books for protecting Y/N as well as he had. This hadn't gone exactly the way Y/N thought it would. Honestly, she hadn't really planned anything about how she was going to casually bring up the fact that she'd started a relationship with Adrian, but it definitely wasn't going to be like this.

"Hi," Adrian said, awkwardly, as his BFF and his girlfriend's mother stared at him like he was an alien life form. "Uh... hello."

"Dude! Did I say you could date my sister?"

"No! But you didn't say I couldn't! There were no rules like that!" Adrian turned to Y/N so she'd know that he hadn't accidentally duped her into a 'forbidden' relationship and he repeated, "There were no rules!"

Closing the gap, Y/N comforted her boyfriend with a side hug, a soft "Yeah, I know," and a gentle pat on the chest. "Why don't you show me inside your home, Ade? We've been in the van for so long, I think I'd like to have one night in a normal bed." She then playfully added, "You've got that, don't you?"

Adrian grinned. "Yeah, I've got that."

The pair walked inside to find that his living room had been turned into a technology den of screens and drones and weapons - although those had been there before - and Adrian almost didn't recognise his childhood home. And he definitely didn't recognise the dogs that were running all over the place.

"You have chihuahuas?" Y/N asked, in some surprise.

"No, I'm more of a cat person."

"They're mine!" Adebayo announced as she came in from the kitchen, another dog under her arm. "Sorry! Sorry, I thought Keeya would've picked them up by now. We were all staying here together, me and my wife, John, Chris and Emilia, and -"

"You guys had a sleepover at my house without me being here? That's SO not cool!" Adrian whined.

1) His only friends hung out without him. That sucks. And 2) They did their group slumber party in the very place he owned and lived. That majorly sucks.

"You were literally on the run!" Economos retorted. "And we often thought you were dead!"

"So you decided to steal my house from me?!"

Harcourt gave Vigilante one look, just one, and he stopped whatever he was about to say next. Y/N saw how terrified he was of his boss and part of her was prepared to stand up for her man (despite the fact he was slightly overreacting), but yeah, Y/N had to admit that Harcourt was a little scary and she had mad respect for that.

Everything else that night was smooth sailing. As a big group, they let Annabelle make her signature baked Sausage and cheese rigatoni, and every member of the team ate until they were stuffed and only had enough movement in them to make it to the couch, where they crowded around the TV to watch a bad movie.

There weren't enough seats. Keeya sat on Leota. Y/N on Adrian. Annabelle and Economos a safe distance away from each other on the couch. Chris was sitting on a lazy boy off to the right with Emilia on the floor between his legs. And Peacemaker thought he was being so subtle and slick about playing with the ends of Harcourt's hair, running his fingers through the strands before glancing around every now and then to see if anyone had noticed.

As the movie played on, Y/N dozed off with her temple against Adrian's. She only began to stir when she felt the sensation of being lifted from the couch, and her eyes slowly opened to see that Adrian was making his way up the stairs.

"Are you carrying me to bed?"

"Uh-huh, like my pop used to do for me."

"You're so cute," she slurred, her voice so groggy she wondered how coherent it was to his ears. "You're so cute and so strong."

"Anything else about me that you like?" He urged, hoping that she'd reveal everything because of how sleepy she was.

"I like your smile. It's big."

"Yeah, anything else?"

"I like how you go out of your way to make me laugh."

"I do love your laugh."

"Yeah, well, I love you."

He froze mid-step, an overwhelming giddiness sweeping over him. He'd never expected to even be in this position. He had a girlfriend. And she just professed her love for him! This was better than winning the lottery. Better than finding a huge mob of criminals to shoot in the dick! He loved her too. He was so happy!

"I'll say it back when you're fully awake tomorrow," he whispered before letting Y/N slip onto the bed. She was tugging him down with her, trying to force his body on top of hers.

"Say it," she insisted, pouting like she did whenever she wanted him to give in to her. "Darling, I'd love to hear you say it. Pretty please. Don't tease - " She yawned again. "Don't tease me with this, baby."

"I love you," he said, rolling over and pinning her under him. Adrian grinned down at her, unable to stop the glee from pouring through every pore in his body.

Her forefinger came up to trace his mouth. "Big smile," Y/N yawned out, before moving to get under the covers. "Big bed too."

Adrian laughed as he stretched out beside her, propping himself up on one elbow to watch her as she fell back to sleep. "How'd I get so lucky, huh?" he mumbled to himself.

"When did you get so sappy, asshole?" Chris suddenly said from the bedroom door.

"Shh....she's sleeping."

"Oh my god, you're totally pussy whipped!"

"What are you even doing up here? You saw me coming up here?"

"Economos stunk up the first floor bathroom so I came up here to, y'know, not smell his shit."

"Jesus Christ."

In her sleep, Y/N shifted closer to Adrian, pressing against his chest. He stroked her hair, feeling her strands between his fingers, and he continued to watch her, his eyes tracing every line and curve of her face.

"This is so fucking gross to see," Chris muttered.

"Leave then!" At his raised voice, Y/N stirred. "Sorry. It's okay. It's okay, just go back to sleep," he said, stroking her hair some more.

Vigilante just asked Peacemaker to leave? In what crazy world had they jumped to? Before all this, Vig would do whatever he could to be around Peace for as long as he could. Now? Adrian's idolisation had dampened a little. He'd come to realise that there were other people out there, other people who were willing to be nice and kind and apologise to him, and that he didn't have to put up with all the insults Chris threw his way.

That wasn't a way to have any relationship, friendship or something more, and having Y/N in his life had given him a sense of 'yeah, I'm better than that' that he wasn't going to drop just because his BFF was back in the picture. Plus, he always had the 'I'm banging your sister' card in his back pocket to use whenever Chris got too vulgar.

"You two are really serious then?" Chris asked, his voice a little quieter so he didn't wake his sibling.

"I'd buy a ring if I had the money."

Chris' eyes widened. "You serious?"

"Yeah."

"Ew, I don't want you as my brother in law."

Coming up behind him, Annabelle placed a hand on her son's shoulder. "Hey pumpkin, let your sister sleep in peace, yeah?" She cooed and guided Chris away from the doorway.

Despite his muscles and big stature, Chris seemed to shrink back into a little kid when his mother interacted with him. It always amazed Adrian how much of a pushover he could be. In a small voice, Chris said, "Okay, mama. I will," and went back downstairs without arguing.

"Goodnight, Adrian. Watch over her for me?"

"Always will, Mrs L/N."

"I know you will."

Annabelle left the couple to snooze in peace. And they snoozed for longer than they had done in ages. There was no danger. No need to get up quick and flee. No knocking on the van windows to say 'you can't park here'. Nothing but peace and quiet and the quiet sounds of a house full of sleeping friends and family.

#adrian chase #vigilante #vigilante x reader #adrian chase x female reader #adrian chase x reader #adrian chase x y/n #peacemaker

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