Nine: Regret

*thanks to bullyfanberlin, TeddyBearLL, Carsgovrooom, and bleh_bleh for your support!!*

Warning for language.

***

Sleeping with Lich was a sort of awakening for Sage – a realization that he was way too fucking old for this hero-villain shit. Good, evil – who the fuck cared? Sage was increasingly feeling that none of it was worth it, and now that he’d let a hero in his ass, he was so embarrassed that just the idea of going out in his little villain suit and mask to fight said hero made him break out in hives.

Sage wasn’t going to try to dissect why he’d let Lich do that to him, and he was even less inclined to analyze why Lich would want to do that to him. Sage had spent way too much of his early twenties overthinking every aspect of each of his relationships, wondering how the other person felt and causing himself more misery in the process.

So he was, decidedly, not thinking about it. Or at least, he told himself that he wouldn’t think about it. Putting it into practice was considerably more difficult, so Sage needed a distraction.

Sage decided, finally, to give up villainy. Regardless of what happened last night, Sage had been thinking about throwing in the towel for some time now. He thought it was best to leave the fighting to the younger generation, and get on with his life. He had a full time job that paid enough to keep up with rent, food, and other expenses, plus a little extra on the side he could give to his family. And, because he was actually a relatively successful villain, he had some extra cash stored away for emergencies.

However, something about just quitting cold turkey felt off to Sage. After so many years of villainy, it felt like an insult to himself to just fade out of existence.

So he was going to pull off one last heist. A last hurrah – something to commemorate the end of Sage’s villain career.

Instead of thinking about the thing Sage was definitely not thinking about, he began planning his final crime.

Sage wouldn’t consider himself prideful. He’d never been in villainy for the fame of it, for sure. It was out of necessity mostly. And yet, he wanted to do something for his last heist that would be memorable.

Sage thought about writing out a list of potential schemes he could pull off that would at least get him mentioned in local newspapers, but he found he didn’t need to. What he was going to do was something that he’d been thinking about since he officially became Hush. Since his power was deemed ‘unworthy’ of the benefits that most families with superpowered children received.

He was going to rob the governor blind.

The governor, beloved by most of Fairview, was responsible for deciding which supers were deserving of government support – and which families were deserving of regular disability benefits, benefits that were significantly reduced for his family for no apparent reason.

Attacks had been aimed at the governor many times before, but most of them were aimed at city hall, where the governor worked. To Sage’s knowledge, none had attempted to rob the governor’s house, probably because they didn’t know where it was.

Sage knew, but only because he stalked the governor for a short period of time when he was first starting out as a villain, full of anger and helpless about what to do for his family. He’d never gone through with any of his plans back then, too sure that he would be caught. And then, later, when he’d successfully robbed a few banks and landed himself a steady job, he lost interest, because the root cause of his anger, his family’s living situation, had been solved.

Truth be told, Sage no longer cared that much about the governor himself. But, he felt it was only appropriate to end his career as a villain the same way he’d started it.

Plus, all the groundwork had already been laid out by his younger self. He knew where the governor’s house was, the layout, and he knew generally when the governor would be there and when he wouldn’t. He was still unmarried and without children, as far as Sage knew. Something like marriage or having a kid would definitely make papers in a small city like Fairview. For some reason, the women in this city thought the governor was handsome, so he was one of the most well-known eligible bachelors. Unmarried didn’t mean celibate, of course – he had a string of lovers miles long behind him.

The only thing Sage would have to find out is how the security system had changed. It was sure to have become more advanced over the years, so Sage would need to set aside some time to investigate it. Luckily, most home security wasn’t going to be more advanced than a bank’s security, and Sage was very familiar with how to circumvent that. Breaking into a house was a piece of cake in comparison.

Sage would figure out the rest of the details later. For now – he needed milk. So ignoring the pain still throbbing in his lower back, Sage put his shoes on and left his apartment to walk to the corner store down the block.

Sage wasn’t planning on doing much more than plotting today, so he was eager to get back home, make himself some food, and then scour the internet for more recent news on the governor.

…And maybe look to see if any news sites had reported seeing a villain and a hero fucking in an alleyway last night. Sage didn’t remember seeing any camera flashes or skulking figures peeping at them, but then again, he kind of lost his mind about five minutes in, so he didn’t think he would notice if there were.

If anyone had reported it… Sage might have to have a conversation with them. Or he could go the less violent route and go online anonymously to claim that someone had faked it. There was enough Lich/Hush fanfiction out there that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch.

Sage was lost in thought, so he didn’t notice there was someone behind the door of the corner store trying to come out as he was going in. He thunked very unceremoniously into their chest.

“Oh, sorry – “

Sage cut off, getting a good look at who he’d bumped into.

Handsome – so handsome.

Wow, just – wow. Some people just got to walk around looking like that, huh?

He had dark hair and eyes, tall, built – and he had this brooding aura that was morosely attractive. Very much the Gothic romantic type. He looked at Sage, and there was a crack in his expression. Something like recognition.

Sage thought he was weirdly familiar too, but he was more inclined to believe that this guy was probably some celebrity that he’d seen before but didn’t know the name of.

Sage pulled back – or tried to. He found his arm in a tight grip. The man had reached out to stabilize him when Sage bumped into him, and still hadn’t let go. Which was kind of weird, but Sage was going to ignore it considering this man was possibly the human incarnation of a Greek god.

“Um, sorry again. My fault,” Sage said, awkwardly trying to squeeze past him. Handsome as he was, Sage really did need that milk, and he wasn’t shameless enough to keep staring at a stranger like he wanted to take a bite out of his broad shoulders.

Except, the guy didn’t let him go. Nor did he say anything. Sage met his gaze, a bit nervous. What, was he really offended that Sage had the audacity to bump into him? Sage hadn’t damaged any of his groceries, right? A quick glance confirmed that the man’s bags were safely hanging from his other hand, unharmed.

Sage tried to pull his arm out of the man’s grasp and was again unsuccessful. The man’s eyes on him were unnecessarily hot.

Wait a second… no, Sage couldn’t be this lucky. No way a hot guy was actually attracted to him, at first sight no less. Unfortunately, Sage’s sexual urges were pretty much sated for the next week or so due to recent events, so he wasn’t particularly interested in getting it on with the hot grocery store guy. He was flattered, nonetheless.

And awkward. They were blocking the doorway. It wasn’t until an old lady sidled up behind the guy and said “excuse me” in an annoyed tone that he released Sage and stepped to the side. Sage moved as well, and with one last confused look and a nod at the guy, he went to get his milk, oddly exhilarated and not sure why.