The first thing Matteo realised when he opened his eyes was that he wasn't in his own bed. 

Panic gripped him for a moment before he remembered who he'd spent last night with and carefully turned his head to look beside him. 

His breath caught in his throat at the sight. Not only had he never seen Rowan's room in broad daylight, but he'd never gotten a glimpse of the dark-haired man sleeping at his side. A sight that stabbed him right in the heart along with the reminder that if he'd been awake, he'd have kicked him out long ago.

Before Matteo could give the situation another thought, a murmur came from Rowan's lips, and his head shifted on the pillow, searching for a more comfortable position. Matteo watched this with bated breath, realising that for some reason he didn't want Rowan to find him in his bed. 

He knew the relationship between them was nothing serious, but he still decided to avoid the disappointment it would cause him if Rowan reacted badly to finding him next to him.

When he was sure that Rowan was once again in a deep sleep, he carefully extricated himself from under the covers and stood up from the bed. Before he took another step, however, he paused for a moment at the edge of the bed to take one last look at Rowan's sleeping face. Immediately, he realised it was creepy and desperate, though, and began picking his clothes off the ground. 

However, try as he might, he couldn't find his shirt.

One glance at his phone confirmed that he was already late for work, so he resorted to a desperate move. 

Rowan's shirt smelled just like him, and Matteo caught himself putting it to his nose first before pulling it on. How pathetic, again. 

Behind his back, he heard another mutter, and the blonde froze in mid-movement, afraid he'd been caught in the act. One glance over his shoulder, however, reassured him that Rowan was simply a vocal sleeper, something he obviously had no way of knowing before.

Matteo shook his head at his mindset, trying to shake off the gloomy thoughts. He was no rusty mistress after all, but a superhero. A superhero who was late for work. 

He walked with quick steps to the front door, and for a moment he had a bad feeling about leaving it unlocked, but he hoped that nothing bad would happen in the time it took for the black-haired man to wake up. 

The moment he was in the corridor, his caution vanished, and he decided to clear his head by running down a series of stairs instead of taking the lift. 

"I like it when you disturb me.”

It was ridiculous how much one sentence could change things for him. For some reason, it meant as much to him at that moment as the heartiest confession, and he felt pathetic how he could cling to something so banal. No matter how much he hoped, Rowan didn't feel the same way about him. 

Matteo's footsteps were picking up speed in a desperate attempt to outrun his despairing thoughts that were trying to eat him alive. And it didn't help that Rowan's shirt, which smelled exactly like the man he loved, was billowing behind him. 

"I thought I was your one and only."

Rowan had no idea how true his statement was, despite the fact that it was delivered with humour. Too bad it didn't apply the other way around as well. The lengths Matteo would give to be the only one Rowan called to him when he desperately needed human touch.

Again, pathetic. 

Matteo may have been one of the best superheroes in the city, despite his young age, but he also wore a mask in the real world. One that covered his broken heart every time his feet crossed the threshold of a dark door.

He used to think that he was truly happy when he was doing good and saving people's lives. He thought that that was his destiny, and nothing could fulfil him more. How wrong he was. A few months ago, he began to realise that true happiness came when his body met Rowan's for a few moments, and their lips became one. 

And even though it always killed him to walk back home alone after dark, he had never felt so terrible as he did now that he suddenly knew what it was like to wake up next to his lover.

Stupid Matteo. Always attaching himself to people too quickly. 

…

People gave him strange looks as he walked briskly past their desks, but he ignored them and headed for his office. He just hoped that Max wouldn't be there waiting for him as he promised him to work on their last case early in the morning.

However, he was to have no such luck.

"Good morning," Max greeted him from the desk, his blue eyes studying him from head to toe, stopping at the black shirt, which was not only a little too big for him but also the only colour Matteo didn't wear to work.

"Good morning." Matteo tried to keep his tone neutral and pretend that nothing had happened. He sat down in his typical chair and turned on the computer, keeping his eyes straight ahead. 

"Long night?" Max struck up a conversation, and Matteo jumped, not expecting it. Max was not one to pry into his private life, so his question came as a surprise. Besides, he thought of him as his second father, so talking about sex was not a matter he liked to discuss.

"Sort of," he replied, hoping to drop the subject.

"I'm glad you're finally not thinking just about work." Although his words were meant to be encouraging, they had the exact opposite effect on Matteo. The last thing he wanted to think about was his personal life, and instead, he hoped his thoughts would be consumed by work.

"Yeah." He nodded, hoping that Max would finally understand that this conversation was going nowhere. 

Thankfully, he did. "I contacted Henrietta. She remembers George very well and didn't remember anything worrying." Finally. This was exactly the subject Matteo wanted to focus on.

"What about the footage from Vista Avenue?" Matteo asked, nodding. Even if it wasn't positive progress, it was still progress. They hadn't even had the right questions to ask before.

"Nothing," Max replied, and Matteo finally raised his head to him. For there was a hint of frustration in his tone, something that didn't happen very often. "Revenger is like a ghost. You'd think the photo in the paper was taken because he wanted it."

Matteo's eyebrows shot up to his forehead. Was it possible that Revenger was trying to lead them on a false trail?

"You think he did it on purpose?" he asked, although he could clearly hear what Max had said.

"I think it's unfortunate that he chose the path of crime, as someone with his skills would be a perfect fit for us," Max replied, and Matteo frowned. Revenger in the Legion? He would go mad before something like that happened.

"There's no way he never gets caught on camera," he returned to the original subject, determined to ignore Max's claim. 

"I have two guesses." Max surprised him with his statement. "Either he always changes quickly into civilian clothes, or he manipulates the cameras before they can catch him."

Matteo thought for a moment before replying: "That makes sense. He doesn't have any supernatural powers. He could compensate by being skilled in technology."

"Another reason why it's a shame he's on the wrong side," Max commented. He had expressed his admiration for the masked villain before but hearing it out loud in a coherent sentence didn't sit well with Matteo. Especially when it meant he was better than him. After all, the fact that Revenger was good at what he did was proven by the number of times he managed to outsmart Matteo.

"I don't think we'd get along," Matteo said after a moment of silence between them. He didn't want to sound defeated, but at the same time, he didn't want to admire his archenemy's skills.

"Oh, come on," Max laughed. "I'm sure that no one in the world can dislike you." 

Matteo's thoughts went straight to the dark-haired man he had left in his warm bed this morning. Maybe Rowan liked him, like Max said, but that was it. It was stupid to want more from him, but Matteo couldn't help himself.

An unconscious sigh escaped him, and Max decided not to ignore it. "Is everything okay?"

Matteo paused for a moment, wondering if he should confide in him, but a part of him believed that it wouldn't hurt as much if he didn't say it out loud. So he just shook his head and his eyes met Max's again. "Not really, but it's okay. I don't want to talk about it."

As he had said before, Max was more than understanding and never poked into other people's privacy if it didn't concern him or if they didn't open up to him themselves. "If you change your mind, you know where to find me." 

"Thanks, Max, but right now it would be most helpful if we could progress with the case," he replied honestly. 

"Well..." Max stood up, and Matteo raised his head in surprise. "In that case, it's time to dig some graves."