Trigger Warning/Content Warning:

•Mentions of Character Death

(I'm not sure whether I should have this as a trigger/content warning but most of the chapter is kinda related to it, so it's here anyway)

Grian wasn't sure why Impulse and Tango were acting weirdly.

It was a completely normal day (if slightly more quiet and subdued than usual) and they were having a pretty regular meeting (meaning that they got nothing done).

Pearl and BDubs were having a loud debate over which was better, cats or dogs, and Gem was chatting quietly to Cub and Doc. Grian was just kind of stood to the side playing games on his phone and listening to the conversation.

However, he did notice the lack of enthusiastic interruptions from Tango, and that was what made him look up.

The other villain was resting his head on Impulse's shoulder with an oddly mournful expression, and he was constantly looking at the clocks that lined the strap of BDubs' satchel before exchanging a look with Impulse.

This went on for about five more minutes before Tango tensed slightly, his gaze flicking from the clocks to his boyfriend as he whispered something quietly and nudged Impulse with his elbow.

Impulse paused for a moment before nodding as Tango straightened, and the pair silently left headquarters.

Pearl watched as they left, and the whole room fell into silence for a few moments before the conversations continued in a slightly more subdued tone. Uhhhh... did I miss something?

The parrot hybrid glanced around with a mildly confused expression. Pearl will probably know. Grian watched as Pearl and BDubs ended their debate, and he edged his way towards Pearl, nudging his friend gently with his hand. "Pearl?"

"Hm?" The brunette blinked, glancing at her friend.

"What's up with Impulse and Tango?" Grian whispered, and Pearl's curious expression vanished almost immediately and was swiftly replaced by a blank (almost defensive) one.

She mumbled an unintelligible excuse before shrugging and adding something that sounded like, "Ask Cub, he's better at talking about this sort of stuff." Huh? Grian frowned slightly as the brunette turned away. Did I- Okay, I'll... ask Cub then? He added silently to himself as he made his way over to the sculk-infested man, who was no longer having a conversation with Doc and Gem and was instead reading something on his phone.

"Uh- Cubbb?" Grian tried. The dark haired man glanced up from his phone with a quizzical expression. "What was- wrong with Impulse and Tango?" Cub raised both eyebrows with an expression that suggested he had guessed Grian would be curious. "I tried asking Pearl but she told me to ask you-" The parrot hybrid blinked as Cub grabbed his wrist and practically dragged him into the next room. Oh, okay-

Cub let go of Grian's wrist as he closed the door behind them, huffing out a sigh. "Sorry about that, but explaining it next to Doc is not a good idea, because he will probably cry."

"Doc? Cry? I thought the only emotions he could feel were spite, amusement and... more spite." Grian added lamely.

"You'd be surprised. Anyway- you... wanted to know what was up with Impulse and Tango, right?" Grian nodded and Cub paused for a moment. "Do you know anything about the villain Natura?" The parrot hybrid paused thoughtfully as well.

"Uhhh... I think he was like- a goat hybrid or... sheep hybrid or something? I know he could control animals, and I thhhink he was arrested by Hotguy like... two years ago? Ish?" Grian shrugged.

"Uh- mostly correct, actually. Zed was a sheep hybrid, and he could control animals, but he was- not arrested." The dirty blonde frowned.

"No, he- definitely was, it was on the news." Grian said with a shrug, thinking back to the report about one of the first villain arrests in years.

"No. He wasn't. He was on patrol with Impulse and Tango- just kind of trying to figure out how close any heroes might be to headquarters- and they ran into Hotguy and Seize." The man with dimly glowing blue eyes broke off with a thoughtful expression. "I think Titanium was there as well, but she had only just started working with the heroes at that point, so she's not really relevant."

"How is this... related to Impulse and Tango?" Grian said, more than a little confused.

"Well, one, they were both dating Zed, and two- Hotguy noticed them and fired a warning shot, which he normally misses, but Zed was joking about how Hotguy never lands any of his shots, and he was moving around randomly and- the warning shot actually hit him in the head." Oh. Oh my void. I did not- Cub continued in a slightly more solemn tone of voice. "Of course, the hero agency didn't want everyone to know that Hotguy killed someone unprovoked, so they spread around the story that Zed was arrested." His friend added with a disgusted expression.

"Is that why Impulse is so..." Grian made an odd hand gesture and Cub nodded. "Huh."

"Tango handled it a lot better, to be fair- although he does like- never visit Zed's grave, so... I think he's visited like three times. Anyway, today it's been exactly two years since Zed died. So they just... went to visit his grave." Cub added with a shrug.

"Oh. Well- thank you for telling me."

——

Grian paused as he opened the door to the apartment he shared with Scar and Mumbo, staring at the couch. Scar was sat down and was staring at the ground with a mildly troubled expression.

"Uh... dude? You okay?" His friend straightened with an odd alarmed noise, staring at Grian.

"Oh, you're- earlier than usual." Grian shrugged apologetically. "And I'm uh- I'm fine. Just... feel a bit off today." Scar added with a small, slightly sad smile before frowning. "Not sure- not sure why."

"Okay. That's- fair enough." Grian added, sitting down next to his friend as Scar yawned and rested his head on the parrot hybrid's shoulder. "Everyone has bad days."

He zoned out slightly as Scar started talking about something funny his friend had done, clearly trying to change the subject. This wasn't the first off thing he'd noticed about Scar since joining the villains.

Now Grian wasn't saying Scar was hiding anything.

But he still silently vowed to keep a closer eye on his roommate, just in case.

Yyyyeahhh Zed died before the book even started sorry

Someone else did as well but like 🤷‍♀️

And more people will die

But yk this book is written by me, I don't know what you expected

Anyway Scar's being very sus rn ngl

Hope you enjoyed, comments and votes are appreciated! <3 :]

No I didn't upload this without a title originally what do you mean ahaha