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In the short time of the Butterfly taskforce, Adrian’s life had turned basically upside down in the best way possible.
First, his best friend was out of prison. Awesome.
Second, his best friend came with more friends, who competed with Adrian for that #1 human best friend spot, but he knew he had it in the bag. But more friends did mean more people to talk to and hang out with when Chris was too busy. It was new and exciting to have more than one friend and Adrian was in heaven.
Third, he got to do some sick kills and actually save the world from an alien invasion. Which even he had to admit was significantly cooler than killing graffiti artists.
And lastly, it came with the hottest, coolest, most interesting woman Adrian had ever met.
To top it all off, it even got better in a way Adrian had never even entertained.
She liked him back.
Like actually liked him back and wanted to be with him, not just hook up with him after the adrenaline rush after a mission. Although that part was still really awesome to Adrian.
Her liking him was still insane to him. Adrian is sure no girl has ever liked him or if one did they never told him. He was always too weird, too loud, too crazy, and whenever he’d confess his crush in the past it never turned out well. He’d always get weird looks and the threats of restraining orders, but for some reason she liked him back.
And it wasn’t that he was a virgin by any stretch, but most of the people he got with it was as Vigilante. Mask on, both physically and emotionally, but this was different. She liked Adrian and Vigilante. She wanted both of them, but mainly Adrian it seemed which made his heart go crazy.
That being said, Adrian was beyond excited to learn his feelings were reciprocated, especially considering how blind he had been to her feelings the whole time. Mistaking her kindness and willingness to work with Vigilante as just being a great team player or at least a better team player than the others.
He still remembered the day he figured it out (she told him, he figured out nothing), it was after Economos totally stole his chainsaw kill and he was so bummed. She had moved to sit next to him on the ride back as he pouted, trying to get him to laugh but he wouldn’t budge.
“Do you want to grab dinner after we get all patched up and finish the debrief?” She asked and he rolled his eyes.
“No, because Ads is just going to want to go back to Fennel Fields for the mozzarella sticks again and I so don’t want to go into work on my day off, especially not since I blew off work yesterday anyway.” He said annoyance coloring his voice and she laughed.
“No, not with Ads and the team, just us. Like a date.”
If Adrian’s brain could make a sound in that moment, it would’ve been one of those old internet dial up sounds as he head whipped to the side to look at her.
“A date?” He blinked owlishly at her as her smile grew.
“Yes?” She said, leaning closer to Adrian. The warmth of her body soaked through his suit and made his breath stutter in his chest. She was so close to him he could probably count her eyelashes if she’d let him.
God, he hoped she’d let him.
“With me? Adrian Allen Chase?” She giggled at the use of his middle name and nodded.
“Nice, middle name. But yes a date with you and with me. Both of us at dinner, talking. A romantic evening, not as friends, but only if you’re also interested in me.” She said, clarifying every question Adrian had with patience and kindness he wasn’t really used to. There wasn’t even an annoyed eye roll thrown in with her speech. She just looked at him like he was important.
He looked at her in silence, he wanted to look at Chris for any kind of advice but he didn’t want to pop the bubble they were in and the others were talking so Adrian wasn’t sure if they even knew what was happening. He was alone in this and for the first time a girl liked him. A girl he also liked.
“I’d love to.”
The rest was history.
They spent almost every free moment together and when they weren’t together they were texting. He was constantly getting in trouble at work for being on his phone and if he didn’t need the cover for his secret identity he totally would’ve quit by now. But by far his favorite was after missions, when they both were exhausted. He’d drive her back to her cheap motel room and they’d go through the motions getting out of their gross clothes, showering together, and then cuddling watching tv in her uncomfortable bed. But she pointed out it was still better than going to his mom’s house.
Because of their lives neither of them had really had a “normal” relationship since it was hard as heroes and secret agents, so they had hit it hard. They couldn’t help themselves, Adrian even had a drawer in her motel room of clothes.
He was probably more excited to get to introduce her as his girlfriend than he was for some of their actual dates. Since they weren’t telling any of the 11th Street Kids Adrian had started telling practically every stranger. Every time they went to a restaurant Adrian would start her order saying “my amazing girlfriend would like…” and let her finish her order with a playful roll of her eyes. She would overhear him constantly saying her name followed by “you know my beautiful girlfriend,” before he continued in his conversation at work when she came to pick him up after his shift. Always ignoring the person’s eye roll at his insistence of naming and talking about her. Almost immediately she was met with gifts, flowers, date ideas, compliments, everything.
But she had convinced him to reign it in around the others, especially when they were on missions. So he was resigned to just brushing his hand against hers and always calling being her partner in the field.
It all was probably because they really didn’t know what it was next. They knew logically the others would probably be happy for them, but it would take one click of Amanda Waller's fingers to transfer her somewhere else. Which meant there was an uneasy silence of not knowing what will happen to the task force, and their relationship, after they destroy the butterflies. Adrian could only hope she’d stay in Evergreen, he wasn’t sure he could go from constant contact to suddenly long distances and he didn’t want to leave Evergreen now that Chris was back.
The one issue with dating someone you killed people and saved the world with was that they were always at risk.
And taking down the cow and an army of butterflies at Cloverdale Ranch was no different.
Which meant the whole ride to kill the cow Adrian was tightly pressed against her, as if there weren't a bunch of open seats in the veterinary van they had commandeered.
He knew this was it, if they succeeded and saved the world then there was a pretty high chance that their little group would be split to the wind and as much as he wanted to kick ass and save the world he wanted this moment, this bubble that the two were in, to last just a little longer.
But as he checked his guns one more time he felt her pressing harder against him. He turned towards her slightly, not wanting to be too obvious.
‘You good?’ She mouthed and he smiled and nodded. He took a chance as he intertwined their fingers, just for a second to give her a comforting squeeze before he let go. He knew they both didn’t want the others to know, especially not when they had such an important mission to do tonight.
“I bet I’ll get more kills than you.” She said with a teasing tone and Adrian barked out a laugh that almost sounded fake.
“The usual wager?” He said, attempting to put on a game face, but Adrian knew it must not have been that intimidating by the way she was grinning at him.
“You know it.”
That’s all it took for the two of them to lock into the mission. Their usual wager being whoever got the most kills on a mission got to pick their next date night, not that Adrian minded whatever they did. He just enjoyed spending time with her and he loved competing so it was a win win to him.
As they fought their way through what felt like endless butterflies, he attempted to keep his eye on them. Something he knew drove her nuts because she wanted him to make sure he was safe too, but he couldn’t help himself.
It wasn’t until he was forced to take his eyes off her for two minutes did it come crashing down. All he heard was a slight cry from her and he was moving her way in a flash. His heart was racing as he shot the butterfly standing over her.
“Don’t fuck with my girlfriend!” He yelled, shooting the butterfly in the head twice from dual pistols before pulling out his sword to kill even more that had begun to surround the two. He catches the way she looks at him, with a small smile and the roll of her eyes even though they were both hurt, covered in blood, and killing people she was absolutely gorgeous to him. An absolute goddess of destruction and mayhem and he couldn’t wait till later to tell her all that.
“Girlfriend?” Chris screamed as he whipped around to face the two of them, coming to a halt right before the stairs to go kill the cow. Ignoring the butterflies attacking both Adrian and her.
“Chris! Go!” She screamed, taking her sword and decapitating another butterfly and Adrian swears he fell for her even harder then.
“You two are hooking up?” Chris questioned, eyes going back and forth between them as they continued to fight butterflies.
“Chris!” “Yes!” They say at the same time and Adrian doesn’t have to look at her to know she rolled her eyes after he answered.
“Goddamn how long?”
“Since Economos stole my chainsaw kill!” Adrian said, shooting a butterfly that was making its way towards Chris.
“Just sex or like actual dating?”
“Actual dating, but sex too! She’s really good at it too, she does this thing with her hips and it’s just like heaven man. But my favorite is probably-”
“VIGILANTE!” She screamed at him, shooting a butterfly that was behind him, but well aware of the warning that was a bullet coming closer to his head than it needed too for the final kill.
“Hell yeah, Vig. I’ll high five you later,” Chris looked back and forth at them, before his eyes settled on her. “Do you guys want to have a threesome?” He said, smiling slightly.
“Hell yeah!” Adrian said clearly excited at the prospect of bonding with his girlfriend and BFF.
“Why the fuck are we talking about this now! And no, Vigilante!” She snapped at them both.
“I’ll try to convince her dude.” Adrian said in a mock whisper before Chris nodded, hit his chest with his fist in some sort of “bro” move before turning around and heading down the stairs in a rush.
“Fuck yeah.” He said and she let out an exhausted sounding laugh.
“Great, Vig. Cats out of the bag now, Chris will tell everyone.” She said with a grunt.
“Would that be so bad?” He said, throwing a knife straight into a butterfly's eye, grinning widely at the kill. “How many are you at?”
“16 and of course not, but just bad timing.” She said and he could hear her frown in her voice. He wanted nothing more to be done fighting so he could talk to her face to face and touch her, comfort her for his fuck up.
“Goddamnit, I’m at 14. We should tell them all after this, I mean before Chris does.”
“Well, I’m sure he’s going to tell everyone immediately, especially at the prospect of a threesome.” She said and Adrian pouted.
“Well, we could-”
“Vigilante, no threesome with Chris.”
“Fine!” He pouted, throwing more daggers at butterflies. “What are you going to pick?”
“If I win, which I will, you have to come with me to the bookstore and actually sit and read with me!”
“Yeah, but if I win, you have to build that Lego set with me while watching that slasher film!”
“You’re on, Vig.” She said with a laugh before moving closer to him, squeezing his arm and locking eyes with him under the mask before moving away to kill more butterflies. She was always so good at that, finding him even when he was suited up.
He would never tell her, but he really didn’t care who won.
He was just happy to spend time with his girlfriend.