Mutual Responsibility

This was probably Liam’s worst idea to date, and he had had so, so many bad ideas, most of which involved too much vodka and the power of flight. 

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Immediately, an insurmountable amount of weapons were pointed at his face. He sighed. God, he was way too sleep deprived for this

“Put them away” he said dryly, “I come in peace” To hammer this home, he held up the patented Spock hand. 

“Holy fuck, you’re such a goddamn nerd all of the time” a raspy female voice groused. The weapons all retreated and the door opened. A short, pale girl glared at him. Her brown hair was greasy around her face, and she looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. It was likely she hadn't. Probably thinking of more ways to murder him.

Cameron had a sort of...ongoing nemesis situation going on with him. That's what happens when you give a six foot tall Kansas golden boy the powers of light and good, and some snippy little gremlin of an anarchist the powers of the dark side.

“What do you want?” she hissed. He rolled his eyes, stuffing his annoyance deep down inside.

“Listen,” he began, “I didn’t want to do this, but Lily wanted me to ask if you were available for her bowling fundraiser on Thursday”

The girl pondered this, “Will there be an open bar?”

Liam sighed again. He did this a lot around Cameron, “I will buy you three drinks if you show up”

Cameron’s eyes narrowed, “Four, at least one has to be whiskey or similar”

“Fine” Liam snapped. He could feel a migraine coming and rubbed his temples. Sometimes, he wanted to ask the universe why, in all it's omnipotent idiocy, it gave Cameron of all people the powers of the dark side. And why she had to be best friends with Liam's best friend. Life was unendingly difficult for him.

“Well, I suppose I could put off the Eldritch bridge demon until Friday” she mused, bringing him back to earth. Her wickedly long and thematically appropriate nails tapped her chin thoughtfully, and Liam rolled his eyes.

“Oh, can you?” he replied sarcastically, “How about putting it off to never, witch?” 

“Get off my fucking lawn, moth boy” she slammed the door in his face. That was fine. He didn't enjoy looking at her face, anyways.

“Power dampeners are mandatory. Wear something nice, for once, will you?” he called. A wave of dark energy poured out the windows, forming a huge hand that promptly flipped him the bird.

“I can and will separate your atoms!” the booming screech echoed down the street. Liam just rolled his eyes again. He sauntered away, blasting Cameron’s mailbox into pieces as he did, just out of spite. He knew he’d pay for it later, but it felt great in the moment.

~~~~~~

Liam was flying through the air. Normally he loved doing it. The wind through his picture perfect hair, the sound of his wings beating through the air. But unlike normal, there were giant bat demons chasing him, attempting to eat his face off. He twisted in the air, blasting them into dust. 

“Stop blasting my demons” Cameron screeched, descending from the top of a building. Her deep purple suit was slightly tattered, “They were expensive! Not all of us have brand deals with shitty and exploitative capitalist mega-corporations.” 

“I’m sorry, but have you maybe considered, I don’t know, not reducing the bank to rubble?” Liam asked. Cameron sneered at him.

“Listen here, Seraph” Liam made a satisfactory noise that she had used his code name. Lily must have talked to her, “What I do with my demons is none of your goddamn business.” 

“You could have killed people. That makes it my business.”

Cameron made a face, her hair floating in malevolent tendrils around her face, “Oh, boohoo” she sneered, “I feel so bad for the assholes that gouged Lily on her student loans.” 

Liam stopped short, the blast in his hands dissipating, “That’s the bank???” 

Cameron looked at him, confused, “Uh, yeah? Why else would I waste my time on a fucking bank? I have better things to do.” 

Liam thought about this. “Well then. Have a good day,” He turned, his wings flapping

“Wait, you’re letting me go?” Cameron asked, looking a bit put out that she wasn't allowed to break more of his ribs.

“No, I’m letting you blast me while I’m prepared for it so we both have an excuse” Liam said, tossing her a bone and bracing himself for impact. The things he did for his personal image.

“Ah” Cameron smiled devilishly.

The following blast that drove him three feet into the pavement was almost worth it.

~~~~~

“No” Liam said, “Absolutely not”

“You haven’t even heard what I was about to say,” Cameron leaned against his door frame, flicking a lock of hair out of her eyes. It was clean, for once. She even looked...pretty, one could say. He shoved it out of his head, because she was smiling in that way and nothing she did when she was smiling The Smile could be good for his physical health.

“I don’t care. I don’t want any part of this,” Liam slammed the door in her face, “Goodbye.”

Cameron simply stepped through the door, leaving a five and a half foot char mark on the nice oak door of Liam’s apartment. He groaned.

“You’re paying for that”

“Yeah, okay,” Cameron tossed him something. Liam caught it. It was a tiny diamond. He glared at her and she held up her hands in mock surrender, “It was legally acquired, I promise” 

“Cool. Your word means nothing to me,” Liam pocketed the diamond anyways. He wasn’t crazy. A broke college student needed to eat. And a door, “What do you want?”

“I need to do a ritual.”

“Nope. I can't lose my deposit on this place.” 

“Hear me out, jackass” She plopped her ass down on his couch. Liam had to shift over before she sat in his lap.

“Well, you know how Lily applied to that internship a while ago?" she continued, grinning at his discomfort, "Well, I heard that the guy was gonna choose his son instead of her, even though he’s more stupid than you.”

“Nepotism.” Liam hissed. He ignored the jab at his intelligence. Cameron nodded.

“Yeah, I knew you hated that,” she examined her fingernails. They were a thematically appropriate purple, “So I figured he could use a little...persuasion”

“Hence the ritual.” 

“Hence the ritual.” she agreed. She raised an eyebrow at him, “You in?” 

"What do I get out of this?"

"Justice, pretty boy," she smiled at him, and Liam pretended it wasn't a really nice smile this time. "Isn't that your whole shtick?"

It was his whole shtick. And he didn't really want to do his homework.

“What the hell?” he shrugged, “I’m in” 

“Great. I need sage, sixteen candles, and a drop of his blood” she looked at him, expectant

“What, you want me to get them?” Liam asked, incredulous.

“What did you think the diamond was for, errand boy?”

~~~~~

Liam was bursting with rage. Literally, there were sparks popping off his skin. He flew furiously, twisting between buildings at breakneck speed. Finally he landed in Cameron’s yard. He blew the door down and stormed in.

“Where is she?” he yelled. 

Cameron put down her book and sighed. “Do they not teach you how to knock in the Super Alliance- WHOA!” 

Liam had yanked her up by the neck of her shirt. Cameron’s face contorted and her eyes blacked out like a demon's. She hissed and Liam flew backwards, hitting the wall. He slid down with a grin. His head spun from slamming into a picture frame

Cameron muttered something incoherent and he was wrapped in dark chains that bound his arms to his torso and his wings to his back. He simply hopped to his feet without them.

“You and your fucking core strength” Cameron sneered as she pushed a dagger of energy against his neck, “Now what the hell is going on?”

“Where the hell is Lily?’ Liam demanded, hands hissing with energy. Cameron’s eyes cleared of their demonic black sheen.

“Lily’s gone?” Cameron asked, confused. The chains and dagger dissipated into thin air.

“Wait, it wasn’t you?” Liam furrowed his brow.

“No? What makes you think she’s missing?”

“Her apartment is trashed and there’s blood on the floor.” 

Cameron’s eyes narrowed in a way Liam had never seen and he flinched back involuntarily. God, she was so scary.

“Give me a minute” she grit out. 

She closed her eyes and floated off the ground. Her hair floated as if she were underwater and she emitted a purple demonic glow. Liam stood awkwardly, fixing the angle of the picture his head had hit and trying not to gawk at the fact that she was just wearing a normal t shirt and jeans. He'd never seen her in normal clothes. Only ever in her demonic purple suit, or in the various deadly outfits she wore whenever Lily made her come to the same places as him.

Get your head out of the gutter, Liam, he thought as the glow around her faded.

Cameron fell softly to the ground, eyes open and angry, “She’s in SpeX Corp. The basement”

“How do you know?”

“Tracking spell, loser” Cameron pulled a wickedly curved sword from seemingly nowhere.

“You put tracking spells on your friends?” Liam pondered the potential human rights violations, but let them go. Cameron made for the door, and Liam coughed awkwardly. "Aren't you going to change?"

Cameron looked back at him like he was stupid, which was how she normally looked back at him.

"Our friend was kidnapped by an evil billionaire," she said wryly, "and you want me to go get pretty first?"

"Right," Liam coughed, and didn't tell her she looked pretty already. They had a friend to save, anyways.

 They flew to the building. Liam wanted to sneak in, but Cameron elected to simply smash a hole down through the building. After assuring Liam that the building was empty, of course. He wasn't sure he believed her.

They appeared in the basement in a shower of dust. Henchmen trained their guns of the two and Cameron simply raised an unimpressed eyebrow. 

Adrian Spex, aspiring super villain, stood facing away from them. Lily was tied up to a chair and gagged, but she just squinted at the unlikely pair, amused. This was not the first time she had been kidnapped.

“Seraph,” Adrian said with a flourish, like a prick, “I see you have fallen right into my trap,” he turned around and his jaw dropped at the sight of Cameron, covered in dust, with her wickedly sharp sword and glowing black eyes. She waved teasingly at him.

“Hey, dead man” she said cheerfully.

“Nyx?” Spex hissed, revulsion clear in his tone “What are you doing with this...hero?” 

“Oh, I’m not with him. He’s with me” she said. Liam grunted in dissent, which she ignored. “Now I believe you have something important to me,” She flicked the sword slightly.

“Kill her!” Spex snapped frantically. The henchmen rushed the pair. Cameron's smile grew wider.

About a minute and a half later, Spex was tied up atop a pile of his unconscious henchmen. Liam untied Lily, who ripped the gag out of her mouth

“Are you ok?” Liam asked, frantically. Cameron peered over his shoulder, concerned.

“Oh yeah. I had so much faith in you guys” Lily grinned. “See, you guys worked so well together.” 

“Please,“ Cameron said tightly, “tell me that you didn’t let yourself get kidnapped for the sole purpose of me getting along with this lunkhead.” 

“Nah. That was just an added bonus. You guys are crushing on each other, I thought, hey, why not give them a little nudge, ya know?” Lily blinked at them earnestly. Liam blinked back. He never told her about his little (read. huge) crush on Cameron. But she was Lily. Of course she knew. He braced himself for Cameron's displeasure over the idea.

"Just because I think he has a good ass doesn't mean I like him," Cameron grumbled, and Liam thought all the air had been sucked out of his lungs.

"What?" he squeaked, before clearing his throat like the manly man he was, "What was that?"

"That's not all," Lily sang, ignoring Liam's obvious shock and inner turmoil, "You think he's preeetty, and he's noooble, and that he looks like he gives good huuuugs-"

"Lily, I don't care how long we've been friends, I will lock you in an alternate dimension," Cameron snapped, but she was...blushing? Liam didn't think she knew how to blush.

"Stop that," Lily turned to Liam, who's own face was on fire. "She thinks you're smoking hot and that you'll treat her like a lady because you're a mama's boy. Please, spend an hour with her and a bottle of vodka and she'll tell you herself-" Lily's lips seemed to seal shut, and she immediately started beaming at a glowering, fire engine red Cameron.

That color, like everything, looked good on her, Liam thought.

"Cameron, will you go on a date with me?" he blurted out, and Cameron let out the least intimidating squeak her tiny, scary self could make.

"You're asking me out," she asked, "In the basement we just destroyed, while the police are about two seconds from busting in after us?"

Liam shrugged. "Seems fitting"

Cameron looked at him in a way he'd never seen. It wasn't until she started laughing her ass off that Liam realized she looked...happy. And he blushed because she was really pretty when she was happy and not actively destroying his face.

"Yeah, okay," she said finally, "I'll go on a date with you, pretty boy."

"I'm so good at matchmaking," Lily giggled, "Thank me whenever, Cam."

The next moment, she was gone and Cameron was blushing harder. Liam sighed.

"Where is she?"

"At home." Cameron mumbled. Liam grinned, rather devilishly, he thought.

"Good," he lowered his voice to a growl, and Cam glanced up at him through her eyelashes as he leaned in. "She won't be here to make fun of me for this."

Cameron kissed like she fought. With a purpose. Liam really, really liked it.

"We should probably go," she whispered against his lips, and he smiled.

"How do you feel about a detour?"

Flying with her beat flying against her. Not by much, but by enough.