HSMRPF: solid walls of sound (Zac/Van, PG)
solid walls of sound
HSMRPF. Zac/Van, PG. ~2200 words. Superhero AU.
Summary: Maybe he's still worried she's gonna decide he's not worth the calls at three in the morning and the leaving her alone at parties and stuff, so he's making up that she's acting weird and, like, self-sabotaging or whatever. It's not weird like he thinks she's gonna leave him or anything, just-a little strange, like she's not sure what to feel at a given time.
Notes: I may or may not make my way through the entire lyrics from Bennie and the Jets. Er. This one was kind of ridiculously fun to write. Like, seriously ridiculously fun. I hope it's at least half as fun to read.
There's been something weird about Van ever since he told her about the whole superhero thing. Maybe he's just imagining it-maybe he's still worried she's gonna decide he's not worth the calls at three in the morning and the leaving her alone at parties and stuff, so he's making up that she's acting weird and, like, self-sabotaging or whatever. It's not weird like he thinks she's gonna leave him or anything, just-a little strange, like she's not sure what to feel at a given time, so Zac gives her her space to think and figure it out, and tries to make sure she knows she can talk to him and say whatever and he won't get offended or defensive or anything.
Like, for instance, this one time they're sitting in her car and he's driving because she's hungry and she's eating fries but she doesn't wanna leave the wheel all greasy, which Zac thinks is kinda ridiculous, she can clean it up later, but still. He's driving. He's driving her. And the thing that's wrong with that is that it hits Zac that that's what he's been doing, driving her, and rambling sometimes when he gets back from a job and he just goes straight to Van's house because he loves sleeping next to her, she smells so good that all the wiriness from fighting criminals seems to vanish into thin air under that smell, but just rambling when she knows and has absorbed all this seems like it's pushing her further away instead of closer, and that's not what he meant.
So at the next red light, he turns to her and says, "You can, like, ask. Whatever. About the superhero thing."
Vanessa turns her upper body to him, complete with drink in hand and straw in mouth. Her lips are pursed around it and her eyes just-reach around to lock on his and it's adorable, is what it is, and Zac has to do a double-take when Van lets the edge of the straw slide off her lips and says something.
"Sorry?" he says, and the light goes green.
"I said you don't have to do this," she says. "I'm fine."
Zac needs to pick better moments to do this stuff, because it's not like he can get into a serious conversation while he's driving, at least not if he doesn't want to kill both of them.
If that's even a possibility.
He should get around to sending the mysterious D a letter about that. There was nothing in his contract that said, "Hey, by the way, you can't die", but then there was that clause about how bullets ricochet off his costume-he doesn't wear all that fake muscle just for shits and giggles, okay?- but if he's stupid and doesn't use his super reflexes and gets himself shot in the neck, Disney won't take care of the medical bills, and it says medical bills, not funerary service, so Zac's not sure what to believe.
That's what he's thinking as he drives-that and he hopes the police won't stop them right now, because he's pretty sure he just went over the speed limit.
His foot slowly retreats off the pedal.
A second, and there's a ring.
"Is that-" Vanessa starts, and Zac shushes her and regrets it immediately, but not enough that he won't take the call straight away.
He clicks on the green button next to the one to eject CDs without even looking. "Zeffirelli here," he says, still not looking. He can feel Vanessa's eyes on him, and on his hand for the brief second he places it on her bare knee on the way back from clicking the button and onto the wheel.
"There's a commotion in Pasadena," D's assistant-a thirty-something guy Zac has a feeling he's seen on TV somewhere-says.
"What's the problem?"
"A handful of Doctor Joen's henchmen seem to have taken a club by storm. People are collapsing and on the brink of going deaf. They're controlling the electricity."
Just like that, Zac knows what to do.
"Drive or fly?" he asks, and he can tell Vanessa thinks this is the most coherent emergency call she's heard yet. Every other time, they've been in public, or he was hiding it from her, but he doesn't need to mince words now.
"Drive, I think," D's assistant says.
"I'll be there in ten minutes," he says, and he drives around a corner and into a lonely alleyway as he presses the blue button to end the call.
The LCD screen immediately pops up from behind the stereo, and Vanessa frowns. A few more buttons and Van's car has extra protection walls, double windows, and special wheels.
"What are you doing?" she says, mostly confused, he thinks, maybe freaking out a little? She doesn't seem scared or offended or anything. "What's my car doing?"
"I got it fixed just before I told you," Zac says-screams, really, over the noise the car is making as he pulls back out of the alleyway.
"Before?" asks Vanessa.
"Yeah," he says. He didn't, but Vanessa's fond smile is worth a tiny white lie. "I knew you'd be down for this."
"Are you gonna leave me somewhere?" she shouts over the increasingly loud noise.
The car accelerates without Zac telling it to. It's pretty awesome to drive these things. "You want me to?" he shouts back.
"I'd like to see it!"
And he's stupid and figures she can.
He even lets her drive while he changes into costume. It's not bad at all.
*
It's not a good idea.
He's trying to freeze one of the henchmen on his feet, keep him from touching the sound system, and he's left Vanessa in the car looking at the screen, the one that shoots from the tiny camera in the buckle of his belt. Zac's thought process goes like this: there are people crying on the floor, he must save them from this pain. Is Vanessa feeling that pain too? He wonders how loud the camera takes in sound-it's a live thing, he's never tried it, and Vanessa's sitting on the back of the car, behind black windows, with her earphones on, and he hopes she's not listening in just because he's there even though it's hurting her something.
The last thing he wants is to hurt her in any way.
He doesn't even know where the car is. He can't feel those things. The buckle only goes one way and he just keeps wondering if Van's curious enough to throw caution to the wind and raise suspicion by driving around in it, and for a moment there he thinks he forgot to check there were no paps following him when the car changed because if there were, his cover is blown and it's gonna take Disney a lot of money to solve this and he's sure they won't take his powers away even if he asked them to, which he's not, not after telling Van and-he wants to use them. Can't blame a guy for wanting to be a superhero. Even with all the downsides, the whole thing still makes him feel awesome.
There's another henchman using a nerdy-looking guy as a soundboard to project the crazy decibels around, and, seriously, what the heck does Doctor Joen get with this stuff? Is it, like, the knowledge that he can make a whole club crawl? Is he really that sex-starved? If it's getting laid he wants, Zac could probably negotiate something with Rob, some clause that says they won't kill each other when they're supposed to be cuddling or something, and that says no one will mutter a word about it afterwards. Rob would probably be into that, it's not like he has morals.
Then he spots another henchman directly electrocuting a girl and oh no, that is going way too far.
So Zac freezes him on the spot.
He swears he hears a gasp, but it's not anyone around him.
Point is, Zac freezes him on the spot, goes a little overboard what with the nerves and Van being outside and all this goddamn paranoia that's making his stomach do cartwheels, and he allows himself a second to hope he controlled the angle because Zeffirelli does not kill people. Not even if those people are killing other people. Now it's just hoping the henchman's recovery will go much like that Walt Disney legend where he'll be thawed out of his cryogenic death when the time comes, and-hey.
And then a henchman jumps at his boots.
His boots take care of it.
Just like that, he spots Robert at the other side of the platform, looking like thin air to anyone but Zac.
Zac gives him a look.
Robert says, just as inaudible to the world at large as he is invisible, "Just saw your car parked outside. Didn't know it was Bring Your Girlfriend to Work Day."
Zac scowls at him. This is not the time to banter, not when there's a-shit.
Green-clad Henchman has Vanessa.
Vanessa's getting something out of her-
Shit, shit, shit, motherfucking crap.
*
"You don't taser Doctor Joen's henchmen! They have superpowers!" Zac says, a little too loud, truth be told, and he knows he sounds irrational even though he's being perfectly reasonable, but he was so scared, and he's never letting Vanessa come with him ever again.
"How was I supposed to know!" Van shouts back. They're driving back from Pasadena and Zeffirelli saved the day and was not available to comment and man, D is gonna give him so much crap about this, but Vanessa needs to hear this stuff. "You don't tell me anything! I'm supposed to just, what, watch those people suffer and henchmen throw themselves at you and not do anything? I didn't know they could control electricity!"
Zac breathes in deep, but it's worthless. "I told you that!"
"I can't hear you when I'm asleep!"
Zac breathes in deep, and tries not to say anything. Van is scowling at him and instead of feeling like he just saved her or something, he just feels like scum. Because she wasn't his to save. He shouldn't have put her through it. Van doesn't watch battle and stand back, it's one of the things he likes about her. "I-"
"You tell me things when I'm asleep," Van says, a bit calmer.
"It's public knowledge that they can do that. It's on TV all the time. You were with me at that Lakers game when they shut down the entire electrical system."
"I thought that was-"
Zac snorts. It's derisive, and he feels bad immediately. "I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry I didn't tell you what happened at that game. And I'm sorry I brought you along."
"I told you to bring me along," she interrupts.
"Yeah, but I should have known better. I know you can't just watch and do nothing." She smiles, slightly, and he takes it as his cue to continue. "I just. I'm sorry, okay? I don't know how you're supposed to deal with this. My role models don't tell their girlfriends."
"Your role models are imaginary," Vanessa points out.
"That's not what I-"
"And their girlfriends are, like, totally generic."
Zac ponders this and realizes he agrees. "That's a fair point." Van smiles like she thinks he's slow and finds it endearing, which should bother Zac more, but it just doesn't. She has her dumb moments, and he smiles at her like that too. They learn from each other. "But I'm still sorry I keep leaving you alone in places, I just don't think it's a good idea for you to tag along." She's smiling, mostly, but he keeps going anyway, because he wants to make things clear. Half-truths never did any good for anyone. "Not because I don't think you kick ass, because you know you do, but this is superhuman ass and, even if you could kick it, I don't think it's worth a try. Not when you're putting yourself in danger."
It sounds kind of cheesy, but apparently that's how positive honesty translates into words.
Vanessa-Vanessa looks like she agrees. "I thought you'd have wanted to save me again," she says. "Superheroes like saving their girlfriends."
And Zac smiles, in retrospect, because-well, okay, it was pretty rad. He got to carry Van in his arms, and she smiled that super pretty sincere smile of hers, the one that crinkles her eyes a little, and then he put her down and was pretty sure he was looking at her like a fool, and he felt her gaze on him while he went back into the club, but-yeah, the stuff before that? Not something he wants to go through again. There's adrenaline, and then there's the mind-numbing fear that comes with knowing the person in danger. He could live his whole life without revisiting that place.
And there's that pesky dying thing again.
But then Van says, "I'm glad you saved me," and it's the best feedback Zac could ever want.
He smiles softly, trying to keep his face tough, and feels ridiculously smug for the rest of the ride.
HSMRPF. Zac/Van, PG. ~2200 words. Superhero AU.
Summary: Maybe he's still worried she's gonna decide he's not worth the calls at three in the morning and the leaving her alone at parties and stuff, so he's making up that she's acting weird and, like, self-sabotaging or whatever. It's not weird like he thinks she's gonna leave him or anything, just-a little strange, like she's not sure what to feel at a given time.
Notes: I may or may not make my way through the entire lyrics from Bennie and the Jets. Er. This one was kind of ridiculously fun to write. Like, seriously ridiculously fun. I hope it's at least half as fun to read.
There's been something weird about Van ever since he told her about the whole superhero thing. Maybe he's just imagining it-maybe he's still worried she's gonna decide he's not worth the calls at three in the morning and the leaving her alone at parties and stuff, so he's making up that she's acting weird and, like, self-sabotaging or whatever. It's not weird like he thinks she's gonna leave him or anything, just-a little strange, like she's not sure what to feel at a given time, so Zac gives her her space to think and figure it out, and tries to make sure she knows she can talk to him and say whatever and he won't get offended or defensive or anything.
Like, for instance, this one time they're sitting in her car and he's driving because she's hungry and she's eating fries but she doesn't wanna leave the wheel all greasy, which Zac thinks is kinda ridiculous, she can clean it up later, but still. He's driving. He's driving her. And the thing that's wrong with that is that it hits Zac that that's what he's been doing, driving her, and rambling sometimes when he gets back from a job and he just goes straight to Van's house because he loves sleeping next to her, she smells so good that all the wiriness from fighting criminals seems to vanish into thin air under that smell, but just rambling when she knows and has absorbed all this seems like it's pushing her further away instead of closer, and that's not what he meant.
So at the next red light, he turns to her and says, "You can, like, ask. Whatever. About the superhero thing."
Vanessa turns her upper body to him, complete with drink in hand and straw in mouth. Her lips are pursed around it and her eyes just-reach around to lock on his and it's adorable, is what it is, and Zac has to do a double-take when Van lets the edge of the straw slide off her lips and says something.
"Sorry?" he says, and the light goes green.
"I said you don't have to do this," she says. "I'm fine."
Zac needs to pick better moments to do this stuff, because it's not like he can get into a serious conversation while he's driving, at least not if he doesn't want to kill both of them.
If that's even a possibility.
He should get around to sending the mysterious D a letter about that. There was nothing in his contract that said, "Hey, by the way, you can't die", but then there was that clause about how bullets ricochet off his costume-he doesn't wear all that fake muscle just for shits and giggles, okay?- but if he's stupid and doesn't use his super reflexes and gets himself shot in the neck, Disney won't take care of the medical bills, and it says medical bills, not funerary service, so Zac's not sure what to believe.
That's what he's thinking as he drives-that and he hopes the police won't stop them right now, because he's pretty sure he just went over the speed limit.
His foot slowly retreats off the pedal.
A second, and there's a ring.
"Is that-" Vanessa starts, and Zac shushes her and regrets it immediately, but not enough that he won't take the call straight away.
He clicks on the green button next to the one to eject CDs without even looking. "Zeffirelli here," he says, still not looking. He can feel Vanessa's eyes on him, and on his hand for the brief second he places it on her bare knee on the way back from clicking the button and onto the wheel.
"There's a commotion in Pasadena," D's assistant-a thirty-something guy Zac has a feeling he's seen on TV somewhere-says.
"What's the problem?"
"A handful of Doctor Joen's henchmen seem to have taken a club by storm. People are collapsing and on the brink of going deaf. They're controlling the electricity."
Just like that, Zac knows what to do.
"Drive or fly?" he asks, and he can tell Vanessa thinks this is the most coherent emergency call she's heard yet. Every other time, they've been in public, or he was hiding it from her, but he doesn't need to mince words now.
"Drive, I think," D's assistant says.
"I'll be there in ten minutes," he says, and he drives around a corner and into a lonely alleyway as he presses the blue button to end the call.
The LCD screen immediately pops up from behind the stereo, and Vanessa frowns. A few more buttons and Van's car has extra protection walls, double windows, and special wheels.
"What are you doing?" she says, mostly confused, he thinks, maybe freaking out a little? She doesn't seem scared or offended or anything. "What's my car doing?"
"I got it fixed just before I told you," Zac says-screams, really, over the noise the car is making as he pulls back out of the alleyway.
"Before?" asks Vanessa.
"Yeah," he says. He didn't, but Vanessa's fond smile is worth a tiny white lie. "I knew you'd be down for this."
"Are you gonna leave me somewhere?" she shouts over the increasingly loud noise.
The car accelerates without Zac telling it to. It's pretty awesome to drive these things. "You want me to?" he shouts back.
"I'd like to see it!"
And he's stupid and figures she can.
He even lets her drive while he changes into costume. It's not bad at all.
*
It's not a good idea.
He's trying to freeze one of the henchmen on his feet, keep him from touching the sound system, and he's left Vanessa in the car looking at the screen, the one that shoots from the tiny camera in the buckle of his belt. Zac's thought process goes like this: there are people crying on the floor, he must save them from this pain. Is Vanessa feeling that pain too? He wonders how loud the camera takes in sound-it's a live thing, he's never tried it, and Vanessa's sitting on the back of the car, behind black windows, with her earphones on, and he hopes she's not listening in just because he's there even though it's hurting her something.
The last thing he wants is to hurt her in any way.
He doesn't even know where the car is. He can't feel those things. The buckle only goes one way and he just keeps wondering if Van's curious enough to throw caution to the wind and raise suspicion by driving around in it, and for a moment there he thinks he forgot to check there were no paps following him when the car changed because if there were, his cover is blown and it's gonna take Disney a lot of money to solve this and he's sure they won't take his powers away even if he asked them to, which he's not, not after telling Van and-he wants to use them. Can't blame a guy for wanting to be a superhero. Even with all the downsides, the whole thing still makes him feel awesome.
There's another henchman using a nerdy-looking guy as a soundboard to project the crazy decibels around, and, seriously, what the heck does Doctor Joen get with this stuff? Is it, like, the knowledge that he can make a whole club crawl? Is he really that sex-starved? If it's getting laid he wants, Zac could probably negotiate something with Rob, some clause that says they won't kill each other when they're supposed to be cuddling or something, and that says no one will mutter a word about it afterwards. Rob would probably be into that, it's not like he has morals.
Then he spots another henchman directly electrocuting a girl and oh no, that is going way too far.
So Zac freezes him on the spot.
He swears he hears a gasp, but it's not anyone around him.
Point is, Zac freezes him on the spot, goes a little overboard what with the nerves and Van being outside and all this goddamn paranoia that's making his stomach do cartwheels, and he allows himself a second to hope he controlled the angle because Zeffirelli does not kill people. Not even if those people are killing other people. Now it's just hoping the henchman's recovery will go much like that Walt Disney legend where he'll be thawed out of his cryogenic death when the time comes, and-hey.
And then a henchman jumps at his boots.
His boots take care of it.
Just like that, he spots Robert at the other side of the platform, looking like thin air to anyone but Zac.
Zac gives him a look.
Robert says, just as inaudible to the world at large as he is invisible, "Just saw your car parked outside. Didn't know it was Bring Your Girlfriend to Work Day."
Zac scowls at him. This is not the time to banter, not when there's a-shit.
Green-clad Henchman has Vanessa.
Vanessa's getting something out of her-
Shit, shit, shit, motherfucking crap.
*
"You don't taser Doctor Joen's henchmen! They have superpowers!" Zac says, a little too loud, truth be told, and he knows he sounds irrational even though he's being perfectly reasonable, but he was so scared, and he's never letting Vanessa come with him ever again.
"How was I supposed to know!" Van shouts back. They're driving back from Pasadena and Zeffirelli saved the day and was not available to comment and man, D is gonna give him so much crap about this, but Vanessa needs to hear this stuff. "You don't tell me anything! I'm supposed to just, what, watch those people suffer and henchmen throw themselves at you and not do anything? I didn't know they could control electricity!"
Zac breathes in deep, but it's worthless. "I told you that!"
"I can't hear you when I'm asleep!"
Zac breathes in deep, and tries not to say anything. Van is scowling at him and instead of feeling like he just saved her or something, he just feels like scum. Because she wasn't his to save. He shouldn't have put her through it. Van doesn't watch battle and stand back, it's one of the things he likes about her. "I-"
"You tell me things when I'm asleep," Van says, a bit calmer.
"It's public knowledge that they can do that. It's on TV all the time. You were with me at that Lakers game when they shut down the entire electrical system."
"I thought that was-"
Zac snorts. It's derisive, and he feels bad immediately. "I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry I didn't tell you what happened at that game. And I'm sorry I brought you along."
"I told you to bring me along," she interrupts.
"Yeah, but I should have known better. I know you can't just watch and do nothing." She smiles, slightly, and he takes it as his cue to continue. "I just. I'm sorry, okay? I don't know how you're supposed to deal with this. My role models don't tell their girlfriends."
"Your role models are imaginary," Vanessa points out.
"That's not what I-"
"And their girlfriends are, like, totally generic."
Zac ponders this and realizes he agrees. "That's a fair point." Van smiles like she thinks he's slow and finds it endearing, which should bother Zac more, but it just doesn't. She has her dumb moments, and he smiles at her like that too. They learn from each other. "But I'm still sorry I keep leaving you alone in places, I just don't think it's a good idea for you to tag along." She's smiling, mostly, but he keeps going anyway, because he wants to make things clear. Half-truths never did any good for anyone. "Not because I don't think you kick ass, because you know you do, but this is superhuman ass and, even if you could kick it, I don't think it's worth a try. Not when you're putting yourself in danger."
It sounds kind of cheesy, but apparently that's how positive honesty translates into words.
Vanessa-Vanessa looks like she agrees. "I thought you'd have wanted to save me again," she says. "Superheroes like saving their girlfriends."
And Zac smiles, in retrospect, because-well, okay, it was pretty rad. He got to carry Van in his arms, and she smiled that super pretty sincere smile of hers, the one that crinkles her eyes a little, and then he put her down and was pretty sure he was looking at her like a fool, and he felt her gaze on him while he went back into the club, but-yeah, the stuff before that? Not something he wants to go through again. There's adrenaline, and then there's the mind-numbing fear that comes with knowing the person in danger. He could live his whole life without revisiting that place.
And there's that pesky dying thing again.
But then Van says, "I'm glad you saved me," and it's the best feedback Zac could ever want.
He smiles softly, trying to keep his face tough, and feels ridiculously smug for the rest of the ride.