forum @metaphoricallyella

Started August 21, 2020 by @Calanthe

tune

Graham looked up in confusion, That's. . .no it couldn't be, after all his voice is normally muffled by his mask. But that. . .that's face, good God. . . He smirked a little bit, trying to sit up again, "Nothing really Asher, just a bit of an accident with a friend of mine." He said, wincing yet again, and then just gave up on trying to sit up. "And I was here on Tuesday." He mumbled rather sheepishly. Oh god, I need to pay those hospital bills too now, great. He sighed a little bit, "How's your new bike?" It might be interesting to see him react to this, and see if he'll know who I am, although I doubt it. But then again, how many people does he know with a British accent?

Asher had just picked up a tray of bandages and old sterile wipe wrappers. He dropped the tray, his eyes wide and his mouth open. "Okay, I'm stupid. But you're-you're…." he trailed off. Asher's eyes widened more, if that was possible. "This is…. not good…" he trailed off again. Ash stared at his face, taking in all the details. He wasn't bad looking. Not at all. "Graham?" he whispered. "T-This isn't good, we can't know about each other! Oh, I was stupid, I was so stupid, you gave me the bike and I didn't know how to thank you, and my gay side was like, 'Well, just show him your face and he'll fall in love with you and stop doing crime!' and my other gay side said 'Thanks gay side,' and then I did it but it didn't work like that and now you know who I am and where I work and everything is bad!"

Graham chuckled a little bit, "I don't think you can fix a criminal that easily Asher, at least as far as I know." He said with a slight shrug, trying to not mess up his shoulder anymore than it already was, "And uhm, with the way I am, I'm probably not going to remember any of this, I'm pretty high on pain meds right now, I think." He said looking around the room, "If there isn't actually a unicorn in the corner of the room, I think you'll be fine." He said with a bit of a smirk on his face, "And, I hate to crush you dreams sweetheart, but." But he decided to not continue and the crush the boy anymore, "Like I said, you'll be fine, I'll forget and then I won't know where you work or anything, but if I do, I could always end you flowers or something." He said with a playful smile on his face.

"No," Asher said sternly. "No, no, no no no, this is not happening, this is not happening!" Asher exclaimed, beginning to pace the room. "There's no unicorn, but I could definitely say there's an elephant. Oh man…." he sighed, knowing what he needed to do. "Listen, I don't want to do this, but sometimes a hero has to make hard desicions, alright? So I'm just going to do this until I figure out a better plan, and then everything will be fixed!" he smiled. Asher got out a face mask and pressed it over Graham's face. "Nighty night!" he smiled, putting him to sleep. Quickly, Asher ran out and grabbed a body bag, stuffing Graham into it. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" he mumbled, carrying Graham as gently as he could to his house. Asher unzipped the body bag and laid Graham in his bed, briefly considering tying him down. He shook his head, realizing this was a horrible idea, and just sat in a nearby chair waiting for Graham to wake up.

Graham woke up after what seemed to him like good night's sleep but was really maybe an hour or so, "WHERE THE HELL AM I!" Was the first thing he said, when he realised that he was no longer in the hospital room, or anywhere he could recognize, then, he saw Asher sitting there too, "Oh my dear Lord," he said glaring at the guy, "I swear, you are an idiot sandwich! You don't just kidnap people because they know your secret identity, and do you know how much trouble you'll be in for using equipment like that on me?" His voice was nearly a screech and his eyes narrowed into mere slits at the other man, "I'm leaving." He said trying to sit up, but failing, "When I feel good enough to." He said turning over onto the side where he had no broken ribs, "Look, had you not kidnapped me, I wouldn't have remembered any of it, and if I had, I would've just wiped my memory of it. But now, I swear, you're gay brain better come up with some way to get yourself out of this situation."

Asher frowned, deep in thought, then suddenly smiled. "I know!" he laughed. Ash quickly left the room then came back in, fully suited up. "I'll just reveal your secret identity to the whole city, and have you locked up for the rest of your life!" he smiled brightly, like it was the best idea in the world. "Oh, but you know my identity?" he asked innocently. "Well, who's going to believe a villain like you?" Asher laughed, fully certain he had gotten himself out of this situation. "Sorry for kidnapping you, by the way. Heros have to make some tough decisions sometimes. It's nothing personal." Ash sat back down in the chair and crossed his legs, smiling at Graham from under his mask.

Graham's eyes widened when he heard that idea, "Hex no, I'm getting out of here." Pushing through the pain, he stood up and started to walk shakily towards the door, "Also, I don't think I'll be in there for too long." He said through gritted teeth, "You dimwit." He added, as he stopped at the nightstand near the door trying to regain his balance but failing as he toppled over onto his rear. He let out a yelp, before muttering under his breath, "And don't even try to apologize, no hero would do something as cruel as this. I wouldn't. . .actually, I'm not a hero, so that doesn't really apply to me. But still. You better let me free, or my buddi-minions- will come after you, and make your life hell."

Asher paused, then slowly took his mask off. He handed it to Graham. "The police station is two blocks to the left. My name is Asher Jason Higgins, and I am sorry," he said softly. Ash sat back down in the chair, defeated. He knew that Graham would go to the police and turn him in. He knew that the police would arrest him, especially since he hadn't been able to save the bank. There was no more running for him. For once, Ash didn't have anything more to say, besides: "You can use my bike, if you can't walk that far. It's in the garage."

Graham shook his head, "I don't think you realize the extent of my injuries, I had a bit of a run in with Storm, you know the crazy villain lady, who frankly hates my guts, so uhm I won't be going anywhere soon." He just glared down at the mask in his hands and sighed, "Look, I'm not going to turn you in, at least, if you won't turn me in, alright?" He tried to stand up again, but couldn't, and groaned out of pain, "I can't go anywhere at the moment, since she knows what I look like, and now has a decent idea of where I live, so uhm Asher, why don't we just call it a truce for now." He sighed again, and looked up at the other guy, " I just need to find a place to lay low for a bit, so then when I'm better I could do something, then you save the day. But could you uhm, maybe return me to the hospital or something though? Or take me to a hotel or something so I won't bother you while I heal up?"

Asher picked him up gently and laid him back in his bed. He nodded, looking at him with pure concern written all over his face. "I'll take you back to the hospital in the morning. It isn't safe to travel at night, with Storm knowing what you look like. You can stay here for the time being, you won't bother me, I'm sure." He paused. "I mean, unless you think it's better for me to take you back now. I wouldn't know, I'm not very smart," he said blantantly, with not a hint of sarcasm. "I might bother you if you stay here. We both know how annoying I can be," he said blatantly again. Apparantely Ash was really good at negative self talk. "One of my favorite things to do is play my guitar, so that probably won't help with any head injuries you might have."

"I think I'll be fine, I don't have any head injuries, as far as I can tell, just a few broken ribs and a few leg injuries, I'll be fine." He said with yawn, "And you won't bother me, I mean, you will if you keep on talking bad about yourself, but other than that. . ." He trailed off a bit, loosing his train of thought, "Be nice to yourself, alright?" And with that he fell asleep.

Asher shook his head and laughed softly. "What's the difference between you calling me an idiot and me calling myself one?" he asked soflty. Ash walked out of the room and gently shut the door, careful not to wake Graham. He picked up his guitar but left it unplugged, going through the motions of playing but not actually making any noise. He hummed softly to himself, that morphing into a soft singing. "'Cause I'm a creep…" he sang softly. "I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here…." Eventually, Ash trailed off to sleep as well.

Graham woke up early in the morning, still feeling the pain from the night before. He moved his hand up towards his side where his ribs were and felt them each carefully, trying to make sure he hadn't injured them more in his sleep, in case he had been tossing and turning, or something of that nature. Relieved that everything was alright, he sat up, using nearly all the strength he had. He wanted to stand up and go home -knowing that his friends had probably messed his home up or burnt it down-, but knew that that would be impossible since he felt nauseous from just sitting up. Perhaps Storm had hurt him worse than what he had thought she had, or maybe he had been lying to himself for too long about other injuries he had had before. He propped up some pillows below him and leaned back against them, trying to estimate how long he might end up staying here. He knew that Asher could get into major trouble for taking him out of the hospital, especially in such a violent way, and also, he didn't exactly want to go back to the hospital. He knew that some of the doctors and nurses were getting a bit suspicious about how often he showed up there. And he definitely knew that they had noticed how severe his injuries had been as well. So perhaps staying below their radar would be good, at least for a while. As soon as he felt well enough to go back to his home, and deal with these two idiot friends, he'd do so, but he also didn't want to be a pain to Asher as well.

After a little while, Graham got an idea, at least as to how he could make Asher look good again in the eyes of the public. He had been in touch with a group of well, he wasn't exactly sure what term would describe them the best, but villains in the making, and he had been mentoring them in way. He knew that the teens, as he referred to them- had extremely strong powers, and terrifically diabolical ideas as well. So perhaps, if he somehow handed them over to Asher, and the hero turned them into authorities to perhaps convert them to heroes, Asher would be in limelight and a hero once more, and Graham wouldn't have to take another beating from him either. It was a win-win plan, at least to him it was. He smiled in satisfaction of the idea and reached over to grab the book on the night stand beginning to read it as he waited for Asher to come in. He was pretty excited to tell the man his plan, and hoped that he would be on board with it.

((Better?))