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. Stunned by the vehemence, Hex fell back, blinking dumbly up at Strike.Thatwasn t Strike, part-time vigilante and part-time thief, speaking to Hex the superhero.That was concern and fear Hex could see and hear.Slowly, giving Strike time to moveaway, Hex reached up and rested his hand on Strike s mask. Off, he said. Not now, Strike refuted. Off, Hex repeated firmly.He didn t pull it was Strike s choice, always hischoice but he refused to look away until Strike sighed and undid the domino mask. Then you too, Strike said, tapping Hex s temple.Fair was fair, so Hex pulled hisoff as well.It was strange how without that one li le piece of costume, they weren t Hex andStrike anymore.They were just Evan and Daniel. There was a brief moment of transition where Hex was becoming Evan and hefelt awkward and alien in his own body, but Evan shook off the last vestige of his super-hero persona with a violent shiver.When he opened his eyes, he found Daniel lookingback.Daniel was the same in and out of costume, masked or unmasked; it was onlyEvan who kept them separate in his mind. Hey, Evan said.Frowning, Daniel gingerly touched his face. You almost died, he said flatly. Part of the job description, Evan replied, a li le flippantly. But c mon, youknow me and my luck. Your luck isn t always reliable and you can t keep Daniel s mouth snappedshut.It was obvious he was struggling not to lose his cool. Whoa, hey, Evan soothed, sliding his hand around Daniel s wrist, tugging. C mere. Daniel resisted at first but Evan was stubborn and not above pulling the woe isme card, and with excruciating slowness, Daniel unfolded and let himself be pulledinto Evan s arms.It was uncomfortable with Daniel almost lying on top of him, hisknees digging into Evan s side, but Evan wouldn t have changed any of it.Daniel wasalmost tentative at first, hands shifting this way and that, but when Evan said noth-ing, he eventually se led into the weird li le hug-comfort thing with his arms aroundEvan s waist and his face buried in Evan s neck.This was why relationships between heroes/vigilantes/villains was discouraged.Emotions got involved and then people couldn t or wouldn t do what they had to.In Daniel and Evan s defence, they weren t intending to be anything.It had startedas a kind of competition where Hex and Strike raced to see who could get to the crimi-nals first.Stupid, yes, but they were teenaged superheroes.Stupidity was practically arequirement.Then something changed, though there was no particular moment that Evancould point to and say, Aha! Maybe it was after their first team up against a Vale regu-lar.Or it could be when they started fixing each other s injuries.Or those patrol nightswhen nothing happened so they went to get coffee instead.Finding out each other sidentity was an accident but even that was taken in stride and they began talking toeach other out of costume.It was a natural progression into becoming more.So yeah, the blame for that could be laid at both of their s feet, but the decision tokeep mask and unmasked lives separate? That was entirely Evan.Daniel was less thanenthusiastic, but Evan was adamant; what happened in costume didn t mix with outof costume.It couldn t.Otherwise lines would blur and then where would they be.And for the past three years it worked.Until now.Until that night on the roof of theart museum when Strike had kissed Hex, and Hex had kissed back.It was only a li lething, Evan supposed, but it threw their perfect system into disarray and they hadn t spoken since.So the life or death thing couldn t have come at a be er time.Evan was a silverlining kind of dude.Evan cleared his throat, and staring up at the roof of their makeshift shelter, said, Yeah, uh, sorry. He hoped Daniel would understand that the apology was meantfor more than just the near death situation.Evan wasn t always the most verbose guywhen it came to things like feelings, and yes, he could probably have done be er thana single word, but it was the thought that counted.Or something.It was nerve-wracking waiting for Daniel to reply, and worse yet, Evan couldn teven pretend to be doing something else in the mean time.Without any distractions,the tide of anxiety rose way too quickly, and Evan came dangerously close to pokingDaniel to see if that would lead to actual words.But when Daniel started pulling away,there was a flare of panic where Evan would ve done anything to get that awful, awk-ward silence back again.This was what it must feel like to jump out of the frying paninto the fire.Both options sucked.He wasn t a coward however, and whatever hap-pened, happened and he d deal with it.Now if only his racing pulse would agree. It almost killed you a li le to say that, didn t it? Daniel said with a hint of asmile.It wasn t that Evan didn t understand what Daniel said.Or that he didn t havea response.The reason for the long moment of speechlessness that followed was be-cause Evan was torn between punching Daniel and.no, he just really wanted to punchthe guy. I dislike you, Evan seethed. Strongly dislike you. There Evan was with his feelings and shit all over the floor and Daniel was mock-ing him.Daniel only laughed and rearranged their limbs so he was leaning against the walland Evan s back was against his chest. I love you, he said, so plainly and easily thatEvan forgot to be embarrassed for a moment. And I suppose that s all that ma ers. And that was that, Evan knew.Daniel would never bring it up again if Evan didn twant him to.For all those times it felt like Daniel was the one pushing and pulling inthis sort of fucked up relationship, there were moments like this when it was clear hewas willing to compromise everything for Evan.And hell if that didn t make the guiltperk right up.With ease of practice, Evan shoved it back down, and said, What now? Now, you get more rest, and I ll wake you up in a couple of hours.Then we llfigure out what to do. That sounded good.Really good and Evan s body agreed with a yawn.He mur-mured something else to Daniel, maybe a good night , and that was all he remem-bered. When Strike had said tunnel, Hex made all kinds of assumptions, the most im-portant being there was only one.The reality was more like a shitload of tunnels.Amaze of tunnels.A warren, even.Hex was unimpressed by the blatant lie.He shouldhave known be er though; Strike understated everything.If the sun blew up tomor-row his last words would be, It was a nice light show. At least Hex didn t have a sore back to deal with on top of it all; Strike s rune tookcare of that very nicely.And he was also immensely grateful for the heat rune, whichwas now tucked away next to his skin.Strike had warned him it wouldn t last muchlonger, but Hex would have appreciated even a minute of warmth.He didn t know how long they wandered the tunnels, choosing a random direc-tion when one branched off.There was nothing in Strike s bag that could guide themout of the maze, so they were reduced to relying on Hex s powers.Strike, being a practical minded and sceptical science student, didn t like it, buttheir choices were limited.So they walked the tunnels side by side, limiting their con-versation to the bare minimum.After that deep and meaningful conversation backin the cave, Hex and Strike had gone back to their usual hero/vigilante routine.Hexdidn t know how it worked for other people but he found it easier to deal with criseswhen he had the mask on.He panicked less, worried less, and thought clearer.Or soit seemed
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