Chapter Text
Tango would never, ever, in a million years, admit it; but he was starting to think Impulse was right about this whole “just tell him” thing.
He crossed out the latest idea with his pen with large strokes before giving up on the whole half-written plan and crumbling it up into a ball. He tossed it into the bin, which immediately dropped the paper into an incinerator. He groaned as he watched the fire peak out of the bin before lowering again.
“How am I even supposed to tell him? Trap him again? What would I even trap him in to do that? I already tried the dinner thing? A giant box of chocolates maybe?” He mused, as if he hadn’t already scraped the box of chocolate ideas about twenty ideas ago. He didn’t want the chocolate to melt on top of Canary.
There was a beeping on his perimeter censors and he lifted his head in confusion. Deja vu sparked through him as he opened the cameras to peek at the unscheduled visiter. Parrot was standing in front of one of his front cameras, thankfully not bursting through the door this time, but definitely looking like he wanted to. He hurried tapped on the lens, “Hey! You there?! We- We really need your help!”
Tango furrowed his brow as he checked another camera, this one a bit farther away. He had to adjust the angle to figure out who the second in “we” was. It was Canary, of course, but he was slumped on the ground, leaning against Parrot’s legs, like he could no longer stand.
He punched the button to send up the elevator in an instant, the thing whirling up as he began to shut down the more in-the-way defenses. He watched through the cameras as the elevator made it up to the ground floor and Parrot immediately did his best to hoist Canary inside.
Once Tango was sure they were on the way he started rushing around the lab. He cleared off a work bench completely, something to set Canary on, and grabbed up a white sheet he usually used for covering unused projects or for big reveals to give it some padding. Then he rushed to grab his first aid supplies, anything he had around the lab was collected up and set nearby, the biggest kit he had pulled off the wall and set on a wheeled cart next to the bench. It was an afterthought to but his googles and coat on. He wasn’t dressed in anything more than a t-shirt and cargo pants, he hoped neither Canary or Parrot judged him for it.
The elevator opened with a ding and he rushed over, immediately ducking under Canary’s free arm to help get the weight off of Parrot, “What happened?”
“Stabbed. Again,” Parrot said in heaving breaths, obviously out of breath. “My- My usual contact is out of town. You were- You’re the only thing I got right now Blaze.”
Blaze nodded at that, pushing down the growing anger at someone else touching his nemesis. He was going to make them rue the day they dare endanger the Canary, but for now it was heal-ly healing time. They dragged him over to the table and up on top of it, Canary groaning in pain. Tango tried not to think too hard about how he hadn’t spoken a word, Canary had at least tried to reassure him the last time he was stabbed.
“Where was he-” He began before Parrot moved back and Tango could actually see where the wound was. It wasn’t actually that far off from the last place Canary had been stabbed, just a bit closer towards his organs. “You do realize I’m not- I haven’t gotten my doctorate yet, and I don’t think it would cover this!”
“I know!” Parrot shouted back, “It’s not- I’m pretty sure it’s just like last time, no internal bleeding or anything. We just need to stop the current bleeding.”
“Okay. Okay.” Tango nodded and started digging through his first aid kit. “Could you- uh- remove his clothes? I guess?”
Parrot only hesitated for a moment before lifting away the shirt. Tango handed him a clean towel and Parrot held it to the stab wound. Canary hissed in pain and Tango glanced at him to see his eyelids fluttering, clearly still a little conscious.
“Hey- Hey Canary, you awake bud? Want to stay awake for us?” Tango asked, he wasn’t sure if it would help or not to keep Canary awake at this point, but it would feel better if he was.
“‘M here,” Canary muttered, glancing up at Tango through lidded eyes. “Surprised Parrot brought us here.”
“What, you think I’m such a supervillain I’d let you suffer? No. No. No. I’m about as happy with this stabbing as Parrot is,” Tango forced out a chuckle. He really wished he had a more sterile environment. He handed Parrot alcohol and slipped latex gloves on over his hands. “Go ahead and pour that over the wound, uh, it’s going to hurt, obviously.”
Parrot nodded and did as he was told. Canary screamed in pain and it took all of Tango not to flinch away and cover his ears. “Can you- um- Can you stick his scarf in his mouth? If he clenches his teeth I don’t want him chipping a tooth.” Parrot did that as well.
Tango worked to fix up the wound. Wiping away blood as he did.
“Ew,” Parrot complained next to him. He couldn’t help but agree. It was a little gross.
“Ew yourself,” Canary muttered out behind the makeshift gag of a scarf and between pained hisses.
They wrapped it up in cotton when he was done. “That should- should be fine. Your usual contact? Are they like an actual trained medical person?”
“They are. They’ll be back tomorrow, so if something goes wrong we’ll have them. We just- We couldn’t wait.”
Tango understood that. He took a step back, shucking off the gloves to be disposed and sticking his hands in his pocket to stop the shaking. “I can– I’m going to get him something to drink. Orange juice is best, right, for loosing blood?”
Parrot shrugged, “That’s what they hand out at blood drives anyways.”
He stepped away. The main lab of his lair was a cluttered mess of machines, and the small living space wasn’t any better, but the kitchen was fully stocked with snacks and drinks for the allnighters he pulled. He could just hear the beginnings of a muttered conversation from the two heroes that he couldn’t make out and didn’t try to. He was back in just a few minutes and Parrot took the juice from him.
“You should stay the night,” Tango said before he could regret it. “Better not to move him until you know for certain your contact is available.”
He could see the hesitation. He really expected Parrot to outright deny him, but then his shoulders dropped, exhaustion radiating off of Parrot in waves, “One night. We’ll stay one night.”
Surprisingly, Canary didn’t say anything in the matter. Tango dragged his couch into the middle of the lair.
Tango and Parrot decided to sleep in shifts, each of them watching over Canary for a few hours. Mostly, this was because Parrot was exhausted after the nights events to stay up much longer and Tango was too hopped up on adrenaline to fall asleep. Tango would take first shift, and then Parrot the second. It was most likely that by the time Tango woke up tomorrow they’d be gone.
He had thought, by the time Parrot fell asleep, that Canary would be out too. Instead the hero was awake, dutifully drinking juice and staring at Tango like he was a thousand piece puzzle.
“You,” Tango said sternly, dropping a blanket on his lap, “Should be resting. Y’know, now that you’re not about to die again.”
“This is the second time you’ve saved me,” Canary said instead, voice barely above a whisper glancing at Parrot out of the corner of his eye, making sure he was still asleep. “I guess– I know you’re not the typical supervillain. You’ve given me more tech than I could personally afford on my own, to make our fights better, as you say. Which I appreciate. It’s just, I guess I’m not sure what your goal is.”
Tango hummed at that, leaning against the couch, “Mainly my goal is to look super cool and be awesome. Taking over the city is like, a perk of that.”
Canary huffed, something fond slipping onto his face, “Well, you succeed in those things, even if I have to stop you from taking over the city.”
He grinned, “You think I’m awesome?”
“Something like that,” Canary forced a grimace, obviously hiding a smile. “I do got to know, what is with the, like, Valentine’s theme you have going on lately? Doesn’t seem your style. Something I should know about?”
“Oh that?” Tango squeaked, quickly trying to hide the sudden blush, “That’s nothing! Nothing at all! Just, theming, trying out a few things.”
“Oh,” Canary deflated a bit, “Right, course. Trying new things.”
“Yeah, what- what did you think it was about?”
“Was kind of thinking you were trying to make a move,” Canar answered, his own face turning red, “How stupid is that? I’m your nemesis, like you’d have a crush on me of all people.”
“It’s not stupid!” Tango shouted. Then immediately shushed himself as Parrot shifted. He repeated, in a whisper this time, “It’s not stupid. I may have been lying. But, I may have only been lying if you’re not lying about what I think you’re saying.”
“Really?” Canary asked, looking up at him with big eyes, “I’m not lying. I- um- I might think, just a little, that you’re really cool and funny and it would be nice to, y’know, go a bit further than just nemeses?”
Tango nodded quickly with wide eyes, “Yes. Yes. I might, also, just a teensy weensy bit, think you’re also cool and funny and that we should expand upon our awesome relationship.”
“Fantastic.”
“Excellent.”
“What now?” Canary asked.
Tango didn’t know. “We could try–” he leaned down, kissing his cheek quickly.
“Oh–” Canary breathed, “Yeah that was good.”
“Yeah?” Tango asked, “We could also–”
“Also nothing!” Parrot was fully sitting up now, glaring at the two of them. “Stop! Stop. Before you “we could try-” into a bed. Oh my goodness, I hate you both.”
Tango watched Canary’s face turn scarlet and he knew his own face was the same.
“Sorry, Parrot,” Canary muttered.
Parrot’s glare softened for a second before he crossed his arms, “Well you should be. I’m now going to have to deal with you fighting and flirting. This is terrible! Outrageous!” Tango chuckled as Parrot continued to rant.
He supposed Parrot deserved a little outrage, even if it did ruin the moment. He was right. He was going to have to deal with the two of them figuring out this weird new relationship. He couldn’t think of another nemesis duo that moved into the dating stage without one or the other changing sides, so this was a first for everyone. He was excited to see where it would take them. He could finally move on from his wooing schemes to the date themed schemes, which were probably going to be a lot like the wooing stage but he’d sneak in a kiss or two.
He could also go back to his normal evil plans as well. Which was good, cause he felt like Etho was starting to get suspicious of him. Though, he was going to have to tell Impulse how it went, and then Impulse was going to tell Bdubs and Bdubs was going to tell Etho, so there was no getting out of that . He could handle it though.
He kissed Canary’s cheek again and savored the angry squawk Parrot let out.
Right now? He felt like he could handle anything.