Lovesick in Autumn

Danny and Mal—the Elemental superheroes Zeus and Prometheus—put a little fear of the gods into some pranking teenagers. 

“Come on, guys, no egging!” Cole was seriously starting—continuing, internalizing—to hate choosing to hang out with Tyler’s douchebag lacrosse buddies over their tradition of costume party and scary movies with their real friends. 

The things one did to be around their forever crush, even if he was never going to confess the truth. 

How did one tell their best friend that they were in love with them and had been since puberty? Was there a gender reveal cake for that, only instead of a pointlessly gendered color, it was a rainbow with Tyler’s face on it?

“Eggs are classic, Kohls,” Melrose argued, the one who’d produced the egg carton, as they hung around behind the largest of the midway stalls. 

Cole hated that nickname. He was not some bargain-brand discount store. 

Melrose was the lacrosse team captain, a senior like Cole and Tyler, who’d never spoken to them until Tyler made the team that year. 

There were two others. Bruno, who not only had the name of every dog Cole had met the last couple years, but acted like one, with short barks of conversation that made one wonder if anything was actually upstairs. Then Kenny, who spoke in jock speak and Hicksville giggles. 

Laxing? Twizzler? Ride the Pine? Cole was pretty sure those were all just sex acts. 

Finally, there was Tyler, boy-next-door perfection, good at everything, nice, gorgeous—and he wanted to hang with these guys on Halloween?

Well, at the Olympus City Fall Festival, which lasted a whole 13 days leading into Halloween, and when Halloween was on a Monday, the Saturday before was when most people celebrated. 

“It’s a disaster to clean up,” Cole tried and saw Melrose and the other jocks sneer at him. 

“Fine, bro.” Giggled Kenny. “We’ll just toilet paper the security guy’s car.” He had a roll ready and was already headed toward the vehicle parked nearby. 

Coz that wouldn’t get them into any serious trouble. 

“Hey,” Tyler approached, dressed in all black like the rest of them, with one of five identical skull masks in hand. They looked like the hoodlums from The Karate Kid when they all wore them. Cole’s knuckles were turning white from clutching his too tight. 

But damn, even in Cobra Kai bully chic Tyler looked good. Tall, fit, bronze skin, dark hair, yellow lightning leaning eyes. He could have been the prince in some Bollywood film with the accompanying smile.  

Cole basically looked like a young skinny Eminem with ears that stuck out too far. His eyes were blue, water leaning, which he’d always jokingly blamed for his inability to admit his feelings to Tyler. Sure, Tyler knew Cole was gay—everyone did—and Tyler had always seemed… maybe fluid even if he’d never gone out with a boy, but water shorted out lightning, didn’t it? 

The pair was doomed to never hold a spark. 

“Are you okay?” Tyler asked quietly. “I know you wanted to go to Lexxy’s party.”

“Yeah, but you wanted to be here.” Cole shrugged. 

“It’s just… they finally make me feel like one of the team, you know? But it seemed wrong to do Halloween without you.” He grinned again, and Cole’s knees went gooey. 

“Same.” 

They had to stand close to keep their words hushed, close enough that if Cole lifted onto his tiptoes— 

“You two done making out?” Kenny giggled again. “I’m gettin’ my steeze on!”

Cole’s cheeks burned, and he swiftly backed out of Tyler’s orbit. Steeze? That one he didn’t even want to guess at, but Kenny apparently thought he was pretty hot stuff with the pirouettes he was doing around the security guy’s car, looping toilet paper around side mirrors and top lights. 

“Come on.” Melrose pulled Tyler even farther away from Cole, and then put his mask on, making him look like a monochrome jack-o'-lantern. “There are tricks to be played.”

Tyler smiled more sheepishly before putting his mask on too. 

Reluctantly, Cole did the same. 

***

“Tell me again why we’re dressed in each other’s costumes tonight?”

Danny clung to Mal’s arm with a comfortable lean. “Because if we were ourselves, everyone would recognize us as the real thing, and no one would leave us alone all night. This way, they think we’re just two guys in costume. If we were out of costume, since everyone knows your face, they’d think you were cheating on Zeus with handsome young detective, Danny Grant,” he finished dramatically. 

Mal snorted. “You are handsome,” he purred and coiled their hands together where Danny had their arms looped. 

“Besides, you look good in my suit, Ice Man. You know I like you in something form-fitting.”

“My costume is also form-fitting,” Mal argued. 

“The duster covers it all up!” Danny spread his free arm outward as he looked down at himself. The black undersuit was form-fitting, but the sleeveless duster was ankle-length and kept bodily contours hidden. 

“Except the guns, which are certainly nicer than mine.” Mal traced the definition of Danny’s bicep. 

He was close enough that Danny could have felt Mal’s breath on his neck, if Mal wasn’t wearing Danny’s Zeus cowl that covered his entire face. Danny liked wearing only a pair of goggles for once, which he’d propped up on his loose red hair, face entirely visible. 

“It’s Zeus!”

He tensed, the usual flutters of being found out churning in his stomach, before he looked and saw a little girl pointing at Mal. 

“Yes, sweetie,” her mother said patiently, “and I’m sure he’s very busy. Fantastic costume, by the way. Both of you,” she added to Danny and Mal, before leading the gawking girl away. 

They were in the middle of the festival midway after all. Danny wanted to play carnival games and wolf down a pumpkin flavored funnel cake. 

For a large city, their fall festival had a real small-town charm to it. 

“Must be nice getting recognized with a smile on people’s faces,” Mal teased. 

“People smile at you too. You haven’t exactly been much of a villain lately. Full mayoral pardon. Citation for your work with the abuse shelter. Face it, Ice Man—you’re a hero now too.”

“Hrn,” Mal grumbled. 

They continued down the first of the busy midway rows. It was a cool but pleasant autumn evening, stars sparkling above, or as much as they could with the light pollution from the city, but this area by the river was flat and open and perfect for a fair. Danny had always liked the city lights, but carnival lights of all colors of the rainbow made him feel a comfort like he’d only ever known as a boy. 

And with Mal. 

They were making an initial pass to pick what they wanted to spend money on. There was a jack-o’-lantern-shaped bean bag toss, cutouts of Frankenstein and his bride to take pictures behind, caramel apples—

Ooo, maybe Danny wanted a caramel apple before his funnel cake.

“Why'd you want to come tonight,” Danny asked while he contemplated snack options, “instead of tomorrow when, like, everyone else is planning to hit the festival?”

“Obviously, so I can have you alone, Sparky. I have to share you far too often. Besides, we’re having a Halloween party Monday with all our nosy friends and family. I can enjoy the festival with you all by myself.” Mal turned to him and lifted the bottom of his mask to steal a kiss. 

A chill and spark of electricity passed between them. There was nothing quite like ice and lightning meeting. 

Two strides later, Danny saw a pumpkin patch ring toss. 

“Shall we feed you—”

“Changed my mind,” Danny broke in. “I want a pumpkin first.”

Mal looked at the stall that was more so an open area with pumpkins lined up, and if you hooked a ring on the stem on your first throw, you got that pumpkin to take home. “If we get a pumpkin first, we’ll be carrying it all night.”

“We can bring it to the car.” 

“We didn’t take a car.” 

“Oh right. I mean, I can hide quick, and lightning jump it back to the apartment. If we wait, all the good ones will be taken!”

Mal sighed and tugged Danny close again. “The things I do for you.”

Danny wasted ten bucks trying to get the pumpkin he really wanted. His coordination was largely reliant on being able to lightning jump in any given situation. But Mal took over before Danny could waste anymore and scored on the first toss the perfectly round white pumpkin Danny had his eyes on. 

“Show off,” Danny said as he carried it, scanning for a place he could hide to lightning jump away and back again. He wanted to carve a ghost into it before Halloween. “There’s face painting too!” He noticed the stand with a line mostly filled with children. They had special designs in honor of the city’s heroes—lightning for Zeus, snowflakes for Prometheus, even designs for Helios and Gaia. “Lucy is going to love that vine and flowers desi—”

A batting hand punched the pumpkin out of Danny’s grasp, and it crashed to the ground with a squelch. Teenage boys raced past them, all wearing black with skeleton masks, laughing, and generally causing a ruckus as they spooked children and adults alike. One even swiped a candy apple from a man who’d been about to take a bite. 

“Damn kids!” A security guard came up behind Danny and Mal, clearly out of breath from chasing the teens. “Sorry, sirs. I’m on it. These brats have been running amok all night.” He took another heaving breath and chased after them again. 

Danny seethed. Why did someone always have to ruin good fun for everyone else. 

“You all right there, Sparky?” Mal asked in a gentle whisper. Sometimes he used cautious kid-gloves with Danny when he got upset, which was equally sweet and maddening. Danny hated for any of his loved ones to expect the worst from him. He would always be in recovery from his rock-bottom of manic depression because it wasn’t something a person got over. He had to manage every day. 

And admittedly, sometimes it was the seemingly silly things that set him off. Mal was always so understanding, so always patient with him, and it was because of that that Danny was able to take a calming breath. 

“I’m fine. But geez, I hope Joey’s never like that. Or Michael.”  Joey was Danny’s adopted brother, a younger teenager very quickly heading toward that age. Michael, their neighbor’s little boy and Mal’s godson, was thankfully a long ways off to teen years. 

“While I know letting off steam in the negative sense isn’t your speed these days,” Mal said with the sort of telling tone that proved he was scheming, “the fun kind can be rewarding. And educational.” He nodded where the teens had run off to. 

“Meaning?”

Even with the mask covering Mal’s face, it was obvious he grinned. “Let’s put a little fear of the gods into those boys.”

***

Tyler huffed and wheezed through his laughter, as they escaped behind a different set of midway stalls to avoid the security guard. That guy had no chance of catching them. They ran laps every day for lacrosse practice. Though Tyler could use a break. 

Sure, it was juvenile stupidity, but it was kind of fun. He felt guilty about the pumpkin he’d caused to smash from that guy dressed as Prometheus, but even this kind of revelry was enjoyable as long as Cole…

Tyler looked around. Melrose and Kenny were high-fiving, and Bruno had taken his mask off to eat the apple he’d swiped. 

Where was Cole?

“You… guys… suck!” Cole’s voice preceded him stumbling into view from around one of the stalls. He ripped his mask off, panting from exertion. He did not run laps every day. He did robotics, built computers for their friends, played video games, and hosted DnD sessions. His trimness had nothing to do with exercise, more so genetics, with very little muscle mass. 

Tyler had always thought Cole’s physique lithe and elegant. Graceful even. 

Cole tripped over an uneven part of the ground and nearly faceplanted before Tyler darted forward to catch him. Maybe not always graceful. He was really warm though for a cool night after all their running. And his water-blue eyes were so… bright. 

“And you!” Cole pushed from Tyler’s hold to swing an accusing finger at Kenny. “I saw you take that candy from a kid. A kid? Could you be more of a cliché?” 

Kenny scoffed. 

Damn. Cole was miserable and angry and kind of making Tyler feel two feet tall. He’d just wanted the guys on the team to accept him. He was good at lacrosse. He could get a scholarship with it if he played things right this year. How else was he going to get into the same school as Cole? Tyler was smart, but not 5.0 brilliant like his friend. 

Cole shot his next nasty look at Bruno. “And you—”

“Adult,” Bruno grunted in answer, as if that absolved his stealing of the apple, and went in for another bite. 

He bit nothing but air, and leftover sparks like a wire shorting out made him wrinkle his nose and sneeze. 

What the—?

“I’m sure you boys know that stealing from anyone is a crime, right?”

Tyler jerked around to see what very much looked like Zeus standing behind him, clad in his white and gold full-cowled super-suit, holding the stem of the caramel apple. 

He threw it in the air where it was instantly shot with a blast of ice that froze it and dropped it to the ground with a thud. 

“And if you’re going to steal at all, you really need to do it with style,” drawled a voice from behind Melrose and Kenny—Prometheus, longish black hair, goggles, sleeveless navy duster. 

Tyler wouldn’t have believed it was the real them, just some jokers in cosplay, but the smell of copper and lightning around Zeus’s heels, and the ice misting from Prometheus’s hands and up his arms… 

“Run!” Melrose foolishly hollered, and foolisher still, Tyler grabbed Cole’s arm and bolted whichever way was least in the path of the Elementals. 

They had a 60% chance the others would be targeted before them, and they lucked out. As Tyler hurried with Cole anywhere that might keep them hidden until the coast was clear, he glanced back to see Zeus lightning jumping so many times around Bruno that his hair ended up standing up a foot above his head. 

Melrose and Kenny met a patch of ice from Prometheus, causing them to slide every which way until their feet slipped out of from under them and they landed on their asses in a heap. 

Tyler made it behind a larger stall, Cole and him both shaking and wheezing, as Tyler ripped the mask from his face to better breathe. 

“Holy shit,” Cole said. “Holy shit, that’s—”

“I know,” Tyler hissed, trying to indicate that being quiet was the smarter choice. 

“I can’t believe I’m a delinquent in the eyes of my favorite hero.” Cole ignored him. “Why did I come tonight?”

Tyler’s heart sank, more from that than the thought of being hauled into jail by a superhero. 

“Sorry, it’s just—”

“Why did you come?” 

“I… didn’t want to not be with you,” Cole said. “We’ve spent Halloween together since we were six. I just wish you’d wanted to be with me instead of the three douchbateers.”

“Hey, they’re not… that bad.” 

“Shh!” Cole’s head snapped against the stall. He’d lost his mask somewhere after removing it, and Tyler let his drop to the ground too. Cole looked really sleek in all black. 

Tyler noticed how good he looked a lot lately. 

“The security guard’s voice,” Cole whispered, “rounding up the others, I think, but I don’t hear Zeus and Prometheus anymore.”

“They’re probably looking for us.”

They exchanged a panicked look, and this time Cole was the one who grabbed onto Tyler, taking his hand with a lace of their fingers, and daring to escape deeper into the cluttered back area of the midway. 

Tyler didn’t ask where they were going, afraid to draw attention, but when they darted into an empty building with a NO ENTRY sign, they found themselves in what looked like a Cake Walk setup for later. All the cakes were in place, but no one was guarding them. 

“Do you smell that?” Cole murmured. 

“Cake?”

“Ozone.” With a widening of his eyes, Cole dove with Tyler under the largest of the cake-bearing tables. 

A tablecloth covered it but only kept them hidden on the long sides. The short ends were open space, and Tyler saw the exact moment when two sets of booted feet appeared from nothing at one of those ends, with a flicker of lightning and strong smell of metal. 

Zeus’s boots were white, Prometheus’s black, and they were facing each other, standing very close. 

“You better not have jumped us in here for a snack,” Prometheus said teasingly.

“Depends on your definition, Ice Man,” Zeus replied. 

“Does thwarting delinquents rev your engines, Sparky?” 

“Working side by side with you sure does.”

The sound of a wet, sloppy kiss made Tyler squeeze the hand he realized was still tightly laced with his. He and Cole didn’t touch much anymore. They used to be all over each other with easy hugs and leaning snuggles while playing video games or watching moves. Both had been pulling away from that lately. Tyler knew why for him. 

Because what he really wanted was to touch Cole more, and he didn’t know how to compute that. 

Cole looked at him, and even in the shadows under the table, his eyes seemed to glow. 

“Mm,” Zeus moaned. “I definitely like you in your own suit.”

“Agreed. Though like I said, a little extra skin from you would be nice.”

“Mal!” Zeus laughed, his voice clearer suddenly, like his cowl had been pulled from his face. “Unless you’re ready to change back, stop undoing my suit! We can’t get frisky on a Fall Festival Cake Walk table.”

“Says who?”

“The Health Department—”

“Then we’ll stick to heavy petting and making you come in your suit.”

“You wish.”

Zeus moaned again despite his protests, and Tyler felt his own pants grow… uncomfortable. 

Cole, still holding Tyler’s hand, crept closer to the visible feet. 

Tyler yanked him back, eyes wide, like, Dude, what are you doing?

Cole gestured ahead like it was obvious.

What? Get a look at Zeus’s very likely revealed face? Or a better look at what they were doing?

Sure, Cole was gay, but he never even dated. Like, ever. Tyler had been wondering more and more why that was because it clearly wasn’t lack of interest. 

Against his better judgment, Tyler let Cole lead him forward, and as they got closer, they could see up almost all of Zeus and Prometheus’s bodies, though not yet their faces. 

The toga like clasp of Zeus’s suit was unhooked, the larger lightning bolt that kept it closed flapping open, with pale skin revealed as Prometheus unzipped the suit further, showing off more and more chest and abs and Zeus’s navel. 

Tyer bit his lip, thinking how he hadn’t seen Cole’s naked chest in forever, and he wondered what his friend looked like now. 

“I can get you there,” Prometheus husked, and damn, he had a voice that could drop panties from anyone in seconds. He brushed a thumb over one of Zeus’s nipples, tilting his head to kiss Zeus’s neck with a fan of black hair. “I won our deal with the Winterheart Diamond for weeks before you got me to come first and made me return it.”

“I-I let you win.” Zeus trembled. 

“Gonna let me win tonight?”

Cole urged them closer, and Tyler couldn’t resist. Just an extra scoot and lean upward and—there. Zeus’s face, uncovered and… really handsome, eyelids fluttering, though Tyler knew his eyes would be yellow as a wielder of lightning like him. He had red hair, full lips…

Just like the guy on the news!

Zeus was that detective!

Cole slapped a hand over Tyler’s mouth after he stupidly gasped, but it was too late. Yellow eyes glanced down and saw them beneath the table. Then blue eyes did too. 

***

“It would seem we have an audience.” Mal bent to grab the nearest shirt collar and yanked. 

An older teen boy, gangly and terrified looking, was attached to it, with buzzed blond hair, water blue eyes, and freckles across his pale skin. Attached to him, hands clasped, was a boy the same age with brown hair, darker skin, yellow eyes, and an equally owlish expression of panic. 

Definitely two of the hoodlums from before, but neither was wearing their masks, which right now was Danny and Mal’s blunder too, because Danny wasn’t wearing his. 

“Crap,” Danny muttered, adjusting himself and zipping his suit. 

“We won’t tell!” the dark-haired one exclaimed. “I swear! I don’t even remember your name from that trial!”

Which meant they knew who Danny was, the detective once touted as Zeus by their enemy, Hades, but afterward “proven” otherwise. Not remembering his name wouldn’t matter if they spilled about this. The suspicion would start all over again. 

“What to do with you?” Mal thought out loud. He could come up with of any number of ways to frighten the boys into not daring go back on their pronouncement. 

“I’m good at keeping secrets!” blurted the one whose collar Mal clutched. “I knew I was gay when I was seven but didn’t come out ‘til thirteen!”

Mal snorted. 

“And… and…” Blondie glanced at his partner in crime. “I’ve been in love with my best friend since then too.”

“What?” his friend gasped. 

In an instant Mal felt like neither cared he and Danny were there anymore.

“Of course I didn’t want to come tonight and do this stupid bro Halloween trickery crap,” Blondie confessed, “I just didn’t want to be away from you. I never want to be away from you, Tyler.”

“Really?” Tyler was starting to smile. 

“Really?”

Danny chuckled, a little less harried looking. 

“To be fair, kid,” Mal tugged on Blondie’s shirt as a reminder of their presence, “you just proved you can spill a secret, not keep one.” 

“I-I figured if we’re going to jail—”

“Jail?” Danny scowled at them. 

“Cole and I are both eighteen,” Tyler answered like that alone doomed them. 

“I think if this city can forgive my crimes,” Mal said, “it can forgive a little juvenile delinquency.” He let Cole go, since it was obvious these two hadn’t meant real harm. 

“Besides,” Danny said, “‘Every stumble is just another chance to get to know each other better.’ Maybe don’t give into the peer pressure next time though. Or smash the wrong person’s pumpkin.”

“Yes, sir, Zeus!” They nodded like bobble heads. 

“He gets a sir, huh?” Mal taunted.  

“S-sorry, we—”

“Save it. And here I thought my action figure sold better.” Mal winked at Danny, who playfully punched his arm. 

“You two are so cute,” Tyler said, and then his eyes bugged in the aftermath. “Sorry! We were just hiding! We didn’t mean to see anything!”

“I did,” Cole muttered. 

Tyler punched his arm like Danny had Mal. 

They were pretty cute too—for peeping Toms. 

“As for the monkey see, monkey do part of this encounter,” Mal said, “good for you. But if you ever spill this particular secret.” He took a step closer to the boys, making them bump into the table edge behind them. “I might forget I’ve been playing hero lately.”

“Y-yes sir,” they both said.  

Better. 

“Cool it, Ice Man.” Danny pried Mal back, and then finally replaced his cowl. “You two be good. And don’t steal any cakes.”

“Wait, so…” Cole interjected when he saw they were about to leave. “Water and lightning doesn’t fizzle out? Or ice, I guess.”

“Nah,” Mal answered, gazing at Danny with his usual fondness. “It makes steam.”

“Hot.”

“Cole!” Tyler laughed. 

Danny lightning jumped them out of the building then and back to the blindest spot behind the midway, where they’d initially swapped costumes to the correct ones. They swapped back and returned to the fair to do everything as planned, starting with acquiring a new pumpkin. 

Eventually, while Mal was enticing Danny to get the Prometheus face paint, they spotted the boys again, Tyler and Cole, down one of the little dark alleys between midway stalls—cheese curds and balloon darts specifically, where games gave way to food—stealing what Mal imagined would be the first kiss of many. 

Danny leaned against him as they walked on.

“What next, Sparky?”

“I'm thinking home.” 

“Already? No more tricks for tonight?”

“Maybe later. I can always jump us back. But right now, I could really use a treat.” He turned toward Mal, pried the mask from his lower face, and kissed him. 

“Deal,” Mal said, with a lick of his lips afterward. They sidestepped into their own midway alley. “But either you need to out your identity soon, or I need to break up with one of you. Bad for my superhero image and all, cheating on my boyfriend.”

Danny giggled. Then, with a tickle of electricity and the smell Mal loved, he whisked them home. 

***

Did you know I wrote a different superhero enemies-to-lovers story, After Vertigo? Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DS6L69TZ