#and donuts like you slept on the bathroom floor curled around the toilet

[docdufresne]

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[redsdesktop]

Conflict: Chapter 14

Super distracted tonight. My mind keeps drifting. So I may be a little late on the prompt.

The obnoxious ringing of his cellphone stirred Splendid awake, tempted to smash the device into dust for disturbing him this morning. He'd spent most of the night cuddling up with Flippy on the couch, stealing a few kisses. Before the movie had even finished Flippy had fallen asleep with his head on Splendid's thigh, the hero almost didn't want to move him. Eventually, he carried Flippy to bed and curled up beside him, his arms dragging the shorter male close. He wished he could share a bed with Flippy every night, but with them living in separate houses, it was a bit difficult to go between but Splendid wasn't quite sure if Flippy was ready to take that next step with moving in together. They were still newly bonded and even if it stressed Splendid out to be away from Flippy for too long, he didn't want to put any pressure on his boyfriend.

He tightened his arms a little around Flippy, making the veteran curl up against him, feeling Flippy's breath softly brush over his neck. It was comforting and satisfying to be able to hold Flippy in the protection of his arms where he could keep him safe, where he didn't have to worry about Flippy every moment the omega was out of sight. He lowered his head, nuzzling his face into those pale green strands, prepared to fall back to sleep, feeling content with how everything was settled. Until his phone began ringing again, making his eyes snap open, glowing with a red tint in his growing anger at who was currently ruining his special moment with Flippy. He was contemplating murder as the phone continued to ring, not giving up.

Frustrated, Splendid rolled to his other side, causing Flippy's arms to curl about his waist in a sleepy clingy motion, nuzzling his face against Splendid's back. The hero groaned as he reached out to snag his phone, yanking the charger out without a care, he was too pissed that someone was waking him up. Without looking at the name, he answered it and put it to his ear. "Hello?" His voice was a bit rough from sleep and the growl forming in the back of his throat, rubbing at his tired eyes in attempts to clear them.

"You're late." Splendont's voice came through from the speaker, confusing Splendid for a moment as his brain was still clouded from sleep. "Huh?" Was all the hero could reply, hearing Flippy make a sound of protest at being woke up, burying his face further against Splendid's bare back. He could feel a few shy kisses placed on his skin, trying to lure him away from the phone call.

"I told you to meet me in front of the hospital at nine. Its ten-thirty, get your ass up already. I don't have all day."

"Technically, you do, Mr. Jobless." Splendid yawned and sat up, Flippy's arms sliding down to his hips, pushing down a little on the tops of his heart pattern boxers.

"You know why I can't get a job. And someone has to protect the town while you're busy playing human." Splendont groused a little before continuing on. "So get up, get dressed and get here, I'm tired of waiting. If you're not here in thirty minutes, I'm hunting you down and it won't be pretty." With that, Splendont hung up on him, he really didn't want to fight this early in the morning, so he had to get up. He leaned down, one hand guiding Flippy's head to look up at him, giving Splendid the perfect angle to let his lips fall onto the omega's. He tilted his head to the side, pressing for a deeper kiss, moving slowly and sleepily to allow Flippy to enjoy the kiss. Eventually he had to pull away from the heaven he found on Flippy's lips, leaving Flippy to pout slightly.

"I've gotta' go, hero duty calls. I'll see if I can stop by the library with lunch today too. I'll text you if I can make it." Flippy made an incoherent mumble before rolling over and dragging the blankets over him, trying to replace Splendid's missing warmth with what remained in the blankets. Grinning a little, he pushed himself up out of bed to go through his usual morning routine, he never felt right without going through each step in order. He even left breakfast in the microwave and a note for Flippy for when he woke up, wanting to make sure his boyfriend had a proper breakfast instead of just processed donuts or any other junk food the veteran might have back at his place. Just another reason why he wanted to live with Flippy, it didn't matter which house, just as long as he got to stay with Flippy.

Making sure his eyemask was secured and tied tight, he stepped outside, the air was still reasonably cool, but it was starting to warm up as the sun made its trek up the sky. Not wanting to be further late and have Splendont crash into his home and disturb Flippy, he rushed his way towards the hospital. He wasn't surprised to see Splendont standing there out front looking irritated, he always had a scowl on his face. Splendid was starting to wonder if his twin even knew how to smile, when he landed, he couldn't help but to grin, prepared to verbally spar with his twin if it came down to it. He watched as Splendont's nostrils flared and then his eyes cast away, he could likely smell Flippy all over him since they'd been cuddled up against each other all night. It was explanation enough for his tardiness.

"Took you long enough." Splendont exhaled before continuing on. "You're going to be the distraction since you're Mr. Popular, get the nurse's attention and I'll look through her computer to find the files."

"How am I supposed to distract her?"

"Flirt with her, pose, do something, your usual showing off." Splendont waved his hand, not really knowing what made Splendid so famous, he never bothered to pay attention to his brother's antics outside the fact he often did more harm than good when he tried to save people.

"I'm covered in Flippy's scent, flirting is off the table." Splendid folded his arms, he refused to even humor the idea he'd flirt with someone else, it just made him feel a little queasy in his stomach. To hurt Flippy that way... He just couldn't do it even if the flirting wasn't in earnest.

"Well, you can't just do your usual M.O. and destroy things, I don't want tot risk the power going out or you hurting people on accident as usual." Splendont sighed out, as if dealing with Splendid was mentally taxing. Splendid on the other hand wasn't paying attention as he peered through the glass doors into the empty lobby, only the familiar nurse from before was at the desk. Cleaning from the looks of it. He knew showing off or even flirting wouldn't work with that one track mind, however, Splendid had a brilliant idea.

"I've got it, wait out here and I'll give you the signal to come in once I'm done!' Before Splendont could ask what this brilliant plan was, Splendid was already inside, leaving his twin to face the still swinging door. He would just have to trust his twin as Splendid made his way casually to the unisex bathroom, the nurse was too deep in her cleaning to really bother noticing him. Entering one of the stalls, he ripped the front of the large toilet paper compartment off to get to the industrial sized toilet paper inside. He began to unroll it into the toilet bowl, letting it turn to a goopy mush inside the pristine bowl before flushing.

Instantly, it clogged up, beginning to overflow in an alarming rate and Splendid hovered off the ground so he didn't get wet from toilet water. He rushed out, looking a bit panicked, well the best his poor acting skills could as he hurried to the desk. He put his hands on it, just to make sure he had the nurse's attention, he was received with a glare that threatened murder. "Miss, miss! The toilet is overflowing! Its a complete mess in there! Water is everywhere, the toilet paper is getting all soggy with it all over the floor!" The nurse looked horrified at his explanation and stood up immediately from her seat.Seems Splendid had judged correctly that she was paranoid about things being dirty. He was sure there was a phobia term for it but Splendid didn't really know what it was called.

Instead, he moved towards the entrance as the poor nurse ran towards the bathroom instead of doing the rational thing and calling a plumber. Pushing open the door, he motioned for Splendont to come inside. His twin hurried in and immediately took up residence in the seat the nurse had vacated. Splendid stood near the hall so he could keep watch to see if anyone would interrupt them. The red haired anti-hero was quick though, making Splendid wonder where he got his computer skills from. It made the hero realize, he barely knew anything about his twin, what the other man did in his free time or where he even slept at night. The guy never opened up, making Splendid wonder if he should try to get Splendont to sometime. Maybe over coffee when the town didn't need to be saved from one disaster to the next.

"I've got everything. Seems like the only one having these medications is Flaky. She's listed as an alpha but she takes the scent changers to be an omega. Since she was one of the victims, it couldn't have been her. But I did pull up the records of your boyfriend here..."

"If it doesn't have anything to do with the case, then I don't want to know. That's Flippy's private files and he'll tell me if he feels the need to." Splendid snapped, annoyed that Splendont had pried when he had no reason to. He didn't want his twin judging Flippy on his medical problems, Splendid knew he was taking some sort of medication. However, he supposed it was from war related reasons. He had done some research of his own into how retired veterans acted and how he should use precautions to keep from upsetting them. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally cause Flippy stress by being ignorant to his boyfriend's needs.Still, though, everyone was different and he'd have to learn through experiences with Flippy, but doing a bit of research had helped gie him a little start.

"No, not really." Splendont said, but he didn't sound too convinced, still suspicious of the new arrival. Splendid knew he was just keeping an open mind to every possibility. He supposed that was a good thing, since Splendid's judgement would be clouded by his affection and attachment towards the veteran. It was a good thing there were two of them, one picking up for the other's flaws.

"So we're at another dead end. What are we supposed to do now? Just sit and wait for another attack to happen?" Splendid raised his arms up in defeat, Splendont got up out of his chair and grabbed Splendid by the elbow and guided them outside before the nurse returned or someone caught them. This wasn't a conversation to have in the empty, echoing halls of the hospital.

"We've got nothing, no pattern, no reason to these attacks, they're all random. I tried looking at the security tapes in the super market, but nothing. They don't have a camera in the butcher's area. Whoever is doing this knows how to keep themselves hidden. They're deliberately leaving their scent as a mark to flaunt it was them. They're cocky and they're bound to slip up sometime, we just have to be patient." Splendont drummed his fingers on his arm in thought, he wasn't happy about waiting, but that's all they could do at this point.

"Yeah, well, I'm not happy about letting a murderer just roam free, anyone could be next..." He frowned, feeling restless all of a sudden, his anxiety making his sandalwood scent smell a bit bitter and rotten.

"Get your head in the game, worrying about your boyfriend isn't going to help solve this. Now, I'm going to the local drug store to see if anyone's been stealing supplies. If this person murders other, then they're likely not above stealing either." Splendid nodded, though he didn't feel any better, he needed to go see Flippy. It was a little after lunch time by now, so it would be a good reason to go and see the veteran at his job. Pulling out his phone, he texted Flippy, asking him what he wanted to eat. He slowly began to ascend up into the sky, waiting for Flippy to text him back. Usually Flippy was pretty good at responding right away, so it was odd that he was waiting. Splendid wrote it off as he was likely busy helping someone check out a book. He texted again, just a reminder to get Flippy to check his messages. Then finally, a message popped up, but it wasn't a comforting one as his stomach dropped.

heLP