microwavelength | (no subject)

There was three little bangs behind them, followed by one very, very big bang. By that time, Luke had been yanked along enough to really piss him off and he stared at Axel for a long moment before his eyes were drawn back to the sound of a gurgle behind them. He did not appreciate being touched, but how could he possibly be angry about it when there was something remarkable waiting for them in the next room.

“Yeah, I don’t think you’re gonna say that when you see what we’ve done.”

Luke never did this with a partner. Okay, there was that FBI guy at his house once, but that had been an accident. Mostly. He kinda felt a little bad about it. Sort of. And besides, he hadn’t meant to hurt him like that, he just wanted him to stop trying to hurt Sylar. Consequences sometimes happened like that.

A slow, mean little smile touched his lips as Luke stuffed his hands into his pockets and led the way back into the gallery. The walls were covered in paint splashes, ruining every piece of art there, and, best yet, there were pieces of paint can literally embedded into the guard's face and hands. He was gurgling something fierce.

It was beautiful.

"Why? What are you talking ab--" He paused at that sound. That weird, horrible sound. He frowned slightly and turned his head, unsure if that was a malfunction of his explosions or they damaged something like a water pipe or something. It was an uneasy sound that didn't sit right with him and he wasn't sure why. He shot the guy next to him a look, trying to read what he was getting at.

That smile, it wasn't pretty. He'd seen that smile before on the original Trickster's face when he tried to blow up all those kids at Christmas, that sort of cruel, sadistic amusement that prompted laughter from Axel once upon a time. Not entirely genuine though. He wasn't a sadist, not by any merit, he just didn't care much when people got hurt.

But this? This was something new. He couldn't have been prepared for it. He barely took in everything else, it was the guard he was focused on. That noise, his face-- Axel backed up swiftly and nearly fell over his own feet as he backed away.

What. The. Fuck.

"Holy shit, dude." Axel's eyes widened as he watched, unable to look away and wishing he could. "What the hell happened?"

"What? The spray paint blew up?" Luke didn't have time for people with weak stomachs. He was careful as he stepped across the messy paint, already quickly drying, and crouched down close to the guard so he could watch the light leave him. He could feel a warm, pleasant tingle between his legs, but it would go without being tended to, as usual.

The act itself bothered him but the desire to whip it out and jack off on this dude as he died didn't. He let go of a shuddering breath before he stood back up and observed the rest of the area.

"Tada. Headlines for sure. Don't worry about the cameras. They've been off for awhile. We should go."

"That guy is like -- fuck. How did it blow up?" It would have had to have something spark it and Axel knew he had no explosives in or around paint. He wasn't usually this weak. Axel had seen dead bodies before, he watched a lot of fucked up movies and seen crime scene photo's of his dads work but he wasn't entirely ready to see something that horrific up close. It took him a moments before he even came closer to get a good look. That couldn't have been a peaceful death.

God, he hoped this didn't come back on him or he was going to be getting a very different rep to what he was aiming for. "Jesus." Axel whispered as he tilted his head to the side, just about managing to keep his lunch down. He preferred bombs, they were as messy but usually he never actively saw the body count.

"Bits of the can are in his eyes... or is that his glasses?" Oh. Fuck. He looked to close, he had to swiftly turn his head to the side to retch.

"Hey, calm the fuck down." He thought this big bad bomber would handle his shit better but-- Well Sylar and Samuel didn't like it when he went a little off either. Luke knew there was something wrong with him. He typically embraced it. Not that he had much of a choice. It was who he was. The other options were death or committing himself.

No thanks.

"Most of that is his glasses. The rest is the can and dude? Whatever. Look. It's done. You win. Wanna grab some pizza or Taco Bell?"

Luke surprised himself at the olive branch. It had just been awhile since he had spoken to anyone like this.

Axel managed to recover himself and pulled a face, looking up at the kid with an astounded expression. It was weird, it was creepy but it certainly reminded him a lot of his early days with James Jesse. Those letters, the things they described, the casual way he spoke about stuff like this? It was all there. In this kid. And for whatever reason, he laughed.

It was hard to know what to feel and a lot of the time, when he was this freaked out, it just came out like a nervous tick.

"No fucking way, I can't stomach shit right now." Axel looked away from the guy and tried to get the mental image of glass in someone's eye out of his head. It was not really doing much for his appetite. "I need a drink."

He should get away from this kid, he should be making distance and running. And yet, he looked at him and shrugged. "You in?"

Luke's face blanked. "I don't drink." He would legally be entitled to do so in a few months but there was no was liquor was getting passed his lips. Even during the bad days between Sylar and Samuel, Luke hadn't resorted to that. "I'll eat, you drink. I know a place."

Place, however, wasn't really the right term for it. Luke led Axel down some steps to a noisy, crowded little waste water basement. No one looked at anyone. There was no pool table. No darts. No games. No one really laughed. The men and women here were rough. Street. They smelled s little funky. The food was cheap. The alcohol was cheap. And sometimes people went missing.

It was just that sort of place.

Luke slumped into a scarred booth and a woman missing most of her teeth came over and scoffed at him. "Again?"

"Fuck you, yeah. I want a couple of hamburgers. He'll have whatever is in a bottle. Unopened." People here were scared of Luke. And rightly so.

"This place is fucking awful, dude." What? Like he wasn't going to be blunt about it. It was trashy, it smelt bad and everyone was looking at them funny. Not a massive shock, given how nutso this kid was. He'd stare too, honestly. Like people stared at Jesse back in Central, the weird ones always attracted attention and it was never good.

"I'll have vodka. No roofies, thanks."

Just to clarify that point. He looked back at the kid and then frowned, realising he knew nothing about this person yet for some reason, he came all of this way to hang with him? Talk about poor life decisions. "You got a name? I'm Axel."

He introduced himself as the Trickster before but it seemed like first names should be a thing.

"No, dude. I was born without a name. That's why I'm so messed up." He rolled his eyes and didn't say anything about his choice of liquor. If he wanted to drink something he didn't open himself, fine. If he wanted to risk the gut rot, fine. He'd been trying to look out for him. Sort of. "But it's better than Axel. I think I'd go nameless too if that was my name."

He was only messing with the guy. He figured he was a little older than him, maybe twenty-four or so. Luke studied him in the dim light. He was...off looking. Weird. The sort of guy that either you couldn't get out of your head or forgot instantly.

Luke was definitely the latter, though. There was nothing remarkable about him. Mud eyes. Mud hair. No expression at all. Just that murderous glint in his eyes, that was his only stand out quality.

"Better than Trickster though. You can call me Sylar I guess." It was a stolen name. But he liked it.

"Did you seriously just mock my name when you're called Sylar. That's not even a name." He gives the kid a sideways look because that didn't even sound real. Was it some kind of street tag or something? Either way, he wasn't a fan and he didn't like his name being trashed. What was wrong with Axel? It was a good name.

"You're not good at this whole friend thing, are you?"

He was insulting, rude and creepy. And yet, here he was, still hanging with the psycho. He supposed this was very much his jam. He was not exactly unknown for hanging out with the strange and unsettling. Especially if they were destructive.

“Sylar is a name. Axel is part of a car.” Luke just assumed that ‘Sylar’ was the man’s last name, a family name. He knew his dad was a Gray but Luke and his dad didn’t share the same last name either. He sat back in the booth, watching the people over Axel’s shoulder. That wasn’t for safety reasons, either. He was hunting.

Luke’s gaze snapped back at Axel on the word ‘friend.’ He found it confusing. Insulting.

“I don’t have friends. We aren’t friends.” So what did it mean when he followed the man around through security cameras then? That wasn’t ‘friend’ but it also wasn’t ‘coincidence’ either. “You’re too boring.”

"Axel is an old school name, dude. There have been like princes and video game characters with this name. Don't get all jealous just because you've got a dumb name." Axel teased with a playful smile, unable to help himself from teasing. When the waitress came back, Axel took his bottle and double checked it was still sealed and unused before he opened the bottle cleanly on the table, barely leaving a mark.

He takes a slow sip and pulls a face immediately. Well, that was strong. And not great tasting. Definitely cheap vodka.

"You don't do friends but you wanted to go grab taco bell with me? Pfft, come on." Axel snorted before leaning forward, batting his eyes in a mocking fashion. "So you don't do friends but you wanna hang? Aww, that's cute, is this a date or something?" He eyed Luke up and down before smirking and nodding his head a little. "Cause I could swing that. You're a looker."

Having never had anyone stupid enough to ask him out, jokingly or otherwise, Luke wasn't sure if he was being made fun of or if this guy who liked the name he had because video game characters were named thst was serious. He gave Axel a half dead look and, to be fair, that was his normal look. Dead. Blank. Annoyed at having to breathe.

But his shoulders relaxed a moment later. He put on the attitude this other guy had. Luke liked being other people. Mimicking them. It taught him how to get by. It made him fake too but no one knew him enough to complain.

"You have no idea who I am or what I can do to you while you drink that shit. Or does Prince Axel get off on that?"

"All I'll say is that I definitely have a type." Dangerous people who liked to hurt other people? Weirdly a turn on for him but years of being groomed by James Jesse would do that to a person. He fully believed that people who did these kind of things were somehow more interesting, cooler and to a strange degree, sexier? "I question it myself sometimes but no point in knocking what works for you."

He leaned back and winked playfully before lifting his bottle and drinking for as long as he could stand it. Definitely not the nicest but it was doing the trick.

"Why? You got a problem? I'm a nice enough boy, I look good in tight jeans, I got some money. You could do a lot worse."

Luke looked vaguely unimpressed. Sort of. It was hard to tell anything about how Luke really looked in good lighting and this was not good lighting. The neon of the sign by the bar just made him look more sinister.

"You just threw up because I made a can of spray paint explode in a guy's face. So--". Mind explaining how that translates into going on a date?

This guy was insane. And for Luke to think that, it had to be true.

He scanned Axel's face for metal. Piercings, anywhere, were always fun to heat up. If not, he's go for the button on those skinny jeans. All it took was to microwave the air around them and-- entertainment!

"I already said I questioned myself, what more do you want from me?" Axel waved his hand in a dismissive way. He knew he was a mess and his tastes were very problematic, on a whole he didn't tend to think things ahead and more than a few encounters socialising with those more dangerous and deadly had ended horrendously badly for him but that was just like. He was learning... slowly. He wasn't the quickest in that respect.

Hence why it took a moment for him to realise what had just been said. His eyes went wide as he paused before he could take a drink. "Wait-- what? You did that paint can thing? How?" He wasn't shocked someone had powers, metas and all, but he did that to another person so casually? Jesus.

Axel felt a strange surge of unease and he knew the smart thing to do was run.

Still, he didn't, he was just kind of lucky he had no piercings but he had a little too much metal on his clothing to be entirely. He hissed suddenly as his jean button got hot and squirmed, knowing how to touch it. "Fuck! What are you doing? -- Ah, fuck, stop it!" Axel snapped, teeth gritted. If he didn't back off, he was going to have to react and he knew that could end badly. For him. Definitely for him, not for the meta.

"So. How's the date thing going for you?" Watching Axel freak out genuinely made Luke laugh. It had been so long since he had enjoyed being a dick that he'd almost forgotten how wonderful it was. His eyes shimmered as he stopped exciting the air around the metal bits in Axel's pants, but it would take some time to cool down.

He offered the other his chilled drink to stick on the button of his fly, looking almost angelic if it wasn't for the weird unhinged quality to his eyes.

"I gotta tell you, I'm having s good time."

"Of course you are, you little psycho." Axel took the drink ad tried to cool the metal down a little, managing to pop the button free using just the fabric. It had definitely left a mark, this skin was going to blister. Nice. "I fucking hate metas sometimes." Why did the psychotic ones always get super dangerous powers? Couldn't they just get like harmless powers for once? That'd be so much easier to deal with.

He knew just leaving was dicey so he stayed, unsettling and unnerved, not wanting to blister more skin.

"Personally not the best date I've gone on but oddly not the worst." Though it was working out to be pretty damn traumatising. He kept seeing the glass in that man's eye and God, it was like the first time he saw what the original Trickster's bombs did to someone close range. "You know it's rude to straight up torture your date. You're supposed to romance them a little, asshole."

"Seriously?" He was playing off the surprise in a big, over the top way. "Wow. I mean... That's insanity. All of the YouTube videos I ever saw on how to have a good date always involved a little teasing." If blistering skin very, very close to genitalia happened to be what hie considered teasing, Axel really should just go.

Of course, Luke had found him before, several times before, and would again. Even if he stopped Tweeting about his next great trick or heist or whatever it was he did.

"I guess it really depends on what your definition of romantic is." No, Luke. There was no one in the world that thought it was romantic to burn someone. "Maybe that explains why I haven't been on any dates before." He dropped the act. It hurt too much to smile or long periods of time.

"If you wanna tease with fire, that's usually supposed to be something like temperature play or wax play and neither are first date material." Maybe Axel should forward him some helpful youtube videos. He wondered if anyone ever did a tutorial on how to act like a person. Maybe some friendship and first date ones to begin with. "Not many people define burns are romantic."

He pause for a second before relenting and pulling a face. "Okay, some people do. I know like three people but usually no."

"You haven't been on many dates? Shocking." He hasn't either, he has no idea why he's mocking. He's had a lot of one night stands but never a date. Not that he minds, he doesn't expect it much. He looks down at his burn and gently stoked it with his finger. Still stung a little but not enough that he was freaking out. "That's gonna leave a mark." He huffed in amusement. "Pretty."

"I don't do dates." Or anything, it seemed, but maim people. That was something that Luke could get behind. Could understand. Being friendly had never worked. Well, it sort of did. He got to hang out with a guy that cut open people's heads, played around in their brains, and was super powerful. He'd never really seen him do any of the head cutting but the super powerful? He felt that first hand. And then there was a second guy, who found him at the diner, and he was bad ass too. Like a weird, old punk rocker with the chipping nails and stuff. And he could literally tear the world apart. He didn't, but he could have if they didn't kill him.

The point was, he'd had absolutely no one that really cared for him. He tried to learn from the dangerous guys he'd met but had mostly got stuck with really bad and hard to live by life lessons. Nothing practical at all. So he learned for himself. He'd been on the street now for a year and a half, since leaving Samuel's sideshow act a few days after his nineteenth birthday.

Axel might be the only guy since then that he'd spoken to without trying to steal something from them or kill them. Maybe that was a big deal. Luke didn't think so.

He did, however, fish a phone from his pocket to turn on the flashlight and leaned across the table to have a look at the mark he'd made.

"See, that's fucking romantic, dude. Left you something to remember me by."

"Really? You were the one that asked me to taco bell and you don't do friends so I gotta figure this is either a date or a business meeting. And I doubt you want to do business, you think I'm boring. Right?" Which didn't make for a great date either but Axel was pretty amused by all of this. He had to laugh, grinning at the other as straightened up a little, angling himself towards the light and looking down at the angry red mark. Just making it easier for the other to see, he even pulled his fly down a little more. Almost proud of it.

He can't help but smirk at the sentiment, feeling a strange wave of arousal inside of him. Oh yeah, of course that turned him on. He was a fucking mess. He picked up the vodka and drank a little more, trying to focus on that instead of the fact he was apparently turned on by someone who most definitely unnerved him in equal measure.

He probably should have run as soon as he got burned and found out the fucker was the one that blew a can up into the guard's face but there was a morbid fascination here. As horrifying as it was, he found himself compelled to find out more, to see more. It was a mess.

"Look at that, you're a romantic deep down. Aww, Sylar, you know the way to my heart. Though next time warn a guy, dickwad."

"The way to your heart? You don't want me there."

It felt amazing to be called Sylar. It felt more than amazing to have this guy actually like being burned like that. He was hard under the table, something that would have to go the fuck away befor he got up. Luck slipped the phone back into his pocket as his dinner finally arrived.

It took a lot out of him to use his abilities and he housed the burger without thinking too much about what could be in it. The people here were'n't stupid. They just wanted this young man to move through and not make too much trouble. Smart of them.

"If I warned you, would you have run? Don't try it. I can find you."

"I dunno if you could ever get that, handsome."

He didn't know how handsome Luke was in general, what would be classically considered so but he thought he had a certain look about him. He stood out in his almost normalises and his personally added to a sort of uniqueness, that look in his eyes? It was not a look Axel would forget. Not that he could ever forget a guy like this. He set his drink aside for a moment and rubbed at his eyes, just trying to keep his mind less fuzzy.

"A guy died in front of me horribly and you barely flinched, you caused it and offered to go get a drink and food with me. And I said yes. Like a dumbass. Do I sound like I make good decisions? I should have run about half an hour ago. Definitely should have tried when you fucking burnt me." But here he was, knowing tonight was beginning to sound like the kind of night someone had with a serial killer before they died but he like he said, he could find him. And upsetting him could lead to whatever the hell this kid could do being unleashed on him.

He didn't have anywhere to go. Why not stay here? "I wouldn't have run. If I haven't run this far, I never would have." He paused and squinted a little. "Did you track me down today?"

There was the briefest of flinches on Luke's face. He wasn't handsome. He was average, maybe. He was the guy that blended into the crowd. He had a baby face but a deep voice. He looked younger than twenty. When he was forty, if he lived that long, he would still look young. Sixty? Yep. In that agelessness, he was someone no one looked at.

So handsome? No. Axel was jerking his chain.

Luke used a napkin on his hands because he was not an animal and sat back from the plate. There were a few fries left but he wasn't going to eat them all. When he was full, he was full. Yes he had just killed a guy (he was probably dead by now at least) and burned another guy but that didn't mean he could have some food, right?

Luke watched Axel for a moment, face back to a blank impassivity. "I don't follow you. I just know where you are when I want to see you. How about Saturday? I'll come by again and we can have some fun. It's not a fucking date."