Chapter Text
When Mandy said she actually did find a “guest hero” to help them crack their unbreakable box, Robert never expected it to be the one hero he had personal history with. He almost choked on his coffee as he saw Garrett-or rather, Ethereal chatting with Chase at his desk and found himself suddenly frozen to the spot.
He was still pleasant and handsome looking, but now with a very short beard as if he was trying to look more mature. But he couldn’t really get wrinkles or any gray in his long, black curls that shimmered with green iridescence. He had a new suit too, a little more practical and stylish both, but still his signature void black and eerie green.
He turned his head and his ghostly eyes caught sight of Robert. He smiled and Robert braced himself, but Ether waved him over rather than teleporting. Robert was grateful for that at least and he started over, feeling like a moron.
He had chosen to put more effort into trying (and failing) to memorize material he didn’t need to when he should’ve read the email. He hadn’t thought there would be any reason to because he was usually pretty good with meeting random people, even superheroes. There weren’t really other options either, so it wasn’t like he could’ve rejected what little help Mandy managed to scrape up anyway.
“Robin!” Ether greeted brightly, “It is you! I’m so pleased to see you!”
“It’s Robert,” Robert corrected, “Good to see you, Ether. You’re helping Z Team today, right?”
“Yes, Ms. Blazer requested it,” Ether answered, “My astral projection seems to be of use to you.”
“Yeah, let’s hope so,” Robert said.
“How have you been, Robin?” Ether asked.
“I, Robert Robertson, am good,” Robert answered, “Great, even. Fantastic and satisfied with my life. Things are going really well with my team.”
Chase snorted and Robert resisted the urge to shoot him a glare. They may still be sort of scrappy, but they were far better and their big break was just around the corner. Ether didn’t need to know any of the intricacies though. Wait. A lightbulb flickered on in Robert’s mind. The team, yes, of course.
“Speaking of, let me go get them rounded up,” he said quickly, “Chase can give you a rundown on SDN protocol.”
Ether tipped his head amiably and Robert hurried to corral the idiots. Most of them were in the break room or standing around chatting and groaned in annoyance as he sent them all to the conference room, but he couldn’t find Flambae. He poked his head in the conference room.
“Where’s Flambae?” He asked.
“Present,” Flambae spoke up behind him, startling him, “Jumpy, Bob Bob. Chill, it’s not time for another punch yet.”
He patted Robert’s head condescendingly as he passed into the conference room. He flopped down and propped his feet up like he always did while Robert quickly checked that Ether was still occupied with Chase before stepping in and locking the door.
“Okay, team,” he said as he moved to the head of the table, “We don’t have much time, so I’ll have to give you the footnotes. The guest hero helping us with the big mission is called Ethereal and he’s my ex.”
“Oh, bitches, I told you he was bi!” Prism crowed.
“I’m pan-” Robert started.
“No fucking way,” Flambae dismissed, “I call bullshit.”
“Why would he bullshit about that though?” Mal wondered.
“Perhaps his real history with this hero is more embarrassing,” Coop suggested.
“Nope, it’s the truth,” Robert cut in, raising his voice, “So listen. He’s a bit…pushy and I would really appreciate it if one of you would pretend to be my partner.”
There was a beat of silence.
“That sounds really stupid, Robert,” Visi said flatly, crossing her arms.
“We should be beatin’ him,” Punch Up agreed, slamming his fist into his hand.
“Yeah, we don’t play with that shit,” Prism agreed.
“We need him for the mission,” Robert dismissed, “And this one’s big. So we need to be nice to him just for a bit. Besides, he’s not that bad. Anyway, he’s kind of a ghost, so beating him would be difficult.”
“I’m out,” Sonar said, “Sorry, Robbo, but I don’t do fanfic tropes.”
“What the fuck is a fanfic trope?” Robert wondered.
“Yeah, I’m out ‘cause I’ll just kill ‘im,” Prism said, shrugging.
“This is so lame,” Mal groaned.
They all started to chime in with their opinions.
“Fine, fine,” Robert interrupted, “I understand. Sorry for asking. I’ll just deal with it.”
“Awe, man,” Golem said solemnly.
“Don’t do the fucking thing,” Visi grumbled.
“Ugghhh,” Flambae groaned at the ceiling.
“What, what am I doing??” Robert wondered wildly, looking down at his hands like he might see them acting of their own accord or something.
“You attempt to self-sacrifice,” Coop answered.
“It really brings down the mood, lad,” Punch Up said.
Robert sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“So you don’t want to help but you don’t want to not help?” He clarified, “Am I getting this right?”
“Fine, we’ll help, ugh,” Visi said laboriously.
“I still can’t do a trope,” Sonar insisted, “It’s against my moral code.”
“You have a moral code?” Mal prompted, eyebrows raising.
“Okay, rude implication,” Sonar said.
“I still can’t either,” Prism said, “‘Cause Ima blind him if he looks at my boytoy wrong, fake or not.”
“Boytoy?” Robert repeated.
“I think we need to draw lots,” Coop decided.
“Great, so luck can fuck me,” Visi said, rolling her eyes.
“Is it really that hard to pretend to be my partner?” Robert grumbled.
They all ignored him as they put their heads together about how to draw lots and they ended up using some online dice roller thing on Prism’s phone. It landed on two which caused everyone in the room to look at Flambae. He stared at Prism’s phone for a second then looked up at Robert who grimaced.
“Oh, fuck this, I’m not doing this shit!” Flambae snapped, standing up and stomping to the door, “Fuck all of you fucks. I have waaay better shit to do.”
He threw the door open and stormed out.
“Roll again?” Robert suggested hopefully.
“Fuck no,” several people dismissed.
“Shit,” Robert hissed, lurching for the door, “Flambae, wait!”
He hurried after him and managed to catch him at the stairwell, grabbing his elbow. He whipped around, shoulders and head blazing up and looked like might turn Robert into a pyre.
“Chad, listen,” Robert said a bit desperately, “I know it sucks and we’re still not on the best terms, but I’m asking you for this favor for the mission too, not just for me.”
He hesitantly let go, glancing down the hallway.
“Everything will go smoother if Ether and I aren’t distracted by each other,” he explained, “And it’s pretty likely you won’t have to do much but hover near me. It’ll be one quick confirmation and he’ll back off, end of story.”
If, of course, Ether was the same as before.
“And what do I get out of it?” Flambae countered.
“A job well done?” Robert offered.
Flambae was not impressed by this.
“I’ll owe you a favor,” Robert tried again.
Flambae hummed and his head tilted as he considered this. Then he leaned in, suddenly crowding into Robert’s space and Robert backed up, pressing to the wall behind him. Flambae braced a hand by his head.
“How about you suck my dick?” He suggested bluntly, “And if it’s good enough I’ll let you call yourself mine to the creepy ghost, eh?”
Robert’s face warmed up.
“You can’t be serious,” he said.
Flambae raised an eyebrow in a very “are you sure about that” kind of way. Robert swallowed and glanced down the hallway again. Truthfully, he could probably just handle it, but it would complicate the mission and this one was important. And also he really didn’t want to have Ether trying to seduce him. It was not good news for him. Besides, it wasn’t like he didn’t know what he was doing on his knees.
“Fine,” he said, “But not here.”
Flambae’s eyebrows raised then his lips twisted into a smirk and he swept his hand out, gesturing for Robert to lead the way. Robert took his wrist and guided him to the nearest storage room with a lock and without a camera. He pressed Flambae against the set of shelves inside and slid to his knees.
“How does this thing work?” He wondered, sliding a hand over Flambae’s hip to tug at his suit, “Do I just pull it down?”
Flambae snorted as he reached down and slid a finger under a seam Robert hadn’t seen then tugged open hidden Velcro. It opened the padded crotch of his suit so Robert could see his jockstrap which was bulging a bit with interest already. He had tattoos on his thighs, but Robert couldn’t see them fully.
Flambae tugged his jockstrap down to tuck under his balls and there were tattoos on his hips too, also too difficult to see. Not that Robert was focused much on them. Fuck, of course it was a really nice cock and he had piercings. Robert loved piercings.
“You can applaud,” Flambae joked as he tugged his slowly hardening cock.
Robert clapped his hands together a few times in the most sarcastic way he could and Flambae laughed as he let go of himself.
“Come on then,” he urged with a smirk, tilting his hips up a little, “He doesn’t bite.”
Robert’s face flushed and then went hotter in embarrassment. Fuck, what was wrong with him that he thought Flambae’s nonsense was kind of hot? He decided to firmly ignore that as he leaned in to mouth at the golden loop on the underside of his cock, just under the head of it. Flambae’s cock was hot, hotter than regular ones and Robert wondered if it would dry the saliva on his tongue as he licked over the tip.
“You got a cute tongue, Bob Bob,” Flambae muttered as he settled back against the shelf, “Does it do tricks?”
Cute?? Also Robert hoped he wasn’t going to call him that stupid name the whole time, but he obliged the prompt. He slipped the tip of his tongue into his foreskin and swiped it around in a full circle before pressing it deeper and making it ripple against the head. Flambae shuddered and his cock hardened fully, foreskin pulling back as Robert fucked his tongue into it.
“Haa, fuck,” Flambae laughed breathlessly, “Shit. Hey, hey.”
His hand brushed through Robert’s hair briefly, pushing it off his forehead and Robert looked up.
“My come’s gonna burn a bit,” Flambae warned, “Not damaging, but a little. You want it out or in?”
Robert pulled off.
“In is fine,” he answered.
Flambae nodded and let him put his tongue back into his foreskin, making him shudder again.
“You done this a lot, huh?” He guessed, “Is Mecha Man cock hungry? That’s fuckin’ precious.”
Robert glared up at him as he closed his mouth and sucked. Flambae jolted and gripped at the shelf by his hips with both hands as he let out a string of words that weren’t just English. Robert grinned about as well as he could in this position. Then he focused, forcibly reminding himself he had a job to do and that he didn’t want anyone to come looking for them.
He wrapped his hand and lips around Flambae’s cock and pushed forward, taking it properly in his mouth. He knew he was capable of deep throating it, but that would take too much time. He let it gag him, the piercing touching his throat, to help build up some more saliva and the shelf creaked as Flambae gripped it tighter.
“Fuck, what a pretty sound,” he muttered, “Your creepy ex know that sound?”
Robert started moving, ignoring the question as he focused on the back and forth rhythm and breathing when he could.
“He does, doesn’t he?” Flambae persisted, “Bet a lotta people do. Mm…Damn, a lot a lot. How many dozens of people know Mecha Bitch gags so cutely on cock, huh?”
Cutely?? Robert’s face went hotter and he moved quicker, starting to hum lightly to add vibration. Flambae’s hips jerked then started to move in slow, shallow twitches into Robert’s rhythm and the metal of the shelf began to melt in his hands.
“Fuck, what a good little cocksucker,” he growled, strained and breathless, “Right where you fuckin’ belong, normie bitch, kneeling for a real hero.”
Robert’s rhythm stumbled slightly as those words seemed to seize him like a hot grip on his throat before he quickly shoved his reaction down. His eyes darted upward to glare weakly. Flambae’s eyes gazed down at him, half lidded and smoldering and this tongue swiped over his bottom lip, lingering at the corner. He looked like he actually wanted to eat Robert who shivered, another flush running through him.
Flambae tensed up, suddenly stilling and closing his eyes. He let out a soft, pretty moan as he came hotly into the back of Robert’s throat, making him choke on it. It did burn, it scalded Robert’s tongue and throat like hot coffee as he swallowed it. He groaned in pain and at the heat the pain brought low to his gut. Heat that didn’t come from Flambae’s higher body temperature. He felt like he was melting and pulsing at the same time. He was going a bit fuzzy.
“Mmfuck,” Flambae hummed, “Yeah, not bad, Bob Bob.”
He patted Robert’s head and Robert pulled back into his brain a little at the condescension, quickly pulling off and smacking his hand away.
“Asshole,” he grumbled as he stood, wiping his mouth, “You should warn a guy.”
“My bad,” Flambae snorted, “C’mere, I’ll get the spit.”
He covered Robert’s chin and mouth, instantly drying the spit there. Dried spit wasn’t really that much better than wet spit, except it would be harder to see. Flambae patted his cheek when he was finished and Robert glared.
“Are you going to help me now?” He asked.
“Yeah, I’ll help,” Flambae agreed, “As long as you got a good lie for when they ask why I melted this shelf to shit.”
Robert tried to stifle a laugh as he rolled his eyes.