Can you write something angsty between hero and villain? Also thank you for those lovely stories
"I know I failed you."
The hero sat with their back to the glass wall of the villain's cell; giving the villain what privacy inside it that they could.
The villain said nothing.
"You asked me for my help," the hero said, "and I failed you. I was too distracted with other things. As if - as if they were more important."
"Weren't they?"
"They shouldn't have been."
"Not what I asked."
"No."
They heard the villain's footsteps behind them, saw the shadow of them stretching against the floor until it loomed across them from behind and cast the hero in its darkness.
"I'm just - I'm sorry," the hero said. "That's what I'm trying to say. I'm sorry."
"I imagine that's a lot easier to say when I'm in here."
Bile flooded the hero's mouth, defensive anger, but - the villain wasn't wrong.
"If you were really sorry," the villain continued, "you'd let me go."
"You know I can't do that."
"I know you won't do that."
"The power is eating you up from the inside out."
"So you're going to fail me again."
The hero squeezed their eyes shut, drawing in a steadying breath. They wrapped their arms a little tighter around their chest. They resisted the urge to turn. To look. To see.
"Unsurprising," the villain said. "You've been a disappointment all your life. Why kick the habit now?"
"I know you're angry-"
"-Gotta be the hero, gotta get everyone to love you, and maybe then you can trick them into thinking you're worth something."
"Stop it." The hero twisted to the glass.
The villain crouched at the hero's level, that power glowing in their eyes, brighter even than the hideous fluorescent lights always on in their cell. A cruel smile curled up their lips like a wisp of smoke. The traces of what the hero had loved slowly burning away. Then, just as suddenly, it was gone, flickering out.
All that was left was their friend. Exhausted. Paper-thin.
"Tell me they were more important things," the villain said. "Tell me that at least. Tell me you saved the goddamn world."
The hero placed one hand against the glass. The villain matched it.
"Tell me," the villain said. "Because the only thing worse than this, was that you let me drown for nothing."
"Not nothing."
But it wasn't enough. It didn't seem nearly enough.
"I-" the hero began.
The power flared again.
"Don't worry." Their friend was smothered beneath it; the light of them plunged kicking and thrashing into the churning waters of the magic. The villain tilted their head. "When I get out of here, and oh, I'll get out of here...you'll never fail anyone ever again. So save your apologies. " They stood up, abruptly, and turned away. "They're as worthless as your love ever was."