Private Finished Always gotta be the hero

To stop them from hitting me...

That was all Broen needed to hear to finally drain the color from his face. He set his slice of pizza down and put both of his hands on his knees, looking at the floor between his feet. H smiled a little bit at her attempt to lighten the mood, but he was too far in now.

"Levina..." He started, not entirely sure where to go. He thought back to his time with Agatha. His time with the Defiant. The therapy and the nights crying alone after his emotions came flooding back.

"None of what happened to you was your fault. They might have told you that it was, but they were wrong. Are wrong. No one deserves being abused for being themselves or for not living up to someone else's expectations. I struggled with that a lot when I was younger. I thought my dad was right; that I was just a washout. A loser. That I'd never amount to anything without him."

"But he was wrong about me and they're all wrong about you. You're incredible, Levina. Smart, gorgeous, strong in ways you probably can't even see yet. You remind me so much of myself, and of people I knew back home. People I was close to. I know you might not see it like that right now, but..."

And he lost the thread. His mom was better at this. Angelo was better at this. Angelo... Broen sat up more, furrowing his brow. He wasn't going to say anything just now. But he had an idea. Or the beginnings of one, at least.

He sighed to deflect, in case she got suspicious. "-I don't know. I've never had to do this part on my own. The talking part. I'm probably garbage at it without my team.

"...I try to be. It's hard sometimes... sometimes, you're right. It'd be easier to be the bad guy..."

And that's exactly what Broen would have done, and had done for the small handful of people he had given a shit about back during his villain days. Mostly himself though. Really only ever himself. There hadn't been anyone else back then. "I was going to kill my dad... I had a gun in my pocket and a set of powers he wouldn't be able to shut off in time, just in case. He was giving a speech after he won the mayoral race again. He didn't have a bulletproof glass in front of him. Why would he? He was the most loved person in Halcyon City."

"But I couldn't do it. Even with my empathy stripped out and all that anger, I just left without doing it. It took me a while to figure out why, but... it's really just that he wasn't worth it. He hurt me, and he wasn't worth me hurting myself."

"And none of the people that hurt you are worth you continuing to beat yourself up over. Not a single fucking one." He was back on the couch with her, wrapping his arms around her again. Locking her in an embrace and not letting go. Just letting her cry it out a little longer.

"Of course I can. Being alone in my apartment sucks anyway." He would call one of his coworkers later, switch shifts with them for tomorrow. He didn't know how long he would need to stay with Levina, but he figured at least until the next day was a good idea.

"I'll take the couch, yeah? And I can maybe get someone to bring us some beer or something else to drink." He thought about what he could do to help her maybe feel a little better. She had been going out to a bar to relax. Maybe that would be a good vector to start with: just some simple drinks to enjoy together. "Maybe we can put on a movie or something. I have'nt watched any of the dumbshit superhero stuff you guys have."

That one was a joke, as his tone clearly indicated. He was still holding onto her, letting Levina put her bod weight against him. Still careful; the last thing he wanted was for her to think he was taking advantage of her vulnerability.

"Oh I know. I have standards, Livewire. Don't sleep with the emotionally compromised being one of those." He fired back at her with his own mild sarcasm, grinning as he helped get the pillows and blankets from the closet.

With the beer on its way from a teleport delivery service he'd grown to love over the past few months, Broen tucked his legs underneath himself on the couch and made a spot for Levina next to him. Pizza and beer all within reach once it arrived.

"I was kidding about the superhero movies thing. We don't have to watch those. From what I've seen, Iron Man is as much of a tool as my old man was anyway."

While Levina was off getting changed, Broen actually got up and set himself up to be more comfortable. He would have to live with sleeping in his work jeans, but he could at least take off his over shirt - leaving just his own tank top underneath and revealing some of the nastier scars on his shoulders and arms. None of which he seemed to notice as he made room once again for Levina.

"Hey, I kept secret identities all the time back home. You can trust me with this."

He laughed when she made her joke, gently back handing her on the shoulder and saying, "You better fucking not. I'm nothing like Frederick Augustus Crawford." He said his father's name with an inflated, fake posh British accent and snorted incredulously.

"But you're the one who needs this, so you get to pick the movie."