Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1.1: words have consequences as well as actions

Cassie loved her father with her entire heart and soul.

She knew that he didn't always make the best choices, but he had always made the best choices with her. He had always loved her, always been her best friend, always been her confident. She loved her mother as well, loved Blake in a way as well, but she'd never connected with her mother quite the way that she connected with her father.

So it hurt to know that she herself was one of the reasons why she wasn't allowed to spend as much time with her father as she would like. Her mother never said it, denied it vehemently every time Cassie brings it up, but Cassie knew the truth. She knew that her soulmark scared her mother.

The writing was barely legible, chicken scratch that looked hasty and messy. That kind that a writer developed when they moved quickly, always in a hurry and rarely wanting to slow down long enough to make their writing look nice. The words wrapped around the front of her ankle read, 'He set me free.'

When Cassie was young, the words hadn't meant much to her parents. Cassie heard stories from her father about how he and her mother used to speculate about it, wondering if she would meet her soulmate during some type of playground game while she was young. Scott had even taught her to play 'Cops and Robbers' tag from the moment she started running.

Things changed once Scott went to prison, though.

Her mother looked at the words and thought about Scott's criminal actions, thought about his time in prison. She thought about the types of people that Scott knew and how she would never want her daughter near them, much less want her daughter bound to one of them.

Cassie knew that it had come up during her mother's custody trial. Most of the trial had been focused on Scott's career as Ant-man and how that made him unsuitable, but Cassie knew that her soulmark had been spoken about. And she was sure the judge had thought about the possible implication of the words when making his decision.

It was Scott himself that kept her from hating her soulmate.

During one of their weekends together, Cassie had told her father how much she hated her soulmate for keeping her away from him. Scott had drawn her into his lap, smoothed her hair back and kissed her temple.

I chose to do the things I did, he had said. I don't know if your soulmate will be romantic or platonic, but I do know that the person your words bind you to is someone whose going to be important to you. You shouldn't dismiss them before you've even met them because of my mistakes.

The words hadn't completely taken the ache from Cassie's heart, but they'd soothed some of her anger. It'd made it easier to accept that her soulmate wasn't responsible for her separation from her father, that her soulmate hadn't done something terrible to her before they'd even met.

By the time her father died, Cassie had been just as swept up in the idea of romance and finding her true love in her soulmate as any other girl her age was.

Than her father had died and Cassie had become too concerned with her family situation to care about a soulmate.

2.1: moving sucks no matter who you are

Cassie dropped the box in her arms down onto the kitchen tile. It was small and petty, but she felt a rush of satisfaction at the clank of the glassware inside the box.

"Cassandra!" her mother chided as she walked into the house, carrying another box with Blake's scrawl spelling out 'Kitchen' on the side. "Could you please not be so rough with the dishes?"

"I don't know. If I break them all, can we move back home?"

"Don't talk to your mother like that," Blake said as he swept into the house. Cassie couldn't see the tag for what room it belonged to, but it must have been one of the bedrooms because he moved out of the kitchen. He called behind him, "And the answer to your question is no, so you might as well stop trying before I make you pay for everything you broke."

Cassie glared at the man's back.

She had liked her mother's husband well enough, he was stricter than either of her parents but not so much so that Cassie was more than mildly annoyed by the change, up until the declaration that she was being moved away from her actual father in order for Blake to take a better job. She would choose Scott over him any day.

"Cassie," her mother said. She turned to find her mother had set the box she was carrying down and focused on her, looking exhausted. "I know you aren't happy about moving, but please try to at least give it a chance? I know a new school isn't ideal your junior year, but it's not as though you can't still talk to your old friends and I'm sure you'll make new ones quickly. And you'll probably meet your soulmate."

"I don't care about school or friends or soulmates," Cassie said, voice raising. "I care that your husband matters to you more than I do!"

"Blake does not matter to me more than you do." She could tell her mother was getting angry as well, her voice raising along with Cassie's. Over the past few weeks, Cassie had become really familiar with what the beginning of fights with her mother looked like. "You're my daughter. I would never chose anyone over you, Cassie."

"It doesn't seem that way to me!" Cassie snapped. "Because if you cared about me than you wouldn't have chosen his new job over me being happy with dad!"

"I already put my life on hold for your father once. I won't do it now that I'm not married to him."

"You never put your life on hold for dad! You weren't exactly sitting around waiting for him to get out of prison, mom! You divorced him and married Blake!" Her mother opened her mouth to argue, but Cassie wanted nothing more to do with her. She turned, walking past her mother to make her way out the door. "I'm going for a walk. I wanna call dad before you decide that I'm not allowed to talk to him on top of not being able to see him."

1.2: prison break

"So," Cassie said as she returned to her normal size. She, Billy, and Vision were standing inside of the cell block Vision believed Thomas Shepherd was in. "What else do we know about Thomas Shepherd?"

"His parents are Frank and Mary," Vision told her. "Divorced."

"What about his powers?" Billy asked. Cassie followed him and Vision towards one of the cells. "If he can blow things up, why hasn't he escaped?"

As he reached for the panel outside of the cell, Vision said, "I assume his cell is equipped with a blow dampener. But once I override its security settings, he should return to-"

The rest of Vision's words were lost to Cassie as the cell door exploded, filling the room with a loud booming noise followed by smoke and debris flying at them.

Cassie resisted the instinct to shrink herself, knowing it might have ended up with a small piece of debris having a large effect on her body. Instead she tucked down and threw herself back away from the door.

"Cassie!" she heard Vision shout as the room began to quiet down.

"I'm okay," she said. "How's Billy?"

"I'll be fine," Billy said, though his voice sounded a little strained. They had been standing near each other in front of the door, so Cassie rolled to shaky feet and took a few steps towards the sound of Billy's voice. "Eventually."

Catching sight of him, Cassie exclaimed, "Billy, you're bleeding."

"Well that explains why it hurts."

"Vision, what did you do?" Cassie asked as she reached out for Billy.

A new voice cut through the fog, a little lower than Billy's but similar in a way that seemed strange, "He set me free."

Cassie found herself freezing as she heard the words wrapped around her ankle spoken. She'd heard them before, but never organically. She'd only heard them from people reading them aloud, like her father or very close friends. Still, it had been ages since either of those occurrences had happened.

It had been ages since she'd even thought about the words around her ankle. She had been upset about her father's death, busy fighting with her mother, and angry at the world for all of it. There were simply things that kept her mind from drifting to the dark chicken scratch around her ankle, about who would say her words to her and when, about what the person who spoke them would mean to her.

Finding herself dazed by the whole thing, the only thing she could think of was the possibility of who the boy in front of them could be. It was why that word that fell from her mouth, her first word to the boy who could be her soulmate, was simply, "Thomas?"

"Tommy," the boy corrected, walking out of the smoke and into the clearing area. "Who the hell are you?"

He had messy white hair and sharp green eyes. His face was round and so incredibly similar to that of the boy next to her, that Cassie found herself briefly distracted from the 'possibly my soulmate' thing.

"Whoa..." Cassie said as Billy approached Tommy. The two of them standing face to face really highlighted the similarities between them. "You guys could be twins."

"Wait..." Tommy said, staring at Billy. "I know you. The Young Avengers. You're the shape-shifter, right?"

No, his boyfriend's the shape-shifter. He's the Warlock."

"Witch, actually." As the Billy corrected her, Cassie found her attention drawn to the gaping hole in the wall that had been caused by the explosion. "'Warlock' means 'Oathbreaker' It's not a nice word.'"

"Um...Tommy?" Cassie said as she watched men in full riot gear begin entering the room through the hole. "Friends of yours?"

"Any suggestions?" Billy asked.

"Yeah." Tommy turned towards the intruders, holding his hands out. "Stand back."

In the ensuing chaos, Cassie found there wasn't really time to ask Tommy if his soulmark was his own name and if he might be her soulmate.

2.2: physics notes

Cassie was rummaging through her new locker in search of the textbook she needed for her next class, two weeks at her new school had been enough for her locker to turn into a mess of papers and snacks, when someone threw themselves into the locker next to hers.

She barely had time to look over at them, to see the snow white hair and sharp green eyes of a boy she thought was in one of her classes, before they were saying, speaking quickly, "You're the new kid, right? So I'm gonna guess that you haven't skipped any of your classes yet. Could I borrow your notes from physics yesterday?"

She stared at him for a moment, trying to process the words being spoken. She noted, a little absently, that the boy was cute.

"Um. I'm not very good at physics, so I don't think my notes will really help you? And also, I think we might be soulmates?" Feeling awkward about her assumptions, she added, "Uh...if you have the words I just said that is."

He stared at her for a long moment before his lips spread in a wide grin. He reached for the hem of his shirt, grabbing the bottom and pulling it up halfway. Cassie found herself momentarily distracted by the suddenness of the entire thing, as well as the fact that the boy had some very defined abs, before she noticed that the boy wasn't just pulling his shirt up for fun. He was trying to show her his soulmark, which was written right above waistband of his jeans.

"Oh," Cassie said. Focusing on what she was seeing, Cassandra recognized not only the words she had spoken, but her own looping handwriting. "Oh!"

"Yeah." Letting his shirt fall back down, he asked her, "Where is yours?"

Cassie turned her back towards him. Then, face flushing, she lifted up the edge to show him the words written along her lower back.

"That's definitely my chicken scratch," he said. He laughed a little. "Even I can barely read it."

"My dad says that it was so tiny and squished together when I was a baby that he couldn't figure out what it said until I was a little older."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Cassie let her shirt fall back over her jeans, turning to look at the boy again. There was a quiet moment before he asked, "It's Cassie, right?"

"Yup. I don't know your name, though."

"A bit surprising given how often I get yelled at around here, but not that strange given that I'm not the new kid." He grinned at her before saying, "It's Tommy. Tommy Shepherd."

"Well...It's nice to meet you, Tommy."

"It's nice to meet you too, Cassie."

1.3: in the settling dust

Cassie settled down on the bench next to Tommy.

They were sitting outside of the hospital that Eli had been rushed to. There were a few of the older Avengers loitering around outside with them, but Captain America and the rest of the Young Avengers had rushed into the hospital to check on Eli.

He glanced over at her, surprised. "You aren't going inside with the others?"

"I like Eli, but I'm not as close to him as the others. I thought it might be best to let them go in instead." Cassie asked him, "Aren't you out here for a similar reason?"

"I don't get the feeling that he likes me very much, so I figure he probably doesn't want me in his hospital room."

Cassie hummed a bit, not really disagreeing.

She knew that Eli had a lot of issues with the fact that they'd broken Tommy out of prison. She didn't think it was that big a deal, especially not given what Tommy had said about his treatment before attacking the guards. But she also understood that the words around her ankle made her a little bias, just as Billy's theory that they were brothers made him a little bias.

They sat in silence for a while. Tommy was leaning back against the bench with his eyes closed and his face turned up to the sky. Cassie sat close to the arm of the bench, trying to focus on looking at the world around them rather than at him.

Watching him right now felt a bit like she was intruding on something personal. She didn't really know anything about the prison Tommy had been in, but between the hints he'd dropped during their battle against the guards and what she could tell of his attitude she guessed he hadn't spent very much time in the sun recently.

She was reluctant to catch his attention, wanting to let him enjoy this moment, but there was a question burning in her chest.

"Tommy, can I ask what your soulmark is?"

Soul-marks were private in a way, but given how common it was for a soulmark to be visible it wasn't considered taboo to ask someone about theirs either. But given her stake in it, Cassie found that asking Tommy about his had butterflies going crazy in her stomach.

"It's just my name," he said, still basking in the sun rather than looking at her. He kicked his right leg out just far enough for the movement to be noticeable. He wasn't wearing shoes or socks, having not had either of them on when they broke him out of prison, and the motion had his pants swaying in a way that gave her a glimpse of the word. It wasn't enough for her to tell if it was her handwriting or not. "'Thomas?' on the front of my ankle."

A pair of soulmarks were rarely in the same place as soulmates were rarely the exactly same type of people. Instead, the marks were usually mirrored.

Cassie's mark was on her left ankle.

"Could I see it?" she asked. Her heart jackrabbitted in her chest, a quick steady thump-thump-thump.

He opened one of his eyes now, peering at her. "Why?"

She took a deep breath before saying, "I think our marks might match. The words you said to me at the prison - 'He set me free.' - are on my left ankle."

Tommy stared at her for a moment.

Then he said, "Well, okay. I guess that's a pretty good reason for me to show you my foot."

2.3: the words of the father

"Hey sweetheart," Scott greeted. Cassie found herself smiling as soon as she heard her father's voice. It had been a long few days, between the first few tests in a school she was still finding her footing at and her continued fighting with her mother. She tried to talk to her father at least once a week, but when she'd called him last weekend they had spoken for only a few minutes before he made her hang up to study. "How was your week?"

"It was fine," she said, settling back against her pillows. "Busy."

"I know you had a lot to do this week. Everything went okay, I hope?"

"I think so. It's difficult because I wasn't here for some of the stuff on the tests, but I think I did well considering that."

"Well, I'm proud of you as long as you tried your best."

"I know."

"I know you were busy studying, but I hope you managed to do something fun as well," Scott said.

Cassie thought about what she had been up to that week.

She thought about how she had tried to study at lunch, but Tommy had threatened to pour his milk on her textbook. His brother, Billy, had told her he wouldn't actually do it, but his best friend, Kate, had assured her that Tommy absolutely would. She'd ended up spending lunch laughing at Tommy's ridiculous jokes, feeling the hit of his knee against hers every time she jolted with laughter.

She thought about how the second they had been given free time to study in physics, Tommy had moved into the chair belonging to the desk in front of Cassie's and turned to speak to her. She thought about how Tommy had ducked his head and asked her to help him with some of their practice problems. She thought about how Tommy hadn't really seemed to be struggling at all, but seemed to understand that explaining thing to him helped her understand what she was doing.

She thought about how Tommy always seemed to stop by her locker between their classes. How he would share snacks with her while they spoke, ripping pieces of his muffins off or shaking fruit snacks into her hand, even though Tommy always seemed to be hungry. How he took the time to stand there with her even though Tommy so rarely stopped moving, preferring to buzz around the hallway and speak to every single one of his friends.

In the moment, they were just friends. But Tommy was her soulmate and the more time they spent together, the more Cassie developed a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't a platonic bond.

She thought about how she hadn't told either of her parents about Tommy yet.

She kept it from her mother on purpose, not wanting to give her the satisfaction after being forced to move so far.

She kept it from her father because she hadn't been sure what would happen or what would come from it.

Now, Cassie found herself desperately wanting to tell him.

"I met my soulmate," Cassie told Scott. "He kept pulling me away from studying, telling me stupid jokes and making me talk to him instead spending my lunches reading."

"Oh yeah?" She knew her father had to be panicking inside, thinking about how Cassie was growing up quickly, but she appreciated that he hid it well. Instead he kept his voice even as he asked, "What's his name?"

"Tommy," Cassie said, affection slipping into her voice as she thought about the boy in question. "I think you'd like him, Daddy."

"Yeah? Tell me about him."

1.4: something like starting new

"Um, excuse me," Cassie said, stepping up to the small huddle around Tommy. His lawyers, Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson, both looked up at she approached. "Would it be possible for me to talk to Tommy for a moment?"

"Cassie," Matt said. He knew her from the days when her father had been alive. He'd never been as active on the Avengers as some other members, but he'd been around often enough to know her. "What are you doing here?"

"Tommy and I are....friends." It felt strange to tell someone that she and Tommy were soulmates. It wasn't as though they had really talked about that a whole lot, what with Tommy having been returned to prison following their battle until a new trial could be conducted. Tony Stark had made sure he went somewhere better than he had been before, so Cassie had called him a few times but those had been more casual conversations. Enough that Cassie did consider him a friend, maybe even for something more to start blossoming, but not enough that Cassie was sure yet about where they stood.

"Ah. The Young Avengers, right?"

"Yeah," Cassie agreed. She rocked on her heels, asking, "So, could I speak to him for a moment?"

"Go ahead," Foggy said. Matt looked like he wanted to argue, but Foggy jabbed him with an elbow. It had a flush crawling up Cassie's face. She knew what Foggy thought this was and that...embarrassing even if it wasn't entirely incorrect. "Matt and I are going to go grab the car. Tommy, let us know when your done so we can drive you to the Kaplan's place, okay?"

"Okay," Tommy said.

Cassie and Tommy lapsed into silence for a moment, watching as Matt and Foggy walked away.

After they had disappeared around the corner, Cassie cleared her throat. "The Kaplan's place?"

"Yeah. Billy's pretty insistent on this twin thing? So he talked to his parents and set it up for me to stay with them." Cassie wanted to ask why Tommy didn't just stay with his own parents, but but down on the question. Clearly there was something going on there if Tommy was staying with Billy. She didn't know what it was, but she felt like they weren't close enough yet for her to pry. Tommy had still been down the hallway that Matt and Foggy had gone down, but now he looked over at Cassie. "What are you doing here, by the way?"

"I wanted to see how your case went, say congratulations," Cassie said. The look that Tommy gave her had her shuffling nervously, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ears. "Should I not have come by?"

"No, it's fine," Tommy dismissed. He said, quieter and a little like he was talking to himself more than her, "It's actually nice to have someone here other than like...my lawyers."

"Well, good. I'm glad I came then," Cassie said.

Silence settled between them for a long moment.

Then Tommy cleared his throat.

"So, Foggy's a pretty cool guy and I was going to try to convince him to take me to McDonalds before he drops me off at the Kaplan's since I haven't had chicken nuggets in like....several years," Tommy said. He shifted from one foot to the other, nervous in a way that made Cassie feel better about her own nerves. "Do you want to like....tag along?"

Cassie had taken two buses over to the courthouse, rather than getting a ride from her mother or Blake.

She hadn't exactly told either of them about Tommy yet, despite it having been months since they'd figured out they were soulmates. She wanted to tell her mother about Tommy, but she knew that her mother would only see the parts of Tommy that reaffirmed her fears rather than any of the other pieces of him.

Spending some more time with Tommy before heading home sounded nice. And since she'd taken the bus, it wasn't as though she was worried about not inconveniencing her ride.

"I'd like that," Cassie said.

"Cool, cool, cool." There was something about Tommy's words that made Cassie smile. "Let's go try to find them in the parking lot then."

2.4: ask me a question

Cassie was reaching into her locker, searching through the books and papers for the English homework she'd shoved somewhere after study hall, when a body slammed against the locker next to Cassie's. Without waiting for her to reply, the intruder said, "So Kate said that you two went out together over the weekend?"

Cassie didn't need to look away from her search to know that it was Tommy.

"America came too," Cassie said as she flipped through her math book. She'd sat with Teddy and Billy during study hall. She remembered doing a few of her physics problems before Teddy had started complaining about the book they'd been reading in English. She'd let him look at her essay since he was struggling with his own. "They showed me a few good places to shop."

"I can't believe you went out with them before you went out with me."

"Why would I have gone out with you? You've never asked me to go anywhere."

"I'm your soulmate!"

"I don't think that requires you to show me around town." She let out a soft 'ah ha' as she found her work tucked in the index of her textbook. She pulled it out, shoving it into her bag, before putting the book back.

"I didn't say it was a requirement. I'm just a little offended." As Cassie slammed her locker shut, Tommy said, "So since you late Kate and America show you the shopping scene, come out with me this weekend so I can show you the food scene."

Cassie felt a spike of something in her chest. Not fear or irritation, but a happy sort of surprise.

She had learned that Tommy was a straightforward type of person when it came to most things. He kept a lot hidden, but when it came to the things he was fine speaking about he spoke directly.

She turned to face him and asked, knowing it would be better than making assumptions or trying to talk around the possible embarrassment of reading him wrong, "Are you asking me out to dinner?"

"Yeah." He was leaning against the locker, dumping fruit snacks into his hand and wearing a cool, casual expression. But as she looked at him, Cassie noticed that his finger was tapping against the package in a strange way. Tommy was always in motion, but especially so when he was nervous or unsettled. "So? Is that a yes?"

"It's a yes," Cassie said. She'd thought about it before. She felt certain that her response wasn't just because he was her soulmate, felt certain that she actually had a huge crush on Tommy because of who he was rather than what he was to her. "It's definitely a yes."

"Oh. Cool." Tommy nodded a little bit, continuing, "Cool, cool, cool."

Laughing a bit, she reached out and pushed his bicep. Her chest was warm with amusement and affection. "Come on, cool dude, or we're going to be late for class."

1.5: meant to be, this and us

"Alright, team," Kate said, clapping her hands together. Cassie looked at her and bit down laughter at the sight. They were all covered in the thick teal slime of the villain they'd dispatched, but she found there was something funny about one of the team leaders being covered in it while trying to direct them. "Clean up time. You know your assignments."

"Pretty sure that means you're with me." Cassie didn't need to look over her shoulder to know it was Tommy speaking to her. It had been a while since she had seen him, Cassie and Tommy's powers had just split the monster into smaller pieces so they'd been working on citizen evacuation while Billy and Kate put their heads together to figure out what Billy could do while Teddy and Eli kept the monster under control, but nowadays Tommy was a familiar presence. She was used to him at her back.

"Sure does," Cassie said. She turned away from Kate and looked at Tommy instead. What she saw had her laughing almost immediately. For the most part the team had managed to shake off a lot of the goop off of them. However, it seemed like Tommy's speed had just made the goop on him spread to cover more of him rather than falling off. "Oh boy. You really got covered, didn't you?"

"It wasn't this bad before," Tommy told her.

"Oh yeah? You mean to say you didn't decide to just dive into the monster?" Even as she teased him, Cassie reached up towards his hair. Tommy tilted his head, giving her room to run spread fingers through his locks and pull some of the slime from it.

"Ha ha ha."

Ignoring him, Cassie said, "We are definitely not going out for lunch with everyone else once we finish. You need a shower."

"What's that mean? You coming back to the Kaplan's and watching me shower?"

"No," Cassie said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "You're going to go home and shower while I grab us Chinese food. We'll have lunch together instead of with everyone."

"So you are trying to get me alone."

"The only thing I'm trying to do is make sure you don't cover Denny's in teal alien slime."

"I'm pretty sure Denny's is covered in substances more questionable than alien slime."

"You probably aren't wrong." Tommy made a soft sound as Cassie pulled her hand out of his hair, a little disgruntled and unhappy. Cassie didn't know if it was because she pulled a little too hard while taking out the gunk or if he had just enjoyed the feeling of her fingers there. Tommy loved having his hair played with when they napped together after a difficult mission. "Regardless, does a shower and lunch after clean up sound okay?"

Tommy said, "Sounds good."

"Alright." Cassie smiled at him for a moment before ducking in to press a kiss against his lips. As she pulled away from the kiss, she patted at his arms. "Let's go help with clean up."

"Yeah, let's get this over with. I'm starving."

Their relationship had come a long way in the months since the team had started up officially. The two of them had grown close, driven not just by the marks on their bodies but the parts of them that made those marks exist. Cassie had learned that no one made her laugh the way that Tommy made her laugh, learned that no one made Tommy relax the way she could, learned that there were so many parts of each of them which made them fit together.

She'd been unsure when she realized that Vision's recruit for the Young Avengers was in juvie, not as much as Eli but still a little reserved, but now she couldn't imagine anyone else who could have taken his place on their team. She couldn't imagine anyone else who could have taken his place in her life.

2.5: telling secrets

Cassie ducked into the house, pressing her back against the door once she had shut it. Her face was covered in a warm, pink flush and her lips tingled where Tommy's had pressed his moments ago.

"Cassie?" her mother said, voice drifting from the living room out into the kitchen where Cassie stood. "Is that you?"

"Yes, Mama," Cassie said.

There must have been something in her voice that she hadn't noticed, because there was shuffling from the living room before her mother poked her head into the kitchen.

"You must have had fun with your friends," her mother observed.

Cassie thought about driving over to the restaurant with Tommy after he'd picked her up. She thought about how it had been a little awkward at first, nervous tension hanging between them, but how it had given way quickly as they started talking. She thought about singing badly and laughing as Tommy veered too hard around corners.

Cassie thought about sitting across from Tommy at the diner he'd taken her too, claiming it was the best place to get a burger in the city. She thought about how the waitress they had known Tommy well enough to start teasing him about bringing a date and how Tommy had flushed while insisting that anything she said about him was a lie. She thought about how the table had been a little small so every time one of them laughed their knees knocked together and how there had been a lot of laughing. She thought about how Tommy had kept stealing her cheese fries and how when she pointed it out, he had grabbed more before offering her some of his milkshake. She thought about how long they had sat there after eating, happy to spend more time together.

Cassie thought about standing on her doorstep with her hand on the doorknob, saying goodbye with cheeks that ached from smiling so much. She thought about Tommy ducking in to press their lips together and how she had been surprised but had leaned into him without much hesitation.

She thought about how she felt now, giddy and happy and a little like a girl in a movie.

She wanted so badly to tell her mother all about it, but as she went to open her mouth she remembered that she had been so bitter about the move that she hadn't told her mother about Tommy at all. She hadn't told her that she was going out on her first date with her soulmate, just that a friend was showing her a restaurant in town.

Cassie still wasn't happy about being moved away from her father for Blake's job and she knew there were bound to be a hundred more fights, but her mother was still her mother and this was something Cassie had always thought she would get to talk to her mom about.

"Did Blake go to bed already?" Cassie asked. Her mom looked confused by the question, but nodded. "Could we talk then? I want to tell you something."

Chapter Text

1.1: once upon a time, i didn't know you existed

Billy coughed, trying to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling that had settled in his chest when the prison cell had exploded and threw what felt like a metric ton of dust and dirt at him. His head was pounding and he could feel something wet rolling down his face. He curled in on himself, head coming down towards his knees as he groaned.

He could hear Cassie coughing nearby, but the sediment in the air was more effective at cutting his vision off than any fog.

"Cassie!" he heard Vision shouting, robotic voice filled with something that was close to worry. Billy knew that the Vision wasn't just an AI. He'd always wondered just how deep the Vision could feel. Everyone knew that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were soulmates, but Billy had always wondered if Vision had been human enough to have been Scarlet Witch's soulmate if she hadn't had her brother. He wondered how close to human their Vision was.

"I'm okay," Cassie said, voice strained. "How's Billy?"

Billy raised his voice, ignoring the way it scratched, to tell her, "I'll be fine." He could feel someone approaching him, but Billy was so preoccupied with the pain in his head and throat that he couldn't do anything about it. "Eventually."

He felt small hands come into contact with his face. He flinched away, both from the unfamiliar body and from the pain of the touch. "Billy," Cassie said, much closer. Billy realized that it had been her that touched him. "You're bleeding."

"That explains why it hurts."

"Vision," Cassie said. The smoke was starting to clear and he was growing used to the throbbing. He forced himself to unfurl and open his eyes. He could see Cassie nearby, looking over her shoulder where he could just make out Vision's outline. "What did you do?"

Somewhere nearby, Billy heard someone say, "He set me free." The voice sounded so similar to his own, that for a moment Billy thought that he had spoken. He wondered if maybe he was concussed and that was why he didn't remember speaking.

But than Cassie said, "Thomas?"

And the voice responded, "Tommy." Billy looked up just in time to see a boy stepping out of the smoke and into his and Cassie's space. Though the boy's hair was a stark snow white, spotted with the dirt and dust surrounding them, and his eyes a dark green, his face was one that Billy had seen a hundred times. It was the same face that Billy saw each time he looked in a mirror or at a photo Teddy had taken of them. "Who the hell are you?"

"Woah," Cassie said from beside him, eyes glancing between the two of them. "You guys could be...twins."

"Wait..." Tommy said, voice slower and less firm than it had been moments before. It was like he was trying to work out a puzzle presented to him. "I know you. The Young Avengers. You're the shape-shifter, right?"

Billy froze. The words Tommy had spoken were the words that spanned across his chest, resting right below his pectoral muscles. The end of them were right below his heart as if the words were leading right to it.

Billy had always known that Teddy wasn't his soulmate. But Billy was so desperately in love with Teddy that it had never mattered. He had always just assumed that his bond was platonic rather than romantic, because he couldn't imagine there being a person that was better for his heart than Teddy was.

Believing his bond was platonic didn't stop Billy from feeling like he'd been slapped in the face when confronted with this person that the universe had decided to tie him to instead of Teddy.

He didn't catch most of what Cassie said in his shock, but he caught the end of her sentence, "-the warlock."

He really hated that word, so even despite his shock he found himself looking up into the eyes of the boy and telling him, "Witch, actually. 'Warlock' means 'Oathbreaker.' It's not a nice word."

Tommy's eyebrows raised, recognition lighting in his eyes.

Before either of them could address their connection, there was the sound of storming feet and prison guards were entering the building through a hole blown through the brick.

All thoughts of soulmates slipped from his head as he focused on the battle that ensued.

2.1: once upon a time, we were never apart

Prince William of the House of Magnus had grown up knowing exactly who his soulmate was.

One of his mother's favorite stories was about Billy's soulmark.

When he was just over a year old, the entire family had been gathered in the palace's den. A rare occurrence since Aunt Lorna had just abdicated in favor of pursuing a marriage with the baker's boy, Alex Summers, and she had been fighting often with Grandfather in those days. But the family had been together.

Billy and his twin brother, Tommy, had been playing together near their grandfather's feet. Billy had been playing with his feet while Tommy chewed absently on a ring from one of their toys.

Amused by Billy's choice in toy, Erik had used his boys to rip a strip of metal off of his throne and model it into a small figurine.

He had just left it in Billy's young hands when Tommy darted forward to grab it from his brother, shouting, "Mine!"

Billy had gone silent for just a moment, shocked and surprised by the lost of his new toy, before his face had scrunched up. He shouted, "No!" loudly before breaking down into tears.

Wanda and Erik had both ducked in as soon as Billy's crying began, Wanda pulling the distressed boy into her arms to soothe him while Erik took Tommy into his and spoke quietly to the baby while taking Billy's toy from him, but it took almost half an hour to calm Billy down and convince Tommy to give up the figurine.

It wasn't until the tears had dried up that Wanda noticed that on the center of Billy's right palm was the word, 'Mine!' Or that on the center of Tommy's left was the word 'No!' Neither of the twins had been speaking very long, Tommy had started walking early but Billy seemed to prefer staying quiet and sitting to toddling after him, so while they had spoken to their family members they had never said anything to each other.

Romantic and platonic bonds had been just about even throughout history, neither ever really being more common than others. But of the platonic bonds that did exist, familial bonds were rare. Family was something special, but rarely did family mean the same thing to a person as a soulmate would. Of the familial platonic bonds that did exist, however, more than half of them were made up of twins or other multiples.

And while Wanda was bonded to her own twin, Wanda sported Pietro's questioning 'Where?' on the top of her right thigh while Pietro sported her 'Papa coming!' on his left, it had never occurred to her that her sons might be bonded to each other.

But, Wanda always said when she told the story, she was glad that the boys were. Soulmates were supposed to be a perfect match, but there were plenty of examples of bonds that were destructive or bad for the people involved. The twins being bonded meant that Wanda never had to worry about her sons' being hurt by their soulmate, never had to worry about them being desperately in love with someone who was horrible for them or connected to someone who would only hurt them.

In the same way that she knew Pietro would never hurt her, she knew her boys would never hurt each other.

1.2: olive branches

"Sorry I'm late." Billy looked up from his phone, having been in the middle of texting Teddy about his irritation, to find Tommy sliding into the booth across from him. Tommy's white hair was windswept, his pale cheeks ruddy the way that they always were when he had been running. Billy hadn't quite figured out yet if it was from the exertion of using his powers or if it was from the adrenaline running sent crashing through his body. "I wasn't going to come."

"Then why did you?" Billy asked. He was irritated about Tommy showing up late for lunch given that they'd planned it after their last mission, but he supposed Tommy showing up late was better than Tommy standing him up.

Tommy was quiet for a moment, drumming his fingers against the table. It was as if, despite having just gotten there, he was already feeling frozen and antsy.

"I don't know if you're actually my brother. This whole Scarlet Witch twin theory of yours is absurd," Tommy told him. There was a twitching of his shoulder, just visible to Billy's eyes. While Billy's mark was under his pecs, Tommy's mark was spread out between his shoulder blades. Billy had done some research on soulmarks since discovering where Tommy's mark was - it was a placement usually associated with someone whose soulmate would help them straighten their shoulders and stand a little taller. "But I do know that you're my soulmate and that's....that's something. Even if I don't know what."

None of them really knew much about Tommy, he was talkative on missions but it was never anything of substance - never anything about himself or family, but what they could glean from the way things were didn't paint a good picture. He had been imprisoned following his power manifestation. He had been experimented on and tortured, so he clearly hadn't had any visitors. When he got out of prison, there had briefly been talk between the Avengers of trying to locate his family, but that topic had been dropped quickly. Instead they had found two former Xavier's students, ones who had gone to learn control and than decided not to become X-Men, who were looking to adopt and who had been happy to foster Tommy.

It was enough for Billy to understand why Tommy might have been cautious of a brother, but also enough for him to think of why he might be attracted to the idea of a soulmate. It was enough for Billy to understand why Tommy would want someone in his life who was supposed to care for him as deeply as a soulmate was. There were far more abusive families than there were abusive soulmates.

Figuring that it was best not to push on suspicion, Billy said, "You know, bonds between multiple births are fairly common."

Tommy snorted. "No, they aren't."

"I researched it," Billy told it. "They make up about seventy percent of familial bonds."

"Familial bonds make up less than three percent of the bonds in the world."

Billy hummed. He thought about how strange it was that Tommy knew that, filed it away as further proof of Tommy wanting his soulmate.

"Two percent of the population is still a fairly large amount of people," Billy argued. Tommy hummed but didn't say anything, Instead he turned, gaze shifting away from Billy and out the window next to him. Billy watched him for a moment before saying, "I really think we might be the Scarlet Witch's twins, Tommy. I really think that we are twins. But even if we aren't brothers, I'd still like to explore the bond between us and try to be friends."

There was a moment before Tommy glanced back at him, a wicked smile on his lips. "Friendship, huh? You certain it's not a romantic bond?"

Billy didn't need the bond to be tested to know that it was platonic.

Even when he took his feelings for Teddy and his belief that Tommy was his twin out of the equation, he couldn't imagine a life with Tommy as his romantic partner. He could imagine living with him and laughing in a kitchen while they cooked breakfast in their boxers, could imagine meeting Tommy for lunch every day and arguing before they had to head back to their jobs, could imagine spending evenings tucked up against him as they watched a movie together. Those images filled Billy with a unique sort of warmth, but it wasn't one that came with a romantic relationship.

"It's a platonic bond," Billy said. He joked, "I don't think I could fuck someone who looked just like me anyway."

Tommy burst out into laughter.

Billy had heard Tommy's laugh during missions before, but he had never been the one to cause it.

His lips curved into a smile. He liked being the reason Tommy was laughing.

2.2: the duties of the younger brother

"Sorry I'm late!" Billy said as he slipped into the dining room. It was early morning, sunlight streaming in through the curtains and lighting the room up. The majority of his family was already sat the dining room table - Erik at the head while Pietro and Luna sat to his left and Lorna and Wanda to his left. There was an empty seat next to Luna where Tommy usually sat for weekend breakfast as well as next to Wanda, Billy's preferred seat. "I was reading something in the library and I didn't realize how late it had gotten."

Erik hummed a bit, looking up from the plate in front of him to fix his grandson with a look. "You're excused, but do not make a habit of being late for weekend breakfast, please."

"Yes grandpa."

Weekend breakfast was a tradition for the royal family. With Lorna living with her husband in the city and Luna spending majority of her time in the Kingdom of the Inhumans with her mother, Erik required that the entire family have breakfast together on Saturday and Sundays. Sometimes Billy wished he could sleep a little later on the weekends, but he didn't mind weekend breakfast that much. Everyone was so busy and scattered during the week that breakfast was sometimes the only time he saw Pietro or his grandfather.

"And do you happen to know where your brother is?" Erik asked.

Billy thought about how Tommy had snuck into his room the previous night for help sneaking out of the palace to attend a party in the city. He thought about how he had been jerked awake by an abrupt tugging on their bond and the feeling of the charm he'd made Tommy snapping, his brother's way of letting Billy know he needed his help getting back in. He thought about Tommy being sweaty and sticky and covered in glitter when Billy's magic teleported him into the bedroom, but glowy and satisfied. He thought about Tommy flopping down onto the bed with him almost immediately, telling Billy to scooch over because he was too exhausted to go back to his room.

He thought about how when Billy had gotten dressed and gone to the library, Tommy had still been passed out on the bed and how he had only made himself more comfortable once Billy got up.

"Nope," he told his grandfather.

"Billy," his mother said as Lorna snorted and Pietro's lips twitched with amusement. "Don't lie to your grandfather."

"I'm not lying!" He cut a glance at his cousin who was cutting into her omelet, looking completely unconcerned with the conversation. "Luna! Are you telling them I'm lying?"

"We don't need Luna's powers to tell that your lying," Pietro said. He pointed his fork at Billy's hand, resting at his side. "You always clench your right fist when you're lying for Tommy."

Billy glanced down to find that the hand bearing his soulmark was clenched, not tightly enough for Billy to have noticed but curled up nonetheless. "Oh."

Then, since Billy felt no shame giving Tommy up as long as he'd at least attempted to cover for his brother. he admitted, "Tommy went to a party last night. He's still asleep."

"Of course he is." Tommy always made it to weekend breakfast before the end of it, but it was fairly common for him to come in late. Erik sighed. "I had hoped to share the news with the entire family at once, but it seems that will be impossible this weekend."

"What news?" Billy asked as he crossed the room to his chair. It was easier to move now that his grandfather gaze wasn't focused on him.

"The Kree-Skrull empire is sending a delegation to discuss how the union of their empires will be effecting our trade agreements with them. In two months, we'll be holding a ball to welcome them."

1.3: blood and bond

Billy reached up, wiping the yellow blood of the creature from his face. He stared down at his hand afterwards, face scrunching up unhappily. A moment later his hand glowed blue as he murmured, "i want to be clean" over and over again.

The Young Avengers always seemed to get pulled in when some villain had created his own little minions.

Being a superhero was a dream some true for Billy, but he really wished that someone had told him in advance just how often he was going to be covered in blood, guts, and alien slimes.

"There's some in your hair still."

Billy glanced to his right to find Teddy approaching him, a large adrenaline fueled smile on his face.

Fighting always got Teddy's blood pumping, excited him in a way that didn't excite Billy or even the rest of their teammates. He wasn't sure if it was because Teddy fought so close up or if it was because of the alien DNA that ran through him.

"You have some everywhere," Billy said. He had stayed back used ranged attacks, so he had only been splattered by the minions which exploded particularly viciously. Teddy's fighting style was more physical and kept him close to the enemy. Today that meant that Teddy had been covered in bright yellow blood.

"Yeah." His smile went softer at the edges, a little sheepish. It was the sort of sweetness that never failed to make Billy's heart thump. "I need a shower."

"You really do. A really long one, I think." Billy reached up, wiping at a particularly large splotch of blood coating the right side of Teddy's face. "I would help you, but I don't have enough juice to clean my hair off much less to clean you off too."

"Mm, that's fine." As Billy shook the blood off his hand, Teddy asked, "Do you wanna go out once I'm cleaned up? We could grab lunch and then go comic shopping?"

An afternoon with Teddy sounded nice after the strain of the battle, but...

"I can't," Billy said. "I already have plans with Tommy."

Teddy stared at him for a moment, a little surprised. "Really?"

"Mhm...we're going to see that new animated movie. The one about the dragons?"

"Oh." There was a quiet moment before Teddy said, "I didn't know that you and Tommy were doing stuff together now."

He thought about lunches with Tommy, how it had been the only way to get Tommy to meet up when the team had first started up several months ago. He thought about how was willing to try absolutely any type of food at least once and how he was always forcing Billy to meet him at these hole in the wall restaurants that no one had heard of but still managed to have five star reviews when Billy looked them up for directions. He thought about how Tommy spoke a mile a minute while waving his fork around, but always stopped to listen when Billy told his own stories. He thought about how Tommy always finished everything on both of their plates and how he always left tips that were at least half of the bill, even if it meant that his wallet was empty afterwards.

He thought about how lunches had turned into afternoons walking around together afterwards, running errands or just shopping for fun. He thought about how Tommy slowed to walk at Billy's pace even though he knew it sometimes drove him wild to move so slowly and how he only walked in front of Billy when he was walking backwards, always keeping his eyes and attention on him. He thought about how he would catch Tommy looking at travel books, maps, and post-cards with a wistful expression on his face and how anytime they ended up in a music store he directed Billy towards absolutely fantastic bands that he had never heard of. He thought about how Tommy liked to buy little things like keychains and action figures from quarter machines.

He thought about how as they grew more comfortable with each other, they started doing things together without having to get lunch as a preface. He asked Billy to go to movies with him. Billy learned that Tommy liked action movies, which he expected, but also that he never missed an animated feature. They had gone for a late dinner after seeing a movie once and Billy had thrown song lyrics at Tommy, discovering that he knew almost every line for anything Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks. Once the two of them went mini-golfing, because Billy had told Tommy about mini-golfing with his younger brothers at lunch and discovered that Tommy had never gone. Billy learned that Tommy had absolutely no concept of how much force was enough for a golf ball, constantly either tapping too lightly to get it over a hill or so hard that the ball flew off the course, and that he had the worst celebration dances of anyone in the world.

Billy thought about he had learned that Tommy was intelligent, but impulsive. He learned that Tommy was rowdy and resourceful. Tommy was loyal and passionate. He liked to talk and tease, but he was always willing to listen and to stop when he realized he had crossed a line.

Tommy was his soulmate and his brother. The more time they spent together, the more Billy realized why it was that the world had decided that this boy and Billy were meant to be in each other's lives, why the world had decided they should share a bond that they didn't share with anyone else.

"Yeah, we hang out a lot," Billy said, a smile settling on his lips despite still being covered in the blood of the minions made by Doctor Doom. "He's my brother, you know?"

2.3: a brother is the best wingman you can have

"Are you just sitting here mooning over the Prince?"

Billy startled at the sudden question, the juice in the glass he was holding spilling over onto his hands.

He turned, glaring at his twin. "Tommy!"

"What?" Tommy said, leaning against the wall next to him.

While Billy wore a dark navy blue suit with a red tie, Tommy had opted for a sleek charcoal suit with a white shirt underneath and a green tie that matched his eyes. Or rather, their mother had stood in front of Tommy's bedroom door and stared at him in disappointment in her eyes until he changed out of his sweatpants and into the suit he'd been given for the party.

"You can't just say that," Billy hissed. He glanced, nervously, towards the corner where Prince Dorrek was standing with his bodyguards - one of them was a white haired kree named Noh-Varr while the other was a skrull named Xavin. Billy had fallen a little bit in love with the prince of the new Kree-Skrull empire the moment he had met him. He desperately wanted to talk to him without their parents by their sides, they had been introduced when the ball started but then the two royal families had split to enjoy the party being thrown. "What if he hears you?"

"He's all the way on the other side of the room," Tommy said, voice filled with amusement.

"So?"

"You are pathetic," his brother told him, though there was affection in his tone. He looked away from Billy, glancing over where Dorrek was. Then he said, "I'm feeling a little ashamed of how pathetic you're being, actually, so we're gonna go over there, you are going to introduce yourself properly without Grandfather doing it for you and say hi, and I'll snag his kree bodyguard so I can ask him about the record collection I've heard he has."

Someone who didn't know Tommy might have focused on the way he called Billy pathetic, might have focused on how he said he was ashamed of Billy. They might have chided him for calling Billy pathetic when there were plenty of people who were too nervous to talk to someone new, much less to talk to someone who they had a burgeoning crush on. They might have scolded him for saying he was ashamed of his brother when Billy was just acting like so many other teenagers with crushes.

Someone who knew Tommy, but not well might have told him not to be so selfish. They may have told him not to be so concerned about his own image when his brother was obviously nervous about meeting Dorrek. They may have told him not to force his brother into talking to Dorrek just because he wanted to talk to one of his bodyguards about a record collection.

Billy, who had his brother's words on the palm of his own and knew Tommy just as well as he knew himself, recognized what was really going on. Tommy was bad with expressing his feelings, more like their uncle than their mother, and he preferred things to be more straight forward. He wasn't really ashamed of Billy so much as he didn't understand why Billy wouldn't just go talk to the boy he liked and didn't know any other way to tell him that. And Tommy mentioning Noh-Varr's record collection wasn't Tommy forcing Billy to do something just so he could talk to someone, Tommy had absolutely no problem talking to anyone about anything, but Tommy letting Billy know that he would come with him so that things wouldn't be quite as awkward or nerve-wrecking for Billy.

Nothing made Billy confident the way that having Tommy by his side did, and Tommy knew that.

"Okay," Billy said. With his marked hand, he reached out for the one that bore his mark on Tommy. He twined their fingers together, pressing their marks together for just a moment. "Thank you, Tommy."

"Don't know what you're talking about," Tommy said, though his voice was soft and he squeezed Billy's hand in return.

1.4: truth falling freely

"I can't believe you dragged me all the way to Europe and didn't let me do anything fun," Tommy said, sighing as he threw himself down onto Billy's bed. He had been there enough times that he didn't hesitate to make himself comfortable, scooting up until his back was against the headboard and his legs were crossed under him. He played with the tie on the decorative plastic bag in his hand, undoing it as he said, "At least you let me buy these chocolate. Would've sucked to go to Belgium and not get any."

Billy felt a little bad about the entire thing, he knew that Tommy desperately wanted to see the world and that Billy not letting him explore the way he wanted hurt him, but he needed Tommy's help in his search for the Scarlet Witch. And even if he hadn't needed his help, Wanda wasn't just his mother - she was Tommy's too. It would have felt strange to find her without Tommy at his side.

"We were looking for the Scarlet Witch. We didn't have time to do tourist-y stuff," Billy said.

Hands glowing blue, he swiped across the air in front of them until they were both in their casual clothes rather than their Young Avengers uniforms. He made his way across the room to settle on the bed next to Tommy. He sat close enough that his thigh pressed against Tommy's knee and their shoulders bumped together.

Tommy cut a glance at him. "I'm not sharing my chocolate with you."

"I paid for the chocolate!" Billy objected. "I think I deserve at least one of them!"

"No! Fuck off. You wouldn't even let me go by Grand Place."

"We were busy!" When Tommy just hummed, clearly not caring, Billy found himself sighing. "You really don't care about finding the Scarlet Witch, do you?"

"Nope."

"I don't understand how you can feel that way. I know you aren't necessarily convinced that we're twins, but how can you not care about the possibility? How can you not care about knowing either way? How can you not want to find the woman who may be our mother?"

There was a long pause before Tommy spoke, eyes staying on the bag in his hands as he looked through them as though he didn't care what he was saying but his shoulders tense in a way that made it clear just how much it was effecting him. "I know who my mother is, Billy. Her name is Mary Shepherd. I spent my childhood turning her on her side so that she didn't choke on her vomit, stealing from grocery stores while she kept cashiers occupied, and being beaten by my father so that she wouldn't be. And what I got in return for that was her signing off on me being experimented on while I was in prison so that she could get a few extra dollars a month. I have no desire to have another mother."

Billy didn't know how to feel. He wanted to be angry at everything Tommy was revealing to him, but at the same time he felt frozen by how much Tommy was trusting him. He knew that he got to see sides of Tommy that no one else did, knew that he was the only one who got to see how much Tommy cared about everything and how much he loved the things he was passionate about while everyone else only saw the carefree and fun-loving side of him, but this was something completely different. Tommy sharing this piece of himself with Billy meant more than any of the other pieces he had shared.

"I don't understand why you want the Scarlet Witch so badly, you know," Tommy said, breaking the silence. "Rebecca Kaplan is...well, she was probably read you a bedtime story every night even though she's so busy and she probably bakes cakes for all of your birthdays even if she's not that great at it. Why do you want the Scarlet Witch when you already have a mother who loves you that much?"

"I'm not saying my mother isn't great, but the Scarlet Witch is just as much as piece of me as my mom is," Billy told him. He leaned just a little bit further into Tommy's space, hoping that he could give Tommy some comfort after all that he had revealed. "She's a piece of you too, Tommy. If we're twins, then she's one of the pieces that bring us together - her and our marks."

Silence reigned between them again.

Billy didn't know what to expect when Tommy spoke again, but it wasn't for Tommy to lean the open bag of chocolates towards him. "The atmosphere in here is getting way too serious. Take a chocolate."

It was surprising, but Billy didn't want to push Tommy to share anymore than he already had.

"Thanks," Billy said. As he reached into the bag for one of the round chocolate balls within, he asked, "Do you wanna watch a movie before you head home? My younger brothers brought a copy of Spirited Away home the other day."

"They like Miyazaki?" Billy hummed, nodding a bit. "Wow. Why is it that I got stuck with the lamest of you three?"

"Fuck off," Billy said, shoving Tommy with his shoulder.

There were smiles on both of their faces and warmth in Billy's chest.

2.4: fashion advice from a fashion disaster

Billy stood in front of the open doors of his wardrobe. Light blue magic held onto four different hangers. Each shirt was held in front of his body for several seconds before one of the others replaced it.

"Go for the blue flannel with one of your plain tee-shirts. Not one of the nerdy ones."

Billy glanced away from his mirror to find Tommy sitting on his bed. His brother was shirtless, wearing only a pair of bright pink pajama pants covered in polar bears. He wasn't sure where his brother had gotten the pants, but it was a pretty even toss up between Tommy having bought them for himself or having received them from one of his friends as a gag gift. There was a bag of chips in his hand which was he eating from despite it being barely eleven.

He wasn't really that bothered by Tommy's interruption. The boys had shared a room until they were fifteen, at which point they had separated mostly because Tommy had taken to sneaking out in the middle of the night and it had made it difficult for Billy to sleep at times.

"Weren't you supposed to have lessons with grandfather this morning?" Billy asked as he returned his gaze to the wardrobe. With Lorna having abdicated, Pietro had become crown Prince and the next leader of Genosha. However Luna spent most of her time with her mother and was fairly high up in the Inhuman's line of succession, so Tommy was Pietro's heir rather than her.

"Yeah. That's why I'm hiding in here. I managed to avoid him all morning by going to the kitchens, but I figured he'll probably check there soon so I came up here." Pausing with a chip in his hand, he repeated, "Seriously though - wear a blue flannel and one of your plain tee-shirts. Black or white. It doesn't matter which."

Billy considered for a moment before saying, "Are you sure? That seems a little casual for a first date."

"No, it's pretty perfect for you two," Tommy said. He tossed a chip into his mouth. Crunching loudly, he explained, "You're princes. You both already know that. Dress down so that you guys get to know each other as just...two guys."

He hummed for a second before nodding. "Alright. That seems like a good idea." Something occurring to him, he looked back over at his brother. "Wait. Why not one of my nerdy tee-shirts?"

"Because it's your first date, Bills. Maybe wait to unleash your geek-dom on him until the third or fourth." For a moment the two boys lapsed into silence, the only sound the crunching of Tommy's chips and the rustling of Billy's clothing as he changed. After several minutes, Tommy said, voice falsely casual, "There aren't really any cool parties happening tonight, so I'll be here. Let me know if you need anything."

Billy knew that that meant 'I purposefully made sure that I would be home tonight incase your date goes badly and you need me.'

"Okay," Billy said, smiling a little to himself. Having changed during the silence, he turned to face Tommy, showing off his outfit. "How do I look?"

Tommy hummed, eyes scanning down Billy's body. "Roll up your sleeves. Otherwise, you look hot."

"I'm your brother. Don't call me hot. It's weird."

"We're twins. We share a face. It's narcissism, not incest."

Billy couldn't help the laughter that bubbled out of his throat.

He had been nervous at some point earlier, but now that his brother was in the room all of that anxiety had completely flown away.

1.5: there are lots of types of families.

"Why does my life get a little crazier every time I'm around you?"

Billy glanced at the doorway to find Tommy standing there, still wearing his Speed costume. He was leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Did Teddy send you in here to watch over me?" Billy asked, voice bitter and angry. "Did he really think I was going to take off to Latveria while he was peeing?"

"No, I just saw Teddy leave and thought it was a good time to come talk to you." Tommy pushed himself off away from the door frame, crossing the room to settle on the mattress in the inn that Teddy and Billy were supposed to be sharing that night. Tommy had been set up to stay with Eli and Vision in another room, something that Billy thought was just asking for a fight to break out. "So. I think that, at this point, you get to say I told you so."

Billy was still annoyed about the team interrupting him earlier, but he felt a sharp flash of amusement. "Oh really?"

"I mean, I'm not going to say that I have any fucking idea what's going on or that I understand all of this soul transmigration stuff," Tommy said. "But the fact that her father and brother also think we might be her kids? That's a little weird."

"The whole thing is a little weird. Doesn't mean that it isn't true."

Tommy hummed a bit before nodding. "Yeah. Guess so." Silence settled between them for a moment before Tommy spoke again, "You know you didn't have to go to Latveria alone, right?"

Billy groaned. "Oh my god. Tommy, I was going to do recon. The entire team doesn't need to-"

"This isn't about the entire team," Tommy said, interrupting. "You've had me running around the entire damn world helping you look for her. I would have come to do this with you too."

"You didn't even want to come on any of those trips."

"Doesn't matter. I still came, didn't I?"

Billy pursed his lips. He still didn't really think that anyone else needed to come with him to do recon, not when Billy's powers meant that he was the best equipped for that sort of thing, but he understood why Tommy specifically would be upset about him trying to run off.

Tommy hadn't believed in Billy's theory, but he had been for him for every step of his search.

"You have a point," Billy conceded after a moment.

"I always do." Down the hall, Billy could hear heavy footfalls. Probably Teddy coming back from the bathroom. Tommy must have realized the same thing, because he bumped his shoulder against Billy's and dropped his voice down low. "I know you're probably planning on doing something stupid, so just be careful okay? And now that whatever you're doing, I'm willing to help you with."

Billy knew that he wouldn't be dragging Tommy into his plans for that night, but that didn't mean that it didn't warm something inside of him and bring a smile to his voice. "I got it. Thank you."

"Any time, little brother."

He laughed a little bit. "We're twins. You aren't that much older than me. It's like...a few minutes. Ten tops."

"Doesn't matter. Still older."

2.5: you and i against the world

"He said yes!" Billy exclaimed, throwing open the door to Tommy's bedroom. His brother was laid across his bed with a book his hands, but Billy was so excited that he didn't bother wondering whether he was bothering him. He just threw himself at his brother. Tommy grunted and let out a loud 'oomph' as Billy flopped on top of him, but was clearly used to it because he managed to get his book out of the way and wrap an arm around Billy so keep him from rolling off. "He said yes! He said yes! He said yes!"

"Who?" Tommy asked. He was sprawled out at an awkward angle since he was holding his book out away from their bodies. Shifting to dump Billy onto the bed next to him, Tommy folded the corner of his book and then tossed it aside.

Star-fishing out next to his brother, Billy told him, "Grandfather!"

"Alright." Shifting so he was lying on his side with his head propped up on his elbow, Tommy asked, "And what exactly did he say yes to?"

"He's going to set up a betrothal between Teddy and I." Billy felt warm and giddy, like there were firecrackers going off inside of him. He and Teddy had been dating behind the scenes for two years, long enough that Billy asking for the engagement wasn't strange.

He shifted onto his side, mirroring his brother's position and then reached out to grab the hand that held Tommy's soulmark with the one that held his own.

It was a familiar way of sitting for the twins. Laying on their sides with their bodies curled towards each other was how they had slept as children, back when they had been sharing a bedroom and spent most of their nights in the same bed since they fell asleep while talking and sharing stories. Nowadays, it was how they always ended up when confiding in each other.

He grinned at his brother, face spread so wide that it hurt. "I'm so happy, Toms."

Tommy hummed. He gave Billy a small smile, saying, "Good. I'm glad." Curled up together as they were, neither of them felt the need to speak for a while. Eventually Tommy said, voice softer than it had been before, "You know I'll be here for you even once you get married, right?"

"Of course I do," Billy said. He squeezed their joined hands, pushing their soulmarks against each other just a little tighter. "I love Teddy and I want to spend the rest of my life with him, but I know that I'll spend my entire life with you. It's been you and I since the day we were born and it will be until the day we die."

Tommy shifted forward to bump their foreheads together.

"Yeah," he agreed quietly. "Of course."

Chapter Text

1.1: you and i are full of rough, rocky starts

The yard was filled with noise, the sound of explosions and the hum of the armors being used by the scientists, but as Kate sprinted across the makeshift battlefield, she could hear the boy with the white hair shouting, "One last test, doctor, to find out how much I can accelerate your atomic structure before it explodes."

The words had something in Kate's heart shattering. She tried to be aware of the privilege she held a Bishop and how limited the scope of people she knew was. Right now was bringing to the light the privilege the Avengers, how they had been shielded from all the horrible things someone might want to do to people with their powers. She'd heard stories of some of their pasts, but she had never really had to think about what some people wanted to do to children with abilities like the Avengers - to children with abilities like her friends.

The boys hands were moving so quickly that Kate's eyes barely caught the blur of the motion.

Being a Young Avenger meant saving people. Part of Kate thought the men who the boy were attacking deserved this, deserved to feel every bit of pain they had inflicted on him, but a larger part of her looked at this boy who couldn't have been much older than her and wanted to save him from the weight of this, wanted to save him from living with their deaths the way he had to live with their actions.

She didn't hesitate to launch herself at the boy once she was close enough.

"Down, boy," she said as the two of them went falling towards ground. "Young Avengers don't kill. Except Iron Lad that one time." They hit the ground, Kate hovering over the boy with her legs and arms on either side of him and her hair falling down onto his face. She barely had time to process what she was seeing before she said, words slipping from her mouth, "You look just like...."

Surprise flashed across the boy's face, there and gone so quickly that Kate almost believe she'd imagined it.

"So I've been told," he said. A sly grin settled on his lips as he said, voice suggestive, "Who are you?"

Despite all of the chaos around them, Kate felt herself freeze as shock bolted through her.

The words that had fallen from his lips were written on the front of Kate's thighs, starting right below the curve of her butt. The placement was indicative of a bond where the two of them would help each other stay on their feet. The way it was hidden away from prying eyes, visible only to those who Kate let see her in her most vulnerable, said something about the type of people that they would be - that they wouldn't want to share every part of them with the world even though they would share every part of themselves with each other.

Kate knew absolutely nothing about the boy below her, but as they stared into each other's eyes Kate thought that she wasn't going to mind being bonded to this boy.

She was just about to open her to give him her name and ask for his own, she was pretty sure this had to be the Thomas Shepherd they were looking for but she wasn't entirely certain, when she heard Eli say from behind her, "See, this is when having a code name would come in handy."

2.1: bound by sandwiches and starbucks

Kate was looking down at her phone, scrolling through the text messages her sister had sent her that she'd been ignoring all morning in hopes of avoiding the family drama that had begun unfolding while she was partying with her friends, when she heard someone say, "Hey, would you trade me sandwiches? I'm Jewish and you took the last one without ham."

She startled, jumping a bit at the suddenness.

Looking away from her screen, she found herself staring at a boy with messy white hair and bright green eyes. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a black sweatshirt that he had an unbuttoned red flannel over. He was holding a sandwich in one of his hands, though the other was empty.

"Depends," Kate said. She had been wearing her sunglasses, because it was cold outside but sun was shining and Kate hadn't had any desire to deal with it being in her eyes, but now she let them slip down her nose so she could peer at the boy over the top of them. "What kind of sandwich is that and are you my soulmate?"

The boy's eyebrows lifted, surprised.

"It's a ham and swiss panini. I was hoping you'd take it in exchange for your turkey pesto," he told her. Then he added, "And probably since your words hidden under the shit ton of makeup on my neck."

Kate's words were on the back of her neck, hidden by her hair. Kate had never understood the placement. It was one normally associated with a pairing who gave each other their voices, who made it easier for them to speak to other people or to breath. She had never really had a problem speaking, though, and something made her feel as though the boy in front of her hadn't either.

It made her even more curious about her soulmate then she already was.

"I'll trade you the sandwich for a name," Kate told him.

"Sure." Holding out the sandwich in his hand, he said, "I'm Tommy."

"Kate," she responded, passing over the sandwich she had bought herself. Once the sandwiches had passed hands, she said, "Do you have a few minutes? We could sit together while we eat, learn some more about each other?"

"I was supposed to be back on campus half an hour ago." With a bright careless grin on his face, he said, "But since I'm already that late, I might as well have breakfast with you."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Kate said. She wasn't particularly eager to return home. Having breakfast with her soulmate sounded a lot more fun. Curiously, she asked, "Campus? Are you in university already?"

"No." Something in Tommy's posture loosened in a way that seemed more like it had tightened, like he was tense while trying to give the impression that he was as carefree as he'd been moments before. "I'm in high school. I go to Xavier Academy."

"Ah." Kate suddenly understood the sudden tension. Everyone knew that Xavier Academy was for mutants. By telling her where he went to school, Tommy was outing himself to her as a mutant and possibly putting himself in danger. Kate didn't have any problem with mutants, but there were plenty of people who did. "That's cool. What do you do?"

Tommy stared at her for a moment, eyes searching her expression for any hint of a lie. Kate waited patiently for him to draw his conclusions.

"I think," Tommy said as he begun to loosen properly, "that it would be easier to show you." A wide grin spread his face as he asked, "How do you feel about going to eat our food in Miami once we've gotten our coffee?"

"Well now I'm intrigued."

1.2: choices we get to make

"Wait!" Kate said, sprinting out of the hospital. Tony Stark was standing near a police car, the Iron Man armor still on with the exception of the helmet which he held under his arm. Tommy was in the backseat of the car with his legs hanging out but his hands behind in his back in a way that made it clear he'd been handcuffed. Kate couldn't see the officer that the car must have belonged to, but she assumed that Tony had asked the officer to give the two of them a moment.

Tony looked away from Tommy and over at Kate. Something understanding settled on his face. Voice soft, he said, "Kid, he's gotta go. I've heard the situation and I'm going to do my best to help, but you can't just break him out of juvie."

"I know that," Kate said. Coming to a stop in front of the man, she took a moment to take a few deep breaths and settle down before saying, "I want a few minutes alone with him."

"Last time you guys were alone with him, you broke him out of prison."

"I'm his soulmate," Kate said. She straightened her shoulders, trying to make herself seem bigger and less like a child. It was hard to stick up to the Avengers when all of the Young Avengers were all together. It was even more difficult to do it all on her own. But she would not bend when it came to this, no matter how frightening it was to be making demands of Tony Stark. "I think we deserve a few minutes to talk about that now that everything is over."

He stared at her for a moment before his eyes softened some what. There were a lot of theories on who Tony Stark's soulmate was, but Kate had never particularly cared. Now, she found herself wondering just a little bit as well. "I can't give you long. Five minutes, tops."

"That's fine," Kate said.

She waited until Tony had walked away to shuffle, putting herself in front of Tommy.

"Standing up to Tony Stark like that was pretty badass," Tommy said, looking up at her. Despite being handcuffed and in the back of a cop car, there was a smile on his face. Kate hadn't known him very long, but even she could spot how fake it was. She hoped that in the future, he wouldn't feel like he had to pretend with her. She hoped she could be that kind of soulmate for him, the kind of soulmate that made him feel like he could be real without consequence.

"It was kind of terrifying," Kate told him.

"I bet."

There was a silent moment.

Kate felt awkward and out of place, something that she hadn't felt in ages.

She cleared her throat, trying to find balance in the strangeness around her.

"So, I wanted to give you my number," Kate said.

"I'd give you mine, but I'm pretty sure your capable of googling juvenile detention centers in New York state."

"Well I could, but I could also just ask Tony where to send the lawyers and get it that way."

Tommy's eyebrows raised. "Lawyers?"

"I may not be a Stark, but I am a Bishop and we aren't exactly without resources," Kate told him.

"And your planning on using those resources on me?"

"Yes."

"Why?

"You're my soulmate," she said. "And while that doesn't have to mean something unless we want it to, I think we at least deserve the chance to see what we can make of it."

2.2: your home and my home and both of us within

"Hello there."

Kate was looking down at her phone, having just sent Tommy a message letting him know she had arrived and asking if he was coming to get her or if she should go inside herself, but now she looked up.

An older man in a wheelchair was in the mansion's now open doorway, looking at Kate with a soft smile on his face. Kate was momentarily stunned by the fact that she had been spoken to by one of the world's most prolific humanitarians. Charles Xavier was more well known than most presidential candidates.

"Hello," Kate said.

"Can I help you?" Professor Xavier asked her. "I don't believe you are a mutant, so I assume you are looking for one of my students? Perhaps I could you find them."

"Couldn't you just..." Kate gestured towards her head.

He laughed a little. Nodding, he said, "I could, but that sort of invasion of privacy is quite rude. I scanned you to make sure you didn't have any ill intentions and that you weren't injured or in need of our help, but otherwise I left your mind untouched."

"Oh. That makes sense."

She opened her mouth to answer his original question, to tell him that she looking for Tommy, but before she could get the words out there was a rush of wind and a loud roaring noise.

"Kate!" Tommy exclaimed, reaching out for her as he appeared in front of her. She wondered, vaguely, if she would ever get used to this sort of whiplash. He hadn't used his powers around her very often, they'd met up quite a few times but Kate had only seen Tommy arrive like this a few times, but she figured it would be more common the longer they knew each other.

"Tommy!" Kate said, meeting his enthusiasm with her own despite the surprise at his sudden appearance.

"Are you ready to kick your ass kicked?" he said. The two of them had originally had plans to go out for lunch and then hit up a music store for an album they both wanted, but Kate had gotten in a fight with her father and all she had wanted was to spend the day curled up under her blankets. That was difficult to do in the house her father owned, though, so Tommy had invited her over to curl up together under his comforter while playing video games.

"We'll see." Kate's mood had improved a little a bit on the cab ride to Xavier's Academy, but she found that being around Tommy was cheering her up exponentially faster. She was suddenly glad she hadn't canceled their plans.

"Ah I see," said Professor Xavier, drawing Kate's attention away from Tommy. "You must be Thomas' soulmate, correct young lady?"

Kate glanced over at Tommy, wondering what he wanted her to do.

"She is," Tommy said, answering for her. "Did Grandpa tell you?"

"Indeed he did. He was quite conflicted about the whole thing," Professor Xavier said. He gave Tommy a small smile before saying, "Well, I don't want to intrude on your time together, so I'll be going back to my office now. Thomas, make sure you do your homework at some point this weekend. And it was nice to meet you, young lady. I hope we'll see you around the school in the future."

The two teenagers stood there quietly, watching the man leave, before Kate said, "You're Grandpa knows Professor Xavier?"

"Yeah. Grandpa and the Professor are soulmates."

1.3: freedom

"Tommy!" Kate called. Tommy had been looking up at Matt Murdock as the man said something to him, but now he twisted so he was looking behind him. She moved quickly to catch up with them, careful of the heels she was wearing. "Do you have a second? I wanted to give you something."

Tommy looked as though he wanted to agree, but instead he looked at the men on either side of him.

"Go ahead and talk to your friend," Foggy said. "Matt's going to call and make sure everything is set up with Jessie and Amber while I grab the car, so you've got a couple of minutes."

"Alright."

Kate and Tommy were quiet for a moment after the left before Kate asked, "Jessie and Amber?"

Tommy hummed a bit before telling her, "The former Xavier Academy students that are fostering me."

"Oh. You never mentioned their names." The two of them had spent a fair amount of time talking while the Avengers were sorting out the details of Tommy's case and whether it would be possible to get him out. They didn't talk all the time, the facility they'd placed Tommy in was leagues better than the one they'd broken him out of but it was still a prison, but they managed a couple of hours each week on top of the emails they sent to each other. Kate had even managed to visit twice, bringing Tommy small care packages of snacks that the guards allowed him to have after checking. "You like them?"

He shrugged. "They're okay."

Kate had come to know Tommy well enough to recognize the compliment that it was.

"Well, I'm sure you want to go sleep in a real bed so I won't take up too much of your time," Kate said.

Tommy shrugged again, saying, "I don't mind."

Her lips twitched up in a small smile, feeling happy and fond. Still she knew the last few nights had been rough on Tommy as his trial approached and then started - there had been a lot to worry about and it had weighed heavily on Tommy's mind - so she ignored him in favor of pushing on with her statement, "I just wanted to say hi and congratulations."

"Oh thanks." There was a small beat before he looked away from her. His voice was softer as he said, "Thanks for coming in the first place."

"Of course." She reached out so she could brush her fingers against his. "I know you wanna sleep and eat, so I'm going to head home now. You have my number right? Call me tomorrow morning. I'll treat you to lunch."

"Will do."

There was silence for a moment before Kate said, "I'm going to try something really quick, okay?" Tommy looked at her properly again, confusion in his eyes but without a complaint on his lips.

She leaned in and pressed their lips together. Tommy seemed surprised for a moment, still under her, but then he opened his mouth. They moved together well, the kiss all warmth and the smooth sliding of lips, but well...

"So," Tommy said when they pulled away from each other, still hovering close enough that she could feel his breath ghosting against her face, "platonic soulmates, huh?"

"Yeah," Kate agreed. It had been a nice kiss, but that had been more skill than anything else. There was no connection when they kissed, no spark in her gut or explosions behind her eyes. She had kissed plenty of boys that didn't make her feel that way, but Tommy was her soulmate and there were certain things that came with that. Maybe not stars every time they kissed, but a pull in her gut at least. "Platonic soulmates."

"That's cool."

Kate nodded, feeling a smile spread across her lips. "Yeah. I think so too."

Romantic soulmates were great, her parents were romantic soulmates and her sister and her new husband were bound the same way, but there was something about having a platonic soulmate that made Kate feel warm and safe.

There was something about it that felt right.

2.3: we could eat the world raw

"It's hot," Kate said, reaching up to shield her eyes from the sun with her hand. The sun was beating down on her, so hot that she felt like she could hear it. "We should have brought sunscreen."

"You want to leave?" Tommy asked.

"No. Of course not." Kate looked away from the sight in front of her, away from the sharp red rocks and their weaving patterns, to look at the boy beside her. Tommy was wearing a pair of dark shorts with a tank top that was filled in with a green gradient, a midway color at the top that faded to white at the bottom. His hair was messy from the wind running through it as he ran them to their destination, but the sunglasses he'd pushed into them were still settled there - neither scratched or dented. "I just thought it was worth mentioning so that you aren't surprised when you end up with a sunburn."

"It was probably bound to happen no matter what." Tommy looked away from the sight in front of them as well, meeting her eyes. There was a wide, wide grin on his face. It was the type of wildly happy thing that Kate had come to associate with the sound of wind whipping around her head, with steady hands holding her against a firm chest, with the world blurring by her so quickly that she couldn't make out the scenery. It was the type of smile that she had come to associate with Tommy. "You ready to start along the path?"

"Yeah." She reached out for his hand, slipping her fingers through his. "Let's go."

When she was a little girl, Kate had wanted a romantic soulmate who treated her like a princess.

Tommy was not a Prince who would put her on a pedestal and shower her in gifts.

He was something better. He was someone who used his powers to take them to the Grand Canyon because they both had their sights set on the world, who made her adrenaline rush and grinned at her with the same feeling reflected in his eyes, who loved Kate at her wildest moments as much as he loved her in the softer ones.

Tommy was not a Prince who would give her the world.

Tommy was a partner who would take it by storm with her.

1.4: mothers and sons.

"Are we talking about this?" Kate asked as she closed the door.

She and Tommy were sitting in the room in Latveria that they were sharing.

There had been some push-back from the others when Kate had said she was sharing with Tommy instead of Cassie, but Kate had leveraged their bond until Magneto had stopped looking at them with so much judgement. She didn't really care what a supervillain thought of her, but if Billy's hypothesis was true than Magneto was Tommy's grandfather and that meant something to her even if it didn't to Tommy.

"I don't really think there's anything to talk about," Tommy told her.

Kate turned away from the door to find that Tommy was sitting on the bed they would be sharing. He'd already pulled the top of his uniform down, letting it pool around his waist and showing off the pale expansive of his chest. Kate had seen him shirtless plenty of times, but she still felt a familiar pang at the sight of the scars that crossed his body. Tommy would never get rid of the marks his time in juvie had left on him.

"Really?" she said. "I mean we've all but confirmed that Billy was right to think that you guys are Wanda Maximoff's."

Tommy shrugged.

Kate stared at him for a moment before saying, "Tommy...she's your mom."

"Yeah, but I have one already. And if there's anything Mary Shepherd has taught me, it's that mom's aren't really all that great."

She had known that Tommy's relationship with his mother and father was difficult, knew from how he never mentioned them and how Matt and Foggy had found him a foster family during the legal proceedings, but she had never heard the exact details. It was now that she asked, heart feeling a little shattered in her chest from realizing just how bad it had to be for Tommy to say something like that, "What did she do?"

Tommy watched her for a moment before saying, "She did a lot, Kate. If you really want to talk about this, then you're going to have to sit down." There weren't many walls between them anymore, but now Kate could see one of the remainders not exactly falling. But it was buckling, ready to let Kate know what was behind it if she pushed just a bit more.

Kate didn't hesitate, making her way to Tommy's side and settling down on the bed with him. Their shoulders and knees pressed together, warmth radiating between them. "Tell me."

And Tommy did.

2.4: dancing until we drop

Kate was dancing with a girl, wide wild smiles on both of their faces as their hair flowed around them and sweat beaded on their foreheads, when she felt someone slip behind her. Hands came down on her hips, touch light enough not to hurt but firm enough for her to feel it.

She knew it was Tommy, could tell from his hold on her and the way he curled around her.

"Hey!" Tommy said, breath ghosting against the shell of her ear as he leaned in to be heard better. She smiled at the girl in front of her, trying to soothe the weary way she was looking at Tommy by assuring her that Kate was okay with him being there, before leaning back into him a bit, tilting her head to hear him better. He wasn't exactly whispering, but he wasn't shouting either and it made him difficult to hear given how loud the music in the club was. "Do you want to get out of here?"

Kate twisted just a bit more so that Tommy would be able to hear her as she asked, "And go where?"

It was the one night of the week that Xavier Academy's older students didn't have a curfew and Kate knew that Tommy didn't plan on going back to campus until it was so late that no one would be around to hear him coming him. Tommy loved his school and he was proud to go there, but there were times with the restrictions and safety of it felt suffocating to him. Kate was always happy to be there with him when he could get out, to lace their fingers together and spend the night feeling free by each other's side.

She felt him shrug before suggesting, "Anywhere? Take a walk and find some doughnuts?"

Worried, Kate twisted further away from the woman she had been dancing with so she could get a full view of Tommy.

The two of them liked for things to go fast, liked to party and laugh and smile until their cheeks were sore, but sometimes you stayed on top of the world for so long that afterwards your shoulders felt heavy and your chest felt empty.

She knew that Tommy had enjoyed most of their night out, but she could tell from the weariness in his eyes and the tightness of his body that he was starting to come down. When Tommy crashed it was always so much worse than when Kate did, because his mutation meant that one second seemed like a much longer time to him than it did anyone else. Tommy could run in two seconds what would take most people an eighteen hour plane ride.

"Okay," she said, acceptance easy. She reached out for him, twisting their fingers together, and began walking off the dance floor without any other input from him or any other thoughts of the girl she'd been dancing with. Tommy was her sole priority in times like this. "There's a Chinese place a few blocks over isn't there? Why don't we walk over there instead of looking for doughnuts?"

"I could go for an egg roll."

"You know what? Same. Egg rolls sound delicious."

1.5: what i want for you

"It has been far too long since I've seen your face," Kate said, running her hand over Tommy's hair as she passed him and slipped into the booth across from him. As she settled, she shifted so their knees knocked together under the table. It wasn't like it had been months since they'd seen each other, but it's been long enough that she enjoyed the press of his body against hers. "Phone calls are nice, but I missed your ugly mug."

"Same to you," Tommy said, grinning. "I'm starting to feel like you might like Clint more then me."

"Never," Kate insisted. She said it loudly and with exaggeration, but there was a hint of truth behind it. Clint was important to her - a friend and mentor and in some ways a sort of disastrous father figure - but Tommy was her partner, her best friend, and her soulmate. There was no replacement in her life for him, no one who made her feel quite the same mixture of happiness and comfort as he did. She moved her legs a bit, knocking their knees together sharply. "So, what have you been up to?"

"You mean since we talked last night?"

With Kate working with Clint now they didn't see much of each other in person, but they made sure to text each day and called each other every other.

"Yes exactly." Reaching forward for the glass she knew was hers - Tommy had ordered her lemonade like he always did - she asked, "Did you hear back from any of the places you applied to?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure I will soon," Tommy said. "They're all mutant friendly and there's not really any reason they would pass up someone who can do what I do."

Kate hummed.

She hadn't liked it when Tommy told her he was applying for a few jobs which would use his mutation for manufacturing. Using his powers that way, pushing himself to do work that would take ten people a whole week in just five minutes, left Tommy feeling like he'd been awake for a month straight and his stomach empty in a way that made him want to eat himself into a coma. She didn't like him pushing himself that way. At the same time, though, she understood. Tommy wasn't made for working an office job every day from nine to five. Tommy was meant to spend his days seeing the world around him and his nights running around helping people. The jobs he was looking at would give him the cash flow he needed to do that without worry, would take only five minutes a week from him.

All Kate really wanted was for Tommy to be able to do what he wanted.

All Kate really wanted was for Tommy to be free and happy.

2.5: right here, right now

"I think I might actually puke," Tommy said as he flopped down onto her bed.

His face was red and wet, both from him washing the gel out of his hair and from Kate scrubbing off the makeup and glitter that she had dusted off his cheeks before they left for the club. His jeans had been discarded on the floor of her bathroom and his shirt tossed on her floor. He hadn't worn any underwear to the club, complaining about the lumpiness of them under tight jeans, so he was wearing a pair of pink boxers covered in dogs that Kate used as sleeping shorts.

Kate let out a loud laugh as she pulled a Mickey Mouse sweater over her head. She wasn't quite sure which of them it belonged to - only that one of them had bought it when they'd visited Disneyland a few months ago. "That's because you ate everything on the menu."

"Not everything. I didn't eat anything with pork."

"Oh, of course," she said, amusement coating her words.

Once her shirt had fallen into place, she took a second to turn the lights off then launched herself onto the bed with him. He let out a soft 'oof' as she landed and her weight caused the bed to send him bouncing. She ignored him, shifting around until she was tucked comfortably against him.

When they were settled, their legs were tangled together while Kate's head rested on Tommy's chest and his arm wrapped around her, hand resting lightly on Kate's shoulder. They slept together a lot, short naps and entire night spent wrapped together, and it was easy to fall into this position.

"Sleep?" he suggested, turning so his cheek was pressed against the pillow and he was looking at her.

"Sleep," she agreed.

It was easy to close her eyes and curl a little closer to Tommy, easy let the warm affection and happiness in her gut lull her to sleep.

Sleeping was easy when there wasn't anywhere else she wanted to be, not when Tommy was here next to her.

Chapter Text

1.1: the very last possibility

Eli wouldn't say that he was happy that the new recruit seemed to be going on a very explode-y and murder-y rampage, but it was a little validating that he had been right when he said they shouldn't be recruiting from a prison of all places.

"One last test doctor," the boy was saying, his voice a little maniac as his hands vibrated at his sides, "to find out how much I can accelerate your atomic structure before it explodes." Eli was a little impressed by the level of power the kid must have to be able to do that sort of thing. Speed's a moderately common mutation, but Pietro Maximoff was the only one he knew who could use his vibrations for explosions and even he needed physical contact to initiation the vibration. It was too bad the kid was clearly a fucking psychopath.

The kid blasted the ground in front of him, but before the explosion could reach the two scrambling doctors Kate flew at him from the side.

As he jogged after her, Eli heard her saying, "You look just like--"

"So I've been told," the boy answered. Eli felt his heckles raising at the tone of voice the boy was using, deep and smooth as honey. It reminded Eli of every single sly white boy from his school, the ones that thought they owned the world and did whatever they wanted without consequences. "Who are you?"

"I'm- I'm-"

Eli didn't stop to think about whether Kate's fumbling was because she hadn't chosen her name yet or because she was caught up in the boy trapped under her. He just stepped closer, saying, "See, this is when having a code name would come in handy."

Reaching out, Eli let Kate grab onto his forearm and helped her get to her feed. As he did, she glanced at him, saying, "He looks just like--"

"I know."

The boy on the ground, his face a mirror of Billy's though his coloring was opposite, asked, "Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

Every part of Eli wanted to ignore the kid, but the fact was that they'd already come this far in their efforts and they really did need his help. So instead he held out a hand to help him up just as he helped Kate, saying, "You're being recruited."

The boy stared at him for a moment. Eli felt heat licking at his gut, anger rolling up through him when the boy shifted one of his shoulders away, as if the idea of Eli touching him was physically painful. He was in the middle of thinking about how it really was just his luck that the criminal he'd let the others talk him into recruiting turned out to be a racist white boy when the boy said, eyes locked on Eli, "How did you even find out about me?"

Eli's stomach dropped. Those were the words etched into his right bicep, curling near the hard bone of the ball joint in hasty chicken scratch.

Sudden he found himself wondering if the boy leaning his shoulder away from Eli wasn't racism so much as it was trying to put distance between the words Eli had said and the matching ones on his skin.

"The Avengers fail-safe program," Billy said. "Let's go. I'll explain on the way."

And god, Eli didn't really want to talk to this kid because the last thing he wanted was for his soulmate to be a pasty criminal, but something needed to be address. "Wiccan, wait. We didn't come here to free a super-powered teenage terrorist. We're here to rescue a superhero. So, what's it going to be."

His soulmate stared at him, tension in his shoulders and fire alight in blue eyes.

The look had a different kind of heat licking up Eli's spine, but he ignored it as he planted his feet and stood his ground - waited to see what choice was going to be made.

2.1: every broken expectation

Eli stood against a wall, holding a small plastic red cup filled with coke and letting his eyes sweep over the party in front of him. He was keeping his eyes around Cassie and Kate, watching their drinks as the girls flirted and giggled and leaned into boys that caught their eye.

He knew he was kind of being a party pooper, but in all honesty - he didn't really want to be at this party. He'd planned on spending a night in with his mom since she'd been working so much the past few weeks that they hadn't really seen each other, but then Kate had called. Billy's brother, who Eli had never met since the twins went to different schools and Tommy always seemed to be out when Eli visited Billy, had invited Billy to a party that he'd invited the rest of the group to and Kate knew that Eli had already told Billy no, but would he please come? And she just happened to call while he was with his mom, which meant she practically pushed him out of the door with instructions to be a normal kid and have fun.

He was in the middle of wondering whether or not he should search out Billy and Teddy, they had a tendency to get caught up in each other and forget the world around them that was worrisome, when he felt something bump into his shoulder.

He looked over to find a boy with white hair standing next to him, having just come out of the doorway to Eli's left. Eli had only a moment to think about how similar the boy was to Billy and realize it must have been the twin he'd never met before the boy was looking up, pretty blue eyes locking onto Eli's.

Eli had just a moment to think about how it was really strange that he was actually attracted to Tommy given that he'd never been attracted to Billy, before the boy opened his mouth and said, "I think I need a pregnancy test." Those words crawled down Eli's spine, ending just above his ass. Eli had only a moment to think about how this was definitely not how he had expected meeting his soulmate - this wasn't some convenience store where he ran into some sobbing, frantic girl - before Tommy was lurching forward and hurling all over Eli's shoes.

Then all thoughts of his soulmate where wiped from his mind as he moved backwards, practically screeching, "On my shoes? Fucking really, dude?"

The color of Tommy's eyes seemed a lot less beautiful and a lot more annoying when Tommy looked up, and now Eli was noticing the drunken glassiness and the way the boy was wobbling a bit even though he was standing tall. "Oops."

1.2: knowing but not seeing

Eli was sitting up in his hospital bed, flipping through the homework pages that his mother had brought him before going to work, when he heard knuckles rapping against the doorway.

"You can come in," he called out. He set the sheets down, turning with the expectation that it was probably Kate or Billy coming to see him - Cassie was grounded and Teddy was supposed to keep a low profile for a couple of days so neither of them had really visited.

Instead, Tommy walked in wearing a white tee-shirt with a black and red plaid shirt over it and a pair of dark wash jeans. There was something off in his posture, in the way his hands were shoved in his pockets and his shoulders hunched, but Eli didn't really take the time to examine it.

"Oh. It's you," Eli said.

"Mmm." Tommy's eyes swept around the room, a flash of quick panic coming into them as his eyes swept over some of the medical equipment. Eli remembered, vaguely, what Tommy had said while yelling at the scientists he'd tried to kill when they broke him out. He wondered if the two things were connected, but it wasn't like he could really interrogate Tommy about the conditions in the prison he'd been in. "I thought Kate said your grandpa was here with you?"

"He was just giving blood," Eli said. "He went home yesterday."

"Oh. What about you then? When are you getting out of here?"

"Tomorrow probably." Normally it would have taken several weeks, if not months, for Eli to recover from his injuries but the blood transfusion had been enough for him to get some of the super soldier powers that he'd been pretending to have the entire time. And along with them came the super soldier healing factor.

There was a tense, awkward silence that settled between the two of them as the conversation faded.

They wore each other's words, but it had been pretty obvious when they were working together that they had completely different personalities. And their clashing had led to them keeping distance from each other, so they hadn't talked much and didn't exactly know each other.

Eli's parents and grandparents had both had instant connections, but Eli looked at the boy across the room and didn't quite know what to do with him.

It was Eli who broke through the tension after a couple of minutes, asking, "What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting a visit from you."

Tommy's face colored with something that might have been a flush, embarrassment crossing his face, but he ducked his head before Eli could get a read on him. As he scratched at the back of his head, he said, "Matt Murdock was taking me out to Xavier Academy to meet my fos-" Tommy stopped. Without looking up at Eli, he restarted, "-to meet someone and the hospital was on the way so I asked if I could drop by, see how you were doing."

"Oh." Silence lapsed for another moment before Eli said, "Well, you probably shouldn't keep him waiting too long." And he knew it was sort of rude, but it wasn't like the two of them really knew each other and the visit was so awkward that Eli sort of just wanted it to be over.

"Ah, yeah, probably." There was another quiet second before Tommy said, still not looking at Eli, "I uh...I don't know if you want it, but I left my contact information with Kate for team purposes? So you can get it from her if you want to talk about-" He made a sort of all encompassing gesture, one that Eli interpreted to mean something like 'the whole soulmate thing.'

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know."

2.2: first impressions matter

Eli was bent over rummaging in Billy's fridge in search of the coke his friend had promised was there, when he heard the kitchen's screen door slamming open.

He looked over to find Tommy coming in through the backdoor, a bag from the convenience store in his hands that he was rummaging through, "I'm already told you I was staying home tonight, Quentin. Bills is having his friends over and I'm trying to bump into-" He pulled a soda out of the bag, words halting when he looked up and met Eli's gaze. He found himself looking over the boy, his smile quirking as he took in Tommy's fuzzy black Marvin the Martian pajama pants and galaxy hoodie. "Uh. Quinn, I gotta go. I'll call you back later." Vaguely, Eli could hear whoever was on the other end yelling something, but Tommy cut the phone off before Eli could figure out what was said.

There was silence as the two of them stared at each other for a moment before Eli held the hand up. "Hi."

"Hey," Tommy returned. He glanced towards the doorway that lead to the living room, saying, "I thought Billy's thing wasn't starting until eight-thirty?"

"Teddy gave me a ride and he wanted to come over early."

"Oh that makes sense." There was a small lapse before Tommy said, "So Billy said that we're soulmates?"

"I assume so - you're the only person whose ever told me they needed a pregnancy test and Billy said it's definitely your handwriting on my back."

Confusion settled on Tommy's face, taking away from the awkwardness in his posture. "Pregnancy test?"

"You told me you needed a pregnancy test and then you puked on my shoes."

Tommy had been playing with the bag in his hand, but now he reached out and rested his palm on his stomach. Eli assumed that his words trailed from Tommy's chest to his stomach, the same way that Tommy's trailed from Eli's shoulder blades to his back.

"Oh."

"Yeah." There was another silent moment before Eli took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Look, I'm not really looking for someone like you in my life right now. I go out with Kate and your brother sometimes, but parties like that aren't really my thing and I don't have any desire to hang out with someone who gets as drunk as you did. So I'd appreciate it if we could just like....not do all of this, okay?"

"Not do all of this?" Tommy echoed.

"Yeah. I know we can't change that we're soulmates, but let's just not do the whole forcing it thing, okay? I don't really have any desire to hang out with you and I can't imagine that someone like you wants to hang out with me."

Tommy looked like he wanted to argue, opening his mouth to do so, but before he could get the words out, Billy was calling out, "Hey! Eli! Kate and Cassie are about to pull up. Could you grab cokes for them too?"

"Yeah! I got it!"

Eli watched Tommy for just a moment longer before turning away from him to grab what he needed from the fridge. And when he left afterwards, he walked past Tommy without saying a word or looking back.

1.3: you have to ask to learn

"Can I ask you a question?" Eli asked, voice carrying across the dark room.

Eli and Tommy were laying in their respective beds in the little inn that Magneto had found to house the Young Avengers until they moved on Latveria the next morning. The two of them were sharing a room, while Teddy and Billy shared another and the girls a third.

Tommy was laying with his back to Eli, tucked far enough under the blanket that all Eli could see was his white hair poking out from them, but he spoke loud enough for Eli to hear him murmur, "Depends on the question."

He hesitated, wondering if he would be prying too much if he voiced the thought on the tip of his tongue.

Over the past few years, Eli had learned a lot about Tommy - the biggest discovery being that Tommy wasn't the boy he'd assumed he was when they first met. Tommy was pretty carefree and enjoyed having fun above all else, but he had learned that when push came to shove there was no one he wanted on this team more than Tommy. He knew how to buckle down when he was necessary, and he knew how to do while still keeping the atmosphere light in tense moments. Tommy would spend all week making you think he was the least reliable person on the planet, only to be by yourself before anyone else when things got rough.

Understanding that he had been wrong didn't mean that the two of them were close, though.

For all that the entire team were friends, Eli and Tommy kept their distance from each other. Eli stayed close to Kate and Cassie while Tommy stayed close to Billy and Teddy. He knew that Tommy and Kate had a special relationship too, but Kate had always kept her friendship with each of them separate and Eli had never asked her about Tommy.

"Why have you been doing all of this?" Eli asked, finally. It felt like the sort of question only a close friend should ask, but he figured that Tommy just wouldn't answer if he didn't want to. "Helping Billy look for the Scarlet Witch and everything?"

There was a long silence. It stretched for enough time that Eli thought he'd decided to ignore the question.

But then there was shifting from the other bed, Tommy turning around and popping his head out of his blanket burrito.

Even with the room blanketed in darkness, Eli could see Tommy's eyes staring at him.

"I live with a foster family," Tommy said at last. Something must have shown on Eli's face because he continued, "Billy and Kate are the only people who I've told, so you shouldn't feel bad about not knowing. That day I visited you in the hospital? I was on the way to meet my foster parents. There aren't really a lot of foster parents wanting to take mutant kids, much less kids whose mutations ended them in juvie, so Matt contacted Professor Xavier and he found former students who wanted to foster."

"Why?" Eli asked.

"Why what?"

"Why are you with a foster family."

Tommy was quiet for just a second, looking a little bit like he wanted to huddle back down into his blanket, before he murmuring, "The usual - dad's an asshole, mom's an alcoholic. They signed off on the shit the scientists at the prison did to me. Foggy found out during prep for my release trial and Matt made sure I didn't have to go back."

There was a moment before Tommy said, "So I guess I've been helping Billy because I kind of liked the idea that I had a real family out there? Not one that signs me away like cattle or one that only took me as a favor to an old headmaster, but one who actually liked me? It's...It's nice to think that Billy's my brother and it's nice to think that I had a mother who loved me enough to do the stuff that the Scarlet Witch did for her twins."

Eli wasn't sure what to say. He thought that maybe this was the moment to say something cheesy about how the Young Avengers were a family, but at the same time he felt like maybe something like that would feel like he was dismissing Tommy's feelings.

Instead, he said, "Magneto's kind of an asshole, but it probably would be cool to say your grandpa was one of the biggest super-villains on the planet."

Tommy let out a laugh, a little raw but amused underneath. "Yeah. It kind of would be, wouldn't it?"

They lapsed into silence after. Tommy burrowed his head back down into his blanket, obviously intent on going to sleep now, but Eli found himself staring at the ceiling and thinking about what had been said.

It had been years since they'd said each other's words, but maybe...maybe there was one thing that he could do for his soulmate even if he didn't know what to do with his soulmate.

2.3: what you never would have known

"These look like good seats," Kate said, coming to a stop in the middle of the plastic bleachers. "Let's sit here."

"Fine," Eli agreed.

Mindful of the drink in his left hand and Kate's pretzel in his right, Eli lowered himself down beside her. As she took her pretzel back from him, murmuring a soft thank you, Eli looked out at the field in front of him.

Eli couldn't say that he wanted to spend his Saturday watching a track meet at school, but Kate had been persistent in her desire not to go and with the rest of their friends occupied - Cassie was having a day with her dad while Teddy and Billy were on a date - Eli had been the only one willing to give in to her.

"So which one of them are you here for?" Eli asked.

"Mmm?" Kate looked up from her pretzel, a bit that she had torn off of it in her hands. "What do you mean?"

"Which one of the runners are you interested in? That's why you wanted to come, right? To support one of them?"

"I mean I am here to support one of them, but not anyone I'm interested in that way." She popped her pretzel bit in her mouth before looking out at the field in front of them, eyes searching the crowd gathered there. There were four different schools from the district participating in the meet that day and since the meet hadn't started yet, everyone was gathered in four large groups as they mingled with their teammates. "Ah. There."

She had flung an arm out, point towards a group of students.

Following the line her body created, Eli was surprised to find himself looking at students from Xavier's - a school across town - rather than their own.

He was even more surprised to realize that standing amongst the group was Tommy. He was dressed in the same uniform as the other guys on the team, small green and a white tank-top with green around the sleeves that said his school's name in the middle.

"We're here to watch Tommy?"

"Yeah," Kate said. Eli knew that Tommy and Kate were close friends, from what he knew Kate was actually closer to Tommy than she was Billy despite how close their group was, so he supposed it wasn't that strange that she wanted to be here. "There's this charity marathon coming up soon that Tommy's been training for. And his coach says that the extra training have his times getting better and better, so he thinks Tommy might be able to beat his time on the mile which would be awesome since Tommy's already got the fastest mile in the country."

Eli found himself raising his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah. Billy usually comes to these things with me, but Tommy's never broken a record with Billy in the stands so we told him to go out with Teddy."

Eli hummed, focusing on the boy in the distance.

Tommy had his hands raised above his chest, stretching his arms out as he spoke to a black boy wearing glasses and holding a stopwatch in his hand. Tommy's hair was messy and there was a flush to his cheeks, like he'd already been running that day even though the event hadn't started yet, but there was a grin on his lips as he spoke to his companion. He looked comfortable and in his element, like there wasn't anything in the world that could make him feel as good as he did in that moment.

Eli thought about how much work it took to train for a marathon, about how much it took to hold the best mile record in the country even if just at the high school level. And he thought that maybe he had been a little too quick to judge Tommy, a little too quick to let his first impression of his soulmate dictate their entire relationship.

1.4: mi casa es tu casa

"Hey." Eli was leaning against the wall outside of Valentina's Pizza, a small restaurant a short way from his home, with his head bent down as he flipped through his text messages, but now he looked up to find Tommy approaching him. The other boy was wearing a pair of black jeans with a red and green plaid flannel that was unbuttoned to reveal a white tee-shirt underneath. Eli couldn't remember ever having seen Tommy look as unsure of himself as he did in that moment, like he wasn't quite sure why Eli had invited him to lunch or why he'd agreed to come. "Sorry I'm late."

"It's no big deal," Eli told him. Pushing off the wall, he said, "It is surprising, though. Did you not run here?"

"I did. But Gina asked me to do the dishes before she went to work and she asked me a while ago not to use my mutation when doing them anymore since I keep getting water everywhere when I do."

Eli let out a small laugh. "My grandma will absolutely love that you were late because you were doing dishes."

Tommy seemed to freeze, surprise flashing across his face. "Your grandma?"

"Mm, yeah. We're having lunch with her and my granddad."

"Why?"

"Because you're my soulmate," Eli said. "And regardless of all the weird magic mutant stuff, you need a family. And I know that I've got the best family in the Bronx."

Tommy curled in on himself, expression going dark. His voice was angry and defensive as he said, "I don't need pity, you know."

"It's not pity." He brought his eyes up to meet Tommy's blue ones, ignoring the maelstrom still stirring inside of them. "We're soulmates and sharing my family with you is part of that. And yeah, I have no idea what we're supposed to do with each other right now, but I want to figure it out." He repeated, "It's not pity, Tommy. It's an olive branch. Take it, please."

2.4: you believe in you and me

"I owe you an apology."

Tommy stared at Eli, one hand still holding the dorito bag he'd been eating from while the other held a half bitten chip to his mouth. Frozen the way he was, Eli found himself reminded of the last time they'd bumped into each other in the Maximoff kitchen. It felt sort of poetic in a way, for Eli to be trying to fix his mistake in the same environment as he'd made them.

He didn't wait for Tommy to answer, just pushed ahead, "I let the fact that you were drunk when we met color my entire opinion of you which wasn't fair because it's not like I've never drank before, even if I've never been fucked up enough to ask for a pregnancy test. I didn't bother actually getting to know you before I dismissed you and that was wrong."

There was a long silence, Tommy just staring at him.

Then, swallowing hard, Tommy said, "Thank you for the apology. I wasn't....that offended though."

Something cold shot through Eli. "What."

"Well it's just..." Tommy seemed to struggle for the words he wanted before he said, "It hurt when you said it, yes, but we're soulmates. And my mom and uncle don't always get along, but they always find their way back to each other because their soulmates. So I guess I just figured that maybe now wasn't the right time? And that in a couple of years, once I had grown up a little and wasn't a rowdy teenage boy, we would meet again and it would be the right time."

A beat of warmth spread through Eli, over taking the coldness that had settled.

Because he'd thought that Tommy hadn't been offended by what he'd said because Tommy didn't care, because Tommy didn't want a soulmate like Eli.

Because he was realizing that Tommy hadn't been offended by what he'd said because Tommy had never been taught that oulmates were anything other than meant to be together, because Tommy had
a sort of idealistic view of soulmates which was somehow very naive and very sweet.

"Oh." Eli thought about what he'd wanted to say to Tommy before hearing all of this and whether what Tommy had said changed all of that. And deciding it didn't, he found himself saying, "Well, maybe it's not our time, but I'd still like to get to know you, if that's okay?"

"Sure," Tommy said. "I want to know you too."

1.5: and this is us

Eli didn't bother looking up from his homework when he heard the apartment door opening. The other two occupants of the house were accounted for - both of them further into the apartment - and the only other person with a key was supposed to have been over almost an hour ago.

"You're late," he called out, the eraser of his pencil in his mouth as he looked down at the sheet in front of him. He could think of few things he enjoyed less than calculus. It was frankly ridiculous how much easier it had been to fight Skrulls than to do his AP Calc homework nowadays.

"I know, I know," Tommy said. "I got caught up in some stuff, I'm sorry."

Giving up on the problem he'd been stuck on, Eli looked up from the paper in front of him. Tommy's shoes were already slipped off and his backpack was dangling from his fingers, having already been taken off of his shoulder. Eli had never noticed how much tension Tommy carried around until they'd started spending more time around each other and he'd started unwinding.

"You're an hour late," Eli pointed out. "How did you get caught up in something that made you an hour late given that you can run here in not even two seconds."

"Teddy was waiting for me outside of school, wanted to talk about a mission he wanted my help with."

Eli hummed, considering. "He still keeping all of this from Billy?"

"Far as I can tell, yeah." Tommy walked across the room until he reached the table, moving with the sort of confidence that came with thinking of somewhere as home and knowing that nothing you could do would make it any less so. Flopping down into the chair next to Eli, he said, "Forgive me for being late?" Their knees bumped under the table as he spoke, a warmth crashing through Eli that was becoming all too familiar nowadays.

In the months since that first lunch with Eli's parents, the two of them had started hurtling towards something that left Eli's face feeling hot and his stomach fluttering. It was built on Eli learning that Tommy would scarf down anything put in front of him unless it had spinach in it, on afternoons spent doing their homework together and Eli learning that Tommy was sort of a genius when it came to chemistry, on nights spent sitting on the stairs outside of Eli's house with their knees pressed together as they listened to the roar of the city around them.

"Nope," Eli said, popping the p hard. He focused back down on his homework, but knocked his knee against Tommy's again so that he knew he still had Eli's attention. "But I might if you help me with my chemistry homework once I finish this."

"Sure," Tommy said, acceptance easy. "As long as you'll look at my English essay. I honestly have no idea if anything I wrote made sense."

"You got yourself a deal."

2.5: you and i, together

Eli was looking down at his phone, back leaning against the bleachers behind him and legs stretched out in front of him, when he heard, "You know, you didn't have to wait for me out here." He looked up to find Tommy standing in front of him, still dressed in his track uniform with a towel around his neck and a large refillable water bottle in his hands.

"Hey," Eli said, ignoring his statement. The only alternative to not coming out here himself was to go all the way home after school and wait for Tommy to pick him up once he finished track practice, which didn't make any sense since the diner they'd agreed to grab a late lunch at was closer to Tommy's school. "You all done?"

"No." Tommy took a long drink from his water bottle, and Eli noticed now that Tommy's pale skin was flushed pink with exertion. "I'm going to do a mile before I leave, but coach said I needed to cool down first."

"Ah."

"It's going to be like another half hour before I can go and I'll probably hang out a few more minutes to talk to some of the younger kids who need help, and I'll need to shower after all of that. So you really don't have to wait for me if you don't want. I can come get you once I'm done."

Eli hummed a bit before asking, "Do you want me to leave? Like...do you want to cancel our plans?"

"No. I just don't want you to wait around here if you don't want to."

"Then it's fine," Eli said. "I don't have plans with anyone other than you today, so I don't mind waiting."

Tommy seemed to hesitate for a moment before shrugging, "Yeah, alright. If you're sure."

"I am." Eli watched him for a moment before motioning to the space beside him, "You wanna side down until you're ready to go back to the track?"

"Sure." Tommy threw himself down next to Eli, quickly making himself comfortable - or as comfortable as he could get on plastic school bleachers. Once he was settled, he asked, "So how's your day been?"

"Average," Eli said. "Pretty sure it's going to get better though."

Chapter Text

1.1: words dropped like bombs

"So, you and Billy." 

Teddy cut a glance over at Tommy as the two of them walked beside each other, moving towards the next section in their area. 

They were working on clean up from the mission they'd just finished, only the third since the team had actually come together following everything with the Skrull. Teddy and Tommy were working together because their powers worked well together - Teddy clearing rubble while Tommy moved any injured civilians and got them to the medics quickly. Teddy would have worked with Billy, but Kate had assigned partners and he knew that Billy could do rescue and clean up on his own just fine. 

"Yeah? What about us?" He didn't really get homophobe vibes from Tommy. He hadn't spent as much time with Tommy as some of the others - Kate and Tommy had hit it off, Eli was always preoccupied with yelling at Tommy, and Billy was trying really hard to know the kid who he thought was his twin - but he seemed relatively chill about pretty much everything. He was the sort of guy who was just living his life, having a fun time and enjoying everything he could. But he supposed he could have been wrong. It wouldn't be the first time that someone who seemed cool had a really big hang up about Teddy's sexuality. 

"You guys love each other a lot. You soulmates?"

"No."

"Have you guys met yours then? Know it's a platonic bond?"

"No. Neither of us know who they are." Teddy was starting to wonder where all of this was going. He supposed it wasn't that unusual of a conversation, but it did seem sudden and a little out of place. 

Tommy hummed, the quiet curious and quiet. 

For a moment the two of them walked in silence, the topic dead between them, but the whole thing was strange in a way that had Teddy a little unsettled by the sudden dropping of it and he found himself saying, "Why did you want to know?"

"Oh, because you said my word and I think we might be soulmates."

Teddy froze, feet stopping without any real thought from himself. He thought about his word - about the chicken scratch, small quickly written letters with sharp points from rapidly changing the direction of the letters, etched under his bottom lip. He kept it covered with make-up more days, just like most people with face marks did, but he knew the word as well as he knew himself - a quick, simple nope.

Tommy had taken a few steps more than him, appearing very calm and unaware of the bombshell he had just dropped on Teddy, but he stopped before he got too far. He turned his head, peering over his shoulder and at Teddy. 

"What?" Tommy said. "Why'd you stop?"

2.1: the unexpected in the unexpected

"Take a deep breath," Billy said, a steady presence at Teddy's side. They were standing in the front hall of Billy's family home, their hands clasped between them. Teddy's breath was coming out a little quickly, sweat gathering at his hairline as his heart pounded nervously. "It'll be okay. They'll love you."

"You don't know that."

"I do." Billy tightened his grip on Teddy's hand, voice going soft as he murmured, "I love you and you make me happy. They'll love you just for that."

Teddy thought about his family - his father and his mother and Teddy caught between not just them but also all of the people who had forced them apart for selfish reasons rather than thinking about what made any of them happy - and felt himself getting a little nauseous. "I don't know if that's true."

Billy opened his mouth to respond, but before he could get the words out someone else, someone with a voice similar enough to Billy's that Teddy thought for a second that he'd just missed Billy moving his mouth, said, "Billy, are you two actually coming in or staying out here? Because Mom made chocolate babka for dessert, but Grandpa says I can't have any until we eat dinner." Teddy looked up to find an another boy their age standing in the doorway separating the entry hall they were in from the rest of the house. He looked almost exactly like Billy, except his hair was snow white and his eyes a bright green and his body was leaner than Billy's. 

Teddy was so shook up by the situation that it took him a moment to remember that Billy had a brother - a twin. 

"Yeah, we're coming," Billy said, squeezing Teddy's hand for a moment before loosening the grip. When he spoke again his voice was quieter, Billy speaking as though he was easing Teddy into something, "Tommy, this is my boyfriend Teddy. Teddy, this is my brother Tommy."

Tommy hummed, leaning his body against the door-frame he stood in. "So you're the boyfriend, huh?"

Given that he was already panicking, Teddy registered that the words spiraling around his elbow had been spoken and found 
himself unable to stop himself from saying the first thing that came to mind. "Is it wrong to date your soulmates brother? Because I'm really into Billy."

1.2: you, me, him

Days turned to weeks turned to months turned to a year. 

Teddy didn't know how it happened, but Tommy slotted into Teddy's life with an unexpected ease. 

He never expected to click with someone like Tommy. 

With Billy things had been a slow, easy slide not just into each other's lives, but into each other's hearts. It'd been excited conversations about superheros and comic books into lunches with their feet bumping under the table as Teddy tried to hide the flush on his cheeks and the warm in his gut to fingers brushing next to each other and murmured feelings to the kisses and held hands that they shared now. 

With Tommy things happened so quickly that Teddy could barely keep track of what was happening in his life. They were standing in a crumbled street and Teddy had just found out that Tommy was his soulmate - then Tommy had dragged him around the city on a search for the best hot dog vendor in New York and Teddy was laughing so hard his stomach hurt with it and - Teddy was at a restaurant with Tommy after an exhausting clean up and they were scarfing down food with a speed that would have disgusted their other teammates without needing to say anything because things were rarely awkward between them and - Teddy sat on the couch in Tommy's foster parents home, the only one on the team who knew about things with Tommy's parents, and they were watching an action  move that Billy would have hated and laughing as they threw popcorn at each other and - it was the anniversary of his mother's death and Teddy had Billy on his right and Tommy on his left and couldn't imagine anything different. 

Since getting with Billy, Teddy had been absolutely terrified of finding his soulmate. He hadn't been sure if the bond was platonic or romantic and the idea of leaving Billy, who he loved so much that it seemed to fill his entire soul, for someone who he barely knew had been frightening. 

His bond with Tommy was platonic so it wouldn't have mattered anyway, but even if it had been romantic Tommy wouldn't have been a replacement for Billy. Tommy filled an incredibly different place in Teddy's life than Billy did. Billy was a reminder that all of the nervous, dorky things about Teddy were perfectly okay. Tommy was a reminder to try to get out of his shell - a reminder that for all that Teddy was comfortable in his shell it would be nice to crack it open and expand his world. 

Billy was Teddy's heart. 

And Tommy was too. 

2.2: in the space between

and the bass keeps runnin and runnin and runnin🏃🏃 : 

i know we just had it on saturday but i am
seriously craving that sushi place on King again.

you: it was pretty good. 
you: still not going for sushi again. 

and the bass keeps runnin and runnin and runnin🏃🏃:
party pooper.

and the bass keeps runnin and runnin and runnin🏃🏃:
just let me drown myself in soy sauce. 

"Hey," Billy said as he dropped onto the lunch bench across from Teddy. 

"Hey," Teddy said, large grin on his face as dropped his phone in favor of looking at his boyfriend. "I missed you this weekend."

"I missed you too. I'm sorry I canceled our plans. Kate and I were just really behind on our project." As he settled in, Billy said, "I hope you found something to do though?"

"Yeah, I went out with Tommy." He reached across, snagging the chocolate milk off Billy's tray since he knew his boyfriend wouldn't drink it. "We went to that adventure place and did the obstacle course a couple of times, got some sushi."

Billy's nose wrinkled. "Gross."

He laughed a little bit as he worked open the milk tab. Billy's hatred of sushi was part of why it'd been the top choice for Tommy and Teddy, a time when they could have something together that they didn't usually have with anyone else. "Yeah, exactly."

His boyfriend hummed a little as he passed his juice bottle across the table. Teddy took it from him, twisting the cap off for him before passing it over. 

"Thank you," Billy said as he took the bottle. Then, before taking his first sip, he added, "It's a little strange that you and Tommy are so close. I mean, I know it's natural because you're soulmates but I wasn't expecting it."

Teddy knew that when Billy had introduced him to his family he hadn't exactly been expecting his brother to be Teddy's soulmate and he hadn't brought it up yet so that Billy could come to terms with the unexpected knowledge on his own. 

"Does it bother you?"

"I don't know. I'm not like... upset or jealous or anything? I mean I know you love me, and I know that you're bond is platonic." Billy continued, "But it's weird to think that my brother is your soulmate, to know that you guys are always going to be more to each other than what I'd imagined you guys being." Billy was quiet for a moment before saying, "And, I guess, maybe it's because it's weird to know that even if you and I weren't together, you and Tommy would probably still be in each other's lives."

Teddy wished he had something to say to deny what Billy was saying, but he didn't. 

Nothing Billy had said was untrue. He and Tommy hadn't known each other long, but already Teddy understood why Tommy was his soulmate and the two of them had become important to each other. He didn't think there was anything that would be able to tear their relationship apart as they grew closer and knew each other longer. 

"Well, that last one is a stupid worry," Teddy said. He moved his foot under the table, pressing the side of it against Billy's leg as he smiled at him. "You and I aren't going to break up, so Tommy and I would always be in each other's lives anyway. He'll just be my brother-in-law as well as my soulmate."

His words didn't take Billy's worries away, but they did have a large smile stretching across his boyfriend's face so Teddy considered it a win of some kind. 

1.3: needs and wants aligned

"Sorry I'm late." Teddy was so used to Tommy's appearances that he didn't startle at the rush of wind, the loud roar in his ears, or the sudden appearance of a person to his left. Instead he just turned away from the skyline, looking at the boy who stood on the rooftop with him. Tommy was dressed in his Speed costume, though he had the goggles pressed up into his hair. "I stopped for milkshakes." He reached one hand out towards Teddy, offering what Teddy recognized as a chocolate-raspberry milkshake from the diner they liked to go to together. 

Teddy raised an eyebrow at him. "You got a milkshake before patrol?"

"It's not like I didn't have the time."

Instead of arguing, because it was silly to ever argue that Tommy didn't have time for something given the speed with which he could get to any spot in the world, Teddy reached out for the offered milkshake. "There's no way I'm going to finish this."

"That's fine. Just thought it'd be rude to show up without one for you." Tommy took a loud, noisy sip of his milkshake, his straw already pressed against the bottom of the cup and making the unpleasant sound of plastic against plastic. When he pulled back, he reached up towards his goggles, but spoke again before pulling them down over his eyes, "You sure about this?"

And here was the thing - Teddy knew that all of this was just a diversion tactic, just something to put more time between their meeting and their patrol. Not because Tommy didn't want to do it, Teddy knew how much being a hero meant to Tommy (he knew how Tommy felt worth something while helping people, how it made him stop hearing his drunken father shouting at him) and how much Tommy's powers meant to him (he knew that Tommy didn't feel quite right when he wasn't using his speed, that the world seemed warped and wrong and slow when Tommy was slowed down and that their bond made it easier for Tommy to deal with it), but because Tommy understood what all of this would mean to Teddy. 

Because Teddy wanted to be here, wanted to be a hero, but Billy had sworn off being a hero since finding Wanda Maximoff and his reaction to finding out that Teddy was going out again wouldn't be a pleasant one. And Billy wasn't just one of the few people Teddy had left, but one of the most important. 

Tommy was giving Teddy time to decide that Billy was more important - more important than the two of them doing this together, more important than being there for Tommy because Tommy would have continued alone if Teddy wasn't joining, more important than Teddy's own desires to be a hero. 

And Billy was important - but so was Tommy and so was Teddy himself. 

"We should get started," Teddy said, lifting his milkshake straw up to take a sip. "If we get started too late, we'll miss all of the good crime."

2.3: i'm where i'm meant to be

you: be safe, have fun. 

💗 💗 B 💗 💗: 
I will be. The girls and I have a system for the night, I promise. 

you: I know.

💗 💗 B 💗 💗:
You're staying over right?"

you: yeah. 

💗 💗 B 💗 💗:
I'll see you when I pour myself into bed then. 

you: love you <3

💗 💗 B 💗 💗: 
Love you too!

"If you wanted to be gross with Billy, you could've just gone to the party with them." Teddy barely had time to look up before Tommy was dropping down onto the couch next to him, popcorn jumping in the bowl with the force of his movement. 

"We're not being gross. We were just saying goodbye," he said. He didn't think he really needed to address the party. He and Tommy had talked about going with the rest of their friends, but in the end they'd decided it would be nice to have a bro-night watching terrible movies and eating too much junk food. Tommy was probably the biggest partier of their group, Kate was really the only one who gave him a run for his money, but even he liked nights curled up in his pajamas and tucked under a soft throw blanket. "What did you put in that?"

"Just butter and salt. It's the best that way." Teddy hummed in agreement, reaching over to wrap his fingers around the warm kernels. "Did you pick a movie?"

"Trying to decide between Con-Air and The Room."

"Didn't we watch The Room like...last week?"

"Yeah, but is there really any bad movie as good as The Room?"

"True. Tommy Wiseau is a fucking genius," Tommy said. He hummed a bit in thought before saying, "But consider this - put the bunny back in the box." Tommy's face went so serious as he said it, voice dropping deeper, that Teddy couldn't help the laughter that began bubbling out of him. "I said! Put the bunny back in the box." 

There was a long moment filled with just the two of them laughing, 

It was a nice night for a party, but in that moment Teddy couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather be with or any other place he'd rather have been. 

1.4: your hand ripped from mine

David had barely finished explaining what had happened to Tommy before Teddy was slamming his fists against the table, shaking all of the plates and causing Loki to let out a high-pitched sound. "God damn it!"
 
Teddy could feel the shocked eyes on him around the table, because generally Teddy was one of the calmer and happier members of the Young Avengers, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Not when there were far too many feelings churning inside of him - guilt for not being there for Tommy, anger not just at whoever had taken Tommy from him but at Tommy for walking into a situation without Teddy at his side, a deep sadness at the idea of Tommy being gone.

There was a moment before Kate spoke up, saying, "Teddy, I know you're upset, but you still have his words, right? That means he's not dead."

"Am I supposed to be happy with that?" Teddy snapped. He turned to look at her, and knew his face must have been twisted into something angry and uncharacteristic from the way that it made her reel. "I'm supposed to be happy that he needed me and I wasn't there for him just because he's not dead? I'm supposed to be happy that I let myself get so wrapped up in this adventure that I haven't talked to him in weeks? I'm supposed to be happy because he's not dead when I thought I would have time with him after this - that I could sit with him, eat too much sugar while I told him everything that we'd been up to and then spend the entire weekend watching shitty action movies together to make up for how long we were apart - and now I've found out he's gone and I might not get him back? t's relieving to know that he's still alive, but I'm sure as hell not going to be happy about this."

There was a long pause, everyone around the table quiet and silent. 

"I didn't mean to say that you should be happy he's gone. I just meant that it makes this a little bit easier to deal with, knowing that he's not dead," Kate said. Then, voice going low and hurt, she added, "You aren't the only one who cares about him, Teddy. He's my best friend."

"Your best friend?" Teddy could practically feel his blood boiling at the words. Maybe in another world none of this would have been as upsetting as it was, maybe it another world Kate would have been the person who cared the most about Tommy and the words wouldn't have been so offensive, maybe in another world things were exactly the same as now and Teddy just wasn't as wound up about the events - didn't feel as useless and angry and hurt as he did. In this world, Teddy couldn't stop himself from bearing his teeth, "He's my soulmate. The things you are feeling aren't even half of what I feel about all of this."

And Teddy wasn't even a little unsure about that - because he felt like someone had an icy grip around his heart and like there was a huge fault line running through his soul just waiting for something to tear it apart.

2.4: bonds between us 

"So," Tommy said, drawing the word out. There was a quality about it - the tone of his voice, the length of the vowel - that Teddy was well acquainted with now, making it easy to figure out what Tommy would say next even if the situation hadn't already made it obvious. "What did you think of him?"

The two of them were walking down the sidewalk together, just a little bit behind Billy and David who were talking about something that had to do with wizards and magic. It had been one of the areas of nerd-dom which Teddy didn't share with Billy, so Billy had jumped on the opportunity to talk to David when he'd learned that David had an interest in it as well. 

"He seems nice," Teddy said. 

"Yeah, okay," Tommy responded. Teddy didn't need to look at him to know that Tommy was rolling his eyes. "Why don't you tell me what you really think now?"

"That is what I really think." Teddy glanced over at him, adding, "It was one lunch, T. I don't really have many thoughts on him. But I know you really like him and that's enough for me to be okay with having a couple more lunches with him."

There was a moment before Tommy said, voice a little quieter and more honest than usual, "I do really like him."

Teddy just hummed, not feeling he need to respond to that specifically.

Tommy had a wide circle of friends, but very few of them indeed up being introduced to Billy and even fewer of them were introduced to Teddy. For all of Tommy's friendliness and easy going attitude, he was cautious about who he let into the deepest parts of his life. Someone might meet Billy because they were over at Tommy's house, but Teddy required an actual introduction and few people made it that fa. 

And a love interest had never made it to Teddy. 

He'd heard about them of course - girls Tommy kissed at parties, boys Tommy made out with in locker rooms, one-off dates and short flings.  He'd even seen a few of them, passed Tommy at the mall or been eating at a restaurant when Tommy walked in on a date, but Tommy always avoided actually introducing him. 

So it was obvious how much Tommy liked David just from the fact that they'd been introduced, but then there was the way that Tommy acted. There was the way he always seemed to be flailing his hands around with excitement whenever he spoke about David, the smiles and the light in his eyes and the running sentences because he was so eager to share something about the other boy, the way it seemed like he couldn't quite keep himself from bringing David up. 

"I'm happy, though," Teddy said. He bumped his shoulder against Tommy's, familiar with just how to do it to keep either of them from getting thrown off balance. He thought of how much Tommy meant to him and also how much Billy meant to him, how they were different things and he was happy Tommy had found someone he cared for the way Teddy cared for Billy. "I'm glad you found that."

1.5: alone

Teddy stood in the middle of his new Austin apartment, empty save for himself and a suitcase of clothing. Unable to return to Billy's place lest he run into his mind-controlled parents, upon returning to Earth Teddy had been left with just what he had with him on the spaceship. 

He'd been feeling Tommy's absence acutely since leaving Earth with the Young Avengers, but the ache had turned into a hole after finding out what had happened to Tommy. 

And that hole had gotten bigger while he was struggling with his feelings about his relationship with Billy. His thoughts seemed to cycle between whether Billy had conjured up their entire relationship with his powers and thoughts of how much simpler things would be if Tommy was there. He would have known how to deal with all of this, would have dragged Teddy out someplace with absurdly greasy pizza and they would have sat with their knees bumping until the table because Teddy was too large and Tommy too lanky and Teddy would have spilled his guts while Tommy scarfed down pizza and when he was done Tommy would have told him exactly what he thought about all of it. 

It wasn't just about Tommy telling him what to do, but about the companionship and trust and comfort that came with their relationship. It was the easy way that they fell together, the way that they had come to understand each other in ways that Billy would never understand either of them because he loved Teddy too much and wanted Tommy to be his brother so badly. There were things about both of them that Billy didn't want to see or just couldn't see through rose-colored glasses and they understood those parts of each other. 

The loss of Tommy was a large gaping hole in Teddy's chest, but sitting in his apartment alone without Billy and without anyone to talk about Billy too it felt like that hole was swallowing Teddy whole. 

All he wanted was to talk to Tommy, to see Tommy, to be with Tommy. 

But Tommy was gone and Teddy wasn't just without his boyfriend as he dealt with a crisis of emotion, he was without his soulmate and best friend.

2.5: bad snacks, bad movies, and perfect company

"Where did the barbecue chips go?"

"You mean your gross beef jerky chips?"

"They don't smell like beef jerky! Stop saying that!"

"They absolutely do." Teddy shifted around on the bed, rolling until he could dangle off the bed and peer down at the floor. He looked around the pile of chip bags and snack boxes littering the floor. When they were at the store looking for snacks buying everything had seemed like a good idea. Staring at all of the food scattered around the floor made him feel a little guilty and fat though. 

"Are they down there?" Tommy asked. Teddy didn't have time to respond before he felt the bed shifting as Tommy moved. A moment later Tommy was laying down next to him, on his stomach and hanging off the bed just like Teddy was. He glanced around the floor for just a second before finding the familiar bag of Baked Lays chips. "Ah ha!"

Tommy reached out, body wobbling as he pushed himself further off of the bed in an attempt to reach them. 

Teddy was so used to Tommy doing things like this that he barely registered the movement before he was moving, putting both of his hands on Tommy to steady him and keep him from falling. 

"Got 'em!" Tommy declared. 

The bed rocked as they both moved, getting themselves back onto the bed and settling into the nest of pillows and blankets they'd created on Tommy's bed. 

They'd seen each other plenty over the last few weeks, but Tommy had been occupied with his budding relationship with David and Teddy had been distracted by a combination of final exams and plans with Billy so they hadn't really seen each other for very long periods of time. 

Sick of text messages and quick phone calls when discussions about movies or sports or music got too animated, they'd both made sure to clear out the weekend to spend with each other. 

And neither of them could think of any way they'd rather spend the weekend than buried under the fifty soft throw blankets Tommy owned, wearing fuzzy pajama pants that they'd gotten from the women's section in the dollar store, eating so much junk food that Teddy could practically feel himself breaking out, and watching the shot of movies whose plots were so stupid that people genuinely didn't believe the movies existed. 

It was silly and lazy. 

But it was comfortable and exactly how Teddy wanted to spend his weekend, exactly the kind of thing that the two of them loved doing together and would never have thought to do with anyone else. 

There was a pop and a tear as Tommy opened the bag he'd gotten. Shaking it a little bit, he held it out to Teddy, "Want a couple?"

And the chips really did smell like beef jerky instead of barbecue, but Teddy nodded, "Yeah, of course."

Chapter Text

1.1: the shape of a name

"Hey, you look at least ten years less boring than everyone else." David's blood had been rushing from the exchange with his supervisor, but now every inch of him seemed to stop and take a breath. It lasted only a second before he was turning, whipping around to see who had spoken to him. In front of him was a boy that looked around his age, messy shocking white hair who's color was smoother than that which came with old age and clothes that leaned more towards fashionable than anything anyone else in this office wore. There was a ceramic coffee mug in his hand, steam rising up from it. "Let's go grab some noodles."

Handsome, David thought. My soulmate is handsome. And that was what the boy had to be - because David had memorized the words on his arm even before his powers had kicked in. They started at the pulse point in his wrist, small chicken scratch letters dragging all the way to the center of his elbow. 

"Yeah," David said, because there was knowledge in his mind of what it was like to have a soulmate and what it was like not to have a soulmate and David tried his best not to use other people's experiences too much in his own life since he couldn't know how much was objective but he couldn't help the way it made him yearn for that connection. "Sure. I'm David."

His companion looked surprised for a moment, but then it faded into a large grin. "Well, I wasn't expecting that."

"No, neither was I." When a moment passed without any response, David asked, "What's your name?"

"Oh! Yeah, sorry. I've known yours for so long that I didn't realize I'd have to introduce myself." He said it in a way that spoke of long hours spent tracing the curves and dips of David's name. It was intimate in a way that sent a shiver of...something down his spine. It was one thing to know what it meant to have a soulmate, to hear stories about how much an individual's soulmate had meant to them before they'd even met them. It was something else entirely to be a part of those stories, to hear someone talk as if just the sight of David's name had gotten them through things he couldn't imagine. "I'm Tommy."

David said the name to himself, letting his mouth shape the letters because it was strange to think that what they held was something which would be so important to him. He wondered if maybe that was what Tommy had been doing his whole life, tracing the letters of the name within his tattoo and trying to figure out how that person would be so important to him. 

"I have to go to work." Tommy lifted the mug in his hand. "But we can go get those noodles and coffee after?"

"You asked me to go get noodles when you haven't even done your work?"

"It'll take me five minutes, tops." When David raised a skeptical eyebrow, Tommy gestured David in the direction of the warehouse. "Come on. I'll show you."

2.1: library meet-cutes
David was sitting in the library at Xavier's with a novel in his hand and one leg bent to stay in the chair with him. He was supposed to be studying for the Mandarin exam he had later in the week, but he was having a hard time shutting out all of the things floating around his head today and adding even more knowledge to it hadn't been at the top of his list. So instead he was rereading a book he'd read a million times in an attempt to shut even one percent of his brain off while he focused on the mindlessness of going through something he'd been through a hundred times. 

"Hey, you're Prodigy, right?" David looked up to find a boy standing on the other side of the table. There weren't that many students at Xavier's Institute, so it wasn't that hard to realize that he was staring at Tommy Maximoff. His brain quickly filled in a scope of information that he knew from other sources - older of the Maximoff twins, louder of the Maximoff twins, a speed mutation, a grade point average that was okay but didn't require too much work.  "What do you have in that brain of yours about Quicksilver?"

They were words wrapped around David's right foot, belonging to a person that would hold him up and keep him moving forward. But David was so preoccupied with who had asked the words that he couldn't think of anything to say other than, "You're Speed. Why do you need information from me on your Uncle? Can't you just ask him yourself?"

Surprise flickered across Tommy's face. It made it clear that he had David's words on him, just like David had his, but instead of acknowledging it, he said, "I've never won a race against my uncle, even though I know I'm faster than him. I was hoping you had some information about his powers or his strategies that would help me." He reached out for the chair across from David, turning it around so he could straddle it while facing him. "So? Do you have something that'll help me or do I have to go ask someone else?"

David watched him for a moment. There were a lot of people in the world who David knew both quite a lot and very little about. It was the nature of his mutation. But now he was staring at someone who he knew could mean something more to him, who he could learn all of those things about the natural way rather than with his powers. It was a strange sort of feeling - to know what someone would mean to you and be confronted with whether or not to move towards it. 

He closed his book, placing it down on the table in front of him, and then shifted so he could rest his elbows on the table while leaning towards Tommy. "I have some stuff I can tell you, but I don't know how much it'll help."

"Lay it on me."

1.2: what are hours compared to days, weeks, months, years
"Here you go, kids."

David took a long drink of his coffee, downing more than half of the glass in one go. He tried not to focus on how much work he'd put into tracking these people down, how much work he was putting into trying to get back a boy that he'd known for not even a day, tried not to think about how poorly he thought after losing Tommy after just that short amount of time or how it would feel if he'd had more time with the absurdly hilarious and fun and nice boy that he'd somehow ended up with as a soulmate. 

"Er...we haven't ordered." Kate Bishop. David had a whole store of information on her from before he'd lost his powers, but right now his mind called up the way that Tommy had smiled when he told him about her. His best friend, Tommy had called her. The only person who was even half as cool as he was. 

He put his foot on the bottom of the stool, pushing himself to face the table. "I ordered for you."

"Incorrectly, stranger," Loki said. Not a part of the original team, just a new addition. It was easy to focus on him. "I'd have ordered blueberries."

"Maybe you would have, but you wanted the bacon."

"Who the hell are you-" America Chavez, another new member. 

David didn't get lucky a third time, because the next one to speak was Teddy Altman.  "He's Prodigy." His partner in crime, Teddy had said with a sort of wistful look on his face. The one who had been the most reluctant to give up superheroing after the team had went their separate ways. They'd worked together without the rest for the months. 

"A.K.A David Alleyne, he was one of the young X-Men siding with the Utopian mutants after the schism and head of their youth division. No sightings since the fall of Utopia!" And the one that hurt the most - Billy Kaplan, who David could almost pretend was Tommy himself. Tommy's feelings on his twin were complicated, but what David had gathered from what he had said was that Tommy and his brother were two sides of the same coin, two halves of the same whole. And for Tommy, that was something unfathomable and terrifying about that. 

"You are such a geek." 

"As if you're not." 

"Hey--I'm not the one with heropedia super-user privileges."

"Thanks for the breakfast. How did you find us?"

"I've been looking for you for a while. I managed to catch up that time when-- Well, I understood why you guys were staying off the grid. Whenever they were around you. So you're staring away still--" David was a little embarrassed by his rambling, but there were images flashing across his eyes of the last few weeks and his chest had been filled with something raw and painful that he barely understood for weeks now. "I had to find you-- I used some basic geometrical constructs to calculate your trajectories, based upon your public sightings. Many of the arcs ended up in this breakfast bar. I figured if I stay here enough, I'd find you."

"So why do they call you Prodigy then?" asked Loki.

And David really wanted this whole thing to be over with so they could get to the point, so he said, "You're guilty about something aren't you?" He stared Loki down for a minute. 

Then Kate spoke up, "And let's have a time-out on the butting of big brains, boys. As much as we're grateful for breakfast and company, you're spending too much time on how. Give us the 'why.'"

"Billy, I'm your brother's-" The word soulmate stuck in David's throat, because this was part of the struggle. Because Tommy was David's soulmate, but did he really have any claim to any bond between them or any of the things he'd felt when they'd only had a handful of days together? He cleared his throat, restarting, "Billy, I was working with your brother Tommy. I've got bad news." 

2.2: the little things
"Why is it that every time I find you here, you are reading the exact same book?" 

David closed his eyes, trying to ignore the pounding behind his temples so that he wouldn't snap at Tommy just for speaking to him. When he'd counted to twenty and didn't want to murder him quite so much, he opened them and looked over. 

Tommy was sitting in a chair across the table, wearing a dark blue hoodie that David was pretty sure belonged to Billy. He was leaned forward, crossed arms set on the tabletop and his cheek resting against his forearms as he watched David. His hair was tousled in the way that it always was when he'd been using his powers, which explained how he'd gotten to the library from the other side campus when his chemistry class had let out literally that minute. 

He wondered how it was that Tommy always seemed to know when David had been having a bad day and would be hiding in the library, even on days like today when they hadn't seen each other and none of David's friends were in Tommy's classes. 

It was something about what that said, that even with them only having been friends for half a year and David having only had a handful of terrible days Tommy had figured out the signs and where David hid and noticed, remembered, that he read the same book every time, that made David say, "It makes things bearable."

"Les Misérables makes things bearable?"

"Hugo does everything for an absurdly long amount of time and I've read this so much that I know every single absurd sentence he wrote about Waterloo, not to mention everything else," David explained. Because if he was going to explain this to Tommy, he might as well explain it all. He set the book down, not even needing to put a bookmark in because he knew exactly what page he was on just from the line he was - Courfeyrac said later to his friends: 'I've just seen Marius's new hat and suit with Marius inside them. I suppose he was going to sit for an examination. He looked thoroughly silly.' "When I read this book, I don't have to process anything. I'm not - I'm not getting any new information or - or even having to make any connections that I haven't made before." He hesitated for a second, suddenly feeling vulnerable. He had decided to just go all in and explain, but he was putting his biggest weakness in front of Tommy, telling him the biggest downfall of the mutation David had been given. "So uh...yeah. More bearable."

Tommy peered at him, not saying anything, for what felt like ages. David didn't know if he'd ever seen him still like this for so long.

And then Tommy said, "When I use my powers, I still live the time so when I finally get a chance to stop after using them for long periods, I'm starving and thirsty and absolutely exhausted. But the world never stops turning, you know, and people don't just stop moving or living or doing. It's not as fast as me, but none of it stops and when I've done weeks in an hour all I want is for everything to slow down and shut up." David stared at him, feeling something cracking open deep inside his chest because Tommy was opening up to him in a way that he knew Tommy rarely did. Tommy was the loud twin, the funny twin, the talkative and sociable twin - but everyone knew that Tommy was a whole lot more surface level than Billy because of it. And David felt a mixing off honor-fear-happiness at Tommy showing David a bigger piece of himself. "So I always end up locking myself in my room to lay under the covers, stuff my face, and watch old episodes of Tom and Jerry. There's not really a plot I'd have to follow, no drama. It's  nice."

The words hung between them. 

In the end, the only words David could find to say were, "Tom and Jerry, huh?"

"Yeah." There was a smile on Tommy's face, something softer than David had ever seen on his lips before. More than anything else in the past few weeks, this felt like a step towards the meaning of the words on David's foot. "I've seen every episode."

1.3: the end of the story
David sat on the top of the hill, the lights from the party below flickering against the blades of grass that tickled his palms. 

"If I'm so smart," David said, feeling the being manifest beside him. "Why can't I figure you out, Mr. Not-Patriot?"

"Tic-tock. Tic-tock," the being said. 

"Tic-tock. Okay...here's my theory." He thought of the beginning and how it had played out, thought of the past few weeks and all that happened, thought about what those weeks had revealed about the future and the members of the team that he'd found himself a part of. "As part of whatever Billy's going to do in the future, you were created. You echo backwards to ensure it comes to pass. You're a hook to drag us over event horizon. You're the rabbit and we're all Alice. You're our guardian angel."

"Tic-tock. Tic-tock."

"And it'd say a lot about us that our guardian angel is as messed up as you are." David looked at the creature for a long moment before continuing, "Okay, more.  You're not just a thing. Not a raw creation. One of us becomes you. They sacrifice their existence to ensure it happens."

"What must be must be the future...what must the future be?"

"Tell me."

"More future. There must be more future." 

"All for a reason, there must be Avengers. There must be a purpose, etc. I'm going to take that as a "yes Prodigy you remain a genius." Now, the one of us who sacrifices themselves, the one who stops being human for a good cause..." David thought about how all of this had started. He thought about late nights with Kate and Teddy and Billy on the ship, thought about how Kate could barely speak about Tommy and how Billy shared stories as if he was a drowning man reaching for a ledge and Teddy never seemed to know what to say about his former partner in crime other than to say everything. "It's me or it's Tommy."

The thing was fading away now, it's message delivered, but it seemed to be almost smiling at David as it said, "You'll find out."

He reached out, chest welling with panic because for all that had been done there was one thing that they still didn't have and it was - "No. Where's Tommy?"

The thing swiveled close to him, lips just before David's own. "Denial."

Yes, David thought. Because it was easier to imagine that he was staring at himself than to think about the fact that the boy he was bound to - the boy he could already see himself falling for after a couple of days and a pile of stories - was the kind of person to sacrifice himself to this. The kind of person to give up his entire existence to make sure his brother walked the right path, that his brother created the future instead of destroying it. 

"You know," he said, "I'm not scared of you anymore." He was scared of what Tommy would do in the future, but the weeks had taken away that fear of stepping forward with someone who would know him down to his soul. 

Then as if to make him prove it, the thing leaned in to seal their lips together. 

There was a moment - one, two - and then...

David was staring into red googles. 

"Whoa!" Tommy exclaimed, jumping backwards and shoving at David's shoulder with one hand. David looked over him in one sweep, pulling forward his memory of what had happened in the warehouse the night Tommy had disappeared, and felt something loosen when he realized that there was no noticeable. It was even more relieving that Tommy's behavior seemed perfectly fine. "I know we're soulmates and all, but I don't think we are here yet and-" 

Tommy stopped, glancing around. 

"Where's the warehouse?" he asked. "Weren't we in a warehouse?"

"Yeah, you-"

"Oh hey!" Tommy exclaimed, eyes catching on the scene below them. "Is that a party? I love parties. Let's go hang out down there." 

David didn't have time to say anything else before Tommy was grabbing him, hand just above David's with his thumb against his pulse point, and pulling him down the hill. 

And with Tommy's fingers warm against his skin and a bright grin spread across the other boy's face, David couldn't quite find it in him to interrupt the moment long enough to explain the last few weeks. 

2.3: how i'd like to spend the day
David's attention was drawn away from the raindrops he was watching run down the window by the ringing of a plastic cup hitting the table he was seated at. 

Shifting his gaze, he found Tommy standing across from him with a large colorful cup of...some kind of iced drink in one hand and a cup of coffee on the table in front of him. 

"Here you go," he said, pushing the one on the table towards David. 

"Thanks." As David wrapped his hand around the cup to pull it to him, his fingers brushed against the side of Tommy's hand. They'd been friends for months now, maybe even something a little more. This - the pads of David's fingers brushing against the soft skin of Tommy's palms - had become something familiar. He eyed the drink Tommy still held, asking, "What are you drinking?"

"Strawberry and mango iced tea lemonade," Tommy said. He dropped into the seat across from David. "Is there anywhere in particular that you wanted to go while we're here?"

David hummed, considering. When Tommy had asked if he wanted to head to town with him, David had agreed without much forethought. In part because no student at Xavier's was stupid enough to pass up an opportunity to get off their frequently suffocating campus, but mostly...mostly because spending time with Tommy was nice and David couldn't really bring himself to turn down the opportunity. 

"Not really," he said. He opened his mouth to ask a question, only to stop when he realized that it was one he should've known the answer to already. He gave himself a second to be confused before asking it anyway, "Why did you need to come into town? I don't think you told me when you invited me." It wasn't like the Xavier students were prisoners, but everyone knew Xavier's was for mutants and there was no telling what someone through about mutants until it was too late.

"I didn't need to come for anything. I just thought it'd be nice to get away for a while, and being here with you seemed better than being here alone."

"Oh." Something warm and fond blossomed in David's chest. It was a feeling that he was beginning to associate with Tommy more and more. One that was developing not just from the idea of the bond they shared, but from actually developing that bond and getting to know each other. "Maybe we can run by the bookstore then. I could use a novel to practice my Mandarin."

"That's fine. Do you mind if we go to the candy store after? It's just around the block, I think."

"Yeah, sure. That seems fun." Under the table his knees pressed against Tommy's as the other boy shifted to get more comfortable. He didn't pull away, not at the first touch or any other time. 

He didn't pull away until they were getting up to leave for their next destination. 

1.4: about you, about me
"Choices, choices, choices," Tommy said as his eyes scanned the small menu in his hands. "You know what you're getting?"

"Probably the zucchini pesto with grilled chicken." 

David and Tommy were standing in line at Noodles and Company. They'd been at work earlier, both of them having gotten their jobs back relatively easily since their skills were unique, but when lunch had come around Tommy had asked David to go out with him. David had been a little surprised, he knew Tommy's work for the next few weeks was probably done, but he'd taken the invitation without questioning it. 

Tommy looked away from the menu to make a face at him. "I invited you for noodles and you're getting zoodles?"

"I think they taste good," David said. 

"But carbs," Tommy said, sounding like he couldn't imagine anyone turning down real pasta. 

"Yeah, well. We can't all run the carbs out in five seconds."

"I can definitely get a bowl of noodles out of my body in less than five seconds." 

David made an interested sound. "Really?"

"I think so, yeah. It's hard to tell something like that." Tommy shuffled closer to the counter as the couple at the front of the line stepped forward to make their order. "But I'm pretty the test results were something like that."

The part of David that always yearned to know more, a part of him intertwined with his mutation that existed when his powers overwhelmed him and continued to exist now that his mutation was gone, wanted to push. But there was knowledge in the back of his head about Tommy, things glanced over in the files he'd read after Tommy's disappearance. He remembered how highly detailed information on Tommy's mutation had been, top speeds and power of vibrations and scope of explosions. And it had all been written less like an academic report, less like the files of Xavier students who's information came from trying to find the best way to teach and to help a student understand their individual mutation, and more like a science experiment or article. 

"So I guess you're going to need more than one bowl of noodles then?" David said instead. 

"Yeah, I'm thinking the BBQ Pork Mac and the Buffalo Chicken Mac," Tommy said. There was a beat before he said, "And maybe an order or two of pot stickers. I don't really know why a noodles place has pot stickers, but I love pot stickers and they sound delicious."

David found himself storing the knowledge away with the rest of what he knew about Tommy. It was just a little thing, but it was something that never came up in the files he'd read. Why would it? It was just a small pleasure Tommy seemed to enjoy, a favorite food. Not the sort of thing that got mentioned in reports. 

"I like them too." Thinking back on it, he added, "There's a Chinese place near Xavier's that was pretty much the only thing we could get delivered other than pizza."

"That's rough. Pizza and Chinese are good, but I eat so much that I'd  so insane if I had to eat them all the time." Tommy was looking at the menu, seemingly making sure there wasn't anything else that he wanted, as he said, "I ate nothing except Spaghettios for three solid months when I was a kid and I haven't been able to eat anything Chef Boyardee." 

2.4: these days with you
"Hey!" David barely had time to register Tommy's voice over the dull roar in the hallway before a hand was slipping into his and Tommy was standing next to him. Looking over, David found his soulmate wearing a loose purple sweatshirt advertising a high school in New York - David guessed it was Kate's because while he had never met Tommy's best friend he knew from things Tommy had shared that purple was a favorite of hers - and a pair of dark wash jeans. Though his clothes were casual, his goggles were pushed up into his hair. "Are you headed to the Professor's office?"

"Yes." David had a meeting with Professor Xavier set up to discuss his progress in Mandarin and what they should do about his schedule for the next semester. He had a couple of ideas, but nothing concrete. With the hand Tommy wasn't holding, because Tommy's palm was warm and nice and David didn't really want to let go, David reached up to tap against one eye of the goggles. "Why do you have these? Did you get asked to help with a danger room session?"

"Nah. I was telling Doctor McCoy how my eyes get dried out in Chemistry the other day, and he said since I use my powers so frequently I should try wearing my goggles on a more permanent basis to see if it helps. If it does, he's going to see about making me glasses or something for everyday usage."

David hummed a bit, feeling a sense of relief settle in his chest. 

He'd noticed over the past couple of months how much Tommy's eyes bothered him outside of missions, seen how often he rubbed at them or squeezed them shut against little bursts of light as tears welled in the corner of his eyes, how Tommy's eyes were often pink tinged or bloodshot. 

"That's good," David said. Realizing what direction they were heading, "Shouldn't you be heading the other way? Towards your math course?"

"Not when you're heading in the other direction." 

Tommy said it with the sort of nonchalance that David almost missed the sweetness of the sentiment behind it, this idea that Tommy was using his powers for something as mundane as being able to walk David to class. It was the sort of thing that was common at Xavier's, where mutants could use their powers without feeling judged, but it was the sort of thing that David had never had directed at him. 

He didn't realize how warm it would make him feel to be the center of that kind of attention. 

He squeezed Tommy's hand, murmuring, "Alright then."

1.5: plans you want to keep
"Hey." David looked up from the paperwork strewn across his desk to find Tommy standing in the doorway to his office. 

"Hey," David said. "What are you doing here?"

"Just dropping by before I head out for the week," Tommy said. "I was going to invite you out for lunch, but it looks like you're busy."

David glanced down at the work in front of him. "Yeah, a bit."

"So I'll see you next weekend then?"

David frowned a bit. They'd had lunch together every day Tommy was in the office for the past couple of weeks, and the days when Tommy weren't in were always long and boring. As much as he would like to spend lunch with Tommy today, though, it was undeniable that he had too much work to do to head out at that moment. 

David found himself saying, "Are you doing anything tonight? We could do dinner instead. Once I'm out of work."

"I'm having dinner with my brother tonight," Tommy said. There was something apologetic in his expression, an emotion that David didn't think he'd ever seen Tommy display. He was someone who did everything he did with certainty, made his choices because he wanted to make them. He rarely seemed torn or conflicted about things he'd done. "I could do tomorrow if you wanted?"

They hadn't made plans together outside of their work hours, a couple of times they'd gone out with the whole Young Avengers team but their one-on-one plans had always been lunches during work or time spent in David's office during break or running out for coffee or smoothies before Tommy left and David returned to work, but David found that this time he didn't particularly want to wait until Monday to spend time with Tommy again. 

"Tomorrow sounds good," David said. A grin bloomed across Tommy's face, something just slightly softer than Tommy's usual more maniac expression."I get off at 5:30."

"I'll meet you across the street at 5:45?" Tommy suggested. "We can grab coffee and figure out what we want to eat."

"Sounds good." 

They said a quick goodbye, smiles on both of their faces, before Tommy ducked back out of the office. 

David returned to his work, feeling energized in a way that he hadn't in weeks. 

2.5: this is the end, the middle, and the beginning
David sat down, leaning against the tree trunk behind him, enjoying a moment in the shade away from the crowd. He took the blue graduation cap from his head, closing his eyes and fanning at his face in an effort to dispel some of the heat. The ceremony attendants had moved outside once everything was over and while it allowed a bit more room to breath, David still found himself needing a moment away from the harsh crowd. 

Even despite how badly he needed a break, he wasn't exactly upset to feel the familiar rush of cool air rushing towards him or the sound that accompanied it. 

"Hey. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I just needed a second. There's a lot of people around, you know?"

"You want me to go back?"

"No, it's okay." David opened his eyes, looking at Tommy who stood in front of him in a graduation gown that matched David's own. "Why are you over here though? Isn't your family here?" David's family had been around for the main ceremony, but graduation season at Xavier's was packed with former graduates and X-Men and Avengers alike and his family had felt a little out of place - there weren't many at Xavier's whose families were accepting of their child's mutation. They'd left as the visitors had begun filing outside, with plans to meet up the next day for a family breakfast celebration. 

"Yeah, but Grandpa is talking to the Professor, Aunt Lorna is avoiding Alex Summers, Luna ran off with some of the younger students, and Uncle Pietro, Dad, and Mom are focused on Billy and Teddy right now. Their sudden post-graduation engagement is more exciting than our well-planned out most-graduation moving in together." Tommy shifted a little closer, bringing himself under the shade of the tree and into David's space. "So I figured I'd come find you."

David hummed a bit before saying, "Come sit down with me."

There would be a lot happening in the next few weeks - their move into the tiny apartment they'd found on the outskirts of New York City and the start of the new jobs they'd both managed to secure through their connections to other mutants and Tommy's official move into an X-Men team while David shifted into a role with the intelligence team.

Right now, though, David was happy to have this moment to breath and happy that Tommy was there with him.