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"Why do you always try to make people choose one or the other!" The young intern snapped at the hero in front of him, eyes widened.
Wilbur, more popularly known by his hero name Siren, had been going on and on about how vigilantes are just as bad as villains and how heroes are the best and should be treated with the utmost respect.
Unluckily for him, the person he was ranting to was his new intern, aka Tommy, also known as Theseus, an infamous vigilante.
You can see why he would snap.
"What do you mean-" Wilbur was cut off by the younger.
"You're always on about right or wrong, good or bad, heroes or villains! You make everyone pick and choose one or the other! Black, white, black, white! That's all it is to you!"
Wilbur stood there with a conflicted expression on his face, nose scrunched.
"But," the blond boy continued, "have you never considered that there is a grey area? That not everything is good or evil? That people are deserving of second chances, of forgiveness?!"
A silence almost deafening covered the heavy atmosphere. The taller was the first to try and break the uncomfortable silence.
"Tommy, I-"
"No! Wilbur, you're going to listen to me right now. I deserve more than just my words going in one ear and out the other. I bet you haven't even listened to anything I just said!" Tommy sneered, his voice laced with venom.
"Please, let me-" The hero's voice was almost desperate. Almost enough for Tommy to hesitate.
Almost.
"Do you know what I've gone through? What I had to do just to survive?"
The young boy could feel his throat burning and closing up. But damn it if he let himself cry in front of this stupid hero he called a friend.
Wilbur stayed silent, eyes to his shoes, face flushed with shame. He knew the gist of Tommy's life, but he had only skimmed his file briefly.
Sensing that Wilbur indeed did not know what Tommy had to go through, he kept on going (even though the question was more of a rhetorical one and he wasn’t planning on stopping if Wilbur did know).
"I was digging shit out of the bloody dumpster to find anything to let me live another day. At the ripe age of ten! Hah! I've been hunted by your kind simply because I was on the streets. What was it they called me... a public embarrassment? A stain on their so-called 'perfect' record? And you’re telling me heroes should basically be worshipped? Fuck off.”
The young boy scoffed with an amused tone, but the anger was still there, ingrained deep inside his words.
“Those ‘fucking vigilantes’ you’ve been goin’ on and on about have done more shit to help me and my neighbourhood than the dickheads on top that you praise so much,” he spat out, turning his head away from a stunned Siren.
The hero was shocked by this new information. He was just a child, no more than ten years old and treated like that? By heroes, no less? The very same people who were supposed to protect kids like Tommy? Wilbur felt a sick, heavy feeling in his stomach.
"I- I didn't know, Tommy," stammered Wilbur, unsure on what to say next.
The blond rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, tilted his head slightly to the left and replied through gritted teeth.
"Yeah, I fuckin’ figured, Siren ," Wilbur winced at the sudden usage of his hero name, clearly meant to draw a line between the two, "I've never expected you to know my oh-so tragic backstory."
That was a lie and he knew it. Tommy still held some hope that maybe, just maybe, Wilbur paid more attention to the young intern than he thought. That maybe, Wilbur cared about him just as much as Tommy did for the hero.
Hope is a funny thing, because in the end, one will be inevitably disappointed.
"But I bet you would have known," he glared at the taller man, "if you had even bothered to ask, instead of getting all caught up on your ‘I hate vigilantes’ mission bullshit. Maybe we would have been friends, or even like brothers! If you had only paid more attention to the people around you, rather than your shitty, biased, one-way tunnel of the world, dickhead."
Wilbur grimaced, chest feeling heavy. He had always thought of Tommy as a friend, a younger brother, somebody important to him, so hearing the same person basically telling him that he had never felt the same way as the hero was gut wrenching.
Little did he know that it stung like a bitch for Tommy to say those words to one of the people he looked up to the most. Wilbur didn’t know that he couldn’t even see the hero standing merely a few feet in front of him because of the tears covering his vision.
Maybe it was for the better, Tommy thought, that he could not see Wilbur’s face. Saved him from the feeling of being crushed by the look of disappointment and mocking eyes he was so used to by adults and heroes alike.
——————
The hero felt the intern’s angry eyes burning a hole through him. He gulped, throat dry and sandy. He knew he had to be careful with his next words.
Wilbur opened his mouth but quickly shut it, throat closing up out of embarrassment. Saliva welled up under his tongue and he wet his dry lips, unable to raise his head to look at the young blond.
Finally, for what seemed like hours, Wilbur slowly looked past his wavy brown hair to meet Tommy’s eyes. As soon as his eyes connected with raging blue ones in front of him, he could really tell that the intern was just a child; a kid whose childhood was stripped away from him. A boy who was on the verge of tears but still held his head high and brows furrowed.
Wilbur nearly chuckled at how strong Tommy was; the kid just spat out irreversible words that seemed to have been buried deep inside him for a while, yet he still had an unwavering glare directed towards the hero.
He was so much stronger than Wilbur could have ever been.
Pushing his brown hair out of his way, Wilbur began to speak, slow and cautious, not wanting to do more harm to the younger than he already had.
“I... I can’t say anything now that would hold any serious meaning to you because I don’t want to pretend like I can change in a second,” he quietly said.
He could feel the focus Tommy had on him right now. Good, at least he was listening to what the hero had to say. Wilbur had half expected for Tommy to just walk out his office door as soon as he exhaled. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in through his nose.
Carefully, he reminded himself. Be gentle. You’re the one who got yourself into this, Wil.
“However, I will say I have been listening to your words and I will be taking them seriously. I understand I have hurt you in a way that I cannot undo,” he could feel the intern’s gaze sharpen slightly, “and I completely own up to it. I want to apologise and say sorry for my actions and my words. I know it’s not nearly enough to even begin to fix the hurt, but I need to at least make it known that I am truly sorry, Toms.”
Tommy’s eyes soften at the nickname the hero gave him. His furious expression faltered and mixed with a warmer tone, which made for a very confusing look.
The hero suppressed a smile from forming on his face. He looked so silly trying to maintain his harsh attitude, Wilbur thought fondly.
Silence draped the air again, but this time it was a little lighter. Wilbur held his breath and squeezed his hands tight, not knowing the reaction the blond would return.
“I,” the hero let his breath out as soon as Tommy started speaking, “I’m not... ready... to forgive you yet, Wil.”
Yet.
He said yet, which meant there was some chance that things would be alright between the two.
Wilbur nodded, understanding that forgiveness is hard to just give away. His heart warmed at the fact Tommy used his nickname for the hero. Maybe it will be okay.
“I don’t think we are done with this conversation, either,” Tommy continued, “We definitely need to talk, big man, without me wanting to rip your throat out and yelling at you and all that fun stuff.”
He paused, then added on with a slight smile, “Although I was completely valid for yelling at you. You deserved that, you prick.”
Wilbur groaned dramatically, throwing a hand up on his forehead.
“I can’t believe there came a day where the gremlin child actually was right about something.”
“Hey! I’m always right about everything I say, bitch!”
The atmosphere in the hero’s office was no longer heavy. It still held some heat from the pure anger the young intern expelled, but it was not dripping with malice anymore.
Maybe in the future, the two will spark another argument. Maybe it’ll be worse than this. But right now, the silent acceptance is all that matters. An apology goes a long way, after all.
——————
Tommy won’t fully forgive Wilbur for the ways he’s hurt him and that’s okay. He doesn’t need to. His feelings are valid and the ways he has hurt won’t be forgotten by him either. And that’s okay, too.
Wilbur doesn’t need to force him because he knows he’ll make up for his mistakes tenfold.
After all, they’re brothers, aren’t they?