Work Text:
Chad remembered the day everything started falling apart all too well.
It was Morgan’s fifth birthday. The whole house had been waiting for weeks to see what kind of power Morgan would get. Their parents couldn’t stop talking about how exciting it would be to have two little heroes.
Then the power came in, and it. . . Chad had to guess that their parents were disappointed.
Chad remembered there being days where Morgan was the apple of the whole family’s eye. They were the youngest until Diego was born, and by that point Chad was nearly a teenager. To this day Chad sometimes thought they’d wake up and Morgan would be there again, bright eyed, smiling, and full of hope.
But the world crushed Morgan Sterling on their fifth birthday, and it took Chad far too long to realize it.
He was ashamed now that he thought about it. He’d been so focused on winning Mom and Dad’s love that he didn’t remember he was the oldest, he was the standard they upheld, he needed to make sure Morgan and Diego knew he was a safe place to go to if they needed him.
Would things have been different, if Chad had hugged Morgan a bit tighter, stitched them up a bit better, made it more clear they were appreciated and loved?
Chad shook his head. It didn’t matter now.
Morgan was with Alex, and Chad could only hope that Alex wouldn’t fail where he did.