Work Text:
In and out. Out and around. Back through and here we go again.
In and out. Out and around. Back through and here we go–
The needle jabs into Tommy’s finger. He yelps. He’s trying to get his business off the ground and he’s got so many orders to fulfill, he doesn’t know where to start. He starts with the more complex orders. So many designs to fill out and a whole costume to design.
He might be a little understaffed.
He looks up from the red fabric to glance around his shop. He’d bought it off an older lady who had wanted to give a kid a chance to start at something new in life. He’d offered to make her gowns and aprons, but she’d only taken him up on the offer for a new blouse.
He’d gotten the whole shop and apartment for only a blouse and 100 dollars.
A true steal, but she was on death’s doorstep, passing on in the blouse that Tommy had made for her and the one she was buried in. She had left behind two adult children and a dog. The children had agreed to let Tommy keep the shop for so cheap with no argument after they had found out. They stop by every once in a while and order something for their spouses or children, sometimes themselves, and Tommy always makes it for them.
It’s been a few months since Clementine’s passing, but he doesn’t truly mourn her anymore. She lives on in the clothes he sews.
The phone rings and he sighs, he picks it up and presses it between his shoulder and his ear. “Hello?”
“Yes, hello, are you the tailor?”
“I am indeed, who are you, and how may I be of service?”
“Do you cater to villains?”
Tommy sighs with a smile. At first, they’d hated the fact that he catered to all three in the superhero/supervillain/vigilante business. Now? Now though, they understand that if they want his quality products, they shall simply have to suffer.
“Yes, I do! I have actually made products for Nemesis, Graden, Tracer, and Mesmerize before!” Tommy pushes the needle back into the fabric that rests underneath his fingers, he swiftly and adeptly pushes the sharp object in and out of the fabric, tightly pulling the thread that is waiting there.
“Perfect! My name is Orpheus and I’d like to order a costume that fits my name, you can design it however you like!” The guy– Orpheus– begins to tell Tommy his measurements and Tommy jots them down in his notebook and begins to think after they hang up.
Darker colors with a theme that fits Achilles’ design, as they will be teaming up more and more often soon, as well as with those measurements and the Greek mythology behind the name?
Tommy thinks a deep lapis blue, paired with a softer mouse gray, perhaps some gold thread to link it closer to Achilles’ suit design? Tommy starts envisioning it and suddenly he has the motivation. He grins brightly and begins to grab fabric, cutting it and stitching it together. He stays up all night working on the piece.
Seven cups of coffee and three six-packs of Coca Cola’s later, and Tommy now has a fantastic suit for Orpheus. He’s heard of Orpheus, Achilles having mentioned the other a few times when they’ve talked on the phone.
He calls the number that Orpheus had left him with and he hears Achilles pick up the phone. “Orpheus’ Center for The Mentally Challenged For One Who’s Name is Orpheus, how may I help you?” Tommy giggles at the statement before he clears his throat.
“The amazing Tommyinnit calling the mentally challenged Orpheus to pick up his order for one suit to match the great Achilles’ suit!” Achilles laughs at Tommy’s response and tells Tommy that he’ll send someone to pick it up since Orpheus is sleeping. Tommy tells him that the guy had better pay this time since the guy who had picked up Achilles’ last suit hadn’t paid and Tommy had had to call Achilles.
“Yeah, yeah, I took care of that, didn’t I? Don’t worry, kid, I got this.”
“I’M NOT A KID!”
“And I’m the Queen of France. Now, my guy should get there in ten minutes or so, if he doesn’t pay call Orpheus again and tell him that his mentally challenged education system for the A and E Department ain’t workin’,” Achilles chuckles. Tommy responds in like and says he’ll do something along those lines and they end the call with a quick “Goodbye!”
Tommy turns back to the one he’d been working on last night. Something for one of the vigilantes, Tommy can’t quite remember the name, but she was some up-and-coming vigilante and wanted bright red.
Tommy would never understand this shade of red, but it looked alright to him. A dress that flowed softly and had built-in leggings that would allow her to tuck away the skirt if she wanted to.
That was the hardest part of the whole design was designing something that would look good with about 3 stinking yards of fabric wadded up inside it. She’d asked specifically for a skirt that would twirl when she spun, and Tommy was always up for a challenge. He’d finally finished it sometime earlier this morning during his caffeine rush and motivation spike.
He can’t quite remember how he did it, but he has the pattern tucked away in his secret chest so no one else can access it.
Orpheus shows up at around one o’ clock in the afternoon.
“Hello, Tommy,” Orpheus says as the awful doorbell rings. “That’s awful.”
“You simply have no taste,” Tommy refutes, “Telemachus is amazing, thank you very much.” Tommy huffs and Orpheus laughs.
“You named your doorbell after the son of Odysseus?”
“Yep, and what’d you name yours? It? The doorbell? Maybe a boring name like Sally,” Tommy bickers. How dare this oversized fish powered man insult his doorbell?!
“Did you just call me a fish-powered man?” Tommy realizes that he said his offense out loud. Time to cover.
“Yep,” Tommy pops,”get cooler powers, nerd.” Tommy crosses his arms as Orpheus approaches the counter.
“You literally have powers that are in reference to keeping clothes together. Do you really have room to speak?”
“Come on Tommy, heal them! You have the powers to do it!”
“I can’t! It’s not working!”
“DO IT!!!”
“Yes, in fact, I do.” Tommy shakes his head internally to clear his thoughts. He’s not there anymore. He’s not going back ever again.
“How?”
“I can talk to *****s like you,” Tommy smirks as the man sputters.
“Child.”
“I AM NOT A CHILD!” Tommy grabs the bag with the man’s suit and throws it at him, “AND PAY FOR YOUR CRAP!”
“Fine, then gremlin!” Orpheus tosses a few one hundred dollar bills on the counter with a sly grin. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Tommy grumbles and calls Achilles. He needs his emotional support villain.
“Orpheus being a ****?”
“Yes.”
“Should’ve just shown him your telekinesis, Tommy, what were you thinking?”
“You’re the only one who knows about that.”
“Oh? Well, Orpheus wouldn’t tell anybody if you bribed him with some sushi. Or cuddle time. He likes that.”
“Cuddle time?”
“If he said he’s coming back tomorrow, you’ll find out soon enough.”
“I don’t think I want to.”
“You don’t have a choice. I can’t really get there to help you, so you’re on your own kid.”
“I AM NOT A KID!”
Tommy is slumped against the counter. Orpheus was coming in again today for more Tommy time. Tommy didn’t want any more Tommy time. But he also kinda did. He finds that he doesn’t really mind it some days.
Today is one of those days.
A nightmare had kept him up all night and now he was exhausted.
Telemachus plays that awful doorbell noise and Orpheus walks in and spots Tommy. “Rought night?”
“Shut up.”
Orpheus chuckles.
“Come on then, gremlin, we’re off to your bed for cuddle time.” Orpheus grabs Tommy’s hand and leads him up the stairs after Tommy locks the doors. Orpheus settles on the bed and Tommy crawls into his lap. “Y’know, Achilles is jealous that I have enough time to come spend with you, and he’s very upset about it, he’s stuck at home with… with people.”
Tommy guesses that the people are just people that Achilles and Orpheus don’t want Tommy leaking. It didn’t occur to him though that they didn’t want Tommy to ever meet the man.
But they can only prolong the inevitable for so long.
“Mhm, now shut up and cuddle me,” Tommy says as he buries his face in Orpheus’ chest.
“Okay, there’s something else I wanted to do though. I trust you, do you trust me?” Tommy looks up at Orpheus and nods. Orpheus reaches up and pulls his siren mask off, revealing–
“*****-face.”
“That’s the first thing that comes to mind?”
“Yup.”
“Okay then,” Orpheus laughs, “I’m Wilbur, nice to meet you, Tommy.”
“Wilbur? Wilbur sounds like a plain, boring name for William Shakespeare,” Tommy bemoans.
“Pfft. My name is much more creative than William,” Wilbur groans. Tommy grins.
“Will-I-Am, give me things, Will-I-Am.”
“Not you too! Tech calls me that all the time!”
“Good.”
Wilbur groans but tugs Tommy closer. “I’m sleepy and tired of bickering. You’re sleepy and I’m sleepy.” That’s one of the things about Wilbur’s power, if he phrases something wrong, he can make himself do it instead of whoever it was. One time, he’d told Tommy to trip over a chair and Tommy had, but Wilbur had also done it because he hadn’t specified who was meant to trip over the chair.
“We’re both sleepy,” Tommy mumbles as he closes his eyes.
“Mhm, now sleep,” Wilbur’s hand cards through Tommy’s blond locks as his eyes drift closed.
Neither noticed the icy blue eyes that watched from the window. Neither saw the dart that flew from the tube into Tommy’s leg. No one noticed the dart -and the man who shot it- disappear into the noontime sunlight.
XD smiled at his creation. An amalgamation that rivaled its predecessor. Sure, Philza had escaped him, but this one had not. XD might be in his late thirties, while his last experiment had barely aged past twenty-five, but this one. This one was perfect.
Still as the hour glass was how XD watched this new experiment.
But like an hour glass, the world would soon….
Flip.