Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Already as children, the Sterling kids learned to keep their head down and not meet anyone's eyes. Their parents said children were supposed to be seen but not heard, should listen and do as they're told, and not meet others' eyes to not come across as arrogant and defiant. No, it was more humble and respectful to keep their eyes cast down.

This would also help with keeping their hero and civilian personas apart. In contrast to the civilian personas, the hero personas were supposed to be confident and meet people's eyes. However, as Morgan's power came in they were demoted to sidekick and, according to their parents, sidekicks did not meet people's eyes, only heroes got to do that. 

So Morgan grew up to never, ever, meet people's eyes, always keeping them respectfully cast down.

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This habit didn't stop when they ran away. Hiding your face and not meeting people's eyes were a good rule when you were on the run and didn't want to be caught.

It also helped when trying to not be noticed for pickpocketing, or stealing. It even became part of their villain persona. And as part of their costume, they made a mask that hid their face completely, letting them see through but no one seeing them. And when already having a screen in front of their eyes, why wouldn't they integrate a lot of features in it?

Morgan had never felt they lacked colours, they worked perfectly fine with shades of grey. That didn't mean knowing colours and being able to match them wasn't useful, for example during heists or when getting chased by people who could potentially see colours. 

For this purpose they had early on built themself a little doohickey that could tell them what colour something was (both the name of the colour, if it was a specific shade and the hex code, because why not). This was one of the things they integrated into their villain mask, making sure they could get colour information if needed while on villain related shenanigans.

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Then one day Morgan was heading over to their favourite coffee shop for more fuel to get through their heist planning. And as they neared the shop, they heard the unmistakable sounds of a high tiered fight. Rounding the last corner they arrived just in time to see the S-tier throw a hero right into the coffee shop and turn it into a pile of rubble.

‘This fight was such an inconvenience’, Morgan thought to themself. They turned to the S-tier and glared up at them defiantly.

“What do you think you're doing? Wrecking the coffee shop? And before I got my coffee, at that?”

And since the S-tier didn't seem to react to just their shouting, they accentuated their yells by throwing some of the loose rubble at them for good measure. (Not their smartest idea but they had been up for way too many hours in a row and not had their caffeine fix in a while.)

The S-tier finally turned to Morgan, looking murderous and like they were ready to turn Morgan to a cloud of red dust. And as Morgan defiantly stared up at the S-tier, their eyes met and the world exploded into colours.

Chapter Text

Alex had always wanted to see colours, ever since they were a kid. The reason was twofold, on one hand their parents saw colours and therefore they also wanted to. But the main reason was just that they were a hopeless romantic and wanted to find their soulmate.

And as a kid, before their powers came in, no one had any issues meeting their eyes. They were a happy kid and loved meeting new people. And yet they hadn't found their one true love before they turned 10 and their powers came in.

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And then, as Alex powers came in, their eyes changed. The pupils became slitted, and according to their mom their eyes were now a very vivid yellow-gold colour. And now they scared Alex's classmates, so much that they turned away from Alex, no longer willing to look into their snakelike eyes.

So Alex decided to change them. They used their powers to disguise the eyes, making the pupil round again. And, with their mom's help, they also changed the colour. They picked a swirling rainbow, so all colours got represented and their eyes still showed that they had very strong powers.

With the updated eyes, Alex's classmates were back to meeting their eyes. Though it wasn't as carefree as before and seemed to hold more weight now that Alex had gotten powers.

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Their powers also gave them the idea to become a hero, though their parents held them off for several years before letting them start any actual hero work (don't want literal kids to be heroing, it's not safe for the kid).

But when Superior finally made their debut, rainbow eyes and all, everyone wanted to be their soulmate and so met their eyes in hope of being the lucky one.

And even for those that didn't look for soulmates (or had found theirs), meeting the hero’s eyes was no issue. Be that when thanking for help or saving, or just when passing them by and saying hello.

But even if Alex wanted to meet their soulmate, and Superior’s eyes made people actually meet them, Alex wasn't sure if it would even work currently. After all, their real eyes were hidden and everyone only met the fake eyes. Maybe they had even met their soulmate already and just didn't know due to the fake eyes blocking from making the connection.

Though with how everyone was fawning over Alex and trying to seem more important and impressive than they actually were, Alex wasn't so sure they wanted anyone they currently hung out with to actually be their soulmate. They might be better off alone, than having to deal with one of those stuck-up ego-tripping persons for the rest of their life.

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And then Alex turned villain. This allowed them to get away from all the people that had annoyed them. And in addition to that, they dropped the disguise of their eyes, letting out the slitted pupils and removing the rainbow glamour.

And not only did the pupils scare people off from meeting their eyes once more, so did their villainy. People were too scared of being ripped apart so they didn't dare meet Alex's eyes in hopes of not catching their attention or provoking them.

And so, even if Alex still wanted to find their soulmate with all their heart, they once again found themself unable to. And so they had to lock away that desire, and let their bloodlust take the wheel instead.

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And letting their bloodlust steer them, they did. Going out and picking fights with heroes left and right. And it was during such a fight that they suddenly felt something being thrown at them, but not from any of the heroes they had been fighting.

And as they noticed the rubble hitting them, they also realised the person responsible was shouting something about coffee, Alex wasn't listening enough to know what they were on about. But getting rubble thrown at them was definitely annoying and deserved retribution, so Alex turned menacingly to the person who threw it to take them out.

However, as they turned to the person they first noticed how scruffy and tired they looked. Then they met their defiant eyes, their green defiant eyes, and Alex world skidded to a stop before coming back in colour.