Chapter Text
Mark Grayson saw himself as any other teen. No, scratch that, he was not like every other teen. He was a viltrumite—half Viltrumite—that had no powers. His fathers people were something of an interplanetary peace corps*. They went from planet to planet helping people, and one day, he dreamed, he’d be just like them. Just like his dad.
The light streamed into his bedroom window and softly landed on his face, with the nondescript—maybe warmth—of the sun pried his eyes open. He was…tired to say the least, and he questioned whether or not last night's choice of late night gaming with William was a necessarily good idea.
Whilst struggling to keep consciousness, he took a short, analytical glance at his alarm clock. He wondered if it was maybe the tiredness that made him hallucinate the time 7:30, because ‘there is absolutely no way’. He wiped the tiredness out of his eyes and took another look. 7:31.
“Shit” he mumbled as he ran out of bed.
He was going to be late, he was going to be so so so late. That meant not only would his mom kill him, but he had less time to see her. The one girl that made his pathetic, weak, human life worth living. For her sake, he absolutely could not be late.
Mark stepped out of the shower and stared at himself in a foggy mirror and quickly grabbed a small towel to dry his dripping wet hair. He hated looking in the mirror. Every time he did so, it seemed like he looked—as far as he was concerned—exactly like his mother. Her eyes, her hair, and her…pathetic humanity.
It disgusted him how weak he was. He thought about that girl again, the light of his life. Maybe his weakness was why she never looked in his direction. Because she could stare into his eyes and see exactly what he did when he looked into his mirror.
Fear.
He took a second to watch the water drip down his abs. ‘I wonder if she likes muscular guys.’ He hurried to put his clothes on, while buttoning up under a red sweater, khaki pants. His usual attire. His school was 15 minutes away. He needed to be at school yesterday, so no time for breakfast. He sprinted downstairs, the TV was on, his mother was watching. Channel 5, his father and the guardians of the globe fighting some monster. He was transfixed on the TV, and had a longing look in his eye as he stepped out the door.
“Bye mom, love you.”
He tried to keep his voice monotone so she could not hear how jealous he was of his father. He really hoped she would not notice, after all they had talked about it so much already—how much he’d ‘get his powers eventually’. He wished “eventually” was a year ago.
She responded distractedly “Bye mark, love you too.”
She didn’t notice, or maybe she did, and chose not to say anything, maybe it was to not rub salt in the wound, he wasn’t sure. He began his walk to school and didn’t see his mom take a pitying glance at him, before swiftly turning her head back around to watch her father. His father thought a car would be unnecessary, because he’d be able to fly ‘any day now’ he hoped that was true, but for now he would have to walk.
*The Peace Corps is a US government agency that helps with sustainable development in other countries.