Chapter Text
Things could certainly be worse. He hasn't died yet, so that's a plus. A tiring plus
Well, Omni-Man destroyed his apartment complex with Invincible's body. The subway Reid normally took to get to his job at the convenience store was splattered with human remains. Because he had no way to get to work due to not owning a vehicle, he was let go. The furniture store he went to every Friday to clean had also collapsed to the ground. Some guy named Titan owned Machine Head's Tower now, and he wanted everyone there to be loyal. Reid apparently wasn't, so they tossed him to the curb.
To put it plainly, Reid was going to go broke. Cecil's bribe money was helping for now while he stayed in a hotel room, but that was draining pretty quickly. A lot of people were in the same situation as him, so prices increased. Capitalism.
He'd been here for almost four months, and he hadn't found much luck trying to find another job.
Reid sighed, leaning back and looking up at the sky. He sat on the banister of his balcony and stared down at the ground. Maybe he should be a criminal. No, the heroes around here were so violent. Petty crimes got you a punch through the chest.
He was contemplating his next move when he heard someone clearing their throat above him. "I don't think sitting up there is safe." Reid glanced up to see Invincible. How did these guys keep finding him?
He paused and looked down at his placement. "Okay, I see how this looks, but it's a pretty sturdy support."
"Still, I think you should get down for your own safety." Invincible said lightly, slowly flying closer with his hand in front of him.
Reid raised his brow at his movements and then back up to his masked face. "I'm good, man. Go save the city, do you, and be great."
"I don't want to add you to the roster of people I'll need to save," the superhero continued to push.
Reid sighed. "Listen, man—" He yelped when the man flew directly in front of him.
"Please, listen to me." His tone was even but low-key scary. So much so that the older man forgot to act like he didn't know who Invincible really was.
"Golly, alright, Mark. Damn. I'm going." He said as he whipped his legs over the railing to stand back on the ground.
There was a silence behind him as he turned around to straighten up his sweatpants. He could tell Invincible was still there. "What did you just say?"
Reid rotated around and gave him a questioning look. "Huh? What do you mean?" He watched the superhero drop down to stand on the railing that he literally just told him not to sit on.
"What you just said and what you just called me." The masked man said, stepping down from the banister.
What was going on? He thought back on what he said and paused, with realization washing over him. Oh man, he called him Mark. Time to play dumb. "I'm not sure what you're talking about." Reid faked a yawn and stretched. "Boy, I'm so tired. I'll catch you around Invincible."
"You said my name."
"Yeah, it's Invincible, right?" Reid questioned with a furrowed brow. He was really trying to sell it here, but he couldn't tell if it was working because the mask blocked the kid's eyes.
"No, I think I heard something different."
"Which part? Golly? No, wait, damn?"
"Reid." Oh no.
"Because it's the title of a pretty popular Kendrick album—"
"Reid, you know who I am," Mark stated. There was no question or confusion in his voice.
There was a sigh as the hero looked at him. "Fine. Yes."
The kid looked at him for a moment and hesitantly pulled off his mask, showing a rather tired face. Well, that was fair; the boy had been through a lot. "When did you find out?"
He hadn't noticed it until now, but Mark was taller than him. Reid exhaled and sat down in the chair right next to the sliding door that led back into his room. Every day he regrets going outside. "The day I came to your house for dinner."
The teenager looked at him in confusion. "But I wasn't invincible yet?" Mark blinked. "Wait, you knew my dad was Omni-Man?"
Reid shrugged. "He kind of told me. Something he said was, 'I can practically hear your heart from here.' He said the same thing to me the day I met him. I don't know if that was like a threat to keep me quiet because of what happened with Conquest due to him talking about their 'mission.' Maybe I read too far into it. Also, your dad doesn't wear a mask, man."
Mark huffed an unamused laugh. "I know. Most people just don't connect the dots, I guess."
The older man nodded in understanding. "Yeah, like Superman."
"Who?"
"It's nothing," Reid waved off. "Anyway, you were pretty easy to figure out because when you fought, your mask kept getting messed up, and well, I saw your face. You need to see if you can do something about that, kid. Somebody punching your identity into being exposed is kind of crazy." He turned back to look at the dimmed sky and listen to the faint sounds of sirens. From the corner of his vision, he saw Mark sit down in the chair next to him.
"…you don't seem that surprised about what happened with my dad." Reid turned back to the kid; he looked young, small, and insecure. He kept his gaze on the ground. "You know, I've been thinking about you—about what you said at Burger Mart since I woke up from my coma. How did you know?"
"How'd I know what?" Reid asked.
"How could you tell that he wasn't a good person?" Mark's gaze looked pleading, like Reid could just give him some secret way to know who was sincere or not. His response would probably disappoint the kid.
"I didn't," he said with a lift of his shoulders. "I had a hunch."
"A hunch."
"Yeah," Reid contemplated, continuing. "My father was like that; he was very angry. His father was mean to him. Anyway, he was good at hiding it, excellent at hiding it. But you could always tell when you were going to get it. So after a while you can track patterns in other people. Most of the time I was right, but not always. So that's why I said a hunch."
Mark pursed his lips and turned away before he spoke. "You don't see your 'hunch' in me, do you?" He kept his face away from him, waiting for his answer.
"We're not our parents, Mark," the older man declared. "I know I look like him; I got the same hazel eyes, nose, and voice. But I'm not him. I remind myself of that, you know. You proved that by fighting against him."
"I feel so stupid for defending him to you." He replied.
Reid leaned his head against the back of the chair to look at the boy's solemn expression. "He's your dad. You couldn't have known."
"Yeah, but you did," he insisted, looking at his mask in his hands. "I saw him recently."
"For real? Like on earth?" Did Reid need to go into hiding?
Mark shook his head. "No, a place called Thraxa."
"Oh." Reid paused. "Is that near Urath?"
The boy looked at him in confusion. "You know about Urath?"
"It's a long story."
Suddenly, his expression changed, and it looked like something had occurred to him. "This might seem super captain obvious, but are you staying here?"
The older man smiled in amusement. "Yeah, my apartment, uh, sort of got destroyed during that whole fight." Mark's pained expression came back.
"I'm so sorry. I looked for you, you know. You weren't at the convenience store or my mom's job either, and you weren't answering my text. I tried to get William to message you, and then nothing."
"I thought Omni-Man was going to kill me," Reid admitted. "I feel like I was told things I wasn't supposed to know, and he was going to finish me off or something. Also, my transportation was kind of shot after everything. So here I am."
He really did need to find another job soon, because the money Cecil gave to him was going to be gone very soon. "What if I offered a job to you?" Mark said suddenly.
"A job?"
"Yeah, a few months ago when you had dinner with us, you said you had a degree in behavioral science and you're good with kids, right?"
Where was this going? Reid nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, I raised my siblings...why?" He doesn't know how that constitutes him being qualified for this unknown job.
He watched as Mark stood to his feet and looked like he was trying to figure out how to ask something. He opened his mouth to speak but touched his ear like someone else was speaking with him. Mark didn't say anything for a moment before turning back to him. "I have to go, but could you come to my house tomorrow? I'll be there. I can send you the time and details."
"Mark-"
"Please. I'll explain it then, I promise." Reid frowned before rubbing both of his hands on the back of his neck. He needed a job, but he avoided Mark and Debbie to get away from stuff happening to him. Hearing him out wouldn't hurt, he reasoned with himself. Maybe this would bite him later, but he was living in a hotel with no income, so there wasn't much to lose.
He finally answered. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."
The younger man nodded and pulled his mask back on. "Don't sit on that banister again."
"You're not the boss of me." Mark stared at him, and Reid sighed. "Fine, fine; see you tomorrow."
Satisfied, the kid flew off. Well, he would just have to see what tomorrow would bring him.