A ficcy...
That I wholly blame on the new comic and my own pessimistic mind.
Bulletproof Skin
I don’t own Young Avengers. Except issue 10...
Author: Aloysha
Rating: *shrugs* I’d say PG-13 for this part. If I actually decide to write more…we’ll see.
Pairings: Teddy/Billy.
Summery: Billy and Tommy are revealed to be William and Thomas Maximoff and fearing the worse they decide to run away. Teddy objects.
Notes: I think Billy and Tommy being Wanda’s twins would indeed cause hell to break loose, yes. After all that crap with Wanda damn if Billy and Tommy would just be left alone, especially with that reality altering/might not actually exist thing… Though, perhaps, Billy is taking it too far. Depends on who is calling the shots really…anyway, I just couldn’t let it go. Sorry.
Note 2: I’m not even going to try to have them understand how this is all possible because hey, I don’t understand.
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Bulletproof Skin
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Teddy walked into his apartment, immediately aware of his boyfriend and Tommy sitting on his couch, heads leaned towards each other and talking softly. He shut the door louder than he would have normally and Billy’s head shot up, a mixture of panic and relief flashing over his face. Tommy however just frowned before sitting back and leaning against the arm of the couch.
They didn’t exactly get along, which was to say that more often than not Teddy kind of wanted to throw him out of the nearest window and into traffic. He was sure Tommy felt the same way about him if the way he hovered around Billy was any indication. While he trusted Billy to not do anything with the speedster, he didn’t trust Tommy to not try anything with his boyfriend and since that whole possessive boyfriend thing didn’t suit him he kept his mouth shut and watched.
He wasn’t an overly insecure guy exactly, he hoped, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was just waiting for Billy to realize that the other teen was interested in him and that Tommy was a much better choice than Teddy was. Teddy wouldn’t blame him for being interested back; Tommy was a lot like Billy aside from the scary resemblance, was far from ugly, and had the benefit of being human and not the heir to the Skrulls on his side.
“Teddy.” Billy stood up, rubbing his hands down the front of his jeans. “I need to talk to you. …Alone.”
Tommy looked almost hurt but stood up anyway. “Right. I’ll be outside; don’t take forever.”
“I won’t.” Billy muttered before turning and walking deeper into the apartment.
After his mom had died Teddy had been at a crossroads as it were. He didn’t have any other family, of course, or anywhere to go really. The Kaplans had offered him a place in their new home but with Tommy already moving in he hadn’t wanted to intrude. He’d ended up being able to keep the apartment he and his mother had lived in, using the money she’d left him to pay for it since he couldn’t exactly get a job between school and the team.
It was different, being here alone, but he was making it work.
He followed Billy and found that the other teen had gone into the kitchen and was sitting at the small table in there. Teddy frowned at his boyfriend’s, at least for the moment anyway, serious expression and sat down as well, mentally preparing himself for the worst. If nothing else he had to appreciate Billy doing this face to face. His hands were flat on the table and Billy’s brushed over his own then his middle finger began to run over Teddy’s palm almost absently. It tickled, in a strange sort of way, but he didn’t make any actual effort to take his hand back.
“Teddy I…something happened.” Billy said after a moment. “I’m not exactly sure how to tell you this…it’s not like I want it, exactly, but I think maybe it’s for the best and Tommy agrees so… Look, Tommy and I-”
“If you want to go out with Tommy just say so. It‘s okay, if that‘s really want you want.” Teddy lied, pulling his hand away. It really wasn’t okay, the idea made something inside of him hurt in a way he hadn’t felt since his mother had died. It wasn’t the same of course, but it was bad. He didn’t want to lose Billy or pretend at that ‘lets just being friends’ shit, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t pretend. He didn’t think he’d ever had ’just friends’ thoughts about Billy. The first time he’d seen him, after Ironlad brought them together…it hadn’t been love at first sight or anything, but there hadn’t been ‘friendly’ thoughts there.
He was friends with Patriot and Stature and Kate. Never with Billy.
That didn’t really matter now, because he wanted to hear the truth without any beating around the bush or drawing it out. It was bad enough without it taking forever to get done. The fact Billy dumped him the faster he could go and wallow in his room.
Billy stared at him, eyes almost comically wide. “What?!”
“Err…” He sounded so confused that Teddy thought maybe he’d been wrong. “You’re…breaking up with me right? To date Tommy.”
Billy stared at him a moment longer then groaned and put his head down on the table. His shoulders were shaking and it took Teddy a moment to realize he was laughing; the knot that had been forming in his chest vanished, leaving him relieved. Billy kept laughing. He frowned and prodded the dark haired teen in the shoulder. It wasn’t funny; he’d been worried.
“Hey-”
“’M sorry but…” Billy let out a gasping laugh then sat up, wiping out his eyes. He was obviously trying to smother his laughter but he seemed to have it mostly under control. “It‘s been a long day is all. So is that why you hate Tommy so much?”
“I don’t hate him. I’m suspicious of him.”
Billy smiled and his foot nudged Teddy’s playfully. “I’m flattered that you think you need to be suspicious Tommy; I didn‘t know I was that much of a commodity that you think someone would want to take me.”
“Well…yeah. Whatever.” Teddy knew he was blushing and looked away, hoping Billy wouldn’t notice it. He could almost feel the smile the other was wearing and bit his lip as Billy’s foot, suddenly missing its shoe, traveled up his leg.
He knew there was no way to hide his blush now. “Umm…”
“I want…I…” Billy trailed off again and he looked over at him to see that Billy had sat back, arms crossed over his chest and looking down. He would have assumed that he was watching the progress of his foot but he gone so still that Teddy wasn’t sure. “I’ve never liked someone as much as I like you.”
Well…that was promising, he supposed. He figured it would maybe be a little bit too much to follow up ’I really like you’ with ’Oh, good, because I think I’m in love with you’ and didn’t say anything at all. He kind of figured Billy was trying to broach that ’sex thing’ that had remained thus far not…broached. Not for lack of thinking about it on Teddy’s part thank you very much, but probably a little hesitance from the both of them.
“Thanks.”
“God…I’m going to miss this so much.” Billy’s voice was thick all of a sudden and when he looked up Teddy thought maybe he saw a glimmer of wetness. The other teen looked away before he was really sure, pulling his foot back and shaking his head.
“Miss this? You just said-”
“I’m leaving.” Billy interrupted, still not looking at him. “Tommy and I are leaving.”
“…” Teddy wondered if he looked half as confused as he was feeling all of a sudden. Leaving? With Tommy? Who he wasn’t being dumped for. “What do you mean leaving? …With him?”
Silently he cursed himself for not focusing on the more important thing, Billy leaving, but still…with Tommy? He really hated that
“Tommy’s my brother…twin, and we can’t stay here.”
“…He’s what?”
“My twin.”
Teddy twitched, suddenly not liking where this was going. “Your twin. That your parents forgot to mention?”
“My parents aren’t…my parents exactly. I don’t really understand it myself; if it wasn’t true I’d think it was pretty stupid actually.” Teddy tilted his head slightly and decided that Billy looked a lot like he was hugging himself than anything else like this.
“Try me. At this point I don‘t think you could surprise me.”
“Scarlet Witch is my mother and I guess maybe Vision is my father, but I don’t understand how that would even kind of work because, you know, android. It doesn‘t really make any sense…”
He’d been wrong. That did surprise him in that…obvious ‘why the hell didn’t I think of that’ way. When he heard it out loud he could see where that train of though could come from. Especially with Tommy around…
“How do you know?”
“I…Tommy and I, actually, overheard Ironman and Captain America talking about how strange it is that we look exactly alike but have never met, have the same names as her children, and the powers of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. They said they would have to watch us closely to make sure we weren’t a threat. I dug around a little bit trying to figure out what the hell they were talking about and finally had Vision scan us to see if we were related and...” He shook his head, dark strands shadowing his eyes further. “I can’t say for sure that she’s our mother but I can’t see how it’s anything else.”
“Your parents-”
“My parents are probably just random people she picked to put me with, modified their memories or…I don’t know. But they *aren’t* my parents and I don’t think they even know it. I tried to bring it up and they asked if I was sick.”
“Well…that’s weird, but not a reason to leave. You’re still their son, just like my mom is still my mom, even if she wasn’t the one who…hatched me, or whatever.” He still wasn’t exactly sure about the whole Skrull mating and reproduction process thing, and really didn’t want to be, but he figured as long as he didn’t lay any eggs or anything screwed up like that he was in the clear.
“It’s not that it’s about her. I don’t know what they might do to us if they ever confirm that we’re her children. As it is Vision is probably going to tell them what happened and then we’re in trouble.”
“The Avengers aren’t going to haul you in because your mother was…you know.” Crazy was the nicest way Teddy could put it, but was thinking more along the lines of ‘A psychotic bitch’.
“Ted…I don’t think we even exist, really.” He finally looked up and the worry and pain in his eyes made Teddy hurt as well. He pushed his chair back and was around the table, kneeling with his arms around his boyfriend before he could give it any real thought. Billy was still for a minute then sighed and rested his head against his shoulder. “We’re not real, she just willed us into existence so how do we know someone else can’t just will us back out of it or that she won’t show up and change us or that we won’t just vanish some day and it’ll be like we never existed because we don’t exist and if we are somehow real and our own people who’s to say we should be allowed to live? It seems silly but if we have her power, or I do, I could be just like her and it’d be easier for them to-”
“Hey, don’t…you’d never do that kind of stuff.” He wanted to tell Billy what a good person he was but knew it wouldn’t mean much. Scarlet Witch had been one of the good guys for a long time but she’d probably been one of the biggest threats to ever hit the earth…she had changed everything just by thinking it.
But Billy wasn’t like that. Teddy knew he wasn’t.
After a long moment Billy pulled away from him, wiping at his eyes. “Anyway, we can’t stay here. Once they find out…I have this bad feeling and Tommy agrees.”
Teddy really didn’t like that kid, twin or no. “Don’t you think maybe you should talk to Ironman and Cap’ about it before you go running off?”
Billy smiled wanly. “Like we talked about them training us and not telling our parents?”
He had a point. The Avengers weren’t so much with the listening to them as they were with the lecturing and telling them they were too young, it was too dangerous, and they didn’t want the reasonability. He could see where something like this would fall under the ‘shut up and go away kid’ category.
“And if not them, someone else. People wanted her dead and now, with everyone losing their powers and stuff they might think we’re the next best thing and…my parents and brothers would be caught up in everything and you guys.” Billy’s hand found it’s way to his shoulder. “It’s just too screwed up to chance.”
“You’re just going to leave?”
“Yeah. I just wanted to say goodbye.”
Teddy put his hands on the floor, letting the coolness from the linoleum seep into him. “Where’re you going?”
“No idea and I couldn‘t tell you even if I did. You shouldn‘t be involved with it, in case something bad happens. I couldn’t leave without seeing you is all.”
“You sure this is what you want to do?”
“I think…it’s the right thing.”
He was silent, staring at the white and black checkered floor, trying to calm his thoughts. Letting Billy walk away from him wasn’t even an option so he didn’t even entertain the thought. He doubted there was a large number of guys who would shrug off him not being human like it was the most normal thing in the world, appreciate all of his fanboy tendencies, and just…make him feel as good as Billy made him feel. He wasn’t exactly knowledgeable when it came to relationships and all of that fun stuff, but he knew that you didn’t let a honest to god once in a lifetime kind of person get away from you. At least that’s what his mother would have said.
She did read a lot of trashy supermarket novels, to be fair.
All that stuff aside Tommy was crazy and he couldn’t let Billy go off with him like this.
He could try and make Billy stay: after all of this stuff hinged on someone finding out and, after finding out, deciding to act against two teenage boys who could barely drive, let alone cause any damage to anyone. …Though there was the school-destroying thing that Tommy had done. …And Billy had displayed some pretty destructive abilities, even if he didn’t use them that way. With the wrong influence or the right trigger he couldn’t say they would never be a big threat, because that’d be a lie.
Then again the same could be said about any one really.
“I’ve gotta go.” Billy’s hand left his shoulder and they both stood at the same time. Something inside of him was screaming to stop this, to do something, to tie Billy to the goddamn bed if that would get him to stay with him. He couldn’t just let him walk away…he didn’t have anyone else. “I…I’ll call you, as soon as I can and I’ll write you and-”
“I think I love you.” The words pushed themselves out, rushing together and becoming one long nonsensical mess and if Teddy had ever thought about telling Billy how he felt it hadn’t been like this, with panic and fear warning inside of him.
Billy blinked. “Huh?”
“I…nothing. Just…no. No.”
“I wasn’t asking.” Billy muttered. “Ted…I mean, I’m your first boyfriend for god‘s sake. You’ll forget all about me as soon as I’m gone.”
Ted’s heart clenched at the thought of just forgetting. It’d be forgetting a part of himself, or going back to pretending that part of him didn’t exist. “I doubt it.”
“I could make you.” Billy’s eyes got that intense glimmer they always got before he used his power or was about to try out a new spell. The hair on his arm stood up and he could feel tiny licks of power running over his bare skin. “I think…I could just erase it all. You don’t have to remember me.”
That would be the scariness Billy was afraid people would see in him. Teddy could see it, in a distant sort of way. He moved forward, sliding one hand up to cup the back of Billy’s head and pull him into a kiss. There wasn’t any hesitation when it was returned, just hands on his chest and lips moving over his own. Billy’s eyes closed tight and he looked for the life of him as he was trying to remember something really important.
Or save something important to memory.
The kiss became two and then three and soon Teddy was practically sitting on the table with Billy between his legs and sweaty hands slide through his hair, down his back and Teddy wanted him to be just a little bit closer. It was warm and messy and teeth and tongue and urgent and like everything Teddy had picked up about kissing had just flew from his mind in that instant.
It didn’t matter.
Billy’s lips left his but not by much and his harsh breathing seemed to echo in his ears. Billy kissed him again, lightly and Teddy grabbed his arm, keeping him from pulling away as he probably intended.
“Wait. Just…wait.”
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I'm thinking I might want to tell a few stories following this storyline and have something like a follow up started...but I wouldn't call it a WiP. Because...I never finish those. Lets call it a one-shot with potential, hmm?