And she said "Herman, don't you sweetheart me, *hic*"
((Tag: Karolina. Blond, gay, earth-born and/or -raised alien teenagers unite! …Late at night.))
It was a few days after the Kree-Skrull invasion, at approximately oh-dark-thirty in the morning. And there was singing in the kitchen.
"Herman met Sally on the beach one night," Teddy puttered around the kitchen. "The sea was calm and the starfish ( Read more... )
It was a few days after the Kree-Skrull invasion, at approximately oh-dark-thirty in the morning. And there was singing in the kitchen.
"Herman met Sally on the beach one night," Teddy puttered around the kitchen. "The sea was calm and the starfish ( Read more... )
She'd learned the kitchen's layout quickly in the past few days. She moved around Teddy, pulling a mixing bowl and a cookie sheet from a bottom cabinet, flour and brown sugar from the pantry, and eggs from the fridge. She had brown sugar drops in mind, for some reason. Maybe because, with their almost bland sweetness, they went well with tea.
"How's the rest of it go?" she asked as she fished a set of measuring cups from a silverware drawer. For some reason she felt completely at ease...maybe because Teddy was so awkward, it just seemed as though one of them had to be.
She'd been angry at him for about thirty seconds, just after the aliens left. Part of her wanted to accuse him for everything that had happened, as if he really could have put a stop to the warring Skrull empire. Her more rational side pointed out that he would have been a puppet ruler, and that she would have run that same risk if she'd ever gotten to Majesdane, if she hadn't had Xavin on her side.
The truth was that it wasn't Teddy Altman's fault. He hadn't asked to be born a Skrull, or to be lied to about it, just like she hadn't asked to discover her own heritage by accident. Adults lied. Kids lived with it. She had more in common with the boy than she was strictly comfortable admitting. Did he realize that? Probably not...maybe that was why she didn't feel as if she had to be awkward.
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"Yeah, I couldn't sleep either." he said, reaching up to get a couple of mugs out of one of the other cupboards. "And I didn't want to wake up Billy because he's been running himself ragged what with everything recently."
He watched Karolina out of the corner of his eye. He'd heard about the Pride and their kids after everything had gone down, but L.A. had seemed so very far away when you were in New York where you could hardly walk a block without running into a super hero.
Teddy cleared his throat. "Well, Herman told his Sally and it broke her heart/She loved that lobster right from the start/He took her in his claws and said "I'll always be yours,/But still, dear, we'll have to part." 'Cause crabs walk sideways and lobsters walk straight/And we won't let you take her for your mate."
Teddy took the kettle off of the stove and began fixing the tea. You'd think that a place that had loose-leaf tea would also have tea strainers somewhere.
"She said, "Let me talk to your mom and dad,/I'll show them crabs really aren't that bad."/They turned her away, "What will the neighbors say?"/And they laughted at the funny walk she had./'Cause crabs walk sideways and lobsters walk straight/And we won't let you take her for your mate."
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She calmly measured brown sugar and flour into the bowl as he sang, stepping away to rummage in the fridge for eggs and butter (or Crisco, Crisco would be better. Maybe in the pantry again? Aha!). Blending them together would call for an electric mixer, but that could wait until he was finished.
He had a decent singing voice. For some reason that seemed out of place, coming from a boy built like a linebacker. They were none of them done growing yet, but Teddy was already taller than her and nearly three times as broad in the shoulders. Shapeshifter thing? she wondered. Now she knew that Skrulls could assume any face or build...to what extent did genes play into determining their physiology? Or did they even concern themselves with having a 'true' face when such things could be shuffled? Teddy wouldn't know anymore than she would.
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"Did you want anything in your tea?" he asked. "Milk, sugar, anything like that?" Teddy usually drank his tea without any additives, but his mother had always had a weakness for a dollop of honey in her's.
Teddy swallowed around the lump in his throat and pushed the thought aside.
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"Good for Sally," she said with a wide grin as she searched the appliance cupboard for an electric mixer. The grin faded behind the open cupboard door as the notion of complicated interracial marriages sunk into her insomnia-addled brain. She and Xavin had no reason to be engaged anymore. Maybe that was why she hadn't seen much of her fian...ex-fiance.
"Honey would be great," Karolina forced a smile. "Although I don't know if there's any left. Nico and I got into it just before the raid, and it kind of spilled everywhere."
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Teddy had noticed an increase in the amount of tissue boxes visible and available in the Tower since everyone had apparently move in. He wasn't sure if Jarvis was preparing for cold season or if he was just expecting certain reactions from adrenaline-charged teenagers.
Finding out about his mother's past and his own past still had Teddy staggering a bit. He'd been combing over his memories and inspecting them in light of this new information. Like the song -- he wondered if the cross-species love between a crab and a lobster had made her think of his biological parents, or if it was just one of the few songs that happened to put a fussy baby alien to sleep. Perhaps the tune recalled some Skrullos lullaby, or a thousand other reasons, not the least of which being "Maybe she just liked it".
"Found some." he said, rising up on his tiptoes to grab the squeeze-bottle of honey. Sure, he could have just shape-shifted until it was in his reach, but force of habit from years of purposefully hiding his powers meant a couple of seconds with his heels off of the floor.
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The harsh buzzing of the beaters seemed obscenely loud in the early-early morning quiet. Even knowing it was coming, Karolina jumped, spilling a little hot tea over the rim of the mug. The noise seemed to become more reasonable the longer it went on, and she drank her tea without bothering to try and speak over the racket. At least it filled what would have otherwise been an awkward silence.
Judging the cookie dough to be thoroughly mixed, she gulped down the last of her tea and shut off the appliance. Her ears rang in the sudden, deathly silence. She pulled the beaters loose and was about to deposit them in the sink...but paused instead.
"Care to lick one?" Karolina asked, offering the left-hand beater to Teddy. "Normally Molly would get them both, but the last thing she needs at three A.M. is sugar."
She wasn't sure why she made the offer. Hadn't she just been grateful to avoid an empty silence? Still, company was company, and cookies cheered everyone up.
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He licked the beater and grinned. "Tastes good."
Teddy had only jumped a little when the mixer had started up. It was kind of weird how quiet the Tower was right now, and the mixer had shattered that. He wondered if he ought to put the kettle back on in case anyone else had woken up.
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It wouldn't have surprised her too much if others did smell the baking and come drifting in. She realized she'd made a double-batch, and shook her head at herself; clearly she'd become used to cooking for an army.
"You could swipe some for Billy for later, if you'd like," she offered tentatively. "It seems like he burns a lot of energy using his powers." So did the speedster, but giving sugar to him seemed about as wise as handing some over to Molly.
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And they hadn't. Billy had been flying around and taking out Kang the Conqueror's shields and casting tracking spells, all without any ill effects. And now he was getting drained by flying, and getting sudden headaches. Teddy chewed on his lower lip and wondered if Billy's drop in power had anything to do with the amount of stress he'd been under. He was sure that Mr. Kaplan had mentioned his disapproval of their relationship -- Teddy's gut clenched and knotted itself into a tangle -- now that he was a danger to Billy.
Billy's a big boy. he told himself fiercely. He doesn't need me to protect him, he needs me to watch his back.
He hoped that it was true and he wasn't just being selfish.
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She didn't like to think about that. If she spent too much time considering it, then she was forced to remember that the Staff of One was the same as that Knife, and that Nico carried it around in her chest. It seemed as though she was spending most of her time sick with worry these days.
"Nico, my friend, her magic backfires a lot too," she continued, not really thinking about the words coming out of her mouth. "She can only use a spell once, and sometimes she forgets and then random shit happens. I'm worried it'll literally blow up in her face someday."
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"Billy used to throw lightning around." he continued, distractedly. "Back when we were first starting out and he was modeling himself more after Thor. I helped him figure out how to use his magic...we used my mom's self-help books." his mouth twisted into the bastard love-child of a smile and a grimace. "Maybe they'd help your friend with her magic. Can't hurt, at least."
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She hadn't meant to let slip her understanding of Teddy and Billy's relationship, but it didn't seem to be something they were trying to hide!
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The half-smile actually became a real one when Karolina named Billy as his boyfriend. Having someone else say it without Teddy telling them first was kind of nice. Okay, yes, had kissed Billy in front of everyone up on the roof, but it was still nice.
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The thought didn't cause her as much pain as it once might have. She knew Nico didn't, and never would, think of her that way, and having someone like Xavin complimenting her left and right had helped to soften the blow. Although now it seemed the Skrull didn't want much to do with her, with the engagement broken.
"Is your mom some kind of motivational speaker, or something?" she asked. A lot of people resorted to self-help books rather than therapy, but Teddy seemed pretty grounded. It made sense that his mother was too.
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"My mom sold real estate. She's..." Teddy swallowed hard. "She's dead. The Super-Skrull killed her."
The countertop made a noise of protest and he quickly released the edge where he had been holding onto it.
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