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... )
"From what I've seen," she said slowly, trying to chase it down, "Skrulls are really anal retentive. They keep track of everything, even if it's just to make sure nobody's getting any more than the very least they're entitled to. If your mom worked for this Princess, her name's got to be in a database somewhere. Maybe we could access that info through Xavin's ship, or one of the busted ones we've been pulling out of the Tower all week!"
The first thing that had occurred to her was something similar to the Flashback spell Nico had used on future-Gert's body a lifetime ago. But she figured you had to have someone with actual memories to access, and the Super Skrull, the only person who might have known Mrs. Altman's real name, was long gone.
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"D'you really think it might be in there?" he asked hopefully. Well, obviously, as she had been the one to suggest it, but it gave him hope. Not that it would tell him that much, but it was something. There was something that he could do.
He didn't know if she would have preferred to be remembered by the name she'd been given when she was hatched or the name she had made for herself on Earth, but it was still something.
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With the heavy mood somewhat lifted, the smell of smoke suddenly became that much more obvious. With a startled yelp, Karolina clambered to her feet and yanked the oven door open. Burned to a crisp. She grabbed a pot holder and fanned the smoke away, reaching up to turn on the ran over the oven. The last thing she wanted to do was set of a smoke alarm this late at night.
"Damn," she scowled. "I never burn food." Doing so back at the Hostel would have been an enormous waste on their slim budget. At least they didn't have to worry about empty stomachs while they were here.
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"Anything I can do to help?" he asked, smiling at Karolina.
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She briefly considered hunting Xavin down with food, but then she realized she had no idea what kinds of things she preferred to eat. They'd subsisted on synthesized proteins on the ship (although Xavin had been careful to point out that hers were strictly plant proteins), and there hadn't been much time for more than eating on the run since then.
"I wonder where Xavin even is right now," she mused softly, a digression that could be seen as going back to their earlier conversation. She wasn't sure where the Skrull had parked the ship; she hadn't seen it since the night they'd landed.
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"I haven't seen her since the clean-up on the roof." he said. Of course, he hadn't left his room since the clean-up on the roof, so that was fairly obvious.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything," he began, "but weren't you and Xavin planning on leaving? Back at the hospital, she was asking about Voldemort following you two off-planet."
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"There's nowhere for us to go anymore," she said flatly, "We were arranged to be married to stop a war between her planet and mine." Actually, it was much more complicated than that, but she didn't feel like going off on another tangent about her parents. Whatever they'd intended the marriage to be about, this was what it had become.
"But just before the fight the other day, she got a message from the Skrull generals. We took too long in getting back, and our planets destroyed each other. I don't know who shot first. They said it was Majesdane, but then, they would," she gripped the countertop; that had come out more bitterly than she'd intended. "I guess we'll never know..."
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"Oh. Sorry." he said awkwardly. "Do you want to talk about it?" Or not want to talk about it, but bending an ear might help you feel better?
They were here because of me. Teddy remembered suddenly. They were interrupted because the Skrulls wanted me more than they wanted to save two entire planets. What sort of irresponsible morons are running the empire right now if a single teenage kid is more important than two whole planets?
It's not my job to fix it. Teddy told himself firmly. It's my job to stay out of that mess and to help people here. Right now, Karolina needs someone to talk to, so I need to pay attention to her. It's not my job.
Maybe if he told himself that enough times, he'd believe it.
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She was silent for a few minutes, not wanting to admit to the other feelings that had been lurking in her chest these past few days. The words came anyway.
"But then I...I'm actually kind of relieved. I'm glad that I won't have to leave my friends and my home and go off somewhere totally alien, where I wouldn't know anyone. And I can't believe myself. How can I even think something like that?!" She squeezed her eyes shut and curled her hands into fists, shoulder hunching forward. The whole situation had forced her to admit, again, that she really wasn't a very good person, that she hadn't changed at all since that night she'd nearly let Topher kill her. She'd thought she'd gotten better, thought ( ... )
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"It's completely understandable that you're relieved that you don't have to throw yourself into some alien situation. I mean, you're sixteen, seventeen at the most, right? They don't even let you into the Peace Corps until you're eighteen, and that's just staying here on Earth. You'd have to go light years away, never knowing what you're about to get into, or even if you'd ever be able to come back. It's not about them, it's about you and that's okay. You're a teenager, your brain is literally wired differently than an adult brain. It's not your fault."
Teddy offered the tissues to Karolina, feeling something curl up and wither in his gut. This masquerade he had Kl'rt doing was going to condemn more Kree and Skrull soldiers to death in battle, and he hadn't even been thinking about them. Karolina had been willing to leave her home to protect a people who she had never met whereas he was risking people so that he wouldn't have ( ... )
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"I guess you're right," she acknowledged, "And I know nobody else would blame me, but I just wish...I could have done something." She wadded up the tissue and dabbed self-consciously at her eyes. "For all I know, I'm the last Majesdanian, or at least the last one who isn't some kind of exiled criminal. I didn't think that would be so lonely."
"Still," she shook her head and tried a tired grin, "I can't wait until that wiring changes and things start to make sense."
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He remembered all too well how lonely it was when you felt you were the only one like you, and that had even been before he'd found out that he was an alien.
"I don't think anyone would object if you felt like mourning for the Majesdanian planet." he said. "And if they do, point them in my direction and I'll give up a good thump around the ears."
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"For the record," she added as she ran the mixing bowl under the tap, "I don't blame you at all for what happened, and I don't think Xavin does either. I'm pretty sure she's furious with the Skrull Empire at large right now, but she really was serious about not forcing you into anything. It isn't your fault your extended family is made up of a bunch of assholes."
Karolina knew Billy, at least, hadn't been convinced about Xavin's motivations, but she had the feeling that Teddy had at least one loyal subject on Earth, whether he knew it or not.
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We've got Eli and Kate and Vision for that sort of thing. The Young Avengers certainly weren't hurting for leadership.
"But thanks. I wasn't sure how to ask Xavin if she was angry with me as well. I mean, I'd understand if she was, but it's still nice to know."
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Karolina blinked as her own words struck her ears...maybe she would have been good at politics after all.
"Since we can be pretty sure she's not mad at you and would love to stick one to the rest of the Skrulls, did you want to see about finding Xavin and asking about the hack-job?" she asked, "or has the tea kicked in yet?"
She could go either way, really. She felt awake and alert, but she knew her body well enough to tell that she'd probably crash the second her head touched a mattress. Then again, Molly had taken to sharing her room, and the kid snored like a dinosaur with bronchitis.
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"I don't know if we should start asking her about the information now." he said. "Even if she isn't mad at me, it seems a bit too soon after her planet was destroyed for me to start bugging her. She's probably in mourning and I don't feel comfortable interrupting that."
He should probably get to sleep, try to get his body-clock back in the right time-set. And talking with Karolina had helped to settle his mind. A lot.
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