YA fic prompts just because

[jazzypom]

Author:jazzypom
Title: Various
Fandom: Young Avengers, Avengers, Marvel 616
Beta: None.
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Kate Bishop/Eli Bradley, Cassie Lang/Kate Bishop,
Rating: All PG, all the time, bb.
Word count: Approximately on this side of 7k
Summary: Kate is injured, Eli is asked to come out and play, Kate is going away to college, Kate and Eli might be dating, but not really, Kate is too circumspect and Cassie has a problem with her prom dress.
Disclaimer:Characters and situations are the property of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. No profit is being made off this fan-written work.



Sugar On A Sunday

Kate found herself on the sofa, her leg stretched out in front of her, her foot on the pillow. Gingerly, she flexed her foot, only to hiss at the silvery shards of pain there. The sort that seemed to hook the pain receptors of her muscles and tug.

She reached for her pillow, put it over her face and made a strangled scream at the injustice of it all. After a minute, she put the pillow to one side, picked up the remote and started flicking through the stations, until Cassie came in, with a container of ice cream and a spoon in hand.

"Hey," Cassie said, her face as bright as a sunbeam, and Kate tried not to hold Cassie's good mood against her, but found herself failing miserably.

"Hey, Cassie," Kate said, putting the remote to one side.

"How's your ankle?"

"Still sprained. Although Billy managed to pilfer stuff from Reed Richards. I should be able to walk in the next couple of days. Until then, I'm just stuck here, being utterly useless."

"Not utterly," Cassie said. "Probably relatively?"

"Hello?" Kate raised an index finger. "You're so not helping, nurse Nancy."

Cassie laughed as she grabbed for the remote, and threw herself on the sofa beside her. "You'll never be useless, you're too Kate Bishop for that. Besides, you're the only one who can tell Tommy to stop shaking the soda cans and he will listen."

"Oh," Kate placed her fingers to her mouth, trying to hide the grin that threatened to topple her out of her bad mood. "Teddy didn't fall for that trick again, didn't he?"

"He tried to make you a rootbeer float," Cassie smiled. "I think he's trying to get Billy to put a hex on Tommy."

Kate grinned openly this time, eager for more shenanigans, but Cassie wasn't having any of that. "Ooh," she cooed. "Inspector Gadget."

"Inspector Gadget?"

"Yeah, I queued it on netflix for you. This is the best time to watch cartoons. When you have a hurt leg."

Kate heard the jaunty jingle of the opening credits, and smiled at the animation. It was clean and simple.

"May I have some of your ice cream?" Kate asked, since the rootbeer float was a casualty of sibling hijnx.

"Yeah," Cassie handed her the carton, before turning attention to the cartoon, and Kate laughed at the go go gadget arms.

She'll get over the injury soon enough, Kate knew, but until then, she'd try and not let it bother her too much, especially when she heard the crash of crockery and the smashing of glass in the kitchen, along with Teddy's triumphant yell, "Your ass is mine, Speed!"

One, Two, Ready Go!

The day burst through the windows like a song.

Beams of sunlight scampered through the window, danced with the dust motes - Tommy forgot to dust,again- and landed splashing its light all over Eli, hunched over the desk in the YA's study. When Kate got her plan in motion for reforming Young Avengers all those months ago, she decided she wanted the rooms designed her own way - and had a fistful of credit cards to do so. Not the faux old fashioned chintz of a Laura Ashley mood, and the Armani minimalism of the moment left her cold. So, Kate went with warm neutrals all over the place, and in this room, she thought the decorator followed her brief to the letter: the floors sandblasted to a warm maple, large bookcase crammed with dictionaries and maps, and books on fighting. A desk big enough for all of the team to work around freely - oak and smelling of almonds.

At first, the room hadn't been used, but then little by little, bits of her companions' selves imprinted in here. Cassie's hair ties in the corners of the windowsill, Billy and Teddy's colour comics peeking between her books on martial arts and archery. Tommy's sneakers, Vision's chess board, and Eli.

On the face of it, Kate never pegged Eli for a bookish sort. Too loud, too angry, too mouthy, too physical. On the occasions when Billy and Teddy faded into each other, he stayed in this room. He'd read, and as now, be doing the odd assignment.

Kate ran her hands through her hair and found a hairpin. With great care, she curled her middle finger, pressed it against her thumb, and gently balanced the pin. Steady as she goes and - Kate flipped her middle finger, the hairpin bouncing off Eli's wrist.

"Hey!"

"Hey, yourself," she crossed over and dropped in the chair beside him, putting her feet on the desk. "We're all going out today, getting voluntarily caught in the tourist traps."

"Damn," Eli said, as he turned towards her, his arm resting on the back of the chair, his earring a circle of gold in the sunlight. "Why?"

"Cassie wants to," Kate stared at his light limed forearms, before meeting his eyes. "They remind her of her dad."

"Skating at Rockefeller Centre?" Eli frowned.

"Ferry to Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State building," Kate counted the places off the tips of her fingers. "We'll even be buying those I love NYC shirts, and the headpieces if we can."

"I can see it now: welcome to uncoolville. Population: the six of you."

"And you'd make seven," Kate answered, keeping her voice steady, a direct counterpoint to the zap of nerves in her stomach. If Eli leaned just a bit more, they'd be sharing breath. Near enough for one of them to close the gap and change everything.

"I -"

"It's Cassie," Kate said into the space, voice low, and unconsciously intimate. "Besides, if you can't skate -"

"I can skate." Eli gave one of those rare sweet smiles he normally had hidden inside of him. She imagined he only got a few to issue each year, and Cassie seemed to be the recipient of most, probably because he saw her as a younger sibling, and Kate as ... something else.

"You'll come?"

"I - yeah," Eli nodded. "I'll play tourist, and be a member of population uncool. But no Statue of Liberty headgear, I'm begging you."

"I promise." Kate said, mentally crossing her fingers. All of them were going to make today a day for Cassie to remember, and if green Styrofoam pointed crowns were the way to go, so be it.

However, Eli didn't have to know that.

We're Going; We're Gone

The news came for Kate, while they were having dinner at their HQ.

"Hey, Kate, a letter for ya. Found it pushed through the slot," Tommy said, striking it against the tips of his fingers. In a swift move, Kate pushed herself from the table, and swiped it from Tommy's grasp. Not that she suddenly acquired super speed or became a mutant at eighteen. It might have been the fact that Tommy saw that look on her face; half desperate, half expectant, and Eli crunched on his cornflakes.

"Thank you, Tommy," a cool nod in his direction, before she held up the letter, the tremor in her fingers slight, but there. Eli's curiosity now piqued, he put his spoon down, and swallowed the half chewed food, knowing from experience that he might spit it out either from surprise or indignation.

"A letter?" Billy asked, half distracted by playing thumb war with Teddy.

"One, two, three, four, let's start a thumb war- hey, Billy?"

"Kate got a letter," Cassie said helpfully, before jumping up to stand by Kate. "It might be the lottery."

"Aren't billionaire heiresses automatically disqualified from getting you know, more money?"

"[Surprisingly, as much as Kate might be rich on paper, she can be considered cash poor, in that if she decided to withdraw her fortune, it would have serious ramifications re: the Dow Jones.]"

"Whoa," Teddy paused, taking in the paradox of that comment, his thumb still in midair, only for Billy to take the moment to press it against the top of his knuckles. "Hey, you cheated!"

"Caught you napping," Billy chuckled.

"Two out of three."

"Guys," Kate shook her head, as she placed her fingernail under the envelope flap and tore it open. "It's not that, and really? Talk of my possible inheritance is tacky and oh," she exclaimed softly, as she blinked rapidly. "I got in."

"Got in? Got in what?" Eli asked, his stomach suddenly a tight nexus of knots, because he had an inkling.

"I've been accepted to Stanford."

"California Stanford?"

"My mom's alma mater, Stanford."

At this announcement, the entire room became still. Eli himself too dumbstruck to speak at this moment. He could only look at Kate, standing in the middle of the room, dressed in a snug t-shirt with the Mickey Mouse logo on the front, and jeans faded to white at stress points. Her eyes were bright, and Eli knew right then, she'd leave.

"Congratulations, Kate," he said, each step towards her suddenly taking great precedence in his mind, a countdown to the fact that he wouldn't be able to cross this floor towards her any more. In this kitchen with everyone watching them both, as he swung her into a hug and whooped, because you could only be happy for the people you loved when it came to the choices they made. "Our baby is Stanford bound."

"Don't call me baby," Kate said, and Eli pretended that he didn't feel her tears on his cheeks, before she threw her head back, stretched her arms and did a triumphant scream in the middle of the room.

oOo

As soon as she possibly could, after warm hugs from Billy and Teddy and Cassie, a warm handshake of congratulations from Jonas and a lingering kiss on her cheek from Tommy, Kate escaped from their clutches and stumbled to the rooftop of the building, and allowed herself to read the letter again, her heart full as she absorbed what it meant before folding it and tucking it into the pocket of her jeans.

At the sound of steps, Kate wiped her tears away with the heels of her hands. Even though it wasn't quieter here - because in a city like New York, it was never quiet, it seemed a sight better than being in the kitchen, with everyone so there.

Despite the fact that Kate tended to be hyperaware of her surroundings; the weight of air, the variance of darkness, her teammates tended to make noises so as not to catch her off guard. They learned this lesson when Teddy got a punch in his nose for his trouble by placing his hands over her eyes for a surprise.

"Stanford," Eli said. As well as, "when?"

"When I applied to NYU, and other places. My dad said to keep my options open. My mother-" Kate cleared her throat before her voice could thicken any further. "My - she was from the West Coast. One of those social families from San Francisco," she lifted her chin. Eli dropped to his knees beside her, his earring glinting in the low lighting. He smelled of soap and sugared milk. A strange yet comforting mix.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, she came East for a job at Conde Nast, met my dad, and that was all they wrote. But she loved New York, appreciated the busy prissiness she'd call it, and never went back."

"But she loved Stanford."

"She said it made her into the woman she was," Kate drew her legs towards her torso, as she wiped her eyes. "I want to be the woman she was."

Eli stroked her cheek, his eyes sober and his face open as he said, "I like the woman you are."

Kate felt her eyes and nose burn, and she rubbed at her nose with the back of her hand.

"Eli, don't," she sniffled wetly. "Just don't. Don't say -"

"Kate," he adjusted his limbs so he sat beside her, near enough for her to lean into his bulk and heat. "We can make this work, if you want. Or not."

"You won't ask me to stay?"

Eli leaned his forehead against hers, his hands warm and on her cheeks. He couldn't, not even if he wanted to. It was his grandpa's legacy that drove him into choosing this path in the first place, and Kate now felt the draw of her own. "You'd hate us if we did, and we'd hate it if you were unhappy. Go find what made your mom, your mom, Kate. We'll be here when you get back."

Oh, that did it, as Kate felt the weight on her heart shatter, and she covered her face with her hands, wiping her face with the sleeves of her cardigan. Eli stayed there, patting her denim clad thigh.

"I hate you so much, Eli. I hate you for making me cry."

"I love you so much, Kate. Although you hate hearing it."

"I - don't," Kate shook her head, as she wiped her nose, trying to gather her composure around her like a cloak. She actually just feared it, because that sort of love made things clumsy and fragile, and clouded good judgement.

"When do you leave?"

"Around September," she said, feeling her nerves calm, the crying jag now past. "I have to find an apartment, and get settled in."

"You'll give your driving licence a workout. Are you getting a convertible in sporty red?"

"No, I think purple," Kate said, feeling unbent enough to grin. "And finally, I'll be able to work on my tan. It will bring out my eyes."

"No blonde, though," Eli played with the ends of her hair, and Kate leaned forward and kissed him, because doing something was easier than thinking about anything at times. Awkwardly at first, as they had to shift their bodies, because her knee pressed against his stomach, and his palm skimmed from her thigh to her back, as he pulled her against him, as they tumbled against the gravel and concrete of the rooftop. For a few minutes, the kisses and touches desperate and intimate. Kate wanted to sink into the taste and feel of his skin, and think about nothing, but she was too sensible to give herself to this moment completely, and him, too accustomed to team mates bursting in at any time. They broke away from each other, breathing heavily, Kate not trusting her senses until she heard the static of traffic.

"I might possibly, sorta, kinda love you, just a little," she admitted, his taste still on her tongue, her face burning as Eli reached for his earring, unhooked it from his ear, and placed it in her hand.

"I might believe you," he said, closing her fingers around it, before stroking her wrist.

"But that feeling is in danger, because you're going to make me cry again."

"Now I believe you," Eli smiled, and Kate sat up, took out one of her diamond studs, and replaced it with his loop, and Eli mirrored her motions, replacing her stud in the piercing where his gold hoop used to be.

Kate stroked her ear, and leaned over to kiss Eli again. Whatever happened next, they had this, and for now, it was everything.

Push and Pull

"You know what? It's done, we're done."

"Way to go, Eli. I'd be heartbroken --- if we had ever been together in the first place."

Eli bristled, raised his finger as he opened his mouth to speak, only for no sound to come out, and he snapped his mouth shut, and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Kate gave the chair in the kitchen a bad tempered kick, and stormed out of the kitchen to her part of the HQ, with Billy and Teddy looking on with great interest.

"This might be it," Teddy said, as he peeled a banana, propping his hip on the desk.

"If only," Billy bumped his shoulder against Teddy's, broke off a portion of Teddy's banana and popped it in his mouth. "But they enjoy it too much."

Two days later, Kate tripped down the stairs to the gym room, finding Eli there. He'd just finished, if the spray bottle and cloth in his hand were things to go by. His motions were quick and sure, his muscles moving under skin. Thinking himself alone, he hummed tunelessly, content to miss snatches of the melody - the intimacy of the moment caused Kate's cheeks to warm.

"I didn't know you liked Peter and The Wolf," she said, stepping on to the wooden floor.

"You keep practising Peter," Eli rolled his eyes. "It sticks."

"Be glad I'm not 'grandpa'," Kate brushed past him, as she made her way to the table on the far side of the room where she splayed her fingers and started wrapping her wrists and hands.

"Yeah," Eli came over, and stood right beside her, placing the rag and spray bottle on the table. He didn't smile at her like he normally did, or try to engage her in snatches of conversation. She felt his gaze on her as she wrapped her wrists, allowing her hand to fall as he shooed it away, and started to smooth out the wrinkles from her wrap.

"I can do it myself."

"I know," he said, and Kate didn't pull her hand away. Them silent save for the low hum of the extractor in the background, and the faint thud and growl of Tommy's music from two floors above. From her vantage point she saw the fringe of his lashes against his cheeks as he bound the tape around her wrists, his attention focused on her hand.

"Just so you know," Kate relaxed her fingers, because it was lovely being fussed over.

"So, Machete will be out soon."

"We're not dating."

Eli finished binding her wrist, and Kate's hand didn't move from his.

"Nope," he agreed. "We're not."

oOo

"The last time I remembered? You weren't the boss of me, Eli."

"I'm not," Eli slapped his forehead, trying to hold on to the frayed edges of his temper to no avail. If he had hair, he'd be bald anyway, because Kate would have driven him to yank every follicle out. "I'm just saying that sometimes? A bit of caution can be a good thing."

"If it were up to you, we'd have left Tommy in juvvie and where would we be?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Tommy shook his head, holding his hands up as if in a state of surrender, half laughing, half frantic. "I'm not a part of this. Although, you wanted to leave me in juvvie? Ice cold, dude."

"Not now, Tommy. Take a number, okay? I can only argue with one person at a time. Not like Kate here - hey!"

Eli ducked, narrowly avoiding the cushion that Kate threw at his head. What did he ever see in her anyway? Whatever he did, he was over it now. Over. It.

Only for him to realise that he might have thought too soon the next day, when Kate presented him with a basket of flowers. Eli goggled, because the bouquet might have been a yard wide, of nothing but a riot of flowers, and the room smelt like a summer's garden.

"Pink isn't my colour."

"Hah," Kate rolled her eyes, her hands jammed in the pocket of her combats. "Mother's day is today, and every mom deserves flowers. Give 'em to your grandma or something."

Oh, Eli remembered, Kate lost her mom. She never talked about it, and he never pushed, because he had his own issues. He stepped around the low coffee table where the flowers were, and stopped in front of Kate, and punched her shoulder.

"Thanks," he said. "It's better than what I'd have done." His plan involved grabbing a potted plant on his way home, but Kate's effort was greater than his.

"Give your grandma my regards," Kate said.

"You can tell her that yourself. Come on. It's a Sunday, she'll put out an extra plate."

"That's... not a good idea."

"Are you afraid of the Bronx?"

A gleam came into Kate's eyes, and she worried her lower lip with her teeth. Those were fighting words, he knew.

"If you can hang, so can I. But it's not a date. It's not a- hell, " Kate broke off with a huffy sigh. "We're dating, right?"

Eli scuffed his toe against the floor. "I guess we are. For now."

"For now," Kate agreed.

To Fly Towards A Secret Sky

There are things about herself that Kate knows.

For instance, she cannot stand PDA; she remembers squirming when her mom kissed her on the cheek after her first solo recital, in front of everyone. Or that picture of her parents on the cover of Vanity Fair with her father's lips pressed against her mom's temple, her eyes closed, her face blissful. St Eleanor of NYC: Inequality and The Queen - the elegant socialite on what drives her to do what she does.

(Kate still keeps that magazine, but when she looks at it, she presses her hands to her cheeks, feeling their burn. No one knows this.)

There's another thing Kate knows. Eli Bradley.

Serious, hard working, hot headed and righteous. He's also laughing at something Billy says, burying his face in his hands,his shoulders shaking with mirth because the joke is terrible.

"Probably," Billy says, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "I'm telling it wrong. Scratch that. How about this one? My friend drowned in a bowl of museli."

A beat. "He was pulled in by a strong currant."

Eli, Kate realises, has a great laugh. It's infectious, and when their eyes meet across the table, over fries and guacamole, Cassie stealing a quesadilla from her plate, she smiles too. It is a great day, sunshine everywhere, parasol topped tables popping up along the side-walks like mushrooms after a good spring rain. Not too hot, what with the temperatures edging into summer, and all of what a Saturday should be.

Kate doesn't do PDA, she knows this. She's circumspect, has always been. Eli makes her want to jump out of her self imposed restraint; to reach across the table and link his fingers with hers, feeling the strength of his affection there. Or, later, when they are walking through the shifting neon-lit streets of Broadway, swept along by the crush of the crowds, their shoulders brush, and Kate leans into the touch. Wishing he might hold her hand, hating the thought that his fingers only brush the back of her hand and dare no more, because she has taught him too well.

They are seated waiting for Spamalot to begin -"It's an epic, Cassie," Tommy whispers to Cassie. "Epic." - Kate's between Eli and Tommy, the lights dim to nothing but colour and sounds and laughter. All through the play, Kate glances in Eli's direction, as soon as she knows that he's stopped looking at her. She wonders what it would be like, her fingers drawing a line along his jaw, stopping at the cleft of his chin. She knows what it is like to kiss him, but not to linger on his features like she does now. His earring a starlight against the darkness of his skin, his shirt bright in dim light. His smile, when he's unbent enough to do so, makes her wait anxiously for the next one, and when it comes, she thinks that she might just buy tickets for this play every week until its season is spent.

The play is over, and they are out of the theatre now, the low growl of humanity teaming around them, the buildings towering above them, as they cut from Broadway down to 79th Street, laughing, and they normally drift back to their homes by tacit agreement (instead of Tommy, who goes back to HQ). There's hugging, and light punches of shoulders all around - even from Jonas. Tommy gives her a one armed hug, a kiss at the corner of her mouth, cold from Coke and ice. Billy and Teddy double team hug- hugging both her and themselves at the same time. Jonas' hug still feels perfunctionary, than affectionate, but it's loads better than it used to be. Cassie, well... Cassie always gives great hugs - open and unaffected, warm with a gust of breath at her ear. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she says. Kate says, "You'd better," and Cassie kisses her high on the temple, before going off with Billy and Teddy - "We'll see her home, before we go."

After an age, and too soon, it is just her and Eli. He's standing there, unmoved by people shoving and brushing by, his hands in his jacket pocket, because the night has suddenly turned sharp with its chill.

"You're okay getting home?" he asks, and Kate nods. She'd stopped being afraid of the dark sometime ago, and refuses to be one of those people who are twice shy, once bitten. It's strange, how she can walk through the dark and not feel afraid, or go hand to hand with Ronin, and yet, right here, in front of Eli, his eyes warm on her, and his feelings for her so thick, they can be tasted, she doesn't move.

There are things Kate knows, and this is one of them. PDA isn't for her, and she's a sensible girl. Kate tells herself this, before seeing the moment in her mind's eye: she grabs the lapels of his jacket, shifting on the balls of her feet, and pressing her lips to his. Eli is a quick study, and after a moment of being stock still, he pulls her towards him. For an instant, an eternity, she's blind. Eli tastes like sticky toffee, and salted popcorn and him, and for a moment, it's like flying, like dancing without feet.

Kate doesn't do that, because that is not who she is. Instead she whips out her phone, makes a call, "Dad, I'll be home in twenty minutes, I'm on 79th Street and Broadway. I'll be home in twenty at most." To Eli, she goes, "I'll see you later tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Eli raises his hand in a half wave. "I'd ask you if you really mean it, but I know you, so. Tomorrow."

He disappears into the crowds, and Kate watches him go, admires his swagger and confidence as he cuts through the crowd into the subway below. Kate wishes - wishes for many things, but knows only one thing. She places her hands against her cheeks, because they burn.

We Are All Made of Scars

Something was up.

Kate knew it, but didn't let on to anyone else. Not to say that the guys in YA could be obtuse when it came to hunches, and emotional quagmires... but the guys were obtuse when it came to hunches and emotional quagmires.

The something was Cassie.

"Two days before her prom, and she decides not to go," Kate groused to Billy earlier on in the day.

"You never went to your prom," Billy briefly looked up from his laptop. They were in the YA HQ's living room. Billy seated on the sofa, one leg tucked under him, the other sock clad.

"That was different, we were saving the world, remember?"

"Then, probably that's what Cassie's thinking? Why bother go to the prom if we're going to save the world. Again. I think she might have a point."

"I can't believe this," Kate stopped pacing, astonished at Billy's cavalier attitude, and told him so. "Aren't you the empath here?"

Billy shut his computer, giving Kate his full attention. "Kate, you know Cassie, she's tough. I'm sure her reasons for not going to her prom are valid, and we should let her be."

See? Obtuse. Kate thought to herself as she stopped in front of Cassie's bedroom door, raised her fist, and rapped softly at the door.

"Cassie?" she asked softly between knocks.

"Kate?" Cassie's voice sounded choked and small.

"May I come in?"

"Sure."

Kate turned the knob, stepped into the room. When they first moved into the YA lair, Kate made sure Cassie had first dibs on a room. She chose the loft, where in the day there was nothing but light, and at night, the grid of buildings looked down on her like benign starred Sentinels. Not Kate's scene, but Cassie loved it, and hugged Kate hard.

"Mine, all mine?" she whispered, and Kate, feeling the press of her body against hers said in the crown of her hair, "Yes."

Over the years the colour scheme and decor had changed, but Cassie still had the posters, and toys of various Avengers, and in the pride of place on her dresser, the doll that Kate commissioned especially for her.

"Cassie?"

"I'm in the bathroom."

"Cassie, you need - Cass?"

Kate stopped in the doorway of the bathroom, transfixed at the sight before her. Cassie had always been tall for her age, gawky. But at eighteen, her gawk and height gave way to a willowy grace. She stood barefoot in front of the full length mirror of the bathroom, her hair tumbled over her shoulders, in that Cassie way - sans brush or comb. The dress - it was the first time Kate saw her in the dress. Oh, they'd gone to Harvey Nichols, and bought it. Kate thought the colour suited, and they did the alterations, because Cassie had a lot of leg, but Kate never thought it would be like this.

Strapless, leaving Cassie's shoulders bare, a tight bodice giving way to a silk chiffon skirt that floated with her slightest movement. The cornflower blue of the dress picked up the bright blue of Cassie's eyes, made her skin glow and her hair bright. In a bathroom, with Cassie's feet in goofy spider man bed slippers, the dress looked spectacular.

"Cassie," Kate murmured, her hand at her mouth, as she studied her friend with an appraising eye. "You look beautiful."

Cassie raised her head, her eyes meeting Kate's in the mirror, sheen filled and utterly miserable. "I -" she ran her hands along her arms. "I can't go to the prom like this."

"Like what? Cassie, you-" Kate stepped until she was right at Cassie's shoulder. Shoulder was right, since Cassie had a full two inches ahead of her.

"My scars," Cassie wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Oh, honey," Kate rested her head on Cassie's shoulder. "That's why you don't want to go to your prom?"

"Look at them," Cassie touched the scar on her chin, faded, but still noticeable. The nicks and raised bruises on her arms, and Kate traced along a particular long, angry mark along her skin.

"I remember these," Kate said. "Jelly fish, you were giant sized, and tried to hold those mutant Portuguese man of war away. You almost died."

"Yeah," Cassie wrinkled her nose, the annoyance with herself plain to see. "I don't know what made me think I could wear this dress. It shows everything."

"It shows that you're a hero, Cass," Kate pressed a brief, tight kiss to her friend's cheek. "It means that you went out there, put your life on the line, and came through. It means that you lived."

"I - my mom has never seen them," Cassie stroked her collar bone, the neat line across it the handiwork of Dr Blake. Without the stitches and the prompt medical attention, she would have died.

"Well," Kate threw her arm around Cassie's shoulders. "Now is the time, and she'll be proud."

"And if she isn't? Suppose she thinks -?"

"Then I'll be proud of you for both of us."

Cassie nodded, knuckling a tear away. "Then I'm gonna go. I don't have a date, though."

Kate shook her head. "I missed mine, I'm a bad bet."

"S'alright," Cassie sniffled, her eyes bright. "I'm going to my prom."

"Yes," Kate kissed her cheek. "Yes, you are."