Distance
Characters: Tommy Shepherd
Summary: Tommy doesn't like getting close, because when you're close is when you get hurt.
Life has been, well, different since you broke out of juvie. Although, you didn't break out, that was more the work of the android and the crazy witch who has been claiming to be your brother. All of a sudden you're not just some no name kid who managed to blow up his school (and now the UN building, but Billy fixed that). You're now a superhero. Speed. Someone that people are supposed to look up to, you guess.
You just wish you knew how to fit in.
The team had a good dynamic before you got there. Billy and Teddy were just completely head over heels lovey-dovey, Kate and Eli were like the team mom and dad, bickering all the time, and Cassie and Jonas would sometimes make eyes across the room at each other, puppy love.
So where does that leave you?
You get a somewhat pleasant surprise when you see your old friend from juvie again, but she left.
They always leave.
Mom left with the divorce, dad left when you were sentenced to juvie. How long will it take this new "family", and you use that in the loosest of terms, to leave you too? Billy has already gone from calling you his brother to "team sociopath" to back to brother in one day. Eli has made it clear that he doesn't like you.
So why do you put up with this?
Maybe it's because for once in your life, when Magneto came flying down in all of his mutant glory, that you actually felt at home.
You never really connected with your own parents; they were too busy. You don't want to get hurt again.
That's why you keep pushing Billy off. Denying the fact that you really, really want to be his brother. A brother.
You think back to Molly. First she was a little annoying pipsqueak, albeit one that could put up a fight.
But then you saw the look on her face when she found out you could "make rocks blow up."
She was so happy to have you as a sibling, someone to look up to, that when the skrull were invading New York your first priority in the final battle wasn't yourself. For once in your life your priority was someone you cared about. Cared about enough that you didn't need any prompting to save her.
You don't want to accept the fact that you are more likely than not the son of the Scarlet Witch, because if you do accept it, then something would happen. Someone would leave you, probably not by choice, but they would.
So you keep up your snark, distance yourself and try to protect yourself, and hope that no one gets too close.
Because when people get close, the enemy then has a target to destroy you.
