Chapter 2: Call it history

Alexis was sitting in her new bed, in her new room, in her new "home" and hated it. Even though this was what she always wanted, she didn't want to gain it this way. She didn't want to be there, and wasn't planning to stay there long. They seemed nice people, the Avengers, but she couldn't get attached. Getting attached to people meant she would be compromised, weak even. She couldn't let that happen.

Then what was Luke? A small voice in the back of her mind muttered; the voice had taunted her for years, telling her she wasn't enough, she wasn't worthy of her powers, that her family were right to reject her. She'd been rejected all her life, so when her powers started to develop she pulled back from social situations even more than before, but she missed the contact with people. She always had to strive to get any praise off her parents, so when her powers developed she thought it would make her special in her parents eyes, but it just made them hate her even more.

Suddenly she doubled over in pain, fear spreading through her body. She started to panic until she realised why. It was something that used to happen a lot, but every time she worried that it was something so much worse.

"Luke" she whispered, and ran out the door to Luke's room which was down the hallway.

When she got to his door, she could hear his sobs through the door. "Luke let me in, it's Lexi." She didn't get a reply. The sense of fear was spreading all through her stomach and she was starting to shake. "Luke! Let me help!" she shouted. There was no answer. "Alright then, we'll do it the hard way" she muttered and kicked the door down.

The room was a mess. It was similar size to Alexis's and looked like it originally had a similar lay out but didn't any longer. There were tables turned over, pillows shredded, everything was a mess. Sat in the middle, curled into a small ball and covered in blankets, was Luke. Sobs racked his lanky figure, his hair even more dishevelled than normal. His hands were slightly blue and a small puddle of water pooled around them.

Luke's POV

They were coming for him again, his demons. He could see them crowding around him, taunting him, telling him he wasn't worthy of anything, of Alexis. He started to panic, looking for something sharp. When he couldn't find anything, he started to tear up the room. He collapsed in a heap, tears streaming down his face. He thought back to before he met Alexis. He was an only child; his parents were from a small community, a normal community. When his parents found out what he could do, they freaked out. They blamed themselves, anything, and anyone. They locked him away, pretended that he didn't exist. They tried praying, exorcising him and even psychologically abused him. The last worked the best. He began to hate himself, to cut, to try to escape reality. He nearly managed to commit suicide once, but his father came down and cut the rope around his throat and took him to hospital. When he told Alexis about everything that had happened, she checked on him every day and he got better. However, when he attempted to live a normal life, leaving behind the constant running, she couldn't cope so he stayed. He was her only family and he didn't want to take that away from her.

The past haunted him every day, and he just wanted to belong, even more so than Alexis, but he didn't and never would. He wasn't as powerful as Alexis so was often passed over; like he said, he wasn't even considered for the Avengers initiative until Alexis put her foot down, refusing to have anything to do with Shield unless they let him stay with her. He wasn't meant to know about that, but he overheard her arguing with Fury. It made him feel devalued, but he stayed with her for the same reason they always did; they were family. He was waiting for the day when they realised how unimportant he was and kicked him out the team. Alexis would find herself a family within the team, he knew it; she'd be fine without him. Hr reached around his neck and felt the slight indent from the rope, and reminded himself how much of a failure he was.

Alexis' POV

She walked in, crouching in front of where Luke was huddled.

"How, h..h.. how did you know?" Luke stuttered in a daze, staring at his hands. They were soaking wet, so Alexis went into the bathroom and grabbed a towel, chucking it at him. He wiped down his hands then mopped up the puddle on the floor.

"Luke, you know how, the connection lets me feel everything, remember?" Alexis said while pulling the boy into a hug. He leaned into it, welcoming the contact. "What set the attack off this time?"

"The room." whispered Luke, his voice shaking along with his whole body. "The room, it's like my old one, the one they kept me in."

"Oh Luke, what are we going to do with ourselves?" Alexis murmured into Luke's hair.

"They came back, Lexi, the demons came back. After everything that's happened, they came back now. I want to fit in here, but if they keep following me. There's only one place I can go if they continue." Alexis looked at him, knowing he was referring to the one place they'd both spent most of their lives after discovering their powers aiming for: Death. He wasn't going to reveal his suspicions to her; he wanted her to have the best chance at fitting in instead of giving it up for him like he knew she would.

"Do you want me to stay here with you, or shall we go back to my room?" They often found comfort in each other because of their similar experiences and feelings.

"Let's stay here. Can you put the light on please?" Luke asked sleepily, snuggling into the blankets.

"I can go one better than that" muttered Alexis while closing her eyes and cupping her hands. After a few seconds, a ball of glowing blue and gold started to form in her tiny hands. Once it was about the size of a hamster ball, she muttered, "Rise" and the fire did just that until it hung in mid-air, frozen. When Alexis opened her eyed, they flashed gold for a split second until they returned to their normal chocolate brown. She turned to Luke, who had buried himself under the mess of blankets, and smiled at him. He gave her a small smile back and closed his eyes. Alexis lay down and closed her eyes as well. She began to hum a meaningless tune, and started to meditate. She opened her mind, and then opened her eyes. From underneath the duvets, she could see Luke's blue aura, wrapping round his figure. She could see the golden glow of her aura, and above her, a slightly green tinted aura. What the...? She thought. Someone's being spying on us, she thought, and started to slowly stand up. As the green glow started to move away, she began to follow it.

Unnoticed until Alexis opened her mind, Clint had been watching Luke's room. Once he thought they'd fallen asleep, he crawled through the ventilation shafts he'd been hiding in until he got to the opening for the lounge. He dropped through the opening, and all the Avengers turned to look at him. "What's up birdbrain, can't you see we're busy" Stark said, gesturing to the game of Jenga he was playing against himself.

"Yes I can see that, but this is important. JARVIS, bring up the footage for Luke's room from the past hour." Clint said while he jumped over the back of the couch to sit next to Natasha. She muttered under her breath as he almost landed on her, and then shuffled over. He put his feet up on the table and she pushed them back off.

"Of course Mr Barton, accessing surveillance videos now." The AI replied.

"Clint, they're just kids, why were you spying on them?" Bruce asked, with a slight frown on his face.

"Just watch and you'll know why." He replied. "Anyway, it's not spying, it's observing without permission."

Bruce rolled his eyes and looked at the screen and the others followed suit.