selfhelp | [IC] Appointments Post

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[IC] Appointments Post

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[....ah

our mom.

His gaze shifts to Tommy's feet, briefly, taking in the familiarity of it, then he looks back at his- his brother. Yeah. His brother.]

You're still... okay with that?

I can't say I'm a fan of genocide, no. [ He shrugs. ] But as far as I'm concerned, we're stuck together so we might as well accept it for how it is.

[ That's Tommy for "I love you". ]

[Wow. Huh.

Message received, then. It's touching, even with how Tommy said it, and it's enough to drag a sad little smile out of Billy.]

...We were... Maximoffs, for a while.

[ he shifts a little uncomfortably. maybe if he wasn't... him, he'd tell billy he was thinking just how nice it would be to keep that name permanently. ]

Yeah.

And you're not mad about that, either?

[go on, brother, tell him all about it.]

Not as much as I should be. [ Shit. No, that's not what he meant. He rubs the bridge of his nose. ] I mean, no. Look, as far as I'm concerned, we've always been kind of Maximoffs. [ For a whole lot of reasons, a good chunk of them coming from the fact that his own family has always been horrid and the idea of being a Maximoff has always been way more appealing than the idea of being a Shepherd. ]

["Kind of". It's... so strange to hear that, though. Them always being Maximoffs. It's still such a surreal thing to come from Tommy, who'd never seemed to accept it or believe in it, who... yeah, who called him 'bro' and whatever, who'd finally said that Wanda was their mom, but before-

It's weird. And it's a good kind of weird, but... undeniably so.]

I didn't know... it was what you wanted.

[Because that's how the spell worked. It took the wants and desires of those he knew and twisted them into reality. And it didn't work if it wasn't mutual.

Wanda had wanted a family. And Tommy...Tommy had wanted them.]

Don't make a huge deal out of it or anything. Who wouldn't want to be related to some of the most powerful mutants in history? [ Tommy doesn't like wanting things because to want means to open yourself up to the chance that you won't get it, or worse, you will and it will be gone before your eyes. ]

[Somehow, Billy doesn't think that's quite right. Tommy can be a selfish jerk sometimes, but he's not that kind of selfish. This... speaks of a much deeper need. His mind isn't clear enough to fully recognize it, but he sees it, a little.]

Most powerful, or... most dangerous?

Same thing.

...Not so much.

[Remember the Sorceror Supreme? Crazy-powerful magical genius? Not particularly awful when it comes to self-control?]

[ Ah.

It's on the tip of his tongue.

... No, that's a spoiler. Tommy shrugs. ] The Maximoffs are known for doing what they think is right.

[At that, Billy laughs, very quietly and briefly, the sound a little bitter. He lowers his head and buries it against his neck with a groan.]

Can't I just stick with being a Kaplan? Kaplans are boring and ordinary and never get accused of genocide. We have family dinners and wear sweater vests and bunny slippers.

[ ... ]

Can if you want to. Nobody's going to change your mind but you. [ Tommy shrugs lazily, his voice is light and carefree. ] But I'd rather be a Maximoff than a Shepherd.

[He can't understand that, not really- he lacks the knowledge of Tommy's family history or the understanding of what a broken, unsupportive family would be like. He complains about them plenty, but at the end of the day, he knows he's lucky. So he can't imagine letting go of his family name like that. It had been hard enough, in that temporary fantasy, to pretend that he was someone else. For Tommy and Wanda, though...

But he can recognize that the Shepherds let Tommy be taken away. Let the government or whatever lock him away in juvie. Let him become an experiment for the amusement of people who think mutants are guinea pigs to play with in laboratories. He'd been there, he'd heard Tommy say it himself.

So yeah, he can recognize not wanting to be associated with them. In the end, it's Tommy's choice.]

I don't care what your name is... as long as we're still family.

[ Heh.

Billy was pretty sheltered. That might've been what he really liked about him - maybe that, and the envy that he had for him and all he had. Billy had the cool reality bending powers, Billy had the loving family, Billy had the stable relationship - to Tommy it seemed that finding Wanda, to Billy, was just a matter of seeing if a fantasy was true or not. Just... some idiot kid that needed protecting, partly from the world but mostly from himself.

That's why he was the big brother. The one always getting in the way, the one who'd done bad and could still do worse. Tommy was no stranger to what his past could lead up to - super villainy was written all over him, in his criminal past and in his less than morally upstanding ideas. Billy was the golden child, he was the hero, and... Tommy was okay with that.

As long as he wanted to keep being a hero.

They'd never really used the "f" word, though. Brothers, yeah - brothers was kind of noncommital. Calling the Young Avengers a family was the same thing, but brother to brother?

Tommy shrugs a little, disguising any embarrassment or otherwise unwanted feelings with a lopsided smirk. ]

I don't think I can ditch you at this point, so yeah... That's what we are.

[That's what we are.

Family.

To hear it from Tommy, so casually, so... accepting of it, is huge. And he knows that his brother - his brother, for real and forever now - isn't one for hugs, but Billy can't do this sort of thing without some kind of physical contact. Not when it's this intense, this important.

Opting to meet him in the middle, since one arm is out of commission anyway, Billy reaches out and wraps his fingers around Tommy's hand, holding it between them and giving it a grateful squeeze. He'll hold on as long as Tommy will allow or until it starts to feel awkward, he's just... he's so glad.

So, so glad.]

[ What is he.

Oh.

Damnit Billy. Tommy stares down at his hand and with a ~~tsundere as hell~~ irritable sigh, allows it. ] Are you like, part barnacle or something?

Blame Teddy. He got me hooked on the whole physical-contact... thing.

[But Tommy letting him do it just makes him smile even more.]

Gross. [ You get another minute of hand-holding before he reclaims his hand, making a big show of wiping it off on his pantleg. ]

[Honestly, he's surprised and pleased that Tommy lasted that long. He takes what he can get.]

...Thanks. I know it's a weird thing to thank somebody for, but... yeah. Thanks.

Don't mention it. Really, don't.

Sorry... too late.

[You're doomed, bro.]

Uuuuuuuuugh! [ AS LONG AND DRAWN OUT AS THAT CAN POSSIBLY BE. ]

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