hybrid_prince | Open Post

"He'd have forgiven you. Teddy's ... he's good," Tommy said, shrugging. "He still will, probably. Both of you." Maybe they'd just both date Billy. Billy was the most powerful magic user in the universe. He probably could use two boyfriends to help keep him level. Him and Teddy would make up, and David and him would work it out, and Tommy would just ... maybe get over his shit and let the telepaths in his head to make him forget after all.

Maybe if he forgot, Teddy would let them help him forget too, and then Teddy wouldn't feel like he couldn't be around Tommy at all.

He shook his head. "No. They just ... came for us. Out of nowhere."

He leaned back into David, shutting his eyes and dropping his head onto David's shoulder. "I know that. I'm not completely stupid. But there's a million mutants on this island, right? And Billy's got new powers all the time. I just run fast and blow shit up, David."

"William doesn't have no powers," David counters. "And his magic never interfaces with the flow of time. It just doesn't work. I know because i watched him struggle, time after time, to try and use his magic to look back and find out what happened the day you disappeared."

David sighs and strokes his fingers in his friend's hair. Long and still somehow silky soft.

"Tommy... How long did it feel like you were with him there?"

"So you think I ... just jacked up time on the island? I don't even FEEL any different, David." He'd felt it when his powers manifested, been constantly restless and needing to move, energy bubbling up all over. He didn't have anything like that. He just had a headache from not sleeping and from being fucking miserable.

"I missed you," Tommy said. He had. He'd missed a lot of things, but David was his best friend. Tommy had missed Billy and him the most.

He shrugged. "I don't know. We couldn't tell. There wasn't a schedule. They fed us like ... it was a reward when we ..." Tommy blew out a slow breath. "No way to measure time. It felt like ... I don't know. A long time. I saw the date when I broke into your apartment - your old apartment, and I freaked out at how long it was. But then I freaked out because it wasn't long enough."

"I think you altered time around us," David corrects. "When Tempus's powers first manifested, it was in a heightened emotional state. And frankly, you're emotional right now. Sometimes emotion just happens to affect things. Perhaps that's what this is. You feel like the world is going too fast around you, so... you slow what's right around you down. Let the world race on without you."

But yes, he missed Tommy too. Wraps an arm around Tommy to just hug and hold him.

"Maybe... it was longer, Tommy. And honestly, that would make how you feel about Teddy make sense. Sex releases positive endorphines. Your body, over time, associated pleasure and happiness and some form of relief with Teddy. Your subconscious attaches to him. It... it can make people fall in love."

"Everything is just ... there's a million people here, and everything is bright and loud and I don't know what to do. It was just me and Ted. In our room. And I hated being locked up, I'm not COMPLETELY fucked up. But I didn't hate ... beinglockedupwith him. And what if he did? What if it's just me and I was doing shit that he hated having to want? What does that mean about me? How much must he fucking hate me now if so?"

Tommy drew a deep breath again. "They were watching us. Wouldn't it have fucked them up if I was fucking with time?" he asked. He had no idea how to control it, if that was true. It didn't feel right. He RAN, that was all he could do.

He flinched at that last sentence. "Be stupid if I did, right? My twin's boyfriend. Locked in a cell. What kind of asshole falls in love with that going on?" Tommy didn't even want that to be it, either. Just chemicals. Like a drug he gave himself. "If they were broadcasting it all, then someone somewhere's gotta know how long it was."

“In those conditions, nearly anyone would,” David counters. Still, they have to move on from that

“If the Skrull broke you out, they may have computer logs. I’ll see if I can contact the New Mutants. Dani and her team are on a space trip. They might be able to carry a message to the Skrull. Find out more. And get Teddy in touch.”

To at the very least tell Tommy it wasn’t his fault.

“In the mean time... there are a few people here who might be able to see if your powers changed. Maybe Billy. He’s an Omega, and the Sorcerer Supreme. He might be able to whip up a spell to figure it out. Or just command the truth to appear on, what, a collectible hero trading card or something.”

If his magic could touch Tommy again.

Tommy desperately wanted to know, but he dreaded it too, since ... yeah, confirmation that he'd definitely been watched having a lot of sex and falling for Teddy (and having nightmares and breakdowns and all the other shit that happened) by who the fuck knew how many people. And he wanted to know Teddy was all right, but he didn't know how to face him either. It probably wouldn't matter if Teddy didn't want to talk to him anyway.

Tommy did snort a weak sort of laugh though. His nerd brother WOULD probably make it a collectible card. "Yeahokay," he agreed. "Can I crash here for now? Kind of feel like my head's gonna split open."

“Of course,” David agrees, standing.

Once Tommy is on his feet he guides tommy to the guest room, opening it to show a room with a comfortable bed. And closets full of boxes. One set labeled ‘Teddy’, the other ‘Tommy’.

“You’ll need new pajamas. You’re taller. And your hair is so long. We can cut it tomorrow. For now...”

David slips from the room and soon returns with clothes. His own pajamas should fit. “You’re too big for Billy’s things. And if you want, he can put the language in your head while we sleep. Or make an amulet to understand it.”

Tommy followed him, surprise obvious in his face when he saw the boxes. "You got my stuff," he said quietly, going over to pull the top off of one, looking in at it. It was familiar, but just ... didn't matter. He half wanted to look at Teddy's, but he didn't.

"I really am taller? I thought it was just how we were standing or something." Tommy touched his hair self consciously. "Yeah ... we can cut it. Probably looks dumb as shit."

He took the offered clothes mutely when David returned, hugging them to his chest. "It's weird to wear clothes," he said. "I keep forgetting why it feels so weird to have them on, and then I remember that I haven't for months."

Or longer, maybe. If David was right.

"Yeah. He can do it while I sleep, if he wakes up." Tommy would rather not be awake for it.

He said goodnight and changed, dropping down into the bed that wasn't at all familiar and was much, much too empty. His head hurt but he couldn't sleep. He was lonely and he was worried about Teddy and he was heartbroken, heartsick, and guilty. When he finally did sleep, he was too tired to realize that it was because Billy had woken up and helped him.

Once out though, he did crash, and even when he woke up, Tommy didn't get up right away. He just ... felt lost and dreaded facing it. But finally he dragged himself up, still feeling tired, and went to find David and Billy sitting around the table, David working between two computers and Billy on the phone. He hung up quickly when Tommy got up though, hopping up to offer him food that Tommy shook his head at, at first, but gave in and picked through a bowl of cereal and some grapes.

Billy was able to figure out at least the edges of Tommy's powers, and Tommy agreed to stay with them for now, since he didn't know where to go anyway. And David sent his messages to Dani and the New Mutants.

It was a few days before they got back to him, and then another week before they could get through to the Skrulls. Tommy started to try to work on his new powers, but his attention span was spotty and he had a hard time with powers that were so much less physical than any of his others.

It wasn't until they finally heard from Teddy that they finally got a sense of the scope of Tommy's powers though, because the first time Teddy spoke to them, it was just to David and Billy, and it was brief and he was gone before Tommy could even try to see him or say anything. Tommy just said he was fine and tried to blow off his brother and David and get some space before he melted down. He still couldn't sleep and he still missed Teddy and everything was fucked up. Time on the island started to fluctuate in a dozen different directions at once, speeding up, slowing down, nearly colliding and causing an implosion of a paradox before Billy managed to get to him and break through the panic attack and sobbing.

After that, Tommy wasn't going anywhere until he had this thing in hand. And David and Billy weren't letting him out of their sight either, since Tommy wasn't really himself. The Skrulls never gave David access to the data, but they did confirm that by the footage, time had to have been altered and they guessed it had been nearer to two years than seven months. Tommy gave little reaction to that news, not knowing if it made a difference or not.

He bounced between aggressively trying to ignore everything that had happened, and being listless and staying in bed way too much for a guy who hated to be still and who didn't sleep much anyway. David harped on him until Tommy gave in and went to therapy, but he barely talked and didn't trust it enough to put any faith in it. He sometimes avoided Billy, and sometimes just apologized to him again, no matter how many times Billy said it wasn't his fault.

The next time Teddy called, he at least talked to Tommy, but it was stilted and awkward - asking each other how they were, who they'd talked to, and then handing it over to David to talk. And then Tommy vanished into the guest room he'd taken over for a day and a half. He started to try to pull away and vanish from Billy and David's lives, even while he was living with them, but they wouldn't let him.

It got easier. His head wanted to explode less often, and he started to understand his powers. Tommy got better at faking it, at letting Billy or David take him out to get food or something. But he was miserable, and it just ... stayed there.

Eight months or so after he got home, he was deemed ready for a mainland trip, which David used as an opportunity to set him up. Tommy had told him no a half dozen times already, but he gave in finally, just to see if he could feel better. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't Teddy, either, and Tommy hated how much he still missed feeling like he always had Teddy at his side and at his back, how lonely he still got when he tried to sleep.

At about a year, Tommy just was sick of it. Hating himself, hating the empty feeling, hating how raw every little memory left him. So he just threw himself the opposite way and started sleeping with anyone who moved and showed interest, trying in vain not to compare how it made him feel to how he'd felt with Teddy. He got into more than one argument with Billy or David about being a dick to the people he took to bed, since most of them on the island were friends of theirs. Tommy rarely meant to be, it just happened. He felt broken, and it showed when he didn't want it to.

But he finally started to at least start to pull himself together, or into some semblance of it. He was different - aside from David or Billy, he shied away from letting anyone touch him unless he was in the middle of sex. He smiled less, and he didn't seek out crowded spaces to dance or party. But he did go with Billy to Kaplan family dinners, and he started training to work with David's team, since his powers were steadying out.

It wasn't much, but it was something. He talked to Teddy now and then, brief and casual, about nothing at all. It hurt every time, and never got any better, but he didn't spiral out and nearly kill people or the world afterward, so it was better. He was handling it. Or he thought he was until he came back from a training mission to find Billy waiting, his face pale and worried. Tommy knew that quickly. "Ted's - Teddy called," he guessed.

Two and a half years. All told, temporal distortions from the realized omega level timewarper included, two and a half years since Tommy had returned to Earth. Three and a month since Tommy and Teddy had disappeared from Earth. The world had changed. They had changed. Everything had changed.

And Billy clearly didn't like giving this information to Tommy.

"Yeah," Billy agreed, running his fingers through his hair. "You're not wrong. He... uh. He needs some help. He wants David and I to come see him. I'm thinking... I want to know if you want to come with us. It could be good for you. Pinning him down and talking to him for real."

Tommy wanted to go. He wanted to see Teddy, be near him. Maybe manage to finally tell him he was sorry and find a way to mean it. (He was sorry for how it wrecked everything, for how unhappy it obviously made Teddy, for how it happened and why it happened. He just ... had a hard time being truly sorry when he still woke up reaching for Teddy, even two fucking years later.

But he was scared as shit. And he knew he shouldn't. Teddy made it obvious he didn't want to be near Tommy. Tommy shouldn't get to just ... push his way in. "He doesn't want to be around me. He got forced to be enough." He swallowed. "What does he need help with?"

"A mutant," Billy answers. "Or they think it's a mutant. Apparently there's a half-human Skrull kid in the fleet, and they were born with the X-gene. They weren't certain at first, but after Teddy's experience with mutants like us, they did testing, and bam, mutant Skrull. Even worse, the kid is also displaying the inherent traits that imply potential to grow into a Super Skrull with training. And the kid is way younger than normal mutant manifestation ages. So they need help before the kid's powers hurt himself or the Alliance fleet."

Because frankly, neither Skrull nor Kree experiences prepared them to deal with the unpredictability of a mutant child.

"He's offered to send Noh-Varr with a ship, or I can teleport us there. I think I can do a portal that far, with a sling-ring. He wants David to see if he can't figure out the limitations of the powers, and then ask me if I can make something with David's help to help the kid stay under control until he's old enough to train his abilities."

A skrull mutant, Billy didn't even know what to do with that. He looked tired even thinking about it.

"And frankly, I could stand to see you there. I know it's not fair to you, but, seeing my ex after all this time, so shortly after the new engagement? I need someone to keep me from looking and acting the fool. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme and I don't want to, you know, be undignified."

"Shit," Tommy said. Super-skrull mutant with powers showing that early. Probably gonna be strong, and that wasn't going to be easy to deal with. Poor kid.

"If it's going to be hard for you to do, might as well let Noh-Varr do it. You might need to store up some juice for the kid when you get there," Tommy said.

He grimaced a little at the reminder that it was Billy's ex, and Tommy was kind of a shit for not being there for him. "Does he know? About the engagement? What are you gonna do when you two see each other again and he wants you back?"

Tommy ran a hand through his hair. He'd cut it short after he got back, and then not long after that in a fit of frustration, buzzed it down to his scalp. But it'd grown back and now it was more or less the way he'd always worn it, just a little shorter. "You're going to be in space with your ex. You can fuck dignity if you want. But yeah. If you want Ill go."

Does he know? Billy's embarrassed look says no. After all, it had only happened a few months back, and Teddy was so evasive on calls. Always dropping them abruptly when this one woman's voice came on the calls. Not that Billy knew what the woman was saying, he didn't speak Skrull or Kree.

"I'm not... I'm not going back to him, Tommy. When a guy dumps you to go off on his own and put insane distance between the two of you, twice, you don't just take them back. Not when you're engaged to someone else. I love Teddy. I will always love Teddy. But in a tight spot we either don't talk, or he bails."

And the relationship with David was clearly going better. Mostly because David was excessively good at communicating. Billy never got away with hiding things for long with David, who would sit him down and talk to Billy until he pried his way into Billy's closed, depressed, self-loathing mind and made it work again. Made them work.

"Guess I sorta need you there to keep me from just falling all over myself to forgive him. To take him back. I'm not going to hurt David like that. Not with David right there. Better you keep me sane and your friend unhurt, right?"

But Billy looks relieved. And then guilty.

"I could make you a charm. Just something to wear so that when you see Teddy you're brave, and the feelings don't get to you so much. Like... an anti-Teddy heartbreak charm?"

Tommy groaned. "Billy ... if you show up engaged he's still gonna hope he can talk to you. He LOVES you. He'll want to talk to you and if you still love him, maybe it can work with you and him and David. David used to be into him too. I don't know." Tommy was just a dumbass who liked stabbing himself in the face, he guessed. Or he just hated the idea that he ruined Teddy's life and wanted him to be happy. Both.

"I'll go," Tommy agreed with a sigh. "But if you get there and wanna forgive him, then that's between you and David to work out. I don't want anyone more fucked up. We all got it enough."

Tommy looked tempted, but then shook his head. "He doesn't have one to keep him from feeling sick if he sees me. I shouldn't get one just so I don't feel ... like I feel." Even two years and change out, Tommy still had trouble admitting he'd fallen for Teddy to his brother, even though Billy knew. It just felt so shitty to say.

Perhaps it was shitty, but all Billy had for Tommy was a look of concern. Billy had only experienced three years since Tommy and Teddy had disappeared from their lives. Tommy? He'd loved a man for two years and had him as his only comfort, and that was a strange sort of life time ago.

"When David gets home, I'll get us there," Billy promises, his hand coming out to touch Tommy's arm. "Tommy, Teddy and I are over. He... he chose to abandon me, and he's blown me off for too long for me to walk that back. So, uh... Go pack? I don't know how long we'll be there."

"Ask Noh-Varr," Tommy repeated. "Unless David thinks you doing it is a good idea." Since David was more sensible than either of them. Well, except for his taste in guys.

"Yeah," Tommy said. He didn't say that Teddy was alone there. Maybe he wasn't. It'd been years, maybe he found a Skrull he fell for. There was that woman they heard all the time. Gender wasn't really going to matter to Skrulls. But it still felt wrong, Teddy not having Billy. Like Tommy had somehow flipped the universe to a wrong setting just by getting himself taken with Teddy.

He went to pack, not bothering to rush since they were waiting on Teddy anyway. He just threw a spare couple changes of clothes and some essentials in, along with some of the nutrient bars David had made for him. It didn't take long anyway.

He went back out when he was done to sit and text Kate and wait with Billy.

"A single sling ring portal, even over those distances, is nothing," Billy counters. See, he's doing proper spells now, with the proper costs and reserving his other magic. They're Omega Levels, they have to respect what they can do. How they can fuck up reality, and the costs that comes with.

Tommy finishes packing a lot faster than Billy does, and soon it's Billy pacing with a nervous energy too, looking sorta scared as he mumbles to himself under his breath in Krakoan.

"My real question," he observed, "is how this kid's powers could be so bad that they need our help?"

"Need our help with what?" David asked, coming into the dome and looking TIRED. X-Factor had been out for days confirming a missing mutant hadn't actually been killed, just captured. They'd only just returned, and he looked ready to fall over.

"Why do you both have packs?"

Tommy still has trouble wrapping his head around that, most days. Being the twin that doesn't have that kind of power was part of who he was for so long, now that he does, he still doesn't know how to feel about it. Other than frustrated by how much harder it is to control than his speed.

Tommy shrugged, shoulder against Billy's. He didn't let anyone but Billy or David touch him outside of sex, so he tended to grab it from them whenever he could. More than one person had prodded David to ask if he was sleeping with both twins after they saw him with one propped against each side a few times when they watched TV. "Maybe it's some kind of electrical thing that's messing with their ships?"

Tommy looked up, taking in David's exhausted appearance and hesitating, looking at Billy in silent question. It could wait until after David slept, maybe? At David's look he sighed. "Teddy needs help. He's got a Skrull-mutant kid with powers they can't control. He asked for you and Billy to come."

The difficulty may change in time, as Tommy and his power matured, to the point where he could alter time on a whim with only his words, just like Billy did. Probably not the best thing, but there you had it. Sometimes god-level powers just had to be developed.

"And we're going now," David sighs, fingers at his temples. "Billy, did you pack for me?"

"You know I did," Billy agrees, standing and pulling Tommy to his feet. "And if Teddy asked for help from us, it's not something that can wait. Everyone ready?"

The question was pointless. Billy was already raising a hand to a free bit of space, the sling ring on his fingers and tracing a circle in the air, which formed out of golden glowing sparks. He'd seen the Skrull flagship enough on video calls, and had enough pure force of will to follow it up to end up in the right place. Plus Teddy had sent pictures of an arrival hall.

Tommy felt a little guilty, with how tired David was. And Billy and David were good together - but David had to be a little freaked, going to see Billy's ex like this. So he gave David a rueful half smile as Billy pulled him up, and then squeezed his arm. "I told the group chat where we're going." So people knew, just in case they didn't come back. Tommy could get a little paranoid about that sometimes now. He'd accidentally reset time a week back and had to figure out how to fix it once when David didn't check in after a mission right away. "Maybe you can get a nap once we're there. Mission go okay?"

He watched the portal come up, and took a deep breath, still dreading this. But Tommy steeled himself and then followed them through the portal, pack slung over his back. He could do this. He'd just say hi, steer clear of Teddy, be there for Billy, and ... schedule being fucked up about it for when they got home.

The portal closed soon after Tommy was through it, and moments after there was a noise before them. Not the sort of noise one would expect of a formal delegation of people coming to meet the Emperor's honored guests. No, instead it was laughter. The laughter of children. And before Billy and David could do much more than laugh in confusion, two children, Skrull clearly, passed THROUGH the wall to Billy's left.

There was no doubting these were the children Teddy had called for help with. They were green of skin, without the distinctive Skrull chin ridges. Their eyes were a brilliant blue and snow white hair. And the second the children saw them they squealed with delight, talking in rapid Skrull, or Kree, or something. Hand in hand, the twin boy and girl threw themselves past David and Billy and wrap themselves around Tommy's legs. This meant they couldn't hold hands, but they clearly were clinging happily to the speedster.

"What in the world?" Billy asked in shock.

Tommy was dreading this. He knew he wasn't the only one. Billy had to be too, or he wouldn't have asked Tommy to come too. And it was hard on David, too. And Teddy - he didn't even know Tommy was coming. It was fucked up.

He was prepared for a bunch of Skrulls being weird and formal, maybe for some really uncomfortable moments of remembering his escape. But he wasn't prepared for a couple of laughing kids who flung themselves at his legs and chattered happily.

Tommy liked kids. He'd taken to paying with some of the ones on the island sometimes, and he'd bonded pretty quickly with Molly, back when she was a kid. But these were little alien kids, and he had no idea why they latched on to him like they knew him. "What the fuck?" he said, trying to pry himself free. These were probably the kids they were here to help, since they just ran through the wall, but that didn't explain what was happening.

"I guess our problem found us," David observes, frowning as he looks at the children, who keep chattering. The little girl backs up a bit and holds her arms up, giving a single word repeatedly. Sharply.

Clearly someone wants picked up.

Billy reaches out to pick the girl up but once he has her in his arms, she's still reaching for Tommy.

"Yeah ... Skrulls who can run through walls." Tommy just stared at the kids. The little boy showed no signs of letting go, and actually started trying to climb his way up Tommy's leg. Tommy looked from him to the little girl and then groaned, reaching to take her from Billy, since she was grabbing for him.

He pried the little boy off with his other arm and then nudged him toward Billy. The boy pouted, but accepted it, chattering again in that language that Tommy didn't understand at all.

"Where are we even supposed to go?" Tommy asked, bouncing the little girl against his hip absently as she stuffed her fist in her mouth.

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