comment_fic | Tuesday - Chosen Family

Hiya, it’s girlmarauders again and I’ll be your lovely host for today. Today’s theme is the family that we choose. Our favourite characters all have friends as close as or closer than their actual family. These odd relationships deserve a little love!

Rules are important folks!

- Post no more than three prompts per fandom and no more than five prompts in a row. If someone fills a prompt, you're more than welcome to post some more prompts later in the day.

- No spoilers in prompts for at least seven days after the original airdate or publication date. If you have spoilers in your fic, please warn in bold and leave at least three spaces.

- The codemonkeys work very hard so let’s keep things simple and format our prompts correctly.

Fandom, Pairing, Prompt.

Examples

· White Collar, Neal, growing up

· Torchwood, Jack, he builds his family out of soldier boys and lasses

Nothing catch your eye or intrigue your muse? Don’t forget the Lonely Prompts!

tag="ChosenFamily"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tommy never thought that he'd have stayed with this outfit (and truthfully, in his outfit) for this long.

Yesterday - or six months ago - (time moved almost as fast as he did) being in that tin can which dampened his powers, and being poked and prodded. Vibrating the molecules on every inch of his body, pushing to the limit of his powers, just waiting on the one weak link between him and freedom, only to be thwarted and rescued by - and at this, he could only smile wryly at his now empty plate - The Young Avengers.

"Nooo, I'm not doing the dishes again," Cassie shook her head. "Nah uh, can't make me."

"Paper, rock, scissors?" Billy held up a hand. They were in the YA's dining room - huge due to the fact that in another life, it had been a former canteen for about fifty people on this floor. By all rights, it should have been cavernous, their words bouncing from walls in echoes; but Tommy had to admit, that together, all seven of them filled a room.

"I thought we decided on a rota?" Kate picked up her noodles with her chopsticks. Tommy had to give it to Kate, here. In addition to being a total babe, she had class all the way. Lacquered bowls with matching chopsticks, and an askance glare for the wooden disposable ones that came with their meal. Tommy made sure to eat with them always, because Kate did look cute when annoyed.

"Even though we decided on a rota because there are seven of us?" Eli's voice there. Unlike Kate, he had nothing to recommend him when he became annoyed, but getting under his skin brought fun times.

"Paper, rock, scissors?" Cassie's mouth firmed. "You're on."

"Billy, Billy." Teddy chanted, jostling Vision's shoulder with his own, and Tommy felt the vibration of the movement across the table, and with a swift hand, he grabbed at his glass before it toppled and spilt its contents across the table. Teddy might have have been all right, really, with his easy going nature and his unfailing devotion to his boyfriend, but Tommy would never say. Besides, he had a brother's prerogative to tease. That's what bigger brothers did.

"Logic assumes that you go for scissors, Cassie, since rock will be the most popular of the three moves in the game due to -"

"Scissors cuts paper!" Cassie howled with glee, jumping and clapping. "I win!"

"Yeah," Billy held his hands up in supplication. "A deal is a deal."

Cassie grinned, a dangerous light in her eye as she said, "Dessert?"

"That's a sucker's bet." Billy laughed. "Deal."

Dessertless, and washing dishes," Tommy quipped later, as he leaned against the counter, the weight of his body resting on his elbows. "I can't believe we're related."

Billy dipped a dish into sudsy water, and srubbed at the bits of food with the minature scrub brush. Kate and Cassie had been the first ones to prance from the room, giggling and whispering, arms around each other's waists. Eli did a quick glance at his watch and hot tailed out of there, before his grandma got suspicious. Teddy dragged Vision by the arm, proclaiming, "No man, you need to try this game."

Tommy stayed behind, watching as Billy gathered up the dishes, with the grace and ease of a chore done hundreds of times before, and well managed. Left over food all on one plate to one side, crockery stacked with the white noise of running water in the background, cutlery gathered up, with the sharper utensils put to one side, so fingers never got accidentally sliced on a sharp knife edge. Billy looked like less than kick ass Wiccan and more like a geeky younger brother, with his Where's Wally stripped long sleeved shirt, and oversized combats. He had yet to outgrow the gawk -or the geek.

The sun had long set, and outside the night and lights beckoned. Normally, Tommy would have been running right now, fast enough so that water wouldn't ripple. Fast enough to cause Kate's hair to tumble wildly around her shoulders, to where the world disappeared into mute and a soft light. But he found himself not wanting to move here, not yet. Watching Billy stacking and putting dishes in the sink, soft enough for the water to take them with a quiet gulp, with suds and bubbles catching and making rainbows of the lights overhead. Tommy never did chores willingly, not back in New Jersey, and sure as hell not here, when he did them so slow, it might have been normal human speed.

"And no powers, too," He huffed, just to get a rise from Billy. "Dude, that's bogus."

"A promise is a promise. Besides, Cassie's been dumped on enough already."

"Still."

"I don't expect you to understand," Billy scraped at a spot on the glass with this thumb, the glass surface squeaking with the motion.

"Because I'm the team sociopath?"

"Because I've seen you do dishes."

Tommy laughed, then stopped. "What? I so do great dishes. What's dishes got to do with anything, anyway? "

"It's more than dishes," Billy transferred the soapy dishes to the dish water. "It's pulling along and hanging together. It's making sure that if one person can't do the dishes that night for whatever reason, we get over it, knowing that they'll chip in next time."

"That's totally reaching," Tommy angled his head towards Billy.

"I'm my mom's child." Billy flashed a grin before it quickly faded. "I mean, the one I grew up with, and -"

Tommy pushed himself off the counter and grabbed a towel. He knew when Billy got that look in his eyes; a mixture of desolation and determination.

"C'mon slowpoke," he threw the towel in the air, grabbed it from the air as quick as a whip.

"I'm not doing magic, Tommy." Billy said in that tone Tommy knew well by now. Still quiet, but one which brooked no opposition or argument.

"I'm not asking you to," Tommy grabbed a dish and started to wipe it, slow style like. "I'm helping you."

"Oh kay then. If we finish, we might make it in time before Teddy does his solo for Guitar Hero."

Tommy only reached for another dish, dried and stacked it on to the other dish. He never expected to stick around with this outfit, true. But, he thought as Billy handed him a plate this time, he might stay awhile longer.

Tuesday - Chosen Family

alas, this is more atmospheric than plot, I hope it suits.

Re: alas, this is more atmospheric than plot, I hope it suits. II