Tommy kisses Noh-Varr because he can. He doesn’t do it because he is in love, or because he is attracted to him, or even because of a new found doubt in his sexuality. Oh no, Tommy does it because he can.
It’s easy to kiss someone, even one of the same sex as yours. You go there, you pull them near your body and you kiss them. It works for half the girls he went out with — okay, Tommy admits he had to warm them up a little before — and it worked for Kate (after he warmed her a little). Noh-Varr, though, fails to notice the lips on his for far too long; Tommy had to stop and arch an eyebrow at the alien, because, really?
Noh-Varr at least seems to understand a little; the next moment, when Tommy moves again to kiss him, he doesn’t hesitate and kisses him back, tongue slipping inside Tommy’s mouth fast enough he almost misses it. What is a good thing.
There is no excuse but a shrug and an admission he just felt like kissing someone and Noh-Varr was there.
.
They are in this shithole of a city, helping the people who survived an earthquake and even digging some corpses along the way. It’s terrible. As usual, the Young Avengers divided themselves in equal pairs and, since Kate was off with Clint in another mission, Noh-Varr and he teamed up again because they work pretty well together.
Okay, they are great together. Kind of like Jonas and Cassie were, or Kate and Eli, or Teddy and Billy, or even Tommy and David with the exception of the fact they don’t fuck each other and that’s why they are even more reliable. America saw this fast, because teenagers. And even though Kate and Tommy kissed (again), Noh-Varr and he get the shit done. And what he was talking anyway?
Oh, right. The kiss.
So, they are helping these people when America calls everyone and tells them to stop for the day; it’s getting late and they need to sleep. Some kids from Avengers Academy are going to take from where they stopped — the ones that aren’t traumatized, she means, like Striker, Finesse and Lightspeed — and Noh-Varr and Tommy decide to breathe a little, in a very metaphorical way because breathing too deeply with all this dust is as difficult as breathing underwater.
Tommy takes his mask and the helmet they made him use off and then looks around. Destruction’s everywhere, exactly like Civil War and Asgard’s Siege, except this time it isn’t their fault — and that’s far worse because you can stop a war, but force of nature? How do you stop this level of destruction? You can’t, it’s the answer; you just save as much people you can save while shit is going down and then do it again after everything’s in ruins.
It’s thinking about this and all the people he rescued and all the people he couldn’t that makes Tommy want to get physical with someone. Not in, like, sex, but just to kiss someone because that’s what you do in movies when things are getting too emotional; you kiss someone and everything feels better. And, yes, Tommy likes to take advice from movies. Yeah, it’s a crappy logic — stupidest logic ever, actually — but it’s better than fall apart right in that moment. He could deal with feelings later, when he would be alone and far away from ruins with people underneath. A kiss is also a hell of a distraction besides having stress-reducing effects and being great for the heart.
And, yes, he reads scientific magazines sometimes.
Noh-Varr’s the closest person next to him that he knows.
.
Noh-Varr’s no rookie in the wild world of kissing people and he even knows what to do with his hands. They rest on Tommy’s back softer than necessary — something that says a lot about the person he learned to kiss properly (a girl, probably human, delicate. Teenager? Civilian, definitely) — but it’s better than being crushed by him, so Tommy only hums in approval and transfers his hands to Noh-Varr’s neck.
Strong and tall isn’t what gets him off like it does with Billy, but it’s alright; Tommy’ll take what he can have at the moment. Besides, this isn’t sexual for him. If Noh-Varr thinks differently, too bad, that’s his own problem (though he doesn’t push, he doesn’t try to make Tommy give more, so it’s possible he understands what Tommy wants); Tommy won’t take his clothes off because he doesn’t feel hot right now. He did it when Cassie died and it didn’t work at all.
“Where are you two?!” America yells at them through their comms., and they jump away from each other, not expecting the scream. “Dios! What I said before, chicos? Just tell me you guys are alive and report back!”
Tommy smirks, does his best to clean his mouth and not sound like there was something inside it just now and answers their fearless leader that they’re going now to rendezvous.
“What the hell you guys are doing, anyway?”
Tommy looks at Noh-Varr and arches an eyebrow but the alien says nothing — like, really, nothing. He doesn’t question why Tommy did it; Noh-Varr only looks at the other white haired boy with curiosity before smiling and bowing his head, as if letting Tommy choose what to say to Chavez. “Just burning off some stress.” He says and looks at his favorite teammate ever — besides Dave, Eli, Cassie, Jonas, Kate, Billy, Teddy and America; okay, Tommy likes Noh-Varr better than Nate — and smirks. “Race ya?”
And then he runs, not as fast as he can so Noh-Varr can catch up, and prepares himself for tomorrow. Tomorrow, he’ll have to be super again — not just a hero. The type of super who does not break when he finds a child’s body holding her teddy bear as strong as she can and who needs to run around the world at least twice before coming back because of it. Tommy will succeed, better than he did today, but he hopes Dave is the one he teams up with.
Hey, everyone has preferences.