Outsiders
"Hey, Am, are you hungry?" Kate asks, knocking on the other girl's door before entering anyway. She pauses as America enters her line of sight.
They'd just arrived incursion five minutes ago, can she already be sleeping? She looks like she just collapsed on the bed face first —which is exactly what happened. Her boots are the only thing she took off, apparently, and are laying on the floor next to her bed, and her entire face is buried on the pillow. Kate wonders if she can breath that way. Does she need air at all? She can breath in space so-
Her thoughts are interrupted when America responds, or, more accurately, groans, not giving signals to move.
"C'mon, Princess, let's go down stairs for something to eat, then you can sleep. You need diner- or, breakfast, I guess," she winces, glancing at the clock on the wall.
"Let me sleep," America mutters, and Kate can't help being surprised by her voice sounding almost like a whine. Very much like a regular human teenager. "I have work in three hours."
Kate can't help herself form wincing again.
"Ow, shouldn't you, like, call sick, or something?"
"No."
"But you-"
"Need to show up."
"Don't you think you're overworking yourself, America?"
"Hmmm- Shut up and let me sleep," she mutters rolling over and Kate knows that irritated tone well enough to back off and close the door cautiously. She sends one last worried look before going back downstairs, quickly shooting a text to the guys.
Just as expected, America's up in time for work, or at least Kate guesses so because she's no where to be seen by the time she gets up. She can't help but worry about her friend. It annoys her. She blames Clint for making her get into the habit of wanting to look after friends who suck at looking after themselves, but in all honesty she knows deep inside this is more about Cassie than about anyone else. She's already lost one best friend because she let her take on more than she could handle, she's not about to loose this one too.
America arrives late at night, dragging her feet only slightly. She tries to act natural, but just one look is enough for Kate to know how exhausted she is. There's only one time she's seen her like this before, it was after weeks of literally kicking wholes through realities. Back then, she wouldn't make any comment either, but even Noh'd made a comment about how she'd collapse if they didn't slow down their trips. Not that anyone'd dare even suggesting that to America, back then. Now, though... now Kate's not going to back down.
"Hey, Princess," America says and, somehow, the fact that she's trying to make small talk just makes it clearer that she's concealing how tired she feels, "just gonna take a shower, then I'm out on patrol. Don't wait up-"
"Oh, no way," Kate cuts her off, frowning. "I've already called Tommy and asked him to cover for you today."
"What-?"
"You can make up for it on the weekend, after you've taken some free time."
"Kate, I'm not-"
"I don't care!" And now Kate's yelling, for some reason, and feels bad about it, but at least it makes America stop, almost startled. Okay, Bishop, think. You need to give her a good reason to slow down. "Look, Chavez, I get it you're used to this whole solo-hero thing, but you're part of this team whether you like it or not. It means we all depend on each other, but how are you gonna have our backs next time there's an attack if you can barely keep your eyes open?"
America doesn't answer, just blinks at Kate and she can almost see her being a bit shaken on the inside. It's barely a second before America closes off again, as usual.
"Fine," she finally shrugs after the silence'd stretched for so long that Kate'd thought America was just giving her the silent treatment. "Whatever, just don't put me on patrol with Loki on the weekend," the dark skinned girl goes on, walking away to the bathroom. "I still need that shower."
"The boys are coming over to watch some movies. You could join-"
The door slams closed even before she can finish the sentence.
America comes out until an hour later. Kate wonders if she fell asleep in the shower. No, America wouldn't do something like that. And if she did, she'd never admit it anyway.
They are all already watching the movie, cuddled up on the couches. Billy and Teddy are sharing the love sit, Loki 'won' the individual one and Kate is alone on the biggest sofa. Without making any comments, America comes over and sits next to her, on the other side of the couch.
Billy sends Kate a wide eyed look. She simply shrugs, contempt with her friend having joined them willingly.
Ten minutes in, she starts snoring softly. They all turn slowly to look at her. She's cuddled against the arm rest, deeply asleep.
"Oh, my..." Loki murmurs. A small mischievous smile appears on his face as a marker appears on his hand and he starts approaching her slowly.
"Loki," Teddy warns him.
"What?! It's simply an innocent prank."
"I will turn you into a frog," Billy whispers grimly.
"And she will kill you," Kate adds.
"But-"
"She will."
"Fine!" He scowls, pulling his phone out with a pout. "At least let me take a picture."
They all share an unsure look, but no one stops him. He sends the pone a blink-and-you-miss-it find smile before putting it away.
"Okay, but send it to me," Kate says. He laughs, but complies.
The next morning, as it was to be expected, America is gone by the time Kate wakes up, the blanket that she'd put over her —not daring to disturb her sleep to make her move to the bedroom, because, honestly, it's like she can sleep wherever like it's a five stars hotel and Kate's far from suicidal—, is neatly folded on the couch.
Any hope Kate might've had that their small fight managed to make America slow down's shot down quickly, though, when the girl keeps on overworking herself and showing up at home late at night. She does, however, make an exception in movie nights. Kate catches her never really watching the movie, just falling asleep nearly immediately, but everyone appreciates the silent effort. Loki takes a picture every single time he can.
The longest time she's seen her awake in weeks is when they finally call for a new team meeting. The situation's getting out of control. The holes keep appearing in shorter intervals, bigger, more and for longer.
"I say we take the fight to them," Tommy says, slamming his glass of juice dramatically on the table. "They keep coming to our home world to attack us, let's see how they like it if we come to theirs."
"I agree," Teddy sats, sounding almost surprised by his own words. "We can't just keep waiting for an invasion to happen."
"That's a terrible idea," David frowns at them both. "We can barely handle them here when there's just a few crossing, and you wanna go and take on their whole fleet?"
"Well, what else can we do?" Billy shrugs. "Maybe we could go trying to talk to them..."
"They do not seem to be the type to talk much," Loki points out, almost amused.
"Well, we could at least try diplomacy first," Billy insists. "I mean, we go there and-"
"No," America cuts him off dryly.
"What? We could try to-"
"I said no," America repeats.
"Then we go and fight!" Tommy replies, enthusiastically. "You just have to open a portal there and-"
"No. We're not gonna go fight them there."
"What?" Kate blinks at her friends. "Did you just say 'no' to a fight?"
America gave her a blank look, not willing to discuss it.
"Look, America, they've got a valid point. We have to start doing something instead of just fending for our lives," David says calmly. "You seem to be the one who knows this things better so... there's gotta be something we can do. If we go there-"
"We. Are. Not. Going. There," America mutters, fists clenching over the table. They all send her surprised looks that she pretends to ignore as she clearly forces her whole body to relax. "It can't be done."
"What do you mean it can't be done?" Kate says, eyes wide. "Are you saying there's actually a dimension out there you can't get into? What happened to the whole 'ticket to the Multiverse' thing?" She presses.
America clenches her jaw. Everyone keeps looking at her, even Loki seems to be pressing for answers even though she's almost sure he knows many of them by now. She sighs, though not defeatedly, giving them a grim look.
"Wholes in the Multiverse. That's what you said," her eyes lock shortly in Loki. "You were right. Whatever's in the other side's not part of the Multiverse. Means I can't open a portal there. My power doesn't go that far."
If she could, maybe she would've gone home a long time ago, maybe she wouldn't. That's not the point right now.
"Wait, wait, wait-" Kate shakes her hands in the air, gesturing for America's attention. "Are you saying there's a world outside the Multiverse."
America's eyes dart quickly at Billy before answering.
"Yes."
There's a cold silence that spreads around them, thick and uncomfortable for everyone except, maybe, Loki.
Knowing there's infinite realities and world's out there is hard enough to handle for most people, but thinking of something entirely outside any realm of reality they could imagine... would take a while for the idea to settle on them, or stop being terrifying.
"Well, at least that explains why they're so strange," Tommy's the one who finally snaps out of it, trying to cheer everyone up. "I guess it's good. I mean, whatever they are, if they're not even from the Multiverse I guess they don't count as people, right?"
Everyone, except America, seems a little relieved at the sense that they haven't been killing this things, technically.
"So... now what?" Kate finally asks.
"Nothing. They're still trying to invade us. We just can't get there through a regular portal," America cut her off. She knows most of her team well enough to assume they'll be chewing over this for a long time. Which means, she has to keep away before they start asking questions. ""We'll think of something. I've gotta get back to work," she declares standing up.
Everyone's still too in shock to try to stop her.
The wholes kept coming, worse every time just like the attacks of the creatures from the other world. David said the first attacks were probably just to measure their forces, and now they were really going to start the actual invasion. It didn't really make anyone feel better. The fights gets thicker and harder, lasting for hours until Kate can't remember how long they've been fighting for. A glance at the sky lets her know the fight's far from over. The aliens in their flying vehicles keep arriving by the seconds. She hears the sounds of skulls crashing behind her and doesn't need to glance back to know who it is.
"America, what are you doing down here?" Kate shouts as she shoots another arrow upward. "They need you up there!"
"Normalizers..." she hears the other girl mutter under her breath as she looks up.
"Yeah, I know. They've been there for a while and they're helping, but it's not enough! They need you!"
To her surprise, the other girl doesn't dart to action as usual.
"What, Chavez, don't tell me you're scared!" Loki laughs beside them.
America turns to shoot him a murderous glare but doesn't bother answering him, turning to look at Kate instead.
"I'm on it," she says before flying up and starting to kick ass and take names.
"See?" Loki grins, sending another spell to the aliens with his hands. "All Miss Chavez needs is proper encouragement!"
"Since when does America needs to be encouraged to go into a fight?!" Kate asks, arching an eyebrow as she released another arrow.
Loki laughs but didn't answer. What the hell is going on between those two? She is tired of wondering what they weren't telling her. She has her suspicions, of course, but they are too insane to even risk saying them out loud. She knows Billy suspects the same thing, though.
It's a long, long, time before the holes start closing. Kate can't help a wave of relief at the, rather scary, sound the portals make as they start shrinking in the sky. Relief doesn't last long, though.
"Oh, hel, hel, hel," she hears Loki muttering under his breath. She follows his line of sight and spots America and Billy flying over one of the wholes. They are fighting quite a few of the aliens, but America seems to have got the hang of it. She fails to see the problem, there's even a few Normalizers approaching them, they'd take care of the remaining creatures.
Just as predicted, a moment later, at least five Normalizers shoot on their direction, taking out the aliens. Their bodies drop from the sky and through the closing hole, disappearing back into the world where they came from.
Except, something's wrong.
It takes half a second for Kate to realize there's only one person left standing on the air. Kate's eyes barely have time to go from Billy to America before she spots her friend falling through the hole and disappearing from the world.
She can't hear Billy but she's sure she sees him shout the second before he dashes down trying to go after her. The hole closes right in front of him before he has a chance.
Barely five seconds have passed before New York's sky is clear again. No signs of the holes, or the aliens, or America.
They just stare, frozen. Kate glances to the side to find Loki still staring up, paler than usual and looking just as in shock as the rest of them.
"America..." she hears him mutter under his breath.
What just happened?