the amazing Ms. Marvel, with just a little side of trauma
Driving, Tommy has decided, is a terrible, horrible, mind-numbingly boring waste of time.
But Kate refused to ditch her car, so driving they remain.
He’s dealing. Mostly by scrolling TikTok on Kate’s phone. And complaining every three seconds about how long this is taking.
He’s a great driving buddy. Clearly.
“Jersey City,” Kate announces, as if it’s some monumental place. It’s really not. It’s just a city.
Then again, he’s technically never been in a city. So maybe it gets some points for that.
Not many, though.
“The place should be close,” he says, checking the map on Kate’s phone. “Y’know, I wasn’t aware that creepy witch ladies with skulls for faces used Google Maps. It’s helpful of her.”
“Very technologically forward,” Kate agrees. “I wish all weird ancient magic users would accommodate for those of us who are not involved in magical nonsense.”
He leans against the window, drumming his nails on it as he stares at his reflection in the glass. Kate didn’t do a half-bad job on his hair. Like- yeah, it’s shitty, but not as much as it coulda been. He’d let her do whatever, so it ended up as sorta an undercut situation, the top still just long enough to fall into his eyes. The color was a silver-ish-y white-bleached mess, pale in the glass, a bit like Pietro’s had been in the Hex. He kinda likes it.
It doesn’t look anything like him. It doesn’t look anything like Thomas Shepherd, either.
It’s sorta perfect.
“You’re quiet,” Kate teases, flicking his shoulder. “Normally you can’t ever shut up. What’s on your mind?”
“Nothing,” he says. Or he’s going to, but instead what comes out is “Hey, should we help with that?”
Kate follows his gaze, to where a girl with sparkly glowing fists- he’s literally back from the dead, so it’s not his place to call that weird, but he’s going to -is chasing a man down the street with the finesse of someone who had not quite grasped the subtleties of stopping crime being a public appearance at the same time. “Oh, that’s my friend!” Kate pauses. Frowns. “Coworker?” she corrects, voice unsure.
He stares at her. “Do we help?”
“Please do.”
He’s running before she’s finished, letting himself slip into the thrum of energy in his veins, too-quick as the world moves too-slow around him. It feels so good, to run, like he’s been dragging himself through molasses and now he can finally move.
He missed this. He missed the world feeling right, feeling like he can move, like he’s not just- stuck.
Trapped.
Like he’s drowning, like there’s water in his lungs, like there’s red light all around him and-
He stumbles, trips, because he’s dying all over again and it hurts and for a second the world slips back into place, a car swerving out of place as his knees scrape the pavement and then he’s running again, past the water in his lungs, running away from the glowing red he can see when he closes his eyes-
The man goes down when Tommy hits him, the momentum sending him tumbling into the pavement, and Tommy stands there, breathing hard past the phantom feeling of his baby brother’s hand in his as they die.
He’s out there he’s out there it’s fine Billy’s out there he’ll find him calm down he’s out there-
“Oh my gosh, thank you!” Kate’s friend-coworker yelps, stumbling to a stop beside him. “I hate running, and ever since my powers went all wonky with Captain Marvel’s they’ve been so finicky and-”
He ignores her, glancing back to scan the road for Kate’s car. “Okay. Bye.”
“Wait!” the girl says, grabbing his arm. “Don’t leave yet. Seriously, thank you for the help- you have powers, don’t you? That’s how you did that? Cause you just like, appeared out of nowhere, so I’m assuming you have powers.”
“Um,” he stammers, staring at her blankly as she barrels on.
“Are you a teleporter? Was that teleportation? That’d be so cool, I don’t know any teleporters! Unless- I do now?” She grins at him with a prompting smile that he doesn’t return.
“No. Bye now.”
“What? No, don’t-”
“Kamala!” Kate’s voice shouts, and he turns back to see her climbing out of the car, waving a hand to get their attention. “Hey, hi!”
“Hawkeye!” Kamala calls, waving back excitedly. “Hi! It is Ms. Marvel, though, I’m in uniform, so-”
“Can I go?” he interrupts, tugging harder to try and pry his arm from her grip to no avail. Kate throws him a look as she grins at her friend.
“Ms. Marvel, this is Tommy. The boy I texted you about?”
He whips his head around to her, scowling, words tumbling together as they tumble out. “You texted people about me? Was it about getting me to join your stupid team? BecauseIalreadysaid-”
“Oh!” Kamala says, pulling his attention back to her. “You’re Kate’s new friend, that’s so snazzy. Hi, it’s great to meet you! I’m Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, founder of the Young Avengers.”
“It’s a work in progress name,” Kate sighs. Kamala gasps at her, pressing a hand to her chest.
“It’s a totally great name! Also, it’s unique and recognizable for branding, which is important.”
“It’s stupid, is what it is,” Tommy says flatly, finally wrenching his arm from her grasp. “Bye. I’ll meet you at the shop, Katie-”
“You’re so impatient,” Kate drawls, wrapping an arm tightly around his shoulders and pulling him back. “Be nice and say hello.”
“Hello,” he tells Kamala dryly, elbowing Kate’s side. “I’m Tommy. I do not want your Avengers pitch and will not be joining your team. Yes, even though I have powers. Goodbye now.”
“...you suck at hellos,” Kate informs him sweetly, and he sticks his tongue out at her as he ducks out of her grip.
“Call me inexperienced. Not much of a chance to meet new people when you live in a town mind-controlled by your witch mother, y’know?”
“When you what?” Kamala asks, concerned. Kate ignores her.
“Why not ask her to come with us, dumbass?” she says, resting her hands on her hips. “We might find your brother quicker with more help. Besides, Kamala’s great at magic stuff.”
Kamala nods, her hands sparking a jewel-toned pink-purple as she grins. “I do tend to be great at magic stuff, as a general rule.”
“I just came back from the dead yesterday,” he tells her flatly, and her eyes widen in shock.
“Oh. Um. Maybe not that great with magic stuff, in this case.”
“Ignore him, he has trust issues,” Kate says cheerfully, throwing an arm over Kamala’s shoulders.
“I trusted you!” he points out, offended.
Kate continues, asking, “Want to come on an adventure to go meet a witch?”
“I mean- I have to make sure the police pick this guy up, first,” Kamala admits, jerking her thumb over her shoulder at the man still crumpled on the concrete. Tommy kicks him lightly- just to make sure he’s still breathing -but y’know. Seems fine enough.
“Too bad, that’s such a shame, anyway,” he says, but Kamala keeps talking.
“But yeah, I’d love to come. Seems exciting, ha!”
Kate smirks at him over Kamala’s head, and he grits his teeth.
“Sure. Sounds great. That’s great. For the record, this does not count as a Kid Avengers mission, because I am not one of your Kid Avengers.”
“Young Avengers, and not yet,” Kate says flippantly, grinning. “Alright then. So, onto finding Jennifer Kale?”
He shuts his eyes, groaning. “...yep. Onto finding Jennifer Kale.”
And then Billy.
Soon.