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WHO: Kate "Hawkeye" Bishop (

lilac_scented ) and Tommy "Speed" Shepherd (

trop_rapide )
WHERE: Tommy's room, possibly outside.
WHEN: Evening of Saturday, March 21st
WARNINGS: Teenagers. Possibly swearing.
SUMMARY: "The Young Avengers don't kill." Or not. Kate and Tommy have a long overdue talk.
FORMAT: Para

Kate shut down her communicator and leaned back against the kitchen counter. Exiling herself here was a nice way to enjoy the evening alone. Usually she liked the quiet, but tonight it only let the thoughts in her head become louder. Death, killing, murder and justice: those seemed like such abstract concepts, before she'd become a vigilante. Now it seemed the only thing on anyone's lips. Kate had never taken a life, but the idea didn't sit well with her, especially since she could list a few instants in which--or a few choice individuals--she felt she could destroy with little care. Kang, at the height of that battle. Her rapist. Her mother's killers. Did that make killing a weakness, then? Some kind of moral failure? Kate had always thought that she could avoid killing if only she was fast enough, strong enough, smart enough to find another way. But what if there was no other way? Nothing was ever so simple, and yet. As that man had pointed out, killing was killing, no matter the circumstance.

Her teammates were safe from The Law for now--Young Avengers didn't kill, it was one of their requirements--but this entire mess made her painfully aware of the changeability of that statement. It also made her aware of a certain issue that she had let lie for too long. The Young Avengers had broken Speed out of prison, and he had arguably become one of their most useful members since. But the fact remained that he had been put in that prison for a reason, and Kate felt it was high time to address that reason.

She grabbed her cup of tea and sipped generously from it, hoping to clear her head as she made her way up the stairs. Cassie's voice could be heard from the room they shared, talking to someone over the comm, which meant Tommy was alone in his. She couldn't decide if that was a stroke of luck of not. Stepping past her room to the next, she gently rapped the door with her knuckles.

"Tom, you in?"

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Tommy wasn't usually in his room much. He couldn't stay for a long time if he wasn't moving because he needed his activity and the exception was probably comps and video games and the likes. He could concentrate on them long enough without wanting to run around the house a hundred times.

He wasn't doing either and was going to be leaving soon when Kate knocked. He was at the door, opening it wide, nearly right away.

"Tommy is already a nickname but I'm fine if you wanna use a different one," he commented, smiling. "Do you need something?"

The door swung open almost as soon as she had knocked once, and her hand was projected into open air. She rolled her eyes at him. "Tom, Tommy--whatever, it's more of the same. I won't use Thomas, how's that?" She paused a touch before adding, "can I come in?"

She wasn't sure how she was going to broach all this, but keeping things honest seemed like a good start. "I wanted to talk with you."

"You can go in but I'm going out." He smirks and and moves on the side a little, putting his hand on the door frame and starting to move his fingers, tapping quickly (not nearly as fast as he could, however).

"Is it important? We could go walk together."

His suggestion was actually the better one in this case, she figured--talking about serious things with Tommy was always best done when he wasn't ensconced between four walls.

"Sure, a walk sounds like a good idea." She gave him her cup of tea. "Take that back to the kitchen and meet me at the door." Making her way back to her own room, she went in and grabbed the light coat she'd thrown onto her bed. Gave Cassie a smile and a wave, mouthing 'I'm going out' before shutting the door behind her.

She buttoned up her coat as she made her way down the stairs. Her booties were quick to slip into, and she was very glad it was warm enough not to warrant clunky snow boots. "I can' believe I'm going back outside after all these days of fighting," she halfheartedly complained. There would probably still be cadavers in the streets. God, what a mess.

It was interesting to see she gave orders and left before even looking at if Tommy followed them. Especially since she took orders so badly herself. He smirked and did it anyway because why not and was back at the door as Kate was putting her boots on.

Tommy crossed his arms, wearing shoes and only a jacket himself. But he normally wasn't cold when others were so he guessed it had something to do with the speed.

"The streets are cleaned West from here, we're not going anywhere near Stark Tower, I think you've had your quota of war zone for the week."

Edited 2009-03-23 06:14 (UTC)

Kate knew that Tommy had little reason to refuse her demand--the kitchen was on his way--and that he would be more inconvenienced by waiting for her to do it than by having to do it himself. That, and she'd barked out so many orders in the last three days that it was becoming hard to switch off.

She smirked lightly at his uncharacteristic protectiveness. "And what, you haven't?" They'd all seen their fair share of death and gloom, Tommy wasn't the only one who'd seen some horrors. But that was what she wanted to know, wasn't it? The snapping, cold wind outside did what the hot tea couldn't, and she was thankful for the sharp focus it gave her when they were finally on the street.

"Been reading the comms tonight?" she asked. She knew it wasn't a favorite pastime of his, but considering how little time it took him to do anything there was no telling if he checked it now and again, in tiny increments.

He was kind of grossed out and it had been overwhelming but he still didn't feel saturated - just glad it was finished. It was still close enough so he shrugged and smiled, "Hey, I'm the one who knows where to go not to walk on corpses. That says something."

The comms - what had been on the comms recently? He read most of it everyday but he didn't remember stuff when he read at superspeed that well. It was basically like going to school, for what he remembered. Getting bored, hearing everything but letting most of it out in the following hour and needing to study to remember it. Obviously, Tommy wasn't spending time revising the posts on the board because he really didn't have that much time to waste that way. He could think of a lot of ways to waste time that were more entertaining.

"Yeah. Though all the 'we killed 'cause it was a war' posts and their highly original 'it wasn't a war, idiots' answers got redundant and I skipped most of them. Did I miss something?"

Edited 2009-03-24 02:25 (UTC)

"That says nothing, besides the fact you took an extra three seconds on the way home to run around the neighborhood," she shot back, nudging him with her shoulder. A slight smile played on her face; it was easy to remember why she liked this boy so much.

"You didn't miss anything. I was just interested in what your take on things was." That's it Katie, keep it slow. "I don't claim to have straight answers for anything, but I figured you've got to have some sort of opinion."

Tommy raised his hands and placed them behind his head, never stopping the walking motion. "I didn't think about it that much. My name's not on the list. The war excuse is pretty stupid, I get that Bucky's irritated over that."

He smiled at Kate, malicious, "Although I remember Wolverine telling me I could vaporize Skrulls and I don't get how completely different that situation was. We were all protecting people, it'd have been worse without killing some of them."

That made her frown a bit. She remembered being with Eli and Bucky in that AIM facility and the explanation about the MODOC Squad. How they had, at one point, been human, but killing them was a mercy act in their horrifically mutated state. A necessity. So even though she knew that the skrulls would revive from only a few live cells, she couldn't excuse enjoying the act itself. "So what? You liked it? Tommy, come on. Just because they regenerate doesn't make them disposable."

"Eh, woah!" He lifted his hands in front of him in a defensive manner, "Where does that come from? I was pointing out that tons of people agree that killing one to save millions, or even tens, can be okay."

He looked at Kate curiously, "Is something bothering you to make you that jumpy? If it's that you finally realised that you should have made that move on me earlier - I'm sorry, taken now."

She once again rolled her eyes. It was just as easy to remember what she didn't like about Tommy, apparently. That said, she hadn't intended to sound aggressive--jumpy, was what he said. Was she really being jumpy? Get a grip, Kate--so she slipped her hands into her pockets, hoping that keeping her hands still would help quiet the rest of her.

"Yeah well, Cassie can keep you," she retorted, shrugging, "and I didn't mean to sound jumpy or whatever. I guess I can see the reasoning behind killing one to save a thousand, but do would you choose not to kill if you didn't have to? Say, if I took down the killing ban tomorrow." She looked straight ahead, her mind going back to that night at the prison.

He wasn't about to let Kate get to him with something Tommy had been thinking about for way longer than she ever had. He had been experimented on to be a weapon, he was supposed to get eventually brainwashed or - die, he supposed. That was pretty much when he'd learn that thinking about the future sucked because it was doomed anyway. He thought he wouldn't have the choice to kill or not at some point.

None of that had happened since he'd been busted out of prison (okay, super-juvvie theoretically but it was worse than prison so screw technical terms) by some heroes (clearly he wasn't the only one not having the highest moral values in the group), and that was cool. He even felt grateful sometimes. And since he now had the choice, Kate could be sure he was taking it and that it wasn't a case of listening blindly to some rule.

"I'm already choosing to kill or not right now. Taking down the ban wouldn't change anything much." He raised an eyebrow, "Where are you going with all that? 'Cause you obviously want to go somewhere."

Edited 2009-03-25 05:12 (UTC)

Kate knew, vaguely, about what had happened in those labs. It wasn't exactly dinner table conversation, to say the least, but saying 'I was experimented on to become a weapon' was pretty evocative. How the government could condone doing that to a sixteen-year-old on the grounds that they were a mutant and/or a criminal (and therefore what? non-citizens?) was beyond her. But then again, nothing ever made sense.

"All the talk on death, and killing--made me realize I don't know your track record, Tommy. At all. I feel like a dumbass for not bringing it up earlier, but I mean, I don't even know what time of day it was when your school blew." She sighed, and turned her head towards him. "What I'm trying to say is: have you ever killed anyone?"

Tommy smiled at that, clearly amused and satisfied at the question. "You know - before you came in, there was that huge fuss about Cloud 9. 'Cause there was some talk about getting her on the team but she'd killed someone and all." He made a sarcastic face. "Very dramatic."

He was then back to something more neutral and he kept on going. "And during all that talk about 'oh no, she's a murderer, it's bad', I was wondering when someone would ask me that question. And no one ever did." He smirked, not wanting to take it all too seriously even though he really should have. "Everyone is scared of the answer or something. Now - Vision's the one who told you why I was in there in the first place, right? Did he ever mention a body count?"

Abby? As one of the Young Avengers? Abby was a sweetheart but Kate just couldn't see it, for entirely different reasons. She didn't know Abby would fit in team dynamics, for one, not to mention she was firmly a part of the Initiative team. Kate knew that Abby had killed but nothing was ever so black and white. Cloud 9 was one of the kindest, selfless metas on the job, and if Tommy could be a blank, then Kate wasn't about to get picky. She wondered who would have put up that kind of resistance, though, but shuffled the question away for later.

"Don't try to avoid the question," she reprimanded, feeling he was being uncharacteristically indirect. "Vision didn't mention any numbers, but I don't know if that's because he had none to give or if he chose not to mention it. It's too late now, since I have no access to him."

He expected that, the tone and the question, but it was fine with him because she had answered his question, and that this was mostly what he had needed.

"I'm not avoiding the question," Tommy answered simply. "Which, really, is the whole problem. I just don't know if I killed anyone." Normally it'd be all the info he'd give away but Kate was going to ask more and he didn't mind telling her more. He stretched his arms and continued, not trying to sort his ideas much, basically just saying whatever crossed his mind on the subject.

"If Vision didn't tell you any body count, I'll have to trust him about the fact he wouldn't have hidden that I was some sort of murderer when wanting me on a superteam. Which I do and if I trust someone on something, it's really something." He smiled maliciously, "although I have to say I enjoy thinking I never killed anyone so my opinion here isn't the most straight-forward-unbiased-other-synonym thing ever."

"You don't know?" she repeated, surprised. How did you not know if you killed anyone when you dropped a building on them? "No lawsuits, no press, no calls from angry bereaved parents and educators? Nothing?" Once she'd externalized that thought, the logical conclusion came to her--and she frowned. "You must've been kept cooped up pretty tight in there," she mused, pursing her lips.

She remembered his reaction when Vision had removed the power dampeners from his door--he'd burst from his cage like a demon sprung from hell. Arguably, any jailhouse experience would do that to a person, but Tommy being a speedster, any kind of confined space generally didn't sit well with him. Seeing the look on his face, however, made any and all feelings of pity or compassion fly out the window. Kate rolled her eyes. "Yes, we all like the though. So keep it that way, got it?"

"It's not that easy to know," he answered, not wanting to start talking about how much locked up he had been exactly. After all, there was a perfectly reasonable and logical reason for which he didn't know other than the fact he'd had barely any human contact for a while.

"The vaporization is like - chemistry stuff. I'm destabilizing atoms. I never really entirely understood what I was doing but saying I can make stuff explode isn't accurate. I make it go away as something else." He smiled at Kate again, not wanting to make it look like it got to him. "I never was a big science guy but the point is - when I vaporized the school? It didn't explode in my face, it just went away and there was nothing left. And I didn't know if there had been people in there at the time that could have just. Been vaporized at the same time."

The only sign that he wasn't completely comfortable about that conversation was the way he kept flattening and unflattening his lips constantly as soon as he stopped talking.

She could almost picture it--the bricks and mortar of the school bursting into dust, going up in smoke like in a movie. When she thought about the potential number of human bodies doing the same, however, she felt cold. She could tell he wasn't telling her how much this got to him--maybe it was that stiffness in his tone, maybe the way he kept worrying his lower lip--or perhaps the uncharacteristic introspective shift that was skewing her perception. Tommy didn't get tense, like others did; she knew him to be incredibly body-conscious and it made reading his body language difficult. But she felt a niggling sensation something was off. Kate wasn't a tactile person to begin with, especially not with boys, and the fact that Tommy was taken put any kind of comforting gesture in an odd morality bracket.

Still, as a friend, she felt compelled to reach out. So she gently stepped sideways and bumped her shoulder into his, walking in time with him. She wasn't exactly leaning, they weren't holding hands--as far as comforting gestures went, it was pretty bare, Kate was ready to admit. But hugging while walking was awkward, putting her arms around his waist was a no, and kissing him wasn't an option to begin with.

"What was it like, in the lab?" she queried, hoping it wouldn't freak him out. "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to." After all, Kate knew all about keeping painful secrets.

Edited 2009-04-07 05:11 (UTC)

Of course kissing was an option and Tommy would have been very happy to fake some sort of 'oh no I have a girlfriend' thing and - it was better if Kate didn't get into that for that exact reason, actually. Because things were still going well with Cassie and he didn't want to ruin it. That was possibly the reason he wasn't flirting with Kate right now. Too much. He wasn't flirting seriously, at least. Either way, Tommy didn't know what Kate was thinking about and only smiled at her and at the way she was trying to comfort him without really doing so.

And then came the question and... Tommy really, really liked thinking that the past was the past, the future was the future and that he was living in the now. Which he was so talking about traumatic past experiences shouldn't have been difficult at all. However, talking about the past required to live it a little and the way Tommy lived was by not thinking too much about anything. Past or future. He didn't think about the present, much, either. And talking about any of those demanded thinking about it and was breaking his way to live a little.

There was no way to avoid the subject without bringing in sympathy he didn't want - but there was no way to talk about it without doing the exact same thing. He was doomed.

He just had to joke about it. "Very boring. Not much to do. And the food was terrible."

Edited 2009-04-10 04:37 (UTC)

She inwardly rolled her eyes, but took the answer anyways. She honestly hadn't figured she would press the issue beyond the first question; hadn't thought about it more than that. Didn't think he'd be willing to talk at all, in fact. So she'd perhaps had her hopes up that he would open up a little, but was know faced with stark reality. Whatever had happened in those labs wasn't crossing Tommy's lips anytime soon.

Well, he could keep his secrets. He'd tell her when he wanted to.

"That bad, huh?" The comment was quiet and unassuming. She put a smile on to answer his, and nudged him playfully in the side. "Good thing you don't have discriminating tastes."

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RP > Sleep

pfft, it's so true

Re: pfft, it's so true

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He. Talks too much in this tag. Ugh.

Pffft, it's Tommy. Talking too much is normal.

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