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Darcy Lewis wakes up with a headache, in a place that looks familiar but is not her apartment but for the most part is feeling pretty good.
There's a pleasant ache between her legs and a warmth in the bed next to her that can only be another person.
Niceee she'd gotten lucky! She'd had a bit too much to drink last night at her birthday party but from the snippets she remembered the sex had been good..... really good. Definitely worth another hookup.
With a smile, she turned over in the bed to see if she could entice her mystery partner into starting round two (or was it five? Six?) only to feel her heart stop.
The person in the bed next to her had a head of white hair.
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck
The only thing deader than her libido right now was going to be her. She needed to get the fuck out of here.
Darcy scrambled out of bed as quickly as she could, almost bolted out of the room naked, paused, contemplated if she'll be safer in jail for streaking, then decided it wasnt worth it and hastily threw on her clothes before legging it out of the room and down the stairs.
Her bedfellow had remained asleep throughout, dead to the world, thank fuck for small mercies.
Surely it couldn't get worse than sleeping with Pietro - fricking- Maximoff. I mean sure she had fantasised and played with the perl over him on boring or lonely nights. He was annoying, a jerk and she had zero interest in any sort of relationship with him but she still had eyes....the man was hot, he had a scientifically perfect arse. That whole family was hot (if god was real then he really was unfair with how he distributed the good genes). She was a girl that could appriciate aesthetics, so sue her!
She'd slept with her business partner and close friend's twin brother one of the worst possible people to sleep with...she vauagely remembered seeing him at the party the night before but hadn't Monet also been there?
Oh shit Monet....not that Darcy Lewis, Bisexual disaster hasn't also fantasised about the beautiful St Croix hairess (if the situation hadn't been so dire having both Pietro and Monet staring down at her disdainfully after she landed in their bed would have been hot as fuck) but she might be an even scarier woman to cross than Wanda and Darcy had just fucked her boyfriend.
Great, Darcy getting a reality warping witch and Ms. Mutant perfection who's Penance from had knives for fingers pissed at her was just her luck. Fuck her life, should she write a will? Could she have done anyone worse?...
Her train of thought was cut off as she slipped down the stars and fell face first into someone's back, bounced off them and landed on her ass.
"Darcy Lewis what the hell are you doing? you could have spilled my coffee." Came a disdainful and familiar accented voice.
Pietro Maximoff stood above her, smelling of some cologne that was probably expensive but just smelled obnoxious, hair looking extra curly but outfit looking freshly pressed and steamed. He had a steaming coffee from the place down the road in his hand and he was looking at her face scrunched up like she was a bad smell.
In that moment a few things crossed her mind, one that he was a mega asshole (but he looked good which just upped her irritation with him), two was the realisation she was at the emporium (wasn't there something going on today?) and three she was very confused...
"What the hell dude! weren't you just in my bed?"
"What?" Exclaimed Pietro at the same time a much louder voice yelled "Excusez-Moi??!!! What are you trying to say about my man?" Monet St Croix stomping into her line of sight. Two of the superhero community's biggest "jerks" with sexy accents looking down on her with narrowed eyes like a twisted parody of her wet dreams come to life.
In fairness to Darcy, her headache and panic was imparing her ability to think straight. Sure in the minute it took her to run down the stairs Pietro was fast enough to get himself put together (even if there were inconsistencies) and Dracy was if anything a girl's girl and she wasn't gonna let this man cheat and try get away with it- consequences to her be dammed.
She looks Monet in the eye as she stands up "I'm so sorry M..." She says "but I got drunk last night and had sex with Pietro...I didn't mean for it to happen...."
Both her companions are stunned to silence, Pietro looks confused and like he wants to throw up, Monet just looks confused and pissed off.
There is the sound of a throat clearing to her left, followed by an awkward "umm...Hi Darcy...happy belated birthday I guess..."
Darcy turns towards the voice and then wishes Hypollita had succeeded in killing her as she sees Luna and Monet's sisters standing to the side. Claudette clutching Mr Dibbles in comfort, looking just as much like she doesn't want to be here as Darcy does, Nicole looks like she's biting her fist in an attempt not to burst out laughing and Luna waves at her awkwardly.
Oh... Darcy's brain starts slowly adding things up. She slowly turns back to look at the other adults in the room
"Um Darcy..." Pietro starts looking positively traumatised "...we didn't do anything together! why would you think..."
"We were at your stupid party for all of an hour to give you your present and cut the cake you pervert! He was with us the rest of the night...." Monet interrupts, looking disgusted "with ME...." She adds telepathically (Darcy is momentarily distracted by the way M's breasts gets accentuated when the other woman crosses her arms - note to self buy more turtle necks).
"But then who?" Darcy begins, feeling of dread building in her stomach as movement could be heard from the apartment upstairs.
"Yooo....what's up peeps! Did you have a good night? I can't remember much but I think I had a great night! Mum is hungover af! Why's everyone yelling?" Says Tommy sleepily as he zips down the stairs, hair dishevelled and clad in nothing but his boxers. There is a hickey prominent on his neck and more love bites scattered across his chest.
His smile drops as Darcy's eyes meet his in horror. All the missing pieces from the night before starting to click into place as they look at each other. Pietro's mouth drops open in shock and horror, Monet's face morphs from annoyed to looking like the holidays had come early, Luna slaps her hands over her mouth letting out choked laughs, Nicole in a fit of teenage hormones let's out a delighted gasp at seeing her first half naked man in the flesh and Claudette overwhelmed by the whole encounter just cuddles Mr Dibbles to her chest and walks out of the shop.
There was no sound other than Pietro's coffee cup hitting the floor and the Emporium's bell as Claudettee left muttering about how she knew the stupid family brunch was a bad idea.
Darcy remembers the night before now, her birthday party getting out of hand as she tried to start a drinking competition with Tommy. Wanda had tried to caution them against it, got convinced to join in (she'd been down since Amerath left so Darcy figured it had something to do with that - which big deal Darcy was still here and keen to learn) and then feel asleep at the bar after 4 or 5 drinks (lightweight). Them getting kicked out of the bar because Tommy curious to see if he could get drunk had finished every single alcoholic drink in all the bars in the area. The three of them stumbling back to the Emporium to put an out of it Wanda into bed, then her joking around with Tommy about their dating experiences. It was all light hearted before he had started crying over some dude called David that had died, come back to life, then dumped him and was posting Instagram stories about moving in with someone else, how could David discard and replace him so easily? and if David could hook up with other people then dammit Tommy would too (it was all very hard to follow for Darcy)- mixing all those copious amounts of alcohol having really done a number on him. Darcy drunk off her tits had looked at his white hair and wondered if it was soft, thought Tommy like the other men in Wanda's family was pretty handsome actually (letting his escape the box of one of Wanda's not so baby boys to available fuckable male), then gotten annoyed with his crying and kissed him so he would shut up With a "M told me once your uncle can vibrate, I hate your uncle but I'm curious, can you vibrate? Can you make magic like your mum?" And then the two drunk idiots had stumbled into what used to be Amerath's room and taken it from there. At the time Darcy had figured only those boyband posters would know their dirty secret and she could tick "bang a younger man" off her bucket list.
Gosh what she had done was so much worse and the situation now was unbearably awkward. She cursed her drunk brain.
"I'm leaving now!" She shrieked out before hightailing it out of the shop past a started Claudette.
----
Tommy's brain started working again seeing Darcy run out of the store, he launched himself at his uncle with a "please, please, please uncle Pete don't tell my mum" before following after Darcy.
It's didn't take long to catch up with her naturally, funny he didn't remember her being that slow last night (things were still a little fuzzy but clicking into place but by bit for him). Slowly walking next to her as she all but runs.
"Hey Darce....soooo last night was fun! Sorry about all that with my family...do you wanna t..."
"We will never speak of this again!" She yells, stopping abruptly, her cheeks flushed.
"Ok sure!" He holds his hands up in an attempt to placate her.
"Good now buzz off..." Dracy says before turning to walk away. The word reminds Tommy of somethings she said the night before and he abruptly stills next to her.
"Wait..." He starts his expression twisting "....did you only sleep with me because you had the hots for my uncle? Because I was some two for one deal on your sexual bucket list? What the fuck Darcy!"
Then he has the absolute gall and audacity to look disgusted with her and maybe the later statement was something she told him verbatim but how dare this little shit judge her!
Darcy, fuming grabs his chin with surprising strength and drags him towards her "oh like you weren't using me to stick it to your ex dickhead! As some sort of rebound. Don't think I missed you occasionally calling me David! Now...." At this she squeezes his cheeks between her thumb and index figure causing his lips to balloon out cartoonishly "...we will never speak of this again and you better make sure none of this gets back to Wanda or I will make you pay capishe?!"
There really was nothing she could do to physically threaten him but Tommy nods slowly in understanding nonetheless. Something about her in this moment reminds him of Kate Bishop (Tommy Shepherd loved bossy women and gentle men - Darcy was unknowing right now tapping into his weakness for the former).
"Good boy...now get to it!" she lets him go, pats him on the cheek and stomps on (very slowly from Tommy's point of view) to the post birthday spa and pamper session she's booked for herself ages ago (perfect she could cleanse herself of the whole thing).
Tommy stares at her retreating backside in a slightly aroused daze before seeing her walk headfirst into a lamppost, curse and then run off. He remembers again that she was kind of into his uncle (and also his mum(?) if his still somewhat jumbled memories of last night where right), shudders in disgust and zips off to deal with his family.
Hopefully today's witnesses kept their word and brunch wasn't too awkward. They owed him that much.
---
Well the family brunch was awkward, saved only by the good food.
His uncle had been keen to start introducing and integrating his girlfriend and her family with theirs - but they all knew with Luna now on board, main goal seemed to be to win Wanda over (Tommy didn't think what the rest of the family thought mattered as much to his uncle in the grand scheme of things). His mum had started being been a bit wired once she realised how serious her brother was about his current relationship (and truthfully Tommy suspected nerves over this brunch had been part of the reason why his mother drank more than she could handle last night). Tommy didn't fully understand seeing as Uncle Pete had been married before. Maybe his mum was just worried that him running after another princess would spell disaster? But it has been nearly two years and they seemed pretty solid. At two years into Pietro's marriage with Crystal he understood they'd already had a toddler, were just about old enough to legally drink in the US and his uncle had several mental breakdowns from all the cheating - but who was Tommy to tell his mum how to deal with feeling like she loosing her twin and constant to a new partner (other than maybe let him, Tommy, be the new constant in her life instead? Or was that too needy for a grown man?). Billy and Teddy had basically come as a pair (do not seperate) when Tommy had met them so he was used to being the spare. He was used to people leaving.
The Vision hadn't even bothered to acknowledge him in the first place, his mum and uncle while they tried to be there for him were getting busy with their shop or their families respectively. Billy and Teddy were having sexy political adventures in space, Aunt Lorna had finally dumped the even lamer Summers brother and was busy with her mutant underground, Grampneto was in Alaska and Luna was a child who spent half her time on the moon.
Then there was Tommy who even when he tried to rebound and have a little fun absolutely fumbled it. His mother's friend and business partner who was clearly working through some issues of her own (and maybe a sexual addiction?)
He couldn't wait for this stupid brunch to be over.
There was a heavy tension in the air. Billy and Teddy had to back out last minute due to some emergency. So Tommy sat next to his grumpy and hungover mother who, when she was present, spent most of her time seemingly evaluating M or pulling faces at Uncle P. M for her part had made an uncharacteristic effort to get on Wanda's good side only to eventually give up and start bickering with Aunt Lorna.
Aunt Lorna kept giving him funny looks over her sunglasses (why was she wearing sunglasses inside?- she looked like a dick) which filled him with dread so he started avoiding her eyes. He had been trying to avoid his uncle's eyes given this morning (the asshole was probably judging him), Luna had crinkled her nose at him and declared he smelled wired (rude but it had made him run off to buy and spritz himself with some deodorant - he wasn't uncouth) before she started fiddling around with her phone and his attempt at small talk with the St Croix twins (the amount of twins in the family now was getting ridiculous) had not gone too well.
"So....How is school? You guys started at the Avengers Academy right?" He'd asked them only to have them both stare at him looking eerily reminiscent of the twins from the Shining.
"Seeing your state of undress this morning made me realise I don't find men attractive at all." Claudette had said bluntly.
"Um...your welcome..." Tommy had replied awkwardly.
"Well it made ME realise how very much I do find men attractive!" Nicole had declared before flipping her hair over her shoulder and trying to flutter her eyelashes at Tommy the way she'd seen her eldest sister do to Pietro (it always got the elder speedster to melt and do whatever M wanted so Nicole hoped it would work for her too).
Luna has started snickering then and Tommy had sped out of that seat and gone to hide behind his mummy. Thankfully Wanda was too preoccupied with her hangover and whatever else had put her in a mood to have caught any of that conversation.
Only Mr Dibbles (other than Nicole but, he was avoiding her eyes even harder than he was his uncle and aunt's) seemed interested in hanging out with him but that's because he was sneaking him fruit.
Outside of the occasional patches of conversation, for the most part everyone was silent. This was officially the most awkward shit brunch he'd ever been too.
He was pulled out of his train of thought by the sounds of a chair scraping against the floor "excuse me for a second" declares his mother before she rushes to the bathroom, her face almost as green as Aunt Lorna's hair.
Uncle P sighs sadly and Monet looks disappointed, mouth drawn in a thin line that indicates she's holding back whatever it is she actually wants to say (let's see how long that lasts). Tommy almost feels bad for them.
"Give her some time...this is new for all of us" Lorna tells them gently, giving her brother's wrist a squeeze. She catches Tommy's eyes and smirks. Oh no....
"I here someone was up too no good last night. Darcy Lewis.... really Thomas?" Said Lorna.
Tommy feels a wave of betrayal, turning to his uncle so fast he and the chair almost topple over.
"Uncle Pete you promised you wouldn't tell anyone!!!"
His uncle at least has the decency to look a little guilty "well, you only asked me not to tell your mother and I haven't!" He defends himself.
"Plus you ran off before he could promise you anything! Not to mention you technically only asked him to keep quiet...soo..." Monet interrupts with a shrug and then she and his uncle give each other that "oh your so smart at sexy" look that has Tommy raging inside. One of the twins fake gags in the background while his aunt just rolls her eyes.
"You two bastards are a match made in hell you know that!" Tommy fires back at them angrily "Don't think I won't remember this when you want free childcare!"
Their stupid smug faces fall at that, Aunt Lorna looks thoroughly entertained. The younger girls are watching the whole affair like it's a tennis match.
"Look Tommy.... We've all been worried about you lately..." Lorna starts trying to diffuse the situation but Tommy sees people's emotions play out on their faces in slow motion, knows that she's laughing at him, seeing this all as one big joke that makes her feel better about her own life - guess this was the flip side of the "cool aunt".
"Don't you start with me Aunt Lorna! You're in no position to talk to me about my love life! How many times have you run after the guy that left you at the alter again? The one that paid your brother to spy on you?"
"Alright that's enough!" Pietro cuts him off sternly "no need to lash out now."
His aunt keeps quiet and excuses herself to go check on her sister but the look she gives him makes it clear the conversation is very much not over. "Try not to sleep with Mantor next!" She shoots over her shoulder.
"Lorna!' Pietro scolds her. Monet just bites her lip trying not to laugh. The girls, the little traitors, do laugh.
Tommy feels like he's going to vibrate out of his skin, Pietro's arm on his shoulder the only reason Tommy hasn't bolted yet.
"She is right you know...we are worried, we know how hard loosing David has been for you..." Pietro starts his voice softer
'Uncle P, not right now..." Tommy grows in warning but gets ignored anyways
"Look I promise none of us will say anything to your mum and I know you're an adult but have you actually thought about what happened? It wasn't some random unrelated person you were um... with and have you thought about what you accidentally exposed the girls too?"
"Tata I'm twelve not stupid!" Luna interrupts feistily, next to her Claudette nods.
"Who the hell taught you this stuff?" Pietro asks shocked (Tommy echos that sentiment).
"Guess..." Luna responds with an eye roll.
"Well I'll be sixteen in a few months Tommy!" Nicole chimes in flirtily.
"Nicole!" Monet scolds her warningly but Tommy had enough, he wasn't gonna sit here and put up with this shit. He shrugs off his uncle's hand and stands up to leave.
"Thomas..." Pietro starts
"No, I've had enough, just leave me alone and ALL of you don't say anything to my mother!" And with that he leaves at superspeed much to the shock of the other patrons at the restaurant.
Pietro sighs tiredly "Well that was a disaster. This whole brunch as been a mess. I'm sorry girls..."
His partner squeezes his hand in comfort "Families eh.. just wait till you meet my dad!" M jokes "...I think you owe Tommy an apology."
"Not we?" Pietro asks her, the corner of his mouth upturned in a small smile. Monet pops another beignet in her mouth before leaning over to give him a powered sugar coated kiss on the cheek. His heart flutters.
"Your family your, madness habibi. You talk with your nephew and I'll have a much needed talk with Nicole. Now let's say you order us another round of beignets! Sugar makes everything better." Say Monet as she bats her eyelashes at her partner
"I know some diabetics that would beg to differ." Pietro responds cheekily with an eyeroll but gets up to indulge her.
She swats his ass playfully in response while in the background the girls either groan traumatized or pretend to throw up.
----
After an initial rough patch and the spa people judging her from very obviously running in from a one night stand Darcy had a great day.
All stress and tension had been massaged out of her body. Her skin was glowly and soft.
She was studiously avoiding remembering the look Tommy got in his eyes before he had turned her around and taken her from behind over the dresser. It had oddly reminded her of the look Wanda got in her eyes before doing something especially clever with her magic...god maybe she was a little fucked up. At least the sex had been good....
All was well in her world until she, I'm a state of bliss had picked up her phone without checking the caller ID.
"Darcy!"
"Quicky!"
And then the bastard launched into a tirade about her corrupting impressionable young minds (the internet was a thing and she doubted he and M's bedroom was exactly soundproof so those girls were probably well aware of what happened between adults in private), how she was taking advantage of his poor nephew who was in a very vulnerable place right now (HA- considering some of the positions they tried last night that boy was far from innocent and it took two to tango) and, how could she think he was the kind of guy to cheat on his partner? Were they not on good enough terms for that? Why would she think he'd ever want to be with anyone else when his partner was as beautiful and smart and snarky as Monet St Croix - much less with someone like Darcy? What made her think she was on M's level? (Firstly rude AF and secondly ok she felt a little bad about that considering that, for all his faults and general assholery, he was probably the loyalest guy ever but in her defence she was hungover and overwhelmed and he was a prick), did she not think of the ramifications this could have on his precious sister and their professional relationship at all (she didn't see how that was any of his own business)
"Are you done?" She asked him when he finished his rant. It was a testament to how zen the spa had left her that she didn't immediately hang up.
"For now..." He responded.
"Look I'm sorry for this morning and that your brunch was ruined but you realise that Thomas is an adult only a few years younger than us right? and he is just as responsible for this mess as I am? That we all make mistakes? That he, Wanda and I should be the ones to sort this out between us? That I'm not some evil cougar Jezabel trying to ruin your family?"
He was quiet for what was half a minute for her but probably ages for him "You're right, I'm sorry..."
"Holy shit did you apologise? Miracles do happen!" She exclaimed, patting herself on the back for maturely and calmly resolving a situation.
He chuckled in response "Don't count on it happening again Lewis...say" he paused, sounding like he was hesitating before continuing. She hoped for his sake that he didn't.
"I covered for you guys and tidied up Amerath's room, as disgusting as it was, before my sister noticed...I know things may be a bit off between the two of you since Wanda didn't feel you needed to be her apprentice but then she took on Amerath. This whole thing with Tommy wasn't some drunken subconscious ploy to get back at Wanda for that was it?"
Oh.....
Any calm Darcy felt at that moment evaporated instantly
"Fuck you Quicky! Hey remember the terrigan mists? Yes? Then how about you shut the fuck up before trying to psychoanalyse me!"
And with that she hung up and blocked him on everything. And because the universe hated her she got a notification of a text from Lorna which simply read "Pedophile😡"
"He's twenty two you bitch!!! 😡😡😡😡" She furiously typed back, before blocking Lorna and launching her phone accross the room.
God she hated Wanda's siblings (them being sexy was no excuse).
----
After the brunch from hell, Tommy had run home and passed out from exhaustion.
He woke up feeling shitty only to see a bunch of texts and missed calls from his uncle and aunt. All varying degrees of, call us back we're worried and even a "I'm sorry, let's go for a jog and talk about it when your ready." From his uncle which he had screenshot for evidence and/or blackmail in case he ever needed it.
He had successive two texts from Luna reading
"Sorry about today, I hope your ok. Love you TomTom" which made him feel good only for it to be followed by a second text reading
"You know today's brunch was really important for dad and M so I think you should apologise to them- also you owe me because I had to sit though the "talk" with my parents!"
Which made himself feel bad for half a second but then he remembered he was pissed off at his uncle in particular for various reasons - was it because of Pietro's stupid happy relationship when Tommy was still trying to get over loosing his own? Jealously over the fact the woman he slept with may have slept with him out of a misplaced attraction to the older man (or his mum?- he wasn't sure what the deal was there exactly but it was easier to be angry at his uncle than his mother)? Or the fact the closest person he had to a father figure had let the cat of the bag and then tried to justify it? His feelings were a big mess at the moment so he wasn't really sure. Safe to say it was a combination of all three and it wasn't just him who ruined the stupid brunch.
Like some uncanny twin sense his phone started buzzing with a video call from Billy. He picked up hoping for some sort of comfort.
"Yo..."
"What is this I hear about you sleeping with Darcy Lewis!!??" Billy practically screams at him, somewhere in the distance he can hear Teddy loosing his mind with laughter in the background.
"Hello to you too! What no how are you Tommy? Are you ok Tommy? and who the hell told you?"
"Luna"
"Why?!" Tommy felt so betrayed, he thought that they were besties.
"You ate her sandwich or something" Billy responded with an eye roll "and she's upset you kind of ruined today's brunch keep up.... I know they say to get over someone you should get under someone else but why Darcy of all people? Couldn't you have hooked up with some rando on Tinder like most normal people?"
"Has anyone considered that maybe the brunch was also ruined because mum and everyone else were acting like assholes? Also What's wrong with Darcy? Why's everyone acting like she's repulsive or something? That's sexist are you sexist?" Tommy shot back starting to get irate. He took immense satisfaction when that actually shut Billy up for a few minutes. Teddy just howled with laughter even harder in the background.
"I'm not a sexist! What's wrong with Darcy is that she's our mum's good friend and business partner! Did you think about Wanda? I know things have been hard with David leaving but this isn't the best way to handle it..." Billy lectured and Tommy was starting to see red. In the background he could see that Teddy had finally stopped laughing and was starting to look nervous.
"Bit hypocritical of you Bills..." Tommy responded through gritted teeth.
"Excuse me, hypocritical how? I'm worried about you and our family..." Billy responded confusedly
"Oh it's our family now is it?" Tommy snapped back.
It took all of Teddy's diplomatic skills to descalate the argument that followed between the brothers and Tommy almost broke his phone in his anger and haste to hang up.
He genuinely felt like he hated his family today, he cursed his drunk brain for sleeping with Darcy of all people because as much as he hated to admit it, his family might be right.
He resolved to go have a shower and try calm himself down but because the universe hated him, his plans were interrupted by a glowing portal showing up in his living room. His grandfather emerging from it his over the top chair followed by an suspiciously excited Magik.
"Thomas my dear boy, how are you? Illyana my dear can you step outside for a few moments and let me have a chat with my grandson?" Said Magneto.
"Do I look like a taxi service? I'm hear for the tea!" Magik responded indignantly.
"Illyana...." Magneto responded warningly
"Fine!" She sighed dramatically before stomping outside and leaving the two white haired men alone.
Tommy was cursing whatever he did in a past life that gave him such bad karma in this one.
"Thomas....your aunt told me what happened..."
"Of course she did..." Thomas interrupts bitterly
Magneto ignores him clearly intent on getting through whatever stupid speech he had planned 'We're all very concerned about you! I know the sting of that first heart break can make us do..."
Tommy was so done at this point.
"Ok, I'm gonna stop you there Gramps - I don't care about what you and the judgemental assholes we call family have to say..."
"Thomas..."
"Let me finish!" Tommy replied his voice reaching higher and higher octaves as he launched into the most intense tirade of his life, "I think it's a fucking rich of all of you to judge and gossip about me when YOU..." He points dramatically at his grandfather...
"...have been in a decades long hatefucking situationship with Charles Xavier and knocked up a married woman" (seriously had Magneto ever gotten over his grandma Magda?)
" Uncle Pete is basically a serial sugar baby at this point and is living in sin with Monet St Croix and...get this she's probably preggers..." (Ok he had nothing to go on with that other than Luna mentioning they joked about it in passing one time and the way M had been going at those beignets like her life depended on it. But at this moment he was so annoyed by his stupid uncle and his stupid face and his stupid girlfriend that he was gonna say whatever he could think of to inconvenience them)...
"Aunt Lorna is so self destructive she keeps going back to that looser Alex Summers instead of asking that Terri woman out and letting herself be happy..." (like come on they all knew it - this whole Ross and Rachel bullshit was getting old real fast...)
"Billy got drunk and lost that heirloom star of David necklace you gave him a while back..." (Tommy wouldn't mention that they found it after hours of searching but fuck his stupid brother with his perfect life...)
"And Luna..." Tommy falters her because as far as he was concerned she'd done nothing wrong with her life ever, but if she was gonna be petty over a sandwich then he could match her energy "....thinks your dress sense is LAME! So how about all you assholes look at your own lives first before butting into mine!" Tommy screams before running out his front door as fast as he could.
The sonic boom shakes the house and messes up the room, Illyana is knocked down from the perch she'd settled herself in to overhear the whole conversation.
She dusts herself off and makes her way over to Magneto who is watching the spot his grandson disappeared from in utter disbelief.
"Damm..." She offers by way of explanation
"Damm indeed..." Max passively agrees before turning to her "....say Illyana my dear. What do you say to helping me find a new wardrobe that'll make me look cool to my granddaughter?"
-----
Tommy Shepherd runs faster than he ever had before with no particular destination in mind. Tears of frustration building up in his eyes and flying off his cheeks.
Great now he's probably pissed everyone off when they were just trying to show concern for him but because it's his family, they were all too emotionally constipated to do it by any means well.
When he stops running he finds himself at the place today's nightmare began, the Emporium.
He opens the door and enters. By the counter is Wanda Maximoff, his mum, the person he realises he most wanted to see in the world.
She looks at him and immediately stops what she's doing to walk around the counter, opening her arms in invitation.
"Oh my mashi! my darling! what's wrong?" She asks, green eyes full of so much love and so much concern for him it almost physically hurts.
"Mummy!!!" Tommy wails and flings himself into her embrace.
----
(The next day)
Darcy Lewis was a woman with a mission.
She marched towards the Emporium with her head held high determined to come clean and have a serious and mature talk with Wanda. Better her friend hear it from Darcy first than through the grapevine from her family.
Then she was going to have a serious and mature talk with Tommy, provided he was ready for it.
Darcy had done some self reflection last night and had realised that to a degree she had ceased on the opportunity when Tommy showed her vulnerability (they'd both taken advantage of each other but that didn't excuse her end of this) and that Quicky, as annoying and obnoxious as he could be, had been kind of right in his assessment that she'd done what she did as some subconscious way of getting back at Wanda for passing her over and then blowing off her concerns.
Some of these issues were for her to work through with a good therapist but she needed to come clean to Wanda first. For the sake of their friendship and their business relationship.
Darcy confidently strides into the Emporium. The bell alerting the occupants to her presence.
Tommy and Wanda immediately cease their conversation to stare at her. They had the same striking green eyes. Darcy feels all confidence leave her.
Thomas, the little shit looks guilty and avoids her gaze, Wanda however maintains steady eye contact
She doesn't look mad at least just very disappointed.
"So Boss, is it okay if I take a day or two off and then we have a chat when I come back?" Darcy asks nervously.
"That would be wise." Wanda responds steadily.
Darcy takes the moment to shoot a glare at Tommy, before turning around and leaving the shop with as much dignity as she could muster, cursing Wanda's entire bloodline as she did so.