milliways_bar | (no subject)

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"Just leave me alone, I'm not doing anything to you."
"You're in the way Sandy."
"Let's put him out of the way."

The door swings shut - a gym locker door today - with an eight-year-old Guppy with his coat and jumper hooked neatly onto the peg so that his legs dangle. He looks surprised to say the least that he's ended up back in the bar he was in the other day, but right now is more concerned about what his mum will say about the stretched jumper. He squirms, trying to lift himself up on the peg so that he can unhook himself.

And then sighs, because being stuck on the inside of a locker door is just plain embarrassing.

Little help over here?

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"Jake calls me Fish." Guppy says, looking longingly at the fries but unsure whether he dares take one.

"Yeah, he sa..." Molly breaks off, to blink at him. "Oh. Okay."

A certain conversation with Monk at the party means she can join the dots. It also means she's rather more blase about said dots than she might otherwise be.

"I did say you could have one, y'know," she says instead, seeing him look at the fries. She nudges the plate further in his direction and takes one herself, nibbling it thoughtfully.

"Thanks."

He cautiously reaches out and picks the smallest one.

"Have as many as you want," she says easily. "Loads more where they came from."

She picks up her milkshake and sips it contemplatively. "So, what happened to you? D'you wanna tell me?"

"I got hung on a peg." he says quietly.

It happened to the mun's brother once. He got lines for it, which highlights the injustice in the world.

She nods. "Other kids being mean?"

He looks at his feet and fidgets.

That'll be a yes.

She puts an arm gently around his small shoulders.

"The other kids used to do stuff like that to me, at the Home," Molly says quietly. "The girls, mostly. 'Cause my powers are really not-girly and 'cause they said I was weird. They trashed my room, the one day, so I got mad and I chucked my bed at them. After that, they didn't even pretend to be nice- just acted like I didn't exist."

She's never actually told anyone this before. Not even the other Runaways.

He flinches at the touch. Then looks up at her.

"Powers?"

"Yeah. I told you I'm like a superhero, right? I'm all super strong and stuff. 's not a very girly sort of power to have, though."

"It's a cool power. Wish I could throw beds at people."

She grins at him. "Thanks. And no you don't, I got into loads of trouble for it. They'd probably have kicked me out if it weren't for- well, anyway. Then my friends came to get me and Gert fooled the security guards to get me out of there. And now I live with my friends. They're all older than me but they're totally awesome."

"I tried to live with Jake, but my Dad burned the tree house down."

"...With you in it?"

"No, of course not. Even my dad isn't that mean. He only does these things because he cares."

Molly shrugs and sips her milkshake.

"Our parents were gonna destroy the whole world, til we stopped 'em. For us. Just because they care doesn't make it right."

Guppy thinks about this.

"But you were in the world at the time."

"The monster-guys they worked for were gonna wipe everything out and make some sort of new, perfect world, or something. If our parents helped them. But they'd let us six kids live. Just... no-one else. It was a seriously sucky thing."

"You win. Your parents are worse than mine."

"Were. They died, a while back." She shrugs. "It's okay, though, 'cause I'm with my friends and we look after each other."

A small smile at him. "Sorta looks like you could do with someone to do that."

"I have Jake. When I dare wait, I can walk home with him. But his school finishes half an hour later and Daddy is cross if I'm late and he thinks Jake is a bad influence."

She nods, sips her milkshake consideringly.

"Bet you I could scare the other kids into leaving you alone for a bit, if you wanted. Dunno how long it'd last, but I've got a couple ideas."

She snags a french fry. "D'you want another?"

"I can't tell anyone. They'll set the dog on me again. And I don't want another operation on my finger."

"...They set a dog on you?"

Nobody picks on Molly's big brother. Even if he's currently her little brother.

"Gimme ten minutes with 'em. They won't do that again."

"I can't. You don't understand. They said they'd hurt Jake too."