Milly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bombsheltered) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sunchime2022-03-29 09:03 pm
bombsheltered) wrote in sunchime2022-03-29 09:03 pm
Entry tags:
[ siblings AU: all angst all the time ]
They're having the superhero argument again. It's not as bad as the first time it blew up, when her father told her it was equal parts too dangerous and a waste of her future when she was smart and talented, when she could get into a good university, and he'd built her that body to protect her, not to be used as a weapon. But he couldn't actually stop her, and she'd enrolled in a local university as a compromise, because she never really wanted to make her father unhappy. She's just always wanted this — she feels like it's her calling, like it's her duty, and in the end, her father always does whatever repairs she needs. They have an understanding, even if he doesn't like it. Milly wants to think that Jack would be proud of her, to see her all grown up and protecting the weak and helpless.
They still get into fights about it, of course. Always framed in her father's terse concern, and Milly thinks he just doesn't have enough faith in her. She thinks that if she keeps it up, if she can keep showing him how much Starbreaker can help, he'll start to believe in her. But she still comes home, because as much as they fight, her father is the only family she has left, and she's never liked to feel alone.
The house feels too big now. It's part of why she moved out after she turned eighteen, even though she spends weekends here more often than not. It's always been a big house, big enough to hold her mother's ghost along with the rest of them, but ever since Jack died, it just feels...empty. At least when he went off to war there was a place waiting for him when he got back. But he isn't coming back, and even though it's been years now since she last saw her brother, she still feels a flutter of grief in her chest every time she passes his old room. She'd gotten into a screaming match with her father when he wanted to clear all of Jack's things out, as though to bury the memories along with his body, and she'd refused to let Dad touch a thing. She still opens the door and checks every so often, when she's feeling brave, to make sure all of Jack's things are still there the way they were when he left.
It's Friday night and she's up late into the night, stretched out over her bed with her phone, reading some slow burn horse girl AU fanfic she's totally going to send to Cynthia later. Her water bottle is empty when she goes to take a sip and she rolls off her bed with a sigh, wriggling her feet into her slippers. She's still reading on her phone as she descends the stairs to her kitchen, totally engrossed — until she hears a distant shattering noise, and suddenly she's on full alert, her phone going in her pocket as she activates her night vision. It wouldn't be the first time someone's had the audacity to try and invade the Baelheit home, but it's not about to happen on Milly's watch.
They still get into fights about it, of course. Always framed in her father's terse concern, and Milly thinks he just doesn't have enough faith in her. She thinks that if she keeps it up, if she can keep showing him how much Starbreaker can help, he'll start to believe in her. But she still comes home, because as much as they fight, her father is the only family she has left, and she's never liked to feel alone.
The house feels too big now. It's part of why she moved out after she turned eighteen, even though she spends weekends here more often than not. It's always been a big house, big enough to hold her mother's ghost along with the rest of them, but ever since Jack died, it just feels...empty. At least when he went off to war there was a place waiting for him when he got back. But he isn't coming back, and even though it's been years now since she last saw her brother, she still feels a flutter of grief in her chest every time she passes his old room. She'd gotten into a screaming match with her father when he wanted to clear all of Jack's things out, as though to bury the memories along with his body, and she'd refused to let Dad touch a thing. She still opens the door and checks every so often, when she's feeling brave, to make sure all of Jack's things are still there the way they were when he left.
It's Friday night and she's up late into the night, stretched out over her bed with her phone, reading some slow burn horse girl AU fanfic she's totally going to send to Cynthia later. Her water bottle is empty when she goes to take a sip and she rolls off her bed with a sigh, wriggling her feet into her slippers. She's still reading on her phone as she descends the stairs to her kitchen, totally engrossed — until she hears a distant shattering noise, and suddenly she's on full alert, her phone going in her pocket as she activates her night vision. It wouldn't be the first time someone's had the audacity to try and invade the Baelheit home, but it's not about to happen on Milly's watch.
no subject
It's impossible. He was killed in action when she was still in high school, and while Dad hasn't always been as forthcoming with her as she'd like, she's sure he'd never have lied to her about her own brother. It could be someone else with an uncannily familiar voice, maybe. But it doesn't feel like it. Maybe someone lied to her father — maybe her brother's not really dead after all, although she hardly recognizes him like this. But it's more than enough to give her pause, to make her falter, her eyes wide and her voice suddenly so small.
"...Jack?"
no subject
There's the briefest moment of hesitation, but then Jack slips past her to move further into the room, at this point just trying to get around her so he can leave. This is a bust, he's going to have to go to ground and form a new plan. He needs that information, but... He can't bring himself to hurt Milly, even if it's just to knock her out. Raiden doesn't think it'd be any trouble, but she'd fight him, he knows she would.
no subject
"Wait," she says, all tough fronts dissolved into a juvenile desperation, and she lurches to catch him by the arm. "Stop! If you're not my brother —"
finally
"Nobody." His answer is quick, terse. Final. This isn't a conversation he wants to have.
YESSSS
There are so many things Milly doesn't understand — why he's alive when they were so sure he was dead, why he's here now, why he's trying so hard to lie to her — but she knows it's her brother standing in front of her. It's Jack. The more he talks, the stronger her conviction grows, memories sparking to life like too much electricity run through old bulbs. She knows it's him, and she knows, somehow, that if she lets him get away now, she'll probably never see him again.
She can't let that happen.
Milly's hand misses his arm the first time, but she grabs for him again with renewed determination, her grip tight and unrelenting. He's different and she doesn't fully understand how, but right now, she's less afraid of hurting him, and far, far more afraid of letting him go.
"Jack!"