darkness

(✉ → platonic boyfriend): we’re really good people! no, the mouse should be outside, living free.  (✉ → platonic boyfriend): or maybe we could put it outside now that i mention it. which would be better?

Steve glanced over at the voice, and nodded at the kid. He hadn’t noticed him before now, and that was a little bit of a surprise. The only person who could sneak up on him like that was Nat, but maybe he was overly distracted. The conversation with Nat had set his mind at ease some, but something in his gut told him there was trouble brewing. Maybe that was just a side effect of being in an alternate dimension, maybe it was something more. 

“Unless that’s the point,” he said, shrugging in return. He tapped his fingers along the newspaper under his hand, all praising the new direction of the Panel, and the President’s declarations with glee. He could get behind the Panel with Nat at the helm, but Doom… he couldn’t say for sure. “Better to be feared than loved, some would say.”

He recognized the man, of course. Ty might have grown up largely fending for himself on the streets of Boston, but even he knew who Captain America was. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t resent the man a little, lying if he said there was any hero he’d entirely forgiven for not saving him or Tandy when they’d been stuck undergoing torture at Marshall’s hand. Some heroes they were, he thought bitterly. 

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Jessica shot back, giving him a once-over. Somehow, he didn’t scream ‘sunshine and hope’ to her. Maybe it was the dark cloak, or the fact that he’d just handed those demons their ass without breaking a sweat. “I’m effective,” she replied, smirking. “Apparently my customer service could use some work, but I get the job done.” 

He said ‘friend’ with just that hint of extra affection – more noticeable in voices like his (like hers) where it was generally absent. She had a feeling this friend was important to him, more important than he’d say to her. To anyone, maybe. “So do mine,” she admitted, with a half-shrug. “She got something going on too?” she asked, nodding to him. 

Darkforce. Another dimension. A pocket-dimension, like what they were supposedly in? (As if someone had just picked up New York and flung it into some kid’s cloak.) She glanced up at him, almost wanted to snap back, but it made too much sense. “Fair enough,” she breathed after a moment. “Life’s story’s really more of a third date kind of thing,” she quipped, smirking at him. “Don’t suppose being connected to the… darkforce,” she said hesitantly, because goddamn, how was she supposed to take that name seriously? “Means you’ve got any idea how we wound up in this place?” 

Though he wasn’t entirely comfortable with a stranger looking him over the way she was now, Ty refused to let it show. He’d always been stubborn, always been good at hiding his uncertainty when he needed to look threatening and letting it show when he needed to look vulnerable. He wasn’t entirely sure what he needed here just yet. “I could see that,” he offered because really, it was no surprise that her people skills weren’t perfect. He’d known her a few minutes, and it was already clear to him.

She was clearly curious, a fact that set Ty on edge even now. Truthfully, he didn’t have as much to hide as he once had. He doubted the police in Boston remembered his name, doubted they kept track of every unarmed black boy they shot down in the streets or every one that saw it and got away. Still, the idea of someone other than Tandy knowing who he was or where he came from wasn’t one that he liked. Presumably, an ‘effective’ private detective could discover such things, if she dug deep enough. Ty hoped she wouldn’t. “Yes,” he replied, because giving her less to be curious about might be the key to keep her from digging. “Her name’s Dagger.” That was simple, easy information. Cloak and Dagger’s relationship was a well-known one, after all.

Honestly, Ty could sway Tandy’s opinion easily. As long as he distrusted the government, she would, but if that suddenly changed (which she doubted would ever happen), Tandy would seriously consider altering her perspective, too. They were a team, an unbreakable unit, and where Ty went, Tandy did, too. If that meant signing the Registration, she would in a heartbeat, and if that meant following Doom himself into battle, Tandy wouldn’t hesitate. It was an intense devotion to have towards someone, but with Ty, she couldn’t bring herself to change it. “It’s a serious red flag,” Tandy agreed, touching Ty’s shoulder lightly. He wasn’t quite on the same page with humour, but she was relieved that they ultimately agreed. “I can’t imagine anyone would take his last name if someone managed to be attracted to him to begin with either. Maybe that’s why he’s so sketch!”

Before meeting Ty and falling for him very, very hard, Tandy could never imagine meeting anyone that would genuinely be well suited for her. All the people she fell for hard and fast had been all wrong, too serious, too lighthearted, too impulsive, etc, etc, no one had ever seemed right. It wasn’t unusual, she knew, finding someone that you loved wholeheartedly was as rare as a precious gem, but that didn’t mean that Tandy didn’t want it. All her life she had been craving love, and though she looked, love seemed to evade her, and not just in the romantic sense. It had been isolating, genuinely difficult to cope with, and then suddenly, Tandy had met Ty. She never believed in love at first sight, but she did believe in fate, and something had brought them together. Even after the experiments, Ty and Tandy had not separated, and while they were technically unable to, Tandy liked to think that they stuck together for more reason than their powers. Now that Ty confessed that he loved her, Tandy was even more positive that they were brought together for a reason (super-heroism, probably, which she still resented), and she could feel her heart soar in her chest. This was exactly what she had wanted for all her life, and while she was still shocked, she refused to take Ty for granted. She still believed that he deserved better than her, but if he didn’t want it, well, who was she to deny Ty her affection? “You already got me,” Tandy replied honestly. She had been with other people, but never seriously, and Ty was largely the reason why. When Ty offered to pretend not to hear it, Tandy shook her head, “No, no, I don’t want you to do that.” Ty deserved to hear it, even if in the beginning, Tandy hadn’t believed that she could say it so easily. “I do love you, you deserve to know so let’s just… I don’t know, be in love or whatever. What do people normally do in this situation?” Her relationships in the past had definitely never gotten this far.

Tandy didn’t question him, and Ty hadn’t expected her to. Just like he trusted her implicitly, would follow anything she said or did, she trusted him the same. The two of them believed in one another above all else, followed each others advice and suggestions long before anyone else had time to even make one of their own. Ty liked it that way, if he was being honest. He liked that he and Tandy operated primarily as a unit, liked knowing that he was never alone in anything he did. Wherever he went, she’d be beside him. And, likewise, he’d follow her wherever she wanted to go, too. “It’s definitely worrying,” he agreed with a nod. “I can’t imagine he attracts many people. Imagine going on a dating site and finding a guy whose last name is Doom? It’d raise some red flags, I think.”

For most of Ty’s life, love had simply been something other people claimed to feel. His parents rarely expressed it, and his siblings grew similarly distant due to never seeing it laid out plain and simple. Ty had loved Billy, in his way, but in the end, it hadn’t been enough to save him. He wasn’t sure if that made the love inadequate, or if Ty himself was the problem. With Tandy, he wanted things to be different. He loved her more than he’d ever loved anyone, and even if that wasn’t saying much, he still felt it intensely. He wondered, sometimes, how she could possibly look into the mirror and hate everything she saw there. Her view of herself was so distorted, so wrong. She saw mistook bravery for impulsiveness, saw strength and thought it was weakness. More than anything, Ty wished he could show her what he saw, but he knew it wasn’t possible. He smiled at her statement, a hint of disbelief in his eyes. “I do?” He did, he knew. She wouldn’t lie to him, would never tell him anything but the truth especially with something this serious, but some part of him needed to hear it again. He could hear her say it a thousand times, he thought, and his heart would still pound with every word. His breath caught in his throat as she spoke again, repeating that she did love him. He was pretty sure it was the best thing he’d ever heard. “I think,” he said, taking a cautious step closer to her, “people in this situation usually do something like this.” Hesitantly, he leaned in, pushing her hair back and letting his lips hover questionably over hers, looking into her eyes and waiting for her to signal that it was all right for him to close the space between them.

Ty was obviously stressed when Tandy came home, but given the fact that she was out alone and they were surrounded by demons, stranded on an unknown planet, Tandy believed that was more than fair. With the demons being basically impossible for Ty to fight, she honestly preferred that he stayed in the church while she was out patrolling, although she was aware that wasn’t a fair request to make. That was absolutely why she hand’t voiced it, but the idea of Ty fighting a demon alone while Tandy couldn’t give him her light afterwards was seriously terrifying. “I’m good, I’m fine,” she assured Ty as he looked her over. After a pause, she smiled at him, “Unless you’re checking me out for other reasons!” Now that he was her boyfriend(?), Tandy could hit on him as much as she wanted, right? She really needed to celebrate that.

There was a hundred reasons for Tandy to be wary about meeting her father, but she couldn’t bring herself to be paranoid about any of them. She had waited to be reunited with the self-proclaimed Lord of Light her entire life, had missed him that entire time, and now he was back. He was willing to train her in her light powers, and honestly, Tandy couldn’t believe how happy that made her. “I did meet the Rock,” she insisted. “I have pictures, I just haven’t shown you!” Tandy definitely did not actually have pictures, but she would continue claiming that she did until Ty finally agreed that she had met the Rock. Unfortunately, unlike Tandy, Ty didn’t seem ecstatic about the news that she had been reunited with her father. If anything, he looked a little concerned. “Yeah, I met my father again!” She repeated, hoping that her excitement would rub off on Ty. He’d always been distrustful, but she had hoped that Ty wouldn’t let that affect her relationship with her admittedly estranged father. “It means that he has light powers, too, and I guess they run in my family?” She explained, sounding a little unsure. Honestly, Tandy didn’t completely understand the specifics. “He said he would help me learn more about my light powers. Hey, you know how I can cure addictions? Apparently I can heal people, too! Just… not yet,” Tandy explained, still hoping to make Ty match her enthusiasm. As he went on, it became abundantly clear that Ty wasn’t prepared to do that. “Are you sure?” She challenged him. “Yeah, of course we can trust him, Ty. He’s my dad. Why would you ask that?”

Though he couldn’t use his powers to the extent he usually did against the demons, Ty wasn’t one to sit on his ass and wait for a threat to be over. He’d been out patrolling the streets in spite of the risk, fighting demons the old fashioned way and using his cape on the people intent on capitalizing from the city’s new position. He’d met more than one gang member who’d tried using the chaos for their own purposes, and he’d dealt with all of them the same. He was a little worried, though; depending on how long New York stayed in this strange new place, there was every possibility that the number of people deserving of his cloak would begin to diminish significantly, and Tandy’s light alone had never been enough to sustain him. The worry was ever-present in the back of his mind, though for the moment, he pushed it away. He smiled as Tandy spoke, raising a brow. “I’m checking you out for lots of reasons,” he told her. The blatant flirting still felt a little foreign to him after so long of hiding how he really felt about her, but it felt good, too. It felt natural, right.

“Then show me the pictures! I want to see the Rock, Tandy.” He kept his voice light, as if he weren’t concerned about the conversation. She was obviously pleased about her father’s presence in the city, and Ty wished he could share her enthusiasm. Maybe he was just paranoid. Maybe Tandy’s father was every bit the person she hoped for him to be, maybe he was going to help her reach her full potential with her powers. (Maybe, when he did, she wouldn’t need Ty anymore.) There was every chance that he was overreacting, allowing his jealousy over the fact that she now had more than just him and his fear of losing her guide him in a way that he shouldn’t have, but Ty couldn’t help it. “So you always had them?” His voice was uncertain, and he hated himself for the silently implied, What about me? that she was sure to pick up on. If Tandy’s powers came from her father, where did Ty’s come from? Neither of his parents had ever exhibited any sort of abilities, and his siblings hadn’t, either. “That’s good.” He tried to sound happy for her, tried to keep the fear and confusion from his voice, but it was hard. It was impossible for Ty to trust anyone but Tandy implicitly, and after all that he’d been through, he thought that was fair. He’d seen his best friend murdered by men he’d been assured he could trust, been experimented on and tortured by people he’d dared to have faith in. Even if the man in question was Tandy’s father, Ty couldn’t bring himself to trust him. “He’s been gone, Tandy,” he pointed out carefully. “For... For a long time. He wasn’t there when you needed him, when you were with your mother, when you ran away, when the Maggia...” He trailed off, unable to finish that particular thought. “He hasn’t been here. I’m just saying, we should... Maybe be careful here.”

@darkfcrces​

The demons seemed to follow Laura wherever she went. After slaughtering so many of them, she supposed that was to be expected. If they had her sense of smell they would notice the guts on her Wolverine costume, an odour that she had not been able to wash out. It was a nuisance, but within a few weeks, she would need to replace this costume. She went through Wolverine suits on a regular basis, always tearing the fabric to the point of no repair. If Hank resented it in the slightest, he had never commented. Laura was unsure whether that was out of respect for the excellent work she was doing or because he did not have energy for the battle. Ultimately, it was irrelevant as long as Hank willingly replaced her suit.

As the demons swarmed her and Ty, she glanced towards him, aware that he had mentioned that the demons were difficult for him to dispose of. Arching an eyebrow, Laura retracted her claws and lowered into a fighting stance. “If you would like to watch, you can take videos for the X-Men’s instagram. Dagger mentioned that she would like to feature me on it.” At the mention of his girlfriend — Laura had smelled Tandy on him — she assumed that Ty would soften. It was a tactical reminder that fighting the demons was risking his life, especially without Dagger present. “I promise this will only take me a minute,” Laura added before lunging at one of the demons, slicing cleanly through his scales.

For the most part, Ty had been doing his best to avoid the demons. His focus was better spent on the human threat still running rampant in the city, considering the demons’ effect on his abilities as a whole. It was far easier to let other heroes focus on the demons while he, in turn, picked up their slack against gangs and mobsters. It seemed a fair trade, he figured, and he certainly didn’t mind doing his part. He wasn’t sure if it was New York’s change in location or his stress surrounding both it and the situation with Tandy’s father, but Ty had been far hungrier as of late. 

When the demons began to swarm him as he walked alongside Laura, he was disappointed, though not surprised. Things usually happened like that, after all. Gritting his teeth, he shrugged a shoulder. “I guess I can do that,” he agreed reluctantly. Laura could more than handle himself, he knew, but he hated being sidelined. In this case, there was really no alternative. He couldn’t fight the demons without risking being drained, and if he were drained without Tandy present, he wasn’t sure he’d survive it. (Truthfully, he had no idea if he could actually die due to the Darkforce’s hunger; for obvious reasons, he’d never actually tested it.) Taking out his phone, he sighed as Laura got started, switching it to video. “Can we find a gang or something after this? I’m feeling kind of annoyed on the bench.”

Steve had once been desperate to sign anything the government handed him if it meant a chance to protect his country. But one thing he’d learned when he woke up from the ice was that governments were run by people with agendas, and agendas changed. Case in point – the once on the rise Panel was now once again insisting that all enhanced people, all vigilantes, come forward and surrender their will. Their own ability to choose when and how to fight.

He sighed and pulled the baseball cap down lower on his head, setting the newspaper aside. It didn’t help much. The television in the cafe was playing the news too, re-runs of President Doom’s speeches. “I hate to judge a man by his name,” he muttered, taking a sip of his water. (There really wasn’t much point in drinking coffee anymore.) “But I can’t say I trust that man.”

Doom’s new sanctions were nowhere near as strict as the Accords had been in its original form, and Ty knew that. There were no officers chasing people down on the street, no task force sent to convince vigilantes to either sign their will away or face prison sentences, no shoot to kill orders on anyone and everyone who didn’t comply. Still, he wasn’t a fan of anything in this vein, wasn’t accepting of anyone who figured they had some sort of right to know who he was or what he could do. After all, the government had made no move to rescue him when he’d been facing torture, unwillingly saddled with powers he didn’t understand. Why should they reap any sort of reward now?

Glancing over to the man at his side, Ty nodded. He was in civilian garb today, and if anyone noticed that his shadow was a fair bit darker than everyone else’s, they made no mention of it. It was a benefit of his powers, he supposed; people didn’t often pay close attention to someone who was in the dark. “It is an unnecessarily intimidating name,” he agreed with a shrug. “He could have changed it to something less threatening when he decided to go into politics. You’d think the subject would have come up.”

(✉ → platonic boyfriend): why is there a mouse in our church why would that happen to us (✉ → platonic boyfriend): NO PLEASE DO

After being so disappointed with the government, Tandy genuinely couldn’t imagine trusting them enough to reveal the full scope of her powers. Realistically speaking, she knew  she couldn’t blame them for what had happened to her and Ty, but she couldn’t help it. Growing up, she’d been taught to trust law enforcement and to trust heroes. She was privileged, white and wealthy, and her neighbourhood had never even had a robbery. Never in her life could she imagine the horrific treatment she’d receive during the experiments with Maggia when they had been abandoned and at Marshall’s mercy. Wholeheartedly, Tandy believed that if they were aware of what she and Ty could do, the government would betray her in the same way. She had heard horror stories about the experimentations they were complicit in and aware of, primarily HYDRA run, and if Doom was asking for a list, surely he wanted to know what the heroes were capable of. With demons running around, it seemed like war was inevitable, and without knowing who was in his arsenal, what was he realistically going to do? “Not everyone needs to be in the light,” Tandy replied, wrinkling her nose playfully. “Especially a guy like Doom. Ty, seriously, who doesn’t change that last name the second they’re legal?”

In relationships, Tandy tended to go one of two ways. Either she fell head over heels for the person she was with or treated them more like a friend. She’d always needed attention, was so used to neglect that she desired nothing more than to be acknowledged, and romantic ties gave her what she craved so much readily. That being said, there were few people she fell head over heels for, one was her ex-boyfriend, Todd, whom like her father had abandoned her wordlessly, there was Angela who she went to college with briefly and fell out of contact with, and there was Ty, who above everyone else, she never doubted that she loved. Just because she wasn’t ready to confess it didn’t mean she didn’t feel it, but her feelings on love had always been a little murky. Her mother never uttered the words, her significant others most likely had never felt that way, and she could barely remember her father saying them. Love was like a door that kept slamming shut in Tandy’s face the second she got close it, despite how badly she wanted to experience it. Now that she was in a position where Ty was saying it and she believed it, Tandy was a little shocked, and she genuinely couldn’t understand why someone as incredible as Ty had chosen to fall in love with her. He’d argue that point until he was blue in the face, but it was the truth. Ty deserved the entire world and she couldn’t even provide him with a livable apartment. “Thanks,” she said quietly after Ty had answered her question about why. Honestly, when he spoke that sincerely, it was impossible to doubt and impossible to question. “I think you’re the best person I’ve ever known and I really want to give you the world.” She was unable to, but Ty deserved to hear her intentions. Maybe in time, once she graduated and they weren’t actively fighting every person on the streets, Tandy could offer him more (not that he ever asked for it). “No, no, no,” she said quickly. “I do love you, I definitely love you, I’m just — “ she broke off abruptly and bursted out laughing, though it sounded a little hysterical. “I was going to say that I wasn’t ready to tell you that I love you, but I guess I just did, huh?”

As a black kid who’d grown up in a poor area, Ty had never really trusted the government and law enforcement. Any minuscule faith he might have had in them was ultimately lost when Billy died. The torture he and Tandy had sustained, the way no one had ever come to help them, the things they’d witnessed on the streets, with the homeless... It all served only to drive the message home, only to reinforce what he already knew. There was no trusting the people in charge, not ever. It was a lot better if they knew that straight up, a lot better if they agreed on it. Thankfully, they always had. Offering Tandy a small smile, he nodded. “I can’t imagine who’d want to keep a name like that,” he agreed.

Though he’d had significant others in the past, Ty had never really been serious with anyone. Truthfully, Tandy was a big part of the reason why. He wasn’t sure how long he’d felt the way he felt about her, but he knew it’d been a while. Some days, it seemed he’d always loved her, even during the time they hadn’t known one another at all. Others, it seemed so fresh, so new, as if it had only just happened. Love was weird like that, he figured, demanded to be felt in whatever way someone might feel it. With Tandy, there’d never been any doubt. What he felt for her was there when he didn’t have a name for it, and now that he understood what it was -- love had never been something Ty was familiar with at all -- the word seemed to echo endlessly through his head in time with the beating of his heart. Love, love, love. Some days, it seemed like it was the only thought his mind was capable of having. He nodded when she spoke, a little shocked because in all the times he’d imagined this moment, he’d never once thought she might feel similarly. He’d figured what he had with Tandy was always meant to be one-sided, and he’d been fine with it. As long as he got her in his life somehow, he’d been fine. “I don’t want the world,” he said quietly, “I just want you.” It was all he’d ever wanted, all he’d ever needed. He’d known it since the first day he met her; as long as Tandy was at his side, he’d be all right. She made everything all right. He let out a surprised laugh, somewhat shell-shocked at the statement. I do love you, she said, and it sounded unreal. Good things never stuck around long for Ty, but he’d always known that Tandy wasn’t leaving. He knew it now, too. “I can --- I can pretend I didn’t hear,” he offered, though he wasn’t entirely sure that was possible. He couldn’t easily forget the best thing she’d ever said to him, but he loved her enough to try. “If you want me to. I’ll just pretend you didn’t say it, and you can tell me again when you’re ready.”

@darkfcrces​

After meeting her father again, the first person that Tandy wanted to tell was Ty. Naturally, the first person she wanted to tell any minute change in her life was Ty, but this one was especially important. All her life she had been waiting to be reunited with her father and now that it was happening, it hardly seemed real. Not only was she ecstatic, but the whole situation was a little confusing, and she was definitely still in shock. Not only had he come specifically to see her, but light powers ran in her veins, and her father had assured her that she was a mutant. (Unfortunately, her status as a mutant was ‘inconclusive.’) After the dinner she shared with Nathan, Tandy had left her father with a big hug, promising to see him again in the morning when they would be begin her lessons. Honestly, she was incredibly nervous, not wanting to let him down, but hopefully Ty would comfort her in that respect. Ty believed in her more than she could imagine believing in herself, though in time, Tandy hoped that would change.

Once she left her father, Tandy immediately rushed to the church, and was relieved to see that Ty was home. He was still in cloak, but he looked uninjured, something that she was in a routine of checking the second that she saw him. Without hesitation, she jogged to his side, and wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Hi,” she greeted with a grin, kissing his cheek. “The craziest thing just happened to me! It’s way crazier than the time I met the Rock in Times Square, Ty.” Meeting Dwayne Johnson was something that Tandy had not shut up about for weeks, but he was the Rock! “I just met my father. Well, re-met my father. Whatever, my dad’s here, Ty! And he’s the Lord of Light! He’s a mutant with his own like… city.” As she pulled away, she sighed, the enthusiasm fading quickly. “I know it doesn’t change that he abandoned me, but… I don’t know, I’m kinda happy about it.”

It wasn’t rare for Ty to come home and find the church empty. He and Tandy lived busy lives, after all, and neither of them stayed home constantly. The pit of worry in his stomach, too, was normal, and given the situation, he found it justified. They were separated from Earth and their enemies had suddenly been granted the power of invisibility. It seemed only natural to worry about his best friend (girlfriend?) when she was away. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry for long. Tandy rushed into the church in her costume, signifying that she’d been out patrolling, but she seemed relatively uninjured. (In her costume, it was easy to tell; that was one of the reasons why Ty liked it. It was not, of course, the only reason.)

She seemed excited about something, a sight that made it impossible not to smile. When she wrapped her arms around him, the feat became even more impossible, and an easy grin spread over his features. “Hi,” he replied fondly, listening as she spoke. “I’m still not entirely sure you actually met the Rock, Tandy. There was no picture! None!” It was a common subject of teasing between them, though Ty’s joke was far from serious; there was nothing Tandy could ever say that Ty wouldn’t trust instinctively. Not even, apparently, that she’d run into her estranged father in the city. “What?” Ty’s brow furrowed as she went on. “Tandy, slow down. Lord of Light? What does that mean?” Selfishly, he felt his heart sink at the revelation. He should be happy for her, he knew, should be just as excited as she was, but something didn’t sit right. It was undoubtedly coming from a terrible place, and he knew it. He had no one else in the world but Tandy, and now, she had someone else. He still knew nothing about his abilities and where they came from, and now, she knew a little something more about hers. “I’m happy for you, Tandy,” he lied carefully, “but are you sure we can trust him? Like you said, he abandoned you.”

Not the most active was a bit of an understatement. Lobo had seen single-cell organisms on other planets that were more interesting than these lousy demons. (No seriously. Some of those things really packed a whollop.) “Yeah well, at least that much makes ‘em fit in on this planet. I’m still waiting to find anything here that’ll actually give me a run for my money. I feel like I’m gettin’ rusty the longer I stay here.”

Lobo failed to see how the cloak could actually be useful in a fight…unless there was more to it than met the eye. “Ok, I’ll bite. What does it do and why can’t you use it on the demons? Are they just that crappy that even clothing doesn’t like 'em?” At the guy’s remark about fighting demons for a living, Lobo smirked. He could tell the man was teasing, which was surprising considering how gullible humans could be. “Among other things. I’m a bounty hunter. I’ll go after whatever people pay me to.” He gave a sarcastic chuckle at the guy’s crack about only seeing such a thing on TV. “Yeah, just like aliens right?” Lobo said, in an equally teasing tone. “Not like there could be any of those around here right now!”

He shook his head as his companion questioned the civilian. “Bet you think you’re real tough, eh buddy?” Lobo frowned at the jerk. “You wanna really try your luck? 'Cause I sure wouldn’t say no.” The civilian muttered something else, but quickly fell silent when Lobo ran his hand over his blade. “Yeah, I thought so. Idiot.”

Ty snorted at the man’s statement, shaking his head lightly. Maybe he should have been offended but, really, Ty wasn’t much of a people person anyways. “I think most people do their best,” he offered, mostly because it seemed natural to stand up for a species that he was (probably) a member of. “By here, you mean Earth? You don’t exactly look like you’re from around here.” The man’s statement made ‘alien’ seem a little more likely than mutant, inhuman, or metahuman, but Ty still wasn’t positive.

It seemed he’d piqued the stranger’s curiosity just as much as the man had piqued his, and Ty shrugged at the question. Retrieving a brick from the ground, he tossed it into the air and stepped underneath it, allowing the cloak to billow open to greet the falling object. It disappeared the moment it made contact, sucked away into the Darkforce. There was no feeling accompanying it; inanimate objects had no effect at all on his hunger, which was unfortunate. “It requires a certain amount of subsistence,” he commented. “The demons sort of do the opposite of fulfill it, like how drinking alcohol instead of water only dehydrates you faster. I don’t know why.” Not knowing what was going on with his abilities was nothing new, of course, and Ty had learned to live with it a long time ago. “That sounds pretty exciting. What do people pay you to go after around here?” He chuckled at the statement, holding up his hands in a signal of surrender. “Okay, okay, you got me. I guess a lot of things that used to only happen in movies are sort of commonplace now.”

She smirked at him. “You probably shouldn’t, but kudos for the optimism,” she quipped. Compliments weren’t exactly her style, though they weren’t as rare as someone might assume. She shrugged at his question. “I became a P.I., so probably,” she explained, digging into her pocket for a business card. It was a little torn, a little crumpled, but she held it out to him anyway. 

Jessica was glad he let it drop at that. She was sore and bruised, but it was nothing a little Tylenol wouldn’t fix. (Liquor would’ve been better, but goddamn sobriety.) She’d never handled concern very well, there were two people she let take care of her injuries and one of them was gone forever now. Everyone else she held at arm’s length – but maybe she should think about changing that too. One step at a time though, and admitting to this stranger that the demons had cracked her in the ribs wasn’t a step she was ready for. “Had some fun with them already?” she asked, quirking a brow. Not exactly surprising. He was some kind of superfreak vigilante, she just didn’t know what flavor yet. “Hopefully they’ll be goddamn gone soon. That’s the only direction I’m hoping for.” Not that she was a hopeful person. On principle alone, she avoided that sentiment.

He was kidding when he said he wouldn’t stop her – the same sort of black humor she herself used. And that steeled her resolve enough to actually throw the damn thing at his chest, while he stood there, arms outstretched like some emo Jesus. The rock sailed towards him, but then vanished, sucked inside the shadow cast by his cloak. Jessica’s brow furrowed, eyes narrowing. “Go in where?” she asked, though she was guessing that’s where the hard to explain part came in. “Start at the beginning, kid. That’s not exactly an ordinary cloak, I’m guessing?”

“Optimism is my specialty,” Ty replied dryly. The joke wouldn’t be very funny to a stranger, but he was so used to interacting with Tandy and Tandy alone that he tended to forget others didn’t know him quite as well. Reaching out carefully, he took the crumpled business card and studied it. “Are you any good?” It was a little blunt, maybe, but talking to people wasn’t exactly his strong suit. 

Honestly, Ty was a difficult man to injure. Ever since Marshall’s cruel experiments, he could count on one hand the number of times he’d been seriously hurt. If you discounted the times when ‘hurt’ equated to lacking in light, it was even less. What the Maggia had done to him was unforgivable, but at least he no longer worried about trigger-happy police officers jumping to conclusions and ending his life the same way they’d ended Billy’s. The price was too high, but it was important to recognize that not everything that had resulted from his torture had been bad. Otherwise, he was pretty sure he’d go insane. “Yeah, once or twice. My friend has a far easier time with them than I do.” If this woman had heard of Cloak at all, she would have heard of Dagger. Ty and Tandy had been a package deal since the moment they met.

The government had never been Tandy’s major concern. They weren’t trustworthy, and they definitely did not need any heroes listing off their powers to them, but Ty already knew that. Tandy would avoid affiliating with the government at all costs. If America genuinely cared about its citizen, they would have saved Ty and Tandy from being experimented on, and from whatever crazy power ran through their veins now. She was more likely to take a nap on train tracks than list her powers for them to abuse, but it had been a decent excuse in the moment! Or it would have been if Ty didn’t see through her just about immediately. As Ty took her hand, this time without the purpose of needing her light, she glanced down at their entwined fingers before smiling. “No,” she replied, shrugging a shoulder. “But they don’t need to know. I’m happy not telling the government about use, I just wanted to make sure you are, too,” Tandy explained quickly. Yeah, her cover story was officially blown to smithereens. Ty didn’t seem upset that Tandy had used the government’s demand as an excuse. If anything, he looked a little unsure about where their conversation was headed.

Truthfully, Tandy had never expected to admit the true extent of her feelings for Ty. He was the one person that had never abandoned her, the one person that she could rely on to remain at her side regardless of the hardships that plagued them. Tandy had never had that reassurance and comfort with anyone before, and it was only natural that she latched onto it desperately. Ty relied on her to survive, Tandy relied on him to survive, and if that didn’t complicate the intensity of her feelings, Tandy wasn’t sure what did. If they broke up bitterly, they would surely die, and if some miracle occurred, allowing Tandy to survive without Ty, she wasn’t sure if her life would be nearly as content. He was as important to her as her light was, unexpected but a lifeline. Understandably, she was a little sheepish after she finished her explanation, and rather than measure Ty’s reaction, she stared at a spot of paint on the ground, her hand tightening around his. She wasn’t panicked, wasn’t near losing control over her powers, she trusted Ty too much to believe that a confession like a crush would anger him. Rather than wave her feelings off, Ty leaned against her, and Tandy looked up, not bothering to hide her confusion. It didn’t take long for Ty to admit that he felt the same way, and Tandy immediately grinned. “Really?” She asked, although she knew Ty would never lie about that. When he continued, her eyes widened and she was silent for a moment. No one had ever told her that they loved her in the romantic sense — hell, she could barely remember hearing it in the platonic sense for that matter. “Why?” She blurted out, unthinking, and wrinkling her nose. “I mean, that’s great, but… I don’t know, it’s kind of…” Tandy trailed off, shrugging a shoulder. “Forget that actually! I think I probably feel the same way, but I don’t know how to say it, but it’s definitely okay. It’s great,” Tandy said quickly, trying to cover up her initial reaction. It was far from ideal and Ty absolutely deserved better.

When he’d discovered his powers, Ty had felt a sense of responsibility came along with them. Unlike some heroes, he’d never believed that that responsibility should be extended towards villains and criminals, never thought that he ought to waste his time ensuring that the people he fought walked away safe and sound. No, in Ty’s opinion, his responsibility was towards people like him. The people who were forgotten by the rest of the world, the homeless men and women that the government and heroes would leave to suffer on the streets if given half the chance. Telling the president about what he could do wasn’t responsible in that sense. If anything, it was the opposite. The government would surely want to exploit the powers Ty and Tandy had, and as long as that was happening, they would be unable to protect the people they’d sworn to keep safe. Glancing down as Tandy intertwined her fingers with his own, Ty smiled. He knew she agreed with him entirely, just as she always did. “I’m always happy keeping people in the dark,” he replied, smiling at the private joke between them. He knew why Tandy had asked; she was good at avoiding conversations when she was afraid they might end unpleasantly, though Ty hoped she knew that was a concern she never needed to have with him.

Since he’d realized his feelings for Tandy were there, Ty had assumed them to be largely unrequited. He’d always avoided telling her for the simple fact that he didn’t want to pressure her into thinking she had to feel the same way when she didn’t. Tandy, he knew, was terrified of being left, and if she thought Ty might leave her, she’d pretend to love him and make herself miserable. It was the last thing he wanted for her. Ty’s feelings were his own problem, nothing that she should be burdened with. But here and now, with her bringing the subject up, with her confessing her feelings first... It seemed only fair for him to do the same. Not telling her the true extent of his feelings for her in this moment would be too much like lying, and Ty had always been adamant that he’d never lie to her. Truthfully, he wasn’t even sure he could. Even if their connection hadn’t been as strong as it was, Ty cared too much for Tandy to tell her anything other than the truth. When she replied, questioning not his feelings but the reason for them, Ty felt his heart sink a little. “Why? Tandy, you’re... You’re incredible. You’re the best person I’ve ever known. I’m not sure how anyone could know you and not feel the way I do.” Falling in love with her had been natural, as easy as drawing a breath. Just like breathing, it seemed to happen from one moment to the next, over and over again in constant repeat. Loving Tandy was the easiest thing Ty had ever done. “You don’t have to,” he told her gently, shaking his head. “I’m not telling you because I think you ought to feel the same way, or because I expect you to return my feelings. I’m telling you because you deserve to know.” If she didn’t love him back, it would be entirely understandable. Ty had been a mess of broken parts long before Marshall turned him into a science experiment, and Tandy had always deserved someone whole. If she didn’t love him, he wouldn’t pretend not to understand, and he’d never attempt to sway her feelings or opinion. 

Ty was the kind of person that Tandy found it impossible not to fall for. All her life, she had been searching for someone to treat her like she was worthy of their companionship, and worthy of their time. He did every single day, prioritized her needs above anyone else’s, and Ty made her feel absolutely incredible on a regular basis. He was everything she had ever hoped for, but it wasn’t exclusively because he treated her so well. He was also brave, intelligent, loyal and loving, which really only made him irresistible. Tandy had watched Ty date other people, jealous and just a little bitter, and that was all the confirmation she needed to know that one day, she hoped to be the person he came home to kissing. That did not necessarily mean their relationship was the best idea. Tandy relied on Ty to survive, and if their breakup was horrible, that would not be an assured thing anymore. Still, sometimes she couldn’t help but feel as though it were worth the risk, especially after their kiss.

When Ty looked up at her, questioning what she’d said, Tandy cleared her throat and shrugged a shoulder casually, feigning innocence. Although she had blurted it out, Tandy was a little cowardly to repeat it once more, despite the eager look in Ty’s eye. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how Ty felt about her. At times, she believed wholeheartedly that he returned her feelings, while others it seemed like a complete pipe dream. Confidence had never been one of Tandy’s major attributes, but hope was, and for the possibility of a relationship… well, it wasn’t the perfect combination. As Ty changed the subject, Tandy hopped off one of the pews and moved beside Ty. “I don’t trust people like that either, but if we list our powers, it’s nothing people don’t know, right? And it’d draw less attention to us…” she said, sighing as she looked around the church. When Ty asked her about making out, Tandy swallowed thickly. Now would be the time to mention her feelings, but he was her best friend, and she was terrified. But she had fought demons! She could handle making a confession (of a completely different variety) in their church. “Um, yeah, I did mention making out again,” Tandy said awkwardly, glancing down at her feet. “Not because I just wanna make out with you once more like I do sometimes, but I actually wanna make out with you a lot. I’ve liked you for a while, y’know?”

Fitting in had never quite been Ty’s strong suit. He hadn’t fit in with the other kids back in Boston outside Billy, and to be honest, he hadn’t really tried. Looking back, he felt like a part of him had always known that his future wasn’t in that city, that he was going to go off somewhere else and find himself. And he had. Ty didn’t believe in fate, didn’t believe that anyone’s future was set in stone in a way they could never hope to control, but he figured if fate was real, Tandy was his. He was meant to be in New York because he was meant to be with her. If she decided, one day, that she was meant to be in Paris or Rome, then that would be where Ty belonged, too. Maybe, he thought, he’d never fit in with anyone else because he was always meant to fit in with her. It was a nice thought, even if it was illogical. He didn’t have to believe in fate to believe in the two of them.

She seemed almost sheepish, in a way Tandy rarely was. It was enough to make Ty think that he must have heard her correctly, because there was no reason for her to be nervous otherwise. She’d never be worried about discussing whatever shady shit the government was up to with him, after all. He glanced over as she moved beside him, offering her a brief smile and reaching almost experimentally for her hand. “They don’t really know the extent of our powers,” he pointed out. He and Tandy were largely a mystery, and Ty’d like to keep it that way. The last thing he wanted was for the government to take an interest in them and pick up where the Maggia left off, experimenting and prodding them in search of answers. It wasn’t like the government was opposed to shady shit, after all; on the contrary, they were pretty much known for it. He glanced over as the discussion returned to their kiss, making note of Tandy’s nervousness. Was she nervous because she wanted to tell him she was interested in pursuing something further, or was she worried about upsetting him in telling him she wasn’t interested in being more than they were? Ty wasn’t certain, and his heart pounded nervously in his chest. If she didn’t want to be with him, he’d understand it, he’d respect it, but he longed for more. His feelings for Tandy ran deep, and the kiss had left him aching with the idea of what he could have with her. When she went on, admitting that she’d liked him for a while, it was like a weight had lifted from his chest and Ty sighed, leaning against her. “I feel the same way,” he muttered. “Actually, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you. Is that okay?”

Every superhero seemed to believe that their abilities were given or gifted to them for a reason. They spouted on and on about how they owed civilians peace and harmony and everything else, none of which Tandy necessarily agreed with. If superheroes were so dedicated to keeping the public protected, she and Ty never would have been victims of Maggia’s experiments. Superheroes weren’t foolproof, they owed the public relatively little, but they had saved the day a couple dozen times, she had to admit, staring with the Chiatuari, and ending with the Skrulls, a battle she was a part of, thank you very much. Just because Tandy didn’t feel like she owed the public anything didn’t mean that she didn’t want to protect people — the homeless and overlooked specifically — but the title of ‘superhero’ had never been something she necessarily wanted. When she looked at old Cap videos, she wasn’t inspired so much as she was disappointed. Steve Rogers may have saved the day, but he definitely didn’t seem to be doing that anymore. Ultimately, her superpowers felt a lot less like an honour and more like something forced down her throat, but Ty wanted to save the day so here Tandy was, battling demons.

“I never doubted us for a second,” Tandy said honestly. Though her heart definitely wasn’t in the scene, and most likely never would be, she was a little too selfish, Cloak and Dagger were not a team that anything, even demons, should bother messing with. That was a fact that she was seriously proud of, and something that they had both worked hard to achieve, though they could definitely use further practice. “That makes sense,” she agreed quietly. “The Dark Force can’t really… uh, sustain itself,” she said as tactfully as possible. “But it’s yours and it’s way more bad ass than any other hell dimension.” Tandy was a little bit biased in that regard.

Like when Tandy had originally seen the demons, they continued to nauseate her. She would take human enemies over the scaly assholes any day, but unfortunately, she didn’t get to choose her opponents. If the slimy, oversized snakes wanted to get their asses kicked, Tandy was disgusted, but happy, to oblige. “Please,” she agreed, grinning at Ty. If he was excited to battle these things, Tandy figured she could show a little more enthusiasm, too. As she lodged another dagger into a demons shoulder, she noticed Ty swaying, and then she heard the panicked note in his voice. Before finishing her opponent off, Tandy was rushing to Ty’s side, completely disregarding the battle at hand. “It’s okay, you’re okay,” she said quickly. Like she normally did, Tandy touched Ty with her palm, summoning all the light she could spare without killing herself, but it didn’t seem to be working quickly enough. After a moments contemplation, she kissed him gently, trying to summon her light that way. She could feel it leaving her body quicker, although Tandy wasn’t sure why, but it was what Ty needed.

For most of his life, Ty had been let down by heroes. It wasn’t just limited to superheroes, though they, too, had been disappointing. Police officers were always hailed as heroes, built up by the media through fictional shows and truth-based news stories alike, yet when Ty had needed them most, the Boston police force hadn’t just let him down. They’d made things worse, shot his best friend for no real reason and left him too afraid for his life to stay in the only city he’d ever known. When he came to New York, he’d foolishly hoped that the world of superheroes would be better, easier somehow. Maybe the cops had proven to be irredeemable and worthless, but surely the heroes he’d seen saving lives on the nightly news would be different. He’d been wrong, of course. When he’d needed them, when he and Tandy had been trapped and suffering beyond belief, no one had come to save them. To make matters worse, most of the interactions he had with heroes now consisted of them condemning him for doing what he needed to do in order to survive. Heroes had let Ty down all his life, and he was pretty much prepared for them to continue doing so.

Then, of course, came Tandy.

She was every bit the hero that all those other people had claimed to be, she helped people indiscriminately and without question. Best of all, she had never let Ty down in all the time he’d known her. She was the first person he knew never would. He offered her a smile now. “No reason to doubt,” he agreed. They really did make a great team, there was no denying that. With their powers combined, Cloak and Dagger had complete control over both light and darkness. “No,” he shrugged. “It can’t sustain much of anything.” That was why Ty had to continue feeding on life forces, after all; he couldn’t sustain much of anything, either. He smiled at her as she went on, nodding his head. His relationship with the Dark Force was a complicated one, but there was never any real use in stressing endlessly over it. There wasn’t anything about it he could ever hope to change, and he’d accepted that a long time ago.

Tandy’s show of enthusiasm was clearly more for his sake then her own, but Ty appreciated it all the same. She clearly didn’t care for the demons, and her willingness to face them regardless made him feel warm inside. The warmth, of course, faded as he absorbed more of the demons, replaced by a growing cold that made him feel nauseous. As he always did when he was afraid, he looked for Tandy and, as he always did when he was afraid, he found her. She was right there, just like always. He felt the light coming in, but it wasn’t enough, wasn’t fast enough. Sucking in a breath, Ty wondered if he might die here. It was a better death than he might have asked for, he supposed, with her at his side. He was so distracted by the panicked thoughts that he didn’t notice her leaning in until her lips were pressed against his. The world seemed to stop, seemed to hang suspended in the moment. He felt the light rushing into him, felt his body relax, felt himself kiss her back just as he’d always wanted to. In spite of everything going on around him, it felt right.

@darkfcrces​

Since Tandy’s kiss with Ty, she was a little stressed about their relationship. Sure, that sounded a little insane, they were best friends, literally each other’s life support, but the kiss made that feel a little more… loaded. As someone who was deeply committed to just about any relationship she stumbled into, assuming it wasn’t a situation like with Tommy, Tandy felt committed despite never having a conversation. It was ridiculous, she had just been getting Ty light force quicker, but she had serious feelings for her best friend as much as she tried to deny them. It had been impossible for weeks, especially now that Ty insisted on working out without a shirt on, but now that was like… tenfold. All she wanted to do was make out with Ty, but without risking their friendship.

As Tandy pondered the depth of her feelings, Ty was insistently doing pushups. She watched without any embarrassment like she normally did, although that was under the guise of ‘watching his form’ and not ‘lusting over her best friend.’ Clearly, Tandy’s excuses were absolutely amazing! As Ty continued, Tandy stopped pondering the death of their relationship for a moment and simply admired Ty. “Should we make out again?” She blurted out and then cleared her throat. “I mean should we sign the Accords? Y’know, Doom wants us to… we have powers!” Very smooth coverup, Riri would be so proud.

Honestly, Ty wasn’t sure when he’d realized how he felt about Tandy. He knew he’d known it for a while, knew he’d been denying it for longer. It had been impossible not to fall for her, really, for a lot of reasons. Not only was she the first person besides Billy who’d ever treated him like he was someone worth knowing, but she was also kind and funny and smart and brave and everything he wished he could be without realizing it at all. She was an incredible person, and Ty had accepted a long time ago that he was lucky just to be her friend. He’d never thought they could be more than that, had been afraid to let himself hope for it.

And then she’d kissed him.

He knew it wasn’t a romantic thing. He’d needed light and that had been the fastest way to give it to him. Still, he couldn’t get the feeling of her lips on his out of his head. He’d been trying to distract himself which, apparently, meant doing way more pushups than usual. (Maybe part of him was trying to impress her, too. Who could say?) When she spoke, he stopped, pushing himself into a sitting position on the floor. “Wait, should we what?” He glanced up at her, hoping he didn’t look as eager as he felt. When she spoke again, his brow furrowed. He wondered if he was  really so desperate that he was just hearing what he wanted to hear. “I don’t want to sign,” he admitted with a shrug. “You know I don’t... I don’t trust people like that.” Pausing, he sighed and gathered up his courage. He was a superhero, dammit, he could ask a question! “Did you say something about making out again before?” Yeah, okay, he could’ve been more subtle, but Ty had never exactly been the master of subtlety. He walked around in a giant cloak, for fuck’s sake!