#ladywolverines

You’ve got a habit of finding trouble, Miguel. It was something his mother had said once, exhaustion clinging to her very bones as she rubbed at the back of her neck. It had been just before Alchemax staked their claim on him, when he was still just a little kid whose life was his own. His mother hadn’t hated him yet, and his stepfather was still an ass but he was an ass that Miguel had been sure was responsible for both his and Gabri’s existence. (He still didn’t know if that was preferable to knowing the truth.) 

He couldn’t remember precisely what he’d done, if it was the time he’d pulled the dresser down on Gabriel or if he’d accidentally spilled his stepfather’s whiskey down the drain, but he remembered the way she’d looked at him. He remembered thinking he’d never seen her so tired, remembered aching despite his youth. He’d wanted to make her okay, but he had a habit of finding trouble and neither of them knew how to stop that.

The habit had followed him into the past, even if his mother hadn’t. For a moment, Miguel had thought that he’d left it behind, back in 2099 with Gabri and Jess and Kasey and the rest. But then strong hands were wrapping around his arms and someone was yanking him into an alley and Miguel knew he wouldn’t die here but that didn’t mean he wanted to get mugged. Especially not by... 

He paused, blinking at her. Young woman, mid-twenties at the oldest, and there was something strangely familiar about her. For a beat, Miguel only stared. And then his mouth caught up to the situation, and that was never a good thing. “I don’t really like Girl Scout Cookies,” he said slowly. “Those minty ones leave a bad taste in my mouth. Don’t get what the fuss about them is.”

It was a dick move. Bobby had known that when he did it, known that fooling impressionable people who’d grown up in labs into grabbing food off someone else’s table and being banned for life from a restaurant wasn’t a great look but, well. It had definitely been funny. Funny enough that he was still laughing, even as he, too, was asked to leave the restaurant. 

“Oh, come on!” He said when he caught sight of Laura’s glare. “That was great! Did you see that old white dude’s face? Man, I thought he was gonna have a heart attack!” He glanced back to the restaurant with another laugh, shaking his head. “Look, don’t worry about the ban. I’ll toss some cash their way and they’ll lift it and give us free meals ‘for the trouble.’ That’s how it always goes. Of course, I can’t do that if you kill me...”