cat_13145 | (no subject)

Title: What were they like?
Author: Cat_13145

Pairing: The Invaders

Rating: PG 13

Warnings: None I think

Summary: To understand our relationship with Namor, you have to understand our relationship with the rest of the Invaders

Author's note: I swear, I didn't know

ani_bester was planning to do the same idea. This just came to me a couple of days ago and refused to shut up.

“It was losing Toro that did it for Namor.” Gwen moved to allow her guest a better look at the framed photo. “About a week after the funeral, he completely vanished off the face of the earth. Until this morning.”

“You don’t sound like it was a great surprise.”

Gwen shrugged, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes. “We thought he’d gone back to Atlantis. He’d said he’d do it often enough, once the war was over, but...” She shook her head and sat down, soothing out her skirts. “Every time he wanted to, it was like something happened to stop him. First, when Cap died, he felt, I think, that he had to stick around for us, for the kids.”

She sighed at the confusion at her guest’s face.

“To understand our relationship with Namor, you have to understand our relationship with the rest of the Invaders. It was...kinda like a package deal, you know?” She didn’t wait for her guest to reply. “Steve was like everyone’s big brother. The guy who gets straight As, and wins the football final, the kind of guy everyone likes, even you. We all loved Steve, trusted and admired him, and yet...” she sighed, putting her head in her hands. “Steve always seemed to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and like every big brother, he never actually saw us as old enough to be involved. Maybe he was right, but we didn’t think so at the time. So while we trusted Steve, he wasn’t the guy we went to when things were tough. You...it sounds crazy, but you wanted to protect him.”

She paused. “Jim was a bit simpler and at the same time more complicated. Toro called him Pappy. I guess that sums it up.” She hastened to explain. “He was like the father of one of your friends, a guy who’s said it’s O.K. for you to call him Jim, but who you still feel you should be calling Mr. Hammond. Not even Toro, honestly, I think trusted him with what was going on.” She moved, carefully, picking up a picture.

“The Brits. Brian and Jac, Spitfire and Union Jack.” She shrugged. “You could tell they were siblings. I’m an only child, but...” She paused. “I already Said Steve was the big brother, who everyone wants to be like, everyone wants to impress, well Jac and Bri were...I don’t know how to describe it. They treated us like we were equals, never patronised or looked down on us. They were the ones we all went to with our problems whether it was nightmares or...other stuff.” She trailed off and was silent for a moment before continuing “Steve could make you think everything was going to be alright in the middle of battle, where you’re pinned down on all sides. Brian and Jac...they didn’t make you feel like everything was O.K., they made you feel you could get through this, survive it.” She smiled.

“Once, when I was really, really angry about the way my people were being treated back in the US, Brian took me to one side and told me the question I had to answer was not whether things would be better if we won, but would they be worse if we lost? That question, got me through some tough times, though not all of them.” She looked over at the picture of Toro, and blinked, clearing her eyes. “Forgive me, I’m rebating about the others, and it’s Namor you want to know about right?” She smiled. “Namor was like your older sibling, who’s just hit being a teen. They’re too old and too cool to want you following them around, but you do it anyway mostly to annoy them.”

She smiled. “We all, well that’s not true, Toro didn’t, but Bucky, me and Davey, we all trusted Namor right from the get go. I’ve no idea why, the evidence all said we shouldn’t and yet...”She shrugged. “He was our friend. We teased him, called him Subby and Fishface, and stuff like that. Sibling teasing, there was never any malice behind it, and God help you if one of us heard anyone else using our nicknames. He’d tell us not to call him that, chase us a bit, but it was all in good fun.”

“How do you know?”

She looked at him, as though she couldn’t think what else to do. “Because when Steve died, he stuck around. He’d no real reason to, but when we needed him, he was there. And other stuff too.” She raced on. “He’d tell Cap and Jim not to treat us like children, help us when we got in trouble, that sort of stuff.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know if he truly hates surface men, or if he just hates what we do.” She turned, stroking her fingers over a picture of an old man in a hospital bed. “Lord only knows we can all agree with that.”