So, I've been reading Young Avengers comics, and I LOVE them. And THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OF THEM. So basically I wrote this because I am totally obsessed with Tommy Sheperd and I cannot get enough of him. And there's next to no bromance between him and Billy Kaplan in the comics, and I love brotherly bromance and angst, so I wrote some. And I wanted more Speed awesomeness, because I feel like he is totally under-appreciated in the comics. And nobody ever asks him if he's okay (except for Clint Barton that one time in Siege... but none of the Young Avengers do).

This takes place sometime after Billy develops the theory of him and Tommy being spiritual twins, but before the original team of Young Avengers breaks up, and while Tommy's still fairly new to the Young Avengers. So definitely before the events of The Children's Crusade.

I hope you enjoy!

Hummingbird Heartbeat

Faster! Tommy thought, as he ran swifter than the speed of sound, dodging blasts and disarming aliens—because they were fighting crazy aliens again for what felt like the billionth time and still the Young Avengers wouldn't let him vaporize the aliens, even they were aliens and not human and this species seemed to be a hive-mind anyhow so it's not like he would be ending any autonomous lives and besides these aliens were trying to kill them.

So he only vaporized aliens when he was sure nobody would see, because if he didn't get caught then he couldn't get in trouble, and he didn't want to get in trouble because the Young Avengers had already made it clear he wasn't really needed, or even liked, that he'd only been broken out of juvie so that he could rescue Kaplan's boyfriend and they were only keeping him around because he looked like Kaplan and was apparently his spiritual twin or whatever, and he knew that they didn't actually care about him because they never asked if he was okay or showed even an ounce of concern for his welfare. They'd take any excuse to kick Tommy off the team and he knew nobody would defend him, and if Tommy didn't have the Young Avengers then he didn't know what he would do with himself, because they were literally all he had, and maybe he didn't exactly like them, either, but he knew he liked being a superhero. He liked helping people.

And right now these aliens were trying to kill them all, probably to take over the Earth or something stupid like that, like every other alien race that attacked them—well, except for the Kree, who were trying to prevent the Skrulls from ruling the Earth, but still—and they had these stupid guns that fired laser-bullets that were made out of energy globs or something that he couldn't blow up by vibrating the atoms, and they still acted like regular bullets the way they tore through flesh, but at least the lasers were slower than he was, but he still needed to run faster.

"Speed," Patriot called authoritatively as he fought on the ground, slamming aliens in the face with his red, white and blue shield, "I need you to get that sh—"

"Wayaheadofyou," Tommy blurted as another alien ship pulled into view, and Tommy ran straight up the side of a skyscraper and jumped onto the ship, because these ships were made of a solid material that he could blow up and technically he could just vaporize the ship and not any of the aliens inside it but why the hell would he do that and who would know if he didn't?

So as the alien ship went KA-BOOM in a burst of glorious explosiveness, Tommy leapt off and landed on the top of another skyscraper and rolled and thank goodness that his unique physiology let him withstand high-velocity impacts as he superspeeded, because he got right back to his feet without even a bruise and ran back down the sheer side of the skyscraper back into the battle to kick more alien ass with the rest of the Young Avengers.

Hulkling was flying around in his big green form with the gargoyle wings, punching aliens.

Patriot was bashing with his shield, and had stolen an extraterrestrial gun and was using it against the stupid aliens, and oh hey did that mean Tommy could start vaporizing them for real now?

Hawkeye was shooting them with various arrows, of course, and as Tommy glanced at her, watching her arrow fly in slow-motion and then explode in an orange and red fiery burst that blew alien guts everywhere, he figured awesome I can start vaporizing the aliens now guess the Young Avengers finally realized they were aliens with a hive-mind.

And Tommy's brother, Wiccan the Wonderful Witch, was floating in the dusty air with his hood up, casting his face in dark shadow while his eyes glowed a mystical blue, and he was hitting aliens with hex bolts or whatever.

Which, Tommy figured, really was a waste of Billy's reality-altering powers. Why didn't Billy just wish all the aliens nonexistent or something?

But Billy was ever the boring, responsible one, so Tommy figured Billy had his reasons, and that it was probably a good thing that Tommy had superspeed rather than chaos magic, because if he did have chaos magic he would be warping the world to his every whim.

"Speed," Hawkeye called from her newfound skyscraper perch that Hulkling had dropped her off on, "I need you to evac—"

"YeahIseeitIgotit," Tommy said, noticing the building full of terrified people that needed to get evacuated, as the alien invasion spread outwards through the city.

Faster, Thomas! he thought to himself, as he zipped through the building, grabbing people and dropping them off several blocks away from the mayhem, before zooming back for more civilians. You can be faster!

There was so, so many aliens that needed to be dealt with, and so, so many people that needed to be protected, and even with the rest of the world moving at a crawl around him, there was still too much, and try as he might Tommy couldn't be everywhere at once enough to save everyone and kick the crap out of all the aliens, while simultaneously being nowhere at once enough to never get hit.

But with all the civilians evacuated out of the building and safely out of harm's way for the time being, Tommy raced back through the thick of the fray, disintegrating the stupid aliens before they even knew he was there, and he was nothing but a green and silver blur that was registered a few seconds after he'd already passed.

And then the mothership was rearing out of the cloudcover, turning its huge machine laser-guns on them all, and where the hell were the actual Avengers when they were needed?! New York was being attacked by aliens again and the Young Avengers were the only ones there?! And not even all of the Young Avengers—Stature and Vision were off doing something else that he couldn't bother to remember.

Why did this kind of thing always happen to them?! The universe clearly wanted them dead, it seemed—but he sure as hell wasn't gonna let the universe kill them without one helluva fight.

The huge guns were firing, and though the laser-bullets were moving in slow-motion compared to the speed at which Tommy was running, there was still way-too-freaking-many, and all of the Young Avengers were going to get caught in the fire if Tommy didn't do something and do it now.

Kate was still on the top of a skyscraper and would be first hit, so Tommy rushed up and grabbed her and then ran down and phased her through the wall of a concrete building and left her where she wouldn't get hit.

Next was Teddy, who was still flying around, but it was like he was suspended near perfectly still in the air, in the process of turning towards the mothership, and Tommy leapt up and grabbed his foot and pulled him down faster than the speed of gravity, sticking him in the same place as Kate.

The laser-bullets were still crawling down, a torrent of them, a deluge; the sky was weeping with them—sobbing grossly with them.

Eli was next, because he was on the ground and Tommy spotted him before he spotted his brother.

When he placed Eli in the concrete building with the other two Young Avengers, they all had the very same expressions on as when he'd found them.

And yet the world was still moving too fast for Tommy's liking, and as he sped up to Billy the bullets were already bearing down upon him and Billy was just staring at them with those glowing blue eyes and looked as if he was just starting to open his mouth to say some spell, but Billy would never be fast enough.

So Tommy had to be.

And as he grabbed his brother, the bullets were everywhere and Tommy clutched Billy close to his chest as he leaned forward and ran for all he was worth, but he still felt the lasers digging into his back and legs and arms, piercing his skin painfully slowly but too fast to avoid because it would have been like trying to dodge rain when it was pouring buckets and there was hardly any air between the droplets of water.

But Tommy did his best to shield Billy with his own body as he ran, since he knew for a fact that he could handle pain far better than his brother, and everybody would cry if Wiccan the Wondrous Witch got injured, and Tommy hated dealing with people crying, while they would only blink if Tommy got hurt and maybe tease him for not being fast enough to dodge the bullets—and that was definitely preferable to tears.

Tommy's heart was pumping fifty times a second and he could feel the blood gushing from his injuries and damn his pain reception for being just as fast as the rest of him, it would be so much easier if he could just run so fast he left all pain behind—but he wasn't that fast and his body was searing but the concrete building was up ahead, and Tommy couldn't help but wonder, as he vibrated himself and Billy through the wall, if he left atoms of blood between the atoms of concrete.

And then he was dropping Billy to the ground as gently as he could manage, and oh damn but he'd never seen Billy's cape so red before.

The world caught up to him as he fell to his knees.

The building rattled as the lasers hit it. There was the smell of burning and of blood, and Hakweye, Hulkling, Patriot, and Wiccan all blinked as they suddenly found themselves inexplicably inside of a concrete building, when they'd just been outside, on a roof, on the ground, or in the air.

"What the hell?!" Eli demanded.

"How did we—" Kate started.

"What's going on?" Teddy asked.

"Oy," Billy said.

Their faces were masks of confusion, bewilderment, consternation, perturbation, bafflement.

They're voices blurred around Tommy as he curled up on his side, biting back a pitiful moan as the pain completely permeated his body, and he could feel his blood leaving him, hot and wet. The world was white behind his eyelids, and he tried not to whimper. Oh but it hurt...

But he'd saved everyone. He'd been fast enough, he hadn't failed. And that was all that really mattered.

"Are you okay?" Eli asked Kate.

"I'm fine," she answered. "And you?"

"I'm okay."

"Teddy, are you alright?" Billy said, concerned, crawling over to his boyfriend.

"I'm fine. Billy, are you—? Billy you're hurt!" Teddy's green face was horrified as realized that Billy was soaked through and dripping with blood.

"What?" Billy asked, confused, glancing down at himself and only just noticing that he was dripping with hot, sanguine blood. He looked back at his terrified boyfriend, dark eyebrows furrowed. "I'm not... I don't hurt," Billy said, blinking perplexedly. "The blood's not mine."

"I'm... still alive..." Tommy gasped through gritted teeth. "If any... of you... were wondering... about me..."

"Oh gods, Tommy!" Billy cried, as he saw his brother huddled on the floor in a growing puddle of scarlet, his outfit tattered and completely blood-soaked, and his skin that wasn't coated in red was deathly pale. "What happened?!"

Kate gave a horrified gasp when she saw Speed, her hands flying to her mouth. Teddy's eyes eyes widened and his breath hitched. Eli stared.

"What do you... think...?" Tommy choked out, trying to push himself into a sitting position, and choking on blood that was welling in his mouth. "I just... saved... your lives... ingrates..."

The world, slightly tinted orange from his goggles, was starting to darken and swim with black.

Then Billy was there, hands flitting frantically over him without touching him, muttering something under his breath that Tommy couldn't make out.

The last thing Tommy saw before the world went completely black were brown eyes glowing a bright, vivid blue, and he hoped those weren't tears he saw streaking down Billy's cheeks.

"IwanthimtohealIwanthimtohealIwanthimtoheal," Billy chanted, over and over and over, and he thought perhaps he'd never wanted anything more in his entire life than he wanted Tommy to heal in that moment, wanted Tommy to live and be okay.

Tommy's green eyes had closed, and blood dripped from his parted lips.

Billy pressed his fingers gently against Tommy's throat, feeling the hummingbird-fast pulse beneath his fingers, feeling the irregular rhythm as Tommy's heart tried to keep his body alive, feeling Tommy's heartbeat weaken and falter and fade.

Hot blue was brimming in Billy's vision and trickling down his cheeks.

"IwanthimtohealIwanthimtohealIwanthimtohealIwanthimtoheal."

In the back of Billy's mind, the part of him that wasn't freaking out over the fact that oh gods his brother had just saved them all and now he was dying was realizing that he hadn't even known that he cared so much about Tommy.

Tommy was annoying as hell, and seemed more than a little sociopathic. He was always butting into Billy and Teddy's private moments. He'd made it clear he had no problem with killing. He was mocking. Erratic. Mercurial. Infuriating.

Billy had tried to reach out, he really had, but Tommy always pushed him away.

And yet? Seeing Tommy like this, looking so fragile in a heap on the floor, unconscious and bleeding out—Tommy, who was always so untouchable, both mentally and physically—Billy had never been so terrified in his entire life (well, except for when his boyfriend got kidnapped).

And he realized, as much as he would be loath to admit it... gods, he couldn't lose Tommy.

Because as infuriating as Tommy was, Tommy was his twin, his brother. Billy was sure of it.

And Billy felt his brother's heart stop.

A surge of horror and fear and sorrow and desperation slammed into him like a tidal wave, crashing through his ribs and knocking the breath from his lungs in a gasp of, "Iwanthimtolive."

Billy felt Tommy's heart start beating again, a faint and tentative rhythm like an inexperienced drumming on a drum-set they thought was going to fall apart at any second.

"IwanthimtohealIwanthimtoliveIwanthimtohealIwanthimtoliveIwanthimtohealIwanthimtolive," Billy chanted, over, and over, and over.

Slowly, it seemed, far too slowly, Tommy's wounds began to cease their steady bleeding and knit themselves closed.

The other Young Avengers were standing over him, probably saying something, but Billy didn't register them. All his focus was on his injured brother.

As Billy spoke his magical mantra, he reached out gingerly to brush a strand of silver-white hair from Tommy's pallid face.

"IwanthimtohealIwanthimtohealIwanthimtoheal."

Bleeding slowed. Muscles knit together. Skin regrew. It was like watching footage that had been sped up, being able to watch something that usually was so slow that the movement wasn't even noticeable when you watched it continuously (like the sun traveling across the sky; like a flower blossom blooming; like the seasons changing; like a child growing up).

Billy didn't stop reciting his spell until Tommy was completely healed. Pulling his still blood-soaked brother into his arms, Billy held him close in a way Tommy would never allow if he was conscious, and though Tommy was his twin and the same size as him, Tommy in that moment felt so small.

"Why isn't he waking up?" Billy rasped.

"He's lost a lot of blood," Kate pointed out, paling slightly as she glanced at the large puddle of sanguine that coated the floor. "He probably needs sleep, food, water. Maybe an IV. He needs to replace all that blood, and I can only imagine that the healing, even with the aid of your magic, still takes a toll. Not to mention how fast he must have been running to save us all from the bullets in less than a second. He must have been pushing himself to his very limits."

The building rattled around them.

"Guys," Eli said, glancing towards the door anxiously, "The aliens are still out there."

Billy was still cradling his brother's body to his chest.

"Billy," Teddy said, placing a large green hand on his boyfriend's shoulder, his voice gentle. "Tommy's going to be okay. But we need to deal with the aliens."

Now that Tommy was out of danger and the cold blue fear drained from Billy's bones, it was replaced by a hot, scarlet anger that tinted his vision.

This was all the aliens' fault. Those aliens had almost killed his brother!

Billy set his jaw. Laying Tommy down gently on the floor, Billy turned to his boyfriend, ordering, "Watch him."

"Billy—" Teddy started.

"Watch him!" Billy ordered again, and blue crackled from his eyes.

And then Billy was sweeping past the other Young Avengers, energy gathering at his fingertips, surging through his veins like an ocean, a powerful wave of chaos that roared like thunder in his ears and tasted like lightning on his tongue. It was an uncontrollable force of nature, and Billy set it free.

The aliens never knew what hit them.