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In a world full of superpowers, Tommy was seen as an outcast, with an ability that was barely even considered abnormal. Humans wouldn’t accept him because he wasn’t one, and the supernatural world wouldn’t accept him because he was nowhere near their level of power. So he’d been kicked out of his old home the moment he turned sixteen and been told to fend for himself.
His family refused to house a weakling who had nothing to contribute to the family, and Tommy didn’t really blame them, being told since the moment he was born that he was a disappointment. He figured he’d be happier on his own anyway, and he’d been doing so for almost four months, living in the streets and living off of the kindness of the bakery owner, when he finally stumbled across what seemed to be an abandoned house on one of the days he spent hiking in the woods.
Huh, Tommy tilted his head curiously, hiding behind a tree on the edge of the forest as he observed the house. He wondered briefly if somebody might be living in the building before quickly shaking the thought out of his head when he saw a bird dive through a window and into the house. He wondered if it was even livable, or if the floor would collapse from under his feet.
After another moment of thought, he figured there wouldn’t be any harm in looking, especially after he saw the overflowing garden in the backyard, filled with a variety of different plants that he was sure would keep him alive for years.
Naturally, when Tommy entered the house, with the door surprisingly unlocked, he was immediately swamped by feathers, and he spluttered from the sudden flapping of wings that smacked his head as the creatures dove past him. After a long moment in which he worried he might suffocate from all the feathers, the air cleared out and the birds—were they crows?—all disappeared into the forest.
The blond turned back to the house after a moment of staring bewilderedly after the birds and jumped slightly when he noticed a singular crow still sitting on a perch by the window, it’s black eyes staring at him with a tilted head.
“Oh hello,” Tommy breathed, slowly stepping further into the room. He glanced around to see what must’ve been the living room, with a couch against the back wall and a decent sized tv on the wall across from it. He blinked, surprised at how clean the furniture seemed, having expected the house to be dusty and maybe even falling apart.
Tommy’s attention was drawn back to the crow when it let out a croak and he blinked at it, confused. “I wonder why you didn’t go with the other birds.”
The bird chirped softly, and Tommy glanced at it again to see its feathers slightly ruffled.
“Maybe you’re an outcast too,” he ventured closer to the animal, glancing out the window to see that the other crows were all perched in trees on the edge of the woods, seemingly watching the house. “That’s a little creepy.”
He moved forward, hoping to explore the house a little more, but the bird chirped again, and Tommy barely suppressed his jump of surprise as it tilted its head further and ruffled its wings.
“Okay,” Tommy whispered, backing away from the hallway he had tried to pass through as an uneasy feeling began to shoot through him and he felt a sudden need to get out of the house. “I guess you already claimed this house, so I’ll just be on my way then.”
He turned to step back outside and jumped when he noticed two men standing in the doorway, one with his arms crossed and the other with a hand brushing through his curly brown hair.
“Who are you?” the one with his arms crossed, who had long pink hair, asked in a rough voice.
“Uh, I don’t know?” Great job Tommy, now they think you’re stupid.
“You don’t know?” the brown-haired one laughed, stepping forward as Tommy stepped back. “What’s your name?”
“I don’t—”
“Why are you here?” the other interrupted, his eyes narrowing.
“I—”
“Let him answer the first question,” the brown haired guy spoke again as he glared at the other.
“It doesn’t matter what his name is. I want to know why he’s broken into our house.”
“I didn’t break in!” Tommy protested hotly. “The door was unlocked.”
“That doesn’t make it any better.”
There was another loud caw from behind them and the two boys glanced away from Tommy and up toward the crow. The blond expected them to get mad at the animal too, but surprisingly, they began speaking to the creature instead.
“You were here the whole time?” the pink-haired guy asked, exasperated. “And you just let him come in?”
“Well, if Phil approves then I guess we have to welcome you,” the brown-haired one sent a wink in Tommy’s direction and moved further into the house, passing him and heading down the hall.
“It’s a bird,” Tommy muttered, rubbing at his arm and blinking at it, confused.
“He’s a shapeshifter,” the other man grumbled. “Can’t you tell?”
Tommy blinked, his eyes widening as he whipped around to stare at the crow, who glided toward the ground before a flash of light forced him to look away. He glanced back to see an older-looking man with a weird green and white hat settled on his head.
“He wasn’t doing any harm,” the man answered the other, stretching his arms above his head. “He was only curious.”
“He can be curious somewhere else,” the blond glanced over to see the man’s eyes softening slightly. “But I suppose he can stay here if you think he should.”
“Hey mate,” the man with the hat turned back to face Tommy after giving the other a smile. “I’m Phil, and this is Techno. The other one is Wilbur. We all live here.”
Tommy was silent for a while, blinking blankly up at him, until he realized that they were waiting for him to introduce himself and he startled with a jolt.
“Um… I’m Tommy. I was only looking for a place to rest, I didn’t mean to intrude. I can leave now—”
“You look half starved,” Phil interrupted. “Why don’t you stay for dinner?”
He frowned, confused. “But I’m not—I mean, shouldn’t you be more concerned?”
“About what? You being in the house?” Phil snorted. “Were you planning to do anything?”
The boy quickly shook his head.
“Then there’s nothing to worry about.”
Tommy shrugged and warily followed the man down the hall and into what looked to be their kitchen. He was directed to sit at a stool on their counter and careful did so as the other man—Techno—settled a couple seats down from him. Nobody spoke as Phil dig through the fridge and searched through the cabinets for food until the brown-haired man came back.
“About time, Wilbur,” Techno muttered, his fingers drumming on the table.
“I had to put stuff away,” the man answered, staring at Tommy. He shuffled over and slid into the seat next to him, his eyes glinting curiously.
“So why are you here?” he asked, and Tommy debated whether he should stay silent or not before deciding there was no good reason to.
“I was looking for a place to stay,” he muttered, his shoulders tense.
“You can’t be older than sixteen,” Techno chimed in, his eyes dark. “Where are your parents?”
“They kicked me out,” he answered bitterly. “They didn’t like how my power was so—” he stuttered to a halt, suddenly unsure whether the trio would still welcome him if he told them how weak his power was.
“We couldn’t care less what your power is,” Phil waved his hand over his shoulder. “We hardly even use our own.”
Wilbur nodded his head in agreement. “So what is it?”
“Oh,” he hummed softly, astounded. The entire world was based around superpowers, and he hadn’t thought that anybody would think differently. “I can glow sometimes, when my skin has been under the sun for long enough. Only for a few minutes though, and it takes a while to charge.”
“That’s not even a bad power,” Wilbur chimed in. “It’s better than some others I’ve seen, like being able to turn hair green or something.”
“But it’s not useful,” Tommy argued. “It’s worthless.”
“Not once you have some training,” Techno spoke, standing up to help Phil cut up tomatoes. “It might actually be pretty useful, especially when you learn to control it.”
“Learn to control it?” he asked, confused. “Aren’t powers just constant?”
“No?” Wilbur looked confused. “It’s like a muscle. You need to train it for it to get better.”
“But how would I do that?” he huffed. “I don’t have enough energy be able to train it for more than a few minutes.”
“You just need to build your stamina,” Techno spoke. “It would get better after a while.”
“And you’d train me?” Tommy scoffed.
“Why not?” he quirked a brow.
The boy froze. “You—I can’t walk here every day, it’s too far.”
“Then don’t walk here.”
He blinked, not understanding. “You’d come to me?”
“Of course not.”
There was a long silence before Phil broke it with a short laugh.
“We’re offering for you to stay here, Tommy.”
“I—what?”
“You don’t have anywhere else to go, and we have room,” Wilbur spoke up, his eyes glowing and a grin on his face. “These two are boring anyway, it’d be nice to have someone else to terrorize.”
“Don’t scare him away so soon,” Techno smirked as Tommy glanced between them with wide eyes.
“You seriously want me to stay here?”
“If you want to,” Phil nodded.
Tommy blinked again before nodding his head furiously, and the other three laughed at his eagerness.
“Then welcome to the family,” Wilbur grinned, and Tommy found himself grinning back, a sudden warmth flooding through him and a new hopefulness for the future.