(Invincible) Invincible Bond: Chapter 7 – New home

Chapter 7 – New home

Summary: After the turmoil of the previous day, Eve finally finds a familiar and warm place to stay.

Eve wasn't even sure where she was flying until she landed on a familiar porch. With no other option, she knocked on the door and waited patiently.

While Eve waited, she kept fighting the tears that were trying to break through. She loved her parents, even if most of the time they made her life at home harder than it should be; she still loved them and never wanted things to end like that.

But even she had a limit she couldn't suffer past, and the moment her father demanded from her to forgive Rex and get back together with him, she knew she couldn't stay there. Even if he would have apologized, those words would still hang in the back of her head.

Suddenly the door she was standing in front of opened, revealing Debbie Grayson, wearing her usual green shirt and black jeans, a gentle smile on her face as she said in a pleasant voice, "Eve. It's good to see you again so soon..."

Eve couldn't help it anymore and cut the older woman off by leaping into her arms, holding the Grayson wife tight. It took only a short moment for Eve to feel a pair of arms hugging her back.

Eve broke and began crying into the shoulder of the woman that was holding her in a maternal way, in a way that Eve hadn't felt in a very long time.

Eve could feel herself being pulled into the house and heard some noise that, in the back of her mind, she realized meant the door was closed again. It wasn't long before Debbie pulled Eve gently all the way to the couch and sat both of them down, Eve still clinging to her, with her face buried in her shoulder.

For some time, the only sound in the room was that of Eve's sniffling until Debbie's voice filled it, "Eve, dear, do you want to talk about what happened?"

Eve pulled back so she could stare into the dark eyes of the woman next to her as she said, "Too much shit for one day." Then she realized who she was talking to and flushed; she quickly corrected herself, "I'm sorry, I meant a lot of heavy things at once."

Debbie chuckled lightly, "It's okay, dear, you don't have to worry about words like that. Mark hardly ever does."

Eve found herself chuckling with Debbie as well. Before she could say anything else, the entrance door suddenly opened and Mark walked in with his dad next to him, both wearing their superhero suits.

Mark looked at his dad and asked loudly, "How was I supposed to know someone would bat a baseball this high?"

"You should have caught it by instinct and thrown it back, not swatted it away to space," Omni-Man responded to his son in a deadpan voice. "We will need to train you more in reaction time."

Mark pulled off his mask, revealing his annoyed looking face. He was obviously about to retort when his eyes landed on her.

IB IB IB IB IB

Mark felt drained. He had a long fucking day.

First, he barely slept last night due to his talk with Eve the evening before, then he had fallen asleep just in time to almost be late for the testing of the new Guardians. The testing itself was great if he ignored the green monster he had to punch away from Rex.

The talk with Eve after the test was one of the best ones in his life, but after his dad saw him in such a good mood when he came home, he decided that Mark could use that energy for some extra training.

The accident with the baseball sure didn't improve his mood, nor did his dad's constant reminder of it in a scolding manner.

When he entered his home, he didn't expect Eve to be sitting with his mom on the couch in the living room. He immediately felt most of his exhaustion evaporated away and get replaced with happiness.

He was about to leap toward his girlfriend when he noticed her bloodshot eyes, what looked like tear streaks on her pale cheeks, and the biting marks on her bottom lip.

Mark took a careful step forward and asked gently, "Hi Eve, is everything okay?"

Instead of answering, she leapt into his arms and hugged him tightly.

Mark hugged her back right away and looked at his mom for help over Eve's shoulder. But all his mom could do was to shrug.

She then stood up from her seat and motioned his dad to follow her into the kitchen.

Mark looked down at Eve's red hair that was right in front of his face and asked carefully, "Eve? What's going on?"

It sounded to Mark like she took a deep breath before answering, "I had a rough time after you and I flew home."

Mark pulled her back just enough so he could look deep into those sad eyes and said softly, "If you want to tell me, I would love to hear what happened."

Eve nodded slowly before she leaned back closer to him; her voice was soft but steady when she spoke, "On my way back, Rex caught up with me." Mark could feel both surprise and anger at this information, but waited to hear more. "I guess he tried to apologize, and... ask me to get back together."

Mark knew he had no reason to not trust Eve, but his insecurities woke up and he began to worry about her answer. Eve apparently noticed his fear and patted his chest, saying, "I'm with you now, Mark, and happy about it; you don't have to worry."

Mark let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and waited for Eve to keep telling her story. "After I got home, my father jumped on me, and one thing led to another until we were in the midst of a very heated argument. I told him that I broke up with Rex after he cheated on me, and..." Eve looked like she was gathering the strength to say the next thing, and it took her a moment before she managed that. "My father's response was to demand I forgive him and get back with him."

"He said what?!" Mark could feel the anger boiling in his veins. That man had the nerve to say something like that to his own daughter; he felt really tempted to punch him into space right now.

Eve gave him a sad nod before saying, "I couldn't stay there, Mark! I had to get away, so I'm kind of homeless right now."

Mark didn't even hesitate when he said, "No, you're not. You will just stay here."

Eve gave him a smile, but still began to protest, "Mark..."

Mark didn't even let her begin her argument before he began rambling, "I mean, we are dating, and if things go well, we will want to get our own place soon, so this can be like a preview or a..."

Eve's laugh cut him off; she shook her head in clear amusement and said with a teasing smirk, "Thinking so far ahead, are we, Mark?" All he could do was rub the back of his neck awkwardly, then she let out another heavy sigh and tried to remind him, "Your parents..."

"Have no problem with it." Eve was cut off again, but this time it was by his dad, who stood with his mom in the entrance of the kitchen.

Eve herself spun around at the voice to stare at them with wide eyes. His mom joined with a soft smile on her face, "You are part of our family now, dear. As we said before, you always have a place here with us, no matter for how long you need it."

Eve smiled widely back at them, but her smile turned into a full blush, just like Mark was wearing after his mom added sternly, "That being said, we will give you the guest room for yourself."

Mark was quick to whine, "Mom!"

Debbie just smiled at the couple and said casually, "Don't think I don't know what a couple in their teens are up to when the door is closed."

Eve's blush began to spread all over her face, and Mark began to shout, "Mom, you can't say things like that! Dad, say something."

His dad obliged his request too easily, "Just make sure you do it when we are not home, and that it won't interfere with your trainings."

Mark was shocked into silence while Eve began to choke on air. With that subject out of the way, they all decided it would be better to head to bed for the night.

IB IB IB IB IB

Mark was just finishing getting dressed after waking up later than usual, and even that thanks to a phone call from a persistent William.

He was pulling on his pants, jumping on one leg while he used his shoulder to hold his phone close to his ear. William's excited voice came through from the other side, "So let me get it straight again. Eve's boyfriend cheated on her and she came to you..."

Mark sighed in his mind; it was the third time William had done it. Still, Mark responded, "So far so good."

"Then you confessed your crush to her. She said she needs time, you said fine... lame," William added the usual comment with a mock yawn.

Mark frowned and retorted, "I was trying to be a nice guy."

William again ignored his words and went on, "Then you two worked on that project of yours, and after that she changed her mind and you two started dating officially."

Mark winced a little at the half-truth, but still didn't correct his friend, instead letting him keep talking, "Then she got into a fight with her folks, and the next thing you know, you and her are roommates."

Mark sighed, this time out loud, before trying to explain again, "Don't say it like we are sleeping in the same bed or something; she is staying in her own room."

Mark finally managed to pull his pants all the way up when there was a knock on the door of his room, followed by Eve's voice calling out, "Mark? Can I come in?"

William obviously overheard it as well and immediately began giggling, "Speaking of the she-devil."

Mark just groaned and said, "Talk with you later, man."

William called out his name, but Mark already ended the call; he began to quickly pull up his fly while calling out, "Sure, come in."

The door opened barely a moment later and Eve walked in wearing a new set of clothes. She was wearing a deep blue t-shirt, short jeans, and she covered it all with the same color jacket that she left open.

Mark blinked at her and before he could stop himself, he asked, "Wait, I didn't see you bring any suitcase or bag last night, so where are the clothes from?"

Eve raised an amused eyebrow at him before she brought up her hand and let a few pink sparkles out into the air. In that moment, Mark probably felt the stupidest he had felt in a very long time.

Eve saw his expression and laughed, walking closer to him.

Mark laughed with her for a moment, before the atmosphere grew more somber and Mark asked gently, "Are you okay, Eve?"

Eve let out a deep sigh before saying with a small amount of anger in her voice, "I'm supposed to be this strong heroine, someone who shouldn't be fazed even by villains. I hate how vulnerable I felt for the past couple of days."

Mark smiled at her and grabbed her hand, "Hey, you had a rough couple of days; anyone would feel like you do. There is nothing for you to feel bad about."

Eve smiled widely at him, before her eyes began to glitter with something Mark had never seen on her face before.

A moment later, she stepped closer to him and began trailing her finger slowly from the top of his chest downwards, saying in a breathy tone, "You know your parents aren't around right now; we can... train in some new aspects of our relationship."

Mark's mind froze for a moment, so it took him some time to get exactly what Eve meant, but when her words finally sank in, Mark could feel his face heat up. Still, he gave her an excited smile.

Both of them leaned in, about to kiss each other, when a high sound followed by a flash of blue light broke their moment.

In front of them stood Cecil; he looked between the two with a raised eyebrow and asked, "Am I interrupting something here?"

Both of them jumped away from each other. Mark chose to go immediately on the defensive, "Have you ever heard about the door, Cecil, or a phone for that matter?"

Cecil kept his indifferent mask while replying, "You think I put all that money to develop teleportation so I could knock on doors or make phone calls?"

Mark could think of so many problems with what the director of the GDA just said, but before he could point all of that out, Cecil spoke again, "I'm here to tell you we need your help; some mad scientist is destroying Mount Rushmore. The new Guardians are still training, so I need you to deal with it."

Mark could feel the spark of excitement at his first official mission; he smiled at Cecil and said, "Sure thing."

Cecil gave him a short nod, and then added, "Good, but I was talking to both of you."

Mark perked up even further and asked a little too quickly, "Eve's coming too?"

Cecil turned fully to him with a raised eyebrow and asked dryly, "What, did I just sweeten the deal?"

Mark had no response that wouldn't end in his and Eve's embarrassment, so he just turned around and began looking for his super suit.

Then he froze and looked back to the other two people in the room, "Which state is that again?"

Cecil rolled his eyes and asked rhetorically, "What are they teaching you in school these days?" And with that, he disappeared in another high whistle sound and blue flash of light.

Eve chuckled and snapped her finger. A pink flash later, both of them were in their super-suits. Mark blinked and then commented uselessly, "Oh, right, you can do that."

Eve rolled her eyes with a smile and began to walk toward his window while calling back to him, "After me, dummy."

Mark could do nothing but follow his girlfriend's lead.