Page 82 of Velveteen vs. The Consequences of Her Actions

Action Dude’s face flushed. He turned away.

“Yeah,” said Velveteen. There was no rancor in her tone. “I thought not. People would have noticed if their heroes turned into villains, and so Supermodel never went there. She taught you—or she allowed her people to teach you, rather—the things real heroes had to know. You are real heroes. She just didn’t teach you how to survive in the wild, or how to think for yourselves. Why the hell do you think I want to step in and take her place as keeper of the Island of Misfit Toys?”

“Because you’re not like her.” Action Dude seized the question like it was a lifeline. “You could never be like her. Power corrupts, sure, but we’ve known people more powerful than her who didn’t get corrupted. You’re better than she was.”

“Tell that to Jolly Roger,” said Vel. “I am not interested. Tell Dotty and the American Dream that they aren’t getting what they want.”

“But…”

“No, Aaron,” said Vel. “No. I don’t want to come back to the team, and I don’t want to come back to the corporation, and I don’t want to lead anything. I just want to get better and go home to Portland before Victory Anna decides what we really need is a steam-powered septic system. I want to eat donuts and fight crime and do cheesy photo-ops at malls. I’m a small time girl. Leave me that way.”

“You weren’t always,” said Action Dude. “You used to want to lead the team more than anything.”

“Back when I thought we’d be leading it together, you mean,” said Vel.

“We still could,” Action Dude blurted. Then he froze, face going pale.

Velveteen was equally still. She stared at him, and he stared at her, and neither of them spoke or moved for almost a minute. Finally, Velveteen took a slow, deep breath. “If I have done anything that would lead you to believe—” she began.

“No,” said Action Dude. He shook his head firmly, and repeated, “No. You haven’t done or said or implied anything, okay? And I’m not just here because of that.”

“Not just.”

“What?”

“You said you’re not just here because of that, which means you are here because of that, at least partially. You’re here because…what, you thought that as soon as we got a happy ending, I’d just fall right back into your arms? You’re the one who broke up with me, remember? If it had been my call, we’d be…fuck, I don’t know. We’d be married with three kids by now, and I would never have looked at another man. But it wasn’t, and we aren’t, and I did. Or did you forget about Tag?”

“I didn’t forget,” said Action Dude. “I still…we were kids, Vel. We were just kids. We didn’t know what we were doing. I loved you so much I couldn’t imagine living without you. I thought we’d break up for the sake of Marketing, so you wouldn’t be transferred, and then when we turned eighteen, we’d leave together. You and me, together. I could have learned to be happy as a civilian, if I’d been doing it with you.”

Velveteen, who had seen more than a few parallel realities, who had seen that in all the ones where she and Aaron were still together, they were together in uniform, shook her head sadly. “You never told me that. Not once. You never said ‘hold on and we’ll get out of here.’”

“I couldn’t. Marketing was listening.”

“So how did you expect me to know? You were cuddling with Yelena whenever there were cameras around, and she wouldn’t even speak to me. Every time I tried to get close to you there was someone waiting to get in the way. It was like I didn’t exist anymore.” Velveteen blinked back the tears that threatened to rise up and overflow her eyes. “You were my best friends, and you threw me away because someone in a position of power decided I was inconvenient. They broke us.”

“So that’s it?” Aaron raked his hands back through his hair, leaving it mussed and wild and completely camera-unready. “Lena gets a second chance, and I get you refusing to even look at me, forever? If you’re going to punish one of us, you should punish both of us.”

“You really want me to punish her?” Velveteen shot back. “Because there’s one big difference between the two of you, Aaron. She tried to get out. She looked at what The Super Patriots were doing, what they had become, and she ran. And yeah, I helped her, because she was finally making a choice for herself. You didn’t do that. You fought against me, against us, me and Yelena and Jack and the Princess! The fucking Princess said The Super Patriots were corrupt, and you still stood against us! You never made a choice, Aaron. Sometimes I feel like you’ve never made a choice in your damn life. You go with what’s easy. You do what doesn’t challenge you. When the corporation said I wasn’t for you, you listened. Now the corporation is gone, and I’m suddenly good enough again. Well, guess what? You’re no longer good enough for me.”

“I never was,” said Aaron softly. “And you’re not wrong about most of what you just said. But you’re wrong about one thing.”

“What?”

“I made a choice. I chose you. Marketing was against it from the start. You were supposed to be the hero they could sell to the kids seven and under, the one with the cute stuffed toys and the playline accessories, and I was…I was supposed to be their jock. They were talking about hooking me up with Firefly once she was out of the East Coast trainee program. We tested well with focus groups. But you were funny, and smart, and mean sometimes in that way that made you the most beautiful girl in the world. I wanted to be with you. I wanted to be the kind of boy you’d be with.” He shrugged, looking down at his feet. “I got in trouble the first time I kissed you where the cameras could see.”

“I never knew that,” said Velveteen, after a moment’s stunned pause. “No one ever said anything to me.”

“Of course they didn’t. You weren’t the one who was acting against orders. But from that kiss, they knew they had me. You and Yelena were the hostages against my good behavior. Ask her. Ask her sometime, how often she saw me get pulled aside for a talking-to when she didn’t perform, or when we didn’t want to go looking for you. Ask her how many threats she overheard. Or get a telepath in here, and they’ll tell you everything I’ve said has been the truth. You got out in part because when they said ‘stay,’ I stayed. Yelena got as far as she did because I did everything in my power to stop them from going after her. I fought against you. I can’t take that back. But we have always, always been on the same side.”

Velveteen looked at him for a long moment, eyes wide and very large in her still hollow-cheeked face. Finally, in a low voice, she asked, “Why are you really here, Aaron? You knew I was never going to come back to the team. So why did you come?”

“Because I don’t give two shits about the team,” said Action Dude. He walked cautiously toward her cot. When she didn’t immediately throw a pillow at him, he sat down on the very end, watching her all the while. “I don’t want you to rejoin The Super Patriots. Dotty and Dream do, but they’re as overwhelmed as I am, with a lot more left to lose. Me, I’ve already lost everything. I don’t actually care anymore.”

“So what do you want?”

He looked at her gravely. “I want you,” he said. “I want you to smile at me. Not the way you used to, because we were kids, we didn’t know anything, I was keeping secrets and playing hero and you thought I was some sort of a superman, not just a superhero trying to get his shit together. I want you to smile at me like a grownup. I want to smile at you without worrying that you’re going to flinch away. I guess I want to be friends more than almost anything.”

“Almost.”