Okay, no. You have to tell me about bruises verse mouse/Thomas ward, I am dying.
Yes, of course! I think about my collection of spoiled rich boys (and Matt) a normal amount!
Bruises 'Verse is an AU I developed back in my Marvel/Agents of SHIELD era set after everyone gets out of the Framework? But s5 and the whole time travel/space arc doesn't happen?
As per usual, under a read more because I can't shut up about anything ever
The very short version is that Leo Fitz leaves SHIELD to process all of that trauma, as well as the fact that Radcliffe is his biological father (anyone who followed me in that era knows my URL was holdendadcliffe, it's my favorite theory, I still think about it daily), and in a year moves to the PNW (some smaller town outside of Seattle, far enough from the city that he doesn't have to worry about anything, I was undecided on the details) and becomes a middle school science teacher. There, he also runs into his... they aren't exes, because they never defined their relationship, but they did go on a date before Leo got dragged into joining the field team with Jemma. He's my original character, his name is Matthew Scott, he's a good boy who has a medical degree but decided to give up on that dream and become a librarian, completely coincidentally, in the same small town that Leo ends up in.
I wrote a whole fic about it, but before his death in s3, Grant Ward (I love him, okay? I can and will write essays about him *Jay voice* in fact, I have. many times.) wrote letters for a few people in his life as a sort of... apology? He was really obsessed with the concept of "closure" in early s3, and I leaned into that while writing and developing this little universe. And those letters got left to Thomas, with the instruction to deliver the rest of them. He kind of just mailed off the others because *gestures to SHIELD and how they treated him* but he had to track down Leo because he didn't really leave a contact address with SHIELD and purposefully dropped off the radar because he also wants nothing to do with them.
And when Thomas drops off that letter for Leo, they kind of become friends? Thomas, who was floundering to get his life back after SHIELD disrupted it, who didn't want to go back to working at the bank they found him at because it's not a Safe Place anymore. So, he also moves to that little town, and does the first thing he can think of, which is going through the police academy and having a stable job so that he can hang out with friends (honestly, just Leo and Matt at that point) and pay rent and all that fun adult stuff that everyone hates.
Lately, I've been thinking about a lot of AUs where Mouse finishes his tour with the Army and returns to the States but doesn't go back to Chicago? I have thoughts about him going to Georgia, continuing his connection with the military and using it to get a job doing tech for them. I have thoughts about him going to Los Angeles and becoming a firefighter (the 911 crossover AU is NOT thought through yet don't ask about it for at least another week) or becoming private security or something for rich start up entrepreneurs. Things like that.
It occurred to me, a few months ago, that he could have also relocated to that same small town, and become a teacher (I especially thought about it after rereading @kitthekazoo's Community Garden fic, because teacher!Mouse my beloved) at the same school that Leo teaches at!
I just thought it would be funny if the tech boys with parental trauma and other causes of PTSD became best friends??? And Mouse and Matt would get alone great (tired homosexuals who are kind of over being dragged to the bar every week, because Matt is sober and Mouse is trying to avoid anything that might become a slippery slope for a while until he fully adjusts to being in Not A War Zone), and then... Thomas is kind of his type???
Detective? Complicated relationship with his brother? Pretty eyes?
Mouse is simple and I respect that.
Bonus: Matt and Tommy rolling their eyes when Leo and Mouse start talking about their students and completely forget that their boyfriends are there because they're unhinged little science nerds
I love the concept of smashing my blorbos together in a chaotic AU and seeing what my brain does. In this case, my brain said "boyfriends!" and now Mouse gets to actually date a detective and have friends and a life outside of that little cage he was in for most of his run on CPD, and I get to make him happy!
Fun fact: Tommy is a piece of shit (affectionate) and definitely calls Matt "Mascot" because Leo made the mistake of introducing him as "Matt Scott" and, uh... the joke was too easy he had to make it
