Work Text
Once he came to live with the family and had been adopted, there were a few things about Justin Foley-Jensen that his adopted brother, Clay, had picked up on:One, he liked taking long showers. Like, really long showers.Two, he liked food. Like, a lot of food.Three...he could sneak up on you when you least expected it. Quietly. Like, very quietly.True, he had been more careful with that last one more and more, owing to Clay's PTSD diagnosis back in spring 2018, but there were a few times here and there where he would suddenly, as if out of nowhere, be behind Clay and have some kind of question to ask, or would say something, and inevitably Clay would be startled. For instance, more than once, he would be rooting through the refrigerator for some kind of a snack, and as if summoned, there would be Justin, right behind him."Whatcha gonna eat?" he would ask."GAH!""Dude...sorry, you okay, bro?""Jesus, Justin!"Or...."Hey, any leftovers?""AHHH!""Sorry, bro...""How do you do this?!" Clay asked, a little miffed."Talent?"So, when Justin passed by Clay's room one Sunday afternoon and saw out of the corner of his eye that his brother was busily drawing away, his natural curiosity got the best of him and he quietly walked in to look over Clay's shoulder to take a peek. He studied the work for a few moments before finally commenting."Wow, that's really good.""FUCKING SHIT!" Clay tossed his pencil and sat up straight quickly, spinning around in his chair to face a guilty looking Justin. "Goddammit, will you stop doing that! And why are you spying on me, anyway?""Sorry, man. And I'm not spying, I just wanted to see what you were doing is all. That looks really good!"Clay caught his breath and calmed down before continuing. "It....you think so? I'm...not sure what I want to do with it....you'll probably think it's stupid or whatever....""Can I see?"Clay handed over the sketchbook tentatively to Justin, who studied it. There were the DC characters Hawk and Dove, fighting a gelatinous creature that Justin recognized from an issue of "Alien Killer Robots," and that took up most of the page. But in the lower right hand corner, the two heroes stood next to one another as if in conversation, and their masks were pulled down. And that's when he saw who Hawk and Dove were."Clay...you drew them as....that's us."Clay sighed and closed his eyes. "Yeah...I know, you think it's totally...""This is fucking amazing!"Clay opened his eyes again. "You...you think so?"Justin sat on the bed as he continued to look at the sketch and nodded his head. "Yeah, this is really good! Like, I can tell it's us, you know? Your little scar on your forehead, me smiling, you got all the details and stuff. Made yourself kinda more buff than you actually are, though," he looked up and grinned at his brother."Well," Clay grinned back, "I mean, if I'm gonna be a superhero, then I should look the part, right?""What brought this on? Like, are you gonna do anything with it?" Justin asked as he passed the sketch back over."I dunno...I just wanted to draw something one night and I was looking at my statue," he pointed to the statue of Hawk and Dove that Justin had bought for him as a Christmas gift. "I just sorta took it from there. I thought about what you told me...about how I'm your hero. And I do think of you as mine, too, Justin. So, I thought it'd be kinda cool to draw them as you and me.""I really like it," Justin nodded appreciatively. "I love that we're each others heroes," he smiled warmly. "And you should finish this, it's so good!""Yeah?""Yeah! You should do more like it! Maybe us as like...Iron Man and Captain America. Or Spider Man and The Flash!"Clay thought for a moment and nodded. "Hmmm...yeah, I could make that work. Iron Man's armor might be a little tricky, but I could get a little creative with it.""That would be really cool! In fact...huh.""What?"Justin shook his head. "Okay, now you'll think it's stupid.""Oh, like I haven't heard you say stupid things enough already. Try me.""Shut up, dumbass. I don't know...it...it's kinda ridiculous.""Just say it, shithead," Clay rolled his eyes."Well....what if we...create stories. Together. Like, not whole comic books, but maybe a couple pages? I could come up with ideas and what they'd be saying and you could draw it out?"Clay was quiet as he pondered what had been proposed, and Justin took this silence the wrong way. "Yeah, see? Told you you'd think it was stup-""I'll need a new sketchbook just for these, and some colored pencils, because black and white would get too boring after awhile and I'd want to color them in. We'd also need a second book to keep them in once they're done. I don't know about a whole comic book, but I could see like...three to five pages, and divide the action up into boxes. I can come by Walplex tomorrow during your shift and pick up what I need. Oh, and you should pull some back issues from my closet because I think we could do it where everyone is on their own Earth, and you'll need to understand the multiverse, like on The Flash. I bet we could do a series where it leads up to a huge crossover! And we'd have to bring in other characters, too....I can totally see Alex as like, Elongated Man!""You...like my idea?" Justin asked quietly."Hell yeah! I think we could have a lot of fun with this, and I haven't done any kind of fanfiction in a long time.""Fan...what?""Fanfiction. Where people create stories or draw something using already established characters. I..uh..may have written some 'Lord of the Rings' stories of my own at one point. And to be honest, I've always wanted to do like a graphic novel or a comic book. So...yeah! This is really cool," he finished with a warm smile of us own."Okay! And I can help pay for supplies and whatnot. Well...let's get started and come up with some ideas!""A few rules, though. A) school, practice and work come first, b) we don't neglect mom and dad or our friends....Sheri would kill me if she knew I was ditching her to draw us as superheroes, and c)...stop sneaking up on me!""Yeah, for sure! I figured we could do this in our spare time or whatever! And I'll try to be more loud from now on when I walk around you," Justin winked. "Deal?""Deal. Okay....so, obviously, we should start with Hawk and Dove since I've done this work on it already, and it would be really easy to make this a quick story somehow. This could be the cover!""Yeah! Maybe they can be saving Sheri and Jess from the alien? There were like, space girls in that issue.""How...would Sheri and Jess get on that planet? And do you remember how those space girls were drawn? Like....how do I put this? They were....sexy. Very, sexy."Justin grinned at Clay. "Uh huh."Clay thought for a moment and then nodded."You tell the girls about this or show them and not only is the deal off, but I'll disown you...."