A Brand New Day

He woke early the next morning, at once excited and terrified over what would be coming soon. The problem with waking early though, was that Vicky was reliably late up. Being on time meant something very different to someone who could fly and had no secret identity she needed to protect. His restlessness had him waking at 5:30, which just left him with plenty of time to stew in his dread as he washed, dressed and headed for breakfast all with the lingering Sword of Damocles over his head.

Their dad was sitting on the couch, having never gone to bed last night and just having slept in his seat. It was an unfortunately common occurrence. His depression came and went, and he did better when he was taking his meds, but that relied on him remembering to take them, and that was never a guarantee. One day he'd be looking at his father, and then the next he'd be looking at a withered shell of a man who could barely muster the energy to rise from his chair. He'd been far more of the latter recently.

Still, it didn't stop him from being his father, so James made sure to drape a blanket over the still sleeping man, and fetched his medicine and some water to placed it on the table beside him, while clearing away the untouched dinner from the previous night, exactly where it had been left next to him. That put a spike of guilt through him. Normally he'd be the one trying to remind Mark to eat his dinner when he forgot, but he'd been too busy contemplating finally having powers.

That just added to the sinking pit in his stomach, and he tried to work it away by starting preparing some breakfast for the family. Their mother was almost always up first, used to a high intensity day and always in the mood to get a good start and shake the sleep off. She came just as he was placing the first rashers of bacon into the pan. She took one look at him, and for a moment there was something else in her eyes, but then they widened with realisation of just who she was looking at and the tension ebbed out of her and a small smile graced her face.

"Good morning James." She greeted even as she moved over to get some coffee, and he couldn't help but follow her with his eyes as she moved across the room.

If there was ever an argument to be made that Superpowers somehow related to physical attractiveness, then New Wave was likely the prime evidence for it. But then they had to be to get away with the incredibly skin tight outfits worn by every other member save for Amy. Vicky was potentially the most beautiful girl at Arcadia, and Crystal was probably the same at Brockton College, their genetics blessing them with the bodies of Goddesses, which each of them had inherited of course from their mothers. And Carol was a Lawyer. If she wore a tightfitting skirt as part of her suit instead of the trousers she wore normally, she could probably fill the sexy business woman fantasies of every warm blooded male in America, save for the glasses. And those were easily acquired.

Thus, watching her bend over even the slightest amount to reach for the coffee pot was just ever so distracting to a hormonal young man such as himself.

Thankfully he was distracted by the oil in the pan spitting and catching him on the wrist right at that moment. He jumped, dropping the bacon into the pan with a sizzle and staring at the tiniest patch of redness on his hand. "You had the pan on too hot didn't you?" His mother said from behind, reaching around him to turn the hob down a few notches. "Well it's the effort that counts."

"So what has you up this early?" She asked even as she took a seat at the kitchen table and looked at him over her cup of coffee. "I won't complain about a free breakfast I didn't need to cook myself, but the last time you were up this early you still believed in Santa Claus."

"I just couldn't sleep. Thought I'd do something with myself." It was as easy an explanation as any, and was accepted without issue. He was just plating up when Amy stepped into the room, still in her pajamas and eyes barely open, looking more like a zombie than a living person.

"Morning Ames." He called to her as she stomped over and took a seat at the table next to their mother, though he took note of his mother's side eye. It was practically a constant of their lives. Not that he had ever been brave enough to question it. He slid the plate of food in front of her and she dug in without any preamble, his mother at least saying thank you as he passed her share over.

"Amy. Thank your brother. He made you breakfast you can at least be grateful."

"Thanks." She murmured out even as she continued to robotically eat down bacon and sausage. There were dark rings under her eyes and her hair was so frazzled she looked almost like she was trying to cosplay as the book version of Hermione Granger. But even despite that, she was still beautiful. She wasn't as big and bountiful as Vicky or the other women of the family, but instead she was more mousy. But no less hot. Vicky's body matched her personality, practically bursting out for all the world to see. Amy's was much the same. Shyer. Slimmer. And constantly shrouded in layers, but once you got close enough to see underneath you could more than love what you found there.

"It's alright." He said and was about to leave it at that, but his concern over her dishevelled appearance pushed him onwards to ask. "How late did you get back from the hospital last night?" She volunteered so often, attending random ones and visiting long term patients to try to help them out, or occasionally slipping into the A&E room and just quickly emptying the lobby. The problem was she was far too self sacrificing. Some days it was well after midnight when she finally left the hospital, and that was before she had to walk all the way home and often after a long day of school.

"I dunno. 12 maybe?"

"Well this better not affect you at school today young lady. Your grades are already low enough as it is, I won't have you flunking out." There really was no chance of that happening at all. Amy managed to keep straight Bs with her marks in Biology consistently hitting 100% on every test. Her flunking out was about as likely as Armsmaster turning down a brand deal. Vicky on the other hand varied wildly. She pretty consistently aced Parahuman Studies, but her marks in physics were the smallest possible margin above failing that he wasn't sure she didn't just ask her boyfriend to give her the answers to all their homework.

"I won't." Amy was never really in the mood for conversation this early in the morning, keeping her answers short and to the point. He slid her over a glass of orange juice she downed it immediately like it was a shot of liquor.

That was of course when hurricane Vicky swept in. She swooped in in a flash, snatched a bit of bacon from his plate and bent down over him, leaving him looking right down into her cleavage as she quickly munched down on his stolen breakfast. "Hey Bro, can I borrow some underwear? Kinda need them."

Instantly his heart froze as cold as ice. He'd almost forgotten this was coming, his distraction of family and food having served its purpose and put his power out of mind. Now this was happening all at once. His eyes turned to his mother and Amy slowly, prepared for the anger, the glares, and horror and the betrayal.

He didn't get it. Instead his mother was continuing to drink her coffee as she polished off a slice of toast, and Amy was glaring his direction sure, but less at him and more at Vicky and the loose t-shirt and panties combination she had gone to bed in last night and was currently spilling out of. "Umm. Sure?" He muttered out quickly, with no idea what else to say in this moment.

"Thanks bro!" She replied, before giving him a quick chaste kiss on the temple and flying over the table back towards her room, though of course she couldn't resist snatching a sausage from his plate as she went. He sat in stunned silence for a moment.

His mother drank down the last of her coffee, stood and placed her clean plate and mug into the sink. Amy had turned to watch Vicky leave, and as she turned back she gave him a serious stink eye before turning back to finishing her breakfast. He heard the sounds of their dad stirring, and saw his hand reached down to the side table and pick up his tablet and water.

So... that happened. And as usual, Collateral Damage Barbie had swept in and demolished all of his ideas for how he thought this was going to go. He looked down at his plate, now emptier than it had been 15 seconds ago. Yeah, he could think about this more later. Right now he needed to eat before she came back for more.