Tommy and Wanda | Backdated to 12/10
Dec. 10th, 2017 07:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainTommy tells Wanda about their new family member's arrival, and much alcohol is consumed.
Tommy tried really hard to behave himself, distracting himself with other things every time his fingers twitched toward his phone. After a fucking eternity, he finally gave up, gave in, and reminded himself that he hadn't promised TJ that he wouldn't text Wanda.
Tommy: You got a minute?
Wanda heard her phone go off, and gratefully abandoned her latest attempt to salvage the coffee pot after having managed to burn the coffee into the bottom yet again. She dried off her hands and grabbed for the phone, a smile tugging at her lips as she saw who it was from.
Wanda: Killed the coffee pot. Again. I've got all kinds of minutes. What's up?"
He hadn't put a lot of thought into how he was going to break this news to her, but whatever. It wasn't any weirder than his and Billy's supposed origin. Given Limbo's existence, it actually made more sense.
Tommy: You're a kitchen menace. Got a question for you. What do you think of Kurt?
It was as good a lead-in as any.
Wanda: Which one's Kurt?
Tommy: Blue, fuzzy, has a tail?
Wanda: No real opinion. Him yelling something about the party being the best was funny, but that's about it. Why?
Tommy: Apparently in some other timeline you rethink that. I just met someone who claims to be your kid. She's blue too. Go, mom.
Tommy: Is there something about Xavier's that makes it a vortex for this shit?
Tommy: or is this more about all that probability magic stuff you and Billy are firing off all over the place?
Wanda: ...some days I fucking hate my life. Just saying, no offense meant. But it's a fucking cosmic joke. WTF?
Wanda: And Don't call me Mom. :P
Tommy: If this keeps going, you might have half of Xavier's to yell at for that one.
Wanda: Asshole. I need a drink. Or ten. Want to help me finish off whatever bottles are lying around here?
Tommy: Ooh. An invitation to booze up at the secret lair? Wouldn't miss it.
--
Not that much later, Tommy found himself at what was apparently the right address. And then what, knock? Hardly. On the other hand, breaking in just to do the thing where he could slow down next to Wanda probably wouldn't fly given the still-pretty-precarious truce between the groups. Not that that should apply to Tommy either, since he was supposed to belong there. Right? Isn't that what they kept saying?
Whatever. He'd been standing at the doorstep for a full second already. He knocked.
"I got it!" Wanda called out, just in case anyone else had been planning to get off their asses and come to the door. She crossed the rec room and opened it, and smirked when she saw Tommy on the other side. "'Bout time you got here," she joked, and moved to one side to give him space. "Come on in. You want the grand tour?"
"First floor -- rec room, kitchen, whiteboard with plans for world domination? Sure. Why not." He hoisted a bag, cans clinking together inside. "I brought mixers, no idea what your supply situation was like."
"Got the alcohol, mixers are questionable." Wanda peered into the bag, then back up at him and grinned. "Red Bull?"
"Gives you wings," he grinned. "It's not like I can get a decent buzz off of beer. Your brother must have the same problem."
"He tries to make up for it with quantity. Never works." Wanda smiled and waved for him to follow her. "So, rec room. Normally full of people - no clue where everyone's off to today. My father's out of town," she explained, "so everyone fucking takes off in all directions."
Tommy fell in step, glancing around as they went. "Bet you five bucks I know where Pyro is," he snorted a laugh.
Wanda laughed and shook her head. "No bet. He's a moron if he isn't. Even more moronic that he doesn't just bring her back here more often, though I'm not sure she'd super thrilled that my father did a recruitment number on her last time she was here." She led the way into the kitchen and gestured around. "Kitchen. Complete with fucked up coffee maker that I'm never going to hear the end of from Eileen. Should've just met Summers for coffee at the bookstore; it would've come out cheaper." She walked over to the counter, set down the bag, and fished out a pair of mismatched water glasses.
Tommy's lip curled up reflexively at the name. "Summers, as in Scott? Ugh. Don't tell me you're hanging out with him. I thought you had better taste than that."
"Hey, I like Scott," she protested. "Plays an awesome game of pool, with or without powers, and has good taste in books. Well, mostly." She grinned. "Can't get him to read any fiction, but his non-fiction choices are decent. And he gives me a ride home from the bookstore."
The look Tommy gave her was beyond sceptical and into the realm of total disbelief. "He's a smug, cliquish dickbag who thinks he's above everyone else just because he's Xavier's special pet. Jackass couldn't even lower himself to have a conversation with me." He took one of the glasses and looked around for the booze she'd promised. He definitely needed a drink.
"Are we talking about the same guy?" Wanda crouched down, opened one of the cabinets, and pulled out a half dozen bottles of cleaning supplies before finding the prize, a full bottle of vodka. "Tall, dark hair, red sunglasses? He hasn't had any issue with talking to me. I mean," she put back the cleaning supplies and got to her feet, "we argue a lot - he's got the idea that the masses can be convinced not to hate us, which is naive as all hell. But beyond that, he's been cool."
"His majesty must find you worthy of an audience. There were all of five of us in that huge fucking mansion for a while this summer and he couldn't be bothered to give anyone the time of day -- other than his precious Professor. Dude's a dick," Tommy summed up with finality. And not worth talking about any more, not when thinking about him still brought that white-hot resentment bubbling out of nowhere. "What's news around here these days?"
Huh. Wanda eyed Tommy curiously a moment longer, then shrugged. She dealt with enough angry teens - fuck, she was an angry teen, often enough - to know when not to poke further, and when to just go with the change in subject. "Not a whole lot. Got ourselves a newbie; found him dumpster diving a couple weeks ago. Nice enough kid. You?" She carried the bottles over to the table. "And do you wanta drink here, or take it back in my room? If anyone comes home, this is probably where they'll head first." Just in case he didn't want to deal with that.
"Either way's good." As long as it got the conversation back onto something else. "I guess it depends how much you want to run the risk of any of them overhearing the birth announcement." He flashed a bright, teasing grin.
"Ugggh." Wanda dropped into a chair and gestured at the bottle and cans. "Just for that, you can mix the first round. How the fuck do I keep ending up with kids?"
Tommy grabbed the bottle and twisted the cap off, throwing a generous measure into each of the glasses. "Well, when a mommy mutant and a daddy mutant love each other very much..."
Wanda mock-glared, spun a tiny hex, and dumped a bit more of the alcohol into one of the glasses. "Yeah. That part's supposed to come first. But no. I just get fucking teenagers who show up and say Hi Mom!" She grinned a little. "Smart-ass teenagers no less." So, at least there was that. Her kids weren't boring. It was something.
"I can only assume we get that from you." For a moment her grin had looked a little like one he'd seen in the mirror before, and then it was gone. He popped a can of Red Bull open and added it to the mix. "I definitely did not inherit this awesome from the biologicals."
"Well, obviously you got the awesome from me. Probably the smart-assery, too." Wanda smirked, then paused and eyed him curiously. "Assholes?" she guessed, with a look that wasn't entirely unsympathetic.
"You could say that, yeah." Tommy grabbed his glass and shot some of the drink back, the buzz from the caffeine burning through him as fast as the heat of the vodka. "They're the ones who sold me to the Right in the first place." Part of him still didn't want to believe it, the part that still wanted to think that maybe, at some point, he'd been loved. But what other answer was there? None, that's what. "Having a freaky mutant kid was not on the agenda."
"Fuckers." Scowling, Wanda reached for the other glass, squashing down the hex energy that played around her fingertips just a little too slowly for it to not be noticeable. "How the fuck could they even do that?" Too easily; she knew that, from listening to some of the others. That didn't mean it didn't piss her off. Especially when it was one of her kids.
...damn it, now she was doing it, too.
Tommy just shrugged. "Some people suck." And it was better to leave it at that. He hadn't come here to lay some kind of pity-ploy on her, after all. He didn't need anyone feeling sorry for him. "So, yeah. I'm not too bummed out to find out that in some weird-ass way I'm not actually theirs. However that worked. The new kid's story actually makes more sense in some ways."
Oh fuck, he was another Pyro, wasn't he? Wanda forced down her reaction before (hopefully) he could get too uncomfortable with it, and instead eyed him curiously as she took a drink. "Yeah? What'd she say?"
"Alternate universe, if you buy that." Tommy had been watching the way the light reflected off the popping bubbles in his glass but now he looked up, taking another drink. "Apparently she and some others -- no idea who, she didn't namedrop anything -- were being sent through different realities on some kind of mission for someone she called the 'Timebroker.' And right now she's stranded here. She goes by 'TJ,' she's basically a girl version of Kurt, all blue, has the tail and stuff, and claims that in her original timeline, you and Kurt are her parents." Tommy grinned. "He's a good guy. You could do a lot worse."
"Okay, let me get this straight - I'm supposed to go get pregnant by some guy recommended to me by my son." Wanda rolled her eyes and grinned. "Thanks, but I'm gonna take a pass on that one." But seriously - she had a teenage daughter with blue skin and a tail. From... "An alternate universe? Seriously? So are we the one with the evil Spock with the goatee, or are they?"
"Beats the hell out of me. The way she was talking, it sounded like there were a lot more than two." Tommy finished his drink, held on to the swell of warmth that had hit -- before it could vanish again.
"She called Xavier 'Charles,' which is weird enough as it is. And she knew my name. Though apparently it's an older me." What else... "Oh. I mentioned the Brotherhood and she just about had an aneurysm. I think your guys might be a Big Bad somewhere."
"Hey, we're a Big Bad here. Just check your Twitter. Or ask your dragon girl with the YouTube channel." Wanda smirked, took another drink, and shook her head. "So, you exist in her dimension, too? Does that make this Kurt your dad?"
"Nooooo," Tommy shook his head fast enough to blur. "I asked and she said - and I quote, 'I've never been to a world where that happened.' I'd have had to commit myself to the nuthouse if that was a thing. As far as I can figure, either she exists, or Billy and I do. It's a 'choose your own adventure' game up in here."
"So, since you're here, I'm definitely not getting it on with Kurt," Wanda reasoned. "Good to know. If this keeps going, I'll find out who I am getting together with by process of elimination." She glanced down at her drink for the first time, then back up at Tommy and grinned. "This stuff doesn't suck, but I'm going to need a refill soon."
"Or if we're too much trouble, hook up with Kurt and bam. Retroactively change the course of future history." Tommy took the request and poured another hefty spill of vodka into both their glasses. He could feel something sitting at the base of his spine, a glow that wasn't usually there, but that was about all. At least for the moment. "I dunno how you and Billy keep track of this shit. My powers don't have anything to do with this and I'm getting a headache."
"Hey, believe it or not? I lived years with my powers without having any kids show up. And then pow." She grinned and held up her glass for a toast. "And you can stick around; you make good drinks. The jury's still out on the other two."
He inclined his head, accepting her accolade, and clinked his glass against hers. "Billy's alright," he objected mildly. "He can be naive, sure, but that's not always a bad thing." Especially if he actually had the kind of power he'd hinted at over Thanksgiving. A lot of bad people would do a lot to get their hands on that kind of thing. They'd have to go through Tommy first.
"No, it's really not." Wanda's grin tilted and she shook her head. "Trust me, I'm not actually planning to somehow retcon your brother out of existence. I'm just fucking around."
"That's probably for the best," Tommy laughed, then drank. "Though I'd pay good money - if I had any - to see you guys duel it out. Or whatever wizards do."
Wanda rolled her eyes and laughed. "It's not magic. I mean, he can call it that if he wants - fucking Agatha always did - but it's not. All I do is fuck with probability. Maybe with a little reality manipulation thrown in."
"Close enough," Tommy shrugged off the correction. It didn't really matter what they called it, it was still way too weird. "It looks like dimension-hopping is more common than we thought, if TJ isn't just making it all up. It's definitely not the same thing as what Illyana does... she goes to another actual place, not some split-off timeline with different versions of people in it."
"Mmm, yeah, Pyro said." Or maybe Illyana had, herself - Wanda really wasn't worried about which. "Some kind of hell place with demons. Unless they're demonic versions of people where the split off was some kind of fucked up demon apocalypse?" she speculated. "That'd make for one hell of an interesting dimension." Yeah. Definitely starting to feel the vodka and showing she'd maybe read a little too much science fiction, but whatever. Tommy could deal.
"Oh great," he snorted, shaking his head at her. "Giving us demon-us-es to worry about along with the unfortunate life choices of our other selves? Hard pass."
"Hey, you don't get to complain just become you might be a demon in another dimension." Wanda narrowed her eyes mock-seriously. " I'm the one whose other selves are making fucked up life choices. Unless you've got kids showing up now too." She paused, then shook her head. "If you do, I don't want to know. If anyone shows up calling me Grandma, I'm taking a vow of chastity and watching all of you go poof."
"No kids." Tommy shuddered at the thought, his hands coming up to ward off the suggestion. "God no. That would be a disaster wrapped in a catastrophe. I'm nauseous at the thought." He quickly ran back over everything TJ had told him about the mysterious 'Tom' version, but no, she definitely hadn't mentioned kids. "TJ knows an older version of me she called 'Tom,' and apparently he's married, but even that feels like a major stretch."
"How come?" Wanda stopped pretending to glare and just looked at him curiously as she took another sip of her drink.
"How come it would be a catastrophe if I tried to raise kids?" Tommy pretended not to understand what she was probably asking. "Have you actually met me?"
In response, Wanda rolled her eyes, smirked, and cast a hex, causing a few drips of Tommy's drink to jump from his cup and splash him in the face. Or...well, maybe more than a few. Hexing while intoxicated wasn't her best skill. "Don't fuck with me, you know what I meant."
"You know," Tommy replied, wiping his face with the back of his sleeve, "there are versions of hell where you're hung upside down over a barrel containing all the alcohol you've ever spilled in your lifetime. And if you drown you have no-one to blame but yourself." He finished his second drink, a faint buzz sliding in behind his eyes. Whether it was the vodka, the caffeine or the general messed-up-ness of his head, who could say?
"As far as I can see, marriage is a crock," he said after a while. If she wanted to fight him on it, so be it. "Two people get so hopped up on hormones that tying the knot seems like a good idea, and then lock each other down so tight so that even once it's obvious that it's a bad idea, they still can't leave without giving everything to the lawyers. Then it's just forty years of looking the other way and waiting for the other person to die."
Wanda couldn't help but let out a laugh at Tommy's description of hell, but then sobered as he continued. "Wow. Pessimistic much?" Wanda shook her head. "I don't know. Marya and Django - our adopted parents - they weren't like that. I mean, he died when we were kids, not long before my father found us, but...they actually loved each other. I think it can happen." She played with the last bit of liquid in her cup, swishing it around a little, then shot it down and held the cup out for a refill.
"It's a nice idea." Tommy refilled her glass and made it heavier on the mixer this time. "What is the story with your parents, anyway? How'd you end up adopted?"
"Uggh. That just supports your theory," Wanda complained, making a face. "My parents - biological, I mean, so we're talking Erik and Magda Lescherr - they tried to sneak across from East to West Germany with their daughter, back when there was still a wall in between. Didn't quite make it. My sister was shot dead, and my dad lost it and manifested." She shrugged. "Mom couldn't deal with that, so she took off. What my dad didn't know - fuck, maybe even she didn't, yet - was that she was pregnant with me and Pietro." She took a sip from her cup. "She died in childbirth, left us with Django and Marya Maximoff."
Tommy wrinkled his nose, unconsciously echoing her expression. "That sucks," he offered up, because what did you say to a story like that? Maximoff, though -- he filed the name away. He probably could have asked, but it hadn't seemed important before. Hell, he still didn't know Pam or Alex's surnames and he'd talked to them a lot more than Wanda. It seemed like the kind of thing you either knew about someone from the start, or you picked up by accident years later.
"And you found all that out when he what -- dropped in on you out of the sky years later? That must have been one hell of a first meeting."
"Yeaaaah, that pretty much describes it." Wanda smirked. "I kicked up a fuss, stomped off to my room, locked myself in, and pushed stuff up against the door. I was eight," she added as an afterthought, grinning fondly at the memory. "Not sure who I was madder at - my father for showing up, or Marya and Pietro for actually listening to him." She took another drink and shrugged. "Didn't matter. He dragged us off with him anyway. Asshole."
"He's not so big on listening to other people, hunh?" That sounded about right for the arrogant guy Kitty had described. And if he was willing to do that for Wanda and Pietro... they were his own biological kids, though. It was different. "Do you still see your parents?" Because fuck it, it sure sounded like they'd earned the title more than Magneto had.
Wanda grimaced and shook her head. "Marya's still in Transia - I don't think she'd leave there for anything, and we pretty much lost touch when I got shipped of to Agatha. And Django died not long before our father came."
Tommy frowned. "Shitty luck." And there was irony, for someone with the kinds of powers Wanda had. "Hunh. Maybe the universe is giving you back kids to make up for losing all those parents."
"Maybe..." Wanda began repeating what Tommy'd said, staring at him incredulously, then gave up and burst out laughing. "Yeah. Maybe, huh? I always did want more family." She'd just never imagined getting it quite this way.
"That'd be a lesson in being careful what you wish for." Tommy'd had an empty glass for too long. He refilled it and tossed back the drink practically in the same motion, catching the fizzy feeling in his blood for a moment before it started to fade. "Did your friend Agatha teach you anything about dimensions and timelines and all this stuff? Because I haven't taken Physics yet, but I'm pretty damn sure they're not going to cover any of it."
"They don't?" Wanda stopped chuckling and shook her head. "That's disappointing. I always wanted to take Physics. But no, not really. I mean, she talked about it some?" she admitted, "but I didn't pay it a whole lot of attention. I basically just wanted her to say I had it together enough to go back home."
"How long did it take you?" Tommy asked, twirling the last few drops around in the bottom of his cup. "Billy keeps finding new and exciting ways to cause problems for himself."
"A couple of years." Wanda made a face at the memory, then looked curious. "What's he doing to himself?"
"What, other than manifesting a room full of balloons, flying about as well as a lame albatross, or magicking himself into the Sahara desert?" Tommy snorted. "Take your pick."
"Hold it, he's flying? How the hell does he...oh. Huh." Wanda paused mid-question to actually think about that. She could float other shit - why not herself? "Why haven't I tried that?" she demanded of Tommy, her lips quirking. "Flying would be pretty awesome."
"It looks pretty awesome," Tommy conceded. It was probably the power set he envied the most, if he had to pick one other than his own. "Watching the wings crowd tear it up is impressive. Billy, on the other hand... He's more like a glowing blue Hindenburg." He gestured in the air, his hand like a balloon slowly rising and then sinking again before nose-diving into the table. "It's a work in progress."
Wanda laughed. "Yeah, maybe I'll take a pass, then. Nose diving into the pavement sounds like something that Eileen would still be mocking me for twenty years from now. But it doesn't sound like he's doing anything dangerous, at least. That's something." She took another sip from her drink - time to start slowing down, if she didn't want to end up on her ass - and eyed Tommy curiously. "What about you? You've got the speed going, and the whole vibrate things until they blow thing? That's pretty awesome."
"That I am," Tommy replied cockily, maybe not tipsy, but letting his guard down more and more as the evening progressed. He tried a repeat of the same trick he'd used on Alex at the mall that first day, touching the table. He sent a line of power toward the loose cap of the vodka bottle, rattling it around on the tabletop until it just.. about... came close, then he killed the vibe. It dropped back to the table and lay still, unchanged but hot to the touch. "Working on precision. It'll come in handy at some point."
Wanda watched the cap rattle with interest, then reached out to touch it, pulling her fingers back as she realized it was hot. "Whoa. Yeah, I'm sure it will." She eyed him with undisguised respect and nodded approval. "You put a shitload of work into it, don't you?"
He didn't want that look to feel good - the moment he started letting someone else's approval matter he was boned. But it did, so he shrugged it off and finally drained the last of his drink from the bottom of his glass. "Yeah. I'm never going to be valedictorian, or voted most likely to succeed," he joked at his own expense. "I may as well put the effort into the one thing I'm good for."
Good for, not good at. Wanda felt a pang as she realized Tommy had the same issue as Alex and Fatale, but forced herself to keep her anger in check. It wasn't as if it was directed at him, just at the Right for doing a number on these kids' heads. "I'm guessing you're good at more than that," she disputed instead, deliberately misquoting, then took a deep breath to focus. The bottle cap wiggled, then slowly started to rise up into the air. "But it's a damn good thing to be good at. Can you do it midair? Or do you need a surface as a vector?"
He was just loose enough to be into showing off, and he grinned at her. "Line of sight's all I need." And the Assholes had been working on nuking that limitation as well. The cap was holding steady in the air and he focused tight, convinced it to finish what he'd started. The molecules accelerated, spun, and blew apart.
"Yes!!" Wanda yelled as it exploded, raining tiny shards of metal down onto the table top. She grinned broadly at Tommy and held up her hand for a high five. "I was right. Seriously awesome."
He slapped her hand and made a mock-bow, as good as it got while he was sitting, anyway. "Thank you very much. Your turn," he added, because now he was curious. "I think all I've seen you do so far is lift things. What else is in your arsenal?"
"Fuck, I don't know." Wanda leaned back in her chair to consider the question. "Blow shit up, short out the appliances. Turn off Pietro's speed," she smirked across the table, remembering she'd mentioned that to Tommy before. "Make the DJ's audio system at the club skip to whatever song I want to listen to. Change the color of the streaks in my hair. Random shit." She shrugged and smiled crookedly. "Only problem is it doesn't always work quite how I want it to."
"That's gotta blow. Can you ask it to do something random and see what happens, or is it more like you want one thing to happen and your powers sometimes listen and sometimes do their own thing?"
"Mmmm. More the second," Wanda said, considering it. "It takes focus to get them to do what I want. If I'm pissed, or distracted, or drunk," she grinned a little, "weird ass shit can happen. Which is not good," she added, "because my weird-ass shit is usually destructive as all hell."
"Oh yeah?" Tommy arched an eyebrow, and then eyeballed the bottle of vodka speculatively. The cap was gone; it wasn't like they could put it back. He refilled his glass and held out the bottle to offer to pour some for Wanda as well. "Like what?"
"Like I was pissed at my father when I manifested, and brought the roof on the house down on us," Wanda admitted, grimacing. She nodded and pushed her glass towards him. "Blew every appliance in the place more than once. Blasted Mort through the drywall once when he hit on me." She grinned a little. "Fun stuff. Be glad Billy's tending towards filling the room with balloons; less property damage." Let alone hospital bills.
Tommy obliged, the bottle nearing empty by the time he set it down again. "Not always. It's the lightning that does the damage, and I got on the short end of that stick once. That shit hurts." He grimaced. "He took out the school's entire power grid when he got pissed at the Tedster, that was entertaining. But no roofs. Not yet, anyway."
"Hopefully not at all." Wanda made a face, then looked at him curiously. "Ted-ster? Seriously? Who's that, his roommate?"
"Teddy Altman. Roommate, boyfriend, co-dependent face-sucking theatre." Tommy made a face of his own. "Your son goes for the all-American jock types."
Wanda blinked and stared. "Seriously? This is the one who's supposed to be like me?" Because yeah. All-American jocks, definitely not her type. She wasn't altogether sure what her type was, really, but that definitely wasn't it.
"Taste obviously isn't powers-linked." But it was good to finaly have someone to bitch to who wasn't going to automatically reply with 'but Teddy's so nice', like that was some kind of selling point. "But yeah. Beefy blond meathead, and I swear I've seen him wearing an honest-to-God letter jacket. I don't think he even swears. Very wholesome," Tommy mocked.
Wanda shuddered. "Maybe it's a phase?" she suggested hopefully. "I mean, everyone does temporary insanity dating sometime, right?"
"That's the theory, anyway. Whatever, it's high school. There'll be some drama breakup eventually. Maybe then I can ditch demon-boy and dget a better roommate out of the deal."
"Demon-boy?" Wanda's eyebrows rose and she grinned. "I'm guessing you're not making out with your roommate, then?"
"Oh fuck no," Tommy replied immediately. "That asshole's even more poorly socialised than I am, which is saying something. We stay out of each other's way."
"Probably a good plan." Her forehead furrowed, though, and she looked at him curiously. "Is he seriously a demon?" she asked.
Tommy shrugged expansively, the alcohol settling in for a brief moment gain, his blood warm. “Who the hell knows? He and Yana have gotten into it over that at least once, I know that much. I figure he’s a mutant like the rest of us, but it’s no skin off my nose if he wants to call himself a dog-demon. Maybe he figures it makes people less likely to mess with him. I dunno.”
"Maybe. Sounds like it'd work, anyway." She considered asking whether or not Yana was actually a demon, decided she wasn't altogether sure she wanted to know and grinned instead. "Anyway, whatever. We've got a real one. Not all that threatening, though." Which didn't say much for Eileen's attempts to turn it into a watch lizard, but whatever. In its own way, Douglas was kinda cute.
He was sure he'd misheard her, or maybe the vodka was actually affecting him for once. "A real what?" Tommy asked, brow furrowing.
"A demon. I mean, it's a little one," Wanda admitted. "And it's really not all that impressive looking. But Illyana brought it to the party to clean up the beer or some shit and then forgot about it, and Mort brought the damn thing home. Eileen's trying to train it to guard the base." She grinned a little, at that. "Personally, I can think of better uses for the beer, but whatever. They're having fun with it."
Tommy snorted and shook his head. "I'm guessing you haven't watched the second season of Stranger Things yet. That entire show's an object lesson on why it's a Really Bad Idea to adopt cute little creatures from a hell dimension."
"Haven't seen it," Wanda admitted. "Other than that - and seriously, it's not like we can't get Magik to send Douglas back if he gets out of hand - is it any good?"
"Stranger Things? Yeah." Tommy nodded. "Especially if you're into vintage horror. I think it freaks some people out that I like it, considering one of the plotlines is about a kid with powers who escapes from a testing facility. But I'll tell you it's pretty fucking cathartic watching the scientists get eaten by monsters."
Wanda'd just taken a sip, and nearly choked as she tried to laugh and swallow at the same time. "Fuck," she managed, shaking her head as she grinned at him. "Yeah, it would be, hey? How graphic?"
He considered for a minute, then wobbled his hand in the air. "So-so? Eh. Low end. More blood and guts than the original Hallowe'en, but less than Walking Dead."
She nodded, considering, then smirked. "Ever see Cabin in the Woods? Not the same kind of experimental facility, but definite scientists getting taken out by monsters."
Tommy shook his head. "No. I don't know that one. Sounds alright, though," he added, and grinned.
"Pretty decent horror movie that still manages to make fun of horror movies." Wanda grinned and stood up, wobbling just a little, and picked up her drink. "We've got it. If you've got time to hang out a while longer?"
What were his other choices? Go back to school and do homework? Not interesting, and this whole 'hanging out at Brotherhood HQ' thing was a new experience. "Sure, I don't have anywhere else to be," Tommy replied, finishing his drink.
"Cool." Wanda grinned. "Now, be a good kid and grab your mom some water? Because I'm pretty sure I can get me to the rec room, but I'm nowhere near as sure that I wouldn't spill something if I tried to carry it."
He snorted a laugh, but got up anyway. "Is this going to be one of those things that you can say, but I'll get punched through a wall if I keep trying it? Because you realize that just makes it more tempting."
Wanda laughed. "Definitely one of those things. Especially when I'm too trashed to care whether or not it makes any sense to have a kid two or three years younger than me."
"Watch out, or I'll put you in the trashy nursing home." The cupboard below the sink didn't reveal anything, but there was an empty pitcher of some kind in the one next to the fridge. He filled it and managed to find some ice in the freezer before turning around again.
"Yeah, see? That's just not as big a threat when you're only a couple of years younger. Could be the other way around." Wanda smirked and gestured for him to follow her back out to the rec room.
"Could be, probably won't," Tommy replied cheerfully, and fell in step.
Tommy tried really hard to behave himself, distracting himself with other things every time his fingers twitched toward his phone. After a fucking eternity, he finally gave up, gave in, and reminded himself that he hadn't promised TJ that he wouldn't text Wanda.
Tommy: You got a minute?
Wanda heard her phone go off, and gratefully abandoned her latest attempt to salvage the coffee pot after having managed to burn the coffee into the bottom yet again. She dried off her hands and grabbed for the phone, a smile tugging at her lips as she saw who it was from.
Wanda: Killed the coffee pot. Again. I've got all kinds of minutes. What's up?"
He hadn't put a lot of thought into how he was going to break this news to her, but whatever. It wasn't any weirder than his and Billy's supposed origin. Given Limbo's existence, it actually made more sense.
Tommy: You're a kitchen menace. Got a question for you. What do you think of Kurt?
It was as good a lead-in as any.
Wanda: Which one's Kurt?
Tommy: Blue, fuzzy, has a tail?
Wanda: No real opinion. Him yelling something about the party being the best was funny, but that's about it. Why?
Tommy: Apparently in some other timeline you rethink that. I just met someone who claims to be your kid. She's blue too. Go, mom.
Tommy: Is there something about Xavier's that makes it a vortex for this shit?
Tommy: or is this more about all that probability magic stuff you and Billy are firing off all over the place?
Wanda: ...some days I fucking hate my life. Just saying, no offense meant. But it's a fucking cosmic joke. WTF?
Wanda: And Don't call me Mom. :P
Tommy: If this keeps going, you might have half of Xavier's to yell at for that one.
Wanda: Asshole. I need a drink. Or ten. Want to help me finish off whatever bottles are lying around here?
Tommy: Ooh. An invitation to booze up at the secret lair? Wouldn't miss it.
--
Not that much later, Tommy found himself at what was apparently the right address. And then what, knock? Hardly. On the other hand, breaking in just to do the thing where he could slow down next to Wanda probably wouldn't fly given the still-pretty-precarious truce between the groups. Not that that should apply to Tommy either, since he was supposed to belong there. Right? Isn't that what they kept saying?
Whatever. He'd been standing at the doorstep for a full second already. He knocked.
"I got it!" Wanda called out, just in case anyone else had been planning to get off their asses and come to the door. She crossed the rec room and opened it, and smirked when she saw Tommy on the other side. "'Bout time you got here," she joked, and moved to one side to give him space. "Come on in. You want the grand tour?"
"First floor -- rec room, kitchen, whiteboard with plans for world domination? Sure. Why not." He hoisted a bag, cans clinking together inside. "I brought mixers, no idea what your supply situation was like."
"Got the alcohol, mixers are questionable." Wanda peered into the bag, then back up at him and grinned. "Red Bull?"
"Gives you wings," he grinned. "It's not like I can get a decent buzz off of beer. Your brother must have the same problem."
"He tries to make up for it with quantity. Never works." Wanda smiled and waved for him to follow her. "So, rec room. Normally full of people - no clue where everyone's off to today. My father's out of town," she explained, "so everyone fucking takes off in all directions."
Tommy fell in step, glancing around as they went. "Bet you five bucks I know where Pyro is," he snorted a laugh.
Wanda laughed and shook her head. "No bet. He's a moron if he isn't. Even more moronic that he doesn't just bring her back here more often, though I'm not sure she'd super thrilled that my father did a recruitment number on her last time she was here." She led the way into the kitchen and gestured around. "Kitchen. Complete with fucked up coffee maker that I'm never going to hear the end of from Eileen. Should've just met Summers for coffee at the bookstore; it would've come out cheaper." She walked over to the counter, set down the bag, and fished out a pair of mismatched water glasses.
Tommy's lip curled up reflexively at the name. "Summers, as in Scott? Ugh. Don't tell me you're hanging out with him. I thought you had better taste than that."
"Hey, I like Scott," she protested. "Plays an awesome game of pool, with or without powers, and has good taste in books. Well, mostly." She grinned. "Can't get him to read any fiction, but his non-fiction choices are decent. And he gives me a ride home from the bookstore."
The look Tommy gave her was beyond sceptical and into the realm of total disbelief. "He's a smug, cliquish dickbag who thinks he's above everyone else just because he's Xavier's special pet. Jackass couldn't even lower himself to have a conversation with me." He took one of the glasses and looked around for the booze she'd promised. He definitely needed a drink.
"Are we talking about the same guy?" Wanda crouched down, opened one of the cabinets, and pulled out a half dozen bottles of cleaning supplies before finding the prize, a full bottle of vodka. "Tall, dark hair, red sunglasses? He hasn't had any issue with talking to me. I mean," she put back the cleaning supplies and got to her feet, "we argue a lot - he's got the idea that the masses can be convinced not to hate us, which is naive as all hell. But beyond that, he's been cool."
"His majesty must find you worthy of an audience. There were all of five of us in that huge fucking mansion for a while this summer and he couldn't be bothered to give anyone the time of day -- other than his precious Professor. Dude's a dick," Tommy summed up with finality. And not worth talking about any more, not when thinking about him still brought that white-hot resentment bubbling out of nowhere. "What's news around here these days?"
Huh. Wanda eyed Tommy curiously a moment longer, then shrugged. She dealt with enough angry teens - fuck, she was an angry teen, often enough - to know when not to poke further, and when to just go with the change in subject. "Not a whole lot. Got ourselves a newbie; found him dumpster diving a couple weeks ago. Nice enough kid. You?" She carried the bottles over to the table. "And do you wanta drink here, or take it back in my room? If anyone comes home, this is probably where they'll head first." Just in case he didn't want to deal with that.
"Either way's good." As long as it got the conversation back onto something else. "I guess it depends how much you want to run the risk of any of them overhearing the birth announcement." He flashed a bright, teasing grin.
"Ugggh." Wanda dropped into a chair and gestured at the bottle and cans. "Just for that, you can mix the first round. How the fuck do I keep ending up with kids?"
Tommy grabbed the bottle and twisted the cap off, throwing a generous measure into each of the glasses. "Well, when a mommy mutant and a daddy mutant love each other very much..."
Wanda mock-glared, spun a tiny hex, and dumped a bit more of the alcohol into one of the glasses. "Yeah. That part's supposed to come first. But no. I just get fucking teenagers who show up and say Hi Mom!" She grinned a little. "Smart-ass teenagers no less." So, at least there was that. Her kids weren't boring. It was something.
"I can only assume we get that from you." For a moment her grin had looked a little like one he'd seen in the mirror before, and then it was gone. He popped a can of Red Bull open and added it to the mix. "I definitely did not inherit this awesome from the biologicals."
"Well, obviously you got the awesome from me. Probably the smart-assery, too." Wanda smirked, then paused and eyed him curiously. "Assholes?" she guessed, with a look that wasn't entirely unsympathetic.
"You could say that, yeah." Tommy grabbed his glass and shot some of the drink back, the buzz from the caffeine burning through him as fast as the heat of the vodka. "They're the ones who sold me to the Right in the first place." Part of him still didn't want to believe it, the part that still wanted to think that maybe, at some point, he'd been loved. But what other answer was there? None, that's what. "Having a freaky mutant kid was not on the agenda."
"Fuckers." Scowling, Wanda reached for the other glass, squashing down the hex energy that played around her fingertips just a little too slowly for it to not be noticeable. "How the fuck could they even do that?" Too easily; she knew that, from listening to some of the others. That didn't mean it didn't piss her off. Especially when it was one of her kids.
...damn it, now she was doing it, too.
Tommy just shrugged. "Some people suck." And it was better to leave it at that. He hadn't come here to lay some kind of pity-ploy on her, after all. He didn't need anyone feeling sorry for him. "So, yeah. I'm not too bummed out to find out that in some weird-ass way I'm not actually theirs. However that worked. The new kid's story actually makes more sense in some ways."
Oh fuck, he was another Pyro, wasn't he? Wanda forced down her reaction before (hopefully) he could get too uncomfortable with it, and instead eyed him curiously as she took a drink. "Yeah? What'd she say?"
"Alternate universe, if you buy that." Tommy had been watching the way the light reflected off the popping bubbles in his glass but now he looked up, taking another drink. "Apparently she and some others -- no idea who, she didn't namedrop anything -- were being sent through different realities on some kind of mission for someone she called the 'Timebroker.' And right now she's stranded here. She goes by 'TJ,' she's basically a girl version of Kurt, all blue, has the tail and stuff, and claims that in her original timeline, you and Kurt are her parents." Tommy grinned. "He's a good guy. You could do a lot worse."
"Okay, let me get this straight - I'm supposed to go get pregnant by some guy recommended to me by my son." Wanda rolled her eyes and grinned. "Thanks, but I'm gonna take a pass on that one." But seriously - she had a teenage daughter with blue skin and a tail. From... "An alternate universe? Seriously? So are we the one with the evil Spock with the goatee, or are they?"
"Beats the hell out of me. The way she was talking, it sounded like there were a lot more than two." Tommy finished his drink, held on to the swell of warmth that had hit -- before it could vanish again.
"She called Xavier 'Charles,' which is weird enough as it is. And she knew my name. Though apparently it's an older me." What else... "Oh. I mentioned the Brotherhood and she just about had an aneurysm. I think your guys might be a Big Bad somewhere."
"Hey, we're a Big Bad here. Just check your Twitter. Or ask your dragon girl with the YouTube channel." Wanda smirked, took another drink, and shook her head. "So, you exist in her dimension, too? Does that make this Kurt your dad?"
"Nooooo," Tommy shook his head fast enough to blur. "I asked and she said - and I quote, 'I've never been to a world where that happened.' I'd have had to commit myself to the nuthouse if that was a thing. As far as I can figure, either she exists, or Billy and I do. It's a 'choose your own adventure' game up in here."
"So, since you're here, I'm definitely not getting it on with Kurt," Wanda reasoned. "Good to know. If this keeps going, I'll find out who I am getting together with by process of elimination." She glanced down at her drink for the first time, then back up at Tommy and grinned. "This stuff doesn't suck, but I'm going to need a refill soon."
"Or if we're too much trouble, hook up with Kurt and bam. Retroactively change the course of future history." Tommy took the request and poured another hefty spill of vodka into both their glasses. He could feel something sitting at the base of his spine, a glow that wasn't usually there, but that was about all. At least for the moment. "I dunno how you and Billy keep track of this shit. My powers don't have anything to do with this and I'm getting a headache."
"Hey, believe it or not? I lived years with my powers without having any kids show up. And then pow." She grinned and held up her glass for a toast. "And you can stick around; you make good drinks. The jury's still out on the other two."
He inclined his head, accepting her accolade, and clinked his glass against hers. "Billy's alright," he objected mildly. "He can be naive, sure, but that's not always a bad thing." Especially if he actually had the kind of power he'd hinted at over Thanksgiving. A lot of bad people would do a lot to get their hands on that kind of thing. They'd have to go through Tommy first.
"No, it's really not." Wanda's grin tilted and she shook her head. "Trust me, I'm not actually planning to somehow retcon your brother out of existence. I'm just fucking around."
"That's probably for the best," Tommy laughed, then drank. "Though I'd pay good money - if I had any - to see you guys duel it out. Or whatever wizards do."
Wanda rolled her eyes and laughed. "It's not magic. I mean, he can call it that if he wants - fucking Agatha always did - but it's not. All I do is fuck with probability. Maybe with a little reality manipulation thrown in."
"Close enough," Tommy shrugged off the correction. It didn't really matter what they called it, it was still way too weird. "It looks like dimension-hopping is more common than we thought, if TJ isn't just making it all up. It's definitely not the same thing as what Illyana does... she goes to another actual place, not some split-off timeline with different versions of people in it."
"Mmm, yeah, Pyro said." Or maybe Illyana had, herself - Wanda really wasn't worried about which. "Some kind of hell place with demons. Unless they're demonic versions of people where the split off was some kind of fucked up demon apocalypse?" she speculated. "That'd make for one hell of an interesting dimension." Yeah. Definitely starting to feel the vodka and showing she'd maybe read a little too much science fiction, but whatever. Tommy could deal.
"Oh great," he snorted, shaking his head at her. "Giving us demon-us-es to worry about along with the unfortunate life choices of our other selves? Hard pass."
"Hey, you don't get to complain just become you might be a demon in another dimension." Wanda narrowed her eyes mock-seriously. " I'm the one whose other selves are making fucked up life choices. Unless you've got kids showing up now too." She paused, then shook her head. "If you do, I don't want to know. If anyone shows up calling me Grandma, I'm taking a vow of chastity and watching all of you go poof."
"No kids." Tommy shuddered at the thought, his hands coming up to ward off the suggestion. "God no. That would be a disaster wrapped in a catastrophe. I'm nauseous at the thought." He quickly ran back over everything TJ had told him about the mysterious 'Tom' version, but no, she definitely hadn't mentioned kids. "TJ knows an older version of me she called 'Tom,' and apparently he's married, but even that feels like a major stretch."
"How come?" Wanda stopped pretending to glare and just looked at him curiously as she took another sip of her drink.
"How come it would be a catastrophe if I tried to raise kids?" Tommy pretended not to understand what she was probably asking. "Have you actually met me?"
In response, Wanda rolled her eyes, smirked, and cast a hex, causing a few drips of Tommy's drink to jump from his cup and splash him in the face. Or...well, maybe more than a few. Hexing while intoxicated wasn't her best skill. "Don't fuck with me, you know what I meant."
"You know," Tommy replied, wiping his face with the back of his sleeve, "there are versions of hell where you're hung upside down over a barrel containing all the alcohol you've ever spilled in your lifetime. And if you drown you have no-one to blame but yourself." He finished his second drink, a faint buzz sliding in behind his eyes. Whether it was the vodka, the caffeine or the general messed-up-ness of his head, who could say?
"As far as I can see, marriage is a crock," he said after a while. If she wanted to fight him on it, so be it. "Two people get so hopped up on hormones that tying the knot seems like a good idea, and then lock each other down so tight so that even once it's obvious that it's a bad idea, they still can't leave without giving everything to the lawyers. Then it's just forty years of looking the other way and waiting for the other person to die."
Wanda couldn't help but let out a laugh at Tommy's description of hell, but then sobered as he continued. "Wow. Pessimistic much?" Wanda shook her head. "I don't know. Marya and Django - our adopted parents - they weren't like that. I mean, he died when we were kids, not long before my father found us, but...they actually loved each other. I think it can happen." She played with the last bit of liquid in her cup, swishing it around a little, then shot it down and held the cup out for a refill.
"It's a nice idea." Tommy refilled her glass and made it heavier on the mixer this time. "What is the story with your parents, anyway? How'd you end up adopted?"
"Uggh. That just supports your theory," Wanda complained, making a face. "My parents - biological, I mean, so we're talking Erik and Magda Lescherr - they tried to sneak across from East to West Germany with their daughter, back when there was still a wall in between. Didn't quite make it. My sister was shot dead, and my dad lost it and manifested." She shrugged. "Mom couldn't deal with that, so she took off. What my dad didn't know - fuck, maybe even she didn't, yet - was that she was pregnant with me and Pietro." She took a sip from her cup. "She died in childbirth, left us with Django and Marya Maximoff."
Tommy wrinkled his nose, unconsciously echoing her expression. "That sucks," he offered up, because what did you say to a story like that? Maximoff, though -- he filed the name away. He probably could have asked, but it hadn't seemed important before. Hell, he still didn't know Pam or Alex's surnames and he'd talked to them a lot more than Wanda. It seemed like the kind of thing you either knew about someone from the start, or you picked up by accident years later.
"And you found all that out when he what -- dropped in on you out of the sky years later? That must have been one hell of a first meeting."
"Yeaaaah, that pretty much describes it." Wanda smirked. "I kicked up a fuss, stomped off to my room, locked myself in, and pushed stuff up against the door. I was eight," she added as an afterthought, grinning fondly at the memory. "Not sure who I was madder at - my father for showing up, or Marya and Pietro for actually listening to him." She took another drink and shrugged. "Didn't matter. He dragged us off with him anyway. Asshole."
"He's not so big on listening to other people, hunh?" That sounded about right for the arrogant guy Kitty had described. And if he was willing to do that for Wanda and Pietro... they were his own biological kids, though. It was different. "Do you still see your parents?" Because fuck it, it sure sounded like they'd earned the title more than Magneto had.
Wanda grimaced and shook her head. "Marya's still in Transia - I don't think she'd leave there for anything, and we pretty much lost touch when I got shipped of to Agatha. And Django died not long before our father came."
Tommy frowned. "Shitty luck." And there was irony, for someone with the kinds of powers Wanda had. "Hunh. Maybe the universe is giving you back kids to make up for losing all those parents."
"Maybe..." Wanda began repeating what Tommy'd said, staring at him incredulously, then gave up and burst out laughing. "Yeah. Maybe, huh? I always did want more family." She'd just never imagined getting it quite this way.
"That'd be a lesson in being careful what you wish for." Tommy'd had an empty glass for too long. He refilled it and tossed back the drink practically in the same motion, catching the fizzy feeling in his blood for a moment before it started to fade. "Did your friend Agatha teach you anything about dimensions and timelines and all this stuff? Because I haven't taken Physics yet, but I'm pretty damn sure they're not going to cover any of it."
"They don't?" Wanda stopped chuckling and shook her head. "That's disappointing. I always wanted to take Physics. But no, not really. I mean, she talked about it some?" she admitted, "but I didn't pay it a whole lot of attention. I basically just wanted her to say I had it together enough to go back home."
"How long did it take you?" Tommy asked, twirling the last few drops around in the bottom of his cup. "Billy keeps finding new and exciting ways to cause problems for himself."
"A couple of years." Wanda made a face at the memory, then looked curious. "What's he doing to himself?"
"What, other than manifesting a room full of balloons, flying about as well as a lame albatross, or magicking himself into the Sahara desert?" Tommy snorted. "Take your pick."
"Hold it, he's flying? How the hell does he...oh. Huh." Wanda paused mid-question to actually think about that. She could float other shit - why not herself? "Why haven't I tried that?" she demanded of Tommy, her lips quirking. "Flying would be pretty awesome."
"It looks pretty awesome," Tommy conceded. It was probably the power set he envied the most, if he had to pick one other than his own. "Watching the wings crowd tear it up is impressive. Billy, on the other hand... He's more like a glowing blue Hindenburg." He gestured in the air, his hand like a balloon slowly rising and then sinking again before nose-diving into the table. "It's a work in progress."
Wanda laughed. "Yeah, maybe I'll take a pass, then. Nose diving into the pavement sounds like something that Eileen would still be mocking me for twenty years from now. But it doesn't sound like he's doing anything dangerous, at least. That's something." She took another sip from her drink - time to start slowing down, if she didn't want to end up on her ass - and eyed Tommy curiously. "What about you? You've got the speed going, and the whole vibrate things until they blow thing? That's pretty awesome."
"That I am," Tommy replied cockily, maybe not tipsy, but letting his guard down more and more as the evening progressed. He tried a repeat of the same trick he'd used on Alex at the mall that first day, touching the table. He sent a line of power toward the loose cap of the vodka bottle, rattling it around on the tabletop until it just.. about... came close, then he killed the vibe. It dropped back to the table and lay still, unchanged but hot to the touch. "Working on precision. It'll come in handy at some point."
Wanda watched the cap rattle with interest, then reached out to touch it, pulling her fingers back as she realized it was hot. "Whoa. Yeah, I'm sure it will." She eyed him with undisguised respect and nodded approval. "You put a shitload of work into it, don't you?"
He didn't want that look to feel good - the moment he started letting someone else's approval matter he was boned. But it did, so he shrugged it off and finally drained the last of his drink from the bottom of his glass. "Yeah. I'm never going to be valedictorian, or voted most likely to succeed," he joked at his own expense. "I may as well put the effort into the one thing I'm good for."
Good for, not good at. Wanda felt a pang as she realized Tommy had the same issue as Alex and Fatale, but forced herself to keep her anger in check. It wasn't as if it was directed at him, just at the Right for doing a number on these kids' heads. "I'm guessing you're good at more than that," she disputed instead, deliberately misquoting, then took a deep breath to focus. The bottle cap wiggled, then slowly started to rise up into the air. "But it's a damn good thing to be good at. Can you do it midair? Or do you need a surface as a vector?"
He was just loose enough to be into showing off, and he grinned at her. "Line of sight's all I need." And the Assholes had been working on nuking that limitation as well. The cap was holding steady in the air and he focused tight, convinced it to finish what he'd started. The molecules accelerated, spun, and blew apart.
"Yes!!" Wanda yelled as it exploded, raining tiny shards of metal down onto the table top. She grinned broadly at Tommy and held up her hand for a high five. "I was right. Seriously awesome."
He slapped her hand and made a mock-bow, as good as it got while he was sitting, anyway. "Thank you very much. Your turn," he added, because now he was curious. "I think all I've seen you do so far is lift things. What else is in your arsenal?"
"Fuck, I don't know." Wanda leaned back in her chair to consider the question. "Blow shit up, short out the appliances. Turn off Pietro's speed," she smirked across the table, remembering she'd mentioned that to Tommy before. "Make the DJ's audio system at the club skip to whatever song I want to listen to. Change the color of the streaks in my hair. Random shit." She shrugged and smiled crookedly. "Only problem is it doesn't always work quite how I want it to."
"That's gotta blow. Can you ask it to do something random and see what happens, or is it more like you want one thing to happen and your powers sometimes listen and sometimes do their own thing?"
"Mmmm. More the second," Wanda said, considering it. "It takes focus to get them to do what I want. If I'm pissed, or distracted, or drunk," she grinned a little, "weird ass shit can happen. Which is not good," she added, "because my weird-ass shit is usually destructive as all hell."
"Oh yeah?" Tommy arched an eyebrow, and then eyeballed the bottle of vodka speculatively. The cap was gone; it wasn't like they could put it back. He refilled his glass and held out the bottle to offer to pour some for Wanda as well. "Like what?"
"Like I was pissed at my father when I manifested, and brought the roof on the house down on us," Wanda admitted, grimacing. She nodded and pushed her glass towards him. "Blew every appliance in the place more than once. Blasted Mort through the drywall once when he hit on me." She grinned a little. "Fun stuff. Be glad Billy's tending towards filling the room with balloons; less property damage." Let alone hospital bills.
Tommy obliged, the bottle nearing empty by the time he set it down again. "Not always. It's the lightning that does the damage, and I got on the short end of that stick once. That shit hurts." He grimaced. "He took out the school's entire power grid when he got pissed at the Tedster, that was entertaining. But no roofs. Not yet, anyway."
"Hopefully not at all." Wanda made a face, then looked at him curiously. "Ted-ster? Seriously? Who's that, his roommate?"
"Teddy Altman. Roommate, boyfriend, co-dependent face-sucking theatre." Tommy made a face of his own. "Your son goes for the all-American jock types."
Wanda blinked and stared. "Seriously? This is the one who's supposed to be like me?" Because yeah. All-American jocks, definitely not her type. She wasn't altogether sure what her type was, really, but that definitely wasn't it.
"Taste obviously isn't powers-linked." But it was good to finaly have someone to bitch to who wasn't going to automatically reply with 'but Teddy's so nice', like that was some kind of selling point. "But yeah. Beefy blond meathead, and I swear I've seen him wearing an honest-to-God letter jacket. I don't think he even swears. Very wholesome," Tommy mocked.
Wanda shuddered. "Maybe it's a phase?" she suggested hopefully. "I mean, everyone does temporary insanity dating sometime, right?"
"That's the theory, anyway. Whatever, it's high school. There'll be some drama breakup eventually. Maybe then I can ditch demon-boy and dget a better roommate out of the deal."
"Demon-boy?" Wanda's eyebrows rose and she grinned. "I'm guessing you're not making out with your roommate, then?"
"Oh fuck no," Tommy replied immediately. "That asshole's even more poorly socialised than I am, which is saying something. We stay out of each other's way."
"Probably a good plan." Her forehead furrowed, though, and she looked at him curiously. "Is he seriously a demon?" she asked.
Tommy shrugged expansively, the alcohol settling in for a brief moment gain, his blood warm. “Who the hell knows? He and Yana have gotten into it over that at least once, I know that much. I figure he’s a mutant like the rest of us, but it’s no skin off my nose if he wants to call himself a dog-demon. Maybe he figures it makes people less likely to mess with him. I dunno.”
"Maybe. Sounds like it'd work, anyway." She considered asking whether or not Yana was actually a demon, decided she wasn't altogether sure she wanted to know and grinned instead. "Anyway, whatever. We've got a real one. Not all that threatening, though." Which didn't say much for Eileen's attempts to turn it into a watch lizard, but whatever. In its own way, Douglas was kinda cute.
He was sure he'd misheard her, or maybe the vodka was actually affecting him for once. "A real what?" Tommy asked, brow furrowing.
"A demon. I mean, it's a little one," Wanda admitted. "And it's really not all that impressive looking. But Illyana brought it to the party to clean up the beer or some shit and then forgot about it, and Mort brought the damn thing home. Eileen's trying to train it to guard the base." She grinned a little, at that. "Personally, I can think of better uses for the beer, but whatever. They're having fun with it."
Tommy snorted and shook his head. "I'm guessing you haven't watched the second season of Stranger Things yet. That entire show's an object lesson on why it's a Really Bad Idea to adopt cute little creatures from a hell dimension."
"Haven't seen it," Wanda admitted. "Other than that - and seriously, it's not like we can't get Magik to send Douglas back if he gets out of hand - is it any good?"
"Stranger Things? Yeah." Tommy nodded. "Especially if you're into vintage horror. I think it freaks some people out that I like it, considering one of the plotlines is about a kid with powers who escapes from a testing facility. But I'll tell you it's pretty fucking cathartic watching the scientists get eaten by monsters."
Wanda'd just taken a sip, and nearly choked as she tried to laugh and swallow at the same time. "Fuck," she managed, shaking her head as she grinned at him. "Yeah, it would be, hey? How graphic?"
He considered for a minute, then wobbled his hand in the air. "So-so? Eh. Low end. More blood and guts than the original Hallowe'en, but less than Walking Dead."
She nodded, considering, then smirked. "Ever see Cabin in the Woods? Not the same kind of experimental facility, but definite scientists getting taken out by monsters."
Tommy shook his head. "No. I don't know that one. Sounds alright, though," he added, and grinned.
"Pretty decent horror movie that still manages to make fun of horror movies." Wanda grinned and stood up, wobbling just a little, and picked up her drink. "We've got it. If you've got time to hang out a while longer?"
What were his other choices? Go back to school and do homework? Not interesting, and this whole 'hanging out at Brotherhood HQ' thing was a new experience. "Sure, I don't have anywhere else to be," Tommy replied, finishing his drink.
"Cool." Wanda grinned. "Now, be a good kid and grab your mom some water? Because I'm pretty sure I can get me to the rec room, but I'm nowhere near as sure that I wouldn't spill something if I tried to carry it."
He snorted a laugh, but got up anyway. "Is this going to be one of those things that you can say, but I'll get punched through a wall if I keep trying it? Because you realize that just makes it more tempting."
Wanda laughed. "Definitely one of those things. Especially when I'm too trashed to care whether or not it makes any sense to have a kid two or three years younger than me."
"Watch out, or I'll put you in the trashy nursing home." The cupboard below the sink didn't reveal anything, but there was an empty pitcher of some kind in the one next to the fridge. He filled it and managed to find some ice in the freezer before turning around again.
"Yeah, see? That's just not as big a threat when you're only a couple of years younger. Could be the other way around." Wanda smirked and gestured for him to follow her back out to the rec room.
"Could be, probably won't," Tommy replied cheerfully, and fell in step.
