ax_main | Tommy and Billy Backdated

Tommy surprisingly makes the first attempt to sort-of apologize after their fight.

Most people were back from Thanksgiving stuff by Monday around lunchtime, the rec room busy with isolated pockets of kids hanging out. Tommy lingered at the door, annoyingly ~~nervous~~ ~~worried~~ concerned about the next step. Jeanne-Marie's advice was sitting uneasily in a cold lump in his stomach. He could just zip off, no-one would ever know he'd come close to making himself look like an idiot.

But Billy was sitting on the couch and Billy was going to be going to Shen's dumb meeting that afternoon, and Tommy had been responsible for a little bit of the fight yesterday. (More than a little.) (shut up.)

Whatever. If he hates you, he hates you. It won't change anything anyway. So why did that feel like such a lie?

Before he could talk himself out of it again, Tommy headed over and dropped down on the other end of the couch. "Yo."

Billy had been opening and closing his text messages for about fifteen minutes, starting a text to Tommy then deleting a three-paragraph long message only to type ‘U mad?’, then deleting that as well. He sighed as he tapped his foot against the floor, not sure how to start a conversation with the speedster for fear of getting any apology thrown in his face when he heard Tommy’s voice.

“What?!” He almost yelled, scared a little he had just been caught agonizing over this by the guy who didn’t really care. Billy quickly put his phone down and ran a hand through his hair, so he didn’t seem so frazzled. “I mean, hey.”

Tommy snickered - he couldn't help it - even though that wasn't going to make this any better. "Did I scare you?" he asked, entirely unrepentant. "Sorry." He looked at Billy, hit with that weird deja-vu-that-wasn't all over again at seeing his old face (but not his, he never smiled that way) looking back at him. "A much more reliable source than me has informed me that I'm being a dickhead."

Billy stared for a moment, wondering if this was some sort of trick or test and if Billy failed he’d be back to square one again with Tommy. After a second or two he shifted on the couch a bit and cleared his throat. “Ah... you mean just now or all the time?”

He tried to offer a small smile and prayed he wouldn’t get a super speed punch in the face.

There was the rebuff Tommy had expected, and he was halfway to saying 'fuck this' and leaving before he parsed out Billy's faint smile. He settled back in to his seat, though the wariness didn't fade.

"More than my usual," Tommy conceded. This was stupid. People who called themselves 'family' were only ever doing it to get you to let your guard down. He knew that. And here he was, trying again. Why? Because he was an idiot.

Okay, so was Tommy actually apologizing? The word sorry hadn’t been said, but he highly doubted he’d ever get that from Tommy, so he accepted it. Billy nodded a little and gave a small shrug. “I wasn’t exactly being the calmest or nicest person ever either.”

He pressed his lips together and glanced off to the side. “I didn’t mean it to sound like you have to have my permission or something, but I hate being the last to know anything about you. Especially when you're going on a mission and could be hurt or something.”

"You don't tell me shit about your life either, and you're the one who got back from a secret mission with broken bones," Tommy fired back before he could stop it, then clamped his mouth shut. He was supposed to play nice, try and fix the things he'd broken. He really wasn't good at that part. "Look... you didn't want to see what went down in Arizona. It was grim. You don't want that shit in your eyeballs if you can avoid it." I didn't want you to see it and think of me differently.

Billy shifted a little uncomfortably when he was accused of not telling Tommy about his life. Besides the Limbo thing he had thought he had, but now wasn't the time to argue that because it would lead nowhere. Instead he reached out, stopped half way, but then laid a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “What happened? You said it was deserted.”

Tommy flinched at Billy's hand coming toward him, but Billy didn't push or shove him this time, and Tommy didn't shake his hand off. "It was. Deserted." If he really wanted to know, then Tommy was going to lay it all out. "It looks like they never came back after Laura trashed the place. So, the bodies she left behind -- the kid they were in the middle of dissecting -- that was all still there. For weeks, in desert heat." He raised an eyebrow as though to say 'see?' and 'told you so.'

Billy made a face at that, knowing that no matter how many slasher or zombie movies he watched, being next to a real live dead body that was decomposing wasn’t the same. He tried not to let his voice shake, his hand sliding off Tommy’s shoulder and back down onto the couch as he asked. “Kid they dissected? They just...left him there?”

And there was the reaction he hadn't really wanted, Billy looking at him like he was tainted, somehow. "Yeah. They must have gone running when Laura tripped all the alarms. If anyone went back to find out what happened, they didn't bother doing any clean-up. The four of us -- we've seen shit like that before. Alex and Fatale more than me, but still."

Billy hated that almost every time Tommy talked about that, his first instinct was to hug the other and never let go. He swallowed thickly, reaching out again to tug on Tommy’s sleeve, holding on tight as if he would somehow vanish. “Even so, you still shouldn’t have had to see it. I don’t care if you’ve seen it before that’s not...”

Billy pursed his lips. “You’re only kids.”

"Yeah, well." Tommy shrugged uncomfortably. "It wasn't by choice the first time. But you wanted to know why them and not you, and that's why. We've got a vested interest. And you've got other shit going on."

“What like math?” Billy made a face to show his dislike of the subject, but then became serious again. “Also, I don’t care what shit I have going on. You are pretty high up on my list of important things, so if something is going down with you, I don’t care what other stuff I have going on.”

Billy paused for a second and gave a small tug on the sleeve he was still holding. “Even when it comes to Teddy. If you need me, just say so and I’ll come.”

Tommy's brain was like a broken record, feeding him all kinds of cynical replies to Billy's promises. He wanted to believe, that was the worst part. "Whining's not my style," he said instead, not pulling his arm away. "You know how to find me if you get the urge to hang out."

“When did I say whine?” Billy asked, but knew what Tommy was talking about. He needed to make more of an effort to be with Tommy and not just expect his twin to come knocking, since that for sure wasn’t Tommy’s style. “I know how to try and find you, but someone has to answer their phone more in order for that to work.”

"You're a magician," Tommy snorted, his mood lifting and a grin finally blossoming on his face (sarcastic though it still was - some things couldn't be helped). "Magic it." He waggled his fingers at Billy.

“You want me to magic find you?” Billy asked doubtfully. “Like some kind of magical GPS to Tommy? Knowing my luck, it would just teleport you and anyone you were with to me. What if you were showering?”

Billy made a face at that, as if he didn’t see the same exact body every time he looked in the mirror, except Tommy probably had at least some muscle. Stupid physical powers.

Tommy snorted. "Yeah, like that's the worst possible option. Don't ever do that. If Fatale's around she'd definitely stab you."

At the mention of the blue girl, Billy felt his good mood shift and he finally let go of Tommy’s t-shirt, shifting back on the couch a bit. “You’ve been hanging out a lot with her, haven’t you?”

That earned him a frown from Tommy, as a warning tingle ran up the back of Tommy's neck. "Depends what you mean by 'a lot,'" he countered. "Not as much as you and Illyana, but more than you and Clarice. I know you think she's a pain, but I don't choose my friends based on other people's opinions."

Billy took a deep breath in through his nose as he told himself not to get into this right now, so Tommy likes hanging out with a girl who wasn’t...great. So, what? Yeah, so what. That was Tommy’s choice and Billy had no right to go bitching about it. “Yeah, alright. Just know if she actually kills me like she wants to, I’m going to haunt you and I’m going to be super annoying about it. I’m talking creepy demon voices all through the night and spilling cereal everywhere all the time.”

Tommy snorted a laugh. "You know she's not actually plotting your messy death, right? Your powers just freaked her out. She's not exactly had a good record with trusting people." And he gave Billy the side-eye.

Alex came across as being more chill, but that was more because he was... flat wasn't the right word, but it was like Pam had said. Alex never really wanted anything. He just kind of went with the flow. Tommy... Tommy's reaction to everything that had happened last spring had been to try and outrun it. Nuke the past into smithereens. So far, so good.

Billy gave him an incredibly disbelieving look, but let it go because there was no way he could fight Tommy on this. They were linked by something horrible and he knew trying to say anything less than stellar about them would put him right back in Tommy’s bad graces.

“If you say so.” Was all he said, leaning back against the couch with a sigh and closed his eyes. He had stayed up way to late going over their fight with Teddy, surprised when his boyfriend wasn’t automatically on his side and made him see a few things. “Are you hungry?”

Surprised by the subject change, Tommy went with it anyway. "Always. Why?"

“Cause I just like asking.” Billy replied quietly, then a large grin spread across his face as he opened his eyes, turning slightly so he could look at Tommy. “I want to know if you want to get something to eat.”

If Tommy making first contact had been his olive branch, this was probably Billy's. And unless he wanted to torpedo the progress they'd just made, there was only one reasonable answer. "Sure." Tommy nodded and pushed himself to his feet. "Last one to the kitchen has to do the dishes."

“Oh, fuck no.” Billy bitched, pushing himself off the couch as well and quickly grabbed the back of Tommy’s shirt with a laugh. “If we went by those rules you will have eaten, taken a nap, gone to California and back by the time I got to the kitchen.”

Tommy shrugged, grinning. "Not my fault that you're a snail."

“Blame Wanda-Mom. I’m guessing we were identical at one point, but then you had to go and get super speed instead of messy magic. You could have been bubbling around like an idiot with me.” He gave the shirt a tug and then let go as he started for the kitchen. “Your loss!”

"If the x-gene manifestation works the way Tam tried to explain it, then really it's Frank's fault," Tommy reasoned aloud. "I was dodging him when the speed kicked in the first time. But considering Pietro, I'm willing to bet it's a lot more complicated than that."

“Then mine is Kessler's fault?” Billy wondered aloud, trying not to dwell on the fact that Tommy had to freaking dodge his own biological father. Just the thought of the guy putting his hands-on Tommy was- No. He shook his head and the urge to pull Tommy to him, biting his lip as they kept moving. “And yeah, the fact that we have pretty much identical powers to him and Wanda I think just wants to kick all genetic studies in the face.”

"There's no way to know until she actually has kids, anyway. And knowing our luck, they'll turn out to be daughters."

“At least I won’t be alone in fading from existence then.” He joked, which was weird since that was usually something that scared him to death. Why was the thought of Tommy being there if it happened reassuring? “Anyway, enough about weird time happenings. What do you want to eat? I think I saw tomato soups and the stuff we need for grilled cheese. That interest you?”

"Sure." It was boring, but the exact nature of the food wasn't exactly the point. Things were back to normal, at least for now. If Billy ended up chucking Tommy to the curb after all, he'd be able to go to Jeanne-Marie with a big fat 'I told you so.' And if not -- Tommy didn't let himself dare to consider a future where he actually had people who stuck around. He wasn't far gone enough to believe that. But for the moment, at least, sandwiches sounded like a solid plan.