Lance, Wanda, Pyro, Illyana - The morning after Detonation

[ax_pyro]

Pyro tracks down the BH leaders to do this thing he hates (apologize) and that other thing he loves (tell them Illyana wants to join them).


Pyro had left Mage in the kitchen to get some breakfast for herself, telling her he needed to talk to Lance and Wanda one on one (or, well, two on one) first, about nothing to do with her. He was relieved when she agreed to let him go, and so here he was, hitting all the spots where he was likely to find them - starting with outside Pietro's room.

It was a good place to start. Freshly showered and feeling, if not better about things, exactly, then at least somewhat more conscious, Wanda was heading back to Pietro's room when she saw Pyro there. And smiled, a little. "Hey. You're up early. Eileen threaten your life for taking up more than half of the bed?" She couldn't - and wouldn't - blame him from camping in with her the previous night. It wasn't as if she hadn't felt weird leaving Pietro's.

The door opened almost immediately, and Lance stepped out, pulling it closed behind him. "Hey. Can you two shut the fuck up or go somewhere else? He's finally sleeping."

Yeah, not everybody had had as good of a morning as Pyro. Message received, and he didn't even mouth back about how he hadn't said shit, because... circumstances. Even he could keep a lid on it sometimes. "Sorry," he said instead, his voice lower now. "I was - looking for the two of you."

Wanda rolled her eyes at Lance, but gestured for them to follow as she headed away from the room. If Pietro was finally sleeping, she wasn't about to wake him up. "What for?" she asked quietly.

Lance looked reluctant to leave the room, but relented, following Wanda's beckon. He was exhausted, and he knew he looked it, but there was still a crap ton that needed done, and he did want to know how Pyro and Eileen were doing. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Pyro answered, and made a face. "I mean, as much as possible, given... How's Q doing?" He'd get to it in just a minute, but finding out how his teammate was - apart from asleep - felt like it took precedence.

And possibly he'd realized he had no idea how to say what he wanted to say. Shit.

"Hurting, but the doc said he was gonna be okay," Lance sighed. "It didn't hit anything special, besides the snowflake back there. Biggest problem is going to be him getting through it without a lot of painkillers - they go through his system so fast."

"I can shut down his powers for a while," Wanda offered, making a face. "He hates it, but it might give the pain killers a chance to actually do something."

Lance held up his hands and gave her a look. Like hell was he going to get between the twins when it came to powers or, you know, pretty much anything else ever. He might be a team leader, but the twins had their own issues and him stepping in would only make things worse. "You an' Pietro figure that one out."

Wanda nodded - she'd meant to do that in any case, then turned back to Pyro. "How's Eileen?"

"Her usual ray of sun-fucking-shine," Pyro replied, and shrugged one shoulder. "She wouldn't really answer when I asked her, so... I figure that's a good sign? I hope, anyway. Doc said she'd be okay with some rest - she just isn't taking really well to bed rest." He bit on his lower lip, and then added, "I'm sorry. I mean, it all went to shit." And he'd been at the center of it. Fuck, he sucked at apologizing.

Lance felt his headache starting to come back. He needed coffee. "Don't apologize," he told him, glancing toward the kitchen. "It wasn't your fault. I should have had Pietro do some recon first. You had Eileen's back. That's what matters."

"He's right," Wanda agreed, reaching over to squeeze Pyro's arm gently. "Well, not about it being his fault - I'm the one who got pissed off and jumped the gun before he could give orders. But it wasn't yours."

"Well, I'll have Eileen's back better next time," Pyro replied stubbornly. And then he looked awkward and vulnerable again. This did not come easy. "But, um. I'm also sorry about nearly killing us all. If you two hadn't been there..."

"But we were," Lance cut him off. "And we learned a new trick. So we'll know better next time."

Wanda nodded, her hand still on Pyro's arm. "And next time? You'll still have Eileen's back." She grinned a little. "She may even remember to thank you for that. Stranger things could happen."

"I didn't do shit but almost blow her up," Pyro pointed out with a scoff. "Not much to thank me for."

Lance looked over at him and raised a brow. "You don't know what the fuck they had planned. You defended her. That's good enough for me."

Wanda nodded, gave his arm one last squeeze, then dropped her hand.

"Yeah, well." Fuck, he hated when Lance looked at him like that, it just made him feel so stupid. He shifted uneasily, then decided it was high time to change the fucking topic. "There's something else. Mage, she - she says she wants to join us?" Why was he suddenly nervous they wouldn't think it was good news? Of course it was good news. She kicked ass.

Lance was so stunned by the rapid change of topic that his 'stop being a moron' look suddenly went slack-jawed. "What?"

"Why now?" Wanda asked, blinking herself.

Well, Pyro hadn't asked, but that was because... "Now kinda feels like the perfect moment to realize where you want to be?" he offered.

Lance would have absolutely questioned that...six hours earlier. Now? He understood it completely. He couldn't help that small flicker of a glance back toward Pietro's door.

Wanda caught the glance, and fought an urge to smile. Well, maybe something good would come out of this. Two somethings, maybe. She turned to Lance and shrugged. "Works for me. Pietro's turn, you think? It'll give him something to do other than bitch about having been shot."

"Wait, what?" Lance blinked, looking absolutely thrown off his guard. "Something to do?"

"Well, somebody has to take her on. And you've got Vance, and there's no way I'm getting in the middle of those two when they have it out." She jerked her head towards Pyro and smirked, then looked back at Lance and shrugged. "So, Pietro." It made sense to her, anyway.

"Oh." Right. Newbie shit. Big brother, or...sister, or whatever. Lance shrugged and looked at Pyro. "Sure. If anyone can deal with him in the mood he's in right now, it's her, right? He can get her up to speed once he's on his feet."

"Do you wanna talk to her?" Pyro asked with raised eyebrows. "She's in the kitchen."

"You wanta?" Wanda asked Lance. "I'll go hang out in case he wakes up." She smiled crookedly. "That way you can get something to eat and catch a nap or whatever before he starts bellowing for you again." Because it would happen. Speedsters on bedrest were a disaster in the making.

Lance tried not to look too annoyed. He'd rather spend all his time with Pietro. But the team needed him, and Wanda needed her brother, so it was a fair (if sucky) trade. "Sure, whatever. I'll see if I can figure out how we're feeding all these people, while I'm at it." Because sure as fuck, Tommy and Billy would be there again.

"Mage and I can go get food?" Pyro offered. Sure, he was bruised up, but it wasn't like he couldn't walk, or carry stuff. Grocery shopping wasn't exactly a high risk mission. Even if they were going to steal some of it; it wouldn't be his first time doing that bruised up, that was for sure.

"Probably not a bad idea. We're due for a grocery shop anyway." Lance looked irritated - well, too bad. Pietro might be his whatever-they-were-calling-it-this-week, but he was her brother. Besides, he looked like shit and could use a break, anyway.

"Go on," Lance nodded Wanda toward Pietro's room. "I've got this. Oh, and if you see any of the others, tell them to keep their fucking heads down, okay? Most of the world probably thinks we're dead now, and I'd like to keep it that way until we can use it against them."

"I'll spread the word," Wanda promised. With one last smile for Pyro - she'd touch base with him again, later, she turned and headed back to Pietro's room, already pulling out her phone. She was guessing it was too late to tell Tommy and Billy not to tell anyone at the school, but who knew. They could get lucky.

Pyro returned Wanda's small smile, then turned to lead the way towards the kitchen, making a beeline for Mage where they found her. "Hey. I told Wanda and Lance you wanted in."

"And...?" Setting down the spoonful of rice krispie's she'd been holding, she looked from Pyro to Lance. Who was looking - well, not as pissed off as yesterday. She hoped that was a good sign.

“What, like you think we’d say no?” Lance headed for the coffee pot.

“I know I was an asshole last night, but we know how much you mean to-“ he paused, then glanced back at them, uncertain what their relationship was like at this point. “To this team. Besides, you know what’s up. You get what we’re all about.”

Pyro glanced at Lance with confusion as he clearly changed the way he had been going to end his sentence, but didn't comment on it, just wrapped his arm around Mage's waist. He smirked at her happily. "You do." Of course she was in, and he was just going to ignore the fact that he'd been really fucking nervous about their response, too.

Illyana leaned into Pyro, relaxing, and smiled. "Yeah," she agreed. Because honestly, she was pretty sure she actually did. It was a nice feeling. "Okay if I start moving in, then? I know it's crappy timing, but - well, I'm not exactly popular there now, and it's gonna get worse once word spreads."

"Yeah, I mean, we've got rooms." Not a lot of them, Lance thought, and maybe that was something they needed to start thinking about. But for the moment, they had room. He poured a mug of coffee and looked back at them. "Just pick one and get going. It's not exactly fancy around here, and everyone's gotta pull their own weight. We don't have maids, or food service or shit."

"We have a rotation," Pyro explained. A bunch of teens living together? They had to have a system in place. "I'll show you."

"Okay." Illyana nodded, ignoring the brief surge of panic she felt at the realization that she really had no idea what they meant. She could learn, right? It wasn't as if she'd never cleaned or cooked anything - she'd just never done it here. And Pyro would show her. "Anything else I should know? And how's Pietro?"

"Pietro'll be okay," Lance told her. "Soon as he can be on his feet, we're assigning him to you to keep an eye out for you and answer questions. It's kind of what we do with newbies. Pyro can show you the basics until then."

"I got Wanda when I joined up," Pyro told her, and smirked, full brat on. "Sorry, I got the better twin."

"Gotta disagree," Illyana smirked back, having been trying not to laugh since Lance had spoken. "Mine's already taught me how and where to buy weed, and what to do with it once I've bought it. He got a head start."

"Yeah yeah, you guys lucked out, I get it," Lance rolled his eyes. "What do we call you, blondie? You need a mutant name, even if you don't use it all the time like Pyro."

"I think I'll just stick with Magik," she said with a shrug. She liked Mage, but she liked Pyro calling her that, not everyone. And Darkchylde - well, maybe it was fitting, but she didn't want it. She'd traded her name for a destiny once; she wasn't doing it again.

As far as Pyro was concerned, Mage was just a pet name based off of Magik anyway. He squeezed her waist for just a second, pecking her cheek happily. Talk about whiplash. Everything had gone to shit yesterday, but they would all be okay, and now Mage was joining them.

"Okay, Magik," Lance agreed. "Let me or Wanda know if you need anything. Meanwhile, we've got damage control to work out. You and Pyro are on grocery duty."

"Okay." Illyana looked over at Pyro. "Are there any particular grocery stores we're looking to not bankrupt? Or is better to get groceries out of state?"

If Lance hadn't been there, Pyro might have blurted out something really, really stupid on account of the surge of affection he felt at her questions. "Fuck it, let's go out of state."

Lance eyed them. Great. They were going to be all cutesy. He motioned to them with his mug. "Look, whatever this is? Just keep it out of my face until after I've had my coffee."

Illyana turned back to him, confused, then shrugged and smirked. "Okay. Is there a list? And should we put more coffee on it?"

Pyro, in the meantime, had pulled away, grabbed a mug, and poured some coffee in it. He set it down in front of Lance, because fuck that shit, then stepped up behind Magik to wrap his arms around her waist and turn her towards the fridge, where the list was pinned by a magnet. "Here. Coffee is always on the list."

Rolling his eyes, Lance took a moment to drink, because fuck, he needed it.