Billy & Tommy | Backdated to March 31
Mar. 31st, 2018 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ax_speed posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ax_mainBilly and Tommy regroup and discuss things following the Brotherhood explosion.
Billy made his way towards Tommy’s room, hoping to god his brother was there and his roommate wasn’t. Everything felt awful and confusing, the Brotherhood doing that, Yana leaving, it all made Billy want to scream out in frustration. He knocked on Tommy’s door, before cracking it open slightly to peek in. “Tommy?”
Headphones on and guitar in hand, Tommy was resolutely ignoring the rest of the world. Change was good -- change kept things from being boring all the time, but there was a major difference between change that was entertaining and change that was uncomfortable, and this one fell firmly in that second camp. The Brotherhood getting their asses handed to them was bad, obvs. Alex and Pam on site equaled good, one less telepath in the mansion probably wasn't a bad thing, Yana going-- that was weird and he didn't want to think about it.
So it took him a second to realize someone was opening his door and talking to him, and he killed the track he was playing along with and dropped his headphones down around his ears. "S'up." Like he didn't already know.
“Hey...” Billy started quietly, sliding through the small crack in the door even if he didn’t need to, closing the door behind him softly.
“Umm...not much.” That was a lie. Billy’s shoulders sank with his sigh and he gave a helpless shrug. “Everything.”
He glanced at Tommy and then at his desk, moving over to sit at the chair with a flop. “I’m having a hard time figuring out how to feel about this Brotherhood stuff...and mostly cause Wanda and Pietro are there. Also that Yana just up and left us for them.”
Oh no. Billy was processing. Verbally.
Tommy eyeballed the door and the window, and contemplated bailing out of either. He put his crap to one side, just in case, and Pita promptly appeared to curl up in his lap. Foiled. "Traitor," he muttered to the cat, but he didn't move. "So? Wanda and Pietro have always been Brotherhood. That's not new."
Billy gave his brother a look that clearly said ’are you dumb?’ “Yeah, but...what happened and everything. I’m just...”
Maybe this was’t a good idea. Maybe Tommy felt the same way Yana did, but Tommy was the only one in the same situation as him so he really wanted to talk about it with him. “I just don’t think they did the right thing...at all, but I don’t want to just shut them out like everyone in the school does.”
"So don't." Tommy rolled Pita over and rubbed her belly. She closed in on him like a fuzzy venus fly trap and mauled his hand. "I'm not planning to. They fucked up, but it doesn't make them bad guys."
Billy frowned, even though Pita being a literally hand trap was amusing, and he sighed. “I didn’t say they were bad guys, I just don’t agree with what they did? Which apparently really isn’t something you should say to Yana by the way.”
He had done all his yelling and venting at Teddy, but her words were like ticks that had left their head in after removing the body.
That got Tommy's attention, and he looked up for the first time since Billy had walked in. "You talked to her? What did she say? Other than that she's leaving, which... yeah. Saw that one coming, but I figured it would be someone here pissing her off enough to make her bail."
Everything that had happened between him and Yana was still fresh and Billy blinked back tears, rubbing his hands over his face to mask trying not to cry. “Just that she thought they were right. That basically the way they were doing it seemed like the best idea.”
He pulled his hands away and sniffed a little, tears over as he looked at Tommy suddenly very tired. “I dunno. We were talking pretty well until she compared what we did in Limbo to what the Brotherhood did...I kinda lost it then.”
"The only thing that was the same is that we were idiots in Limbo and they were idiots in Montana," Tommy snorted. He gave Billy a sidelong look, avoiding calling attention to his wet face. Jesus, the guy cried easy. "There weren't any innocent bystanders in Limbo. Or media crews. Illyana's never liked rules, or consequences." Either did Tommy, not really, but there were times when he had to accept that he deserved a smackdown.
“Thank you!” God, it felt great knowing Tommy at least saw his side. He let out a loud breath through his mouth and leaned back against the computer chair. “She doesn’t see the difference. I yelled at her, told her that she was only looking out for herself and wanted the easiest way...she took her own shots at me.”
He made a face trying not to remember cause he’d just get angry again. “It was awful.”
"Come on," Tommy groaned. "She'll get over it. So will you. Yana and I have had fights before and we still hang. Why is everything some big fucking catastrophe?"
“Yeah, but you have a way with people...or something. They always like you and forgive you.” Billy grouched, for a minute actually jealous of the way his brother could so easily talk to others. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how feel about Wanda and Pietro, like I care a lot, but I know they are probably just going to keep doing things like that.”
"Yeah, they probably are." Tommy sighed and sprawled back on his bed, staring the the ceiling. Pita stepped up his ribcage and smacked at his nose with a small pointy paw. "And part of me says 'who can blame them'? When it comes to assholes like the Right, I'd gladly bury every last damn one of them under a ton of concrete and rebar. The flunkies, though... half of them are morons radicalized by shitty tv who wouldn't know a dna experiment if they were subjected to one. And sadly, low IQ and an addiction to talk radio isn't a capital crime."
Billy hummed in agreement, watching Pita as she stood on Tommy as if she had conquered him and now claimed him as her own. Not that his brother wasn’t already under her small paw. He let out a long breath and sighed, scratching at the side of his head for a bit. “Honestly, I don’t have near as much history with them as you do, but I want to hurt the Right. Like, I mean hurt them bad, sometimes I think maybe even dead, but I know that’s not how it is and that death is the wrong answer.”
Would be letting them go too easy also.
Tommy stayed silent for a long time - for him, at least - not entirely sure if he was speeding up or not. "It is. The wrong answer. A satisfying one, but the wrong one." And he didn't even have to take that stupid ethics class to know that one. "Torturing them until they cough up the locations of every lab and every kid, on the other hand..."
Billy winced a little, the idea of torture making his insides squirm because it always brought back awful memories of learning about wars and certain tactics that were used. He suddenly remembered when Kessler had held his face in the toilet bowl for longer and longer periods of time until he had cried, that nausea feeling creeping up a little too close. Billy tried to blow his bangs out of his face to hide his unease. “Umm, I’m not too sure torture is the best route. Just seems...too much like them.”
"And we're not supposed to let the bastards win by turning into them," Tommy rattled off sarcastically, before flinging his arm across his eyes. "I know, I know. I wish that didn't also mean letting them get off scot-free. They'll never go to jail."
Billy opened his mouth to say that they didn’t know that, which had been the same argument he’d had with Yana sort of, but closed his mouth. “Yeah, with the way the world views us, especially now, I bet some sicko judge would see it as a favor what they were doing.”
He was quiet for a minute and let out a humorless laugh. “We should build our own jail.”
"That's not a half-bad plan," Tommy told the ceiling. "Lock 'em up in one of their own buildings and see how they like the turnaround."
Billy pursed his lips together as he thought out something that had been a throw away plan. “Or put them in something I could create.”
Was that ethical? Jailing people without a trail even though they knew these people were guilty? “Like for real.”
Alarm bells were going off somewhere, even if Tommy couldn't figure out exactly what was setting them off. "Yeah, and the first time you get knocked out or someone else's magic trumps yours, they all end up walking away? Not the best idea you've ever had." He gave Billy a shrewd look. "And it wouldn't make Illyana think you're any less of a clueless dork, either."
Billy scowled a little at Tommy bringing Yana up, using his foot to push him and the chair out a little from the desk. Though it was for the best that Tommy side-tracked that line of thought, it lead places that...weren’t good. “So, Okay. What do we do? Just act normal with the Brotherhood or...I don’t know.”
"Instead of what? Wash our hands of them because they fucked up once?" Tommy frowned.
Billy gave Tommy a look before shaking his head. He knew pretty well Tommy’s triggers and tests by now and he was careful not to step on something that would blow him up. “No. I don’t want to wash my hands of them, Wanda and Pietro especially since they are family. I meant more, since our school is like dead set on hating them how do we get through that mine field? Do we just tell the school to suck it up, even when they have a reason to be upset? Do we just keep seeing Wanda and everyone behind the schools back?”
"Or in front of it for all I care." Tommy snorted, his feathers well and truly ruffled. "I don't give two shits what Xaviers' thinks. The quickest way to prove to the Brotherhood that they were right is to turn our backs on them now."
Immediately Billy felt his irritation spike at Tommy’s snort and tone, but he did his best to push it down for the sake of not getting in another stupid fight. “Can you stop twisting my words like that? I in no way said we should turn our backs on them, Jesus. I just want to be sensitive to the students who are upset because now their life is harder without an image inducer. Like Clarice, Kurt, Shen and Warren.”
Billy sat back with a soft huff, wondering if they would ever just see eye to eye.
That was a take he hadn't considered, so caught up in how Wanda and Lance's dumbass move was going to mess things up for the Brotherhood in general. "Their lives weren't easy without image inducers before," Tommy pointed out, though he wasn't intentionally picking a fight. It was just true. "Having mutants around is always going to piss people off, and hiding sure as hell isn't the answer."
“No, that’s true. And they for sure aren’t hiding anymore.” It seemed like since the protest many of the students had decided it wasn’t worth it to hide anymore. “Maybe that’s the way. Show more and more mutants doing normal things like dancing and shopping so that the Brotherhood’s fluke is shown that not all mutants want to hurt people.”
"It also makes it a hell of a lot harder to hide it if and when we start to disappear again," Tommy pointed out, his cynicism taking over. "A bunch of missing kids? Same old same. All mutants? ... at least there are some of us now willing and able to put the pieces together and do something about it."
Billy frowned a little at that, pressing his lips together tightly as he thought of how to reply to that. “It’s because we have a group. I don’t trust the professor, at least not enough to let him in my head, but I am glad that he started this. Getting kids out of there before...”
The kids that had gotten themselves out were miracles and Billy looked his brother over for a second. Billy had magic, but Tommy seemed to have the brains control when it came to problems because if the roles had been switched Billy was pretty sure he would have never escaped. That or doomed the world by wishing for something awful. “You’re pretty amazing. Thinking to use your powers like that? I never would have thought of anything beyond trying to go fast.”
Tommy gave him a confused look. "Why not? I can feel shit vibrate; it's all already there. All I do is push it along."
Billy smiled a little at that and gave a small shrug. “Because in my experience, pushing your powers is a bad idea? I don’t really try to push my powers...I’m too scared to know what they would do. But you can push, cause you aren’t scared and because of that you’ve been able to become...like I said...amazing.”
The conversation was veering right into skin-crawling uncomfortable, and Tommy made a face. "Whatever." He wasn't about to admit to anything, but of course there was stuff he stayed away from. Not because he was scared, but because he was being careful.
"I can feel something on the edge of it sometimes," he did catch himself saying out loud. "Something that wasn't there before... Before." BC. Before Capture. "I stay away from that shit."
Billy’s eyes widened. “Really?”
It felt weird, to be glad that he wasn’t the only one trying to steer clear of using his powers at max, but it also felt good. To have that in common with someone, especially Tommy. “You can sense it?”
Tommy shrugged, picking Pita up and blowing air at the fur on her belly until she squirmed out of his hands. She landed with all eighteen claws out, but he was already on the other side of the bed and she ended up clawing the blanket instead of him. "I guess? Maybe I'm just imagining it. I dunno. It's like the wall when you're running. You hit that groove and you're on the edge of exhausted, but somehow you know that if you break through the wall there's a second wind on the other side. Like that."
“Huh.” Billy nodded, cause that kind of made sense and he wondered if that’s what he would feel if he actually pushed his powers. Then again, not wanting to accidently ruin the world was a good motivator to keep his powers simple. “Are you ever tempted to break the wall? Your speed is insane...like what if you could...I don’t know..Time travel or something?”
He wasn’t sure if that’s how science actually worked, but it made for a good sci fi idea.
"I don't think it works that way," Tommy scoffed. Then he paused, mulling it over. "Not that I know how it does work, but it's not like that. It's more likely that it's something they fucked up," he waved it off like it meant nothing. "Like Fatale. They didn't have me long enough to really break anything, but if they stuck a bomb in my brain, I'm not going to do their dirty work for them."
Billy opened his mouth to say that he had looked Tommy over and hadn’t found any bombs in him over Thanksgiving, but Tommy was neurotic and trying to tell someone that something wasn’t there wasn’t going to help. Instead he just gave a shrug and ran his hands through his hair making it stand up a little bit. “Well, then we’re in the same boat. No pushing power limits, which I think is a safe idea.”
He watched Pita knead Tommy’s pillow for a bit before standing up to walk over to the two and give her a few scratches behind the ear. “Hey, would you wanna stay with me over summer?”
He absolutely refused to look at Tommy while he asked, make it look like it wasn’t that big of a deal. Though he could feel his face start to heat up because he was embarrassed and if anyone would notice Tommy would. “You don’t have to, like seriously, just offering if you wanted.”
Stay with the Kaplans? It would be almost like- yeah, no. That wasn't something Tommy got to have. "And do what, sleep on your parents' couch for two months? They put up with that for Thanksgiving, but no-one wants a couch-surfer for longer than that." He avoided Billy's eyes, staring up at the ceiling instead. "Plus what would I do with the cat?"
“My mom talked about buying a trundle bed...” Billy said quietly, not sure why he was trying to argue when it really seemed like Tommy didn’t want the idea. He looked at Pita, who could win over even the coldest of moms and gave a shrug. “She’s litter trained right?”
"What am I, a monster? Yeah, she's litter trained. Doesn't scratch the carpet, either." Tommy gave Billy a funny look. "Why are your parents buying extra furniture?"
Billy gave Tommy a look, eyebrow raised with a small frown. “Don’t make me say it. Saying it out loud will just make you act...weird.”
"Oh yeah." Tommy scoffed, ignoring the flare up of something inside his chest. It was heartburn. "You go around trying to adopt everyone who might be even tangentially connected to you, and I'm the weird one?"
Billy just sighed as he reached out to pet Pita, receiving a paw swipe for the effort, instead of biting back. “Just know you can come if you want to.”
"That's what she said," Tommy cracked without missing a beat.
Billy couldn’t help the faint smile from tugging at his lips as he rolled his eyes. “God, you are the worst.”
"And that's what you hear." Tommy snickered, poking at Billy with one foot. "Maybe I will swing by, for a little while," he conceded after a moment's consideration. "But only because your dad's a better cook than the cafeteria staff."
Billy scratched at his mouth to hide his grin. “I’ll let him know you think so. He’ll go all out when you come, he likes when people eat his food.”
"He'll regret that if I stick around," Tommy snorted.
Yeah sure, 'all out.' Followed by 'we have a food budget for a reason,' 'who do you think works to pay for all this shit,' and 'don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.' Still, Billy'd invited him, so it was his neck on the line, not Tommy's.
“Only if you eat his stash of shortbread cookies he thinks he hides well in the cabinet above the oven.” Billy grinned at the memory of Jake finding them and eating all of them in one sitting. It had been a riot watching his dad try hard not to be upset about cookies and fail. “I’ll let them know to jot you down as a maybe.”
Billy made his way towards Tommy’s room, hoping to god his brother was there and his roommate wasn’t. Everything felt awful and confusing, the Brotherhood doing that, Yana leaving, it all made Billy want to scream out in frustration. He knocked on Tommy’s door, before cracking it open slightly to peek in. “Tommy?”
Headphones on and guitar in hand, Tommy was resolutely ignoring the rest of the world. Change was good -- change kept things from being boring all the time, but there was a major difference between change that was entertaining and change that was uncomfortable, and this one fell firmly in that second camp. The Brotherhood getting their asses handed to them was bad, obvs. Alex and Pam on site equaled good, one less telepath in the mansion probably wasn't a bad thing, Yana going-- that was weird and he didn't want to think about it.
So it took him a second to realize someone was opening his door and talking to him, and he killed the track he was playing along with and dropped his headphones down around his ears. "S'up." Like he didn't already know.
“Hey...” Billy started quietly, sliding through the small crack in the door even if he didn’t need to, closing the door behind him softly.
“Umm...not much.” That was a lie. Billy’s shoulders sank with his sigh and he gave a helpless shrug. “Everything.”
He glanced at Tommy and then at his desk, moving over to sit at the chair with a flop. “I’m having a hard time figuring out how to feel about this Brotherhood stuff...and mostly cause Wanda and Pietro are there. Also that Yana just up and left us for them.”
Oh no. Billy was processing. Verbally.
Tommy eyeballed the door and the window, and contemplated bailing out of either. He put his crap to one side, just in case, and Pita promptly appeared to curl up in his lap. Foiled. "Traitor," he muttered to the cat, but he didn't move. "So? Wanda and Pietro have always been Brotherhood. That's not new."
Billy gave his brother a look that clearly said ’are you dumb?’ “Yeah, but...what happened and everything. I’m just...”
Maybe this was’t a good idea. Maybe Tommy felt the same way Yana did, but Tommy was the only one in the same situation as him so he really wanted to talk about it with him. “I just don’t think they did the right thing...at all, but I don’t want to just shut them out like everyone in the school does.”
"So don't." Tommy rolled Pita over and rubbed her belly. She closed in on him like a fuzzy venus fly trap and mauled his hand. "I'm not planning to. They fucked up, but it doesn't make them bad guys."
Billy frowned, even though Pita being a literally hand trap was amusing, and he sighed. “I didn’t say they were bad guys, I just don’t agree with what they did? Which apparently really isn’t something you should say to Yana by the way.”
He had done all his yelling and venting at Teddy, but her words were like ticks that had left their head in after removing the body.
That got Tommy's attention, and he looked up for the first time since Billy had walked in. "You talked to her? What did she say? Other than that she's leaving, which... yeah. Saw that one coming, but I figured it would be someone here pissing her off enough to make her bail."
Everything that had happened between him and Yana was still fresh and Billy blinked back tears, rubbing his hands over his face to mask trying not to cry. “Just that she thought they were right. That basically the way they were doing it seemed like the best idea.”
He pulled his hands away and sniffed a little, tears over as he looked at Tommy suddenly very tired. “I dunno. We were talking pretty well until she compared what we did in Limbo to what the Brotherhood did...I kinda lost it then.”
"The only thing that was the same is that we were idiots in Limbo and they were idiots in Montana," Tommy snorted. He gave Billy a sidelong look, avoiding calling attention to his wet face. Jesus, the guy cried easy. "There weren't any innocent bystanders in Limbo. Or media crews. Illyana's never liked rules, or consequences." Either did Tommy, not really, but there were times when he had to accept that he deserved a smackdown.
“Thank you!” God, it felt great knowing Tommy at least saw his side. He let out a loud breath through his mouth and leaned back against the computer chair. “She doesn’t see the difference. I yelled at her, told her that she was only looking out for herself and wanted the easiest way...she took her own shots at me.”
He made a face trying not to remember cause he’d just get angry again. “It was awful.”
"Come on," Tommy groaned. "She'll get over it. So will you. Yana and I have had fights before and we still hang. Why is everything some big fucking catastrophe?"
“Yeah, but you have a way with people...or something. They always like you and forgive you.” Billy grouched, for a minute actually jealous of the way his brother could so easily talk to others. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how feel about Wanda and Pietro, like I care a lot, but I know they are probably just going to keep doing things like that.”
"Yeah, they probably are." Tommy sighed and sprawled back on his bed, staring the the ceiling. Pita stepped up his ribcage and smacked at his nose with a small pointy paw. "And part of me says 'who can blame them'? When it comes to assholes like the Right, I'd gladly bury every last damn one of them under a ton of concrete and rebar. The flunkies, though... half of them are morons radicalized by shitty tv who wouldn't know a dna experiment if they were subjected to one. And sadly, low IQ and an addiction to talk radio isn't a capital crime."
Billy hummed in agreement, watching Pita as she stood on Tommy as if she had conquered him and now claimed him as her own. Not that his brother wasn’t already under her small paw. He let out a long breath and sighed, scratching at the side of his head for a bit. “Honestly, I don’t have near as much history with them as you do, but I want to hurt the Right. Like, I mean hurt them bad, sometimes I think maybe even dead, but I know that’s not how it is and that death is the wrong answer.”
Would be letting them go too easy also.
Tommy stayed silent for a long time - for him, at least - not entirely sure if he was speeding up or not. "It is. The wrong answer. A satisfying one, but the wrong one." And he didn't even have to take that stupid ethics class to know that one. "Torturing them until they cough up the locations of every lab and every kid, on the other hand..."
Billy winced a little, the idea of torture making his insides squirm because it always brought back awful memories of learning about wars and certain tactics that were used. He suddenly remembered when Kessler had held his face in the toilet bowl for longer and longer periods of time until he had cried, that nausea feeling creeping up a little too close. Billy tried to blow his bangs out of his face to hide his unease. “Umm, I’m not too sure torture is the best route. Just seems...too much like them.”
"And we're not supposed to let the bastards win by turning into them," Tommy rattled off sarcastically, before flinging his arm across his eyes. "I know, I know. I wish that didn't also mean letting them get off scot-free. They'll never go to jail."
Billy opened his mouth to say that they didn’t know that, which had been the same argument he’d had with Yana sort of, but closed his mouth. “Yeah, with the way the world views us, especially now, I bet some sicko judge would see it as a favor what they were doing.”
He was quiet for a minute and let out a humorless laugh. “We should build our own jail.”
"That's not a half-bad plan," Tommy told the ceiling. "Lock 'em up in one of their own buildings and see how they like the turnaround."
Billy pursed his lips together as he thought out something that had been a throw away plan. “Or put them in something I could create.”
Was that ethical? Jailing people without a trail even though they knew these people were guilty? “Like for real.”
Alarm bells were going off somewhere, even if Tommy couldn't figure out exactly what was setting them off. "Yeah, and the first time you get knocked out or someone else's magic trumps yours, they all end up walking away? Not the best idea you've ever had." He gave Billy a shrewd look. "And it wouldn't make Illyana think you're any less of a clueless dork, either."
Billy scowled a little at Tommy bringing Yana up, using his foot to push him and the chair out a little from the desk. Though it was for the best that Tommy side-tracked that line of thought, it lead places that...weren’t good. “So, Okay. What do we do? Just act normal with the Brotherhood or...I don’t know.”
"Instead of what? Wash our hands of them because they fucked up once?" Tommy frowned.
Billy gave Tommy a look before shaking his head. He knew pretty well Tommy’s triggers and tests by now and he was careful not to step on something that would blow him up. “No. I don’t want to wash my hands of them, Wanda and Pietro especially since they are family. I meant more, since our school is like dead set on hating them how do we get through that mine field? Do we just tell the school to suck it up, even when they have a reason to be upset? Do we just keep seeing Wanda and everyone behind the schools back?”
"Or in front of it for all I care." Tommy snorted, his feathers well and truly ruffled. "I don't give two shits what Xaviers' thinks. The quickest way to prove to the Brotherhood that they were right is to turn our backs on them now."
Immediately Billy felt his irritation spike at Tommy’s snort and tone, but he did his best to push it down for the sake of not getting in another stupid fight. “Can you stop twisting my words like that? I in no way said we should turn our backs on them, Jesus. I just want to be sensitive to the students who are upset because now their life is harder without an image inducer. Like Clarice, Kurt, Shen and Warren.”
Billy sat back with a soft huff, wondering if they would ever just see eye to eye.
That was a take he hadn't considered, so caught up in how Wanda and Lance's dumbass move was going to mess things up for the Brotherhood in general. "Their lives weren't easy without image inducers before," Tommy pointed out, though he wasn't intentionally picking a fight. It was just true. "Having mutants around is always going to piss people off, and hiding sure as hell isn't the answer."
“No, that’s true. And they for sure aren’t hiding anymore.” It seemed like since the protest many of the students had decided it wasn’t worth it to hide anymore. “Maybe that’s the way. Show more and more mutants doing normal things like dancing and shopping so that the Brotherhood’s fluke is shown that not all mutants want to hurt people.”
"It also makes it a hell of a lot harder to hide it if and when we start to disappear again," Tommy pointed out, his cynicism taking over. "A bunch of missing kids? Same old same. All mutants? ... at least there are some of us now willing and able to put the pieces together and do something about it."
Billy frowned a little at that, pressing his lips together tightly as he thought of how to reply to that. “It’s because we have a group. I don’t trust the professor, at least not enough to let him in my head, but I am glad that he started this. Getting kids out of there before...”
The kids that had gotten themselves out were miracles and Billy looked his brother over for a second. Billy had magic, but Tommy seemed to have the brains control when it came to problems because if the roles had been switched Billy was pretty sure he would have never escaped. That or doomed the world by wishing for something awful. “You’re pretty amazing. Thinking to use your powers like that? I never would have thought of anything beyond trying to go fast.”
Tommy gave him a confused look. "Why not? I can feel shit vibrate; it's all already there. All I do is push it along."
Billy smiled a little at that and gave a small shrug. “Because in my experience, pushing your powers is a bad idea? I don’t really try to push my powers...I’m too scared to know what they would do. But you can push, cause you aren’t scared and because of that you’ve been able to become...like I said...amazing.”
The conversation was veering right into skin-crawling uncomfortable, and Tommy made a face. "Whatever." He wasn't about to admit to anything, but of course there was stuff he stayed away from. Not because he was scared, but because he was being careful.
"I can feel something on the edge of it sometimes," he did catch himself saying out loud. "Something that wasn't there before... Before." BC. Before Capture. "I stay away from that shit."
Billy’s eyes widened. “Really?”
It felt weird, to be glad that he wasn’t the only one trying to steer clear of using his powers at max, but it also felt good. To have that in common with someone, especially Tommy. “You can sense it?”
Tommy shrugged, picking Pita up and blowing air at the fur on her belly until she squirmed out of his hands. She landed with all eighteen claws out, but he was already on the other side of the bed and she ended up clawing the blanket instead of him. "I guess? Maybe I'm just imagining it. I dunno. It's like the wall when you're running. You hit that groove and you're on the edge of exhausted, but somehow you know that if you break through the wall there's a second wind on the other side. Like that."
“Huh.” Billy nodded, cause that kind of made sense and he wondered if that’s what he would feel if he actually pushed his powers. Then again, not wanting to accidently ruin the world was a good motivator to keep his powers simple. “Are you ever tempted to break the wall? Your speed is insane...like what if you could...I don’t know..Time travel or something?”
He wasn’t sure if that’s how science actually worked, but it made for a good sci fi idea.
"I don't think it works that way," Tommy scoffed. Then he paused, mulling it over. "Not that I know how it does work, but it's not like that. It's more likely that it's something they fucked up," he waved it off like it meant nothing. "Like Fatale. They didn't have me long enough to really break anything, but if they stuck a bomb in my brain, I'm not going to do their dirty work for them."
Billy opened his mouth to say that he had looked Tommy over and hadn’t found any bombs in him over Thanksgiving, but Tommy was neurotic and trying to tell someone that something wasn’t there wasn’t going to help. Instead he just gave a shrug and ran his hands through his hair making it stand up a little bit. “Well, then we’re in the same boat. No pushing power limits, which I think is a safe idea.”
He watched Pita knead Tommy’s pillow for a bit before standing up to walk over to the two and give her a few scratches behind the ear. “Hey, would you wanna stay with me over summer?”
He absolutely refused to look at Tommy while he asked, make it look like it wasn’t that big of a deal. Though he could feel his face start to heat up because he was embarrassed and if anyone would notice Tommy would. “You don’t have to, like seriously, just offering if you wanted.”
Stay with the Kaplans? It would be almost like- yeah, no. That wasn't something Tommy got to have. "And do what, sleep on your parents' couch for two months? They put up with that for Thanksgiving, but no-one wants a couch-surfer for longer than that." He avoided Billy's eyes, staring up at the ceiling instead. "Plus what would I do with the cat?"
“My mom talked about buying a trundle bed...” Billy said quietly, not sure why he was trying to argue when it really seemed like Tommy didn’t want the idea. He looked at Pita, who could win over even the coldest of moms and gave a shrug. “She’s litter trained right?”
"What am I, a monster? Yeah, she's litter trained. Doesn't scratch the carpet, either." Tommy gave Billy a funny look. "Why are your parents buying extra furniture?"
Billy gave Tommy a look, eyebrow raised with a small frown. “Don’t make me say it. Saying it out loud will just make you act...weird.”
"Oh yeah." Tommy scoffed, ignoring the flare up of something inside his chest. It was heartburn. "You go around trying to adopt everyone who might be even tangentially connected to you, and I'm the weird one?"
Billy just sighed as he reached out to pet Pita, receiving a paw swipe for the effort, instead of biting back. “Just know you can come if you want to.”
"That's what she said," Tommy cracked without missing a beat.
Billy couldn’t help the faint smile from tugging at his lips as he rolled his eyes. “God, you are the worst.”
"And that's what you hear." Tommy snickered, poking at Billy with one foot. "Maybe I will swing by, for a little while," he conceded after a moment's consideration. "But only because your dad's a better cook than the cafeteria staff."
Billy scratched at his mouth to hide his grin. “I’ll let him know you think so. He’ll go all out when you come, he likes when people eat his food.”
"He'll regret that if I stick around," Tommy snorted.
Yeah sure, 'all out.' Followed by 'we have a food budget for a reason,' 'who do you think works to pay for all this shit,' and 'don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.' Still, Billy'd invited him, so it was his neck on the line, not Tommy's.
“Only if you eat his stash of shortbread cookies he thinks he hides well in the cabinet above the oven.” Billy grinned at the memory of Jake finding them and eating all of them in one sitting. It had been a riot watching his dad try hard not to be upset about cookies and fail. “I’ll let them know to jot you down as a maybe.”
