Teddy and Nick | June 16th

[ax_hulkling]

Nick and Teddy hang out following Nick and Lil's breakup. The conversation takes a sharp turn from 'girls' and 'cooking' into 'aliens' and sits there for a while.



Xavier's wasn't a super-populated school even during the school year, and once the end of year party had been and gone and classes were over, it felt emptier than usual. A good chunk of that, Teddy had to admit, was Billy having to move back to the city. Texting - even pretty much constantly - wasn't nearly the same as having him there. Add Lil going back to Canada, other people getting distracted with summer projects, and it was no wonder he had a lot more time on his hands to sit and work through the reading he'd been left to do.

He'd started making a habit of going outside to do it, finding a sunny spot and sprawling out with the database, but the rain today was thwarting even him. On the other hand, if he stayed in his room any longer, he was going to go spare. Teddy headed out, reader tucked in his back pocket, and paused to lock the door of his room behind him.

Nick was sore, but it was a good sore. Working on the summer clubhouse thing was a good distraction, even if he planned on never using it. He was wearing a white tank-top and, for the first time in a long, long time, denim shorts, when he was heading out to go help again... except it was raining, so they probably weren't doing anything today. Or at least for now. Whatever, he'd just hit the gym and do some lifting or something. When he spotted Teddy, he glanced away. Shit had gotten... seriously strange. But he liked Teddy, and he wanted to be there for him.

"Hey," Nick said, in greeting. The gym could wait a few minutes. Or an hour. Whatever. It wasn't like it was anyone else's time other than his own.

"Hey," Teddy replied, brightening up. He and Nick had been on different schedules recently, at least it seemed that way, their paths not crossing as much as when they were all heading for class at the same time. "How's it going?"

"It's going," Nick said, scratching behind his head a little. "Just... keeping busy. You?" he asked.

"Same," Teddy replied ruefully, guilt rising up behind his cheer at running into Nick. Just because Nick and Lil had broken up didn't mean that Nick didn't want to see Teddy. Everyone was still friend(ish), as far as he could tell and while Nick was super-private, he could probably use the distraction. Or maybe even a friend to talk to. "I like the shorts," he offered as a feeble attempt to bridge the gap he could feel there. "It's a good look."

"Thanks," Nick said, halfheartedly. Great, so he looked good to guys. Too bad guys weren't something he wanted to be anything more than friends with, for now. He blew out a bit of a breath out of his nose; Teddy was trying to be nice, and here he was thinking douchey thoughts in his head. "Sorry. I haven't been meaning to avoid you. I just... y'know, figured that everyone was tripping over each other trying to make sure you were okay," Nick said, genuinely. "That, and... y'know." He glanced down the hall. "Lil."

"I've been hiding out while I try and get my head on straight, so it goes both ways," Teddy admitted. "And I don't care that you guys aren't a thing anymore, because you're still my friend too. At least as far as I'm concerned." He hesitated for a second, unsure if he'd gone too far, been too pushy, but whatever. This was Nick, and Nick knew he cared. "But it does sound like you could use someone to talk to as well," Teddy offered. "Hit the kitchen with me. I need to get food and I'm not feeling the cafeteria right now."

"Yeah," Nick said, to all counts, starting to walk in that direction. "Thanks," he added.

"It's not a problem. Even if I didn't owe you one, which I do," Teddy added just to be clear. "We've been doing the whole ships-passing-in-the-night thing and I miss hanging with you."

"You don't owe me," Nick said, waving a dismissive hand. "I, y'know. With wanting to be on X-Force, I ... I just wanna be there for people. It's just hard, going through... y'know. Stuff." He put his hands in his pockets. "How much has she told you?" he asked, quietly.

Teddy grimaced, wavering on how much to say. "No details. Mostly that you guys weren't on the same page about... some things." It was a dodge, but Lil hadn't been explicit, and she'd been clear that she was blaming herself for freaking out a lot more than she was blaming Nick. At least outwardly.

"Yeah. I... fucked up," Nick said, shrugging. So what if Teddy heard him swore. He wasn't giving a damn about that stuff anymore. "And she's, y'know. Scared. Because of it. So..." He shrugged. "I had been the only guy she was interested in. And now she's not interested in guys anymore, I guess," he said. "So I have that, y'know. Dubious fuckin' honor," he grumbled.

Teddy winced. "Whatever else went on, I can guarantee that you didn't turn her off guys forever. It doesn't work that way. She's got some stuff to work out, obviously, but that part's not on you."

He heaved a sigh. "I know. I just... get so angry with myself whenever I think about it," Nick said, folding his arms as he walked. "And it's not like she has anything to work out. She just... y'know. Didn't want to move at that pace. And I pressed when I shouldn't have. I should've backed off, immediately. But I didn't. Because I'm... fucking terrible, I guess," he said, sighing. "Shen said it was, y'know. Bad but normal. But it shouldn't be normal."

"True. It shouldn't. But screwing up once doesn't make you a terrible person, so knock that off. A really terrible person would have kept pushing longer," he added. Teddy shoved his hands in his pockets, some things he hadn't had to think about for a long time slowly bubbling back to the surface of his thoughts, and his voice getting tired and a little bit sad. "Or tried something like 'if you really cared about me you'd want to prove it.' That's supremely shitty. But none of us knows what the hell we're doing, not really. We're bound to mess it up one way or another."

"I know. It just feels like I blew my only chance. I know I probably haven't. Just, y'know. We were talking about going into space and being together through everything and it was just feeling so... so solid, you know?" He shook his head. "And then bam. Gone. In one night. Because I couldn't keep my damn hormones in check."

"Maybe once she cools down, takes some time back home, she'll reconsider?" Teddy offered, otherwise kind of at a loss for useful advice. "You guys seemed really good together. From what I saw, anyway. Not that you should wait around hoping for it, but... Lil's impulsive. She goes off half-cocked all the time."

"I don't think she'll come back," Nick said, heaving a sigh. "She ... it wasn't quite kneejerk. She'd thought about it. It's over. And it'll be... years before she considers, if she ever does." He shrugged. "I won't wait. I don't plan on waiting. But at the same time, who the hell else is there? That's why, y'know, I'm focusing on X-Force stuff. Something I can put my anger into."

Teddy grabbed the kitchen door and held it open for Nick. "That's productive, definitely better than wallowing and eating three bags of cheetos in a single sitting," he said ruefully. "If you want a sparring partner, let me know? I'm easier to hurt, but I heal fast."

"I guess," Nick said, shrugging. He stepped in and took a look around, wondering what they'd get up to in here. "I just, y'know. I'm trying not to dwell on it."

He hadn't thought as far ahead as what he was going to make, but Teddy surveyed the state of the freezer anyway. Hamburgers were good, and there were still some frozen ones left. "That sounds like a plan," he said firmly. "What have you been up to? Treehouse, and by X-force stuff you mean the Danger Room? You're going to be ripped by August."

"Yeah. Lifting, too," Nick said, shrugging. "And still, y'know, playing video games and stuff. But exercising isn't... as bad as I thought it would be. I guess my mutation makes it easier."

"That's pretty cool," Teddy encouraged, hauling out everything he'd need to get the hamburgers going. He grabbed a package of cheese and one of bacon for good measure. Protein was good for muscle building, right? "It was a shock to the system when the Professor had the higher-weight machines installed. I'd gotten so used to not feeling any kind of resistance on regular weights. That's all powers, not anything I actually did to earn it, though."

"Yeah. I haven't graduated to those. Dunno if I ever will," he said, going to the kitchen counter and looking warily at the gathering ingredients. "So, uh... anything I can do to help?" he asked. "I have no idea how to, um, cook."

"It's not hard," Teddy promised. "The hamburgers are made already, so I'm really just assembling things. You can do the bacon, if you want - there are instructions right on the package, and you can even use the microwave."

"Won't they come out better, I dunno, in a pan?" Nick asked, curiously, using a claw to open the packaging of the bacon. "Mom always did it in the oven, which I thought was kinda weird. Put down a sheet of aluminum foil and turned the broiler on. She said she didn't like it when she got spat at by the bacon."

Teddy shrugged. "Sure, and it definitely comes out better. But if you don't know how to cook, I figured the microwave would be less intimidating. But grab a pan and go for it," he encouraged.

"A-alright," Nick said, going to get a pan and setting about starting his first foray into cooking bacon.

Teddy kept half an eye on Nick and half on his own jobs, slicing tomato and onion with practiced mostly-ease. He wasn't Jean-Paul or Tessa-good, not by a long shot, but at least he wasn't likely to miss and take his finger off. "It actually works better if you start it in a cold pan instead of pre-heating," he offered, just in case Nick hadn't been exaggerating the 'I don't cook' thing.

"Oh, that's... that's good to know," he said, working with it from it being cold instead of warming it up first. He hadn't even thought about it being different or anything. "Like I said, I basically know nothing about this."

"It doesn't burn as much that way. I'm sure there's science behind it, I just know that it works." The burgers went into the second pan -- two, no, four of them. Two each was probably good for a snack, and it wasn't like it was hard to make more later if they needed to. "Mom worked evenings a lot, and I got bored with leftovers all the time." Teddy leaned his elbows on the counter and watched the meat sizzle. "I don't know a lot of fancy techniques, but I can feed myself."

"That's really what's important, I guess," Nick said, shrugging. "And I'm not big on science myself. Even food science." Which was probably the tastiest science, if it was such a thing. He wasn't sure, but it didn't matter.

"If it gets bacon in my face, I'm good with it." That part of the conversation seemed to draw to a close, and Teddy flipped the burgers over in the lull. "I don't think I ever thanked you properly for everything you did for me that day," he said after the pause. "When the Skrulls showed up."

"It's what friends do," Nick said, easily. "There's no need for like, y'know, formal thanks and stuff. You were there for me, when my parents... passed, y'know?" He didn't like to talk about that, though. That was still... sore. "Besides. Aliens," he said, weakly. Yeah, he wasn't thrilled about their existence, although without them there'd be no Teddy, so he at least had to thank them for that.

"Mhm," Teddy gave him a sympathetic look at the waver in Nick's voice. "I still owe you a calm, peaceful movie night."

"I certainly can't object to that," Nick said, giving a bit of a wearied sigh. "It's just been rough all around for a long, long time, I guess."

Teddy nodded, and laid a hand on Nick's back for a moment of solidarity and whatever comfort he could give. The sizzling started in the pans and he reached over to flip the burgers before they burned. "The universe owes you, big time. Only beach vacations, ice cream floats and easy problems to make you feel accomplished by solving them from here in."

"I'm not a big fan of the beach," Nick replied, weakly, before chuckling. "At least, I don't think I'd be. I haven't been to the beach since I was six, I think. Either way, I don't think I'd be that lucky for the universe to treat me that way." He checked the bacon, figuring he should flip it too, and started working on that.

“Screw the universe, then,” Teddy said firmly, then laughed and shook his head. “Not literally, I mean- yeah. To heck with it. We’ll make our own luck.”

"As much as we can," Nick said, giving a bit of a sigh. "I should stop sulking in my room so much," he said, more to himself than to Teddy.

"It'd be a good start to get back out there," Teddy agreed, getting the buns out and grabbing a couple of plates while they talked. Nick hadn't ever been super-social, not in the time Teddy had known him, but anything had to be better than staying in his room 23 hours a day. "How often can aliens actually attack, right? We should be clear for a few weeks at least," he joked.

He shuddered a little. "God, I hope. I'm still reliving hearing that guy say 'expansionary force,' in my head," Nick said, a bit anxiously. "Like, basically out and admitting it has like, an imperialist agenda."

A frown crossed Teddy's face, but he couldn't exactly argue the point. "From the reading I've been doing, and everything Zedrao said, the old Emperor was a real piece of work. He definitely had an agenda. With any luck the whole regime-change thing will make a difference. I'm guessing it won't just switch over overnight, though at least they said Earth was going to be left alone."

"Yeah, but I mean..." Nick sighed, shaking his head. He shouldn't worry Teddy with this kind of crap. He was worried that they'd change their minds about Earth once he was gone, which was... not a good thought at all. Worse, he felt like maybe Teddy wouldn't be able to change their minds about it. "Still. I'm glad it's not at least, y'know, impending war." Who was he kidding? It wouldn't be war, it'd be a total one-sided slaughter of humankind...

"That's one of those 'could always be worse' moments, yeah," Teddy snorted softly. It wasn't that he trusted the Skrulls -- not after everything that had happened before and on the ship. And he still hadn't done anything with the communicator other than let Nolan poke at it. But part of him was getting to be more curious than freaked out. The part of him that still wanted so badly to have somewhere where he belonged. Xavier's was pretty close, mind you. Not perfect, but pretty close. "I don't think Earth has anything they want, anyway. We haven't even figured out real spaceflight yet."

"Sure," Nick said, shrugging. "I mean, if anything, it's got, y'know, land. But I guess Skrulls can just make space stations if they wanted." Nick was just thinking out loud. "Sorry. I mean, like, these... they're your people. I shouldn't be... I dunno, assuming the worst of them just from one meeting."

Teddy stomped down on the sour feeling in his gut, taking the moment to flip the burgers out of the pan and onto a plate. "It wasn't the greatest of first contact moments," he did concede. "But honestly? They have an entire galaxy, with billions of worlds. Earth's seriously insignificant by comparison. Once I'm gone you won't have to worry about it at all." That was mean and he regretted saying it the moment it came out of his mouth, but there was no easy way to take it back.

"But... I don't want you gone," Nick said, pensively. "I mean, I know all the stuff about duty and... all that stuff is important, y'know? But..." He sighed, and snapped momentarily to focus as he kept a slice of bacon from burning. "I mean, think of all the amazing things Skrull technology might be able to do for Earth," he said, trying to find the silver lining. That's what his mother would've done. "I mean, you can talk to people from, what, Andromeda, right?" he asked, curiously. "That's... seriously. Faster-than-light communication. FTL travel, from the sound of it. Who knows what kind of medical tech." He sighed.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so negative. You're their prince. They can't be so bad, right?"

"I have the communicator, it supposedly works," Teddy admitted. "I haven't tried it yet so I can't say for sure. But they'd have no reason to lie about that part of things."

"I'm sure it does," Nick said, though that sentiment wasn't really helpful. "I mean, like..." He again had to keep focused so that he could get the bacon out of the pan without burning himself. "It's possible that you could be, y'know, the first go-between. Between Earth and the Skrulls. You know Earth better than, well, probably all of them, from the sound of it." Except the one posing as his mother, maybe. "So... it's possible that you could, y'know. Use your position to save... a lot of people. Maybe even end, y'know, scarcity. Or at least, y'know. Bring... bring it down." Did Skrulls have money? How the hell did any of their society work when you risked sitting down on a person instead of a chair?

Teddy reclaimed the bacon from Nick's pan and added it to the burgers. "I'd have to know a lot more about the Empire before I start making plans like that. Like whether that would put Earth officially on their radar. Right now we're a whole galaxy away. If it came down to a choice between going on as things are and watching the UN try and deal with the existence of aliens, I'm honestly not sure which would be worse. Maybe once people have gotten more used to mutants and Namor's made his big announcement about Atlantis," Teddy tried to end with a grin. "After that, aliens will be just another Tuesday."

"I'm still kinda weirded about by Atlantis being a thing. I mean, that's... jeez. I know so much of Earth's oceans are unexplored and uncharted but still, to think anything... sapient... is down there..." It made him wonder what else was hiding in other places. Nick couldn't help but shrug, though. "Still, I guess I buy it 'cause... he doesn't smell entirely human." Which was the weird thing about Teddy, come to think of it... "Though... you always did. So... I guess Skrulls can change shape just that well. You just... smell like the form you assume." Which he guessed made sense. Not that he really knew how smell worked.

Teddy grabbed an extra pickle from the jar and bit into it, the crunch deeply satisfying. "Or it's because I grew up here," he offered. "I mean. I've never been to Throneworld or anything like that, so why wouldn't I smell like Earth?"

"True, I guess," Nick said, thinking about it while he contemplated having a pickle himself. "Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate that 'Throneworld' sounds like something really cool out of a video game?" he asked, grinning just a little.

"It's pretty cool," Teddy conceded with a grin. "I figure it must be a translation thing. It's gotta have some other name as well, but that's how it comes out in English. Like how we basically call our planet 'Dirt.'"

"Yeah, well, give us time to start a space empire and maybe we'll end up calling it something better," Nick chuckled. "Maybe it doesn't, though, and it just... has that name."

"It must have had a different one at some point," Teddy reasoned, grabbing the full plates to bring them over to the table. "You don't call something 'Throneworld' if you've only got one planet. I've got this huge history I've been reading, but it covers over ten million years and I think I've only made it through the first couple of thousand. It's going to take a while."

"True," he said, heading over to the table to take a seat. "Do you know what it's like? Throneworld, that is. Did they, y'know... exhaust everything? G--I don't wanna say it, because... oh god, this is so bad," he laughed a little. "Go green?"

It took Teddy a second and a bite of his burger before he puzzled out what Nick was asking. “You mean is this like War of the Worlds or Independence Day? Aliens nuking their own planet’s resources and expanding for conquest?” Teddy snorted. “Not so much. Everything I’ve read about the early years says it was originally a trade empire. More like the EU than the conquistadors.”

Nick shook his head. "No, no, I mean more like developing renewable energies. Green energy, y'know?" he asked, kind of sad but also kind of glad he had to piece together the little joke he'd made in his head.

Teddy gave a small obliging chuckle, though... yeah. The 'green' jokes were going to get old, fast. Unless he learned to be like Kurt and just embrace the whole thing. Maybe once he was more used to the idea that his natural form might not be what he thought it was. "They're not burning coal, whatever it is. I showed Nolan the communicator and he's been working on replicating the tech, but he gets two words into an explanation and my brain seizes up."

Yeah, okay, that joke had probably been in poor taste, so Nick brushed past it. "Well, I mean, that's promising, right?" Nick said, hopefully. "Especially if it started as a trade empire. That's... actually really neat," he said. "Even if we can't learn, y'know, directly from them, from the source, we could at least... y'know, maybe take a page from their books, so to speak. Kinda learn indirectly. Like, how we should focus ourselves if we get into a space age." If that ever happens. "I mean, it... I'm sorry," he said, realizing something. "This is probably... just a stressful conversation for you, isn't it? I'm over here acting like you're going to be the savior of mankind or something."

Teddy grimaced, but his shrug was paired with a nod. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea that I'm... adopted, for lack of a better word, and that I might actually have a father who's alive somewhere. And that's before the whole outer space thing. I'm not making plans for revamping Earth's economic and environmental policies."

"Yeah. I'm... I mean, on the one hand, it's kind of nice. I mean, your mom--the mom who raised you, she's still... y'know. Parents are parents, related or not. I guess I just... I don't have much experience with this kind of thing. I don't think anyone does. But... I'm here to listen if you need to talk, yeah?" he said, smiling just a little. "If you wanna talk about your mom, your space-mom, or your space-dad, that's all fine. I'll listen, and... I'll do my best to help," he offered.

He was offering to help Teddy with the idea that he had more living parents, when Nick's parents had died -- it would be way too selfish for Teddy to take him up on it. It went to show what a good guy Nick was, though, that he'd even offer. "I appreciate that, thanks." And he returned the same small smile. "Maybe not now, but... someday."

"Okay." Nick wouldn't insist upon it or push. Teddy would talk when Teddy was ready. So... instead... "A distraction, then, maybe?" Nick offered. "We could play some video games. Or I could try and be horrible at basketball."

"I'm down for either; depends how you feel about going out into the big blue room," Teddy teased gently.

"Basketball, then." It would be good to get moving more. "If I get overheated or something, we can always go back inside and play video games," he said, figuring that was a fine compromise.

Teddy nodded. It got them away from weird conversations, and moving would feel pretty good right about now. "Deal. Last one to finish his burger has to deal with the dishes," he challenged, and shifted his mouth to be big enough to do the rest on one bite as he went for it.

"Oh that is so not fair," Nick chuckled, though he decided that he'd just finish the rest of his burger at a regular pace since it was clear he was defeated in that race. Man, never challenge Teddy to an eating contest, apparently.

Mouth full -- and he didn't dare change it back to normal size yet -- Teddy gave Nick an enthusiastic double thumbs-up.