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Billy and Teddy Backdated 9/20
Teddy helps Billy figure out how to channel his magic a little better and they also accidentally commit some grand larceny.
Billy sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, eyes closed as he tried to focus on the magic inside him. Yana had said anger was the way to go, but he needed to find a way for it to work without it because he couldn't just always be angry all the time.
He sat there for a good fifteen minutes in silence trying this before he let out a frustrated yell and pulled at his hair. "Why can't I fucking do it?!"
The aggrieved shout cut through the music, and Teddy dropped his headphones down around his neck. He turned around at his desk, startled, but Billy didn't look like he'd hurt himself, or set anything on fire... He was just sitting there, like he'd been doing since just after Teddy had started on homework.
"Are you okay?" Teddy asked, killing the music and leaving the headphones beside his computer.
Billy sighed and laid down on his back so he could look at Teddy upside down, scowling best he could. "No! I'm not. My stupid ass magic is being a huge dickwad right now."
Correction, it was a dickwad all the time.
"I can never get it to work when I actually want it to. It always happens as a fluke."
Teddy flopped down, pulling his feet in to sit cross-legged on the floor next to Billy. "Didn't Illyana say that it had something to do with being angry?"
"Well, yeah. But I mean, if I'm angry all the time I might die of high blood pressure at like twenty-seven. Plus, I don't think I have that many things to be angry about." Billy sighed and remained laying down and reached out to poke at Teddy's jean covered knee. "I need to be able to access it regularly, not wait till someone awful happens."
"I mean, that's not a terrible problem -- not having that many things to be angry about, I mean." Teddy shrugged and poked Billy back with his sock-clad toe. "But yeah. Not so useful if you're just looking to do small scale stuff. What were you trying to do just now?"
"Anything!" Billy cried out, flinging his arms up into the air towards the ceiling. "Like even just being able to use it regularly for small things would be good. The only times I've ever consciously been able to get it going is when Yana wanted me to do something to her hair tie, but even then, it took some serious work."
Teddy sat back against the foot of Billy's bed, out of range if he decided to wave his arms around again. "Maybe it's the 'anything' that's the problem, not your mood. I know if I tried to shift into 'anything,' my powers wouldn't work at all. I have to focus on something specific, the more detail the better."
Billy pursed his lips at Teddy's advice and hummed a little in thought, then sat up quickly and turned to face Teddy with his legs crossed again. "Okay. Alright. Let's see..."
He looked at the green t-shirt that Teddy was wearing and focused on it best he could. After about five minutes of nothing happening Billy sighed and wanted to punch his magic in its stupid nonexistent face.
It wasn't a terrible thing, sitting there watching Billy as Billy stared at him. It helped that Billy was staring at his chest, not his face, so Teddy was free to look, to memorize the wrinkle between his brows when he frowned, the faintly golden flecks in the brown of his eyes, the pout that curled out his bottom lip as he grew more and more frustrated.
Until finally Billy sighed and seemed to be ready to give up, not even the faint blue tingle of his electricity suggesting anything happening.
"What are you trying to do?" Teddy asked, curiosity finally winning out over the comfortable silence. He probably should be more concerned about his supposedly magical roommate apparently trying to cast a spell on his torso, but given Billy's success rate so far it didn't feel like he was in any real danger.
"I'm trying to turn your shirt red or blue, but I'm having a hard time getting my magic to respond. It's like it refuses to listen to my commands."
He rolled his eyes upward, his hands coming up in an exasperated gesture. "I'm all like I want Teddy's shirt to turn blue or I want Teddy's shirt to turn red, even I want Teddy's shirt to turn either color but-"
He stopped when his body glowed blue and Teddy's shirt turned an awful tie-dyed mess of dark red and Robin egg blue.
There had been a sensation -- not an unpleasant one, more like sitting under a heat lamp for a couple of seconds, or a warm sunbeam -- and then it was gone. Teddy looked down at his shirt in surprise and mild amazement. "Wow. Okay. That's a thing that just happened. That was actually pretty cool, Bee." At least it hadn't been one of his favorites. "And you aren't angry, unless frustrated counts as angry."
Billy stared at Teddy's, honestly, awful looking shirt and crawled forward to reach out and touch it. He frowned when it felt exactly like a regular t-shirt, soft and worn, but the colors were completely different.
"What the hell?" He whispered as he sat back, still staring at the shirt in confusion before looking up at Teddy. That's when he realized he'd just used unknown magic on his roommate. "Oh shit! Are you okay? It didn't like warp you in any weird way? Do you feel okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"
He held up three.
Teddy laughed. "Sixteen. Come on. I promise I haven't changed any. It just felt... warm for a second, like there was a hair dryer pointed at me, but without the air flow. I really think the only thing you got was my shirt. So, bonus on the control." He flashed Billy a supportive thumbs-up. "Can you put it back?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..." Billy was pretty sure he couldn't, the weird shirt color change thing had happened when he hadn't even been trying like all the other times his magic had made itself known. "Maybe? Probably not, but I can give it a try."
Billy again stared at the gross shirt that was now on Teddy and tried to remember what the original shirt had looked like. It had a design and the color green was close to emerald, with those in mind Billy focused as he tried his best to turn the shirt back.
Nothing.
"This is so dumb!!"
Teddy grabbed for his hand for a second, giving it a calming squeeze. "It's okay. You did it once, right? That means you can do it again." He dropped Billy's hand, the warmth of his skin lingering. "We just have to figure out what was different about the time it did work, and then you do that again."
Billy almost jumped when Teddy took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze, the feel of Teddy's larger hand around his making him feel like his heart was in his throat. When Teddy let go, Billy had to remember to focus on what the other was saying and not how nice Teddy's hand had felt in his own.
"Uhhh...yeah. Yeah. Okay." He tried to think, tucking the hand that had been held in his hoodie pocket and closer to himself. "Let me think...maybe the difference was frustration, but I wasn't frustrated when it was the math test or my mom's vase. I was more scared or worried..."
He frowned as he tried to sort out what he had been doing when suddenly he had a thought. "Speaking...speaking!!"
Teddy grinned. "You're saying that your magic has verbal spell components? That's an extra ten points on your nerd score right there."
Billy grinned, both at Teddy's commentary and at maybe finding something that might work with his magic. "Okay okay, you giant nerd. Let me try something."
Billy looked around the room and reached over Teddy to grab on of the pillows that had been knocked to the foot of his bed. He held it between both of his hands and closed his eyes. "Become a duck."
Nothing happened.
Billy frowned and tried again. "Please become a duck?"
Nope.
"The pillow knows better," Teddy suggested, his lips twitching. Billy had ended up closer to him than he was before and Teddy was somehow attuned to it, a restlessness sitting under his skin. "And I have to ask, even though I'm also sure I don't want to know. Why a duck?"
"Ducks are cool? Better than geese, that is for sure." Billy looked at how their knees were almost touching and made an effort to scoot back so it wouldn't make it seem like he was trying anything.
That was the last thing he needed.
"Okay how about this...I would very much like you to be a duck."
Still nothing.
"Ugh! I just want you to be a duck!" He groaned and his body glowed blue for a quick second before fading. Pillow was still a pillow.
"That was something!" Teddy watched, but nothing else happened. "You lit up, but it wasn't like your electricity -- more like a glow. So, you tapped into something. Okay," he started thinking out loud. "So, you don't need to be angry, but emotion helps. And it's not just about words, or maybe it needs to be the right words?
"Or maybe it's more like clerical magic and your patron deity really doesn't like the idea of you having a duck in the dorm," he added, grinning. "Can't say I argue with that one. Keeping that quiet could be an issue."
Billy had been about to sigh at all the possibilities Teddy was bringing up, not really sure how bad he wanted to tap into his magic if it was going to take freaking detective work to figure out. Then Teddy decided to be a smartass and Billy grinned, tossing his pillow at Teddy's head.
"Okay. Okay. So, what did I say that made me glow...I said I just want you to be a duck..." He paused to see if he would glow again, but nothing happened. "Herm...maybe it's something I have to actually really want? But I didn't really want to change your shirt and it still happened."
He closed his eyes again and thought.
"I really want to figure this out." Nothing. "I really really want to figure this out."
His body started to glow.
Teddy batted the pillow away, letting it fall harmlessly somewhere on the other side of the room. Watching Billy was more important, and then it began -- the blue glow surrounded him again, a tingling aura that seemed to light him up from the inside. Teddy held his breath.
Billy held his breath when he his body started to glow again, his limbs feeling oddly warm, like he had dipped them into a bath or something and he wanted to hold on to that feeling.
Unfortunately, with the silence, the blue glow around his body started to fade and Billy started to panic. "No, no! I really want to figure this out!"
Teddy realized he was chewing on his bottom lip, watching, waiting- as the glow faded from around Billy and he started to flail. And if Teddy was disappointed, how much worse must it be for Billy? Frustration was rolling off of him in almost tangible waves. Billy had moved back so his hands weren't in easy reach anymore, but Teddy bumped Billy's knee with his toe in what he hoped came across as some attempt at commiseration.
What he really wanted to do was help, though, not just bear witness. So - think through it logically. Billy's magic wasn't innate, it needed to be what? Announced to the universe at large, and with intent? Weirdly enough, that sounded familiar. "Ask, believe, receive-" Teddy said out loud, and scrambled to his feet. "Hang on. I've got an idea."
Billy frowned as Teddy got up and excitedly moved over to his laptop, Billy following at a slower pace to peek over the others shoulder. "Why are you logging into kindle? Are there books on magic out there that I'm not aware of?"
Yana probably had a bunch, but he had a feeling those books were out of his league. He glanced at Teddy's profile, wondering what the guy was thinking and was feeling a little happy that he didn't have to do this alone.
Teddy flopped down into his chair when he realized Billy had followed him over, bringing his laptop with him. "My mom went on this self-help-book kick last year. She was having a rough time at work, and bought a whole bunch of these 'visualize your way to success' seminars and so on. Most of its crap," Teddy admitted, glancing back at Billy over his shoulder. "At least the whole 'think yourself rich' end of it, but there was some stuff in a couple of them about visualizing and focused meditation, and it kind of sounded like what you were trying a minute ago.
"Here-" he said excitedly, pulling up one of the first books in his mom's account. He flipped through the table of contents until he found something that looked right. "Like this." And he handed the laptop over to Billy.
"Self-help?" Billy asked a little unsure and instead of taking the laptop like he was supposed to he just leaned a little bit more over Teddy to squint at the screen. He glanced at the chapter Teddy had brought him to, Voicing your Desires, and he had to side eye his roommate a little hard at that. "You're lucky you're cute, Altman."
He then took the laptop and stood there as he read through the first few paragraphs. He frowned a little on the focusing part, the whole idea of meditation completely lost on someone who couldn't be quiet or still for five minutes, but it wasn't completely useless. "Okay. So, in order to voice my deepest desires to the universe, I need to repeat them constantly so it can hear me clearly."
Billy rolled his eyes and while holding the laptop in one hand did a dramatic hand flourish with the other. "Universe! Listen! I wish I had a million dollars! I wish I had a million dollars! I wish I had a million dollars."
His body started to go warm again and his body glowed brightly blue. "I....I wish I had a million dollars?"
Suddenly their room was filled with one-dollar bills.
Teddy had been focused on ignoring Billy's comment, on forcing himself to not-care about how close Billy was standing behind him, and pretty much expecting the whole thing to go the same way as the duck request, so the brilliant blue flash came as a total surprise. The piles of paper suddenly appearing were even more so, the room filled with drifts of dollar bills reaching up to their knees.
"Holy shit, Bee!" Teddy sat bolt upright in his desk chair, the nickname happening for the second time that day without a conscious decision behind it. "You did it?" He snagged one of the bills from the top of the pile pressing up against his leg, turning it over in his hands. It felt real, crisp and new, and it certainly looked real... "Where did it come from? Did you just rob a bank?"
Billy stared at the sea of green paper (cloth his supply of useless facts added) and had to wonder for a minute if maybe he was having a stroke and this was some kind of stroke hallucination. He reached down and picked up a bill looking at, turning it over so he could see the watermarks and everything.
"Holy shit." It hit him then. "Holy shit! Did I rob a bank?!"
Billy tried walking, but ended up toppling over in a flurry of dollar bills when it proved hard to move in the cramped pile.
Teddy grabbed for him, his fingertips grazing Billy's elbow, but it wasn't enough to stop him from going over. At least, given the pile, he didn't have that far to fall. He tried to get up out of the chair, but the cascade of bills over his feet made it tricky. He could pull his feet out, but then where would he go? Teddy hauled himself out and waded in the general direction of his bed, the only safe island in the mess. "And how do we put it back if you did? You've got my computer - open CNN and see if there's anything coming on the news," he suggested.
Billy held the computer up above him as if the laptop would die if he let it drop in the mass of money and he wiggled and flopped his best towards Teddy's bed. He laid the laptop on the bed and crouched in the small hole he'd sort of dug in the bills, clicking over into the news web page in worry.
He glanced frantically over every new article before sighing in relief and sinking back into the bills. "Okay. No news of a bank suddenly missing a million dollars. So, thank god for small miracles."
"If this is a small miracle, don't try anything bigger yet," Teddy replied, distracted. He dropped down onto the edge of his bed and grabbed a couple of the bills, turning them over in his hands. Not all of them were crisp - a couple of the dollar bills were downright old and crinkling around the edges, and the serial numbers were different. "So, if this is real money, where did it come from? And more importantly-" he looked up and caught Billy's eye, concern edging out panic for the moment. "How do we put it back before anyone notices?"
Billy saw the look in Teddy's eyes and tried his best to remain calm when the guy who was usually calm looked worried. "Ah...okay. Okay, don't worry. I'll just do what I did before, right? Easy."
Except not easy. His magic was the ficklest mother fudger out there in the whole damn world and if he couldn't get this money back where it belonged- Nope. Don't think that way.
"Hopefully my dumb magic just took a dollar from every American and sent it here." Unlikely but hey, who knows. "Okay, maybe something like...I want this money gone. I want this money gone. I want this money gone."
He glowed and felt warm, all good signs that things were going well, until he noticed their window unlocking by itself and heard the wind outside start to pick up. "YOU FUCKER! TEDDY GET THE WINDOW!"
Teddy didn't stop to ask, not when the panic in Billy's voice registered. He half-bounced to his feet and half-shifted his arms so he could reach the window, and it took all his strength and control to hold it shut without breaking it and rendering the whole thing moot.
"Would you please cut that out?!" He snapped, then felt bad. Not as bad as he might have, if he hadn't been standing in a pile of stolen dollar bills, holding a pane of glass to keep a magical wind at bay. "Stop and think things through first."
Billy jerked when Teddy snapped at him and he immediately felt that awful feeling of shame when someone shows you how foolish you've been. He gulped, nodding and telling himself that it was stupid to feel hurt when Teddy had every right to be annoyed. "Yeah, sorry."
He had to think about this. Apparently, his magic liked to play the whole Genie in a bottle wishing trick, where he had to be careful about what he said. Billy closed his eyes and focused on the money in the room, visualizing it moving from the room and back to where it belonged.
There it was. Belonged.
"I want the money to go back where it belongs. I want the money to go back where it belongs. IwantthemoneytogobacktowhereitbelongsIwantthemoneytogobacktowhereitbelongsIwantthemoneytogobacktowhereitbelongs.
He felt warm and when he opened his eyes the money was gone.
Wonder of wonders, Billy actually... listened. And he sat quietly, and the window stopped trying to fly open. Teddy let it go, watching in amazement and a little bit of awe as Billy's blue glow filled the room. It suffused everything with light, his chant catching in a pulse of it-- and then it cleared, taking the piles of money with it.
Teddy stumbled and caught himself on the desk before he could fall to one knee, the paper he'd been standing on suddenly just... gone. Along with any irritation or exasperation Teddy had been feeling, all of it washed away in the realization of what had just happened. "Holy crap," he said reverently. Then, more excited, as he stepped up, on and down over the bed to rejoin Billy, "Look at that! You did it! At least, I think you did. You made it work!"
Billy cracked an eye open at Teddy's rejoicing, looking at the room with suspicion just in case his magic had a few more tricks up its sleeve. When everything looked like it was back to normal, Billy opened his other eye and glanced around before turning to Teddy with a grin. "I did it! I did it and we won't be arrested grand theft!"
He jumped in the air while doing a few vigorous fist pumps. "Oh my god! That was amazing."
"Except for the larceny part," Teddy grinned back at him. "But I think this qualifies as a major breakthrough, don't you?" He was half-tempted to grab Billy and hug him, but that was probably that one step too far.
"Umm this qualifies as a huge break through!" Billy gushed, still high off the adrenaline of getting that stolen money out of here and using his powers correctly. He flopped down on his bed with a large grin and held his hands up above his face so he could look at them. "I'm finally getting it."
"Congratulations," Teddy replied warmly. "I have only two requests before I go raid the kitchen and find some chips or popcorn to celebrate with. No more money wishes until we can figure out where it comes from, and -" he glanced down at the hideous blue and red tie-dye shirt he was wearing. "Can you put this back the way it was?"
Billy moved his head to the side so he could look at Teddy from his bed, grinning like a fool until he figured out what Teddy was requesting and sat up. "Oh! Yeah! Sorry, I almost forgot that's not how it was."
Billy closed his eyes and tried to think of the best way to verbally use his magic for this. Can't be vague.
"IwantTeddy'sshirttobebacktonormal.IwantTeddy'sshirttobebacktonormal.IwantTeddy'sshirttobebacktonormal."
He felt warm again and opened his eyes to see the room bathed in blue from him.
The blue washed over Teddy, the faint warm tingle of Billy's magic suffused him, and his shirt changed back into green. It was almost like watching himself shift in the mirror- Teddy couldn't resist. It wasn't kind, but it was funny. As his shirt changed, he shifted his skin color to the tie-dye pattern that Billy's magic had created on the fabric minutes before - blue and red, in swirls. He looked down at his own hands, and he opened his eyes wide in mock horror. "Oh no!"
When he saw Teddy's shirt change from tie dye back to green, Billy felt an unbelievable swell of pride at being able to finally get this magic thing going and he grinned.
Then Teddy's skin turned that disgusting tie dye color and Billy wanted to scream. "Oh! No no! Sorry! Hold on, uhhh..."
He tried to think of how that had even backfired like that.
Teddy tried to keep a straight face, honest to God he did, but the series of expressions that Billy ran through at top speed was just way too funny to hold back. He let the broad grin shine through and shifted back to normal. "You should see your face right about now," he laughed, hands up to ward off whatever Billy was going to throw at him this time.
Billy stopped completely when he saw the grin on Teddy's face and for a minute just stared, then he growled. He stormed over to Teddy, grabbed his bare forearms and sent a decent amount of shock through the other.
"You compete ass!" He yelled, but a second later couldn't help the grin and laugh that escaped him. "I thought I tie dyed you for good! You deserve it after that!"
"Ow, hey!" Teddy protested, laughing, even though it didn't actually hurt that badly. The jolt sent him stepping back a pace, and he rubbed his arms where Billy had grabbed him. "Come on, admit it. That was funny. I don't think I've ever seen that many expressions go across a human face in such a short span of time."
"You are so going to regret that! You better watch your back, Teddy. Cause now I know how to use my magic." Okay, so that threat wasn't as threatening as he wanted it to sound, but still! He crossed his arms over his chest and gave Teddy a glare.
"And my incredibly expressive face was cause I was worried, but now all my expressions will be are smug and laughing when I turn your shoes into melted marshmallows or something."
"Good luck finding another roommate if you do," Teddy replied cheerfully, obviously not taking the threats to heart. "especially not one with both my resistance to electrical shocks and finely-crafted sense of humor."
"Ma meh meh ma mah." Billy mimicked Teddy's words in a high pitched over exaggerated manner. He was quiet for a moment before smirking. "Yeah, and I'm sure you'd just turn me into da coppers if I's tried."
For being a real New Yorker, his New York accent was awful.
"Nope. But I might for that accent." Teddy grabbed his pillow -- not a duck, thank goodness -- off the floor and tossed it back toward him. "That was a crime against sound."
"Wow." Billy held up his hands in defense. "Hurtful much? My New York accent is what I'm most proud of, so how dare you."
He couldn't stay serious for long and tossed the pillow Teddy had thrown his way onto his bed with a grin. His stomach chose at that moment to let everyone in the room know that Billy was hungry and he laughed awkwardly. "Apparently, I need sustenance, wanna come with?"
Teddy took one last look around the room to make sure everything was actually back the way it was supposed to be, and he nodded. "Yeah, sounds good." He grinned as he opened the door for Billy. "I wonder if you could turn the pond into a ball pit for the next party? I suppose it wouldn't be good if there was anything actually living in there..."
"Oh my god! That is an amazing idea!" Billy grinned and grabbed the door from Teddy. "I wonder if I could magic the fish or whatever is in there out of there. That way Shen wouldn't get mad about sensless fish death."
"That, or you can do it to the basketball court. Less chance of a great piscine extinction event." Teddy headed out into the hall, smiling and warm all through. That most of that feeling was because of the boy walking beside him -- that he felt weird and more than a little fluttery inside when Billy smiled back -- none of it was worth examining. Not and risk having to look at himself and his choices too closely.
"Oh, basketball court could work. It's already a place for balls. Ha ha ha!" He let out a loud fake laugh at his own joke as he followed Teddy down the hall.
Billy sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, eyes closed as he tried to focus on the magic inside him. Yana had said anger was the way to go, but he needed to find a way for it to work without it because he couldn't just always be angry all the time.
He sat there for a good fifteen minutes in silence trying this before he let out a frustrated yell and pulled at his hair. "Why can't I fucking do it?!"
The aggrieved shout cut through the music, and Teddy dropped his headphones down around his neck. He turned around at his desk, startled, but Billy didn't look like he'd hurt himself, or set anything on fire... He was just sitting there, like he'd been doing since just after Teddy had started on homework.
"Are you okay?" Teddy asked, killing the music and leaving the headphones beside his computer.
Billy sighed and laid down on his back so he could look at Teddy upside down, scowling best he could. "No! I'm not. My stupid ass magic is being a huge dickwad right now."
Correction, it was a dickwad all the time.
"I can never get it to work when I actually want it to. It always happens as a fluke."
Teddy flopped down, pulling his feet in to sit cross-legged on the floor next to Billy. "Didn't Illyana say that it had something to do with being angry?"
"Well, yeah. But I mean, if I'm angry all the time I might die of high blood pressure at like twenty-seven. Plus, I don't think I have that many things to be angry about." Billy sighed and remained laying down and reached out to poke at Teddy's jean covered knee. "I need to be able to access it regularly, not wait till someone awful happens."
"I mean, that's not a terrible problem -- not having that many things to be angry about, I mean." Teddy shrugged and poked Billy back with his sock-clad toe. "But yeah. Not so useful if you're just looking to do small scale stuff. What were you trying to do just now?"
"Anything!" Billy cried out, flinging his arms up into the air towards the ceiling. "Like even just being able to use it regularly for small things would be good. The only times I've ever consciously been able to get it going is when Yana wanted me to do something to her hair tie, but even then, it took some serious work."
Teddy sat back against the foot of Billy's bed, out of range if he decided to wave his arms around again. "Maybe it's the 'anything' that's the problem, not your mood. I know if I tried to shift into 'anything,' my powers wouldn't work at all. I have to focus on something specific, the more detail the better."
Billy pursed his lips at Teddy's advice and hummed a little in thought, then sat up quickly and turned to face Teddy with his legs crossed again. "Okay. Alright. Let's see..."
He looked at the green t-shirt that Teddy was wearing and focused on it best he could. After about five minutes of nothing happening Billy sighed and wanted to punch his magic in its stupid nonexistent face.
It wasn't a terrible thing, sitting there watching Billy as Billy stared at him. It helped that Billy was staring at his chest, not his face, so Teddy was free to look, to memorize the wrinkle between his brows when he frowned, the faintly golden flecks in the brown of his eyes, the pout that curled out his bottom lip as he grew more and more frustrated.
Until finally Billy sighed and seemed to be ready to give up, not even the faint blue tingle of his electricity suggesting anything happening.
"What are you trying to do?" Teddy asked, curiosity finally winning out over the comfortable silence. He probably should be more concerned about his supposedly magical roommate apparently trying to cast a spell on his torso, but given Billy's success rate so far it didn't feel like he was in any real danger.
"I'm trying to turn your shirt red or blue, but I'm having a hard time getting my magic to respond. It's like it refuses to listen to my commands."
He rolled his eyes upward, his hands coming up in an exasperated gesture. "I'm all like I want Teddy's shirt to turn blue or I want Teddy's shirt to turn red, even I want Teddy's shirt to turn either color but-"
He stopped when his body glowed blue and Teddy's shirt turned an awful tie-dyed mess of dark red and Robin egg blue.
There had been a sensation -- not an unpleasant one, more like sitting under a heat lamp for a couple of seconds, or a warm sunbeam -- and then it was gone. Teddy looked down at his shirt in surprise and mild amazement. "Wow. Okay. That's a thing that just happened. That was actually pretty cool, Bee." At least it hadn't been one of his favorites. "And you aren't angry, unless frustrated counts as angry."
Billy stared at Teddy's, honestly, awful looking shirt and crawled forward to reach out and touch it. He frowned when it felt exactly like a regular t-shirt, soft and worn, but the colors were completely different.
"What the hell?" He whispered as he sat back, still staring at the shirt in confusion before looking up at Teddy. That's when he realized he'd just used unknown magic on his roommate. "Oh shit! Are you okay? It didn't like warp you in any weird way? Do you feel okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"
He held up three.
Teddy laughed. "Sixteen. Come on. I promise I haven't changed any. It just felt... warm for a second, like there was a hair dryer pointed at me, but without the air flow. I really think the only thing you got was my shirt. So, bonus on the control." He flashed Billy a supportive thumbs-up. "Can you put it back?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..." Billy was pretty sure he couldn't, the weird shirt color change thing had happened when he hadn't even been trying like all the other times his magic had made itself known. "Maybe? Probably not, but I can give it a try."
Billy again stared at the gross shirt that was now on Teddy and tried to remember what the original shirt had looked like. It had a design and the color green was close to emerald, with those in mind Billy focused as he tried his best to turn the shirt back.
Nothing.
"This is so dumb!!"
Teddy grabbed for his hand for a second, giving it a calming squeeze. "It's okay. You did it once, right? That means you can do it again." He dropped Billy's hand, the warmth of his skin lingering. "We just have to figure out what was different about the time it did work, and then you do that again."
Billy almost jumped when Teddy took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze, the feel of Teddy's larger hand around his making him feel like his heart was in his throat. When Teddy let go, Billy had to remember to focus on what the other was saying and not how nice Teddy's hand had felt in his own.
"Uhhh...yeah. Yeah. Okay." He tried to think, tucking the hand that had been held in his hoodie pocket and closer to himself. "Let me think...maybe the difference was frustration, but I wasn't frustrated when it was the math test or my mom's vase. I was more scared or worried..."
He frowned as he tried to sort out what he had been doing when suddenly he had a thought. "Speaking...speaking!!"
Teddy grinned. "You're saying that your magic has verbal spell components? That's an extra ten points on your nerd score right there."
Billy grinned, both at Teddy's commentary and at maybe finding something that might work with his magic. "Okay okay, you giant nerd. Let me try something."
Billy looked around the room and reached over Teddy to grab on of the pillows that had been knocked to the foot of his bed. He held it between both of his hands and closed his eyes. "Become a duck."
Nothing happened.
Billy frowned and tried again. "Please become a duck?"
Nope.
"The pillow knows better," Teddy suggested, his lips twitching. Billy had ended up closer to him than he was before and Teddy was somehow attuned to it, a restlessness sitting under his skin. "And I have to ask, even though I'm also sure I don't want to know. Why a duck?"
"Ducks are cool? Better than geese, that is for sure." Billy looked at how their knees were almost touching and made an effort to scoot back so it wouldn't make it seem like he was trying anything.
That was the last thing he needed.
"Okay how about this...I would very much like you to be a duck."
Still nothing.
"Ugh! I just want you to be a duck!" He groaned and his body glowed blue for a quick second before fading. Pillow was still a pillow.
"That was something!" Teddy watched, but nothing else happened. "You lit up, but it wasn't like your electricity -- more like a glow. So, you tapped into something. Okay," he started thinking out loud. "So, you don't need to be angry, but emotion helps. And it's not just about words, or maybe it needs to be the right words?
"Or maybe it's more like clerical magic and your patron deity really doesn't like the idea of you having a duck in the dorm," he added, grinning. "Can't say I argue with that one. Keeping that quiet could be an issue."
Billy had been about to sigh at all the possibilities Teddy was bringing up, not really sure how bad he wanted to tap into his magic if it was going to take freaking detective work to figure out. Then Teddy decided to be a smartass and Billy grinned, tossing his pillow at Teddy's head.
"Okay. Okay. So, what did I say that made me glow...I said I just want you to be a duck..." He paused to see if he would glow again, but nothing happened. "Herm...maybe it's something I have to actually really want? But I didn't really want to change your shirt and it still happened."
He closed his eyes again and thought.
"I really want to figure this out." Nothing. "I really really want to figure this out."
His body started to glow.
Teddy batted the pillow away, letting it fall harmlessly somewhere on the other side of the room. Watching Billy was more important, and then it began -- the blue glow surrounded him again, a tingling aura that seemed to light him up from the inside. Teddy held his breath.
Billy held his breath when he his body started to glow again, his limbs feeling oddly warm, like he had dipped them into a bath or something and he wanted to hold on to that feeling.
Unfortunately, with the silence, the blue glow around his body started to fade and Billy started to panic. "No, no! I really want to figure this out!"
Teddy realized he was chewing on his bottom lip, watching, waiting- as the glow faded from around Billy and he started to flail. And if Teddy was disappointed, how much worse must it be for Billy? Frustration was rolling off of him in almost tangible waves. Billy had moved back so his hands weren't in easy reach anymore, but Teddy bumped Billy's knee with his toe in what he hoped came across as some attempt at commiseration.
What he really wanted to do was help, though, not just bear witness. So - think through it logically. Billy's magic wasn't innate, it needed to be what? Announced to the universe at large, and with intent? Weirdly enough, that sounded familiar. "Ask, believe, receive-" Teddy said out loud, and scrambled to his feet. "Hang on. I've got an idea."
Billy frowned as Teddy got up and excitedly moved over to his laptop, Billy following at a slower pace to peek over the others shoulder. "Why are you logging into kindle? Are there books on magic out there that I'm not aware of?"
Yana probably had a bunch, but he had a feeling those books were out of his league. He glanced at Teddy's profile, wondering what the guy was thinking and was feeling a little happy that he didn't have to do this alone.
Teddy flopped down into his chair when he realized Billy had followed him over, bringing his laptop with him. "My mom went on this self-help-book kick last year. She was having a rough time at work, and bought a whole bunch of these 'visualize your way to success' seminars and so on. Most of its crap," Teddy admitted, glancing back at Billy over his shoulder. "At least the whole 'think yourself rich' end of it, but there was some stuff in a couple of them about visualizing and focused meditation, and it kind of sounded like what you were trying a minute ago.
"Here-" he said excitedly, pulling up one of the first books in his mom's account. He flipped through the table of contents until he found something that looked right. "Like this." And he handed the laptop over to Billy.
"Self-help?" Billy asked a little unsure and instead of taking the laptop like he was supposed to he just leaned a little bit more over Teddy to squint at the screen. He glanced at the chapter Teddy had brought him to, Voicing your Desires, and he had to side eye his roommate a little hard at that. "You're lucky you're cute, Altman."
He then took the laptop and stood there as he read through the first few paragraphs. He frowned a little on the focusing part, the whole idea of meditation completely lost on someone who couldn't be quiet or still for five minutes, but it wasn't completely useless. "Okay. So, in order to voice my deepest desires to the universe, I need to repeat them constantly so it can hear me clearly."
Billy rolled his eyes and while holding the laptop in one hand did a dramatic hand flourish with the other. "Universe! Listen! I wish I had a million dollars! I wish I had a million dollars! I wish I had a million dollars."
His body started to go warm again and his body glowed brightly blue. "I....I wish I had a million dollars?"
Suddenly their room was filled with one-dollar bills.
Teddy had been focused on ignoring Billy's comment, on forcing himself to not-care about how close Billy was standing behind him, and pretty much expecting the whole thing to go the same way as the duck request, so the brilliant blue flash came as a total surprise. The piles of paper suddenly appearing were even more so, the room filled with drifts of dollar bills reaching up to their knees.
"Holy shit, Bee!" Teddy sat bolt upright in his desk chair, the nickname happening for the second time that day without a conscious decision behind it. "You did it?" He snagged one of the bills from the top of the pile pressing up against his leg, turning it over in his hands. It felt real, crisp and new, and it certainly looked real... "Where did it come from? Did you just rob a bank?"
Billy stared at the sea of green paper (cloth his supply of useless facts added) and had to wonder for a minute if maybe he was having a stroke and this was some kind of stroke hallucination. He reached down and picked up a bill looking at, turning it over so he could see the watermarks and everything.
"Holy shit." It hit him then. "Holy shit! Did I rob a bank?!"
Billy tried walking, but ended up toppling over in a flurry of dollar bills when it proved hard to move in the cramped pile.
Teddy grabbed for him, his fingertips grazing Billy's elbow, but it wasn't enough to stop him from going over. At least, given the pile, he didn't have that far to fall. He tried to get up out of the chair, but the cascade of bills over his feet made it tricky. He could pull his feet out, but then where would he go? Teddy hauled himself out and waded in the general direction of his bed, the only safe island in the mess. "And how do we put it back if you did? You've got my computer - open CNN and see if there's anything coming on the news," he suggested.
Billy held the computer up above him as if the laptop would die if he let it drop in the mass of money and he wiggled and flopped his best towards Teddy's bed. He laid the laptop on the bed and crouched in the small hole he'd sort of dug in the bills, clicking over into the news web page in worry.
He glanced frantically over every new article before sighing in relief and sinking back into the bills. "Okay. No news of a bank suddenly missing a million dollars. So, thank god for small miracles."
"If this is a small miracle, don't try anything bigger yet," Teddy replied, distracted. He dropped down onto the edge of his bed and grabbed a couple of the bills, turning them over in his hands. Not all of them were crisp - a couple of the dollar bills were downright old and crinkling around the edges, and the serial numbers were different. "So, if this is real money, where did it come from? And more importantly-" he looked up and caught Billy's eye, concern edging out panic for the moment. "How do we put it back before anyone notices?"
Billy saw the look in Teddy's eyes and tried his best to remain calm when the guy who was usually calm looked worried. "Ah...okay. Okay, don't worry. I'll just do what I did before, right? Easy."
Except not easy. His magic was the ficklest mother fudger out there in the whole damn world and if he couldn't get this money back where it belonged- Nope. Don't think that way.
"Hopefully my dumb magic just took a dollar from every American and sent it here." Unlikely but hey, who knows. "Okay, maybe something like...I want this money gone. I want this money gone. I want this money gone."
He glowed and felt warm, all good signs that things were going well, until he noticed their window unlocking by itself and heard the wind outside start to pick up. "YOU FUCKER! TEDDY GET THE WINDOW!"
Teddy didn't stop to ask, not when the panic in Billy's voice registered. He half-bounced to his feet and half-shifted his arms so he could reach the window, and it took all his strength and control to hold it shut without breaking it and rendering the whole thing moot.
"Would you please cut that out?!" He snapped, then felt bad. Not as bad as he might have, if he hadn't been standing in a pile of stolen dollar bills, holding a pane of glass to keep a magical wind at bay. "Stop and think things through first."
Billy jerked when Teddy snapped at him and he immediately felt that awful feeling of shame when someone shows you how foolish you've been. He gulped, nodding and telling himself that it was stupid to feel hurt when Teddy had every right to be annoyed. "Yeah, sorry."
He had to think about this. Apparently, his magic liked to play the whole Genie in a bottle wishing trick, where he had to be careful about what he said. Billy closed his eyes and focused on the money in the room, visualizing it moving from the room and back to where it belonged.
There it was. Belonged.
"I want the money to go back where it belongs. I want the money to go back where it belongs. IwantthemoneytogobacktowhereitbelongsIwantthemoneytogobacktowhereitbelongsIwantthemoneytogobacktowhereitbelongs.
He felt warm and when he opened his eyes the money was gone.
Wonder of wonders, Billy actually... listened. And he sat quietly, and the window stopped trying to fly open. Teddy let it go, watching in amazement and a little bit of awe as Billy's blue glow filled the room. It suffused everything with light, his chant catching in a pulse of it-- and then it cleared, taking the piles of money with it.
Teddy stumbled and caught himself on the desk before he could fall to one knee, the paper he'd been standing on suddenly just... gone. Along with any irritation or exasperation Teddy had been feeling, all of it washed away in the realization of what had just happened. "Holy crap," he said reverently. Then, more excited, as he stepped up, on and down over the bed to rejoin Billy, "Look at that! You did it! At least, I think you did. You made it work!"
Billy cracked an eye open at Teddy's rejoicing, looking at the room with suspicion just in case his magic had a few more tricks up its sleeve. When everything looked like it was back to normal, Billy opened his other eye and glanced around before turning to Teddy with a grin. "I did it! I did it and we won't be arrested grand theft!"
He jumped in the air while doing a few vigorous fist pumps. "Oh my god! That was amazing."
"Except for the larceny part," Teddy grinned back at him. "But I think this qualifies as a major breakthrough, don't you?" He was half-tempted to grab Billy and hug him, but that was probably that one step too far.
"Umm this qualifies as a huge break through!" Billy gushed, still high off the adrenaline of getting that stolen money out of here and using his powers correctly. He flopped down on his bed with a large grin and held his hands up above his face so he could look at them. "I'm finally getting it."
"Congratulations," Teddy replied warmly. "I have only two requests before I go raid the kitchen and find some chips or popcorn to celebrate with. No more money wishes until we can figure out where it comes from, and -" he glanced down at the hideous blue and red tie-dye shirt he was wearing. "Can you put this back the way it was?"
Billy moved his head to the side so he could look at Teddy from his bed, grinning like a fool until he figured out what Teddy was requesting and sat up. "Oh! Yeah! Sorry, I almost forgot that's not how it was."
Billy closed his eyes and tried to think of the best way to verbally use his magic for this. Can't be vague.
"IwantTeddy'sshirttobebacktonormal.IwantTeddy'sshirttobebacktonormal.IwantTeddy'sshirttobebacktonormal."
He felt warm again and opened his eyes to see the room bathed in blue from him.
The blue washed over Teddy, the faint warm tingle of Billy's magic suffused him, and his shirt changed back into green. It was almost like watching himself shift in the mirror- Teddy couldn't resist. It wasn't kind, but it was funny. As his shirt changed, he shifted his skin color to the tie-dye pattern that Billy's magic had created on the fabric minutes before - blue and red, in swirls. He looked down at his own hands, and he opened his eyes wide in mock horror. "Oh no!"
When he saw Teddy's shirt change from tie dye back to green, Billy felt an unbelievable swell of pride at being able to finally get this magic thing going and he grinned.
Then Teddy's skin turned that disgusting tie dye color and Billy wanted to scream. "Oh! No no! Sorry! Hold on, uhhh..."
He tried to think of how that had even backfired like that.
Teddy tried to keep a straight face, honest to God he did, but the series of expressions that Billy ran through at top speed was just way too funny to hold back. He let the broad grin shine through and shifted back to normal. "You should see your face right about now," he laughed, hands up to ward off whatever Billy was going to throw at him this time.
Billy stopped completely when he saw the grin on Teddy's face and for a minute just stared, then he growled. He stormed over to Teddy, grabbed his bare forearms and sent a decent amount of shock through the other.
"You compete ass!" He yelled, but a second later couldn't help the grin and laugh that escaped him. "I thought I tie dyed you for good! You deserve it after that!"
"Ow, hey!" Teddy protested, laughing, even though it didn't actually hurt that badly. The jolt sent him stepping back a pace, and he rubbed his arms where Billy had grabbed him. "Come on, admit it. That was funny. I don't think I've ever seen that many expressions go across a human face in such a short span of time."
"You are so going to regret that! You better watch your back, Teddy. Cause now I know how to use my magic." Okay, so that threat wasn't as threatening as he wanted it to sound, but still! He crossed his arms over his chest and gave Teddy a glare.
"And my incredibly expressive face was cause I was worried, but now all my expressions will be are smug and laughing when I turn your shoes into melted marshmallows or something."
"Good luck finding another roommate if you do," Teddy replied cheerfully, obviously not taking the threats to heart. "especially not one with both my resistance to electrical shocks and finely-crafted sense of humor."
"Ma meh meh ma mah." Billy mimicked Teddy's words in a high pitched over exaggerated manner. He was quiet for a moment before smirking. "Yeah, and I'm sure you'd just turn me into da coppers if I's tried."
For being a real New Yorker, his New York accent was awful.
"Nope. But I might for that accent." Teddy grabbed his pillow -- not a duck, thank goodness -- off the floor and tossed it back toward him. "That was a crime against sound."
"Wow." Billy held up his hands in defense. "Hurtful much? My New York accent is what I'm most proud of, so how dare you."
He couldn't stay serious for long and tossed the pillow Teddy had thrown his way onto his bed with a grin. His stomach chose at that moment to let everyone in the room know that Billy was hungry and he laughed awkwardly. "Apparently, I need sustenance, wanna come with?"
Teddy took one last look around the room to make sure everything was actually back the way it was supposed to be, and he nodded. "Yeah, sounds good." He grinned as he opened the door for Billy. "I wonder if you could turn the pond into a ball pit for the next party? I suppose it wouldn't be good if there was anything actually living in there..."
"Oh my god! That is an amazing idea!" Billy grinned and grabbed the door from Teddy. "I wonder if I could magic the fish or whatever is in there out of there. That way Shen wouldn't get mad about sensless fish death."
"That, or you can do it to the basketball court. Less chance of a great piscine extinction event." Teddy headed out into the hall, smiling and warm all through. That most of that feeling was because of the boy walking beside him -- that he felt weird and more than a little fluttery inside when Billy smiled back -- none of it was worth examining. Not and risk having to look at himself and his choices too closely.
"Oh, basketball court could work. It's already a place for balls. Ha ha ha!" He let out a loud fake laugh at his own joke as he followed Teddy down the hall.
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Yana, however, would like to register a complaint. He could have at least kept Part of that million dollars! What is she teaching him???
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