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ax_mainIllyana crashes with the boys, a movie night is suggested, and then things get campy.
(Very brief discussion of rape and consent as it relates to Rocky Horror.)
Billy frowned as he dug through his closet, hoping he had packed that old sleeping bag with him when he made the move to the school. "Damn it. I could have sworn I brought it."
He had to find it before Yana came, otherwise he'd have nothing to sleep on since their beds only came with a sheet and a comforter.
Teddy watched from the middle of his own bed, his finger holding his place in his book while Billy flailed. Teddy had changed for bed already, considering that it would be really inappropriate to do it while there was a girl crashing in the room later on, hauling on his grey track pants and well-worn Jets t-shirt. "Is everything okay?" he asked finally. "She's not in serious trouble or anything, is she?" He just had to hope none of the staff randomly decided to do bed checks that night, or they were all going to be in trouble.
"I don't know? Like, I know people were made at her at the party cause..." He needed to remember, it was cause of that guy she brought, right? "I guess her date wasn't the best person? Something to do with this brotherhood gang that I'm still not quite sure about, but whatever."
Billy finally found the old sleeping bag and pulled it out with a grunt, grateful his mom had at least washed it since their last failed camping trip. "God, here is it."
He dragged it so that it laid between Teddy and his own bed.
Teddy wasn't at all sure who or what Billy was talking about, but it sounded mildly benign, or at least not immediately dangerous. "So we're talking roommate drama, not fugitive from justice," he asked jokingly. "Just to be clear."
Billy chuckled and grabbed one of the pillows from his bed to toss on the floor with the sleeping bag. "No, not yet at least."
Dressed in a black tank top bearing the legend "Do you believe in magic?" and a pair of pink exercise shorts that made decent pajama bottoms, Illyana shifted her pillow and blanket to one arm to knock on the door, then opened it. "Hey. I brought - oh, cool."
Smiling tiredly (because honestly, she was pretty much emotionally exhausted, and still more than a little jittery, which made for a really crappy combination), she crossed over to plop down on the sleeping bag. "Thanks for this. I really do appreciate it."
"Hey," Teddy greeted her, nodding from his bed. Any questions about the 'not yet' part of Billy's comment were going to have to wait until later.
Billy stared at Yana, who was sitting on the sleeping bag he had pulled out for himself, and frowned before reaching down to grab her hand and haul her up. "Um, no. That's where I sleep. You get the bed."
"Uh, no?" Illyana looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. "It's your room. I'm fine. Honest."
"I wouldn't argue with him if I were you," Teddy advised sagely, settling to sit with his back against the wall. "He gets bossy when he's trying to take care of people."
Billy turned to give Teddy a rather weak glare, hands on his hips as he got ready to argue. "Bossy? I'm not bossy, I just like to tell people what is best for the situation."
He turned back to Yana. "Also, no. You're the guest here, so you get the bed. Don't fight me on this. You won't win."
Despite the day she'd been having (or maybe because of it, she wasn't sure) Illyana smirked. "Pretty sure you can't move me, apprentice. Besides, I'm a self-invited guest. Doesn't count." Or at least, so she was maintaining. She really had no idea if it did or not.
It looked like Billy was well-matched on the 'I do things my way' front, and Teddy removed himself from the argument. He cracked his book open again -- Foundation and Empire, for about the fourth time -- and let them fight it out. Only, the word 'apprentice' stuck with him. He didn't know Illyana at all, certainly not enough to know if she'd take a Star Wars joke well, but he could save that for Billy for later.
"Oh my god. Illyana Grace Rasputin! And yes I made up your middle name cause I don't actually know it!" Billy frowned down at her, glancing at Teddy for support, feeling betrayed when he saw his roommate had gone back to reading. "I'll move your small ass if I have to. Just cause you're better at magic than me right now, doesn't mean I can't physically pick you up."
He wasn't the strongest, but she was small so he had at least that much faith in himself. "Just take the bed so this won't get ugly and then you can tell me why you needed to be away from Kitty."
Because why else would she not want to sleep in her room?
Illyana had opened her mouth to protest that if he was going to use her middle name to yell at her, he could at least ask what it was, first - but then shut it, her expression turning sulky. "I don't want to talk about it," she complained, and reached up to fiddle with the ends of her hair. "You'll just take her side anyway, and I don't have anywhere else to sleep."
That wasn't going quite the way Teddy had imagined the conversation heading, and he set his book down again. "We're not going to kick you out, promise. And I'm sure she doesn't want to start talking about personal stuff with me around," he said to Billy, over Illyana's head. "We haven't even really met yet."
Billy sighed when he knew Teddy was right, that making Yana talk in front of his wasn't fair to her or Teddy, so he conceded to that with a shake of his head. "Fine, you don't have to talk about it right now. Also, Teddy's right, unless you murdered Bobby and that's why Kitty is upset than there really isn't anything that would make us kick you out."
"I'm in bed. You're not." Illyana retorted. "And for the record? For once, I'm not the one who did anything." She looked over at Billy's roommate, who honestly hadn't been registering on her radar as anything other than "Billy's roommate". "Also, sorry. You're Teddy, right? I'm Yana. And thanks again for letting me borrow your floor."
"Teddy Altman. Hey." He gave a little wave in her direction. "And no problem. What are friends-of-friends for, right?"
Billy sighed at glanced over Teddy with a pleading look. "Help?"
Teddy cocked a skeptical eyebrow at him, then shook his head. "Let it go, Bee. You offered three times, she said no three times, even Emily Post would call that overkill. Sooner or later you're just going to have to take her at her word. No means no. All that healthy boundary stuff."
Illyana offered a tired but rather smug smile and stretched out her legs. "What he said."
Billy took a deep breath in through his nose, then let it out slowly through his mouth before fixing Yana with a very half-hearted glare. "Fine, but only because Teddy said so."
He stood up defeated and walked back over to his bed, sitting down on the side. "But if you get cold or uncomfortable, please don't just suffer through it. Just tell me, or Teddy since once I'm asleep I tend to be dead to the world."
"I'm a pretty sound sleeper as well," Teddy apologized in advance, "but yeah. If you need anything, just holler." He glanced at the clock. "Are you guys planning to crash now? I was going to sit up and read for a while, but if you want the lights off I can find my flashlight."
"Probably not gonna sleep for a while," Illyana admitted. " I've got my earbuds though."
Billy hadn't been thinking about going to sleep yet, though Yana did look tired, but if both of them weren't turning in he certainly wasn't going to.
That's when he got an idea in his head.
"Hey! We could ya know...watch a movie or something? Something happy? Like I dunno, a musical of sorts that is all about figuring out where you are supposed to be, triumphing over evil and cute kids?"
Teddy knew where that was going the moment Billy said 'musical.' And yeah, there it was. it wasn't that he didn't like it, per se, it was just... long. Yeah. "The Sound of Music is a three-hour movie," he pointed out quickly. "And while I'm always up for something that involves punching Nazis, it's maybe not ... the right call. For this particular occasion."
"I'm going to take a pass on a three hour long anything," Illyana seconded, tossing Teddy a grateful look. "Besides, it sounds kinda..." Dumb? Upbeat? Horrifying? "cutesy. Do you have anything else?"
"Ah!" Billy gaped at the two of them in offense, his hand going to his chest dramatically. "You people are awful. It's three hours of amazing, thank you very much."
He gave a small huff, but pulled his laptop up from the floor and opened it up. "Fine, you love haters. Let's see what else I have."
He signed in and clicked through a few of the files he had on his computer, finding the movies pretty easily and started listing them off. "Okay, we have Sharknado, Little Shop of Horrors, All of the LOTRs, West Side Story, Chicago, Alien, Star Wars old and new and newer, and Batman the original."
He scrolled through a few of the animes on there ‘cause he wasn't ready to be that nerd out in public yet. He saw the last movie he had and blushed. "Erm...there is also the Rocky Horror Picture Show..."
Teddy listened to the list, nodding along. "My first vote's for Sharknado, but it depends how Illyana feels about flying teethy death machines and really, really bad overacting.
“The Lord of the Rings movies are really long too, and I've never seen Rocky Horror." He really only had the vaguest idea what it was about, other than the posters that went up around the college campuses at Hallowe'en. "Isn't that a b-movie parody?"
"I've never seen it either," Illyana admitted. Anything with Horror in the title had to not be half bad though, right? Besides, she'd seen the Lord of the Rings. The orcs reminded her of Limbo. "Let's go with that."
Billy was a little shocked that out of every movie he had listed, the two of them had decided on the one where Tim Curry was in full lingerie and the plot was just insane. Not counting all the crazy sexual situations.
"Ha...ho." Billy glanced down at the file a little nervously. He loved the movie when he watched it by himself or with friends and he guessed it was with friends so it couldn't be awkward right?
Right?
"O-okay. Just uh, be warned, it's rated R for a reason. Teddy you wanna do the bed thing again?"
Because he just had to phrase it like that, didn't he? Teddy glanced away, looking down at Illyana instead. "It'll be difficult to push the beds together with the sleeping bag on the floor between them, and she's already set up. Why don't we just sit down there instead?"
"I can pick the stuff up," Illyana offered, once she realized what "the bed thing" meant. Why sit on the floor around a laptop if there were other options? She got to her feet and scooped up the sleeping bag and pillows, then backed up. "There, all fixed."
Billy beamed at Yana and got off his bed, moving to the other side so he could start pushing his towards Teddy's, though he didn't make it look nearly and cool and flawless as Teddy did.
So much for reading, or for Sharknado. Teddy shrugged mentally and set his book aside, giving up on his original plans for a relatively quiet evening.
Guys. Seeing as Teddy didn't seem to be moving anywhere fast, Illyana rolled her eyes, dropped her stuff on top of the bed, and went over to help Billy push. "Are we just going all the way across with it?" she asked.
"Grrrr! Just until we bump up against Teddy's! We do this normally when we watch stuff together!" With Yana's help he was able to get the beds smooshed together relatively quickly and grinned while offering his hand for a high five from Yana.
Teddy, in the meantime, cleared the rest of his stuff off his bed, deliberately not paying attention to the way the other two were organizing themselves. It was different when it was just he and Billy there, the easy closeness growing between them something neither was talking about. Assuming it wasn't all in Teddy's head, anyway. But having someone else there changed things. If he sat too close to Billy, would she know? If he sat as far away as possible so that he didn't accidentally lean on him or brush his hand -- would she pick up on that instead?
Nope, the coward's way out was to let them sit down first and take whatever space they left for him.
Illyana returned Billy's high five and forced a grin (she and Kitty normally just climbed on one or the other of their beds, and he'd made her think of that), then went over to grab her pillow and blanket, figuring she'd crawl in alongside Billy when she came back.
Billy flopped down onto the combined bed, grabbing his laptop and getting it started. He had started out on the edge, but then wondered if Teddy and Yana would find it weird having to sit or lay next to each other when they didn't know one another. He shimmed a little more into middle and tried not to think about having to sit next to Teddy while watching this movie.
"Do we want the lights off?"
"Is it a lights off kinda movie?" Illyana asked, then shrugged and switched them off, anyway, seeing as she was near the light switch. It'd be easier to see the screen without any glare. Noting that Billy'd gotten settled, she crawled in next to him and, after a moment, snuggled in against. If he could dole out hugs for no good reasons, he could snuggle. She was definitely in the mood.
They were settled in by the time Teddy had finished moving things around randomly on his desk, and he stamped hard on the pang of irritation (that was all it was, not jealousy. Billy wasn't his and never could be) that stuck him hard at the sight of them cuddled up together. Billy was gay, he wasn't interested in Illyana. And Teddy had carefully made sure that Billy was never going to look at him that way again, so there was no reason at all for his throat to be going tight. He pushed it away, ignored the urge to run, and put his friendly, comfortable smile-face on instead.
And when Teddy sat down on the bed on Billy's other side, he made sure to keep an inch or two of distance between them (not easy, considering the three of them piled into the two single beds). He grabbed a pillow to rest in his lap, his arms on top, a shield against the world. "All right, let's see this thing," he said, forcing himself to relax. It was just another movie night with buddies. He was the only one making it strange.
Billy waited until they were all situated on the bed before he reached over to click the play button on the screen for the movie. He didn't even pull much away from Yana and when he settled back in he let her snuggle against him again, resting his head on top of hers in comforting moment until the end of the 20th Century Fox logo went away and was replaced with a pair of very red lips singing.
Oh boy. He thought silently about ready to jump out of his skin. Here we go.
****** Some time later *****
"I found it!" Illyana announced, holding up her phone that was now displaying the script for what you were supposed to be yelling during the movie. Which was...okay, she still couldn't see where "horror" fit in, unless they were talking about the acting, but it was so awful it was funny. Her eyes scanned the page quickly until she found what they were currently saying, then past it to see what was coming up next. "We're supposed to have flashlights. Do we have flashlights?"
The theme song had been promising. Teddy had seen almost all of the movies the song listed off, so he'd figured he was halfway there as far as picking up the gist of the movie itself. So far it had been ... not quite what he'd expected, but maybe not that far off... until Billy had started talking about live scripts and call backs and Teddy had lost the plot again.
"I have one," he offered, leaning in across Billy to try and read the webpage she was looking at. Wow, that was a lot of cursing.
Billy laughed a bit at how into it Yana was getting and that Teddy was helping. He let Teddy lean over him and really hated how good the guy smelled, looking up at the ceiling while the two figured the script out. "I'm assuming we won't have all the props we need, but we can do some of it. Just no virgin sacrifices cause otherwise I'd be the only one doing all the sacrificing."
He choked on his tongue at that thought.
Illyana's eyebrows climbed, and she grinned impishly. It had to be something to do with the movie, but... "Wow, virgin sacrifices? And you were getting on my case about chickens?"
Teddy pulled away, giving Billy a bewildered look. How had virginity come in to anything? "What do you mean, you'd be the only sacrifice? I'm still-" then he paused, because maybe he'd parsed some of that out wrong? But no, he resigned himself to the idea that he had absolutely no idea what was going on anymore. He settled back against the wall and shook his head with bemusement. "You know what? I don't want to know."
Billy cracked up at that and hid his face in his hands, shaking his head as the laughter made him shake. When he calmed down he decided to explain a little, though Teddy's confusion was adorable. "No-no. The virgin sacrifice is for those who haven't gone to the live showing or in this case who haven't even seen the movie. So, it would be you two who are the virgins. Did you find that flashlight?"
"I'm not the one with the flashlight," Illyana pointed out as she grinned at Teddy's discomfort. "It's okay though, it was a nice confession," she assured him, reaching across Billy to pat his arm.
Teddy groaned, his cheeks flushing warm, and he rolled off the bed to go find the flashlight. "Let's agree to pretend that never happened, yeah?"
"Oh no. It happened and I will remember it until I'm old and yelling at kids from the porch." Billy grinned and watched Teddy move around, flushing when the other bent over to get the flashlight from his dresser drawer and it pulled his track pants tight.
Billy buried his face in Yana's shoulder and quietly asked if she would kill him please.
"Nope." Illyana patted Billy's leg. It was meant as an answer to his question, but it would serve as one to Teddy's as well. Besides, she was enjoying the view, too.
There was Deeply Suspicious Muttering happening behind him, and Teddy ignored it as best he could. The flashlight had rolled to the back of the drawer and it took him a second to fish it out, and he shook it at the pair of gigglers on the bed as he turned and headed back. "You are both terrible people, and you should feel bad."
"Demon sorceress." Illyana shrugged and grinned. "I don't really do feeling bad. And terrible goes with the job description."
"I feel bad if that makes you feel any better?" Billy piped up, lifting his head from Yana's shoulder with a small smile. "I'm lying, but doesn't it make you feel better knowing I tried?"
“Not really, no. But I appreciate the token effort.” Teddy flopped back onto the bed with a sigh, handing the flashlight over in Billy and Illyana’s general direction. “As requested. Now what?”
Illyana consulted the screen of her phone. "I think we're supposed to wave it at the screen when the next song says "there is a light"?" She looked over at Billy for confirmation.
"Yep! But let's not shout most of the script tonight. It's late and I don't think that the boys dorm needs to hear a lot of swearing and sexual innuendos, even if this is a boys dorm." Billy shifted so Teddy could get back into his spot, reaching out to poke him in the arm with a grin. "Come on, this is supposed to be fun. No sighing, only singing."
Teddy elbowed him back, a reluctant grin tugging up at his lips. "No-one wants to hear me sing, trust me. But you guys go right ahead. I'll be here not recording anything for blackmail purposes." And he gave Billy his best super-fake-innocent look. Not that he actually would, but Billy deserved the tweak after all that.
"I'm not really sure there's anything I can do at this point that would make anyone think any less of me." Illyana grinned and waved her hand. "Feel free to record."
Billy laughed at both his friends and reached back over to get ready and press play. "Okay, so be warned. It gets like...weird and I mean like, super duper weird."
He pressed play again and made sure Yana had the flash light, holding up his hand and letting its sparks glow blue. "My own personal flashlight."
"Watch where you point that thing," Teddy teased, making a show of putting his phone far out of the range of Billy's sparks. "Or this is going to be a short movie night." He settled in after that, hyper-aware of Billy's shoulder and hip nudging against his in the dark.
"Shhh. I think the music is starting," Illyana complained.
***
Billy hid his face in Teddy's pillow when the Sword of Damocles came on and Rocky was unwrapped from his bandages to reveal very small golden hotpants while Frank ran around after him. Peter Hinwood was so cute even with that stupid hair cut and no eyebrows.
Tim Curry in fishnets was manageable, Susan Sarandon was pure fun no matter what she was doing, but Teddy had not entirely been prepared for the gold hotpants. Or the way Billy essentially faceplanted into Teddy at the same sight. "Your taste is deeply suspect," Teddy found the need to inform him. He didn't push Billy away.
"It is," Illyana agreed, wrinkling her nose at the blond guy on the screen. Not her type, thank you. "Isn't there anyone hot in this movie? Other than Magenta?"
Billy popped his head up immediately, hot to defend. "Whoa whoa whoa. Peter Hinwood is just beautiful so hush. Also Tim Curry is playing a really dramatic and crazy character so a lot of his facial features are overexaggerated, plus he has really crappy make-up. But if you get him in a movie like Clue?"
Billy nodded sagely. "He's very nice to look at in Clue."
There was no way to honestly answer that without falling into or setting some kind of trap for himself, so Teddy only shrugged noncommittally. "I thought he was a lot of fun in Lexx."
"I haven't seen either, and he's not hot in here, so it doesn't count," Illyana protested.
Billy waved them both away.
"Not gay." He pointed at Teddy. "And no taste." He pointed at Yana. "I have nothing else to say."
The wave of regret and self-loathing that swamped Teddy at Billy's pronouncement was as gut-wrenching as it was unexpected, and he fell quiet. What are you upset about? This was what you wanted to happen. The reminder only made him feel worse.
Illyana eyed Teddy curiously, then mentally shrugged. Something was up there, but she wasn't sure what, and it wasn't any of her business, anyway. "I have awesome taste," Illyana replied instead, directing a smug grin at Billy as she snuggled in against him. "It's just that no one appreciates it."
"Mmmm..." Billy hummed skeptically, but then huffed a laugh and settled back in not willing to fight it. "Yeah, yeah. I'll give you that you have some taste."
***
"You!"
"I'm afraid so, Brad, but isn't it nice?"
Teddy frowned at the screen, his discomfort a lot more to do with the deception playing out than the whole apparently shocking-surprise-bisexual thing the movie had going on. "Yeah," he said slowly, unconvinced. "I'm pretty sure that's still rape."
Illyana frowned too, considering Teddy's comment. "Is it rape if he consented and it just turns out that he didn't know who he was consenting to?" she asked Billy.
"Wow. We are having this conversation?" Billy frowned at the scene, never really having thought of it as anything besides a dumb scene between Janet, Brad and Frank. "I mean, yeah, I can see where you would definitely get the rape vibe from it, but I guess they are saying that both of them were consenting in the end. Sooo...it's alright?"
He weighed both hands back and forth like a scale, not wanting to sound like he was condoning that sort of thing -god don't let Teddy think that- but also trying to say how he felt. This was a really serious conversation for a really stupid musical.
Teddy frowned at him, faintly disappointed in Billy's reaction, though really, talking about sexual ethics in relation to a movie from the 1970s was probably never going to end well. He shrugged, and let it go. "You guys might never have to think about this stuff with your powers, but I do." Some of the conclusions he'd come to had been less than pretty, and not all of them could be blamed on Greg. But I'm not that guy anymore.
Illyana shrugged and just continued watching, now that Billy'd confirmed she was right. She'd had to think of plenty of other things with her powers - this one didn't particularly interest her.
Billy watched Teddy for a moment, not sure he had ever thought that could have been a problem when it came to shapeshifting, but then again it was kind of obvious. He leaned over to whisper in Teddy's ear so Yana wouldn't be able to hear. "Put a bookmark in that, I want to come back to it. Okay?"
He gave Teddy's wrist a squeeze before trying to focus back on the movie, even though he was a little unsettled by the conversation.
***
"And crawling on the planet's face, some insects, called the human race. Lost in time, and lost in space, and meaning..."
The scene dimmed and the credits rolled, and Teddy stretched his arms high above his head, popping his shoulders and cracking his neck. "Well, that was certainly a thing."
Billy turned to Teddy with a worried look. "You didn't like it?"
Before Teddy could even answer he looked at Yana hopefully. "Did you?"
"It was fun," Illyana smiled. "Really dumb, but fun. I want to yell the stuff at the TV next time, though."
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Teddy objected. “I’m not entirely sure I got it, but I didn’t hate it. It maybe gives me a little too much insight into your particular brand of strange,” he teased.
"Okay, okay. As long as you guys aren't saying you hate it, I will take it." Billy agreed, happy they weren't at least looking at him like he was a total freak for enjoying it. He clicked out of the movie and glanced at the time in the corner of his screen with a frown. "When did it become 12:30? Ugh. I haven't finished my homework for math yet either."
"I'd say copy mine, but we're not in the same class." Illyana sighed and got up from where she was snuggled against Billy. She'd have gone for another movie, herself, but she supposed trying to sleep wasn't a bad idea, even if she suspected it wouldn't work.
Teddy stayed where he was a little longer. It was too hard to make himself get up, to move away from the warmth of Billy’s side. “Geometry, right?” he asked, watching Billy’s profile in the semi-dark. “I took that last year. I can help, if you like. It’ll go faster than trying to figure out the textbook.”
"I will take you up on that offer, my good sir, but for now let's sleep or else I'm going to be a zombie tomorrow...or today." Billy replied as he hopped off the joint beds and grabbed his, ready to pull. "A little help, please?"
Nodding, and now alone in the space that had been so warm a moment ago, Teddy got off the bed on the other side and followed Billy’s lead.
(Very brief discussion of rape and consent as it relates to Rocky Horror.)
Billy frowned as he dug through his closet, hoping he had packed that old sleeping bag with him when he made the move to the school. "Damn it. I could have sworn I brought it."
He had to find it before Yana came, otherwise he'd have nothing to sleep on since their beds only came with a sheet and a comforter.
Teddy watched from the middle of his own bed, his finger holding his place in his book while Billy flailed. Teddy had changed for bed already, considering that it would be really inappropriate to do it while there was a girl crashing in the room later on, hauling on his grey track pants and well-worn Jets t-shirt. "Is everything okay?" he asked finally. "She's not in serious trouble or anything, is she?" He just had to hope none of the staff randomly decided to do bed checks that night, or they were all going to be in trouble.
"I don't know? Like, I know people were made at her at the party cause..." He needed to remember, it was cause of that guy she brought, right? "I guess her date wasn't the best person? Something to do with this brotherhood gang that I'm still not quite sure about, but whatever."
Billy finally found the old sleeping bag and pulled it out with a grunt, grateful his mom had at least washed it since their last failed camping trip. "God, here is it."
He dragged it so that it laid between Teddy and his own bed.
Teddy wasn't at all sure who or what Billy was talking about, but it sounded mildly benign, or at least not immediately dangerous. "So we're talking roommate drama, not fugitive from justice," he asked jokingly. "Just to be clear."
Billy chuckled and grabbed one of the pillows from his bed to toss on the floor with the sleeping bag. "No, not yet at least."
Dressed in a black tank top bearing the legend "Do you believe in magic?" and a pair of pink exercise shorts that made decent pajama bottoms, Illyana shifted her pillow and blanket to one arm to knock on the door, then opened it. "Hey. I brought - oh, cool."
Smiling tiredly (because honestly, she was pretty much emotionally exhausted, and still more than a little jittery, which made for a really crappy combination), she crossed over to plop down on the sleeping bag. "Thanks for this. I really do appreciate it."
"Hey," Teddy greeted her, nodding from his bed. Any questions about the 'not yet' part of Billy's comment were going to have to wait until later.
Billy stared at Yana, who was sitting on the sleeping bag he had pulled out for himself, and frowned before reaching down to grab her hand and haul her up. "Um, no. That's where I sleep. You get the bed."
"Uh, no?" Illyana looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. "It's your room. I'm fine. Honest."
"I wouldn't argue with him if I were you," Teddy advised sagely, settling to sit with his back against the wall. "He gets bossy when he's trying to take care of people."
Billy turned to give Teddy a rather weak glare, hands on his hips as he got ready to argue. "Bossy? I'm not bossy, I just like to tell people what is best for the situation."
He turned back to Yana. "Also, no. You're the guest here, so you get the bed. Don't fight me on this. You won't win."
Despite the day she'd been having (or maybe because of it, she wasn't sure) Illyana smirked. "Pretty sure you can't move me, apprentice. Besides, I'm a self-invited guest. Doesn't count." Or at least, so she was maintaining. She really had no idea if it did or not.
It looked like Billy was well-matched on the 'I do things my way' front, and Teddy removed himself from the argument. He cracked his book open again -- Foundation and Empire, for about the fourth time -- and let them fight it out. Only, the word 'apprentice' stuck with him. He didn't know Illyana at all, certainly not enough to know if she'd take a Star Wars joke well, but he could save that for Billy for later.
"Oh my god. Illyana Grace Rasputin! And yes I made up your middle name cause I don't actually know it!" Billy frowned down at her, glancing at Teddy for support, feeling betrayed when he saw his roommate had gone back to reading. "I'll move your small ass if I have to. Just cause you're better at magic than me right now, doesn't mean I can't physically pick you up."
He wasn't the strongest, but she was small so he had at least that much faith in himself. "Just take the bed so this won't get ugly and then you can tell me why you needed to be away from Kitty."
Because why else would she not want to sleep in her room?
Illyana had opened her mouth to protest that if he was going to use her middle name to yell at her, he could at least ask what it was, first - but then shut it, her expression turning sulky. "I don't want to talk about it," she complained, and reached up to fiddle with the ends of her hair. "You'll just take her side anyway, and I don't have anywhere else to sleep."
That wasn't going quite the way Teddy had imagined the conversation heading, and he set his book down again. "We're not going to kick you out, promise. And I'm sure she doesn't want to start talking about personal stuff with me around," he said to Billy, over Illyana's head. "We haven't even really met yet."
Billy sighed when he knew Teddy was right, that making Yana talk in front of his wasn't fair to her or Teddy, so he conceded to that with a shake of his head. "Fine, you don't have to talk about it right now. Also, Teddy's right, unless you murdered Bobby and that's why Kitty is upset than there really isn't anything that would make us kick you out."
"I'm in bed. You're not." Illyana retorted. "And for the record? For once, I'm not the one who did anything." She looked over at Billy's roommate, who honestly hadn't been registering on her radar as anything other than "Billy's roommate". "Also, sorry. You're Teddy, right? I'm Yana. And thanks again for letting me borrow your floor."
"Teddy Altman. Hey." He gave a little wave in her direction. "And no problem. What are friends-of-friends for, right?"
Billy sighed at glanced over Teddy with a pleading look. "Help?"
Teddy cocked a skeptical eyebrow at him, then shook his head. "Let it go, Bee. You offered three times, she said no three times, even Emily Post would call that overkill. Sooner or later you're just going to have to take her at her word. No means no. All that healthy boundary stuff."
Illyana offered a tired but rather smug smile and stretched out her legs. "What he said."
Billy took a deep breath in through his nose, then let it out slowly through his mouth before fixing Yana with a very half-hearted glare. "Fine, but only because Teddy said so."
He stood up defeated and walked back over to his bed, sitting down on the side. "But if you get cold or uncomfortable, please don't just suffer through it. Just tell me, or Teddy since once I'm asleep I tend to be dead to the world."
"I'm a pretty sound sleeper as well," Teddy apologized in advance, "but yeah. If you need anything, just holler." He glanced at the clock. "Are you guys planning to crash now? I was going to sit up and read for a while, but if you want the lights off I can find my flashlight."
"Probably not gonna sleep for a while," Illyana admitted. " I've got my earbuds though."
Billy hadn't been thinking about going to sleep yet, though Yana did look tired, but if both of them weren't turning in he certainly wasn't going to.
That's when he got an idea in his head.
"Hey! We could ya know...watch a movie or something? Something happy? Like I dunno, a musical of sorts that is all about figuring out where you are supposed to be, triumphing over evil and cute kids?"
Teddy knew where that was going the moment Billy said 'musical.' And yeah, there it was. it wasn't that he didn't like it, per se, it was just... long. Yeah. "The Sound of Music is a three-hour movie," he pointed out quickly. "And while I'm always up for something that involves punching Nazis, it's maybe not ... the right call. For this particular occasion."
"I'm going to take a pass on a three hour long anything," Illyana seconded, tossing Teddy a grateful look. "Besides, it sounds kinda..." Dumb? Upbeat? Horrifying? "cutesy. Do you have anything else?"
"Ah!" Billy gaped at the two of them in offense, his hand going to his chest dramatically. "You people are awful. It's three hours of amazing, thank you very much."
He gave a small huff, but pulled his laptop up from the floor and opened it up. "Fine, you love haters. Let's see what else I have."
He signed in and clicked through a few of the files he had on his computer, finding the movies pretty easily and started listing them off. "Okay, we have Sharknado, Little Shop of Horrors, All of the LOTRs, West Side Story, Chicago, Alien, Star Wars old and new and newer, and Batman the original."
He scrolled through a few of the animes on there ‘cause he wasn't ready to be that nerd out in public yet. He saw the last movie he had and blushed. "Erm...there is also the Rocky Horror Picture Show..."
Teddy listened to the list, nodding along. "My first vote's for Sharknado, but it depends how Illyana feels about flying teethy death machines and really, really bad overacting.
“The Lord of the Rings movies are really long too, and I've never seen Rocky Horror." He really only had the vaguest idea what it was about, other than the posters that went up around the college campuses at Hallowe'en. "Isn't that a b-movie parody?"
"I've never seen it either," Illyana admitted. Anything with Horror in the title had to not be half bad though, right? Besides, she'd seen the Lord of the Rings. The orcs reminded her of Limbo. "Let's go with that."
Billy was a little shocked that out of every movie he had listed, the two of them had decided on the one where Tim Curry was in full lingerie and the plot was just insane. Not counting all the crazy sexual situations.
"Ha...ho." Billy glanced down at the file a little nervously. He loved the movie when he watched it by himself or with friends and he guessed it was with friends so it couldn't be awkward right?
Right?
"O-okay. Just uh, be warned, it's rated R for a reason. Teddy you wanna do the bed thing again?"
Because he just had to phrase it like that, didn't he? Teddy glanced away, looking down at Illyana instead. "It'll be difficult to push the beds together with the sleeping bag on the floor between them, and she's already set up. Why don't we just sit down there instead?"
"I can pick the stuff up," Illyana offered, once she realized what "the bed thing" meant. Why sit on the floor around a laptop if there were other options? She got to her feet and scooped up the sleeping bag and pillows, then backed up. "There, all fixed."
Billy beamed at Yana and got off his bed, moving to the other side so he could start pushing his towards Teddy's, though he didn't make it look nearly and cool and flawless as Teddy did.
So much for reading, or for Sharknado. Teddy shrugged mentally and set his book aside, giving up on his original plans for a relatively quiet evening.
Guys. Seeing as Teddy didn't seem to be moving anywhere fast, Illyana rolled her eyes, dropped her stuff on top of the bed, and went over to help Billy push. "Are we just going all the way across with it?" she asked.
"Grrrr! Just until we bump up against Teddy's! We do this normally when we watch stuff together!" With Yana's help he was able to get the beds smooshed together relatively quickly and grinned while offering his hand for a high five from Yana.
Teddy, in the meantime, cleared the rest of his stuff off his bed, deliberately not paying attention to the way the other two were organizing themselves. It was different when it was just he and Billy there, the easy closeness growing between them something neither was talking about. Assuming it wasn't all in Teddy's head, anyway. But having someone else there changed things. If he sat too close to Billy, would she know? If he sat as far away as possible so that he didn't accidentally lean on him or brush his hand -- would she pick up on that instead?
Nope, the coward's way out was to let them sit down first and take whatever space they left for him.
Illyana returned Billy's high five and forced a grin (she and Kitty normally just climbed on one or the other of their beds, and he'd made her think of that), then went over to grab her pillow and blanket, figuring she'd crawl in alongside Billy when she came back.
Billy flopped down onto the combined bed, grabbing his laptop and getting it started. He had started out on the edge, but then wondered if Teddy and Yana would find it weird having to sit or lay next to each other when they didn't know one another. He shimmed a little more into middle and tried not to think about having to sit next to Teddy while watching this movie.
"Do we want the lights off?"
"Is it a lights off kinda movie?" Illyana asked, then shrugged and switched them off, anyway, seeing as she was near the light switch. It'd be easier to see the screen without any glare. Noting that Billy'd gotten settled, she crawled in next to him and, after a moment, snuggled in against. If he could dole out hugs for no good reasons, he could snuggle. She was definitely in the mood.
They were settled in by the time Teddy had finished moving things around randomly on his desk, and he stamped hard on the pang of irritation (that was all it was, not jealousy. Billy wasn't his and never could be) that stuck him hard at the sight of them cuddled up together. Billy was gay, he wasn't interested in Illyana. And Teddy had carefully made sure that Billy was never going to look at him that way again, so there was no reason at all for his throat to be going tight. He pushed it away, ignored the urge to run, and put his friendly, comfortable smile-face on instead.
And when Teddy sat down on the bed on Billy's other side, he made sure to keep an inch or two of distance between them (not easy, considering the three of them piled into the two single beds). He grabbed a pillow to rest in his lap, his arms on top, a shield against the world. "All right, let's see this thing," he said, forcing himself to relax. It was just another movie night with buddies. He was the only one making it strange.
Billy waited until they were all situated on the bed before he reached over to click the play button on the screen for the movie. He didn't even pull much away from Yana and when he settled back in he let her snuggle against him again, resting his head on top of hers in comforting moment until the end of the 20th Century Fox logo went away and was replaced with a pair of very red lips singing.
Oh boy. He thought silently about ready to jump out of his skin. Here we go.
****** Some time later *****
"I found it!" Illyana announced, holding up her phone that was now displaying the script for what you were supposed to be yelling during the movie. Which was...okay, she still couldn't see where "horror" fit in, unless they were talking about the acting, but it was so awful it was funny. Her eyes scanned the page quickly until she found what they were currently saying, then past it to see what was coming up next. "We're supposed to have flashlights. Do we have flashlights?"
The theme song had been promising. Teddy had seen almost all of the movies the song listed off, so he'd figured he was halfway there as far as picking up the gist of the movie itself. So far it had been ... not quite what he'd expected, but maybe not that far off... until Billy had started talking about live scripts and call backs and Teddy had lost the plot again.
"I have one," he offered, leaning in across Billy to try and read the webpage she was looking at. Wow, that was a lot of cursing.
Billy laughed a bit at how into it Yana was getting and that Teddy was helping. He let Teddy lean over him and really hated how good the guy smelled, looking up at the ceiling while the two figured the script out. "I'm assuming we won't have all the props we need, but we can do some of it. Just no virgin sacrifices cause otherwise I'd be the only one doing all the sacrificing."
He choked on his tongue at that thought.
Illyana's eyebrows climbed, and she grinned impishly. It had to be something to do with the movie, but... "Wow, virgin sacrifices? And you were getting on my case about chickens?"
Teddy pulled away, giving Billy a bewildered look. How had virginity come in to anything? "What do you mean, you'd be the only sacrifice? I'm still-" then he paused, because maybe he'd parsed some of that out wrong? But no, he resigned himself to the idea that he had absolutely no idea what was going on anymore. He settled back against the wall and shook his head with bemusement. "You know what? I don't want to know."
Billy cracked up at that and hid his face in his hands, shaking his head as the laughter made him shake. When he calmed down he decided to explain a little, though Teddy's confusion was adorable. "No-no. The virgin sacrifice is for those who haven't gone to the live showing or in this case who haven't even seen the movie. So, it would be you two who are the virgins. Did you find that flashlight?"
"I'm not the one with the flashlight," Illyana pointed out as she grinned at Teddy's discomfort. "It's okay though, it was a nice confession," she assured him, reaching across Billy to pat his arm.
Teddy groaned, his cheeks flushing warm, and he rolled off the bed to go find the flashlight. "Let's agree to pretend that never happened, yeah?"
"Oh no. It happened and I will remember it until I'm old and yelling at kids from the porch." Billy grinned and watched Teddy move around, flushing when the other bent over to get the flashlight from his dresser drawer and it pulled his track pants tight.
Billy buried his face in Yana's shoulder and quietly asked if she would kill him please.
"Nope." Illyana patted Billy's leg. It was meant as an answer to his question, but it would serve as one to Teddy's as well. Besides, she was enjoying the view, too.
There was Deeply Suspicious Muttering happening behind him, and Teddy ignored it as best he could. The flashlight had rolled to the back of the drawer and it took him a second to fish it out, and he shook it at the pair of gigglers on the bed as he turned and headed back. "You are both terrible people, and you should feel bad."
"Demon sorceress." Illyana shrugged and grinned. "I don't really do feeling bad. And terrible goes with the job description."
"I feel bad if that makes you feel any better?" Billy piped up, lifting his head from Yana's shoulder with a small smile. "I'm lying, but doesn't it make you feel better knowing I tried?"
“Not really, no. But I appreciate the token effort.” Teddy flopped back onto the bed with a sigh, handing the flashlight over in Billy and Illyana’s general direction. “As requested. Now what?”
Illyana consulted the screen of her phone. "I think we're supposed to wave it at the screen when the next song says "there is a light"?" She looked over at Billy for confirmation.
"Yep! But let's not shout most of the script tonight. It's late and I don't think that the boys dorm needs to hear a lot of swearing and sexual innuendos, even if this is a boys dorm." Billy shifted so Teddy could get back into his spot, reaching out to poke him in the arm with a grin. "Come on, this is supposed to be fun. No sighing, only singing."
Teddy elbowed him back, a reluctant grin tugging up at his lips. "No-one wants to hear me sing, trust me. But you guys go right ahead. I'll be here not recording anything for blackmail purposes." And he gave Billy his best super-fake-innocent look. Not that he actually would, but Billy deserved the tweak after all that.
"I'm not really sure there's anything I can do at this point that would make anyone think any less of me." Illyana grinned and waved her hand. "Feel free to record."
Billy laughed at both his friends and reached back over to get ready and press play. "Okay, so be warned. It gets like...weird and I mean like, super duper weird."
He pressed play again and made sure Yana had the flash light, holding up his hand and letting its sparks glow blue. "My own personal flashlight."
"Watch where you point that thing," Teddy teased, making a show of putting his phone far out of the range of Billy's sparks. "Or this is going to be a short movie night." He settled in after that, hyper-aware of Billy's shoulder and hip nudging against his in the dark.
"Shhh. I think the music is starting," Illyana complained.
***
Billy hid his face in Teddy's pillow when the Sword of Damocles came on and Rocky was unwrapped from his bandages to reveal very small golden hotpants while Frank ran around after him. Peter Hinwood was so cute even with that stupid hair cut and no eyebrows.
Tim Curry in fishnets was manageable, Susan Sarandon was pure fun no matter what she was doing, but Teddy had not entirely been prepared for the gold hotpants. Or the way Billy essentially faceplanted into Teddy at the same sight. "Your taste is deeply suspect," Teddy found the need to inform him. He didn't push Billy away.
"It is," Illyana agreed, wrinkling her nose at the blond guy on the screen. Not her type, thank you. "Isn't there anyone hot in this movie? Other than Magenta?"
Billy popped his head up immediately, hot to defend. "Whoa whoa whoa. Peter Hinwood is just beautiful so hush. Also Tim Curry is playing a really dramatic and crazy character so a lot of his facial features are overexaggerated, plus he has really crappy make-up. But if you get him in a movie like Clue?"
Billy nodded sagely. "He's very nice to look at in Clue."
There was no way to honestly answer that without falling into or setting some kind of trap for himself, so Teddy only shrugged noncommittally. "I thought he was a lot of fun in Lexx."
"I haven't seen either, and he's not hot in here, so it doesn't count," Illyana protested.
Billy waved them both away.
"Not gay." He pointed at Teddy. "And no taste." He pointed at Yana. "I have nothing else to say."
The wave of regret and self-loathing that swamped Teddy at Billy's pronouncement was as gut-wrenching as it was unexpected, and he fell quiet. What are you upset about? This was what you wanted to happen. The reminder only made him feel worse.
Illyana eyed Teddy curiously, then mentally shrugged. Something was up there, but she wasn't sure what, and it wasn't any of her business, anyway. "I have awesome taste," Illyana replied instead, directing a smug grin at Billy as she snuggled in against him. "It's just that no one appreciates it."
"Mmmm..." Billy hummed skeptically, but then huffed a laugh and settled back in not willing to fight it. "Yeah, yeah. I'll give you that you have some taste."
***
"You!"
"I'm afraid so, Brad, but isn't it nice?"
Teddy frowned at the screen, his discomfort a lot more to do with the deception playing out than the whole apparently shocking-surprise-bisexual thing the movie had going on. "Yeah," he said slowly, unconvinced. "I'm pretty sure that's still rape."
Illyana frowned too, considering Teddy's comment. "Is it rape if he consented and it just turns out that he didn't know who he was consenting to?" she asked Billy.
"Wow. We are having this conversation?" Billy frowned at the scene, never really having thought of it as anything besides a dumb scene between Janet, Brad and Frank. "I mean, yeah, I can see where you would definitely get the rape vibe from it, but I guess they are saying that both of them were consenting in the end. Sooo...it's alright?"
He weighed both hands back and forth like a scale, not wanting to sound like he was condoning that sort of thing -god don't let Teddy think that- but also trying to say how he felt. This was a really serious conversation for a really stupid musical.
Teddy frowned at him, faintly disappointed in Billy's reaction, though really, talking about sexual ethics in relation to a movie from the 1970s was probably never going to end well. He shrugged, and let it go. "You guys might never have to think about this stuff with your powers, but I do." Some of the conclusions he'd come to had been less than pretty, and not all of them could be blamed on Greg. But I'm not that guy anymore.
Illyana shrugged and just continued watching, now that Billy'd confirmed she was right. She'd had to think of plenty of other things with her powers - this one didn't particularly interest her.
Billy watched Teddy for a moment, not sure he had ever thought that could have been a problem when it came to shapeshifting, but then again it was kind of obvious. He leaned over to whisper in Teddy's ear so Yana wouldn't be able to hear. "Put a bookmark in that, I want to come back to it. Okay?"
He gave Teddy's wrist a squeeze before trying to focus back on the movie, even though he was a little unsettled by the conversation.
***
"And crawling on the planet's face, some insects, called the human race. Lost in time, and lost in space, and meaning..."
The scene dimmed and the credits rolled, and Teddy stretched his arms high above his head, popping his shoulders and cracking his neck. "Well, that was certainly a thing."
Billy turned to Teddy with a worried look. "You didn't like it?"
Before Teddy could even answer he looked at Yana hopefully. "Did you?"
"It was fun," Illyana smiled. "Really dumb, but fun. I want to yell the stuff at the TV next time, though."
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Teddy objected. “I’m not entirely sure I got it, but I didn’t hate it. It maybe gives me a little too much insight into your particular brand of strange,” he teased.
"Okay, okay. As long as you guys aren't saying you hate it, I will take it." Billy agreed, happy they weren't at least looking at him like he was a total freak for enjoying it. He clicked out of the movie and glanced at the time in the corner of his screen with a frown. "When did it become 12:30? Ugh. I haven't finished my homework for math yet either."
"I'd say copy mine, but we're not in the same class." Illyana sighed and got up from where she was snuggled against Billy. She'd have gone for another movie, herself, but she supposed trying to sleep wasn't a bad idea, even if she suspected it wouldn't work.
Teddy stayed where he was a little longer. It was too hard to make himself get up, to move away from the warmth of Billy’s side. “Geometry, right?” he asked, watching Billy’s profile in the semi-dark. “I took that last year. I can help, if you like. It’ll go faster than trying to figure out the textbook.”
"I will take you up on that offer, my good sir, but for now let's sleep or else I'm going to be a zombie tomorrow...or today." Billy replied as he hopped off the joint beds and grabbed his, ready to pull. "A little help, please?"
Nodding, and now alone in the space that had been so warm a moment ago, Teddy got off the bed on the other side and followed Billy’s lead.
