ax_main | Teddy, Tamara and Billy Backdated

Billy tags along for flying time with Teddy and Tamara. Fun times filled with flying, falling and jealousy!

Teddy curled his legs under him on the grassy hillside and pretended to focus on the textbook in his lap. Spanish vocabulary lists were a lot less interesting than watching the boy beside him, though.

Billy was an endless source of fascination, despite all of Teddy's best efforts to push it out of his mind -- the way he moved, all compressed energy and light, the bright sound of his laugh, the way his words tumbled out over themselves like he was too full of ideas to keep them contained. Teddy caught himself watching the way Billy's fingers curled around his pencil and forced his eyes away, back down at the homework that he was so completely not doing.

"Remind me why I let you talk me in to taking Spanish?" Teddy asked, as a way to distract himself from thoughts he really couldn't afford to be having.

Billy glanced up from his Spanish workbook, laying on his stomach in the grass next to Teddy and trying to tilt his head in a weird way to see Teddy's book. "Um, because Spanish is great and you can order a taco in its native language?"

He then beamed up at the blond and gave him a thumbs up. "Also, I'm in the class, so that makes it like five hundred billion times better than Mutant Phys."

"Mutant Fizz?" Teddy flashed him a brilliant smile. "That sounds like a fancy new soft drink. 'Now, flavor-balanced for the evolved palate.'"

Billy rolled his eyes and tried to hide the grin in his workbook. "That's so duuuuumb!"

He kicked his feet a little, turning to look at Teddy again, hating how the stupid jersey Teddy had picked for flying showed so much skin. "That jersey is indecent, T. I look sideways and can see completely inside of it from your gaping arm holes."

He needed to stop talking about seeing inside Teddy's shirt. Like immediately. "Your reputation will be shot. No man will marry you."

Teddy fought desperately against the urge to freeze, or to run, or to show any kind of reaction on his face that would betray ... anything. "Well, dang," he put on a broad southern drawl instead. "I guess papa will have to raise mah dowry to make up for it." He rolled his eyes, and scanned the distance to see if Tamara was on her way. In his normal voice, he added, "you are so weird."

Tamara waved when Teddy looked up, nearly there already. It looked like Billy was studying, which, of course he was, Billy would totally be studying on a gorgeous day like this. For her part, she was wearing some very low-riding sweatpants (to keep all the webbing of her wings free), and a t-shirt cropped into a halter top that left her wings completely free.

"Hello boys," she said as joined them, grinning at the pair on the grass. "Don't get up - this is like the first time I've ever felt tall."

Billy smiled, still a little unsure about Tamara after running into her and Tommy, but was willing to put that behind him because she seemed nice when she wasn't kissing his brother.

"Hey." He replied and moved into a sitting position, so he wouldn't have to keep craning his neck to see them. "So, Teddy can fly now, I hear? Lucky."

He wasn't bitter that he still couldn't really get the hang of it. Nope.

"It's really more of a vaguely controlled flapping, but we're getting there!" Teddy did bounce to his feet, grateful for the rescue as well as the thrill of excitement. Maybe it was ridiculous, but he'd wanted Billy to see him fly, to see the look in Billy's eyes- would he be proud? As excited for Teddy as Teddy had been for him when Billy had started to master his magic? He wanted Billy to be proud of him.

He flashed a smile at Tamara. "How's it going?"

Tamara shook her head at him - hopeless - as he towered over her again. So much for feeling tall. "Well, it was fun while it lasted," she teased with a shrug, stretching her wings out behind her.

Billy grinned at how excited Teddy was, tucking his hands in between his crossed legs and leaning forward to watch the two of them. "So, how does this all work? Do you mama bird him and push him from a high place?"

He was joking, he knew for his flying trials with Warren that was not how it was done, unless Tamara had a different approach. "Also! Let me see these wings, T!"

Teddy laughed, rolling his eyes fondly at Billy. "Warren tried that the first time, it didn't work out so well." He took a step back from Tamara, and tugged his jersey to get his back more exposed, clear for the wings.

Hyper-aware of Billy's eyes on him, he focused. Think Dragon. He felt the stretch that were the wings emerging, and he pushed them out -- out to the furthest limit he'd reached the last time he and Tamara had tried this, the finger-like bones sliding down, the membranes stretching fine between them. It felt good, like shaking out a muscle he hadn't used in a while.

When they were done he gave them a tentative beat, the new muscles in his back working to keep them -- and him -- steady. He cast a look back over his shoulder, on edge as he waited for Billy's reaction. "What d'you think?"

"Not bad at all," Tamara replied, reaching out to touch them like she had last time, admiring.

Billy felt his breath catch when Teddy's skin shifted and changed to grow a pair of large powerful wings, his eyes feeling like they might fall from his head if they got any wider. God, this guy was so unbelievably amazing, and Billy felt like his heart was in his throat for a second.

"Holy shit..." He gasped as he stood up, almost reaching out before pulling his hand back. "Those are...just so fucking cool and they work?"

Teddy couldn't make his wings ruffle and preen the way Warren could, but the pleased smile on his face from the praise was unmissable. "This version works," he nodded, and wriggled the one under Tamara's hand in an attempt to make her laugh. "It's the whole 'learning to use them properly' part that's the issue now." Billy was staring at him like he hung the moon, and Teddy felt a faint warm flush rise on the tips of his ears from the scrutiny.

Tamara had been watching Billy, and her eyebrows rose at the look on his face. Oh man, that had to make living together tricky.
She grinned back at Teddy as he wiggled the wing. “You and me both,” she said, flapping one of hers to puff air over him, ruffling his hair. “Have you practiced at all since last time?”

Billy watched the two interact, just noticing that she was touching Teddy's wings, and felt a small twinge of jealousy that she could freely touch him without it being weird. Billy told himself to stop being dumb and tried to pay attention to what they were talking about.

"Hey!" Teddy protested, laughing, and made a point of running his fingers through his hair to try and get to go back down. It was pretty pointless, mind you, and he gave up after a second. "I've practiced some, but I'm more comfortable having a spotter around. Just in case. Are you properly airborne yet?"

"A little!" Tamara replied, beaming up at him. "Here, hold on just in case?" she asked, holding her hands out to him.

This was normal. This was flying lessons. The fact that she was wanting Teddy to hold her hands for flying meant absolutely nothing besides her helping him fly and the fact that Teddy gave her that fucking amazing smile meant nothing except that he was thankful.

"You guys doing the whole Peter and Wendy thing?" He asked, without a hint of bitterness amazingly, as he gestured to the hands.

Something was up with Billy. Teddy couldn't pinpoint exactly what, or how he knew, but there was an edge to his smile that hadn't been there before. Something to do with him? With Tamara? She was dating Billy's brother, and everyone was friendly enough, at least as far as Teddy knew. He parked that thought to come back to later.

"Nah, that would be twice as much chance for something to go horribly wrong," Teddy answered him, a little more subdued. He folded his wings in rather than get rid of them, to get them out of the way. "It's safer with an anchor," he explained, semi-serious, then grinned teasingly at Tamara again as he took her hands securely. "Look at her, she's tiny. One good wind and she'll be halfway to Salem Center. Tiny but fierce," Teddy amended after a beat. "Don't zap me."

“Good save,” Tamara replied to Teddy, eyes flashing mischievously as she wiggled her fingers in his hands as if threatening a shock. “Okay, check this out...”

Springing upward, her wings responded quickly, puffing to get her a few feet up and then holding steady. She was finally getting the hang of the complex motions her wings went through, and the speed needed to do something as ‘simple’ as hover. Unlike last time, her grip on Teddy’s hands was loose, and she wasn’t using him as a tether. She beamed at him, thrilled that it was working, and also maybe issuing a bit of a flirty challenge - think you can top that?

All unreasonable ill-feelings aside, watching Tamara go airborne was probably one of the coolest things Billy had ever really seen. All the winged students here had the ability to take his breath away when they took off into the air and Billy had to give her a round of applause as she hung in the air.

"Good job, Tamara!" He called up to her, glancing at Teddy and wondering if he could ever fly with them.

Teddy grinned wide when she went up, raising his hands to give her as much space as he could, though it didn't feel like she needed him much at all, anymore. "Look at you go!" He cheered her on happily. "Want me to let go?"

"Only if you promise to catch me," Tamara replied, definitely flirting but also definitely serious. She hadn't had much chance to practice landings from much higher up. Still, having them both encouraging her was making her feel braver, and she started letting go of Teddy's hands.

"Scout's honor," Teddy replied, keeping his eyes on her just in case. He uncurled his fingers just that little bit more, but kept his arms up in case she needed to grab on again.

Excitement thrilling up from her stomach, Tamara let go, pushing herself higher, looking skyward. It was hard to focus on going only upward - her wings wanted to propel her forward, and she had to control it carefully - but oh it felt so good!

Until she looked down and saw just how high she'd gone. In a moment of panic her wings stopped, just a for a second, but it was long enough to send her dipping downward. With a little yelp, she caught Teddy's arms to keep herself from falling all the way to the ground.

He'd seen her start to come back down and Teddy caught her, his hands under her arms practically spanning the sides of her rib cage. She grabbed on and he lowered her gently to the ground. "Cross breeze or tornado?" He teased.

What exactly am I watching here? Billy thought a little sourly as Teddy and Tamara kept smiling at each other like there was no one else there, suddenly feeling like a third wheel. They looked like some weird winged version of a princess and her knight, the way Teddy held her up so easily and Billy wondered what his brother would say if he saw this.

Tommy would play it off as if he didn't care probably, which for Billy would probably be the smartest thing, but it was so hard.

"Neither," she replied to Teddy, poking her tongue out at him as he lowered her to the ground. That strength was really something, like he barely noticed he was holding her at all. "I panicked - that's the highest I've gone on my own."

She kept her arms on his after she touched the ground, still grinning up at him. "Thanks for the rescue."

She was doing the thing again where she stayed inside his personal space bubble, and Teddy took a small step back and away. "Any time," he replied cheerfully enough. No sense in making waves when it was probably just a comfort zone issue. The thrill of seeing her in the air still rippled through him, though, the anticipation and excitement almost tangible.

One thing first, though, and he was probably going to regret it, but the chance to be closer to Billy for purely innocent reasons was impossible to resist. He turned to catch Billy's eye, but that distant something was still there in his expression. Teddy held out his hand anyway. "Bee? While we're here, did you want to give it a try? I promise I won't drop you, either."

"Eh? Me?" Billy asked, poking his thumb into his chest to make sure he was actually the person Teddy was talking to and immediately shaking his head. "No, no. That's okay. I-I'm not very good and this is your guys time to practice. I'd hate to slow you guys down."

Tamara blinked in surprise as Teddy turned away. Had she spooked him? Was he that shy?

And then the way he held out his hand to Billy...

Shaking that off, she raised an eyebrow at them. "Wait, Billy flies?"

"So, he says," Teddy teased, fighting off the urge to feel rejected. It didn't have anything to do with that, or with him, and Teddy couldn't go spinning little fantasy moments in his head and expect other people to unknowingly follow along just because.

He smiled at Billy instead, warm and hopeful, his hands resting in his back pockets and his body language open. "But I haven't seen him do it yet. No pressure, of course! But I'd like to," he finished, leaving the offer open.

Billy narrowed his eyes at Teddy's obvious goading, lips thinning because it was absolutely working, and he couldn't believe how easy he was. Billy held out his hands, letting all thought besides flying go from his mind as his body started to glow and he rose in the air a few feet.

Then, as the ever-classy person he was, stuck out his tongue at the two on the ground.

Teddy had seen Billy use his magic before. He'd had it used on him before. He'd been electrically zapped, lived through the dorm room being filled with hundred-dollar bills and inflated balloons, but he'd never seen Billy quite like this. The blue glow Teddy was starting to associate with Billy's powers flowed up and around him, laying down shadows, turning him... ethereal, somehow.

Starlight, moonlight, he was every kind of light and Teddy stood beneath him, his face tipped up, lost in wonder.

Until Billy blew him a raspberry and killed the moment, reminding Teddy just how very human and real Billy was. (Human, real and entirely out of reach, but that was a different kind of problem.)

"Oh, you think so," Teddy laughed, and with one- two powerful beats of his wings, he mimicked Tamara's takeoff and shot into the air to join him.

Tamara was all but gaping (not that either of them had noticed, she could've been invisible), until she had to cover her eyes with one hand as Teddy's wings puffed air over her, leaving her in their dust nearly literally.

But she knew what she'd seen - the way Teddy had looked up at Billy? No wonder she wasn't getting anywhere with him...

Billy watched as Teddy rocketed into the air with his powerful wings and he had to admit it was one of the most amazing things he had seen. The wings worked, and Teddy looked like he belonged in the sky, the god damn perfect jerk. He hesitated a little, not real confident in his ability to go any higher, but he floated over towards Tamara slowly and offered his hand. "Want a lift?"

Tamara was smirking up at him. This was too cute. "I think I'll leave you two to it for now. Wouldn't wanna intrude."

Teddy still wasn't that great at the control end of things, and he'd shot up further than he'd intended to. Now to get back down without crashing again-- he circled once then folded in his wings a little, dropping further down. Billy and Tamara were talking, and he tried to get down a little closer to join the conversation. How the heck had Tamara managed to hover so cleanly?

"Huh?" Billy frowned, then flailed a little when his feet seemed to want to rise above his head. When he righted himself, he moved a little closer to her. "Come on, it's your guys' practice session. If anything, I should be the one to leave."

Tamara was fighting off giggles by this point, watching Teddy swooping and Billy trying not to turn upside-down. Okay, so, they were super cute and totally crushing on each other, and Tamara was 1000% in support of this.

...but they were both kind of hopeless in the air, and she probably wasn't going to interrupt any potentially romantic moments by sticking around. Shaking her head at them, she told Billy, "Don't even think about it, he's totally showing off for you."

And tossed him a wink, before leaping into the air herself and shouting to Teddy, "Less forward momentum, smaller strokes!"

Smaller strokes. Got it. Teddy felt himself starting to spin out -- he stopped trying to watch Billy and concentrated on what he was doing instead. He sort of got the wings going in the right direction at the right time, at least to the point where he wasn't falling anymore, and was kind of, sort of managing to stay level. "Hah," he flashed a brilliant smile at Tamara as she joined them in the air. "I think I'm getting it!"

Billy frowned at Tamara's words, confused by them, but before he could ask she was up in the air and giving instructions to Teddy, so he decided to keep them to himself. He turned to watch Teddy do a pretty okay job as being able to glide and Billy pushed himself a little higher, winding around Tamara a little.

"Good job, Tee!" He called with his hands cupped around his mouth. He moved a little too close to Tamara, bumping his foot against her hand. "Sorry!"

Tamara hadn’t gone very high, since her would-be rescuer was also airborne at the moment, but she had a pretty good hover going. “Careful,” she warned Billy, pushing his foot away with a little laugh. With a little thought, she managed to sort of scoot herself sideways, out of his strange, drifting path. “I take it 3D movement is hard even without the wings?”

"How do you do it without wings?" Teddy asked, backing and filling his wings to try and keep himself reasonably steady. It worked if he thought of it as a kind of treading-water motion, just ... in the sky instead. His life was so weird. "Do you just think of a direction to go, and go that way?"

"Um, kind of? Gotta say I'd rather have your guys wings." Billy said as he tried to make sure not to knock onto Tamara again, her wings looks delicate. "That way I would at least have some kind of physical thing I could do to move instead of wiggling around like a floating worm."

“Believe me, you’re better off,” Tamara replied dryly. What a thing to complain about. “You do not want to go through what I did to get mine.” Not that Teddy had gone through anything similar, but still. “Blood everywhere, crazy pain, bed rest all summer...”

Billy cringed at that description, the idea of two limbs suddenly deciding to grow from your back sounding like something from a horror movie. "Okay, yeah. I won't complain about being able to semi fly from just magic anymore. They don't still hurt so they?"

Tamara was starting to struggle with maintaining both flight and conversation. "Only when I've been working them a lot," she said, drifting sideways, then back the other way as she overcompensated.

Tamara looked like she might be faltering, and Teddy dropped lower to try and get himself in a place where he could catch her if she fell. "Instead of wiggling," he called out to Billy, "why not try the meditation stuff again? Visualize where you want to go. It worked for your magic."

Billy worried for a second when he noticed Tamara start to go sideways, not being able to help her in the slightest, before he noticed Teddy moving in to help just in case. He frowned a little at Teddy's advice and glanced down, the ground seeming no less scary. "I guess...but mediating means closing my eyes, if I do that I'm worried I'll drop."

But he did try to focus a little more, rising instead of going sideways and cursing his magic silently.

“Oh my god, holding still is the hardest part,” Tamara lamented with frustration, getting herself back under control. Then, realizing an opportunity was about to be missed, she called to Billy, “Go for it! Teddy’ll catch you if something goes wrong!”

Teddy would try, anyway. Hovering was making his back ache, though, so he let himself drop toward the ground. He was only a few feet up, and doing it on purpose made it a lot easier to land on his feet. He kept his wings out, just in case he'd need to take off again quickly, and he nodded. "Rescue patrol, on deck," he called up, and added a half-assed salute.

"Oh, god. Please no." He griped quietly, sighing as his feet came up again and he did a very loose midair version of a summersault. If he fell and Teddy didn't catch him he would get hurt, but if he fell and Teddy did catch him he'd die. Against his better judgement he closed his eyes and tried to focus on getting closer to the large pine tree that was a little bit past Tamara on their left.

He surprised himself when he felt the softest breeze against his cheek and opened his eyes to see himself moving towards the tree...but on a direct crash course for Tamara. "Ah! Shit!"

"Billy, what the hell're you-- ah!" Tamara tucked her wings, dropping out of the way but also plummeting toward the ground, heart in her throat--

--and then her wings fanned out on their own, and she sailed down to the ground, landing at a run, but, well, landing.

Billy had honest to go thought he had just killed his brother's girlfriend when he saw her plummet towards the ground, letting out a breath of relief when he saw her land. He tried to right himself, so he could yell down to her that he was sorry when his body stopped glowing and his stomach dropped as his body followed the movement.

Teddy watched Tamara land safely and turned back to check on Billy just in time to see him start to fall out of the sky. He took a running start and jumped, his wings only beating once before he reached Billy and caught him, bridal style, in his arms. "Gotcha!"

The ground came up again fast, faster now with Billy's extra weight in his arms, and Teddy aimed to hit it feet-first.

The jarring, but perfect, landing Teddy made barely fazed Billy because he was too focused on being in the guy's god damned arms. It felt much different being cradled in Teddy's hold than it had felt with Warren and Billy wanted to scream because it was stupid. Billy tried for a laugh, but it came out quiet and weak. "Nice catch, Slugger."

Tamara turned around, ready to give Billy a piece of her mind, but the plan changed as she saw them land as just the absolute cutest, omg. Not wanting to interrupt their moment, she just grinned and didn’t say a word.

Teddy focused on the landing, so much better than thinking about the way Billy fit in his arms, how easily he'd trusted Teddy to be there for him, how good he- No. I am not sniffing him. This is ridiculous.

He managed to keep his feet without stumbling or worse -- dropping Billy -- and grinned, trying to ignore the way his heart was racing. He'd just caught Billy out of mid-air, that's why. Nothing to do with anything but the exertion. "What happened up there?" he asked instead. "Did you run out of batteries?"

Billy let out a small laugh, not being able to help it even with the mild panic attack he could feel starting to happen from just being in this position, and shook his head. "Something like that. It likes to short out on me a lot, especially when the Danger level is high."

He sighed a little, then noticed that he was still being held freaking bridal style by Teddy, like he was some damsel on a romance cover. He gently pushed away, swinging his legs best he could to hop out of the hold and tried to laugh off his flush. "You got the hero thing down for sure."

Kiss him. Go on, kiss him. Come on, Teddy, you can do it! Still silent, Tamara was only agonizing a little as she watched them. They had to know they both liked each other, right? Billy was blushing.

Teddy let him go, and tried to shake off the twinge of something that followed once his arms were empty. Because indulging in his stupid crush on his roommate would end well, right? Yeah, didn't think so. It was harder again to turn away and head over to rejoin Tamara, his wings folding in snug against his back. "One disaster averted," he said cheerfully. "Who's next?"

Tamara was giving him an extremely exasperated look. How could he walk away from Billy after that?? “Weren’t you, um, kinda in the middle of something there?” she asked, nodding toward Billy.

Teddy's heart just about stopped dead at the tone in her voice and a hunted, terrified sort of look came into his eyes for a beat or two. She knows. But Tamara wasn't a telepath, there was no way she could know what he'd been thinking. So, he played dumb. He was good at that part. "The landing wasn't that rough. I think he can manage to walk back over here on his own power."

Billy brushed off his pants and headed towards the two, looking over Tamara quickly to make sure he didn't give her any lasting damage. "You sure you're okay, Tamara? I think Tommy would kill me if anything was wrong with his girlfriend."

“Wait, his what?!“ Tamara’s attention snapped to Billy, all previous thoughts replaced entirely by her shock. “We’re not dating - ohmygod, did he call me his girlfriend?” She’d thought she and Tommy were on the same page about their occasional hook ups (and even those had been on the decline lately). But if he was telling people she was his girlfriend, they were gonna have a problem.

Teddy shook his head. "Don't look at me -- I only know about it from Mr. Gossip over here. From the day he. Um. Walked in you." it occurred to him as he was speaking that he probably wasn't supposed to know about that, but it was too late to fix that now.

"But! But you guys were making out on his bed! That's what you do when you date!" God, now he was reliving it and he wanted to die. He quickly shot Teddy a betrayed look, they would have to talk about throwing each other under the bus. He raised his hands to wave off Tamara's sudden irritation as he tried to defend his brother. "No! Tommy didn't say anything, I just assumed cause of the...making out."

Tamara’s phone was in her hands, a text to Tommy waiting to be sent, and she peered up at Billy suspiciously, trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or just trying to cover for Tommy since she was obviously pissed. “I can kiss whoever I want,” she snapped, eyes flashing and a spark of electricity jumping from her fingers to the phone (thank goodness for Kitty, omg). “That doesn’t mean I belong to him.”

"No no! I didn't- ugh. That's not what I meant, I just thought that since you were doing those things that it was a thing? Oh, God. Tommy didn't say anything, and I didn't think he owned you. Sorry, I didn't know that it was just a..." His cheeks went red at the thought of 'friends with benefits' and he covered his face with his hands. "I'm sorry...it's my fault."
Teddy stayed out of the way on this one, mostly successful at concealing his amusement.

“Jeez, Billy, what the hell?” Tamara was still irritated, but at least she put her phone away.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. It just didn't occur to me that you two had that kind of...arrangement." God, he was Never going to think Tommy had a girlfriend ever again. Probably not until they got freaking married was he going to maybe assume there might be something.

Teddy coughed quietly into his hand. "This sounds like my cue to leave. I'll catch you guys later." It also got him away from Tamara and her knowing smiles.

“Ohmygod, I think that’s everyone’s cue to leave,” Tamara said, watching Billy with a kind of horror. Not because she was embarrassed, because she wasn’t, but because Billy was - and he was making it sooooo awkward. Looking over at Teddy, she said, “Nobody died. I think we call that a win and walk away, yeah?”

Billy ran his hands over his face roughly, wondering when exactly he had done something so bad in his life that he deserved this kind of luck. He watched Teddy start to walk off and made his way after him while giving Tamara a helpless look. "Real sorry. Again. I mean it. Sorry."

When he caught up with Teddy he gave his roommate a swift punch in the arm, knowing that it probably barely even tickled to Teddy. "Thanks for having my back, ya butt."

Teddy rubbed his arm, mostly for show. "Oh no," he laughed, but his heart wasn't entirely in it, Tamara's question still ringing in his ears. "You dug that hole all by yourself. And Tamara's a lot scarier than you are."

"Okay, I'll give you that. For being like four eleven she's got intimidation down pat." Billy sighed, hoping Tamara wasn't secretly upset at him and god he hoped she didn't turn on Tommy.