[Homeplot 2009] Decompression

[forhawkeye]

See, what it all boils down to is simple: it’s been a very long twenty-four hours. Between the invasion and my own personal drama, it’s something of a relief to just relax, even if it’s only for a little while. There are still too many unanswered questions -- Why am I back? Why did they come with me? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? -- but there’ll be time to answer them later.

There are about twenty different kinds of pizza lying around -- ranging from pepperoni and cheese to some ridiculously organic vegan thing -- and the amount of junk food piled on the kitchen counters could feed an entire college dorm for at least a semester. Despite all that, Felix insisted on making enough of his 'famous chicken cardarelli' for everyone. Admittedly, it’s sort of nice having some real food to balance out everything else.

And as for Alice, well, I sent Tommy to go get her some bunnies.

It’s not a party by any means, but that’s just about the last thing we need right now, anyway, especially for the people who got a crash course in war yesterday. Copious amounts of alcohol, maybe, but a party? Yeah, not so much.

"I'm federal agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life," voice overs Kiefer Sutherland from the episode of 24 playing in the background.

"Yours and mine both, Kief," I mutter under my breath. "Yours and mine both."

Comments

[forhawkeye]

I stretch out my leg so I can nudge his ribs with my foot. "Shut up," I say, barely biting back a laugh. "And anyway, he's not anyone's clone, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't count."

[halfscarlet]

"No no, it totally counts," Billy insisted. He didn't bother to push Kate's foot away; if she really hadn't seen them for six months, she was allowed a little free reign.

"If you date an alien slash android slash clone slash someone from another universe, it all counts."

Not that Billy'd made a list, or anything.

[forhawkeye]

"Okay, so by that criteria, everyone except Eli and Tommy are on their way to the A-List," I point out before taking another bite of pizza.

[halfscarlet]

"Yup." Billy sat up a little, thinking. "There was that time travel mess with Kang, we've done the whole nearly causing an interplanetary war thing," he said, looking across the room at Teddy, "and Vision was dead but not really dead for some time. You know, I think we're almost there."

[forhawkeye]

The Runaways are cool and all, but they don't really get the whole being an Avenger thing. There's a certain prestige that comes with the name. Probably because we run towards fights whereas they, well, run away.

"I'll be sure to tell Nate he's dating a B-List superhero, then."

[halfscarlet]

"B-plus at least," Billy corrected.

They were Young Avengers. The name alone gave them the sort of visibility most B-list teams didn't have-- and they'd gone into battle side by side with Nick freaking Fury.

[forhawkeye]

Laughing, I say, "B-plus, then."

I draw my legs underneath me so I can lean towards the table and grab my can of Red Bull. It's not the perfect drink for relaxation, but I've gone without it for so long that I could care less. I take a sip of it before I drop my voice into a conspiratorial whisper, "He's totally hot, though, right?"

[halfscarlet]

"I'm not even gonna lie to spare Teddy's feelings," Billy answered. Not that he'd thought about it; it was just the sort of thing he noticed and then mentally set aside. "I'm pretty sure his smile could have ended the entire invasion."

[forhawkeye]

I'm not sure whether to cringe or laugh, but eventually I settle on the latter, pressing a hand over my mouth so I don't spray Red Bull all over him. "Maybe even bring about world peace," I say, shaking my head. "But seriously, Billy...he's great. Better than, even. And I..."

I trail off. I've told Nate himself that I love him, but I've yet to say it anyone else. I cover up for the aborted sentence by taking another sip of my drink.

[halfscarlet]

There was no way Billy was letting that go, especially when he had a pretty good idea of what Kate had been about to say.

"Aaaand you what?"

[forhawkeye]

"Oh, look, Alice is eating bunnies!" I say cheerfully, pointing over towards Alice who was, in fact, eating bunnies.

[halfscarlet]

It was a pretty obvious distraction tactic, and despite knowing that, Billy looked anyway.

He paled.

"...why?"

[forhawkeye]

"She's a vampire who sparkles," I deadpan, glad that he's taken the bait for the time being. "Don't question it. Just be glad she's not eating you."

[halfscarlet]

Billy looked away with a grimace before he got a live and in color view of what a vampire looked like when they took a bite out of a poor little bunny they'd just killed.

A vampire who sparkled. What?

"You've made some pretty weird friends," Billy decided, stretching over half the couch to set his half eaten pizza and plate on the arm. He wasn't so hungry anymore.

[forhawkeye]

"I'm still not convinced Felix is real," I admit, and then I take a big bite out of my pizza in demonstration of how unfazed I am by the whole bunny thing. I missed junk food way too much to let a little something like that get in the way of eating. "Really, Alice seems more normal by comparison."

[halfscarlet]

"Yeah," Billy said slowly, watching Felix flit about the room doing something that looked suspiciously close to cleaning. "Maybe he can be our Jarvis."

[forhawkeye]

"I think he might actually have Jarvis beat when it comes to the whole cleaning thing," I say thoughtfully, lips pursed. "He's kind of...insane. But in a good way. A good...insane kind of way." I throw up a hand. "He defies words is basically what I'm getting at."

[halfscarlet]

"So, we have a vampire that sparkles," Billy started, counting each off on a finger, "a kind of insane pseudo butler, your new boyfriend, Cable, of all people, and...okay, so, why is Nico still here? I thought the Runaways went back to California."

[forhawkeye]

"Yeah, I've got nothing when it comes to that particular mystery," I admit, nose crinkling. "My only explanation is that whoever sent us back got some of the details wrong. I mean, Felix and Nate and Yorick...they're all from New York, just not this one. And Nico and Chase were here before they ended up on the island. Which doesn't explain Alice, Karolina and Mikal -- or, uh, Cable -- but it's a theory, I guess."

[halfscarlet]

"Huh." Billy didn't have a single idea about it either, but then again that could be attributed to the fact that he'd just helped fight off an alien invasion. "So...you had all of them there, but...none of us?"

Billy tried imagining being stuck somewhere strange without any of the others, let alone Teddy...he had his parents, but the rest of the Young Avengers were family too.

He suddenly wanted to offer the group hug again.

[forhawkeye]

"Not a one."

It's something I had to deal with by necessity, but I can't say I never got my hopes up each and every time someone else from home showed up. When that big group landed themselves in dino territory a few months back, I thought for sure one of the Young Avengers would be with them. You can imagine my disappointment when none of them were.

"It sort of sucked."

[halfscarlet]

That made the decision for Billy, and for obvious reasons, he didn't bother to include Kate in the process before putting an arm around her shoulders and tugging her closer for a hug. "I'm sorry you had to spend six months on an island with a hot boyfriend without us."

[forhawkeye]

I draw my knees up to my chest so I can lean into him, resting my head on his shoulder. I'm not usually this touchy-feely with people who are not my hot boyfriend, but I've missed Billy and all of them so much, that I have a lot of lost time to make up for.

"Me too," I sigh, looking down. "There weren't even any other Avengers."