Mars 2112 Restaurant and Bar, NYC, Friday Evening

[selfhelphero]

Considering how much trouble Fandom had given them in getting together in the first place, Billy and Topher had agreed to have their first date away from the island, but it had been Billy's idea to get a portal to his New York, so he could show Topher some of the city (without any encounters with giant rats, he'd promised). He hadn't meant to pick a restaurant that matched the Prom theme - finding someplace where they'd have plenty of nerdy things to talk about and could avoid awkward silences had been his biggest concern.

"The menu looked pretty awesome. Kind of Asian and Indian all together," he said as they were seated. So far, so good.

[NFB! For the other fanboy!]

Comments

[selfhelphero]

"No, they're really not. Doctor Doom's a genius but he's kind of an evil genius. An evil scarring genius. It's...maybe not going to be as quiet of a night as I thought," Billy said, looking guilty.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher thought about that rule Tony had given him about running into dangerous situations.

Then he thought about the idea of possibly running into a dangerous situation with Billy. On a date.

Shut up, he totally didn't get chills.

"We could... like, go see, if you want?" he suggested.

[selfhelphero]

Billy couldn't help but look surprised, knowing how well Topher usually handled dangerous situations. "Really? 'Cause I was thinking they might need help and--we could just go watch and see what's going on and--I'd keep you safe, I promise."

[dollpocalypse]

...okay, that was a lie, he was getting lots of chills.

Look, he'd grown up on comic books, okay? And Billy was all... badass and protective and stuff. It was impossible not to be a little attracted to that.

"'Kay," Topher said easily. "I mean. I trust you. And stuff."

[selfhelphero]

Getting trust from Topher felt really amazing, like Billy really was some kind of hero, like he'd always dreamed of being. "We'll just go for a little while. Then we can get food and stuff, right?" Billy said, glancing around. "We'd better get out of here before the waiter comes back."

[dollpocalypse]

"Definitely," Topher agreed, pushing his chair back and standing up. "Do you know where that is?" he asked with a nod toward the TV. "We could probably get a cab or something." Because someone feared public transportation after his last trip to New York. Giant rats and everything.

[selfhelphero]

"A cab would be too slow," Billy said, getting up and leading Topher outside. "I have a better idea, but you might want to, um, hold my hand." Yeah, leading Topher towards danger wasn't really terrible scary, but holding his hand kind of was.

[dollpocalypse]

On the first date? Billy, you strumpet.

"'Kay," Topher said dubiously, reaching out for Billy's hand. And he only twitched once in the process! It was really very impressive.

[selfhelphero]

Billy grinned as he took Topher's hand and held it tightly, casting spells with the other hand. Even if they were going to be high up, he couldn't risk being seen in his street clothes, and Topher hadn't seemed to mind his costume before. Then, if Topher wasn't distracted by the spandex, he might have noticed a blue disk form under his and Billy's feet, taking them a little ways off the ground.

"Hold on, okay?" he said, before taking them up and up towards the closest spot he'd seen on the news. "I won't let you fall. You can close your eyes if you want."

[dollpocalypse]

The spandex was briefly very distracting, yes, because it just... well, it fit Billy's legs really nicely, shut up. But Topher was able to draw his eyes away for long enough to look around everywhere, trying to see just what Billy was doing, and -- huh. Disk.

"Holy crap," he blurted out as soon as they started moving, squeezing Billy's hand tightly. He wasn't closing his eyes -- quite the contrary, his gaze was darting everywhere -- but being this high up was really kind of intense.

So, hand-squeezing. Because maybe Topher was kind of a strumpet too.

"'m okay," he managed, a little breathless. Because it had occured to him that Billy might want the confirmation.

[selfhelphero]

As long as they could be strumpets together, this whole first date thing had a definite chance of working.

"Okay? Good," Billy said with a grin because yes, the confirmation was helpful. "Is this better than a cab?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher nodded vigorously. "You're even cooler than the puppy dragon," he breathed.

That only made sense if Billy, too, had flown on Falcor's back in December. Which, okay, maybe he had.

[selfhelphero]

Billy hadn't flown on the puppy dragon, but he'd seen the puppy dragon, and now he was grinning and blushing again.

"I don't know if anything can be cooler than a puppy and a dragon combined," he said, and luckily, he was distracted from any further embarrassing comments (for the moment, at least) by the sight of fighting. "Look, there they are," he said, bringing the disk to a stop and pointing below to the Doombots who were running around with some kind of metallic looking creature. If he got them closer, he probably could have figured out what they might be, but keeping Topher safe was actually more important than looking smart at the moment. "Great, Doom's not working alone. That's always a good sign."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher had been inclined to guess that the metallic-looking creature was Doom, but he figured Billy knew best. "So what do we do?" he asked, taking in the scene and realizing that he actually had zero clue how to do this whole superhero thing.

[selfhelphero]

"We don't have to--it might be dangerous to go down. We can watch and see if they need help?" Billy offered. It seemed like a slight faux pas to put someone in real mortal danger on the first date.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher nodded. "Kay," he said, easing up on his grip on Billy's hand a little. "I mean. Um, they probably do, right? 'Cause. Havoc and all."

[selfhelphero]

Billy kept holding onto Topher's hand because hey, why not embrace the opportunity while he had it? "They probably do but..." he said, trailing off before spotting two very familiar figures arriving, one in blue and one in red. "Or, um, maybe not."

[dollpocalypse]

"Wha--" Topher started, trying to get a glimpse at whatever Billy was looking at.

Oh. Oh.

"Is that--?"

[selfhelphero]

"Captain America. And Iron Man. My Iron Man. I mean, he's not mine--" because he was totally Captain America's, duh, "but you know what I mean. God, this is so cool."

[dollpocalypse]

"Ohmygod," Topher babbled. "Um. Are they gonna talk to us? Or. Probably they're gonna take care of the Doombots first because they're all heroey but then are they gonna talk to us? Because dude."

[selfhelphero]

"We...could totally say hi?" Billy said, as nervous as he ever was at the prospect of talking to his heroes. "It looks like they're taking care of things pretty well. I'm going to bring us down, okay?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Kay," Topher said, nodding. Yes, he was back to squeezing Billy's hand more tightly now. And inwardly speculating about whether this particular incarnation of Tony would have a goatee. "This is so cool," he breathed.

...shut up. It was hot older Tony. He was allowed to be fanboyish about it.

[selfhelphero]

Billy brought them down to the ground as the heroes overtook the last of the Doombots. "Let's wait and find a good time to talk--"

"Wiccan? What are you doing here?"

Billy's hand tightened on Topher's instantly as he gave Captain America a sheepish smile. "Or I could remember they're very observant," he whispered to Topher.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher managed a weak smile of his own. "They're not gonna be mad or anything, right?" he asked Billy under his breath.

[selfhelphero]

"Um, not sure," Billy whispered back, before smiling and leading Topher over. "We wanted to see if you guys needed help. The news made things look kind of crazy."

"Who's we?" said Iron Man, looking them over. "Where's the rest of your friends?"

Knowing Kate, Eli, and Teddy, the rest of the Young Avengers were probably trying to sneak out of their houses as they spoke. "They'll be coming soon. Actually, I also kind of just wanted to say hi. This is my friend Topher, from my boarding school. He's heard all about you." Yeah, that wasn't awkward at all.