Room 524, Thursday Evening

[selfhelphero]

So far, Billy's classes were pretty cool, even if some of them hadn't been quite what he'd expected, thank you GLaDOS. He was a little nervous about tomorrow though - he had class with Magneto who he might possibly be related to, and that reminded him that Tommy was still ignoring his text messages, if he'd even held on to the cell phone Kate had given him, and all of those thoughts had resulted in Billy spending the evening on his laptop looking at pictures of funny animals on Tumblr.

It was therapeutic, shhh.

[Open!]

Comments

[dollpocalypse]

"It's true," Topher confirmed, passing the ice cream container off to Billy before snuggling closer. "I'm kind of a big philanthropist. Even though it's common room ice cream and not Chilly Boulder. Still counts."

So nyah. Take that, naysayers. Topher Brink knew how to date.

[selfhelphero]

"Common room ice cream is perfectly acceptable when trying to cheer me up," Billy said. "I feel better, I swear."

[dollpocalypse]

"Good," Topher said. "'Cause okay, I was thinking about it, and basically all your trauma was short-term. And like, if you look at it like a story? There's no way Tommy's not gonna show back up next time something happens. I mean, he has superspeed. That's the greatest narrative excuse for returning from a prolonged bus ride ever."

Topher needed to not use TV Tropes to help his friends cope with life problems.

[selfhelphero]

"What if I don't want my life to be like a story?" Billy asked. "What if I want things to be kind of boring, where my friends aren't getting hurt and I have a normal family?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Um." That was also a thing on TV Tropes, but Topher was going to keep that to himself. "Is that really... I mean, do you really want that?"

[selfhelphero]

"Well, no," Billy admitted. "'Cause that'd mean losing my abilities and... yeah, no, I could never handle that. I just wish I could have powers and safety for my friends and family at the same time."

[dollpocalypse]

"Well, that's... also hard." And possibly impossible. "There's no quick spell you can do that can keep everyone safe, is there?"

[selfhelphero]

"No, I've tried," Billy said, giving Topher a hopeful look. "You're safe though, right? I mean, no one's out to get you at the moment or anything?"

[dollpocalypse]

"I'm from, like, the most boring world of anyone we know," Topher promised. "There aren't even any tentacle monsters or anything. Unfortunately."

[selfhelphero]

"Hey, if there's one thing the internet can teach us, it's that tentacle monsters are bad news," Billy said, making a grossed-out face.

[dollpocalypse]

"Or hot dates, occasionally," Topher supplied, but he was teasing. "If you're Tony."

[selfhelphero]

"I'm definitely not Tony. I'm about ten steps less cool," Billy said. "But I like my costume a little more. It's a lot more comfortable."

[dollpocalypse]

"Nuh-uh," Topher said firmly. "I mean, yes to your costume, because the pants are amazing, but no to the other thing." He waved a hand vaguely. "The being-less-cool thing. I like your idea better, the not-playing-with-tentacle-monsters thing." As reinforcement of this fun fact, Billy got a very firm and decisive kiss. "So yeah."

Beat.

"Also, you, like, save people and stuff. So it's not like you having powers is a bad thing. In case you thought it was."

[selfhelphero]

"I know it's not," Billy said, still blushing from the kiss. "I still appreciate the reassurance though. And the comforting. You're getting major boyfriend points for this." And he got to use that "b" word! Bonus!