The Day After - For WearingtheStars

[helpdesk_hero]

He knows it the second he wakes up. Because there's this void in his head. Can't explain it, can only say it's wrong. As deeply wrong as anything has ever been in his life. Of course the only reason he even woke up was because of all of the shouting. The fear and the pain. And David swallows hard because he's reaching and there's nothing.

Which is what gets him grabbing at his jeans and a t-shirt, throwing himself out of the room, barely even acknowledging Josh as the gold-skinned idiot wakes up. No, his concern is the room across the hall. Is pushing past people so he can pound on it. Billy.

"Billy!" he shouts through the door. He should have fought harder when Emma found out they were dating. He shouldn't have let people change their rooms. He should be in there, knowing if Billy is feeling this same emptiness too.

An emptiness that can't just be David, because he thinks he just saw a girl that used to have purple skin and horns walk by. Without either of those.

"Billy, open up! Dammit, Jay, if you're in there, open the door, I need to see Billy."

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[helpdesk_hero]

Billy's there. Jay's not. David doesn't really care. What he cares about is hugging his boyfriend and holding him close and just being sure that he's still there. And... And he doesn't know anything, he realizes. Not a lick more of comic books than the stuff Billy's gotten him to read in the last few months. Not a single. Fucking. Thing. Not about the Avengers and not about Judaism, or anything else he always got when Billy was around.

"I... don't know anything, Billy. Something's... something's happened. Can you still feel electricity?"

[wearingthestars]

Holding him close, Billy tries to press down his own worry, brow furrowed with concern. He's never seen David this worried, and that's scary enough without hearing the explanation for it.

"Wh-" He feels the colour drain from his face, blinking in disbelief, and he frowns, taking a moment to actually make himself reach out, feeling the tingling in his fingers. No change there. "Y-yeah, I- how is that even-?"

Billy's at a loss as to what to do. What to say. And he takes in the panicked voices from the hall, realizing this isn't just David.

"...We need to find one of the professors," he tries to reason. Someone to tell them what to do. Someone to fix this.

Whatever's going on with his...floating, they can figure out later.

[helpdesk_hero]

Just don't make him move just yet. Because if... if he's not a mutant, will they send him away? Will they all be sent away? Chicago, so far away, and beyond where David can handle.

"Yeah, and which of them do you think could even deal with more clamoring voices right now?"

Emma and the other telepaths had to be dealing with the worst of it. And David... He needs...

"I need to sit down. It's so quiet. It's all so quiet."

[wearingthestars]

Right. Everyone's going to be going to them. Billy winces, nodding, wishes he had the right answers, feeling guilt that he isn't able to fully understand just how terrifying what David's going through is.

It's terrifying enough from the outside.

He nods again, pulling him inside and pushing the door closed to try and shut out the panicked voices. "Come on. It's okay- it'll...it'll be okay, David. I promise. Whatever happens, you're okay-"

[helpdesk_hero]

"I'm human," David corrects. So he's not okay. He's not whole anymore. Even as he was just starting to come to terms with who and what he was, to truly accept it, it might have been taken from him. He does pull Billy over to the nearest bed and sits. "My parents are going to be so happy about it. That's what my father wants. He's not as bad as most parents, but he's definitely not a Kaplan."

His friends are here. People who are his family in a way, but he has to live with this now.

"Do... you think it was an attack or something?"

[wearingthestars]

"We don't know if it's permanent," Billy tries to offer, "The X-Men have lost their powers before, it doesn't mean you're stuck this way." But it might.

"I- I don't know. Maybe? I guess that would make sense." People didn't just lose their powers en mass like that typically, "But why would it only effect some of us? Is Josh okay? Jay isn't even...here."

[helpdesk_hero]

“Josh was still gold, and Jay...”

Oh god. David stares at Billy in something like horror.

“Jay goes for morning flights!”

[wearingthestars]

"Oh shit--"

Eyes widening, Billy feels as though his heart's dropped out from his chest, and he bolts for the door, doubling back to grab his phone from his beside table. Shaking hands knock it to the floor and he has to take a moment to try and fight down the panic from taking over.

"Shit, shit, shit-" he curses, scrolling urgently through his contacts for Jay's name.

[helpdesk_hero]

Yeah, beyond shit. David reaches out, his hands closing around Billy’s. If something happened it already happened. Three seconds probably won’t matter.

“Breathe. I’ll call him. You just... sit down, okay?”

Because what else can they do? David should probably check on the rest of the team too. Josh and Nori and Laurie and Sofia. But first, the one most likely to get hurt. Because Sofia didn’t use her flight befote breakfast usually.

[wearingthestars]

Even without his powers, David seems to know what to do, and Billy stills, letting out a shuttering breath at his boyfriend's instruction and nodding. He wants to be stronger for him, but in this moment all he can do is shift to sit up on the floor by his bed, back against the mattress, trying not to let his gaze turn towards Jay's bed.

"...M'sorry-" he mumbles once he's gotten a better handle on his breathing.

[helpdesk_hero]

Panic attacks are understandable. Hell, the only reason David is taking this in stride is because of Billy being safe and whole. t least one of them is. He frees the phone from Billy and makes a quick call. And almost immediately gets an answer.

“Hey man, it’s David. Come back to the manor. Something’s happening. Yeah... wow if you comment on me using his phone... just get back here.”

David sighs and tosses the phone onto the bed before moving to sit by Billy and pull the other teen into his arms.

“Everything’s...”

He can’t lie and say it’s going to be okay.

“Mr Summers will figure out what’s going on.”

[wearingthestars]

"Oh- Thank God," Billy mutters, hearing the line pick up. He's okay. They're all going to be okay. They have to be. Right?

He leans into David, nodding at that long silence.

"We'll figure it out," he agrees, "We always figure it out. I just...I wish I could do something- I don't- I wish it was me and not you." David's powers meant so much to him.

[helpdesk_hero]

“You’re the one that wants to be a hero Billy, not me,” David reminds him. He wanted to learn to control what he could do. But he wasn’t the one that wanted to be an X-Man or an Avenger or anything of the like. He wasn’t the one that looked forlorn when they heard news about those Young Avengers working out of New York. “This... is probably better I guess. You can still be that.”

Just without David around.

[wearingthestars]

All the same, Billy'd give it all up if he could give it back to David, if he could take back that panic that had brought him to the door.

"We still don't know if this will stick. You could be back to normal by tomorrow. And...a-and even if you're not...you're still David. You're still the smartest guy in almost any room."

[helpdesk_hero]

David’s frown should be all the response that last comment needs.

“Do we even know that, Billy? Do I?”

He works so hard to learn things to make sure it’s his work and his knowledge. But how much of that has been a lie that he’s been telling himself? He leans heavily against his boyfriend, trying to sort out how he feels about it all.

“This is like... the exact opposite of what Dani and Emma showed me as a caution when I wanted Ms Frost to remove my mental blocks. There I abused my powers and people died. And now...”

Now he didn’t even have them. And honestly, it says a lot about his mood that David even references the whole affair of when Dani’s fear projection and Emma’s telepathy had woven together to show David his own subconscious fears about the potential of his powers. He had only ever mentioned to Billy that he hadn’t liked what he saw of himself and asked to not bring it up ever. And yet here he is, talking about it.

“My powers, I... I was always aware of people around me in this weird sort of way. And I could feel you, feel your mind. And that’s gone now.”

[wearingthestars]

Pursing his lips, Billy winces a little at the insight into just what it was David had seen. It's something he's always been curious about, but he's respected David's request not to bring it up.

He takes David's hand, twining their fingers together, mulling over the right choice of words, but there really isn't one right now.

"I know I can't even begin to understand what that's like for you but...I'm still here. I'm still yours. Even if you can't feel it."

[helpdesk_hero]

He was a telepath, a kind of one at least, locked into his own mind. And it was terrifying. For the rest of the team he had to be strong. With Billy... with Billy he could be weak.

“Maybe,” he agrees, squeezing Billy’s fingers. “But... Xavier’s is a school for mutants. Which is the only reason my parents have let me stay. I know I was reluctant when I first got here, but you’ve helped me come to love all of myself. And that’s why I kept fighting when my parents would yietly try and convince me to leave. Now...”

Now he might get no say.

[wearingthestars]

"..." It's not a possibility Billy wants to consider, but he does eventually nod, trying to remain as positive but realistic as possible.

"...If that happens...once we're eighteen we can- it's not...it's that far away."

It doesn't sound all that convincing.

There's an anxious sort of static lingering around Billy. Not enough to hurt, but enough to give a sort of tickle, and he's careful not to move his fingers quick enough to produce any kind of shock.

[helpdesk_hero]

Well, David’s older. Eighteen isn’t too far away for him. A matter of months. But who knows where they would stand by then. Billy, however...

Fuck the sparks. Like David hasn’t felt his share of them in dating an electrokinetic. He moves closer to brush his lips against Billy’s. It’s a light kiss, but it’s contact he needs right now.

“Like you could keep me from texting you all the time.”

[wearingthestars]

Billy's sure they could put a continent between them and Billy wouldn't want anyone else, but he'd be fooling himself if he didn't acknowledge that long distance can put a serious strain on a best of relationships.

"Mmm, you'd better do more than just text," he mumbles, turning into the kiss with a teasing smile. And that at least feels better, like nothings changed, not really. It's just them. Like it always has been.

[helpdesk_hero]

He’d try. Not, of course, that either of them could fathom what might happen in the coming days. No, instead David focuses on the kiss, but only until he hears the beating of wings by the window. Which gives him half a second of warning before...

“I’d say get a room but you’re already in one,” Jay greets them as he climbs in through the window, tucking his wings through them. “The whole building is in a panic. What’s going on?”

“We don’t know,” David admits as he pulls away from Billy’s lips. “But it’s got something for do with people waking up without their mutations, I think.”

“Shouldn’t you know?”

[wearingthestars]

Flushing, Billy pulls back, a shy smile on his face before the reality of everything settles back in, and he's giving Jay a pointed look.

"We were afraid whatever it was might have happened to you mid flight," he admitted, "It seems to be kind of random so far?"

[helpdesk_hero]

There is a brief look on Jay’s face that says maybe he doesn’t care so much. But it’s gone in an instant.

“We should find out what happened then. Check on the others,” Jay suggests, heading for the bedroom door.

“Yeah,” David agrees, pushing to his feet again and sighing. “I should do that. Billy, you wanna come help?”

Like David wants to let Billy out of his sight at this moment.

[wearingthestars]

The look is brief, but enough to make Billy's brows crease with momentary concern, but he's quickly distracted, nodding and pushing to follow after them.

"Yeah, of course," he agrees, stealing a final moment to give David's hand a squeeze. With all that's going on he's sure PDA's aren't going to be high on anyone's radar today, but he still releases him once they've left the room, sticking close.

[helpdesk_hero]

Not like it matters, really. They barely make it twenty feet before David hears it, the command.

There is a special sort of feeling, having a powerful telepath in your mind. It’s something most of them have experienced from Emma Frost giving school wide announcements with a thought. There is something else entirely when four of the strongest telepaths in the world, working in tandem, project a mental command. And, like everyone else, David can’t fight the order to sleep, crumpling to the floor not three feet from Billy and Jay’s door.

It’s hours later when the compulsion fades, or so David’s angry stomach tells him as he starts to stir. His elbow hurts from falling on it weird too. Not that he’s too worried. There is still a soft compulsion toward being calm that hovers in the air of the school. Ms Frost and the Cuckoos may have let them wake, but it was clearly for a reason. And part of David really wants to go to the auditorium right now.

The rest of him is busy wanting to know where Billy is.