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."

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

[About that? David goes from soft and gentle to sitting up straight and looking at Billy with that attentive gaze he offers anyone when an interesting situation has arisen.]

About that?

[wearingthestars]

I uh...this morning...before you came to find me- I was...floating? I guess?

[Billy explains with an uncertain air.]

I don't know- I didn't...I didn't think it mattered with everything else going on but...I've never done that before. And my hand were...glowing? But not like they normally do...

[helpdesk_hero]

Okay, I'd... really like a bit more information?

[Because that's... unnerving. And definitely explains Billy's concern about magic?]

[wearingthestars]

[He doesn't have much more to give, and he frowns uncertainly.]

I don't know. I was- I heard you, and I woke up up near the ceiling, and my hands were glowing with this blue light? And once I was actually awake and properly hurt how upset you were the glowing stopped and I fell, and... and then everything happened, so I haven't really...figured out any more than that.

[helpdesk_hero]

[Interesting. David reaches out to lay a hand on his boyfriend's leg.]

Well, is there anything else that has happened?

[wearingthestars]

I don't think so?

[He looks to his hands uncertainly.]

[helpdesk_hero]

So, you know how to tap into your electricity. Can you see if you can't reach for that blue?

[wearingthestars]

[Billy frowns in consideration, but nods.]

I can try.

[And he tries to focus. At first he conjures strings of electricity that flicker and fade, but after a moment it changes to a blue glow that's decidedly different.]

[helpdesk_hero]

Wow.

[David hesitates for a moment before reaching out, as if to touch the power.]

We should tell someone. I just don’t know who.

[wearingthestars]

[The light drops, Billy releasing it in fear of it hurting David, but he tentatively attempt to bring it out again. Whatever it is, if David does does touch it, doesn't seem to hurt, though there's a definite aura to it that's hard to explain.]

In the middle of all this? You think they wanna deal with one student having too many powers when most of them have none?

[helpdesk_hero]

Actually... Yes, Billy. Come on, you have to see it, right? Blue light at the hands? Your features? There's something going on here.

[wearingthestars]

...My features? [Billy looks uncertain, whether he genuinely doesn't know what David's getting at, or whether he won't let himself is hard to say.]

[helpdesk_hero]

You haven't seen it?

[David's a bit shocked at that. But he gets up and goes to his laptop, quickly opening a photo-editor program. Soon he's very busy, pulling up old, old images of the Maximoff twins. And soon he's displaying a skill he'd developed before he ever became a mutant. With some work he's got Pietro isolated and has changed its hair to black, made it flop some in front of his face, and then brings up another picture, this time of Billy. Whitens his hair, changes the eye color, and puts it up next to another picture of Pietro Maximoff, this time with Wanda, young and not in hero costumes.]

Look Billy. You look like a Maximoff. Or maybe a Lehnsherr. I guess Erik could have a kid we don't know about in you, or maybe another kid.

[wearingthestars]

[That's...kind of uncanny. And it awakens a kind of anxiety in him he can't quite place, frowning and shaking his head faintly.]

I- I mean...yeah, I...I guess I see it. But...I'm a Kaplan. We're not...I'm related to either of them. I'm pretty sure I'd know if I was.

[helpdesk_hero]

Yeah, there is a chance you'd know if you were, but...

[David shrugs.]

That isn't to say that your parents aren't somehow related to Erik Lehnsherr. Probably him more likely than the Maximoffs, he's actually Jewish after all, they're half Romani, and you don't have the skin tone for that. But if you are related to Magneto somehow, then there's a history of magic and weird power in the family. And Billy... That glow is a lot like the Scarlet Witch's.

Or, other option? Wanda Maximoff went missing months ago, when the Avengers were attacked and disbanded, and Vision and Hawkeye and Ant-Man all died. What if she died too? Or lost her magic. What if it moved to a relative?

[wearingthestars]

[The glow ignites on his fingertips again, and Billy looks it over, seeing what felt so oddly familiar about it now. Wrong colour, but definitely similar look. And it's hard to say that's just 'magic' because, well, he's seen other magic users, and their magic doesn't look like that.]

...I-

[He flounders for any sort of argument, but David's made his point far too well.]

Why now?

[helpdesk_hero]

Something that happened to her? The stress of what was going on triggering something else? Some adventure you had in your sleep? I don't know.

[wearingthestars]

[It seems so unfair that David, and so many of their friends should be stripped of their powers the same day Billy seems to find new ones, and he gives a guilty look, letting the glow fade.]

...I'll let someone know tonight, give them some more time to figure what's going on without more weirdness to worry about.

[helpdesk_hero]

If only Majik was still alive. She could help.

[wearingthestars]

[If only a whole lot of things. Billy nods, and moves to properly rejoin David.]

It just feels so unfair. Is everyone going to hate me? Everyone loses their powers and I get a whole new one??

[helpdesk_hero]

No one has to know. Not right now.

The bigger question is how to help you safe when learning a new power.

[wearingthestars]

[Billy tries to think back to when he was learning to control his original power, brow furrowing softly.]

Well for starters maybe I tie myself to the bed tonight so I don't go floating away?

[helpdesk_hero]

Actually...

[Who is going to care tonight.]

Stay in here, with me.

[wearingthestars]

Oh sure, now that I mention tying me up-- [Billy tries to tease, but his gaze softens and he nods easily.]

Josh isn't going to like that.

[helpdesk_hero]

Josh can bite me.

[Someone has to observe Billy. For his own sake.]