Pick Me Up, Dust Me Off

[helpdesk_hero]

Life hadn't gotten easier after Utopia. Not by a long shot. Where, after that, does a human being go? Sure, one of the greatest geniuses in the world, but that doesn't mean he has a place in it. Instead he'd gotten to shore, dressed up in casual clothes, and mostly hitchhiked across the country. All the way from San Francisco to here. Chicago. Home.

It's taken two months to get this far, and he's in no great shape. There's a bit of a beard on his cheeks, his clothes are torn up, and he feels like shit. Do you... how do you get comfortable enough to go home in this sort of state? How does he go back and hope they accept him? He feels... miserable. David sighs and sips lightly at the cup of coffee in his hands, keeping them warm. Some person bought it for him, and he's still got to figure out how to get over to Hyde Park and his family's house. To figure out a story.

Two nights he's been in Chicago and he doesn't know what to do. He feels so weak. So useless. Such a broken man after the fall of mutantkind, yet again.

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

Not really. Just... his father hadn't approved of him being a mutant, but had 'supported' him. He'd never been turned out. But that he'd chosen to stay with the X-Men was definitely going to be a problem.

"My family was complicated. They were 'supportive'. But when I became human again they were happier."

[zoomandboom]

"Yeah," Tommy said, though he really didn't get it. He didn't understand families, either.

"So you're justgonnastay with them now? Get a job or something?" Tommy wondered how that worked. How did you just go back to some kind of normal life after you'd been something else? How did you do a normal life if you'd never had one to start with, even?

He didn't want to have to do it, but sometimes he wondered if he wasn't gonna have a choice. "Do you want to go back there?" he asked impulsively.

[helpdesk_hero]

What other choice did he have? Then again, getting a job might be harder. He's technically a terrorist. Maybe? It's hard to say.

"Do I want to? No. Do I have another choice? If I had one, I wouldn't have hitch-hiked across the country to come here."

[zoomandboom]

Yeah, Tommy definitely knew that feeling. "You can crash with me," Tommy offered. "I've got a place here for at least two weeks and dunno where I'm going afterward, but not like it's a problem having someone along anyway. Its got a couch." It wasn't even that shitty. Tommy COULD make money when he needed to, since he could do backbreaking labor quickly, it was just a matter of finding places and people that didn't care if a mutant was doing it overnight. Usually if it meant that they could pay him half what they'd pay a crew to take six weeks to do it, they'd get a lot more tolerant in a hurry.

[helpdesk_hero]

"You don't even know me."

IT's the logical thing to point out. And David is all about the logic. He just stares at Tommy, not sure how to take all of this. Clearly it's not an anti-mutant thing. That would be stupid. But... why would a mutant, and a former Young Avenger, give a damn about a human that was once associated with the X-Men?

"I'm broke. I can't help you with your rent."

[zoomandboom]

"Yeah. Iknow," Tommy told him. "But it sucks to not have anywhere to go that you want to be. And I've got room. So why not?" Maybe there was more to it. Tommy could see himself being the same way - teamless and alone with nothing to do - if he didn't have his powers. Billy would still have offered, but Tommy wouldn't have believed it any more than he did now.

"It's paid off anyway for now. If you don't want to stick with me if I stay longer or when I leave, or if you get a job and want to handsomeover, that's cool. But I can usually get money," Tommy said with a shrug. "Up to you."

[helpdesk_hero]

"You're really just going to allow a stranger into your home for literally no reason?" Davis asks, sounding VERY confused. What even could drive the guy to do this for him?

[zoomandboom]

Tommy shrugged. "It's not a home, it's just where I'm staying," he said. "I don'tthinkyou're gonna try to kill me or anything. And I'm pretty sure I could fight you off if you did. If you don't want to, it's cool. I just thought ... don't know. I just figured I'd ask, all right?"

[helpdesk_hero]

He's a homeless man and it's not like he has another offer. At the very least he can, you know, get clean before seeing his family. He's so tired. So tired and worn out.

"You really think it's okay? I mean, taking a homeless guy home is sorta not the greatest idea?"

[zoomandboom]

Tommy turned his head to look at David more squarely. "You're a guy who was a heroandlost your team and got stuck without a place. That's not like picking up somebody who might knife me for it. It's okay with me. Besides, I havebad ideas all the time. So it's on brand anyway?"

[helpdesk_hero]

But the last people cast him out. And this one is taking him in?

David looks SO confused.

"I don't understand you."

[zoomandboom]

Tommy grinned. "Yeah, I get that a lot." He shrugged. "I'm not trying to talkyouinto it dude. If you want to hang with me a while, then you can. If you don't, then you don't have to. If you want to leave after a night or two, then you can do that. Up to you."

[helpdesk_hero]

"A night. I gotta... I don't wanna go see my parents and not be presentable?" David suggests. "Just a night?"

[zoomandboom]

"Okay. I've got a spare razors and stuff, so you can use that," Tommy said. "It's not that far, so we can just walk. Some people get weirded out if I carry them anywhere. Come on." Tommy hopped up, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket and waiting for David to follow.

[helpdesk_hero]

"Are you saying my beard doesn't look good?" David asks. He knows it doesn't. That being said, he raises an eyebrow.

"I've been carried by a lot of mutants. I wouldn't protest. But," he grabs his back and slings it over his shoulder, ready to follow Tommy.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy rolled his eyes. "You're hot with or without it, but think you'd look better without the scruff. Plusyousaid you want to clean up before you go back, yeah? So I just figured." He'd been clean-cut looking in the picture Tommy had seen on his file, so he figured the beardy look was a product of not having anywhere to go, not preference.

"There's a sandwich place on the way anyway, we can get something to eat," Tommy said with a shrug, falling into step beside the other boy, only now realizing David was taller than him since he'd been sitting.

[helpdesk_hero]

Wait, what? David actually trips and just about falls over. Did the guy just call him attractive? What was he supposed to do with that?

He's so completely lost in his shock about that statement that he doesn't even notice the other question. No, he's too busy catching himself.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy reached out in a flash to catch David and steady him, concerned. "Have you like, not eaten for a while?" he asked, making sure David was solid before letting go. "You okay?"

[helpdesk_hero]

"I... I haven't," David agrees. But that wasn't why he'd fallen.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy frowned. "Okay ... hangon. I'll just run us to the shop and get us food and then run us to the apartment. Okay?" Much as Tommy could be an asshole, he was still at heart a guy who wanted to help. Someone who was falling over because they were hungry - especially someone he knew had tried to help people too, and gotten screwed over by his family, more or less ... Tommy was just getting more invested in helping.

[helpdesk_hero]

"If you're okay with that," David agrees, frowning. It's going to suck, because he remembers what it was like to be carried by someone who was far too fast. But this isn't Nori, and the guy means it from a good place.

[zoomandboom]

"I'm fine with it. Just kinda tuck your head down a little," Tommy said. He stepped up, taking an instant to figure out how best to hold David, and then gathering him up against him, one arm around him and the other cradling his head so it didn't snap too hard. And then they were gone, moved in the space of a second to stop in front of a little deli. Tommy let him down carefully, propping him against the storefront to make sure he was okay. "Good? Whatchawant?"

[helpdesk_hero]

Oh man, that was terrible. If it hadn't been for an empty stomach, he might have been nauseous.

"Reubin and fries."

[zoomandboom]

"Got it," Tommy said, giving him a smile. "Come on, they got a coupla tables in there, you can sit down while they make 'em." He tucked his arm around David to give him someone to lean on and then let him sit down at the small, worn table nearest the door. Tommy went off to the counter to order, getting David's sandwich and fries and then calling back to ask him what he wanted to drink and adding that. He got three sandwiches and fries and a couple of bags of chips and some potato and pasta salad - he'd eat it all, and if David wanted some of the salads then he could have that too. He grabbed a couple of the cookies wrapped on the counter too, and then paid and carried them over to David, dropping down in the other chair while their food got made and handing over a cookie, unwrapping his own.

[helpdesk_hero]

David watches, quiet and contemplative, as Tommy moves. And when he sits he takes a cookie, still thoughtful.

"Have any of the X-Men speedsters tried to contact you about how to get proper supplements for you?"