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]

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?"

[zoomandboom]

Tommy swallowed an over-large bite of his cookie and shrugged. "Nah. Quicksilver and me don't talk really, and I don't know any of the others much." He'd seen them here and there, talked to one or two. But Tommy had his issues and he didn't really like to spend much time around other speedsters if he didn't have to. It just reminded him that there were faster people who could do other things he couldn't, too. "Mostly I just eat a ton whenever I can. Sometimes I do like ... protein powder or something, but it sucks, so not usually."

[helpdesk_hero]

"I could talk to Northstar for you," David offers. He still knows the man's number.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy shook his head. "Nah. I don't even know if we run the same way, I don't think he can blow shit up the same way. Plus he's kind ofajackass." Or at least he was smart and snobbish and seemed educated to Tommy, which made him automatically uneasy.

[helpdesk_hero]

Wait, jackass? David laughs.

"Yeah, most Quebecois are jackasses. But he might know anyway. I have an in with him, but I don't with Quicksilver."

[zoomandboom]

"He's, yanno. A snob. I could probably ask Quicksilver, pretty sure he'd take a call, but no idea where he even is. Plus I hate asking him for shit. I alreadygotallmypowers from him and people think I'm him half the time so, yeah." Tommy shrugged again. "I don't want to ask them for stuff," he admitted after a second. "Like they'd probably have some complicated way to make it and want me to come get it and I don't want to take stuff from them." He didn't want to act like he couldn't deal on his own, since everyone took away the option of not. "But thanks. I do okay. Only really crash if I run a shitload."

[helpdesk_hero]

"He's not a snob," David says, his voice firm and yeah, he's defensive on that. "He's been through a lot of shit. We all have."

As for where, David knows where Quicksilver is. Or at least the last he heard, which was Mutant Town. Still, he thinks he might look into it. Mostly as repayment. If nothing else, he's got connections.

[zoomandboom]

Northstar was faster than Tommy, smarter, and not Jersey trash who'd been through juvie a few times. Tommy saw him as a snob because he was envious, and didn't actually know him. He saw Quicksilver the same way, mostly. Just with more complication. He eyed David and shrugged. "Idon'tknow him really."

He finished the last of his cookie and then bounced up when the bell dinged to say their order was up. He went to gather the bags of food and carried them over. "Ready? Goodtocarry this, while I carry you?" he asked.

[helpdesk_hero]

Northstar was Quebec trash that had been a terrorist so yeah, maybe not so different as he thinks. But he's very not going to have a fight here. Not from the guy who is going to help him.

He takes everything in his arms and nods to Tommy

[zoomandboom]

Tommy steers him outside and out of view of the guys at the counter and then gathers him up again and speeds off.

The apartment's not far, even by not-Tommy standards. It's a walk-up on the fourth and top floor of a modest but decently kept building. David didn't really get a chance to see it before he's inside though and set down in front of the door so Tommy can unlock it.

It's a one bedroom, like Tommy said. Bland with furniture that got supplied with the place. Small and drab - but it's clean and the sofa looks decently comfortable. "Bathroom, bedroom," Tommy said, pointing to each door. "TV works, but I didn't hook up anything since I don't watch much so it's probably just local crap channels. There's not much in the fridge but you can have whatever, and use whatever you want in the bathroom - just don't take the pills in the green bottle in the cabinet in there, they'd probably kill you."

[helpdesk_hero]

At least there is a sofa for him to crash on.

Still, he frowns as he looks around. And he's glad he can resist asking about the bottle in the cabinet. But that's Tommy's business and his alone. So he marks which cabinet it is so he can ignore it.

"Nice enough place. What brings you to Chicago."