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om_mainAll work and no play makes Vic a dull boy, so Pietro takes matters into his own hands.
Early Friday evening, Pietro emerged from a post punching-bag workout shower in a pair of bright green boxer-briefs, still rubbing down his wild, wet hair. He was considering his options for entertainment tonight. He had been meaning to get sushi, maybe take Wanda out on the town for an evening and quiz her about who she'd been hanging with most and what she thought. She was getting around more, now, though, and he was still wary of stifling her (and managing to do it anyhow, but whatever). Maybe if she didn't seem keen or she was busy or something, Laura would hang out? He hadn't been out with Eames in a while, either, which was kinda tragic.
Wrapped deep within these important considerations, he didn't even noticed what Vic was doing until he hung his towel on his closet door and turned to ask him what he was up to...
And found him with his nose in the script.
Again.
Okay, it was awesome that Victor was getting excited about the whole thing, because that had been the point. But seriously, every time Pietro had seen the guy this week he'd been obsessing. It was defeating half the point if he made it un-fun. "What are you even doing?" He asked, busting out a brush to try and tame the mop while it was still wet.
"I'm performing brain surgery." Victor replied immediately, utterly dead-pan before looking up and smiling "What does it look like? Just reading the stuff we did yesterday. Nothing earth-shattering." But it was something to focus on that wasn't how shit he felt most of the time and that was something.
"You're working," Pietro corrected, looking past himself in the mirror to catch Vic's gaze and raise an eyebrow at him.
"I guess so." Was shrugged back "And as the director shouldn't your tone be a little more pleased about it?"
"I am very pleased with your progress," Pietro said sweetly. Ugh, hair, so bad, though. "But we're like a week in and I'm pretty sure you already have the entire first act memorized. I don't want my star to burn out before we even get to the good stuff."
"I'm just making sure I totally understand what's going on in the scene, you know how Wilde can be." Victor reasoned and it really was a valid reason, just not one that was actually high on the list of reasons he had. "No plan on burning out until I'm at least 45, maybe a bit older. Do a full on Charlie Sheen or something..."
"Ew. Definitely go Robert Downey, Jr. and burn out early, if you gotta, then you have time to come back and be awesome." Pietro gave up and put away the brush, then opened the door and stood perusing his bursting but immaculately organized closet. "But c'mon, Vic, it's Friday night. You done anything fun all week, even?"
"Um." He didn't want to lie but he didn't want to seem totally pathetic either. He didn't suppose the Danger Room counter as fun to a normal person. "I dunno." Victor ultimately shrugged.
"So, no." Though still decidedly naked-ish, Pietro turned from his closet and examined his roommate with a split-second, piercing look. He tapped the fingers of one hand against his stomach, producing a rapid-fire-but-thoughtful hollow sound. "You don't strike me as a guy who's lost in his passion for Victorian queer characters, right now. What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong exactly. I mean nothing new." Victor sighed as he closed his script and wondered how to explain what he'd been feeling lately. “I just, I don't have much, if anything, lately and this is something. Something I can throw myself into and just forget about the other shit for awhile, I guess. I know that probably sounds pathetic but, well, yeah. I guess that's it really."
"Makes sense," Pietro said, a little bit relieved, actually, because it did. He knew goddamn well he hadn't heard anything about it because it pertained to Tommy, but seriously, he was so done banging his head off the Victor wall on that subject. Dude wanted to believe that not thinking Tommy was a great idea meant that Pietro was glad he was broken-hearted over it, fine. Pietro would play the cackling schadenfreude fairy if Victor needed him in the part so fucking bad.
However, "I mean, you of all people suffered through Pietro-without-Wanda. I know all about being pathetic and wanting to do shit to take your mind off it. But frying yourself with loads of work could actually fuck you up worse. I mean, there are options."
"I just don't want to bother people, you've all got your own shit. No one wants to hear me whine over and over." Victor shrugged before sighing "Ok, I might regret asking but what do you suggest?"
Pietro rolled his eyes at that first part--seriously, he had had zero friends a year ago, and even Pietro knew that was not how this worked--but again, not interested in beating his head off the Wall O' Vic tonight. "Oh knock it off, you never regret my ideas--they are one-hundred-percent guaranteed to banish emo and you know it. Dorian Gray overload aside. Let's go out."
Victor winced internally. Out. Out mean using his stupid image inducer again. Ugh.
"Out where?" He asked quietly.
"Out in town, out to the city, out by the lake, out of the house. Doesn't matter. Just somewhere that isn't this room. We can play soccer or get drunk or hear loud music or see a terrible movie or eat until we want to puke." Not literally, of course, because Pietro couldn't even imagine that much food existed in one place. But still. "Just do something, like, balls to the wall. That does not involve work. Or thinking."
"Not thinking sounds good. Ok, sure. I'll put you in charge of my thinking for a while then." Because, really, what did he have to lose right? "I'll go with any of the above but I'd prefer not having to use the inducer really."
Pietro liked the sound of that--both that he was in charge of the evening's events, and that Vic didn't want to bother with the inducer. He'd leave that to one side for now, though. He was already yanking on a pair of track pants and undertank. "Okay, let's go kick the hell out of a ball mutant-style until we're starving and sweaty and gross--I can shower again--and then I'll go get takeout and beer and we'll watch something really ridiculous back here. Like Conan the Barbarian. Or Spaceballs. Or Life of Brian, since it's Zombie Jesus weekend."
Welp, at least he knew what he was doing with tonight!
"I don't actually sweat but I'm good for everything else." Victor agreed as he got up for the bed and looked around for some trainers. He'd never had beer before either though he didn't bother saying that, Pietro had probably figured that one out already.
"You sure you didn't have any other plans though?" He didn't want to ruin the other boy's evening after all. And lately Pietro seemed to have plans with everyone, even more than usual. Or maybe Victor was just around to notice it more.
"I don't sweat much either, but god do I stink sometimes," Pietro said. Poor Laura, seriously, he still cracked up every time he thought about her totally trolling him over it.
"Was trying to figure out what I was doing, actually." Pietro shot him a look over his shoulder. "So, um, you are my plans, now? Is that weird or something?"
"Not weird, I kinda missed it actually. We haven't done anything like that for a while." And there were reasons on both sides for that and they both knew them all about it so no need to go over all that shit right. "So, yeah, I'll be your plans. Why not?"
Pietro turned to face Victor and raised his eyebrows. Wow. Elephant in the room, much? The small flush that suffused his face wasn't embarrassment or apology or anything like that--Pietro was annoyed. Victor made his choice; Pietro was not about to let the little punk guilt him into apologizing for not telling him pretty lies like everyone else.
But just as lightning-quick as the tiny thundercloud of anger had broken over him, Pietro decided, Fuck it, and it scattered. Because no, Vic wasn't allowed to guilt him, but he also wasn't allowed to sit around feeling fucking sorry for himself, like his life was over because of some goddamn flatscan boy, either. This was some bullshit.
"Good," he said, with a smirk that bordered on aggressive. He tucked into a pair of Sambas and yanked on an Empire State hoodie. "The sooner I kick your ass in soccer, the sooner we get beer."
Victor blinked before nodding and grabbing his own hoodie. He got the feeling he shouldn't have said that but he didn't really get why. He'd honestly missed hanging out with Pietro, he'd thought that with Pietro making the offers he had been had meant that they were getting beyond all that crap and that things would be fine. But, as usual, Pietro's reaction caught him off guard. So somehow he'd irritated Pietro by saying that he'd missed hanging out with him. Just great.
He followed his room-mate quietly, quickly going off the whole plan.
Pietro was aware that Victor was not excited, but that didn't shock or amaze him, since Victor was never excited, lately, and that was the point. He zipped to get the ball and was at the front door to meet Vic.
"Okay, let's see what your contribution to the Mutant Ball league can be." He grinned and opened the door, striding out into the crisp air, more like fall than spring, still, and threw the ball up, bouncing it off his head a few times while still moving forward. "Mine is that I make everything look so easy Lionel Messi would weep in abject humiliation."
"'Mutant ball league'? New brand of soccer you just invented?" Victor asked as they walked away from the house. His soccer playing skills had never been ace or anything, he was way better at other sports but he'd give it a go. "Either way, kinda seems like I'm the total underdog here since my opponent had super speed powers and all."
"A common and understandable sentiment." Pietro chuckled. "But let's find some cool ways to use your powers with it. I've talked to Da Costa and Wagner and a few others--there will come a time for Mutant Ball, I can feel it."
He headed the ball hard toward Victor, visions of dude shimmying up walls for surprise mid-air headers, flying leaps, and maybe even some wicked tongue action dancing in his brain.
Having not applied his powers to something like this before, Victor felt a split second of pure panic as to what to do for ''mutant ball" as oppose to soccer before instinct took over. Before the ball had a chance to get to hit him in him in the face, his tongue darted out. In an almost whip like motion he used it to send the ball soaring back towards Pietro. Not bad for someone who'd lately been actively avoiding using his powers except for training purposes. And, ok, that one time to show off to Vance.
Pietro whooped and leapt, bringing the ball down with his chest and dribbling it past Victor and around the side of the house at a loping pace he wouldn't find it hard to match. "That's what I'm talking about! Oh man, and you could scare the shit out of some defender, camouflaging yourself and suddenly appearing to take a pass behind them. Could skirt some off-sides calls that way too. Ha!"
Victor chased after him, using the side of the house as a spring board. Gotta play to strengths right?
"Not quite to that standard yet. I can only camo myself not my clothes so it'd more work as convincing the other team the pitch was haunted or something!"
"Even better!"
***
Two hours later, a much more tired speedster reappeared at the door of their room carrying two gigantic pizzas, one Vic's pick, one his own (both of which he'd had delivered, because running with that shit was bad news), in one hand. The other held a brown paper bag containing three forties--which actually held decent drink: one Warsteiner, one Newcastle, and a Mike's Hard Lemonade in case Vic needed something a little bit, uh, fruitier. Pietro figured better safe than sorry.
He kicked at the door. "Lemme in, handsarefull!"
Victor jumped up from the pile of DVDs he'd been working through and hurried to the door as fast as he could, knowing it would still feel like forever for his friend. He then stood well back to allow Hurricane Pietro plenty of room.
Said Hurricane took every advantage of it, too, letting Vic close the door after him. Pietro set down the pizzas on his desk--which was of course clear of most debris and therefore a perfect serving station, and knelt in front of the fridge to show off his purchases. He held them up one at a time before shelving them, and when he got to the malt liquor lemonade: "Because I'm not sure what kind of beer you'll like" --he wasn't sure, but unless Vic had been drinking with Tommy or something, dude probably didn't have a lot of experience-- "I got this in case the answer is 'none'. If you like the beer, we'll just keep this in case we somehow end up with a room full of cheerleaders."
Because seriously, it was kinda white trash cheerleader juice, but whatever. Lemonade.
Victor had drunk with Tommy, most sneaked stuff on their birthdays. There had always been alcohol in the house, Tommy had said it was an Irish thing.
So he knew he liked cider and had gagged from the taste of Guinness but beer he hasn't tried.
"I'm up to try anything." He said eagerly before asking "what kind of movie you thinking?"
"Terrible," Pietro said. He popped open the Warsteiner first, using a bottle opener on his key-ring It was a little bit of a skunky beer, but light and pretty basic. Probably a good place to start. Newcastle, as far as he was concerned, was the beer of the gods, so he'd save that one for second, just in case. He took a long swallow, smacked his lips happily. "Like Monty Python or Mel Brooks terrible. Or just really bad sci fi or fantasy like Conan or something."
"Maybe Python, makes sense since I might be going to see Spamalot sometime soon." Victor suggested as he grabbed his pizza, pepperoni with extra pepperoni, and eyed the beers curiously.
"Oh good, you and Eames finally decide on something?" Because yes, of course Pietro knew of this plan, because he knew all of the Eames Plans... or near enough, anyhow. He handed the oversized bottle to Vic before darting to his DVD case. Hmm, yes, Life of Brian did seem appropriate, this weekend...
"We'll, I've suggested it. Haven't had a reply yet." Victor shrugged before sniffing the bottle with interest and then sipping experimentally.
"He'll fucking love it," Pietro said easily. He pulled out both Life of Brian and, "in honor of that idea, maybe Holy Grail is better, tonight? But it is Easter weekend so Jesus Stuff is always hilarious." He waved Brian, there.
"Watch one then maybe watch the other if we're sober enough. And by we I of course mean me." He sipped the beer again. Not bad though so far he thought he preferred cider.
"To be fair, mine's mostly just that I get fucked and then un-fucked at superspeed." Pietro chuckled, bringing down his laptop and setting things up for viewing from the floor--because no, no pizza on the bed, gross. "But I think my tolerance must be getting better. After that thing with Josh, there was St. Pat's--I seriously thought Wanda might kill me, or Remy, for a second there. Then Curtis was up here last week drinking off a weird-ass day with me. It's gotta be having some effect."
It was kind of weird that they hadn't discussed those events, actually--well, not so weird, in the circumstances, but whatever. Pietro had missed it too, he just, like, didn't want to make it a thing where they started throwing blame around. Again.
"You have been busy! Almost feel like I should start an intervention or something." Victor joked because, yes, it was weird he hadn't known any of that before but he didn't dare acknowledge that because apparently they were pretending it hadn't happened or whatever.
"If I start having gaps in my memory, I promise I will tell you." Pietro put one hand over his heart and made a mock-solemn face before popping in the Holy Grail. "Wanda will help with the intervention. But no worries, all in good fun. Beer doesn't count; we're just being super manly with the pizza-and-beer-and-monty-python. Okay that last thing isn't specifically manly, but we played sports.
"What have you been doing with yourself, before you went all hyperdrive Dorian Gray?" Please say hanging out with Astrovik...
"This is the manliest we've probably been since we moved in, I reckon. Though kinda think it's missing a fort." Victor mused because he really had missed those times. They'd been awesome.
"And let me think. Uh, well there was Jean-Paul's end of season dinner. Met a few new people, well new to me anyway. Like Jeanne-Maire and, uh, Shinobi. It's Dorian related but me and Lorna had lunch and were chatting characters and cooties and stuff which was cool. Had a check up with Simon to find out more about my body, ok that sounds a little weird, but he told me I could climb walls. Then I trained with Scott and Vance. That's mostly it really. No alcohol or anything as crazy as you. I'm the boring half of this room really." He was grinning as he said it though and finding that he'd grown fairly used to the taste of the beer. Not the best thing ever but not the worst either, he'd happily drink it again for sure.
Pietro listened to all this with interest before pressing play; most of it was pleasing (training with Vance--he wasn't sure about the Scott thing, but whatever, not like dude would hurt Vic ever--and chatting with Lorna), some of it was eyeroll inducing (Jean-Paul's dinner party, yaaawn), and some of it was downright fascinating. "Wondered where you got that wall-crawling revelation from. That's fucking brilliant.
"I think that disqualifies you from being the boring one, though. Like officially. When I'm not doing something completely ridiculous I'm mostly training, too."
"I have these little things on my hands and feet, Simon discovered them. It basically means more of me is lizard than just looks. My insides are like some weird mix. I can't control my own temperature, like lizards can't, that's why I don't sweat or shiver anymore. Why I'm sometimes slower on colder days." He picked off a few pieces of pepperoni before adding, since he didn't want to make things all serious again. "You're hardly the boring one, you're always off doing something weird, right?"
"Yeah, but not necessarily interesting. I mean, I have been working hard, but all that crazy stuff in off-hours isn't all that productive--or intelligent," Pietro admitted with a grin. "That is interesting. Warren's like that, like his insides are semi-bird-like, or else he wouldn't be able to fly. It's amazing how our bodies change so our mutations won't be useless--or harmful to us. I mean, if mine didn't, I'd like like I was a hundred years old, as fast as I live."
That caught Victor's attention immediately. So, if that was true about Warren then why did he get to look like Warren and he had to look like a lizard? That hardly seemed fair
Vic took a big gulp of beer and tried to push the thought out of his mind. All his horrible petty jealousies were bad enough with adding that to them.
"Yeah, and that wouldn't be a good look on you." He made himself chuckle back to cover his thoughts.
"Everything is a good look on me," Pietro quipped back immediately, fully aware that Victor was one of the few in the house who would know what utter bullshit that was, to Pietro himself. "But I am not interested in dropping dead at the age of sixteen. I have loads more trouble to get into."
He reached for the beer with one hand and a slice of pizza with the other as the movie started.
"Now that I can believe." The green boy smirked back before asking "Anything you care to share? Or do I have to wait in suspense and dread like the rest if the school."
"Well, we've got a pre-show cast party to plan," Pietro pointed out after swallowing a huge chunk of mushroom-peppers-and-extra-cheese, then washing it down with a glug of Warsteiner. "And I'm sure we can do some damage there. There's all that mutant soccer idea, which should be a thing now that spring is trying to appear. That'll definitely tear shit up. There's this whole training squad thing--talked to Braddock about yours, by the way, he's a little stiff, but seems okay for a rich boy."
Mainly because he was Betsy's brother, but whatever.
"I know Brian a little, I'm trading homework help and tutoring for baking and cooking lessons. He's a bit serious but nice enough really." Victor told him with a nod. "To be honest, only one I'm worried about is Felix. Things have been weird there. Glad to here you're doing party though. Awesome." Coz he so needed something like that to look forward to.
"Oh, always doing the parties," Pietro assured him, content to let the bit about Brian pass--baking lessons, kinda cute, really. He looked away from the screen--and another gulp--to ask, "What's Felix's problem? I mean, I don't see him around much anyhow, so not like I'd notice if he was weirder than usual. But."
"We'll we were hanging out and it was as normal as it ever gets, you know." Victor shrugged and did a vague hand motion to sum up Felix's deal. "It was weeks ago, just after my birthday I think, anyway it was when I was in total couple mode and basically a moron. But he was interested and asking questions about dating and Tommy." He had to say the name eventually he supposed, he hoped Pietro would appreciated the admitting of the stupidity at least. "He suddenly went all weird with, like, no warning. Started going on about how no one here were real friends because we're all forced here because of mutations and that's not real friendship. Then he said something about whores. And he hasn't been near me since."
Pietro considered all of this, gaze fixed on the laptop screen, chewing his mouthful of pizza (rather than scarfing superspeed style, which tended to gross people out). Though his brain missed the connection on the first few lightning rounds, eventually it came back to that email, when Felix had been sorta freaking out.
He wasn't totally sure it was cool to say anything, because he was pretty sure Felix had specifically said he'd been keeping it on the DL. He'd also said everybody should know, but...
"I know it sucks because you guys are friends, but I'm pretty sure Felix just does that. Like pushes people away suddenly. I'm not sure I'm authorized to tell you why I suspect that, but, uh, if it's possible not to take it personally, don't." Pietro furrowed his brow. "Was he implying that you are a whore?" Because that would be... ridiculous. Somehow he wasn't surprised about the dating questions--Felix was open in his admiration of dudes, even if he was clearly, like, not into being touched. But the whore thing was a dick move.
Victor's brow furrowed as he picked at the label of his beer and thought back to the conversation. He'd been so confused and startled by the whole thing it was hard to remember exact wordings. "I'm not sure but, well, he must of because why would he call himself one? Anyway we have our first team meeting soon so I'll just have to see what happens, right? He's basically been ignoring me in the classes we do share anyway."
He shrugged, and asked "So what about you? You seem to have been up to lots lately. If the stars are any indication, of course."
Pietro frowned. Felix had called himself a whore?
Oh. Oh shit. That...
Wow. He stole the bottle and took a long drink to drown the thoughts, because that definitely wasn't something he should say to Victor at all ever without talking to Felix. And it really wasn't his place to talk to Felix about it at all.
But. Okay. This seemed important. Through his slight buzz-filter, Pietro managed, "Yeah, we'll come back to me being a whore in a sec. Vic, I seriously think Felix is fucked up. Like. That doesn't make it okay for him to be a dick to you. But. Don't let it get to you, okay?"
Victor shrugged a little and sighed "How can I not? It really hurt and that and the Tommy stuff ending and us not being ok, all all happened at once and I know most of it's my fault and I have to deal with that and make things up to you and everything but with Felix it was so unexplainable and I couldn't understand where it had come from at all. With you, well, at least I totally get it and I could understand why things were like that. And sorry, I know we're not mentioning that stuff tonight. You know I go on rambling tangents..."
"Okay, we can totally mention it, I just didn't want it to get all blamey. I missed you, too." Funny how petty shit like that seemed in the face of this... horror. He wanted to say more, to make sure Victor didn't get all self-centered shit on Felix, because--no way, it couldn't be that...
Nope. More beer. Definitely more beer. Pietro crawled over to the fridge, leaving the Warsteiner with Vic and grabbing for the Newcastle. "It's a drop in an ocean of trouble, or something else equally philosophical sounding. Let it go under the bridge. I am so not drunk enough to be mixing my metaphors. Fuck."
Seriously though, his head was spinning, and not from the beer.
Victor smiled a little a that, though he was sure there was something Felix related that he wasn't getting. Then again if Felix never spoke to him again, maybe it wouldn't matter anyway. Right?
"So, jumping back in topics again, what've you been up to?" Because really, they so needed to catch up.
Yes, good idea, back to him being a whore, not tiny Felix. Please, please, please let that not be a real thing ohgodplease...
Pietro tried to concentrate on what he had and hadn't already told Victor, and didn't have too terrible a time at it. "Well, the usual random hanging out with Eames. St. Pat's with Remy, like I said, which somehow did not result in my sister killing me for being buzzed at three in the afternoon. And had a pretty happy ending overall." Haha, pun intended, but Pietro didn't linger on it, just grinned. "Um, stars on the door are the usual suspects. Probably Tessa. Oh, and the other day I had the most hilarious conversation with Alison about mutant sex."
"'Mutant Sex' sounds like one of those crappy movies from the 50's," Vic mused having decided not to ask anymore about the stars, the whole point of the star system was privacy and avoiding embarrassing situations after all. "Do I even wanna ask what that conversation entailed?" He chuckled.
By this time, Pietro had popped the cap off the Newcastle with his keychain and returned to his pizza. He held one in each hand. "The advantages of various mutations in bed--actually Curtis and I were talking about that the other day too. Whatever, hormones, yay." He took a quick drink, then, smirking. "Oh, don't worry, Ali and I totally didn't bring your tongue into it."
"I wasn't worried actually though I'm not surprised coz my tongue freaks Ali out." Was shrugged as he sat back against his bed. He was starting to feel full but was determined to not be defeated. Pizza was too good to waste. Then again left over pizza for lunch was also pretty awesome.
"And, yeah, big surprise it's a house full of teenagers so of course sex is the main topic of conversation!" He laughed at that as he drank a little more of his beer. It didn't go straight to his head like the whiskey had before, much like the cider it's effects seemed to creep slowly instead. For now at least.
"Alison's boyfriend has like tons of stretchy gray skin. I seriously doubt your tongue freaks her out--and yes, I remember how you met." Pietro rolled his eyes. "Man, I totally should've asked if he used the skin for anything. That could be almost as interesting as the tongue. Not quite, but almost."
The younger boy thought about that for a minute before bringing that train of thought to a hasty halt because, really, he wanted to be able to look Angelo in the eyes in the future and not have thoughts like that pop up. Thanks so much, Pietro.
"Ok, maybe she wouldn't be now but I don't exactly do the trick a whole lot anyway. You should be honoured you see me being so mutanty really. It's basically only you and Vance." He peeled a pepperoni of carefully as he spoke.
"Yeah, Vance is the kind of guy who could appreciate the tongue," Pietro said seriously, before stuffing more pizza into his mouth to hide the grin threatening to bust through.
Victor eyed Pietro suspiciously, not trusting the apparently serious tone at all. Nuh uh. Especially not when he was saying stuff like that. "He prefers the wall climbing actually. Says its 'real super hero stuff' and compared me to the matrix." There were better films to be compared to but, equally, a whole lot worse films too.
Pietro chuckled. "He's so fucking cute, I swear to god."
"He's got serious power too. I mean, you kinda have to push him a bit to get him to try some of the stuff but, you know, find the right motivation. I found telling him I was gonna let go of the ceiling either way and he might as well save Foley the rebuild work did the job!" He had a lot of bruises from their danger room session but it had been way fun.
"Ha! Nice of him to catch you, then." Pietro could make out the scene well enough, and found it extremely awesome on multiple levels.
"Yeah, my face always appreciates the times it's not being remodelled by the floor."
Early Friday evening, Pietro emerged from a post punching-bag workout shower in a pair of bright green boxer-briefs, still rubbing down his wild, wet hair. He was considering his options for entertainment tonight. He had been meaning to get sushi, maybe take Wanda out on the town for an evening and quiz her about who she'd been hanging with most and what she thought. She was getting around more, now, though, and he was still wary of stifling her (and managing to do it anyhow, but whatever). Maybe if she didn't seem keen or she was busy or something, Laura would hang out? He hadn't been out with Eames in a while, either, which was kinda tragic.
Wrapped deep within these important considerations, he didn't even noticed what Vic was doing until he hung his towel on his closet door and turned to ask him what he was up to...
And found him with his nose in the script.
Again.
Okay, it was awesome that Victor was getting excited about the whole thing, because that had been the point. But seriously, every time Pietro had seen the guy this week he'd been obsessing. It was defeating half the point if he made it un-fun. "What are you even doing?" He asked, busting out a brush to try and tame the mop while it was still wet.
"I'm performing brain surgery." Victor replied immediately, utterly dead-pan before looking up and smiling "What does it look like? Just reading the stuff we did yesterday. Nothing earth-shattering." But it was something to focus on that wasn't how shit he felt most of the time and that was something.
"You're working," Pietro corrected, looking past himself in the mirror to catch Vic's gaze and raise an eyebrow at him.
"I guess so." Was shrugged back "And as the director shouldn't your tone be a little more pleased about it?"
"I am very pleased with your progress," Pietro said sweetly. Ugh, hair, so bad, though. "But we're like a week in and I'm pretty sure you already have the entire first act memorized. I don't want my star to burn out before we even get to the good stuff."
"I'm just making sure I totally understand what's going on in the scene, you know how Wilde can be." Victor reasoned and it really was a valid reason, just not one that was actually high on the list of reasons he had. "No plan on burning out until I'm at least 45, maybe a bit older. Do a full on Charlie Sheen or something..."
"Ew. Definitely go Robert Downey, Jr. and burn out early, if you gotta, then you have time to come back and be awesome." Pietro gave up and put away the brush, then opened the door and stood perusing his bursting but immaculately organized closet. "But c'mon, Vic, it's Friday night. You done anything fun all week, even?"
"Um." He didn't want to lie but he didn't want to seem totally pathetic either. He didn't suppose the Danger Room counter as fun to a normal person. "I dunno." Victor ultimately shrugged.
"So, no." Though still decidedly naked-ish, Pietro turned from his closet and examined his roommate with a split-second, piercing look. He tapped the fingers of one hand against his stomach, producing a rapid-fire-but-thoughtful hollow sound. "You don't strike me as a guy who's lost in his passion for Victorian queer characters, right now. What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong exactly. I mean nothing new." Victor sighed as he closed his script and wondered how to explain what he'd been feeling lately. “I just, I don't have much, if anything, lately and this is something. Something I can throw myself into and just forget about the other shit for awhile, I guess. I know that probably sounds pathetic but, well, yeah. I guess that's it really."
"Makes sense," Pietro said, a little bit relieved, actually, because it did. He knew goddamn well he hadn't heard anything about it because it pertained to Tommy, but seriously, he was so done banging his head off the Victor wall on that subject. Dude wanted to believe that not thinking Tommy was a great idea meant that Pietro was glad he was broken-hearted over it, fine. Pietro would play the cackling schadenfreude fairy if Victor needed him in the part so fucking bad.
However, "I mean, you of all people suffered through Pietro-without-Wanda. I know all about being pathetic and wanting to do shit to take your mind off it. But frying yourself with loads of work could actually fuck you up worse. I mean, there are options."
"I just don't want to bother people, you've all got your own shit. No one wants to hear me whine over and over." Victor shrugged before sighing "Ok, I might regret asking but what do you suggest?"
Pietro rolled his eyes at that first part--seriously, he had had zero friends a year ago, and even Pietro knew that was not how this worked--but again, not interested in beating his head off the Wall O' Vic tonight. "Oh knock it off, you never regret my ideas--they are one-hundred-percent guaranteed to banish emo and you know it. Dorian Gray overload aside. Let's go out."
Victor winced internally. Out. Out mean using his stupid image inducer again. Ugh.
"Out where?" He asked quietly.
"Out in town, out to the city, out by the lake, out of the house. Doesn't matter. Just somewhere that isn't this room. We can play soccer or get drunk or hear loud music or see a terrible movie or eat until we want to puke." Not literally, of course, because Pietro couldn't even imagine that much food existed in one place. But still. "Just do something, like, balls to the wall. That does not involve work. Or thinking."
"Not thinking sounds good. Ok, sure. I'll put you in charge of my thinking for a while then." Because, really, what did he have to lose right? "I'll go with any of the above but I'd prefer not having to use the inducer really."
Pietro liked the sound of that--both that he was in charge of the evening's events, and that Vic didn't want to bother with the inducer. He'd leave that to one side for now, though. He was already yanking on a pair of track pants and undertank. "Okay, let's go kick the hell out of a ball mutant-style until we're starving and sweaty and gross--I can shower again--and then I'll go get takeout and beer and we'll watch something really ridiculous back here. Like Conan the Barbarian. Or Spaceballs. Or Life of Brian, since it's Zombie Jesus weekend."
Welp, at least he knew what he was doing with tonight!
"I don't actually sweat but I'm good for everything else." Victor agreed as he got up for the bed and looked around for some trainers. He'd never had beer before either though he didn't bother saying that, Pietro had probably figured that one out already.
"You sure you didn't have any other plans though?" He didn't want to ruin the other boy's evening after all. And lately Pietro seemed to have plans with everyone, even more than usual. Or maybe Victor was just around to notice it more.
"I don't sweat much either, but god do I stink sometimes," Pietro said. Poor Laura, seriously, he still cracked up every time he thought about her totally trolling him over it.
"Was trying to figure out what I was doing, actually." Pietro shot him a look over his shoulder. "So, um, you are my plans, now? Is that weird or something?"
"Not weird, I kinda missed it actually. We haven't done anything like that for a while." And there were reasons on both sides for that and they both knew them all about it so no need to go over all that shit right. "So, yeah, I'll be your plans. Why not?"
Pietro turned to face Victor and raised his eyebrows. Wow. Elephant in the room, much? The small flush that suffused his face wasn't embarrassment or apology or anything like that--Pietro was annoyed. Victor made his choice; Pietro was not about to let the little punk guilt him into apologizing for not telling him pretty lies like everyone else.
But just as lightning-quick as the tiny thundercloud of anger had broken over him, Pietro decided, Fuck it, and it scattered. Because no, Vic wasn't allowed to guilt him, but he also wasn't allowed to sit around feeling fucking sorry for himself, like his life was over because of some goddamn flatscan boy, either. This was some bullshit.
"Good," he said, with a smirk that bordered on aggressive. He tucked into a pair of Sambas and yanked on an Empire State hoodie. "The sooner I kick your ass in soccer, the sooner we get beer."
Victor blinked before nodding and grabbing his own hoodie. He got the feeling he shouldn't have said that but he didn't really get why. He'd honestly missed hanging out with Pietro, he'd thought that with Pietro making the offers he had been had meant that they were getting beyond all that crap and that things would be fine. But, as usual, Pietro's reaction caught him off guard. So somehow he'd irritated Pietro by saying that he'd missed hanging out with him. Just great.
He followed his room-mate quietly, quickly going off the whole plan.
Pietro was aware that Victor was not excited, but that didn't shock or amaze him, since Victor was never excited, lately, and that was the point. He zipped to get the ball and was at the front door to meet Vic.
"Okay, let's see what your contribution to the Mutant Ball league can be." He grinned and opened the door, striding out into the crisp air, more like fall than spring, still, and threw the ball up, bouncing it off his head a few times while still moving forward. "Mine is that I make everything look so easy Lionel Messi would weep in abject humiliation."
"'Mutant ball league'? New brand of soccer you just invented?" Victor asked as they walked away from the house. His soccer playing skills had never been ace or anything, he was way better at other sports but he'd give it a go. "Either way, kinda seems like I'm the total underdog here since my opponent had super speed powers and all."
"A common and understandable sentiment." Pietro chuckled. "But let's find some cool ways to use your powers with it. I've talked to Da Costa and Wagner and a few others--there will come a time for Mutant Ball, I can feel it."
He headed the ball hard toward Victor, visions of dude shimmying up walls for surprise mid-air headers, flying leaps, and maybe even some wicked tongue action dancing in his brain.
Having not applied his powers to something like this before, Victor felt a split second of pure panic as to what to do for ''mutant ball" as oppose to soccer before instinct took over. Before the ball had a chance to get to hit him in him in the face, his tongue darted out. In an almost whip like motion he used it to send the ball soaring back towards Pietro. Not bad for someone who'd lately been actively avoiding using his powers except for training purposes. And, ok, that one time to show off to Vance.
Pietro whooped and leapt, bringing the ball down with his chest and dribbling it past Victor and around the side of the house at a loping pace he wouldn't find it hard to match. "That's what I'm talking about! Oh man, and you could scare the shit out of some defender, camouflaging yourself and suddenly appearing to take a pass behind them. Could skirt some off-sides calls that way too. Ha!"
Victor chased after him, using the side of the house as a spring board. Gotta play to strengths right?
"Not quite to that standard yet. I can only camo myself not my clothes so it'd more work as convincing the other team the pitch was haunted or something!"
"Even better!"
Two hours later, a much more tired speedster reappeared at the door of their room carrying two gigantic pizzas, one Vic's pick, one his own (both of which he'd had delivered, because running with that shit was bad news), in one hand. The other held a brown paper bag containing three forties--which actually held decent drink: one Warsteiner, one Newcastle, and a Mike's Hard Lemonade in case Vic needed something a little bit, uh, fruitier. Pietro figured better safe than sorry.
He kicked at the door. "Lemme in, handsarefull!"
Victor jumped up from the pile of DVDs he'd been working through and hurried to the door as fast as he could, knowing it would still feel like forever for his friend. He then stood well back to allow Hurricane Pietro plenty of room.
Said Hurricane took every advantage of it, too, letting Vic close the door after him. Pietro set down the pizzas on his desk--which was of course clear of most debris and therefore a perfect serving station, and knelt in front of the fridge to show off his purchases. He held them up one at a time before shelving them, and when he got to the malt liquor lemonade: "Because I'm not sure what kind of beer you'll like" --he wasn't sure, but unless Vic had been drinking with Tommy or something, dude probably didn't have a lot of experience-- "I got this in case the answer is 'none'. If you like the beer, we'll just keep this in case we somehow end up with a room full of cheerleaders."
Because seriously, it was kinda white trash cheerleader juice, but whatever. Lemonade.
Victor had drunk with Tommy, most sneaked stuff on their birthdays. There had always been alcohol in the house, Tommy had said it was an Irish thing.
So he knew he liked cider and had gagged from the taste of Guinness but beer he hasn't tried.
"I'm up to try anything." He said eagerly before asking "what kind of movie you thinking?"
"Terrible," Pietro said. He popped open the Warsteiner first, using a bottle opener on his key-ring It was a little bit of a skunky beer, but light and pretty basic. Probably a good place to start. Newcastle, as far as he was concerned, was the beer of the gods, so he'd save that one for second, just in case. He took a long swallow, smacked his lips happily. "Like Monty Python or Mel Brooks terrible. Or just really bad sci fi or fantasy like Conan or something."
"Maybe Python, makes sense since I might be going to see Spamalot sometime soon." Victor suggested as he grabbed his pizza, pepperoni with extra pepperoni, and eyed the beers curiously.
"Oh good, you and Eames finally decide on something?" Because yes, of course Pietro knew of this plan, because he knew all of the Eames Plans... or near enough, anyhow. He handed the oversized bottle to Vic before darting to his DVD case. Hmm, yes, Life of Brian did seem appropriate, this weekend...
"We'll, I've suggested it. Haven't had a reply yet." Victor shrugged before sniffing the bottle with interest and then sipping experimentally.
"He'll fucking love it," Pietro said easily. He pulled out both Life of Brian and, "in honor of that idea, maybe Holy Grail is better, tonight? But it is Easter weekend so Jesus Stuff is always hilarious." He waved Brian, there.
"Watch one then maybe watch the other if we're sober enough. And by we I of course mean me." He sipped the beer again. Not bad though so far he thought he preferred cider.
"To be fair, mine's mostly just that I get fucked and then un-fucked at superspeed." Pietro chuckled, bringing down his laptop and setting things up for viewing from the floor--because no, no pizza on the bed, gross. "But I think my tolerance must be getting better. After that thing with Josh, there was St. Pat's--I seriously thought Wanda might kill me, or Remy, for a second there. Then Curtis was up here last week drinking off a weird-ass day with me. It's gotta be having some effect."
It was kind of weird that they hadn't discussed those events, actually--well, not so weird, in the circumstances, but whatever. Pietro had missed it too, he just, like, didn't want to make it a thing where they started throwing blame around. Again.
"You have been busy! Almost feel like I should start an intervention or something." Victor joked because, yes, it was weird he hadn't known any of that before but he didn't dare acknowledge that because apparently they were pretending it hadn't happened or whatever.
"If I start having gaps in my memory, I promise I will tell you." Pietro put one hand over his heart and made a mock-solemn face before popping in the Holy Grail. "Wanda will help with the intervention. But no worries, all in good fun. Beer doesn't count; we're just being super manly with the pizza-and-beer-and-monty-python. Okay that last thing isn't specifically manly, but we played sports.
"What have you been doing with yourself, before you went all hyperdrive Dorian Gray?" Please say hanging out with Astrovik...
"This is the manliest we've probably been since we moved in, I reckon. Though kinda think it's missing a fort." Victor mused because he really had missed those times. They'd been awesome.
"And let me think. Uh, well there was Jean-Paul's end of season dinner. Met a few new people, well new to me anyway. Like Jeanne-Maire and, uh, Shinobi. It's Dorian related but me and Lorna had lunch and were chatting characters and cooties and stuff which was cool. Had a check up with Simon to find out more about my body, ok that sounds a little weird, but he told me I could climb walls. Then I trained with Scott and Vance. That's mostly it really. No alcohol or anything as crazy as you. I'm the boring half of this room really." He was grinning as he said it though and finding that he'd grown fairly used to the taste of the beer. Not the best thing ever but not the worst either, he'd happily drink it again for sure.
Pietro listened to all this with interest before pressing play; most of it was pleasing (training with Vance--he wasn't sure about the Scott thing, but whatever, not like dude would hurt Vic ever--and chatting with Lorna), some of it was eyeroll inducing (Jean-Paul's dinner party, yaaawn), and some of it was downright fascinating. "Wondered where you got that wall-crawling revelation from. That's fucking brilliant.
"I think that disqualifies you from being the boring one, though. Like officially. When I'm not doing something completely ridiculous I'm mostly training, too."
"I have these little things on my hands and feet, Simon discovered them. It basically means more of me is lizard than just looks. My insides are like some weird mix. I can't control my own temperature, like lizards can't, that's why I don't sweat or shiver anymore. Why I'm sometimes slower on colder days." He picked off a few pieces of pepperoni before adding, since he didn't want to make things all serious again. "You're hardly the boring one, you're always off doing something weird, right?"
"Yeah, but not necessarily interesting. I mean, I have been working hard, but all that crazy stuff in off-hours isn't all that productive--or intelligent," Pietro admitted with a grin. "That is interesting. Warren's like that, like his insides are semi-bird-like, or else he wouldn't be able to fly. It's amazing how our bodies change so our mutations won't be useless--or harmful to us. I mean, if mine didn't, I'd like like I was a hundred years old, as fast as I live."
That caught Victor's attention immediately. So, if that was true about Warren then why did he get to look like Warren and he had to look like a lizard? That hardly seemed fair
Vic took a big gulp of beer and tried to push the thought out of his mind. All his horrible petty jealousies were bad enough with adding that to them.
"Yeah, and that wouldn't be a good look on you." He made himself chuckle back to cover his thoughts.
"Everything is a good look on me," Pietro quipped back immediately, fully aware that Victor was one of the few in the house who would know what utter bullshit that was, to Pietro himself. "But I am not interested in dropping dead at the age of sixteen. I have loads more trouble to get into."
He reached for the beer with one hand and a slice of pizza with the other as the movie started.
"Now that I can believe." The green boy smirked back before asking "Anything you care to share? Or do I have to wait in suspense and dread like the rest if the school."
"Well, we've got a pre-show cast party to plan," Pietro pointed out after swallowing a huge chunk of mushroom-peppers-and-extra-cheese, then washing it down with a glug of Warsteiner. "And I'm sure we can do some damage there. There's all that mutant soccer idea, which should be a thing now that spring is trying to appear. That'll definitely tear shit up. There's this whole training squad thing--talked to Braddock about yours, by the way, he's a little stiff, but seems okay for a rich boy."
Mainly because he was Betsy's brother, but whatever.
"I know Brian a little, I'm trading homework help and tutoring for baking and cooking lessons. He's a bit serious but nice enough really." Victor told him with a nod. "To be honest, only one I'm worried about is Felix. Things have been weird there. Glad to here you're doing party though. Awesome." Coz he so needed something like that to look forward to.
"Oh, always doing the parties," Pietro assured him, content to let the bit about Brian pass--baking lessons, kinda cute, really. He looked away from the screen--and another gulp--to ask, "What's Felix's problem? I mean, I don't see him around much anyhow, so not like I'd notice if he was weirder than usual. But."
"We'll we were hanging out and it was as normal as it ever gets, you know." Victor shrugged and did a vague hand motion to sum up Felix's deal. "It was weeks ago, just after my birthday I think, anyway it was when I was in total couple mode and basically a moron. But he was interested and asking questions about dating and Tommy." He had to say the name eventually he supposed, he hoped Pietro would appreciated the admitting of the stupidity at least. "He suddenly went all weird with, like, no warning. Started going on about how no one here were real friends because we're all forced here because of mutations and that's not real friendship. Then he said something about whores. And he hasn't been near me since."
Pietro considered all of this, gaze fixed on the laptop screen, chewing his mouthful of pizza (rather than scarfing superspeed style, which tended to gross people out). Though his brain missed the connection on the first few lightning rounds, eventually it came back to that email, when Felix had been sorta freaking out.
He wasn't totally sure it was cool to say anything, because he was pretty sure Felix had specifically said he'd been keeping it on the DL. He'd also said everybody should know, but...
"I know it sucks because you guys are friends, but I'm pretty sure Felix just does that. Like pushes people away suddenly. I'm not sure I'm authorized to tell you why I suspect that, but, uh, if it's possible not to take it personally, don't." Pietro furrowed his brow. "Was he implying that you are a whore?" Because that would be... ridiculous. Somehow he wasn't surprised about the dating questions--Felix was open in his admiration of dudes, even if he was clearly, like, not into being touched. But the whore thing was a dick move.
Victor's brow furrowed as he picked at the label of his beer and thought back to the conversation. He'd been so confused and startled by the whole thing it was hard to remember exact wordings. "I'm not sure but, well, he must of because why would he call himself one? Anyway we have our first team meeting soon so I'll just have to see what happens, right? He's basically been ignoring me in the classes we do share anyway."
He shrugged, and asked "So what about you? You seem to have been up to lots lately. If the stars are any indication, of course."
Pietro frowned. Felix had called himself a whore?
Oh. Oh shit. That...
Wow. He stole the bottle and took a long drink to drown the thoughts, because that definitely wasn't something he should say to Victor at all ever without talking to Felix. And it really wasn't his place to talk to Felix about it at all.
But. Okay. This seemed important. Through his slight buzz-filter, Pietro managed, "Yeah, we'll come back to me being a whore in a sec. Vic, I seriously think Felix is fucked up. Like. That doesn't make it okay for him to be a dick to you. But. Don't let it get to you, okay?"
Victor shrugged a little and sighed "How can I not? It really hurt and that and the Tommy stuff ending and us not being ok, all all happened at once and I know most of it's my fault and I have to deal with that and make things up to you and everything but with Felix it was so unexplainable and I couldn't understand where it had come from at all. With you, well, at least I totally get it and I could understand why things were like that. And sorry, I know we're not mentioning that stuff tonight. You know I go on rambling tangents..."
"Okay, we can totally mention it, I just didn't want it to get all blamey. I missed you, too." Funny how petty shit like that seemed in the face of this... horror. He wanted to say more, to make sure Victor didn't get all self-centered shit on Felix, because--no way, it couldn't be that...
Nope. More beer. Definitely more beer. Pietro crawled over to the fridge, leaving the Warsteiner with Vic and grabbing for the Newcastle. "It's a drop in an ocean of trouble, or something else equally philosophical sounding. Let it go under the bridge. I am so not drunk enough to be mixing my metaphors. Fuck."
Seriously though, his head was spinning, and not from the beer.
Victor smiled a little a that, though he was sure there was something Felix related that he wasn't getting. Then again if Felix never spoke to him again, maybe it wouldn't matter anyway. Right?
"So, jumping back in topics again, what've you been up to?" Because really, they so needed to catch up.
Yes, good idea, back to him being a whore, not tiny Felix. Please, please, please let that not be a real thing ohgodplease...
Pietro tried to concentrate on what he had and hadn't already told Victor, and didn't have too terrible a time at it. "Well, the usual random hanging out with Eames. St. Pat's with Remy, like I said, which somehow did not result in my sister killing me for being buzzed at three in the afternoon. And had a pretty happy ending overall." Haha, pun intended, but Pietro didn't linger on it, just grinned. "Um, stars on the door are the usual suspects. Probably Tessa. Oh, and the other day I had the most hilarious conversation with Alison about mutant sex."
"'Mutant Sex' sounds like one of those crappy movies from the 50's," Vic mused having decided not to ask anymore about the stars, the whole point of the star system was privacy and avoiding embarrassing situations after all. "Do I even wanna ask what that conversation entailed?" He chuckled.
By this time, Pietro had popped the cap off the Newcastle with his keychain and returned to his pizza. He held one in each hand. "The advantages of various mutations in bed--actually Curtis and I were talking about that the other day too. Whatever, hormones, yay." He took a quick drink, then, smirking. "Oh, don't worry, Ali and I totally didn't bring your tongue into it."
"I wasn't worried actually though I'm not surprised coz my tongue freaks Ali out." Was shrugged as he sat back against his bed. He was starting to feel full but was determined to not be defeated. Pizza was too good to waste. Then again left over pizza for lunch was also pretty awesome.
"And, yeah, big surprise it's a house full of teenagers so of course sex is the main topic of conversation!" He laughed at that as he drank a little more of his beer. It didn't go straight to his head like the whiskey had before, much like the cider it's effects seemed to creep slowly instead. For now at least.
"Alison's boyfriend has like tons of stretchy gray skin. I seriously doubt your tongue freaks her out--and yes, I remember how you met." Pietro rolled his eyes. "Man, I totally should've asked if he used the skin for anything. That could be almost as interesting as the tongue. Not quite, but almost."
The younger boy thought about that for a minute before bringing that train of thought to a hasty halt because, really, he wanted to be able to look Angelo in the eyes in the future and not have thoughts like that pop up. Thanks so much, Pietro.
"Ok, maybe she wouldn't be now but I don't exactly do the trick a whole lot anyway. You should be honoured you see me being so mutanty really. It's basically only you and Vance." He peeled a pepperoni of carefully as he spoke.
"Yeah, Vance is the kind of guy who could appreciate the tongue," Pietro said seriously, before stuffing more pizza into his mouth to hide the grin threatening to bust through.
Victor eyed Pietro suspiciously, not trusting the apparently serious tone at all. Nuh uh. Especially not when he was saying stuff like that. "He prefers the wall climbing actually. Says its 'real super hero stuff' and compared me to the matrix." There were better films to be compared to but, equally, a whole lot worse films too.
Pietro chuckled. "He's so fucking cute, I swear to god."
"He's got serious power too. I mean, you kinda have to push him a bit to get him to try some of the stuff but, you know, find the right motivation. I found telling him I was gonna let go of the ceiling either way and he might as well save Foley the rebuild work did the job!" He had a lot of bruises from their danger room session but it had been way fun.
"Ha! Nice of him to catch you, then." Pietro could make out the scene well enough, and found it extremely awesome on multiple levels.
"Yeah, my face always appreciates the times it's not being remodelled by the floor."
