Warren's Birthday Party (Open to All)

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh is still picking at his plate when Warren is suddenly behind him, chin on his shoulder. Which is just so damn cute, except that Bobby's right there...

>"J? What's wrong, hon?"

God. I'm not snubbing pretty much the best thing that's ever happened to me. Deal with it, Iceboy.

Josh tilts his head over to Warren's, and plants a light kiss on the corner of his lips. <I'll tell ya later. It's sweet of you to notice.> He can't help but start smiling. Warren is definitely in tune with his moods... In fact, wasn't he facing the other direction until a second ago? Something to ask about later. It could be that our mental connection is deepening faster than I realized... Which is probably something else to mention.

He throws a covert look over at Bobby, checking to see his reaction. Even though I don't care. But the truth was, he did care, he just wasn't willing to stifle his feelings for Warren in Bobby's prescence.

Josh telekinetically pushes out the chair next to him. "So, how was the trip? At least, the good parts? I know some of it didn't go so well..." It seemed like he'd been gone forever, instead of only a few days.

[Warren Worthington III]

> "So, how was the trip? At least, the good parts?"

" Good parts? Hmmm.... let me think." Warren chuckles and settles in the chair, reversing it so he leans forward on its back. "Well, I got to talk to Jon Stewart... that was fun. He's pretty funny in real life, actually... I gather that's pretty rare. Nice guy, too." He thinks for a while and adds " And the guy sitting next to me on the flight to LA turned out to be a lawyer with the ACLU... we talked for a while about some mutant-abuse cases coming up in New York next month. So of course the guy next to him turned out to be some flavor of religious zealot, started arguing that God had created mutants as a test of the righteous and if we weren't destroyed God would be upset. It got, um, active for a while there. Though I probably shouldn't have mentioned the fact that my boyfriend can literally walk on water... he changed seats after that." He grins and adds "Never did figure out if it was the "boyfriend" part, or the "walk on water" part, that chased him off."

Warren reaches out to scoop up a fingerful of frosting from Josh's plate and lick it off his finger as he thinks about the rest of the trip. He sighs, finally. "That was about it for good parts, though. I'm not sure I've ever collected that many apologetic refusals in a single week before. "

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby listens idly to Warren chatting up Marie, then makes desultory small-talk with Hank for a while. Which is tough, since he only understands every other word, and the one thing he wants to talk about he's promised himself he's not going to spoil the party by bringing up... especially since it's pretty obvious Warren got nowhere.

Well, at least he tried... gotta give him credit for that. The truth is he doesn't feel terribly grateful, though.

He awkwardly grits his way through the tail end of a bewildering conversation about some UN resolution having to do with, he thinks, the use of synthetic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in developing-world agriculture, then excuses himself to return to the buffet table.

> "Eat as much as you like, because everyone else is gone for the rest of the day."

"Oh, is that why we're the only ones here? I was wondering." Bobby refills his plate, though he isn't really hungry. It's a party, after all... eating too much is compulsory.

He tries to ignore Warren cuddling with Josh, which still invites comparisons he's not ready to think about, with only mixed success. It's easier to listen to the Winged Wonder discuss his adventures in LaLaLand.

> I'm not sure I've ever collected that many apologetic refusals in a single week before. "

Bobby nods. " Yeah, I suppose a guy like you doesn't get turned down too often. " Which comes out more bitter than he'd meant it to, and he finally notices Josh's mood, and realizes that if he hasn't just managed to piss off the only people in the room who hadn't already decided he's pretty much a waste of space, it's just a matter of time until he does.

He puts down the plate and heads towards the hangar doors, adding " Oh, man... look at the time! I, um, have the Danger Room booked for aikido practice, I gotta go. Bye everybody... great party... happy birthday, wings!" He considers sending Josh a snarky thought about not using their room to "unwrap his gift" but decides he's pushed his luck enough for one day, and heads out.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> "Never did figure out if it was the "boyfriend" part, or the "walk on water" part, that chased him off."

Josh grins a little. "Probably the walking on water part, I'm sure..." Whenever he realized that he was, in fact, Warren's boyfriend, his heart gave a little jump. There was something about it actually being stated that he hoped would never cease to make him happy. And it made him happy that Warren didn't hesitate in telling others that he did have one - it was never easy to judge how others would react to that kind of comment.

> " Yeah, I suppose a guy like you doesn't get turned down too often."

The room is utterly silent, and Josh isn't sure whether that's because everyone is eating or because of the comment's vitriol. His own mouth is slightly agape, and he slowly closes it, lips pressed into a line.

And Bobby's leaving suddenly, with some kind of lame excuse about aikido practice. God. What the hell just happened? Josh briefly considers excusing himself and altering the aikido program's code while Bobby's in the locker room. I wonder how you'd hold up against Wolverine, asshat... or maybe Phoenix?

He stares after Bobby in disbelief, and then looks at Warren. "I’m sorry, but Bobby and I need to have a little chat.” His eyes are flaming, but he gives the other boy a quick peck on the cheek. “Meet me upstairs later, okay?” With that, he stalks across the hangar bay after Bobby, telekinetically stopping the outer doors from closing. They let out a moan of stressed hydraulics, and he slips through before they close.

“God, what is your problem? Is that how you think of us? That Warren is some kind of stuck up rich kid used to getting his way? And that I’m some kind of skeeze of the week now because he ‘doesn’t get turned down’? Do you think I need another voice in my head making me question why quite possibly the sweetest and most attractive man I’ve ever met wants to go out with me when he could literally have anyone else in the world?” Josh takes a breath. “Dammit! You’re my best friend, Bobby. I care about you. Why do you have to do this to everyone? That shot against Rogue was totally uncalled for, too.”

He bites his lip. “Bobby, don’t do this. I know things are complicated right now. Don’t push us away.” Josh realizes there's a tear in his eye, and he brushes at it hastily.

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby turns around at the sound of groaning machinery to see Josh stalk through the closing doors, and stands there flatfooted while his roommate reads him the riot act.

Which, on the one hand, he's gotten used to. There's hardly anyone at the Institute he hasn't gotten a lecture from lately about proper social behavior. Well, OK, not from Logan, but pretty much everybody else.

On the other hand, it's always novel when it happens, because the same question is always in the air: is this the one where they give up and walk away? He knows it's just a matter of time until they do.

And he's not sure how he feels about that. It's like he's two different people... one wants to apologize and go back to being a nice guy and stop fighting with his friends all the time, and the other wants them all to walk away.

I wonder if this is what Marie feels like... or John? Maybe I'll start giving parts of my head different names, too. Except he knows it isn't like that at all. Marie really does have a party going on in her head - which, he remembers, includes him, and he wonders what his own reaction to his little performance back there was. And John... well, Bobby never knows what to make of John, but he knows the guy has been through serious crap. Me, I'm just being self-indulgent.

Acknowledging that should make it easy to apologize, go back inside, and enjoy the rest of the party.

It doesn't.

It also ought to help that, pissed off as Josh obviously is, he equally obviously actually does care. And it does help, some. A lot, actually.

Just not enough.

Watching Josh, Bobby wonders if that's what he looked like back at Mimi's, pleading with John to stop pushing him away. And that's altogether too disturbing a thought to contemplate for any length of time, because it implies he might be on the same road as John, might end up in the same place. And the image of Iceman and Impulse squaring off against each other during the next big battle is almost as disturbing as the image of Iceman and Pyro fighting side-by-side again. It's all just too much to contemplate and Bobby isn't prepared to try.

So he just nods, pretending not to notice Josh getting weepy, pretending he doesn't feel the same way.

" Are you done? " The tone of voice gets easier every time... cold, flat, unemotional. With enough practice, he figures, he may even get to where he means it, where he actually feels detached and centered and calm instead of panicked and sick to his stomach.

That'd be nice.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh gapes a little at Bobby’s cold tone, and the tear that was in his eye rolls down his cheek.

“What… what’s happened to you, Bobby? How can you just not care? I care so much that it hurts inside.”

There’s something seriously wrong with Bobby right now. And I don’t even know what! Am I a horrible roommate for being so clueless? Josh flicks the droplet away from his face with a finger, and continues to stare in shock. Something doesn’t add up, though. In the last three years, he’s gotten to know Bobby pretty well. Enough to know when he’s bluffing. And with his telepathy, that makes his guess fairly strong.

“You’re faking. I know you, Bobby - I just don’t know why. Do you think that being like John will make him love you? There’s a reason that he left us and you didn’t.” Josh locks eyes with him. “You’re not like him. You could never go around torching buildings and getting kicks from it. From killing innocent people. Because you know it’s not right.” He keeps his voice on an even, if emotional, tone - the anger has passed.

[Warren Worthington III]

> " Yeah, I suppose a guy like you doesn't get turned down too often. "

Warren doesn't quite know what to say to that. It's true, in a sense, but the bitterness in Bobby's tone seems uncalled for, and implies more than it says.

The retort "Yes, not treating people like Danger Room combat sims helps with that" forms on his tongue, but before he opens his mouth Bobby is already leaving.

Honestly, Warren is just as happy to see the kid leave. It's not that he'd expected gratitude for his failed mission, but he didn't expect to be kicked in the teeth for having tried.

But he hadn't anticipated Josh's storming off after him, and Warren now suspects he knows where Josh's kicked-puppy face came from a minute ago. And that pisses him off. He's tried to stay out of the middle between those two and to make friends with Bobby for Josh's sake, but there are limits... that self-absorbed jackass had no right to ruin a party Josh had obviously put a lot of thought and energy into putting together.

He tosses Bobby's still-full plate in the trash, and starts cleaning up party detritus. "So I guess everybody has stuff to do, right? And I'm pretty wiped from spending the last week on airplanes... I swear, it's more exhausting than flying on my own. But thanks for coming, and for setting all of this up, it was great and I really appreciate it. And it was especially good to finally meet you, Rogue. Don't be a recluse, OK?"

He tries his best to conceal his irritation, and is mostly successful; it helps that he really is pleased by everyone having made the effort. Bobby notwithstanding, it's a great bunch of people and they've made him feel more at home in just a few months than his family ever did... and that's not even counting Josh.

As if on cue, Warren picks up Josh's voice from the other side of the hangar doors. Warren isn't sure if it's loud enough for others to hear, but to his ear every word is clear enough.

> "that I’m some kind of skeeze of the week now because he ‘doesn’t get turned down’? Do you think I need another voice in my head making me question why quite possibly the sweetest and most attractive man I’ve ever met wants to go out with me"

The rest of the exchange is lost in a kind of dull roar as Warren rocks back on his heels, overcome by emotion.

He remembers his first attempt to hit the stratosphere. He hadn't been ignorant of the dangers of altitude... oxygen deprivation, cold, UV radiation, all that stuff. He just hadn't cared, and it had seemed like an appropriate way to go, like Icarus flying too close to the sun. Even his healing factor couldn't cope with that long a fall, he'd figured, and that would end that.

It hadn't worked out that way. He'd experienced hypoxia-induced euphoria for a few minutes, climbing exultantly above the clouds like a young god before finally passing out. He regained consciousness about twenty meters aboveground and braked without thinking.

He'd strained muscles in his wings he didn't know the name of, and broken both legs, an arm, and six ribs on that landing, but he'd healed. He doesn't really remember hitting the ground, but he'll never forget the moment he woke up, feeling the earth rush at him and the wind whistle past him as terror and euphoria struggled for supremacy, both ultimately losing out to a profound sense of embarassment that he'd put himself in that position in the first place.

That's what this feels like. On the one hand, hearing Josh describe him that way makes him feel like he can arm-wrestle Sentinels and charm planets out of their orbits. On the other hand, hearing the self-doubt in Josh's voice and knowing he's the cause of it, him and the X-fans and that stupid web-site and the last six months of his life, makes him want to climb into the deepest hole he can find and never come out. Is that why he hasn't wanted to -- hell. I really am the world's biggest idiot.

" Sorry, guys... I have to go. I'll finish cleaning up the hangar later. Thanks again for, you know, everything." He makes his way to the hangar doors as he speaks. He's not really sure what he's going to do when he gets through them, but he has to do something to fix this.

[Bobby Drake]

> "You’re faking. I know you, Bobby - I just don’t know why."

Bobby freezes in his tracks - metaphorically, for once - then turns away, kicking the elevator call button.

He's not sure exactly what about Josh's tone scares him right now, but something does, possibly just the realization that no matter how perfect he gets the facade, Josh is a freakin' telepath, he'll always know how much Bobby actually cares, he'll always be able to use that against him, even when he doesn't mean to. And there's no getting away from that without getting away from Josh, and right now that's just what he intends to do.

> "Do you think that being like John will make him love you? There’s a reason that he left us and you didn’t."

Bobby can't help but respond to that, no matter how much he wants to run.

"Don't you think I know that? I'm not an idiot, Josh. He's never going to love me, it's never going to be like what, what --" --you and Warren have, he doesn't say, somehow unwilling to put words to the thought, so he changes the subject: " And he left because we let him leave, I let him leave, and after that he, he --" Bobby stutters over that thought, too, over the realization that if anybody in this conversation is playing skank-of-the-week it certainly isn't Josh. " Anyway, it's not about being like John, it's, it's just that..." he trails off, sounding more and more like a corrupted MP3 file, as he realizes he's lying, and the wave of anger he's been riding dies away underneath him in the face of that realization.

In its place, for just a moment, there's a bubble of clarity. It isn't about bringing him back, he realizes suddenly, it's about taking his place. Which is too weird to admit to, not even to Josh, because what the hell does that even mean?

Warren walking out of the hangar at that moment is a godsend, and Bobby takes advantage of the distraction to turn around again and walk into the elevator, hoping to get away before he embarasses himself even further.

(( OOC: Josh, feel free to have picked up any of what Bobby's thinking, everyone else feel free to have heard any of what he said as the hangar doors open. ))

[Warren Worthington III]

Warren is a little startled to see Bobby walking out as he enters, but doesn't spare it more than a moment's thought after he sees Josh's face. Is he crying?

He doesn't know what to do, really. For just a moment he wants to cram Bobby into a furnace just to watch him melt, but that passes quickly. And he still doesn't really understand what's going on between Bobby and Josh, though he's been assured it's nothing he should worry about.

Eventually he reaches out to put a hand on Josh's shoulder, trying to "send" a sense of reassurance. <Hey boss... you want I should hurt him for you?> He makes a distinct effort to make it feel like a joke, which it (mostly) is.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> He's never going to love me, it's never going to be like what, what --"

He doesn’t say it, but Josh can complete sentences as well as anyone else - and the list of possible finishers is astonishingly short. The implication makes Josh’s heart leap for himself, and ache for Bobby… but he also picks up that Bobby doesn’t think he’s putting out for Warren in some kind of crazed fashion. I guess I misinterpreted that.

Bobby trails off after a moment.

It's about taking his place.

Josh looks confusedly at Bobby - he didn’t just say that, did he? He must have been ‘shouting’. And suddenly, Josh feels like the last few months make sense as dozens, hundreds of conversations and strange things that meant nothing at the time fall into place.

“Bobby. John doesn’t need you to do that. He made his choice. It’s not your fault.” Josh just stares as the metallic doors close, realizing how cryptic and unclear his statement sounds, but not knowing how to put it any other way.

A hand drops lightly onto his shoulder. Warren. He should have felt his presence approaching, but he’d been distracted. Warren’s mental signature practically glowed to him these days. He turns to the other boy.

“Oh, Warren!” He opens his arms and fairly throws himself at Warren’s chest, just wanting to soak up warmth. The conversation had left him feeling cold - and he doubted it was Bobby’s cryokinesis. He nuzzles into Warren’s neck. “You have no idea how amazing your timing is.” Josh sniffles a little, embarrassed at his display of emotion earlier.

“I’m sorry! I wanted today to be special for you, and then this had to go and happen.” He looks up into Warren’s eyes. “You deserve an explanation…” But what do I say? Bobby’s in love with John, but John is a psychopathic pyromaniac who tried to kill him after sex, and so Bobby’s taking it out on everyone else in frustration?

[rileyfletcher]

Riley had been in town picking up Warren's gift. She heard that they were planing on through him a surprise birthday party and didn't want to miss it, since she considered him a friend. While waitting for the gift, she kept looking at her watch, knowing that she was already late for it. Riley hoped that it was going well, since there was a lot of planing for it. Soon the gift was ready and she quickly made her way back to the school.

Once she was at the mansion, she quickly ran up into her room to get the card and put everything together. As soon as she was done, she quickly ran down into the sub basement. Riley knew there wasn't a lot of people at the school, but hoped that who ever was still here was at the party having a good time.

Soon Riley was in the sub basement and walking through the halls heading for the X-Hanger. When she was nearing a courner, she heard people talking, in loud voices. Right away she knew who it was and was going to turn down the hall towards them, when she heard what they were talking about. Riley knew that Josh and Warren were together, but she never knew the Bobby was actually in love with John.

Her mouth droped hearing all of this. Oh my god!! Bobby is in love with John!!! When did this happen? Had he been in love with him for a long time or just recently? Do they secretly meet up with him? So many things ran through her mind. Eventually she soon heard Warren joining them and was talking to them. Riley wasn't sure if she should dare move, but she stayed where she was.

[Warren Worthington III]

As Bobby escapes in the elevator, Warren tries to make sense out of the partial exchange he overheard, not quite succeeding. Something about some guy named John who left.

Warren assumes that has to be Pyro, he'd read something about that in the Institutes back-files. What it has to do with Bobby is unclear, at best, and in any case that isn't what he's paying attention to. He wraps his arms protectively around Josh, stroking his hair gently, trying to come up with something supportive to say.

> "I’m sorry! I wanted today to be special for you, and then this had to go and happen. You deserve an explanation..."

"Shhh.... it's OK. You don't owe me any explanation... whatever's going on between you two, I'm sure you'd tell me if it affected me. And believe me, with the party and everything, it's been a great birthday... I still can't believe you set all that up."

He grins tentatively, hoping to cheer Josh up. " You said something about a present?"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

"Just because Bobby's going through a rough patch right now doesn't give him the right to treat everyone like crap." Josh hugs Warren tightly.

> "Shhh.... it's OK. You don't owe me any explanation [...] I still can't believe you set all that up."

Josh is inwardly relieved. That conversation would be too screwed up for words. "I just want you to feel at home here." He tries not to look too pleased with himself.

> "You said something about a present?"

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Josh lets go and looks up at Warren in anticipation. "It's in my room. Let's go upstairs and I can give it to you..." I hope he likes it...


[OOC - unless you've got anything else, I think that I can set up a new thread in Warren's room. Bobby's probably sulking in their dorm room... *grin*]