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Post by Pyro on Nov 4, 2006 2:03:00 GMT
OOC: Ye oldy implicit boysex returns[/color]
It’s odd that two people can be so connected and at the same time so oblivious to what’s going on in the other’s head. John, for example, finds it both bewildering and frustrating that Bob’s missing the point, talking about *us* as if everyone knows, as if it’s something which won’t shatter and burst into flames if exposed to the light. Bobby’s *us* seems to be some concrete thing, which is equal parts reassuring (at least someone knows where this is going) and frightening, whereas his *us* is more… abstract. Unknowable. And so John’s screaming in his head Shut up. Shut up now. and Bobby… doesn’t hear him, and John’s not sure what to read into that…
… Hold up. The next realization wipes everything else – the endearing side of it, the shock, the desperation, everything - clean off the board. Josh knows? Bobby fucking told Josh?
There’s a million things he needs to say after Bobby’s spiel, but only one he can, which slips out unguarded as he’s trying to think of something intelligent, or witty, something which’ll make this all make something close enough to sense for him to escape with his sanity something like intact. ”You told Josh? About us”
And it’s so… normal. That’s the weird bit. It’s like they’re a real couple who can argue about these pointless minor betrayals rather than two people caught up in the middle of a million other issues who’ve somehow stumbled into each other’s orbit and are waiting for that to slip out of kilter, not knowing whether that slip means drifting apart or colliding. It’s so functional, so completely mundane and un-screwed-up, that… he laughs. Yeah, laughs. For no real reason.
It’s an intriguing prospect, Bob’s suggestion. A stupid and insane one, but all the more intriguing because of it – well, because of that, and the sheer audacious theatricality of it….
< I feel like there's a big-ass bottom to the tip of this 'Bobby and John' labelled iceberg.... Care to share? [/color]
Oh yeah… Toni’s still there. A momentary she said what now? glance and a barely suppressed giggle passes between them.The universe slipped for a moment there, reduced down to just them the way it does when it’s, erm, just them… it’s doing that around other people now? That’s a big shift, and one he’s not going to worry too much about…
Back to the theatrical and audacious. It’s insane, and dangerous, but he wouldn’t be John if there wasn’t a thrill in that, and it’s just… he can’t not now. Maybe Bobby’s way of playing things isn’t so bad. It’s certainly more enjoyable just now… and the fact they’ve both agreed, without ever mentioning it, that this doesn’t have a future makes worrying about anything other than now seem stupid.
So sure, he can play Bobby’s way… or at least a John variation on that theme. Just for tonight. Because *tonight* is all they ever promise each other, the total extent of this world they’ve made… and hell, maybe it’s time he paid up a few of the IOU’s from the concessions Bobby keeps making.
”It’s not that big” he grins, playfully swatting at the ass in question (okay, so Bob’s isn’t necessarily the ass at the bottom of the iceberg, but even if Toni needed to know that there’s no way the John he is to everyone other than Bobby would admit as much). ”The ass or the tip. But I love him anyway”
Ooh.. did he say that? (this seems to the night for variations on that question, huh?) He’s stunned, for a moment, how easily it comes out… and he shoots Bob first a look of confusion and then, as it dawns on him that yes, I really did, a half-amused, half-relieved smile.
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Post by Toni Craft on Nov 4, 2006 3:18:05 GMT
”You told Josh? About us”
Once she got past the initial moments of shock, she kind of wished she had some popcorn. This was getting good. But she couldn't help but weasel herself back into the conversation.
"Sorry to interrupt, fellas, but -ahem- 'us'?" She taps her DVDs against her temple slowing, staring down both John and Bobby. "Since when has there ever been an 'us'? And why does it feel like I'm among the last to know?"
If she was reading all of this right, and Toni was nearly certain she was (how could you screw up something as potent as 'us'?!), she was waaaaaay out of the loop.
John and Bobby? Bobby and John? She was still feebly trying to wrap her mind around the whole idea. Pyro and Iceman? Iceman and Pyro. Okay, so maybe it was starting to sink in...just a little. But those two? Of all people? Toni had honestly expected to be in the middle of a nasty fight by now, trying to save her precious movies.
”It’s not that big” Oh no, he did not just say that... ”The ass or the tip. But I love him anyway." The look on John's face reads no inkling of false truths, meaning what he had just said was, much to Toni's surprise, true.
....
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Her mind started running in circles frantically, trying to make sense of the whole situation, but it wasn't going well.
"You're...You're...if you don't mind me asking...It's really none of my business...I could probably get fired for this...but you two are..." Toni took a breath and gave each man another long, peering look. "Gay?" She asked in a hushed voice, suddenly deathly aware that the trio was still standing smack-dab in the middle of a relatively busy Blockbusters.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Nov 4, 2006 19:05:46 GMT
> " You told Josh? About us? "
Bobby doesn’t entirely understand his reaction to that… defensive and proud and guilty and scared and vindicated all at once. On the one hand, the implication that John wanted them to be secret annoys him – is he ashamed? – even though he has to admit he hasn’t exactly been going around telling everybody either. On the other hand, he can’t remember John ever describing them as an “us” before without some kind of ironic hedge, and that’s… hell, for John that’s practically a declaration of love, and Bobby doesn’t quite know what to do with it.
He’s about to snap back some wiseass remark (“Yeah, it seemed the easiest way to explain my laundry” comes to mind) when John starts laughing. Not his usual mocking laugh, but just… laughing. Is he drunk? That would explain a lot, but Bobby knows it isn’t true. John’s just laughing, because he feels like laughing. He doesn’t entirely understand his reaction to that, either. Come to think of it, he’s not sure he’s entirely understood anything that’s happened since he walked into Blockbusters.
Which, right this moment, doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. It’s not like the things he does understand have been all that wonderful, now have they?
> " Since when has there ever been an 'us'? And why does it feel like I'm among the last to know? "
"I think…" …there’s always been an ‘us’, he thinks, but somehow that’s too dangerous to say, and his mouth swaps it out for "…we’re just figuring it out, ourselves," which in retrospect isn’t any better, but this seems to be his night for saying dangerous things he hadn’t quite meant to say, and he can’t really bring himself to object.
> " I feel like there's a big-ass bottom to the tip of this 'Bobby and John' labelled iceberg.... Care to share? "
He stares for a moment. Did she really just say that? It hardly seems possible, the real world just doesn’t offer up straight lines like that. He looks over at John, and for a moment it’s like one of them’s a telepath, because he knows John is thinking the same thing and they share a brief giggle at it. The moment passes quickly but Bobby savors it, adding it to his collection of such moments, knowing deep in the place where he keeps the things he won’t let himself know he knows that some day he’ll be left with nothing but that collection.
> " It’s not that big. The ass or the tip. But I love him anyway."
The inside of Bobby’s own mind reminds him of a Keystone Kops routine, with thoughts falling all over each other in their urgency to get themselves expressed. An aggrieved "Bigger’n yours!" crosses the finish line just barely ahead of the competition (in retrospect, he thinks the matter-of-fact “Sorry, not sharing tonight” deserved the win, but Bobby’s never as clever in the moment as he thinks he should have been), only to collapse in the resulting earthquake as he assimilates those last words.
Did he actually say that? He looks over at John, his expression uncertain and more hopeful than he’s ever likely to admit to, and John’s smile is… heartstopping. Bobby’s jaw drops, then opens and closes a few times, as if he’d be saying something if only there were words coming out of his mouth.
> " You're...You're...if you don't mind me asking...It's really none of my business...I could probably get fired for this...but you two are... Gay? "
Now, of course, his mouth starts working, and Bobby’s a little panicked to realize he’s not at all sure what’s going to come out of it. "Well, I’m more what you’d call moody, really. And John’s more of the brooding, hostile type. But yeah, we’re…" He pauses, not entirely sure he actually wants to finish this sentence, but even less willing not to. "… a couple. "
What the hell, he thinks, aware that he’s already getting stares from other shoppers. At least they don’t know we’re mutants. He walks over to John and slides a possessive arm around his waist, looking defiantly back at Toni for a second before glancing over his DVDs. "So, what’d you pick out?"
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Post by Toni Craft on Nov 5, 2006 3:30:46 GMT
"I think…we’re just figuring it out, ourselves," Toni stands there, still kind of stunned. Her mind is set on a constant loop consisting of a series of questions, mainly Bobby and John? John and Bobby?
"This is certainly an interesting turn of events..." She mutters, glancing between the two *alleged* rivals.
Much to her content though, both seemed to have stumbled over her 'big-ass' comment, earning a wide grin from her. Even when I'm down, I've still got it, She muses.
Toni stands by and watches the silent conversation between the two young men. The way they look at each other, the way they laugh. It's certainly enough to give her the answer to her 'gay' question far before Bobby decides to offer it up for her.
"Well, I’m more what you’d call moody, really. And John’s more of the brooding, hostile type. But yeah, we’re… a couple. " And that's when Toni's mouth hung open, ever so slowly. He actually admitted to it...woah....Nevermind the more humorous reply integrated with that statement. She never takes her eyes off Bobby as he walks over to John and places an arm around him, the motion clearly screaming 'MINE!!'
Toni stares and finds that for several seconds, she can't stop. Her mouth still hangs loose and she half expects a fly to buzz in while she gawks. Then, as she fades back to (albeit an erratic) normal, she blinks repeatedly.
"I think..." What does she think? "I think..." Her mind can't seem to come to a conclusion. The two of them were together...what was she supposed to think? She had been a teacher to both of them at one point, and still often found herself in that role. Toni never saw them as having the potential for romantic relations. Bobby and John? This was far more that surprising, "I think..." Oh...my...god... "I think I'm about to squeal like a little fairy..." Ah, there it is. Everything makes sense now. Sure to her word, she lets out a shrill shriek and smiles broad and warm. "This is too cute!" She steps forward and engulfs them both in a tight hug. Probably a bit too tight for their comparatively fragile bodies, but Toni pays no heed. "Oh, this calls for a celebration! Drinks on me!"
By that point, most of the other movie-goers are watching the odd display, but the trio don't even seem to notice, or care.
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Post by Pyro on Nov 6, 2006 0:05:26 GMT
< you two are… Gay?
Oh… shit.
Million dollar question there… and even if the supposedly big question (you like men?) is easy to answer (some of the time, yeah), it’s the little one which cuts; You’re with Bobby? The gut reaction is, of course, yes, yes, a million times yes… and somehow, a split second later, no, definitely not, not me… which hardly helps matters, considering that when you get thinking about it it hardly gets easier. The only real answer, and the handle he until tonight had on the relationship (we… fuck. Occasionally.) isn’t one he can give Toni… and definitely cannot ever be given to Bob, now when he’s looking at him like that… hell, he can’t even give it to himself any more, given what he’s just admitted to (yes, admitted to. His grip on truth isn’t that flexible… no way he can convince himself that he didn’t mean it, though later he may well convince himself that never meant it was true… right now the two are inseparable because it’s all really real the way things around Bobby are)
He should probably think of something halfway intelligent, because everyone is watching them (and this isn’t the everyone of his usual oh shit, everyone knows, everyone sees paranoia but literally everyone turning to look)… which is terrifying but somehow also madly exhilarating,
Okay, so where does that leave him? Speechless, which also somehow means prepared to babble, but luckily he doesn’t get much further than opening his mouth and going ”Um… well..” before Bobby cuts in.
< Well, I’m more what you’d call moody, really. And John’s more of the brooding, hostile type. But yeah, we’re… a couple[/color]
It’s all threes, the words which have messed his world up (God among insects was a start, but that one gets forced straight out of his head because it really has no place here) –
the park, tonight
never from you
want these, now
Fuck, Bob, Yes
Tonight’s no exception – I love him is pretty fucking immense as these things go. We’re a couple somehow blows it out of the water, though. Because giving this voice makes it real, and making it real should by all reasonable sense of the way the world works make reality implode, or something. But as Bobby kept pointing out back in the early days (have they been going long enough to have early days? Wow.) reality always did have much more room than either of them gave it credit for… a realization which prompts two important mental notes. 1, listen to Bobby more often. And 2, find out exactly how much space there is (let us.. tear our pleasures with rough strife / through the iron gates of life - hell, he’s revealed enough tonight that hiding the literary thing feels totally stupid and banal, and for once John doesn’t beat down the random sparking.. because this one sort of fits, doesn’t it? - we cannot make our sun / stand still, yet we will make him run). So it’s the awkwardness he bites back, not the weird pride that yes, we belong, and he’s said as much…. Not the excitement that Bobby’s acknowledged them as *an item*, two parts of the same thing. Not the multitude of electric shocks language doesn’t yet have a word to accurately describe the emotion behind which snake his entire length as Bobby slips an arm around him.
If that gesture is screaming MINE the way it surely has to be, then John’s reaction is a no-less clear physical version of nodding and conceding, in an oddly quiet and dignified manner for him, Yes, yours, always, casually wrapping one arm around him in return and leaning in in a way John never ever does, allowing himself to be caught and, even more unusually, possessed, clearly and utterly, by someone else.
He doesn’t get much of a chance to respond to anything else before Toni muscles her way in on the hug – which oddly initially prompts a weird sort of anger, which shocks and somehow weirdly pleases him too much for it to ever flare properly - which is again nice, though oddly scary, because had she freaked out he’d have a reason to run from this, something to stop things going anywhere. Normally things like this matter – hell, it’ll probably still matter later, when he’s on his own – but right now he’s sure he would have torn such a wall down anyway, because for once he doesn’t want anything between them, because they’re a couple, right? Another set of those ‘three little words’ things, another earthquake –
We’re a couple
John and Bobby
Now and forever
And I’m okay with it. Wow.
He’s aware again of the force of Toni’s embrace (and it’s got to be a sign of how deep this infatuation runs, that he’s managed to forget about that for a while) – Okay, didn’t need those ribs anyway – and he wriggles free and somehow drags Bobby with him.
”I’ll hold you to it” he grins as drinks are mentioned, straightening himself up before slipping an arm back around Bobby, because not being in physical contact is starting to feel as wrong as being normally does – not more wrong, just a different, more insistent sort – hang the eyes still on them, hang the whole fucking world. Hang how awkward and stupid and reckless, how clichéd and theatrical and downright unnatural what’s coming up no doubt is, because it feels right, and if being with Bobby’s taught him anything, it’s that trusting that feeling is okay again, that it’s not going to kill him to admit that much to himself. ”But we’re not cute, Toni. I’m brooding and hostile. He’s more moody. And we’re a couple”
Stating it for himself is somehow important, but that’s not the drive. He can’t explain why… it just… is. The same way it’s just the only real course of action now to push things that little bit further, to give in to the voice which has been a background litany since he spotted his lover (yes, his lover. He can say that now. Wow) across the video store. And so before anyone can respond to whatever the hell that was, before he can draw breath, almost before a heartbeat has slipped past (although not quite, because he can feel it pounding almost in his throat) he catches Bobby’s lips in a sudden, fiery kiss.
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Post by Bobby Drake on Nov 6, 2006 3:36:09 GMT
(( OOC: Safe to peek, kids, unless boy-infatuation squicks you. ))
Bobby wasn’t really sure what reaction to expect from Toni… or from John, for that matter. But he certainly didn’t expect them to collaborate on preventing him from breathing.
He’s not sure which of them was most effective, really: he thinks Toni’s hug may have broken something in his rib cage, but he’s almost certain John’s kiss did. Either way, it took him a long time to be able to speak again, and much as he’d like to blame Toni’s vice-like grip for that, he’s pretty sure it was actually the kiss that left him breathless.
Well, that and hearing John actually describe them as a couple, which he’s not sure he didn’t just hallucinate. Oxygen deprivation can do some strange things. But he’d been breathing OK when John had said “I love him,” so he’s pretty sure that was real. As was the way he’d wrapped an arm around him, as if agreeing to something Bobby doesn’t remember saying, but knows is true anyway. All of that was real. Unless this is some kind of demented Danger Room simulation, or someone slipped opium into his Frosted Flakes this morning, or something. Which somehow seem like more likely possibilities, somehow.
He’s had this feeling before: after Alcatraz, he’d struggled with the fantasy that any minute now he’d wake up and Jean and Scott and Professor Xavier would be alive, John would be asleep in the next bed, everything would be the way it was. Eventually he got over it… not so much that he started believing it was all real, but that he stopped expecting to wake up.
It’s different now, though. For the first time in a long time, he feels like this just might be a dream worth having. Hear that? he calls out, to nothing in particular. Don’t wake me up just yet. We’re getting to the good part!
> " Oh, this calls for a celebration! Drinks on me! "
Bobby laughs at that… of course, if this evening is going to turn into a date with John, alcohol has to mysteriously appear from somewhere. It’s a rule. And Toni’s over 21.
"Um… cool?" Despite everything, Bobby can’t help but think of her as a teacher, and the idea of inviting her to join him and John to watch movies in his room, let alone asking her to bring the damn booze, seems unutterably surreal.
Not that he’s going to let a little thing like that stop him.
"So, um… John and I’ll get the videos and meet you back in my room?" He’s partial to Jack Daniels, Bobby wants to add, but can’t quite bring himself to say it out loud.
(( OOC: Shall we wrap this thread up and relocate it to Josh/Bob's room? Josh can join us there, Bob's going to bring up the Neverland-data-extraction run idea while we're there. ))
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