Moment of Truth

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

(This probably took place sometime in the late spring. I know I'm totally late on it... but whatever. Fictional world, people!)



The mailtruck pulls up to the curb, outside the Institute.

"Hello, young man... how are you doing?" The older man gives Josh a friendly smile and absentmindedly sorts through a pile of envelopes.

"Pretty good. Yourself?" Josh suppresses the urge to begin ripping open random envelopes in the 'Greymalkin Lane' folder. He and this man had gone through this entire ritual every afternoon (except Sunday) of the last two weeks. Word was out that his last school had made their final enrollment decisions.

"Let's see... what do I have for you today?" The man finishes putting together a hefty pile of envelopes and magazines. On on the top is a magazine in a dark plastic bag, addressed to 'Mr. Logan Howlett'. I wonder if Storm knows you forward your porn to the Institute, Wolvie. Josh rolls his eyes.

"Thanks again..." He waves to the man as the truck pulls off into the street. Josh makes his way up the winding driveway, itching the entire way to scatter the pile across the lawn and dig for his letter.

He finally arrives in the foyer and drops the stack onto the table there, digging furiously. With the amount of people who live at the Institute, getting the mail is no small task. ...There it is!

A large envelope - that's good... right? - addressed to Joshua Dalton, and emblazoned with 'Columbia University' in the upper corner sits in his hands. Oh god oh god oh god oh god...

It wasn't as if he'd not gotten in anywhere. But Columbia was Ivy League, and he could do pretty much anything with a degree from it. And it wasn't far from the Institute, which meant things between him and Warren could stay the same. It was hard enough that Warren was gone periodically on trips. Add in being far enough away from the Institute to only be able to return here and there... Josh shakes his head. Oh... please...

He rips open the envelope with shaking hands... and his eyes zoom in on the first line.

Dear Mr. Dalton:

We are happy to officially welcome you to the Columbia University Class of 2011. Congratulations!

The rest of the letter is totally lost in his shout of joy. "I don't believe it...I got in!" Josh's voice is a mixture of shock and excitement. The letter slips out of his hand and drops to the ground.

[Bobby Drake]

> " I don't believe it...I got in!"

Bobby’s dragging himself up the stairs from yet another far-more-exhausting-than-it-used-to-be exercise session when Josh’s shout from the lobby grabs his attention. He sticks his head in through the doorway and shouts "Congratulations! That’s wonderful! We never doubted you for a second!" before padding in closer and adding, more quietly, "in to what?"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh relinquishes his mental contact with Warren, a sloppy grin on his face. Despite his initial embarrassment, the amorous feelings flowing over their mental link from Warren was putting him at ease... and in the mood, frankly.

> "Congratulations! That’s wonderful! We never doubted you for a second!" [...] "in to what?"

He locks his eyes on Bobby. "Bobby! I got into Columbia! It's an awesome school! And it means I'll still be able to see everyone on a daily basis!" A good proportion of his other school choices were in upper New England and scattered across the country. Columbia was definitely going to make the college transition easier.

"And things won't change with Warren..." That, particularly, had worried him. He knew it was one of those college things that happened to a lot of people, but he wasn't interested in his relationship getting strained and eventually falling apart from distance. We're not most people, and could probably work it out long-range telepathically, but that isn't a substitute for being with each other.

Josh suddenly becomes conscious that Bobby probably wasn't graduating with him that semester. "Um, er. Sorry, I didn't mean to like, gloat or something. I'm not that way..."

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby feels a moment’s jealousy at Josh’s academic and romantic successes, which is immediately drowned by guilt over it, especially when Josh apologizes for it. He shakes his head and grins, genuinely pleased for his friend. "No, no, that’s great! It’s a great school, and it’ll be good to keep you around… place just wouldn’t be the same without you. And neither would the X-Men. "

He hasn’t really given a lot of thought to graduations and departures, beyond frustration with his own transition to the “five-year plan” in the wake of recent disruptions… but now that he thinks about it, he realizes this is the first Institute graduating class to include active X-Men. "It’s sorta funny, isn’t it? I mean, that we’re the first class with team members? I guess we’re just that good…" He loses the grin for a second as he remembers that he’s not on the team anymore, but shakes that off – he will be again, sooner or later, and anyway it’s not all about him.

"Hey, speaking of which -- it never occurred to me to ask, but did their admissions guys or anybody give you any crap over being a public mutant and stuff?" That doesn’t seem to be a problem for Warren, but well, Warren is Warren, and can charm snakes out of the trees when he puts his mind to it, and besides he’d gone directly from whatever weird private-tutor-homeschooling-apprenticeship thing he’d been doing to teaching at the Institute; it wasn’t the same thing.