HSM/Heroes: They Say That A Hero Can Save Us 1/5
Fandom: High School Musical/Heroes - yeah, I went there.
Pairing: Ryan/Chad, Troy/Gabriella
Rating: NC-17 total, PG-13 this part
Word Count: ~ 32,000 total, 6,172 this part
Warnings: Spoilers for the season finale of Heroes as well as major ideas/characters in season two. This fic contains slash, crass language, sexual content, plausible science, and hardcore crack.
Author's Note: This fic diverges from Heroes canon after Run! And takes place the fall semester after HSM2.
Chad is on the basketball, the baseball, and the track and field team according to HSM2. However, that makes no sense because both baseball and track are spring sports, unless it’s indoor track which is a winter sport - like basketball. So therefore, in this universe, Chad runs cross country, a fall sport (even if he isn’t built like a long-distance runner - I’d say his event would be the 400 or even the 800). And Ryan does have a rubber ducky key chain - check out the scene when Taylor and Gabriella pick him up to go to the baseball game. Adorable! Also, I really like Taylor… I have no idea why she’s not in this fic except for a few passing mentions. Huh.
Beta-ed by the ever amazing saekokato, so the remaining errors are my own because I couldn’t stop tinkering with this fic.
Disclaimer: HSM belongs to Ortega and Disney, and Heroes belongs to Kring and NBC. There are references to several other sources including Stargate: Atlantis, Supernatural, Miss Congeniality, Finding Nemo, and fics written by other people. I take no credit for those ideas.
Disclaimer 2: I do not condone the use of any conjugation of the verb “to get” in place of any conjugation of the verb “to be.”
Summary: He couldn’t remember if he was indestructible because he was gay or gay because he was indestructible.
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They Say that a Hero Can Save Us: How Chad and Ryan Attempted to Keep Peter Petrelli from Going Boom
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When it started, his first reaction was to freak out. Long and hard. Which he did. He didn’t sleep for two days, and he didn’t even notice it until all of his friends pointed out that he looked like shit. He was too busy freaking out.
Since then, he had tried all sorts of experiments on himself after enlisting the help of East High’s golden couple who he had sworn to secrecy.
After a month of continuous experimentation, Gabriella pronounced Chad indestructible.
They stood in the Bolton’s kitchen with their heads bowed together over the island. Troy was stuffing himself with leftovers from the night before and ignoring the other two. According to him, Chad should have finished his freak-out weeks ago.
“Are you sure?” Chad whined.
“We’ve tried everything short of dropping an atomic bomb on you, Chad,” Gabriella said patiently.
“Couldn’t you build one or something?”
“I don’t think the government would let me acquire all the materials I’d need.”
“That wasn’t a “no”!” Chad crowed.
“That’s a “no,” Chad,” she responded with a fond smile.
“What’re we saying “no” to?” Troy asked through a mouthful of turkey.
“Your girl won’t make a bomb to drop on me,” Chad said with an exaggerated pout.
“Isn’t that illegal?”
“Yeah, but I still think she should do it.” Chad shrugged.
“You’re a good friend, Chad,” Gabriella teased.
“What? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking someone to test the limits of her intelligence.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, no.”
Chad’s cell phone rang. “Uh, guys? Where’s the area code for 718?”
“I think that’s somewhere on the East Coast,” Gabriella hypothesized.
“Do you know anyone on the East Coast?” Troy asked.
“No, dude. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t live in this area code.”
“Are you going to answer that?”
“I… don’t know.”
“It couldn’t hurt.”
Chad shrugged and flipped open his phone. “Hello? Yeah, that’s me. How did you get this num- Um… what? How would you know about…”
Troy and Gabriella watched him with rapt attention.
“No. This is a 505 number. I don’t even know where you are. Oh. Dude, I’m 17. I don’t even own a car… Yeah, you said it, man… If it would help the future of mankind, I guess that would be cool. You’re not some psycho who’s going to kill me, right? …Shit! Are you serious?! …Oh, I’m sorry for your loss. Yeah, but, uh, my Mom doesn’t know about that, ‘k? …Whatever you say, man. Bye.”
Troy and Gabriella watched Chad eagerly awaiting an explanation.
“Troy? Can I borrow your computer?”
“Only if you tell us what the hell that was about?”
“That was a call I wish I had had a month ago.”
“Meaning?”
“That was some British doctor from New York. Uh, a Doctor Sure-ish. He knows about what I can do ‘cause he’s been following “DNA migration.” I didn’t really understand that part. He wants to meet with me. And there’s a psycho killer on the loose who’s killing people like me… There are more people like me.”
“So why do you need the computer?” Troy asked. Gabriella said nothing, just stared at Chad pensively with her head tipped slightly to the side.
“To see if he’s the psycho killer.”
“Chandra,” Gabriella announced.
“Wha?”
“Chandra Suresh. I should have done that in the first place!”
“What’s a Chandra?”
“It’s his name. Doctor Suresh’s name. He wrote a book. We’ll go to the library to pick it up!”
“Gabby, he said his name was Mo-something. Mo-cinder maybe?”
“Mo-something?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, and he’s gonna talk to me about what I can do and stuff. Hey, Gabby, could you translate for me?”
She frowned. “You said he was British. They speak English in England, and you had no problem conversing over the phone. In fact you’re acing English.”
“He may speak English, but I don’t speak science.”
She smiled. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with rehearsals, I don’t see a problem with that. Let’s head to the library before it closes.”
“Wait, all of us?” Chad asked. “But it’s a Saturday!”
“Which means it’ll be open only for another two hours,” Gabriella pointed out cheerfully.
“But it’s the weekend!” Chad protested. “Books and weekends should never mix. That’s, like, the Golden Rule.”
Troy raised his eyebrows and looked to Gabriella. “Isn’t that “Do Unto Others”?”
She nodded. “C’mon, Chad. We can look up Doctor Suresh on the computers in the library too.”
“You kids have fun now,” Troy said. “Let me know if Chad’s gonna meet up with a psycho killer.”
“You’re not coming with?” Chad demanded. “This is my hour of need!”
“Your hour of need was a month ago. Plus, I’m not good with the book thing. You’re better off with Gabs.”
“Your loss,” Chad shrugged.
“That’s all the fight you’re going to put up?” Troy’s eyebrows rose.
“If I didn’t have to be there, I wouldn’t.”
“Don’t worry, Wildcat. I’ll keep the evil bookworms from biting you.”
Chad slung an arm around her shoulder. “But who will protect you? And they’re not just evil bookworms, Gabby; they’re evil science bookworms!”
“I’m impervious to the evil bookworms of all types.”
“If you think so,” Chad relented. “Don’t wait up for us, Troy! We’ll call you if Gabby’s eaten by a bookworm… or we’ll probably be back in an hour. One or the other.”
“Be careful, Danforth, bookworms are not to be messed with,” Troy said, deadly serious.
* - * - *
The science section of the library was on the second floor and one wall was covered in windows, letting in the autumn afternoon sun. Chad was thankful for that sun, so that he didn’t feel trapped in the tall stacks of books.
He sullenly followed Gabriella down one aisle as she muttered numbers and letters. She stopped at the end of the aisle and carefully inspected the labels on the lower spines of the books. She kneeled down, frowned, stood and then rounded the corner looking up in one fluid motion.
Chad didn’t have the chance to follow her before he heard her “oof!”
“Gabby?” He rounded the corner. “You o- oh!” He came face to face with Ryan Evans. “Evans?”
“Danforth,” Ryan said, disdain leaking into his voice. “What are you doing in a library?”
“I could ask you the same,” Chad challenged.
“That’s the book!” Gabriella announced. She pointed to the book Ryan had in his hands.
Things became a thousand times more awkward.
“Why do you need this book?” All three of them asked at the same time.
No one could give the obvious, truthful option, and no one could give the obvious plausible lie that it was for a biology project - not when they were all in the same physics class. All students took biology as sophomores. Well, Chad and Ryan were in the class, and Gabriella TA-ed for it.
“What can you do?” Gabriella asked delicately. She placed a comforting hand on Ryan’s bicep.
His manic eyes bounced between Gabriella and Chad. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he responded haughtily.
“Then you wouldn’t want that book.” Chad pointed to the book for extra emphasis.
Ryan looked down the aisle and then peered around the corner, on the lookout for eavesdroppers. “If you tell anyone, I will hire someone to take out you and everyone you’ve ever cared about - or will care about,” he growled.
They waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, Gabriella prompted again, “What can you do?”
Ryan stammered a bit. “I, uh, absorb what other people do.”
Before Gabriella could respond by asking him who he had met and what they could do, Chad blurted out, “You’re a sponge.” He sniggered.
Ryan glared at him in contempt. “I assume that because Girl Wonder is here, you’re the one who can do something interesting, otherwise she’d be here by herself.”
Chad choked before he recovered and said proudly, “I’m indestructible.”
Ryan eyed him warily. “So if I did send out a hit on you, you’d survive?”
“Yup.”
Ryan regarded him carefully.
“Since we all want the book, let’s take it to my house so we can discuss this in private,” Gabriella offered.
Chad and Ryan looked at her in stunned silence, and then they sized each other up.
Gabriella rolled her eyes. “You guys got along well over the summer. Just because classes started, doesn’t mean you can’t get along now.”
Gabriella didn’t understand that this was Chad’s thing. He was special. This was what he could do that Troy couldn’t. And now Ryan was threatening to take that from him. It was like that baseball game all over again, and Chad didn’t want to end up with another mutual, furtive handjob in the locker room and an ultimate switch in clothing that Chad should have said no to, but he was too high on his release to think much about it.
It made things awkward.
“I don’t see how that could hurt,” Chad grumbled.
Ryan raised a delicately groomed eyebrow. “As long as Shar doesn’t find out.”
Gabriella grinned. “Great!”
* - * - *
They holed themselves up in Gabriella’s room, and on Chad’s third brownie, Ryan challenged him. He wanted to see exactly what Chad could do.
“Only if I can see you do it, too,” Chad agreed.
Ryan nodded.
“Hey, Gabby, what was the first thing we tried?”
She looked up from the book. “We cut your forearm, but that wasn’t the first thing that you tried.”
“I was really hoping that incident would remain buried forever.”
Ryan peered at him curiously.
“Don’t. Ask,” Chad said firmly.
“I’ll go fetch a sharp knife from the kitchen. While I’m gone, Chad, you might want to take a look at the last paragraph in the chapter on rapid cellular regeneration.”
Chad frowned.
“That’s what you can do.”
“Oh.”
She handed him the book and left the room.
He read the paragraph, and then he read it again.
“It can’t honestly take you that long to read,” Ryan huffed impatiently. “What does it say?”
“It says that “individuals with rapid cellular regeneration have the potential to outlive those without. This could result in the lack of natural aging as caused by illness, injury and natural apoptosis resulting from…” And then it goes on about science stuff, but ends with: “These individuals who never age or die could potentially live forever in immortality and forever be at the height of their reproductive years as dictated by…” blah, blah, blah, more science.”
“You’re immortal?”
“Uh, wow.”
Gabriella returned with a steak knife.
“Gabby, am I gonna live forever?” Chad asked, almost afraid of the answer. Forever was a long time. A very long time.
“I don’t know, Chad. That’s something you need to talk to Dr. Suresh about.” She handed the knife to Chad, handle first. “Be careful not to drip blood on my floor.”
“Maybe we should do this in the bathroom,” Ryan offered, eyeing the knife suspiciously.
“That would probably be for the best,” Gabriella concurred.
It was awkward for all of them to cram inside the tiny bathroom, but they maneuvered so that Chad stood at the sink, Ryan sat on the rim of the bathtub, and Gabriella sat on the closed toilet seat.
Chad took a deep breath and carefully dug the knife across his forearm. Blood dripped down his arm and into the sink. Gabriella watched in fascination, and Ryan cringed and looked away.
Chad huffed at him. “It’s just a little bit of blood.” He ran the tap over his wound to wash away the blood. “Besides, it’s gone now.”
Ryan’s eyes snapped to Chad’s forearm. There was no sign that it had ever been marred, not even a scar. He looked up to Chad’s face, astonished. “How did you do that?”
Chad shrugged. “How do you do your sponge thing?”
“When I’m around people who do things like that” - he pointed to Chad’s forearm - “I seem to be able to do them too.”
“Would you mind if you demonstrated?” Gabriella asked. “I can prick your finger if that makes you feel more comfortable.”
Ryan nodded distractedly as Gabriella changed positions with Chad.
“I’m left handed,” Ryan said, holding out his right hand. She held his hand over the tub and poked the pad of his right pinky.
Ryan hissed in pain as his blood welled up for a moment but then was sucked back into his body. Chad surmised that it probably wasn’t healthy for the blood to go back into Ryan’s body, but if he was immortal, what the hell.
“That was interesting,” Gabriella appraised. “You boys head back to my room, and I’ll clean the knife and return it to the kitchen.”
Chad and Ryan sat on opposite sides of Gabriella’s bedroom and silently waited for her to return, and when she did, she carried more brownies.
Chad grabbed one and shoved it into his mouth. “Your Mom is awesome, Gabby.”
She smiled indulgently. “Ryan, would it be alright if asked you some questions? I’ve been asking Chad all these questions for the past month. I really want to understand this phenomenon.”
“A month? You’ve known about what you can do for a month?”
“Yeah, why? How long have you known about the sponge thing?”
“A few days,” he admitted.
“Ryan? What was the first power that manifested?”
“Persuasion,” he clipped.
“Manifested? You make it sound like a disease,” Chad blurted out.
“That’s festered,” Gabriella explained patiently. Chad gave her a sour look: that girl had a weird sense of humor that he would never understand. She was too serious, and she did not understand his sense of humor. “Could you please demonstrate?” Ryan looked panicked. “I’m not asking you to make one of us jump out the window, just a simple thing, like to write your name on a piece of paper or sing a song.”
Ryan studied her face with dubious expression on his own. “Um… I think it requires physical contact.”
He walked over to Chad who looked as if he were on the verge of cardiac arrest.
“Relax, Chad, even if he does ask you to jump out a window, you’ll be fine.”
“It still hurts!” he squawked.
Ryan placed a hand over Chad’s. “Dance with me.”
Without so much as a pout, Chad stood up and spun around the room with Ryan.
When Chad sat back down again, he seemed to realize what he had done. “What the hell was that?! That was embarrassing!”
Ryan smirked in triumph.
“Amazing!” Gabriella whispered. “What else can you do?”
Emboldened, Ryan asked, “Can I please see your necklace?”
Gabriella fingered her “T” necklace before handing it to Ryan. “Just don’t hurt it.”
“I’m going to improve it,” he said with a smile.
Suspiciously, Gabriella handed him the necklace. “That’s very important to me.”
“It labels her as Troy’s property,” Chad scoffed.
“Is that really your opinion of me, Chad?” Gabriella said, low and dangerous.
Chad had never heard Gabriella use that tone before, and it unsettled him. “No, it’s just kinda archaic and stuff.”
Gabriella hummed but said nothing.
“Guys?” Ryan ventured. “I did it.” He held out Gabriella’s necklace, which had turned from sterling silver to gold.
“Oh my gosh!” Gabriella gushed. “That is so nice of you, Ryan!”
“Did you just say “gosh”?” Chad asked with a chortle.
Gabriella nodded distractedly as she stroked her new necklace.
“I think we just found the secret of the Evans’ fortune,” Chad announced. Ryan’s eyes went wide again. “Oh, would you relax, Evans. We’re obviously not going to tell. Was it your Mom or your Dad who you picked that up from?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know I’m absorbing a power when it happens.”
Gabriella gasped dramatically. “What about your sister?!”
“What about her?” Chad asked, obviously not following Gabriella’s logic.
“This is a genetic condition, and they’re twins,” Gabriella pointed out.
Ryan blushed. “I, uh, I haven’t spoken to Shar about it… yet.”
“So she might also be experiencing this?”
“Oh God, I hope her power wasn’t the persuasion one. Your sister would totally take advantage of everyone,” Chad moaned. Not that she didn’t already.
“Do you have any other powers to add to the mix?” Gabriella prompted, choosing to ignore Chad’s outburst.
“Not that I know of.”
“You should join us when we meet with Dr. Suresh,” Gabriella offered.
“You’re meeting with Dr. Suresh? But he lives in India.”
“He’s in NYC now. He called me from outta the blue and asked to meet with me. Something having to do with DNA flying south for the winter.”
“That makes no sense, Chad,” Gabriella admonished softly. Chad shook his head. That girl really needed a sense of humor. “He means DNA migrational patterns.”
“That would be very informational,” Ryan said with a nod. “When are you meeting?”
“We don’t know yet,” Chad shrugged.
“Gabriella!” her mother shouted from downstairs. “There’s a handsome young man here to see you!”
Gabriella squealed. “Send Troy up!”
There was a knock on her door, and she threw it open and wrapped herself around Troy.
“Hey, beautiful. You said you would be done in an hour.”
“You missed me?”
“Of course I missed you.” Troy bent his head so that their foreheads rested together.
“Oh gag!” Chad choked.
Troy looked past Gabriella. “Don’t hate a brothah for gettin’ some lovin’.”
Chad cringed. “You are not allowed to say that ever again.”
“Too painful?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Troy finally took notice of the rest of the room. “Ryan? What’s going on here?”
“He’s like Chad,” Gabriella explained excitedly. “We ran into him at the library.”
Ryan scowled.
“So you’re indestructible too?” Troy asked.
Gabriella closed the door behind him. “I’m sorry, Ryan. Troy won’t tell anyone either. We’ve been keeping Chad’s secret for the past month. Taylor doesn’t even know anything.”
“This is all happening really quickly. I haven’t even told my sister yet.”
“Oh! Shit, man. Is your sister indestructible too?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Gabriella explained. She snatched the book up. “There’re more powers than Chad’s rapid cellular regeneration.” She held her necklace charm up for Troy’s inspection. “Ryan has the Midas Touch; although, at this point, he’s more like Nicolas Flamel.”
“Who?” Chad asked.
Ryan gave him a condescending look. “I’d trust that even Harry Potter is up to your reading level, Danforth.”
Chad’s nostrils flared in annoyance.
“He’s an alchemist,” Gabriella said quickly. “With the help of the philosopher’s stone, he was able too turn objects to gold as well as live forever.”
“So Ryan’s gonna live forever?” Troy asked. “How?”
“The same way that Chad is.”
Troy sniggered. “Of all the people I expected Chad to live with forever, it was never Ryan.”
“Oh, ha friggen ha,” Chad snarled. Ryan looked equally as offended.
“What’s your damage?” Troy asked, concerned.
Chad folded his arms over his chest. His damage was that Ryan had pouty lips. Pouty lips that Chad wanted to do nasty things to him. He wanted more than some frottage in the locker room. In fact, that had been all he could think about all summer. And those thoughts had caused Chad to break up with his kinda-sorta girlfriend.
Then there was that time after the championship game last year at the after party where he was supposed to be with his kinda-sorta girlfriend, but he just ended up with Ryan in the Bolton’s laundry room, which was as much a surprise to him as Ryan and nothing short of awesome.
And there was also that time in the bathroom at homecoming…
But Ryan probably saw those times as jock conquests.
God, Chad was so gay… and so doomed.
Ryan paled. “What did you just say?”
Chad looked to Ryan in horror. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Tell me you did not just do that?”
“I wasn’t the one who just confessed to - ”
“Ryan,” Gabriella interrupted firmly. “Chad didn’t say anything.”
“He didn’t say anything?”
“Oh my gosh!” Gabriella gushed. “This is so incredible! What am I thinking?”
“Are you serious?!” he asked incredulously.
“Yes, now focus on me, and tell everyone what I’m thinking.”
“I - I don’t know! This entire thing is absurd. I don’t even know why I agreed to come here.” He had almost stalked out the door when Troy grabbed him and pulled him out into the hallway, closing the door behind them.
Gabriella and Chad pressed up against the door to hear what was said.
“Hey man, I know that all of this is really confusing, but we helped Chad through it. You should have seen him when he first figured it out.” Chad huffed. “It was messy. But it’s really cool. I mean, you can do what? Turn things to gold, live forever, and read minds. That’s really awesome. Who else can do that? So let Gabs help you. If anyone here can help you, she can.”
Ryan hmphed.
“Plus, if you really can read minds, school’s gonna really suck.”
“How do you mean?”
“Hundreds of kids all thinking things at the same time, especially things that they shouldn’t be thinking in school. Hearing all that’s gonna suck.”
“Fine.”
“And if you get really frustrated, you can push Chad off the balcony, no harm done.”
“Hey!” Chad protested as Troy opened up the door. “I feel pain!”
“And you shouldn’t have been eavesdropping.”
Chad shrugged unapologetically.
“So you’re going to let us help?”
“I suppose,” Ryan shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged with his whole body, bouncing on his toes.
Chad looked him up and down, and an unsettling feeling of déjà vu fell over him. For continuality’s sake, he asked, “You got game?”
Ryan cocked an eyebrow at Chad. “Bet on it.”
“Boys,” Gabriella admonished. “There will be no pissing contests in my room. Now you two need to get along because you’re stuck with each other.”
“Yeah,” Troy added. “If there ever was a nuclear holocaust, you two would be, like, the only two people left in the world.”
“Not helpful, Troy,” Chad said blandly.
“Boys covers all three of you,” Gabriella pointed out. “Now, Chad and Troy, you think about basketball. I’ll think about something else. Ryan, I want you to focus on me, alright?”
“Sure.”
* - * - *
The following Monday was awkward. Chad tried so hard to keep his mind blank whenever he was around Ryan, but it was more difficult than he thought it would be. He kept thinking about inappropriate things, because apparently the knee-jerk reaction to knowing someone is reading your mind is to think up all the things you don’t want that person to know. A lot of it was trivial, but some of it was downright embarrassing… and dirty.
Ryan kept giving him poisonous looks across rooms, and by lunch, Chad thought that he should just shoot himself to end the humiliation. Not that it really would do any good.
His mind went blissfully blank when Sharpay stalked up to him at lunch. Actually, it became a mantra of “oh shit!”
“You and I are talking outside. Now.” She flipped her hair at him and stalked out of the cafeteria.
Chad scrambled after her.
When he flew out of the cafeteria, Sharpay crowded him against a wall.
“You’re perverted!” she declared. “You need to stop muttering all that revolting drivel about some apparent hookups you had with my brother months ago. It’s distasteful.”
“Oh shit,” Chad said. “At least it’s not the persuasion.”
“That means nothing to me. Now desist, or I will end you.”
Chad smiled at her lopsidedly. “You might want to talk to your brother about that first. I mean, he and I share more than - ”
“If you finish that sentence, I may have to end you myself. Which would be a tragedy because I just had my nails done.”
Someone who wasn’t Chad snorted. He and Sharpay looked to the source of the noise.
“Ryan. Are you aware of the filth that has been spewing out of his mouth?” Sharpay asked disdainfully.
“He hasn’t said a word, Shar,” Ryan explained.
Chad waggled his eyebrows.
“Chad, give us a moment.”
Chad nodded and headed back into the cafeteria to actually eat his lunch. He found Troy and Gabriella as they were about to sit down.
“Hey guys, can I tell you something real quick? It has to do with the twins.”
Gabriella and Troy shared a look.
“Just quick, man.”
“Sure.”
Chad led them to a corner of the cafeteria. “Sharpay can read minds.”
“At least it’s not the persuasion,” Gabriella shrugged.
“What persuasion?” Troy asked.
“Ryan can also persuade someone to do anything just by touching them.”
“I’m glad that Sharpay can’t do that.”
“Yeah, but is telepathy really that much better?” Chad whined.
Troy frowned dramatically.
“Whatever,” Chad conceded. “I’m hungry.”
They headed back to their table, where Ryan was waiting, and Sharpay was waiting impatiently.
Sharpay didn’t wait for Chad to open his mouth before she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tugged him out of the cafeteria. Her fingernails bit into his flesh.
“Troy, could you grab my lunch?” he shouted on the way out.
Troy, Gabriella, and Ryan followed behind them.
Sharpay dragged him all the way outside.
“Have you ever thought of trimming your nails? They hurt!”
“Oh, like it matters for you,” she huffed.
“Of course it matters!”
“But you heal.”
“Why would you say that?” Chad challenged.
“You told me, like, right now, and Ryan did earlier.”
“Why does everyone think that, just because I heal, I don’t feel pain?” he griped.
“Whatever.” She held her palm up to his face. “Explain to me how this happened.”
“You’re gonna need to talk to Gabby about it. I have no idea.”
“It’s genetic,” Gabriella announced, showing up with Troy and Ryan. “A genetic imperative. The further evolution of us as a species.”
Sharpay snorted. “I always knew Ryan and I were advanced, I just never imagined Danforth to be on the same level as us.”
Chad let out an involuntary “hey!”
“Oh, please,” she said. “Like you could ever be good enough for my brother.”
“What?!” Chad shouted at the same time Ryan blurted out, “Excuse me?!” Troy and Gabriella settled on looks of confusion.
Sharpay looked Chad up and down. “You’ve been going on about it all day.”
“That’s ‘cause Ryan could read my mind!” Chad confessed. “It’s, like, one of the rules of mind-reading: you always think things that you know you shouldn’t think when in the presence of a mind-reader.”
“What are you talking about, Chad?” Ryan asked.
“What is Sharpay talking about?” Gabriella asked.
“What is he talking about?” Sharpay asked.
“What the hell is going on here?” Troy asked.
“My life is over,” Chad grumbled. He dropped to the sidewalk curb and buried his face in his hands. “How much does Sharpay know?” he asked through his fingers.
He could hear Ryan’s smirk before he could hear his voice. “She knows whatever you know.”
“What does that mean?” Sharpay asked, exasperated.
“He means,” Gabriella said, “that you can read all of our minds.”
“So, I was stuck reading that mind?” She pointed at Chad accusingly. “It’s a filthy, filthy place!”
“You’re taking this surprisingly well,” Gabriella noticed.
“My mother always told me I was special,” she shrugged.
“She’s been hearing voices for days,” Ryan said.
“Ryan!” Sharpay chided.
He gave her a shy smile. “I can do what you can do, sis.”
“What do you…” she trailed off.
“Because of…” Ryan trailed off.
Chad looked up from her perch on the curb. “Please tell me they’re not doing some freaky twin telepathic communication thing.”
“I think they are,” Gabriella confirmed.
“That is totally not cool.”
“What was Sharpay talking about with you and Ryan?” Troy asked.
“I stand corrected: that is totally not cool.”
“Chad?” Gabriella pressed.
“He and Ryan hooked up several times, and Chad wants to do it again,” Sharpay said offhandedly. Ryan frowned, and Sharpay continued, “And apparently so does Ryan. Hmm. Three times and you haven’t figured out that you should do it? But you’re still not good enough for my brother, so don’t plan on spending eternity together… oh, well. Never mind.”
“That’s it,” Chad announced. “The world is ending. Right here, right now. And that twin telepathy thing is also totally not cool. Wait… Did you just give us your blessing?” His voice ended up squeaking with incredulity.
“Yes. Ryan disserves a little bit of happiness if he’s going to spend the rest of eternity with no one but you for company. Even if you are a jock. Toodles!” She headed back into the school as the bell rang.
“And I didn’t have lunch,” Chad moaned.
“You hooked up with Ryan?” Troy choked out. “When?”
“That’s the only question you’re going to ask?” Chad craned his neck to look up at Troy. “Not “hey, dude, since when are you gay?””
“No, I already knew that.”
“What?!”
“We’re like brothers, man. Ask Ryan, siblings know everything about their siblings.”
Ryan nodded. Of course in his case, that was now true on a very, very literal level.
“You’ve always had a bored expression during bikini season,” Troy explained. “As if you had something better to do than stare at - ” Troy cut himself off at Gabriella’s disapproving frown.
Chad scowled at Troy. “At homecoming… and the championship game after party… and over the summer when you and Gabby were having your drama thing and you became a jackass. After the employee baseball game.”
“Nice, Chad, real nice.”
“That was why you switched clothes,” Gabriella realized.
All three boys looked to her in disbelief.
“They switched clothes?”
“Why else would we have switched clothes?”
“To show solidarity?” she ventured.
Troy pursed his lips, and Chad itched to say something about Disney naivety.
Ryan looked over to Chad and tried to hide his smirk.
“Troy.” Gabriella grabbed Troy’s arm. “Let’s go to class.”
She led Troy back into the school, leaving Ryan and Chad out in front of the school.
“This is awkward,” Chad said.
“Yes. It is,” Ryan agreed.
“You do realize that I’m gonna need years of therapy to wipe the last twenty minutes from my memory entirely.”
“I could persuade you to never think about it again,” Ryan offered.
“Why couldn’t you just persuade me not to think about you and your freaky, pouty lips?”
“It kept me entertained in physics,” Ryan shrugged.
“It amuses you when I make a fool out of myself?” Chad demanded.
Ryan puckered his lips together so that they most definitely did not make Chad think of something sexual and said, “Pretty much.”
“Ugh!” Chad groaned empathetically.
“What are you doing after school?” Ryan asked.
“You’re not serious! Tell me you’re not serious!”
“I am serious, and stop thinking about that.”
“About what?”
“I hope you know what you’re thinking about.”
“No!”
“Are you always this much of a whiny bitch?”
“What?!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I’m not a whiny bitch!”
“Then why aren’t you acting on your thoughts?”
“Because I should be in history class. Right now.”
“But you’re not, so - ”
Chad’s cell phone rang. It was a 718 number, but not the same one as earlier.
“Hello?” he asked as he flipped it open. “Oh, hey, Dr. Suresh. I’m kinda at school right now. Oh, cool. We can be there in - ” He put his hand over the receiver. “Hey, Ryan, how soon can we be downtown?”
“Ten minutes, why?”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes. What’s the address, again? Okay… Uh, Ryan Evans. He does stuff too. And maybe my friend Gabby. She translates science into English. Okay. Bye.”
“Was that really Dr. Suresh?”
“Yup, and we’re gonna meet him in the Albuquerque Library right now. We need Gabby, though.”
Gabriella came running out of the school. “Guys! You really need to get to history!”
“Awesome!” Chad grabbed Gabby and directed her out into the parking lot by her shoulders. “Let’s go!”
“What? I said that you were in the nurse’s office, and I would bring you back. We have a test!”
“Dr. Suresh called. We need to be downtown in ten minutes.”
Gabriella looked like Christmas had come early. “Let me grab my purse. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Wow, she would skip school if there were a dorkier option.” Chad turned to Ryan. “You’re driving, by the way.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. Chad had a way of stating the obvious.
“What?” Chad asked, wrinkling his nose.
“I can read your mind,” Ryan reminded him.
“Ugh. Don’t remind me.”
* - * - *
“What did you tell Troy?” Chad asked. He still hadn’t eaten his lunch. The brown bag sat in his lap and would remain there until they reached the library. Ryan had a no food rule in his car. Chad was hungry… and sulking. And he knew that Ryan could hear every word he didn’t say. He spent a good deal of energy mocking Ryan’s rubber ducky key chain.
“I didn’t tell him anything, so he’s going to call me once class is over.” Gabriella leaned forward in her seat so that she was between the driver’s and passenger’s seat.
“I still can’t believe we convinced you to skip class,” Chad said, awed.
“I can make up the exam later. This is too exciting to be missed.”
“I don’t understand this science thing. It’s not that big a deal.”
“It is a big deal! Just think of the implications of genetic evidence of evolution within our own species. This could finally put all those creationists in their places and cause people to think of themselves as part of the Kingdom Animalea instead of as a - ”
“Okay, Gabby, I get it. You’re excited.”
“Just be glad you can’t see what’s happening in her head.”
“Believe me, I’m glad.”
They lapsed into silence, and Gabriella sunk back into her seat.
Not five minutes later, Ryan began humming a show tune that Chad didn’t recognize.
“It’s from “Hair,”” Ryan explained.
“That’s really freaky,” Chad responded. “Answering questions that I haven’t asked yet.”
Ryan shrugged and went back to singing his song. Gabriella started singing along with him, and Chad groaned and banged his head against the headrest.
Ryan looked over to Chad and smirked. With is left hand steady on the wheel, he snaked his right hand onto Chad’s thigh, narrow fingers running along the inseam of Chad’s jeans.
Chad squeaked and sat up straight.
“Are you okay, Chad?” Gabriella asked.
“Uh, yeah,” he wheezed.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat, and then repeated, “Yeah. I’m cool.”
Ryan’s fingers ran up the inseam of Chad’s left leg, over his crotch, and then down the inseam of his right leg. “If you’re not feeling well, I could drop you off at the hospital, and Gabriella and I could meet with Dr. Suresh.”
Chad swatted Ryan’s hand away. “No, I’m fine now.” Ryan started doing something obscene to the gear shift. “Stop that, Evans!” In his head, Chad told Ryan to stop being a tease.
Ryan put his right hand back on the wheel as they pulled off I25 into Albuquerque.
“The library is on Copper Avenue,” Gabriella said, helpfully.
* - * - *
They entered the library, and Chad realized that he had no idea what Dr. Suresh looked like.
“He’s that man over there,” Ryan said. “The one with hair that’s as almost as untamed as your own.”
“The one in the pink shirt?” Gabriella asked. “He’s very attractive.”
“That is a very pink shirt,” Chad said vaguely. He made no effort to go over to the man in the very pink shirt.
“Come on, Wildcat. Go over to him,” Gabriella put a hand in the middle of Chad’s back.
Chad approached the man in the pink shirt. “Uh, hey. I’m Chad Danforth. You must be Dr. Suresh.”
A huge smile broke out on Dr. Suresh’s face, and he held his hand out. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Danforth.”
“You too. Uh, this is Ryan Evans and Gabriella Montez.”
Dr. Suresh nodded politely. “Please, let us go someplace. I have so many questions, Mr. Danforth.”
“Call me Chad. Mr. Danforth makes me feel old.”
“Very well.”
“Hey, Gabby, you know this library. Where can we go so people won’t, uh, eavesdrop?”
“We want to be discrete,” Ryan said.
“Of course.”
“There’s a meeting room where we can do this. No one will be able to see what we’re doing.”
Ryan looked to her and nodded. Chad had no idea what was going on.
“He’s what he says he is,” Ryan explained.
Dr. Suresh looked confused. “I don’t understand.”
Ryan looked him up and down critically. “I know.”
“Um, boys. Let’s go explain this to Dr. Suresh instead of confusing the poor man.” She smiled politely at him and his very pink shirt.
* - * - *
On to part 2
Pairing: Ryan/Chad, Troy/Gabriella
Rating: NC-17 total, PG-13 this part
Word Count: ~ 32,000 total, 6,172 this part
Warnings: Spoilers for the season finale of Heroes as well as major ideas/characters in season two. This fic contains slash, crass language, sexual content, plausible science, and hardcore crack.
Author's Note: This fic diverges from Heroes canon after Run! And takes place the fall semester after HSM2.
Chad is on the basketball, the baseball, and the track and field team according to HSM2. However, that makes no sense because both baseball and track are spring sports, unless it’s indoor track which is a winter sport - like basketball. So therefore, in this universe, Chad runs cross country, a fall sport (even if he isn’t built like a long-distance runner - I’d say his event would be the 400 or even the 800). And Ryan does have a rubber ducky key chain - check out the scene when Taylor and Gabriella pick him up to go to the baseball game. Adorable! Also, I really like Taylor… I have no idea why she’s not in this fic except for a few passing mentions. Huh.
Beta-ed by the ever amazing saekokato, so the remaining errors are my own because I couldn’t stop tinkering with this fic.
Disclaimer: HSM belongs to Ortega and Disney, and Heroes belongs to Kring and NBC. There are references to several other sources including Stargate: Atlantis, Supernatural, Miss Congeniality, Finding Nemo, and fics written by other people. I take no credit for those ideas.
Disclaimer 2: I do not condone the use of any conjugation of the verb “to get” in place of any conjugation of the verb “to be.”
Summary: He couldn’t remember if he was indestructible because he was gay or gay because he was indestructible.
---
They Say that a Hero Can Save Us: How Chad and Ryan Attempted to Keep Peter Petrelli from Going Boom
---
When it started, his first reaction was to freak out. Long and hard. Which he did. He didn’t sleep for two days, and he didn’t even notice it until all of his friends pointed out that he looked like shit. He was too busy freaking out.
Since then, he had tried all sorts of experiments on himself after enlisting the help of East High’s golden couple who he had sworn to secrecy.
After a month of continuous experimentation, Gabriella pronounced Chad indestructible.
They stood in the Bolton’s kitchen with their heads bowed together over the island. Troy was stuffing himself with leftovers from the night before and ignoring the other two. According to him, Chad should have finished his freak-out weeks ago.
“Are you sure?” Chad whined.
“We’ve tried everything short of dropping an atomic bomb on you, Chad,” Gabriella said patiently.
“Couldn’t you build one or something?”
“I don’t think the government would let me acquire all the materials I’d need.”
“That wasn’t a “no”!” Chad crowed.
“That’s a “no,” Chad,” she responded with a fond smile.
“What’re we saying “no” to?” Troy asked through a mouthful of turkey.
“Your girl won’t make a bomb to drop on me,” Chad said with an exaggerated pout.
“Isn’t that illegal?”
“Yeah, but I still think she should do it.” Chad shrugged.
“You’re a good friend, Chad,” Gabriella teased.
“What? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking someone to test the limits of her intelligence.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, no.”
Chad’s cell phone rang. “Uh, guys? Where’s the area code for 718?”
“I think that’s somewhere on the East Coast,” Gabriella hypothesized.
“Do you know anyone on the East Coast?” Troy asked.
“No, dude. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t live in this area code.”
“Are you going to answer that?”
“I… don’t know.”
“It couldn’t hurt.”
Chad shrugged and flipped open his phone. “Hello? Yeah, that’s me. How did you get this num- Um… what? How would you know about…”
Troy and Gabriella watched him with rapt attention.
“No. This is a 505 number. I don’t even know where you are. Oh. Dude, I’m 17. I don’t even own a car… Yeah, you said it, man… If it would help the future of mankind, I guess that would be cool. You’re not some psycho who’s going to kill me, right? …Shit! Are you serious?! …Oh, I’m sorry for your loss. Yeah, but, uh, my Mom doesn’t know about that, ‘k? …Whatever you say, man. Bye.”
Troy and Gabriella watched Chad eagerly awaiting an explanation.
“Troy? Can I borrow your computer?”
“Only if you tell us what the hell that was about?”
“That was a call I wish I had had a month ago.”
“Meaning?”
“That was some British doctor from New York. Uh, a Doctor Sure-ish. He knows about what I can do ‘cause he’s been following “DNA migration.” I didn’t really understand that part. He wants to meet with me. And there’s a psycho killer on the loose who’s killing people like me… There are more people like me.”
“So why do you need the computer?” Troy asked. Gabriella said nothing, just stared at Chad pensively with her head tipped slightly to the side.
“To see if he’s the psycho killer.”
“Chandra,” Gabriella announced.
“Wha?”
“Chandra Suresh. I should have done that in the first place!”
“What’s a Chandra?”
“It’s his name. Doctor Suresh’s name. He wrote a book. We’ll go to the library to pick it up!”
“Gabby, he said his name was Mo-something. Mo-cinder maybe?”
“Mo-something?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, and he’s gonna talk to me about what I can do and stuff. Hey, Gabby, could you translate for me?”
She frowned. “You said he was British. They speak English in England, and you had no problem conversing over the phone. In fact you’re acing English.”
“He may speak English, but I don’t speak science.”
She smiled. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with rehearsals, I don’t see a problem with that. Let’s head to the library before it closes.”
“Wait, all of us?” Chad asked. “But it’s a Saturday!”
“Which means it’ll be open only for another two hours,” Gabriella pointed out cheerfully.
“But it’s the weekend!” Chad protested. “Books and weekends should never mix. That’s, like, the Golden Rule.”
Troy raised his eyebrows and looked to Gabriella. “Isn’t that “Do Unto Others”?”
She nodded. “C’mon, Chad. We can look up Doctor Suresh on the computers in the library too.”
“You kids have fun now,” Troy said. “Let me know if Chad’s gonna meet up with a psycho killer.”
“You’re not coming with?” Chad demanded. “This is my hour of need!”
“Your hour of need was a month ago. Plus, I’m not good with the book thing. You’re better off with Gabs.”
“Your loss,” Chad shrugged.
“That’s all the fight you’re going to put up?” Troy’s eyebrows rose.
“If I didn’t have to be there, I wouldn’t.”
“Don’t worry, Wildcat. I’ll keep the evil bookworms from biting you.”
Chad slung an arm around her shoulder. “But who will protect you? And they’re not just evil bookworms, Gabby; they’re evil science bookworms!”
“I’m impervious to the evil bookworms of all types.”
“If you think so,” Chad relented. “Don’t wait up for us, Troy! We’ll call you if Gabby’s eaten by a bookworm… or we’ll probably be back in an hour. One or the other.”
“Be careful, Danforth, bookworms are not to be messed with,” Troy said, deadly serious.
* - * - *
The science section of the library was on the second floor and one wall was covered in windows, letting in the autumn afternoon sun. Chad was thankful for that sun, so that he didn’t feel trapped in the tall stacks of books.
He sullenly followed Gabriella down one aisle as she muttered numbers and letters. She stopped at the end of the aisle and carefully inspected the labels on the lower spines of the books. She kneeled down, frowned, stood and then rounded the corner looking up in one fluid motion.
Chad didn’t have the chance to follow her before he heard her “oof!”
“Gabby?” He rounded the corner. “You o- oh!” He came face to face with Ryan Evans. “Evans?”
“Danforth,” Ryan said, disdain leaking into his voice. “What are you doing in a library?”
“I could ask you the same,” Chad challenged.
“That’s the book!” Gabriella announced. She pointed to the book Ryan had in his hands.
Things became a thousand times more awkward.
“Why do you need this book?” All three of them asked at the same time.
No one could give the obvious, truthful option, and no one could give the obvious plausible lie that it was for a biology project - not when they were all in the same physics class. All students took biology as sophomores. Well, Chad and Ryan were in the class, and Gabriella TA-ed for it.
“What can you do?” Gabriella asked delicately. She placed a comforting hand on Ryan’s bicep.
His manic eyes bounced between Gabriella and Chad. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he responded haughtily.
“Then you wouldn’t want that book.” Chad pointed to the book for extra emphasis.
Ryan looked down the aisle and then peered around the corner, on the lookout for eavesdroppers. “If you tell anyone, I will hire someone to take out you and everyone you’ve ever cared about - or will care about,” he growled.
They waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, Gabriella prompted again, “What can you do?”
Ryan stammered a bit. “I, uh, absorb what other people do.”
Before Gabriella could respond by asking him who he had met and what they could do, Chad blurted out, “You’re a sponge.” He sniggered.
Ryan glared at him in contempt. “I assume that because Girl Wonder is here, you’re the one who can do something interesting, otherwise she’d be here by herself.”
Chad choked before he recovered and said proudly, “I’m indestructible.”
Ryan eyed him warily. “So if I did send out a hit on you, you’d survive?”
“Yup.”
Ryan regarded him carefully.
“Since we all want the book, let’s take it to my house so we can discuss this in private,” Gabriella offered.
Chad and Ryan looked at her in stunned silence, and then they sized each other up.
Gabriella rolled her eyes. “You guys got along well over the summer. Just because classes started, doesn’t mean you can’t get along now.”
Gabriella didn’t understand that this was Chad’s thing. He was special. This was what he could do that Troy couldn’t. And now Ryan was threatening to take that from him. It was like that baseball game all over again, and Chad didn’t want to end up with another mutual, furtive handjob in the locker room and an ultimate switch in clothing that Chad should have said no to, but he was too high on his release to think much about it.
It made things awkward.
“I don’t see how that could hurt,” Chad grumbled.
Ryan raised a delicately groomed eyebrow. “As long as Shar doesn’t find out.”
Gabriella grinned. “Great!”
* - * - *
They holed themselves up in Gabriella’s room, and on Chad’s third brownie, Ryan challenged him. He wanted to see exactly what Chad could do.
“Only if I can see you do it, too,” Chad agreed.
Ryan nodded.
“Hey, Gabby, what was the first thing we tried?”
She looked up from the book. “We cut your forearm, but that wasn’t the first thing that you tried.”
“I was really hoping that incident would remain buried forever.”
Ryan peered at him curiously.
“Don’t. Ask,” Chad said firmly.
“I’ll go fetch a sharp knife from the kitchen. While I’m gone, Chad, you might want to take a look at the last paragraph in the chapter on rapid cellular regeneration.”
Chad frowned.
“That’s what you can do.”
“Oh.”
She handed him the book and left the room.
He read the paragraph, and then he read it again.
“It can’t honestly take you that long to read,” Ryan huffed impatiently. “What does it say?”
“It says that “individuals with rapid cellular regeneration have the potential to outlive those without. This could result in the lack of natural aging as caused by illness, injury and natural apoptosis resulting from…” And then it goes on about science stuff, but ends with: “These individuals who never age or die could potentially live forever in immortality and forever be at the height of their reproductive years as dictated by…” blah, blah, blah, more science.”
“You’re immortal?”
“Uh, wow.”
Gabriella returned with a steak knife.
“Gabby, am I gonna live forever?” Chad asked, almost afraid of the answer. Forever was a long time. A very long time.
“I don’t know, Chad. That’s something you need to talk to Dr. Suresh about.” She handed the knife to Chad, handle first. “Be careful not to drip blood on my floor.”
“Maybe we should do this in the bathroom,” Ryan offered, eyeing the knife suspiciously.
“That would probably be for the best,” Gabriella concurred.
It was awkward for all of them to cram inside the tiny bathroom, but they maneuvered so that Chad stood at the sink, Ryan sat on the rim of the bathtub, and Gabriella sat on the closed toilet seat.
Chad took a deep breath and carefully dug the knife across his forearm. Blood dripped down his arm and into the sink. Gabriella watched in fascination, and Ryan cringed and looked away.
Chad huffed at him. “It’s just a little bit of blood.” He ran the tap over his wound to wash away the blood. “Besides, it’s gone now.”
Ryan’s eyes snapped to Chad’s forearm. There was no sign that it had ever been marred, not even a scar. He looked up to Chad’s face, astonished. “How did you do that?”
Chad shrugged. “How do you do your sponge thing?”
“When I’m around people who do things like that” - he pointed to Chad’s forearm - “I seem to be able to do them too.”
“Would you mind if you demonstrated?” Gabriella asked. “I can prick your finger if that makes you feel more comfortable.”
Ryan nodded distractedly as Gabriella changed positions with Chad.
“I’m left handed,” Ryan said, holding out his right hand. She held his hand over the tub and poked the pad of his right pinky.
Ryan hissed in pain as his blood welled up for a moment but then was sucked back into his body. Chad surmised that it probably wasn’t healthy for the blood to go back into Ryan’s body, but if he was immortal, what the hell.
“That was interesting,” Gabriella appraised. “You boys head back to my room, and I’ll clean the knife and return it to the kitchen.”
Chad and Ryan sat on opposite sides of Gabriella’s bedroom and silently waited for her to return, and when she did, she carried more brownies.
Chad grabbed one and shoved it into his mouth. “Your Mom is awesome, Gabby.”
She smiled indulgently. “Ryan, would it be alright if asked you some questions? I’ve been asking Chad all these questions for the past month. I really want to understand this phenomenon.”
“A month? You’ve known about what you can do for a month?”
“Yeah, why? How long have you known about the sponge thing?”
“A few days,” he admitted.
“Ryan? What was the first power that manifested?”
“Persuasion,” he clipped.
“Manifested? You make it sound like a disease,” Chad blurted out.
“That’s festered,” Gabriella explained patiently. Chad gave her a sour look: that girl had a weird sense of humor that he would never understand. She was too serious, and she did not understand his sense of humor. “Could you please demonstrate?” Ryan looked panicked. “I’m not asking you to make one of us jump out the window, just a simple thing, like to write your name on a piece of paper or sing a song.”
Ryan studied her face with dubious expression on his own. “Um… I think it requires physical contact.”
He walked over to Chad who looked as if he were on the verge of cardiac arrest.
“Relax, Chad, even if he does ask you to jump out a window, you’ll be fine.”
“It still hurts!” he squawked.
Ryan placed a hand over Chad’s. “Dance with me.”
Without so much as a pout, Chad stood up and spun around the room with Ryan.
When Chad sat back down again, he seemed to realize what he had done. “What the hell was that?! That was embarrassing!”
Ryan smirked in triumph.
“Amazing!” Gabriella whispered. “What else can you do?”
Emboldened, Ryan asked, “Can I please see your necklace?”
Gabriella fingered her “T” necklace before handing it to Ryan. “Just don’t hurt it.”
“I’m going to improve it,” he said with a smile.
Suspiciously, Gabriella handed him the necklace. “That’s very important to me.”
“It labels her as Troy’s property,” Chad scoffed.
“Is that really your opinion of me, Chad?” Gabriella said, low and dangerous.
Chad had never heard Gabriella use that tone before, and it unsettled him. “No, it’s just kinda archaic and stuff.”
Gabriella hummed but said nothing.
“Guys?” Ryan ventured. “I did it.” He held out Gabriella’s necklace, which had turned from sterling silver to gold.
“Oh my gosh!” Gabriella gushed. “That is so nice of you, Ryan!”
“Did you just say “gosh”?” Chad asked with a chortle.
Gabriella nodded distractedly as she stroked her new necklace.
“I think we just found the secret of the Evans’ fortune,” Chad announced. Ryan’s eyes went wide again. “Oh, would you relax, Evans. We’re obviously not going to tell. Was it your Mom or your Dad who you picked that up from?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know I’m absorbing a power when it happens.”
Gabriella gasped dramatically. “What about your sister?!”
“What about her?” Chad asked, obviously not following Gabriella’s logic.
“This is a genetic condition, and they’re twins,” Gabriella pointed out.
Ryan blushed. “I, uh, I haven’t spoken to Shar about it… yet.”
“So she might also be experiencing this?”
“Oh God, I hope her power wasn’t the persuasion one. Your sister would totally take advantage of everyone,” Chad moaned. Not that she didn’t already.
“Do you have any other powers to add to the mix?” Gabriella prompted, choosing to ignore Chad’s outburst.
“Not that I know of.”
“You should join us when we meet with Dr. Suresh,” Gabriella offered.
“You’re meeting with Dr. Suresh? But he lives in India.”
“He’s in NYC now. He called me from outta the blue and asked to meet with me. Something having to do with DNA flying south for the winter.”
“That makes no sense, Chad,” Gabriella admonished softly. Chad shook his head. That girl really needed a sense of humor. “He means DNA migrational patterns.”
“That would be very informational,” Ryan said with a nod. “When are you meeting?”
“We don’t know yet,” Chad shrugged.
“Gabriella!” her mother shouted from downstairs. “There’s a handsome young man here to see you!”
Gabriella squealed. “Send Troy up!”
There was a knock on her door, and she threw it open and wrapped herself around Troy.
“Hey, beautiful. You said you would be done in an hour.”
“You missed me?”
“Of course I missed you.” Troy bent his head so that their foreheads rested together.
“Oh gag!” Chad choked.
Troy looked past Gabriella. “Don’t hate a brothah for gettin’ some lovin’.”
Chad cringed. “You are not allowed to say that ever again.”
“Too painful?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Troy finally took notice of the rest of the room. “Ryan? What’s going on here?”
“He’s like Chad,” Gabriella explained excitedly. “We ran into him at the library.”
Ryan scowled.
“So you’re indestructible too?” Troy asked.
Gabriella closed the door behind him. “I’m sorry, Ryan. Troy won’t tell anyone either. We’ve been keeping Chad’s secret for the past month. Taylor doesn’t even know anything.”
“This is all happening really quickly. I haven’t even told my sister yet.”
“Oh! Shit, man. Is your sister indestructible too?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Gabriella explained. She snatched the book up. “There’re more powers than Chad’s rapid cellular regeneration.” She held her necklace charm up for Troy’s inspection. “Ryan has the Midas Touch; although, at this point, he’s more like Nicolas Flamel.”
“Who?” Chad asked.
Ryan gave him a condescending look. “I’d trust that even Harry Potter is up to your reading level, Danforth.”
Chad’s nostrils flared in annoyance.
“He’s an alchemist,” Gabriella said quickly. “With the help of the philosopher’s stone, he was able too turn objects to gold as well as live forever.”
“So Ryan’s gonna live forever?” Troy asked. “How?”
“The same way that Chad is.”
Troy sniggered. “Of all the people I expected Chad to live with forever, it was never Ryan.”
“Oh, ha friggen ha,” Chad snarled. Ryan looked equally as offended.
“What’s your damage?” Troy asked, concerned.
Chad folded his arms over his chest. His damage was that Ryan had pouty lips. Pouty lips that Chad wanted to do nasty things to him. He wanted more than some frottage in the locker room. In fact, that had been all he could think about all summer. And those thoughts had caused Chad to break up with his kinda-sorta girlfriend.
Then there was that time after the championship game last year at the after party where he was supposed to be with his kinda-sorta girlfriend, but he just ended up with Ryan in the Bolton’s laundry room, which was as much a surprise to him as Ryan and nothing short of awesome.
And there was also that time in the bathroom at homecoming…
But Ryan probably saw those times as jock conquests.
God, Chad was so gay… and so doomed.
Ryan paled. “What did you just say?”
Chad looked to Ryan in horror. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Tell me you did not just do that?”
“I wasn’t the one who just confessed to - ”
“Ryan,” Gabriella interrupted firmly. “Chad didn’t say anything.”
“He didn’t say anything?”
“Oh my gosh!” Gabriella gushed. “This is so incredible! What am I thinking?”
“Are you serious?!” he asked incredulously.
“Yes, now focus on me, and tell everyone what I’m thinking.”
“I - I don’t know! This entire thing is absurd. I don’t even know why I agreed to come here.” He had almost stalked out the door when Troy grabbed him and pulled him out into the hallway, closing the door behind them.
Gabriella and Chad pressed up against the door to hear what was said.
“Hey man, I know that all of this is really confusing, but we helped Chad through it. You should have seen him when he first figured it out.” Chad huffed. “It was messy. But it’s really cool. I mean, you can do what? Turn things to gold, live forever, and read minds. That’s really awesome. Who else can do that? So let Gabs help you. If anyone here can help you, she can.”
Ryan hmphed.
“Plus, if you really can read minds, school’s gonna really suck.”
“How do you mean?”
“Hundreds of kids all thinking things at the same time, especially things that they shouldn’t be thinking in school. Hearing all that’s gonna suck.”
“Fine.”
“And if you get really frustrated, you can push Chad off the balcony, no harm done.”
“Hey!” Chad protested as Troy opened up the door. “I feel pain!”
“And you shouldn’t have been eavesdropping.”
Chad shrugged unapologetically.
“So you’re going to let us help?”
“I suppose,” Ryan shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged with his whole body, bouncing on his toes.
Chad looked him up and down, and an unsettling feeling of déjà vu fell over him. For continuality’s sake, he asked, “You got game?”
Ryan cocked an eyebrow at Chad. “Bet on it.”
“Boys,” Gabriella admonished. “There will be no pissing contests in my room. Now you two need to get along because you’re stuck with each other.”
“Yeah,” Troy added. “If there ever was a nuclear holocaust, you two would be, like, the only two people left in the world.”
“Not helpful, Troy,” Chad said blandly.
“Boys covers all three of you,” Gabriella pointed out. “Now, Chad and Troy, you think about basketball. I’ll think about something else. Ryan, I want you to focus on me, alright?”
“Sure.”
* - * - *
The following Monday was awkward. Chad tried so hard to keep his mind blank whenever he was around Ryan, but it was more difficult than he thought it would be. He kept thinking about inappropriate things, because apparently the knee-jerk reaction to knowing someone is reading your mind is to think up all the things you don’t want that person to know. A lot of it was trivial, but some of it was downright embarrassing… and dirty.
Ryan kept giving him poisonous looks across rooms, and by lunch, Chad thought that he should just shoot himself to end the humiliation. Not that it really would do any good.
His mind went blissfully blank when Sharpay stalked up to him at lunch. Actually, it became a mantra of “oh shit!”
“You and I are talking outside. Now.” She flipped her hair at him and stalked out of the cafeteria.
Chad scrambled after her.
When he flew out of the cafeteria, Sharpay crowded him against a wall.
“You’re perverted!” she declared. “You need to stop muttering all that revolting drivel about some apparent hookups you had with my brother months ago. It’s distasteful.”
“Oh shit,” Chad said. “At least it’s not the persuasion.”
“That means nothing to me. Now desist, or I will end you.”
Chad smiled at her lopsidedly. “You might want to talk to your brother about that first. I mean, he and I share more than - ”
“If you finish that sentence, I may have to end you myself. Which would be a tragedy because I just had my nails done.”
Someone who wasn’t Chad snorted. He and Sharpay looked to the source of the noise.
“Ryan. Are you aware of the filth that has been spewing out of his mouth?” Sharpay asked disdainfully.
“He hasn’t said a word, Shar,” Ryan explained.
Chad waggled his eyebrows.
“Chad, give us a moment.”
Chad nodded and headed back into the cafeteria to actually eat his lunch. He found Troy and Gabriella as they were about to sit down.
“Hey guys, can I tell you something real quick? It has to do with the twins.”
Gabriella and Troy shared a look.
“Just quick, man.”
“Sure.”
Chad led them to a corner of the cafeteria. “Sharpay can read minds.”
“At least it’s not the persuasion,” Gabriella shrugged.
“What persuasion?” Troy asked.
“Ryan can also persuade someone to do anything just by touching them.”
“I’m glad that Sharpay can’t do that.”
“Yeah, but is telepathy really that much better?” Chad whined.
Troy frowned dramatically.
“Whatever,” Chad conceded. “I’m hungry.”
They headed back to their table, where Ryan was waiting, and Sharpay was waiting impatiently.
Sharpay didn’t wait for Chad to open his mouth before she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tugged him out of the cafeteria. Her fingernails bit into his flesh.
“Troy, could you grab my lunch?” he shouted on the way out.
Troy, Gabriella, and Ryan followed behind them.
Sharpay dragged him all the way outside.
“Have you ever thought of trimming your nails? They hurt!”
“Oh, like it matters for you,” she huffed.
“Of course it matters!”
“But you heal.”
“Why would you say that?” Chad challenged.
“You told me, like, right now, and Ryan did earlier.”
“Why does everyone think that, just because I heal, I don’t feel pain?” he griped.
“Whatever.” She held her palm up to his face. “Explain to me how this happened.”
“You’re gonna need to talk to Gabby about it. I have no idea.”
“It’s genetic,” Gabriella announced, showing up with Troy and Ryan. “A genetic imperative. The further evolution of us as a species.”
Sharpay snorted. “I always knew Ryan and I were advanced, I just never imagined Danforth to be on the same level as us.”
Chad let out an involuntary “hey!”
“Oh, please,” she said. “Like you could ever be good enough for my brother.”
“What?!” Chad shouted at the same time Ryan blurted out, “Excuse me?!” Troy and Gabriella settled on looks of confusion.
Sharpay looked Chad up and down. “You’ve been going on about it all day.”
“That’s ‘cause Ryan could read my mind!” Chad confessed. “It’s, like, one of the rules of mind-reading: you always think things that you know you shouldn’t think when in the presence of a mind-reader.”
“What are you talking about, Chad?” Ryan asked.
“What is Sharpay talking about?” Gabriella asked.
“What is he talking about?” Sharpay asked.
“What the hell is going on here?” Troy asked.
“My life is over,” Chad grumbled. He dropped to the sidewalk curb and buried his face in his hands. “How much does Sharpay know?” he asked through his fingers.
He could hear Ryan’s smirk before he could hear his voice. “She knows whatever you know.”
“What does that mean?” Sharpay asked, exasperated.
“He means,” Gabriella said, “that you can read all of our minds.”
“So, I was stuck reading that mind?” She pointed at Chad accusingly. “It’s a filthy, filthy place!”
“You’re taking this surprisingly well,” Gabriella noticed.
“My mother always told me I was special,” she shrugged.
“She’s been hearing voices for days,” Ryan said.
“Ryan!” Sharpay chided.
He gave her a shy smile. “I can do what you can do, sis.”
“What do you…” she trailed off.
“Because of…” Ryan trailed off.
Chad looked up from her perch on the curb. “Please tell me they’re not doing some freaky twin telepathic communication thing.”
“I think they are,” Gabriella confirmed.
“That is totally not cool.”
“What was Sharpay talking about with you and Ryan?” Troy asked.
“I stand corrected: that is totally not cool.”
“Chad?” Gabriella pressed.
“He and Ryan hooked up several times, and Chad wants to do it again,” Sharpay said offhandedly. Ryan frowned, and Sharpay continued, “And apparently so does Ryan. Hmm. Three times and you haven’t figured out that you should do it? But you’re still not good enough for my brother, so don’t plan on spending eternity together… oh, well. Never mind.”
“That’s it,” Chad announced. “The world is ending. Right here, right now. And that twin telepathy thing is also totally not cool. Wait… Did you just give us your blessing?” His voice ended up squeaking with incredulity.
“Yes. Ryan disserves a little bit of happiness if he’s going to spend the rest of eternity with no one but you for company. Even if you are a jock. Toodles!” She headed back into the school as the bell rang.
“And I didn’t have lunch,” Chad moaned.
“You hooked up with Ryan?” Troy choked out. “When?”
“That’s the only question you’re going to ask?” Chad craned his neck to look up at Troy. “Not “hey, dude, since when are you gay?””
“No, I already knew that.”
“What?!”
“We’re like brothers, man. Ask Ryan, siblings know everything about their siblings.”
Ryan nodded. Of course in his case, that was now true on a very, very literal level.
“You’ve always had a bored expression during bikini season,” Troy explained. “As if you had something better to do than stare at - ” Troy cut himself off at Gabriella’s disapproving frown.
Chad scowled at Troy. “At homecoming… and the championship game after party… and over the summer when you and Gabby were having your drama thing and you became a jackass. After the employee baseball game.”
“Nice, Chad, real nice.”
“That was why you switched clothes,” Gabriella realized.
All three boys looked to her in disbelief.
“They switched clothes?”
“Why else would we have switched clothes?”
“To show solidarity?” she ventured.
Troy pursed his lips, and Chad itched to say something about Disney naivety.
Ryan looked over to Chad and tried to hide his smirk.
“Troy.” Gabriella grabbed Troy’s arm. “Let’s go to class.”
She led Troy back into the school, leaving Ryan and Chad out in front of the school.
“This is awkward,” Chad said.
“Yes. It is,” Ryan agreed.
“You do realize that I’m gonna need years of therapy to wipe the last twenty minutes from my memory entirely.”
“I could persuade you to never think about it again,” Ryan offered.
“Why couldn’t you just persuade me not to think about you and your freaky, pouty lips?”
“It kept me entertained in physics,” Ryan shrugged.
“It amuses you when I make a fool out of myself?” Chad demanded.
Ryan puckered his lips together so that they most definitely did not make Chad think of something sexual and said, “Pretty much.”
“Ugh!” Chad groaned empathetically.
“What are you doing after school?” Ryan asked.
“You’re not serious! Tell me you’re not serious!”
“I am serious, and stop thinking about that.”
“About what?”
“I hope you know what you’re thinking about.”
“No!”
“Are you always this much of a whiny bitch?”
“What?!”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I’m not a whiny bitch!”
“Then why aren’t you acting on your thoughts?”
“Because I should be in history class. Right now.”
“But you’re not, so - ”
Chad’s cell phone rang. It was a 718 number, but not the same one as earlier.
“Hello?” he asked as he flipped it open. “Oh, hey, Dr. Suresh. I’m kinda at school right now. Oh, cool. We can be there in - ” He put his hand over the receiver. “Hey, Ryan, how soon can we be downtown?”
“Ten minutes, why?”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes. What’s the address, again? Okay… Uh, Ryan Evans. He does stuff too. And maybe my friend Gabby. She translates science into English. Okay. Bye.”
“Was that really Dr. Suresh?”
“Yup, and we’re gonna meet him in the Albuquerque Library right now. We need Gabby, though.”
Gabriella came running out of the school. “Guys! You really need to get to history!”
“Awesome!” Chad grabbed Gabby and directed her out into the parking lot by her shoulders. “Let’s go!”
“What? I said that you were in the nurse’s office, and I would bring you back. We have a test!”
“Dr. Suresh called. We need to be downtown in ten minutes.”
Gabriella looked like Christmas had come early. “Let me grab my purse. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Wow, she would skip school if there were a dorkier option.” Chad turned to Ryan. “You’re driving, by the way.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. Chad had a way of stating the obvious.
“What?” Chad asked, wrinkling his nose.
“I can read your mind,” Ryan reminded him.
“Ugh. Don’t remind me.”
* - * - *
“What did you tell Troy?” Chad asked. He still hadn’t eaten his lunch. The brown bag sat in his lap and would remain there until they reached the library. Ryan had a no food rule in his car. Chad was hungry… and sulking. And he knew that Ryan could hear every word he didn’t say. He spent a good deal of energy mocking Ryan’s rubber ducky key chain.
“I didn’t tell him anything, so he’s going to call me once class is over.” Gabriella leaned forward in her seat so that she was between the driver’s and passenger’s seat.
“I still can’t believe we convinced you to skip class,” Chad said, awed.
“I can make up the exam later. This is too exciting to be missed.”
“I don’t understand this science thing. It’s not that big a deal.”
“It is a big deal! Just think of the implications of genetic evidence of evolution within our own species. This could finally put all those creationists in their places and cause people to think of themselves as part of the Kingdom Animalea instead of as a - ”
“Okay, Gabby, I get it. You’re excited.”
“Just be glad you can’t see what’s happening in her head.”
“Believe me, I’m glad.”
They lapsed into silence, and Gabriella sunk back into her seat.
Not five minutes later, Ryan began humming a show tune that Chad didn’t recognize.
“It’s from “Hair,”” Ryan explained.
“That’s really freaky,” Chad responded. “Answering questions that I haven’t asked yet.”
Ryan shrugged and went back to singing his song. Gabriella started singing along with him, and Chad groaned and banged his head against the headrest.
Ryan looked over to Chad and smirked. With is left hand steady on the wheel, he snaked his right hand onto Chad’s thigh, narrow fingers running along the inseam of Chad’s jeans.
Chad squeaked and sat up straight.
“Are you okay, Chad?” Gabriella asked.
“Uh, yeah,” he wheezed.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat, and then repeated, “Yeah. I’m cool.”
Ryan’s fingers ran up the inseam of Chad’s left leg, over his crotch, and then down the inseam of his right leg. “If you’re not feeling well, I could drop you off at the hospital, and Gabriella and I could meet with Dr. Suresh.”
Chad swatted Ryan’s hand away. “No, I’m fine now.” Ryan started doing something obscene to the gear shift. “Stop that, Evans!” In his head, Chad told Ryan to stop being a tease.
Ryan put his right hand back on the wheel as they pulled off I25 into Albuquerque.
“The library is on Copper Avenue,” Gabriella said, helpfully.
* - * - *
They entered the library, and Chad realized that he had no idea what Dr. Suresh looked like.
“He’s that man over there,” Ryan said. “The one with hair that’s as almost as untamed as your own.”
“The one in the pink shirt?” Gabriella asked. “He’s very attractive.”
“That is a very pink shirt,” Chad said vaguely. He made no effort to go over to the man in the very pink shirt.
“Come on, Wildcat. Go over to him,” Gabriella put a hand in the middle of Chad’s back.
Chad approached the man in the pink shirt. “Uh, hey. I’m Chad Danforth. You must be Dr. Suresh.”
A huge smile broke out on Dr. Suresh’s face, and he held his hand out. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Danforth.”
“You too. Uh, this is Ryan Evans and Gabriella Montez.”
Dr. Suresh nodded politely. “Please, let us go someplace. I have so many questions, Mr. Danforth.”
“Call me Chad. Mr. Danforth makes me feel old.”
“Very well.”
“Hey, Gabby, you know this library. Where can we go so people won’t, uh, eavesdrop?”
“We want to be discrete,” Ryan said.
“Of course.”
“There’s a meeting room where we can do this. No one will be able to see what we’re doing.”
Ryan looked to her and nodded. Chad had no idea what was going on.
“He’s what he says he is,” Ryan explained.
Dr. Suresh looked confused. “I don’t understand.”
Ryan looked him up and down critically. “I know.”
“Um, boys. Let’s go explain this to Dr. Suresh instead of confusing the poor man.” She smiled politely at him and his very pink shirt.
* - * - *
On to part 2