Day 46: Sun Room

[human_sponge]

Peter woke up suddenly, his body twisting in the bed and then forcing him to catch his breath in pain. Pain, which was coming from his middle because of the thing that had scratched him last night, and after that

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[gothamsfuture]

Terry left breakfast feeling sorry for Forte, but he couldn't exactly let that keep him from getting his own plans done. Which was why he made a line straight for the bulletin once he got into the Sun Room, looking for answers that scanning faces in the cafeteria hadn't provided. Tim Drake had answered, and things were looking good there at least. But the one person he wanted to hear from most still hadn't replied, and Terry slammed a fist against the corkboard in frustration

[gothamsfuture]

At least someone was okay, in some sense of the word. Peter looked about as cheerful as Terry felt just then, and Terry couldn't help but wonder what he'd found out that had him so obviously down. But they'd gotten the whole "don't ask, don't tell" thing pretty established, so Terry decided not to pry. He'd listen, sure; he liked Peter and all. But possible friendship didn't equal spilling out their deepest darkest secrets. He hadn't even told Dana that he was Batman yet (and hadn't had to, since Max found out and helped him cover). For all he knew, Peter kept it the same with the people he was closest to back home. So just opening up to a relative stranger? Yeah, not something that happened in their line of work

[gothamsfuture]

"Technically, we met just before you decided to show just how stubborn you could be." Terry knew it wasn't something they needed to talk about, but it was one of the precious things he could bring up that was safe. He'd long forgiven Peter for that night, having his own idea of just what it was like to be manipulated that way thanks to Spellbinder. And it didn't reach into any of that private territory, so Terry shrugged. "Then in the showers. Kind of surprising the first time you see him without the fur

[gothamsfuture]

Talk about Kurt being naked in every sense of the word instantly lost it's interest when Peter said two words: Bat Signal. Terry had reasoned early on that Kurt and Kitty couldn't be from his world, just based on what Kurt had said about mutants. He'd kind of lumped Peter in with that, particularly since nothing about his abilities or his costume rang any bells. Terry had spent enough time reading Bruce's files to know that no one would or could be more thorough in terms of keeping track of people. That made the casual remark all the more striking; someone Bruce didn't know about who was a hero, knowing about that? Anyone else, it could've just been an oversight. But it wasn't, and Terry knew it

[fuzzy_diablo]

"Come on now, Kurt. You can't spend all day in the Cafeteria!"

"But I'm not done!" the mutant protested, his nurse dragging him by his (perfectly round) ear out of the Cafeteria. He'd still managed to hold on to a paper plate with two waffles still on it, though. Apparently some nurse thought he was 'terribly thin' and wanted him to eat more. Not like Kurt was complaining.

"At least here you can talk to someone. I worry about you, Kurt, you're so shy!"

Yeah, he thought. Because I feel like I'm lying by just standing in a room and looking normal.With a warning not to spill the rest of his breakfast onto the carpet, the nurse left him. Kurt idly tore off a bit of one of the waffles and walked over to the bulletin board, hoping that Peter and Kitty had responded. When he saw Peter talking to Terry, though, he had to blink in surprise. Well, this was even better than a note

[gothamsfuture]

Okay, so maybe Terry had been a little impatient. Chalk it up to his frustration over being here, over Wayne being here and then being gone, whatever. What it meant was, that when Peter gave his reply, Terry let out a sigh and put a hand to his head.

Really, couldn't anything ever be simple?

"You brought it up, remember?" No, he probably didn't. Peter had thrown out the term Bat Signal as if it was so common, anyone should know about it. "You joked about Kurt having his own Bat Signal. That hits close to home for me. Too close for me to just let it go, understand

[fuzzy_diablo]

Kurt blinked.

What did he know about Terry's world? Well... that people made themselves look like him, for one (which seemed like a stupid thing to do, really, though Kurt thought he might like to visit if that sort of thing was normal). They used words Kurt had never heard before, like 'slagging', and mutants weren't around. That... was pretty much it.

Kurt was going to ask if 'Batman' was some mutant he should have heard of, but then Peter filled in some blanks. It would have been a dumb question anyway, given that Terry didn't know what a mutant was.

"I've never met him either. And where's Gotham?" Kurt asked Peter with a raised eyebrow. "Should I know him too?"

[gothamsfuture]

Well, at least someone seemed to be taking this seriously. Kurt didn't exactly give off the impression that he'd be a convincing liar anyway, and Terry wasn't picking up anything that screamed 'hiding something' from him. Peter, on the other hand? Terry had seen terrified street punks put up a better front than that.

"No. Neither of you should." But Peter still seemed to, somehow, and that was the problem. "Gotham's my home city, and yes, Batman protects it. But knowing about the signal and not about the cape?" Terry's raised eyebrow should have been more than enough to tell Peter that no, he wasn't buying his story or the Eiffel Tower, thank you very much

[fuzzy_diablo]

"H-hey, come on, guys," Kurt said, moving himself surreptitiously between the two just a bit. If there was one thing he could smell, it was a fight--from miles away. Probably came from hanging around Rogue so much. "We're all a little tense because of this, secret-identity thing. I mean, it's tough enough being here, but with all the other stuff we have to deal with, it's even tougher

[gothamsfuture]

Maybe if he wasn't so worked up himself, Terry would've handled the whole mess differently. Probably better. But as it was? Kurt was right to think that a fight just might have been in the near future. Terry at least had enough self-control to keep from throwing a punch at every little provocation, but that didn't mean he wouldn't jump into an argument if he saw the need.

Like now, pretty much.

"It's not a secret in my world, sure. But you aren't from my world, which means you shouldn't know about it. So what else do you know that you shouldn't?" Luckily for them both Kurt stepped in before Terry could get anything else out, and said what they were both trying to without the sacrasm or accusations. And then, as if that wasn't enough to make Terry feel like a bit of an ass? He offered them waffles