TM Prompt 211: Old Acquaintance
Doug has his laptop set up in the living room of Pyro's house: the room with the television and aging Christmas tree. It's the easiest room to keep warm, and Nettik and Eddie seem happy to be there, too. Nettik is regularly going through the cycle of pouncing on tendrils of tinsel, "killing" it, and then guarding it furiously against attack from other imaginary predators. Eddie's wheel goes squeak-squeak-squeak as he jogs around it enthusiastically. On the internet, Doug has chatted with a guy who seems to let his rats wander around freely, which no doubt Eddie would like, but then Willard doesn't have a cat.
Pyro isn't around. He'd left a rather cryptic message that he had some personal business to attend to, which Doug assumed meant something Brotherhood-related. He hoped it didn't involve blowing up Pyro's stepfather's house. Or even Pyro's stepfather. The guy was obviously a jerk, but probably no more than Magneto, who was also sort of a mutant rights pioneer, or Kelly, who seemed to be a more-or-less nice guy when he wasn't promoting Mutant Registration.
Pyro's a nice guy, too, of course, although he tries his best to hide it. Xavier's school had had its fair share of bullies. Even among a group of children who were all different, kids were still able to find something to mock: Peter for being too tall, Kitty for being too smart, Doug for being too normal. Pyro had been a cool kid. Not too many friends, maybe, but that was part of what made him cool - that "I don't need anyone" attitude, not to mention the lighter and the stubble Mr. Summers kept telling him to shave off. Doug hadn't been cool at all, and so, when Pyro had headed off with the Brotherhood at Alkali Lake, it seemed like John Allerdyce would forever be, "that guy I knew once".
They'd run into each other at Providence, being served by a Doombot bartender, swapping casual insults and school talk as if they had actually been friends once. Among the older people there, they'd finally realised that they had something in common. Maybe the fact that Doug had become a little less dorky-looking in the intervening time had helped a lot, too. Maybe the fact that Pyro was now much more than a wiseass kid had made him someone Doug could actually see himself wanting to spend time with rather than drooling over at a distance.
They're lovers, now. Partners. Maybe they even live together, although Pyro's work will take him away more often than not. Doug probably knows Pyro better than he knows anyone, tells Pyro more than he tells anyone else. But he doesn't know what was behind that message, what was behind the strange mood fluctuations in Canada. More than that, he's afraid to ask. Just how close can he be to a person when so much is still kept secret?
Doug eyes the telephone, but stops himself from reaching out to pick up the receiver. Partners have to trust each other, too, after all. He sighs, and taps out more lines of code on the keyboard. Nettik screeches as a Christmas bauble drops on her tail. Eddie's wheel squeaks.
He hopes that he'll never become just "that guy I knew once" to Pyro.
Pyro isn't around. He'd left a rather cryptic message that he had some personal business to attend to, which Doug assumed meant something Brotherhood-related. He hoped it didn't involve blowing up Pyro's stepfather's house. Or even Pyro's stepfather. The guy was obviously a jerk, but probably no more than Magneto, who was also sort of a mutant rights pioneer, or Kelly, who seemed to be a more-or-less nice guy when he wasn't promoting Mutant Registration.
Pyro's a nice guy, too, of course, although he tries his best to hide it. Xavier's school had had its fair share of bullies. Even among a group of children who were all different, kids were still able to find something to mock: Peter for being too tall, Kitty for being too smart, Doug for being too normal. Pyro had been a cool kid. Not too many friends, maybe, but that was part of what made him cool - that "I don't need anyone" attitude, not to mention the lighter and the stubble Mr. Summers kept telling him to shave off. Doug hadn't been cool at all, and so, when Pyro had headed off with the Brotherhood at Alkali Lake, it seemed like John Allerdyce would forever be, "that guy I knew once".
They'd run into each other at Providence, being served by a Doombot bartender, swapping casual insults and school talk as if they had actually been friends once. Among the older people there, they'd finally realised that they had something in common. Maybe the fact that Doug had become a little less dorky-looking in the intervening time had helped a lot, too. Maybe the fact that Pyro was now much more than a wiseass kid had made him someone Doug could actually see himself wanting to spend time with rather than drooling over at a distance.
They're lovers, now. Partners. Maybe they even live together, although Pyro's work will take him away more often than not. Doug probably knows Pyro better than he knows anyone, tells Pyro more than he tells anyone else. But he doesn't know what was behind that message, what was behind the strange mood fluctuations in Canada. More than that, he's afraid to ask. Just how close can he be to a person when so much is still kept secret?
Doug eyes the telephone, but stops himself from reaching out to pick up the receiver. Partners have to trust each other, too, after all. He sighs, and taps out more lines of code on the keyboard. Nettik screeches as a Christmas bauble drops on her tail. Eddie's wheel squeaks.
He hopes that he'll never become just "that guy I knew once" to Pyro.