Room 524, Thursday Evening

[selfhelphero]

So far, Billy's classes were pretty cool, even if some of them hadn't been quite what he'd expected, thank you GLaDOS. He was a little nervous about tomorrow though - he had class with Magneto who he might possibly be related to, and that reminded him that Tommy was still ignoring his text messages, if he'd even held on to the cell phone Kate had

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[dollpocalypse]

So, occasionally Topher did his research on proper boyfriending tactics. And that was why he knew of two very useful tools that helped one's boyfriend cope with all the trauma ever: snuggles and ice cream.

The ice cream came in a carton. The snuggles, not so much, but he totally had them with him, really!

But first, he was going to be weird and peer at Billy's laptop screen. "Oooh, are those wallabies?"

[selfhelphero]

Billy looked up at Topher and laughed. "I think so? I'm kind of looking randomly," he said. "What have you got there?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Cherry Garcia," Topher said proudly. " Some girl said it was good date ice cream."

No really, he was super proud of this.

[selfhelphero]

"Ooh, she was right," Billy said, scooting over to the side of his bed so there was room for Topher to sit down next to him. "Did I do something to earn ice cream?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Yes," Topher declared, pointing at him. "You were recently traumatized and are currently my, you know, boyfriend." HEY LOOK AT THAT NEW VOCAB WORD. "Also, you're now responsible for allowing me to see wallabies, so that too."

[selfhelphero]

Just the word "boyfriend" made Billy smile, and he leaned against Topher gently. "You didn't have to do this," he said, even as he pushed his laptop screen open a little more so Topher could see the cute animals.

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, I'm gonna have ice cream too," Topher assured him. "It's not a donation. More a sharing arrangement." Deal with it, Billy. "C'mon, scoot."

So there could be snuggling, see.

[selfhelphero]

Billy laughed and scooted all the way in, leaning against Topher in a cuddle. "Still, you brought it to share and you're trying to cheer me up. That's really sweet of you."

[dollpocalypse]

"It's true," Topher confirmed, passing the ice cream container off to Billy before snuggling closer. "I'm kind of a big philanthropist. Even though it's common room ice cream and not Chilly Boulder. Still counts."

So nyah. Take that, naysayers. Topher Brink knew how to date.

[selfhelphero]

"Common room ice cream is perfectly acceptable when trying to cheer me up," Billy said. "I feel better, I swear."

[dollpocalypse]

"Good," Topher said. "'Cause okay, I was thinking about it, and basically all your trauma was short-term. And like, if you look at it like a story? There's no way Tommy's not gonna show back up next time something happens. I mean, he has superspeed. That's the greatest narrative excuse for returning from a prolonged bus ride ever."

Topher needed to not use TV Tropes to help his friends cope with life problems.

[selfhelphero]

"What if I don't want my life to be like a story?" Billy asked. "What if I want things to be kind of boring, where my friends aren't getting hurt and I have a normal family?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Um." That was also a thing on TV Tropes, but Topher was going to keep that to himself. "Is that really... I mean, do you really want that?"

[selfhelphero]

"Well, no," Billy admitted. "'Cause that'd mean losing my abilities and... yeah, no, I could never handle that. I just wish I could have powers and safety for my friends and family at the same time."

[dollpocalypse]

"Well, that's... also hard." And possibly impossible. "There's no quick spell you can do that can keep everyone safe, is there?"

[selfhelphero]

"No, I've tried," Billy said, giving Topher a hopeful look. "You're safe though, right? I mean, no one's out to get you at the moment or anything?"