[Cable & Deadpool] Beer and Sympathy Epilogues
A few more author's notes to begin with, because I am hardly one to waste a chance to talk about my writing.
This is actually one of the earlier fics I ever started in this fandom, but because I've had two enormous, unfinished multi-parters looming over my conscience almost ever since that point, and because there was no way this was ever going to work as one of those short, light-hearted pieces I can knock out on between chapters for a bit of light relief, it's spent most of its life sitting on the backburner. I'd pretty well promised myself it would be the next thing posted after I finally got the last couple of chapters of Summers'son out, but since they're still waiting on betaing and final edits, it finally got to jump the queue.
In the name of research I did track down the corresponding Cable issues which explained how he'd lost his telekinesis in the first place, but to my disappointment, found that the whole issue of how little time he had left to live had been treated with far more weight in his Deadpool cameo appearance than anywhere in his own title. Consequently I decided to go ahead and ignore all details explaining how he'd lost them, how he got them back, or how long the whole thing was supposed to take, which at least saved me the bother of having to worry too much about whether the additional scenes I had in mind had any hope of fitting into canon.
And on that note, on to the epilogues themselves! I am still in two minds about whether to consider these 'official' continuations of the events of Beer and Sympathy, because in a lot of ways you don't need anything else to happen between that and the day they run into one another again in C&DP #1. But if you prefer to assume there was more to that story, it might just have gone something like this.
There were just enough people on the list of the few trusted friends who knew the location of Cable's safe house that there was nothing necessarily sinister about the sound of someone knocking on his door. Nevertheless, the sight of Deadpool on his doorstep was one thing it would have never occurred to him to expect. "What are you doing here?"
"Was in the neighbourhood," said Deadpool, kicking vaguely at the doorstep. "And I just had such a shittastic day that I figure that you telling me to take a hike can't really make it any worse, so-"
"Get inside," said Cable, making a quick decision that probably shouldn't have been nearly so quick, nor so easy.
"-why not try my... huh?"
"Get inside," Cable repeated, holding the door. "Or get lost. Your choice."
He gave Deadpool time to step inside and get as far as "So-" before slamming the door behind him, then him up against it.
"You're not the only one who's had a bad day," he said, and covered Wade's mouth with his own.
And so it would go, until this happens:
Like all bad habits, Deadpool snuck in under the notice of his better judgement by becoming a routine; one that began, on this day, with the man himself marching through his front door announcing, "Bad day, you too huh, door was open, hate you and your stupid face, yabbity yabbity, now whadya say we - hey!" stopping only when he found himself lifted bodily off his feet and slammed into the nearest hard surface. This, putting all Deadpool's sloppy efforts aside, was no more than what passed for normal; things began go off-script only when he'd had long enough to realise Cable had achieved this last manoeuvre while standing on the opposite side of the room.
"Stop me if I'm on the wrong track here," said Deadpool, "but either there's one hell of a draft in your hallway, or you would seem to be -"
"Having a good day," said Cable. "A very good day." Such a day that it was beyond even Deadpool to ruin his mood, and for all that ordinarily he'd be the last person Cable would have chosen to share the moment with, he was here, and he'd found his sometimes-enemy in a distinctly celebratory mood. "Sorry to disappoint you."
He watched Deadpool squirm in his telekinetic grip as he stalked across the space between them, reminded for the fifteenth time in as many minutes how much he'd missed the power to do this. Not to mention the opportunity to test his limits.
"So I take it this means we're not... uh..." Deadpool broke off, the squirming taking on a marginally different quality.
"You were saying?" Cable prompted, standing just beyond arms reach with his arms folded.
"Is it too late to talk about safewords?" Deadpool tried, voice taking on a breathy quality.
Cable raised an eyebrow. "Safewords, Wade? All this last month I've been making arrangements, borrowing time. Then today, I find out I'm going to live." One more step put him firmly inside Wade's space, close enough to get his hands on the other's muscular back, trailing southwards. "You can plan all you like, but when it comes to the moment, life will still force you to improvise." So saying, he kissed Wade, long and deep, and guided his legs up and around his waist.
A few rounds of floating sex would prove to be more strain than Cable's mental muscles were entirely ready for, but even if he'd be paying for it tomorrow, he couldn't find it in himself to regret a moment of the encounter. Ultimately, it was the bounds of their arrangement that were the most thoroughly tested that day.
Wade never did come back after that, but by the time Cable had stopped waiting, he'd long since come to terms with the understanding he'd never really expected him to.
Perhaps it was for the best, since at least he never did have to decide what he'd have done if Wade had.
There we shall leave the story for another couple of years' separation, until, much to the surprise of both parties, they find themselves approaching the whole thing again from completely the opposite direction, which involves an unexpected friendship rather than a questionable decision make while drunk. I am sure you can fill in the details yourselves. ;)
Though for one last word on the subject, it did occur to me that alternately, this whole backstory might well have been among the things that fell through the cracks in Deadpool's memory back before Cable fixed his brain up and, more importantly, what would happen when he finally remembered again. (No, I am not writing this as I cannot think of anything interesting to do with the idea, but should anyone else want to have a go at it, please be my guest.)
This is actually one of the earlier fics I ever started in this fandom, but because I've had two enormous, unfinished multi-parters looming over my conscience almost ever since that point, and because there was no way this was ever going to work as one of those short, light-hearted pieces I can knock out on between chapters for a bit of light relief, it's spent most of its life sitting on the backburner. I'd pretty well promised myself it would be the next thing posted after I finally got the last couple of chapters of Summers'son out, but since they're still waiting on betaing and final edits, it finally got to jump the queue.
In the name of research I did track down the corresponding Cable issues which explained how he'd lost his telekinesis in the first place, but to my disappointment, found that the whole issue of how little time he had left to live had been treated with far more weight in his Deadpool cameo appearance than anywhere in his own title. Consequently I decided to go ahead and ignore all details explaining how he'd lost them, how he got them back, or how long the whole thing was supposed to take, which at least saved me the bother of having to worry too much about whether the additional scenes I had in mind had any hope of fitting into canon.
And on that note, on to the epilogues themselves! I am still in two minds about whether to consider these 'official' continuations of the events of Beer and Sympathy, because in a lot of ways you don't need anything else to happen between that and the day they run into one another again in C&DP #1. But if you prefer to assume there was more to that story, it might just have gone something like this.
There were just enough people on the list of the few trusted friends who knew the location of Cable's safe house that there was nothing necessarily sinister about the sound of someone knocking on his door. Nevertheless, the sight of Deadpool on his doorstep was one thing it would have never occurred to him to expect. "What are you doing here?"
"Was in the neighbourhood," said Deadpool, kicking vaguely at the doorstep. "And I just had such a shittastic day that I figure that you telling me to take a hike can't really make it any worse, so-"
"Get inside," said Cable, making a quick decision that probably shouldn't have been nearly so quick, nor so easy.
"-why not try my... huh?"
"Get inside," Cable repeated, holding the door. "Or get lost. Your choice."
He gave Deadpool time to step inside and get as far as "So-" before slamming the door behind him, then him up against it.
"You're not the only one who's had a bad day," he said, and covered Wade's mouth with his own.
And so it would go, until this happens:
Like all bad habits, Deadpool snuck in under the notice of his better judgement by becoming a routine; one that began, on this day, with the man himself marching through his front door announcing, "Bad day, you too huh, door was open, hate you and your stupid face, yabbity yabbity, now whadya say we - hey!" stopping only when he found himself lifted bodily off his feet and slammed into the nearest hard surface. This, putting all Deadpool's sloppy efforts aside, was no more than what passed for normal; things began go off-script only when he'd had long enough to realise Cable had achieved this last manoeuvre while standing on the opposite side of the room.
"Stop me if I'm on the wrong track here," said Deadpool, "but either there's one hell of a draft in your hallway, or you would seem to be -"
"Having a good day," said Cable. "A very good day." Such a day that it was beyond even Deadpool to ruin his mood, and for all that ordinarily he'd be the last person Cable would have chosen to share the moment with, he was here, and he'd found his sometimes-enemy in a distinctly celebratory mood. "Sorry to disappoint you."
He watched Deadpool squirm in his telekinetic grip as he stalked across the space between them, reminded for the fifteenth time in as many minutes how much he'd missed the power to do this. Not to mention the opportunity to test his limits.
"So I take it this means we're not... uh..." Deadpool broke off, the squirming taking on a marginally different quality.
"You were saying?" Cable prompted, standing just beyond arms reach with his arms folded.
"Is it too late to talk about safewords?" Deadpool tried, voice taking on a breathy quality.
Cable raised an eyebrow. "Safewords, Wade? All this last month I've been making arrangements, borrowing time. Then today, I find out I'm going to live." One more step put him firmly inside Wade's space, close enough to get his hands on the other's muscular back, trailing southwards. "You can plan all you like, but when it comes to the moment, life will still force you to improvise." So saying, he kissed Wade, long and deep, and guided his legs up and around his waist.
A few rounds of floating sex would prove to be more strain than Cable's mental muscles were entirely ready for, but even if he'd be paying for it tomorrow, he couldn't find it in himself to regret a moment of the encounter. Ultimately, it was the bounds of their arrangement that were the most thoroughly tested that day.
Wade never did come back after that, but by the time Cable had stopped waiting, he'd long since come to terms with the understanding he'd never really expected him to.
Perhaps it was for the best, since at least he never did have to decide what he'd have done if Wade had.
There we shall leave the story for another couple of years' separation, until, much to the surprise of both parties, they find themselves approaching the whole thing again from completely the opposite direction, which involves an unexpected friendship rather than a questionable decision make while drunk. I am sure you can fill in the details yourselves. ;)
Though for one last word on the subject, it did occur to me that alternately, this whole backstory might well have been among the things that fell through the cracks in Deadpool's memory back before Cable fixed his brain up and, more importantly, what would happen when he finally remembered again. (No, I am not writing this as I cannot think of anything interesting to do with the idea, but should anyone else want to have a go at it, please be my guest.)