6/11 Instance: It Came Up the Drain

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Timeline: Current


Walt: Walt hummed a little as he stepped under the spray and began scrubbing at his hair. Nothing like a nice cool shower after a long gym class outside. It was September but some warm weather leftover from summer still lingered and it got a bit unbearable in the afternoon when one was forced to run laps around the grounds.

Fabian: Fabian, meanwhile, was drumming his fingers and waiting at his desk. How long did it take Walt to take a shower, really? Sure, he had some interesting hair but that didn't warrant this taking so long. Some people had to actually get ready for things other than classes and staying in the room like some kind of shut in that just needed lots and lots of cats.

Walt: A little while later Walt emerged from the bathroom in fresh clothes, toweling off his hair. "All yours now," he said to Fabian, twirling his glasses a little as he made his way over to his beside table. What the heck was he drumming his fingers for? God, it wasn't like he was that long.

Fabian: "Thanks." Fabian hurried into the bathroom. Just a moment later he hurried right back out.

Walt: Walt blinked, well that was fast. "Dude...did you even wash your hands?"

Fabian: Fabian went straight for his closet and pulled out his fencing foil. Not answering him, he made his way back into the bathroom.

Walt: Walt frowned and threw his towel onto the bed and followed Fabian into the bathroom, taking his pills along with him. "What?" he said, trying to peek around him. "What's wrong?"

Fabian: "That," Fabian said flatly, pointing the tip of his foil at the invader curled up against the bathtub. "That."

Walt: Walt squinted at the little blur in the corner. His glasses were still in his hand. He shoved them on with one hand and took another look at the offending thing in the bathroom before promptly bursting into laughter. "That? That's what you're getting all worked up over? It's just a millipede!"

Fabian: "Yes, it is a millipede...now get ready to grab it if it dodges please," Fabian asked quite tersely and seriously as he got prepared to do his lunge.

Walt: "Alright then," Walt managed with choke out after a few minutes, his laugh sounding more like a wheeze. God, he hadn't been this amused in he couldn't remember how long.

Fabian: Fabian wanted to take a moment to glare at Walt but he couldn't manage it, not wanting to look away from the millipede...who decided now was the time to make it's move as Fabian stabbed at it.

Walt: Walt clutched his sides and leaned against the wall, shaking with silent laughter. "Look out, Fabian! It's going for the kill!"

Fabian: Fabian was on the toilet with a sudden grace that was surprising even to him as he continually stabbed at the offending bug. "Oh for fuck's sake, at least get some paper for it to crawl on!"

Walt: Walt completely lost it when Fabian leapt onto the toilet. "Oh my God!" he gasped, wiping tears out of his eyes as the millipede dodged artfully around the foil. "I can't breathe!"

Fabian: Fabian was just one more comment from turning the foil on Walt. He turned his eyes onto Walt to say just that with the full brunt of his crazy-eye.

Walt: Unfortunately for Fabian, when he gave Walt that look in when he was in such a state he just looked like an angry orang-utan, which just made everything even funnier. "What?" he snorted out. "You want I should get rid of it?"

Fabian: "Yes. Please."

Walt: Walt stopped laughing, very surprised. "Did you actually say 'please' to me?" Wow, he must be desperate. Walt sighed, he was an absolute idiot for doing this but he wasn't mean enough to leave the other guy stranded on the can. "Fine, give me a minute."

Fabian: Fabian didn't answer, he just watched the millipede, not intending at all to ever lose sight of it. If that thing was nearby he was going to know exactly where it was.

Walt: Walt shoved his pills into one of his pockets and kneeled down on the tile, opening his hands to catch the thing. "Come here now...uh...no wrong way...nope...finally!" He stood up again, cupping his hands around the millipede. "Heh, that tickles. See? It's gone now. Crisis averted."

Fabian: "Take it away, please." Fabian just leaned back from Walt and his little many-legged buddy.

Walt: Walt chuckled a little. "It's just a bug. This little guy is more scared of you than you are of him. You're a lot bigger." Well, might as well set it free. Doing as he was told Walt went opened the dorm window and loosened the screen, dropping the bug out through the crack and into the bushes. "Well, there he goes."

Fabian: "I'd appreciate if you didn't try to grade my fear, thank you." The thank you was for that comment as well as Walt getting rid of the bug as Fabian gathered his wits and stepped down from his place of safety.

Walt: "Alright, alright. God, get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or what?" Walt said, leaning against the bathroom doorframe. "You're welcome."

Fabian: Not answering, Fabian just shut the door to the bathroom, keeping his foil...just in case.

Walt: Walt had an epic frown as Fabian slammed the door right in his face. "Jerk," he muttered, flopping down on his bed and throwing back his pills.

Fabian: He was out soon enough, moving to his closet to put his foil back and get dressed for heading out on the town for the evening.

Walt: Walt kept his eyes firmly on the book he had started reading. "Out again?" he said from behind it. God, he went out a lot. Walt himself was more of a homebody. Always had been.

Fabian: "Yes, Lukas and I are going on a crawl. It's been too long since I've had to run away from bouncers for my liking and God knows I could use a distraction after the subway incident." Sure, Fabian had many distractions but giant gooey bugs took a lot of distractions.

Walt: Oh great, Lukas. Well, at least he wasn't going to be staying the night...at least he hoped not. "Oh, yeah...the bug thing in the subway. I heard about that." One thing was bothering him though. "Uh...just a question, but why're you on the team?"

Fabian: "…Why wouldn't I be?" Fabian frowned, looking over to Walt as he sat down on his bed to put on his shoes.

Walt: "...You don't have any offensive powers?" Walt said as though this were obvious. "All you can do is amplify everyone else's powers and sometimes help out if the group's facing a mutant. Otherwise you're just a normal guy. It's sort of like being a police officer except you have no gun and you're fighting giant monsters...it seems a bit dangerous."

Fabian: "No offensive powers? That's something to call the ability to kill you with your own energy."

Walt: Walt looked a little troubled at this revelation. "Well...yeah, but 'X-Men don't kill,' right? So pretty much you're stuck...I just wondered why you'd want to do that. Why'd you'd even associate yourself with mutant stuff...I mean, you could pass as normal, you could live a normal life and never use your powers and no-one would be the wiser."

Walt: "I have to be in places like this," Walt continued. "I don't have a choice...I guess I just don't get why you chose to join up. Why anyone here decided to, for that matter."

Fabian: "Just because I wouldn't kill you doesn't mean I can't royally fuck a person up." Fabian pointed out. "Why wouldn't I associate myself with mutant stuff? This is my perfectly normal life as far as I see it. I like being a mutant, most everyone here likes being who they are."

Fabian: "And I'm not useless when we're fighting humans or something I can't drain. I like to think I'm clever enough to make up for the times when my power isn't what is called for."

Walt: "...You could die?" Walt tried. "Lose someone your close to, get arrested or beaten up...a lot of bad things could happen... it just seems prudent not to look for trouble."

Walt: He frowned. "My idea of normal and your idea of normal aren't even close to the same thing."

Fabian: "Of course they're not the same thing, I'm fabulous." Fabian thought that was pretty obvious. "Nothing about me would seem normal to you. You can die every minute of your life. You may as well do something memorable with it."

Walt: "You're also really modest," Walt said, the smart aleckness coming through again. "If you say so, Julien-" He froze. GOD. Did I actually just call him that?!

Fabian: "Julian lives next door, Walt." Fabian pointed out, rolling his eyes just a bit. "I'll be modest when the situation calls for it and this hardly does."

Walt: "Not Julian, Julien. With an 'e' not an 'a,'" Walt said, getting up and shifting through the papers at his desk distractedly. "It never hurts to be humble."

Fabian: "I don't see any reason in denying the truth. So who the hell is Julien with an 'e'?" Fabian asked, grabbing his phone and sending a message to Lukas to see how long he was going to be.

Walt: "My brother...well, one of them. I had two, both a little bit older."

Fabian: Fabian could just imagine how thrilling that household was. "...I had no idea we were that close."

Walt: "We're not," Walt said a bit sharply. Then in a more reasonable tone, "I'm tired, it's been a long day and I made a mistake, so just let it go." He stacked everything that needed to be stacked neatly and began straightening his bed.

Fabian: "You were laughing at me just a bit ago, am I not allowed a little snigger back?" Fabian pointed out, chuckling a bit.

Walt: "I don't know what's so funny-" Walt began going through his drawers, slamming them shut once he'd fixed everything inside "-about that."

Fabian: "Well, it's not very funny but I have to do what I can." He retorted, flopping back on his bed, growing bored waiting.

Walt: Walt sighed heavily. There was nothing left to straighten out so he also collapsed on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I don't know why I said that. You don't look or act anything alike," he said. Well...actually that wasn't true. Now that he thought about it they actually had a lot of similarities in regards to personality and life circumstances. Like heck he'd admit that to Fabian though.

Fabian: "…Okay." Fabian said a bit oddly, wondering why on earth Walt was bothered so very much about this. It didn't exactly have any impact on Fabian. Walt was just...a strange little thing.

Walt: I thought I'd stopped missing all of them. I wonder where Julien is now? Does he still think of me? Does he even care? Walt felt very tired all of a sudden, his arms and legs leaden.

Walt: "So I guess I'll see you later," Walt said. "Maybe." He'd probably be asleep by then if Fabian did come back here.

Fabian: "Yeah, I'll probably be seeing you in the morning." Fabian's brow was raised though, curiosity almost getting the better of him. After all, Walt seemed to be acting fairly twitchy over there.

Walt: Apparently he having one of his 'black moments,' he got those occasionally. For awhile he debated on whether or not he should try to find some company, unsure if he'd any fun to hang around right now, then decided it'd probably be best to go downstairs, find a friend and stop feeling sad about things he missed.

Walt: He hauled himself up and grabbed his boots. "Barring any disaster... yeah, you will."

Fabian: "Are you intending on having a disaster?" Fabian asked, curiosity now most certainly getting the better of him.

Walt: Walt blinked at Fabian. "Uh...no. I didn't plan on it - why?" His roommate was a strange one, he thought.

Fabian: "I don't know, I can't tell with you but you're right. I imagine you'll have a stodgy evening in for the most part, yes? I've half a mind to invite you along with us..."

Fabian: "...but then I don't think you'd enjoy it and I'm afraid the bouncer would actually catch you."

Walt: "Yeah, well, I wouldn't want to go out with you either," Walt muttered. "I like being at home anyways. I don't get people that need to be out all the time. Socializing all the time just drains me."

Fabian: "Suuuure you wouldn't." Fabian teased a bit, grinning. "All the time, no, but dear God I've come to the conclusion that you only exist here and in classes or the kitchen."

Walt: "I exist in other places," Walt said, rolling his eyes. "I just don't invite you to go the synagogue or hiking or canoeing with me."

Fabian: "And one day I will need to have proof of this...though I hardly count hiking in the woods or canoeing on the lake here as an excursion."

Walt: "I go on long hikes," Walt said enigmatically. "There's not a lot I can do with myself on Saturdays so I have to fill my time somehow."

Fabian: There was no hope, he was rooming with the most boring person in the world. "Well, I'll leave you to your long hikes I believe. Sounds like you've made your life sound like an online dating profile at times though."

Walt: "...I can't talk to you at all," Walt concluded, grabbing his hoodie off the back of his chair and going for the door. "Next time there's a bug you're on your own. I don't need this from you after I go out of my way to be decent."

Fabian: "I'm not being horrible to you...and you spent most of the time in there laughing your ass off so I don't see where you get off claiming to be decent. I should have just called Cee and had her take the damned thing away rather than put up with that from you."

Walt: "It was a millipede," Walt said, turning around. "I would get it more if it were a spider or something sort of scary but that was nothing! God, quit being such a wuss!" he said, cringing inwardly as he said the words his father had said to him countless times over the years. "You were making a big deal out of nothing! That's why I laughed!"

Fabian: Fabian wondered if Walt had really just said that and not felt as if he was turning into a particularly mouthy black pot. "You...are adorable. But please consider changing still." With that Fabian grabbed his phone and made for the door.

Walt: "You first," Walt muttered snidely. Well, screw him! Why should he put up with that kind of crap and get nothing in return? God, what a terrible roommate!

[Slarti]

Unfortunately for Fabian, when he gave Walt that look in when he was in such a state he just looked like an angry orang-utan, which just made everything even funnier.

Yeah, I about wet myself there.