Shiro and Tommy, Saturday morning

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Tommy tries to figure out what's going on with Shiro, whose powers are acting strangely.


There wasn't a word to describe Shiro's motion as he exited his bedroom for his suite's common room. Sluggish didn't accurately describe the slowness and heaviness of his gait, and lethargic wasn't strong enough to cover his exhaustion. He'd just slept eight hours, though, which is much more than usual, and it was 9 o'clock, at least three hours later than he usually wakes. If his mind was at all working, then he'd ask himself what's going on. But alas, it was still asleep.

Humming softly to himself, Tommy came in from the front door, covered in sweat as he'd just been outside for his morning run. Usually he ran at night and worked out in the gym in the morning, but after the encounter with Marie in the gym, he had substituted a morning run for the morning work out.

Seeing Shiro in the common room, he gave a small wave of acknowledgement as he'd just taken a large gulp of water but after a glance at his suitemate, Tommy couldn't help but pause and stare at him.

Normally Shiro and Tommy got along pretty well. They'd come to an understanding and were usually at least cordial with one another. All bets are off early in the morning, though. "What's the American idiom? 'Take a picture, it'll last longer'?" Shiro muttered not too kindly, barely offering Tommy so much as a glare.

Tommy just took it in stride, snorting softly in some retort. Usually, Shiro was an early riser and immaculate in presentation. This was highly unusual for his suitemate and while Tommy was in the habit of being more standoffish, he wasn't about to let something be wrong with the one person he could stand to live with. "Yeah you’re right. But pictures don't exactly tell me what's wrong with you?"

Shiro shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. He never shivered because his powers always kept him warm. Hmm, tea. He needed tea. Something hot with caffeine maybe to jolt him to consciousness again. He dragged himself to the kitchenette and slowly poured water into a mug and put it in the microwave. "I'm coming down with something, I guess," he replied slowly.

That earned Shiro a suspicious raised eyebrow as Tommy watched him, arms crossed over his chest. "Look, I ain't gonna coddle you like that Summers guy who was here. You haven't said exactly said what's wrong with you...?"

"Alex and I don't cuddle," Shiro protested. "At least not recently." Did he say that out loud? And was that what Tommy had even suggested? Shiro's head was too foggy for him to give it a second thought. He picked his mug up and concentrated on heating it up with his hand. Maybe he wouldn't melt it like the wok.

Now Shiro got both eyebrows. And here Tommy thought Shiro had a thing with the purple chick...He figured he better watch his roommate a little closer for the time being. "I believe I said coddle, not cuddle but if that's what you and blondie were doing, I hope I'm not the one to tell Clarice." Shiro could take that as kidding if he wanted.

Tommy moved over the kitchen, placing his water bottle in the small sick. He noticed the ceramic stating to crack from the heat and after removing one glove with his teeth, touched it and turned it to steel. "Careful." The change took a lot of him but at least he was working faster. He leaned back against the wall, hiding his sudden weak feeling. "Really, what is wrong with you? I refuse to believe a cold is making you abuse coffee mugs."

The change startled Shiro so that he dropped the mug, wincing at the clanking sound. The bottom of his pajama pants were wet. "What did you . . ." He was freezing and couldn't see the heat emanating from the mug, yet he could still heat the water to boiling. What was wrong with him? "That shouldn't have happened." Duh.

Wincing, Tommy bent down to pick up the mug, taking a deep breath as he moved to place it in sink with his bottle. "No shit. Now are you going to tell me what is wrong? I like to be able to tell that red hair teleporter what's wrong with you when i go get her to drag you out of here."

"I-I don't know," Shiro replied, staring with horrified fascination at the steel mug by his feet. "Nothing's happened to me. I-I'm not preoccupied with anything. School's fine, missions are fine, everything is fine." Maybe not some of his relationships, but they couldn't be driving him to the point of loss of control.

He normally would have retorted how the mug was just turned to steel, it wouldn't bite. But something was clearly wrong and it was appropriate. "And yet you look and feel like shit and obviously don't have control of your powers. That doesn't sound like everything is fine to me."

Shiro took a few steps back and bumped into the counter. "I just need to sleep. Maybe I caught syphilis at that club last week." Please God say it's syphilis and not something worse. "Want to try converting a stick of Pocky to a shot of penicillin for me?"

Tommy watched from his slumped position by the wall, still feeling too weak to move from that spot. "Only do Elements. You go do that sleep thing." And don't blame me when you wake up in the medlab.

As if reading Tommy's mind, Shiro said to him: "I'll go to Frau Voght when I wake up. Really." He groaned as he bent over to pick up the mug and put it in the sink with Tommy's bottle, then hobbled back to his room, shutting the door behind him. But as he fell onto his bed, he reached under the pillow for the little asthma inhaler. He grinned. This was nothing he couldn't Kick until it worked again.