Log: Billy and Kyle (Backdated)

[x-asgardian.livejournal.com]

Kyle pulls Billy aside to talk about his slipping schoolwork and gets a bit more than he bargained. (Backdated to Friday, April 12)


The clock on the classroom wall was usually plenty of warning that class had ended, but somehow that final tick had missed Billy's notice. As had the final instructions for their next assignment. In fact, it wasn't until his classmates had stood and began packing their bags that Billy tuned back into reality. Glancing around hastily, he began stuffing his notebook, highlighters and...whatever this week's book was back into his bag.

"Yo, Billy, got like, five minutes? I'll write you a "sorry I'm late please don't magnet me to anything" note for your next class. Unless it's not with Lorna." Kyle asked, making a gesture towards his stack of really very large post-it notes. "Replace that with whoever's powers, you know. "

Billy glanced up toward the front of the classroom. He zipped up his backpack, and replied "Chemistry. So...please don't blow me up with your eyes," he offered, half-hoping that might get him off the hook. Scott Summers wasn't exactly known for his patience with tardiness. But whatever this was about, it didn't sound pleasant.

"Well, Scott might get his khakis bunched but he'll deal." Kyle said, with a wave. "If he doesn't, I'll get in his face." He scratched his head a bit, frowning. "Okay, so this is awkward. Um. What's with you lately? You're like, mega distracted and it's kinda showing in your work."

Billy faltered mid-step. The question shouldn't have been unexpected, but it caught him off-guard anyways. Don't let him ask me about today's lesson, he hoped, frantically trying to remember something, anything they'd discussed. "Uh, Spring Fever?" he finally managed, a weak excuse but the only one that came to mind.

"Is that your musical? I thought your play was like, birds or something." Kyle knew the name of the play - not like Maddie hadn't chirped it at him about fifty times. "Spring fever, I mean at least like how I had it was more being antsy and trying to talk my teachers into having class outside, not staring off into space or daydreaming. Spring fever my ass."

Kyle's ass. Having been mentioned aloud, Billy felt his gaze creeping there. No! he reprimanded himself, tearing the gaze back to the front. Which he immediately realized wasn't ANY better. He lifted his head, stopping short of meeting Kyle's eyes, safe in the middle. "Birdie," he corrected, managing to get the word out. Yes, the middle was safe. The middle was fine. Very fine. He felt himself flushing. "It'll be done in a few more days, then I'll do better."

"Uh-huh..." Kyle said, a little skeptically. "Even you don't sound like you're buying that. Look, if it's like, whatever, someone giving you crap for being a mutant, or I dunno what, or just you're having trouble focusing all over, dude, Haller's totally on call for that, and if it's a serious thing..." Billy's eyes were all over the place, and Kyle was half-convinced it was something he'd done, but he couldn't remember being an ass to the kids. "Hey, this isn't the potato thing is it? Cause I wasn't real mad about that, it was just mostly funny. Nobody giving you crap about potatomania?"

"No!" Billy blurted out, before he could stop himself. The last thing he wanted was to be around telepaths. He quickly tried to backpedal. "I mean, no, it's not about potatoes. I didn't think you were really mad. And people joke about it, but it's...just for fun. That's not what's wr---I mean, nothing's wrong," he declared. He tried to focus on the ground between them, but his eyes kept drifting back to Kyle's midsection, and suddenly Maddie's invitations to join her runs--runs that often coincided with Kyle's--became quite tempting.

"You are -really- bad at this." Kyle said, casually. "Dude, whatever's up with you, it's affecting your homework, and I wanna make sure it's not gonna get worse." He shook his head, with a grin. "And you're kinda crap at trying to pretend something's not up, so either I said something, or did something, or you've got stuff going on somewhere else. So, lets narrow it down. Is it me, or is this like, every class you're captain distracted in?"

Billy waffled several long moments, caught in a classic Catch-22. It wouldn't take any effort for Kyle to check with any of the other teachers. Billy's attention and homework might not be quite his normal efforts there, but it wasn't nearly as drastic as English. Too easy to get caught that way. Plus, even if it wasn't affecting homework, if Kyle noticed the unusual behavior, others likely had too, and questions there would be just as disastrous. Besides, it wasn't really Kyle. Or not exactly Kyle. Then again, maybe this was more a Catch-33. Or 44. Billy's head started to spin, trying to figure out a safe answer, "It's just..." he started to speak, then broke off. No, talking to Maddie and Clint was one thing, but there this there wouldn't be any coming back. "You didn't do anything," he said glumly

"I didn't do anything do anything, or like, I didn't do anything but you caught video of me chewing on someone and now you're freaked out?" Kyle asked. It seemed the most likely - and it wasn't the first time he'd had a kid be nervous because they'd figured out their teacher was an apex predator.. "We can talk about that. I can scouts-honor promise that I seriously do not go all flip-out in the classroom."

"There's video of you chewi--" Billy cut off mid-sentence as a very different mental picture of Kyle chewing sprung up, unbidden. Which was followed immediately by an image of Kyle in a Boy Scout's uniform. Billy felt his face start to heat up, and he was sure he must be turning bright red. He focused his attention past Kyle. At the desk. No, not the desk--damn, and now the uniform was off.

Flushed face, increased heart rate, and the slight smell of sweat. Kyle instinctively took a step back, and told himself that first, laughing at the poor kid was right out and that second, Dori was too sweet and nice to get mad at a teenager for having a little crush. Even if she was why he knew what "awkward crush" and "embarrassed" looked like when they showed up on someone at the same time. Dori had squeaked more, it looked like Billy was the "oh god I'm going to the hot place" kind. "Oh. I mean in the violent way, dude. The X-Men thing." He waved a hand, hoping to indicate that this was no big deal.

The color left Billy's face just as quickly as it had come, and the panicked look returned to his eyes. He knows, no he doesn't, he argued with himself a moment before was able to calm himself. "Yeah, of course. I knew that. So you're not going to eat me," he said, trying to sound disinterested, but in actuality, his tone carried almost a hint of disappointment.

Kyle raised a finger, as if to punctuate a point, put his hand back down, raised it again, mouth open in an expression of confusion and then put it over his eyes, and dragged it down over his face. "I'm your English teacher. They arrest people for what you've been daydreaming in my class about, dude. Also totes inappropriate also totes not into teenagers." Well, if he wasn't right, then he was about to seriously embarrass Billy, and if he was right, he was about to seriously embarrass Billy.

Somehow, Billy managed to go even whiter. His mouth moved, but no words came out. Which, in this case, was probably fortunate, since every thought right now was some form of "I want," most with equally disastrous results. A couple variations involved crater-sized holes where the mansion currently stood. Eventually, though, he stopped. He glanced backward, and seeing one of the student chair-desks, didn't so much settle onto it as wilt. His bag slid off his shoulder, dropping to the floor with a thunk. "I'm sorry," he said, no longer denying, voice just sounding defeated. "I can't make it stop."

"Cold showers. Always worked for me when I was your age." Kyle sat down on top of his desk, and rested his elbows on his knees. "Look, you're not the first guy to be all distracted by a teacher. I had Miss Munroe for English one year. I'm pretty sure Jay spent at least half of a year staring at Scott's ass." And wow, it was -weird- to call Scott "Scott" now, and think about that semester when at the time, he was trying to tell Jay to stop staring at Mr Summers ass before he got lasered in the head. "But if it's gonna mess with your grades, I'll start wearing really ugly pants. I've got this really hideous pair I stole from Jay back in the day. Orange plaid."

Billy shuddered visibly. Now THAT image was better than any cold shower. "No, please don't," he grimaced. "It'd probably be worse. I'd probably end up making color disappear from the world or something." Which, to rid the world of orange plaid, might be an acceptable trade-off. He finally dared a look up. "Are...you mad?"

"Did you hit your head?" Kyle asked, scratching his. "If I was mad, you'd be in the Prof's office now, because me and angry aren't really a good idea." He leaned back, resting his weight on his palms. "I'd have shipped you off to people with better anger management skills. But dude, you being all captain stare off into space... " He paused to point a finger at Billy. "And don't you correct me on what you were really staring at. It was -space.- isn't really worth being angry about, and I'd be a hypocrite if I was pissed anyway."

Well, given his history, the more accurate question would be "Did something hit Billy on the head?" But regardless, the destination of his staring was one "disillusion" Billy wasn't going to correct. His expression was nothing less than grateful before the word triggered his curiosity. "Hypocrite?"

"The Jay I stole the orange plaid from? Dude. Sixteen foot wingspan and belted out country music in the shower." Kyle explained. "Why do you -think- I had access to his pants?"

Billy's mouth fell open. Literally. That was a tale of Xavier's past he hadn't heard before. His head shook back and forth, trying to gather his thoughts. After a moment of gaping, though, he managed to compose himself. "I guess those two outweigh orange plaid," he finally said, his tone carrying more relief than humor in the attempt at a joke.

"There were a couple of other things that outweighed the ugly pants. Just between you, me and don't you tell anyone I said this, Jay could've worn those pants all he wanted, because they fit like a glove." Kyle grinned, and shrugged a little self-consciously. "Welcome to Xavier's, your teachers have sex lives. It freaked me out the first time I realized that too though."

Billy's eyes widened. Despite Kyle being one of the cool teachers, that wasn't something Billy ever expected to hear. About anyone, let alone a guy. He finally returned the grin, though. "Freaky bit...sometimes kinda cool," he said, followed by a very relieved-sounding, "Thanks." Glancing up at the clock on the wall, he offered an apologetic, "Not that I don't appreciate this, because I really, really do, but Mr. Summers is going to kill me if I don't hurry. I'll pay attention and...maybe we could talk more some other time?"

"If you promise to spend less time in class trying to give yourself X-ray eyes." Kyle said, with a grin. Now that he knew why Billy was so distracted, it was kind of funny. And not the first time - he'd had a little bit of that when he was a student teacher. "I mean, Amanda'd kill me first off." And he could discreetly call Billy's attention to the lesson and not vaguely inappropriate daydreaming, instead of maybe embarrassing the poor kid more. "And anytime. Office hours are on the door, and otherwise, well, just watch for the girlfriend's attack squirrel."

"Well, knowing how my spells go wrong, my x-ray eyes would probably kill you before she had a chance," Billy laughed, scooping up his backpack. And to his credit, his eyes didn't even stray a little. "Thanks again!"