Fast as Fuck, Boy.

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He chuckled, “Bartholomew could be something…Bart for short, prob'ly.” Steve smiled and shook his head. He noted the other looking and his brows furrowed a bit before they eased as the other looked at him again. His head tilted a bit, “Yeah? I wish I was fast…” Steven muttered quietly. Marc got all the cool stuff. Well, Steven did share a lot of it now with him now that they figured out what they were doing. But Marc was still the cooler of the two, that was for sure. He blinked a couple times and nodded, “Yeah, I bet.” He chuckled, rubbing his hands together, “W-Were you looking for something?” Steven asked, “You were looking around and you know…curious.” There was a pause before he spoke up again, “Unless I’m boring you. If so, I am terribly sorry…” Steven tended to do that.

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     “Bart’s pretty cool, actually. You got me there” Tommy chuckled softly. “It’s got it’s perks” the blonde shrugged weakly, smirking over at the other. Tommy was dreadful when it came to timekeeping and he’d probably miss a lot of things if he couldn’t run as fast as he could. “Oh God, no. No, no, no” Tommy shook his head quickly, frowning as he realized what the other was thinking. “You’re not boring at all, man, promise. I was just wondering if there was anywhere nearby that we could maybe get something to eat....that’s the con of being fast. I gotta take in a bunch of calories otherwise, well, let’s just say that it;s not good for me”

Tommy Shepherd.

“I’ll take it, one day is better than no days.”  Billy reasoned with a nod of his head. Truthfully he didn’t mind Tommy’s teasing all too much. He knew bullies and Tommy wasn’t one of them. His brother was a doof sometimes, but he was good where it counted. “Guess when you put it like that, yeah it is.” He acknowledged with a nod and then chuckled. “You know, younger me would have never thought he’d wind up here. Got a big shock with pretty much everything going on.” He commented. 

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     “I knew you’d go for that” he grinned playfully. It was never his intention to actually hurt Billy and if Tommy ever got the impression that he was then he would apologize, of course, but this was just the way that they were. The way that they had always been. “There is no rest for the wicked and all that...” he chuckled, nodding as his brother agreed that he was right. “No? I guess it was this or world record breaking track star for me..”

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Cass frowned a little as he stepped back from her, wondering if it was out of fear or an attempt to pacify her. She used to be so adept at reading body language, but after everything that had happened to her, this skill had changed. “I wasn’t worried,” she said, a faint smile touching her lips. She could handle herself against just about anyone after all. “It’s okay,” she said, with another little smile. “I’m Cass.”

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     “Oh...okay, awesome” Tommy grinned. He wasn’t sure if she simply had meant that he wasn’t all that intimidating or that she could hold her own, either way he was relieved to hear it nonetheless. “Tommy, it’s nice to meet you, Cass” he continued to grin, holding out his hand for her to shake. “I like to think I’m a pretty good judge of character, you know. How long have you lived around here?”

—

Shawn chuckled and nodded his head. “I like to think it is. It’s definitely a different life style then I grew up with.” Shawn admitted with a cheeky grin. “And not at all. If you would have told me a few years ago? I would have looked at you like you were insane.” Shawn said with a shake of his head. “But thankfully, so many things led me to here. And I couldn’t be more thankful.”

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     “How so? Or do you just mean the fame of it all?” Tommy asked, waving his hands a little to emphasize his point. He could somewhat relate there in the most recent years; having his identity known to the world had certainly changed his life but it was just another adjustment to make. “That’s fair enough, sometimes you’re great at things you’d have never even considered without a bit of outside influence...it’s fate, or whatever”

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A smile crossed Steven’s lips as the other introduced himself. No one could be bad that introduced themselves like that, “Tommy, that’s a good name. Much better than Steven.” He laughed and Marc ‘ughed’ in his mind. Hearing his question, his eyes widened a bit and he looked around, “Oh, well, I mean…I kind of do now. I-I’m originally from England but ya know, had to come across the pond for some excitement.” Steven laughed a bit awkwardly and rocked back on his heels a bit, “It’s really intimidating here, innit? How do you navigate it?”

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     “I don’t know, Steven’s a pretty cool name....definitely better than something like Bartholomew” he snorted gently, shaking his head. “It can be kinda intimidating, I guess..” he nodded, looking around for a moment before his attention turned back to the other. “I guess I just kind of wing it? I’m fast enough that it’s never really a problem if I get a little lost....but you do start to get the hang of it after a little while”

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     Tommy blinked as the other spoke his name, something he had been yet to reveal. “Ah” he had heard of Professor Xavier, of course, but he knew very little about him. “I’m fast” he confirmed with a nod. “What...how did you know that, though? And what makes you think that I need help?” he rose a brow. He did quite alright on his own, he liked to think. 

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     Tommy grinned as the other agreed with him so easily, the two of them clearly on the same wavelength. “Right? You totally get it!” he shook his head gently. “Anyways, uh, I’m Tommy. It’s super nice to meet you Mr familiar face” the blonde chuckled, outstretching his hand to the other. He had a lot of energy, something that Tommy could definitely relate to much to his friends’ dismay. 

—

Shawn chuckled and nodded his head. “For real,” Shawn responded with a grin. “You might have seen my face in passing. I’m a professional wrestler.” Shawn explained with a nod of his head, a hint of pride in his tone. Shawn loved his job, and was quite proud of the things he’s been able to accomplish in his relatively young career. So it was hard for him not to feel prideful at times. “And it’s not annoying at all.” Shawn assure with a chuckle.

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     “A wrestler? That’s so awesome. I’ve definitely seen you on TV then...I’m just the worst at names, my bad” he chuckled awkwardly. “Did you always know that you wanted to be a wrestler?” the blonde asked, genuinely curious. He always wondered about these things given that he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. It would most likely feel too slow. Tommy was far too impatient for it. 

Tommy Shepherd. 

“I do not say pretentious things Thomas.” Billy shot right back without missing a beat to the words. “Sure I’m a bit nerdy and geeky and dweeby sometimes but that’s only when I get excited.” Which was a lot of the time but that was beside the point. “Actually the opposite of that, let’s try, not at all.” He didn’t really mind all too much, he knew Tommy didn’t mean most of it. “And if you must make fun of me let’s make it limited to business days, huh?”

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     Tommy smirked as he watched the other reel off several things that the blonde had grown into the habit of teasing him about, shaking his head. Billy could be a nerd, sure, but Tommy wouldn’t want him any other way. He simply wouldn’t be him. “Hm, I don’t know about that. Maybe we’ll just start with today and see how it goes” he teased, chuckling softly. “Isn’t every day a business day for us?”

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     Tommy’s brows furrowed as she other spoke slowly, worrying suddenly that she was afraid of him, or at the very least cautious. He took a step back, just in case, and shook his head gently. “I know, sorry. It was just a weird happenstance...I didn’t want you to worry that I was following you for anything weird or anything...I’m just new around here” He wanted to make friends, and he forgot sometimes that his approach could be too much. 

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     “Oh, really?” Tommy quirked a brow, wondering suddenly if the other was some kind of celebrity or something. He liked to think that he was in the loop but a lot of the time he didn’t have time to keep up with whatever was happening all over social media, so it made sense that he may have caught a glimpse of his face and it had somehow stuck. “I hope it’s not annoying then, I just get curious about these kinds of things”

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“Yeah!” Steven exclaimed and laughed with a nod, “Exactly like that. It’s really bizarre.” Sure, shooting the shit with a stranger was fun but Marc, the actual owner of his body was concerned why this person was following him. Steven, perhaps you could ask them about what the hell is going on or else I’m going to take over. Marc chided the other and Steven actually pouted, “No.” He said simply. He remembered he said it out loud and he cleared his throat and turned towards the man, “C-C…Can I ask your name, sir?” Steven asked with a smile, “I’m Steven Grant.” He said and Marc groaned loudly in his head. Don’t tell him your name, dumbass. Well, what was done was done.

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     Tommy grinned, the other matching his energy delighting him, it was a rare occurrence, after all. A lot of the time, others either looked upon him as he rambled with a look of mixed amazement that he hadn’t run out of breath and mild concern. “Sorry, right, of course” the blonde shook his head fervently. “It’s Thomas Shepherd, but my friends call me Tommy” he introduced himself, outstretching his hand to the other. “It’s a pleasure, Steven. Do you live here in New York or are you just visiting?”

@catchmeifycucan

“This is probably the longest you’ve ever gone without making fun of me.”

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     “That would be because this is the longest that you’ve ever gone without saying something pretentious, William” Tommy smirked, teasing him as he looked up from his phone. “Are you saying that you would prefer that I make fun of you constantly?” the blonde rose a brow, although, he already knew the answer. 

Marc didn’t like being followed. Jake really hated being followed. But Steven, well to be honest, he would never notice someone following them unless someone specifically said something to him. Which, at this point, was Marc, “Listen. I’m not tryin’ to control Steven time, but there’s someone following you.” He said simply. Well, it was really in his head, thankfully. But then Steven answered aloud so it really just made him seem weirder, “Is there? Oh, didn’t even notice. Thank you, Marc.” He said.

Figuring that he should stop his advance (especially since Marc had mentioned it), he turned around and put on his friendly smile to the man, listening to him speak, “Do I?” He asked, his eyes lighting up a bit, “It’s funny that you say that–” Steven was about to blurt out the fact that he had two other personalities to it was kind of similar, but he didn’t, “I had deja vu the other day. It’s really weird, innit?”

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     Tommy was no stranger to the concept of talking to ones self but it was another thing entirely to overhear the man answer himself. He supposed that he didn’t really have any room to comment on what was weird given that he had ben tailing the other for the best part of the last ten minutes as he had attempted to figure out why the other looked so familiar. “It is really weird!” Tommy exclaimed, relieved that he didn’t seem to bothered by the behaviour. “It’s almost like when you see something in a dream and then you see it happen in real life and it’s like....woah. You know?”

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