Sweet tea is a mood

ᴏᴘᴇɴ sᴛᴀʀᴛᴇʀ

Petra was sitting on a bench in the park, a stone in one hand. She was fiddling with it, turning it a bout and changing its shape. First an orb, then a cone, then something which seemed a mini statuette that was quickly squished back into a flat disk as her mind wandered. The fact that anyone around would take an interest in what she was about hadn’t crossed her mind til she glanced up and saw someone looking at her. 

“ What ? ”

“geomorphing is the coolest.” He’d seen it once before, one of the kids that had recently enrolled at the institute just before he left for college was one. He wondered if Petra knew them. Probably not? Just because he liked to think that he knew everybody, didn’t make it so. And he put in the effort to meet and interact and be kind to every mutant he met, more-so than most he’d ever met. “I just wanted to ask how you were doing today, Petra?”

she had never really been SAFE in the knowledge of another’s softness, before. the only people victoria knew - and knew well - were made up of sharp edges and bite. they didn’t do things out of the GOODNESS of their heart, because that goodness did not exist. everyone was hiding a side darker than night, and no man did ANYTHING for the sake of doing it.

and here was conrad. good, soft conrad, who practically radiated ‘safeness’. she didn’t need to WORRY about being in his company. she didn’t need to - though she still did, because a habit of a lifetime was hard enough to break - watch what she said, or did. he wouldn’t snap and accentuate that with a fight. he was simply being nice. teaching her. telling her things that she should have known, or at least, that the school had told her she SHOULD have.

it was amazing.

“you’re special,” she replied, quite simply, the expression on her face - eyes wide and continuously curious, lips tilting upwards - so wholly unfamiliar. she didn’t just mean because of the evolution comment. he was, honestly, the FIRST person to treat victoria as if she were a human. that really meant something.

she listened, with keen interest, and when he began to gesture wildly with his hands, she sat back a little bit - not out of worry, like such a movement might have caused if it were anyone but him, but out of even more curiosity. she had never met anyone who punctuated words leaving their mouth with such inoffensive signs. it was almost something she thought would be wise to ADOPT, in day to day life - though how freely it all came to conrad made her think that it wasn’t something he was completely in control of. “inhumans-” she repeated, the word new, “are ALIEN experiments. which we are not. they’re stronger even without the terrigenesis-” another unfamiliar word that she entirely butchered, despite having heard it said correctly not two seconds before, “and develop POWERS through that. i get it.” she thought. maybe. it was hard to say if she was totally grasping it or simply parroting back, but she certainly seemed like she was understanding. “half right is another way of saying wrong,” it was a lesson she had learnt from victor. one of many, in fact. but at least with current company, she could parrot it back without the deeper issues being important. “you’re GOOD to me, conrad, but feel free to call it as it is. you’re a very good teacher, and very good teachers don’t tend to give half marks.”

Conrad, for certain, was not special. He didn’t consider himself to be. Nicer than most, maybe. More willing to help out than most, yeah. He’d always been the first to volunteer to do the dishes. Or watch the kids back at the institute when he was a teen. Or stay after class to help someone else with their homework, although it was mostly just emotional support. Conrad himself was a slightly below average student. So it was mostly emotional support. He tried though. Trying, in his opinion, wasn’t anything special. 

“Sure,” he nodded in response. She was not the first to tell him, that did not mean that he had to believe it.

“No, we’re not alien experiments. We are-,” he paused, a large, dumb smile formed on his lips. “every few hundred millennia, evolution. leaps. forward.“ He punctuated the last few words for the dramatics. A speech he had heard when he was younger, and had stuck with him. He immediately felt bad, an inside joke with himself went over everyone else’s head. “sorry, it’s uh- we’re not alien experiments. Maybe the next step in evolution. Maybe not, there’s plenty of scientists out there trying to figure that out.”

“Half right is the way of saying, half-right.” He replied. “I’m the best teacher. Half- of the kindergarten class I assist with says so. And, mutant history is complicated. Not many players to keep track of, but they’re always changin’ sides and formin’ new teams and all that. At least your trying. I commend you for trying.”

“Well not wit that attitude! We can lock the staff out somehow and go wild.” Blayze is kidding of course, but there was always a way to spice up a situation. “An adventure to get groceries, I dig it. Lets go, I need to pick up some more snacks anyway.” Which was so impractical since he doesn’t need any of it, but it helps make him feel normal. 

“Oh i can see it now. Young mutant terrorizes innocent campus library, more at 11.” He shook his head. The truth that was in that statement though. Conrad was the mutant that never stepped out of line. No headlines for him, unless it was the good stuff. He wanted to world to know that he was not the enemy. “cool. i need to get s’mores stuff for scout troop tomorrow.”

“you need to sleep, conrad. that’s a thing people need to do.” rosemary said, raising an eyebrow and nudging him lightly. the worry was evident on her face, and the telepath didn’t care to hide it much. she liked him quite a bit, regardless of whatever label they used to define their relationship, and she wanted him to know. “you’ll do stuff better if you sleep.” she added, before pushing him towards the bed. “yeah, get comfy. i’ll put on pyjamas or something and we’ll order some cheap food. we’ll netflix, we’ll chill, we’ll whatever. we don’t need a plan, man.”

“I know, I know.” he relented easily. He had not power here, against her. Specifically, when Rosemary was right about this. He needed to be taking better care of himself. He knew, he’d been to the self-care seminars. Conrad had been given that talk by his dads multiple times. With each time, promising them that he would do better. Inevitably, he would end up back here: drained of his usual pleasantness, slightly anxious, exhausted. “you’re right.” he said, headed toward her bed. He doubted that he would make it to the food portion of the evening, but hopefully she would wake him up when it got there. “you’re a rockstar, you know it?” he told her, already rolling into bed.

“Don’t be sorry, c’mon.” Nadir insists immediately, shaking his head. He’s never minded the way Conrad talks and talks and talks - he’ll poke fun at the other from time to time, jokingly remind him to breathe or comment on him being blue in the face, but he never minds it. It’s nice to have a friend who doesn’t seem to mind you’re on the quieter side, someone who’s okay with the fact that you just like to listen more than to talk.

He and Conrad have always fit together that way. Ever since Conrad kind of forced his way in past some of Nadir’s defences, things just… seemed to fall into place between them, and Nadir couldn’t imagine not having him in his life. The idea of Conrad being so worried about losing him seems so out of the realms of possibility because there’s really not a lot Conrad could do to make Nadir want to break off their friendship now that they’re so close.

“Conrad, you’re not going to lose me. Especially not over something like this.” Nadir assures him immediately, reaching to rest a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Look, if you hurt her I might have to kick your ass, but aside from that you’re still my best friend. You can’t help how you feel, it just.. kinda happens, right? I’m not mad.”

He felt more assured by Nadir’s words. He had been preparing himself to leave Rosemary should Nadir not approve. It would have hurt, but- he could find more projects to throw himself in. To distract him. Maybe he was just lovesick, like, infatuated. People got over crushes all the time. Conrad could convince himself that was it if need be.

Probably.

Probably, not at all. 

wrapping her arms around him gently, rosemary pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head. she didn’t want him to feel bad about anything, and if she could help him, she would. the telepath hadn’t really felt this close to anybody before, and as somebody who did very little, she could never understand why he wouldn’t take a moment to relax. “yeah, i wanna talk about why you won’t take a nap,” she said softly, teasing him, before tilting his head up with her finger lightly. “c’mon, we’re not going out tonight. forget dinner. we’re getting into bed and we can order something.”

“Naps are a time suck.” He lamented, snapping himself out of the stare that was fixated to the wall. “If I were to nap- there’s no telling when I would take up.” Going into this, Conrad hadn’t meant to be a shitty boyfriend. or friend. or more-than-friend. whatever they were. The opposite, actually. Conrad wanted nothing more to make Rosemary happy. But he was always so- tired. or late to everything because something else held him up. For example, tonight he was supposed to meet her at her place like- 30 minutes ago. “yeah?” he perked up at the prospect of not having to go back out. Staying in sounded really, really nice. “We can watch netflix?”

“You sure? Either way that’s good to hear.” Blayze admits with a grin, always in such a good mood. Well, most of the time anyway. “The library? You need to study? I can help you if you want, we can make a party out of it. You and me. I wasn’t really doing anything, just waiting for the next big adventure to find me.”

“We can’t party in the library.” Conrad replied, almost solemnly. “But!” he looked at his watch. It wasn’t that late. And now that he had stumbled upon his friend, Conrad didn’t want to leave him. “But- we can go on an adventure.” Doing what? His brain was too tired to think of the usual Conrad nonsense. He sighed, “I need to get groceries.” It was the best he could do. “You can come with me to do that if ya want.” 

friend. noun. a person with whom someone has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of romantic or family relations. she knew the word, and yet, in twenty six years - victoria had never HAD one. her life had been chaos, pure and undiluted, wash and repeat. she had grown up alone and isolated, and even if there WERE options, she had never been allowed to bond with anyone.

what was blossoming between her and conrad was STRANGE. it wasn’t anything that she had ever experienced before. and against her better judgement - against the thought that maybe, it would be better for him if she wasn’t around - victoria liked it. VERY MUCH SO. and she liked listening to him speak, liked learning all these things that she had never really known before.

what might have been boring to anyone else, something to allow attentions to wander from, victoria listened to with great attention. “spider-man was…- bitten. yes?” she didn’t know MUCH. but there probably wasn’t a person left in the world, who didn’t have at least some idea of that origin story. nodding along to show she was both paying attention and taking it in, victoria felt what was not her first surge of gratitude towards conrad, for both taking the time to explain - and explaining things so well. “so we are mutants, because we have a gene - which may or may not come from our fathers,” a sore subject. she visibly winced. “and what of that man, who can’t speak? blackbolt. he must be a MUTANT, right? his power is innate, not from exposure.”

Since being brought to the Institute, wherever he went, Conrad made surrounded himself with people he could call friends. It was not suddenly being around dozens of mutants that triggered it, but the immense loneliness he had felt in the months leading up to the incident, which led to his eventual adoption. Before the x-men found him, Conrad was a ghost in his own home. And then suddenly people liked him, wanted to hear from him, brought him snacks, showed kindness that he had long forgotten. And Conrad learned to earnestly pay that forward ten fold.

Because he never wanted anyone to be without a friend. And when he met Victoria, and he would not admit this to her, she seemed like she could use a friend. Even if said friend came in the form of, an exhausted twenty-one year old mutant that politely pestered her into forming that friendship. “We’re mutants because of a gene, a mutant gene. But like, to my knowledge, neither one of my biological parents are mutants. If so, one of them is a great actor and has a lot of explaining to do. But I doubt it. So- evolution really took that step forward with me.” he laughed. 

“ohhh blackbolt. That one’s a little tricky. He’s an inhuman. Inhumans are- whew. alright. here we go. so the inhumans started as normal people, who became experiments for the Kree, one one of those alien races that should be irrelevant to us but continuously pop in on earth for no particular reason, who abandoned them post-experiment. And they, the experiments, went on to form their own society, called the inhumans.” Conrad was now talking with his hands, making motions at each new point. “They created the terrigen mist, to give them powers. Sort of like mutants but like, pre-mutants. I think. But not all inhumans go through the terrigenesis process, just ones that are- picked? It’s more complicated than that, they’re just secretive as well so-”

Apolline watched the man stand up, and a bit confused on how the chair vanished. She turned her attention to her friend. ❛ Where we are going, anyway?! ❜ The tiny blonde got momentarily lost, in her mind, there’s nothing but a blank space.

It was one of those suddenly feelings where people normally forgot what they were about to do and where to go. Until she remembers what she was about to do… Seek for her new and first cat. ❛ I think, I just remember now. Sorry, I’m having a lot of things in my mind. ❜

“Is everything alright?” he asked, suddenly growing slightly concerned for his friend after her seemingly random lapse in memory. Conrad was now, fairly late for his study group. But he hadn’t seen Apolline in some time. He was just always so busy, which was not a great excuse for not making time for his friends. “You’re feeling well? Like- your not sick, are you?” For selfish reasons, Conrad could not afford to be sick. 

He jumped to the next thought without giving her much time to answer. “D’you have a lot going on with school? I can help you study if you need it.”

getting up slowly, rosemary moved across the room to wrap her arms around him. she knew he never really looked after himself, but she felt like that was her job. more than that, she wanted to. there weren’t many people she was so worried about that she felt a kind of responsibility for them. “you alright?” she asked slowly, cupping his face gently, thumb tracing his cheek delicately. “you wanna talk about some stuff?”

“I’ll be alright-” he leaned his head against her shoulder. That felt nice, he felt secure like this. He was mostly- very tired. He’d come to her apartment straight from leading scout troop. And had to stay later than expected because a parent was running late (two hours late). But Conrad’s level of tired was bordering exhaustion again. He had called his dad on his way to Rosemary’s, who reminded him, for the second time this week, that Conrad needed to take care of himself. I’m fine, he insisted. “Is there anything that you wanna talk about?” he responded quietly. 

Apolline watched the boy beside her, when he showed her his powers, she was amazed. ❛ Wow! That’s good! I bet you can go to a concert for free… With this disguise. ❜ The tiny blonde mused before looking at him again.

❛ I can do this… ❜ She points to a direction, making a chair vanishes and a man falling on the grass due to the fact the chair vanished. ❛ It’s not a big deal, but whatever. ❜

“Yeah, that’s true. I don’t know if I would, really. If I learned anything from Ms. Frost’s ethics class, it’s how to reasonably and fairly use my powers in the 21st century.” He grinned. That was what he was supposed to take away from that class, Conrad guessed. “Wow..yikes. I mean-,” sighing, “that was, really nifty.” rude, though. “sorry, sir!” Conrad shouted to the man now on the ground.

When night comes around it has always been Blayze’s favorite, especially in recent years. He stops hearing his friend’s voice, turning around with a smile. “It’s a lovely time of year, isn’t it? I’m good! I think I’m finally on top of my homework, so that’s cool. How are you doing? Surely something exciting I HOPE.”

“How am I doing? Fantastic!” perhaps not, but Conrad thrived off of this kind of energy. It was like his own, but reciprocated. His own energy...squared. Like an equation. Conrad was shit at math, but it was sort of like it. “I was on my way to-” he should be going home to sleep. “The library. You?”

“is something wrong?” rosemary asked carefully, turning on her paint stool to look up at the blond behind her. she knew something was off and she hated to use her telepathy for anything but survival, and so forcing down her paranoia, the artist needed to ask. raising her eyebrows and waiting for an answer patiently, she didn’t want to rush him. conrad, soft as he was, didn’t always share what was on his mind. “something’s up. i can feel it.” [ @conradcan ]

“Oh? I-” Conrad did not put that much thought into taking care of himself. Not as a rule, of course, but it had never occurred to him to do it until it was point out to him. He would inevitably forget though, until self-care was once again brought to his attention by one of his dads, or maybe Nadir, three people who always looked out for him while he was too busy looking out for everyone else. “I’m just kind of tired, I guess. It’s been a long few days.”

“So like, Spider-man, while cool, isn’t a mutant. Neither are the Fantastic Four. Because they were exposed to the elements that gave them their abilities later in life. It can happen to anyone, if they’re lucky, or unlucky, enough. We were born with the x-gene. Genetic. There’s a little bit of research that says the gene comes from the father’s side of the family but- I’m not sure how much I buy into that.”

While Conrad stalls, clearly trying to buy for time, Nadir’s mind races through every possible worst case scenario. Nadir knows he’s not easy to deal with, he knows he can be impossible, he knows it’s hard to get past his hard, closed off exterior, especially when Nadir just.. doesn’t trust people most of the time. It takes so much time for him to let anyone in and usually that’s enough to scare people off. Somehow, Conrad wasn’t put off by that. He wasn’t bored or frustrated, he just.. stuck around, he stubbornly pushed past all of that and actually got to know Nadir for who he is. He wouldn’t hesitate to call Conrad his best friend.

And the idea that all of this could be over, that Conrad’s finally woken up and realised that Nadir just isn’t worth all of this work, that terrifies him if the first person he let in outside of his family, the first person who accepted him for all of his challenges and difficulties, the first person he’s wanted to live with besides the family finally decides he’s not really worth it? Nadir’s not even sure what he’d do.

And then he starts to explain, and it takes a minute for Nadir to actually catch up.

Nadir has always known Conrad can ramble. Always. It works for them, really. Nadir prefers to stay quiet, prefers to listen to other people, to take in as much as he can rather than opening himself up to the world. And there are some exceptions to that and Conrad is definitely one of them, but.. in general, his more quiet nature works out between the two of them because while Conrad is always happy to fill the silence, and it’s never really been uncomfortable. So he knows Conrad can talk, but this is something else entirely.

“So… okay, while you catch your breath,” Nadir begins slowly, blinking a few times. “You have feelings for my sister. Not just feelings - you guys are.. involved?” He repeats, piecing it together. Conrad’s nerves, the way he’s been stalling, the fact that he just babbled away more in one go than Nadir has probably said all day. “And you’re ready to go over there and tell my sister, who I love a lot and want to see happy, that you can’t figure out what that means if I tell you I’m not okay with it.” The idea of it is ridiculous. Nadir’s not that stunted - he knows people can’t help how they feel. No one can help that, it just… happens. “I think it sounds like you guys are still trying to figure out what this is. I think.. it’s good of you to tell me now, rather than me finding out some awkward way later on. I appreciate that. And I think I just want you both to be happy.” Nadir pauses for a moment, raising an eyebrow. “You’re my best friend, Conrad. I just want you to be happy. Both of you, really, but - c’mon, I wouldn’t make you break things off just because of me.”

“Sorry, Nadir” For talking so much. How has he stuck around for this long? Everybody loved Conrad until they had to spend more the three hours with him. He’d been intentionally keeping his hangouts with Rosemary on the short side, in anticipation of her realizing how annoying everyone else had found him. Except for Nadir.

He listened to his friend speak and feels relief when Nadir states that Conrad is his best friend and that he wasn’t going to make Conrad break things off with Rosemary. “I didn’t think you would, honestly. Was sort of putting all of my eggs in the basket. But, like, I would have for you, for sure. If you had wanted me to. It sounds dumb but, you’re my best friend. And have been for, what? almost a decade now? That’s so crazy. You’re the only one willing to stick with me like this besides my dads.”

“Plus, I can’t lose you now. We finally found an apartment. I didn’t realize how much I hate living in the dorms until I was shown what could be until we found..223 34th Ave Apartment C .”

❛ Wow! Can you really do that? ❜ It still amazed Apolline seeing people using their powers or learning how to control them. She is one of those people. She’s a witch, but she does not know how to control her powers.

“Of course I can.” He smiled widely. “I can do this too.” and then he was invisible, hovering slightly above her. Conrad saw cool mutations daily, but he thought his own was pretty sweet as well. He landed back to the spot where he had launched moments earlier and reappeared. “Not to brag. But I’m basically Danny Phantom.”

“Blayze!” when was the last time Conrad had slept? It had been over 32 hours, for sure. He was headed back to the apartment that night when he saw his friend- and it had been a few days since he had heard from him, of course he had to stop. “the moon is out! the air is cold! How are you, my dude?”