you can never kill the evil in your heart

Wrapping his arms around Perry’s waist, he pulled himself closer to his teammate. “You’re so waaaarm.” He smiled into Perry’s neck. “Perrrrry.” he whispered. “Pssstttttttttttttttttttttttttttt, we missed you.” To say Brandon would regret the things he was saying right now and his current state of drunkenness, wouldn’t do his embarrassment justice. Right now, all that future embarrassment didn’t matter. All he wanted to do was some harmless snuggling anyway.

So so so so so warm. There was warm and then there was Perry warm. Brandon didn’t know why the heat radiating from Perry felt so much more, well warm, than that of a normal person. He had to be several different types of drunk at this point. 

Not having his powers depressed him to the point where he felt the need to drink the sad away. He more so than usual. Lately he hadn’t been getting any calls from his agent about roles or gigs or even appearances and on top of that his powers were gone. So in times of struggle he drank, sort of like his father.

Brandon's comments about his warmth made Perry suddenly aware of Brandon's body and how it felt. It too was warm, but more importantly, it seemed to fit with Perry's well. Brandon was more filled out than Perry, but more nicely shaped - in Perry's opinion. Where Perry was skinny, Brandon's body felt toned and athletic. Perry nuzzled the side of his face into Brandon's neck without thinking, and then blushed. He felt his face flush hot, and thought that must be why he felt so warm to Brandon.

"Is this your way of calling me hot?" Perry teased. He snuggled closer to Brandon and added, "and is this your way of saying you're crushing on me, like the Human Torch?" He laughed softly, but felt his lip quiver as he waited anxiously for the reply. Perry was grossly unfamiliar with boys and flirtation.

The only other time he had cuddled with a boy before was Teddy, and that was just as friends after a night of gaming. Perry gulped as he felt increasingly nervous. He felt heat emanate from Brandon, and he couldn't help but feel stirrings in his body urging him to just tear off his clothes and...

"Not gonna lie, I don’t really understand why you left." Teddy shrugged, but kept his hands on his friend’s shoulders. "But it worked, right? I mean, you feel better now?" 

The reassurances that he wouldn’t leave again mixed with the slight teasing caused Teddy to break out in a chuckle. “I promise to never vanish again, Per, so you’re stuck here.” His smile turned serious and Teddy made sure Perry was keeping eye contact for his next words. “I forgive you, man. I know everyone else will, too.” 

"I just needed to stop thinking about other people and think about myself," Perry admitted. "I think," he paused to think, "you know how I'm always doing this for people? I think that sometimes I do it so I don't have to think about my own life..." He coughed and looked away before confessing, "I'm not really a nice person I guess - it's just me avoiding myself."

Brandon Sharpe sat upon the red cushion of a wooden stool at the bar of the club. He didn’t go there to dance, or the meet guys, he came to get drunk. And drunk is exactly what he got. Now a days Brandon seemed to be a cliche’d parody of himself. 

So there he sat, three empty shot glasses, two empty martini glasses, and a half full rock glass with a murky yellow tent and an lemon in it. He felt the cold liquid taking hold of him, dulling his senses and dropping his inhibitions.

"Think you had enough kid!" The bartender, responded to Brandon’s request for another drink. Brandon being prideful even in his drunken state, left the vibrant lights of the club on his on accord. He palmed through the pockets of his leather jacket searching for his phone. Damn it, it’s so cold. Why didn’t I bring a bigger jacket. Ah ha!: He pulled out his phone just as his cab arrived. "Where we going, boss?"He held up his finger as he searched for a place to crash for the night. Billy? No. Genis? No way. Perry? Perry should work. The driver took off in the direction he was told.

The cab sped off and Brandon made his way to Perry’s door. He hoped he’d be up. Would he? Who knew? He had the internship with Goatee now, who’d probably be sending him to the oddest of locations for the most obscure things. It took four knocks for Perry to open the door to find Brandon with a full bladder and a need to relieve himself. He ran past Perry and into the bathroom, not bothering to close the doors. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~.” The toilet flushed and Brandon rinsed his hands. “Hey Perry!” he called out “I’m gonna stay here tonight? Okay?

The night in and alone was desperately needed. Perry had a night of fiction novels and brie with crackers planned, but those dreams were dashed. Rather, they were obliterated by four simple knocks. Striker was at his door. Before Perry could say anything though, Brandon darted to the washroom and left Perry standing at the door confused. 

"Is he planning on staying the night?" Perry asked himself as he shut the door. The other mutant seemed rather drunk, so Perry decided to plan for a sleep over. While Brandon used the restroom, Perry threw a blanket and pillow on the couch for Brandon only to find that Brandon had other plans. As Perry turned to see Brandon leave the washroom, he was stunned by a swift kiss on the lips.

Perry turned a rather deep shade of red at that moment. He could hear his heartbeat and feel his face burn. He didn't even notice that Brandon had snuck into his bed. Apparently Brandon wanted to snuggle, drunk. Perry hesitated, but then shrugged, realizing that Brandon was probably just too drunk to care. Perry sighed as he mentally discarded any and all plans of a quiet night to himself he had planned. 

"It has been a while, I would hope you went home and slept on it. I’m not going to do this entire thing for y-" His criticism halted as he noted Perry’s presence disappearing, seemingly before his eyes.  The engineer whipped his head around, body bending slightly, then following when he saw his student behind him. "Alright, I take that back, you obviously have something to show me kid." 

"The issue," Perry explained, "is that the portals don't last long enough." He added, "there would have to be a consistent and high energy output to keep the portal open." He smiled as he continued, "this is where the Arc Reactors come into play." He frowned after pausing for a moment, but continued, "the issue is that I don't know how to harness the energy of the Arc Reactor in a way that supplies power to the, quite ephemereal, portals." 

And, I was... Just away. 

It didn’t take long for him to wake up after that. Reading through the note a few more times, just to make sure he’d read it all correctly, Teddy let out a huge sigh of relief. Perry had been a constant worry in the back of his mind. After he’d disconnected his phone Teddy had assumed the worst, but refused to give up hope completely.

“Billy!” He shouted, scrambling back into their room to change into actual clothes instead of his running ones. “Perry’s back!” Billy was most likely still dead asleep, but the blonde didn’t care. He scribbled down a note letting him know where he’d gone before firing off a quick text to Perry. It only took a few minutes, which he spent pacing impatiently around the apartment, before Perry responded and Teddy was out the door.

With everything that had gone down recently, there hadn’t been time to just sit and worry about his friend. Thankfully he’d come back before Teddy had time to get his worries all worked up again. Flying fast, it didn’t take long for Teddy to reach Perry’s.

Restraining himself to just knocking instead of punching the door open, Teddy eagerly waited for his friend to answer. He knew it was early, but Perry had responded to his texts and knew he was on his way. As soon as the door opened, Teddy pounced.

He had come a long way in the relatively short amount of time, and he guessed that he had Sam's heartbreaking to thank for that. After his heart was shattered, he found a lot alongside the pieces. He found a lot that he didn't like, but maybe that was a good thing. Now, at least, he knew it was all there. Maybe now that he knew of the darkness he could prevent it from swallowing him whole.

Maybe now it would just nibble at him and take a few bites out now and then. 

As Teddy wrapped his hulk(l)ing body around Perry, Perry had to restrain himself from instinctively constructing a barrier between himself and the larger boy. The speed and intensity of the hug had nearly dazed him. At first Perry's body stiffened, but it quickly melted in the familiar and warm embrace of his friend.

"I-I'm sorry," Perry stammered. "I just had to leave," he stated slowly before admitting, "and saying goodbye would have hurt too much." He sighed before explaining, "there was no life or death situation. No real reason for me to leave - I just had to get away. I had to find myself." Perry shrugged and added, "it probably doesn't make sense, but I just couldn't be around anyone, especially Sam."

"I won't do it again," Perry smiled, "that is, if you promise never to disappear again either." Perry hadn't even known Teddy when Teddy had vanished, but he recalled the suffering the blond had inflicted on Billy. Perry hoped that his absence didn't have that same effect, which is why he had disrupted time to make his absence be shorter to all but himself.