Characters: Bobby "Iceman" Drake, John "Pyro" Allerdyce Location: Bobby and John's dorm room at the Institute Timeline: Flashback. After this Description: After Bobby's confrontation with Rogue he hides out in his room and confides in his best friend.
When Bobby had disappeared for some "quality time" with his girlfriend John had distracted himself from being bored by experimenting with fire, seeing how far it could go and how many shapes he could create, but even that got old after a while.
He contemplated crashing in on the little social get together in the rec room but thought better of it, not really in the mood to deal with idle bitching and general whining. The kids at Xavier’s had no idea how good they had it, they really didn’t.
John spent the next hour bored out of his mind, weighing up the pros and cons of sneaking out for the third night in a row, deciding that the pros far outweighed the cons. Didn't look like Bobby was getting back anytime soon. John had no idea how Bobby and Rogue thought they could work, especially with the clear hands-off policy, but, whatever, it was their relationship and he’d already said what he thought. He was never shy about that.
He slipped out of the window and spent the next couple hours in a bar, drinking things he shouldn’t have been drinking, but ID was non-existent in the places he went to; nobody cared. John had no idea what time it was when he finally snuck back in, slipping in through the window facing the garden.
Bobby was in their room, sitting on the bed with his head in his hands. It was cold, really cold, his grip on his powers slipping as it always did whenever he got particularly upset.
He didn't notice John slipping back in, didn't notice the other teenager returning, too lost in his own thoughts. Was he a bad boyfriend because he wanted to wait? Because he wanted to live? Because he wasn't even ure what was going on?
He took a breath and closed her eyes tight, groaning a little and unconsciously freezing his bed. It was always a sign that there was something really really wrong.
John instantly noticed the extreme lack of warmth in their room and muttered something under his breath. "Fuck, Bobby." He closed the window and approached the other boy slowly, lifting an eyebrow at the sudden sheet of ice that formed over Bobby's bed. "Huh, guess things didn't go well with Rogue." And as much as it hurt John sat down beside Bobby and nudged his shoulder before simply huddling into himself, drawing heat from his natural body heat. "Hey."
Bobby lifted his head and jumped when John nudged his shoulder, temperature dropping a little further before he caught himself and cursed under his breath. "Shit, sorry Johnny..." he rubbed at his neck and sat up properly, "God, I- sorry. Didn't mean for it to get so cold. Wait, where've you been?"
"Out," John answered with a shrug. He was still huddled into his worn leather jacket and tucked his hands beneath his arms. "So, the deep freeze huh? I guess you and Rogue had another fight."
"I'm not sure." Bobby admitted, closing his eyes and scrubbing his hand over his face before he focused on drawing the chill back into himself. "Kinda. It was less of a fight and more me being inadequate again, somehow."
John lifted an eyebrow at that. "How does that work?" He tucked his legs under himself until he had his legs crossed and he was the only source of warmth in that bedroom. "I mean, she's the one that's got the touch issue."
"Yeah, but she tried to... y'know..." Bobby waved a hand as if it explained everything, "earlier and I- uh, kinda freaked out a little."
Oh... John shook his head and snorted a little. "Girl's got some weird ass ideas, man." He glanced at Bobby. "I mean, I get the whole wanting physical contact but dude, she could kill you if you guys get all hot and heavy." John paused for a moment. "Trust me, it always gets hot and heavy."
Bobby raised an eyebrow. "Well, I- uh- I'll take your word for it." he muttered, dropping his head again, flush colouring his cheeks. He shrugged and shifted uncomfortably. "She just keeps takin' it out on me when something goes wrong and then I feel like it's my fault."
"That's fucked up," John informed Bobby as he nudged Bobby again. "Not that I know a whole lot about this relationship thing but pretty sure everything's supposed to be a two way street. You know each person has their own share of blame." He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, smirking slightly. "It's not like it's her life on the line each and every time she wants a kiss or whatever the hell it is she wants."
"So I am to blame." Bobby muttered, closing his eyes and rubbing his eyes. "This sucks. Relationships suck. Stay away from them, seriously." he gave a dry laugh and then sighed. "It's just hard."
John rolled his eyes. "Dude, you're dating a chick that you can't even touch. Of course it's hard." He leaned forward and hunched up over his knees. "It's not like you're a normal pair of happy go lucky make me wanna puke mutant couple. And you can't be held to blame for the fact your girl can't touch you because she got screwed over in the powers department."
Bobby hoped he didn't look as hurt as he felt. "She's just blaming me, and there's not really anthing more I can to do make it better, or to sort it out. I can't fix her powers." he sighed again and got to his feet to pace, focusing on keeping his powers under control, skin frosting over slightly. "And... things are so strained all the time, she shouts when I'm just trying to help, snaps at me for being concerned about her - you're not even that bad, you accept that I'm worried with good grace. And we're just..."
John tipped his head to watch as Bobby paced back and forth, pretty sure his head was going to spin any second if Bobby kept moving as fast. "Well, to be fair, it's not like Rogue's... well, your average girl." He clasped his hands together and took to turning his thumb ring over and over, needing to do something with his hands that wasn't playing with his lighter. "You guys are frustrated," John stated rather bluntly. "You two practically radiate sexual tension." It wasn't healthy, definitely wasn't healthy.
Bobby scowled. "We don't. She and Wolverine do. He's beating her up in the danger room, you know, putting her on his Wolverine-only programmes. But you know what? I- I'm not sure that I'm as jealous as I should be..."
John snorted. "Whatever, man." He lifted his eyebrows at the mention of Wolverine. "Dude, that's disgusting, He's like how old? Talk about cradle snatching." He shuddered at the thought and scowled at his over active imagination because hell those were some fugly images. "She lets herself in for it, Bobby. And it's so fucking obvious that she wants some kind of recognition from him." John shook his head and reached up to scrub at his hair. "Till Rogue stops letting herself in for the hurt it's just going to keep happening." And he absently rubbed a hand over his arm, scratching his nails over a couple old scars before his attention turned back to Bobby. "Yeah 'cause having a guy beat up on your girl is something to be jealous over."
"It's more that she cares about his opinion more than mine... that kinda thing, you know?" Bobby shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "I just don't care as much as I used to." he leaned against the wall and looked over at John with another small sigh. "I mean, is there something wrong with me? Am I not good enough or something?"
"Dude," John instantly said with a shake of his head. "Trust me I know about three other girls that would be over the moon to have you if Rogue keeps fucking up." And that was true, girls seemed to overcome their fear of him to ask him about Bobby. Nauseating, really.
Bobby wrinkled his nose and pushed off the wall to sit down on the bed next to John again. "I'm not sure I'd wanna just jump into something else if things between me and Rogue ended." he admitted softly, nudging John's shoulder. "Hey, is it easy to sneak outta the mansion?"
John rolled his neck and smirked. "Way easier than stick-up-my-ass Summers would have you believe." He tucked his thumbs through the holes worn through the long sleeve top he had on underneath his jacket.
Bobby smiled and hesitated for a second before he asked, "Next time you go out... can I come with you?" He turned his head to look at John, hopeful and earnest and honestly just wanting to get out of the mansion, do something so that he felt a little less of a tool, maybe even have a good night, forget about the mansion, about schoolwork and every other stress in his life, and just spend an evening with his best friend. He hadn't done that in a long time. Too long.
John lifted an eyebrow before he gave a small smirk. "Yeah, we could do that." He nudged Bobby in the side. "Just no whining about how dirty and smoking places are." He couldn't remember when he and Bobby had just hung out.
Bobby's whole expression lightened up at that, grin spreading over his face making him look boyish, eyes lightening and the residual chill that had been in the room disappeared too. "Seriously? Awesome! I promise, no whining." he nudged John back and then looked down at the sheets. "These are gonna need to be changed, they're soaked." As were his and - presumably - John's pants.
John eyed both sheets and the pair of jeans he was wearing and snorted. "Yeah, and I totally need to get outta these pants." He patted Bobby's shoulder and got to his feet, grimacing a little as his jeans clung to his legs.
Bobby laughed and got to his feet. "Sorry, man, you did sit down on the bed." he smiled and then got up himself, shucking his jeans straight away - he wasn't really that bothered about being half-naked around his room mate, he'd seen the other guy in a towel, John had seen him nearly naked enough times too. He'd kind of given up worrying about it. His boxers clung to his thighs as well as he padded around the room to his drawers, opening them and pulling out a fresh pair of boxers and fishing out a pair of jeans. "You know, considering... you're back kinda early."
"I got bored," John returned with a shrug. He rummaged through his limited amount of belongings and scowled as his pants had obviously seen better days. He shifted through his clothing and finally grabbed a pair of cargo pants. Unlike Bobby he didn't bother with boxers, simply going commando as he slid the cargo pants on over his hips. He really needed to get some more underwear. It was almost sad how small his belongings really were.
Bobby turned his head at the wrong moment and turned back with a flush on his cheeks. "So, uh, yeah... well, that'll be cool, somethin' to look forward to and all that." he smiled and slipped into his own boxers and then into his jeans. "You wanna go get something to eat?"
John stretched his arms above his head and flexed his back, rolling his shoulders a second later until they made an unsettling noise. "Mm, food would be good." He scratched at his neck, idly rubbing over a couple marks before he turned back around. "Lead on, Bobby boy."
"That isn't healthy." Bobby said, turning his head and laughing, "But yeah, c'mon." he opened the door and turned to look at John properly. "I'm starving, and it'll mostly be empty now, we'll probably have the run of the kitchen." He paused for a second, "I'll cook."
John lifted his eyebrows at that. "You can cook?" He smirked a second later. "If you were that way inclined I might tell you to fuck the girls off and date me instead." John chuckled as he picked up his lighter and trailed out, confident swagger just like always. "You know just to keep me fed and all."
Bobby's expression faltered for a second and then he just chuckled, pulling the door shut behind them. "Thought you didn't do the relationship thing." he said, figuring he didn't need to comment on John's other statement. "And yeah, I can cook."
"A guy can change his mind," John tossed over his shoulder with a laugh. He continued to lead the way to the kitchen, lighter opening and closing as he did so.
Bobby came up behind him and flicked his ear before hurrying past before he got his ass set on fire in retalliation or something, "Last one into the kitchen has to do the washing up!" he called over his shoulder, heading down the stairs with a laugh. Things always seemed better when he was hanging around with John.