Day One of Schmigadoon | Outside Campus/Town | M for Musical
The previous vampire/werewolf/hunter week was hard on Stevie for reasons she has still not explained. After talking to Carver and Matt, it's her BFF Billy that busts out one of the surefire ways to comfort Stevie: a musical number. They almost fuse.
Oops..
Billy didn't care about the soundstage backdrop. He didn't care about the crescendos of songs being heard in the distance or the talk of singing musical cues. He didn't care about the town of supposed people and the possibility of exploration. What Billy cared about, above it all, was Stevie. Seeing Stevie alive and vibrant and making one line of commentary in front of her to prompt off a lively ramble of her times back home with the Gems or her Dad.
Anything, really, than the memory that had been the last moment he'd seen her. When he'd said he'd manage and he could identify whom was the mysterious corpse. When he'd fought against the adults, who were just trying to protect him, and he'd thought he could handle it. Only to find out he was wrong. He'd not handled it. And sure, he had intended to verify her identity like he'd said he would. The only thing was? By the time he'd managed to calm down enough to turn to respond? Others had managed to identify in his absence. It had probably been for the best. He didn't remember much outside of his bedroom after that. He didn't want to be forced to fight against their community or friends. He didn't want to be put in that position.
He didn't know why or how it was that he managed to sleep as long as he did. He usually woke fairly early. But when he woke, he turned over, grateful for the affirmation that came from being in his magical form that they were in a new week. And then he was pushing up to pull on shoes so he could bolt out the door to find her. She'd probably been awake for hours. When he came to her door, he gave a quick knock. Surely someone in her suite would let him in but his hopes for catching her early were left fruitless.
Yanking out his device, he quickly typed away a message.
💬Where are you?
Stevie was sitting on astroturf when she heard her phone go off. She flinched. Stevie had a bad habit of ignoring her phone when she was feeling overwhelmed, but she forced herself to look at the screen to see who and how badly she should try to avoid responding.
When she saw Billy’s name, Stevie let out a breath she’d been holding her and shoulders relaxed. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
That was, until she noticed how small the phone was in her larger hands. Her larger, pink glowing hands. She made a face and hesitated.
💬 Left campus. Went to go get some air. And send.
Billy was already moving for the exit of the dormitories by the time he received Stevie's response, figuring she'd either gone to the dining hall or ventured out to explore. When her message came through, there was a sense of relief.
She'd responded. She was fine. Even if he'd logically known this to be the case, the reassurance was a comfort.
💬 Okay, can I come by?
He hoped the answer didn't end up being a no. It would be hard to stay away if she didn't want company.
Stevie did not want company, but by force of habit, found her fingers typing and a fake smile he couldn’t even see frozen on her face.
💬 Sure! And send.
…Why did Stevie always do this to herself? Stevie stared at the screen uncertain what to say next. She couldn’t exactly go back on what she said, that would be rude. She didn’t even want to push people away, she was just so tired of people asking how she was feeling, asking her to talk, to tell them why she was so…
If anything bad happened, it would be her fault.
💬 I don’t know where I am right now. 💬 If I don’t see you, I’ll be back at campus soon. 💬 It’s just a lot of fake grass and the mountains in the distance look painted on. 💬 I don’t even really see a real sun, so who can say what direction I went! 💬 Ha ha. This place is weird, right?
And send.
Stevie exhaled, hoping that wasn’t too awkward. Billy was like her, though. At least, he was different like her. When he used his powers, he changed shape like one of her fusions. It never felt awkward talking to him. She didn’t usually worry about saying the wrong thing when it came to Billy.
A glance down at his phone and an exhale of relief. He wasn't going to be pushed away and he could be reassured in another way that she was alright. As soon as he figured out where she was. And he came to a stand still as her additional messages began to come in, with quick succession, making him laugh just a little to himself.
There was no doubt it was Stevie on the other end. He couldn't help but smile.
It was probably the first smile he'd had in days.
💬 That's okay. 💬 I'll find you, no worries.
Once he sent that message off, he pushed open the door to the front of the dorms and a moment later leaped up into the sky. It would be easier to find her if he could see from above. He didn't want to seem too over eager, so he didn't fly at the fastest possible speed, but it didn't take him more than five minutes to spot her down below.
And he could see the hue of pink from the sky. A slight frown pressed over his features but he tried to force it away as he dropped down onto the ground next to her. For a moment, he considered a quip but the thought left him just as quickly as it came and instead he was tossing his phone against the astroturf and saying 'SHAZAM!' loudly. With a crack of lightning, he was back to himself and he looked up, smiling at her, "Tada!" was said weakly.
Stevie mirrored the weak smile she received, her eyebrows raised semi hopefully. At least the first words out of his mouth weren’t about being pink, so. At least that was something. She wasn’t just pink, however. When she stood, she was at least a foot taller than Billy in his Shazam form, and when she stood up, she towered over him. The clothing that was normally baggie on her smaller frame looked tight with a physique not that different from Billy’s superhero form.
“Hey, that was fast.”
She pocketed her cellphone and seemed uncertain of what to do or say next. She was half waiting, half dreading for what Billy would say next.
Billy tilted his head up to look at her, a hand lifting in a half wave to accompany the basic greeting they were exchanging, before he nodded his head in agreement. "Oh, you know, almost rival Superman in the whole faster than a speeding train, thing. Or so Freddy says." He gave a shrug of his shoulders.
He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say or do about the pinkness. It was worrying. It was almost like she'd been bitten and swelled up but on steroids.
"This place is weird," he said instead, motioning off to the distance away from them. "Did you look around?"
Stevie had no idea who Superman was, but she would have gladly listened to an explanation of who all the superheroes on Billy’s world were over talking about the color pink or shapeshifting at the moment. Her brows rose in a sort of hopeful expression. So far, so good. This was nice, actually.
She nodded her head as if she knew what he was talking about, if only to encourage him to keep talking.
When he changed the subject, again, it was to something else. And it felt so normal, at least normal for her. She released a sigh and with it, her body began to shrink back down to its normal size. Her t-shirt was a little stretched out, and she was still pink, but otherwise looked fine and more herself.
“Oh, no, not yet. Loki was worried it might be dangerous. I was going to look around for him, but honestly this place seems fine? Kind of like a really old movie set.” She rubbed the back of her neck thoughtfully.
He was still looking off towards where he'd gestured. The painted backdrops felt expansive, as if the walls were over twenty feet high, and he wondered to himself how far up he could fly. That was a curiosity for another point though. Turning back to look at her, he saw that she'd begun to shrink in size and he couldn't help but smile at that.
He liked seeing her more back to normal. Not that he minded the way she changed every now and then but something told him this was better. At the very least, he could easily wrap his arms around her to give her a hug when she was back to this size. He wondered if that was okay, idly, to himself before his brows came together at her statement.
"What's dangerous about a movie set?" It definitely looked like one to him. It felt very Wizard of Oz-y, honestly, but that was because he'd not seen many movies before 1990. "But I'd look around with you. If you want."
Stevie shrugged. Maybe Loki just didn’t like musicals. She couldn’t relate, for some reason she was not fully cognizant of.
“Do you think we could just stay here a bit? I don’t think I’m ready to go into town or check things out yet.” Stevie didn't say it was her coloring, but she wasn’t ready to hear commentary about it, either. She sat back down on the completely dry astroturf, her shoulders slumped a bit and she sighed.
Billy's immediate response to the request was a simple nod of the head. He felt no real rush to go check things out. He just wanted to stick close to her and if that was what she had wanted to do? Then he'd have gone. But staying right here, in the middle of the fake grass, was more than fine by him. "Sure," he added as if the nod wasn't enough of a response.
Taking a seat down next to her, he sat still for a moment, just staring out at the fake skyline. And then, ever so gently, he leaned towards her and nudged her a bit with his shoulder. A moment later, when he heard the hint of a melody, his brows came together and he looked to her with a raised eyebrow to ensure she was hearing it too.
Stevie smiled just slightly when she felt his shoulder push against his. The light radiating from her dimmed for a moment before regaining its luster, and there was almost no give to her body. She might have looked like her normal size but she somehow still weighed three times that, grounded to that spot.
But she heard the music, too. That wasn’t so unusual where she was from. The gems sang and danced all the time, it was a part of how they communicated and how they fused. But the music didn’t sound like the typical music that might have radiated from Stevie’s gem.
This was coming from everywhere, surrounding them.
There was something familiar about the melody, too, but Stevie couldn’t quite place the arrangement. Her look to Billy mirrored his own.
Billy didn't recognize the melody and he wasn't used to music just flowing in from out of nowhere. Even with the mayhem of the city being his usual backdrop, he could usually pinpoint the reason scraps of songs were heard from a distance, with cars and buildings usually being the culprits, all blending into the general sense of the city. But this wasn't that.
He intended to comment on how the melody was an appealing one and he took in a breath to do so, but instead of any commentary coming forward? Lyrics fell unexpectedly from his lips and it was clear from the first word that this wasn't something he'd intended, as confusion masked his features.
"In the light of the day, in the dark of the night, when you're raring to go..."
How did he know this?
His shoulders began to sway with the melody, despite himself, and he was pushing up with his hands against his knees to stand, even as he continued to sing. "...when you're tired from the fight, when you're losing your mind, let me give you a thought..."
He turned to face her, extended a hand to help her up from her spot on the grass, "...I'm going to be right by your side, no matter what."
Stevie knew this song. She’d sung this song. She’d held out her hand in exactly the same way. The arrangement was a little different, which was why she didn’t pick up on it at first, but now that she did?
The song and the lyrics-- Billy telling her he’d be there for her, the way she’d always offered to her friends-- heartened her, in a way similar to Carver’s attempts to have a heart to heart with her that morning. She was a stranger to people doing those things for her. It’d always been her job to do those things for everyone else.
She took his hands and stood up.
Without being prompted, Stevie knew the next beats, and though she was wearing flip flops, and though they were standing on astroturf, when Stevie shuffled her feet against the ground, it made the inexplicable and satisfying percussion of tap music as her feet struck the ground in rhythm.
Dancing was second nature to her. So was music.
It wasn't the same for Billy. He'd never felt as though he had any natural rhythm or coordination as himself. Even when he was in his superhero getup, he was prone to stumbles or excitedly tripping over his feet. And so, finding himself able to match Stevie's moves as he continued to carry the tune with words he somehow knew without reason, was beyond surprising for him.
But the sentiment wasn't.
The factor of the matter was that the words rang true for Billy. He wanted to continue to be at Stevie's side, ready to tackle each and every curveball that Derleth threw at them. If there was anything he'd learned over the past few years? Anything could be managed when you had someone to lean against. And for Billy?
That person was Stevie. Even if he felt a bit silly as he continued to maneuver through the dance routine, he couldn't help but flash her a genuine smile, with the hope that maybe it would help her. If even for a moment.
It was nice. All of it. The familiarity of the song. The fact that she wasn’t singing lead, she was singing harmony. That, even if singing and dancing wasn’t his thing, he was trying for her, he was doing this for her. He’d showed up for her.
This was Stevie’s language, this was what she understood, and it felt more like home than the alternate takes of Sunshine Island or Empire City.
It wasn’t just going through the motions. They went through the entirety of the song, there was an interlude with a dance number-- the dance shouldn’t have worked considering they were in their regular shoes on fake grass, but somehow that didn’t matter. It was satisfying.
Billy was right by her side. And she couldn’t properly express how much it meant to her. When he offered his hand, she took it. And she still held it even as the song began to end.
Then Stevie was blinded by a familiar white light. Their silhouette began to combine into one shapeless form, as Stevie felt them begin to fuse. They were so close. And it was---
It almost--
There was an audible pop as the two of them fell backwards as themselves.
Stevie was probably going to have to explain that, wasn’t she?
For as unfamiliar as the song and dance were, the surprise had begun to slip away as Billy gave himself over fully to the moment and his connection with Stevie. The same couldn't be said, however, for the blinding white light and the sensation as though he were becoming one with Stevie. It wasn't like anything he'd ever felt before and he'd been imbued with magic for well over a year.
His gaze had shot to Stevie, alarm evident on his features, but the lack of it on her face was enough of a reassurance to keep him from freaking out too much.
But then they were falling backwards and he gave an oomph noise. He pushed up with his elbows, staring ahead at her.
"What was that?"
It was that kernel of alarm that kept them from fusing. Stevie had felt it. And like a snap, it was easy to let go. Fusion wasn’t the kind of thing to rush into, anyway. Just knowing they’d come close was, in her eyes, a pretty big deal.
“Oh, uh…” Her face turned slightly pink. “That was fusion. Um, sometimes if I’m close enough to someone, if we sort of sync up emotionally and we’re touching? I can sort of turn into a combined super person with them? Uh… it’s kind of hard to explain. And it only works if both people are okay with it, so it’s usually temporary? But our fusion would sort of be like a combination of both of us. They’d have both our powers, a sort of combination of our personalities, usually they’re bigger because it combines our sizes. Uh…I feel like I’m saying combination a lot.”
She watched Billy’s reaction carefully.
“...Are you okay? I should have warned you. Um, it’s only something I can do with my closest friends and family.”
Billy listened intently to what she was saying and his brows came together as the explanation was given. It wasn't something he'd ever thought was actually possible but it wasn't as if he hadn't seen it happen in TV or comics. "Like Station," he said under his breath, with a sense of almost amazement in his tone.
But the most important takeaway he got from it?
Stevie felt close enough to him for it to happen and this piece of knowledge made the uncertain look he'd been displaying begin to melt away as a smile grew. A nod of his head was given, "I'm okay and it is okay you didn't warn me. How would we have known?"
He shifted, scooting towards her. Hesitating for only a second, he proceeded to wrap his arms around her, hugging her tight. "I'm glad you are one of my close friends."
Stevie was an emotional teen, and feeling someone her own age hug her like that? She hugged him back tightly. Without meaning to, she started to cry. They were happy tears but she still felt strange about it.
Between Carver’s concern, Matt’s apologies and Billy’s friendship, she needed the catharsis.