king_quentin (king_quentin) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-02-08 12:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | julia wicker, quentin coldwater |
Who: Julia and Quentin.
What: Reunited and it feeeeeels so gooooooood (except maybe for Julia).
Where: Just outside of quarantine.
When: Evening of Feb 7
Rating: S for spoilers for S2 & S3 of The Magicians.
Julia stared down at the pamphlet. To be fair, there wasn’t much else to do while she waited for the all clear to explore the rest of the cruise ship. It felt familiar, not too unlike the pamphlet of the Underworld: Don’t worry! You’re probably not going to Hell! Julia put the folded paper aside with just a slightly anxious swallow and resolved herself to figure it out. This wasn’t that different than travelling to Fillory, or the Underworld, the two worlds being the only real experience she could draw from. If there was a way here, then there was a way out and she could get back to helping Quentin on their quest for the rest of the keys. Which would have been useful to have here. If she hadn’t been so reluctant to touch the second key, maybe she could have used it to get back. It wasn’t exactly useful to admonish herself about the situation, but during the quiet hours long wait, there wasn’t much else to do. Three hours in she had already formulated a plan. If the ship had bunnies, she could try to get a message to Quentin. If it didn’t, then perhaps on the next world they ended up at. In the meantime, she would keep her eyes open and alert looking for anything she could use to help her magically. Not knowing where she was, or who might be watching her, she didn’t dare move her fingers to test anything out. The last thirty minutes were the worst. And the last twenty worse than that. Julia found herself staring at the clock, willing the second hand to move faster. It didn’t, even when she maybe tried pushing it along even faster. That was fine. Her magic was pretty spotty anyway. When she was finally released, she didn’t expect to see anyone she knew. Q hadn’t really expected much from the day. He had heard the beep, but he didn’t know it was Julia. Not at the moment that the beep went off. He’d gone to see who had come in. It wasn’t something he’d really done before, but he’d thought maybe he should, which was how he found out about Julia. Julia was here. He felt a lot of things all at once, but he hadn’t really known whether he was allowed to go in, so he stayed outside of the medbay, going back and forth between pacing and sitting on the floor staring at the wall. It had been a very long four hours. He probably could have gone somewhere else to wait or gone and gotten coffee and come back. Really, he could have done anything, but he hadn’t. He’d waited. He needed to be there when Julia got out because, as much as he loved Eliot, he’d missed his best friend. It was something that came up often when he was talking to Steve or sitting by himself in his room. Things hadn’t been simple when they’d last seen each other, but they were friends again and that was all that mattered. The moment he heard the door open, he scrambled onto his feet, only pausing long enough to make sure it was her before he launched himself at her, wrapping his arms around her. “Finally you’re here.” Julia blinked through three emotions at once: surprise, relief and confusion. The surprise was the shortest. She’d been standing close to Quentin when Eliot returned from Fillory. Of course he must have been pulled in with her. And time moved differently between worlds so-- “How long have you been here?” Julia gave him a reassuring squeeze to let him know she was okay, but the lingering curiosity on her face meant she had no idea what he really met. “Are the others here? Eliot? Fen? And uh…” Whatever Eliot’s daughter’s name was. Fray. Right. Julia didn’t finish the sentence, though. She let her half curious, half warry smile speak for her. “Since May,” he whispered. “It’s February, but you wouldn’t know it here.” He felt relief wash over him and he stayed there for a moment, just trying to soak in the feeling of having her close again. He knew it was probably weird just to stay there when she was asking him about Eliot and Fen. “Eliot’s here. Eliot, Penny, Margo. No Fen, though. I didn’t think you were ever going to come.” He smiled a little. Only he had to wonder when she was from. “Um. What was the last thing that you remember? Because sometimes people are from different points in time and I don’t know what you know and what you don’t. I don’t know if there’s things I know about yet either. I was going back to Fillory when I got here. In Umber’s horrible super perfect world.” “Wait, what?” Julia stared at Quentin for a few moments, her eyes digging holes trying to wrap her mind around how that would even work. She knew it wasn’t a joke but, it was hard for her to accept what he said at face value, also. Julia continued: “We were standing right next to each other. Eliot barely made it out of Fillory and Penny…” She searched Q’s face for any sign of recognition. Like her saying something would somehow jog his memory and everything would right itself or make a little more sense. “Penny died,” she said gently, trying to prod him. Because Quentin wouldn’t have forgotten that. Julia’s frown tugged at the corners of her lips. Q’s brow furrowed and he searched her face for some hint of a joke that he knew he wouldn’t find. Why would she lie about that? “What?” His mouth felt dry. Hadn’t they already lost one person? Yeah, she was back now, but...what? He forced his mental wards to strengthen in that moment like he did every time Penny tried to goad him about Alice and the way he’d been recently about Steve. But that was partly for Penny’s sake, too. But if he came into his dreams, Q was not taking credit for that. That wasn’t his fault. “What are you talking about? Penny wasn’t dead last I remembered.” But how was he supposed to act around Penny now knowing he was going to die in the future that he hadn’t even lived in yet? “Fuck, Jules. I just...I…fuck.” He needed to talk to Eliot to see how they were supposed to handle this shit. Were you supposed to tell someone about their imminent death? “God.” This was shit. “I mean, you remember the super cancer, right? It’s not like you can be under the influence of a memory altering spell with magic being gone…” Unlike Quentin, Julia’s mind did not immediately think to default to Back to the Future rules about not telling people about their futures. Although to be fair, she didn’t particularly believe he was from earlier in her timeline, only to suddenly reappear back in hers and… She shook her head. “This doesn’t make any sense…” Quentin stared at Julia for a long moment before blinking. “Spoilers, Jules. Jesus fuck.” He ran his fingers through his hair, starting to pace again. “What do you mean magic’s gone?” As if he hadn’t just corrected her for spoiling him about the future already. He didn’t remember magic being gone. He had magic here. He’d been working hard to get better at it. He was going to need to find Eliot after this or Steve. He was going to need to do something “I think I need a drink.” Julia almost stumbled over her words, asking quietly, “...Am I supposed to spoil what happens or not spoil it?” Which was a completely ridiculous question, but she was speaking to Quentin, and this was only somewhere vaguely in the top five for them. Quentin considered this for a moment before saying. “If you’re spoiling it, which you are, we’re going to get drinks. Which are free.” He grabbed her hand at that point before starting from the medbay and going to find the nearest place to drink. “Everything here is free. I have a lot of non-home things to catch you up on, but the spoilers require drinks. He looked back at her after a moment. “Cap - Steve Rogers is a real person. I know him. Really well.” He cleared his throat and didn’t look at her right away. “Oh...and Alice is here. She still hates me. I mean...I guess hate is a strong word.” “Cap Rogers…?” There seemed to be something more important that Quentin wanted to say, but she wasn’t quite tracking it. Instead, she let herself be pulled limply along like she always did when Quentin was excited or anxious about something and she went along for the ride. But the alcohol was a plus, and everything being free also sounded good, except Julia had a hard time imagining that with everything they’d been through there wasn’t a hidden cost that wouldn’t sneak up on them down the line. She sighed. Better to go with it for now. Because she saw the look on Q’s face and though not a lot of time had passed since the deaths of Ember and Umber, a lot of things had happened. Her face fell a little in sympathy when Q mentioned Alice but she didn’t exactly disagree with him, either. They’d already had that conversation anyway. Multiple times. Even if he didn’t remember it. “I was going to say Captain America, but he’s...he prefers Steve and I usually call him Steve.” Quentin felt the accompanying confusion that came with talking about Steve. Don’t fall in love with me like that was the easiest thing to not do. But he didn’t want to think about that or talk about it, which was why he hadn’t. “We um.” He tried not to make a weird face, but he ran his fingers through his hair again. “I think that conversation might require drinks, too.” But there was a lot of things that he needed drinks for...only he hadn’t been drinking for a while. At least for a little while, anyway. Steve asked him to try once before telling him he was allowed to drink if he wanted. But he’d wanted to feel like he wasn’t as much of a mess as he really was. He was beginning to believe that he was never going to stop being a mess. He just kept screwing himself over. It was a bad life habit, but it was something that was very him. “I feel like we both have a lot of things to fill each other in.” And that was all Julia really needed for her to nod, set her quiet resolve face and say, “Okay.” She was already thinking. New problem, a detour from their current problem, but it wasn’t actually all bad news. If Quentin didn’t realize magic was gone it could be because he still had magic? And if Q and the others had magic, then they had a lot more options. Her brain began to construct the beginnings of a twelve point plan. Step One: Gather all the information she needed. Step Two: Drink with Quentin and be a good friend, which was to run concurrently with step one. Step Three: Fill Quentin in on everything that had happened. Maybe if Q had knowledge of future events he could stop Penny from dying in the first place. To run concurrently with steps one and two. Step Four: Teach Quentin the demon summoning spell because they were going to need that. Step Five: Prepare to quell Quentin’s concerns about summoning a demon. And so on, and so on… When they arrived at the bar, Julia noticed that it was well stocked. That was at least something. She’d think about the potential cost later. For now they needed alcohol. “Shots or wine?” she asked. Quentin turned to look at her when she spoke. “Definitely shots.” As if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Luckily the portals around the ship made it easier to get to where he wanted to go. So he sat down at the bar once they got there. He closed his eyes, fingers in his hair again. He was going to need at least two shots to start this. So he ordered four shots so Julia wouldn’t be behind. So he drank both shots and ordered two more. He would probably regret this later, but he’d worry about that later. “Okay. So. What do you mean about magic?” “It’s gone?” Julia tried innocently. She knew that wasn’t going to be enough. Looking at the shots, she was just grateful they weren’t pink and focused on the delicious burn down her throat when she swallowed them down. “You tricked Umber back to Fillory. Ember killed Umber and then…” Julia did a third shot. It wasn’t actually magic disappearing that worried her, weirdly. They had a plan. They already had two keys. “We killed Ember. Technically you did. Then the other gods got pissed and turned magic off. Eliot and Margo were trapped on Fillory, we were stuck on Earth…” She did the fourth shot. The alcohol started to weigh down and sink into brain and face pleasantly, warming her on its slow descent down. “I mean, we have a plan. It’s a quest. We have to find seven keys and they bring magic back somehow.” She paused. “So, everyone has their magic here? Is Kady here?” Q listened as he continued doing shots. He stopped after a bit. More like he paused at 6 shots to keep from being drunker than he wanted to be, but he was already pretty sure he was on his way. So he ordered cheese fries to help keep him from getting there too closely. “This is such shit. I killed a fucking god. Like an annoying fucking god, but still.” A pause. “Alice is going to murder me.” If he thought she was mad after he brought her back from the dead, she was seriously going to be mad after that. Not that there was anything he could do. Alice was already dating someone else and he was wishing he was still 100% in love with her and feeling hopeless about the possibility of love again. “There’s a quest?” At least that afforded some hope. “Yeah. We have our magic. I mean, Penny can’t do magic with his hands, but he’s also not dead, so probably be careful about that whole ‘Penny’s dead’ thing. Because seriously.” A brief pause and he said, “I don’t think so. Not yet.” He stared at the wall in front of him. “Fuuuuuck.” Because that was just a very useful thing. “God damn it.” Even more useful. “Shit.” Okay, maybe he was done now. “How is it I manage to fuck everything up? Seriously everything.” He didn’t say it out loud but he was adding things that were going on in his current life into the general “everything” box. Julia’s eyes narrowed just slightly, her lower lip just barely open, in that look that she gave him. Usually when he was being an idiot. “Q, you saved Fillory. Ember was going to trash it. He was going to kill everyone. I mean, what choice did we have?” Her face fell a bit. There was more. There was always more. He was the one person she told before, and so was it really going to hurt or change anything if she told him again? “I had magic though. I mean, magic is gone, and I’m not able to do much. Like, make… sparkly lights? We think it’s a fluke.” Actually, Julia thought it was a fluke. She did not bring up Q’s theory about it because she was exhausted by thinking of all the possible whys. “Anyway, the quest is to find seven keys and we already have two of them. So…” Julia shrugged. “What did you have to tell me?” she said, neatly trying to change the subject. He saved Fillory and lost magic for everyone. He didn’t feel like he was really making excellent life choices. At least he didn’t think Steve would stop talking to him because he murdered people. Or maybe that only worked for Bucky because he’d been altered mentally. He was already going to be in trouble for not being entirely truthful about things. Not that Steve knew that. He sighed. But Julia still had magic? He looked up at her after that, frowning a little. “What if it’s not a fluke?” Because that seemed...well...like something. He wasn’t sure what sort of something, but something. The change of topic made Quentin sigh. “Alice is dating some guy named Shiro.” Which wasn’t actually what he wanted to talk about. “And I might be making out with Steve Rogers.” He cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. “I think maybe I have to stop liking him as much as I do, though. I mean, I’m trying to. I think I’m the only one and I know I agreed to a physical relationship thing, but I’m an idiot.” He drank a few more shots after that. “Sooo that’s basically where I am.” Julia winced just slightly when she heard about Alice. But perked up at the mention of making out with Captain America, choosing to completely ignore Quentin’s line of question of fluke vs nonfluke. Maybe it was just lingering discomfort after holding the second key. “There’s nothing wrong with liking someone,” she reminded him. Leaning, she shoved him gently with her shoulder. Her best friend finding someone new that he liked and was occasionally making out with was definitely a better topic of conversation. For now. Particularly since she was slipping quickly into intoxication. “Just let yourself like him.” She gave him the look again. “We aren’t going to be here forever, right? So, just…” Julia paused as the thought rolled away from her and her expression melted into a self conscious grin. “Go for it. While you can. Alice is…” Julia did not finish that thought, but shrugged. “Are there any bunnies on this ship?” Julia asked. Seemingly randomly. “There is when they don’t want you to like them,” he said quietly, propping his chin up on his palm. “I mean, I guess I could get away with like. He didn’t say not to like him. He just said...not to fall in love with him.” There was a long sigh at that. “I’m a 90s movie cliche, Jules. It’s happened.” And it was the stupidest thing to happen. Because even if Q could argue that technically Steve had never told him not to like him, liking could lead to him breaking a ‘not exactly’ promise. “It’s stupid and so I’m just trying to not have feelings. It’s definitely a better idea in the long run. He’s in love with this other guy and it’s really complicated. Can’t I ever be not complicated when it comes to relationships? I’m pretty sure I cannot.” “Alice is what?” The next question gave him pause and he was like, “I don’t know. I don’t think so. Are you looking for a pet or something?” “Complicated,” Julia said. “I think we can both speak from experience that not feeling things isn’t an option.” She knew first hand how rough it was to suddenly have a shade again. Alice had come back from that and more. “I’m guessing this guy Steve loves doesn’t feel the same way? So, he’s obviously an idiot.” Julia grinned. Maybe getting drunk without finding her cabin first was a bad idea. “He’ll come around. He’s already making out with you. So obviously…” Julia squinted. Right, the bunny. “It’s part of my plan. Bunnies can travel between worlds and carry messages.” “No. He doesn’t.” Q sighed. “He’s really good at kissing, too. And he smells nice and a lot of things.” He was drunker than he’d meant to be at that point, but at least there were cheese fries. He was definitely going to keep eating them. Maybe it would save him from saying anything too embarrassing. Probably it wouldn’t, though. “I don’t know if he’s going to come around. I guess I’m trying not to expect anything or feel too much hope. He doesn’t owe me anything. I knew what I was walking into. I don’t want it to be weird. He blinked at the revelation of bunny messengers. “That was...not what I was expecting.” Julia nodded, eyes a little too wide to indicate she was paying very close attention to her closest friend. “Just let it be.” Julia did a sort of slow salute gesture to the air to emphasis her point. “Do you want me to go beat him up?” Julia offered. She reached in and stole one of his cheese fries, despite being perfectly capable of ordering her own. She didn’t want a whole thing of fries. Maybe just like a third of Q’s. “I’ll do it. I’ll kick him. Hard. In the leg.” Julia got up from her seat and wobbled a bit. It really wasn’t a lot of alcohol but she was a fairly tiny person and she hadn’t had much to eat in the last twelve hours besides the illicitly gained cheesy fry. “That’s it,” she said. “I have to now. I’m going to find him and kick him.” Although she might have been more interested in mortifying her friend and seeing if Steve was as cute as the actor in the movies he’d dragged her to. Quentin was pretty sure that it was a terrible idea, but he didn’t want to spend forever arguing. He just wanted to be with his best friend and feel like things were normal for once. Not that he knew what normal was anymore. He was pretty sure it didn’t exist for him. “No. Don’t beat him up. I don’t think he’d fight back because he’s Steve and he’s kind of an idiot about like...taking responsibility for stupid things and probably would sort of just accept that it was happening or whatever.” He stumbled off the stool, staring intently at Julia. “But seriously. You can’t kick him. Or I mean...at least him him somewhere I can tell him I’ll kiss better later. Which does not…” He turned and grabbed another cheese fry and another shot. It was totally an acceptable way to deal with his life. “Does not mean…” He paused, trying to figure out exactly how to phrase this. “Nowhere that would actually hurt, though.” He scrunched up his nose. “Probably we should just...find your room instead.” Julia turned and then twirled forward to stumble walk ahead and shouted, “STEVE. HEY STEVE. HELLO? ANYONE NAMED STEVE ON THIS BOAT?” Finding her room probably was a good idea, but Julia was going to see how long she could keep up threatening Quentin’s crush. It felt… good. Different. Like when they were kids. Julia was tired of not trusting people, of staying quiet, of keeping locked up. And maybe, just while they were here, she could be a little bit not. She could try to make her best friend laugh. She could be a little loud until she sobered up and they all found a way back home where they’d have to make the hard choices again. Harder than should I like my crush that I make out with sometimes? Because the obvious answer was yes. Q would see that eventually if Julia didn’t embarrass him to death first. Quentin was definitely following her because people were going to stare and probably someone would actually let her fight Steve and he wasn’t sure that this was going to be a good idea. Plus, they were on a boat and he didn’t want her to die even if he was fairly drunk at that moment. “Can you stop shouting please?” God, he was going to die if Steve turned up and knew anything about the fact that he was trying to logic himself out of having feelings. “He’s not going to just show up because you shout his name loudly enough.” Well, it was possible that he would, but Quentin really hoped he wouldn’t. Mostly because he was pretty sure he was going to be too embarrassed to exist. “Please don’t.” Julia turned on a heel and looked dramatically into Quentin’s eyes, anchoring her hands on his shoulders mostly to help her keep balanced. “Quentin,” she said, a little too seriously to actually be serious. “He doesn’t get to just use you for your body.” Julia was really pleased with herself for keeping a straight face as the seconds ticked by. Quentin couldn’t help but just stare at Julia in that moment. “Maybe I want to be used for my body?” Which wasn’t entirely true. But he couldn’t really complain about the physical parts of their relationship. Not that there was a lot, but Q wanted there to be more. “Also don’t say that to him because I really don’t need to explain any of this. I am not mentally capable.” He frowned a little, but it was more like a pout. “Can we just not?” Julia’s lips spread drunkenly into a warm grin. She released his shoulders and got into position, that might have been very familiar to his tenth grade self. “Ungh. He wants it! Ungh, ungh! He wants it! Ayo! I’m tired of using technology!” There was some hopping involved. Some jutted hip swaying with arm action as Julia tried to goad him. It didn’t last long, however, because she quickly latched onto a stray thought, “Okay, Quentin, were you paying attention because I’m going to need you to remember that for later. It’s very important.” Making her sound more intoxicated than she really way, but this time when Julia nodded there was a hint of seriousness to it. Looking around she asked, “Where is my bed, anyway?” Quentin was trapped between embarrassment and amusement. “You know, I showed him that dance and he still made out with me anyway.” But he focused instead on what she was saying at that moment. “Um. Okay. Paying attention. What’s very important.” Because he wasn’t sure he could handle anything too much, but then maybe he could. If it was very important or whatever. “Oh. Um. I guess we can try to find it. It’s probably around here somewhere. There’s only so many rooms that it could be. I’ll help you find it.” He turned to look and tried to remember how to get to a portal where he could go down, but maybe the stairs were a better bet. “I will get you there and then try to be more sober because I have to find Steve and not kick him and also not be an idiot and say things without thinking about them. But first your bed!” “Q,” Julia said. She was mostly more behaved, if only because she managed to get one of Quentin’s classic nervous-anxious smiles out of him, and so she was satisfied she had done her friend duty admirably. “I’ll kick him. Don’t worry. You don’t have to. One of us should have nice things. Go get it.” There was a lot of walking up and down halls and turning around but eventually they found it. Julia chewed nervously on the inside of her lip when she looked at the accomodations. Part of her did not want to be seperated from Quentin her first night in a strange place. Part of her equally did not want to get in his way of his new crush. He deserved something nice. So she smiled brightly at him and put on a good front. “Okay. I’m just going to… sleep this off. I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked. Her eyes noticed the door handles, the way the bracelet was required to unlock the door. Her bed was sectioned off in its own room. She could move the bed and prop it against the door, too. It looked like it probably locked. Julia noticed all these things and nodded to herself. Quentin gave Julia a hug at that moment. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m so glad you’re here. I love you, Jules. I will come see you in the morning, okay?” Because at least he wanted to be able to say what he was actually feeling to someone and Julia wouldn’t mind. “Goodnight.” |