Entry tags:

!complete, billy kaplan (wiccan), blossom, gareth visser

Who: Gareth Visser, Billy Kaplan & Blossom
What: If you need a wall fixing then Billy has the guy for you
When: Post this
Where: Blossom's apartment
Rating/Warnings: G | None
Status: Log | Complete

It didn’t surprise Grizz in the slightest that Billy didn’t have a clue about how to patch up a hole in an apparently broken wall but that was okay, Grizz did. He was pretty handy like that. He was also pretty good at gardening, cooking, anything of that sort but he didn’t exactly advertise it as last time he’d revealed a particular hobby or interest his mother had immediately panicked and signed him up for football.

So when Billy had knocked on his door and told him about somebody who needed help with doing just that Grizz being Grizz had immediately mapped out a plan that involved a stop off at a local hardware store to get the right supplies before they’d headed over to the place in question.

“How’d she put a hole in her wall again?” He asked as he adjusted the way the strap of his duffel was sitting on his shoulder, glancing over at Billy as he led the way to wherever it was they were going

---

“Punched it with a fireball or something when she woke up from a dream,” Billy said with a little grin, far too excited at the prospect of meeting someone else with powers to be worried about the potential for them getting accidentally exploded. So close to his own manifestation, too, it was a bit of a trip.

He led the way up to where Blossom had said she was staying and tapped on the door.

“I’m here for moral support but I’m pretty good at holding things, if I do say so myself.”

He folded and unfolded his arms, unsure how to stand so that he looked friendly and not at all weird and failed on every level.

“Hey,” he started, through the door, “uh- it’s Billy and Grizz? We’ve come to, uh, fix the thing?” Because it wasn’t okay to just announce the broken wall, he figured, but in hindsight that sounded worse.

---

Blossom had tried to make her place look presentable. Thankfully it wasn’t an outside wall that came down and needed proper sealing up or anything, just the one between her bedroom and the hall. And she hadn’t found any roommates yet, so she wasn’t too worried if it took a while to fix, but goodness, it was a lot of mess.

She’d taken the time that Billy said it would take to get the stuff to get all the debris out of the way, clean the floor and then, since they’d either be looking into or actually in her bedroom, she cleaned that quickly too. It wasn’t like she was a messy person, she just had a lot of stuff, and it sometimes got a lot of places. So now it was back to organised and she could put on some pop tarts and coffee and hope that it wasn’t too hard to fix her wall.

Her dad would hate to pay insurance costs this early into her tenure at college. So when she heard a noise at the door, Blossom was cautious but quick in getting there and pulling it open with a bright grin, “Hi! C’mon in, do you need help, do you have everything?” How did someone greet a person there to fix a power related problem?

---

Huh. Grizz’s eyebrows arched in response to the admission from Billy about how the hole in the wall had happened. It was kind of like Billy but with more… drastic consequences than say tripping the power out in an entire building. Grizz knew that with his luck he would be as boringly mundane as he was in his actual real life and that? Well, that sucked.

Still, at least he could help out his friend by helping out somebody else.

“Hey,” he greeted with a warm broad smile. “You must be Blossom.” He shifted the bag and stepped into the apartment as they were invited in. “I’m Grizz, Billy’s friend, the guy who is going to fix up your wall.” He would have asked which wall but it very quickly became fairly evident. “Good thing we stopped off at the hardware store.”

---

Billy let out a low whistle. “Man, that’s a big hole.” He nudged Grizz a little and then smiled at Blossom. “It’s okay, he’s really good at this kinda stuff, it’ll be pretty much as good as new by the time he’s done but you might need to repaint, right Grizz?” Because Billy had been listening on the way over.

Wetting his lower lip, he scuffed his toes on the floor. “Thanks for opening the door. I realised after I spoke that it totally sounded like set up of some kind of weird- uh-” No, Billy, don’t finish that train of thought. “You feeling a little better, Blossom?”

---

The damage was pretty clear from the door, the hallway leading the the wall with the giant hole and a window right into her room. “Oh, thank you so much for doing this,” she didn’t feel that weird about letting practical strangers into her place, primarily because she could blast if she felt threatened (see wall for details) and the network just built that sense of all being in the same boat. “Painting is no problem, provided the hole is covered.”

She doubted it would be sensible to not fix it. “Don’t worry,” Blossom just smirked, leading the pair of them further into the apartment, “my neighbours tend to sleep until four in the afternoon, mostly because they party until six in the morning.” Thankfully the walls and the distance meant that Blossom wasn’t too bothered by it. She’d say something if it carried on through class time.

“Yeah, I mean, now that the energy has worn off.” And she knew that someone was coming to help, even if she didn’t know them. “I mean the nervous energy, though, not the blast stuff -I’m not going to lose it and blast anyone, promise.” Goodness that would be the last thing she needed.

---

"Yeah, will definitely need to repaint," Grizz said with a nod as he trailed after Blossom before he set down his bag and rummaged through to dig out tools and supplies.

It was a mixture of things such as: drill, drywall saw, utility knife, masking and drywall tape, construction adhesive, gloves, protective glasses, scissors, dust mask, tape measure, sanding sponge, drywall patch kit, screws and scraps with a joint compound the last thing he tugged out.

Grizz slipped the black hairband on his wrist off and used it to tug his hair back and atop his head so it didn't get in his way. "Best I make a start on this then." He used the tape measure to get the exact length and width of the hole before he used the saw to cut out a size of drywall which was slightly larger than the hole in the wall. "Hopefully should get this looking as close to new as it was when you moved in." On went the gloves and protective glasses.

The cut of drywall was rough around the edges so Grizz used the utility knife to clean the edges of it before simply holding it up so he could roughly draw around the edges on the wall with a pencil that he'd been previously holding in his teeth. This gave him a good idea of how much he needed to cut out from the damaged drywall.

Of course the first thing he needed to do before he started cutting into the wall was to make sure there were no electrical or plumbing which was the next thing he did.

---

Billy stuffed his fingers in his pockets as he watched Grizz get down to work. He knew that the guy was good with his hands; there had been odd jobs around the dorm that Grizz had just done because he could instead of getting someone to come in and fix them. But watching him work was something pretty awesome.

“I’m glad we could come help,” he said to Blossom, “well, I say ‘we’, I mean, Grizz. I’m just here for moral support or something.” Because handy he was not. “I met someone on the network who’s a full blown superhero, and someone else who manipulates energy. Other than this farm place, there’s gotta be somewhere people can practise their powers.” He tipped his head, “You wanna see if we can find somewhere? If this farm place doesn’t work out?”

---

She wasn’t in the least bit aware of what Grizz was doing, but it looked like he knew exactly what he needed to do and what was next, so she didn’t really worry about that. “I’m so grateful, I don’t think the hole in the wall really goes with the decor.” Maybe if the place wasn’t so darn modern.

The whole topic of powers was so new to her; sure she had them in the dreams, she’d always had them in the dreams, there wasn’t a time she hadn’t dreamed of having powers. So suddenly getting them without she didn’t know how to deal with that. “Yeah? That sounds crazy,” she was a lot worried about what kinds of powers came for her. It wasn’t like she was limited to just blasting and flying. “I’m really worried about controlling these, so yeah. I mean somewhere to practise would be amazing.”

She doubted they were the first ones to develop powers after all.

---

Grizz literally had nothing to add in regards to power chat and struggles associated with them so rather than say anything he focused his attention on finishing up the plastering and repair of the wall. It wasn’t super powers but it was practical and that was something he was very good at, thankfully.

Orange County it seemed was full of vibrant interesting people so it helped to have something that made you stand out a little.

Maybe whenever they found a place he might set up a small garden or something, grow his own vegetables, that kind of thing.

---

“Do you want a drink or anything?” Billy asked Grizz, dragging his attention away from his friend at work to look at Blossom again. He pushed a hand through his hair before slipping his fingers into his pocket again.

He shrugged. “I always wanted to be a superhero. Just not sure how fun it’ll be in practise. No one covers the accidental wall blasting or destruction of electrical circuits in the comics. Not seriously.”

---

“Yes! A drink, do you want something? I had soda and apple juice and orange juice and um, tea and coffee, I think. Or almond milk?” Blossom rambled it out, almost like she forgot to be a good host, “I’m not sure why I have almond milk, my sister likes it, I think it tastes funny, but Bubbles, well. I mean, it’s not like she’s likely to visit me, not really. It’ll probably just go bad in there.” She’d bought it on a whim. Blossom shouldn’t whim shop.

“I can get snacks too!” Because if Grizz was fixing up her wall, the least she could do was help him stay hydrated and fed. That seemed only fair.

“Superheroing sounds like it might be super stressful in real life.” Case in point, hole in her wall. And apparently Billy blowing up a circuit board.

---

“Could I get an orange juice?” Grizz asked before he stopped his work but only so he could tug off his hooded sweatshirt, the movement causing the hem of his t-shirt to ride up a little and give a teasing flash of skin and muscle before he caught the edge and resituated the t-shirt where it belonged. “And I wouldn’t say no to some pretzels if you have them.”

He shifted where he was crouched, to open up one of the containers he’d picked up at the DIY store as the repair job was in a position where he could finish it off by applying a new patch of plaster. Grizz had also done a good colour match (with Billy’s help) to Blossom’s walls so he’d be able to paint right over and you’d never even know it was there.

---

Billy opened his mouth to reply but was distracted - quite obviously - by the brief flash of skin above Grizz’s jeans and forgot the thought he had, and what he was meant to be replying to. He swallowed, rubbing the back of his neck and then cleared his throat twice, looking up at the ceiling, then at Blossom, avoiding looking at his friend.

“Food is a good idea,” he managed, cheeks coloured a little. “I don’t- I can get it, where’s your kitchen, Blossom?”

---

Because she wasn’t blind, Blossom noticed the way that Billy sort of … focused hard on Grizz for just a few minutes there. She wondered if that was a normal thing or not, but opted not to comment because that would be rude. “No, no. I’ll get it, it’s fine.” Because Blossom was a neat freak sometimes and her kitchen was likely the weirdest organised kitchen known to man, it wasn’t her fault she didn’t use the triangle method.

“Unless Grizz needs no help, I dunno, OJ and pretzels, I’m sure I have both.” Of course she had orange juice, what person living in California didn’t have orange juice, she had three styles of orange juice probably, but she’d go with no-pulp for guests, because pulp was absolutely a personal choice.

Her kitchen was just off the hallway, since upstairs was the two spare bedrooms that had no occupants (yet) and Blossom only used downstairs so far. So it was close enough that, if Billy stopped ogling Grizz, he could swing in for a cool down.

She wondered if she looked like that when she stared too long at Tim.

---

Grizz was thankfully too busy plastering the newly patched hole in the wall to notice that Billy had been staring and after he smoothed it down he paused for a moment to wipe his hands off on a rag he had tucked away in the kit.

“Just need it to dry then I can apply a couple coats of paint at which point you shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between this part of the wall and the rest of it.”

Not too shabby if he did say so himself.

---

Billy had turned to watch Blossom go, and then had started watching the toes of his converse. “Looks good,” he said to Grizz with a little smile, “Blossom’s just gone to- uh, to get food and stuff for you. Since that’s, y’know, food and all.”

Ugh, what. What was he doing?

---

Poking her head out of the kitchen, half way through getting things out for people to drink and eat, Blossom gave a wide grin. “That is awesome, you are very handy to have around.” Which was an understatement. “Do you want to sit out the back while it dries? Drink and take a bit of a rest?” Because it was still warm enough, and Grizz was the one doing all the work, handy guy that he was.

And maybe Billy would be comfortable if there were other things to look at -but then Blossom couldn’t fault him for wanting to look at Grizz more.

“I have deck chairs to match the lawn ornaments out front.” Because of course she did. She could decorate however she wanted, she had rainbows and unicorns and a flamingo that was painted peach. Because why not.

---

“I did a lot of DIY for my mom back home,” Grizz shared with a lift of his shoulders. “Kinda had to considering my dad walked out on her when I was a couple months old.” It was no big, Grizz had never even known his dad so, whatever. “So I got pretty good at it.”

He put his tools down and rose to his feet before he stretched, arms above his head, before both hands came to rest on the back of his neck.

“Mm, that sounds like a plan.”

---

Blossom’s nose scrunched up a little -she knew nothing about her birth parents, it probably didn’t matter, she got an amazing dad and two awesome sisters, she didn’t need to know anything more. But she was sure it had to be had on Grizz’s mom at least. “She’s probably really glad you were handy like that.” Buttercup was probably the most helpful at home, but even then, she broke more than she fixed.

“C’mon, you deserve a rest already.” And it was a nice enough day that they shouldn’t wait inside for the wall to dry or set or whatever.

Blossom’s garden at the back was long, narrow, but well maintained. She had a little decked area that had an assortment of colourful ornaments; unicorns, flamingo and panda bears all set around a small planter with some soft looking plants that Blossom didn’t know the names of. There were four deck chairs out the back and two small tables, all pointed towards the back of the garden, soaking up the sunlight and a small latch for the kitchen door to stay open and not swing shut on them.

“Make yourself comfy.”

---

“Yeah, a rest sounds good,” Grizz agreed with a smile as he grabbed himself one of the four deck chairs and did in fact get comfortable. There was still some work to be done but it could definitely wait in favour of talking with Billy and getting to know Blossom better.

New friends were always good.