WHO: Billy and Teddy WHAT: Before Billy heads to the future, he and Teddy make several promises to each other. WHEN: Late morning of March 28, 2023 WHERE: Their apartment WARNINGS: None, really! ART CREDIT:Here
Perched on the edge of a chair, arms crossed in front of him loosely, Teddy was failing a bit at hiding his general worry as he watched Billy prepare for his time-traveling adventure.
Time travel. In the grand scheme of his life, Teddy knew ostensibly that it shouldn't have been such a surprise that it was possible here in Vallo. He was the product of two alien races that was a literal king and was married to the demiurge--time travel was just a Tuesday, was it not?
But really, it wasn't the time travel that was sitting off-kilter in Teddy's mind, but more the fact that Billy would be time traveling without him. They had both had their own adventures separate from one another back home, even if they had started their superhero antics together way back when Nate had popped into their lives. Billy himself had been without Teddy for years, a fact that still gnawed a bit uselessly at the back of his mind from time to time, feeling very much like guilt despite it not being his fault at all. They were together, but they were individuals.
Still, the thought of Billy going off to the unknown future to help corral his mother? It was a hard pill to swallow. Teddy knew that Billy could more than handle himself, but he could handle even more when they were together. Billy would absolutely go into the future and kick its ass, Teddy had no doubt about it, but that didn't mean he wouldn't worry every second they were apart.
Now wasn't really the time to air out those worries, though. Now, instead, Teddy was going to be the supportive husband-boyfriend that Billy deserved.
"Anything else you think you might need?" Teddy asked, glancing around as though some item would pop into existence to answer that question for him. Stranger things had happened.
Billy’s way of preparing for the unknown was to hyperfixate on one useless thing, in this instance, it was sorting through his comic collection and making sure they were in order. Did it matter? No. Did it make him feel better?
Also no.
It wasn’t the going that was the issue for Billy. He had been out of the superhero game for awhile now, but a not so small part of him would always be a superhero–or at least, want to be. Yes, he and Teddy had agreed they’d take a break after Cassie and Jonas died, but that hadn’t lasted all that long before they were sprinting through the multiverse. He wasn’t afraid for himself, Billy was never afraid for himself.
It was the leaving that hurt. That, and the thought that his one job was to handle Wanda.
“A neverending Yeti of coffee?” he asked, over his shoulder. Actually, Billy thought that wasn’t all that bad an idea, just for his life, even if the people in his life might argue otherwise. Satisfied that his Fantastic Four were in chronological order, he walked across the room to Teddy and looped his arms around his neck. Certainly not for the first time and definitely not for the last time did Billy think about how damn lucky he was to have Teddy. It was something he’d never get over.
“Promise you’ll watch out for Momda and Tommy for me?”
Mentally swearing to himself that he would spend the time apart going to each and every magic shop in Vallo to look for someone who would be able to create a neverending Yeti of coffee as a welcome home from the future gift, Teddy completed their embrace with his arms settling around Billy's frame. It seemed a worthy enough quest, while also being something to keep him occupied and distracted from worrying nonstop.
"You bet I will," Teddy promised, squeezing Billy gently to punctuate the statement. "I'd say that I won't let them out of my sight, but you know Tommy. But I'll drop in on Wanda, maybe bring her coffee or meals. I'll make sure Tommy and I have movie and video game nights."
Leaning forward, Teddy pressed his face in Billy's neck and took a deep breath. "Promise you'll watch after yourself for me?"
Billy smiled a bit in spite of it all because he knew he didn’t even have to have made the request, Teddy would have done it anyway just out of the goodness of his giant heart. He liked that, liked that Teddy viewed his family as his own and would be there for them no matter what. And he liked not having to say things out loud, because they just knew. Everything always felt new with Teddy, because he had been Billy’s first basically everything, and that was great, but it was also great to know someone so well that he didn’t have to say anything at all.
“I’m coming back. I’m the Demiurge, remember? I don’t like to pull out that card but…” Billy trailed off, shrugging. He really didn’t, because most of the time, Billy didn’t even know what being the Demiurge meant–just a lot of power and responsibility, something about rewriting the laws of magic thrown in there, seeding creation, which, yikes. “You have to take care of yourself too.” That part, he actually did have to say, because Teddy was the exact sort to make sure everyone else was taken care of at the cost of himself. He had gotten better over the years Billy had known him, far from the boy who literally changed who he was to make others like him more, but Teddy’s inclinations were always to put others before him and Billy’s were to put him before everyone else.
He threaded his fingers through Teddy’s hair, inhaling. “Promise you’ll be here when I come back?”
That wasn't a promise that Teddy could truly make, of course, but it didn't stop him from echoing, "Promise." They had been separated for so long for Billy, there was nothing that Teddy wouldn't do to make sure it didn't happen again. For as long as Billy was in Vallo, so would Teddy. If he thought it and wished it enough, surely it would happen.
"I haven't had the lobster bisque at the soup restaurant yet," Teddy continued, unable to help a little bit of levity despite the desperation that he actually felt as he referenced one of their very first conversations after he had arrived in Vallo. "So you and Vallo are stuck with me."
Despite the joke, he still barreled forward and asked, "Promise you'll check in whenever you can?"
“Wow, what a gigantic hardship for me,” Billy drawled, and if an eye roll could be a tone of voice, Billy would have it down. “Next you’ll be telling me you're going to take off your shirt, and boy oh boy will I hate that. Definitely don’t do that in the next five minutes, please,” Literally all he had ever wanted was to be ‘stuck’ with Teddy Altman, And for as much as he loved Teddy, he knew it was returned, and how absolutely wild was that?
He kissed the top of Teddy’s head and rested his own head there after. “I’ll check in so often you won’t even have time to miss me, it’ll be like I’m always there. Ask Tommy, I went into the past once and we had these journals–we drew memes. Not as good as a gif reaction, of course, but I think it got the point across.” And maybe it would be the same way, or some other way of communication. He didn’t want to try telepathy or astral projecting if they were crossing multiverses, but what good were cosmic reality shaping powers if you couldn’t ask your boyfriend-husband what he was doing at any given moment?
Right, fine, responsibility.
“Promise you won’t suddenly remember a third time we got married when I don’t remember our first two?”
Teddy let out a snort of a laugh against the spot where he had shifted to press his face into Billy's shoulder. "I make no promises," he said, while very much hoping that he was making a promise. Though their being married obviously meant a great deal to Teddy, the fact that Billy didn't remember made very little difference in their relationship. Going from boyfriends to husbands was a big distinguisher, but their relationship had stayed the same at the core.
Still. Teddy would very much like for the number of weddings he remembered that Billy did not to remain at an even two.
At that thought, he straightened up a bit, hand coming to cup Billy's jaw as his thumb made a slow trail across his cheek. It was a joke, they were teasing, and yet he couldn't help but ask, "Promise you'll come back to me so we can eventually get around to it and both remember?"
Billy very visibly melted. Look, on any given day at any random moment he basically always looked at Teddy like he hung the moon and the stars, but honestly? He said things like that and even though Billy knew the idea that he had created Teddy or tricked him into loving him had been a plot concocted by Loki he still had a hard time believing this was his life.
He kissed Teddy then, smiling against his mouth. Billy would have promised him anything, the universe, Action Comics # 1 (the first appearance of Superman), his Pokemon Go gym, so something as simple as coming back was nothing. If Billy had a tether, it was Teddy, he was home. Billy would come back by sheer willpower and the thought of Teddy’s dimples alone.
“Promise you’ll say yes when I ask you so you can be my boyfriend and fiance and husband all at the same time?”
Teddy wore a smile to match Billy's as he inevitably--because of course he did, how could he not when asked something like that--stole another kiss. Billy reduced Teddy into a puddle on the most normal of days. How could he not be given some leeway on a day like this, when the unknown future was literally at play?
Tipping his head back, and sadly breaking the kiss as he did it, Teddy looked at Billy with a fond, hopeless expression. "That's a promise that I'll make over and over again. No question."
Teddy didn't know what was going to happen next, but he had to believe that despite how unknown it all might have been, they'd find their way back to one another. They always did. This wasn't going to be any different, not if either of them had any say in it. That thought made Teddy smile again. "I love you, Billy Kaplan.”
“We could just go now,” Billy blurted out, because Teddy made him feel that way, like anything and everything was possible. There was a reason he had been able to tap into his Demiurge powers only after reconciling with Teddy, after all, and he was already technically married to Teddy so what did it matter? Nothing changed, after all, he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Teddy and was going to do that if they were married or not. “I mean, we shouldn’t,” he added, quickly. “Not right this second. Because, reasons, but I’d marry you a hundred times, Teddy Altman. In space, under the sea, in a Burger King, at Comic Con, I would marry you every day if that was what you wanted. Tommy might get sick of attending weddings, and we’d have to make it clear we don’t expect gifts, but every single day I would marry you.”
It was, Billy recognized, a ridiculous thing to say and yes it was mostly in hyperbole. The logistics alone would be a nightmare, even with his and Wanda’s magic. Mostly, Billy wanted Teddy to know that across time and space and multiverses, he was committed with every bit of him.
He wove his fingers between Teddy’s and squeezed, once. “Love you. Promise I can spend the next hour making out with your face and macking on your giant muscles?”
"Don't tempt me with a good time," Teddy teased and whether it was teasing about the idea of going off and marrying quickly in the hour they had before Billy needed to go to the DOA building to be beamed through space and time or just making out remained to be seen. Both, maybe; it wasn't as though Billy and Teddy hadn't already run off to get married with a short timeline before something big had to transpire. Surely there was some Vegas type chapel in the city that could be used for just such an occasion.
But, no--no. Because reasons, as Billy had said. Reasons that were very hard to remember when he was doing things like tugging his boyfriend-fiance-husband in as close as possible and dipping down for a kiss. He would marry Billy just as many times, if he wanted him to, but he rather liked the idea of doing it a little differently this time around. Something with Wanda and Tommy and Toph and the other people in Vallo that were near and dear, in between a giant space wedding and whoever could make it last minute to a chapel in Vegas.
Later. Later, after Billy had helped save every world, like Teddy knew he was overqualified to do.
Billy had asked him for one more promise, though, and it was one that Teddy was just as enthusiastic as making as the marriage ones. He broke the kiss, nudging Billy's nose with his own playfully, before emphatically sighing, "Promise," fully planning on making use of that hour.