revivalproject | Vay Cay

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Vay Cay

WHO: Billy Kaplan, Teddy Altman, OTA
WHERE: Risa
WHAT: Vacation, Date Night, Under Age Drinking.
WHEN: Risa Event
WARNINGS: None, Will update if needed

A vacation is sorely needed after these last few weeks, and apart from their dimension hopping adventure, this might be the first solo vacation of Billy's adult life. No parents watching over him, no twins to look after. Billy plans to enjoy himself.

The market is full of all sorts of exciting things, and Billy's eager to stock up on things the storm can't disappear on him if his magic shorts out again. Clothes, supplies, even a strange sort of idol that someone seems very keen on him purchasing, though he's not sure why.

The beach is pristine, like something out of a dream, and Billy even has one of those fancy tropical drinks. The kind that tastes so sweet you don't realize just how tipsy you're getting. And it's quickly replaced with another before it's even finished.

It feels like he and Teddy haven't had a real chance to catch up between everything that's happened since his arrival, but this is just the excuse they need to devote some time to just them. It's the sort of date night they couldn't possibly achieve back home without some serious leaning on the magic, and it's nice to pretend for a bit that things are normal again.
"So tell me about future Billy and Teddy," he prompts with a curious hum, leaning into Teddy's side, "Do we have a place yet? Have we picked a date?"

[OR feel free to throw a different starter at him]

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The way Billy said it out loud made Tony pause, holding Billy in that hard stare for longer than he had intended to as he made his way through, augury? Augury...Agrii. He tried to piece together the rest of that message, but he hadn't held much of it in his brain-- it had looked like bot generated semi-nonsense, so at first all Tony had to say was, "Agrii..." to confirm how it sounded when spoken.

The rest of what Billy was trying to tell him sunk in slower. This was suddenly a lot of information, much of it Tony had previously dismissed as irrelevant and he had to retrofit back into his puzzle. How Billy addressed the problem was rusting the joints, though. "I don't have a week," Tony eventually said, finally stripping off the bathrobe to toss it, with the sweater and bathing suit, aside onto a clothing rack, the issue of the possible trickery here a minor one. Billy might not have been in a rush to get home and was happy to soak in the vacation time, but Tony had a business to run and a team that relied on him. Who else was going to make sure Logan bathed? "Where are they? The Agrii."

Where? That wasn't an easy question to answer, and Billy looked a little apprehensive, knowing that Stark wasn't going to appreciate any answer he had for him.

"Um...well, we haven't really seen them. Not in person, anyway. They've talked to us through the devices, and stuff, but...I don't think they're on Agra 10 any more. I'm not sure where they are, but they seem to be able to give us stuff when they need to."

"What?" It was as though Billy was being intentionally inscrutable and Tony couldn't hide how irritated he was, but he couldn't even land on who he was really irritated with. Himself, probably, because 'what?' was a much bigger question than Billy was prepared to answer, clearly, and they were going to have to put in some work here. Before Billy made any attempt, Tony waved the question off, sighing to try to release some of the pressure and daintily tugging at the cuffs of his shirt, slowly trying to capture some decorum here. "You hungry? Have you had breakfast yet?" he asked instead, a much more manageable problem to solve. There had been what looked like a lovely cafe facing out onto the beach, tables just at the edge of the sand with lazily slouching umbrellas to keep the sun off of them. It was the kind of place Ru would drag him too, then tease him for being so overdressed for it. Tony snatched up the swimsuit again, then gestured for Billy to make his way out of the store. Tony had too many questions to be asking them among the racks, and without coffee.

No matter how many times he'd had this conversation with people, he never seemed to get easier, and with someone with a brain like Tony Stark's it was sure to be even more difficult. And so Billy was more than amenable to the idea of breakfast.

Through the span of their meal he did his best to explain and answer Stark's questions. He explained the planet they were generally located on, and the events that had transpired in Billy's time, along with what he knew of the Agrii. He wasn't sure how much of it Tony was actually buying, but the more questions he answered for him, the less suspicious he seemed of the whole thing. Or of Billy at least.

They'd touched on the matter of the alternate universe faces Tony might recognize, as well as the whole people being brought from different points of time from the same world. Which led to trying to work out where exactly Tony fell on the timeline.

"-Okay, so...Tommy and I are about...2 years after you then," he concludes, "And Teddy's about 2 years after us."

The same universe-different times thing wasn't working for Tony, but not a lot of this conversation was. It was pleasant enough, Billy wasn't the worst company Tony could imagine at this point, and the fruit salad was a delight of new experiences. What Billy was sharing was harder to swallow, and Tony was spending long stretches with his arms folded, closed off to what Billy was suggesting, and squinting through the sun out past the water, trying to piece it together. This wasn't the first time some unseen force had relocated Tony, but it was certainly the first time he wasn't then immediately threatened and forced to fight his way out of the situation. There wasn't something to fight here. They were just...abandoned.

"You really filled out," Tony did have to agree on. "I didn't recognize you." Was it supposed to be a psychological torture that these aliens were putting them through? Giving Tony this information made him feel like he had lost time somehow, like he had missed these kids growing up because of his own negligence. Would he have recognized Cassie, two years later? The very idea made his chest ache, the frustration of it unjust but unavoidably real feeling. She was taller every time he saw her. He did miss a lot. With a sharp breath, trying to brush it off, Tony continued, "The last time I saw you, your mom had definitely just cut your hair, and you were telling me you were worried about junior algebra, but you were carrying this fat stack of comic books. Like, you were worried, but there wasn't really any time for that."

"Is 'filled out' good?" Billy asked with a teasing smirk, head tilting a little. It sounded like the sort of thing that could do either way.

He was surprised by that detailed memory, looking a little bashful. He hadn't thought he was all that important on Stark's radar. "Yeah, the comics might have been a bad choice, I did not end up doing well with the algebra. You really...remember all that?"

Billy wasn't going to get an answer for how good or bad filling out was, but Tony grinned back, letting Billy decide for himself if being a runty little nerd in high school was his best look. He hadn't exactly become a heavyweight, but all of his limbs looked firmly attached now. With a little less softness around his face, he almost looked like a grown man.

"It hasn't been two years for me," Tony reminded him, leaning closer with an elbow on the table now, feeling more sure of his memory than he was of any of the talk about Agra 10 and storms. "Yesterday, you were this high," he indicated, one hand levelled significantly shorter than Billy could have been even two years ago. "Jessie's about to pop, I think that's why you guys are hanging around so much. There weren't any other kids around the mansion when Cassie was growing up, not really, so I think she's really excited and keeps bringing you up. You don't remember that?" Tony almost felt hopeful that Billy didn't remember; that would make this a boy from a different dimension, one step removed so Tony could stop feeling so responsible for neglecting him somehow.

"It might be closer to three, actually, we had a birthday here," Billy noted as a sort of afterthought, but then-

Cassie.

Billy's brows creased momentarily, though he quickly tried to blink that away and go for more of a wistful smile. He didn't want to burden Stark with that future knowledge

"I remember," he assured, "...A lots happened since then. Sometime I wish we were still those kids."

The expression caught Tony off guard; he can't miss it, because Billy might have grown a foot, but he was still a kid who didn't know how to control his eyebrows, but Tony doesn't know what to make of it. It's pain, that much Tony can tell, but if it was pain from being plucked out of their universe feeling homesick, Tony was sure this wouldn't have been Billy's first indication of it. The eyebrows, Billy wouldn't have been able to hide it.

Something happens to this kid. Tony did neglect him. But the timing of that reaction...It was hard to say it casually, but Tony glanced back at the ocean like the light off of the waves had caught his eye and he had missed the furrow of Billy's brow entirely, and this was a natural continuation of his thought, "What does she end up calling them? Jess' baby." Billy could lie to him, of course, but it wouldn't be worth it, and Tony made sure to turn back to him and hold his gaze, the intensity of the look assuring Billy that Tony would know if he wasn't being truthful, and he could handle it if the future wasn't the perfect utopia he kept on trying to make it. Tony wasn't delusional. Some new disaster happened every single day, that was the nature of being an Avenger. Just by staying at the Tower, Jess put herself in the crossfire of that danger.

The baby? Billy's expression lightened easily, "Dani," he supplied naturally, "Danielle. She's really cute. Getting big now." It was always kind of shocking how fast babies turned into toddlers.

He paused then, looking uncertain, "Is it...are you sure it's okay for me to tell you future stuff? Even if you don't remember..."

"Of course." Tony was quick to that answer. "The timeline is made of much stronger stuff than Strange likes to warn us about. You bounced back twice as strong, didn't you?" So far. Tony was willing to make the gamble if it meant getting to know what was coming down the pipe. If there was a disaster he could stop, if Tony could end whatever caused that flicker of pain that crossed Billy's face before the machinations began, it was worth the risk. If Billy strayed any further into uncertainty in this moment, Tony might lose his chance.

Tony leaned back in his seat, squinting out at the beach again and smiling distantly at the assurance that baby Dani wasn't the one to worry about, and the idea of Luke chasing a toddler around the kitchen. That hadn't really seemed like a reality yet, but it hit him very suddenly that eventually this pregnancy would come to its natural conclusion and there would be a baby and then a toddler, and a new, beautiful person in their lives. Tony was going to have to baby proof, Scott wasn't around to do it this time. Tony's smile faded. "What about you? What's your future. You still the Slightly-Less-Young-Avengers?"

So far. But Billy flushed, and looked a little more at ease about any possible quantum timeline shattering he might be capable of if Tony Stark didn't seem worried. There were still a few subjects he wouldn't touch on if he could avoid them, namely Cassie, and...the whole of Civil War. Tony didn't need to carry the weight of that if he could avoid it.

He nodded. "We took a bit of a break from heroing, or...I but uh...yeah, we did some Young Avenger-ing again just before we got pulled in here...Teddy and I are engaged now, so...um...team roster's changed up a bit. Saved the world. The usual."

Team roster sounded ridiculous when Billy said it; he did look older, but not old enough to not come off like a boy with his friends in their treehouse, deciding whether or not to let another girl in. It hadn't started any different for the Avengers, though, before all of the politics. Tony happened to have a really big treehouse for his super cool friends, and none of them had the excuse of being teenagers anymore. His chuckle at the language easily adapted into a grin at Billy's offhand engagement announcement, like that wasn't news. "Congratulations. That's a big step," he admired. "You're taking life on fast, huh?" The saving the world piece was more expected. Of course nobody had managed to convince these kids to stop throwing themselves in front of hurricanes.

Well, when they made those hurricanes themselves then didn't have much choice.

He flushed but couldn't help but grin, clearly still a little giddy at being able to share that news, however offhandedly he first brought it up.

"I guess, yeah. But...it feels right, you know?" Billy was a little afraid he might get that whole 'you're too young' lecture that more than a few adults had tried to lay on them.

Of course it did, Billy didn't even look like he was out of puberty yet and he had hung onto this boyfriend for more than six months. That was basically eternity already. But Tony couldn't argue with a choice like that feeling right, as illogical as it was, because he knew that feeling far too well. It wasn't impossible that Billy really got that. Tony went, "Yeah," elbow on the table to prop his chin up again so he could carefully cage his fingers over his mouth, then tried to disguise the motion with a scratch at his beard. He hadn't shared his plan to propose to Rumiko with anyone else, and he wasn't about to start with Billy now-- that story didn't have a helpful ending, Billy's was going to turn out better. "Lock down that intergalactic royalty, princess, don't let him make you sign a prenup. I respect the hustle," Tony smirked instead, giving Billy a sidelong look over the table before trusting himself to release his cage and daintily adjust his tie. "The bachelor life can't suit all of us."

He laughed at the teasing, missing Tony's disguised movement. He might have been a self professed hero geek, but there were plenty of personal aspects they had managed to keep to themselves over the years.

"Hey, he asked me," he defended.

"Oh, I know Cassie is the smart one, you don't have to tell me," Tony replied, smirking before he slouched forward again and it turned to a more conspiratorial grin. "Honestly, were you surprised? That gal in the store looked like she was ready to, uh, marry you on the spot. It would have been very romantic, I'm sure. You didn't make that little..." The thing Billy had been carrying and causing him problems didn't have an obvious purpose, and Tony wiggled his fingers until he landed on, "voodoo doll, did you?"

Not that Tony meant to accuse Billy into magicking Teddy into proposing, a statue like that was not his standard operating system. Someone else had given him a weird sex doll, and that was worth investigating. Who did that to a kid?

Cassie. Damn. Billy tried not to make a face this time, and luckily enough the teasing continued for him to lean into, shaking his head defensively.

"No- someone sold it to me. I thought it was just...some kind of traditional culture...thing. You think that was why she was all over me?"

Though accusing him of magicking anything involving Teddy would have been a pretty serious trigger at this point.

Tony was stroking his beard again, but this time it was a thoughtful tick, gaze going unfocused as he considered the facts they knew. This was proving to be a very sexually charged resort, voodoo or not, and that lady had very much left them alone when Tony had transferred the thing into her hands, even though nothing Billy was saying seemed to be in any way effective at disengaging her. "The way she was looking at that thing, I would have guessed you were carrying around some kind of sex toy. But you might be very right. You were just experiencing the local culture," he surmised out loud. "Do you remember where you got it?" A theory needed to be tested, after all.

"One of the stalls." He gestured back a ways. "The person running it recommended it to me. But they weren't...shy about it." Which was how Billy thought someone handing out the equivalent of sex toys might act, but they did all seem to have a very liberal attitude towards that sort of thing. Meanwhile, Billy was blushing just talking about it.

This was not the kind of thing he'd ever pictured talking to Tony Stark about.

"Why would they be shy about it?" Tony laughed. Billy must have still been not quite old enough yet to be allowed into an adult establishment, but definitely seemed old enough to have had the experience anyway, if he was in any way actually a teenage boy. "Your teenage rebellion is all capes and magic, isn't it? Have you even snuck a drink? You know what, don't answer that, you're going to depress me either way." Throwing themselves into heroing wasn't the safest way for the Young Avengers to be spending their youth, but Tony was sure he would be much more disappointed to find out any of those kids had been corrupting Cassie with more grounded bad choices. All of Tony's friends in school were always older than him, he was never even in a classroom with kids close to his age, and he knew the result was some psychological damage that he did not want to confront. It occurred to Tony to be concerned that if Billy was blushing about this potential sexual object, he might not have had the confidence to put more standard accessories on a checkout counter, but he stopped himself from asking if Billy was at least being safe. He resisted anyone asking him that question about less dramatic things, like fighting the embodiment of Time. He had parents, right? Somewhere.

"Come on, let's go check it out," Tony encouraged, pushing himself up to his feet and buttoning his jacket before gesturing for Billy to lead the way. "Time to solve the mystery of the rowdy resort." Maybe everyone was under a horny spell, and Billy had just narrowly escaped being sucked into it.

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