Xaviers!

Brown-haired Will, while waiting for Tosh's results to tesselate, poked his face into the XUB bar for a light drink and some thought.

((open))

Leo sniffed on instinct, identifying Will before he even turned his head away from the bar to look at him.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself," Will said, with a wave.

"I see Shark Boy hasn't figured things out yet," he said gruffly, having yet to develop much faith in Tosh's brain.

"Eh, he'll figure it out. He's gonna use the campus computers to chunk through some things, get back to us then."

After a second, he said, "I bet you can't wait to get your body back the way it was. I can definitely sympathize with that."

"It's not so much the body itself, though I'm certainly not...feeling right. It's the feeling of being locked in once place.

And, of course, the friendships I'm trampling on the way, but that's another issue entirely."

"Well, okay, I don't know what that first thing is like. But I do have experience fuckin' up friendships, if for what I assume are different reasons."

"So... if you, yanno, wanna talk about it..." he added awkwardly.

"Ehhhh," Will said waivering his hand around.

"Accidentally used my power on a couple of friends, both of whom reacted strangely in different ways. Got called out by a third friend for traumatizing people. I'll get over it; I'm just on edge because of all the shit."

He gave a sympathetic grunt.

"Sounds to me like you need a beer."

"That is why I came here, yeah," Will nodded. "Their chicken fingers aren't that good."

"That's one bonus of being like this. Almost all meat tastes amazing. I think my ego is the only thing keepin' me from eatin' it raw."

That and the screaming goat in my nightmares.

"Eh, eating meat raw never hurt anyone. If it feels good, you should lean into it. And if people give you a hard time about it, well, you can tell them where to shove it."

"I just assume not. Bad memories," he answered, "Like, I dunno, tryin' to eat you."

"Well, not everyone likes hunting. And there's a difference between raw meat and alive meat."

"I know that, but it still feels too... animal. Less me, not more. So forget I said anything," he said curtly.

Will put his hands up. "Geez, alright, alright. You're the one who brought it up, man."

"Sorry," he sighed, "Not sure where my head is. I should be in a better mood after successfully fighting without losing myself."

"Eh, when I was first starting out, even victorious fights usually ended up with me in here. And that was back when alcohol effected me more than it does today. It happens."

"It doesn't help that the guy I fought was a victim that took one look at me and thought he'd prove his newfound might by taking down the monster."

"They were all panicky, most of 'em. One of me basically had to cut out of the fight to just try to get someone to calm down and stop hurting people. People lash out when they're scared."

"This felt more like a psychotic break, but I get what you're sayin'. I'm a pro at misplaced aggression."

"Well, you know what it's like, for all this," he said, gesturing vaguely, "to kick in all at once. It's tough times."

He closed his eyes briefly as memories of the facility flooded in: the screams, the sobs, the confusion, the fear.

"You're right," he said with a sigh, "I shouldn't judge. I almost lost my mind myself, even before the drugs."

"Thanks again for helping get me... no, us away from that place."

"Of course, man. That's what this place is for."

"And I'm glad to be here. I never even expected college with my grades."

"Or that I'd meet someone who makes me want to be more," he added with a smile.

Remembering something he heard, he asked, "You were married in your world, weren't you?"

"Three times," Will said, holding up three fingers. "'Cause if it's worth doing once, it's worth doing again."

"Third time's the charm I guess," he said, assuming Will meant at least the first two didn't stick.

"Well, we'll see. Stick around long enough, and weird things start becoming the norm. Especially round these parts."

"Did they feel like 'the one' each time?" he asked curiously.

"Well, my situation is complicated, but...yes. Yes they did. And still do, honestly."

"Three soul mates? Share some with the rest of us why don't you?" he joked.

"Seriously though, marryin' anybody is the last thing on my mind but... how long did it take to know?"

"Well, in one case, it's technically someone else's soulmate; I just carried the water for a while, there.

...It's a thing."

"Uh, how long, how long...it differed, you know? With Sara, we hit it off almost right away. Pretty much from day one, that. Not that it always was easy; good lord, no. But there wasn't really a gap between hello and you're amazing. With Sam, there was an age difference and a power differential that really took any feelings like that out of the question at first; it was just good friendship that got sparked by a very devious woman. Doesn't make the eventual feelings any less real, but probably slightly less relatable to most people."

"I guess fallin' hard and fast is one thing we have in common," he said with a small, warm smile.

"When you're open-hearted, it tends to happen," Will nodded.

"Open-hearted, huh?" he mused.

"I'd try and argue for the sake of my ego but, honestly, pretendin' I'm all hard is exhaustin'."

"Not worth the effort," Will agreed.

"I was never that good at it anyway. Heart on my sleeve and all. "

"Different strokes for different folks,' Will agreed.

"So, uh... how are you hangin' in there anyway? Besides on edge, I mean?" he asked, awkwardly shifting the topic back away from himself.