Second floor common room [morning]

[momslilassassin]

Ben hadn't exactly been getting a lot of sleep these days, so he finally gave up on trying and wandered into the common room barefoot in search of coffee and something other than the list of Fandom students and alumni who hadn't made it back to the island by yesterday evening to keep his mind busy.

He flipped the television on...and found that it was showing a gremlin-bite tape of his father and Gavin Kriffing Darklighter thinking they were gay German magicians.

"Poor Artoo," Ben murmured, a small smile playing across his lips.

This was certainly distracting, but Ben might not be so pleased the next time a Skywalker gremlin bite came onto the screen.

Comments

[lockestheway]

"Hey, hey!" NO TOUCHING!

Peter reached out to grab Peter's wrists pretty hard. "I'm no--" Snicker-- "Python!"

[dollpocalypse]

"You have no idea how cold it was," Topher grumbled darkly. "I couldn't move my toes the next day."

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "It does. Especially since we haven't found anything useful yet--we could've been looking in the same places inadvertently."

[lockestheway]

"And from what I've been seeing, most people are tackling the magic angle," Peter added. "There can only be so many avenues of magic, right?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Ow!" Topher yelped, trying and failing to free his wrists. When did Peter get so strong, anyway? "Look, those pythons were really scary, okay?" he whined.

[momslilassassin]

"You're quite ferocious taking on that snowbank," Ben teased.

[lockestheway]

"You mean you were out of your mind," Peter said, rolling his eyes. He let go of Topher's wrists. "Don't touch me."

[momslilassassin]

"Right," Ben agreed. "Auditors don't sound that magical to me anyway."

[dollpocalypse]

"Better than he was, anyway," Topher grumbled with a nod at Tony on the screen.

Almost definitely not true.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher made an annoyed little noise, then glanced down.

"Sorry."

[lockestheway]

"Well, sadly there isn't a government on this rock who recognises these guys," Peter said. "Would've been easier if this was just all about paying off back taxes. I could've gotten us a deal."

[lockestheway]

Peter rolled his shoulders and got his equilibrium back. "Also, is that Tony Stark?" he asked, as if nothing had happened. "Ha!"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher shifted slightly on the couch. Peter seemed fine now, but Topher's wrists still hurt, and that moment was serving as a reminder of how ticked Peter could get.

It... didn't exactly comfort him, no.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "This was, uh, before we were friends, I'm pretty sure."

[lockestheway]

Yeah, well, Topher attacked him first.

He was about to say something, and then Tony slapped Topher. "... Oh, ow, that looks like it hurts."

[dollpocalypse]

No one said Topher was sensible. Feeling like a complete idiot for managing to piss him off this much, yes. Reasonable when it came to his Peter issues? No. Not at all.

"Preeeetty much," he agreed. "He's pretty strong."

[lockestheway]

"Oh, and enter Kenzi!" Peter chortled. "Why didn't she ever tell me about this?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Because!" Topher exclaimed, perking up at that. "Friends! Keep... secrets... or something!"

Topher, settle.

Very seriously, he informed Peter, "I would never tell anyone anything you didn't want me to say to people."

Because that was both totally convincing and completely relevant, right?

[lockestheway]

Peter paused, and finally pulled his attention from the screen to... give Topher a funny look. "Well, that's good to know."

[dollpocalypse]

"I thought so!" Topher squeaked agreed. Then the TV did him the small mercy of changing back. "Oh, good," he breathed, relieved.

Was it insanely hot in this room all of a sudden? It felt that way.

[lockestheway]

"What's got you so jumpy, Toph?" Peter asked. Very idly. "Or should that be Nikki?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"...is this some weird sleep deprivation caused hallucination?"

Tony wasn't in his lab. This was... progress of a sort.

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh, you know," Topher lied. Badly. "Um, the whole... possible world-ending thing, plus I think I scratched my meta for, yep still being lazy Skyrim disc, and, uh, it's supposed to rain on Tuesday..."

Like anyone would ever believe Topher cared about the weather outside.

[lockestheway]

Yeaaaah, it was the weather thing that made Peter lift an eyebrow. "Real subtle, kid."

[dollpocalypse]

"Be careful," Topher cautioned Tony, pointing at the TV. "It was showing our crocodile thing before."

[dollpocalypse]

"I don't know what you could possibly mean!" Topher squeaked. "I, um, have to go... study!"

Yeah, the excuses just got better and better.