Title Image from Cris-Art on DA art site! Used by permission!
Hello everybody! Yes, this is a new story that I've created after a chance encounter of a picture online depicting a certain couple from a comic certain comic series. Yes, I'm talking about Wiccan and Hulkling here, otherwise known as Billy and Teddy. When I first laid eyes on that picture, I instantly fell in love with this couple. Seriously, it was the coolest and cutest thing I've ever seen.
Now let me just admit something to you all before I go any further. I've never read an American comic book in my entire life. I know, you must all think I suck right now. I'm already regretting at this very moment that I was never into things like Spiderman and X-Men and all that. Oh well, can't change what's already happened. But yeah, because of that, I thought that the whole Billy and Teddy pairing was something that fans of the Young Avengers series had came up with much like the Sonic and Shadow pairings you've seen on here.
Imagine my surprise when I figured out that they were in fact an actual canonical gay couple! That was like the very first time I've ever heard of the written media centralizing to the young adult community doing something like this. I mean, we've seen stuff like that in like television series and even those sometimes unjustly "M" rated games. However, to do so in a very popular writing media like comic books was a first for me. This tells you how many barriers are being broken these days.
But that's enough of my ranting. Hopefully, my public library will have the Young Avengers collection so I can read them. I mean, I did find the comic collection of "The Walking Dead" there, so it should be easy. Yeah, I'm just now getting into the whole comic book thing. Better late than never, right?
However, I'd like to warn you now that since I know nothing about the Young Avengers characters except for what I've researched off of Wikipedia, expect a lot of my characters to be OOC. I really don't know how they act and am just creating their behaviors based on their Wikipedia descriptions. I think you'll understand what I mean when you read the beginning of the story, especially when it revolves around Billy's bouts of bullying. So for those of you who don't like OOC characters, I apologize in advance and ask that you don't grill me by saying I should read the series first before writing or anything like that.
With all that now out of the way, I ask that you please leave a review before you move onto the next story you want to read. Since this is a new story, it will really help me in figuring out what everybody thinks about it. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories everybody!
Chapter 1: High School Lunch Break
For William Kaplan, going to school was nothing but a repetitive cycle of everyday teenage life with the purpose of having the seeds of knowledge planted in his head along with the betterment of his overall character. If he thought about it further, he would go so far to say that sentiment practically stretched to the rest of the students going to school. Of course, he found no problem with this seeing as how he was a slightly above average students with grades that a good chunk of his peers seem to find trouble obtaining. That and he felt the constant advancements to society deemed it necessary to try and keep up with the times as best as his intellectual abilities would allow him to.
However, he found the part about the betterment of overall character to be more of a myth than an actual truth. Starting in elementary school, he has always been considered to be the awkward kid in his classes. With the exception of the teachers and forced participation in group projects, all of the students would give little regard to him as if he simply did not exist in the class. He had quickly learned to take these silent treatments with a grain of salt and mainly hung out by himself during recess under a tree with a book in his hands. Nobody would bother him during this time, and he was happy immersed in the imaginary world of his book despite not being companioned by anyone.
Unfortunately, his revered quiet moments during class breaks and lunch failed to last when he moved onto middle school. While the in-class scenario stayed relatively the same, the ten-minute passing periods between classes and the lunch breaks became somewhat of a torture. With the passage into middle school came the need for some of the students to start building up their reputations. Naturally, this also meant that the occasional bouts of bullying would surface and rear its ugly head to unsuspecting students if it had not already done so in the latter years of elementary.
With him, it meant that people would purposefully bump into him during the short trek to their next classes regardless whether or not it was crowded. Whenever he moved out of the way of somebody while walking, the other person would purposefully move back into his path while under the guise of paying attention to an incoming text message. And even when he chose an out-of-the-way portion of the playground during lunch to read his book, some people would actually come and pick on him as if they had nothing better to do. On the rare occasion during lunch hour, the bullies would actually beat up on him because of his hair's natural ratty appearance and his overall small and skinny frame that would continue on into his high school years. That and his choice for a hiding place also happened to be rather well-secluded from most teachers' view.
While most in William's shoes would have easily become despondent to the world and harbor dark thoughts from these acts of bullying and constant loneliness, luck made it so that he would be one of the few exceptions to this rule. The one key thing that made him into the lucky exception: one blond haired, blue-eyed guy who he was lucky to become quick friends with during the sixth grade. For him, this one friend was his entire support system, both physically and emotionally, in both his greatest and darkest of moments. The name of the person he considered to be his best friend was Theodore Altman.
Theodore, or Teddy as he prefers to be called, was, as stated earlier, a blond haired guy with eyes as blue as the deep dark sea that shimmered with endless amount of energy and life. His stature was larger than William yet not so much that he seemed all muscly and looked like prime bully-material. In fact, his very attitude could only be described as both caring and protective of those he cares about, attributes that seem to be lacking somewhat with the current generation of school teenagers.
He had first met William, or Billy as he has come to nickname him, back in the fifth grade in a fashion that he considered to be a complete accident. As Billy had explained to him once before, he had one of his rare mornings where the situation deemed it necessary for him to arrive to school late. As such, he was practically speed walking through the hallway in order to try and mitigate whatever punctuality speech his teacher might plan on giving him and not paying attention to what was in front of him. At the same time, Teddy had just arrived at the school as a new student and was wandering around like a lost child while trying his best to look for his assigned classroom. Needless to say, they were both not paying attention to what was in front of them and ended up inevitably bumping into each other with enough force to be knocked off their feet.
Being that he was shy and hardly had a lot of socializing experience; Billy found it to be somewhat hard to make adequate eye contact and could only manage to stammer out an apology. Teddy, however, was quick to both clearly apologize and get to his feet before offering a hand to the other who hesitantly accepted it. He then started back on his way to class to avoid being any later than he already was before stopping a second later upon hearing the other calling out to him to wait. That was when Billy figured out that it was Teddy's first time at this school and that he needed help locating his class. Needless to say, they were both in the same class and he led the new student to their destination.
From then on, the two had become the best of friends in what could possibly be considered the fastest time in the history of friend-making. Not even after five minutes from accidentally bumping into each other, Teddy was quick to defend Billy from the teacher's inevitable decree of detention for being tardy by saying he was simply helping him find the office before leading him here. And when it came to overall classroom activities, he was also the only one in the class who even bothered to try and talk to him and help him whenever it was needed. And even when it was recess or lunch time, Teddy would instead spend whatever time he could just keeping Billy company and talking about whatever came to mind. Basically, they became joined to the hip the moment they first met.
And this was what Billy was currently daydreaming about while sitting under a shady oak tree in a secluded corner of the quad area of George F. Baker High School in rural Southfields, New York that hardly anybody passed by. With a slightly faded black backpack resting next to him and a novel in his hands that he was pretending to read, he had been thinking back on the events that made him into the shy and hardly confident teenager he was today. However, he credited his long friendship with Teddy for helping him out through the tortures and emotional rides that was middle school and for standing up for him against bullies when he could not himself. If it were not for having met him that day, he would probably end up being a lot worse than he was now.
He always wondered how differently things might have become if he had actually arrived on time the day he had met Billy instead of being late. Sure, they still would have ended up attending the same class, but they might have not bothered even trying to talk to one another. They could have just as easily kept their distance from each other and minded their own business apart from whatever group project they might have paired up for. He would then have had nobody to fall back to when bullies became just too unbearable or to voice his troubles to whenever he just needed his moment to vent. And if worse came to worst, he might actually not be sitting under this tree in this school's quad at this very moment. In fact, he might not even be in existence at all, and he always shuddered a bit like he did now whenever his mind unwillingly crossed over to that dark thought.
"I figured you'd be lounging around here today," a voice that sounded like it was past adolescence yet still retaining that hint of childishness suddenly said in an amused tone. "I admit that this is a pretty good place, but shouldn't you try finding another place to hang out? But yeah, what are you so deep in thought about, Billy?"
Startled out from his deep inner thoughts, Billy tilted his head up and saw Teddy standing before him and looking at him with a warm smile. His blue eyes held a kind of amused curiosity in them as his short blond hair slightly swayed in the light late summer breeze, his bangs performing the brunt force of the movement. Both his ears had several piercings on them which easily gave him a sort of tough guy look yet oddly enough accentuated a more vulnerable side of him in that he was different from everybody else. Everything else about him was hard to see due to the blinding sunlight shining from behind him and forcing him to squint a bit.
"I happen to like hanging out under this tree, Teddy," the raven haired teen replied in a voice that seemed to have just gotten into the puberty stage with hardly any deepness to it as he put the book he really was not reading on top of his backpack and scooted over a bit. "And I'm just reading my book here. The only thinking I was doing was imagining the scenery written down on here."
"Hmm, I wonder if either of us knows how much of a complete lie that is?" the other asked rhetorically in a teasing tone as he took a seat next to Billy from the space that had been made. He then said after straightening out his white shirt a bit and allowing himself to relax against the tree, "Come on; you got to give your best friend some more credit than that. We've known each other for a little over five years now and are practically like brothers. I know when it is you're thinking or reading. You have a habit of furrowing your eyebrows a bit whenever you're thinking."
"…When is it that you started to figure out everything about me? I'm not that easy of a person to read, am I?"
"Only at face value. And for the record, I don't consider knowing whether or not you're reading to be a part of the face value package. That's something best friends like us quickly learn to pick up on when exposed to each other for so long."
"Geez, you're making it sound like I'm some kind of toxic chemical hanging around in the air or something," Billy responded with a roll of his eyes at the other's interesting choice of words. "You should think a bit more about what you're going to say before you say it in case you confuse or insult someone. But then again, I suppose that's a part of your charm that makes you into who you are."
"I guess I'm supposed to take that as a compliment when coming from you," Teddy replied with a small chuckle before digging into his backpack he had placed beside him earlier and taking out a brown bagged lunch. "Anyway, didn't your mom pack you your lunch today? I know how she still likes to do stuff like that for her little baby son. You choosing not to eat today or something?"
"First of all, both my mom and dad are in Baltimore, Maryland at a medical science convention," the other teen corrected with a shy smile at the lunch packing comment before quickly diving into his backpack and procuring his lunch. "I ended up making my own lunch. And secondly, I was kind of preoccupied with something while walking here that the thought about eating never crossed my mind."
"I could tell," the blond said with a nod before taking a bite of his sandwich. He then asked with his mouth full, "What exactly were you thinking about? You seemed pretty deep into it since you missed the fact I was blocking the sunlight for you."
"…It wasn't anything important. I was just brooding over some…pointless things."
"Let me guess; you were thinking about all those 'what if' moments again where we never ended up meeting and becoming best of friends. You were wondering how things would've turned out if things didn't pan out the way they did. Am I anywhere being remotely right with that guess?"
Instead of providing an answer, Billy chose to take a bite of his sandwich so that he could preoccupy his mouth. Both of them knew he did not like to talk with food in his mouth and that it really was just a way to refrain from outright answering the question. Apparently, this action was more than enough to supply Teddy with his answer.
"Billy, how many times have I told you to stop worrying about things that never ended up happening?" the blond asked with a frown as he swallowed his food. "It's not going to do you any good constantly thinking about how things could've ended up. For one, I really don't think it's healthy to be thinking like that because of possible insecurity issues. Secondly, you're just going to end up putting yourself into one of your depression sessions again.
"Now I'm not saying that I won't be by your side the next time you get into one of those moments," he quickly added with a comforting glance. "You know I'm always more than happy to help you out with whatever problems you've got. I know you prefer to talk to me about these things rather than your mom being how you say she might get all psychological on you or something. I'm just saying that you should try harder on your part to avoid getting caught in those depressive spirals in the first place. Don't you know how much it hurts me when I see you in one of your bad moments?"
"I know, but you know how my brain is always just thinking random things that somehow lead up to things I'd rather not think about," Billy admitted with a small sigh as he now seemed content to just stare at his lunch. "I can't rewire it to stop thinking like that. Then again, I suppose spending most of elementary school alone with only my thoughts to keep me company can make it hard to rewire."
"Don't let the memories of behaviors of guys who bullied you from your elementary school days get to you. The actions of people don't make you into who you indefinitely are, although I do admit it does to some small extent play a role in it. How you ultimately end up viewing yourself as is what really counts. So tell me; how do you honestly think of yourself as right now?"
"…Something tells me you were a psychiatrist or something in a past life," the raven haired teen said with a quiet chuckle that gave birth to a small grin. "Anyway, you want to know how I see myself? I see myself as one of the luckiest guys in the world to have such a caring and considerate friend like you who would drop everything just to tend to my emotional crap and whatnot. I see myself as the bullied teen who can handle anything the world throws at me so long as you're there to be my pillar of support should I ever need it. Overall, I see myself as a pretty happy guy despite all the crap life has thrown at me."
"…So long as you genuinely think like that, there should be no reason for your mind to be wandering to those dark 'what if' thoughts," Teddy replied with a genuinely wide smile gracing his face before affectionately rubbing Billy's head with his free hand despite the other's protests. "And if it makes you feel any better, I know that we'd still be friends even if we didn't end up bumping into each other in the hallway. I'm the kind of guy who just has to talk to everybody in class and get a feel for them all. You're definitely the kind of guy I'd trust to talk about anything, so I know we'd be friends either way. Now stop thinking about things like that and concentrate on what you've got going ahead of you."
"How can I do that when you're trying to rub a hole into my head?" Billy whined half-heartedly as he managed to duck away from the action and attempted to make a frown that ended up looking like a screwed up half-smile. "You better not do that again unless you want my sandwich ending up on your face."
"You do that and it'll be my sandwich on your face next," the blond countered with a toothy grin before finishing off said lunch and brushing the crumbs off of his brown jean shorts. "Just remember that things are never as bad as they seem, especially when you have someone to see it through with you."
"Alright; enough with the psychiatrist talk," the other complained with an amused roll of his eyes before quickly finishing up his lunch. "As much as I like your mental pick-me-ups, it kind of gets annoying after a while."
"I thought best friends were supposed to be reasonably annoying to each other. It helps to refresh the friendship connection every now and then, you know?"
Before he could say anything else, the school bell rang and signified the end to the lunch period. Almost as if rehearsed, herds of people suddenly started appearing in the quad as it was the central point of the school that most students had to pass through in order to reach their classes after lunch hour. Even Billy and Teddy reacted like clockwork and began packing up their backpacks in preparation to head to their respective classes.
"Well, I guess I'll see you in sixth period," Billy said as he got up and shouldered his backpack, his black shirt wrinkling up a bit at the action. "Here's to hoping that history isn't going to too much of a bore today."
"With the teacher you have, I can guarantee you it's going to be boring," Teddy replied as he stretched his arms which caused his blue shirt to lift up and show off ever the slightest amount of skin from his stomach along with a rainbow-colored belt hanging around his waist. "Trust me; I had him last year for Freshman history."
"I was being sarcastic there," the raven haired teen stated as he caught a quick glimpse at the belt just before it was covered once again by the shirt. "Oh yeah, today's the first day of Pride Week, isn't it?"
"Yeah, my second period teacher has been reminding us about it for the past week. I didn't think you were interested in stuff like that."
"Well, I wouldn't say that I'm interested in it per se; you know how I don't really like to participate in school festivities and stuff like that. I just know that you like to be a part of it ever since you figured out what Pride Week was back in sixth grade. And just like I said when you first told me then, I'm real happy that you've trusted me enough to tell me you were gay. So what're you planning on doing this year?"
"Eh, probably the same as I did last year: just keep a pretty low profile and 'accidentally' let my belt show when I stretch my arms. It'd kind of be like what I did just a few seconds ago, except that really wasn't meant to be on purpose. It's really funny, though, how everybody thinks I'm an advocate for gay people instead of being actually gay myself. It's not like I'm purposefully being a closet case or anything like that; I just don't think it's anybody's business, except for you, what's going on in my everyday life."
"Hey, a lot of the girls here, and maybe even some of the gay guys here, are desperately wishing that a beauteous hunk of body like you will become their boyfriend," Billy teased with a chuckle as Teddy gave him a playful punch in the arm. "They'd do anything to try and get hooked up with you. Then again, you are one of the popular guys in school. If you think about it, nobody ever thinks whether or not popular people are gay or straight."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right about that," Teddy admitted as he gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "I guess the popularity line has yet to merge with the homosexuality line. Oh well, what can you do about that? This just means that there are a lot more boundaries that still need to be broken in terms of stereotypes.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" he suddenly exclaimed as the crowd of students began to thin out a bit. "There was something very important that I wanted to talk to you about. Do you think you could wait for me at the front of the school when we're done?"
"Since when have I ever not waited for you after school?" the other rhetorically asked before nodding his head yes to the request. "We both have the same last period class that we're forced to suffer through, you know? But don't you have to go to baseball or karate practice when school's over?"
"Baseball season doesn't start until the springtime and the karate meeting was cancelled for the entire week since Hawkeye is out right now on vacation or something. And in case you're wondering, that's what we call Coach Bishop since she's also a deadeye in the archery club. I pretty much have a lot of time to kill."
"Alright, if you say so. Think you could throw me a bone or something at least so I won't be left wondering what you're going to tell me?"
"Sorry, but I'm not giving you any hints this time around. If you really want to know, then just wait for me after school.
"But yeah, we better get going before we're late," the blond quickly changed the subject before doing a semi-jog to his class. "You better hurry on your way, too. Your class is all the way on the other side of the world!"
Before Billy could say anything against that, Teddy had turned the corner and away from his sight. Instead, he just chose to shake his head in amusement before speed-walking towards his class in the same fashion as if he had been late five years ago to his elementary class. He honestly could not ask for a better friend than Theodore Altman who was so friendly and willing to lend a welcoming ear whenever necessary.
And speaking of such, I think I have a couple of things I want to tell him myself, Billy suddenly thought as he continued on past the hallway the blond had turned into. He had apparently already entered his class since he did not see any sign of him when he looked. I can't believe I haven't told him yet that I'm gay. Then again, I only just figured it out myself a few months ago and was just testing the waters. I'm sure he'd understand why I was hesitant to say it to him if I explained it like that.
I wonder what he'd say if I told him I've been using him as my test subject for my overall feelings this whole time? he allowed himself to think as an impish grin made it to his face as the one-minute warning bell rang. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I told him he's the reason I became gay. I guess we both have something important to say to each other after school. Here's to hoping that he actually likes me more than just a best friend.
And with his grin changing to an almost dreamy smile, Billy managed to make it into his class just as the tardy bell rang and escape the wrath of his history teacher. Amazingly, he managed to make this short trip with no instances of bullying whatsoever. He then cleared his mind of any stray thoughts and went straight into learning mode that also doubled as stay-awake mode for this particular class. Because of this transition, he failed to hear three sets of police sirens pass right by the school in complete succession that managed to catch the attention of a few other students.
Hello again! I'm just here to say a couple more things about this story now that you've read it!
First of all, I'm sorry once again if these characters are OOC. However, I've tried to compensate for that by adding in details that relate to their actual characters in the comic world.
And just as a little bit of an extra, I put a bit of myself into Billy's character since I could honestly relate to his character. While I myself had never been physically bullied in my life, a lot of people always felt the need to ignore me like I said happened to Billy at the beginning. I just figured that since he had a past that revolved around bullying, why not put in a bit of my experience to make it seem more realistic? Actually, a lot of what I put down for Billy except for obvious portions like meeting with Teddy are from my own personal experiences.
And the conversation that happened between him and Teddy, it's something that I always give to myself when I'm in those depressive moments. Yes, my brain, as a sort of protection from always being a loner and ignored, kind of created a separate mental personality of myself who's a lot tougher and blunter than my actual character. Unfortunately, that part of me is still in my mind, but I've made it so that it's also my morally correct and reasonable portion of me.
But yeah, I'm living proof of one possible outcome of what bullying, be it through physical or psychological means, can do to a person. I just consider myself lucky to a point that my mental split personality actually worked with me instead of against me. So if any of you out there are bullies, think twice next time you think about going at someone or purposefully ignoring them. You never know what you're doing to them on the inside even though they show no outward signs of problems.
And for those who are victims of bullies, believe me when I say that it definitely gets better. Trust me; I wouldn't have started my own account here three years ago if one of my few high school friends I managed to befriend encouraged me to post my stuff on here. It's because of him I got my confidence to post my stuff on here for you all to read. I've lost connection with him since we've started college, but it's because of him pushing me to post my stuff here that I've more confidence with myself. I still don't have a lot of confidence in my overall self and am still painfully shy, but at least I can now always find solace in my writing.
But yeah, that's enough with my private life and public message to you all. I'll go ahead and leave you all to whatever else you want to do next. Please don't forget to leave a review telling me how you thought I did with the introduction of this story. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories everybody! And also enjoy the new addition I've decided to try out, the outtakes section; bits of the story of how how they might have alternately turned out. Sometimes funny, sometimes not.
Outtakes:
Young Billy: Oh boy, I'm really going to be late! What am I going to tell the teacher?
(Crash!!!)
Young Teddy: Ow, what was...?! (Sees Billy lying on floor) Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?
Young Billy: ... (Knocked out on the floor)
Young Teddy: Hello? (Pokes other repeatedly) Uh oh! (Quickly walks away from scene as if nothing happened)
/
Teddy: Hey, Billy! How you doing?
Billy: ... (Asleep under oak tree)
Teddy: Hello? (Starts lightly kicking him) Anyone in there?
Billy: ... (Still sleeping)
Teddy: (Begins digging into backpack while smiling impishly) Hmm, I wonder if he'll mind if I drew some hearts on his face?
/
Billy: So what are you thinking of doing for Pride this week, Teddy?
Teddy: Hmm, I'm thinking of going big this year and go streaking around campus.
Billy: (Blank expression) ...You're not serious, are you?
Teddy: Of course not. (Impish smile) What I'm really thinking about is dressing up as a beautiful rainbow butterfly and spread the word about equal rights for all!
Billy: (Slightly horrified) ...You know, streaking around campus doesn't sound all that bad anymore...
/
Teddy: I have something important to tell you, Billy. Meet me after school today?
Billy: Don't you have baseball or karate practice then?
Teddy: Eh, I can afford to skip one meeting.
Billy: (Unreadable expression) ...Talk to me later tonight after practice.
Teddy: B-But it's important! (Sees Billy's quickly retreating form) God, he can be such a prick about commitments sometime. (Impish smile) I wonder what he thinks about the ultimate commitment?