Before we get into this, I want to make the slight warning that YES I did make 3 out of the 4 BH guys trekkies. It seemed to me that they, being the social misfits that they are, that they would watch trek (hell, everyone I know watches trek, I watch trek, I'm writing what I know.)
Pietro's #1 Crush – Chapter 02(See Chapter 1 for full disclaimer and legend)
Lance struggled with the garbage bags as he dragged them out to the curb. Why the Brotherhood let the mess get that bad, he would never know. He put the bags down at the curb and wiped his brow. The day was hot and his classes had been sweltering. 'The air conditioning at that cheap school would break at a time like this!' he mentally complained.
He turned around to go back inside and sighed to himself as he noticed Fred and Todd further over on the lawn, messing around. "How come I'm the only responsible one around here?" he grumbled to himself. "The only other remotely responsible person is Pietro and he only keeps his own room clean!"
Lance walked back to the front door of the house, so lost in all his mental complaining that he didn't think anything of slamming the front door open until he saw that Pietro had been directly behind it. He knocked the elfin youth over with a loud thud and a few muttered curse words.
"Pietro! Are you okay?" his voice full of concern for his friend. Pietro sat on the ground; a look on his face that Lance couldn't quite place. Pietro made no move to get up and Lance, worried he'd caused some damage, reached a hand out to help him stand. Grabbing Pietro by the arms, Lance pulled the boy to his feet and looked him over for injuries. "I'm sorry Pietro," he said, absently patting Pietro on a slender shoulder. "I wasn't paying attention there."
Pietro gazed into the taller boy's dark eyes, not saying a word. "Geez, I didn't think you went down that hard!" Lance exclaimed. "Your head okay?"
Pietro managed to nod. "Uh, I'm fine… Sorry… Uh," he stammered uncharacteristically as he looked at Lance. "Want some help?"
"Help?" Lance asked not quite knowing what he meant.
"With cleaning house." Pietro replied. "I saw you taking the garbage out…"
"Oh, yeah," Lance nodded, seeming to remember what he'd been doing. He explained to Pietro how their landlord had threatened to boot them out if they didn't clean the place up. "I don't want no bloody roaches moving in! You get rats, you deal with them!" Pietro chuckled at Lances impression of their landlord.
"So, you want some help? Or do you want to spend the rest of your life cleaning this place up?" Pietro asked smugly. Lance nodded and the two of them set to cleaning the garbage from behind the couch in the living room.
x-+-x
They spent the majority of what was left of the evening cleaning the lower level of the house, and Pietro was enjoying the time he was spending with Lance. Sneaking glances of him when he knew that the other boy wasn't looking, asking for help just so that he could be close to him. Even though it did involve getting his hands dirty Pietro didn't mind, it was worth it.
Midway through Freddy and Todd had begun to help as well, and Pietro was glad for the help. The cupcakes that were stuck to the wall and ceiling were giving him a hard time.
x-+-x
Before long the place wasn't looking half bad and the four mutants were exhausted. Although not shining with clean, I was passable to prolong their stay at the boarding house and they all decided to call it a night.
"Man I'm beat!" Todd exclaimed as he fell back onto the couch. He and Freddy had decided that a little TV would be good after all that manual labour. "Now I remember why I don't clean often," he announced as he picked up the remote control and began channel surfing.
"Ya know Toad," Freddy said, joining him on the couch. "If you cleaned more often, it wouldn't be such work… Oh, stop here!" he pointed to the screen. "I love this one!" his eyes were glued to the set.
Todd, not having much objection to watching Star Trek, left the channel where it was. "I never knew you liked Star Trek," he asked as the credits rolled up the screen.
"Are you kidding?" Freddy asked, eyes glued to the screen. "I love all the Treks! Their future has the neatest stuff in it!"
Todd nodded his agreement. "Yeah, and anytime things start to get the slightest bit dull…BAM" he slapped his hands together for emphasis. "The transporters malfunction and somebody is in an alternate Universe!" They both chuckled and watched on as Captain Kirk was summoned to Deep Space Station K-7 to deal with a possible Klingon threat.
"Oh hey!" Lance announced as he walked into the room. "It's the episode with the Tribbles! This is a classic!" He hopped over the back of the couch to sit in between his two comrades.
"Where's Pietro?" Todd asked, looking in the direction of the kitchen.
"He says he wants to prepare dinner," Lance answered as he settled himself down on the couch between Fred and Todd. "He says he's been watching those cooking shows and wants to try a couple things."
Freddy's stomach grumbled its approval. He was tired of being the cook. Just because he liked to eat, didn't mean that he liked to cook… it was just that he couldn't do one without doing the other.
They sat there; eyes glued to the screen until the mouth-watering smells of food drifted into the room and Pietro called out from the kitchen that dinner was ready.
Todd was the first up and the three of them made a mad dash to the kitchen. They grabbed their plates, filled them as full as they could and made their way back to the TV just in time to get back from commercial break.
"What are you watching guys?" Pietro asked as he walked into the room after them. There were no spots left to sit on the couch so he made himself comfortable on the floor, positioning himself so he could see the TV as well as his friends.
"It's Star Trek!" Todd announced. "The original!"
"There's more than one?" Pietro asked, completely nonplussed.
"Where have you been hiding? Under a rock?" Lance asked, surprised at Pietro's complete ignorance of the topic.
"Yeah, well I guess I was too busy to bother with watching TV," Pietro countered. "Y'know, with sports, being great, showing up Evan, and… hey, who's that guy?" Pietro asked, cutting himself off and pointing to a pointy-eared man in blue on the screen.
"That's Spock, yo!" Todd excitedly informed his companion. "He's a Vulcan!"
"A what?" Pietro asked.
"Well, y'see," Todd began. "Vulcans are these guys that believe in logic above all else, and…" Todd explained all he knew of the topic to his captive audience. Freddy and Lance half-listened as they watched the well-worn story unfold on the screen in front of them.
'This should prove to be informative,' Pietro thought to himself as he absorbed most of the trek information that Todd was feeding him. He looked up briefly to steal a glimpse of Lance who was watching the show, who, as if on cue let his dark eyes drift down to look at him. Their eyes locked for a few moments before Pietro quickly looked back to Todd.
Lance looked away, confused. 'What was THAT look about?' he wondered to himself. 'Pietro has been acting kinda weird all day,' he forgot about Pietro's odd behaviour for a moment as he laughed along with his comrades as Captain Kirk opened a door and was buried in Tribbles. He settled down to watch the rest of the episode, deciding that he could think about Pietro later.
Fred, having finished his supper quickly, moved to re-fill his plate. He smiled to himself as he made his way to the kitchen. He was happy. It seemed to him that the Brotherhood was starting to trust each other more and more each day. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt at home, and this accepted. They were getting along like a team should. Whether or not any of them would be willing to openly admit it, they were a family. He smiled as he filled his plate once again and returned to the TV room to join the others. At that moment in time, to Fred J. Dukes, nothing could hurt his happy family. He wouldn't let it.
End Chapter 2
