selfhelp | [Action/Written]

[Billy has never thought of himself as one of those obsessive stalker boyfriends who needs to be attached at the hip to his significant other at all times. Really, he'd always figured they were pretty good about mutual space. A two-month separation with the potential of spending years in this place without seeing Teddy again is, however, apparently the trigger he'd needed to become one, so after one too many looks from Teddy - some patient, others not so much - he'd officially gotten himself banished from the apartment for the afternoon after too much worried lurking. Which is... not the greatest thing ever on a hot day like today, but ten minutes down the road he realizes that, yeah, he'd been a little ridiculous, either blowing off his responsibilities or dragging Teddy along for the ride. He's happy and eager to have Teddy here, but they'd lived separate lives at least half the time back home; no reason for that to not continue here as well.

It's just hard to let go after you've missed someone for that long.

Still, that's how he finds himself out and about for around five hours today, doing the following (in no particular order):

- a late lunch at Seventh Heaven
- searching around the library for comic books
- combat practice in the Battle Dome (with or without his trusty new teacher)

While at the library, a few sketches find their way into his journal, more or less like the following: this, this, and this. Some time afterwards, a scribbled message appears below.]

What are some good ways to deal with bad dreams?

[Once he's finished all his daily stuff, he'll be bringing groceries home around dinner time, in the hopes that he's allowed. Feel free to run into him at any time.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well... thanks.

[He flips back to the sketches, staring at them for a moment.]

There's... the Scarlet Witch, Magneto, and a demon. Mephisto.

Friends of yours? [He didn't want to press too much if it was a touchy subject, but it's obvious that the drawings have something to do with Billy's nightmares.]

...Ah... maybe someday, they could be. The first two, anyway. I think I'd like that.

[The demon... ahaha. He'd rather just stay the hell away.]

Actually, the Scarlet Witch is an Avenger in my world.

[He considers that for a moment. From the pictures he figures that the first two are probably heroes from his world. Ones he probably idolizes.]

I hope it happens. [He studies the picture of the Scarlet Witch again, wondering if he would ever meet her in his own universe. It was a thought he was slowly getting used to.] She's lovely.

[That makes him smile a bit, the expression soft and somewhat hopeful.]

She is, isn't she? And she's a mage, too. A lot more powerful than me though.

So her powers are magic based. Guess that explains her code name. [Speaking of code names.]

I never got around to asking you before, what's your code name?

Oh, sorry- it's Wiccan. Hawkeye picked it out for me. ...Our Hawkeye, I mean.

There's another Hawkeye? Any relation to Clint Barton? [Billy had said his team all had ties to the Avengers.]

None that we know of. She's just skilled enough to have earned the name, that's all.

She must be. I've seen Clint in action. It's very impressive. [And if he has his doubts about a teenage girl being compared to a guy who can shoot an arrow at someone he's not even looking at, he doesn't voice it.]

Who else do you have on your team? I never asked. [Now that he thought about it, there's a lot he never got around to asking.]

[Well, admittedly there's still a learning curve for all of them- they're Young Avengers, after all. But she's damn good, especially since she's the only non-powered member of the group.]

Well, I mentioned Eli and Teddy- Eli goes by Patriot, and he's basically a younger super-soldier. Teddy's codename is Hulkling, and he's a shapeshifter. He usually bulks up like the Hulk, but he doesn't lose control. Hawkeye's an archer, obviously, Stature can make herself tiny or giant-sized, Vision is like a super-powered robot, and Speed is- well, a speedster. And then there's me.

A Hulk without the anger issues. That's sure to make Bruce jealous. [Although he's seen first hand how useful the Hulk's anger can be when you're fighting off a large scale alien invasion.]

Aren't you missing someone? Uh...Nate? What happened to him?

I guess it's the lack of radiation? But he can become anyone, so...

[He shrugs, sobering up at the mention of Nate.]

Yeah... he was our Iron Man at first. Or Iron Lad, he called himself. His armor was really amazing- from the 30th century, even. But since he was from the future, the timeline started getting really screwed up just by him being there. He went home and left his armor behind, and that armor became the Vision.

[And man, there are days when he really misses Nate.]

He chooses a giant, green, anger monster as his role model. [He doesn't sound like he's joking, just making a statement.]

I'm sorry-the armor became the Vision?

Oh- yeah. Nate downloaded the Vision's programming into the armor- he originally used to be an Avenger, but he was destroyed and Tony couldn't fix him. And the armor and Vision's programming kind of absorbed Nate's mental processes and became sentient after Nate left. I don't... really understand it that much, but he's part of the team now, so I don't question it.

[He makes a note to himself to mention this to Tony sometime. If anyone could explain it, it would be him. So long as he didn't start technobabbling.]

So, he's sort of like an AI? [That would almost make sense since he's seen Tony's J.A.R.I.V. in action.]

More or less. An AI with a personality based on a real person, but Vision isn't exactly like Nate, he just used Nate as a template, I guess.