dollpocalypse | Room 307, Tuesday Evening

Entry tags:

Room 307, Tuesday Evening

So for Topher, today had been noteworthy due to a variety of circumstances, the most obvious of which being:

1.) His best friend was apparently a world-famous political blogger who'd saved a whole bunch of kids' lives
2.) Said best friend had just been forced to go into hiding to avoid being killed by a Belgian psychopath
3.) Topher's room was still full of paint fumes, and
4.) It was his sixteenth birthday.

As a result of all of that, plus the portal-lag that came from the round-trip excursion to Peter's universe, Topher was just a little bit exhausted by the time he got back to his room in the evening. Too exhausted, in fact, to indulge in his usual birthday tradition of a cupcake and a couple rounds of laser tag at the nearest arena. So instead, by the time he got to his room, he flopped down on his bed to try to repress concerns about Peter by playing Tetris on his phone.

At least he was kicking ass at it, so, you know, there was that.

[[open! billy | dave | kenzi | ben ]]

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"Well that improved it," Topher confirmed, "but before that it was kind of not great."

Beat.

"And yes."

"Happy birthday and what made it not great before Billy?" Ben asked.

See Topher fumble for words.

"I just. Uh. I know someone who went home?" he tried. "So. That was. You know. Kind of unpleasant."

Once again tripping over the fact that he only really knew a few people whose departure from Fandom would upset him, yes.

Ben gave him a look. "Peter, right? I ran into someone earlier today."

Uh.

"...huh?"

Ben gave the squirrels a little nudge in the Force to scatter them, then turned back to Topher.

"Spill it."

"Um," Topher said, doing a terrible job of looking confused even though he was actually sincerely confused, "spill what?"

"That Peter left because Bean was here," Ben said a little impatiently.

...

!??!

"How -- how'd you know that?"

"Because Ender's Peter's little brother," Ben said. "I know how this turns out, or at least one version of it."

"Oh," Topher said, biting down on one of his knuckles. "Um. So you know he's... him."

"Except on weekends when he could be a her," Ben replied, choosing to be a pain.

Topher gave an exasperated sigh. "Not that," he said. "I mean. You know. What he does. Like. On his desk?"

If Ben made a dirty joke, Topher was going to cry.

It was so, so tempting.

"The politics thing?" Ben replied, choosing to be merciful instead since it was Topher's birthday.

Ben was so, so kind.

"That," Topher agreed, nodding. "You know... that?"

If Peter knew about this, he would probably be pissed, Topher decided.

Wrongly. But.

Ben snorted. "Of course I do. I have from the second I met him."

Well, that seemed a touch unfair.

"Well... me too," Topher countered. Because he wanted to be cool too.

"No you didn't," Ben said with a little smile. "Peter's to smart for that."

Fine, fine, Ben, you won the title of best Wiggin sidekick. HAPPY?

"Well," Topher grumbled, "I know now. Does he end up being okay?"

"The one at home for Ender seems to be doing okay," Ben said, choosing to continue his mercy and not mention the part where he was helping to raise Bean and Petra's kids.

Oh, good. Because ewwww.

Well. Awww. But ew.

"Achilles never found him or anything?" Topher checked. "'Cause. I mean. Right now he's trying to figure out how to, you know, hide or whatever."

Shut up, he was worried.

And now Ben was teaching Topher really terrible Huttese curses!

"Achilles"--and yeah, he had the pronunciation right--"is an asshole. But Peter came out the other side just fine."

Topher nodded. "Good. Okay. Good."

Beat.

"Um. More of an asshole than kidnapping those kids and trying to shoot up Bean's house, you mean?" Because those curses sounded pretty emphatic.

"Toss in a 'and tries to take over the world' to the mix," Ben said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh." Well, shit. "That's not good."

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