return_to_nola

Oliver had a headache. Wasn't that cute? He and Sam were sharing afflictions now!

After brushing his teeth—because he probably smelled like a lot of wine right now—he took the bottle of Advil out of the medicine cabinet, shaking a couple into his palm. As he swallowed them down with faucet water (he wasn't fancy), he mentally went over the current situation.

1. He was Quicksilver, a superhero.

2. In this universe, he was a fictional character.

3. He also had a twin sister, a version of whom also lived in New Orleans.

4. This Wanda wasn't his Wanda and the differences were sort of killing him, even as the similarities were comforting him in a way he could barely understand.

5. There was a Jean Grey in town too, which he'd just found out over coffee shop e-journal (what), and she was also from another universe.

6. Through it all, he was still Oliver Lindqvist. Who was going to go into his boyfriend's room now, finally, and make sure he was alive, if he was even there at all. God, how was he going to explain this to Sam?

Oliver took a deep, steadying breath before he crossed the apartment and quietly opened Sam's bedroom door. At first sight of Sam, he could feel himself warm with affection, but then immediately went tense. Because for the first time in all the months they'd known each other, Oliver recognized him.

"Are you freaking kidding me," he muttered.

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From:

nola_quicksilver

Oliver looked at Sam then, and maybe he wasn't being like Pietro in words, but he was there in the set of his jaw, the gleam of his eye. "Remember when I made you ask to be my boyfriend? Do that again for me. Tell me what you want, how you want this to go."

From:

nola_cyclops

Sam stood up again; he had to. “I don’t know! I know what I’m supposed to say. I know i’m supposed to say we focus on the mission and deal with this later. I’m supposed to say this isn’t real, like the million other times I’ve been shoved into other lives against my will, and force my feelings down and round up the team and fight the evil and get back to a bleak world where most of my team and my people are dead. I know I’m supposed to be the leader and get this done and that means making sacrifices, whether it’s from putting this on hold to stopping it. And I know that what I should be thinking about is a plan, some kind of strategy to save us. I shouldn’t be sitting here wishing this hadn’t happened and we were still in our lives or our ignorance or whatever. But I can’t do it, right now I can’t make myself say any of that definitively, because I’m still me and I might be stubborn and focused and whatever else but I’m still in love with you and I swore that I would fight for this, so I don’t know what to do, okay? I don’t know what to tell you. And I don’t usually feel like this, and Scott Summers doesn’t usually feel like this, this is something really new and for once I don’t have the answers. I will have them, I have to have them, lives depend on me having them. But right now I don’t have anything.”

From:

nola_quicksilver

"I'm not asking what you should do," Oliver said, standing too. He put his hands on his hips, a confident pose that didn't at all match how he felt, but the heat in his voice was real. "I know what we should do. I should go find somewhere else to sleep tonight, and we should fix whatever's going on and save the day, and we should never talk about this again. Be embarrassed when it comes up and pray the memories fade. But I don't want that. I don't want to forget how it feels to love you and don't want it to end at all, if I can help it. I don't want this adventure to end. But I'm not going to fight if you don't want me to. I can't do that to myself."

From:

nola_cyclops

It went against everything but still Sam said, quietly, like it was hard to say, because it was, “I do want you to.” Maybe Oliver would change his mind. Maybe that didn’t matter.

From:

nola_quicksilver

"Then I'm going to!" Oliver bit out, and this time when he caught Sam by the front of his shirt, it was to haul him in for a kiss. It was quick and hard and possessive, with a stronger undercurrent of Pietro's impatience than had been there before, perhaps. "Just let me keep you," and this time his voice broke.

From:

nola_cyclops

These kisses, their last three in this weird, broken, space, they had all been too quick, like they were happening to Sam, not with him. And right now his entire life felt that way, and he hated it, so he grabbed the sides of Oliver's face and kissed him, and it was still hard and probably desperate, but it was Sam's, it was something Sam had to give.

From:

nola_quicksilver

When Sam grabbed him, Oliver tended to melt, and even with the tension and fear thick in the room, this time was no exception. His fist tightened around the handful of Sam's shirt he was holding on to like a lifeline, pulling hard. This kiss went deep immediately, messy and needy—which was appropriate, because messy and needy pretty much summed up Oliver at this moment. He didn't want it to end.

From:

nola_cyclops

Sam didn't want this to end either, because he had no idea what would happen outside of this moment. He felt overwhelmed and sorrowful and frustratingly, unavoidably, in love.

From:

nola_quicksilver

When Oliver broke the kiss to drag in a breath, he didn't go far, still clinging to Sam. He licked his mouth—Sam still tasted the same, thank God—and studied Sam's face, chest heaving. Then, slowly, he raised one hand and pressed the palm over Sam's eyes, covering them, and studied him some more.

"I can go with this," he decided.

From:

nola_cyclops

That movement -- the hand covering his eyes -- was startling and, unexpectedly, Sam started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

From:

nola_quicksilver

"This is what's going to break you?" Oliver asked incredulously.

From:

nola_cyclops

"It's just--" Sam was still laughing "--Absurd! I mean, the headaches I was having felt like Scott's headaches, I'm mad that everyone can see into my eyes now, Quicksilver doesn't know what my eyes look like but you do..." It all wasn't funny at all, but the familiar gesture, the ridiculousness of the situation, god, at least he could laugh at it right now.

From:

nola_quicksilver

"Well, Quicksilver knows what your eyes look like now." Oliver had by now dropped his hand and was looking at Sam with astonishment. "And he loves them, but he'd rather have the rest of you."

From:

nola_cyclops

"I guess he also knows what I look like when I laugh." Sam had finally stopped (what a weird reaction to the moment), but he was smiling. "You can't stand me, but that's not new."

From:

nola_quicksilver

"No, I love you," Oliver replied stubbornly, but then he had to concede, "I used to think I couldn't stand you."

From:

nola_cyclops

Sam lovingly stroked the side of Oliver's face. "You used to think a lot of things."

From:

nola_quicksilver

The touch was the first thing that wasn't full of mixed messages and confusion since Oliver had walked in the door. He had to blink back tears, trying not to be angry at himself for them. "But I got you off on the living room floor."

From:

nola_cyclops

Sam saw the tears, of course he did; he dropped his hand to Oliver's shoulder and squeezed. "I remember," he said, and it was kind of like a promise. "I remember everything that happened with us."