( and we're running with blood on our knees; )
title: we are young; we are strong
characters: john egbert, charles xavier.
summary: practice makes perfect, and john has a long way to go for a god.
rating: PG
words: 1380
notes: ddd bingo card fill; prompt practice. nope not even gonna link the card, that can happen when it's all done.
Looking back on it, Charles thinks that maybe he shouldn't have even been surprised to get a message from John saying simply, "so i know you probably think i just died but i'm not dead, it's totally ok, and anyway i have these crazy wind powers now and i think that technically i am pretty much a god!" not because the idea isn't extremely startling itself - it certainly is - but because John is the boy who eagerly talks about his alien universe-creating friends, who owns his very own planet, who had to "wake up" in order to have dreams, and who he's quite sure he saw spread out on a bed with a nasty and rather fatal chest wound just five minutes ago.
At the time, though, he's very much surprised, and he invites John to come by and explain things a little bit more clearly.
He sits on the front steps of the mansion and waits for a worldhopper to inevitably show up with John in tow. Instead, after a few minutes of waiting, he hears a whooping sound and Chaaaaaarles! Hey, Charles! and he looks up to see John tumbling gracelessly across the sky - flying, yes, but also doing a series of somersaults and backflips that look entirely unintentional from where he's standing.
Thankfully, John lands on his feet just a few meters in front of Charles and only stumbles a little before he's upright and grinning and giggling. "See? I told you, dude, windy thing!"
Charles smiles and wordlessly invites John to sit beside him on the stairs, but the boy is too excited to stay in one place and just stands a little closer, bouncing on his feet. "Hello, John. What happened to your clothes?" he asks, for the sake of starting a conversation in a better place. "That's not what you were wearing when I saw you a few minutes ago."
"Oh!" John looks down at his new clothes, and back at the windsock-like hoodie trailing along the ground behind him. "Yeah, I got these sweet pyjamas when I went God Tier, I guess. Oh, um--" He looks back to Charles, sheepish. "I'm sorry about the whole dying thing, I totally did not even know that was going to happen. Vriska didn't really tell me I had to die and actually I had no idea what was going on, but it was okay in the end! I guess I will have to tell everyone that I'm not dead, haha. Whoops!"
Charles files all the information away - he doesn't think he'll ever need it, but he does know that a number of people already keep their eyes on Miss Vriska Serket, and he also knows that it never hurts to remember even the little things - and watches John bounce around, amused. "So, what exactly does 'God Tier' mean?"
"I'm immortal!" Charles' eyebrows go up and John giggles again. "Not like, completely immortal, I don't think? Jeez, nobody ever explains all this stuff to me, but it is something like that. And I can do the windy thing! I don't really know what it means other than that, but I guess what it means is that I'm kind of a God, maybe?"
"Well," Charles stands, hands in his pockets, "why don't you go ahead and show me this windy thing of yours?"
John blinks and him and then smiles brightly, and Charles is pleasantly surprised to find none of the nervousness he's used to when he asks someone to demonstrate their powers; John only radiates excitement and joy and it's admittedly a little bit infectious.
"Sure!" he chirps, and he just moves his hands a little and they both feel the air shift around them; John starts talking again while it moves, "Nobody told me how this works, so I just sort of whoops oh shit--"
--and suddenly John has flipped himself upside down and he stays there, suspended by the wind. Charles starts laughing - good-naturedly - before he can help himself, but John laughs at exactly the same time, so he doesn't feel bad about it. It's not particularly wise to leave the boy in that position for very long when he doesn't seem quite adept at using his abilities, so he crouches down, takes John's hands and helps to turn him the right way up before the demonstration can end badly. He keeps a hold on his friend's hands just as a precaution, and John whines, now floating cross-legged and eye-to-eye with Charles.
"I had it before!" he huffs, not quite as upset as he appears; in fact, Charles can only find more excitement, and maybe a shred of disappointment. "I was flying and everything. Is there an instruction manual for this stuff?"
"If I may make a suggestion," says Charles, and he has to chuckle a bit at the way John sits at attention so quickly, "maybe if you were a little calmer? I understand your excitement, John, I really do, but it is making things a bit more difficult for you. Take a few deep breaths and try to land - just relax, and do your best to focus only on lowering yourself to the ground. Close your eyes, it might help. I'm going to let go now."
He takes his hands away from John's and moves only a small step back. John does as he's instructed, closes his eyes and breathes, he focuses on the wind and the ground and just moving downwards, focuses on carefully and gently floating himself down onto the ground.
WHUMPH.
Charles is crouching in front of John almost immediately and helping the boy up from where he collapsed, face flat on the ground. "Are you okay, John?"
The ridiculous hoodie is covering John's face entirely, so it takes him a moment of searching to find Charles' hand and sit up on his knees, but he's laughing the whole while, and he cuts off all of Charles' fretting with, "I'm okay, I'm okay, whoa! It didn't hurt that much - haha, seriously, it's cool, my hands hit the ground before my face did! Oh man, sorry about that, Charles! I was trying to be all calm like you said, and it just suddenly, whoosh, so maybe I am just bad at focusing or something. My teachers always said that, so that's probably what it is! My attention span is just shitty."
"Or maybe," Charles glances over John's palms for any injuries and only finds a few grazes that they can clean quickly, so he lets go, "you just need a little more excitement than I thought to make this work."
"You think so?" John fumbles around with his hoodie, gathers the entire length of it up - taller than him - and throws it over his shoulder. He lifts the front and peers at Charles from under it and through his mess of hair, glasses askew. "Soooooooo, I need to be excited... but calm at the same time? Welp, if that makes sense to you!"
They both laugh. "I promise, it's going to make sense to you soon, too," says Charles. "Would you like to try again?"
John nods enthusiastically. "Yup! It would suck if I got this awesome power and I couldn't really do it right. Practice makes perfect, right?" They move to stand, but John stops all of a sudden and Charles pauses too, stuck in an awkward half-crouch, waiting to see what's wrong. He finally feels the prickling nervousness that he'd been expecting to find much earlier. "... Hey, Charles, do I--" John falters and pushes his hoodie back, an unsure sort of frown on his face. "Do I look like a God to you? Or a leader? Jeez, this is kind of a stupid question, I just-- Wow, being a God is a pretty big thing, you know? I don't feel like one, and it's weird to think of..."
Charles hums thoughtfully, crouching back down so that he's more on John's level. "Let's see. To me..." He smiles. "I'd say you look like John."
There's a moment of silence.
"Holy shit that is so cheesy," laughs John, and before Charles can reply, there are arms wrapped around his neck and he's toppling backwards with John hugging him and giggling.
characters: john egbert, charles xavier.
summary: practice makes perfect, and john has a long way to go for a god.
rating: PG
words: 1380
notes: ddd bingo card fill; prompt practice. nope not even gonna link the card, that can happen when it's all done.
Looking back on it, Charles thinks that maybe he shouldn't have even been surprised to get a message from John saying simply, "so i know you probably think i just died but i'm not dead, it's totally ok, and anyway i have these crazy wind powers now and i think that technically i am pretty much a god!" not because the idea isn't extremely startling itself - it certainly is - but because John is the boy who eagerly talks about his alien universe-creating friends, who owns his very own planet, who had to "wake up" in order to have dreams, and who he's quite sure he saw spread out on a bed with a nasty and rather fatal chest wound just five minutes ago.
At the time, though, he's very much surprised, and he invites John to come by and explain things a little bit more clearly.
He sits on the front steps of the mansion and waits for a worldhopper to inevitably show up with John in tow. Instead, after a few minutes of waiting, he hears a whooping sound and Chaaaaaarles! Hey, Charles! and he looks up to see John tumbling gracelessly across the sky - flying, yes, but also doing a series of somersaults and backflips that look entirely unintentional from where he's standing.
Thankfully, John lands on his feet just a few meters in front of Charles and only stumbles a little before he's upright and grinning and giggling. "See? I told you, dude, windy thing!"
Charles smiles and wordlessly invites John to sit beside him on the stairs, but the boy is too excited to stay in one place and just stands a little closer, bouncing on his feet. "Hello, John. What happened to your clothes?" he asks, for the sake of starting a conversation in a better place. "That's not what you were wearing when I saw you a few minutes ago."
"Oh!" John looks down at his new clothes, and back at the windsock-like hoodie trailing along the ground behind him. "Yeah, I got these sweet pyjamas when I went God Tier, I guess. Oh, um--" He looks back to Charles, sheepish. "I'm sorry about the whole dying thing, I totally did not even know that was going to happen. Vriska didn't really tell me I had to die and actually I had no idea what was going on, but it was okay in the end! I guess I will have to tell everyone that I'm not dead, haha. Whoops!"
Charles files all the information away - he doesn't think he'll ever need it, but he does know that a number of people already keep their eyes on Miss Vriska Serket, and he also knows that it never hurts to remember even the little things - and watches John bounce around, amused. "So, what exactly does 'God Tier' mean?"
"I'm immortal!" Charles' eyebrows go up and John giggles again. "Not like, completely immortal, I don't think? Jeez, nobody ever explains all this stuff to me, but it is something like that. And I can do the windy thing! I don't really know what it means other than that, but I guess what it means is that I'm kind of a God, maybe?"
"Well," Charles stands, hands in his pockets, "why don't you go ahead and show me this windy thing of yours?"
John blinks and him and then smiles brightly, and Charles is pleasantly surprised to find none of the nervousness he's used to when he asks someone to demonstrate their powers; John only radiates excitement and joy and it's admittedly a little bit infectious.
"Sure!" he chirps, and he just moves his hands a little and they both feel the air shift around them; John starts talking again while it moves, "Nobody told me how this works, so I just sort of whoops oh shit--"
--and suddenly John has flipped himself upside down and he stays there, suspended by the wind. Charles starts laughing - good-naturedly - before he can help himself, but John laughs at exactly the same time, so he doesn't feel bad about it. It's not particularly wise to leave the boy in that position for very long when he doesn't seem quite adept at using his abilities, so he crouches down, takes John's hands and helps to turn him the right way up before the demonstration can end badly. He keeps a hold on his friend's hands just as a precaution, and John whines, now floating cross-legged and eye-to-eye with Charles.
"I had it before!" he huffs, not quite as upset as he appears; in fact, Charles can only find more excitement, and maybe a shred of disappointment. "I was flying and everything. Is there an instruction manual for this stuff?"
"If I may make a suggestion," says Charles, and he has to chuckle a bit at the way John sits at attention so quickly, "maybe if you were a little calmer? I understand your excitement, John, I really do, but it is making things a bit more difficult for you. Take a few deep breaths and try to land - just relax, and do your best to focus only on lowering yourself to the ground. Close your eyes, it might help. I'm going to let go now."
He takes his hands away from John's and moves only a small step back. John does as he's instructed, closes his eyes and breathes, he focuses on the wind and the ground and just moving downwards, focuses on carefully and gently floating himself down onto the ground.
WHUMPH.
Charles is crouching in front of John almost immediately and helping the boy up from where he collapsed, face flat on the ground. "Are you okay, John?"
The ridiculous hoodie is covering John's face entirely, so it takes him a moment of searching to find Charles' hand and sit up on his knees, but he's laughing the whole while, and he cuts off all of Charles' fretting with, "I'm okay, I'm okay, whoa! It didn't hurt that much - haha, seriously, it's cool, my hands hit the ground before my face did! Oh man, sorry about that, Charles! I was trying to be all calm like you said, and it just suddenly, whoosh, so maybe I am just bad at focusing or something. My teachers always said that, so that's probably what it is! My attention span is just shitty."
"Or maybe," Charles glances over John's palms for any injuries and only finds a few grazes that they can clean quickly, so he lets go, "you just need a little more excitement than I thought to make this work."
"You think so?" John fumbles around with his hoodie, gathers the entire length of it up - taller than him - and throws it over his shoulder. He lifts the front and peers at Charles from under it and through his mess of hair, glasses askew. "Soooooooo, I need to be excited... but calm at the same time? Welp, if that makes sense to you!"
They both laugh. "I promise, it's going to make sense to you soon, too," says Charles. "Would you like to try again?"
John nods enthusiastically. "Yup! It would suck if I got this awesome power and I couldn't really do it right. Practice makes perfect, right?" They move to stand, but John stops all of a sudden and Charles pauses too, stuck in an awkward half-crouch, waiting to see what's wrong. He finally feels the prickling nervousness that he'd been expecting to find much earlier. "... Hey, Charles, do I--" John falters and pushes his hoodie back, an unsure sort of frown on his face. "Do I look like a God to you? Or a leader? Jeez, this is kind of a stupid question, I just-- Wow, being a God is a pretty big thing, you know? I don't feel like one, and it's weird to think of..."
Charles hums thoughtfully, crouching back down so that he's more on John's level. "Let's see. To me..." He smiles. "I'd say you look like John."
There's a moment of silence.
"Holy shit that is so cheesy," laughs John, and before Charles can reply, there are arms wrapped around his neck and he's toppling backwards with John hugging him and giggling.