Chapter Text
The first time Josh goes to heal Julian, who has badly sprained his ankle, he approaches with the mindlessly reflexive duty of an assigned healer. It's much to his surprise that Julian screams and fights him with human ferocity until he remembers his telekinesis and pushes him off that way. Elixir is infuriated, plus gets a swollen eye for his trouble. He can get rid of it in the mirror, of course, but it's the principle of the thing. He keeps mumbling, "'m a goddamn healer--fucking helping you."
Julian doesn't let him make any attempt to heal him any time through recovering, though Josh is too offended to extend very much goodwill. It's odd though--Julian never particularly appreciated being touched, but he relaxes a little about Foley being close once he is sourly told that he doesn't even want to heal Julian since he's being a jackass.
The truth is, after what the doctors did to him as a kid, Julian hates it all: doctors, nurses, hospitals, labcoats. And a medical worker is basically what Josh Foley is. Julian has no plans to let Foley heal him, ever.
And then he gets shot.
It's stupid, really. Some fucking bigots with guns and a school full of mutants. Julian gets distracted from shielding for one second trying to get some younger kids to safety and bam, he takes one in the thigh.
He knows they have to take the bullet out. They only allow him one visitor while they get him fixed up, and he wants to say Sofia and get the shit doted out of him. But really, he knows it's entirely possible he will lose his shit the second they get him on the table chair thing, so he picks Cessily instead because he doesn't have to look good for her.
She offers her hand to squeeze before they start and he squeezes so hard he squishes her hand out of shape. He's still sweating--well, bullets--and he keeps losing his cool and barking at Dr. McCoy and trying to fight him off. They consider physically restraining him but then Cess, the lifesaver that she is, suggests they bring in the pheromone girl to help take the edge off.
The girl takes a seat near Julian, polite and shy and very awkward, and works her magic. Julian relaxes despite himself and it helps a lot. It's not like he wants to nearly crawl out of his skin every time there's a labcoat nearby, no matter if there are rods involved or not. His bleeding goes sluggish as his heart rate goes down and he stops fighting, so Beast can finally get to it, and he has the bullet out within the minute.
They tell Wallflower she can go as Foley approaches, and Julian looks at Cess in--not really panic but hazy concern. She understands perfectly like she always does, and reaches out and takes the girl's hand, making her jump. "Could you stay a bit longer, actually, Laurie? Just in case." The girl nods, a bit wide-eyed, and sits back down.
Foley takes a look at the wound. "Bet if it didn't make it hard to walk you'd push me right off so you could get a tough guy battle scar, huh, Julian?" he says. Julian, in an action he blames entirely on the pheromones, laughs.
"Maybe next time," Josh says, and puts his hands on Julian.
Julian watches between Foley's fingers, feels the rush of tissue reknitting as the chaos of injury resolves itself and settles into a thigh that has everything in its proper place. He feels a warm heady glow infused into the tissue, apart from what's already affecting his head. It's intoxicating. Between the pheromones and this, he hasn't felt this good in ages.
Josh's hands leave Julian and he showily wipes his brow. Julian doesn't even care when Josh pats his thigh. "Now don't do something that stupid again any time soon, dumbass."
"Who, me? I'm a one hundred percent responsible safe guy," Julian drawls. Cessily laughs.
"Well, hey. More practice for me if you get hurt. And pain builds character, so maybe it'll build you into not an asshole."
"You wish."
They smile at each other, both a little addled, and Julian (not in his right mind of course) decides Josh isn't so bad after all.
--
The next time is after M-Day, when Vic tackles Julian during a football game and breaks his arm. Julian had still been avoiding getting help for his smaller injuries, but this one is serious enough that he can't plausibly say he's fine and walk it off without people seriously wondering what his deal is. That is, people other than Cessily, Santo, and some teachers and telepaths, who know his deal and are sworn to silence to hell and back. And of course Josh, who only knows he has a deal.
Vic is apologising profusely when Foley comes running at him, but Julian can't hear over his hammering heart. He almost thinks it would be better for everyone to know than for him to face this. By the time Elixir arrives--time is all slow because of pain and adrenaline and panic--Julian is determined to back out. "Don't you touch me, Foley," he shouts. "Don't you fucking dare!"
"Julian." Josh is crouched by his side and he's staring at him. Everyone is staring. Julian is seriously losing his cool.
"Seriously, Foley, swear to fucking god if you touch me I'll give you a lot damn worse than this!"
"Julian. Dude. There's bone--it's literally sticking out--Julian." He makes a grab at Julian, who jerks away so hard he jostles his arm and howls in pain.
"Jules," says Santo, a little stunned.
Julian glances around and yells, "What are you all looking at?" Everyone takes a step back, and Cessily starts shepherding people away.
"Hey," Foley says softly. He holds his hands up to Hellion, palms out. Julian whips around to look at him, breathing hard.
Josh's golden eyes are steady on his. Julian loses track for a moment of where he is and what's going on. "Wh--Foley--"
"It's okay." Josh puts a hand on his shoulder and brushes Julian's hair back. "You're going to be all right, okay?" His voice is gentle and even, and he's still making such perfect eye contact that Hellion can't quite focus. Irises shouldn't shine like that, the shadow is all off, he can almost see his reflection--did Foley touch his hair--?
Josh gently takes Julian's wrist and runs his fingers up to his elbow. Julian hisses and tries to pull away, but Josh is already putting everything back into place. Julian's arm suffuses with warmth and pleasure, and he manages to tear his eyes off Elixir's in time to watch his wound close under Josh's fingers. The tips of them move over the healed skin as if to rub the last of the wound away.
"There," Josh says in a louder, cheerful voice that brings Julian back to earth. He thumps him on the back and grins. "Good as new." Foley grabs Julian's wrist and works his elbow back and forth. "Didn't have to get so worked up about it, did you, asshole? Didn't turn it to rubber or anything. Fixed you up twice now, so maybe you can stop flipping the fuck out every time."
Julian yanks his arm back. "Cocky douchebag. You're so full of shit."
The others approach again to take a look, and breathe sighs of relief. Hellion dusts himself off and says, louder, "Maybe I'm not dying for a chance to get manhandled, ever think of that? Not super eager to put my life in the hands of an asshole I know has a problem with me."
"Hey, it's you who has a problem with me!"
They stare each other down.
Cessily looks around at the others and sighs. "I think we're done with football today."
--
Julian stays up late that night watching TV, finding it hard to sleep. He keeps feeling at his elbow unconsciously, and surfing channels.
He would have told Foley to fuck off, if he had heard the goddamn barefoot ninja coming.
"Hey," says Josh, dropping onto the couch beside him. The one mercy is that he doesn't say 'can't sleep?'.
Julian grunts in response. They sit for a while, Josh's eyes trained on the changing channels.
"So, what's the deal?" is Elixir's inevitable question. When Julian stays stubbornly silent, he goes on, "You don't go crazy like that on missions or anything. You keep your head and shit. But this, you start going nuts when I try to heal you." He reaches out and touches Julian's shoulder.
"The hell are you doing?"
"See? That's not panic." Foley drops his hand. "That's just you being a crusty asshole like always. So what's your deal with the healing shit that makes it so bad?"
"Seriously never ever going to tell you," says Julian. He flicks the channel back to pro wrestling.
"The Cuckoos know, right? And Miss Frost?"
"They won't tell you either," says Julian, gritting his teeth to keep his voice even.
"Seriously? The Cuckoos tell you anything you ask."
"The Cuckoos won't tell anyone because--look, it's pretty bad, all right, they figure nobody needs to know that shit."
Elixir raises his eyebrows in surprise.
"They think it's disgusting. They don't spread shit like that." Julian hunkers over his lap and stares at the TV. "Seriously."
Foley is still staring.
"Fucking stop that!" Julian barks, and nearly throws the remote at his head. "They pity me for what happened, all right? They don't even think I deserved it for being a freak or even for being an asshole, they pity me and I hate it but it means they won't tell anyone, so fucking whatever."
"Freak like a mutant?" There's empathy in Josh's eyes. His hand goes back to Julian's shoulder, and Hellion shakes him off irritably like a horse shaking flies.
"No. Look. Just get off my back. I wasn't born normal, all right? Not even mutant shit, well, I guess mutant shit but not like capital M X-Men Mutant shit."
Josh is trying to read his face or something. Julian doesn't want to deal with it, so he continues. "Point is, my parents got me some surgery, and I was a baby so nobody asked me what I wanted, and they--my body's messed up now and my mom didn't even believe me til I was like twelve. And the doctor had still been doing, like--you don't want to know what he did. Said it was post-op follow-up stuff. But it was fucked up. It fucked me up." He stops and grits his teeth. "All right? That's as good as you're gonna get."
Josh pauses to think about it. "So like, you had webbed toes or something?"
Julian does throw the remote at him.
Foley splutters and grabs Julian by the collar. They glare daggers at each other, but neither of them wants to duke it out. Julian finally shoves Josh off and they break eye contact. The Rock piledrives some loser and the audience goes wild.
"...Could I heal it? Reverse the surgery that went wrong?" Josh finally asks.
Julian's eyes go wide. "What, you mean--could you? Undo that?"
"Maybe I could." Josh looks at him. Julian wishes he weren't as big on serious eye contact as he is, but Elixir stares him right down.
It's tempting. It really is; to start over, to even put his body the way it should be, but. "No. Not you," says Julian, looking away again. "Someone who's not you maybe I'd consider it. A hot girl I wouldn't mind putting her hands on me."
Elixir stares at him in disbelief. "If you haven't noticed, we're a little short on healing mutants, dude."
"Well forget it. It's bad enough letting you get at a broken arm, okay? Just drop it."
Foley opens his mouth to argue, and this is going in a direction Julian doesn't like, so he cuts him off. "Anyway, I think I know why Alleyne gets so many cuts and shit. For being such an anal overcautious jackass."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's an excuse to get himself healed."
Josh looks at him blankly.
Julian looks back. "Nobody ever told you? The healing is like--it's got some kind of orgasm-giving side effect."
Josh's eyes go wide and his jaw goes a little slack. He looks like an idiot. "Orgasms?"
"Whoa, dude, not like orgasms orgasms." Julian leans away defensively. "It just feels good, it's not like that. Well, not for me. but I could see Alleyne making that association. He's kind of that way."
Josh rubs his face. "I don't even want to think about--David being--David, like, hurting himself? To get me to heal him?"
"No. More like maybe he's just a little risky, careless. Or takes all the dangerous jobs around here. I don't know, man," Julian says, crossing his arms, "Anybody who dates Ashida is probably a kinky freak on some level."
"Well, he is dating her now, which means he's not being weird with me." Foley crosses his arms back and hunches defensively. "Jesus."
"Whatever you say, bro." Julian changes the channel to Mythbusters, because they would have to actually pay attention to it and stop talking. And then for reasons unbeknownst to himself, he switches it to halfway through some gory adult anime.
They watch a guy's hands get cut off with a samurai sword, and then his head.
"So is the uh--the pleasure thing. Is that going to make this easier or harder, in the future?"
"This?"
"Me healing you and/or you flipping out." Elixir looks over at him. "Does the pleasure make it better or worse?"
Julian stares back at him. "I don't think I'm going to answer that."
"No, seriously!" Josh leans earnestly over.
"That's fucking weird as hell, dude--"
"Oh come on, don't be a baby, you know what I mean--"
"Easier, okay. It makes it--Jesus--there's just something to look forward to about it. Okay? Fuckin' a."
They stare at each other in silence. Julian irritably looks away.
"Well. Good," says Josh finally. He leans back into the couch. "That's good."
They say nothing and don't look at each other. Finally Julian runs his hands through his hair. "Go to bed, Foley."
"Nah," Josh says, tilting his head toward the ceiling. "I can't sleep either. Maybe we could play a game."
"A game?"
Josh looks back at him. "You got any Pokémon cards?"
If Julian smiles, it's only in anticipation of the asskicking Josh is going to receive.