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The fire and the smoke make it hard to see, even harder to breathe. He can hear the yelling and crying and other noises from outside, a few car horns, sirens, the faintest whisper of Eli’s voice commanding people to safety.
He keeps whispering iwanttofindthelittlegirl again and again, but the fire’s licking his suit, trying to catch his cape and set him ablaze and he keeps getting distracted, the blue of his magic flickering on and off, as though he was going out of batteries.
There’s an ominous creak above him, the building caving in on itself, structurally unsound and unsafe and a lot of other un words he definitely doesn’t have time to be thinking about, the girl’s mother’s voice echoing inside of him as if he was hollow, all please and help me and my baby and jesus and she’s my entire world.
“iwanttofindthelittlegirliwanttofindthelittlegirliwanttofindthelittlegirl.”
Teddy had looked at the woman with sad eyes, had taken in her soot covered face with contrition and pain and so much empathy and Billy had felt the pain from everything hitting him double, had thought no and I need to find her at once.
He’d put a hand on Teddy’s shoulder, and Teddy had looked at him, a question on his bright blue eyes for the few seconds it took him to get it and say Bill, Billy, no, it’s too dangerous, the building, it won’t hold much longer, let me, I can-- a little frenzied and trying to reach out for him, hands green and big.
Only Billy had already began to cast himself away, away into the suffocating heat and smoke, and the ominous noises of the wood and concrete and and beams all around him wanting to give over him. He’d only had time to look into the woman’s thankful and teary eyes and to give Teddy one last glance, to blurt out a rushed and tiny sorry, I’ll be back before he was stumbling on a glowing orange hallway with the sheer momentum of his magic, flames engulfing everything as far as he could see.
Right now, while he’s trying to make way through what’s left of this house, trying to enfold himself on a protective shield, and alternating between calling for the girl, and trying to spell himself to her location, tripping over debris and his own feet because he can’t see, he’s starting to think that maybe this wasn’t his best decision ever and maybe Eli and Nate were right when they’d reached the uncanny consensus that he should work on his impulsiveness. (He’d snarked at them that Rebecca Kaplan would be so proud of all their progress, and Eli had just thrown his hands in the air, looked at Nate like see? but Billy knew them pretty well by then and two hours later they’d been eating fries from a street stand, Nate looking like a kid out of time with a plastic fork, and Eli complaining about library patrons who messed with his careful arrangements.)
Maybe he should have told Teddy he loved him before going away. Maybe he should’ve gone for one last kiss or something. Leave him something to remember the stupid boyfriend who wouldn’t listen to reason.
Stop it, Kaplan, he scolded himself. And began chanting iwanttofindthelittlegirl once more.
This time he feels the current of his power running up and down the lengths of his arms, feels it nesting in his chest, pulsing, and he knows it’s working, so he chants louder, faster, tries believing harder, thinking I’m gonna save this kid, I’m gonna get her back to her mom.
And then he was crouched under a tiny secluded desk, completely surrounded by fire and fallen rubble from the floors above, smoke a few feet above his head, a toddler crying into a corner, hands covering her face as she hiccupped and called out for her mom.
“Hey,” he tries being soothing, tries softening his voice like he’d do with Ben after he had a nightmare and came looking for him to battle the monsters under his bed away, “hey, I’m getting you back to your mom, okay?”
The girl looks at him, too upset to even be surprised by his sudden appearance, and she takes a few seconds to pass judgment on him before she’s nodding, tears falling from her dark eyes onto her chubby, ash covered cheeks.
She reaches her arms toward him and he doesn’t think before hugging her to him, covering her with his tattered cape and just thinking away.
They are on the street barely a second before the entire building collapses, going down like a house of cards before their eyes.
"I love you," Teddy whispers it against the skin of his cheek, against his lips before kissing him dirty and messy and needy, the little girl and her mom right next to them, crying onto each other. Holding on for dear life just like Teddy and Billy themselves. "Billy Kaplan, I love you, and I hate you. Never do that to me again."
Billy can only nod, only has it in him to chase Teddy's lips, to put his hand on the back of Teddy's thicker neck, to squeeze and reassure Teddy he’s here, with him.
"Yes, yes, I love you, I'm sorry," and he is. He is so young and so sorry, and being a superhero is rewarding and beautiful and scary and Teddy is everything, and they haven't done more than make out and hold hands but he is so in love, they both are. And Billy's heart, okay, it's breaking and mending and soaring. And he could keep on kissing Teddy forever, covered in soot and tasting like ash, and whispering I love yous.
Eli bursts their bubble, of course. Because this is how their lives work, now.
"Asgardian! Hulkling! No civilian names! And no sucking face until after cleanup!"
They have to smile into the kiss, just a featherlight touch of their happiness and relief until they have to pull away from each other and go back to being superheroes.
(Superheroes!)