Billy Batson's Big Birthday Bash

[sayshazam]

If it had been anyone else Billy totally would have begged off hanging out with them after work that night. He had school the next day and was a little tired but he'd have to be mostly dead before he cancelled on his girlfriend. Even then he'd probably do his best to make it to her, especially with everything she was going through right now. She'd told him to just let himself into her place, which gave him a good idea of how she was feeling.

Sliding off Naga as he arrived at her apartment building he sent the polar bear dog off to do whatever it did when not hanging around with Billy. Eat fish and bother Ellie, probably. Izzy had a lot of black clothes and it turned out polar bear dog fur was kind of a pain to get off of fabric so he figured .

Heading up to her apartment he fought back a yawn as he adjusted his backpack. It wasn't even that late but maybe he could just crash at Izzy's place tonight and head straight to school from here. It would definitely save him some time.

Testing the door he found it unlocked and pushed it open. Anyone else he would have definitely said something about how dangerous it was but if someone broke into Izzy's apartment to rob her then they were totally the ones in danger.

"Babe, you in?" he called out, frowning when the lights weren't on. That didn't seem like a great thing, if she was here with the lights off. "I brought some food from work if you're hungry..."

[ooc: Tag Billy by shouting "surprise" at him or hit him up after that while he's wandering around the party. Feel free to tag each other too.]

Comments

[deflectere]

"I'm fine," he said, straightening up once Billy got closer. "It's fine. No need to cover for me on your birthday. I'm really okay. And if you tell Iz there was a monster attack, she'll want to come along."

He couldn't quite muster a smile but he nodded to try and reassure Billy.

"How's it feel being older? Any different?"

[sayshazam]

"It feels weird," Billy said, frowning a bit. It was weird to think of himself as old or older. When he'd gone through his growth spurt he totally felt bigger but he didn't think he'd really felt older.

"Like... when do I start feeling like an adult? Because I totally don't feel like an adult."

[deflectere]

Alec didn't really have an answer for that. He'd felt like an adult for years now. Between taking care of his siblings and his duties, his childhood had been pretty much nonexistent.

"I don't even know what an adult really feels like," Alec said with a shrug. "More responsible? More boring? If that's the case, then I've been an adult since birth."

It was the best attempt he'd made at a joke since the news about Max and Alec was surprised he'd managed even that.

[sayshazam]

"You're not enough of a hypocritical asshole to be an adult," Billy said, although he wasn't even sure if he believed that's what being an adult was anymore. It had definitely seemed like it a few year ago but, you know, kids were dumb. Now that he was older and wiser he had some different ideas about being an adult.

"I mean... feeling like I know the answers to important stuff. Because I feel pretty clueless about things like that."

[deflectere]

Alec almost cracked a smile at that. He did nod his head in acceptance of Billy's observation. Alec knew he was a lot of things, most of them negative, but he tried not to lie and he tried to walk the talk, so to speak. If he said he was going to do something, he did it. He didn't want to not do something and criticize someone else for not doing the same thing.

"What do you consider the important stuff?" Alec asked him curiously. "What questions do you want to know the answers to?"

[sayshazam]

"Ummm, what should I do with the rest of my life? The answer to that question would be super useful," he said, only sort of kidding. It would totally be nice to know but he didn't expect Alec to have the answer to that question. His friend knew from the moment he was born what he was going to spend his life doing.

"Also maybe how come there's a double-u sound in 'one' but no double-u but a double-u in 'two' but we don't make the sound? That totally bothers me."

[deflectere]

Alec found himself staring at Billy before slowly shaking his head. He probably would have cracked a smile on a regular day but this was no regular day. He still felt a little lighter for a second or two.

"That's quite the thing to spend your time thinking about," Alec remarked mildly. "I don't know the answers to either of your questions. The first because that's something you have to decide. The second because I leave the pronunciation of words up to dictionaries. If it bothers you, maybe you should try changing the rules."

[sayshazam]

"I remember teachers back home said it was something about how English was made up of a bunch of different languages so the rules aren't messed up, they work for the language they're from," Billy said. It had really annoyed him at the time because he'd been trying to catch his teachers in some sort of lie, like there was no point in learning the rules.

"Man, I can't believe I totally just repeated something one of my teachers said," he added, making a face.

[deflectere]

"At least you paid attention in school," Alec said, sounding very lightly amused. School was one of those mundane (or so he'd thought) things that he'd never really understood or cared about. There was no need to go to school to learn about ridiculous topics that focused on the mundane world when he'd never be a part of it.

"We had tutors. Or a tutor," he said with a shrug. "He didn't say things like that."

Hodge was more to the point and brusque when it came to lessons and his statements tended to involve more mention of demons and death.

[sayshazam]

"Right, you guys were all memorizing names that could make your swords all... glowing and stuff," he said. Billy had almost said "bedazzled" but didn't want to offend Alec since they used names of angels or something to give their weapons lightsaber powers. Billy was pretty sure it was okay if he called it "bedazzling" since his magic just shortened the names of actual gods to one letter but still. Not a disagreement he wanted to have with Alec right now.

"And I mean, most of my teacher said stuff like 'Billy Batson you'll never amount to anything'. At least that's the stuff I really remember."

[deflectere]

"They said that to you?" Alec was surprised only because he thought public schools and public education were supposed to be encouraging in a positive way. He'd heard sentiments like that thrown at him before but he'd thought mundanes (and he knew Billy wasn't a mundane but he'd lived in the midst of them) weren't like that.

"I bet it was satisfying to show them up," Alec said, nodding. "I'd say you've amounted to something."

[sayshazam]

"Yeah but I kinda don't blame them," Billy admitted. He was totally a little shit back then and probably wouldn't have amounted to anything if he didn't start to change. Yeah teachers probably shouldn't say that kinda stuff to a student but they hadn't exactly been wrong at the time.

"But I've mostly made something of myself because of people helping me. But I totally decided to accept their help so that counts. Go me."

[deflectere]

"Go you," Alec repeated with a nod of his head. He was sincere, though, because he knew how hard it was to ask for help. Alec himself hated asking for help because he thought it was admitting weakness, vulnerability and the last thing he was trained to do was to show any sort of fear.

"There's no shortage of people who want to help here either," Alec noted, glancing around. "My sister would be the first one in line."

[sayshazam]

"Izzy helps without evening meaning to," Billy said. That was one of the most amazing things about her. Even more than being a Shadownhunter and all that it was how she made people better without thinking it was any special thing. "I mean, yeah she does stuff like this but she also just... she makes me want to be a better person because of who she is."

[deflectere]

Though outwardly his expression didn't change, hearing that brought Alec a measure of contentment and respect that he hadn't had in weeks. Max was still heavy on his mind but hearing that his sister had found someone who thought like this eased his battered mind slightly.

"You're a good guy, Billy," Alec told him, nodding. "I'm glad you're with my sister. I'm glad she has someone like you."

[sayshazam]

Billy flushed a bit at the compliment. He knew how much Alec loved his sister so the fact that he thought Billy was a good person to be with her was pretty much the highest compliment he could get. But he wasn't going to make it totally weird or anything.

"Thanks, I try. And I should probably go say hi to other people at the party since they're here to see me."