freaks of nature - stenbrough

-13-

Betty sat in the plastic cage with Stanley. It was in the middle of nowhere, almost hovering. If he were to breakout, he would just fall to his death. They'd removed all metal. Metal handcuffs, guns, badge pin, watches, rings. Everything that could possibly be metal was gone. To get to and from the cage, the agents had a motion censor bridge that formed as they walked towards him.

Stanley had his knees up to his chest sitting on the plastic chair by a table. A chess set was on the table between him and Betty. She'd made him laugh a few times, but she could tell he was spaced out.

"Are you sure nothing is going on between you and Bill? You guys looked very suspicious."
"Yes I'm sure," Stanley responded, hugging his knees.
"What are we, Stan?"
"I don't know you're kinda keeping me in a cage. Where's my kippah?"
"I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do about you being in here, but I can s is about getting your Kippah back."
"Thanks."
"So what are we?"
"I don't know."
"I can talk to Stryker. I can see if he'll let you work here like Bill and I."

Bill and I. Stanley had almost forgotten that Bill was with them. The words felt like a dagger in his chest. He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe before turning his head away and responding.

"I don't want to talk about this right now."
"Okay."
"Go...please."

Betty nodded and stood up. She walked over to the door and waited for the bridge to form.

"Think about it at least?"

Stanley simply nodded. Betty accepted the answer.

"Bye, Stan."

He didn't answer. He kept staring off to the side while gripping his legs. Betty left without another word.

Stanley was confused. He'd kissed Bill. He'd initiated it. He wanted to. And Bill had kissed back. Even though he wondered what would've happened if they didn't get interrupted, part of him didn't want to know. He felt too close to Bill to be able to love him. For some reason their mutations were connected and maybe it wasn't a good thing. Maybe they were connected on another level which would make a relationship impossible. Stanley wasn't sure. Sure of what was going to happen next, sure of what he was going to choose, sure of whether he liked the possibility of having a relationship with Bill. He felt as if he was losing himself, slowly, but that was the one thing he was sure of.

Stanley rested his forehead down on his knees and held back a sob. He felt like all he'd been doing is crying, but it was the only thing he felt like he could do. For the first time in months he couldn't feel any metal anywhere near him and he felt empty. He wondered if Bill was reading his mind or if he could even reach his mind.

"Bill..." he whispered, "if you're listening to my thoughts right now...I'm sorry. I don't know why I kissed you, but I didn't hate it. It was a nice kiss and I don't know how to feel right now...I'm just confused. So much is going on right now and I don't know how to process all of it. I love you...at least, I think I do."

There was no response so he just assumed that Bill wasn't reading his thoughts. A tear slowly rolled down his cheek.

——

"Bill..." Stanley's voice echoed in his mind, "if you're listening to my thoughts right now...I'm sorry. I don't know why I kissed you..."

Stanley was becoming harder to reach. His voice slowly faded and Bill cousins find his mind anymore. Bill didn't care that Stryker knew he was using his mutation. What Stanley said hurt him.

I don't know why I kissed you.

Bill felt his heart slowly breaking ad he kept replaying those seven words over and over in his mind. He stood up and walked over to the door. He rested his forehead against the small window and closed his eyes. He had been thinking about it for a while and maybe working for them wouldn't be so bad.

"Stryker," Bill cried, "I-I'll do what're y-you w-want just please l-let me out. I'll track down all th-the mutants you want just d-don't keep me i-in here."

Bill stood there for a few moments, waiting for Stryker and surely enough, he arrived.

"You promise not to kill anymore of my agents?"
"Y-yes...I'll do wh-whatever you w-want. Just l-leave Stan and m-my family out of it...please."
"Fine by me."

Stryker unlocked the door and cuffed Bill. He lead him down the long hallway to the Cerebro room Bill unfortunately knew all to well. He vowed to never use it to find his friends and put them on the MHA's radar which seemed to work well enough. He thought that if he was going to work for a government agency, he'd try to leave his friends out of it.

Bill walked past Jason's room and stopped. He looked in and Stryker tried to push him away. Bill kept his feet planted.

"What'd y-you do t-to him?"
"Not important. Keep moving."

Be careful. That machine will fry your brain, Jason's voice echoed.

"Well th-that's just great," Bill muttered allowing Stryker to push him away, closer to the Cerebro room.

Bill was ready to accept he'd never be able to form full sentences again, when he felt another pair of hands undoing his handcuffs.