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Two teenage boys, just loitering in one of the hallways. It was the scene out of your typical high school movie, but instead of thirty year old mortar and whitewashed cinderblock the walls were made of meat. And the boys were wearing plantsuits. And one of them was a magical superhero and the other was a walking biohazard.

Not that Steve had told Billy about that yet. He was... planning on it. He figured that Billy deserved to know such a thing so he could disgustedly cast Steve off like he rightfully should. But for right now their conversation was going too well.

Or pretty normally, at least. Steve very much appreciated the value of a normal conversation anymore. He was cool with keeping it going for a while.

"Isn't there anything we can do around here for fun?"

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Well there was worst ways to spend ones day. At least he was with a new friend, and not locked up in some prison or being tortured by aliens. Not that he'd... okay maybe the Warden of that one prison could be considered an alien. He sure had one working for him. And Billy'd been to prison. Twice. He shook his head at those memories.

"How would I know?" He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against the wall. His feet stretched out in front of him. He was super bored, and kinda wished they did have something to do.

"I don't know." Steve had just been hoping Billy might have done more and seen more aboard the ship in their time since coming here. Steve himself had been pretty preoccupied, what with T-Veronica and all the other miniature crises that seemed to follow him around.

"What do you like to do when you're not on a creepy spaceship?" Maybe that would be a start.

"I haven't had much time to really enjoy anything in the past two years. If I wasn't running from the government stooges, then I was fighting off alien invaders." He shrugged his shoulders and frowned. The Civil War had ended and just a few short months the Skrulls were invading. No rest for those who still called themselves heroes.

"But I normally just hung out with friends, watched movies, or played video games. Nothing real interesting."

Sounded pretty par for the course. Maybe he and Billy had more in common that Steve initially thought. "Me too," he said a little distractedly. "Except for the aliens and the government, I mean... that sounds. Interesting."

More interesting than Steve's life before anyway. Even though that wasn't really a bad thing, looking back. "Though I was working on my junior pilot license too. My uncle worked at an airfield."

"Since I learned that I can fly and teleport, flying in planes has freaked me out. Doesn't help that I can generate electricity. Makes traveling in anything large with any metal parts a risk." He shook his head slightly. He knew that Steve had been through a hell of a time, but he didn't know much else about him. It was the curse of video games. This was some neat info though.

Flying and teleporting. Jeez. Steve couldn't help but feel a little intimidated at this kid. It's not like it was a contest or anything, but... seriously.

"You hear about that school they're setting up?" he asked. "Are you gonna go?"

"I don't know. I wasn't really focusing on school back home, but I didn't need to. Not really." He shrugged a bit. "The world's not really going to be saved by a bunch of book smarts. But maybe.. just to keep from being bored."

He tilted his head at Steve and watched him for a minute. "You going?"

"If it keeps me from sitting around doing nothing all day, then definitely," Steve said with a shrug. Truth was, he was genuinely looking forward to it. Having something else to focus on would keep his mind off all his recent worries. And it would make this place feel more normal to him. He hadn't been to school since the day Umbrella came for his family... four months ago by his count, seven years or so by Claire's.

"Besides, they said something about mechanics and piloting, maybe."

"That'll be interesting." He looked over at Steve and smiled brightly. "I'm sure with all these people running around. Someone's bound to be teaching some piloting course. Personally, I'm hoping for some magic training."

"Maybe we'll both get lucky." He leaned back against the wall and folded his hands in his lap. "I could sure use the change of pace for a while. Everything kind of sucks right now."

"I think we can agree on that." He didn't want to think about what had happened before coming here. And now that he's here, he could focus on some typical things. Like making friends.

"Agreed, then," Steve said, smirking a little despite himself. He wondered if he should mention to Billy that part of that sucky happenings involved his recent shenanigans in the medical bay. He decided to put it off again for now.

And that still didn't give them anything to do. "So, um. Is there anybody else here you know? Like your parents or anyone?"

"If my parents were here, I'd be hiding. My mom's kinda crazy, and well.. I think my dad's a robot. Which I know, doesn't make any sense." He shook his head. Explaining Wanda and Vision to anyone always made him feel crazy.

"I do have a few of my friends here though. But I'm more interested in meeting all these new people. I'll always know my friends, but some of these people... could you imagine what places they come from?"

Steve wasn't quite sure what to reply to that, because "at least you have parents" struck him as being halfway insensitive and halfway pathetic. He merely nodded at that.

"I can't picture where they all could have come from. I actually can't believe half these people even exist," Steve agreed. That included Billy, as a matter of fact. The kid sounded like he came straight out of a comic book or something... though Steve was less inclined to think things like that after his whole zombie experience of late.

"It's the alternate universe thing. An endless amount of realities for every one. It's kinda mind blowing." He smiled a bit and titled his head to look at Steve. "But it's still cool."

Thinking about that for too long made Steve's head hurt. He'd put it off until sometime when he couldn't sleep.

"Yeah," he said. "Just makes you feel kinda... outclassed, you know?"

"Yeah, it kinda does. But then you think... you're the only one just like you in the whole of creation. No matter how many of you there might be, you are the only one who's lived through everything you have. Everyone else is different because they couldn't have made the exact same choices you made." He smiled a bit. So he sounded a bit more nerdy than he ever wanted too.

Billy really was a nerd. Steve considered his philosophical little tangent and came to a pretty abrupt conclusion that any other versions of him out there had it a lot better than he did and he envied them. He wondered if any of them were cooler than him.

"Ever wish you could be one of them?" he asked.

"Nope. For all they might be, I still like who I am. I might want to change a few things about my life. But I'm pretty happy with how it's all turned out." He shrugged a bit, knowing that Steve brought thought the opposite.

"Well that's... good," Steve said. For you. He stared a little bitterly across the hall, then let out a little sigh and relaxed. No use in moping about anything. It was good for Billy that he was happy with the way things were.

"I don't know. My life sucks pretty hard right now. I bet any other me's got it way better," he said after a moment.

"You say that now, but what if they have it worse? They do say that there's always someone who has it worse out there." He tries to smile but it's forced. It was hard to think of how Steve's life could have been worse.

"I'm not so sure about that," he sighed, then went silent.

But he didn't really want to say anything else about it. Billy didn't need to hear about all Steve's problems, because there were a lot of them and the last thing he wanted was pity. He didn't need anyone falling all over themselves because they felt sorry for him.

"So what about those aliens you mentioned?" he said, trying to change the subject.

"Depends on what aliens you want to hear about. We've got good ones, like my boyfriend, then we got the bad ones... like the Super Skrull. Skrulls are shapeshifters, and they can basically be anyone they want. They also heal really fast, and can move their organs and stuff around.. so killing them's really hard. Teddy... my boyfriend. His birth mother was the Queen of the Skrulls. His dad though was a Kree. A super strong warrior." He shook his head and frowned. He seemed to be completely controlling this conversation.

Sure he knew that Steve didn't want to think about what he had been going through, but hadn't his mom always said that 'Talking it out helps'? Maybe Steve just needed to vent.

"Enjoy about me. Steve, you tell me about you. Your life, what happened back home, why you don't talk about anything."

Steve had to pretend like he understood everything Billy was talking about. It made sense if he just listened like he would to somebody talking about a science fiction movie. Skrulls... sounded like something out of a movie.

"Wait," he said after a few seconds. "You have a boyfriend?" Not like it was. Weird or anything. Just. Good to know, he supposed. "That's... cool."

Then Billy pressed for him to do some more talking. Steve's expression sank and he immediately clammed up, crossing his arms over his chest. "My life's not interesting," he said. "I don't talk because there's nothing to say."

"Yeah, I have a boyfriend.. but he's not here.. or hasn't awoke yet." He shook his head and then frowned.

"There's gotta be something."

"Not really," Steve replied insistently. "I mean. Rockfort. But who cares about that? That's nothing worth talking about."

Or nothing that he wanted to talk about, anyway.

"I'm sure it wasn't. But do it anyways." Billy knew he might be pushing it. But Steve needed to talk about it. It had to be killing him inside.

Steve sighed audibly this time. "I told you there's not much to say. I was in prison and there were zombies. Why do you care so much anyway?"

He didn't say anything. Not really trusting himself... but at the mention of zombies, he tensed. It was the whole reason he always played the game when Teddy was around. He hated zombies.

"It's not a big deal," Steve went on, leaning his head back to look at the ceiling. "I'm totally over it."

Ladies and gentlemen, the lie of the century. And Steve didn't even sound sure about it.

"Riiiiiight. And the sky's purple." He shook his head. "If you don't want to talk about it. Just say that. But please don't bullshit to me. I'm not an idiot." He looked over at Steve. "Other than the zombie thing... I think I've seen enough to not be freaked out by your past. I've seen aliens, been erased from time, helped fight a war, fought off an invasion, my dad's a robot, my mom's crazy.. I think I can deal."

His face sank into something of a glare, and Steve turned to Billy incredulously. "Of course you wouldn't be freaked out by my past. It isn't yours!" he snapped. "It wasn't your mother who got executed in the living room of your own house, and it wasn't your dad who you had to kill yourself!"

He turned back away, glaring across the hall. "So I don't want to talk about it. Lay off!"

Billy just stared for a minute. He didn't really know what to say to that. Sure he'd known it. But hearing Steve say it, and the emotion behind it. He hung his head and bit into his bottom lip.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed like that. My... adopted mom.. she's a therapist. And well... I guess I've lived with her too long."

Steve was moodily silent for an uncomfortably long time, then he lowered his head a little, staring at the floor.

"It's okay," he mumbled. "You didn't know." It was probably better that he really believed that.

"Yeah... but I'm still sorry." He shook his head a bit and then bit into his bottom lip again.

"Hey, do you have anyone from your world here? A friend maybe? Anyone?"

"Yeah," Steve replied. "Claire's here." Which really, made everything a thousand times more tolerable. Claire was the only person who really gave a damn if Steve lived or died, and the only person he could really trust.

"She took me in at the precinct down in the city, so I live down there," he explained. "And her... friend Leon lives there too, so he's from our world, but I don't know him." Or particularly care to.

"Leon...." Billy's eyes widened a bit. "Leon Kennedy's here too?" He shook his head. He couldn't squeal in front of Steve about it. He wasn't going to explain that Leon was one of the guys he had posters of on his wall back home. That would mean explaining that Steve's from a video game, and that would be bad.

Not to mention Steve was not very fond of Leon. His being Claire's friend made it better, but he also spent an awful lot of time with her and according to the going story, knocked her up without making an honest woman of her.

Plus he kept looking at Steve funny.

"Yeah. I think that's his name," Steve said with a shrug. "He's some security guy around here or something. He's at the precinct too." Probably wishes I wasn't.

"Wow." He shook his head. He could see that Steve didn't care much for Leon, but it was Leon Kennedy! Billy's little fanboy mind wanted to scream and dance around. But he just shifted on the ground.

"Well at least Claire's here. I'm guessing her brother isn't though, right?" If he was, Billy wasn't keeping the squeal in.

"No, he's not. But Claire's real worried about him," said Steve. "I don't know if she'd be happy or not if he showed up... though I guess the way this ship works, if he's here already then he's here, right?" There was no telling how many people were stuck in those creepy pods in there. The entire population of Earth... multiple earths, even, could be imprisoned in that gross alien slime.

Steve still wasn't getting his hopes up about a few. That was just setting himself up for disappointment.

"Would you be happy if he showed up?" The question came out of his mouth before he could stop it. He didn't know how Steve felt about Chris, and he couldn't really tell just by listening to him.

"I don't know," Steve said with a shrug. "I don't even know the guy. Never met him. If it would make Claire happy then sure, I'd like it if he were here for her."

"But what about you? We need someone here that would make you happy. Anyone like that around?"

Steve eyed Billy a little suspiciously.

"No," he said simply. "Not really." Steve's main person like that was already here. The other two were his parents and they were both dead.

Not that that really ruled them out from showing up, but Steve wasn't holding out any hope for it.

"Oh." Well that ended that hope. Billy bit into his bottom lip and tried to think of something, anything, that might help cheer Steve up.

"Those Sensoriums, they can turn into any setting we want right? Like... a video game? We could go and run around and play some game or something." No Billy was not thinking about letting that place put them back on the island... maybe Raccoon City though. Show Steve what Claire went through... even if he hated the fact that there'd be zombies.

He'd been avoiding the Sensoriums actually, if only because he wasn't sure how sensitive they were to monitoring a person's thoughts. If Steve stepped into one with Billy and they were immediately given virtual constructs of Steve's parents and his house, Steve would have abruptly died in mortified shame. A minute or so after he finished crying hysterically.

God he was such a fucking head case.

"That could be cool," he said, and did sound somewhat intrigued. Maybe not for zombies, though.

"So what's your favorite kind of video game? I like the fantasy role play ones myself. But a good fighting game or first person shooter are good too." He stood up and held out a hand to help Steve up. Really wanting to just go so where. They were starting to look weird sitting in the hallway.

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