Billy Kaplan

This isn't exactly Billy's idea of where he'd wanted his afternoon to go, but after waking from a nightmare this morning, he's given in to Teddy's requests. Maybe spaced out, it wouldn't have been worrying -- he has nightmares, it comes with the territory. But having such specific nightmares where the main focus is his terror is a completely different animal. With all the steps the Council has been taking lately to talk to everyone, it makes sense to search them out.

And if anyone's going to make him feel any better about this, other than Teddy, it's Steve Rogers. It's not like Cap can go in his brain and punch the Skrulls back to their home planet, but simply telling him about it might help.

Billy gives Teddy one last look, and squeezes his boyfriend's hand. He loosens his grip, but after a moment of hesitation tightens it again. Teddy's often been his backbone when he needs it, and right now, Billy needs him.

He steps a little way into the Council office, poking his head in to see if anyone's actually there. Thankfully Cap is alone, and Billy only feels a slight bit of relief before he takes a deep breath. "Um...hi, Steve."

Lots of horrible things happen to super heroes. It's a fact of the hero life, Billy's knows, from all the comics he's read and hearing about the crazy things the Avengers and X-Men get up to. However you go into it, it's something you have to think about, and he'd been giving it a lot more thought ever since meeting Nathan and ending up on the island, missing two years of his own life.

It figures that some crappy stuff must have happened to him since, but that still doesn't make the nightmares any less terrifying, or confusing. Why should he get nightmares if he didn't even live through those events? They hardly ever make sense to Billy, and the only things he ever recognizes are a big green guy he's come to realize is Teddy, himself, and Skrulls.

Always Skrulls. Sometimes they're normal Skrulls, but sometimes, like tonight, it's the Super Skrull, and he's so hellbent on killing them -- on killing Teddy, that the fear chokes Billy up and has him gasping when he wakes.

It's about the fifth night of the same nightmare since he woke up with amnesia, and the adrenaline and fear pumping through his body tonight is enough that he doesn't even think before he gets out of bed. He pads down the staircase, in boxers alone, and walks over to the couch Teddy has been sleeping on since that first night.

Billy almost lets Teddy be; he looks peaceful and innocent, like none of the stress of being Billy's caretaker can touch him at night. And it sucks that he's about to do this, but he's still kind of shivering and he can't shake the image of Teddy hurt and bleeding, so he reaches out and gives his bare shoulder a firm shake.

"Teddy," he says, loud enough to rouse him, but not so much to startle him awake. "Teddy, please wake up."