A Song of Sparks and Water (Aqualad)

Participants: Static, Kaldur'ahm
Open/Closed: Closed
Location(s): San Francisco 
Time of Day:
Mid Day
Weather:
Beautiful. Warm, sunny, no clouds
Summary: Virgil, while on a date, has his day interrupted by Kaldur and a Teen Titans Mission

~~~

Virgil had been a member of the Teen Titans a couple of times now. His stints had always seemed to get interrupted by other things, which all usually saw Virgil heading back home to Dakota City. While Virgil loved his hometown, he did always wish his stays with the Teen Titans could be longer than they had been. It seemed this time would be different, as Virgil had now been in town with the team for abut a month. It actually had been enough time that Virgil had gotten time to interact with the team some more, as well as meet others in San Francisco. In fact, one of these people he had met had agreed to go out on a bit of a coffee date with him.

Having met with the other teen, Gina Brown, a few days prior while out with some others from the team, the two exchanged numbers and agreed on meeting up when they both had free time. Virgil had let his team know about his date and asked to not be pulled away from it unless it was something serious.

Virgil and Gina met by one of the cities parks before heading to a Sundollar Cafe near by. As the two waited in line, Virgil's phone went off.

Kaldur: Hey, you're close by, Mammoth just got out and is heading in your direction. I'm on my way there, but I could us your help. Sorry for interrupting your date

"Who was that?"

"Oh, just work. I told them I couldn't come in today and they're asking for me to come in"

"Do you need to go? It's okay, we can do this another day?"

"Nah, I'm sure they'll be fine. Besides, I told them I had a date today, no way they'd try to butt in"

With the little exchange done, Virgil waited for Gina to order, then he followed with his own and paid for both. As the two waited for their drinks, Virgil received another message.

Kaldur: He escaped thanks to some Venom, so we have a Venom-juiced Mammoth. I could really use your help please.

Virgil once again assured Gina that it was fine, and the two took their drinks and sat down and began to make small talk. Really, if Kaldur needed help, why couldn't someone else in the Teen Titans help him? They knew he had plans today!

Of all the days for Mammoth to break out of jail and get hyped up on some Venom, it just had to be when everyone else was busy. When they'd left Kaldur'ahm alone at the Tower, it'd been with insistence that it should be a quiet day but if it wasn't, he obviously had people he could call, his teammates. Except majority of those teammates had then gotten roped into saving the day somewhere else - even Kid Flash, who could get anywhere at anytime, was busy! That left the one teammate who, while he was busy, he wasn't on a mission. Kaldur almost wished he'd been on a mission. Somehow interrupting a date felt worse.

But Virgil also wasn't answering his phone and he wasn't sure if he'd taken a communicator with him. That left Kaldur trying to remember where Virgil was going - He couldn't - and then checking his social media, which was much more helpful. Just as he'd hoped, Virgil was indeed closer than any of the others. Kaldur was texting him as he left the Tower but still no answer.

His first mistake was showing to the cafe in costume. Eyes were quickly on him because he was Aqualad and he fidgeted under the sudden attention, fully aware that he should have come in civvies and changed after convincing Virgil to help. His eyes searched for his teammate and it wasn't long before he found him. He briefly considered leaving only to return in civvies but Mammoth was causing chaos and the city could only take so much. He needed to be stopped.

Kaldur awkwardly made his way over, giving an awkward smile and wave to Virgil's date - Oh she seemed pretty and Virgil seemed to be enjoying himself. His guilt only increased. He was pretty sure he'd have to make this up to Virgil later, though he had no clue how he'd do that. He already planned to apologize multiple times.

"Hi," he said and winced at how lame that was, "I uh - Can I borrow you for a sec?" He directed the question at Virgil, giving him his best I'm so sorry smile. People were still staring, including Virgil's date.

"You're Aqualad."

"Uh - Yeah?"

She seemed as confused as one would have expected in Kaldur's opinion. "What do you need Virgil for?" she asked, pointing to the young man in question.

Kaldur's mind entirely blanked at the question. He hadn't thought this through at all and he really should have come in civvies instead. He opened his mouth to reply, no words came, and shut it. He looked from Virgil to Virgil's date. He needed an excuse. He needed to think of one quickly.

"He uh - He's... My boyfriend?" That was his second mistake. The second he realized what he'd said, his face heated up. He hadn't said it loud but the cafe as a whole suddenly sounded much quieter than he remembered. He couldn't bring himself to look toward Virgil, far too awkward and worried his teammate was going to be pissed at the clear lie that had a very good chance of ruining his date far more than Kaldur'ahm clearly already had. That and he was pretty sure that counted as coming out to Virgil. He hadn't come out to anyone yet. He'd been still thinking it over, trying to figure himself out, trying to figure out how to tell people even though he didn't think it'd be a big deal.

He put his face in one hand and groaned, utterly embarrassed. "Virgil, can you just come with me, please?" His words were partially muffled against his hand as he wondered if it was possible to truly die from embarrassment.

---

616 words
Virgil Hawkins

Virgil hand't been on a date in a long while. Probably half a year? A year? He honestly couldn't keep track. Being a hero and a nearly straight-A student was enough to track already. It was nice to finally get out and be a teen again. He didn't know exactly how it would all go, but maybe some coffee and then to a park? Is that what people on dates? Probably, it happened a lot on TV after all. And things had been going well so far too. While the two waited for their drinks, some jokes were had and the two were getting to know each other.

As the DingDing of the door opening chimed, Virgil's eyes spotted his teammate, Kaldur'ahm, aka Aqualad. Virgil averted his gaze and cursed under his breath. He would need a find a way to excuse himself from the date after all, but then he would also need to find a way to explain how he knew Aqualad. Or, worse yet, if he had hero work to do, having Aqualad just show up, Virgil leaves, and then Static was spotted with him, well that could easily spell disaster for his secret identity.

Gina had looked back and started muttering to Virgil about Aqualad showing up and how he looked to be coming their way. "Ya...great" Virgil muttered half-heartidly under his breath as Kaldur approached. The young hero slumped a bit in his chair as Gina and Aqualad talked. The slumping soon changed to a straight sit up and a head jutting forward, eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

Did he really?

Did he just say what Virgil thought he said?

"His what?[/b]?" Gina replied with. Now the entire Cafe had gone silent. Virgil placed a hand to the bridge of his nose and went to speak. Gina, however, was not going to have any of it. "VIRgil!" she shrieked out, before throwing a glass of water in his face and turning to storm off, with many vulgar words being shouted out, as many of the other teens in the coffee house cheered her on.

Virgil stood up and wiped off some of the water on him, letting out a loud sigh. "At least she hadn't gotten her ice cappuccino ye-" Virgil began before he felt the cold slushie liquid hit his hair and begin to pour over him. It appeared their waitress had arrived with their drinks and was none-to-pleased with Virgil's apparent cheating. "Get out of our coffee shop and don't come back" she ordered, pointing to the door. "He's not my boyf-" Virgil began before being cut off by the waitress now pushing him towards the door. "Okayokayokay, I'm going, I'm going!"

Now out of the building, Virgil flung some of the goop off of himself before letting out another heavy sigh. "Aight, I'll admit that the boyfriend thing was unique, but really...really[/b] bad timing on that bro"[/color] Virgil wasn't even aware of Kaldur's orientation. Honestly, it had never come up, so it was really none of the young heroes business. To him, Aqualad had just come up with a clever way of getting him out of the date and into heroics. While Virgil was indeed upset and the lose of the date, and potentially never being allowed back into that coffee shop, he knew all of that would pass eventually.

"I'm guessing somethings up, let's find me a place to change" Virgil stated, pulling out his phone and scrolling through his messages. "Huh...Venom juiced Mammoth. That sounds fun...More fun is you're top trending in San Fran right now bud. Even more than Mammoth" Virgil added, turning his phone to the other.

Aqualad and random teen, the new hero IT couple?[/b] -- Aqualad's boyfriend(?!) found cheating on him![/b] These were just some of the TMZ-esq tweets that were already blowing up even only a few minutes after the fact.

"Are you even...Y'know what, doesn't matter. We may need to give them the 411 though if you are or aren't. That kinda stuff is really personal and not their place to say if you haven't told anyone" The young hero had had a friend or two that weren't straight and he had made the mistake before of outting someone who hadn't come out to others yet. He had made a horrible mistake and saw how it hurt someone, so if Kaldur happened to be gay, or whatever orientation, Virgil wasn't about to let someone ruin that for him. Sure Virgil was upset with him, but there were things you didn't do, and outting someone was one of them.

Finding a spot to change, Virgil supercharged himself and used the electricity to melt the rest of the iced drink that was on him. The electricity crackled with energy, and the heat it gave off was enough to help evaporate some of the liquid. "I'm gonna need to get drenched at some point to get the sticky cappuccino out of my hair" he added, before hopping onto his saucer.

"Lead the way"

Virgil was going to kill him, he was certain of that. Kaldur'ahm was partially - mostly - hiding his face behind a single hand, peaking through two fingers with just one eye, trying to hide the wince on his face. Virgil was clearly on a date and Kaldur had just spouted the worse lie he could've at that moment. He needed to get better at his cover stories. Now didn't seem like a good time to ask for Virgil's advice on that, though.

His eyes widened when water was thrown at Virgil. If he'd had his waterbearers in hand and not on his back, he could have stopped the water before it hit his teammate, but he was honestly too full of embarrassment and guilt to even think of that right now.

He quietly followed Virgil, who was being pushed, out of the coffee shop. Oh God, had he just been banned because of him? He really hoped this couldn't get any worse.

"I'm so sorry!" he said the second they were outside. He winced when Virgil pointed out the bad timing and repeated, "God, I'm so sorry! I panicked." He nodded when Virgil mentioned changing into his costume since obviously they couldn't go up against Mammoth with one of them in civvies.

Kaldur blinked, confused, when he was told he was trending. He stared at the screen Virgil was showing him, unable to believe that the messages were real but also terrified because they were real. Oh God, what if Ryand'r saw them? What if Ryand'r heard about it? He needed to text him or call him and explain things but right now Mammoth was a more pressing matter. Crap.

He looked away from the phone, eyes still wide and face a bit paler than usual because he was trending and that was terrifying, when Virgil started to ask him a clear question before changing direction. Kaldur felt his stomach twist; his mouth suddenly felt quite dry; his body felt all too heavy. He'd experienced this once before, when he'd come out to his adopted parents. It seemed he was doomed to experience it every time, even if he thought the outcome would most likely be positive.

"I am," he said shortly before rubbing the back of his neck, "I uh - I've only told my adopted parents... And, well um, now you." He shifted awkwardly on his feet and decided to wait for Virgil to get changed, not wanting to make things more awkward between them.

When Virgil mentioned needing to get drenched, Kaldur awkwardly gestured to the waterbearers on his back. "I uh - I can um..." He remembered the fact that Virgil had just sparked with electricity so perhaps throwing water on him wasn't the best idea. "Nevermind."

He nodded when he was told to lead the way. "Right - Yeah. Uh last the police scanners said he was heading downtown." He nodded again a bit awkwardly before gesturing and heading in that direction, hoping he could keep up with Virgil since he didn't have an electrified saucer to ride.

---

509 words
Virgil Hawkins

As upset as Virgil was at the situation, he knew he had really brought it onto himself. He should have excused himself from the date with the girl to check his phone, and then excused himself to go stop Mammoth. He was a hero afterall, and it wasn't very heroic to not do so. And in not doing what was right, Virgil not only came off looking like a cheater, Kaldur potentially outed himself, and the poor girl probably now has trust issues. All because Virgil didn't check his phone.

"Don't sweat it man, I shoulda checked my phone. It's on me" he added before Kaldur spoke up again. Oh, oh that wasn't good. That really wasn't good. Virgil wasn't about to out someone who hadn't done so themselves. "Listen, we'll...uh. We'll figure something out. I think I can deal with that, I might have a way to deal with that. Lemme call someone while we head off to Mammoth" Virgil's mind raced as the thought of what Kaldur said kept pounding in his head. Honestly, that was worse than Mammoth or the ruined date.

"Listen, if you can soak my hair, I can charge my power to radiate enough heat I can dry it out. Just soak the hair and I wont short-circuit" As Virgil spoke, he pulled out his trusty saucer and hopped on. Tapping his ear, he held a single digit up to Kaldur.

"Hey, Frieda, it's m-No. NO! No, we aren't, but I'm glad you see what I'm calling you about. No, stop. Listen, it's not funny, I'm being serious Frieda. Aqualad hasn't come out to anyone other than his parents, so we can't let that spread. If you can help flood the tag with something, get some help in doing so, I'd really appreciate that. Thanks Frieda, I owe you one"

Looking back to Kaldur, Virgil's electricity crackled and he charged up a second metal pad. "Flying might be faster. And listen, Frieda's a good friend of mine from back home, she's no techwiz or anything, but I'm sure she can get some people to flood that tag online and hopefully spam away any talks about....y'know. I might have another fix too, but let's kick some butt first"

Was this what an anxiety attack felt like? He'd been focused on worrying about Ryand'r's reaction that he hadn't stopped to realize that anyone and everyone could find out he was gay now. He liked to think society had improved a lot but he wasn't naïve. He knew unfortunately there would be people who would have a problem with being saved by a gay man and some that would have a big problem with being saved by a black gay man. Breathing felt a little harder than he thought it should've been.

He heard Virgil's words as if they were pushed through water and he wasn't half-Atlantean, taking a moment to register what they were. Virgil could handle it? He'd help even after he'd ruined his date? Of course that made sense - Virgil was a good person after all but still actually hearing that had a calming affect on him. It helped him believe that somehow, in some way, everything would be okay. Even if Virgil's "way" didn't pan out, his fellow Titan would clearly still try to help him with whatever came next.

Was this what it was like to have actually good friends? Maybe he needed to spend more time with the Teen Titans, awkwardly getting to know his teammates. If his parents were fine with that, of course. He did still technically live under their roof and thus their rules.

"Thanks," he said, feeling like at least some of the weight on his shoulders had been lifted, as if he was no longer at complete risk of sinking into the ground beneath them. He honestly wouldn't have blamed Virgil if he'd left him to figure things out on his own, especially after ruining his date, but instead the other teen had taken responsibility for all of it and offered to help. He wondered if this was why people said the Teen Titans were like a family.

Kaldur'ahm blinked and waited as Virgil called someone. He grimaced when the other teen corrected this friend of his, Frieda, easily guessing what he was correcting them about. Admittedly Kaldur wasn't the most present on social media - any that he had, he was more casual on and mainly used Instagram - he liked posting pictures of the sea life he came across as Aqualad. He thought about asking if they should ask Red Robin for help - he was a hacker of some sorts right? - but that would require outing himself to him too. He didn't think any of his teammates would react harshly; they all seemed like the accepting type like Virgil. But that didn't make the fear go away. It didn't stop his stomach from churning at the idea. No, he wanted to be able to do that on his own terms - Something he was grateful Virgil seemed to understand.

He couldn't help smiling, a bit shyly, a bit relieved, and repeating, "Thanks - Like a lot. It means a lot." He paused then reached back to grab a waterbearer. "Uh - Let me help. It's the least I can do after... Um-" He grimaced. "Everything." He used it to gather up just enough water and dumped it on Virgil's hair like he'd suggested. Afterwards, he placed the waterbearer back on his, well, back and carefully got on the metal pad, making a small startled noise as he tried to stand on it, almost lost his balance, but somehow managed to keep from falling off.

"Right. Mammoth," he huffed out once he was as confident as he was ever going to get that he wasn't about to fall on his butt. He tried not to look nervous, he really did. He was confident in Virgil's ability to fight Mammoth because, well, he was Static. His own abilities? They were much easier for him to doubt.

---

632 words
Virgil Hawkins

Ruined someone's coming out before, I'm not letting that happen again. That was the old Virgil. The misinformed Virgil. Not again Virgil's mind was snapping at him as he focused on making things right for his teammate. The last thing he needed was to out someone who wasn't ready. He did that before years ago, almost maliciously so, but he learned how wrong he was in doing so. He had grown from then, and after having done everything in his power to make it up to that person, he was determined to never let it happen again. He'd wreck every databank in this country if he had to in order to protect that kind of secret.

Something like that could maybe be helpful though.

As Virgil talked, he felt some water splash onto his head. As he got ready with his board, electricity fizzled back and forth over his hair, then down his face, over his chest, then the rest of his body. The heat was a little intense, but it worked out in the end, as Virgil was basically fully cleaned off now. "Don't beat yourself up about this stuff, you'll get distracted. It's not your fault I didn't answer my phone" Virgil wasn't much of a leader, but he had worked with some very good leaders before. Focus was always key; that was something every leader always tried to instill onto him. And right now, that was really needed.

Noticing Kaldur's slight wobble, Virgil's wrist flicked slightly, causing some electricity to zigzag over the other teens feet. The electricity soon snaked itself down and into the soles of the boots. "Not a lot of metal in your boots, but you're magnetized now, you wont fall" To prove his point, and to lighten the mood a little, Virgil flew upwards and dragged Kaldur behind him. As the two rose upwards, Virgil spun them both upside down, then right side up. "I wont let you fall Fishstick"

The two began to get nearer to Mammoth and Virgil landed on top of a two story building. Just a block or so over, Mammoths large figure could be seen. "Run off ahead, I'll be right behind you. I might have a fix for our other issue" Gesturing off, Virgil's powers pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"Hey everyone, Static here. Just a quick update on the goings on; Fish Boy and I have it under control, but there's some weird electrical interference coming from the big lug known as Mammoth so I'm going to try and wreck it. Unfortunately this may mean I accidentally wipe out any and all electrical data taken in the last hour. Sorry 'bout that. Static out" With a quick video recorded, capped off with a wink and a smirk, Virgil uploaded the video online. A lot of what he said wasn't true; he had no idea if Mammoth had any tech on him. He did, however, not lie about wiping out data from the past hour. Sure some of the Tweets or info about Kaldur could have been outside of his area by now, but he could maybe wipe out a good chunk of it so that it all became more of a questionable rumour than a noted fact.

Closing his eyes for a second, Virgil raised a hand to the sky. A soft blue glow began to pulse over his body before it moved up and coalesced onto his raised hand. A few seconds later, a poomf sound emanated off of the young hero and the light blue energy pulsed off of Virgil. Releasing out a highly concentrated EMP burst, Virgil made sure to cover as much area as he could. The added time it took him to focus was him attempting to tap into the frequencies of any medical equipment and avoiding blasting those. His main goal was to wipe out any media related data from the past hour.

Hunching over for a second and taken a few deep breathes, he shot his eyes back to where Mammoth was. "I hope that worked for you Fishsticks" Wheezing a little, Virgil hopped back onto his saucer and hurried off to catch up to Kaldur and Mammoth.