So, this novel thing.

[perpetual_motion]

You wanted it. You got. This year's NaNo.

Title: The Ballad of Leonard and Matt: Verse One
Rating: Oh, it's all over the place, but if you read stuff here, nothing should shock you.
Summary: Matt and Leonard are just to guys with powers. And Stan Lee is a fuck.

Notes: Everything you read in "Verse One" was written in less than a week. Please keep that in mind when finding inconsistencies or reasons to praise me.  This will take more than one entry, and anything you have to say about the whole thing is entirely welcome.

Introduction to the Past

 

I didn’t want to start this way, but I feel it’s important for the people reading to understand where I am now versus where I was then.  This story is old.  Very old.  Somewhere around 40 or 50 years old.  And I am now old with it.  I was 23 when it started, young and foolish, and more powerful than I really understood.  Matt was 32 and cranky and hated his job, and we were just foolish enough, and possibly young enough to believe that we could really change the world. 

 

I’m 92 now.  Old and creaky.  My eyes are going, my knees are gone, and my powers are slowly fading.  I can barely light a candle some days.  Matt’s been gone for years.  He died very quietly and suddenly, just seizing in his chair, a book in his hand, and he was dead.  I watched him go, watched everything fade from her that I recognized.  The husk was still there; the body I was warm against for more years than I can clearly recall, but everything about him that had charmed me, romanced me, everything that irked me, it had gone with that wheezing breath. 

 

So now I’m alone and old and nearly dead.  I can feel everything deteriorating in me.  I give myself another six months at best.  The doctors say I’m in the prime of health for a man my age.  Considering men my age usually have tubes up their dicks and oxygen tanks strapped to their backs, that’s not saying much.  And considering how healthy I used to be, how I used to be able to level a building with one concentrated burst, where I am now with my sad little candles in no place I want to be.  I’m going to wait it out, though.  I’d rather die in the bed that’s missed Matt for years than I would jump to my death.  I’ve never been one for heights anyway.

 

Whoever finds this will finally know everything.  Superheroes are still slightly skeptical, even all these years later.  If I meet Stan Lee in the afterlife, I’m going to kick him in the sac. 

 

The Very Beginning

 

Job interviews, for Leonard McKinley, were akin to the dentist.  There were no horrible drill noises to try and block out, but there was the anticipation that walking into the room with the person in charge could end in some sort of pain.  But there he sat, slacks and a button down and a tie he’d actually fucking ironed that morning, all decked out ready for the possibility of getting booted for not enough experience or not enough charisma.  The only thing he could grasp onto with hope was his typing speed.  120 words a minute helped a lot when he had basically no formal training and wasn’t too keen on the job anyway.

 

Administrative Clerk made it sound like he’d be in a file room all day organizing old clippings from Ladies Home Journal or Playboy.  He’d rather be organizing old clippings from Playgirl if it came down to it, but the job description hadn’t made a point of talkinga bout extra filing; just that someone needed to be competent enough to answer the phones,  make a few appointments, and handle anyone who walked into the office.  He figured a few years slogging his way behind a counter at the local Heart Attack Burger had given him enough experience with bitchy, entitled people to set him up for a few occasional whiners on a college campus.

 

“Mr. McKinley?”  The woman in the door to the inner office looked like she was on the verge of snapping Leonard’s neck and feasting on his vocal cords.  It made Leonard tighten his tie.

 

“Yes, Ma’am?”

 

“I’m Allie Edwards.  I’ll be one of your interviewers today.  Matt’s running a bit behind, but I wanted to start us off on time.  We have other candidates to see.”

 

“Sure.”  Leonard hoped his smile looked easy and breezy as he stood up and followed her into her office.  It was ultra-modern, all sleek and steel and a little to glaringly dusted.  The sun hit an end table at just the wrong angle, and Leonard had to squint and look away.  He took the seat Ms. Edwards indicated with a wave of her hand and was grateful that it put his back to the end table that was out to get him.

 

“Tell me your experience, Mr. McKinley.”

 

“We-“  He cut himself off, cleared his throat, and started again.  Don’t open with ‘Well’.  This is a job interview, not some shitty story you’re telling at the bar.  “I worked at Heart Attack Burger to pay for college, and before that I worked as a messenger for an insurance company.  I don’t have a lot of office experience,”  Or any,  “but I learn very quickly, I can type very fast, I’ve had a great deal of experience with people, and I know my alphabet.”  And that was a run-on sentence.  Shit.

 

Ms. Edwards nodded and flipped through Leonard’s resume.  He winced when he noticed a crease near the edge.  It must have bent when he was handing it over to the secretary the week before.  Or maybe the secretary had bent it accidentally and Ms. Edwards wouldn’t think it was sloppy professionalism on his part.

 

“Tell me about Heart Attack Burger.”

 

“I started as a cashier, and I decided to stay in that position because I wanted to focus on my education.  I was offered leadership opportunities a few times, but my main concern was my GPA and my degree.”

 

“And your degree is in, “ Ms. Edwards flipped to the front page of the resume, “Management.”

 

“Yes, Ma’am.”

 

“It seems to me,” her tone sounded challenging or annoyed to Leonard; he couldn’t decide, “that someone who went for a management degree in college would want all the management experience he could get while in college.”

 

“My classes were honor-level, and I wanted to spend as much time as possible dealing with them as I could.  As a manager for Heart Attack Burger I would have worked sixty hour weeks, been on-call every other Saturday, and also prone to being called in when someone flaked on a shift.  I’m not sure if you’ve worked fast food, Ms. Edwards, but there are quite a few flaky people who join the ranks.”  Leonard was aware after the fact, as tended to be the habit with him and his tirades, that he’d come off as defensive and possibly angry.  Well, shit.  There goes this job.

 

Except…

 

Ms. Edwards nodded once and broke into a smile; the first Leonard had seen since being invited into the office.  “I worked fast food many, many years ago.  I remember the flakes.” 

 

There was a rap on the office door, and Ms. Edwards stood up to answer it. Leonard saw a sliver of a tall man through the crack in the door before the door was thrown open and the man walked into the room.  He was tall, broad, and had light blonde hair.  There were freckles on his nose and a heavy watch on his left wrist.  He was in a shirt and tie with a suit jacket over one arm and a briefcase in his left hand.  He shook Leonard’s hand firmly and gave him a smile that was all white teeth and rakish undertones.

 

“Matt Scarpelli.  Good to meet you.  Leonard is it?”  His voice was deep and just on the edge of gravelly.  Leonard thought his knees were going to give out.

 

“Yes, Sir.  It’s nice to meet you.”  Leonard nearly jumped at the sudden bark of laughter Matt released.  It was deeper than his voice and sounded like it came up from his toes.  Leonard’s knees wobbled.  Oh, fan-fucking-tastic, asshole.  This guy could be your boss and you’ve already gone all girly crush on him.  Nice work.

 

“Tell me, Leonard,” Matt sat in the chair next to Ms. Edwards and loosened his tie.  “What brings you to our fine University?”

 

“It came up in a job hunt, and I’ve been looking for an entry-level position.  It sounded interesting.”

 

“Now that’s a lie, and I know it.”  Matt’s grin was back, slightly more professional around the edges, but all charm and sincerity.  “Why are you really here?”

 

Leonard considered finding another way to say, “Because I just moved into my first apartment that doesn’t smell of beer and vomit and I want a job that’s worthy of it,” and ended up blurting out, “The money’s the best here.”

 

“And your people skills?”

 

“I slung burgers and put up with drunks five nights a week for four years and change.  I can handle anything.”  Leonard’s fingertips itched, and he curled his hands into fists.  Now was not the time.

 

“Excellent.”  Matt looked at Ms. Edwards [and why couldn’t Leonard call her Allie?  Maybe she let out a pheromone or something.] and grinned.  “I’ll take him.”

 

“You can’t just-“

 

“You said I got last say, Allie.  I say he’s the last guy we talk to and the first we hire.”

 

“Matt, I think we should-“

 

“Fine.”  Matt looked at Leonard again.  “If you could excuse us for just a minute.”

 

“Sure.  Sure.”  Leonard stood up, nearly tripped over his shoes on the way out the door, and slung himself into the chair he’d vacated in the outer office not ten minutes before.  The receptionist, a college girl in a slightly sexual T-shirt, gave him a grin. 

 

“She’s a terror.”

 

Oh, if only that was why my knees were weak.  Leonard just nodded, gave a shaky grin, and stood up to get a look at himself in the mirror on the opposite wall.  His hair, which he was nearly certain had been neat when he’d walked in the door, had started sticking up around his ears.  There was a smudge on his collar and his tie was crooked.  Fan-fucking-tastic indeed.  He tried to press down his hair without looking like he was trying, but the knowing grin from Miss. “My T-shirt is nearly inappropriate for the office” made him jam his hands in his pockets and try to look cool while leaning against the wall.  He watched the second hand on the clock work its way around a half-dozen times before the door to Ms. Edwards office opened and Matt walked out.  He grinned at Leonard and waved him towards the door.

 

“You’re with me.”

 

Leonard shoved off the wall and dropped into step next to Matt.  “Where are we headed?”

 

“My office.  And your office, technically.  You’ll work in my outer office.”

 

Leonard faltered in his step and Matt stopped to let him catch up.  “What?  You mean I’ve got it?”

 

“I did not just spend five minutes-“

 

“Six minutes.”  Leonard could have kicked himself.  He didn’t miss the raised eyebrow from Matt.  “Sorry.  It’s a thing I have about-“

 

“Don’t worry.  It’ll come in handy.”  Matt clapped Leonard on the shoulder.  “As I was saying, I didn’t just spend six minutes in the inner sanctum of the beast to walk out without you in my office.  So we’re going to our office, where I will show you your desk, and you can set it up how you like before slacking off and going home early while marking it up as a full day’s work.”

 

“Okay.  Yeah.  That’s…”  Leonard shrugged.  “Whatever you say, boss.”

 

“That’s what I like to hear.”  Matt stopped suddenly as a young woman in jeans and a black shirt ran up and practically leapt at him.

 

“I passed!”

 

“Fantastic!”  Matt held up his hand and the girl high-fived him.  “I assume by the delirium that you passed by a lot.”

 

“B!  Which is way better than I’d hoped!”

 

“Told you.”

 

“Yeah, yeah.”  The girl finally noticed Leonard standing just back and to the left of Matt.  She squeaked, waved with a wiggle of her fingers, and blushed.  “Sorry to interrupt.  Just say you and you know!  Gotta go!”  She took off at a run.

 

“That particular force of nature was Bren.  You’ll get used to her.  I’ve made a rule that she’s not allowed in my office before mid-morning.  I just can’t take that much sheer joy before a few cups of coffee.”

 

“She’s certainly…”  Leonard shook his head.  “I have no adjectives.”

 

“She’s a great RA and a pretty good student.  She just passed her first Bio test.  She’s been freaking out for a week.  Hopefully, now that she’s passed it she can get back to being a great RA for a couple of days before the next test crisis.”  Matt took a sudden left and Leonard followed in a shuffle of steps.  They entered the building through a side door that Matt opened by waving his wallet in front of a small gray box.  It had a light that turned from red to green.  “A clerk from the lock and key office will be over tomorrow to drop off your key card.  I’ve got your office keys in my desk, and the front door of the building will open at seven o’clock.”

 

Leonard looked around as they walked down a short hallway, took a right, and ended up at the edge of a lobby.  He shoved his hands in his pockets as Leonard unlocked a door that opened up into an outer office and an inner office, both of the same approximate size.  “We’re in a dorm.”

 

“Residence hall,”  Matt corrected with an eye roll.  “You’ll get some lectures if you call it a ‘dorm’.  We want the students to feel that their college experience is homey and comforting.”

“It’s still a dorm.”

 

There was a half-second of sheer silence as Leonard wondered if he’d just lost his job.  He hadn’t meant to sound quite so snarky.  Luckily, in the second half of the second, Matt’s eyes crinkled in a grin and he shrugged.  “I don’t disagree.  It’s a moment of “them’s the rules”.”

 

“Okay.  Sure.”  Leonard tried to smile back, but he was still feeling nervous.  “So, this is my office?”

 

“This is it.  Feel free to decorate as you see fit.  Just remember to keep it mostly tasteful.  I have students come in for judicial hearings for rule breaking and also the occasional parent who wants to rip off my head because their precious darling couldn’t possibly be breaking the rules, so anything that’s contraband in the handbook is contraband here.”

 

“Makes sense.” 

 

“Leonard?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“For hell’s sake, take off your tie, unbutton the top button, and relax.  Allie rarely makes it over this way, and she certainly won’t be over today.  You can relax in here.”  Matt chuckled as Leonard ripped off his tie.  “I wear a tie because I have to.  If you ever walk in here with a tie, I’ll cut it off with more glee than is probably healthy.”

 

Leonard blinked, cleared his throat, and tried to pretend like he wasn’t blushing.  “I’ll make a note.”

 

“Excellent.”  Matt turned on his heel when his phone rang.  “I’ve got to get that.  Make yourself at home.”

 

Leonard pulled out his desk chair and sat down carefully.  He listened to Matt talking softly into the phone and started opening drawers.  There was a collection of sharpened pencils wrapped in a rubber band, a few pens, some with half-chewed caps, and a stack of post-its in various shades of pastel.  Another drawer was full of empty file folders and phonebooks that dated back five years.  There were two large shelves above the desk, both empty but free of dust.  The phone was to Leonard’s left, and he picked it up, testing it for dial tone before scribbling his extension on his hand.  The desk was almost too broad for Leonard’s liking.  He wondered how he’d find enough stuff to fill the edges and wished briefly for an old-fashioned box of a monitor.  The flat screen gave him too much open space.

 

“Okay, okay,” Leonard muttered as he moved the phone a little closer, “clear out what you don’t need.”  He immediately re-opened the drawer with the phone books and emptied out the whole thing.  The file folders he placed in two stacks, keep and toss, and the phone books he stacked next to his trash can.  He sorted through the pens, checking to see which ones worked, tossing the others, and was relieved to find non-pastel colored legal pads still in their shrink wrap in a drawer he hadn’t checked.  He sliced the shrink wrap with his thumb nail, removed one of the legal pads, and placed it on his desk in front of his monitor.  It took up the space perfectly and made Leonard relax just a little.  His fingers itched again, and he rubbed his palms on his pants.  There was a click from the inner office signaling Matt was off the phone, and Leonard leaned back in his chair and tried to look calm.

 

“Okay, that’s done.  Any complaints?”  Matt leaned against the door jamb of his office and looked at Leonard expectantly.  “Anything you need?”

 

Leonard opened the drawer with the post-its and held up a particularly pastel one in a shade of pink he hadn’t seen since second grade class picture day.  “I’d prefer my post-its in colors not associated with Easter.”

 

“Yellow?”

 

“Or blue.”

 

“I’ll dig up a request form for you to get all the office supplies you need.  Until then, you’re stuck with pink.”

 

“I can deal.”  Leonard closed the drawer and rubbed his palms against his pants again.  “Where’s the men’s room?”

 

Matt straightened up and led Leonard to a set of stairs.  “Down the stairs and straight ahead on your right.”

 

“Thanks.  Back in a minute.”  Leonard took a deep breath as he walked into the bathroom and let it out in a whoosh of relaxation when he saw that both of the stalls were empty.  He ducked into the first stall, checked the lock three times, and leaned against the wall with a sigh.  His fingers were itching yet again, and he held his hands out in front of him, flicking his fingers and watching the sparks fly and die in the air.  He breathed in and out slowly, flicking his fingers when he needed to let out some more energy and wondering if his eyes had changed color yet.  He was too nervous about the blueness of his fingernails to go check in the mirror over the sink.  Taking a deep breath while silently hoping no one walked in while he was decompressing, Leonard balanced himself on the toilet seat, lifted an acoustic tile, and started forming up.  Twenty-seven pencils later, and his fingernails were back to normal.  He formed up a rubber band, fastened the pencils together, and tucked the ceiling tile back into place.  When he looked in the mirror, there were tiny blue sparks around the corners of his eyes.  Thirty seconds later, they were completely gone.

 

Home free for the moment, Leonard thought as he mounted the stairs and headed back to his office.

 

From the Other Side

 

Matt leaned back in his desk chair to see out his office door when he heard the outer door open.  “Leonard?”

 

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Matt jumped out of his chair and walked over to the door between their offices.  “That stack of files there,” he gestured to the middle of Leonard’s desk, “they need a filing system.  I’m not particular on how you do it as long as they’re not on my desk anymore.”

 

“Sure.  No problem.”

 

Matt watched the way Leonard wiped his palms against his thighs.  It wasn’t a nervous tic.  He hadn’t done it in the interview.  Maybe.  No, there was no way.  Of all the people to hire he couldn’t have.  Leonard’s fingernails looked slightly discolored, but he didn’t seem to notice.  “I’m going to close the door to my office to get some work done.  Just knock before you walk in, okay?”  Matt waited for Leonard’s nod and closed the door to his office.  He settled into his desk chair, tapped his fingers on the desktop, and tried to come up with other reasons than what he was thinking. 

Leonard could have bad circulation.

It could be leftover nail polish from some semi-punk attitude he was trying to hide.

There could have been a horrific accident with some blue dye.

Maybe he was like Matt. 

 

But he couldn’t be.  It’d been – he couldn’t honestly remember how long it’d been since finding someone like him.  They made a point not to mingle.  It was dangerous.  It was crazy.  People were put into institutions, taken away in white vans by men in shapeless light green scrubs.  Even if Leonard was one, there was no way to ask, no way to be certain.  As far as Matt knew, and he’d certainly done some research, there was no secret code.  They couldn’t wave a flag or send up a big spotlight.  If Leonard was like him –and he most likely wasn’t, Matt reminded himself sternly – there was no way to be certain.  Not unless there was an accident that proved it without a doubt.

 

Matt felt disquieted when he realized he wasn’t sure how much he was hoping that Leonard would be caught in the act.  It was disturbing to find out just exactly how much he wanted to meet someone like him.  

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/kimberleigh_/]

This is great, like really really great. I'm already alittle bit in love with Leonard. Are you going to be posting more?

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

I'll be posting the full thing over a few days. I'm amused at how many people fall for Leonard, as is he.

[dragonessasmith.livejournal.com]

So much love, and I want to know what's going on with Matt and Leonard. I'm completely in love with Mark and Leonard, and I like Ms. Edwards and Bren too. ^^ Can't wait for more.