Ch 6: Christmas Day

Warren woke warm.

And with Will's socks in his face. Luckily, they were clean socks. He had fallen asleep on Will's bed, and Will was sleeping next to him with his head near the footboard and an arm tossed over Warren's ankles. It was very tempting to stay exactly where he was. He was tired and comfortable, and if he went home he would have to make his own breakfast. Not that he didn't do that every morning.

It was Christmas morning though, and despite all the chaos of last night, Warren could pretty much guarantee there were presents under the tree in the living room. For a family like the Strongholds, Christmas really was a day to spend together. Even though he knew he could have stayed without any fuss being raised, Warren didn't want to interfere with that, and he could sleep in his own bed just as easily as here.

Will was a notoriously sound sleeper, and Warren had no trouble slipping out from under his loose grip. He rolled the sleeping bag up and went searching for the clothes he had forgotten last time he had spent the night. He let himself out the backdoor without waking anyone.

The morning was clear and cold, and the snow crunched under Warren's still slightly damp boots. There was no one out this early, and the streets were quiet for a change. That wouldn't last. By noon there would be throngs of kids out playing in the snow. Not a pastime Warren had ever enjoyed.

Warren paused on the bridge again, his eyes searching the trees, but there was nothing there. He had told Will last night about the phoenix, and Will had believed him. He always did. Believed him and believed in him, something Warren hadn't had in a long time.

Will's parents were still a bit of a mystery to him though. It was easy not to like them, particularly the Commander, just like it had been easy not to like Will initially. The spoiled, egotistical son of the world's greatest superheroes, who had had everything given to him, and felt he was entitled to that. Of course, that wasn't true. Will wasn't any more like that, then Warren was interested in picking fights and world domination.

And the world's greatest superheroes, the egomaniacal pair who thought they could do anything they wanted? Not so much.

Will's dad was dense, there was no way around it. He had gone who knew how many years without realizing his son didn't actually have super strength. And he did have a big ego, an ego the size of Manhattan, as Warren's father had said many times, not that Barry Battle was one to talk about egos. But Steve Stronghold was basically a good guy. He wasn't in the superhero business for the fame or the glory, although he seemed to like those an awful lot. He was there because he really did want to help people. Anyway, his ego probably wasn't a fatal flaw with his wife around.

Josie Stronghold was one of the more practical people Warren knew. Warren had been more than a little relieved when she had answered the phone and not Steve. He would have had to spell out for Steve just how endangering it could be to a secret identity to have medical personnel read your temperature at over 200 and still be hypothermic. Josie had known instantly what the problem was. Josie knew there was more to life than being a superhero. There were times, he suspected, that Josie would have rather just been a mom.

So they weren't that aggravating to be around most of the time, and even though they weren't all the sure about Barry Battle's son, sometimes Warren even liked them. Anyway, Warren had known for a long time that is wasn't the Commander and Jetstream's fault his dad would spend the next four lifetimes in jail. Barry Battle, under the guise of Deathfire, had torched twelve international banks, and blown up a secret military base with the intent of selling the weapons technology to the highest bidder. That was pretty much his own fault.

It had just been easier to blame someone he had never met for it. Culpability for Warren being a latch key kid was one of the few things Warren didn't talk to his dad about. He didn't know what to say, and he was afraid of the answer, and it would be so easy to hate his dad for abandoning him, and he didn't want that.

Warren stopped to get the mail he hadn't had a chance to get the day before. There was a letter from Liang and a letter from his dad. He had been expecting both of them, although he couldn't have cared less if they had arrived before or after Christmas.

He left the letters on the coffee table and went to take a shower and change into his own pajamas. The letters would be there when he got through.

Steve woke before Josie and went to check on the boys. He pushed open the door quietly and spotted Will sleeping with his head at the wrong end of the bed, which wasn't that unusual. Warren was nowhere to be seen, although the sleeping bag Steve had dug out of the closet for him was neatly rolled and sitting next to the bed. It was hard to imagine Warren being up so early after the night he had had. Steve checked the guest room, the bathroom, and the kitchen, but he wasn't there. Given that he had taken the time to roll the sleeping bag up, he was probably fine and had just gone home. It was still a little unexpected though.

Not that everything about Warren wasn't unexpected.

Steve started the coffee brewing and poked around the fridge for breakfast.

It had been very unexpected to find out his son was best friends with Deathfire's son, unexpected to have him be quiet and withdrawn, and very unexpected that he wasn't a trouble maker at school. Barron Battle had been nothing like that. He had been loud and brash, always the center of attention. His father had been Inferno, an old time super villain who had wiped the floor with some of his generation's strongest superheroes. He had been dead by the time Barry hit high school, but he had still milked his father's infamy for all it was worth.

Steve couldn't see him ever jumping into an icy flooded creek to save anyone.

But unexpectedly, his son had.

Or maybe not so unexpectedly. Maybe Josie and Will were right and he was constantly measuring Warren against his father. He looked at him and saw the dark hair, the dark eyes, the tattooed hands, although the tattoos were different, the disregard for what anyone thought, and the same, well nearly the same, powers, but Warren wasn't his father.

Steve poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. Warren didn't go around picking fights, he didn't push people around just because he could, and he had risked his life to save someone he didn't know, and then just wanted everyone to forget he had ever been there afterwards.

Whatever it was Will saw in Warren, he thought it was worth fighting for, and Josie seemed to like him more and more each time she saw him. Maybe it was time to find out just who his son's best friend was.

"Merry Christmas Dad," Will appeared in the kitchen doorway rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Merry Christmas," Steve replied with a grin.

All Will needed was the Cookie Monster slippers he had outgrown years ago to complete the ideal picture of the sleepy little boy.

"Did Warren go home?" Will sat at the table, propping his head on his hand.

"Looks that way," Steve nodded. "Santa came."

It had been years since Will had believed in Santa, but presents still magically appeared under the tree every Christmas morning.

"Is Mom up?" Will asked.

Presents did not get opened until everyone was awake.

"No, but you can go through your stocking," Steve took a sip of his coffee, debating whether to wake Josie or not.

Will got up to go look through his stocking, dreams of chocolate dancing through his head.

"Will," Steve stopped him. "When we're done with the presents why don't you go invite Warren over for dinner."

Will looked startled for a moment, then smiled widely at his dad. "Alright."

Warren was startled out of sleep by the doorbell. He had fallen asleep on the couch reading his dad's letter. With a yawn he picked the letter up off the floor where he had dropped it and kicked his down comforter off.

He was stiff and feeling a little cranky at being woken, and he hoped whoever was at the door was either not annoying or fireproof.

Will, of course, didn't necessarily fit either of those categories, but that didn't seem to worry him.

"So, you are coming to dinner tonight, right?" Will said in way of greeting.

Warren laughed and stepped back to let him in.

"Yeah, I'm coming to dinner."