He’s chewing on his nail, biting it down to the quick, his eyes, fixated on the wall, unseeing. Pleasant Hill was fine, he’s trying to reassure himself – well not Pleasant Hill, but the people trapped inside. Whatever insane plan Krakoa had gone in with had been avoided. Distantly, he moves to rubbing his palms together, still dealing with the remnants of Wanda’s magic that hasn’t fully dissolved yet.Â
He knows – he had felt the shift happen. Reality had altered thirty seconds to midnight and he knows it’s fine. Everything is fine.Â
The sound of footsteps draws his attention back into his body. Billy shifts slightly where he’s seated. This is the first time they’ve seen each other since he’d left to join the rest of the Avengers and doesn’t even wait for Teddy to question the look etched across Billy’s face.
“I fucked with reality again,” he says it rushed, like if he doesn’t get all the words out at once, he won’t do it at all. “Wanda too. It was a whole thing.”Â
They call him Emperor. That’s taken some getting used to. Emperor Dorrek-Vell. Not Teddy. Dorrek-Vell. It’s his name, technically. One of them at the very least. The title shackled to him at birth has been a long time coming. Teddy didn’t grow up in the shadow of his empire and his impending job as its ruler. No. He grew up Teddy Altman, a guy who — while never normal — wasn’t the gosh darn king of space. The days of shapeshifting to fit in at school have long come and gone. Life’s not impressing the Greg Norris’s anymore. It’s about keeping massive galactic empires from literally crumbling in on themselves. No pressure, right? There is so, so, so much pressure. Even though he knows he was quite literally born from it, there are times where the imposter syndrome comes in swinging at full force.
So far, Teddy thinks he’s done a decent job with his balancing act. It’s not perfect, but he’s not an absentee husband. For as important as it is to be Emperor Dorrek-Vell, being Teddy Kaplan-Altman is more important. Billy and Teddy have grown up together. Time has forged them into two separate men who chose to live united. They’re not the kids that they once were, but that was bound to happen. When they had first gotten together, Teddy hadn’t quite imagined that Billy would end up being the Court Wizard for the Kree-Skrull nation, but he’s never known what to expect in general. He loves him. That’s what Teddy knows. He loves Billy no matter what they call him.
The second he sees him sitting there in their room, Teddy knows something has happened. The first thing he does is assess. Is Billy hurt? Are there any signs he’s been physically injured? After that, he listens. He’s not mad at the confession. Billy’s reality warping has been an issue in the past, and it’s more concern than anger that fills him.
“Okay.” The word is spoken tentatively before Teddy maneuvers to sit beside his husband on the bed. “You did magic with Wanda? That’s  — okay.” He repeats. “Tell me. Start from the beginning. But first, are you okay?” He can’t focus until he knows that Billy is fine.
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