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"Billy…. hey, Billy… BILLY!"
Billy Batson's pleasant dream, which involved a certain goddess who'd brought him back to life a couple weeks ago, had now turned into complete darkness after a certain someone's voice reached his eardrums.
" Why am I not surprised…" He muttered in an annoyed tone, and turned over on his side so thar he could look at his roommate/best friend/foster brother. "Freddy, I told you already. I'm cool now with you wanting to go off and do your-"
"No, this isn't about any of that stuff right now." replied Freddy Freeman in a hushed tone, and he stared at the ceiling while Billy was starting to feel a bit confused. "Do you think it's gonna work out between me and Anne?"
Billy just blinked for a moment, and went back to his earlier sleeping position. "It's too early in the morning for this sorta thing…" He closed his eyes in order to try continuing where he'd left off in his dream, but that was apparently not going to be happening anytime soon.
"I mean, what's it gonna be like when I'm thirty and Anne still looks the way she does now?" continued Freddy while Billy just palmed his forehead. "Or what if this eventually becomes a Scott Pilgrim thing and I've gotta one day take on a bunch of her evil exes… honestly wouldn't be surprised if she'd tried to be with some other goddess considering that she noticed Mary first when I showed her my wallpaper and said I'd be calling up the hot one-"
"Look, does it really mat…" Billy paused his sentence to reflect on the last part of his brother's exclamation, and shook his head before continuing. "I doubt Anthea's having second thoughts about being with you. I mean, you two seemed pretty solid at dinner a few nights ago." His foster sibling gave a small shrug and nod in agreement. "Not to mention she's probably gonna end up becoming part of the family considering Mom and Dad gave her a room-"
Freddy suddenly waved his hands around to interrupt Billy, and he said, "Hey hey hey. No. Not those kind of thoughts. My mind can only handle so much right now, okay? You didn't have to deal with her control freak sister's chaos powers or look into the eyes of her Yu-Gi-Oh dragon twice, so one thing at a time."
Seeing his brother give an expression that meant fair enough, Freddy then rubbed the temples of his forehead in order to try relaxing himself. "Maybe Zeus or one of the Amazons clayed up someone that was gonna one day end up being her arranged spouse… I mean, she's literally been around since, like, the 4th stone age."
"I really doubt that's the case or that anything else you've said this whole time is gonna matter to her," assured a now-yawning Billy, but Freddy didn't seem to be content with that answer. "Look, you were pretty much the one who convinced her to have faith in humanity. Just focus on what's happening now, and worry about all that future stuff whenever the time comes… she likes you. Plain and simple."
"Wow… I guess maybe you didn't give all of Solomon's wisdom to Mary," said Freddy, giving a chuckle while Billy rolled his eyes and proceeded to resume sleeping. "Alright, g'night man…"
Then, it was soon back to complete silence, and Billy was getting close to continuing his dream where he'd left off when it suddenly got interrupted again. "You think she'll have to go visit Hades once I die or-"
I'm getting close to sending him there myself, thought Billy while a sheepish Freddy apologized, and the two of them soon went back to their respective dreams that had a greek goddess involved.
The next day, while Freddy was still sound asleep, Billy was heading downstairs in the hopes of enjoying some breakfast made up of delicious leftover pancakes. However, the young man did not expect to find Anthea sitting alone at the dining room table doing the same thing. "Huh… I guess we both had the same idea on what to eat today."
" Oh! Billy… I thought you'd still be in bed," said the young goddess in a surprised tone, with Billy giving a small chuckle before serving his own plate. "I'm guessing Freddy decided to sleep in for a change."
"Yeah, something like that." He replied to Anthea with a small smile of amusement, nodding upstairs to where his bedroom would be. "Could've sworn I heard him mumble your name actually before I closed our door on my way out." ( That's for waking me up after midnight, bro.) "He probably won't admit that to you, though."
A small smile appeared on the smug goddess as she said, "Well, I'm actually pretty good at being able to tell when Freddy's lying…" Billy finished chewing the pancake pieces he'd just consumed before giving out a little laugh in response. "Anyway, I don't know what your plans are for today, but he mentioned yesterday something about taking me to experience what I believe is called a carnival, if I'm not mistaken?"
To her surprise, Billy shook his head and drank from a cup of orange juice before answering the young goddess. "Oh, you two will definitely have some fun today. But I'm not really that big on going to carnivals, 'specially when they come here to Philly." That was going to be a story for him to tell her at a later time. "I gotta work on my hostage rescuing skills anyway with Eugene in a few hours."
"Hostages?" Anthea gave him a confused look, unaware of what Billy was actually referring to. "If people are in trouble, then shouldn't everyone be going out to-"
"Oh, no no no… it's not something that involves actual people being held hostage," he began to explain. "We're just having some Call of Duty video game fun." Anthea still appeared as if she had no idea what he was talking about. "Never mind. Just don't worry about it… instead, I advise you to make sure that under no circumstances are you to go on the UFO or spinning bear ride on a full stomach. The result from that is not gonna be pretty."
Billy then continued on with enjoying his meal until a thought suddenly came up in his mind, and he was now hoping he wasn't gonna regret asking this. "Hey, quick question, Anne. So are you technically, like, cousins or something with Wonder Woman?"
"I suppose so… why the curiosity?" asked Anthea, who still hadn't forgotten about Freddy's reaction to the Amazonian when she'd arrived to her realm.
"Huh? Oh, er, I just wanted to know, is all… oh, look who's finally joining us" replied Billy, and the young goddess turned her head back to see the paraplegic gentleman make his way over to the table. "Guessing you must've been having one of those dreams you didn't wanna wake up from."
"I'm not gonna confirm nor deny that, Batson," said Freddy, taking his seat while Billy gave Anthea a quick knowing look before he finished with the rest of his meal. "No concert plans today though, right?"
Billy shook his head, and he replied, "Nuh-uh. Got some more hostages to try saving. Hoping to avoid the enemy airstrike this time."
Seeing that Anthea looked confused by what they were discussing, Freddy explained it to her. "It's a video game thing. There's no actual hostage situation or an airstrike that's gonna happen… I hope."