Title: Combo
Fandom: The Tomorrow People (2013)
Rating: G
Length: 608
Summary: Stephen's forgotten his locker combination. Luca helps him problem-solve.
Badges: For comeback kid (2/3) and gen.


“Can't you just, you know?” Luca waved a hand toward the locker bank. More specifically, toward this brother's locker, which Luca had watched his brother stare at for the better part of five minutes, trying to figure out how to open. Telekinetic, and thwarted by a simple combination lock, Luca thought ruefully. He hadn't touched his comic books in years, but weren't superpowers supposed to be more awesome than that?

Stephen shook his head. “Not without ripping the whole door off its hinges.”

“Which the school officials might have a problem with,” Luca commiserated.

“Besides, moving things with my mind doesn't do any good if I don't know the combination.”

“Yeah.” Luca resettled his backpack on his shoulders and listened to the shouts and pounding footsteps of all the other students who got to leave the school when the bell rang. Basketball practice had been canceled and he still couldn't go home because he was supposed to be practicing his driving and he needed an adult in the car. Today, Stephen was supposed to be that adult. Which, all things considered, Luca found stupid on too many levels to count. He couldn't let an infraction like this go unpunished. “You know, if you came to school more often, you probably wouldn't have forgotten your combo.”

The glare Stephen shot him would once have been sufficient warning to back off. Today, Luca wasn't feeling all that threatened.

“Just saying.” Luca pretended to study the locker some more. The problem couldn't be that difficult for someone who had already saved the world once to solve, could it? “I suppose teleporting inside would do any good,” he mused. “I mean, you could get whatever book you wanted--”

“It's too small,” Stephen answered. “And, no, I don't have any shape changing powers. Only the three Ts.”

“And the abilities to stop and rewind time,” Luca amended. He remembered there being a lot of shouting in the house when their mother had discovered that Stephen hadn't been honest about his powers. “So, technically, the five Ts.” Not that time control would be any more helpful here than the others.

The hallway was almost cleared out. In a few more minutes, they'd be alone, except for the school cop, who'd probably try to arrest them for loitering. If Luca lost his basketball eligibility over a forgotten locker combination, he was going to be really pissed.

“Maybe I could have Cara read my mind,” Stephen suggested. He ruffled a hand through his hair and glanced around vacantly, as if his sometime-girlfriend and fellow Tomorrow Person were already on the premises.

“Dude? That's the best you can come up with?” Luca gave an incredulous shake of his head and clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Bro gets a few superpowers and forgets how to think like a human. Promise you'll never let that happen to me,” he said, more as a reminder to himself than anything he expected Stephen to be able to follow through on. “OK, stay here and...keep staring at the locker, or something. I'll save the day this time.” With that, he started down the hall.

“Where are you going?” Stephen called.

Turning so that he was walking backward, Luca answered, “Janitors' closet. It's where they keep the bolt cutters.” He threw out his hands, daring Stephen to stop him—or better, to follow him. Knowing where the bolt cutters were kept was one thing. Thinking to use them another. Getting into a locked closet? For that, it could be useful to have Stephen on shotgun. At least, until he could ride solo.